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8cfe3t | how can an ekg give an accurate reading of the health of your heart in such a short amount of time? | I have to be honest, when going in for my yearly physical and they hook up the EKG paraphernalia, I'm always left unconvinced of the diagnosis after such a short amount of time on the machine. How can they be so sure? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8cfe3t/eli5_how_can_an_ekg_give_an_accurate_reading_of/ | {
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"It not the end all, be all but just to see if anything has changed. The EKG is a point in time test, that over time as your doctor collects the history, can indicate changes in your heart health. If one comes back with changes from previous EKG's, your doctor will refer you to a cardiologist for further testing/exam. As a heart attack survivor (1 major, 2 minors). These accumulative records are very important. ",
"Also, an EKG, read by someone with expertise, can reveal a surprising amount of detail and history. Poorly read, an EKG is of little value. ",
"It's the current electrical activity of your heart. It is a great diagnostic tool for the heart but obviously can't predict the future. They don't need more than a 6-12 second printout to check that your heart is working normally and not dying. That same printout won't tell them in the least if you have all kinds of plaque buildup outside your heart that could cause a heart attack 2 days later.\n\nAn EKG gives tons of info. All the info the EKG gives can be obtained really quickly. You may be doubtful because you think it's diagnosing more than it really is.\n\nTo further expand. Dead tissue in the heart causes electricity to move different, an EKG sees this. A normal EKG means all your heart tissue is alive. Irregular structures in the heart can cause feedback loops and cause electricity to move abnormally, the EKG can show this. Electrolyte imbalances cause electricity to do weird stuff, EKGs can see this. Electricity also corresponds with the speed of your heart, which combined with a pulse can tell a provider if there is a mismatch. Hearts also beat regularly so abnormal beats that don't match the other rhythm can be seen in an EKG (though these are sometimes harmless).\n\nSeeing the degree of electrical activity and the path it takes tell you a lot about the heart. Printing out a 6 second strip to look over can give you 90% of that info. But like I said before it can't tell the future. A lot of heart health relies on other parts of your body and general health and an EKG can't tell you if those are about to fail.",
"The waveform shows the electrical signals going through the heart, and the heart is a very precisely timed/coordinated device (it's not just pump & relax...different parts of the heart need to pump or relax at specific times). With the EKG, they can see if the signals are coordinated properly. Sometimes there's too much time between the signals, sometimes Signal B comes twice before Signal A has had a chance to repeat.\n\nAnd since most of these issues are constantly repeating (especially if the problem is bad enough to care about), they don't need a whole lot of time.",
"Unless you have heart problems, or take certain medications, there is probably no justification for you to need an EKG as part of a routine annual \"checkup.\"\n\nYou are likely being charged for this service. Ask your doctor if it's necessary.\n\n\"Getting a baseline\" is not a good reason."
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e5b57f | why do cars sound the way they do? | My basic understanding of combustion engines is that a small explosion happens..... somewhere in there, and that moves the pistons. A lot of cars make that nice smooth vroom kind of sound though, where does that come from and why is it different from the loud poppy sound of, say, a Harley motorcycle? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e5b57f/eli5_why_do_cars_sound_the_way_they_do/ | {
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"A 4 cylinder gas engine has 1600 explosions per minute, or just under 27 per second at 800 rpm (an average idle). All the explosions overlap and you can't separate out the individual explosions. With a harley, the distinctive pop noise is from the exhaust valve opening, not the cylinders firing.\n\nHowever, sound design is a thing. engines, cars, and harleys especially are designed to sound a particular way and that isn't necessarily as quite as possible. This is in part why a commuter car sounds very different from a sports car (the sports car is designed to convey power and the commuter car is designed to isolate the driver from the road and driving). The distinctive sound a harley makes is part of the brand (they even tried to patent it). Although originally that may have just been the way the engines they uses sounded, now it is a very deliberate branding decision. The explosions in the cylinder make noise along with other components (like the exhaust valves). Various parts in the car absorb and amplify various sounds and they can be tweaked to produce a desired sound."
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b2theo | if hot air goes up, why is water the coldest/frozen on the surface? | Like in the lakes and oceans, or even in a cup of ice cold water. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b2theo/eli5_if_hot_air_goes_up_why_is_water_the/ | {
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"It’s a difference of density. Water molecules line up like a crystal when it freezes. So it has a larger volume but a lower density. Hence ice floats. But that is because water is weird. Most solids sink in their liquid form. ",
"because of. wind property. Generally the cooler a fluid is the denser it is. Water is an exception because it's polar (magnetic) and is most dense around 4C which is why ice floats on top of liquid water whereas most solids sink in their liquid versions. See [here](_URL_0_).\n\n & #x200B;",
"It is all about density. For water is highest density around 3,8°C, so water of this temperature stays at the bottom, that is why fish can survive winters they stay in this relatively warm water near river/lake bottom."
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oi3pi | the case for recalling wi gov. walker | Why do the people of Wisconsin want to recall him? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/oi3pi/eli5_the_case_for_recalling_wi_gov_walker/ | {
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"He arrived on the promise of bringing back jobs and supporting the worker's clubs, called unions.. A month in, and he made a rule that the club's didn't get to have a say in what they could do or how much they could make.\n\nOn top of that, he planned to sell the power plants and facilities to a group of (Sorry, have to be biased) complete assholes called the Koch brothers at effectively a 99% sale. \n\nHe has been unprofessional, rude, combative (forcing people out of the publicly owned government facility when the complained), and Wisconsin has had the worst job loss ratings for the entire united states in the last year (hyperbole, probably, but it has been steadily losing jobs.) \n\nIn short, Governor Walker is being mean and destroying Wisconsin to make money for himself."
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23e74b | if the universe were to star to contract at the same rate it has been expanding, what effects would it have on mankind? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23e74b/eli5_if_the_universe_were_to_star_to_contract_at/ | {
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"Since humans have existed for about 100,000 years, and the universe has been expanding for nearly 14,000,000,000 years, the effect would be insignificant."
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g25sip | what would happen if the president of the united states cancel’s a presidential election? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g25sip/eli5_what_would_happen_if_the_president_of_the/ | {
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" > **Eli5 What would happen if the President of the United States cancel’s a presidential election?** \n\nHe can't cancel the election. He has no authority or control over the election process. Constitutionally, that is left to the States and Congress."
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5m96vr | why do we have different sizes for audio jacks (like 2.5mm and 3.5mm)? does it make any difference other then the size of the plug? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5m96vr/eli5_why_do_we_have_different_sizes_for_audio/ | {
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"The larger size audio jacks are preferred in pro-level gear because it can be built much sturdier, and with high end beefy metal parts withstand thousands and thousands of plug/unplug cycles. \n\nFunctionally, there isn't a big difference. But since for musicians this stuff can spend a ton of time getting thrown around on stages and run over with carts and stomped on and rattling in cases, they'd like it tough."
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1mn9gw | how is it legal for a state or county to have a monopoly on alcohol sales? | I live in a county where the only beer / liquor distributor is the County. How is that legal under monopoly laws? It just doesn't seem fair. I mean, then they get to set prices without fear of competition under bidding them. I've seen beers here go for twice the price that they are in other states. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mn9gw/eli5_how_is_it_legal_for_a_state_or_county_to/ | {
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"Anti-monopoly laws are designed to protect consumers from collusion by private businesses. Government activities are not covered under those laws. \n \nIn some states, alcohol sales are held as a state-run monopoly and are usually a significant source of revenue. In other states, a special state tax is applied to alcohol sales. Neither of those benefit alcohol consumers directly; they benefit all of the citizens of the state (supposedly) at the expense of alcohol consumers. ",
"The constitution gives states absolute power over alcohol. \n[21st Amendment](_URL_0_)\n\nAlso anti-trust laws do not apply to states and counties. ",
"First, monopolies are not illegal. Using monopoly powers to drive out competition is what is illegal.\n\nSecond, governments are excluded from monopolies. Having a monopoly on liquor sales is not much different than having a monopoly on policemen."
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3y2zg9 | what happens if you break the sound barrier underwater? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3y2zg9/eli5_what_happens_if_you_break_the_sound_barrier/ | {
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"The water vaporises at the tip of the thing going fast. As the steam bubble expands, the fast thing starts moving through the big bubble created by the expanding vapour. This causes the fast thing to become surrounded by the bubble of steam created at the tip since it is moving through the expanding bubble faster than the surrounding water can cool the steam and return it to a liquid state. That allows the fast thing to move through steam, rather than water.",
"Keep in mind that the speed of sound in water is 1482 m s^-1 opposed to 343 m s^-1 in air. Since water is significantly more dense it won't be like breaking the speed of sound in air. It is possible but even at subsonic speeds the material around the object won't be liquid water anymore. ",
"It is basically impossible to reach sound speed in water. The speed is 1.5 km/s or 5400 km/h, and waaaaay before it anything that would attempt such speed, would cause cavitation, or supercavitation (which is same as cavitation, except vapor bubble is large enough to encompass the object causing the cavitation). At this point you're not travelling through water at all - you'd be flying inside water vapor. And supercavitation will occur at speeds below 900km/h naturally, not to mention 6 times more.",
"Today I learnt: \n\n- Speed of sound is 1.5km/s in water (and I got to google the equation to calculate it based on the fluid's density, which is beyond interesting to me right now).\n- Cavitation, and supercavitation.\n- 1.5km/s underwater would probably make for a great spectacle. \n\nThanks!",
"Is this not what happens when a pistol shrimp uses its claw to attack?",
"Pretty much the same thing as when you break the sound barrier in air, with a couple of significant differences:\n1) As mentioned by previous posts, the speed of sound in water is much faster than in air.\n2) The energy required to move the water out of the way fast enough is very high.\nFor both air and water, the fluid in front of the speeding object *can't* move out of the way faster than the speed of sound in that fluid. The fluid overcomes this problem by increasing its temperature and density until the speed of sound increases enough locally to allow the fluid to get out of the way. This will require a *lot* of energy for water--think of the energy release from meteorite impact explosions. The fluid collapsing back to its rest state after it moves out of the way causes the shock wave we hear as a sonic boom.\n\nEdit: clarity",
"This reminds me of the elusive [mantis shrimp](_URL_0_) being able to go this fast.",
"Go check out a pistol shrimp, you'll learn about the underwater sound barrier and an awesome animal. ",
"You don't break the sound barrier in water. The speed of sound under water varies by salinity but it is many times faster than it is in air. Have you ever wondered why when you're diving under water, sound seems to come from everywhere and you can't tell which direction? That is because the sound is hitting both your ears almost simultaneously, regardless of which direction it came from and our brains are not fast enough to process the delay. \n\nMeanwhile you have this problem called cavitation, where in an object traveling under water can push so hard on the water molecules it's moving through that it forces them apart, forming vacuum bubbles, that is empty spaces that look like bubbles but contain nothing, no air, just vacuum. These cavities in the water rapidly build up and exponentially increase the drag on the object, which is already under a tremendous drag because of waters density. But even if you had the power to push through it from a miracle motor that could provide thrust without touching water (which it can no longer push against because it's full of empty vacuum cavities), the rapid pressure and density changes from vacuum to water, to vacuum would rip your ship apart. But lets keep going and say you have a super hull that can withstand this. The friction from moving at that speed would also cause the water touching your ship to flash into steam meaning the best you could do is break the steam barrier. But lets take it further and say that you were in an ocean so deep that even steam was under so much pressure it couldn't become steam, this increase in pressure would also increase the speed of sound...."
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di9xzh | why do some contrails from airplanes disappear instantly, while others stay and spread across the sky? | Just a random thought as I was hiking the other day. Not sure if it has something to do with the current temperature that’s in the sky or the amount of moisture that’s in the sky. Just curious.
Thanks!
And inb4 chemtrails 😅 | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/di9xzh/eli5_why_do_some_contrails_from_airplanes/ | {
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"it depends on the temperature humidity and air pressure of the air that the plane is flying through. contrail is water vapor. same as cloud and fog. sometimes there's conditions for water vapor to condense into visible droplets, sometimes not and it's transparent",
"It has to do with the local temperature and humidity.\n\nClouds can't form without condensation nuclei, little particles for water droplets or ice crystals to grow around. Jet exhaust provides these particles, and depending on conditions, they will create more prominent contrails and they will last longer. Also, if it is cold enough to form ice crystals, they will take longer to be reabsorbed by the atmosphere."
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urx00 | how does poison work? | Edit: I really am talking about the stuff that kills you, not the 80's hair metal band. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/urx00/eli5_how_does_poison_work/ | {
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"Poison is an American glam metal band that achieved great success in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. Poison has sold over 30 million records worldwide and have sold 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 10 singles and the Hot 100 number-one single, \"Every Rose Has Its Thorn\". The band become icons of the '80s MTV era and have had widespread commercial success. The band's break through debut album, the multi platinum Look What the Cat Dragged In was released in 1986 and they hit their peak with the second album, the multi-platinum selling Open Up and Say... Ahh! which became the bands most successful album ever. The popularity continued into the new decade with their third consecutive multi platinum selling album Flesh & Blood.\n\nIn the 90's following the release of the bands first live album Swallow This Live, the band experienced some line up changes and the fall of Pop Metal with the grunge movement, but despite the drop in popularity the bands fourth studio album Native Tongue still achieved Gold status and the bands first compilation album Poison's Greatest Hits: 1986–1996 went double platinum.\n\nIn the 2000s, with the original line up back together, the band found new popularity after a successful greatest hits reunion tour in 1999. The band began the new decade with the release of the long awaited Crack a Smile... and More!, followed by the Power to the People album. The band toured almost every year to sold out stadiums and arenas. They released a brand new album Hollyweird in 2002 and in 2006 the band celebrated their 20 year Anniversary with The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock tour and album, which was certified Gold and marked Poison's return to the Billboard 200 top 20 charts for the first time since 1993. Band members have released several solo albums and starred in successful reality TV shows. After 25 years, the band is still recording music and performing.\n\nSince their debut in 1986, they have released eight studio albums, four live albums, five compilation albums, and have issued 28 singles to radio.\n\n[sauce](_URL_0_)",
"What kind of poison, nearly every type kills in a different way.",
"First off, I'm a chemistry undergraduate and not much of a biological one, as the name suggests. We don't do much in the way of poisons, but my morbid fascination with them gives me a pretty good understanding of how some of them work. Any poison kills or injures by interfering with the chemistry in your body by non-mechanical means (so ground glass is a thoroughly nasty thing to eat, but not poisonous). \n\nExactly how a poison screws up body chemistry obviously varies from substance to substance, but a lot of biological reactions only go fast enough to keep you alive because of enzymes, which are molecular machines made of protein that pull in reactant molecules and hold them together in such a way that they undergo the specific chemical reaction that the enzyme is meant to speed up much more easily than they would if they weren't in the enzyme.\n\nEnzymes can be *inhibited* by other molecules going into the space where your reactants should be, and staying there because the molecule binds more strongly to the poison, which stops the machine from working (Think of a bone jammed in a garbage disposal - you can get an orange out with the bone, but trying to get the bone out with the orange will be messy and... i was about to say fruitless, but that's probably a bad choice of word). This is called competitive inhibition. Alternatively, a poison molecule can find a nice place to sit in the enzyme that's not where the reactants sit, but which changes the shape of the reactants' cavity, so they can't fit in properly. This is called non-competitive inhibition.\n\nAn example of this is carbon monoxide or cyanide. CO inhibits competitively the enzymes that transport oxygen around your body (haemoglobin) and cyanide competitively inhibits the enzymes in your cells that use oxygen to turn sugars into energy (it's a tiny bit more complicated than that IRL).\n\nAlmost all poisons do what they do by inhibiting enzymes and stopping your body's chemical reactions from being able to keep you running, but there are a few exceptions, like too much water in your lungs, which doesn't do anything to enzymes, it just stops you from being able to breathe."
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3dvtd1 | why is there a small portion of russia between lithuania and poland? | I was doing a geography of Europe puzzle with my family when I noticed this. What's the story behind this territory and why didn't one of the two countries take that land after separating from the USSR? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dvtd1/eli5_why_is_there_a_small_portion_of_russia/ | {
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"Kaliningrad was a part of Germany before WWII. It was called Königsberg . In the post WWII readjustment of borders, Russia insisted on retaining control of that territory and the other Allied powers acquiesced.\n\n",
"That little chunk of land, known now as the Kaliningrad oblast, used to be the easternmost part of Germany, as you can see [here](_URL_1_) in the red, and was known as Königsberg. After World War I, Königsberg, along with the city of Danzig, was separated from the rest of Germany, as you can see [here](_URL_0_), by a chunk of Poland known as the 'Polish Corridor'. Part of the reasoning behind Hitler's invasion of Poland was the refusal of the Polish government to give up the Corridor (doing so would have cut off Poland's access to the sea).\n\nAfter World War II, the USSR was occupying most of eastern Europe, including Königsberg. The thing you have to understand about the USSR then, and Russia now, is that it's greatest vulnerability is the lack of a warm-water port in the west. The only western port it has is St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland, as you can see [here](_URL_3_), but the Gulf frequently freezes over during winter, and the narrowness of it's mouth makes it vulnerable to a naval blockade. So during the Potsdam Conference, which was a meeting of the Big Three Powers to decide what to do with post-Nazi Europe, the Soviets demanded the northern half of Königsberg as war reparations, as seen [here](_URL_2_), to which the US and the UK agreed, giving the USSR it's own year-round warm-water port.\n\nAs to why Russia kept it after the collapse of the USSR, Kaliningrad was specifically granted to the Soviet Union rather than Poland or Lithuania, neither of which had a good claim to the land. Russia also had the same lack of a warm water port that it's predecessor did, so maintain their control of it was paramount to the new government. Additionally, since 1946 when most of the Germans were expelled, almost all of Kaliningrad's residents have been ethnic Russians, who were loyal to the new Russian state.\n\nTL;DR: the USSR needed a warm-water port, conquered one, kept it."
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3zdgm9 | why is it that evidence gained using unlawful means/without permission inadmissible in court even though that piece of evidence would make the person/company guilty? | I don't know much about law, but I've seen this in many law shows. Sometimes people get evidence by breaking in or doing some illegal activity, but they aren't able to use the evidence because it was not gained in a legal way. Is this a flaw in the law system? Could someone explain to me how it works?
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zdgm9/eli5_why_is_it_that_evidence_gained_using/ | {
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"This is an intentional feature. The United States Constitution protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure--if you could use evidence from illegal searches, there would be very little incentive to stick to legal ones. A key piece of evidence might well be worth the compensation you'd have to pay in a civil suit. That makes the protection meaningless.\n\nThe only practical way to discourage the government from such behavior is to remove the benefit. To get a conviction, the prosecution has to \"play by the rules,\" as it were.\n\nNow, do note that this only applies to bad acts by the government. If a random burglar breaks into your house, finds incriminating evidence and turns it over to the police, it's admissible. After all, there would be no government misconduct being penalized if the evidence was excluded in that case.",
"It is pretty straight forward. The rule is pretty much there to make sure that evidence is gained in a lawful way. \n\nMost of these laws are made assuming that the suspect might be innocent. Trying to gain information the \"illegal\" way only seems like a good thing when you think the person is actually guilty. \n\nFor example: most people would agree that breaking into the house of a innocent person to look for evidence is not a good thing. ",
"So basically you have the fourth amendment and the fifth amendment. The fourth basically says that the government can't conduct unreasonable searches and the fifth says you can't compel testimony. There's more to it than that, but whatever. Go read the fourth and fifth amendment yourself.\n\nAnyway, what you might notice is that neither amendment says anything at all about what happens if the government violates those amendments. The Supreme Court of the United States, when faced with this problem, decided that the best remedy is to prohibit evidence obtained in violation of those two amendments from being introduced at trial as evidence. So for example, if the police kick down the door of your house without a warrant and find a pound of cocaine on your bed, then the court is probable going to prohibit the government from using that evidence at a trial. Usually that means the case is just dismissed.\n\nOk, so why do we exclude evidence? The Supreme Court has given a few reasons. First, if the government is using illegally obtained evidence at court and judges are pronouncing people guilty based on that illegal evidence, then it makes judges complicit in the illegality of it all. Basically, by excluding it, the judges are refusing to participate in the illegal conduct. Second, and probably the biggest reason for the rule, is that the courts want to disincentivize the government from violating people's rights. If the government wants to put someone in jail, its going to need to do it lawfully.",
"As a society, we have decided that protections against illegal searches are worth occasionally letting the guilty go free.\n\nIf this were not the case, law enforcement could simply conduct illegal search whenever they liked, and not face an consequences. In such a world, those legal protections would be meaningless."
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1qsnfn | why is cheese such a big deal to the french? | Why is it that when you say "France", people heavily associate "cheese"? Why is it such a big deal and so associated with France and the Francophone culture? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qsnfn/eli5_why_is_cheese_such_a_big_deal_to_the_french/ | {
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"text": [
"Back before refrigeration, food either went bad or had to be preserved somehow. Meat and milk would quickly go bad. France is known for its sauces as a way to cover up the rancid meat. Cheese was a way to preserve milk so it wouldn't spoil as quickly. ",
"Good cheese is good stuff. It can be amazing if you get the right kind.",
"Because the french have good taste, and cheese if fantastic.",
"France actually have trademarks on some types of cheese. One of those types is Roquefort. European law states that only cheese that is matured in the Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon can be called Roquefort, therefore cornering the market. There are lots of Roquefort-esq cheeses on the market, but the only true stuff comes from those caves. Gruyere is another cheese protected by European law. [Here](_URL_0_) is a link of all the agricultural products protected by European law.\n\nFrance produces at least 56 types of cheese.",
"You think Cheese is a big deal in France? Try wine!\n\nIt's a long tradition of food being at the core of family and social life, combined with an agricultural economy. Cheese is something that varies place by place, year on year, and by production method. Therefore, it's hard to standardise and a region or even village can be proud of their local type. THey'll have festivals and everything.\n\nIf you think \"cheese is cheese\" then you should really line up a Brie, a forme d'ambert, a bleu d'auvergne, a good goats cheese and a bunch of others and taste a smidgen back to back. They're as different as different can be.",
"Pasteurization has little to do with it, since cheese was already varried and widespread beforehand. It's the climate in France that lends more toward dairy cows , than say the England whose climate is ideal for producing beef steers with good muscle/fat development. Of course people eat both in both countries, but the local variation tends toward larger milk production... So with all that extra milk the French then go about coaxing in bacteria and yeast in order to turn it into cheese. These bacteria and yeasts are everywhere and themselves are prone to local variety as well. The way the milk, yeast, bacteria combo is fermented and cared for yields the variation... So just like the yeasts in the Champagne region give the characteristic effervescence to the wine made there. Cheese made there will carry cheesy distinctions of the area's taste. Just like Hops in German beer, or grapes in Spanish wine, or grain Italian bread. The French have an abundance of milk, and microbes that lend their culinary culture to distinctly flavored cheese reminiscent of the locality's taste. The French word for the specific taste of geographic area is \"terroir.\""
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"http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/quality/door/list.html;jsessionid=pL0hLqqLXhNmFQyFl1b24mY3t9dJQPflg3xbL2YphGT4k6zdWn34!-370879141"
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3ierhy | how exactly does falsifiability work? what is the difference between proving something wrong and proving something right? | I hope these are no stupid questions, but I never really understood the concept of it... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ierhy/eli5_how_exactly_does_falsifiability_work_what_is/ | {
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"Falsifiability refers to the idea that there is some fact or discovery that could show a theory is wrong. \n\nSo, for instance, say my theory is that that chemical X is required for plants to grow. \n\nI can falsify that theory by trying to grow plants without chemical X. If they still grow, than clearly my theory is false---plants can grow without chemical X. \n\nWhy isn't that \"proving\" the theory right? well, in a sense, it is showing that my theory isn't wrong, which is sort of the same as right. But, what if my theory is incomplete. What if chemical X is needed only on earth? or only in Summer? or only for certain plants? or something else? \n\nSince there's always a chance the theory is incomplete, you can't really \"prove\" it true. "
]
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[]
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1xdeu4 | when it comes to the topic of birth defects, what is the difference between a congenital and a genetic condition? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xdeu4/eli5_when_it_comes_to_the_topic_of_birth_defects/ | {
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"Genetic describes the source or cause of a condition. Congenital describes the time of onset, that is, present at (or often before) birth.\n\nNote that a congenital condition is not necessarily genetic; it could also refer to an infection, a condition caused by a vitamin deficiency (e.g. spina bifida), exposure to a toxic substance in utero, etc. "
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1d0bc8 | i know what it does, but not how it does it: antifreeze. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1d0bc8/eli5_i_know_what_it_does_but_not_how_it_does_it/ | {
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"text": [
"Antifreeze has both a higher boiling point and a lower freezing point than water. Putting it in your radiator (your car's cooling system) allows your car to have fluid that neither freezes nor boils in very cold and very hot situations, respectively."
]
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6hrf1w | what exactly is latex, and why does such a common material cause allergies? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6hrf1w/eli5_what_exactly_is_latex_and_why_does_such_a/ | {
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"It's a substance secreted by a plant. There are certain natural substances that happen to irritate lots of people. Most food allergies are from only a small number of foods--tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, strawberries, and some others. Latex rubber happens to be one of those substances that is an allergy trigger. People used to never hear talk about latex allergies. While latex rubber was used in a lot of things, they didn't usually touch people. Medical professionals mainly used it when doing surgery, but others seldom used it. That changed when AIDS came along. It became standard for medical professionals to use latex gloves whenever they touched people. With the increased use by a larger number of people, latex allergies became much more common. For that reason, latex use has been replaced in many contexts with other substances, like Nitrile. "
]
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5l70za | why is it when you're on a bus or a plane, and you jump, you don't move down the aisle? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5l70za/eli5_why_is_it_when_youre_on_a_bus_or_a_plane_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Because you're already moving at the same speed as the bus or plane, so your jump will make you continue to travel at that speed.\n\nAlso, the air around you helps carry you along."
]
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[]
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67wgu3 | why do scissors/sheers typically work better closer to the base of the blades, rather than closer to the tip? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67wgu3/eli5_why_do_scissorssheers_typically_work_better/ | {
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"Scissors work through leverage. The ratio of the distance from the pivot to your hand vs the distance from the pivot to what you are cutting. When the paper is close to the pivot, the leverage ratio might be 3:1, the pivot-hand distance is 3 times the pivot-paper distance. That means that 5N of hand force applies 15N of shearing force to the paper. At the tips, the leverage might be 1:2, 5N of hand force is only 2.5N of shear force."
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[]
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1qd509 | what happened to tebow, why do nfl teams dislike him exactly? | I'm just wondering. I've never seen him play during his stay at the Patriots, is he just uncoordinated or what? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qd509/what_happened_to_tebow_why_do_nfl_teams_dislike/ | {
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"He just wasn't good enough. The NFL and college require different skill sets from their QBs. There is a lot of talent at QB in the NFL, and he just didn't make it up to their minimum standards. He had a poor sense of reading the play (very important in NFL, less important college), his passing was inaccurate (very important), and he has a non-traditional style (which is difficult to design pro-caliber plays for).\n\nHe was offered to play positions other than QB for several teams, presumably FB/RB or TE, but he turned them down.",
"Tim Tebow is just a bad deal.\n\nYou get all the crap that comes with having a top level star. The media, the questions about his role/usage, having to live with his personality but you get none of the the on field benefits.\n\nHe is at best a slightly below average second string QB and at worst a practice squad talent.",
"A few reasons:\n\n* he isn't very good\n* he doesn't accept he isn't very good\n* he has a horde of rabid, uninformed fans who think he is very good\n\nOrdinarily a QB of his skills would spend a few years on the practice squad or as a third stringer, and either develop into a solid backup or wash out.\n\nBut everywhere he goes, a circus of fans who don't know anything about football follow him, and agitate for him to be the starter. And he listens to them, and acts like he should be the starter, and doesn't do a lot of the team things backup QB's do in a supporting role.\n\nSo basically, he isn't good enough to start, he doesn't contribute as a backup, and his fans are a distraction."
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88h6dp | how do taxes work for a touring musician. do they pay income tax from every state they play in? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/88h6dp/eli5_how_do_taxes_work_for_a_touring_musician_do/ | {
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"I travel for work (not as much as a band), but I always get paid at/from the same address regardless of where I am on payday\n\nI'm sure touring artists are the same. They get paid by their label at their \"home of record\". Travel does not affect residency or employment status"
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4sgl4k | when you burn a piece of wood for example, where does all the weight go. | A pile of ash weighs no where near as much as the original piece of wood. Where did the weight go | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4sgl4k/eli5when_you_burn_a_piece_of_wood_for_example/ | {
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"Carbon dioxide and water, via the chemical reaction. Both are gases at those temperatures, and they fly away. Don't underestimate the mass of gases.",
"Into the air.\n\nWood is basically long chain hydrocarbons: carbon and hydrogen chains. In the heat of the fire they are broken and both carbon and hydrogen get joined to oxygen molecules from the air. You end up with carbon dioxide which is a gas, and water (H2O) which because it's hot escapes as steam. \n\nThe same thing happens with food you eat and fat that you burn if you lose weight. If you don't eat, and lose weight, fat stores are oxidised in exactly the same chemical process, releasing water and carbon dioxide which you breathe out. It's a controlled oxidation reaction that releases energy.\n\nIn both cases the carbon has been released into the air.",
"It, quite literally, goes up in smoke. Wood is composed mainly of cellulose, which has the empirical formula (C6H10O5)n, which means that it will, when burned, go entirely (assuming complete combustion) to carbon dioxide and water (which will be in gaseous form due to the high temperature).",
"* the water in the wood evaporates into the air\n* much of the carbon and hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air, and escapes as water and carbon dioxide\n* some of the carbon escapes as smoke particles",
"Additional question:\nI am assuming that this process is behind how after human cremation, you are left with very little ash, right? Most of our bodies will simply just go \"up in smoke\" in the same general way that this process happens?"
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7rm9yl | why not giving medication to treat something like the flu is the best way to go | I've heard:
- If you have a fever, let the fever run it's course. Don't try to suppress it unless it gets around and above 103
- Don't take any couch medication because it can suppress the couch which is your bodies way of getting ride of the mucus build up | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7rm9yl/eli5why_not_giving_medication_to_treat_something/ | {
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"Sounds like you already kind of know why.\n\nInfluenza is a virus, the only way to get rid of a virus is to let your immune system fight it off. If you use medication, you're only alleviating the symptoms rather than fighting the virus itself. In the end, this could actually result in it taking longer for your body to rid your body of the virus.\n\nAs you body responds to the infection, you might end up with some of the symptoms you described. An elevation in body temperature may inactivate some viruses, it also helps certain components of your immune system function more effectively.\n\nWhen you have a wet cough, the mucous has to come up one way or another. Using a couch suppressant is just prolonging the process.",
"Sometimes though you just need to alleviate the symptoms for some time to get stuff done. Single-parent who is ill with a kid that is ill? You're still going to have to take care of the kid, and it helps if you're not feeling like death, even if it is only temporarily.",
"Antibiotics are medicines used to treat illnesses, but they don't work if you're sick from the flu or a cold. Those are caused by viruses, and antibiotics only work on bacterial infections like pneumonia. Also, you heard right about cough medicines. You should only really take cough medicines if you're coughing enough that it severely disrupts your day. Otherwise you should just let the cough bring up what it can, to clear out your lungs and throat.",
"Fever is a symptom, not a disease. \n\nTreating fever in most cases just makes you more comfortable. This can discourage you from getting the rest you need to recover.\n\nFever that lasts more than 3 days or above 40°C requires a doctor's visit, to ensure it is not an untreated bacterial infection.\n\nCough medicine at best does nothing, and at worst makes things worse.\n\nCough syrup is usually either\n* an opioid based suppressant, which stops you coughing, and keeps contaminated mucus in your lungs.\n\n* An expectorant based on guaifenesin. This creates more mucus with the intention of helping you cough. Studies show this has no effect on the length of symptoms.",
"MD here we do give medicine to rx the flu\njust that often not helpful in alleviating sx, or dec the course of the disease after 3d or in youger populations eg. oseltamavir etc"
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8t4nge | in videogames, why are some games defined as role playing games (rpg's) and why are others not? i mean, aren't almost all videogames rpg's? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8t4nge/eli5_in_videogames_why_are_some_games_defined_as/ | {
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"Because not all games include role playing.\n\nNone of Age of Empires, XCOM, Sims etc. have you role playing.\n\nSome games have very minor role playing elements, such as Dark Souls, but it's very small.",
"The typical differentiator is a statistical progression of some sort in a cohesive narrative. The player is given a motivation to progress (you can't beat the game without progressing to a certain point) and typically some sort of choice as to how they progress (stats, gear, etc). The progression is permanent and ends when the game has been completed.",
"If you're just going by the naïve interpretation of RPG as \"I'm playing a role\" (i.e. anything other than yourself) sure. But the term is in gaming generally involves acting out that role through a narrative experience, with character development, and often includes (albeit not necessarily) other aspects such as quests, exploration, classes or class-like development, and elements borrowed from tabletop gaming ala D & D. I will say the definitions can be somewhat fuzzy. But generally speaking, even though I am playing the role of BJ Blaskowitz in Wolfenstein, it typically wouldn't be classified as an RPG due to features such as its linear nature, non-player involvement in character development (you don't have much input into how BJ grows), and limited development as a character itself (you don't gain much in the way of further abilities, although you do to some extent, so debatable).",
"Role-playing videogames originated from pen & paper role-playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, where you make up a character and describe its actions in the world. You interact with other characters, perform quests, kill monsters, collect treasure and level up, improving your character, with a high degree of choice - what you want to do, which items you want to use, how you want to improve your stats. \n\nVideo RPGs are games which incorporate these elements into the video game mechanic. In most games you lack these abilities - you don't have character stats, items, do quests, etc.",
"This is a bit of a legacy from when video games weren't a thing.\n\nBack in the 60's and 70's, the best \"nerdy\" entertainment outside of fantasy novels was miniature wargaming. If you've ever heard of \"Warhammer\", much the same thing: plastic/resin/metal miniatures moved around and dice rolled for unit-on-unit combat.\n\nThen in the late 70s, two game designers thought that their tabletop wargame, Chainmail, might be better suited to players rolling for/controlling individual models, rather than a whole squad/platoon/army, and thus Dungeons and Dragons was born.\n\nRather than command an army, you were *playing* the *role* of a particular hero. Hence, RPGs were a separation from wargames, as both were classifications of tabletop games.\n\nIn the early eras of video games, many of the what would now be called \"indie\" game developers would adapt things they knew from their tabletop RPGs, and the name carried over to describe games that were like computerized D & D. Back then, processing & storage resources were limited, so if you wanted things like story and character progression, you had to sacrifice things like graphics. Nowadays, you can get all that character progression and story into a game that is packed with graphics.\n\nNow, this is a great history lesson, but we still don't have a real definition:\n\nWhat made D & D stand out from the other games of the time was the idea of taking a game about skirmishes in a war, and making it about the individual characters, and their progression and development, and the stories surrounding them.\n\nSo for a game to be an RPG, you need to have the main focus of the game's events be the player character, and have one of the main ways that the character interacts with the game world be one of making impactful decisions that change both the game world and the character's development in meaningful ways."
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4t0s8i | the newly released 28 pages of the 9/11 report. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4t0s8i/eli5_the_newly_released_28_pages_of_the_911_report/ | {
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"There are 28 classified pages in the 9/11 report. They have been released in a redacted form, removing all the interesting facts. There has purportedly been a decision by the White House to declassify and release the unredacted pages, with the names in them.\n\nELI5 isn't the best place for this sort of current event topic, please see the Rules (particularly Rule #2)."
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f8a2dr | what's it mean when a house is settling? can it settle too much? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f8a2dr/eli5_whats_it_mean_when_a_house_is_settling_can/ | {
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"Houses (all buildings) support a massive amount of weight. As time goes on, this weight starts to distribute better across the soft bits of the structure. Wood posts compress a little and the foundation sinks into the ground a bit.\n\nSettling is expected and planned for in the design. Interestingly, settling is so extreme in skyscrapers that it can misalign elevator shafts if not planned for.\n\nBut, yes, too much settling is not good. It can cause the foundation to crack and all sorts of nasty stuff. If you look at the corners of older houses, you can find cracks in the plaster and drywall. This is caused by one wall settling lower than the others.\n\nNow, most places will settle, maybe shift a bit, and that is that. You might have to do some minor repair, or maybe raise the foundation (you'll see this around garages a lot). In bad cases, though, you get the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or the structure may become unstable and collapse."
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e05bu2 | how come sometimes when i'm looking at an object, it suddenly starts to appear further away than it is? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e05bu2/eli5_how_come_sometimes_when_im_looking_at_an/ | {
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"It's called Micropsia! It happens for a variety of reasons, from glasses to brain damage, but in your case I bet it's because of how you're focusing you're eyes. If you switch from focusing on the book to focusing slighting in front of or slightly behind the book (think, like, Magic Eye, if you're familiar with those sorts of optical illusions), it can change how you perceive the size the of the book, which changes how you perceive distance -- if we know size is consistent, we interpret smaller things a further away."
]
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zk1gl | why my boobies hurt right before my period. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zk1gl/eli5_why_my_boobies_hurt_right_before_my_period/ | {
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"Here's an explanation I found off a website.\n\n\"Breast tenderness during menstruation periods can be caused by various factors. Most of the cases, unbalanced level of estrogen hormones is the main cause for breast tenderness during menstruation periods.\n\nThe most common cause for breast tenderness during menstruation periods is hormonal imbalance. During the menstrual cycle, estrogen and progesterone levels vary in different ways. Normally, when estrogen is down and progesterone is up, breasts get bigger in size. But, hormonal imbalance could alter this cycle, making breasts even bigger, more susceptible to pain, and for more prolonged periods. Therefore, when hormones are not balanced and estrogen levels decrease more than progesterone ones, it ends in breast tenderness.\n\nBecause the most common cause for breast tenderness during menstruation periods is unbalanced amounts of estrogen hormone, maintaining healthy hormone levels is important to avoid this symptom.\"\n\nHope that helps."
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31wun6 | why do schools that preform better get more funding then schools that may use the money to help better educate students? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31wun6/eli5_why_do_schools_that_preform_better_get_more/ | {
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"In the US, the primary source of school funding is local property tax. Which means schools in affluent areas get more funds than schools in poorer areas, which in turn create better educated students, who tend to get higher paying jobs, and live in more affluent areas... sending their tax dollars back to those affluent schools. Meanwhile, the opposite happens in poorer regions, whose schools are tax-starved and turning out less prepared students, who in turn are paying lower taxes back to those already tax-starved schools."
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2vgkh5 | what is the relationship between alcohol and the body's citric acid cycle in regards to alcohol dehydrogenases? | My understanding of chemistry is not that good, but I understand that alcohol can only be broken down by enzymes in the liver known as alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH). Those enzymes are also responsible for catalyzing the chemical reactions of certain functional groups (such as hydroxil) within molecules during the body's citric acid cycle (TCA), which is one of the three main metabolic pathways. When alcohol reaches the liver, the ADH have to start breaking down alcohol, and as a result the TCA is disrupted, which causes an increase in fat storage. What I don't understand: why? I don't understand how the fact that ADHs have to break down ethanol disrupts the TCA. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vgkh5/eli5what_is_the_relationship_between_alcohol_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Ethanol --(Alcohol Dehydrogenase)-- > Acetaldahyde --(Aldahyde Dehydrogenase)-- > Acetate --(Acetyl CoA Synthetase)-- > Acetyl CoA, which would be metabolized in the citric acid cycle.\n\nFurthermore, you have a lot of these enzymes--all three of these enzymes are found in every cell in your body (but highest levels are found in the liver, so that's where most of the alcohol breakdown occurs). It is impossible to drink so much alcohol to overwhelm all of the enzymes without drowning to death in the liquor first.",
"If laypeople can't even understand the question, is it really a good ELI5 question?\n\nIf you need help studying for a test, you might want to utilize some of your school's resources instead."
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14biof | chaos theory | Hello,
Can someone please explain how chaos theory works, where it's applied outside of maths? Time travel?
How does it link in with the butterfly effect? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/14biof/eli5_chaos_theory/ | {
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"Chaos theory is essentially just the idea that *very* small changes in the initial conditions can lead to large differences in outcome, especially in the long run.\n\nThe Butterfly Effect is just one example of chaos theory, in which it is supposed that the butterfly beating its wings at the right moment could be enough of a change in initial conditions to tip the balance in favour of a hurricane forming on the other side of the world.\n\nWhat chaos theory *isn't* about is randomness. Chaotic systems can be completely 100% deterministic, but the problem is our ability to know the exact starting conditions, and thus we can't make accurate predictions.",
"Two basic ideas:\n\n1. Small differences in initial conditions lead to severely different outcomes after some time\n\n2. Even in extremely chaotic systems there seems to be an underlying order",
"I posted this response a year ago to the same question so it's just copypasta but I think it gives a decent scenario that illustrates the point.\n\n**Begin copypasta**\n\nIt's coloring time in class again, YAY!!\n\nJust like every coloring time your teacher gives everyone a random color from the crayon box. Today you got green and you draw an aligator.\n\nThe teacher loved your alligator and decided to spend the rest of the day talking about reptiles. This is a turning point in your life because you realize how much you love reptiles and that love stays with you your entire life. Fast forward 30 years and you are a world renowned biologist who specializes in reptilian behavior. The ladies adore you and you make millions of dollars every year.\n\nNow back up. You only got green because little Sally got green yesterday and put it back in the crayon box next to the yellow that you got yesterday. And she only put it in the box next to yellow because she was the last to put her crayon away since she had to blow her nose and missed the teachers first go round to collect crayons.\nIf she hadn't blown her nose yesterday she would have put her green crayon in first and that would have changed the order of crayons in the box. You would have instead gotten pink and drawn a picture of a heart. Your teacher loves your drawing and decides to talk about hearts. This also is a turning point in your life. You decide to study medicine and end up a renowned heart surgeon. Unfortunately you have always had a love of reptiles for some reason and while performing surgery on a patient you find yourself thinking about alligators and accidentally put their heart in backwards. Your patient sues you for malpractice. You lose your license and end up homeless and on the street.\n\nSo the outcome of your life hangs on wether or not Sally blows her nose at just the right moment when you're in kindergarten.\n\n**TL;DR** If Sally doesn't blow her nose in kindergarten you're fucked.",
"OP didn't watch Jurassic Park, I guess. ",
"Does anyone know of a good book on the chaos theory? I'd like to read more about this.",
"In addition to some great explanations of Chaos Theory by other posters and application of the field is control systems. Controls Systems uses chaos theory in some applications. An example of a control system would be the electronics that control new, fancy airplanes that are too complicated to be flown by a human.\n\nMany real life things or events are 'chaotic' which means that what is happening or where something is cannot be predicted based solely on a known starting place of that event or object. If one of the events needs to be controlled by electronics, but we do not know exactly what is happening at any given moment (e.g. is the airplane right side up? Or upside down?), we try to find out if we can put limits on exactly what is happening at a given moment and say \"OK, the thing that I am trying to control is doing something *about like this* right now.\" Once we have mathematically determined that *about like this* are the only things that can be happening at that point in time (much of this math is based on chaos theory) then we can design our electronics to do what we would like.",
"I recommend watching, BBC The Secret Life Of Chaos. Fascinating and informative. _URL_0_",
"I present this video illustration from the television show Fringe\n_URL_0_",
"If you got a pool table the size of a stadium, and you hit the first ball planning for it to hit the others (that are gonna hit other balls), every data that you couldn't plan for are gonna change the way you can predict which balls are gonna be hit and when. Like dust on the table, or a really small dent in a ball, or wind and air, or a tiny muscle jolt when you swind the cue, etc. After the first ball hits 5, and these 5 hits another 5 each, it becomes really hard to predict how they are gonna behave. That's the chaos theory.",
"That's why we can't predict weather further than 6 weeks, there are too many factors involved. Pretty much like the economy.\n\nWhen you think about differential equations, there are some you can more or less accurately solve, but if you extend the time span, margin errors build up and it's unpredictable. That's why even weather you predict in 5 days is not really reliable, it can give a vague idea of tendencies on a large region, but on the 3rd day after the prediction it can change a lot.\n\nI'd love to learn the details of weather prediction though, especially the math involved, or maybe the simple idea of how they do it. I also heard there are trading options in the weather."
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3chw2r | magic the gathering. how does it work and why do people spend so much time and money on it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3chw2r/eli5_magic_the_gathering_how_does_it_work_and_why/ | {
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"It is a card game. People spend time and money on it because they enjoy playing the game and/or collecting the cards. It is the same as any other form of entertainment in that regard. \n\nAs to how it works, that is a fairly long conversation not really suited to discussion in this type of forum. If you want to learn go to your local comic book/card shop and if someone would be willing to teach you. Learning by watching and being walked through is far superior to trying to read about it. ",
"It's a collectible card game where you are basically a wizard who gathers mana and uses that mana to cast spells to defeat your opponent. People spend money on it because they enjoy the game, or maybe because they like the artwork on the cards (which is usually pretty cool and bad-ass looking) or they enjoy collecting and trading them.",
"Bear in mind I haven't played in about fifteen years, so I'm rusty on the rules so some of this may not be 100% accurate, but it should get across the gist of how the game is played.\n\nAnyway, players each have their own deck of cards. Cards are divided into five colors: Red, blue, black, white, and green. Most players build decks that use two colors, but single-color decks aren't unheard of.\n\nThere are several types of cards aside from their color. 'Summon' cards call up a monster or something to fight for you. 'Instants' and 'interrupts' are basically quick blasts of magic that do something like shoot lightning, or block another player's spell, or summoning a shield of some sort. 'Enchantments' change some property of another card, like making the giant you summoned invulnerable to a certain color of card. 'Artifacts' are things like magic wands and swords and armor and usually provide some bonus to a summoned creature, or can be used by the player directly to invoke its effect. Finally, 'lands' are where mana is drawn from, and mana is needed to use almost every other card.\n\nThe object of the game is to get the other player's life points down to zero. Each player starts with 20 life, and it can be reduced either by summoning monsters to attack the other player, or using spells directly (like summoning a lightning bolt to zap them.)\n\nEach color of cards has a different theme, but from what I remember the theme seems to be mostly aesthetic. Like, red cards tend to focus on fire and earth, and red mana is drawn from mountains, while white cards tend to focus on healing and protection, and white mana is drawn from plains. Mechanically, you could change the color of a lot of cards without really affecting the game in a noticeable way.\n\nA round goes like this: Players have seven cards in their hand each turn. If they begin a turn with fewer than seven, they draw cards from their deck until they do.\n\nPlayer 1 'untaps' any cards he had tapped last round. A 'tapped' card is one that has been used for a specific purpose, and can't be used for another. Tapped lands provide mana, tapped creatures can attack the other player and his summoned creatures, but can't defend against enemy creatures until they're untapped, tapped artifacts can use their special powers, etc. Tapped cards are turned sideways to represent that they've been tapped.\n\nPlayer 1 then sets down any land cards he wants to put into play, and taps them and any other lands he has in play in order to provide mana to use his other cards (the mana cost of cards that have them is listed in its top-right corner.) Then, depending on the type of card, it's either set on the table (such as summons,) or shown to the other player, they resolve the effect it has, and the card is placed in the 'graveyard,' (as in the case of instants or summoned creatures that get killed.) Once player 1 is either out of cards or simply decides he doesn't want to do anything else that round, he announces his turn is over and the process repeats with player 2. The game continues until one player is out of either life points or cards."
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3grh68 | is there a limit to how good cameras get? | eventulay they will get so good that they will look like real life | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3grh68/eli5is_there_a_limit_to_how_good_cameras_get/ | {
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"We've had cameras that have a higher resolution than our eyes can see for a very long time. Old school film cameras could take photos that could be blown up to ridiculous sizes. A limit to digital cameras? Again, we've been above human visual threshold for a while now, assuming the image is stored in RAW format (huge file sizes). Cell phone cameras? Yes, there's a limit. Megapixels aren't everything, and after a certain point a higher megapixel count actually does more harm than good. This is because the actual receivers (or whatever the technical term is) have to get smaller to fit on the limited size of the cell phone. A 5 megapixel DSLR is better than a 20 megapixel cell phone camera because the actual receivers are a decent size (plus all the other benefits you get from a DSLR like aperture control).",
"There are many imperfections in lenses, but even if you had a perfect lens, the resolution of any camera, including your eyes, is [limited by diffraction](_URL_1_). Basically, photons are not infinitely tiny points. They are like little waves that become fuzzy as they fly around things. By the time they hit the image sensor, the photon is fuzzy.\n\nThis is one of the reasons that bigger cameras take better pictures than smaller cameras, and why you can't make resolution higher simply by cramming more smaller pixels into the same area. In a bigger camera, imagine the analogy of throwing a water balloon at an array of buckets. It's bound to end up in the one bucket (photosite -- or pixel) that it's supposed to be in. But if you throw a water balloon of the same size into an egg carton, the water gets smeared out across different egg slots around the one that you were aiming at -- which would result in a blurry image.\n\nAlso, if you have too few photons hitting each bucket, the discrete nature of photons means that each photon gets to randomly choose which nearby bucket to go into. The randomness causes [shot noise](_URL_0_) which looks grainy and ugly. The problem goes away if you average over many photons, requiring a bigger camera.\n\nAs a rule of thumb the \"size\" of the photon is related to its wavelength, which is on the order of 500nm.\n\nTL;DR quantum mechanics screws with tiny cameras. Bigger camera better."
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2vuptz | how do people with complicated written languages like japanese and mandarin type effectively? how can they search/find anything on the internet if there are so many different characters that could be used to say something? | Take [this video](_URL_0_) for example. How could I search for that? It appears it would be rather complicated to look for unless you knew how the title was written. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vuptz/eli5_how_do_people_with_complicated_written/ | {
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"I do not know about Japanese, although it has much fewer characters than Chinese does. Chinese uses one character to represent a whole idea, whereas Japanese I believe uses a character to represent the sound of one syllable (and english uses a character to represent a single sound). \n\nThe way that Chinese people type is usually by either typing phonetically and having the computer convert it into Chinese characters, or by root shapes - which basically means that you build the character (I believe, at least). Nowadays, however, there is software on devices with touchscreens that can convert your finger strokes to characters. Hope that helps!\n\nEDIT: touched this up to avoid confusion",
"With Japanese, they type Japanese phonetically with a regular english qwerty keyboard, but their letters group up into the symbols as they type. They press a key to cycle through possible interpretations until they get the one they want, then continue typing.",
"Title: [Official] \"Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire Mega-Special Animation\"\n\nJapanese : Japanese uses a phonetic alphabet like English. If you can read the characters, you can search for it, much like English. Keyboard is quite simple. Every character in the title of the video except the very first 2 characters in brackets are represented by \"Katakana\" (this is used mostly for foreign words represented in Japanese). Beginner Japanese learners can read this with no issues at all :)\n\nChinese : The first two characters however are Chinese characters. It is more tricky if you don't know how to say it. As I learn both Japanese and Chinese, I can \"cheat\" if I don't know how to say it in one language. For example, I knew the characters are pronounced \"gong shi\" in Chinese (which is exactly what you would type to bring it up on a Chinese keyboard), but in Japanese it is \"koushiki\" (today I learned! XD)\n\nNow, if you don't know how to read the character at all. As someone else said, most phones these days allow you to write the character and the program will give you it's best guess as to the character you wrote. The problem is that a lot of these programs use \"stroke-order\" to help get a more accurate guess of the character you wrote. Problem is, if you aren't good at these languages, often the stroke order will be wrong. What I do to search new characters, is use what is called \"radical look up\" as seen here : _URL_0_\n\nYou need a little knowledge on Chinese characters to be able to use this properly, but the tl:dr is that all Chinese characters are made up of a combination of these \"radicals\". For example : 梅 = plum. It is made up of 木 and 毎. So if I didn't know this character, I would go to the radical dictionary, search for either of these, and find the character that way.\n\nLong post, but I hope I helped!",
"For Chinese, most people type with pinyin 拼音, which can be translated directly to something like \"spelling sounds\". And that's exactly what you do. Pinyin is a way to spell Chinese sounds with roman characters. To get 拼音, switch to Chinese pinyin input, type \"pinyin\", and that's what will appear. This just uses roman input. Type the syllable and a list of the relevant characters will appear. Pick the one that matches. Though typing syllables one by one is very inefficient. The input systems (IMEs) are intelligent, you should type word by word, or even sentence by sentence and most likely you'll get every character right on your first try. This input method requires that you know how to *pronounce* the words you want to type.\n\nAnother way of entering characters that quite honestly makes more sense is 五笔 *wubi* (meaning \"five brush [strokes]\"). This takes some time to learn though. Each key is for a character component, and by putting these together you can type out any Chinese character with five key strokes or less. The most commonly used characters can be typed out with just one key stroke, and the more complex and less-used ones need more key strokes. This can be done with any regular keyboard. Though it's of course easier to learn if you manage to get one where the keys show which component they represent. This input method requires that you know how to *write* the character you want to type. If you are unsure about a keystroke, there is a wildcard key (though this might mean you'll end up with a list of several matching characters in the end).\n\nI feel that it's necessary to explain how Chinese characters work as well. A character, or 汉字 *hanzi*, is **not** necessarily a word. A character is a syllable, though a syllable that carries a certain meaning as well. Most words contain two syllables. 拼音 pinyin for example, is one word, composed of *characters* meaning **spelling** and **sound**. However, the *word* \"spell\" would be 拼写 pinxie and the *word* sound would be 声音 *shengyin*. This is a bit simplified though. Three-syllable words and one-syllable words also exist. Longer words than that are uncommon, but they do exist. \n\n\n\nJapanese works slightly different. They don't have an alphabet, but they have something similar called *kana*. Each kana is one syllable, あa いi うu えe おo かka きki くku けke こko さsa しshi すsu せse そso, and so on. By themselves, they carry no meaning. They are just a sound, just like the letters in the alphabet. A Chinese character, *kanji* (which they also use) can be one or more of these syllables. By writing these syllables either in roman, which will convert to *kana* and/or *kanji*, or directly with *kana* input, they will be converted to the relevant *kanji*. If I type かんじ \"kanji\" and press space, it'll turn into 漢字, the first character meaning \"Chinese\" and the second meaning \"character\".\n\nThe word *kanji*, by the way, is the same as Chinese *hanzi*, except pronounced in a Japanesified way. :) The reason they don't look the same is because China had a massive character simplification done in the 1950's in order to improve literacy (it worked!) and writing efficiency. Japan had one done as well, around fifty years earlier, however it was not as extensive and in most cases very different from the Chinese one meaning that there are *three* versions of some characters! 龍 龙 竜 all mean dragon. [Full form, Chinese simplification, Japanese simplification]\n\nSearching/finding stuff on the Internet works just as in any other language. Compare to: \"If there are only 20-or-30-something letters in the alphabet, how can you still find things on the Internet?\" By putting them together so that they form words and sentences.",
"In hong kong, where everyone has a smartphone, they have apps that let you draw the character on the screen and it recognizes it. Pretty cool. "
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69miiq | the whole different wages ( salary or hourly) between men and woman. i always hear about men always making more but the same qualifications and position. i'm from canada and have not found the difference. can somebody explain | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/69miiq/eli5_the_whole_different_wages_salary_or_hourly/ | {
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"So, the main thing is that men are more likely to get raises and promotions than women are, even when they are equally trained and qualified. This adds up over time, which is why there are very few women in positions of authority for large corporations. \n\nSome people argue that women don't get promoted because they take time off to have children, but even the women who aren't planning on having kids get ignored for promotions compared to their male counterparts. ",
"Women make the same as men for the same job and tenure. However, women tend not to have the same types of jobs and tenure as men, tending towards lower paid positions and not working as long in a given field.",
"Women gained entry to tertiary education and jobs at a much later stage than men i.e. after the war, hence may explain why in the earlier days women were segregated to low type of employment with low paying jobs, and there were barriers for women to gain employment at managerial level due to prejudice. However women's increased participation in higher education has helped a lot to eradicate the gender gap in employment and wage, but the process takes time. Discrimination and prejudice may still occur somewhere (there are various reports that find women are still under-represented in high paying jobs). Women's segregation into low occupationla category can also be explained in a paradoxical way - that women may intentionally choose low paying jobs so they can balance between work and families. Women also tend to take longer temporary unemployment due to giving birth and child care, this is especially true among women who see themselves as the second earner in the family so they don't have to work as hard as their partner to support a family. But the composition of women is now different - there are many single, unmarried, divorced women nowadays so we would expect women to have similar earning and capabily as men.",
"They do a nice job outlining the situation in this podcast\n\n_URL_0_"
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b6hqej | why do streaming providers supply different content to different countries? can't they just provide the same content to everyone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b6hqej/eli5_why_do_streaming_providers_supply_different/ | {
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"Different countries have different laws in regards to content shown, tv regulations and licensing rights.\n\nNetflix US has Arrested Development S5 but Netflix AUS doesn’t due to Foxtel having first airing rights.\n\nSome programs are banned from certain countries for religious reasons or what is portrayed culturally. \n\nWhile some shows have to be censored or edited to comply with some countries which the streaming service may not have access to.\n\nAll in all if a streaming provider breaches a countries laws in regards to their content, they are held responsible and have to face legal repercussions",
"Laws are part of it, but mostly it's a holdover from the way television was structured.\n\nIf I make a TV show in the US and it's the 80s, then I could sell it to a TV station to play it. Or I could license it to one station in the US, and another different station in Canada, and another in the UK. No station is in all of those regions, so I get to sell the same show three times to three sets of customers, but no one really cares because the stations weren't competing anyway.\n\nThen the internet makes it so broadcasting across a border is trivial. It's actually easier to broadcast globally than it is to decide where a user is and figure out which borders that crosses. So Netflix wants to buy a show, but producers of shows don't sell rights globally. That's never been an option before; they sell rights to the US and to the UK separately. Not Netflix has to decide which rights to buy in which country to make it worth it for them, and they have to build a system that detects which users are in which location so they can prove to the rights-holder that they are \"only distributing to Canada\" because that's all Netflix paid for. ",
"It is not a technical thing but a legal thing.\n\nFor stuff that Netflix or Amazon Prime etc produce themselves they can freely stream it anywhere (provided it is not something that is illegal in some country).\n\nHowever stuff they bought they can only stream in regions they bought the rights for.\n\nFor example Netflix bough the rights to Star Trek: Discovery from the maker CBS to stream in all the places where CBS is not actually showing the series itself. Netflix could easily stream it in the US too, but they don't have the rights to do it and CBS would sue them if they tried."
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3femen | why does the us navy have planes and ground forces? do other countries do this? | Why have three separate forces if one of them has all three facilities? What do marines do that army don't? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3femen/eli5_why_does_the_us_navy_have_planes_and_ground/ | {
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"The Royal Navy also has this. The Royal Marines are a part of the Royal Navy. Here the marines are much more trained in beach landing, boarding ships that are maybe populated by pirates or carrying drugs, they also fight on land just like the army. The Royal Navy also has air support in the form of the Fleet Air Arm with helicopters and jets. ",
"WWII taught us that you can't control the land or sea without controlling the air above it. \nThe Navy has it's own aircraft for that latter purpose, to control the air over the sea. The Air Force can do it as well, but are limited by range; an aircraft needs a base to be able to land at. The Navy takes their air base with them and as a result, can control large swaths of airspace over the ocean, far from any landmass. \n \nThe Marines serve as a quick expeditionary force that can deploy from the ocean very very quickly; Marine forces are deployed to be able to respond to a crisis anywhere within 24 hours. The Corps is also specialized in amphibious warfare.\n \nWhat both the Navy and Marine Corps both respectively lack are specializations outside of the ocean or quick response. The Air Force has specialized platforms for reconnaissance, air support, air superiority, and logistics. Navy (and Marine) aircraft can do those missions, but the Air Force has aircraft specifically designed from the outset for those missions. They also lack strategic bomber forces, another monopoly the Air Force holds. The Marine Corps also lacks longevity; they're not institutionally designed to hold territory or operate extremely long supply lines. This is something the Army has over them; the Army is simply bigger and can hold more territory, but it takes the Army longer to generate those large forces.",
" > why does the US Navy have planes and ground forces?\n\nBecause it makes more sense to have the planes and ground forces that operate from Navy ships be part/sort of part of the Navy. \n\nCarrier operations require different kinds of aircraft and training than ground based operations.\n\n > Do other countries do this?\n\nYes.\n\nThe Soviets/Russians do, the British do. The French do. \n\n > What do marines do that army don't?\n\nDeploy rapidly from ships.",
"Different branches have different goals. Navy pilots need to develop sea superiority. Air Force, air superiority. If there was a conflict on ground, the Air Force would most likely delegate most of their resources towards ground conflicts, leaving the Navy without much planes. However with their own Air Wing, the Navy can do what's best for them, without worrying about the Air Force.\n\nAs far as the Marines, if they need a ground evac, rather than have to phone up the Air Force for a chopper, see if one is around, etc... They can have their own on standby for this mission."
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2de9sn | the psychology behind foot fetishes | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2de9sn/eli5_the_psychology_behind_foot_fetishes/ | {
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"I dont know if this is completely true or not but from some education of mine and a little research this is what might be happening.\n\nThere is a part of the brain called the [Homunculus](_URL_0_). The Homonculus is predominantly made up of the pre-central and post-central gyrus. the Pre-central gyrus controls motor functions, or voluntary movements, and the post-central gyrus interprets the sensory information coming into the brain. Different parts of these gyri(pre and post central) control very specific parts of the body.\n\nThe theory behind why so many people develop foot fetishes is because the genital and foot regions within the post-central gyrus are right next to eachother, so when there is stimulation to the genitals there is a close association with the feet.\n\nI dont think this is necessarily 100% true but it was still funny in a nerdy way. I'm sure it will be gold one day at the bar over beers or something.",
"Some people are attracted to different parts of the body. Feet are usually covered, something you don't usually get close to in other people, and may be ticklish, so there's the intimacy/vulnerability thing, plus the potential for footjobs. Which are exactly what it sounds like. Some people also like the whole submission aspect of caring for/groveling at someone's feet. "
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9f0jrq | what is the difference between the national debt and the federal deficit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9f0jrq/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_the_national/ | {
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"Deficit is an annual number. Every year the amount we spend minus revenue is the deficit, unless revenue is MORE than spending, then we have a surplus.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThe debt is the current cumulative sum of the past deficits, plus interest.",
"A federal deficit is the gap between the budget - aka what the government is planning to spend - and its projected income (aka tax and tariff revenue). If the federal revenue is greater than the budget, its called a surplus. If its less, its a deficit. \n\nDeficits aren't necessarily bad. Big infrastructure projects or say military expenditures need to be paid for up front. But people know the government is good for it. So running a deficit is a bit like taking out a short term loan. \n\nWhere does the money come from? From you. Investors. The federal bank will issue government bonds, guaranteed to pay back a known % in x years. Investors, mutual funds, big investment banks will buy these up. \n\nSo the federal debt is the sum total of how many of these \"loans\" are outstanding. \n\nObviously, if you run a deficit for several years in a row your federal debt will grow. Sometimes it will grow so big the government can't pay it all back. Or maybe not even make the interest payments. This is what happened to Greece, Spain, Ireland and Iceland a few years back when Germany had to bail them out. ",
"Oversimplified ELI5: The *debt* is how much we’ve borrowed, and the *deficit* is how much we add to the debt each year. "
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uh8ar | ufo sightings | saw [this](_URL_0_!) on /r/videos and made me realize that i actually havent formed an opinion on this whole UFO thingie.
so help me out r/ELI5. Are most of the so called ufo sightings are generally weather phenomenons, military aircrafts and so on? or is there a slim chance that what these people are filming is actually an alien lifeform ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/uh8ar/eli5_ufo_sightings/ | {
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"[Here](_URL_0_) you have something you may find interesting.",
"opinions on polarizing things like UFOs are best formulated over a long period of time, simmered with facts and figures and served with a heaping helping of reading",
"For me the main reason I dont think alien spaceships (and lets be clear: when people talk about UFOs thats what they mean), is that once digital cameras became commonly available, the blurry saucer pictures suddenly stopped coming. \n\nI have other reasons too:\n-Occams Razor: People in Roswell live near a military research base (area51) that trials new aircraft types on occasion, which may look unconventional. YET they still insist these are actually Alien spaceships. Its now a source of tourism income so i doubt they'll ever change their minds \n-as far as we know , it takes about 14.5billion years to evolve a species with enough intelligence to 'not quite get into space very well'. Theres nothing to suggest Aliens of the same universe could evolve faster and with such characteristics that they can figure out how to circumvent the speed of light, \n-AND LOCATE US even though our radio signals (the only beacon of our existence) would be so weak as to be indistinguishable from background radiation (the CMB?) before they are anywhere near our nearest star \n-what about aliens from other universes/dimensions: well, now you have to explain how they overcame all the above AND MORE: even less likely \n-every single 'evidence' presented has either been explained fully and demonstrably to be something else; or of poor quality e.g. blurred photos.\n\n\nEDIT. re the video you linked to. The first ~10seconds is a person from a night time parachute display. I have seen them before and thats what they look like. The falling light is probably just some equipment he/she dropping. The lights people see through windows look alot like reflections of internal lights/tv screens etc. Which reminds me of another reason I dont believe in alien spaceships visiting us: the examples are NEVER the same. always different. The aliens cant visit us 2x in the same designed ship?\n",
"Remember what \"U\" in \"UFO\" stands for. \"I don't know therefore aliens\" is a meme material. It's just not likely that aliens are visiting us. Once you grasp the concept of time and distance in space, you'll understand just how unlikely is it. Civilizations will fall and rise in the time it takes a rocket to reach the nearest star system. Once you aquire technlogy that replaces rockets, Earth will be insignificant rock to you and humans will be no more important than dust covering it. "
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3m9gb6 | how do producers prevent child actors in horror movies from getting extremely scared? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3m9gb6/eli5_how_do_producers_prevent_child_actors_in/ | {
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"First, they take the time to explain things to them, and prepare them, and they have their parents/guardians present. And kids who can't handle it probably don't survive long in the industry. \n\nSecond, when filming a movie it's not nearly as scary as the finished product. Think of it with out the jump-editing, without the scary music, without the sharp, jarring angles. If anything, the kids probably get bored. \n\nOn a related side-note: When filming *Maleficent*, Angelina Jolie had to use her own child for some scenes since the other children were afraid of her. Which relates to being able to find the right kid for the job. ",
"If you looked at a horror movie from behind the scenes, it wouldn't be remotely scary. There could be some creepy stuff, but the illusion is ruined when you \"look behind the curtain.\" This is the same answer to \"how do male actors control their *clears throat* umm, member, during a sex scene?\"\n\nThink about how scary your room could be at night when you were a kid. Turn the lights on, and it's not scary anymore, is it? Same goes for horror movies. Without the mood lighting, jump cuts, scary music, etc. the set isn't remotely scary. Also, being in a movie is so freaking cool for the kid that they probably don't have time to be scared.",
"[it's the making of a 'scary' music video, and not a movie; but it might give a little insight.](_URL_0_)",
"I haven't noticed anyone mention this, but often they don't explain what is actually happening, or lie to kids about what the movie is about. I think in the most recent Omen movie (with Liev Schrieber) they didn't tell the kid playing Damien that he was in essence playing the spawn of Satan. Not sure what they told him. Also in the Shining the kids weren't told they were in a horror movie. It isn't that hard to shield kids from the true horror if you have a good director and team",
"Film sets look like film sets not like horror movies. There are tons of distractions...booms, cameras, lights etc. Even when little kids are screaming it's because they're being asked to.\n\nDisclaimer: disregard my last in the case of The Exorcist, in which case I think she got really fucked up. Also don't include CURSED movies like Poltergeist. ",
"You realize that movies are fake, right?\n\nThere are dozens upon dozens of technicians, crew, makeup artists, riggers, cameramen, assistants, etc wandering around. You eat lunch at the craft services table with the guy who plays the monster - he's pretty funny. The scene that made you piss your pants in the theater - that took **5 days** to shoot even thought it lasted 5 minutes. It was boring, not scary. They kept making us do the same thing over and over and over again. All the scary sounds and effects are added in later. Even if you are a little scared you can see your mom over there sitting next to the writer.",
"A lot of it has to do with the context and whole packaging of the movie. Since films are shot out of sequence, it's not uncommon for an actor whose only in part of it to only know their section of the movie. For a child, they aren't seeing that build up, they aren't hearing the crazy music, and they aren't having the movie played for them using all those spooky camera tricks. They may also not be seeing the same effects as the audience. All of this means that they aren't experiencing the movie in the same way and aren't being forced into being scared.",
"You have to keep in mind what the set looks like. There are usually dozens of people just barely out of camera. A lot of the time, the background is radically different just out of the camera's view.\n\nYou could Google Image Search \"behind the scenes\" to see what this looks like, but here's one famous example from The Shining, because dealing with the child was well known(as you can see from other people mentioning it):\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"Because it is not real. They aren't really trapped in a haunted house. They aren't all alone. There isn't a ghost in there. And them being pulled around is just that rope that someone tied to there leg, which they were told about.",
"_URL_0_\n\nHere's an interview with the director of Silent Hill on casting the 10 year old that played Sharon/Dark Alessa. In this case, they couldn't shield her from the violence of what was happening, so they had to find a child that could cope with it and not get scared. It was just part of the casting process. How it's handled varies somewhat on the age of the child and their role in the film. "
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21voiz | ear wax. what is it? where is it produced? what triggers it's production? how deep does it go? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21voiz/eli5_ear_wax_what_is_it_where_is_it_produced_what/ | {
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"AND HOW DO I GET RID OF IT!!!???",
"Alright - I work in Audiology, and deal with Cerumen (the technical term for it) a ton. \n\n1) What is it?\n\nIts a mix of waxes, skin cells and dirt primarily. Its got a variety of uses, its water repellant to keep out, and lock in moisture, it tastes awful to repel insects and it helps push dirt and debris to the outside. Earwax is pushed by a few hairs towards the outside of the ear during its lifespan, and brings along all the crap with it.\n\n2) Where is it produced?\n\nThe outer two thirds of your ear canal are very soft and made of cartilage, the final third being mainly bone. Earwax is made in the outer cartilaginous portion.\n\n3) What triggers its production?\n\nNot actually sure, I imagine it's made in response to altered moisture levels, but that me spitballing.\n\n4) How deep?\n\nDeep as your ear canal. Ive dealt with wax way up packed against the eardrum, but it is only produced in the first 65%.",
"Do ear candles actually work/help?"
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3vi3dp | what does it mean when someone has to 're-learn how to walk'? | Be it from an injury or other traumatic event- I'll frequently hear that X person will need to 're-learn' how to walk again **with their current, working legs**. So I'm not referring to people that have lost limbs and are now using devices to do the same tasks;- there is a very clear re-learning phase there.
You 'know' how to walk, you know your body's physics with which where to put your feet after each step yet the person will overstep, struggle and appear confused as to how to walk again. Why or what is it that you're re-learning? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vi3dp/eli5_what_does_it_mean_when_someone_has_to/ | {
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"When you walk, your brain is sending messages to the muscles in your legs to relax and contract. I don't know the proper terms, but if the muscle in the front of your leg (by your hip) contracts you leg lifts up. You also have to contract the muscle that will lift up your foot/toes and your knee. When you put your leg down the muscles opposite contract, straightening out the limb. When there is traumatic brain injury the brain has to relearn to send the correct signals at the correct time. Often they have to consciously think about the act of walking, what each body part/muscle has to do. Whereas if you needed to get up you would just get up, you think about getting up but your brain does all the signaling to each body part that needs to move to make that happen. \n\n\nThink of it as 'retraining your brain.' The person's legs can physically walk (depending on the amount of time they have been stationary and the amount of muscle wastage that has occurred) they just need to retrain the brain to send the correct signals at the appropriate time and retrain their muscles to react. ",
"When you are bed ridden even for a few days, your muscles start to atrophy. They are weak from non-use and need to be built up again. Learning to walk again is that process to build strength. You might also have injury in the legs or elsewhere that requires you to compensate. You may need someone to assist you, use a walker, or other aids until you are fully healed or healed as much as possible. ",
"My wife had a stroke 5 weeks after our son was born. The left side of her body was completely out of commission. It took almost two weeks for her to wiggle her toes again. Another three to be able to stand and put maybe 5% body weight onto her leg. The neural pathways her brain used to send signals got nuked. She could feel sensation in her limbs, though numb for a while, and she would even say she was lifting her foot. But since there was an interruption, no signal made it down to her legs. Her brain had to reroute the signals around the dead brain tissue and that takes a lot of time and therapy. It has now been almost 8 years and most people don't know she had a stroke unless she tells them. She does still have issues with her hand, hasn't been able to decorate a cake yet but she gets better a little at a time. Neural plasticity is really friggin amazing!",
"I was hit by a bus earlier this year. I suffered traumatic brain injury and a fractured skull, among a few other things. Thankfully it was a minor brain injury. I spent three months wandering around my own house, trying to DO ANYTHING. I figured out early on that I could still sweep the floor. I did that.\n\nI was immensely frustrated because I knew that I knew HOW to do everything, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't make coffee in my coffee maker. The same coffee maker I've been using for years. It's a simple task, that is actually a complex series of very small tasks, put together.\n\nLet's use the coffee example. It consists of points A, B, C.\n\nA: Add coffee\n\nB: Add water\n\nC: Press button\n\nSimple, right? No.\n\nStep A can be broken down further. \nOpen coffee maker, \ncheck to see if empty, \nif not, empty. \nWhere is the trash can? \nFind new filters, \nin which cabinet again? \nWas the box green?\nReplace filter. \nThen, find coffee grounds.\nIn which cabinet again? \nFOUND WHOLE BEANS! \nFind grinder, \ngrind beans, \nhow much? \nOkay crap, where are the filters? \nDo I do that already? \nFuck what was I doing?\n\nPanic, scream until a person with full cognitive function arrives.\n\nThat is just the first step, Step A, in a person with mild brain damage making coffee. How many little actions are inside that little action? Try to imagine that for every little tiny action you take, you need to TELL yourself to do it. A person with major brain damage might never recover. Perhaps a certain place in your brain relating to motor/muscle control is damaged. The series of instructions your brain sends to your legs to walk is far more complex than trying to make coffee. It seems easy because you've already learned how to walk when you were really little.\n\nWalking is a very complicated series of small tasks, put together into a seamless action. Your brain can do it by itself! Until you get hit by a bus and destroy a small part of your brain.\n\nThankfully, brains are good at adapting, and they can retrain other parts of your brain, to do the walking. It just takes time to lay some new wires inside your head, to make sure all the connections it takes to walk, are functioning properly. That's re-learning walking.\n\n\nTLDR; Wear a helmet.\n\n\nEDIT: Thankfully I'm fine now.\n\nEDIT 2: Also a little drunk."
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qi22w | how to fly standby | Specifically, what steps does one need to take to do this? And, is it even a good idea? How much money can I save?
Maybe this should be for askreddit, but I though I'd stop here. Google didn't offer me that great of advice, so thank you in advance
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qi22w/eli5_how_to_fly_standby/ | {
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"Some airlines let you switch (for free or a small fee) to an earlier flight if space is available. You can sometimes use this to your advantage.\n\nLet's say you want to fly from LA to NY on the 9am flight, but it costs $1000. You also notice the 11:30pm redeye is only $250. So you try your luck on a standby:\n\n1. Buy the $250 ticket\n2. Show up at the airport at around 7:30am.\n3. Go to the gate, and ask to fly standby\n4. If there are seats available, you might get one. Hooray.\n5. Otherwise, try again on the 11:15am, 1:30pm, 4pm, and 7:30pm flights\n6. Worse case, you wasted a day at the airport and fly out on your original 11:30pm flight \n\nNote that if multiple people want to fly standby, there are a number of tie-breaking rules based one frequent flyer status, fare class, ticket price and other factors. What this boils down to is, *business traveler wins*. So if unless you can run with the big dogs, avoid trying to fly standby 7-10am, 3-7pm, and never on a Monday or a Friday. We'll eat you alive...:) "
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5q7i9b | where does an electron "go" once it enters a piece of electronics? whathappens to it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5q7i9b/eli5_where_does_an_electron_go_once_it_enters_a/ | {
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"It keeps moving down the wire until eventually it moves out of the device and back into the power source. Electrons are just little particles that we can convince to move through a wire. We take advantage of that movement to either heat something or cause something else to move. But electrons don't get burned up or used up, they just get pushed around. ",
"They don't really 'go' very far. In DC currents, it can take hours for an actual single electron to travel an inch. In AC currents, they just oscillate back and forth - not travelling anywhere. Electricity - as what we commonly think about - is really an electromagnetic field that propegates really fast down a conductor. A very simple definition for voltage is the difference of intensity between two points of an EM field.\n\nA not so great analogy is think about yelling at a person across a field. You are generating a pressure wave that propegates through air molecules a long distance. The actual air you exhaled in doing to isn't what the person on the other side experienced. There is no \"flow\" of air between you two. The air isn't going anywhere, it's the wave that was generated that is travelling "
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j7qq8 | so i was watching pawnstars last night. what does it mean to pawn something? el5 please. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j7qq8/so_i_was_watching_pawnstars_last_night_what_does/ | {
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"Pawnshops/Pawnbrokers are businesses that will lend you money against an item. \n\nSo for example, you come to a Pawnbroker and give them your TV and they give you a $300 loan. That TV has now been *pawned*. You now have a set period (let's say a month) in which you can go to the Pawnshop and get your TV back by paying back the $300 plus whatever interest you agreed to when you took out the loan. If you do not pay the loan within that period, the Pawnbroker takes your TV and sells it. \n\nThus, to *Pawn* something means to use it as collateral in a short term loan with a Pawnbroker. ",
"In this context, the word 'Pawn' means a pledge, or a promise.\n\nLet's say that you see the newest Dora the Explorer toy in a shop window. You have an MP3 player, but you really want that Dora toy.\n\nSo, you go to your local pawn shop to borrow some money, but the pawn shop owner doesn't know you, and doesn't know that you'll pay the money back. So, he asks you to leave a material pledge - in this case, your MP3 player - as a guarantee that you'll pay the money back.\n\nSo, you give the pawn shop owner your MP3 player, he gives you money, and you go and buy that Dora the Explorer toy.\n\nIf you come back and repay the money you borrowed from the pawn shop owner, you get your MP3 player back. If you don't pay the money back, the pawn shop owner will sell your MP3 player to someone to recoup their losses. The amount of time that passes before the sale varies from shop to shop.",
"Pawnshops/Pawnbrokers are businesses that will lend you money against an item. \n\nSo for example, you come to a Pawnbroker and give them your TV and they give you a $300 loan. That TV has now been *pawned*. You now have a set period (let's say a month) in which you can go to the Pawnshop and get your TV back by paying back the $300 plus whatever interest you agreed to when you took out the loan. If you do not pay the loan within that period, the Pawnbroker takes your TV and sells it. \n\nThus, to *Pawn* something means to use it as collateral in a short term loan with a Pawnbroker. ",
"In this context, the word 'Pawn' means a pledge, or a promise.\n\nLet's say that you see the newest Dora the Explorer toy in a shop window. You have an MP3 player, but you really want that Dora toy.\n\nSo, you go to your local pawn shop to borrow some money, but the pawn shop owner doesn't know you, and doesn't know that you'll pay the money back. So, he asks you to leave a material pledge - in this case, your MP3 player - as a guarantee that you'll pay the money back.\n\nSo, you give the pawn shop owner your MP3 player, he gives you money, and you go and buy that Dora the Explorer toy.\n\nIf you come back and repay the money you borrowed from the pawn shop owner, you get your MP3 player back. If you don't pay the money back, the pawn shop owner will sell your MP3 player to someone to recoup their losses. The amount of time that passes before the sale varies from shop to shop."
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bumrr0 | why can’t my older body handle going on swings? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bumrr0/eli5_why_cant_my_older_body_handle_going_on_swings/ | {
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"Think about when you were little. We would all twirl in circles to get dizzy on purpose. It doesn't sound pleasant now. I dont know how strong evidence is for it, but one hypothesis is that it helps kids develop balance and stability so they find pleasure in those disorienting experiences.\n\n It goes away when you're older because you no longer need it and dizziness or similar sensations(like going on the swing) are more likely to be symptoms of an illness or having consumed something dangerous.",
"It’s a matter of practice. Many older people still do things that turn their stomachs, but they’ve been doing that stuff for years and that’s part of the rush for them. At some point down the line you stopped doing things that turned your stomach or disoriented you, and now it’s nauseating. You may be able to reacquire the ability to withstand or even enjoy those little things that turn your stomach, but if all you’re doing is using a swing set then you’ll need to do plenty of it to reacclimate your body. Perhaps going to a theme park and riding the big swings would help."
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22nlu9 | what is a "choke" in electronics | What does a choke actually do in an amplifier circuit? Why is it important? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22nlu9/eli5what_is_a_choke_in_electronics/ | {
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"A choke is an inductor, which at its most basic is a coil of copper wire. It has the effect of limiting high frequency from passing through it. The limiting is based on the Henry rating (units of inductance; higher H blocks frequencies to a lower Hertz). It is seen in crossovers to send lower frequencies to the woofer and block the high frequencies from going to the woofer.\nIn a power supply section, the choke will take a sinusoidal power wave (peaks and valleys) and smooth it out. When the power sinus wave is at maximum, all the power goes through. When it hits minimum (zero) no power goes through. In between, the choke will release stored energy to partially fill in the falling power output. It helps to convert AC to a smooth DC, especially in vacuum tube amps, which run at high voltages. It is usually placed directly after the rectifier, or after a capacitor that follows the rectifier."
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3zodzn | why are the butts of some monkeys so colorful? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zodzn/eli5_why_are_the_butts_of_some_monkeys_so_colorful/ | {
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"Girl monkeys' butts blush and get more colorful to show the boy monkeys that the girls want to make baby monkeys."
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1mqafx | why abortions are performed in "abortion clinics" rather than a regular obgyn clinic. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mqafx/eli5_why_abortions_are_performed_in_abortion/ | {
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"Because people call regular OBGYN clinics which perform abortions \"abortion clinics\". Not all OBGYN providers will do abortions; they might have some moral opposition to it, or they might not want to face protests.",
"This is a good question. I'm actually involved in a lawsuit where a group of OBGYN's kicked out one of their partners for doing some volunteer work at the local planned parenthood.\n\nFirst off, it can understandably create a very conflicting image when it comes to an OBGYN's brand. It's like saying \"Come on down to Women's Care First! We offer professional, caring service for you and your loved one so you can give you child the start he or she deserves. :) *Or* we can kill it and erase it from the world before it has a chance to draw breath.\" \n\nIn other words, the \"product\" delivered (ha ha) by most OBGYN's - a healthy child - is literally the exact opposite of the \"product\" sold by an abortion clinic. So it's understandable that a lot of OBGYN practices don't want to be associated with abortion. I mean, you don't see Whole Foods selling Bob's Ultra-Processed Enriched Chicken-Flavord Meat Bites (Made with Real Child Labor!). They don't want to be known for that. The same way a lot of OBGYN's don't want to be known for killing fetuses instead of delivering babies.\n\nSecond is the religious/moral/ethical dimension. Like many if not most medical practices, an OBGYN clinic is generally the product of a *partnership* of doctors. Chances are that if you get five or six doctors in a room, at least one is going to have *serious* religious/moral/ethical problems with abortion and refuse to allow it in the practice.\n\nIn my case, the first thing was the primary reason for terminating the doctor in question. The group had a lot of goodwill in the community, and could have lost it if it became common knowledge that one of their members terminated fetuses in her free time. There was one doctor who went on record with his objections to abortion. I think the words \"despicable\" and \"morally irredeemable\" were used. But he responsibly recused himself from voting on the issue."
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3ils4c | why aren't the people that are downloading the stolen ashley madison data and analyzing it being arrested and/sued for having stolen property? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ils4c/eli5_why_arent_the_people_that_are_downloading/ | {
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"Because we don't know who they are. \n\nThey acted under a name \"Impact Team\", not their real names.\n\nIf they are found then they will be prosecuted. _URL_0_",
"Electronic data isn't \"property\" in the way that word is generally used in laws that prohibit receiving stolen property (e.g., [18 USC § 2315](_URL_0_)).\n\nHowever, the database is Avid Life Media's intellectual property and if you possess it without permission you might be committing copyright infringement. I don't know this with 100% certainty, but in the US I believe it's only criminally illegal to break into a database or computer system to steal the data. Copying and possessing that data is still illegal, but only results in civil penalties if the copyright holder sues you.\n\nSo you could be in trouble if Avid Life Media sued you under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for possessing their data and displaying it on a website, but the government wouldn't get involved since it's not a crime. The hackers who stole the data committed a crime, though. And of course it's a crime to use the data to blackmail or extort anyone. \n\nEdit: To clarify, I'm not saying the database *is* copyrighted material owned by Ashley Madison. I'm saying that Ashley Madison is *claiming* that it is and it has sent DMCA notices. Hence, you *might* be infringing copyright and *could* be in trouble. I suspect that the claims wouldn't hold up in court, but there's probably enough there to survive a motion to dismiss on the pleadings. \n\nAnd of course Ashley Madison has no way of knowing you have the database if you aren't sharing it. There's also no way the DMCA notices will keep up with the pace with which the information is spreading or be effective internationally. I was more responding to the legality than the enforcement."
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3hsmtk | how does an analog metronome keep precise time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hsmtk/eli5_how_does_an_analog_metronome_keep_precise/ | {
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"It is a pendulum, with a very well balanced spring driven mechanism to power it. Just lke your grandparent's mechanical clock, it uses the constant period of a pendulum."
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3pcry9 | when you think about an object, for example a banana, how are you seeing the object? does your brain send messages to your eyes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3pcry9/eli5_when_you_think_about_an_object_for_example_a/ | {
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"Your eyes are just detectors. think of them as radar dishes collecting light and sending 1s and 0s to your brain. It makes no sense to send information to them since all the image processing already happens in your brain anyway. When you imagine a bananna its one part of your brain communicating with other parts of the brain. The eyes dont need to be involved.",
"*non-expert here*\n\nRemember that your eyes aren't actually processing the information you see; they are sending the signals your eyes receive to the brain, which then processes the info and lets you know what you are seeing.\n\nIn the same way, when you think about an object, you already have what you are thinking of in your brain, and since your brain technically does the \"looking\", it just \"makes it appear\".\n\nFirst explanation, might be a bit rough."
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7ol42i | why is blood pressure an important health metric? and how does sodium affect it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ol42i/eli5_why_is_blood_pressure_an_important_health/ | {
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"High blood pressure can often indicate blockages in blood vessels, or hardened vessels, and this makes the heart work harder than it needs to. More work means the heart wears out faster.\n\nSodium affects blood pressure because it pulls water from the body into the blood. More water means more blood volume, and that's higher blood pressure.",
"Blood pressure is an important health metric because sustained high pressure leads to irreparable damage to the blood vessels and key organs including the brain, kidneys, and heart. \n\nIn order to accommodate the increased blood pressure, our arteries undergo a reinforcement process, and that leads to a blood vessel that has thicker walls and a thinner passage for blood to go across. Such a blood vessel is not very good at delivering much-needed blood to the tissues and organs, and so the tissues eventually start to become stressed and die off. The kidneys, which are responsible for filtering the blood, are particularly sensitive to blood pressure and sustained high blood pressure tends to damage the kidneys.\n\nAdditionally, the blood vessels in our brain are very thin, and so instead of becoming reinforced under high pressure, they expand like balloons. This balloon-like vessel is called an aneurysm. And like any balloon, these blood vessels can burst, causing a stroke and even death. \n\nSodium is an electrolyte (like potassium, magnesium, chloride, and calcium), but what makes sodium special is that it is the most abundant electrolyte in our blood. Normal blood levels of sodium are 135-145, compared to just 2-4 for magnesium, 4-5 for potassium, 90-105 for chloride, and 8-10 for calcium. Our bodies have adapted to keep the sodium CONCENTRATION (not total amount) at a particular level. So if you eat more sodium, then your body has to retain more water to dilute the sodium to the appropriate concentration. Wherever sodium goes, water follows. You may notice that when you eat very salty foods like chips or crackers, you shortly thereafter become very thirsty. That's your body's way of telling you that your blood needs more water to balance out the sodium you just consumed. As the total volume of blood increases, so too does the blood pressure."
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49o06v | what is genetic drift? (i've yet to find an explanation that i understand) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49o06v/eli5_what_is_genetic_drift_ive_yet_to_find_an/ | {
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"Gingers, as you know, are rare. When you think about all the humans in the world as a single population, less than 5% of the members of this population are red heads. Now let's say a bus full of gingers were on their way to a ginger pride festival, when something happened and everyone on earth died, except the people on that very bus. 50-something gingers plus one black haired driver survived. They are the only surviving humans, and they are the people that will repopulate the Earth. Hundreds of thousands of years later, the Earth will once again be the home of billions of humans. But this time, red hair will be the most common hair color. Because the 50-ish people that laid the foundation of Humanity 2.0 were all gingers except the bus driver. The so called *gene frequencies* will have changed greatly. The red hair gene will be much more common than in Humanity 1.0, the black and brown hair will probably still exist, although rarer than before. The blond hair gene may completely be lost forever. In addition to that in Humanity 2.0 nobody will be color blind, because it just so happened that none of that 50-ish people that survived, had the color blindness gene in their DNA.\n\nA real life example would be the popular american bizon case. Before that particular breed of bizon was hunted to almost extinction, there was quite a bit of variation in the population. For a period of time, there were very few american bizons, but the population recovered. There are now a lot more of them, but many genes are lost.",
"I haven't taken biology since college but I'l give it my best shot:\n\nGenetic Drift is probably best contrasted with the theory of natural selection. Suppose that a Moth can be colored black or white. If two black moths reproduce, they make a black moth - if two white moths reproduce, they make a white moth, and if a black and a white moth reproduce, there is a 50% chance their offspring will be white, and thus a 50% chance their offspring will be black. (I'm unsure what genotype configuration would cause this, but let's assume for purposes of explanation that it's possible) \n\nIn natural selection, if being white is very unfavorable to a survival (for instance if a white moth is easier to be spotted by a bird than a black moth), we would expect to see more black moths because there would be fewer white moths around to reproduce. Over time, we may not see any white moths at all. \n\nGenetic Drift, however, is a change in population frequency over time simply by chance reproduction. Suppose that 10 black moths reproduce with 10 white moths to produce 20 offspring. Statistically, it's likely that 5 of those offspring would be white. But because probability doesn't guarantee results , there may actually be 16 black offspring and 4 white offspring (much in the same way that flipping a coin ten times doesn't always lead to 5 tails). The next time the moths reproduce, it's less likely that there will be white offspring because of the 20 new offspring, only four moths will be able to make white offspring whereas (at a minimum) 12 moths will be able to produce black offspring (i.e. there are 16 black moths, 4 of those at the most could be paired with white offspring, and then the other 12 mate each other). \n\nBecause genetic drift is a statistical phenomenon, the more members there are, the less noticeable genetic drift is. Again it's like flipping a coin. If you do it 10 times, you may not be surprised if there are 3 heads and 7 tails. But if you flipped it 10,000 times, you would be shocked if there was 3000 heads and 7000 tails. "
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ar1h41 | what is hysteresis? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ar1h41/eli5_what_is_hysteresis/ | {
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"Hysteresis is a systems dependence on not just a variable, but also a history.\n\nFor example, if you have a thermostat set at 20 degrees C, you can control it by having it heat up until it is 20 degrees, then turn off, then when it's 19.9 degrees turn on again until it's 20, and circle like that.\n\nOr, you can put it in hysteresis and say that when it heats up, it needs to heat up to 22 degrees, and not turn the heater on until the temperature reaches 18 degrees, thus keeping a \"memory\" on the history of the system.\n\nAnother case is that of agar, which melts at 85 degrees C, but it doesn't solidify until it reaches 32-40 C. So if you have solid agar and heat it to 60 degrees C, it will stay solid, but if you have liquid agar and cool it to 60 degrees C, it will stay liquid. The state of it depends on the history.",
"It's the tendency of systems to retain a state from past behavior - frequently this is visible when you displace them from equilibirum, and they don't quite return to it.\n\n\"System\" in this case is very broad. For example, if you have a stiff spring it has some equilibirum position. If you stretch it out and let it go, it will almost go back to that length - but not quite, it'll stay a little bit longer. If you compress it, similarly it'll then expand, but stay a little bit shorter than the original position. \n\nThis kind of stiffness exists in many systems. Notably, non-permanent magnets have this. The atoms normally want to be randomly aligned. If you put them in a magnetic field, they will follow the field lines. Then if you let them go, they will start to return to a random distribution, but won't quite do so - they'll stay a little bit magnetized.\n\nThere are tons of other systems that do this, and many do it in different ways - some have an actual range of equilibrium points, some will retain 'more' history if they're displaced more (i.e. non-permanent magnets are more magnetized if they were in a stronger magnetic field), some have a more complex dependence entirely."
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euqp7y | why is ip geolocation not exact? why does an ip tracker or ip lookup website show a place a bit distant from my street? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/euqp7y/eli5_why_is_ip_geolocation_not_exact_why_does_an/ | {
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"IP geolocation works the same way someone could guess your location from your phone number. Different area codes and prefices are assigned to different regions (or at least they use to before cell phones messed things up), and if you knew the pattern you could make a good estimate.\n\nIP addresses work the same way, ISPs control certain ranges of IP addresses, and often break them up by region. The location you are seeing could be an arbitrary point in the middle of the region that has IP addresses like yours, or it could be one of the ISPs routing junctions. Or, as is often the case, it could be completely wrong.",
"Your public IP address which geolocation uses, belongs to your ISP. So it's most likely tracing that IP address to a data center where your ISP's router is located."
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4699mg | if butter is just churned cream. why does cream go bad very quickly, but butter lasts a long time? | Butter can sit out on the counter for ages. I've never actually seen butter go bad.
But Cream, if you leave that on the counter for a day or two it starts to smell. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4699mg/eli5_if_butter_is_just_churned_cream_why_does/ | {
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"When you churn cream into butter you get two products. Butter and buttermilk. Real buttermilk, not the cultured kind from the store, is very sweet, contains lots of sugars and water and protein. Butter is mostly fats who's structure has been arranged in such a way to make them into a solid. This will still go bad pretty fast so most butter is mixed with salt to improve the flavor and lengthen shelf life. \nHope this helps. ",
"When you churn cream, the butterfat separates from the buttermilk. So the butter isn't all of the cream, just the butterfat part, with much less water content. It's the buttermilk part that ferments.",
"Butter begins to go bad immediately, just much \nslower. All fats/oils will go rancid as outer layers oxidize and dry up further. Basically the individual pieces of 'fat' that are the base ingredient in butter are slowly chopped and broken into smaller ingredients that aren't useful / tasty / appealing. This happens automatically simply from being exposed to air.\n\nWe don't want this so lots of people store it on the counter but under water and with something blocking out light, keeping it from contacting the air(oxygen) when possible.\n\nIt mainly alters the smell and taste into something you would find less appealing, I'm not certain its anywhere near as serious as cream spoiling which can make you quite sick. Germs don't grow well on a dry fat/salt diet which is all they get from most butters.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Cream is very wet and has lots of sugars for mold spores to consume and grow. Butter is dry, has very little sugar, and often has salt added. All of these inhibit mold growth.",
"Bacteria need water to live. When you make butter the fat part of the cream (butter) separates from the liquid portion of cream (buttermilk) and you remove as much of the liquid as possible leaving mostly the fat. Since Butter is mostly fat it has little water to support bacteria. Instead, like all fats, butter normally spoils through oxidation. "
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fbly0e | why do led headlights flicker when being viewed through a camera or recorded video but not when you look at them with a naked eye? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fbly0e/eli5_why_do_led_headlights_flicker_when_being/ | {
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"If something flickers with a high enough frequency your naked eyes won’t see the flicker. That’s why you can see movies with 24 frames per second.",
"Pulse width modulation: keeping LED's on for a short burst, and off for a short burst (usually shorter off times) to save electricity, reduce heat output, and create a 'dimming' effect for LED's, because LED's can't be dimmed by lowering voltage.\nSo when an LED is on a PWM circuit, and a camera records it, the light will blink on the recording/playback, because the LED is blinking at a different rate that the camera shutter speed is capturing the video.\nIf you have the ability to 'shake your eyes (see 'nystagmus') you can see the effect IRL, or if you look toward, or away from a set of taillights of cars that have this effect (Cadillacs have, im my opinion, the best viewing ability for this effect) you'll notice in your peripheral vision dots or dashes of light (depending on how fast you adjust your gaze)"
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7kwiot | what happens in a bipolar person's brain causes them to go "manic" or "depressed"?? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7kwiot/eli5_what_happens_in_a_bipolar_persons_brain/ | {
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"Hi, person with bipolar here. I understand it to be a chemical imbalance in the brain. The meds keep you in the normal range so you do not go back and forth between the two extremes, which are unhealthy. ",
"Ahoy, matey! These posts may shed a bit of light, though I think there's room for better answers still.\n\n1. [ELI5: Bipolar Disorder ](_URL_1_) ^(_24 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: Someone who is bipolar/manic-depressive, what does it FEEL like, both on and off meds? And how can I help? ](_URL_0_) ^(_9 comments_)\n",
"I'm bipolar 2, and no doctor has ever given me the same answer as another doctor.\n\nIt's one of those things where they don't know the direct cause, but they know how to treat it (success widely varies due to so many factors).\n\nMost doctors think it's a combination of genetics and past experiences which cause bipolar (nature loaded the gun, nurture pulled the trigger).\n\nThe phases of bipolar are caused... basically by everything. When I enter a mixed state or a depressed state, it's an overreaction of my body to some sort of stimulus. In my case, it's by far a social stimulus as when I send a lot of time alone (and not focused on the past), I'm usually ok.",
"Bipolar here as well. I think it may even be the case that they are not even sure of the exact mechanism of action on some atypical antipsychotics (which stop you from going manic). \n\nI'm on [Latuda](_URL_0_). Not the most ELI5 article, but it does explain presumably how it stops you from going manic.\n\nAlthough, I don't hold out much hope for this thread, since most of reddit seems to think that mental illnesses don't affect your daily life. If you say you have problems with your life due to mental illness, then you're just making excuses—according to reddit. \n\nThe ELI5 explanation you're most likely to receive: nothing happens—they are just failures blaming their instability on \"mental illness\".",
"Physical, chemical or emotional stress. Being in a fight or flight state for too long could be the reason. Try to succeed at the basics of health to achieve a balance in the body. Exercising enough is important, like going for long walks or jogging for 20 minutes. Nutrition is very important aswell (people with mental problems might have nutritional defficiency's). Try to eat 7 to 10 cups of vegetables a day, especially dark green vegetables like broccoli and spinach (magnesium and potassium are important minerals). If you can, try to eat fish a couple of times a week to feed the brain. Sleep is important so try to do your best to get atleast 6 hours of decent rest a day. Avoid emotional stress if you can, but if it's necessary to achieve something you can't always avoid it. Greets",
"I read a paper recently that asserts, among other things, that a dysfunctional secondary signaling system allows for runaway upregulation or downregulation of certain receptor site. Also, many have hypothesized that a discordant circadian cycle can initiate the swings, but it is still a pretty murky subject.",
"We don't know for sure but we know it involves over and under activity in certain receptors. Dopamine D2 being one of the primary culprit. Anti-psychotic drugs used to treat mania specifically target this receptor.",
"Reading these comments are making me think I need to see a doctor. For years I have had problems where when I’m sick or tired I get really wound up, while stress or sudden changes make me incredibly depressed. ",
"i wish someone had a real answer for this. i'm bipolar 2 w/ depression. i love my manic phases. more energy, things are funnier. i wish i knew what makes me go manic."
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5lw1g0 | why is it that we think of mirrors as being silver colored, even though they reflect the exact colors of objects around them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lw1g0/eli5_why_is_it_that_we_think_of_mirrors_as_being/ | {
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"In a nutshell A mirror is a piece of glass that is coated with a thin price of silver or grey \"metal\". The process of coating the glass is literally called silvering. Then its polished to point of reflection. If you ever look at the back of a mirror most of them are grey. ",
"Interestingly, mirrors are actually a shade of green.\nYou can see this when you have two mirrors facing each other causing that tunnel effect",
"Metals don't reflect all wavelengths of light equally. That's what gives them a colour even if they're very reflective. \nSomething like gold will absorb ~~red~~ blue light more than other wavelengths and that gives it its yellowish colour. Silver or aluminum reflect visible wavelengths almost equally so they appear grey.\n_URL_0_",
"It's the material we use to create mirrors, the backing is silver. \n\nOn a side note, mosts mirrors are actually green, you can tell they are green because when you put two mirrors facing each other and get that the tunnel effect if fades to green. ",
"Part of it could be a hold-over from back when mirrors were made with silver. A piece of glass would be coated on one side with a thin layer of silver which made it reflect. The association certainly stuck. ",
"Because mirrors were quite literally silver. They're made of steel or aluminum now, but they were silver colored for the longest time. There's also that mirrors are silver colored when the angle isn't right to reflect anything, just like any other piece of well polished metal.",
"Silver is not a true color (in the sense of a wavelength of light). Silver is the name we have given to the effect we get from reflective surfaces such as mirrors, chrome, and originally, polished silver.\n\n\nEDIT: Fixed the opening parenthesis.",
" If an object...\n reflects **red** light and absorb others...\n and has a rough surface\n It's **red**.\n and has a smooth surface\n It's still **red** but looks like a red mirror. Everything in it is red.\n reflects **blue** light and absorb others...\n and has a rough surface\n It's **blue**.\n and has a smooth surface\n It's still **blue** but looks like a blue mirror. Everything in it is blue.\n reflects every light equally\n and has a rough surface\n It's **gray**, like stainless steel.\n and has a smooth surface\n It's a mirror and we call it **silver**.",
"we used to make mirrors out of stuff called [quicksilver](_URL_0_) \n\n\n > (colloquial) An amalgam of mercury and tin applied to the backs of mirrors, quicksilvering.",
"I see a lot of explanations here about the materials on the back, manufacturing process and etc, but I believe OP was referring to mirrored surfaces, regardless of the material or process.\n\nMy guess would be that humans will always assign colors to objects, even if they don't have a detectable color. Because gray is the average of all colors, this is what we assign to an object that seems to reflect the whole visible spectrum equally. \n \n",
"Imagine taking a chunk of aluminium: it's grey because it reflects all wavelengths equally, but it's not very shiny if it hasn't been polished, because it reflects light in almost random directions. \n\nIf you polish it up a bit, it's still grey, but now it's shinier, because it reflects light mostly at the same angle that it came in.\n\nKeep polishing, and it eventually becomes a mirror.\n\nSo there's a continuum between a flat grey object and a mirror.\n\nI guess when your mind is contemplating the mirror as an object, and not what's reflected in it, it's forced to assign an appearance to it, and that appearance is \"shiny and without a noticeable colour of its own\", and that's basically a description of what we call \"silver coloured\".\n\nA side comment on \"silver\": even pure silver is slightly yellow, [as you can see from its spectrum.](_URL_5_) - see for example [this comparison](_URL_3_) of stainless steel next to sterling silver ([source](_URL_0_)).\n\nEdit - More detail from a reply I gave below:\n\nA piece of white paper reflects most of the light that falls on it in pretty much random directions. That means that it does actually take on the colours of things around it. [I just took a picture to demonstrate that.](_URL_1_)\n\nIf you have an incandescent lightbulb, so one with a hot filament, the light that it gives off is very yellow, and this is obvious if you take a picture with your camera set to \"sunlight\" white balance. [A piece of white paper will look yellow in that photograph](_URL_4_), but when you look at it in real life your brain still sees it as white, because it corrects for the ambient light.\n\nA chunk of unpolished aluminium also reflects all wavelengths pretty much equally, and in all directions. However, it only reflects a certain fraction of the incoming light. Same if you print \"grey\" on a laser printer. It's like white, only darker.\n\nI took another picture to show [what metal looks like compared to paper.](_URL_2_) You'll see that this metal, which isn't very highly polished, is pretty much grey unless there's something really close to it. But the shades of grey are interesting. Where it's facing incoming light, it reflects it better than the paper, so it's actually a brighter white, and where it's facing off towards the darker areas of the room, it's a darker grey. For this reason, compared to white paper, it appears overall a bit more grey than white. Interestingly, the paper is a bit bluer than the metal.",
"Mirrors are not silver colored, nor do they reflect light equally. [Most are a light green](_URL_0_) because of the wave length of light they reflect",
"That's a terrible video about exactly what the color of a mirror is.\n\nI mean, it explains the principles of color and wave length well.\n\nBut it's not the mirror that's green, it's the cheap glass in front of the mirror that's green!\n\nWhat color is mirror? Well, it's shiny and reflects nearly all light back equally.\n\nGenerally that means it's in the white to black spectrum. There's some energy loss upon reflection (image gets darker), so that means it's slightly grey.\n\nAnd if you took the raw material used to create the mirror film... it'd be aluminium in most cases, and thus a light-medium grey color!",
"A mirror emits mostly [*specular reflection* with a small amount of *diffuse reflection*](_URL_0_).\n\nIn most cases, there are so many light sources and objects to reflect light that the *specular reflection* dominates most of the light reflected towards our eyes. In this case, the mirror has no color and simply looks like the color of whatever light is being reflected at our eyes.\n\nThe only time we notice the color of a mirror as silver is when a portion of the mirror doesn't really have an opposing light source or object to reflect light towards our eyes (i.e. that portion of the mirror has very low specular reflection). In those cases, *diffuse reflection* will dominate, and diffuse, uniform reflection looks like a dim or imperfect white, which is silver.\n\nThe more imperfect a mirror, the more *diffuse reflection* you will get, and the more silver it will look. That's why *shiny* things that aren't necessarily mirrors -- knives, ball bearings, polished aluminum or stainless steel -- are easily recognized as appearing more silver.",
"It is because that is the color of light that the mirror subtracts from the light it received. \n\nFor a real eli5: imagine light is like a baseball pitch. The licht \"particle\" is the baseball. The batter is a surface. The ball is thrown from home plate, just as light is sent from a light bulb. The batter will then hit the baseball. Most of the time, the ball will go forwards, and sometimes it will go to the side, or miss completely. Light Does the exact same thing when it hits normal surfaces. A mirror would be just like thus scenario, except instead of a batter, we have a bouncy net. The net (that i just found) will throw the ball back in the same direction every time, but with less energy. This is what happens to light in a mirror. The light will come be reflected with slightly less energy than what you started, and that's the dullness that we perceive in a mirror image. ",
"Because silver is not a color. It's a description of reflective qualities. For instance if you take a piece of silver. or something \"silver colored\" into a room with only red light the item willbe reflective red color. \n\nAdditionally there is no light wavelength that matches \"silver color\".",
"You've copy pasted this from the top all time page of eli5. For pretend internet points. \n\nWhy?",
"What the heck happened in here?",
"Slip in language. In the middle of the 1800's they found a way to make one side of the glass reflective by using a liquid that would make silver bond to the glass in a process they call Silvering. Today we use other metals like aluminum since they are cheaper.",
"Silver pretty much means reflective... Its not a \"color\" as such.\n\nGet some silver, polish it, and there you get reflective \"silver colour\" and its just very reflective like a mirror.\n\nThe back of mirrors are literally coated with silver (or were, many years ago).",
"The real question is why do you think of silver as having a color as opposed to just being a reflective metal?",
"Originally mirrors were only for the very wealthy as they were just polished pieces of silver or bronze. As time went on silver won out for its more true color reflective properties. Eventually we found that you can make a much better mirror by coating one side of float glass with a silver compound. Thus we think of mirrors to be silver. However, mirrors could even be thought of as green. If you've ever put two mirrors in front of each other, you can see slightly smaller reflections going on forever between the mirrors, but you'll also notice it has a very green hue. This is due to the float glass I mentioned earlier. Float glass is made with iron and a compound called Rouge which gives the glass a greenish color. as that color is reflected back infinitely, you can see that other colors are absorbed and you're left with the green tint of the glass. ",
"What the hell happened at the top of this thread?",
"Silvering is the chemical process of coating glass with a reflective substance. When glass mirrors first gained widespread usage in Europe during the 16th century, most were silvered with an amalgam of tin and mercury,[1] but by the 19th century mirrors were commonly made through a process by which silver was coated onto a glass surface. Today, sputtering aluminium or other compounds[which?] are more often used for this purpose, although the process may either maintain the name \"silvering\" or be referred to as aluminising.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Queen Elizabeth I 's mirrors were coppper-coloured, because she didn't like what she saw. Versailles mirrors used mercury. 'Salon' mirrors are gold-coloured, because they're more flattering. Some instrumentation has 'half-silvered' mirrors - go figure.",
"I think it has a bit to deal with how they are displayed. Whether it's in a drawing or a picture you really want people to know its a mirror and not a window. So grey/white is usually the go to. From my understanding they are naturally a teal/green color. If you face two mirrors at each other the color at the end of that \"tunnel\" is greenish. This might not be the true color but that's at least how I see it. ",
"It used to be that the backing of mirrors was made out of silver. Now there are a number of alloys used. Silver is still included in some of them. ",
"I see a lot of great scientific approaches here but honestly for me it's more of a complex association we developed.\n\nThe TL;DR summary is: As a species we've come to associate \"blank\" and translucency with shades on the greyscale, because it is associated with neutral, not yet filled with color. \n\nMore accurately white is balanced with all colors reflected, but we don't need science to remind us that white is neutral; we've come to associate it instinctively. ex. think of an empty wine glass and it will most likely involve white (from default reflective light) and grey (because it is neutral). In truth, reflections depend on the light source, be it incandescent or colored neon or other color temperatures, but we associate \"default\" light source as white because 1) once again we think of white as our neutral default 2) bright, white sunlight—the light source all human kind is familiar with—helps drive (or may even gave birth to) that association. \n\nThere are barely anything in nature that have perfectly smooth, reflective properties. Mostly, such objects are man-made, such as smooth marbles, porcelain, glass, metals. Out of those objects, metal and glass are the closest objects to mirrors—usage and role-wise—because they are most associated with flat, reflective surfaces used on sides of vertical walls (ex. porcelain is used in things like dishware, marble is mainly construction material and usually has its own patterns, etc. while metal and glass are more often used on sides of buildings and walls). \n\nWe can't see through (all types of) mirrors, so appearance wise we associate them more to reflective metal than glass or plastic. Since metal is the closest material in reflective appearance and solidity, we may have assigned silver as mirror's default \"color,\" as it is also usually the default color we assign to polished aluminum and steel. After all, silver is simply a reflective grey material. \n\nWe've done a similar association with blue water because we think of the blue sky reflected in the sea: ie. we don't associate the object with what it truly is, but a definite, assignable association that most often (or instinctively) comes to mind, because humans like to have answers to everything."
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"https://bridgecitytatting.blogspot.de/2010/05/jons-foldover-bookmark-and-more-maille.html",
"http://imgur.com/gallery/nWYC8",
"http://imgur.com/gallery/mSRbi",
"https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fMtD30kx1vg/S_yPePP1GbI/AAAAAAAABPU/aPV6LrnEQmU/s1600/Stainless+vs+sterling.jpg",
"http://imgur.com/gallery/wLEpS",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Image-Metal-reflectance.png"
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"http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=67608"
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"http://idol.union.edu/malekis/CVision2003/MainPage/Course%20Content/Geometrical%20Optics/reflection2.gif"
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3ak1i2 | how do courts/police determine whether someone has claims has been raped is telling the truth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ak1i2/eli5_how_do_courtspolice_determine_whether/ | {
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"They look at the story, ask the same question (but in a different way) multiple times over the period of the interview, see whether it sounds like they're repeating a script, the story changes over time, or if it sounds like theyre actually recalling an event.\n\nThey look at any physical evidence (if there the person reports it right away), are there any bruises, rashes or scrapes, DNA tests, check under fingernails for skin taken off attackers.\n\nGenerally just rely on their training, experience and good old bullshit detector, which police are generally good at. \n\nAt a school they hold their own mini hearing (the fairness or amount to which they provide due process can vary wildly, in some cases the accused wasnt allowed to cross-examine or question their accuser for example), weigh up the evidence and if there is a [preponderance of guilt](_URL_0_) that they did it, then the person is expelled from the university, before any criminal procedings have concluded, so no report from the police as to whether the person was innocent. That's how it works in the US at least."
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"http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/preponderance-of-the-evidence-vs-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt.html"
]
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amlr3i | what is dna methylation and how can it relate to a child’s development? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/amlr3i/eli5_what_is_dna_methylation_and_how_can_it/ | {
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"Your DNA code is actually \"read\" and turn into protein which is your building blocks. Each gene encodes for a unique protein. Methylation on DNA prevents some molecules to interact with DNA and reading does not occur, thus no protein product. In embryonic development some genes are turned on/off by this DNA methylation event to control the amount of specific proteins at certain times of the development. This phenomenon is called epigenetics. ",
"Your DNA is read by transcription factors-little machines that ride along it and read it letter by letter. The thing is, if we cramp together tons of letters at one point, it becomes hard for the machines to look in and read that sentence. That’s what methylation does; it stops your DNA being read at a certain point. So the machines can hop over that point and go to the next part where it isn’t cramped. By methylating or demethylating DNA, your body can decide what genes get read and what don’t, then deciding a person’s traits.",
" \n\n## What is DNA Methylation?\n\n The DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism used by cells to control gene expression. A number of mechanisms exist to control gene expression in eukaryotes, but DNA methylation is a commonly used epigenetic signaling tool that can fix genes in the “off” position.\n\nDNA methylation is very vital to a number of cellular processes such as embryonic development, X-chromosome inactivation, genomic imprinting, gene suppression, carcinogenesis and chromosome stability. It also enables the expression of retroviral genes to be suppressed, along with other potentially dangerous sequences of DNA that have entered and may damage the host. Another important purpose of DNA methylation is the formation of the chromatin structure, which enables a single cell to grow into a complex multicellular organism made up of different tissues and organs.\n\nDNA contains combinations of four nucleotides which include cytosine, guanine, thymine and adenine. DNA methylation refers to the addition of a methyl (CH3) group to the DNA strand itself, often to the fifth carbon atom of a cytosine ring. This conversion of cytosine bases to 5-methylcytosine is catalysed by DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs). These modified cytosine residues usually lie next to a guanine base (CpG methylation) and the result is two methylated cytosines positioned diagonally to each other on opposite strands of DNA.\n\n \n\n## How can it relate to a child’s development?\n\n1. Insofar as the environment affects your genes, it may subsequently affect your offspring’s genes. Smoking, for example, has a measurable effect on your and your child’s genetics. So does addiction to certain drugs. Certain substances and activities can cause mutations which may or may not be heritable depending on the circumstances.\n2. If you got “ripped,” you had a genetic capacity for that already. Body types are a combination of environmental and genetic factors. This is not entirely understood, but we know some people have to work much harder than others to maintain “desirable” body types, and a “desirable” body type may not be possible for everyone. If you get “ripped,” that body type is possible for you and may be possible for your offspring (depending on the other parent).\n3. Environmental factors can affect DNA methylation patterns and do so for generations. Descendants of Holocaust survivors, for instance, are more likely to carry methylation patterns which help in surviving famine and extreme stress. However, this effect is far stronger on the maternal side. Almost all of birth methylation patterning is believed to be inherited from the mother and maternal grandmother. So, if you’re a male, I wouldn’t count on this effect.\n\n & #x200B;"
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3trmjp | why is the swastika taboo but the hammer and sickle isn't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3trmjp/eli5_why_is_the_swastika_taboo_but_the_hammer_and/ | {
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"Swastika is taboo because Germany was conquered by the US and the population was rededucated so that Germans are the ones who prosecute the symbol the most today. Russia was never conquered so theit many people who still openly sympathise with the old Soviet government. "
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20eyz4 | when i try to swallow gum, what's the reflex that is stopping me? is it my gag reflex? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20eyz4/eli5_when_i_try_to_swallow_gum_whats_the_reflex/ | {
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"Yes its your gag reflex.\r\rIt attempts to identify non food objects from size and texture and then tries to eject any it sees as foreign.\r\rAs gum is not broken down in the mouth by your teeth and is of a plasticy texture it stands a good chance of triggering your gag reflex.\r\rSome peoples gag reflex are more accute than others.\r\r"
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2p0tc9 | why is the punishment of a crime based on the outcome of the action rather than the decision? | One example would be attempted murder vs murder. In both situations, the same decision was made but the punishment is less if you're "lucky" enough that your victim survives.
Another example is assault. The same person could throw the exact same punch to two different people. Person A gets a bloody nose but is fine otherwise. Person B goes unconscious and slams their head into the pavement causing brain damage. Case A is a light sentence, where Case B will be a very serious charge. But again, the same decision was made in both.
It seems luck, or randomness, is introduced in many circumstances with this approach. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p0tc9/eli5_why_is_the_punishment_of_a_crime_based_on/ | {
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"What would you suggest as an alternative?\n\n - Everything being punished as if the worst possible outcome occurred? I.e. punching someone is results in life imprisonment even if they had a bloody nose.\n\n - Or everything being punished as if the best possible outcome occurred? I.e. punching someone is punished with a $50 fine even if they died. \n\n\n\n\n\n",
"The punishment was first based on the degree of harm that actually occurred. Inchoate crimes, or crimes based on attempt, came much later as a means of punishing unsuccessful attempts where someone wouldn't ordinarily be punished because the actual harm intended didn't actually occur. \n\nHowever, the degree of punishment cannot fairly rise to the level normally given for the harm if the harm didn't actually occur. Therefore, you want to give them some punishment for trying, but it'd be unfair to convict someone of murder if no murder actually happened.",
"For one thing, proving intention is hard. But yes an interesting system might be to work it into the law somehow. I think the judge and jury currently do this, but giving them more discretion in thaw would probably not be a bad thing.",
"It's actually both. The law punishes you both for the harm you caused, as well as for your intent to cause harm (or your intent to be negligent leading to harm, etc.). Sometimes, as with premeditated murder, your intent actually increases the seriousness of the crime (kill someone in a fit of anger, it's murder 2, plan it out beforehand and it's murder 1). \n\nThe terms in common law are the *[actus reus](_URL_1_)*, which is the act itself and its circumstances deemed to be a crime (your actions caused the death of a person). \n\nThen there is *[mens rea](_URL_0_)*, or the mental element, your intentions regarding what happened (you planned to kill the person by buying a gun and waiting in the bushes).",
"Having a weaker sentence for failure discourages continuation. If you hit a guy once, why not beat the shit out of him? You've already committed assault.",
"what jetpacksforall says is correct but I don't think is the principle that really addresses the question. Criminal punishment has several purposes, as it is a response to several impulses of society.\n\n* rehabilitation: show this person a bunch of videos and they will be sure to always plan ahead to drive sober or take a cab.\n\n* removal: this person is dangerous; take them away so they cannot hurt people in the future\n\n* deterrent: make an example of this person so others don't do the same thing.\n\n* retribution: make things feel more equal by making this person suffer according to the suffering they have caused.\n\n* retaliation: fuck this fucking fucker in the ass with a broken broom handle I hope they die screaming in pain for what they did.\n\nobviously, some of these impulses are more palatable than others, but when there is no harm caused, there is no impulse toward retribution or retaliation. Therefore, less punishment.\n\nThese and other principles of law are explained by a former NYC prosecutor in [the illustrated guide to the law](_URL_4_).\n\n[the section I'm summarizing](_URL_3_)\n\n[wiretaps](_URL_0_)\n\n[entrapment](_URL_1_)\n\n[self-defense](_URL_5_)\n\n[Interrogation](_URL_2_)\n\n"
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actus_reus"
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"http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=1704",
"http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=633",
"http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=2282",
"http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=133",
"http://lawcomic.net/guide/?page_id=5",
"http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=864"
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3as2yj | why is an adult male's attraction to adolescent girls considered socially taboo in western societies despite the fact that these girls are at their height in terms of attractiveness and fertility? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3as2yj/eli5_why_is_an_adult_males_attraction_to/ | {
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"It's a societal norm. But it's not based on nothing. The brain of adolescents has not developed fully, so they are not capable of the same kind of decision making as adults. An adult can easily take advantage of that. ",
"Basically it's because the disparity in maturity leads to a power imbalance in the relationship where the adult men would take advantage of the younger woman, which we find morally unacceptable in a society that holds romantic love between equals as the ideal form of relationship.",
"Because we don't live in a society that needs girls reproducing at such an early age anymore. Girls evolved that kind of pubescence because our ancestors needed girls to be having babies as quick as possible. They'd have like 5 kids just so 2 would live.\n\nNowadays girls are waiting longer and longer to have kids.",
"In terms of height of fertility, women are actually more prone to having healthy babies between ages 25 and 35. Teenagers are far more prone to giving birth to babies with birth defects, and teenaged mothers are more likely to have health complications themselves. The ideal range generally seems to be about 25-30, but a woman in the 30-35 range is still going to have healthier babies than women under 25. \n\nThe idea that teenagers are at their height of fertility is false.\n\nAs for attractiveness, that's an aesthetic preference, and is a different discussion altogether.",
"I would like to add on to u/tibby_throwaway and say that adolescent females are not in their most fertile state because the typical woman is not finished developing until they have reached the age of 16-17, but some continue until they are 20 or 21. (and 25 for brain development). When a female gives birth in their younger years, their body will take the nutrients and energy it was using to develop her body and put those towards the new life. She stops growing while pregnant (and typically begin to grow again once she has had the child). Having a child when you're not fully developed yourself is dangerous and they are more likely to have complications during pregnancy and delivery along with birth defects. So, u/tibby_throwaway was correct. They are not most fertile during those years.",
"Most important reason is that teenagers are not emotionally or mentally mature. While they are able to make their own decisions, society has implemented an age of consent because science has proven this.",
"Their height??? Did you really just say that? Where do you live to have such an idea?"
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1sa2z3 | how has the sat and act become such an influential part of the american college process? | I know they are made to be "standardized" as to be able to compare every student fairly, but it has really failed because the test is about knowing how to take the test, not how smart/educated/motivated you are. So how have they become so influential? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sa2z3/eli5_how_has_the_sat_and_act_become_such_an/ | {
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" > but it has really failed because the test is about knowing how to take the test, not how smart/educated/motivated you are\n\nOnly partly. You can't get a 2400 just by \"knowing how to take the test\", and you'll still do better than average if you're smart/educated/motivated and don't do any test prep. (Not to mention, if you were truly motivated, you'd do some test prep.) Yes, you can learn strategies that will improve your score, but at the end of the day, you need to know the answers, so those improvements can only do so much.\n\nIt comes down to, what's the alternative?",
"High schools have different grading standards and there is large variation in what a \"4.0\" *means* across schools even in the same state, much less across states.\n\nThe SAT and ACT are designed to provide standardized tests, so that one dimension of the college admissions process is entirely nationally uniform.\n\nA more cynical person would answer some combination of \"money\" and \"influence\" and some sort of idea that the colleges and high schools are in ETS' pocket, but I leave such speculation to more creative minds.",
"While standardized testing is not an accurate, holistic measure of intelligence, it can serve to evaluate a student's overall readiness for college. Especially on the SAT, students' abilities to quickly solve problems based on what they've been learning all along is tested.\n\nA common argument against tests like the SAT and ACT, and one that you pointed out, is that they can be taught and practiced for. While true, someone who is more motivated will actually put in the time to practice. Speaking from personal experience, I increased my score this year, from March to October, by over 300 points just by studying. Some of my peers who take the same rigor of classes in school, were less motivated, didn't put in the time to study, and weren't able to increase their scores.\n\nAnd above all, each high school has there own way to measuring achievement. At some schools, a grade of 90% or greater is awarded a 4.0 towards a student's GPA, and a graduating class may have dozens of valedictorians. When a college gets an application for a student with a 4.0 GPA and who is ranked first in their class, it helps if there is a high SAT score to match that status. A lower score wouldn't be a deal breaker at most schools, in that case, but the situation could raise some eyebrows."
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31smxz | why do companies pay contractors twice as much to do the same job as regular employees? | I'm currently working fulltime for a large insurance company. My annual salary is 44k. My company also hire a group of contractors who do the exact same job as mine and they get paid 100k plus, or more accurately $500 a day. So a lot my fellow co-workers would work for my company for a few years, quit, and then come back as contractors. I'm thinking of doing the same. What's the rationale behind this? Why can't companies just hire more full time employees?
EDIT: Few of you mentioned benefits, but the benefits are not even that great. I get 13 vacation days a year and $1200 in 401k matching. IDK about health insurance since I'm still on my parent 's health plan. But I don't think that's enough to justify the double in pay.
As far as job stability goes, my company can fire me any time for any reason, so how it is different from being a contractor? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31smxz/eli5_why_do_companies_pay_contractors_twice_as/ | {
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"Do you have benefits? If so, those benefits cost your company money that they don't have to pay contractors. The contractors can also be fired more easily and have fewer workplace rights than full-time employees.",
"Benefits, termination, things of that nature.\n\nBasically, as a contractor they don't have to pay anything, and can easily dismiss you at a moment's notice (in theory). \nMost places they could do that anyhow, but it tends to not work out that way - so it's just a paper trick to reduce liability.",
"Throwaway for obvious reasons. (NB. I am in the UK not the US so some of this may not apply.)\n\nThis may be a sign that you haven’t negotiated your benefits package hard enough (although I understand that the US is apparently much tougher than Europe).\n\nWhen I was last employed full-time (10 years ago) my salary was only £65k per year - but I had six months notice period, significant contributions by the company to a private pension scheme, private health care (not essential here but nice if you bust your knee in a complicated way), a very attractive share scheme, 25 days holiday per year and extensive training to improve my skills. When I was eventually required to leave I got the 6 months pay-off but negotiated immediate departure. Happy days.\n\nHowever, I would absolutely agree that (provided your skills and experience are strong enough and you are in the right sector) contracting is always financially advantageous in terms of pure income.\n\nWhen I went into contracting I started at £600 pd. If you assume 225 working days per year, then that equates to £135k - and you pay significantly less tax on that gross if you work through a UK limited company than you would as an employee. I don’t currently pay into a pension or private health care - which I should - because I hate to see the money go out.\n\nAs the joke goes: if you ever ask a contractor if they have any regrets about going contracting, they will always say “Yes, I wish I’d done it years ago”.\n\nMost people fixate on the idea of job security - but as stated by someone else, that is mostly a facade. I’ve had contracts that lasted 4 years - longer than some of my permanent roles. However, last year I had a motorcycle accident and some personal family problems and only worked 4 months out of 12. If I hadn’t had a decent war chest built up I would have been screwed. I have dependents. \n\nI would say the main real difference between contract and permanent is the impact on your “career”. When you are a permanent member of staff, your main focus is on improving yourself and gaining promotion etc. I found this political and depressing - but at least my employer had a responsibility to train and develop me.\n\nWhen I went contracting, I kind of felt like I was was cashing in my chips and saying “This is me now - I’m just going to get paid for doing this for the rest of my days.” Which was actually fine, as I like what I do and don’t want to take on more responsibility. I just want to be paid well for doing the thing I do. Obviously I have strengthened my CV considerably over the past 10 years of contracting, but nothing that would \"take me to the next level\" - it just makes it easier to get roles of the type I do due to my greater experience.\n\nI would say use your position in a company to gain as much experience, training and development as you can, and once you’ve reached a level you are moderately happy with, then it’s time to go contracting.\n\nAnd don’t forget to build that war chest."
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8ii4ae | why can't hackers just hack into credit bureaus and erase debts/student loans? what would happen if everyone in the world had their debts erased? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ii4ae/eli5_why_cant_hackers_just_hack_into_credit/ | {
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"Ever watched Mr. Robot? It explores exactly this, including a number of likely reasons why it hasn't been accomplished.\n\nI'm sure it's been attempted many times; so far, the closest anyone's come to succeeding is the Equifax breach, which was simpler for the attackers and much more lucrative.",
"Well for starters, the credit bureaus don’t own the debt. They are not lenders. The lenders report to the credit bureaus when someone is not paying on time. \n\nBut let’s just say someone did hack the credit bureaus and change your credit score. The next time you are late paying your student loan, the company that loaned you the money is going to report you being delinquent, which will bring down your credit score. ",
"Any financial institution worth their salt is going to have multiple backups, some offline, of their account records. Screwing with the accounts database would definitely cause some chaos, but it would be recovered from relatively quickly. ",
"Why would any hackers want to? Unless they stand to profit from it in some way, most hackers aren't interested.\n\nThat aside, the worst that would happen is that someone would have to restore from backups. Whichever company as attacked would probably lose a lot of money on lost productivity and recovery costs, but that's about it. Also a lot of negative PR dealing with the fallout of the attack. Maybe someone would lose their job (their IT people who failed to prevent such a wide reaching attack would be first on the chopping block)\n\nNow, I know you said elsewhere that someone needs to get around that, but I don't think you understand just what proper backups entail for financial institutions. The basic setup is that everything is saved to a physical storage medium of some sort on a regular basis that is then carted away in trucks to a secure location and put in storage. At worst, you might lose a financial institution a week's worth of record changes if you were to somehow infect every single computer and perform a simultaneous mass wipe. - and, even then, you'd likely end up not even losing them that, as those transactions that are less than a week old often will be still in hard copy somewhere on the planet (all that paper work you had to fill out in triplicate) and just need to be re-entered in to the system once it is restored from backup. Some financial institutions just have all the records in hard copy form in the first place, and the electronically stored versions are just for ease of access.",
"If anyone does figure this out please plesse please erase my debt and make my credit score better. I really want to afford a new truck amd I cannot get approved because my credit is to low. 😖"
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1whxfo | how does communism work? if everyone is equal, leaders couldn't exist. | Leaders couldn't exist and if people with more demanding jobs where paid equally to others, why should the bother? Also, they couldn't have bosses either 'cause everyone *has* to be equal. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1whxfo/eli5_how_does_communism_work_if_everyone_is_equal/ | {
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"Under true communism there wouldn't be leaders. The country's that are/were generally referred to as \"communist\" (e.g. the USSR) were actually self-described as \"socialist\" or \"people's republics\". They never claimed to be communist, but believed that socialism would lead them, eventually, to communism. The USSR had the Communist Party, but it claimed that it would disappear once true communism was established.\n\n > if people with more demanding jobs where paid equally to others, why should the bother?\n\nThe ideology states that people will work purely for the love of work, not for financial reward. Marx claimed that, for Communism to succeed, a society would have to be industrialised first - so the most demanding of jobs would be mechanised.",
"Communism implies that society evolves to a new stage. In that stage people agree to make good decisions about their consumption and production without having to have someone tell them what to do and how to do it. Essentially, it assumes a radical change in human nature is required to make it work.\n\nThink about how things operate in your household. You don't eat all the food, keep all the blankets, use all the gas in the car, monopolize the TV, etc. Instead, you share those resources with the people you live with. You don't use money to decide how these resources are allocated - you have a social compact. When things need to be replaced you take some responsibility for replacing them. When a resource is limited you work out an agreement for how to share it. This is the ideal that Communism would enshrine as the daily lives for every person.\n\nIt is probably impossible without unlimited free energy. But if there was unlimited free energy, you might get very Communistic social structures. Star Trek, for example, is a Communist ideal. People do what they want to be productive, consume what they need without being jerks, and a meritocracy determines the hierarchy of authority. But they have limitless free energy and the wealth of entire solar systems to fund their lifestyles. We just have energy that has a real cost and the resources of one overpopulated planet.",
"Funny piece of interesting history: for a brief period after the Bolshevik Revolution the Soviet army [had no ranks](_URL_0_) in keeping with a strict reading of Marx."
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jsgxn | how lasers work. | I'm a physics major, so I'd like to say I have a pretty good handle how lasers (solid state or otherwise) produce their spiffy coherent light, but when people ask me I often see them getting lost when I start mentioning sciency terms. So, Lasers! Explain it like I'm five :) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jsgxn/eli5_how_lasers_work/ | {
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"Like you're five: Normal light is a lot like making popcorn without the plastic shield - it goes everywhere and bounces and makes a huge mess! A laser focuses the light in the same way that the plastic thing on the popcorn popper does, it gets it all going in the same direction. Focusing it like this means that we don't waste popcorn, and it all goes into the bowl. With lasers, the focusing means that all the energy we are using can get focused into one spot, so it's both neater and more powerful then unfocused light.",
"Can you explain the sciency version?",
"Get two mirrors and set them up facing each other. See the curved tunnel? (Really try this, it's too cool.)\n\nIf you can hold the mirrors perfectly parallel, then the tunnel will straighten out and become infinitely long! But notice that it becomes darker and darker the deeper you go. This is because mirrors aren't perfectly reflective, so some light is lost every time it bounces. (Also the light must travel through the mirror glass, so deep in the tunnel everything might look greenish or bluish, just like looking through many feet thick of glass.\n\nOK, instead of absorbing light, what if the glass could make the light *brighter*? In that case the deeper parts of the \"infinite tunnel\" would appear bright rather than dark. And the center of the tunnel would look infinitely bright, like a blazing star or like an arc welder.\n\nThat's your basic laser.\n\nOh, also if one of the mirrors lets a bit of light through, then you won't have to glance over the edge of one mirror in order to see the tunnel.\n\nLaser = those stupid disco \"infinite tunnel\" devices bought from Spencer Gifts. But add a bit of gain.\n",
"Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation? Easy, but only if you ignore photons and concentrate on the EM wave version.\n\nSuppose you're out on a lake and some waves are going by. Suppose your boat is full of nice big rocks. OK, wait for the peak of a wave to pass, then drop a huge rock into the water. Big splash, and the ripples from your rock will make the existing wave slightly larger ...but only in one direction. Most of your ripples will go off in the wrong direction. But the part that goes in the same direction as the existing wave ...those ripples add to the existing wave. One little part of the existing wave is now higher.\n\nOK, now dump lots of rocks, one at a time. And time each splash so they make ripples which add to the existing waves passing by. This will actually form a strong \"beam\" of waves which follows the existing waves.\n\nHmmm, someone should make an animated GIF.\n",
"I'm currently getting my PhD in optical and photonics engineeering.\n\nSo the more technical part: Lasers work by taking an active medium (some cool semiconductor usually), placing it in between two mirrors with reflectivity of 1 and less than 1 respectively, while pumping energy either optically or electrically that induces population inversion and allows for monochromatic and coherent light.\n\nNow to dumb it down: Take a certain type of material thats a semiconductor. Now this semiconductor is cut in a really cool way that the atoms line up in a distinct manner. Doing this tunes the semiconductor so that we can make population inversion. Whats population inversion you say? Its when all the electrons fall from a high energy level to a low energy level. To do this we take our nicely cut semiconductor and throw a ton of energy at it by shining light on it or attaching wires and applying a voltage. We do this while it sits in between two mirrors of high reflectivity that we call a cavity. The cavity has a length that helps the light that comes from our cool semiconductor material to constructively interfere with itself so that its really bright. \n\nNow one side note. To get electrons of the semiconductor to fall from a high level to a low level we have to first bring it to a high level of energy. Thats where the shining of light on it or applying a voltage comes in. Its what we call population inversion. You have usually 4 levels. The Ground (0) level is where you have no energy. The Highest level (3) is where it goes to right after the ground level. Then you have the level Right Below the Top level (2), then you have the level underneath that one (1) which is really close to the Ground level. The electrons go to the TOP, then to the one below it, they chill there for a bit, then they all drop down at almost the same time to the next level, then back to ground. When the all drop together, they lose energy, cuz they are dropping in a level. This releases a photon(s). \n\nThink of it as rain. You heat up the ocean (0), water evaporates and goes up really high (3). Then it starts to condense into clouds (2) and all of the sudden it rains (think of as photons shooting out) on to the land (1) and then goes back to the ocean. That is exactly how population inversion works and is the basis for all lasers.\n\nTLDR: Take some electrons, move them up to a high energy state, drop them like no other, and light comes out. Put that shit in the middle of two mirrors, reflects back and forth, and then bam! You got a lot of light",
"Like you're five: Normal light is a lot like making popcorn without the plastic shield - it goes everywhere and bounces and makes a huge mess! A laser focuses the light in the same way that the plastic thing on the popcorn popper does, it gets it all going in the same direction. Focusing it like this means that we don't waste popcorn, and it all goes into the bowl. With lasers, the focusing means that all the energy we are using can get focused into one spot, so it's both neater and more powerful then unfocused light.",
"Can you explain the sciency version?",
"Get two mirrors and set them up facing each other. See the curved tunnel? (Really try this, it's too cool.)\n\nIf you can hold the mirrors perfectly parallel, then the tunnel will straighten out and become infinitely long! But notice that it becomes darker and darker the deeper you go. This is because mirrors aren't perfectly reflective, so some light is lost every time it bounces. (Also the light must travel through the mirror glass, so deep in the tunnel everything might look greenish or bluish, just like looking through many feet thick of glass.\n\nOK, instead of absorbing light, what if the glass could make the light *brighter*? In that case the deeper parts of the \"infinite tunnel\" would appear bright rather than dark. And the center of the tunnel would look infinitely bright, like a blazing star or like an arc welder.\n\nThat's your basic laser.\n\nOh, also if one of the mirrors lets a bit of light through, then you won't have to glance over the edge of one mirror in order to see the tunnel.\n\nLaser = those stupid disco \"infinite tunnel\" devices bought from Spencer Gifts. But add a bit of gain.\n",
"Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation? Easy, but only if you ignore photons and concentrate on the EM wave version.\n\nSuppose you're out on a lake and some waves are going by. Suppose your boat is full of nice big rocks. OK, wait for the peak of a wave to pass, then drop a huge rock into the water. Big splash, and the ripples from your rock will make the existing wave slightly larger ...but only in one direction. Most of your ripples will go off in the wrong direction. But the part that goes in the same direction as the existing wave ...those ripples add to the existing wave. One little part of the existing wave is now higher.\n\nOK, now dump lots of rocks, one at a time. And time each splash so they make ripples which add to the existing waves passing by. This will actually form a strong \"beam\" of waves which follows the existing waves.\n\nHmmm, someone should make an animated GIF.\n",
"I'm currently getting my PhD in optical and photonics engineeering.\n\nSo the more technical part: Lasers work by taking an active medium (some cool semiconductor usually), placing it in between two mirrors with reflectivity of 1 and less than 1 respectively, while pumping energy either optically or electrically that induces population inversion and allows for monochromatic and coherent light.\n\nNow to dumb it down: Take a certain type of material thats a semiconductor. Now this semiconductor is cut in a really cool way that the atoms line up in a distinct manner. Doing this tunes the semiconductor so that we can make population inversion. Whats population inversion you say? Its when all the electrons fall from a high energy level to a low energy level. To do this we take our nicely cut semiconductor and throw a ton of energy at it by shining light on it or attaching wires and applying a voltage. We do this while it sits in between two mirrors of high reflectivity that we call a cavity. The cavity has a length that helps the light that comes from our cool semiconductor material to constructively interfere with itself so that its really bright. \n\nNow one side note. To get electrons of the semiconductor to fall from a high level to a low level we have to first bring it to a high level of energy. Thats where the shining of light on it or applying a voltage comes in. Its what we call population inversion. You have usually 4 levels. The Ground (0) level is where you have no energy. The Highest level (3) is where it goes to right after the ground level. Then you have the level Right Below the Top level (2), then you have the level underneath that one (1) which is really close to the Ground level. The electrons go to the TOP, then to the one below it, they chill there for a bit, then they all drop down at almost the same time to the next level, then back to ground. When the all drop together, they lose energy, cuz they are dropping in a level. This releases a photon(s). \n\nThink of it as rain. You heat up the ocean (0), water evaporates and goes up really high (3). Then it starts to condense into clouds (2) and all of the sudden it rains (think of as photons shooting out) on to the land (1) and then goes back to the ocean. That is exactly how population inversion works and is the basis for all lasers.\n\nTLDR: Take some electrons, move them up to a high energy state, drop them like no other, and light comes out. Put that shit in the middle of two mirrors, reflects back and forth, and then bam! You got a lot of light"
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1u311v | how do icebreakers work? | With the new recently about a ship being stuck in the ice, and three "Icebreaker" ships being sent to rescue it, one is now also stuck.
How do Icebreaker ships work, and what are their limitations? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u311v/eli5_how_do_icebreakers_work/ | {
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"Their hull, especially the bow (front) is made much thicker and heavier than normal and their engine/s are more powerful than you would expect on a craft of that size.\n\nIn very thin ice (1m ish) they bash through it. \n\nAs the ice gets thicker the bow rides up it and the weight of the ship crushes down and cracks it.\n\nDifferent ice breakers have their own limit. Unfortunately, the ship stranded in the arctic is in ice just beyond the capabilities of the ice breakers sent to help.",
"Some are just strong boats with powerful engines. Others (the heavy-duty ones) have special hull shapes, and another breaking strategy. \nLook at the shape of their hull. [here](_URL_1_) for example.\nTheir front is slanted, and they have powerful engines. The engines drive the ship on top of the ice, and the weight of the ship crushes the ice. \nLook [here](_URL_0_) ofr a video, starting at one minute you can see the ship pushing the ice down, breaking it in big chuncks.",
"There is a modern marvels ( history channel I believe) on ice, icebreaking ships etc. Very informative. ",
"If you use one that is good enough you might get laid."
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101egz | what the heck is a mole exactly? | edit: I apologize for not specifying. I meant mole as pertaining to chemistry. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/101egz/eli5_what_the_heck_is_a_mole_exactly/ | {
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"Moles occur when cells in the skin grow in a cluster instead of being spread throughout the skin. These cells are called melanocytes, and they make the pigment that gives skin its natural color. Moles may darken after exposure to the sun, during the teen years, and during pregnancy.",
"Assuming you mean in science, \"mole\" is sort of the same concept as \"dozen\" -- it indicates an amount.\n\n- Dozen: 12 \"things\"\n- Mole: 6.022 x 10^23 \"things\". \n\nNow, we almost always make those \"things\" atoms or molecules, but in principle it can be anything that...it would ever make sense to have 10^23 of.",
"In chemistry, a mole refers to a specific number of atoms, or molecules. (Specifically 6.022x10^23, also called Avogadro's number). This number is used in determining an element's *molar mass*. If you take a look at a [periodic table](_URL_0_), you can see some numbers beneath the atomic symbols (letters). These numbers are also related to the molar mass. For example, if you look at hydrogen (H), beneath it you will see the number 1.00794. This means that one mole (6.022x10^23 atoms) of hydrogen will weigh about 1.00794 grams (or about as much as a postage stamp. \nThis gives chemists an easy way to go between the kind of measurements they would use in a lab (grams) and the kind of measurements they would use when they are doing chemistry on paper (moles). "
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109q4u | on a biological level, why do i feel compelled to check reddit or facebook whenever i sit down by a computer or walk into my room(where the computer is located.) bonus: how do i break this habit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/109q4u/eli5_on_a_biological_level_why_do_i_feel/ | {
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"Maybe start by not posting any questions on Reddit? I feel your pain though...",
"There isn't a biological aspect to that. You're talking about something that's purely behavioral.\n\nAnd you already answered your own question: You made it a habit. Habits are patterns of behavior that we carry out regularly until we start doing them without conscious intent.\n\nIf you want to break a habit, simply interrupt yourself whenever you carry out the habitual action. Over time, it will cease to be a habit.\n\n(That's how habits are distinct from addictions. Additions are have both physiological and psychological components, and sometimes *can't* be broken cognitively. Habits, though, are just psychological, and they're totally under your control.)"
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2gtvhf | how does your ping, download speed, and upload speed come together to create your internet experience. | Currently I have 9 ping and 100 download/239 upload speeds. I don't understand why I still have to wait for some videos to buffer before watching them. My previous was set up was 1.5/14/5 yet it felt almost the same in terms of speed.
Edit: I forgot the question mark in title | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gtvhf/eli5how_does_your_ping_download_speed_and_upload/ | {
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"Google limits the buffer length for videos, since a lot of people let videos buffer just to close the tab, which probably costs them a lot of money / bandwidth. On top of that, a lot of ISPs are throttling Youtube due to the amount of bandwidth it causes in their networks. ",
"Download is the maximum speed that you will receive data, like videos, from sites on the internet. For large files this is the most important quantity.\n\nUpload is the maximum speed that you will be able to send data. For most people this isn't terribly important since you aren't uploading a lot of files. It would affect things like the speed at which you can attach a file to an email.\n\nPing is going to vary from site to site. It's essentially how long it takes between when you ask for data from a website and when it can start to reply, and it correlates pretty closely with geographic distance to the server. For the most part you can ignore ping, but if you're playing a fast-paced game then it starts to be important.\n\nIt's important to realize that these speeds are the maximum that you will see, but you could see lower. It's quite possible that the server that you're trying to download things from is overloaded and can't keep up with everyone at once. If the server can only send you data at 10 MBit/s then it doesn't matter if your home connection will let you download at 100 MBit/s, the same way that attaching a firehose to your kitchen sink doesn't make the water come out any faster. ",
"Ok. You don't appear to have gotten an answer. So. An ELI5.\nWe'll treat it like 2 people talking. I'll go with an overview, and then explain it. \nSo lets go with Upload Speed. Upload is you talking out. (Your computer requesting information). Slow upload means you ask for a site by saying \"I... Would... Like... To... Browse.... Reddit\" Fast upload would be \"I would like to browse reddit.\" \nNow Download. Download is the site talking to you. (Site sending you information). Slow download: \"Here... Is... New...\" Fast download: \"Here is new\". \nPing. Ping is the delay in 1 instruction getting either direction. So lets just assume 'fast connections' but with different pings. \nSlow Ping: \"I would like to browse reddit.\" ... ... ... ... \"Here is new\" \nFast Ping: \"I would like to browse reddit.\" \"Here is new.\" \nSo. For gaming and the like, download/upload speed is not too much a problem. Programmers optimize their games so it's little information. Instead of long sentences it will be just \"Here\". \"There\". \"Hit\". \"Miss\". So upload and download is less critical. But PING is a problem. This is you trying to send an instruction and there being a delay between you sending it, and them receiving it. \nHowever, if you are trying to download/upload large things. (Downloading Wasteland 2 which is 8 gig and was just released) Download is a big difference here. Ping is not as important. You've already sent the instruction and they've acknowledged it. Now it's just sending data to you. (ELI5. There is more, but this is enough). So it spews data at you. Slow ping has little impact. Big download helps. \nUpload is the other way around. You're uploading that video to youtube which is going to make you famous. It's big. More upload will get it online faster. Ping and download not important. \nNow for your standard viewing. \nPing is that delay between you clicking a link and the site recognizing the click. Download is how fast the cat gif downloads. Upload is how quick your new cat gif gets sent to reddit for sweet, sweet karma."
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3izku3 | does having dark skin and/or a serious tan make the sun feel warmer? | Vegas | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3izku3/eli5_does_having_dark_skin_andor_a_serious_tan/ | {
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"Yes. The dark pigment absorbs light, meaning the energy stored in light is transformed into heat. "
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1rawdq | the way that credit works: from cards; to loans; to aprs | Please and thank you. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rawdq/eli5_the_way_that_credit_works_from_cards_to/ | {
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"lets start with the basics.\n\na credit card is basically a standing agreement that you can be loaned X amount at any one time, and you can use it anywhere, and if you pay it off you can use it again. a loan is an agreement that you can borrow x amount of money once. an APR stands for annual percentage rate and is the amount of interest you have to pay on a loan over the course of a year.\n\nyou use a credit card like you do a debit card, for any purchases you want to make. if you pay off your purchases at the end of the month then the credit card company will waive the interest that would be due that month. if you don't pay off your purchases, then you're responsible for paying the interest accrued over the month.\n\nthere are a couple types of loans, those would be secured and unsecured loans. a mortgage or car note are examples of secured loans, you're using the money to purchase an item that can be repoed by the bank if you don't pay on your loan. unsecured loans are usually called personal loans and are for smaller amounts. lets say you need 5k for repairs on your home, you may be able to get the loan from your bank just because of your credit history. there's no collateral, so if you default(don't pay), the bank is out that money. both secured and unsecured loans also have an interest rate that you pay, so at the end of the loan you may have borrowed 10k, but with interest you're actually paying back 11k to the bank.\n\nneed any more info? let me know."
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78lnwg | why are so many diseases that were harmless to animals so dangerous when they first moved to people? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/78lnwg/eli5why_are_so_many_diseases_that_were_harmless/ | {
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"There are a many answers to this, and it varies by animal and disease-causing organism. I'll give a few basic ones, from which everything is derived:\n\n1. In many cases it can hurt them, but not as bad if at all. The organism relies on the animal to survive, and has evolved over time to not totally kill them. The animal has also adapted to the bacteria via early exposure. Mammals, for example, will have received antibodies from the mother which will help until the baby's immune system kicks in.\n\n2. Isolation. The organism may only survive on the animal in a specific place, for example the skin. Along with #1, if the organism tries spreading somewhere else, the animal's immune system will kill it. This means it will happily carry a dangerous organism and let it survive, because it is killed or isolated from areas where it could cause harm\n\nWhen a human is exposed to one of these, our immune system is entirely unprepared. The organism may act in a way we're especially vulnerable to (compared to the host), and we have no existing antibodies for it. By the time the body can mount an adequate immune response, it's possible that the organism has spread wildly.\n\nThis also happens between human populations. Europeans once struggled with small-pox, but through medicine and certain exposures became immune. We continued to co-exist with animals that carried small-pox and perhaps even had it on our skin. When Europeans came to America, small-pox wreaked havoc on native populations.",
"Not all illnesses that make the jump are deadly. There may be many that go un-noticed because they are not successful in humans.\nFor those that are deadly, this may be in part because they moved to humans. A successful infectious disease is one that reproduces at a sustainable rate. Reproduce too fast and you kill your host before you can spread to others, and you die off. Not effective enough and the immune system kills you before you get to reproduce and spread. Those very deadly cases may have been good for their original host but have not had time to adjust to what would be sustainable in humans. Think Ebola, if all humans died of Ebola there would be no one else to infect and Ebola would disappear (from humans, it wold keep on going in its original hosts).",
"Confirmation bias. \n\nThe ones that pose a threat to humans are the only ones that make the news.\n\nThere might be a hundred diseases are serious in an animals and mild in humans that you would never hear about."
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1k2iob | how do teams qualify for the llws? | Huge baseball fan, currently watching the Little League World Series, can anyone give me a break down of how a club team qualifies to play at Williamsport? If you don't mind I'll make up a scenario, how would a club team from let's say Illinois make it to the LLWS? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k2iob/eli5_how_do_teams_qualify_for_the_llws/ | {
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"Local little league affiliates (e.g. the Oak Park Little League Association) field an all-star team, who compete against local (I think it's called District) competition (say, Naperville, IL's team). If they win the district, they'd be invited to play in a state tournament. Win the state and you go to the Midwestern championships and play in a tournie there. Win that and you get to the LLWS."
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3nwtxz | what exactly is "pure energy" as is often used in fiction/movies/comics/etc? | So often fiction references this ambiguous thing known as "pure energy". What exactly is its real world equivalent?
Example:
Marvel's The Avengers, the scene where they struggle to pierce the portal machine's force field with Loki's scepter. The pure energy referenced as what the force field is.
Edit 1:
Clarified that I was talking about the force field around the portal device, not the portal itself. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nwtxz/eli5_what_exactly_is_pure_energy_as_is_often_used/ | {
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"There is no real world equivalent. It's a made up concept that sounds exotic and powerful when they describe it in the movies, but doesn't actually mean anything.\n\nThe portal machine in Avengers acts as a type of wormhole between dimensions, but even the wormhole is just a theoretical concept that falls out of physics by a twist of the imagination and a trick of the math. As one of my teachers puts it: \"physicists use math for entertainment purposes.\" Any image you see of it is merely an 'artists conception.'\n",
"Taken literally, it's anything at all. Everything is some form of energy, so there can't be impurities. Presumably they mean energy besides matter, so pure energy would be light, gravity waves, etc. But that's still nothing like stuff in fiction that's supposed to be pure energy."
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5mnprp | why can phones make such a loud noise for an amber alert? why can't they normally go this loud? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mnprp/eli5why_can_phones_make_such_a_loud_noise_for_an/ | {
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"Phones make a noise for an amber alert?",
"What you may be refering to is the Pitch Tone of the message. High pitch notfication sounds are going to sound higher than lower pitch ones. When i get an amber alert, it uses a stock notfication sound not my normal one which is a higher pitch however it will not bypass my volume settings so that might be throwing you off\n\nAlso phone speakers can go higher then what they are limited to, The reason makers lock it is because it begins to become distored and thats not good for business. ",
"Your phone can clearly go that loud because it makes that sound. But the sound level is unpleasant(music and video would sound horrible) and potentially damaging(your hearing) that app designers don't want that.\n",
"Amber alerts are designed with a few things in mind.\nOne of those important things is to amplify the importance of a message being broadcast. in order to do so, the audio for the broadcast is fitted to the most sensitive spectrum of the average humans' hearing. this means that regardless of technical volume, the messages sent for an amber alert, or another alert, would be heard as louder due to their being within the most sensitive spectrum of the human ear.",
"Assuming you're talking about the 'emergency alert system' tone (which is what my phone plays for amber alerts anyway) that sound is just two sine waves mixed together. A sine wave is a pure sound consisting of just one frequency at a constant volume. This will sound louder than music, which is a complex combination of many different frequencies. Plus with music, the dynamics change over time, so the perceived average sound volume will be less than the maximum level the device is capable of playing.",
"How else are you supposed to know to be on the lookout for a missing child (from a different city), at 2am while you're asleep in bed?\n\nObviously, it has to be loud enough to wake you up. ",
"What is an amber alert?",
"It really is kind of stupid. I had one go off at 2am the other night too.\n\nSure, I'll be on the lookout for that silver Tahoe in my bedroom, ill even check my closet for you just in case.\n",
"In a related question, why do I get an amber alert because a child 400 miles away from me was driven away with his or her biological father. Is there some specific reason to believe most of these fathers are going to be driving straight through my town? Have most of these fathers been charged with abuse or at least driving under the influence? It all seems like the amber alert is becoming the allegorical \"boy who cried wolf\" if half of them are in no real danger at all.",
"Lurker here, my apologies in advanced for accidentally breaking any rules.\n\nIt's because it's a continuous tone, non changing, meaning the driver/speaker can focus uninterrupted at oscillating for that single note (I believe). Now for the fun part:\n\nAbout a year ago I was taking a communications class (core requirement), and it just happened to be with a professor that would royally hate people using phones in his class. Seemed like unjustified hate, considering the fact he'd go on about people wasting time distracting others by using cellphones when he'd take 15-20 minutes ranting about it with the entire class, making everyone uncomfortable by putting a college student on the spot.\n\nWell, this particular instance we were taking a midterm... and the class was 40-50 people... The guy is sitting at his desk at the front of the classroom when suddenly at the end of the first row, a chick's phone starts playing the alert tone, REALLY FREAKING LOUD.\n\nShe quickly pulls it out and fumbles it as she frantically tries silencing it.\n\nGuy looks up looking pretty annoyed, gets up and starts marching to her desk already ranting as to how her test is now invalid due to her \"inability to silence the device or turn it off.\"\n\nWell, as he's about to arrive at her seat the electronic choir kicks in and you've got every single phone in the classroom buzzing the dissonant tune...\n\nHe panics and asks, \"What the hell is that? Are we being freaking invaded!?\"\n\nLmao, as you can imagine everyone started laughing. Turns out he didn't know AMBER alerts play a similar tone as the EAS. He gave the test back to the gal and sat his ass down, lol.\n\nEdit: Tried answering the question this time.",
"ELI5: What's an amber alert?",
"Does the UK or Europe have anything similar (where they take over your phone)?",
"It's really the pitch not really how loud. You can also turn off different alerts in your phones settings, just have to find the right place. The only ones you cannot turn off are presidential alerts. "
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5h72at | why does saying 'evening' or 'afternoon' to greet someone sound more formal than saying 'morning'? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5h72at/eli5_why_does_saying_evening_or_afternoon_to/ | {
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"I think it's because \"morning\" is used almost always as a welcoming greeting rather than a departing greeting. Further to that, \"more\" in \"morning\" is an upward inflection rather than the downward inflections found in \"noon\" and \"eve,\" so it sounds more pleasant as a greeting on its own.",
"It doesn't sound more formal to everyone. It sounds more formal to you. Why? It's likely that no one here can answer that question for you. You're a unique person with your own thoughts. I cannot tell you why you think something. \n\nI can tell you that evening wear is a formal style of clothing. I also know that in the mornings I am wearing my sleepwear for part of the time. It is not inconceivable that you are associating the time of day with particular styles of clothing, making the word \"morning\" be less formal than \"evening\" in your mind. \n\nOr it could be that you associate words that begin with vowels with formality. Who knows? My point is that no one here can offer an objective explanation of why you think something without knowing your mind."
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7lxyuo | is "heat" basically just lower-frequency light? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7lxyuo/eli5_is_heat_basically_just_lowerfrequency_light/ | {
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"Radiative heat, yes. For example, if you step out of the shadow into the sunlight and you immediately feel the warmth of the Sun, that's caused by radiative heat transfer in the form of light from the Sun.\n\nIt's not *just* lower-frequency light, but the overwhelming majority of it here on Earth is.\n\nConductive and convective heat, however, is not \"light\" per se.",
"The basic principle is that every body that has a temperature above 0K will emit electromagnetic radiation. This radiation is emitted at a whole spectrum of wavelengths. Some guy named Wilhelm Wien made [this awesome graph](_URL_0_) that shows the intensity distribution for different temperatures. \n\n**Most heat at lower temperatures is indeed radiated through frequencies below those of visible light.** If you look at the graph for 5500K however, it almost perfectly aligns with the 390-700nm range for visible light. Coincidence? Of course not! [The sun's surface temperature is around 5778K!](_URL_1_) Life evolved to percieve the frequencies that are present in our environment, which is super cool IMO. \n\nOf course, we have invented/discovered other sources of that same visible light, but that's why the visible light spectrum is what it is: it's determined by the sun's temperature.\n\n**So yes, heat radiation is just low-frequency light, because visible light is actually just heat radiation from the sun.** \n\n(Btw, radiation isn't the only way heat is transfered: conduction or convection are the other options)",
"There's two things to consider here that get a bit confused by the terminology people use. \n\nThere is 'temperature', which as you would expect just means how hot something is. This is not the same as light, it is basically a measure of how much (on average) kinetic energy each molecule has.\n\nThen there is 'heat' or 'heat transfer' which refers to thermal energy moving from one place to another. There are 3 ways heat transfer occurs, conduction, convection, and radiation. The third one, radiation, is what you are thinking of, and refers to heat transfer via electromagnetic radiation. A hot body will actually emit radiation at a wide range of frequencies, but there will be a peak in the distribution (_URL_0_) \n and that is the frequency where most of the heat is being radiated. For example when metal gets red-hot that is because the visible range of frequencies dominates at that temperature. "
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92wx37 | how does the rain censor on the windshield of a car work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92wx37/eli5_how_does_the_rain_censor_on_the_windshield/ | {
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"It is a infrared led and a photo receptor angled so that the infrared light bounces from the windshield in a certain way, when a drop of water lands in the specific spot where both of them are it affects the way the light is reflected triggering the wipers\n\nSorry for bad English it is not my native language!"
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bcvggg | if too much salt is considered bad for you, how do people in countries like japan and other asian countries stay so healthy when their food is so high in sodium? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bcvggg/eli5_if_too_much_salt_is_considered_bad_for_you/ | {
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"They don’t. Lots of people in Asian countries suffer from colon cancer and high blood pressure related to too much sodium. Low sodium soy sauce is the standard now.",
"too much salt is not bad for you because too much salt is impossible unless you have heart or kidney problems (or you have no access to fresh water). \n\nOtherwise if you eat a lot of salt your body triggers a thirst response, you drink water, the salt gets absorbed into the water which goes into your bladder and you pee it out until you reach equilibrium.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nmoney quote: **This week a meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure.**",
"The detrimental effects of excess sodium can be mostly counteracted with water, where-as it takes an almost impossible amount of physical activity to counteract daily excess calories, which is the typical problem in an American diet for example.",
"Japanese diets are healthier overall aside from their street food or pre-packaged foods. There’s more omega 3 fatty acids from fish and seaweed. Their diets are richer in potassium to counter the sodium intake. And they’re more active and less car dependent\n\nEDIT: forgot to mention that their diets are more plant-based which has a anti-inflammatory effect",
"Too much salt is only a thing for people with very specific medical conditions, like issues with kidneys or hypertension. If you are an average, healthy person, your kidneys will regulate the amount of salt left in your blood by selective excreting more or less, depending on the circumstances.\n\nReally, the whole salt=bad thing is bad science from the 1980s, just like fat=bad.",
"They don’t eat Umeboshi (pickled Plum) every Day,\nmy Homedragon eat only a few per Month and she really like it and own a huge Pot of it!\n\nAll the other Stuff, like Rice and Noodles, is prepared without Salt.",
"Many people in Asia aren't healthy - for the reason you listed. Taiwan has one of the highest rates of kidney disease in the world, probably in part due to high sodium content in food. Other Asian nations have high blood pressure, etc. That salt takes a toll.",
"When I was on dialysis, if I ate too much salty food in between treatments, my blood pressure would get hypertensive and I'd be a couple of kilograms above my dry weight which made the next treatment day a real fucking bitch. Dialysis cramps are NO fun.\n\nThe salt isn't going to screw you - the thirst response will. I've seen patients go into cardiac arrest during dialysis. These were people who didn't give a shit about their weight and diet. They'd come in well over their dry weight and repeat the process day after day. \n\nYour heart can only deal with that so much before it kicks. Sitting there in your chair connected to a machine while someone is getting resuscitated by the unit RNs while you sit there and watch events unfold is sobering. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough of a reality check for a few other patients that were there.",
"My Japanese wife and her sister never put salt in ANYTHING. All the food they make is way undersalted in my opinion and I need to add my own. \n\nI don't really get the stereotype of Japanese or other Asian food being really salty. Soy sauce is used in most dishes but it's usually just a tiny amount for the whole dish which is similar to a few dashes of salt. The only hardcore salty food I can think of is ramen, which is a soup which tends to be on the salty side, and it's considered a treat food and not a daily type of thing.",
"Of course pickled lots of things are going to have a ton of sodium... The whole idea behind pickled food is to add preservatives, often salt. \n\nEast Asian cuisine (and East Asia is very diverse), like any other cuisine, has a wide range of food. It ranges from the very unhealthy to the healthy to the in between.",
"Question any expert or reddit user who seems unaware of the Dunning Kruger Effect. As an initial matter, blanket statements of fact without citation of authority are a red flag, no matter how educated or knowledgeable the user claims to be.\n\nAnd human being who says that there is no such thing as too much dietary salt for folks without kidney or heart problems is doing more harm than good. The logic that salt makes us thirsty, we drink more water, and we pee it out, was not taught in a medical school.\n\nBy the way, excessive salt intake causes increased mortality in Asia compared to the U.S.",
"The problem with salt is that it raises your blood pressure.\n\nIf you don't have high blood pressure, then the warnings about not eating too much salt just don't apply to you.",
"It's actually one of the \"stereotypes\" of Japanese to love salty food, lol. One umeboshi is actually about 10 grams of serving. 30 gram would be three umeboshi, at approximately 400 mg of sodium each.",
" they also eat alot of raw and steam foods i.e veggs. Some other countries over cook their food which kills nutriens",
"I feel like following this thread has left me with an ELI5 response, but isn't one of the biggest issues with *all* the electrolytes we consume is to keep them within healthy levels for our heart, which is an electrical pump, which works by Na+ and K+ exchanging places within the cells, causing that little electrical function one sees on an EKG? \n\nI always thought that when one's heart is already compromised by some sort of heart disease, keeping the electrolytes in balance became of more importance. \n\nKnowledge is like a second language, if you don't use it, you lose it. It's been a long time since I have used this information, so i may be well out of the loop...",
"i lived in japan. everything is not salty, they also enjoy savory and sweet. almost no one i knew ate instant ramen since the ramen shops are damn near on every corner. theirs meals are also much much smaller and frequent so even if it was super salty your portion was small. lots of water, green or barley tea(especially for the ladies) helps keep then sodium down.",
"There was a study. I have always maintained that excess minerals and vitamins are usually carried away in urine via the kidneys. Turns out I was right.\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIt was a fairly exhaustive study of a lot of people over a long period of time.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIt turns out that SALT IS NOT BAD FOR YOU. Contradicting decades of health advice from medical professional, normal consumption of salt is fine.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nI didn't need a doctor to figure it out. I just paid attention to my cravings. If I crave salt and vinegar, I know I'm out of balance. If I am really thirsty, I drink a bunch of water and I know my body is going to balance out my NaCL level.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nBTW, it is not sodium, but sodium chloride that people worry about.",
"Research actually shows the FDA guideline for salt, 2.3g, is actually more detrimental for our health than 10g of salt. A healthy salt intake lies somewhere between 4g to 6g. At the same time, this assumes you are not overloading on carbohydrates, which retain extra salt in your body via insulin. Moreover, this assumes you are drinking enough water and move around during the day as well.",
"Note to anyone reading this thread: there's some really bad explanations of cardiovascular and renal physiology in here. You should probably take the information presented with a grain of salt.\n\n\n**Edit edit:**\nMan you guys were viscous to the mods. In all fairness, my original post was a shitpost for the pun and I was too lazy to put in an explanation. I salute the mod to have let my post stand as a sticky even though it was obviously in violation of the rules here. \n\n\n**Edit edit edit:**\n\nActual ELI5:\n\nSalt isn't the main reason why people are healthy/unhealthy.\n\nQuit your smoking and go exercise.\n\nSalt goes in, salt goes out, ^you ^^can't ^^^explain ^^^^that\n\n**Edit:**\n\n\nSome explanation to comply with Rule 3. None of the following should be taken as medical advice... except the quit smoking/exercise part. Do it.\n\n\nI disagree with the premise that excessive salt is bad for you. Your body is pretty amazing at dealing with changes to its homeostasis; and an excess of anything is usually dealt with quite easily by the body.\n\n\nWith that said, I don't claim to have done an exhaustive search into the literature. My impression is that there probably isn't a double blind RCT comparing effect of purely high salt vs low salt over period of years without having confounders such as concurrent high caloric intake, exercise, co-morbidities, socioeconomic background, etc.; so many of the correlations that can be made between high salt diets and cardiovascular health are purely that - correlations. However, there probably isn't any harm in avoiding a high salt diet.\n\n\nThere may be some physiological principles that may be used to hypothesise cardiovascular change to chronic exposure to high salt loads and increased intra-vascular volume leading to chronic hypertension and myocardial remodeling, but for the average healthy person, I feel the overall effects are probably negligible. If anything, we may be too concerned with \"low salt\" that we ignore other things that have strong evidence for improved cardiovascular health - quitting smoking and **exercise**. Sure avoiding salt may or may not help your heart, but smoking and sitting on your backside all day is **definitely** a detrimental to your health.\n\n\nAnyway some points on physiology I'd like to make:\n\n\nSerum osmolality change of 1-2% is what is sensed by your osmoreceptors in your hypothalamus that stimulates thirst/ADH release.\n\n\nVolume retention doesn't necessarily have to result in hypertension. In a healthy individual, increase intravascular volume and pressure on arteriole walls result in a reflex myogenic response which causes vessel dilatation and reduction in pressure (as per Hagen-Poiseuille's law). Obviously the effects of this may be limited depending on how much your intravascular volume expands by.\n\n\nThe reason why your heart may fail in volume overload isn't because the heart is working harder (a little bit), but mainly due to the left ventricular end diastolic volume being on the decompensated side of the Frank-Starling curve leading to impaired stroke volume and cardiac output. Yes, your heart does work a little bit harder against increased volume, but this is quite negligible compared to work against increased pressure.\n\n\nThe reason why the gent in the dialysis ward arrested is probably due to severe hyperkalaemia/acidosis; rather than volume expansion.\n\n\nHigh salt diet is not a risk factor for colon cancer.\n\n\nSodium and potassium electrochemical gradients (as well as chloride and calcium) are responsible for resting membrane potential as well conductivity within the heart. It is important to keep electrolytes within a certain range to reduce the risk of arrythmias, but I can guarantee you that a little bit of salt here and there isn't going to change it by that much (unless you have end stage renal failure). The concern in regards to a high salt diet is due to above reasoning re volume overload +/- cardiac remodeling.\n\n\nWas scrolling through some of the comments and came across a great response:\n_URL_0_",
"Asian food is really diverse... like the continent is like a third of the world. Grew up eating authentic Asian food and we almost never used salt. Pickled plums are salty because they're literally pickled, like how pickles are super high in sodium and are generally meant to be a refreshing side to your burger as opposed to an actual main dish. Ex. for pickled veggies, we'd eat maybe a tablespoon with a bowl of everything else that was for dinner that night, and even then I ate pickled/salty side dishes maybe once a week or two. Also, American Asian food tends to be catered to Americanized tastes (and restaurant tastes in general), aka more salty/flavorful/whatever. But overall I would say it's hard to give an exact answer, since you're generalizing cuisine of almost 5 billion people (whose food already gets generalized often enough for being oily/weird/etc.). Feels bad man :(",
"In Japan we don’t have salt on the table, We do use soy sauce while cooking, but sparingly. Yes, pickled plum is very salty, but we don’t eat it as a snack. One with a meal is more than enough. \n\nOn the other hand, American food is all too salty for me. I can’t eat at most restaurants or even at people’s homes. It seems American foods are either super salty or super sweet.",
"You are not supposed to be eating pickled products on a regular basis. They eat maybe 1 or 2 slices per serving usually.",
"I'm Chinese and grew up in China/eating Chinese cuisine. Chinese/other East Asian food IS generally much lower in sodium than the Western/Canadian food I have now. The thing is, using your pickled plum example, we're not shoving forkfuls of this stuff down like pasta. Yes, lots of things are pickled and very very salty by themselves, but they're usually used as basic side dishes to accompany rice. I might eat 4-5 tiny pickles or like, half a salted duck egg per large bowl of plain rice or porridge. Overall, not that much sodium.",
"Yeah I just bought some Umami powder and looked and it’s like massive tons of salt. \n\nI think it depends a lot on the rest of your diet. If I’m eating a carb rich diet I can really feel just a bit of salt. But if I’m going Keto or something similar I need more salt and feel very little effects\nfrom salty foods. \n\nAmericans are eating a ton of shit on top of tons of salt. The Japanese have some salty dishes but a lot of their traditional shit is pretty healthy. Like anything you also can’t just generalize a population. A lot of more modern Japanese diet is turning more and more like Americanized shit. I doubt they continue to be leaders in life expectancy as time goes by.",
"There is a YouTube channel run by a doctor. He commonly talks about patient cases where excess salt was absorbed. The results are kinda terrifying. I think his name is chubbyme or something along those lines.",
"lots of posts about the effect of salt on the body. in general, the effect of a high-salt diet depends on whether you have health problems. it's important to know that salt concentration (osmolarity) and water volume (blood pressure) are regulated separately by the body. source: I'm a doctor. all those years of med school have finally led me to this moment!\n\nfor people who are healthy, salt intake doesn't have much of an effect, since the kidneys work well to balance salt and water.\n\nif you have high blood pressure, high salt intake is a problem because it increases blood pressure. this is because your body is very sensitive to your blood's osmolarity, and so more salt in your blood will make it retain more water. more water in blood = high blood pressure. your kidneys will eventually filter the salt into your pee, but by then you'll have eaten more salt, and the cycle continues. a major reason people without high blood pressure don't have this problem is that their blood vessels are more flexible, and so they're able to accommodate the higher volume more easily, which normalizes the blood pressure (your blood vessels have muscles around them that widen or narrow up your blood vessels). what makes the blood vessels less flexible? well, age is a factor (age makes connective tissue less flexible, which is part of why older people have wrinkles). genetics is another factor. another major factor is cholesterol build-up in the blood vessels (so-called atherosclerosis), which makes the inside of the blood vessels more narrow (which itself increases blood pressure), and also 'hardens' the blood vessels to prevent them from widening.\n\nif you have kidney problems, high salt intake is a problem too. I said earlier that your kidneys will eventually filter the salt in your pee. if your kidneys aren't great, then they have a hard time filtering things, and that also causes high blood pressure. for people with kidney problem salt *balance* is also affected. the amount of Na, K, and Cl ions in the blood is very tightly regulated through a series of ion exchangers in the kidney, which trade some ions for other ions. people with kidney problems can have major ion imbalances, which can be bad. Na in particular has effects on the brain, and K has effects on the heart. high doses of a particular ion (i.e. high salt intake is only Na & Cl) can drive these imbalances.\n\nif you have heart failure, high salt intake is a problem, again because it causes the body (i.e. the kidneys) to retain water. the high salt concentration doesn't directly injure or affect the heart, but the excess volume is a problem for people with heart failure. heart failure means that your heart doesn't pump as efficiently as the rest of the body needs it to. this causes all sorts of problems, but one of the major ones is that fluid backs up in the system. the blood vessels can only take so much fluid (they can only widen up so far), and so the rest of the extra fluid has to sit in the organs until they can make it into the veins. extra fluid in the organs can cause lots of problems, ranging from cell damage (e.g. the liver) to impairing its function (e.g. the lungs) to causing pain (e.g. the legs). leg swelling is a common symptom of heart failure, because gravity will make fluid stay in the legs. it's also the most obvious, because the leg physically swells. but the thing that often kills people with heart failure is the fluid in the lungs, because it fills up the airspaces in the lungs and prevents oxygen from making it into the body. salt causes water retention. water retention worsens heart failure. low-salt diets are a key treatment for heart failure, because it reduces the total amount of water in the body. fun fact, interfering with the kidney's salt exchange molecules is one of the key ways that our heart failure medications work, because it makes your body lose more salt in the urine, and this pulls water with it.\n\none of the worst things about human habits in 2019 is that our diets and lack of physical activity increases the risk of high blood pressure, kidney damage, and heart failure *at the same time*. and as an added bonus, it also increases the risk of diabetes, which independently also increases the risk of high blood pressure, kidney damage, and heart failure (and others! eye damage, even more/different heart damage, nerve damage, etc. diabetes is the worst). this means that health problems that are treated with low salt intake are fairly common.\n\nthe reason why low salt diets are a good idea for everyone, even healthy people, is that people get used to a certain level of salt in their food, and find food with less salt to be flavourless/not tasty. if you've grown up for 40+ years expecting food to taste a certain way, then eating the same thing with less salt can make it taste bad. so trying to get people who need a low-salt diet to be willing to eat less salt can be challenging. also most pre-made (including at restaurants) and processed foods are very high in salt, which also makes it difficult for a person on a low-salt diet to keep their intake low, even if they're willing. if people's environment--from the snacks they buy at the grocery store to the food their family makes when they're growing up--were more reasonably salted (i.e. lower salt than now), then it would make it way easier for people who have health problems that are affected by salt intake.\n\nand that doesn't mean that we have to make food taste bad. people who grow up eating foods with less salt aren't 'missing out' on the flavour of having more salt in their food. they have a subjectively equally nice time eating something that's less salty, which they perceive to be well-salted. I know this first-hand too, because I grew up eating low-salt food (which I actually think is not low salt, but a normal amount of salt). I often find the restaurant food & snack/junk food to be way too salty, to the point that it tastes very bad, while my friends find it to be just right. to OP' example of pickled plum, happen to be asian (chinese), and really dislike pickled plums because I think they taste heinous. their particular combination of salt with sweet & sour just doesn't do it for me.\n\nEDIT: I also didn't get into the contribution of sodium in particular to this conversation, which I want to flag now. [This is a great article](_URL_0_) that gets into some details. In general, sodium is also found in a lot of dietary sources beyond salt, as the positive cation to many other chemical compounds (food stabilizers, texture enhancers, even baking soda is NaHCO3, etc.). my advice for people who want/need to limit sodium is to look at nutritional labels.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nTL;DR: if you're healthy, salt intake is fine. salt restriction is an important part of treating a number of very common health problems.",
"Its explained as simply as I can. Its not that its not ELI5, its just theres a few things to understand. \n\nTl;dr at bottem.\n\n\nIm not an expert, I worked in a gym for 5 years. So all my knowledge is by no means correct but in the years working there I learned alot not just about my own body but how the body in general functions.\n\n The answer dosn't come from any one factor but a combination of a few things. The two big things being diet, how the body deals with salt. And a third factor of genetics. We need to take into account all three things and see how they work together to answer that.\n\nSo genetics is one I feel is self explanitory. People from different parts of the world have different physical features. People from Japan and other Asian counties tend to just be small and thinner people. (Even though working at that gym they where usually 210 lbs of just muscle.) So you know people of different (places, races, regions) have different body types. Its one of those things where it does not necessarily mean anything but on the other it does.\n\nNow that we know our genetics are different, well if the next thing is diet you can really come to the same conclusions as we did with genetics. People from different part of the world have a different diet. People in Japan, and asia tent to generally just have an overall healthier diet, including alot of fresh vegetables and roasted meats. The diet is obviously related to salt consumption, but is the exact reason I need to explain salt.\n\nSalt, now when people say sodium in this context, they mean salt. Like table salt. And I cant explain the exact chemistry of what the body does with salt but I can paint a simple picture. First just understand as well your body is constantly moving fluid through itself. Say you have a glass, with a small whole cut out at the bottem (yes to simulate peeing). And you fill it to the top with water, and start to pour table salt in till it barely stops dissolving in and falls to the bottem. You would have a really salty water, and how would you make it less salty? Well you have lift your finger from the whole to let some water out. But then you also need to fill it back up with some fresh water to bring it back to full. In essence I really just explaind diluting to you. Bluntly, your sodium would not be as big a factor of people literally just drank more water. \n \nMost Americans have the problem of being fat because fast food is all salt, and then you get a soda that is just sugar. And if you replace salt with sugar in the glass example same concept applies. So you just are dehydrating yourself getting thirsty and dringking another soda.\n\nPeople in Asian cultures do have alot of sodium but its in the fourm of soy sauce, or a broth in a soup and they just tend to not drink soda as often, and unfortunately just aware of the fact they need to drink more water.\n\nI hope no one takes what I say the wrong way, but I also want people to know that in general we are just different and there are so many other factors there possibly could be I could talk for literal hours about. But I hope this was at least enough to get the idea a cross.\n\ntl;dr\nA combination of genetics, diet, and understanding the concept of dilution.",
"MD here.\n\nSodium is a molecule that likes to be friends with water.\nTherefor when it is in your body it wants more water to keep it company. The more water you have in your body the harder your heart has to pump so the pressure increases. That's why hypertensive people take pee pills. However, your body is very good at balancing out water and sodium through your kidneys. Only 1/3 hypertensive patients benefit from a sodium diet. The rest of us can eat as much sodium as we like if we just stay hydrated.\n\n\nedit: its complexer than this but ELI5",
"the explanation is simple. the majority people in japan and asian countries _don’t_ eat food that is high in sodium. this idea tends to come from chinese restaurants that serve predominantly foreign customers - chinese restaurants in predominantly chinese areas are much less salty. \n\n\nyou picked up pickles - pickles are literally made by fermenting vegetables in salt water, so of course they’re high in salt. all pickled things are high in salt.",
"You are generalizing a culture specifically to certain foods and that's unfair.\n\nIt is akin to someone coming to the US and saying why isn't *everyone* overweight when American food is all hamburgers and hotdogs.\n\nTraditional Asian foods are extremely bland and low in salt. Tofu, vegetables, etc often blanched and eaten with rice with minimal seasoning.\n\nAlmost any processed food from any culture (middle sections of the supermarket aisle) is going to be unhealthy because #1) it often tastes good and sells and #2) you need salt and other preservatives to keep food from spoiling.",
"Maybe because compared to large amount of salt, it's much worse to consume a large amount of sugar, carb and in general low fiber food.",
"The entire salt is bad for your health thing has been proven controversial at least: _URL_0_",
"Everything is in moderation - but most “Asian” cuisine is not salty- yes a pickled plum is- just like pickles here. They eat in moderation and don’t gorge themselves. American cuisine has a lot of SUGAR too! Tons of it! I’d say that’s the issue more than salt intake."
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ce6f34 | why is concrete stuck to the bone when bodies that have not decomposed yet and are encased in concrete are found? | There should be nothing on the bones as there was flesh and skin so how is there bones found with concrete stuck on the bones. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ce6f34/eli5_why_is_concrete_stuck_to_the_bone_when/ | {
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"I have never heard of this happening (a skeleton being bonded to concrete), but I've never looked into it, either. If it has happened, I would suspect it is due in large part to the fact that wet [concrete is caustic and causes chemical burns](_URL_0_). If a body is thrown into wet concrete, and left for hours, perhaps the skin simply dissolves before the concrete has time to set. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nEdited for grammar and clarity.",
"Getting hit with a huge amount of water can do lots of damage to a person or even kill them. Concrete is much more dense than water. Before setting, it is effectively liquid stone. Pouring that over a body and then having that weight on top could easily strip flesh from bones."
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21gtn6 | how does a new president get brought up to speed on the information that a president should know? | A new president has been elected. How does he obtain the knowledge that he wasn't privy to before (as a governor, senator, etc.)? Is there someone that crosses administrations showing him the ropes? Does this happen starting day 1 in office, or does it begin well before inauguration? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21gtn6/eli5_how_does_a_new_president_get_brought_up_to/ | {
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"The briefings of Top Secret national security stuff start before the election, usually after the candidate is nominated by their party, but sometimes earlier. \n\nAfter the election but before the inauguration there is a well choreographed process called \"the transition\" where the legion of people who need to be brought \"into the loop\" are briefed.\n\nAfter the new President is inaugurated I'm sure there's an endless stream of people waiting at the door to talk about important stuff that doesn't rise to the level of immediate national security.\n\nThere have been rumors since Kennedy that just after the inauguration the new President is given a really scary briefing on all the key secrets the US does not allow to come public. The people who have been assassinated, disappeared or otherwise removed from the scene, the secret treaties with unsavory nations, etc. \n\nAlso, each outgoing President leaves a sealed letter in the Oval Office for the incoming President, which by tradition is read and then removed from all records - it does not appear in the files that become available in the post-Presidential libraries, etc. It's a personal note between two people, not an official government record.",
"After the election, the winner will have his/her transition team working with the office holder to workout the details of assuming the office. Included in this are briefings given to the President Elect covering a variety of subjects. Also the first few days in office are very busy with additional briefings for those subjects that were not covered before.",
"There is a transition period, used for exactly that purpose. Party nominees are often kept abreast of issues by the existing administrations, as well.",
"The President Elect starts appointing people to cabinet positions and other key administration positions fairly quickly after the election is finalized. These incoming cabinet and staff positions will start to shadow their outgoing counterparts almost immediately. That gives them a couple months to get up to speed.\n\nEven before the election it's not uncommon for both presidential candidates to start receiving national security briefings. These can start shortly after the candidates are nominated. The purpose of this is to give the candidates insight into any sensitive issues currently facing the president and to also help the candidates to avoid saying anything during their campaigns that could be potentially damaging or embarrassing to the current administration or the new administration. ",
"To add to everything thats been said so far:\n\nOftentimes presidential candidates are already in the loop, being in congress already, so although they do need to be \"brought up to speed\" on many things, they often are pretty aware of a lot that is going on already.\n\nIn fact, depending on the committees they sit on, they may know things that the President doesn't, or isn't as keenly aware of, as well.",
"Was this inspired by the post about the president's limo? Because I was wondering the same thing earlier. In one of the comments there was a diagram that described all the features and functions of the limo, which made me think that there must be some guy that sits in the limo with the president and explains what all the buttons do.",
"To clarify one thing, let's differentiate between \"should know\" and \"need to know.\" What I mean by that is there are things that the President is not informed about until he asks, if he ever does, and he is sometimes purposely left out of the loop by his agency heads and advisors. \n\nIf the the various agencies (particularly the national security and defense agencies) were to inform the President of every covert action or operation that ever happened or was currently underway, he would quite literally have no time to actually govern. Thus during the transition/immediate post-inauguration phase, the information that is communicated to the President is of the utmost priority. They're not going to waste his time telling him about the crazy shit that's going on at Area 51. His schedule is planned down to the minute in weeks, months, and years in advance.\n\nIt's not that the President is willingly unaware of what is going on in his own government, but there is a certain implicit aspect of plausible deniability he needs to maintain. He'll make it clear what he wants to happen, but he'll leave the details up to agency heads and their subordinates. The thing you have to keep in mind is that Presidents tend to get more ineffectual the more they tend to micromanage; that is why they delegate tasks without necessarily delegating the specifics for how to accomplish it. \n\nCase in point: the Iran-Contra affair. There really is a possibility that Reagan straight up did not know the details of what was going on (either because Oliver North & Co. were calling major audibles on determining the country's foreign policy, or because Reagan was suffering from Alzheimers. Seriously, though).\n\nThink of it another way. Think of the federal government as a massive corporation and the President as its CEO. This corporation generates nearly $3 trillion in revenue every year and has over 4 million employees. Google, by comparison, generates $60 billion in revenue every year and has about 50,000 employees. \n\nManaging an organization the size of the United States (hell, Google too) means that at some point, the \"government\" as an abstract idea becomes this semi-autonomous beast that the President has less control over than you would think, and he is not always as aware to the details of its inner workings. ",
"The Éminence Grise tells him all the secret stuff.\n\nIt's been the same one since the second Adams. He never dies. \n\nJust kidding (of course) but it explains to me why no matter who gets elected, it's all just the same. \n\n",
"blindfolded, othe initiated president is lead naked down a hallway.... periodically feeling blunt traumatic pain on his behind as he hears elder members of the illuminati snickering in the distance. at the end of the hallway, a purse of coin was attached to his genitals - to hang taught on his member causing inscrutable pain. for neigh though, as each initiated president is gagged and thus unable to scream. to each member he must pass some coin from his dickpurse, in ceremonial trade for ancient wisdom on past conspiracies and who has gotten fat since making it to office. \nthe president is then pushed down a well, where he can finally remove his bindings while being peed on from above. when he finally clambers out of the well, he is a new man. he is, a true leader ",
"Just watch West Wing. I did and now actually* know everything about how government works. \n*not actually, but close",
"The West Wing taught me all this.",
"Lyndon Johnson's letter to Nixon: I ordered the assassination of Kennedy while I was taking a shit.",
"In australia, we have \"Incomng Government Briefs\". every agency/department does a 1-2 page key-points documents on every issue under their remit. There could be 2-50 briefs from each agency, depending on the size of the agency. \n\nyes, that is a lot of reading. ",
"Fox news obviously\n",
"I wonder how the aliens question gets handled. ",
"Yeh man, haven't u seen house of cards?",
"Wondering if there is some first day on the office joke, RUSSIA JUST LAUNCHED A NUKE!\n\n\"See guys, I told you he would hit the red button\"",
"The intersect duh",
"right after they are elected its explained to them they have to do exactly what they are told or they will be the next JFK... then they have to watch the jfk assassination footage for a couple days straight to make sure they get it.",
"In order to prepare for the general election most politicians get extensively briefed on national security and foreign affairs by their political campaigns. This is usually done by former members of the state department or intelligence community, but never at a classified level. During the 2008 Obama campaign Obama had something on the order of 200 people giving him analysis of every foreign activity or world rent he might be questioned on.\n\nSo it's not like these guys come in completely blind (lol what's Moldova etc.)\n\nAt some point the sitting administration will grant access to the Presidential Daily Brief or one of the other highly classified daily briefs the national security team gets. This determination is made by the Current President with consultation from his security team. In 2004 John Kerry became one of the earliest candidates to start getting the PDB. IIRC he started getting the same briefings as Bush in August or September. Months before the election or before he could have become President. \n\nTL;DR - they get briefed earlier than most people realize, no one likes to fuck with national security.",
"Something else to realize: the president has a cabinet to take the load off. So the info load is spread. For instance, my first job was with the CIA. The director handles most everything and gives the president a morning briefing of what happened in the last 24 hours. With bush sr that was an hour at breakfast (he is a previous director of CIA). With Clinton it was 15 minutes on the car ride TO breakfast. \n\nBottom line, the president doesn't have to know all of it. His staff is there to help shoulder the load and delegate decisions to. ",
"But when do they tell them about the Stargate? ",
"Presidential puppet show",
"I can't remember where I read it, but there's the apocryphal tale that the incoming President is ushered into the White House, post-inauguration, and shepherded into the Situation Room. He (or she) is then shown the Zapruder film.\n\nFrom a different angle.\n\n\"Any questions?\" they ask, smiling. ",
"Easy, they just sit the incoming president in a comfy chair in front of a monitor and a USSS agent clicks play on the VLC player media file called \"Intersect.avi\".",
"Obama before election: \n\"Hope and change! Hope & change!\"\n\nOnce inside the belt: \n\n\"oh...that's how it is. I guess I really have no choice but to tow the line.\"",
"Someone once asked Bill Clinton this question during an interview. The exchange went something like this:\n\nQ: So, when you became President, what did you want to know? What did you find out?\n\nClinton: The first thing I asked as President was who killed JFK and are there really aliens.\n\nQ: And...?\n\nClinton: You'll have to become President to find out. ",
"Theres a secret book hidden in a library that the presidents write down secrets. Only presidents read and write in the book. It has all the nations top secrets. Nicholas Cage also has read it. ",
"The CIA has published a PDF on exactly this scenario, with recollections of officials who have briefed presidential candidates over the years. [\"Getting to Know the President--Intelligence Briefings of Presidential Candidates, 1952-2004\"](_URL_0_)\n\n*The Central Intelligence Agency is more of a presidential service organization than perhaps any other component of the US government. Since 1952, CIA, and now the Intelligence Community, have provided presidential candidates and presidents-elect with intelligence briefings during their campaigns and transitions. These briefings have helped presidents be as well informed as possible on international developments from the day they take office.*",
"Am I the only one that reads the answers to these questions like I'm sitting in kindergarten getting colors taught to me?",
"The black book from National Treasure.",
"As far as the US president is concerned I imagine it takes about 5-6 weeks and the information conveyed to him would be previously classified to him and of national security importance. He has to be briefed on each situation, the history of how it came into being, the people/cultural communities involved, possible mitigating actions and their expected outcomes, and it's impact on trade and the US and global economy. Sometimes diplomacy is required and sometimes silent force is required. Maybe there is some alien/new world order/outbreak pandemic virus in a secret location/conspiracy type stuff too, I dunno. Bet I will bet that whatever they tell him blindsides him and ties his hands up and all his goals mentioned in his campaign went up in smoke and now he has to lie. To everyone. Put on a four year fake smile and work on your responses ahead of time for when the American public and media start demanding answers about the change you promised. ",
"What a great post derailed by discussing how Bush laughed. ",
"It's easy. There's a big conference with big money donors and they sit him down and say, \"Listen here. This stack of papers is all the dirt we have on you given to us by the NSA. This stack of papers is what we want your real platform to be. Any questions?\"",
"Just watch National Treasure, believe me that movie has everything you need to know",
"two words mr. president: \"plausible deniability\"",
"As soon as the nominee for their party is confirmed, both nominees are given a version of the Presidential daily briefing. This happens so that from a National Security point of view they up to speed on any issues that may come up. Of course, they do not comment on this stuff.\n\nOnce the election happens, the President-elect is given the Presidential Daily briefing and the transition team meets daily with the current administration. Topics of concern are briefed daily.\n\nThis is why these guys dont get much sleep after the election and before the Inaugural.\n\nSource: Family Member was in involved in a transition.",
"Heard this somewhere and makes sense to me. So the new pres gets elected. Some CIA clone brings the new pres into a room with a bunch of rich CEO's and CIA clones. They sit the new pres down and make him watch an old 16mm film of Pres. Kennedy getting shot from an angle never seen B4. After they just look at the new pres and say \"That's what happens when you don't fall in line?\"",
"Two men in black suites walk into the oval office on inauguration day with a laptop.\n\nThey play a video of the kennedy assassination from a previously unseen angle.\n\n'any questions?\"'",
"I think they gave George Bush a cute little picture book with fun rainbows and school-house-rock style pictures with arrows that said \"and this is congress....this is the pentagon\" etc... His mommy came to the WH and read it to him as a bedtime story...",
"I believe Twyin Lannister conveys the general bullet points of the Small Council.",
"On a related side note; in the UK government they leave each other helpful post it notes^[1](_URL_0_)"
]
} | []
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| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/getting-to-know-the-president/index.html"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/17/liam-byrne-note-successor"
]
]
|
|
3xp9rc | how do programmers port their programs to different systems as a standalone app? | I've watched a bunch of videos and did a bit of google searching and reading about coding. It seems i'm not the only one wondering how programs become the real full blown programs they are. People on coding forums ask all the time about how to make their compiled programs completely standalone and how they can port those same programs to other operating systems. I've dabbled in programming on my Linux machine. Just noob stuff. But I could never figure out how to execute let's say a c++ program without running it from my IDE. And even if I got it to work as a standalone program, I know it wouldn't work on a Mac or Windows. Programmers and Software Developers, take it away! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xp9rc/eli5_how_do_programmers_port_their_programs_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cy6k1qe",
"cy6opo3"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Compile it for windows/OSX, bundle all the dlls and resources with the exe and you are set.\nFor C/C++ you'll always have to compile specifically for your target platform. Java runs on a VM so as long as there is one on the target platform it should run (excluding platform specifics).\n\nI feel i didn't understand the question, what do you call a stand alone full blown program ?",
" > I could never figure out how to execute let's say a c++ program without running it from my IDE.\n\nWith C++, you have to compile the program into an executable. Your IDE isn't doing anything special here to run your program - you have a standalone somewhere, probably in your project directory. On your Linux machine, open a terminal, find the executable, and execute your program - it should just run.\n\n > Programmers and Software Developers, take it away!\n\nSome programming languages are more \"portable\" than others.\n\nC/C++ is mostly portable, but the language specification leaves a lot of undefined or implementation (aka compiler) defined behavior. That means the compiler you are using is free to make shit up. GCC, CLANG/LLVM, Microsoft's CL (their C/C++ compiler), Intel's or Borland's compiler, TinyCC, they'll all produce a different binary output for a given source file. So if you want your code to be portable, don't rely on undefined or implementation defined behavior; just because it works now with your compiler and configuration, doesn't mean it will work for anyone else. If you must rely on such behavior, then isolate that code and write the correct implementation for the given platforms you intend to support. You'll have to write some logic into your project configuration to detect the target platform and build the right version of the implementation. Some of this undefined or implementation defined behavior is well documented, some of it, you're just going to have to discover during testing.\n\nJava was designed from the ground up to be platform independent. Java compiles into \"byte code\" which is binary, but not for the OS or CPU; instead, the byte code targets a virtual machine, a simulator, that itself was built to run on your target platform. That's the JVM part of Java, the \"Java Virtual Machine\". This byte code drives the simulator, and the outcome is a program that runs the same on any platform that has a native Java interpreter. Java also implements a JIT (Just In Time) compiler. While your program is running on the virtual machine, the byte code is translated to a native platform binary that WILL run on the platform. Once the native binary becomes available, the program switches over to that. The JIT is a transparent optimization you don't need to know is there.\n\nYou can port your programs in one of 3 ways. First, if you're using something portable like Java, there's nothing you need to do provided your target platforms all have a JVM. Second, use a compiler that supports cross compiling. This is where you're on one platform, and you can configure the compiler to build programs for a different, target platform. If you're on Linux and want to target Windows, your program won't run in your Linux environment, but you should be able to copy the executable over to your Windows machine and it should just run (you can also get creative and run this program in Wine, the WINdows Emulator, for Linux, or you can install debugging tools on your Windows machine and debug your program, running on Windows, across the network on your Linux machine. This is called a remote debugging session). The third thing you can do is copy the source code to your target platform and build it natively, on a compiler that exists on your target platform."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
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|
2chmjm | why isn't murder by injecting someone with an empty syringe more common? | Since it would just lead to a heart attack (as far as I understand), wouldn't it be very difficult to get caught? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2chmjm/eli5_why_isnt_murder_by_injecting_someone_with_an/ | {
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"cjfk6cq",
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"text": [
"Because you need a lot of air.\n\nAs far as I remember, you need more than 100mL of air ([The second one from the left is a 60mL syringe](_URL_0_)) injected at over a 100mL per second for it to have a chance of happening.\n\nAnd you'd also need to inject it into a vein, which is *very* hard unless your victim is unconcous, which you couldn't be able to do if you wanted to not be found out.",
"A) You need quite a bit of air to actually kill somebody.\n\nB) You need to get the air into a major artery.\n\nI dont know about you but I, personally, wouldn't passively allow a stranger to stick a needle in me. Restraining the victim would involve struggle and investigators can easily find the signs of struggle when looking at a body.\n",
"Depending on the anatomy of the heart, injecting air would cause an air embolism (blocking blood flow to the lungs) or an embolic stroke (blocking blood flow to brain). Either way, it's going to be a very prolonged and agonizing death. \n\nAs far as the heart goes, it would be very rare for an air bubble to cross the right side of the heart, pulmonary arteries and veins, lungs, and enter the coronary artery. A person can indirectly have heart arrhythmias secondary to the stroke and pulmonary embolism, but not directly on the heart blood supply itself."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/892194/8921963/0/1241593287/Syringe.jpg"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
8tstg0 | what keeps earth from falling into the sun? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tstg0/eli5_what_keeps_earth_from_falling_into_the_sun/ | {
"a_id": [
"e19wxiw"
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"score": [
3
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"text": [
"Earth is being attracted more and more to the Sun! We're constantly accelerating towards the Sun at a rate of 5.9mm/s^2 (according to google), causing tides half as strong as the ones caused by the Moon, and we actually do get a bit closer during northern hemisphere winter. \n\nBut since Earth is going sideways, every time the acceleration of the Sun's gravity adds up to enough to pull us to it, we've gone about an astronomical unit sideways, missing it. \n\nThat's pretty much how all orbits work.\n\nNow there is a very small drag on our orbital velocity from solar winds, but since the Earth has *so much* kinetic energy this wont slow us significantly until the Sun becomes a red giant and \"comes up to meet us\" so to speak."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
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||
2ct2l0 | what are 4 dimensional stars? | Saw this article _URL_0_, but I have no idea what a 4 dimensional star actually is. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ct2l0/eli5_what_are_4_dimensional_stars/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjipsq2"
],
"score": [
28
],
"text": [
"The 4D star is a star in another dimensional plain. When our stars collapse, they create a blackhole. They are saying the collapsing of 4D star may have developed our universe, instead of the Big Bang.\n\nThe best way to explain 4D is through the book *Flatland*, but I will try to give a shorter explanation. We live in the 3D. We can move around and observe a length, height, and depth. We can also observe the dimensions below ours, 2D and 1D, but cannot observe above ours. To a person in the 2D, a sphere would appear as a circle that change size as a it moves perpendicular to the 2D plain. Viewing a 4D sphere in 3Dvwould appear as a sphere thay changes size as it moves perpendicular to the 3D plain. \n\n4D is a hard concept to fully grasp. It's even harder to conceptualize. "
]
} | []
| [
"http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/collapsing-4-d-star-could-have-spawned-universe/"
]
| [
[]
]
|
|
5nxyra | the chronology of the universe | More specifically all the (or the most important) events starting from the big bang leading up to today. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nxyra/eli5_the_chronology_of_the_universe/ | {
"a_id": [
"dcf442q"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"13.8 Billions years ago : Big Bang\n\n12.8 Billiosn years ago : First galaxies formed\n\n11 Billions years ago : Milky Way formed\n\n4.5 Billions years ago : Solar System formed (earth formed not long after that)\n\n4.1 Billions years ago : Oldest organic matter found (not life, but there is a good chance that there was life at that time).\n\n3.8-3.5 Billions years ago : Oldest comfirmed form of life\n\n3.4 Billions yeas ago : Photosynthesis\n\n800 millions years ago : First multicellular life.\n\n500 millions years ago : Fish\n\n450 millions years ago : First plants on land\n\n400 millions years ago : Insects\n\n360 millions years ago : Amphibian\n\n300 millions years ago : Reptiles\n\n230 millions years ago : Dinosaurs\n\n200 millions years ago : Mammals\n\n150 millions years ago : Birds\n\n65 millions years ago : Non-avian dinosaurs extinction and first primates\n\n15 millions years ago : Apes\n\n12 millions years ago : Homonids\n\n2.5 millions years ago : Stone age, primitive humans\n\n400 thousands years ago : Domestication of fire\n\n200 thousands years ago : modern human\n\n12 thousands years ago : Agriculture\n\n5 thousands years ago : Bronze age and Egypt\n\n4.5 thousands years ago : Alphabet, Wheel\n\n3 thousands years ago : Iron Age. Classical Antiquity\n\nDate can be off a little, but it give you a good idea of the Chronology.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
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|
3j5bgh | if banning guns in the u.s. would create a huge black market for guns, why doesn't the uk seem to have this problem? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3j5bgh/eli5_if_banning_guns_in_the_us_would_create_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cumegnj"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The UK didn't have more guns than people when they banned guns. There's too many guns currently owned by private citizens and not registered with the government for a ban to be effective."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
f78t66 | what is difference between the pressure under water and air pressure? what is more dangerous? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f78t66/eli5_what_is_difference_between_the_pressure/ | {
"a_id": [
"fi9r4tf",
"fi9rjmz",
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"score": [
2,
2,
2
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"text": [
"I think you'd have to elaborate on that. What do you mean by dangerous?\n\nWater pressure is about 1 bar per 10 m or 33feet. On the surface at 0 m you have 1 bar surface/air pressure which will decrease after 1000 m air upwards you have about 0.9 bar left. So a lake at level would have 2 bars pressure at 10m depth because surface (1bar)+10meters (1 bar). A lake at 1000m hight has 1.9 bars at 10m depth.",
"Compression of gases as the weight of the water increases with depth is more dangerous than expansion of gases as the atmosphere thins with altitude. \n\nThe deeper you go the more nitrogen is squeezed out of the blood. Past 40 meters is very dangerous because a sudden ascent will kill you.\n\nYoud have to go really high, not sure but maybe 10000 meter to die from oxygen deprivation. However you could quickly descend with no ill effects.",
"What do you mean difference? It's exactly the same thing. The only difference is that water pressure increases more rapidly with depth than air pressure decreases with altitude. Neither is \"more dangerous\". You'll be just as dead just as quickly at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean as you are in the vacuum of space."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
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||
5a07vz | what is the pal sun nyo, the recently unveiled korean conspiracy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5a07vz/eli5what_is_the_pal_sun_nyo_the_recently_unveiled/ | {
"a_id": [
"d9cpdjz"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Pal Sun Nyo started as a group of 15 or so individuals early 19th century Korea. They were mostly farmers and herders establishing a social conservative club. In those days Korea, was under heavy influence from chi-gon lee, who's grasp land ownership in the northern regions tightened. In any case those guys started getting together, one thing led to another and they turned out to start, lead and win the battles of the kending mountain region. That was mid 19th century.\n\nThey went through several phases, which I'm not sure you'll find very interesting, except the latest - an organized (mostly illegal) economical network funding a small yet well trained paramilitary sect. \n\nMost recent turmoil is due to the prime minister's wife sleeping with one of their leaders, and the military attack on denket village resulting in the death of 6 armed men and several non armed individuals. \n\nSorry, am on mobile - will try to add more later on"
]
} | []
| []
| [
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2p354k | how can the grand canyon be 18 miles wide in some areas when it was only carved up by water? | Does this mean the Colorado River was once 18 miles wide in parts? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p354k/eli5_how_can_the_grand_canyon_be_18_miles_wide_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmswaet"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"It's like this, It starts off with the small 10 foot river, slowly over time that gets deeper. The deeper that goes the more potential wind erosion.\n\nThink of it like dragging your finger through the sand. At first you make a fine line, then as you do it more and more in the same spot, the sand on the side of the crevice falls into it, thus widening the gap. So gravity just slowly pulls the pebbles on the sides of the canyon and the water takes it away.\n\nNow understand this is not the entire reason for this, it could also be wind or rain, there are so many factors in nature that its extremely difficult to predict any future for any said landscape. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
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8bh3g0 | what weather patterns are causing the us midwest to have such cold weather lately? | Literally feels like Spring will never come. Trees have no leaves, lots of stuff seems way behind schedule due to the cold. It snows weekly still. I'm in Ohio and this feels abnormal. Just wondering what's causing it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8bh3g0/eli5_what_weather_patterns_are_causing_the_us/ | {
"a_id": [
"dx6lzfr"
],
"score": [
20
],
"text": [
"Global warming causing the polar vortex to split and spread south. The North Pole is getting rushed with warm air causing the cold air to move South. We have satellite imagery to prove this."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
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1yzu4x | can you use a vacuum in space? | Can one use a vacuum in space? If so what components would be captured in it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yzu4x/eli5_can_you_use_a_vacuum_in_space/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfp7k61",
"cfpukqz"
],
"score": [
16,
2
],
"text": [
"I'm assuming you mean a vacuum cleaner? If that's what you mean, then no, you can't. Or rather, you can, but it won't work. \nA vacuum cleaner works by creating a pressure difference in the air great enough to suck that air (and other stuff) down through a tube until the stuff is trapped in the bag/container. It does this using a fan to move the air rapidly in one direction. So, in space, since there is no air, there is nothing for the fan to move, so the vacuum cleaner won't work. \nTL;DR: no air, won't work.",
"And I'd like to add to the argument, can the individual retract other elements using a different suction component, ( meaning not oxygen)?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
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