q_id
stringlengths 5
6
| title
stringlengths 3
296
| selftext
stringlengths 0
34k
| document
stringclasses 1
value | subreddit
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 4
110
| answers
dict | title_urls
list | selftext_urls
list | answers_urls
list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4govvd | why does a microwave cook things unevenly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4govvd/eli5_why_does_a_microwave_cook_things_unevenly/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2je9k0",
"d2jjts9"
],
"score": [
18,
2
],
"text": [
"The waves bounce around inside the machine and this makes a pattern. Places where the waves overlap get more heat, places where they don't get less. \n\nYou can visualize the pattern by placing certain foods inside _URL_0_\n\n",
"Microwaves do not come out of the magnetron like a gas and fill the cavity of the oven. They are directed through a tube and assume more or less a straight line. They need to be bounced around to hit all areas of the oven. To achieve this, the waves are bounced off a metal stirring wheel that turns in a circle. The effectiveness of the design varies with the model. Some are so good you can cook bread or anything without hot spots. A simple test is to place a shallow container of water in the oven and boil that water. When it first starts to boil you will see bubbles at the hottest spot. If you seen bubbles evenly distributed, that verifies to you that the waves are evenly distributed.\nThis stirring mechanism used to be performed by a metal wheel under the tray and was never seen by the consumer. More recently they moved the stirrer up top and under a cover there. Carousels were added partly for customer demand because of a bad reputation for hot spots. They do help make the cooking more even though.\nA modern inverter style MW does not cycle off and on in the conventional sense. The power output is even at the level selected so pulsing is avoided and cooking is theoretically more even."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2011/microwave-oven-diagnostics-with-indian-snack-food/"
],
[]
]
|
||
2sr10s | why do we perceive light sources to have lines sticking out of them? | Like in this picture: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2sr10s/eli5_why_do_we_perceive_light_sources_to_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"cns2dcr",
"cns2g01"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"It is because when light passes through our eyes it is distorted around little cracks called suture lines. These cracks are slightly different for every eye, so you see the \"sticks\" coming out of light sources a little different from everyone else.\n\nCameras also have this effect, because the light is bent by passing through their little opening, which is often exagonal. Space telescope Hubble has four struts that support its secondary mirror, and that's why in its pictures stars are four-pointed.\n\nBONUS ANSWER: This is also a possible explanation for why we draw stars like we do (with points, rather than as the little dots they actually are)",
"[Minutephysics has a video that answers exactly this question!](_URL_1_). Basically, it's a distortion caused by obstructions to the light before it hits the optics. In that particular picture, what you're seeing is the four struts holding up the [Hubble Telescope's secondary mirror](_URL_0_). "
]
} | []
| [
"http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1452a.jpg"
]
| [
[],
[
"http://www.dragndropbuilder.com/uploads/2/7/3/8/2738448/2456839.jpg?505",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVAKFJ8VVp4"
]
]
|
|
1mokox | how does nearly every new automobile advertised wins some type of award or fantastic rating? | every car advertised has a best in class or some award/rating/stars/blah blah why is this does every 2013 car made this year have some type of award whats the point | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mokox/eli5_how_does_nearly_every_new_automobile/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccb58zn",
"ccbhhut"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"*Ratings* are easy to get (relatively speaking). All you have to do is meet a certain list of criteria (e.g.: safety features, crush resistance, etc) and *every* car could get a 5-Star rating. There is no cap on the number of ratings that can be given out; it's just how *high* the rating is, depending on the features.\n\nAwards are a little more complicated, because there is usually a finite supply (e.g.: only 1 car can win the \"Best Small Vehicle under $30K\" award), so they are directly competing for the same thing. But there are so many *different* awards in the first place (e.g.: per magazine, per company, per country, per vehicle type, per price-range, etc) that you just have to find the right category to enter. If you enter your car into 50 different competitions, it's likely that you can win at least *one* of them.",
"Most awards are paid placement, which is to say that if you pay that magazine a lot of money for other services you'll win something. This isn't unique to cars. Every magazine that does ratings will give you a good review if you buy enough advertising."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
3mntgh | can north korea be converted from a totalitarian state into a democratic state by any means? and how? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mntgh/eli5_can_north_korea_be_converted_from_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvgl24i",
"cvglgvl",
"cvgmyqr"
],
"score": [
7,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Yes. But it won't happen overnight. Parts of the former DDR are still not economically recovered . Berlin has gone bankrupt 2 or 3 times trying to fix infrastructure issues. If tomorrow Korea was unified parts of the North would still be depressed 30 years from now. ",
"Any country can change into anything. \n\nNorth Korea simply has a ruling class that does whatever it takes to maintain absolute control. Recently it was in the news that the new Kim would have had no issue executing his own uncle at a whim, that regime does not mess around. This is of course on top of having extensive Gulag-like camps that enslave people and keep political dissidents at bay. \n\nThe Soviet Union was much larger and it too had gulags and things like restriction of movement (you could be barred from travel even in the Soviet Union for little reason, let alone leaving the soviet bloc) a heavy handed secret police, local councils to keep the party in order and constant propaganda. Even the leaders of the Soviet Union at one point had no idea how the west really lived, there are famous pictures of soviet chairmen amazed at what a super market could offer. People saw Ronald Reagan on tv and were shocked at how young he looked for a president, the average soviet life span was noticeably lower outside of cities. \n\nAt the end of the day the Soviet Union fell but not for one reason but for many. I don't think we can simplify why this happened, at least I won't try now. But the important thing to take from that is that even a giant behemoth can splinter and crack. North Korea definitely can. \n\nI honestly think the will is there in North Korea. The ruling class wants power to split its the same story we have seen throughout modern history and even ancient history (when a king becomes weak the nobles always clammer for more control). \n\nHere's what has to happen:\n\n-\"Little\" Kim Jong Douche needs to show that he's no longer able to lead NK to the ruling elite.\n\n-China needs to completely distance itself from NK politically, without China's at least passive support the country will truly be in trouble.\n\n-Western/ eastern (ie Chinese, Japanese, Korean ect) culture needs to penetrate NK on a large scale. People listen to Chinese dvd's in hushed voices, everyone needs to be informed. Information is more powerful than any gun. The constant propaganda must be defeated. \n\n-The people must demand democracy. I say the fall of Kim is possible but honestly after that happens it's more than likely a top general will take over, but this can be overcome eventually. It's far more likely NK will end up looking more like China than the U.S. or Japan if Kim were fall. ",
"You could certainly slap a democratic government on there, but it will almost inevitably end up like the former soviet states - firmly under control of oligarchs, the people who control large sectors of the economy in a monopolistic fashion. \n\nIn general, a working democracy never rises from nothing. It takes time to be established, and a lot of dedicated people willing to fight for it. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
258b5u | why do my cock and balls seem to be acquiring an increasingly healthy tan as i get older, despite their very limited exposure to daylight? | I tried the search bar and found no answer.
It is generally held that a mans manhood gets darker as he ages.
Why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/258b5u/eli5_why_do_my_cock_and_balls_seem_to_be/ | {
"a_id": [
"cheo1o1",
"cheoo8e",
"cheqzqn",
"cher8kk",
"chescuk",
"chf3pyu"
],
"score": [
5,
9,
2,
6,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Vaginas must be tanning beds.",
"No seriously. \nSomeone smart please answer this. \nWhy is my genital skin darker than most all of my other skin. \nAnd darkening as I get older",
"Something to do with the elasticity of the skin. A good visual representation would be to take a rubber band, and stretch it. Notice how it changes to a little lighter of a color and then darker as it returns to its normal shape? ",
"The expression of Androgen receptors is greater in melanocytes located in the areolas and genital area. Thus, Androgen stimulation promotes the synthesis of melanin and pigmentation in these areas. This is a relevant paper: _URL_0_\nThere are other hormonal stimuli that promote melanogenesis and their excessive activity causes excessive genital pigmentation (e.g Addison's disease causes excessive synthesis of POMC/MSH).\nELI5 translation: The chemicals that turn you into adult also make you darker. The skin at your genitals reacts more from those chemicals. We evolved this way likely to protect the areas more from harmful sunlight radiation.",
"Your old saggy balls are farther away from your face, and the redshift just makes them look darker. ",
"Skin tone, hair tone, and eye color are caused by how much melanin is present, darker skin has more melanin, your genitals have more melanin to protect the genetic information (sperm) from the sun's radiation that would cause genetic damage to them."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v109/n4/abs/5610049a.html"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
czyoa0 | how do the gears on a bicycle allow me to go faster than if i was expending the same amount of energy running? | I've gathered that they’re generating more force and not energy (from a few google searches), but I still can’t get my head around it and need it explained like I’m a small child. Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/czyoa0/eli5_how_do_the_gears_on_a_bicycle_allow_me_to_go/ | {
"a_id": [
"ez3zi0p",
"ez3zx2k",
"ez41gdj",
"ez4eemu"
],
"score": [
77,
5,
17,
3
],
"text": [
"You ever try just *throwing* a tennis ball for the dog as hard as you can, and it goes pretty far? But then you buy one of those ball yeeters and you throttle that sombitch and it goes almost a literal kilometer? \n\nLeverage. Leverage let’s you get more out of the same amount of *whatever*, in this case: force. More distance for the same force by utilizing mechanisms outside of our body.",
"You know how a lever works? Things with a longer handle (eg: wrenches) let you apply more turning force to the thing in question. Or, a see-saw will let a skinny person balance out a fat person if the fat person gets closer to the centre than the skinny person is.\n\nWell gears are basically interconnected levers. If you have a small gear with 10 teeth on it in mesh with a large gear with 30 teeth in it, then it takes 3 rotations of the small gear to equal 1 rotation of the big gear. Connect the small gear to your bicycle pedals and the large gear to the wheels and the bicycle feels about 1/3 as heavy to your legs as matching gear sizes, but you need to pedal faster to maintain speed. Swap them around, and 1 rotation of the pedals turns the wheel 3 times but feels WAY heavier. On level ground though the weight isn't as big a deal as if you were climbing a hill and you can get some serious speed going.\n\nCars are the same way, with the bike pedals replaced by an engine and no chain (except for CVT \"gearboxes\").\n\nNormally you think of gears as directly connected with their teeth interlocking, but using a chain between them works just as well as long as the size of the teeth on the gears matches.\n\nYou also ask: \"...the same amount of energy running?\" Well wheels do have the advantage of keeping you moving with you doing nothing but balancing yourself, whereas when running you have to keep your legs moving or you'll just trip and fall.",
"In addition to the leverage mentioned above, a bike also allows you to capture the energy you would normally expend fighting gravity. When you walk or run, a ton of energy is spent remaining up instead of falling. On a bike, your uprightness is maintained by the bike, you only use energy to maintain balance and to move forward.",
"bikes are insanely efficient. something like 90% of the energy expended on them goes into mostion. this is because they have low friction all round and nothing to slow you down and you need no effort to stay up. in running a large portion of your energy goes into boving your limbs when not exerting power and in bouncing you up high enough to not trip before your feet can get back to the front. theres alot of superfluous motion and is really inefficient"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
c8i3az | why is it lightbulbs have to be replaced every so often but seemingly small lights (like those that indicate a tv is off/on) can last for 10 years or more? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c8i3az/eli5_why_is_it_lightbulbs_have_to_be_replaced/ | {
"a_id": [
"esmz5lg",
"esmz9dh",
"esmzkd1"
],
"score": [
12,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Older light bulbs are incandescent lights. They make light by heating a small metal filament with electricity. Over time that filament wears out and eventually breaks.\n\nSmall lights like the power light on an appliance have been mostly LEDs for probably 30 years now. LEDs have a *much* longer lifespan, but until the last few years were pretty expensive to use in applications where you needed an actual bright light source.\n\nNow LED light bulbs are getting pretty cheap, and those will go years and years without needing replacement.",
"Some small lights are actually LEDs, these don’t operate on the same principal as lights. \n\nLight bulbs, traditionally anyway, use a filament to create light. Electricity is passed through the filament which then lights up because of heat. Over time the filament oxidizes, which makes it brittle, and eventually it can’t handle the flow of electricity and it breaks; it burn out. \n\nLEDs operate differently. They don’t have a filament, but instead use semiconductors to pass electricity over. The semiconductor doesn’t get hot, or oxidize, and only produce light because of the electrons passing over the material. A component can fail, causing the LED to fail, but it won’t “burn out”. They can degrade over time with use however, but it takes much longer. Some LEDs can last decades depending on how frequently they’re used or how bright they need to be. \n\nIt’s sort of like using a rope to tie something up versus using a metal lock. A rope wears down every time you use it, and it weathers just by being used. Eventually it’ll fray and break. A metal lock in the other hand will last much longer because it has fewer parts to wear down. They’ll both break, but the rope takes longer because it suffers more wear and tear in its use than metal locks do.",
"With a set amount of voltage in a home (say, 120volts), a 60w incadescent bulb will draw 0.5 amps of current. A similar output led is only, say, 6 watts. On a 120v circuit it will draw 0.05 amps, one tenth. Amperage produces heat which is an enemy of electrical components. Your indicating lights on electronics have their ratings way lower than is needed for a bulb that goes into a lamp as well. \n\nIm sure there is more complex explanation since i am a novice, but going off theory alone, that could explain it."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
j38c0 | can someone explain how a asteroid or a large rock generates the equivalent of a bomb when it hits earth ? | Thanks for the answers everyone, it was very informative ! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j38c0/can_someone_explain_how_a_asteroid_or_a_large/ | {
"a_id": [
"c28ra51"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"Take a fist and slam it into a sandbox. Feel how the motion of your hand is quickly stopped and sand flies everywhere?\n\nYou moving hand has Kinetic energy (think of Kinetic to mean 'moving'). When your fist hits the sand, the energy doesn't just disappear- it has to go somewhere. So the energy of your hand moves into the sandbox and sand uses the moving energy to fly up into your face."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
88k65h | how do our pupils know when to dilate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/88k65h/eli5_how_do_our_pupils_know_when_to_dilate/ | {
"a_id": [
"dwl6mh0"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Our pupils are fed information by a light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eyeballs which is referred to as the \"retina\". When there is little light striking the retina the pupils are allowed to relax to let in more light."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
4t678i | how do heat resistant gloves work? (ex: ove glove) | I just bought an Ove Glove knock-off and I can't figure out why it works. I'm pretty sure it is not the thin silicone texture on the outer surface, so I'm guessing the technology is in the fabric. Can some one explain this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4t678i/eli5_how_do_heat_resistant_gloves_work_ex_ove/ | {
"a_id": [
"d5evwzv"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"It's made of a heat resistant fabric called Nomex, with Kevlar woven in. The silicone is primarily for grippiness."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
18acos | what were marx and engels' thoughts on women's rights? | I'm reading *The Communist Manifesto* and I'm picking up that these two are not a fan of the bourgeois establishment of marriage, but can anyone give me a clearer idea of where women stood in their evaluation of society? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18acos/eli5_what_were_marx_and_engels_thoughts_on_womens/ | {
"a_id": [
"c8d13ut"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Marx and Engels thought that women's rights were really just part of the same struggle against capitalism. That is, they thought that all the *violations* of women's rights were caused by greedy people only trying to make more money. In their hypothetical future societies, where people did not try to do that, women's rights would just naturally stop being a problem."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
c03tpv | why is it easier to eat more food if it is delicious? | I’m eating chicken biryani right now and I ate twice the amount of rice than my mother usually gives me.
Why does appetite depend on taste? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c03tpv/eli5_why_is_it_easier_to_eat_more_food_if_it_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"er0o4m7"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Your brain decides non-tasty food is not food so it tries to get you to not eat it. It’s a survival mechanism."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
59xtea | why are totalitarian regimes like china and saudi arabia admitted seat on the human rights council? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59xtea/eli5_why_are_totalitarian_regimes_like_china_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"d9c7wc6",
"d9c8t7o",
"d9co07f"
],
"score": [
14,
5,
4
],
"text": [
"The member states are elected. There are 47 member states. Enough of them voted for Saudi Arabia and China for them to be elected. China is one of the most powerful countries in the world and has huge influence across the world. It is no surprise that they would be elected. Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producer in the world and probably the most influential country in the Middle East. It is no surprise they were elected either. Also, in theory being authoritarian does not mean abusing human rights, although there is more potential for abuse. ",
"if china and SA werent on the council, they would dismiss everything it says as the west trying to control them. by making them members, they enable discussion on even footing, so they're more likely to listen\n\nat least that was the idea",
"Because they are admitted for political reasons rather than merit.\n\nIn some areas, there are not a lot of competitive candidates. Small countries may not have the resources or willingness to engage in the council's work. Other countries often don't participate because they don't want to criticize other governments, especially if they have something to gain from them. Meanwhile, they will support the candidacies of member states with pretty horrible records for political gains as well. Countries not at all interested in human rights do have an interest in showcasing their international influence and using their position on the council to hinder any attempts of the council to pass resolutions which criticize them.\n\nLike many committees on the UN, the process is somewhat or a farce as it is political rather than objective. Consider that the Council has only one permanent agenda item--Israel. This year (like practically every year), the Council passed resolutions condemning Israel 5 times more than any other country. Syria, Iran and North Korea each had 1. Meanwhile, ISIS, Russia and China received zero and in numerous parts of the world, minorities have few rights, political prisoners are tortured, women are murdered for \"male honor,\" are stones to death for suspected adultery, have their genitals mutilated or are imprisoned or killed for having the wrong religion. Since its inception in 2006, the Council has passed 67 resolutions against Israel and 71 for all other countries combined. The Council replaced the former UN Commission on Human Rights which had similar problems, such as the election of Sudan to the Commission while it was simultaneously engaged in genocide in Darfur. \n\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
5l86ri | what makes ivory different than normal bone and why is it so valuable? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5l86ri/eli5_what_makes_ivory_different_than_normal_bone/ | {
"a_id": [
"dbtozv4"
],
"score": [
18
],
"text": [
"Ivory is mammal tooth. It is primarily made of dentine.\n\nElephants have very large tusks (teeth) so were one of the only sources of very large pieces of ivory, since most teeth are quite small and even large tusks on many animals still are basically nothing when compared to the impressive tusks of the elephant. \n\nIt is valuable because it is an excellent carving material."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
18443w | why is it that after i peel a 'post it' sticky note off of the block, the one below it doesn't seem to have any sticky residue left on it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18443w/eli5_why_is_it_that_after_i_peel_a_post_it_sticky/ | {
"a_id": [
"c8bg2sy",
"c8bi9ex"
],
"score": [
15,
2
],
"text": [
"The adhesive used on Post-it notes was discovered by a chemist at 3M, who initially thought it was too weak to use for anything practical. Eventually, they changed their minds, and commercialized the Post-it note.\n\nAlthough I don't know all the details of the chemistry, and 3M probably doesn't give out their secrets, the adhesive is probably applied to each note individually in a form that is wetter and stickier, probably by either applying it hot, or applying it dissolved in something else. After the adhesive either cools or the solvent evaporates, it would be less liquid and more solid, so it would stick to itself a lot more than it would to other things.\n\nA professor once told me a story about an engineer who worked for a company that made adhesive tape, who asked some students \"what do you think the hardest part is, when you're designing adhesive tape?\" The students answered \"making it sticky\". \"Wrong\", he said. \"The hardest part about designing tape, is making it *not stick to itself*.\"",
"wow, thanks! that's actually really answered my question!! "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
8qzeui | how do fast food restaurants manage to handle higher volumes faster than normal restaurants? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8qzeui/eli5_how_do_fast_food_restaurants_manage_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"e0n9mu7",
"e0n9uw7"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Lower quality food. It’s easy to dunk some chicken nuggets than to cook a steak that’s made to order.",
"At McDonalds we kept cooked patties, nuggets, etc. in a heated tray. They were thrown out after a certain amount of time and replaced so meals only had to be assembled and packaged not cooked."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
23wfhb | why do i see "stars" or sparks when i get up quickly, or a big stretch? | I have gotten up really fast and boom, ill get a few sparkles or stars in my sight or when I do a long hard stretch. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23wfhb/eli5why_do_i_see_stars_or_sparks_when_i_get_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch182v7"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"There isn't enough blood getting to your brain. You're on the verge of passing out."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
6havuz | how to temperature guns work in order to get the temperature of a surface? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6havuz/eli5_how_to_temperature_guns_work_in_order_to_get/ | {
"a_id": [
"diww71p"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Next time you turn on your stove, you might notice that the burner turns red as it heats up.\n\nThat's because increasing the temperature of an object causes it to radiate energy.\n\nNow, for most objects, increasing the temperature of an object over the comfortable range for human beings doesn't change the energy it emits as visible light. Your burner had to get pretty hot before it started glowing red.\n\nBut infrared light is emitted by most objects based on even relatively low temperatures. So if you want to see how hot an object is, all you need to do is look at it in the infrared spectrum.\n\nYou can't see in the infrared spectrum. But your temperature gun can, so all it does is measure the luminosity of an infrared emitter - the object you're pointing it at."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2fgn64 | what is stephen harper doing, or what has he done, that negatively affects canada and me as a canadian? | I am not super into politics but have a general idea. I get that people really hate Stephen Harper. I'd like to educate myself more on the subject so I'm not ignorantly following any crowd. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fgn64/eli5_what_is_stephen_harper_doing_or_what_has_he/ | {
"a_id": [
"ck92xuc",
"ck931uh"
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text": [
"To put it briefly, Harper's sucked the red out of the Canadian flag.\n\nNot even a joke, really; look at the logo for [Canada's Economic Action Plan.](_URL_0_)\n\nMr. Harper used underhanded political maneuvers to dodge serious questions of his government's competency. To do this, he closed Parliament for a length of time, at the Canadian public's expense. \n\nWhen he decided he didn't have enough power, he provoked another election, another large expense to the taxpayer. He got another one shortly thereafter, which you paid for again, after his government was found in contempt of Parliament due to withholding details of proposed legislation, especially pertaining to costs, from the Parliament at large. He won a majority government that time, and then he was off to the races.\n\nSince 2011, the Harper government has:\n\n• Moved to abolish the per-vote subsidy political parties receive, making them fully dependent on donations for funding and putting your government further into the hands of special interests.\n\n• Eliminated the mandatory long-form census, reducing important data crucial to governmental and organizational decisionmaking sourced from the most vulnerable members of Canadian society.\n\n• Made deep cuts to environmental protections, especially water protections, in Canada. If you've ever heard anyone talk about our fresh water as a major asset...\n\n• Attempted to pass a so-called Fair Elections Act which would impede the neutral elections body of Canada from encouraging people to vote, as well as instituting stricter standards for identification in a thinly-veiled effort to stop groups that won't support him from voting.\n\n• Leaned on the media and government-backed scientists to reduce or stop reporting on climate change.\n\n• Reduced public, media and even governmental access to members of his government.\n\n• Hid behind claims of accountability and openness while appointing a crony as integrity commissioner. She's since been dismissed from office with a hefty payout of your tax dollars and a gag order.\n\n• Demanded that all government communications be filtered through his control, whether a simple advisory from Parks Canada or a crucial report on escaped laser sharks from the Canadian Department of Those Things Shouldn't Exist.\n\nI could go on, but the gist is that you're getting a government that wastes money promoting itself and suppressing dissent while mortgaging your fine country's environment and fresh water supply for the purpose of silencing criticism of the oil industry. This while creating a new culture of political attack ads, which he has running constantly even years before the next scheduled election. His party goes after anyone considered to be an opponent, including a lawsuit against Elections Canada itself.",
"Lied to the parliament about the cost of plane purchasing knowingly. Made history as the first Prime-Minister in the history of the Commonwealth to be found in contempt of parliament for it.\n\nFound to have willfully overspent during his 2006 campaign. \n\nProrogued parliament during controversy multiple times.\n\nCensors scientists because they're saying things contrary to his political agenda. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://canadianimmigrant.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/canada-action-plan.jpg"
],
[]
]
|
|
1u68g8 | why won't companies ship to p.o boxes? | Just overall, I am wondering, I tried to google it, and could not find a easy answer, but why won't most companies ship things to P.O Boxes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u68g8/eli5why_wont_companies_ship_to_po_boxes/ | {
"a_id": [
"ceewigb",
"ceexpt0",
"ceexv8s",
"ceeyyxn",
"cef2fne"
],
"score": [
14,
2,
6,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"The law says only the United States Postal Service may deliver to post office boxes. Also, if the package needs to be signed for, a PO box cannot do this.\n\nOn the other hand, it's not unusual for companies such as The UPS Store, FedEx/Kinko's (not to mention many mom n' pop stores) to offer mailboxes that don't belong to the USPS, and one can have packages *not* shipped by the USPS delivered to such boxes. And during business hours, there *will* be someone there to sign for the package.",
"They do, in Somerton Arizona they do not have mail boxes within the city and instead have a post office with po boxes. Most packages delivered there are identified by their home address and put in the box it belongs to. If it's too big it goes in back and you get a note saying to come to the Window. My guess for most placed not doing it is space. This is a relatively small town. Bigger cities would not be able to pull it off at a reasonable price. That's my guess though. \n > Just overall, I am wondering, I tried to google it, and could not find a easy answer, but why won't most companies ship things to P.O Boxes?\n\n",
"Maybe I'm mistaken, but I always thought it was to try to avoid fraud. Like, if you use a stolen credit card, it's safer to have them mail something you bought to a PO box than to your home address, so by forcing a person to use a home address, it might make them think twice about using the credit card.",
"While USPS does offer attractive rates, their business services leave a lot to be desired. Some reasons my business does not use USPS....\n\n* Pickup times vary wildly day to day.\n* Often the mail truck is too \"full\" to take our packages, even though we schedule pickups online. In turn, we end have to drop them off ourselves (more cost).\n* Poor tracking system leading to more customer inquiries.\n* Near non-existent business (or customer) support.\n* Service refunds are difficult to track.\n\nAt the end of the day, it's the laborious and costly process of getting that package to the PO Box that makes it prohibitive.",
"UPS will deliver to a PO Box. The post office signs for it, UPS lists it as delivered. Then you get a notification thru your PO Box like a yellow card. Source: I have had things shipped several times this way even tho I don't prefer this method."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
17vaw0 | how do sellers on etsy and elsewhere get away with selling art based on trademarked characters? | Here's a scenario: Molly makes Pikachu keychains out of clay and sells them on Etsy. She makes a mold for the Pikachus all by herself, and hand-paints each one. The keychains look exactly like the character. She markets them as "Pikachu Keychain," and uses Pokemon, Pikachu, Poke ball, etc. (all trademarked words, I imagine) as tags for her item. These Pikachu keychains explode in popularity, and Molly winds up making thousands of dollars per month somehow. Could she be sued for this, now that she's making good money off of it?
Second scenario: Molly makes Pikachu keychains out of clay and sells them on Etsy. She makes a mold for the Pikachus all by herself, and hand-paints each one. The keychains look almost like Pikachu, but she does the tail a little differently or paints the cheeks the wrong color or something. She markets them as "Yellow Mouse Keychain," but still uses Pokemon, Pikachu, Poke ball, etc. as tags for her item. Everyone knows that the "yellow mouse" is supposed to be Pikachu, but she never explicitly says so. Could she be sued for this? What if she hadn't used any trademarked words as tags for her items?
Third scenario: Molly makes Pikachu keychains and sells them on Etsy, either as she does in the first scenario or the second scenario. After moderate success with Pikachu, Molly retires the design and begins making keychains based solely on her own ideas. One of these ideas is extremely popular, and Molly winds up a very wealthy woman from making and selling her special Molly Keychains. If Nintendo finds out that she used to sell Pikachu keychains, can they sue her for all they money she earned from non-Pikachu designs?
Also, what will happen to Molly if she gets into trouble? Do they send her a cease and desist before suing her? Does she get in trouble for making money off of someone else's idea, or for using someone else's idea in the first place? Does she have to pay Nintendo whatever earnings she made off the trademarked items, or does she get sued/fined for more than that?
Yes, I am Molly, though I haven't started listing any Pika-chains yet. Also, they aren't Pikachu keychains. I was just wondering what would happen if I did this. Thousands of shops on Etsy deal in this kind of thing, so I'm guessing that companies don't care to litigate small-fry artists, but what if one of them happened to make it big somehow? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17vaw0/eli5_how_do_sellers_on_etsy_and_elsewhere_get/ | {
"a_id": [
"c895ydh",
"c896le1",
"c8970kg",
"c8975in",
"c897hg9",
"c897qgj",
"c898nen",
"c898q69",
"c8990sv",
"c899duf",
"c89an52",
"c89bsx2",
"c89bvz4",
"c89cb35",
"c89fzqp",
"c89gpli"
],
"score": [
212,
7,
38,
17,
9,
19,
16,
193,
5,
2,
3,
3,
2,
9,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Lack of enforcement. No one is going around enforcing trademarks, the companies are left to do that themselves (at least the discovery portion). However it is important to note that scale is very important in these kind of things.\n\nFor instance if I sell $1000 worth of keychains that cost me $400, Nintendo is going to have a hard time getting more than $600 out of me. They might be able to go with the full $1000 if they are lucky, but getting more than the total profits requires showing that your own image is tarnished by the offshoot. Given the scale differences that is basically impossible.\n\nNext consider how much a suit like this costs to bring to court, probably on the scale of $10,000. They are doubtful to go after anyone who has made less than $100,000 at that cost.\n\nBut keep in mind they still could, they just probably won't.",
"More than likely because it isn't worth the money to sic lawyers on people making a couple hundred bucks off of your trademarked material. Sure, you'd shut them down, but it would cost you way more than you'd ever recoup",
"Probably nothing happens beyond maybe a cease-and-desist letter because:\n\n1. It would cost way more to actually sue than they could make back from the average etsy seller\n\n2. If it got out to the press, it's pretty bad PR. Copyright theft or no, some people would see it as the company attacking a dedicated fan who's just trying to help other fans enjoy the IP. If the company offers a similar official product, that's another story, but if they don't so you're selling something fans *can't* get officially, it's not going to be a great PR move for them to sue.\n\nBut cease and desist letters are fast and cheap, so probably you end up with one of those sooner or later.",
"My wife's friend got into some trouble on Etsy because she was using some trademarked cartoons on her party decorations. They closed her old \"shop\" on Etsy, fined her a bit of money and now she's in the process of rebuilding it all.\n\nSome companies are a little more lax when it comes to intellectual property, but most people don't \"get away with it.\"",
"Low scale bla bla the same as above, but it's important to note that if you were say caught, apprehended and proscuted before a judge, this very post could be used as evidence against you and could worsen your judgement.",
"[regretsy](_URL_0_) has talked about this a lot, but it's mostly Etsy dealers who are appropriating other sellers' designs and selling them at a discount.\n\nBasically, if Etsy staff had to go in and stamp out all the IP and copyright infringment on their site, it would run off tons of their sellers and most of the quality goods. \n\nIt would be suicide for Etsy to gid rid of the problem, so they claim no responsibility and let rights-holders find offenders on their own.",
"The people who blatantly print out copyrighted images and slap them on their product are the scum of the earth.\n\n\nSource: An etsy merchant. ",
"To answer this, you need to know what Intellectual Property (IP) is. IP is a collection of legal subjective (meaning belonging to a person) rights: copyright, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. IP is designed to protect the original author/inventor/creator against unauthorized duplications of their work. \n\nSee, all the things protected by IP have in common that they are easy to reproduce without incurring the costs in coming up with them in the first place and without significant loss in quality. If I write a fantastic essay, you can have and consume it at the same time as someone else. That is in the nature of information. Information is what we call non-rivalrous. A banana, for example, is rivalrous. That one banana can only be consumed once. (No, don't even go there)\n\nA banana, in all its simplicity, is also exclusionary. I can prevent you from having my banana by simply keeping it myself for the purpose of eating it. An essay, like any form of information, isn't exclusionary. I cannot prevent you from consuming it. From the moment I publish my essay, I can no longer prevent anyone from obtaining it. I could never publish my essay, but that defeats the purpose of the essay entirely.\n\nIn comes the free rider. The person that did not put in any effort to write the essay. They did not incur any costs in making, and still they can obtain and consume my essay. They can also duplicate it and distribute further. As it happens, my essays are not really worth the effort, so good luck with that. However, if you just sank $10 million into making a fantastic documentary, you definitely want to earn some of that money back. You probably don't want everybody to just go ahead and copy and distribute it without limitations.\n\nThat is why legal systems have IP. IP is pretty much a 'legal fiction' that adds excludability to information. The legal system makes that you are the only person that is **allowed** to make copies. While everybody still **can** do it, they just aren't allowed to. What your right entails is that you get a monopoly on producing, duplicating, selling, using and distributing whatever the subject of your IP is.\n\nSo, now that this is clear, let's see about the scenario's, so you can learn about the various types of IP and their workings.\n\n*Scenario I*: Pikachu (it's depiction) falls under copyright, and did so from the moment he(she/it?) was drawn for the first time. You don't need to register a copyright. As soon as you made something that can fall under a copyright, it is protected. Pokemon is probably a registered trademark. That means, if you want to make a claim to it you have to register it at a trademark office. Clearly Molly is violating both copyright (by making the keychains), and trademark (presenting them as Pokemon). You don't need to exploit this commercially to be in violation. There are some derivative works you are allowed to make that fall under fair use, but certainly that is not the case her given her commercial ventures. The holder of the IP (Nintendo?) can sue her for damages incurred by her wrongdoing.\n\n*Scenario II*: Using the tags in relation to selling a product is still a violation of the trademark. Whether or not she violates copyright depends on how much different the key chain turns out from the actual pikachu. If it is distinguishable enough then there is no problem. Different jurisdictions handle this differently. Maybe violating.\n\n*Scenario III*: No. Only the damage incurred by Nintendo can be claimed. However some jurisdictions award higher damages for certain willful breaches of certain IP (i.e. US for patent breaches).\n\nThe way the IP owner will address the situation with Molly depends on them and the jurisdiction. Cease and desist, settlement etc. are usual options before dragging someone to court. Some jurisdictions have criminal law for certain IP breaches (i.e. mass distribution of fake brand clothing or handbags) and smuggling of such items.\n\nMolly would do best making her own designs. Or Molly could commission an artist to make a design and obtain the copyright to it. Then she can sue everyone else's socks off when they try to copy her successful product. Good luck!\n\n",
"If I was a copyright/trademark lawyer, I would camp out on Etsy every day with C & D letters ready to go. I'm still amazed Bill Waterson hasn't slapped the myriad Calvin and Hobbes shops on Etsy yet. He was always so against the merchandising of his product, even through legal channels.",
"My best friend's cousin was selling cookie baskets on Etsy that had lollipops with characters on them. She was sent a cease and desist order from Warner Brothers to stop using their characters in her shop. ",
"Probable outcomes:\n\n* Nothing happens. They either don't notice you or can't be bothered.\n\n* You receive a cease and desist letter, usually sent by certified mail to your home or business address, depending on what they find. The letter will either: demand that you stop; demand that you stop and sign a settlement indicating you admit to your unlawful act and agree not to do it again, or; demand you stop, turn over your accounting books to them, admit wrongdoing, and pay them money.\n\nIf you get the C & D then you can either blow them off and hope they don't sue (they will if you continue to infringe their marks), or you comply with their demands (which are often cheaper than hiring a lawyer). You could also fight it, but that is very expensive.\n\nAs for your three scenarios, the outcome doesn't change that much for each. If the case were to go to trial then it would matter, but these things settle out of court. So maybe Nintendo would be less likely to demand money in #3 vs. #1 when you get that letter, but it doesn't make too much difference.",
"The short version is this: It would cost the companies more to pay their lawyers to hunt down the artists and sue them, then they could actually hope to get out of it. \n\nThat being said, if you are making \"thousands\" then you start edging into the territory of 'worth it' for them to sue you. Additionally; most places will start with a cease-and-desist letter that says \"knock it off or we will come after you\".\n\nOn the off chance you are thinking of trying this, I would say this: either a) don't use copyrighted material (but I understand that it helps make money) or b) make the copyrighted stuff, and stop as soon as you have enough of a following to merit it. \n\nP.S. If you make a little money of the copyrighted stuff, and then stop and make tons off other original ideas... the copyright owner could still sue you and take the other money as damages. Once you're in, you're in,. ",
"First of all, this is definitely illegal. As for whether someone would not be persecuted for this, I believe they will not/don't due to the fact that it is such a small operation, or a \"limited production run\" so that it isn't worth pokemon having to pay all their lawyers for a slice of Mollys counterfeit pikachus. Yes, they would send a cease and dessist before suing her, but it's unlikely it would ever make it to a courtroom. Since you are Molly, I would suggest putting \"limited production run\" in your description somewhere, as this should scare away the lawyers.",
"The real question is, why are stores like Urban Outfitters allowed to rip-off original designs directly from Etsy sellers to re-print and put in their stores, when people on Etsy cannot do the same. :)",
"I know I'm showing up to this discussion pretty late, but from the responses I've read it seems like nobody's properly answered your questions yet, so here's my two cents. Please know that I am not a copyright/intellectual property lawyer, but I do have some experience in this area.\n\nTo start, yes, copyright infringement is abundant on sites such as Etsy and Ebay. People could spend all day looking for unlicensed products online, and *they do*. When dealing with the world of copyright law it's important to first understand that many copyright holders (whether it's a sports team or toy franchise) will hand over the licensing management side to a third party. This makes sense because there are thousands of companies all wanting to slap a Pikachu on everything from clothing to key chains, and there are even more companies illegally using these logos. Having one company that manages licensing for multiple copyright holders allows them to easily manage large manufacturing agreements like with Nike or EA, and provides them with an army of lawyers that are always on hand that specialize only in copyright law and cases.\n\nThis brings me to my next point. The copyright holders and the licensing management companies usually aren't the ones browsing Etsy looking for knockoffs, it's the companies that legitimately gained permission to use their marks that are going to find you. Nike makes a pair of Pikachu shoes and a percentage of those sales goes to paying royalties to the company that owns Pokemon (I'd also like to mention that I'm not sure if whatever company that owns Pokemon uses a third party licensing company or if they do it in house), so when they see someone else selling unlicensed Pikachu shoes they're most likely going to be the ones to report you.\n\nThen the army of lawyers will send you a cease and desist order to stop, and maybe throw a fine your way. As other people have mentioned, they're not going to waste the resources dragging every offender to court, but if you keep at it you run the very real risk of being taken to court where they will sue you for damages on any profits you might have made plus their legal expenses, and they will win. Now on to your scenarios:\n\n1. Yes they will sue as previously mentioned. Generally they won't go beyond the cease and desist if you're not making much money, but I would still highly caution against it since every company is different on how tightly they enforce their trademarks. Usually they can only sue you for any profits you've made (and generally it isn't all profits, but a percentage of sales) plus legal expenses (which can be quite large).\n\n2. Now we get into the more interesting area. I'll try to be as brief as possible because this area is extremely complex and there's actually a lot of current court cases going on now that will impact this area of copyright law. Scenario 2 falls under the area of leveraging brand equity. Your not using the officially copyrighted images per se, but if Pokemon wasn't a billion dollar enterprise then nobody would want to buy your weird yellow mouse. A friend of mine was actually attending the University of Kansas back when there was a huge legal case going on between a T-Shirt store and the university, where the stores wasn't using the official school logos or mascot images, but their shirts would reference the university's athletic teams or games. Link to the article can be found [here] (_URL_0_) but the tl,dr is that the university won, store had to pay over half a million in damages, and is no longer in business.\n\n3. Now this is an area I have even less experience in, but from what I've seen it is highly unlikely that they could sue you for any unique creations you made entirely on your own. This again has a lot of gray area. If you start making up your own weird animals with super powers, then they might have a case based on you leveraging their brand's franchise to create your own. If you make completely unrelated keychains, lets say ones made from seashells you found with no creatures of any kind painted on them just a straight up seashell with a chain glued on, then they would have a hard time suing you for that even if you used to make Pokemon keychains.\n\nI hope this post has been helpful, if you have any additional questions please feel free to let me know. I'd again like to state that I'm not a lawyer, I know very little about Pokemon, and that this is \"internet advice\". I also know that there's a general attitude of people hating \"the man\" and copyright law, but these companies have spent significant resources building their brands, without which there wouldn't be a market for Pikachu keychains, so to an extent they deserve their cut. They're also not idiots; while they are mainly concerned about big agreements with Nike and Hasbro, they do know that individuals will make unofficial products to sell on secondary markets. Some companies do provide small licensing agreements to crafters like this, and it's usually to make sure their trademarks are properly represented instead of raking in that sweet Etsy $$$. I would recommend doing some research for the licensing process of whatever company you're thinking of making product for, it couldn't hurt. And sorry for this being a bit wordy for an ELI5 response.",
"ITT: All the unemployed lawyers."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.regretsy.com"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www2.kusports.com/news/2009/sep/28/joe-collegecom-ordered-pay-kansas-athletics-more-6/"
],
[]
]
|
|
1q4fzj | what defenses does the white house have? is it particularly well-guarded compared to any other valuable government building? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q4fzj/eli5_what_defenses_does_the_white_house_have_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"cd91zgg",
"cd926u2"
],
"score": [
4,
4
],
"text": [
"nice try terrorist ",
"I remember reading in Newsweek (way back there, like during the Clinton administration) about the various defense features of the WH, and they're pretty robust. The WH absolutely has a fallout shelter/bunker and shoulder-mounted AA missiles (think Stingers). That's to say nothing of a relatively large complement of heavily armed, well-trained sharpshooters and security personnel. If you've ever been on the grounds, you've probably seen a few guys in tac gear. I also wouldn't be surprised if it's linked in to an underground system of tunnels. After all, Congress is.\n\nBut the big guns (so to speak) in the WH's arsenal are all off-site. You could never get a plane near the place. It's my understanding that there are fighters gassed up and ready 24/7 at Andrews AFB to respond to encroachments on the capitol's airspace."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
d8ug3e | why are leds diodes? | Can you make a similar electric component that does not act like a diode? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d8ug3e/eli5_why_are_leds_diodes/ | {
"a_id": [
"f1crymk",
"f1cv8po",
"f1d0arp",
"f1dgyrf"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.\n\nThey are diodes because they are diodes. You want something similar to a Diode that isn't a Diode? Is that right?",
"The light an LED generates comes from one of its diode-like properties. Ergo, to generate light in this particular way, you have to use a diode.",
"Let's assume you have a limited understanding of how a diode works.\n\nDiodes operate in two ways, forward biased and reversed biased. Forward biased allows electricity to flow with only a small voltage drop. When a diode is reversed biased it restricts the flow of electricity creating a gap of sorts. A basic diode will resist the flow of electricity up to a certain voltage, that voltage is called the reversed biased voltage. A basic diode will break if you apply a voltage larger than the reversed biased voltage of the diode. When you apply a reversed biased voltage to an LED (Light Emitting Diode) it wont break, but it will release a photon (Light particle) when the electricity jumps the gap. That released photon is the light that you see.\n\nIt's been a while since active devices theory. Someone can probably explain doping / P-N junction / LED color theory better than I can.",
"LED is an acronym for light-emitting diode. You could certainly make things that aren't diodes which emit light, but those would not be light emitting diodes, they light emitting something elses."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
85ixgi | why doesnt our blood clot inside our body. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85ixgi/eli5_why_doesnt_our_blood_clot_inside_our_body/ | {
"a_id": [
"dvxplat",
"dvxpoev",
"dvxq1ly",
"dvxs2ek",
"dvy458b"
],
"score": [
9,
3,
18,
113,
3
],
"text": [
"It does clot inside your body, hence deep vein thrombosis, stroke, atherosclerosis etc. injury or blood stagnation inside the arteries or veins results in clots, which are generally dealt with by the body - but some are too large and cause all sorts of issues. ",
"It does, at sites of injury. This injury exposes collagen to the blood, which activates platelets to clump up. Essentially while the platelets are in your blood, it is the exposure of your blood to locations where blood isn't supposed to be (i.e. outside the blood vessels), which activates the clotting. ",
"Your blood doesn't clot due to the presence of anticoagulant such as Protein S, Protein C, Antithrombin lll etc and in case of any injury you definitely don't want to bleed out, so you do need blood coagulant such as fibrinogen ( produced in liver hepatocytes ) to respond immediately and clot your blood and prevent bleeding. Therefore, you need a balance of both .",
"Clotting, or thrombosis, is thought to occur as a result of a number of factors, most easily summarized by [Virchow's Triad](_URL_0_). It explains that three things primarily contribute to clotting:\n\n* **Stasis of blood flow**. The blood in a normal human body is constantly moving, pushed along primarily by the heart's pumping force. When blood stops moving, as occurs after one dies or when blood is drawn at the doctor's office, it clots quickly. The only reason you don't see your blood clot in the little tubes at the doctor's office is that the tubes contain substances that help prevent clotting, which leads us to the next factor involved in Virchow's triad...\n\n* **Hypercoagulability**. This refers to changes in the components of blood that pre-dispose to or against clotting. Your blood is filled with proteins that promote the clotting of blood. They are kept in check by proteins that prevent clotting. Under normal circumstances, they balance each other out and no clots form. When a clot is necessary, as in a cut, the clotting factors win out and produce a clot. Some people are predisposed to having increased clotting. They may have a genetic disorder that results in higher amounts of the clotting factors or they may do something that causes their blood to clot more easily, such as smoking cigarettes. This would mean that the person is hypercoagulable.\n* **Endothelial Injury**. \"Endothelial\" refers to the type of cells that line our blood vessels - endothelial cells. When these cells are injured, they release proteins that help promote clotting. Earlier I mentioned that a cut is one instance when a clot is necessary. Endothelial injury is one method by which the body identifies where a clot is necessary. When you get a cut, there will be damage to the vessels in that area of the body, resulting in endothelial injury. Those endothelial cells release proteins that promote clotting, and, voila -- clot.\n\nThe reason clots don't randomly form in our body under normal circumstances is that these three things don't occur. Now think about the people that do get dangerous blood clots. Here are a few examples:\n\n* People in the Hospital: These people spend days in bed, which can result in blood stasis. They may also have had a surgical procedure resulting in large amounts of endothelial injury. Furthermore, they are getting stuck with needles for blood draws and IVs, which can also result in endothelial injury.\n* Irregular Heart Rhythms (i.e. Atrial Fibrillation): These irregular heart rhythms cause dysfunction in the pumping of blood. As a result, blood does not move through the heart quite as well as it should, resulting in blood stasis in the heart. This is why atrial fibrillation is such a common cause of strokes -- blood clots in the heart and then the clot is pumped out eventually directly to the brain. This is why so many patients with atrial fibrillation are put on anti-clotting medications like warfarin.\n* Clotting Disorders: These people are extremely hypercoagulable and, therefore, are much more likely to develop clots.",
"There’s an amazing system where a molecule called tissue factor (TF) is one of the most powerful blood clotters: one molecule of TF can make thousands of fibrin molecules from its precursor fibrinogen in milliseconds, and fibrin is the main component of blood clots. Soooo, the inside or “media” of every artery is loaded with TF. The second you cut an artery and the blood flows over the TF, the blood starts clotting so you don’t bleed to death. You have enough TF in your body to kill you (death by clotting) many times over, but wouldn’t it be dangerous to have all that TF around? Well first it’s not touching your blood (it’s in the middle later of the arteries) and there is a TF inactivator lining the arteries called Tissue Factor Pathway inhibitor (TFPI) on the inner lining of the arteries that touches the blood. So the clotting system is like a hand grenade: the super clotty TF is physically separated from the blood until you get injured, and TFPI sits close to the TF to make sure it doesn’t activate any clotting when it shouldn’t. Cool system."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virchow%27s_triad"
],
[]
]
|
||
2hfau1 | why is the uk lagging behind on the legalisation of marijuana? | With so many other countries bringing up the issue, and a few way ahead of the curve, why isn't there even an active discussion about it here in the UK?
I'm aware there were a couple small discussions regarding the health issue that occurred earlier on in the year but nothing major came of them as far as I can tell. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hfau1/eli5_why_is_the_uk_lagging_behind_on_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cks3o2i",
"cks3st5",
"cks53we",
"cks5m4f"
],
"score": [
4,
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Whether cannabis is discussed or not, is very much down to politicians. There is little point in having a debate if no one is listening. They make this decision as to how many votes they think it is worth. This has nothing to do with the arguments for and against legalising it. It has much more to do with how it will play out in the media. ",
"There is not as much impetus to petition the government in the UK to legalise, because for users there is very little in the way of real life consequences to small-level possession or consumption.\n\nFor example, in many areas you'll have a joint taken off you and be sent on your way.\n\nIn the US, the numbers of people punished for cannabis use are much higher and widespread across levels of usage/possession/dealing. And the penalties are harsher. That sparks a groundswell of more driven support aimed at political sectors.\n\n\nSecondly, the UK is currently under a Conservative government. They are never going to be the ones to have a serious drug conversation, as such things would alienate their core over-50 votership.",
"Because our politicians are too scared to actually try and bring about some change.",
"Not very many people are interested. Remember that Reddit is not representative of any country. There's very little public demand for legalisation and therefore the media doesn't pick up on it and if the media doesn't pick up on it then government tend not too either."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
49nzte | how come when someone holds a door open for someone or multiple people they still feel inclined to touch / push on the door even though they aren't doing anything to it and it's already pushed open? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49nzte/eli5_how_come_when_someone_holds_a_door_open_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0tbhl4",
"d0thk08",
"d0thp6f",
"d0thwnf",
"d0toa4t"
],
"score": [
72,
8,
3,
2,
4
],
"text": [
"It's a polite gesture to indicate that, should the person holding the door wish to pass on the responsibility, the person who's touched the open door will step in. A non-verbal way to say \"Thank you, you're free to walk onward now\" should they want to.",
"Basically to show the door holder that my arms also work, and if I wanted to, I am capable of holding the door myself. \n\nAlso if they are tricking me and plan on letting the door go as I pass through, I am prepared to stop it and defend myself.\n\n",
"I do that. I don't know why. Maybe it's my way of saying I'm not that important that I need the door held for me. ",
"What these other guys said, but also in case the person holding the door decides to let go like an asshole. We've all been hit by doors and don't like it.",
"Sometimes people hold the door until you use your hand to secure it, not everyone is willing to be the doorman."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
2siaie | is it legal to create copies of consoles such as the nes nowadays? (without the use of software emulation). why is nintendo not suing them? | I've seen lot's of those lately. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2siaie/eli5is_it_legal_to_create_copies_of_consoles_such/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnpp3w5",
"cnppb1c",
"cnppv4q"
],
"score": [
3,
8,
2
],
"text": [
"On what basis could it sue? NES used practically off-the-shelf components. I doubt there was any system ROM (whole program was contained in cartridge), so no copyright infringement. I guess system as a whole could be patented, but it's surely possible to design functional equivalent. And most importantly-why would Nintendo sue when it does not dent their profits at all?",
"The patents on the original NES expired in 2005, so it's now legal to make clone systems.",
"Some of those machines *do* use software emulation, even though the game data is read from original cartridges."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
81twam | why can loud white noise, such as the sound of a roaring waterfall, be so comforting and calming? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/81twam/eli5_why_can_loud_white_noise_such_as_the_sound/ | {
"a_id": [
"dv5g9th"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"I think there are two viable explanations here. Both deal with the mechanics of sound, while one focuses on the psychology of “how” you hear, more precisely than merely “what” you hear. \n\n1.) Constant noise that has a relatively small amount of randomness within its pitch variation, produces what is called “Brown” noise. The name comes from Robert Brown, the scientist who became known for his work in discovering Brownian motion (particle physics). The addition of slight, context-dependent randomness is the mathematical component that was novel within his work. Each pitch is found by adding a random offset to the pitch before it, creating a sort-of upper and lower bound for the pitch to fall within, without it wandering off by accident. This noise, which has a frequency equivalent to the the reciprocal square of its energetic component (dB = 1/f^2), is stronger at lower frequencies. That makes the dull roar much louder, and encompasses enough of the audible sound spectrum to drown out a lot of bass-heavy frequencies (sounds of highways, etc). The sound dilution is, I think, what effect waterfalls or rainfall often have in terms of drowning out other noise (excuse the pun) and thereby creating a sense of comfort without intrusion from the environment... \n\n2.) If you really care to figure out what, beyond the sound, is happening with uniform fields of sound, light, etc... check out some writings on the Ganzfeld experiment. The experiment involves prolonged and absolute exposure to uniform fields of color at a fixed depth, and usually a uniform field of sound as well. Interestingly, people begin to see and hear things that are due solely to their mind attempting to discern how far away the sound they are hearing, or sight they are seeing, is. It follows that people often find the noise used in Ganzfeld experiments (white, pink, brown noise) as having an enhancing effect on concentration and creativity. While this could play a part in calming someone, it may just as well result in someone’s mind becoming restless given too much time or space to think.\n\nHopefully, some of that answers your question and isn’t too far above 5 years for this sub. :)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
ce4yg6 | why do you never hear the people above you in a hotel room, but in an apartment it sounds like elephants stampeding overhead when neighbors make noise? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ce4yg6/eli5_why_do_you_never_hear_the_people_above_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"etyp7ps",
"etyr9jf"
],
"score": [
6,
4
],
"text": [
"The hotel probably used concrete between the floors, not wood.",
"Hotels would like to attract business back. They don't lock you into a year of tenancy, and so if you have a bad experience with noise you're less likely to go back.\n\nAlso hotels have the money to build to a higher standard. You have probably at least 2 rooms for every 1 small apartment in an equivalent apartment building, and every room is full and generating say $130 a night, those same 2 rooms are generating nearly 8 grand a month. A small apartment the size of two hotel rooms even in NYC probably isn't running you anywhere near that."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3wfp40 | why strong, muscular animals such as gorillas don't need to lift weights to build a ton of muscle mass but humans do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wfp40/eli5_why_strong_muscular_animals_such_as_gorillas/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxvuxzj",
"cxvvpra",
"cxvw18z",
"cxvwn4z",
"cxvwxiw",
"cxw8xh3",
"cxwa8ac",
"cxwauvz"
],
"score": [
2,
31,
20,
2,
6,
5,
2,
27
],
"text": [
"There are plenty of humans that are born with a lot of muscle mass. I remember middle school when puberty happened. Some dudes were like POW muscles everywhere.",
"Well genetics is the answer. They are genetically predisposed to be large and muscular. They could probably be more ripped. As with any animal 99% of what you see is genetics. (Including humans) I have no stats on this so purely conjecture on this last part but I would assume that the difference in physical strength from someone Untrained vs someone trained is actually not as large a difference as many would believe. What I mean by that is that with a life of dedicated exercise you only become stronger or faster than a normal non trained human by a small multiplier.",
"Genetics.\n\nELI5 mode:\n\nYou see Billy, although we say all men are created equal, that's not precisely true.\n\nInside every cell of your body is a blueprint for how your body is supposed to develop and look. Your blueprint is a mixture of your mom and dad's blueprints, which is why your height, eye color, and other family traits are similar to that of your parents.\n\nHumans, like you and me, changed over time to meet new biological needs. As other animals became faster and stronger, humans became smarter! We have one of the biggest (relation to body), and most complex, brains of any other animal on earth.\n\nSo while humans were getting smart and learning how to use tools and traps and hunt animals in different ways, big animals like tigers and gorillas adapted to their environment in a different way. In order for humans to survive in our many different habitats, we eat a complex diet and store fat; but gorillas and tigers tend to eat a very specialized diet and have lean bodies with tense muscle, making them very strong with 'burst' energy. Conversely, humans are the best long distance runners on earth because of our balanced stamina.\n\nWhen it comes down to individual people, you'll see that especially fit people often have especially fit children, just like tall people often have tall children. There's a whole lot that can change through the life of a person, particularly as things like metabolism and psychology, so genetics aren't the end all-be all of what a person can make of themselves; but it is a foundation of what a person will turn out to be without any additional work. And this is all without mentioning anomalies, like birth defects or unexpected mutations.",
"Too be fair, while not that muscular, humans were probably pretty jacked back in the day. Scientists correct ke if I'm wrong, but I'm sure that pre-civilization humans were probably in mostly good shape. Now that we have a culture of sitting down and relaxation without the worry of predators, things have changed.",
"It's partly due to genetics, the fact that gorillas are as big as they are requires them to have a lot of muscle just to move themselves, and so their body's homeostasis will work to maintain that muscle mass to an extent. But it is also lifestyle, being an animal in the wild is tough, and you have to work for every bit of food you eat. So part of the reason they are so muscular is the same reason why longshoremen 80 years ago were super muscular or farmers or railway workers or any other trade that requires manual labor. Working your muscles builds them up.",
"Gorillas DO lifts weights. They climb trees all day. Effectively doing pull ups constantly. And when they rough house, they do it with other gorillas who are HUGE.",
"Wasn't this answered awhile ago? Because muscular animals do not have as much dexterity as we do, they essentially overuse their muscles (overuse as in using 100% for something that might only require 10%). ",
" Humans were born to run. Like, a lot. An adult human in decent physical shape can out marathon literally any other land mammal, and most other land mammals will die of exhaustion before they get halfway through. Sure, a cheetah may be a fast sprinter, but make them walk for a few days and they just collapse. A human will be uncomfortable, but give them a good night's sleep and they'll get right up in the morning.\n\nIn order to have our insane endurance, we had to make compromises, and one of those was in muscle mass. Muscles burn energy fast even when not in use, which makes them unhelpful for creatures designed to just walk hundreds of miles a week with minimal food and water. \n\nWe did that because walking steadily after prey on the open savanna until it collapses of exhaustion after a day or two of not sleeping is a viable hunting strategy. That's how our ancestors hunted. We walked or jogged after gazelles and wildebeest for days on end, stalking them night and day and making them not stop running away until they couldn't do it any more and they just died."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
7gdc10 | why dont any highways/private tolls have speed limits above 85mph? why has no road in america ever attempted no-speed limit zones? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gdc10/eli5_why_dont_any_highwaysprivate_tolls_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"dqi6pqp",
"dqi6rwy"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"The interstates in Montana used to have daytime speed limits of \"reasonable and prudent\". It was eventually changed because the courts decided that was too ambiguous, it did not define what was legal and what was not.",
"There are some highways that have no speed limit. I think Montana but I can't remember for sure. \n\nTo answer your question, the higher the speed, the higher likelihood you die in a crash. It's a balancing act between public safety and convenience. Safer cars make for faster speeds, right now a crash at 80+ mph is very deadly."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
361qlj | how does the iss avoid damage from solar wind's if it is always in constant orbit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/361qlj/eli5_how_does_the_iss_avoid_damage_from_solar/ | {
"a_id": [
"cr9vqyx",
"cr9wuke"
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text": [
"The ISS orbits beneath the protective shield created by the earth's magnetism. The bulk of the solar wind is deflected away from earth by the earth's magnetic field.",
"Because the ISS isn't that far out at all, at a measily 400KM from the surface of the earth, the ISS is still far within the magnetic fields the earth creates.\n\nNote: 400KM is LESS than the distance between London and Paris.\n\nThe main issue astronauts deal with is the lack of a Ozone/ Atmosphere - not a lack of the earths electro-magnetic field."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
44nn87 | what would happen to health insurance companies in the united states if we had a single payer system | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44nn87/eli5_what_would_happen_to_health_insurance/ | {
"a_id": [
"czrfz7d",
"czrhfgw",
"czrhyjm"
],
"score": [
38,
8,
2
],
"text": [
"They would have to shrink quite a bit, but health insurance still can exist in single payer systems. Medicare is single payer for the elderly, but supplemental insurance exists to cover gaps and areas where just Medicare might not be enough. If you had single payer for everyone, all health insurance would probably look like that. Or there might be private healthcare networks that don't take public money, with health insurance covering that. There isn't just one way for it to work out.",
"They wont go out of business.\n\nTake Canada for example. We have single payer but the single payer system covers only stuff that affects whether or not your life continues and whether or not you keep paying taxes. Generally speaking anyway.\n\nSo if you break your arm. We patch you up. But the majority of things are not covered by single payer. So your employer still pays for health insurance and it covers alot of stuff. It also cuts you infront of lines and gets you treatment than those without insurance. \n\nI had an injury several years back and I went into this place 2 days after the doctor got me in there. While I was waiting this woman asked me how long I had to wait and I said 2 days and she flipped out because she had been waiting months. She was a minimum wage person with no insurance.\n\nSo does the health insurance business really get their bottom lines touched if single payer handles the basic stuff? Not really. ",
"Get rid of the Greedy parasites! Profit from Pain we can do without! In Australia there is universal Health Care, if you want a private room, free newspapers, there is optional extra insurance you can buy for that..."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
713aai | blood antigen and antibody | I understand that due to the interaction of different antigens and antibodies found of different blood type causes blood clotting. But imagine this. When Blood O is poured into a cup that is filled with Blood A, there should not be any clotting. However, when Blood A is poured into a cup filled with Blood O, you get clot formation.
Looking at it from the side, there isn't really much difference between the two scenarios except the order in which the blood is mixed, yet the second scenario is the one that results in blood clotting. Why? Both cup should contain the same amount of Blood O and Blood A mixed together, with the only difference of order, so why is it that you can give Blood O to A but not vice versa? The antigen & antibody on Blood A should cause a reaction with O regardless right? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/713aai/eli5_blood_antigen_and_antibody/ | {
"a_id": [
"dn7tf4j"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"So, here's where you're getting a little mixed up.\n\nFor one, the risk in blood transfusion isn't clotting, but rather a hemolytic reaction where the recipient's immune system attacks and destroys the foreign red blood cells.\n\nIf you were to pour those two containers of whole blood together, each would be toxic.\n\nThere are two factors at play: the antigens on the blood cells and the antibodies in the plasma.\n\nLet's take me, for example. I am Type O, meaning my blood cells don't have either antigen, but my *plasma* contains both anti-A and anti-B antibodies.\n\nTo answer your question, the reason this works is that blood is separated into its parts before use.\n\nSo, when I donate blood to the Red Cross, the red blood cells are separated from the plasma so they can be given to anybody."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
5ue86r | what do game developers have to do in order to fix their online servers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ue86r/eli5_what_do_game_developers_have_to_do_in_order/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddtd23b"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"That's a fairly broad question but i'll try to outline the process in a few steps:\n\n1) Identify that there is a problem. \n\n2) Investigate and find the root cause of the issue. \n\n3) Create code that fixes the problem. \n\n4) Test the code on internal servers to make sure that does what you think it does and doesn't break anything else. \n\n5) Plan deployment of the new code to the online servers. This can be done is various ways but generally:\n\n5.1) Roll out the patch to a pre-determined online / test / community / beta server for a number of days to get feedback. \n\n5.2) Address any feedback received from the above (if required). Sometimes you fixed one thing and broke another. Testing in a sandbox / limited access server should identify most of these things. \n\n5.3) Once you're happy with your new code and you're sure that you want to roll it out to live servers you plan and announce downtime during which servers will be unavailable. Normally you would roll-out gradually so you stagger deployment between \"worlds\". \n\n5.4) Once you take the servers offline you apply the latest code to it and then bring it back up and run a pre-determined test plan again the new code on the live server. If you're happy with the results you make the servers \"online\" again and open it to the public who will undoubtedly find new problems that you've introduced and haven't picked up on in internal testing or beta. \n\n\nA lot of modern DevOps methodology would mean that large parts of the above are / should be automated (testing, deployment, upgrades, etc.) \n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3fcz7w | windows 10 data collection. why should i care. | For the most part, due to lack of time these days, all I use my computer for is video games and a slight bit of Web surfing. Should I be concerned about this? Is it in anyway helping Microsoft advance technology? I guess i don't really understand why it's such a big deal. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fcz7w/eli5_windows_10_data_collection_why_should_i_care/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctnhnwb",
"ctnjfx6"
],
"score": [
5,
5
],
"text": [
"Imagine you're going to the bathroom. You're doing nothing wrong, but you don't want anyone else to see you because that's private.\n\nNow imagine that someone wants to film you going to the bathroom and keep that video for however long and give it to whoever they want. Not only that, but you hate the person's family and they will likely demand the video and the person will give it to them and the family will use it against you.\n\nWould you be okay with all of that?",
"When this was posted in /r/technology it was pointed out more than once that Win10 is collecting the same data in the same basic way, for the same basic reason as Facebook, Google, previous versions of Windows, OSX, Android, etc. Literally the only difference seems to be that because Microsoft is making the effort to explain to Win10 users what they're doing, people are losing their fucking minds.\n\nTo tl;dr several of the comments:\n\n > Siri, what is the time of my next appoint?\n\n > Sorry Kevin, but I cannot do that. You freaked the shit out about me collecting data and prevented me from collecting data from your calendar, so I don't know when your next appointment is.\n\nSo, basically, you shouldn't care."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
3ufyjm | why do many "muscle breed dogs" have stump tails? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ufyjm/eli5_why_do_many_muscle_breed_dogs_have_stump/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxejoi6",
"cxejq5k"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"[These previous posts might help.](_URL_0_)",
"It isnt a natural trait of the dogs. People have the tails cut. For various reasons. \n\nSometimes its because they're dog fight dogs and the owners don't want other dogs to latch on.\n\nSometimes its because the dogs are so muscled and enthusiastic that they injure their tails hitting them on things.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=dog+cut+tail&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all"
],
[]
]
|
||
4tbl6i | how do hydrofoils work? | I recently saw a [post](_URL_0_) about a man powered Hydrofoil, I was curious how the Hydrofoil works. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tbl6i/eli5_how_do_hydrofoils_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"d5g1hxz",
"d5g1qas"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"The same way a wing on an airplane works if you're familiar with that. All wings work by producing a low pressure zone on the side of the wing that faces the direction in which you want to produce lift. This creates a net pressure pushing the plane, or hydrofoil up. ",
"It's a boat with a wing underwater (at the bottom of a post). The boat's speed makes the wing push against the water, raising the boat. With so little dragging through the water, it can go faster."
]
} | []
| [
"https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/4t7f3j/human_powered_hydrofoils/"
]
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
956fd1 | how do shooter games work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/956fd1/eli5_how_do_shooter_games_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"e3qcu1o",
"e3qd0hb",
"e3qfvsi"
],
"score": [
10,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It depends entirely on the game. Simple ones will treat the \"bullet\" like a laser that instantly hits where you're aiming, more complex ones will treat the bullet like an individual projectile with a speed, and the most complex ones take other factors into consideration (projectile weight, wind speed and direction, etc.).\n\nThere are also \"hitboxes\" - the legs might have one hitbox that does 5% damage, the chest has another that does 50% damage, the head has one that does 100% damage (very basic examples here of course). Higher quality / advanced games put more detail into the hitbox so that you really can't just hit \"by\" the person's leg to do damage. Battlefield is a good example of this - they've had very good vehicle models for a long time, where you could shoot rockets *through* a helicopter if the doors were open. ",
" > How does the game calculate the bullets and make them go were the go and hit were they hit with such quick timing?\n\ncomputers are fast.\n\n > does it have a actual projecting flying as the bullet or is it just were you gun points it makes a laser beam straight ahead of it and it does damage to what is hit by the beam\n\nDepends on the game/gun in the game. Some games like CoD are entirely hit scan, which means that there is no projectile and just check to make sure the reticle is over an enemy.\n\n Some games like Battlefield are entirely projectile based with a delay between pulling the trigger and the damage actually being dealt. \n\nFinally most games will have a mixture of both. Games like Titanfall for example have some guns like the kraber having bullet times, and others being hitscan. ",
"A game designer will choose how detailed to make the simulation. The easiest way to handle bullets is to treat them as lasers. The next easiest is to make them objects with a speed. Then you can add in things like gravity, air resistance, and wind if you're going for extra realism.\n\nA designer can choose whether to make the bullet hit everything in its path or only the first thing, but mostly they only go for the first.\n\n > with such quick timing\n\nEvery frame (call it 20 milliseconds), the computer needs to look at everything that might move its position. For each object, it needs to figure out where it needs to be next. Then it looks if there's anything in between. For each object it finds, it runs a collision handler (starting with the first that it would have hit). If one of those collisions blocks the bullet, it skips doing the later collisions.\n\nSo, effectively, even a slow bullet is a laser that just pauses every now and then."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
76cvnf | why do people die in forest fires unless they're trapped? can the fire spread fast enough to 'outrun' them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/76cvnf/eli5_why_do_people_die_in_forest_fires_unless/ | {
"a_id": [
"doczk95",
"doczmw4",
"dod06wn",
"dod0psm"
],
"score": [
13,
3,
13,
3
],
"text": [
"There's not a simple answer to this. Elderly victims are unable to readily evacuate. Stubborn victims underestimate how quickly the window to evacuate closes. Some victims have fatal car accidents or heart attacks as they try to evacuate. \n\nYeah, wildfires can be seen from \"a mile away,\" but the transition from a fire being a mile away to an immediate danger can be swift when the wind begins blowing. ",
"Forest fires can easily move as fast as 10.8 kilometres per hour, or 6.7mph. Faster with strong winds.\n\nFor comparison, most hiking is around 2.5 to 4 mph over flat terrain.\n\nYou also don't necessarily see it from a distance away, if you are in a thick forest at the time. ",
"Not to mention, most people were asleep. They woke up at 1am with their house in a blazing inferno with walls of flame blocking the roads out. With no light, or communication, I’m assuming there was chaos and confusion. Most of the people that died lived in houses that had a single winding road out through already burning vegetation. As the other posters mentioned, 50 mile an hour winds gave them less than 10 minutes to evacuate. Never having encountered this before, most people would assume they have time to pack belongings and have a notion that firefighters are working on the situation. People who survived mentioned getting calls from family to evacuate, looked outside and the fire was already at their doorstep. I can’t imagine how terrifying this must have been. \n\nOh and editing this to add- the fires started Sunday night around 8-10 o’clock- people trapped and houses ablaze by midnight - 1 am. 20,000 acres destroyed within a few hours. ",
"Wildfires can run rampant because although it's difficult for fire to catch on moist areas, the heat from a wildfire is so intense it dries up the area around it much much quicker than normal. Now, with wind's churning the fire, loose branches that are on fire, leaves, brushes and pretty much all the heat will set the surrounding area on fire.\n\nThey can get so intense that they really do burn everything to the ground, since they only run out when there would be nothing left to burn. Maybe on a road you can drive faster than the fire would spread but you have to remember everyone has that mindset. Everyone in the area will be on the road running from the fire.\n\nSay you're on foot...well, you can't outrun the wind. Sooner or later it will catch up with you. You would have to rest and slow down as well, where nature doesn't. It's not so much a question as to how fast can you go to outrun it I think, more like how long. Wind's moving at 40-50 mph throwing flaming debris ahead is merely the start of the wildfire's spreading"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1gyf4q | how come we can transplant a lot of organs from organ donors but we can't donate genitals for gender reassignment surgery? | If I died, I'd be more than glad to donate my dick and balls to someone who wanted to become a male. Why can't we take genitals from dead men and women for gender reassignment surgery? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gyf4q/how_come_we_can_transplant_a_lot_of_organs_from/ | {
"a_id": [
"cap22mp",
"cap4ryz",
"cap4v4b",
"cap5de4",
"cap5p5l"
],
"score": [
61,
7,
6,
2,
10
],
"text": [
"the genitals have a really extensive nerve and blood supply which would be a nightmare to transplant. That said, so does the face, and face transplants have advanced amazingly since 2005, so it could be something they figure out in the future.\n\nhowever, so much of your genitals are involuntarily controlled by your emotions and brain, so all the nerves would have to be matched up just right for it to function. Liver and kidney are controlled moreso by chemicals, not emotions like getting an erection, so the nervous attachment would be a lot more complicated.",
"It probably has something to do with importance & money. A lot of research goes into heart transplants because it is absolutely necessary to save a life. And, it is probably covered by health insurance, so doctors can charge for it and make lots of money. Even face transplants are very close to being a \"need\" & are probably covered.\n\nGenital reassignment is not necessary to save lives, and I doubt it is covered by insurance. So, less need & less profit.",
"At least for vaginoplasty, the already-present tissue from the penis is used to create a neovagina. Phalloplasty also uses autologous tissue donation, though it's not as clean.",
"In addition to what others have said, there is another issue. After a transplant, the recipient is on immunosuppressants for the rest of his/her life. That is pretty dangerous, leaving you prone to serious infections and suffering from the pretty crappy side effects of the medications you have to take. That is a pretty high price (literally and figuratively) to pay for an elective procedure. Most people would probably want to avoid that, and elect to go with the current alternatives.",
"It's something that's slowly coming in to fruition, but not directly for trans people. Recently there was news about the [first female genital transplant to have a baby]( _URL_3_). This is great news for woman who cannot have children and trans women. But it will be a long way off until this is a common procedure or be something that is safe for many people. It takes time for these procedures to be refined. [Although, if it does become a common procedure for trans woman, there are problems with the male pelvic Skelton structure that would need to be worked around]( _URL_1_).\n\nIt seems the [last attempt at a male genital transplant was in 2006]( _URL_0_), and though the procedure was successful, the patient got the transplanted penis removed due to the trauma of the accident.\n\nPersonally I expect that by the time genital transplants become a viable option for most trans people, [lab grown genitals]( _URL_2_) will be a much safer, cheaper and preferred option for trans and cis people. Hopefully."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_transplantation",
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uterus_transplantation",
"http://www.today.com/id/48976348/ns/health-mens_health/#.UFAyLFHkpfw",
"http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-06/science/39063604_1_procedure-uterus-organ"
]
]
|
|
33j0y9 | why do you call priests "father"? | I have seen alot of different answers to this question but what is the official one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33j0y9/eli5_why_do_you_call_priests_father/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqlenzk",
"cqlev82"
],
"score": [
9,
2
],
"text": [
"i believe that it is a reference to the holy trinity, (the father, the son, and the holy ghost) not 100% _URL_0_ the bible Jesus and St.Paul both refer to Abraham as father for he is a spiritual leader on earth, the closest to Him we will find on earth and so we call them father because they are closest to our true father (GOD) we can hope to see. by the way i'm not christian but got my info from this website _URL_1_",
"There is an explicit verse of scripture against it :\n\n\"Call no man on earth your father, for you have one Father who is in heaven.\" (Matthew 23:9).\n\nso different denominations and different people have their own interpretations, just like any other part of the bible. Protestants for instance believe that calling a clergyman \"father\" is bigotry or religious idolatry. Here is a [catholic](_URL_0_) analysis as well as an [orthodox](_URL_1_) discussion. They both concede that it can cause some dissonance but what they seem to have in common is essentially that \"father\" just denotes someone with whom you have a special nurturing/respectful relationship, and the verse is referring to the 'earthly' sense of biologically fathering being distinct from the nurturing sense. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"tho.In",
"http://www.catholic.com/blog/tim-staples/calling-priests-father"
],
[
"http://www.catholic.com/tracts/call-no-man-father",
"http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/misc/tsichlis_priests_called_father.htm"
]
]
|
|
2nqecl | how is time not the same everywhere in the universe? | sorry for the stupid question but i don't get it how time is not consistent throughout the universe like when you move at light speed or something | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nqecl/eli5_how_is_time_not_the_same_everywhere_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmfwscs"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Since for most humans, we will always experience time at the same rate, it seems as if time is a constant in the universe, much like gravity.\n\nImagine that you knew nothing about gravity and how it is mathematically described. Would you realize that if you went to another planet, it would have a different gravitational field and that your weight would change depending on the mass of the planet? No, how would you, you have no way of predicting that because you didn't study the equations we created to describe the phenomenon of gravity.\n\nSame applies to time. The situations in which time is distorted are so rare in daily human life that it is hard to see or understand why it happens at all. The truth is, we don't know why, just like we don't know why gravity happens. But we do know when.\n\nTime bends due to mass, and mass correlates with gravity. We assume that it is the mass that creates gravity since large masses coincidentally have larger gravitational fields. Since gravity isn't a physical substance as mass is, it is easier for us to say that mass creates gravity, and so we often do.\n\nSince time bends due to mass (and this was proven by general relativity - Einstein) we can also say gravity bends time. This is just one scenario in which time is not constant.\n\nThe other scenario is that speed affects time. The reason why speed affects time has to do with the idea that light is the fastest thing in the universe, with no exception. If something were to travel near the speed of light it's perception of time would slow down to compensate for the fact that they were nearing that boundary.\n\nBasically how this works is observations and reference points. Imagine that you have two space craft traveling at relativistic speeds (meaning really freaking fast) with an observer at a point watching both crafts. One craft has a laser beam, the other has a mirror. The laser beam craft shoots the laser at the mirror and times how long it takes the laser to bounce back to the original ship. The people on the ship can then calculate the speed of the laser beam, and they would calculate in a vacuum that the beam is traveling at the speed of light, since lasers are composed of light.\n\nHowever, the observer sees a different reference frame. Not only does the observer see the beam of light go up and down from one ship to the other, they also see a horizontal migration of the beam since the ships are moving horizontally past the observer at relativistic speeds. As a result, the calculation of the speed of the beam for the observer must include the extra horizontal distance that the beam traveled that the space craft could not see. Strangely enough, the observer would calculate that the speed of the beam would also be the exact speed of light even though they see the light traveling a longer distance! How does this work? Time dilation. Since speed = distance/time and since speed is constant and distance is variable, time must also be variable! In this way, we recognize that for the ship to ship part, since the distance is calculated less, so must their time. For the observer, since their distance is more, so is their time! Therefore, less time has passed for the ships going at relativistic speed than the observer watching the ship!\n\nTL;DR there are two general situations in which time is not constant, according to general and special relativity. One is gravity, which can distort time, and the other is relativistic speed which causes time dilation."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
3zsl2c | why do planes need de-icing when it's cold on the ground if they regularly fly at heights where it's much, much colder? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zsl2c/eli5_why_do_planes_need_deicing_when_its_cold_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyopuqq",
"cyoqfs8",
"cyozfgv",
"cyozymb"
],
"score": [
8,
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"They ice up when flying, too, but there are systems on board to deal with this. The trouble is that they're only in certainly specific areas of the skin of the plane because when travelling at speed, only a few spots are prone to icing.\n\nOn the ground, it's different - it ices up all over, which means you can't use the on board systems to deal with it, because they only cover a few bits.",
"A plane's take off is a critical moment during flight. The planes needs to go fast enough to lift off the ground before it runs off the runway or crashes into a ground obstruction. Ice on the plane makes it heavier and slower, thus the plane requires more power to lift. If there is too much ice, the plane won't get airborne in time. Also, ice can screw up the multiple sensors needed for a plane to operate, especially during take off. On [Air Florida Flight 90](_URL_0_), certain sensors got iced up and mislead the pilots into thinking they had enough power. The plane crashed into a bridge in Washington DC and sank in the Potomac River. Finally, ice doesn't accumulate as much on the plane when it is travelling at 400 miles per hour as opposed to when it is stationary.",
"Ice that builds up on the wings reduces lift and makes it difficult if not impossible to take off. Also, at higher altitudes it is much colder, but has much less water vapor and thus, less ice. Other things said are correct, de ice systems only in specific areas on aircraft that need it during flight (wing leading edges and engine intake). \n\nSource, 20 years in aerospace engineering. I've actually had to design de ice systems on aircraft before. ",
"There's a distinction between deicing and antiicing. Deicing is the removal of frozen contamination, and antiicing is the inhibition and prevent of further contamination. Many airplanes have onboard antiicing equipment, meaning that once the airplane is 'clean', it can then keep itself from becoming contaminated again (in theory, at least). Heaters and inflating boots are common examples of this, found on the leading edges. On the ground, we have to worry about contamination on the top surfaces of the airplane, but in flight, icing is mostly restricted to the leading edges since the aircraft is in motion. \n\nFurthermore, the fact that it's much colder at altitude is also part of the reason. At those cold temperatures, the moisture in the air is already frozen (barring supercooled water) and therefore poses no threat to the aircraft as it simply bounces off. It is at warmer temperatures, near freezing, that the danger is greater. Liquid water can adhere to the aircraft, and then freeze in place. In winter storms with sleet and mixed rain and warmer, near-freezing temperatures, deicing becomes especially critical, due to the potential for clear ice to form, and becomes more arduous, due to the time needed to actually melt the ice. \n\nI'm in Alaska, and in the winter, we typically are a fair bit cooler than the freezing point. As a result, most of the snow on my planes is exactly that- a pile of snow simply resting on top of the aircraft. The aircraft is below freezing, the air is below freezing, and the precipitation is already frozen,and hence there is very little adhesion. (interestingly, it's the parts of the aircraft that get hot, that cause ice, in my experience. Heated zones and defrosters melt the snow, and it drips down the plane until it's no longer on the heated area, and then freezes.) As such, deicing here is pretty easy. Our focus is simply to push the snow off of the airplane. Some companies have forced air systems, and have some success with that. That said, trying to clean 4\" of snow of a 747 wing is an arduous task. However, from the times where we've had warm weather, I can say that deicing a plane that actually has a layer of ice on it, is much more difficult and intensive than our normal work. Ice takes time and lots of fluid to melt and break, especially if it's thick. Snow turns to slush and can be pushed off with the pressure of the fluid stream. \n\nOnce we've deiced the aircraft such that it's free of frozen contamination, the pilots can navigate around areas of active freezing while in flight, and the onboard antiicing equipment can keep the airplane clean. \n\nI'm a deicer/deicing trainer/winter ops coordinator - you can ask me any other questions you have about ground deicing, if you'd like. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Florida_Flight_90"
],
[],
[]
]
|
||
5fhxg5 | please can someone explain the burden of proof in english law and the difference of it in civil and private law. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fhxg5/eli5_please_can_someone_explain_the_burden_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"dake7s3",
"dakec60"
],
"score": [
3,
6
],
"text": [
"After some searching, private law is a subset of civil law _URL_0_ that mentions the relationship between people such as with contracts. Civil law concerns the relationship between civilians and their community in a non militaristic, religious, or criminal manner.\n\nSo thus, the burden of proof is stingingly similar. \n\n##Civil Law (Contains Private)\n1) The burden of proof lies on the person bringing the case. They need to convince the jury (50%+) that they are correct. \n\n2) In the event they have overwhelming evidence, the burden shifts to the accused. Prima facie means \"Face Value, at first site.\"\n\n###Example\n1) If I have a contract that says Bob owes me a website for $10,000, and he only does 60% of it. I show the jury the website missing key contract features, show Bob's checks cashed, and show emails from Bob saying he's not working on the site anymore. Jury finds Bob owes me $4,000 for work uncompleted.\n\n2) Same scenario as above, except now I also have an email from Bob saying \"If you make a fuss, I will expose all your proprietary data to your competitors and keep the $10k while deleting your website.\" Bob now has the burden of proof. Initially, he's guilty, unless he can prove he's not.\n\n##Criminal (Public) Law\nThe burden of proof lies on the state to provide \"unreasonable doubt\".\n###Example\nBob now kills the guy There is tons of evidence and a video of Bob saying \"I am going to kill this guy\". But he's still innocent. The state (not the guy or his company) need to prove that he actually did it.",
"Are you thinking of the *burden* or the *standard* of proof?\n\nGenerally, in relation to burden, the maxim \"he who asserts must prove\" applies, which means that the person making an allegation has to produce evidence to substantiate it. Occasionally the burden is reversed by specific laws.\n\nIn a civil case, if a claimant says a defendant breached a contract, he has to produce evidence that shows the contract existed and the breach took place. The defendant doesn't *have* to produce any evidence - if the court isn't satisfied by the claimant's evidence the defendant wins automatically.\n\n\nIf the defendant wants to say that he did the acts said to amount to a breach, but was entitled to do them because that contract had been terminated, then the burden shifts to the defendant to prove that the contract was terminated. Once the defendant has admitted that there was a contract and that acts were committed which would amount to a breach, then the claimant doesn't have to produce any evidence - he wins automatically if the defendant fails to produce satisfactory evidence that the contract had been terminated.\n\nThe *standard* of proof determines how persuasive the evidence must be. \n\nIn a civil case it's \"on the balance of probabilities\" or \"on the preponderance of the evidence\" which just means that the evidence must establish what is alleged is more likely to have happened than not happened. You can have very little evidence and win, if the other side has no evidence.\n\nIn a criminal case the evidence needs to be more persuasive - the jury needs to see enough evidence to be *sure* that the defendant is guilty.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_law"
],
[]
]
|
||
7218lk | can someone explain title ix and it’s new ruling as of yesterday? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7218lk/eli5_can_someone_explain_title_ix_and_its_new/ | {
"a_id": [
"dnezkn6",
"dnezxwu"
],
"score": [
7,
4
],
"text": [
"Title 9 has not actually changed. A few years ago, Obama issued a \"Dear Colleague\" letter saying instructing Universities to set up their own courts separate from police to determine guilt for rape and sexual assault. In the letter, Obama instructed the Universities to use a lower standard of proof than all other crimes.\n\nDevos, the Secretary of Education rescinded the letter for a few reasons, primarily that the lower standard of proof was very subjective to the court. If they thought there was a reasonable chance you did it, and you couldn't explicitly prove yourself innocent, you were punished as if guilt beyond a reasonable doubt was established.\n\nAnother reason was many high profile cases being reported on nationally that turned out to be situations where the woman lied, like with the Rolling Stone incident. These incidents were not handled by the police, but by University officials",
"Title IX is a law passed during the Nixon Administration that states \"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.\" Traditionally the most publicly notable effect of the legislation has been in collegiate sports. During the Obama Administration the Department of Education put out guidance that for Universities to be in compliance with Title IX, they have to decide sexual assault cases under their administrative proceedings by a standard of \"preponderance of evidence\" which means more likely than not, or greater than 50.0%. Betsy Devos, the Secretary of Education just rescinded that, and stated the \"clear and convincing\" standard of evidence, meaning a particular fact is substantially more likely than not, is sufficient. Both of these standards are below the \"beyond a reasonable doubt\" standard using in criminal proceedings."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
68zq65 | why do industrialized nations tend to have much higher rates of depression / suicide than developing ones? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68zq65/eli5why_do_industrialized_nations_tend_to_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"dh2jvzs",
"dh2jwot",
"dh2kvdj",
"dh2mcfo"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
24,
2
],
"text": [
"Stephen Ilardi makes a note (in therapeutic lifestyle change for depression) that a lack of physical activity and sun exposure is partially to blame\n",
"Someone in a first world country could be depressed because of various things, usually social standards that the individual or family or society sets up that we feel or perceive we cannot attain could cause one to become depressed.\n\nIn other parts of the undeveloped world, social pressure that would cause someone in the first world to become depressed doesn't exist because, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs explains that we don't worry about social needs until our basic needs are looked after.\n\nExample; food, clean water and shelter are the most basic. Most people in the developed world have these things are therefore can \"move up the pyramid\" which brings us to more of the things that would cause someone in an Industrialized Nation to feel depressed. An example of this is Psychological Need of companionship and accomplishment.\n\nTL;DR - people need to have the basic needs looked after before they're able to have the opportunity to have depression or attempt suicide.",
"**They don't**\n\n**The assumption in the question is completely wrong.**\n\nLook at the [ list of countries sorted by suicide rate]( _URL_0_) and you'll see that all the top spots are taken by developing nations and only two or three devloped ones in the top 20. ",
"I would guess that depression isn't reported as often or as recognised in developing countries. Doctors there are too busy treating more acute illnesses.\n\nAlso seeing a doctor probably costs money, and someone in the developing world wouldn't be able to afford seeing a doctor just for an \"imaginary\" (their opinion, not mine) illness. As opposed to a broken leg or something like that."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate"
],
[]
]
|
||
g0l3bp | what exactly does hot lemon water do to the body when you drink it first thing in the morning? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g0l3bp/eli5_what_exactly_does_hot_lemon_water_do_to_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"fnab9ee",
"fnai6r1",
"fnanbxc"
],
"score": [
59,
5,
5
],
"text": [
"It hydrates you and tastes a little bit lemony which can be nice. It also gives you that \"I don't even need caffeine to wake up\" chic that will certainly impress your family and pets.",
"The acidity of the lemon is not great for your teeth, especially first thing in the morning when your mouth might be dry and you perhaps haven’t brushed your teeth yet.",
"Nothing much that cold or luke warm lemon juice and water or even just water alone wouldn't do. Little hydration, but that's it.\n\nIf your body was so sensitive to temperature that a couple cups of hot water would do something significant to it, we'd be in trouble! Same thing with the lemon juice--it's not a drug and the most it will do is alter the pH of your mouth for a bit. It's not great for your enamel to be awash in acid often, but coffee is also pretty acidic and we all get along alright driving that on the daily.\n\nAny time you see people suggesting water temperature as a health aid, put your skepticism meter on high alert."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
618v86 | why does brief lack of oxygen to the brain often feel good? | Not everyone thinks it feels good but a lot of people, including me, think it does. For example, if I stand up too quickly after sitting down for a while my vision fades and I get a rush of euphoria. Stupid teenagers play the "choking game", where they intentionally reduce bloodflow to the brain to get euphoria or a "high" for no price. Why would this feel good to a large percentage of people when losing blood to the brain is extremely dangerous? Shouldn't it be really painful?
edit: fixed some shitty grammar | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/618v86/eli5_why_does_brief_lack_of_oxygen_to_the_brain/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfcofai",
"dfcvuu2"
],
"score": [
22,
2
],
"text": [
"Ok, this is only a guess (until other, more knowledgable people answer your question), but first to clarify: your vision fading after standing up too quickly is due to low blood pressure, not lack of air.\n\nI think perhaps much of the euphoric feeling is actually just adrenaline in response to your body being worried about what's going on. Same reason people get a rush on roller coasters or watching horror movies, for instance. Our bodies know that if we are losing air, it's likely not because we are dumb and don't know to avoid it, it's because we need more energy and ability to get out of a scary situation, hence adrenaline. Additionally, getting oxygen after being deprived of it can feel incredibly relieving, which might be where the \"high\" comes from, in addition to the adrenaline. ",
"I'm not a scientist by any means, so anything I write comes from experience and research I've done about it. But from what I've read, when your brain is deprived of oxygen (whether it's from choking, suddenly standing up, or suffocation), it goes into a state called hypoxia, which causes the lightheadedness, tingling of hands and feet, and sometimes light hallucinations. Why the brain goes into this state I'm not sure, but I think it's similar to what the other redditor said about adrenaline. Because your body thinks you are dying, your adrenaline spikes, then it probably releases endorphins and dopamine to try to make the process less painful.\nEdit: apparently I misused the word \"process\" when describing hypoxia. It's actually a state. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
oyta9 | why do people expose themselves on internet sites like chatroulette, /r/gonewild, and omegle? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/oyta9/eli5_why_do_people_expose_themselves_on_internet/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3l4k4n",
"c3l4zrn",
"c3lfkfv"
],
"score": [
27,
24,
2
],
"text": [
"They want attention and validation. ",
"Psych here - The desire to expose oneself for sexual gratification is known as exhibitionism, essentially they get off on showing people their junk. In order to actually be diagnosed with this sexual paraphilia (abnormal fetishes) one would actually have to gain sexual pleasure from the act. So when a random girl or guy flashes a car for shits and giggles, it would not count. \n\nNow, like everything exhibitionism is like a spectrum, those on sites like chatroulette, are actually at the lower and of the spectrum. On the other end you have those who have a compulsion to expose themselves to strangers. Here is where you see the creepy dudes in coats who expose themselves to passersby.\n\nHope this helps :)",
"Because they find it hot. It seems not terrible to me, as far as an exchange between adults. Yes, they want attention and validation, but who doesn't? \n\nThere are kids on there too, and that worries me. Sites like these are supposedly anonymous. I feel secure in saying that there are PLENTY of variously fucked-up people on Omegle, and it's anonymity creates a forum wherein kids can be manipulated. \n\nToday I fired up omegle video chat (second time in my life) and left it on the kitchen table while I made dinner. A pair of kids popped up, and asked me what I was making, and I told them--white bean soup. Their response: \"Ewwwwww.\" I LOLd. I shudder to think of the number of masturbating men they encountered before they stumbled on me.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
201wft | how does stuff on the internet never go away? | When I was growing up my parents and teachers always stressed the fact that once something was on the internet it never goes away. To what extent is this true and in what context? Say I post a picture to twitter and delete it before someone else has saved the image is it still out there somewhere other than just on my computer's memory? This applies to other aspects of the internet other than social networks, so feel free to extend your explanation. Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/201wft/eli5_how_does_stuff_on_the_internet_never_go_away/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfz049f",
"cfz09mz",
"cfz0jil",
"cfz0u5c"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
" > Say I post a picture to twitter and delete it before someone else has saved the image is it still out there somewhere other than just on my computer's memory? \n\nQuite possibly. The fact that you have \"deleted\" the picture from your Twitter account doesn't necessarily mean that Twitter has deleted all record of the picture from its servers. In fact, companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook are pretty up-front about the fact that once you post something, they can keep it for as long as they like. They may not make it publicly accessible in a way that's traceable to you, but they don't usually delete anything.\n\nAs to the rest of it, the theory is that once something is available on the internet, it is very, very likely that at least some people will make copies and host it on servers that never delete anything. This is not strictly true of course, in that there is tons of stuff that gets posted every day that no one ever sees or cares about. But if something does ever appear on the internet, you need to assume that somebody out there has a copy of it until you have concrete evidence to the contrary.",
" > Say I post a picture to twitter and delete it before someone else has saved the image is it still out there\n\nThis is the big problem. How do you **know** you deleted it before someone else saved it? As soon as the picture is on Twitter (or any other part of the internet) it's perfectly possible, and indeed in many cases likely, that someone has saved a copy of that picture within seconds. After all, you don't get a notification that somone has made a copy of the picture, so you've no way to be certain no copies exist.\n\nAll of the above can happen for any image but is even more likely to be true if the image looks like it might be at all \"interesting\", for example a picture of someone naked or behaving in some other foolish or amusing behaviour.",
"I came to a conclusion years ago, which I've been calling wordserious' law: everything that you want to delete will live forever; every thing that you need to preserve will eventually be lost.",
"there are also resources like the [wayback machine](_URL_0_) that are constantly caching various websites and archiving their content. you would have no idea when their automated process cache a domain like twitter.."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://archive.org/web/"
]
]
|
|
b5ym9m | what happens to the money bad guys made when they go to jail? | What happens to the profits of stuff like human trafficking and drug manufacturing when the criminals go to jail? You can’t exactly return it to its owners like a robbery, right? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b5ym9m/eli5_what_happens_to_the_money_bad_guys_made_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"ejgt9os",
"ejgtn8s",
"ejgynrt",
"ejh4wcq",
"ejhf6fn"
],
"score": [
9,
36,
7,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Usually the government seizes whatever it can get its hands on. Money that's hidden tends to either get grabbed by other criminals, or just stay hidden.",
"If it's a big time operation they usually have their money in overseas accounts in countries with strong privacy laws like Switzerland or the Cayman Islands. Otherwise, if it's proven that it was gained illegally, the government siezes it. If the government wants it badly enough they use civil asset forfeiture to get it. ",
"Additionally what happens if person A stole a boatload of money from person B, and clearly spent it on tangible things like a house/car ect. Person A gets caught and the government seizes the stolen funds. Now does person B have any entitlement to their originally stolen money? Would the government ever hand back this stolen money, or in the case it's all been spent on tangible things, does person B in any way \"own\" those things?",
"With civil forfeiture they can seize property without even convicting you of a crime. \n\nThe RICO statue is what allows you to never profit from dirty money. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.\n\nAnything that the law determines was purchased with ill gotten gains wil be seized. \n\nWith civil forfeiture; all police have to do is believe that the property (car, house, etc.) being used was involved in criminal activity. \n\nYou might own the house and your live in relative gets in trouble, ex. Drug possession, they will take YOUR house (under the assumption that drugs were being sold from it). Yes, even though you're not involved and you own it. \n\nNo proof, no court, just a hunch. No one goes to court, no one goes to jail but they are taking it.\n\nThey know you don't have the money for a criminal defense attorney to fight them so you are ot of luck.\n\n\"What a country.\" ",
"For something like human trafficking, a criminal can be forced to pay restitution to the victims. If all restitution is paid, the government will just seize the money since you can't legally keep money obtained through criminal acts. I'm not exactly sure what the pay out order is. For instance, are fines or restitution payments made first (in the instance of limited funds)? Restitution orders don't just go away since they'll garnish wages, etc. to get it, but I'm sure people would rather be made whole immediately instead of slowly over 20 years (if ever). I think you can't pay criminal fines with dirty money (since the government will just take it anyways), but restitution can be paid with dirty money."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
b5xlic | how do vehicle brakes work? how can they withstand the immense physical stress throughout a car's lifespan? | Searched but couldn't find what I wanted to know.
How do brakes in cars/trucks work? Every time I drive, I can't help but think about how much physical stress (whether it be friction or whatever) my brakes are taking, and wonder how long it will last before the ability to decelerate is compromised. I imagine the amount of abuse that brakes have to endure in order to stop a 2000+ lb car would be enormous.
I've also heard that large vehicles (trucks, buses) have "opposite" brakes, but I don't fully understand what it means. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b5xlic/eli5_how_do_vehicle_brakes_work_how_can_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"ejglvne",
"ejglzsu"
],
"score": [
2,
10
],
"text": [
"The brakes on a car are made of a special compound that is harder and not as sticky as pure rubber, but not as slippery and hard as pure steel. When pressed really hard against a brake rotor or drum this creates friction. This component is able to withstand a lot of heat and stress as it’s made out of steel, iron or aluminum.",
" > How do brakes work?\n\nThere is a disk attached to the axles behind your wheels. You can actually see it [very often](_URL_0_). When you press the brake pedal, it pushes fluid (see: [how hydraulics work](_URL_1_)) that cause your brakes to clamp down on that disk. The brake pads *squeeze* the disk, which causes a great deal of friction on it, which slows it down. Since it's attached to the axle, it slows the axle, which causes friction between the tires and the surface you're driving on, which slows down the car. That does cause a fair amount of heat, which is why your wheels have a lot of open space for air to get into and some sports cars and high performance cars have vents specifically to move air through that area.\n\n > How can they withstand the immense physical stress throughout a car's lifespan?\n\nThey can't. They aren't supposed to. You are supposed to replace your brake pads regularly.\n\nIn between the brake *calipers* - which are the things that are hydraulically linked to your pedal and cause the squeezing - and the disk, there are brake pads which are usually made out of graphite. The graphite is pretty strong - it can be squeezed pretty hard without cracking or breaking - but it doesn't take [*shear* force](_URL_2_) very well. So as the disk continues to rotate as it's being squeezed, the graphite is ground off. This is a deliberate point of failure designed to allow the brake system to both *brake* while also *breaking* in a controlled way. As long as your pads are maintained, the pads will wear out without destroying the rotor and/or catastrophically failing when you are trying to not run into things. And brake pads are deliberately designed to be as cheap as possible (without compromising its function) and easy to replace.\n\nEDIT: brake squealing is also deliberate. It's a sign that your pads are worn and need to be replaced. If your brakes are squealing you should take your car in to get the pads checked. They might be dirty. They might also be worn. Worn brakes do not function as well and can damage your disks.\n\n > I've also heard that large vehicles (trucks, buses) have \"opposite\" brakes, but I don't fully understand what it means.\n\nIIRC, rather than squeezing the pads into the disks, with those vehicles the pads are stationary and the disks are expanded into the pads. This is done with compressed air rather than hydraulic fluid."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://cdn4.explainthatstuff.com/porsche-disc-brakes.jpg",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=hydraulics&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all",
"https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-d3d35e2cab0a408484efe74aa7e10686"
]
]
|
|
13x40u | - the ti-89 calculator has been around since 1998, still costs $200, and has yet to have been replaced as the standard... why? | The TI-89 Titanium retails for 200 US Dollars (can be found for about 130-140). The TI-89 has been around since 1998. Since then we've developed smart phones, tablets, kindles, etc. Why is the TI-89 still the standard when we could seemingly replace it with something much more powerful for the same or a lesser price? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13x40u/eli5_the_ti89_calculator_has_been_around_since/ | {
"a_id": [
"c77xhii",
"c77z3sc",
"c77zhva",
"c77zp4z",
"c78058a",
"c7809hj",
"c780h12",
"c780wga",
"c780z25",
"c7811t0",
"c78152d",
"c7815u7",
"c781kuf",
"c781sp2",
"c781ttm",
"c783ve9",
"c784cjf",
"c78682z",
"c786bju",
"c787ni2",
"c7881ix",
"c78ar49",
"c78dk12",
"c78f61d"
],
"score": [
884,
271,
151,
38,
3,
30,
6,
7,
10,
28,
9,
2,
3,
3,
2,
2,
7,
4,
3,
3,
3,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Blame CollegeBoard, the company that administers SAT and AP exams.\n\nThey only allow certain specified models of Casion, HP, Radio Shack, Sharp, TI, and a few others. They're also very strict about NOT using app-based smartphones as a substitute in their tests.\n\nFurther, many college math classes require them, and have stuck with particular models, especially TI, as they or their teaching assistants can help with those, but not some random app you downloaded last week.\n\nWith students forced to buy these, and college stores stocking them as a result, TI has little incentive to innovate or bring the price down.",
"I actually interned at TI. Despite what many people think, calculators account for 5% of their revenues. The calculator market isn't exactly huge in America (or anywhere else in the world) and no one's getting rich selling them so there's not much incentive to improve on it.",
"TI calculators are smart enough to do the math work and dumb enough to not give you an upper hand. ",
"What does a TI-89 do? I'm not from the US and have never heard of it (outside of reddit posts and such). We used £10 casio scientific calculators in high school. There were graphing calculators but these were ancient things that were used in class only (and not very often either) and were the schools property.",
"No idea about your question. Monopoly I guess, but I came here to represent the TI 36x pro.",
"You don't even have to replace it with an APP or anything smart like that.\n\nBut you cannot fucking tell me in almost 15 years we cannot cut that damn calculator in half, make it twice as powerful and 10x more memory, with a bigger and better screen.",
"Because there is only one engineer left that can design a display that bad?",
"dude have you PLAYED pheonix on those things!? its been a fucking decade since i was in high school and i still have my ti89 just for pheonix",
"My new TI-NSPIRE cost the same amount as that old piece of junk. I don't think they *ever* lower the prices.",
"I'm a high school teacher, and the TI-89 is obsolete in the classroom. Almost all of my students use the TInSpire, the 89's successor. It's quite an amazing little machine, and it operates more like a computer than a calculator.",
"Its circular, everyone uses it -- > therfore its the \"allowed\" calculator -- > everyone uses it -- > \n\nIts like how the qwerty keyboard is popular, its not actually the most efficient layout (its designed so letters used together commonly are not close together since this could jam typewriters) but since everyone uses it thats what companies make (especially with laptops since changing the keyboard isn't very easy) and then people get used to it.",
"What? Standard? I've never been to a school where the thing is even *allowed*. It's all TI-83s and 84s.",
"What? It was obsolete as soon as the HP49G was released.",
"The TI-89 isn't a standard (the TI-83 and 84 are, though).\n\nPlus, you can get much better models for significantly cheaper, like the $130 HP 50g.",
"I would love my TI-89 so much more if they would just put a better screen on it. ",
"I wish I lived in your world. I love my TI-89, but the standard in both HS and multiple college seems to have been the archaic 82 or 83.\n\nI had one awesome HS teacher who introduced us to the wonderful world of 89s and 92s, but every teacher since has basically said they would use the 82 or 83 and basically either wouldn't allow the 89 or wouldn't help with an functions.",
"Only system that supports Drug Wars.",
"Am I the only one that LOVES my 89? Bought it almost a decade ago and it is the one piece of electronics that has never failed. \n\nWhy do i love it so much? Symbolic notation for algebra shows you if your input is correct without using a billion parenthesis. **Interactive history view is amazing**, something that most calculators (even 83s) don't have or get right. I don't mind the slow graphing, because if i want to graph something I use a computer. I use the 89 for casual math, and it is fantastic at that. I don't need a color back lit screen. I don't even really need any more ram or a faster processor. It has been fantastic for the past decade, and i am looking forward to it being fantastic for the next, and I hope they don't stop making them. \n",
"Teachers, professors, and TAs often only know how to work a few calculators. I was always told that if I want help with my calculator, get an 83+, otherwise I'm SOL and will have to figure out how to work it on my own. \n\nGetting anything other than an 83+ was a terribly stupid thing to do, I guess that's now advanced to the 89 being the standard. ",
"TI has more recently come out with the Ti-nspire cx which falls quite a bit more in line with today's tech.",
"I remember when TI-83 was the standard, and I bought a TI-85 instead because it was on sale for $50 (compared to $99 for the 83).\n\nEveryone in the class except me had an 83 or an 83 Plus and I had an 85. Teacher never said it was a problem, but my 85 did a couple things differently and had a couple features the 83s didn't have (it was like 15 years ago, don't ask me to remember what they were).",
"If it ain't broke don't fix it.",
"While we're listing \"things that are obviously archaic\", how about those password protected PDFs of college textbooks on the web that are easily updated and very affordable for students to use...oh, wait",
"Welcome to the US education market. It's totally not crippled by incumbent business or politics..."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1izbol | eye sight ratios (20/20, 20/15..) | Recently, I was prescribed contacts, and the Doctor told me I am seeing a little better than 20/15. I guess I've never looked into it, but I've always heard people bragging about their 'perfect' 20/20 vision, but this seems to be a misconception among people. Could you simply explain what these ratios actually stand for? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1izbol/eli5_eye_sight_ratios_2020_2015/ | {
"a_id": [
"cb9inw2",
"cb9inx3"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It's basically how well you see something at 20 feet, compared to how close the average person would have to be to see it that well. So if your sight is 20/20 it means that at 20 feet you see what one would expect the average person to see at 20 feet. If your sight is 20/15 that means that at 20 feet you see a level of detail that the average person would have to be 5 feet closer to see, meaning your sight is better than average. On the other end if your sight is 20/300, it means at 20 feet you see as well as an average person would from a distance of 300 feet, which is a bummer.",
"this means that you see at 20 feet what a normal person sees at 15 feet. 20/20 is normal but 20/15 is better. some people have even better such as 20/10. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
5go9um | can you eat too much protein? if so, were does your body store it/what happens with it? | For fitness purposes and out of simple curiosity.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5go9um/eli5_can_you_eat_too_much_protein_if_so_were_does/ | {
"a_id": [
"dats6nm",
"dauzvl3"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Sure. Depends on the composition of the protein but proteins are broken down into their component parts, amino acids. Amino acids are then processed or broken down further. If you have too much in your bloodstream, your liver can convert them to dangerous levels of a toxic byproduct called ammonia. Your kidneys can also become stressed trying to filter out all the waste from your bloodstream. It would take a fairly excessive amount to reach dangerous levels though, unless you were already suffering from an underlying metabolic disorder.",
"\n\nIt's not dangerous to eat alot of proteïn (realisticly). You'll just pee out the excess proteïn. It's just a waste to eat too much. For gaining muscle you need to find the right balance between proteïn, carbohydrates, etc. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2gwf2l | how come we can get rid of fleas so easily but headlice we can't? | Question on behalf of my grandma.
We can treat cats and dogs for fleas and ticks with a one-time treatment but headlice require a lot of combing and leaving treatments in for hours at a time.
I know they're different creatures but why aren't the treatments similar? Are fleas and headlice that different? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gwf2l/eli5_how_come_we_can_get_rid_of_fleas_so_easily/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckn5ho2",
"ckn66ku",
"ckn8qra"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"Probably because we are willing to use harsher chemicals on our pets than on ourselves.",
"There are a lot of ways to treat lice and a lot of ways to treat fleas. Some of them are similar, some of them aren't, and some of them would work for both but are dangerous (such as removing them with gasoline).",
"The eggs from lice are attached to the hair itself, less than one inch from the scalp. They are glued onto the hair shaft and must either be physically removed by a very fine toothed comb, or subjected to a hair treatment containing ivermectin, which retails at $300 per treatment. No other treatment will kill the egg stage and soon, ivermectin, too, will be ineffective. Four missed nits is enough for a child to be completely re-infested. The only other treatment is shaving all the hair off.\n\nDog and cat fleas eggs end up on the floor where they can be vacuumed up. The floor itself can be treated with extremely toxic chemicals. The expectation of safety of a product applied to a dog or cat is far, far lower than that that of what is applied to a human given a)their lifespans are very short b)teratogens are not usually an issue and c)there is essentially zero liability if they are harmed. Head lice spread no disease, have no permanently injurious effect and the treatment used to get rid of them must be similarly of no potential harm.\n\nHead lice are now resistant to pesticides as they have been subjected to so many for so long. The lice that exist now managed to survive DDT when it was routinely used on people in the 1940s. I have seen live lice drop from children's insecticide covered heads and go on their merry way. These animals coevolved with our species for hundreds of thousands of years and are genius at survival. Only physical removal of every larvae, adult and egg will eradicate them and even then, re-infestation is all too easy."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
57849v | what is the difference between calcium and vitamin d? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57849v/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_calcium_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8przfs"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Calcium is a type of atom that has 20 protons and 20 electrons.\n\nVitamin D is a molecule composed of many atoms. Specifically, 27 carbon atoms, 44 hydrogen atoms, and 1 oxygen atom."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
rs2dy | what made kurt cobain stand out from the music of his generation? | Now don't get me wrong, I love his music. But does some of his idolization come from that he committed suicide? Like a martyr effect? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/rs2dy/eli5_what_made_kurt_cobain_stand_out_from_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"c487psy",
"c487tb8",
"c488aie",
"c489nst",
"c48cc28",
"c48cdo5",
"c48crf2"
],
"score": [
9,
7,
22,
7,
9,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I actually had this conversation with a friend last week. In my opinion, a lot of music is about timing. Several of The Beatles' first hits were covers, but they are still one of the most well-known bands in existence. Nirvana's sound created a whole new genre of music. That being said, I think a lot of his popularity does come from the fact that he committed suicide.",
"He died while he was still popular.",
"It was so different from the rest of the crap music of the time, the California creep spandex screeeming sludge that was still being touted as rock und roll. It had an honest depressed folkishness to it that made you consider life a little, not necessarily in a good way either. He had a little of that true junkie outsider bottom of the barrell vibe that is the apotheosis of the dark, dank, pacific northwest. A little dark, a little workingman, with a true understanding of how short and shitty life can be.",
"Although Nirvana was already very popular while Kurt was alive, it was the combination of his entry into the [27 Club](_URL_1_) AND the wild success of [MTV Unplugged in New York](_URL_0_) that propelled Nirvana to legend status.\n \n\nThat, and *Dave Grohl is a* *beast*.",
"As *someone on the internet* said, he took the guitar out of the fast tehnicians and shreders's hands, and gave it back to artists, freaks, poets. Also he had weird, unique harmonic combinations, deep lyrics, and himself as personality was authentic. That all, combined with good timing, because saturation of the people with 80s glam-and-stuff and their hunger for something new, which Cobain gave them.",
"Grunge music was so very different from the techno music and Marky Mark-ness of the era. Alternative music became mainstream for the lack of listening options for the youth at the time. If you consider the artists that Nirvana was grouped together with in the Alternative category, there were bands like the Offspring and Green Day ('92/'93) which also were riding the power chord train, but had a more Pop feel than Nirvana. Kurt's music really did stand out, and hammered the charts.",
"To be honest I always felt that if Kurt didn't look like a male model he would have far fewer fans"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Unplugged_in_New_York",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club"
],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
4rp8di | how do food allergies compare to pollen/pet allergies, and what makes it so that they can't be suppressed with medication? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4rp8di/eli5_how_do_food_allergies_compare_to_pollenpet/ | {
"a_id": [
"d52zfwj"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Anti-Histamines are a prescription for _mild_ food allergies. The reason it's not a useful treatment for more severe is because the distribution of offending agent is widespread and reactions are likely to be more systemic as a result. This means that \"mild\" is really really a _very_ mild response to the allergen before it becomes a potentially serious issue. \n\nHowever, if your only symptom of you strawberry allergy is something like a mild itching on your palms then an anti-histamine may do the trick. However, when people have this sort of allergy they often go undiagnosed as isolating a single food can be challenging and motivation relatively minimal."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2bgmbl | how does fm radio work? | How can we tune into a certain frequency if we are modulating it? Wouldn't that mean you are changing the frequency, making your radio station lose signal when it is broadcasting? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bgmbl/eli5how_does_fm_radio_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cj558hq"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The amount of modulation on a particular carrier frequency (the frequency you tune in to) is very limited. It is a small range with respect to the frequency differences between different radio stations. So when you tune in to a specific frequency (say 100MHz), the modulation might only range over 10 kilohertz. So the tuner is listening for anything in the range between 99.99 and 100.01MHz.\n\nNo other station is broadcasting anywhere near close enough to interfere with that range."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
f47bnh | why do our skin creates static when it's accidentally touched by another person or a metal object? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f47bnh/eli5_why_do_our_skin_creates_static_when_its/ | {
"a_id": [
"fhojfcb"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Our skin doesn't create the static charge, it's caused by a build up of electrons on the surface of an object e.g. a balloon. If you rub a balloon against your hair, electrons less tightly bound to the atoms I. Your hair can move to the balloon. This gives the balloon a slight negative charge, and your hair a slight positive charge. The balloon now being negatively charged, the electrons are able to jump from the balloon to your skin, which relative to the balloon is positively charged. Other people and objects can become statically charged like the balloon in a variety of ways (wearing synthetic clothes etc) so when a neutral person contacts them they can feel a brief electric current flow between them, which is the shoc k you notice"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
32tg3i | why are click bait links so shitty? | Sometimes I want to see the best bodies in hollywood or 7 crazy ways my socks are killing fish. why are the links always redirecting me to another site? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32tg3i/eli5_why_are_click_bait_links_so_shitty/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqefm28",
"cqefm74",
"cqeh1nz",
"cqeijdo"
],
"score": [
2,
6,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Because they are working as is. You and many like you are clicking on them. If they didn't work as is they would improve in quality until they did work.",
"Each time you open another page, advertisements load. Same reason why each of those 7 things will be on it's own webpage.",
"because they are not about content it's about you visiting pages to see the ads on that page. same reason that a list of photos is turned into an annoying 20 click slideshow.\n\ndon't click clickbait when you see it. you only feed the beast when you do it.",
"The definition of 'click bait' determines it will be junk content. If the content was good you wouldn't consider it click bait, you'd just go \"oh that was a good article\""
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
363r0y | why does it seem dzhokhar tsarnaev went through trial faster than james holmes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/363r0y/eli5_why_does_it_seem_dzhokhar_tsarnaev_went/ | {
"a_id": [
"crafu2h"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"He did. The bombing took place in April of 2013, and the trial wrapped up today, while James Holmes' Aurora shooting took place in July of 2012 and isn't scheduled to end until this September.\n\nA lot of this has to do with the defense - Holmes's defense is basically that he was too insane to know right from wrong, and therefore can't be guilty - if this is proven in court, he'll receive a somewhat easier sentence. This takes years of therapy and analysis to gather evidence one way or the other, and the publicity of the trial only slows things down.\n\nTsarnaev's defense was never insanity - it was mostly just \"yeah, he did it, but he was just following his brother.\" This is a little quicker to gather evidence for."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2q9jow | if you put an object in between 4 of the same poles on 4 magnets, would they float? | Okay okay so hear me out, like if there was 4 humongous magnets and they were all north poles and you put a human in between them, would the human float?
[Example](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q9jow/eli5_if_you_put_an_object_in_between_4_of_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn43y9n",
"cn44esy"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"No, the human wouldn't float because human's are not magnetic.\n\nHowever, if you put a magnetic south pole in that position, it would \"float\". This is the technique used in Maglev trains.",
"probably, yes, but you'd need extremely powerful magnets, and it might kill the person. people have done it with frogs and extraordinarily powerful magnets. It's called diamagnetic levitation. Here's the section of the wikipedia article that talks about how:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIn short, really powerful magnets cause water to basically become magnetic on its own, and since living things have a lot of water...\n\nhere's a video of a poor levitating frog:\n_URL_1_"
]
} | []
| [
"http://i.imgur.com/OD3Xzs5.png"
]
| [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation#Diamagnetic_levitation",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1vyB-O5i6E"
]
]
|
|
8w0r5t | how does your body heal pimples/zits? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8w0r5t/eli5_how_does_your_body_heal_pimpleszits/ | {
"a_id": [
"e1td1m3"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"After forming they eventually begin to dry out shrinking in size until it disappears. Withing the pimpi/zit is a mix of oil and puss which will go away once dried out. To speed up the process pop the pomple/zit when it the top turns white and squeeze all or as much of the oil and puss out as you can , wash your face and let your body do the rest as it would then heal like a regular cut or scratch. Don't continuously pick at it or else It'll scar over which will heal but over an extended period of time"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
65hv3x | what would happen if the 43 million student borrowers that the department of education lends $1.3trillion to, decided to not make their payment? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65hv3x/eli5_what_would_happen_if_the_43_million_student/ | {
"a_id": [
"dgaenri"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Student loans are one of the few types of debt that you cannot discharge save for death or severe disability. This means you cannot just \"choose to not pay\" them. If you do not pay the government will garnish your wages. So in the scenario you set up 43 million students will have money taken directly out of their pay checks before they get them. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2mlayy | how do games detect hackers? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mlayy/eli5how_do_games_detect_hackers/ | {
"a_id": [
"cm5a7ox"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Different anti cheats do it in different ways.\nThings like fairfight take occasional screenshots to check for abnormalities (such as wallhacks and other things you shouldn't normally see, like healthbars) as well as checking collected statistics for oddities, like 100% hit rate with a ridiculous amount of shots, or a 100% headshot with a ridiculous amount of shots.\n\nPunkBuster (just looking around) scans your memory (data stored in your RAM) for any applications that match known cheat programs in their database and it does the same thing as FF where it occasionally takes screenshots to check for anything you're seeing that you shouldn't be.\n\nValve Anti Cheat (VAC) is a mystery. Valve doesn't discuss how it works because making less detectable cheats is hard if you don't know how the system works at all. Most ACs are the same way, where they work to varying degrees, but we aren't told how they work.\n\n\nSource: Varying wikis and sources I found."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
8sqkz4 | is there a scientific reason to why - as advanced as we are, cgi portraying humans or animals never looks 100% real? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8sqkz4/eli5is_there_a_scientific_reason_to_why_as/ | {
"a_id": [
"e11gl14"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"There is a thing called \"the uncanny valley\" that animators have been struggling to overcome for a long time now. A good example is a movie called \"Mars needs moms\".\n\nI hope someone else can provide more information about it"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
5p4zx1 | in practice, what is the difference between a republic and a constitutional monarchy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5p4zx1/eli5_in_practice_what_is_the_difference_between_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dcofeeu"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"A republic is a state in which the citizenry is represented in government, and where the government itself is constrained by the rule of law.\n\nA constitutional monarchy is a state that has a monarch, but where the monarch does not exercise absolute power. How much power the monarch actually has can vary from practically none (e.g. the United Kingdom) to quite a lot (e.g. Jordan or Morocco).\n\nThey aren't necessarily exclusive (I would say that the UK is both a republic and a constitutional monarchy) but sometimes a republic is defined as any state without a monarchy."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
bwlwqg | how did they record music before computers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bwlwqg/eli5_how_did_they_record_music_before_computers/ | {
"a_id": [
"epygd3y",
"epygjc6",
"epyi2rn",
"epyi5yi",
"epyio9g"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Quick and dirty ELI5: the process changed over the years but magnets and tape were one of the more popular ways prior to laser on discs. Tape is still used today to store data as is magnets with disks (conventional hard drives).",
"Depends on how far back you wanna go. Generally: Artist performs and is recorded, that's re-recorded again and again from the initial record(s) to make all the copies. The rest depends on the medium (tapes could be, for example, copied electronically and could be physically spliced together).",
"The first method for recording sound was on a wax cylinder, the precursor to the vinyl record. The wax was carved by a needle, which was itself moved by the incoming sounds. The sound was then played back by using another needle that didn't carve the wax, but instead transmitted the sound.\n\nThe next stage in the evolution of recording was the record. The same technique was used, a needle moved by sound would carve a template. However, after that a master record would be made from that template, basically a negative made of metal. The vinyl blank would then be softened and pressed against the metal negative, and produce a positive record.\n\nAfter this point, primitive computers were involved in some way.",
"The earliest recordings were purely mechanical - sound converted to a vibrating needle the scratched waves on a waxed cylinder. Playback is the reverse, the needle follows the tracks and is converted back to sound through a \"horn\".\n\nThen it changed to magnetic tape recordings. Where sound is converted to a changing magnetic field that \"imprinted\" itself on magnetic media (usually tape). Playback is the reverse, you have a pickup that could detect the magnetic fields on the moving tape and converted and amplified it to electrical speakers to produce sound. \n\nMost music was distributed as vinyl records which is still a mechanical recording (the grooves held the record of the sound wave). The needle vibrates according to the grooves and converts it to an electrical signal which is then amplified. \n\nThen came cassettes/8 tracks etc which are magnetic media (basically a cheaper and smaller version of the studio master magnetic tapes).\n\nAfter that came digital/optical in the form of CDs. At this point you can pretty much say it is a \"specialized\" computer designed specifically to convert the light impulses from a laser that \"reads\" the recording on the CD into a series of 0's and 1's which is converted into numbers that specify how \"loud\" the sound is at a small instant of time, then strings this all together to form a sound \"wave\"\n\nThen with computer storage becoming cheaper, general purpose computers becoming more powerful and encoding algorithms becoming better, the sound is converted in a compressed (smaller) series of 0's and 1's and stored in memory/hard disks/SSD as a file - which is pretty much what is used today. (mp3)\n\nWith the internet becoming so much faster, it became possible to \"live stream\" sound data from the internet rather than store the sound/music files on your local computer. Today, the internet is so fast that you can do this with video too.",
"For both records and compact discs, copies were/are made by using the master recording to create metallic or metal-coated discs which are then used to physically press/mould the information onto a consumer record or CD. Before the advent of computers, these master recordings were typically made on high-quality reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorders, which encode analog audio data by manipulating small magnetic particles on the tape's surface.\n\n[Records](_URL_0_)\n[Compact Discs](_URL_1_)\n\nMagnetic media like cassettes or 8-tracks are just smaller versions of reel-to-reel tape and can be electronically replicated."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuLCpvX718Y",
"https://youtu.be/ut_40U0t9pU?t=98"
]
]
|
||
13xz9g | how quickpick powerball works | So today, because the powerball is so high, we had a rush of customers come in. A customer asked for 100 dollars worth of power ball, the best way to do this is to hit "5 boards" "max repeats" coincidentally the button for draws is right next to repeat and was misclicked today. This resulted in a significantly priced ticket which being a small business was about 75% of our daily income. So i call the lottery commision which in a very rude fashion promptly tell me that this is my fault and they would not cancel the ticket (something that they can do for every game except powerball and mega millions). I acknowledge this mistake and ask why they simply can not cancel it since it is a significant impact on us and would not effect us at all. They continue to tell me that the numbers that came out are now in play and would change the game if canceled, I should hold onto the ticket and if there is no winner after the 8 draws (regardless of $2 or $500,000,000) i can send the ticket in and they will consider a refund and directly tells me that, it probably wont happen. So can someone ELI5 why these numbers effect the game now or as she put it "the numbers are now in the game" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13xz9g/eli5_how_quickpick_powerball_works/ | {
"a_id": [
"c786mva"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Man I would harass the shit out of them if they said \"they'd think about it\". Five emails a day kind of thing. I don't know how all that works, but I work at a gas station, and I could be fired if I printed out a 100 dollar ticket without a costumer giving money in exchange for it."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
7wpcaq | how come the human brain is easily addicted to games and tv but not to studying and learning? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7wpcaq/eli5_how_come_the_human_brain_is_easily_addicted/ | {
"a_id": [
"du249i4",
"du24uwl",
"du26bvm",
"du26enf",
"du26erm",
"du26m1n",
"du26m4s",
"du26wkt",
"du26wnj",
"du27ea3",
"du27m47",
"du27xxi",
"du286t6",
"du28gfd",
"du28s7u",
"du297ps",
"du298k4",
"du29dt6",
"du2a3sm",
"du2bn95"
],
"score": [
215,
5591,
7,
118,
2,
61,
519,
15,
17,
56,
10,
8,
6,
5,
3,
4,
21,
3,
3,
4
],
"text": [
"One belief is that there’s an evolutionary efficacy to paying attention to “easy” things. Thousands of years ago, what’s a better trait, being able to focus a ton of attention on staring at a page or at noticing surroundings and minute by minute interaction. You had to “quick think” in order to survive. Sedentary lifestyle and industry and leisure time allowed us to focus on “longer term” attention. But because were so hard wired to notice danger were predisposed to easier things like tv and games. This is just a theory, btw. Also, there are scientific terms I should be using here but they escape me ",
"Whenever you do something good, like finish a task or do something fun, your body releases chemicals in your brain that make you happy. Simply put, these chemicals are the reason we want to do things, and enjoy doing things.\n\nThese chemicals are powerful and make us feel good. If we flood our brains with these chemicals a lot in a short amount of time, it takes the brain time to adjust afterward to return to normal.\n\nVideo games, gambling, television, and social media are all specifically designed to be enjoyable and force your body to release these chemicals. For some people, the period after those chemicals wear off can be particularly uncomfortable, so they seek out that stimulus again to feel good again.\n\nOver time, this cycle of instant gratification can lead to dependancy, where the person has trouble feeling happy or satisfied from other stimulus. They're brain is so used to soaking in these chemicals that when the chemicals leave their system, they don't feel normal like they should, they feel worse.\n\nThings like studying aren't instantly gratifying, it happens over time and isn't really exciting, but we get pleasure at the end when our hard work pays off. ",
"Action packed stimuli for the mind or boring quiet reading? That’s like asking why someone would be addicted to heroin over taking aspirin. One just stimulates us more than the other, plain and simple ",
"Feedback loops. It's easy to tell how well you are doing at a video game, and putting in tiny amounts of time make a real perceivable impact on your scores, encouraging you to spend more time.\n\nGamification us the idea that you can apply these feedback loops to other aspects of your life to improve them more dramatically. Or apply them to a work process to make it more efficient.",
"I feel people generally enjoy learning new things!\nJust that, studying is more stressful because you are forcing yourself to absorb the knowledge",
"TV and games are designed to trigger that addictive response.\n\n- Cliffhangers\n\n- lootboxes\n\n- social elements\n\n- etc\n\nAre all intended to pull you back in\n\nMost study material is not structured that way.\n",
"Every time I study I eat something sweet, or drink a caffeinated beverage. My body has come to associate studying with these simple pleasures, and now I get cravings to \"study\". \nJust be sure whatever your reward is, it is small, and you don't ever have it without studying at the same time. ",
"Games and TV are designed to be rewarding. For some games, they hire psychologists to ensure the game is addictive, which is a different and easier thing than to make it continuously interesting.",
"Games ARE studying and learning. A good game tutorial teaches you new mechanics and ways to use them, ideally so well that you don't even realize you're learning. Portal was like 75% tutorial.\n\nUnfortunately, when most people try to get students to study and learn, they don't bother presenting it in a way that's engaging at all.",
"I think for some, the thought of learning new things makes them anticipate \"feeling stupid\" for not knowing it already. This is a problem perpetuated by our overall social culture, as being ignorant is nothing like being stupid, and there is no shame whatsoever in ignorance. It just means you have not been exposed to that piece of information yet. If you can push past the negative anticipation , there is a wonderfully addictive sense of self improvement on the other side.",
"Games are structured with reward mechanisms. Well-designed learning tools are as well, but learning by default isn't always structured as a game.",
"As some people have said, learning can certainly be enjoyable. The thing is though that education is generally aimed towards developing general foundational knowledge across broad ranges of topics, even in undergraduate. You hopefully get a handful of classes you enjoy, but the bulk are going to be on topics that you’re mildly interested in if at all. \n\nAlso, hard work is exhausting, and studying confusing and complex subjects can be frustrating, which isn’t fun for anyone. Entertainment generally isn’t structured to be frustrating or overly complex. In some cases, entertainment can be hard work though, like sports/exercise, gambling, even video games when you’re not good. In those cases, I’d argue that those activities aren’t fun. That’s part of why we hold athletes up in such a positive light, they’re willing to work through the grueling aspects of their field to get to where they are. ",
"The answer to this question depends on the definition of \"studying.\" When playing video games and watching television, we're actually doing some studying. For instance, when playing vidya, we study the motion of the characters and objects then compare it to our actual experience of watching everyday movements. This is somewhat of a gateway to physics because in order to accurately represent our experience with pixels, we need a solid understanding of how objects in spacetime interact with one another. When playing online multiplayer, we study the movements of our opponents which is essentially interpreting human behavior, i.e. psychology. These are only a couple of the many ways we study while playing vidya. When watching television, we pay close attention to the plot, which is constructed using logic. We analyze these narratives with reason (albeit some people will employ fallacious reasoning) and in the process of doing so, we uncover greater truths about the human experience. The study the facial expressions and body language to draw meaning from the visual representation of our actual experience in life, thus turning our attention to the many actions we can take in this life, sparking our imagination to begin critically thinking about possible outcomes of the decisions we make. \n\nIf you think the traditional style of learning is boring and cumbersome, then you're either:\nA) Being forced to absorb unwanted knowledge (i.e. core classes you could care less about).\nB) Learning something as a means, not an end.\n\nI find that if you treat learning for the sake of learning as the end goal (being abundantly curious about the way things work), any form of learning is tolerable and even exciting!",
"Because studying and working require a substantially greater amount of energy while consumption of TV/games is incredibly easy",
"This is an awful question to ask in ELI5. Most people think they know the answer, and will speak definitively about it, but the details surrounding this area of psychology are far from concrete, and there are constantly studies being conducted and published to try to understand how this all works. The best thing I can propose to answer your question is that your mind does not delineate things in the same way your question is framed. Gaming is learning. Television and storytelling are learning.\n\nThe human mind is a puzzle that is nowhere near solved.",
"Your brain has an\"imagination\" center that should be actively working and used, TV and other visual media essentially give you a hyperactive false reality and your brain become \"programmed\" to want this type of hyper simulation or you get bored from your real reality even if it's on the subconscious level.",
"Our built in self-teaching mechanism is play. Memorising facts which aren't readily useful was a waste of time during our evolution, whereas experimentation, trial and error, problem solving and competition is always very useful.\n\nMost learning in modern times is based on methods which trigger boredom and disinterest, which are mechanisms designed to prevent us spending time on things which are not useful to us.",
"I know that ADHD people are addicted to learning, but it's manic. I say this from personal experience and the anecdotes of others (on reddit's own /r/ADHD sub) so no actual sources are in play.\n\nI know myself, I tend to become very obsessed with learning a new skill or line of information I pull the string of. Japanese, physics, cooking, all things I've adopted and fizzled out on. I know others who have the disorder experience this too, but not all. ",
"You can actually addict yourself to learning and documentaries and studying. It just takes absolutely cutting out the other stuff and exclusively using the good stuff to satisfy the entertainment pleasure centers of the brain.",
"tl;dr most people aren't used to studying and learning so they give up instead of persisting and getting used to the pain\n\nHuman brain can also get addicted to studying and learning. Professors, people with multiple doctorates, researchers etc. are all addicted to studying and learning. They are literally taking a huge cut in pay (STEM fields) and do a ungrateful job for peanuts because they are addicted to what they do.\n\nAddiction to games and TV are to do with neurotransmitters released in your brain that make you feel good. You feel good when you poop, you feel good when you eat, you feel good when you have sex and so on. You feel good after a workout and you feel good when you get something done.\n\nThe opposite side of the coin is pain. If it's painful to do, you try to avoid doing it. Learning and studying difficult or boring things is painful. But pain isn't bad, pain is necessary.\n\nIf you have no pain, it quickly becomes boring. A TV show that doesn't challenge you and makes you think, a video game that is too easy and so on.\n\nIf you have too much pain, you'll never receive the \"feel good\" part and never finish. A TV show in a completely different language or a game that is simply too hard quickly makes it not interesting.\n\nIf you have just enough pain, the feel good part is amplified. This is why gambling is so addicting, the fact that you lose money before you win makes the wins better. That's why games like DayZ, Rust, PUBG etc. are so popular, that's why people play very hard games and that's why people run marathons and go to the gym.\n\nFeel good part and pain are relative. Someone really bad at videogames will think PUBG is utter trash because they never get a kill. Too much pain for almost no reward (they don't get the adrenaline rush when they kill someone).\n\nWith studying and learning, there is often too much pain involved with no feel goods. Not everyone is motivated to solve that math equation, not everyone is motivated to read that chapter about WW2 tank battles. Often it's simply the case of lack of motivation and not being used to pain of learning. School is often very easy and then at some point the person hits a wall where they actually don't understand something and learning it becomes painful. So they give up without even trying. If you persist, the pains starts to go away and as you learn you get more motivated and the feel good starts to get bigger and bigger.\n\nSome people are and they get addicted to learning and studying and they end up at the university as researchers, professors, teachers etc since they literally get paid to learn new things with the expectation that they will pass it on.\n\nEDIT:\n\nThere is no such thing as \"bad in humanities\" or \"bad in math\" or \"bad in languages\" or \"bad in math\". It simply means that you hit the wall of pain and never bothered to work hard at it. Maybe you lost at the gene lottery and were dropped on your head so you are a slower learning requiring 5% or even 25% more effort than the guy next to you. Maybe you were sick for 2 weeks and have been unsuccessfully catching up and gasping for air ever since and without that you would be a math/language/whatever god and all you need is basically a good revision of past stuff before proceeding. Something Khan Academy or some 1-on-1 tutoring would fix in a week.\n\nA good analogy is being fat (I am fat). You look around and people are jogging, running, dancing, skiing, skateboarding, playing football etc. You try some sports and collapse within 5 minutes thinking that you're helpless and have no future. You look at others and go \"oh they are just naturals\" when in reality they are thin and fit and you are fat and unfit and it has nothing to do with nature or talent or whatever. You could have the genes to beat Mr. Bolt but you never got there since you got fat in 3rd grade (like me) and never even started on reaching your potential. Most people just give up and think that their life is over and there is nothing they can do. That is untrue. You can lose weight and get fit and even if you'll never reach your perfect potential, you can get pretty fucking good. Lots of stories for literally huge fat people losing weight and then going ahead and being successful in running marathons and shit.\n\nEven learning disabilities do not doom you. You can be legally retarded and still get a university degree from a decent school and have a successful career. I know people with doctorates with severe learning disabilities. You just have to work smart and work very, very, very hard and play your strengths.\n\nPeople run marathons with no fucking legs for fucks sake, what is your excuse?\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
2byfm4 | how can a woman become pregnant while she is breastfeeding and not having a normal menstrual cycle? | Do you still ovulate and have a uterine lining for it to attach to, you just don't shed it monthly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2byfm4/eli5_how_can_a_woman_become_pregnant_while_she_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"cja4sld"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Generally speaking, you don't ovulate at all while breastfeeding, because it triggers hormonal changes (much like a birth control pill) that keep ovulation from happening.\n\nBut it only works *well* when a new mother is breastfeeding *exclusively*. Many women who breastfeed will *occasionally* substitute a bottle of formula, or other food if the baby is older. \n\nAccording to [Planned Parenthood](_URL_0_), if you want to use breastfeeding as a method of birth control, you should breast-feed the baby every 4 hours during the day and every 6 hours at night, at least. Even if you keep to this schedule, it only works well for the first 6 months. And even among women who do this perfectly, about 1 in 100 can still get pregnant during that first six months -- maybe because 1% of women don't have the exact same hormonal response. Everybody's body is a little different, after all!\n\nSo to sum up: you can get pregnant while breastfeeding if you *do* ovulate, but breastfeeding makes it much less likely that you will ovulate. Ovulation is more likely if you do not breastfeed on a precise schedule, or if you have been breastfeeding longer than 6 months."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-info/birth-control/breastfeeding"
]
]
|
|
20f8ol | how do we keep on "discovering" more exact definitions of π(pi)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20f8ol/eli5_how_do_we_keep_on_discovering_more_exact/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg2ne7n",
"cg2nk6n"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"**π** occurs wherever there is periodicity, and periodicity is reflected in nearly every field of mathematics.",
"We have many (equivalent) exact definitions of pi. If you just mean calculating more digits, because it takes time to calculate them."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
8zotee | why is it when we are on roller coasters/rides etc we only get the "butterfly" feeling in our tummys when facing forward making a drop and not backwards? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8zotee/eli5_why_is_it_when_we_are_on_roller/ | {
"a_id": [
"e2kcew4"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Probably because we are used to laying back onto something we can’t see and our brains probably go bug shit when we can see a potential danger in falling to our deaths thus never being able to procreate and pass on our genes thus causing an end to our bloodline, and since we’re being serious about this, and the entire human race so I would end with its probably a general sense of the absolute destruction of the human race that your body is avoid but I never went to medical school. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
5xugsd | what is happening in this gif that caused the hole and for it to fill up with water that is sloshing around? | _URL_0_
Sinkhole filled with water in a backyard. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xugsd/eli5_what_is_happening_in_this_gif_that_caused/ | {
"a_id": [
"dekx5eb",
"dekx8x3"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The hole was caused by groundwater washing away the soil which supported the ground above where the hole is now. The water in the hole is that water, and it is sloshing because of the underground current which caused the washing away of the soil.\n\nYou can tell it is an Aspen tree because of the way it is.",
"To me it looks like a sink hole. Sink holes are inherently unstable and can continue to sink or shift. The water probably entered from a rain storm or from the sink hole reaching an underground water table. It could be sloshing due to high winds. Without more information i can't give more than speculation."
]
} | []
| [
"http://i.imgur.com/pX3zmTr.gifv"
]
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
6g19uw | what is clock speed on a cpu, what determines the clock speed, and how can a cpu be overclocked (i.e. what does it do differently that allows it to process faster)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6g19uw/eli5_what_is_clock_speed_on_a_cpu_what_determines/ | {
"a_id": [
"dimmay1"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Keep in mind that my information on this is dated, so it's possible technology has moved on, or that I might misremember things.\n\nEach processer has a cycle it goes through. it's a cycle of passing data in, performing operations on it, and passing it back out. It does this at a VERY precise pace. In part, it adheres to this pace because the hardware has very precise heat tolerances, and if it runs too fast, and too hot, it begins to make mistakes. (And crash.) \n\nWhat an overclocker usually does is change settings, usually in the BIOS in the motherboard, to make that cycle run faster. The motherboard is the interface that allows all the chips and cards, CPU and memory to work together. The BIOS is the software that regulates it all.\n\nTo use a metaphor, if the computer were a human, the CPU, memory, various drives and cards would be organs. The motherboard would be the flesh of the body, tying it all together into one living thing. The BIOS would be the autonomic nervous system, regulating things like your heartbeat.\n\nI mentioned before that hardware has specific heat tolerances. Chips that run faster also run hotter, which is why in combination with running a chip faster, an overclocker typically also adds various cooling solutions to a PC, such as extra fans, or liquid-cooling systems."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
1xrjlo | how are booster packs for trading card games mass produced? | How are they made, so that they'll guarantee a minimum number of uncommon and rares? How are the ultra-rare cards mixed into a select few packs? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xrjlo/eli5_how_are_booster_packs_for_trading_card_games/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfe0ilt",
"cfe2dkj"
],
"score": [
4,
5
],
"text": [
"Cards are printed, lots of them. Those cards are then randomly shuffled and packed into baggies. ",
"A mechanical sorter knows the cards it's holding and it does simple random calculations to determine which cards go where ensuring the correct ratios of rares and random distribution of ultra rares, slides it into the little foil pouch, which is heat sealed."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
5c89rs | what happens on the new president's first day, does he undergo a training day? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5c89rs/eli5_what_happens_on_the_new_presidents_first_day/ | {
"a_id": [
"d9udpfb",
"d9ufahf",
"d9vqhm7"
],
"score": [
41,
8,
3
],
"text": [
"The President elect already started to get briefings and preparation prior to their actual election. Their \"first day\" will likely be mostly taken up with preparation for the ceremony to swear them into the office, and the ensuing speeches and events afterwards.",
"There is no set standards in transitioning and most outgoing presidents and their staff handle it differently.\n\nE.g. when transitioning from Bush to Obama, Bush's chief of staff gathered all living ex-chiefs (among them Cheney) so that each could give advice to Rahm Emanuel.",
"I never understood this. How can someone who has no prior experience in law or international law be even considered for a job where you are literally doing those two things. \n\nDo we just vote on people hoping they will choose A over B, and hopefully A will be the right choice? \n\nWhy don't we have stricter requirements on being a president, such as hold a Masters or PH.D in law? "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
9kea0v | weber and marx's concepts | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9kea0v/eli5_weber_and_marxs_concepts/ | {
"a_id": [
"e6ygx14"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Marx is essentially arguing that, because society must compete for limited resources, society is constantly in perpetual conflict. \n\nPower, in Marx’s viewpoint, is not consolidated from some social contract; there is no peaceful consensus. Rather, because their is this perpetual conflict, power is accrued through authority and domination, as you said. \n\nHe uses this to also argue that the wealthy, those in power, will hold onto their power and wealth by any means necessary. \n\nIt’s also the foundation of class conflict, that is, the divide between bourgeoise and proletariat. The bourgeoise is significantly smaller than the proletariat, but controls the majority of the wealth — this is why they oppress the proletariat, so as to maintain heir wealth and status. \n\nWeber’s a pretty complicated figure to touch on. I’m going to focus on Weber and authority, as this seems to be related to your questions about Marx — primarily relating to power, and how it’s held. \n\nAuthority, to Weber, comes in three characteristics:\n\n1. Charismatic, whereby an individual’s power comes from the great trust his people put in him. \n2. Traditional authority. This is where a leader rules by established order and tradition. Society still gives him permission to rule. \n3. Legal-rational authority. This is where leadership is vested in legal norms and bureaucracy, rather than single individuals. \n\nTo touch on the Protestant work ethic, Weber is less upholding the idea, as much as merely explaining he emergence of capitalism in Europe. Weber essentially holds the theory that capitalism took root in Western Europe because the Protestant work ethic made it so; the rise of capitalism was not planned, or coordinated, after all, and so Weber claims that the Protestant work ethic was key in how it came into fruition. \n\nThis is all very complicated, and it’s hard to explain socialist theory in a way suiting of a five year old. Hopefully I’ve helped some, and I’m happy to try to explain better or clear up any questions. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
4rc0w2 | why do poison ivy/oak itch, and why does itching it make it spread? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4rc0w2/eli5_why_do_poison_ivyoak_itch_and_why_does/ | {
"a_id": [
"d4zu3nl"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"contrary to popular belief, scratching DOES NOT spread the rash.\n\nonly initial contact with the fresh oil will cause the rash.\n\nit is not contagious like people say and doesnt spread.\n\nsome areas of skin just take overnight to react but only fresh oil practically straight from the plant will do it"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
65r1ec | what are the core beliefs of buddhism? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65r1ec/eli5_what_are_the_core_beliefs_of_buddhism/ | {
"a_id": [
"dgchxah"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Search can get you a couple of answers with over 100 upvotes. [Try this one](_URL_0_ ).\n\nThere is also a dedicated sub, /r/Buddhism , that probably contains folks who would love to answer your detailed questions."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=buddhism&sort=top&restrict_sr=on&t=all"
]
]
|
||
2fqr18 | if everyone died, how long would it take for the internet to stop working? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fqr18/eli5_if_everyone_died_how_long_would_it_take_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckbtj03",
"ckbu242",
"ckbx6em",
"ckc73o3"
],
"score": [
8,
50,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Depends on what you mean. There's no centre to the internet, some parts would stay up much longer than others, and a lot of it isn't quite predictable. ",
"Most likely it would operate properly until the power grid fails, plus however many hours of battery and diesel backup various datacenters have.",
"The internet is basically a number of connected devices, which forward messages to each other. There are multiple routes between devices, which use different intermediary devices and connections and the routing of traffic is decentralized. The only thing that has to be centralized is the distribution of IP addresses (kinda like internet phone numbers) and that already happened.\n\nPower failures would happen comparably quickly and knock out a lot of those devices, but if the desired servers still work and you have a functioning route to those desired servers, everything could still work as expected.\n\nI should say that your computer needs to know the IP address of other computers to talk to them. DNS servers (kinda like internet phone books) tell your computer that the IP address of the website \"_URL_1_\" is [198.41.209.140](_URL_0_). Once many global DNS servers go down, the local DNS servers will generally only know the IP addresses of frequently visited webpages in that area. If you cannot even reach local DNS servers, you are stuck with webpages you recently/frequently visited. Lots of other things depend on such services and will fail, once they go down.\n\nThe internet therefore wouldn't stop working at a certain point, but it would rather offer less and less services and split up in smaller networks which are no longer interconnected. I suppose if all end points of [submarine cables](_URL_3_) and satellite links go down, each landmass would have it's own separate \"internet\" and you might no longer be able to call any of them \"the internet\". I have no clue how quickly that would happen.\n\nHere's also an article on that topic: [What Would Happen to the Internet if Mankind Disappeared?](_URL_2_)",
"Because this is entirely speculative and subjective it's been removed. Try /r/futurewhatif instead, or /r/askreddit instead."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://reddit.com.ipaddress.com",
"reddit.com",
"http://gizmodo.com/what-would-happen-to-the-internet-if-mankind-disappeare-1630280232",
"http://www.submarinecablemap.com"
],
[]
]
|
||
1o1w9y | how a carburator works | I understand the purpose: to deliver the right fuel/air mixture at the right time but what I don't understand is how it's done mechanically on modern carburators. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o1w9y/eli5_how_a_carburator_works/ | {
"a_id": [
"cco30zc"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"There are two main types of carburettor.\n\nThey all work by having a large body which air flows through, and a throttle butterfly which restricts the amount of air flowing through the body, based in the driver's/operator's throttle inputs.\n\nThey all have a supply a supply of fuel, in a float chamber. The float in the float chamber allows fuel to enter the float chamber (there will be a pump, not part of the carburettor, pumping it in) if the level is too low. It's important that the fuel level in the chamber is kept constant.\n\nAnd they all use a Venturi to suck fuel into the air flow. A Venturi is a narrow gap through which the air passes. As it passes through this air, it speeds up, and this results in a reduction in pressure. The reduction in pressure causes fuel to be sucked in, through a narrow opening in the venturi called a \"jet\". [This image](_URL_0_) shows the basic idea.\n\nThe problem with the arrangement shown in that diagram is that it doesn't work well at low power settings - there isn't enough air flowing through the Venturi to suck enough fuel into the airflow.\n\nThere are two solutions to this problem:\n\n- In a \"constant Venturi\" carburettor, there is more than one jet. As well as the main jet, there is an \"idle jet\" - a further jet, placed near the throttle butterfly. When the throttle is closed, the butterfly acts like a Venturi - a much smaller one than the main Venturi - and causes fuel to be sucked in through the idle jet.\n\n- In a \"constant depression\" carburettor, the Venturi is adjusted so that the pressure is constant. So, at idle power, the reduction in pressure at the Venturi is small.... this results in the gap at Venturi itself being made smaller, so that the pressure drop at idle power is the same as it would be at high power with the smaller gapped Venturi. Because the pressure drop is constant, the amount of fuel entering the air flow would also be constant - this is fixed with a small, tapered needle, which is inserted into the jet. The further the needle is inserted, the wider the portion of the needle which is in the jet, and so less fuel flows around the needle into the air flow. The needle is attached to the moveable part of the Venturi, so as the air flow changes, the Venturi opens or closes, the needle moves in or out of the jet and the amount of fuel is altered."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Carburetor.svg"
]
]
|
|
9yd1a8 | why do rubber bands let off an odor after being stretched? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9yd1a8/eli5_why_do_rubber_bands_let_off_an_odor_after/ | {
"a_id": [
"ea0mu81"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"It's mostly from thermal heat shock that occurs when the rubber band is stretched quickly, emitting a very slight odor."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2lursf | how is it possible for us to have no recollection of doing something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lursf/eli5how_is_it_possible_for_us_to_have_no/ | {
"a_id": [
"clyfodk"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"There are lots of reasons why we could 'blank' on remembering something. The first thing we have to understand is how much information our brain actually process on a second by second time frame. Everything we are seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, smelling, all of it is being processed by our brain. Massive amounts of information are being analyzed, synthesized, and internalized. However, a lot of information is also superfluous and doesn't exist in our brains more than about seven second, the length of our short term memory. So, imagine taking a handful of marbles, of all different sizes but size also correlates to importance, then throwing them through a net. The really small unimportant information passes through the net, like the color of the floor or pictures on a wall, it's not caught. The bigger marbles, like information you may have been reading, or a conversation you're having get stuck and retain in our memory bank. Only to be further sorted out into a hierarchy of importance again. These marbles that get retained start becoming our memory.\n\nSecondly, we must understand how it is our brain 'recalls' information... When you remember an experience or a conversation... You don't remember verbatim the entire exchange. You brain had to make important judgment calls on what to remember and what to forget. However, if you think long and hard you can probably remember almost exactly what was said. This is because a lot of information that you remember rapidly was a really big marble it was immediately recognized as important and stored. The smaller details that got caught in the net but were then sorted as less important are still there... but they require more work to retrieve.\n\nNow you're asking how can I have no memory of an event at all... Well, it could be the event just didn't get filtered correctly and our brains didn't remember all of information or even most of it. Think about your daily drive to work... ever arrive pull in to your parking spot and think... \"Wow, I don't remember driving at all!\" Well you can thank your brain for that, it knew this wasn't very important, you've been doing it for a long time so why invest energy into remembering it? \n\nBut maybe what you're talking about was something you did with some mates while you were hanging out... another possibility is that your brain was preoccupied with something else and just didn't invest the energy to remember what was occurring. Think of being engrossed in a video game and being told something by your SO... do we really remember that? Chances are if we responded it was a habitual response that occurred without even thinking, like saying 'thank you.' Finally, maybe it was from a long time ago... and you just can't remember something about when you were a kid, but your sibling does. Well, chances are... if you sat down and really thought about it you could come with up with some type of memory about it... it just buried much deeper than surface information like where you live or your age. However, another interesting thing about the brain is that if it can't remember specific information at times it will just... fill in the gaps with other memories or situations that were similar to what you're trying to remember!\n\nTL;DR The brain is really busy doing a lot of thing and often can't devote energy to remembering everything, therefore, it's logical we get gaps."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
di60vk | why is h2o2 and ho different? | They both have a ratio of 1 Hydrogen for every 1 Oxygen, it's just there's twice as much in H2O2. I don't get how they are different substances. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/di60vk/eli5_why_is_h2o2_and_ho_different/ | {
"a_id": [
"f3tj0zc",
"f3tj2iv",
"f3tjjfz",
"f3tjs12",
"f3tm420",
"f3tombg"
],
"score": [
14,
3,
3,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"If you were to look at pictures of the molecules side by side, you’d see that HO is simply a hydrogen bonded to an oxygen, whereas H2O2 exists as H-O-O-H. It’s the O-O bond in hydrogen peroxide that makes it unique and gives it special chemical properties; it’s uniquely unstable and able to break under conditions such as light or heat. (Getting into a little organic chem, this makes two OH radical species, which are different from the regular OH. A radical is a chemical with a lone electron that’s not a pair. Regular OH only has electron pairs. Once again, radical species have their own reactivities as compared to regular species.)",
"The molecular structure are different. Just think about 2 males and 2 girls. There are several ways you can arrange them holding hands.",
"For the same reason the number 1,010 isn't the same is twice the number 10 just because there are twice as many of each digit. The arrangement and placement of atoms in molecules matters. Hydroxide ions (OH) are single units. They're not attached to other hyroxides. That specific arrangement of one oxygen and one hydrogen gives it its properties. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a totally different substance. It has two oxygen atoms with one hydrogen atom bonded to each. It's a totally different physical arrangement of atoms which makes a different molecule with different properties.",
"Arrangement matters.\n\nThink of it this way: a house is technically 'the same' as a big pile of bricks. Both the pile and the house are made of the same parts. But they are also different. Arranging the bricks in a certain way changes their properties.",
"HO is not a full molecule; it is a part of a molecule, also known as a free radical. It desperately wants to become whole, and to do so, it aggressively attacks every substance. H2O2 is a full molecule, it does not want to become whole because it already is.",
"H2O2 would be two tomatoes and two pieces of mozzarella on a single skewer. \nHO would be one tomato and one piece of mozzarella on one skewer. \n & nbsp; \nThe proportion is the same, but if you pick two skewers of HO, you still have two skewers, not one skewer going through all the food. \n & nbsp; \nYou could take the food off one skewer of HO and stab if with another skewer of HO. That \"reaction\" would get you one skewer of HOOH, or H2O2. \n & nbsp; \nWhen we write H2O2 as HOOH, we're showing in which order were the tomatoes and mozzarellas stabbed by the skewer. The H go first and last, and the two OO are in the middle."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1o9r9q | how does vaporub work? | I have seriously tried finding this out for a while and figured there had to be a redditor out there who could explain it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o9r9q/eli5_how_does_vaporub_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccq52vq"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It is one of the few solids that turn to gas and skip the liquefying step. Body heat speeds up the process."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
96ynro | how are compound bows more efficient than recurve bows by using a system of pulleys to grant a "mechanical advantage", when bows at their most basic are already systems of levers to grant a mechanical advantage? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/96ynro/eli5_how_are_compound_bows_more_efficient_than/ | {
"a_id": [
"e4448sw"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The thing that makes compound bows so efficient is what’s called “the valley”. The pulleys are shaped in such a way that when it’s pulled all the way back, the pressure of the strings is resting mostly on the angles of the pulley. When you pull a recurve all the way back, you’re holding all of that tension with your hand. On a compound, you’re only holding 1/4 of the tension, making it easy to hold in the drawn position for a very long time. \n\nAs to strength, there really is no difference from what I’ve seen. While compound bows do have a mechanical advantage at the end of the draw, you still have to pull back to that valley, so it rests on how much the archer can handle"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
dsgf07 | americans wore hats all day, every day up until the 1960’s. now no one wears a hat as part of their daily attire. why? what changed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dsgf07/eli5_americans_wore_hats_all_day_every_day_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"f6p627f",
"f6p6d6q",
"f6p6rv3",
"f6p7tut",
"f6p7ze8",
"f6p81dg",
"f6p8iuj",
"f6p8ytu",
"f6p9b99",
"f6p9v92",
"f6pa4f5",
"f6palic",
"f6paz5f",
"f6pb62l"
],
"score": [
1173,
88,
29,
142,
8,
13,
30,
194,
8,
2,
9,
2,
5,
10
],
"text": [
"Hat wear was at its peak around the 20s, long before the 60's.\n\nThe decline was due to many things, one of them the increase in cars and public transportation. People simply didn't need them as much when traveling in closed-top transportation. \n\nWhen a piece of clothing stops being a functional necessity and starts being ornamental it doesn't generally last, at least not among working and lower middle class.",
"While some might cite \"Cause John F. Kennedy didn't wear one to his inauguration\", beware, as this is absoultely false:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe more likely reason is that many men, after serving in WWII and wearing a hat every day for service, were sick of them when they returned and simply chose to not don a daily hat, beginning a decline in the trend, and thus a decline in the industry.\n\nI actually live near a once-very-famous Hat Manufacturing city, so it's part of the lore of the area surrounding why certain industrial areas declined after hat manufacturing declined, and I hear the Kennedy rumor a few times every year by people, though as I mentioned above, they're very wrong.",
"Plenty people wear hats as a daily attire today. Including my boyfriend. The hats are snapbacks though",
"People used to be outside a lot more, whether for work, travel or entertainment. Most of that is done with roofs over our head now.",
"I wore a hat for a short period in my twenties. Yes, a fedora, but not the trilbys or porkpies that people mistakenly call fedoras sometimes now. \n\n\nIt's a pain to get in and out of cars with a hat, and if you have a long torso, as I do, you basically can't wear it while you're sitting in the car seat because it gets crushed against the roof. You have to take it off while you drive and put it on again when you get out. It know it's not this way for everyone, but it was for me. It's useless when you're driving except when the sun is directly in your eyes, and then it's actually pretty helpful, but a ballcap does exactly the same thing with less \"overhead\". (pun intended) \n\n\nI bike a lot in the city, and you can't really practically wear a fedora while biking. \n\n\nMy thinking is that's it's very practical when you're walking around all day, but when most people are taking public transit, biking or driving, it's not practical at all. In fact, it gets in the way. So it becomes solely a fashion statement. \n\n\nNeck ties are somewhat awkward and also a vestigal holdover from practical clothing that kept your throat warm for giving commands or being able to pull up over your face (see cravat), but they don't actually get in the way (as such) when you wear them. \n\n\nI think people wearing them day-to-day just weigh the practical vs. the impractical and decided against them. As fashion and cultural trends made baseball caps more acceptable daily wear (instead of part of a uniform or solely for work) the people who really needed a hat to keep sun out of their eyes and off their face in their daily lives started wearing them instead. Everyone else just... didn't need them any more.",
"Some pretty good answers, but even in the 30s, 40, and the 50s, hats were still very much a part of daily attire. Decades after covered transportation was common.",
"Formal dress attitudes were a thing passed on from Victorian culture. Wearing hats, suits, overcoats, vests, etc were the standard when you stepped out in public. This was not just for going to work; it was for any time you went in public. \n\nIt all has to do with attitudes that what you wear is a reflection of yourself. And if you didnt dress formally, you were a vagabond or vagrant who could be disregarded.",
"Even suits are slowly going out now. Most places I’ve had to work are classified as business casual which is basically me wearing the new, good versions of my typical clothes :P",
"I used to be a Park Ranger for the NPS and got to wear the cool hat. Mine was an actual Stetson made of Beaver felt. It was alright at first but it quickly becomes a hassle. You need a place to put the hat when you take it off. You have to be careful on windy days cause that thing would catch the wind. If it landed in a puddle, it was done. Time to get a new hat. You couldn't wear it in the rain without putting a plastic cover on it. If you needed to run while wearing the hat there was the tendency to hold it on. Overall, it's a pain in the ass.",
"Hey, some of us still do. I wear many hats, both literally and figuratively. It helps to have nice outfits to coordinate with, but TBH I've got a lot of casual caps as well to match my mood or events.\n\nBut sometimes I do feel like detective Miller on Ceres Station.",
"I think redditors are losing sight of what “Explain like I’m 5” is meant to be used for. \n \nYou are asking a question about wearing hats, not nuclear fission.",
"I wear a ball cap every day, but that’s just to keep all of the cutting fluids and oil and whatnot out of my hair. Now it’s just become habit",
"I wear a hat every single day. What's with this \"no one\" business?",
"What the hell happened to powdered wigs? That's what I want to know!"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hat-trick/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
2txka8 | if jailers know how prisoners can get contraband into the prison, why does contraband continue getting into prison? | As additional questions, if a warden is convinced that they've stopped the "usual" routes, wouldn't he or she suspect a corrupt officer? Also, in case I'm misinformed, how does contraband get into prison?
In searching, all I found was how prisoners get non-contraband items (cigarettes, magazines, etc.), which is by having a family member ship them directly from the vendor. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2txka8/eli5_if_jailers_know_how_prisoners_can_get/ | {
"a_id": [
"co3873g"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Corruption is a large part of it, even in developed countries. A lot of guards or other prison staff are on the take."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1qn1fj | which brand of gas should i buy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qn1fj/which_brand_of_gas_should_i_buy/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdef6dv"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"By the cheapest gas, any brand will do. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
39sb6j | why are non-nutritive sweeteners (aspartame sucralose etc..) in so many non-diet products? | I am seeing (and tasting) it in more and more products. Even products that are not "diet" in any way, have lots of calories, and have sugar or high-fructose corn syrup as their second ingredient. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39sb6j/eli5_why_are_nonnutritive_sweeteners_aspartame/ | {
"a_id": [
"cs60sf5"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Because they work out cheaper than the equivalent amount of sugar. \n\nOne thing that helps this is the problems making and distributing the concentrate syrup that they use to mix up large amounts. You can only add so much sugar to a syrup before it forms solid crystals. If you use sugar, you have to transport and handle large amounts of fairly dilute syrup. If you replace some of that sugar with other sweeteners, then you can make the syrup much more concentrated."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
8qtwbk | why is a sample size of 30 the suggested minimum required to perform statistical analysis? | My advisor suggested me to survey at least 30 households before I can perform statistical analysis | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8qtwbk/eli5_why_is_a_sample_size_of_30_the_suggested/ | {
"a_id": [
"e0lzzxb",
"e0m0qbn",
"e0m0vdt",
"e0m1p3q",
"e0m1qix",
"e0m1uc3",
"e0m20h7",
"e0m2nhs",
"e0m2y8g",
"e0m31mj",
"e0m3krb",
"e0m55dc",
"e0m8m4h",
"e0mjm0f",
"e0mm9wk"
],
"score": [
9,
90,
14,
15,
9,
45,
2,
2,
50,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The larger your sample size the better it is usually. He's wanting to get you to have a large enough sample size that there's enough variation in answers to study without making you spend a day or two polling hundreds of households.",
"I know the Central limit theorem starts to take effect at sample size of 30 (things start to follow a normal distribution), but I can't remember if that is only for means or raw data as well",
"I remember 30 being the magic number in behavioral statistics to infer the results of a sample on a larger population. I do want to know if there is some actual mathematical reasoning for this, or if it's just the number they deemed to be the cutoff (like p=.05 being the cutoff for significance)",
"The idea of the central limit theorem allowing for \\~normal distribution with a sample over 30 is fairly week. There isn't really a threshold when you shouldn't consider the degrees of freedom, which is lost following a z statistic. Generally, the greater the size of your sample the better, and there isn't much significant about the value of 30",
"Statisticians usually claim that a data becomes approximately normally distributed (the mean in the center, the further from mean you you is equal on both sides) when you have around 30 data points (sometimes as low as 25, or as high as 40-50 are what statisticians usually say)\n\nStatisticians want data to be evenly distributed to approximate how far from population mean all the data is",
"There's nothing magic about the number 30. It has become the most commonly quoted \"minimum sample size\", but not due to any rigorous mathematics. It's just a number that kind of caught on and keeps getting passed on by teachers, with no solid justification (other than the fact that very small samples cause problems). \n \nFor some analyses, 10 will do fine. Some statisticians will say that you need a sample size of at least 50 to do meaningful analysis; others might quote an even higher number. \n \nUsually 30 works pretty well if you take steps to make sure that your sample is truly random, which is often harder than one would think it is. If your sample isn't random, then even a sample size of 30 can give biased results.",
"30 Samples. Standard, Suggestion, or Superstition?\n_URL_0_\n\nLike many legends, there is some truth behind the myth. The 30-sample rule-of-thumb may have originated with William Gosset, a statistician and Head Brewer for Guinness. In a 1908 article published under the pseudonym Student....Why did he pick 30 samples? He never said but he concluded, “with samples of 30 … the mean value [of the correlation coefficient] approaches the real value [of the population] comparatively rapidly,” ",
"It's a rule of thumb. For any analysis which deals with a population where the true standard deviation is unknown, a t-test is appropriate for hypothesis testing. However, as degrees of freedom increase (more data points are collected) the distribution a t test is drawn from resembles a normal distribution more closely. With 30 data points, the two distributions are indistinguishable.",
"There's an interesting and slightly counter-intuitive effect to how confidence, sample size, and population size work. It might be tempting to think that your confidence in your statistical calculations might depend on how big your sample size *as a fraction of the population being measured*, and for small populations that's a *little* bit true, but for larger and larger populations, that effect flattens out.\n\nIf you have a sock drawer containing ten socks of assorted patterns, and you pull out ten socks and count up their patterns, you can now characterize the contents of that drawer with perfect confidence. You know *exactly* what percentage of them are striped or polka dotted.\n\nIf your drawer instead had eleven socks, and you pulled out ten of them, then your estimates of those percentages could be wrong, but you know it's wrong within a pretty tight margin for error. The last remaining unobserved sock could throw your estimate off by 9% in either direction.\n\nIf you tally up ten socks from a drawer containing twenty, then your estimates *could* be quite far from the actual distribution of socks. Say the drawer contains 15 striped socks and 5 polka dot socks, and you somehow managed to draw all 5 polka dot socks you might look at your sample and say \"this drawer contains about 50% stripes and 50% polka dots. And you'd be pretty far off, because the real proportions were 75%/25%. But this is the farthest off you can possibly be, and it's very unlikely that you'd be this far off because of the unlikelihood of getting all 5 polka dot socks in your sample. That's a pretty wild coincidence.\n\n\nBut now let's consider something a little bigger. Say you want to measure the salinity of the ocean. You can take an eyedropper drop of ocean water and measure its salinity, but how do you know this will be representative of the entire ocean? After all, in the previous example you surveyed 50% of the total socks in your collection, but here, you're only surveying a tiny fraction of a fraction of a percent of the total water in the ocean! This might not be intuitive, but you can actually be far *more* confident in your estimate, based on picking just a few trillion seawater molecules out of the many many quadrillions of molecules in the ocean. In this case it's not a matter of what *fraction* of the total population you're counting, it's a case of how many individual measurements you're taking, and the number of molecules in that one drop is a *lot*. If the ocean were ten or a hundred times as big, it wouldn't matter. You could be pretty much exactly as confident in your eyedropper measurement as you were before.\n\n30 isn't really a special number, but it it is a number of samples, *assuming you're drawing from an infinite population*, which gives a reasonably tight error margin suitable for most research purposes.",
"Suppose you were asking a yes/no question, and you observe 15 'yes' and 15 'no'. Then the error on your 50% 'yes' result is roughly sqrt(15)/30, or +-13%. For 5% error, you would need more like N=300, not N=30. As you can see, in order to make the error go down and get more statistically meaningful results, the required sample size N skyrockets. There is no magic cutoff. You just have to decide what sample size is practically achievable and weigh that against what effect size you expect or hope for. It sounds like N=30 was chosen because it is achievable while having some marginal statistical power. ",
"Standard deviation and chi-square tests only make sense when you have a normal distribution. The average of a bunch of independent measurements isn’t *exactly* normal, but it gets closer to normal the more measurements you take.\n\n30 is a generally-agreed “rule of thumb” for the average to be “normal enough” for standard deviation and chi-square tests to be valid.\n\nThat’s the ELI5, I can be more precise if you like! :D",
"Consider this: What’s the area of a square? A hexagon? An octagon? At some point, the shape has enough sides that it’s “circle-y” enough to call it a circle and say “πr^2”, rather than compute it exactly.\n\nYou can’t do circle math on squares or hexagons, but you can “get away” with it on 50-gons and 60-gons.\n\nSimilarly, you can’t do standard deviations or chi-squared tests on sample means that aren’t normally distributed. Most sample means are *not* normally distributed, but get closer to it as you add more points, similar to a square or hexagon rounding out to a circle the more sides you add.\n\n30 isn’t magical; it’s a general rule of thumb that says “OK, that’s normal-y enough to use normal-distribution math on it”",
"As the other comments have said, 30 is generally chosen because 'it's always been like that', and the CLT tells us that with enough data we can assume that the things we have will be normally distributed. \n\nHowever, if you have a test and want to have a specific 'size' or 'power' or 'significance' there's some (moderately) irritating computation that you can do to tell you how many samples you need to have before these criteria are achieved. It's pretty interesting to be fair! \n\nSource: just done a metric shittone of stats exams for my degree.",
"At a sample size of 30, the sampling distribution (usually of the mean) will be sufficiently normally distributed to estimate parameters (and carry out various tests). It can take less, the more the population resembles a normal distribution the lower the sample size needs to be to 'turn' the sampling distribution normal. \nTo take an extreme, if the population is normally distributed to begin with, any sample size is sufficient. Even if n = 1, you'd get a normally distributed sampling distribution, because you're just recreating the original population (in this case the Standard Error would equal the population standard deviation too).\n\nAs others have said, 30 is not **the** end-all sample size though. Just like the default alpha being .05, it's just become convention. ",
"The number 30 comes from the central limit theorem, but it having a sample of that size doesn't automatically make everything OK. \n\nThe central limit theorem says (roughly) that a sample mean from any population with a finite mean and variance has an approximately normal distribution as long as the sample mean is based on a large enough sample. (More formally it's a convergence theorem but I don't want to state it that way). \n\nWhat does it mean to say the sample mean has this distribution? We have to think of the sample mean as a random variable. Suppose you have some statistical distribution which is nowhere near normal and let X_1, ..., X_n come from that distribution. First of all, if you take a really large n and plot that sample data, it does not become normal. In fact, the larger n is, the more that plot of the sample data looks like the underlying distribution you started with. (There's a convergence theorem which says this, too).\n\nBut we're thinking of a random variable X_bar. Visualize getting sample observations of it this way: Take a sample of size 30 from the original, non-normal distribution, then compute x_bar1 by adding them up and dividing by 30. Now you have ONE observation from the random variable X_bar. Keep taking sets of 30 from the original distribution and computing x_bar2, x_bar3, ... \n\nIs X_bar a random variable? The underlying data used to compute it was random, so it is a random variable. Then it has some distribution. As long as it is based on 30 or more observations from the original distribution, then the distribution of this new random variable X_bar is approximately normal. Its mean is the same as the original distribution and its variance is sigma^2/n.\n\nSo that's where the 30 comes from. It's not a panacea, though. If you are doing some experiment you would be well served to do power and sample size calculations to estimate how large your sample should be.\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://statswithcats.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/30-samples-standard-suggestion-or-superstition/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5w9by6 | why do we touch our chin when we think about something? 🤔 | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5w9by6/eli5_why_do_we_touch_our_chin_when_we_think_about/ | {
"a_id": [
"de8beo9",
"de8g9ph",
"de8ghdh",
"de8ghkh",
"de8gy10",
"de8huc4",
"de8i76f",
"de8ifyq",
"de8iltf",
"de8l8kn",
"de8m855",
"de8mrbu",
"de8n3wl",
"de8n9zm",
"de8olck"
],
"score": [
2140,
756,
6,
156,
19,
3,
5,
3,
1199,
5,
3,
2,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Some old psychologists used to think it's because we inadvertently do that to protect our necks while the brain is too busy to process all the outside stimuli. Others say it's conditioning.",
"I'm not sure if it's related, but the reason people rub their neck when they are really anxious is that the Vagus nerve runs right through there. Stimulating your Vagus nerve gives a pretty large response of the Parasympathetic nervous system which calms you (slows heart rate, slows respiratory rate, drops blood pressure, etc...). ",
"It's also letting people know that you don't want them to talk to you. \n\n\"I'm thinking.\"\n\"Well think me up a cup of coffee and a donut with some of them sprinkles on it!\"",
"I'm no expert, but we learned this from our Ethology class:\n_URL_0_\n\nBasicially if you have 2 conflicting behaviours (so thinking about which of the 2 pizzas you are about to order) it can lead you to express a third one that is unrelated to them(Scratching head).\n\nThis can be seen in a lot of other animals.\n\nBuuut there may be other reasons, like having physical stimulation increase the stimulation of your brain whilst thinking about an answer.\n\nMaybe someone else here has a cited resource on chin scratching :D",
"I think it must be a kind of \"pause\" indicator. If you are in a conversation and need some time to think before responding, you might put a hand or finger up to your mouth to signal the pause. You hold on to your chin as if to say, \"hold on, lemme think\" so the person whom you're talking to doesn't wonder why you've inexplicably gone silent and staring. ",
"In conversation it is a social gesture. When your arm is on a desk, supporting your head can help you relax and focus on a tough problem. There is something about taking the strain off your neck muscles that helps to take the edge off of the stress.",
"In \"Seeing Through Clothes,\" a book by Anne Hollander, she talks about generations and their learned gestures. The touching of the chin is sort of a gestural convention that has been with us for a while. I can't say if there's a sort of a predisposition for the pose, but there's definitely a learned component. That's why it's so amusing to look at little kids because they learn these gestures so quickly, like the indignant downward tilting of the head and folding of the arms to show when they're upset. ",
"I would go for learned behavior. We saw the classical philosophical beard stroking of wise men, and just imitate it from an early age.",
"It's a lot easier to think when body is in relaxed state and the more upward blood flow goes to brain. Resting chin on head reduces supporting neck muscles using up the blood flowing upwards, hence more blood for brain; additionally by sitting down more blood is available for upper body as the lower body is not as active. So generally [the thinking man](_URL_0_) pose is optimal for active brain.\n\nWe subconsciously do this when thinking deeply, and has become an evolutionary trait. There are [other ways](_URL_1_) to increase blood flow to brain, but that benefit maybe countered by discomfort.\n\nEdit: Minor word correction as I was not resting my chin on hand\nUpdate: Speaking from experience, not research based\n\nUpdate2: Queries on source? Peer reviewed research will be hard to come by given the topic (medically mundane/commercially not valuable)..but it is evident from experience that thinking capacity is diminished after heavy food or we feel light headed when getting up suddenly–both corresponding to redirection of blood supply while heart rate has not caught up. Once the heart rate has caught-up, there's more overall circulation, so mild activity works. Heavy activity, however, counters the benefit of circulation with lower blood oxygen level. Easy way for focused thinking—sit down after drinking ginkgo tea followed by a brisk walk.",
"I don't think it has any particular biological significance. Many cultures do it differently. I have seen people rub their forehead, gently tap their forehead, rub the hair right above forehead, rub the back of the skull, tap temples and so on.",
"I was pretty sure only emoji's, cartoon characters and bad actors in tv shows/movie did that. \n\nReading the comments here seem to claim otherwise. ",
"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure this is where the phrase \"hold that thought...\" came from tho.",
"I have never in real life seen anyone actually touch or rub their chin while thinking about something. ",
"When I'm thinking heavily, I often start touching my lips. So it's not just the chin. In other words, it probably has nothing to do with \"protecting the neck\". Neither does it have to do with cultural inheritance probably. \n\nThere is evidence though that people with ADHD can concentrate better if they are doing something with their hands in the meanwhile, so this could be a possible factor.",
"Am i only exception who doesnt do this?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_activity"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thinker",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirshasana#Contraindications_and_cautions"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
9n6ypj | when to use had and have? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9n6ypj/eli5_when_to_use_had_and_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"e7k4y5a"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"\"Had\" is to be used when speaking of the past. I\"had\" a bad night.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n\"Have is to be used when speaking of the present.. I **have** a headache. \n\nI can use a form of \"have.\"when I use a form of the verb 'to be\" such as \"am\" or \"are\" ... I'm ( I am) **having** a migraine....We are (we're) **having** cake\n\nTo speak of the future, add\"will\" ..I \"**will have\"** a better day tomorrow."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
8dh2mv | how do some songs have separate sounds going into the left and right earphones. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8dh2mv/eli5_how_do_some_songs_have_separate_sounds_going/ | {
"a_id": [
"dxn2teb"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Technically nothing in the studio is recorded in stereo. It's all recorded from individual (monaural) microphones into individual tracks (e.g. just vocals, just drums) and then how it's all mixed together into stereo is entirely at the whim of the sound engineer.\n\nIncidentally, this is why studio recordings always sound so perfect - like the various camera angles and special effects in a TV show or movie, everything is done in separate \"takes\" and the best ones are tweaked and spliced together.\n\nThese days everything is digital so it's just a matter of using a control on the mixing console to basically tell it \"I want this section of this guitar track to be at 100% volume on the left speaker and 0% on the right.\""
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
zyo1n | why is it that -- when someone says we resemble another person -- we find it difficult to see the resemblance, but they see it clearly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zyo1n/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_someone_says_we_resemble/ | {
"a_id": [
"c68uuvm",
"c68zu6b"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"You see yourself every day so it's very easy for you to distinguish between yourself and someone who looks like you, whereas with someone who doesn't see you often, only your most distinct characteristics are apparent so they can mistake you for someone else with similar facial features.",
"Our brains are designed to deal with people as quickly, but not necessarily accurately, as possible. When you meet a new person you look for things that jump out (skin color, eye color, hair color etc.) and compare them to your ideas of what other people with those attributes are like. This is how you can immediately form a good or bad \"feeling\" about someone.\n\nSimple so far. The reason that we have trouble seeing resemblance is partly due to the above characterizations and that we never do this kind of processing on ourselves because we represent the ideal. This type of interaction means that we are most efficient if we notice differences, not similarities. So that's why it's hard to see the resemblance. \n\nNow if we pretend you are a 10 year old: there are a few other factors. The first is referred to in psychology as the social expectancy theory. It basically states that we project personality traits on to people based on their looks, and vice versa. The most common is that thin people are honest, while fat people are dishonest; or attractive people are rated smarter than unattractive people. However, like I said, it can work the other way as well. We can assign physical attributes based on personality. This is obviously much more subtle because physical attributes are much more concrete than personality traits. This explains partially why you don't think you look like someone you've known for a long time, because you see them through a filter.\n\nThe last big factor is that everyone skews their mental image of themselves a little bit. Interestingly when/if this difference gets too large it can lead to various disorders. \n\nTL/DR: You do not process a true version of them, nor do you compare it to a true version of yourself. Incidently, the person who points it out is also seeing the two of you through his own mental filters. Basically everyone is full of shit, we are all beautiful and everyone else is ugly or dangerous. Sorry about the novel."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
319fq9 | how do you program graphene? | From a CPU point of view, how does the actual programming of graphene work? Because with graphene you don't have fixed pathways... How does one program those pathways? Is it a software problem or a hardware problem? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/319fq9/eli5_how_do_you_program_graphene/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpzjrq5"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Since it's no longer April Fool's Day, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume this is a real question.\n\nGraphene is just a material. In order to make a CPU you could actually program, you'd have to make transistors out of it just as you have to make transistors out of silicon today. Those transistors would be used to make gates and so on and so on until you had a full microprocessor. The programming would be identical - it would just be able to run faster due to the higher carrier mobility in the transistors."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.