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7fmfxt | - Why does the tip of the penis (circumcised) get extremely sensitive right after ejaculation? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"This is a weird reason so prepare I guess? *This is a theory* This has an evolutionary reason back from when your life goal was to have as many kids with your genes as possible. The shape of the penis is \"designed\" to remove the competitions semen from the vagina when you are thrusting. Now because of that, if you kept thrusting after you finished, you would be removing your own semen that you worked so hard to put there. So at some point in time, the guys that had sensitive penises after sex ended up having more kids. *update* There's a lot more cool information on it over here The book this is from “WHY IS THE PENIS SHAPED LIKE THAT? …And Other Reflections on Being Human” by Jesse Bering Excerpt article URL_0"
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7fmgdf | Why are humans more inclined to feel sad emotions during the night than during the day? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"My mom always said, when I was young, that if you laugh too hard and are silly in the evening, you would cry before bed. Was always the case."
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7fmk4a | How come pianists hit every note perfectly but after more than 20 years of practice, I still make typos when using a keyboarrd? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"If you typed the same paragraph 100 times, i bet you would have a lot less mistakes typing that particular paragraph. Since automoderator demands a longer answer, i'll just say that this is really a practice issue. When typing on a keyboard, your aren't typing predifined words in the way a skilled pianist is playing predefined music. It's more like improvised jazz or a jam band playing. And those musicians make loads of mistakes when improvising. You just don't notice them."
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7fmku3 | Why is solar power quite common here in Northern England when we have very low solar potential and are one of the windiest places on the planet? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There was a time a few years ago the government has heavily subsidising solar power. The subsidy was so high that if you had a large enough roof you could not only get all your electricity for free but earn money by selling the surplus to the grid. With house prices being very low in the North it was much easier to buy a large enough house to achieve the threshold production to make a profit."
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7fmmu6 | Why does freezing certain foods lower the quality of it? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Pretty much everything we eat was, at one point, alive. Living things are made of cells. Cells are like little water balloons. When water freezes, it both expands and turns into crystals. The expansion of water can stretch out and burst the cells. The crystals can puncture the skin of cells. Both of these things end up destroying the texture of the food. This is especially noticeable if you freeze things at relatively high temperatures, like you see in a home freezer. Slow freezing results in larger crystals more likely to rupture cells. Commercially frozen food is generally flash-frozen at very low temperatures which results in a bunch of tiny crystals which will do less damage to the cells."
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7fmqjd | Why isn't 900p common like 1080 or 720p? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"720p and 1080i were chosen as the standard resolutions for HDTV broadcasts. While they both use roughly the same amount of data/bandwidth, 720p sacrifices resolution for getting a full 60 frames per second update, making it preferable for things like sports. 1080i, OTOH, gives you higher resolution but slower screen updates due to the interlaced signal (it only redraws half the lines at a time, 60 times per second, giving you 30 frames of actual motion). Since these became standards for televisions, there is a *huge* number of display panels being built that support these resolutions. The large number of available panels made the cost lower & very popular for computer displays."
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7fn90k | Why do certain objects (let's say a rug) feel warmer than others (the floor) although they should have the same temperature being in the same room. | The rug I put on my floor feels much warmer on my bare feet than the floor. I wondered: Why is it that for example steel feels much colder than other objects in the same environment? Why do certain objects (let's say a rug) feel warmer than others (the floor) although they should have the same temperature being in the same room. | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Thermal conductivity. Rugs have poor conductivity (the ability to transfer heat) compared to wood or metal. Since your body temp is around 37C and room temp ~25C anything conductive that you touch in that environment will immediately start transferring heat away from you in an \"effort\" to equalise the temperature betwee the two. Rugs and Styrofoam are good insulators and so don't transfer heat as rapidly.",
"They are at the same temperature, but colder surfaces feel cold because they steal your foot's heat quicker. Metals and stone can transfer heat much more quickly, therefore they take all your warmth from the foot, feeling cold",
"I had similar thoughts once and I realized that heat was the rate at which heat transferred to/from a material, not total energy of the material.",
"What makes you feel warm or cold is not the temperature of an object, but the heat being transferred between this object and your body. Different materials with the same temperature will transfer heat at different rates from/to your body, so your perception of cold/warm will vary.",
"A more accurate answer would be thermal diffusivity, defined as conductivity/(density*specific heat). Thermal diffusivity is a ratio between the ability of a material to conduct energy Vs. the ability to store energy, in other words a ratio between how much energy you can “pass” Vs. how much energy you can keep. Metals have higher diffusivity than wood, therefore they “feel” colder"
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7fnq3e | What causes death by shock? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Shock is a medical term for when blood pressure drops to critical levels where it may not be able to deliver enough oxygen to sustain organs. This may lead to organ failure, and once one organ goes, it often leads to a cascade of other organ failures. If any of these are vital for living, it results in death."
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7fnt0x | Why do so many painters, musicians and artists go 'crazy'?. Ex: Van Gogh cutting his ear off. Or some artist locking themselves in rooms days on end. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Well, to be clear, a lot of people have mental or emotional issues, its not limited to famous or less famous artists, its a pretty wide-spread thing. You just happen to know about Van Gogh because he is famous, you don't know Jenny from down the way who went nuts, or the lady who poops in plastic jugs, or Riley Martin being abducted by aliens in Arkansas working on farm.",
"It is difficult to know if artists go crazy or crazy people become artists. Art is about expression and that can be therapeutic for some that already have mental health issues. But for others the required expression and vulnerability of producing art and mixed with fame it can put pressure on that leads to mental health problems. 🤔",
"Art is a medium of self expression. Many times, artists can pour their feelings and passions into such a medium without restraining themselves. They can express their innermost unstable sentiments.",
"Many reasons. Undiagnosed disabilities or syndromes. Poisoning through volatile materials in their paint/ink. Then there’s the celebrity aspect, where fame/fortune brings them down - or conversely where other people attempt to.",
"To put it very simply, artists are artists because they are very sensitive to the ways of the world, and they have a talent in portraying that via different mediums. However, being so sensitive can also expose you to awful things which you won't be able to cope with as well as others.",
"I’ve found that the best art (more common with abstract painters, expressionists) is made in an emotional state. (Personal experience) so maybe it should be thought about that either way around, why are most “crazy” people artists? Coz they don’t have to worry about if it looks good or people like it etc. Kinda just mumbling hope you understand what I’m trying to get across 😅"
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7fnvf7 | The Cheryl’s Birthday Logic Puzzle | I found out about this perplexing question when I was googling math problems one day. It stood out to me because of how weird it was. In this puzzle, two guys named Albert and Bernard ask their friend Cheryl when her birthday is. Rather than telling the two when her birthday is like a normal person she gives them a series of dates. Then she tells one of them a month and the other a day. Here’s full details on the [puzzle]( URL_0 ). What I want to know is how the hell people can find the answer. Every explanation I’ve seen so far makes no sense. | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Puzzles like this rely on not just the information that each person in the puzzle knows, but what they know about what the *other* person knows. In this puzzle, Cheryl gives 10 possible dates for her birthday: |||||||| |:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--| |May||15|16|||19| |June||||17|18|| |July|14||16|||| |August|14|15||17||| She tells Albert which Month her birthday is in, and Bernard which day of the month her birthday is. Albert (who knows the month) says, \"I don't know when Cheryl's birthday is, but I know that Bernard doesn't know either.\" So how can Alfred know that Bernard doesn't know when Cheryl's birthday is? To answer that, you'd have to know how Bernard (who only knows the day) *could* know when her birthday is if he doesn't know the month. The only way he could know is if the day is one that only appears once in the entire list. So, for instance, if Cheryl's birthday were May 19th or June 18th, Bernard would know exactly when her birthday was just from the date alone. Since Alfred knows that Bernard doesn't know when her birthday is, it must be because her birthday is not in May or June (and thus cannot be the 18th or 19th). So: |||||||| |:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--| |~~May~~||~~15~~|~~16~~|||~~19~~| |~~June~~||||~~17~~|~~18~~|| |July|14||16|||| |August|14|15||17||| Now Bernard says, \"At first I didn't know when Cheryl's birthday was, but I now I do.\" For that to happen, there must be a day that only appears once in the remaining months. This means that her birthday can't be on the 14th, because Bernard still wouldn't know which month it was. So it must be the 15th, 16th, or 17th, because Bernard could pick the exact month based only on the day. So: |||||||| |:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--| |~~May~~||~~15~~|~~16~~|||~~19~~| |~~June~~||||~~17~~|~~18~~|| |July|~~14~~||16|||| |August|~~14~~|15||17||| At this point, Alfred says, \"Then I also know when Cheryl's birthday is\". The only way he could know that is if there's only one date left in the month that he was told by Cheryl. So her birthday must be July 16th. Hopefully that makes sense. I'd be happy to clarify any parts that you don't understand.",
"/u/MultiFazed gives a great drill down. In general, these sorts of puzzles rely what is called *metaknowledge*, what you know about what someone knows. You aren't just using the clues Cheryl gives you, but the fact those clues are insufficient for one person to solve the problem. To look at a simpler example of how this works, let's say there are a bunch of black hats and only one red hat. You and a friend are given the hats in such a way you don't know the color of the hat you are wearing, but can see the other person's. You see your friend has a black hat, so you can't be sure if yours is red or black. But if your friend says \"I don't know what color my hat is\", you can now deduce your hat must not be red, otherwise they would have known their hat had to be black. The birthday problem works in essentially the same way, except it takes more than one step to narrow down the possibilities.",
"This had me stumped until I read the wiki - which points out that Cheryl gives a *LIST* of a bunch of possible dates and says that it's got to be one of those.",
"I'm going to take a crack at it without reading the other comments: From Albert's point of view: Every month has multiple days in it, so knowing the month doesn't give Albert the answer. From Bernard's point of view: *Some* dates only occur in one month, so if Bernard got one of those dates, he would have the answer. If Cheryl had told him the 19th, he would know the answer was May 19th. If she had told him the 18th, he would know the answer was June 18th. From Albert's point of view: If he had been given May or June, he would know that it's possible that Bernard knows the answer. Because he knows that Bernard *doesn't* have the answer, we know it wasn't May or June. It must be July or August. From Bernard's point of view: Based on Albert's statement, he knows it's July or August. Since he now knows the answer, he must have been given the 15th, 16th, or 17th. From Albert's point of view: Albert now knows the answer was the 15th, 16th, or 17th. If it was the 15th or 17th, he would still be lost. But since he says he now knows the answer, it must have been the 16th. So the answer is July 16th."
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7fnxbr | Why do loud noises actually damage our hearing? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Sound goes SHAKY SHAKY SHAKY in the air. Your ear systems are like a drum, a piece of skin is stretched to pick up the shakies. Loud noise, big shaky. Quiet noise, smaller shaky. Like a drum, the stretched skin on the top can get loose if it's hit too hard too much, or even broken. So **really big shakies** for a **long time** make you hear less because the things meant to pick up the sound shakies are damaged and don't work too well anymore.",
"You hear through a very complicated system Sound vibrates your ear drum which vibrates some tiny bones which vibrate your inner ear and the fluid within it. There are tiny hairs in your inner ear that move when vibrated at the right frequency, they bend over and allow calcium/potassium to enter the cell which creates a nerve impulse. When you hear a super loud sound, some of these hair cells get pushed really hard and might get damaged, they may break off and be permanently open or they may just not wiggle anymore. This could mean you have ringing in your ear(tinnitus) or can't hear as well at that specific frequency. We have lots of hair cells so your hearing is fairly resilient but if its exposed to too loud of a sound, or fairly loud sounds over a long duration then you can damage enough hair cells to start having a problem(tinnitus or deafness)"
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7fo5rr | Why are some chicken eggs white and others brown-ish? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Color of eggs varies by breed of chicken used to lay the egg. Generally speaking, the color of the egg matches the color of the feathers near the chicken's ears. The most popular breeds of laying hens in the United States lays white eggs, so that is what most people are used to. Marketers have tried to spin off brown eggs as a premium product, but they're basically no different than white eggs. That doesn't take into account qualifiers like cage-free or free range. Eggs that are cage free or free range can come in white, brown, or any color in between.",
"Each breed of chicken lays different colored eggs. Interestingly enough, brown eggs are white until they pass a certain point in the hen, then they get colored as they pass, so the inside of the shell is white. Blue eggs are colored blue from the beginning, the inside of a blue egg is blue as well. You can cross a dark brown egg layer with a blue layer and end up with a very interesting color, the blue shell with brown on top, usually these are olive colored. Specifically, Arucana hens as well as \"Easter eggers\" lay blue to blue green eggs. Cayuga ducks lay black eggs (white on the inside) you can even rub the black color off the eggs a little."
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7fo79c | Can You Protect Electronics From EMPs/solar flares? If So How? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The military does it all the time. The movie fantasy of Russian or terrorist EMP causing military helicopters to fall from the sky is BS. Source: former military communications tech. Pulled off a forum: URL_0 MIL-STD 188-125-1 HEMP Hardening (Fixed Facilities) MIL-STD 188-125-2 HEMP Hardening (Transportable Systems) MIL-STD 202 Environmental Requirements Component Level MIL-STD 810 Environmental Requirements Box Level MIL-STD 461 EMI Requirements (Subsystems) MIL-STD 464 EMI Requirements (Systems)",
"EMP and solar flares affect different things. Solar flares affect very long cables (more than a few hundred miles) and cause DC voltage to appear on these wires. These very long wires tend to be things like power grids or telephone lines. The DC voltage is a major problem for power grid transformers which require pure AC power. These can malfunction if exposed to DC voltage from a solar flare. The power grid operator can install DC voltage detectors and shut down the power line when DC voltage is detected. Alternatively, they can use \"series compensation\" of the power line which stops the DC voltage completely and can also boost the power line's AC efficiency (but is very expensive). EMP affects shorter cables from about 1-2 feet up to a few hundred feet. Very small electronic device like phones, watches, laptops should be OK unless connected to external wires. For things with longer wires or bigger systems, industrial machines, cars, etc. Then these could be sensitive. Protection can be internal: adding ultrafast trainsient suppressor diodes at both ends of any wires. Or external: use of a Faraday cage. Don't forget that deep bunkers can use the ground as a Faraday cage and large heavy buildings with lots of concrete and rebar also axt like Faraday cages. So, in general something like a nuclear plant is immune because there is so much concrete surrounding anything electrical and the uncovered bits are already very high voltage, which is much stronger than an EMP so aren't at risk.",
"EMP would iduce current in long conductors. Disconnecting things should stop large currents from forming. This should at least stop anything from catching on fire.",
"True ELI5: The sun releases a lot of energy. This energy comes in waves, just like you see in water at the beach, but the sun's waves move through the air. Some of the sun's waves you can see (light), but most of them you can't see. We call these by different names, depending on how fast they move. Some you may have heard of are radio waves, microwaves, and X-rays. Some of these waves you can even feel! When you feel warm sunshine on your skin, those are actually one type of wave. Lots of other things make these waves too. People can make these waves too, using special equipment, but we have to be very careful. The sun is the biggest thing that makes waves in our solar system. Different things stop different waves. A pillow or a blanket or your hand can stop most or all of the waves you can see that come out of a flashlight, but it can't stop the waves that you can feel - that's why a flightlight stil feels warm even when you can't see the light. The waves that come from EMPs and solar flares are extra hard to stop. They go so fast that they can go through a lot of things that would stop other waves. That's why doctors can use X-rays to see your bones. It's also why they're so dangerous - they can change how your body works at a very small level, and make you sick. They do the same thing to electronics like your TV and cell phone, but those get even sicker, and immediately stop working. The atmosphere mostly protects you and me from those waves, but electronics are extra sensitive. Because they're so expensive, people spend a lot of time and money thinking about how to protect them better. One thing that stops the waves from EMPs and solar flares best is a thick physical barrier. For example, a box made out of lead, or deep water. But those are big and heavy and not easy to carry around, so they're not very useful for things like smartphones. So they also work on special tools. One of the most famous ones is called a Farraday Cage. It's a box made out of metal, that has a bunch of holes poked in it. The holes are carefully planned to be just the right size to catch the waves and turn them away.",
"Faraday cage. Get a 100% metal basket or trash can (with metal lid) and put your electronics inside. Protected by science^^TM",
"Does wraping the said electronic in aluminum foil count as a Faraday cage?",
"You could always live in a lead bunker thousands of feet below the ground and that will pretty much stop anything from hitting"
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7fo8zt | how can a layer of metamorphic rocks be on top of a layer of sedimentary rocks? Shouldn't the deepest layer have higher pressure and temperature? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You are absolutely right, the deeper a layer gets buried, the higher pressure and temperature it is subjected to. However, there are two ways to explain your question. Compressive tectonic forces can fold or fault rock layers which would place metamorphic rocks above sedimentary rocks. A thrust fault is a type of fault that pushes deeper, older rocks over younger rocks. Imagine pushing two pieces of paper together on a flat surface. One would slide on top of the other, which is exactly what happens in a thrust fault. There are places in Canada where very old granite has been pushed up on top of young sedimentary rocks via thrust faulting. For the folding example, think about a tablecloth pushed over a smooth table, it would bunch up in a series of small folds. The same thing happens with rock layers. Sometimes rock layers get folded so much they become overturned, which means a \"lower\" layer would be on top of an \"upper\" layer.",
"You'd be right to think that, but after deposition, and compression in the case of metamorphic rocks, the units can be overturned in folding. You'll have a large scale fold (across miles) which has been folded even further over so that the peak of the fold lies on top of another fold limb, and one of the limbs will be upside down relative to it's original orientation. You then see the upside down beds at the surface when the fold and overlying beds have been eroded away. Hope I haven't been confusing"
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7fo98b | What does bloat wear actually do with to take up that much computer power? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Bloat**ware** is a term for software that is unneeded or unwanted. It is installed on new PCs by manufacturers because they are usually paid for each installation. In this manner a Windows PC can cost the manufacturer *less* than a PC without an operating system installed, because the paid installations total more than the cost of Windows. Very often this software is not the kind that is only started when the user wants it (like notepad or a game) but is instead set to start with Windows, running continously in the background using CPU, RAM and disk IO resources. This is because the software is there to push advertisements of a kind for either itself (\"you need to renew your Norton subscription!\") or for another product, or to push you into using another product instead of the default (for example maybe they install their own special client for Facebook that runs extra ads)"
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7foc1z | Quaaludes are outlawed, by why can't they be remade generically? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"That's pretty much how the illicit drug market works (though the \"recipe\" would NOT be in a medial journal). Figure out how to make desirable medications (Oxycontin, fentanyl, and any of the other opioids are popular), make it in a sketch lab, sell it on the street. Methaqualone isn't universally illegal. It's Schedule I in the US, so treated the same as heroin, LSD, etc. and still prescribed in other parts of the world. It just isn't a very desirable drug any more because it has ridiculous addiction potential and overdose risk compared to modern medications (the benzodiazapine class).",
"People make ludes all over the place. It isn't a particularly difficult to make, and it isn't very expensive either. It's the most popular street drug in South Africa.",
"I'm not trying to split hairs here, when I said generic, I guess I should have just said home made."
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7fodmw | How are hypoallergenic animals made? Are they genetically modified before birth or altered once born? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Neither in the way that you seem to imply. If you want a hypoallergenic dog, you *find one* that happens to be hypoallergenic and breed it with other dogs so that the puppies might be hypoallergenic, too. Breeding is the crudest form of genetic modification, but it works. If you want a dog that is *more* hypoallergenic than the ones currently hanging around, you breed hypoallergenic to another hypoallergenic so the puppies might have hypoallergenic traits from both parents."
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7fokss | If someone is laughing and can't breathe during this time, will he stop laughing if he almost runs out of air? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Two possibilities: 1. He stops laughing long enough to take a breath, and then continues laughing. 2. He doesn't take the breath and continues laughing, at which point the lack of oxygen causes him to pass out. Once he passes out, the laughing would cease and his body would automatically resume breathing. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath either. The second possibility is highly unlikely however, as nothing is really funny when you're slowly suffocating... Edit: Changed \"three\" possibilities to \"two\", because I apparently can't math today... Thank you to YoavGr for pointing this out.",
"Your body has an instinct so save itself from harm or death called a survival instinct. If you were laughing and couldn't breathe, most likely, survival instinct would eventually kick in and save you."
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7fopnz | Why are there so many different types of skin problems (i.e. pimple, cyst, acne) that are all a result of the same issue of a clogged pore? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqddm69",
"dqddbw7"
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"text": [
"Cysts aren't necessarily related to clogged pores. You can have cystic acne, but that's less common. That said, infections can be bad news, even minor ones like acne. I've seen people in the hospital who started with a pimple and ended with necrotising fasciitis stripping away a large amount of skin and needed complicated wound care for months. So a big part of it is exactly what *type* of bacteria is involved, and as such, how well your body is able to fight the infection. Due to mutations, unfortunately we can never be sure the trajectory of even fairly benign-seeming infections. Hence why our normal nasal flora can sometimes give us meningitis, too.",
"I'm no expert but I think it has to do at least partially with how deep the pore is clogged and whether or not it's open to the air. Blackhead: clogged at the surface and open to air (causing the blackness) Whitehead/standard pimple: clogged at the surface but not open to air Cyst: deeper clog that develops a thicker wall as skin cells keep shedding into the sack since they have nowhere else to go"
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11,
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7fotpo | Why or how does Static have a smell? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdachy"
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"text": [
"Pretty sure small electrical discharges are generating ozone (O3) from the O2 in the surrounding air."
],
"score": [
16
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7foujg | How are there different "types" of spicy sensations from eating spicy food? | like hot peppers give hot sensation to the interior surface of the mouth that can last for a while, while a hot mustard or wasabi gives a delayed and extreme sharp sensation that happens mostly in the nose, and then dies immediately. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdqpu4"
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"text": [
"Because there are different compounds interacting with different receptors. Peppers have capsaicin, which triggers the same receptors as hot temperature receptors. Wasabi and mustards have isothiocyanates, a different compound. They are also short lived due to not being oily and volatile, meaning they can easily be washed away, or they evaporate away."
],
"score": [
6
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7fp0ti | How does tuberculosis make scars on lungs? Do these scars have any effect on lungs? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdcn2r"
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"text": [
"Tuberculosis bacteria are *very* slow growing, but also *extraordinarily* tough. If you are exposed to the disease, it will often go latent and not cause disease for possibly decades. But it's still there, in your lungs, in an arms race with your immune system! Inside the lungs, tuberculosis bacteria will end up surrounded by a \"shell\" of your own cells that are trying to kill them, but can't, so they end up contained and unable to get out of these tubercles. Sometimes a tubercle will become necrotic and/or break open somehow, at which point the tuberculosis bacteria escape and are likely to cause disease."
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3
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7fp68l | Where does candle wax go? How does it not leave any ash and seemingly go in a vapor even though it is a solid? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqddg6l"
],
"text": [
"The wax burns. Wax is an ashless fuel. Ash is the solid left overs after a fuel burns - it is things like oxides of calcium or magnesium. Wax is a pure hydrocarbon. The carbon burns to give carbon dioxide and the hydrogen burns to give steam. There is nothing else. Wood or paper contain calcium and magnesium and other things which leave solid Ash. Other pure hydrocarbons like diesel and gasoline also don't leave any solid Ash."
],
"score": [
19
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|
7fp7ku | why do laptop and PC manufacturers install all of this useless software that slows the computer down so much? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqddoru"
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"text": [
"$$$ You'll notice that a lot of the software has a premium version and it tries to get you to upgrade after the trial period is over. These software companies pay the OEMs to load the trials onto the prebuilt machines in hopes that a small percentage of those who buy them will buy the premium version when the trial runs out. HP, Dell, and other OEMs load the software on the machine because it lets them charge less for the machine while still making the same amount of money and lets them move more machines that way."
],
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27
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|
7fpxn4 | Article 4 of the US Constitution | Just saw a clip online of two people during a traffic stop, who refused to show their IDs, citing Article 4 of the Constitution- claiming they were "free inhabitants" and did not need to have a vaild ID. Can anyone explain the basics of Article 4, and/or how it might still be applicable in a case like this? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdjh8z",
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"text": [
"Article 4 is about the States. Sovereign citizens/\"Free inhabitants\" are crazies who proclaim their profound knowledge but actually know very little Section 1 talks about states needing to share all \"Acts, Records, and Proceedings\" Section 2 says citizens of one state should be treated as citizens in all other states, and that someone who commits a crime in one state and is caught in another should be turned back over to the state they committed the crime in Section 3 talks about adding new states and territories to the union Section 4 talks about the Union protecting all of the states and ensuring a Republican form of government There is nothing in Article 4 about Citizens aside from Section 2, Subsection 1 which I addressed above > The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. [Reference document]( URL_0 )",
"So it's kind of a complicated issue with respect to US legalities that some people in the Sovereign Citizen movement mistake as an ability to not show a license when being pulled over. Article 4 (specifically, of Section 2) is the [Privileges and Immunities]( URL_0 ) clause, which prevents states from discriminating against citizens of other states. In addition, Article 4 has links to a similar section from the Articles of Confederation that preceded the US Constitution, and which in some special cases **is still in effect**; hence, the idea of \"free inhabitants\" which only shows up in the AoC and not the Constitution. The SovCits use selective reading to argue that it allows them to avoid having to show ID to police, on the grounds that they can say they're not a citizen of that particular state, and thus aren't subject to its laws. In reality, the states *can* do so; they simply can't do so in an unfair or biased manner. It's all a part of the shell games that SovCits play in order to get away with seemingly trivial things."
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"http://constitutionus.com/"
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privileges_and_Immunities_Clause"
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7fq1cf | Are plants spatially aware? How do they know which direction is the best to grow? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdkd3g"
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"text": [
"Plants that bend towards the light do so because of a hormone called auxin. Auxin goes to the shaded parts of the plant and causes the cells there to elongate, making the plant face the sun. This is called positive phototropism. There are lot's of other things that go into it, but that's the basics. GCSE Biology is useful after all. :)"
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7fqap4 | the marketing strategy behind limited time only foods at fast food restaurants? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdma36",
"dqdp7d7"
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"text": [
"Typically these are items that people may not like enough to order over and over (flavor too strong, like Shamrock Shake) or that are only sold when the market price of the ingredients is low (like McRib).",
"It gets people in the door now, this week... created a sense of urgency that shifts decision making. Maybe somebody eats at McDonalds a few times a year, so maybe there’s a small chance they go in any one week. But if they like the “limited time” McRib or Shamrock Shake, that 5% chance of visit becomes a 50% chance. And if they get their co-workers, kids, etc. that means even more add-on sales. Or maybe its an every other week rotation spot, and it becomes weekly for the duration of limited time item. It’s a way to increase frequency of customers who know and like the seasonal item while not having any negative affect on other customers — not like they sideline the Big Mac when McRib is offered. In other cases, limited time items are a way to try out new items and see if they are worth adding permanently or not."
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7fqecp | Why do your muscles get so sore when you have the flu?? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdwvh1"
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"text": [
"One task of white blood cells is to repair and rebuild muscle fibres which are damaged from day to day. However, when you have the flu, your immune system diverts the white blood cells from this function to fight off the flu virus, thus leaving your muscles and joints feeling sore and achy. In addition, white blood cells produce a chemical called cytokines when fighting the infection. This causes inflammation in muscles and joints, resulting in pain."
],
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130
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7fqua1 | Smoking after sex. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdqib3",
"dqds0ke",
"dqds7pg"
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"text": [
"My experience confirms it, but it also confirms that if you are a smoker, smoking after anything tastes good.",
"In a movie, if it shows two people in bed, you can't really be certain of what has happened prior. Except if one or both are smoking, then you know they had sex. It's movie-code.",
"It was initially a ploy by the cigarette companies to advertise; they'd help fund a given film in return for the leading actor and actress lighting up with their brand after getting busy. And they did it so much that now [it's a movie trope.]( URL_0 )"
],
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"http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SmokingHotSex"
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7fqvkl | Why can't scientists artificially impregnate near-extinct species to help ensure the survival of the species? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdqxo1",
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"text": [
"They are doing this as an attempt to save them. But there are issues. Artificial impregnation does not always work. With some species like Rhinos it fails far more than it works. Some species have bad/dangerous pregnancies when in captivity. Some species abandon the young if they were from artificial insemination, or do so just in general and the young do not survive. And you still have the problems of small gene pools causing genetic disorders.",
"Endangered species are typically not in trouble because they aren't breeding fast enough. They are in trouble because their natural habitat is disappearing. We can get around this by collecting all the known individuals and keeping them safely in captivity or a nature reserve type place, but this can be difficult, and you have to be sure that there is enough genetic diversity. Genetic diversity is good because it makes a species more adaptable, and new mutations \"generate\" more genetic diversity so slowly that it is essentially a non-renewable resource for a species. In short, just having more of the endangered species is not going to solve anything if there isn't enough space for them in their natural habitat, if pollution, disease, or an invasive species is killing them all, or if there isn't enough food for all of them in that habitat."
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7fr0h3 | Why is it relieving to exhale a little bit of air [at a time] while I'm holding my breath? | I've noticed that when I'm holding my breath and my lungs begin to strain, if I exhale a bit, I can last a bit longer than if I had kept holding my breath. I also remember when I was learning to swim that someone recommended I start releasing bits of air, until my lungs were empty, before returning to the surface. Any explanations? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdrznr",
"dqdsoct"
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"text": [
"The feeling of needing to breathe is caused by too much carbon dioxide, not too little oxygen. This is why exhaling into someone's lungs during CPR is effective. When you exhale, you're exhaling plenty of oxygen but also carbon dioxide, and the decrease in carbon dioxide is what lets you hold your breath longer.",
"Buildup of CO2 in your lungs. CO2 is actually toxic, and when your brain senses significant concentrations of it in your lungs and blood it'll trigger responses for pain and anxiety. This is also why asphyxiation on gases like nitrogen isn't painful; if the gas is functionally inert, there's no pain response. Similarly, people who've been revived after drowning report that it's pretty pleasant in that split second between gulping down the first lungful of water and passing out from oxygen deprivation, entirely because the water is functionally inert in your body."
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7fr4dp | What exactly is the true north? | Can someone explain what it is exactly? I've been reading about it a bit, and the concept seems a bit hard to grasp for me. If I understood it correctly the compass doesn't actually point towards north (except for in some places where the north and magnetic north happen to align) but towards magnetic north which is somewhere in Northern Canada (and to make it even more complicated, this point continues to shift it's location all the time). If anyone is able to explain this in somewhat simple terms, please do so :-) | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Your compass relies on magnetic fields, it aligns itself between magnetic north and magnetic south. These are basically the poles on the axis the earth's molten core is rotating around. True north and true south refer to the poles on the axis that the crust of the earth is rotating around Magnetic south is currently better example of the difference between magnetic and true pole than the north pole. The magnetic south pole is about 2000 miles south of Australia and 100 miles *North* of Antarctica, sitting at -64.28, 136.59",
"\"True\" north is the line that you would draw across the surface of the earth from your position to the geographic north pole -- meaning the piece of land at the physical \"top\" of the world. We can use a compass to get an estimate of where this is, but a compass doesn't know anything about geography. Instead, the compass is able to pick up on the magnetic field of the earth and point to the \"north\" of that magnetic field. That point -- as you note -- happens to be pretty close to the geographic north pole, but doesn't always line up and in fact changes over time.",
"True north is based on geometry, and points directly to the geographic/geodetic North Pole (i.e. [the axis that passes through the Earth, around which the Earth rotates]( URL_0 )). The magnetic and geodetic north poles aren't at the same geographic spot (and, as you say, the magnetic north moves around over time), so true north and magnetic north don't end up pointing in the same direction most of the time. We just use magnetic north because it's much easier to measure and requires significantly fewer and less expensive tools (i.e. a compass, or even just a bit of [magnetized metal, a leaf, and some calm water]( URL_1 ) as opposed to access to a GPS system, or a sextant and some astronomical charts)."
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7fr4j8 | What exactly is psychedelic music? | What characteristics make it psychedelic music? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"I would say that psychelic music could be recognized by its play on echo, distance and looping segments which create a ‘mushier’ whole. It gives musical importance to the texture of the sound.",
"it's not readily defined in terms of the structure of the music because that's not what makes it what it is. psychedelic music is meant to complement or express the experience of an altered state of consciousness, most commonly through drugs."
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7fr4jz | Why exactly are female mammals generally physically weaker than their male counter parts? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdsya4",
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"text": [
"That is sexual dimorphism...the male and female are different in ways that go beyond the practical. Sexual dimorphism is generally due to either preference of the female in picking mates or by having males fight each other for female access. In other words, males are larger and stronger because only the biggest and strongest males end up breeding. Humans have some of this....but less than some other mammals. Why? Not totally sure, but bigger and stronger males are probably better providers of meat to a tribe and, consequently, get to breed more. It is probably more complicated than that in humans.",
"Like you said, most mammal species that are sexually dimorphic have larger stronger males. A notable exception IIRC would be hyenas. There are also many species that are sexually monomorphic, both males and females weight about the same and look nearly identical. This is pretty common in birds. Whether a species ends up sexually monomorphic or dimorphic depends on their overall life-history strategy. It can get a bit complicated when you look at individual cases because there is so much variation out there. But, Pasterjohn is correct, species that are sexually dimorphic usually have one sex (usually male, but sometimes female) who competes with their sex for mates. The competition can be physical (who can defend a nice territory, who can fight off their rivals) or it can be ornamental (who can sing the loudest, longest, or most complex song; who has the most beautiful plumage)."
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7fr6db | If testicles are so vital and important to reproduction, why are they so sensitive? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqdt550",
"dqdt5l1",
"dqdtggp"
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"text": [
"To alert you quickly that they are possibly being hurt and need to be protected better at that time.",
"You just answered your question there. They're sensitive *because* of how vital they are. If they weren't sensitive, we wouldn't nearly be as encouraged to protect them",
"The only reason they are sensitive is because they are ''outside'' of the body so to speak. There are no bones, no cartilage, and no muscle protecting them, a hit to the testes is a full blow right to the glands with nothing to help distribute the load. Unfortunately it is the price to pay to ensure we can actually reproduce. Did you know that, if the testicles where inside the body along with all other organs, sperms could not thrive? This is because it's too delicate to do so and testicles need to be outside and leave thermo regulation to our body. When testicles either drop, or get drawn closer to your body it's because a muscle called cremasteric is being flexed or relaxed to do so. So, when it gets hot, it will relax and let the testes hang longer and farther away from the heat of your body, and when it's cold, they will move closer, looking for heat."
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7fre9q | How come when we close both of our eyes, our eyes can still perceive darkness, but when we only have 1 eye open, we can no longer "see" the darkness out of our closed eye? | Why are we able to "see" the lack of light behind our eyelids when both eyes are shut, but how come when only 1 eye is open, it feels like our closed eye just no longer exists? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqduusj",
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"text": [
"What you \"see\" is not just the raw data coming in from your retinas. Your brain constructs your vision by adding a lot of neural processing to these images. Deleting the effect of a single closed eye is part of this processing.",
"This has to do with something called binocular rivalry. Normally the image that each of your eyes get are pretty similar, and the information can be integrated and small differences between the images can be used to infer spatial information about what you're looking at. However, when the images are very different, rather than melding together what tends to happen is that the image from one eye, perceptually dominates the other, so that only it is \"visible\". Interestingly this seems to be an unstable process because in conditions producing rivalry, the image that dominates tends to flip-flop over time. Another important thing to note is that attention grabbing features and objects can bias this process and influence what is being perceived. For instance see [continuous flash suppression]( URL_0 ). So the true ELI5, TL;DR version... : When our eyes provide us very different information the more \"interesting\" of the two views tends to drown out the other.",
"This is absolutely not true for me. I can easily see the darkness with one eye closed if I want to. Your brain just filters it out by default because it's useless, but it can be overridden. Try this. Close your dominant eye and then try to consciously look as far to that side as you can without turning your head.",
"Wait what does it mean if I CAN see the darkness?"
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7fru16 | Why are some cheeses made into wheels but others in blocks? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Generally aged cheese is wheel shaped(think parmesan reggiano) and fresh cheese (like mozzarella) is in a block/sphere form because those shapes are more beneficial to their manufacture. Parmesan is shaped like that because each individual unit is big and heavy, so to make moving them around easier, they are shaped like a wheel so they could be rolled and pivoted around on their side. This is much easier than if they were in a block shape. The reason why they make the wheels so big and heavy is that the cheese ages better when it's that size. The wheel shape also gives flat sides to stably set the cheese down, while also allowing for better airflow than a box shape. Commercially made Mozzarella is shaped in blocks, because it doesn't have to age, so you can make the individual packs smaller and blocks stack nicer with less wasted room. Handmade mozzarella is made into balls because of tradition and it looks pretty. Some cheeses are shaped a certain way simply out of tradition and respect for the old way of doing things."
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7fs3sk | the mathematics behind the notation to understand large numbers. | When I watched numberphile's video on Graham's number, I was already pretty mind-blown. Then I learned of TREE(N) where TREE(3) makes G64 look like zero. Delving into the rabbit hole, there are even bigger numbers eg Loader's Number, Rayo's Number, BIG FOOT, and Little Bigeddon. The recursive use of arrows is easy enough to understand, but the notation for everything else is a bit much for me. Could someone explain? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"I'm pretty sure there's not such a thing as a \"standard notation for huge numbers\" or anything, each of those numbers you listed were first defined in order to solve an equation or proof in a particular field of mathematics, so when you read about them the notation you see will be specific to the problem where the number was introduced. The arrow notation related numbers are all from a specific set of problems so unfortunately you can't really extend those definitions to the other massive numbers."
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7fs8rk | If identical twins were to be given a paternity test (if one were suspected of being a child’s father), given they have identical DNA, is there a medical test that could determine which twin is the father? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Good question. The reality that we've discovered in the past couple decades is that identical twins *won't* have identical DNA as they age. To clarify, the order of their DNA will be the same, but they'll have unique \"markings\" on their DNA that differ. Imagine if you gave the same news article to two people and asked them to highlight the important parts. This phenomenon is what we call \"epigenetics.\" These markings are actually small additions to the structure of our DNA that control how active and inactive certain sections/genes are. What we've discovered is that these extra markers are acquired during life, and in certain cases can be passed down to our offspring. Some are added and removed constantly based on environmental factors, ensuring that identical twins will never really be identical. Others are more \"permanent\" and offer an avenue for distinction. In one of the first studies on this, we essentially starved parent mice (but not to death), and then looked at both their DNA and that off their offspring. The parents adapted to low food environments by adding these on/off markers to certain metabolism genes, and that was passed to the offspring. The offspring survived on low food availability without the adjustment period of their parents. I'm sure a forensics expert can tell you precisely what's tested, but this is where we're at right now in the field of genetics. **Edit: My apologies that most of my follow-up answers to questions below this have been \"we really don't know,\" but honestly we really don't know a whole lot about epigenetics yet.**",
"I have ID twins and I’ve asked doctors questions like this before, especially my genetic specialist. ID twins have enough difference in their DNA for experts to tell them apart, even when they’re born. Just like they don’t have identical fingerprints, their DNA differs. However most paternity tests aren’t 100% conclusive either — they usually give a 97% probability outcome at best. Even between regular siblings, paternity tests aren’t always conclusive. So the short answer is yes, but it would be expensive to drill down to get your answer.",
"Due to epigenetics, the twins would have slightly different histone packing and modifications to the DNA. But I don't feel this would result in a usable system for paternity testing. Whilst in labs the methylation of DNA can have readouts, but even with the inheritance of methylation patterns these can change, and in addition, anything more 'permanent' would have likely also been inherited from the twins parents, therefore they would share similar unlikely to change patterns. I don't feel that with our with current technology of investigating epigenetics, it could offer a viable option for paternity testing. Alternatively, I propose that DNA sequencing would be far more viable - traditionally, paternity tests look at the length of specific genes to give a readout. However, in our case, we would need to look at the actual genes coding regions (A,C,G,T). The DNA repair and copying machinery are not infallible, and often makes small mistakes when you consider the size of the genome and the number of cells we have. These are called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (switching a C to a T for example). You would need to look at a longer strand of DNA, and then read what the code is AAGGCATACTGA etc and possibly multiple genes but then any errors generated in one of the twins during conception will likely also have been inherited by the child. I feel this is a method that would offer answers with our current technology, and it would not be prohibitively expensive. Basically, you're comparing errors within the genome, because identical twins will still have errors between them, however rare they may be. **edit** I want to point out, I am not referring to NEW accumulative errors within somatics (adult) cells, these would not be inherited unless these are found in the sperm and meiotic progenitor cells (although still an option!) - I an proposing screening for mutations that were generated during the period when the father was an embryo which will have manifested throughout his system and gametes, these would still be evident when the father was any age and then inherited within the child.",
"Follow-up question: if identical twin brothers married, and had children with, identical twin sisters, would the children be genetically siblings instead of cousins?",
"These documentaries are really useful tools in understanding epigenetics, and the first one might be one of the most interesting documentaries I've ever seen, the second one is very technical but explained to laymen, so therefore invaluable as an intro to what can be seen as a very complicated field: URL_0 URL_1",
"So other answers have explained that there are technically tests available that might be able to tell identical twins' DNA apart, but whether or not the resources are always there to do so in practice are a different matter. [Here]( URL_1 ) are [two]( URL_0 ) cases from Britain and France respectively where an identical twin committed rape but the police DNA testing couldn't tell which of the twins it had been. Both cases ended up having to be resolved by other evidence to determine which one it was.",
"There are, it's a pretty recent development. Twins don't have completely identical DNA, there are subtle differences that can accrue during life and be passed on to children.",
"Can confirm as an identical twin whose father got a DNA test (to dodge child support). My brother and I were around 9-years old at the time. When we got the results the SRT analysis didn't say \"100%\" match for both of us, it was severely high though ~98%. I do remember my brother had more of a match than I did; I sleep well at night knowing my brother is biologically more prone to be a piece of shit than I am.",
"From what I remember, back from the day I was a college student, we all accumulate mutations differently. Twins may have same DNA but they will have different mutation patterns. Theoretically, lab can look for specific mutation patterns and determine who the father is. It will be very time consuming."
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7fse9a | What happens when a person forgets a simple task, by walking from one room to the next? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Its not walking from one room to another, but walking through a door or a passage that does it. While the issue is the subject of ongoing research, the best reason for it so far is that your memory and attention arent a continuous stream, but more like compartmented events. One room and the things that go on in it are one event. When you walk through a door, the previous event becomes much less relevant and the new event, the situation you are now in, becomes much more important. that takes priority and information regarding the previous event is discarded if it seems to be irrelevant enough. Even if its something you're actively doing. That's why going back to the previous room does not boost recall. itsn ot going back to where you were, its a whole new event. So yeah, the best way to avoid this is to be focusing on it as you pass through a door, since that's the exact point when the previous event is discarded."
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7fsfz3 | How does Thyroid Malfunction make a person fat? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"> How does Thyroid Malfunction make a person fat? The thyroid produces hormones which regulate the body's metabolism. Our metabolism is the rate at which we burn our fuel, our food, in order to power the processes of our body. You can think of it as the fuel pump in an engine, if the metabolism is high then more fuel than normal is being pumped into the engine's cylinders. If the thyroid malfunctions and stops producing hormones like it should then the body doesn't burn as much energy and there is fuel left over to be turned into fat."
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7fsill | Why do people with amnesia forget who they are/who the people around them are, but dont forget what basic things are in the world, such as cars, planes, appliances etc. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"This has to do with how our memories are called upon, and in the case of your question what exactly constitutes a \"memory.\" Amnesia occurs when there is damage to the pathway in the brain that we use to either store or retrieve memories. This means amnesia can be retrograde (forgetting the past) or anterograde (not remembering new information). With object recognition, this pathway isn't used at all. There's a separate set of conditions associated with brain damage that affect this, and they don't affect memory. For example damage to the temporal lobes can prevent someone from naming an object that they see, yet they can still know what it is. This means someone can't look at an airplane and say \"that's an airplane,\" but if you asked them to \"point at which picture is an airplane,\" (giving them the word) they could do it. The opposite is also possible. Meanwhile, a person with amnesia will recognize the airplane, but might not be able to describe to you how an airplane works. **In short because recognizing these things has more to do with language and is processed in that part of the brain, separate from the part the handles your name and birthday.**"
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7fsj61 | What are the mechanics of throwing? Why do we point our non-throwing arm at the target then drop it as we move our other arm forward? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"This boils down to generating as much force as possible. Think about how something like a trebuchet works -- there's a heavy counterweight that swings down, and this creates a ton of rotational force. Your non-throwing arm is doing the same thing. You point it out, then swing it back through your shoulders, generating extra force in your throw. The weight and momentum of that arm helps to propel the throwing arm forwards."
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7fsng6 | . What happens when rubbing alcohol expires? | I was just looking at a bottle of rubbing alcohol and saw a 2011 expiration date. It’s not for consumption and doesn’t seem like it could support bacterial growth. So what expires? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The alcohol itself will tend to evaporate past the cap, lowering the percentage of alcohol to water. Also, it can start to leach the plastic from the walls of the bottle.",
"Things have expiration dates because **everything in that category** has an expiration date. Rubbing alcohol is considered a drug/medical supply and, as such, is mandated to have some sort of expiration date on it. While it could potentially evaporate or whatnot, it's not really significant. The manufacturer just puts a date on it to comply with the law."
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7fswz8 | Why do some people think that two certain individuals look alike, while others may think they do not? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"People learn to use different things to tell people apart. Some people rely a lot on hair color/style, and facial hair for men. Others look much more are facial features, especially the shape of eyes and nose.",
"If you're talking about people from different races, I think that experience plays a role - if you see enough people from the same race often, you learn the finer details of telling them apart, whereas for a race you see rarely, you tend to rely on the more obvious facial features common to that race.",
"No expert, but I think a lot of people get way too caught up on hair. I'm speaking only from personal, anecdotal experience. It seems that a lot of the time many people will confuse having the same hair style for looking alike. \"Person x has short black hair and a mustache, and person y also has short black hair and a mustache. (Nevermind that person x has brown eyes, a broad nose, and a round face, while person y has blue eyes, a pointy nose, and a narrow face.) They look exactly the same!!! Lol XD\" I think it just depends on which details of a person's face, or head in geberal, the viewer finds most important or prominent. How close are you actually looking at the faces being compared? Etc..."
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7fsyrx | why do you fall asleep better when its dark than when its light? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Darkness triggers your brain to start producing melatonin more, so you can go to sleep. There are many theories to why this is; sleeping at night was probably a safety thing for primitive humans. This is also why phone/TV screens at night can hurt your quality of sleep, it can throw your brain off in terms of melatonin production"
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7ft9x3 | Why does pain seem to shoot through our body in waves sometimes, why is not a consistent feeling? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Someone else might be able to give you a more complete answer, but it is related to the fact that we have different classes of nerve fibres running through our bodies, which operate at different speeds. The conduction speed of a nerve is mostly dependant on it being myelinated, which means insulted by fat and increases the conduction velocity. Our sensory nerves come in three categories - A, which are thickly myelinated and so carry signals very quickly; A delta, which are thinly myelinated so carry slower than A; and C fibres, which conduct relatively slowly as they have no myelination. Pain conduction is carried out mainly by C fibres, and by some A delta fibres. This is why you experience a sharp sensation when you first get hurt (A delta) followed by slower pain which can feels like throbs or waves, which come through the slower C fibres."
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7ftabx | Why is it as kids, we could eat candy/sweets all day long, but as an adult, I'm done after a single cookie? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yo ho ho! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why is it when we are younger we like sweeter food and can eat large quantities of them. But as adults we tend to like more fuller and bitter flavors, and sweeter foods can sometimes be \"too rich\"? ]( URL_3 ) 1. [ELI5: Why do kids love sugar? ]( URL_1 ) 1. [ELI5: Why do young children seem to be natural born sugar fiends? ]( URL_2 ) 1. [ELI5: Why do kids like sugar so much compared to adults? ]( URL_4 ) 1. [ELI5: Why as a kid do we prefer sweet foods, but as an adult we dont as much? ]( URL_0 )",
"Humans in general are programmed to like sweets because they are high in calories. Back in the caveman days, we had to hunt and forage for food, and there was no way to really store much for long. We no doubt went hungry often, and gorged ourselves when we could. Now, on top of that, our kids need extra calories because they're building so much extra body mass. They have to be able to stuff themselves more than an adult in order to survive the occasional period without food as well as continue to grow. Kids can eat more of everything, relative to their size. When's the last time you could eat an entire pizza by yourself? Not a problem when you were a kid."
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32a6zq/eli5_why_do_young_children_seem_to_be_natural/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ngsnl/eli5_why_is_it_when_we_are_younger_we_like/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64ge9l/eli5_why_do_kids_like_sugar_so_much_compared_to/"
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7ftgtc | why are the displayed prices in some countries not including taxes ? | Title. In my country, the displayed price is what you'll end up paying. Why is it different in, namely, the US ? EDIT : looks like I have my answer ! Thanks to everyone who answered. For the newcomers who wondered aswell (tl;dr) : taxes are different between states, but can also be different between counties and cities, making it almost impossible to properly tag the items. Moreover, these taxes are quite low compared to the rest of the world, making it less of a factor for most of the people. Finally, because some states (Oregon namely) don't have these taxes, but pay more income taxes, they can show their ID in other states to avoid paying a tax on what they bought ; so the final price for the same item can be different between clients depending on where they come from. | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"In the US, taxes are different in each state, and we've got 50 of 'em. This makes it unreasonable or at least more difficult for a product manufacturer to make sure that the correct price (with tax) is reported consistently across the country. Even if a company took it upon themselves to make sure the price was reported with tax added, their product would now look more expensive than competitors who don't do the same. There are no laws mandating all prices be reported this way.",
"In the US, some states have taxes on items you buy. In Oregon, there is no tax on items, but you have to pay taxes out of your income."
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7ftllp | What would happen if 2 supercomputers played chess at against each other? Would the game end in seconds? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Well, that'll depend on how \"supercomputer\" they are. Are they so super that these hypothetical computers can solve the game? Then yes, it could be over in seconds. With conventional computers and the best chess engines right now, we are far from solving the game and it would take as much time as the engine believes necessary to think. The vast majority of games will be draws. What aren't draws will be White wins. There will be very few, if any, black wins.",
"There is lots of terrible speculation about how computers play chess here. Chess isn't solved, so we do not know what perfect play is and which side should win, if either. You can go on YouTube and watch computer tournaments. They play with similar time controls to humans, though often what a human would call rapid or quick play (10-30 minutes a side). Each engine is different and will play different moves in the same position, due to the different algorithms the programmers used. Think about it, a computer calculating for 1 minute will get further than a computer calculating for 1 second, so why waste the time given by only using a second or 2. The biggest difference is that computers will play moves that look \"ugly\" or break guidelines because they have been able to calculate an exact sequence a human would likely not even consider. In addition, computer tournaments often have preset openings to create some varity. No human could play ever obscure variation of every opening, but a computer can and that adds some interest rather than seeing the same exact \"best\" opening everytime. Tl;dr: 2 computers playing chess will use the time they have given as they see fit. If the game gives an hour to play, it will likely be an hour game. If it is a 10 minute game it will take 10 minutes, the same as a human player.",
"This has been tried. Chess computers may move quickly if the right move is obvious, or may take many seconds to evaluate millions or even billions of scenarios if the right move is not obvious.",
"You can specify how much time the AIs get/how many moves they should look ahead. Some AIs use the number of moves to look ahead as one factor, or the factor in how difficult they are. I have seen a Flash game where they stated something like Easy difficulty looks 2 moves ahead, Medium looks 4 moves ahead, Hard looks 6 moves ahead, etc. You very well could have a game that ends in seconds, or a fraction of a second if you wanted, they just probably wouldn't play as well as they could potentially given more time. Some AIs train themselves by basically playing many games against themselves very rapidly. The [genetic algorithm]( URL_0 ) is one way to train an AI.",
"Simplifying some other posts a bit: - Computers so far haven't calculated every possible sequence of moves, and aren't able to do that in an instant. - Since they haven't, they will spend time thinking ahead. First they take each possible move of each piece right now, then try to look ahead each possible countermove, and each possible move in response to that, etc. - The exact priority and what they \"think most about\" will depend on the algorithm - The move most likely to produce a favorable outcome as far down the line as it has been thinking, is chosen - Hence, computer chess wouldn't really be fast, it would really be as slow as possible, i.e. they would use as much thinking time as they are given."
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7ftsux | When the entire world is driving electric cars, is the risk of batteries exploding greater due to larger capacity? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yes, basically. The risk of exploding batteries is obviously increased the more of them that are around, since it is a non-zero risk individually. edit: i should add that while this is pedantically correct, it is also true that the risk of 'exploding batteries' is infinitesimally small, and absolutely pales in comparison to the risk of petroleum-based fires."
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7ftxtz | How do fighter jet pilots eat whilst on long journeys? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I googled your question word for word and it sounds like it's not much of a problem. From the first search result: Fighter pilots do not have any problem taking food and drinks on flights. The biggest concern is to prevent foreign object damage (FOD) from items like crumbs, bottles, bags, etc. Otherwise, there are plenty of places to carry food to eat: your helmet bag, G-Suit pockets and flight suit pockets. I typically carry water with me in my g-suit pocket, and don't worry about food unless its going to be a long flight. Thankfully, training missions are rarely long enough that they require food in the cockpit, and it mostly just applies to deployments. Typical food usually includes protein bars, chocolate, cereal bars, etc. We try to avoid small loose foods like peanuts and M & M's because they could easily spill and FOD the cockpit. Depending on cockpit altitude, the mask can be easily removed to either eat or drink. However, fighter cockpits are only partially pressurized, and, in the Super Hornet, there are times when cockpit altitude can be as high as 20,000ft. Sound judgement is required before removing your mask. Edit: I've also seen guys incorporate camelpacks into their harness/vests as well."
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7fu585 | Why do we call handmade cooking "From scratch"? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"\"From scratch\" is an idiom that means \"starting at zero\" or \"starting with the very basics\". Here, it means cooking something from ingredients that haven't been heavily processed -- e.g. making your own sauce instead of buying a ready-made sauce mix. The original \"scratch\" was a mark in the gound at the beginning of a race. Some competitors might be given a head start as a handicap; those who didn't had to \"start from scratch\", i.e. they had to start from the line. There are references of starting races \"from scratch\" going back to the 19th century; by the mid-19th century it was being used in billiards to mean \"start without a handicap\" even though there wasn't a literal scratch to start from (it was now being used as a metaphor), and by 1918 it was being used in all senses to mean \"start from nothing\".",
"doing something 'from scratch' means doing something with no advantage. The term is used in all sorts of fields, especially if someone has to do something from the start, new, by her/himself without being able or being allowed to use already existing solutions. We call handmade cooking 'from scratch' because you have for example to start with basic ingredients and not use already processed. If you want to make handmade pasta, you have to do it 'from scratch', using eggs, flour, oil and some salt - so without advantage, e.g. not by buying ready to cook pasta or ready-to-use pasta dough. [Etymology]( URL_0 )."
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7fub0i | Why do all the biggest chunks of cereal come to the top when you shake it after opening a new box? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The bigger chunks leave more room for air between them, so it's easier for smaller chunks to move around, and because of gravity, they just want to move down. Picture the cereal at the bottom of the box. This is mostly powder, which leaves no room for air in between the chunks, without air there are no room for something to fall in."
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7fudfc | why do your gums and teeth feel weird when you don't get enough sleep? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Ur prolly stressed and clenching ur jaw. Try wearing a mouth guard when you sleep and maybe that will help.",
"I've never felt this. Is this really a thing?"
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7fuoh8 | Why can’t two phone numbers calling each other be connected instead of being prompted with a busy line? Is this something that could be fixed easily? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"When you dial a number on your phone, it goes \"off the hook\". That is, it's no longer able to receive calls, because dialing a number is the same as being in the middle of a call. This can't be fixed easily, because it's rooted in the basics of how the telephone system works. However, if you have call waiting (where you can see that someone is calling even when you're in the middle of a call), you'll be able to see that the person you're calling is calling you, and switch over to that call."
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7fvdaw | Why do so few plants make up so much of our food? | There are 50,000 edible plant species but only 15 make up 90% of the food we eat (excluding meat). Why is that? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Plants do this thing where they convert sugar to cellulose in order to grow. We can't digest that because we don't have the enzyme to convert it to sugars again. The plants we do eat have been cultivated over thousands of years to select for the best crop possible, and these plants tend to have a lot of sugar in sugar form like fruits, or in starch form (which we can digest back to sugar) like root vegetables. We've basically \"domesticated\" plants so that they're starchy and sugary, and recently, look pretty and big as well. The plants we don't eat are high in cellulose and not much else. Also, plants that we don't eat tend to be difficult to cultivate or only grow in specific environments that can't be brought elsewhere. Potatoes and corn? You can grow them anywhere.",
"Because the mere fact that a plant is edible doesn't mean it's a good idea to grow it as a *crop*. There are any number of edible plants that, for whatever reason, don't make economic sense to cultivate at any reasonable scale. Example: the [common pawpaw]( URL_0 ), native to the eastern US. There were some modest cultivation efforts in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but essentially no commercial cultivation whatsoever today. Why? Several reasons: * The fruit from a single tree all tends to ripen within about a two week period, meaning there is a *very* narrow window of productivity. A single apple tree will have fruit ripen over as much as two months. * A single tree will produce maybe 50-75 pounds of fruit. A single apple tree can produce between 250-400 pounds. *Far* higher yield per tree. * The pawpaw fruit only lasts up to maybe three weeks in the refrigerator. Apples can easily last several months, particularly if picked before they're fully ripe. * The pawpaw fruit is really, *really* soft, making it essentially impossible to ship over any distance, in any quantity, unless frozen (which drives up the cost). So a farmer deciding whether to grow apples or pawpaws in order to maximize the value of his orchard is going to grow apples, pretty much every time. Then the higher costs associated with pests and diseases that go with apple trees don't come anywhere *close* to the other advantages. You can run basically that same analysis for pretty much any edible plant that we don't see in the grocery stores. Ever hear someone mention \"ancient grains\"? Those are, for the most part, plants that used to be cultivated in large quantities, but were largely abandoned as newer crops (and or technologies) rendered them no longer economically viable. There is admittedly some regional and global variation here (e.g., okra just isn't popular in the northern US, Asian cultures go for seaweed in a big way, etc.). But if a particular edible plant doesn't show up *anywhere*? It's probably because it's just not that great a *crop*, whatever its nutritional benefits might be.",
"There are a number of factors: economies of scale (easier to grow 100 acres of wheat than 1 acre of 100 different crops), climate/environmental factors (what can we grow here?), resilience to weather and pest variations (will a too cold/dry/wet/hot summer mean 20% drop in yield or 90%), land yield (how much food does an acre produce), heartiness for storage and transport, cost to grow & this sell, variety of uses...",
"All good answers here but also consider mechanized planting / harvesting. One modern tractor or combine can replace literally thousands, maybe tens of thousands of manual workers. Wheat, carrots, potatoes, sugar beets, onions, corn,… the rate they can be harvested is fantastic. A few people can create multiple truckloads of food in hours. A few tens of people can fill massive silos and warehouses in days. Tens of people creating food stores for tens of thousands of people, and it's quite likely no person actually ever touched it, it was all done by machine. Some crops lend themselves to this. Those crops will be favored.",
"Familiarity is one reason. People eat what they know, the things they grew up with. I eat \"weeds\" out of my garden like lamb's quarters (tastes like spinach), violet flowers / leaves, occasionally polk salad, wild mints. Another reason is there are fruits that don't keep well or ship well : Paw paws (asimina triloba) have a shelf life of maybe three days before they get all mushy. I've never seen these in any store, but a friend brought me some. Like a cross between a banana and a strawberry. Currently growing trees so I'll have a source. Wild American persimmons (diospyros \"food of the gods\") grow around where I live in rural Georgia, and I collect these every year to eat fresh or make jam with. Despite them being all over, it's very rare for me to come across someone that knows about them or has tried them. Most food comes from big commercial farms these days, and these types of things are just not economical to grow. Go to some local farmer's markets and you will often find some more rare things to eat."
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7fvgki | Which country's alcohol laws apply on an international flight? | As an 18y/o from New Zealand (where 18 is legal to buy alcohol), I was recently on a flight to the USA and was unsure as to whether I was able to buy alcohol or not. What are the laws about international airspace and whatnot? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They'll follow the rules of the country of residence of the airline, except when on the ground at which point local laws apply.",
"While on the ground, an airplane is governed by the laws of the country it's in. When in the air, those laws don't apply and it's up to the airline. Typically, airlines choose to follow the laws of their home country (so US airlines will require you to be 21 to serve you alcohol everywhere in the world), though there's nothing that says they're required to."
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7fvwqw | How does the Twin's Paradox work? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The Twins Paradox is an illustration of the process of Einsteinian time dilation. So, you start with a pair of twins, who are exactly the same age. One of them, Fred, remains on Earth, while the other, Wilbur, gets into a spaceship and embarks upon interstellar travel. Wilbur has a very powerful spaceship with immense acceleration (beyond present technology). He travels to Alpha Centauri, a star that is four and a half light years away, and it only takes him a week (ship-board time) to get there. Wilbur spends another week exploring the Centauri system and making fantastic scientific discoveries, but he doesn't want to stay away too long because he knows that his brother Fred misses him. He then travels back to Earth at high acceleration and again, it only take him a week, as measured by ship-board time. So he returns to Earth, 3 weeks older than when he left. However his brother Fred is now 9 years older. Time slows down in a spaceship travelling at close to the speed of light, relative to the rate at which time continues to pass on Earth. So the two twins, who were once the same age, are now paradoxically not the same age."
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7fvyn1 | is a p value of .53 significant or not? | I was reading up a little bit on how a p value over .05 is "significant" but then when I researched that idea to understand it better, I found an article explaining that number (.05) is outdated and arbitrary and means nothing. Further research brought up a highlight from some study which said "p value of .53 is not significant as .05 was already expected." A completely different study said that change in blood levels of [hormone A] and [hormone b] were not significant and listed their p values as .59 and .53 respectively. **How do we determine what p value is significant?** | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Under. It's under .05 that's significant. In simple terms, what p means is that if it's .05 (5%) or below, the result has a less than 5% chance of having occurred by random chance. A p of .53 would be better than a 50-50 chance of having happened by random chance and would never be considered significant. Did it maybe say .053? As for .05 being arbitrary, that's true, because the idea behind it is simply \"let's choose a small probability of x event happening by chance and use that as the cutoff.\" That's not to say that it's useless, it is suggestive at the very least and indicates a potential area of interesting research.",
"One common mistake I haven't seen anyone explain here, in fact I've seen people make the mistake in their answers, is the following: The p value represents the chance that your result would have occurred, if the null hypothesis were true. That does NOT equal the chance that the null hypothesis IS true, given your results! In practice, when one of these values is very low the other will generally be very small too, but there is still a significant difference. Determining the chance that your null hypothesis is still true, is tougher.. It requires an assumption of how big you estimated said chance before you got the results, which is often subjective.",
"P values are used when comparing a hypothesis to a null hypothesis. That is, when you want to disprove something, and say it works another way. So, let's say that you aren't sure that they really make as many green M & Ms as the other colors. Your null hypothesis is that they do. Your alternative hypothesis is that they make fewer green M & Ms, and you'll probably have to pick a number, like 75% as many as the other colors. When you finish your test, you'll end up with a p value. That p value is the chances, based on your experiment, that you're wrong. So, a p value of 0.53 means there's about a 50/50 shot that you're blowing smoke right now, and green M & Ms aren't produced at 75% the rate. If your p value is 0.05, you're about 95% sure that M & Ms is making 75% as many green ones as the other ones. You'll note that this never proves the null hypothesis. They might make *more* green ones, for example, and your test would come home with a pretty high p value. It also doesn't prove your hypothesis. It can only prove that your second hypothesis is much more likely than the 'null' hypothesis. For example, if they really produced half as many green M & Ms as the other colors, your experiment would return a very low p value, and a subsequent experiment that uses yours as the null hypothesis and a guess of 50% would produce a *higher* and *worse* p-value, but still a significant one. Ultimately, you can pick any number to be significant. Maybe in your field, being 70% sure that the accepted figures are wrong is enough for you, especially if your sample is gigantic and your methodology perfect. Typically, though, you should be at least 95% sure that your experiment proves something before you publish it in a scientific journal."
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7fvyus | Why does opening the oven door while a cake is baking ruins the cake? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because when you open the door, you letting hot oven air out thru a big gaping opening. The temperature in the oven cools down dramatically.",
"It doesn't ruin the cake, that's a myth. The cake will bake with more predictable timing and results of you leave the oven door closed, but most cakes are no where near that sensitive to temperature fluctuations.",
"It depends on the cake. When you open the door you let the hot air out dropping the temp of the oven. For most cakes all this does is slow their cooking. But for some fragile cakes like Souffles the temp change before it has fully set and cooked will cause it to collapse thus \"ruining it\"."
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7fw9gl | I just put cream cheese in the microwave to soften it. Within seconds it was crackling and popping. What was happening? | Just plain cream cheese, alone in Tupperware. At first I thought maybe some of the foil snuck in there, but no. And when I say within seconds, I literally mean about two seconds. | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Atoms and molecules are like people, and they love to start dancing when \"their song\" comes on. Microwaves work by playing the song that makes water and fat molecules dance the most, and this makes them hot from dancing and bumping in to each other. This works out well because most food usually has either some water or fat in it, so microwaves work for most food. If something doesn't have any water or fat in it, there won't be any dancing so it will not get hot in there. If, on the other hand, the Only thing you put in is water and fat, which cream cheese is mostly just water and fat and some proteins, it will get pretty hot pretty fast because all of it is dancing at once, and the bumping into each other that normally spreads to the parts of the food that isn't dancing, doesn't have anywhere to go, so the molecules just keep bouncing and bouncing against each other until they start to turn into steam, and bubbling out to the surface.",
"Microwaves work by transferring microwave energy to your food. The majority of that energy is absorbed by water. This means that the water is being heated first and transfers that energy to the rest of your food. Like the other post says, the water is being kept from transferring it's energy to other parts of the cream cheese by fats and stuff in the cream cheese. This leads to tiny bits of water rapidly heating up and boiling. As it boils, it expands and makes the popping noise. Foods with relatively low water content and high fat content tend to pop more than foods that are mostly water."
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7fwm9n | What's the difference between bacteria, viruses, fungi and pathogens? | So I'm super confused between all these terms. Can someone ELI5 what's the difference between them? Starting at the beginning, like in a spider diagram which I find easy to understand :) | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Bacteria and fungi are living things. They're made of cells, they all have DNA, they reproduce themselves, they eat stuff, break it down and use it to power themselves, excreting any waste etc. They essentially do all the basic things we can do. Bacteria are always made up of a single cell, and inside that cell their DNA is just floating about with the rest of the little machines that help them survive. They reproduce by literally splitting themselves into two. Fungi are sometimes made up of only one cell, but often they can, like ourselves, be made up of lots of cells working together (like a mushroom). They can reproduce by splitting themselves into two, or by full-blown sexual reproduction, by getting male and female sex cells to meet. Their DNA, instead of floating about freely in their cells, is protected in a little membrane capsule called a nucleus. Plants and animals also keep their DNA inside a nucleus - and we call all living things that do this [eukaryotes]( URL_2 ). Bacteria, without a nucleus, are called [prokaryotes]( URL_0 ). Viruses are just packages of genetic material, like DNA or [RNA]( URL_1 ), surrounded by a protective protein capsule and not much else - they're not made up of a cell. Unlike all of the above, viruses cannot reproduce themselves - they have to infect a living cell and hijack some of the teeny machinery inside, which they lack, in order to make more copies of themselves. Because of this it's a bit fuzzy whether we can really call them 'alive'. A pathogen is any of the above that can be harmful to you, and cause disease. For example, lotsa' bacteria are beneficial, or otherwise neutral, when they're in/on your body; pathogenic bacteria are likely to make you ill however. So in short: fungi and bacteria are living organisms made of cells, with and without a nucleus that contains their DNA respectively (eukaryotes and prokaryotes), and can happily make more of themselves. Viruses are just bits of genetic material (DNA/RNA) that can't reproduce, therefore aren't really alive, and need to infect other things to replicate. A pathogen can be anything biological that causes you harm.",
"Pathogen - any microbe that can cause sickness Bacteria - single-celled lifeforms without a nucleus, some are pathogens Virus - non-living biological entities that can inject DNA or RNA into cells, almost all are pathogens Fungi - single and multicellular lifeforms with cell walls but without chloroplasts, including mushrooms, yeasts, and molds...some are pathogens"
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7fws3k | Why do our brain get tired of eating certain foods after a few bites even though we enjoy what we're eating? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Physiologist here, who has spent well over a decade of studying the neurophysiology of a sensory system (auditory). Think of it this way: Your senses have evolved to help you survive (detect food sources, see predators, etc). We tend to think that our senses are there to continually provide us information about our surroundings. That's true, in a sense, but they are really there (and are biologically designed) to detect **changes** in our surroundings. Continuous sensory stimuli (like constant wind blowing through trees) is a distraction. What you want to be able to sense is, for example, the sound of a crack that might be a lion stepping on a stick as he is stalking you. All sensory systems are designed to fatigue to continuous sensory stimuli. As a sound/sensation/taste/color/visual pattern/etc persists in time, it tends to fade into the background. The reason is that the circuitry in the brain that processes this information isn't designed to process the same information over and over - it's designed to find and cause your to react to **changes in this background information that represents a change in your environment**. Taste (gustation) is the same as all other sensory systems. The biggest effect you'll experience is when something new is introduced - that effect, though, wears off quickly as your sensory system acclimates to this stimulus and resets itself to be able to find/react to a new stimulus."
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7fx57w | How does hydroplaning work? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Generally fluids have to go somewhere when displaced - when you dive into a pool, you have to move all the water that used to be where you dived into. This takes a little bit of time and energy, which is why there's a shock when you break the surface of the water and slow down significantly - you're pushing all the water away. Your average car tire has treads which are engineered to wick water away from between the tire and the road - when moving at speed on a significantly wet surface, the tires are pushing forward into a surface that has a layer of water on it and they need to wick away the water that goes between the tire and road in order to maintain traction. Some tires do this very well and some do not (slicks). As soon as the tire is unable to clear the water faster than water goes under the tire, the water pushes the tire off the ground and you lose traction, i.e. hydroplaning. Cars are pretty heavy so you need to be going pretty fast in pretty wet conditions generally for this to happen.",
"People think the tread on a tire is there for grip. Well kinda. Rubber on tarmac is what's giving you the grip, all the tread is doing is getting rid of water from under the tire. That's its entire point. That's why racing cars if they know they'll be racing in dry conditions use slick tires without any tread on them at all, because that gives you the maximum amount of rubber on road. Hydroplaning is when the tread can't get rid of the water fast enough, and the water actually forces the tire to lift slightly from the road, at which point you're at the mercy of physics."
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7fx9m8 | If a woman's half-sister were to have children, what relation would ones grandchildren have with the others children, if any at all? Is there such a thing as half-nieces or nephew's, or am I completely off target? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yes, a half-niece/nephew is the child of a half-sibling. The woman and her half-sister would have children that are half-cousins. Those children's children would be half second cousins, because they only share one great-grandparent rather than two (the mother or father that the woman and her half-sister have in common).",
"A sister, half-sister, step-sister are all still siblings and all have the same generational levels in relation to the family. So the grandchildren of half-siblings would be 2nd cousins to each other just like the grandchildren of full siblings are 2nd cousins to each other. The grandchild of one sister is a 1st cousin once removed from the children of the other sister. URL_0"
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7fx9ny | How does alcohol in hand sanitizer kill bacterial cells but not our own cells? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It absolutely does kill your own cells. If you drank hand sanitizer you would die. It can blind you if you get it in your eyes. Your skin keeps it away from the rest of your cells because that is its job, but it absolutely does kill your cells.",
"It *does* burn away your own cells. But the outer layer of your skin is already dead, so you don't really notice. Try pouring alcohol over an open cut, though, and you'll feel it burn like hell. That's it \"sanitizing\" your own cells.",
"It *will* kill your cells. Fortunately for you, most of the cells it comes into contact to are already dead, as that's what the outer layer of your skin is."
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7fxdv4 | Why do people say that you can break your neck if you crack it the wrong way? How does this happen? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Generally speaking, the casual neck popping shouldn't be an issue. The actual trouble is that our bodies are unpredictable and anything can happen. Some people use a lot of force to get their neck to pop and with too much pressure in the wrong place you could break something. Case in point - when I was a kid my best friend's mom broke her wrist pressing trash down into the trash can. Broke it in 3 places and the Dr. just said that she happened to push down too hard in the right places. She didn't have any bone disease or anything. So just be careful."
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7fxhoi | What is happening when you forget a word, but you know the meaning? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"This is called Tip of the Tongue in Psychology. There are multiple steps required to process language and recall words. TotT is a breakdown in one or more of those steps > The best way to cure TotT is to think of words that rhyme with the word you can't remember, rather than trying to describe the word or stutter over the first letter/sound. This question gets asked so often on ELI5 that you could probably find a hundred better, more in-depth answers by using the search function."
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7fxkkt | If the earth is revolving around the sun, and the sun orbits around the center of our galaxy and our galaxy is also moving, How fast are we actually going, all motions combined? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Velocity is relative; there is no absolute velocity. So \"all motions combined\" doesn't exist. And the laws of physics work exactly the same no matter what you pick to be \"zero velocity\". For example, the classic train example. If you're on a train moving at 30 mph with no acceleration, it is impossible for you to detect that you are in a moving train. Because, you can easily say that the *train* is not moving--that's perfectly valid! And the laws of physics work the same. Bounce a ball--it bounces just like you expect. The fact that you are on a train moving at 30 mph doesn't change anything. If you say that the train is not moving, then the earth is moving. Either interpretation is just as valid; the train moving at 30 mph left or the earth's surface moving at 30 to the right. So you any velocity (so long as it's less than the speed of light) is valid to some reference point. Relative to a neutrino going through the atmosphere right now, you're moving at 99% the speed of light!",
"If you're using the rest of the galaxies around us as a reference, the Sun is orbiting the Milky Way at a clip of about 828,000 km/hr. The motion of Earth around the Sun at that point is negligible. The speed of the galaxy amongst the other galaxies is harder to define, since they're all kinda moving around. We're moving towards some and away from others and there's no clear reference. As others said, without a reference point, velocity is truly meaningless. It may be hard to picture on Earth, because that's our reference point in everyday life and we take that for granted when talking about how fast things move. In empty space saying \"I'm moving at this speed\" and saying \"the rest of the universe is moving around me at this speed\" are truly equivalent.",
"I can answer a different question if it helps. What is the most universal referace frame? Probably the cosmic microwave background. Using the Doppler effect the local cluster is clipping along at 627km/s.",
"Here's a break down for you. The Earth, at the equator, spins at about 1,000 miles an hour. To move around the Sun, we orbit at about 66,000 miles an hour. The Sun, and our Solar System, moves through our local space at about 43,000 miles an hour. Our Solar System makes a full orbit of our galaxy at about 483,000 miles an hour (and it takes around 225 million years!) Our galaxy moves around the universe at around 1.3 million miles an hour (relative to cosmic microwave background radiation). To put all the orbiting and moving together, it's around 1,800,000 miles an hour. To put that in perspective, the speed of light is around 670,000,000 miles an hour. I know it isn't the most accurate way of depicting movement, velocity, or speed, but it is the answer to the question that OP asked. For more information, URL_0"
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7fxp66 | How can a member of the Commonwealth be considered independent but still have a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"You are thinking about this all the wrong way. She is not the “queen of the Commonwealth”. She is the queen of the United Kingdom. But she’s also the queen of Canada, which is a completely separate job. Then, she’s also the queen of Australia, which is a completely separate job from the first 2. So, each country that she’s the head of state of is independent. Their queens just happen to be the same person."
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7fxrmf | When we whistle, how do we immediately match the pitch that we hear? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Part of the reason we can match the pitch is because the sound we make when whistling is the sound we actually hear. Have you ever noticed that recordings of yourself don't seem to sound like you to you, even though everyone else says it does? When you speak or sing, a good portion of the sound we hear is actually going *through* our head, not around it."
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7fxt4k | Why do pilot cabin in planes have so many buttons and switches? | Can't they be simplified using touchscreens? Like how our smartphones have so many functions and options, yet only few buttons and 1 huge touchscreen in the middle. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The touchscreen would then be full of controls, except they're virtual, can't be felt with your hands, and the software driving it would have to be that much more complicated. Either way the pilot needs those controls (planes are complicated!), and given that, I'd rather have real knobs and tactile switches/buttons than a touchscreen.",
"If something goes wrong in a plane, you can't pull over and take a look under the hood. Either you can fix it without leaving your pilot's seat, or you're dead. The cockpit needs every conceivable control measure available. Touch screens would only complicate things by putting more computers in the middle, computers that can't or don't provide the same positive feedback that a metal switch does when it *clicks* into the right position. Pilots can navigate their cockpit by feel alone because they often need to be watching things outside the plane. You can't touchscreen blind.",
"Aerospace Engineer here: Most of those switches you see are actually circuit breaks for critical or semi-critics systems. There are other circuit breakers in the cargo compartments for other systems as well. Most older airplanes are configured this way since that’s just how circuit breakers work. If you look at the 787 flight deck there are significantly less switches and circuit breakers because we now have a lot of the circuit breakers as electrical switches on display screens in the flight deck. So in essence we are moving there but it’s only on clean sheet airplane designs because even new dash models of existing aircraft (737 MAX for example) won’t redesign the whole electrical system for something like that. TLDR: Newer airplanes do have a lot less buttons, switches and circuit breakers. You’re just used to the older airplanes.",
"Most of what they do can indeed be controlled on just a few screens in front of them. However, the extra buttons and switches provide more controls in the event something goes wrong. They can still operate the plane even if the main computer completely dies.",
"There are not as many controls as you might think. Most controls will have a set for both the pilot and the co-pilot, and many of the controls are going to have one or two levels of redundancy. That means there can be as many as six buttons or switches that do the same thing. Also, a lot of what look like buttons are actually fuses and fuse indicators and are not something that will get used regularly.",
"Airplanes are designed so that it's very unlikely that anything goes catastrophically wrong, because when something goes wrong in an airplane hundreds of people might die. Touchscreens are much more complicated and have many more failure modes than simple switches, so they're very unlikely to be used for controlling the airplane in the near future. If you imagine that every time your iPad or Surface had an app crash, several hundred people died, you'd probably agree that it's a wise choice."
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7fxymf | Why do mentally challenged individuals and those with down syndrome have very similarly shaled heads/faces? | I've always noticed this and have been curious. Mentally challenged aka mental retardation. Didn't want to say that because I wasn't sure if it was correct. *SHAPED EDIT: I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Seems like no matter how I worded this, some people took it wrong. I was asking a genuine question and some people corrected me. I thank them for that. To be clear, it's obvious I was incorrectly processing what I was seeing. I am in no way suggesting that all people faced with these issues look the same. That's not what I meant. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Down Syndrome has characteristic facial features including flattened noses and eyes with an epicanthic fold (slanted). Which is why they used to be derogatorily called \"mongoloids\". Though the resemblance based on these two facial features is purely coincidental. Those with Downs tend to have a large number of physical deformities that are not present in healthy individuals, such as umbilical hernias, low muscle town, narrow roof of the mouth, and a proportionally large tongue, among other things. The disease is caused by a genetic mutation which results in the individual having three copies of Chromosome 21, instead of the usual two. The exact mechanisms of the physical deformities caused by the overexpression of this chromosome are not well understood. The mental impairments may be caused by an excess of amyloid beta peptide in the brain, similar to Alzheimer's disease. URL_0",
"Down syndrome isn't just mental retardation. However, it's the biggest social factor. Down syndrome is actually a bunch of physical abnormalities with different presentation. You know that our genome makes us who we are. The extra chromosome in down syndrome (trisomy 21), gives down syndrome an excess expression of certain proteins that actually affects organs and physical expression. Down syndrome affects the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, brain, skin, musculoskeletal. Therefore, people with down syndrome tends to be at risk for diseases to these organs, and one of which is mental retardation. At the same time, the skin, and musculoskeletal is also affected, giving you the facies of down syndrome."
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7fy1cz | How come Japanese law prohibits non-Japanese companies from acquiring Japanese businesses? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"OK, let's pretend Japan is r/ELI5. The mods can set whatever rules they want to, as the mods have agreed upon these rules to keep interests and integrity in line with the sub's purpose. In this case the Japanese government, to keep it controlled by Japanese interests and integrity, have limited foreign ownership of business. So, let's say, oh for argument sake, Pres Trump wanted to buy all the sushi joints near a hotel he owns in downtown Tokyo. Do the Japanese business owners want to give control to him and possibly make less money? Nooooo. The Japanese government has instituted this law to ensure any overly-rich foreign company or individual doesn't get that control.",
"Generally it's to do with not wanting profits to leave the host nation. Many countries have similar laws whether it's to protect capital flows or protect sovereignty or even land ownership. It's not uncommon in various countries around the world but often comes with a draw back of foreign corporation not wanting to invest. I think in Thailand and Indonesia you foreigners can't own property and in China you have to form a partnership with a local company. Tl:dr it's not an unheard of but it becomes increasingly rare in a global economy as most countries want that capital inflows to grow their economy."
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7fyfa6 | How do we always know when someone is watching us? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are several things at work in this impression people have that they know when people are watching them. First of all, there’s no extra sensory perception that tells anybody they are being watched. That’s just magical thinking. Sometimes people detect clues to something subconsciously. They may notice people acting differently or even the weird behavior of a pet, who knows. But things like this make people feel like something is amiss, they look around and spot somebody watching, and then conclude that what they felt was “being watched.” Other times, people think something is amiss without evidence. All the time, actually. But they look around and find nothing, so they forget about it. However, after doing this a hundred times and forgetting every time, they may actually discover a person watching them once, and wonder “how did I know they were watching?” But really, they just make note and remember the time they were right while forgetting the multitude of times they were wrong.",
"Actually, we don't always know. There would be fewer kidnappings and street violence if people were aware they were being watched. I have a nephew who feels like he has no soul, a number of family members stated that they are not aware of his presence, it's kinda creepy."
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7fyfsv | why are chickens more likely to be contaminated with salmonella and not other animals | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Just like reptiles, chickens have Salmonella bacteria in their digestive tract. Adaptation in both the bacteria and animal has resulted in a situation where infection is often asymptomatic. Issues arise, however, when slaughtering and processing isn't done in a sanitary way. Because the Salmonella lives in the chicken's digestive tract, it can also be found in droppings. What we find is that the primary cause of Salmonella infection in chicken meat is faecal matter coming in contact with the meat during the slaughtering process, or while it's being handled for shipping.",
"Salmonella is found in the environments that chickens live, and is present in all sorts of things. Rats, mice, other birds, and flies can all carry the various salmonella bacteria, and they frequent the same places that chickens live. As for the eggs, some time a while back, the salmonella bacterium figured out how to cross the barrier into eggs while still inside the chicken, making them potentially dangerous. It’s this danger that we focus on, not necessarily the chicken meat"
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7fyl18 | With all of the pyramid schemes, or simply scams disguised as a job (receive and resend packages, etc.), how exactly can you determine the real career opportunities to the schemes? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's a real job if you actually get paid a salary. It's a real job if you make money by doing your job, not by recruiting more people. It's a real job if you don't have to pay in order to be hired.",
"If it sounds too good to be true, it is. If you have to pay them to start working, it's a scam. If they want you to sell products that no one wants, it's a scam. If they talk a lot about huge amounts you can earn from home or in your spare time, it's a scam. If the ad doesn't mention the company, it's a scam. If you google the name of the company and see sites questioning if it is a scam, it's a scam. If it doesn't involve sending in your resume, it's a scam (unless it's fast food or something like that, in which case it's not a scam, it just sucks). If you are unskilled but they really, really want to hire you, it's a scam.",
"It's pretty simple, if you they make you front any sort of money to get a job with them or to begin making money, it's a scam. For instance, if they make you pay an application fee to apply, watch out. Or if their business is predicated on you buying a bunch of product to sell it yourself, watch out. If in doubt, just keep in mind that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Job opportunities that sound like amazing slam dunks...watch out."
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7fywoc | What is the difference between a router and a modem? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The modem is the device that converts input signals such as cable or land line phone signals from your ISP into digital data useable by a computer or similar device. A router is a device that manages the flow of data to multiple connected devices. So in your standard home, the outfacing connection (such as a cable line) is connected to a modem. That modem is then connected to a router which all of your computers, phones, or other devices connect to.",
"This should be more ELI5-y IMO: Internet comes in through a special cable your Internet Service Provider (Time Warner, Cox, Charter, AT & T, Verizon, etc) uses. Usually it's a Co-ax cable so let's just pretend it's a co-ax cable. (Replace the cable type with whatever your ISP uses). You need something to connect to that co-ax cable because your laptop, tablet, phone, computer doesn't connect to Co-Ax. A modem basically takes that co-ax cable connection and changes it so you use Ethernet instead. It does more technical stuff than that but most people should just think of it as changing co-ax cable into a Ethernet port. > ISP --(Co-ax)-- > Modem (has an Ethernet port) Great! Now you have things that can use an Ethernet connection and have them use the internet! > ISP --(Co-ax)-- > Modem --(Ethernet)-- > One single device But there's only one Ethernet connection. You can only use Internet on ONE device and that device has to be connected by an Ethernet cable. That's no good! You want to use WiFi! You need a way to change the one Ethernet port into WiFi. Say hello to the Wireless Access Point! It turns one Ethernet Port into WiFi! > ISP --(Co-ax)-- > Modem --(Ethernet)-- > Wireless Access Point --(WiFi)-- > Your devices But you lose the ability to use Ethernet now because the Modem only has one Ethernet port and you just used it for your Access Point. Well, say hello to the Wireless Router! It's pretty much a hub (turns one Ethernet connection into many) AND an Access Point all in one! Now you get WiFi AND you get extra Ethernet Ports! > ISP --(Co-ax)-- > Modem --(Ethernet)-- > Wireless Router --(Multiple Ethernet AND/OR WiFi) -- > Your devices But what most ISPs offer now is a COMBINATION Modem/Wireless Router device which is just what it sounds like. A Modem and Wireless Router in the same device. So now you have it much simplified. > ISP --(Co-ax)-- > Modem/Wireless Combo --(A few Ethernet Ports AND/OR WiFi)-- > Your devices",
"A modem MOdulates/DEModulates different kinds of carrier signals. The one you have in your home turns a signal over a phone line (DSL), or a coax cable, (or maybe fiber), into the ethernet signal that your computers use, and probably also the wifi. A router takes the information conveyed in those signals (whatever kind that is), and routes packets of data to various other locations. Routers can have fiber optic cards, ethernet cards, etc. They take data and decide where to pass it to next. Modems just take a signal and make it another signal. The object you have at home is likely both a modem to turn your cable or whatever into ethernet, along with a router to allow you to connect multiple systems to this connection, and a 4-port switch in the back providing physical connections, and a wifi transceiver.",
"A router is used in woodworking to \"rout\" (hollow) out sections of wood. A modem connects you to the internet."
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7fz15b | How much harder was it to live into old age into your 90s before modern medical advances? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Historical life expectancies can be misleading, as they are skewed by infant mortality and childhood diseases. The notion that people got old and died at 40 or 50 is a myth. It is true that people died of diseases and accidents a lot more often, and many people lived in conditions that made disease and accidents a lot more likely. But if you had access to good food and shelter and did not have to live a particular strenuous lifestyle, so long as you avoid tuberculosis and didn't get cancer, you could expect to live a long life. Reaching 90 was obviously less common, but if you made it to 60 and were still relatively healthy, the difference between you reaching 90 and a modern day person reaching it shrinks significantly."
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7fz4ei | How is Ajit Pai's previous job at Verizon not considered a conflict of interest? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"While there's certainly a suspicion he's working for the telecoms or has a quid pro quo, you can't prove conflict of interest unless you can prove that he himself has a present current stake in the success of the telecoms, e.x. owning their stock, is also secretly a Verizon employee, etc. Pretty sure none of those are true. If prior association could be considered a conflict of interest then that would mean once you work for a company you could not ever work for a competitor to that company.",
"Because he doesn't work there anymore? I don't think he is financially or legally tied to Verizon. Previous employment doesn't count as conflict of interest. It has to be something that would directly, monetarily incentivize you to make decisions that are in your best interests, and not in the best interest of the American people. Which I guess brings up the question, why is he a corporate shill? He must have a lot of money? Why do rich people always become shills? Is it just lust for more money? or a desire to help out friends or repay debts or something? But Trump gets special exceptions for Conflict of Interest because the President gets that, for some reason? I don't know why."
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7fz5u1 | Music theory and how it benefits in Songwriting | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Music theory studies the fundamentals of what \"music\" is: how songs are structured, why notes are what they are, the harmonics and mathematics that makes chords and combinations of notes sound \"good\" together, and how these sorts of things can be used to convey actual feelings and invoke a certain kind of response out of the listener. It studies the history, how songs are recorded, how songs are *played*, and usually delves into the kinds of instruments and ways of making music itself. For a songwriter, having knowledge of this can help you invoke those responses and feelings when you want to in your work. It gives you knowledge and reference as to what's actually possible in music, what options you have. But more importantly, it gives you the ability to collaborate, to record and describe and discuss music with others in a constructive way. You may make excellent songs, but you'd benefit from being able to describe to people what you did in certain places other than \"I wanted this part to be all [music noises and air guitar] awesome.\""
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7fz92u | How does smoking make someone's voice deeper/raspier? | Obviously when smoke is inhaled, it goes past your vocal folds and into your lungs. But then how exactly does smoke affect your vocal folds to make those changes? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Everything you inhale passes right across the vocal cords. The vocal cords, (whose easy vibration creates your voice), react to irritants like allergens, dry air, dust, chemical odors, reflux, etc. The burning end of a cigarette is 451 degrees Fahrenheit. By the time that air reaches 17-20 cm down your throat it has cooled-off some, but is still hot enough to irritate the delicate vocal folds. Not only that, but the tar and other irritants in the smoke cause swelling and other reactions on the cover of the cords. Repeated, long-term smoking of course causes tissue changes in the voice, also known as dysplasia or cancer. The first sign of glottic cancer (throat cancer) is a hoarse voice, not pain or coughing up blood."
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7fzmco | How come we get all snotty when we cry? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It's a drainage thing. Tears mix with mucus in the sinuses, and this thins out the mucus and makes it run from your nose."
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7fzmme | What is RAM and why is it important for computers? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A way to think of RAM is working memory. Normal memory is you remembering your address, say. Working memory is you remembering a phone number between looking it up and dialling it into a phone. A computer is similar. You have the main memory, which is your hard drive (or nowadays as common as not, an SSD), which stores programs, and files. Then the RAM is the working memory, which stores the current data being worked on, anything that's needed now and fast, because RAM works vastly **vastly** faster than the storage. Windows has a lot of little odds and ends that have to be stored in RAM to ensure the fast running of the system, as well as the program or programs you have open.",
"Random Access Memory is a type of data storage device that allows bits of information to be read in any order, at any time, extremely quickly. Unfortunately they are volatile - meaning they are unable to hold their data without constant electricity - and they can't hold that much data compared to something like a hard disk. So you have all your stuff on the hard disk, and then it copies over the files for a specific program to RAM when you open it. Then, the computer doesn't have to go dig through the massive hard drive every time you do anything in that program - it's in the RAM so it can access it quickly. A hard disk is like a fridge. Lots of storage for long term. RAM is like a plate. it would suck to eat food directly out of the fridge, having to go back in the kitchen every bite. So you transfer to a plate to eat it."
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7g0310 | Is there a time-frame for class action lawsuits you see on those cheesy commercials? I feel like I've seen the same Mesothelioma one for the last 10 years. | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"They’re not class action. They used to be, but now they’re individual lawsuits. They’re law firms hoping to get clients in a case that is easy to win with a big payout."
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7g0e4u | If an internet provider like Comcast charges extra to view a website, such as URL_1 , could Reddit change their URL to something like i URL_1 (and moving URL_0 to simply redirect) to bypass Comcast's pay-filters? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"probably, wouldnt be hard for comcast to update their filter though... and it would be hard to keep track of for users. a VPN would be easier, though perhaps the VPNs would get blocked too."
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7g0hp3 | What is a SSD and HDD? Differences and pros/cons of both? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A SSD is a solid state drive and are must faster. they can read write at a much faster rate and never need to be de-fragmented. The down side of this is that they are very expensive in relation to storage size so its most computers only run a small one. HDDs are slower and Need to be De-fragmented every now and then depending on how often you delete stuff. On the upside the data in a HDD will last until the platter is physically broken and because of how cheap they are you can buy a 1TB for bulk storage relatively cheap."
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7g1cci | why do younger people start off enjoying very sweet food, but as we age, very bitter, tangy foods become more preferable? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Taste buds numb over time. You'll notice grandma salts the shit out of her food. Kids' tastebuds are over sensitive so acidic and spicy foods are like loud music for their tongues.",
"Your tastebuds naturally change over time, along with a bunch of other things which determine what's better or worse. When you're growing you need more vitamins, minerals, and more importantly glucose to power your body and it's growth. So things like sugar are more attractive. As well, kids don't go \"sugar makes me feel bad if I eat too much\" or \"this is going right to my thighs\" when they eat sugar, a sensible adult, however, does. So you get a type of psychological aversion from sweets and certain foods due to their nutritional content. Finally, another commenter touched on it, there's a normal flora in your intestines and stomach. This is a sum of a load of different bacteria (the bacteria in your intestines outnumber all of the cells in your body 10 to 1). They help with digestion, killing bad bacteria, and a bunch of other things, but the thing that's important in this case is that certain bacteria thrive in certain environments. Some bacteria may REALLY like cauliflower, because they can break it down and it gives them a bunch of energy, so in turn they secrete chemicals which tells your body to eat more cauliflower. Thus by eating different foods, you'll program your body and normal flora to prefer those foods, and in turn those foods will become more pleasurable."
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7g1fgy | How do pop rocks pop?? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Carbon dioxide trapped in the sugar. When the space is compressed (chewed), they escape, causing them to “pop”",
"Pop Rocks are made by infusing rock candy with carbon dioxide during it's creation. The candy ends up filled with compressed carbon dioxide gas, with just enough concentration that when the candy gets wet, like in your mouth, it melts a little bit and weakens, allowing the gas to pop open the candy.",
"Pop rocks are just a normal sugar candy that gets \"whipped\" to infuse bubbles shortly before it solidifies. If you've had a lollipop with a bubble in it then that's the same basic idea. The trick to pop rocks is that that process is performed inside a vessel at utterly immense pressures (thousands of pounds per square inch). Remarkably, due to the small size of the bubbles, the candy is able to contain the pressure--until you eat it, that is. Once your spit starts dissolving the candy it allows those tiny pressure vessels to rupture, giving you the characteristic \"pop\" that the treat is known for. Note that this has exactly nothing to do with chewing, as another comment claims. You could cause pop rocks to rupture by chewing, but chewing is unnecessary and adds no substantial amount of pressure to the bubbles in the candy."
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7g1wtc | How exactly does currency “move” between banks, individuals, companies, etc. when processed electronically and without the use of any actual physical currency (cash)? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Ahoy, matey! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: What happens when money is digitally transfered from one bank to another? Is the money later picked up to be stored there? Or is there some sort or digital I.O.U. involved? ]( URL_1 ) 1. [ELI5: Electronic Funds Transfers ]( URL_0 ) 1. [ELI5: How do wire transfers work? ]( URL_3 ) 1. [ELI5: What really happens when banks transfer money? ]( URL_2 )"
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yuup8/eli5_what_really_happens_when_banks_transfer_money/",
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7g2b3d | Why does bleach turn colors white, but white things yellow? | And is it the same chemical reaction that causes sun screen to yellow white fabric? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Why bleach turns colors white: The most common kind of bleach, chlorine bleach contains sodium hypochlorite. When you wash clothes with say, ketchup on it, the sodium hypochlorite *oxidizes* the ketchup. This changes the chemical composition of the stain into one which still has color, *but* it's color is outside human visible range (one of the reasons you can see certain kinds of stains under black lights, etc). So you have white+unseeable color=white. Why bleach turns white clothes yellow: White clothes aren't truly white. They're usually a bit yellow with blue \"brighteners\" which give off the impression of being white. When you bleach a white shirt, the blue gets stripped away (by the process explained earlier) and thus you get a yellow shirt."
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7g2f8m | If we observe distant galaxies as they existed x-years-ago (because of light's speed), how do we know that deep space "now" isn't just a wasteland of emptiness/black holes? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"At the furthest distances we can see, there are undoubtedly significant changes. However, when we're talking about stars, we're talking about billions, potentially even trillions, of years of lifespan. For much of what we can study in more detail (like objects in our own galaxy) the time delay isn't a significant part of the lifespan of such objects. That's not to say no changes could have occurred, its just likely that much of what we see is more or less still there. You are correct in your secondary post to assume that these objects are all in motion relative to one another, though, so teleporting yourself somehow to the observed location of some distant object is going to wind up off-target. Even the Earth is moving rapidly through space relative to some other object.",
"Distances in cosmology ain't easy. First of we need to clarify that the light travel distance isn't the same as the proper distance. If a source sends out a light signal the source and observer are some distance from each other at this time. When the light reaches the observer however the light will have travelled further than that initial distance because of the expansion of the Universe. At the same time the distance between the source and observer at the time of observation will be even further than the light travel distance, because the Universe will have expanded even more between these two than it seems to have for the light, as the light is constantly moving across the expanding space leaving less space for the expansion to take place in. To understand this I'll try to paint a simplified picture. Imagine two galaxies separated by 4 units: O....O Now send a photon from one galaxy to the other and lets note each time the photon moves one unit: O-....O O.-...O +1 O..-..O +1 At this point lets freeze time and let space expand by 2 units between the two galaxies: O...-...O Now unfreeze time and let the photon continue on its journey: O....-..O +1 O.....-.O +1 O......-O +1 O......O So at the time of emission the distance was 4 units, but due to the expansion it's now 6 units. But the photon travelled 5 units. This gives an idea of how distances in the Universe change over time and why it's so confusion talking about distances at this scale. In reality the expansion is constant and occurs at all times, this is just a simplified picture. Therefore if you observe a photon that has travelled for example 1 billion years and then do a warp jump 1 billion light years in that direction, you will not end up in the observed galaxy (or whatever it was you observed) and you might indeed end up in an empty part of the Universe. However if you account for this expansion and warp jump the proper distance, 6 units instead of 5 units in our example, you would end up in something very much alike what you observed. This is because astronomical objects have life spans of several billion years and most orbits are stable and won't decay for trillions of years."
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7g2h0f | Why aren’t we frantically planting seagrass everywhere since it stores more CO2 than an equivalent area of rainforest? Seems easier than haggling with locals to replant rainforest. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Biodiversity. There's alot of that in a rainforest, the cure for cancer could be in some tree beetle we've never discovered, but then went extinct when we cut down all the trees it lived in. Also a rainforest is much more resilient. One disease or pest can wipe out a whole system of seagrass, since they're all the same kind of plants. It's happened before, see: Irish Potato famine. It's happening now, see: Panama Disease. A rainforest can lose a species of tree to a pest, but there are 200+ other species left. By cutting it down, we kill all of the 200+ species."
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7g2nhp | Why was the best plan of battle on D-day to send thousands of men to almost certain death? | Why wasnt offshore bombing from battleships an option? Did we lack the technology? We couldn't have thrown a huge air raid against them? Idk the limitations the allied powers had then | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Ships DID bombard the shore; for many hours that morning leading up to the landing. A truly thorough job couldn't be done over the course of many days because the idea was to catch the defenders by surprise, so that all their reinforcements were out of position. For this reason, the allies spent about a week bombarding breaches further east of where the true landing took place. In the end though, the only way to take and hold ground is with men on the ground. Bombardments only get you so far, and those German positions were designed specifically to resist them.",
"We hit them with everything we had. There *were* offshore bombardments from battleships & destroyers. There *were* aerial bombardments from aircraft. There *were* paratroopers getting dropped behind enemy lines ...but, at the end of the day, when you've got an enemy that's dug themselves into fortifications in order to prevent an assault, at some level, you just have to throw men at the job until you can stick a bayonet between their eyes. During D-Day, we wanted to do it fast enough that the Germans couldn't get reinforcements out to the beaches. Amphibious assault craft were the only thing we had that could practically move all those men.",
"\"Why wasnt offshore bombing from battleships an option? Did we lack the technology?\" Was done. Five battleships and numerous cruisers and destroyers were all shelling the Germans that day. \"We couldn't have thrown a huge air raid against them?\" Was done as well, with over 2000 planes. As it turns out though, concrete reinforcements aren't all that easy to destroy from the air or with artillery. Some German defenses were disabled, but a lot of them weren't, including the bigger German artillery positions.",
"They did do all of that, in addition to landing troops. Germany and France had been bombed basically continuously since early 1942, more than two years before D-day, and both bombers and naval bombardment were employed on D-day to support the troops. The problem is that, ultimately, ships and planes can't capture land, only infantry and armor can do that. At some point, boots and tanks need to be ashore to liberate the occupied territory, and D-day was the time when the allies put that portion of the plan in motion."
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7g2qes | Why do you sometimes wake up more tired with more sleep, and more energetic with less sleep? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqg4j9s"
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"text": [
"i think it’s to do with your sleep cycle. when you sleep, you go into a deep sleep and a light sleep multiple times during the night and when you wake up feeling energetic it is just because you woke up during a light sleep phase, as opposed to feeling very tired from waking up in the middle of a deep sleep phase."
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|
7g2u30 | Why does wellbeing lower drug-abuse rates? | I've read that apparently mice in captivity that are alone, and is given the choice between water with drugs and without, they would eventually overdose, but in an environment where they had toy and other mice, they drank in more moderation. How much does this translate to humans, and why does it work like this? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqg60i5"
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"Drugs are often used as a coping skill or to self-medicate. Someone that has a healthy sense of well-being probably also has healthier coping skills and/or access to appropriate healthcare. For example, those with adhd and without access to meds may self-medicate on drugs like meth. Also, some with health problems, and thus an increased likelihood of ill-being with have more access to meds, such as painkillers, which could develop into addictions. Additionally, drug addiction is an illness. Current understandings of mental illness understand an interplay of genetics and environment, so stressful environments can contribute to the develop of mental illness and addiction. Stressful environments are also correlated with lower rates of well-being Edit: failed to read all your text, so the answer can't speak to the mice angle, but has some relevance to the general question. My answer is also based in a more medical model. Some cultures view aspects of well-being and health as less of a cause-and-effect relationship and more of as a balance. That not my background, so I can't really speak to it."
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7g2yl0 | Why do, on occasion, temperatures of -2 Celsius in some regions feel colder than temperatures of +3 Celsius in other reasons? | I visited Sweden last week, and there were regularly temperatures of -2 or -3 Celsius, and it honestly didn't feel very cold at all. Fast forward 8 days, I'm back in Ireland, and while the temperature is 3 or 4 Celsius right now, it feels so much colder, and seems to cut through my clothes much easier even though I'm wearing thicker clothes. Given that there isn't much difference in terms of wind speeds in these cases, what makes the higher temperature feel so much colder? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqg6cmd",
"dqg67z1"
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"text": [
"Wind and air humidity have great impact on how the air temperature feels. When your skin loses heat to the surrounding air, that air heats up and in turn absorbs less heat from your skin afterwards. That’s how fur keeps animals warm. It traps the warm air at their skin. Clothes do the same for us humans. Wind carries that warm air away replacing it with colder air that absorbs heat from your skin again. That why wind makes it feel colder. Humidity is more complicated but for cold weather it goes like this: water has a much higher heat capacity that’s air so humid air can absorb more heat from you than dry air, making it feel colder. In warm air, humidity work differently, it prevents your sweat from evaporating because there’s already water in the air and air has a limited capacity for carrying water vapor. In turn your body can’t cool itself effectively and it feels hotter than in dry air.",
"In addition to wind, humidity plays a big role. In dry air, more water evaporates from the skin, that cools the skin and it feels colder. Edit: But humid air can also absorb more heat, so things can be a bit more complicated, see /u/shokalion's reply. Sunshine can warm, of course. The body can adapt to the temperature (within some range). If you go from a warm place to a cold place, the first few days it will feel extra cold, afterwards you get more used to it. Same in the opposite direction."
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7g34pg | Why do some pimples take longer to pop fully? | Sometimes when I pop a pimple, it's over and done with once the swelling goes down. But sometimes, even if I have really squeezed hard to the point that I see blood, the next day more pus will have arrived to take the place of the stuff I got rid of the day before. Does that mean it's more infected, or that there's pus somewhere far below the surface that floats to the top? What causes this? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqgf3js",
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"text": [
"Yeah. If it's not popping easily, don't even try to pop it. Your face will look way worse at the end of it.",
"A pimple forms due to an bacteria/other junk getting lodged in one of the pores in your skin. This causes a small local infection that your immune system will move to clear up. The pus is a mixture of dead immune cells, dead bacteria/invading junk, and any other fluids that pooled in the wound. The pimple will remain until your immune system clears out the wound, and your body removes the build-up of debris (pus). If your immune system is done cleaning the wound, then your pimple will probably not come back after you... uh...help...your body remove the debris. Your pimple will likely reform if your body was not finished clearing out any bacteria that was present, or if after popping the pimple the pore gets reinfected (at this point its kind of an open wound). It wouldn't come back because you \"didn't get all of the pus out\", as pus is generally sterile, but because the infection is not over yet."
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7g3aac | speaking vs singing into a mic? | So why do people who talk into microphones don't have them pressed to their lips/halfway into their mouths but when artists (or even singers who nobody knows) they almost swallow them whole? Is it some innate need to be heard as loud as possible when singing? What's the tea? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqg7i4c",
"dqgel1l"
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"text": [
"I'm a singer and there are a couple of things that influence this 1. Bad microphone technique: bad technique is perpetuated through shows like American Idol and movies like High School Musical. People think they need to hold their microphone perpendicular to their face right on their lips for it to work. If you had a good mic and a good sound technician, you shouldn't need to do this 2. Bad microphones: the further away from the head of the mic, the less lower frequencies are picked up. This can result in your voice sounding 'tin-like' as more mids and treble is picked up. The closer the mic is, the more lower frequencies are picked up. 3. Spill: microphones pick up sound in [different patterns]( URL_0 ) and ideally most of this is directed at the singer. To minimise the microphone picking up the other instruments or singers on stage with you who may be projecting sound into the area that the microphone is picking up from, singers are often directed to have the microphone as close to their sound source as possible (I.e their mouth) 4. Plosives: in English (and many other languages) there are sounds that create a short, sharp puff of air when said (e.g p, f, k, sh, h, s). If you put your palm in front of your mouth and make these sounds you can feel the direction the air travels. Singers can avoid the puff of air creating a distorted sound by positioning the microphone out of the area where this puff of air is. When combined with bad microphone technique (see 1) this results in singers holding the microphone above the stream of air (high on the lips, perpendicular to the face). Hope that explains it! Let me know if you have any questions.",
"So, the thing to start with is there are two main kinds of microphones- condenser and dynamic (there are a few other kinds, the most common being ribbon, but the average person will hardly ever encounter them). Both of these mics have a membrane called a diaphragm that essentially \"listens\" for sound and converts that sound into an electrical signal that can then be amplified and reproduced by a speaker. Condenser mics use a really small and thin diaphragm, which is great for capturing high frequency sounds. It can also capture sounds from further away. Because the diaphragm is really small, though, it has to get some electrical power through the mic cable so it can amplify the incoming sound. This is the kind of mic you might see someone speaking into at a public event, and they will usually be a little bit away from the mic- maybe even a few feet. Dynamic mics use a big and thick diaphragm, which is super cool because the incoming sound waves generate enough electricity across the diaphragm to amplify the sound without any additional power being supplied to the mic. But these mics are really bad at picking up sound from more than a couple of inches away, and that's why you'll see people singing or speaking directly into these mics, often holding the mic at a right angle to their mouth (the sound source) because that gets the most exposure of the diaphragm to the sound. When a singer is recording in a quiet recording studio they'll usually use a condenser, because (somewhat ironically) the smaller diaphragm is better at picking up a wider range of sound. But this same feature makes it really bad for live performance, because it will pick up all the other sounds on stage (like instruments and other singers) and very easily create a feedback loop, where the microphone starts picking up its own sound and re-amplifying it. So people use dynamic mics for live performance, and that's why you'll see the kind of microphone technique you're wondering about. But usually when it's a speaking-type event there isn't any music being played at the same time, so you'll see condenser mics being used because they can be built smaller and placed farther away, letting us see the speaker and not being annoyed by the microphone."
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