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5ti1k2 | Why are most weigh stations on US highways always closed? And what is their intended function in the first place? | I'm curious as to why these are always closed, compared to toll booths/rest stations. | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Truck driver here, Weigh stations are there to make sure that commercial vehicles such as semi trucks are not over weight for the roads that they are traveling on because an over weight semi would not be able to stop as fast as normal, they may blow tires, and/or may cause other parts to break under pressure also it could cause damage to the road ways or piping under the road ways As to why they are mostly closed is because lack of funds to keep them operating, such as paying the operators or keeping the scale in operating condition",
"Their function used to be weighing trucks to make sure they were not overloaded, because overloaded trucks are unsafe. Having them open at random is OK, because the truckers that might seek to make more profit by overloading their truck can't be \"sure\" that they won't get weighed. Like speeding, you don't have to have 100% coverage to to get most people to comply. However, most states have deployed instrumented roadways for trucks. The trucks have little transponders and there is a scanner along the road that scans them. This means that if you weigh a truck once, you don't have to weigh it a bunch of times. This means that the weigh station can be open an even smaller fraction of the time and still get the same results. Electronic logbooks also reduce this sort of cheating.",
"Weigh stations serve a few purposes. 1) to check that commercial trucks running over a states highways are not overweight on any of their axles. If they are overweight, they need special permits. 2) to inspect commercial vehicles. For example, if a commercial truck has brake problems, it could ruin a lot of people's day. So, trucks are semi-randomly inspected for road worthiness. 3) to make sure the driver is within federal hours of service compliance. Commercial driver's have a strict set of rules governing how long they can drive, when to take a break, etc. --------------- Why are they usually closed? Well, in Virginia, they almost never close. West Virginia, on the other hand, rarely has open scales. It comes down to funding."
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5ti4lj | Is the energy used to run your body stored in cell themselves like water is? And how is the process of burning fat used to power your body? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You know the meme that the \"mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell\". Well basically, the mitochondria produce a chemical called ATP. It uses the byproducts of the chemical reactions that break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins to make it. ATP then leaves the mitochondria and goes into the cell. From there, the cell uses this chemical for energy. Each ATP molecule had three molecules attached to it called phosphates. When you take one of the phosphates off the ATP molecule, this releases loads of energy which can be used to power all the things the cell needs to do."
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5ti88p | How is my nose stuffy and runny at the same time? | During seasonal allergies how is that ones nose is both congested and runny? Can someone explain the physiology and or anatomy of this? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Deep inside your nose there is actually erectile tissue, very similar to the penis. An erection is caused when blood vessels in the penis get bigger so more blood flows into it, and the exact same thing happens with this tissue in your nose. So often when we are congested and stuffy, it isn't because snot is blocking air from coming through, it's that the inside of the nasal cavity is swollen up. But your nasal mucosa may still be producing a runny snot. I wouldn't use a penis analogy with an actual 5 year old I'd like to point out, but I figured it'd be okay here!",
"The \"snot\" is your nose trying to physically wash out pollen or any molecule that causes you to have an allergic reaction. The \"stuffiness\" is the mucous membrane swelling (inflammation) because they are irritated by the pollen, dust, etc."
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5ti8j5 | During embryonic development, how do cells "know" which side is the left side of the body versus the right side? | Given that the vast majority of people have their heart and aorta towards the left side of their body and are right-handed, it is clear that there is a pattern in how cells arrange themselves in early development. As the embryo forms, what signals the cells as to which side they are on so they can develop appropriately? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The egg itself is actually not symmetrical, it contains different amounts of chemicals in different parts. So when it begins to divide after being fertilized by sperm, the first few cells are all different to each other. [See this image.]( URL_0 ) Then from there, different cells release different chemicals to the surrounding cells, so surrounding cells become different types of cells, etc. It's an incredibly delicate process that a lot can go wrong with.",
"Reaching back into my dusty embryology knowledge, for humans there are 3 layers of cells--mesoderm, endoderm, and ectoderm--and there's a bit of orientation by that fact alone. In general, the cells as they develop release local hormones which guide other cells (such as nerve cells being directed through tissues) and give them an orientation such that others can develop in the proper configuration. Some, like plants growing toward the sun, cause growth toward, others away, and so forth, as well as influencing the types of cells that grow there. Later, once the scaffolding is formed, for the aorta structure in particular, it is turned as it descends (IIRC), and this can definitely mess up, a situation called situs inversus. DNA codes the signals, and in some way, the individual actions of the cells operates rather like a flock of birds--without really seeming to act as a unit, individual actions taken together cause emergent actions leading to unified acts and a stereotypical structure.",
"Adding onto what other people have said regarding transcription factors and hormones, there is a gradient that goes from left to right and from top to bottom. So cells at different parts of the embryo will experience different gradients of transcription factors that result in different amount of proteins being produced (lots of transcription factors means lots of proteins, lower gradient means less proteins are made). The specific proteins produced determine what kind of tissue it is apart of. Cells also are able to detect their neighboring cells and communicate back and forth which. Some cells release and receive certain factors to neighboring cells as well."
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5ti9t0 | How can there be more than three dimensions? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Dimensions aren't as fantastic as they might seem. A dimension is a measurement of a space, and it's simply the number of coordinates we need to describe every point in that space. If we have a plane, we can do that with two numbers measured on orthogonal (perpendicular) axes, so planes are 2D. In a volume, we need three orthogonal axes. (I'll be talking only about spatial dimensions. You can definitely do your math with time as a dimension, and that's valid, but it complicates the conversation unnecessarily.) It's fairly straightforward to extend the math for manipulating and talking about 2D spaces to work in 3D (for example, the Pythagorean theorem works just fine, all you have to do is add a z^2 term alongside the familiar x^2 + y^2). Turns out it's fairly trivial to keep going - you can just extend the math upwards into as many dimensions as you like (some complications do arise). Now, that's not to say that the math for a 20-dimensional space means much of anything for our physical reality. Within our day-to-day lives, there's not much evidence for anything beyond the familiar three dimensions of classical physics. However, higher-dimensional spaces are often great problem-solving tools, from the many-dimensional spaces considered by search AIs, to the five or so dimensions that might come up in optimizing a character's gear in *World of Warcraft*! Usually, people hear about higher-dimensional spaces in the context of quantum physics and string theory. While I'm not qualified to explain the exact reasoning, the gist of the matter is that back in the 20th century, physicists started noticing that the math that describes our universe can be simplified if you add or remove a few dimensions. Further exploration along those lines eventually led to string theory, which demands 10 dimensions (give or take, depending on the variant). While that's lovely from a mathematical point of view, there's still a need to reconcile it with such facts as, to the best of my awareness and capacity to measure, the keyboard I'm typing on is very much a 3D object. This is usually justified by explaining away the \"extra\" dimensions as being \"very small\" or \"curled up\". By way of analogy, if you look at the surface of a piece of paper, it's _basically_ 2D, right? Until you zoom in really close and you can see tiny bumps and ridges. So okay, sure, it's really 3D, but for day-to-day use it might as well be 2D. In the same way, string theory can be justified by saying that most of those dimensions only manifest as infinitesimally small bumps, so small that nothing we can observe will directly interact along those axes.",
"Three dimensions are capable of plotting where you are, but they aren't capable of plotting when you are there. Time as the fourth dimension allows you to plot where you are at any point in time."
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5tif7a | Why do female kangeroos have 3 vaginas? | What's the biological or evolutionary advantage for female kangeroos to have 3 vaginas? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They don't, and it's not an advantage, it's an accident. They have one real vagina on the outside which is a lot like other mammals. Further in it branches in three, one in the middle and two side routes. These are doing two different jobs; the central canal is where the baby joey exits, and the two side tubes are where sperm travels up to the uterus. URL_0 Article has a diagram which may help The reason it's arranged this way is because the ureters (urine tubes from the kidney) pass in between the central canal and the two side canals, so there is no way developmentally for the three vaginal tubes to merge into one tube. This weird arrangement of tubes also gives us male kangaroos with a scrotum *in front* of the penis. In other mammals the ureters go in a different direction, no longer obstruct the formation of a single merged vaginal canal, and those mammals can go on to evolve larger babies."
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5tif8x | Why do I see silver bacteria like lines running around my environment when I rub my eyes too hard? | Have you ever seen those silver/white snake like things just zig zagging your surroundings when you have an itch and rub your eyes more than you should? What are those things? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Floaters! Basically, they're just defects in the goop that fills up your eye (\"vitreous humour\"). Your brain usually learns to ignore them over time. URL_0"
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5tig15 | Why is Golf the go to sports for rich and/or powerful people like Presidents, CEOs? What is special about it? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It costs a lot of money to play, it's played in a space that is exclusive, which allows for privacy, and it is a slow paced game that allows for conversation and socializing. The slower pace also allows people to play into much older age than other sports. It's basically the perfect game for wealthy people who want to have something to do while having an informal conversation.",
"Be careful of confusion of cause and effect. It's a sport that rewards a positive attitude and repetition over athleticism and is relatively quiet. It's a natural choice for someone who's older or wants to multitask and socialize or talk business during the event. Leaders like CEOs and presidents often fit that description but others do as well; for example my dad and I usually go golfing when I come home from college because it's a good way to hang out while getting some fresh air. Edit: Clarity. Also, while golfing at a country club with top-of-the-line equipment is expensive, golfing at your local course with a set of used clubs is quite affordable.",
"As someone in sales, I use golf outings as a way to bring a client or prospect out of the office environment into an outdoor setting with relaxed conversation and booze. The client or prospect is sort of a willing captive audience for several hours. If you are building relationships, golf is a great way to do it.",
"Golf is expensive. It takes a lot of land, maintenance and equipment to keep a course in good shape. It takes a lot of equipment for the player. Green's fees aren't cheap. This already segments the population. Second, it takes a lot of time. 4 to 5 hours. Maybe a bit less if you are good. This means you have to be able to take the time away to do it. This also makes it a great game for doing sales or business discussion. There is a lot of downtime for that and you get isolated time with your customer. That's valuable.",
"This thread reminds me of a Business School elective, called simply Business Golf. Sounded like the perfect class. Later to find out, we had to meet three times a week for a 8am tee time, plus an hour lecture. About 8 hours a week total. It helped my swing and learned some cool history about the sport and business deals as a result. The game essentially is slow-paced, yet competitive. The sport is accessible to a wide age group, and, with the \"handicap\" systems, allows people of wide skill level to play together. Ideal for networking and communication of ideas. Golf is also an amazing way of judging character. Over 18 holes or 9 even, the real traits of people can be noticed. Like do they cheat a bit, do they have an agenda, how are they under pressure, how they talk about there personal lives etc.... Plus its fun, and the perfect excuse to get out of the stresses of office/home. I remember reading a study that business leaders who play golf make about 15% more money. So it may be worth a couple lessons.",
"You don't need to be athletic or physically fit to play it. It's a hobby that anyone can have.",
"The reason it is great for business talk is you can learn a great deal from how someone plays. Do they rush into the drive or take practice swings? Do they cheat? Etc. This is really helpful when deciding to do business with someone.",
"A lot of answers here confuse causation and correlation. Golf can be pricey, and that does lend a certain level of exclusivity. But rich people play it cuz its fun, not cuz its expensive. The fact that you might get some privacy and exclusivity is only an added benefit. Golf can be (almost) free. There are municipal golf and putting ranges all over the world. Run by the county or state, its not going to be as amazing as a private run golf course, but that goes without saying. Cities and towns provide free swimming pools too, but they cannot compare to even a small private pool for awesomeness factor. A lot of the answers here also talk about the socialness of golf. You can take a client out, talk sales, drink a little, and make sales and partnerships. All while having a fun and competitive time. This kind of captive client is perfect for salespeople, and business folk alike. SOooo, there's a built in wealth factor there too.",
"The greens fees and equipment are expensive, the physical exertion is low such that virtually anybody can play even into older age, and there is a lot of down time, walking, etc. that allows for chatting, doing business, etc."
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5tigcb | Why does looking at somebody else's wounds or injuries cause me to feel disgusted/uncomfortable? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Part of it is that people are gross, but most of it from a psychological perspective has to do with empathy and sympathy. We don't want ourselves to get hurt, and that manifests as physical discomfort when we see others hurt, sometimes to the point of screaming, crying, vomiting, or fainting. Besides that, a useful reference for feelings of disgust is the movie “Inside Out,” where it's explained that disgust keeps the body safe, like when Riley won't eat broccoli. She's disgusted and repelled because it smells bad, and the body wants to be as sure as possible that bad smells aren't harmful."
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5tiprs | Why in the solar system planets are so different from each other? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The solar system is broadly speaking split into 5 distinct parts or layers, and all have their origins in how we believe stars form in the first place. Galaxies are full of dust and debris left over from gigantic star supernova that happened millions or billions of years ago. Sometimes that dust gets excited and begins to clump together. Seeing as the vast majority of the material is Hydrogen and Helium, the central clump eventually becomes a Star. Once enough Hydrogen and Helium condenses into a point, the star 'Ignites' and begins undergoing fusion, this is the first layer of our star system. Once the star 'Ignites' there is still a fairly large amount of material left over, most of it is still gas but there's a lot of Oxygen, Silicon, Aluminium, Iron etc. left around as well. This material is also condensing in towards the new star, and because of the way angular momentum works this material ends up forming a large flat disk. However the star is very hot, and is throwing off a strong 'solar wind' (charged particles streaming out from the star). These two factors combine to push away most of the remaining lighter elements (Hydrogen and Helium) that were left over. Over time the only material left near the star itself is made up of heavier elements, which then themselves that condensing into objects. This is how we believe the inner rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) formed. This is the second layer. The third layer is the asteroid belt, which is roughly speaking the boundary between the inner and outer planets. There are a few theories as to why this belt exists where it does, one of the leading theories is that it contains the same rocky material that formed the inner planets but never condensed into an actual planet because of the intense gravity from Jupiter messing it up. The Fourth layer is the outer gas giants. Remember earlier I said heat and solar wind blasted away a lot of the lighter Hydrogen and Helium material? This is where it ended up. All that leftover gas and other trace materials ended up condensing into the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and their respective moons. The fifth and final layer is the Kuiper belt and by extension the Oort cloud at the edges of our star system. These areas are home to Pluto and many other dwarf planets, and other icy and rocky materials. This material was too far away to be pulled inwards into the rocky planets but still close enough to be caught in the Sun's overall gravity, albeit on millenia long orbits.",
"Notice how most of the outer planets like Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus are gas giants? And how inner planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are Jovian (rocky) planets? It's because the densest objects with the highest mass, like minerals, are drawn closer to a source of gravity like the Sun. Objects of lower density like gassy planets don't have enough mass to be attracted any closer. Although it's not entirely gassy planets on the outside, look at the Kuiper belt and Pluto. They may be Jovian bodies, but they're too small to be attracted closer."
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5tiptk | Why are there always chunks of rubber on the side of the highway? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Truck tires are often retreaded and they are under a lot of stress. Sometimes the tread separates from the belts of the tire."
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5tiybk | How is it that animals in the wild are able to eat hooves, beaks, bones and other 'hard' body parts with seemingly little to no effect? | I've seen documentaries of snakes, seals, whales even some spiders chomping away certain animals whole with fur, horns and everything and just casually walk away. Yet I struggle to swallow a carrot that hasn't been peeled. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Most animals can't eat that stuff and it will be left by the first group of predators and scavengers. Others will swallow it but it will be passed undigested through the system. Others will bite and chew it to expose as much of the surface so that special enzymes and acids can digest it."
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5tiyui | How come when someone has a very bad cold, they feel even worse at night? | This has always been the case for me yet I can't understand why it happens. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I think because you've be up all day already and your body needs rest. I find I'll feel about the same if I lay in bed and sleep all day, but if I go to work and then come back in much worse than I had been."
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5tj6ie | Why are there so many available opportunities to learn to code for free online? | It seems like everyone is on board with coding to be a universally free and easily accessed thing. How is the market not being saturated, and the coders not outraged the skill that makes them valuable is so easily obtainable. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You can learn the basics pretty easy, but getting good is hard and takes a lot of work. Most people aren't willing to put in the effort.",
"Learning the basics of programming in general, and becoming comfortable with some popular languages is not difficult. It's an excellent hobby to pick up and I would highly encourage everyone who even thinks that they might be interested in it to try it out. Mastering programming on the other hand requires an extreme amount of dedication, thousands of hours of studying, and a particular mindset that many people simply do not have. Nowhere in the scientific and technical universe is the phrase \"the devil is in the details\" more true than it is in computing. Those details are scarcely covered in brief online tutorials, they're found in thousand+ page reference books. A particular memory corruption problem may only be resolved by consulting the following: 1. A programming language's formal grammar, and 2. An operating system's ABI's specification, and 3. A compiler's architecture backend documentation, and 3. A microarchitecture's optimization guide A master computer engineer capable of reconciling all of those is worth a million self-taught python code monkeys. Out of those million self-taught python code monkeys, a handful might become respectable POSIX C gurus. However, without easily accessible online resources, those millions drop down to thousands and the field regresses to the underground days of the 1980s. Most veteran programmers, myself included, are more than happy to spend time helping the adventurous without any expectation of compensation. We do it because we've been there, we've spent hours tracing execution, we've spent days trying to hunt down seemingly inexplicable bugs, we've spent months working on projects just so that we can show them off to others, and we've spent years mastering our trade by learning from those who were willing to take the time to teach us.",
"Speaking as a coder, I simply don't see things that easy. Coding was a hobby. A fun set of puzzles to learn to understand. The fact that I make a living off it is a bonus. But I do make a decent living. Money isn't the only currency that matters. As I said, I'm getting plenty of that. The sense of helping, or of showing of my skills and knowledge is also valuable to me. I like sharing my knowledge. Other people like receiving my knowledge. The other aspect its that people will generally follow implicit societal rules from everyone else. I help others because it's the culture. I know full well that if I have a tricky problem in computer vision, or another specialised area, I can ask, and someone else will help me for exactly the same reason."
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5tj7wx | Why are soccer player so notorious for faking injuries | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"To waste time (extra time doesn't cover all of wasted time), to draw a foul to get their team the ball, or to try to slow down the momentum of the other team.",
"Let me try to give you a more complete answer. **1) It wastes time.** As /u/RapidsBVR said, faking an injury can waste a good time. One of the main differences between football and other sports is that in football, the clock doesn't stop running when the game stops. It's added in the extra time, sure, but it's rare that a match gets more than 4 minutes of extra time in each half. If your team is winning (specially against a stronger team), you want to spend every minute you can. **2) It can result in precious fouls.** If you're watching a match on television, from a high point of view, it can be easy to tell when it's a foul or not. When you're the referee, it can be a bit more complicated. You have players in front of you, bad angles, etc. Something that, on TV, seems a clear fake injury, from the referee's point of view can seem the clearest and meanest foul in the history of football. **3) To communicate with the coach.** A lot of times, the easiest way to communicate a new decision with the team is to sign to a player to fake an injury, then ask the massagist to deliver a message. Source: Brazilian",
"We're just in the midst of a phase in football, that's all. As soon as camera assisted decisions become commonplace (similar to American football), it just won't make sense for the players to keep playing these dumb time consuming games. The only thing holding it back is politics (aka money) And we've seen the positive change that goal line cameras have had. Both fans and players wouldn't mind frequent short stops to the game (even broadcasters would jump at an opportunity to create more single-ad breaks) if it means getting better calls. What you'll probably see is a huge drop in fake falls and the game would just keep going.",
"Because it works and because it easier to notice when they do it. If a soccer player exaggerates contact, they can draw a foul, which is to the advantage of their time. If they roll around on the ground clutching their knee, it makes the contact look that much worse. This happens in other sports, too. However, soccer has no time stoppage (except for halftime) and you can't freely substitute. That means after a failed flop a soccer player has to go from writhing in agony to a full run, making them look kind of stupid. A flopping basketball player can limp the bench and come back in a minute, preserving their dignity."
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5tj8jp | In the US at least, why do bedding materials have tags that say it's illegal for anyone but the consumer to remove said tag? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because it contains consumer information that the supply chain is required to deliver to the consumer. The best way to do that for a mattress is to put it on a tag that nobody in the supply chain can legally remove."
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5tj9fg | What causes gum to lose flavor and why do some guns lose flavor quicker than others? | Rip, phone autocorrected gums to guns! | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are lots of things that disolve out of gum quickly: sugar, certain flavorings, etc. Jucy fruit, for example, is sugar sweetened and it's primary flavorant is water soluble, so the flavor disappears down your throat. On the other hand, mint gums are flavored with menthol, methyl salicylate, spearmint oil, or something along those lines. Those are all oily and don't disolve well. So, they stick around."
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5tja6l | Why is it when you way oversleep, you get a headache? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You might be dehydrated. The longer you sleep, the longer you're going without water. Also, you might be over sleeping because you're sick."
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5tjbdu | Why does a lullaby ease a baby to sleep? | I get acoustic music is soothing. But what about Harps, Pianos and xylophones make babies fall asleep? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I always sang my son Elvis songs, or just softened versions of rock songs (usually 80s). I think it's the same as when you speak to an animal, they don't understand your words they understand your tone."
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5tjbeh | How do generative Artificial Neural Networks work? (AI that "imagines" images) | I have recently seen a [video]( URL_0 ) that blew my mind - ANN algorithm generates an image from text description. And then another algorithm increases it's resolution and makes it almost photorealistic. And then there was the whole deep art thing. Can you explain how these things work? I'm talking specifically about generative ANNs, not ANNs in general. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's very hard to explain a neural network in simple terms. But I'll try my best. I'll have to explain the basics of ANNs in general, though. A neural network works just like the neurons in our brain - actually, the neurons on our brain **are** a huge neural network. Artificial Neural Networks are the digital version of that. A **neuron** is a cell that receives multiple inputs from other cells, and based on those inputs, outputs something. These inputs have **weights** - some inputs affect the outcome more than others. The neuron basically takes the sum of all the values multiplicated by all the weights, and puts the result into a **windowing function** - a function that takes the value and spits out a number between 0 and 1, or -1 and 1. ANNs can also have multiple **layers** of neurons - that means the output of a neuron goes to the input of other neurons ahead of it, and so on. Now this is the part of a neural network that's hard to believe - you can train it to recognize or generate pretty much anything. Just like your brain can learn anything, the learning algorithms in an ANN can train it to do anything - but that requires an enormous amount of CPU time and data. By tweaking around the weights of all of the neurons using a very special algorithm, the ANN can learn to produce better and better results. Now obviously, an ANN works with just a bunch of numbers. That means you sometimes have to pre-process and post-process your data - by assigning names to certain numbers, for example. And now about generative ANNs: Just like we can learn how to paint photorealistic pictures if we train hard enough, a generative ANN can learn to generate images based on descriptions or other images. But the way we generate an image using an ANN is a bit weird - instead of putting parameters to generate an image, we put in an image (which can be white noise, for instance) and use the generated description to tweak the image pixels, so that the description generated by the ANN is closer and closer to the description we expect. And how do we train it? Simple, just put images into it and adjust the weights so that the description is correct."
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5tjcyh | Why does soap smell good but taste bad? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are a few reasons, but in my opinion one of the main reasons has to do with evolution. Many things found in nature that are alkaline (having a pH higher than 7) are poisonous to humans so naturally we have evolved to find these tastes repulsive. Since soap is highly alkaline, it tastes bitter."
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5tjfdk | Why do our stomachs hurt more from eating sugary food as we get older? | It seems like a downgrade to me. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"ddmztfp",
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"Not sure this is true. I'm 45 and am a sugar addict. It's poisoning me for sure, but doesn't hurt my belly when I eat lots of it.",
"This is not normal. There is no reason sugary food should hurt your stomach, nor should it be related to age. You might want to ask your doctor."
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5tjjhv | How does ethernet over power work? | Those devices that plug into wall outlets and extend a LAN through the wall outlets. How exactly do they work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Normal ethernet works using several pairs of wires in a single cable. Each pair forms part of a circuit that can be used to send data via an electrical signal. Sending an ethernet signal through a single pair of power lines requires combining the signals from multiple pairs into a single signal with multiple channels, or using only a single pair of ethernet lines. This requires an adapter of some sort and you can generally expect poor performance compared to regular ethernet cables.",
"It's a [modem]( URL_0 ). It takes ethernet packets, and converts them into an analog signal, then transmits them over the power network in your house, and possibly to your neighbors. URL_1",
"Ethernet over Power literally works by sending over the data from the Ethernet network into your power lines using signal modulation. That may sound weird, but multiple signals can be transmitted over the same wire without interfering with each other. It's how Cable TV works. And the power wires in your house are reliable enough for that. The EOP signal is of a very high frequency, in the range of gigahertz, while the electricity is a 50Hz/60Hz signal, so any power application just ignores the EOP signal as it doesn't interfere with anything - even if it were to, a simple passive filter on the equipment's power supply easily gets rid of it, and that's basically commonplace in electronics design. The repeater, however, is able to tap into the high-frequency signal, demodulate it, and transmit the data over the wireless network. By the same principle it transmits the received data back to the router."
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5tjkg1 | Why do the pictures NASA releases to the public look like CGI? | I always notice that NASA releases photos and they almost always looks like CGI planets rather than real ones. Why is this? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Part of it is because space lacks reflections. Really good CGI makes great effort to map all of the light sources and reflections in a scene. And I don't mean just mirrored reflections, but also the way light bounces off a wall and interacts with something like a couch. And there is also light from the adjacent room hitting that couch. So to make a realistic CGI couch, you have to model how different types of light hit the couch from dozens of angles. But in pictures of planets, there is usually only one light source: the Sun. So just like CGI modeling a couch with only one light source will look \"fake\", a real rock in space tends to look fake with only one light source. It is actually pretty easy to create a convincing asteroid in a 3d modeling program like Blender. But a realistic couch? That's hard.",
"A lot of NASA images are color enhanced because most of the light is outside our visual spectrum. There's also that if the images are from planets outside of the solar system then they are CGI artist impressions/speculations about what the planet might look like.",
"It's also worth noting that many space probes don't carry the cameras we use day to day. The cameras they carry are tuned for capturing particular types of light, which provides an image more useful to scientists studying the planet (just like how document copiers make really high contrast copies - useless for regular photos but makes text more readable). As a result the images we see are either the wrong colour (colour shifted or showing colours we can't normally see) or artificially enhanced to try and make them the colours we would see (which is a difficult process).",
"Film production designer here. Everyone else has already answered your question, but I thought I'd add one small bit of trivia, that is somewhat obvious but still manages to trick even me. As NASA photos are the primary and key detail reference source for all sci-fi films and animation, they end up being composites and merged with concept materials for every part sci-fi and fantasy technology. Anything from a Megatron's elbow joint to a space-age toaster may have been in some way shaped or modeled in part to resemble a physical piece of actual space tech. As we are now very used to seeing CGI massive robots, UFOs, Starfighter, and superheroes in space we make the assumption that the CGI is attempting to look as real as possible. This however is not true. Which is where the other answers in this sub step in. The way light lands in space is stranger than fact, and if animators aimed to match it perfectly it would not look \"right\" with our perception of what it should look like. So animators (and colourists) maintain a \"realer than real\" approach, by using three point lighting, fill lights, reflected ambience and haze to add atmosphere. These make the shots more visually stimulating, and also help intercut with incamera shots. In short by making it less real, we as an audience can relate on a natural/shallow/primal level to what we are seeing. This inturn leads to us seeing actual photos of real moon rocks, being hit by the actual sun (at a very difference distance to what we see on earth) as being ... well... wrong. Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Hope it was interesting.",
"[Example]( URL_0 ) [Images]( URL_1 ) of what OP is likely refering to.",
"The \"cameras\" NASA has often do not work like normal cameras, i.e. they might record infrared, UV, even x-ray or radio spectrum. This depends on what they want to measure. There are also cameras for the visible spectrum, but those are not that interesting from the physics point of view, so NASA usually puts in other measurements technologies into their probes. The raw data then is sent back home and scientifically analysed. In that process, the raw data is worked on, and people basically decide what is a) most useful for science or b) what looks the \"most\" close to what it would look in RL. And you also have c) how do you represent a infrared image in visible colours for displaying? If you have an gamma ray spectrum of a sun, how do you represent that as \"visible image\"? If you have a massive nebula that you only \"see\" because of absorbed infrared from a planet behind it, how do you visually represent that data? If we went there, we'd - with our eyes - see nothign at all. Those cases come with a lot of artistic freedom. So, in short, NASA imagines often look \"photoshopped\" because... they are. This does not take away their scientific accuracy."
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5tjp47 | - Since the Earth's moon has little to no atmosphere: then the imprints from the moon landings in the 1960s should be intact! Would it be possible to take a picture of the moon large enough it could be seen? | Kind of like this: URL_0 | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"from earth? I think not. the atmosphere would obscure too much for such a picture. from orbit? its theoretically possible but implausible. we have pictures of the landing sites from a moon orbiter, but the resolution is probably a bit worse than what we see in google earth, you can see their tracks, but definitely not individual footprints."
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5tjskw | Why is the range of AM radio stations longer at night? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"During the day, there's an upper layer of the atmosphere called the \"Ionosphere D Layer\". The D layer is a very good absorber of low frequency signals (such as AM broadcast bands at 550Khz to 1600Khz). As the sun goes down, the D layer of the ionosphere dissipates and all that is left is the F-layer. The F-layer is much higher up in the sky and is much more reflective for signals in that AM frequency range. This is why most AM stations change patterns and/or reduce power at night. The increased propagation also increases the likelyhood of interference with co-channel users."
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5tjskx | why dont distribution companies make deals with amazon prime or netflix to show all their movies and tv shows and at least make some profit when the alternative of pirating is readily available? | pretty much what the title says, why not have everything available on Netflix and Amazon Prime which can give them some profit, especially considering that if its not on Netflix or Amazon Prime, then people will pirate without any worry and they lose all profits in that way | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Buying things piece by piece is always more expensive than buying things all together. Netflix would love to have a deal where they get everything from NBC. But NBC makes more money licensing each show separately. So they do and they can because they own the rights to the shows they created. As for pirating, it hurts some shows (like Game of Thrones), but most shows that Netflix or other similar services don't want to spend the money to license aren't going to be in high demand for pirating either."
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5tjva8 | Okay, so most of our bodies are covered in fine hairs. But why have the tops of our heads, armpits, and genital regions evolved to have more hair? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Armpits and groin hair catch pheromones. We have an unconscious attraction to the scent of the opposite sex. Top of the head is probably just for display. Just like some birds have flashy feathers, we have hair. Considering how much attention a persons hair can get...a good question would be which set of hair is more effective at attracting mates.",
"Lubrication. It may sound disgusting, but in fact hair in your armpit and crotch help relieve some of the attrition you would have with bare skin/skin contact. Moreover, those are very sensitive areas where the skin is delicate, so hair protects it from rubbing against other skin as well as against our clothes. That's also why full epilation is not that good for you."
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5tjvqy | Why is having a trade deficit or a fiscal deficit bad? | It seems like it's always talked about but it's not like having it grow so much has ever truly affected the American economy. Small nations have gone bankrupt like Greece but does it really matter for the big economies? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It isn't. [Here is a poll of ivy league level economics professors on the subject]( URL_2 ) This is one of the most egregious areas of ignorance of the President, your average sophmore economics student knows this. The trade balance is the result of capital flows (the difference between savings and investment in an economy). A trade deficit, for instance, can be caused by a large influx of foreign investment, which is a good thing because investment increases economic growth and long run income for an economy. It can also be bad too though. For instance, your savings rate can drop and this has a similar effect (lower investment and growth) So as you can see, it is not the deficit itself which is good or bad but the factors behind it which make it good or bad. These things both lead to fluctuations in the real exchange rate which is the mechanism with which it leads to an effect in the trade balance. In recessions it can be beneficial to have a weak dollar because it boosts aggregate demand and the trade balance. However, we are certainly not in one now. This also has the effect of decreasing purchasing power of consumers. A strong dollar does the opposite. The interesting thing is tariffs and quotas, which Trump is supporting, do not alter the trade deficit at all in the long run! The reason why they don't is they don't alter capital flows. [You can read this piece by an economist who won his nobel prize in economics for his work in international economics]( URL_1 ). All they do is hurt the economy of both nations. A VERY good parable by an economist gives an excellent way of thinking about international trade: [The Iowa Car Crop]( URL_0 ). For simplicity, that parable only talks about the flow of goods but it's point remains the same once you include capital flows. So why do we have a trade deficit? 1. We have a lot of foreign investment (good) 2. Low savings (bad) 3. Status as the world's reserve currency (neither good or bad really strictly speaking from an economics point of view, similar to the trade deficit) So when you hear \"we should do something about the trade deficit\" you should be OK with it as long as the proposed solution is something like incentivizing savings. If it's something thats going to hit investment or the free flow of goods and capital in of itself, say no."
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"http://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/trade-balances"
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5tk3y4 | Saltwater Aquariums are so delicate - so how do these animals survive in the wild? | Saltwater aquariums are so beautiful - but most people can't be bothered with the maintenance on them. You have to balance your perimeters *just so,* check them daily as minor fluctuations can harm your fish... And then you could look at the damn thing too hard and everything goes to shit and your $500+ worth of fish are dead. How in the hell do these delicate little snowflakes survive in the trash pit that is the ocean? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There's a lot of ocean. It's hard to actually change the conditions because there's so much of it (pollution diffuses across the entirety of the ocean). On the other hand... it also is a demonstration that ecosystems are actually quite fragile. And that's why we have exterminated so many species and pushed so many into a death spiral....",
"In the wild, a hard rain can change the conditions of fresh water pretty quickly. Freshwater fish have evolved to have changes in Ph or an immediate 2-3 degree drop in temperature fir example. In the ocean, there is so much water that ut is actually very difficult to change the temperature or Ph in a given region. Certain Sea life (like Reef animals) have not evolved to adapt to rapidly fluctuating conditions. Think of how much rain it would take to drop a river 1 degree. Now think of how much you would need to drop an ocean 1 degree."
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5tkbwl | How did mankind learn to make (what we now consider easy) stuffy like bread and beer? | Did someone just stumble across somehow mixing the correct quantity of ingredients and then applying a correct amount of heat for an exact amount of time or was there the equivalent of scientists back in the day just trying to make stuff? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Baby steps. \"hey, we can turn wheat into dust, that makes it easier to store!\" \"if we mix flour with water we get this gruel, this is easier to eat than dust\" \"whoops, I left my gruel on the fire. Wait, this is pretty good!\"",
"Trial and error Soda pop ( Coca-Cola ) started off as a cough syrup However we think of people in the old days as being Dumber than us today. And that simply isn't true. Case and point: the Egyptians built the pyramids with a flat Foundation using water and irrigation then drain the water. We still use that technology today but instead of water we use lasers I can go on all day but this is best if you do your own study on Ancient Technologies. It's really amazing how smart people was so long ago",
"Recorded history doesn't go back that far, so we just have to guess. Fire goes back to homo habilis 100s of thousands of years ago. That's a lot of time. You have to expect that people tried stuff. The whole of recorded human history is only like 5% of that much time, and look at how much has been developed. It wasn't formal science though. The concepts weren't there. People figured things out and taught their kids, but they didn't know why things happened one way or another."
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5tklx8 | What makes us forget what we were literally about to say? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Our brains are poor data-storage and retrieval devices because it didn't make the difference between life and death in the food chain. Consider all of the things that *did* make the difference and look how well developed they are: - You have excellent front-facing colour vision that can quickly adapt between high and low light environments. - You can tell where sounds are around you because you have excellent spacial-awareness and audio positioning. - You have opposable thumbs for gripping things delicately. And associated well-refined muscle groups for manipulation, allowing you to craft tools and get the most out of your food. - In an endurance race, you can out run nearly *all* other animals on planet earth. - You have built in parental instincts that make you want to nurture something with a cute face and large eyes, because it incentives us to protect our offspring. - You have built in senses of revulsion to things that look diseased, rotted or otherwise wrong to stop you from consuming it and becoming ill. - You have a lack of hair on your body to make parasites easier to detect. - When another human vommits you feel compelled to do the same to preemptively flush out the same poison. Complex conversations with other apes however? For hundreds of thousand of years, nobody ever died because they took 2-3 seconds to remember the name of that thing they saw once. So it wasn't all that high on evolutions *things to adapt* list."
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5tkm9g | Why does the Moon get hit by space debris much more frequently than Earth? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It doesn't, but because it has no atmosphere every rock that hits it makes it all the way to the surface. Lots more hit Earth but most burn up.",
"Most of it are smaller fragments. Which would burn in the atmosphere if Moon had one. A lot of stuff falls on Earth too, but it burns up in the atmosphere."
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5tkqpx | what is going on at a molecular/atomic scale when I touch something? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Due to Pauli exclusion principle two electron cant have the same state, ever. If you get your finger atoms close enough to a solid, electrons from your atoms cannot be in the same orbital as the ones of the solid, so while pushing on them, you experience a repulsive force between them. So for real, you cannot really touch anything because atoms repel each other.",
"The electrons in the object you are \"touching\" are repelling the electrons in your hand. It is possible to overcome these forces, but fortunately you are not capable of generating the required heat and/or pressure. So at that scale you get *really* close to the other object but never actually touch it. edit: Punctuation"
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5tksxt | Why can you "brick" phones so easily, but not computers? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Bricking generally means making completely unusable at the hardware level. The reason that computers rarely get bricked is that we RARELY do any manipulation of the computer at the hardware level. To brick a computer, you would need to break the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) which pretty much no one non-techy messes with. If you break windows, you can still reinstall windows. If you break the BIOS, you can hose things pretty quickly. The other aspect is that even with the BIOS, I can't think of ANYONE who would be messing around with the BIOS without using the official manufacturer's files. Most of the time you're messing with phones, you are doing so with custom firmware/ROM's, which means something made by someone other than the manufacturer. If you're flashing your BIOS, you're almost always going to be doing it with something provided (and quality controlled, tested, etc) by the company who made the product. So it comes down to two factors: 1) for computers, you generally don't tinker at such a deep level that you're going to risk bricking it 2) Even if you are messing at that level, you're not doing anything that is not officially approved of by the manufacturer. The final aspect is the fact that it's relatively easy to replace a computer (especially a desktop) part. If something in your phone breaks, 90% of us are just going to give up because it's so hard to replace. Most of the stuff that's likely to go bad is also easily replaced/substituted. I fried my sound card on one of my desktops a few months back, and for $10 I just plugged in a new sound card. If I killed the speaker on my phone, I'd say fuck it and just buy a new phone.",
"You actually can brick a computer if you manage to turn it off during a bios update for example. Android has something similiar to computers bios, called OEM bootloader. It is being run before the operating system, just like bios in computer. The thing is, if you want to replace the operating system in your computer, you do not need to replace or do anything at all with your bios. Bios by default allows you to boot from usb or cd/dvd and so you can judt install the OS freely. This is not true for android, most android phones are OEM locked, and their modloader often also disables ability to access recovery mode, which allows you to flash custom OS, just like booting in your computer. Here is the key part, you as an user, have by default full access to your computer as an administrator (you can install whatever program you want, do whatever you want with your pc, you can even overclock your processor), but for your phone you do not have administrator rights , so you are limited to the OS ans settings set to you by the company . To bypass this and gain full control of your phone, you need to do something called rooting a phone. Rooting can be dangerous as it most of the time takes replacing the bootloader. If you fail to replace the bootloader properly, you brick your phone, as it is unable to start even the loading process before OS. This is a hard brick. Soft brick is when the OS you flashed (installed) is broken and the bootloader can not load it, you can still just flash another.",
"PCs are built with openness in mind. Meaning on a PC you can install different OSs, boot from different media, install different hardware and so on. It's all under the users control and if you screw things up, you just boot from a USB stick or DVD and recover easily. PCs are meant to be tinkered with and handle accidents well. Even for accidents in the mids of a BIOS upgrade many mainboards have ways to recover from that. Phones, tablets and game consoles are the complete opposite, they are locked down so that the user has little to no control about what is going on. Meaning a lot of tinkering has to happen in areas that the manufacturer didn't intent to be tinkered with or actively tried to prevent tinkering in. This means the tinkerer is walking a minefield and any error might put the device into an unrecoverable state. All of this is not an accident, but by design. If manufacturers wanted to, they could make phones as easy to recover as a PC by letting the user boot from SDcard or access the internal flash storage via USB. Case in point, many bricked PSP could be recovered after people found out that booting from the memory card was possible via a modified battery. The feature was there all along, but not documented by Sony to prevent hacking. Another issue is that even if the device allows you to recover, you would still need the data to put on the device to recover it. On a PC you have Windows install discs, Linux distributions and all that readily available to reinstall on a blank device. Getting the OS image for your phone might not be that easy. To make things further more complicated, the ecosystem around those devices is not standardized and discoverable, which makes it hard to create software that works across different devices. A Linux distribution will work on essentially any PC, but you can't make a Linux distribution that will work as easily on every phone as all the hardware around ARM varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.",
"As others have mentioned you can brick a motherboard if you try hard enough. When I was a kid, I flashed a BIOS upgrade onto my dads machine, except I accidentally flashed the file for almost the same version (think XXXXX+ vs XXXXX Pro or similar) - and it totally let it flash, and upon rebooting, the machine was dead. So I panicked, because like, it's my dads PC right and he's not going to understand what I was trying to do, he's just going to be mad. And I can't afford to buy a device to reflash the chip, nor did I have any idea how to make one, at the time. But then I remembered my machine had the exact same motherboard, and took a look and, yay, the chip was removable. So I ask a bunch of random people on IRC if it would be sane/possible to boot my machine, get it all ready to flash the correct firmware, then while the machine is on, pull out the BIOS chip and replace it with the dead one, and flash it from the system that's already booted. This seemed to make sense to me, but they all told me it was stupid and would break the other one. (I've since found out that, obviously, I did not invent this idea, but hey I was really young, when you're young you came up with everything first) Desperate kids will do anything an adult tells them not too, though, so I did it anyway and it worked. Didn't get hit with a belt that day! : >",
"The TL;DR is that messing with your phone happens on a lower level than messing with your computer. For context, imagine if you suddenly had to start flashing a custom bios because the manufacturer made it so it could only run their flavor of Windows 10.",
"phones have good reasons to mess around with the hardware code - since they put in stupid things that prevent you from doing things that you want and that the device is capable of, and its pretty much a requirement to fiddle around with the OS computers there just isnt a good reason to. you dont need to do anything to the bios in order to install different OS versions and there are no real benefits that i can think of even as a techy. ive flashed a bios once and it was with software the company provided me. years of tech experience and it only required it once... but ive flashed every phone i had. i really dont think its that easy to brick a phone. ive never bricked one and every problem i ran into while flashing it was fixable. i think alot of the time its people just getting confused and throwing in the towel rather than them actually bricking it",
"we live in a consumerist world and that means companies wont work together any more than they have to in order to maintain market dominance. **Phones can be almost if not entirely \"in house\"** phones are designed to be \"good enough\" so that they can be produced as soon, volumed, and cheap as possible =the components are designed to be entirely dependant on each other with very few if any redundancies. **Computers are less \"in house\"** computers are typically made by multiple companies often that compete with each other[phones also but to a lower degree] or simply by people like you and me SO because of this in order to keep a product relevant PC parts are by nature designed to be more robust and reliable because the components are designed for a much wider compatibility = less dependant on specific archetectures. Also its simply alot easier to replace components in a PC than in a phone because a PC doesnt need to fit in your pocket. **tl;dr:** phones sacrifice redundancy for convenience, pcs do the opposite.",
"The real answer is that you *could* easily design a phone that was very easy to customize and very difficult to brick just like a computer. The reason this doesn't happen is that the cell network operators (who are the main customer of the phone manufacturers) don't want you customizing your phone. It is intentionally difficult to modify the phone. You must break through the manufacturer security to modify things. Cracking a device to do something it wasn't supposed to inherently comes with risk of breaking it. Computers are in a completely different market where customizability is important, especially to business and government customers. Expect computers for the consumer market to drift towards to difficult to customize end of the spectrum.",
"It really is fairly hard to brick a phone. You still have to make a stupid mistake. But Android phones have 3 partitions they can boot from (fastboot, recovery, and system). Mess up all 3 and you have a brick. Computers can boot from the CD/USB drive as well as internal, you the only way to brick it is to mess up the BIOS (that screen that flashes before Windows starts booting). Which normal users don't touch. The BIOS is what tells the computer where to look for something to boot, and as others have posted, it is possible to update the BIOS and if you turn it off or somehow try to use an incompatible motherboard's firmware, bad things can happen. But newer motherboards have a recovery BIOS too, so those would be really hard to brick.",
"There are only 2 ways a computer can be \"bricked\" : 1. The BIOS can be corrupted 2. A piece of hardware can fail, whether due to mechanical damage (you slipped with a screwdriver while tinkering) or failure due to wear out/manufacturing defect. Either way, the fix is the same. For a desktop computer, you just identify the component that broke, order a replacement, and pop it in. The only form of failure that can cause permanent inconvenience is when the hard drive fails and you don't have a backup. If you messed up the BIOS, worst case scenario you can just replace the motherboard. Some motherboards put the BIOS on a socketed chip you can replace. These days, many motherboards actually have at least 2 copies of the BIOS - some let you switch to the other copy of the BIOS via a jumper, or more commonly these days, there's a bios you cannot alter that will kick in if the main one fails to boot or if you push a recovery button shortly after power on.",
"Even if you \"brick\" a computer you only basically ruin the motherboard. The rest of your computer is perfectly fine, and all you would need to do is replace that component. Phones aren't repairable in that sense.",
"Many motherboards have dual BIOS. So even if you screw one up you can boot into the other. I can understand why Apple doesn't do the same as their all about iron fisted control over THEIR ecosystem but it does make you wonder why premium handsets on Android don't offer such a feature, whats Samsung et al interest in protecting Googles ecosystem?",
"How to brick your PC easy.. 1] Attempt to flash GPU with bad BIOS code, especially if its graphic card without backup BIOS [there are some that feature double BIOS, but dont worry its possible to brick them too]. Especially dangerous can be \"unlocking\" BIOS that gives either new functionality or tries to unlock unused parts of GPU. That can actually end really nasty way. 2] Any BIOS flash of motherboard can end same way, especially if it contains some unsafe tweaks or wrong default voltage. 2v into vCore = dead CPU. 3] Try to flash anything and get power shortage. Or just turn off PC. 4] Do unsafe badly cooled overclocking. Reality is that you can brick your PC [or parts of it] very easily, if you not careful in what you do. But it applies only to ppl trying OC or flashing stuff. Experienced people usually dont brick em and general public has no idea what I just wrote [so they safe too]. In some aspects its same, if you flash your cellphone wrong way it dies, if you do same with PC components, they might die too. If you do it in really bad way, you can kill more than just one component. IMHO, read everything you can before you try anything risky with cellphone or your PC. I think it usually helps. **TL:DR - You can brick PC same way as cellphones, just most people dont try same things with PC as they do with cellphones, cause they lack knowledge or will to attempt it.** *Side note: Why you would try to flash BIOS in PC? Well, BIOS upgrades for one. Unlocking full CPU power for another. For example some time ago, you could buy cheap Xeon CPU [Intel server processors] and with simple BIOS flash unlock option to overclock it as easily as mainstream [expensive] CPUs from Intel. Obviously not many knew that, which is reason why I still see those CPUs being very cheap in store.. :D*",
"You can wreck a motherboard pretty easily if you go fundamentally changing the BIOS. I had a BIOS update go bad once. It took about 5 minutes to go from a happy beep telling me that an update was ready to \"shit, that was a $500 mistake.\"",
"PC manufacturers don't try to use the BIOS to lock end users out of their machine's functionality.",
"It is actually fairly easy to brick a computer if you're trying to. On a software level it would be tough, but not impossible, you can mod BIOS or some hardware code if you intend to. One time me and a girl were building computers in a shed and I explained how the term 'bug' came from bugs literally getting into circuit boards and frying them. Just then a large mosquito-hawk landed on the exposed motherboard and it fried the board and that forced a hard shut down, bricking the computer for all time.",
"ELI5 ANSWER: For phones installing OS and other tweaks generally write data to flash chips (I THINK THEY ARE ROM) to open up the hardware more, that if corrupted can be very hardhard/IMPOSSIBLE to reprogram (bricked). For pcs hardware is very open and you can pretty much install what you want with no hardware reprogramming. (FIRST ELI5)"
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5tkytu | What do americans use to meassure things smaller than inches? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"* 1 inch * 1/2 inch * 1/4 inch * 1/8 inch * 1/16 inch; almost every ruler goes at least this small * 1/32 inch; many rulers measure this small. This is 0.79375 mm"
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5tl03e | Why does society enjoy watching violence? | From gladiatorial shows in the Colosseum to modern day film it seems as a society we enjoy watching violence being inflicted upon others. Why is that? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"it's actually kinda basic, if you watch fight club you can see it through the messages the movie sends. It's just how humans work. It's a mix of morbid curiosity and interest to participate, humans somehow are naturally predisposed to violence, it could be a link to our primal years, where violence usually could solve many problems. so in summary, humans are just violent beings and many people for some reason or another are subconcuoisly drawn to violence."
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5tl2ar | why do movies and shows simulate phone/computer screens with poor quality apps rather than use the real thing? | Is it a copyright issue, or? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I shoot movies for a living and have shot countless phone and computer screens. Usually the screen is shot blank and the interface is placed in digitally for several reasons. For one, screens usually don't photograph well. Either they are too bright or too dim or they flicker or the color temperature isn't right. Two, it can be a pain in the ass to get the timing just right for the action. Try texting an actor on set or call a phone and have it ring at exactly the right moment. It rarely works perfectly and ends up wasting a lot of time. Three, the distributor will want to change the language to whatever market they sold it to. So if they sell it to Germany they often want a version with a German language on screen. So if we are going to digitally add a screen we need a designer to make one. If we are making one we might as well make it clear and easy to read. Why bother with distracting logos? The shots are usually a second or two long. You gotta be able to read it fast. Real interfaces often don't get the message across fast enough.",
"Licensing issues, and the fact that you need to emphasize the important stuff for the audience within the 2 seconds that the screen is in the shot. From licensing POV, it either costs significant money to show the real software, or the company doesn't want their product to be seen used by a serial killer, on in a certain situation, etc. Usually a bit of both. As for the other point, what will be noticed by the viewer more easily - a giant \"YOU'VE GOT MAIL!\" splash screen or a realistic notification somewhere in the corner of the screen?",
"Two reasons: 1) Trademark. Not copyright. Copyright covers expressions of original work like novels, screenplays, songs, paintings, photographs, etc., and protects the creator's rights. Trademark covers individuals words/images/designs that identify or distinguish a business and protect the business' rights. Any business (like a production company) that wants to use another business' trademark (like in a TV show or movie) needs to pay a licensing fee to the company that owns the trademark. Instead, they make up products and interfaces so they don't have trademark issues and don't have to pay licensing fees. It's the same reason that you see reality shows blurring logos on people's hats and shirts and what not. Blurring out the trademarks to avoid licensing fees. 2) With regards to computer/phone interfaces in particular, TV shows typically _have_ to use fake, mocked up interfaces because _real_ computers and phones [JUST. DON'T. DO THAT]( URL_0 ). EDIT: better video link",
"All the issues already cited, AND, most computer applications simply don't show up well on screen. Imagine trying to film this very Reddit page? There's a lot of visual clutter, with logos and ads and bolded words and greyed out words. The first thing that leaps out at me when I glance at this page is the big 37 POINTS (72% upvoted) on the right-hand side of the screen, above a Dell laptop ad. Those aren't the things a filmmaker would want to emphasize. So she'd make the text I'm typing now MUCH larger and bolder. She'd also make the headline much larger and bolder, and she probably get rid of almost everything else. That's why computer interfaces in movies and on TV always look kind of fake. But if they were totally realistic, they wouldn't convey any information to the viewer."
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5tl5mq | How do field drug tests return so many false positives? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Field drug tests are designed to be very cheap, and very easy for an amateur to use. Therefore they are not very *specific* -- that is, they just test whether the mystery substance reacts with one or two chemicals in a specific way. This makes it very likely that some *other* substance would also react in the same way. Imagine if you had to tell whether an animal was a horse, but you only got one or two specific questions. You'd end up getting a positive for zebras, ponies, donkeys... anything very much like a horse."
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5tl9bs | Where does the stereotype for "stupid" blondes come from and why? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There's an old saying: \"God gives with one hand, and takes with the other.\" The idea is that people generally have looks, or brains, but not both. Blondes are considered by some to be more attractive (\"Blondes have more fun\") so it's assumed they are not as intelligent. There's also the aspect of a lot of men being threatened by an intelligent woman/preferring a more \"docile\" or unchallenging but attractive one. A dumb blonde, that is to say someone who is attractive, but doesn't bring much else to the table has the connotation that it would be a good thing as a mate. So it becomes a stereotype to subtly indicate what is actually supposed to be desirable.",
"It came from Marilyn Monroe. In her acting career, she often portrayed a kind, beautiful, yet dumb blond. While the stereotype did exist on a smaller scale, first being used with blondes being a femme fatale in an old French play, Monroe made it widespread, with one if its most famous uses in \"The Seven Year Itch\".",
"The theory is that blondes are seen as more attractive, and therefore are indulged all the time, never required to exercise their minds."
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5tleao | Why do we get tired when we oversleep? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There is some bad science around here. It's true that waking up in the middle of your sleep cycle will make you feel groggy, but that really isn't the whole story, and as someone has already pointed out, doesn't explain grogginess at the end of the sleep cycle. And it happens every time you are woken up from deep sleep, not just when you've overslept. What's going on when you oversleep: throwing in an extra sleep cycle or two messes up your circadian rhythm, so your body has to spend a lot of resources trying to sync everything up again. That can make you feel kind of out of sorts or grumpy. There is also evidence that oversleeping messes up hormones and neurotransmitters, which also makes you feel groggy, as they also follow your circadian rhythm and are now out of sorts. Also: going without food or water for an extra hour doesn't explain what happens. If you are dehydrated to the point of confusion, that is a medical emergency. Humans aren't delicate flowers. There is evidence that not drinking coffee as early as your body expects it can throw you off. It's part of a phenomenon called \"weekend headache.\"",
"Sleep is a cycle. If you wake up in the wrong part of the cycle, you will probably be VERY groggy and slow to wake up. If you're sleeping outside of your normal pattern, your body doesn't know how to plan the cycles. So you actually wake up more tired than you would have if you had woken up earlier. Generally speaking, try to plan for ~90 minute intervals for sleep per cycle. So 7.5 hours of sleep would be more likely to have you waking up at the \"right\" time. 9 would be good as well. 8.25 is probably gonna leave you groggy, as would 10.",
"No comment in this thread explains it (and I'm wondering about it myself). Everyone talking about \"we don't wanna wake up in the middle of a cycle\" makes no sense. I'll just finish the cycle...",
"If im not mistaken, its because we re-enter the deep sleep stage which caused us to be sluggish, but when we wake up doing light sleep its more refreshing."
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5tlil9 | How did the middle finger gesture became offensive? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The story I heard (don't know how accurate this is) is that during the hundred years war the French would cut off the middle fingers of English longbowmen (thus removing their ability to fire a bow), and the middle finger gesture was a taunt to these archers who can't use their bows anymore. Edit: a word",
"The gesture, middle finger raised, back of the hand pointed at someone else, creates a shape that *sort of* resembles a penis, complete with testicles. The raised middle finger represents the shaft, and the index and ring finger next to it are supposed to be the testes. Think B==D - it's a crude representation, but everyone knows what it means. This usage is recorded as far back as the ancient Greeks. The posters mentioning the medieval archers are mistaken - The Finger far pre-dates the 2-finger rude gesture used in Britain. The current theory is the Romans picked it up from the Greeks and called it *digitus impudicus* (The indecent, offensive finger). The Romans eventually became the Italians, and Italian immigrants brought it to the US somewhere in the 1890s. Post WWII, as the US became big on the world scene, we've spread it to the rest of the world. From Wikiepedia: > \"In Greek the gesture was known as the katapygon (κατάπυγον, from kata – κατά, \"downwards\" and pugē – πυγή, \"rump, buttocks\"). In ancient Greek comedy, the finger was a gesture of insult toward another person, with the term katapugon also referring to \"a male who submits to anal penetration\"\" In short, 'The Finger' is literally waving a penis at someone. The implication is \"You can go fuck yourself\". In Greek, it had the bonus of implying, by pun, that someone took it up the ass. Very, very rude. 🖕",
"The middle finger is a phallic gesture. It is considered rude to show off the real thing, so the gesture is like \"look at this, ya tosser. This is wut yer mum likes.\""
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5tlkpy | Why is it still illegal to pump your own gas in some states, like New Jersey? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I find that it's more about keeping people in work. Here in Oregon it's illegal to pump your own gas (even though some people think they're sneaky about it), and knowing that you can keep people employed is great for a community's morale as well as helping stave off homelessness and gas fights like in Zoolander.",
"It generally comes down to jobs and money. Unions fought to have the jobs and keep them back in the day - by now they've used a lot of arguments like \"safety\" and \"complicated machinery\" to build a structure to maintain the jobs."
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5tlxd3 | How did the lefty loosey righty tighty scheme of screws,jar lids, etc. become so universal? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Most people are better with their right hand than their left, and righty-tighty is easier to do with the right hand. That said, I'm left-handed.",
"Although its been well answered, I would like to point out that reverse thread bolts are very common in things that turn: saws, bicycles, etc"
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5tm3bt | Why is America considered the land of the free, when progressive countries like Denmark and the Netherlands pose less limitations on its own people? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"We Americans call ourselves the Land of the Free, no one else, really. Also, we don't really know much about other countries except for what we're told so it's hard for us to fairly compare.",
"Why do Americans **still** call ourselves the \"land of the free\"? u/SchopenhauersSon has part of it, but they neglected to mention that once, it was true. There was a time the whole world thought of America like that. Those days are long gone, probably never to return. But we have been saying it for a very long time now, & refuse to accept that is just isn't true anymore.",
"It's a carryover from the days when the USA was substantially more free than most other countries.",
"Denmark and the Netherlands have hate speech laws and limit many rights such as gun ownership. They have more limitations, not fewer."
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5tm5yo | In downloading, what is "seeding" and "leeching"? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Seeding and leeching refer to downloading via torrenting clients. Torrenting revolutionized downloads by spreading the load among many computers. For instance, if you have a very large file (like a 4k quality movie file) or a lot of smallish files together (like a 10 season TV series), it's a huge burden on a server to upload to other users. One guy uses ALL of the bandwidth on the server, and it still takes many hours to download, which makes those files unavailable to other users. Torrenting divides the files up into tiny pieces and keeps track of everyone using the same trackers and what pieces they have, so that once one person downloads the file from the first server, the next person can download some of the files from the server and some of the files from the other guy. Spread over tens or hundreds of users, everyone is using just a little bandwidth at a time from any one source. It's awesome. Seeding refers to contributing your file to the pool of resources. As you download files to your computer, your torrenting client will start uploading those files to other users even before you've finished downloading the whole thing. That's part of the magic that makes torrenting work. Seeding means letting other users download the bits that you already have. Leeching, then, is turning that off, so you're only downloading files from others but not contributing your own bandwidth. The whole point of torrenting is distributing the files and having a network of sources, so when you don't seed your copy of the files, you're defeating the purpose of torrenting for other users. That's obviously undesirable - if everyone was leeching and no one seeded, the whole concept would fall apart and stop working. So leeching is considered rude at best.",
"Seeding means you have 100% of the file being shared. You aren't downloading anymore you are just letting other people download from you. Leaching mean you don't have 100% of the file yet. You are still downloading parts and people are downloading the parts you have from you.",
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but 10 years ago when I was fresh out of high school and into college, I was opened up to the world of torrenting. The guy that explained it to me told me to look for files with high seeds and low leeches for a faster download. But he also told me that seeders is what the government looked for when they were looking to prosecute people for pirating and that I shouldn't actively seed files I download. Is there any truth to that? TL;DR: does seeding files open you up more for pirating charges by the Man?"
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5tm9c6 | How do nature documentaries film inside small areas like termite nests and bee hives? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They use something very much like an [endoscope] ( URL_0 ) for underground colonies."
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5tmb6d | = The limit of a constant is the constant itself. | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Say you have the function f(x)=5, no matter what x is, your output will always be 5. So if you take the limit of any given input, (we'll say f(2)=5) it will always approach 5. Also understand that limits aren't meant to say what will happen at a given input, they are meant to give information about the function as it approaches a certain input."
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5tmdzk | Does the movie studio pay the movie theater to show their movie? Or does the movie theater pay the movie studio to bring in customers by letting them show their movie? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The movie studios and the theaters split the income depending on when people buy tickets to the movie, basically, each side gets a percent of ticket sales For example: Weeks 1 & 2: 90% studio / 10% theater Weeks 3 & 4: 70% studio / 30% theater Weeks 5+: 50% / 50% This can and will vary depending on specifics and the specific movie. As you can see, since most people view movies when they first come out as well, the movie studio is making their money there. But so where do theaters make their money? Popcorn, sodas, and hot dogs, sold at gigantic markups.",
"The movie theater pays the studio. The theater makes little to no money on the tickets; their profit comes from concessions and advertising.",
"So what happens then if a really poor movie gets pulled from the theatre say after a week? (I'm thinking gods of Egypt). It was in the cinema for a week then went. Theatre can't make any money at all if it's not showing."
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5tmjyo | What's the purpose of Apple keeping $246 billion in cash reserves? Isn't there a lot of things they could spend that money on? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Keeping cash reserves is totally normal and expected for many companies as a way to help diminish risk. What if something happens and you need money? Well you've got it Apple is particularly unique though -- because the amount of cash reserves they have is wildly high, absurdly so for their type of business and industry. While Apple won't discuss why they do it, except in broad and generic terms, financial analysts have several ideas, of which may or may not be true, but are potential reasons, and all can be true to a degree. Such as: A) Apple wants to do some large scale, primarily cash acquisitions of other companies (buying CBS, Disney, or Netflix have all been discussed). B) The money isn't readily available to spend, that is its behind some complicated tax laws and such and may not be easily accessible, as such, it its highest value is to be as reserves, as if they tried to spend it, the value would decrease. C) Apple is saving up for future products, sitting on the money for investments later, right now things are good, but if they need to smash, fast, new production of something new, the cash will heavily heavily lower the time needed to create a new high-quality product.",
"Originally Steve Jobs, as \"iCEO\" (interim CEO) saved and built up the reserves (even against the pleas of investors) to prevent a takeover and buy-out, as he saw the value in the company beyond the cash they had on the books and projected revenue forecasts. Right now they say it's to keep them stable.",
"Well looking at Apple's stats on Wikipedia, their revenue, total amount of money coming in, in 2015 was about 215 billion, and their net income, the profit on that was 45 billion. That implies their operating costs for a year were give or take 170 billion. They own assets, property of some sort, worth around 320 billion, and the equity they have, the value of those assets minus any liabilities like paying back a loan type obligations or tax burdens or just outstanding debts for things they bought \"accounts payable\" or salary obligations or warranties (because a warranty is a contract that exists and if the warranty is called in they need to have money), is 128 billion. So that means their liabilities are around 200 billion (obviously they're not all needing to be paid next year, or right now or whenever but they exist). So having 240 billion in cash reserves is pretty reasonable, they have a ton of operating expenses, it protects them from having a really bad year or two.",
"Taxes. The main reason they have a bunch of money outside the country is that it's too darn expensive to bring it back to the country. The money is sitting in piggy banks in other countries where the government's do not ask for too much in the form of income taxes. Sure, they could bring that cash back to the here (called repatriation), but then they would have to pay income tax on that money, which is effectively 35% on amounts that large. So they have a choice: keep the money wherever it currently is, or bring it home and pay $83 billion in taxes (ignoring all the extra tax planning they could do). Yes, the other comments about diminishing risk and not having projects to invest in are probably true to a certain degree, but tax is the main reason. I think I recall in 2016 Apple raised debt in the US to finance expansion. Why do this when they have $246 billion overseas? Taxes.",
"They likely don't have anything at the time that they believe will deliver a high enough return to make it worth investing. They are also likely waiting for some direction on US Tax code for repatriating the money. If rates or lowered or a tax holiday is granted, investors are going to expect significant dividends from these companies, it's much easier to do with the liquidity of cash."
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5tmltr | The lives of severely mentally disabled people after secondary school in developed countries | I was just never sure of what happened, my mind just made me think they just vanished. But then my English teacher brought this up so I just want to know what happens, how it's paid for etc. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The severely disabled are on disability, which is a part of the Social Security program. They will often go into group homes paid for by that disability if they do not have family that can care for them. If they have wealthy families they will often have private nurses or more expensive group homes paid for."
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5tmtto | Fifth circuit? Ninth Circuit? Can someone please explain why all the different federal courts and why/how it came about? Thanks | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Our court system requires several levels of court arranged in a hierarchy - otherwise, if you have 100 equal courts, and two disagree, how can people get the final word on how to follow the law? If you have one court, how can they have time to hear all the cases? So we've got three levels of federal court. District courts are the lowest level, with a jurisdiction of part of or one whole state; circuit courts with a jurisdiction of several states, and the supreme court, with a jurisdiction of the entire country and the last word. Edit: [here's a map.]( URL_0 ) The districts are outlined, the circuits are colored in.",
"In terms of development -- adding to the answer from /u/tsuuga -- when the federal court system was first created, the federal government was very small and travel was difficult. To accommodate that, the appeals courts were designed to cover wide geographic areas. The judges would travel to the different parts of their region and hear cases, to make the system logistically possible. This travel is why it came to be called a \"circuit,\" in the [going to different places in sequence]( URL_0 ) sense of the word. Originally, Supreme Court justices spent much of their time \"riding circuit,\" meaning they traveled with the appeals court judges and helped to decide the appeals cases, as well as deciding cases that went up to the Supreme Court."
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5tmxtl | Why haven't there been any new baseball pitches invented in a while, is every possible spin/rotation accounted for already? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Pretty much. The only real variables in a pitch is changing speed or changing spin. There are only so many different ways to change spin and speed to create a new type of pitch."
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5tmyqv | Why is orange juice yellow? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddnmbf8"
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"text": [
"Because it is the juice of an orange which is orange on the outside. The color of the exterior of the fruit isn't directly related to the color of the juice."
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6
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5tn19v | How do animals avoid inbreeding in the wild? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Exact way varies by species. For example lions, elephants, and others often drive away the males from the family group. Then during breeding time, generally only the dominant male in the area has the opportunity to breed with the group. This reduces the odds of inbreeding. More importantly, it reduces the odds of inbreeding over multiple generations. In breeding for 1 generation has a fairly low risk of genetic problems, it's inbreeding over multiple generations that causes problems.",
"Adding on to what /u/Snewzie, phermones can often help animals determine/decide which other animals to breed with. There was a study done (I believe) in which people were asked to smell and categorize sweat by smell. The researchers fond correlation that and individual is likely to find the sweat of their siblings to smell bad, whereas the sweat of another individual (similar age and body chemistry chemistry as the sibling) to be attractive. If I can find the study, I will link it."
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5tn1tk | What causes our bodies to reject organ transplants but not blood or plasma transfusions? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"We *do* reject blood if it is the wrong blood type and has antigen markers that our bodies reject. Plasma doesn't contain cells so rejection is rare. Organs contain even more different types of cells which can be recognized as foreign which is why our bodies reject them."
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5tn23w | How does OCD make sufferers believe their fears are all so real? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"I don't think it's that sufferers believe what they feel. Their rational mind knows it's crap. But their involuntary reaction is distress or panic. Giving into their compulsions relieves those feelings. It's an easy spiral to fall into without help."
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5tn4cz | If I were to drill a hole through the Earth and jump, how would gravity work? | Repost, I stupidly forgot the ELI5 at the start! Forgetting that the Earth's core is lava and stuff, what would happen if I were to drill a hole all the way through the Earth and jump? On the side of the hole where I originally jumped, I'd obviously be going down a hole. But on the other side it'd be like I was coming out of the hole. How would this work in terms of gravity and would you just fall straight through to the other side where you'd 'fall out' of the hole? Or would you fall back on yourself? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You'd basically fall forever. You'd speed up as you approached the center, then slow down as you reached the other side. Then be pulled back down again to repeat the process."
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5tn9i4 | How does passing smoke through water filter it? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"THC is not water soluble, but much of what I assume you mean by smoke is. The water dabbs at the water-soluble part like a paper towel dabbing at spilled juice. It doesn't get all of it, but some is better than none."
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5tnmlu | How are manufacturers able to ensure that no two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle are the same? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"While there are sophisticated math techniques that *could have* been used to design non-repeating shapes, and while there are computer programs that *could be* used to verify no duplicate shapes exist, in practice these are not done. The existence of identical or near-identical pieces is a real possibility. It's part of the challenge.",
"If you are generating a picture on a puzzle, then having two identically shaped pieces will not matter, because the piece of sky in someone's ear will be a dead giveaway. If the colors are identical, then it won't matter, because the two pieces are interchangeable."
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5tnpwg | Why does coffee smell good in a cup but awful on someone's breath? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because coffee in a cup is just coffee, but coffee in the mouth becomes mixed with existing halitosis.",
"When you smell coffee in a cup, all of the flavorful oils are still present, and at a temperature that enables their escaping into the air and into your nose. When you smell coffee on someone's breath, (I'm sure there are worse smells but) many of the aromatic compounds have been swallowed, and what's left are the remnants of sugars, acids and oils that cling to the mouth, being devoured by bacteria and mixing with smells from other sources. So naturally, it's not going to smell as nice.",
"The inside of your mouth generally smells like the poop from the bacteria living inside it. The \"coffee smell\" on someone's breath is a mixture of actual residual coffee smell and their natural mouth smell, which usually isn't that pleasant.",
"Well that's because coffee smells great. People's breath on the other hand is pretty bad. The combination of people's breath + coffee makes it smell absolutely horrible. The thing with breath is that there's so many factors that affect it's odour. Water intake, dry mouth, status of digested / undigested food in your stomach, acids in your bowel, infection in the throat / stomach, the list goes on and on. Coffee would smell bad when left in the garbage with other rotting or discarded food, and it's the same with breath."
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5tnxnd | Panasonics new "invisible tv", how is it transparent? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"[Their screen]( URL_0 ) is an array of very small LED lights (red, green, and blue ones) printed on a sheet of clear plastic (which is then placed behind the clear glass. When the shelf light behind the glass is turned off, it is black back there so the clear parts of the screen look black, and the lit parts are the colors you see. [See this video.]( URL_2 ) [An earlier version they showed]( URL_1 ) looks like it had the OLED screen with a black and white LCD screen right behind it. So the screen is transparent when the LEDs are off and the LCD at that position is also off, black when the LEDs are off and the LCD is on, and colors when the LEDs are on and the LCD is on. This is how they can have part of the screen clear to see the shelf contents and part black at the same time. Notice that the black isn't perfectly opaque, so you still see the shelf a little while the screen is on and moving."
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5to0dn | Why do we always want the things we can't have? And sometimes stop wanting them the second we can have them? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Human nature has evolved to increase our chances of survival. One result of this evolution is that many people are constantly grasping for more, more, more. Once you have something, you've accomplished that, so it's time to move on and get something more. The result is that over your lifetime, you acquire lots of stuff, which increases the odds of survival for your children. Especially if, like most historic humans, you are very poor and live in very primitive conditions."
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5to1ay | Why do phones have separate speakers for calls and media? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Generally one speaker is designed to sound good at very low energy, very close up; the other is designed to put out many times that amount of power, and if it started playing in your ear, it could damage your hearing. So they mount it separately, facing the other way. it's also used for speakerphone."
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5to9o2 | How does mobile "Direct Deposit" work for checks? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"You take pictures, you enter amount, you send it in. They use a computer to analyze the check and the serial numbers to see if it's a true check, they also check the amount as well of course."
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5tof6i | How does college research funding work? If a company funds a professors research then why wouldn't the company just hire the professor as a direct employee? Also who would ultimately own the research? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's cheaper to fund a professor's research than to hire them, and still fund the research. There are two main reasons for this. Governments will have grants that match company contributions, thereby giving the company as much as ten times the return on investment (but more typically around double). The other main reason is that universities themselves contribute - not only do they already pay the professor's salary, but they also often have existing laboratories (the universities are, in turn, frequently funded by a combination of government grants, industrial partnerships, rich old guys wanting their names on buildings, and, increasingly, student tuition). As for who owns the research, it's a complicated issue, and is typically up for negotiation. A professor needs to publish, but since this need is tied to their need for funding, they'll accept less publishing rights if the company pays more. If a company doesn't want their research public, there are three things they'll usually consider. First is to require a hold on publication. This means that the research group cannot publish their findings for three years (or however long the company negotiates). The second is to normalize or obscure the data. An example of this would be to say \"losses decreased by 3.1%\" rather than saying \"losses decreased from 0.387 to 0.375\". The third is to develop research projects where parts of the results are publishable, and parts are not. An example might be research on simulated noise developed by a new car design. The actual noise results might be published, while the methods of simulating the noise are kept proprietary. This would let the company develop new tools for simulating noise, while still releasing useful information on the design. tl;dr, it's cheaper to fund than to hire, and ownership is negotiable"
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5toffo | Why are horizontal and vertical speeds independent of each other? | Working on physics homework and read that if you roll a ball off a table, it's speed doesn't effect the time it takes for the ball to hit the floor. So, horizontal and vertical speeds are independent of each other. This doesn't make sense to me. Hoping someone can explain it in a way that helps me understand. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Think of it like this: Say we have two balls, A and B. For every second that goes by, ball A moves one inch down, and two inches to the left. Also for every second that goes by, ball B moves down once inch only. Now say balls A and B both start 5 inches off the ground. Because they each move down one inch per second (so we can say they both have a constant velocity of one inch per second in the downward direction), it will take them both 5 seconds to reach the ground. Take note, however, that they both reach the ground at the same time even though ball A is also moving horizontally. This tells us that we can think of an objects horizontal and vertical components of velocity as independent.",
"An easier way to think of this is: what should the connection be? Do you agree that blue ball and a red ball should fall at the same speed? Okay, then do you agree that a happy jumping person and a sad jumping person should fall at the same speed? Okay, then do you agree that an object moving north, and an object not moving north, should fall at the same speed? There just isn't a connection."
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5topnb | Why does it seem like some Americans support illegal immigration? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Some people believe this it is unfair or cruel to separate families. There are also illegal immigrants who were brought over as children and didn't have any choice in the matter. The woman whose deportation made the news recently was brought to the US when she was 14 and has two children who are legal US citizens. She pays taxes but can't take advantage of many of the services they pay for (she can't get food stamps, for example). There's also the argument that it costs money to track down and deport illegal immigrants, so many believe that efforts to do so should be focused on those with violent criminal histories.",
"Because undocumented immigrants are people too. People with families and friends who are legitimate US citizens who would be heartbroken if they are deported. Most people don't want to break up families, friendships and communities. There's also an ugly racial side to the issue, since many assume that all illegal immigrants are Latino. Illegal immigration makes some people mad, but most liberals acknowledge that we were all complicit in the economics of illegal immigration. We've all known for decades that illegal immigrants were picking our fruits and vegetables, building our homes, mowing our lawns, cleaning our homes, cooking our food, etc. Without all that exploited \"illegal\" labor, all of those goods and services would have been MUCH more expensive for legal Americans. It doesn't seem fair to punish a group of people who have already spent years or decades working for below market value (often less than minimum wage) with no protections or representation, benefiting their employers and consumers.",
"I am not at all bothered by \"illegal\" immigration for this reason: Latin America has mostly been ruled by oligarchs since independence from Spain. Think of the Koch brothers, the Walmart family, etc. In most cases, literally the same families that were in charge during the Spanish Empire are still in power now. These oligarchs have sold the rights to Latin America's resources to European and American (and recently Chinese) corporations for the oligarchs' own profit, at the expense of the development of their countries. Any time that the Latin American people have tried electing a non-oligarch progressive, the United States has intervened by either invading or simply assassinating that leader and the people who were instrumental in getting him elected. That is no exaggeration. Go do a search for US invasions of Latin America, or of specific countries. Look at how many times the US invaded Nicaragua, and how far back it's been happening. The oligarchs allow these corporations to basically strip mine the natural resources, without paying taxes, they only pay a \"fee\" to the oligarchs. Now, think about that. With no development, the people are largely under educated and unskilled. Not much of a tax base from the workers. On top of that, these corporations are paying pennies compared to the tens of billions that they take in resources. Without a tax base from wages and business, there is never enough funding to build schools, hospitals, good roads, etc. Again, any time the people try to get out from under this thumb, there is invasion or assassination. Look up Allende. Also, in 2009 a military coup toppled a democratically elected president in Honduras. Obama did nothing to help, and Hillary wouldn't even acknowledge that it was a coup. So, as far as I'm concerned, since we're basically raping Latin America and supporting dictatorships there, I don't blame Latin Americans for coming here and considering what we've done to them (look up Guatemala, death squads, US Army School of the Americas), I don't care if they come here \"illegally.\"",
"There is a believe that illegal immigrants are inherently bad, because they are illegal. After all they are breaking the law by being here, and laws are here to protect us so obviously they are doing something wrong. However the vast majority of illegal immigrants aren't a problem to the U.S in any way. Most pay taxes without being able to gain access to any social programs. Most don't commit any crimes other than being here. Most Take manual labor jobs that most Americans wont take for very low wages. A large chunk of people that get deported are model citizens with friends and family that depend on them for survival. Its not that people support illegal immigration its that they know the system is broken and immigration raids don't solve any problems.",
"People break laws. No one is in favor of making it legal to break laws. HOWEVER punishments have to fit crimes. It's an absurdly harsh punishment for the level of crime. It's like if the punishment for shoplifting was to have your eyes pulled out or something. No one thinks shoplifting should be legal, but you can still say \"fuck, pulling people's eyes out is a pretty big deal, maybe that is a crazy punishment for shoplifting\". Not following immigration law, sure, that should be illegal. It's a crime. But just because something is a crime doesn't mean any random punishment should be okay. And that someone that nonviolently overstayed a visa or something should have their house seized and lose their job and have their family broken up or whatever. Maybe start with a fine or something, work up to taking every single thing a person has and kicking them entirely out of their life.",
"> They're unlawfully here. Using the law isn't always the best indicator. Smoking weed is illegal, and yet there is tons of support for it. And historically, so were things like slavery/Jim Crow. So be a bit careful using that explanation ;) There's some that don't care, and think borders should be open. *However*, the vast majority aren't for illegal immigration, but think that the way it's enforced is too harsh. They don't support it, but keep in mind- immigrants are people too, often people coming from a terrible situation, who are easily exploited (and we often tend to look the other way when businesses employee a lot of illegal immigrants for cheap labor). Especially in the case of kids- it's easy to say that someone who crosses the border should be deported, but when a child is born here, and knows nothing else, it gets much more grey, you know? There are a lot of crimes- but generally speaking, police don't raid houses looking for say, a shoplifter. If you get caught, not only do you get raided (which is terrifying), you lose your job, your house, potentially some of your family. Depending on where you get sent back, it may not even be all that safe. Enforcement also costs money, which is another thing people object to. It's money that we have to waste, for a group of people who, while technically breaking the law, aren't really hurting anyone. (Studies have shown that illegals tend to improve economic health, and they commit less violent crime, despite stereotypes). tldr: Most don't support it, they just don't support a strong/brutal response."
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5tot1j | Is one the only number and all numbers after that just words that mean 1+1, 1+1+1, 1+1+1+1c ext. ? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Kind of yes! In set [theory]( URL_2 ), you define the number 0 as an empty set, 1 as a set containing an empty set (i.e. containing 0), 2 as a set containing 1 etc. Similarly in a thing called lambda calculus you define 0 and then you define 1 as a something that says \"the next number after 0\", 2 as something that say \"the next number after 1\" etc. So You're kind of right in this. But note that we're talking about 0 and natural numbers here, i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3 etc. In mathematics we sometimes need to add more numbers, like negative numbers for example. This can then be done by kind of reordering the numbers, like saying: - 0 will be 0 - 1 will be 1 - 2 will be -1 - 3 will be 2 - 4 will be -2 - 5 will be 3 - etc. It turns out you can also [define fractions this way]( URL_1 ), if you're clever! It seems like you can't but you can. You cannot however define real and complex numbers this way, i.e. \"all\" numbers including things like Pi. This has [been proven]( URL_0 ), we know we can't do this. If we're talking about real numbers, no number has a immediately next and immediately previous number. This is where this kind of thinking falls apart. EDIT: It doesn't mean 1 is the only number though, the other numbers are real too, they just \"refer\" to 1 if we define them like this. It'd be like saying you aren't real because you came from your mother and so only she is real. That is not true. This kind of talk however now belongs to philosophy and not math."
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5tovz3 | Why did so many pirates use swords when firearms existed? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Firearms existed, but were hard to reload. What you would likely have at the time period you are referring to is a flint lock pistol. It took about 90 seconds to reload, could not hit a person across the length of a ships deck, could not be wet, were not powerful enough to reliably kill someone, might not go off at all and blinded you first with a flash and then with a huge cloud of smoke. So if you were able to get a shot off you would likely be charged and had to find another weapon within seconds. Some people carried multiple pistols which allowed them to fire multiple rounds before reloading. However you would have to rely on close combat weapons that did not have any of the problems of a gun. Even as guns improved soldiers were still using knifes to fight in WWI. However in WWII guns and tactics had changed so soldiers rarely relied on their knife, although they were used in some situations where guns were inferior.",
"Don't base your ideas of how pirates worked based on movies about pirates. Mostly that image is just fantasy. At the same time there was time periods where guns and swords coexisted, largely because guns were expensive and unreliable when they were new. You weren't going to threaten many people with a single shot rifle that took 5 minutes to reload with a bunch of specialty black powder you could barely buy anywhere.",
"Early guns were notoriously inaccurate even when the weren't being fired at a moving target from a swaying ship. Plus, if the gun powder got wet, it was useless, and they also took forever to reload.",
"Fighting on a ship would be in very close quarters. It would be fast and chaotic. Guns at the time were inaccurate, and took a long time to reload. So even though they did carry pistols, you had only one shot and then the thing was basically a club. (which was part of the design. That's why they have the heavy, steel plated pommels)",
"The firearms of the time were notoriously unreliable even in ideal conditions. In damp conditions like one finds at sea they were little more than clubs, and poor ones at that.",
"The firearms at the time were single shot. Some pirates were reported to have multiple pistols loaded and strapped to the body, so they could fire, discard then grab the next one. Plus the firearms weren't as accurate, so trying to shoot from your boat to theirs on a windy sea was difficult. These pirates were used to and in the case of ex sailors sometimes trained with swords, so to continue using them and the firearms as accessories seemed to be the way to go. Oh, and they had huge cannons, big enough firearms that were a mainstay of naval battles."
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5tp2fz | In cryostasis, wouldn't your cells and vessels burst because the water turning to ice would expand? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yes, which is why it isn't very feasible for humans and other mammals. However, various \"cryogenic\" companies actually drain all of the blood from a customer's body and replace it with an anti-freeze like substitute to reduce damage from freezing. They also rapidly chill the body to minimize the formation of large ice crystals. That being said, several other organisms do have innate ant-freeze systems and can/do go into stasis when frozen only to thaw out later without any side effects."
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5tpbce | do suspects that say i didn't do it or any other lie on the stand also get convicted with perjury? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There's no point; that person has already been convicted. Judges, prosecutors, and juries have better things to do than slap more charges on people who are already in prison. That's why the state seeks plea bargains; the court's time is valuable and not to be wasted.",
"A good question with nuanced answers. If a jury convicts a defendant of murder, for example, that means they have to find - beyond a reasonable doubt - that the defendant committed every element of the crime of murder. (E.g., he (1) intentionally (2) took the life of another (3) with malice aforethought.) When a jury considers the evidence, they can give as much or as little weight to any piece of evidence they like. They can ignore certain evidence outright if they want to. And when the jury delivers its verdict, it doesn't have to explain to the court what it thought of the evidence. (There are such things as specific verdicts, where the verdict requires that the jurors certify that they made specific findings of fact. This is rare, particularly in the criminal context, and it doesn't necessarily pass on the weight of the evidence either.) So you have a murder defendant take the stand (which is VERY uncommon, btw) and testify under oath that he didn't kill the victim. So a conviction means that he was lying, right? Well, not necessarily. Maybe the jury didn't even consider the testimony. Maybe the jurors believed that the defendant _believed_ he was telling the truth, but that he was confused or had an inaccurate or incomplete recollection of the events. Also, to sustain a perjury conviction, the prosecution has to prove (again, beyond a reasonable doubt) that the defendant intentionally made a _specific_ misrepresentation under oath. It's not enough to establish that he was lying in a general way. You have to prove that he was lying about a specific statement. (E.g., he was lying specifically when he said he wasn't at the crime scene.) That's very hard to nail down. Each juror can believe some part of the testimony and not others. And they don't have to weigh the evidence the same as the other jurors. So that's it, more or less. I know it seems like a logical next step, but when all you're working with is a general verdict of guilty, it's very difficult to walk that up to a conclusive finding that the defendant intentionally lied to the court in a specific statement in his testimony. Let's take a practical example. In this fictitious murder trial, the defendant testifies (1) that he didn't do it because (2) he was asleep at the time of the victim's homicide. How does a jury process that? Maybe juror 1 thinks he is lying outright. Maybe juror 2 thinks that the defendant was intoxicated at the time, and isn't remembering clearly. Maybe juror 3 doesn't really know what to think, so he looks to the rest of the evidence and finds it sufficient to sustain a conviction. When they finally deliver the guilty verdict, there's no way to be sure what they thought of the testimony."
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5tpcvy | If we exhale CO2, why does mouth-to-mouth during CPR work? Aren't we just breathing CO2 into their lungs and then pumping that artificially with chest compressions? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Not mentioned yet, but it's worth noting that CPR instructions no longer contain the mouth breathing part. That part was phased out. It's just chest compressions now.",
"We don't breathe in 100% oxygen and then exhale 100% CO2. First, air is mostly nitrogen. Second, your body can only absorb a fairly low amount of oxygen, so there's still plenty when you exhale."
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5tphti | How do big companies/colleges maintain high internet speeds across hundreds of people's devices? | It was a random thought that occurred to me. I've heard about how connecting a ton of active devices to a home network can cause congestion (and slow it down?). I'm a university student and I am always able to have a fast internet connection even when there's hundreds of people in the same building as me using the network. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Your building has lots and lots of access points all connected to many, many switches. Each switch is likely to be able to handle a Gbit of traffic *on each port* so for a 24 port switch that's a 24+ GBit back plane. Your college also has an industrial level internet connection. And if its a large research institution it likely is a node on Internet2 which is an all fiber network that connects lots of colleges and other institutions. When you data needs to get to one of those institutions, it gets automatically routed over the super fast fiber connection.",
"What /u/dodgeBallRocks said is correct. To add to it... Connecting too many devices to your home Internet is a bad excuse given by your cable provider. They have one 'pipe' to your entire neighborhood. Let's say you and your 19 neighbors pay for 25 up, 25 down. Your neighborhood pipe only carries 200 up, 200 down, even though it needs 500 up and down to serve the max your neighborhood is paying for. Everyone in the neighborhood tries to watch Netflix around 7pm, and all of you have buffering issues. Even though you pay for enough Internet, the neighborhood pipe can't carry all the data it needs. Your connection ends up competing with your neighbors', and no one gets good service. Fiber doesn't have this problem. Each house has its own 'pipe'. You're guaranteed to get the speeds you pay for, assuming your hardware in the house can process it.",
"all that has been said so far is accurate but just to add... industrial level internet connection is SO FAST. i mean... SO FAST. if you get 50mbps download speed at home, your doing alright for yourself. at work i get 400mbps. 400. FAST. and where i work is a small workplace. universities i can imagine would be able to go much faster."
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5tpp17 | How do websites like Trivago, which compares prices of hotel rooms from different places, make their money? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"think of it as a finders fee. the hotels themselves could compete in the overcrowded and competitive online battlegrounds - but for smaller hotel chains this is a huge expense which is hard to end profitably when websites like trivago exist. so instead... they allow trivago (and similar sites) to list their hotel. yes, trivago takes a cut of profits, but in the end this actually brings more business to the hotel. another thing to note is that the price on trivago and the hotels website should be the same - this is what makes it a finders fee, and not a service fee (where they charge the price of the hotel booking + some fee for using trivagos website)",
"Hotels are well aware of the daily cost of operating a room. Let's say it's $30 and they have 50/100 rooms occupied. The hotel normally charges $100 per night. If trivago lets you bid $40 for the room per night, they can take out a finders fee of $5. The hotel makes $5 per night on the room instead of $0 and hopes that the guest spends money in their bar, restaurant, etc. The guest will keep using Trivago because they saved $60 on a hotel room. Also, by having a website with regular traffic, Trivago can charge for ad space."
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5tpswr | Why are drivers required to obey traffic laws concerning driving too slowly and impeding traffic, but cyclists are not? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Bicyclists are in fact held to the same rules of the road in regards to all other moving vehicles. You must stop at stop signs and yield right of way, they must signal properly and they must stay as far right as possible in the appropriate lane. They're held to a slightly different standard because they are more vulnerable to injury or death, not having a reinforced metal chassis around them. But they are by no means exempt from traffic laws.",
"A better comparison is a tractor. They are allowed on roads (under certain circumstances). They also have a low top speed, but will attempt to drive on the road shoulder when possible, to allow other vehicles to pass when safe.",
"Cyclists usually bike in cities or suburbs where minimum speed limits are rare (at least in cities where I've lived). Speed minimums typically exist on freeways, where bicycles are usually forbidden anyway. And, as you said, it's usually very easy to pass a bicycle. Even on a one lane road there is often a shoulder which gives enough room for the bicycle to move over, allowing the vehicle to pass.",
"Bicycles are subject to all the rules of the road that cars and pedestrians are. But, like a pedestrian, you can't expect a bicycle to be moving at 30 or 40 miles an hour.",
"Cyclists are held to the same standards. Here are some things that cyclists are prohibited from doing: -Riding the wrong way down a one way street. -Running stop signs -Running red lights In the U.S., 0.9% of all trips made by vehicle are done by cyclists. Few cyclists on the road means few opportunities for traffic enforcement. In my city, there are areas where 15% of the traffic is bicycles. More cyclists get ticketed there than anywhere else in the city.",
"There aren't minimum speed limits on city streets. You can legally drive as slow as you like, regardless of vehicle.",
"Really I think bicycles need their own set of rules Especially since they can't go on sidewalks Also question Why have I seen, on multiple occasions, a cyclist impeding traffic on a dangerous road when there's a paved bicycle path right beside the sidewalk I get that sometimes bicycle lanes are blocked but a path should be nice and convenient? I want to understand!",
"They are held to the same laws as a car. They are just less likely to be enforced unless they are impeding or creating some sort of incident. I had a friend run a red light on a bike, get hit by a car, and then charged with a moving violation in the hospital. They were completely in the wrong and charger for all the liability just like if a car ran a red light."
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5tq0xe | Why does stretching your muscles feel good? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Stretching feels good because muscles, like joints, tend to get stiff if left unused, as most of our muscles are in our sedentary lifestyles. Also, due to the way we have become (sitting for a big portion of the day, taking cars / ubers around rather than walking to and from places, on our phones and computers all day), our muscles tense up and shorten over time in the position where it finds it easiest to do so. Stretching helps open them out and give them a little more flexibility and motion-ability. The increased range of motion and flexibility makes you feel more open and nicer overall."
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5tq15m | Why are we more prone to coughing after having cold food? (i.e. ice cream) | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Cold irritates the throat. When the throat is irritated, you cough. Also, sometimes cold food trigger an allergic like reaction. People who are lactose intolerant can cough after eating dairy."
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5tq2gn | Your immune system causes symptoms like fever, swelling, etc, when fighting an infection. I usually get more mild symptoms than my wife when we both get sick. Does this mean my immune system is weaker or stronger? | If your immune system is what causes those symptoms, does That mean my immune system can't fight as hard, or that it doesn't have to fight as hard to win. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"That's an awesome question, but unfortunately it doesn't have a clear answer, as there are so many variables that can change the response. There are 2 components to your immune system: the innate and adaptive. The innate just travels around and freaks out at everything it doesn't recognize. It doesn't matter if it's the common cold or anthrax. (slight exaggeration, since it does matter if it's bacterial or viral). It's going to react the same way. These are responsible for fever, phlegm, swelling, etc. These happen within hours of being infected. The end goal here isn't to kill the infection. It's to fight until your adaptive cells can bring reinforcements. You also have an adaptive immune system. These are (primarily) your T and B cells, which take time. They have to 'study' the infection, find a good way to kill it, and then mass produce the antibodies. This can take anywhere from hours (if you've already made antibodies) or days-weeks (if it's something brand new). Let's say you get an infection that you've seen before. Your innate system attacks right away, and you start to notice those general signs of being sick. But then, your pre-formed antibodies quickly kill it. Or maybe it's a brand new infection, but for some reason, they don't trigger your innate system as strongly as hers. Therefore, you only get mild symptoms until your adaptive* system kills it. It's also possible that your innate response being smaller actually lets the infection grow, causing you to be sick for a longer period of time At the end of the day, you can't really say your system is stronger or weaker. The real question is whether it's good enough, and it sounds like both of yours works.",
"Great question, but it's complicated, because different infections trigger the immune system to different amounts. Sometimes, what kills a person isn't the infection itself, but the immune response to that infection. In those cases, it's better to have a slightly weaker immune response; the response will still be strong enough to fight the infection, but not so strong as to cause you harm. Another thing that will make a difference is how severe the infection gets. A minor infection will trigger a lesser response, but if those bacteria or viruses grow out of control, this will trigger a big response, with worse symptoms. You could be experiencing milder symptoms because you're controlling the infection at an earlier stage...or because your body is taking a more measured, less aggressive response to controlling the infection. It's hard for me to say without samples.",
"Hers is better, because it's reacting more strongly. However, a little known fact, the great Influenza epidemic of 1918 (a.k.a. H1N1) was unusual because its morbidity rate was so much higher in people who were in the \"prime of their lives\". Older people and children didn't die in such high numbers. This is thought to be because the young, strong adults had the best immune systems, and they died because they drowned in their bodies' own fluids, which were much less plentiful in older or younger people with weaker immune responses. But that's a pretty freaky response. Usually the stronger immune system wins. I read it in a book.",
"We all have different responses to infections, and recent studies show that our immune system isn't the only player - normal constituents of your microbiome are also very important for both how effective your immune response is and how strong. They help you fight off disease by competing with pathogens and also prime your immune response to prevent autoimmune conditions. It is quite likely that your wife's strong immune response is caused by her often getting treatments with antibiotics and potentially, if she was delivered by c section. Naturally, there are multiple other factors that play a role."
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5tq3ww | Why do people lose their accents when they sing? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A large part of accents is the pronunciations of various sounds, the stress patterns of words and the 'rhythm' of sentences. The last two are lost when singing, generally, because songs have their own stresses and rhythms that take precedence. The pronunciations of vowels and other stuff *is* kept in song, but the more noticeable things are generally lost.",
"A person's accent is largely tone, pitch, timing that is different. When they are singing they are controlling their tone, pitch, and timing.",
"I guess there are multiple things at play, since there are already a few plausible answers. I'd say it's probably because a lot of singers, especially professional and/or classical singers, study accents in different languages. When a singer learns a song in a different language, they make a deliberate effort to sing it properly. Some are more successful than others. (E.g. I remember hearing a recording of Luciano Pavarotti singing Очи Чорные. His Russian accent was pretty far off even though he is one of the world's best tenors.)"
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5tq5if | Why does heating particles make them move faster? | I know when particles are heated, their temperature (average kinetic energy) increases and their speed increases, ...but why. Is the thermal energy used as thrust? What about heating a particle makes it move faster. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"You're thinking about it backwards. Heating them up doesn't make them move faster - making them move faster is what we call \"heating them up\"."
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5tq8bo | What happens when a program is not closing when the "x" is being clicked and also when a program is closed due to "Force Quit" or "End Task" in the task manager? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Clicking the \"X\" sends a signal to the program that tells it to gracefully stop what it's doing and shut down. This lets it properly save progress, close any open files, etc. Correct operation depends on the program responding; if it has crashed in certain ways this can't happen. Force Quit / End Task is slightly more violent. It terminates the process directly and leave it to the OS to clean up whatever junk it left behind."
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5tqkab | What does seize the means of production really mean? | Serious post | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Marx said that eventually capitalism would end in a fight between the people who actually work in the factories and produce goods and the people who own the capital that they use to do that producing. Seizing the means of production is a description of what he expected the workers to do during that period: take---by force---control of productive property for collective use."
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5tqlig | The difference between PPOs EPOs, and HMOs | I'm trying to decide what's the best plan with my new employer. My aunt, who does health care billing says PPOs are the best/HMOs are the worst. What are the pros/cons of each? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"PPO - Preferred Provider Organization. You have a network of doctors, you can go to anyone in your network without getting a referral. You can go outside of your network (but they pay a lot less outside of your network). Gives you the most flexibility, and is generally the most expensive. HMO - Health Maintenance Organization - You have a specific doctor that's in charge of you. You go to that doctor if you need anything. You usually need a referral to see a specialist. If that doctor wants to send you to a specialist, they'll give you a referral. There's no coverage outside of your network (not that the coverage for most PPO's is even decent outside of network for the most part). Tend to be cheaper. EPO - Exclusive Provider Organization. Kind of halfway between the two. You can see anyone in your network without a referral (usually). But there's no coverage outside your network. There are some HMO's that don't require referrals, and some EPO's that do. Need to look at the summary of benefits and provider directory for whatever policy you're looking at to be sure."
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5tqn7d | Why was Inside (the game) so critically acclaimed? | I hear a lot that this game is a work of art, but what does it do that makes it stand out? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It tells a compelling, fantastic, and deeply disturbing story without using dialogue or text in any way. Its subtle cinematic-style cues for gameplay purposes (such as the main character's idle animations where he looks at things of interest to the player, and the way his run animation changes when he is being chased) make the game extremely immersive. Most important puzzle-related things are highlighted with natural set lighting rather than some kind of UI indicator, as well.",
"unique puzzles and mechanics made it an objectively good game if you're into that genre. the atmosphere and the artwork was what made it special to many others who dont usually enjoy puzzle platformers though"
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5tqn8f | What is a headache and what is the best way to lessen their effects without medication? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Headaches are not actually pain in your brain because the brain does not have pain receptors. He aches are actually symptoms of other issues. Many headaches are cause by dehydration, so drinking more water consistently helps treat / prevent. Another common cause is tension or stress. A good way to treat these type headaches is meditation and or breathing exercises. In general, getting enough exercise, getting enough sleep, and eating well will prevent many headaches. Unfortunately not all headaches are easily cured and some are caused by hormone or chemical imbalances that do require medical treatment (though all this stuff helps!). If you have persistent headaches see a medical professional because it could be a symptom of a much more serious issue. The Wikipedia article on headaches is actually really interesting is you have time to read. Much of the brain is still a mystery that we are trying to figure out: URL_0",
"What I am about to say is going to sound very hokey, but I will say it anyways. When I was a kid, I use to get headaches a lot. Somewhere along the lines I had heard that there is a pressure point between your thumb and index finger and that if you massaged that area it would make your headache go away. I started using this trick all the time. The only problem, if I was trying to fall asleep, massaging my hand was not a way to make this happen. So I started imagining that I was massaging the area and the headache went away again. I had now discovered what I heard about in crazy science programs that were on TV while I was growing up...if you work on it, you can gain mental control over pain. The result is whenever I have a headache, I can will away the pain if I concentrate. Again, sounds hokey, but really works. The above technique is only when I am suffering with the pain, the preventative care listed above (drink lots of water, meditate, wear sunglasses on bright days, de-stress) are your best bets for getting the headaches to stop before they start. Good luck with figuring it all out!",
"As others have said headaches can be caused by a variety of factors. Depending on whats causing your headache may determine which solution is best for you. Without knowing your situation... **To avoid getting headaches...** - Get better sleep - Stay hydrated - drink lots of water if you feel a headache coming on - Avoid/Identify your triggers (e.g. loud noises, bright lights, caffeine withdrawal) - Stop smoking - Avoid drinking - Eat healthy - Exercise regularly - Fix poor vision: make sure you aren't straining your eyes - Visit your doctor and get a physical: make sure you are healthy and that the cause of the headaches isn't something more serious, especially if they are regular and severe. - Log when you get your headaches: do they coincide with particular events, for example extreme changes in air-pressure (e.g. barometric headache) - De-stress your life: meditate, organize your time... - Maintain good posture **Once you have a headache...** - Drink lots of water - Apply a cool cloth to your head - Rest in a dark quiet room - Take a nap - Get a message - Meditate/Yoga - Have a little bit of coffee or caffeinated tea - Take out your pony-tail and let your hair relax",
"Well, I have some tips for avoiding headaches, at least. My best advice is to stay hydrated. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get a headache from dehydration. This is also the best way I know to cure a headache you already have. Chug water. The faster and more you drink, the faster the headache will go away (assuming it's caused by dehydration). For that same reason, avoid, or limit your consumption of, alcohol and salty food. Other possible causes are lack of sleep, poor posture, and muscle stress in your head, neck, or face. So get plenty of sleep, sit up straight, and try to relax. Personally, I sometimes get headaches if I spend too much time on my computer. It puts a lot of stress on my eyes and the muscles around them, which leads to headaches for me. Try to be aware of these kinds of factors that might lead to stress and tension on your head.",
"Interestingly, none of the comments here seem to actually explain where the pain comes from and why. I don't mean \"what causes a headache\", but specifically what causes pain to be felt in the head. What pain receptors are being triggered? Are they inside the skull, around the brain, or outside the skull, under the skin? What is the actual mechanism whereby dehydration, or stress, lead to pain around the head? Why does the head feel pain when the source of the problem is elsewhere? It would be really interesting to know those particular things. Unless we just don't know yet?",
"A headache can manifest in several different ways, depending on the type of headache you have. You might have pain in one side of your head, on both sides, only in the front, only in the back. They can radiate across your head from a central location or have a vise-like feel, be throbbing or dull, come on gradually or hit suddenly. They can last anywhere from less than an hour to several days. There've been cases of people having a headache for even longer. Headaches are categorized as being either primary or secondary. Primary headaches are stand-alone illnesses, caused by an overactivity of, or problems with, structures in the head that are pain-sensitive. These include blood vessels, muscles, and nerves in your scalp and neck. They may also result from changes in chemical activity in your brain. Migrains, cluster headaches, and tension headaches are considered primary headaches. Secondary headaches come from another condition that stimulates pain sensitive nerves of the head. Some examples of secondary headaches would be: hangovers, tumors, blood clots, \"brain freeze\", carbon monoxide poisoning, dehydration, flu, panic attacks, strokes, concussions, even glaucoma and some medications. I've had headaches my entire life, primarily migraines. I don't tolerate medications well, so I avoid the typical prescription medications for migraine. If I take anything, it's excedrin migraine. But there are also other things you can do to soothe a headache: * apply heat or cold to your head or neck, or even both. For me, cold to the back of the neck and heat to the forehead, simultaneously, does wonders. * avoid stressors where possible, develop healthy coping mechanisms such as meditation, guided meditation, yoga, deep breathing exercises. * eat regular meals, maintain stable blood sugar whenever possible. * stay hydrated. * Get enough rest, and sleep in a way that keeps your airway open as much as possible to avoid hypoxia (which can trigger awful headaches). * for some people, acupuncture or acupressure helps a lot Sometimes headaches may develop stemming from a nutritional deficiency, especially if you're deficient in magnesium and certain B vitamins. Medical conditions that result in malabsoption issues can also lead to headaches (for example, pernicious anemia, which causes you to be unable to absorb vitamin b12, iron, etc). Ensuring you have a balanced diet and take supplements for any deficiencies can help to prevent headaches."
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5tqry2 | Can snapping someone's neck in real life like in the movies really kill someone fast? If so why? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"It severs the spinal cord, which prevents the brain from sending any signals to the rest of the body. Your lungs will be unable to take in air, your heart will immediately stop beating, and your brain will run out of oxygen very quickly. It's the same way that hanging works when done properly. Snaps the neck, doesn't suffocate them.",
"There are two components to your question: 1) can breaking someone's neck kill you and 2) can it be done in real life like it is done in the movies? The answer to 1) is yes, it can kill you. If your spinal cord is broken/torn close to the brain stem, it can result in instant death. You're essentially disrupting signals from the brain that control breathing and the heart beat. The answer to 2) is pretty much no. It requires a lot of force to break the neck. Most cervical spine fractures and spinal injuries are a result of a significant fall or motor vehicle collision where large forces are concentrated on a small area. So a person's neck doesn't snap with a quick twist as seen in movies like Commando or other action flicks where they just twist the neck a quarter turn real fast and the person dies instantly.",
"It *can* be done, but not using the strength in your arms alone. In Judo, for example, throwing someone using the head or isolating the neck in a hold is strictly forbidden for this reason; Putting that much force on such a small area will break it. This is actually the primary philosophy which makes Judo / jujutsu work, but it's best not to kill people in training. The paper work is horrific.",
"Your brain stem has four important control centers that when compromised, puts the body in an array of life threatening situations. - Reticulating activation system (controls consciousness) - Respiratory center (controls autonomic breathing rate by measuring CO2 levels in your blood via chemo-receptors) - Cardiac center (controls heart rate by measuring blood pressure via barrow receptors) - Vasomotor center (controls all your smooth muscle in your body such as: stomach, diaphragm, contraction of blood vessels) There's a saying.., 3,4,5 you die. -you break c3, c4, or c5 you are likely damaging your brain stem which will likely result in death.",
"Because youre stopping the nerve connects from your brain to your body, no oxygen gets to the brain along with your senses. You dont necessarily die right away, but nothing is going to move and you'll be dead very quickly after the action. Source: idfk, shit made sense to me"
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5tqt6z | Why does Alka Seltzer dissolve much slower in cold water? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddoc5md"
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"text": [
"Temperature is really a measure of the kinetic energy of a fluid. So, the hotter the water is the faster the molecules in it are going. Fast molecules react faster with the alkaseltzer."
],
"score": [
5
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5tqvob | How do you tell if someone has synesthesia? Like is it just the patient's observations? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddod696",
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],
"text": [
"The most common form of synesthesia is color-grapheme, which means associating each letter or number with a particular color. And not just \"6 is green\", but \"6 is a frosted apple green\". There are free online tests you can take that randomly throw each letter and number at you multiple times, asking you to choose the color from that common/standard matrix of tons of colors (not sure what it's called). If you guess apple green or a really close shade repeatedly for the numeral 6, and do the same for nearly all the other graphemes, you have synesthesia. It would be next to impossible (and pointless) to fake it if you didn't have synesthesia.",
"Synaestheisa just feels like normal life until you learn about what it is. I have taste/smell-touch synaesthesia and I didn't realize it until I watched a documentary on it with my mother - who realized she has number-person associations. For the most part, because this is how we know the world to be, it doesn't really feel different. We might just have some weird opinions about things. Like how I love the way rubbing pilled fleece with my hand tastes or how I hate the flavour of when I run the tip of my tongue against my molars. In terms of telling if someone ELSE is a synesthete it's nearly impossible unless they tell you."
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5tr5px | If inflamation is bad and should be iced, why does it occur? | Inflamation is bad! Put an ice pack on it ASAP. Inflamation is good! Your body is sending more blood to deal with the injury. Which is it? How can it be both? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddofuyt"
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"text": [
"As an athlete and not an MD, my feeling is that a little bit of inflammation is good, but a lot of inflammation can get in the way of recovery and exercise. It's good because it repairs damage, but you don't want it to prevent you from achieving your normal range of motion, or move things out of alignment."
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5tr7k6 | - Why does biting aluminum foil hurt? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddoh427",
"ddomhmg"
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"text": [
"Because you probably have metal fillings in your teeth. Take two dissimilar metals and a conductive medium between them, and (depending on the metals), current will flow between them, carrying ions away from one surface and plating them onto the other. This is the operating principle behind batteries. They're effectively lumps of two different metals with some salty water between them. Since your fillings aren't aluminium, biting down on the stuff makes a mini battery in your mouth, electrocuting your teeth just enough to be unpleasant.",
"Have a missed out on a life experience having *not* eaten aluminium foil?"
],
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5trkmt | Why are we so sure that life can't exist without water? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"we aren't sure. but we understand carbon based life with water. we know the conditions that would satisfy it. we don't know what other life would be like. we don't know what are the conditions that would allow for such life. so we don't know what to look for. if i sent you to find a green tree leaf. you'd know what it looks like when you chance to run across it. if i sent you to find a mythical Bag of Greater Holding, you don't know exactly what it looks like...but you'd know how to test a Bag to see if it was a Holding bag. however if i sent you to find a Thenosian Plectar, you won't even know what to look for...and even recognize it if you happened to run into one.",
"The answer actually is: Chemistry; and water is amazing. Life is a series of incredibly complicated chemical reactions. Liquid phase water is the single best host for these reactions. Water is considered the universal solvent, it has an incredibly high molarity, compressing the solid form creates a liquid, on Earth is the only substance found in all three states naturally, and fosters more reaction diversity than anything else. [Why Water is Cool!]( URL_2 ) In water so much can happen, more than anywhere else. Think about the chemistry of pre-life; it has it's own kind of evolution. Reactive and adaptive chemicals are best at showing signs of being life-like. We don't classify things as life, until they have some form of self replication and evolving nature. Anything complicated enough to have this quality is almost guaranteed to have formed in water - because reactions like that can't happen anywhere else. Scientists actually recreated the effective \"chemical evolving\" of RNA in a [53 year long experiment]( URL_0 ). This happened in a solution of water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen. RNA turned out to win Darwin's \"survival of the fittest\" for molecules, these are the very same kinds of strands that started our life. They beat out any chemistry that is water-less, RNA full of so many bonds, and complexities that never could have formed without water. Scientists aren't closed-minded to be looking for water to find life, or closed-minded for looking for water existing at temperature where it is in liquid phase. Liquid water holds more diverse reactions than anything we've ever found, life requires more diverse reactions than can exist in anything other than water. Scientists would love to find another liquid with as much reactive power, I'm if anyone does they'd deserve more than a Nobel prize. At that point, we'd look for that substance occurring in space as well. [Water truly is the key to life]( URL_1 ). If something were simple enough to have formed in a water-less rock-planet, we would never call it life; because the chemistry that would be occurring wouldn't be slightly life-like.",
"So many chemical reactions involve water, even if you live off rocks or dust it would be difficult to not require some water.",
"We're not sure it cannot exist without water, we are sure it can exist with it. That's why it is always phrased, \"Life as we know it.\"",
"We are not sure and there are no scientist that make such claims. However all life that we know to exist so far does require water, so we use that as one method of limiting where we look so that we have a chance to find life. Otherwise we would be looking over every inch of the universe.",
"> Isn't it possible aliens can survive on just eating rocks, or nothing at all? No input seems unlikely, but we certainly can't rule out that life exists in different ways than we do. That being said, how do you organize a program to look for \"I don't know what\" ? What signs do you look for? How do you know when you find it?",
"Because all life that we've ever seen has been seen as reliant on water. A common misconception is that we need oxygen as well, which is not true, because we have today microorganisms that don't even use oxygen. We do not know any other lifeform outside of Earth, so Earth is the only basis we have. Thus, it's reasonable to say life requires water, because we have never seen any not use it. Edit: Water is also an amazing solvent, which may contribute to that."
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"http://www.livescience.com/52332-why-is-water-needed-for-life.html",
"https://nrich.maths.org/7273"
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5troi2 | Why is it incorrect to say "listening that" but not incorrect to say "watching that", "feeling that", "seeing that", etc.? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddojkti"
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"text": [
"Because \"listening\" isn't to hearing as \"watching\" is to sight. \"Listening\" corresponds to \"looking\". As it would be incorrect to say \"looking that\", it's incorrect to say \"listening that\". However, \"hearing that\" *is* correct. Thus, *hearing* corresponds to watching, not \"listening\"."
],
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5trq71 | Approximately 20% of the items I order from Ebay never show up. I live in Denmark and mostly order small items from far-east Asia. Where do they end up? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddolpsd",
"ddoj14i"
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"text": [
"You're not having a unique experience at all; that's a pretty common complaint. A little internet searching can give you all the ins and outs but I'll give you a general summary of what's going on: Chinese E-bay vendors are particularly notorious for having a high percentage of items not delivered to western buyers. Many sellers are little upstart enterprises operating with entirely different business practices than we are used to in the west. Western sellers typically acquire their inventory on spec in hopes of reselling it, or at least have a reliable way to supply it in a timely manner as needed. Often Chinese vendors won't. They will list and sell items on the assumption they'll after the sale be able to acquire them locally and simply don't hold any actual inventory on hand or guaranteed way of acquiring it. Sometimes that doesn't pan out and they can't get the item they thought they would be able to (or more often they listed and sold a larger quantity of the item than they can acquire) and they just ignore your order and hope (since often purchases from there will be pretty cheap) it isn't worth your time to go through the necessary steps to file a claim with Ebay. Unfortunately user feedback is also notoriously unreliable for Chinese based vendors as buying fake feedback is widespread and incredibly cheap there. I'm not saying never buy anything from a Chinese Ebay vendor, I've personally had good experiences, but some common sense risk management is worthwhile. You should only buy items from China that are cheap enough that you're willing to occasionally eat the cost of a purchase that you'll never get. You can always go through process of filing a claim with Ebay to try to get refunded, but such sellers are also notorious for dragging that process out. They claim they re-shipped the item or such. Sometimes they'll even forge shipping documents. They try to make it a hassle so you to just give up and drop the claim. Many buyers will. That paired with the orders they are able to deliver allows them to tell Ebay your experience must've been due to your local customs/mail/etc and not their fault because look at all the orders they filled that didn't end in a founded claim. So Ebay lets them remain a vendor. For what it's worth Amazon vendors based in China don't really have this problem associated with them (at least no where near as widely) since Amazon is known to be much more scrupulous with it's vendors.",
"If they have been sent and did not arrive, your stuff is at the customs. You need a customs declaration in the outside of the package. It can happen that you get then an invoice from customs with the amount of money to pay from importing this items. A better and easier alternative is: the shipper specifies *in the outside* that the item is a gift."
],
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5trqq1 | Cars - Do you require more steering input to get the same turning circle at higher speeds? | *providing traction between tyre and tarmac is not broken. Long ongoing debate between friends. Friend A says: If I'm cruising along the motorway at 70 and I approach a bend, I turn my wheel let's say 10deg to make the bend. If I approach at 90 and turn the wheel the same 10deg the car will travel along the same line as it did when going 70 (so long as traction is not broken). Friend B says: The car will not travel along the exact same line. Travelling at 90 will require MORE turning circle to stay on the same line as when travelling at 70. Please help | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddoj1tf"
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"text": [
"You both are kind of right. As the question is phrased, your friend is mostly right, the cars will travel along most the same line...**if traction between tyre and tarmac is not broken**. But, it will require more force to maintain that 10^o angle, and that extra force will make more likely you will not maintain traction."
],
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5trrej | If a journalist reports a story with protected sources, how can that story be considered true if the sources' information can't be cross-verified? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddoqdty"
],
"text": [
"You don't go to press with a accusations from a single source. You have multiple sources that corroborate each other, some secret, some not. Or your secret source provides you with leads or information that uncover other information that can be independently verified."
],
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5trrh8 | What is Nibiru and will it hit soon? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddojfzi"
],
"text": [
"URL_0 > The Nibiru cataclysm is a supposed disastrous encounter between the Earth and a large planetary object (either a collision or a near-miss) which certain groups believe will take place in the early 21st century. Believers in this doomsday event usually refer to this object as Planet X or Nibiru. The idea that a planet-sized object will collide with or closely pass by Earth in the near future is not supported by any scientific evidence and has been rejected by astronomers and planetary scientists as pseudoscience and an Internet hoax. TL;DR It's a supposed planet that will supposedly collide with Earth sometime in the current century. There's is no evidence that it actually exists."
],
"score": [
4
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"text_urls": [
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibiru_cataclysm"
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5trrx1 | If fever is a means for the body to kill the invaders by overheating them, why do we lower it? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddoll92",
"ddojrkl",
"ddoj97d"
],
"text": [
"Most antipyretics (if not all) also have an anti-inflammatory effect. So when you \"lower\" your fever you're also dealing with the overreaction of your immune system which can have its own harmful consequences. Fever itself can do so much against \"invaders\". Many parasites thrive happily on higher temperatures. It's more like a warning for you to be aware that something is very wrong with your body. It forces you to rest and stay away from whatever you think was the cause of your disease. Also, your immune system works slightly better at high temperatures. In most cases lowering the fever is not a requirement at all. The primary objective is your comfort. In *extreme* cases, the fever can lead to seizures and rarely cause permanent damage. Except for babies, I'm not aware if someone can actually die due to the high fever itself.",
"Because a fever can fry the proteins in your brain. And you get very dead after that happens.",
"Some fevers require more aggressive treatments, and hyperthermia is very dangerous for the elderly, immunocompromised, and very young. We medicate because being sick is uncomfortable. Realistically a healthy adult can not medicate a fever and be fine."
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5ts1kg | If there is so much research, how do scientists avoid finding something that has already been found? | How does one avoid redundant articles and what system is in place to prevent it? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddol1ea",
"ddokyjl",
"ddokxpv"
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"text": [
"In order for research to (generally speaking) be considered valid - it must first be peer reviewed and published - this means that scientists can access information about what has been researched already in the scientific literature. Now there's two main types of scientific research - commercial and academic In commercial research somebody is paying you to study something specific so they are less likely to care if somebody else is already researching something. In academic research you need to first apply for a grant or funding. Part of that application process is conducting a literature review into past and current research on the topic and justifying why your particular proposal will add to the field. It is then reviewed by other people to make sure you have done a good enough job. The tl;dr of all this is they do a lot of reading before they start doing research From time to time though different facilities will end up doing similar research projects but in science this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If two people can repeat the same experiment and get the same result then it adds weight to the the possibility that the outcome of that experiment was accurate.",
"I'm not sure there is a system in place - apart from doing your research :). The question is: Is research really redundant? - If more studies give the same results = > Confirmation - If more studies give different results = > Debunked Not to mention that no study uses the exact same premise / method, so while it may show similarities with other research, it might show it in a different light",
"We start with what we already know and ask us a question that hasn't been answered before. We read a lot about what other people currently do. Sometimes it's a race to discover something before another group does it, when both are on the right track. There are plenty of slightly redundant articles. The peer-review process would raise a flag if you're given an article to review that has already redundant information. There must be some sort of difference with previous works."
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5ts8hl | When you die from cancer what actually kills you? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddom9z2",
"ddomvct"
],
"text": [
"One of two things Firstly the cancer can grow as a tumour in particular organ to the point that the infected organ can no longer function. E.g. you could have a tumour on your lung that grows to a large enough size that you essentially end up suffocating. The second and most common way is what is known as metastasis (or also when they say your cancer is malignant). What happens here is the original tumour breaks off and gets into your blood and lymph systems - causing multiple new tumours to start to grow all over your body. Eventually the strain caused by these tumours (and your bodies attempts to fight them) becomes too much and you essentially run out of \"energy\" to keep living. This is what causes a lot of cancer patients to look like they are wasting away towards the end of their infection.",
"There are so many types of cancers and ways it can kill.. Here is a link with a pretty good explanation. URL_0"
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