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5tsb25 | why are computer viruses being created and spread? Do they have a function other than wrecking computer software? | Been wondering about this for a while. Are all viruses just product of douchebaggery? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Some are just douchebaggery, some are in good fun (the hello world virus), some are for profit (ransomware), some are for spying and then you have the viruses that have a very explicit goal (like stuxnet). There probably are other types, but the basic premise is running a program on an infected machine with a specific purpose. What that purpose is depends entirely on the intentions of the creator. Take stuxnet for example. This was most likely the product of US-Israeli collaboration with the extremely specific purpose of shutting down certain parts of an Irani nuclear powerplant. Since that powerplant had closed circuit electronics (not connected to internet or other networks) the virus needed to be implemented manually. The way it worked was quite ingenious. It spread through the internet but only to other computers that were physically closer to its intended target. The goal was to eventually infect a usb-stick that would be connected to the closed circuit of the nuclear power plant, which it did after a 2 year journey on the internet. The damage it caused took 2 years to repair. Anyway, most viruses are written for some form of gain. Be that in personal information, monetary gain (through ransomware or by stealing credit card credentials) or political and/or geostrategic gain. But like I said, everything depends on what the creator of the virus intends.",
"Several reasons: Wrecking software just for the sake of it would be one. Also, give me money and I'll restore your software back. Gaining control of computer resources to make them work for your own interests would be another. Obtaining personal information such as log-in data to email or bank accounts is also very sought after.",
"Computer virus is a broad term. We call that any program that's capable of replicating itself for unscrupulous motivations. They certainly have other purposes, and the most harmful ones are those that *don't* wreck software. Viruses that want to spread as much as possible rely on the fact that its host is unaware of its existence. Therefore it's in the best interest of the author that the computer were it resides keeps working as good as before the infection. As far as I can remember viruses started as \"douchebaggery\". Long before the Internet they spread by hiding themselves on magnetic discs. Some did impair and eventually break the systems, while others just displayed funny messages and messed with your screen (e.g. Ping Pong). But it didn't take long, specially with the Internet, for viruses to be used as a form of lucrative venture. If they can replicate and reside silently on a host system, with administrative privileges, the constant online state of most computers enabled them to send private data back to their author without much effort."
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5tse8m | China's occupation of Tibet and why the Dalai Lama remains in exile | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Most people don't know that China ruled Tibet between [1720-1912]( URL_0 ) and between 1912-1951 after collapse of Qing dynasty and during the Chinese civil war, the Tibetans gained defacto indepedence, but this was never recognized by US or even China's enemies like Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan for that matter. The Tibetan independence cause was supported by US only after the Communist won, it was a part of the Cold War era anti-Communist ideology to weaken the bad guys by supporting Tibetan independence. That's why CIA stopped funding Dalai Lama after restoring relations with PRC in the 1970's.",
"I lived in McCleod Ganje for a few months which is the exiled capital of Tibet. As catmeow321 stated China(kinda) ruled Tibet between 1720-1912 and then until the 50s but all of china was under the Qing Dynasty. Tibet was overtaken by various other dynasties throughout it's history. Tibet's point of contention is that they became Independent after the Fall of the Qing Dynasty. And in many ways they were. Because of their isolation they had their own government, system of exchange, etc. China's point of contention is it's always been a part of China because China should encompass everything that as part of the Qing dynasty. The Dalai Lama is in exile because he was so young when Tibet was overthrown by Mao. The Tibetan people were worried he would be captured or coerced to be complicit in the occupation of Tibet. They have done this to one of Tibet's high ranking Lamas. It's been a few years since I've studied all this stuff so it's not as clear as it once ways but I was pretty interested in it for quite a while. It's a pretty complex issue and not as one-sided as it always seems. Of course in many ways it's terrible what's happened but in lots of ways life is also better in Tibet. I remember thebook \"a history of propoganda\" was really good and it looks at how the two sides tell the history."
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5tsgyh | What is fed to people in a coma? | Is it blended every day food or similar to meal replacement shakes? If so does this include fruits and vegetables or are all essential nutrients provided though supplementation? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's a special liquid formula that contains the right amount of calories, protein, and essential nutrients that can be adjusted depending on the specific needs of the patient. It's doesn't contain any actual food but it does have all the nutrients and calories we need from eating food.",
"For patients I worked with in persistent vegetative states we fed them a pre-measured nutritional liquid that was administered via a gastric tube. These were basically a high gauge catheter that created a passage from the stomach directly to the skin. Feeding tubes are pretty brutal, and coma/persistent vegetative state is not the way I would want to spend the rest of my life. I never really got a mouthful of the slurry, but from what I have tasted, it just kinda tastes like a bland milkshake.",
"In England they use a formula called Fresubin Energy, which is a nutritional supplement fed through an NG tube (tube through the nose) or a Peg feed (directly into the stomach). Well this is what I've seen anyway. Hope this helps. :)",
"There are many commercially available formulas, like ensure, nutren, replete, peptamen. They are calorically dense, vitamin fortified. They are not perfect foods. They are fed through a tube (either through the nose to the stomach or surgically placed in the abdomen into the stomach). Some families choose to make blended real foods (especially kids who cannot eat normally) but that is typically too expensive and labor intensive for hospitals and nursing homes. URL_0"
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5tsh0l | When my smartphone's battery dies, I have to wait a few minutes to use it again when it's on charge. When my laptop's battery dies, it works right away when on charge. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Lazy ELI5 but. Laptops are designed to draw power straight from the cable so they are still usable without a battery. A Mobile phone only draws power from the battery so it needs power before it can power the device.",
"> When my smartphone's battery dies, I have to wait a few minutes to use it again when it's on charge That's not the case for all phones. My phone (Nexus 5X) works on the charger right away even if my battery has been depleted dry. I guess some devices can switch their power source on the fly between battery and straight from the power cord."
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5tsikg | Why Do Beds Seem Much More Comfortable After The Alarm Goes Off? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Your body tells you that recharging and healing process isn't finished yet and you should stay in bed unless getting up is crucial for survival."
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5tsoeo | How can encryption methods be open source? | I was reading about the signal protocol and saw it has a github page. Doesn't this mean anyone can figure out how the encryption works and break it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It is a generally accepted security precept that \"The enemy knows the system.\" That is, when you are designing an encryption algorithm (or any security measure) that you assume the enemy knows its design. You assume that, eventually, an adversary will get a hold of the algorithm and therefore A) you cannot rely on the secrecy of the algorithm for security; and B) your algorithm should be secure despite general awareness of it. The strength of encryption methods lies in the keys (and, for asymmetric methods, the inherent mathematical difficulty of reversing the encryption process). For example, the most secure encryption method, the One Time Pad (OTP) has an extremely simplistic algorithm. ALL of the security is invested in how the key is created, used, and kept secret.",
"> I was reading about the signal protocol and saw it has a github page. Doesn't this mean anyone can figure out how the encryption works and break it? As a general rule, you should never ever give ANY credence to encryption methods that are not open source and fully examinable by you. NSA and other parties have tried to weaken encryption measures precisely by creating partially closed source encryption methods which then would have weaknesses only they would know about, and only they could exploit. Which, even if you're totally cool with NSA breaking your encryption, would still mean that there is an exploit that may eventually get out because NSA messes up for example, and some Snowden type leak reveals how to decrypt all your supposedly secure data. Any encryption method consists of essentially two parts: There is method you use. This HAS to be public, everyone HAS to know exactly how it works. Then there is the key. This key is random number sequence, typically it's about 256 bits long, sometimes even 2048 bits long. That's computer talk, but basically 256 bits long key means, you choose any number between hundred billion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion, and trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion. Or basically, number that's maybe 84 or 83 decimals long. The security comes from the fact that you need to know the exact number, every decimal of it, to encrypt or decrypt data. Guessing such a number, if you guessed trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion numbers every single nanosecond, would take roughly... Well, 31 million years to guess it right? Trillion trillion trillion trillion guesses every nanosecond is far more than anything we can currently do, and 31 million years is far longer than we can wait to decrypt something. Secure algorithm is such that you don't have any good shortcuts that are easier for decryption than trying trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion guesses every nanosecond for 31 million years. You don't know your algorithm is secure if you can't see it. A random 84 digit number could be 834,485,888,921,132,283,384,723,847,928,073,987,476,456,352,956,839,445,342,342,475,324,647,232,344,664,756,578,495,4,543,436,234.",
"What needs to be secret is the key (or set of keys), not the way in which the lock is built. If knowing how a lock is made can be enough to access without having the keys, it's a poor lock, no matter if its inner workings were known by legitimate access to the source code, or by reverse engineering. (EDIT: typo)",
"We all know how a mechanical door lock works, but that doesn't mean you can just break into any lock easily. It is still much easier if you have a key. For encryption it's kind of the same. Knowing the algorithm might give a small edge for whoever is trying to break it. Or not. Modern algorithms (e.g. AES) are actually *designed* to be completely open source and yet you'd be helpless if you don't have the actual cryptographic key used on the data that you want to decipher. Even if you have access to samples of plain text and their ciphered counterparts, you wouldn't be able to do too much. The RSA algorithm, for example, is a quite simple mathematical operation, well known to the public for ages. But it relies on the fact that, mathematically, the inverse operation would be borderline impossible if you don't have all the variables."
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5tspo7 | When we take a shit we clean the inside walls of our ass cheeks, but how does the tube where the shit passes through actually get cleaned? Does shit just stay there forever? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Your intestines are a mucous membrane, which is fairly different from skin. While they can tolerate shit just fine, they secrete mucous to help it move smoothly without any getting left behind. Mucous production increases when they're irritated to help wash away more harmful, abrasive or otherwise irritating feces.",
"Your intestines have some of the highest turnover in cell number in your body. So essentially it cleans itself by constantly shedding and replacing its surface.",
"yes, the inside of you intestines is covered in shit. it's adapted to be ok with that, and there's normaly no need to clean it, it only gets dangerous if you get an internal injury which allows shit (and the bacteria in it) to reach the bloodstream but if you're having anal sex, you can use an enema to clean the inside and avoid shit-dick",
"This seemed like such a innocent question-and interesting. But now...suddenly im oddly feeling a bit....disturbed. LOL.",
"I'm no scientist, but I think I can wager a guess here. The body is made of many different types of skin, each able to perform a different function and withstand contact with different chemicals/compounds/bacteria/etc. While excrement would be damaging/irritating to the external skin that covers your ass and body, the organs inside you are designed to transport it and therefore would experience no ill effects. A couple examples would be the skin in your mouth never changing texture or consistency despite constant contact with a myriad of different substances, or the stomach being able to safely hold hydrochloric acid. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, OR if this question/post was made in jest."
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5tsxb2 | How can our ears listen to specific conversations when you're in a room filled with people talking? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Our ears don't listen to specific conversations, our *brains* listen to specific conversations. We hear the combined sound from the room and the complex pattern-matching abilities of our brains pick out specific voices from the mix. Precisely how this happens is extremely complex and in large part unknown."
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5tszvw | Does repeatedly flicking a light on and off damage it? | I was told flicking the lights on and off quickly damages the light (maybe the bulb, maybe the switch?). Any truth to this? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Probably. Sending pulses of power into things causes a lot of stress on them. This is particularly a problem with delicate things like light bulb filaments. Plus it annoys the other people in the room and if someone throws a shoe at the lamp that could also damage it.",
"> I was told flicking the lights on and off quickly damages the light (maybe the bulb, maybe the switch?). This is mostly for incandescent light bulbs. Changing the temperature of materials causes them to expand and contract. Generally making them colder causes them to contract and heating them cause expansion. A prime example is a hot air balloon where heating air causes it to expand and become less dense. (An example of a rare exception is water ice expanding compared to liquid water.) Incandescent lights work by heating a very thin wire until it glows brightly. This causes it to expand slightly and when power is removed it will contract again as it cools. When these cycles happen it causes fatigue in the material and it is much more likely to break at this point. Turning a bulb on or off is the most stressful part of its operation. So switching a light rapidly on and off is basically the worst thing you can do to an incandescent light bulb. On the other hand an LED bulb wouldn't care in the slightest, so it really depends on the technology.",
"Whenever you actuate a mechanical switch, you'll create a bit of a spark that can scorch the material. Over time, this can theoretically damage the switch. However, for the power levels you use in your house and the materials you're using for the switch, you're unlikely to cause much harm. This effect is more of a concern for your power company. In terms of what that switch is powering, there is a potential for harm but usually not much. For electronics, you'll normally have a great deal of capacitance involved in transforming the AC from your wall socket into the DC used by the electronics. For motors, you'll need a control board that likewise insulates them from direct connection to the power. A purely resistive circuit - such as an incandescent bulb - is already dealing just fine with voltage fluctuating back and forth. However, the mechanical nature of the switch does allow for the possibility of a spike in voltage beyond the normal limitations. This will probably only happen if you've worn down the mechanical switch (see above). More modern bulbs tend not to have this sort of problem due to the more complex circuitry. So the problem you're describing does exist, but it's a bit obsolete with modern equipment.",
"To summarize answers: Bulb: only incandescent. Even then, they are good for thousand on/off cycles. Your finger will wear faster. Switch: Your finger will wear faster. Bottom line: technically yes, practically not of any significance."
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5tt0qz | Why do some people who talk to themselves? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I have two methods of thought - one, in my head, where I'm essentially speaking nonstop from when I wake up to when I go to sleep, and one where I speak to myself out loud. The second one is a doosy when it comes to explaining the point, but I'll give it a shot. My belief is that I'm literally having a conversation with myself. A conversation isn't two people agreeing on the exact same point, it's two people discussing something. When I talk to myself, there's a delay between my spoken thoughts and my mental thoughts. I think of an apple and imagine the description. I formulate the ideas into words, I work muscles to speak, and then I wait until I hear the words. I comprehend the language and translate the words back into ideas. By the time I reach this final point of understanding, my mental thought process is already further along; maybe I'm thinking about oranges, but I'm hearing apples. It causes a partial disagreement/disparity and allows me to quite literally argue with myself. It's possibly also because speaking and thinking use different parts of the brain. That's why you can have someone understand how a plane engine works but be unable to physically make words. When you talk out loud, you're working different brain muscles, so to speak. It's also cathartic. If I have no one else to talk to, it comforts me to hear a voice, even if it's my own.",
"For me it happens mostly at home. I don't like complete silence but I also like being alone, so I found that talking aloud keeps things light and helps me think through ideas. My brain tends to have several layers of thought going at the same time (music on one layer, random thoughts/connections from what I see on another, memories dropping in and out on a third, etc etc). It's like a tornado whirlpool river thing that never stops and never stays on one thing for too long, so by voicing my thoughts I find that I can structure them and make sense of what's going on. Otherwise the stream of thought takes me in and I start zoning out/day-dreaming/watching the \"film\" of my thoughts, and I lose focus on what I'm doing. Hope that makes sense.",
"I have a co-worker like this too. He sighs, sniffs, twitch his limbs, picks on things, talks aloud and gesticulate all the time. He's also notably anxious, always skittish, and had several nervous breakdowns in the office. I guess most people talk to themselves normally, but it's markedly more noticeable on anxious people.",
"U/azated pretty much hit it spot on. I have a running dialogue with myself to use as a way of sounding out ideas. What tends to happen is that I get so deeply involved with my internal dialogue that my brain-- > mouth filter sometimes stops working and I start talking out loud, often with accompanying gesticulations."
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5tt6h7 | How did people calculate the speed of light and when? | How did one calculate such incredibly fast speed as speed of light* | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The first estimates of the speed of light involved astronomy. In the 17th Century, Danish astronomer Olaus Roemer showed the timing of eclipses of Jupiter's moon would change based on whether Jupiter was closer or further from the earth. He estimated light was take 22 minutes to travel the diameter of the earth's orbit. That was an error of 22%, but it put it in the ballpark. In the 19th Century, more direct means of measure were devised. A bright, narrow beam of light was shone through the teeth of a rapidly spinning cog, at a mirror a long way away. In the time it takes for the light to travel to the mirror and back, the cog will have turned enough to block the returning light. If the cog is sped up to just the right point, it will be spinning faster enough that the light passes through the *next* gap in the teeth. If we know how fast the cog is spinning and the size of the gap, we can directly compute the speed of light. This was first done by Hippolyte Fizeau, and was accurate to about 5%."
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5tt7l0 | Why do wireless companies treat tethering data differently than mobile data? | if i pay for data, does it really matter how it's being used? if i use my phone to stream netflix, or use it to tether to my computer to stream netflix, isn't the data being used regardless? is tethering more strain on the network than mobile data? if i stream 2gb on my phone or tether 2gb, what is the difference between those? seems some carriers have, for example, caps for regular data usage before they throttle, and a much lower cap for tethering usage before they throttle speed. but, my question is, isn't data usage just data usage? if you lease a car and you have X amount of miles, if you go over, you go over whether you drive with 1 passenger or 5, whether you drive to work or the beach, or day or night. miles are miles. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There is no technical reason for this, and a few years back they did *not*. The bottom line is that they can make more money selling you an additional service.",
"Because they're greedy greedy pig fucks. They can make more money carving up your data into \"voice, video, internet, email, tethering, etc.\" then setting arbitrary limits for each type. So say people normally use 100GB of data, but they know people use 80% of it for tethering, instead they cut you to 80GB data, saying only \"high users\" go above 80 & sell you 50GB of tethering package, for an extra $50."
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5ttd54 | the relationship between the UK, Gibraltar and Spain | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"So in the late 17th century, Spain's king (Charles II) was **profoundly** retarded, all as a product of being the product of crazy levels of incest in the Spanish line of the Habsburg family, such that *all* of his ancestors were descended from Phillip I and Joanna, even though Phillip I died 160ish years before Charles II was even born. In addition to an inability to rule Spain, this resulted in Charles II not producing an heir, so when he died in 1700, there was a dispute over who should be the next king of Spain. This dispute turned into a massive war known as the War of Spanish Succession. In the course of that war, the English and Dutch invaded Gibraltar, and England signed a treaty with Spain that ceded the land to the UK in return for them abandoning the war. Despite numerous other wars, the Spanish never managed to reclaim it, such that it's still a British possession. The reason they took Gibraltar specifically is because of it's [geographical position]( URL_0 ) at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic (the top segment of the little crescent-shaped bay on the Spanish (so, left) side of the image is Gibraltar), and that's also the reason they kept it; it allowed the British to forcibly hold the Straits open by parking a fleet on it, which meant the Spanish couldn't stop maritime trade between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The Spanish want it back, but the people who live in Gibraltar want to remain British. Now, though, things may start changing because of the Brexit situation, although that get's into other weird politics concerning Spain's discomfort around conversations about secession.",
"A lot of mess from a long time ago mostly. In the 1700s, the English and the Dutch fought a war with Spain and France, in which the English took \"The Rock\" and never gave it back. Fast forward 300 years and the people on that little rock are basically English, and have no interest in returning to the Spanish despite the legitimate claim Spain has on the land. So while Spain wants the land back, the Brits won't give it back unless the people ask for it and the people won't ask for it because they don't want too go."
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5tthbp | What is the purpose of bees making honey? Do they actually do something with it? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's their food source. They make extra so that they can survive the winter. Some insects simple lay eggs in the ground and die, then the eggs hatch in the spring. Bees save food, then huddle together in the hive all winter for heat and eat the honey to survive until warmer weather.",
"They eat it, over the winter when there are no flowers available. Beekeepers have to be careful to leave them enough that they don't starve, they can't just harvest all the honey.",
"They eat it. Beyond that it's a similar question to \"why do cows produce so much milk, even when they don't have calves\". And the answer is breeding. Beekeepers generally prefer the queens whose offspring produce the most honey and after thousands of years of (kindof) domestication they produce far more than the hive actually needs.",
"Bees make honey to eat themselves and royal jelly for the Queen to eat.",
"Honey is what bees eat. It is their food source and they store it so that they can survive the winter when flowers are dead and they can no longer produce more of it. They have also evolved to produce a significant surplus because numerous animals like to eat honey."
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5ttklw | How does the Federal Government investigate terrorism? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are no good examples of stopping an attack before it happened, as most of that is very classified. The best you're going to get is the drone strikes overseas that presumably is hitting leadership, stifling their ability to actually get an attack organized. As for how we investigate terrorists, I strongly recommend you look into the Snowden movie as a primer, and then dig into what he actually released and what the followup reports found. The short version is best described through a Facebook analogy. Basically, they look at your Facebook page, then compare it to that of your friends, and that of your friends' friends, and maybe your friend's friend's friend's looking for possible terrorist connections, or the potential for friends/family to be used as leverage into participating. For example, you may not be a terrorist, but your sister is still in Pakistan. The bad guys could say \"Load a u-haul full of bombs or your sister dies\". Investigators looking to clear you would need to consider these possibilities. Except the contacts aren't just Facebook. They're automatically tracked and gathered by aggregating all of your emails, SMS, call history, and social media profiles. Now they they have a web of who you know and how well, they can sort through the list to see who is worth checking deeper into. From there they'll pull the same information for each of your contacts, and look into them. When looking into them, they'll not just look at the past, but can also click on virtually any microphone/camera that you're nearby for a live feed. With that face/voice recognition can add a few more contacts to your network if you're meeting friends 'off the grid'. This is also why the vetting process for middle eastern folks takes so long (18mos) to come into the US. That is also why so many people took issue with Trump's travel ban, as many folks were at the end of that 18mo journey only to have to start all over again just because Trump said that still wasn't good enough. What's more disturbing is the lack of interest the American public seems to have regarding domestic spying. All of these tactics are being used on US citizens in the name of \"stopping terrorists\". Odds are pretty good that you know someone that knows someone that is brown and living in Iraq. Currently, this is enough cause for a FISA warrant to be issued, and an intelligence dossier made up about you. For better or for worse, they know you're not a terrorist, but you are into animal porn. If you're inconveniencing a government administration with flexible morals, this could be used against you. Or it could simply be brought up in a real court when they bust you for holding a bit of weed, and want to totally discredit you. But all this stuff is complicated, and it's easier to just ignore it. Only the bad guys actually have that stuff used against them right?"
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5ttoxf | Why did Obamas (and probably Trumps) phone have texting, calls and music removed, but not internet access? | As he described by Obama in [this]( URL_0 ) video, his iPhone has had the camera, music and phone functionality removed, yet it can access the internet. Why did they remove all of these functionalities, most of which are harmless (such as music or phone calls), yet leave in internet access (which would probably be more of a threat)? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Security, if he had the phone call ability there, someone could listen in on any conversation the phone was near. If he had the camera someone could watch, music im not too sure about"
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5ttsv9 | How blood is "recreated" after a blood donation? | And how long does this process take to happen? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The plasma itself is mostly water, and your body regenerates that in a few days from water you've taken in. As for the other components of blood, as an example: After a donation, the amount of oxygen your blood can carry is reduced, due to the loss of red blood cells, and your kidney detects this situation, causing it to release a [hormone]( URL_0 ) that travels to your bone marrow and stimulates the production of additional red blood cells. This process is slower than regenerating lost plasma, and so to fully 'refill' can take upwards of a month or longer."
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5tttvr | Why do we inherently know to smile when we're happy and frown when we're sad? | Being a new father, I've noticed that even though my baby doesn't really know what its doing or have thoughts much beyond eat, sleep, poop, and get really upset, that she will still see something that makes her "happy" and then a huge smile is on her face. She hasn't been around long enough to have "learned" to do that because she sees us smile (I surmise .. maybe I'm wrong). | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"We don't know, but interestingly enough even people who are blind from birth share the same sets of facial expressions as those with sight. Clearly our expressions, at least the basics, are part of a fairly hefty genetic heritage. How that works exactly though, isn't known yet AFAIK.",
"Theres a [good article]( URL_0 ) on *Aeon* about this."
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5ttz1h | Why is it perfectly normal to walk on moving escalators but when they are not it feels super weird? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"In one regard, an escalator's steps are taller, and spaced differently than we are used to on a staircase, so this alone presents some unusual sensation as we advance. Additionally, it is theorized that we adapt to moving surfaces like airport moving sidewalks and escalators, with the expectation of their movement. When our brain perceives we are then moving onto one, the lack of expected movement, we have associated with it through experience, throws us off. So part of our brain is still trying to accommodate the motion which is not present."
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5tu45q | When paper money became the new standard, how was in distributed? What was the process for people to exchange their old currency for the new currency? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Paper money started as promissory notes, created by private banks. The idea is that the bank held the real currency, and would create the note promising to pay the bearer the amount promised on request. When you have a note that can instantly be exchanged for 100 dollars, it effectively is worth 100 dollars, so if you've got something worth 100 dollars, which is easier to carry than 100 dollars, why bother turn it into actual money when you can just give people the notes as payment? So promissory notes promising currency can be used as currency themselves. Because of the paper note's ease of use over bucket-loads of coins, they caught on. But since there were many banks issuing notes, and an institution might not have accepted a note from another institution as payment, there needed to be some form of standardization. The government issued it's own notes to be the standard, which are recognized as acceptable payment in law (legal tender). In the US, the dollar used to be backed up on the gold standard, so a dollar used to merely represent a certain amount of gold that; in theory; the government promised to pay the bearer. I guess that makes a commercial bank note a promissory currency promising to pay a promissory currency.",
"It's a pretty long process that ran multiple times in many different societies. Mostly paper money evolved out of promissory notes - IOUs in which the government or some other trusted entity promised to pay the bearer an amount of some coin/commodity currency. As trust builds in these instruments people realize they're more convenient to transport and trade with than the commodity currency they represent. Extra History had a pretty great series on paper money recently; [this is the episode specifically on introducing the idea]( URL_0 ).",
"It actually with merchant bankers, people who wanted to travel without carrying wads of cash would have their money deposited with a bank in their home town. They would write an IOU when they spent money, which would be redeemable at any branch of that bank. People realized they could do this with the certificates of deposit they got when they deposited their money in a bank, so they would just ask for multiple smaller certificates when they deposited their metal money- so instead of having a certificate for 5257 pounds of silver, you might ask for 40 100 pound notes, 50 20 pound notes, 20 10 pound notes, 10 5 pound notes, and 7 1 pound notes. That way you could more easily spend your silver without having to carry it around, and people knew they could take the notes to whichever bank issued it and receive the full value of the note. Incidentally, this is why the british pound is the pound; it was originally was a promissory note for the deposit of a pound of silver. TL;DR: they the paper money was distributed by the banks, who would sell them to people in exchange for valuable metals.",
"Every country had their own history when it came to money. The basic principle is that people used to deposit their gold and silver at banks because they were guarded and harder to rob than someone's house. At some point, if you wanted to buy something, it was a bit of an ordeal to go to the bank and get your money. So, banks drafted notes that could be traded instead of the actual precious metals so that someone could perform a transaction with fewer steps. Eventually, people stopped trading the metals at all and just swapped notes. As governments got more involved, most of them saw a value in having a common bank note with an equivalent value for all transactions. This also made it easier and more practical to tax people. (so there was a strong incentive to put a monetary system in place) The US dollar for example had a gold value to it that you could exchange it for. This was eliminate a long time ago, the value is simply maintained by the controlled supply of the Treasury. In the case of countries that changed currencies (like some European countries shifting to the Euro), they set a day that all the official transactions had to switch over and banks would convert your money at a set rate. I believe they set it to the USD at first as it was a viable, relatively stable benchmark. So, if you had 500 franks and that was worth 100 dollars, you would get 100 euro. (just a made up example, I don't know what franks were actually worth when the trade happened)"
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5tu5lf | What causes you to hear a high pitched noise when a device, which has been fully charged, is still in the charger? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Small chargers today are switch mode power supplies. They work, simply said, by first rectifying the alternating mains current to direct current, then chopping it up again to pulses at a much higher frequency, transforming it down and rectifying it again. That sounds overcomplicated, but transformers for high frequencies are WAY smaller, cheaper and more efficient, which is worth the hassle. The transformer tends to make a sound, just like the \"normal\" ones make that familiar hum. It's depending on quality, cheap ones tend to have loose parts which vibrate and make them louder .. but normally the used frequency is way beyond our hearing range, so it seems dead quiet. If the device is charging and needs less and less power to do that as the battery fills up, the power supply has to reduce the power it delivers to held the output voltage at the same level. This is done by making the pulses of the primary voltage shorter and shorter. If the device is fully charged and in standby, it needs almost no power, but there is a lower limit how short the pulses can be, so the only choice the charger has is to drop (e.g., very simplfied) every 5th pulse completely or the output voltage would climb too high. But THAT introduces an additional frequency component at (in that case 1/5th) the normal switching frequency, which you can hear. Since the amout of dropped pulses is varying much with load, the sound tends to be quite irregulary and if you pick it your device to use it, while still connected to the charger, you can often even \"hear\" the fluctuating current consumption by listening to the changing sound.",
"The phrase is called coil whine. The highest rated comment nailed the basics. You can solve it easiest by replacing your charger, but if you like to ne a do it yourself-er, opening the charger and securing the transformers and coils with silicone, that should reduce or even remove the sound.",
"This is a thing? I have high frequency hearing loss so I wouldn't know but I've never heard anyone mention it.",
"So isn't the ELI5 here more like, the unit making the noise is receiving more power in a period of time that it transfers it than it's ment to?",
"What you're hearing is coils expanding and contracting of a buck converter, which is just a fancy way of saying a voltage converter that uses pulses(high voltage to low voltage probably). Basically what happens is that the correct voltage is generated by turning on the current to the coil for a certain amount of time and then turning it off at a certain(audible, if you can hear it) frequency. This causes the wire in a coil to expand from the heat that the current is generating and upon turning it off it shrinks again. This causes vibration in the air which is just soundwaves at that point. This frequency also varies depending on the current level of charge in your battery and how fast it's getting charged. Imagine the coil being a balloon where you fill it with such a frequency that you can vibrate the air and produce sound. That's what happens with a coil. edit: there is also a bit of magnetism involved in higher currents where the coil gets pushed apart when current is flowing. However I don't know how relevant this part is for small electronics. For superconductors one of the challenges is to keep the coil together because the magnetic field inside the coil can get strong enough to rip the coil apart."
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5tuark | Why is it recommended that new mobile phones be charged 6-8 hours before use? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Lithium batteries have best long term shelf life when half charged. The battery will self discharge even not plugged in. So between your iphone leaves the factory in china, gets to dock warehouse in china, wait for the next boat, gets loaded, spends 2-3 weeks at sea, gets unloaded, waits for customs inspection, gets trucked to landing warehouse, distributed to local stores, unpacked and available for purchase, until you actually buy one, It's been a good couple of months since the battery was last charged."
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5tv066 | Why does water form into droplets as its smallest unit? What's special about that specific size? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Surface tension causes drops to take a shape which minimizes their surface area per unit volume. It starts as a sphere, because that's the most effective shape, and then it's pulled into a droplet by air friction as it falls.",
"Are you talking about rain here? Or water drops in general? Rain drops tend to form when water condenses onto particulates in the air. Then more water condenses onto that. When it reaches a certain size it is too heavy to stay in the air so it falls. Then the asymetrical structure of the water molecules cause it to have more electrons on one side than the other. This makes them attracted to each other (especially if they are at the surface where there are fewer molecules to attract) which causes them to form a sphere (the form with the highest volume to surface area ratio). When forced against a surface by gravity it will have a force acting down due to gravity, a reaction force up from the surface, and surface tension forcing it together on the sides. The pressure increases as the height of the droplet increases, so an equilibrium is found where the surface tension is enough to contain the pressure. So a puddle on a table is just the water trying to be a sphere, but being squashed by gravity. As gravity gets less, this puddle will get taller until it floats away as a sphere."
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5tv3au | Why does "tilt-shift" make photo's look like miniatures. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It has to do with depth of field. This is the area that's in focus. Everything outside of this range is out of focus. The farther away from something you are, the wider the depth of field. When things are small / closer - it's easier to get a shallow depth of field and blur the background. With something like cars / buildings / etc - if you were close enough to have a shallow depth of field, the subject would fill the entire frame, so you wouldn't really see the blurry background. If you're far enough away to make those things look small, then everything would be in focus and there wouldn't be anything blurry. This all assumes you have a flat focal plane. Tilt shift lenses tilt/shift that focal plane. Instead of having this flat plane of focus in front of you, it can be angled. This can make it so only a weird slice of the world is in focus. Say there's a road/cars far away so they're small. You can tilt the focal plane so only the cars are in focus. Anything in front of and behind aren't in the plane, so they become blurry. This has the same visual effect as things that are close/smaller, so it makes it seem like those objects are small.",
"Because when imaging small up-close objects, cameras and your eyes cause items in the foreground and background to blur a lot. Objects imaged further away (like room distance or farther) do not have such an extreme blurring of the other non-target objects. Faking or intensifying the blur of the foreground and background when imaging large far-range targets creates the sensation that you're looking at something small."
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5tv3w5 | Why do we still have to file taxes? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Look up \"real time tax.\" The IRS has actually looked into online systems that would make filing into a process where you log in, review the data the IRS has for you, and then either affirm or edit the information and submit. It would result in massive savings for businesses and taxpayers through reduction of paperwork and time invested and increase tax compliance and revenue by reducing tax fraud, but the IRS budget is a political football and they can't even get the money they need to answer the phone (look up IRS courtesy disconnects) much less modernize the tax filing system. EDIT: Autocorrect hates me and wants to make me look stupid on the internet.",
"I actually just wrote a research paper on this in my Federal Tax Research course: An important thing to understand is that when you talk about the IRS filing your taxes for you, you're actually talking about free-filing. First of all, free-filing is already used, and has been used to the extent that you refer (the government gathers the data) in California with the ReadyReturn and Calfile programs. It is totally usable for income earners that do not file with itemized deductions, which is a majority of tax filers. On a national level, free-filing has been used by the IRS for quite a long time (since 2001), but not many people take advantage of it. This leads to my second point: tax return filing is a huge lobbying market for tax software providers like Intuit (TurboTax), and this keeps change from happening. As mentioned in 2001, the \"Free File Alliance\" was formed with the hopes of making tax return preparation free for low income people, as well as making electronic filing the norm. The IRS formed the Free File Alliance with tax software companies, because they had the software, and made an agreement that those companies had to make a free filing software available on their sites and the IRS site. This software would have had to be usable by around 60% of income earners. The program has maxed at almost 3% of taxpayers actually taking advantage of it since its inception. After 2001, there was some growth in use, but since then pretty much none. Why is this? Because the free file alliance was formed by the IRS moreso to make electronic filing prevalent. This was achieved in 2011 when it reached it's goal of 80% electronic filing. Since then, the terms of the alliance have actually been amended in the favor of tax software companies, and further made binding until 2020. This means that hopes for free filing is in the hands of tax software companies, those who have a direct interest in making sure free filing does not become a thing, and any questions about free filing are answered with \"we have a Free File Alliance set up already.\" An important thing to note, and some will already know, is that Intuit DOES provide free filing. The catch? They make you pay to have that information prepared for your state returns, which isn't covered by the Free File Alliance. So, you're technically still paying to have your taxes done if you live in one of the majority of states that require state income tax. There's some more history behind this as far as the efforts in California involving Intuit lobbying against politicians who were for free filing programs in the state. Calfile also provides free state returns, which gives reason to Intuit's concern. I also did the numbers in my report, and estimated that the Unites States could save somewhere around 16 billion dollars if everyone who could would take advantage of the tax-funded filing system in California right now. The thing is that free filing only affects tax software companies: accounting firms and even higher end tax prep providers would still have their higher income tax payers coming to them. I came to this conclusion by showing the increase in tax-service revenue from big four firms (mainly attributable to greater focus on tax consultation). Other people will most likely argue that the accumulation of data and automated tax preparation is an invasion of privacy, which would obviously be prevented by notice that you want it done manually. Anyone with higher income, and thus an opportunity for itemized deduction would do the same. Free-filing is for the majority of people who have low income, for which software is already proven to be able to handle. **TL;DR:** The ability to have data accumulated and prepared for taxes by the IRS/federal government/state governments is definitely viable. However, automated tax preparation also assumes free-filing. Tax software companies, like Intuit, have control over any efforts of the government handling preparation (and thus making it free) through the use of agreements and lobbying. EDIT: I was asked to share my research paper. I would love to do so, but I would probably regret it as I still question some of my estimates in hindsight. I do believe that there is definitely money to be saved nationally through free-filing. The Calfile program's highest operating budget was $125,000 and highest annual returns filed was 278,000. That's $0.45 per return, and could be much less on a larger, national scale. Here is a link to a very good NYTimes article I used as well as the official Free File Alliance agreements. I will not be able post links to data because it was scattered across maybe 30 or so sources. Feel free to do your own research: [Initial Free File Alliance Agreement]( URL_0 ), [2005 Amendment: Notice Section I, Par. C]( URL_3 ), [Amendment to Remain Binding until 2020]( URL_2 ), [NYTimes Article]( URL_1 ) EDIT 2: I've seen a lot of people say that TurboTax is now allowing free state filing as well. I definitely respect Intuit for making this move, because I do think that is part of their corporate social responsibility. The main point is that they do have control of the future of tax preparation though. Whether that is right or wrong is up to you and your opinions on capitalism. What I am more concerned with is that Intuit is making ethical decisions and fulfilling its corporate social responsibility under the current circumstances, which it seems it may have started doing.",
"This has nothing to do with data available today but more to do with a tax system that was developed in the 1913s, changed in 1985 and hasn't been updated since. As you can imagine, back in the day, the IRS had no idea of your life situation and if you received money outside of your day job unless it was reported to them as a wage. A lot of what was done was done over paper. With today, where everything is reported to the IRS digitally and a few seconds on their part, they can find out anything about you, they could potentially do that. But there are outside factors that can change your taxes from 1 year to the next. Donations, getting married, getting divorced, kids, gains from a death in the family, etc, can all impact your taxes that can't otherwise be seen by the IRS unless reported to them. Ideally, if your income, donations, family structure, etc. hasn't changed at all, then yes you could literally take the same tax return from the year before and re-report. The other aspect is that the IRS still uses a lot of older systems similar to most other government agencies. This can bog down their system and since there's only a handful of them and 100s of millions of U.S. adults who work, that's a lot to process. It's just easier to get those 100s of millions to send in their taxes and check to see if everything is correct vs having to generate 100s of millions of reports to people, have them check it, then send back. People are inherently lazy, so its easier to make people send in the information vs waiting to receive feedback.",
"They can and many countries allow it. Its the standard in countries like Spain and Denmark prepopulate returns and mail it to you. The IRS could easily do what you are asking but its a political problem. Inuit and H & R block don't want it. URL_0",
"What you are describing can definitely be achieved using pre-filled forms. Ideally, the IRS would send you a tax return with all numbers available to the IRS filled in the correct spots. You would then review and make sure it is correct. You could even bring it to a tax professional to look it over for you. What's stopping this from happening is the many parties that are interested in making sure your return remains complex. These parties include companies like Intuit (TurboTax) and H & R Block. A lot of their business would disappear overnight, as they handle a lot of the more basic returns that only include income and the standard deduction. More info here: URL_0 URL_1",
"Norway here. 25 years ago we did what you suggest, and started sending out prefilled tax returns with all the information the government already had. For everyone with uncomplicated taxes, that meant all you had to do was check that the numbers was accurate, sign the prefilled form and send it in. About 10 years ago they ditched the signature as well. Now you just get a text message to check your numbers online, and change them if they are inaccurate. If everything is ok you don't have to do anything. If you have an uncomplicated economic life and you trust the system, you can just ignore the whole tax thing, everything is automatic. They are constantly evolving the system, in order to expand what uncomplicated means. They do this both by automating information from ever more sources, as well as simplifying the tax laws. The government apparently saved billions doing this, and society as a whole certainly benefited from it, since we no longer have to spend time doing unpaid work filling in unneccessary forms. I can only speculate why the US doesn't do this. You seem to have an industry dedicated to figuring out people's taxes. That's totally unproductive, just simplify the tax laws and the need for this industry vanishes. Complicated deductions might also be holding you back. Incentivizing certain behavior using the tax system can be great, but do it in a way that can be automated. Walking your old neighbors dog for free is nice, but shouldn't give you a tax deduction since no sane government could know that about you. Giving tax deductions for driving an electric car is fine though, as long as the IRS can access a registry over who owns what car and the registry shows which cars are electric. That way the deduction could be completely automated. Taxes do not need to be complicated.",
"You could, if you wanted to pay more taxes. The reason we file taxes is so we can get credit for our tax deductions, and pay less. The IRS doesn't know you donated a bunch of old clothes to charity. It doesn't know your $5000 carbon fiber racing bike was stolen out of your garage. It doesn't know you put up solar panels. It doesn't know you married an unemployed single parent with six kids on 12/31. All of these things can result in tax deductions, which will mean you pay less taxes. It is very much in your interest to file them on your own, so it is your judgment, and not the IRS's, what deductions you should take.",
"A lot of English Speaking countries have the [PAYE]( URL_0 ) system, which means that the majority of tax payers don't to file individual tax returns as their income is purely from their salary. I don't know why the US doesn't have this system.",
"In Singapore, mostly, you don't. The government already has all your data from Your employer. The first year you can make a few small claims, mostly by ticking boxes. There are very few deductions. But income taxes are already quite Low. Then the second year, they send you a notification on how much tax you owe. And the deductions you made last year. With an offer - do nothing and you can have the same deductions as last year. So your taxes have literally become \"do nothing\" Why can't the US do this? Baby steps. Start with something apolitical that nobody could possibly get upset about. Like, change to the metric system. Every country on earth has done that one! After that, you can try harder things like reforming US tax.",
"As stated previously, there is A LOT of lobbying going on. Most people are on board with this, Turbo Tax is not.",
"Part of the answer is lobbying from conservative anti-tax activists, who WANT the process of paying taxes to be painful so that ordinary people hate taxes more (they're in alliance with tax prep software makers). It's one of the more brazenly evil things in American politics. URL_0",
"This is actually how it's done in Norway. You can go over your taxes and double-check that it's all been processed correctly, but unless you have an unusual life situation, it's probably already correct, and you can auto-file them with a single click of a button through a web site.",
"Lobbyists from companies like TurboTax, H & R block etc. The main reason most innovation is not pushed forward in capitalism: money disappears from the people who currently have it.",
"As much data as you think the IRS has about you, they don't have all of it. They don't know what you spent on childcare, charity, school expenses, local property taxes, etc - all things that factor into your tax bill. Further, the IRS runs on a notoriously antiquated computer system that is not setup to handle this. Finally, there has been some movement towards a simple return option where the IRS does calculate it for you, but the tax prep industry is strongly against it, and lobbies Congress to prevent it.",
"When two people are arrested for robbing a bank, you put them in two different rooms and pepper them with questions and see if their stories contradict each other. Similar, if you want to know if an employer and employee are robbing the IRS (i.e. not paying all their taxes) you make them fill our separate forms and have them both submit them to the IRS so they can see if the forms contradict each other.",
"That implies that you're telling the government about your financial changes in real-time as life goes along. Get a new job? Pick up a side hustle? Better tell the IRS, or be OK with them assuming the paperwork they received was correctly attributed to you. You're also ignoring the beauty of the modern American families. Every year we're innovating fucked up family situations which gets really complicated when arguing for dependent credits. Trenton was with his grandma for 54.5 days, Mom 100.2 days, \"Aunty\" for 30.1 days, and you with the rest. Then there's Anna who was with 5 other parents over the year. Oh, and your two marriages plus a divorce. And your health insurance changed 6 times over the year. Basically, for the IRS to properly track what you owe, they need to be aware of every purchase and facebook change of status for you and your dependents. That level of snooping folks aren't cool with, and it puts a large burden on the government to actually get it right, which is expensive. By having everyone do their own taxes, we're forced to arbitrate the dependent claims and sort out what is and isn't relevant to the IRS independently, saving them the time and trouble (and money). If you want your taxes to simply auto-pay at the end of the year, that is literally what a CPA is for, and I'm sure one near you would be happy to do it for a very reasonable fee. I'm also positive that fee will be far less than what the IRS would have to charge to do it for everyone.",
"You don't understand how important it is that they get 25 copies of your name, date of birth and SSN every year! Here's a $3k fine to show you how important it truly is",
"In New Zealand the average salary or wage earner does not need to file a return. Deductions are done correctly by employers and banks throughout the year so ... no need to do a correction at the end. URL_0",
"I love when I file my corporate taxes and they send me a bill saying \"nah you wrong bro, you owe us $300 more then you thought\". Well wtf assholes you obviously did the math yourself anyways so why the hell am I doing it.",
"One thing that sometimes comes up in Australia is employers fraudulently paying a worker their after tax wages while pocketing the tax withheld, and not reporting that they employed anyone. (As well as income tax they are probably stealing superannuation and not paying Workcover insurance). At end of the financial year they often get caught when the employee goes to lodge a tax return.",
"If the government were smart they would institute a flat tax on EVERYTHING. This way no one can weasel out of paying their share. Like a consumption tax. Even drug dealers consume.",
"Yes they could: Singapore sends you a tax bill at the end of the year; if you have an odd tax situation etc, you can petition for changes. Otherwise, you just write your bank acct and bam, it's done.",
"There have been calls for the IRS to do our taxes for us and allow us to challenge results if we wish. These laws have been blocked along partisan lines. I'll let you guess which party sides with the businesses that want to force us to keep paying them to do our taxes.",
"Canada is trialing a system like this this year. I'm able to login to my tax software provider, they get the records directly from the government, I make sure everything is there, add any additional deductions, click the button and bobs my uncle. Not sure how well it works yet, but intriguing that it exists at all. Super stoked after getting flagged for review the last 2 years.",
"I haven't read one reply that has to do with business tax returns. Partnerships, s corps, single member llc all flow into your individual tax return. Taxes are extremely compilicated. The more you have going on the more complicated it gets, there's so many tax laws you guys have no idea even exist. Selling houses, rental properties, running your own business. How the hell is the government going to keep track of all that? Basic w2 people with standard deduction, sure go ahead and auto file that shit. We aren't even getting into business returns. It's tax season and I don't want to explain any further but you are all underestimating the amount of shit that goes into tax returns.",
"Does everyone in the US have to do this? We don't in the UK unless like self employed",
"In my country it all happens automatically. We just correct the yearly tax return money if something is wrong :P",
"The IRS does not know about money you made on the side, profits from selling capital items and wants to squeeze every dime they can from you.",
"Can someone please post an explanation that actually is dumbed down??? All these explanations are still very complicated.",
"The tax preparation industry has a large lobby, I'm sure. Also, all the silly and special deductions aren't reported to the IRS until you report them.",
"The IRS will run the numbers for you. It always ends up in your owing a huge amount of money because they don't look real hard for deductions.",
"1) They're YOUR accounts. Don't trust the government to tell you what you owe. 2) You really don't want them knowing so much that they can automatically calculate it all.",
"The reality is there are billions to be made in tax prep. Neith the IRS or tge govwrnment is going to risk destroying the jobs and businesses of so many. Follow the money as they say.",
"In NZ we implemented this program. Works perfectly. You are still free to run your numbers and check that you haven't overpaid, but you aren't obligate to submit if your employer made a mistake etc. The difference is actually slightly higher taxes returns overall and also no cost of the IRD having to process it.",
"In other countries the tax agency does that for the population. For the majority of Belgians, doing taxes is basically clicking next next finish on the website of the tax agency. Why the IRS doesn't implement the same approach, I have no idea, but lobbying of the producers of tax software might have to do with it.",
"also, in a way it is good to be involved to some degree. Taxes themselves are a bad enough abstraction, so anything tax payers can do to understand what is going on with them (and there is a LOT) helps educate them about the process. If anything the tax code should be simpler, instead of just pay and pray.",
"They know what you made, and what you paid in taxes, but they don't know what you spent your money on... For all the unitemized returns, they could easily cut an auto refund, and do the exemptions for you even, but if you spent a lot on your job, or medical bills, or charity, etc. You can itemize, and adjust your taxable income, sometimes by quite a lot, and unless they start tracking everyone's spending, there's no way to know who is going to adjust their taxable income or by how much..."
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5tv9du | Why are all watches set to 10:09 in adverts? | Every time I've seen a watch advert on TV, the watch is at 10:09. Almost always it is the same in magazines. Apple adverts have their phones at 10:09, and when choosing a face on the Apple Watch all the faces are set to 10:09 until you choose them. Why is this? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's because it's a time that the hands are all clearly visible and not blocking date window. Not only time that would work, but became the norm because it looks balanced, too.",
"The 10:09 position gives the clock or watch a number of benefits: • The hands are not overlapping, so they're fully and clearly visible and their styling can be admired. • The arrangement of the hands is symmetrical, which people generally find more pleasant than asymmetry, making the product more appealing to customers. • The manufacturer's logo, usually in the center of the face under the 12, is not only visible but nicely framed by the hands. • Additional elements on the face (like date windows or secondary dials), usually placed near the 3, 6, or 9, won't be obscured.",
"This simplest answer to this is that in advertisements, it makes the clocks look like they are \"smiling\". Therefore, making it more appealing to the consumer to purchase. Same Psychology behind humans being more willing to spend time around other humans that seem or look happy."
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5tvbxu | Why do websites push there mobile version when its usually inferior in functionality and usability ? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Load times, cleaner design and the perception is that if you're browsing on a mobile device, you want quick, easy access to the most common parts to that website. Not a complete experience, otherwise you would be on a desktop browser. Whether that is right or wrong varies from person to person but essentially, the website creator / business is just trying to be helpful by scaling back on what they deem unnecessary clutter for mobile browsing.",
"Web Dev here. Devs are always trying to make the UX (User Experience) as best as it can be. Sometimes deadlines have to be met and for the most part, mobile traffic has traditionally not been as important. This is all changing now as mobile traffic dominates the web. TL; DR traditionally lack of focus in the mobile area, but this is changing",
"To add onto points already made: because you pay for data and a well made mobile site uses less of it.",
"It also encourages brand/site loyalty. For instance, it is easier and faster to use the amazon app than to open a web browser and go to the site. This also means if I want to buy something, but don't care where, I'm more likely to use the amazon app than, say, open the web browser and shop around on walmart or target's website. The same with news sites, etc. It's easier to open a specific app, so people are less likely to stray.",
"welcome to r/conspiracies its because they want you to download the App! Most people have no inclination to download an App when they can view it on their phone browser. companies push the mobile versions(and engineer them to suck) so that you'll eventually give up and get the app. Cause it so much better. Ever hear people talk about that BaconReader app? Same shit. also, I know this isn't conspiracies....sorry. but I actually do believe this. Maybe not for everyone but definitely Facebook. Their stupid App needs access to everything on your phone...and I refuse to use it. /endrant. woah sorry didn't mean to rant",
"Lot of great answers here and they all point out important aspects of it, but the main reason native apps are pushed is User Engagement. I don't know the whys of it, I suspect it's a psychological thing where you feel like you \"have\" something and so you're more prone to using it, but the data backs it up; if you can get your users to install your app they're more likely to keep coming back and using your product or service which equals more ad revenue or more purchases or more brand recognition or whatever they're going for. Yeah, sometimes a certain product works better as a mobile app (games, super-rich UIs) but the main reason is engagement. There's something about the application showing up in that list that causes people to use it more and this is why companies push for it. It makes them money. They ultimately don't give a flying leap about the user's experience so long as they keep forking over (the two are usually related but not always). I'm not sure why this is since users were more than happy to jump ship years ago and get applications out of their Start Menu and into webapps like email, docs, spreadsheets, and even a lot of games, but that's how it is.",
"Over 60% (or more) of web traffic comes from mobile visitors. It's important for SEO to reduce bounce rates and increase time-on site. By not having a convenient mobile site will damage overall visibility (even on social pages) because people will leave. If a site \"pushes\" a mobile version then it's an old site and probably limited in great modern features. What people want is a \"responsive web\" structure that fluidly collapses across all browsers, and doesn't require a 2nd mobile design file which is expensive and outdated.",
"Because they control the advertising that's pushed out to you through their app, where Google (or whoever is contracted) controls the ads on their websites.",
"Because on average 65% of visitors to a website are on mobile, so the mobile version, despite sometimes having less functionality, is much more useable for the majority of visitors.",
"Because they allow the website to notify you when there are new updates to the content. This will keep you coming back for more content, and allow them to collect more ad revenue. It also allows for better tracking of what you are doing. It's much easier to track precisely what the use is doing on a native app rather than via the web browser. Also, some apps collect other information from the phone such as a contact list or a list of associated accounts for other apps like Facebook or Twitter.",
"Also websites that are considered mobile friendly or provide a mobile style sheet gain bonus points when it comes to website ranking in the Search Engine ranking process and are therefore more likely to rank higher in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). So if a website has a half arsed mobile layout it could be either being improved or being used to help them gain a competitive edge in the ranking process in regards to their competitors. When you google a website you see (Mobile friendly) next to some results! (Along with the other reasons suggested)!",
"I haven't seen this listed yet, so I'll jump in late: Because it's a mobile device, which likely means: A) A smaller screen B) A much less precise instrument for pressing links (a.k.a., your fat-ass finger) These two things complicate each other. It's obvious that having a smaller screen means less being on a screen at a time (such as menus, links, or the information people actually want to see). Meanwhile, using a finger to press links means most people are less accurate, therefore links need to be bigger...taking up more of that precious screen space. (For instance, all the tiny links at the top of the Reddit Desktop Site, of your favorite subs. For some, such as WTF, my finger covers that, as well as parts of the links to the left or right.) To compensate, mobile sites will reduce the number of links available, more out of necessity than anything. Less options = inferior functionality, or in the best instance, harder to find functionality. To further complicate the issue...with HTML, there are simply less things someone can do than with their own programing. Such as having the now-familiar set of navigation buttons ever-present on the bottom of the screen that apps can do. Also, with a mobile web-browser, even with disappearing controls, precious screen space is taken up by controls that have nothing to do with the site. And, also, some of the aspects of HTML that designers often use are directed a cursor-control, as opposed to finger control The most obvious of these is what's known as \"Rollover\". When your cursor goes over something, it may highlight, change, or pop something up to tell you your cursor is on it, or to give you more information. There is no equivalent to doing this with a finger...a tap = a click, and even if something highlights when your finger touches it, you aren't going to know because your finger is over it! A mobile app, while at times less functional and certainly less familiar, will allow developers to create an experience designed for everything mobile has to do, rather than try to force of cursor-based world onto your finger. This is one big reason why, pre-2007, you did not see a lot of popular touch-screen computing platforms. It's not like there weren't touch screens available...there were modification systems to turn Macs and Windows machines into touchscreens. But the major reason they did not catch on was that shoehorning a User Interface based on a cursor into a finger is not easy. The most common complaint I heard was that the buttons on Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop were too damn tiny. It took one company to say \"F it, we'll build an entire new OS around touch interface\" to help the world open up to the popularity of it. This is still a longstanding UI issue, and one that is still being debated today. Microsoft Windows has spent years to create a unified OS that can do both, and particularly the first attempt was panned profusely. Apple continues to maintain separate OS's (Now 4 versions, including TvOS and WatchOS), but has faced difficulty in getting users to learn using all of them. Neither approach is failing, but both have faced significant challenges. That last part will be my final point, I promise: The mobile UI experience is constantly changing. First there were no styluses, now there are. Pressure-sensitive screens have given new ways for users to interface with apps, but not all phones have them. Not to mention the controls for voice-interface that are all over the place. There are yearly changes to the mobile environment to try and improve user experience...but that means developers have to be on a fast learning curve to learn how to implement them...and then hope they aren't abandoned and changed. And that's before talking about how to implement the voice control abilities on iOS are different than doing it on Android (not to mention Samsung's separate stuff), doubling or tripling to workload before you even talk about Microsoft's. It's a complicated, extraordinarily fast-moving world in Mobile, even for the already quick-changing tech world. Developers are playing catch up constantly, and that means the users are far behind... And there's no easy solution, other than to hope that the UI world finds its groove in the next few years... Oh, rumors say the home button's going away on phones??? Oh boy...guess you're going to have to tighten your grip on the reins of this Mobile OS life for a few more years. EDIT: Yes, obviously cost was another reason why touchscreens were rare pre-2007, but popularity would drive that...the more you can mass produce, the lower production costs can become. And the demand just wasn't there...and while I can't produce scholastic proof, my experience of being in tech since the 1990's will tell you the lack of satisfaction of touchscreen interfaces helped limit that demand.",
"Also wtf are you stopping pinch to zoom, it's the nicest thing about a small screen and we have to put up with stupid websites disabling it.",
"So pushing a mobile version of a website is different than pushing a mobile app... and that's why the answers are all over the place. Websites push a mobile version because the desktop version usually sucks on mobile. A mobile version fits better on smaller screens and doesn't take as long to load. You shouldn't be asked to view the mobile version on your phone, it should just happen when you visit a website. Apps on the other hand are pushed because they have more power. You may forget about a new website you visit, but if you install an app, you'll see it every time you swipe through your homescreen. Other than being on the home-screen, they can send push notifications, they can collect more data, get your location, have in-app purchases, connect to your social media, etc. So apps are more addictive and habit-forming, which means they make more money for companies."
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5tvfnx | If you get water on something like clothing, how come it becomes darker? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because the fibers that make up the material condense/draw closer together due to water's cohesive (water sticks to water) and adhesive (water sticks to non-water) properties. When a substance made of fibers has spaces in between it, that allows light to pass through it easier, even if the spaces are too small to see! However, as water \"shrinks\" or condenses the fabric, it closes those spaces that allows light through and it seems darker. (You have a concerning username)"
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5tvg86 | Are there any biological advantages to being overweight? Could it allow you to survive longer without food? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"That is the advantage, yes. Scientists believe the reason why humans evolved to store excess food as fat is that it allowed people to survive times of famine easier by having reserve energy. The issue is that our bodies were optimized for lifestyles where the idea of having plenty to eat all year round wasn't possible.",
"Not really in being overweight. Having some additional fat can be used for storing the energy to be used during short period of time when you don't have access to food and really is an advantage, but there is limit when additional fat won't matter. The problem is you would die sooner, because of deficiency of vitamins, minerals and trace elements before burning all your fat if you are too overweight. In case you have some food that is really low on calories and rich in vitamins,minerals and trace elements then you will stay alive longer on your fat. The reason why people can get overweight is because the fat storing mechanism evolved when food was not so abundant and humans moved a lot each day unlike nowadays.",
"Fatter people last longer in cold water (cold environments in general). Some oil drilling rigs apparently try to fatten up the guys working on them so they can survive longer if they have to ditch into the sea. Fatter people are also more bouyant, so they float easier.",
"Gladiators are said to have packed on the pounds to make it harder to cut something important. URL_0",
"That is the biggest biological advantage, living without sustenance for a longer period of time. Fat is a storage of calories and our bodies are designed to use fat cells before other tissues in the case of starvation. Thin people have less calories to burn through safely and the body begins to eat at bone and muscle. There have been cases of obese people going without food for extended periods of time, longer than the 3 week average. (Don't do it, it isn't healthy.)"
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5tvh9r | Will technology eventually let us revive people cryonically preserved? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yes, but not the ones currently frozen. Basically, freezing disrupts cell membranes and destroys tissue. We have some ideas how to prepare the body before freezing to prevent this, but haven't gotten it to work in animals bigger than a mouse. In the future, we probably will have it figured out. But, those people who have their bodies (or heads) currently frozen incorrectly and AFTER death are screwed. Their cells are mush."
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5tvjzx | How do SSRI's work? | I've been taking Zoloft for about 2 years now, and it has helped me so much with my anxiety and OCD. I have a friend who just started it and it didn't work for them. Why do certain SSRIs work for some people but not others? Aren't our brains wired similarly enough? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Keep in mind that many of these drugs can take weeks to start taking effect. Every body reacts differently, so it's impossible to say if a drug will be effective in someone. SSRIs stand for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. Basically, when your brain sends a signal to certain nerves, it releases serotonin. They float a little bit, and run into the next nerve, which has serotonin receptors. These molecules activate the receptors, and the next nerve continues the signal. **(Think of it like the lighting the beacons of Gondor in LOTR. Each beacon is lit, and then the next beacon sees it, and lights their own)**. After some time, the nerve that released the serotonin will break it down, and retake the serotonin. This is normal, and the reason is that the nerve has serotonin ready to go the next time that it's fired. **(In the LOTR analogy, this would be the equivalent of saying okay the next beacon should be lit. Let me put out my fire and rebuild the haystacks)** However, if the next nerve didn't get the signal, then breaking down the serotonin will be a bad thing. So, we give SSRIs, which let the serotonin hang out by its receptors for a longer period of time. **(Keep adding hay to the burning fire and hoping that the next guy will finally turn around and light his beacon)**",
"It should also be noted that we still don't know EXACTLY how SSRIs work. Source: PhD in Psychology (not practicing)",
"Other people are doing a good job of explaining how SSRIs work, but I just wanted to ask you to please make sure your friend knows that they take a long time to start working. It takes about 6 weeks for most people to start noticing an improvement, and it would be a shame if he gave up on it before he gave the medicine enough time",
"SSRI's work by blocking the 5-HT reuptake transporter (SERT) in the CNS. Examples include Prosac (Fluoxetine), Zoloft (Sertraline), and Lexapro (Escitalopram). According to the monoamine hypothesis, mood disorders/depression are caused by decreased 5-HT (aka serotonin) and norepinephrine in the CNS. SSRI's selectively inhibit serotonin reuptake in the synaptic cleft by the presynaptic neuron (opposed to SNRI's which inhibit the reuptake of both 5-HT and NE). By blocking reuptake, more 5-HT will be available in the cleft to transmit the signal. I believe the reason it take ~4-6 weeks to take full effect has something to do with the 5-HT1B presynaptic autoreceptors becoming desensitized(?). SSRI's are considered the first-line therapy for depression, anxiety, and OCD. Not everyone responds the same to these drugs. For some people one SSRI works better than another SSRI. Sometimes an individual does not respond to SSRI's, but rather SNRI's or tricyclics amines (TCAs). Although the drugs work similarly, each person can respond differently. It takes time and often can take trying different versions of these drugs to find the therapeutic effect you desire.",
"Here's the actual like you're five version: SSRI stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. So when parts of your brain are leaking serotonin, which makes you happy, the SSRI prevents this from happening and keeps the serotonin around. Keeping you happy.",
"Serotonin is released from one brain cell to the next, the current belief is that more serotonin equals happier outlook. After the serotonin is released it is absorbed back into the brain cell that released it to be used again. SSRI's stop the serotonin from being absorbed back, meaning the brain cell receiving keeps receiving the same serotonin over and over. This means happier outlook. Selective really just means the drug affects serotonin releasers more than it affects dopamine or various other transmitters."
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5tvm0u | How do cotton candy machines work? | The webby cotton stuff just appears out of nowhere like magic. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The there's a spinning chamber in the middle where you put the sugar that melts it. Then the centrifugal \"force\" (placed in quotes because inevitably on reddit some tedious pedant will jump in to tell me there's no such thing) pushes the melted sugar out through tiny pores in the spinning chamber. Then there's a fan that that's blowing around it which immediately cools the thin whisps of sugar that are being extruded from the spinning melt chamber. Those strands stick to almost literally anything, including itself, and so you keep spinning the paper cone and more whisps will stick to it. So you're basically eating pure sugar in the form of extremely thin strips.",
"I think it's magic. Could never get mine to work. Went to the dollar store. Bought the pink one. Problem solved.",
"If I remember correctly, there's a super hot cone with lots of tiny holes middle that you pour sugar into. The cone spins really fast while being hot enough to melt the sugar, sending sugar filaments flying out of the tiny holes. These sugar filaments cool very quickly in the air and turn into thin crystalline threads, and stick to the first thing they touch. By running a stick through the storm of flying molten sugar, you can catch it before it hits the walls. And then, by spinning the stick you can bunch it up like spaghetti.",
"What a coincidence I just watched this last week [candyfloss]( URL_0 )"
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5tw0me | What's it called when you have a memory of hearing something while looking at another source? | For example, if I have the television on while I'm playing a game on the phone, and I hear a character on the TV say something while I do something in the game at the same time. Later I see the same scene and when the character gives that quote, that moment in the game pops back into my head. Is there a name for that? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's called associative memory. Any time you're remembering things, there's a whole lot of other potential activations than what you recall. Sometimes the connections are strong enough to pull a peripheral memory into full recall."
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5tw93c | Why is it possible to tell if you're watching an SNL skit just by the quality of the video itself? | Do they use like some sort of custom frame rate or some unique combination of zooming and panning back? The video/film quality isn't like any other TV show or movie I've seen. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's because the lighting is different. It's very similar to soap operas. They use evenly lit lights across the whole set, meaning that lighting is a lot less used for character focus and mood. The benefit is that they don't have to do a bunch of lighting work during short turnaround times between filming skits, and they can do continuous takes and have characters move around the set, all while looking pretty uniform. Read more: URL_0",
"* \"video\" camera quality instead of \"film\" which is much more expensive (there's an fps and color difference) * bright studio lighting * with a lot of sets for different skits, the sets are usually small and cramped * ^-- because of that, no establishing shot or wide room shots * also rare for camera panning to happen * basically there's like 3 or 4 shots possible when sitcom sets can have dozens"
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5twf0h | How do you apply the 9 rules of inference in logic? | My professor is going way too fast in my intro to logic class, and I'm lost. I know the rules, but I don't know the point of knowing them or how to apply them. | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The rules of inference are the way we take statements and determine if they are 'right' or 'logical'. Here are the first four. A. Modus Ponens: If we accept that p - > q is true, and p is true, then q is also true. It's a deep-thinking version of what \"If\" and \"Then\" means. Example: If a thing is an apple, then that thing is also a fruit. This thing in my hand is an apple. Therefore it is also a fruit. B. Modus Tollens: If we accept that p - > q is true, and *q is false*, then p is also false. It's the 'opposite' of Modus Ponens. Example: If a thing is an apple, then that thing is also a fruit. This thing in my hand is *not a fruit*, therefore, it is also *not an apple*. **Note: If p is false, nothing is proven! Just because something isn't an apple, doesn't mean it's not a fruit!** Hypothetical Syllogism: If p - > q, and q - > r, then p - > r. The old 'transitive property' that we all saw in high school geometry proofs, then forgot about. Example: If a thing is an apple, then that thing is also a fruit. If a thing is an fruit, then that thing is also from a plant. This thing in my hand is an apple, therefore, it is also from a plant. Disjunctive Syllogism: If p or q is true, and q is false, then p must be true. In other words, if we know at least one is true, if one is false, it must be the other that's true. Example: An apple is either red or green. This apple in my hand is not red. Therefore, it must be green. The next two are the easy ones: 1. Addition. If p is true, then (p or q) is true. Basically a definition of what 'OR' means. 2. Conjunction. If both p and q are true, then the statement (p and q) are true. Basically a definition of what 'AND' means. The next is Absorption. If p - > q is true, then p - > (p and q) is true. Basically, connecting the two statements: If we know that all apples are fruit, and this thing is an apple, then we know that this thing is *both* fruit and apple. The last is the Dilemma. If you accept two conditional (p - > q AND r - > s), and you know that one of the premises are true, then you know one of the conclusions are true. Example: All apples are fruits, and all ducks are birds. If you know you have at least one duck or one apple, you also know you have at least one fruit or one bird. **You need to check whether this is the list that your professor gave out. To me, this isn't a standard or complete list. That said, I took this class over 25 years ago, so your mileage may vary, and I could be thinking of the wrong list.**",
"Rules of inference are just ways that you can arrange true statements to arrive at other (hopefully new!) true statements. For example, given the two statements p: \"all men are mortal\" q: \"Socrates is a man\" we can arrive at the conclusion C: \"Socrates is mortal\" The particular rule we used is universal instantiation, though the statements can be changed to suit the system you're working in. Which system are you working in? (If you don't know the answer here, what kinds of examples have you gone over so far?) I'm sure your prof has limited the rules of inference down to 9, but it really depends on the system you're working in as to how many there are."
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5twfu4 | Green, red, yellow and so on are colours. Black and white aren't. So why aren't they and what are they then? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"People typically call them \"shades\". However, white is a colour when we are talking about perception; it is the colour we perceive when our eyes receive red, green, and blue light in equal amounts and the luminosity is relatively high. Greys are when the luminosity is lower, and black is when we aren't detecting light of any sort. Our eyes can only detect red, green, and blue light. Everything else is just how we interpret the various signals we get from varying amounts of these colours of light. For example, magenta (or bright pink) isn't a colour of light - there is no magenta wavelength of light and you won't see it in a rainbow - but you can still perceive it. It's just what we perceive when both our red and our blue detectors are active but our green detectors are not."
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5twg4z | If passwords are stored as hashes why is it more secure to have passwords with numbers, capital letters, etc. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"If the password database is stolen, or a security hole is discovered that lets the attacker try tons of combinations, they will probably immediately try a dictionary attack. They'll check to see if any of the hashed combinations match common words and common passwords. This means that some will probably immediately fail as many people use the laziest passwords the rules allow. However, unpredictable capital letters or numbers ups the number of possible combinations tyou have to check to get the password, often to the point where it's so extremely time consuming that you just can't check all the hashes in existence.",
"Because it's much easier for a computer to guess \"password\" than it is to guess \"Leno43_dais%\". The protection doesn't come from the fact that it somehow becomes harder for attackers to attack the hashes or server, that's always difficult. But an attacker can try out millions of passwords a second, the idea with password constraints is to get people to use hard-to-guess passwords instead of the name of their dog."
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5twllf | why do vocoders require that weird tube in the person's mouth, and not a microphone? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Ah, perhaps you are conflating the all electronic vocoder (no tube) with the Heil Talk Box, made famous by Peter Frampton in 'Do you feel like we do'. The vocoder takes a microphone input and a synthesizer input, and mixes the two so the voice modulates the synth sound. It works electrically. Example: Kraftwerk's 'It's more fun to compute'. The Heil Talk Box has a speaker inside, and a tiny amp circuit. The guitar is connected to this, and the box sits at the guitarist's feet. The tube goes up the mic stand, carrying the speakers sound into the players mouth. Now the player can modulate the guitar tone by moving their mouth- an acoustic process. The microphone picks this up, and the usual big guitar amps are muted while the talk box is on. These two gadgets both make a hybrid voice and instrument tone in completely different ways.",
"You mean a talk box? The tube basically pipes the sound from your instrument into your mouth and you use your mouth to modulate the sound URL_0",
"real Talkboxes like Frampton used actually shoot sound waves into your mouth. after messing with one for about 10 minutes your gums feel like they are bleeding."
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5twmrs | The Great Attractor | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Basically, there's something pulling lots of galaxies toward it that's way more massive than our current theories of how and where stuff formed in the universe would predict. Unfortunately, from our perspective it's behind most of the milky way and is difficult to observe. We're able to see a galaxy cluster that's pretty close to us and about 1000 times more massive than the milky way, but we think there's also stuff behind that we can't see. We're really not sure what it is.",
"The best current explanation (and it's a good one that neatly agrees with observation) is that the Norma Cluster accounts for part of the velocity discrepancy, but not all of it. If you \"zoom out\" you see that the Supercluster Laniakea is *also* being drawn towards something massive... that Shapley Supercluster. Laniakea and Shapley are *by far* the two most massive large-scale structures around, and they're falling into each other's gravity wells. In essence people wondered, \"Hey, why is this one leaf in the stream moving so quickly?\" Now we know, \"Oh, that stream is actually just an eddy in a much larger river, and that river is hauling ass.\" We were just confused because as lollersauce914 said, it was tough to observe directly."
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5twqqt | Why do companies put their eggs in cardboard boxes if they don't want them to get crushed? You'd expect they just get better packaging? | Working in a grocery store, I've never understood why companies don't just come up with better packaging for their eggs so they don't get crushed in the cardboard containers? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You actually don't want a super hard material, you want something with some flexibility, since it will help absorb shock from things like loading boxes on top of each other, and hitting bumps while transporting, cardboard is really one of the most effective solutions. The next best would probably be silicone or some kind of lined/cushioned hard container with foam, but then the packaging is worth more than the product. A very hard packaging like a hard plastic shell you're mentioning a lot, would just transfer energy to the egg and crack the shell, like banging it on a hard surface to crack open, if you tried to open your eggs against a pillow you'd have a much harder time even with more force.",
"A few posh brands do use more expensive and elaborate plastic packaging. But it costs more and increases waste. Most eggs are pretty cheap so the producers would rather lose some than spend more on packaging."
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5twu4m | Why are people in the US allowed to open credit cards under their children's names? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They are not legally. When people do this it is identity theft and they are acting as though the child is 18 and filling it out on their own.",
"It's a huge grey area. While many consider it identity theft, I was a massive victim, but the courts upheld the debt as legitimate because I was underage when the lines of credit were opened."
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5tx1ih | Why does being hungry make you angry? | For example: when I'm tired or uncomfortable I'm not in the best mood but I don't get actively mean the way I do when I'm hungry. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It's called being 'hangry'. 3 reasons for it; 1. as carbohydrates break down they turn into glucose, which your brain requires a constant supply of in order to function. Over time the amount of glucose drops, causing the brain to think that death is iminent if it doesn't get more now. 2. In response to low glucose the organs begin producing stress hormones like epinephrine and cortisol to try and make more glucose for the brain. These hormones increase aggression. 3. The genes that regulate hunger also control anger and aggression via a protein called neuropeptide y. I love science."
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5tx32e | Why does one get heavy sweating before getting healed from a fever? | I usually dont sweat much when I get a fever but suddenly I get drenched in sweat the night before I get cured, why does that happen? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A fever isn't actually the illness, it is the response. When you are feeling sick, your body will commit more energy towards immune response, and one symptom is a fever. What your body is doing is basically ramping up your body temperature in order to kill off whatever pathogen is ailing you. The danger of a fever is that it can kill you by denaturing (breaking down) the proteins in your brain and body (Think of cooking a hamburger). Your begin to sweat as a mechanism to prevent your immune system from killing you off. Sweating actually cools the body, and occurs as the body attempts to cool down once the fever has \"broke\"."
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5tx4cg | Why the Bulgarian lev (national currency) is allways 1 lev = 0,5 euro? Isn't the same thing as having the euro? | 1 euro = 1.95583 leva and is a fixed exchange | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yes, it effectively is. Bulgaria has applied to be part of the Eurozone, but has yet to be accepted. Pegging their currency to the Euro is one of the preliminary steps they have to take to complete the process.",
"> Isn't the same thing as having the euro? It pretty much is. The difference can put the pictures of famous Bulgarians on their money, and perhaps more importantly, they can choose to change the exchange rate or float their currency as economic conditions dictate. It is also way to say \"look at me, using a grown up currency, I totally deserve to be in the Eurozone\". That is part of the problem that Greece was having. They are locked into the euro and Eurozone economic policy. It would have greatly benefited them to devalue their currency, but they were unable to.",
"The short answer: no. Pegging the currency like that allows the currency to remain cheap or expensive relative to another one. The best example of this is China pegging the yuan to USD. This means that no matter what happens to the US or China, the yuan will be a certain amount cheaper relative to USD, which gives Chinese exports a competitive advantage. The flip side side of this, though, is that to maintain a peg, the country needs to maintain a reserve of that currency to make exchanges and balance the market. If the country runs out of the currency, then the peg is forced to lift and the resulting shift can be majorly damaging. The short answer, is no, it gives Bulgaria a currency that is cheap relative to the Euro. It also means that the monetary policy of the Eurozone becomes the policy of Bulgaria as well."
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5tx8qq | Why have humans adapted to like sweet or salty things better than bitter, sour, etc. things? | The majority of people like sweet or salty over other tastes, especially younger people, but why? I can't think of any plausible reason as to why we would have developed such a habit. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Sweet is easy calories for energy (Sucrose, Glucose, etc), Salty is usually essential minerals, Bitter is usually toxic. There are definitely exceptions, but apparently it worked well enough for our ancestors to figure out what they needed to live. the trait passed on through natural selection. People who preferred and ate a lot of sweet things had more energy and reproduced more. People who liked salty foods had their minerals, and people who preferred bitter died. I was watching a TED talk recently where they were talking that there might be a new taste discovered, related to fat, it would be an indicator of calories too."
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5tx917 | How does absorbed light turn into heat? This makes no sense. | Heat is the movement of atoms in an object. I understand how a photon smacking it can speed up the atoms, but that doesn't answer the question of what happens to the photon. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"> Heat is the movement of atoms in an object. Actually, no, this is just the simplified version you were told in high school because the real definition of temperature is incredibly weird and requires a working understanding of the things that happen in the deep end of thermodynamics, which result in things like negative absolute temperatures and entropy generation. However, temperature can be pretty easily correlated to the averaged motion of atoms in an object, particularly in everyday applications, hence why we use it as a stand-in. > I understand how a photon smacking it can speed up the atoms, but that doesn't answer the question of what happens to the photon. The photon is absorbed, and its energy is added to the atom it collided with. That energy is then typically re-emitted as one or more additional low-energy photons (likely within the infrared range, although this is dependent on the precise temperature of the atom, as well as what element it is).",
"> but that doesn't answer the question of what happens to the photon. The photon is converted into movement. It ceases to be, it is destroyed."
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5txayr | How come the North Pole is considered the "Top of the World" and the South Pole, the bottom? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"The first map makers and globe artists lived in the northern hemisphere. They opted to depict their land on top.",
"It was an arbitrary choice. China, who invented the compass, considered it to point south (they even called it the \"south indicator\"), and ancient Chinese maps had south at the top - as did some Egyptian and Arab maps. [Medieval European maps]( URL_1 ) often placed East at the top (which is where the word \"orient\" comes from). City maps of coastal areas commonly place the body of water at the top. Polar maps, of course, place North or South at the center of the map; and so do [Dymaxion]( URL_0 ) projections."
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5txd65 | How is time an illusion | I mean we can measure it we know what happen in the pass, how could it possibly be an illusion? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"People like to think this, and *deep thinkers* come up with this on their own all the time, but time is actually a part of the universe, that exists with or without people. It is relative, but it definitely exists and has been mathematically proven over and over"
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5txgaq | How do emotions work? | I know that they're basically chemical signals from your brain, but what stimulates them? Like when someone dies, you're supposed to feel sad, but what causes that? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Emotions are just an expression of our internal state. That could be an emotional state, such as grief after a loss, or a physiological state, like feeling upset during pain. In your example of someone dying: your subjective understanding of the situation is that you have lost someone, and therefore you feel sad because they are no longer around. If they were close to you, you might draw on memories and recognize all of the things you can no longer do together. People are more complicated than this, but you get the idea. How does it work in very basic terms? Something changes, and your brain responds to that change. Your brain start with something very basic (good/bad, pleasant/unpleasant, threat/not threat) and then your brain throws in memory, senses, conditioning, decision-making, etc. The sum of that becomes the states what we perceive as emotions. A key part of emotions is that they are subjective. How you understand the situation determines how you feel. The example that is beat to death in psychology is the old \"you see a friend on the street and they ignore you and you feel like shit because they obviously don't like you but they really just did't see you\" example, but it's a classic for a reason. If your subjective understanding is one of hurt or something bad, you will feel bad--even if other people might describe the situation as neutral or even good (maybe not the friend example). If I can generalize again, that's why it's suuuuuuuper common for people to feel upset or sad or even grief during positive changes in their life like getting their dream job, moving to a city they love, getting married, etc. All of their friend are like, hell yeah that's awesome! But internally, they may be feeling loss over the life they're leaving behind, doubting that they will succeed, feeling overwhelmed about everything they think they need to do to get everything in order, etc."
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5txqlw | What, exactly, is a "bit", as in the fact that the Nintendo 64 was "64 bit"? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"In computing terms, a bit is a \"binary digit,\" which is short just means either a 0 or a 1. When we talk about Nintendo64 being \"64 bit,\" its the same as having as 64 bit computer: the instructions used by that processor is 64 bits long. While this is useful, a 32 bit machine has 2^32(a little over 4 billion) possible instructions, which nothing even comes close to using. What actually makes this good is how much *memory* a 64 bit system can have. When we talk about the max amount of memory (RAM, to be specific) a computer can have, we need to realize that every single \"piece\" of memory has to have an address. This way we can say \"piece of memory #48\" and know exactly what we are talking about. In a 32 bit system, we can only address 2^32 \"pieces\" of memory (which for reasons I won't get into is usually 8 bits, which we call a byte). Now, ~4 billion bytes *sounds* like a lot, until I say that 4 billion bytes is only 4 gigabytes. So a 32 bit machine cannot use more than 4 gb of RAM, period, end of story. Now, a 64 bit machine can use 2^64 bytes of memory, which is ~10^10 or 10 billion gigabytes of memory. Clearly an upgrade. Edit: I should note that while 64 bit lets you have more RAM, the N64 specifically did not make use of it. The N64 only had 4 MB of RAM, not even coming close to the 4 GB of RAM upper limit for 32 bit.",
"Imagine you had a calculator that could only add a 1 digit number. So to add 13+18, you'd have to do it like a five year old learning to add. You add the 3 to the 8, get 1 and carry the one. Then you add one and one, and get two, then you add the one you carried, and get 3, so you have an answer that's 31. Then you go from a 1 digit calculator, to a 2 digit calculator. This one can add 13 to 18 and get 31 in a single step, instead of the three steps and keeping track of the extra digits it took the 1 digit calculator. A bit is a number, just like 13 or 18, except it's expressed in binary. So going from 32-bit to 64-bit means you've got extra digits in the calculator, so you can do stuff in a single step that otherwise would require multiple steps and a scratch pad to keep track of intermediate values. That usually materialized in the system doing new things that would have been too slow or too complicated on the old system. One easy example of this is the increase in color depth from the (8-bit) NES to the (16-bit) SNES.",
"Unfortunately asking a Computer Science question will yield a lot of verbose nonsense for some. I'll simplify what the people are trying to say. Essentially a computer has on and off values, 0's and 1's. And to be more specific I believe it's high(1)and low (0) voltage. That is a bit. How the computer can be told instructions. A 64-bit instruction means the computer takes 64 of those (usually) to take commands. The only reason bigger is better is that there are more combinations so more precision and other things are enhanced. To compute the possible values you do 2^n where n is the number of bits used. 64 = 2^64 opposed to this instruction sets predecessor 32 bit that has a 2^32 set of combos.",
"a bit is the smallest amount of data that a computer can understand. it is a single binary value that can be either 1 or 0; the term is short for \"binary digit\", because 0 and 1 are the two symbols that are used in base 2 math, like the ten digits 0123456789 comprise the ten symbols that are used in our familiar base 10 world. now, this explanation of bit-ness is going to be long, but you really won't understand it without some basic computer architecture background. it's not as hard as it might sound, trust me. any number you can think of can be represented as a string of bits - all you have to do is convert from base 10 to base 2. we can do math by taking base 10 numbers, converting to base 2, doing our math in base 2, and converting the base 2 result back to base 10. (in a real computer, we only convert things back to base 10 if they need to be shown to humans.) in a computer processor, the \"arithmetic logic unit\" is the piece of hardware that does basic math. its purpose is to take a number represented as a string of N bits, another number that is similarly N bits long, perform a math operation on them (addition, subtraction, etc), and produce an N bit number as a result. we use terminology such as '4-bit' and '256-bit' to indicate how long of a bit string a particular ALU is capable of processing. how do we get input values to the ALU? the processor needs to be able to store and transport chunks of information that are exactly N bits in size, in order to provide the ALU with data to operate on and hold the result when it's calculated. the storage inside the processor used to hold values that are currently being processed (like our result) is called \"registers\" or a register file. each individual register must be N bits wide in order to hold our information. the data pathways which transport information around the processor must also be capable of moving N bits at one time. we call these N-bit registers and N-bit buses. now, what are the consequences of having a system designed around one particular bit-ness? the maximum number that can be represented by an N-bit binary string is 2^N; for a 32-bit system, that would be around 4 billion. a value like 5 billion wouldn't fit in 32 bits if we converted to base 2 - it would require 33 bits. lower bit-ness limits the absolute size of numbers that can be used in our processor. the processor needs to access memory, or RAM. each location (byte) in memory is numbered - the processor uses these \"memory addresses\" to keep track of what information is located where. the same registers are used to store numerical values for math operations and memory addresses, so a hypothetical 32-bit system could only use memory addresses from 0 to 4 billion. our processor would be described as having a \"32-bit address space\". so, bit-ness for a processor affects the size of the maximum numbers that can be used, the width of the ALU, the size of the registers and buses, and how much memory we can access. what are the benefits of 64-bit over 32-bit? for one, you can use more than 4GB of RAM. if you need to count the number of microseconds that have gone by since you started a game, a 32-bit system could count up to 1 hour and 15 minutes, while a 64-bit system could count up to 584,000 years. if you are doing damage calculations on huge bosses, you could go above 4 billion and well into the 1,000,000,000,000,000,000s if you so desired. what about the disadvantages? now most of your data has to be stored as a 64-bit number instead of a 32-bit number, making programs larger. everything in your processor has to be twice as wide - a bigger ALU, bigger registers, and wider buses. this means more heat, more space, and more transistors. if your program only or mostly does 32-bit math, then power and space is being wasted compared to a native 32-bit system."
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5txs9r | How can someone increase their IQ? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Take the test again. You can't determine IQ from a single result, because you could've just been having an off day and got questions wrong that you normally would've been correct with. You should take the test multiple times and average out the score. Any tests drastically above or below this average can be disregarded.",
"There's many varying answers to this question. Some of the most regularly offered up options are: * Reading * Learning new skills (ie: learn to play an instrument) * Brain games (chess, sudoku, scrabble) Personally, I listen to classical and read for 30 minutes every night where possible. I can't say with certainty that it's helped my IQ but I'm definitely a lot sharper at work the days after reading when I miss a night. I've tried the above after doing some high-intensity cardio, too. I'd say that the endorphins created by exercise definitely have an impact on the elasticity of my brain and its ability to absorb information."
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5txsu8 | How breaking a company apart and selling pieces can be more profitable than selling it whole? | In pretty woman and so many other media works there is a figure of a corporate raider who takes companies to "break them apart and sell the pieces". I wonder how could it be more profitable to do that than selling it whole, and also what ¨tearing apart" a company actually means. Thanks! | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are plenty of ways to do such a thing. Here's a simple example: Company sells 3 products. 2 of them are good sellers and make lots of money, the 3rd loses money but is a unique product, and the company owns patents so no one can compete with them on it. Buy the company for the total value (product 1 and its debt + product 2 and its debt - product 3 and its debt). Split the company in to 3 unique companies, one for each product, and \"sell\" the debt of the 2 successful companies to the third company. Now you have 2 very profitable companies with 0 debt and 1 company that loses a ton of money and has a lot of debt. Sell the 2 successful companies for a bigger profit than before since they have no debt to bring the price down, then declare bankruptcy with the 3rd company. Use the patents to settle the remaining debt."
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5txuji | What happens if you lose your documentation (ID, Passport, SSN, etc.)? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Ultimately you go back to documents that are kept by the city / state, such as birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc., which you can request a copy of. You can also prove that you're you by knowing certain info (date of birth, address, mother's maiden name, etc.); a lot of the forms for obtaining replacement documentation simply ask you for this info. As far as voting, you have to put down a name, address, phone, etc., and even if you don't have ID with you, they can check whether that information matches the last census data / phone book. Note that the bottom of the form allows for other forms of ID to be verified by someone, and ultimately they CAN invalidate votes where the identity of the person cannot be confirmed somehow. Esp. if there are duplicate votes under the same name.",
"If you lose all of your documentation, like if your house burned down, you can petition the court to get new ones. You'll have to find a bunch of people to swear that you are actually you, but you will eventually get your documents. If you were born in the US but left, you'd have to do the same. If you can't prove it, you are out of luck. > If you check the box saying, \"I don't have an ID or an SSN\" but say you are a U.S. Citizen, how do they check? They don't, for the most part. But voter fraud is a serious federal crime. Most people don't want to risk jail time to vote illegally."
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5txx5e | Why does the government tax the money it gives you? (Other than "because it can") | Congratulations, lottery participant! You just won a prize! Here is the money you won. But first, I'ma take half of that back again. Here, government worker, this paycheck is your share of our tax revenue. But first, I'ma take half of it back again. Here, bondholder, I borrowed money from you at super-low interest. Here's your interest as promised! But first, I'ma take half of it back again. Is this as wrong as it seems? Is there a legitimate justification for the government taking back money it owes you? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because different people have different tax obligations. That government employee might be single or might have 10 kids. Maybe they won $50K in the lottery and made a $50K return selling a bunch of bonds. The government doesn't know and *can't* know. If you sell your bonds on 1/1, there is no way to tell if you are going to be laid off on 6/1 or win the lottery on 12/31. You only know how much taxes you owe after the tax year is over.",
"The government does not know what other incomes you may be getting, and your taxes are based off ALL income, not just the amount they give to you. They don't know how much you'll owe, they just tax you normally, and then you settle up at the end of the year Say you work for the govt, and have another job, and get investment income, and get an inheritance, and get.... it can get complicated can't it? It would be incredibly hard to tax you at the right perfect amount, because you won't even know that amount until the year is over"
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5ty08b | What makes some chocolates taste smoother than others? | Some chocolates (like Dove) are incredibly smooth when compared to bars. Does it have to do with size at all? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The most important elements in making a luxurious, smooth chocolate (other than starting with high quality ingredients) is how much time is spent in the conching process, followed by the tempering process. If chocolate is not conched long enough, or properly tempered, it will not be smooth and silky or melt on your tongue in that way only good chocolate can. Conching is the process by which the ingredients in the chocolate are ground into a smooth paste. It can take anywhere from several hours to several days. It involves refining, then heating and mixing the chocolate ingredients slowly. Heat is introduced mostly through friction but some additional heating may be used to bring it to the proper temperature range, depending on what the final chocolate will be used for and what qualities the chocolatier is seeking in the final chocolate. During the conching, the cocoa solids and the sugar particles are reduced and the cocoa butter coats each tiny particle. Also during conching, the sharp taste and acidity of the cocoa solids is reduced, producing a smoother, more rounded flavor."
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5ty0yc | Why does the second bounce of a bouncy ball jump off the ground so much differently? | This isn't something I have experienced with any other round ball, like a basketball, volleyball, soccer ball, tennis ball, ping pong ball, or golf ball, so please explain this to me. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They're solid rubber, when thrown they tend to spin top side towards who threw it as a result of it spinning off and out of the hand. Then when it hits the ground it \"grabs\" the ground and the outside stops spinning and the inside retains its inertia and when the rubber is stretched to its max the rotation inside reverses and takes the outside with it. If you watch the change of direction will continue every time it hits something until the elastic ability is used up and it simply bounces as anything else would. Golf balls would except they tend to not be solid, they're hit and not thrown, and tend to be used on grass and sand wich cannot \"grab\" the hard outer shell (which makes it hard enough to act like a rubber ball would anyway) like brick or concrete would."
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5ty232 | What the difference is between x264 and x265 video encoding and which is better | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The actual encoding is called h.264 and h.265; x264 and x265 are an implementation of that standard. The h.264 encoding is older and more widespread. There are a ton of devices that can do h.264 very quickly and/or very energy efficiently. The h.265 encoding is newer and claims to outperform h.264 in many ways, though many devices don't support it (though virtually all PCs, tablets, etc will support both; the devices that won't are very low power, embedded devices and the like). In practice both encodings have a *lot* of knobs and dials to play with: you can get a lot of performance out of either, or you can tune either to be absolute garbage. On average, you should expect h.264 to take less processing but to leave you with a bigger file, while h.265 will likely take much more processing to encode, somewhat more processing to decode, and will leave you with a smaller file. Which one is better depends on your use. If the goal is to wind up with as small of a file as possible (e.g. if you're trying to archive a bunch of videos on a hard drive with limited space) then h.265 is going to be the way to go. If you're trying to compress videos to watch on your tablet then perhaps consider h.264: the lower processing load means that you'll get a bit better battery life. In most cases expect h.265 to be the better choice; it's the more modern standard, though hardware hasn't quite caught up with it yet. As for x264 vs x265, these are software projects that are fairly widely used in programs like FFmpeg or HandBrake. The x265 project is based on the x264 code so they're very similar to one another, though obviously they implement different encoding. The choice between them should be based on h.264 vs h.265, not on the features of x264 vs x265.",
"The ELI5 answer is that x265 uses better compression, so you can get higher quality with a lower file size. The penalty you pay for that is that you need much more computing power to decode it - there's hardly any video hardware that supports it so the CPU has to do all the work. So for which is better, that depends on whether you have more CPU power to spare or more diskspace."
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5ty4zj | How did television studios make words like show titles appear on screen before computers? | Sorry if that's worded poorly. I mean like when the words "I Love Lucy" or "The Honeymooners" or screen credits would appear over the live action footage. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I actually worked in TV before computers. We would make the titles with press-on letters (I forget the brand name) and shoot them with a camera. The title camera would be combined with the live camera in a device called a \"luma key\" that would switch the live camera off and the title camera on everywhere that the lettering appears, based on the brightness. This was with monochrome cameras. With color cameras there was a device called a \"chroma key\" that would switch based on hue, usually tuned to blue. The same device was used for example to put graphics behind the weather man. You had to be careful the talent didn't wear any blue clothing. EDIT: found a web page that shows a switcher with built-in luma key, and explains how it works: [Switchers]( URL_1 ). Scroll down to \"Keys - Internal, External, Matte.\" EDIT 2: I remembered what the letters were called; Tactype. You can buy a sheet of it here: [VINTAGE TACTYPE Lettering 12 x 8 Sheet Dry Transfer 5514 Futura Medium]( URL_0 )",
"Movies have had titles since the 1880s/90s. Lots of methods. Shoot bright titles on a black background with one TV camera. Combine that feed with a feed from another camera and you've got titles over, which you can fade up & down, zoom in and out, roll, whatever. Before computers were used in TV there were devices like Chyrons which substituted for the bright letters on black background and the second camera and gave producers a lot more variety and flexibility. But the basics: 2 feeds and one can be a computer or just a piece of paper.",
"The first live television graphics(commonly called 'supers' or superimposement at the time) were created at a national political convention(iirc Republican National Convention) in the late 60's. They were trying to figure out a way to announce the speakers without having an announcer say the name of every speaker that came up. The director and technical director were at lunch at a diner that had a black menu with white letters. They came up with the idea of using a luminance key to overlay the names. They bought the menu and all of the letters off the diner for less than $100 and that's how the first 'supers' were done before computer graphics. Other ways discussed in other posts were used but as far as I know that was the first. Source: Technical Director for 18 years. EDIT: [Mr. Hewitt swept into the early medium of TV with a series of bold editorial and technical ideas. He was a leading champion of location shooting to cover spectacular breaking stories. He introduced cue cards that forced anchors to look directly into the camera, only after his experiment with Braille went nowhere. At the 1952 national political conventions in Chicago, he created a way of superimposing people's names under their images on camera. The idea came to him at a diner that had a menu board with rearrangeable letters. When the waitress came to take his order, he replied, \"I'll have the board.\" It cost him $45.]( URL_0 )",
"They would have long scrolls of black paper on which they would mount words made of white letters. They would have two cameras, one focused on the scroll and another focused on the scene in the studio, and they would electronically combine the two images. This technique was used into the 1970's. Source: I once knew an artist who was employed to make these long scrolls.",
"I remember some time around 2002, Fox had a baseball game where each inning represented how TV broadcasts looked in each decade. For the 30s, I remember seeing a \"floating hand\" place a card showing the ball and strike count.",
"Heynony is correct for more recent live TV titles, but older TV and movies, they used optical titles. These are titles that are combined with the base footage as part of the printing of the film, basically think of cel animation, where the negative is exposed by light passing though multiple layers of film. The title layer or layers can be hand drawn cels, just like in animation, or photographed text. And of course many complex combinations of these ideas to achieve complex effects.",
"I was disappointed when I went to a taping to The Price is Right years ago. The flashing ring of lights around the screen during the introduction was just a string of Christmas lights that was mounted to the perimeter of the camera lens. Afterwards, all I could focus on was how I didn't notice that for years while watching the show.",
"Another technique that you'd probably appreciate is matte painting - literally painting an exotic landscape on a glass slide, then putting the slide over the camera lens.",
"IIRC, they also occasionally used reflections on glass, similar to heads-up displays or teleprompters. They would film a scene with an angled glass pane between the camera and subject. Another image of very bright text on a dull background would be projected towards the glass. Only the brightest part, the text itself, would reflect off the glass - the rest would remain transparent. Thus, you'd see the text appear to be floating in front of whatever was seen through the glass.",
"Many shows were made on film and used the same method as movies did. The Honeymooners was done live and titles were keyed in from a special camera which pointed at a scrolling paper roll. Even before the personal computer, the Chyron Corporation made special-purpose computer based character generators for TV production in the 1970's. They took up an entire rack and used core memory and 8\"floppies. They had very high quality characters.",
"There is a really great example and explanation of how they made the HBO intro in the early 90s without computers. This example is especially neat because the final result looks CG. URL_0 The making of the logo starts here 5:18",
"The tv studio I used to work at had an old barrel/drum that had been used 'back in the day' for credits. Sheet after sheet of credits were taped to it and a camera was aimed at it while a production assistant would slowly turn the crank. You know, to \"roll the credits\".",
"Another interesting thing is during the Apollo flights the computer screens in mission control were actually television screens showing a feed from a camera which was pointed at a projection screen, the various words, etc were projected on the screen and displayed on the tv screens, in this way they gave the illusion of much more advanced computers than was actually available at the time",
"To maybe add some insight, old tv is made with analog signals, which is basically a voltage going up and down. Connecting voltages in series adds them up (physics does that for free for us) and in parallel averages them out. Now since that source signal is synched to a certain frequency which has a predetermined start, you can do all kinds of things to the signal with variable resistors, capacitors and coils for interesting results. A friend of mine recently disclosed that his grandfather used to do this type of thing for a hobby, and there is still some old gear stored somewhere. I can't wait to try it with our FPV signals, which are basically wireless analog tv transmissions :)",
"I worked on TV, The standard Character Generator was the Aston: URL_0",
"I remember seeing the machine used to make star wars' intoductions at a museum. It's like a big box with a camera pointed directly in it, and something physically turns the part with the introductions.",
"It's worth noting that in between the era of shooting titles on cards on camera and computer-based television graphics, there were dedicated devices called Character Generators. You could type text into them with a keyboard and they'd be stored in arrays of analog capacitors that could replicate what you typed earlier on command and insert the text into the video signal.",
"I worked in a school studio before computers. We wrote our titles and credits etc with a rapidograph pen with white in on black paper. WE had an easel witha camera on a bench. We'd load in the first card, then superimpose it over the live picture from that cams slider. Then we'd fade it out, switch to the next card and wait for the directors cue to switch again...",
"sorrta similar... My uncle worked as a technician in the early cable days (1960's) in a small eastern Ontario town (Pembroke) and I remember in the back of the cable office, there was a rotating drum in front of a camera. It was about 2' around, 6\" wide drum that rotated about 4\" every 30 seconds or so. There was a camera in front of it. They would place advertiser cards or typed announcements on recipe cards, attach those on the drum and that was one of the cable channels! If you snuck in there and placed your finger in front of camera, you were on channel 6! fun times...",
"I've seen plenty mention luma or chroma keying, and the source of the titles being shot with a second, synchronized camera. However one part nobody's mentioned: the system I saw at a local college studio had two slide projectors aimed into an optical setup with the tv camera coming out the other side. (There was a 16mm film projector facing into this setup, too, so I guess it worked for film transfer as well). The titles would be shot onto the slides (white letters on a black background), and divided between the two slide projectors so the first slide was in projector A, second in projector B, third in projector A, and so on. Only one projector showed at a time through the camera, and each time you switched between projectors, the projector that wasn't viewable changed to the next slide, so the change appeared instantaneous. So that's how it was done, or at least one way it was done, for successive titles that didn't scroll. Later the same college got a color system, and a computerized character generator. The character generator was still black and white, though. Another device created a full screen of any color you want (using analog knobs, probably Hue, Saturation, Value or something like that) and Luma Keying off of the generated characters was used to switch between your live video and the full screen color device; resulting in the letters being colored. You could also make the full screen color device do a range of colors across the screen, giving your titles a rainbow effect."
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5ty57c | Why can't we make the flavor of chewing gum last more than 5-10 minutes? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I read an explanation from the chef Heston Blumenthal that what happens is chewing gum loses its sugar over the first few minutes. The mint flavour is still there but the flavour becomes harder to detect as the sugar fades. > We all know that chewing-gum loses its flavour after a period of time. But it does not become tasteless as quickly as we might think. When we chew, the sweetening agent in the gum gradually dissolves in the mouth and is then swallowed, reducing the gum's sweetness. The brain tracks the sweetness and as this reduces, so too does the perception of the mint and menthol flavours. In reality, however, it has been proven that these aromas remain in our headspace for several hours. Link to an [article]( URL_0 )"
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5ty8af | From a big height, how do we jump to save our lives? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Sounds like the dude did the right thing, actually - the most survivable way to take a fall from a great height is to land on your feet with your knees slightly bent, so that you absorb the impact by breaking your legs instead of something more vital. Edit: by \"the right thing\" I did mean \"the correct way to fall\", not that jumping was the correct choice.",
"Oddly enough I've been taught how to escape the last ride up- don't jump, instead kick off your gear and slide to the nearest big column on the wire with a pole or something and climb down the column and run up to your gear. I was so scared of this movie and I was telling my uncle and he just rolled his eyes and told me that. End of discussion. I was dumbstruck.",
"Land on your feet then collapse immediately down to the ground to sort of tuck and roll. Look up how the Army trains their paratroopers to land. They do repeated jumps and this technique has served the military as best practice for generations.",
"As a parkour athlete, I can tell you that the best way to absorb a vertical drop is landing on your feet, with your knees slightly bent. Additionally, right after your feet touch the ground, you want to squad, lean forward and press your hands with slightly bent elbows to the ground. This helps absorbing force and avoids that your legs have to take all the impact.",
"The best thing you can hope to do is land on your feet and immediately roll. This is a very common technique for mitigating force on your body when jumping from a very high height. This would have been the best thing to attempt since the snow was unusually compact under the chair lift.",
"Actually I've seen people jump off the ski lifts intentionally before. Ideally, you want to hit as steep a spot as possible. Otherwise, snow does absorb a lot of the impact. When you land, you want to have your knees bent and just collapse while tucking your chin. The idea is to give yourself as much distance as possible to absorb the fall. If you can find a steep slope, you want to tuck and roll down it a little bit as you land. If you get stuck on a ski life, just wait. They will fix it. If you can't wait because they left you for the night, and it's a long fall, you still don't want to jump it. You have a good chance of being disabled when you land, and then you can't get out of the cold anyway. Instead, climb up to the cable, wrap your legs around it and hand over hand towards the ski pole downhill from you. Once there, it should have a service ladder you can use to get down.",
"Feet and knees together, knees slightly bent and chin to your chest. Upon making contact with the ground execute a proper parachute landing fall by making contact with all 5 points of contact. Balls of the feet, calf, thigh, buttocks, and the pull-up muscle.",
"If you know the snow is deep and soft, I imagine landing feet first, slightly relaxed would work best. Hard ground, the tuck and toll technique is probably best. I've jumped at most around 5 meters down into deep snow, from the roof of our cabin in the mountains, wearing ordinary winter boots. I think there was probably around 2.5 meters of snow where I landed. Landing was a bit hard, but certainly no big deal or risk of injury. I did go very deep though and was briefly panicked before I managed to get loose."
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5ty9eo | why the resignation of Michael Flynn is such a big deal? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"He may have committed a felony by contacting Russia as a private citizen for the purpose of undermining official diplomacy efforts (specifically, he is believed to have told them that the sanctions Obama was putting in place would not be upheld by Trump). He might have gotten away with that, but he followed up by lying to VP Pence about it.",
"the resignation of any high ranking member of a Presidential administration is a very big deal, and he was the National Security Advisor, which is a very high ranking position"
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5ty9w1 | What makes mould on food appear in a specific place before it reaches the rest? | Food dip went bad the other day. Even with the lid on, there was still one section that came out mouldy before the rest. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Mold is spread through the release of spores into the air. The colonization of food is entirely dependent on where these spores land because they grow outward from there."
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5tyaef | How do gas planets have any kind of objects orbiting them and/or gravity when they are just a big ball of gas, no rocks and stuff? | It seems to me if they have gravity stuff would just go right through them. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Gas is the same stuff as solid matter, just all spread out. Every particle of matter has its own gravity; the gravity of a planet is the combined gravity of each of its particles. Also, gas giants are only mostly made of gas - they're believed to have solid cores and oceans of liquid.",
"Even something that is as fluid as gas still contains mass. When you you have something as big as Jupiter, that is a lot of mass. The greater the mass of an object the greater the influence, that we call gravity, it exerts on other objects. Gas planets can exert enough gravity to cause other objects to remain in their orbit. Additionally there is ongoing debate on whether gas giants like Jupiter actually contains a solid core or not although it is generally accepted that there is a mass of heavy elements near the center. Edit: Added some stuff.",
"Stars are made of gas too. You just have toget enough of it in one place. Besides, gas giants do have molten rocky cores."
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5tycin | Why does driving 60mph on the highway feel slow like driving 40mph on a normal road? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Size of the highway vs the size of a city street. Buildings and other objects are farther away from you. That causes the illusion of you going the same speed. I don't recommend it, but drive 60mph on the street, and drive 40mph on the highway. You will feel like a slug on the highway, and you will feel like you are going a million mph. So will the police, and give you a ticket."
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5tym8j | Why do men and women have different passing standards for physical tests like firefighting or the military? | Why should they have different standards, if someone needs to carry a 200 pound person out of a building, they're not going to be lighter if a female is carrying them. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The fitness requirements are more of a test of how fit you are. Men are generally stronger than women so the \"benchmark\" of a strong fit man is stronger than the benchmark for a strong fit woman. For some roles there might be objective fitness requirements (e.g. the job requires you to carry a 50kg backpack) but normally the fitness requirements are only there to ensure that fit and healthy individuals are selected rather than to ensure the individual can perform a specific physical task. Basically being \"fit\" has different outcomes between men and women and so the tests reflect that.",
"Physical fitness standards have nothing to do with your ability to survive in combat beyond the fact that fat people make bigger, slower targets. Physical fitness standards are simply to keep you in top physical condition, and what qualifies as \"top physical condition\" changes depending on gender. So the female standards for push-ups are lower than males. Is the ability to do push-ups going to save you from sustained machinegun fire or a mortar attack? Probably not. So it doesn't matter. Females have a lower push-up standard than males because their basic physiology means \"peak physical condition\" for them places their upper body strength at a lower threshold than yours. Does that make a woman less capable of firing a rifle than you? Is she less capable of making good tactical decisions than you are? Is a woman less adept at dialing in artillery coordinates? None of the things that qualify a person to kill bad guys have anything to do with the PT test standards. The only way in which a woman is un-equal to a man is *maybe* her ability to carry a wounded comrade off the battlefield. But in that case, I don't see the difference between the woman and a small man. An infantryman who's five-foot-two and 115 pounds could no more carry a six-foot-six, two-hundred pound grunt than she could. So why does he get to be in the infantry, and she doesn't?",
"As far as I know, firefighters aren't *supposed* to have different standards for hiring females, but some departments lower their standards or fudge scores in order to get female employees to ensure they don't appear to be sexually discriminating.",
"The standards were built around mens average strength to begin with, its not as if fit men are magically coincidentally perfectly qualified just enough to do physically strenuous jobs. It's that the tasks and expectations are tailored around men's strength, and then when the task is unreasonable we give them tools to make up for their weakness. We make do with what we have. Use your imagination, if a 500 pound person is stuck in a burning building then multiple firefighters can work together to carry them out. If a firefighter can't carry 500 pounds by themselves it doesn't mean they are useless and unqualified."
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5tyvhc | Why were wolves the only large domesticated predator and what made them so special over other similar social predators (i.e. lions, etc.)? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's now thought wolves and early humans cooperated in that wolves were better trackers, humans better killers. The humans would follow wolves to the prey who would then leave the offal (and whatever they couldn't carry away) for the wolves. Gradually the wolves became friendlier and people got the idea to raise them for themselves. It's by happenstance that canids are such a malleable genotype and lend themselves to a social order and hierarchy.",
"I've read that dogs, and presumably therefore wolves by extension, have what's called a \"slippery genome\". That means thay selective breeding will produce much more dramatic changes than what's typical for most animals. This is also an explanation to why we have such extreme diversity in dog breeds, while cat breeds are pretty much just variants in color and pattern, and some minor changes in size and shape, but nowhere close to the variety seen in dogs.",
"Selective breeding is a huge factor. Wolves generally accept and protect puppies, even if they're not the offspring of the dominant couple (although that's rare in the wild). With lions, a new dominant male will kill all the cubs that aren't his. That kinda makes breeding for desirable traits difficult.",
"One factor is that wolves are a better match for humans. Humans are the best long-distance runners in the animal kingdom. They can cover more distance on foot in a day than any other animal. Wolves are pretty high on that list as well. Both will chase faster prey all day until it is too exhausted to get away. Lions and the other big cats hunt by stealth and speed. They get close, make one big burst, and that's it. If they don't catch their prey in the first 30 seconds or so, it's gone and they start over. They can't chase prey for prolonged distances, and would not be able to keep up with humans."
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5tyxfa | Why are some letters given different symbols depending on case whilst others are simply changed in size? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Upper case and lower case letters actually evolved from two very different versions of the Latin alphabet. Capital letters have remained almost unchanged for 2,000 years, and [Roman inscriptions are still very easily readable today]( URL_1 ) (if you know Latin). This version of the alphabet had lots of straight lines and wide curves, great for chiselling into stone. That's where serifs come from -- those extra little strokes in some typefaces like Times New Roman: a mason carving an inscription would chip out a line and then, to tidy up the end, turn the chisel 90 degrees and give it one last tap. Lower-case letters came about from styles used when writing with brushes or pens. Straight lines were more difficult, so scribes developed styles with more curves, and those curves could become quite tight. Letter strokes could become longer and more graceful, and the characters could start to look very different from the original capital letters. An example of this kind of script is [Carolingian minuscule]( URL_2 ). For example, if you look at the \"e\", you can probably see that you get to it by writing an \"E\", but with the vertical stroke and the top and bottom stroke all combined into a single curve, like a \"c\", and then putting the middle stroke quite high up so it meets the top stroke. Later, scribes started to mix these two types of script. To make important words and phrases stand out, they would carefully draw the bigger, blockier capital letters. To mark the beginning of a section, they would turn these letters into works of art -- [here's an example]( URL_0 ). Over time, this became standard, and so evolved the convention of using initial capital letters to mark the beginning of a sentence and other important words, such as nouns. In most modern languages that use the Latin alphabet (as well as those that use the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets), most nouns are now written with lower-case initial letters -- with the exception of German, which continues the old tradition of capitalizing every noun."
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5tz6v6 | How does Radio Astronomy work? | I was looking at various theories about an earth sized Trans-Neptunian object, and suddenly thought why haven't we discovered it. I thought about radio astronomy, but realised I don't know anything about it. Can someone shed some light (or radio waves) on the matter? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The entire electromagnetic spectrum is very large. But the same principles applies to the entire range. From gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, visual light, infrared, microwaves though to long radio waves. For example the microwave background radiation would have been in the visible range billions of years ago but are now red shifted into microwaves so we need a radio to pick it up. Radio astronomy is however limited as the further down the spectrum we get the less energy is in the waves so we need bigger telescopes to be able to detect them. However there is a lot of research into the distribution of hydrogen which is a very abundant gas that sends out radio waves that can be picked up by radio telescopes. However for finding planets and the like we have more luck looking in the infrared range for black body radiation at the low temperatures. This is what the James Webb Radio Telescope is set up to do."
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5tzczd | Why do some clothes smell if they haven't dried properly, even if they're clean? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"If the clothes are damp for a long time, then bacteria can grow in the water that is trapped in the fabric, giving off a foul smell.",
"They're not 100% clean even after washing. Whatever percentage of dirt that's left after washing will have bacteria in it that have a feast when they have a bit of moisture to thrive in. Bacterial byproducts are smelly."
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5tzjyl | how can the government track GPS devices? | If I understand correctly GPS works because my cellphone receives a signal from a few satelites that basically represents the time on the clock of that satelite, and by reading the different times my phone can work out the distances to the satelites and map my location. Now I've been told that a government/foreing military can find me if I use GPS (this was a conversation within the context of a military unit still using compasses in certain context because the GPS could be tracked). I don't understand how this would work given the above process. ELI5? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You're correct about GPS. A pure GPS device is just a radio receiver, it can't be tracked; and GPS satellites are just broadcasters, they have no idea what devices are listening. Your phone, though, uses a map of WiFi network identifiers and triangulates by cell phone signal as well, and that's trackable - heck, the phone company has to know what tower your cell phone is closest to for the technology to even work. Both kinds of devices may save a record of your movements, which could be viewed later."
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5tzlkp | Is land mass fixed to the earth beneath or does it float on the sea? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Land is not floating on the sea. Land is attached to the crust. The crust is what you find below the sea and surrounds the entire planet. Now, the crust is sort of floating on the magma layer below. The thicker parts of the crust (5-70 km thick) are high enough to be above water, the thinner (oceanic crust, under 5-10 km thick) are covered by the water. A typical bottom of the sea would be at 3.5 km below sea surface, a typical continental platform would be like 200 m. This means, surrounding the continents, there is a 200 m deep and like 100 km wide shelf than then steeply falls to the 3.5 km see bottom. On that shelf, any mountain, if you will, is an island. And big plateaus are \"continents\". You can also have underwater volcanoes, that spit the magma underneath the crust and can, with time, become higher and higher until they become visible islands. Like Hawaii. And then, there is The Netherlands."
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5tzmds | Why are some animals easier to domesticate for farming/pets? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They're easier to domesticate if they're easier to breed. Domesticating an animal is selectively breeding it for some traits. One of those traits is docility. This means animals with either faster breeding or animals with more offspring are *usually* easier. With those conditions we're able to bottleneck faster and more efficiently. If some animal has one offspring every 50 years, it would take a long time. If some animal, like a wolf, has multiple pups each time and has that every few years, we can make them docile much faster."
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5tzst7 | Why does the sun cause things to fade over time? | I recently looked at the back of the curtains at my dad's house and noticed they're extremely faded, and was curious what it is about the sun that causes this type of fading | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"When a molecule absorbs a photon of light, it does so by jumping an electron up to a higher energy level. Dyes are typically complex molecules, so when an electron tries to come back down (by emitting some photons of its own), there's a good chance it doesn't go back where it started; which changes the chemical structure of the atom. Maybe it breaks in two, maybe the shape just changes. Either way, now it doesn't reflect light in the same way, so it changes color; most commonly it stops reflecting visible light at all. In other words, it fades. Ultraviolet light is good at causing this kind of reaction. Sunlight contains lots of ultraviolet light, but electric light doesn't contain much, which is why the window side of the curtains fades much more than the room side."
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5u024w | Why is it difficult for people to pronounce words correctly even after being told/shown correct pronunciation? | I work with a lot of people who continuously pronounce words wrong and they can't seem to get it right. Netflix = Nextflits, Architects = Orchytext, Roster = Roseter, etc., why does this happen? They will even pronounce a person's name incorrectly, no matter how often they are corrected. In some occasions, they will tell you that you're "saying it wrong". | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Because speaking is a physical skill that requires proper use of the tongue, lips, and larynx to make the right sounds. If there are sounds you have never said before, you may have to practice a bit to get them right. It's kind of like asking why it's difficult for people to play guitar even when they've been shown how to do it properly. (Not exactly the same, though, since we're already great at speaking our own language. It's more like asking why rock guitarists have difficulty playing the blues even when they've been shown how.)"
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5u02gx | Why does the sun rise/set so quickly along the horizon but takes all day to cross the sky? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"The reason that the sun seems to set so fast and rise so fast at the horizon is simply because it is just about the only time you have a constant thing near the sun with which to compare its movement. When it is up in the sky there are no points of reference to compare its location from now and from 10 minutes ago.",
"The Sun is about half a degree across. But the sky is 180 degrees across. So compared to how long the Sun spends tracking across the sky it does not spend much time at the horizon.",
"It has the same apparent* speed all the day (and night). For the step between \"sun just above the horizon\" and \"sun just below the horizon\" it doesn't need long simply because the distance is short. \\*it is not actually the speed of the sun, it is the Earth and our point of view rotating."
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5u057p | Difference between Value and Price and Cost | What are diff. between those three things. i.e: Person A says: This bread costs 1$ Person B says: This bread's value is 1$ Person C says: This bread 's price is 1$ Who is ''right'' ? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Value is a personal belief of the worth of a product or service. E.g. You have a gallon of milk that your mother got you (and let's assume you love milk your mother gets you more than anything) and you feel it has a value of $100, and it would take that Much for you to part with it. Cost is the composite amount of acquisition, storage, transport, and labor surrounding a good or service. E.g. It costs $1.50 to bring a gallon of milk to market Price is a set worth of an item or service as determined by a person or organization. Which takes into consideration cost, and includes a markup E.g the price of a gallon of milk at the store is $2.00 So to incorporate everything into one story: I own a milk store, and after, feeding the cows, pumping the milk, packaging the milk, shipping the milk, refrigerating the milk, and the labor or putting it on the self at my store, it has COST me $1.50 for every gallon. In order to recoup those COSTS and make some money for my time and effort, I PRICE the milk at $2.00 a gallon. (I net .50 but that's a story for another day) your mother buys the milk from me and brings it home to you. Later on the neighbor comes over and asks if they can buy a gallon of milk, and you ask him for $100 because that is the VALUE it has to you. He may offer you $5.00 which is more than double the acquisition price at my store because your neighbor feels that not having to drive to the store in the middle of cooking adds VALUE. However since, you don't agree as to the VALUE he sets for the milk, you say no, and he leaves cursing about how crazy you are, and you continue you life with a very strange outlook on milk purchased by your mother. Does that make sense?",
"Value is what it's worth to you or to someone else who might buy it. Price is how much the seller wants for it. Cost is everything you have to give up to get it."
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5u0a7d | Why does the continuum mechanics model differ from the fracture mechanics model in explaining future stability of ice in Antarctica given that a Delaware-sized iceberg, Larsen C, is about to separate, and are they both widely accepted? | Let me know if I've phrased anything in the question wrong. Thanks! Wanted to know more from reading URL_0 | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Continuum mechanics and fracture mechanics are two different systems for determining the strength of a solid structure. Continuum mechanics is a \"big picture\" view of a material. When it looks at a block of iron, that's what it sees: a block of *continuous* material called iron (in other words it sees iron as a continuum, hence the name). It doesn't concern itself with what all the little iron atoms are doing, or how they're lined up. It says that iron, as a bulk material, has a certain stiffness, a certain strength, a certain ductility, and so on. Any block of iron will therefore behave like any other block of iron. Fracture mechanics takes a more microscopic view. It says that a material is only as strong as its weakest part. It looks for cracks and flaws in the block of iron, and calculates how those will behave when the block is put under stress. If a crack is unstable enough, it can spread across the block and cause the whole thing to break apart at far lower stresses than continuum mechanics would predict. Which is correct? A little of both. Continuum mechanics works well enough for ordinary ductile materials (like most metals), while fracture mechanics is a better predictor for ordinary brittle materials (like glass). Where ductile and brittle start to blend together, such as when metals get super cold, you [start having problems]( URL_0 ) and have to reconcile the two methods with one another. The math gets incredibly complicated, and the best way to figure out how much weight to give each method is by experimentation. So we know from lab tests that such-and-such grade of steel will behave in such-and-such a way at such-and-such temperature, and so on. From what I can get from that article (Wired's website has gone to hell with all the ads and scripts, jesus), they have no idea which model is better for modeling the large-scale behavior of ice. Ice in everyday life is brittle, but when you get enough ice to make glaciers, it flows and seems more ductile. This ice shelf collapse is going to serve as experimental data to help us model large-scale ice mechanics in the future."
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5u0c2c | Is literally every organic thing made out of carbon? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Not \"made out of\" but \"containing\". And yes: the very definition of \"organic compound\" is a compound containing carbon atoms, except for the very simplest ones like carbon dioxide or... well, carbon itself. It used to be that organic compounds were compounds that were or had been, in some sense, \"alive\" or made by living organisms, but then somebody successfully made IIRC uric acid in a laboratory, so they had to change the definition. The simplest organic molecule is methane, which consists of a carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms (CH₄), but organic compounds are usually much more complex. For example, vitamin B12 has the chemical formula C₆₃H₈₈CoN₁₄O₁₄P, although writing it out like that isn't very useful. Carbon is great for making complex molecules because of the way it can form bonds with other carbon atoms to make long chains or rings. There has been some speculation as to whether some alien life form might use silicon, which is similar, but until we find some silicon-based life form, we'll probably never know.",
"Pretty much. Carbon-based compounds are so numerous and varied that you're bound to find them in anything derived from something that was once alive. Coffee beans were alive, gum has sugar which comes from plants (and natural gums which also come from plants), etc. Organic chemistry, or chemistry based on carbon, is about 50% of all chemistry."
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5u0dhm | Why is it easier to 'pop' your knuckles the more you do it? | From my understanding, 'popping' is just releasing gas bubbles from between your joints (or something like that). Why does it become easier to do the more you do it? For example, I used to not be able to pop my neck at all, but now I can't even wake up and start my day without popping it | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"You probably are just better at the technique after practice. There is currently no evidence that cracking your knuckles causes any physiologic change. Edit: correction, actually chronic knuckle cracking has been shown to be associated with hand swelling and decreased grip strength. The evidence also shows no association with degenerative bony changes. I still don't believe there is any reason that cracking your knuckles would cause changes that make it easier to crack them later, given what we know about the mechanism of the cracking sound, but this has not been explicitly studied as far as I know."
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5u0dlu | If sperm donation is anonymous, how do they make sure some guy is not sleeping with his daughter 18 years later by a true mistake? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"As far as I know, there isn't any mechanism to prevent this, but with how ridiculously unlikely it is to happen (and then even more unlikely you'd ever find out even if it did happen) I don't think it's something to be worth worrying about. Sure it's creepy to think about but even in the extreme off chance this couple then actually settled down and had kids completely unaware of their relation, I don't think notable genetic issues arise after just one generation. The sheer unlikeliness of any issue ever arising like this makes it not worth the effort trying to prevent imo. Maybe just don't sleep with people half your age who kinda look like you",
"Iam not exactly sure how it works but I think they do take your name and such. To make sure that doesn't happen They also screen for STDs. What do I know there could be shit loads of inbred kids with STDs running around",
"This \"problem\" is not unique to sperm donation, fathers sometimes abandon their families/children (even before the child is born) and the child/father's identity would be unknown to the other. There's also anonymous sex, multiple partners, and other situations where the identity of the father is unknown or unrecorded. So besides the small chance of this really being a problem, sperm donation doesn't necessarily create a large number of these situations compared to those that occur \"naturally\"",
"I'm a little bit confused. Are you asking if a guy donates sperm anonymously how can he be sure he does not accidentally sleep with his daughter 18 years later? Well the answer is he can't unless he forces every girl he sleeps with to take a DNA test. But the chances of that happening are extremely low.",
"I'm sure this will get buried since I'm a little late, BUT As a child conceived from sperm donation, you don't! There is a valid chance you will sleep with someone related to you. Due to the age of my donor, I'm much more worried about sleeping with a half sibling. I usually sit down with people I'm seeing and ask if there's any chance they were conceived from/a parent donated to a sperm bank. Worst part is that there's always a chance *they* don't know. Sperm donation is a bit of a taboo subject still, so some parents never mention it. I appreciate that my parents wanted children so badly, but it's still an ethical grey area for me. I enjoy being alive, but don't enjoy not knowing my father, not knowing half of my medical history, and wondering how many half siblings/cousins/relatives I have out there.",
"The odds are low, but possible. The real issue would be the donors kids having sex with each other, especially because there is a known tendency for siblings raised apart to be attracted sexually to each other. Its being raised together that makes people far less likely to want to have sex with family.",
"One of the biggest issues with incest is the social relatedness, not the biological. Fathers usually have a position of power over their children, so if they have sex with their daughters it's very likely that this power is abused. In your case they don't know that they are related, so there's no power to abuse. Incest may lead to genetic defects, but it's not that big of a problem if it doesn't happen at a regular basis. (Just consider the odds that someone is accidentally sleeping with his daughter. There are other reasons for genetic defect which are much more likely to happen.) Inbreeding is a problem in some aristocratic families, yes, but they married their relatives at a regular basis, not just once. Edit: Some countries, mine (Austria) included, don't allow anonymous donors. Every donor is recorded and when the child reaches a certain age, they have the right to ask for the identity of their biological father. It's not to prevent incest, though. Some governments just believe that everyone has the right to know who their biological ancestors are. (I don't share this belief.)",
"Short version - they don't. I was conceived through this process, and that's a thought I considered off and on from the time I was old enough to figure out that boys didn't have cooties. I was more concerned with a half brother than the father, but same idea. There is no way to know, short of getting yourself and your partner DNA tested. The odds of it happening are ridiculously low though.",
"It's quite an ethical issue pertaining to sperm donation. Thankfully men don't normally sleep around with women half their age, at least where I'm from that is.",
"On a somewhat related topic, there's an app and registry in Iceland to help you avoid accidentally sleeping with your cousin/random relatives given the small and interrelated population.",
"I mean, I'm a child of a sperm donor, and we get information packets about the donor. Hair, eye and skin color, build, age, generally where they're from, etc. I know my donor's info by heart and I'd never hook up with anyone who could match that. I'd definitely ask some background info about them if I thought they might possibly be my donor. Same with half siblings, I would always ask them where their dad was from.",
"It's now law in the UK that children have the right to track down their biological parents.",
"Or what if someones daughter has to use sperm from a sperm bank and it ends up being her fathers :O"
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5u0fr1 | Duration of "morning wood" | Let me see if I can word this correctly; I often wake up with morning wood. Seems like most every morning. I'm curious though, when my "morning wood" starts. I wake up, and have it, was it there an hour earlier? Two hours? Is there something regarding the "morning wood" that actually wakes us up? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Your body releases testosterone early in the morning before you wake up, you get an erection as a side effect.",
"Some of it is that you probably have to pee, and the rest of it is the body making sure the plumbing is in working order. It happens in cycles throughout the night, usually every hour or so."
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5u0rc5 | Why did I just pay $250 for a passport with a 3-week turnaround, when a driver's license is $25 and take 30 minutes? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The process it goes through is why it takes so long normally to get it. You paid extra to have them to complete the process faster. Like 1 day shipping vs 5 day shipping. You pay more for the 1 day. I don't exactly remember the process but I do remember that they do ALOT to ensure your not doing anything shady",
"A driver's license is a state-issued document accepted by state governments certifying your identity and ability to drive. A passport is a federally-issued document accepted by international governments certifying your identity and travel eligibility and history. Whereas you can get away with a temporary driver's license printed on a DMV receipt printer, a passport has a LOT of liability tied to it and basically is your country insuring you as \"This person is a Normal Person\" The cost comes from the legal backing, as well as whatever background checks they need to run on you"
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5u0wa4 | What exactly are we smelling when we breathe in a nice or unpleasant fragrance? Is it the actual bacteria that comes when someone passes gas, or just air particles filled with chemicals that pass through our nostrils? | Sorry if this is worded weirdly. Someone farted on the train today and I wanted to know what foul part of them was forcing its way up my nostrils, particularly since we can't "unsmell" things once we detect them. | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Smelling and tasting are more or less chemical senses - in the sense that they react in a chemical way to a chemical compound. You don't usually smell or taste bacteria, but the toxins or other waste they produce. Farts can have a lot of different things in them that smell bad. Smell could be caused by bacteria or fermentation. In farts we usually smell the sulphur compounds which are likely caused by fermentation in the gut or later in digestive system.",
"Your nose in an incredible machine. Smells come in a variety of chemicals, but the most common are ethers (usually nice smells) and carboxylic acids (nasty smells). Sometimes bacteria will make your nose itch and you'll sneeze, but for the most part you are smelling the chemical excrement of bacteria or dead bacteria, not so much the bacteria itself. Your nose will pick these chemicals up with receptors called the 'olfactory system' and, in physiology (for the most part), once a receptor has been activated you're brain will 'filter out the noise' the receptor is making which basically means your brain knows the smell is there and it slowly deactivates the receptor because your nose does not have the ability to break down these chemicals/bacteria, only catch them in the mucus and boogers your nose makes.",
"One thing that needs to be added. Just because you are smelling the by products of the bacteria and not the bacteria itself doesn't mean that the bacteria isn't there. You could still have that in the mix, your just not detecting it directly. You can argue that part of the reason why the smell is unpleasant is because it suggests the presence of bacteria and therefore the risk of getting sick. We developed the defense mechanisms of smelling the bad smell and being repulsed by it to protect us against bacterial overload. So you could still be getting some of that butt bacteria in your nostrils. The bad smell that your nose is reporting is your body telling you: \"Stop breathing, high risk of bacteria\" Luckily for you there were some clever fellows with petri dishes and they tested this exact thing. Turns out that clothing filters out the bacteria from your farts and what you are smelling is in fact only chemical in nature. Whew! URL_0"
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5u1a7w | How did cameras on spacecraft film, and transmit data before we had digital cameras? | When I saw the Voyager Pale Blue Dot photo on the frontpage today, this sparked that question. I know Voyager was sent up at the dawn of digital photography, so I guess I can assume that they had that tech on voyager. But what about all the other probes and maned-missions before? How could they transmit images back in an era of film photography? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Radio waves, just like we still do today. If you want an example, think about how television worked in the 1940's and 1950's. Take an image and transmit it via radio to a receiver.",
"Analog. Prior to 2009, most TV broadcasts were analog signals captured with analog video equipment and recorded on analog media. The [cameras used by NASA]( URL_0 ) on Voyager 1 used to take the Pale Blue Dot are called vidicon tubes, and they are kind of like the old CRT displays running in reverse. At the end of the tube opposite the lens is a plate that builds up a charge as light hits it, then the charges on the plate are scanned using an electron beam to generate an analog signal just like old-fashioned TV. The signal is run through an amplifier and broadcast back to earth as a slow-scan TV picture. The system more or less works like the TV systems used from 1950-2000.",
"Spy satellites used to expose a roll of film, then get it back to Earth with a reentry device and a parachute. It came down with a radio direction finder. This cost a lot of money. The satellite would run out of film. They switched to television transmission of images very quickly. Film had better resolution for a while. But techniques improved rapidly so transmission of images rather than film happened quickly."
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5u1d9j | How are we so bad at calculating stuff manually when our brain is so good at it automatically? | For example, we can easily accurately calculate at what speed/arc/etc to throw a ball so that it will reach our target, but if we try to calculate that manually we struggle with it so much. Some even struggle doing basic addition/multiplication in our head but our brains can calculate something like how much to individually move each eye when you move your head while focusing on a target. Why is there such a large discrepancy in these manual vs automatic calculations? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Your brain does not say \"Rotate the arm with 300N and the wrist with 100N\" to your muscles. It just says \"Rotate it to make sure the ball gets to the there, approximately\" It's usually done bt instinct: You dont have to think a lot to walk. It's hardwired into your brain because you have done it thousands of times. (PRACTICE). And that's why footballers, tennis players, basketball players and others have a lot of precision: They have been practicing that a lot and they know, by instinct, how to move the muscles to hit what they want",
"What our brain does automatically is not math. Rather, it's a feedback system -- you know how it should feel in your arm to throw a ball to a person who seems to be a certain distance away. No numbers are used. Numbers are hard for most brains."
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5u1e3k | When going down a hill in a car, why does the pressure change make it harder to hear? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The change in air pressure results in pressure on your ear drum, making the ear drum more taught and thus more resistant to vibrating. The dampened vibrations means that the ear drum is less effective at picking up sound thus making it more difficult to hear."
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5u1exw | Browser Fingerprinting | I've visited [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 ) and somewhat get the concept of Browser Fingerprinting, but how do they figure out who exactly you are? Like, can they look at these browsers characteristics and say, "Hey that's specifically Larry Jones from Nightmute, Alaska"? Yes! (You can be tracked!) 36.67 % of observed browsers are Chrome, as yours. 3.58 % of observed browsers are Chrome 55.0, as yours. 56.59 % of observed browsers run Windows, as yours. 31.97 % of observed browsers run Windows 7, as yours. 66.51 % of observed browsers have set "en"as their primary language, as yours. However, your full fingerprint is unique among the 314628 collected so far. How is this unique if these metrics are so common such as using Chrome and Windows7 and have the language set to en? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because each additional piece of information makes things more unique. So how many people share your browser, browser version, build, is, OS version, os build. They also look at the browser resolution, if you have flash installed, the browser language, the browser plugins. A big one is they can have the browser generate an image and the exact data of the image will be different based on the browser, os, and video card. They look at what fonts are installed, whether the browser supports HTTPS, whether you have the Do Not Track turned on and more. The odds that a multiple people will have all of the EXACT same settings and hardware for everything gets smaller for each additional thing looked at."
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5u1gow | How do cut resistant gloves work? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's not complex. They contain super-strong fibers (such as metal wires) mixed into the fabric. So while you may cut the normal part of the fabric, the knife won't easily get through these special fibers."
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5u1j7k | How do dying people "wait to go" so they can see their loved ones one last time? | I've had over six family members/friends die over the past two years. All of them had the same thing happen: they were losing to disease and wouldn't "go" until they got to see their loved ones for the last time. Every single one of them (who were expected to die anytime) waited days and even weeks so that their loved ones could arrive and say goodbye. Once they said goodbye, they all died minutes/hours after. Many friends of mine also said the same exact thing happened to their family/friends too. Basically, how does a dying person stay alive long enough to see their loved ones? What, scientifically, are they able to control or postpone in their body/mind that allows them to live long enough? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"This is called confirmation bias. You don't remember the people who died without seeing certain members of their family. If a person is dying and being visited over a period of time by a number of their loved ones, the odds of them dying relatively close to one of those visits is pretty good. There have been multiple studies that investigate whether people can postpone death in order to make it to some social or religious event which showed that there is no data to support this, in contrast with some smaller, earlier studies that suggested that this might be the case.",
"Dying is often caused by a heart or lung condition that makes it progressively harder to get enough oxygen. There are spells where it takes all of your conscious effort just to make yourself breathe, and without that effort, you'd pass out and asphyxiate. There are also less direct things involved. Dying people often lose their appetite, making yourself eat and drink can prolong your life a little. Finally, there is a whole lot of confirmation bias here. From the \"this is probably it\" point, it is not unusual for someone to take 3-4 days to die, which is enough time for people to gather, whether they are \"holding on\" or not. And when a relative dies suddenly, no one turns it into a \"they didn't want to hang on\" story.",
"My grandfather just died with about 5 members of the family that live very far away only a few hours from arriving. If he had hung on a little longer he would have seen all three of his children, but no such luck.",
"Hospice nurse here. Sometimes people can hang on until family arrives for a last goodbye. This tends to occur more with a slowly progressing disease like COPD or congestive heart failure. Strength of will or fighting against the disease process can certainly buy someone a bit more time. In a more rapidly progression disease like an aggressive cancer, death tends to come quickly whether the person is ready or not. I heard a story from a retired hospice nurse about a patient dying in a nursing home. A nursing assistant was sitting vigil at the bedside and would shake the patient to wake her up if her breathing got too irregular aka almost quit breathing. The patient finally told the nursing assistant to leave her alone and quit shaking her so she could die in peace because she was ready. Dying slowly can be like falling asleep - you can fight it for a while if you aren't ready or have too much on your mind. It will eventually catch up with you though - the human mortality rate has been holding steady at 100% for a while now.",
"As a nurse of many years, I have seen many 'wait' for that living person to visit. I have also seen the opposite. The person has a crowd around them for the event and will linger till the family leaves for awhile.",
"As /u/rrssh already mentioned: Your state of mind partly controls your body functions, like adrenaline level. To add to this: Many terminal diseases are painful. You can stop or at least lower the pain with drugs, but they have side effects: It's harder if not impossible to keep a clear mind - and they may accelerate the process of dying. Drugs are poison after all. Maybe they didn't want to take much pain killers because they made them dizzy - and they wanted to have a clear mind to have a proper good bye with their loved ones. After everyone had met them for the last time, they was open for a higher dose of pain killers - they made their peace with everyone and didn't mind to get dizzy."
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5u1mox | How to Kurt Godel manage to "break" mathematics? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Godel did not \"break\" mathematics, but rather he proved that there existed limitations to the degree we could root complex mathematics in basic, formal logic. Philosophers and mathematicians wanted to devise a system where you could take a few basic axioms (unproved statements accepted as generally true), some rules of inference, and then construct every possible mathematical statement that was true. There are two qualities we want in a system: 1. Consistency - The system never produces a result that is false (for example: 2+2=5) 2. Completeness - If something is true, then our system is capable of producing it as a result (for example: 2+2=4 is true, so we want our system to be able to prove that). Philosophers and mathematicians spent a great deal of effort trying to develop such systems, until Godel proved that you cannot have a system that is both consistent or complete. A fully consistent system won't be complete (it won't be able to prove everything that is true) and a fully complete system won't be consistent (the system will \"prove\" things that are false). Needless to say, it basically shelved such efforts to ground math in pure logic, and any logical system of mathematics has to settle for being either incomplete or inconsistent.",
"Before Gödel, there was an effort was an effort to represent mathematics in a manner that would allow everything true theorem to be generated in a systematic fashion. The famous story about Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead taking 360 pages to prove 1 + 1 = 2 was part of this effort. Gödel showed that what they were attempting to do was not possible. He found a clever way to use their work to express \"this theorem cannot be proven\" as a mathematical proposition. If it is true, it cannot be proven true, and if it can be proven true, it is false. The only way to resolve this paradox is if there are true theorems that cannot be proven true, which undermined what Russell and Whitehead were trying to accomplish."
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5u1pwh | If the Earth orbits the habitable zone, how come the moon doesn't look like the earth does? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Just because something is in the habitable zone does not mean it's going to be habitable. There's no water or atmosphere on the moon, so it can't support life as we know it. The 'days' on the moon are 2 weeks of darkness and 2 weeks of light, so even if it had water/atmosphere, the nights would be so long that everything would freeze, and the days would be so long that everything would roast.",
"also, the earths magnetosphere helps prevent solar wind from stripping our atmosphere like it did to mars",
"The definition of \"habitable zone\" is simply that the distance to the sun is such that the heat from the sun won't boil off water, or leave it cold and frozen solid like in comets. As the others have said, you can have non-habitable planets in the habitable zone. Venus, the Moon, Mars, and Earth are in the Sun's habitable zone. But the other planets aren't habitable for their own reasons: - Venus has an atmosphere of CO2 (no nitrogen). CO2 is dense and causes heating, so temperatures on Venus are hotter than the oven and the pressure is 80+ atmospheres. - Mars is smaller than the Earth and doesn't have sufficient gravity to hold an oxygen/nitrogen + water atmosphere. - Moon is much smaller than the Earth and doesn't have enough gravity to hold ANY atmosphere.",
"The moon isn't big enough to have a liquid iron inner core. As a result it doesn't have a magnetic field. Since there is no magnetic field, the moon can't sustain an atmosphere because the solar wind blows it away. Same thing with Mars. Mars at one point did have an atmosphere, but solar wind blew it away over time due to the lack of a planetary magnetic field. Planets that are close to the sun (terrestrial planets) will lose gasses (atmosphere) if they aren't shielded from solar wind. Planets far from the sun (Jovian planets) have lots of gas because they sit far enough away that gasses from the interior of the solar system are blown out to them. Temperature also plays a role in this.",
"Being in a habitable zone is only part of what is required for a lush and vibrant environment. The moon doesn't have the other characteristics that earth does, such as a relatively thick atmosphere, and organic matter such as trees."
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5u1qq2 | What is an api and what are restful api's ? | Tried reading explanations on the Internet ; learnt a few things about what apis are but couldn't make ahead or a tail about what restful apis are? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"API = Application Programming Interface. It's basically just a set of methods and properties in some software (usually someone else's software) that you can call or request to do stuff using your own software. REST = REpresentational State Transfer. REST or RESTful web services are a common way of accessing an online API. You make a request to a certain URL with a certain set of parameters and it will send you back some information. It is a \"representational state\" because it returns the current \"state\" of the data you requested, and if you make another request it doesn't remember you, your previous connections, requests, or responses. It just does what you ask in the current request."
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5u28n6 | How come so many stores uses plastic bags, when it can't be recycled? Why aren't they forced to use paper bags instead? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Paper bags are thicker and heavier for the same size bag, which means it takes more trucks to deliver them to the shop, so banning plastic bags might not be any better for the environment. And plastic bags can be recycled, although recycling rates are usually rather low."
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5u2mpk | the difference between phenomenology and ontology | title says it all. i don't have a strong understanding of philosophical lexicon, so when people have tried to explain the difference between phenomenology and ontology to me in the past, the vernacular used has gone right over my head. please help me understand. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Bottom line: Ontology \"What is\". Phenomenology: \"What is experienced\". Often (pretty much always as far as we're concerned with our everyday lives) those two things seem to perfectly align. If however, you study many branches of science you rapidly learn that what is and what is experienced can be subtly, or even radically different. Example: Phenomenon: We experience three spatial and one temporal dimension. The ontology however is entirely debatable at this time, and ranges from fewer fundamental dimensions or many more than the ones we experience. So phenomenology is the study is what's going on, and ontology would more broadly be the study of what's going on at a fundamental level (which provides the \"why\" for the phenomena)... basically."
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5u2nkx | What is a Linux Kernel? | How do you make one? How do you configure it? Where is the Kernel? Can you look at it? Can you change it? Do you want to change it? What changes can you make? Other questions about kernels. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A kernel is the core of any operating system. it has complete access and control over everything in and pertaining to the system and is the first thing loaded of your system. The kernel is responsible for, well, most everything low level. They are the masters of your system, the backbone of computing, the framework for everything your machine does. If it's important, close to the OS, connects hardware pieces together, or is low level it most likely goes trough the kernel in one way or several. The kernel is usually located in a protected memory space where no applications can touch it (for what I hope are obvious reasons). > How do you make one? A lot of low-level programming. You need to have pretty good understanding of the ins and outs of how your hardware operates since you'll be handling most of it directly. If you are intending to write one read every single guide you can find. > How do you configure it Depends a bit on the distribution, but there are a lot of guides for that sort of thing. [for instance this one]( URL_0 ) > Can you look at it? Sure, the Linux kernel is open source, anyone is free to examine the code and make their own version. [The github repo for the Linux kernel is here.]( URL_1 ) > Can you change it yes. > Do you want to change it? Personally? No. If you don't know what you are doing? most likely not. But if you find something to be off with the code be free. Plenty of people do change it to better fit with their needs and purposes. > What changes can you make. all of them, the code is open, you can change whatever you like. Just be careful if you intend to load your custom kernel into your machine, being all powerful on your system leads to some problems to avoid.",
"So back in the day, everybody who wanted to do anything with a computer had to start from scratch. If you wanted to put letters on paper, or data on a tape, or punch holes in cards you had to write all that procedural code yourself. That code looked very terse and it was made up of \"cram number into location\". Some locations in memory would start the motor of the tape drive. Other locations would turn the magnets of the write head on and off. Another might move a print head. Another would cause the print head to slam the ribbon against the paper. It was all really low-level, annoying, and repetitive stuff. It was really annoying. Really. Annoying. And so error prone. Worse still, if you and I were both going to use the tape drive (not at the same time) we'd both have to write our own \"device driver\" code, and we both had to pick how we'd arrange the magnetic spots to represent our data. And if we _both_ didn't do all that exactly the same way then _my_ code couldn't read _your_ tapes. This became ridiculous. There was all this data being used and saved but nobody could share it, and everybody was wasting a lot of time re-inventing the wheel, so to speak, by having to write their own drivers. So they started making \"libraries of code\". The libraries would have \"include books\" for the various things like operating the tape drives and the printers and so on. When I decided to use the printer in my code I could tell the compiler to \"include the book with all the printer code\". So things got better. But computers weren't all that fast. So it became obvious that even re-building all the drivers for each program was a waste of time. So they started to make \"runtime libraries\". Basically they'd compile the human-readable code into a machine readable format, then include that. It was much faster. But computer were _really_ _really_ slow. And it became obvious that \"most of the program\" you were \"loading into memory\" was from these libraries. So if you and I were taking turns using the computer, I'd erase everything you'd put in, and then put in my stuff. When it was your turn you'd erase what I'd put in and put in your stuff. This took a _lot_ of valuable time. And it was a waste because massive fractions (sometimes like ninety percent or more) of our two programs were the same code from the same libraries. So wouldn't it be cool if we could leave the common stuff in there and just load our unique parts? Basically what if we condensed the stuff we needed to operate the system hardware into one blob that would just always be there? But there were _way_ more libraries than there was memory. Like one killobyte of memory was a _huge_ computer. So they paired down only the most common parts. The parts that read the tape drive or printed on paper. This smallest common part was the \"kernel\" of the \"operating system\". Then the extra parts would be used on demand and the individual programs would have the best running time with the best available memory. Over time computers got bigger. And so did operating systems. Instead of just barely enough to run the tape and disk drives it became desireable to be able to use all sorts of things. So \"the kernel\" of an operating system is the minimum needed to run the various hardware, the minimum needed to get programs into and out of memory, and the minimum needed to let programs ask the kernel to operate the hardware for them (instead of needing the programs to operate the hardware themselves). Outside of the kernel, there are piles and stacks of utilities and lots of files containing \"optional\" drivers. For instance, in windows, you don't need the real-time game-to-screen rendering parts to copy files around. So the game-to-screen part (\"Direct 3D etc\") are only loaded into memory as needed. Just like you don't need your game loaded in order to use Word. So every operating system has a \"kernel\" (as in \"kernel of corn\" or \"seed\") at its metaphorical center. Then it has things like optional drivers and utilities (like the program \"copy\" on windows that you use to copy files) and all that stuff. So back in the day there was an operating system called Unix. And it was very expensive. But it was very good. So this guy, Linus Torvalds, wrote a \"Unix Compatable\" kernel and name it Linux (e.g. replaced the first letter with his initial) and gave it away for free. It was very popular. And there was already an organization called \"GNU\" (which stood for \"GNU's Not Unix\" -- a little joke that) that was trying to make free versions of all the main Unix utilities (like \"cp\" as in \"copy\"). The combination of Linux and GNU software is what's now known as \"GNU/Linux\" (e.g. \"GNU over Linux\") and is what you know as a \"linux distribution\" or whatever. So the Linux kernel is a big pile of software that knows how to make the hardware do stuff. And you can get it for free. And you can change it and compile it for yourself because, unlike Windows, when you get a copy of Linux and GNU utilities, you get all the source code (if you want it). So yes, you can look at it. Change it any way you like. And so on. The only rule is that if you change it, and then give the changes to someone else, you _MUST_ give them the source code so that _they_ can look at it and change it if _they_ want to."
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"https://www.google.is/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiQ9pfss5DSAhVIDMAKHSfPB8wQFggdMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tldp.org%2FHOWTO%2FPPP-HOWTO%2Fkernel-configuration.html&usg=AFQjCNH_OF0G51fezhZNzKp4eaXKqX731w&sig2=E12PaXELRGCv_9u-LPRyJg",
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5u2q4c | How Do Pharmaceutical Companies Establish Drug Prices? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A LOT is going to go into it. Size of the market and its growth rate, cost of advertising, costs to research and develop, costs to manufacture, legal costs, consumer climate, level of competition, required return on investment, supply-versus-demand, risk to generics, overlap with existing/near-term alternatives, etc. etc. etc.",
"I would assume that its based off a variety of factors starting off with the cost of research and the estimate rate of return expected. The companies will want a quick return on their investment balanced off what people/insurance would be willing to pay and the expected prescription rate. So a common illness would be more likely to have a larger prescription base and the company can quickly recover their investment. This is just my reasoning."
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5u2qg7 | Why are guilty plea's of value to the state? | Meaning: You often hear in court "the state is willing to _____ in exchange for a guilty plea." Which implies obviously that there is maybe a quota I guess? Or at least some sort of value to them. Any law peeps? I had traffic court this morning and was just curious. Edit for quotations Thanks for the quick responses guys! Makes sense. I knew I could count on ELI5. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They don't have to undergo the cost (the state pays the judge, prosecutor, court staff, and jury, small stipend but also the cost of the time of the state's citizens) of a trial and gets a desired result (the person the state believes commit a crime accepts their guilt and faces some punishment). The generosity of a plea bargain greatly depends on the facts of the case (how likely the state is to win in court), and whether the accused has testimony that could be used in other cases. Think of it this way, if a plea bargain gets a minor traffic offender 80% of the sentence they would get if convicted, the state saves an enormous amount of resources, in exchange for very little (many traffic offenses aren't punished that severely).",
"Lawyers and courts are very expensive. So the state attempts to use those resources as efficiently as possible. The state must pay for the prosecutor and the support staff that they require. The state also pays for the judge, court staff (bailiff, stenographer, as well as courthouse security). Not to mention the cost of the courthouse itself, the cost to build and maintain the building, the heat and everything that a building needs. That's all really expensive and trials can take weeks. It's not unreasonable for a simple assault trial to cost the state $100,000. Plus, those resources are inherently scares, there's only so many courtrooms that can be used at any given time for example. So there's an incentive for the state to settle the case. Picture this, at your traffic court. 1 8 hour day can be 4 2 hour trials, or 16 30 minute guilty pleas. The costs to the state are the same, the prosecutor, the judge, the courtroom are all constant costs for that 1 day. They can do 4 cases or 16 cases. Given as most states have a rather large backlog, they need to move through the cases quickly and economically, so they offer settlements.",
"The value to the state is not going through the expense of a trial or taking the risk of not getting a conviction. The value to the individual is not going through the expense of a trial, and getting a more favorable sentence than what they would risk in court. Example: You get into a fight in a bar, wind up pushing someone down a flight of stairs and they die. There are three possible legal outcomes: * Murder conviction * Manslaughter conviction * No conviction (self-defense) The prosecution figures it has a 50% chance of getting a murder conviction, and a 90% chance of manslaughter. They also feel it probably *was* no more than manslaughter. They would be happy to a plea agreement. Your defense attorney agrees with the numbers, and feels you were probably guilty of at least manslaughter. A 10% chance of no conviction vs. a 50% of a murder sentence, they tell you to take the deal.",
"A guilty plea is, essentially, a waiving of your right to a trial by jury. This saves the state time, resources, money, and it saves twelve people the hassle of having to sit there for possibly days or weeks listening to a recounting from both sides of what happened and trying to come to a decision. Rather than all of that, pleading guilty is basically skipping the trial, admitting fault, and throwing yourself upon the mercy of the court. For traffic violations, which obviously aren't as time-consuming, it's still saving the court's resources and a little bit of time.",
"Way less expensive to just bargain for a guilty plea than to actually conduct a trial. Also, less risky. A guilty plea is done. You (the prosecutor) won.",
"Not really quotas, but prosecutors do typically measure their performance in terms of conviction rate. So a guilty plea or verdict improves the prosecutors conviction rate, a not guilty verdict sends it the other way. Whether the guilty outcome is the \"right\" outcome is not important. And guilty to a lesser charge is generally still considered a guilty outcome. Some, if all you care about is stamping the word \"guilty\" in the case file, you'd be trying anything to get cases across the guilty line as early as possible.",
"Guilty plea means no court trial, less work for the state. In traffic court it simply means you know you did something wrong and your not going to be an annoyance to the cop and especially judge. In regards to things such as murder it saves not just the attorney and judge but also all the jurors. It also shows that the person is aware they did something wrong and so a judge may not sentence them as badly as they could get it as that is the first sign of remorse and rehabilitation. (Although sadly prison systems have generally given up rehabiliting inmates)"
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5u2qpr | If illegal immigrants in the United States have constitutional rights, can they also bear arms? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"When you're reading the constitution, if it says citizen, then you have to be a citizen to have that right. If it says person, then any human within the jurisdiction of the US has that right whether here legally or not. So, like the 5th and 14th amendments specify person, so they apply.",
"There is a gigantic misconception among people that the Constitution gives us civil rights. As the Declaration of Independence says: > We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words: > It is obvious to all of us that every human being is born equal, and that all of us are born with certain fundamental rights that cannot be taken away; some, but certainly not all, of these rights are the right to be alive, the right to be free, and the right to choose how to live your life. The Constitution does not give us our human rights -- they're granted to us upon birth by God, or the universe, or fate, or whatever you believe to be the source of fundamental truth. Everyone has these rights. American or foreign, bad people, good people, your worst enemy. Saints, criminals, murderers -- everyone is born with fundamental rights and they *cannot be taken away* by human beings, because who are we to remove a gift bestowed by God? Because these rights are inherent, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights don't provide them; rather, the documents provide *prohibitions on the government* from infringing on the exercise of these fundamental rights we are all born with. The Founders believed that the best government would be one that honored and protected its citizens natural rights. Now, some infringement of our rights is necessary to provide for social welfare and order, but even here, it's more about balancing the exercise of our rights; e.g., when you deny a criminal his right to freedom in order to protect other people's right to live free of physical harm. These rights are distinct in the Constitution from the Privileges & Immunities of citizenship, which *are* the things that we are granted as Americans. These include things like the entitlement to vote, to travel freely between states, and to have free access to commercial markets. These privileges *are* granted by the government and *can* be taken away. The Constitution recognizes the right to bear arms as a fundamental right. So, yes, illegal immigrants have that fundamental right -- they were born with it, just as you are. However, as I said, the Founders and the Constitution recognize that complete anarchy leads to greater infringement on human rights (because the strongest just takes over as tyrant), so the government is allowed enact reasonable regulations that infringe on fundamental rights to the extent that they are necessary to protect social order and welfare. One of the infringements that's reasonable is prohibiting noncitizens from owning firearms -- it is reasonable for a nation to protect itself by preventing armed foreigners from roaming free within its borders.",
"While many whip themselves into a lather, over the mistaken notion that illegal aliens are essentially given all the same rights and privileges as citizens, under our Constitution, it is important to point out that their guaranteed rights are not exactly the same as citizenship: Their protections stem from Section One, of the Fourteenth Amendment: \"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive **any person** of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to **any person within its jurisdiction** the equal protection of the laws.\"",
"To buy a gun legally from an authorized FFL, you need to either be a citizen or have a green card. So, no, you don't have second amendment rights as an illegal.",
"There are numerous laws which prohibit the possession of a firearm while in the commission of a crime. Illegal aliens by their very act of being here are committing an ongoing crime every second they're in the US without permission, hence being in the United States illegally and possessing a firearm is illegal."
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5u2qtu | What is the process professional Animator use when making movies? | For example, how does. Say, a Pixar animator go about animating? What program does he use, and what goes into it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Pixar uses their own RenderMan software to make movies. For 3D productions like their films, the process is a sort of hybrid of live action and traditional animation production since it's creating virtual 3D sets. That means in addition to regular animators, there are people who make textures, do lighting, move the camera around the scene, etc. This is based around storyboards, then preliminary animation is done with low quality rendering so the artists can get an idea of what everything looks like. Once everything is correct for a scene, it's fully rendered to create the final product."
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5u2umy | Dubai | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Dubai is a major city of the United Arab Emirates, a small but incredibly wealthy nation in the Middle East. They are REALLY rich, and have put that money into building an extravagant city with amazing architecture. Also, they use immigrants effectively as slaves, and have terrible human rights violations. EDIT: Corrected a mistake, thank you /u/wildred_borgen!"
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