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lbp6ha
|
Why are some atoms Diatomic?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"Diatomic are molecules made from two atoms. For these this is a more stable state than single atoms so if you have single atoms they spontanously find a partner to bind to.",
"Atoms are made up three components - Electrons, Protons, and Neutrons. The Protons and Neutrons live in the center of atoms and the electrons float around the center. You can imagine an atom as a concert in a concert hall. The protons and neutrons are the musicians on stage and the electrons are the audience members. I like this visual because the electron-audience sits in seats and sometimes there are empty seats. Atom-concerts HATE having empty seats. So atoms have two conflicting desires, they want the same number of electrons as protons BUT they *hate hate hate* having empty seats. Hydrogen for example has a row of two seats with only one seat being full (half full). Oxygen has a row of four seats with two being full (half full). Chlorine has a long row with only one empty seat and neon has a long row with no empty seats. So hydrogen and oxygen are special because they just so happen to have an equal number of empty seats as full seats so they are very happy to put on a 2-Hydrogen, or 2-Oxygen joint-concert with both bands on stage and combine their audience members to fill the rows. This is why they like being diatomic, they get their rows filled AND get the same number of protons and electrons. Chlorine just has that one empty seat so rather than try to team up with another chlorine it just hangs out in front of other concerts and steals an audience member with a free ticket it REALLY REALLY REALLY loves stealing audience members like this and that's why chlorine is a nasty element. Neon has all of it's seats filled so it just sits back and puts on it's show and doesn't care what anyone else does."
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lbpqg7
|
How did we figure out pickling food before we understood bacteria?
|
I understand that preserving food by pickling it has been around for awhile, but without understanding the relationship between bacteria and food decay I have no idea why we would be soaking food in vinegar for months at a time haha.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"You don't need to know of bacteria to know their effects and how to preserve food. Essentially people just tried everything until something worked and then tried variations of that. They probably first noticed that the vinegar didn't spoil then figured if they put stuff in it then it wouldn't spoil as well.",
"We didn't really understand food spoilage, in a modern sense, until the mid-1850's when Louis Pasteur studied fermentation and germ theory. Food preservation in practice prior to the 1850's was based on experience which often got intermingled with faith/magic. Food was preserved by drying, smoking, pickling/brining, fermenting, and salting; and in practice there is a large overlap in these techniques, for example drying and smoking were often done together. The end result is making the food inhospitable to spoiling microorganisms by removing water, removing simple sugars, adding toxins (alcohol, phenols/tannins, acids), removing oxygen, and adding large amounts of salt. All of these inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria and in some cases actually add nutrients we couldn't get otherwise. So it was trial and error, we knew that if we fermented grapes or grains it was safe to drink. If we re-fermented the wine/beer into vinegar it was still safe to drink. If we then added the vinegar to pickles it kept the pickles safe to eat. This wasn't one off, most of our condiments are produced by fermentation and that's kind of why condiments are condiments, they made our food safe to eat. It's worth noting that this trial and error was ongoing for thousands of years. For several centuries beer was made with \"magical\" equipment (that was just inoculated with beneficial microorganisms) and could only be brewed with \"blessed herbs\" sold by Catholic church. These herbs contained tannins and phenols that made the beer bitter and helped preserve it but could also be pretty harmful to humans. It wasn't until the 1600's or so that brewers seeking to get around the Church tax for magic herbs started using Hops to bitter their beer, which also contains powerful anti-microbial agents, that modern 'Beer' really came into existence."
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8
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"url"
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lbprik
|
Why do some bank and payment processes still take 3-5 days to complete?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"A live person at the bank has to verify certain transactions, which usually involves talking to another live person at another bank or branch. Combine that fact with the workload of large banks, which process god knows how many transactions daily, and the fact that most bank employees have to split their work day between multiple roles/types of work, and it’s no wonder it takes 3-5 days. Example; if I have 80 phone calls to make, but I also have to work the bank’s drive-through and answer phone calls, I probably won’t make them all on the same day.",
"3-5 days is the reversal window for EFT/ACH in the US. There are also 60 day windows, but those require manual intervention by the bank. A lot of the 3-5 day ones can be automated. Generally, they make it available if you have enough in the account to cover the transfer being reversed, otherwise, they wait for it to \"clear\"."
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3
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"url"
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|
lbpszi
|
What's the difference between Eevee and Cycles in blender?
|
What changes between the two? Is one cleaner than the other? More precise ?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glvjru4"
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"text": [
"Cycles simulates photons and gives physically accurate lighting. This takes a long time to calculate but generally looks very good. Eevee is very much like a game engine- it will use all the shortcuts used in games to make a believable but not physically accurate image. It fakes a lot of the lighting effects and other such things as seen in the image frame; screen space reflections, for instance, will not reflect anything you don't already see in the image, i.e. anything behind or to the side of camera where Cycles will reflect everything in the scene. Glass is an obvious limitation too; generally it looks ok, but it can't make glass that has back facing surfaces(like water glasses) because it relies on the depth of the image to make refractions and other effects, not the actual geometry you use- so what's behind the front of the glass can't be \"seen\" by Eevee and it looks a bit strange. You can fake these things, and they will look good but not really accurate to real life. Both are great but it depends on what you use them for. Like they suggest, if you have a ton of stuff to render and need speed, like for a tv show, use Eevee. If you need highest quality, use Cycles."
],
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6
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"url"
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lbr5vs
|
How does lotion make the dead skin disappear?
|
It's like magic. I put the lotion on and POOF! those unsightly white skin flakes are gone forever, even after several hours!! Why is it that when the lotion dries the white skin flakes dont become visible again?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glvlefz"
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"text": [
"The oils and moisture in the lotion is absorbed into the dead cells, so while the skin is dry to the touch, the moistening effect is still there."
],
"score": [
3
],
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[]
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|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
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lbr6xl
|
Why does a magnet vibrate when brought close to a microwave?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"glvsdkm"
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"text": [
"A magnet is a chunk of metal with a fixed strong magnetic field. Microwaves generate a strong electro-magnetic field to heat food. When those two fields meet they act on each other, so your magnet moves around a bit"
],
"score": [
6
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
lbrvug
|
How does ink stay in a fine tip pen when it is not being used but comes out when being used?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"glvuco8",
"glvwu7s"
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"text": [
"It's all in the tolerances of the ball and the cone tip that holds it. It's actually not an easy thing to accomplish and up until a few years ago, [China wasn't able to do it.]( URL_0 ) Something like 80% of the worlds ball point pens were made in China but they used imported balls and tips because Chinese manufacturing simply wasn't able to hold the tolerances required to make the pens function properly.",
"Surface tension, basically. If the ink was more free-flowing, it wouldn't work. Fountain pens are an evolutionary step on from a dipper/quill which would work by having a textured surface and a narrow channel for the ink to flow down."
],
"score": [
9,
3
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"https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/01/18/chinas-ballpoint-pen-victory-or-why-american-wages-are-higher-than-chinese/?sh=eb116d4711db"
],
[]
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|
[
"url"
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[
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|
lbsxng
|
why does snow appear to be white when water and ice is usually clear?
|
Earth Science
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glvv33t"
],
"text": [
"The crystal structure refracts the light rather than letting it go through in a straight line, merging all the the different color light waves until the mix into white... it's similar to how frosted glass looks white instead of clear."
],
"score": [
5
],
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"url"
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[
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|
lbtisi
|
What is a "social market economy" ?
|
And what are some (good) examples of one?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glw2gev"
],
"text": [
"A social market economy is a capitalist economy with a strong welfare and regulatory state. It is the same as a social democracy. The Nordic countries think they are doing this."
],
"score": [
5
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[
"url"
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lbtp5x
|
Why can't we cook things faster by using a higher tempature?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
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"text": [
"Because it takes time for heat to penetrate food while you’re cooking it. If you cook something at a higher temperature for a shorter time you’ll end up with something that isn’t cooked all the way through and burnt on the outside.",
"Heat is not conducted instantly. By the time the center of the cookie reaches ambient oven temperature, the crust has already been subjected to the same heat for far longer, resulting in unevenly cooked or burnt food if you drastically decrease cooking time while increasing temperature.",
"It would cook the outside too fast and it could burn on the outside and still be raw on the inside. Lower for longer means the inside has longer to actually get hot and cook before the outside cioks too much",
"The first problem is heat transfer. It takes some time for the outside of your cookies to transfer its heat to the inside. If the heat is too high, then the heat can't get to the center fast enough to cook it before the outside gets overcooked. The second problem is chemistry. There are different chemical reactions that happen when you cook foods at different temperatures. As a dumb example, if I tried to bake cookies at 10,000 degrees for a half a second, they'd likely just catch on fire, which is not what we're after. You might want to avoid certain types of reactions that happen at higher temperatures for some things. A less silly example would be baked custards. If the heat is very high while it is baking, it will cause browning on the top of the custard due to the Maillard reaction and caramellization. At high enough temperatures it can also make steam inside the custard that will ruin the creamy texture and can potentially cook the eggs in a way that also messes up the texture.",
"Heat takes time to penetrate through food. If you put cookies in a 200 C oven for 10 minutes you'll likely burn the outside without cooking the inside because the heat didn't have time to cook the inside. Different foods would handle this differently too, depending on any chemical or physical changes they undergo (like bread rising) while baking.",
"You'll burn them. Basically, there's a limit to how much heat can transfer into an object at once, and if you pass that limit, the food will burn rather than cook. Imagine that heat is like passing a ball down a line of people, each person taking the ball and handing it to the next guy. You need it, the heat, to get to the very end to properly cook the food, that heat has to make it to the middle of the food. If you're passing the balls too fast, (making the temperature too high) the people passing the ball won't be able to handle it, and the first guy will drop them. The middle won't get any, and it'll come out ruined."
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lbtz73
|
If algae are the great producers of O2 from CO2, where the carbon go? Doesnt it send CO2 and methane back to the air after a fish eat and expel it or after it death?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Your understanding is correct, but it is important to note that there is a complex cycle that relies on plant and animal life. The balanced chemical equation of photosynthesis is: 6CO2 + 6H2O — > C6H12O6 (sugar) + 6O2 So as you can see here, the carbon is separated from the O2 gas and converted into a sugar molecule, and the O2 gas is released into the atmosphere. The sugar (added biomass) is then used by the organism to grow. Once eaten, the sugar molecule is converted into energy by the animal via cellular respiration, which is essentially the opposite of photosynthesis: C6H12O6 (sugar) + 6O2 — > 6CO2 + 6H2O + ATP (usable energy) So now, the carbon has been converted back to CO2 gas, where it will eventually be used by a plant in photosynthesis again. The carbon that was added to the animal’s biomass or expelled as waste will eventually be consumed by a decomposer, and added back to the cycle.",
"After death, most marine animals sink to the bottom of the ocean where they are fed on by scavengers. Other consumers of algae might sequester that carbon into their shells or exoskeleton, which then also falls to the ocean floor upon death. The carbon contained in their bodies and structures may then be consumed and enter the local food chain to be passed around as part of the ocean's carbon reserves, or leach into the sediment and become geologically sequestered.",
"Yes, this is called the carbon cycle. Most carbon is just cycled in and out from plant to animal (or decomposer) to CO2 to plant. Now _some_ carbon does get locked away semi-permanently (a plant or animal sinks to the bottom and is buried instead of rotting, or carbon gets locked up as carbonate in foram shells, or whatever) and some carbon gets naturally released from locked away reserves (from volcanoes or natural methane leaks or whatever). But on the whole, most carbon in living things stays cycling around through the biosphere."
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lbuikh
|
Chemically speaking, how does roasting a slice of bread affect it nutritionally? I.E having a lower glycemic index
|
I’ve read from various sources that toasting bread (which will not reduce calorie count) burns off sugars in some process I’m too stupid to remember..could someone explain this to someone not..uhh scientifically literate?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"URL_0 Looks like it’s the breakdown of the starch through gelation or polymerization. Since they didn’t actually measure the carbohydrate I presume there are some chemical reactions occurring, linking the starches and making them take longer to digest because they are more complex molecules that expose the blood to a lower glucose spike. You could think of it like burning paper vs burning a stick. One burns quickly and the other burns slowly."
],
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[
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[
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lbvapn
|
How can a pacemaker be compatible with an MRI?
|
Doesn't the metal in both the controller and the wire leads cause trouble when getting an MRI due to the metal found in those components? Furthermore, I believe some pacemakers and other implantables are NOT MRI compatible (newer ones are). Is it simply a matter of which metals are magnetic and which ones are not?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glwctmd"
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"text": [
"Should start off by making clear that the danger with an MRI and metal isn't to the patient itself, but to the machine. That could cause fires and electric shocks. But a metal implant properly secured was fine. This was one of those \"Abundance of caution\" things. MRI machines had the potential to have issues with them, so patients were advised against them unless absolutely necessary because of how dangerous it would be if something went wrong. And it was pretty hard to do tests to see if it actually would cause problems, because of the potentially deadly consequences. So \"better safe than sorry.\" The only real problem was for devices directly connected by wire to the heart, because the magnets could cause the wires to heat up. Which would be really bad. That still is an issue, but techniques were found to make that not happen."
],
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[
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lbvu0b
|
What happens when we run out of cemetery space, or when a cemetery in a large city gets full, or when a cemetery gets full and it’s been long enough that no one alive knows anyone buried there?
|
There’s a really large cemetery in “Chicago” that I drive by on some of my trips up there, and it got me thinking about something I take for granted back home, wide open spaces, and ample cemetery space. There’s millions of people in “Chicago”, not all will be buried but a lot will, so what happens when a cemetery gets full? It’s still gotta have people upkeep the grounds, for how long though? What happens in 150 years when this cemetery has been full for over 100 years and nobody knows anyone buried there? Who pays for the upkeep once all the spaces have been bought up and that money is gone? ETA: I know that some cemeteries use bronze markers that upon removal to be reused the marker could be melted down, but what about the granite headstones? They can’t really be recycled, I suppose they could be planed down thinner and re marked but only a couple times.
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"In the UK it's common for the plot itself to be owned by a living relative. They are leased for 25-100 years and when the lease is due to expire a letter is sent to the owner with an option to renew or you get dug up and someone else can go on. (Though normally by then you're kinda.. yano.. mulch)",
"Depending on where in the world you are…different things happen. In North America when a cemetery is full, it is ‘closed’ to new burials. It is generally maintained (but not always) with so-called ‘perpetual’ funds invested by those maintaining the plots and paid for by the ‘residents’ when they bought their plots. Sadly, some cemeteries become abandoned because the church that maintained the plots ceases operation. Many pioneer cemeteries are like this. No congregation to cut the grass."
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[
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lbw3l6
|
What causes the “second tone” in smokers cough?
|
I noticed a cough that most smokers have that I can only describe as having a second tone.,it’s almost as if the lungs are hollow. What makes this happen?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glwes6y"
],
"text": [
"Are you talking about a wheeze? Wheezing is higher pitched and isn't percussive like a cough. You can hear it in the background or tail end of a smoker's cough. Sometimes you can acrually hear it just from a smoker breathing. It is closer to a whistling sound. It comes from constricted and inflamed air passages."
],
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3
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[
"url"
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[
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lbxwan
|
How do municipal water systems keep water pressure consistent with people turning on/off water at all different times and rates?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glwtk93"
],
"text": [
"Water systems are plumbed in parallel. To make up some numbers here, a water main that services say 100 homes has enough flow to support all 100 homes. If one of them opens or closes a faucet, the marginal change in available flow at the main is only 1/100th of what it can supply. The short answer is that water pipes are sized to provide enough at relatively constant pressure. The other answer is cities store water in tanks on hillsides or in towers and can increase flow into the pipes rather quickly to meet demand. Some cities use pumps but the result is the same."
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3
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[
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|
lbyabe
|
Why do our hands naturally move back and forth while walking?
|
Was just on a walk and it crossed my mind
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Your arms work as a counterbalance to the movement of your legs and body. As you move body parts around your center of gravity moves around and you naturally move other body parts to try and keep your balance. You can still walk without moving your arms, but its less efficient and tiring since now you need to use different muscles and posture to try and retain your balance.",
"When we put our right leg forward, it's easier to maintain balance by countering that position by putting our left arm forward, and vice versa with left leg and right arm.",
"Because it is the most economic way of moving, and uses 12% less metabolic energy URL_0 URL_1",
"When you swing your leg forward, your body’s natural reaction is to twist. By swinging your opposite arm forward at the same time, you counteract the twisting and turn it into more stable forward motion."
],
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17,
7,
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"https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63362/why-do-we-swing-our-arms-when-we-walk",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0021929020306059"
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|
[
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[
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lbyfd6
|
Why is skin considered an organ like the heart, lungs etc ?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glwsp9h",
"glwshv7"
],
"text": [
"\"Organ\" means a bunch of connected tissue that all does the same thing. Skin is an organ by definition - organs don't need to be *internal*.",
"Skin is an organ that is part of the integumentary system along with hair, nails and exocrine glands. Like organs in other bodily systems, skin serves specific functions. It just happens to be on the outside rather than the inside."
],
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15,
3
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
lbywl6
|
hen trying to sleep, why does sometimes our body shake up and jump suddenly out of nowhere?
|
When you are trying to sleep, you closed your eyes. Then suddenly you lose conscious for a split second and your entire body jumps? Why does it happen?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glwz266",
"glx3cya",
"glx62bg"
],
"text": [
"We don't know. It has a name - a [hypnic jerk]( URL_0 ) - but we don't know exactly what causes it. Some medications make them more common, particularly stimulants like caffeine, but beyond that? Big shrug.",
"As far as I’m aware, it all comes down to the ‘fastness’ as which you fall asleep. Let’s say someone slips into their sleep over the course of an hour, very slowly. It won’t happen. But if you someone started to fall into the tired/near enough asleep stage In a minute, your conscious fades stupidly quick, and your brain confuses a fast sleep to a near death situation, pumping your body full of adrenaline. I could be wrong, though.",
"When you dream your body is in a kind of paralysis so that you do not act out your dreams. If that paralysis fails you have issues like sleep walking. The shaking/jumping/falling feeling when you go to sleep is your body entering that paralysis but you're a little bit aware so it feels weird. Edit to say: I guess the other comment was correct in that we don't really know. So this is one possible explanation."
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lc0tyh
|
Why only baby shampoo doesn't hurt your eyes?
|
Almost every baby shampoo you will find in a store doesn't hurt your eyes but any other type will. What is the actual reason behind that? Why not make every shampoo safe for our eyes?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glx6v8m",
"glx9od0"
],
"text": [
"It's sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) that hurts your eyes - it's a strong detergent. Shampoos without SLS that aren't meant for babies exist, just look at the list of ingredients and take the one that doesn't have it.",
"The thing that hurts your eyes (as mentioned by u/PierogInTheButt SLS) is strong and cheap/widely available. Making 'adult' shampoos not hurt your eyes would make them more expensive and/or not as good (which means you'd need more of it, making it even more expensive). You *can* get eye-safe shampoos for adults, but most people chose the cheaper/better 'normal' shampoos, because they're good at not getting it in their eyes."
],
"score": [
6,
5
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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lc1hqb
|
How do we do things without consciously being aware we are doing it?
|
For example we might be sitting reading something and then suddenly realize we were playing with a pen without having any active thought to play with that pen. Or perhaps you might be doing something weird with your tongue whilst focusing hard on a task, or playing with your beard whilst watching a video, etc etc. How do we do these things without putting any active thought into doing it and why?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"glxtqm9"
],
"text": [
"A neuroscience answer: your cerebral cortex and thalamus simply work together to filter these things out. Your thalamus is a relay center for inputs, i.e. it decides what is important enough to be sent to the cerebral cortex for higher processing. When you initiate an action, obviously these inputs are important, but your neurons adapt, and eventually your thalamus \"decides\" to simply not let the cerebral cortex know, and other connections in the brain do the processing without conscious awareness."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lc1l1g
|
What's the difference between men and women's moisturizers?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxba19",
"glxaxig",
"glxb1a5"
],
"text": [
"Other than the fragrance there is no difference in the way they work. The is most likely a difference in price!",
"the package for women's one is pink, and it costs a lot more. Maybe the smell is different, but apart from that, they are the same. This is basically the same for almost every healthcare product that have a \"Men vs Women\" version. The first thing that comes to my mind are razor blades.",
"I don’t think there’s a significant difference between the two. Besides the colors they use, packaging and scent of the product, it essentially is the same goopy substance, with the more quality ones using extra vitamins/goodies. It comes down to how they market the product and who it is geared to."
],
"score": [
15,
8,
6
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc1x76
|
What causes someone to feel great after a little sleep or still tired after a lot of sleep sometimes?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxlkby",
"glxhobe"
],
"text": [
"There can be a few reasons, but the simple ELI5 reason would be... The sleep cycle runs in about 90 minute increments from light sleep, to deep sleep, and back again. If you wake up during a light sleep phase, you'll feel more rested. It's when your body naturally wants to wake up. If you wake up from deep sleep, your body doesn't want to wake up, so you still feel tired.",
"I would imagine it’s most likely a combination of your physical biology and lifestyle factors. Some people need more sleep than others plus your diet and physical activity play a role in how you feel day-to-day. Another variable might be medications. Doesn’t exactly answer your question but if you take stock of what you ate and did that day, or the day before, you might be able to narrow down what causes it."
],
"score": [
99,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc2n48
|
Why is it that so often the moment I hit "wait for the program to respond" does a previously frozen program start working again?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxsngk"
],
"text": [
"You are stopping the loading process; like when you close a website that's stuck and see everything load just as it closes. I don't recall right this moment what the terminology was, but it creates less strain on the program on websites. I personally have never had a program load after hitting wait; if it's stuck it stays that way until I reopen it. Websites is an entirely different thing."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc2uyq
|
What happens to protein in the body once digested?
|
I know how the body breaks down carbs for glucose to make ATP and energy through many pathways but how does the body use protein and amino acids to build muscle. Are there other uses for protein in our cells? Bonus points if you know specific pathways!
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxkkqr"
],
"text": [
"Amino acids make up all the enzymes, connective tissues, transporters etc in our bodies Collagen is a protein made from amino acids Insulin is a protein made from amino acids Muscle is a protein made from amino acids Enzymes such as lactase ( which is deficient in those who are lactose intolerant) is a protein made from amino acids Sodium channels that let sodium into cells are proteins Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is derived from amino acids Amino acids and protein are not just for muscle, they are a fundamental part of the body and are involved with almost everything and are found everywhere"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lc3ci8
|
What can a computer hacker do with a personality profile of yours?
|
So I just read a pro tip about not taking online personality quizzes because they will be sold to people who might not have your best interest at heart such as marketing agencies (makes sense) and hackers. I just can’t imagine anything a hacker really could do with that. Or would want to?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxmysq"
],
"text": [
"There are a lot of questions that are asked that are similar to security questions asked by banks and other financial instructions. Others ask things like do you prefer chicken or turkey. That can be used to target ads to you. Most are harmless."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lc3fys
|
What does .docx do that .doc could not?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxm66y",
"glxllsp",
"glxlxwm",
"glyiyij"
],
"text": [
"docx is a cleaner and more modern format. It’s compressed, too, so it ends up being a smaller file. docx files are actually zip files. If you change the file extension from .docx to .zip, you can unzip the file and see what is inside. There are folders in there and xml files which contain the different types of data that can go in there. Note: Copy the file first before you unzip it so you don’t break your original file.",
".doc was a proprietary binary format whereas docx is a zipped xml document. This gives docx a very clear advantage and you can read data from it easily in any programming language as well. It’s way more efficient and less likely to become corrupt.",
".docx stores the information in the document in a different way. This method is more space efficient and can be read from and written to more quickly.",
"Doc: Puts the data in blender to make it raw computer data (binary) Docx: Takes your document and stores it in a way similar to an organized bag, which makes it easier to be used by other software, convert and work with."
],
"score": [
39,
24,
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc3o4o
|
How does sleep walking work?
|
I read about someone sleep walking it got me wondering how this works. How can someone be walking around, talking, eating, and not remember a thing? If the brain is conscious enough to tell your body to do these things, how does it completely forget about them? Something is a creepy about it, like they are mindless.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gly0lng",
"gly3gwq"
],
"text": [
"When you fall asleep, there's a switch your brain flips that stops it from moving your body while you dream. If it didn't, we'd all be sleepwalking constantly. People that move a lot while asleep or sleepwalk have something interrupting this natural switch (reasons can vary, from drugs to stress to genetics, etc.). Interestingly, it's been speculated that because your brain and body talk to one another constantly, the body registering that it's not moving might be the reason fast actions in dreams often feel like your underwater (can't run away from the monster fast, dream punches feel weak and lack power, etc.). When this switch is stuck the other way, you get sleep paralysis, which is where a person is partially or fully awake but can't move their body. I've had it happen three times in my life, and it is absolutely terrifying.",
"Yeah this is the weird thing about consciousness; it feels like we're in charge way more than we actually are. Quick answer would be that all those brain processes like walking are still very much available, even when we aren't aware of it. Most brain processess happen on a subconsvious level, and consciousness is like the tip of a very, very big iceberg. Our consciousness isn't in charge of pretty much anything we do, even though it intuitively feels like the opposite. There's no unified definition of consciousness, most of them have to do with the ability to create and access memories. And here's the important bit: your brain doesn't go blank when you sleep, it's very much still active and going through all sorts of processess, it's just not creating any new memories about it. It's like you're \"conscious from moment to moment\" but as soon as the moment disappears you become unconscious about it. Consciousness is a hella complicated subject though, and to really delve into it we'd have to talk extensively about psychology and philosophy. If you want to learn more about how memories define our consciousness, google Clive Wearing. His case is super fascinating but also heartbreaking."
],
"score": [
12,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lc41pb
|
How does a queen ant give birth to different types of workers that are physically different from other types of workers if neither parent is like it?
|
In an ant colony, different workers have physical differences from each other despite them all having the same parents. What determines the difference in the workers?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxpr6o",
"glxsfcw",
"gly2vfz"
],
"text": [
"The theory is that the ant larvae develop differently based on how they are fed during development. The amount they are fed and what they are fed are the usual trigger. A well fed larva that is being fed the ant equivalent of “royal jelly” will grow to be a new queen. Worker ants and soldier ants are each fed differently. Male ants are usually spawned when the queen fertilizes the egg with sperm. Unfertilized eggs always develop into female ants.",
"It's complicated - different species have different castes, and achieve these castes through a variety of mechanisms, both genetic and environmental. However, there seems to be a common thread across these factors: size. Ant castes always have quite distinct sizes, with workers being the smallest and queens being the biggest, with soldiers and sub-queens somewhere in the middle. Castes appear to gain and lose features based on their size, and the middle-sized castes have features that are somewhere between those of a worker and a queen (for example, middle-sized castes often have better eyes than workers but worse eyes than queens). What this means is that it appears ants have evolved mechanisms that link their physiology to their size, so that by modifying the size of the larvae, the traits of a particular adult caste are automatically created. Want to make a worker? Just keep the larvae small. Want to make a soldier? Make it bigger. Want to make a queen? Fertilise the egg and make it even bigger. Size regulation itself is a matter of complicated environmental and genetic interplay, such as availability of food, temperature level and presence of growth hormones, as well as deliberate actions by other ants to modify the ratio of workers, soldiers and queens produced - for example, in some species queens will inject eggs with certain hormones that reduce size, to prevent other queens appearing, if the number of queens is already high enough.",
"For humans, baby's always have a mix of both their parents genes, and most of their characteristics come from their DNA. Other living things don't necessarily use the same scheme of mixing parental DNA for all offspring. Ants, along with many insects, work differently. An ant egg that has been fertilized by sperm becomes a female ant. An egg that hasn't been fertilized becomes a male ant. The queen mostly lays fertilized eggs, and only lays unfertilized eggs a once a year in preparation for mating season. Once the female eggs hatch, how they are fed as larvae (babies) effects how they grow up. If they are fed special hormones, then they will grow up to be a queen. If they are not fed the hormones, they grow up to be workers. So the workers of the colony decide when to make a new queen, not the queen herself, because the workers are the ones feeding the larvae. This allows the workers to make a new queen if they need to replace her for any reason."
],
"score": [
10,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lc4ino
|
Why are Indians annoyed at Greta Thunberg?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxslvv"
],
"text": [
"Basically, she tweeted out a link to a document folder and that tweet was deleted quickly, but of course not before people got access. In that folder was full instructions on how to tweet and drive the narrative that was wanting to be put forward. Take it how you want...."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc552n
|
- What does it mean when a video game is powered by a certain "engine"?
|
ETA- Thanks guys, that was very helpful!
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxw8nk",
"glxwi1q",
"glxwde1",
"glxwqmj"
],
"text": [
"Developers don’t write most of the code in their games from scratch. Instead, they either develop or purchase a toolkit that already includes most of the code required to run the underlying systems the game relies on. Then the developers use the core “engine” and associated frameworks to assemble assets (artwork, music, models, etc.) and their unique game logic.",
"Say I write a program that simulates basic 3D shapes like balls, cubes, toroids, etc and allows them to interact with realistic physics. I could use this program to make a bunch of different games by arranging shapes in different configurations and setting goals for the player. I could set hoops at two ends of a plane and have the goal to get the ball into the hoops. I could set up boxes as goal posts at either end and make something like soccer or football. I could invent a game that had nothing to do with a real life sport at all. But at the end of the day, it’s the same underlying program powering all of the interactions that make up the game. That’s basically what a game engine is. It’s a program with a bunch of pre-built features that can be used to make a game, so that the developers of the game don’t have to reinvent the wheel and build a bunch of basic stuff from scratch. That way, they can focus on things like character or level design, and any real programming that needs to be done can be focused on unique features they want to custom build for their game rather than wasting a ton of time on very basic stuff that has already been done a million times by other people.",
"The engine is simply the program which was used to make the game. You may have heard of the \"unity\" or \"unreal\" engines. These are commercial engines which anyone can download and... make a game with. A lot of developers just build an engine from scratch to suit a specific game they have in mind (and to avoid paying royalties in using someone else's engine) Edit: interesting factoid, Bethesda has been using the same engine for their games since 2002's TES 3: Morrowind, although heavily updated and modified. Fallout 76 even had a few of the same glitches that Morrowind had",
"Developing a video game can be quite complex. However, every video game has certain similarities. For example, there's usually an environment that needs to be rendered with shading, reflection (all the things to give it a certain look & feel); there's an agent (your character) that the user controls; there's things in the environment that the agent can interact with. So as not to reinvent the wheel, the game developers will use an engine that takes care of these very common tasks. A physical analogy might help. For example, a set of cars from a certain manufacturer might be built on the same type of chassis/frame. This reusability means that they don't need to start from scratch for each car."
],
"score": [
27,
19,
5,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lc5ate
|
What state of mind do we go into while under anesthesia? Are we asleep? Unconscious? Something different?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxwwv9",
"glxz3t9",
"gly3j84",
"gly0zjp"
],
"text": [
"“Will I dream while asleep? While under general anesthesia, you are in a drug-induced unconsciousness, which is different than sleep. Therefore, you will not dream. However, if you are under a nerve block, epidural, spinal or local anesthetic, patients have reported having pleasant, dream-like experinces” A medical website I found had that to say about it. If you have ever drank heavily and went to bed, some times you won’t dream if you’ve drank enough.",
"You're unconscious and generally paralyzed. Anesthesia varies depending on the exact procedure you're having done and what your body can handle, but usually it's a mix of one drug that keeps you unconscious, one that blocks memory formation, and one that stops you from moving at the least.",
"You are not asleep. Although you don't move while asleep, there is a lot of activity going on in your brain. We aren't exactly clear about what happens while you are medically unconscious, but it is not the same as regular sleep, as can be easily observed by doing brain activity scans. The drugs they give are known to have the general effects of unconsciousness, paralysis, and amnesia, which is to say you don't respond to stimuli, you can't move, and you don't remember anything. The simplest guess as to what happens when you go under is just the combination of the three effects listed, but it is also possible that they interact in some other way.",
"In my single personal anecdote, it was very different from sleep, but in a way that is hard to articulate. When I'm asleep, there's still a \"me\" of sorts. I dream some, I drift to varying levels of consciousness, maybe get closer to awake and turn over, and so on. The one time I was put under, it was like a switch got flipped somewhere and I was just put on pause. One moment I was there and they were having me count backwards and literally the next moment they were talking to me as they brought me out. I opened my eyes and they're putting instruments away and cleaning up. No sensation of passing time at all. It was like a time-slip. A blink and it's a couple hours later."
],
"score": [
7,
3,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc5dc1
|
What are carcinogens, how do they work in the cells and how do scientists know what is and what isn't a carcinogen?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxz95w",
"gly2p30"
],
"text": [
"Say a saboteur breaks into a fully automated factory, finds the computer that tells the factory what to do and what to produce and changes those instructions in a way that is not picked up by quality control. Obviously, the factory now goes haywire, starts overproducing, underproducing, producing garbage, using too much energy, etc. This is essentially what a carcinogen is, and how it operates. Scientists can figure out what a carcinogen is by looking at the effects of exposure to a substance and the cancer risk in subjects exposed to said substances. For example, in people who smoke cigarettes, there is a known increase in lung cancer rates compared to non-smokers. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that cigarette smoke is a carcinogen. Scientists can also perform animal studies, by deliberately exposing an animal (usually a rat) to a suspected carcinogen, and checking if the rat develops cancer.",
"Fundamentally, a carcinogen is almost always a type of mutagen. A mutagen has the general ability to mutate, or change, DNA by a variety of means ranging from alteration of chemical bonds to outright destruction of structural components. A carcinogen is something that does that in a way that promotes development of cancer in a statistically significant way. Not all carcinogens are mutagens, but a majority are. Determining carcinogenic potential in the lab is difficult. Generally it culminates in exposing animals to the substance, and seeing if they develop cancer in an experimentally repeatable way. Mutagenic potential can be more easily tested, and can serve as a good indicator of whether a substance is likely to be carcinogenic. It's called the [Ames Test]( URL_0 ). What you do is take a sample of fast-growing bacteria that have been genetically modified to be unable to produce a critical amino acid- histidine. Grow them on a sample of histidine until they're fat and happy, expose them to your suspected mutagen, and then transfer them to a growth medium containing no histidine. What this does is put immense selection pressure on the bacteria. They need to essentially evolve their way back into making their own histidine, and in theory, the gene-scrambling substance you exposed them to will set them down the mutation path until they either figure out how to make histidine or die. It's a crude but generally effective test that can give you valuable data for how strongly mutagenic your substance is, and indicate potential carcinogenic potential."
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_test"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc5ene
|
Why is hot water foggy but cold water clear?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glxxfzg"
],
"text": [
"Oh oh I know this one. The hot water molecules are moving around faster creating tiny bubbles making the water less transparent. ;) The colder water molecules are still and make less bubble and more transparent. (I am 99% sure this is right)"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc6sxm
|
what are non-fungible tokens and how do they work?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glyqbyr"
],
"text": [
"Imagine I make a big spreadsheet of numbers. For every number, I leave a space large enough to put somebody's name. Anybody who asks me gets to put their name next to their favorite number. Say you go ahead and reserve your name for the number 17. That number now has your name next to it. The only way I can put somebody else's name there instead is if you give me permission to erase yours, first. So if somebody else wants to have their name next to the number 17, they'd have to convince you to let them. Somebody who just really, *really* wants to have their name next to the number 17 spot might even be willing to pay you $5000 just so they can put their name there instead of yours. Of course, they *could* just put their name next to the 18 spot, which is still free. But that's of no importance to them - they want the prestigious *17* spot, not the lousy stinky 18 spot. If that sounds insane, that's because it is."
],
"score": [
14
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lc84mh
|
Chemically, what is a scent?
|
If you had an ingredient list and specific circumstances to create a smell, what would it be? What, if anything, is stopping science from creating specific smells in a lab?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glyeggk"
],
"text": [
"Scents are just certain molecules interacting with special cells in your nose. The same way tasted are just certain molecules interacting with your tastebuds in your mouth. And artificial scents do exist. there’s a decent amount of scented candles that’re made with artificial scents. So they can be cooked up in laboratories. It’s really more, why would you? There’s isn’t a huge demand for it. Sure there’s scented candles of things like febreeze or car air fresheners, some of those use artificial scents, some use real scents. Often times the real scents can be just as cheap to process and acquire as the process to make them in the lab. Plus, when wanting to make any certain molecule, you can’t just say “I wanna make this” and do it. There’s a whole process, research and development, that you have to go through to typically find a multi-step chain reaction of chemical reactions to finally end up with the finished product you want. That research can take a lot of time, and can be very costly, so you have to need to have a really good reason to go for it. Plus, scents aren’t necessarily a huge in demand thing, I think I bought 1 scented candle all of last year? It’s not like you could create a scent that people would be willing to spend lots and lots of money on."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lc9xjc
|
If humans once lived only for survival and procreation, how/when did things like "passions" and "interests" come into existence?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glypckt",
"glyo2o3",
"glyrw8r",
"glypjxv",
"glyw9hs",
"glyo7ir",
"glz5olp",
"glyqw30",
"glypt11"
],
"text": [
"It's not true that humans once lived only for survival and procreation. Most mammals and even lots of birds engage in *play*, just for the fun of it. (Especially when they're young, but some keep it up even as they mature.) The creatures that early humans developed from were certainly advanced enough to have play as a major pastime, and the things you're asking about probably came out of that.",
"Humans stopped living for solely reproduction the moment we started communicating. Fundamentally, genes are nothing more than *replicators* - physical structures capable of reproducing themselves. But this is also true for *ideas* - they can be reproduced via communication in a manner not unlike genes. So, gradually, our bodies have become more than just vehicles for spreading genes - and started turning into vehicles for spreading the ideas living inside our heads. A lot of what triggers human passion is *ideology* - some dream, vision, or goal for the future. Some idea so profound that we want to shape the world into containing it. Some idea that has gotten very good at abusing human psychology into making us want to spread it. As for hobbies/interests, I think they mostly just serve as warped proxies for things we used to enjoy merely for survival reasons. Like food, or sports.",
"Humans have had passions and interests since well before the beginning of recorded history, before we even evolved into *Homo Sapiens*. [Here's a fascinating wiki article]( URL_0 ) on prehistoric art. There's no reason to believe that we ever only existed for survival and procreation. As soon as our brains were developed enough to stop acting on instinct alone (so really, when we gained self-consciousness), we started looking for ways to shitpost on the internet, food and sex be damned.",
"Those things helped us survive or procreate in some way. Honestly procreating is the more important of the two. And for humans attracting a mate by showing skill or health by behaviors was and is an important thing.",
"[Maslow’s Model]( URL_0 ) As other commenters mentioned, we’ve likely been doing this these for as long as we’ve been in a protected society. The model linked above shows a theoretical representation of how we engage with ourselves and our community once certain emotional and psychological thresholds are satisfied. In theory, this would support the idea that as long as we felt safe, had access to food, and had the expectation of perpetuating our existence, we would naturally provide time to more emotionally stimulating processes :)",
"We developed to the point of where society didn't require us to simply survive. Imagine it like a hamster building its own enclosure. We made it so that other animals weren't able to make a zoo for us, and when we realised that society was beneficial, our natural lack of predators allowed us to explore who we were as humans.",
"I'm a professor of art history and I really like doing the prehistoric segment in my classes which somewhat touches on this. It's not ELI5 but I'll try. (TL;DR) Interests are fundaments of evolution and are \"modified\" only as a reaction to a humans environment (Which includes culture). The very concept of \"passions\" is a relatively new idea that we mistakenly separate from biology because we are so removed (mentally) from their \"usefulness\" in survival. ELI21: I think this question is a false dichotomy and could stand to be phrased in a different way. I might take the prompt of, \"what does interest have to do with evolution?\" Survival and procreation depend expressly on passion and interests. If a creature is not interested in the things that make it successful, then the species it will not survive. This desire for genetic success can be expressed in many ways, both genetically and behaviorally. Although the ways in which we express this desire have changed drastically since our ape ancestors, the fundamental competition remains; reproduction. Because we have evolved with social groups, our success, in many ways, is tied to the group we belong to. It is also generally understood that individuals of such a group consider group reproduction as an extension of self reproduction. But this does not nullify the individuals desire to reproduce. Therefore, individuals within a group compete against each other for genetic success (Mating rights, dominance, etc.) while still depending on the success of the group. A good example of this is wolves. Wolves have a relatively simple class system of dominance and reproduction but also maintain dependence on its members. That is why male wolves compete for dominance rather than outright killing their competition.(usually) When this principal is applied to evolution of humans, whose complex society begot more and more narrow specializations, we see something like a superorganism form. Successful groups of humans had people of wide genetic and behavioral dispositions that all competed and coexisted. Dispositions that suited, for example, spear-making, might have a higher proclivity to enjoy the sensation of carving. While other dispositions promoted other certain behaviors. These proclivities that helped early humans were inevitably subjected to the increasingly complex culture and social standards that influence individuals of a group. This cultural pressure on the individuals is designed to continue the group, not necessarily the individual, and warps its members dispositions to its needs. Much like the evolution of animals, cultural wants to evolve efficiently. So dispositions will be promoted or suppressed by culture depending on their necessity. Within this social structure and it's domains (or roles) there is also a competition for resources. And the general rule from biology is the more proficient you are in a domain, the more reproductive success an individual potentially has. So the desire of the individual is to compete in areas suited to their dispositions or create a new role to compete in. This mechanism is what promoted the grown of the society. Today, we have become so successful and so removed from these axioms that underlying biological factors are really only a starting point for how \"interests\" are formed. And, we have to remember that each member of the group is also an individual with their own dispositions. So what this results in is the constant cycling of genetic expression through interpretations of individual experience, the family dynamic, the local culture, and now the global culture. Each exerting pressures that warp these innate dispositions into \"interests.\"",
"I'm gonna assume that was around the first time someone draw a picture of an animal on a wall and sparked a vigorous debate wether or not it caught the spirit of the original.",
"Probably some 11,500 years ago, at the dawn of agriculture. All of a sudden, humanity had more spare time while their crops grew, meaning they could devote themselves to more intellectual pursuits for longer periods of time."
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|
[
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[
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|
lcaikh
|
What’s the difference between being Circumcised and not being Circumcised?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"If you removed an infant’s eyelids from birth, their eyeballs would dry up and become desensitized. If you removed taste buds from an infant’s tongue, they will go their entire life never knowing the full range of taste sensations. If you remove slack skin, there will have to be skin stretched from other areas if the body part grows in size. I can’t really come up with ELI5 descriptions without doing it injustice: There are levels to how to evaluate circumcision: **Tier 1: Genital alteration without informed consent** Adults can get full anesthesia and can request the exact amount of tissue to be removed from their developed penis. The doctor is shooting the dark for how much tissue to remove from an infant penis he has no clue how it will develop later on. Infants would be under pain from the bare minimum anesthesia and the open wound that is burning from urine and risking infection from feces inside the diaper. Regardless, the exposed urethra will be taking in contaminants and likely suffer meatal stenosis. If you keep your son intact, and he does grow up to have insufficient self-esteem and succumbs to American/genital cutting society’s circumcision views, he can always get it removed. If you circumcise him, and he realizes he lost his ridged band and possibly his frenulum, he can’t ever get his foreskin back. In civilized societies - URL_9 - we afford genital integrity to helpless infants so they can make informed decisions later on about any permanent modifications to the one body they own. **Tier 2: An unnecessary surgery for cosmetic reasons and asinine health benefits** [Refutations of the alleged benefits of infant male circumcision]( URL_0 ) American doctors are studying medical literature that omits the foreskin: URL_3 **Tier 3: Purposeful diminishing of sexual enjoyment** Science has proven that circumcision removes the five most sensitive parts of the penis: URL_2 URL_14 \"The inner surface, the under surface of the foreskin is probably one of the most heavily innervated parts of the human body.\" - URL_16 [NSFW] > [\"I can tell you that the most pleasurable part of my penis is a tiny area on the underside where my foreskin was once attached, and this is the case for nearly all cut men as that was where their frenulum(a string-like structure that attaches the foreskin to the head of the penis) was and is the only place where cut men have any fine touch sensation left. . . . We lose out on nearly all of this, some more than others as there is no standard for circumcision and a million variables.\"]( URL_7 ) * The frictionless gliding mechanism of the foreskin is far superior to any lubrication as the foreskin is a toroidal linear bearing. * The ridged band will be removed definitely, as it is the very tip of the foreskin when flaccid. It has pleasurable nerves that respond to stretching stimulation, which is done with every stroke as the glans glides the foreskin over itself over and over. The foreskin also acts as a cushion for the glans’ corona as it scrapes the vaginal walls gently, compared to calloused glans corona scraping the vaginal walls roughly. The ridged band is further stimulated when its pressed between the vaginal walls and the corona. * The foreskin acts as a plug for keeping vaginal lubrication fluid, pre-cum fluid, and/or artificial lube inside the vaginal/anal cavity, while circumcised penises, if they are not a loose cut, will secrete the lubricant fluid out and dry it out on the shaft when exposed to air with each outstroke. With each instroke, the glans will redistribute the lubrication fluid kept inside by the foreskin as it re-enters the vaginal cavity. * The frenulum may be cut off if the surgeon is particularly sadistic. Repeated stimulation of this most pleasurable structure can bring men to orgasm. Cut men with their frenulum intact but exposed will be prone to premature ejaculation, as they lack the foreskin tissue and ridged band nerves that modulate the pleasure received by the frenulum to whatever level the man wants it at throughout the entirety of the sexual intercourse - full speed if they want the orgasm now or scale back to edge. This is absent for cut men with their frenulum excised, so it feels like they are fucking with a glove condom and jackhammering til the ejaculate happens and not much pleasure from the ride itself. Partners may complain of soreness and him taking too long to cum. * Keratinization(formation of protective layer of rough callous skin) of the glans due to it being an internal organ exposed to air, rubbing against fabric in some way almost 24/7, and exposure to dirt particles next to exposed urethral opening, causing infection and stenosis. * These mechanisms mean that intact penis can derive full stimulation from shorter strokes and cut penis need longer and more forceful strokes to maximize any kind of friction and pressure stimulation on what remaining pleasurable nerves were left on it and not keratinized yet. * Scarification will be unevenly textured and two different skin tones of the outer skin and inner skin now exposed. URL_13 URL_11 Who would want to give up the male version of \"the minis\"? > Cut men lack the \"orgasmic\" sensations of the ridged band. The ridged band and frenulum are reflexogenic nerve structures that are essential to trigger orgasm/ejaculation. > URL_10 > I observed this \"twitching\" and contracting of the penis on almost every intact guy I've been with, but never on my own body or another cut guy. Sexual reflexes are triggered by nerves and cut guys lack them almost completely. URL_12 URL_15 A common misconception is that intact means *too much sensitivity*. A great analogy here is listening to a symphony without the violas section: URL_1 R.N. Marilyn Milos discusses that the [“nerve endings in the ridged band (foreskin) are the accelerator that allow the man to ride the wave to orgasm. When they’re cut off the man is left with an off/on switch instead of an accelerator. Men who say they couldn’t stand more sensation don’t understand that the nerve endings in the ridged band give quality not quantity.”]( URL_17 ) The foreskin's ridged band and frenulum act as an accelerator that gives pleasurable feedback on where a man is at in terms of arousal and how close to ejaculation. Cut men without frenulums report jackhammering because they can't feel this pleasure data until the ejaculate happens and are more prone to premature ejaculation due to inability to sense it coming. **Tier 4: Genital Mutilation and object rape with a probe and knife** “To me, my grievance seems pretty straightforward. I was [overpowered at the weakest point of my life, strapped naked by the wrists and ankles to a circumstraint, spread-eagled, while someone stimulated my penis to erection, before inserting things into it and cutting flesh from it]( URL_4 ) **(NSFL)**. Instead of sympathy for this I've been mocked and laughed at, lied to about what happened, called crazy and even pedophile for \"being so interested in children's dicks\". As I look at the definition of gaslighting, I start to think that these were active attempts to undermine my perceptions and sanity rather than simple ignorance.” - URL_5 \"I've never heard an animal make a sound like that\" **(NSFL)** URL_18 Stage 1 of Circumcision Grief: [Rage]( URL_6 ) TL:DR URL_8",
"Circumcised means that you have had the foreskin of the penis (which is skin around the tip) removed. Uncircumcised means that the skin has not been removed and remains in tact."
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[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/Intactivism/comments/hxmbpn/refutations_of_the_alleged_benefits_of_infant/",
"https://youtu.be/XwZiQyFaAs0?t=40m47s",
"https://i.redd.it/jbpvyi1wizf21.jpg",
"https://youtu.be/SB-2aQoTQeA?t=26m22s",
"https://youtu.be/Ceht-3xu84I?t=613",
"https://redd.it/byvlqn",
"https://i.redd.it/ssbnof1xgty51.png",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/YangForPresidentHQ/comments/b0sng2/trending_yangs_anticircumcision_stance/eijegnb/?context=3",
"https://i.redd.it/gac80v8wtfe31.jpg",
"https://i.redd.it/fo2ghgbe9u351.png",
"https://www.academia.edu/25577623/A_preliminary_poll_82_of_circumcised_men_ignore_serial_anejaculatory_mini_orgasms_the_male_minis_91_of_the_intact_enjoy_them_updated_05_27_2018_",
"http://www.sexasnatureintendedit.com/10F/1hook_scrapes.html",
"https://archive.is/WnosZ#selection-2701.0-2711.227",
"http://www.sexasnatureintendedit.com/10F/Foreskin_Functions.html",
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17378847",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/CircumcisionGrief/comments/esvppf/anejaculatory_miniorgasms_in_intact_men/",
"https://youtu.be/XwZiQyFaAs0?t=1766",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2m52s&v=BgoTRMKrJo4",
"https://youtu.be/i0M5ZHd6E5I?t=11m27s"
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[
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[
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|
lcb0d8
|
Can Journalist Interview Wanted Criminals and Fugitives?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"We as a sociaty do want journalists to be able to freely talk to criminals so that we can get a fair view of the world we live in. We therefore grant journalists the same rights as doctors and priests to not have to disclose secrets about crimes and criminals. This is so that the criminals can be able to trust these people with secret information. There is of course limits to this right and journalists can not be part of a crime or in a possition where they can prevent the crime from taking place. There may also be more specific laws depending on the legislation. It does not mean that it is easy for journalists to find criminals to interview. There is a reason wanted criminals have not been caught. So a journalist might need some time to gain the confidence of the criminal networks they are making a story about. Investigative journalism takes a lot of time because of things like this. You might even see the journalist having to publish whatever they have and first then start to gain the confidence of the people higher up. Trust also goes both ways and the journalist have to make sure that the criminals are who they say they are and that they will not do harm to them. Journalists have been kidnapped or even killed when investigating criminals they trusted. It is also common for journalists to get a lot of information that they can not publish yet because it would be unfair to the criminals involved. So an article or a documentary might have to sit on the shelf for months or even years before it can be published. In order for the criminals to be able to trust the journalist there can not be any information published that the police find useful. Even if there is some useful pieces of information to the police they can not trust that it is accurate since it may be embelished or distorted information at that point."
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[
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[
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|
lcbfeo
|
Why are we only symmetric on the outside?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"glywn9v",
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"text": [
"Very few things aren't symmetric on the inside. The only singular things really are the heart and some abdominal organs. Besides that, all of your bones and other organs and muscles are symmetrical.",
"While developing in the womb, we actually start off symmetrical. But then there's too much stuff and too little space that leads to things being pushed to the sides and stuffed together. (Fun fact: your intestines develop outside your body and are sucked back in when done)"
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6
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
lcbwgt
|
Why can you see through water? (From a real 4 y.o.)
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"You can see thanks to light (from the Sun or a lamp or whatever). Water, like air and glass, is transparent. This means that when light reaches water, most light passes through the water without being \"absorbed\" (blocked) or \"scattered\" (bounced back). Therefore you can see through water, or air, or glass. Objects are transparent or not depending on how they are made inside, in particular how extremely tiny particles are made and positioned.",
"Because the energy of visible light doesn't match the energy levels of the electrons around the molecules. Since you can't split the energy of a photon in two, there needs to be a match in energy for any interaction/absorption to take place. It's like trying to purchase something for $50, but you only have a $100 note and the cashier doesn't have any change (and assuming you're not allowed to overpay :). Since no interaction can take place, the light just moves along and the object is perceived as transparent.",
"So a lot of the other answers here are talking about HOW we can see through water, but I'm gonna talk about WHY. We evolved from things that lived in the water, a lot like fish. Think about it like being your great great great great times a billion grandfather was a lil fishy thing. These things lived in the water, and being able to see things was a HUGE help when they were living there. So they evolved to be able to see in water, and we still are able to today",
"You can see through it because it's not opaque, and the reasons for opaqueness have to do with absorption and scattering, both of which water happens to lack. When light hits an object, what is happening on the very small scale is that photons are interacting with the electron clouds of atoms and molecules. Depending on the situation of the atoms involved, the photon might be absorbed and then re-emitted. This might change the properties of the photon, and thereby, makes that material look opaque to us: photons aren't passing through the object unhindered so we can't see what's behind the object. On the other hand the atoms might happen to be in such a state that the photons emitted have the exact same momentum, energy, and direction as when they were absorbed. This will look transparent to us, because photons carrying the same information from objects behind this object will make it to our eyes. Also, water is a liquid, so it can't be have air gaps or cracks in it that would cause scattering. Scattering happens when the photons bounce around in every which way due to the material properties of the whatever you're looking at. This is why snow - which, because of it's crystal structure, has a lot of air gaps - is opaque, but liquid water is transparent.",
"All things in the world are made up of tiny building blocks called atoms, and molecules (which are like blocks of atoms arranged in particular shapes, like how you have lego bricks that are 2x4 or 3x1 or a 2x1 slant, and so on). Whether you can see through something depends in what molecules the thing is made from, what shapes and how far apart they are. Different colours of light have different sizes (different wavelengths), and if the object the light hits has exactly the right molecules and shapes, the bits of light that hit it can fit exactly into the spaces around the molecules and they get absorbed/trapped by the molecules in the object, and so the bits of light don't pass through it. But if the spaces around the molecules is not exactly the right shape for the colour of light, the light can bounce through the object and come out the other side where it can go into your eye and you can see it. For something like water, the reason you can see through it is because the molecules are the wrong shape to absorb light in what we call the \"visible spectrum\", which is all the colours of the rainbow from red to indigo/violet. Any light of any of those colours will bounce through the water and come out the other side where you can see it. But with water in particular, the molecules are the right shape to absorb a different type of light - water is very good at absorbing microwave light, which is a type of light that you can't see with your eye. That's why food gets hot in the microwave oven - it spits out a bunch of microwave light, and all the water in the food traps those bits of microwave light, which makes the water heat up and makes your food hot."
],
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[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
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|
lcc7qj
|
Why are sites like Spotify and Apple Music so strict in marking explicit music, while there are thousands of videos and songs unmarked on YouTube?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm00hz8"
],
"text": [
"You can upload anything you want to youtube, and there's no barrier for entry. You're not paying youtube to watch someone's video, so the obligation to correctly indicate explicit language falls on the uploader; uploaders are lazy and no one's kicking up much of a fuss about it, so youtube doesn't care. On spotify or apple music though, you're paying money for a curated collection; you expect a certain level of quality because it's costing you $10 a month, or however much you're paying. Just as it's expected that songs have the correct titles and artists attributed to them, music streaming services are expected to mark explicit content, since they're the ones providing it."
],
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3
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcc8rf
|
How do zip files work? How do they make files just smaller?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"glz37oi",
"glz3dui"
],
"text": [
"The trick with a file compression algorithm is that you try to find repeating patterns in a file. And when you find a repeating pattern, instead of keeping the entire pattern again, you type in a reference to the first place in the file where that pattern occurred. Works better, of course, if patterns have the decency to repeat themselves often. Or a least similar.",
"Compression is a form of coding. When you find a specific pattern or grouping, you assign that group a simple name, then replace all the reference with the simple name. For example, a long essay, you find the word “the” occurs 1200 times in the text. You add a statement that says replace the letter sequence THE with the number 1. So for each time the word The appears, the compressed form has the number 1. You’ve now reduced the size by 66% for each occurrence of the word. The more times a file has a repeating pattern that can be coded smaller, the better the compression ratio will be.",
"I have a bag of 15 marbles. There are several ways I could tell you what colors the marbles are, but here are 2 major ways. The first: 5 blue marbles, 3 red marbles, 2 yellow marbles, green marble, 4 purple marbles. This is an unzipped file. The second I will show you is this: Same information, but shorter, if you know how to read it. 5b,3r,2y,g,4p This is a zip file. Unlike the first, it doesn't mean anything unless you know the symbols used, but it's easy to convert it back to English if you do. Anyway, the actual method will vary a bit, but file compression such as zips use similar methods to take the same information and smash it down to be smaller, then make it bigger again when needed."
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3
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
lccadg
|
What makes colours?
|
Is it our brain? Or are the things actually coloured? If they're actually coloured, why? What makes them coloured? Why is water colourless but grass is green?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glyzsr5",
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"glz06h2",
"glz0580",
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"text": [
"Water is not colorless, it is a very pale blue. When light hits an object, it can either be absorbed or reflected, depending on its atomic structure. Water, for instance, largely lets light pass through it, but it absorbs reds, oranges, yellows, greens and purples more than blues. That can be seen as a very pale blue, noticeable in deeper water Grass is green because of chlorophyll, the chemical plants use to produce sugars using light. The chlorophyll absorbs all light except green, which it reflects",
"I'll take a stab at this, even though I'm sure someone here can do it better. Light — which contains all of the possible colors we can see — is absorbed into everything. When we look at something and see its color, what we see is the frequency (or color) of light that isn't absorbed by it. So think about it this way. You have a bag of m & ms. You eat all of the colors except green, so the remaining color you see when you look in the bag is green. Now imagine that it's a green shirt. The shirt has eaten all of the light except the green light, which is what you're left with. Little cells in our eyes, called rods and cones, can see the differences between these colors of light and that is how we can see what we're looking at. People who are color blind have deficiencies in certain kinds of light reception.",
"I know an overly edited YouTube video that beautifully explain this URL_0",
"Light, you an objects reflection of light. What will REALLY fuck you up starting to question if I see the same color as YOU do when we see RED. Is it RED because it is red, or is it RED becausr you/I was told thats what red looked like.",
"Ugh, this is sadly a hot topic and the mystic warrior types like to throw around chaff. Colors come from the frequencies of light in the visible spectrum. It can be a mix of frequencies, and each frequency can be at different intensities. White light is a mix of all visible frequencies. Blackness is simply the lack of low-intensity. When light hits stuff, certain frequencies get absorbed or reflected. Humans detect color through 3 types of cones in the eyeball. Red, green, and blue. They don't line up perfectly, red and green overlap a lot. To deal with that (and a whole lot of other junk), the brain does post-processing. Color correction and over-saturation. > What makes them coloured? Why is water colourless but grass is green? Water is mostly transparent. It doesn't reflect, so the light goes straight through. Enough water and it'll look blue, typically. Grass is green because it's full of chlorophyll, which absorbs the yellow light from the sun (past the atmosphere). It evolved that way. But different stuff absorbs and reflects differently due to the shape of it's atoms. There's a lot of nuclear physics I don't get, but it's like the size of the gaps in the microwave mesh only letting some frequencies through."
],
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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lccswm
|
What does it mean when they say a burger uses 1300 gallons of water to make? Isn’t water renewable?
|
I saw an ad for being vegan saying either don’t flush your toilet for 6 months, don’t shower for 3 months or don’t eat a burger once. But isn’t all of our water basically renewable and no matter if we do any of these things, it just goes back into the water cycle and we’ll reuse it eventually, even if we have to clean it somehow? What’s the big deal?
|
Earth Science
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Water can be renewed, but that requires energy. Water treatment plants use a lot of energy to make sewage into drinkable water again. Nature can do some of the work, but it does so more slowly than we need, and because of that we are fouling more and more of nature and making it less effective at the water cycle every day. So the big deal is that we either need to spend much more money to purify water, we need to use less water, or we need to be prepared to die as a civilization because we refuse to do either of those two. And of course, that also applies to a lot of other environmental concerns as well.",
"What it means is that from rearing the animal, to slaughtering it, processing it that 1300 gallons of water is used. So there is water used for drinking water, and water to grow the grass that the animal grazes on, and water to grow other foods it eats, water used to wash and clean the animals living area. When the animal goes to slaughter, water is used to clean the animal pre and post processing and water used to clean the processing plant. The big deals to the anti meats/ reduce meat consumption is that non meat based diets use significantly less water to produce food.",
"For places that get their drinking water from wells/aquifers, the water cycle can actually take thousands of years to complete. Most of the central U.S. where most of the cattle stocks are gets it's water from aquifers that take thousands of years to replenish and are being drained at a much fastee rate.",
"The key insight here is the *rate* of renewability of water. For the forseeable future, there will always be water. And there will always be ways that purify water, both by natural means and industrial means. So there's no real threat of water itself permanently running out forever, like the problem is with, say, fossil fuels. But the *rate* at which the renewing process happens is what's bottlenecking us. You could live in a world where there was infinite coffee grounds for everyone to make coffee out of to drink, but if you only have a handful of coffee machines to pass it through, you'd still be limited despite having access to theoretically infinite coffee. So while 1,300 gallons of water for a hamburger patty sounds like whatever since water is (functionally) infinite and fresh water is renewable, it would become a real problem if you only had access to a billion gallons of water per day, and a million people wanted a McDonald's hamburger every day. If you think the threat of using up the entire flow of fresh water isn't a real problem, consider the Colorado River. That's the mighty river that cut out the Grand Canyon over millions of years. It used to flow all the way to the Pacific Ocean. But nowadays, it just dries up before it ever makes it there, because so much water is being pumped out of it to irrigate crops. Drying up entire rivers of fresh water is clearly not beyond our capabilities because we've done it already. The call to action in these ads is suggesting that if we do what we can to cut out some of the largest water usage offenders, namely raising livestock for slaughter, we'd free up our limited supply of renewing fresh water to be put to use for other purposes. Or preferably, left alone entirely to allow nature to take its course with it so we don't end up with ecological disasters."
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lcd337
|
Why do all living creatures have such wildly different life expectancies?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"Basically every living creature only has to live as long as necessary to achieve maturity, find a mate, reproduce and optionally care for its offspring for a while. Reproduction has to be repeated as many times as is required to avoid population decline, taking into account the offspring mortality rate which is normally quite high. Any living time after that is just a free bonus and is not maintained by natural selection. It’s just there. So life expectancy of a species depends on how much time is required for this species (on average) to complete doing all the things above.",
"Under ideal conditions, natural selection would favor animals that live forever and keep reproducing forever. Selection favors animals (or plants) that produce the most successful offspring. So why don't things live forever? What we have here is a trade-off. The world is a dangerous place, and keeping yourself alive costs resources. Resources that could be spent on making more offspring. If spending resources to keep yourself alive longer results in more offspring (because you live to breed another day) then great. But if you get eaten by a predator the next day all those saved up resources never get used. Ideally, an animal that is likely to die from environmental causes will want to spend all its resources early on reproduction, causing it to wear out faster and have a lower life expectancy. In other words, innate life expectancy should be related to the amount of time an animal would expect to survive in the wild before being killed by something. You can see this with many living things. Turtles for example are hard to kill, they carry around strong protection. And turtles have a long innate genetic life expectancy. They reproduce more slowly and move more slowly but make up for it by living longer and having a longer lifetime reproductive output. In contrast, mice are easy to kill. Lots of things eat them, and the average mouse is likely to be snapped up by a bird or snake or cat before it reaches its first birthday. But even if you protect a mouse from all predators, it still has a short life expectancy. It's entire body is tuned to live fast and breed fast. It just wears out fast, it's dumping a lot of energy into reproducing and less into maintenance, because there's no point in trying to take it slow like a turtle...it would just get eaten. There are other things going on here too, the above explanation is _a bit_ simplified. For example, some animals have structures that are useful but just don't last forever...mammals can't really replace or repair adult teeth, for example, and as a result grazing mammal lifespans are limited by how long their teeth last. And some animals just don't seem to age at all. But it's a good framework for understanding the question."
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lcdcqs
|
What is a .zip bomb and how it works?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
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"imagine that you're packing up for a trip, you compress all of your clothes in a small bag you successfully zip it close, but when you arrive at your destination, you open your bag, everything comes out, a shit ton of clothes scattered on an area zip bombs are, well, compressed files, usually just a single text file with at least 1 byte of data or more, then compressed, made duplicates, compressed, duplicate and so on until you're left with 1 zip file that when unzipped, consumes a lot of storage space",
"One thing that the other answers don't indicate well is how you can compress so much material into a small file. It has to do with the nature of how file compression works. Imagine I had a 1 GB text file, but every character in the file was just the number \"1.\" In a compressed file, this might be compressed by simply giving the instruction, \"'1'x1GB\". And so a very tiny compressed file (7 characters in my fake example) could be turned into a gigantic file on the other end (~1 billion characters). When your computer opens a ZIP file, it follows a set of rules according to what the file says it has inside of it. A ZIP bomb is a ZIP file with rules that are intentionally malicious. It's basically a little file that says, \"spend all of your time and energy and memory writing out meaningless junk.\" (And in this case it has to be meaningless, if the compression ratio is going to be that high. The reason that ZIP files can only compress \"real\" data only so much is because real data has structure and variance most of the time, and so there's only so much you can do to reduce that to instructions like this, which generally focus on repeated sets of characters.) For an ELI5 analogy, imagine I have someone who types up my notes for me. Except I don't have to just give them my notes; I can put instructions on the notes. So I send them a tiny Post-It note, but it says, \"write the number 1 a trillion times.\" In real life, the person would probably laugh and/or quit the job, but your computer doesn't have that option — unless its programmers anticipated this problem (which some modern archive programs might), it will just dumbly follow the instructions in the file, even if it is ruinous for the overall machine's performance.",
"A zip bomb is just a zip file that contains very well compressed stuff, and typically contains more zip files. Getting a 1000-to-1 compression ratio (that is, 1 megabyte ZIP file expands into 1000 megabytes of files) is doable, and would be a good first step in building a zip bomb. Do this a few times, put a few copies of the resulting ZIP file into a ZIP file, maybe ZIP that up, and so on. If you were to extract the ZIP file the RAM and/or disk usage would be shockingly high. There is a well known zip bomb named 42.zip, known for being about 42 kilobytes, and decompressing into terabytes of data when all its layers are fully unpacked. There is also a proof of concept zip file that contains 2 files: a picture, and then *itself*, resulting in an infinite ZIP unpacking process. There is software, most notably antivirus, that will unpack ZIP files because automatically. Zip bombs were originally designed to wreak havoc on these programs. They have since been modified to recognize a probable zip bomb and deal with it, probably by detecting it as a type of virus by itself."
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lcdnhl
|
How is downloading pictures different from pirating movies?
|
Ok, so this is probably really stupid but.. How is me downloading an image any different from someone downloading a whole movie? Isn't a movie just a lot of images? Like, downloading a screenshot of a movie is not illegal but if I download a thousand screenshots in sequence from the same movie its illegal? If so, then where is the limit?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
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"It is illegal to download copyrighted images... Out of practical reasons you'll only get in trouble if you'd use it for your website or anywhere else. But also then someone would need to notice it first.",
"Its both piracy. You make an illegal copy of a copyrighted work of art, and thats illegal. Many laws just have a fair-use clause that allows you to copy small parts of the original artwork for remixing or quoting. So if you just screenshot a single frame of a movie, you are protected by that fair-use. But the same is true for movies, puctures, text or sound(or any other medium)"
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lcehah
|
Why does boating use terms like port and starboard instead of just saying left and right?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
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"Back then, the ships were not controlled by rudders, but steering oars controlled by individual sailors. They were on the right side, since most of them were right-handed. \"Starboard\" is a corruption, it originally was the old English words \"steor\" and \"bord\". Steer-bord. Since you would tie up the opposite side of the ship to the dock, this was known as the \"larbord\", the loading side. Sailors weren't particularly bright people and confused the two often, so they just started referring to this side as the side facing the harbour, or port.",
"Because left and right are relative to the direction a person is facing which can cause confusion. For example, if we are facing each other an object on my right would be on your left. Port and starboard are defined relative to the boat so something on the port side of the boat is on the port side for everyone on board regardless of which direction they are facing.",
"These words don't just 'appear', like some bloke comes along and say 'I know, we'll call it X and Y cause it makes me seem dead clever and just I want everyone to do as I say because I think I'm right'. You're talking about the evolution of language and the evolution of terms in relation to a specific profession i.e. sailing boats. The OP seems to be pitching this question and comments as though someone sat down, decided the words and then forced everyone else to do something counter intuitive. The words are specific to the context i.e. boats, they have evolved and now have a common, widely understood meaning. It's no different to referring to a car as 'off-side' and 'near-side' or windward and leeward. To me this is rather like saying, 'why is it north, south, east and west' rather than front, back, left, right. The words used and the meaning reflect the context/point of reference in which they are used. It doesn't matter whether the OP can 'back' the explanations or not. The explanation that these words have evolved for ease of understanding in the context of being on a boat, makes sense and is right.",
"Because when you're on a boat, the better reference system is where the boat is going, not where the speaker is looking. When you're saying left and right on a boat, it's potentially ambiguous whether you mean your left side or the boat's."
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lcey6q
|
On a cellular level, how does exercise make us healthy or improve our health?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
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"There's also a theory that a lot of cellular damage is caused by slightly malfunctioning mitochondria producing more free radicals (hungry molecules that want to bind with other stuff, damaging it in the process...like your DNA or other cellular machinery) as they generate energy. Exercise may force these damaged mitochondria to work harder than they would normally and \"kill\" themselves in the effort, removing them from the cell, letting healthy mitochondria reproduce to take their place and reducing the number of free radicals floating around.",
"This is the ELI5 version. When your body is just sitting around there's still a lot of stuff you're body is doing. When you exercise your body has to be able to do those normal sitting around things better and faster to be able to keep up with the demands of exercising. If you do that enough times your body realizes it's not doing a great job and needs to get better at doing those basic body functions and it send the signal to your body hey everybody we need to do better everyone start improving things. As this happens and your body gets a lot of practice operating at a higher level it means it's a breeze to do the sitting around part and in general your body is less stressed just sitting around because it's so much easier. Stress is okay in short bursts it reminds us we have to be better but constant stress with no break is bad for our bodies because it means we're always working hard without a break. And when we actually do need to work hard we can't because we're maxed out and at risk of breaking down.",
"Inside our cells are tiny robots made of protein that pull strings also made of protein that make us move like puppets. When you exercise your body adapts by making more of these robots making you stronger and faster. It also makes a bunch of stuff to help the motors do their jobs better. [ URL_1 ]( URL_0 )",
"Ancient humans had to hunt or gather food to get energy. At the same time, ancient humans used a lot of energy (compared to other animals): Humans hunted by tracking and tiring other animals out. Human babies spend a lot of their life burning energy and not collecting energy. Human brains burn a lot of energy. Humans need a lot of energy. Thus, human bodies evolved to be very efficient: 1) Store extra energy as fat to not waste it 2) Only grow muscles that are used in order to conserve protein and energy. But human society suddenly changed human behavior: We could get energy by just buying food. Because we could just buy food, we ate excess energy, which we store as fat. Because we could just buy food, we didn't have to use as many muscles to gather food so we stopped building muscles. Why is excess fat bad? Fats produce hormones. Hormones are signals or messages to the body about the state of the body. Hormones mostly signal based the *amount* of the hormone in the body. Too much fat, too much of fat's hormones, and the body starts misbehaving. Fat also releases cytokines, which are not exactly hormones, but too many cytokines seem to constantly activate the immune system, which makes the immune system unable to respond to actual attacks. Why is too little muscle bad? Well muscles help us move, help support us, and help prevent us from getting injured. Too little muscle and we get injured easily, can't move well, and can't support our own weight (and we get things like lower back pain and bad posture.) Muscle mass also tends to calm the immune system. And the other important muscle is the heart! If the heart isn't challenged, it doesn't get stronger and is less resilient, ~~and it pumps less blood per pump, which can contribute to high blood pressure.~~ TL;DR: Because energy was scarce, we evolved to store energy as fat and to only grow muscles when needed. When energy became abundant and easy to gather, we gained too much fat and lost too much muscle. Too much fat unbalanced the body and too little muscle leads to not being able to move well and more likely to get injured. Cardio exercise is an attempt to reduce fat (though you can also eat less) and to strengthen the heart and breathing muscles. Resistance exercise (moving heavy objects) is an attempt to fool muscles into thinking they are needed, so the body will spend energy growing and maintaining those muscles.",
"Another reason is that when your cells replicate and DNA is copied, the DNA inevitably gets shorter. For this reason there is junk DNA at the ends of the strands called telomeres which act as a padding. It’s okay if this DNA gets shorter since it doesn’t code for anything important. Over the course of your life, the replication will make these telomeres so short that further replication will start affecting the DNA that codes for necessary proteins. This has many negative health effects, and cancer is one of them. Scientists have reported that people that exercise regularly have telomeres that look 20 years younger than those who lead a sedentary lifestyle. Exercising truly makes you live longer since it extends the amount of times your DNA can replicate.",
"In muscles, cells physically grow larger (hypertrophy) and move of them develop. When these muscle cells contract and relax they are capable of carrying a lot more force, which results in heavier objects (including the weight of your own body) being able to be moved easier (less calories spent) and increases the upper limit of what the muscle can support. This needs protein which is why a lot of athletes take protein shakes to supplement their diet with extra protein. The cells also become better at absorbing nutrients from the bloodstream and expelling waste into the bloodstream or endocrine system to be filtered and removed by other organs so waste doesn't build up in your cells. The cells can also store more ATP which is the raw chemical substances in food consumed by the mitochondria within your cells and that produces the energy to keep our bodies running, so bigger and better cells mean more energy stored meaning more energy produced. The cells can also consume resources more efficiently so your body uses less calories and can store more fat (the body ALWAYS wants to store fat, and it will deconstruct muscle tissue to build fat if you are on a cut, ie running a calorie deficit in order to lose weight). This goes for your heart too, so a stronger heart beats more slowly because it can exert more force per beat while saving energy in order to push blood around your body. Good form in exercise is essential because this makes ganglia develop. Ganglia are small nerve clusters, basically the local authority for your nervous system, which are directly responsible for moving a specific set of muscles or limb. The better your form is, the more this ganglia develops, resulting in more precise and efficient movement which further saves energy and makes the muscles stronger. Dancers and ballerinas have incredibly developed ganglia and are very strong even though they tend to have smaller frames because their bodies are very highly co-ordinated. All of this working together helps produce hormones and neurotransmitters. These are drugs your body produces to control your behaviour and bodily processes. GABA, serotonin, and dopamine have many many functions but their most important functions are making you happy, regulating sleep, digestion, and reduces the peaks and troughs in mood making your mood more stable. This is why exercise directly improves mental and emotional health. You also do most of your growing and healing while you're asleep, so more exercise = more neurotransmitters = better sleep = better recovery from exercise, sickness, stress, etc. Hormones like testosterone (produced in significant amounts by men but are only in trace amounts in women) are steroids which further promote muscle growth and development, which is why men are naturally stronger than women. Hormones produced by both sexes as a result of exercise increases sex drive, the health of the sex organs and sex cells, which results in better quality children (that said there is a significant amount of genetic and environmental effects that have a far larger impact on foetal development than exercise). Hormones also make other tissues like bone and cartilage and skin grow collagen (a dense elastic substance) which makes your bones bend rather than break (and when bone with high collagen does break it breaks cleanly rather than shatters which is far easier to heal) and your skin is tougher and firmer and can store more water, resulting in better looking and functioning skin. Exercise isn't very resource hungry. The human body is extremely efficient and you would have to run several marathons in order to run off a single cheeseburger. For that reason, athletes and dieters \"cut\" which is where they remove a meal and count calories because your body burns fat just by existing. It's not recommended for fat or obese people to run because of the immense pressure that puts on their joints--lose weight at the dinner table first, then exercise. When people feel tired after exercising it is because they've used up their ATP reserves (the chemical energy used by cells). The body will eventually produce more ATP, but the more exercise you do the faster you will produce ATP, the more you can store, the less your cells will use, overall resulting in more exercise achievable and less effort being spent. Supplements like creatine are the raw amino acids which your body uses to make ATP, so athletes often take creatine to increase the amount of exercise they can do. Creatine isn't a steroid, the amino acids are what your body tears food apart in order to use as fuel so creatine is a concentrated supplement of these amino acids to make ATP. All of this adds up to make your body faster, stronger, tougher, and more efficient, as well as looking better and being resistant to damage from which is what we mean when we say \"healthy\".",
"On a cellular level. That is a tricky one. We know the body is made up out of organs, that are made up out of tissues, that are made up out of cells. 'Exercise' is something that happens on the level of the organism, it does change the collective health of the group of cells that make up the organism, but not really in a way that one cell can be 'exercised' and have a different footprint. We usually look for parameters in the blood to decide on health, being no high blood pressure, normal count of different types of blood cells, not too much fat in circulation, not too much sugar in circulation, not too much waste products in circulation, enough oxygen etc... You can compare it to a house, you can't actually see the people living in the house, but if you can analyze the waste they put out (vegetable scraps or fastfood wrappers?) and you can see which groceries they bring in, you might have a good idea of the general health of the people in the house. Now, if you look at an apartment building, it becomes harder to define the building as healthy, as the guy from 3B is always smoking with his can of bud light, while the couple in 5D just returned from a weekend MTB trip. The same is true for the body, it's hard to judge 'overall' health. So,... what happens when you exercise. Exercise is actually muscle movement, which needs energy. Energy in the body comes from the food. The body stores energy in the liver and the fat tissue, so when you exercise, you take energy from that. Because you use your muscle tissue, the cells send out a signal that they are 'heavily used' and more muscle tissue grows. The fat tissue deteriorates when we burn more than we eat. It is still debated, but generally believed that it is the individual fat cells that reduce in size, and not the amount of fat cells that reduce (that amount is approx stable once you reach puberty). So, on a cellular level, not too much happens, but the populations of cells, and their relative contribution to the body changes, also their energy streams change.",
"There are really a lot of reasons. Exercising increases the amount of oxygen that your cells receive. Oxygen is necessary for your cells to create ATP, which is basically the energy source that fuels your cells.",
"It depends on the exercise. Weight training strengthens your muscles, bones, and connective tissues. It can all trigger releases of testosterone and human growth hormone. A lot of \"bad backs\", \"bum knees\" and \"jacked up shoulders\" can be fixed by physical therapy and then continuing to do activities that require strength. Cardio generally helps by lowering insulin resistance.",
"as an aside, if exercise elevates your blood pressure; doesn't that increase your risk of some things like an aneurysm or heart attack? wouldn't the ideal situation be like, a low BMI chill person?",
"On a cellular level, you grow new muscle cells- not just obvious ones like in the arms and legs, but in the heart as well. A stronger heart doesn't have to work as hard when you're at rest. Exercise also reduces fat deposits on important organs like the liver and heart, which can make them not work as well if those deposits get too big. And finally exercise makes your body release chemicals which improve your mood and help you sleep more regularly.",
"It boosts Brain Derived Nootropic Factor (BDNF). If you want the whole runaround (pun intended) read or listen to *Spark* by John Ratey MD. It blew my mind, and I’ve been cycling the past 70 days straight since. Edit: I’m not affiliated with the book",
"There's so many factors that benefit individual cells with excercise that most of the answers here are all right. The most basic explanation is that excercise allows cells more access to nutrients and ATP(energy molecule) by increasing blood flow and the number of mitochondria in cells(ATP makers). The other major part is that it prevents and reverses multiple disease processes which would harm those cells.",
"I see a lot of answers focusing on things like strength and overall fitness, so let me try for a metabolic answer. Your cells operate on a little form of energy that comes from food. Fat is storage for this energy, and it comes from eating more food (thus having more energy) than needed. Exercise is basically the opposite. By exercising, you body needs more energy. Because of this, your cells will likely burn more energy than you gained from eating. In order to supply this demand, they take from the storage of energy (fat) and burn that, reducing the fat in your body. Note: you can achieve the same effect by eating less.",
"Shit, where do I begin? Vetricular hypertrophy for cardiovascular health. Muscular hypertrophy for athletic health Heat shock proteins for anti aging Androgenic upregulation for anti aging Increased glucagon secreation to lower insulin resistance to fight diabetes Production of more alveoli for respiratory health Increase in dopamine and norepinephrine pathways for mental health Just actually moving your legs to avoid vascular infarctions Increased nitrogen oxide production in salicary microbiota to reduce hypetension for cardiovascular health Etc. Not to mention all the benfits of losing extra fat. Each one of these would be a long paragraph to explain. On the cellular level. There's honestly just so many benefits to it, and I'm just scratching the surface with these examples.",
"You are made up of small stuffa called cells. When you excercise your train sends signals to different organs telling them \"Hey, this ape human is doing work, they need more power, produce more power\", so the organs do their own things to produce more power, thus improving your overall body by gradually making it more compatible for you to do more work. But you also need to eat properly, otherwise the cells will be like \"Hey brain, you tell us to produce energy but this pae human gets no nutrients to us, so we dying doing so much work\" and isntead of becoming healthy you become weak. Excercise is healthy only if you take proper diet, if you wish to remain without food for weeks then for staying relatively healthy you need to stop excercising."
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|
lcf5a0
|
how can special body scales detect what you are made of, like body fat?
|
I have some physical understanding, but how can they tell my body fat % and how accurate os that?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"Imagine you're standing on the scales with bare feet. The scales send tiny bits of electricity into one foot, which travels up one leg, down the other, and out the other foot and back into the scales. Electricity travels through fat and muscle (and even water) slightly differently, so depending on what the scale gets back through the second foot it can work out what you are made of. They don't measure your fat and muscle in your upper body, so the result is mostly just your legs. They aren't very accurate, because as mentioned earlier electricity also travels through the water, which will mess up the results the scale gives you. They can be used to measure fat gain/loss over time, however, as long as you're never really thirsty.",
"It uses something called bioelectric impedance. Fat and muscle conduct electricity differently because muscle has more water content while fat is an insulator (slows down electricity). The little silver parts you stand on send out a super small electric signal that you can’t feel but it measures how quickly it goes out one silver piece and back into the other. Since it knows how fast it goes through water/muscle and fat, it can estimate how much of each it went through. It also uses characteristics such as age to help it be more accurate. BIA is accurate to within roughly 3-5% under perfect conditions, but how hydrated you are, your body temp, etc can alter results quite substantially."
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lcf95l
|
Partial pressures of gases in the blood.
|
For example: PO2 and PCO2 in the blood are measured and have some numerical value in mm of Hg. What does this actually mean and what's the significance?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
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"Also, the mm Hg (millimeters of mercury) is just a standardized method of measuring the pressure produced by a gas by the amount of mercury this gas displaces in a column.",
"The pressure of a gas is the result of the contribution by the different molecules in a gaseous state. The partial pressure of a gas is the contribution of one kind of gas to the total pressure As far as mmHg goes it’s a pressure unit based on how high the pressure can push an amount of mercury. It’s a non SI unit and an abomination.",
"Partial pressure measures the concentration of the gas dissolved in the blood plasma (ie, not bound to haemoglobin). This can vary by environment, and also by location in the body (the more time it's spent away from the lungs, the lower it falls), and it's important because it influences the binding of oxygen to haemoglobin. In high PO2 (when a lot of oxygen is dissolved in the blood plasma), oxygen readily binds to the haemoglobin, and in low PO2, it tends to dissociate from the haemoglobin. This means that haemoglobin picks up a lot of oxygen at the lungs, where there's a high PO2, and loses it more and more the further it gets from the lungs, essentially ensuring an even distribution of oxygen to various parts of the body. PCO2 is the same thing but for carbon dioxide (which is also carried bound to haemoglobin, but carried from the tissues back towards the lungs instead). What this is most relevant to is [dissociation curves]( URL_0 ), which are a visual representation of the amount of oxygen saturation of haemoglobin you can expect at any given PO2 under various conditions. For example, if you increase the temperature, the curve shifts right, and if you draw a line up from say, 60 PO2, you're now getting 82% oxygen saturation instead of the 88% you were getting previously. This is useful for visualising the adaptations of haemoglobin and blood in various animals and stages of life. There are lots of different types of haemoglobin that are effective to varying degrees - some more effective than adult human haemoglobin, some less effective, and it's useful to be able to represent this on a graph. For example, human foetuses have a haemoglobin molecule that's more sensitive to oxygen - it achieves higher saturation than adult haemoglobin at lower PO2s. This is because it's not getting oxygen from the high PO2 blood of the lungs. Instead it's having to take oxygen from the already lowered PO2 of the blood that has reached the mother's uterus, so haemoglobin that can absorb more in those oxygen-deficient situations is preferable. The trade-off is that oxygen doesn't dissociate as easily, so it's not a good thing to have as an adult when oxygen is now readily available."
],
"score": [
3,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Oxyhaemoglobin_dissociation_curve.png"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcfwpv
|
How do sexual fetishes arise?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glzk1n7",
"glzyots",
"gm0kydb",
"gm0fjs3"
],
"text": [
"Sexual feelings are incredibly complex and work across the brain, so there's a lot of \"wires capable of being crossed\" so to speak. Childhood experiences can be very powerful. Especially if something happens within a key time period of sexual awakening. Fetishes are (mostly) normal, and done consensually should be viewed as quite natural.",
"This is, unfortunately one of those things that we really have no solid scientific evidence for. It is a very tricky thing to study because of the way basically every society treats these things as embarrassing and shameful rather then a normal part of human sexuality. One interesting thing I can tell you is that when people say fetish, what they really mean is a paraphilia.",
"The reel answer is nobody know for sure but here's 2 popular theory that can answer your question even though we don't know if they are 100% true Fetish in general are thought to be link to whatever was often present when you were a horny teenager making weird association in your brain (by weird I mean something that has nothing to do with sex). For this one you'll find plenty of anecdotal evidence so it might be true for a big part of the population but it might not explain every fetish for everybody even if it's true As for foot fetish the brain part that's associate with genitals and foot are pretty near and some people say that in some people brain they touch and create foot fetish Also remember that fetish are very common. Being sexuality attracted to any thing that is not a genital is a fetish. Butts and boobs have no reproductive fonction but so many people are attracted to them so anybody who say \"look at that ass\" isn't less weird than you for liking foot",
"I know why I have a nylon fetish. My stepmom used to wear them under a short tshirt when she was getting ready in the morning. I don't think she realized what she was doing to a teen age boy. My other fetishes (I'm not naming them) I have no idea how I got."
],
"score": [
79,
13,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcgmvx
|
What's happening when we get a migraine? Why is it only on one side of the head? Why does it feel like its traveling sometimes?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm23ali"
],
"text": [
"Neuroscience Master's student here. I asked one of my professors this recently. The short answer was: We don't really know yet. Long Answer: We don't know. There's a few proposed possibilities, such as there being an issue with blood vessels, or the electrical messaging system of the brain. It has also been proposed to be an entirely psychological phenomenon, rather than strictly biological. But right now, these are all very vague and no one knows for sure. Sorry!"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lchui9
|
The Moon can block the Sun completely during a solar eclipse because the Sun is far, far away. Is it then pure coincidence that the Moon almost completely fits the Sun's outline, or could we've had solar eclipses with a much smaller Moon, thus blocking the sun only very partially?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glzukoi",
"glzunud",
"glzvjr6",
"glzv9vl",
"glzwlzw",
"glzv1u4"
],
"text": [
"Yes, it is a pretty cool coincidence. Also, the distance the moon is from earth is changing, so it didn't always (and won't always) line up so perfectly.",
"It's coincidence, and we're right on the border of the moon being too far. The orbit of the moon is just oval enough that sometimes it is too far and we get something call an [annular eclipse]( URL_0 ) where the moon doesn't block the sun all the way. Though other times it's close enough to block the sun all the way.",
"Yes, it is a coincidence. The Sun is roughly 400 times the size of the Moon, and roughly 400 times further away from Earth than the Moon is. So it happens to be about the same size in the sky. If you look at other moons of the solar system, this is not the case, and so you would not get these near-perfect eclipses. For example, the largest moons of Jupiter all have a larger apparent size (when seen from Jupiter) than the Sun does, and so it wouldn't line up so nicely, they'd completely block the sun. Other moons are smaller than the apparent size of the sun and would instead transit the Sun without eclipsing it. As far as I know there's no particular benefit to having this coincidence, it's just nice.",
"Yep, it's totally a coincidence that we live during a period when that is true. As the Moon moves slowly farther away from the Earth, this will no longer be true.",
"It is a coincidence. We just happen to live during the period of time where the angular diameters of the Sun and Moon are, sometimes, nearly equal, giving us the opportunity to view a \"total\" solar eclipses. However, not all eclipses are total. The moon's orbit is an ellipse, aka not perfectly circular, which means that its distance from the Earth varies over time. When it's farther from Earth, it appears smaller in the sky, and if an eclipse happens when it appears small like this, we called it an Annular Solar Eclipse. In the middle of the event, the sun appears as a solid ring of light with the dark moon right in the middle - not large enough to completely block the sun like during a Total Solar Eclipse. The moon orbited closer to the Earth in the past, and it will continue to drift further away in the future. Eventually, it will get so far and appear so small that it will never be able to fully block the sun like it can now, so we could still see annular eclipses, but we would never experience a total eclipse again. We're pretty lucky that we live during the time when we can! I missed my opportunity to view one back in 2017 due to a job interview. I've vowed to not let myself miss the next one.",
"Yes it is a coincidence. The sun is roughly 400 times larger than the moon. But it is also 400 times further away. So, to us on the ground, they happen to look the same size and you can get a perfect total solar eclipse. If the moon was smaller, or further away, it wouldn’t be able to completely cover the sun. The moon is actually moving away from The earth right now by a couple centimeters a year on average, so in several Tens of thousands of years is possible that the moon will no long be able to totally eclipse the sun from earth"
],
"score": [
75,
42,
20,
6,
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse#/media/File:Annular_Eclipse._Taken_from_Middlegate,_Nevada_on_May_20,_2012.jpg"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lci15p
|
Why do we have different types of blood and why are some so rare compared to others?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glzyaya"
],
"text": [
"Human blood types most likely came to exist to fend off infectious diseases. The incompatibility of some blood types, however, is just an accident of evolution. There are four main blood types. Blood type A is the most ancient, and it existed before the human species evolved from its hominid ancestors. Type B is thought to have originated some 3.5 million years ago, from a genetic mutation that modified one of the sugars that sit on the surface of red blood cells. Starting about 2.5 million years ago, mutations occurred that rendered that sugar gene inactive, creating type O, which has neither the A or B version of the sugar. And then there is AB, which is covered with both A and B sugars. They are rare due to genetics. If not a lot of humans from millions of years ago got the mutation, it will be more rare."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lci6lj
|
Why do we crave sweets after a meal?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0dekb",
"gm10f0s"
],
"text": [
"Sugar cravings that strike after a meal may be due to serotonin, a feel-good brain chemical that's associated with an elevated mood. Eating a sugary dessert causes serotonin levels to rise in the brain, which can make you feel calmer and happier.",
"It's most likely a conditioned response. People who regularly eat sweets after a meal will be conditioned to expect sweets after eating, if you prevent yourself from having any sweets after dinner for a couple weeks you'll probably notice the craving getting weaker"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lci71r
|
why wider tires seemingly improve grip
|
I've been wondering why sport and race cars use very wide tires for improved grip. Friction is as far as I'm aware a function of a coefficient and pressure. So, with wider tires that pressure should reduce no? Why do fast cars then use wide tires?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glzz60w"
],
"text": [
"Because the contact area isn't really constant. As the car turns, the tires don't have an even pressure to the ground across it's width. A wider tire allows for better contact management overall. A lot of racing is \"won\" during the braking and turning phases of the track - so better traction in corners allows for much better track times. The tires are also not totally dependent on \"friction\" as they are somewhat sticky when at operating temperature - the simple equation used for friction is not applicable. In general, the larger the contact patch, the better."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lci8li
|
Why does only one of my eyes cross?
|
When I attempt to purposely cross my eyes, one of my eyes refuses to get anywhere near crossing while the other one does it just fine, I see double so I know I'm still getting some input from it. Google says it could be my brain choosing one eye over the other, but why do I have this problem everytime I try?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glzyd22"
],
"text": [
"I used to have Ambliopy when I was a kid, and even though I don't have it anymore, I can't cross both of my eyes too, because my \"lazy eye\" is still lazy and refuse to cross. If that's the case for you, you should look at how often do you use each one of your eyes and if you see better with one than with another (that's all the symptoms). Check also if both of your eyes moves well when you look around"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcimw9
|
In the video, why does the game call checkmate after those two moves?
|
URL_0
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"glzztet",
"glzzzgf"
],
"text": [
"Black queen D8 to H4 is a checkmate. The queen cannot be captured and there are no pieces that can move in between her and the white king who cannot move out of the way. This is called the fools mate or idiot mate, and is the fastest way black can win a game possible requiring only four moves, two per player.",
"Because her Queen has a direct path to capture his King. He King cannot move out of the attach and he has no other piece positioned to play in a way to block her Queen’s attack. Check Mate. Game over"
],
"score": [
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcinnx
|
How does ground work in electronics
|
Hello, most non low-power electric devices have a ground pin to protect if a shortcut or something happens (Correct me if I got that wrong, already) But how does it work? As far as I know you always need a completed circuit for electricity to flow. So how is an electric circuit closed if electricity flows to the ground?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm02xvs"
],
"text": [
"The complete circuit for mains electricity in your house is from the transformer on the pole, down the hot wire, through your device, up the neutral wire, and back to the transformer So how is ground able to complete this circuit? Because we tied neutral to ground! In your breaker panel all the neutral wires end up tied to all the ground wires which are all tied to a long metal rod in the dirt outside. This ensures that neutral is at roughly 0 volts relative to ground and hot is at 120VAC or 230VAC (depending on your country) and not 120VAC + 5000 VDC because the transformer is just floating at some high DC voltage. Because we tied them together back at the panel, a valid path for current in the event of a fault case is also transformer- > hot wire- > short to device case - > ground wire - > breaker panel - > neutral return - > transformer We leave ground on its own pin so that it isn't carrying current and is always at 0V not 1-5V above depending on the current in the neutral wire."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcix2b
|
How is the deep sea protected from becoming too acidic?
|
Earth Science
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0wzf9"
],
"text": [
"I don't understand the question; why would the deep see be too acidic?"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcj1v0
|
What is the barrier of sound and why does it takes a certain speed to break?
|
Just curious :)
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm02x5l",
"gm0g4b2",
"gm02gvb"
],
"text": [
"Sound moves at a fixed speed, much much slower than light. That's why you hear the crack of thunder after you see the flash of lightning. When you have a plane trying to cross from flying slower than sound to flying faster than sound, it experiences stress from the air \"piling up\" just in front of it, as the sound of an airplane is a compression wave in the air. Many planes were destroyed figuring out how to do this, thus the term \"sound barrier\". It turns out that only some shapes of planes can go through this transition without being damaged.",
"Shock waves coming off the leading edges of control surfaces and wings start to make the way they work completely different as an airplane gets close to the speed of sound. WWII fighter jets had a problems with flight controls as they neared the speed of sound in a dive, and many crashed due to it. Suddenly, the ailerons wouldn't work because pressures against the surfaces were stronger than the pilot, or the wing would flex opposite them, rendering them ineffective. This was a \"barrier\" that conventional aircraft design couldn't pass. A complete redesign of aircraft finally allowed them to push past this barrier. Pointy noses, thin wings with sharp edges, and rear control surfaces that moved as a whole were among the necessary changes.",
"It isnt really a \"Barrier.\" Its simply a way to refer to the actual speed that sound travels at. By saying you have \"Broken the sound barrier\" you are really just saying that you are now moving faster than sound travels"
],
"score": [
7,
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcjdqc
|
If the definition of a planet is something like the body must clear the path of orbit of debris, how is Jupiter a planet, considering it has like 63 moons and rings? What about Saturn with its moons and its rings?
|
I'm aware that Neptune and Uranus also have rings, but shouldn't those disqualify them being labelled planets? Or any celestial body with a satellite?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm06zf8",
"gm04szt"
],
"text": [
"The idea of \"clearing one's orbit\" is obviously open to interpretation, as in all honesty no planet's orbit is completely clear (even Earth's). Further, satellites of the planets are considered to be a \"part\" of that planet (from a gravitational perspective) in this context, as the relationship between those planets and their satellites is much more significant than between those satellites and *other* objects (e.g. the Sun). The point of the \"cleared orbit\" was more to showcase that the 8 planets **overwhelmingly** dominate the distribution of mass in their specific orbits. Pluto does not; it's just one iceball among many. Further, the reason Jupiter's orbit is not cleared (e.g. the Trojan asteroids) is entirely *because* of how massive it is. More to the point, the definition of planet was driving primarily by the need to demarcate a difference between the classical planets and the plethora of smaller objects that exist in the asteroid belt and beyond the orbit of Neptune, some of which are larger than Pluto.",
"But satellites do not orbit the Sun in an orbit that crosses the orbit of the planet. That is what is meant by clearing ones orbit. There is an exception but that is for objects with an orbit that is in sync with the planets orbit. All planets do have some of these objects as well but Jupiter have a lot of them."
],
"score": [
9,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcjpfx
|
How does negative absolute temperature work?
|
Of course you can’t reach absolute zero, but theoretically you could go below it, and reach a form of temperature that works opposite to how our temperature works in terms of energy, but... what would it look like? I’m having a little trouble visualizing it. Would my hand heat up or cool down, and would it the negative value just keep rising?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm07vv3",
"gm07lqg",
"gm07ty9"
],
"text": [
"Negative temperatures are hot. Heat flows from -10K to -100K. And from -100K to +9999999999999999999K. 0K approached from the negative side would be the hottest things possible. You've probably heard temperature is the average kinetic energy, but that's just a truth for an ideal gas. The actual definition is the relationship between energy and entropy. Positive temperatures are where more energy means more entropy. At absolute zero, everything is in the same rest state. As you add energy, things start taking on a variety of higher energy states. This is more chaotic, higher entropy. Negative temperatures rely on a maximum energy state existing. Once you pass a halfway point of maximum entropy, population inversion occurs. Adding more energy tends to put more things into the maximum energy state. This is more orderly, as things are now lining up into the same state again. Just a higher energy one. So more energy means less entropy, so temperature is negative. Everything being in a maximum energy state is clearly very hot, and in contact with anything that still has most of the stuff in a lower energy state (positive temperature), heat will flow to that.",
"It’s actually hotter than anything URL_1 > These negative absolute temperatures have several apparently absurd consequences: although the atoms in the gas attract each other and give rise to a negative pressure, the gas does not collapse – a behaviour that is also postulated for dark energy in cosmology. This was from 2013 so there may be more on the topic today. URL_0",
"No. You cannot reach a negative temperature. Temperature is merely the average speed (technically the average kinetic energy) of the molecules moving. If all of the molecules completely stopped moving, temperature would be absolutely zero. What do you mean by negative temperature?"
],
"score": [
6,
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/msRZou1jau0",
"https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130104143516.htm"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcjqnb
|
Is there a maximum amount of pain you can feel?
|
In history people invented a bunch of torture methods. Besides individual tolerance, is there a maximum amount of pain where the feeling stays the same despite more pain is induced? & #x200B; e.g. burning and getting stabbed, would you even feel the stab in contrast to the amount of pain being felt while being cooked alive?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm08o5u",
"gm096kt"
],
"text": [
"Well it can really depend on how sensitive your nerve systems are. And many times the most painful sounding things aren't really painful, because they tend to break the nerve system, like being burned alive. The first few seconds of burning are what hurt you the most, because your nerve systems are still alive. Eventually though, your nerve systems will fail, and although you won't as much pain as you initially felt, it doesn't mean it's a good thing. So basically, you can think of it two ways. You can say that there is a maximum amount of pain, because if you get tortured enough, you'll feel so much pain that your body can't take it anymore, and your brain will shut down or major organ will fail. You can also say that there isn't, say if someone were to be perpetually tortured without having body parts fail. Because they'd continually be in so much pain that eventually, they visit a limit of how much they can actually feel due to the threshold of how much the nerve system can handle.",
"Yes there is, in that there's a physiological limit to how intense of a signal the nerves can carry, and the capability of the brain itself to process those signals. Quantifying that level would be difficult and would vary between individuals. In a situation like you described, you would most likely feel both assaults, but whether the overall pain would be more intense is something we can't know for sure."
],
"score": [
10,
6
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcjtok
|
Why do smells linger on skin even after washing?
|
When you touch something that has a strong smell (like poo or when you break a perfume bottle), the smell tends to stay on your hand even after you washed your hands, sometimes even after you take a long shower. Why is that? Does that mean you are not completely clean since the smell is still there?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm09uj5"
],
"text": [
"Certain smelly compounds are lipophilic, meaning that they are attracted to other oils, and will therefore be more difficult to get off of your hands, even if you wash and scrub them. Chemical compounds like this can get into the skin, so a simple hand-washing won’t eliminate them. Washing your hands thoroughly with warm water and a bit of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) can be a very effective way to unbind those compounds."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lckr2l
|
Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0sl28"
],
"text": [
"If you've read journals you probably know enough to have a basic idea, but it's hard to say what that particular company is doing without knowing who they are. However, lymphocytes are the cells of the immune system that are able to recognize and kill cells that are not \"self\" (the body's own cells), or that are infected. Cancer cells are slightly different than the body's normal cells, so the lymphocytes can often find them and kill them. But tumors evolve the ability to evade detection by the lymphocytes. It also might become hard for the liver cells to get into the tumor to get at all of the cancer cells. So companies are trying to make lymphocytes better at getting into the tumors and killing cancer cells. This might be through creating vaccines against the cancer cells, or things like genetic engineering of the lymphocytes"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lclolp
|
What will happen if we keep wasting water?
|
Earth Science
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0llt0",
"gm0jiiz"
],
"text": [
"Our groundwater is already being used at a rate much faster than it can be replenished. We'll need to rely on desalination in the future, which at the moment is very expensive and energy costly. Not to mention the transport of that water to inland areas. There's a reason why companies are buying up water rights left and right. And it's not because water will be free and plentiful in the future. So to answer the question; if we keep wasting water, millions may be forced to migrate and millions may die of dehydration. Expect water rations in the future (who knows how long that is). And it's not individuals wasting the water per say. You taking a ten minute instead of a five minute shower is not the main cause of groundwater being depleted. It's the unsustainable practices tied to agriculture and factory farming. It's a societal problem that no single individual is at fault for.",
"In essence; we would have to spend more energy and money cleaning and filtering wasted water for reuse, and would be bottlenecked on the rate of water consumption that we can sustainably use. Water, broadly, isn't destroyed when it's used, but there is in essence a set rate at which we can use it based on how quickly we can take used water, filter and clean it, and then move it back into the water supply."
],
"score": [
8,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcm091
|
what big data is and how it is useful
|
I'm reading a lot on this topic and I cannot understand it
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0o26x",
"gm197nx"
],
"text": [
"Big data = harvesting all sorts of data on a large scale, such as spending habbits, geographical locations, psychology, sleeping habbits. Literally anything you can think of. Why is this useful? Well companies can come along and purchase this data collection, reinterpret this data and get useful information out of it. The idea is pretty terrifying, since it's not just being used to push adverts on us, it's been used for more nefarious things.",
"Big data is basically what it says: loads and loads and loads of data. In very simple terms, it is the process of collecting, storing, and analysing vast vast amounts of data for a particular purpose. For example, if you had a way of tracking every single fish in the sea, you would be able to learn huge amounts about sea currents, migratory patterns, fishing impact, etc. It has become a buzzword recently because advances in storage space means we can store far more data than before, advances in computer science mean we can design much better algorithms for analysing data, advances in computer hardware mean we can have much more powerful computers to run those advanced algorithms, and advances in other technology mean it is much easier to collect data. It has also gained a lot of focus in the public eye, as it is often linked with the collection of people's personal data by big tech companies and/or governments. For example, Facebook collects huge huge amounts of data on the behaviours on individuals online, collected from all sorts of sources such as Facebook itself, your browsing habits, your shopping history, etc etc. It uses this data to learn all sorts about you (and others), and can e.g. sell your profile to advertising companies or others. Facebook and others can also look at the data in bigger chunks, to learn all sorts of insights about how larger populations behave and act. You will also find it linked up with other buzzwords such as \"AI\" or \"machine learning\". This is because those technologies (or linked technologies that are mis-labelled as them) often underpin the newest and most advanced algorithms used to analysing data."
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcm8lq
|
On a technical level, why is charcoal (from wood) a better fuel than the very dry raw wood it comes from?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0py7k",
"gm0q15t"
],
"text": [
"Wood has a lot of random shit in it. Water, volatile chemicals, plant garbage. When it burns, this stuff doesn’t burn well and you get a lot of smoke and ash in the flame. If you’re just interested in the heat of the fire to stay warm or cook something, then this is fine and the wood is cheaper and more readily available. Sometimes you don’t want a dumb smokey fire though. Maybe you’re a medieval blacksmith who needs to temper steel with a hot, clean flame. Maybe you’re grilling meat and don’t want it to taste like wood ash when you’re done. Whatever the reason, if you need a clear, hot flame you’ll need to drive all the water and volatiles out of the wood *before* you burn it. That process creates charcoal, a carbon-rich fuel that burns hot and clean.",
"It has more energy per kilogram; it burns at a higher temperature; it doesn't produce as much smoke or soot."
],
"score": [
14,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcmqep
|
Why is dancing for hours easier than spending five minutes on a treadmill?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0qnkx",
"gm0vpsv",
"gm0quda"
],
"text": [
"I feel like it's the same reason why it's easier to spend 8 hours playing video games than working: it's a lot easier to do something you enjoy doing than something you don't.",
"When dancing, physical exertion is only part of the situation. With a treadmill, physical exertion is the only thing you're doing.",
"The brain releases \"feel-good\" chemicals when we [engage in enjoyable activities]( URL_0 ). By the way, [some people also find the treadmill enjoyable]( URL_1 ), and they'll get a dose of feel-good brain chemicals as well."
],
"score": [
8,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/heres-why-dancing-is-good-for-your-brain",
"https://www.healthline.com/health/runners-high#definition"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcmyan
|
why aren’t tires just 100% treaded rubber with no air in them? Wouldn’t those tired hypothetically last, if not forever, than at least /waaaaaaay/ longer than the tires we have now?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0s07c",
"gm0sr64",
"gm0s4sm",
"gm0spom",
"gm0tovd",
"gm0vgrs"
],
"text": [
"Air is very compressible. This is good. It helps absorb the shocks of bumps along the way as the vehicle is driving. You (and your car) would feel the bumps a lot more if the tires were pure rubber. A fully rubber tire would also be very expensive and heavy, which wouldn't be great.",
"Tires are an important part of the suspension. When you hit a small rock or bump, the tire deforms and absorbs the shock without transmitting any energy to the main suspension. A solid (or “non-pneumatic” in industry speak) tire doesn’t do that, and the chip/chunk wear rates and ride quality are typically hideous. You also have issues with rebound speed. The tire surface flattens out as it contacts the road, and then rebounds as it rolls. If the rebound doesn’t complete before that spot comes around again, the tire will vibrate. This gets worse as you go faster. Solid tires are used in applications like forklifts where speeds are low and road quality is extremely good, but it’s been something of an unobtainable holy grail for most other applications. I worked in the tire industry and there were always non-pneumatic prototypes being hyped - none ever made it to consumer use because they’re all garbage or crazy expensive.",
"You can get solid rubber tires in some industrial and garden applications, and I have also seen solid rubber cores sold to replace the inner tube in a bicycle. However, these are unpleasant to ride on, because they are comparatively hard compared to air -- the shock of every bump and dip is transmitted directly to the rider. Vehicles would need to have highly-engineered suspension systems to attempt to restore ride quality with solid tires, and even then, there would still be a lot of noise and vibration transmitted to the rider. The air acts as a cushion.",
"There's a couple factors...the air in tires acts as a sort of cushion between the road and your car, so taking that away could potentially cause more damage to your vehicle than air-filled tires do, leading to shorter vehicle lifespans. Another big factor is weight. Rubber weighs a lot more than air, solid rubber tires would need to be very thin to not add significant weight to a car. Regular-sized tires that are solid would not be able to spin as easily without damage as air-filled tires, due to weight, but they would also tank gas mileage which is far worse for the environment, and probably your wallet, than replacing tires when necessary.",
"On top of what everyone else has said, they wouldn't last any longer. You're supposed to replace your tires when the treads wear out. Unless you're also making the treads deeper you're not going to be able to use the tires any longer.",
"another point: flexible sidewalls in air-filled tires help the tread maintain better contact with the road surface, incl. over bumps and while cornering. so, better traction and safer."
],
"score": [
13,
11,
6,
6,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcn2yh
|
Why didnt scientist use blood stain from Jesus ' burial cloth to extract his DNA?
|
a group of scientist did took sample of the bloodstain for verification, can they go a step furthur? is it technologically possible?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0trnr",
"gm0za05",
"gm0v9ii",
"gm0tw00"
],
"text": [
"Because no one has such a burial cloth, even if it exists. Things like the Shroud of Turin are from the Middle Ages and have nothing to do with Jesus himself. Even if the cloth were to be found, there wouldn't be much point to extracting the DNA. It might be used to confirm genetic origin (like people do now with DNA ancestry kits). But without known relatives to compare to, it wouldn't be much use. Also, DNA degrades over time, and most of the cells in blood don't have DNA, so it is unlikely there would even be any good DNA to extract anyway",
"Because there's no archaeological proof that Jesus Christ ever existed. There's no documented proof that any particular cloth has his blood on it. And then there's the fact that the Romans kept track of everything, but there's no records of Christ in any of their records.",
"Because no burial cloth for Jesus exists. There's no physical evidence anywhere of Jesus' existence. No markings, no gravestones/ossuarry, no portraits, no original writing, no ancient public records, nothing. The earliest recorded information on Jesus comes from a period at least 20 years after his death. And no, the 'Shroud of Tourin' is not the burial cloth of Jesus, and is not 2,000+ years old, It's a [Medieval fake]( URL_0 ).",
"Cells and DNA does not last long if not preserved somehow. So you would not expect there to be any remaining cells from Jesus left. The blood stains are just the leftover minerals from the blood. The red hemoglobin in our blood oxidizes into iron oxide which happens to also be red, although a different shade. However that being said when they did sample Jesus's burial cloth they discovered that it was from the renaissance and could not have been older. So it is not the real burial cloth but a forgery made centuries after his death."
],
"score": [
15,
8,
6,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating_of_the_Shroud_of_Turin#Official_announcement"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcn4wv
|
How does alcohol tolerance work?
|
Why do we get drunk a lot faster if we drink after a long time?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0t7vt"
],
"text": [
"Functional tolerance. This means that your body and its organs, especially your CNS, adapt to compensate for the increased alcohol concentration and manage to sustain its functioning despite the elevated blood alcohol concentrations (BAC). So, the dose of alcohol which previously led to trembling and disorientation now evokes only some coordinatory disturbances. The physiological mechanisms involved here are: 1. Desensitization of the alcohol-sensitive (primarily GABA-ergic) receptors in CNS. 2. Changes in the neuron firing rates (to compensate for the deterioration of the GABA-ergic inhibition). Metabolic tolerance. This condition is characterized by the increased alcohol break-down by the liver, that slows down the increase of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) upon its consumption leading to the attenuation or complete disguise of alcohol intoxication (inebriation). The main enzyme that is responsible for alcohol transformation is the so-called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), that represents a group of substances catalyzing the alcohol oxidation to aldehydes. This enzymes are located in the liver cells (hepatocytes) and the increase in their activity (and most likely also the absolute amount) is not well understood. It happens, by the way, not only on alcohol consumption: the intake of barbiturates also leads to the increase of ADH and tolerance."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcnh5s
|
How the Potatoes sprout roots
|
So you know how if you leave the potatoes you bought for groceries a long time they begin sprout little roots at seemingly random places. Are these places random? How each potato “chooses” in which spot it will sprout roots?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0w6yr"
],
"text": [
"Each [\"eye\" of a potato ]( URL_0 ) has living (albeit usually dormant) tissue that can sprout into roots and stems/leaves. In fact, when farmers plant a potato field, they take potatoes and cut them up into chunks (each chunk containing at least one eye) and distribute the chunks in the field. Which eye sprouts is somewhat random, however the eyes exposed to light, warmth, and moisture are generally the first to sprout. Hence potatoes should be stored in cold, dark, dry places to prevent sprouting."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/outdoors/gardening/what-are-potato-eyes"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcnk1r
|
Why was the Perseverance rover sent into a spin before being detached and sent into deep space?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0wn9j"
],
"text": [
"It's like throwing a spiral (American)football. By spinning it equalizes the pull in every direction which allows it to travel in a straight line more easily without being tugged off course by a heavier side."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcns1d
|
Why these mega-haul vehicles won't tumble over?
|
Watching starship rollout and I can't help but think this must be extremely dangerous and easy to tip over [ URL_1 ]( URL_2 ) Also when they haul a giant windmill blade: [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 ) Almost looks physically impossible. Is the trick just that the vehicle itself is insanely heavy so it keeps the center of gravity low? Are they doing some extra trickery to keep them safe?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0xucp"
],
"text": [
"The vehicle drives very slowly on flat ground. They use hydraulics to keep the bed level at all times. Iirc, the saturn v's hauler had a bigger engine for its hydraulic pumps than it did to actually move its wheels."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcnscf
|
how do our lungs rid themselves of particulate matter? Does it get broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm0y8q8",
"gm1qn4m"
],
"text": [
"Your lungs are lined with mucus. The first step is for the particle to get stuck on the mucus. There's no way for particles to get from your lungs into your blood, although some types can lodge in your lungs and stay there (this is part of why asbestos is so nasty). Your lungs are lined with bazillions of tiny hairs called \"cilia\" that gently wave \"upwards\"...back towards your throat. This pushes the mucus layer slowly up to your throat, where you swallow or it, if there's a lot, cough it up and spit it out.",
"If a person has a weak cough reflex or other difficulties with swallowing (called Dysphagia), they may end up with food in their lungs. This can lead to an infection called Aspiration Pneumonia because bacteria may be attached to that piece of food and the lungs have no way to expel it."
],
"score": [
10,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcnx9l
|
How are some chip bags so absurdly loud?
|
I’m curious about the physics mostly. Some bags (I’m looking at you, Costco tortilla strips!) are ridiculously loud. Physically, is it flat areas snapping causing the sound? It seems like bags with different internal coatings have different effects on the volume.
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1lg6k"
],
"text": [
"Some packaging materials will crumple in sudden loud ways when they're flexed, pushing a pressure wave through the air to your ears. The most infamous example is the \"compostable\" [SunChips bags]( URL_0 ) that led to jokes and consumer backlash. It's not too different from the physics of loud cicada insects that cause hearing damage at close range, just from *buckling* a series of \"ribs\" in a special organ they evolved. The bag manufacturer has to choose materials that keep the chips fresh and crisp, while also being environmentally responsible. It's up to them to run tests on issues like noise, that affect sales."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/10/06/130382547/noise-from-consumers-prompts-sunchips-to-go-back-to-traditional-packaging"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lco4z6
|
When you take a picture of a computer screen using your phone, why do those waves on the screen move as you zoom in/out?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1116w"
],
"text": [
"Not exactly sure I understand your question, but what you are seeing is probable a [moire]( URL_0 ). These occur when you overlay two grids that don't perfectly line up. One grid is the computer monitor (consisting of square or rectangular pixels arranged into rows and columns) and the other grid is you camera's digital sensor, which captures light falling on individual pixels arranged in a series of rows and columns. Since you can never perfectly line up your phone to your monitor and because they're also going to be different resolutions (pixel size), you get a moire."
],
"score": [
13
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lco842
|
How do taxes work? Additionally, why would wealth tax not work?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1040i"
],
"text": [
"**Wealth** measures the value of all the assets of worth owned by a person. ie: if I made $5 selling lemonade one weekend, and I also have $100 worth of baseball cards, my wealth is $105. Wealth Tax would tax the $105. Income tax would only tax the $5."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcop25
|
How does the brain know which memories to keep and which ones to delete?
|
Like, I can remember that I spilled orange juice in the living room when I was 5, but can't remember what I had for dinner last Tuesday.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm134oz"
],
"text": [
"I don't know much neurology/psychology, but your example made me think of the amygdala. The amygdala is a part of your brain that is involved in memory, but also fear and emotion. As far as I know it highlights highly emotional memories (especially with negative emotions), which makes sense as those are the things that we should avoid repeating unnecessarily. You spilling juice would probably stress you out as a kid, being afraid of your parents reaction, being overwhelmed with the situation and maybe guilt for spilling the juice/spoiling the carpet/... Dinner however is not particularly important or interesting."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcp1e8
|
How is professional porn still profitable these days?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm15b2i",
"gm1isvl",
"gm2ka7w",
"gm14ovt",
"gm2nyoz",
"gm1pgmn"
],
"text": [
"Porn is cheaper to make today, duplication of discs and tapes is expensive. Sturgeon's law = \"ninety percent of everything is crap\" That means that amateur video of any kind is not as good a professional video of that kind, even when the type of video is \"amateur style porn\". That small margin can offset the small distribution costs to make a profitable business.",
"There is so many fan made animation / indie animation out there, why do you bother paying to go to Pixar movies? Because its a brand, the brand promises quality and enjoyment. and because its VERY HARD to find indie/small studio or in this case \"homemade\" videos to match the quality and quantity to constantly pump out entertainment for you to enjoy. And because the producers KNOW about the niche thus they are able to repeatedly produce what their paying mass desires. Like its not 5 guys in a basement pumping out videos here. Big brands have their market analysis, team that collect viewership data to find the trend, teams that do market research. They know their shit. If you did a macro study, you'll find porn subscription to be on the cheaper end. To someone with a wage of 50k+, paying 10$ a month doesn't really affect them when their average monthly expense is 1000+. Its why playboy still exists and why porn continues to be profitable.",
"My theory is most modern porn is trust fund kids, spending their inheritance to fuck girls and is not actually a real money making business at all.",
"I guess a push to keep premium content behind a paywall and maybe a lot of sex workers/content creators are able to interact directly with their audience and provide exactly what their customer base wants (fetish, requests, etc). Also, just because platforms like porn hub are free to use, doesn't mean they aren't making money that can be invested into creating more content.",
"It's free for you to use/view the site but since you are there you count as a user, 120 million users per day generates ad revenue. Also people are willing to pay for \"unique\" or \"custom\" content.",
"Premium content is behind pay walls so if you want good quality without torrents you have to pay. Ads before videos and on pages generate revenue as well. Digital distribution is extremely cheap compared to physical so overhead costs have gone down."
],
"score": [
20,
13,
6,
5,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcpd5k
|
How do antibiotics help your body to fight bacterial infections? What does it help your body do that it cannot do for itself?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1b69j"
],
"text": [
"Antibiotics don’t help you body in that they make the body work better. They help your body as in that they on their own go and kill bacteria. Antibiotics are chemicals, that through a myriad of different functions, kill bacteria cells when they come in contact, like poison for bacteria. The chemicals in antibiotics inhibit processes that happen in bacteria cells, but don’t interact with any processes in human cells, so they don’t impact us when we take them."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcqb2o
|
What is option trading?
|
How is trading options different from buying and selling stocks?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1gren",
"gm1pxq3"
],
"text": [
"A Pokémon card may be worth $10 today. I could buy it and if the price later goes to $12, I can sell it for $12 and make a $2 profit (20%). That is like buying and selling a stock. Say instead of buying the card outright, I make a deal with someone who owns the card. I say, “I’ll give you $1 right now just for the right to buy the card at $10.50.” The owner says “ok but you have to decide by the end of the week if you want to buy it or not at that price.” So at the end of the week if the price is still at $10, I don’t cash in my deal because there’s no reason to buy it above asking price. I still lost $1. Alternatively, if the price is at $12, I’ll cash in the deal and buy his card for $10.50. I then own the card. If I want, I can turn around immediately and sell the card for $12 (the current price) to make a profit of $12 - $10.50 - $1 = $.50 or a gain of 50% (of the $1). This is one way options are used. TLDR: The main difference is for stocks, you own actual shares of the company. For options, you own contracts with other people for rights and obligations to buy or sell at certain prices.",
"Conceptually: an option is the right to choose whether to do something. Hence, it is an *option*, quite literally, as you have the option to do something. Optionality comes at a cost, because on the other side of the option is an obligation. See how they're mirrored? If you have the right to choose to do something, then the other party has the obligation to reciprocate. In trading, an option is a right to either **buy** or **sell** a stock, at a certain **price**, at a certain **time**. A call option is the right to buy a stock. A put option is the right to sell a stock. Example: *TSLA $900 CALL MARCH 18, 2021*: A TSLA call option lets the holder buy Tesla stock. if the call option is for March 18, then the holder can buy the Tesla stock any time on or before March 18. $900 is the price of the transaction, if it happens. This option gives the holder the right to buy 100 shares of Tesla at $900, on or before March 18, 2021. What about the other end of the transaction? If you buy an option, someone has to sell it to you. Symmetrically, since you get to choose whether you want to exercise the option, the seller must fulfill the demands of the buyer. We take the same example as above. If I sold you that option, I am obligated to sell to you 100 shares of Tesla at $900, on or before March 18. I am locking myself into this obligation, therefore I am going to charge a certain amount of money for it. How much should I charge? It depends on how much I expect the stock to move (volatility), how many days are left, how close I am to losing money, etc. So, March 18 rolls around and its time to see whether our options did anything. * If TSLA = $900, then I can buy 100 shares from the market and sell it to you for the same price. You paid me money for no reason. * If TSLA < $900, you wouldn't even ask to buy shares from me because you can get them for less than the contract price * If TSLA > $900 + $option price, then you would profit because now you can immediately sell the shares you buy from me. Remember I am obligated to sell you 100 shares at $900. If TSLA is $1000, then you can turn around and make a quick thousand bucks. Therefore an option is a 'derivative', as in its value is derivative of the value of the *underlying*, which is the stock itself. There is a lot to options pricing and trading strategies, but think of it as you are buying or selling **contractual rights to do something**"
],
"score": [
15,
6
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcqfcv
|
How does a battery charge cycle work? Why is it not recommended to fully charge a laptop or smartphone?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1krjz"
],
"text": [
"A rubber band does not hold as tightly if it is constantly stretched. Batteries are similar, though some technology and kinds of batteries are better at this. Modern phones (i have heard) are totally fine if you charge them to the maximum."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcqvpb
|
what defines someone’s first memory that they remember?
|
I’ve spoke to a few people about this and they all say that there first real memory was an injury that they had. Is there a reason for this?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1h3zf"
],
"text": [
"Interestingly, I read an article a while back that referenced a study about this. Couldn't find the article, but I did find the abstract: [In this study of Palestinian children,]( URL_0 ) who are often sadly facing some real trauma in their early years, over 40% offered up a positive memory as their earliest, while under a third named painful or traumatic memories - the rest being more neutral. So it really is a crapshoot, because it doesn't even seem that the strong emotions of injury or pleasant memories make those early memories stick all that much better than more neutral or miscellaneous memories. That being said, the earliest memory I can recall is of myself trying to walk down our front stairs by myself and taking a little fall - nothing serious, but upsetting. So add me to the \"injury\" column. Anecdotal, but still!"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28332408/"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcqziu
|
What do they do if a conjoined twin dies, specifically in adulthood.
|
Are there cases where they can’t remove the other twin? I can’t imagine being attached to a dead person You literally can’t escape until they’re removed
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"I know I heard a story about a pair of conjoined twins who lived to be fairly old and when one of them died his body released a bunch of toxins and bad stuff into their shared bloodstream and the other died shortly after",
"Usually anything that would reasonable kill one twin would kill the other, with the exception of trauma (because conjoined twins share a blood supply and organ systems). With that being said if any one twin were to die they would have to be separated as the decaying twin would kill the living one through sepsis. There's really no possibility of them not being separated if only one died.",
"i’m pretty sure if one of them can survive without the others help, then they could be surgically separated because they don’t really need the others organs. but, statistically, over 50% of cases involve a shared heart. so i’m not even sure how often that’s happened?",
"The other one dies, stuck to their sibling's corpse, for hours or days perhaps. Not a pretty way to go. If they can be separated, they would already have been usually. And even if they can, death begins a whole chain of processes, most of which would be toxic to the other twin. Even separation probable won't save the other one in most cases. Maybe there's a few rare edge cases where it would, but it's not the norm.",
"If they shared organs are still viable they will sometimes do surgery and remove the dead twin. But most of the time both will die. Being connected to a dead twin poisons their blood and they die of sepsis just like they would if an arm or leg went gangrene."
],
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|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
] |
lcrhk6
|
how do parking lot operators like Impark make their money?
|
My understanding is that companies like Impark run parking on land owner but others (schools, government buildings, etc.) Do they partner on this? Does the landowner get a profit share? Who makes what out of this deal??
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1nuzm"
],
"text": [
"There are two principal ways which they can work: 1. Profit sharing. The operator gets a certain \"cut\" of the profits. 2. Fixed rate. The owner pays the operator a daily, monthly or yearly fee. Of course it's also possible to work on both, e.g., $10,000 per month plus 10% of monthly profits."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcrhv5
|
In the US judicial system after a person is convicted and are at sentencing, why are some sentences (as an example) “25 years to life”? What does that mean in practice and why are some sentences exact times and others are ranges?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1k2ep",
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"gm1vkag"
],
"text": [
"When you hear sentences given as a range like \"5-10 years\" or \"25 years to life\" that means the convicted person must serve at least the low end of the range, before being eligible for parole. So \"5-10\" is minimum five years, and then a chance of parole after 5 years, and a maximum of 10 years. And \"25-Life\" is a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years before parole is an option.",
"Also, just to add, often times what you are hearing is a prognostication of the range before the sentence is issued. The exception being \"25 to life\" which is typically only issued in cases that qualify as first degree felonies but happen to have mitigating circumstances heavily factored in. And, by the way, federal sentences are day-for-day, meaning you do 100% of your time. State sentences are the ones that tend to fluctuate because of \"time served\" or \"good behavior\" or \"parole.\"",
"In the past many states had indeterminate sentencing, meaning that the convicted would not know how long his sentence would be. This was a carry over from English common law. The sentencing authority could essentially keep him in custody for however long it wanted. Eventually, our society came to realize that this was cruel punishment and didnt seve any peneological interest. I believe that every state has adopted some form of sentencing scheme that imposes statutory maximums and minimum sentences before the defendant is eligible for parole. In my state, Pennsylavania, the maximum sentence must be at least twice the minimum, though it could be more. Thus, if there's a 5 year mandatory minimum, the shortest sentence is 5 to 10, but it could be 5 to 20, or whatever the statutory max is."
],
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3
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcrlwc
|
how do labs get blood test results?
|
for example how did they know there is 13.2 g/dL of hemoglobin in this test URL_0 what technology are they using? thanks
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1mcnr"
],
"text": [
"I'm a medical lab scientist and just can't explain it like you're five. There's too much science lol. Several methods exist for measuring hemoglobin, most of which are done currently by automated machines designed to perform different tests on blood. Within the machine, the red blood cells are broken down to get the hemoglobin into a solution. The free hemoglobin is exposed to a chemical containing cyanide that binds tightly with the hemoglobin molecule to form cyanomethemoglobin. By shining a light through the solution and measuring how much light is absorbed (specifically at a wavelength of 540 nanometers), the amount of hemoglobin can be determined This is the simplest explanation I can offer sorry."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lctbn1
|
On a cloudy night, why does the Moon seem to illuminate only the clouds that are in front of it and not the whole sky instead?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm1v9nx"
],
"text": [
"As I'm sure you know the moon is only reflecting light from the sun. If you think about it this way, if you hung a white ball in a pitch black field with nothing behind it for a large distance, then shone a torch on it, the ball would be illuminated while the darkness behind it would remain black. That is all that's happening with the moon. But the sun is a really strong torch, so the moon/ball is lit up really bright. The clouds that light up infront of the moon is because the clouds are thin enough to let light go through."
],
"score": [
4
],
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcu2i8
|
Why is stenography still used in courtrooms when microphones exist?
|
It seems like it would be much easier to just set up a microphone and record everything that's being said in a legal setting rather than having someone type it out. edit: This is in no way meant to discredit stenography or those who practice it.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm22sqy",
"gm201qk",
"gm2dr1i",
"gm1zda3",
"gm2gvi2"
],
"text": [
"A transcript is an undisputed record of what occurred during a legal proceeding. During a proceeding the parties can and frequently do have the transcript read back to make sure that everyone is in agreement with what was said. If they're not in agreement then they can correct the transcript right then, when the substance of what was said is fresh in everybody's mind. This is particularly important because people frequently misspeak and say one thing even though they meant another - which is something that is easy to correct on the transcript if its caught at the time that it was said. An audio recording is not an undisputed record - even if no one misspoke, people can hear the exact same audio and come away with two completely different understandings of what was said. Before you used an audio recording as evidence of what was said during a proceeding you would first need to reduce it to writing so that you could have an undisputed record. That's much more difficult to do when no one remembers exactly what was said because this is being done months or years later. Ultimately you would need an entirely new trial with an entirely new jury to listen to expert testimony and determine what was said during the original proceeding. Rather than dealing with that, the court just appoints a neutral expert, IE, a stenographer, to transcribe the proceeding as its happening. The court then gives the parties a limited, non-appealable window to check and correct the transcript. Once that window is closed the parties can no longer dispute what happened during the proceeding, which prevents a tremendous amount of needless litigation.",
"For the full transcript after the case is finished, that's true. But in court they quite frequently have to go back and hear the exact phrasing of something that was said earlier. This is not very fast to do with a digital recording. But a person doing it can just read their notes from earlier, which is a lot faster",
"There is also a few important points being left out. A recording cannot tell you who is talking if voices are similar. Also, if a response is garbled or hard to understand, the court reporter will ask clarification or for the speaker to repeat to make sure it is accurate. A recording can’t do that and a replay could have quite a few unintelligible responses.",
"Because it's not possible to flip right to a specific part of an audio recording, which lawyers frequently have to do during and after the case. By having it transcribed in written form, it's much easier and more efficient when you're trying to seek a specific part of the proceedings. Additionally, transcribing to writing removes any ambiguity in what was said, so two people can't hear different things when they review the audio recording.",
"My partner works in courtrooms here in the UK. The answer (at least here) is that both are used to complement each other. All court sessions are recorded (both audio and video, including digital evidence displayed on the screen), but a stenographer also records abbreviated notes, summarising key points and giving timestamps. When a judge (or anyone else) wants to look over the case, they use the written record to locate the exact points/moments they want to listen to. I'm not sure if this is different in the US, which has a lot of odd rules about what can happen in a courtroom."
],
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[],
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lcvapj
|
How does freezing food, especially meat make it worse?
|
People always say that if you freeze food it loses flavour and nutrition. What is happening when you freeze food?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm26wa8",
"gm2i7nj",
"gm2zyuu"
],
"text": [
"There’s water in the cells of plants and animals. Ice is actually less dense than water (this is why ice floats in water). When food is frozen, the water in those cells expand and can burst through the cell walls. This is why frozen food can have a different texture than fresh food.",
"The losing nutrition thing is mostly a myth. Freezing food does destroy a small amount of the nutrients, but frozen foods are frozen almost immediately upon being picked/killed. \"fresh\" food is often quite old by the time you get it in your grocery store. Fruits and vegetables can in fact be months old, and the nutrition continues to degrade the entire time. Frozen food, on the other hand, loses no further nutrition once frozen. As a result, fresh food picked out of your garden and eaten immediately is (slightly) more nutritious than frozen. Frozen food is more nutritious than anything \"fresh\" you get from a grocery story. Getting it straight from a farmer's market is your only way if you don't have a garden. As for the flavor, the bit about water exploding cells is mostly the answer here. Frozen food really does taste different. No dispute there.",
"When water is wet, it isn't very sharp. Even the tiny globs of water inside your food is still nice and soft when it's wet. When it *freezes*, those tiny globs become really sharp, and leave lots of tiny cuts inside your food. The longer it takes to freeze, the bigger and sharper the Ice Knives. Flash-freezing makes little tiny knives, which makes little tiny holes- not big enough for nutrients to fall out of, but big enough that the texture of your food feels different. Since mouth feel is a big part of how we appreciate food, that texture may be enough to make it taste weird. Nutritionally, it's actually *better* to have flash-frozen food, as fresh food is usually chilled and trucked for a few days from where it was grown to your store, and in that time nutrients can leak out. *Slow* freezing- like putting stuff in your freezer- makes really *big* ice knives. This makes lots of much *bigger* holes. The more big holes there are, the more space there is for oxygen to go rubbin' all up on the food. And *that* can cause Freezer Burn."
],
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|
[
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[
"url"
] |
lcvg98
|
How did people in pre-internet era sync time?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm27k5j",
"gm27h0t",
"gm27i0z",
"gm2b2p4",
"gm28kok"
],
"text": [
"I used to call a number that would tell me the exact time. Sometimes I miss the Time Lady’s voice lol",
"If you didn’t have access to tv, news radio broadcasts would regularly provide it. “The time is now 5:00 PM”.",
"i used to call the talking clock, basically a phone number and the voice would say “at the tone it will be so and so, then there would be a beep”",
"Really long ago, they had a lot of trouble with this exact problem. In some places they'd put a flag, or a ball mounted on a mast, on a very tall pole. Then when the flag, or ball dropped, everyone who could see it would know that was the agreed time. Sometimes people used bells ringing to communicate the time, which you can still hear in some cities that have clock towers or churches that ring the time. In others, they used cannons, setting off a cannon blast (generally with just gunpowder, no shot), so when people heard that, they knew. Of course, by the time radio came by, radio was immediately used to communicate the time - in many places the radio stations will announce the time along with the station broadcasting at regular intervals. Before radio, the telegraph was used. However, the idea of 'time zones' are relatively modern, and to my best recollection really started with the invention of railroads. Before the railroads, most towns had their own 'local' time, based on the observation of the sun. But a train can move quickly enough that a clock on the train won't match clocks in all the towns it passes through, so it gets really hard to schedule train stops at specific stations. So, the train stations had their own clocks, all set to the railroad's time, and that eventually led to the timezones we know today.",
"In Canada they still have the national research council broadcast the time with a series of beeps at 11am on CBC radio. I don’t know about before that though."
],
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3
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcw7v5
|
if we use hand cream for dry skin today, what did our ancestors do about it?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm2hje6",
"gm2ijdr"
],
"text": [
"Personally, I barely put lotion on my hands. Maybe three or four times a year? My hands do get dry, but mostly, I just leave them. Cavemen likely didn't wash their hands with soap, so they probably retained a lot of natural oils. Anyway, look at a chimp's hands. That's about what they probably had.",
"Milk baths. Ancient Egyptians from 6000 years ago took milk baths. They also mixed milk and honey and used that as a facial cream. They also used almond oil, castor oil, and olive oil soap."
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcwgnh
|
Why is it that hitting a body of water at terminal velocity is fatal?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm2enln",
"gm2g3fy",
"gm2hi6n"
],
"text": [
"It's not only terminal velocity where it's fatal. Hitting water from height is like hitting the ground. In most positions your body cannot displace the water quickly enough for it to go around your body so it's essentially a rapid deceleration event. Massive internal injuries can result, even coronary artery dissection.",
"Basically, the water can't get out of your way fast enough, so instead of displacing the water when you hit, you slam into the surface. It's the same principle behind why doing a cannonball into a pool makes a nice splash but doing a belly flop hurts like [a buttcheek on a stick]( URL_0 ). In that case, it's because even though you're displacing the same amount of water, you're doing it over a much larger surface area.",
"It has nothing to do with water tension like some people are saying. It has to do with the fact that water isn't compressible and water is heavy. Because of those facts, water doesn't want to move out of the way, it wants to stay in place. As you hit the water, the rest of the water around you is pushing back against the water that is trying to move out of the way. Your body is much more compressible than water, so your bones break and your organs splat. Think of a stuntman who lands on an inflatable bag or pile of boxes. The depth of the boxes are several feet and they compress when he hits them which slows his body down \"gently\". When you hit water you stop quickly within a couple feet, the forces on your body are much higher."
],
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6,
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"text_urls": [
[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNpcHXC2SEw"
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcwnto
|
Why is there often opposition to free trade and globalization, if trade usually leads to a win-win situation for both countries?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm2f860",
"gm2f1kj",
"gm2gbpe"
],
"text": [
"1. It’s not always win-win. 2. People (and nations) are selfish instead of thinking of the bigger picture. 3. People (and nations) tend to think in the short term.",
"Because it can also be thrown out of balance by countries subsidizing certain industries, or countries that have lower minimum wages, which then causes industry collapse in the other country",
"Win-wins for *countries* do not necessarily imply win-wins for all their citizens, if no other action is taken. If my country produces widgets for $5 a widget and sells for $10, and the neighboring country produces them for $2 a widget and sells for $6, then opening trade helps the neighboring widget makers (who now make $8 profit instead of $2, at least initially), and people who use widgets in my country can now supply themselves cheaply, but it probably puts widget companies in my country out of business. Global production goes up but someone's out of a job, and retraining for new jobs is not necessarily easy."
],
"score": [
5,
4,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcwxne
|
how does ibuprofen blocks pain differently than paracetamol?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gm2h0z1"
],
"text": [
"Ibuprofen reduces the production of Cox-2, a hormone that creates inflammation. Paracetamol works by interrupting the signals to the brain that tells you that you have pain. This is why paracetamol doesnt do anything for inflammation and swelling."
],
"score": [
11
],
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|
[
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[
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