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ELI5: Why is the majority of ads played on Spotify advertising Spotify?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2o8o74
| 1
| true
| false
| 1
|
I understand the ones advertising Spotify Premium, but why do the ads explain how to create a playlist, for example? Wouldn't it be more profitable for Spotify to sell the ad space instead of using it for obviously non-profitable ads?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmkrsyg",
"comment_text": [
"I agree with you there but it's just the norm with most products, Dish advertises on everything, hell they even have their own channel dedicated to themselves lol"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmkrwmg",
"comment_text": [
"Yes but telling you how to use Spotify Free doesn't get them any income as far as I can tell, apart from more reaching for ads, but it is useless if their ads are pointless! I'm really confused"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmkrxkt",
"comment_text": [
"So why aren't all ads advertising Premium?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmkrxkt",
"comment_text": [
"So why aren't all ads advertising Premium?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmks1t8",
"comment_text": [
"That's a really good explanation, thank you very much."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELi:5 Why did the American Revolution succeed while so many others failed.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2ongls
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.4
|
For example the French Revolution and in more modern times many of the countries that were involved with Arab Sprimg.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmor7n6",
"comment_text": [
"The object of the American Revolution was to establish a government that was independent of Britain. Whether or not you like the new government, that goal was accomplished. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmorbhq",
"comment_text": [
"The French Revolution was a massive success, why use it as an example?",
"There's been dozens of successful popular revolutions in the last 2 centuries. In the last century, many colonies have also peacefully separated from their colonizing countries. I'm not really sure what the point of your question is."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmorc3l",
"comment_text": [
"Revolutions just have a really low chance of success by nature. Often times, it is the \"weaker\" side rising up against the \"stronger\" side. For example, the Americans did not have their own standing army, and all of their resources were given to them by Britain. America lucked out in part because of tenacity and the French coming in to help them after the Battle of Valley Forge. ",
"Also, if you are referring to ",
" French Revolution, it technically succeeded. It got the king out of power. It was really the new government that failed once Napoleon took power. ",
"Keep in mind, civil wars are failed revolutions. So, the American Civil War would have been called the \"Confederate Revolution\" or something had they won. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmorw2v",
"comment_text": [
"Well, there were a ",
" of successful revolutions since the American one- all of the Latin American countries, Toussaint L'Overture's Haitian revolution, the French and Russian revolutions, the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland... it's a pretty long list, and most of them were successful long-term.",
"One thing that made the US Revolution a bit different (among others) is that the revolutionaries had extensive experience with government and rhetoric already (the Continental Congress formed ",
" the Declaration of Independence, for example) where a lot of countries that had revolutions kind of had to reinvent the wheel after.",
"It wasn't a full-on class revolt like the French or Russian revolutions, so post-revolutionary America still had legislators in place, governmental institutions, and so on- it was a handover of power, not a full-on reinvention. This meant the US didn't have something like Robespierre's Terror or Russia's post-revolutionary purges. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cmoreqa",
"comment_text": [
"Also the communist revolutions succeeded in the Soviet Union and China. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: How did gay marriage make so much progress in only a year's time?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2q5eoh
| 2
| true
| false
| 0.56
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn32a6v",
"comment_text": [
"Lawsuits. ",
"Lawsuits take a lot of time, and this was the cultivation of many years works. ",
"They realized that voting it in wasn't the way to go (even california voted against it) then when they realized that they could sue and it would be easier. ",
"TL;DR: combination of changing tactics from ballot to lawsuit, and years of hard work with a payoff over 1 year. "
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn3424v",
"comment_text": [
"You know how a musician can spend decades honing their craft, only to get a #1 hit and be called an \"overnight sensation\"?",
"That's what happened with gay marriage. After a civil rights movement that began in the 1960s with the Stonewall Riots, and decade after decade of fighting for the same basic rights as everyone else, now \"suddenly\" gay marriage has reached a turning point, in which everyone has pretty much filed all the lawsuits they can and been nope'd out of the courtroom."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn3nezo",
"comment_text": [
"It didn't actually just happen in a year. It's been building for at least the last decade.",
"After the first few states started recognizing marriages of same gender couples, a lot of states passed gay marriage bans. This in hindsight may have actually sped up the process of federal recognition of the marriages of same gender couples, because there are a lot of reasons these bans can be argued to be unconstitutional. Once declared unconstitutional, the state has to start recognizing those marriages.",
"For one thing, these states refuse to recognize valid marriage contracts held by same gender couples married in other states, which is a violation of the full faith and credit clause of the constitution. Normally all states have to recognize any contract that is considered valid in any other state, including marriage contracts. This also involves the surviving half of the ",
", which basically just says the Full Faith and Credit Clause doesn't apply to marriage contracts held by same gender couples. This is its own pending Supreme Court case.",
"And by officially establishing that same gender couples are subject to different rules and contractual rights than opposite gender couples, they opened themselves up to lawsuits arguing that this violates equal protection under the law and due process. To subject two groups of people to different laws, the state has to show that the law has specific practical interest in doing so. E.g., a 16 year old can get a drivers license but a 6 year old can't, because the latter would be too dangerous. So now the state has to prove to the courts that there is a specific, practical reason why only opposite gender couples should be able to get marriage contracts.",
"And last year, the Supreme Court ruled against one half of the \"Defense of Marriage Act\" in the ",
" decision. They struck down the part of DOMA that forbid the federal government from recognizing marriage contracts held by same gender couples, on the grounds that this violated the 5th amendment's guarantee of due process.",
"A bunch of lawsuits started soon after these bans were passed, but it takes a long time to work through the legal system. It has to come up through multiple layers of courts, up to finally the federal courts and the Supreme Court. These cases are now reaching the Federal Courts, most of which are citing the ",
" Supreme Court decision and likewise ruling that the bans are not constitutional. Since SCOTUS has declared that they won't hear appeals of the decisions to strike down the marriage bans, the Federal Court rulings stand and the marriage bans are eliminated.",
"Ginsberg said last September that the Supreme Court was waiting for a ",
" on the matter, which happened in November when the 6th Circuit Court became the first to uphold a marriage ban. With the federal courts now in conflict, the Supreme Court is likely to rule on the matter sooner rather than later.",
"Also, public opinion has been changing for a long time. In 1996, about 70% of the US opposed marriage rights for same gender couples, and less than 30% approved of them. Opinion poles have been ",
" since then, and crossed into majority approval in 2011.",
"There are a lot of reasons why this change of opinion happened. The social movement encouraging gay people to \"come out\" is largely credited for the change. It was only 24 years between ",
" in 1969, when gay sex was universally illegal in the US and gay people were routinely treated as mentally ill sex criminals, and the first US legal case for same gender marriage (Hawaii, 1993).",
"Gay rights activism existed before 1969, but changed tactics, emphasizing public visibility, and it worked. Public hostility and legal justification for anti-gay laws were based largely on the belief that same gender relationships were inherently dysfunctional and predatory. That's a lot harder to believe when people are seeing gay people among co-workers, classmates and relatives rather than abstract boogiemen on the news."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn4pjwo",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you! :) I was afraid it got too long for EILI5, I'm glad it worked."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn4psuo",
"comment_text": [
"Something that happened after I posted - the Supreme Court has announced that same gender marriage will be ",
".",
"This is part of that circuit court split - since the 6th circuit court ruled to uphold gay marriage ban while all others have rejected it, the Supreme Court now has to make the decision.",
"It's very likely, but not guaranteed, that the Supreme Court will rule that gay marriage bans are in violation of the equal protection and due process clauses guaranteed in the 5th amendment of the Constitution. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
||
ELI5: With the losses of MH370 and QZ8501 in mind, is there any significant difference in safety between Boeing and Airbus aircraft?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2qq76d
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn8hyet",
"comment_text": [
"Both are greatly over engineered and if adequately maintained, should fly trough those conditions without problem. MH370 is suspected to be foul play, but in any case, it's almost always pilot error and miscommunication "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn8k8bs",
"comment_text": [
"I agree but there is also some issue with the massive complexity of these aircraft, so much software and tech that the possibilities for totally unforseen system errors will only increase. Its not possible to check every single possible eventuality there fore we could in theory be sitting on a problem, only time will tell."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn8lt8o",
"comment_text": [
"Yes they are very complex machines, but they're designed so that the pilot knows the status of all systems, real time. For most new Boeing planes, Boeing knows the status of the airplane while its flying. ",
"How often do you hear stories like these about major airlines (AA, Delta, etc.)? Training is a huge part of the problem. It's the reason the Air France plane crashed into the ocean leaving Brazil like 5 years ago, and it's the reason why the 777 rammed the sea wall in San Fransisco "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn8moac",
"comment_text": [
"Yes the training was mentioned by an expert in the media (sorry no details to hand) basically he said the training is still old school pilot training with all the modern stuff kinda ad-hoc'ed in there, it is quite a mish mash... They are going to need to completely rewrite the book... But by that time you know everything has carried on developing. I know they take it seriously and are totally safety orientated but with the high and increasing volume of flights then eventually the very low probability events will eventually happen, countless monkeys countless typewriters style."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn8m7vk",
"comment_text": [
"Its not possible to check every single possible eventuality there fore we could in theory be sitting on a problem, only time will tell.",
"And this is why many planes usually have triple redundant and sometimes quadruple redundant systems and are tested for thousands of flight hours to the point of destruction before they are released to the market.",
"The fact of the matter is EVERYTHING you do in life carries a risk.. It is impossible to eliminate all risks. Period.",
"Flying is still VASTLY far safer than just driving to the airport."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5:why do we know more about outer space than we do our own oceans?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3uz4zs
| 4
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxixuve",
"comment_text": [
"Do we? That is quite subjective."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxj7oir",
"comment_text": [
"I know what you're getting at. Space is pretty easy to see. We can see loads of it with the naked eye and small telescopes. We can see even more of it with really big telescopes and radiotelescopes and we can work out a lot of it using data and mathematics. ",
"On the other hand, the oceans are pretty big and pretty deep and really difficult to explore in person or even with machines due to the pressures, darkness etc. There isn't a tool you can use to easily look at the bottom of the see in the same detail we can look far into space."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxiy1f0",
"comment_text": [
"In percentages they're not even comparable, you're probably thinking of the expression \"We know more about the moon than we know about our oceans\", which is correct, as it's a lot easier to chart a small moon with no oceans."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxiyrwk",
"comment_text": [
"At night, stand in your backyard, can you see the oceans? I bet you can see the night sky..."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxiy62j",
"comment_text": [
"Christ, the sea would be a ",
" scarier place if we knew less about it than space..."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: What is Dark Matter?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3vd4xc
| 2
| true
| false
| 0.75
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxmgtwe",
"comment_text": [
"It is a hypothetical form of matter that we don't know much about, but we can see the effects of. A few decades ago, an astronomer was plotting the speeds of stars around the galaxy. They saw a drop off in speed as you got further away from the galaxy as might be expected until a point where the speeds leveled off. This was really fucking weird. Then a few years later, a few computer models were made and they all showed the galaxy breaking apart. Gravity must be coming from somewhere else. So they played with the numbers and found that there is a bunch of matter not accounted for then more calculations and models and we found out there is another force out there keeping everything together as well. The result was ~4 percent of the universe was matter, about ~28 is dark matter, and the rest (~68 percent) is Dark Energy. Good news is recent experiments showing that neutrinos have mass puts them in the running to be dark matter! I am sorry, but I don't know what the axion theory is."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxmhdwa",
"comment_text": [
"axion theory",
"looked it up. it's a theoretical explanation as to why quantum chromodynamics (the way quantum particles of different \"color\" interact) doesn't violate charge parity. it's some incredibly deep quantum physics and i am not a quantum physicist so the theory itself is above my knowledge level",
"the theory as it revolves around dark matter is that if axions exist, they were spread across the universe relatively evenly (just like dark matter), and due to phenomenon in the primordial universe and its interaction with axions, were robbed of their energy very early on, and are just sitting there at absolute zero kind of just chillin. because they have no electrical charge and do not interact with strong and weak nuclear forces, the only thing they would interact with is gravity (just like dark matter).",
"It's provable in that it's not a completely wild bullshit theory but much like detecting neutrinos it's not going to be an easy task."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxmixie",
"comment_text": [
"Ah, thanks. I'll remember to search next time."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxmmh1a",
"comment_text": [
"While thanks for the explanation, I looked it up to write the original explanation, and I couldn't make sense of it enough to write one. The same is true for a lot of topics that pop up here like general relativity. Haven't been able to wrap my head around that either. Ironically, I understand special relativity just fine (until photons start moving in opposite directions at c. That still makes no fucking sense.)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxmivca",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for the reply"
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: Bad KI in games?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3vuauq
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.33
|
I'm pretty sure designing a good KI is pretty hard but why? Is it difficult to program a clever AI or to not program a too clever KI because as a computer its clearly better than you?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxqs1m6",
"comment_text": [
"It needs to be fun to play against, as well. You can easily make an AI that just shoots you in a millisecond every game, but what's the fun in that? Games can only get so complicated before you get frustrated, because the AI isn't restricted by human thinking time and inputs.",
"Also, you're not just making one AI, you're making many that interact, and they all need to update many times per second, so at some point, you need to decide between complexity and playability.",
"And of course the more objects and moving parts you have in the world, the easier it is for things to interact in a weird way, and cause unintentional states. When an AI actor accidentally assumes the wrong state, and has no information on what to do now, then there's nothing it can do and locks up. AI can only do what it has been programmed to do, so if something happens that wasn't considered, it either stops or does incorrect things."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxqq53a",
"comment_text": [
"Incidentally, whats a KI?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxqq8n4",
"comment_text": [
"German for AI... which OP didn't realize, I guess. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxr92e6",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah exactly. I'm sorry "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxqrrip",
"comment_text": [
"AI is very difficult to build.\nComputers like to work logically and linearly.",
"You basically have to program in everything.",
"Although you can see a game world, identify objects, identify shapes and paths an AI cannot do that.",
"If there is something specific you are wanting to know more about I can try and expand a bit on it."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why do American radio stations have such weird names, namely just strange combinations of letters like WBEZ or CFRM or K-PAX or KGB?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2q75li
| 212
| true
| false
| 0.85
|
Just asking. Tried googling a bit as well but couldn't find any satisfying answers.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn3h91b",
"comment_text": [
"The letters are the call sign. It's just the identifier for a particular radio station. There are ",
" always four letters. WXKP 107.1 in New York. KROQ 106.7 in Los Angeles.",
"The FCC regulates radio stations in the US so the stations have to give out their call sign to identify themselves on air.",
"East of the Mississippi river the stations begin with W. West of the Mississippi the stations begin with K except for rare exceptions."
],
"score": 108
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn3ic5r",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, stations are commonly called by nicknames like \"Hot 95.5\" or the like. KBEQ 104.3 is called \"Q104\". WKFJ might be \"The J\". KBOB might be \"Bob 101\" or whatever.",
"Each station gives themselves a cute name like this for branding. The name can change when the station changes format even if the call letters don't change. \"102 Jams\" decides to stop playing hiphop and start doing jazz and they change their branding to \"Smooth 102\""
],
"score": 39
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn3k10x",
"comment_text": [
"Unless you're KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA"
],
"score": 32
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn3kp62",
"comment_text": [
"And those nicknames do a hell of a job as branding tools. Z100 in the NYC area? I couldn't tell you what station number or callsign that is for the life of me, but it's the biggest station in the metro area and everyone has it pre-programmed in their cars.",
"In the Hudson Valley, the biggest station is K104. Only know its band number because of the little jingle they play occasionally."
],
"score": 19
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cn3kkle",
"comment_text": [
"Or WDAY in Fargo, ND"
],
"score": 16
}
|
|
ELI5: Why publicly known criminals, e.g. drug dealers are not in jail?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3xbnmo
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
Got inspiration from this post, about 'rapper' 'stitches': So he's very young, but is throwing cash all around himself (driving exotic cars), beating (or trying to) people up in public, etc. In the same thread many says, that all the big money comes from selling drugs, for which he is known for. The main question, how he is not locked up for a very long time? He does not look smart enough to evade law for a long time. Does he has legal income of such scale to buy many exotic cars worth millions of dollars? I guess he is not more educated than the 9 year old, so how he is not locked up? I am too lazy to search for more, but I've heard something similar (about people not in jail) too many times: So for what he/she is known for? How did he/she made his/hers money? Oh he/she is/was famous drug dealer/criminal/gangster/racketeer/money launderer.. .. wat .. P.S. I understand that some criminals are very smart people, just living a criminal life on the other side of the law, but this 'stitches' personality does not look like had an IQ more than 85..
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy38j8k",
"comment_text": [
"Mostly because there is a difference between \"everyone knows that...\" and \"It can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law that...\".",
"Just because everyone thinks something is true does not actually mean it really is true.",
"With rappers there is the additional factor that they often actually lie to create an image. Just because a rapper raps about being a killer and a drug dealer does not mean that he really is."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy3byce",
"comment_text": [
"Easy. You have a big company funding you giving you car and money and telling you to lie and say you're a poor kid from the streets that got rich selling drugs."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy39ybx",
"comment_text": [
"+1 agree.",
"Though does such bad rap, can create such large income in such short time? ",
"That guy is active for no more than a couple years, but has garage of cars, more expensive than a 2 year salary of $250/hour accountant. Or is it just another part of life style (magically has friends or someone who rents/lends him cars, jewellery and other luxurious swag)."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy3bzhg",
"comment_text": [
"plausible."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy387t7",
"comment_text": [
"I mean, in the cases of musicians a lot of it is about creating an image for yourself right? I'm not going to pretend to know a damn thing about who that guy is, but it's possible he's like many other rappers who have lyrics that aren't actually indicative of their lifestyles at all. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why the Ottomans were considered so lazy
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3xo43l
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.33
|
Title
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6cql4",
"comment_text": [
"It is not really that they were considered lazy. It is that they were not as quick to adopt the advances of the industrial revolution and that their Empire was is slow decline because of that. The final nail in the coffin was losing WWI. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6drgq",
"comment_text": [
"Slow industrialization, Colonization of the America's gave Europe a huge boost that the Ottomans did not expect and cold barely catch up to. The Suez canal also meant that Europe was no longer dependent on Ottoman trade. In the late 19th century the Balkan region revolted, meaning the Ottomans lost Greece, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania all in such a short time.",
"Now, all of these things occurred over the process of 4 centuries, meaning most people didn't even notice until much damage was already done. The final blow came in the end of WW1 when the Young Turks seized power, the Arabs revolted, and the remaining land got cut up between European powers in the \"Sykes Picot Agreement\". This agreement was also a huge factor for the current instability in the Middle East."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6dcw2",
"comment_text": [
"It's a commonly held stereotype that Mediterranean people are lazy, Ottomans are not the exception in this case."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6diwn",
"comment_text": [
"The Ottoman Empire from the 19th to 20th century was also seen as the \"Sick man of Europe\" due to its declining Empire, old age and an industry that was nearing a halt. Ottoman control was slowly dying in Europe like that of a sick man."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6dkt6",
"comment_text": [
"What was the cause of its decline?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: How does Santa Claus deliver so many presents in one night? It just seems impossible...
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3xo5w1
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.55
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6c8rd",
"comment_text": [
"well, luckily many many years ago scientists thought this out. What you haven't learned yet in school are Timezones. These divided sections of earth allow Santa to deliver presents to all the good boys and girls in the world in one night. ",
"For example, it may be 10:30am right now where we live, but all the boys and girls in a different country on the other side are going to bed right now because it is night time!",
"Along with this Santa is very...magical. But he works ",
" fast, and his reindeer also work very hard. This is why you are supposed to leave him milk and cookies, along with carrots for the reindeer. He gets hungry and thirsty working so hard, and the reindeer need the carrots to see better in the night sky when Rudolf's nose gets a little less bright.",
"Edit: this is ELI5, so I actually acted like OP was 5."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6catq",
"comment_text": [
"Rain deer can't run on jet fuel"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6catq",
"comment_text": [
"Rain deer can't run on jet fuel"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6c6c6",
"comment_text": [
"Here's an examination of the technical issues involved:",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYNaEM2O5pU"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cy6chds",
"comment_text": [
"Are you really questioning Santa 4 days before Christmas. ",
"What else do you do for fun - play tag with trucks, maybe tell your wife you really are not listening.",
"If you are reading this Santa, we are not all sceptics. I is a good boy.",
"repost this in ",
"/r/facepalm",
", It is more appropriate."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: Once melted why can't snowflakes turn back into snow.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3yogr3
| 6
| true
| false
| 0.8
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyf6ksy",
"comment_text": [
"They can be turned into snowflakes if they are formed in the same way, but snowflakes only form the way they do because they are grow from tiny droplets freezing high up in the air. If they are on the ground or in a big falling rain-drop, they will freeze into far less organized and symmetrical ice sheets or pellets. Snowflakes need very specific conditions to form and high up in clouds is pretty much the only place you find those conditions. If the snow melts into water, then evaporates, forms clouds, THEN the water droplets in the clouds can turn back into snowflakes. We just tend not to look that far into the water cycle."
],
"score": 12
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyf9sy6",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for responding. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyf6wvj",
"comment_text": [
"A snowflake starts when a bit of water freezes onto a dust particle and crystallizes. As it continues to fall, more water crystals form, building on the surfaces of the crystals, which is why they have symmetrical shapes. If the built up snowflake melts on the way down, you just have one blob of water/ice. Freezing it again would just make a hail stone. To make a snowflake, it has to build up like it did originally.",
"Edit: typos"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyfcgrl",
"comment_text": [
"Too much complicated icy science on other comments. Or maybe I'm just tired.",
"Anyways, that stuff does its snowflake thing higher up I think.\nOnly way is to recreate that environment I'd bet or let the melted flakes evaporate.",
"Technically, they can turn back into snow because many will find their ways back into the sky."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyfaxc2",
"comment_text": [
"I thought snow formed when water vapour sublimated into tiny ice crystals. If tiny droplets were to freeze, wouldn't they form hail?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5:Why does iced coffee tend to cost more than hot coffee when you typically get less coffee when it's iced?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3wjdwa
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxwmc19",
"comment_text": [
"Properly made cold brewed iced coffee has a completely different flavor than hot brewed coffee, and takes a much more time to make.",
"Now if you're just referring to placing ice cubes in hot brewed coffee and adding some sweetener to it - which is what a lot of places call 'iced coffee' (ex: McDonalds) then sure, you're completely right."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxwm8cf",
"comment_text": [
"Because it's trendy, and as you already explained, you get less for more and therefore the profit margins are bigger."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxwmi0b",
"comment_text": [
"Well. TIL."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxwnwvn",
"comment_text": [
"They actually double brew it (two bags of coffee instead of one) and put it in a special thermal pot. Then above proceeds. Ice, double coffee, flavored sugar syrup of your choice. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cxwm99x",
"comment_text": [
"Because it takes more time to make. Iced coffee is made by steeping coffee grounds in cold water for about 12 hours, after which the coffee grounds are filtered from the liquid."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: Why do people hate unions?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2idlq0
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cl17nmi",
"comment_text": [
"Because they have been demonized by employers for well over a century now. An employer's strategy for dealing with unions always comes down to two basic approaches: ",
" Turn the public against the union by blaming any increase in price, decline in quality or delay in services on union activities. Everything from strikes to wage increases to paid sick leave has been used to demonize union members in the public's eyes. This is especially powerful against things like teacher's unions, where it is all too easy to imply that increased teacher pay and reduced hours translates into crappier education for schoolchildren. ",
" Branding union members as thugs or lawbreakers gives employers an excuse to call in police and/or private strikebreakers to break up rallies, intimidate workers, etc. This same tactic is also used to brand unions as little more than gangs of thugs on the news (see PR above), as well as to pressure for legislation reducing or restricting employee's rights to organize and negotiate for better pay/conditions. In addition, some unions actually have become corrupted by crooked politicians and/or organized crime... a fact which has ultimately done a great disservice to the many legitimate unions out there. ",
"The above two have been going on since as long as there have been unions. In addition, in recent decades, offshoring and outsourcing of manufacturing and other industries has drastically weakened unions in the US and other western nations. Why? Because fewer traditionally union-based jobs means fewer unionized workers. The unions that remain tend to be in lower-paid service industries (like SEIU). With fewer workers earning lower pay, the inevitable result is that unions have less cash, less votes and therefore less political influence to throw around in Washington DC and in the states and large cities. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cl1923y",
"comment_text": [
"Unions are a threat to oligarchs, so oligarchs use propaganda against them."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cl17muw",
"comment_text": [
"because collective bargaining results in better work conditions and wages for its members. when business owners make poor decisions and start to lose money they then like to blame the unions for their costs rather than blame themselves for their poor decisions. No union ever forced a business owner to sign a contract. they do that of their own free will. People who are not in unions and are working under poor conditions and low wages complain about unions for 2 reasons. One, they buy into the corporations propaganda that unions are killing businesses rather than poor management. two, because of a long standing tradition in this country of people wanting pull others down to their level rather than strive to a higher level themselves. it is easier to tear down that to build up"
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cl1a7bi",
"comment_text": [
"Just as bad? When is the last time unions cost the economy ",
"$6-14 trillion dollars in the space of 5 years",
"? When is the last time unions put ",
"20 million people out of work",
" in 2 years? "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cl18str",
"comment_text": [
"As I understand, different areas will lend themselves to different climates with unions, but in my city the unions have gotten really big and powerful, and there's a lot of backlash against them. I can provide a few reasons."
],
"score": 2
}
|
||
ELI5: Why can we test drive cars but not homes?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3ys6n5
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.17
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyg460p",
"comment_text": [
"Two reasons.",
"Firstly, a major part of buying a car is knowing that it's mechanically sound, and there are some things you just can't tell without driving it. When buying a house, you should get a survey done which has the same effect of finding problems... but there are very few (major) problems you will find by spending the night that a surveyor won't find.",
"And secondly, the practicalities. To really experience a house as you will experience it after you buy it, you need your own furniture in there. Where are the owners going to stay while you're there? Where are they going to keep their stuff? How are you going to get their stuff and, and your stuff in? It really wouldn't make sense. And if you stay there with ",
" stuff, what if their bed is old and uncomfortable? What does that tell you about the house? Nothing!"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyg4x7b",
"comment_text": [
"I can't see how a one-night stay in a house would necessarily highlight bad neighbours. Except for possibly noise issues, you're unlikely to experience issues on such a short stay.",
"You'd have much more success finding out about neighbours by knocking on doors, speaking to the neighbours, and asking them about the neighbourhood. Firstly, this will give you some views about the neighbourhood. And secondly, if one of the neighbours is known to cause problems, it's just possible that one of the other neighbours might mention this."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyg5px9",
"comment_text": [
"Your real estate agent doesn't know this either. There's no bad neighbor watch list, and the things that annoy you might not matter to the person who lived there before so they don't even think to notice. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyg4h8w",
"comment_text": [
"This is something some places allow I have seen it offered several times before"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyg4fzm",
"comment_text": [
"And I'm indicating that the question needs rephrasing, because I see the two systems as being equal. Test driving a car is about the same as walking through an open house. Apart from needing to look past other people's stuff hanging around."
],
"score": 2
}
|
||
ELI5: How is public intoxication and drinking in public a crime if selling alcohol at a public place/event is legal?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2k0z49
| 1
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clgvy0u",
"comment_text": [
"\"Drinking in public\" covers places where you're not allowed to drink. Sure, you can drink in a bar but if you're walking around downtown with a bottle of whiskey in the open, you're probably in some trouble.",
"\"Public intoxication\" isn't having a little buzz, it's getting hammered & causing a disturbance. If you're stumbling around, yelling at people & starting fights, ",
" intoxicated - singing along to the Backstreet Boys and high-fiving all your friends is not."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clgwdmk",
"comment_text": [
"singing along to the Backstreet Boys and high-fiving all your friends is not.",
"Depends on where you are :P"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clhd4jz",
"comment_text": [
"So not cool at JT's house.."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clgvy7b",
"comment_text": [
"Just because a place or an event is open to the public doesn't mean it's a public event. Someone owns, rents, or reserves the venue, and has the permits necessary to sell alcohol. Drinking to the point of intoxication and then becoming a nuisance on the public streets outside of the event is the consumer's choice, and therefore their responsibility. You don't get arrested just for existing in public with alcohol in your system, you'd have to be causing a disturbance or a dangerous/annoying situation."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clgwe41",
"comment_text": [
"Okay, here's what I'm getting.",
"What is public intoxication?",
"\"Public intoxication laws require that the defendant be in a public place, rather than a private residence or other area that is not open to the general public. Examples of public places include sidewalks, streets, stadiums, and parks. In some states, bars and restaurants are considered public places because they are open to the general public.\"",
"What is a public place?",
"\"Public intoxication laws require that the defendant be in a public place, rather than a private residence or other area that is not open to the general public. Examples of public places include sidewalks, streets, stadiums, and parks. In some states, bars and restaurants are considered public places because they are open to the general public.\"",
"So a privately owned venue, which may happen to sell alcohol, is still a public place since it is open to the general public."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: In the biblical stories. Why was Cain pictured as the bad son for killing his brother Abel if the Ten Commandments has not been established yet, therefore, Cain had no prior understanding the murder is bad?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2k47jd
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.45
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clhqdfg",
"comment_text": [
"Sin existed before the ten commandments were laid down. The ten commandments were the final codification but even Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden for sinning."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clhqsi9",
"comment_text": [
"Sin existed as \"defiance or disobedience of the word of God\" prior to Adam and Eve, however they were explicitly forbidden from performing the action they did - eating the forbidden fruit. This is why they were cast out of Eden. Murder, which had yet to be defined as sin, was neither previously or afterwards defined as sin until the big ten (iirc).",
"Cain needs a tardis and a really good lawyer, but he can totes beat this- ex post facto."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clhr5um",
"comment_text": [
"I believe it is in the gospels that Jesus points out that the 10 commandments were only written down because the Hebrews at the time we're being cunts about the whole \"be decent human beings\" thing and specifically asked God for a list of things he wanted from them.",
"I'm a bit fuzzy on where that comes from but I do remember reading about it somewhere. \"Hardened hearts\" was a common saying relating to it.",
"Specifically a addressing the OP's question: the ten commandments didn't create the ban on murder, they were created so the Hebrews couldn't claim ignorance.",
"Note: not being antisemitic here, just pointing out the context within the narrative."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clhq9ng",
"comment_text": [
"You don't need the Ten Commandments to know that killing somebody is wrong."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_clhqt25",
"comment_text": [
"My own understanding is that technically, the only sin committed was disobeying god from eating out of the tree of knowledge. No set rules had been established yet therefore, acts of murder may have been done out of ignorance. If murder was already considered \"bad\" before the Ten Commandments were laid, then why do we need the Ten Commandments for since clearly, we can already distinguish right from wrong?"
],
"score": 3
}
|
||
ELI5:Why can't the police be privatized but attorneys almost exclusively are?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3jhk3t
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cup8wki",
"comment_text": [
"This is an odd comparison question.",
"There are more public attorneys than private ones: they're public defenders. ",
"But the police (and there are private security firms) is a different story. We as a civil society agree to the rules that we are to abide by. We, the people, pass them; we, the people, pay to have them enforced via taxes. That makes them accountable to us. As much as some police agencies believe they are not accountable to the public-- they are. That's why we can file freedom of information act requests. It's why city managers can fire police chiefs, and it's why the fed can investigate them."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cup8oii",
"comment_text": [
"They can absolutely hire a security company on top of the police force for their area. That can be anything from cameras, alarms, (armed) bodies on the ground, etc. Many times these are off-duty or retired police officers, etc due to ease of licensing (if your area requires that).",
"Usually, though, there's no need."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cup8rfx",
"comment_text": [
"They totally could and some do fund their own police force. It is called ",
"private police",
", and can range from not much more than simple security guards with no real arrest powers to a full police officer for their contracted area."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cup9j8h",
"comment_text": [
"Prosecutors and public defenders are (mostly) employed by the government. Prosecutors have the obligation to act not only in their interest, but in the public interest. Most private attorneys only have the obligation to represent their client zealously.",
"Government's primary role is to keep us safe. We have privatized military and privatized prisons, why not privatized police?\nBut what's the primary advantage of private organizations providing public service? The argument usually is that it's cheaper*. The tradeoff is that there's less accountability -- the private operator gets to decide who to hire, how to train, etc. Is that really what you want? The \"cheapest\" police force? Cops are already worked hard, under-trained, and under-paid.",
"As others have mentioned, there are private police options, and of course security guards, but there are reasons that a fully private model is a bad idea."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cupch6y",
"comment_text": [
"Watch Robocop and you'll see (although very fictionalized and over the top) reasons why you don't want a large corporation running a city, including a police department.",
"You don't want a police department being a private for-profit entity. You think they write a lot of tickets now? Wait till they answer to shareholders."
],
"score": 0
}
|
||
ELI5: Is flying from Berlin to New York technically faster than flying from New York to Berlin?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3k385a
| 2
| true
| false
| 1
|
Since Earths rotation. And how much faster is it? And for the sake of the argument let's say we are flying 400km/h.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuud826",
"comment_text": [
"I think just the opposite. The jet stream moves west to east, which gives flights in that direction tailwinds that allow the jet to move more quickly."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuud8vr",
"comment_text": [
"Scheduled flight times are typically shorter going from New York to Berlin because of the prevaling wind direction of the jet stream in the northern hemisphere. Nonstop eastbound flights are scheduled for 7.75 hours while nonstop westbound flights have a schduled time of 9.25 hours."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuud9dp",
"comment_text": [
"The atmosphere is rotating with Earth so earths rotation will not affect an object moving inside the atmosphere."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuuf4ko",
"comment_text": [
"You are on a train going at some speed , you throw a ball up in the air , it comes back down in your hand right? The fact the train is moving doesn't push the ball. So if you throw it at your friend at the other end of the carriage it spends the same amount of time travailing as it would if he threw it at you .",
"Now if we did standing on top of the train we would get difference results. This is because the air on top of the train is rushing past , which will push the ball.It's harder to throw into the wind then with the wind. ",
"On earth the air is moving at about the same speed as the earth is rotating. If it wasn't there would constantly be ridiculously fast winds everywhere. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuuj9nz",
"comment_text": [
"Since Earths rotation.",
"Because if you're flying ",
" the Earth's rotation you must be flying faster to cover the same distance?",
"One of the things that Einstein's theories of relativity taught us that there is no such thing as an absolute speed: speed is always relative to something else. So when you ask a question like \"How fast is the plane travelling?\" that's essentially meaningless: you have to know relative to ",
".",
"Not only does the Earth rotate at about 1600 km/h at the equator, but it also orbits the sun at over 100,000 km/h; the sun meanwhile orbits the centre of the galaxy at a speed of about 800,000 km/h, while the galaxy is moving at a speed of... Well, ",
" speed isn't possible to state, because everything is relative to everything else, but when measured against the cosmic microwave background -- the nearest thing we have to a reference for \"the universe\" -- it's about 1,800,000 km/h.",
"So... relative to the universe, the difference in speed and even direction is barely noticeable: the plane is moving at nearly two million km/h in the general direction of the constellation of Hydra.",
"We measure the speed of a plane relative to the surface of the Earth as being the only really useful way to do it. And the speed is roughly the same (usually slightly faster towards Berlin because the jetstream normally blows in that direction)."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: The Iran deal
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3jqxwg
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_curjbmw",
"comment_text": [
"The Republicans are mad about it because wealthy pro-Israeli donors to their election campaigns are mad about it.",
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-gop-candidates-kiss-up-to-billionaire-sheldon-adelson/2014/04/01/5ba335dc-b9dc-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html",
"And the pro-Israeli donors are mad about it, because they wanted the US to use the cooked-up \"Iranian nuclear threat\" to topple the regimes of Israel's regional opponents, just like who \"WMDs in Iraq\" was a lie and pretext to invade that country",
"There was in fact no evidence Iran was ever even interested in nukes",
"http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/09/17/us-nuclear-iaea-iran-sb-idUSTRE58G60W20090917",
"http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/02/12/us-iran-nuclear-iaea-idUSL1283850220080212",
"http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Most-U-S-tips-fingering-Iran-false-envoys-2646358.php",
"http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/09/02/us-iran-nuclear-elbaradei-idUSTRE5811V120090902",
"Iran had actually been trying to reach a deal with the US for decades, but the US always killed-off any such chances by imposing deliberately unreasonable demands: ",
"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/10007603/Iran-how-the-West-missed-a-chance-to-make-peace-with-Tehran.html",
"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/17/AR2006061700727.html",
"Israel has been pushing for a war between the US and Iran for a while now; this had nothing to do with whether the deal was \"good\" or \"bad\" ",
"http://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-prodding-us-to-attack-iran/",
"http://www.uscatholic.org/culture/war-and-peace/2008/06/iran-spam"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_curjeq5",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you.",
"But what is the deal?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_curjnyb",
"comment_text": [
"The deal is to restrict the amount of enriched uranium Iran is allowed, which can be used for nuclear power and.. you guessed it, nuclear missiles.",
"supposedly Iran was close to making a nuclear weapon (3-4 months), which considering Iran's position on the holocaust and Israel would probably not be ideal to have a state that wishes for Israel to be wiped off the map.",
"It's opposed because it'll boost relations between Iran and the US, thus Israel would have their control over American foreign policy diminished in the region."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_curjym6",
"comment_text": [
"supposedly Iran was close to making a nuclear weapon (3-4 months",
"Iran was supposedly just months away from making nukes for about 30 years",
"Iran's position on the holocaust",
"You really shouldn't believe whatever you're told.",
"You do know that Iranian tv showed a miniseries about the Holocaust and Iran's role in saving Jews, right? ",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Degree_Turn"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_curniie",
"comment_text": [
"Condemning all of Iran because of the outlandish positions of religious nutbags is the same as saying the Westboro Baptist Church represents all Americans."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: DJs nowadays get a lot of hate for not being "true" DJs. What is the difference between what DJs used to do and what they do now?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3lgafo
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.46
|
Obviously, technology has improved, but it seems to me the same elements of being a DJ are there. You play a song, you transition to another, you add some effects where you can. I know this is oversimplifying what DJs do, but I don't get why it's "sooo much easier" to be a DJ nowadays.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cv615mw",
"comment_text": [
"The trope is that DJs can create entire playlists, including transitions and effects now and just hit \"play\" when they get to whatever event they're DJing at. ",
"In the Olden Days they had to actually put the vinyl on the record players, spin them up, manually cross-fade, and so forth. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cv61sbg",
"comment_text": [
"DJs would also do complex beat matching between records by hand which is very hard to do."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cv622o0",
"comment_text": [
"In the past, it was a lot more equipment and resource intensive. You had to set up turntables, bring a truckload of records, and know exact where each track was on each record, ready to play. You'd also have to transition smoothly from one song to another, which isn't trivial to do manually with turntables.",
"These days you can do all that on your phone."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cv64sh1",
"comment_text": [
"It's a ton easier because of beat matching and vinyls vs sound files. Beat matching is when you seamlessly transition from one song to another matching it's tempo and beat to make it seem like one song. In the past this takes listening to the song being played in one ear and listening to the next track in your headphones, speeding up/slowing down the tempo of the next track, and scratching the next track til you get exactly the beat that matches the current song, and then finally fading it carefully to the other vinyl. ",
"It's fairly tough and I could never do it. These days all you do is you pick one song from a list on your computer, pick the next song, and then push a button and the computer does it for you. No skill needed. Probably only skill is finding music and being able to play according to the feel of the crowd. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cv69azo",
"comment_text": [
"A lot of people use the term producer and DJ interchangeably...in reality these mean different things. A producer makes music, while a DJ mixes records live and some famous producers are notoriously bad DJ's.",
"While I understand and support a lot of criticism of conventional DJ-ing (i.e. using beatmatching etc.) you have DJ's like DJ Craze who scratches like a boss but he uses traktor.",
"Certain festivals also force DJ's to stick to a particular track/setlist to sync with the visuals and some even want pre-mixed sets to ensure minimal fuck ups."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5:Why is the use of gas in war so important to prove when we have facts that innocent people are being killed with ferocious violence with guns or torture.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3k34xr
| 37
| true
| false
| 0.73
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuucqkp",
"comment_text": [
"Gas warfare is against international law. it has been outlawed since the end of WWI. No nation approves of the use of poison gas by any other nation. It is a weapon of mass destruction which cannot be aimed at a specific target such as at fighters.",
"Torture is done individually on a captured individual basis.",
"Guns are aimed at specific targets.They are weapons of destruction but they are targeted towards armed combatants supposedly."
],
"score": 43
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuudcdw",
"comment_text": [
"Chemicals are deemed especially cruel and inhumane. The pain of chemical death is much much worse than getting shot. "
],
"score": 26
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuudtt9",
"comment_text": [
"Gas is a particularly painful and cruel way to die. It can also contaminate the area where it is used for years afterward. Guns and bullets don't have that problem."
],
"score": 16
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuuga4u",
"comment_text": [
"Gas is indiscriminate. You shoot a bullet at an enemy soldier, maybe that was right, maybe it was wrong. You release gas, and it also kills unarmed men, women, and children. Dogs, cats, and livestock . . . true non-combatants. It's \"careless ethics\"."
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cuulm68",
"comment_text": [
"Little Timmy and Johnny are fighting during recess. Johnny cut in line and took the last apple juice. Timmy won't stand for that injustice. The rest of the first graders gather to watch, and to make sure no one breaks the rules; no sticks, no rocks, no dog doo.",
"\nTimmy leads with a classic windmill, and Johnny delivers a shin kick. Timmy responds by grabbing a nice warm handful of doo, and launches it with less than stellar accuracy. Smelly doo hits Johnny, Suzie, Carlos, and a few other classmates. Now Johnny has to answer for his crimes by sitting in the corner in Time Out, and the rest of the class knows that he fights dirty."
],
"score": 9
}
|
||
ELI5: How do electronics connect to satellites and how do different rays say different things?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3lz5zw
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cvakxe6",
"comment_text": [
"Let's play pretend. I have a flashlight and it can shine with 4 different colors of light. When I shine the red light on you, you stop moving. When I shine the green light on you, start moving. When I shine the white light on you, lay down. When I shine the blue light on you, sing a song.",
"There are boxes out there called radios that do something very similar to this. When they see a special kind of light, they know what to do.",
"Talking to a satellite is like shining a light on it and the satellite knows what to do."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cval5os",
"comment_text": [
"Actually the satellites behave more like a mirror for this analogy- they don't send the message or interpret it- they bounce it like light on a mirror so it can be seen somewhere that the light can't go directly."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cvak0jv",
"comment_text": [
"Think of it like a radio that could also talk back to a radio transmitter tower. It's using frequencies that are quite a bit higher than FM radio though (~1500 MHz vs ~100 MHz). The \"radio\" in this case knows how to understand the information it is given."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cvakim6",
"comment_text": [
"Eli5 please"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cval8s2",
"comment_text": [
"This is an amazing explanation for a five year old. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
||
ELI5: Why are so many people smoking crack or just getting high in the USA, and not in Europe?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3lyw34
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.2
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cvahhcz",
"comment_text": [
"As far as I know, there is no significant difference in the drug habits of Americans vs Europeans. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cvalnhk",
"comment_text": [
"Not that many people in America smoke crack, in absolute terms. You are allowing movies to get in the way of your perception of reality. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cvahrgw",
"comment_text": [
"China and India are the only two countries with more people"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cvajknv",
"comment_text": [
"I am sure there are plenty of people who smoke crack in Europe. \nIsn't that Ed Sheeran song \"The A-team\" about crack?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cvahihl",
"comment_text": [
"To be fair, the US also has a larger population of ",
" than most, if not ",
", of the countries in Europe."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: Why aren't single-player and multiplayer versions of games sold separately?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2ra2yw
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.14
|
I am not into multiplayer, some people on the other hand want only multiplayer. Why can't we be given an option to buy one or the other or both? Why the hell am I paying full price for a game half of which I will never play?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cndwkll",
"comment_text": [
"Because they'll make more money selling the full product then selling two half products. This is hardly the only example of products you can't pick and choose how much of it to pay for. You can't buy Microsoft Office but want to only pay 99.9% because you never use wingdings, so I'm not sure why this should be surprising. Products are marketed and developed in the manner which would make the most money. If you don't want to support that you aren't required to purchase their products."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cndwvms",
"comment_text": [
"Why the hell am I paying full price for a game half of which I will never play?",
"For the same reason that you pay full price for a game that you never beat. Or why you pay full price for a car when you don't carry any passengers, meaning that most of the seats just go unused. ",
"You're paying for all of the development work that went into the creation game, regardless of whether or not you make use of every single part.",
"The company didn't develop separate single-player and multiplayer games and just stick them together at the end; the entire game was created as a single unit. All of the art assets, character animations, gameplay mechanics, etc. were designed together, to support several different modes of play. If you don't want to play the multiplayer portion, fine. Maybe you also don't want to play \"hard mode\", and maybe you skip all of the cutscenes. Should you also be able to get a separate version of the game without those?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cndwrz8",
"comment_text": [
"That's actually a bad example. The Office has different versions. Home, Personal, etc. All with different options.\nI want the same for games. I want the Light version with singleplayer campaign only. \nAnd actually this would make sense economically because people that otherwise would never buy the full product will actually find money for a half. I am sure this problem is actually way more relevant for multiplayer gamers than me. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cndwajr",
"comment_text": [
"If you still bought it, that's really why. It makes more economical sense.",
"Also calling it half is hardly fair, it's far more complex than that. There's a huge amount of the underlying system you need for either or both. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cndwjyl",
"comment_text": [
"I didn't buy it. That's the whole problem. ",
"I understand that both modes are written into one another. Fine, let me download both but disable multiplayer options for me. If having both on and running is absolutely crucial for a title then fine, this title will have both and will be sold only at full price. But games like COD clearly don't need that. ",
"And while I'm at it, coop mode has to be sold separately too. Give me an option to customize my game and pay exactly for what I am going to be playing. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Do caterpillars know that they are going to become a butterfly? If so, how?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2s1498
| 18
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnl7pfl",
"comment_text": [
"It's a common mistake that people sometimes make to try to apply human levels of intelligence to insects.",
"Insects are not self-aware. A caterpillar does not even know that it is a caterpillar. It is aware of the general shape of the surface it's on, and it feels hungry around things it can eat. ",
"That's really the extent of it's cognitive powers - it doesn't know things like how much it's eaten recently, or if there are usually predators in an area. And it certainly doesn't know what's going to happen to it after it's done with it's metamorphosis."
],
"score": 56
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnlbyxu",
"comment_text": [
"They aren't even really situationally aware. You could pick them up as they move towards a food source and put them down in the same space a hundred times, and they won't vary their strategy. ",
"You can use a fake food source, and insects that normally feed on it may die trying again and again to eat it. If you draw a pheremone circle, ants will patrol it until they drop dead. There is a species of flying insect which only climb upwards, which can be thwarted with a simple wall with a slanted section at the top, where they will become stuck until they die.",
"Insects don't make cognitive decisions. They follow preset responses to stimuli, much like a computer program. These responses are tuned for their typical environment, but never change, even with repeated exposure to failure.",
"Edit: You've probably witnessed something like this at home, with insects stuck inside bashing against the same window again and again, not able to comprehend that it won't work the next time they try."
],
"score": 11
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnlbyxu",
"comment_text": [
"They aren't even really situationally aware. You could pick them up as they move towards a food source and put them down in the same space a hundred times, and they won't vary their strategy. ",
"You can use a fake food source, and insects that normally feed on it may die trying again and again to eat it. If you draw a pheremone circle, ants will patrol it until they drop dead. There is a species of flying insect which only climb upwards, which can be thwarted with a simple wall with a slanted section at the top, where they will become stuck until they die.",
"Insects don't make cognitive decisions. They follow preset responses to stimuli, much like a computer program. These responses are tuned for their typical environment, but never change, even with repeated exposure to failure.",
"Edit: You've probably witnessed something like this at home, with insects stuck inside bashing against the same window again and again, not able to comprehend that it won't work the next time they try."
],
"score": 11
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnlc0qt",
"comment_text": [
"Great answer, I've always viewed insects like little biological robots. "
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnl72kp",
"comment_text": [
"Think of the process this way: did you know when you were going to hit puberty growing up? Or did you even know before somebody told you it would happen?",
"It's the same here. One day, hormones go off in the caterpillars body, and this leads to the chain of events that end up as a butterfly (or moth) -- the larva becomes a pupa (that's the cocoon part of the process), and then hormones alter their body until they come out of their pupae transformed into adult form, which is called an imago.",
"At that point, the hormones continue to tell the imago that its only priority is reproducing, i.e. gettin' some. In this particular, it doesn't differ from human puberty at all."
],
"score": 6
}
|
||
ELI5 How is Steam able to cut game prices to nearly 100% during its sales?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2s9o4l
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
What percentage of the money thats made actually goes to the developers and how much of a cut does steam get? And how is it possible to get all those games at such ridiculously low prices?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnng3zd",
"comment_text": [
"Cause everyone already buys dozens, and even sometimes hundreds of games, only to play like 3 of 'em."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnng426",
"comment_text": [
"Because it really doesn't cost anything to sell a game. It's not like if you go to the store and buy a banana, the store will lose that banana you buy. But a digital game can be copied an infinite amount of times to basically no cost at all.",
"So it's just up to steam and the developer to choose how low they wanna go. And even a game sold at 90% off, still makes them some money. And selling the game cheap makes it gain attention. You buy a cheap game and, thinks it's great and tell your friends to buy it too."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnnixap",
"comment_text": [
"Can confirm, I bought \"Don't Starve\" for pennies on one sale because it looked neat and have since bought 4 copies at full price (or close to) for friends because it's a fantastic game."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnng5u3",
"comment_text": [
"Steam gets a 30% cut of every sale. All discounts on games are set by the publisher/developer and not Valve alone. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnng8l0",
"comment_text": [
"It hits a point where it saturates the market for a particular game at a reasonable price. Once it gets here, as it costs nothing to actually sell any more of that game, it can lower the price significantly to attract the casual gamer who isn't bothered about having a game on or near release date. Anyone who was going to spend $40 on the game has already bought the game."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: How can you believe pokerstars is not rigged?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2t933f
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.4
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnwvulk",
"comment_text": [
"First time I read this, I was thinking of World Poker Tour (or any other major televised poker event) and not online poker. It made way more sense once we were on the same page lmao"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnww5f6",
"comment_text": [
"It's not that much more action packed than in real life.",
"It may seem that way because you play a lot more hands online than in real life, so the craziness will happen more often, and also because you are already on the internet so it's easier to rant and rave about it and have people hear it than if it were to happen in the casino.",
"Post a hand history for a crazy hand, you will be able to find a dealer or a player who has seen that situation in real life."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnwwpqg",
"comment_text": [
"i am aware that all hands have occurred, i am questioning the large percentage of these crazy hands and how i feel the game adapts to the players who are in."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnx0y9j",
"comment_text": [
"Please post this in ",
"/r/changemyview",
", as you already have an opinion on the matter which you are looking to have confirmed or challenged.",
"Removed."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cnwxlc1",
"comment_text": [
"1) you've probably agreed to some terms and conditions somewhere, in which they in some tongue-twisting manner explain that this is their representation of poker, or maybe they just don't state anywhere that this is actual poker. +there wouldn't have to be a large number of people enjoying the fruits of this system and they would have no interest in exposing themselves.",
"This doesn't refute the very good point you're responding to. Software can be reverse-engineered, bugs can happen. There are ways for source code to get out, and if that happened, people would stop playing because it'd all be built on a lie. A TOS agreement would only prevent legal action, it's not going to make all the players go, 'well, we agreed to this, guess we'll keep playing even though it's rigged.'",
"And it looks to me like the TOS is available to read online. If you think it has something like that in it, find it."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5:The differences between Norway, Sweden, and Finland for someone looking to move there.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3s6cpv
| 2
| true
| false
| 0.75
|
Hi! I'm thinking cultural, governmental, education, and employment comparisons of each country. I know this is a HUGE question, so any feedback is appreciated. I'm looking to move there after graduate school, so I'm interested in things that would be important to know about living there as a foreigner. All I know is that their health care is great, education is top notch, and its cold as ****. Help!
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cwugwmc",
"comment_text": [
"an incomprehensible moon language that nobody else speaks",
"Indeed, the Finns barely speak when they can help it."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cwugm15",
"comment_text": [
"Are you from an EU country? If not, you might want to start by looking into visa and residency requirements. I've heard its fairly difficult if you're coming from somewhere else."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cwuh3c3",
"comment_text": [
"Immigrating into the EU to work is a bit of an arse unless you actually have a job somewhere. What with the recent events, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of countries start tightening their laws. Best to start researching work permits I'd say."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cwugubt",
"comment_text": [
"One difference is that the Finns have an incomprehensible moon language that nobody else speaks, while Swedish and Norwegian are fairly similar to other Germanic languages.",
"That said, English is widely spoken all over Northern Europe."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cwugpei",
"comment_text": [
"US resident here. Scandinavia churns out a lot of leaders in the Peace and Conflict field which is what I'm currently studying. I've heard (no idea if this is true) that the more niche of a specialization you have with regards to employment makes the visa/residency process much easier."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5:Why is our government (aka the taxpayers) required to pay interest to the Federal Reserve for every currency note issued?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
32chhy
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
It seems as if this creates a system where the government is perpetually in debt to banks, instead of using them as a vehicle to promote free trade.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cq9x6io",
"comment_text": [
"I think you are confused about how all this works. Any profit the Federal Reserve makes is required by law to be paid to the US government. In 2010 (most recent data I saw with a one minute search) the Fed paid the US Government 79 Billion dollars in profits.",
"There is no interest charged on \"notes issued\" if you are talking about currency - that is all done by the Department of Treasury - a government agency itself.",
"If the US government takes loans of any kind it pays interest like anyone else does, but again, at the end of the day the government gets all Fed profits too so it's not like they are getting some raw deal like a conspiracy theorist would have you believe."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqa0r1w",
"comment_text": [
"Except when banks borrow money from the fed at 0 percent and use it buy government bonds at 2.75 percent."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqfqrf2",
"comment_text": [
"How often does this occur though? It's my understanding that a great deal of the money borrowed from the FED is sitting stagnant in private banks reserves."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqfqou4",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for your response, prodded me towards more research, what I found was that although the FED technically is required to return earned interest to the US government, the numbers don't add up and there are experts who consider it highly probable that a great deal of interest is not returned. This becomes more conspicuous when the FED spends time and resources lobbying against any sort of audit. I'd love to hear your thoughts there. I've also read that although the FED prodded congress to increase the money supply in order to increase money velocity and make credit more readily available, through various policies they've encouraged private banks to keep most of this newly printed currency in their reserves. Can you help explain this, to me it would seem as if they're ensuring that inflationary targets aren't met so that they continue QE, which has been highly beneficial to private banks, right? I'd love to hear any legitimate counter argument here as this is a poorly formulated thought experiment of mine."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cq9wxbu",
"comment_text": [
"Our government gave away there right to create money they gave all that power to the federal Reserve. So technically the reserve loans the money to all the banks (to loan to us) and our government and charges a intrest rate for it. "
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5: Are stores legally allowed to sell expired products, especially food?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
33gap9
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
I ask because I just came home from the grocery store. While I was there I picked up some snacks that were discounted 50% off. As I am eating them I look at the expiration date and it is from last month, March.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqkmg1d",
"comment_text": [
"I read-",
"Did you know that a store can sell food past the expiration date?\nWith the exception of infant formula, the laws that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) administers do not preclude the sale of food that is past the expiration date indicated on the label. FDA does not require food firms to place \"expired by\", \"use by\" or \"best before\" dates on food products. This information is entirely at the discretion of the manufacturer.",
"A principle of U.S. food law is that foods in U.S. commerce must be wholesome and fit for consumption. A \"best by\", \"use by\" or expiration date does not relieve a firm from this obligation. A product that is dangerous to consumers would be subject to potential action by FDA to remove it from commerce regardless of any date printed on a label.",
"Personal note: Bought some discounted microwave popcorn that was clearly marked 'past best by date'. A couple of months past. Seems fine, haven't died yet... : )"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqkp4na",
"comment_text": [
"Where is this place you speak about?",
"I have seen stores throwing stuff into the dumpsters, because they are past the best by date. They are legally bound to ",
" give them out, for some reason. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqkm8hc",
"comment_text": [
"snacks just go stale. Milk or meat might be an issue and those are almost never sold"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqkm8w8",
"comment_text": [
"I believe they can't sell products that have passed the \"Use by\" date but they can sell \"best before\" products."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqkmbnc",
"comment_text": [
"I bought a bottle of red wine and it was 72 years out of date, I poured it down the sink"
],
"score": 3
}
|
|
ELI5: Why is blasphemy not a crime in western countries, but sending offensive/gross text messages (no images) to a woman a crime?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
29jtwk
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cilln3n",
"comment_text": [
"Offending or harassing a god is blasphemy.",
"Offending or harassing a woman is harassment.",
"Blasphemy is not a crime because gods are not real.",
"Harassment is a crime because women are real."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cillpfm",
"comment_text": [
"This has been deleted because it is a loaded question, ie you already understand the issues and have posted just to debate them. Try ",
"/r/changemyview",
" for this type of post. Thanks."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cillrgc",
"comment_text": [
"Well Mohammed isn't around anymore and so speaking ill of him, in any way, harms no-one. Blasphemy is a truly victimless crime.",
"I don't want to get into an argument about whether or not gods are real, but using the standards applied to everything else that we take for granted being real and then applying it to the existence of gods - there is absolutely no reason to believe in them whatsoever.",
"As for most people thinking gods are real - most people used to keep slaves, and used to try and cure diseases by blood letting and used to think the earth was flat... and all kinds of crazy stuff.",
"Anyway; treating women (or any human) nicely is very, very important. Treating gods nicely is not something that anybody should worry about."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cillrgc",
"comment_text": [
"Well Mohammed isn't around anymore and so speaking ill of him, in any way, harms no-one. Blasphemy is a truly victimless crime.",
"I don't want to get into an argument about whether or not gods are real, but using the standards applied to everything else that we take for granted being real and then applying it to the existence of gods - there is absolutely no reason to believe in them whatsoever.",
"As for most people thinking gods are real - most people used to keep slaves, and used to try and cure diseases by blood letting and used to think the earth was flat... and all kinds of crazy stuff.",
"Anyway; treating women (or any human) nicely is very, very important. Treating gods nicely is not something that anybody should worry about."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cillw3g",
"comment_text": [
"I think Jesus was a real person. I don't think blasphemy should even be considered as a crime. I believe in total free speech.",
"What we ",
" do is respect eachother and be kind to eachother. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5+: What actually happens on the electrical grid when the power goes out?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
29jtwg
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
I was standing outside watching a storm when the electricity went out. As it was going out I heard a low pitched electrical sound for a few seconds. I noticed that not everything in the neighborhood (houses/streetlights) went out at the same time, but it didn't flicker out either. Thirty seconds later it came back on.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cillmte",
"comment_text": [
"There are three main categories of power outage.",
"Line Breakage. This means a power line is severed and would take days to repair.",
"System overload. This could mean a breaker somewhere was tripped, a large fuse somewhere was blown. This would take or minutes to hours to repair.",
"Or a Power/Sub station down. This could take anytime from hours, to days to repair."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ciln36i",
"comment_text": [
"Electricity wants a path to ground. Electricity is also lazy, and wants the easiest and quickest path to ground. ",
"I assume during the storm it was windy and wet out. So lets say an electric wire is blowing around in the rain, and hits against a wet tree. The wet tree can conduct electricity right to ground, where the electricity wants to go. So the power line rubs against the tree and the power starts pouring into the earth. When this happens the system sees a system overload (a LOT of power being requested at this tree!!) and ramps up power delivery, which could cause a humming sound as the transformer isn't likely rated to be transforming/boosting up that much power that quickly. ",
"OK, so a circuit is now established to ground, and all the electricity in circuit wants to use that path now, which can cause lights to go out or things to reset - as the power your device wants is harder to go through than down the side of the wet tree outside. It opts to run as much power as possible down the tree.",
"Its supposed to work like a circuit breaker in your electric panel. The transformer in charge of moving this power from the power station to the tree finally says \"NO WAY\" and snaps open, breaking the circuit from the power line to the ground. A tech has to come out and ensure the line past the transformer is good, then reset the transformer. In your case the tree may not have been pulling down excess amounts of power, just making enough contact to pull down the same amount of power as the grid its connected to wants - thus not tripping the transformer but robbing everyone of the power they wanted. When the wind rested momentarily the power line released from the wet tree and continued onto lights and homes to dissipate to ground the hard way."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cilu1kl",
"comment_text": [
"Almost always the system detects a fault, and has a circuit breaker open when a fault is detected. Usually faults don't clear themselves. What likely happened is lightning struck a transmission line, and that line went down. This caused the other transmission lines to pick up the extra power, but it didn't happen instantly. As such the voltage on your local distribution lines sagged enough for the power to go out. As the current through the secondary transmission line came up, the power returned.",
"An alternative is a tree branch bot blown into the wires of the distribution line, triggering a fault. The relay may then try to clear the fault a few seconds later. If the fault is cleared in that time, the power comes back on."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cillk21",
"comment_text": [
"Depend of the situation. There can be hundreds of issue creating this."
],
"score": 0
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cilmzbd",
"comment_text": [
"There's really no purpose to an answer like yours. If you think there are a lot of possibilities, and still want to submit an answer, then you should pick the couple most common issues and explain them. As it is now your comment just accomplishes nothing other than gives me a chance to criticize you which I enjoy doing. "
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5:Why is it socially acceptable to shame things like drug abuse and smoking but it's not socially acceptable to shame people for being obese/morbidly obese?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
348s5a
| 6
| true
| false
| 0.62
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqsd7dw",
"comment_text": [
"You can stop smoking tomorrow. But you can't stop being fat overnight.",
"Try shaming people for eating fast food or junk food instead of for being fat. But, like with smoking, only shame them when you can physically see them doing it."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqsi119",
"comment_text": [
"What if they've gained weight because of a medical condition? What if they take a medication that slows down their metabolism?",
"The miniscule prevalence of metabolism-altering conditions makes this a nonfactor to consider when you \"shame\" a fat person, and even if the person in question has it, it (e.g. hypothyroidism) doesn't alter your metabolism enough to make you balloon to morbid sizes. ",
"Or how about if they don't have the money to eat healthy ",
"What nonsense. Eating healthy is exceedingly cheap. In-bulk potatoes or rice or even pasta for cheap calories + some greeneries for vitamins/fibers is very much affordable as basics. Certainly more so than highly processed candy and soda (when you could drink water). Trust me, I am a working class student. ",
"so they don't have time to work out?",
"Then eat less?",
"Classic fatlogic."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqse8rc",
"comment_text": [
"Thyroid problems have been shown to barely affect fatness"
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqscreq",
"comment_text": [
"People \"shame\" obese people all the time. ",
"It basically comes down to what the majority opinion in a certain group is. In America for example enough people are obese that the risk of being \"challenged\" for fat shaming is to high for most people. If you narrow your group down to a bunch of health nut gym junkies you'd find a lot more fat shaming"
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqsd4vc",
"comment_text": [
"This is completely crap. It is absolutely socially acceptable to shame fat people, you just have to pretend that it isn't. Bonus points if you do it with subtlety "
],
"score": 3
}
|
||
ELI5 Why is HIV more prone to gay men?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2akni7
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ciw4cij",
"comment_text": [
"It's also worth pointing out that the risk of transmission to someone receiving anal sex is much, ",
" higher than the risk of transmission to someone giving anal sex. ",
"So while many heterosexual couples have anal sex this is the biggest problem if the man has HIV as the woman has a large chance of getting it. If that woman then goes on to have sex with another man then you're back to the relatively low transmission rate.",
"In the MSM (men who have sex with men) demographic you have the possibility for a man to be exposed to the very high risk of transmission by receiving anal sex, followed by that same very high risk if he goes on to be on the insertive side of anal sex with a future partner.",
"The stats, for the record (",
"source",
":",
"Receiving anal sex: 1.38% chance ",
"Inertive anal sex: 0.11% chance ",
"Receptive vaginal sex: 0.08% chance ",
"Insertive vaginal sex: 0.04% chance ",
"So you can see that receptive anal sex is by ",
" the most dangerous form of intercourse for spreading HIV. It would stand to reason that a demographic that can that probability from one partner to the next is the demographic that will be hit the hardest. "
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ciw3svm",
"comment_text": [
"Uh ",
"yeah they are",
" and its not even remotely close."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ciw3mzl",
"comment_text": [
"This story",
" goes through all the latest research"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ciw3otj",
"comment_text": [
"Because arseholes aren't meant to be stretched too much and can often tear and bleed a little, couple that with small cuts on the cock that come from friction and you have blood contamination. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ciw41rk",
"comment_text": [
"In North America and Western Europe, mostly, they are. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
|
Eli5: it's 2014 why are there no flying cars around?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2brfv9
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.36
|
It's 2014, where are the flying cars, the moon bases, the robots, underwater cities, etc? Why does 2014 not look that different from 1980s?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cj865dy",
"comment_text": [
"Apparently, we overestimated our abilities."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cj86hle",
"comment_text": [
"Flying cars is a hard problem. Even if you ignore the effort involved in lifting things off the ground (which you shouldn't, because it's really hard to do without magical antigravity like the Jetsons had), it's also tremendously dangerous. Image what happens if you run out of fuel (or suffers a serious mechanical failure) hundreds of feet above the ground: Hint, it won't end well.",
"Also imagine collisions. Both parties are going to tumble to the ground. It basically no longer matters how fast you were going when you collided; if it broke your car, all that really matters is your altitude.",
"Finally, what if someone gets really mad at their boss? They drop their car on their house from 500 feet up, and everyone in the house dies. You can do a lot more damage with something that can not only travel in a straight line quickly, but also has hundreds of feet of potential energy behind it."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cj86k0x",
"comment_text": [
"Have you seen how bad people are at driving non-flying cars? You know how they're always crashing into things and running people over? Well, imagine all the crashes if those same people could move their cars not only forward and backward and side to side but also up and down. They could crash into buildings, each other, and even airplanes. ",
"For airplanes flying from one airport to another, we have air traffic control towers telling the pilots which way to fly, to make sure they don't crash into each other. ",
"That would be really, really expensive if we tried having all those control towers for flying cars, too. And anyway, people would be too rushed and too distracted to listen to those instructions. ",
"For flying cars to work, they would have to be self-flying, like the self-driving cars you'l be seeing on the road soon, but it would be a lot more difficult to make computers that can fly a car than the computers that can drive a car on roads. ",
"In other words, the problem isn't just making a car that can fly, but figuring out what to do when a ",
" of people have flying cars that they all want to fly around at the same time. It would be like bumper cars in the sky but without bumpers!"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cj866vv",
"comment_text": [
"They exist:",
"http://www.terrafugia.com/"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cj868a2",
"comment_text": [
"Not really my expectations. I was hoping one would look like the Jetsons cars "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why Hispanic American citizens are supposed to be pro-immigration?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2fr3i7
| 2
| true
| false
| 0.62
|
At the end of the day, almost all American's are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. So why does the media constantly frame the argument that Hispanics are, as a group, pro-immigration?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckbzjeu",
"comment_text": [
"Because the ones that are pro-immigration are the loudest, for example, La Raza. When I lived in California, I lived in an area where most immigrants that entered the country legally and first generation citizens from immigrants were very much against illegal immigration and any kind of amnesty."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckby50z",
"comment_text": [
"I like how you say that most broadcasters don't do their research, and then go on to make a sweeping statement about native-born Latinos based on anecdotal evidence."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckby50z",
"comment_text": [
"I like how you say that most broadcasters don't do their research, and then go on to make a sweeping statement about native-born Latinos based on anecdotal evidence."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckbzh9w",
"comment_text": [
"That's my entire point. If someone is already legally here, why should they be considered pot-immigration just because the largest immigrant group is the same ethnicity as the group in question. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckbzl9u",
"comment_text": [
"Like my other comment says, it's just rhetoric set up by the media. If you're pro-stricter-border-security you're a racist who hates Hispanics. So if in reality a bunch of Hispanics support stricter border security, then that would contradict that rhetoric."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: What happened with the Atlanta Hawks leadership regarding the racist comments and stuff.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2g18gz
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
There is just too many articles and all of them are confusing. Please help.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckeo0hy",
"comment_text": [
"It sounds like some easily offended politically correct assholes are attacking him for saying the team needs to do things to appeal to more people with the most disposable income."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckenuf0",
"comment_text": [
"http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wizards/atlanta-hawks-owner-bruce-levenson-will-sell-teamafter-sending-offensive-e-mail/2014/09/07/b14b0e26-36da-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html",
"its not confusing. just read it instead of being lazy"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckes38t",
"comment_text": [
"Stop being lazy and just ELI5"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckes5by",
"comment_text": [
"how about go fuck yourself. its not a ELI5 because its not a complex concept that needs an ELI5"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckesf52",
"comment_text": [
"I just read the entire article and it says nothing about the current GM (Ferry) and the trouble he's in. All the current news seems to be about him (which is why I was confused). I searched for an article that comprehensibly detailed the events in chronological order but could not find one. That's why I cam here. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Converting Decimal/Binary/Hexidecimal
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2fx60s
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
Doing a computer architechure course at college as part of the three I chose, we've just done the first lesson on converting decimal/binary to hexidecimal and although I understand it slightly, everyone seemed to understand it completely whereas I struggle. For example, I had to convert 712 > Binary > Hexidecimal. 512 > 256 > 128 > 64 > 32 > 16 > 8 > 4 > 2 > 1 I was told to do 712 - 512 = 200 > 128 into 200 > 72 > 64 etc which ended up being 1,0,1,1,0,0,1,0,0,0 That I can understand fairly well, it's the hexidecimal that throws me off. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F I can't figure out how to do the hexidecimal for the life of me.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdjxbt",
"comment_text": [
"binary to hex is actually very easy. Just group your binary digits into groups of four. so 1011001000 turns into 10 1100 1000. Now each grouping is a hex digit. 0010 = 2, 1100 = C, 1000 = 8, so the hex value of our number is 2C8.",
"In fact, going from binary to hex is easy enough that hand calculation of decimal to hex usually use binary as an intermediary. Still, if you really wanted to, you can convert any base into any other base by listing out the powers of the base. So hex (base 16) would be 4096,256,16,1 (=16³, 16², 16",
" , 16",
" ). Take our decimal number 712. It's less than 4096 but greater than 256 so it'll have three digits. The largest multiple of 256 that is still less than 712 is 512 (256x2), so our first digit is 2. Subtract 712-512=200. Now we compare 200 against multiples of 16. The highest multiple is 192 (16x12 or 16xC), so our next digit is C. That leaves 200-192=8 as our last digit. So our final value is 2C8 as we saw from the decimal->binary->hex method."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdk2om",
"comment_text": [
"Adding a slight piece of info here helps.",
"Groups of 4 binary digits have 16 possible values, because 2",
" = 16. Since hexadecimal is base 16, this allows you to easily see where each digit comes from."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdkekb",
"comment_text": [
"If you can get decimal to binary, then binary to hex will eventually come easily. It's all about knowing the binary representation of the hex digits:",
"\n0:0000",
"\n1:0001",
"\n2:0010",
"\n...",
"\nA:1010",
"\nB:1011",
"\nC:1100",
"\nD:1101",
"\nE:1110",
"\nF:1111 ",
"Since every hex digit is a combination of four binary digits, you can simply group your binary digits into groups of four and replace them with the equivalent hex digit. Likewise, you can convert from hex to binary using the same table."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdk0xb",
"comment_text": [
"0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F",
"Every \"place\" is a multiple of 16. The \"ones\" place is 0 - 15 by 1. The \"tens\" place is 16 - 255 by 16. The \"hundreds\" place is 256 - 4095 by 256.",
"712 - (256 * 2) = 200 - (16 * C) = 8 - (1 * 8) = 0",
"712 = 2C8",
"Edit: Use the other commenters' method for converting bi > hex. What I described is better for straight dec > hex"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdk2hy",
"comment_text": [
"If it helps, try converting from binary to hexa decimal. For your example 1011001000, add a leading zero(s) to make it 12 digits (multiple of 4).",
"001011001000",
"Divide it into groups of 4. ",
"0010 1100 1000. ",
"Write each of them in hexadecimal. ",
"2 C 8. (Answer)",
"Hexadecimal uses base 16. The difficulty you face is most likely due to accepting the characters A-F as numbers 10-15. Practice a little bit and it will be easy. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: Why Jayna Palmer is not receiving as much criticism for hitting first
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2fx8lx
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.52
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdlens",
"comment_text": [
"She didn't hit first, she responded to Ray Rice spitting on her."
],
"score": 17
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdmh8t",
"comment_text": [
"Did Jayna Palmer knock Ray out cold and drag him out of the elevator? Did she punch him in the face so hard he fell over? Is she one of the strongest, most athletic women in the country? No. ",
"Are you telling me Ray Rice feared for his life? Are you telling me Ray Rice would have been unable to subdue her without punching her in the face so hard she fell down? You don't think he could have restrained her without punching her in the face? You think this was an isolated incident? You think that if Ray had just walked out of the elevator he would have suffered a debilitating injury?",
"The comments in this thread are deeply disturbing. "
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdl51s",
"comment_text": [
"Whoopi said it best \"If You Hit a Man, Don’t Be Surprised if He Hits Back\""
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdkzgu",
"comment_text": [
"Credibility of threat comes into play.",
"He did not need to hit her to defend himself. She did not represent a real credible threat to him. If Ray had been in an argument with a guy his size we wouldn't even be having this conversation.",
"Is it a double standard? Yes. Di he have to hit her like that to defend himself/get away from her? No."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ckdlce4",
"comment_text": [
"See: Jay Z vs Solange Knowles"
],
"score": 4
}
|
|
ELI5: How much power does a judge really have in court?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2ybu6e
| 5
| true
| false
| 0.74
|
Can a judge theoretically decide whatever he wants in court or can someone put in their veto? If not every judge would give the same sentence for the same criminal act, isn't one of them not judging correctly? For example could the judge responsible for the boston bomber case just let the guy go free even though there is clear evidence he is guilty? How much influence does the one judge really have and how much power goes to the jury?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp87xj0",
"comment_text": [
"Ok sounds interesting.. and complicated. Thanks for the answer =)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp87xj0",
"comment_text": [
"Ok sounds interesting.. and complicated. Thanks for the answer =)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp83yu5",
"comment_text": [
"Where are you? ",
"This matters a lot."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp8487c",
"comment_text": [
"I want to know how it is in the U.S. Probably also depends on the state though..."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp84iir",
"comment_text": [
"Fair enough, it's the best bet for good replies.",
"I have no idea."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why do people that are smarter in school tend towards the same type of computer games?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2yfn69
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.36
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp91ki5",
"comment_text": [
"Is there any proof this is true?"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp91m56",
"comment_text": [
"Sounds like just something maybe you've observed"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp95441",
"comment_text": [
"Just something that has happened to me and also my elder brother. Just thought it was normal."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp99rb4",
"comment_text": [
"Probably because the smarter kids prefer a challenge and the smart kids often havw their own clique in which if A,B and C plag a game then D will. This is more prevalent in smarter kids as gaming is often more attractive and interesting as a smart kid. ",
"Source : I'm bassically the smart kid (private school where everyone is smart so the super smart kid is me and another guy) and notice that I'm the only one without FIFA 15. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp9aeji",
"comment_text": [
"The \"smart kids\" tend to get lumped together in classes & become friends. People are going to play the same games as their friends."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Recent buzz about One Direction
|
explainlikeimfive
|
30gwsh
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.4
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpsbjao",
"comment_text": [
"One of the singers left the boy band, so everyone's going nuts. Not really a big deal, never liked them. But that's why."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpsbpuc",
"comment_text": [
"My favorite band is already dead...but I didn't even react."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpsbjxv",
"comment_text": [
"Ya why is everyone going nuts?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpsbl8f",
"comment_text": [
"Imagine your favorite band splitting up. Now imagine you're a teenage girl who freaks out about everything."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpsbq8f",
"comment_text": [
"Were they dead before you became their fan?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: How in the world Chess can be considered a sport, but a piano recital cannot?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2z2t7p
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.36
|
I honestly just don't get it. I play chess casually, and I have a friend who is very involved in the competitive format. I don't know about him but I don't really get how it can be called a sport. The argument that I hear is that "its a skill based competition that involves physical activity". But honestly that's true for many things. Its true for performing a musical instrument. Its true for writing a test. Its true for rap battling. Its true for being a lawyer. Its true for being an entrepreneur. I just don't get it. I understand that someone could come along and say that those things sports, but honestly that seems like a loose definition of sport to me. And it is not consistent with the , , or definitions. Don't mean to be contentious here. I have a lot of respect for chess players, I know many. But I just don't see how it's a recognized sport. Basically, I'm thinking that theres more to a sport than just competition.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpf60zg",
"comment_text": [
"how can they compete head to head? most definitions of the word sport involve some kind of head to head competition. and also \"sports\" are losely defined based on popularity. like if you wanted to have dueling pianos, it would have to be prevalent enough to elevate it to sport status. "
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpf63t9",
"comment_text": [
"sure there is. they fish and see who catches the biggest fish :P"
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpf67f4",
"comment_text": [
"Fishing is a sport on multiple levels, between man and fish for one since you need to have the right strategy for catching them, and then between man by seeing who can catch the biggest/most fish.",
"I dont see there being a strategic element to a piano recital but there is definitely one in chess."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpf6vq1",
"comment_text": [
"You're not coming off hostile at all, but to some people War is a sport, its unfortunate but its the truth and in a way its the ultimate sport.",
"I mean we even have rules for how to engage in war, pretty strange when you think about it."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cpf6690",
"comment_text": [
"My personal definition that few of my friends agree with, is that sports must have competition, defense, and an object of interest. Chess qualifies for all three, making it a sport. (The King being the object of interest) ",
"A piano recital had no defense, so no dice. I see winter sports like skiing or summer sports like swimming to be more of competitions or competitive activities rather than sports because they have no object of interest, and sometimes no defense. Baseball has defense, competition, and a ball. Same goes for soccer, football, tennis, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and many othes."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
eli5: legality situation?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
44d83r
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czpcx6q",
"comment_text": [
"Don't ask reddit for legal advice, get a lawyer. Reddit is not a lawyer."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czpdcrn",
"comment_text": [
"Since you'll be appearing in court, I would recommend seeking some sort of professional legal council, and maybe looking into sleep disorders/going to a different doctor."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czpdcvl",
"comment_text": [
"Please try ",
"/r/legaladvice",
" since this isn't an ELI5 type question. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czpddru",
"comment_text": [
"If you don't get a lawyer, my suggestion is that you take responsibility for the situation because no one likes to hear \"its not my fault\". It is your fault when it happens the second time. I'd suggest something like \"i've been seeking medical assistance with my tendency to unpredictably fall asleep, but I should not have been driving while I was not certain about the success of my treatment. I'm sorry that I put lives at risk\". Take ownership, have learned something. Don't treat it as a legal issue, treat it as an accountability one and admit a mistake."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czpdei0",
"comment_text": [
"This sub won't likely find you very good advice. For a more legally focussed sub, you can go to ",
"r/legaladvice",
". However, their advice--beyond commenting on what their interpretation of your legal situation is--will be to contact and retain a licensed lawyer in your jurisdiction, who will be able to ",
" handle your case, and inform you of what you should do. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: How do 'off the menu' items work at restaurants? Are they created to build exclusivity?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
45q2ch
| 86
| true
| false
| 0.88
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czzhz0u",
"comment_text": [
"Off menu items are generally 1) Thing made from components of other menu items. 2) Delivery mistakes that either send the wrong item, or send too much of an item. 3) An experiment that they are testing to see if it should be on the menu. "
],
"score": 26
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czzjf9c",
"comment_text": [
"4), specialty food which customers may dislike if they don't know exactly what they are getting. For example, a Chinese restaurant nearby with owners from Sichuan serve the western friendly versions of Sichuan dishes, but if you ask them about it you can get authentic dishes which are extremely spicy and generally taste a lot different."
],
"score": 26
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czzjdr1",
"comment_text": [
"I worked at a place where the chef was also the general manager. Sometimes he would sit in the bar area and befriend customers. If he got to know someone really well, he would make them custom sandwiches or burgers. We didn't have steak on the menu but he ordered it just because there were two guys that would call ahead and he'd make them steak and fries to go."
],
"score": 16
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d00b9en",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah doesn't really seem secret if the whole concept is telling them what to put in a drink. It's like saying Subway has secret menu subs. It's all in front of you, congrats, you picked your own ingredients."
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_czzmywt",
"comment_text": [
"This could also be things that were at one time on the menu but were taken off to make room for new things or maybe because it wasn't profitable enough. Yet they still carry those ingredients for other things and regular customers remember it. "
],
"score": 8
}
|
||
ELI5: Why does the fate of Syria seem to be so important to the world powers?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
45v0hr
| 3
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d00djbx",
"comment_text": [
"Iran gives a fuck because Syria is one of the few Arab states where they have some pull and they want to move from being isolated to being a major regional power.",
"Syria is Russia's only ally in the region and hosts their only Mediterranean military bases.",
"The gulf states hate Assad he hates them. States like Saudi Arabia intent on curbing Iranian influence see him as an Iranian proxy at this point as well.",
"The US basically hates it whenever a government collapses and there's general chaos. Shit's bad for business and good for terrorists.",
"As for:",
"and people dying horrible deaths all over the world which get no attention.",
"Syria is, by far, the largest conflict in the world right now any way you measure it. Also, other conflicts still get plenty of attention. What conflict do you think is getting short shrift?"
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d00ditk",
"comment_text": [
"countries care for different reasons. The biggest reasons are for security and economic reasons. Economy = oil in the region. Security = terrorists and destabilization in the region. ",
"Also, if your enemy/definitely-not-friend is interested in something, you want to try to prevent them from succeeding right? Well, Iran wants to control the middle east with its influence. Russia wants to be involved. The US wants to be involved. Saudi Arabia wants to be involved (who the US helps). None of those actors necessarily like each other or have the same interest in mind. ",
"The word of the game is: geopolitics."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d00dq7e",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for the response. I pretty much already knew this. I guess I was just looking for a more insider opinion to get to the bottom of this whole conflict. I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and it pisses me off that we've been at war in that region for fucking ever. I'm sick of the whole damn thing and want to know what really goes on behind closed doors that makes Russia, Iran, Turkey the US and however other many contries think its a good idea to duke it out in some crusty fuckhole of a country, when we've seen from Iraq, Afghanistan and a host of other conflicts that shooting a country to bits doesn't solve shit. ",
"Makes me think that there is something else going on that the powers that be don't want to tell us. Also, it could just be that pure stupidity is involved and we as humans fail to learn from the past and are masochists at heart. ",
"Occam's razor"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d00ehgi",
"comment_text": [
"sorry to hear you had to go through it first-hand, but Occam's razor indeed... In WW1, the generals sent hundreds of thousands of troops to their death for no real reason considering the tactics and armaments of the time (machine guns + trenches). In Vietnam, US soldiers fought successfully to defend Khe Sanh, only to later abandon it because it was a pretty useless fortification anyway... ",
"I can tell you the reason we're stuck there now is probably mostly ISIS and the other countries involved. We could be more passive if not for them. I bet some of it is just image, too. We can't just abandon the region. Sends the wrong signal to our enemies and allies. If we were a smaller country, sure. Who cares if we decide to just leave? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d00dw6i",
"comment_text": [
"Might be stretching the limit of the ELI5 spirit, but a number of really good comments regarding the situation in Syria has made it to ",
"/r/bestof",
". They all come from slightly different angles that highlights particular nuances of one sort or another.",
"I also found the ",
"explanation by VOX",
" very informative. For a tl;dr, this is the most concise.",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/search?q=syrian+civil+war+&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/search?q=syria&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why do hackers feel the need to release private information to the public like officals' names and addresses? What do they gain from this?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4669j7
| 27
| true
| false
| 0.73
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d02ul8m",
"comment_text": [
"I writing this under the assumption you mean blackhats.",
"Sometimes it's the appeal of vigilante justice such as when a group of hackers released a list of public officials who are a part of the KKK. Everyone wants to be like Batman in their own way.",
"Other times it is just a ploy to embarrass their enemies and gain street cred..... er, web cred."
],
"score": 13
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d02s0zt",
"comment_text": [
"The same thing that kid in middle school got out of making fun of your shoes and squirting ketchup on them. Publicity and embarrassment. Bullies thrive off of the reaction they get out of it, my assumption is thats what pointless hackers get out of pointless hacking. "
],
"score": 13
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d02t2ue",
"comment_text": [
"Sure, why not. I cant think of any other reason other than being vigilantes and anarchists. Which is possible and likely for some but I know a lot of people just do it for the heck of it."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d02tfno",
"comment_text": [
"Could be lots of reasons. The chief reason I can think of is control. I assume OP's question refers to black hats, or criminal hackers. In these cases, they may publish the data for publicity or acclaim, even if it's only among other hackers.",
"Sometimes an amateur security enthusiast may discover a security flaw in a piece of software, merely by tinkering. The company who designed it is likely devoted full-time to developing new tools, so if this person contacted them and said \"Hey, heads up, I figured out your shit can be broken by doing steps 1, 2, and 3,\" it's entirely likely that the flaw would get put on the to-do list and then never get done. So, sometimes good hackers will tell a company \"hey I found a bug, you have 3 months til I release it on the Internet.\" This provides incentive for the flaw to be fixed, but if you buy things from a shady manufacturer, they may not bother fixing it and then your things can get compromised. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d02zhje",
"comment_text": [
"What are thoooooose? "
],
"score": 3
}
|
|
Eli5: does political correctness have anything to do with politics? Where did the political come from?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4696kh
| 5
| true
| false
| 0.65
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d039m63",
"comment_text": [
"I'm guessing it's speaking the way a politician would do. Carefully chosen words not to hurt your reputation. "
],
"score": 10
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d039o1r",
"comment_text": [
"To be \"politically correct\" is to phrase things in a way that is palatable to the public, your constituency. Implicitly, to be ",
" correct may occur at the expense of the truth or being honest about your views.",
"The phrase is often used pejoratively today to refer to a wide number of things, but shouldn't be applied to a serious discussion about what is ",
" correct or not."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d03boq0",
"comment_text": [
"The word \"politically\" in \"politically correct\" does not directly relate to the word \"politics\". It instead relates to the (these days uncommon) word \"politic\", ",
" the 's' on the end.",
"\nˈpɒlɪtɪk",
"\nadjective",
"\n(of an action) seeming sensible and judicious in the circumstances.",
"\n",
"So basically something being \"politically correct\" means its the correct thing to say to be politic, i.e. the correct thing to say to not piss someone off."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d04tc77",
"comment_text": [
"And it changes based on the political environment you're in. So in Iran its PC to call for the death of America, whereas in the US It's not."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d03kkd5",
"comment_text": [
"In college I remember writing a paper tying political correctness to the Nazi party... I can't remember enough to explain how I made that leap."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: How are Artificial Intelligence programs coded so that a computer can LEARN?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4690v6
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d03928h",
"comment_text": [
"It's not hard to write a program that can make decisions based on stored data. Learning just means the computer updates (based on some input) the stored data in such a way that future desicions will be (more) \"correct\" for whatever you want it to learn.",
"Of course, that's usually the hard part, and there are quite a few different ways to go about it."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d038wp2",
"comment_text": [
"Very complex question. So what we (the company I work for C.R.G) currently are doing is giving the code the ability to change its code. So if an algorithm is inefficient,, it will rewrite the code itself to correct and be more efficient.",
"So for a simple example: if I would give the system a question: 1+1 = 2, it would add the numbers up. But it would know that the question was flawed because it is 2, so it does not need to do the calculation. It would then \"\"know\"\" 2.'",
"Adapting and storing and rewriting."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0395sf",
"comment_text": [
"Interesting is there a core of the program that is unchangeable by the program? "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d03chuo",
"comment_text": [
"In principle, it isn't very difficult to make a computer learn by trial and error.",
"It starts by making decisions randomly, and evaluating the results of those decisions. It remembers the choices that lead to a good outcome and weights them more heavily so they are more likely to be chosen in the future. Similarly, bad choice get a lighter weighting and are less likely to be choose. After a lot of trial and error, the computer learns which choices are likely to lead to better outcomes.",
"Here is a program called ",
"BoxCar2d",
" that randomly constructs little carts, and learns which designs work best."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d03aagx",
"comment_text": [
"The root commands that \"call\", well it can change those really/ This is not issac asimov stuff. It just adapts. You can do something called heuristics.",
"You can try and lock some commands but the system will always find a way around it. that is what scares me. We only use it on a closed air blocked network."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: Why Do Dogs Smell so Bad When They're Wet?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
47fmg1
| 2
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0cjuf4",
"comment_text": [
"Bacteria and yeast on your dog leave waste on their skin and fur, and when they get wet, the moisture evaporation carries some of that waste with it."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0cm4jc",
"comment_text": [
"Something tells me cats are gross, too."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0ck7xy",
"comment_text": [
"No problem."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0ck7xy",
"comment_text": [
"No problem."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0clw7z",
"comment_text": [
"Sounds kinda gross. How do you clean it?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: When I am drunk, what happens when a mosquito stings me?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
30krlr
| 3,258
| true
| false
| 0.89
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cptdvb9",
"comment_text": [
"in a mosquito, alcohol (and any fluid other than blood) is diverted to a \"holding pouch,\" where enzymes break it down before it hits the nervous system. \nSo the answer sadly is no."
],
"score": 2611
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cptddyt",
"comment_text": [
"Uh, I think you mean THIS one: ",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc"
],
"score": 931
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cptenpw",
"comment_text": [
"God damm it why do the two answers contradict each other. "
],
"score": 478
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cptf1b9",
"comment_text": [
"They don't, one is saying if you directly introduce alcohol into a insect, (say injection), then it'll affect it. The other is saying that when mosquitos ingest alcohol, it gets filtered out."
],
"score": 475
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cptda3x",
"comment_text": [
"Alcohol does affect insects. There was a post a long time ago about what spider's webs look like when different kind of drugs are introduced to their system. I am not sure what the effects are when it comes to mosquitoes though.\nHere is the link: ",
"http://www.trinity.edu/jdunn/spiderdrugs.htm"
],
"score": 396
}
|
||
ELI5: Why did this glass explode on its own? (Image & details in post)
|
explainlikeimfive
|
47ihw2
| 1
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d57cl",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"Because this is asking about a condition or phenomenon that pertains to yourself, it classifies as a personal problem and is therefore not suited for ELI5.",
"ELI5 is also not for requesting speculation, which is what you're doing here.",
"Try ",
"/r/nostupidquestions",
".",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d5h0c",
"comment_text": [
"First, I wrote Rule 1, I'm well aware what ELI5 is about. I didn't suggest your question was stupid. You're reading into things. ",
"/r/nostupidquestions",
" is a popular subreddit that has much more lax rules on what can go there than ELI5, in that sub there are \"no stupid questions\". If you have a problem with their title you'll have to take it up with them, not me. Most people appreciate being directed to where their post would be okay though. If you'd rather randomly post to subreddits until someone doesn't remove it, that's your prerogative though, I was just hoping to save you some effort and frustration.",
"Nowhere in the rules does it say anything about personal or phenomena pertaining to oneself as not being allowed. ",
"Rules 2: No questions that are just looking for straightforward explanations, that are subjective, hypothetical, looking for speculation, a request for a guide/walkthrough, an overview of a whole category, ",
"I am not requesting speculation ",
"You said",
"Has anyone got any ideas?",
"That's requesting speculation.",
"Your question doesn't belong here, sorry."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d5h0c",
"comment_text": [
"First, I wrote Rule 1, I'm well aware what ELI5 is about. I didn't suggest your question was stupid. You're reading into things. ",
"/r/nostupidquestions",
" is a popular subreddit that has much more lax rules on what can go there than ELI5, in that sub there are \"no stupid questions\". If you have a problem with their title you'll have to take it up with them, not me. Most people appreciate being directed to where their post would be okay though. If you'd rather randomly post to subreddits until someone doesn't remove it, that's your prerogative though, I was just hoping to save you some effort and frustration.",
"Nowhere in the rules does it say anything about personal or phenomena pertaining to oneself as not being allowed. ",
"Rules 2: No questions that are just looking for straightforward explanations, that are subjective, hypothetical, looking for speculation, a request for a guide/walkthrough, an overview of a whole category, ",
"I am not requesting speculation ",
"You said",
"Has anyone got any ideas?",
"That's requesting speculation.",
"Your question doesn't belong here, sorry."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d5ij0",
"comment_text": [
"Then apply those rules to everyone else. A question about whether Gadaffi's regime was good or bad, is asking for an opinion. Asking what that dizzy feeling is when cars alongside you move is asking about something that is a personal concern. I don't get that feeling, it must be something that affects him personally as opposed to a universal phenomenon."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d5kz6",
"comment_text": [
"K, any help you can offer reporting would be appreciated, as I said below, we're volunteers. Feel free to use the report button under the threads title.",
"I've removed those two."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: Are today's unheard fuel prices hindering progress or funding in alternative energy fields?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
47ie4i
| 3
| true
| false
| 1
|
For a lot of people who buy hybrid or electric vehicles or utilize alternative energy in their homes their motivation in the past has been to save themselves some cash. With gas prices so low are people putting off becoming more environmentally responsible?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d4nmk",
"comment_text": [
"That is exactly why OPEC is keeping prices so low. It's not even very good for them, to be so low. But domestic oil and alternative energies are taking off, so they need to undercut the competition.",
"So yes, this is going to hurt alternative energy pretty badly."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d5221",
"comment_text": [
"Yep, \"domestic oil\""
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d5221",
"comment_text": [
"Yep, \"domestic oil\""
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d4pgw",
"comment_text": [
"It could go both ways, honestly. It could make it so that people don't want to buy a new car, since it isn't overly expensive to keep driving the car they already have. On the other hand, it can help people transition to the less expensive vehicle options, since they'll have more money they can save and put to purchasing a car with cheaper gas mileage.",
"It mostly depends on if people are afraid gas prices will go back up and they want to not have to deal with high gas prices(by driving hybrid/electric car), or if the person only cares about what is going on right now, doesn't care for what happens to the prices, etc."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0d55zy",
"comment_text": [
"Nope.",
"Investment in alternative energy, and sales of electronic cars have not been affected at all. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: What is the economic argument for not raising the minimum wage to $15 a hour? Is there one?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
2xn5tx
| 23
| true
| false
| 0.71
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp1p1w7",
"comment_text": [
"Raising the minimum wage can be bad for a number of reasons.",
"It can price young people out of the job market. Before the wage hike, I am paying employee \"A\" $15/Hour because they have been working there for a few years and have a lot of experience. I am paying employee \"B\" $9/Hour because she is a high-school graduate with no experience. When the minimum wage is increased to $15/Hour, I will no longer be interested in hiring inexperienced young people and will only entertain interviews for people with consummate experience. ",
"Raising the minimum wage can have impacting effects on other job sectors as well. People who work in skilled labor making $15-20/Hour (think Apprenticeships/Journeymen) will be devalued. Why learn a skill and apply yourself if your best hope is to be earning the same as a burger flipper? ",
"Imposing a minimum wage is ethically wrong. As a person running a business it is my prerogative to pay a wage that will attract workers. If my wage is attractive to workers, they will choose to apply. If my wage is unattractive to workers, I will have no workers. If two people enter into a contract willingly, both understanding the terms, why should the government stop them? ",
"Increasing wage per/hour does not increase wage per/week. If I am an employer you can be sure that people who make the increased wage that have limited or no experience will have their hours cut. I would then increase the hours for the experienced people who now make the same amount of money. ",
"This is not a federal issue. A \"fair wage\" in Oklahoma is not the same as in San Francisco. The states need to be handling this issue (and they are, 20-something states have higher than minimum federal wages). This is a political tactic that simply shifts the burden of the welfare system to the private sector, because no candidate can win/be popular when attempting to raise taxes for more welfare. Which is arguably, what we should be doing. ",
"This will be down-voted to hell. I know the ideas aren't popular, but they aren't wrong either. Working a fast food job is ",
". If you work for minimum wage at McDonalds to support your family of 5 you made some poor choices in life and need to evaluate your options for education and increase your desirability to employers in other sectors. ",
"Food stamps and government help is a ",
" than increasing the minimum wage because it shifts the burden of the poor to the state, instead of the private business owners. The minimum wage should not be used as an anti-poverty program, that needs to be controlled by the state, not shifted into the laps of private business owners. ",
"Corporate profits are very high in America, and I won't sit here and say that everything is A-OK, when it clearly isn't. But raising the minimum wage is NOT the right approach. ",
"edit: added #4, and #5."
],
"score": 71
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp1lgmo",
"comment_text": [
"There is some evidence that raising the minimum wage increases unemployment, but this is controversial and economists disagree on whether or not this effect is statistically significant.",
"Raising the minimum wage also raises operating costs, which can increase the prices that consumers face."
],
"score": 23
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp1r1e4",
"comment_text": [
"Ah, the old minimum wage perpetual motion machine. ",
"It does not work like that. "
],
"score": 17
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp1lxd6",
"comment_text": [
"Raising the minimum wage does not raise production, it only devalues the dollar. For example: Joe owns a bakery and employs Jim at $7.50/hr to bake bread. Jim can make 25 loaves per hour which sell for $2 each. This covers materials, overhead and wages that Joe must pay. Doubling the minimum wage to $15 doubles the labor cost but Jim can still only make 25 loaves per hour. Now a loaf of bread costs $2.60, causing the dollar in your pocket to devalue. \nThis is a simplified but accurate model, ripple effects throughout the economy would increase other costs also with our hypothetical loaf costing closer to $3 eventually. "
],
"score": 13
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cp1sv7m",
"comment_text": [
"I hope people upvote this, because you are 100% correct.",
"At the end of the day, if employers aren't getting more value than what they are paying you, it's bad for everyone involved. People don't get employed, consumers don't get the stuff they want, and the economy is running less efficiently. ",
"The most difficult thing that most redditors don't seem to understand is that not every job is ",
" to support a family. There's a pretty big chunk of people (teenagers, elderly, bored housewives) who ",
" low-skill, part-time work and don't need it to live on a day-to-day basis; they just need experience and spending money. Raising the minimum wage removes this completely because employers simply won't hire those positions and get that production out of other means. If we remove that segment of employment it's not doing anyone any good. "
],
"score": 11
}
|
||
ELI5: Intel Turbo boost, why not just keep it at the frequency that it is turbo boost at instead of a lower frequency? i.e 2.4ghz normal 3.2ghz turbo?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4e1t8g
| 2
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1w9p7y",
"comment_text": [
"There are multiple reasons for a turbo speed vs what is the nominal max speed. In fact, most processors don't run at max unless stressed. I will use my own 4790k as a example. This has a max speed of 4GHz and a turbo speed of 4.4GHz.",
"Let's imagine it like a car engine. ",
"On normal running, the car engine runs at low speed. The engine does not use much fuel and therefore does not run very hot. This is like a processor which will not normally run at max speed. Instead it runs at a lower speed so that it saves power and therefore produces less heat while still completing all tasks you require. ",
"Now consider a engine in 'normal mode' and you flooring the peddle. The engine runs quickly using more fuel but also creates more heat. A processor does this by running the cores at the max speed. However it uses more power and more heat.",
"Finally consider a engine in 'sports mode' and you floor the throttle. The engine runs in a boosted mode but it has restricted performance such as limiting power when it over heats. A processor is similar in the sense that the turbo speed is a speed higher then the max speed but is dependent on conditions. For example on my 4.4GHz turbo processor, not all cores can run at 4.4GHz at the same time. It could be you have four cores running at a faster then max speed or two cores then run at a really fast speed. ",
"TL;DR: Processors change clock speed constantly based on the load. This saves power and heat generation. Turbo mode clock speed is different to max. Max clock speed is the speed all cores can run. Turbo is the speed a subset of those cores can run depending on situations. ",
"I'm sure someone will expand further. I'm not the most processor minded person here. ",
"Edit: I've took a screenshot of my PC running at max speed encoding video. Notice the clock speed is at 4.16GHz, not the 4.4GHz Turbo. Still higher then the max 4.0GHz limit. ",
"Imgur",
"Edit2: From the spec sheet, note how it says \"up to 4.4GHz\".",
"http://ark.intel.com/products/80807/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_40-GHz"
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1w94ic",
"comment_text": [
"At the higher speeds, more heat is generated. This can be dealt with for some period of time, but can't be supported full time. Thus, when the processor is less stressed, it runs at a lower speed to avoid cooking itself."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1wdbx1",
"comment_text": [
"Good explanation! There's just one thing:",
"Finally consider a engine in 'sports mode' and you floor the throttle. The engine runs in a boosted mode but it has restricted performance such as limiting power when it over heats.",
"Sports mode in a car usually just changes the way the transmission shifts. In most cases, it doesn't even increase acceleration, instead just simulates the feeling of a manual or sequential transmission."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1wfk7t",
"comment_text": [
"In Manual cars it actually changes the ammount of fule and compression ratios, providing more total Power for a short while like sklee explained. It's like Chip tuning, but one that comes with factory warranty.",
"\nMy bet is (never owned or actually drivem an automatic :D) that in automatic cars it actually shifts earlier for acceleration in addition to doing the stuff mentioned before :)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1widid",
"comment_text": [
"Entirely depends on the car. For example the newer BMWs actively change engine maps and system settings based on the driving mode. The old M cars specifically detuned the engine when M mode wasn't on.",
"However I agree that other cars differ and only change gearbox maps. My Audi has a CVT gearbox which replicates a fixed gear in Sports mode (shifting late as you mentioned). In Drive it's contiounlsly variable. Ironically it more noisy in Sports but seems quicker in Drive. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: The 9/11 Documents and Saudi Arabia's Threats.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4f4bqd
| 85
| true
| false
| 0.91
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d25ussi",
"comment_text": [
"They Saudis have actually said they want the documents released. It is the US that doesn't want to do it:",
"\"Look, the Saudis have even said they're for declassifying it. We should declassify it,\" he tells Kroft. \"Is it sensitive...a bit of a can of worms or some snakes crawling out of there? Yes,\" says Roemer.",
"http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-secret-28-pages-may-hold-clues-about-saudi-support-for-911-hijackers/",
"As for threats it is the US that is threatening to sanction Saudi Arabia. If such sanctions are imposed the Saudis will not be able to access the funds they have invested in the US economy. So it is only natural that they seek to sell those assets and withdraw the money while they can. Wouldn't you do the same if you thought your money was at risk? Calling it a threat is disingenuous. The US economy will not be hurt by it and the Saudis know it. They just want to avoid losing their money."
],
"score": 10
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d25xesb",
"comment_text": [
"Yes they don't want to lose money. Of course they are going to pull out their investments if the alternative is that they lose all of the money they put in.",
"Also this question is about classified documents not some bill."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d25vhow",
"comment_text": [
"They Saudis have actually said they want the documents released. It is the US that doesn't want to do it:",
"\"Look, the Saudis have even said they're for declassifying it. We should declassify it,\" he tells Kroft. \"Is it sensitive...a bit of a can of worms or some snakes crawling out of there? Yes,\" says Roemer.",
"http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-secret-28-pages-may-hold-clues-about-saudi-support-for-911-hijackers/",
"They want to move their money out of the US because they are afraid the US will impose sanctions and freeze their money. So they want to avoid losses."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d25xrql",
"comment_text": [
"Its about the same thing so i dont see why you say that"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d25xxgs",
"comment_text": [
"ok my bad."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: In South Africa, why is crime so much higher in rural Coloured communities as opposed to black communities?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4f6zu0
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.57
|
Gangsterism?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d26ef1r",
"comment_text": [
"Crime scales with ",
" more than anything else. Poverty in South Africa disproportionately affects blacks for many reasons, but the biggest one is racist apartheid laws enforced all the way up until 1994."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d26ew41",
"comment_text": [
"If you look at the maps I linked, that's not true. Poor black areas in Limpopo are generally safer than poor coloured areas in the interior of the Cape provinces."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d26fecs",
"comment_text": [
"What do you mean \"Colored\"?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d26fh3o",
"comment_text": [
"It's an ethnic group of mixed African, European, and Asian descent found mainly in western South Africa. They mainly speak Afrikaans."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d26y0vj",
"comment_text": [
"If I understand correctly, you've compared poor mixed- ethnicity areas with poor homogeneous areas. In a nation with a fairly recent history of strong racism. So poverty + racial tension is greater than just poverty, is my thought. certainly that's how it tends to work everywhere (and every",
") else. People get tribal, and fight for resources."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: If Great Britain leaves the European Union in the upcoming referendum, how would that change the rights of Britons to live and work freely within the Schengen area? What other things would change for the average British citizen?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4f1wg8
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
The news has been talking non-stop about the possibility of a 'Brexit' from the EU. I'm thinking of moving abroad within the EU for a couple years and concerned how this might affect my prospects.
Thanks.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d2572fk",
"comment_text": [
"Unsure. There is no legal framework for a EU-member wanting to leave the union. ",
"Worst case scenario, British citizens would need to ask for a visa to be able to work & live on the continent. Chances are however that the UK would sign some bilateral accords again with the EU very shortly, and get in a situation akin to Switzerland or Norway."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d259az4",
"comment_text": [
"Probably not like Norway, since being in the customs union means that you have to pay the EU for imports, have to apply all EU regulations and not have any say in them. I can't imagine the British people accepting that."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d25ajbv",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah; what I meant is 'not technically in the Union, but having a lot of treaties with it'."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d25750y",
"comment_text": [
"No one knows. Most likely, freedom of movement would end but there'd be some transitional arrangement for people already living abroad. The UK doesn't want the rest of the EU to send every British citizen home, and the rest of the EU doesn't want their citizens sent home either."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d257dne",
"comment_text": [
"I doubt it would affect it much. New treaties would/will be drawn up to solve issues like this"
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5: How to not get screwed buying a used car
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5idzbl
| 3
| true
| false
| 0.8
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbtdns",
"comment_text": [
"As someone who has spent most of my life in the car business I will say I am constantly amazed by people like this. A quick internet search tells me a chevy sonic has up to $2650 in total markup but people will never trust that because idiots like this who confidently convey a message of 90% markup and will most likely back it up with a story about how he once saved 85% on a car by paying cash."
],
"score": 23
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbqqqm",
"comment_text": [
"Do you have any proof of this markup?"
],
"score": 14
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbtm4s",
"comment_text": [
"I wish there were those kind of profit margins. I'd be a rich rich man instead of a broke ass college student."
],
"score": 13
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbspf4",
"comment_text": [
"It's astounding how wrong your information is."
],
"score": 13
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbuv1o",
"comment_text": [
"Its crazy to me how confident you can be while being wrong. That's a talent in and of itself."
],
"score": 12
}
|
||
ELI5: why do humans have phobias
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3c6ws9
| 52
| true
| false
| 0.77
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csst5ei",
"comment_text": [
"If you have an experience which makes you genuinely afraid for your life then you pick up on features of the environment that serve as a trigger to that danger. People tend to unconsciously fixate on things that are novel to them.",
"An easy example is that you go to a party and you eat some caviar on toast and you've never eaten caviar before. Then you become violently ill. You're more likely to develop an involuntary acquired nausea response when exposed to caviar (because it's unfamiliar to you) than to toast (because you've eaten this many times before and know it's benign).",
"Similarly if someone is raped by someone wearing a leather jacket they may acquire a phobia against any exposure to someone wearing a leather jacket. They rationally know that leather jackets have nothing to do with them getting raped. ",
"But we are hard wired to acquire involuntary phobias to things we associate with danger, especially if they are novel, regardless of how rational this is.",
"It's an evolutionary advantage to avoid anything that we associate with a threat to our life. Again, regardless of how rational that is."
],
"score": 36
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csstzly",
"comment_text": [
"caviar",
"It's funny you mention caviar in particular because I have a story regarding that.",
"My parents really like caviar. One day my mom makes us tea and puts up some bread with different spreads (mostly jam) but also yellow/orange caviar. I bite into what I thought I was eating peach jam but it may have been caviar... I got nauseated immediately. "
],
"score": 8
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cst49b5",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not super sure to why some crazy fears like, \"Genuphobia\" (fear of knees) exist, BUT, I can contribute a bit on the clown thing. The reason for this is the \"uncanny valley\" This ",
"video",
" talks about it from a film/games point of view. And the voice might be obnoxious but if you watch the video it does a great job of explaining it. \nThis other ",
"video",
" also talks about the valley of the uncanny and really addresses your question about fear outside the survival instinct. "
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csstcwj",
"comment_text": [
"Human beings are capable of strong feelings/emotions, one of these feelings/emotions is irrationality. A phobia is an irrational fear, a fear that comes from something that can't possibly do a person any harm. That's why there is no word for a fear of sharks or lions, it's perfectly rational to be fearful of apex predators. As for the other random fears, some could be routed in childhood, some could be from a trauma that is suffered, but most have an irrationality that connects them.",
"TL;DR: Human beings are irrational creatures "
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cssy27l",
"comment_text": [
"I hated that book. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
|
ELI5: Anti depressants?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3d4uzb
| 2
| true
| false
| 0.75
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct1rv3j",
"comment_text": [
"I've gone through the therapy, the medication, the sit down with family. I know, at least on the surface, what you're kind of going through.",
"First thing I want to say is if your therapist is not breaking through and you don't feel comfortable telling them everything, find another therapist. It's their job to get you to that point. Trust me, a good therapist will make a huge difference. You don't need to keep shit bottled up inside, it doesn't help you in any way.",
"Second: medication. There is no magic medication. You are still going to carry those demons with you every day. That's why therapy is important. With the right person, it helps tremendously.\nWhile there is a ton of research out there, don't take other people's experiences and assume it will apply to you. Finding the right medication is like finding a pair of pants that fit just right. For some people, they might experience terrible nausea, headaches, dizziness, irritability, etc. but for ",
" it may be the perfect medication and you need nothing else. You just have to be patient and try different ones until you find one that ",
". Not one that you can tolerate. One that actually makes you feel better. ",
"With a good therapist and the right medication, if you choose to take any, you will get better. I promise.",
"Feel free to pm if you wanna talk more about this kind of stuff. It gets better."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct1t35q",
"comment_text": [
"That's great man. That's seriously takes some real ambition. Well done to you. I know people who have come off them too, and others that are still on them after a few years. It takes some real authority and will power to address your own problems instead of getting in the rat-race and hoping society will fix them for you; whilst putting you out of pocket. The thing don't come cheap. I bet it was one of the hardest times in your life, but it sure did pay off. It's great that you've found ways to occupy your mind. A lazy mind, is a empty mind that will constantly fill itself with negative thoughts. It is our superego that criticises our real-selves. That's why we get negative thoughts when we aren't doing anything. That's why reddit is such a good idea. People can come here and ask whatever they want without the thought of being judged. You are one of the ambitious few. Unfortunately i see so many people around here that have become depressed and no longer want to even go to work so are living off benefits. People think they're 'slacking' but don't understand emotional pain is like physical pain. I bet this was one of your greatest learning curves and wish you all the best to continue in the future. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct217ai",
"comment_text": [
"I really like this."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct1rs71",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not sure what you want us to explain here. Most of us aren't doctors and for even those who are they couldn't diagnose you from a couple of paragraphs.",
"You need to tell your therapist what you told us. I spent some time on antidepressants when I was younger. Yeah, they aren't totally great, but they are the reason that I didn't open a vein during that time and the reason I am still here now.",
"If you need them for a while, you need them. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct1ujc7",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for all the feedback. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: How are sand sculptures possible to build?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3dwrnn
| 24
| true
| false
| 0.74
|
Like this post for example: Unbelievable Batman Sand Sculpture in Parksville, British Colombia All my experiences with sand have been a crumbly mess
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct9er8w",
"comment_text": [
"IIRC, they use spray bottles full of adhesives to make the sand stick, then shape the sand into the sculpture."
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct9fv0b",
"comment_text": [
"Yup they make a huge mound of sticky sand then remove what they want to create their art. "
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct9lmcv",
"comment_text": [
"This sub doesn't like one word answers generally, but this is a question that can be answered fairly simply: ",
"Glue."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct9ocza",
"comment_text": [
"i want to say this makes it a lot less impressive but ive only made an ashtray out of clay, so what do i know"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct9iyad",
"comment_text": [
"Not all kinds of sand is good enough to form a sculpture of it. It depends on the shape, the size, and the sturdiness of the particles. If you want to use a sand that has particles the same size and shaped like marbles - well, that sand will behave more or less like a bucket of marbles. It wont keep it's shape at all. When the builders find the right type to use, they deliver it to the place of the future sculpture, and form a block of it, using formwork and vibrators (just like they would use concrete), they fill up the right sized block of sand layer by layer. The vibrator is used to move the particles to te closest position to each other - while the smaller particles fill the gap among the greater ones, and the water is needed to help moving the particles to the right place. After the water is gone completely, they remove formwork and can start to form the sculpture, removing the material that isn't needed."
],
"score": -2
}
|
|
ELI5: Why does closing my eyes burn when I'm really tired?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3denkw
| 131
| true
| false
| 0.89
|
There are days I just can't wait to get into bed and go to sleep, but sometimes closing my eyes for the first time (other than blinking) burns for a bit. I'm guessing it has something to do with when they've been used a lot or under a lot of stress or when staring at a screen for long amounts of time is involved, but what is actually going on?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct4hfuj",
"comment_text": [
"I think it is because your eyes become dry when open for a long time so your eyes burn in order to cause you to tear up, rehydrating your eyes"
],
"score": 37
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct4m694",
"comment_text": [
"TL;DR-- There's probably some dust all up in there. ",
"Usually, when you're really tired, you blink less often, because closing your eyes even momentarily makes you feel sleepy.",
"This, coupled with lots of screen time, means by the end of the day you're going to have really dry eyes. People tend to spend longer chunks of time looking at screens later at night, which means an extended period of little blinking. ",
"Blinking is what distributes the fluid from your tear ducts over the surface of your eyeball. It's the consistent motion that keeps your eyes from being dry. If you go from a long dry eye period, to shut-eye, then the inside of your eyelid is just sort of resting on your unprotected, unlubricated eyeball. It's trapping any dust or dirt particles that might have settled there since you weren't wiping them away when your eyes were open."
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct4ilzv",
"comment_text": [
"I like this idea, dry eyes with the friction of your lids cause a slight form of irritation giving the sensation of burning."
],
"score": 8
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct4lqtj",
"comment_text": [
"The tear ducts are on the sides of your eyes. Blinking distributes the tears. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ct4kpe3",
"comment_text": [
"Hm.. why don't our eyes just tear up when they are dry then.. rather than going the dry.. burn.. tear route...",
"stupid humans."
],
"score": 3
}
|
|
ELI5: How exactly does paper film work?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3egtn1
| 1
| true
| false
| 1
|
I was researching about pinhole cameras because I've never heard of them. Basically because of the small hole, the light of a scene can only enter at certain angles, and it is imprinted onto film which will obviously retain the image just like a regular camera. Also, why are images shown negative on film if the film is supposed to pick up the exact image just inverted?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cteubbw",
"comment_text": [
"when you put film into a camera, it's enclosed inside a cylinder. When you take all the pictures, you wind it up so it's all back in the cylinder. ",
"When you need to develop the film ,you have to take it out of the cylinder it came in and wind it on a different kind of reel inside a tub. You do this inside a dark closet or with your hands inside a special closed black bag. Then you add chemicals to develop the film. The negative is now set and is light-safe.",
"When it's time to turn the negative into a positive you do it in a \"dsrk room\" which, as you know, is lit by a dim red light. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cteswz9",
"comment_text": [
"Film stock is treated with light-sensitive chemicals.",
"Where light ",
" the film activates a reaction which ",
" the film, no light = no reaction so the film doesn't change in those spots. So the image produced is a negative because it can only show where there ",
" light, not where there was dark. This is then inverted when you ",
" the negative onto photo paper (by shining a light through the negative)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cteta45",
"comment_text": [
"So if I were to expose film to a very sunny day, would the vast amount of light ruin the film?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cteteg2",
"comment_text": [
"Absolutely! you must never expose film to sunlight. Or indoor lighting. Or ",
" light ",
" except when taking a photo."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cteu4ln",
"comment_text": [
"So how does one take out the film after the image is imprinted without it being ruined aside from taking it in a pitch-dark room? Is that what those red-lit rooms are for? ",
"Sorry, I know next to nothing about photography"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: What does it mean to be "Triggered"
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3escap
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthx85h",
"comment_text": [
"But the ones SJWs cry makes zero sense to me.",
"Exactly. People have hijacked the term and misused it, to the point of it becoming an online slang term for being \"offended\"."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthxgnb",
"comment_text": [
"It is sad when people who actually get triggered and have actual PTSD are having to hear that term being sloshed around by people who do not really know what it feels like to be triggered."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthwh1a",
"comment_text": [
"For people who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sounds and images that remind them of their trauma can trigger flashbacks and panic attacks. You can find stories of veterans panicking when they hear fireworks because they think they're back in the war and they're being shot at. That's being \"triggered\".",
"Some people have borrowed this word to mean \"being made uncomfortable\". An obese person could be \"triggered\" by comments about dieting. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthwqu6",
"comment_text": [
"I understand the PTSD triggers, I've witnessed them... But the ones SJWs cry makes zero sense to me."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthxo83",
"comment_text": [
"No personal experience w legitimate \"triggering\", but I've always liked the attitude: An intelligent human being cannot be insulted. If it's a lie, ignore the idiot or sue. If it's the truth . . . "
],
"score": 0
}
|
||
ELI5: Why can a serial killer find God and get into heaven but a moral atheist is automatically going to hell?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3esclc
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.29
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthwj3b",
"comment_text": [
"For the religions that hold this view (many christian sects for example) they start at a different point.",
"They don't see ",
" as moral. If everyone is too flawed to get to go to heaven then it's no surprise that a \"moral atheist\" would also be too flawed along with a serial killer.",
"So how do people get there? According to the often referenced bible verse, John 3:16:",
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.",
"If by default everyone is flawed, but anyone who believes in Jesus \"shall have eternal life\" you reach the conclusion in your title.",
"In short, these groups believe that you aren't capable of swaying the mind of god about how flawed you are, only Jesus is capable, and jesus does so on your behalf if you believe in him."
],
"score": 11
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthwbu4",
"comment_text": [
"It depends on the religion. In many religions it only matters if you lead a good life, regardless of religion. "
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthzj93",
"comment_text": [
"If Jesus was truly good, his advocacy on our behalf would not be contingent upon our belief in him. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cthzj93",
"comment_text": [
"If Jesus was truly good, his advocacy on our behalf would not be contingent upon our belief in him. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctir10c",
"comment_text": [
"In Christianity nobody deserves to go to heaven. A serial killer, an atheist, the pope and your mother are all horrible pieces of shit who deserve to die a horrible death and go to hell. The other side of that is anyone who sincerely asks for forgiveness, gets forgiven."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: How did some universities earn its reputation as a "Party school"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3f9btc
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
Every time someone mentions "ASU" or "USC" people comment how it's a party school with a vibrant . These schools all have good programs and have solid reputations but when a school is recognized by Playboy as a "party school" or "best place to get laid", some eyebrows will be raised by administration and professors. How did these schools become known as party schools in the first place? There isn't anything really intrinsic about Arizona or Southern California that makes students party more, is it? Almost none of the Ivy Leagues have that reputation but maybe students are just attracted to schools for different goals.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctmiusw",
"comment_text": [
"I graduated from a ",
"school",
" that had a reputation of being a party school. At the time as a student, it seemed like something a source of pride.",
"After I graduated, I realized the negative impact of that reputation. When I was still a greenhorn, in job interviews people would comment, \"oh you went to the party school,\" instead of respecting the value of the degree. ",
"Since that time, the city and the university have been actively trying to discourage that reputation. The crazy parties of Pioneer days, Labor day, Halloween and St Patty's day are all gone. ",
"Now that I'm older, probably a good thing, I was there the year someone set a police car on fire at a ",
". "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctmig2n",
"comment_text": [
"maybe students are just attracted to schools for different goals.",
"This is pretty much it. Some students value the partying aspect of college more than the academics. So, if ASU or USC has a reputation of being a party school then it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The partiers will go there because they heard it's a party school and so the myth becomes reality."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctmiizd",
"comment_text": [
"but \"party schools\" have never weighed down an institution's academic reputation to such an extent that the administrations say \"It's time to do something about this...let's shut down parties!\"",
"I don't know of any instances where college rankings were negatively impacted by too much partying. However this might appear on the drop out list "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctn4y65",
"comment_text": [
"Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"I'm sorry but ",
"top level comments",
" are reserved for explanations to the OP or follow up on topic questions.",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctn4y65",
"comment_text": [
"Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"I'm sorry but ",
"top level comments",
" are reserved for explanations to the OP or follow up on topic questions.",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Here in the UK we are one of the windiest countries in the world, but also very northerly with quite weak sunlight, so why is there such a big push here for solar power as opposed to wind?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4ieo4m
| 5
| true
| false
| 0.86
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d2xfd5x",
"comment_text": [
"Wind power can be very inefficient, whereas a good solar panel receives the sun through thick cloud cover. ",
"Wind turbines need electricity to get them going in the first place, and they don't actually produce that much power. My secondary school got a little (around 12m high) wind turbine to make themselves look green, and that thing won't pay itself off in energy produced for decades, whereas the solar panels that they put on the roof of every building paid themselves off within a few years. Now the school is completely carbon neutral (meaning it produces all of the energy it needs) in summer. ",
"With solar power you get near-constant sunlight. Sure there are peak hours, but the sun is always overhead during the day, and gone at night. In contrast, wind power is nowhere near as reliable: there can be no wind, too little wind, even too much wind. I was in Devon and Cornwall during the January/February storm in 2014, and I saw a lot of shattered wind turbines that were either completely broken or had been disabled, pending repairs.",
"So in summary, the basic technology behind wind power is nowhere near as advances as solar power, on top of that wind power is reliant on a very unreliable resource. Offshore windfarms are superior to land-based windfarms in about every regard, which is why there was a big movement a few years ago to install a lot of them in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland (which pissed off Donald Trump).",
"The one advantage wind has over solar is space: solar farms require vast amounts of space to be covered, and there really isn't much of that in the UK. With wind turbines, a large amount of them can be installed in a relatively small area for their size.",
"If you are looking to make a property more energy efficient, invest in solar power, not wind. If I recall correctly the government will actually pay you for providing to the national grid if you produce a surplus amount of energy (although the government might have axed that)."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d2xsnqd",
"comment_text": [
"Actually the northern location is not such a big deal for solar power as people often assume. As the solar panels are tilted toward the sun, the elevation does not matter that much and northern solar panels can produce almost as much electricity as they would in tropics. In north they need larger area to deploy them on, but per panel the production is almost the same."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d2xw04j",
"comment_text": [
"The lack of sunlight in Britain is chiefly due to the weather rather than how far north we are. If it isn't raining, then it is completely overcast. Days like today where we can see the great lightbulb are a rarity. ",
"Being far to the north freaks out tourists (especially in winter when the sun rises at ~9 and sets at 4), but like you said, it has very little to do with the efficiency of our solar panels. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d2xfkp0",
"comment_text": [
"Wiltshire. Neither that sunny or that windy on average, but it's absolutely cloudless today and all the shirtless, middle-aged men in B&Q are already sunburnt. It's a good day for solar power today.",
"The county council has invested in solar; there are around three farms in my local area, and apparently the entire county produces 4Gw of juice (although I don't know how frequently that is)."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d2xfkp0",
"comment_text": [
"Wiltshire. Neither that sunny or that windy on average, but it's absolutely cloudless today and all the shirtless, middle-aged men in B&Q are already sunburnt. It's a good day for solar power today.",
"The county council has invested in solar; there are around three farms in my local area, and apparently the entire county produces 4Gw of juice (although I don't know how frequently that is)."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5:How stealthy are stealth planes (B-2, F-22, F-35 etc.) in todays world with current technology.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3z95hn
| 5
| true
| false
| 0.7
|
How well do they perform with today's detection systems?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyk8h2v",
"comment_text": [
"It honestly depends on what you mean, and what detection methods are being used.",
"If we're talking about radar detection, it depends on the aircraft itself, and the radar's frequency band (what frequency the radar's using).",
"For example, the F-117, the original stealth aircraft, has its RCS (radar cross section), or how large it appears to a radar (and thus how close it can be detected, larger objects can obviously be detected further away than smaller ones), greatly depends upon the radar's frequency band. What I mean is:",
"are the rough estimate RCS figures of the F-117 against certain frequency bands. You can see how at lower frequencies, it appears larger, because it's harder for the aircraft to reflect those radio waves away from the point of origin (the way a radar works is, it sends a radio wave in this direction, and listens for a return, which means there's something there).",
"So it really depends on the radar's frequency band. Lower frequencies are better at detecting most stealth aircraft (I say most, because certain shapes offer better protection from low frequency radar, like the B-2's flying wing shape for example), but they come at a price. They require a lot more power to transmit, which means the radiation they put off (anything broadcasting a signal is putting out electromagnetic radiation), which gives pilots a warning before they come within range. It also makes targeting the radar with anti-radiation missiles easier, since the radar's making itself a bigger target. Also, lower frequencies are quite inaccurate. Because of the way the waves interact at lower frequencies, you might see an F-22 pop up, but you wouldn't see it's exact location. You would only see that there's one in this general area. That'd be fine for an early warning system, but it wouldn't work really well for a SAM (surface to air missile) site. What the new Russian S-400 SAM system does, is use low frequency radar to get an idea, and then uses higher frequency systems to give a more accurate track once they get a bit closer.",
"However, if we're talking about aircraft based radar detecting a stealthy aircraft, that's a different story. We know that low frequencies are good against stealthy aircraft, but a fighter aircraft simply can't have a low frequency radar. They would have to be huge, and would take up far too much power. It's just not a possibility for a fighter to have one. They instead, have to rely on higher frequency systems that can be smaller and take less power, but it means they're not as effective for detecting stealthy aircraft. For a rough example, look ",
"here",
". What it is, is a graph of how certain aircraft ",
" ground based higher frequency radars fair against a target with a certain RCS at that frequency. (note, these numbers aren't 100% accurate, but they're a really good explanation) As you can see, the smaller your RCS is, the closer they have to get before they detect you. Seeing a 1m",
" fighter like a Rafale wouldn't be a problem, as they can be detected from 100-200NMI (nautical miles) away, just outside the range of long range anti-air missiles. However, when you start dipping down into the lower RCS numbers, like .001M",
" and .0001M",
" you see the detection ranges drop to only 25-30NMI, which is a huge problem. That's a huge problem, because it gives the stealth aircraft a huge buffer range, where they can shoot missiles at you, where you can't even see them. What I mean by that is ",
"this",
" that I just made as a rough guide. The black dot is an F-22. the grey is the area where a, say, Su-30 can detect the F-22. The red is the range of the F-22's AIM-120D missiles. The F-22 has all that excess room to line up perfect shots on the Su-30, where the Su-30's radar doesn't realize it's not alone in the sky. Stealth against non-stealth aircraft, is devastating because of that reason. For a real world example, in 2013, Iranian F-4s flew in to intercept a Predator drone performing ISR (intelligence) in international airspace off the coast of Iran. An F-22 that was escorting the drone, flew underneath the F-4s, and then flew up to their wing, before the F-4s realized it was there, at which point the F-22 told the F-4s that they should go home. (story on the Aviationist ",
"here",
")",
"Also, there's IR (infared, aka heat) detection. An F-22 flying at 1200MPH is going to be putting out massive levels of heat. That's just how it is. But that heat signature, can give them away, if the SAM site, or enemy aircraft, is using IR detection. The IR detection will pick up a large heat signature in this area, where you see nothing else on your radar. Bam, you know there's something stealthy in that area. Certain SAMs and missiles, allow for you to target, simply based off the IR signature. Meaning, you can target the F-22 based off its heat signature, before you actually see it on radar, given the heat signature of it is big enough. That's why aircraft like the B-2, fly slower, and have the engines embedded into the aircraft, as way to reduce the IR signature. If you're not sure what I mean, ",
"here is the rear of the B-2",
". You don't see the engines at all, just where the exhaust comes out. That greatly helps reduce the IR signature, but it lowers the top speed a lot as well."
],
"score": 17
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cykasl8",
"comment_text": [
"A lot of this stuff you can learn from books ",
"[PDF of ",
"]",
", ",
"online sites like this (",
")",
", and also on certain forums on the internet - sometimes 'armchair generals' can also be radar engineers, etc (two decent forums are ",
"F-16.net",
" and ",
"The Secret Projects Forum",
").",
"Always be wary of any specific comparisons and figures mentioned on the internet though - the F-117 for example has had some information declassified due to it's vintage and retirement, but data on jets like the F-22, F-35, J-20, J-31, PAK-FA, etc are ",
" always estimates, sometimes reasonable ones, sometimes rubbish ones. Even simulations performed by 'experts' or institutes don't have access to important information, such as the internal structure of jets (eg, most of those 5th gen fighters have radar-transparent leading edges on their wings with antennas in them - how exactly those antennas are designed as well as how the radar absorbing materials are used under the skin of the jet can play a significant factor).",
"Overall, the best resources for aircraft-specific data is official military sources, although you have to take a grain of salt with those as well, as they're often either underestimates (the real specs are even better), subject to change, or sometimes just propaganda. The quoted words of a general being interviewed is nearly always better than faceless official statements from organisations.",
"With that said though, I fully stand by the figures used by ",
"/u/lordderplythethird",
" in the above post (the F-117 ones can be sourced to figures released about the XST competition, the 0.001m",
" - 0.0001m",
" figures are understood by reputable aerospace journalists and analysts to be the ballpark that the F-22 and F-35 are in [more so the second figure], although as you'll understand once you've learned the basics of stealth, even those figures are highly dependent on the scenario, both on frequency as has been said, and on aspect angle; the direction that the radar is hitting the jet from)."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cykafxj",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you for writing all that out. It was perfectly brief, informative and educational. ",
"How do you know so much about stealth aircraft and radar?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyk8z8p",
"comment_text": [
"That would be ",
"Zoltán Dani",
", who later admitted he made that up as a way to make America afraid to use their stealth aircraft.",
"What happened was the Air Force became too lax, and was flying the F-117s along the same path at the same times, every single day. Dani realized the schedule, and parked his SA-3 battery along the path, and waited until the F-117 was overhead, at which point he fired 2 missiles, with 1 bringing it down."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cyktorh",
"comment_text": [
"They are not invisible to radar, just their signature is greatly reduced.\nInstead of a plane sized object, it may reduce it to a bird sized object - at extreme ranges of the radar it won't reflect enough signal to get a lock, but close enough it will. \nAccording to the wiki as well, Zoltan turned on his radar for longer and higher strength just to get a lock.\nHe was in the right place.",
"Also\n\"The F-117's large kite-shaped titanium engine outlet heatshield is still kept by Dani in his garage.\"\nWhat a bamf!"
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: How did the world just come about?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
48hbq9
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0ji7qh",
"comment_text": [
"He said world, not universe. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0ji30h",
"comment_text": [
"It didn't just pop into existence.",
"Clouds of gas and dust orbiting our star coalesced through gravity to form planets and moons. Our planet was formed in the right place for life to talk hold."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0ji5ln",
"comment_text": [
"Assuming you mean the universe, no one really knows and, most likely, we'll never be able to know for certain. The best scientific explanation we have is that all energy and matter were condensed into a single point approximately 13.8 billion years ago. The universe expanded from this point in what we call the Big Bang. This noticeably does not answer the question \"where did all of that energy/matter come from and why was it in a singularity?\""
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0jik9h",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, but the post (before it was deleted) asked about how something came from nothing, which makes it sound like \"the world\" was supposed to mean all of existence. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0jiot1",
"comment_text": [
"I think we can both agree that OP was muddled on one or both points. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: how are presidential candidates able to request protection by the secret service? Do they have to pay?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4ae4io
| 6
| true
| false
| 0.8
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0zk6nd",
"comment_text": [
"No, they don't pay. Major presidential candidates get Secret Service protection; this has been standard after the 1968 assassination of candidate Robert F. Kennedy."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0zk61t",
"comment_text": [
"As they are all prospective presidents, they are all entitled to security.",
"The secret service is paid by taxes."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0zk72q",
"comment_text": [
"Think of it like this:",
"One of them is the future president of the US",
"The secret service is promised to protect the president of the US current and future",
"I don't think there is a price of protection but that is how I see it."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0zlw2l",
"comment_text": [
"Certain requirements must be met (basically proof they are a contender) and a candidate can request secret service protection. They do not reimburse the government for the costs:\n",
"http://www.shfwire.com/early-candidate-protection-adds-secret-service-burden/"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d0zmujo",
"comment_text": [
"\"I'm OK with letting this dude die because I don't agree with his politics\" is pretty shaky moral ground"
],
"score": 2
}
|
||
ELI5: If RAM is faster than SSDs, why can't we use RAM as a hard drive?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4akqf2
| 3
| true
| false
| 0.71
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d116eh5",
"comment_text": [
"People do, look at Ramdisks.",
"But there are two main downsides:",
"RAM is still expensive as hell per GB compared to SSDs.",
"(More importantly) RAM by its very nature does not store memory when it's not powered. This makes storing long-term data on it troublesome for consumer purposes."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d116k51",
"comment_text": [
"because ram loses all of it's information when you turn off the power (all common modern forms of it that are used as main computer ram, anyway). Hard disks and SSD's are used because they keep their info after you turn off the power, unlike ram.",
"All modern hard drives have a compromise to this known as a \"cache\" - a ache is a limited amount of RAM that sits between the phyical disk of hard drive and the controller. When the computer reads a bit of the disk, it goes on reading past what the computer asked for, and stores that info in the RAM. Hopefully, the next request will be for the info already stored in the cache, which speeds things up."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d116jih",
"comment_text": [
"And when it is powered, it uses a lot."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d116nsu",
"comment_text": [
"Ooh, and it's fun to note here that hybrid HDDs are even more fun - They're a disk based hard drive using an SSD for a much larger cache than normal, in addition to the normal RAM cache in front of that."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d116seq",
"comment_text": [
"and i have seen large battery backed ram arrays with scsi interfaces in the early 90's. Expensive. Like 5K for a 20 meg drive."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: why do joints sometimes "catch"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4c8ve3
| 263
| true
| false
| 0.85
|
For example when you try to straighten your elbow or ankle and it feels like something kinks in the joint so much that you couldn't possibly force the movement any further without causing serious discomfort... And then a minute later you have full range of motion with zero pain again.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1g9y8e",
"comment_text": [
"very sore.",
"That's the polite version of: fucker hurts like a sumbitch, doctah."
],
"score": 86
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1g7byz",
"comment_text": [
"ELI5 isn't a guessing game; if you aren't confident in your explanation, please don't speculate."
],
"score": 77
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1g84xp",
"comment_text": [
"Youd snap a tendon, which would be very sore."
],
"score": 38
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1g84xp",
"comment_text": [
"Youd snap a tendon, which would be very sore."
],
"score": 38
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1g84xp",
"comment_text": [
"Youd snap a tendon, which would be very sore."
],
"score": 38
}
|
|
ELI5: How do Cheerios lower your cholesterol?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3g7fcp
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctw1mpz",
"comment_text": [
"So if I take an Oreo (tm) McFlurry (tm) and add a teaspoon of whole-grain oats to it, I'll magically lower my cholesterol, in spite of the sugar and starch in the dessert? That's the kind of thinking they're encouraging. (sigh)"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctvkyyb",
"comment_text": [
"Cheerios are made from oats, not wheat (though the ingredients indicate wheat starch further down on the list). "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctvkqmz",
"comment_text": [
"You can't believe everything you read, especially in the context of a commercial. And you'll probably note the little asterisk (*) which takes you to a statement that the USDA hasn't approved this statement and that Cheerios does not diagnose or treat any illness. That's standard lawyer speak for \"this statement doesn't really mean anything.\""
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctvl9mb",
"comment_text": [
"I think it'd be weird if my cereal could diagnose an illness."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctvkqy4",
"comment_text": [
"The Cheerios website actually had a ",
"pretty decent explanation",
". ",
"But keep in mind that they never claim and never actually outright say, \"if you eat Cheerios, you will lower your cholesterol.\" They say that ",
" can help lower cholesterol, and whole grain oats are in Cheerios, and then you as the consumer are expected to connect the dots and assume that eating Cheerios = lower cholesterol. It's kind of a tricky bit of advertising to avoid making claims that could be found as unsubstantiated. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: What differentiates a "cuss word" from a normal word?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3g1wor
| 25
| true
| false
| 0.73
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctu24cd",
"comment_text": [
"Well, in some sense, words are defined by what meaning people ascribe to them. So, a word is a cuss word or otherwise vulgar because people ascribe to it a meaning or connotation of vulgarity. Bad words are bad because people believe them to be bad / insulting.",
"But if we dig a little deeper, cuss words tend to have one of three basic origins - sexual, scatological, or blasphemous. The first category includes your F-word, the second one contains s**t and related, and the last one has your hell and your damn and so forth.",
"Why these particular origins? Because that's what was considered \"unclean\" or taboo, especially from a historical setting. Those topics, even today, aren't exactly the paragon discussion topics for polite society, and to associate an action or a person with something unclean is to, in effect, call the other person unclean or otherwise insult them."
],
"score": 24
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctu4acs",
"comment_text": [
"It's also worth noting that a lot of our \"bad\" words come from the Germanic root, while our \"proper\" words come from the Romantic root. ",
"So fornicate is a fine word, but fuck isn't. Same thing for feces versus shit and a number of others. "
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctu4i4y",
"comment_text": [
"This is true. I would suggest this follows from one of two possible reasons. One, that the Germanic root is associated with the language of the commoners and the uneducated, while the Latin root is associated with the language of the Church, the aristocracy, and the educated class. So, the high-class words became the language associated with what is proper, and the low-class words became vulgar.",
"Another reason for this would be that German is a very gruff-sounding language with a lot of throaty, guttural sounds, in contrast to a language with quieter sounds from the lips and tongue. A lot of the reason why cuss words are as such is that they are short words with really hard consonant sounds that are really easy to say if you're in a lot of pain or really want to scream something out at someone you are angry with."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctu7xip",
"comment_text": [
"So, the high-class words became the language associated with what is proper, and the low-class words became vulgar.",
"That's essentially exactly what I was taught about the topic. ",
"After the Norman invasion of England in 1066, the ruling class spoke a version of French (Latin derived) while most of the peasantry still spoke Old English (Germanic) transitioning into Middle English as they picked up some of the French. ",
"This is also why our modern words for farm animals are Germanic (cow, sheep and such) while the words for the food are Romantic (beef, mutton, etc.). The peasants interacted with the animals. The aristocrats ate the dishes. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctu7gah",
"comment_text": [
"Well I don't know why it means female dog but calling someone a dog has never been polite. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: International student funding.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3gk23d
| 9
| true
| false
| 0.65
|
ELI5: With regard to international students. I work retail in a moderately prestigious college town. Many students come in that have received a fair amount from our (US) government plus their respective governments to come here. Some that are even tax exempt, representing 'x' oil company from 'x' country. Ultimately many of these students make more money to come to school for the year than most households ($90,000 US) in the US are able to bring in. How is this so? Moreover how is this money so freely supportive of international students versus being able to be put back into our economy?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctyvhzf",
"comment_text": [
"A lot of people say a lot of silly, confused, or out-right false things. Just because someone says something, doesn't mean it is true.",
"Unless they shows you the paper work and you verify it, don't believe someone who says the US government is paying them $90k a year to come to school here. It is entirely possible that their own family or own government (especially when their own family and their own government happen to be the same thing) are giving them a very large stipend. This would usually not be taxed by the US, as it is foreign source of income to a foreign student.",
"Of course it is also possible they are living off the $6k a year they scam little old ladies out of by pretending to be a Nigerian Prince, and are now trying to scam you out of your pants by pretending to be a wealthy foreign student.",
"And how is this money not going into (not \"back into\", since that isn't where it came from) our economy? They are spending it with you, aren't they, and you are part of our economy?"
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctyweyz",
"comment_text": [
"Generally the US government does ",
" pay foreign students to attend here. The main exception is that a state-funded university may pay a graduate student to be a research assistant or a teaching assistant -- but the pay is very low, nothing like $90k a year, and is usually a bargain for the amount of work and qualifications required.",
"If someone is getting $90k to be a student, that money is certainly not coming from the US government."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctywifd",
"comment_text": [
"The international education market get's students from countries that lack prestigious university infrastructure to pay a premium for an education from a country that does.",
"In fact - they are in all likelihood paying much more for their education than the locals are. In that way they are indeed putting more into your local economy than you are.",
"Its unfortunate that rumors like this get promulgated. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctz58yx",
"comment_text": [
"Based off of the previous comment it may be more of the business/country they are coming from versus the US. Thanks for your input!"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ctz579o",
"comment_text": [
"I'm more referring to the money directly going to sources within our country versus the money going to the international student base. Not that they spend money on our economy. I have at least the intelligence for that. The reason I ask this is due to the incredible amount of funding it would seem they receive. ",
"You may be right with which government it is coming from. I've heard from faculty that process their data and were amazed by the amount of income they receive monthly. ",
"With regard to the tax exemption I have seen a few of these forms. Nothing our store would recognize as giving them tax exemption from us. But it was some kind of official notarized document from the University stating \"this student as a representative of x oil company from (insert middle eastern country) is exempt from all taxes\" (so I can't say if this is a just an on campus thing or what?)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why isn't menstrual blood considered a biohazard, especially in public bathrooms?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3h1e37
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu3d6oz",
"comment_text": [
"Why isn't urine? Or shit?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu3dfwd",
"comment_text": [
"Actually, HIV/AIDS is on the decline. It's fallen by over half since its peak in the 1980s."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu3dfwd",
"comment_text": [
"Actually, HIV/AIDS is on the decline. It's fallen by over half since its peak in the 1980s."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu3dg6l",
"comment_text": [
"B/c HIV exposed to air gets destroyed. However without knowing how much blood drys in a tampon outside body I cannot give you accurate assessment. Also custodians wear gloves when they work and there are no sharp objects so risk to exposure is minimal to zero."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu3eefb",
"comment_text": [
"Sterile in the definition that it formed less than 100,000 colonies in one test. It's not massively dirty, but it's only 'sterile' if you use a certain definition."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: What does the internet adjective "based" mean?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3h90cd
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu5b5f9",
"comment_text": [
"Can you give an example? I don't know what you're asking. What's an \"internet adjective\"?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu5c3mh",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you!"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu5c3mh",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you!"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu5bbs8",
"comment_text": [
"There's a ton of different meanings for \"based\" based on context. Give us an example and we'll give you the meaning."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cu5cvg2",
"comment_text": [
"....eli5: how do I do that"
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: Africa was one of the first populated continents; why were they left behind when the rest of the world moved forward with technological advances?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
4bx1hv
| 301
| true
| false
| 0.87
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1d4xs3",
"comment_text": [
"Super complicated, but short of it is that (a) there were sufficient available resources for immediate needs, which resulted in less need for technological advancement; (b) room elsewhere for excess population to migrate to --- so instead of needing to build up (and the technology that goes with it), populations were able to migrate elsewhere; and (c) climate (think: disease) that is less hospitable to larger settlements."
],
"score": 171
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1d74gs",
"comment_text": [
"The Sahel, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Swahili Coast constitute quite a bit of Africa, and the Portuguese and Spanish were trading along the coasts of Central Africa since the 15th century, resulting Atlantic Creoles along the way. ",
"Most of Africa might be too broad a claim."
],
"score": 44
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1d74gs",
"comment_text": [
"The Sahel, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Swahili Coast constitute quite a bit of Africa, and the Portuguese and Spanish were trading along the coasts of Central Africa since the 15th century, resulting Atlantic Creoles along the way. ",
"Most of Africa might be too broad a claim."
],
"score": 44
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1d4ikh",
"comment_text": [
"When people migrated away, they encountered a lot of environments and climates that they never had before. Forcing them to invent and adapt to survive. The ones that stayed in Africa didn't have that need. That was the basic start of it. When you turn 10 we can toss some geopolitical of recent centuries into the mix. "
],
"score": 34
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d1d6avh",
"comment_text": [
"Short answer: all the good advancements like wheat and horse riding and cows and oxen came from the middle east and Asia. Northern Africa actually was really well developed for a long time. The problem? There's a huge desert in the way of all that moving south into Africa. You have exceptions, like Timbuktu, but overall the Hunter gatherer lifestyle just lasted much longer in Africa and progress builds on itself so whoever gets started first has a huge advantage."
],
"score": 31
}
|
||
ELI5: Can someone explain to me what the Irish Republican Army was/is and their role in Irish history?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3hsrxb
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cua9gk9",
"comment_text": [
"So the first \"Irish Republican Army\" was essentially the first military of an independent Ireland. From 1919-1921 they fought a war for independence with Britain and won. However the war wasn't won unconditionally. As part of the peace process, the island of Ireland would be split into two countries. Most of Ireland would become the new Irish Free State, but six counties in the North would become Northern Ireland and remain part of the UK. The new government of the Irish Free State agreed to this and signed a treaty, but many people felt that this was a bad compromise and wanted all of Ireland to be a single country, free and independent from Britain. Another reason people disagreed with the treaty is that Ireland was still technically part of the British Empire, as part of the Commonwealth. So the Irish people would have full control over their affairs, but officially, the Queen was still the head of state for Ireland. So Ireland immediately broke out into a civil war between the pro-treaty government forces and the anti-treaty forces, who went by the name of \"Irish Republican Army.\" This IRA was a distinct entity from the first army called IRA, which was the official military of the newly proclaimed Irish Republic that fought in that war for independence in 1919-1921. This Civil War was fought between the official Irish military, called simply the \"National Army\", and a new army called the IRA, it was fought between 1922-1923 and ended in a victory for the pro-treaty forces. The Irish Free State existed for 15 years until 1937, when the people elected for Ireland to become an entirely independent country called the Republic of Ireland, which had absolutely no connection to Britain and was not part of the Commonwealth.",
"Now we return to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, it's people were British citizens. The reason for this was because in those six counties of Northern Ireland, the majority of the population was Protestant, and were the descendants of British settlers, not indigenous Irish people. The minority in Northern Ireland were indigenous Irish people, who were mostly Catholic. These Irish Catholics didn't like being part of the UK because first of all, they viewed the British as imperialist conquerors, and also because they had restricted civil rights in Northern Ireland and were treated like second-class citizens. Finally in the late 1960s, the Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland had had enough, so they started a nonviolent protest movement that was inspired by the Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States. They marched and led sit-ins for civil rights. In response to this, there was a backlash by the British Protestant majority, who were often called \"Ulster Loyalists.\" In 1969, there was a riot, and fighting broke out between the Nationalist (or Republican) Irish and the Loyalists. The police at the time, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, were firmly on the side of the Loyalists, and viciously beat down Irish protesters.",
"This began the period called \"The Troubles\" in Northern Ireland. In response to the discrimination against Irish Catholics, a new militant organization calling itself the Provisional Irish Republican Army formed, and decided that nonviolent protest wasn't going to solve the problem, they wanted to fight a guerrilla war to liberate Northern Ireland from the UK. This PIRA was simply called the IRA by everyone, and basically there was constant fighting in Northern Ireland for thirty years. The IRA would bomb something or shoot a cop, and then Loyalist paramilitaries would retaliate by bombing something or shooting someone. There were occasional riots, instigated by both sides. And though the British military and the Royal Ulster Constabulary were ",
" neutral, and just trying to keep the peace between the two factions, most people could see that the military and RUC were on the side of the Loyalists and sometimes even collaborated with Loyalist paramilitaries. Finally, in 1998 however, the Troubles ended in a peace treaty. Irish Catholics were granted civil rights, and the paramilitaries on both sides agreed to give up their weapons and disband and much of the violence ended.",
", since then, the problems still haven't been totally solved, and there are more groups that call themselves things like the \"",
" IRA\" or the \"Continuity IRA\". And there are still occasionally outbreaks of fighting between the Republicans (Irish Catholics) and the Loyalists (British Protestants). "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cubep79",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you for the really detailed reply, it was very thorough and clear."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cubh9n4",
"comment_text": [
"no problem"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cubeomf",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for the detailed reply! :) I knew there were problems in Northern Ireland but I never knew how severe they were."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cua8upt",
"comment_text": [
"The IRA was started after world war I, after Irish veterans returned from the war and started an organized resistance against British rule in Ireland. Eventually they managed to win independence for most of Ireland, called the Republic of Ireland, although the United Kingdom retained control over Northern Ireland due to there being a high number of Scottish and British immigrants in the region.",
"Fast forward a few decades to the 1960's. In Northern Ireland the native Irish are treated analogous to blacks in America, with extremely high rates of poverty and limited civil rights compared to the Scotts-Irish, who were the descendants of the immigrants. An anti-Irish group called the UVF (Ulster volunteer force) intimidated and killed Irish who went \"above their station.\" Exacerbating the situation was an annual parade celebrating the final defeat of the Irish by William of Orange, which went straight through predominately Irish neighborhoods. It's worth noting that although the situation is often described as Protestant vs. Catholic, that was just a convenient way to label racial groups, Immigrants vs. Natives.",
"The native Irish along with some immigrant allies tried to protest their conditions in civil rights marches. These were peaceful, but unfortunately there were several transgressions against the protesters, most notably Bloody Sunday, in which soldiers shot into an unarmed crowd, killing thirteen people. At this point, the IRA stepped in. They had been operating quietly, but they used events like bloody sunday to draw funding and support. They smuggled weapons and planted bombs in an attempt to attack public buildings and assassinate political figures, most notably an attempt on Margaret Thatcher, the then British prime minister who absolutely refused to negotiate with the Irish and who was hated by most of them. The IRA was too violent and draconian however, and the Irish eventually won their rights politically rather than through force. Some members of the IRA were satisfied with this but others wanted total independence. This led to multiple splits in the IRA over the years, producing groups like the provisional IRA and the Real IRA.",
"Today the IRA still technically stands for an independent Ireland, but in reality they're more like a gang. They smuggle weapons and use extortion to gain money. "
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5: Why do boxers have to be at fight weight a day before the match?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
34kvpz
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.43
|
Why not weigh them right before the fight?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvo6re",
"comment_text": [
"Generally, fighters cut their weight down to significantly below their normal weight in order to qualify for their weight class. In order to do that, they end up severely dehydrated. Weighing in the day before allows them to get back to a reasonably healthy hydration state before fighting.",
"MMA, not boxing, but there's a video out there of Tito Ortiz weighing in at 205 pounds, binging on food and liquids and jumping on a bathroom scale that showed 250 or so later that night. "
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvo827",
"comment_text": [
"This doesn't answer the question; the answer to yours could be answered on the day of the fight, just like op mentioned.",
"But why do they do it the day before?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvqgex",
"comment_text": [
"Fighters starve and dehydrate themselves in order to make weight.",
"Waiting a day gives them a chance to recover, so the viewers get a better fight."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvtqhk",
"comment_text": [
"Gives them time to call fight off if needed, hey everybody showed up spent all this money, this isn't a fair fight its gonna be called off?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvnexm",
"comment_text": [
"I'm pretty sure it's because officials need to make sure that the fighters are in the same weight class before fighting. It wouldn't make sense to put a 180 lbs man against a 400 lbs+ man and call it a \"fair fight\"."
],
"score": -1
}
|
|
ELI5: If some animals are so smart, as we say, why can they still be that easily continioned? Why do their brains, in some points, still work only so simple?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
353a0n
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr0jjyi",
"comment_text": [
"Humans are also easily conditioned. We're not that far different from the rest of the animal kingdom. You can influence our behavior with punishment and rewards. We like to think that we're so intelligent, but at times we're not that much better than a pig or dolphin."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr0onjn",
"comment_text": [
"If you want to see how easily humans are conditioned go to Vegas and watch people playing the poker machines. I have a friend who designs those games - his degree is in animal behaviourism (dog training)"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr0jj7k",
"comment_text": [
"Did Charley Day write this question?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr0pujx",
"comment_text": [
"\"Hello fellow American. This you should vote me. I leave power. Good. Thank you, thank you. If you vote me, I'm hot.\" What? \"Taxes, they'll be lower... son. The Democratic vote for me is right thing to do Philadelphia, so do.\""
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr0kt2i",
"comment_text": [
"Another word for conditioning is ",
".",
"Being able to learn is a sign of high intelligence, not low intelligence."
],
"score": 2
}
|
||
ELI5: Why is it that Americans are often portrayed as ignorant of history beyond the confines of the USA and 1776? Is this an accurate portrayal of anyone?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
35hl7q
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
For examples, they are portrayed as saying things at times such as "speak american", even though they speak an English variant and seem poor at international geography etc. EDIT: I'm not trying to insult anyone or say Americans are stupid. I'm trying to understand why such a large nation with such massive educational resources is portrayed as somewhat ignorant. EDIT 2: I'm from Ireland. We have our own massive set of (mostly inaccurate) stereotypes, but as an Irishman I know where they mostly come from. I want to know your opinions, as inhabitants of America, where your stereotypes come from.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr4gkuz",
"comment_text": [
"Not I. Nor the people I know. Your generalized opinion is wrong for most, true for some. ",
"As far as history goes, I'm not up to par. But that is due to a lack of interest. Im a science and natural world type guy. I'm too old to force myself to learn something that holds little to no interest for me. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr4gkuz",
"comment_text": [
"Not I. Nor the people I know. Your generalized opinion is wrong for most, true for some. ",
"As far as history goes, I'm not up to par. But that is due to a lack of interest. Im a science and natural world type guy. I'm too old to force myself to learn something that holds little to no interest for me. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr4gy4a",
"comment_text": [
"Eh... this is one of those questions that lumps so many people together it's rough to answer fairly, as all stereotypes go. But I'll bite. I was raised in a suburban town with very nice schools, and then went to a college prep school in another state, and eventually went to university in yet another state- where I got a BA in English and political science. I've also been teaching history for about 4 years now to at risk youth in a lower socio economic demograph. Out of my experience those that have at least a high school diploma have a decent background knowledge base for world history. That's if they went to a public high school, or a good private school... Now, I've worked charter schools, I don't know about all of them, but the ones I worked at either didn't have a history class at all, or just had one social studies class that covered only American affairs. But for college, unless your major is something like history or political science, they at the most probably only had to take one history class and still then not necessarily a world one if they were at a liberal arts school. So to answer your question - yes students have a decent background on world history (mostly modern) but they don't have to retain it, so I don't personally think most adults or high school drop outs have a great grasp on world history unless it was something they did in college or after."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr4gi7t",
"comment_text": [
"Speak American ",
"Most of us don't say this. ",
"poor at international geography ",
"Except for the major countries, yes."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cr4gqm3",
"comment_text": [
"Every race, nationality has its ups and downs. Good people and bad. Some who could recite every president some who may not even know what day it is. ",
"America: We're not all dumb, fat and loud. We don't all drink Budweiser and smoke Marlboroughs. We don't all carry guns and drive trucks with fake testicles hanging from the bumper. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
|
ELI5:What are these benefits that illegal immigrants receive that have so many people upset?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
363d8b
| 4
| true
| false
| 0.75
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crabyeq",
"comment_text": [
"In the US they receive schooling, emergency medical care, the protection of police and fire departments, the use of roads, at times when they are using false social security numbers they even get welfare. They also depress the work market. Since it is illegal to hire them the employers that use them often do not pay payroll tax for them and pay them under the table at a rate far lower that what that job would make in fair market competition. This in turn means that those who legally attempt to get that job for a fair wage are unable to do so either because the job is already filled by the illegal or because the wage is too low for them to be able to accept the job.",
"But what the illegals have access to does vary by country though. "
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crabtfz",
"comment_text": [
"Because they have no rights, and will work for low wages. This makes them a good candidate over citizens who demands certain rights in the work place and higher wages. This in turn lowers their value (take it or leave it, we've got a dozen Jose in the waiting line) and job opportunity, as they either force to lower their expectation or remain unemployed. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crabqwq",
"comment_text": [
"Well that is based on each country.",
"As far as I know ",
"/r/Finland",
" could answer your question giving you a reason to understand why people are upset."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crac836",
"comment_text": [
"The big ones are Public Services; Education, Healthcare, Police & Fire.",
"All of these resources are supported by taxes. With illegal aliens outside of the tax collection system, they are not paying for the services they are using. Many people consider that the equivalent of theft.",
"To further complicate matters, these resources are limited and suffer when spread too thin. A 10:1 student/teacher or patient/Dr. or civilian/police & fire ratio will result in a better service than 20:1 or 30:1 or more. So the teacher has less time to spend per child per day & your kid's education suffers. You have to wait longer in the ER and get worse care because of the number of people waiting for care. The police don't have time to focus on lesser crimes because the quantity of greater crimes has increased. So on and so forth."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cracgn4",
"comment_text": [
"They are painted as victims by left wing groups, and villains by right wing groups. The thing is, they want something in the us and they don't want to go through the law to get it.",
"So it could be they want money. They come over and trade there freedom for a less than minimum wage.",
"Could be drugs, kinda like bringing booze from Canada back during the abolition. ",
"Could be safety, but they are not much safer hear.",
"Thing is, America is great, and someone without the resources to come here in a dignified manner, comes anyway. ",
"Ideally, we could make everyone in the world an American so there would be no pace to come from, but there are some issues with that. "
],
"score": -1
}
|
|
ELI5: What exactly would happen if all mosquitos were wiped from existence?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
36oixz
| 16
| true
| false
| 0.89
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crfpm2b",
"comment_text": [
"Malaria would be eradicated for one and campers worldwide would rejoice.",
"Many experts postulate that nothing harmful would happen if mosquitoes were to go extinct, as other insects would take over the functions mosquitoes currently serve.",
"Nobody knows for sure, though, ecosystems are incredibly complex constructs and there is no way of knowing if mosquitoes serve an obscure yet an extremely important purpose."
],
"score": 13
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crfpow1",
"comment_text": [
"Pros:\nMalaria, West Nile, Yellow Fever, etc would become nearly non-transferable ",
"Cons: Mosquito larvae provide food to many types of fish and mosquitoes themselves are food source for many birds, and without that food numbers would fall drastically. ",
"They could find other sources of food, but the amount of larvae and mosquitoes makes them a readily available food source that requires minimal hunting effort. It would cause way more harm than good, as birds and fish provide food for other predators, which in turn are food for bigger predators, which eventually comes to us.",
"All-in-all it ",
" wouldn't be cataclysmic, but the overnight extinction of an entire family of insects would lead to endangerment or extinction of many animals."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crfskt7",
"comment_text": [
"Mosquito genocide is already being planned.",
"This is an excerpt from:",
"http://www.medicaldaily.com/malaria-eradication-scientists-modify-mosquito-sperm-produce-only-male-offspring-new-approach-end",
"\"In the new study, which has been published in the journal Nature Communications, scientists have tried to control the female population in the mosquito species Anopheles gambiae, one of the most common species to spread the parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. In order to ensure that the offsprings were exclusively male, the scientists inserted a DNA-cutting enzyme called I-PpoI into the mosquitos. I-PpoI works by cutting the DNA at precisely located sites so that homogenous fragments are formed rather than random pieces of DNA. When introduced in the mosquito, the enzyme cuts the X chromosome from the DNA in the sperm. Normally, X chromosomes present in the sperm produce female offsprings and the Y chromosome produce male offsprings. But with the absence of the X chromosome in the sperm of the mosquito, its progeny were all male.\""
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crfrvd5",
"comment_text": [
"I swear a redditor is going to plan a mass genocide against mosquito's by creating some chemical compound."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crg9ije",
"comment_text": [
"Great, hopefully this gets more funding."
],
"score": 2
}
|
||
ELI5 Why do jeans shrink after washing and then go back to normal after being worn?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
34kv4v
| 906
| true
| false
| 0.83
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvp0kw",
"comment_text": [
"Denim is a very strong material, it's actually so strong that it's used in paper money. When it gets washed and then heated up when dried, the fibers in the strands tighten up due to the heat. Wearing them forces the fibers back apart. It's actually what causes jeans to eventually tear because the fibers have contracted so many times that they lose their strength. "
],
"score": 371
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvp1p9",
"comment_text": [
"When you wash them, water fills up and spreads out the fabric.",
"When you dry them, the water is removed, and the fabric winds up more pulled together than before.",
"When you wear them, you stretch that fabric out again."
],
"score": 268
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvpn52",
"comment_text": [
"I wash cold and line dry and they still shrink while washing. I don't think heat can be the cause (or at least not the whole cause)."
],
"score": 128
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvpxtw",
"comment_text": [
"line dry in the sun?"
],
"score": 71
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cqvsprp",
"comment_text": [
"Isn't that why socks disappear in the dryer? "
],
"score": 71
}
|
||
ELI5: Testing prime number candidate by dividing by primes.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
36sa8m
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
Hello, I am writing an algorithm that sums all prime numbers before 2,000,000. It currently identifies a prime number by dividing every odd number before 2,000,000 by every number greater than 1 and less than the candidate. I have been told that I don't need divide the candidate by this many numbers, but only by previously identified primes. If someone could explain below ir post a link to an explanation it would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgm9a6",
"comment_text": [
"It's a principle known as the Sieve of Eratosthenes.",
"The reason why you only need to divide by primes is simple. Any object that is not a prime, is a result of the multiplication of at least 2 primes. (If it were not, it would itself be a prime number).",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sieve_of_Eratosthenes",
" ",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_theorem_of_arithmetic"
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgmtk5",
"comment_text": [
"1) You don't need to divide by any number greater than the square root of the candidate prime. If the candidate has a divisor greater than it's square root then it must also have a divisor less than its square root (and vice-versa) - since the quotient of a number and one of its factors is also a factor.",
"2) You only need to divide by prime numbers. ",
"Every composite number has a unique prime factorization",
" - this implies that if a number has no prime factors besides itself, then it is a prime. If there is a composite number that divides the candidate, then there any of the prime factors of that number will also be a factor."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgmwh8",
"comment_text": [
"If a number is not prime then it is divisible by at least one number other than itself and one. That much is true by the definition of prime numbers. However, you can prove that for a prime number there has to be at least one factor that is prime.",
"For example, 81 is divisible by 9 which means that it is not prime. However, 9 is not a prime number itself. This means that we haven't found all of the factors. We could search some more and find that 81 is also divisible by 3 and 27. 3 is a prime number, so my original statement has not been shown to be false.",
"To show that the statement is always true we can look at the fact that if B is a factor of A, and C is a factor of B, then C is also a factor of A. For example, 9 is a factor of 81 and 3 is a factor of 9 so with just that information we know that 3 is a factor of 81, even without testing it. Thus, you start with a large number, A, and you find a factor B. If B is prime then our statement was true in the first place. If B is composite then it has at least one factor between 1 and itself, so we can look at that factor which we'll call C. Now C is either prime or it has another factor, D, smaller than itself. You can continue this until you wind up with a prime number; you can't keep on getting composite numbers forever since you wind up running out of numbers (the sequence A, B, C, D, ... is decreasing towards zero). ",
"You've actually already started using this idea, as you mention that you are only dividing by odd numbers. Why? Because if a number has an even factor then it is divisible by 2. Thus you've taken your algorithm from naive trial division to the next simplest prime number finding method: ",
"wheel factorization",
". In Wheel Factorization you check the candidate against some small factors (for you just 2 here), then you divide by every number that is not a multiple of those small factors (i.e. all the odd numbers for you). Just by using a wheel of 2 you have halved the number of divisions you have to do. Using a wheel with more small primes further reduces the number of divisions, up until the point where you are just dividing by primes. This still finds all of the prime numbers because every composite number has at least one prime factor.",
"Also, you can make the algorithm even better by stopping when you reach the square root of the target number. No number may be composite and have all of its prime factors greater than its square root—if a number is greater than the square root then it has to be multiplied by a number smaller than the square root in order to get to the large composite number, but that means that there is a factor smaller than the square root. As before, either this factor is prime or it has a prime factor smaller than itself. The largest a composite number's factors can be is a single factor as the square root, which is the case for a number that exactly the square of a prime number. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgmgrr",
"comment_text": [
"If a number is divisible by 12, then it must also divisible by 2, 3, and 4, and 6. So if you already know it isn't divisible by 2 (a prime factor of 12), checking to see if it's divisible by 12 is a waste of time. This is true for every composite number."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgmhbl",
"comment_text": [
"Every composite (i.e. non-prime) number that you use as a test number will be divisible by at least 1 prime.",
"So instead of taking your sample number and dividing it by a test number like 20 or 40, you can just divide by 5. 20 and 40 are both composite numbers, so testing for the primes that make them up will test for the composites as well. This is why you're only interested in the prime numbers."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why do oil company's spill so much oil?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
36s6l3
| 1
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgl7rd",
"comment_text": [
"that money and all of the fines are cheaper than what it would cost to put in those safety measures to ensure it never happened. Itd be very expensive to upgrade everything to ensure spills rarely happened (you could never make sure it never happened)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgl9j8",
"comment_text": [
"Why would the company's be held accountable for things they didn't do? Do you think they just let open the taps on their precious money liquid for kicks? ",
"Odds are high that the oil spilled was because someone did something that the oil companies couldn't control. As an example - the Iraqi military during the First Persian Gulf opened the Kuwaiti oil fields and ",
"... not a whole lot the oil companies could do."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crglaf6",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"Please search before submitting.",
"This question has already been asked on ELI5 multiple times.",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crglafb",
"comment_text": [
"Safety measures and procedures cost money. If their cost exceeds the estimated cost from lost oil and fines, the oil companies will be unlikely to implement them."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crglc53",
"comment_text": [
"I'm unsure of what \"spilt in the gulf war\" means.",
"IIRC, Saddam purposefully blew oil wells and set them alight in an attempt to screw with US forces as they moved through the area. If this is what you're referring to, there's not much a oil company can do to prevent a military operation from destroying their equipment."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: what it means to take a company public.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
36sa70
| 3
| true
| false
| 0.8
|
When a companh goes public, what does that mean?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgmvm6",
"comment_text": [
"Privately held companies have much more control over their own operations. The owner(s) can decide to do whatever s/he/they want(s). They are not beholden to anyone and are free to do whatever they wish. Many people believe the reason that Valve and Steam have done so well is that it is not publicly traded.",
"Making a company publicly traded cedes some of that control in exchange for a potentially large influx of capital, as the stocks sold in the IPO is money that is going directly into the company. However, if enough stocks are sold, ownership of the company passes to the entire group of shareholders, who usually elect a board of directors to run the company."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgm71l",
"comment_text": [
"It means that their stock is traded on one of the public stock exchanges, where anyone can buy and sell their stock."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgmmv9",
"comment_text": [
"Valve, for instance, is a privately held company. It is not publicly traded, but it's still a company/corporation that makes products and lots of money."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgnc14",
"comment_text": [
"A private company is one held by a single person or a group of owners. It can also be that all the stock is held by one person or entity. As Teekno noted, it is not traded on the public exchanges and you cannot buy it. The obvious benefit is that you have complete control and all net earnings are yours. A simplistic view of the downside is that you bear all the risk if the company fails (and reward if it does well) and are limited in your ability to raise capital. Additional capital comes only from internal operations or from borrowing.",
"To \"go public\" means to sell your business on the open market. You can retain a majority percentage of ownership or you can ensure that the stocks you retain have all the voting power but what you are doing in effect is giving up control. Now that your stock is publicly traded you have to have annual meetings and answer to the shareholders, you are audited, you must file quarterly reports and release officers earnings (Form 990). There are other requirements too. The benefit is obviously monetize the business and it allows you to issue additional stock at points in time to raise capital from the market.",
"To address IRACYD's question here is a simplistic way it works: Let's say ABC company makes $100M per year in revenue. Wall Street might guess based on prior issues that a $100M company is worth 3x gross sales or $300M. If they believe $20 is a price people will buy at they will issue $15M shares. The proceeds of that sale net of the investment bankers fees goes to the person who owns it (that is how Mark Zuckerberg made so much). The company in and of itself has not increased it's gross revenues or net earnings, it merely has shifted ownership. The future valuation of the company is simply the stock price that day x the 15M shares they have issued. If the stock goes to $21 at the end of the day the new valuation is $315M. The current valuation tied to the forecast of future earnings and vagaries of the market."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crgmio2",
"comment_text": [
"As opposed to what? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5 what happens when you are driving forward at a high rate of speed and you suddenly throw your car in reverse.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
37wznc
| 1
| true
| false
| 0.57
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crqh5qs",
"comment_text": [
"Many cars will have a mechanical block to prevent you from putting the car into reverse while driving forward. I have a manual, and I can't even get the lever to go into reverse unless I'm moving at less than 5 mph or so. An automatic car will have the same type of safety block - you may be able to shift to reverse, but the car will automatically keep the clutch engaged to prevent engine damage.",
"Mythbusters actually tested this, and they found that ",
"shifting to Reverse didn't help stop the car",
". Relevant part starts around ",
"3:09"
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crqr8i7",
"comment_text": [
"You know nothing about cars...."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crqij4w",
"comment_text": [
"Well, hopefully no 5 year olds are driving lol"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crqh0ot",
"comment_text": [
"Depends entirely on the make/model/year, transmission. Some cars will shut off to avoid damage to the drivetrain, others will let you twist a driveshaft or burn out clutches/bands or grind gears. Most standard transmissions are pretty tough if not impossible to get into reverse while going forward. But just to be on the safe side don't do it."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_crqh6vq",
"comment_text": [
"You eat the stearing wheel while you proceed to destroy your transmission. This will most likely total your car and and you to the hospital. "
],
"score": 0
}
|
||
ELI5: How can animals "adapt" to their environment? Like a birds beak changing shape because of what it eats. When humans can't adapt the same way? Like humans living in cold climates growing fur?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
56wf0f
| 3
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d8mxkzr",
"comment_text": [
"They adapt by evolution. And humans do too. Humans in less-sunny climates developed lighter skin, to get more ultraviolet light and thus generate sufficient vitamin D, for example. ",
"We didn't adapt to get furrier in colder climates because we adapted enough intelligence to know how to make clothes and fire. In a large part, our ability to use tools and make technology has slowed our evolution somewhat, because we can much more easily make do with what we have."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d8mxl4j",
"comment_text": [
"Humans have adapted. White people are white to allow more sunlight into the body for vitamin D production. Never needed fur because we made our own clothes."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d8n8rgc",
"comment_text": [
"Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is not a guessing game.",
"If you don't know how to explain something, don't just guess. If you have an educated guess, make it explicitly clear that you do not know absolutely, and clarify which parts of the explanation you're sure of.",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d8n8rgc",
"comment_text": [
"Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is not a guessing game.",
"If you don't know how to explain something, don't just guess. If you have an educated guess, make it explicitly clear that you do not know absolutely, and clarify which parts of the explanation you're sure of.",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_d8mxtxr",
"comment_text": [
"Evolution works by conferring a survival advantage on an individual. That individual will be more likely to survive and pass its genes and thus the beneficial trait to the next generation.",
"Birds did not develop their beaks in a single generation but rather many generations. They evolved to fill particular ecological niches and exploit a given food source better than other birds did. So one can crack nuts while another can poke holes in trees to find grubs.",
"Humans have learned to live in environments without needing to evolve. Basically instead of needing to evolve fur over many generations we learned to clothe ourselves so there is no survival advantage to having fur (and in fact our lack of fur is our survival advantage...humans engaged in ",
"persistence hunting",
" which means we can run down faster animals by wearing them down). ",
"Our lack of fur is one trait (among other traits like being bi-pedal) which make humans among the best long distance runners in the animal kingdom. Other animals are faster in the short run but they overheat more easily whereas humans can dispel heat and keep going. In the end the animal is run to ground giving humans an advantage."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5 Why do people die from exposure to extreme amounts of radiation?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5shuyd
| 5
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ddi5u8r",
"comment_text": [
"Well, I guess I know where I ",
" going this summer..."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ddf5wv5",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, thanks for the five year old explanation, but wouldn't radiation affect a person more in the long run and not as much the instant they got exposed? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ddf5wv5",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, thanks for the five year old explanation, but wouldn't radiation affect a person more in the long run and not as much the instant they got exposed? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ddf6i05",
"comment_text": [
"Imagine a rainbow from red to violet. Red is barely radioactive. Violet is super duper radioactive. Colors are waves. Red is long, mellow waves. Violet is short, choppy waves. You have a boat full of flour sitting on the waves. Your boat can sit on red waves for a long time without much spray getting on your flour and wrecking it. The more angry the waves act, the less time it takes for your flour to get all wet and bad."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_ddf5u5j",
"comment_text": [
"There are probably more than one mechanism, but the only one I know anything about is DNA damage. \nBasically, high energy radiation (be it UV, gamma/beta/alpha, etc.) can cause breakage/damage to DNA strands and bases. If the damage is excessive, any healthy cell will die \"voulentarily\" through apoptosis. If you get enough radiation, stem cells(of different types) will be irreversibly damaged and you cannot heal.\nAlso radiation forms free radicals/reactive molecules (such as reactive oxygen species) that can be damaging to both the cell and the surrounding tissue. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: What is "Right to Work" and why do so may people think it's a ripoff?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3a87l2
| 3
| true
| false
| 0.81
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csa6dzy",
"comment_text": [
"It's the label that anti-union forces have placed on legislation which prohibits workers from being forced to join a union at a business where a union exists.",
"The argument for \"right to work\" is that people should be able to decide whether to join the union, and their employment shouldn't be contingent on a worker being \"forced\" to pay a percentage of his paycheck to the union.",
"The other side, though, is that unions only are effective when they have sufficient bargaining power with the employer. If the workers won't follow union instructions regarding strikes and the like, the company has little incentive to capitulate to union demands for pay increases, better benefits, etc. Additionally, there's the freerider problem. In most union shops, the union negotiates for all workers, and the results of the union's negotiation (regarding conditions of work, benefits, etc.) are enjoyed by all. But if that's the case, there's no incentive to pay to be in the union-- they get the benefits without the costs. Union membership dwindles, and the union runs out of funds to complete its mission-- it withers on the vine.",
"So even though \"right to work\" is posed as some sort of employee benefit or freedom, its goal is to suffocate the strength of unions. You can decide whether that's a good or bad thing."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csa7411",
"comment_text": [
"I think this is helpful. If you don't mind, I have followup questions/clarifications (because I'm pretty close to five when it comes to this stuff) please tell me how much of this is correct:\nSo unions fight for/help workers in certain fields and work separately from any given company. Their goal is to get what is fair (or best?) for the group they're designed for. The whole reason they have power is that (nearly) everyone is on board, so if they decide to not work under certain conditions, the employers have to change to fix those conditions. If there are people who aren't in the union that are fine working under said conditions, then the union becomes useless because the job gets done, BUT if the union gets something for the workers, it's usually for everyone, so they gain the benefits without having to pay"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csaffrg",
"comment_text": [
"In most union shops, the union negotiates for all workers, and the results of the union's negotiation (regarding conditions of work, benefits, etc.) are enjoyed by all.",
"If this is seen as a problem, wouldn't a better solution be for the union to negotiate for only its members, and for the \"results of the union's negotiation\" to be enjoyed by only the members? This is an actual solution that is consistent with the concept of freedom of association, which is much better than the libtard crap of trying to force employees to be members of a union."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csa6j4x",
"comment_text": [
"The second half of your last sentence is not quite right. Having a boss that can fire you for any reason or no reason at all (except on the basis of your race, ethnicity, gender, disability, or another protected class) is called \"employment at will.\" \"Right to work\" deals just with unions; \"employment at will\" deals with whether an employer has to have \"just cause\" to terminate someone. Usually, in a union shop, there are cause requirements for being fired, but the concepts are actually separate."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csbdjxn",
"comment_text": [
"You've more or less got it."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: How does one actually lose weight? When does it happen? How long does it take? I feel I understand only about half of it.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3a9ss5
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csakgvc",
"comment_text": [
"The 1700 is your base metabolic rate, that means \"you need this much if you are in a coma\" (i.e. no additional expenses whatsoever). The 500 of your workout adds on top of that."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csalxhl",
"comment_text": [
"I will effectively have gained around 800 calories that day, less than half of what I need to maintain current weight. Why don't I drop half a pound during the night?",
"Because 800 calories is roughly 100g (0.2 lbs). ",
"To lose 1 pound of fat you need to burn 3500 calories."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csaorik",
"comment_text": [
"Sorta yes. Calorie restriction (CR) effects are not fully understood yet. There are many studies ongoing on the subject. However there are many negative effects that can happen without proper instruction from trainer personnel. Such as such as anemia, muscle wasting, weakness, neurological deficits, dizziness, irritability, lethargy, and depression. Granted these are pretty bad effects but CR is essentially starving yourself. Get ready to deal with being hungry because that's how you'll feel. ",
"What do I do to prevent this and optimize burn? Because eating 1700 is really hard, I kinda don't believe that calorie calculator TDEE thingy when it says I need 1700.",
"You shouldn't have a problem consuming 1700 calories. What is your typical day of food? Calorie counting is hard and has some variance and usually pushes people to lie or underestimate the values thus compounding the issue when they don't see results. Generally speaking I would get an idea of calorie intake and your stats but shy away from counting all the calories. ",
"Should I just stuff my face with rice crackers and butter, so that I reach 1700?",
"lol no you shouldn't because those are empty calories. Meaning it takes your body little to any energy to process that food. You want complex real foods that give you body nutrients as well as make it work to process the food thus improving your metabolic rate (this also comes from some form exercise). For example protein is much hard to process than say carbs. So in effect when you eat 100 calories of protein your body has to work so hard to break it down the calories it ends up being something like 86 calories (14 cal get lost as heat). ",
"Source:Played College/University basketball had a nutrition consultant and trainer for 5 years. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csaorik",
"comment_text": [
"Sorta yes. Calorie restriction (CR) effects are not fully understood yet. There are many studies ongoing on the subject. However there are many negative effects that can happen without proper instruction from trainer personnel. Such as such as anemia, muscle wasting, weakness, neurological deficits, dizziness, irritability, lethargy, and depression. Granted these are pretty bad effects but CR is essentially starving yourself. Get ready to deal with being hungry because that's how you'll feel. ",
"What do I do to prevent this and optimize burn? Because eating 1700 is really hard, I kinda don't believe that calorie calculator TDEE thingy when it says I need 1700.",
"You shouldn't have a problem consuming 1700 calories. What is your typical day of food? Calorie counting is hard and has some variance and usually pushes people to lie or underestimate the values thus compounding the issue when they don't see results. Generally speaking I would get an idea of calorie intake and your stats but shy away from counting all the calories. ",
"Should I just stuff my face with rice crackers and butter, so that I reach 1700?",
"lol no you shouldn't because those are empty calories. Meaning it takes your body little to any energy to process that food. You want complex real foods that give you body nutrients as well as make it work to process the food thus improving your metabolic rate (this also comes from some form exercise). For example protein is much hard to process than say carbs. So in effect when you eat 100 calories of protein your body has to work so hard to break it down the calories it ends up being something like 86 calories (14 cal get lost as heat). ",
"Source:Played College/University basketball had a nutrition consultant and trainer for 5 years. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csauk66",
"comment_text": [
"All that food sounds great. Sugar is tough to avoid it's in everything. Basically anything in the isles of the grocery store has some type of sugar in it. A good rule to apply is the 80/20 rule. You can't be perfect with your diet it will drive you mad trying to do that. Plus it's exceptionally difficult in social situations where you don't have a lot of selection. But if your eating healthy 6 out of 7 days a week you'll def be on the road to good health. Lastly I know it's cliche to say but if you feel good about your decisions then it's a big motivator to keep on track. ",
"Here are some options I had from my meal plan for protein:",
"As for protein shakes I just used (protein isolate-1 scoop) - I was told any brand is okay, as long as it is whey or soy, and very low in carbs, if it has any at all. I don't think it's possible to eat to much protein your body just won't use it. Although you notice after you eat a huge steak how lethargic you are because you body is busting it's ass to digest that food. ",
"When I was training I was eating approx 5 times a day (every 2-3.5hrs). If I wasn't hungry though I wouldn't eat. I would usually eat protein with every meal in the range of 4-5oz. I was highly active though burning something like 4500 calories a day (I'm also 6'9\" and about 240lbs)."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: whats the diffrence between catholics and christians?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3a9sx6
| 1
| true
| false
| 1
|
The internet explanations are way too confusing.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csakp1s",
"comment_text": [
"A Christian is defined as someone who follows the teachings of Jesus.",
"So, Catholics ",
" Christians. Simply a denomination (a sub-division if you will) of Christianity.",
"The fundamental difference between a Catholic and anything else (generally put under the umbrella term of Protestant), is how they believe they are able to contact God. Catholic doctrine states that the normal person cannot commune directly with God, but that it needs to be done through someone trained to do so - a priest. Protestantism believes that everyone can commune directly with God, without the need for an intermediary.",
"This is why there is a focus of reverence toward people directly connected to God. Jesus' mother Mary is a big one, as well as many Saints, who are believed to have performed miracles (only possible with the direct help of God). As they are believed to have a sort of 'hotline' to God.",
"From having grown up a Catholic, but having been heavily exposed to Protestantism, in particular Presbyterianism, my personal experience was that Catholicism was that it is steeped in very old traditionalism. More akin to the Jews of old, with their grand and lavish temples. The house of God should reflect that. Vast, almost intimidating, architecture filled with the riches of man befitting of god - gold and silver. Protestants, to a large degree don't feel that is necessary.",
"Hope that helps."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csakybh",
"comment_text": [
"Pfft, you can't just say that I'm wrong and not tell me which bit, or what the right answer is... I'm totally open to learning when I'm wrong, but I can't learn if you don't actually correct me."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csakybh",
"comment_text": [
"Pfft, you can't just say that I'm wrong and not tell me which bit, or what the right answer is... I'm totally open to learning when I'm wrong, but I can't learn if you don't actually correct me."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csakqhu",
"comment_text": [
"This isn't correct at all."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csakqhu",
"comment_text": [
"This isn't correct at all."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: How to eat pizza rolls without eating it whole or bursting the hot innards onto my shirt
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3adez7
| 2
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csbl1fw",
"comment_text": [
"I almost never eat pizza rolls whole. I may sound like some kind of lardo for this, but I love pizza rolls and have a method I love to use to open them, it's also really simple; so without further ado:",
"I grab two corners on the same side and rip it in half, then eat one half. This way you get the pizza taste on your tongue, and you eat a bit slower. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csblh1k",
"comment_text": [
"OP is talking about pizza rolls, not pizza."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csblhli",
"comment_text": [
"err.... uh.."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csblg94",
"comment_text": [
"Well there are several methods. ",
"1) Folding the pizza slice such that you keep all the topping on top/in the fold. ",
"2) Have your pizza cooked more thoroughly. this will result in a stiffer crust that will not bend and drop toppings on your shirt. ",
"3) Use a knife and fork if you are really worried about it. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csbm0bx",
"comment_text": [
"And my comment gets flagged for being useless..."
],
"score": 1
}
|
||
ELI5: Why must humans cook their meat before eating to avoid getting sick where all other mammals eat their meat raw?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3bfa8n
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
ELI5: Why must humans cook their meat before eating to avoid getting sick where all other mammals eat their meat raw?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csllizb",
"comment_text": [
"You can eat raw meat without problems (assuming it is not infected with something), it is however significantly harder to digest than cooked meat."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csllj48",
"comment_text": [
"It is mostly a matter of how fresh the meat is. Human eat meat that was killed days to weeks ago in most cases. This gives time for bacteria to collect on it. Compare that to say a lion who will start eating almost as soon has its prey has died."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_cslllw5",
"comment_text": [
"This, and it allows us to eat meat that would be too tough if uncooked."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csllqqd",
"comment_text": [
"It also has to do with the length of our digestive tract. A lion, for example, has a digestive tract only 2-3 times their body length. A human's is 10-12 times as long as our body. Raw meat going through a lion's body travels pretty fast, so things are digested quickly. Raw meat in a human's body takes longer to digest, so there is more time for anything dangerous to make a human sick. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csllv11",
"comment_text": [
"We are omnivores, but not very good ones. Our Hominidae ancestors mostly survived on a diet of various fruits, berries, and other plant matter. However, at some point our ancestors started to eat meat when the opportunity presented itself. This has, in evolutionary time frames, been pretty sudden change. Other Great Apes, like the Orangutan, are entirely herbivores.",
"So, our stomachs haven't evolved to be efficient at digesting meat. Our human ancestors somehow figured out that when you cooked meat, it was easier too digest."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Are Tesla cars actually better for the environment?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3biemy
| 4
| true
| false
| 0.83
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csme7kw",
"comment_text": [
"I could probably find some Japanese folks that would like to disagree.",
"There are 0.04 deaths per terawatt of energy generated for nuclear, and 278 for coal. More people died at a coal plant accident in 2012 than in all nuclear accidents ever recorded combined."
],
"score": 10
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csmdlyg",
"comment_text": [
"You are right, if all the energy that we use to fill up the batteries comes from fossil fuels, we didn't really win anything.",
"You still could win out some. A fossil fuel power plant is tuned to be way more efficient than your cars engine. So if that gained efficiency outweighs the other inefficiencies then you still win compared to a normal car."
],
"score": 8
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csmdj8j",
"comment_text": [
"Right, so they use batteries. That means that we can choose where the energy for the cars comes from.",
"You are right, if all the energy that we use to fill up the batteries comes from fossil fuels, we didn't really win anything.",
"But here's the point: cars that are not electric do not have a choice. Their energy HAS to come from fossil fuels. With electric cars however, we get to decide. If every car in the world was electric, we could switch to completely renewable energy if we wanted. Without electric cars, we can't do that.",
"So think of it as a necessary step in the right direction."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csmdu9c",
"comment_text": [
"True, but imagine this - a city has 2,000 all-electric cars being charged from a power station - this power station tends to be more efficient than an internal combustion engine which is rather inefficient to start with. Also, if you upgrade the power station to a cleaner one, you instantly \"upgrade\" those 2,000 cars to use a cleaner source.",
"Over time, we come up with new technologies to clean emissions, this cannot be retrofitted to thousands of cars, it's much easier to retrofit one power station, than our 2,000 hypothetical cars. This also makes it easier to control the pollution from exhaust, fuel or lubricant. People abuse environmentally unfriendly stuff such as pouring used engine oil down drains, leaking fuel tanks etc. ",
"Electric engines are less complex than petrol engines, so less maintenance, less nasty chemicals needed, less waste, etc. ",
"There are a couple more benefits but these escapes me at the moment."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csme49d",
"comment_text": [
"The latter's still better, though. Power plants are ",
" more efficient at converting fossil fuels into energy than car engines are, and electric cars are more efficient at turning electricity into momentum. Even if all electric cars were powered by burning petroleum/gasoline, it would still be worthwhile due to the huge increase of efficiency."
],
"score": 3
}
|
||
ELI5: Why do other Arab factions have such a problem with the possibility of a Kurdish state?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
3bidvh
| 0
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
(Ex. Turkey)
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csmfy6r",
"comment_text": [
"First of all. Turkey is a Turkish state.(not arab) They speak Turkish and write in Latin. \nSecond of all. The Turkish government fought a hard and long battle Versus the Kurds. ",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey%E2%80%93PKK_conflict"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csmjql1",
"comment_text": [
">mplying 1 state is equal to 20% of a country. Kurds claim 1/5 of Turkey. That is HUGE. No way they will get that"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csmdizw",
"comment_text": [
"Because they all have minority Kurd populations within their borders to some extent. Giving the Kurds a home-state could lead to sections of their country wanting to sheer off as well to join this new state. As having minority populations in your country and the same minority nation nearby tends to lead to destabilization. Some examples of this are the Bosnian conflict, the Kosovo conflict, and the recent Ukraine conflict. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csmh272",
"comment_text": [
"I agree. Also the US should give 20% of their country to the indians. And The Spanish should give 20% of Spain to the Basques. . Yeah no the area has been Ottoman and Seljuq for over 500 years. No way that they will allow a Kurdistan"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_csmjp0i",
"comment_text": [
"20% is not just 1 shitty state. How about giving 10 states to the indians? That is about the amount of ground the Kurds claim. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
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