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ELI5: why does 1.2 often turn to 2.0 and not 1.3?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5kn0kr
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
When people write versions of things.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbp3thc",
"comment_text": [
"The left side refers to a major update, the right side to a minor update. After 1 to 3 minor updates, it's usually time for a major update."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbp3w9n",
"comment_text": [
"I see, that makes sense thanks :)"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbp4093",
"comment_text": [
"I can see you and I do not work for the same company! Excuse me while I go prepare minor 93."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbp3vw1",
"comment_text": [
"You're asking about version numbers? The dot isn't a decimal point. The major version number is the far left. Minor updates then get incremented on the right, until the creator considers the next change to be big enough to warrant a major version number change. That means it can go past ten too. The current version of macOS is 10.12, for example."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbp3ybm",
"comment_text": [
"Full numbers are major releases of software. The point releases are updates to release minor feature additions/enhancements between the major releases. And fixes that are just bug fixes are typically designated with 3 numbers, ie. 1.2.1."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5 how Electroconvulsive Therapy works to treat mental illnesses, such as depression.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5km6vq
| 6
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.81
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbp4b9l",
"comment_text": [
"It's not very well understood. The basic understanding is that it releases a shit load of neurotransmitters which then alters the brain chemistry in a beneficial way for a while. This is in line with our understanding of how different antidepressant medications work to help the symptoms of depression (serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibition, stuff like that)."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbp46rp",
"comment_text": [
"Cause they have no idea who they are",
"You have a bit of temporary retroactive memory loss, not loss of identity or anything."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbpaak1",
"comment_text": [
"A person I know had it done after being hospitilized three times in three months for severe depression and they couldn't find a drug that worked good. She termed it as \"not the nicest thing\". Not much happened before aside from not being allowed to eat beforehand and being poked in the arm with an IV needle (which was the worst part for her). They'd put her under and she'd wake up massively confused and not thinking clearly and occasionally with a headache, but remembering nothing of the actual procedure. She had some memory loss but considers it worthwhile because it dd work and she was at the point where it wasn't \"I'm feeling sad\" but \"If you don't admit me I can't possibly stop myself from killing myself today\". "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dboz7r8",
"comment_text": [
"It was noticed at some point that people suffering from depression who also had epileptic seizures would report that the symptoms of depression would go away after a seizure. ",
"So, since this was back in the day and ethics weren't as big a thing as they are now, people started shocking the hell out of people. Sending current through your brain ",
" cause a seizure. And this seizure is a bit like making your brain \"reboot\". So it can make the effects of depression go away for some people. ",
"Nowadays ECT is still used (very, very rarely and as a last resort), but it's a ",
" of a lot gentler. Patients are sedated beforehand, and a lot of care is taken to make it so they don't suffer. ",
"ECT virtually always leads to short-term memory loss - so patients usually don't even remember the treatment. It ",
" cause long-term memory loss, too, though. ",
"There are some promising new therapies, like Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) which basically use bigass magnets to achieve the same effects as ECT but without the drawbacks of, you know, having a seizure. This is new though so there's not enough research on it yet. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbp28da",
"comment_text": [
"I don't think they know exactly how it works but it causes a seizure so you have to anesthetized , paralyzed, and ventilated to get it done. And several sessions are usually required. Carrie Fischer had maintenance ECT to deal with her bipolar depression. Would just go in for treatments every 6 months or so. ",
"Doubtful that killed her. Probably years of using cocaine and smoking killed her. ",
"ECT patients almost universally suffer memory loss, most of which is temporary but not all. My Doctor used it quite a bit when he was a younger Doctor but in his experience the response was not lasting."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: What causes some people to stiffen like a board when they fall instead of putting their hands out to catch themselves?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5klmde
| 4
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbotjs6",
"comment_text": [
"In short: panic. ",
"In panic three things can happen when the conscious part of your brain switches off and the basic thing that is responsible for \"survival and nothing else!\" takes over:",
"If you are paniced, the most animalistic part of the brain tries to get away as fast as possible, it makes your body \"flee\". If that does not work, for example if you are in a corner, it tries to \"fight\" - that is why a \"cornered animal is dangerous\" and humans are only animals. If you cannot fight, the brain tries to freeze, play dead, be as silent as possible in hope the \"danger\" will pass by and that the bear isn't hungry enough to eat a stiff person.",
"That is why deer in the lamplights of a car can freeze or why some people in horrible situations (shootouts) sometimes just stand still. ",
"If you fall you might try to catch yourself. If your very basic, most primitive parts of the brain really goes into the most basic \"panic mode\" due to a fall it cannot flee, it cannot flight - but it very much can freeze your body."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbove23",
"comment_text": [
"There's two mechanisms: ",
"First you are still in control and attempt to decide something but are just... slow, ineffective or wrong.",
"The other situation is when your brain stem takes over. It does not know anything about \"consciouesness\" or \"descisions\" in any higher way, there is nothing \"you\" in the brain stem. It is pure, primitive survivial and nothing else. ",
"I think your fall...uhh... falls in the first category.",
"NEVER fall to the head, that can seriously kill you or even lead to memory loss up to \"ugly\" levels with even \"relatively mild\" hits."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dboutt9",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you. That's pretty much what I thought it was.",
"Do you know if the response has something to do with cognitive ability? Because, at least in the case I've seen (my grandmother with Alzheimer's), as her cognition declines, the more likely she is to fall like this."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbov19w",
"comment_text": [
"I have no idea about that, sorry. But I can imagine that if the cognitive functions of the brain start to fail, the most basic functions of the brain stem still do work as they did 500,000 or even 3,000,000 or even 30,000,000 years ago and take over. ",
"The more your higher brain does not notice what would be a \"right\" response in a possibly danerous situation to make it less dangerous the brain stem would go: \"Something is wrong!!! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!!!\""
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbov5s9",
"comment_text": [
"I think the freezing part is more of an inability to decide what the correct action would be and so being frozen in panic as a result. ",
"as someone who has recently had a rather severe fall I can certainly say I am the type that tries to catch myself, and when my left hand and arm slammed down on to some graveled sidewalk it tore them up pretty good... however that was rather mild compared to the damage to my left knee, which hit first, and far harder... I have been wondering if it would have been better to just stiffen up and freeze however if I had hit my head as a result, I could easily be dead... so I'm not about to go try again and see. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5. How Barcelona FC is able to keep the ball and play possession based game even against the other best teams for a significant period and able to score?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5kid53
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbo67ng",
"comment_text": [
"They play a style of soccer called tiki-taka. It's a style of passing that requires a lot of skill and discipline. They also have their youth academy and their \"minor league\" teams so a lot of these guys have been playing with each other most of their lives so their chemistry is also good. This ",
"video",
" describes their play pretty well"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbo9o7y",
"comment_text": [
"This is truly wrong. Tiki-Taka is a vulgar way of playing, you just randomly keep passing the ball around. Barcelona's style consists of triangulations. They form triangles made up of 3 players each all around the field like a big shape, these players pass the ball tactically to a player in their triangle, some players like Iniesta or Messi are granted freedom of play, they can make new triangles or break them to quickly make a goal opportunity. Barca's players are constantly training on being comfortable around the ball. Their players are all required to have perfect understanding of the physics of the game. They can get a goalkeeper to do crazy stuff with balls that other teams can't get their midfielders to do. Everybody is taught to get comfortable in the most difficult situations of the game and to keep the triangulations going in a manner that the ball gets to key players like Messi to score the goals. Thierry Henry explains Guardiola's tactics in this vid: ",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-zcyod2pjY",
". Today's Barca plays pretty much the same game."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbo9shj",
"comment_text": [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1MZJeevZ6E",
" \n",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rONzr145Yp8",
"\n",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BEMYf9uktY",
"\n",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf9bFzvYm-Q",
"\nThe key is to get players comfortable with possesion rather than physical state or shooting skills. If the team has possesion of the ball, they control the game, they decide what to do. Iniesta, Xavi, and Busquets were the perfect trio in the midfield for this. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbo9tkh",
"comment_text": [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeiu7y-a220",
" watch this game... "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbo9tsj",
"comment_text": [
"DO NOT COMPLAIN MY WORK: ( I will also Upload, Real Madrid Beating Barcelona, Barcelona Beating Bayern, Bayern Beating Barcelona and much more , so think twice before complain or dislike when i upload your team being beaten, unless you also dislike when i upload your team humilliating other team! This is my Work, So IT'S ALL ON YOU!",
" ",
" ",
" "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why are there free refills for soft drinks in the US?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5khkf8
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
I've always found it inconvenient that there aren't free refills when I travel to Europe, and it made me wonder how free refills started in the first place. Also, I'd be interested to know which other countries commonly have free refills of soft drinks. Thanks!
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnzybt",
"comment_text": [
"In the US refills are free because soft drinks are commonly dispensed from fountain machines. A 12oz soft drink from a fountain costs the restaurant almost nothing, typically less than a penny. So restaurants see free refills as a perk they can offer with only a tiny cost to themselves that might encourage patrons to stay longer and maybe buy more food.",
"Dunno why they're uncommon in Europe. Maybe Europe got soda fountains later or they're less common."
],
"score": 10
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnzwfe",
"comment_text": [
"The cost to the restaurant is minimal - just a few cents. You would literally have to drink hundreds of drinks at a free-refill restaurant to start costing them money on the $2-3 for a soft drink. ",
"Meanwhile the restaurant keeps you there ordering appetizers and desserts and you're more likely to go to one with free refills than without (if it's important to you). "
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbo0274",
"comment_text": [
"Okay, that makes sense. I know that in Europe soda is almost always served right out of a glass bottle. So I'm guessing that they just prefer that to soda fountains. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbo6b3k",
"comment_text": [
"Syrup is not pennies for most restaurants. Even if someone like McDonald's can get the syrup for half of my example below, it's far from pennies. ",
"5 gallons of syrup at our local Coca Cola bottling plant is $81.98. 5 gallons of syrup makes 237 - 16 ounce servings at a 5:1 water to syrup ratio. That is $0.346 for 16 ounces of soda. If you assume ice takes up 1/4 of the volume for 12 ounces of actual soda, that is 320 servings for a cost of $0.257. Then add in the ice, cup, CO2, water, and overhead. ",
"20 ounces = $0.423 or 3/4 full back to $0.346 for 16 ounces."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbo5dn3",
"comment_text": [
"I can't say when it ",
" but free refills were definitely a thing that were done in some places in the US as early as the 1890s, so basically as long as soda has existed.",
"In regards to the modern era, Taco Bell began giving free refills to customers in 1988 as part of a strategy to make the company that owns the brand more money. It was successful and led to the majority of restaurants offering free refills on fountain beverages, which has us where we are today, where paid refills are the exception instead of the norm in the US."
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: What exactly is 4chan?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5kfq56
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.36
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnlip8",
"comment_text": [
"4Chan is a collection of imageboards, the last of its kind (at least for English users). While a new generation has sprung up recently, they're not the same.",
"An imageboard is the simplest version of an online forum. Someone makes a post with an image and text, and others can respond to the thread with images and/or text.",
"Two hallmarks of Chan-type imageboards are chaos and anonymity. There are no requirements to post, no accounts. Threads come to the top of the page if there's recent activity, and sink if there isn't. There's no other voting system, and no accountability. When threads reach certain limits of posts, images, time, etc, they disappear.",
"Many imageboards, including 4Chan boards, are relatively civilized, friendly, and helpful communities, not unlike subreddits. In fact, reddit is pretty much a descendant of the Chan model, with the differences providing a more regulated and controlled but theoretically similar experience.",
"However, since things are essentially anonymous, it has become a safe haven for hatred and generally unpleasant things - you can write whatever you want about Hillary Clinton or black people or space lizards, and while other users may ridicule you or agree with you, it all eventually gets wiped clean. ",
"In my opinion, the bad parts of 4Chan are a necessary evil. It says a lot about our society if we can't tolerate a zone of 100% free speech, whether we agree with what they say or not. ",
"A final note, 4Chan is considered a gateway to the true dark parts of the Internet, the drug markets and pedophilia forums and such. It kind of hovers on the edge between Normal People Internet and Bad People Internet."
],
"score": 11
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnkuv0",
"comment_text": [
"4chan is a place where people post images and text, like Reddit. Only by default, everyone is anonymous and there's little to no moderation. As such, you get trolls. Lots of trolls. But likewise, there are a lot of people posting there, so if you know where you are looking you can get some amazing content.",
"But mainly lots of trolls."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnnduq",
"comment_text": [
"4chan is where smart people go to sound stupid while reddit is where stupid people go to sound smart"
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnl2gp",
"comment_text": [
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. ",
"Long story short, anonymity and lack of moderation are the norm, so it is essentially in a permanent state of chaos. It has its own weird little subculture that naturally attracts people with an anarchist bent. It is also the birthplace of lots of anti-government and anti-establishment organizations like Anonymous."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnniaj",
"comment_text": [
"It should also be noted that a lot of 4chan's negative rep has been blown way out of proportion. It's had a fair share of terrible things happen on it but it seems like a lot of people still see it as a 24/7 terrorist organization. For the most part it's just a bunch of people talking about whatever the board is dedicated to anonymously."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: Why aren't all words spelt phonetically? Wouldn't it be easier?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5kd7nl
| 16
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.74
|
For example why do we spell it photograph instead of fotograf. Or why do we spell it chemist instead of kemist. Wouldn't it make it easier to learn to spell as a child/foreigner learning English?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbn3aha",
"comment_text": [
"English is a Germanic tongue with a French vocabulary thanks to the Norman Conquest period we then borrowed a number of words and Order roots from Greek and Latin, as well as adopting words wholesale from languages as diverse as German and Japanese. The silent k in knife was not always silent.",
"Back in the days when Webster was putting his dictionary together, there was an argument among lexicographers and as to whether or not to reach spell words so that they would be phonetically spelled or whether to spell words so that they reflected their origin. This is why the military rank of Colonel looks nothing like it sounds to us; lexicographers decided to go with the spelling that reflected its origin more than a spelling that reflects its pronunciation. Over time, this complicated history of the language along with various vowel shifts and other the like left us with our current complicated mess. And that is why English is largely considered to be the most difficult language to learn as a second language"
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbn5d4i",
"comment_text": [
"The usual answers given on this occasion is that \"English is a mongrel tongue\" and \"English has no central authority regulating it\" (I'm looking at you, ",
"/u/GruePineapple",
", ",
"/u/soulreaverdan",
", ",
"/u/jaa101",
" and ",
"/u/leganrac",
"). While those things are not completely false, they're not quite as relevant as a lot of people think.",
"Actually, most languages are a bit of a mixture, but are still spelled more consistently; and many languages with central authorities (which aren't quite as influential as they would like you to believe) are not very phonetically spelled at all (French is a prime example).",
"The real reason has to do with the way that languages change and evolve over time: the way we pronounce our words today is a bit different from the way our great-grandparents spoke, and quite noticeably different from the way our ancestors spoke 500 years ago.",
"Some languages have spelling reforms to keep their spellings in step with the pronunciations: German, for example, had a spelling reform in 1996 (which was then tweaked a few years later after a lot of complaints). English, though hasn't had a spelling reform for several centuries.",
"Hundreds of years ago, people just spelled words the way they thought best, but when reference works like dictionaries were compiled, people used them to guide their spellings. One of the most influential was Samuel Johnson's famous dictionary of 1755, but he used very old-fashioned spellings in some case, and sometimes was just really eccentric with his choices (which is why the opposite of \"deign\" is \"disdain\", for example).",
"Many of the spellings Johnson used were already quite old, and it was the introduction to England of the printing press in the 15th century that started the process of fixing the standard spellings. But this happened during a long process called the \"Great Vowel Shift\", which took hundreds of years and completely changed the way we pronounce our long vowels: in 1400, for example, \"sea\" and \"see\" were pronounced differently, but they merged to become the same sound by about 1700.*",
"Later on, words like \"photograph\" and \"chemist\" were introduced to English -- ",
" the spelling rules were fixed. But these words both come from other languages (\"photograph\" from Greek, \"chemist\" by a very long and complicated route from Arabic), and the \"ph\" and \"ch\" representing sounds that don't exist in English. The \"ph\" represented a sound in Ancient Greek that sounded like a \"p\", but followed by an audible puff of air (it is \"aspirated\"), which is represented by the \"h\". That sound doesn't exist in English** and the nearest we can get to it is \"f\". The \"ch\" in \"chemist\" is probably better represented as \"kh\": it represents another sound that doesn't exist in English.",
"Why don't we have a massive spelling reform? Several reasons, but mostly it would be very difficult and very expensive.",
"First of all, English has spread out all over the world and there are many varieties of it. How do you pronounce the word \"shone\", for example? Most English speakers rhyme it with \"gone\", but in some American dialects it rhymes with \"bone\". In most American dialects \"moot\" and \"mute\" are pronounced the same, but in most British dialects they are pronounced differently. Most bizarrely, English dialects can be divided into MIMIM and MINMINM dialects: the former stands for \"Mary is marry is merry\", and in those dialects those words all sound the same; the latter stands for \"Mary is not marry is not merry\", because in those dialects they are pronounced differently.",
"There are many of these examples: do you let each dialect have its own spelling rules, or do you make some compromises so that people still have to learn lists of exceptions?",
"And then you have to get all the different countries where English is either a native language or an official language to agree on a spelling reform. And then you have to reprint all the books, repaint all the signs, retrain all the English teachers, reprogram all the computer software, and so on -- and not just in those countries (some of which are very poor), but everywhere where English is used or taught, which is virtually everywhere in the entire world.",
"It would take ages, be extremely inconvenient and expensive, and you'd end up with a system that might still be confusing. Basically, we're stuck with the English spelling the way it is.",
"* The Great Vowel Shift is usually considered to have completed by about 1600, and changes later than aren't aren't technically part of the GVS. But the merger of \"sea\" and \"see\" was already in progress by 1600.",
"** Linguists: Well yes, the voiceless bilabial stop is aspirated in English, but Ancient Greek phi was very strongly aspirated."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnp9hl",
"comment_text": [
"I have yet to met someone who thinks English is complicated."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbnmfzm",
"comment_text": [
"Writing takes a while to catch up to spoken language.",
"Take the word \"knight\" for example. It was originally pronounced how it's spelled (almost like in Monty Python, but the gh was pronounced like the ch in Chanukkah). But we've since dropped the k, dropped the gh, and the short i became a long i. That's happened in the last couple hundred years. Who decides when we change the spelling? It's just stuck around because there are so many changes nobody wants to be that one guy that spells it differently like an asshole and now nobody knows what word he's trying to use.",
"On the other hand, see a word like through. Drive-thru has been a thing, and people will very often use thru as short hand for through. We may eventually reach a point where through is formally spelled thru."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbn8zzv",
"comment_text": [
"You failed to mention the Oxford English Dictionary, which was directed to standardize the spelling because of the horrible 'whatever-phonetic-you-want-to-use' that was the Renaissance and Enlightenment. ",
"In any event, the OED is the final say in all these matters with regards to the English language. The unabridged version (of which we own the 2014 version and an online subscription to) has not only the currently used word but a word's history and etymology and also, the history of different spellings that were commonly used in the past.\n",
"http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/"
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: If Africa has a bunch of starving people and highest death rates, how do they also have the fastest growing population?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5kc6w6
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.33
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmwpg6",
"comment_text": [
"\"Africa\" is a continent. There can be very different conditions in various places. Just because some people are starving in one place doesn't mean people can't live elsewhere."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmxgzp",
"comment_text": [
"Because poor people have lots of babies. Why? Well, what's the most fun you can have with zero money? "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmyb0s",
"comment_text": [
"It's mostly because they need the extra labor, but yeah."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmwziq",
"comment_text": [
"Some people would argue the lack of birth control due to limited medical care in certain areas. Villages that must farm for survival also tend to have more children to help support the families by \"working\". There are developed areas of Africa however, so that is potentially another cause. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmyglm",
"comment_text": [
"They still have lower infant mortality rate than previously, and have gone from demographic stage one to two (population explosion). Infant is decreasing, but the old birthrate is retained, and it was based on outmatching mortality rate plus providing the necessary workers for the primitive, labor-intensive agriculture (with the typical working age starting at ten-twelve); this leads to seven-ten children per family on average.",
"In developed countries, the social shifts and the growing cost per child - associated with education and the expected level of care - put a damper on the growth rate, leading to demographic stage three and sometimes even four (depopulation)."
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: How do the Stormtroopers in Disney World talk?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5kbvh5
| 133
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.84
|
I have been to Hollywood Studios/MGM Studios in Disney World (FL) many times, but have always walked away trying to figure out how the Stormtroopers/Darth Vader/Kylo Ren etc speak. All of the troopers over the years have communicated with me in the same voice from the films and I do not know how this is done. I assume it is with some sort of voice changer or soundboard, but they have addressed me by hat and shirt color before as well. Any information and explanations on how this is done is appreciated, as I simply do not understand how. Thanks!
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmvgdy",
"comment_text": [
"Voice actors. I was so shocked every time I saw \"turtle talk with crush\" I went there multiple times just because of how amazing it was thinking there was some massive soundboard. ",
"BUT then one time I went and there was a guy that was not as good as the previous actors and it became totally oblivious.",
"Storm troopers, Vader, and Ren all probably have voice modifiers too that makes it easier to sound just like the movie.",
"Any of the scripted shows mostly use pre-recorded lines that are played back."
],
"score": 66
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmwllv",
"comment_text": [
"Based on what I saw a couple weeks ago, the storm troopers were triggering prerecorded phrases with their fingers. Either with switches or hand motion."
],
"score": 29
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmxkv5",
"comment_text": [
"The ones walking around have pre-recorded phrases they can trigger. At meet and greets they most likely have someone else watching and listening that chooses what they say so they can be more interactive.",
"This is how the talking Mickey, Raz and the Mr. Potato Head work. Someone can see who is there and hear what they are saying and respond appropriately. "
],
"score": 24
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmwyf8",
"comment_text": [
"it became totally oblivious.",
"Like your phone's autocorrect. ",
"If I had a bad Turtle Talk experience, I'd be crushed. "
],
"score": 19
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbmyr97",
"comment_text": [
"Vader and Ren have lines that are controlled by their gloves. It's incredibly obvious if you pay attention. Pretty sure the Stormtroopers are the same. "
],
"score": 11
}
|
ELI5: Why do showers get hot when the toilet is flushed?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5k95x9
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.46
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbm85ey",
"comment_text": [
"Because the same cold water line feeds the shower and toilet. You are taking cold water away from the shower to flush the toilet, and are left with less cold water to mix with the hot. "
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbm871n",
"comment_text": [
"The water that goes to the toilet and the cold water that goes to the shower come from the same place. When the toilet is flushed some of the cold water going to the shower is taken and given to the toilet. This makes the shower feel warmer as there is less cold water sent to the showerhead."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbm846j",
"comment_text": [
"Because the toilet uses cold water to flush. Once it's flushed it pulls the cold water in your house to fill the tank back up. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbm855n",
"comment_text": [
"Because refilling the toilet cistern uses cold water, and reduces the available pressure (and by extension flow) of cold water reaching the shower. The same amount of hot water but less cold means it gets hotter."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbr6rrv",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is not for:",
"Information about a specific or narrow issue (personal problems, private experiences, legal questions, medical inquiries, how-to, relationship advice, etc.) ",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: When we send an object into space how do we know it will safely reach its destination. I.E Landing rovers on Mars. What calculations have to be made?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5k7smq
| 9
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.65
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dblyw6u",
"comment_text": [
"In relative terms, it's actually extraordinarily easy to calculate the trajectories of things in space. The motions of the planets and space probes are all governed by Newton's and Kepler's laws. Because there is no friction in space, no corrections need to be made in these equations which generally assume no resistance. We can predict exactly where a planet or comet is going to be in the many years it will reach our space probe to get there, and to get our probe to intercept its path, you use Newton's second law to calculate how long you have to burn your thrusters for. No one is solving Einstein's field equations as you just don't need that kind of accuracy.",
"People often say that the computer used to take the astronauts to the moon was many times less powerful than the phones we have in our pockets, but it only needed to be that powerful. When it takes you three days to get to the moon, and all you need to know is how long to burn your thrusters for, it doesn't matter if the computer takes a few seconds to spit out a couple of numbers. "
],
"score": 8
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbm0857",
"comment_text": [
"But I'm sure we have to have something in the works to get out past the reaches of our own Sun. ",
"Voyager spacecrafts",
" will be doing that. They recently passed into the heliopause and it'll be a long time until they're completely out of our solar system though (Oort Cloud is .. huge - doesn't even start until somewhere around 2,000AU where the Voyager crafts are only around 125AU)."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dblz5cr",
"comment_text": [
"Yes, the gravity of other planets will pull on probes. But how the probe will behaves under the influence of the gravity of each planet is again extremely predictable. We can simply use their masses and the distance our probe will be passing by them at to calculate the gravitational force and correct accordingly by firing our thrusters. Furthermore, in practice our probe won't get that close to any other planets, let alone all of them (remember they're in their own orbits and so our probe isn't likely to fly past all of them in one go). Gravity is a very weak force (think about how easy it is to defy on Earth just by jumping) and it drops off with the square of the distance, so any gravitational force will be very small and our probe travelling so fast that perturbations in its path are small and easily corrected for."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbm8fl4",
"comment_text": [
"It's not quite that simple, as you end up with many-body problems, which are not possible to solve exactly - and so approximations are used.",
"Yes, there's very little friction in space - but there is a pull from the sun, from the earth, from the body you're heading to.",
"There are also different trajectories which balance time to arrival with distance traveled, and you have to make sure that all the relevant planetary bodies line up properly to get where you're going.",
"You also need to account for any gravitational assists being used, where you use massive objects to change the speed and trajectory of the craft.",
"Going to the moon is fairly simple, because it's largely only the earth and the moon you have to worry about. But going to other places in the solar system is a lot more complex."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbm94kr",
"comment_text": [
"Well, yes that is true. The farther you go, the more you have to account for. But it's not like it's unpredictable - far from it. The physics is well-understood, and is some of the simplest for all the systems physics tries to described. Compare many-body problems here to those of quantum mechanics, for example"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: If the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and considered "mid winter", why are Janurary and Feburary substantially colder than November and December?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5k54mv
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.53
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dblem9t",
"comment_text": [
"Distance from sun does not effect the temperature like you are thinking it does. It's the tilt of the earth that makes the seasons. The length of a day also does not effect temperature like you think it does"
],
"score": 8
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dblelf4",
"comment_text": [
"You're forgetting about residual heat. It takes time for all the heat still stored on earth to radiate out after winter starts."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbli9p1",
"comment_text": [
"That is not when we are furthest from the sun. That is actually during winter for the southern hemisphere. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dblcwdj",
"comment_text": [
"The winter solstice is considered the first day of winter in England. This means that autumn (fall) has finished and winter will now begin. ",
"Autumn begins September 1st so for the Solstice to be mid winter and for it to last until spring on the 20th march that means that winter would have had to have started 20 ish days after the start of autumn which would just be a little odd. ",
"As it stands in England the dates fall like this ",
"Spring 20th march - 20th June",
"Summer 21st June - 31st August",
"Autumn 1st September - 20th December",
"Winter 21st December - 19th March "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dblhtm7",
"comment_text": [
"Seasons can be defined in different ways. There are astronomical and metereological seasons. What you listed are neither. Each astronomical season begins on the solstice/equinox, not the first of any month. The solstice/equinox can be on different days in different years. In the last year in the northern hemisphere we have had:",
"Winter: Tuesday 22nd December 2015 to Saturday 19th March 2016",
"Spring: Sunday 20th March 2016 to Sunday 19th June 2016",
"Summer: Monday 20th June 2016 to Wednesday 21st September 2016",
"Autumn: Thursday 22nd September 2016 to Tuesday 20th December 2016",
"Winter: Wednesday 21st December 2016 to Sunday 19th March 2017",
"Metereological seasons begin on the first of the month and end on the last of the month three months later. 1st March is the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and you can work out the rest from there."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5:why is there just a few small chances of a plane going down?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5k3m7l
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbl0tzb",
"comment_text": [
"Safety design in automobiles and many other things is a balance between things to prevent an accident from happening, and things to protect passengers from harm in an accident. Anti-lock brakes prevent an accident from happening. Airbags protect passengers from harm in an accident.",
"In an aircraft, almost any significant accident will likely be catastrophic, so it would be very very difficult and expensive to protect passengers from harm in such an accident. So nearly all the effort is put into preventing an accident from happening. And thus, the experience of flying may feel more dangerous because you feel less protected from what might happen, but you are greatly protected ",
". Every little thing on a flight that makes you worry \"What was that?\", an aeronautical engineer could probably tell you, \"Oh that was such-and-such. It happens an average of twenty times on a flight. That was about a level three, but this plane can withstand a level fifteen.\" ",
"The amount of safety inspection and testing, and standards for reliability, that go into commercial aircraft is orders of magnitude greater than that which goes into automobiles. It more than outweighs the statistical risk from the lack of passenger safety protection (which is not that insignificant either).",
"So, yeah, if you crash, you're a goner. But you just aren't gonna crash."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbl0a1b",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, that is simply due to up/down drafts and difference in air density in certain areas, it's like hitting a pothole with your car, you usually don't drop more than 20ft."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbl0a1b",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, that is simply due to up/down drafts and difference in air density in certain areas, it's like hitting a pothole with your car, you usually don't drop more than 20ft."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbl02mq",
"comment_text": [
"Why would you think a plane would crash? The only real reasons would be if they hit another plane or encountered severe weather, the former is super improbable and the latter is why they cancel/postpone flights. There is also engine failure by birds, like the Miracle on the Hudson, but that is also extremely unlikely."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbl2wo5",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is not for:",
"Your question's rather open-ended, rather than a request for explantion of a specific concept.",
"/r/askreddit",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why are we advised to drink a lot of water when most of is eventually goes out of our body in the forms of transpiration or urination and only a small part of it is actually absorbed?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5k2yez
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
Drinking 500ml or5litres of water a day shouldn't make a difference as the amount of water that actually stays in our body is a very small fraction of our total water intake and most of it goes out during transpiration or urination.
Bodybuilders are advised to drink a lot of water. Even in general people are advised to drink a lot of water as it would make them healthier as they say.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbkvr21",
"comment_text": [
"Well think about it. We need to sweat, urinate and and moisturize. Water doesn't just keep us hydrated. When we sweat we are trying to cool our core body temperature so we don't over heat. And when we urinate we are getting rid of body toxins and extra vitamins. Water also helps us poop. Water to us is pretty much gas to a car. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbl2zzi",
"comment_text": [
"Water to us is pretty much gas to a car.",
"If I were to offer an analogy, I'd have to say it was more akin to oil. Food, particularly protein, is the gas that fuels the body. Water pretty much lubricates everything."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbl80vk",
"comment_text": [
"Basically chemical reactions that keep you alive and let your body do stuff produce waste chemicals that your body can't use any more and will poison you if they build up too much. These go into your bloodstream after being produced, and then get filtered back out of the bloodstream by the kidneys. The waste is stored in the bladder until you pee it out.",
"The kidneys also filter excess water out into the bladder, but when your body doesn't have enough water, they slow down their filtering to conserve water, which helps you live long enough to find more water.",
"So if you make sure your body's always in the \"enough / too much water\" state, your kidneys will be super pro-active in their filtering and toxins don't build up.",
"As far as bodybuilders go -- when you're sweating, you're using extra water. And when you're physically active, your muscles are producing more waste products than when resting (those waste products building up in your muscles are what makes you hurt when you exercise to the point of pushing your body's limits.) So if you exercise, regardless of whether it's cardio, bodybuilding or whatever, your kidneys have more stuff to filter with less water, so you should drink more water to keep the filtering process running.",
"Of course, all things should be taken in moderation, and that includes water consumption. It is actually possible to die by drinking too much water [1].",
"[1] ",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbl3tk8",
"comment_text": [
"I almost said oil! But pointing out why makes sense. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbkxd51",
"comment_text": [
"To add to the other comments:\nYou can imagine the body as having already absorbed loads of water and what we drink maintains that. Then the water is also used for blood pressure, kidney filtration, etc. Then finally the excess just gets lost through your urine. ",
"Drinking around 2L a day is just an average volume that should be sufficient and not excess enough to do any harm. ",
"All that water we have already absorbed can be lost like some athletes do before they are weighed for events. These can be several kilograms over a short period of time but can lead to problems as it's disturbed the normal water balance of the body. This is insufficient water levels in the body. ",
"A good way of looking at it is that you can have problems from drinking too little or too much however it's seemingly easier to drink too much and not have as many problems as drinking too little. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5 How does hostage negotiation work?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jx5zh
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.4
|
I've been reading about the current hijacking situation in Malta and they have decided to release some hostages. Now I get that the point of negotiation is to get the hostages to safety but what happens with the hostage takers in this situation. Surely it can't be a case of 'everyones safe, you guys are free to go' can it? I can't understand why someone who is essentially trapped and holding people hostage would release hostages as they surely know they're going to be arrested anyway?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbju8vz",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah that makes sense, I guess I never thought of it as people having different goals. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbjmiks",
"comment_text": [
"It's a case-by-case situation, every hijacker and hostage taker has a different motivation, different end goal, and different level of mental stability.",
"The approach to a botched bank robbery hostage situation would be very different from an Islamic terrorist situation.",
"You probably won't get a suicidal jihadist to release anyone, but a robber or politcal \"\"\"\"activist\"\"\"\" probably doesn't really want children or elderly women as their hostages either, and can often be convinced to release some."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbjussf",
"comment_text": [
"Today's Lybian hostage takers seem to have been the \"political activist\" type, more interested in spreading a message (That Ghadaffi's party lives on) than actually killing anyone.",
"From what I hear they really only wanted the plane's crew (presumably to fly to Lybia) and didn't have the manpower to deal with 100+ hostages.",
"We may never know what (if any) concessions were made to get them to abandon that plan."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbk40c8",
"comment_text": [
"See thats the part that confuses me. I don't get the endgame, what do they expect to happen? What they did didnt really make a difference in the end.",
"Although expecting someone who takes hostages to think rationally is probably asking a bit much."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbk4bri",
"comment_text": [
"Doesn't make a difference to you, but if nothing else it's a declaration to their opponents that they have the means and the motivation to do this sort of thing.",
"The news media has been totally silent about Lybia, they did manage to get it back in the news and remind the world that there are Ghadaffi loyalists still fighting there. That may aid recruiting efforts greatly for their forces, and at relatively low cost.",
"We're probably not going to find out exactly why they did it, it's not very responsible for the news media to be publishing whatever incendiary manifesto they may have had."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5:If a country with a nuclear weapon wanted to bomb the US, how hard would it be?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jveoi
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.57
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbjd7n8",
"comment_text": [
"It highly depends on how you define \"nuclear weapon\".",
"Russia could annihilate every major population center, military facility, and most of the smaller population centers. This is because they have a fully-functioning ",
"nuclear triad",
" which is land-based missiles, bombers, and submarines.",
"This is difficult to defend against, because in the event of a first-strike, you would expect to get some or most missiles and bombers, but the submarines off your coast would be able to retaliate.",
"This is the case people mention when they say \"WELL THEY COULD BUT WE'D GOSH DARN GET EM BACK!\"",
"If you had a small nuclear weapon, and wanted to take out a port city, that would be very easy provided you have some control (officially or not) of customs at departure. You could put a nuke in a shipping container and detonate it at the port of Los Angeles without much trouble. Getting it inland from there would be the challenge.",
"A shipping container would present plenty of space, as well, even for a technologically unsophisticated country. At this point, it's relatively simple to construct a nuclear weapon, the difficulty is making one small enough to fit on a bomber or missile. If that constraint is relaxed, then it wouldn't be much trouble.",
"That would, in my opinion, require state actor support, but would also be difficult for a state actor to justify. It would eventually be traced, and if you only delivered one, you do tremendous damage but don't actually hurt the ability to retaliate.",
"So a non-state actor would have a hard time getting hold of nuclear weapon, but it is of course possible. They would have to steal one, or steal the nuclear material that they are made from. It requires a lot of resources to get that, typically beyond the reach of a jihad group, but it could be done. With sufficient radioactive material, you can just make a dirty bomb, conventional explosives that scatter radiation everywhere. That would be really easy, actually, and the fact it hasn't happened yet sort of surprises me. It's also not all that dangerous, the explosion would be fatal to those near it but the actual amount of radiation released would be small. That statement is, of course, relative to actual nuclear fusion or fission weapons.",
"So, it could be done, but it would take some reasonably complicated planning and multiple people, depending on exactly who is doing this, what they hope to achieve, and what capabilities they have."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbjacev",
"comment_text": [
"Very Very easy. A country like russia could drop nuclear bombs on every major us city in a matter of minutes. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbjejt0",
"comment_text": [
"Both of those options require a massive amount of resources and technological sophistication. ",
"If you want to cripple the economy of a nation and avoid reprisal (for a little while anyways) going under their defences is a good option."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbjb2nb",
"comment_text": [
"Depends on how you classify \"hard\". They could easily take out every major population center in the United States in a matter of an hour(counting travel time). We would very quickly find out that they have launched warheads and proceed to bomb every major population that they had. So easy to do, hard to get away with. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbjeo6h",
"comment_text": [
"Winning a full scale nuclear war is impossible. ",
"You will fire. They will fire. Others will fire. ",
"Game over",
"Starting one can be very simple. Have a false indication of attack. ",
"That's almost happened a lot. ",
"Place unstable leaders and let them make some not so stable ideas. ",
"Obama could start a Nuke war in about five minutes. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: Why are many US sellers unwilling to ship internationally?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jom8v
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhzfn6",
"comment_text": [
"This is the only answer so far that is actually in the right area for the question. ",
"Good point. Guess you can't rely on adults behaving like adults and accepting that they got unlucky even if their registered package 'got lost', without throwing a shit-fit and asking PayPal for a refund.",
"Yeah, I can see that at that point it becomes not worth it anymore. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhzfn6",
"comment_text": [
"This is the only answer so far that is actually in the right area for the question. ",
"Good point. Guess you can't rely on adults behaving like adults and accepting that they got unlucky even if their registered package 'got lost', without throwing a shit-fit and asking PayPal for a refund.",
"Yeah, I can see that at that point it becomes not worth it anymore. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhss1y",
"comment_text": [
"packages get lost internatioanally all the time. as a business we ship packages by USPS international fwding. i'd say 1 in 50 packages get lost or delayed or damaged. as retailers, we have to send a replacement product out of our own pocket. or the customer will request a full refund and we'll be out both product and revenue."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhyztx",
"comment_text": [
"I specifically say I wasn't talking about about retailers, but individuals. Think old eBay and WTB/WTS forums. ",
"Also, hard for a package to get 'lost' when there is a tracking number and it's got an itemized history of every stop it's made.",
"Like I said, some shmuck posts a 'Want to sell' thread, and specifies that he \"will only ship ConUS;\" I'll respond that I'll take responsibility if it gets lost, but I still get a resounding no. ",
"What's the possible justification for being so adamant for not shipping international then?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbi3riz",
"comment_text": [
"History is only as good as the service. I had packages that history stops 3weeks ago at \" in transit\""
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: If a software has terms of conditions that have small fine print in it that say the software will send all your credit card information to malicious services, will the software company be legally safe?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5joa8q
| 10
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.69
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhpacr",
"comment_text": [
"No. At least in the USA, the courts have held that if a consumer contract unlikely to be read contains a condition that the consumer would have no reason to suspect would be in there, it may be unenforceable.",
"In addition, the way people \"agree\" to many software terms & conditions has never been tested in court as to exactly how valid it is, compared to an actual signature."
],
"score": 18
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhuemw",
"comment_text": [
"fully reasonable to expect",
"I'm going to have to thoroughly disagree with you on that one. \"If you break the terms we'll intentionally expose your data to criminals\" is not something I'd expect to see in ",
" contract."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbi22qb",
"comment_text": [
"No, because no contract is enforceable if it breaks local, state, federal or constitutional laws. ",
"The fact that you gave permission doesn't give a company the right to commit fraud or other illegal acts, like distributing personal or financial information to known or suspected malicious parties. ",
"Additionally, such a contract could put not only the consumer but also innocent third parties at risk, such as financial institutions, ISPs, stores or sales outlets and other entities. No court would let your signature on a contract with illegal entities to create potential liability for third parties."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhv386",
"comment_text": [
"Enjoy your semantics exercise. Bye."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhqudx",
"comment_text": [
"It depends, but its unlikely. If the EULA was a single sentence that said in plain english that your credit card information was going to be used, then yes the company would be legally safe. On the other hand, if the software would be normally be considered safe and the clause was buried deep in a 100 page document then the software company would be liable. That's because nobody would expect that sort of behavior and it would be purposefully misleading. Between these two extremes there is going to be gray area, and until a court case comes up we really won't know."
],
"score": 5
}
|
ELI5:How humans didn't get eaten by predators who heard babies screaming when humans lived in the wild.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jng4d
| 36
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.76
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhis4u",
"comment_text": [
"Predators (at least modern ones anyway) look for easy meals. It's not worth risking injury.",
"If you find a human child ",
"? Snacktime.",
"If you hear a crying child, go to the noise, and find several adult humans with pointy sticks and fire? Not worth the risk. "
],
"score": 84
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhliz3",
"comment_text": [
"If you were hungry in the woods and stumbled upon a crying baby bear surrounded by adult bears with crazy bear-tech weapons living in scary bear-tech structures lit up with bear-magic would you try to make steak?"
],
"score": 56
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhnlpb",
"comment_text": [
"Babies didn't cry as much when humans lived more \"in the wild.\" Crying is generally a sign that the baby is hungry or needs to be held.",
"Do you ever watch primates with their babies? The babies practically live on their backs and stomachs for the first year(s) of life, being constantly held and nursed. Early humans likely held babies the same way.",
"If you know parents of young kids, see how much they cry and when they do. Mom's who co-sleep allow the babies to wake up and feed at will, so they don't do much crying during the night. Babies in a crib will scream constantly until they are held."
],
"score": 29
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhk23m",
"comment_text": [
"Plus we buddied up with dogs a long time ago."
],
"score": 24
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhp2uw",
"comment_text": [
"As an animal, you don't want to be in an even fight. In a world where a broken bone could mean death, or a small cut could easily get infected, you wouldn't want to get into a fight unless you were sure that you are going to come out as the winner."
],
"score": 22
}
|
|
ELI5: Why is reverse-racism/reverse-sexism not the same as regular racism/sexism?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jogr3
| 23
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhr8vp",
"comment_text": [
"Most people think of racism as synonymous with discrimination or prejudice based on race. This will match up with the definition you find in most dictionaries.",
"Some Sociology-related courses in college define racism and sexism as a political or societal system designed to hold back disadvantaged groups so that the prevailing group will stay in power. With this definition of racism/sexism, black people and women cannot be racist or sexist in America because they are not the ones with the position of power.",
"Your professor would probably agree that black people and women can be ",
", but is probably using a different definition of racism and sexism than the colloquial definition. "
],
"score": 27
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhr96u",
"comment_text": [
"In the academic sphere, racism and sexism usually refer to power, not individual cases. Reverse racism isn't a thing because the current power structure elevates whiteness above blackness. Any individual case where a black person discriminates or the system somehow rewards a black person over a white person (and it is perceived as unfair) is not an instance of racism because the systematic power in society is still in the hands of whiteness above blackness. ",
"Same with sexism. ",
"In the every-day meaning of sexism and racism, sure. People can be discriminatory and prejudiced in any direction. But academics aren't interested in the individual level. They're interested in the systematic, structural level of society, government policy and business."
],
"score": 15
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhsfby",
"comment_text": [
"An important general point is that dictionaries give terse, simplistic definitions to help understand words in a general context, not a deep academic discussion. For example, if you go by the m-w.com definitions of recession and depression, you'd wind up thinking that the only difference is that depressions have increasing unemployment and recessions don't; that's a good way to fail economics. ",
"Trying to prove the professor is using the word racism incorrectly by reference to Webster is a losing approach. The dictionary isn't a social science reference book. "
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhsso0",
"comment_text": [
"Reverse racism isn't a thing because the current power structure elevates whiteness above blackness.",
"every time I hear that nonsense I wonder if people believe that Obama (POTUS of 8 years) can't be racist because he's part black, but some white dude that has been homeless his entire life can somehow be racist.",
"It's ridiculous and it's mental gymnastics."
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhz9ca",
"comment_text": [
"Wtf there is no such system",
"That's not what they mean by system. They don't mean a literal system where people have meetings and plot. It's more subtle, for example, women tend to get promoted much less to high roles in company like CEO (There's about 4% female CEOs at fortune 500 companies).",
"It's not that people intentionally don't promote women, but they tend to be viewed differently, which can lower their chances at being promoted (even after you correct for things like maternity leave).",
"completely false?",
"False isn't really the right word. There are a lot of examples of systems that aren't intentionally designed to be racist/sexist, but end up being sexist/racist, as a side effect.",
"In a lot of ways, these are way more interesting academically, because they're a lot harder to identify/correct. It's really easy/obvious to say \"hey lynching is bad\". ",
"It's a lot harder to show that say, black people get hired 4% less* than white people, but if you cover their names on applications it evens out. (And often, the hiring team doesn't even realize they're doing it, it's subconcious)",
"*\nnot a real stat, just using it as an example of something that is hard to see anecdotally, but you can pick up statistically."
],
"score": 8
}
|
|
ELI5: If today is the Winter Solstice, why is today the first day of Winter? If anything, it should be the last day of Winter since the sunlight begins to rise again.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jlqvo
| 8
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.68
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbh4pza",
"comment_text": [
"Solstice simply means that the sun is at one of its extremes, and this one occurs in winter."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbhcneg",
"comment_text": [
"For what it's worth, proclaiming the December solstice as the official first day of winter (in the Northern Hemisphere) is a relatively recent tradition and is not universal. Meteorologists tend to define winter as simply the months of December, January, and February. Winter isn't centered on the solstice because of the seasonal lag that has been mentioned in the other comment."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbh9ilf",
"comment_text": [
"Today will not be the coldest day.",
"But it's cold af already ;_;"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbh9ilf",
"comment_text": [
"Today will not be the coldest day.",
"But it's cold af already ;_;"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbh3tli",
"comment_text": [
"the coldest day is about a month from now so your proposal makes no sense. ",
"http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/1222/Winter-solstice-Why-isn-t-the-shortest-day-also-the-coldest"
],
"score": -2
}
|
|
ELI5: why does eating human flesh lead to "the shakes"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jh8s8
| 29
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.8
|
For the record - I'm not planning on any crazy dietary changes. I just watched The Book of Eli and it's mentioned repeatedly, I'm curious as to what the correlation is.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg7cor",
"comment_text": [
"Kuru is a real life disease caused by a prion transmitted through consumption of infectious brain matter.",
"It was first noted in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s and 60s and has largely remained only in that area due to endocannibalistic practices. They eat their dead.",
"Eating the flesh of a person who wasn't infected with the disease isn't harmful. At least no more harmful than eating most other meats."
],
"score": 29
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg82vm",
"comment_text": [
"Exactly. Kuru is a prion disease and Mad Cow is a more common prion disease."
],
"score": 19
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg7g8r",
"comment_text": [
"So it's basically a type of mad cow disease for humans?"
],
"score": 16
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg84ay",
"comment_text": [
"Negative ghost rider. OP is likely referring to Kuru, a prion disease from eating human flesh."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg8o8z",
"comment_text": [
"Meth, nicotine, alcohol, and a host of other things are all more likely explanations."
],
"score": 6
}
|
ELI5: Why does pasta need so much water to cook? Instructions for about 400 grams of Pasta (ravioli) required about 6 quarts ( 24 cups~) of water, boiled for 4 min. I'd think half of that would be sufficient?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jgjkd
| 6
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
Edit: Link for the pasta and the prep
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfz7sx",
"comment_text": [
"Pasta contains a lot of starch, and when starch is wet it gets gummy and sticky. If you don't use enough water when boiling pasta all the starch will cause the pasta to stick together. You could use half the amount in your example, but if the pasta sticks together then some of it will be undercooked if, for instance, it globs together in a giant ball of noodles."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg1zz1",
"comment_text": [
"Using less water than recommended works pretty well if you continuously stir, to prevent them from sticking together.",
"Can be used to feed lots of people from a tiny pot or one person with lots of hunger. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg3yrj",
"comment_text": [
"True, but that idea doesn't work as well if you have other things to manage at the same time. Not that it's a poor observation, though 😁"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg0obw",
"comment_text": [
"I don't want to steer you wrong with a wrong answer on that, so I'll direct you to ",
"r/askculinary",
". I hope that helps 😁"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbg40t0",
"comment_text": [
"You're welcome 😁 There's also ",
"r/eatcheapandhealthy",
" and ",
"r/mealprepsunday",
" once you get pasta figured out, or in case you don't 😂"
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5:Is it legal to pirate something you can't buy anymore?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jfplo
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfsel1",
"comment_text": [
"Nope... still considered theft.",
"If you want to legally own something out of print, you'll need to go find someone that currently owns a copy and buy it from them.",
"Check used book stores, music shops, ebay, craigslist, etc.",
"In answer to ",
"/u/hellydpsing",
" 's question, you are allowed fair use copying of products you've legally bought, for your own use... for example, burning copies of your own CD's to carry in your car while leaving your originals safe at home. You just can't share/sell/give them away."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbftt0r",
"comment_text": [
"I don't think anyone is really policing and arresting for gamecube downloads so you should go ahead and have your fun."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfu4in",
"comment_text": [
"not legal to download, but the people that own the copyrights probably don't care about enforcing them. so relatively safe. no one is gonna care. the owner of the copyright needs to file a complaint for you to get in trouble."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbftn2i",
"comment_text": [
"for example, burning copies of your own CD's to carry in your car while leaving your originals safe at home.",
"I'd like to add something to this. If you ever sell or lose the original CD, you are now legally ",
" to destroy all copies you've made for your own personal use! When you buy a CD, you're not buying the music - you're buying a license to listen to the music. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfs6bu",
"comment_text": [
"If there is still a valid and asserted copyright, then no. just because the owner of the copyright does not make the work available does not mean you can pirate it. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: Why are cancer drugs needed, especially if someone has undergone Chemo?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jap9k
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.4
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbesarf",
"comment_text": [
"Firstly, chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with anti-cancer drugs. Chemo drugs are typically used to poison the cancer cells in order to damage their ability to reproduce. The idea is that this will either destroy the cancer, or at least stop it from growing.",
"Drugs like tamoxifen are commonly used to prevent cancer from growing back once the patient has gone through other courses of treatment. The length of treatment varies depending on each patient's situation of course, but they could be taking it for years after the other treatments have stopped."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbetj4t",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you for your answer, it cleared some things up.",
"One follow-up if you don't mind... if the patient doesn't need chemo, how long after the mastectomy does tamoxifen--or whatever is being used--get prescribed? Like if the mastectomy (or reconstruction if you have to have that completed before starting tamoxifen) is in June, when is tamoxifen usually given to the patient? ",
"Either way, thank you! "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbeuzuu",
"comment_text": [
"This is highly dependent on the patient. I'm not familiar with how soon tamoxifen is prescribed specifically, but if the patient is judged to be at a high risk for recurrence (or if they're afraid that the cancer could have spread) it could be given immediately after the surgery. If the patient is at a lower risk, the doctors may determine that it can wait until the followup tests show how their body is responding to the removal of the mass. The patient's hormone levels post-surgery could change their recommendation, as there are other drugs beside tamoxifen (although I believe tamoxifen is very common after breast cancer).",
"Hope that helped!"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf1igj",
"comment_text": [
"From what I've been reading most commercial cancer drugs do not work.",
"We need ones that do work but a for-profit treatment system has the most gain from never-curing and only-treating. A lot of listed side-effects for chemo drugs actually say they will cause other cancers.",
"Right now cannibinoids seem to have the highest success rate and lowest risk of health problems but are often kept illegal by a mafia-racket of corporate-pharma since we can all grow cannabis FREE just in dirt and never need to pay them a dime."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbsqy6k",
"comment_text": [
"Sorry for such a late reply. It's my mom. She had low risk, but I still feel they would want to put her on them, if she has to anyway, as soon as possible. Her mastectomy was in June and she still hasn't gotten her drugs yet. I was just curious overall but worried because it's my mom. ",
"Thank you for your replies! "
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELi5: Do your arms get sore in space if you hold them up?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jfahn
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.79
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfy90x",
"comment_text": [
"Short answer- no",
"As previously mentioned there is no\"up\" in space. To us - to everything really - \"up\" is simply \"against gravity\". With no gravity, there is nothing to work against. This work against gravity is what tires your muscles. Astronauts have often commented that sleeping is much more comfortable because nothing has to be supported - they just \"lie\" (and that can be in any direction) in their bunk/bed/thingy and fall asleep.",
"This lack of work also means their muscles do begin to atrophy, so they exercise on the space stations using treadmills etc.",
"Chris Hadfield's book (the name of which escapes me right now) is a great insight to life in space - including physical activity - and I would say definitely falls into the ELI5 level."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfopzm",
"comment_text": [
"Define up? In space, since there is no gravity, your arms will get tired from being in an abnormal position, but not sore due to strain of keeping them up due to gravity."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfomap",
"comment_text": [
"There is no \"up\" in space. What we call \"down\" is where gravity pulls us towards. No gravity, no up and down. Which means you wouldn't hold your arms up in space, instead it would be more like \"placing\" them away from their natural position. Since there is no force pulling them back, your arms wouldn't get tired but I believe you would start to feel some shoulder pain due to continuous strain."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfop0d",
"comment_text": [
"Your muscles won't tire, as they don't need to continually work to stay in that position and the heart doesnt need to work harder to pump blood up high. ",
"Think about what it'd be like to have your arms up over your head while underwater, or for a less-accurate-but-more-practical-to-try example, while lying in bed. It takes no real effort to keep them in that position, and the muscles just relax."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfssne",
"comment_text": [
"Slightly off topic, but I would argue that while there is no universal up, or down in space, there are relative positions that the words could be assigned to. Kind of like how you will forever have a left and right side regardless of situation."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: In psych experiments, is it possible not to have an independent variable?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jcx58
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
For context, I've been reading Milgram's (1963) experiment on behavior and obedience and it didn't seem to have an independent variable for me, only controlled variables. Is this possible or did I just miss what the experimenters manipulated?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf4p23",
"comment_text": [
"The independent variables were various factors which were believed to influence the level of obedience. They are described ",
"here.",
"Some studies do lack an independent variable. These are sometimes called ",
" rather than ",
" to highlight the difference in format."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfomhf",
"comment_text": [
"In PhD school I was taught that there are \"experiments\" and \"studies,\" the former being where something is tchanged to learn the effect of that change, and the latter being more of an observation to see they way things are."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf4yie",
"comment_text": [
"thank you! :D"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf4sun",
"comment_text": [
"So does that mean that the Milgram's 1st experiment published in 1963 was an investigation, instead of an experiment? Because no alterations of IV was indicated in his paper."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf4ucz",
"comment_text": [
"As far as I can tell, yes.",
"People sometimes use the word \"experiment\" less formally. Human language can be tricky that way, with different people using words to mean slightly different things."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: Why does the "continental United States" leave out Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico despite the fact all of those still belong to the continent of North America?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5jdj74
| 4
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.64
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf9418",
"comment_text": [
"Instead (and more accurately) they're commonly referred to as \"the contiguous United States\". I like that better for the same reason you're describing."
],
"score": 8
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf9uow",
"comment_text": [
"Aside from what everyone else is saying about contiguous versus continental, Hawaii does not belong to the continent of North America. It's 2400 miles off the coast. It's almost halfway to Asia or Australia. From California, it takes as long to fly to Honolulu as it does to fly to New York. "
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf93m2",
"comment_text": [
"Usually it is phrased \"contiguous United States\" which actually makes sense. The usage of \"continental\" seems to be incorrect as you point out."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbfasnl",
"comment_text": [
"Continents don't have strict definitions. We usually associate islands with their physically closest continent, but sometimes it's based on politics instead.",
"For example Cyprus is often considered European due to its relationship with Greece and it's a member of the EU. But actually it's physically closer to Asia than Europe.",
"Likewise Hawaii is politically part of the USA, so it gets associated with North America. But geographically it's not clear which continent it should be associated with.",
"Most Pacific Islands get included with Australia. Sometimes Australia plus those Pacific Islands is called Oceania. In pure geographic terms, it would probably make sense to include Hawaii as part of that.",
"But it's not really anywhere near Australia either. It's so far away from any continental landmass it's not obvious what continent it should be associated with."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbf9wt7",
"comment_text": [
"Does it belong to either continent? I was under the impression even the most outlying islands technically belong to a continent. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: Why should I be worried about the Internet tracking my activity and using it to suggest more relevant ads?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j8ml5
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbe6mi0",
"comment_text": [
"Why should I be afraid that websites and companies use my activity online to suggest more relevant products and ads to me?",
"Let's say that companies begin sharing that information among themselves in order to form a profile of your behavior. They link that information so that when you start searching for baby clothes you get ads for formula and strollers because you are probably going to have a baby soon. When you go searching for golf clubs they offer you golf bags and tacky hats. When you search for snowboards it offers you snow jackets... and your insurance rates go up. Oops!",
"How about the government sees all this info gathered by companies and demands they get access as well. An awfully tempting target for the ability to assess your behaviors in the context governments care about. Searching for political activism sites? Maybe you qualify for a little \"political reeducation\" in the Gulag."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbe67qh",
"comment_text": [
"Your information is being sent to the ad collation compabiee by the services you're choosing to use (Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc). It's irrelevant if you choose not to receive the ads. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbe9wk4",
"comment_text": [
"To add to this, one way to see how sharing data can be dangerous is when getting DNA tests to look for diseases. If an insurer finds out you had one done they can sue for the results and cancel your policy even if you never get any diseases.",
"One lady was denied because she possessed a gene.\n",
"https://www.fastcompany.com/3055710/if-you-want-life-insurance-think-twice-before-getting-genetic-testing",
"I'm all for companies moving to protect themselves and their assets, but that's some horseshit. The way things are moving businesses and law enforcement both are working towards as much prediction as they can.",
"Companies can also out your pregnancy status or sexual preference because their drive is to make money, not provide you with privacy.",
"http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#2da299b234c6",
"Imagine you're a female working for a large corporate law firm that regularly has you working late hours on complex corporate mergers and whatnot. Your boss happens to be a sexist shitbag. Your firm starts getting advertisements for pregnancy related stuff in the mail. Do you think your boss will allow you to work on a new project now he sees you as \"inhibited\" or thinks you have to take leave halfway through?",
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/police-are-using-software-to-predict-crime-is-it-a-holy-grail-or-biased-against-minorities/2016/11/17/525a6649-0472-440a-aae1-b283aa8e5de8_story.html",
"This becomes dangerous when these \"predictions\" get it wrong. Imagine if the police used the software to tell when a violent criminal was going to commit a murder? If the location happened to be in your house or target was your name but the program was wrong because it was fed incorrect data....Who is to blame? The police that killed your dog and put cuffs on your 10 year old? The technician transcribing data? The programmer?",
"We already have a hard enough time trying to get cops to pay for their fuckups so when a system like this gets introduced it will be impossible to find and punish the bad or ineffective ones."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbe7v6j",
"comment_text": [
"What I meant by this is; if I am given a certain ad, I may either ignore it or take advantage of it. In either case, no harm done and I figure it's better if they at least send me ads that I'm more likely to be interested in. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbe8e61",
"comment_text": [
"If you read what the other guys wrote they're talking more about why people are uncomfortable by the idea of more and more people have information about you. Doesn't matter how you interact with the ads. All that's important is companies and potsntially the government or even less undesirable parties understand too well how you interact with the Internet. These things ultimately could be used against you in certain situations or be used to manipulate you."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Transporting Growlers in the U.S.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j755d
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdu07w",
"comment_text": [
"They should provide a seal of some kind, whether it be a sticker or a piece of tape across the lid to show it hasn't been opened. I've bought a lot of growlers in my time and have never not had the place I've bought it from seal it in that fashion."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbduxjc",
"comment_text": [
"Will depend largely on the state. If they don't seal it, that state probably doesn't require a seal. Store it out of reach of the driver and you should be fine."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbduwxc",
"comment_text": [
"Where are you buying from that they seal growlers? I've bought hundreds, mostly in NY but in other places up and down the east coast, and have NEVER had one sealed in any way. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdv1hs",
"comment_text": [
"Ohio. Bought them from a liquor store, bar, and restaurants and they're always sealed. Lucky you guys. Haha"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdwn29",
"comment_text": [
"That's crazy. Makes sense, but just strange to me. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why do you choose to shop in-store instead of online
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j747t
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.66
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdtq9e",
"comment_text": [
"Online shopping does not provide instant gratification or the ability to physically view an object to assess if it is appropriate. You can't try on clothes online or purchase foods for use that same day. Convenience is the main driver behind physical stores."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdtvh7",
"comment_text": [
"Shopping in-store has several advantages to shopping online, the first and most obvious being immediate possession of your purchases. When you leave the store, the item leaves with you. There are no tracking numbers and no shipping to pay for/wait for. ",
"The other major advantage is the ability to see and (where applicable) try on the items. Pictures online can be deceiving (half the posts in ",
"/r/ExpectationVsReality",
" are evidence of this) and since sizes are more \"guidelines\" than actual concrete numbers, trying things on can make a huge difference. ",
"There are numerous advantages to shopping online as well, of course, like selection and availability, not to mention no driving around and looking for a parking spot."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdu1cv",
"comment_text": [
"Because I make decisions based, at least partly, on the tactile. How does an item of clothing feel? Plus, trying it on. Women's sizes are far from standardized and I don't want pay (essentially) to try something on. That's what it is when I have to pay to return something. But also, what's the heft of a pan? How does a baking tool feel in my hand? If it's supposed to be used one-handed, does it fit into my hand? Pictures are flat and don't tell the whole story. I need the 3-D, the haptic, the visual to make a decision on a lot of items. Plus, if something does need to go back -- a skirt, a laptop -- there's a place, a person. Mailing stuff seems iffy, open to \"Oh, it never got here.\" And then you're stuck."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbduv77",
"comment_text": [
"i enjoy the personalized service of my local stores and often the prices are the same once you factor in shipping. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdvax4",
"comment_text": [
"I shop for clothes in store because I can try them on. Clothing is still made by made by hand and the sizing can differ from garment to garment even with the same tag size.",
"If I want something right away I don't need to wait. I am able to see and feel the item.",
"Mostly I buy in store because I need something right away. Toilet paper, groceries, socks, etc."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Most countries that exist today were conquered, why is the Pilgrims' conquering of what is now the US one of the most controversial?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j3xsy
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd6pev",
"comment_text": [
"Because few things make people feel better than believing themselves more moral than recent ancestors (like being better than your parents). The arguments over the pilgrims are mainly fought in the US, and the anti-pilgrim proponents never utter a peep about conquests around the world by other countries, especially non-European conquests.",
"Really, there is no country that wasn't built on a solid foundation of diseased, starved, murdered corpses. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd6z7w",
"comment_text": [
"Not all countries wiped out the indigenous population to near total extinction. And the countries that did, like mine (Australia), also have the same conversations. Hell our Australia Day is celebrated on the day the British fleet came here, a day that many feel marks the beginning of a holocaust for native people, and it's been a controversial thing for a while now.",
"And these issues do have relevance, how the native Americans were treated a few hundred years ago reflects their position in society today. They suffered many years of violence, not just by the pilgrims and that's worth talking about."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd8oec",
"comment_text": [
"This happened within Europe as well. English in Ireland is an excellent example where an outside culture suppressed a native one and there is still strife about it."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd6t83",
"comment_text": [
"It's not just the US where it's controversial. In Australia our country has to come to terms with what it did to the indigenous population, as does Canada, the Spanish and Portuguese founded nations in Latin America and the African nations like South Africa and Congo that suffered from European atrocities."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd6wqd",
"comment_text": [
"If I understand you correctly, you are asking why when white men first came to America the most controversial 'conquering' of land as opposed to other countries being conquered? ",
"Well, first of all, if you live in the U.S. it is widely talked about, studied and fought over. However, other countries don't ponder on it as much as we do. Likewise, other countries were conquered in similar ways but we either don't learn about it or talk about it simply because we don't live there and it's not part of our history. This isn't the case for everyone in the U.S. or any given country.",
"I can't say it's one of the most controversial because I'm sure in other countries, they don't even go over it or if they do, it's just a general glossing over. Just as I can say I learned but don't remember info on when or how any countries in eastern Europe or Asia were 'conquered' and whether it was as insane as U.S. history or not. ",
"If you live in or around Northern and Central Americas or the UK, it's the most controversial for exactly that reason. ",
"If not, I am sorry I couldn't provide an answer for you.",
"Other countries who were conquered in a grotesque manner such as North America probably see their own countries conquering as the most controversial because it would be the most talked about in their country."
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: What are the biggest problems with the position that earth is 6000 years old?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j4q2i
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.44
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdeloa",
"comment_text": [
"The speed of light.",
"From all our data and all our observations, the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant (299,792,458 meters a second), and light cannot travel from point A to point B any faster or slower than the speed of light.",
"It's also very easy to find the distance between two objects with the Earth's orbit. Look at a star, note it's position in the sky. Wait six months so the Earth is on the opposite side of the sun. Look at the same star, note where the star position again. Since the distance of the Earth's orbit is known (about 147 million km) and the angles of the star at has been measured from opposite ends of the Earth's orbit, ",
"we have enough data to create a full triangle with those two data points and the star.",
"With that triangle, we can easily calculate the star's distance from us. For example, the closest star to Earth (barring the sun) is Alpha Centauri, is 4.3 light years away. What is a light year? Well, that is distance light travels in one year, 9 trillion kilometres. So, the light we see from Alpha Centauri is 4.3 years old. ",
"Remember, the \"Young Earth\" creationists don't only say that the Earth is 6,000 years old, but all of \"creation,\" I.E. the entire universe is over 6,000 years old. So, we only need to find one object that is over 6,000 light years away to disprove the theory. If the object is more than 6,000 light years away, than it has to be at that old. How many objects have we found that are more than 6,000 light years away?",
"The majority of the observable universe. Our galaxy alone has a diameter of 100,000 light years, so even most of the objects within our own galaxy are further away than us than 6,000 light years.",
"The closest galaxy to us outside of the Milkyway is Andromeda, which is 2.5 ",
" light years away. The most distant object seen to date is ",
"GN-z11",
", which is 13.39 ",
" light years away.",
"So that easily disproves that the universe is only 6,000 years old. The only explanation I have ever seen creationists give for this massive inconsistency is that the speed of light somehow used to be faster in such a way that all the light from the most distant galaxies over 13 billion light years away and the light from stars only 7,000 light years away just so happened to reach Earth perfectly so the universe only appears to be about 14 billion years old."
],
"score": 12
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdeh21",
"comment_text": [
"The science is overwhelmingly against it.",
"Archaeology, paleontology, astronomy, geology, physics, climatology, genetics, biology and many other fields of science provide independent and compelling evidence the earth is millions of years old.",
"It isn't so much one thing, but many different line of inquiry that all come up with the same answer."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdhetd",
"comment_text": [
"Well, that goes into a pit of unprovability that completely destroys the very idea of observational/evidence based science.",
"If who ever you are arguing with goes there, you know there is basically no reason to discuss anything further as literally nothing you can say, show, or prove will change their opinions in the slightest."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdhj9z",
"comment_text": [
"I thought that was a given when YEC is involved."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdhuae",
"comment_text": [
"Do you believe in atom bombs? Did you ever see one? ",
"They are made of radioactive elements. These elements have been decaying since they were created in the supernova which seeded our cloud of hydrogen which condensed into our solar system. They decayed into other radioactive elements which decayed into others. It all fits.The world is about 4.5 billion years old. The physics fits. It does not fit for a short history."
],
"score": 5
}
|
|
ELI5:How do hallucinations work?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j2064
| 60
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.77
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbcxnhg",
"comment_text": [
"When you take drugs or however a person hallucinates, it tricks the mind into thinking it's in REM sleep and it starts creating dreams in real life."
],
"score": 11
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbcxx7i",
"comment_text": [
"... when volunteers took LSD, many parts of their brain contributed to visual processing, not just the visual cortex. They could essentially see things that weren’t there, experiencing dreamlike hallucinations.",
"http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/study-shows-how-lsd-mimics-infants-mind-as-ego-dissolves"
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd6i5e",
"comment_text": [
"LSD",
"See things that weren't there. ",
"But...that's not how LSD works"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd72ei",
"comment_text": [
"In high enough doses it very well can work that way"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbda69t",
"comment_text": [
"How does it work?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: What is happening when Sprayer bottles do that stupid thing where you squeeze the trigger and is just stays squeezed instead of releasing back into the squeezable position?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j36gn
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.56
|
It irritates me to no end.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdh9tw",
"comment_text": [
"Probably to keep cost down.",
"Spray bottle costs pennies. Add a 1 way valve increases costs."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd05rm",
"comment_text": [
"Its created a vacuum. As it pulled the liquid out of the bottle....the bottle became emptier but the spray bottle doesnt have any way to get air in to fill the void created by the missing liquid.",
"If you loosen the cap a tiny bit might be enough to avoid that problem or put a tiny little hole in the bottom. Wont have that problem any more.",
"But u might have a problem with spilling."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd26kl",
"comment_text": [
"Why does that not happen every time you squeeze?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdhawl",
"comment_text": [
"It probably does.....but its very very slight, so its not until 10 or 15 sprays that you notice the effect."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdahyu",
"comment_text": [
"Why don't they just put a one-way valve on them?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5:How to tell if a movie is either well directed, well acted or well written? What is the difference among them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j7ice
| 763
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.88
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdxi8h",
"comment_text": [
"Just examples, but:",
" - a really good actor can communicate a character's thoughts, personality and emotions with very little. The way their voice trembles when they say \"I love you.\" The way they stand when in the background of a shot. The way their eyes seem to flare with rage when the villian is talking and they're not. All little details that can make a big different.",
" - You can write whole novels on how to write moves. But typically, a well written script delivers a plot that builds at a good pace without overwhelming or boring the audience, characters who say things that are interesting and novel and explain their personality ",
" being believable enough to not break the sense of immersion. ",
" - directors have a lot of control over the \"feel\" of a movie, and usually set the direction other crews act on. The original script specified this scene to be a dark and stormy night in a city... is it almost cartoony scene, with the buildings illuminated blue and convienently-placed streetlamps highlighting the intense makeup of the actors? Or is it gritty, covered in shadow and drained of color, looking like at any moment someone could get murdered? While the staging/lighting/makeup crew are going to put this together, the concepts and what direction they go in are ultimately the director's call. And that's just one tiny facet of the show! Directors also get say in how ridiculous we're going with action scenes (Jason Bourne or Fast and Furious) the soundtrack (orchestra? electronic? tie-in soundtrack by a big-name artist?) and many other bits that are usually someone else's job to actually ",
" but they need the creative direction and vision to see all those different bits congeal into one effective whole movie."
],
"score": 513
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbdymya",
"comment_text": [
"Very clean and simple. Thanks.",
"directors have a lot of control over the \"feel\" of a movie",
"So, if I am feeling myself in the battle, it's Spielberg; feeling sad for Captain, it's Hanks; and should thank Robert for creating these characters and situations. (Saving Private Ryan)",
"Right?"
],
"score": 104
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbe0cvt",
"comment_text": [
"Feeling yourself in the battle also has to do with the cinematographer (Janusz Kaminski), who decides where to put the camera in each shot and what camera settings to use, and the editor (Michael Kahn), who decides which shots to splice together to turn dozens of takes into one continuous film, alongside many other people like the sound mixing team and set designers.",
"So the whole thing is a team effort. For that opening beach battle, the gritty, almost slow-motion filming? Cinematographer. The back-and-forth cuts of soldiers getting slaughtered? Editor. The dark humor (e.g. the bullet bouncing off that one guy's helmet)? Writer. The pain you see on Captain Miller's face as he orders his guys to certain death? Actor.",
"The thing about directing is that there's not any one specific thing to point to that you can say \"that was the director doing a good/bad thing\". But the whole team effort mentioned above gets coordinated and managed by the director. So you can tell a good or bad director based on how well the team effort seems to be put together. In ",
" all the various elements come together seamlessly to create an amazing battle scene, so you can say that Spielberg did a great job as director.",
"\nBy contrast, the battle scenes in the ",
" prequels feel disjointed and clunky, as if the editor and the cinematographer had different ideas on what a scene was supposed to show. This lack of coordination points to a bad directing job by George Lucas."
],
"score": 99
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbe0zxh",
"comment_text": [
"It's very easy to understand director's job using \"Captain of the Ship\" analogy. But whenever evaluating individual work, things mess up for me. Thanks for explaining, though."
],
"score": 31
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbe7yxe",
"comment_text": [
"It's also worth noting that the studios and producers have a huge impact on the quality of the final movie. They are more often than not the ones that buy the rights to stories and scripts, hire the director, cast and crew, control the money and manage advertising and distribution. This is why you hear stories of directors and actors being fired, new writers being brought on to fix scripts and reshoots of scenes if they feel the film isn't working. Their job is to make as much money as possible, and the larger the budget the more butts in seats they need, appealing to the widest audience possible. After the director presents them with his final version, they do screenings and test audience reactions, then can edit and change the final distributed version as they see fit. Famous example is ",
" where the studio thought the ending was too dark and ambiguous and added a \"happy ending\" to the original theatrical run, then in 2007 Ridley Scott released ",
" which was the movie the way he intended.",
"There are a handful of US directors that contractually have full control of their movies and final say on the release cut: Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese for example. They are referred to as Auteur filmmakers, when you see one of their movies, it's exactly what they want you to see. Of course if the studio hates it or finds it to controversial they can decide to not advertise it or just stick it on a shelf to never been seen."
],
"score": 20
}
|
|
ELI5:Why are air services separate branches within most nations militaries?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j10k6
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.72
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbcgq3l",
"comment_text": [
"You can see that the navy operates in a very different way from the army. Well, the air force also operates very differently:",
"With the needs being so different, it's easier to run this as a separate organization with its own culture, training, and ways of managing personnel and equipment."
],
"score": 8
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbci10s",
"comment_text": [
"Considering the fact that the airforce rarely acts completely on its own",
"Sure they do. The Air Force is responsible for maintaining our land-based nuclear deterrent, a mission that does not really involve the Army. During the bombing campaigns in Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, and Syria the US bombed targets with little or no involvement from ground troops. The Air Force is also responsible for space warfare (mostly maintaining satellites) that doesn't really overlap with other branches.",
"Because the Air Force has unique missions like these, they need to have their own direct line to the DOD and the President, instead of having to go through an Army hierarchy that may have little understanding of, or interest in, the things that they do."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbd36ot",
"comment_text": [
"So, like some commentors pointed out the U.S. Air Force often operates on a more strategic level. For example: during the invasion of Iraq, the Air Force was mostly tasked with long-range strikes targeting communications, supply and other infrastructure. While this is critical for winning wars quickly and with minimal losses to the allied forces, it doesn't leave a lot of planes left for Close Air Support (CAS); so, the other branches are forced to bring their own to support their respective missions. ",
"The U.S. Marines do this particularly well, they have fighter/bomber squadrons, light attack helicopter squadrons and medium/heavy lift helicopter squadrons all tasked with supporting ground troops during an assault. The U.S. Army has much the same setup minus the fighter/bomber squadrons, but they have Air Calvary which is cool.\n Having CAS missions under the same command as the troops needing CAS eliminates lots of delays and confusion.",
"Having a separate Air Force enables strategic mission planning (like deep strikes and some stealthy recon) to happen without being overshadowed by the other branches needs.\nHope that helps."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbclx6d",
"comment_text": [
"Adding on, the Air Force does Space really well- heck its one of their \"big\" 3 missions- Air, Space, and Cyberspace. They are the Space experts of the DoD and work congruent with NASA on quite a few projects"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbco6pv",
"comment_text": [
"In the US at least, the split originally had to do with creating space for air strategy to develop with being dominated by the navy or army. There was real concern that naval and army officers would be too tied to existing doctrine to fully grasp and take advantage of what air power represented. ",
"Many still think this is the case, though not everyone. If you're interested, there's a book called Grounded that makes the case for abolishing the US Air Force. I think the authors name is Farley "
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5:Why didn't nations in the past have to conquer all the enemy's territory to win a war?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5izi3y
| 7
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.7
|
It is so different to read about military fronts from the WW1/WW2 and the Hundred Years' War for example. There's WW2 and the Eastern Front: when the Axis advanced into the Soviet territory, the frontline was longer than 2000 kilometers, and both sides had their soldiers distributed evenly (or relatively evenly, important locations and cities had more defenders/attackers of course).
That is 2000 kilometers of an imaginary line, this way the enemy cannot get through. They had to be sure every city, town gets captured etc, so nothing is left behind, every place gets checked for enemies, spies, rebels, resources. In the medieval times however, nations would rather just rush for the capitals or castles. There were often villages left behind, huge areas untouched, many people wouldn't even know that there was a war, they lived so spread out and in places difficult for the armies to reach. I may be wrong though. What I find really interesting is that sometimes the two nations would clash their armies at the border, without even advancing into each others territory. And so the war was won very soon. When did continous front lines appear in the history? How could kingdoms/empires win war and annex entire countries
with capturing only the capital city? Let's say nation A wins over nation B, in the peace offer B has to cede a chunk of their territory. Maybe the battles weren't even fought in that territory. The majority population living deep in the forests/hills were often detached, connected with no roads to each other: Why didn't the armies of nation A spread out to make sure village, port is conquered, why were they so sure there's no enemy left behind or avoided? Thank you very much, and I am sorry if I wrote something wrong or generalized heavily.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc5kfd",
"comment_text": [
"Probably because most of the peasants didn't care who ran the country as they had no say either way. One taxing entity just got replaced with another taxing entity? Okay fine, as long as they don't come along and wreck our shit, um, long live... Whatshisname!"
],
"score": 15
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc5jjk",
"comment_text": [
"Because as now, most people do not want a war, most people do not even give a damn about which government is in power, most people just want to live, eat, drink, take some drugs, listen to music and have lots of sex.",
"wars are fought for the ego's of the greedy ruling elites, once you stomp on their main military, the rest is just making deals."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc5lhe",
"comment_text": [
"Communication is the driving factor here. In the Middle Ages armies would not receive news for ages from their head of state if they were in another country, and the same for the army they fought against until they reached their target city. If the supreme leader of the military cannot talk to his armies easily, he will consolidate them into small masses and move them on simple paths. This is why you get medieval armies that are huge and cut basic swaths towards capitals or cities.",
"In the twentieth century, and basically from the American civil war, it was possible to talk to even small sections of your armies. As such, you could split them up and create more advanced missions. Thus, an enemy would have to also split himself up in order to counter your diversified attack plan."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc62hp",
"comment_text": [
"Also not much for full time armies. Mostly just the Knights and a smaller contingent of troops. When wars were declared it was a huge chunk of conscripts."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc87tg",
"comment_text": [
"It's not about territory per se. Napoleon famously would decimate enemy forces in a decisive battle and then march on the country's capital. The country is left with no coordinated military resistance. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: What is an arpeggio?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ixgwd
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbboifi",
"comment_text": [
"A chord is multiple notes played together to create a single unified harmonious sound. When a piano player plays multiple notes at the same time, or a guitar player strums multiple strings, that's a chord.",
"When a whole orchestra plays a big note all at the same time and it sounds rich and full, that's a chord.",
"When a choir sings \"in full harmony\", it's a chord, because each \"part\" (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) is singing a different note, and together it makes a chord.",
"An arpeggio is when you play or sing the individual notes of a chord, one at a time, in order.",
"The order can either be up or down, but it means playing from the lowest note to the highest, or the highest to the lowest.",
"Playing the notes in some other order would ",
" be an arpeggio."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbol55",
"comment_text": [
"So basically when it comes to reading music each note is ascribed to a scale. Do usually being middle C and going from there. You might be familiar with Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do.",
"An arpeggio is essentially taking a trio out of that group. Most common one for me when I was in choir was Do, Mi, So.",
"If you've ever seen Sound of Music, this is the simplest way to understand. That song they sing that goes \"doe a deer, a female deer\" is all about it. There's also a song about arpeggios in the Disney movie The Aristocats.",
"(that was a bit long-winded but hopefully it helps you to some degree)"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbvvc6",
"comment_text": [
"that was really helpful! thank you!"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbvwgq",
"comment_text": [
"that was really helpful! esp. the trio part. why do they do trios? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbxoub",
"comment_text": [
"Sometimes they're done in quartets as well. But trios are most common generally because they are more natural for hand placement on instruments and tend to sound more harmonious than an arpeggio using more notes."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: Why were guerrilla-styled tactics not widely used until the 1940's?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5iz19a
| 5
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.64
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc2a92",
"comment_text": [
"Guerrilla style warfare was used in the American Revolution.",
"According to ",
"this",
" website, guerrilla warfare was used as early as the Roman Empire and the American Revolution was actually the turning point of guerrilla warfare."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc3bzx",
"comment_text": [
"It's been used long before the 1940's, but it's less effective when your weapons systems don't allow for small numbers of soldiers to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. In modern warfare, a platoon armed with small arms rifles, hand grenades, and a couple of medium machine guns can inflict heavy casualties on a much larger enemy if they're well positioned. If everybody is carrying swords, it becomes much harder to do this against a well organized enemy, and you need to stay bunched into larger groups to avoid being torn apart by cavalry or overwhelmed by a numerically superior enemy."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc3o4q",
"comment_text": [
"\"Guerrilla \" actually means \"little war\" in Spanish. The term comes from the classic hit and run tactics used in the peninsular war during the napoleonic wars. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc4btg",
"comment_text": [
"Guerrilla style tactics were how the US won the Revolutionary war and were common during the civil war too. The term itself comes from the Napoleonic war and they were common all the way up until WWI when the shear volume of shrapnel and bullets in the air force trench warfare to be the primary style of combat. Similar issues existed during WWII but things were starting to revert back to guerrilla style combat as battle lines loosened. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc5ifx",
"comment_text": [
"The adoption of modern guerilla tactics can be attributed to Sir Winston Churchill. As a young reporter in South Africa during the Second Boer War, he saw Boer \"kommandos\" (small units) successfully use guerilla tactics against the British. Years later, when he was Prime Minister during World War II, he remembered what he had reported on, and requested the formation of small Special Forces units on the same principles, which were named ",
"Commandos",
". Units in other countries, including the USA's \"Green Berets\", took their inspiration from the Commando units."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: why is it generally taboo to ask someone how much they get paid even when you guys are friends?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5j0h6q
| 36
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.74
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbcc8go",
"comment_text": [
"Generally because it can cause tension, if you work with that friend on they work in similar roles and you earn considerably more - while you might expect them to be happy for you - many people are simply annoyed by it."
],
"score": 27
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbcfty8",
"comment_text": [
"People often define themselves, or expect that others define them, by how much they make. If the number is too high, maybe people are impressed or maybe they are bitter because they think you're overpaid. If the number is too low, maybe they pity you. Or maybe you expect that people will pity you and your small salary even if they wouldn't. ",
"It's a bit like asking how much someone weighs. There is no inherent reason why it is wrong, but we attach a lot of meaning and assumptions to it so it becomes an uncomfortable question for many people."
],
"score": 22
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbcnlc0",
"comment_text": [
"Because our corporate overlords do everything they can to discourage us from talking about salary. They fear us demanding a raise to the level of a coworker that does half the work but is better at bargaining."
],
"score": 20
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbcf4n9",
"comment_text": [
"“Familiarity breeds contempt.” Humans get jealous, especially if a member of a friend group has more resources than another as a result of the same work."
],
"score": 16
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbcggmz",
"comment_text": [
"Here's a pretty good argument as to why people should ask."
],
"score": 14
}
|
|
ELI5: From a legal perspective, if Joe Mixon was attacked first by Amelia Rae Molitor why are his actions not categorized as self-defense?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5iw349
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.71
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbeaku",
"comment_text": [
"Interesting, should Molitor be charged with anything?",
"Based on the small amount that I know about the case, probably battery, the same as Mixon."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbdjm5",
"comment_text": [
"There's a difference between self defense and retaliation.",
"Self defense is when you ",
" to attack someone to protect yourself, and not attacking will lead to you being seriously injured or killed. In almost all cases, you're legally required to try to exit the situation nonviolently first, and can only use physical force when you're unable to escape.",
"In the situation you mention, Mixon could ",
" have just walked away. He didn't attack Molitor because he was afraid he would be injured or killed if he didn't. He attacked her because he was mad and wanted to hurt her in retaliation for hitting him. So it wasn't self defense."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbe4tc",
"comment_text": [
"Interesting, should Molitor be charged with anything?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbdvvl",
"comment_text": [
"Except in states that have \"stand your ground\" or \"castle\" doctrines the legally expected behavior is to remove yourself from threat. If that requires physical self defense then that defense is justified insofar as you keep it to what's required to be able to remove yourself from the situation.",
"Eg if someone threatens you or is assaulting you and you can't run away, then it could be okay to land a punch. If this punch floors the attacker (or distracts them enough) you are then meant to run away rather than start putting in the boot. At this point the best course of action is to escape danger so if you choose to remain to \"punish\" your attacker then you are now committing assault.",
"Stand your ground and castle doctrines can change this so it depends on where you live. Even within those doctrines though you don't have the right to escalate the situation beyond what's immediately required for self-defense.",
"Basically even if you live in a stand your ground state, if someone punches you, you don't get the right of \"retaliation\"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbc6roz",
"comment_text": [
"A jury are the ones who disagreed and many people think they got it wrong. So do it."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why do SWAT teams, even in more militarized police forces, use the MRAP style APC's rather than the BTR style?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ityeo
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.56
|
For image reference, here's we generally see in use, and here's we don't see despite them appearing to offer greater protection, judging by how vehicles of similar design have fared in Afghanistan. Why do we see more of the former and less of the latter?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbayb5u",
"comment_text": [
"Because the \"BTR\" style is centered around having a main turret with a big gun and being resistant to military-grade crew-served weapons on the 12.7 mm caliber and upwards. MRAPs are quite adequate for dealing with anything a SWAT team is qualified to deal with in the first place - when was the last time SWAT was sent against someone with a tripod-mounted heavy machine gun?",
"Besides, Russia here, ",
"we have BTRs in police role by default",
", and only FSB Alfa sometimes rolls in in ",
"a fancy new Batmobile-esque MRAP",
" (formally called the Punisher)."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbjdyu",
"comment_text": [
"And yet when was the last time these things came into play in a SWAT scenario? Even in Europe, where it appears anti-tank rocket launchers are moderately available, there haven't been any attempts by ISIS to use an anti-armour-capable terrorist unit."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbj10h",
"comment_text": [
"I mean like in America people can buy anti material rifles and make improvised mortars and such, like it's not common but neither are IED's and yet they're driving MRAPS.",
"Also the batmobile looks so cool."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbb0co9",
"comment_text": [
"There is also a financial aspect to consider as well. The manufacturer of the \"MRAP\" vehicle you are likely thinking of made several thousand vehicles over an incredibly short period of time for the military for their roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that we have stopped a large majority of our operations there, there is a surplus of these vehicles. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbj22n",
"comment_text": [
"Ah, that makes a lot of sense."
],
"score": 1
}
|
Eli5: Why is this ad offensive?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ismrm
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.29
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbap0y3",
"comment_text": [
"If you want to understand why people are angry about it, I'd recommend reading the things they're writing. Not asking random people who aren't necessarily angry about it. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbap803",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is not for:",
"Subjective or speculative replies - Only objective explanations are permitted here; your question is asking for speculation or subjective responses ",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbaopj1",
"comment_text": [
"I'd like to see the comments other people have, but one possible interperation of the words might be like...",
"\"What will President Trump do? Damn, what ",
" this guy do for power?\"",
"Seeing as it's liberal-leaning MSNBC* I can assume they're quite open about their low opinion of the guy.",
"( * = I too am a liberal with a very low opinion of the guy, but I'm also not a news channel, I'd prefer a commitment to simply reporting unspun facts from ALL sources)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbap3ff",
"comment_text": [
"None of it really makes sense. It's all just agreement, and honestly I'd rather seem like a moron Reddit and ask there where no one in real life knows me than on facebook or twitter where people I know can judge me. "
],
"score": 0
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbap44s",
"comment_text": [
"This post is not asking for a layman-friendly explanation to something complicated or technical, so it doesn't belong here. Entirely subjective questions generally belong in ",
"/r/askreddit",
".",
"As ",
"/u/spargelkol",
" said:",
"If you want to understand why people are angry about it, I'd recommend reading the things they're writing. Not asking random people who aren't necessarily angry about it.",
"This post has been removed."
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5: Can someone explain the participation trophy meme?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5iskj9
| 5
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.78
|
Can someone explain this meme, because growing up I never got one but people over 40 in my life seem to think that I did? For example when did this meme start?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbaokp8",
"comment_text": [
"Participation trophies were ",
" a thing, I do remember receiving them a few times (sailing, basketball) when I was like 10 to 13.",
"They became a meme among people who don't like the current millenial generation. The accusation is that they're selfish, spoiled and feel like they should be rewarded for doing nothing, and participation trophies are used as a joke/evidence of how they got this way, that apparently kids were coddled resulting in this behavior as adults.",
"Personally I question how it would've impacted my life at least when I barely even remember getting the dang things, they've certainly been thrown out a decade ago. Historically, it seems to be the opinion of EVERY age and generation that the next batch of kids and young adults are spoiled little shits."
],
"score": 10
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbaugud",
"comment_text": [
"The technical term for what you described in the final sentence is called \"juvenoia\"; learned it from vsauce. It has been recorded for hundreds of years."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbaq9kk",
"comment_text": [
"Once upon a time, when someone got a trophy, it was because they earned it by actually accomplishing something.\nIf Brad got the first place ribbon in Track and Field it wasbecause Brad crossed the finish line first.\nIf Susie got the 2nd place ribbon because she came in right after Brad. And so on.\nBut over time-and I can't pinpoint exactly when, but things changed: When there was a competition among children where awards were given, some parents began to complain that since only certain kids were awarded ribbons, the kids who didn't receive a ribbon we're being made to feel badly for not \"placing\". Or winning.\nThis notion lead to the belief that even if a kid didn't \"win\" they should still be recognized for simply \"participating.\" So what happened was that literally every kid got a ribbon. The kid who crossed the finish line first would get the First Place prize. The kid who crossed second would get the 2nd place prize; and so on. But, with this new parental attitude emerging, it was expected that the kids who crossed 6th, 7th, or 8th should also get awarded. After all, they \"participated\" so they should be recognized. But since there was usually no ribbon for 6th, 7th or 8th place, the \"participation ribbon\" was born. As it turned out, practically every kid got a ribbon/award of some sort.\nMoms and dads feared that if their kid didn't get one of the prestigious wins( 1st,2nd,3rd Prize), then they would feel badly about themselves for not measuring up. So, if everyone got a ribbon, then no one would feel bad. \nThis is roughly how the participation ribbon came to be. Surely there are other societal or cultural elements that helped to shape the phenomena, and I am open to being educated about them. \nI don't think I made this specific point:\nParents were super paranoid/concerned that every kid be made to feel special. ( hence:EVERYBODY gets a ribbon regardless of performance).So we have this whole class of people/kids who grew up believing they were better/smarter/faster than they actually were because ( usually) their moms pushed for them to get a ribbon no matter how they performed. So these kids grew up with an inflated sense of self; thinking they were super awesome at everything. Surprise, surprise they weren't. And then they grew into adults who thought the sun rose for them. \nAnd they were/are often less functional than is acceptable and they are generally ill-equipped to handle the rigors of day-to-day adult life. But they often have no idea they're incompetent. Because they're used to getting a ribbon just for showing up. And, they're unaccustomed to hearing anything other than utter praise about themselves.\nTry managing an employee who thinks he's everything, but the truth is the he actually sucks, can't take criticism and expects praise just for showing up.\nThese are the underpinnings of the Participation Trophy Meme.\nIt's especially frustrating to WWII( and other) types who earned everything through blood, sweat and tears and they consider these Participation Trophy kids a disgrace."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbbmy7t",
"comment_text": [
"He mad. I'm tempted to rise to the bait, but I'll pass"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbaotbj",
"comment_text": [
"It's all about getting rewarded for losing. The whole everyone is special concept. Every generation thinks the next generation is soft. I look at this as a right of passage in a way. I remember starting my first job and getting all kinds of shit just for being born when I was. Don't take it personal, just do your best to show them their assumptions are wrong."
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: The Investigation into Obama's Birth Certificate
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5is4kp
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.57
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbakjuq",
"comment_text": [
"Barack Obama is black. Conservatives don't believe that a black man can be president because black people aren't Real Americans because they're not real people. So ever since he became a real presidential candidate, Donald Trump and others I have sought to prove that he is a Muslim Kenyan alien witch doctor. You should have seen the signs they were waving around. I don't say anything about Ted Cruz being Canadian and they don't say anything about John McCain being born outside the United States, either. But they're both White."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbamzuc",
"comment_text": [
"By Joe Arpaio, do you mean the guy who very publicly faked a bomb plot against himself; who cooked his books to hide ~100 millions dollars of federal funding in order to hide, among other things, trips to disneyland & fishing resorts; who's responsible for numerous cases of abuse of power, cronyism and the worst racial profiling in the history of this country?",
"Sounds totally legit."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbamzuc",
"comment_text": [
"By Joe Arpaio, do you mean the guy who very publicly faked a bomb plot against himself; who cooked his books to hide ~100 millions dollars of federal funding in order to hide, among other things, trips to disneyland & fishing resorts; who's responsible for numerous cases of abuse of power, cronyism and the worst racial profiling in the history of this country?",
"Sounds totally legit."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbamzuc",
"comment_text": [
"By Joe Arpaio, do you mean the guy who very publicly faked a bomb plot against himself; who cooked his books to hide ~100 millions dollars of federal funding in order to hide, among other things, trips to disneyland & fishing resorts; who's responsible for numerous cases of abuse of power, cronyism and the worst racial profiling in the history of this country?",
"Sounds totally legit."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbam2p3",
"comment_text": [
"I would point out that Obama's father was an African and he was raised abroad and in Hawaii. His middle name is Hussein. A lot of reasons why rightwingers hated Obama. "
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5: why does temperature seem to affect how food tastes?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5iq5z3
| 5
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.78
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba3z7s",
"comment_text": [
"A lot of the details in how food tastes comes from the smell. Increased temperature means the volatile compounds that our noses pick up are released more, so the smell (and corresponding flavor) is stronger.",
"It also changes the texture of most food, which is also important."
],
"score": 10
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba4dh8",
"comment_text": [
"Probably just because you can taste it without going, \"Ow shit fuck that's hot!\""
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba4d6y",
"comment_text": [
"It's also chemistry. Certain components react and change with the temperature change, hence same meal can taste differently. E.g., some fruits and vegetables (and milk) produce sugar when the temperature goes up - thus taste more sweet."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba49sa",
"comment_text": [
"Then why does a good cup of coffee have more flavor after it's cooled down a few degrees?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba9o8p",
"comment_text": [
"It's not just about \"stronger\". Different compounds react differently to temperature, and any given flavour results from a very large combination of compounds. When you change the temperature, you change the balance between those compounds, thus changing the flavour profile.",
"I expect that what you're experiencing with coffee comes from some of the more overpowering components of the aroma being released a bit less, thus letting the others come through."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: What's the benefit to colleges/universities for offering Early Decision and Early Action?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5iqkev
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
It's that time of year where thousands of high school seniors (in the US at least) are starting to hear back from schools that they've applied for Early Decision, Early Action, and Restrictive Early Action. There's lots of information on when a student should or shouldn't do any of these, but I would like to know what the colleges/universities get out of it? Why do they offer these options?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba7v2k",
"comment_text": [
"Colleges want a certain number of students to attend each year. However, not everyone who is accepted chooses to go to a particular college; plenty of people get into 2 or more schools, and only can choose to go to one.",
"With early decision, they partially fill their quota in advance to cut down on variance come general admission. For example:",
"Say a school wants 1000 new students, and they know that about 50% of the ones they offer admittance to will actually attend that school. As such, they need to send out 2000 offers, right? The problem is that that 50% isn't exactly; it's actually 40-60%. That means that, if they send out 2000 offers, they could have anywhere from 800-1200 students. ",
"Instead, they do early acceptance and, when that's done, they have 500 students committed to attending. Now, in general admissions, they only need 500 more to hit their quota. With the same attendance rate as before, they send out 1000 acceptance letters. Now the attendance is 500 + 400-600 students, depending on how many from general admittance attend. Your variance just dropped from 800-1200 to 900-1100, which is much more reasonable. "
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbaf631",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks.",
"This makes sense for Early Decision (where the student is required to notify that they are going there), but for non-binding Early Action (only required to notify in May, along with the Regular Action offers) this doesn't apply, unless they assume that they'll get some percentage of the early offers to commit early, even if they're not required to."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbaqcit",
"comment_text": [
"It also forces people to send in applications sooner. Rather than having to rush to process all the applications in a short period of time, they can spread it out more.",
"It helps if you stop trying to think of a university like a business. While, yes, the money's important, ",
" isn't a motivating factor."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba7q4p",
"comment_text": [
"Universities need to guess at how many students will accept admission. By offering these various 'early' programs, they get a more accurate figure at an earlier date so there is less risk of their entering class being too small/large."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba93pl",
"comment_text": [
"It benefits universities by letting them better project their incoming class size, while benefiting students by letting them let a school know they are their first choice and letting them know whether they are into that school or not sooner."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: Why are porn ads so resilient?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ipkwg
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.75
|
I can use multiple ad blocks and even put an actual condom on my computer but it seems at least one always gets through. Why the fuck are porn ads so sticky?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba1p5s",
"comment_text": [
"dont buy ad blocks",
"Why would anyone ever buy an adblocker when there are plenty of free ones that block all ads? "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbaawrt",
"comment_text": [
"They are cheaply made. They aren't made by hand, or let's say, manually. They literally have an algorithm that just grabs whatever porn image they can find on 4chan etc. and slap a font over it. They don't give a shit what crap they write on it.",
"It is worth for them when 1 out of 10000 people click on it. Imagine this, if it costs them about 10 dollars per month per ad and they scam a senior out of 1000s of dollars every month, they are in a large positive. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9z780",
"comment_text": [
"They pay big money to show you ads and dont buy ad blocks just use porn sites that dont use alot of ads like xnxx.com or sum"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba46ne",
"comment_text": [
"Never knew about the free ones tbh"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba4edl",
"comment_text": [
"uBlock Origin is what I use, and I dont think I have encountered one ad since I switched over from AdBlock. If I do encounter an ad, or something I dont want to see, you can click on it using a built in uBlock tool to permanently block that element "
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5:Why does Cold = Dry Air?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5iopw2
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9roxp",
"comment_text": [
"The ELI5 answer is that cold air is not capable of holding as much water vapor as warm air. For rough numbers, every 20F the air temperature decrease it can only hold have as much water vapor. Therefore cold air is dryer.",
"As for why cold air holds less moisture, that is an ",
"r/askscience",
" question. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9ua5t",
"comment_text": [
"To add some visuals to this: when you have moisture on your windows in the morning this happens because warm air containing lots of water hits the cold window and cools down, depositing the excess water that it can no longer hold."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9zk4d",
"comment_text": [
"it can only hold ",
" as much water vapor"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9yc85",
"comment_text": [
"When the dewpoint (which is equitable to the amount of water vapor in the air) reaches the temperature of the air it condenses into water which means there is less water vapor in cold air."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dba084r",
"comment_text": [
"It's harder for water to exist as a vapor in air at cold temperatures; if you take warm, humid air and cool it, the water will eventually precipitate out of it as rain, snow, sleet, or whatever, leaving you will cooler, dryer air.",
"This is also related to how storms work; you get a meeting of cold dry air and warm humid air along various cold and warm fronts. When those fronts meet, you get a relatively rapid mixing that cools and condenses the vapor out of the air. In addition, the more violently these fronts mix, the heavier the precipitation and/or the more violent the ensuing storm."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5:Rorschack tests
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ijxbu
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.66
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8prcz",
"comment_text": [
"The Rorschach ink blot test consists of showing a subject ink blots (where you put ink on a sheet of paper then fold it in half, creating a random symmetrical design). You ask the subject to tell you what it looks like, then record their response.",
"The purpose of the test is to try to expose subconscious or suppressed thought patterns. Simply put, if someone sees a scene of violence in a number of ink blots, you can determine that the subject likely has underlying violent and/or antisocial tendencies. ",
"The Rorschach test is controversial; many in the field of psychology feel that it lacks empirical rigor, and relies too much on the personal biases of the one conducting/analyzing the test. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8q9om",
"comment_text": [
"The test is meaningless without having a qualified human to analyze the results. With that said, if you google \"Roarschach ink blots\", you can find plenty of examples for you to look at and go \"hrm, what ",
" this look like to me?\""
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8trz4",
"comment_text": [
"The test is meaningless without having a qualified human",
"In fairness, the test is probably fairly useless with a person to analyze it, too."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8pyb4",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for the describing answer! Where do you know this from?\nI find it so fascinating.\nCan you take the test online?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9n9rp",
"comment_text": [
"And how does the picture drawer always know how my parents look at fighting ? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why is a mint flavor associated with dental hygiene?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ilt29
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.58
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9iq6t",
"comment_text": [
"I bet a lot of it is just social conditioning. Manufacturers have used mint for decades and so it's become synonymous with freshness and cleanliness. Why mint? I'd guess it's because it's a cool crispness not associated with any other food. If you wanted a fresh clean palate you'd probably not want to brush with something oily or salty or sweet. Mint stands alone as a flavor rarely associated with any food you might eat and the cooling aromatic menthol flavor is a strong flavor distant from other food related mouth flavors. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9acrv",
"comment_text": [
"Hmmm seems legit"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9acrv",
"comment_text": [
"Hmmm seems legit"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9904v",
"comment_text": [
"I think it's because of the sensation of freshness. bad mouth hygiene is synonymous to bad breath while good mouth hygiene is synonymous to cool fresh breath, a property which mint possess."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dbals5m",
"comment_text": [
"It might be because some of the sugarless sweeteners (such as xylitol and erythritol) naturally have a \"cooling\" sensation in their aftertaste, and thus lend themselves well to making products with a mint flavor. ",
"Obviously dentists would want hygiene products to be sugar-free, so one thing leads to another and we end up wth lots of mint-flavored toothpaste, fluoride gel, gum, floss, mouthwash etc. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: Why does adding extra to a monthly payment reduce the term of the loan and not the monthly amount?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ij0is
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.58
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8i3m5",
"comment_text": [
"Loans are built to have a certain schedule of payments, this makes it easy for you to know how much to pay and for the creditor to track payments and know their cash flow in advance. ",
"You could do it the way you describe, but then every payment would require recalculating every payment to follow (including lower interest payments, which the lender doesn't want)"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8if9f",
"comment_text": [
"Other than \"being easy\" and knowing in advanced, there's no real set in stone reason? What i'm getting to is a simple formula could be used to recalculate amount owed after each additional payment."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8j0vj",
"comment_text": [
"Yes, there is. It's the same formula they use to calculate the payments in the first place.",
"I suppose it's possible that there are rules and regulations in some place that require loans to use this format, but so far as I know it's just convention. Lenders don't have to do things that way out of some economic principle, just like they don't have to let you pay off a loan early (except as provided for in the legal documents you sign or in applicable laws.)",
"Edit: as ",
"/u/Titanupman",
" said elsewhere, some credit cards already do use this kind of shifting per payment approach."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8ic0z",
"comment_text": [
"It does lessen the next payment because if they get you to make the lower payment you're right back where you started. ",
"On a large balance loan it may take a few over payments before they adjust the minimum however their goal is to always keep the term as long as possible. That is where the money is made."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8iijf",
"comment_text": [
"Some credit cards allow that. When you make an extra payment or pay more than the original amount, you decrease the amount of interest you will pay on the loan. If the card company wants to extend the term of the loan to maximize their interest earned they can lower the payments, so you continue on your set terms. Otherwise most I have seen simply charge the same amount which was the agreed amount to pay per month, which reduces the length of loan."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5 : why are people always under an illusion that they are wasting their life ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ihite
| 5
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.78
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8i8u4",
"comment_text": [
"Humanity's ability to get itself to a position where all it's physical needs are satisfied and still want more is, imo, what made us the dominant species of the planet. That dissatisfaction keeps us reaching. It's sitting in a dry cave with a bellyful of meat and saying \"okay but now what\". "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db85lsz",
"comment_text": [
"I just feel like I could be doing so much more to further my knowledge and have a good career. I could live more comfortably and be a somebody. ",
"And then there is Reddit "
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8jd0t",
"comment_text": [
"Very well said "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8cip7",
"comment_text": [
"Same feeling bro"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db85n27",
"comment_text": [
"Is it an illusion that you are unsatisfied? One of the tricks to emotions is that they can be a mixed signal or your interpretation of them can be mixed up - it may be an illusion or you may feel unsatisfied because you want to accomplish more. And a general lack of activity or challenge can be depressing or draining as well. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: What's a hypercube and what is so special about it?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ifvaw
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.81
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7vu2k",
"comment_text": [
"Basically, the hypercube is a generalization of what happens as you \"stretch\" a square to 4 or more dimensions. A square has length and width, so it's two dimensional. If you add another dimension (height), you get a cube. Each of the 6 faces of a cube is a square. In the same way, if you add yet another dimension (this one we don't have a standardized name for), you'll get a 4-dimensional hypercube, sometimes called a tesseract. The tesseract has 8 three-dimensional \"faces,\" each of which is a cube. You can keep adding more and more dimensions, getting to a 5, 6, etc.-dimensional hypercube.",
"As for what's \"special about it.\" I'm not really sure how to answer that, as it's a purely theoretical concept. What was the context surrounding where you heard about it? Knowing that may help me what sort of answer you're seeking."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7vk77",
"comment_text": [
"Hypercube is cube with more than 3 dimensions.",
"Squares have 2 dimension (X, Y)",
"Cubes have 3 (X, Y, Z)",
"Hypercube has more than this.",
"Then whats so special about them. You can do some clever math with hypercubes that allow ie. better encryption, logic computing or statistic modelling. They are really just a math \"trick/tool\" to used to solve complicated problems."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7waag",
"comment_text": [
"Is there a specific way to depict a hypercube? I've seen a bunch of different shapes on google images but some of them are less cubey."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db8k43o",
"comment_text": [
"Not to the best of my knowledge, no. The main trouble is actually the same as what happens with a cube. What you see on Google Images is just a two-dimensional \"drawing\" of a cube/hypercube. We know what cubes look like in real life, so we can use that as a basis and standardize what a 2D image of a cube should look like. However, no such real world basis exists for a hypercube, so artists have more freedom to draw it however they see fit, so long as it aids in the depiction that it's meant to be a higher dimensional object.",
"Another difficulty might be that \"hypercube\" doesn't just refer to the 4-dimensional version (tesseract). It can also refer to the 5-dimensional (penteract), 6-dimensional (hexeract), or really any number of dimensions. So unless the images you're comparing are meant to portray the same number of dimensions, they're naturally going to look different."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db9504n",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks! Now the word \"tesseract\" makes sense, too!!"
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: What is the difference between a particular learning disability and someone labeled as having a "developmental intellectual disability"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5idv0x
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7ee4s",
"comment_text": [
"It's like a 6th grader reading and writing at a 1st grade level. My mom works with special kids and I'm high functioning autistic. I could be wrong but that's how I hear her explain some of her children. Enjoy your holiday."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7frkm",
"comment_text": [
"Practically speaking, different rules might apply in an academic setting.",
"Someone with a learning disability might get a small amount of accommodation, like being able to take longer to do a reading assignment.",
"Developmental disabilities, like the one you describe, are often eligible for great accommodation in the form of state assistance. That documentation might have more to do with who is paying for your services than anything. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7frkm",
"comment_text": [
"Practically speaking, different rules might apply in an academic setting.",
"Someone with a learning disability might get a small amount of accommodation, like being able to take longer to do a reading assignment.",
"Developmental disabilities, like the one you describe, are often eligible for great accommodation in the form of state assistance. That documentation might have more to do with who is paying for your services than anything. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7ejwz",
"comment_text": [
"A learning disability is something that can make it harder to learn without reducing potential - special accommodations can compensate. This includes things like ADHD and dyslexia. ",
"Cognitive and intellectual disability also requires accommodation, but represents a delay or reduction in potential as well. So technically yes it could mean a lower IQ, at least in a specific area. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7ekbk",
"comment_text": [
"A learning disability is an impairment within a narrow range. You have some deficiency that makes it difficult for you to apply your intelligence in some specific way. You might have difficulty reading, or a short attention span that is not reflected in other intellectual areas.",
"Developmentally disabled means that you don't that much intelligence to apply in the first place, resulting in across the board deficiencies."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: Why are people so hateful on social media outlets and online video games?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ie2sl
| 8
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.69
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7gf4o",
"comment_text": [
"You said it yourself. Anonymity. Most people get some sort of unfriendly, mean, hostile thoughts. Depending on the person, they usually shut it down out of fear of the consequences. If you tell your boss he's a jackass, you'll get fired. If you overhear a conversation and an opinion that you think is stupid, telling them causes other people to judge you, friends and associates to look down on you, and so on. However, with anonymity there are no consequences. You can be as mean, as condescending as you want and no one is able to punish you for it. So people are less restrained as a result. The underlying reason I suppose you can say is that people tend to be hostile and parochial as a rule, we've just trained ourselves to be somewhat restrained because the benefits of being hostile are outweighed by the costs.",
"Yes, diet can cause irritability especially if it causes regular digestive issues like nausea or bowel pain. Your ego can inflate in a relationship but it is not a given, it depends on the exact nature of the relationship and how the people in said relationship treat each other. Lots of positive affirmation from peers, superiors, lovers etc. will probably boost your ego while negative feedback might reduce your ego."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7g40v",
"comment_text": [
"Kind of answered your own question there. If someone expresses their opinion IRL then they are far more likely to be embarrassed if someone disagrees with them. It's akin to 13 year old kids on Xbox live calling the one black dude in the game the n word. In real life they would NEVER do that because said dude could just beat them up but they can't over XBL. The same thing applies to online comments and social media. ",
"In real life you can't just delete what you have said but online, to a certain extent, you can."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7g7xb",
"comment_text": [
"It really comes down in my opinion that theres no true consequences. No one too puch there face helps. Typically they just don't understand the true power of there words. But mostly not getting hit. There cowards that wont do it to your face but the minute they jump on log in whenever you kids are doing now in days there 10 feet tall masters of insert something witty. Its funny till its not as well i reckon"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7hzbj",
"comment_text": [
"Sure anonymity is central but could the fact that these people are at home could play a role too ? I think I heard somewhere that people were more aggressive when they feel at home, which is also what is observed in all the territorial animal species I think. The fact that these people couldn't feel more at home than behind their computer or TV might have an influence on their aggressiveness."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7vijj",
"comment_text": [
"Happens in call centers too. People calling from home will say all sorts of sexist, racist, crazy-ass things that they wouldn't say in public."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: Why do foggy or smudged glasses make screens piercingly irritating to stare at?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5iayjn
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6pp4h",
"comment_text": [
"They scatter light rays. Instead of seeing the reflected light rays from whatever you're looking at, you basically look at a mess of scattered rays pointing in all directions."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6q2dl",
"comment_text": [
"Consider a small wire mesh. If you put it right up to your eye you can see through it, but if you hold it a couple inches away from your eye, all you see is the wire mesh. When your glasses are all foggy, the rays of light scatter on the fog and it's like holding some mesh out in front of you -- it's difficult to see through."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6qkkt",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you! "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6pr86",
"comment_text": [
"Does that mean the brain is trying hard to reject whatever illogical imagery it has tried to process even though we (by habit) know what it is?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6rpdi",
"comment_text": [
"If you like it, upvote it. ;)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why are we so willing to pay more than usual for a lesser amount of food at fancy restaurants?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5i7wtr
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.44
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db636hd",
"comment_text": [
"Quality over quantity. \nA perfectly cut, tender, perfectly cooked steak from a genuine steak house will always be better than a steak from a bar and grill. "
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db63yaf",
"comment_text": [
"A multitude of things. They use higher quality ingredients. They have chefs specifically trained to make it - these are not random people just looking for a job, these are people that went through years of schooling and training in order to put food on a plate. ",
"You aren't paying for just the food. You are paying for the entire experience. The atmosphere, the presentation, etc."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db64ei0",
"comment_text": [
"First, let's look at basic restaurants. Take a good Chinese restaurant that offers the America classic, General Tso's Chicken. To make General Tso's sauce you need brown sugar, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, szechuan peppers, sesame oil, and some other less common ingredients. You generally cannot purchase these ingredients in small quantities. If I want to make this dish at home, I might spend $30 just buying the ingredients. $3 for a bottle of sesame oil to use a single teaspoon. I may not use that sesame oil again. I can get my chicken meal from the restaurant though for $8 or $9. This place will buy a bottle of sesame oil and with the typical 400% mark up in food make enough money to cover the cost of the all the ingredients in three or four meals even though the ingredients might make 30-40 meals. ",
"At a fancy restaurant, they buy in bulk as well. A steakhouse that buys 200 pounds of kobe beef will get a better deal than an individual buying two or three kobe steaks. In some ways, it's actually cheaper for consumer on a per meal basis. You are also paying for the convenience of not having to purchase large amounts of ingredients. Are you familiar with services like Blue Apron? They deliver food with just the right amount of ingredients. You can't really do that at a grocery store. Also, you are buying an experience. In some 5 star restaurants, staff will offer you blankets if you appear cold, and the blankets will coordinate with your outfit. It goes above an beyond. Also, to an extent, you are paying for superior cooking equipment and more highly educated staff."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db63jot",
"comment_text": [
"But what about the tiny amount of food that comes in huge bowls? For example, some desserts and appetizers can run $100+. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db68337",
"comment_text": [
"The atmosphere,",
"Being able to tell your rich friends that you got a seat at a prestigious place is half the point of going to these places."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: Why does it feel almost instant from the time you sleep to when you wake up?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5i8v6q
| 58
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.78
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6bj98",
"comment_text": [
"Because you don't form episodic memories while sleeping. It's not unlike being under anesthesia - the time ",
", your brain is active, you just don't remember any of it. It's kind of like that terrible rapey movie 50 First Dates. If you can't remember any part of the time passing, you won't notice that it has passed. You basically just aren't consciously aware of time passing and your subconscious doesn't keep track of it for later.",
" for dreams that you remember. But dreams only take up a small amount of the time you spend sleeping, and you're not likely to remember any of them except maybe the last dream. What ",
"u/ThaDTrain",
" said is false: dreams don't happen in a minute, they happen in real time. A minute in a dream takes a minute to happen in your brain. They just ",
" very short because your dreams usually skip all the boring, tedious things like traveling and sitting around waiting for something to happen. Because your brain is used to calculating time based on what has happened, and since you can't instantly teleport places, when you remember a dream that has become a part of your episodic memory, your brain just assumes that time must have passed between when you were in one location and when you appeared in another. Really, no time passed, because you were dreaming, but your brain doesn't really believe that, so you remember it as being much longer than it actually was."
],
"score": 65
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6c0ha",
"comment_text": [
"I think the real question is: What is time?",
"Yes, you see time on a clock. A second is a the amount of time between ticks of the clock. 60 of these clicks make a minute, 60 minutes make an hour, and 24 hours makes a day. 24 hours is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to spin once. ",
"And the common thread here is that these are values that are important to us (as humans). Our life revolves around them. You happen to know that things are happening when you're sleeping because you're a human and you're smart. When you're awake, you constantly use time as a reference. But, what if you were completely alone? What if everything was dark ",
" What would time mean to you? With no reliable measurement of time (like a sunrise), how would you describe time? What would you possible use to measure it? I think it'd be awfully confusing with absolutely zero references to work off of. ",
"And so, time is the frequency of events related to other events. If you have no frame of reference, how would you know how long your sleep lasted? Maybe you were asleep for a year? Or a day? Or an hour? No matter how long it was, it's going to feel instant because time is the frequency of events related to other events. Event 1: You fell asleep, Event 2: You woke up. Now, maybe if you were chilling in this dark place and measured your fingernails and they grew 1 cm - maybe this becomes a new reliable measurement of time for you. Maybe then you can rationalize exactly how long you were sleeping in terms of fingernail growth, but no matter what, it's going to feel like you fell asleep and woke up immediately.",
"I hope this helps! "
],
"score": 10
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6jw52",
"comment_text": [
"I would disagree with the basic premise of it feeling instant. When I wake up, I feel like a significant amount of time has passed, maybe due to the shift from night until day. When I was under anesthesia, that felt more like closing your eyes and opening them to find that an hour had passed. Ditto for when I got a concussion and was knocked out for 30 seconds-a minute. Idk if im alone in this but I feel like I can sense time passing after I have slept "
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db77oef",
"comment_text": [
"Because the Drew Barrymore character has literally no agency or control in her life at all and her family is lying to her constantly. Also the whole point of the movie is Adam Sandler is taking advantage of her handicap to sleep with her."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db7pbzw",
"comment_text": [
"Adam Sandler is the one who makes the change to everybody being more honest with her though. He is the one who starts the new thing where they show her the video every morning and are actually upfront about her condition. As a result, she is able to start keeping a journal and taking some actual agency in her life. And the sex appears to be clearly very consensual every time we know of. And even before that, she clearly likes him. The dad points out \"she only sings on days she meets you.\" ",
"Not to mention that when she cuts him out of her life (supposedly to free him from having to care for her), he respects her choice. He eventually goes back to her upon thinking she remembered him (based on a conversation with the dad), but when she says no, IIRC he is going to leave before she shows him all the paintings and says she dreams about him every night.",
"Adam Sandler is a large force for good and increased agency in her life. If it weren't for him, she would still have been getting lied to every day. ",
"Yes, they have some level of power imbalance in their relationship, but that's essentially inevitable for her. I mean the only other option is to essentially make her a complete child for the rest of her life. He is a little manipulative at the beginning when it comes to excuses to meet her, but he doesn't really manipulate her in any serious way, and in fact takes steps to give her better control over her own life. ",
"They also got lots of letters from people with various disabilities, thanking them for the fact that the movie doesn't end with her just getting her memory back or some sort of \"magically no longer disabled\" (though I think the dream thing is a nice compromise), and instead they find a happy ending for her that involves living with her disability. ",
"And I don't think the whole point of the movie is \"Adam Sandler is taking advantage of her handicap to sleep with her.\" ",
" Instead, the movie is about how he cares about her enough to try and have a serious meaningful relationship with her DESPITE her disability, not preying on her because of it."
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: If we can burn other trash, why can't we just burn plastic?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5i6yjx
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5uypt",
"comment_text": [
"Burning plastic releases toxic chemicals that can be harmful if done indoors. It also smells awful. Burning plastic releases lots of carbon waste into the atmosphere. ",
"When done at a garbage incineration plant, they use methods to extract energy from the plastic incineration. So while the same amount of nastiness goes into the atmosphere, they are able to harvest energy from it and offset the use of coal and oil, which helps it even out a bit (still a net loss for the atmosphere, but much better than throwing it in your fireplace)."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5v1co",
"comment_text": [
"Additional ",
"Source",
" corroborating Slash."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5v3kf",
"comment_text": [
"Do you mean you personally burning plastic or your city? (Some) Cities do burn plastic but you need a capable incinerator to do it so that the very high heat quickly breaks up the more toxic elements (further filtering helps keep other bad stuff out of the air besides the obvious carbon, you get the carbon burning coal or oil too)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db6ffxt",
"comment_text": [
"We can but we have to do it very carefully.",
"http://discovermagazine.com/2006/apr/anything-oil"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5yeuc",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not convinced that the applicable prefix to doors has any actual ability to make the burning of plastic any more or less safe."
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5: Why does a word lose its meaning when you keep repeating it over and over?
|
explainlikeimfive
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5i4v38
| 1
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Other
| true
| false
| 0.67
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{
"comment_id": "t1_db5dpey",
"comment_text": [
"It's called semantic saturation, basically your mind gets tired of the word the same way you'd get tired of eating the same thing every day. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5parj",
"comment_text": [
"This is definitely a thing. Just because you personally haven't experienced it doesn't mean it's not. The term is actually semantic satiation (",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation",
") and is a fairly well documented psychological effect. Maybe your psyche just isn't as susceptible to it? :)",
"Crayon was a biggie for me as a kid.\nAnd the show How I Met Your Mother touches on it with the word 'Bowl'"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5cuow",
"comment_text": [
"For adjectives, the more things you apply them to, the broader, and therefore, less meaningful, they are. Take the word filthy, for example. If it is reserved for only the dirtiest, grimiest things, then it has a very specific meaning. But if you start calling things that are only a little dirty filthy, then you've expanded the definition, and now something doesn't have to be as dirty to be labeled filthy. If you extend this idea even further, then the word loses all descriptive power, since anything can be called filthy, and if anything can be called filthy, then the word has lost its meaning."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5m0hn",
"comment_text": [
"it doesn't.",
"A culture or subculture may lose or destroy (intentionally) the meaning of a word by using it in a way that is divergent or even opposite of the actual meaning.",
"For example: almost every American today speaking wrong of capitalism is actually describing Fascism so that shows the culture/nation has lost all concept of the meaning of BOTH words. Fascism is the merger of corporation and government while capitalism is owning your own time, skills & work and the right but not obligation to trade yours for the product, skills, time of others.",
"With modern feminism taking away income or legal rights from men in courts of law and in investigation of criminal accusations, but calling this over-privilege for women \"equality\", they have destroyed the meaning of the word \"privilege\" and \"equality\".",
"So for example it would be \"equality\" if any person performing sexual touching on another without consent would be subject to legal penalty, it could even be equality if the definition of consent is explicit that under the influence of drugs or alcohol one can not give consent, but it would be privilege and the opposite of equality to decide in a court of law that only one class of people by gender, race or age or religion that this can be applied. Today if a woman is taking a drunk man to bed (for sex) she is never called a rapist but if a man does it with a drunk woman he is always called a rapist and the courts apply this privilege directly into arrest and jail time. No woman is ever jailed for this."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5m27d",
"comment_text": [
"That has never happened to any person I have ever seen and not to me. I don't understand how a person can become 'tired' of a meaning.",
"If anything I experience the opposite: the more I use a meaning for a word the stronger it is until it is pure reflex."
],
"score": 0
}
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ELI5: How do table saw safeties work?
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explainlikeimfive
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5i43jd
| 1
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Other
| true
| false
| 1
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How does a mechanical device detect that a finger just touched the blade and then stop itself so quickly?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db5669c",
"comment_text": [
"There is an electrical current running through the blade and when something that conducts electricity completes the circuit (such as a finger) will activate the break"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db575j4",
"comment_text": [
"They're better then they used to be in terms of repair cost. Old models would often trash the bearings, often resulting in having to replace the guts of the saw. Newer ones usually just trash the blade and the brake.",
"\nSawstop will actually send you a new brake if you trigger it from contact with skin. So then you're just out a blade."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db56if1",
"comment_text": [
"It runs an electric current through the blade. When your finger touches it, it completes the circuit and it slams a block of metal into the blade, stopping it instantly."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db56c24",
"comment_text": [
"Bonus question: How does it stop so quickly upon that detection? Does it just slam brake pads into the blade?"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db56fkn",
"comment_text": [
"It slams a piece of metal into the blade stopping it from rotating and retracts the blade at the same time"
],
"score": 1
}
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ELI5: Why are NBA much more famous and well known than NFL players despite NFL being more popular than the NBA?
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explainlikeimfive
|
5i2d3i
| 5
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.77
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4uupl",
"comment_text": [
"In the NBA, although a team sport, one player can single handedly take over a game or turn a losing franchise into a winner. For that reason the stars get huge amounts of attention, as well as some of the biggest salaries in all sports. "
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4uune",
"comment_text": [
"basketball is an international sport, NFL outside of USA is uncommon.also I live in australia and we see NBA games on tv and see the plays and the players .NBA players are known as the best in the world at basketball.",
"Football we have aussie rules football, soccer,rugby,american football, touch football,gaelic football there is no standard football."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4y9zp",
"comment_text": [
"Global popularity of the sport and fewer people per team are both great reasons for this, but I think there's another one that's important: basketball players don't wear helmets.",
"You can see their faces during almost every play, and the camera is constantly cutting in close to replay a shot or judge a foul. You are exposed to their faces far more than you are to any football player that you see during a game. This makes them more recognizable by default."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4wq12",
"comment_text": [
"11 football players on offense. 11 on defense. The QB & maybe 2-3 other players get mentioned by name during offensive plays. There might be 1 big name guy on defense.",
"NBA has 5 guys on the court, the best ones are on the court for every play during the whole game. They get a ",
" more screen time & a lot more name mentions and a lot more opportunities to do something independently impressive."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4ubrh",
"comment_text": [
"There are a lot less nba players so it is a little bit easier to pick a favorite player. Also potentially easier for a player to stand out above the rest."
],
"score": 2
}
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ELI5: How do cartographers define whats land and what is frozen sea in maps?
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explainlikeimfive
|
5i1bap
| 26
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Other
| true
| false
| 0.72
|
Just look in any map, the northern islands in Canada are clearly defined. But how to they know what's frozen water and what's land? Do they use data from explorers or some sort of crazy technology? Because from what I've seen, many places there have permanent ice, and land and ocean are almost undistinguishable.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4wdog",
"comment_text": [
"I have created satellite maps of the polar explorations of Fridtjof Nansen's Farthest North Arctic Expedition, Roald Amundsen's Northwest Passage, Amundsen's South Pole Expedition, Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Willem Barentsz fatal 3rd Arctic Voyage, and Schwatka's Arctic Search for Sir John Franklin. The one thing they all had in common was a ship trapped in ice and that the ship moved as the ice shelf moved and they all at some point made contact with land trapped in ice. The fact that the ice moves, buckles and fractures helps to approximate where the land is and where the ice begins. ",
"In fact, Fridtjof Nansen's Farthest North Arctic Expedition was planned to trap his ship in ice and be dragged with the current to the furthest north position any ship had ever obtained up to that point since there is no land where he wanted to go. Two men then walked until they discovered the ice movement countered their progress and they walked back to discover their ship was dragged way and had to walk and kayak to the nearest island a long distance off in order to be rescued."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4wish",
"comment_text": [
"So all that northern area is approximated and there could be more land hidden under the ice? They also use the same method for Antarctica right?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4xqie",
"comment_text": [
"GIS = Geographic Information Systems?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4zb66",
"comment_text": [
"I have no idea how accurate they are. Check out ",
"this",
" area of Antarctica in Google map, and toggle back and forth between map mode and Earth mode to see the difference. Then compare it to ",
"Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition map",
" that I got coordinates from his book."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db4xrfw",
"comment_text": [
"We have been exploring (almost) all the land surface on Earth. And the scientists have been using soil samples for a long time to know if they are landing on a frozen area or a continent. I guess they are king of extrapolating because I don't think we've been making samples all over the place but I think today's map are quite accurate, we know when we are dealing with continental shelves or not. \nGIS is Geographic Information Systems, to be simple, I would say it's a way of representing and using information with a geographical dimension, for example through maps. Thanks to those databases one can draw conclusions about different phenomena, it is a very powerful tool and used on a wide range of subjects (from typical geographical problems, to marketing, land security...).\nEDIT: typo and bad english ;)"
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5:Why do small animals and birds seem compelled to dart right in front of moving vehicles at the last possible moment, barely avoiding impact (if at all)?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5i3t35
| 334
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Other
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{
"comment_id": "t1_db540pg",
"comment_text": [
"Animals respond instinctively to dart in any random direction ",
" that of danger. For 99.99% of evolution's time to hone an animal's instinct, \"danger\" was a predator stalking directly towards prey.",
"Now consider this. An animal sees a car, registers it as danger, assumes it's a predator, and would then assume it's coming right for them where they currently are (off the road). Its response would be to dart in a random direction, but the animal doesn't know our trajectory isn't towards it, but perpendicular, and so if the animal also chooses to escape perpendicular to your current position on the road, then that could very well put the animal right onto the road you're traveling down.",
"It isn't that the animal is attracted to your car, it's that it doesn't have the mental capacity to judge your actual trajectory, and is only responding out of fear and instinct to escape"
],
"score": 341
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db54czl",
"comment_text": [
"Given that explanation, why don't we see predators using that as a hunting technique? Rather than stalking directly at prey, run perpendicular to it and let it flee right into you."
],
"score": 31
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db556li",
"comment_text": [
"Wolves kinda do - have one group flank a prey, so it either runs into them, or in the other direction. (Which is of course where the other part of the pack is waiting for them)"
],
"score": 30
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db584lm",
"comment_text": [
"Birds also register images much quicker than humans so therefore will react later as for them it's is in perfectly good time. For example when your driving towards a bird it will fly off at the very last moment because they can process it all much quicker so it looks like we are moving slower towards them. "
],
"score": 27
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db55rs0",
"comment_text": [
"Watch starting from 4:30",
"If you watch videos of hunting predators, you'll see them employ a variety of techniques. Stealth and surprise, straight up contests of speed, and \"herding\" as you see here where some will chase them in one direction while others will flank perpendicular from the sides.",
"To answer your question directly, \"why don't they let it flee right into them?\" there are much more effective methods to hunting than guessing which direction a startled animal will dart in, and sprinting in that direction from the start. Besides, you pass a multitude of unseen animals along a country road. The only reason you feel like \"they all jump in front of my car\" is because the one time in a thousand that an animal accidentally darts in front of your vehicle is a much more significant event in your brain than the thousands you pass unwittingly. I think then it makes sense for evolution to build faster predators rather than trying to give them foresight as to which way startled prey will decide to sprint before the hunt has even begun."
],
"score": 17
}
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|
ELI5: The Public Domain. How was Ray Comfort allowed to add a creationist introduction to Charles Darwin's existing work, "The Origin Of Species" (1859)?
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explainlikeimfive
|
5huz1h
| 2
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Other
| true
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| 0.75
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{
"comment_id": "t1_db37t78",
"comment_text": [
"Authors have exclusive copyright of their original works for a certain period of time. After that, the work enters the public domain and becomes free to use and reproduce.",
"Because ",
" is in the public domain, anyone is free to publish it; you can even read the entire thing on the internet. Ray Comfort is totally within his rights to publish a public domain work with an original introduction of his own, regardless of what it says.",
"If I were so inclined, I could publish a new edition of ",
" with every instance of the word \"species\" replaced with the word \"fart.\" Such is my right because that work belongs to the public."
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3840i",
"comment_text": [
"Everybody's a critic. Who are you to tell me how to write my ",
"?"
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db37itn",
"comment_text": [
"The same way someone could write ",
". Those works are in the public domain, which means they are free of copyright and anyone can use them for any purpose."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db381tm",
"comment_text": [
"Despite the title, I think you'd want to go with forms, not species. As in:",
"Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few ",
" or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless ",
" most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” "
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db386ba",
"comment_text": [
"Just a suggestion. I'd read Origin of Farts all the same."
],
"score": 4
}
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|
ELI5: Why does the Southern Hemisphere experience seasons at opposite times from the Northern Hemisphere despite being a similar distance from the sun?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hujuy
| 0
|
Other
| true
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| 0.43
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[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db33t73",
"comment_text": [
"Because seasons aren't caused by distance to the sun, but from the tilt of the earth's axis.",
"When the northern hemisphere is pointed away from the sun (and it is winter in the northern hemisphere) then the southern hemisphere is obviously pointed ",
" the sun, which makes it summer there."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db34qj4",
"comment_text": [
"Distance has nothing to do with the seasons. The Earth is millions of miles closer to the sun in winter (in the Northern hemisphere) than in summer.",
"Imagine a dark room with a single, bare table in it. You're holding a flashlight. If you shine the flashlight directly down onto the table, you'll see a circle of light.",
"Now imagine shining the light onto the table from the same distance, but at an angle. The light will form an oval instead of a circle, and the oval will be larger in terms of surface area than the circle was. But it's the same amount of light, just over a larger surface, which means less light per square inch.",
"Winter on Earth works the same way. When the earth is tilted at an angle, less light per square inch from the sun hits the earth, making it colder."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db34qj4",
"comment_text": [
"Distance has nothing to do with the seasons. The Earth is millions of miles closer to the sun in winter (in the Northern hemisphere) than in summer.",
"Imagine a dark room with a single, bare table in it. You're holding a flashlight. If you shine the flashlight directly down onto the table, you'll see a circle of light.",
"Now imagine shining the light onto the table from the same distance, but at an angle. The light will form an oval instead of a circle, and the oval will be larger in terms of surface area than the circle was. But it's the same amount of light, just over a larger surface, which means less light per square inch.",
"Winter on Earth works the same way. When the earth is tilted at an angle, less light per square inch from the sun hits the earth, making it colder."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db344ec",
"comment_text": [
"http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/seasons/en/",
"It is summer in June in the Northern Hemisphere because the sun's rays hit that part of Earth more directly than at any other time of the year. It is winter in December in the Northern Hemisphere, because that is when it is the South Pole's turn to be tilted toward the sun."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db34jy4",
"comment_text": [
"I don't think you understood at all. Distance to the sun is irrelevant. Seasons are caused by the tilt.",
"South America can get snow while North America swelters because the northern hemisphere is pointed at the sun, while the southern is angled away."
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: why do we look better in a mirror than we do in a camera?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hupqx
| 6
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.75
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db35ffm",
"comment_text": [
"There's a few reasons.",
"when you look in a mirror, you're seeing in truly 3 dimensions. when you're looking at a photograph, you're seeing a flat image and your brain \"fills in\" the details on shape and depth. It can get it wrong. This is a lot of the magic of \"flattering angles.\"",
"Additionally, when you interact with your reflection'd self it looks and acts the most like other people do. Camera images are taken at weird angles, they're taken when you're not looking...they just don't match reality and the way youre used to seeing people."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db35g07",
"comment_text": [
"We are more used to seeing ourselves in a mirror, so when we see a camera image (not reversed) it looks a bit off - just not quite right to us. I'll bet this phenomenon has helped to fuel the selfie craze, as many forward facing cameras reverse the image."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db35edv",
"comment_text": [
"So do we look more like the mirror or our photos?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db37zo0",
"comment_text": [
"cameras also have lenses which compress and stretch things a little, sometimes a lot."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db37vzm",
"comment_text": [
"This is the correct answer. A study demonstrated that people prefer the mirrored pictures of themselves, while friends and family prefer the normal image."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: What is the difference between a president, a Chancellor, and a prime minister?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5huhfz
| 12
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.73
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{
"comment_id": "t1_db33zk0",
"comment_text": [
"It varies from nation to nation. In general, many nations have both a head of government and a head of state.",
"In the Westminster system (UK, Canada, Australia), the Prime Minister is the head of the government and is in charge of all executive policy. The prime minister and other government ministers are also often, but not always, sitting members of the legislature. The head of state is largely a cerimonial role, often filled by a king, queen, or governor general.",
"In the United States of America, the president is the head of state and the head of the government's executive branch. However, the USA observes strict separation between the executive branch and the legislature. The president does not sit in the house, cannot vote on legislation (although he or she must either veto it or sign it into law), and cannot whip his or her party. However, the Vice President does have a tie-breaking role in the Senate.",
"In countries that have both a President and a Prime Minister, the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. What duties belong to whom varies from country to country however it is common for the President to handle foreign affairs, non-political affairs, and exercise discretionary reserve powers.",
"Chancellor is a title in Germany that is equivalent to Prime Minister."
],
"score": 15
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db381vn",
"comment_text": [
"There are several different system, but in the end there is a sort of pattern:",
"Most countries have two highest offices: The Head of State and the Head of Government.",
"It originated in many way in the transition form monarchies to democracies where Kings of old had advisers and viziers and chancellors or similar running much of the day to day businesses or when they had some parliament that they gave some power to which elected a leader. Eventually the kings became mere figureheads and the chancellors or whatever got more and more power and while the kings in theory still appointed them and could in some cases overrule them those power became more and more on paper and only in theory.",
"In some countries the monarchy was abolished but the actual point where the monarch slotted into the system was kept as an elected position.",
"Some countries have a system where both head of state and head of government are united in the same office. The Presidents of both the USA and Brazil are examples for this Presidential system that uses on person for both jobs.",
"If you see a country fiddling with the balance of power between the two roles or trying to merge them into one office that is usually a sing that someone is consolidating power. An often cited example is a certain Adolf Hitler uniting the offices of Reichskanzler (imperial chancellor) and Reichspräsident (imperial president) in one office simply called Führer (Leader). Currently Turkey's Erdogan has been letting it know that he would like to have a similar arrangement."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db46h2x",
"comment_text": [
"In westminster style parliamentary systems a member's party affiliation is usually irrelevant to his or her official duties and there is usually no formal or procedural recognition of party status in the legislature.",
"When legislation is tabled for a vote, each member of the legislature is entitled to vote as he or she pleases. However, party leadership (often a member of the legislature, or even the prime minister) will occasionally demand that party members vote along party lines under penalty of expulsion from the party; this is called a whipped vote. Other times, party leadership may, in coordination with other party leaders, permit party members to vote independently without fear of reprisal; this is called a conscience vote and is often used on highly controversial legislation.",
"In the United States the POTUS has influence over members of his or her own party in the legislature but has no leverage and no reprisal mechanism. If the POTUS wishes to introduce legislation, he or she will need to work with members of the house and senate to have that legislation introduced and will need to win the requisite support in both parties. The state-level primary system ensures that the parties cannot blacklist legislators that do not fall strictly in line with party ideology; it is up to their constituents to replace them."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db46h2x",
"comment_text": [
"In westminster style parliamentary systems a member's party affiliation is usually irrelevant to his or her official duties and there is usually no formal or procedural recognition of party status in the legislature.",
"When legislation is tabled for a vote, each member of the legislature is entitled to vote as he or she pleases. However, party leadership (often a member of the legislature, or even the prime minister) will occasionally demand that party members vote along party lines under penalty of expulsion from the party; this is called a whipped vote. Other times, party leadership may, in coordination with other party leaders, permit party members to vote independently without fear of reprisal; this is called a conscience vote and is often used on highly controversial legislation.",
"In the United States the POTUS has influence over members of his or her own party in the legislature but has no leverage and no reprisal mechanism. If the POTUS wishes to introduce legislation, he or she will need to work with members of the house and senate to have that legislation introduced and will need to win the requisite support in both parties. The state-level primary system ensures that the parties cannot blacklist legislators that do not fall strictly in line with party ideology; it is up to their constituents to replace them."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3kpjn",
"comment_text": [
"Chancellor is a title in Germany that is equivalent to Prime Minister",
"British Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) also frequently shortened to Chancellor."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: In light of the article about the 19 year old female lifting the truck off of her dad to save his life, how is it physically possible for a human to do that even with the high amount of adrenaline that is present?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hwm7g
| 129
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.84
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{
"comment_id": "t1_db3ibo3",
"comment_text": [
"The human body is incredibly durable and much stronger than we normally assume, this is because when we're calmly exerting ourselves (like in the gym) we're aware of the stress the load puts on our body, and as such we are cautious to avoid injury. With massive amounts of adrenaline that awareness fades to the background. It allows a person to use the upper limit of their capabilities, possibly damaging themselves in the process. Another factor is just how much was needed. Most people picture superman lifting the car over his head, when in reality even a fraction of an inch can give the needed escape room to survive. "
],
"score": 125
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3q1ed",
"comment_text": [
"No"
],
"score": 55
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3q1ed",
"comment_text": [
"No"
],
"score": 55
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3xgdq",
"comment_text": [
"So a lot of these answers are correct, yes we are a lot stronger than we realize. But the science on this is super cool and I can give some more specifics about it (I'm a personal trainer and have thorough understanding of neuromuscular physiology).",
"Our brain triggers our muscles to contract (as if they were draw strings) and thus move our bones, right? Well, inside of our muscle cells are little organelles called golgi tendons that limit the amount of electrical impulse our brain sends out and reaches the muscle nerves to trigger muscle contraction, thus limiting our muscle's contractile power. This means that each muscle has a most of the time \"cap\" that limits it from ever contracting too hard because -in truth, our muscles are a lot stronger than we know. If we didn't have these built in limits, we would accidentally break our own bones in half and tear our muscles in addition to other soft tissue damage due to excessive applied force.",
"So this limit keeps our strength naturally between 30-50% (numbers vary according to what educational association you are referencing) from non-trained and trained athletes. In moments where your body releases adrenalin and fight or flight is triggered, the golgi tendons essentially \"shut off\" and allow your brain to fully activate / trigger total muscle contraction. But you see, it's not just that our muscles not can fully contract at maximum strength that full power is achieved. It's also because our nervous system becomes more effective at utilizing all of the necessary muscles in a synergistic way that allow even greater strength to be achieved in multi-complex movements (think squats, presses, lifts, extensions, etc). ",
"So yes, we get stronger because of adrenaline. But it's because multiple of our protective systems let their foot off the brakes and we can reach our full neuromuscular capabilities. That is why some girl who could maybe max out on a 250 lb deadlift can then apply an equivalent of 750 lbs force.. which may be enough to alter the position of a vehicle so as a person could get out from underneath it. There could be other factors at play there too, such as the position of the vehicle, center of gravity and threshold of force applied for movement. But in terms of physiology, our bodies are much more capable and amazing then most people ever will know or see. Much of this is due to natural selection of genetics... strength just isn't that required any more and hasn't been for thousands of years to procreate. "
],
"score": 53
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3i31y",
"comment_text": [
"We're a lot stronger than we realise. ",
"The problem is - you have to be completely unconcerned about tearing muscles, ripping tendons and breaking bones to use your full strength. ",
"Also, she didn't just pick it up like Superman, she raised part of it by enough for him to get free, which means lifting a lot less. "
],
"score": 42
}
|
|
ELI5: What prevents online test takers from just googling the answer?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hvqte
| 65
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.8
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3ec3u",
"comment_text": [
"Google won't help you much with a well made test. Properly made tests test if you understand the topic, they don't ask you to regurgitate memorized definitions, or if they do, such questions don't have a big impact on the final score."
],
"score": 43
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3d19b",
"comment_text": [
"If they are serious about preventing cheating they require you to use a browser \"lockdown\" software. However this does not prevent someone from using two computers for their test.",
"The most effective method I've seen is a test that has the lockdown browser and additionally a webcam feature. Students must take the test on a computer with a webcam and it records your face and hands as you take the test."
],
"score": 37
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3cuec",
"comment_text": [
"Usually the time limits ",
"I took a few online tests (though they were \"open book\" so using google wasn't considered cheating) and whilst it's easy enough to highlight the question and google the answer the time limit makes any meaningful research difficult.",
"If it's short answer or multiple choice you might be able to google em all, but otherwise you still need to study"
],
"score": 20
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3d0wu",
"comment_text": [
"When I was in college, we had to use a special browser ",
" called Respondus LockDown Browswer that basically locked down a lot of functionality while it was open. You couldn't ALT+TAB to a different window, you couldn't close it without exiting the quiz, it was full screen be default so you could only see it, etc. There were ways around it (I had an iPad, so... yeah), but there were ways to try to stop people from being able to use the computer from doing anything but taking the exam at the time."
],
"score": 17
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db3gwo1",
"comment_text": [
"deleted ",
" ",
" "
],
"score": 14
}
|
|
ELI5: why did New York City become the place for the big city to be built instead of some other state?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hol5a
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.58
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db1qwim",
"comment_text": [
"Lots of States have large metropolitan areas. As to why NYC grew to be a big city. It sits at the mouth of two large rivers that go inland making it an ideal trading post. "
],
"score": 11
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db1rc1t",
"comment_text": [
"According to ol goog, in 2011 they $208 ",
" dollars of cargo come though the sea port in NYC.",
"The geography makes it a great port area, even without the rivers thing. Long island's shape and positioning protects a lot of coastline from getting hit directly with waves, which makes building big docks easy. Most big cities by the sea were kick-started by geography that leant itself to sheltering ships in port."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db2202w",
"comment_text": [
"A confluence of factors led to NYC becoming the largest city in the US:",
"(1) Upper NY bay is probably the best natural deep-water port on the eastern seaboard. It is directly on the Atlantic but largely protected by Staten Island and Long Island. And it connects the Hudson River and Long Island Sound.",
"(2) The Hudson River. The Hudson is navigable all the way up to Albany. At first, the Hudson was used to transport furs and foodstuffs from the Hudson River Valley and the Mohawk Valley to New York City for shipment to other American colonies, particularly those in the Caribbean. Land in the Caribbean colonies was better put towards growing sugar, which was very very valuable in the 17th and 18th centuries. Therefore, the Caribbean colonies would import food to feed their slaves from the North American colonies, particularly New York and the other Mid-Atlantic colonies, and then ship sugar back to New York. Sugar would then be turned into molasses or rum in New York and shipped across the Atlantic to Europe. Eventually, the Erie Canal was constructed and connected the Hudson to the Great Lakes water system. That meant goods from the Midwest could be shipped out through NYC. ",
"(3) Because of its harbor and the Hudson, as well as being roughly a week's sail closer to Europe than Philadelphia, NYC was a very good place for the British to use as the \"nerve center\" of the American colonies after conquering it from the Dutch. Therefore, a direct mail line was established from NYC to London, and NYC became the \"gateway\" to North America, which included eventually being the place to go if an American wanted to raise money or a non-American wanted to invest in America. A big factor of this was also that NYC got the news first from Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. We don't think of this now, but getting the news first was much harder back in the day, and news moves markets. Couple that with New York's trade with the resource-producing colonies, and you can see why New York eventually became the financial capital of the country.",
"(4) Maybe less important, but I think the Dutch influence was a factor. The New England colonies were founded by people who wanted to build the Kingdom of God, New Netherlands was founded by the Dutch West Indies Company to make money. As a result, NYC always had both a more \"ecumenical\" and commercial outlook than a lot of the other colonies. Partly because of this, there have long been multiple religions and nationalities in the city. By some counts, there were around 40 languages spoken in the city in the 1680s, and the city has historically been relatively tolerant of religious minorities like Jews, Catholics, and Muslims. I think that was important because it helped the city attract people from all over the world and early on made it so that there were important connections to other countries and colonies, which helped NYC become the \"gateway\" to America."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db1r0n9",
"comment_text": [
"It has a seaport where goods are brought into the U.S., but with the advent of rail, goods aren't shipped by river much anymore."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db1qx2g",
"comment_text": [
"It was a port city, and with that came all of the trade from other countries. Over the years that caused it to be a city with money, and influences from other places which spured the culture which drives fashion, ect. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: How is sharia law different from the majority of the new testament?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hl3s2
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0yk8q",
"comment_text": [
"Religion has never followed logic no matter what particular mythology they use. The general view is that my invisible immortal sky being is real and your one is fake. Why any one particular entity out of the thousands should be real and yet all the others false isn't given much of a critical evaluation."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0ynnl",
"comment_text": [
"Most of sharia law is not in the Quran."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0yvk8",
"comment_text": [
"I get what you're saying. But that doesn't answer my question. Why is sharia law generally accepted to be verbal communication not based in historical writing, even if it is made up. But Christianity somehow is given the benefit of the doubt with the New Testament being words of Jesus or his disciples. It seems like both were made up by followers way beyond the death of their prophet."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0yjas",
"comment_text": [
"Have you ",
" read the stuff in the Quran? It's more hardcore than the Old Testament. The New Testament is a story about how Jesus was martyred. The Quran, alongside the later Hadiths, is the tale of how Muhammad built an empire, slaughtering all those who dared to oppose him.",
"Sharia law is more hardcore than Levitical law, and while no Christian or Judean seeks to follow Levitical law of the Old Testament, there are people out there, hundreds of millions of them, who believe that the literalist interpretation of the Quran is the only acceptable one, and thus happily kick gays off tall towers and then stone their bodies, decapitate rape victims, hang apostates, ",
".",
"Actions, not words."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0zl9s",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is for questions with objective explanations.",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why is California is trying secede from the rest of the United States?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hhsk6
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0b50j",
"comment_text": [
"The are not in reality. A small subset of them are making noise. They do this every election season. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0b936",
"comment_text": [
"California isn't. Some people ",
" California want secede. Mainly because they think that the rest of the country doesn't align very well with their values, and because California's economy is so large that it can fend for itself on a national stage.",
"However, none of that matters, because there is no mechanism by which a state can leave the US. It cannot be done short of having a war with the rest of the US and winning, or convincing 2/3 of congress and 75% of state legislatures to change the US constitution (which has about as much a chance of happening as a single state defeating the entire US military)."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0b9oc",
"comment_text": [
"Because California is home to universities and cities that are very liberal. These young people and cities gather much media attention (on both sides of the aisle) and thus, completely implausible ideas of secession gather popularity. Secession is as unlikely in the near future as me getting a girlfriend. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0biqi",
"comment_text": [
"Mostly it's just grumbling, not an actual secession movement.",
"Two big things that upset them are that they are very liberal yet the federal government is dominated by small state conservatives and they pay a lot more in federal taxes than they get back, with much of that money going to the small conservative states."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0be6n",
"comment_text": [
"tl;dr - Elections are great until they don't go your way, then you raise a stink about it."
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5: What does ones 'IQ' score measure, and is it accurate to use it to judge someone's intelligence?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hidbc
| 5
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
I never really understood what an IQ meant for someone, obviously everyone says that a higher IQ is 'better' but what does that mean for that person? My personal question:I was told today that through a TerraNova test my IQ was tested to be 141 (16 years old) and I got a 24/25 on my explorer test composite, are these scores considered good? Because I'm not even close to what I would consider smart so does an IQ really measure intelligence?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0gtmb",
"comment_text": [
"Really, IQ tests test your ability to pass IQ tests, and that's about it. Intelligence is such a nebulous concept: is someone intelligent if they can remember things well? If they do math well? If they process language well? Consider stories of those with Autism, like Rain Man, that can do ridiculous math problems like calculating roots of huge numbers, but can't figure out what time it is. How do you measure that IQ?",
"Traditionally, IQ tests were used to ",
"justify racism",
" and imperialism. IQ tests must inevitably be narrowed by the language used to create the test. Someone could be brilliant, but if it's an English test and they can't speak English, they're going to do poorly on it.",
"At the end of the day, IQ tests are a good ",
" of how \"intelligent\" you are, whatever that means."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0fods",
"comment_text": [
"The IQ tests just test some basic problem solving and pattern recognition skills. It's not at all useful as a way to universally assess intelligence between people. ",
"I think Prof. James Flynn is the one who promotes the idea of there being multiple kinds of intelligences, rather than just the one.",
"Basically, IQ score means fuck all except that you were good at that one particular test. Sorry."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0oc3r",
"comment_text": [
"The ability to predict patterns is an inconsistent predictor of intelligence. I was terrible in school on SAT tests because I could not see the patterns in long strings of alternating number patterns. Yet in my experience as a marketing communications professional who began as a commercial artist and is more graphics oriented than math oriented, I became very good at finding patterns in our web site analytics and made spread sheets analyzing the data and made adjustments to site based on my ability to see and predict what changes the data reflected."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db14lfo",
"comment_text": [
"Multiple intelligences has been more or less disproved. At least the ones proposed have been. When taking tests designed to test these intelligences, someone who got a high general iq score is mote likely to get high scores for specific intelligences. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db14njd",
"comment_text": [
"I think the problem is the idea that there can be a standardised test that valuates everyone fairly. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: Why do current news websites still list Barack Obama as President?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hjybi
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.33
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0qye9",
"comment_text": [
"Barack Obama is president until January 20th, Inauguration Day. On January 20th, the president-elect takes the oath of office and assumes the title and office of President of the United States. The period between the election and inauguration is often referred to as the \"lame duck session.\""
],
"score": 16
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0ra26",
"comment_text": [
"Someone else had a bit of wine too I see lol"
],
"score": 10
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0rv70",
"comment_text": [
"Yup. These news sites are correct. Barack Obama is still the president of the United States."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0w4k9",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is for questions with objective explanations.",
"Information about a specific or narrow issue (personal problems, private experiences, legal questions, medical inquiries, how-to, relationship advice, etc.) ",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 0
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db0qetf",
"comment_text": [
"That article was done prior to when trunk had wine the election.",
"Donald is also the current president elect as he is not sworn in yet."
],
"score": -10
}
|
|
ELI5: Why is the 0 count of something plural instead of singular?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hee3x
| 4
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.7
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazic3f",
"comment_text": [
"Because the exception we make is the singular.",
"If you have one of something, it is singular. If you have any other number, it is not singular so we use the plural form."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazij8f",
"comment_text": [
"Singular means \"exactly one\". Plural means \"not singular\".",
"So any value that isn't 1 is, by definition, plural. Therefore zero is plural."
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazihsg",
"comment_text": [
"I've heard it both ways for -1."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazi6of",
"comment_text": [
"I think it more depends on the quantity you are expected to have, or typically have. I would say I have no nails. I would not say I have no hammers, I would say I don't have a hammer."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazier7",
"comment_text": [
"I think the super unsatisfying answer is because languages are weird and idiosyncratic. So, that's just what ended up happening.",
"But it may be worth mentioning that \"zero\" as a numeral came much later than other kinds of mathematics. There's no zero in Roman Numerals, it only became a number when we started using our numbers now, which is an Arabic numbering system. Arabs introduced algebra (al-jabr)."
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: Why is the climate change as the media tells it to us is a hoax?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hedl1
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.47
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazi2ag",
"comment_text": [
"Climate change is not a hoax.",
"Please use the search feature. There are dozens of questions asked and deleted about climate change daily and plenty of already-answered threads."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazll8h",
"comment_text": [
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5h8c8e/eli5_please_explain_climate_change_proof_like_i/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fdsk2/eli5_what_is_the_evidence_that_current_climate/",
"Anything not answered here?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazl7a3",
"comment_text": [
"I have used the search feature. Wasn't find one like this."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazik33",
"comment_text": [
"Your question is very vague in the sense that you say, \"as the media tells us\". Climate change versus human caused climate change and whether or not you believe it is a very complex issue. As with most issues in media, cherry picking the facts to increase ratings/views/interest leads to muddying the water. ",
"I'm not sure if it answers your question, but maybe I've helped to refine it. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazkym5",
"comment_text": [
"To go along with this: why is the earth flat? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: No Taxation without Representation (American Revolution/ War of Independence)
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hc9a0
| 3
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
From what I understand the American Colonists didn't want to be taxed by the British Parliament without representation. I'm having trouble picturing this. I get the idea that there was no physical person there to represent Britain, like an ambassador, to speak on their behalf. However I was under the impression that was Benjamin Franklin's job. I'm I taking this too literal? Please someone explain this like I'm 5.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daz3md5",
"comment_text": [
"The British Parliament at the time was made up of landowners. But only landowners in the British Isles. None of the colonies had representation in it. ",
"We are talking about a legislature making laws having informed input from every region. That is not the role of an Ambassador. Ambassadors do not get to sit in on the legislative process. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daz4cxs",
"comment_text": [
"And yeah I did simplify the heck out of that answer and you can read books on the subject if you wish. ",
"But that's the short, short, short version. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazjmyx",
"comment_text": [
"Franklin did his job of reporting the wants and needs of the colony. But by having no representation in the actual government it meant next to nothing. ",
"This, pretty much. Before we declared independence, Franklin ",
" a statesman who went to the King's court to try to make our concerns heard. The problem wasn't necessarily that he was bad at telling the crown what American colonists wanted or didn't want, the problem was that the crown didn't care, so those cries fell on deaf ears."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daz462m",
"comment_text": [
"Oh thank you. I was on AskReddit (of all places!) and came across how UK thinks of the Revolution and wanted an easier way to think about this part. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daz3nmo",
"comment_text": [
"representation meant in the British government. ",
"Americans had none. ",
"But, there were lots of taxes being levied on American colonists. ",
"Thus the cry you can't tax me if I have zero say in government. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: How does chocolate stay soft in the inside of a hard chocolate shell?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5hbwx8
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.75
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daz16l4",
"comment_text": [
"chocolate obviously sets hard, unless you add something to it to keep it from doing so.",
"Typically this is done by making a ganache. You can make a simple one by melting chocolate and adding enough cream to stop it from setting hard.",
"It's super easy to do at home on your stove and it makes a great chocolate fondue for strawberries "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daz1far",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you! I was real curious."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daz22gr",
"comment_text": [
"Not a problem. the more cream the softer it will be when it sets. Add heaps and you'll end up with an amazing sauce"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_db07exh",
"comment_text": [
"Ok so... you can't just put chocolate in a pot on the stove, you'll just ruin it\nYou put a pot with water on the stove, put your chocolate in a heat-safe bowl and suspend that in the water. That will let you heat the chocolate gently. You want to avoid cooking it, you just want it to melt, then add half a cup or so of cream, depending on how saucy you want it and how much chocolate you are using.",
"Stir constantly and don't let it get too hot. You could even add a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg or chilli powder... depending on personal preference "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dazj1m1",
"comment_text": [
"I'm very excited to try and fail at this. Either way I'm eating chocolate"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: What is the difference between fantasy and science-fiction?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5ha2dq
| 14
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.86
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayl6ly",
"comment_text": [
"It can be something of a spectrum with significant overlap, but principally, Science Fiction takes an existing scientific principal and expands on it in to explore the consequences, possibly hand-waving the specifics of the egineering, but generally holding to the accepted laws of the universe with specific scientifically justified exceptions.",
"Fantasy includes clear impossibilties that are not even attempted to be justified by modern, real science, but instead are justified internally by \"Magic\", where \"Magic\" is an aspect of the in-story universal laws are fundamentally different than our scientific understanding of the real world."
],
"score": 25
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daylw65",
"comment_text": [
"They're very similar genres, which is why they're often put together in a generic \"science fiction/fantasy\" category. To a lot of people, science fiction takes science principles and takes them out their extreme (such as star trek: which took principles like space distortion and mass-energy conversion and turned them into warp drive and transporters). \"Fantasy\" by comparison, is a story that is generally set in the past and usually has magic. ",
"There's not really a consensus on where fantasy ends and science fiction begins, or really which stories belong in which genre: for example, ",
" (in my opinion) is not science fiction, but rather futuristic fantasy. ",
"Rod Serling said once \"fantasy is the impossible made probable, science fiction is the improbable made possible\" and I think that sums up what I've said here."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayly42",
"comment_text": [
"Sometimes, not much. Star Wars is a good example of something that blurs the lines between science fiction and fantasy.",
"\"Hard\" science fiction takes a \"what if\" scenario that is plausible in the real world and explores it through fiction. \"The Martian\" is a good example of this. Not everything is scientifically accurate, but it tries very hard to stay within the lines of our current scientific knowledge.",
"Something like Star Trek is a little further along the spectrum to fantasy. There are no ghosts or magic powers. Instead, they use \"dilithium crystals\" to travel faster than light. There's no current science to suggest what a dilithium crystal is, or how it would work, but it's not completely implausible to think faster than light travel may be discovered some day.",
"Star Wars goes further. It has space ships, but they don't even bother to go into mechanisms of how they work. The Force is basically magic. Dead characters even show up as ghosts of a sort. Take away the space ships, robots and use real swords instead of laser swords, and you're sort of into Lord of the Rings territory."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayt9k8",
"comment_text": [
"Don't forget that when the magic system is explained in a concrete and granular way, such that the characters in the universe could study it as a science, it overlaps the territory of SF.",
"This type of magic system has been in vogue for a while, both because it's fun for the reader to imagine and theorize, and because it can aid the writer in limiting the magical powers of the characters in specific ways to enable better storytelling."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayw8z1",
"comment_text": [
"The most important, and most distinguishing, feature of sci-fi is that it explores the themes of how technology affects humanity.",
"Technology, technological progress, and scientific progress are central to sci-fi, whereas they're window dressing to fantasy.",
"That's why Star Wars is most accurately classified as fantasy space opera - because the technology is entirely window dressing. There's no real effort made to explain it, or for it to really affect the story. The story of Star Wars could be translated to any time in history and be unchanged at its core - especially if it was set somewhere like the wild west.",
"Star Trek, on the other hand, is very much in the sci-fi realm, albeit soft sci-fi. The science aspect, even though it's frequently ridiculous with its technobabble, is central to the story, and the stories told could not exist without the technology.",
"Hard sci-fi is very difficult to write, and not many people can do it well. In hard sci-fi, care is taken to be as scientifically accurate as possible, even within the bounds of theoretical technology. The like of ",
" novels by James S. A. Corey, for example, is hard sci-fi space opera.",
"(And an important disclaimer is that both genres have their place, both are important, and it's not insulting to one particular fandom to say that it is or isn't sci-fi or fantasy.)"
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: What is the point of in-store gift cards? What makes them better than just giving somebody the money?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5h9pwj
| 17
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.75
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayilun",
"comment_text": [
"It's a bit more personal and shows they put more thought into it. Say I have a friend who I know likes camping, but I don't know what exact thing they need. I'll get them a gift card for a store that sells camping supplies as a way to say \"I don't know what you need, but I know what you like, so here's a compromise.\"",
"It also forces the person to use it in a gift like way. If someone gives me money I'll feel like I should just put it into savings. More financially prudent, perhaps, but less exciting than spending it on something fun like you might get with a gift card."
],
"score": 15
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayio3i",
"comment_text": [
"Businesses promote and offer them because they make their money once the gift card is sold. If the recipient doesn't completely use the gift card, that's just more profits.",
" gift them because they signal at least a cursory level of care in gift selection. In a vacuum, a cash gift signals only how much the giver values the exchange. A gift card can express a belief or suggestion about how the recipient would or could use that much money, while acknowledging that the giver is either unable or unwilling to attempt to obtain the end items the recipient will purchase.",
"There might be more politics layered on top of those considerations, depending on how well the parties know each other."
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayi4mp",
"comment_text": [
"It's for the business. They want you to spend $49.51 of that $50 gift card and then throw the card away because they gave you $49.51 worth of product and someone paid them for $50 worth of product. Best for the company is you losing it or never using it,though ",
"I like getting them because it inspires me to go places and spend money I wouldn't normally. I got a home depot gift card and was able to get new tools for my yard which I didn't even plan on getting, which I enjoyed doing"
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayi8zq",
"comment_text": [
"And for the consumers I feel like it's mostly so parents can give their children gift cards and feel relieved knowing they aren't going to spend it on illegal drugs or alcohol. Also for some reason that I don't understand, some people find it in poor taste to give cash, so they just give a gift card instead."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayjm29",
"comment_text": [
"Assuming you like your house, you're still technically following directions."
],
"score": 3
}
|
|
ELI5:Utah or Colorado's "altitude" in sports?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5h9jne
| 7
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.99
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daygftm",
"comment_text": [
"Higher altitude means thinner air, and thinner air means each blood cell carries less oxygen. ",
"This is something the human body can adapt to, but it takes about 6 weeks for a normal person to fully adapt, and potentially up to six ",
" for an athlete to be back to 100% performance. ",
"The home team generally lives at the higher altitude, so they're fully acclimated. The away team, however, is rarely at such altitudes so they're at a distinct disadvantage. ",
"It's worth noting that a lot of endurance sports competitors (like cyclists) will often sleep in special tents that mimic the thinner atmosphere of high altitude, allowing them to acclimate and resulting in more efficient respiration. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daygh5a",
"comment_text": [
"The higher elevation means that the air is slightly thinner there. A team that plays and practices there frequently will be more accustomed to the slight lack of oxygen. An away team might play slightly worse because they aren't used to it."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayhwtr",
"comment_text": [
"When I was in the Navy I was on a submarine with a guy from CO. We had an issue with the oxygen generator on board, so for a little while we were burning 'candles' for O2, but the levels still dipped down to 16-17%. Most of us were absolutely dragging, but ol' George was just fine."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayha6k",
"comment_text": [
"The placing of \"altitude\" in quotes makes me think you are wanting an explanation of that. ",
"Mile High Stadium is 5,280 feet above sea level. The amount of oxygen in the air is only 18%, compared to 21% at sea level. This significantly affects sporting performance if you normally live at lower altitudes. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dayhsgg",
"comment_text": [
"A team that plays there will be used to having less oxygen and the general affect on sports. For instance curveballs may act differently in Colorado then elsewhere"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: How do rear windshield heaters work?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5h70rv
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxukg5",
"comment_text": [
"They are thin wires made from a metal with high electrical resistance. As current flows trough it, the resistance causes the wire to heat up, which heats the window, which melts the ice. ",
"Basically it's the same thing as any electrical heater (boiler, oven, toaster, whatever), just super thin and embedded in a sheet of glass. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxvg8e",
"comment_text": [
"So if they're electric wire, are they flammable?",
"...No? What is the connection there? Copper wire is commonly used in electrical appliances and copper is generally not flammable.",
"Can a resistor get hot enough to set other things on fire? In many cases yes, but in this situation they never have enough power going through them to do that. They only get warm so it isn't a fire hazard."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxvf69",
"comment_text": [
"Electrical wires are just continuous strands of metal, they aren't particularly flammable by themselves. If they get hot enough they might set fire to stuff around them (insulation in particular), but since defrost wires are inside glass, there is no risk of that happening. The current going through them is pretty low too, not enough to heat the wire to the point where it would start fires."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxuiu6",
"comment_text": [
"The lines are conductive material with a reasonable level of resistance, like a lightbulb filament. When a current is passed through them, they get warm, causing ice to melt/water to evaporate."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxus1g",
"comment_text": [
"So if they're electric wire, are they flammable? Isn't it dangerous? They're obvious efficient as heck."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: How do soldiers protect their hearing and manage to listen for sounds at once?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5h6xgw
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxtxxb",
"comment_text": [
"Hearing loss comes from exposure to loud sounds for a period of time. So hearing protection is worn while qualifying. It is worn by everyone, the safety personnel, the medics in attendance, the loaders.",
"On patrol in a war zone it is different. Leave the ear plugs out. Listen carefully. In a fire fight you have other things to worry about other than long term hearing loss."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxwyzo",
"comment_text": [
"Like long term life loss"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxxepi",
"comment_text": [
"Mostly short-term life-loss."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxu3dn",
"comment_text": [
"They don't. Just about every one I know who's served in the marines or army (and was deployed in a combat role) has some form of tinnitus in combination with significant hearing loss."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daymd9d",
"comment_text": [
"13R, aka \"what the fuck is that?\", I mostly went without."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: Why is it that clapping on beats 1 & 3 is different from clapping on 2 & 4?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5h575z
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxyoq7",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not quite sure what you mean. It's different because you're clapping on different beats. It's like why counting even numbers is different than counting odd numbers. It's because the numbers are different. Because 1 and 3 are different numbers than 2 and 4. The beats happen at different points in a piece of music. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_day1cl9",
"comment_text": [
"I mean how it sounds, sorry if it wasn't clarified. I'm asking because musicians always make a big deal if you clap on the wrong beats"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_day1wl0",
"comment_text": [
"I'm guessing you're not talking about how the actual claps sound. Those should sound the same no matter what beat you're on. In some music, emphasis is placed on the first and third beats. Since the music itself emphasizes these beats, your musician friends might have identified these beats as the ones to clap on."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_day8375",
"comment_text": [
"The percussion in most modern rock songs places the emphasis on 2 and 4, so clapping on 1 and 3 sounds weird"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dc9faqi",
"comment_text": [
"Because some musical styles place emphasis on 1 & 3 (folk, pop), and others place emphasis on 2 & 4 (swing, soul, rock). Musicians make a big deal out of it because it shows that you're not observing the basic musical cues they're giving you, making you seem uneducated and \"simple\" as you choose the more awkward and ungainly sound."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why Does Dallas Get Colder Than Cities Like Phoenix? They Are Both About The Same Distance From The Equator So Why Such Drastic Temperature Differences?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5h5186
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
So a friend and I have lived in Dallas and Phoenix and have never really thought about the difference in temperature. Right now I am in once city and he is in the other and the temp difference is pretty significant, but we notice it gets even more drastic throughout the year. Can anyone explain why that is? I couldn't find any real answers through my Google-fu. I understand that cold fronts and such hit different areas, but I figured those would be more isolated than year around differences. This could be an equal question for two similar cities throughout the US that are the same distance from the equator and at similar sea levels.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxiyba",
"comment_text": [
"Phoenix is shoelded by mountains to the north, Dallas isn't. The Great Plains are unique in that they have completely unobstructed airflows from both tropical areas (the gulf of mexico) as well as arctic areas (no liquid water or mountains between it and the north pole). This allows temperatures there to be eother very warm or very cold based on airflow. The cold air can't reach Phoenix because of the mountains."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxj255",
"comment_text": [
"What temperature a region is dictated by numerous factors. Distance from equator is one, but other factors such as air currents and distance from water are another. Dallas is in the bottom edge of the Great Plains and the Rockies and Appalachian mountain ranges act as a funnel sending cold air down the plains thus allowing Dallas to get colder. Dallas is also in a wetter environment in general which means temperatures both warm and cold will feel more severe than in Phoenix which is in a desert. Rock also heats up more than grass and plants, thus allowing Phoenix to get physically hotter at times. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxkv4m",
"comment_text": [
"London England is a bit farther north than Calgary Alaska but is kept warm by the Gulf Stream current carrying warm water from the caribbean across the Atlantic and to the southern coast of the British Isles. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxk2k2",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you for the reply! Are there other areas that are more similar in their makeup, but see drastic differences in temperature for other reasons? We figured fact that Phoenix was in a valley was at least part of it, but we didn't know if something like a city in Rhode Island and Seattle would see a significant difference. I'm no weather guy - I just go outside and say \"Brrr\" or \"I'm melting\" so the differences in weather are very interesting and I would love to understand them more before I dive deeper into studying up on it."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daxtpyu",
"comment_text": [
"Do you mean Calgary Alberta?"
],
"score": 2
}
|
ELI5: How do you get out of a house when the snow covers all the exits?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5h0qvp
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.5
|
Especially when you don't have a two story house. How much does the city help with the snow? Sorry, I'm Californian.
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawh3ng",
"comment_text": [
"Get to digging. Your house is private property so the city won't help unless you have a medical emergency or something similar"
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawh3za",
"comment_text": [
"If it somehow snowed eight feet overnight the whole town would be paralyzed for days while we worked to dig out.",
"In Chicago we occasionally have major storms that drop a foot or more and force some school and business closures for a day. We never get enough to literally bury the city. It would have to snow for days on end to do that and storm systems don't usually get that large an powerful in the winter."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawh5ap",
"comment_text": [
"It's rarely the case that people get physically blocked inside their house by snow, and usually the city is responsible for plowing the streets and perhaps sidewalks in some areas. People are mostly responsible for shoveling their own sidewalks in residential areas, and obviously the city doesn't care at all about whether you choose to shovel out your driveway or not. The priority for how fast stuff gets plowed after a heavy snowfall is usually major traffic routes, bus routes, and garbage collection routes that get plowed first, everything else gets done whenever it gets done, if it gets done at all. Most private properties, like parking lots and commercial businesses and the like, are all handled by landscaping companies that they have seasonal snow removal contracts with, so when it snows, the contractor comes out and clears the lot or whatever."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawh7h0",
"comment_text": [
"no easy answers here:",
"where would you be going if in fact the snow was that deep everywhere? ",
"Let's say you have 4' of actual snowfall and drifting of 6+' at doorways, etc. the sheer volume of snow would prohibit any quick way of removing snow for any kind of travel, and would essentially shut down the city until a certain amount of time has passed to allow some plowing to accommodate travel in any sense.",
"It is unlikely stores would be open from the employees having the same problems.",
"LPT: keep supplies for at minimum several days if you would be in an area that is prone to these kinds of storms.",
"I suppose you could start shoveling and see where you ended up to answer your original question, but the better question would be where would you be going?? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawkq0k",
"comment_text": [
"It depends on where you live. ",
"Cities in warmer climates (south) don't have as much plowing, road salting, etc. supplies to clean up snow and slush. That's why in like 2-3 inches of snow, a lot of southern cities \"shut down\" for the day like school closures, business closures, encouraging people to stay home if they can, etc. It makes sense, since that equipment is expensive and if you don't need it often, it doesn't make sense to buy it. ",
"In cities and towns further north, the municipality is responsible for plowing and salting the public roads. You are responsible for shoveling your sidewalk and anything on your property. However, the snow that's plowed on the road can sort of \"clog\" driveways, but since it's on your property you have to shovel that out of the way.",
"If you live in an apartment complex, it's usually the landlord/manager that is responsible for shoveling/salting the sidewalk. ",
"It's pretty rare that you get completely snowed in. That'd be a massive storm where things would mostly be shut down anyway. Depending on how much snow fall, windspeed, how severe the storm is, the cold, etc. it can vary how much snow gets piled up where. ",
"My mom hates snow and is a drill sergeant about shoveling. When the snow starts piling in a few inches, she gets out (and makes the whole family get out) to shovel it. Do this a few times during the snow fall and you won't have as much to clear in the morning. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
ELI5: Why do animals like deer, kangaroos and such seem to vaporize when hit by a fast moving car?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gzzs0
| 6
|
Other
| true
| true
| 0.68
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawf7dv",
"comment_text": [
"Vaporize? They don't. You can clearly see the bodies after contact.",
"However, the blood is expelled as a loosely compacted liquid which, as liquids do at high velocity, disperses as a mist.",
"Some of the internal organs would go with that, too, as they are very squishy, and squishy things hit by something large and moving fast tend to break into small bits -- especially when compressed quickly by the collapsing bone structure.",
"As for being sent flying... In the first video, the animal falls under either the front or the wheel of the vehicle. In the second, it definitely goes flying.",
"Compare that to ",
"this video of a deer",
" -- hoping it's the one I remember because I can't see videos at work. Should be a deer sent flying as it is hit by the front of the vehicle."
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawb90m",
"comment_text": [
"You and every other animal is 70% water mixed with other stuff surrounded by a thin skin. You're essentially a water balloon."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawnd0w",
"comment_text": [
" Blood Balloon"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawlhhb",
"comment_text": [
"A cucumber with anxiety."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawd951",
"comment_text": [
"I wish I could afford to guild this comment, it deserves it."
],
"score": 0
}
|
Eli5: What is the simulation theory and how are we trying to prove it?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gycxf
| 5
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.7
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daw0pg7",
"comment_text": [
"The simulation theory proposes that reality as we're experiencing it is a computer simulation.",
"However, there is no accepted method of how to test it, therefore it is unprovable. The best we get are comparisons of virtual particle physics - which cause certain subatomic particles to spontaneously disappear - with how video games deal with minor glitches by deleting them."
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daw529m",
"comment_text": [
"So like The Matrix? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daw5eb9",
"comment_text": [
"Precisely. Except that there are unlikely to be similarly easy ways to detect that, unless we're being run by a completely rubbish programmer."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daw5jko",
"comment_text": [
"So like Rick & Morty?\n",
"https://youtu.be/QwVLR7EAON8"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dawqrjq",
"comment_text": [
"The simulation theory suggests that any advanced enough civilization will eventually reach the technological capability of creating a digital reality that would be indistinguishable from a non-simulated reality. I consider it as more of a thought experiment instead of an actual \"theory\". The thought experiment asks \"If we were part of a simulation, what would we look for to prove we aren't in the base reality?\" \nIt's assumed that even super advanced computers capable of simulating something as large as our universe would take shortcuts to save power. For example, if a tree falls in a forest...does it make a sound? In a simulated reality, it would only make the sound if someone is around to hear it. If not, the universe wouldn't waste the energy. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why does smoke from cooking always set off the fire alarm, but recreational smoking does not?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gwv32
| 44
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.74
|
There has been parties where our house has gotten sufficiently boxed, mainly weed smoke, but the alarms never go off. Yet, if I burn one piece of toast, boom. Edit: spelling
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_davrl9a",
"comment_text": [
"Okay, so basically a fire alarm is triggered by a smoke detector. There's two types- ionisation and photoelectric.\nIonisation smoke alarm works as a complete circuit uninterrupted in default form. Any smoke particles interrupt the flow of current and results in an alarm ringing.",
"Photoelectric smoke alarm works with a constant glowing light (transmitter) and a receiver. The presence of a particle of smoke can be detected by the receiver if the light is blurred over by the smoke, and this triggers the alarm.",
"The main difference in these detectors aside from construction is that they are triggered by different sizes of particles of smoke. Cigarette smoke has the particle size of 0.3-0.5 microns which cannot be detected by the ionisation smoke detector whereas the smoke from cooking is denser and sets of the alarm easier.",
"Hope this answers your question."
],
"score": 80
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_davtjnc",
"comment_text": [
"It most certainly did! Thank you!"
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_davveat",
"comment_text": [
"Anytime!"
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_davydju",
"comment_text": [
"Wow, what a thorough answer. I love reading stuff like this. "
],
"score": 4
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daw6jxf",
"comment_text": [
"Holy smokes! Pun intended! I was JUST asking my roommate about this a day ago. Thanks OP for asking and thanks to you for answering lol"
],
"score": 3
}
|
ELI5: Why do people scold others for wasting paper by saying "you're killing all the trees" when the tree has already been killed and the paper has already been made?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gr5p4
| 0
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.43
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daugcbn",
"comment_text": [
"Because by wasting paper you are creating a need for more paper. A greater need means there is more demand, which means that the paper companies will produce more paper to meet that demand and to make more money. In order to produce the product, they have to cut down more trees. "
],
"score": 8
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daugge6",
"comment_text": [
"Because the paper that was used has to eventually be replaced with new paper. You only buy replacement supplies when the current supplies run out; companies only create replacement supplies when people are buying them.",
"If you bought a box of paper but never printed anything for the next 10 years, then only one box of paper trees has been destroyed. But if you go through a box of paper every month for 10 years, you've just created demand for 120 boxes of paper trees to be destroyed. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daugg02",
"comment_text": [
"Also, the same reason that starving children in China are brought up when little kids refuse to eat. It's hyperbole. "
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauiho7",
"comment_text": [
"Well, that's a bit different. By not eating your food you aren't funding people actively starving Chinese children. But by buying paper and using it, you are funding people to 'kill trees.'"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daulnih",
"comment_text": [
"Paper is made from plantation forests. These trees grow quickly and are easily renewable. These people are confusing plantation forests with old growth forests, which are not easily renewable."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: Why during sleep paralysis do you see shadow figures?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gufvx
| 8
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.6
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dav5oyr",
"comment_text": [
"Basically you are still partially asleep, so you are, in a manner of speaking, \"half-dreaming\". You are also unable to move.",
"So, in your dreamlike state you find yourself paralyzed, which leads to anxiety and confusion, which leads to your dreamy mind inventing \"explanations\", like needing to stay perfectly still so that the giant shadow-spider on your ceiling doesn't decide to eat you, because everyone knows they react to sudden movements. It seems dumb after the fact, but at the time your mind isn't able to tell the difference between the reality of the situation and your dreamy perceptions. "
],
"score": 11
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dav7zfx",
"comment_text": [
"Posting this here to see if anyone has experienced the same thing. ",
"I experience lucid sleep paralysis. ",
"I've frequently been able to lucid dream since I was a kid, it came about as a way to defeat my frequent nightmares when I was young. My \"cue\" was the sluggish movement/slow running and punching. ",
"Recently, after reading a whole bunch of sleep paralysis stories, I experienced it myself. ",
"It felt like I woke up out of my dream into another one, lying in bed on my side. I couldn't move, and that feeling was terrifying. As the terror built I had the sensation that something was crawling over the bed behind my back towards me. It was at this moment I realized what was going on. I tried to wake up but couldn't but I was no longer afraid. I was able to wake up by closing my eyes and re-opening them. I was lying in the position I'd been paralyzed in but everything was sharp and no longer dream like. ",
"Since then it's happened with increasing frequency, but every time I'm able to realize what's happening and it's turned lucid. The second time I let it continue so I could see the figure creep up. I was in my back and a shadowy figure golem crawled upon my chest. Just like what I'd read about. I closed my eyes to awaken but ended up waking back into a normal dream. It is now taking more eye closing/re-opening to wake up, where I either re-enter normal dreaming or I restart the paralysis. ",
"I just think it's interesting it only happened after I'd read about it, like other people have reported. Thank God I always had the ability to lucid dream because that shit really is terrifying. ",
"Dreams/the sleeping mind are weird man."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dav63e2",
"comment_text": [
"Can that logic be used to flip the situation into \"I cant move cuz im getting the best bj in my life\" or somethinf like that?"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daveoqz",
"comment_text": [
"I like this guy"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dav5ofq",
"comment_text": [
"I wonder how many people have these experiences and can answer the question in the spirit of a five year old's rhetoric.",
"I've read about both and experienced only the unpleasant to basically benign. Why? Who could possibly be an expert and have the exact knowledge."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: If a plane is forced to land on ocean, are there good chances for survivors?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gt8ij
| 2
|
Other
| true
| false
| 1
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauufl3",
"comment_text": [
"If a plane is forced to land, then yes things are already quite good considering the circumstances.",
"Passenger Planes can glide for a long time, and they have plenty of communication abilities to reach out for help before they even touch water. The entire plane will have plenty of time to get there needed equipment out and on, and rescue will be enroute.",
"It's still dangerous but in the scheme of things, a controlled set down in the ocean is a lot better than the alternatives."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauuo4l",
"comment_text": [
"A lot of it will depend on what kind of plane you mean and how well equipped/stocked it is for a water landing"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauutof",
"comment_text": [
"I would assume that the kind of plane in question, one making a trans-atlantic flights, is going to be reasonably equipped for this potential crisis. ",
"You're right that not every plane will do as well as every other, but the ones that could reasonably end up in this situation are going to have the equipment."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauv3ds",
"comment_text": [
"Not all planes flying over the ocean are on trans-oceanic flights or even capable of it.",
"Living down in the Houston area, we often see plane routes crossing over the big blue, even for short flights to Mexico, Louisiana, Florida, Bahamas, etc.",
"Those short hops are often done in smaller birds, probably without all the cool rafts and equipment big carrier birds will have."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauun5g",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is for questions with objective explanations.",
"Subjective or speculative replies - Only objective explanations are permitted here; your question is asking for speculation or subjective responses ",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: What's a surplus?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gqhn8
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.67
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauam73",
"comment_text": [
"A surplus is when somebody has more of something than they need. There's extra stuff. Did you make enough spaghetti to feed 10 people and you're only feeding two? You have a surplus. "
],
"score": 7
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daubyei",
"comment_text": [
"Next summer...I'll be six. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daubyei",
"comment_text": [
"Next summer...I'll be six. "
],
"score": 6
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauap1b",
"comment_text": [
"It's a general term for when you have more of something than you need. It can refer to just about anything from buying more food than you can eat to a budget drawing more income than it spends among other things."
],
"score": 5
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daucvuf",
"comment_text": [
"Damn it. I was gonna find this video when I saw the question."
],
"score": 2
}
|
|
ELI5: What are the symbols in the Lenny face, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) supposed to be used for?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gqiym
| 46
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.83
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daub73r",
"comment_text": [
"The following table shows, in order, which characters are used in ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°):",
"Code Name\n28 left parenthesis (Basic Latin (ASCII))\n20 space (Basic Latin (ASCII))\n361 combining double inverted breve (Combining Diacritical Marks)\nB0 degree sign (Latin-1 Supplement)\n20 space (Basic Latin (ASCII))\n35C combining double breve below (Combining Diacritical Marks)\n296 Latin letter inverted glottal stop (IPA Extensions)\n20 space (Basic Latin (ASCII))\n361 combining double inverted breve (Combining Diacritical Marks)\nB0 degree sign (Latin-1 Extensions)\n29 right parenthesis (Basic Latin (ASCII))\n",
"From ",
"http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lenny-face"
],
"score": 15
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daubu3h",
"comment_text": [
"I put that face into ",
"unicode lookup and here's what it gave.",
"(",
" Never mind, the url is screwy. Please just ",
"go to the unicodelookup search page",
" and paste in the Lenny face I guess.)",
"Some of those are characters you probably recognize: parentheses, space, or even degree signs. The ones that are a little weirder are ones like “combining double inverted breve” or “latin letter inverted glottal stop”.",
"The breve they're talking about is ",
"this diacritical mark.",
" From that Wikipedia article you can see it's used in several ways, usually for combining with vowels to show a different pronunciation in some languages. Unicode often chooses to make diacritical marks like that “combining characters”, so you can theoretically combine them with some other character to make whatever you need. It's ",
" to make it easier to represent rare characters in the encoding. But you can also use it to combine with degree symbols to make eyes, or whatever.",
"The latin letter inverted glottal stop is a bit weird. But ",
"this page says it's in the IPA Extensions block.",
" IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet, and is a way for linguists to write all the sounds used in all languages without some of the problem you'd get by, say, trying to sound out \"plough through the cough\". So it's a symbol they use, probably for some variation of the ",
"glottal stop",
", but I don't know and can't find exactly what.",
" ",
"Here we go: it's an older way to represent a lateral click.",
" That's like the sound you might hear when people are telling a horse to giddy up."
],
"score": 9
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauf1ac",
"comment_text": [
"Here's",
" a recording of a word with a lateral click in it."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauk7k3",
"comment_text": [
"Oh well, I already got the answer I needed so I won't need ",
"r/answers",
" this time. I will remember this for next time though."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dauje2s",
"comment_text": [
"Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):",
"ELI5 is for questions with objective explanations.",
"Straightforward answers or facts - ELI5 is for requesting an explanation of a concept, not a simple straightforward answer ",
"Recommended subreddit(s): ",
"/r/answers",
"detailed rules",
"."
],
"score": 0
}
|
|
ELI5: Why the hell does my soup keep exploding in the microwave?!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gr0up
| 1
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.57
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daufd0h",
"comment_text": [
"Cover it! Roll off a couple paper towels and put it on top, tuck the edges under the bowl to keep it in place."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daufkkc",
"comment_text": [
"It blows the paper towel right off! I feel like I'm dealing with weaponized soup here!"
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daufgac",
"comment_text": [
"You most likely have some hot spots, that are boiling rapidly at the surface while the rest is cold, or you're just microwaving for way too long. Like mentioned, cover it in a wet paper towel, or lower the power of your microwave, place the bowl on the edge not the center, and microwave for a big longer."
],
"score": 3
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daup72o",
"comment_text": [
"Get yourself a microwave cover, something like ",
"this one",
"."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_daufp9b",
"comment_text": [
"moisten the paper towel, don't put it on dry, it will weigh itself down and cling to the sides, it also more evenly distributes heat and stops non-soup meals from drying out in spots in the microwave"
],
"score": 1
}
|
|
ELI5: What factors affect the creation of accents?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gl5tb
| 6
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.62
|
eg. Australia was comprised of British settlers, but now our accent is completely different to theirs. How has this occurred?
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dat5d1v",
"comment_text": [
"This is one of the most complex topics in linguistics: what gives rise to the divergence of dialect (or any linguistic change for that matter). Here are a few things:",
"People don't necessarily sound like their parents. They sound like the peer group who they respect, and of whom they desire respect. Having said that, some accents come from a second language group - for example, the effect of Norwegian on the dialect of Minnesota, where lots of Norwegian people emigrated.",
"People don't try to sound the same as the \"standard\". While there is usually a single \"prestige\" dialect among any given group, there is probably one or more \"covert prestige\" dialect. For example, when you speak in a less formal way in order to fit in.",
"Then there is the effect of other accents. Vowels exist in a \"vowel space\", and if a new accent comes along, in order to keep vowels distinguishable (or in order to socially distinguish one another from newcomers), people may shift their vowels. The shifting of vowels typically follows rules, or at least patterns.",
"They there's just making fun of people. It's a recognized phenomenon that in the presence of a new cultural group, people sometimes find it funny to make fun of their speech. But within a couple generations, sometimes that \"making fun of\" has simply become a part of the first language.",
"So, none of these are direct explanations of \"why\" two dialects diverge and differentiate one another, but I hope it gives some insight into the complexity of the question."
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dateaz7",
"comment_text": [
"They there's just making fun of people. It's a recognized phenomenon that in the presence of a new cultural group, people sometimes find it funny to make fun of their speech. But within a couple generations, sometimes that \"making fun of\" has simply become a part of the first language.",
"Can you expand on this? Is there a name for this phenomenon? This is really interesting, I've noticed this has happened with lots of weird internet slang over the years."
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_datirkg",
"comment_text": [
"RP (the 'correct' pronunciation) didn't exist back then. "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_datizsa",
"comment_text": [
"It did they just couldn't read lmao"
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dat3nnt",
"comment_text": [
"The first brits sent to australia were uneducated criminals so had problems with pronounciation. Also they wanted a little bit of individuality"
],
"score": -4
}
|
ELI5: Why are most Christian-dominant nations Roman Catholic, while the United States and the U.K. are predominantly Protestant?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
5gghbc
| 13
|
Other
| true
| false
| 0.73
|
[deleted]
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dasleu1",
"comment_text": [
"Also, the European colonies' original gods had to be destroyed, and in some cases, the Roman Catholic Church borrowed elements from their cultures to create saints for the new converted people, and a lot of miracles happened to new converts. It was easier for latin america to convert to Catholic Church, if they saw dark skinned virgins and saints.",
"Christianity wouldve never worked, or at least, it wouldve been much harder"
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_das0x5u",
"comment_text": [
"Catholicism was the initial branch of European Christianity (well not really, but we will ignore orthodoxy for simplicity), which Protestantism displaced in some countries during the reformation, mainly in Northern Germany, Scandinavia and Britain. The USA was initially a British colony, so was heavily influenced by Protestantism. Furthermore the initial settlers (the pilgrims) were Protestant settlers.",
"Britain became Protestant becasue the pope refused to grant the king Henry the 8th (Tudor) a divorce, so he split from the Catholic Church and founded the Church of England, a protestant church. ",
"Spanish and Portuguese colonies are generally Catholic (as are French, I think), and Russian and Greek territories are Orthodox, generally. "
],
"score": 2
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dashcbz",
"comment_text": [
"Was it also because most of the puritans moved over to America as well? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_dashcbz",
"comment_text": [
"Was it also because most of the puritans moved over to America as well? "
],
"score": 1
}
|
{
"comment_id": "t1_das4kmn",
"comment_text": [
"Well it's not entirely true that there wasn't another option; you had the Arians early on (though they died out) but there were also the various Oriental Orthodox Churches (yes, Oriental does literally mean East but there were major theological differences between Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox) as well as the Church of the East. And what do you mean Orthodox Christians were mostly under Muslim rule? It was a long time before the Ottomans made inroads into Europe and by the time that that did occur you had the Russians who were Orthodox too."
],
"score": 1
}
|
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