title stringlengths 3 300 | subreddit stringclasses 1
value | post_id stringlengths 5 7 | score int64 0 47.9k | link_flair_text stringlengths 0 63 | is_self bool 1
class | over_18 bool 2
classes | upvote_ratio float64 0 1 | post_content stringlengths 0 29.7k | C1 dict | C2 dict | C3 dict | C4 dict | C5 dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Why are some people anti-immunisation? | explainlikeimfive | 1rnpbq | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | Until going on reddit, I hadn't heard of people being anti-vaccines, as it doesn't seem to happen in my country. What are the main reasons for people believing this? What percentage of the population disagree with it? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp1qev",
"comment_text": [
"Vaccines do have side effects. For live vaccines (ones with living, but damaged versions of a virus or bacteria) the side effects tend to show a mild form of the disease for which you are being immunized against. For dead vaccines, you can get side effects simply... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp1n3t",
"comment_text": [
"Same reason some people think evolution doesn't occur day by day, that dinosaurs didn't exist, that their god HAS to be real and all other gods do not exist, bla bla bla, it is all self-perpetuated ignorance. When you want to believe something enough you will lo... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp325n",
"comment_text": [
"Mainly, there's a douche canoe named Andrew Wakefield who put a lot of effort into convincing people that there was a link between vaccines and autism. His data was bogus, and his particular brand of fear mongering did not do well in the UK where he is from, but ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp1fqy",
"comment_text": [
"Ignorance. Plain and simple, there is no other reason. A TL;DR of the whole situation:",
"Doctor fakes study that shows vaccines are causing autism. (This doctor is no longer allowed to practice medicine due to this fraud.)",
"People (Jenny McCarthy) who ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp3mqp",
"comment_text": [
"It's unfortunate that that assclown marred the anti vaccine campaign. Please look at the link I left in a reply above, for genuine evidence."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What exactly is a Jehovah's Witness? | explainlikeimfive | 1rnotg | 27 | true | false | 0.77 | I know it is religion based but other than that I am pretty clueless. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp1i9n",
"comment_text": [
"Ex-JW here. It's a Christian religion (technically), however, they do not follow the nicene creed, meaning they do not believe in the trinity, whereas most other major Christian religions do. They also have a lot of doctrines that make them stand out from other c... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp2hy1",
"comment_text": [
"Well, they are fundamentalist, meaning they take the bible literally. So when Jesus says go preach just like he did they take it very literally. Actually other major Christian religions do too, but the big difference being that Catholics don't go around trying to... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp27u1",
"comment_text": [
"What is it with them going about and spreading the word of Christ? I'm a Christian but iirc only JW go from door to door. Also, if you don't mind answering, why aren't you a JW anymore?"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpe8bv",
"comment_text": [
"There's little difference when you live in Iran."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp2la4",
"comment_text": [
"Actually Islam is the fastest growing. And is expected to be the majority religion worldwide by 2050. "
],
"score": 3
} | |
How and can video be used to charge a person with a crime? (Example: murder vs drug use) | explainlikeimfive | 1rnse8 | 1 | true | false | 0.56 | Obviously murder is worse than drugs. But I've noticed documentaries have people smoking weed on camera, cocaine, etc. How can the police not use this footage to charge them with a crime? Do cops use this footage to keep a close watch on those they know are recreational drug users? Video of a crime: Does it depend on i... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp766n",
"comment_text": [
"im on mobile so i can't find a specific one but Here's an article about it---",
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_conviction_without_a_body",
" "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp2pl1",
"comment_text": [
"When you see some smoking something, how do you know it is really pot and not tobacco? If you see someone snorting something, how do you know it is really cocaine and not powdered sugar? I think even with murder if you have a video of someone killing another p... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp6d6p",
"comment_text": [
"People have been convicted of murder even though a body was never discovered/recovered."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp6xzj",
"comment_text": [
"Any particular case?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp7do8",
"comment_text": [
"Well there you go. Though it doesn't seem to be uncommon. None in the US, in that article anyway, so we have that going for us. Of course what qualifies as a body with modern forensics?"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why aren't national borders drawn along straight lines? | explainlikeimfive | 1rnrkj | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | Aren't borders that follow complicated courses difficult to quantify and keep secure? I know that some US states have straight borders, and the border between Canada and the USA is mostly regular. Why don't all borders - particularly in more recently established nations - follow straight lines? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp39u4",
"comment_text": [
"Quantify means you state the number of X. So, I can quantify the number of bananas in a bunch (it may be 4 or 5), but I can't quantify how much I love my mother - there's no objective scale.",
"You can quantify the length of a border, but to express the natu... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp24un",
"comment_text": [
"\"express or measure the quantity of,\" in this context I mean it must be difficult to actually pinpoint where exactly the borders run (although I suppose GPS fixes this) in relation to the maps. Particularly in areas with difficult terrain. I'll admit it probabl... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp24un",
"comment_text": [
"\"express or measure the quantity of,\" in this context I mean it must be difficult to actually pinpoint where exactly the borders run (although I suppose GPS fixes this) in relation to the maps. Particularly in areas with difficult terrain. I'll admit it probabl... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpm4nr",
"comment_text": [
"Or the quantity of area in which the border surrounds, the word works just fine."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp1vtn",
"comment_text": [
"I'd bet rivers are a big reason. Just a guess tho'"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why does music seem "faster" upon waking up? | explainlikeimfive | 1rnyw8 | 15 | true | false | 0.74 | Specifically music, as I have noticed on more than one occasion that my alarm (which would be any song in particular from my playlist) sounds sped up as I am hearing it for my alarm. Later that day I would listen to the same song, and sure enough it would sound slower than it did in the morning. Am I weird or has anyon... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp8fbg",
"comment_text": [
"I have very minimal experience with this topic, but I would guess that because your processing capabilities are dulled upon waking up, perception and short-term memory follow suit. It might be that the reason it seems faster because our brain is latching onto few... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpjm3p",
"comment_text": [
"My own experiences fit with your explanation, sitting down and relaxing music seems faster, but if i go for a jog or begin any strenuous activity the speed decreases."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpara7",
"comment_text": [
"It might have to do with how your brain perceives sound. The \"sampling rate\", or the precision with which you hear may be lower when you have just woken up, giving you the feeling that things are 'faster' than you perceive. This sensor setting might be somehow ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp9rkg",
"comment_text": [
"Maybe when you wake up your brain is still slow so everything else seems fast."
],
"score": 0
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp4egs",
"comment_text": [
"I would like to know this also. "
],
"score": -1
} | |
ELI5: How do we know what temperature absolute 0 is if we have never been able to achieve it? | explainlikeimfive | 1ro3rt | 6 | true | false | 0.72 | And also how do we know what properties absolute 0 possesses if we have never seen it in action? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp6206",
"comment_text": [
"Two ways:\n1) We reduce the heat of something. The closer we get to absolute zero, the harder it gets. From the measured efford it takes we can build a function that converges against absolute zero\n2) We measure the energy at a given temperature, we measure the ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp7pr5",
"comment_text": [
"As we reduce heat and look at the energy involved, we can see an asymptote towards a particular value when it gets to a point where no energy is present (−273.15°C)."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp7zpa",
"comment_text": [
"The pressure an ideal gas exerts is directly proportional to its temperature. If you plot pressure against temperature, you will get a line that is declining with sinking temperature, no matter the volume or amount of substance used (those need to be constant tho... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp7084",
"comment_text": [
"You can use derivatives for this because absolute 0 is the limit. However the relationship expressed here is linear, so we don't need to. ",
"We can just plug zero into the relationship built for temperature and solve. I don't know the exact equation but I k... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp8f4f",
"comment_text": [
"With maths."
],
"score": -2
} | |
ELI5: Why aren't the farmers marching against Monsanto, but rather generic activists that claim to represent the farmers? | explainlikeimfive | 1ro4h4 | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | Sorry if the title is misleading, but my point is that I see people in facebook, twitter and some blogs rant so strongly against monsanto, but I see them use really bad arguments (appeal to nature, slippery slope, composition, etc.) and they are also usually involved in other campaigns I disagree with (vegans, anti lar... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp5w8b",
"comment_text": [
"Anti-GMO activists tend to be urban twenty-somethings who have little experience with large scale farming done in the midwest. They tend to be anti-GMO because they are on the left and anti-GMO sentiment is just one of the anti-science stances on the left which ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp8rn4",
"comment_text": [
"I was being sarcastic :)"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp89qn",
"comment_text": [
"All of them? Not a single specialist in the trade has realized how evil corporations are?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpb0wp",
"comment_text": [
"Sorry, you were too subtle in a topic where sweeping statements, arrogance and fallacies are too commonplace to take sarcasm for granted :-P",
"\nIf you had said farmers are aliens that export the seeds to Gallifrey and are in on the conspiracy I still would ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp79ir",
"comment_text": [
"Because farmers are boobs... they just believed the lies of the corporations... tisk tisk. "
],
"score": 0
} | |
ELI5: What is an 'itch' and why is it comforted by 'itching'? | explainlikeimfive | 1roclm | 6 | true | false | 0.63 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpb8cj",
"comment_text": [
"Scratching. "
],
"score": 14
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpcex6",
"comment_text": [
"Dear god, thank you. I almost reported this one to the mods."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpcn8k",
"comment_text": [
"People think I'm mean, but I seriously lose respect for people who say they \"itched\" an itch."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpewjn",
"comment_text": [
"C'mon now, don't be that guy. Read the rules."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdp8zup",
"comment_text": [
"When the subdermal hemotopes contract due to inflammation or exposure to an irritant, the human body experiences what is called itching. Scratching an inch stimulates the heomtobes i have no idea what i'm talking about which leads them to expand again and reliev... | ||
ELI5: How hearing aids work | explainlikeimfive | 1rocef | 13 | true | false | 0.7 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpafh9",
"comment_text": [
"Hearing aids work by taking the acoustic signal, changing it to an electrical signal where it can modified and tailored to the specific hearing loss, and then that signal is changed back to an acoustic signal.",
"The modifications don't just make the sound/si... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpah7p",
"comment_text": [
"There's a microphone, processor, and loudspeaker. Mic picks up the sound, the sound is processed and amplified and fed through the loudspeaker into the ear. Amount and type of amplification is determined by the kind of hearing loss a person has. "
],
"score":... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpb86w",
"comment_text": [
"My dad is super-lucky. Not only are his hearing aids 100% covered by VA, he's become a guinea pig for some hearing aid mfgr. He's got his go-to set in case they give him some prototype that doesn't work for him and whenever he finds one that works better, they l... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpe34c",
"comment_text": [
"By the time you put a new pair of hearing aids on... they're already working to them work faster and better.",
"Your father is very lucky. VAs are excellent for getting good/excellent hearing aids covered 100%. And even luckier that he's getting top-of-line i... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdpeb2u",
"comment_text": [
"Whenever I was asked what my hearing aid was, I just told people that it was a futuristic radio in which I could listen to music. ",
"Now that I actually know how they work, I think I will stick to my old description, much more fun haha. "
],
"score": 1
... | ||
ELI5: When a town or a city elects a dog or a cat for mayor, how does that end up working? | explainlikeimfive | 1rjhbr | 12 | true | false | 0.88 | I've seen several towns that elected animals as their mayors, and I'm really curious about how that works. Does the animal actually get paid? Do they actually get an office? Is their presence required at official events? I read this article: and I just don't see how a cat or a dog could fulfill this role. Well, ma... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnw262",
"comment_text": [
"It is never official.",
"Typically it only occurs in unincorporated towns where they don't have government at anything lower than the county level. Such communities will often elect an unofficial mayor as sort of a spokesman. Since there are no real laws co... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnxuw9",
"comment_text": [
"Historically, it is very difficult to get humans to acknowledge the new feline regime no matter how solid the legal argument. Dogs, cats and even horses have ascended pretty high on the political ladder but never without strong human backing."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo10z3",
"comment_text": [
"Not quite.",
"In an unincorporated town, there is no actual mayor. Cat, dog, or human, the position is honorary. That's why it doesn't matter."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo2fxd",
"comment_text": [
"They hire an appointee to smoke crack cocaine for him/her and blow in in their face. Dogs are less keen on this change than cats. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnxnm5",
"comment_text": [
"So even though the cat or dog beats out human candidates, the position isn't official? If the cat or dog wins, then they're just an honorary mayor, and a human becomes the actual mayor?"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5:How do massive schools of fish swim around without just bashing into each other | explainlikeimfive | 1rjljq | 19 | true | false | 0.92 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnxutq",
"comment_text": [
"The fish only pay attention to the fish nearest them so its a chain-reaction. So when a fish on the outside reacts to something, the fish next to him reacts to that and so on down the line. This isn't just to avoid getting hit, but to stay close as well since the... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnyie1",
"comment_text": [
"Just want to add on that fish have a sensor system called lateral line which is used to sense the vibrations and movements in water around it. This allows the fish to easily react to changes in movement."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo11qx",
"comment_text": [
"The fish follow a few simple rules like: stay behind the fish in front, keep 2 buddies on either side, avoid threats, etc. On a large scale this leads to extremely cooperative behaviour even though there are so many different individual parts. It's a type of dyna... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo1q22",
"comment_text": [
"I did a project in college modeling schools of fish.",
"1.) If an individual fish is too close to any fish, then it will turn to swim away from that fish.",
"2.) If there are no fish too close, then an individual fish will attempt to travel in the same di... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnwj7u",
"comment_text": [
"Have you ever used public transit in a large city?"
],
"score": 2
} | ||
ELI5: Is a computer intelligent? | explainlikeimfive | 1rjn2i | 1 | true | false | 0.55 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnwu4x",
"comment_text": [
"No, computers aren't intelligent, its like having an amazing car but no wheel or pedals, the programmer tell it exactly what to do and it never fails at it, If a program has a bug, its still doing ecactly what the programmer meant for it to do, and the programmer... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnx75c",
"comment_text": [
"I forgot something, for a computer to be truly intelligent, it must be able to learn, for example, a computer can be programmed to take over the world but it wont know what to do after it does that, but the important thing is COMPUTERS CANT LEARN NEW THINGS LIKE ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnxgyi",
"comment_text": [
"Machine learning is a decades old discipline and is all about how machines can represent concepts the programmer doesn't explicitly know and how to learn them from experience. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnwurs",
"comment_text": [
"Computers are only as smart as they're programmed to be, yes. However, take this, for example: You need to do a certain task several thousand times. You know how to do it, but it would take forever to do it manually, so you utilize the computer's processing power... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnwv1o",
"comment_text": [
"Let's say you had a really smart professor and a kid who just learned to read and have them both answer really difficult questions. The professor figures them out because he is smart and an expert in the field, but the kid is given cards with the answers on them ... | |
ELI5: Discrete Mathematics. WTF? | explainlikeimfive | 1rjpzk | 4 | true | false | 0.75 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnxrvl",
"comment_text": [
"It's sort of a catchall subject for math that's related to computer science. There's not really a way to sum it up simply though, since it's such a varied set of mathematics... Are you confused about sequences? Functions? Graph Theory? Algorithmic Complexity? Boo... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnxzg6",
"comment_text": [
"OK, then, is it not possible to explain it? I'm not confused about any subset, just what is it?"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnyq59",
"comment_text": [
"OK then, what's discrete and what's continuous mean? Like I'm 5."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnzjoa",
"comment_text": [
"I was trying to think of a way to explain this, but I found it quite a bit more tricky then I expected, so I looked it up and came across ",
"this article",
". I hope it sheds some light on the matter :)"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnxwx0",
"comment_text": [
"That really doesn't help at all. I'm still just as confused."
],
"score": 2
} | ||
ELI5: What's happening inside our bodies when we hold in farts? | explainlikeimfive | 1rjr1k | 18 | true | false | 0.76 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnz7ye",
"comment_text": [
"Simply you are just contracting the muscles not allowing the gas built up from the digestive bacteria in your digestive system to be released. "
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo09tt",
"comment_text": [
"Well from MY body it causes whale sounds emanate from my abdomen.. iieeeeeeoouuuuooooooo..."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo0mu3",
"comment_text": [
"Maybe he only speaks whale"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdoj877",
"comment_text": [
"And ",
" knows that's not your stomach rumbling"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdovijw",
"comment_text": [
"And it only happens when the office is super quiet."
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: How come we can see pictures of space probes as far as Saturn if they are so far away? | explainlikeimfive | 1rjswg | 3 | true | false | 1 | If light, which is the fastest traveling subject in the universe takes so much time to reach the edges of the solar system, how come we can get information, pictures and stuff like that so fast from probes like the voyager and such? Wouldn't the info take years to arrive? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnyeok",
"comment_text": [
"No, the solar system is only a few light-hours wide, even if you include Pluto."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnyhnr",
"comment_text": [
"Wouldn't the info take years to arrive?",
"No, it takes about an hour (I think) from the edge of the planetary solar system.",
"If it took a year, then it would be a light-year away which is 9.5×10",
" kilometers wheras Uranus (the farthest planet tha... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnyiip",
"comment_text": [
"Neptune is the furthest planet. It's about 4.5 billion kms from the Sun. And Pluto isn't a planet at all. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnyn0j",
"comment_text": [
"To be specific, Voyager I, the farthest man made probe we have, is 1.899×10",
" km away. It takes light (and therefore things like radio signals) just over 17.5 hours to reach that from the earth."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnyj1u",
"comment_text": [
"Whoops. I don't know why I said that."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: How come I'm still able to code when I'm really drunk? | explainlikeimfive | 1rk1me | 0 | true | false | 0.29 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo12p7",
"comment_text": [
"Well i guess that ur brain is more creative when your drunk. When your drunk your brain makes creative (sometimes weird) connections. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo2bra",
"comment_text": [
"http://xkcd.com/323/"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo2bzn",
"comment_text": [
"Image",
" Ballmer Peak",
" Apple uses automated schnapps IVs.",
"Comic Explanation",
" This comic has been referenced 44 time(s), representing 1.15546218487% of referenced xkcds.",
"Questions/Problems",
" ",
" ",
"Website"
],
"... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo2jwm",
"comment_text": [
"Stats: This comic has been referenced 44 time(s), representing 1.15546218487% of referenced xkcds.",
"That probably explains the negative points. Typing is getting harder btw... and so is the coding. I'm pretty sure I'm on the backside of the Ballmer Peak."... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo2l24",
"comment_text": [
"That being said. I'm still writing code that works."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Whats the difference between cracking my own back/neck and a Chiropractor doing it? | explainlikeimfive | 1rk0qo | 1 | true | false | 1 | Is it less/more healthy?
Is there a physical difference? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo0nwc",
"comment_text": [
"You don't crack your neck with so much force that it cuts or crimps blood vessels leading to stroke and you aren't paying some quack good money to do something that has little to no scientific support. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo0vom",
"comment_text": [
"Yep. Chiropractors are snake oil selling grifters with facy tables. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo2scb",
"comment_text": [
"Spinal manipulation has shown little evidence of being a more effective treatment than regular interventions. There are studies done that show a little effect but these often are not of a very high quality and most studies that show a positive result for spinal m... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo0x7q",
"comment_text": [
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!",
"Takes a breath",
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!",
"Chiropractors have killed people while doing nothing more than cracking their joints to make a noise with no medical benefit. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo0yc3",
"comment_text": [
"I'm only stating what they say. If you have a problem with it take it up to them. "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why are photos of people black and white in movies( and probably in real life) | explainlikeimfive | 1rkg5f | 3 | true | false | 0.61 | Like when the police or anyone in a movie(usually action movies) shows a picture of what/who they're going after its usually black and white. Why? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo4t6c",
"comment_text": [
"This question is worded really badly. ",
"I think what yor're getting at is police surveylance photograhs that are usually black and white. ",
"I would guess that it is because before digital photography pictures had to be developed and it is cheaper and ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo52ft",
"comment_text": [
"Ty for the info."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo4wnp",
"comment_text": [
"Most photos the cops show to people are printed on a printer, rather than developed. Since laser printing is way cheaper than ink printing, large organisations that print a lot tend to have laser printers mainly. And color laser printers are way more expensive th... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo5258",
"comment_text": [
"Makes sense, Ty."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo5tis",
"comment_text": [
"Furthermore, a person doesn't look any different in a black-and-white printout compared to a colour printout. A colour printout is only useful if the person's hair and eye colour would otherwise be unknown."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why are there many homeless veterans? | explainlikeimfive | 1rjycc | 19 | true | false | 0.74 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo00vu",
"comment_text": [
"Because of what they experience a lot of them have trouble (PTSD, etc) reintegrating back into society. In spite of all the ribbons and flag waving we don't always give them the best support when they return."
],
"score": 19
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo1gov",
"comment_text": [
"Most of he guys with signs aren't really veteran's"
],
"score": 8
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo05ys",
"comment_text": [
"This. We had an army guy come to the YMCA and ask to volunteer there because he said he was not yet ready to interact with regular civilians all the time. He wanted to try and be \"more humanized\" as he said. He was getting out of the service soon, and obviously... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo4d28",
"comment_text": [
"A lot of the times, especially with the older veterans, it's because their transition out of the service was rushed and left them ill-prepared for what they faced in every day life.",
"They are trying to combat this now with TAPS (Transition Assistance Progra... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo3eg2",
"comment_text": [
"Lots of people can claim to be vets when they are not. As a grunt, I am used to sleeping on the ground, not having anything, and making do with what I do have. I have considered being homeless on several occasions for different reasons. "
],
"score": 3
} | ||
ELI5: Why people are so defensive about their beliefs? | explainlikeimfive | 1rkkjy | 1 | true | false | 0.55 | Whether someone believes theology, ideals, or even the theory of evolution - Why do people claw teeth and nail to impart their understanding of the world upon you? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdobmkc",
"comment_text": [
"Well, your suggesting arrogance is the true arrogance. ",
"Human nature -- because of evolution and cultural conditioning -- resulted in this mess. It was necessary for human survival as a species. It's no longer necessary and has become destructive, violent... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo5mz4",
"comment_text": [
"Some people tie beliefs to self and to self worth. If they are wrong about something it makes them worth less."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdojt0u",
"comment_text": [
"Completely what I was going to say. And so short and simple."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo6260",
"comment_text": [
"The Theory of Evolution isn't a belief, it's a scientific theory that relies on evidence. It can't be equated to a belief which is an opinion which is held without evidence. ",
"The reason people are so defensive about their beliefs is due to congnitive di... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo7ezj",
"comment_text": [
"Because they foolishly and weirdly identify their beliefs -- or at least some of their beliefs, such as religion, politics, sports teams, ethnicity, group identities, national identities, cultural identities, opinions, positions, and so on -- with themselves. "... | |
ELI5: What people are doing to stop the NSA | explainlikeimfive | 1rkmp9 | 5 | true | false | 0.67 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo6exj",
"comment_text": [
"what are you doing?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo6fwg",
"comment_text": [
"Reposting things about it on reddit."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo6ido",
"comment_text": [
"What could you do? I guess you could go live off the grid. But i like my fancy gadges. Im just waiting for the day people of my age range get positions of power, and hoping they really do try to make the changes my generation totes as gospel."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo6kv0",
"comment_text": [
"Don't use your real information when getting anything. Which is nearly impossible so you can't. Blame the patriot act. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo6p1q",
"comment_text": [
"This isn't really an eli5 question, but seems intended to argue a particular political position. Removing. "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: How do people gain money from selling "their" houses that isn't really theirs? | explainlikeimfive | 1rkmg0 | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo64av",
"comment_text": [
"You do own the house. You borrowed money and bought a house with it. This means you own the house but you owe someone, or something, money, such as a bank. They don't own your house, not unless you fail to pay them back. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo64h0",
"comment_text": [
"The standard mortgage agreement includes the clause that you can sell the house at any time, provided that the profits from doing so will pay off the lien on the house."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo65ai",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, so I'll answer it in two ways...",
"Let's say I'm buying a house for $100,000. I put $20,000 down and the bank puts up the other $80,000. After a few years of making payments I only owe them $70,000 and I decide to s... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo65bf",
"comment_text": [
"Let's say that I take out a mortgage on a house that costs $200,000. I put down $20,000, and over the next year, I pay another $20,000 in mortgage payments. So after one year, I've paid $40,000, and I owe the bank $160,000.",
"Now let's say that the market ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo6ayr",
"comment_text": [
"If you buy a house for its current market value (say, $100,000 for simple maths). A bank lends you the portion of the money not covered by your deposit (say $90,000). This gives you $10,000 of ",
" in the property.",
".",
"Now over the next 5 years, y... | |
ELI5: How a currency can just be invented? Ex: Bitcoin | explainlikeimfive | 1rlcbk | 14 | true | false | 0.68 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdoe122",
"comment_text": [
"Bitcoins (or any currency for that matter) have value because people believe it has a value to the point that they are willing to exchange goods and services for it. "
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdofzep",
"comment_text": [
"Is Bitcoin fiat?",
"The computational time needed to arrive at a Bitcoin certainly exists in a physical sense."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdoixck",
"comment_text": [
"Anyone can invent a currency, and in fact dozens of people have followed in Bitcoin's footsteps and created similar systems, most with a few cosmetic changes. This may seem weird, but you've seen private currencies for a long time and probably never even noticed... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdodnu9",
"comment_text": [
"God doesn't have a treasury department in the sky you need to go through or anything, you just start giving out tokens and say 'this is money' and you have a currency. (Or not even that, people just need to make a group decision to use some tokens as money.)",
... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdoep5f",
"comment_text": [
"In this case there was also the want/need for untraceable transactions. "
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: how does 401k matching work? | explainlikeimfive | 1rle0v | 0 | true | false | 0.4 | I'm running a virtual business and I need to find out how much the company needs to spend on retirement funds but I don't know how 401k matching works because it's kind of confusing. From what I read a company should match 100% (but i don't know of what) up to 5% (but i don't know what the 5% is referring to). If anyon... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdoe1e5",
"comment_text": [
"up to a limit, your employer will match what you put into your 401k.",
"The 5% is likely referring to your salary."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdoe3bh",
"comment_text": [
"So if i give my employees $50,000 per year and they put in 10% of their salary I should only give them up to 5% of their salary? Wouldn't that defeat the 100% matching part?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdoflkz",
"comment_text": [
"The 5% is referring to their salary. In the instance you mentioned, its 100% of the first 5%. So say that the employee determines they only want to contribute 5% of their salary, you would be matching what they put in 100%....$2,500 and $2,500 to total $5,000 in ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdofm7p",
"comment_text": [
"You match 100% of the 5%. Some companies will match half of the employees contributions. This is largely seen as an evasive tactic as it forces the employee to put in a larger portion of their salary into the 401k to get the full match the company is offering.",
... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdoe5p3",
"comment_text": [
"Basically you match 100% of the employees contributions, up to 5% of the employees salary (I think).",
"So if your employee makes $5,000 a month, $60,000 a year (lets just say no taxes for the sake of simplicity), you will cover up to a maximum of $3,000 in m... | |
ELI5:Why are swear words considered "bad" or looked down upon? | explainlikeimfive | 1rlozb | 2 | true | false | 0.75 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdojhhv",
"comment_text": [
"This has been asked about 500 times. Please search first."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdojdaj",
"comment_text": [
"Language is contextual. There are certain words, phrases, and topics that are appropriate in some settings but not others. We teach children to never use language relating to sex, violence, and defecation because they are not expected to be in situations where ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdol4cw",
"comment_text": [
"Apologies, I just got lazy. I guess it kinda screwed me over lol."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdol6ec",
"comment_text": [
"thanks for the info. But it just seems that swear words are just alternative words rather than bad. But even with what you stated. It is leaving them as bad words. Like any time you hear the word \"fuck\", it is always considered bad, no matter what context given... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdouqgx",
"comment_text": [
"As pointed out by another user, this is a common subject on ELI5 - hence I've removed this post. ",
"Please use the search bar!"
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: What causes the metallic taste in my mouth when working with powerful antennas that put out a lot of RF? | explainlikeimfive | 1rggqr | 5 | true | false | 0.78 | Couldn't find an explanation for it while on searching the interwebs. Edit: I want to know what's happening to my body that causes the taste. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmzp34",
"comment_text": [
"I looked and found this NASA training guide for RF Awareness. Inside it mentions that a sign of over exposure might result in a metallic taste in your mouth. The other symptoms they include are Confusion, Vertigo, Headache, Blurred vision, Overall nauseous feelin... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmznxy",
"comment_text": [
"The realization that your level of exposure to RF is above acceptable limits.",
"But seriously - do you have any fillings? High power RF fields will induce a voltage within any conductive metal, which in turn would cause currents to flow within your mouth / ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn0ffg",
"comment_text": [
"I'd suggest you also try asking at ",
"/r/askscience",
"."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn95yj",
"comment_text": [
"Rf at high levels is like getting Microwaved. In fact Microwave ovens were invented by mistake by Radio techs. If you are working towers, you better make sure you have an rf exposure meter. You could be getting rf burn. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnaxap",
"comment_text": [
"Sufficient RF is either directly stimulating your taste buds (more likely) or it's denaturing some proteins in a way that the resulting compounds stimulate the taste buds."
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5 From where did Country music emerge? | explainlikeimfive | 1rghun | 5 | true | false | 0.78 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn1nh6",
"comment_text": [
"A lot of mountain music (aka bluegrass) evolved from Irish settlers."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn69h3",
"comment_text": [
"Hank Williams Sr."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnsuom",
"comment_text": [
"Pirate kitties"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn022a",
"comment_text": [
"African & Caribbean slaves -> Southern plantations -> Gospel music -> Country & Western -> Country.",
"Edit: Tangentially, you might enjoy ",
"this",
", or ",
"this",
"."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn1z9t",
"comment_text": [
"The music and the language hasn't changed much from the original Scots Irish settlers and even homeland. Some of the deeper pockets (hollers) have speech patterns right out of the 1700's. Ex.: Thems did real good on their maths."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: How does raising minimum wage to $15 an hour benefit anyone? | explainlikeimfive | 1rlx2u | 38 | true | false | 0.71 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdojw40",
"comment_text": [
"Because if you make the current minimum wage you live under the federal poverty line for a family of 2. ",
"The idea is that the minimum wage should adjust with the dollar to match inflation.",
"For example lets say minimum wage is $1 an hour. And $1 buys... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdolh59",
"comment_text": [
"Thats the key, the dollar has become weaker (meaning it buys less) but without any law to adjust the minimum wage it remains the same. Thus your getting less buying power for the same amount of labor. Thats the issue that some people wish to address by linking th... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdott95",
"comment_text": [
"ITT: A horde of libertarians and a very narrow view. Lemme balance that by giving a more leftist POV.",
"The small-scale examples given in the other examples, whereby rise in wages and rise in living expenses are directly correlated, is true inside of a small... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdomw69",
"comment_text": [
"Wages adjust on their own all the time. Federally-mandated minimum wage levels do not, unless you pass a law to either change it, or permanently tie it to inflation."
],
"score": 9
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdox27k",
"comment_text": [
"This statement is simply not true",
"Cite your work. Defend your statement.",
"Not saying what you wrote is true or false, but there arent anymore cites in your post than the parent"
],
"score": 8
} | |
ELI5: The current protests in Kiev, Ukraine about the EU/Russia | explainlikeimfive | 1rh2vv | 11 | true | false | 0.99 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn7krr",
"comment_text": [
"Ukraine has been in talks to join the EU for several years. Many Ukranians see entry into the EU as a step forward in economy, job creation, mobility, development, etc. This is because several postsoviet states, including the baltic states and Poland, have expe... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn9b08",
"comment_text": [
"Well summarized"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn9e3e",
"comment_text": [
"This is an amazing, dumbed down explanation. Perfect. I visited Kiev this summer. When I got back, my uncle said now when I see news from Ukraine on tv, it'll be like news of your second home. I absolutely love Ukraine and would hate to see it fall victim to mism... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cexi16a",
"comment_text": [
"well that helped me and saved me the trouble of sorting through 10 or more news articles. Thank you."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cfitwkq",
"comment_text": [
"Do you happen to have a source for this? I'm writing a research paper."
],
"score": 2
} | ||
ELI5: Why aren't terrorist attacks committed more frequently? | explainlikeimfive | 1rhao4 | 0 | true | false | 0.43 | I don't understand why smaller scale acts of terrorism aren't committed on a more regular basis. Are there simply not enough people willing to carry out the attacks? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn8yla",
"comment_text": [
"Pretty much the latter.",
"Most people are sane, and don't want to kill, injure or even inconvenience anyone. A very small number are willing to think about such things, and a few of them even begin planning them. But it takes a special kind of nut to actuall... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn8p3i",
"comment_text": [
"What are smaller scale acts in your opinion here? ",
"Are we talking on the global scale or in a specific country? "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn92w0",
"comment_text": [
"Derailing a train, public shootings, small bombs, etc.",
"I guess I'm talking about First World countries, but with an emphasis on the United States."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn95z2",
"comment_text": [
"That combined with the fact a lot of police are regularly combing through the stupider ones. \"Hey I want help assassinating somebody!\" - a nutter\n\"Sure I'll help you, just give me some incriminating evidence.\" ",
"\nSeriously, the people who are stupid e... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnariy",
"comment_text": [
"It is important to understand the role of the media here.",
"Most of the potential domestic terrorists are fat lazy selfish cunts who will never get up off the couch. Their media outlets (even their \"alternative\" media) are very careful to keep their pet ex... | |
ELI5: It's common in Australia for all police officers to carry a handheld breathalyzer with them while on patrol, why don't all American police carry them? | explainlikeimfive | 1rhx1m | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdng4ab",
"comment_text": [
"There's a difference between a traffic cop and a beat cop. One is primarily patrolling the highways/roads and probably has a breathalyzer. ",
"The other is responding to various calls, probably rarely pulls people over, and therefore doesn't carry a breathal... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnhn00",
"comment_text": [
"American police carry them just like Australian police. You were misinformed if someone told you American cops on patrol don't carry a breathalyzer. Often they carry more than one. One of them is a simple alcohol sensor built into a flashlight, so when they shin... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnel3l",
"comment_text": [
"I don't know what it's like in Australia. But in the US, breathalyzers aren't actually useful unless you're stopping cars to check for drunk driving. There's no other reason you'd need to determine someone's BAC."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnfw97",
"comment_text": [
"say a police officer sees someone driving erratically, shouldn't they have a reliable and accurate way on hand to test their sobriety?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnftvs",
"comment_text": [
"As someone else said unless someone is performing a DUI they wouldn't need one. American police typically have their hands full with actual violent crime and traffic enforcement. "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why do I & 80 million people need to lose their health insurance & get forced onto the non-working exchanges? | explainlikeimfive | 1rhs3w | 0 | true | false | 0.4 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnetpm",
"comment_text": [
"You are looking for an argument, not an explanation. Removed."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnertm",
"comment_text": [
"Obama promised every American that they could keep their plan if it was purchased prior to the the law being signed in March 2010. This was true. However, what he didn't say was that if your insurance provider changed your plan it would lose its grandfathered s... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdng1hj",
"comment_text": [
"Your question was explained ",
"here",
". The fact that you don't like the explanation and refuse to accept it is not ELI5's problem."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdndnck",
"comment_text": [
"A). I'm sorry to hear you may loose your insurance, that isn't right.",
"\nB) Your employer and insurance company chose to boot you, to save cash and abuse the safety net system. It is not part of the ACA policy.",
"\nC). The exchanges work in places whe... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnerd1",
"comment_text": [
"I'm assuming you are a single adult male, in which case I totally agree! Of course your female and parent coworkers might have different needs. Do you know which of the basic requirements your old plan lacked, that is forcing it to get dropped? "
],
"score... | ||
ELI5: Why does socialism go wrong? | explainlikeimfive | 1rhtrr | 0 | true | false | 0.4 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdndn98",
"comment_text": [
"What part of it are you refering to? There are many types of socialist economic systems. Socialism is an economic system, not a political one, and they exist everywhere, some places without even knowing they have a socialist title. Hit wikipedia for a brief un... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdne0ey",
"comment_text": [
"You seem to be confusing socialism and communism. Welcome to the '50s, ",
"McCarthy",
". "
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdne7sj",
"comment_text": [
"You're describing an American propaganda-based version of socialism. That type of extreme socialism doesn’t exist in practice anymore, except maybe in communist North Korea. Most countries in the world are socialist and capitalist. Balancing the two economic goal... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdndx14",
"comment_text": [
"Anytime someone paraphrases that Thatcher quote I immediately want to start punching faces."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnermn",
"comment_text": [
"Fair enough. But you're not describing socialism. You're describing Marxism."
],
"score": 2
} | ||
ELI5: If heat can only be passed from a hotter body to a cooler body, how does adding ice cubes make your drink cooler? | explainlikeimfive | 1ridni | 2 | true | false | 0.76 | Always baffled me, this one... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnjf18",
"comment_text": [
"In this case the hotter body is your drink. The heat passes to the colder ice cubes, warming them up and causing them to melt."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnklui",
"comment_text": [
"Because the warmer temperature is moving to the ice, making the drink colder."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnomen",
"comment_text": [
"Exactly! That is the idea behind thermal energy.",
"Drink has higher thermal energy.",
"I've cubes have lower",
"Thermal energy transfers from high to low",
"So drink =10, warm",
"Ice cubes = 0, cold",
"The heat of the drink transfers to t... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdobdob",
"comment_text": [
"Haha thank you I thoroughly enjoyed that!"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnkybx",
"comment_text": [
"You have a cup of hot water and a cup of cold water. You mix the two until you have lukewarm water.",
"The final temperature is lower than that of the hot water, and higher than that of the cold water. The hot water \"cooled down\" to lukewarm water. The cold... | |
ELI5: Why don't chemical/processing/manufacturing plants combine their facilities in order to increase efficiency/profit? | explainlikeimfive | 1rif4q | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | Drive through a rural US highway in historically poor area and you will see several dirty industries close to it. In a particular stretch of highway there is a iron smelter, a petroleum refinery and up the road there is a coke producer (they process coal into fuel pellet type thing) and a activated charcoal filter manu... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnjz9l",
"comment_text": [
"The processes are radically different. You'd just wind up having the same facilities, closer to each other.",
"If there were waste products they could collect and share for other purposes, you can be sure they would be doing that and selling them to each othe... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnk340",
"comment_text": [
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it probably has a lot to do with the regulations required for each industry - there are numerous health and safety each factory has to undergo. Every additional piece you add complicates the ability for the business to o... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnl8bb",
"comment_text": [
"In addition the EPA regs now usually mandate that any infrastructure changes that are over a certain percentage of square footage, or dollar market value (or any of several criteria) require full environmental review and permitting and are treated as entirely new... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnls0k",
"comment_text": [
"Generalizing here, but yes.",
"Without performing specific market and efficiency analysis it is hard gauge, but I would think in general that is probably more true than not. However sometimes the more efficient process (from a process->production->profit stan... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnlutt",
"comment_text": [
"Oh, and in some cases (hydrocarbon refineries is a perfect examples) it is cheaper not to build anything. The regulatory expense of building a new refinery can no longer be recouped in any reasonable time frame. Which is why the existing refineries aren't being r... | |
ELI5: If a country gets richer, does that mean some other countries somewhere are getting equally as poorer? | explainlikeimfive | 1riyx7 | 6 | true | false | 0.71 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnq37k",
"comment_text": [
"No. There's not a fixed amount of wealth in the world. Total global productivity has increased several orders of magnitude over the last couple of centuries. "
],
"score": 8
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnrm7w",
"comment_text": [
"No. But a lot of people instinctively ",
" this way, and would like you to feel guilty about having the things you have because people in developing countries don't have them.",
"When you get a new iPhone, these people will try to spoil your fun by remind... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnqg51",
"comment_text": [
"Not necessarily, but possibly. Assume that each nation is actually one person for simplicity. ",
"If I (representing my nation) walk into your house (representing your country), put a gun in your face, and take all of your stuff, then I'm necessarily richer... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnqfoo",
"comment_text": [
"No. What you are saying is referred to as the idea that the world is a ",
".",
"A negative-sum game is one where the total value of the players' assets is less than it was before the \"game\" was played. War, for example, is negative-sum: one side may end... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnuphy",
"comment_text": [
"Pretty much right. Though in a particular rudimentary sense, couldn't wealth be thought of as a right to a certain amount of the earth's natural resources? In that case it would be zero-sum."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: If a movie does well in the box office, who gets all of the money/profit? | explainlikeimfive | 1rj2k2 | 8 | true | false | 0.76 | Does it go straight to the director? Actors? The movie theatre itself? I've wondered this for some time. To make it easier, let's say the movie does extremely well. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnr2i4",
"comment_text": [
"The company that produced it (Paramount, Warner Bros., etc). The people involved with making the film are generally paid by this company, and the company gets the profit from the actual output (the movie). I'm sure some actors and such have contracts that state... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdns0hs",
"comment_text": [
"This. Basically.",
"To expand on it some:",
"The movie theater makes a very small cut of ticket sales, most goes to the producer. The theater generally makes it's money off of concessions.",
"Actors, and by extension directors etc., are paid by the ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdo4mui",
"comment_text": [
"Oooo me..me!",
"I grew up in a movie theater and I think more detail about the process required.",
"Everyone makes a lot of money but who gets it all depends on how well the movie does. ",
"There are a lot of people paid up front for their services. \... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnr054",
"comment_text": [
"What do you mean?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnr054",
"comment_text": [
"What do you mean?"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Is this a good time to buy bitcoin, and how do I do it if it is? | explainlikeimfive | 1rizsk | 5 | true | false | 0.86 | And if I made a profit, how would I use it to buy/sell? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnu7m2",
"comment_text": [
"Bitcoin is not intended to be used for investment, it's intended to be used to perform anonymous online transactions. If that's your intention, it's always a great time to buy.",
"If you plan on speculating on the price going up, it's a pretty volatile thing... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnqaln",
"comment_text": [
"No one knows for sure what the price of Bitcoin is going to do. It could go up or could go down, certainly lots of people have opinions but no one knows for sure. So no one can tell you for sure if it's a good time to buy.",
"Personally I would say that it ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnsr1v",
"comment_text": [
"yeah It's not a very trustworthy system. In ireland there's only two sellers online, and you have to deposit money direct into their bank account. I allllmost bought some when bitcoin was at around 300"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnsp1t",
"comment_text": [
"In my experience, buying bitcoins is not an exceptionally easy task - especially if you live outside the US. I've been trying to buy some since they were £30 and I've still failed to gain verification at any exchange.",
"If you're even considering buying some... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnw6xs",
"comment_text": [
"Using bitcoin for investment purposes requires the same skills that investing in the stock market requires. You need to understand the market and what could make it rally and fall in price.",
"I don't recommend it. You would have to be very involved in the cu... | |
ELI5: Why are people stupid? (serious) | explainlikeimfive | 1rj802 | 0 | true | false | 0.4 | I know this sounds like a dumb questions but I really want to know. Is it a low IQ? Is it just bad decisions? Is it a specific thought process? What is stupidity and why are some people stupid and others aren't? I know everyone makes mistakes, but do some just make more than others? Fill me in Reddit I want to get a go... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnswc0",
"comment_text": [
"Environment affects intelligence. If someone is extremely malnourished throughout their childhood, it will affect how their body develops, including the brain. If someone is encouraged to challenge their brain, they will be better at using it. ",
"Genes may a... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnt75a",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for replying, ",
"So what you are mainly talking about is development of the brain then. If you are born with a hindering mutation or a beneficial one, and how that brain is raised environmentally. That helps me understand a lot.",
"So if I see a \... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdntil6",
"comment_text": [
"I tentatively say yes. I am not an expert, and anything to do with living things is usually far more complicated than it looks. ",
"You can choose to try to learn and understand, but sometimes you just don't understand. An example of this is students learning... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnxdpe",
"comment_text": [
"oh thats cool! thank you"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnskz1",
"comment_text": [
"They're just not as smart as I"
],
"score": 0
} | |
ELI5:Why is the holocaust so heavily covered in American high school history? | explainlikeimfive | 1rdvms | 24 | true | false | 0.72 | We spent a month in several classes talking about the holocaust but we didn't learn about any other atrocities. Many people that go to my college aren't even aware of the Armenian genocide or the Rape of Nanking. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmao9f",
"comment_text": [
"It wasn't about religion. It was about race. Plus. Stalin killed more. "
],
"score": 21
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm8w2m",
"comment_text": [
"Remind me of the last time 6 million people were wiped out due purely to their religion. ",
"I think it's a shame that schools don't cover stuff like the Rape of Nanking and the Holodomor as much. Still, the holocaust is by far the most dramatic event. "
],... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmclij",
"comment_text": [
"Stalin killed more, but that's not why the Holocaust is so terrible. The reason that the Holocaust is worse than Holomordor is not just the death count (11 People, 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust; 1.8-5 million Ukranians killed in Holomordor) but how they ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmb6v2",
"comment_text": [
"I can think of a few reasons. Firstly, the US was very directly involved in World War II so the Holocaust is much more relevant to US history than most other atrocities of that order of magnitude. Secondly, the Germans were on a path to global conquest so the out... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmd2e1",
"comment_text": [
"I feel like \"Majority of shot callers in US educational system are of jewish descent\" needs a source or some backup info."
],
"score": 5
} | |
How come so many redditors are racist? | explainlikeimfive | 1rdx2j | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | "There isn't a single European that doesn't hate Gypsies. I swear to god, even gang members and shit hate them
And we have reasons to" +65 upvotes in 40 minutes Someone calls him out for being racist:
" "There isn't a single European that doesn't hate Gypsies."
Yes, there is.
And further; fuck you, you racist piece of ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9hzc",
"comment_text": [
"No, they're generally not homeless. I don't know about the gypsies in the rest of Europe, but in Sweden most of them lives in flats. They live by their own rules and laws, mostly ignoring the laws of the country they live in. Stealing is a non-issue for many them... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9dgu",
"comment_text": [
"The fact is that lots of ",
" are racist. There are many cultural reasons for that, and potentially biological ones as well.",
"People say things on the internet that they wouldn't say in real life. That's what anonymity does for you."
],
"score": 6
... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9it8",
"comment_text": [
"The gypsies in question aren't homeless strictly speaking. They're more like travelling communities that travel in caravans and such, then set up camp on unused or private lands.",
"They can be quite large communities, but the issues only tend to arise if the... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9b4o",
"comment_text": [
"I'm an American. I honestly have no clue what modern gypsies are. Are they just homeless people? Are they organized? Do they do anything illegal?"
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmbwdt",
"comment_text": [
"People don't exclusively hate gypsies because of race. They do because there are a lot of subcultures of them who literally have no moral compunctions against stealing. As a matter of fact, my own grandparents working in a medical office had a specific \"thing\" ... | |
ELI5: What does adding a "pinch of salt" actually do to foods and recipes? That doesn't seem like it would change the flavor much... | explainlikeimfive | 1rdxwz | 5 | true | false | 0.65 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9fw4",
"comment_text": [
"It draws out moisture and with it, it draws out and condenses flavours."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmaiiw",
"comment_text": [
"A pinch of salt isn't to give a salty taste, but to suppress bitterness and increase the relative sweetness of a dish",
"Here's a long paper about it but the short answer is that the sodium ions even in small amounts interfere with the mechanisms we perceive ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmkoms",
"comment_text": [
"Unless that pinch of salt added to the food was taken all in the same bite, then it is not the same."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9jvc",
"comment_text": [
"Take a pinch of salt and put it in your mouth. It seems like a lot now right?"
],
"score": -4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmabvv",
"comment_text": [
"Pinch is a relative term. Usually when they say a pinch of salt in a recipe they really mean \"put as much salt as you would like or need to taste\""
],
"score": -6
} | ||
ELI5:why is gender re assignment surgery covered by provincial health care but dental work is not? | explainlikeimfive | 1re6yb | 5 | true | false | 0.7 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdml8i4",
"comment_text": [
"Looking at it cynically (as someone who's dealt with the system) it's a bizarre combination of money, compassion and prejudice. ",
"The number of people who need transition-related care is far smaller than the number of people who need dental work, and the co... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdms2zv",
"comment_text": [
"Well, then, here's a few points to consider:",
"The stresses of not being able to access medical treatment result in a 41% attempted suicide rate for trans people who can't get care. Yeah, 41%, not 4.1%. By stresses, I mean things like job discrimination, hou... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmvrkp",
"comment_text": [
"Is there statistical information to prove what actually drives the average trans person to commit suicide? I think its offering a bit too much credit saying the 41% specifically commit suicide because they cannot receive care, do they take into account other outs... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmx94b",
"comment_text": [
"Yes, the stats are out there. I'm not Googling them because I'm recovering from a recent suicidal episode myself and don't need that. The folks at ",
"r/asktransgender",
" can point you towards the studies you need if you'd like a starting point that's no... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnjtvv",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, like I said, an uniformed viewpoint is worth nothing. Sorry you think that being ignorant about a minority group makes your ~opinions~ worth considering, but that's really not how it works. I'm not here to justify my whole existence to cis people who ask fo... | |
ELI5: Why do some sounds sound more soothing than others? Like why do some make me fall asleep versus making me tear my hair out? | explainlikeimfive | 1rea5k | 26 | true | false | 0.78 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmfbfy",
"comment_text": [
"It's all about overtones. ",
"This video is somewhat relevant and does a pretty good job explaining them.",
"Basically, sounds that have the same pitch (how high or low the sound is) can have different timbres (characters of sounds - think of a tuba and a... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmh1vv",
"comment_text": [
"I can't speak to every sound and tone that people find pleasing or unpleasant. I can mention a few things, though that I've heard in the past:",
"Sounds like \"shhh\" are soothing, to babies, at least, because they remind them of being in the womb. Dunno if... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdml45c",
"comment_text": [
"Older psychoanalytical theories (and maybe some more recent ones) talk about birth being the very first trauma a human being ever experiences. The womb is a warm, soft, bearing place of comfort, while the world you're exposed to after the painful and excruciating... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmfo1t",
"comment_text": [
"You'd have to be more specific.",
"For example, a Lion's roar is nerve racking because it's a fucking lion and can kill and eat you, versus the sound of a sleeping person's breathing being calming because obviously if somebody's asleep nearby then the area mu... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmi65w",
"comment_text": [
"People often say that things which remind us of the womb are pleasant. Serious question, what's so great about the womb? "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why is it the year 2013 and phone audio is still so poor it's like speaking underwater? | explainlikeimfive | 1re74y | 5 | true | false | 0.67 | The #1 reason why I hate making phone calls - the audio quality is so bad I can't understand half the time what the other person is saying. Any phone, any network, anywhere. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdme446",
"comment_text": [
"It's a combination of factors. ",
"The one with the most impact is infrastructure. We designed the telephone system a long time ago; this was way before we had the capabilities to capture and send the same audio quality we deal with today, thus the infrastr... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmxpnr",
"comment_text": [
"Sure, there are lots of sound emitting things that transfer sound through solids, but in a vast majority of cases, it's transferred through air waves. I've worked with the ones that go through sound (I worked with a teacher soldiering the speakers to cheap mp3 p... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn2ofh",
"comment_text": [
"No, I was talking about what is seen in most common applications. What I was originally saying was that using a standard speaker, having holes for the sound to travel through would produce a better sound quality than trying the same with out the holes. Speakers... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmdqzk",
"comment_text": [
"mine works great"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdme6ub",
"comment_text": [
"Predominantly to save resources.",
"The ISDN 64K exists as without compression 64K is about the lowest amount required to transmit a voice conversation and still have it feel human enough to pickup inflection, voice characteristics, etc.",
"As we've opene... | |
ELI5:Central banking | explainlikeimfive | 1reaan | 7 | true | false | 0.71 | I am trying to understand better the situation the united states is in with continuing to print money etc, could you please explain the idea of central banking, and the central bank in the U.S. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmgr2h",
"comment_text": [
"The Federal Reserve (Fed) is actually not a United States entity. The Fed board of governors represent the private banks in each of their 13 different regions. The Fed essentially operates as any other business…",
"This is misleading. The Fed isn't exactly a ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmfxzk",
"comment_text": [
"That sums up most of it, I just think the debate on these liabilities has abated, since the housing sector has stabilized. The assets were a hot potato, but it has since been cooled. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmy6xn",
"comment_text": [
"I just hope that their actions do not re-inflate the bubble. If it crashes again I'm not sure that anyone knows what will happen."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdme4ij",
"comment_text": [
"The Federal Reserve (Fed) is actually not a United States entity. The Fed board of governors represent the private banks in each of their 12 different regions. The Fed essentially operates as any other business except their assets (dollars) get printed any time... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmyihl",
"comment_text": [
"I wrote most of this from memory since I am in the midst of Macroeconomics for my MBA. I researched the Governors a little more in depth. There are 7 Governors appointed by the President and affirmed by the Senate. The Federal Open Market Committee consists of... | |
ELI5: Why does Black Friday exist? | explainlikeimfive | 1ret41 | 5 | true | false | 0.86 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmixf3",
"comment_text": [
"No one really wants it to end.\nHave you seen those discounts?",
"Just because something happens to you on store property does not make the store liable. If I punch you in the face in a Walmart to get a Turboman doll, I'm the only one in trouble."
],
"sco... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmiyj8",
"comment_text": [
"People are still entering voluntarily and everyone knows the stories.\nIt's an informed risk."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmiyj8",
"comment_text": [
"People are still entering voluntarily and everyone knows the stories.\nIt's an informed risk."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmizwc",
"comment_text": [
"Fine, go out friday and punch some people, you won't get arrested. Let me know how it turns out."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmizwc",
"comment_text": [
"Fine, go out friday and punch some people, you won't get arrested. Let me know how it turns out."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why do I have to pay for NHS dental work but not for any other NHS service? | explainlikeimfive | 1resa9 | 3 | true | false | 1 | Why is it that NHS dentists were partitioned of as someone whose services you have to pay for where as, for example, if I need a triple heart bypass it doesn't cost me a penny? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmivfo",
"comment_text": [
"According to ",
"NHSHistory.net",
", after the creation of the NHS, the expected budget was very quickly exceeded, and within 3 years it was necessary to include some charges in order to balance the books.",
"The charges included charging for prescrip... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmipy0",
"comment_text": [
"I've never understood it either. I think it's just a legacy of how it was introduced. I hope one day it becomes free, but all the major parties seem to be against public spending, in favour of selling public services off to private companies I think it's unlikely... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmiqm9",
"comment_text": [
"Was it always the case? Have we always had to pay for NHS dental work (albeit subsidised) since the conception of the NHS?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmiy18",
"comment_text": [
"LINK",
"When introduced, the NHS limited the price of prescriptions and dentistry, but didn't make them free. Wales has made prescriptions free, but this is not true for all of the NHS (although, again, I feel it should be)."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmk4m4",
"comment_text": [
"I'd imagine it's simply because dental work isn't life threatening, an emergency, or unreasonably expensive that necessitates insurance. It's those types of factors that make something unreasonable to privatize.",
"Count your blessings. Most of us on reddit... | |
ELI5: Can lifeforms be created out of antimatter? | explainlikeimfive | 1repi7 | 2 | true | false | 0.67 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmi65i",
"comment_text": [
"If there was part of the universe that was antimatter-dominated, with anti-matter suns and planets, anti-matter water and air, everything, then it would be indistinguishable from the matter equivalent.",
"And the people on this anti-matter planet would create... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmii2g",
"comment_text": [
"And someone on their anti-reddit logs on and posts an anti-ama asking if life could be made of matter :D",
"True - except to them, they would be made of \"matter\", and they'd be asking if life could be made of \"anti-matter\", referring to the stuff we're ma... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmimqw",
"comment_text": [
":D I wanted to mention that, but I figured I'd waffled enough. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmsh3u",
"comment_text": [
"Pretty sure that the arrow of time remains unchanged. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmisav",
"comment_text": [
"Chemically speaking there's no known difference between matter and antimatter. The Alpha experiment at CERN is investigating the energy levels of the Anti-hydrogen atom to see if it is the same as it's matter counterpart.",
"Note that there is a reason that t... | |
Monotheistic vs polytheistic religions in society | explainlikeimfive | 1rewgx | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmk6sg",
"comment_text": [
"Because people in western society are more familiar with Christianity, Islam and Judaism. They are the major faiths across Europe and the Americas and are the ones that have an impact on people's lives, so they're the ones that people are going to criticise. The ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdml2um",
"comment_text": [
"While you are correct, I caution you to be careful to not use the term \"Abrahamic religions\" and then make generalizations. Judaism does not proselytize, and Islam has had only minor influences on Western society, even compared to Judaism. "
],
"score": ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmkaf2",
"comment_text": [
"Very well put, though I'd add that there are small neopagan groups following those last few pantheons. Hellenistic paganism in particular got a weird upsurge in response to the huge recession and general decline of Greece in the past couple of years. Roman pagani... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn011l",
"comment_text": [
"Most people don't understand the historical significance of polytheism and how it was essential to creating the cohesive bonds a society requires to create an empire. If they did know they would understand how their own monotheistic philosophy can be inferior in ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmk8p0",
"comment_text": [
"Monotheism, generally speaking (VERY generally), refers to the Abrahamic religions which have a host of riders attached to them that modern society doesn't like. They expect followers to preach and attempt to convert others. They do not accept any believers of ot... | |
ELI5: What exactly is obamacare and why are so many people against it? | explainlikeimfive | 1rfhuv | 1 | true | false | 1 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmpqgc",
"comment_text": [
"You are supposed to check to see if your question has been asked before you post. This one has. One thousand fucking times.",
"Here is the link to ELI5 results",
"And here it is from AskReddit",
"Now fuck off."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmpye0",
"comment_text": [
"Believe me, us mods share the same frustrations as you when it comes to repeat topics like this, and we appreciate you pointing OP towards the search results (and I suspect the post-report too)..",
"But the rest of the post isn't really what we want on ELI5..... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmpued",
"comment_text": [
"This question concerns one of the most frequently asked topics on ELI5, so it has been removed. Try the searchbar!",
"It's okay to re-post questions, but please indicate that you did a search and that previous questions/answers didn't help you understand."
... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmpyox",
"comment_text": [
"C'mon, boss... I don't even get an upvote for linking him to the results?",
"Wait, are mods even allowed to upvote? That's a serious question actually."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmq2lk",
"comment_text": [
"We do still participate yes! ",
"Though we try our best to separate our mod-duties and our contributions to the sub.. i.e. if I've given an explanation to OP, I'll avoid moderating in that thread (lest the most egregious rule violations).. Conflict of interes... | ||
ELI5: Why do taste buds cease to function when you're sick? | explainlikeimfive | 1rf8w2 | 1 | true | false | 0.57 | Currently missing the taste of food. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmn1hz",
"comment_text": [
"Usually it's when your suffering from a cold, when your nose is all stuffed up and you can't smell anything. The taste of food is mostly experienced through smell. Obviously there's other flavors that are strong enough to cut through that, like salty, and spicy. ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmn0uj",
"comment_text": [
"A large part of the sense of taste is actually smell. When you're sick your nose is usually stuffed so you can't smell anything - ergo, you can hardly taste anything as well."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmn1u6",
"comment_text": [
"smell contributes a lot to how you taste things, when your sickness causes your nose to be stuffed then your sense of taste will be affected"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmn8jw",
"comment_text": [
"Wow, that's an excellent explanation. Thanks a bunch!"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn12lh",
"comment_text": [
"No problem! Feel better! "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: If someone in Arizona murders someone in Colorado at the 4 corners monument, which state handles the case? | explainlikeimfive | 1rf7tk | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmmssz",
"comment_text": [
"FBI investigates murders on Indian land. The Four Corners monument is on Indian land.",
"See: ",
"Indian County Crime"
],
"score": 10
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmnjcf",
"comment_text": [
"Well that was an unexpectedly simple explanation. ",
"What if it were just across a border between 2 states, a shot fired from Oklahoma across the Red River into Texas for instance?",
"Or even if someone standing on a border shot and killed someone else s... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmobu8",
"comment_text": [
"The state the person was killed in would likely request the extradition of the shooter from the other arguing that it has jurisdiction since the actual killing happened within its borders. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmogrn",
"comment_text": [
"That makes sense. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmmx6r",
"comment_text": [
"Simpsons reference, set up the person you shoot in Colorado, he fires the bullet in Arizona that travels to New Mexico, it hits the person in Colorado and the body lands in Utah. Supposedly no one can persecute you now, but actually so long it happens (and wherev... | ||
ELI5: How does one acquire the d and f values when doing a Depth-first Search of a graph? | explainlikeimfive | 1rfj0g | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmpt8w",
"comment_text": [
"What does D and F stand for? I know how to do depth first searches, I just don't know what notation you're using."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmq1yb",
"comment_text": [
"alright so there are some options. One is, you can wrap each node in a class that holds a flag. Or you can actually add the flag to every node. Or you can have an array that keeps track of the flags.",
"so for blackening the vertex: just do this in every case... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmpw9v",
"comment_text": [
"The D timestamp is when the vertex is first discovered, and F is when the search finishes examining the adjacency list and \"blackens\" the vertex. I'm having a hard time getting correct values however..."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmq9e3",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you! I'll try that."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmqavw",
"comment_text": [
"i fixed the format of the code."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5 what happens to old headphones when you have to hold them in a certain position to hear them work | explainlikeimfive | 1rfthv | 5 | true | false | 0.73 | This just started happening with a pair of headphones I only bought in May. I'm rather frustrated, but since I can't exactly fix the problem, I might as well know what's going on! Maybe the cause too, if anyone knows. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmsx1a",
"comment_text": [
"The metal part of the wire has split inside the insulation or at a connection. There's no connection except in the one position that works. You could probably either fix the wire or plug yourself or have them repaired fairly inexpensively. ",
"To prevent t... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmsv2o",
"comment_text": [
"There's probably some connection inside that is loose, and it only makes contact when it that position."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmsvao",
"comment_text": [
"Wires not connecting. Get new ones. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmsvdi",
"comment_text": [
"Got this problem too, but only on one side.."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmuua9",
"comment_text": [
"You cut the wire, probably from bending it too much. When you hold the headphone in that certain position, you're touching the two parts of wire so that they connect again."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Modalities of connecting to the internet over time and their difference in speed | explainlikeimfive | 1rfw6b | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | I searched other posts on the matter but it doesn't seem to be explained fully to me. Why did dialup tend to be offered in 56kb/s and what was the difference in how the extra(or less) speed was delivered? Why did we have to "dial" to the internet and how did that work? With modern modalities, why do we no longer need t... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmua8c",
"comment_text": [
"OK, let's break this down:",
"The term \"Dial-Up\" was in reference to when people used a standard phone line to connect their computer to the internet via a modem - These only made it to 56K which is a limitation of standard telephone modem communication. Wi... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmwsvn",
"comment_text": [
"I think the main reason cable companies can offer higher speeds over time is that they upgrade the connection between your local cable office and the rest of the internet. I'd take everything I've said with a grain of salt, though. I should have added a disclaime... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmu2vw",
"comment_text": [
"Basically, here's the idea behind a dial-up modem: Say you have a computer in your house and your friend has a computer in theirs. You want your computer to communicate with theirs. You both have a landline phone, but that's it. So what do you do? ",
"You co... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdng899",
"comment_text": [
"Expert or not - you are right on target - As the companies upgrade to newer/faster technologies, they make them available to their customers. As you said previously, the modems they provide are nowhere near their capacity in terms of bandwidth."
],
"score": 2... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmw11r",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks for the correction on dialup speeds. It's been so long since I've had it that I forgot the speeds they ran at.",
"Most of the speed is limited by the connecting equipment outside of your home. The modem you have is generally capable of passing data at ... | |
ELI5: Google has a monopoly on search, so how has it been able to avoid trouble with government regulators? | explainlikeimfive | 1rfw1v | 0 | true | false | 0.33 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmtkt4",
"comment_text": [
"How does Google have a monopoly on search? There are plenty of other search engines."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmu0ag",
"comment_text": [
"On top of the fact that they aren't a monopoly Google is in the clear because what get's you into trouble is anti-competitive behavior. Google does't stop other people from trying to become the top search engine, there just hasn't been anyone else that can create... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmtzls",
"comment_text": [
"Being the most popular does not mean they have a monopoly. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmtotd",
"comment_text": [
"Your premise is flawed. Google absolutely does not have a monopoly on search. Other examples include dogpile, bing, yahoo, duckduckgo, ask, aol, lycos, and many others."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmuu3y",
"comment_text": [
"It could be said to have a hegemony, in that it is overwhelmingly more popular and influential than other search engines, but that is not a monopoly by a long shot."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
Why is raw milk illegal? | explainlikeimfive | 1rfuns | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | It's natural right? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmtc5y",
"comment_text": [
"A: natural isn't always better",
"B: Raw milk means unpasteurized, which is dangerous. It contains more bacteria, and will spoil much more quickly, even if its refrigerated, and may also cause very harmful and dangerous types of food poisoning and/or infecti... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmtex6",
"comment_text": [
"Natural doesn't mean healthy. Cyanide, botulism toxin and snake venom are all natural! ",
"Pasteurization kills any micro-organisms added to the milk during the milking/storing/transit process. It's quite hard to keep these organisms out of the milk consis... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmu07r",
"comment_text": [
"The FDA puts restrictions on foods to protect the public. This means people & companies can't sell us poisonous or otherwise harmful and dangerous foods. I thought raw milk was illegal nationally from the FDA, but I guess it's legal status is determined by state ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmtbzg",
"comment_text": [
"You might take a look at this... ",
"http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/raw_milk_map.htm"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmte6u",
"comment_text": [
"It's because of the risk involved. With raw milk, there is the possibility of transferring bacterial infections from the cow to whoever drinks the milk if the cow happens to be infected with certain bacterial diseases. It is also thought that drinking raw milk ma... | |
ELI5: How does a website hijack my back button? | explainlikeimfive | 1rg1qu | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | ELI5: How does a website hijack my back button? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmvc71",
"comment_text": [
"Do you mean where you click Back, but it doesn't go back to your previous page and instead keeps you where you were?",
"That's because there's two pages. If you click a link to myfakewebsite.com/trappage.html, I'll put a redirect in the code of that page to m... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmvike",
"comment_text": [
"Thats what I'm guessing he means, and if so you nailed it. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmvyv5",
"comment_text": [
"It mostly depends on how your browser handles the multiple requests at once. You could have the page rendered before or after the forward instruction is processed. And if you pressed it before the page was rendered, it might not be fully executed before the rende... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmvyv5",
"comment_text": [
"It mostly depends on how your browser handles the multiple requests at once. You could have the page rendered before or after the forward instruction is processed. And if you pressed it before the page was rendered, it might not be fully executed before the rende... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn1t94",
"comment_text": [
"When you click it multiple times quickly, it leaves the redirect page before it has the chance to actually redirect you (or, before it has the chance to add the other page to your back history). "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What would a dragon actually need to breathe fire? | explainlikeimfive | 1rg5n0 | 0 | true | false | 0.4 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmwg04",
"comment_text": [
"Some organ or gland that produces a combustible gas or liquid and the ability to project that substance from their mouths. Just like a spitting cobra sprays its venom! But then they would also need some way to ignite that substance just as it leaves their mouths.... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmwqru",
"comment_text": [
"deleted ",
" ",
" "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmwlna",
"comment_text": [
"Existence. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmxwlp",
"comment_text": [
"Maybe they could have glands which would concentrate alcohol from their gut which could be spat in a cloud to irritate and incapacitate their foes. When hunted or attacked at night (during the day they hide in caves) or in their dark caves, primitive man would be... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdn0z3f",
"comment_text": [
"Most likely it would have to be a simple hydrocarbon compound that could be stored as a liquid (and be safe), but when expelled through the mouth would vaporize and be much easier to combust. Other than that, they'd need an ignition source. Think some sort of fli... | ||
ELI5: Why doesn't the US have no limit interstate highways? | explainlikeimfive | 1rg8y4 | 3 | true | false | 0.72 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmxgxz",
"comment_text": [
"Because Germany treats their population like adults who can be trusted, which they are in return. The States treat the population like children who can't be trusted, which they are in return. And American cars aren't safe enough to drive that way. Just saying..."... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmxqr9",
"comment_text": [
"While I'm no expert on this, I did see a documentary on the autobahn. It was fascinating all of the technology and money put into it. It costs a lot, and you have to pay to use it. I think the biggest reason we don't have one is because we can't afford to make on... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmxrh8",
"comment_text": [
"Germany's autobahns were first built by the National Socialists (Hitler) in the 30's and 40's. The standards were very high and included features like wide shoulders (for safely stopping), limited on-ramps with graded entry, and sloped curves for high speed corn... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmyfo6",
"comment_text": [
"and you have to pay to use it",
"What do you mean?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdncdq2",
"comment_text": [
"I thought they said in the documentary to use certain portions of it you had to have a permit, or pay a fee or something. Maybe it's just in the form of higher taxes. I don't really know. Google it!"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why does an iPad generate hardly any heat whereas a laptop requires multiple cooling fans? | explainlikeimfive | 1rbhka | 7 | true | false | 0.65 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlih6q",
"comment_text": [
"Computers are much more capable than an iPad. Their processors are much more powerful.",
"The smooth performance of an iPad is due to the programmers and manufacturers being very careful about what they make or allow the iPad to do, rather than a large amount... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlk0lq",
"comment_text": [
"The emphasis on 'older'. The hardware inside the older equipment is far less efficient than modern hardware."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdllg6i",
"comment_text": [
"It's implied"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdllg6i",
"comment_text": [
"It's implied"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdli0cq",
"comment_text": [
"The iPad is basically like a giant phone as opposed to a small computer.",
"That means that the chips inside the iPad are lower power and produce less heat, just like in a phone. The heat that the chips do produce can adequately be got rid of using a heatsink... | |
ELI5: why do Americans, when citing a date, go month/day/year instead of day/month/year like others? | explainlikeimfive | 1rbjtu | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlj4b9",
"comment_text": [
"I think it's more regional than national, or even professional. Everything in the military is either year-month-day (20131123) or writtien out day month year ( 23 November 2013). Imperial was often considered easier to use, and implemented by the French who saved... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdljfpn",
"comment_text": [
"Imperial was often considered easier to use, and implemented by the French who saved our asses during the revolution. An added \"up yours\" to the Brits (who used metric), then France flopped (big surprise) and went metric with the rest of Europe",
"Um, you g... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdliru4",
"comment_text": [
"See where I'm from we say it's the 23rd (or 24th right now where I am) of November. So the question still remains!"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlj8jq",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah it's interesting because we use the metric system but still refer to our personal heights in feet and inches. I tell people I'm 6 ft 2, not 187 cm"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlj9ro",
"comment_text": [
"then again the military is really retarded about it. distance is metric, weight is imperial... hardware is metric."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: What power does having your Bank Account and Routing number give someone? | explainlikeimfive | 1rbjqn | 1 | true | false | 1 | Does this give the holder the ability to make deposits and withdrawals from your account? Just withdrawals? Sign up for services in your name? I'm setting up a payment middle man service and I want to know what reasons are someone would be hesitant to give up their information, and ways that I can allay their concerns ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlimt4",
"comment_text": [
"You can tell them that anyone who has seen a check of their's has this information already, if that will help. I know that isn't necessarily explaining like you are five, but maybe!"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlirap",
"comment_text": [
"Yep, right there on a void cheque plain as day. (That's why people would ever want a void cheque.)",
"It allows deposits into the account because that's the info you need to tell a bank what you're depositing into. It grants no authority to withdraw. It's lik... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlis3g",
"comment_text": [
"Well technically you could set up an online ACH payment with it. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlizjz",
"comment_text": [
"It is possible to set up automated payments with just this information. Jeremy Clarkson (top gear) printed his Bank Account and Sorting Code in a national newspaper, making fun out of people who are nervous about disclosing it, and someone signed him up to make p... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdljj24",
"comment_text": [
"It is kind of frightening to realize that your bank account is only as safe as ",
" -- you are relying on them to keep your account information safe. Likewise, you debit card information is only as safe as ",
". When you think about it that way, it's a ... | |
ELI5: Why do some of us loose the ability to remember our dreams? (or dream at all, whichever it is) | explainlikeimfive | 1rbmvh | 2 | true | false | 0.6 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdljvwy",
"comment_text": [
"Everybody dreams, but most people only remember the most vivid ones. The rest are forgotten as you're waking up. It's actually possible to train yourself to remember more dreams, but it takes some time and effort. There are tons of guides to remembering more drea... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlkoex",
"comment_text": [
"As much as I'd like to, I don't have a hard scientific answer for you, though perhaps somebody out there does. Perhaps dreams are a way for the brain to make new connections and parse new experiences, and as we get older we simply don't need them as much because ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlkqyb",
"comment_text": [
"Some of the higher faculties of our brain simply are not ON as it were, when we are dreaming. Our hippocampus - the memory system that pertains to short-term memory is turned off during our sleep, so if we are not awake when we have the dream, the very impression... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlkbvx",
"comment_text": [
"But why do we forget? It seems as children, we remember our dreams (and especially nightmares) almost nightly, but as we get older, that ability fades. Whats stopping us from remembering?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdll58r",
"comment_text": [
"Most of your dreams happen during an unbroken stretch of sleep. These dreams get forgotten. If you wake up during a dream, then you remember it."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5:How does sex work.. | explainlikeimfive | 1rc8lr | 0 | true | true | 0.42 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlqpqr",
"comment_text": [
"OP is actually 5, and props for learning to use reddit at such a tender age. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlqydl",
"comment_text": [
"OK like you're 5. Sex is just what we call special mommy and daddy hugs.... for a serious answer try your parents, then for the real answer go to ",
"/r/sex",
" "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlqxp9",
"comment_text": [
"But only on Tuesday."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlqn3n",
"comment_text": [
"With your big toe"
],
"score": 0
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlqozl",
"comment_text": [
"On the third Thursday of the month"
],
"score": 0
} | |
ELI5: Why can I usually hear when a person is black, without seeing them (phone calls or radio etc). And I don't mean accents. | explainlikeimfive | 1rcbrz | 16 | true | false | 0.66 | Maybe it is an accent, and I'm just not aware I'm detecting it. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlsdny",
"comment_text": [
"There can be a very slight innate difference from race to race, but it's more to do with culture and accent than physiology - although physiology can sometimes play a part. However most likely if you heard a black guy who was, say, dutch or portuguese, you wouldn... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlvpda",
"comment_text": [
"I have approved this submission despite it being reported. Please keep racism to yourselves and I suggest you cite sources when possible. We are watching this thread closely."
],
"score": 12
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdltd56",
"comment_text": [
"I can posit an answer to this from a singing perspective, but please keep in mind that it is a massive generalization and there are plenty of exceptions to the 'rule'. ",
"Black singers tend to have particular muscle groups that are stronger or are used more/... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdltbh8",
"comment_text": [
"It's very possible you have confirmation bias here, you're only remembering the times you were right."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlvomt",
"comment_text": [
"Yes. Also Samurai Jack."
],
"score": 4
} | |
ELI5:Why evolutionarily wise aren't humans born with the ability to go through puberty? | explainlikeimfive | 1rbzwd | 4 | true | false | 0.66 | What in out evolution made it an advantage to not be fertile, until we go through puberty? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlnyhg",
"comment_text": [
"Questions like this are common and responses should always be read with the understanding that linking any particular behavior to evolutionary fitness is informed guesswork at best and very often simply pure speculation.",
"Bearing children and participating ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlnz9m",
"comment_text": [
"I am not sure there is a settled explanation for this in the scientific community, but here's an explanation I once heard, ELI5'd:",
"Humans are social animals. At birth we are very vulnerable and extremely dependent on the care of our parents. Birth itself ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlp21i",
"comment_text": [
"All mammals go through puberty. The reason for most is simply nutrition. When the animal is growing, the body wants to focus all the calories on reaching full size and maintaining living. Once full size has been reached calories can go into reproductive needs. It... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm6emo",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks!"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlnsci",
"comment_text": [
"It's possible it's just the way we develop. Not everything has an evolutionary reason."
],
"score": -1
} | |
ELI5: What is "left" and "right" in politics? | explainlikeimfive | 1rce2q | 2 | true | false | 0.6 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdls9sy",
"comment_text": [
"Nonsense.",
"Left is liberal/progressive. Right is conservative. That's what the terms mean. ",
"It comes from France where those supporting the Monarch (BIG GOVERNMENT) sat on the right side of Parliament. Those supporting change sat on the left side... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdls9hg",
"comment_text": [
"In addition to the other comments, the terms \"left\" and \"right\" originate from the seating of various representatives in the ",
"French parliament",
" just before the Revolution."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlsdof",
"comment_text": [
"Because what is progressive in one country is old hat in another. ",
"Quite a lot of conservative parties in Western countries have joked that if they moved to the US they'd have to join the Democrats to still have the same policies. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlsdda",
"comment_text": [
"At least in the US, one saying we have is that Democrats want to regulate you economically, Republicans want to regulate you morally. Big government means different things to different people.",
"We have a 3rd party, and while it's the biggest one it still us... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlsdda",
"comment_text": [
"At least in the US, one saying we have is that Democrats want to regulate you economically, Republicans want to regulate you morally. Big government means different things to different people.",
"We have a 3rd party, and while it's the biggest one it still us... | |
ELI5 what are the four fundamental forces of nature | explainlikeimfive | 1rcfti | 0 | true | false | 0.33 | What are they specifically? Also what exactly is a force? Why am I being downvoted for this? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlsnqq",
"comment_text": [
"Gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force.",
"A force is the interaction between objects or particles in such a way that they can exchange attributes such as momentum and energy. Forces are explained by assuming there is a ",
" t... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlsnv7",
"comment_text": [
"Of those gravity is the weakest by far. We're talking a lot weaker. Not just a little. It's crazily weaker. On the order of bajillions of times weaker. ",
"Force is something that causes things to undergo change. For instance, gravity causes spacetime t... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlsthp",
"comment_text": [
"Gravity you're familiar with. EM you can see when you play with magnets or listen to the radio. The other two just make matter stick together & aren't really things you can actively see outside of a lab."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlsodr",
"comment_text": [
"What does EM stand for? ",
"Also what is the difference between strong and weak nuclear?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlspaj",
"comment_text": [
"Electromagnetism",
"The strong binds the nucleus of an atom together. It's the strongest of the 4 forces but only acts over a short distance. This is why larger elements tend to decay rapidly due to the short distance at which it acts. ",
"The weak nucl... | |
ELI5: How come my phone can alert me to a Facebook message before I see it even when I am browsing from a computer? Why is there such a lag time? | explainlikeimfive | 1rcgq3 | 1 | true | false | 1 | I recently noticed that my phone would sometimes alert me that I got a message even before I get it even while actively browsing Facebook. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlt0eg",
"comment_text": [
"When you're browsing facebook, or any other site for that matter, there is no continuously opened connection or pipe, to facebook's servers.\nAs such, the way in which the browser knows that you had a new message is by continuously \"polling\" the facebook server... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlw478",
"comment_text": [
"IIRC phones also support push messages, this basically means that they are constantly connected with the server and if a server has news for the client is notified that some information has changed and it request the new information. ",
"Think of it as a str... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm1egu",
"comment_text": [
"It doesn't matter. Even if they support push messages, the whole communication happens via http protocol which limits some things. Sure, someone could do certain tricks, but I highly doubt that we're talking about push messages."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9w45",
"comment_text": [
"What is \"push message\" ?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdnh7j3",
"comment_text": [
"There is a server, and there is a client that need to communicate; When browsing facebook, the client is your browser, and the server is, well, facebook's server.\nPoll is when the client (browser) asks the server repeatedly for updates; push is when the server t... | |
ELI5: Why do we like our alcohol cold? | explainlikeimfive | 1rcpim | 1 | true | false | 0.66 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlvup8",
"comment_text": [
"The British love their beer warm. When rating foreign beers they quite often rate them poorly if they need to be chilled to taste better. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm27zu",
"comment_text": [
"Between 11 and 13 degrees, actually. Not coming round to yours for tea, if that's room temperature, old bean!"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm3lx3",
"comment_text": [
"I stand corrected. Cellar Temperature not room temperature, and, my tea is made with boiling water, and served in a proper mug I'll have you know, "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlxbsk",
"comment_text": [
"A cold beer is much more refreshing than a room-temperature one. And cheaper beers (",
"budweiser",
") get a funky taste when they approach room temperature."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm26mv",
"comment_text": [
"CO₁ (that's carbon dioxide, a gas, since this is ELI5) dissolves differently in different temperatures of liquid. Some alcoholic drinks (mostly beers and ciders) taste their best with the right amount of CO₂ dissolved in them, so are usually served at that temper... | ||
ELI5: Why do humans, in moments of great concentration, often contort their mouths and tongues? | explainlikeimfive | 1rcpj0 | 113 | true | false | 0.79 | You often see it in musicians, or people doing mentally-intensive tasks or concentration, where people will contort/move their mouth and tongue, not on purpose. There's even a common "phrase" (which may be a more rural or "southern" phrase) of "You weren't holding your mouth right" Why does this happen? Does it increas... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdly59o",
"comment_text": [
"actually, back in high school my physics teacher read to us from a book by some physics guy. This particular bit of book was about sticking your tongue out as a form of non-verbal communication. There was a series of experiments which supported the theory that st... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm0cpw",
"comment_text": [
"So you are saying that Walter White just doesn't give a single fuck about anything anyone has ever said to him?"
],
"score": 19
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdly1f9",
"comment_text": [
"It has to do with the brains connection between control and muscle control. I do it when I'm mad at something like the remote and beating it up against something else, when I have the urge to squeeze something that's cute and when I'm concentrating. The brain mak... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlxzct",
"comment_text": [
"Because he essentially said, \"I am not an expert in this subject and didn't bother to do any research for you, but it sure sounds good, right?\" with that last sentence."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlysc5",
"comment_text": [
"It's one of the rules of the sub:"
],
"score": 6
} | |
ELI5: Autographs or "Why do people want the signature of popular people?" | explainlikeimfive | 1rciyy | 1 | true | false | 0.57 | I never really understood it. What does it gain them? Is it just some kind of proof that you actually saw $person? Why not just take a picture? Also why do popular people scribble something onto random objects? Is it just enforced by their managers? Are there popular people that don't do that but are in a group that us... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdltuo4",
"comment_text": [
"People used to try to get autographs on random items. But today, people rather take pictures with celebrities. If they get autographs, then it's on particular items, like the CD of the celebrity or the jersey of the player."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdltwbk",
"comment_text": [
"oh, right. Never made the connection between those two things. That'd also explain why I never saw the sense in getting an autograph...I've no 'hero' or 'role model'."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdltoav",
"comment_text": [
"I've never understood it either, but it seems like it's just for proof that you've met them.",
"Either that or sell them, autographed stuff fetches a pretty good price in the right circles."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdltofe",
"comment_text": [
"It sort of a keepsake and people tend to glorify musicians and celebrities. They want to be like them or look up to them. Alot of people don't really look up to politicians or want to be politicians. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdltzgb",
"comment_text": [
"Also don't forget monetary value. Some people get autographs to sell them. Also managers of musicians gets them to sign something like a guitar or a t shirt and give it away as a prize."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: How does nuclear fuel work and how does it turn into stuff that can harm us? | explainlikeimfive | 1rcyn9 | 3 | true | false | 1 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlyitu",
"comment_text": [
"Nuclear material is very very hot. ",
"Nuclear material heats up water around it. ",
"Hot water turns into steam",
"Hot steam is diverted to a turbine.",
"Turbine produces power (by spinning a mgnet round coils of wire)",
"Nuclear material pro... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlzd9k",
"comment_text": [
"It happens all the time regardless, the core is just where it is increased to usable levels. Those rods pictured are spent, they are just being stored until they can be disposed of. Their supply of unstable atoms has been depleted to the level where they aren't r... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlzd9k",
"comment_text": [
"It happens all the time regardless, the core is just where it is increased to usable levels. Those rods pictured are spent, they are just being stored until they can be disposed of. Their supply of unstable atoms has been depleted to the level where they aren't r... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlyvog",
"comment_text": [
"Does nuclear fission occur inside the fuel rods?",
"Yep.",
"If it does, how does it occur inside there?",
"Nuclear fission is when an atom splits into more than one piece. The fuel rods contain an element that is unstable, and prone to spontaneously s... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlyvog",
"comment_text": [
"Does nuclear fission occur inside the fuel rods?",
"Yep.",
"If it does, how does it occur inside there?",
"Nuclear fission is when an atom splits into more than one piece. The fuel rods contain an element that is unstable, and prone to spontaneously s... | |
ELI5: How did Humans evolve to such a high level in a relatively short amount of time, and no other species? | explainlikeimfive | 1rczau | 2 | true | false | 0.75 | Like... why aren't there really intelligent bears, too? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlys55",
"comment_text": [
"A common misconception about evolution is that is has a goal or direction. That humans are the \"best\" species or that there could even be a best species - there isn't. Moreover other species are not trying to become more human. ",
"Intelligence is not the b... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlynx3",
"comment_text": [
"Evolution doesn't have \"levels\", it just has features that aid survival. Intelligence happens to be something that helps us, but what would a really smart bear do with that? Make a spear with bear paws? Our ancestor species benefitted from being more and more i... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm0qsg",
"comment_text": [
"Male peacocks don't really need those tails to survive. Female peacocks just preferred them. Sometimes traits will evolve even if they don't necessarily increase the odds of survival. ",
"I'm not saying art, music, etc. are only there as ways to attract mates... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlzalq",
"comment_text": [
"Probably just time. Our particular brand of tool-using primate has been around for 200,000 years and we only really took off in technology in the last 10,000 years. Primitive ancestors of man were probably experimenting with tools and fire even earlier than 200k ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlzaza",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not trying to say animals aren't doing a great job at what they do. I understand they do not need the intelligence level of humans to survive. Then again, do humans need art, or music, or consciousness to survive?"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: How did black people evolve to be faster runners, white people evolve to be smarter, etc? | explainlikeimfive | 1rd0fh | 0 | true | false | 0.32 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlyv6w",
"comment_text": [
"We are all the same. Your just a racist asshole. White people like myself are of the same intelligence as black people. Asking questions like this only ensures progress is stalled. "
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlz06t",
"comment_text": [
"Lmao why aren't we all the same. We are, there's ridiculously fast white people and ridiculously smart black people. Though you, you are as dumb as a rock. Please adapt or remove yourself from the gene pool"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlyyqm",
"comment_text": [
"Don't feed the trolls, downvote & move on."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlz74t",
"comment_text": [
"I know! I don't understand why it's not okay that black people are faster runners. If we say that a species of deer runs faster than another, everybody just accepts it and moves on. But the same phenomenon with people? Oh no, totally impossible!"
],
"score": ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlyxy1",
"comment_text": [
"No kidding hey. Hate people like him"
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: How is Dr. Krieger a genetic clone of Adolf Hitler? | explainlikeimfive | 1rd1kk | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | I never understood that episode. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlze3t",
"comment_text": [
"It's a reference to the movie The Boys from Brazil. Haven't watched it myself, but I hear it's a great movie."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmchh6",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks, watching it now. It's on Netflix. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmcllh",
"comment_text": [
"Nice"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlzhkp",
"comment_text": [
"It's a reference to the movie \"The Boys From Brazil\" that's why they also make reference to Portuguese. The broad strokes of the movie is that Nazi scientists created clones of Hitler all around the world but they would be children so the scientists would have... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlzhbj",
"comment_text": [
"/r/AskScienceFiction",
"...and you might want to include something about where this is from"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5:Why Schrödinger's cat needs to be observed, and why someone/thing needs to be observing everything around us? | explainlikeimfive | 1rdonn | 3 | true | false | 0.81 | Even a wiki page would be great, I just wouldnt know where to begin. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm71cf",
"comment_text": [
"It is a bit different than that. In normal physics, when you don't measure something you don't know the value of whatever it was that you did not measure.",
"When you ",
" decide to measure the value (you ",
") you find one single value. You deduce th... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmc6x2",
"comment_text": [
"The shortest possible explanation is that on uber small scales things work in ways such that for all we know they have no absolute value, but are based on statistical spreads of many possible ones. However, they obviously progress forward through time with the as... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9fu2",
"comment_text": [
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" ",
" "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm6npc",
"comment_text": [
"Quantum physics is... odd in that everything is defined from the point of view of an observer. Without an observer you cannot be certain of the state of a system, and by observing the state you actually change it from this uncertainty into whatever you observe, ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9fma",
"comment_text": [
"Quantum physics, ELI5 - style: ",
"Dr. Quantum!"
],
"score": 0
} | |
From an economic stand point, what does it mean that the US dollar is the world currency reserve? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9epe | 1 | true | false | 0.57 | I mean, I don't get it. The dollar (like most currencies are today) is a fiat currency. It's not backed by anything, it's just a piece of paper that we choose to believe is worth something. Why do countries have a reserve of money that isn't even their own countries currency, but instead they use the US dollar? Why the... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkwr53",
"comment_text": [
"People hold US currency reserves because they are confident others will want US currency in trade in the future. This keeps demand for US dollars high, which allows the US to get more foreign currency in trade."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkwun3",
"comment_text": [
"They could, but people are less confident their trading parter will want yuan. Everyone wants dollars."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkwtaj",
"comment_text": [
"But why the dollar? I mean, couldn't they theoretically use any other currency and just trade using the exchange rate? So if one dollar is worth six yuans, why can't a country just buy a million dollars worth of minerals, using 6 million yuans?"
],
"score": 1... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkx6bl",
"comment_text": [
"Why do countries have a reserve of money that isn't even their own countries currency, but instead they use the US dollar? ",
"Historical prescient, while the Bretton Woods system was in effect the US was the official reserve currency for everyone (so two tra... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkzlqt",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks."
],
"score": 1
} | |
How do our bodies store information about diseases we've overcome, i.e., how do we stay immune to stuff decades after we've had a disease? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9g62 | 1 | true | false | 1 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkxan6",
"comment_text": [
"Your white blood cells make proteins called \"antibodies.\" Antibodies are very specially shaped to match specific foreign objects.",
"The antibody binds to the \"bad\" bacteria/virus, and the white blood cells try to fight and kill anything that the antibody... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkzaol",
"comment_text": [
"No idea. They didn't cover that in BIO-107."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlea8g",
"comment_text": [
"Antibodies are produced by B-cells, which exist in two forms: plasma cells to actually crank out the antibodies, and memory B-cells which float around for decades waiting for a target. You were completely accurate to posit that each cell makes 1 kind of antibody ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkxjy4",
"comment_text": [
"Great explanation. Could you also expand a little on how the specialized cells produce antibodies for an illness not yet encountered? Let's call these cells A-cells and for the sake of this question let's assume, each kind of A-cell produces 1 kind of antibody wh... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkx7n0",
"comment_text": [
"We develop antibodies from having the disease or from vaccines. "
],
"score": 0
} | ||
ELI5: How to burn movies using an Apple. | explainlikeimfive | 1r9hd5 | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkxo9n",
"comment_text": [
"I think a 5 yo would have a lot of trouble trying to understand this"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl0obh",
"comment_text": [
"What kind of movies? Movies you've made yourself or actual Hollywood movies? "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl6a7s",
"comment_text": [
"Hollywood movies."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlg7h8",
"comment_text": [
"So you have store-bought DVDs and you want to copy them?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkz4we",
"comment_text": [
"First question to ask: Does your Macbook Pro have a disc drive that you can insert DVDs into? If the answer is yes, go to A. If the answer is no, go to B.",
"A. Determine if the disc drive you have can burn DVDs. If it can burn DVDs (which it probably can, if... | |
ELI5: Why do wet items dry faster when air is blowing over them? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9jpw | 1 | true | false | 1 | Lets say I was 5. I wet the bed and now I need to dry my bed. I left it alone for 8+ hours while I was working in hopes that it would dry itself. I came home and it was still wet. I now put a fan blowing over the top of it and it dries within a few hours before I need to go to bed. It smells like piss now in my house b... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdky69u",
"comment_text": [
"Water goes into solution in air. Since air is drier than your clothing items, water is passed into the drier air. Since the air is moving, this wetter air moves away, drier air takes its place.",
"Repeat as required."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkycjx",
"comment_text": [
"To kind of add onto this, it's similar (in a way) to two items of different temperatures trying to find a balance between the two. If you put a 100 degree item next to a 0 degree item, all other things and variables being equal, they would try to find a balance ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkyrb8",
"comment_text": [
"There is a balance between water vapor and dry air; the ratio between the two is the relative humidity. The lower the initial relative humidity, the more water that can be absorbed. Moving air means that the high humidity air is moved away and is replaced by dry ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkzhbo",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks! Any suggestions how to get piss smell out of a bed?"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkzk10",
"comment_text": [
"Baking soda!"
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: My fellow Americans, how are we not f*cked? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9lvz | 0 | true | false | 0.43 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkz9pu",
"comment_text": [
"Because most of those numbers don't ",
" anything. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkzj6u",
"comment_text": [
"Idk why you are being downvoted... this is accurate information, albeit a bit generalized, but still accurate!"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkz2t5",
"comment_text": [
"Because we're still the most economically powerful country on the planet and as the expression goes \"when america catches a cold, the rest of the world sneezes\"",
"I'm not saying the debt is good, but the rest of the developed world has a vested interest in... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkzs8o",
"comment_text": [
"Eh, i don't really care. It was a low effort response to a low effort question. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkz0wb",
"comment_text": [
"Because no one is going to do anything about it. Also, that's honestly not that much money when you look at what we spend per day on our military."
],
"score": 0
} | ||
ELI5:What is Bitcoin and why do people think it will actually succeed | explainlikeimfive | 1r9r38 | 0 | true | false | 0.48 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl0m3m",
"comment_text": [
"The first part of your question (and maybe the second part) can easily be found by using the search bar and looking up bitcoin: ",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=bitcoin&sort=relevance&restrict_sr=on&t=all"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlepv8",
"comment_text": [
"i didnt even fucking reply you cunt"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlfdk3",
"comment_text": [
"And yet...."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlqest",
"comment_text": [
"and yet you're so desperate for attention, why the fuck are you even mentioning gold? I don't give a shit about your meaningless internet points"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl0wh8",
"comment_text": [
"Cool story, now how does that create a dialogue of clarification?",
"You know, the whole point of CMV?"
],
"score": -1
} | ||
ELI5: If i cut my finger and suck the blood out, what am i actually doing? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9rs7 | 2 | true | false | 1 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl0shk",
"comment_text": [
"If you'd severed an artery the high pressure spraying blood across the room with every heart beat is going to do that for you."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl0oqx",
"comment_text": [
"Creating a vacuum that pulls a little blood out of your vein/artery and into your mouth. A benefit in doing so is that it removes some bacteria and helps a bit with preventing infection: 'flushing' the wound, as it were."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl190f",
"comment_text": [
"Well, yeah you're right, there is that. That would be the 'put pressure on it' one..."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl0qo9",
"comment_text": [
"Stopping the blood from dripping onto your clothes/desk/pets. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl0ryh",
"comment_text": [
"Putting pressure onto the wound. The brain has trouble feeling pain and pressure from the same location and will prioritise the feeling of pressure over pain. Squeezing a boo boo or sucking on it forces your brain to somewhat ignore the pain. Obviously if you'v... | ||
ELI5: When I visited London, I saw properties for "sale" with 999 year "leases". How does this system work? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9w7a | 3 | true | false | 0.81 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl2uss",
"comment_text": [
"Properties in Britain tend to be either Leasehold or Freehold (or others that are less common).\nWhen you buy a property 'Freehold', you are buying the house and the land underneath it",
"When you buy 'Leasehold' you are buying the house but only renting the ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl4486",
"comment_text": [
"There are a few different sorts of legal ownership of land: freehold, leasehold, cross-lease (amongst others).",
"I believe that the London 999-year lease is ",
", although in my country anyway, all of the ownership types include a lease term.",
"(Re... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl1xos",
"comment_text": [
"Same here. Very curious. ",
"The \"Black's for rent\" was also rather funny, and not at all."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl1xrj",
"comment_text": [
"after 999 years, you give it back"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl2bxq",
"comment_text": [
"I believe this is a system based on a loophole preventing sale, or in some way causing great difficulty with outright sale. The lease is typically considered an outright sale. The one put the property up for lease may often fail to bequeath the property along a g... | |
ELI5: What really happens during Deja Vu and why does it really feel like it has happened before? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9tri | 5 | true | false | 0.78 | I tend to get Deja Vu on a regular basis. When it happens, the feeling is extremely vivid. It isn't just what I saw but also what I am currently doing, seeing, thinking, feeling, etc. Almost like all my senses have experienced it before. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl1r1g",
"comment_text": [
"Vsauce did a great video on this you should ",
"check it out.",
" "
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl2s77",
"comment_text": [
"TED-Ed also has a good video on deja-vu: ",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foVMwJtlR5s"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlbisv",
"comment_text": [
"It's caused by a glitch in the Matrix."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl1ikm",
"comment_text": [
"I remember reading that Deja Vu occurs when your brain receives a visual cue, such as the color of a car, and then while sending that message to a part of the brain where images are translated into the things we see, it loses it and then the brain tries to rematc... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl1olj",
"comment_text": [
"Déjà vu -may be the result of a neural misfiring, during which neurons in the brain transmit signals at random and cause healthy people to experience a false sense of remembered familiarity. ",
"Basically the brain chokes, placing a memory file into the wrong... | |
ELI5: Why can't the US military defeat the Taliban? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9xxa | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl2ybh",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not here to argue politics man. And you're complaining about the money we spend and then ask why we don't use more. It's not like we're just hanging out over there. We ",
" capturing and killing them. My comment about joining the military was because appa... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl2ybh",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not here to argue politics man. And you're complaining about the money we spend and then ask why we don't use more. It's not like we're just hanging out over there. We ",
" capturing and killing them. My comment about joining the military was because appa... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl2h17",
"comment_text": [
"An enemy hiding amongst innocents is a rough battle. We ",
" defeating them when it comes to combat. Think about Vietnam. We won most battles. Look at our \"K/D\" spread of that war. We didn't pull out because we were failing in combat. We pulled out because ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl2pvk",
"comment_text": [
"You act like we are using our nukes and all our resources. Yes, it is hard when the enemy is not uniformed. If you want answers. Join the military and get deployed. War with guerilla fighters is a bitch when you don't want to level every single village and city. ... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl2pvk",
"comment_text": [
"You act like we are using our nukes and all our resources. Yes, it is hard when the enemy is not uniformed. If you want answers. Join the military and get deployed. War with guerilla fighters is a bitch when you don't want to level every single village and city. ... | |
ELI5: How has Toronto's mayor managed to stay in power? | explainlikeimfive | 1ra0ar | 6 | true | false | 0.75 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl34xk",
"comment_text": [
"He is not a convicted felon and we cannot impeach, so he stays in position, we can and have taken away his powers, so he's just kinda sitting there. "
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl4r97",
"comment_text": [
"I don't see why he shouldn't be mayor? He seems like the kind of guy I would want to be the mayor of my city."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl70th",
"comment_text": [
"don't forget that for the most part he's been doing a good job as a mayor (atleast from what i've read)"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl7nfk",
"comment_text": [
"cause he saves me money"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl35bf",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks!"
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: If Daylight Savings time is supposed to give us more daylight after work in the summer, why bother switching our clocks back for the winter? | explainlikeimfive | 1r9zyw | 2 | true | false | 0.75 | The only thing switching our clocks back in the winter accomplishes is providing more daylight in the morning and less in the evening. Why does the rationale that people prefer daylight in the evening than in the morning only apply during the summer? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl34ex",
"comment_text": [
"The problem is that there's less daylight overall in the winter. If you don't set the clocks back, by January you'd have some places where the sun didn't rise until 9am."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl39q5",
"comment_text": [
"In your example, why is sunlight at 8:50am useful and sunlight at 5:30pm not? They seem roughly the same amount of usefulness to me, assuming a 9-5 job. 10 minutes before work vs 30 minutes after. If we assume 8-5, like you are suggesting, then clearly sun at 5:3... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl3674",
"comment_text": [
"Why does that matter? In those places, the sun is setting really early, too, and by setting the clocks back then the sun sets even earlier. I think most people would agree that they would rather have the sun set later in the day than rise earlier in the day, henc... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl38df",
"comment_text": [
"Source: I live in Edmonton.",
"In Edmonton, on Jaunurary 1st, the sun will rise at 8:50am, and set at 4:25pm.",
"If daylight saving time were left in effect, then the sun would rise at 9:50am, and set at 5:25pm.",
"So you'd still get no useful extra d... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl3ewc",
"comment_text": [
"Daylight Savings Time was started during the war so that people could have more working hours without having to change the 'time' they did stuff. But they never stopped it afterwards. \nWhat would make more sense is for the time to stay as it is, and businesses t... | |
ELI5: Why is coffee described as a drug? | explainlikeimfive | 1ra4z5 | 2 | true | false | 0.75 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl4dp3",
"comment_text": [
"It's a drug because it causes an effect in the body. The active ingredient in coffee is caffeine which has a stimulant effect on the central nervous system. ",
"Coffee is the most widely consumed drug on the planet. "
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl63mq",
"comment_text": [
"The first line of the wikipedia page is a good start ",
"A drug is a substance which may have medicinal, intoxicating, performance enhancing or other effects when taken or put into a human body or the body of another animal and is not considered a food or exc... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlm6h1",
"comment_text": [
"If coffee isn't a drug, an ounce of weed isn't a drug either."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlm5rf",
"comment_text": [
"Pretty sure that would be tea."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl636y",
"comment_text": [
"It's actually addictive, in a medical sense. "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What made Gandhi so famous? | explainlikeimfive | 1ra1hq | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl3y14",
"comment_text": [
"In one word, resilience.",
"His method of protest was one that could not be subdued by conventional means. In a world plagued with violent wars which were seen as the most convenient solutions to issues, Gandhi stood out."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl3ikq",
"comment_text": [
"He led a non-violent civil protest for India's independence from the British."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl3jgx",
"comment_text": [
"And is probably the nicest racist to have ever lived. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl3nyc",
"comment_text": [
"Oh, I'm not familiar with his racism in detail. You should probably ask someone who's studied it. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl4wr1",
"comment_text": [
"He followed a unique system of non violent protests which he called \"satyagraha\"."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
What do companies do with our used products when we exchange them? | explainlikeimfive | 1ra8eh | 1 | true | false | 1 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl5eyj",
"comment_text": [
"they either refurbish them and use them for warranty exchanges or destroy them."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl5oi2",
"comment_text": [
"If they destroy them, why don't they just re-sell them at low price instead? I mean, they would lose less money that way.."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl5rrz",
"comment_text": [
"It's cheaper to destroy them then it is to pay someone to re pack the thing and to hire someone to sell it."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl8ta3",
"comment_text": [
"eh, you can only sell a refurb for so much, and (lets take an iphone) if you have to replace the screen, the case, the battery, and the audio jack, you're going to spend more money to refurb that unit than you'd get back from selling a refurb, so it makes no sens... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlm463",
"comment_text": [
"That's what it means to 'refurbish' it. They fix simple problems, repack them and ship them out again. Apple tries to save most of these for warranty replacements.",
"Part of what you buy when you buy an Apple product is the prestige of having a new, shiny ... | |
ELI5: Would it be possible to stab and kill someone with an icicle, leaving behind no trace of a murder weapon? | explainlikeimfive | 1rabji | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl68pv",
"comment_text": [
"Provided you found the right naturally formed icicle, yes.",
"Making a molded weapon out of ice wouldn't make much sense, because then you'd have the same problem with the mold that you would with a murder weapon.",
"There are practical problems with usin... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl6pdw",
"comment_text": [
"In can see you've thought about this. I applaud your thoroughness!"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl6squ",
"comment_text": [
"Very well thought out! I was just curious because on Tumblr and Twitter people kept talking about \"Oh, if you want to get away with murder just kill someone with an icicle!\" and I wasn't sure if that was actually possible."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl6z62",
"comment_text": [
"First off, why would you want to murder someone in the first place? I sincerely hope that the only reason people aren't murdering each other isn't because they think they'd get caught.",
"Anyway, the murder weapon is not the only consideration law enforcemen... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl92wf",
"comment_text": [
"Err, thanks... But I think you hugely misinterpreted my question and this definitely wasn't the answer I was looking for lol"
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: What happens during a CPR? | explainlikeimfive | 1rac7q | 2 | true | false | 0.6 | What is happening to a patient during CPR? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl6b90",
"comment_text": [
"You pump the heart manually, sending oxygenated blood through the body, delaying cell death until an AED or other advanced medical personnel. That's why it's just as important to breathe for them every 30 compressions. \nSource: Emergency Medical Responder"
],
... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl75mx",
"comment_text": [
"They now teach just compressions for First Aid."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl8d3e",
"comment_text": [
"Also, people suck at giving breaths. They take too long, don't deliver it that effectively, and it really doesn't do that much, as the body often retains ~8-10 minutes of oxygen in the body before biological death occurs.",
"Studies have shown that continuing... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl7mqm",
"comment_text": [
"Because that's what is being taught now. There's some residual oxygen in the body. It's not like they're currently running around using a lot. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl7wtw",
"comment_text": [
"It was explained to me that people are more likely to do compressions on strangers than both and anything is better than nothing."
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5:Why do famous actors/singers make way more money than other people who actually contribute to further developing the world, like engineers or scientists? | explainlikeimfive | 1rahe2 | 0 | true | false | 0.36 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl7tce",
"comment_text": [
"Because the world is unfair. /thread"
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl7p13",
"comment_text": [
"Tens of millions, hundreds of millions, of people will see a movie or listen to a song. And the actor or singer will make more, and more, and more. This makes them quite valuable. ",
"An engineer or a scientist is unlikely to work on as many projects or ma... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlc3sk",
"comment_text": [
"Because the small group of famous actors and singers who make so much money are \"the 1%\" of the artistic world. If you looked at the 1% of engineers and scientists, I'm willing to bet that these people would have even more money than the famous actors. Yet they... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl7sv4",
"comment_text": [
"Supply and demand I suppose.\nMany people are willing to pay good money for seeing or hearing one artist/group, and only that one. A song/movie just as good but under a different group/artist won't do",
"However alot of people is willing to pay for the soluti... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl8atf",
"comment_text": [
"Supply and demand. "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Anything David Blaine does. | explainlikeimfive | 1raqyr | 0 | true | false | 0.38 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlacwx",
"comment_text": [
"magic is not real"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlahoe",
"comment_text": [
"Thats about the best answer I can think of. All elaborate tricks set up in ways that you would find hard to imagine. Watch the \"Dynamo revealed\" vids on youtube if you arent convinced."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlaksf",
"comment_text": [
"is that the skinny english dude?",
"does he do it like chris angel and just pays the audience to pretend to believe?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlatd2",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah it is he has crones disease. Yeah I think he must man. He is smart and totally top of his game but its trickery, this just shows some of the tricks. Awesome to watch"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlbv9z",
"comment_text": [
"Are you sure?"
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why is there a second tidal bulge on Earth opposite of the Moon? | explainlikeimfive | 1ratow | 5 | true | false | 1 | Examples of wrong answers: This guy below breaks everything down and disproves lot of the big name sources' reason on why there is a second bulge. But I can't wrap my head around the reasoning. If you scroll down to the section titled Final Exam at , that is how I'm currently understanding it. But he says: How does th... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlb1je",
"comment_text": [
"The moon is also pulling the earth away from the water on the opposite side."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlc7aj",
"comment_text": [
"Tensile forces just means internal forces that keep the earth roughly rigid. If the earth weren't more rigid than the ocean, the entire earth would stretch due to the tidal forces and the land and sea would rise the same amount so there would be no apparent tide.... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlb4et",
"comment_text": [
"So isn't the entire Earth moved away while the water kinda lags behind."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlbtjt",
"comment_text": [
"There's two good pictures in the ",
"Wikipedia article",
". Basically, the earth is rigid while the oceans are not. Because gravity forces fall off with distance the moon pulls hardest on the parts of earth closest to it, less hard in the middle, and leas... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlbzt6",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah I got that in the ",
"lhup article",
" he states:",
"How does the internal tensile and the gravitational force of the Earth come into play?"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: The way that credit works: From cards; to loans; to APRs | explainlikeimfive | 1rawdq | 3 | true | false | 1 | Please and thank you. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlc02f",
"comment_text": [
"lets start with the basics.",
"a credit card is basically a standing agreement that you can be loaned X amount at any one time, and you can use it anywhere, and if you pay it off you can use it again. a loan is an agreement that you can borrow x amount of mo... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm6qzb",
"comment_text": [
"So in the case that I do not pay my initial credit bill on time before its due, I incure addition fees according to whatever my APR is, is that right?",
"What do you have to say about the minimum payments? How does my APR affect that? ",
"If I were to t... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmem5u",
"comment_text": [
"a late fee is not based on your APR, it is based on your credit card agreement, it's usually $25 or $39, but it completely depends on the bank and your credit card agreement",
"the minimum payment depends and can and can not be effected by your APR. to calcu... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmhs5t",
"comment_text": [
"I thank you so much for all of your knowledge. However I am sttill having a hard time understanding an APR. It seems like interest I would have to pay no matter what. ",
"Aa bettter way to get to the point is by asking this: how do I get out of paying my A... | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmlm3h",
"comment_text": [
"With credit cards if you pay off the full statement balance each month you will not be charged any interest. You'll always pay interest on loans, it's how banks make money."
],
"score": 1
} |
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