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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ELI5: How British is British Petroleum? | explainlikeimfive | 1rb4sf | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | BP is obviously an multinational company that generates billions in revenue. But is it even British? I mean, is it headquartered in the UK? Does its tax commitments flow back to the UK? Does it benefit the UK economy more than other economies? Are most of its Board of Directors British? Things like this. In other words is BP British in only terms of its name nowadays? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlexbr",
"comment_text": [
"Nitpick: ",
" government, not English. That's like referring to the US federal government as the government of Florida or something... "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdle8zi",
"comment_text": [
"BP is headquartered in London. Since it is a massive international company, a ton of people all over the world own shares in it, though the top five shareholders are all American investment corporations of some kind. ",
"http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/bp/institutional-holdings",
"Here is BP's board of directors",
"http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/investors/governance/the-board.html"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm4sa2",
"comment_text": [
"Its only known a BP now, it was changed from British Petroleum in 2001."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlf3u8",
"comment_text": [
"relatively smart person",
"An empty cart rattles loudly. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlg82m",
"comment_text": [
"<-- 25 year-old that launched his own consulting company. the key is knowing what you don't know, thats why i said id take a guess."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What's the difference between a bit and a byte? | explainlikeimfive | 1rb8ae | 0 | true | false | 0.25 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlf7wz",
"comment_text": [
"A bit is the smallest unit, either a single 1 or 0.",
"A byte = 8 bits."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlh191",
"comment_text": [
"Everyone has stated the difference, but nobody has really explained it. The reason that a byte consists of 8 bits is that it takes 8 bits to store one character, making it a much more useful unit of measurement."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlf79m",
"comment_text": [
"A bit is a 0 or a 1, basically the smallest unit of information in binary. One byte is 8 bits."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlgbxv",
"comment_text": [
"The convention now is that a kilobit is 1,000 bits and a kibibit is 1,024 bits.",
"One Tebibit is 1,024 Gibibits."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlf6my",
"comment_text": [
"A byte is 8 bits."
],
"score": 0
} | |
Why cant police forces arrest drug addicts at rehabilitation centers and group meetings for substance abuse? | explainlikeimfive | 1rbdie | 0 | true | false | 0.43 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlgstn",
"comment_text": [
"Then no one would ever get help, plus it's not Illegal to be a drug addict, it's illegal to possess buy and sell drugs."
],
"score": 13
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdljlyy",
"comment_text": [
"That's correct. Barring some situations (age, jurisdiction, operating a motor vehicle, etc.), it's not illegal to be high."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlhpxf",
"comment_text": [
"Why would the police want to prevent people from getting help? If they arrested people at those meetings, then no on would go. Which would ultimately result in ",
" abuse and problems.",
"Besides, the general unspoken philosophy of drug enforcement is that users do tend to deserve treatment more than punishment... law enforcement is interested in putting away the ",
" of the drugs."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlgrit",
"comment_text": [
"in order to arrest someone for a crime, u need to have evidence tying the suspect with the crime.",
"someone going into rehab is no proof that they've commited a crime. you go to rehab for alcoholism just the same for crack or meth. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdlki4p",
"comment_text": [
"What purpose would it serve other than filling up already crowded jails & creating more paperwork?"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why is there more than one energy company? | explainlikeimfive | 1r6ks8 | 0 | true | false | 0.4 | They're all selling exactly the same product. It's not like you can have good and bad quality electricity. So how can there be more than one? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk3os7",
"comment_text": [
"Then you wouldn't have competition in the marketplace, allowing said company to control the prices. That being said there aren't a lot of options in my area, so kinda fucked either way."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk4gng",
"comment_text": [
"Like thndrstrk said, it's about competition or at least the appearance of competition. If you allowed only one company to provide service, they could control the price, effectively charging as much as they want. However, there are market forces (other companies and the government) that prevent this from happening."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk3hmj",
"comment_text": [
"Because monopoly"
],
"score": 0
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkc2h3",
"comment_text": [
"What I meant was one national ",
" provider."
],
"score": 0
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk3ltv",
"comment_text": [
"But surely we could just have one public energy provider. "
],
"score": -1
} | |
ELI5: What is the difference between 50hp with 45ft/lb of torque and 50hp and 60ft/lb of torque? | explainlikeimfive | 1r6wa9 | 1 | true | false | 1 | If I have 2 different motorcycles with the above calibrations but weight is the same what differences will i notice while riding? Faster 0-60? Quicker out of the curve? Quicker acceleration 20-60 in the same gear? Faster acceleration opening it up in top gear? Higher top speed? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk7ke2",
"comment_text": [
"If you'd like to know why it is, its because horsepower is the work an engine can do, which is force applied over a distance. \"distance\" in this case is actually rpm, and force is torque. The actual equation is ",
"HP = (tq in lb/ft) x (rpm) / 5252"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk9gzi",
"comment_text": [
"Horsepower sells cars and torque wins races. Aldo different engines will have different torque curves. I don't believe you can pinpoint the RPM at which this torque and HP peak with actually dyno testing the engine. If you think if your engine as a giant air pump, HP is a measure of how efficiently it can suck in and pump out said air. The torque is a measure of force"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk76ny",
"comment_text": [
"50hp with 45lb/ft of torque will be produced at 5800rpm.",
"50hp with 60lb/ft of torque will be produced at 4400rpm.",
"As you can see, it is likely that the higher torque bike will feel more powerful at lower RPM's, and will probably feel quicker in everyday riding, where RPM's are lower. However, if the rider keeps the RPM's high on the lower torque bike (and assuming both have 60hp max), then the second bike will be almost, if not just, as fast. But it needs to run at a higher RPM to develop that power."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk7etm",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you. That was easily understandable. I was kinda comparing the yamaha virago 750 and the vstar 950. The 750 has slightly more hp but the 950 has much more torque. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk7tgs",
"comment_text": [
"Thats why I'm a mathematics major instead of engineering or physics. "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Can someone easily explain the difference between a clause and a phrase? Grammatically speaking. | explainlikeimfive | 1r6yy7 | 6 | true | false | 0.73 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkaklv",
"comment_text": [
"A phrase is a group of words without a subject doing a verb, e.g. \"typing this phrase\".",
"A clause is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb, e.g. \"while I was typing this clause\"."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl075d",
"comment_text": [
"I thought about your example, \"dog chased\" and I am confused as to why you think it is a phrase. This is sincere, not attacking. As far as I have been taught, read, and learned, a phrase acts as a single unit, such as acting as a noun, acting as a verb, etc. This seems more like a non-grammatical group of words, which is different than an actual \"phrase.\"",
"Again, not attacking - asking for clarification. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl10tr",
"comment_text": [
"I was trying to use your example to point out that the terms and their meanings are what need clarification. In order to understand that a clause requires a predicate and not just a verb you must understand the difference between verb and predicate. I apologize if I came off punchy.I've spent a lot of time tutoring in the area and in my experience a firm understanding of the terms smooths this grammatical stumbling block. I was operating under the assumption that the tenor of the ELI5 subreddit is asking for as straight forward an answer as possible to questions that are often complicated."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkzqxl",
"comment_text": [
"A freshman 101 textbook is hardly a graduate textbook. The copied parts were the examples. ",
"I used the terms subject and a verb because, while not totally accurate, I attempted to simplify it, which I thought was the point of eli5. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkc1yq",
"comment_text": [
"A clause is a syntactic unit (group of word that clearly go together) that contains both a subject and a predicate. A phrase lacks one or the other. It's only confusing because the subject and predicate are usually made up of a noun phrase and a verb phrase. If you can get the terms down right its easy: a Subject is made up of a noun phrase (the noun and every thing that modifies it.) The verb in a sentence plus any elements that follow it (adverbial, direct object, compliment) make up the Predicate."
],
"score": 0
} | |
ELI5: The United States is $17 trillion in debt. Who are we in debt to? | explainlikeimfive | 1r6z1v | 3 | true | false | 0.58 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk7u32",
"comment_text": [
"Most is held by the following (from largest share to smallest):",
"http://www.citizenceo.com/federal-budget/graph-of-who-holds-us-debt"
],
"score": 11
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk7zhr",
"comment_text": [
"I own some government bonds, so, me. The US gov is in debt to me. "
],
"score": 8
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk8372",
"comment_text": [
"A majority of it is to ourselves. The Federal Reserve issues bonds that can be purchased and redeemed after some time with interest. Basically, you can buy a bond for, let's say, $500 and that money goes to the government. Then, after a certain period of time has transpired, the government is expected to pay you back with interest. A large portion of the U.S. debt is from people in the United States buying these bonds who haven't been paid back yet. ",
"Granted, there are many inputs into our debt but the most are held through the public which hasn't been repaid for federal reserve bonds or social security. "
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkfamv",
"comment_text": [
"Or increase our income. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkcecl",
"comment_text": [
"So to fix our debt, at the most basic, we should decrease spending and pay off bonds? "
],
"score": 2
} | ||
ELI5: Why is it not considered a crime when shoppers break into stores on Black Friday? | explainlikeimfive | 1r7081 | 0 | true | false | 0 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk8hdt",
"comment_text": [
"It definitely is a crime. The problem is that in large groups it is difficult to identify offenders so prosecution is hard, and some stores aren't enthusiastic about arresting people trying to rabidly give them money."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmi7x9",
"comment_text": [
"What does this have to do with Black Friday?"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmn43r",
"comment_text": [
"Black Friday is a contact sport, you kind of expect something to be destroyed or someone to get injured in the process. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdmpot7",
"comment_text": [
"I've heard that Black Friday is actually just really busy, not dangerous per se. The media just sensatationalises the worst of it, meaning that you're spouting bull. Even if that isn't true, and Black Friday is as bad as people like to assume... How does that make it a sport? "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk9n45",
"comment_text": [
"Sometimes, yes. "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: it seems like 15 years ago the US had it together and there weren't many problems with this nation. So why don't we go back to the same economic policies like we did in the mid 90's | explainlikeimfive | 1r77od | 0 | true | false | 0.43 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkaeti",
"comment_text": [
"For one, we have different problems now than we did then.",
"Also, the past always looks better than it really was, the good-old-days syndrome. There was just as much complaining back then as there is now."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkafzs",
"comment_text": [
"In reality, the 90's did have a boom, yet it was around 1994. In about 1990, there was a recession, and then the period of prosperity ended in the 2000s with another recession. ",
"The boom was due in more to the technological advances, rather than economic policy. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkaj2z",
"comment_text": [
"I was a young one so obviously everything seemed easy for me, but I never remember hearing my parents complain about government which they do now. Also I'm watching the late night show and they were talking about obamas low approval rating and it left me wondering if it's not working why don't we do things like we did back then. I'm not as educated on politics as I should be"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkcfw3",
"comment_text": [
"Approval ratings fluctuate all the time, I wouldn't really go by them. I would also like to mention that, when I was much younger, my parents never spoke about politics or anything around my brothers and I. Now that we're older, the gates are open and they're liking pages on facebook about Obama being worse than Hitler. As ",
"/u/pobody",
" said, we have different problems than we did back in the 90s, and ",
" suffers from good-old-days syndrome, also known as \"they don't make (insert anything here) like they used to\" syndrome."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkaet9",
"comment_text": [
"We had our shit together in the mid-80s too, why not put zombie Reagan in the Shite House?"
],
"score": 0
} | ||
ELI5:What this teacher writes on my kid's assignments. | explainlikeimfive | 1r77xs | 0 | true | false | 0.25 | Thanks! | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkaiby",
"comment_text": [
"No clue. Pentur? "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkaszu",
"comment_text": [
"well, i think the first letter has to be an S. I was inclined to see something like \"sentence\" but that really doesn't seem to work for these characters. So, sentur? I think that means something in Turkish.",
"So, is there any chance you or your child could ask the teacher? I am kinda intrigued."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkaup0",
"comment_text": [
"The teacher will be asked tomorrow. We were just curious if it was just us that couldn't read it!"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkg5yz",
"comment_text": [
"Hahaha! Did you find out???? Expectation is killing me =P"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdm9suq",
"comment_text": [
"Apparently it said \"Sentences\". As in she should write complete sentences. "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What are "Minithins"/Ephedrine, why did my hard working mother get addicted to them, and what do they do? | explainlikeimfive | 1r72kt | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | My mother would take bottle after bottle of what she called "Minithins," hide them from my father, and died at 39 of pancreatitus and a few heart attacks. What exactly are these pills, and why did they have such a detrimental effect on my mother? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk9ye9",
"comment_text": [
"Yes the magnitude of effect is much less but I just wanted to point out the structural similarity (which is by the way why both ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are so tightly regulated; converting either molecule to meth is almost trivially easy) to give some context for its effects and why someone might become dependent on them. Your analogy is apt but in the end Bud Lite and Wild Turkey both get you drunk. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk8xqw",
"comment_text": [
"Im not a doctor..but i used those years ago..its basically the equivalent of caffiene or an upper(speed). Gives you lots of energy so to speak.."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk96tc",
"comment_text": [
"They are an extract of a plant. The ephedrine molecule happens to be something like one atom away from being methamphetamine (in fact may be considered an analog of meth or vice versa). The effects of ephedrine being much the same, as in a powerful psychostimulant. So long story short: essentially a naturally occuring amphetanine. There is at least one plant I've read about that apparently produces meth naturally although I'm not sure."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk9miy",
"comment_text": [
"While it can be extracted from a plant, it's just as likely produced in an Indian or Chinese chemical factory. Comparing the effects to meth is like comparing a Bud Light to a glass of Wild Turkey."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdiuq",
"comment_text": [
"Its alot easier to get violently fucked up on wild turkey. The difference between the two is the methyl group in the molecule which makes it bind to fat cells, crossing the blood brain barrier easier and staying in your system longer."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5:why don't they build houses out of more substantial materials in often hit hurricane zones | explainlikeimfive | 1r7hbm | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | Ok so this may seem stupid, but after seeing the video on the first page I have to ask, why does it seem that houses are made lightweight and of wood etc.. I guess a lot is to do with heat? But I do feel that houses made up of Brock would seem to fair a lot better against said hurricanes and it may be beneficial to rebuild them up like this? I could be being ignorant or just not thinking of something though. Sorry if this upsets someone as I know it could be a sensitive subject for some. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkd2rs",
"comment_text": [
"Its far more expensive"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkd86m",
"comment_text": [
"Take a look at this."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkfbji",
"comment_text": [
"Thankyou very interesting read! Quite surprised really (: ",
"Though I still believe the sheer weight would help, and a lot of houses are made from breeze blocks as the main structure now around metal joists.",
"But still I didn't think it's more to do with bracing etc.. Differently which would make the difference (:"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkd86x",
"comment_text": [
"There really isn't anything you can build, short of an underground bunker, that will hold up to a strong hurricane or tornado. More expensive building materials just become more expensive rubble to clean up if they get hit by a Big One."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkfbwo",
"comment_text": [
"Ah ok thankyou, lines up with the link snackbot posted (:",
"Thankyou!!"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What would we experience on Earth if another Earth-like planet were to collide with us? | explainlikeimfive | 1r7kc7 | 2 | true | false | 0.76 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdts5",
"comment_text": [
"We would all die in a matter of seconds. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdua6",
"comment_text": [
"Perfect explanation"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdvai",
"comment_text": [
"Not sure if you are serious, but that's basically what would happen. Depending on where you are, you might actually have a few seconds to register what's happening, but for most people death would be basically instant. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdw1k",
"comment_text": [
"No I agree. Total anhillation would occur."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdvb2",
"comment_text": [
"Brief terror and then death.",
"I haven't seen the movie you're referring to. Is it any good?",
"Anyway. The basic thing about asteroid strikes, The bigger the asteroid, and the faster it goes, the more bang you get.",
"The Tunguska event for example was a meteor that's theorized to have been around 60 meters in diameter. That leveled an area 2,150 square kilometers in size.",
"The next big event is the 10 kilometer object that created the Chicxulub crater. Which is 180 kilometers in diameter. When things that big hit you're already talking about an E.L.E. Or Extinction Level Event.",
"If two planets hit each other, there's not going to be anything left to talk about It's gonna be like two balls of wet dough smacking in to each other at the speed of sound. Both bodies are going to be reduced to a formless mass. There won't be anything left."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why can't you just burn bit-for-bit copies of console game disks that work like retail ones? | explainlikeimfive | 1r7jbf | 18 | true | false | 0.65 | Evidently it is, but it doesn't like it would be that hard. Hackers do some crazy things. It's obviously not just a matter of encrypting it, because you can still just copy the encrypted data. Even if you couldn't just do it in a laptop, and needed to make special disks or special drives, you would think it would be worth the while of someone shady in China. So how do they prevent this? I have programming experience so it doesn't need to be like I'm five, but this is something I've just never understood. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdke4rt",
"comment_text": [
"As I understand it, there is a bit of scrap code on the discs that requires special countercode in the console firmware to read. Normal computer drives don't know how to read the scrap code (\"invisible to Muggles\") and therefore can't copy it. The firmware knows what to look for and if it doesn't find it, it pulls a Vreenak (\"It's a fake!\") and refuses to run the game.",
"Modchips, btw, simply reroute the checking command to \"fake\" scrap code, which allows you to run backups.",
"I could be wrong tho."
],
"score": 10
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkgpm4",
"comment_text": [
"Partly correct. It is not that computer readers cannot read the code, it is that consumer writer drives cannot reproduce that cod on consumer media.",
"\"Hackers\" get around that by faking the reading of that code (PS2 modchip), or the system firmware to not bother looking for that code (original Xbox modchip)"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkht6o",
"comment_text": [
"They contain stuff that a standard CD burner can't write (either because it's outside normal CD specification, or CD burners are legally constrained not to be able to write them).",
"People who have CD-stamping presses can mass-produce pirate copies, AFAIK."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkhmk9",
"comment_text": [
"backups",
"<_<"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkgmbc",
"comment_text": [
"They do something to the disk that is outside of the standard for the disk format so that a properly coded disk copy program will not copy the \"bad\" sections. The console then verifies that the bad sectors are bad in the right way.",
"They used to do something similar in the 1980s with 5.25\" floppy disks. Main difference is that the console is requiring the bad sectors whereas computers in the 80s weren't expecting the bad sectors but the bad sectors would often cause disk copy programs to simply fail. We solved it with programs that could skip bad sectors. "
],
"score": 2
} | |
the size of space | explainlikeimfive | 1r7kw9 | 2 | true | false | 1 | I know space is incredibly huge and I love hearing new explanations of how big it really is. a user once said "imagine you have a really big piece of paper and a ball point pen. put a single dot down and that represents our solar system. 9 feet away draw another point, that's the closest star. 20 miles another dot and that barely to the middle of the milky way." what are more examples? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdke0cw",
"comment_text": [
"A more serious example might be to compare distances just inside our own solar system.",
"The distance from earth to the moon for example is somewhere between 356,400 km to 406,700 km",
"Earth to the sun? 150,000,000 kilometers.",
"Or in comparison: Light takes about 1.26 seconds to reach fromthe earth to the moon.",
"From the sun to the earth? 8 min 19 seconds.",
"Wanna go a bit further? Light to Neptune takes 4.1 ",
".",
"Nearest star? Proxima Centauri and that will take 4.2421 years."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdxd1",
"comment_text": [
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. - Douglas Adams",
"Not so much an example, but a nice lead in."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdx7e",
"comment_text": [
"Scale of The Universe",
" is a nice interactive flash animation."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdx7e",
"comment_text": [
"Scale of The Universe",
" is a nice interactive flash animation."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkdxl6",
"comment_text": [
"Here is a diagram of our cosmic neighborhood",
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Earth%27s_Location_in_the_Universe_SMALLER_%28JPEG%29.jpg"
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: Every country uses the same calender everywhere - at what point did the world agree to adopt this universal calender? | explainlikeimfive | 1r7ore | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkeul2",
"comment_text": [
"Everyone doesn't have the same calendar. ",
"Saudi Arabia",
" uses a lunar based one, which is different than the standard ",
"Hijri calendar",
" used by most the rest of Islam. Parts of the Eastern Orthodox church use the ",
"Julian calendar",
" still, that calendar is also the basis for the ",
"Ethiopian calendar",
" which is in use by the country of Ethiopia. ",
"There are a billion and a half people in India who officially use the ",
"Indian Calendar",
" in parallel with the Gregorian one. ",
"Here",
" is a list of calendars the first 50 or so are in use."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkfu4u",
"comment_text": [
"What you're referring to is the Gregorian calendar. It is important to note that it is ",
" universal. It is common globally, and considered the standard for international finance and politics. However, there are a number of places that do not use it.",
"The Gregorian calendar is actually an improved form of the Julian calendar, which is part of why it is so widespread. The Julian calendar was the official calendar of the Roman empire under Julius Caesar. This contained most of the elements that we think of these days.",
"It was a solar calendar that ran 365 days, on a 12 month cycle, with a leap day in February. The days in a month were slightly different, but it was substantially the same.",
"Because of the influence of the Roman empire on European countries, the Julian calendar became the official calendar for most European countries between 46, and 1582 AD/CE.",
"Because of certain flaws in the Julian calendar (mostly to fix a problem that occurs every 100 years), as well as certain goals of the Catholic church, the Roman Catholic Church (via the pope and council) officially adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582. This pressured countries that had previously adopted the Julian calendar to adopt the new Catholic standard.",
"The main impetus for it becoming the world standard was that in 1752, the British Empire switched from the Julian calendar, to the Gregorian. Up until that point, many countries would list dates in both Julian and Gregorian. Following that, and driven largely by the Imperialism of the 18th century by European countries, the Gregorian calendar became the international standard.",
"When Russia officially switched to Gregorian in the early 1900s, it pressured Eastern Europe to follow suit (even though many had used it in the years/centuries beforehand). In Eastern Europe, unlike Western Europe, the influence of the Catholic church had not been as strong, so Russia switching made it the defacto calendar of the east.",
"There are still a handful of places that do not use the Gregorian calendar. Those who used the Julian have, to a country, switched. The strongest resistance came from countries that had a long established calendar system already in place (such as Eastern Europe and Asia)."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkf172",
"comment_text": [
"So when I say \"June 15th\", it could mean something different to someone else? Any idea how this translates with big businesses? "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkfmty",
"comment_text": [
"Yes. If they are still using the Julian calendar June 15 is some 14 days off of June 15 in the Gregorian. Say you are discussing the date of Christmas (Dec 25 to most of us), with a Greek orthodox priest. You would need to be clear which calendar you are using since his Dec 25 2013 occurs on our Jan 7 2014.",
"Most multinationals as well as western civilization use the Gregorian calendar. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkk204",
"comment_text": [
"Quick correction: To move a date in the 1900s and the 2000s from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, you add 13 days, not 14 days."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: The declining effectiveness of anti-biotics. What changed? Why aren't we finding any new ones? | explainlikeimfive | 1r7sbo | 2 | true | false | 0.6 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkfvcz",
"comment_text": [
"Using that logic we wouldn't have any vaccines, but we do. You're just spouting the same tired old conspiracy theory nonsense that is debunked time and time again. If one company won't make something because they'd rather develop a long term treatment then it's in the interests of another company to make the cure and steal all the other company's customers. Plus the fact that there are still antibiotics being developed, the rate has just slowed."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkfuq6",
"comment_text": [
"It's going to be a disaster. ",
"A lot of the problem is the consumer. The idiot who thinks they know more than their doctor. The doctor gives them 20 antibiotic tablets and tells them to take them all, even after they feel well. The idiot takes 10 of them, feels well, thinks the doctor is stupid and then doesn't take the other 10, the other 10 which was to guarantee all the bacteria were killed. Instead the stronger bacteria survive and divide and now we have bacteria that is a bit more resistant to the antibiotic. ",
"The reason not as many new antibiotics are being found is because they're very expensive to develop and quite often those costs aren't made back before antibiotic resistance is achieved for it. ",
"There are attempts to curb their use. Doctors around the world are being told to stop giving them out as a placebo. Many people are unaware that antibiotics aren't used against viruses, but a lot of people will bitch and complain if their doctor doesn't give them an antibiotic when they have a virus. This has resulted in doctors giving their complaining patients a few antibiotic pills to shut them up. the problem, which I'm guessing you've guessed by now, is that leads to antibiotic resistant bacteria. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkgd2w",
"comment_text": [
"Not really. A vaccine works by \"training\" your body to quickly attack an invader. Resistance is caused by natural selection where the bacteria most resistant to an antibiotic survive and get to pass on their genes. Since bacteria can pass on genes horizontally (they can pass on their genes to other bacteria that aren't their offspring) it means these genes can quickly spread. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkgd2w",
"comment_text": [
"Not really. A vaccine works by \"training\" your body to quickly attack an invader. Resistance is caused by natural selection where the bacteria most resistant to an antibiotic survive and get to pass on their genes. Since bacteria can pass on genes horizontally (they can pass on their genes to other bacteria that aren't their offspring) it means these genes can quickly spread. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkfpj5",
"comment_text": [
"Frontline made a great documentary about this issue not long ago, here's the link: ",
"http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hunting-the-nightmare-bacteria/",
" "
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: What is really going on with the American government currently? | explainlikeimfive | 1r7vy3 | 1 | true | false | 0.55 | Specifically with Obamacare, and what happened during the government shut down | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkgsfu",
"comment_text": [
"Not sure exactly what you mean. \"Obamacare\" or the ACA is a set of health insurance reforms setting limits on how insurance companies can spend patient premiums and setting minimum requirements of care. It is designed to increase the availability of quality health insurance.",
"As far as the shut down, the Republicans in congress (mostly in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives) decided they would not pass a bill called a continuing resolution. Basically, congress is charged with approving a budget for the government. The government isn't allowed to spend money without the approval of congress. If they can't pass a full annual budget (which they have not been able to do in several years, for various reasons) they have to pass a continuing resolution. That CR allows the government to spend money in the short term while budgets are debated. With the House GOP unwilling to pass a CR, the government couldn't meet payroll and had to close.",
"Does that help?"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkh3eq",
"comment_text": [
"First off, they could keep their own plans if they had them in 2008 when he ran - they were grandfathered in. ",
"Anyway, Obamacare set minimum standards for a healthcare plan, and the people who are losing their coverage are ones with plans that don't meet those standards - these are plans that would cancel your coverage if you get certain illnesses, if they don't cover your kids up to age 26, don't cover ambulance rides, maternity care, if they impose lifetime caps, and a few other basic things. These are the plans where insurance horror stories come from. And again, you can keep your coverage if you had it before Obamacare passed, and insurance companies knew this - they were selling the plans afterwards knowing full well that people would get booted from them in a few years."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkin4f",
"comment_text": [
"Just wanted to mention mention the normally short term continuing resolution process has been funding the government for 7 years now 2007 to 2014. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkh24b",
"comment_text": [
"It's funny that, generally, expressing distaste for obama or the ACA brands you as right wing. It's a terrible bill that gurantees a select few corporations plenty of business, and is nothing like the universal healthcare that so many seem to be pretending it is."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkhewt",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you, this does help a lot."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: The stock exchange just hit 16000, why are we still in an "economic recession"? | explainlikeimfive | 1r7ue2 | 8 | true | false | 0.71 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkh0w1",
"comment_text": [
"In the strictest sense of the term, we're not. A recession is defined in economics as ",
"two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth",
". As ",
"you can see here",
", the recession has been over since 2010.",
"That doesn't mean the economy isn't still bad, though; wages and employment tend to lag behind GDP growth. And of course, a lot of the way we use the word \"recession\" is based on subjective perception. As Ronald Reagan famously quipped, \"Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.\""
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkipvz",
"comment_text": [
"Sorry about that. I meant to convey that the feeling of \"recession\" is often based on an individual's perception of the economy (e.g. whether I've still got ",
" job), rather than purely objective factors. But maybe I should have cut off the last third of that quote."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkj651",
"comment_text": [
"Perhaps I was wrong, while Rogers has a ton of pithy one liners, the original (two line version) is attributed to ",
"Pres. Harry Truman",
". Mea culpa and TIL! "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkirqm",
"comment_text": [
"The quip is taken from an older Will Rogers joke that ",
" just the first two sentances (Regan added the last line to make the old joke contemporary for that time). "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkivds",
"comment_text": [
"No kidding! I didn't know that."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: How are sites like The Pirate Bay, Myspleen, What et al not shut down by the RIAA/the FBI? | explainlikeimfive | 1r81z2 | 1 | true | false | 0.55 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkiksn",
"comment_text": [
"Sometimes the bad people can't get to the good people :)"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkiroe",
"comment_text": [
"The Pirate Bay has political asylum in Sweden due to the Pirate Party protecting it. Even the Swedish government can't stop the pirate bay, all they can do is try to deny access to its population. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkjaxj",
"comment_text": [
"Well, the Pirate Party ",
" to protect it, which led to a government raid on the server hall (owned by Bahnhof). TPB has since moved out of sweden and was for a while hosted on servers in Russia. Where it's hosted from now I do not know.",
"Our idiot government even brought the founders of TPB to court, they got heavy fines to pay. But the site remained open! :) "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkjenc",
"comment_text": [
"I think the new location is totally secret. There is a ",
"pirate bay documentary",
" that shows actual footage of the new location. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkjila",
"comment_text": [
"Honeypot haven"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What would happen if you replace schrödingers cat with "schrödingers bomb"? Like if you have the exact same arrangement, except for a cat dying, you have a bomb that goes off in the box destroying it. | explainlikeimfive | 1r83ug | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkiwrb",
"comment_text": [
"It invalidates the experiment.",
"This experiment isn't a \"real\" experiment, rather a thought experiment to explain a complex issue in quantum mechanics. The point is that, without opening the box, the cat must exist in both an alive and dead state since there is no way to know. Once the box is opened, the observer collapses the potential options and the universe makes the cat either alive or dead.",
"Replacing the cat with a bomb that detonates removes the element of the observer. ",
"Basically, you've just put a bomb in the box with a random timer. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkj04i",
"comment_text": [
"So you would have to pick a box that is so large that you wouldn't see/feel/hear the explosion to have the equivalent experiment?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkj1ce",
"comment_text": [
"Yes. If the box is destroyed it defeats the point of the experiment.",
"However, if the box is indestructible then the bomb exists as both detonated and not detonated until someone opens the box (and possibly catches the blast to the face). "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkiwlg",
"comment_text": [
"I think maybe that would simply be equivalent to opening the box containing the cat."
],
"score": 0
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkiwnt",
"comment_text": [
"The point of the cat is that you do not know if the cat is alive or dead until you open the box. It could really be anything - you wont know if there is an <X> inside the box in state <Y> until you open the box. Until you open the box, <X> is both in state <Y> and not in state <Y>. ",
"So nothing would change - the analogy remains the same, and the meaning intended doesn't change as well. "
],
"score": 0
} | ||
ELI5: Can I paint over my new French tips? | explainlikeimfive | 1r84gb | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | I hate these stupid French tips. (There was a miscommunication at the nail salon and he was gluing the nails on before I could say stop.) Can I paint over them? If I do can I take the nail polish off later? Thanks in advance. I know nothing about French tips. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkj1p4",
"comment_text": [
"Not really appropriate for ELI5. Try in somewhere like ",
"/r/nailpolish"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkja7a",
"comment_text": [
"Okay, thanks! Why is this inappropriate for this sub? Is there a rule against it?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkjbuq",
"comment_text": [
"Because it's not an overly complex subject that needs simplification so a five year old could understand it."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkjkjv",
"comment_text": [
"From the side panel: \"E is for explain. This is for concepts you'd like to understand better; not for simple one word answers, walkthroughs, or personal problems.\"",
"Basically, it's for more complex questions, such as how or why things work."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdky3fb",
"comment_text": [
"Oh! THAT kind of inappropriate! Sorry. Thanks for clearing that up! I was trying to figure out how in the world that was inappropriate."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: why do nails grow so fast during a shower? | explainlikeimfive | 1r88ip | 0 | true | false | 0.33 | Sometimes if I haven't showered for a couple of days and then go take a shower, it feels like my nails have grown a noticeable bit compared to when before I had the shower. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkkaje",
"comment_text": [
"They don't. Mind elaborating why you think so?"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkkhrm",
"comment_text": [
"They don't, but it's possible you think so because a prolonged shower can make your cuticles recede temporarily, making your nails appear longer."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkl47x",
"comment_text": [
"I'll have to try that. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkkx8q",
"comment_text": [
"Know what would help you really see if this was happening? Paint your nails (or one nail even with clear) go 2 or 3 days without a shower, then inspect said nail(s) after a shower. You can also do this if you shower every day, just check the growth after the same amount of days. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkkedf",
"comment_text": [
"Because they don't. How would you even notice?"
],
"score": -1
} | |
ELI5: I never see flight attendants older than, let's say 40. Do they get fired? What do they do next? | explainlikeimfive | 1r8j4i | 1 | true | false | 0.55 | Edit: Thanks for pointing this out: I meant international flights. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdknfs0",
"comment_text": [
"They do not get fired, but traveling all around the world or even from city to city can be tiring. Many retire to more stationary jobs as they get older and have families. Try the smaller local flights and you'll see more senior flight attendants."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdknnrk",
"comment_text": [
"No mystery; they move to United and work the US - Australia flights. Can't remember the last time I saw one under 50. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkngmc",
"comment_text": [
"Dude, first of all yeah there are. At a certain age, traveling so often begins to wear the body down and they eventually retire, like normal people."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkywoz",
"comment_text": [
"YOU'VE never flied Air Canada, ironically some of the sourest attendants I've ever seen."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl0y5t",
"comment_text": [
"Maybe work for their companies' training schools? Someone has to train the youngsters."
],
"score": 2
} | |
Why does a PC take so long to boot? Or at least a windows operating system. IT takes So long from button press to desktop arrival. Especially in today's ever-increasing speedy technology. | explainlikeimfive | 1r8nf8 | 4 | true | false | 0.7 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkoxiy",
"comment_text": [
"Explained for a five year old:",
"Your computer is bad, and you should feel bad."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkox3x",
"comment_text": [
"Ah ok thanks. It's just a case on my PC being dated and useless! "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkox3x",
"comment_text": [
"Ah ok thanks. It's just a case on my PC being dated and useless! "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkox3x",
"comment_text": [
"Ah ok thanks. It's just a case on my PC being dated and useless! "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkoz77",
"comment_text": [
"There are a lot of factors that contribute to startup time",
"Usually I find that long startups have more to do with what is being run ",
" startup. ",
"I use CCleaner to manage the startup list because its easy and I've used it for ages. You can probably take your pick of any number of startup process managers. ",
"My laptop's startup consists of a few windows processes and the antivirus. No adobe, no java, none of that. From cold shutdown to Chrome in about 30 seconds. My desktop takes about a minute now, mostly due to me having a bunch of VPN/FTP/Server stuff installed on it that spins up when I turn it on. All SSD, good amount of RAM, good CPUs, no spyware/adware/computer cleaning 'tools' etc."
],
"score": 2
} | ||
ELI5:How do you become a personal fitness trainer? | explainlikeimfive | 1r8y52 | 3 | true | false | 0.8 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkrz2l",
"comment_text": [
"In some places it's as simple and convincing people that you know what you're talking about and having them give you money to train them.",
"In other places you have to actually take classes and know what you're talking about.",
"Now, as a consumer, the tough part is figuring out which is which."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdks01u",
"comment_text": [
"Like i mean, what classes, what do i do in college, what test do i take?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdks1oc",
"comment_text": [
"Then that's not really an ELI5. That's more an ",
"/r/askreddit",
"."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdks4i5",
"comment_text": [
"I'm a personal trainer in Chicago. I have a Bachelors Degree in Physical Education, certifications in Personal Training, Group Fitness, and Spinning. I suggest you find someone who is credentialed and successful to shadow and then acquire the respectable certifications to backup your philosophy. Oh, and get professional liability insurance in case you have a slow start. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdks63e",
"comment_text": [
"On a more serious note... make sure you understand the transtheoretical model for stages of change. You will need to assess their desire for change and develop a strategy according to the context of their situation. "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why dose TV say 10/9 central time instead of just 9 central time? | explainlikeimfive | 1r8ysf | 0 | true | false | 0.4 | Whenever TV episodes or movies are advertised they always say 10/9 central. Why do they add the ten? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdks0qw",
"comment_text": [
"The 10 is Eastern Standard Time, so what they're saying is, \"it's at 10, unless you're in Central time, in which case it's at 9.\"",
"In case you're wondering why they don't just go through all the time zones, it's because the programming schedule is the same for EST and CT, but not necessarily for PST and MT. So, a program might be at 10/9 Central, but it will air later on the west coast and end up being shown again on a west coast version of a network at 10 PST. Hence why if you have an extensive cable package you might have channels like \"Cinemax West\" or something like that."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdks5ey",
"comment_text": [
"This is usually done because the show is being advertised nationally, so it needs to cover the time over more than one time zone.",
"Out in the west, it used to be common to see a show advertised as being on at, say, 8 PM Pacific & Eastern/7 PM Central & Mountain. As smaller channels became more common, this tended to become less frequent."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdks8or",
"comment_text": [
"That actually makes a lot of sense. I was always confused why they didn't go through other time zones. I always knew that the other number was eastern time, just not sure why they felt the need to add both numbers. Thank you."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdks0gh",
"comment_text": [
"10 = Eastern Time",
"9 = Central Time"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdku5pv",
"comment_text": [
"A lot of big TV stations on the East Coast are watched in both Eastern & Central time zones because the population density is higher. As you move west, there's not really any big cities near time zone boundaries so it's not as important."
],
"score": 1
} | |
Why do I wake up from a nap sweaty and hot but when I sleep at night I wake up normally? | explainlikeimfive | 1r90m7 | 6 | true | false | 0.76 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkt7vg",
"comment_text": [
"There are about a thousand different reasons why someone might sweat while they are asleep. i.e. the answer is going to vary from person to person."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkuw5g",
"comment_text": [
"I want this answered because I have only met a couple of people that have this same situation. Some people think I'm crazy when I mention it. Whenever I take a nap I wake up sweaty, but I don't sweat when I sleep normally. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkv3zb",
"comment_text": [
"So there's no one specific answer?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdkv5wk",
"comment_text": [
"Unfortunately no. Could be anything from anxiety to menopause. You would have to see a doctor to surmise why you, specifically, experience them."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdl44bj",
"comment_text": [
"Do you nap in the clothes you have on or do you change into your pajamas?",
"I really don't know if it makes a difference, but I have noticed if I am wearing my regular \"out and about\" clothes while I nap, I wake up sweaty. Whenever I change into comfortable sleep clothes I don't sweat. ",
"Maybe it is just a psychological thing that only I experience. "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
What on Earth is a Turnkey service/website? | explainlikeimfive | 1r3uxd | 0 | true | false | 0.33 | The internets don't explain it clearly enough for me. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjaw8m",
"comment_text": [
"\"Turnkey\" just means that you're sold a complete, fully functional product that needs minimal setup or configuration (usually, any complex configuration will be pre-applied by the company selling you the solution). A decent analogy is buying a car. Just turn the key and drive off."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjb53z",
"comment_text": [
"So a personal computer, a knife, a Microsoft Office, or Angry Birds are all turnkey products?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjb9ht",
"comment_text": [
"Technically, yes, though the phrase is generally used for something that you can also acquire as a non-turnkey solution. ",
"For instance, perhaps a company is selling \"turnkey websites\", where you talk to one of their sales reps, and they find out what your needs are, and then they craft a custom website for your company, and all you have to do is sign on the dotted line.",
"You ",
" design a website the hard way, buying your own physical servers, hiring web developers to come work for your company, etc. But maybe your company just sells widgets. Your \"IT guy\" is one of your accountants who also knows a little about computers. Designing websites isn't something you're set up to do, so you purchase a turnkey solution, instead."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjbm9q",
"comment_text": [
"It sounds like you're describing products of mass production / everything that isn't commissioned personally for you.",
"A turnkey solution is something that ",
", with no almost no input from you. It can be commissioned personally for you, like the website example I have above was comissioned specifically for you by the company selling websites. But you don't have to set it up.",
"A non-turnkey version would be if your company needed a website, so you hired a graphic design company to make art assets (logos, stock photos, etc). You hired a web design company to write a website, and gave them the art assets that the graphic design company made for you. In the meantime, you're hiring a hosting company to set you up a server with a fast data connection to host your website on. Finally, when the company designing the site is done, they hand it over to you, which you then hand over to the company hosting your server to get it set up to be visible by your customers.",
"In this second case, you didn't do any of the actual work, but you were running yourself ragged trying to get the various other companies aligned. The turnkey version is, \"Oh, you want a website? It'll be done in two months. You don't have to do anything else.\""
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjb29s",
"comment_text": [
"The term Turnkey, related to applications means the full integration of a product. An example of this is Control system installation at \"Lay's potato factory\". There would be a GUI (graphical user interface) and a electr"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5:Why do job applications ask if you have ever committed a felony? | explainlikeimfive | 1r3rhj | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj9syu",
"comment_text": [
"So they can automatically reject anyone who says yes."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj9t44",
"comment_text": [
"Because it is legal to discriminate based on legal convictions. Some employers are simply prejudiced against persons with felony records. Others are trying to save money, since insurance companies and juries tend to blame an employer who hires a felon who goes on to cause a problem. If an employee was in jail for felony assault and then ends up striking a customer, it's a lot more difficult to fight in court than if the person had a clean record."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjdjsc",
"comment_text": [
"Pretty much this. Especially in today's economy where it's easy to find ten other people who have never committed any crime."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj9vch",
"comment_text": [
"It's also important to note that you can't work certain jobs with a felony."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj9z75",
"comment_text": [
"Is it illegal for people with felony convictions to work certain jobs? If so can you supply some examples?"
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: How does a species know to evolve over time? | explainlikeimfive | 1r43gv | 0 | true | false | 0.25 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjde0m",
"comment_text": [
"Organisms don't choose to evolve. Mutations happen at random. If the mutation is beneficial, the organism will be more likely to pass on the mutation than others of its species. Eventually, the mutation will dominate the entire population of that species. As the mutations add up, its descendants are now a ",
" species."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjdfup",
"comment_text": [
"Nothing \"knows\" to evolve. Evolution is just something that inevitably happens when you have an organism that can have offspring that are slightly different than the parent.",
"Any organism that has more offspring will result in a population that is more like itself after several generations. If some creature has a mutation that happens to confer a survival advantage, then that advantage will spread through the population, since it will live longer and have more offspring that ",
" have that advantage.",
"And that's all evolution is."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjdlmq",
"comment_text": [
"No, that's natural selection which is just one part of evolution. Evolution is just the genetic changes and doesn't matter why or how they occur. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjddug",
"comment_text": [
"It doesn't. Evolution is an unintelligent process. ",
"Evolution is the change in the genetic information of a population over generations. It happens because everything isn't an exact clone of everything else."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjdp54",
"comment_text": [
"No, that's natural selection which is just one part of evolution.",
"True. I was just trying to find a way to explain \"creatures don't 'know' how to evolve\" without getting into the details of natural selection vs. mutation vs. genetic drift, because I felt it might over-complicate things."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why do different types of sound waves exist (sine, saw, square etc)? why don't we just use sine? | explainlikeimfive | 1r40lg | 1 | true | false | 1 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjfvx8",
"comment_text": [
"Depends on what you mean by this. Technically any wave can be modeled with a series of sine waves. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjcyp6",
"comment_text": [
"bored?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjch6w",
"comment_text": [
"like what? you didn't explain much"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjch6w",
"comment_text": [
"like what? you didn't explain much"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjcjo1",
"comment_text": [
"All of these can be made by summing sine waves."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
Eli5: Why did Latin become a "dead" language? Does it really serve no purpose? | explainlikeimfive | 1r4c5h | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjg0pu",
"comment_text": [
"Because Latin changed into other languages so that classical Latin was no longer spoken. ",
"Why did old English become a dead language? Because it changed into modern English."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjg1xq",
"comment_text": [
"Exactly. In fact Latin is the most alive \"dead language\" (zombie language?) because it is still spoken (in the Vatican) and still taught in high schools and colleges."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjg3pv",
"comment_text": [
"And still used by science since being a dead language it's fixed. It won't evolve anymore because people aren't really using it in conversation. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjggy7",
"comment_text": [
"A dead language is not the same as a purposeless language. \"Dead language\" means that there are no native speakers. I've also heard it used to describe a language that is no longer evolving, even if there are some native speakers left. So Latin is a dead language, but it still serves a purpose. It's still useful in science, historians and classicists might want to know it, it still helps us better understand our modern languages, etc."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjibqs",
"comment_text": [
"As others have stated, the language evolved into the romance languages. More importantly, it is considered dead because there are no native speakers of Latin. Native as in, children that are taught by their parents, as their primary language. Yes the Vatican, classicists, and other may speak it, but they learn it as an additional language later in life. I find the language fascinating. "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why is it ok for women to adjust their bras in public, but men can't adjust their crotch? | explainlikeimfive | 1r49uj | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjfs2m",
"comment_text": [
"Are breasts genitals? And as far as I'm concerned its perfectly acceptable for both sexes to adjust underwear quickly if the need arises, I'd say any issues with that come from how deeply you're digging in it and how long your're grabbing it."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjgfm8",
"comment_text": [
"To be fair though there is really no analogue of a bra for men. An appropriate comparison would be between a woman fixing cameltoe and a man fixing mooseknuckle. I don't think its a double standard, its just that women have a bra to deal with and men don't. If men wore bras as well but it was considered gross for them to fix it in public that would be a double standard."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjg0q1",
"comment_text": [
"If a woman adjusts her bra she can grab on to the periphery of the device and reconfigure the way it sits. She's not really touching her breasts : she's touching the edge of her bra. A man adjusting his balls is adjusting his damn balls. Not sure if it's fair but that's all I got."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjg61b",
"comment_text": [
"Ya it isn't really fair. Women use their bra as a phone holder, coin purse (had a fat woman at blockbuster hand me a sweaty bill to pay for her movies before), and boob holder. I use my under as what it was intended for... to hold my junk in place."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjg8u5",
"comment_text": [
"Takes a certain kind of class, I think, for a woman to get away with it. You gotta be a straight up hard livin' floozy with a heart o' gold. ; p"
],
"score": 2
} | ||
ELI5:Why do puppies smell funny? | explainlikeimfive | 1r4eyl | 11 | true | false | 0.79 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjjhtw",
"comment_text": [
"Do you mean puppy breath? It's from the mums milk, it goes away after a while of not drinking it anymore."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjjaos",
"comment_text": [
"Dogs produce an oil naturally that has a slightly yeasty smell, (the so-called dog smell). This oil is produced to protect the dog's skin and hair. Most often, dogs end up picking up bacteria on their skin when they are outdoors. The combination of the oil and bacteria produce what many call the \"wet dog smell\". Dogs don't sweat over much of their bodies, however they do sweat on their nose and paws. That, combined with any bacteria they run in to, most likely explains the smell.",
"Source: My girlfriend's mother, a vet tech for 15 years."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjhte5",
"comment_text": [
"my girl dog (basenji mix) does not smell regardless of what she's been rolling in, chasing after...my boy dog (GSD/poodle) on the other hand, once he's been out and about he will reek the dog room up of fritos. every damn time. my wife read somewhere it has to do with them sweating. basenji's are known not to smell but I can't say it's all dogs that eventually end up smelling like tortilla chips.",
"I don't know about the puppy smell either but we met our friend's new pom puppy last weekend and oh god I miss that smell...smells a hell of a lot better than fritos."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjjomk",
"comment_text": [
"Ive smelt some really funny adult puppies. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjh1mx",
"comment_text": [
"That's not what I mean. They smell funny for a pretty long time."
],
"score": 1
} | |
Why are some people very fat? | explainlikeimfive | 1r4gyy | 4 | true | false | 0.64 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjhmo0",
"comment_text": [
"Answer me this: why is pizza so delicious?"
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjhme6",
"comment_text": [
"They consume more calories than they burn. There are many, many factors involved in weight. These can include genetics (including genetic diseases), other diseases, psychological issues, content of food consumed (such as many foods being very high in sugar), advertising's affect on food consumption, lack of exercise (which can be due to physical environment, social environment, psychological issues, injury, or other reasons).",
"There are a ton of factors that determine weight, so there's really no simple answer."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdji7ev",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, I also watched that. I just don't get what happens in the mind of people like that. Truly sad."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdji7ev",
"comment_text": [
"Yeah, I also watched that. I just don't get what happens in the mind of people like that. Truly sad."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjo6p2",
"comment_text": [
"Mostly psychological. ",
"The reward from food is high and quick. When compounded with depression, enabling friends/family, and lack of self-control - food becomes an endless addictive cycle: \"I eat to fix my depression. I'm depressed because I eat\". "
],
"score": 1
} | |
What would someone with 20 IQ be like? | explainlikeimfive | 1r4iiq | 0 | true | false | 0.4 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjhztu",
"comment_text": [
"A member of congress."
],
"score": 8
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdji0yh",
"comment_text": [
"A Nickelback fan."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjhxt8",
"comment_text": [
"I'm no expert but probably extremely mentally retarded. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjjwmd",
"comment_text": [
"IQ is an arbitrary and misinterpreted concept, and such, how people act and behave is not necessarily related to their IQ. If you do a lot of logical puzzles you can even make your IQ go up 30-50 points. Having 20 IQ points would probably just mean the person is mentally challenged, or simply didn't understand any questions.\nTL;DR: IQ is overrated"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjlmhk",
"comment_text": [
"But that's only really relevant for childhood development. Once a person reaches 'adulthood' the progression stops - a 60 year old and a 30 year old are going to be judged on the same scales, while a 12 year old and a 5 year old won't."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why do we have to defrost raw chicken before cooking? | explainlikeimfive | 1r4ret | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjk9bc",
"comment_text": [
"If you don't defrost then it won't cook the same way all the way through. The outer parts will be over-cooked, while the inner parts will stay cold for much longer."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjkgz4",
"comment_text": [
"Unless you're cubing it for a dish, like stir fry or chicken salad. Then frozen is easier todice and tthe pieces are small enough that the frozen meat retains its liquid better. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjug7v",
"comment_text": [
"ya, I guess I meant not fully defrost. Rock hard anything sounds like a good way to cut off a finger"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjlndp",
"comment_text": [
"Umm... I don't know where exactly you heard this, but ",
" it isn't 100% true.",
"Meat, any meat, is cooked best after it reaches room temperature.",
"After you cook it, let is rest for around 1/4 to 1/8th of the time that you cooked it before you cut it.",
"This will (mostly) give you a tender chunk of dead animal.",
"The reason (I believe, anyway) is because of the long protein strings. Long protein strings are amazingly good things (in moderate amounts), but can curl up and become taught if the muscle is under stress.",
"The muscle is under stress when the animal is alive due to any number of stressful situations you can think of (which is why abattoirs will tend to stun cows and pigs before slaughtering). After the animal is dead, the taughtness can come from too much heat too for too long, or freezing.",
"Let the meat thaw properly, then cook it correctly (depends entirely on the animal), and you should (in theory anyway) get a nice chunk of yummy goodness.",
"I don't know where you heard the 'thaw chicken thoroughly before cooking because otherwise you will die' thing, but I think it may be a bastardisation of 'thaw chicken before you cook it otherwise it will be rubbery as all buggery'"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjlbe4",
"comment_text": [
"Even then, it's best to partially thaw. Partially-frozen meat is the easiest to cut - it's soft enough to run a blade through but firm enough that it doesn't squish around."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why do fighter jets not have missiles that fire backwards for targets that approach their rear? | explainlikeimfive | 1r4t6p | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | The rear of a fighter jet in a combat situation is a very vulnerable position. Why do fighter jets not come with a provision to lock on to jets that are potentially coming in on the rear. So anyone who comes behind can be locked on and destroyed? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjkmzp",
"comment_text": [
"Modern jets really don't get into those situations. They engage their opponents beyond the range of sight through radar."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjknk6",
"comment_text": [
"The missiles would have to overcome the plane's forward motion. ",
"The plane's radar also faces forward and only has a narrow cone in which it can see. Unlike computer games and movies it doesn't give a 360 degree view. This would limit the fighter to using IR missiles which are very short range. ",
"I wonder if the hot exhaust shooting out the back of the plane would make it hard for an IR missile firing backwards to get a lock?"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjkqt5",
"comment_text": [
"You think when a missile fires forward it has to overcome the forward motion of the plane? That forward motion helps it when it's firing forwards. When firing backwards its range is going to be less because it's going to start off with backwards speed that it'll have to overcome. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjknte",
"comment_text": [
"Fighter planes quite routinely, in combat situations, fly with their radar turned off. It makes them blind but having your radar on is a big sign saying, \"OVER HERE!\""
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjs205",
"comment_text": [
"And thats why the more advanced air/naval air forces have AWACSs and sometimes, depending on the system, weapons can be used on the data from the AWACS."
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: What are ghost hunters actually seeing/feeling when they investigate? | explainlikeimfive | 1r50n8 | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | I don't mean the people earning a paycheck on TV--I mean groups who don't do it for money, who have equipment, and who interpret readings to determine spiritual activity. They are obviously reacting to , right? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjmm8x",
"comment_text": [
"Absolutely nothing. It's all an act."
],
"score": 17
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjniye",
"comment_text": [
"A good chunk of it is probably confirmation bias as well.",
"You are in a spooky house, so you are already on alert. Adrenaline makes everything seem worse than it actually is, so that shiver going down your spine from your bodies flight-or-fight reaction becomes a 'ghost touching you.' Your body heat changing due to a reaction to fear (still flight-or-fight, really) becomes a 'ghost in the room.' Something creaking in an old house becomes a 'ghost in the room.'",
"Take a look",
" at the reactions to flight-or-fight. These guys are running around in full flight-or-fight mode overreacting to every little thing, and because they are looking for something to react to, they find it pretty much everywhere.",
"As far as the 'sensors' and 'pickups' and 'electromagnetic ghost dildo detectors' that they use on the show, it's all relying on the Electromagnetic Field, which is generated by almost every electronic device on the planet, which is everywhere anyways. Plus, if you are looking for ghosts, every EMF reading becomes 'data' to be used, even if the data doesn't really corroborate to anything definitive."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjnuek",
"comment_text": [
"I saw a show offering scientific explanations for hauntings (real science) and they tested a lot of old haunted sites and found that a lot of old buildings made of stone have strong EM fields just due to the rocks being used in construction. They subjected people to the same strength EM fields in tests and a lot of them ended up sleep walking. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjnnht",
"comment_text": [
"Not necessarily. I had a conversation here on reddit several months back with a teenager who owned his own \"business\" investigating and removing ghosts from people's houses. He actually thought he had a gift and it was all real."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjmuyk",
"comment_text": [
"They're reacting to EM fields which is what their detectors are designed to detect. It's funny how many haunted electrical goods there are."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why don't europeans hold grudges against the germans for WWII? | explainlikeimfive | 1r4z3e | 2 | true | false | 0.57 | It's always struck me as odd that many european countries don't hold bitter grudges against the germans/austrians for WWII. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjm903",
"comment_text": [
"People didn't want more wars in europe. Being hostile is bad for the peace of a continent which has that many countries in such a small area. And now after decades of peaceful living, WWII is a thing of the past, it is history, it's effects are minimal. ",
"Also, there are just a few individuals left that actually lived thourgh WWII (2013-1945=68 and give them 6 years so that they can comprehend anythings, they have to be 74 or older now) and everybody knows that. It would be like a black man being angry at a white man for slavery in 2013. They have nothing to do with it nowadays."
],
"score": 11
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjmk69",
"comment_text": [
"Well for a lot of countries, like Estonia, where I'm from, the Soviet Union was the bigger bad guy from WWII.",
"Also, Germany is one of the most anti-Nazi countries in the world now."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjmb3s",
"comment_text": [
"Not to say that either slavery or WWII have been completely forgotten. Intelligent people realize that these things happened in the past and work to avoid these events happening again instead of holding grudges."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjndtu",
"comment_text": [
"At the end of WWI, many people wanted to make Germany pay. Germany paid, and it put its economy to the ground. The situation got even worse during the financial crisis. Nazism grew from this and there was a second world war.",
"At the end of WWII, some people were smarter and said \"Let's not do that again. Let's try to reinforce bonds between nations instead\". ",
"The European Union may or may not work right now, but at least we are not at war."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjm6si",
"comment_text": [
"The European Union (and its earlier forms) was started as a project to encourage co-operation and trade between european states in order to prevent the kind of animosity and distrust that was behind the world wars"
],
"score": 5
} | |
ELI5: If I can search the web on my phone using 3G, why do I have to be connected to WiFi to search the internet from my laptop? | explainlikeimfive | 1r54hf | 0 | true | false | 0.45 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjnni2",
"comment_text": [
"Because you dont have 3G on your laptop."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjnnlq",
"comment_text": [
"Because your laptop doesn't have a cellular network antenna (or a data plan with a cell phone provider). You can get a USB device that does just that, though. However, the data rates are pretty expensive, since they're geared toward business customers who need to do work on the road."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjpmgs",
"comment_text": [
"More broadly: over the years there have been boatloads of different radio signals to transmit internet traffic (and lots of ways to transmit it by wire, too, over modems, using optical fibers, using various kinds of cabling, and for that matter, by light waves in various ways)",
"WiFi is one of those ways. (Actually, it's about five ways by now, but the manufacturers do their best to support them all and automatically use the \"best\" one). ",
"\"3G\" is also one of them, but it uses different radio than WiFi. And like \"WiFi\", there's actually a small boatload of \"3G\" radio specs. ",
"You ",
" get tablets and laptop and whatnot with a 3G radio. At that point, all you need is 3G service, which as pointed out can be pricey. Some of the cell companies are good at support this, and can sell you a system that works nicely.",
"Source: I work for Microsoft, and I know some people that make all this work in Windows."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjob0r",
"comment_text": [
"The rates for mobile broadband connections vary vastly from country to country. I pay equivalent to $40 a month for 80 Mb/s (I got 4G) and unlimited data. For my 3G account in Miami I pay something like 50$ a month for 7 Mb/s and up to 3 GB per month. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjovfo",
"comment_text": [
"I agree with what you're saying, but to chime in on the \"ridiculous data rates\", here in Australia, a 4G mobile network broadband modem was about $250 for a few gb of data in a month, it was 4G, so I imagine it would've been good speeds (didn't check specifics as what good is 100Mb/s or whatever if I can only use 4 or 5gb total).",
"On a plus side, it's not hard to find cell phone plans with no data cap, (as opposed to most American service providers moving towards hard or soft data caps) and every phone I've seen has the ability to wifi and/or usb tether your data connection from your phone as a stock utility, no rooting or jailbreaking necessary, it's just there in the settings screen. So while I'm not using a usb stick for mobile data, I just tether my phone and I've got 3G without a data cap anywhere. Something I have used a lot, I've had months straight where I was doing my 9-5 job with my phone as the only link, and it worked great, and I'm an IT guy that does database work, remote desktop, etc."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: How do the commenting limits work on Reddit | explainlikeimfive | 1r5fpp | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | When I first joined Reddit several months ago I understood it wouldn't let me comment very much because joining and making tons of comments is bot-like behavior. I figured that, over time, that limitation would disappear. And it has, for the most part. But today I posted once on one subreddit thread, and tried to reply to another person's comment on the same thread. I was given the "You are doing that too much...wait 4 minutes." So here's my question: do you need to build up comment karma for each subreddit in order to be able to comment more often in that particular subreddit? Because 30 seconds after I was blocked from commenting, I commented in another subreddit with no problems. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjtv7x",
"comment_text": [
"Not really an ELI5 question. It's at the top of the ",
"Reddit FAQ",
"."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdju2xi",
"comment_text": [
"I googled the core words in your question",
"."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk7xlq",
"comment_text": [
"It was when I searched earlier also, when this post was just two hours old. Bugged me out for a minute. I'd wager it has something to do with Google reading your browser cache or something. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdju06g",
"comment_text": [
"Hey, thanks! I hadn't found that particular answer! ",
"Also, how did you get to that \"user specific FAQ\" because the only one I could find was the generic ",
"reddit FAQ"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk7fuy",
"comment_text": [
"...and the first search result is now this thread."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Psychologists. Why do we humans really enjoy the sensation of loud music and why is it more enjoyable loud? | explainlikeimfive | 1r5sct | 7 | true | false | 0.77 | This thought just came to me as I was listening to super loud. The heavy guitar and bass drum just made the song more enjoyable and gave me a good feeling. What is going on in our brains and body when we can feel the sound waves and hear them at the same time? Why is it so much better? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk1bwt",
"comment_text": [
"Loud sounds, particularly sounds that approach the necessary levels for causing (either immediate or accumulative) hearing damage, actually activate your sense of balance (in addition to your sense of hearing). The biological basis for this has to do with how the saccule, a structure within the ear, responds to both sound and movement. The currently favored hypothesis is that the human brain perceives noise stimulus activating the sense of balance as a form of ",
", and as you know the sensation of touch can be very personal, desirable and intimate. In other words, loud music has a similar effect on the human brain as a baby might experience when being rocked gently back and forth by a parent. Interestingly, this relationship between loud sounds and the sensation of balance doesn't appear to be exclusive to humans. For example, many species of alligators only mate during the presence of thunder storms. Having said all that, if you value your ability to enjoy music or hear your loved one's voice please take care of it. At the moment there isn't really any promising research for adequately repairing hearing loss, or addressing related conditions like tinnitus."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjyuwq",
"comment_text": [
"Not a psychologist, but I know of a bit about how sound works. ",
"In music there are a lot of suddle sounds and harmonics. These are at much lower volumes than the \"meat\" of the song. ",
"So while you still hear the basic elements of the song at a low volume. You will hear the more discrete parts at higher volumes simply because there is more sound to hear. ",
"I'll add that essentially what loud music does is increase the signal to noise ratio of the music. Where any ambient sound (car engine, refrigerator, computer fans, idiot brothers etc..) is considered noise. Higher s/n ratios result in better sound quality, so your brain can pick up more of the detail. You would actually get the same result of loud music by keeping the volume constant and lowering interfering noise. ",
"There's also another factor at play here though. That is the THD (total harmonic distortion) of your sounds system. Amplifiers and speakers have ranges where the THD bottoms out. Basically where it's going to make the best quality sound. For most sound systems the THD will increase as you increase the volume. However for speakers if they aren't getting driven hard enough they will also distort at the low end of the scale. So it's possible that cranking it up (to a degree) actually improves the sound quality. ",
"Finally, loud music produces high sound pressure levels. Especially at lower frequencies. So there is a lot of energy in the sound waves. This results in being able to not only hear the music, but feel it as well. I won't talk too much about how this is good because I dont know. But I love being able to feel the music I'm listening to"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjwh2a",
"comment_text": [
"I'm with this guy, I can stand loud music in a bar or a club (I don't go to clubs often), but if I'm just in my car or at the house, the volume is at slightly above normal speaking volume, there's no need for it to be louder. Also, this is why my friends know not to just turn up my radio."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdk2nvy",
"comment_text": [
"Lol, \"suddle.\" If we're talking about music reproduction (playing a song through amplified speakers) then generally your music sounds better because your soeakers were designed to sound better at high volumes. Humans don't perceive sounds of different frequencies at the same volume (if they're played back at the same amplitude) so a speaker system that sounds \"flat\" (in other words, accurate) will sound off at other volumes. I don't feel like explaining this all on my phone but search for \"equal loudness contours\" and \"Fletcher-Munson Curves\" and you'll find some articles that explain what I'm talking about. You'll start to get an idea of why traditional speaker systems can't sound right at various volume levels without advanced active equalization. ",
"Simply put, a speaker system that sounds nice and full and accurate at 90dB will sound dull and lifeless at lower volumes because the treble frequencies will be too loud in relation to the midrange. This is why a system turned down low sounds tinny and bright. ",
"Another big factor, lower frequencies are harder to hear so you need bigger speakers to move more air as you go down he frequency spectrum. At low volumes, the speaker cones aren't moving as much air as they are at higher volume so your ears can't hear the bass as well as they can hear higher frequencies, again leading to dull, lifeless sound. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjvtd2",
"comment_text": [
"Just passing by to say there's few things I hate more than loud music. Even if it's music I like I just can't stand it if it's beyond, say, just above normal human speech. "
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: If hydrofluoric acid can eat away at bone, why is fluoride a prominently used element in toothpaste and mouthwash, to strengthen teeth? | explainlikeimfive | 1r5om8 | 1 | true | false | 1 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjty39",
"comment_text": [
"Flouride != hydrofluoric acid. The element itself isn't acidic, you need a hydrogen bond to make HF. Instead, toothpaste contains monofluorphosphate, I believe it's a salt."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjtvc2",
"comment_text": [
"Hydrofluoric acid isn't fluoride. They're very different things.",
"I mean, if you put pure sodium in water, you get ",
"this",
", and chlorine is a highly toxic gas. Salt, however, is completely harmless, despite being made of sodium and chlorine."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjwi2b",
"comment_text": [
"One of the craziest things about chemistry is how a tiny change can make a massive difference in the qualities of something. Even elements like Fluorine (simplistically put, the base of fluoride), that are pretty benign on their own can become something very different when added to another element, like Hydrogen. ",
"Hydrogen bonds",
" are particularly fascinating for reasons that really exceed the scope of this ELI5. H2O (water) becomes H202 (hydrogen peroxide) - a radically different substance - with just the addition of one more Hydrogen atom.",
"FWIW, Hydrofluoric Acid is actually not nearly as corrosive as Breaking Bad (wild guess that's where this train of thought started) would lead one to believe, unless it is very highly concentrated. It's a pretty weak acid, and is actually Hydrogen Fluoride (HF) diluted in water. HF is nasty stuff, and as the concentration of HF gets closer to 100%, Hydrofluoric acid becomes much more corrosive. ",
"Mythbusters did a whole segment on this",
"* and (spoiler) had to add a significant amount of their \"secret sauce\" to dissolve bone.",
"*I do not condone illegal streaming generally, but Discovery has made the MB page a huge PITA to navigate, and almost impossible to find a specific clip on."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjubsp",
"comment_text": [
"Acids are corrosive because of the bond(s) with the hydrogen, not the chemical itself. The chemical affects how strong/weak the bond is, which affects the strength of the acid.",
"Chemistry is all about bonding, not elements. It's the bonds that define how a compound will behave. The elements involved affect how the bonds form, of course, but no element is like... inherently dangerous whenever you see it in a compound."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjubsp",
"comment_text": [
"Acids are corrosive because of the bond(s) with the hydrogen, not the chemical itself. The chemical affects how strong/weak the bond is, which affects the strength of the acid.",
"Chemistry is all about bonding, not elements. It's the bonds that define how a compound will behave. The elements involved affect how the bonds form, of course, but no element is like... inherently dangerous whenever you see it in a compound."
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. | explainlikeimfive | 1r5ibt | 2 | true | false | 0.54 | I see this quote on reddit often, and people seem to always upvote it. While the litteral meaning is quite clear, I am unable to find some special figurative significance to it. Would someone please help me understand what Douglas Adams meant by that? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjrw5l",
"comment_text": [
"The very creation of the universe causes people to fight."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjsmkz",
"comment_text": [
"That begins to make some sense. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjss9o",
"comment_text": [
"Hmm, I bet you will get a better response out of ",
"/r/books",
" or ",
"/r/literature",
". Personally, I think his use of the word \"created\" sarcastically (Adams was an atheist) infers that there was a creator, and that the people who are \"very angry\" are either arguing about his existence or are angry at the creator himself. \"This has widely been regarded as a bad move\" just seems like more of Adam's signature absurdism."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjt9ku",
"comment_text": [
"Its a joke about perspective. Humans act as if existence is such a burden, all onerous struggle all the time and that's normall because normal is whatever a large amount of people think on topic X.",
"Existience is measured against perfection rather than say to exist or not. In this sense imagine yourself the creator, it would be logical for that being to conclude the creation of the universe was a mistake as thoughs that were created act as if non- existence is preferable to existence. ",
"I think the goal is to make you laugh about how humans think about existence. If before you were born a great creator said here's the deal do you want to be human or choose non existence, near everyone would pick being human even with all the bullshit. However humans don't live in that mindstate which is funny if you have that larger perspective."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjup6f",
"comment_text": [
"I gues this is very relevant ",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3MWRvLndzs",
" "
],
"score": 1
} | |
Are tribes that isolate themselves from the rest of the world still subject to our laws? | explainlikeimfive | 1r5rpa | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | E.g if someone visited a tribe and it was discovered that there were murders/abuse etc. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjvtom",
"comment_text": [
"This is really what interests me. I also do wonder about tribes that have some contact with outsiders or have some kind of awareness of laws. You see these tv shows about visiting tribes, I wonder whether they are restricted in what they say about the law/social expectations"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjuvnq",
"comment_text": [
"Who's laws?"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjuw60",
"comment_text": [
"Laws only apply in societies. Even international law only applies to countries that have signed treaties to abide by it."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjv9f6",
"comment_text": [
"What if Earth is a protected intergalactic tribe. I want off the island."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjuwf6",
"comment_text": [
"What part of the world? What nation are their tribal boundaries located in?"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why are Republicans Blocking Obama's Court Nominees? | explainlikeimfive | 1r5wfd | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | Is this a shallow attempt to prevent Obama from getting things done? Or are the Republicans acting within their constituency's best interest by blocked these nominations? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjwbhd",
"comment_text": [
"It depends on who you ask.",
"Republicans will say their objections are based upon legitimate reason. Either they believe the candidate isn't worthy, or they hold extreme views, or the court they're being nominated to doesn't have the workload to justify a new justice, or similar.",
"Democrats will say the objections are simply to prevent Obama from appointing qualified individuals so that he looks bad and doesn't get as much done."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjwrlg",
"comment_text": [
"Lindsey Graham was ",
"threatening",
" to block all Obama nominees until he's allowed to better investigate Benghazi. Given that 43 senators were voting against the most recent judicial nominees I think it's safe to say this isn't an issue of any single representative."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjwq33",
"comment_text": [
"This is true, but the numbers are quite skewed. Since 2006, the number of filibusters (failed votes for cloture) are exponentially higher than years past."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjwuzu",
"comment_text": [
"I heard it on NPR a few days ago. Here is an article on it. I'll be honest I'm not hugely versed on this topic so this may only be one side of it. ",
"http://news.yahoo.com/graham-says-hell-block-nominations-over-benghazi-154611347--politics.html"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjwo3c",
"comment_text": [
"To add to this, the flip side of the equation is that when the Republicans have been in the majority, the Democrats have blocked their nominees just as the Republicans are doing now.",
"“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5:How are some electronics like cameras and phones waterproof? | explainlikeimfive | 1r0syg | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiexzz",
"comment_text": [
"Gaskets. Flexible selectively permeable membranes. Hydrophobic coatings. Materials engineering.",
"Ok. That's a crappy answer."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdif21m",
"comment_text": [
"No, actually you just about covered it.",
"Source: I'm a materials engineer"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdigk6m",
"comment_text": [
"Those coatings aren't really used for these applications since regular plastic shells with rubber gaskets and glue work just fine (and are hella cheaper). Hydrophobic coatings are very cool, though, and very useful for clothes (among other things)."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdigp7e",
"comment_text": [
"You certainly ",
" but it costs more. And I wouldn't use something like that on anything with a button because the coating will wear thin and break over time as the buttons are pressed, giving a place for water to penetrate into the electronics."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdif8v2",
"comment_text": [
"I'm just blowing smoke out my butt.. But I do know some of these new hydrophobic coatings are pretty darn impressive."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why does our skin leave white marks when we scratch or get scratched? | explainlikeimfive | 1r0quc | 103 | true | false | 0.79 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiea4s",
"comment_text": [
"The skin is made up of several layers and the top layer is dead (gross right?). Well when you scratch you're scraping a bit of the layer off. This layer is slightly transparent so appears white when not in direct contact with the lower layers.\nHope this helps."
],
"score": 56
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdink0w",
"comment_text": [
"That's not dead, but you might be. :'("
],
"score": 13
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdink0w",
"comment_text": [
"That's not dead, but you might be. :'("
],
"score": 13
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiom1t",
"comment_text": [
"bring out your dead. "
],
"score": 12
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdimmpt",
"comment_text": [
"I noticed if I scratch harder, there's a stretchy white layer that comes off. Is that also dead? "
],
"score": 10
} | ||
ELI5: Why don't planes fly straight to their destination on a map? | explainlikeimfive | 1r16sx | 4 | true | false | 0.83 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiiz3q",
"comment_text": [
"Two points: first, when you see a curved line on a map, that's because the world is round while the map is flat. They're actually flying in a straight line, it just looks curved when it's translated to the flat map. The second point is that sometimes due to airport traffic or weather conditions they may not be able to take the absolute shortest route."
],
"score": 10
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdijhl9",
"comment_text": [
"Look at the plane's route on a globe, rather than a flat map, and you'll see that it's usually a straight line. Then you'll understand that it's actually the ",
" that's curved. Or, to put it another way, the map ",
" that it's mapping. Because the actual ground that's being mapped is on the surface of a ball, you have to twist and squeeze it somehow to get it into a flat map. So, if you draw a straight line on a globe representing the route a flight took, and then you twist and squish and curve the surface of the globe to turn it into a flat map, you'll find that you've turned that straight line into a curve."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiohmz",
"comment_text": [
"This is not true. The navigation systems on modern aircraft can instantly tell the aircraft's track over the ground (using a piece of navigation equipment called INS or IRS, which uses gyroscopes to track the aircraft's movement, or even using GPS in some newer aircraft) and will immediately adjust the heading to ensure that wind correction is applied appropriately.",
"The main reason is because of air traffic control requirements. Weather can also play a factor.",
"It is true that a straight line will appear curved on a map, too. This isn't a factor in why you can feel the aircraft turning while you're in it - but it is a factor in why the route doesn't look straight if you see it on a map."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiohmz",
"comment_text": [
"This is not true. The navigation systems on modern aircraft can instantly tell the aircraft's track over the ground (using a piece of navigation equipment called INS or IRS, which uses gyroscopes to track the aircraft's movement, or even using GPS in some newer aircraft) and will immediately adjust the heading to ensure that wind correction is applied appropriately.",
"The main reason is because of air traffic control requirements. Weather can also play a factor.",
"It is true that a straight line will appear curved on a map, too. This isn't a factor in why you can feel the aircraft turning while you're in it - but it is a factor in why the route doesn't look straight if you see it on a map."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiixlj",
"comment_text": [
"They take advantage of jet streams high in the upper atmosphere that consists of air that is moving extremely fast. This allows them to get to their destination quicker than going straight. Additionally geographic features like mountains may be unpassable or unsafe to do so with a lot of passengers. "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why can I not torrent and stream at the same time? | explainlikeimfive | 1r1evk | 2 | true | false | 0.66 | My max download speed is 1.3MBps, torrent was going at 700KBps and the stream uses 200KBps maximum, this leaves 400KBps to be used. Why does my stream stutter every 10 seconds or so when there's so much bandwidth left? (No one else using connection) | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdim0iz",
"comment_text": [
"Why can I not torrent and stream at the same time?",
"BitTorrent automatically uploads the files that you're currently downloading to other users. Now, most consumer connections are asymmetric, and the upstream bandwidth cap is much lower than the downstream cap. So if your BitTorrent client is set to upload as fast as possible, you'll easily saturate your upstream connection. This means that your computer will be unable to send acknowledgments to the video streaming site quickly enough to keep up with the video, causing the issues with streaming performance.",
"Here's how to solve this:",
"Shut down bittorrent and stop streaming.",
"Go ",
"here",
" and run a network speed test.",
"Set your BitTorrent client to limit upstream data to about 80% of your maximum upstream bandwidth.",
"(Optional) You may want to do the same for downstream bandwidth, in case you manage to connect to some very fast peers, and end up saturating your downstream connection.",
"That should solve the problem."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdim398",
"comment_text": [
"My upload speeds set to 1KBps. I realize my connection is asymmetric, but It's not uploading on torrent."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdim6of",
"comment_text": [
"In that case, try limiting the download rate in your BitTorrent client, just to see if that has any effect. It's conceivable that the BitTorrent client is showing a data transfer rate that doesn't count overhead, and you're actually transferring more data than it shows."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdip46c",
"comment_text": [
"But it is uploading, the communication is two-way even when it doesn't look like it is.",
"When you download something, it isn't a stream of bits. It comes in packets. Each packet contains headers and payload. Headers are overhead that has to go onto each packet to tell it where to route the message. The payload could be large, or small but has a maximum size determined by the section of the internet that is currently routing the packet. This means that a 1.3Mb/sec observed download is actually consuming some percentage more and 1.3Mb/sec worth of bandwidth because each packet has that overhead not accounted for in the download speed counters most applications have.",
"When you download from a server, the communications are relatively simple. Server sends you some packets, your computer sends back a small packet saying 'ack' \"ok. i got packet 3,4,5\" or 'nack' \"I got packet 3,5. where's 4?\". Since you need all the data in order to process the video, there's a little bit of overhead while that process of 'ack'/'nack' lets the server know what to send you.",
"When you download from a torrent, the process is much more complicated. You're now getting packets from dozens of people, you're sending 'acks' out to dozens of people, and you're sending discovery requests to dozens of people to look for the next packet to download. Your 'raw' download rate might be '700KBps' but you're using a lot more bandwidth than that with all the overhead 'ack' packets, and discovery requests. All those other clients are also asking you repeatedly 'which parts do you have to share?' even if you're in 'leaching' mode and not sharing anything. All of this uses your outbound bandwith and has higher inbound overhead than pure download data packets from a remote server. And even if it isn't eating all your bandwidth, there's also cpu/memory/OS overhead associated with increased active connection counts that could be resulting in a higher dropped packet count. It all adds up to your streaming client getting starved of data."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdipz32",
"comment_text": [
"Use Task Manager to see what your throughput (total datarate) is through your internet connection; obviously if it's 1.3mbps you're maxing out your connection, but if not, then it could be more complicated.",
"One potential reason could be the stream's website. If ads or other tertiary website features are trying to be downloaded (pop-ups on the page, etc) there's a chance they could be accidentally taking download precedence over the stream, and starving it. And if it the stream goes down for a second, it might need to start over again, trying to synchronise with the stream (which also might be more than the stream's typical bitrate).",
"Realistically, I'd expect it to be some weird network rule programmed into your drivers to ensure connection stability, reduce packet loss, or something of the sort."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What are some things that disprove plate tectonic theory? | explainlikeimfive | 1r1w9s | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiq5yv",
"comment_text": [
"I'd put my money down on you not actually being serious. In case you are, ",
"scientific theory is a coherent set of concepts, explanations, and/or predictions of a particular aspect of reality, which can be tested and supported through repeated observations and experiments.",
".",
"In other words, just because something is called a theory, doesn't mean it's not universally accepted as fact"
],
"score": 9
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiq71a",
"comment_text": [
"You are confusing the layman meaning of theory, and the scientific meaning of theory.",
"In science, the term \"theory\" refers to \"a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment.\"\n",
" ",
" "
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiqrio",
"comment_text": [
"But in the case of gravity, we don't have a unifying theory, and both existing explanations can't account for each other.",
"I think the question is (if not, the ",
" stated question): is there anything like that for Plate Tectonics?"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiqgaw",
"comment_text": [
"As others have said, you are confusing the scientific term theory, with the layman term theory. This is understandable, and many people do.",
"Basically, in science, we never say anything is 'proved' - this is because of the principle of falsifiability. Falsifiability means that, for a concept to be scientific, you have to be able to falsify it - i.e., be able to prove that it isn't true through experimentation. This doesn't mean that you will be able to disprove it, but you can try. So, if I was to make the statement, \"on earth, if you drop something, it will always fall towards the ground without another force acting on it to keep it away from the ground\". I can test this by conducting experiments - dropping things, basically. Now, for every object that falls to the ground, and doesn't hover in mid-air, or fly upwards, the body of evidence for my statement becomes more and more robust. However, it is never considered to be 'proved', because that would shut the door to the possibility that, one day, I might drop something and it won't fall towards the ground. In that situation, I would have to conduct further experimentation to determine why that is, what is causing it, how to repeat it etc.",
"So, plate tectonic theory is a body of science grounded in observation and testing, where the data supports the ideas we have put forward to explain it. However, plate tectonic theory was not the first theory on how the earth developed its oceans, and mountain ranges etc. We know that the Earth is comprised of multiple layers, many of which are in molten form, and we know that the top layer of the earth is comprised of a number of plates that move about on top of one of these molten layers (known as the mantle), grinding against each other, forcing some of the plates down into the mantle, and driving some of them up into the surface - this is how ocean trenches, and mountain ranges, are formed. ",
"Before we were able to discover what the earth looked like inside, the prevailing scientific theory was that the earth was solid throughout, and that mountain ranges and ocean trenches etc. were formed by the earth cooling. This was known as the 'baked apple theory', based on the observation that, if you bake an apple, it's skin will wrinkle up - the wrinkles are basically the geography that we observe. This theory was accepted for a long time, until a large amount of evidence began to challenge it. For example, we know that water will erode things over time. If the mountain ranges of the earth were formed by the earth cooling, then they should have been worn down over time by water flowing over them - basically, the earth should be a lot smoother than it is. ",
"Also, there was a massive paleontological movement in the 19th century, and huge amounts of fossils were found. What was discovered was that fossils of the same animal species were found in Africa, and the USA - there was no way of explaining why these animals were found in these two locations, but nowhere else. In order to explain it, you either have to accept that these land masses used to be connected, but had drifted apart, or you had to find evidence of a physical land connection between the two landmasses. Because plate tectonic theory was largely being rejected by the scientific mainstream, the preferred explanation was 'land bridges' - i.e., these different land masses used to have narrow highways of land running across oceans connecting them, which the animals were able to use to cross. The problem with this theory, was that there was zero evidence to support it - we could not find any evidence of these land bridges. ",
"Anyway, over time, the scientific consensus changed, and it became accepted that the only theory that adequately explained these various natural phenomena was plate tectonic theory. But again, this doesn't mean it is 'proved' - it is simply the best thing we have at the moment to explain these natural phenomena. Hypothetically it would be entirely possible for a new, better theory to arise - but, I doubt it, because the evidence so overwhelmingly supports tectonic theory. However, what we probably will find is that as our scientific knowledge increases, we will make revisions to tectonic theory, and perfect our understanding of how it works. ",
"To answer your bonus question, I have no idea how people who reject plate tectonic theory explain these things. Probably, not very well.",
"Edit: put in more paragraph breaks."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiqia3",
"comment_text": [
"Gravity is a theory. I wouldn't suggest you go walking out a window on the 50th floor of a building though."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why does America have different Laws from state to state? | explainlikeimfive | 1r1you | 0 | true | false | 0.44 | Seems completely ridiculous how you can be breaking a law in one part of the country but not in another. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiqp10",
"comment_text": [
"The USA is a federation. In a federation the states are basically sovereign (responsible for the creation of their own laws, etc) and only a very few responsibilities are given to the national government. "
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdis1k1",
"comment_text": [
"There are two parts to this:",
"1) The states are a federation, so in the United States states have more power than in other countries.",
"2) Since states have more power, evolutionary experiments can happen. Here is what I mean: one state decides to do something radical. They spend a lot of money on this radical idea. If the idea is a success, then the other states might model the idea in their state too. If the idea was a huge failure, and the state lost money, then the other states will not follow their lead. ",
"The design made by our founding fathers results in a stronger union, because states have the freedom to do radical things from time to time (e.g. California and their green technology initiatives, Texas and their investment in oil and gas and wind energy). The states have the freedom to try new things, and succeed or fail. Ideas get tried out on a small scale (e.g. RomneyCare in Massachusetts) before they get tried out on a larger national scale (e.g. ObamaCare)."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiqrv1",
"comment_text": [
"It's not just America, Australia has a similar thing with state laws on a wide range of matters, such as environmental protection, road rules, conduct of elections, rules applicable to skilled trades such as builders, electricians and plumbers, Mining laws--Australia was basically founded on mining, drinking laws, etc.",
"Yes it seems ridiculous, but really it's no more ridiculous than different countries having different laws. There are different priorities, circumstances, traditions and drivers for these matters, and states address them in a manner that suits the majority of their citizens, just as a parent may establish different rules for their children based on different criteria."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiu4u6",
"comment_text": [
"The US is a union of 50 semi-sovereign states. Each of these states is allowed to rule their own territory in any manner they wish provided it follows the bare minimum set forth in the US Constitution. The Federal government only has power over a few specifically defined areas like national security, immigration, or interstate commerce. ",
"Historically the original 13 colonies were independently ruled from one another and when they formed a union together they were unwilling to relinquish all of their sovereignty to a unitary central government. A federal system bridged the gap between self-rule and having an effective central government. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiu6da",
"comment_text": [
"Because different states have different industries, climates, populations, etc. Example, water laws in Arizona are different than say Missouri because Arizona is a desert."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Whats the point of a water jet cutter? Arent there stronger cutters out there? | explainlikeimfive | 1r1yc1 | 7 | true | false | 0.7 | Just wondering! | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdirfz5",
"comment_text": [
"Also, no damage on the cutter itself during process (no blade to change)"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiqlpj",
"comment_text": [
"Cutting usually produce heat which can damage delicate material such as food, paper, rubber etc. With water jet cutters, such damage can be prevented."
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj17sz",
"comment_text": [
"That's how I generally like to be. "
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdisztw",
"comment_text": [
"From what i understand, water jet cutters offer a much more precise cutting edge opposed to let's say a plasma cutter which will leave you with a jagged edge.There are other advantages to using a watter jet cutter. Example here : ",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTPXJgj3y4"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiv598",
"comment_text": [
"You are right! Lack of a physical blade also makes it useful in food industry - mostly meat cutting without risk of cross contamination. "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Tell me if my idea for the future of transportation work? | explainlikeimfive | 1r231z | 0 | true | false | 0.33 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdirsfn",
"comment_text": [
"Someone is already ahead if you: \n",
"http://www.gizmag.com/drawing-power-from-the-road/12874/",
"Yes, technically electromagnetic induction will work, but you aren't the first."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdise3s",
"comment_text": [
"Aah yeah, I knew I wasn't gonna be the first (although I've had this idea around 5 years ago. First it was more of a design like slot cars then later I thought a cleaner design that uses induction would work better). I sorta did get the idea from watching sci-fi films and all though. ",
"Anyway, the question is why don't they implement it because it appears to be the solution to the problem of future transportation when we wont be using oil anymore... Tesla should stop focusing on making bigger and faster recharging batteries and instead focus on building these grids and cars that can make use of them..."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj699k",
"comment_text": [
"I think this technology will come within the century. However, at the moment, there is minimal demand for electromagnetic induction; we don't NEED it at the moment, as no cars have been mass produced that would take advantage of induction. ",
"Here is an example. The charger comes after the device in automotive applications. Hybrids that use gasoline and battery cells have been produced. The only reason charging stations have appeared in some parts of the country is because the cars existed and there was some demand for charging stations. Therefore, a hybrid of gasoline and/or battery cell and/or induction system would have to exist first. Another obstacle is that electromagnetic induction systems would cost substantially more than charging stations, so governments would have to have a good reason for investing their money in such systems. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdisan2",
"comment_text": [
"You could set up tolls and taxation...",
"Like most new highways that are build recoup the costs through tolls anyway. Then you also have taxation such as carbon tax or the congestion tax in London. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdisan2",
"comment_text": [
"You could set up tolls and taxation...",
"Like most new highways that are build recoup the costs through tolls anyway. Then you also have taxation such as carbon tax or the congestion tax in London. "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What's the point of running a knife/sharp object through foods such as burgers and sandwiches? | explainlikeimfive | 1r1zv3 | 1 | true | false | 0.66 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiqxtd",
"comment_text": [
"A) holds it together",
"B) presentation",
"C) a way to give you a utensil other than wrapping in a napkin"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdir0gk",
"comment_text": [
"Not unless you're Steve Urkel or Jar Jar Binks."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiqz92",
"comment_text": [
"You're supposed to take the knife out before you eat it, or, at least, before you get close to the knife"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdir0c5",
"comment_text": [
"May I introduce you to the concept of holding the sandwich together with your hands?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdir3lb",
"comment_text": [
"Pic"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: faster than speed of light | explainlikeimfive | 1r26x7 | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdit2fw",
"comment_text": [
"Without going into completely hypothetical theory, the speed of light is the hard limit.",
"You see, as you get closer and closer to the speed of light, you need exponentially more and more energy. To reach the speed of light mathematically requires infinite energy.",
"Now, what if you travel at 99.99999% the speed of light and then shoot a rocket at 50% the speed of light from you?",
"When that happens, the rocket will still appear to travel at 50% the speed of light for you. This is because the speed of light is always constant in your frame of reference.",
"If someone watching you saw you launch that rocket, you would appear to be moving in slow motion, and that rocket would be moving very slowly away from you.",
"This is because for you, time would literally run slower. Ignoring what happens to people at high G levels, if you (nearly) instantly accelerated to 99.99999% the speed of light, travelled around the solar system for a day and came back to where you took off from, years would have passed. To the people of Earth, you would have simply aged very slowly while travelling around the solar system."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdit2is",
"comment_text": [
"Long story short, I believe it's possible to go faster than light, when you consider self propelling objects. Am I wrong?",
"Yes. Whether or not it's coming from self-propulsion, once you approach the speed of light, you approach needing an infinite amount of energy to increase your speed. The bomb in your box might increase the speed by a certain number of mph skating over the ice, but it wouldn't translate to the same mph increase for your near-speed-of-light object."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiv0hb",
"comment_text": [
"No no no. Mass doesn't increase as a function of speed.",
"Even if it does, it is ",
" that matters. The box, relative to itself, always has the same relativistic mass.",
"Look, you should really ",
"look at my comment",
" and read the link I provided as well, as they address things much more fundamental than what's discussed here. Then you will see what you're missing. It's really not anything that's ",
" things such that they can't go faster than the speed of light. Rather, ",
" is not linear. You think that pushing something off will add some speed to an object - except ",
"velocity isn't strictly additive",
". Adding 1 m/s to an object at rest is very different from adding 1 m/s to an object travelling at 0.999999c.",
"Sorry if I sound harsh, but your constant mention of people \"refusing to consider\", etc, and it doesn't seem like you've read all the comments. Perhaps you should be the one who need to broaden your knowledge a little."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiv0hb",
"comment_text": [
"No no no. Mass doesn't increase as a function of speed.",
"Even if it does, it is ",
" that matters. The box, relative to itself, always has the same relativistic mass.",
"Look, you should really ",
"look at my comment",
" and read the link I provided as well, as they address things much more fundamental than what's discussed here. Then you will see what you're missing. It's really not anything that's ",
" things such that they can't go faster than the speed of light. Rather, ",
" is not linear. You think that pushing something off will add some speed to an object - except ",
"velocity isn't strictly additive",
". Adding 1 m/s to an object at rest is very different from adding 1 m/s to an object travelling at 0.999999c.",
"Sorry if I sound harsh, but your constant mention of people \"refusing to consider\", etc, and it doesn't seem like you've read all the comments. Perhaps you should be the one who need to broaden your knowledge a little."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdizgij",
"comment_text": [
"So what happens if you rotate 4vector beyond horizontal, maybe matter becomes antimatter or time runs backwards or something, that's not my issue.",
"Actually, that is ",
" the issue - because other people's objection about relativistic mass ",
", and is only confusing you. ",
".",
"Why is it wrong? Because relativistic mass only matters when relative velocity increases. That is, if you are on Earth and you look at the rocket speeding away, only ",
" will see the rocket's relativistic mass increase. In the frame of reference of the rocket, its relativistic mass is the same as its rest mass - it never changes; after all, the rocket is always at rest in its own frame of reference.",
"This means that you can validly study the rocket system as if it was at rest, and expelling whatever fuel behind it as if it was at rest. It doesn't matter - you still get stuck with the problem of thinking you can always throw some matter and add velocities linearly. This is the reason this whole idea of mass increasing as the barrier to never hitting the speed of light is wrong.",
"As I said before, the problem is in the fundamental ",
" of speed, and the nature of space and time - which is the reason four-velocity is the issue you need to familiarize yourself with. ",
"Velocity does not add linearly at high speeds",
":",
"If I'm on rocket A going at 0.75c relative to Earth, and from this rocket I fire rocket B going at 0.75c relative to rocket A, using the classical understanding you'd expect the speeds to add up, and rocket B is travelling at 1.5c relative to the Earth. However, ",
". Rocket B will be travelling at 0.96c.",
"So this means it doesn't matter how much velocity you attempt to add, there is no frame of reference where the sum of two subluminal velocities can reach or exceed the speed of light. You can expel whatever mass you want in any self-propulsion vehicle. You can never add velocities in a way that will lead it to exceed the speed of light.",
"I hope you can see the explanations, and this time ",
"."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5- how does a Keurig work? | explainlikeimfive | 1r2fj9 | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | The ones without a holding tank that you have to add water into each time you want a cup. Is there a reservoir? How's it heat up the water so quick? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdivwgk",
"comment_text": [
"The reservior is where you pour the water each time you want to make a cup. It heats quickly because it's a small amount of water (1 cup) and it's a powerful heater (around 1.5kw which is about double most 2 slice toasters and a bit more than most irons). Presuming minimal losses to the atomosphere it would take about 45 seconds for 1.5 kw to heat 8 fluid oz of water from 68 F (20C) to 194 F (90C). "
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdivpts",
"comment_text": [
"Oh, reading is key. Derp. Yeah, the water you put in replaces the water you're taking out of it's reservoir."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiwa18",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdivgp5",
"comment_text": [
"The ones without the holding tank have a direct water connection, similar to a water/ice dispenser on a fridge. They keep a constant supply of water at a certain temperature and refill as needed."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdivo7u",
"comment_text": [
"Mine just plugs straight into the wall. No direct connection "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why do left-wing people believe that certain industries need to be nationalized (healthcare, energy, education), but others do not? Or, is their goal for all to be nationalized? | explainlikeimfive | 1r2e7o | 3 | true | false | 0.57 | I feel like the title is pretty self-explanatory. And by the way - do not let this evolve into an argument from right-wing people. All I want is a succinct answer from a liberal.
Thanks for your answers! -Sinisterslug | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdivked",
"comment_text": [
"There are certain things called ",
"natural monopolies",
" which are basically industries where some think i makes more sense for there to be only one supplier rather than many competing.",
"Natural monopolies usually are industries that provide \"",
"fungible",
"\" resources that have a large capital costs.",
"An example of a natural monopoly is the power grid. Setting up power lines that go to every house is very expensive (that is the large captial cost), but also all electricity is the same (that is the fungibility), so you dont really care who provides your power, its all the same in the end.",
"In this situation it doesn't really make sense two have two competing companies, each having to make their own power grid, because that's a lot of wasted resources having duplicate wires going to every house.",
"Natural Monopolies are generally the best candidates for nationalization.",
"Contrast that to something like fast-food resturaunts. There's no massive captial expenditure really required for a sandwich shop, and the resource is non-fungible, some people like mcdonalds, other people like KFC, so people do care what kind of fast-food is available to them. Fast-food would be a less good choice for nationalization."
],
"score": 12
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiv2hw",
"comment_text": [
"Hitting each one:",
"Healthcare should be nationalized as it is ethically bad to have the ability to treat someone or something but not doing it because of the cost.",
"Energy: We have the ability of helping the environment while not really cutting too many corners when it comes to connivence.",
"education: A smarter world is a better world. By providing everyone with an education...well a high tide rises all ships."
],
"score": 9
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdivuf1",
"comment_text": [
"Because in some industries a \"for profit\" model is extremely harmful to society. "
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiwj7g",
"comment_text": [
"Speaking as a liberal this is the same case I would make.",
"From the perspective of the economy profit is inefficiency and savings is loss. ",
"For industries with either ridiculous barriers to entry or indistinguishable products/services monopolies are the most efficient way to provide this BUT a commercial monopoly would eat into your \"savings\" by siphoning profit off of the enterprise and making people rich (rich people tend to hoard a bunch of money which is a loss). The way we have historically ensured this doesn't happen is to force this monopoly to work as a non-profit and regulate it heavily as to what it can and can't do... that is, we nationalize it.",
"AFAIK MOST people agree with this at least in principal for things which we both A: Believe everyone deserves, and B: Believe is undermined by people not receiving it.",
"So for instance, liberals and conservatives alike generally believe that you must provide law enforcement and a court system that works for ",
" or else you'd get situations where (for instance) Harlem going unpoliced leads to decreased safety throughout all of NYC.",
"I'm not sure everyone agrees on the feasibility of a standing army but I think most citizens would argue that our Military must protect ALL of the US, not just the parts that could pay their yearly protection money.",
"The difference, apparently, is that liberals believe that much like the Harlem example above, the reason rich healthy people's insurance plans have to pay so much for medical is because uninsured people will ignore their early symptoms to save themselves $200 and then collectively require billions of dollars worth of treatment which they won't pay a dime of. (So basically liberals argue your health insurance is more expensive because uninsured people are a leech on the medical industry)",
"Likewise most liberals (and I believe even many conservatives) argue that creating a permanent uneducated class (that is, eliminating public education) would be much the same thing as policing only Manhattan; many of these uneducated people would end up as a permanent criminal class. ",
"Kasoo already covered electric better than I could so... I guess that's all the ones you asked about.",
"EDIT: But if liberals had some BALLS we'd be talking about nationalizing big oil, big farm, and the bigger banking institutions. We subsidize the crap out of them already, they're WAY too important to fail so there's 0 risk for the big ones no matter how stupidly they act, and so when things go right they get rich and when things go bad America foots the bill. Nationalize the lot of them I say. ",
"(Purely a personal opinion. This is not necessarily an opinion shared by other liberals)"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiweks",
"comment_text": [
"Public education is fine - as long as it's funded adequately and given the priority it deserves.",
"The problems come when good teachers can't live on their salaries, and programs get cut due to budget problems . . ."
],
"score": 4
} | |
ELI5: If service providers are so terrible, why hasn't Google completely purchased or created a global internet service yet? | explainlikeimfive | 1r2qv7 | 3 | true | false | 0.8 | I've thought about Google fiber, but why hasn't it gone global yet? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdizgdc",
"comment_text": [
"Google isn't interested in being an ISP. It's very expensive, legally complicated, and really isn't in their long term business strategy. What Google wants is to put pressure on telecoms to update their lines to a standard Google likes and Google Fiber is their way to make that threat real. "
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiyxcz",
"comment_text": [
"It's just the ones in America that suck, in Europe they're OK and in Asia they're excellent."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiz171",
"comment_text": [
"For one thing, regulatory problems:",
"\"Many fine California city proposals for the Google Fiber project were ultimately passed over in part because of the regulatory complexity here brought about by CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] and other rules. \"",
"Also, the cost:",
"\"According to Broadband Genie, it would cost Google $140 billion to provide Google Fiber service to all of the homes in America, and a whopping $1.6 trillion to blanket with world with gigabit fiber.\"",
"But we also have local governments who just won't play ball with Google. When researching why they chose Austin, I read that many municipalities try to extort fiber companies the same way they do developers. 'Oh, you have to get our approval for your business to work? Then we will see what we can get out of you.' But Austin saw the benefit in simply allowing Google to do their thing. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdizc24",
"comment_text": [
"And Provo gave them a fiber network that the city had already installed in exchange for certain deals. Anything that acts like a utility has to deal with local politics. And these can be corrupt and Byzantine. The various agreements have to be worked out with each locality separately."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj3qra",
"comment_text": [
"The Austin details are the same for the other Google Fiber cities. They all sprang up during the Google Fiber contest(to see who would get it first). While some places made silly gestures like renaming themselves to Google(looking at your Topeka) others offered to cut some red tape."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What kinds of medicine can be made in a placebo form? | explainlikeimfive | 1r2vl8 | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdjaced",
"comment_text": [
"No medicine is allow to be distributed in placebo form for general consumption.\nIn the US, the FDA is responsible for enforcing this.",
"Placebos only come into play during an experiment. Experiments on humans require their explicit consent.",
"\"Drugs\" not governed by the FDA have no such restrictions."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj09la",
"comment_text": [
"All of them."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj0a4n",
"comment_text": [
"A placebo can be made of any medicine.",
"A placebo is something which should have no positive or negative impact when administered as medicine. (e.g. a sugar pill or colored saline solution.) When given to patients, they are told that is in fact a medicine which acts in a specific way (even though medically it is not capable of acting that way).",
"So, a placebo can be used in place of any medicine."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj0ctp",
"comment_text": [
"As already answered, medicine isn't made into a placebo. A placebo is something that is used in place of medicine. Placebos are no longer allowed to be prescribed to people, but they are used for research. ",
"fun fact: placebos can still \"cause\" side effects."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj0eqs",
"comment_text": [
"Can you clarify your question? I'm confused by what you mean by \"placebo form.\"",
"A placebo is generally an empty token you give to someone under the false pretense that you're actually giving them helpful treatment. Commonly, this means giving someone a pill filled with sugar, when they think the pill is some form of medicine. But a placebo could really be anything, as long as you can create the impression that it's medicine; it doesn't have to be limited to pills. You could anesthetize someone and play GTAV for a few hours until they wake up, then tell them they underwent a life-saving surgery. That'd be a hell of a placebo right there.",
"So to that end, something is either a placebo or it isn't. Medicines don't have a placebo "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: The Process of Bitcoin Mining | explainlikeimfive | 1r2wjo | 2 | true | false | 0.75 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj0hig",
"comment_text": [
"Please use the search function",
". This is asked often enough where I have a RES macro for it."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj0m6g",
"comment_text": [
"SO common. Thanks for the report :)."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj0o4j",
"comment_text": [
"I'm tempted to create a bot that auto-responds to any post that has 'Bitcoin' in it >.>"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj19wm",
"comment_text": [
"very rarely I've let a few through, because they are a completely unique take on the topic or has some specifics. But yeah 99% are normally removed."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj0lni",
"comment_text": [
"This question concerns one of the most frequently asked topics on ELI5, so it has been removed. Try the searchbar next time please."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Why do we generally feel like shit when we first wake up? Other then getting adequate hours of sleep, what are some things we can do to avoid this feeling upon waking up? | explainlikeimfive | 1r2clx | 1,882 | true | false | 0.91 | EDIT: Thank you for all the beautiful comments. However, I want to be a little more scientific. I understand that waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle is why this happens, but what is going on in our brains that causes this bad feeling? I guess explain it like I'm 10? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiugk5",
"comment_text": [
"Immediately drinking water can help you wake up, so I keep a water bottle by the bed. "
],
"score": 1288
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdivsmh",
"comment_text": [
"So can immediately dousing a person who is waking up. That's why I keep a bucket of water by your bed."
],
"score": 848
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj1imz",
"comment_text": [
"When life deals you lemons, supersaturate your dormant bowels..."
],
"score": 725
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj1imz",
"comment_text": [
"When life deals you lemons, supersaturate your dormant bowels..."
],
"score": 725
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdj0pay",
"comment_text": [
"Step 1: Sleep in the shower.",
"Step 2: Wake up in the next morning.",
"Step 3: Turn on shower."
],
"score": 724
} | |
ELI5: What is labour income? | explainlikeimfive | 1qxyip | 4 | true | false | 0.83 | Hi, I'm doing a paper on the Northern Gateway pipeline project and how it can be economically beneficially for the people of British Columbia. I came across an article that states: "Labour income generated by the construction phase of the project would be approximately $2.5 billion in BC..." When googling the definition, I only found one from Merriam-Webster and it wasn't very helpful: "the annual income of a farmer after business expenses and an interest charge for capital invested are subtracted <to compare labor income with city salaries, the value of house rent and the products used must be added — H.E.Botsford" | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhmbij",
"comment_text": [
"Income that is derived from employment, such as wages and salaries"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhmfkn",
"comment_text": [
"To expand on this, other types of incomes besides labor income would be capital gains (income from investments), lottery winnings, and gifts. They all count as income, but you didn't ",
" to earn them."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhmv2x",
"comment_text": [
"So what that line meant was that the workers involved with the construction phase will earn approximately $2.5 billion?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhn25w",
"comment_text": [
"Can you post a link to the actual article?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhngzl",
"comment_text": [
"Sure! \nThe Northern Gateway: Moving Canadian Energy to Pacific Waters\n",
"http://archive.irpp.org/po/archive/oct10/emerson.pdf",
"It's on the 4th page, pages 50, top paragraph."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why are most popular websites created by Americans? | explainlikeimfive | 1qxtpa | 7 | true | false | 0.67 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhlju7",
"comment_text": [
"English, plus the largest portion of internet traffic is American, so anyone who can appeal to the American market will find it easier to make a popular website."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhm772",
"comment_text": [
"In Asia, most countries have either limitations on internet usage/content, (ie China, S. Korea) or the internet is not widely used enough to encourage website creation. There are many many websites that are popular in Asia, but us English speakers aren't aware of them due to linguistic differences.",
"English has the second most speakers in the world, coupled with the technological assets of the US/UK/Canada, meaning that English websites are more commonly percieved than other websites in different languages",
"TL; DR there are many popular websites around the world, we never hear of them because English"
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhnk8j",
"comment_text": [
"Not really, no. Canada has just as much free speech as the USA barring hate speech and all."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhw0by",
"comment_text": [
"I'm not entirely certain.",
"So don't say it, because you're wrong."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhm8ou",
"comment_text": [
"Why aren't there more popular canadian or UK startups then? Just by chance I would imagine there would be a smattering of them."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5 Why do people have different skin tones? And I don't mean like a tan. I mean like some people are black, white, brown, etc. (No racism intended if any offense is taken) | explainlikeimfive | 1qxrhu | 1 | true | false | 0.67 | Dont give me any religious reasons because most likely its not true. I want a logical reason. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhk9pd",
"comment_text": [
"Darker skin does not burn as easy as light skin, so it was evolutionary advantageous for Africans to have dark skin and europeans to have light skin."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhk8l3",
"comment_text": [
"I see, but why?"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhl5c1",
"comment_text": [
"Quick answer if you don't feel like watching the TED talk:",
"Humans evolved in Africa, in an open woodland/savannah environment. Our ancestors (Homo erectus and the like) lacked clothing but had the natural protection to the sun's harmful rays that all African apes have, namely black skin due to a lot of melanin. Melanin is the main pigment in our skin, impacting the color of our skin, hair and eyes. As our species left Africa and moved into other latitudes and the various environments in each, we started encountering areas with less direct sunlight and areas that tended to be cloudier than equatorial Africa. The heavy pigmentation was less advantageous in these areas, as there was less solar exposure and thus less damage from the sun.",
"Our skin has another vital function that impacted skin color. There is a precursor to vitamin D that naturally occurs in our skin and when exposed to sunlight our skin synthesizes D which then allows us to do a lot of important things including depositing minerals in our bones. Without enough Vitamin D we get Rickets as children (children's bones do not grow normally, resulting in a malformed pelvis and bowed legs) and osteoporosis in adults. In northern latitudes, people with darker skin do not synthesize Vitamin D as well and were at increased risk for Rickets and Osteoporosis.",
"Ar some point humans developed lighter skin tones that allowed more northern groups to better synthesize Vitamin D. Today, we see a relationship between latitude and skin color. Darker tones exist in areas that receive more direct sunlight and lighter tones exist in areas with less direct sunlight. The skin tone is a tradeoff between protection from harmful solar radiation and the need to make Vitamin D.",
"There is a lot more to the issue but I hope this explains the basic idea."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhkbex",
"comment_text": [
"And the science of that in a TED talk"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhk5jz",
"comment_text": [
"Because darker people have more melanin (skin pigment) than lighter people."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: How time signatures work and why 4/4 (whatever that is) seems to be frowned upon etc. | explainlikeimfive | 1qy7lx | 27 | true | false | 0.75 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhp37z",
"comment_text": [
"4/4 is the most common time signature... I've never heard about it being \"frowned upon\""
],
"score": 46
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhssrd",
"comment_text": [
"Ah, this is kind of different to saying that 4/4 is bad in general, as a hell of a lot of music is in 4/4 - what he is saying that they're putting 4/4 to something that otherwise has no discernible time signature, a lot of folk stuff, especially the traditional stuff, tends to just sort of 'flow', with no real focus on the immediate pulse -- and often it has sort of a 6/8 or 3/4 feel - which is more of a counting in 3 type thing (without trying to sound too musical). For a basic idea, have a listen to a waltz, count along with it, then listen to a bunch of mainstream rock or pop songs and count the beat. You'll find yourself going 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, etc....",
"Most pop music is in 4/4. Other people have described what that is. Without getting too musical, it's basically just four beats in a bar, and you can count it like 1 2 3 4, and so on. Accent on beat 1. Listen to most pop songs in the charts and you'll see/hear what I mean. ",
"But in these traditional folk songs it's still got a sort of pulse, but you might have extra beats in bars, it's not like you have a clear accent every four beats, you have it sort of just flow, and so a lot of purists are against the idea of having this consistant 'beat' over the top of something that is traditionally more free.",
"4/4 is definitely not frowned apon in general (well, as long as you don't hang around too many musical elitists), but in certain contexts it can be. Around composers it can be, mainly because a lot of people when writing music, especially today, tend to just fall into the trap of writing everything 4/4 out of habit. Or not even 4/4 but the feeling of a constant pulse, always moving - sometimes what you really want to say falls out of the beat, or the constant pulse, or the 4/4 thing, but you're sitting there with Sibelius (a musical notation program) or whatever you're using, and you get into the habit of just writing to what you know or what you normally do. That type of thing can be frowned apon, but again, it's all very specific to the context."
],
"score": 12
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhp1sr",
"comment_text": [
"Music is separated into measures. Measures hold a certain amount of notes. The quantity of the notes and which notes count as one is the time signature. ",
"So 4/4 means the quarter note gets the count and there are 4 quarter notes in one measure.",
"The top number is how many beats per measure, the bottom is what gets the count. So 2/4 means there's two quarter notes in one measure and 3/4 means there is 3 quarter notes in one measure, etc.",
"As for why it is frowned upon, I don't know. 4/4 is probably the most common time signature so it might have something to do with that."
],
"score": 8
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhtx7s",
"comment_text": [
"Okay, so no one else seems to be answering the first part of your question. I'm a music education major and I've been studying music theory for 5 or so years now, so I'll jump in and offer my two cents.",
"First of all, the time signature indicates the division of a metric unit of time in music, what we call measures or bars. 4/4 time (also called common time) indicates that the measure is divided into 4 parts (the top number) and that a quarter note represents one beat (bottom number). It's not really frowned upon, it's just really common because it's the most naturally comfortable way of dividing a measure evenly in our heads. That being said, the time signature does far more than that, but this is where it gets a little complicated so I'll try my best to keep this simple.",
"Another term for time signature is \"meter\" signature, and this is because time signature acts as a sort legend, like on a road map. It indicates not only how many parts a measure is divided into, it indicates the pattern of natural emphasis in the beats of a single measure, called the metric hierarchy. In 4/4 time, there are four beats, that subdivide evenly into multiples of 2 (think of taking a quarter, and breaking it into 8th notes, then 16th notes, then 32nd notes), and because of our natural tendency to want to hear things in groups of two or three, in this case, we naturally put emphasis on the 1st and 3rd beats, such that in 4/4 time, we get a natural emphasis pattern that goes like:",
"Beat 1: Strong\nBeat 2: Weak\nBeat 3: Medium Strong\nBeat 4: Weak",
"This is called simple quadruple meter (quadruple because there are 4 distinct beats, simple because those beats subdivide evenly into multiples of 2), and it is implied by any time signature with a 4 on top. So 4/4, 4/2, 4/8, 4/16 - they are all implied to be in simple quadruple meter. There are other types of meter implied by different time signatures. In 3/4, for example, our measures are divided into groups of 3. Because of this, our natural tendency is going to be to hear the first beat as strong, and the next two as weak, a waltz pattern - this is the implied meter, called simple TRIPLE (still simple because the main beats still divide evenly). All variants of time signature with a 3 on top imply simple triple meter, so 3/4, 3/2, etc. got something with 2 on top? Simple duple meter. Beat 1 is strong, beat 2 is weak. This is normally thought of as being a meter you would use for a march, like a military march.",
"Finally, we have things like 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8, which imply something quite different. Notice all of these time signatures have top numbers that are multiples of 3 - there's a reason for that. These signatures indicate a main beat that subdivides unevenly. Let's say that we want to have a piece of music with beats that subdivide into triplets, or groups of 3. That would mean in conventional music notation, the main beat would be a note like a quarter note with a dot, which extends the note by half. There's no number that you can use to indicate a dotted quarter note as being a beat, so we opt to indicate these odd meters by stating the number of subdivisions, rather than main divisions of the measure. So in 6/8 time, there's not actually 6 beats, but 6 sub-beats, divided into two groups of three, or rather, that's the implication. We call this compound meter, because the main beats do NOT subdivide into even groups of 2, but rather groups of triplets, such that the pattern of emphasis for the main beats would be Strong-weak, and the pattern of emphasis for the triplets they break into is Strong-weak-weak. We've COMPOUNDED two meters into each other. In this example, we're talking about compound duple meter - 2 main beats that divide into triplets. There is also compound triple (3 main beats that divide into triplets) and compound quadruple (4 main beats that divide into groups of triplets).",
"There's another category of meter called assymetric meter, things like 5/8, 7/4, etc, but those are uncommon.",
"If there's anything I need to explain more clearly, please say something. I will be glad to talk about anything musical :-)",
"EDIT: Added a detail."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhpj8e",
"comment_text": [
"The only real important one is the top number which tells you how many beats there are in a bar. The bottom number is just which length of note equals one beat, but it mostly tells you how to read the music and doesn't really change how it sounds.",
"The number of beats per bar wouldn't really matter either if they were just played steadily all the same, however there are certain beats which are commonly \"stressed\" (played more loudly) which results in patterns.",
"For example a waltz has 3 beats per bar with stress on the first beat...",
"| ",
" 2 3 |",
"Funk and Motown often has stress on the first beat as well with an even number of beats.",
"(Brick House)",
"| ",
" 2 3 4|",
"Reggae has stress on the off beat.",
"(Red Red Wine)",
"| 1 ",
" ",
" |",
"(Buffalo Solder)",
"| 1 ",
" 3 ",
" |",
"These are all examples of specialized genres of music. The most common by far with popular music is 4 beats per bar with stress on the first beat (and sometimes minor stress on the third beat).",
"(Pachelbel's Canon)",
"| ",
" 2 3 4 |",
"A slight variation on that is 8 beats per bar with minor stress on the 4th beat.",
"(Comfortably Numb) [maybe?]",
"| ",
" 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |",
"As I said 4 beats and 8 beats is the most common, most mainstream, and most well liked (so I'd say it isn't really frowned upon at all). You can really tell when it is a different genre of music with anything other than these two and odd number ones especially stand out. For example 7 beats per bar.",
"(Money)",
"|",
" 2 3 ",
" 5 6 7 |"
],
"score": 4
} | ||
Why do ancient Greeks and Romans have the same gods? | explainlikeimfive | 1qyqtp | 3 | true | false | 0.63 | Obviously the names are different because of the different languages, but why they all the same even though they were different times, cultures and locations? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhwmz8",
"comment_text": [
"Look at the Abrahamic religions of today. Muslims, Jews and Christians technically all worship the same God, but through time, cultural influence, geography and variation in interpretation of scripture and the mythology behind the faiths, the end results - and interpretation of just who is being worshiped - appear quite different."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhwo8x",
"comment_text": [
"Wow that's actually crazy to think about! Never thought of it that way, but you are totally right. Great answer "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhwpv2",
"comment_text": [
"Np! ; )"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi22xp",
"comment_text": [
"They didn't have the same gods. They are not all the same it just looks that way on the surface and because most people blend the mythologies. Both the Greeks and the Romans were Indoeuropean peoples and their primary gods came from the same source but diverged over the centuries into unique gods for each people. The basic structure of a lightning wielding storm god as the king (Zeus/Jupiter) married to a fertility goddess (Hera/Juno) with a number of children existed in both. It also exists in a number of other ",
"Indoeuopean based religions",
" as well as other similarities. Parallels to Zeus can be found in Indra, Thor and other gods.",
"Of the two cultures the Greeks developed civilization first, they had contact with other civilizations and went out and colonized the Mediterranean including parts of southern Italy. By the time the Romans started cities the Greeks were a well established people that the Romans could look up to. The Greeks had writings that could be shared. Being a polytheistic society the Romans could see the parallels of some of their own gods and the Greek ones and adopted the stories.",
"However the Romans also retained their own images of their own gods. One of the best examples is the difference in treatment between the Roman Mars and Greek Ares. The Romans looked up to Mars, he was one of the top 3 gods of the state religion along with Jupiter and Minerva. They built temples all over the place to him and glorified war. The Greeks generally did not favor Ares. He is a god of everything that is bad about war. There are few temples to Ares built by the Greeks (make sure to note before arguing whether the temple is a Roman temple built in Greece to Ares/Mars or a Greek temple built by Greeks to just Ares). While the Romans adopted the Greek stories about Ares to apply to Mars they treated the god very differently than the Greeks.",
"This adoption and identification of gods with the gods of other cultures isn't just a Greek/Roman things. The Greeks identified Hercules with the Semitic Baal. The Romans identified Hercules with Thor, Jupiter with Tyr and Mercury with Odin. They just accepted that different people worshiped the same gods under different names and in slightly different fashions. They adopted what they liked and left what alone they didn't."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi28uj",
"comment_text": [
"No it was not a Greek colony. Its inhabitants were Italian not Greek. You are trying to refer in a historical fashion to the myth that Rome was settled from Troy which wouldn't have been Greeks anyway the Greeks didn't settle Ionia until after Troy. There is no historical evidence for this, and in fact historical evidence that proves otherwise. The Romans were very much related in language and culture to the other Italic people around them not the Greeks. ",
"The Romans had preexisting native gods that they identified with the Greek ones and adopted the Greeks myths for in addition to retaining their own local myths and attributes."
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: What is going on with r/gaming and the PC people? | explainlikeimfive | 1qyrcy | 0 | true | false | 0.44 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhv41u",
"comment_text": [
"When a subreddit, at an organized level, starts targeting people or other subs with mass up/downvotes, that's ruled as disruptive. It's a good way to get a sub shut down.",
"Doxxing is the act of posting a person's real-life personal info. It generally leads to threats and harrassment and is ",
" against the Reddit policies. It's a surefire way to generate bans."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhv41u",
"comment_text": [
"When a subreddit, at an organized level, starts targeting people or other subs with mass up/downvotes, that's ruled as disruptive. It's a good way to get a sub shut down.",
"Doxxing is the act of posting a person's real-life personal info. It generally leads to threats and harrassment and is ",
" against the Reddit policies. It's a surefire way to generate bans."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhutba",
"comment_text": [
"Pretty much. If you've never been to ",
"/r/pcmasterrace",
", it was fairly annoying at times. Similar to ",
"/r/cringepics",
" in that a bunch of people would laugh at another person for one reason or another. It breeds and attracts a very toxic community which invariably spreads to other, similar subreddits and causes some measure of havoc."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhuki8",
"comment_text": [
"Banned by who? And for what? "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhuki8",
"comment_text": [
"Banned by who? And for what? "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
How do movie illegal movie streaming site like movie2k, couch tuner, etc manage to even survive and make money? | explainlikeimfive | 1qyg39 | 102 | true | false | 0.76 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhs99k",
"comment_text": [
"I think it's because they don't host the illegal videos themselves, just provide links to them which isn't explicitly illegal (or google would have been tanked under lawsuites). If you notice, the links on the sites go dead frequently. "
],
"score": 50
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhykuz",
"comment_text": [
"If he had to say he's not in the illegal movie streaming business twice in one post, he's probably in the illegal movie streaming business."
],
"score": 14
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhwev1",
"comment_text": [
"Didnt TVlinks get buttfucked for doing this?"
],
"score": 11
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhth9t",
"comment_text": [
"You're getting a pretty worked up over a typo, don't you think?",
"You have a really strict Dad and now you're hearing him in your own voice, aren't you?"
],
"score": 11
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhxl8o",
"comment_text": [
"The videos are hosted by anonymous fileshare sites like RapidGator, DepositFiles, GorillaVid, etc. There are thousands of these sites (many of which are owned by a small group of companies) and they do provide services such as file backups, sharing work files, etc. that make them legitimate businesses. They make their money through premium subscriptions and resellers. Usually these sites will heavily limit the amount of activity (whether downloading or streaming) for free users to entice them into upgrading to premium accounts for a small fee. It's usually around $9.00 a month. ",
"A lot of them also have a ton of awful ads as well (the kind of ads that all say \"CLICK TO PLAY!\" or \"DOWNLOAD HERE\" to trick novice users and people without AdBlock). Bit of a pain in the ass to use sometimes but they're a good way to pirate software/media especially if your ISP filters torrents."
],
"score": 10
} | |
ELI5: How does a car spin it's rear tires without actually moving? | explainlikeimfive | 1qz29n | 2 | true | false | 0.6 | So a driver is about to race, and to show off, he spins his rear tires, puts up a lot of smoke. Why does the car not start moving? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhx2u4",
"comment_text": [
"To add onto what others said: this is NOT to show off.",
"Burnouts are done to warm up the tires to increase grip."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhyneq",
"comment_text": [
"Burning off rubber doesn't result in \"not rubber\".",
"You end up with warm soft sticky rubber rather than hard cold rubber."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhza9j",
"comment_text": [
"Generally, the engine is in the front, and that makes up a large percentage of the car's weight. More weight on the front means that the front tires are carrying more weight, which makes them grip the road a lot more than the rear tires."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhykyf",
"comment_text": [
"But if you burn off the rubber, doesn't fhat decrease grip?"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhz8kj",
"comment_text": [
"Oh ok that helps."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why is a week made up of seven days? | explainlikeimfive | 1qz2jv | 2 | true | false | 0.57 | I was just thinking about this and it seems like it would make more sense to make a week ten or twelve days or a number that can more easily used as increment of time. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhxatz",
"comment_text": [
"The seven day week is chosen because of the 28-day lunar cycle. Every 28 days, there is a new moon, which is really visible - when you first see a moon at sunset. This makes dividing time into lunar months obvious (By the way - moon/month. Yes, that's where the word comes from.)",
"Dividing that lunar cycle into 4 just made sense - the quarters or the moon, when the moon is half light and half dark, and when the moon is full, also made for clear divisions. "
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhxba9",
"comment_text": [
"Thank you! That's just the answer I was looking for."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhx7mk",
"comment_text": [
"For the lazy people who want to know.\n",
"wiki article",
"short answer is because of religious tradition from Babylon and Jewish cultures."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi4ofh",
"comment_text": [
"To honor the old gods. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhxt7q",
"comment_text": [
"Because we only have seven names for the days. JEEZ."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Ideas on Sexual Orientation | explainlikeimfive | 1qz3z9 | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | On the current of AskReddit, I'm seeing a recurring theme of "homosexuality is a choice." I've heard people say that it's genetic, that it's a choice, that it's demons, that it's caused by childhood trauma... is there any consensus in the scientific community, or is it just as jumbled as it is for me? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhxvxn",
"comment_text": [
"There is no Unified Theory of homosexuality, because there are a lot of things we as human beings do not fully understand. The evidence seems to point to a genetic basis, manifesting to greater or lesser extents with social/cultural influences in the middle. While some people could not be homosexual, some people are inarguably so."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhzat9",
"comment_text": [
"I have a strong background in biology and science. If you will my two cents:",
"We know that every trait and behaviour is a combination of genetics + environment. Typically people want to know how much genetics and how much environment but I am going to say it right now that it is impossible to know on an individual level. ",
"Everybody is different. We all have a different combination of genetics + environmental influence. This makes it super difficult to tell how much a person is influenced by any given overarching factor",
"Genetics are complicated stuff. Yup we have the complete human genetic sequence but we have only a small understanding of what all that DNA does. This is because, unlike what most people are taught in high school genetics, there is not a 1 gene = 1 trait thing with human DNA. Even eye colour is determined by a few interacting genes. The story is more like this:",
"This is why, even though two genetically identical twins might share the same genes (more or less) can grow up looking or acting completely different. ",
"So what does this mean for alternative sexual preferences? It is likely a combination of both genetics and environmental influences. I would also like to add that homosexuality is pretty much at the complete opposite end of the preference spectrum from heterosexuality, but that there are many people in the middle (bisexuals, asexuals etc.) which we also need to include and consider. For them too their sexual preferences or potential lack there of are also genetically and environmentally determined.",
"Lets break this down for everyone in a more relatable way. Food. ",
"We all have different genes for taste, our taste buds etc. This is the genetic component. Some of us might have a particular combination of genes (remember its very unlikely a single trait is controlled by a single gene) that predisposes us to liking \"sweet\" things or \"salty\" things. ",
"What we end up liking might be influenced by how we are raised, what we are exposed too, what are culture says is \"yummy\" and \"gross\". For example, in North America raw seafood like a sea cucumber isn't seen/marketed as being particularly appetizing but in other countries like Japan it is. These environmental factors influence what we end up likely as we grow up. Because environmental factors change and because we are complex behavioural beings that are capable of change our preferences change too. ",
"That is not to say a homosexual person can be turned into a heterosexual person, that is to say as a teen you might like blond haired individuals, but as an adult you like brown haired individuals. ",
" ",
"Moreover homosexuality, or rather homosexual preferences can be maintained within a population because being homosexual does not omit you from having children, plenty of homosexuals have genetic children. More importantly because genetics and gene combinations are so complex, and because it is very likely there is no single \"gay\" gene any combination of genes which are linked to sexual preferences from two heterosexual parents can in theory produce a homosexual child. Or vice versa, two homosexual parents who produce a genetic child through new genetic techniques could produce a heterosexual child. That is why you can't just select out homosexuality, it's too complex genetically. People with a laymen understanding of evolution, natural selection and genetics think that \"bad\" genes are just removed from a population over time. Well \"bad\" genes can be and are often linked to \"good\" or \"neutral\" genes or sometimes in certain situations are actually better for an individual to have (e.g. sickle cell anemia and malaria resistance). Thus \"bad\" genes can be maintained in a population either because they are linked to a good gene, or are under different circumstances good. Edit - I am not trying to equate being gay with a \"bad\" gene. Just trying to argue against the notion that natural selection says a \"gay\" gene should be weeded out of a population.",
"Edit: If you want to put yourself in their shoes ask yourself - when did you know you were heterosexual? how do you know you are not homosexual? Did you choose to be heterosexual? Do you think you could change yourself to be homosexual? I would answer these the same way my homosexual sibling does"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhxith",
"comment_text": [
"In all likelyhood it's genetic as in \"you're born this way\". Existence of homosexual individuals in a population can be positive for the survival of the population as a whole and would thus be an evolutionary advantage for the shared genome of the population (which explains why it \"didn't just die out\"). Homosexual behaviour can be witnessed in animals.",
"Honestly, I assume that anyone who thinks homosexuality is a choice is a closet homosexual. Why? Well, at some point in their lives, did they make a concious choice to live heterosexually? Normally, such a choice it not something you have to do. Also, they must think homosexual acts are so desirable that people in islamistic countries risk their lives to perform them."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhzw2m",
"comment_text": [
"No it is not. I'll put it in a different manner. ",
"A male lion killing another male lion to enter into the pride is not committing murder because murder is a human social construct. ",
"A ",
" male penguin engaging in a homosexual act with another male penguin does not mean they are \"in love\", or that they even see the act as sexual. What is defined as a sexual act is a human social construct. ",
"\"Although homosexual behavior is very common in the animal world, it seems to be very uncommon that individual animals have a long-lasting predisposition to engage in such behavior to the exclusion of heterosexual activities. Thus, a homosexual orientation, if one can speak of such thing in animals, seems to be a rarity...Its use in animal studies has been controversial for two main reasons: animal sexuality and motivating factors have been and remain poorly understood, and the term has strong cultural implications in western society that are irrelevant for species other than humans. Thus homosexual behavior has been given a number of terms over the years. When describing animals, the term homosexual is preferred over gay, lesbian, and other terms currently in use, as these are seen as even more bound to human homosexuality.\" - ",
"wikipedia",
"What you are doing is anthropomorphizing their homosexual behaviours. Yes, thousands of cases of homosexual, bisexual acts in hundreds of species have been recorded but this is does not mean the animal is homosexual. It does not mean the animals preferred partners are of the same sex, it does not mean they are singularly attracted to the same sex. A man can go up to another man and engage in a homosexual act, that does not make the man have a homosexual orientation.",
"There may very well be individual animals who have a homosexual orientation. That being said we have to be careful equating these observed homosexual acts in animals with a homosexual orientation."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhzaz4",
"comment_text": [
"Zero problem with um. I believe it is the same situation as homosexuals. However, I do know that some identify as bi but, are straight or gay inside and do not want to admit it. I know it does not apply to them all. And, I try to avoid relationships with them. Because, I cannot compete with a woman, so, I don't. Marriage, babies, social acceptance the whole deal. But, it depends on the person. "
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: microwave technology | explainlikeimfive | 1qz4oq | 3 | true | false | 0.71 | It's been around for so long and I use one to heat my coffee, which my wife says is unhealthy. Go on reddit, learn me properly! | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhy69v",
"comment_text": [
"Microwave ovens are not tuned to the rotational frequency of water though. The frequencies involved are off by a factor of a thousand. They work by dielectric heating, which is non-discriminate on molecules with an electric dipole."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhyawy",
"comment_text": [
"Some molecules can have electric dipoles - sides with slight positive and negative charges. An electric field can force these charges to align. If you oscillate the electric field quickly, the molecules will spin to attempt to align to the oscillating field.",
"The difference here though is that dielectric heating is not specific to water like you implied - that is, it doesn't hit the resonant rotational frequency of water at all. It acts on anything with an electric dipole - so fats and sugars can be directly heated up as well. The whole \"microwaves tuning to the 'frequency' of water\" is a very common misunderstanding."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhzsop",
"comment_text": [
"To be clear, microwaves in your oven are electromagnetic, they're not nuclear as in uranium or other radioactive elements (nuclear might not be the appropriate term, but I'm not a nuclear physicist or engineer). So your food is cooked by magnetic fields, not by tiny bits of matter moving at nearly the speed of light. Your food doesn't become littered with nuclear fallout before you eat it.",
"Your food is molecularly vibrated until it's hot. That's it. \"Unhealthy\" is a myth perpetuated by people who refer to the microwave oven as \"cooking with magic\".",
"I just wanted to say this because radiation is a broad term, and people might not realize there's a difference. As ",
"/u/oprex",
" had suggested, there are still dangers from exposure, but your microwave oven is shielded - you'd have to subvert the safety systems or cut a hole in the side to risk being exposed to dangerous concentrations of microwaves which could burn you, and it would only be a danger while the unit is running."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhy8cq",
"comment_text": [
"dielectric heating.",
"Now ELI5 that, please."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhxs8w",
"comment_text": [
"When radio was invented, operators quickly discovered that on a foggy day, when there's water in the air, reception was bad.",
"So what happened? Radiowaves (which is what a microwave uses to heat stuff) are hitting water molecules. Water molecules when hit begin to \"swing\". Now, different molecules sway back and forth at different frequencies just like the swings in the park swing back and forth at different frequencies if their ropes are of different lengths. ",
"If the frequency of the radiowaves matches the frequency water molecules swing at, they act just like an adult pushing you each time you reach the apex on a swing. And while you're getting higher and higher due to being pushed, it doesn't take you any longer to swing back and forth; you just swing faster. For molecules, how fast they swing or sway is how warm they are. So as the radiowaves push them rhythmically to sway faster and faster, they heat up.",
"Since different molecules swing at different frequencies, the microwave has to be tuned to something that virtually every food contains. And water happens to be just that. This is also why a cup of water will heat faster than a dry cracker, btw.",
"Why did the reception for radios get worse in foggy weather? Well, the radio heated the fog. Of course, there's too much fog for too few radio waves, so the difference wouldn't be noticible, but it happens. And when the energy the radio transmitted at is used for heating, the radio waves don't reach the receiver anymore.",
" a few typos. Not all, but some of them."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5:what the hell is going on in /r/Gaming? | explainlikeimfive | 1qzcoy | 3 | true | false | 0.64 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhzz3v",
"comment_text": [
"/r/pcmasterrace",
" got banned because some users posted personal information on a ",
"/r/Gaming",
" mod who had apparently 'dissed' PC gaming due to some pictures of that 'Large Pixel Collider'. Posts related to PC gaming were removed, angry things were said, and the mod was doxxed, apparently by users from ",
"/r/pcmasterrace",
". There was a troll crusade that caused a bunch of shit, up to and including the age-old reddit favorite of ",
"death/murder threats/jokes",
". Or at least its been alleged.",
"They moved ",
"here",
" and are attempting to regroup and put a solid banhammer up for anyone who tries to interact with ",
"/r/gaming",
".",
"Anyways, ",
"/r/gaming",
" reacted by having a bunch of people who thought that PC gaming was being censored posting tons of PC game pictures, thus activating a level 10 circlejerk on ",
"/r/gaming",
" involving PC games.",
"/r/Gaming statement here",
"/r/PCMasterRace statement here",
"By next week everyone will probably have forgotten about this. Hell probably before Wednesday."
],
"score": 13
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi0bnn",
"comment_text": [
"Nice and succinct. I'm just firing in to point out a couple of great subreddits where you can find answers to stuff like this:",
"/r/subredditdrama",
"/r/outoftheloop",
"Those subreddits do the Lord's work and could use some extra visibility."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi19um",
"comment_text": [
"Subreddit drama isn't really what ELI5 is for. Please take it to ",
"/r/outoftheloop",
" or ",
"/r/subreddit",
" drama, or better yet, the subreddits in question. Removing."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi0f54",
"comment_text": [
"Alright, I'll check them out. Thanks."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi09mh",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks, this helped a lot.\nSome people are just overly-biased idiots, I can understand a few jokes pointing towards what you prefer (PCMasterRace for example). But those harassers took it to far."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What language do dogs think in? | explainlikeimfive | 1qzg8s | 3 | true | false | 0.67 | Like when they're thinking "I wanna play with that ball, throw it for me." or "I want to get up on the bed, help me up." (my dog vocalizes when she wants on the bed) How is that thought formed in their heads? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi0vly",
"comment_text": [
"Dogs do not posses language skills therefore cannot think using language. Dogs would process emotional intelligence and would repeat behaviours that lead to positive emotional responses. This is why Pavlov* was able to make his dogs salivate using a bell, dogs have a good memory for sounds and patterns that lead to rewards. ",
"*Brain fart"
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi0y2x",
"comment_text": [
"*Pavlov",
"oh ok that makes sense, so would you describe that as consciousness still?"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi12tj",
"comment_text": [
"Yes, it is definitely a form of intelligence. It shows the ability to learn, adapt and have feelings."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi3ry4",
"comment_text": [
"I would say that humans think nonverbally from time to time as well. I, for one, don't think \"I'd like to lift some weights.\" word for word. It just appears as a feeling. I don't think \"Damn, I need to scratch that itch.\" either.\nThoughts can exist without words. Dogs don't have words. Dogs think without words."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi5f0a",
"comment_text": [
"Dogs and other animals do not \"think\" in language, because they do have have brains developed to a level sufficient for utilizing language. ",
"Dogs can learn and repeat behavior, they have (some) emotional capability, but their brains cannot translate this into a language."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What's the difference between a Prime Minister and a President? | explainlikeimfive | 1qzaf5 | 135 | true | false | 0.8 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhzhi2",
"comment_text": [
"To add to this, it's worth noting that a lot of countries have both a president (as head of state) ",
" prime minister (as head of government). For example, France, Israel, or Germany. This is very common in non-monarchies. "
],
"score": 37
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhzhi2",
"comment_text": [
"To add to this, it's worth noting that a lot of countries have both a president (as head of state) ",
" prime minister (as head of government). For example, France, Israel, or Germany. This is very common in non-monarchies. "
],
"score": 37
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi1c3q",
"comment_text": [
"The speaker in the House of Commons is strictly non-partisan and must renounce his or her connections to the respective party.",
"\nThe speaker is more of a moderator whose job is to run discussions, decide who gets to speak and punish MPs who don't abide the rules. The speaker is not allowed to vote, either."
],
"score": 10
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi7mua",
"comment_text": [
"Just a note for clarity's sake: the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate are equal to one another in terms of power. The only two substantive differences are 1. The Senate has the sole power to approve or reject treaties and major nominations, and 2. The Senate - based only on their own institutional rules - must deal with the \"60\" vote rule where a majority vote (51 out of the 100 members) often isn't enough to get a very meaningful matter adopted because of a procedural respect for the deliberative nature of the Senate (often referred to as the power of the \"filibuster\"). Because the bi-cameral nature of the Congress requires identical bills to be adopted in both houses before being presented to the President, both the Speaker and the Majority Leader have veto authority over the other house's agenda (minus the limited authority described above). ",
"Edit: spelling"
],
"score": 9
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi9ef0",
"comment_text": [
"This is because they, by definition, ",
" hold a majority in the legislature.",
"I would add nuance to this to say they must be able to ",
" a majority. Even if the party of the PM is in the minority, they must be able to pull together a coalition the event of a ",
".",
"Take the recent minority government in Australia. The cross-bench members said they would support the government in no-confidence motions, but reserved the right to negotiate on all other legislation. This provided stability, without forming a true majority for the government."
],
"score": 5
} | ||
ELI5: If stem cells are so helpful and cure all sorts of disease why is it seen as unethical? | explainlikeimfive | 1qzgif | 3 | true | false | 0.67 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi18kh",
"comment_text": [
"Well what the other guy said is half correct.",
"There are multiple types of stem cells. We have stem cells in adults which don't carry much ethical dilemma. For example, humans have them in bone marrow and in the pulp of your teeth. However, adult stem cells are multipotent. This means they have a limited number of cell types that they can differentiate into. ",
"HESC or Human Embryonic Stem Cells are were the debate is. HESC are thought to be pluripotent meaning they can differentiate into ANY type of human cell strain. They are derived from human embryo that is 4 to 5 days old, basically just a lump of cells. Some people think this lump of cells has a soul and since harvesting these stem cells means destroying the embryo, it constitutes murder. "
],
"score": 11
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi0yj2",
"comment_text": [
"You don't need to harvest babies to get them. And people who think stem cells are unethical also think that abortion is unethical (or at least there's a very large overlap between the two)."
],
"score": 9
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi0uhv",
"comment_text": [
"Because people think you need to harvest babies to get them."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi0x4w",
"comment_text": [
"Oh... And do you need to harvest babies to get them? Its okay to have an abortion so what's the problem",
"Edit: words..."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi2cza",
"comment_text": [
"Very good explanation. Stem cells on their own are not considered unethical. Rather, it is where (or from whom) and how the stem cells are obtained. No one really has a problem with adult stem cells, at least where ethics are concerned."
],
"score": 3
} | ||
ELI5: Why does kissing make us... horny? | explainlikeimfive | 1qzat8 | 10 | true | true | 0.61 | Why do people get aroused by the act of kissing? I mean, why is it hot to do so? I want to get the science behind it! This isn't a question a 5 year old would make but what the hell, I'll ask it anyway! | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi43fa",
"comment_text": [
"so kinda like pavlovs dog, but instead of food it is someone playing with your dick."
],
"score": 10
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi3d8p",
"comment_text": [
"Your body reacts based on your knowledge and prior experiences: You expect that the person who kisses you finds you attractive and wants to do more than that. So you get horny. If high fives were a sign of affection in a different culture people would get horny after that too."
],
"score": 9
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi97lg",
"comment_text": [
"I don't think there's any right answer to that question, Dr Freud."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdidtku",
"comment_text": [
"Pavlov's dong if you will"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi2d8b",
"comment_text": [
"Your lips are very sensitive to fine touch, and for a lot of people, they are erogenous zones, meaning that certain stimulation can turn you on. It's the same reason why some people are sensitive to things like sucking on earlobes."
],
"score": 3
} | |
ELI5: Military Rank. Where do we get names like Colonel, Lieutenant, Sergeant? | explainlikeimfive | 1qzok9 | 1 | true | false | 0.57 | Where do names like Colonel, Sergeant, Ensign, Captain, Admiral, Major, Lieutenant,(Lt. Commander, 2 Lt, Sub-Lt, etc.) come from? Spelling? What are the differences between branches? (Naval Captain vs Army Captain) What groups of forces do each officer rank have control over? What about Civilian Rank (Police Officers, etc) Thanks! | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi6fcg",
"comment_text": [
"Where do names like",
"English is a mashup of its own history, + some french + some german thrown in. Armies, particularly since the advent of professional standing armies, have always had ties with each other. So countries have gone around copying ranks and organizations from each other for centuries. ",
"Particularly as armies have grown over time new ranks have needed to be injected into things as different places. Just about everyone agreed that 'General' was a top rank since Roman times, until someone came along and decided that 'Marshall' was better (not all countries use Marshal or Field Marshall). ",
"What are the differences between branches? ",
"History, and how different services have evolved.",
"There aren't any ships with even 10 000 men on board, about as big as you get is ~5000 (and that is a modern fleet carrier with an air compliment) so Navy ranks ended up binned and evolving around how many people you put on a ship, and then how big a fleet you have. An army captain used to be a nobleman who bought a commission and had a lieutenant (who also bought a commission). ",
"Rank structures used to be a lot flatter than they are now, with lieutenants, captains (though captain wasn't always a rank, it's sometimes a position) and then generals/admirals (and potentially a general of the admiralty at one point), and only a couple of positions in between - they were all noblemen or the children of noblemen (lords). But times change and what made sense as a captain of a couple of hundred people on a ship or a couple of hundred people on foot ended up with a captain being in charge of a ship, and new ranks squeezed in underneath, or a captain of 200 ish people, with new ranks added above for thousands of people. ",
"If you want to add some absurdity to your confusion, a royal marine captain is basically the same as any army captain - in charge of a couple of hundred men, but the captain of the ship out ranks him by a wide margin. ",
"What groups of forces do each officer rank have control over?",
"Depends on your country.",
"\n",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_organization",
"Nato actually uses a code ranking system, because the names are a mess - but an OF3 is an OF3 everywhere, and if your country doesn't have an OF3, well an OF3 is still ahead of an OF2 and below an OF4 so you can figure it out. ",
"What about Civilian Rank (Police Officers, etc)",
"Depends a lot on history, and where the police force came from. If a police force is descendent from an army or militia then it inherits some of the rank structure. The UK police force for example doesn't really have a common rank structure with the Royal Army because the two were and are deliberately separate, whereas the French have two separate police forces that have some military ranks within them, and the french have had to rebuilt their entire civil structure a few times over the centuries - also, most of the ranks are actually french words, so they are more obvious in french."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdikb1m",
"comment_text": [
"is that just a word thrown into a rank prior to reaching said rank?",
"Lieutenant is derived from french - and it basically just means a holder of a position, and ya, it's a formal 'gentleman who has could get to a position'. It's so old that the difference in pronunciation (lef tenant in english, versus lieu tenant in french) seems to date back to a some point when the french changed the spelling of luef to lieu - the english continues to preserve the 'f' sound despite the letter itself being supplanted by an i for centuries. ",
"So yes - but also in it's still a gentlemanly position - as compared to sergeant who serves. ",
"I don't know my way around old french, but it would be interesting to know if Lieutenant at one point could have applied to non officer types, but the back and forth with english caused it to be promoted to the officer ranks (because only english nobility spoke french). "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi4at3",
"comment_text": [
"From Merriam Webster, colonel is a modification coronel from middle French, which is itself a modification of other words. It comes originally from Latin meaning column, i.e. the leader of a column of soldiers. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdijjge",
"comment_text": [
"Wow- Thank you for such a detailed answer. I knew there was a large disparity between captain on land and captain of a ship - I was interested to see where the term captain (of a ship) grew legs, if you get the metaphor. ",
"So, Lieutenant - is that just a word thrown into a rank prior to reaching said rank? Lieutenant Commander, 2",
" Lieutenant etc. Does the word come from Lieu-Tenant as in \"someone who is here instead of whoever you were going to see\" It would make sense. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi3oea",
"comment_text": [
"And most importantly, WHY THE FUCK IS COLONEL PRONOUNCED KERNAL!?",
"I'm serious here. It has always bugged me how wrong that word is."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why do currencies have an investment value? | explainlikeimfive | 1qzot3 | 12 | true | false | 0.72 | Looking right now at the bitcoin boom. A currency is only the medium of exchange wealth. They inherently dont have any value (bitcoin, dollar, gold, etc) So why to buy a currency and expect to increment the wealth of oneself when there is nothing to backup that wealth? Right now just because someone says that the bitcoin is "legal", its value goes up, but there is no work, no resources behind this new wealth whatsoever. Moreover, is it possible to have a currency where there is 0 investment value and it will only be used to exchange wealth. I think this will end lots of problems we actually have. Sorry about my english. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi3qci",
"comment_text": [
"So why to buy a currency and expect to increment the wealth of oneself when there is nothing to backup that wealth?",
"When you speculate on currency you are speculating that its value will increase (or decrease) relative to other currencies. If I hold GBP and believe USD will climb relative to GBP then if I exchange my GBP for USD, wait for USD to climb and then buy back GBP I will have more GBP then I started with; I have made money.",
"There are many things that only have value because we state they do. Music & Art only have inherent value of the materials used to create them, a Picasso costs $10m instead of $2.39 because demand for Picasso paintings exceeds supply. A Picasso is a scarce resource.",
"This is called ",
"marginalism",
", price is a function of utility and availability not cost of production.",
"Right now just because someone says that the bitcoin is \"legal\", its value goes up, but there is no work, no resources behind this new wealth whatsoever.",
"Bitcoin is surging because of interest due to the congressional hearings as well as massive interest from China (spot price in China is ten times what it is outside of China). As the number of Bitcoin available is finite as demand increases for them price rises.",
"Moreover, is it possible to have a currency where there is 0 investment value and it will only be used to exchange wealth. I think this will end lots of problems we actually have.",
"What problems do you think currency speculation creates?"
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdie3rb",
"comment_text": [
"If nobody accepted USD nobody would see them as having a worth. Same goes for btc. People ",
" them as having a worth so they put a value on them."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi3h5h",
"comment_text": [
"They have value when people decide it's a usable medium to exchange wealth."
],
"score": 0
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi9fho",
"comment_text": [
"when it comes to investing, most of them are most certainly stupid. thats why wall st constantly looks for young guys and pays them well to invest professionally, guys like me!"
],
"score": 0
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi7uxj",
"comment_text": [
"currencies are valuable as the only means to extinguish a tax obligation. that is why bitcoins are stupid. ",
" have no intrinsic value, just people talking about them (so sure, theyre valuable for the time being). ",
"basically, the over-40 crowd forgot about the dotcom bubble and still think that if its electronic and no people wearing suits are involved that it is a sure bet (see also: tesla)"
],
"score": -1
} | |
ELI5: how is it that ff people on a planet 65 million light years away look at earth, they see dinosaurs? | explainlikeimfive | 1qzue1 | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi4zsv",
"comment_text": [
"Imagine you send a snail mail letter to someone.",
"You get out a sheet of paper, write the date at the top and start off with, \"Dear Auntie Bernice,\" or whatever. You finish your letter, stick it in an envelope, address it, and put it in the mailbox. The mail carrier picks it up, puts it in a truck, takes it to sorting, sorting sends it back out, another carrier puts it in your aunt's mailbox and later your aunt comes by, picks up her mail, takes it in her house and opens it.",
"By this time, your letter has done a lot of travelling. When your aunt opens the letter she will read everything that you were thinking, feeling, and experiencing ",
". ",
"This is similar to what happens when light travels.",
", in the form of light, leaves Earth. It travels hundreds of millions of miles to wherever. By the time it gets there, that information is old - just like the letter you sent to your aunt."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi4s7r",
"comment_text": [
"Because the light year is a unit of distance equal to how far light travels in a year. When we see things, we're seeing the light reflected off of it (or if it's a star, the light produced by it). So, if someone was on a planet 65 million light years away, that means it takes 65 million years for light to reach it from Earth. So the light reaching it would be the light that bounced off of Earth 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs were around."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi4zzd",
"comment_text": [
"Seeing any object is like looking into a mirror, the difference is that most material scatters light so it doesn't reflect an image like a mirror does."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi4zzd",
"comment_text": [
"Seeing any object is like looking into a mirror, the difference is that most material scatters light so it doesn't reflect an image like a mirror does."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi508q",
"comment_text": [
"I think the book meant that, if alien astronomers were looking at Earth right now, from a planet 65 million light years away, they'd be seeing dinosaurs. If you looked at a mirror 65 million light years away, you'd actually be seeing the Earth as it was 130 million years ago, since the light from Earth would take 65 million years to get to the mirror, then another 65 million years to get back to you. (edited because it didn't make sense before)"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why did we (the users) have to hear the dial-up noise of modems? | explainlikeimfive | 1r036c | 2 | true | false | 1 | I understand what the sound 'meant' but I don't get why it just wasn't sent over the wire rather than filling the entire house with robot-death-screams. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi7gbt",
"comment_text": [
"There was a command to turn it off, but it was useful to have turned on to help diagnose certain common types of connection issues. Specifically busy signals, number-not-in-service signals, and wrong numbers."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi7tyf",
"comment_text": [
"you say robot-death-screams, I say the sounds of a robot-conjugal-visit"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi7e3h",
"comment_text": [
"You could turn the sound off if you wanted."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi7ftz",
"comment_text": [
"Mostly a debugging thing."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi7h11",
"comment_text": [
"Most modems had an option to mute the speaker."
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: Why is it that search engines do not block results to their competitors' sites? | explainlikeimfive | 1r06dr | 7 | true | false | 0.74 | For example, if I put "Bing Maps" into Google, it faithfully churns out the correct result. Why not take advantage of the situation, and put Google Maps as the first result? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi8esy",
"comment_text": [
"1) google doesn't lose if you use bing",
"2) as soon as they start restricting or modifying search like this, people leave"
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdib3ba",
"comment_text": [
"Google doesn't really make money from you using their products. Every notice that you've never had to pay to send an email or browse with chrome? ",
"Google makes their money by displaying ads to you. The reason they need you using their search engine is that that's how they collect data. They learn who you are, where you live, what you like, and use that information to display ads targeted directly toward you. This makes ad space more valuable to marketers, and they make more money. ",
"Products like maps don't make money. In fact, some services, such as Android, are actually in the red (cost more money than they make). However, they increase Internet use, and particularly in ways google can utilize, so it's still worth it overall. ",
"The reason they don't lose when you use bing is twofold. First, you're still searching through Google, so you're still giving them information, and seeing their ads. The second may not be entirely relevant in this situation, since Microsoft most likely has their own ad service. However, many smaller companies use google ad services, so even when you're not using a google product, google is still collecting data and showing ads "
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi8ki0",
"comment_text": [
"Point 2 seems logical.",
"But if \"google doesn't lose if you use bing,\" then how does google win if you use google?"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdi8r35",
"comment_text": [
"In your scenario, you're still using google. What do they care which map you use? As long as you're searching through Google, they're making money"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiatcn",
"comment_text": [
"What do they care which map you use?",
"Admittedly, I don't know much about how the money flows with these companies, but if Google Maps was worth creating in the first place, I would bet they certainly care if you use their product.",
"As long as you're searching through Google, they're making money",
"Can you elaborate? Again, I'm not familiar with how the money flows."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5:Why are green eyes so rare? | explainlikeimfive | 1r0cn5 | 7 | true | false | 0.76 | I have green eyes. My mother has dark brown eyes, my father has green eyes. I thought that brown was dominant over green and therefore I should in fact have brown eyes? My grandmother ( on my mothers side) had green eyes if that makes any difference? Are green eyes even that rare? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdiaf94",
"comment_text": [
"Your mother had the recessive gene for green eyes, and that mixed with your dads green eyes to make you. I don't know about rarity for non brown eyes, they should all be rarer than brown.",
"Source: My hazel eyes mom and green eyed dad made blue eyed me."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdicgcs",
"comment_text": [
"There are several genes that help determine eye color. The easiest explanation is to imagine two eye color genes per person. Your dad has two green genes so has green eyes. Having one green (grandmother) and one brown (grandfather) leads to brown eyes (your mom). When she passed her green gene with either one of your father's green genes, you gained two and thus have green eyes also."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdicq8h",
"comment_text": [
"But mine are blue, The best I have been able to find my moms mom has blue eyes and my dads grandmother had them. This was actually one of the reasons my mom didn't hold me when I was first born and asked for her real kid."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdifpg7",
"comment_text": [
"Your mom was quite silly then, as it's not at all unusual for newborns to have blue (or light-colored) eyes regardless of what their final eye color is."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdijns7",
"comment_text": [
"You said that green eyes are common in Mongolia, N. China and so on. I have green eyes and I am from England and I'm white. None of my family have green eyes- parents both blue/grey. To the best of my knowledge the closest eye colour to me was my grandad who had hazel eyes. Why is this?"
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: How does fining financial institutions benefit individual citizens? JPM Fined $13BN, $7BN tax deductible. | explainlikeimfive | 1r0nqf | 1 | true | false | 1 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdidwde",
"comment_text": [
"in the past fines were less than actual profits the companies made. if a company profited 2 mil and was fined 500mil. so what. they were happy. also they would do it again if they had to. fining something like 13bil makes them very cautious of repeating the act. it took their profit from several things. Also in this situation, a good mortgage attorney can review individual mortgages and get them rewritten in the mortagee's favor since the bank already admitted guilt. helps future mortgage requests because all banks stood up and took notice. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdienst",
"comment_text": [
"they dont have to. it was admitted for them. the feds researched and had proof. Sadly they inherited most of their mortgages from Washington Mutual. What I understand is Their CEO J. Diamond got caught in a lie. that sent the feds into a anger frenzy. Now supposenly they were paying off some high china official on some matter. This is super serious. News about it will come up on the net then disappear. I have a funny feeling all hell will hit the fan real soon. the amount of profits banks and insurance companies make is just so ridiculous"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdif0zk",
"comment_text": [
"are Agency and State claims actually reimbursing / aiding individuals?",
"There's no way they can make each and every person who believes they were wronged whole. Like everything else the government does, there will be winners and losers.",
"Is this an effective penalty / deterrent when half the amount is tax deductible? ",
"It's 4 times bigger than what BP is paying (according to your own source). I work in the energy industry where we have the FERC to deal with, and I can tell you that each and every one of their cases scares me. It causes the industry to no longer be worried about doing the right thing but about even looking like you're doing the wrong thing. All that being said, it doesn't allege (or if it did, I overlooked it) how much JP made by their wrong doing. I doubt they're alleged to have made anything less than their fine. ",
"The tax deductibility of the $7b makes it effectively a $4.5B fine which is still pretty big.",
"Are there better, probable alternatives?",
"\"The settlement does not absolve JPMorgan or its employees from facing any possible criminal charges,\" the Justice Department says. It appears the Justice dept isn't done with JP so hold this question until the end."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdie7fk",
"comment_text": [
"since the bank already admitted guilt",
"Did they actually admit guilt? In large settlements they almost never admit guilt."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdidjs3",
"comment_text": [
"Regarding the tax thing, I think you may not realize what tax deductible means.",
"This means that they're going to pay $6bn, and they're going to ALSO pay taxes on that $6bn in income.",
"They're also going to pay $7bn, but they aren't ALSO going to pay taxes on that $7bn in income.",
"That amount is definitely painful to pay, even if they aren't also being taxed on all that income, they're still losing that income."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5:Why is almost every College Football game nationally televised, but I can only watch a few NFL games? | explainlikeimfive | 1quy7l | 1 | true | false | 0.6 | Assuming that you don't have NFL Sunday Ticket, etc, of course. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgr3ck",
"comment_text": [
"Every college game is definitely not televised though. Only the big ones which is kind of the same for the NFL. The bigger or more important games will get picked up nationally by networks like ESPN or CBS, but the all NFL are televised. They are just shown in the local areas that would care about those teams."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgrakf",
"comment_text": [
"Certain networks have contracts to show certain games. I'm not familiar with the specifics, but some of the network contracts are pretty bullshit. For example, in Buffalo, if a Bills game doesn't sell out, it gets blacked out on TV (so people go to the games instead of buying tickets). "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgrqo6",
"comment_text": [
"Unless you get dozens of channels showing college football games, you're nowhere near seeing \"almost every\" one."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgywvq",
"comment_text": [
"Because of conferences. The NFL has but two, and those determine the games you will see. You will get one game in which an NFC team is on the road for NFL, and you will get one game in which the AFC team is on the road. Then you will get another game based upon the market you live in and a couple of Prime Time games thrown in. ",
"If the college games, there are many more conferences and each conference has a contract with a network. You don't see all the games, but you will see many more college games because you will see at least one from every conference. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgxjw9",
"comment_text": [
"I guess my question is: I can watch more than half of all FBS games, but I can't watch even half of NFL games. Why can I watch more college than NFL? "
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why do younger generations not develop psychological trauma from seeing horrifying things on the internet? | explainlikeimfive | 1qv0be | 1 | true | false | 0.66 | I have seen images and videos from the darkest corners of the internet that truly horrified me, but left no lasting impression. Is there an explanation besides the fact that I'm seeing it on a screen versus seeing it in person? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgrr9s",
"comment_text": [
"Consider for how much of history having at least one of your parents and especially one or more of your siblings dying in terrible ways was common. Videos are nothing."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgrpkz",
"comment_text": [
"The truth here is that no one knows if younger generations will be effected by seeing the stuff which is so easily accessed online. There is an entire generation which has grown up with access to things which would NEVER have been possible to view 20 years ago. And whilst studies are ongoing, there is no definitive answer for how it will fuck people up in the long term."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgs3k7",
"comment_text": [
"That makes sense considering internet culture has changed so rapidly since its conception just a couple decades ago. Every time I think about how desensitized I am to disgusting images online, it makes me wonder if it has already begun to affect my psyche."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgru8u",
"comment_text": [
"There is a disconnect between seeing something on a screen and seeing it in person.",
"Even so seeing something disgusting isn't going to traumatize you, look at say police or forensics who see some truly grisly things but don't develop PSD. "
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgua9l",
"comment_text": [
"I've seen the quote, \"The average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s.\" Most people chalk it up to the pressures of school and the difficulty of getting a job, but your question makes me wonder if it's really the pressures of the Internet, the way it's so addictive, the way you're practically expected to be electronically available 24/7 while actual in-person relationships decline, as well as the various disturbing and age-inappropriate material that people act so blase about seeing, but is actually causing psychological problems."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: If you had a perfect engine and no friction; How many miles would a gallon of gasoline give? | explainlikeimfive | 1qv3jl | 2 | true | false | 1 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgsr7t",
"comment_text": [
"This is a great question."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgz186",
"comment_text": [
"Everyone else is pissed off.....I see the problems mounting up...."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgt983",
"comment_text": [
"I would recommend ",
"/r/askscience"
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgtafo",
"comment_text": [
"No friction? If that was the case, then once the vehicle had been set in motion, it would continue forever. Infinite gas mileage.",
"So we have to start redefining \"no friction.\" No internal friction in any of the running gear of the vehicle? No tire friction against the road? No atmospheric friction? Everything depends on the particulars of the friction you seek to eliminate.",
"Apologies for being so insufferably pedantic."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgtbuv",
"comment_text": [
"If it has no tire friction on the road wouldn't it not even move? Correct me if I'm wrong "
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: How can a company legally lower per diem pay by $1 an hour for current employees? | explainlikeimfive | 1qv6lz | 3 | true | false | 0.81 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgtpp3",
"comment_text": [
"Did she have a binding contact that defines her wage? ",
"If not, employers can raise or lower wages at will. ",
"Oops. Forgot to ELI5. You know how mommy always gives you three cookies for your snack? Well, now you only get two. Why? Because I'm the mommy and I can do that if I want to. "
],
"score": 4
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgtvym",
"comment_text": [
"So, I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles, huh?"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgtvk1",
"comment_text": [
"That's a start. I don't know crap about per diem jobs."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgtvk1",
"comment_text": [
"That's a start. I don't know crap about per diem jobs."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgu05m",
"comment_text": [
"Essentially her company is saying, \"We'll no longer pay that rate. If you want to continue working here, we'll pay this new rate.\" If she wants to leave, she can, or she can accept the new rate. The only thing the company can't do is lower the rate for hours she's already worked."
],
"score": 1
} | |
What does music sound like to animals? | explainlikeimfive | 1qveab | 33 | true | false | 0.93 | [deleted] | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh6sp0",
"comment_text": [
"I actually think this is a really good question. I enjoy some pretty heavy music and I've played it around animals before. It seems to me that if you had an actual person in the room screaming his lungs out a dog or cat would respond to it, but they seem pretty indifferent toward that kind of thing coming out of a stereo. Makes me wonder if they process it differently somehow? Maybe they require a visual cue to clue in that it's actually a human voice."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh7gz5",
"comment_text": [
"I've wondered that too. If I were to scream or yell, the dog would freak out. But I can blast heavy metal and he just sits there like nothing is happening. Likewise, he seems to totally ignore TV but video games cause him to look around like something's going on."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdhek3s",
"comment_text": [
"Maybe they require a visual cue to clue in that it's actually a human voice.",
"I don't think this is true because, for example, I can yell for a dog who's just running around the streets and he'll come. They don't need to be looking at me to know that it's me. ",
"When I think about it, humans do this sort of thing to. Compare music played through speakers or earbuds to music played/sung live on a guitar in front of you. We can obviously tell the difference in the sound through some sort of mechanism. I would assume that animals can do this as well. But I don't know what this mechanism is."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh6t44",
"comment_text": [
"I've also wondered this, but more about how it sounds to my dogs when i play guitar. They seem to tolerate the low end tones much better than the higher ones. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh6avf",
"comment_text": [
"Pretty much how it sounds to us:\nWUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB "
],
"score": -2
} | |
What hoops does a 19 year old living in the U.S. have to jump through to get a summer internship in Australia? | explainlikeimfive | 1qvfy9 | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgwldv",
"comment_text": [
"Be a citizen of not the US would help. It's easier to get a work visa if you're from a Commonwealth country. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh018b",
"comment_text": [
"From the sidebar: \"E is for explain. This is for concepts you'd like to understand better; not for simple one word answers, walkthroughs, or personal problems.\"",
"You really want to be asking this question in ",
"/r/IWantOut",
". Mods messaged."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgy3r3",
"comment_text": [
"It shouldn't be that hard for an American to get a 457. Were only xenophobic against brownskins."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgwtn9",
"comment_text": [
"Try iwantout, they know moving country's better than this subreddit. Additionally, this doesn't really seem like a eli5 question."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgxi19",
"comment_text": [
"You are looking at getting a 457 Visa, a visa which allows you to work for up to 48 months in Australia. Basically you need to be sponsored by the company that you intend to work for.",
"Recently (what with Australia turning into the xenophobic center of the world and whatnot) 457 visa have become harder to get, and will probably cost you at least AUD700. But the main thing is finding a company that will sponsor you to come over.",
"You can check out: ",
"https://myvisa.com.au",
" to see if you are eligible for other visa's.",
"Aside from what ",
"/u/panzerkampfwagen",
" said about being a Commonwealth citizen, it will also help to have family in Australia and obviously not have a criminal record."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: Can we poop on ourselves? How? | explainlikeimfive | 1qvjs8 | 0 | true | false | 0.22 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgxrpp",
"comment_text": [
"Poop on hands, then rub on self. Pooping on hands alone counts"
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgxy6n",
"comment_text": [
"I'm just going to stand over here. Very far from you..."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgy6zt",
"comment_text": [
"I dont know whichen ever asked this question one because why would you want to and two its very easy. Lie on back roll onto shoulders with knees next to head shit all over your self then take looooong shower and think about your life choices"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgxrom",
"comment_text": [
"o.O"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgy5kj",
"comment_text": [
"Lay on your stomach and poop up."
],
"score": 1
} | ||
ELI5: τ vs π as the circle constant | explainlikeimfive | 1qvn5k | 4 | true | false | 0.83 | I read the Tau Manifesto, but I didn't really get much past why it's better for understanding radians. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgzzd0",
"comment_text": [
"It's just like an argument about whether you should measure distance in centimetres or metres (or inches or feet if you're American). Neither is more correct, but one is often more convenient than the other."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgzzww",
"comment_text": [
"It is better for understanding a lot of things. Pi is used in lots of places, not just circles and angles, and in all of them, using 6.24... for the constant makes the equations more logical, and generally simpler.",
"Radian angles is one such place, as it gets rid of an extra constant (2) that really shouldn't be there."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh0fxn",
"comment_text": [
"Another aspect is that when we talk about circles or spheres in mathematics, it's almost always the radius that's important/interesting. Tau is derived from the radius (circumference divided by radius) while Pi is derived from the diameter (circumference divided by diameter). "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgyzov",
"comment_text": [
"It just makes some of the equations neater and some people favour the fact that 1/2 tau means half of the circle, whereas 1/2 pi means 1/4 of the circle."
],
"score": 1
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh2t6k",
"comment_text": [
"Tradition gave us a ratio that explained circles (pi), but in practice most formulas rely on a constant that is 2pi (tau). Some groups of thinkers want to wipe out the traditional way to save time, because if a constant is constantly multiplied by 2, why not just make tau the constant since it is the 'more correct' version.",
"To answer why its easier for understanding radians, its because it is fundamentally easier to understand there are tau radians in a circle than to understand there are 2 pi radians in a circle.",
"TL;DR It's easier to type τ than 2π all the time."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: What's stopping a large comet from hitting Earth and ending life as we know it? | explainlikeimfive | 1qvrme | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | We can't be possibly looking into all directions of space for comets on a direct path with Earth, so what's stopping one from wiping us out at any given time? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh04fb",
"comment_text": [
"Nothing's stopping it. It just hasn't happened."
],
"score": 6
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh08d7",
"comment_text": [
"Probability. The Earth is very small, and space very big. Most of the stuff that could have collided with the earth did so over the first few billion years of our planet's existence - or collided with something else, like Jupiter."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh0i2g",
"comment_text": [
"Nothing's stopping it. It just hasn't happened ",
".",
"FTFY."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh0ljf",
"comment_text": [
"Nothing's stopping it. It just hasn't happened ",
".",
"FTFY.",
"FTFY again"
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh06p0",
"comment_text": [
"They're not that big and/or going that fast. The Earth has been hit lots of times and something has always survived."
],
"score": 2
} | |
ELI5: why did America set of over 1000 nuclear weapons for testing, where some other countries (France, UK, China) have set off relatively few. | explainlikeimfive | 1qvq13 | 2 | true | false | 1 | I was watching the other day, and was wondering why they have let off so many, relative to the rest of the countries who have nuclear capabilities. | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh3n26",
"comment_text": [
"The reason ultimately goes back to the differences in the nuclear weapons program of the countries in question. The USA and the USSR had nuclear arsenals that were extremely large, extremely varied, and always changing. They were in an arms race. The USA had a lead early on, the USSR was trying to catch up. The USA was strenuously trying to increase that lead. ",
"Innovation in nuclear weapons design requires testing. The USA wanted to do things that were not obvious. They wanted to, for example, find ways of making very, very tiny bombs. They wanted to make bombs with a pretty big boom that fit into relatively small packages. They wanted to make huge bombs that could fit into their existing bombers. They wanted to make bombs that used a bare minimum of fuel, so they could make as many as possible. They wanted to make bombs that were extra \"dirty\" with fallout, and those which were almost totally \"clean\" from it. They wanted bombs that output most of their energy as radiation, and those that would be useful for destroying hardened bunkers. They wanted atomic artillery shells, torpedoes, and land-mines. They wanted bombs that would be extra safe — bombs that could catch on fire, or crash with an airplane, and not detonate. ",
"They also wanted to do lots of \"basic science\" tests, to learn as much as possible about the details of nuclear detonations, so that they could, in theory, predict as much about how they would work on paper as possible.",
"And they wanted lots and lots of ",
" about bombs. What happens if a bomb is set off under water? What about in outer space? What about if one hits a tank? And so on and so on. ",
"The USSR was similarly ambitious and they too tested a lot. But the other nuclear states had more modest goals. Their nuclear forces were mainly meant to be simple, minimal deterrents: don't mess with us, we won't mess with you. So they didn't make tens of thousands of warheads of hundreds of different varieties. They needed to make sure they understood the basics of nuclear weapons design, and design the handful of types of warheads they would actually field, and that was most of it. The USA started publishing effects information as well, so that helped reduce the uncertainties there."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdgzpbp",
"comment_text": [
"This may not be obvious, but not all nukes are the same design. They vary widely in size, payload, range, speed, and ignition style. We have tested far more nukes because we "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh1esk",
"comment_text": [
"I understand there are different payloads etc, but surely you could extrapolate the data out to understand or at least make a very educated guess as to how a higher payload nuke will change the outcome."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh5hzd",
"comment_text": [
"Sure, this is entirely possible. It's much easier to do that nowadays than it was 20 years ago. Still, if you make a weapon with the intent to actually use it (as pretty much all weapons are) it's a really good idea to do at least one test before you're forced to use it in actual combat situation. "
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh94hm",
"comment_text": [
"It turns out that under certain conditions there were a fair number of \"surprises\" to the scientists, so while they could, of course, try and extrapolate effects, there were enough uncertainties that they wanted to make sure they had the deepest understanding possible across the widest spectrum of yields and designs."
],
"score": 2
} | |
Why does the U.S. Navy have it's own, incredibly expansive Air Force when there is a separate US Air Force? | explainlikeimfive | 1qvxta | 4 | true | false | 0.7 | As opposed to giving transport to the AirForce when required? Does this ever result in problems when two separate chains of command are operating in the same airspace? | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh225t",
"comment_text": [
"Why does the coast guard have boats if we have a navy?",
"The simple answer to both questions is different missions.",
"However, the airforce and navy have different air craft because they are generally performing different missions. If you look at the operational aircraft for each branch, there are certainly going to be some similarities, but the navy for example does not really perform heavy bombing missions. ",
"Or for my original question, the coast guard does not require submarines nor aircraft carriers. Different missions, different vehicles."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh2w70",
"comment_text": [
"To expand further, the missions are different, and the requirements to fulfill those missions are different.",
"For example: Naval aircraft is subject to lots of salt water, which causes corrosion. When the navy buys an airplane, they want it to be engineered to resist/protect against corrosion. The Airforce doesn't care, because they don't fly over water often.",
"Naval aircraft must be able to launch from a carrier, have compatible radios, weapons, etc with other platforms. ",
"And yes, it does cause conflict. The different branches don't completely work together. The air force has their mission, and the Navy/Marine Corp theirs. If the marines call in close air support, but the air force can't/won't come help, they need their own aircraft to provide that support."
],
"score": 3
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh23vw",
"comment_text": [
"Thanks! That's a great explanation."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh1wcv",
"comment_text": [
"the army has aircraft, the marines have aircraft, the navy has aircraft, the air force has aircraft, the coast guard has aircraft."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh78x3",
"comment_text": [
"This is wrong. The aircraft on board UK aircraft carriers have always been part of RN Fleet Air Arm and have been flown by pilots from the RN, trained by the RN. The squadrons are also based out of RN Air Stations."
],
"score": 1
} | |
ELI5: Why is Nickelback so generally hated? | explainlikeimfive | 1qvvlu | 15 | true | false | 0.64 | I've noticed it on both the internet and in real life. Nobody has really had any true reason. They just "suck." | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh3sl2",
"comment_text": [
"As a Facebook friend posted a while ago (if you're on Reddit too, let me know so that I can give you credit, man) \"Nickelback seems to have maximized the combination of most airplay with the least amount of popularity. Whenever someone is faced with a choice of which music to play to a broad audience--be it radio or TV or sports arena or whatever--Nickelback seems like a good choice because they have the right mix of elements. They're rock but not so heavy as to disturb people, but still edgy enough not to seem like a corporate contrivance. They're modern enough not to seem like a nostalgia thing while being old enough not to seem like the latest teenybopper group.\nThe result is that people tend to hear a lot of Nickelback despite very few people being really passionate about them. So, we think, \"why the fuck do I keep hearing this stuff? These guys suck.\"\nI may actually dislike certain modern country or southern rap or death metal much more than I dislike Nickelback, but it's easy to see that those other genres have dedicated fans and a real culture behind it. Nickelback is easy to hate because I don't associate them with real people.\""
],
"score": 34
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh3ypj",
"comment_text": [
"I saw them once at a concert (don't remember where but it was in KC) and they were the headlining band. After the opening acts were over, everyone kind of headed to the bar and started to chat with the other bands. My friend and I were talking to the drummer from Mudvayne and we were all interrupted by Chad Kroeger dragging himself out on stage with a 90% empty bottle of whiskey (Jack if my memory serves me) and his guitar slung around him. He began to attempt to sing \"This Is How You Remind Me\" and got to \"Never made as a wise ass, couldn't get it as a poor musician, never wanted....to....a FUCK YOU! YOU ALL KNOW THIS SHIT, IT'S ON THE GODDAMN RADIO!\" and stormed off-stage. We all clapped. "
],
"score": 9
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh1e5m",
"comment_text": [
"Nickelback was never very innovative. Ever look up those comparison videos where it plays one of their songs out of one speaker and another song out of the other speaker? It's right ",
"here",
"... There is a large number of people out there who feel that Nickelback is extremely generic and write the same song over and over. I think that a lot of people can feel that these guys are not very passionate about their music. I get the vibe that they would rather be famous instead of make good music and I just can't respect that."
],
"score": 7
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh5zax",
"comment_text": [
"Also, if you live in Canada, our radio stations have to play a certain % of Canandian artists each day. So no matter what station you listen to you'll hear the same 2-4 Nickleback songs every single day. If your workplace has a radio playing, it really grates on you after a while."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh5zax",
"comment_text": [
"Also, if you live in Canada, our radio stations have to play a certain % of Canandian artists each day. So no matter what station you listen to you'll hear the same 2-4 Nickleback songs every single day. If your workplace has a radio playing, it really grates on you after a while."
],
"score": 5
} | |
ELI5: Why we haven't caught Big Foot yet | explainlikeimfive | 1qw96g | 0 | true | false | 0.5 | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh4j6a",
"comment_text": [
"Because there's no proof it exists."
],
"score": 5
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh4o4d",
"comment_text": [
"Ninjafoot."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh4o4d",
"comment_text": [
"Ninjafoot."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh5v8o",
"comment_text": [
"This isn't really a conceptual question, so it's been removed. Try ",
"/r/answers",
"."
],
"score": 2
} | {
"comment_id": "t1_cdh55q1",
"comment_text": [
"'most' is a pretty vague term. while we may have not discovered all the sub species of insects, small animals and creatures deep in the ocean.. i think its a pretty far fetch to say we haven't discovered 'most' of the species living on earth, especially something as large as the mythical bigfoot. it may be time for us to consider that big foot may not exist. "
],
"score": 2
} |
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