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9rsb4d | (california) what does proposition 10 about rent control actually will do? what are the pros and cons ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9rsb4d/eli5_california_what_does_proposition_10_about/ | {
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"It repeals a law that prohibits cities from enacting rent control laws. So if it passes nothing would happen or be mandated, but cities would be allowed to do so. \n\nCons are that economists generally say that rent control does not help affordability, and that what really needs to happen is more to be built.\n\nPros are some other folks say it really doesn't dissuade building and people are still gonna build because there is money to be made, with or without rent control, and that while everyone is waiting for building to get done rent control is something that cities can do right now to help keep cities from becoming only affordable for the wealthy, and to keep the middle and lower income in their apartments"
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63s7an | what's the point of women's education programs in american while women outnumbering men in colleges? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/63s7an/eli5_whats_the_point_of_womens_education_programs/ | {
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"Did you also look at *which* studies these women pursue, and which studies are encouraged by the women education programs?\n\nI suspect that in STEM fields, men *vastly* outnumber the women, and I suspect that many of the women education programs are designed to encourage women to enter those fields.\n\nSo your analogy about meals is poor. It is more like offering a different (more nutritious) kind of food to a group that has plenty of junk food.",
" > the whole point of the many educational programs in America focused on women only while the number of women outnumber men\n\nIf there are more women than men, universities would be smart to offer programs that appeal to women. That's basic supply-and-demand. But there are other issues as well, related to the fact that before the past 75 years or so it was either difficult or impossible for women to get a university education or get degree-level jobs in areas seen as something only men could do.\n\n > the gap is still growing\n\nThe first woman to graduate from a US non-women's university was in 1831. It took another 140 years (~1970) before there were equal numbers of men and women in US universities. Another 45 years later (~2014) the gap was ~56% women, 44% men, the result of more women enrolling *and* fewer men enrolling.\n\n > It's like a program that offers free meals for the rich.\n\nI keep reading that sentence, but it keeps making no sense. Education is quite expensive, regardless of gender. If someone wants to experience 20 years of debt after years of studying something that doesn't lead to a profitable career, that's their choice. It's not like the universities are shutting down other areas of study to make room for the Women's Studies programs. Nobody is getting screwed by their existence.\n\nWomen weren't allowed to *teach* at US universities until ~230 years ago, weren't allowed to *attend* most US universities until ~130 years ago, and weren't employed as full professors in most US universities or in educated careers until after WWII.\n\nWithout looking it up, name one ancient Greek female philosopher that is studied in university courses. Roman orator? Renaissance-era artist or writer? How about Enlightenment-era? (Most Americans who can think of one say Mary Shelley, whose works were accepted in part because of her association with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.) Scientist? (Marie Curie, who had to study at Warsaw's clandestine 'Floating University' - an underground education system focusing on actual scholarship rather than political ideology, that let women in because fuck it, it didn't count anyway - before moving to France 125 years ago.)\n\nUniversity textbooks are full of the achievements of dead white men. The cultural and historical reasons for this aren't addressed in most textbooks, which led some women to wonder what women were up to for the past couple of thousand years. Some of them realized that the fact that this wasn't something that could be studied in US universities was, in and of itself, a topic worth studying in US universities. Women's Studies programs were created to do just that.\n\nNobody is forced to take those courses. They've only existed for a couple of decades. They aren't hurting anyone.",
"These are private scholarships, they are not publicly funded. There are scholarships for black people, white people, women, there are even scholarships for the left-handed. Since these scholarships are private and not publicly funded, there is no law to prevent discrimination. The law does not stipulate that charities must give out money equally to everyone, so people are free to do so as they please. You are essentially asking to ELI5 why people are allowed to give away money to other people, and aren't forced to give money to everyone. I think most people would agree that that would be morally wrong.",
"Guys please. He's not really trying to ask a question, he's trying to make a point. Don't waste your time",
"Since most gender specific scholarships are endowed scholarships where the person giving money for the scholarship out their own pocket has requested that restriction, I don't think smy of us have the right to say that restriction should be removed. After all the person who gave up personal use of that money after earning it did so to help a specific group. It would be better to increase education about the syudent composition at universities. Also, someone else made the point that a majority of female specific scholarships are also STEM field specific where women are still vastly under-represented. ",
"ITT: Lots of salty people.. \n\nTo answer your question, anyone can create a scholarship. You establish a set of rules/criteria, set aside the capital, and scholarship. People like setting up woman's scholarships because for a variety of social reasons it makes them feel good. This really is the only rhyme or reason behind any of this. One popular example are Women only STEM field scholarships. Because the majority of women aren't interested in going into the field, the fields then have \"a diversity issue\" that \"needs to fixed\" - so people feel more special about \"helping fix such an important issue\". ",
"Thank you for calling this out. The disparity of these programs is pretty obvious. So much so that it almost seems like an agenda. ",
"5% of scholarships are gender-based, which means women have access to 3% more scholarships than men. Those 3% are likely specific to STEM fields where men outnumber women heavily due to discrimination in the field and widespread social beliefs that women can't be successful in STEM.",
" > Don't post to argue a point of view.\n\nThis post has been removed. You want /r/changemyview."
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1uyl7w | the difference between temperature (f/c/k) and heat (joules) | My knowledge of the subject is only high school level calciometry, and I've heard other explanations about the subject. It's never been that clear to me at all for some reason, please help! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uyl7w/eli5_the_difference_between_temperature_fck_and/ | {
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"Heat is thermal energy, so it's measured in units of energy like ergs or Joules. \n\nTemperature is a measure of hotness or coldness and tells you, if you put two items of unlike temperature into contact with one another, which way the heat will flow. Heat flows from hot to cold. \n\nThe two are related through the heat capacity, which is how much the temperature of something will change with the addition of a given amount of heat.",
"temperature is a measure of heat energy. Materials don't heat up equally from the same amount of energy (joules). A block of aluminum would have much less thermal energy than a block of wax a the same temperature, even if they were the same size and weight. If they are the same temperature no heat moves between them.\n\nHeat energy transfers through conduction, though there are other methods. For conduction the contact points heat up and spread the energy through the materials based on the heat delta and surface characteristic of the contact. A differential in temperature creates a flow of heat energy."
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qwrz7 | why do large tech companies seem to be more willing to hire external people and pay them more rather than promoting internally? | I'm not sure if this is limited to tech companies or not, but I've experienced it with several of them. Why is it that I can take a job at another company for over a 20% increase in salary, but if I apply to a nearly identical position at my current company for a promotion, I could expect less than a 5% raise? Then if i go back to my previous company after a year or two, the same thing will apply, so i'll get another large increase. Had i stayed with the first company i would not have increased on the pay scale anywhere near as fast, but simply leaving and coming back results in a huge increase. I have witnessed this personally and with many of my friends, and it frankly doesn't make sense to me. Why are companies so much more willing to pay external hires more money than promoting a current employee and raising their salary to the same level? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qwrz7/eli5_why_do_large_tech_companies_seem_to_be_more/ | {
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"The biblical quote would be\n\nLuke 4:24 \"No prophet is accepted in his own hometown\"\n\nBut generally speaking tech companies are always look for what management perceives to be the best and the brightest regardless of if they are the best and the brightest for their own selfish reasons.\n\nWhen a person in management hires a \"good\" worker from another company they can use that as an accomplishment they achieved this year. As such there is a strong pressure to hire people/ steal people from other companies to shown your a good manager and if a manager can not accomplish that, simply hire a \"normal\" worker and market him as \"good worker.\n\nPromoting internally has less prestige because people are aware of the person's past work history. In effect giving a internal employee a 20% boost in salary is seen as costing the company money even if that increase of 20% yield the company millions of dollar in accounts recoverable or requiring significantly less training time.\n\n\nThis is one of the largest problem in modern management that people have to be aware. In effect a individual will make a decision that is bad for the company (Hiring outside instead of promoting internally) and sell it as a good decision for their own benefit (Often using their bad decision to get a promotion and causing him not to have to deal with backlash.)",
"My experience has been that many hire from within...\n\nI would suggest that where a company goes external to hire it is due to a few reasons...\n\n- The required expertise is not available internally, maybe they want someone with a new skillset.\n- A fresh perspective is required. Someone taht is going to think a bit differently and shake things up.\n- You do not want to take a do-er and make them a manager because then you have to train a new do-er which is usually more expensive and difficult than finding a manager... this is where the saying about not being irreplaceable because then you will never be promoted comes about.\n- And the one I have seen occur quite a few times; to not piss people off by choosing between them. \n\n "
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4iceso | why does netflix have to delete a show/movie after a certain period of time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4iceso/eli5_why_does_netflix_have_to_delete_a_showmovie/ | {
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"Netflix doesn't just take random stuff from their DVD collection and throw it on the internet. They have contracts with the movie studios for the distribution rights to the movies. Those contracts aren't unlimited, and the parties aren't obliged to renew them.",
"Content is negotiated as $X dollars for Y weeks. Like Netflix is renting it from the content rights holders and we're just watching their copy. ",
"Especially now where studios/producers have come to realize that there is money in WHO you let air your show. Used to really only be Netflix and a smattering of Hulu. But as more companies come about including Amazon Prime now you can make choices. Who gives you the most money for the least amount of committed time? Add in new proprietary content and this game is just heating up. Now its \"Who will give me the most money to produce my show?\"\n\nA bit off topic but you get the idea. Also it can create a bit of a feeling of \"limited supply\". Not sure how well that *actually* works but again... you get the idea."
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8doeuc | air movement in a house | For example, the indoor temp is set at 68. If it is 65 outside, what happens when you open the window? Does opening 2 windows in the room cool off the space faster?
Does the indoor air go out or outdoor air come in? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8doeuc/eli5_air_movement_in_a_house/ | {
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"Opening one window will allow some exchange of the air. Some hot air will escape out the window or gaps in windows, doors, and vents and be replaced with the slightly cooler air from outside. Opening two windows, especially if on opposite sides of the home, does allow the house to cool faster, as you will often get a free flow of air coming in one and out the other, taking the hotter air with it.",
"Air goes in and out at the same rate. To air out the house faster, open windows on the side the wind is coming from, and the side opposite that. \n\nWindows aren't the only places where air can enter or leave the house, there are exhaust vents and such in bathrooms, kitchens, and for clothes dryers. If it's hotter inside than outside and there's no wind, the air will come in the low vents/windows and go out the high vents. \n\nIf the heat is on at 68, you'll just be wasting energy. If the thermostat is set to cool, then it will just shut off when the temp drops below the set point."
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503cwo | why when you cough in the dark do you see a little flash if light an inch from your nose? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/503cwo/eli5_why_when_you_cough_in_the_dark_do_you_see_a/ | {
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"Whenever you cough or sneeze, you may sometimes perceive a brief flash of light in your field of vision. This is due to the increased pressure on your eyes. You may have experienced something similar when rubbing your eyes from tiredness or something. The increased pressure inside your head stimulates the ocular nerve, and sends a false signal to the brain.",
"Usually any flashes of light you see in the dark come from something putting pressure on your retina. A cough could do it from the pressure you're adding to the airways that can extend up into the nasal cavity or just the vibration that goes up into your head from the cough. You know how you can see some colors/light when you press on your eyes, those are called [phosphenes](_URL_0_) and a cough can cause those."
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40g8yu | what does a card reader do when you swipe a credit/debit card's magnetic strip through it? and what information does it read? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40g8yu/eli5_what_does_a_card_reader_do_when_you_swipe_a/ | {
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"From wikipedia: \n\n > A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card. The magnetic stripe, sometimes called swipe card or magstripe, is read by swiping past a magnetic reading head.\n\nIt reads whatever information you store on the card. Usually its credit card information like your credit card number, often encrypted, plus some secret authenticating information that prevents someone from just creating a magnetic strip with someone else's card number encoded on it. But it can also be a hotel room \"key\" or a security pass or a gift card or a membership card or a bonus incentive program like for collecting flight points, or anything else. ",
"A magnetic stripe reader scans the stripe on a card, and reads off the ones and zeroes encoded there just like a magnetic hard drive.\n\nThere are two tracks on a card that are used in payments. The first track contains the following data in this order (note, this is not on exhaustive list):\n\n* The Primary Account Number, which is usually the number written on the card.\n* Name of the account holder\n* Expiration date\n* A code indicating the type of charges allowed\n* Data that could include a PIN, or the card security code\n* A checksum to make sure the data was read correctly\n\nThe second track excludes the name, and is limited to 40 characters.\n\nThe payment system transmits this data to a payment gateway, which sends back approval or denial. "
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e6e0ph | when men pee, are we just allowing the pee to flow out or are we subconsciously pushing it? also, when we do push it, what's happening there? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e6e0ph/eli5_when_men_pee_are_we_just_allowing_the_pee_to/ | {
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"Basically we're applying pressure to our abdominal muscles near our bladder, 'squeezing' it out. Also there is a sort of wall that closes off the connection between your bladder and urethra(pee-pee pipe), when you pee your brain signals to relax that muscle so it can pass through.",
"Since humans can pee upside down and even in zero gravity, it stands to reason that something more than gravity is at play. Since we can vary the flow of urine at will, that means the thing causing the flow is under voluntary control - in other words, muscles.",
"For men (and women) the bladder is like a water balloon. As it fills up, it stretches out and the only thing that keeps it from leaking is a muscle that pinches the neck of the balloon. When the bladder is full you can relax the pinching muscle and the stretchy bladder will let out the pee just like a full balloon. When it is not all the way full or if you want to push the pee out faster you can squeeze your abdominal muscles which is like squeezing the back of the water balloon while it is draining.",
"Your bladder is sorta like a balloon.\n\nFill a balloon with water and hold the end shut\n\nSqueeze the balloon gently while loosening the end and it's the same thing as your bladder.\n\nTldr you pee out of a body balloon"
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653awy | what's the difference between 4k led, and oled tv's? | Does it have to do with pixels? Are the pixels the same? Are the LED pixels rectangular vs OLED circular or something? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/653awy/eli5whats_the_difference_between_4k_led_and_oled/ | {
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"OLED TVs work differently from an led tv. In an OLED panel each pixel has 3 organic light emitting diodes that light up to create different colors of light for each pixel. \n\nIn an LED panel the LED part is referring to the backlight (not needed in an OLED panel). The led provides light that is filtered through an LCD panel which selectively allows different colors of light to leave the tv and hit your eyes. \n\nBoth types of TVs can be 4k but the OLED will cost significantly more. The OLED panel will have deeper blacks because the pixels can actually be turned off and produce no light however in the LED panel it blocks all colors of light equally yet some light still leaks through. "
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38mdfh | why do some black people have such unusual names ie. daekwon, d'shandra? where do they come from? or do their parents just make them up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38mdfh/eli5_why_do_some_black_people_have_such_unusual/ | {
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"During the civil right movement there was a tendency amongst african americans to change their names away from the mostly european names and more towards either Muslim names or African names, as a way to celebrate their distinct culture. The next generation tended instead to invent new names or new spellings on existing names for the same purpose. So yes, some of those names are completely unique, while others have become a fairly standard \"African American name\".\n\nEdit: See /u/AScaryHomelessGuy9 's [comment](_URL_0_) for more of the cause and effect of these names.",
"These are made up names, which really all names are made up. There is a scene in Roots where the white man was whipping the slave saying his name wasn't the African name anymore but Toby and this either started or helped along this \"movement\". _URL_1_ \n\nSOME black people in the United States have felt a need to distinguish themselves through different names. Black people in the United States have invented other things such as Kwanza to try to bring them all together. \n\nA good representation of why they make these things up is the crab in the bucket analogy which is demonstrated well in the Boondocks, a show made by a black American. _URL_0_ . It is still viewed amongst blacks that there is a divide between \"house niggers\" and \"field niggers\" and any black person who becomes successful gets \"hated\" on, again this is not EVERY black person. However people that come up with things like Kwanza or other things that are meant to unify blacks mean to eliminate this \"crab mentality\".\n\nThis will be downvoted to hell but it is true as I can tell. I have black friends and don't consider myself racist but people will be offended by what I just said. \n\n*I just read this over and I couldn't have done much of a worse job explaining it but oh well, I'm drunk, drunk as hell.",
"From last time:\n\n\"Black Americans have been in something like a permanent state of identity-crisis, that will probably not abate until either:\n\n* Terms like \"African-American\" are accepted as fully and as un-ironically as \"Polish-American\" or \"Irish-American\", or;\n\n* Race itself becomes such a nebulous, blended, and indistinct thing that skin-color is regarded as no different from eye or hair color.\n\n\nIn the meantime, a particular challenge for black Americans is disconnection from historic familial roots. An Irish-American family might name their kid Sean or Daniel or Molly or Colleen or Mary, with some connection to those who came before (even if those names might bear little or no resemblance to ancient Irish names and culture).\n\n\nMost black Americans bear family names from the slave-owners of their forbears, or arbitrary names given to freedmen. A white American man named, say, Robert DiGiacomo might go by \"Bobby\", and might consider himself mostly German/Scots, but he knows where his name comes from, and he knows that his father was descended from an Italian. If he wanted to, Bobby G could probably trace his ancestry back to specific people and families from any number of countries.\n\n\nA black man named Robert Smith might have little more than a vague idea that one of his ancestors was once owned by a man named \"Smith\". It is unlikely that he could reliably trace most of his family tree back further than slavery, since good records were not kept, about the lineage and ancestry of slaves. And any \"deep past\" records of his roots might actually refer to white parentage that abandoned or rejected their multi-racial offspring. He might not be able to able to find the specific African language, name-tradition, or region his ancestors came from, even if he tried.\n\n\nAs a result, many Black Americans have chosen to embrace an entirely new notion of heritage and identity, based on the global infusion of African culture into a worldwide diaspora. This could include elements of Caribbean, Creole, French-colonial, and Anglo-American influences, as well as pan-African culture (and Africa is a very big place, with wildly-divergent cultures, easily as different as Irish is from Greek, or Japanese is from Indian).\n\n\nOne example of this embrace of Black pan-culturalism is choosing or creating names that might sound exotic in any language. People who know the names of their ancestors might choose names that come from the same tradition. But when you don't know the names of your ancestors, or when you know their legal names to be \"fake\" names given to them by the people who bought and sold them like chattel, it's not so easy.\n\n\nIf you know something vague of where you came from, and that you are part of a diaspora that has influences the world over, you might choose to give your child a name that reflects that uncertain melding of cultures.\n\n\nIndian parents might name their kids \"Vijay\", Swedish-Americans might name their kids \"Gustav\", Japanese might name their kids \"Haruto\", Italian-Americans might go with \"Antonio\", etc...\nBut Black Americans descended from the nebulous heritage of slavery have no obvious tradition of forefathers to turn to, when it comes to naming their children, except maybe slave-names.\nSo many choose to invent or adopt new names, as the ancients did in other cultures. Just as names like \"Antonio\" or \"Robert\" or \"Seamus\" were once invented and applied to children, so names like Leshawn or Taniqua are invented or adopted by people who are not without a culture, not without a heritage, just without a fixed vocabulary, due to its newness.\n\n\nThe African diaspora has had a massive global influence on culture, but it happened in very different ways than other historically-recent diasporas. We were not around 1,000 or 10,000 years ago, when the Europeans or Africans were first inventing names.\n\n\nIn the great re-combinator that is global cultural evolution, Black America has emerged as a new distinct cultural tradition, much as Celts and Gauls diverged and became things like Scotch, Irish and German, hundreds of years ago.\n\n\nThe culture of \"Black America\", and of the African diaspora more generally, is still in its infancy. We're still in an era where people who lived under Jim Crow are alive and kicking, and the last slaves are only a few decades dead.\n\n\nAs people with names like Kanye, Obama, and Deshawn become more prominent and influential participants in the global economy of ideas, their names will begin to sound less strange. We are seeing the emergence of a new global cultural tradition, with ethnic and historical influences that are distinct from the existing ones.\nBlack American culture has a very troubled and difficult past, and much of it still has a troubled and difficult present, but its present is no worse than that of, say, the Irish from 150 years ago. (\"How the Irish Became White\" is an interesting read on the topic of historical race-identity).\n\n\nBlack America, and the African Diaspora more generally, is still in the process of inventing itself, as a cultural identity. And that includes names. It has contributed a tremendous amount of good to the world in its early days, and there is no reason to think it won't get better.\"",
"A lot of black people want to be different in naming their children. A lot of them are \"made up\" but there are a good portion that want to be different from the standard Anglo names. of them are simply nonstandard Anglo names. I know a lot of black people with Roman names like Octavius, Marcus, and Leticia. Or make names French sounding with La, D' or Le'. I think it's all about being different from the norm. ",
"[Here's](_URL_0_) a really good comment I saved a while back about the names you're talking about. It talks about black American identity and cultural roots mired in slavery and forced immigration.",
"What about unusual white names like Reince, Rand, Jeb, Candy, Dick, Cletus, etc?\n\nThere was a big upswing in African American naming schemes after the advent of Pan Africanism in the 20th century and especially after Civil Rights era of the 60s and 70s. Some of the names are traditional African names. Some of them are traditional Arabic names. Some of them are French-inspired names. (there's a long tradition of French amongst African Americans… even until now in places like New Orleans). Yet other names are a mix of those various influences, resulting in new names altogether. And finally, there is probably an influence of poverty and lack of education that results in some of the more unusual names you've famously heard of. (the same thing happens for poorer, less educated white people too.) ",
"In addition to the good answers pro idea concerning nebulous heritage, pride in culture, and oppositional behavior, consider the following. When it comes to African American aesthetics, like quilt-making, variations on theme towards unique iterations are the norm. \n\nWhile in the white (American) tradition a quilter might make 20 identical blocks, arrange them as a 4x5 grid and make his/her quilt top, African American quilters are more likely to vary each block. Historians were puzzled by thus or ascribed it to resource limitations until they studied West African aesthetics. In many groups in West Africa, uniqueness is prized over careful recapitulation: i.e. it is more important to make your own version of something than to copy the original faithfully. \n\nSo the same for names. Rather than recycling the name \"William\" for the zillion the time \"William Robert Jones IV\"), an African American parent might choose to celebrate the child's uniqueness. I know several African American persons whose names are the combination of their parents' names (William and Arleta have a daughter named Willeta). This honors the baby's uniqueness.",
"In the UK there are definitely some trends towards rather unique names among black urban families. I think Partly this is to do with different attitudes to fashion in names, partly I think it's a class thing (in that working class white families may also have a higher incidence of similar names) and partly the influence of immigration from Africa, where names like 'Godgift' or 'Blessing' are quite common among evangelicals.\n\nFrom a British perspective, there are lots of weird made up-seeming white people names in America too. So what interests me is, why do the names black people give their kids seem strange when there are just as many neologisms among whites that don't attract attention?\n",
"I grew up in a predominately black neighborhood, and one girl's name was Charnessa. Her dad's name was Charlie and her mom's name was Vanessa, so they just put them together to make hers. Not saying that's every case, but it explained hers.",
"I come from a fairly diverse community. My current SO came from an all white community. When he first met my son from my previous relationship, he gave him a card marked \"Derique\" because he thought I was someone who would try to make a birth name stand out and be different. It's spelled Derek. It is a pretty normal, common name. We still laugh about it, 13 years later, especially since I haven't noticed anyone with HIS version since.",
"Simply put, as a means to resist integration into Western culture. [This Duke professor sums it up pretty well](_URL_0_)",
"I'm addition to what has been posted, it is also a way to honor family members. Darquisha might be a mash up of Darrel and her mother Kiesha. \n\nHeard this on the Bob and Tom show, blew my mind. ",
"I cannot agree with most explanations here (naming as a distinction of certain culture). While it might have been truth in the past, for the civil rights movement period, examples here are a modern thing and have nothing to do with it. \nWhat we're dealing here with is what sociology calls \"kevinism\" - tendency to give children exotic names, observed in lower class parents. Here's [short article](_URL_0_) explaining some of it. \n Weirdly, American sociogists completely ignore this term or in fact any research about the phenomenon - which I'm guessing is due to it's probable political incorrectness. \nBecause African Americans are big part of American poverty, it could be seen as a \"black problem\", but the phenomenon is observed in almost every country. (Most researched is Germany, I have some experience in Poland, doing my thesis).",
"Black people should stop naming their children things like Dweezil, Moon Unit and Moxy Crimefighter. What's wrong with them?",
"The difference between Afrimericans and, say, another ethnic group like, say, the Irish, or the Germans, is that by and large, white people in American can still trace their roots to the \"old country.\" If you think about it, there really are a lot of \"white pride\" festivals that happen in the U.S. There are German festivals, Polish festivals, Irish festivals, etc. Framing it was \"white pride\" is offensive because \"white\" was a racial identity not based on DNA or shared history but instead was a social construct created specifically for the purpose of oppressing people outside the group. You can't say you're proud of being \"white\" and not sound like an asshole because \"white culture\" was created solely to oppress outsiders. There was no single \"white culture\" outside of this context. There were cultures of light-skinned people; German, Irish, Scottish, English, Russian, Slavic, etc. And nobody has a problem with celebrating those particular cultures.\n\nAnyway, Afrimericans don't have an \"old country\" they can say they're from. I could wear a kilt and celebrate my great-great-great grandparents coming here from Scotland of their own free will. I can celebrate my scottish heritage by naming my children scottish names if I wish.\n\nIf you're Afrimerican, your ancestry comes from slaves, stripped of all of their home culture, their names, etc. Their ancestors were not just stripped of their freedom, but stripped of their entire cultural identity as well. They can't even say \"my fourth great grandparents were slaves who were captured in Nigeria\" because there's no way to know that. The early American slave masters kept better pedigree charts of their horses than they did for their slaves (read: none at all). And there are a lot of cultural differences in Africa. \n\nI see the names, the creation of Kwanzaa, and African style dress, etc. as an attempt to rebuild a culture and set of traditions from scratch. Some Afrimericans (understandably) see the demand that they use anglo-style names as an affront to their identity. They're trying to build centuries of history and culture from scratch. Eventually, some of these \"weird\" names will become more popular than others (and I think we're seeing that already), and you'll start to have names run in families. Little Daekwon will be named after his Uncle Daekwon, and so on. And really, is Daekwon really any weirder than Braedon?",
"[Ciara](_URL_0_) always irked me. Such a popular Irish name and her parents go and pronounce it the wrong way (like 'tiara')",
"The Black Power Movement started a new form of separatism instilled by people's efforts to be different and culturally identify with Africa or their heritage. The end result is people coming up with stupid names for no reason other than to carry on a tradition a few decades old which at this point is more about separatism than cultural appreciation.",
"We make them up sometimes and we don't need to defend our life choices to you.\n\nSometimes they're historical. Sometimes they have roots in African or Middle Eastern language. Sometimes it's what the parents liked and the kid is fine.",
"It's worth noting that France had a strong colonial showing in Africa, so many countries spoke, and still speak, French.\n\nIn French, \"le\" = \"the\" and \"de\" = \"of.\"\n\nSo, it's possible you are seeing variations of like.. Desean is \"Of Sean\" or LeMichael is \"the Michael(s)\" (as in, a family name or clan name or something).\n\nIt's obviously evolved a lot, so it doesn't necessarily mean someone named D'Brickashaw has a father or grandfather named Brickashaw. ",
"It's also important to understand that they are only unusual by certain standards. All names are just a string of phonemes. DeSean is one syllable away from Sean, but that \"De\" creates a whole set of arbitrary assumptions.",
"It seems to me people are skirting the issue of ignorance. Let's say a young African American girl has a baby. She is not well educated, still in her rebellion years. She may come up with something out of ignorance, mis-spell it, or butcher a name out of lack of understanding. To me that is the reason, but after a few generations this becomes the norm among the ignorant/rebellious because people are used to those names.\n\nI am not trying to offend anyone, we could argue that society has placed them in that situation. It is my theory.\n\nWell educated and wealthy African Americans don't typically have children with wild odd names. Not saying it doesn't happen, just saying that it is more rare. I work with a young African American named Austin as an example. ",
"On a related note, this was a recent story on NPR, about a white man with a \"black\" name. _URL_0_",
"Because they want to sound like they're African. I once met a black woman whos name was \"La' Quanshia\"\n\n\"La, apostrophe, space, quan SHY yuh\"\n\nMan, fuck off. I'm gonna call you Ruth.",
"Years ago a woman told a group she was naming her girl Chardonnay Bacardi. The other women commented \"oh how pretty\" but my silence was noticable. ",
"Just from watching sports and hearing them talk about players it seems like often first names are mashups of names of others in the family, which is a good way to build family history/continuity. \n\nInteresting aside that I just learned recently. The name \"Tyrone\" is considered as a quintessential black male name but it has Irish/Gaelic origins. \n\n\"From the name of a county in Northern Ireland which is derived from Irish Gaelic Tir Eoghain meaning \"land of EOGHAN\". This name was popularized by American actor Tyrone Power (1914-1958), who was named after his great-grandfather, an Irish actor.\"",
"I think this was asked before, though I don't know if it was in ELI5 or Askreddit. I'll try to explain what I remember.\n\nDuring the second half of the 20th century, a big part of the African-American culture was trying to distinguish itself from the white culture. You'll also have to remember that back then, racism against black people was much more prevalent than it is today, so it's no wonder that they tried to identify to different things than white people (although a big part of their culture is slowly being integrated into ours).\n\nThat's why they would try to give their children unique names. While some of those names were genuine African names, for the most part, they were just names that the typical white american kids wouldn't have, and those names would often come from a lot of different cultures. For instance, I've been told that \"Marquis\" is a \"black name\", even though that's a *french* ~~name. (Fun fact, it's also the name of the Marquis De Sade, a nutcase who loved to write novels so gruesome that the term Sadism was named after him).~~ (actually, it's a french *Title*, I got that wrong, but you get the idea)\n\nSo in a nutshell, because of the racism a few years earlier, black people tried to dissociate their cultures from the white culture, and getting names that weren't common for white people was one of the ways they did that.\n\nEdit: Turns out Marquis is actually a french title.",
"If you watch freakonomics (think it's still on Netflix) the first segment of the documentary has some really cool statistics about why this happens as well. ",
"I understand no one but the OP will see this, as it will be buried, but my favorite two were La-a (pronounced Ladasha) and \"Ur'hyness Royal _____\" (last name blank, was a patient. Royal was the middle name).",
"While we're on the subject of odd names, did y'all know that Teddy Roosevelt named one of his sons Kermit. Can you imagine if he'd followed in his father's footsteps and become president? And was Kermit ever a common name? I had only ever heard of it with \"the Frog.\" Did Henson name his character after this guy or was it a semi-popular name at one time?",
"Freakonomics has a great podcast episode on this topic!\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAlso, I have read elsewhere that it has something to do with wanting to be different and distinguishable from other ethnicities. ",
"The latter. They make that crap up.\n\nThis one summer, I proctored placement exams at a local university. Younger kids in highschool were taking them. The university was just used as the location to administer the test. So this very ethnic black woman, Nigerian accent, I think, walks up to fill out some paperwork for her son and check him in.\n\n\"What's his name?\"\n\n\"Yuh-zed-rick.\"\n\n\"Zedrick?\"\n\n\"No, Yuh-zed-rick.\"\n\n\"Can you spell that?\"\n\n\"Y, U with the two dots, Z...\"\n\n\"You mean an umlaut?\"\n\n\"The U with the two dots over it.\"\n\n\"Yeah, that's an umlaut. A letter in the German alphabet.\"\n\n\"It's an African name.\"",
"I hear that if you name your kids Hunter and Chelsea they issue you lacrosse equipment and a minivan with a stick figure family on the back window right at the hospital.",
"[Not All Blacks Are African American](_URL_0_) I wondered why as well so I axe my black bro and he (imafuckingass) and he said his mom gave him the name",
"I knew a guy, his first name was something traditional like Anthony, but his middle name was Delano. He decided that everyone should call him \"Delano\" because \"it's got more *heritage*.\" I laughed at him and reminded him that the most famous \"Delano\" of all was a crippled old white guy in a wheelchair. He didn't like that but didn't change his mind, either.\n\nSo, the answer to your question is: Because it \"sounds black.\" It's an issue of ethnic pride. There are books on the shelves full of \"traditional African names.\" \n\nAnd sadly, there are also studies that show that employers typically do not call back people whose applications show unusual names. The perception is that such people tend to be combative and confrontational, as well as less educated and less well-mannered.",
"List of names I have seen come through work. All of them are temp workers.\n\nMy'Angel (Pronounced my angel) \nPebbles \nJeffrica \nCathilia'de (no idea) \nChanel Hennessey \nLaKrishna \nLaJuan (double whammy) \nLaCoryA (Spelled just like that - La-Cory-Ahhh) \n\nI live and work in Atlanta\n",
"Key and Peele----east/west college football\n\n_URL_0_",
"I'll consider this a legitimate question when white people feel obligated to explain Braydon, Skyler, and Gunnar.",
"I had the pleasure of working with a young lady who's mother named her brother \"Nosmoking\" its pronounced, \"Nas-Muh-King\" when i asked her how her mom came up with the name, because i did not know the spelling, she said \"when my mom was going into labor, they had to put her in an elevator to go to the delivery wing, there she said she saw a sign from God\" I asked, \"a sign?\" she said, \"my idiot mom saw the \"No Smoking\" sign\". true story, i never laughed harder in my life",
"I think the specifics behind black identity has been covered nicely, lets SWITCH PLACES!!!! \n\nMarcus: Proto-Germainic, literally 'boundary' so it's like naming your kid 'Sign post' you idiot. Derived from an Indo-European root shared by Latin margo ‘margin’ so anyone who's named Mark, guess what, your ancestors butchered a word from another language that doesn't make sense and didn't even spell it right. All the purists who won't hire you for your stupid name died thousands of years ago thankfully.",
"Not sure if this is a black people thing, as much as it is a poor american thing. I always assumed they feel like they can control nothing else in their lives, so they do name their kid \"Reegon\" or \"Quyn\" or \"R'nee\" because it gives them some type of empowerment over something. ",
"Follow up: Do they know it makes them look like fucking idiots when they name their kids with these names?",
"You need to see Key and Peele doing that football lineup..the names are hilarious! but its panache so I say go for it brothers",
"Like Carlin, I've always wanted to know where the name Chad came from. Or what about the name Trey or Scooter? White people have some pretty stupid names. \n\n_URL_0_",
"I spent 33 years on the professional staff of a very large urban public library system. One of the questions reference librarians get every year is from middle school students who have to research the origin and meaning of their names, both surname and first name. It's a useful little project on using reference sources, since there are a lot of books on this, and some kids really get into it.\n\nBut starting around the mid-1970s, we began to get questions on the order of \"What does 'Dashondra' mean?\" We struggled with this for awhile, digging into books on African history and culture and so on, but we eventually concluded that most mothers who bestowed names that *sounded* vaguely \"African\" actually just made them up out of thin air. Because they liked the syllables.\n\nSo our fall-back answer to that student question eventually (and perhaps unfortunately) became, \"Ask your mother.\" Because it sounded better than, \"It doesn't mean *anything,* kid.\"",
"For anyone here unironically saying, \"It started as a movement to get closer their African roots\" I have a question. \n\nI went to school with a girl named Shaniqua. She had a friend named Tylen. Tylen's sister was Omuniq. \n\nWe've all heard Shaniqua enough to accept it as a real name. A quick search of Google let's us know that it is an invented name with no particular origin story. \n\nOmuniq (I'm unique) sounds and appears to be a screen name or email address. Not a proper name with historical/ethnic origins. \n\nAnd lastly, we have Tylen - whose mother liked the name \"Tylenol.\" Of the three, Tylen's name is the only one that has actual, historical roots - albeit straight to the Trademark Office. \n\nTherefore, my question is - at what point did a **total disregard for African roots/naming conventions** become \"getting closer to their heritage?\"\n\nMost of these names are clearly invented, on the spot, with no forethought. \n\n",
" > Or do their parents just make them up?\n\nThis.",
"I live in Bermuda. It is pretty common to take 1/2 of the mother's name and 1/2 of the father's name and smash it together to come up with a completely new and terrible name.\n\nFor example, if dad's name is Jevon and the mother's name is Kiara, the kid might be named Jekia, Je-kia, Ja'kia, Kivon, Ki'von, Ki-von, etc.\n\nEdit: typo",
"No offensive to anyone, but I personally don't like names that are nouns. Destiny, Honesty, Princess and so on. I like the name \"Monique\" but naming your child \"Unique\" is just, again, just my opinion, cheesy. I knew a \"Shai'ekia\", Shai'alia, \"Devostian\" (like \"Devotion\"), multiple \"Diamonds\" and \"Destinys\", an \"Essence\" and so on. ",
"Parents you have been warned. Please consider the life long implications of what names you give your children. There is an impending Y2K-like time bomb waiting to explode in the healthcare system because of all these \"cute\" names parents are coming up with these days. Giving your kids three middle names, double hyphenated last names, siblings with phonetically similar names, or naming twins almost the exact same thing WILL result in errors in their medical records. Oh, and quit using symbols, apostrophes, and other non alpha characters. They don't play well with today's electronic health records.\n\nit's a shame, but good luck getting jobs. Your kids wont' get good jobs with names employers can't pronounce. They won't even make it into an interview. "
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3ix3ll | how does a wifi router pull data from the surrounding environment and translate it into usable information? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ix3ll/eli5_how_does_a_wifi_router_pull_data_from_the/ | {
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"A wifi router has one or more antennas that alternate between receiving and broadcasting radio waves that are encoded with information. \n\nWhen radio waves pass a wire, they create a tiny changing voltage on that wire. Wifi routers send and receive radio waves that have voltages that change at very specific frequencies. The circuitry that detects these voltages will filter out all the other voltages that don't match that specific frequency. \n\nBy making some every smaller and very clever changes to that frequency over time, information can be encoded in the wave. This is the information the router receives and sends. "
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2o3y7z | how come when you look at something up close with 2 eyes, a ghostly copy of it appears parallel? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2o3y7z/eli5_how_come_when_you_look_at_something_up_close/ | {
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"You have two eyes to provide you with stereoscopic vision, or giving you depth perception. Your brain interprets the slightly different perspectives of your eyes into estimating the distance of objects. But your eyes essentially need to focus on the object to be able to merge the objects as one, if you focus your eyes to a further distance, your brain won't be able to merge the images of something closeup that is out of focus and you will see each of the images individually.\n\nPut your thumb up at arms length in front of you and focus on looking at the distant background. You will also notice your thumb become two because you are not focusing on it."
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s5ruv | embryonic stem cell research | What is it? How does it work? Why are some people so worked up about it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/s5ruv/eli5_embryonic_stem_cell_research/ | {
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"When a human foetus (sorry, british) is conceived, (sperm meets egg, and they get together and start multiplying) those first cells are called *stem cells*. They are important because they are all the same- they haven't turned into brain cells, blood cells or anything else yet. They will end up replicating other cells which eventually specialise (sorry again, british), but they basically have the potential to become anything.\n\nStem cell research is basically where scientists take stem cells at this stage, and look at them. The reason they're important is because with the right techniques, medical science can fix really big problems, like genetic disorders and cancer, using them.\n\nSome people are worked up about it because of \"Pro-Life\" reasons- most stem cells are taken from embryos at an early stage of development, and to some people, that is like ripping a living baby from its mother, killing it, and dissecting it."
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51t7vb | how do computers calculate exact integrals? | I know that calculators can estimate integrals by using Riemann Sums, but those are approximations, not exact. How can calculators determine exact integrals/antiderivatives given that it's not always a linear process? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51t7vb/eli5_how_do_computers_calculate_exact_integrals/ | {
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"There are only a few certain \"types\" of integrals (and different rules for types within types like ln(x^(5))), and a computer just has to work with those to find the antiderivative just like a human would. \n\nHowever there are a few Equations that no computer nor human can solve and it'll just say \"nope can't do that\" and quit. (Just like a human).",
"Riemann sums are one technique used in numerical integration, and others include various Quadrature methods. \n\nBut computers can also do symbolic integration on the function that way i.e. if function f(x) has its symbolic integral (antiderivative) function F(x), then the integral of f(x) between *a* and *b* is F(*b*) - F(*a*). I use wxMaxima, which can do this, and Wolfram Alpha can too (since its maths system is derived from Mathematica. ",
"Basically, there is an (almost) algorithmic way of computing antiderivatives systematically, called the [Risch algorithm](_URL_0_); it can just be very computationally intensive. So for hand computations, it's extremely cumbersome to use the full-blown Risch algorithm, and therefore historically any antiderivative that wasn't possible to compute manually with the regular tricks you would be better off estimating numerically anyway. Computer algebra systems like Mathematica implement the Risch algorithm (or variations thereof) and can therefore be used to more or less algorithmically compute antiderivatives."
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1l4by7 | if congress blew up and the president, vice-president and all senators and representatives were killed/incapacitated who would be in charge? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l4by7/if_congress_blew_up_and_the_president/ | {
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"The Secretary of State.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nOf course, in practical terms the Secretary of Defense would likely take the forefront because we would obviously be in the middle of thermonuclear war.",
"The Secretary of State would be in charge. Although I am assuming that if you had remembered that cabinet secretaries were in the line of succession, you would have included them in your death list, so I'll take then question to be \"if the executive and legislative branch were both killed off, who would take charge?\"\n\nThe two possibilites would be appointed heads of administrative agencies, or the Supreme Court. Neither of those are contemplated in the official line of succession, but mass murdering most of the government is pretty extreme. Of the appointed heads of administrative agencies, it would probably be the Joint Chiefs of Staff. \n\nAlternatively, given that we'd probably be in a pretty serious war at that point, it is likely that military leaders could just take over, hopefully Cincinnatus style.",
"There is such a thing as a \"Designated Survivor\", meaning a member of the cabinet who is sent away whenever a large gathering of key personnel takes place. This is to prevent such things as a successful \"decapitation strike\" where all key members of government are killed off in a massive attack. Priorities go down the line of key personnel first, so the one with the highest ranking would inherit the presidential position, but in case of the attack being something so massive and effective that there were no survivors at all, this person would assume command and be the effective head of state until further notice.",
"If the cabinet and designated survivors were also killed, there is no provision for succession. No agency heads, no Supreme Court, no nobody would be able to constitutionally assume the Presidency. \n\nThe Congress could be easily reconstituted. The governors of the states would appoint new senators and representatives in accordance with their respective state constitutions, and the new House and Senate would select leadership, re-establishing the line of succession. This could be done in a matter of days. \n\nWithout an executive branch, officers of the federal government could legally act in accordance with their mandate. Generals could still command their forces (and counterattack in self-defense), agency heads run their agencies, and such. The day-to-day operations of the federal government could operate for some time without a president or cabinet. Very little of what government does requires the constant action of the president or department secretaries. "
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93dq48 | why are online travel agencies cheaper (significantly) than booking directly from airline? | Considering the OTA is a middleman in the transaction, how are they able to sell the ticket cheaper than the airlines themselves? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/93dq48/eli5why_are_online_travel_agencies_cheaper/ | {
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"Most of the time they are not.\n\nPrice shown is lower but when you are on the \"checkout\" page most of times there will be extra-fees. With these fees, your end price is higher than when booking the same flight directly from the airline.\n\nIt's a trap.",
"It's several factors. \n\nSome airlines (and other industries like hotels/car rentals) have agreements in place that says they can't be lower than a 3rd party seller. It's a win-win for both parties, the airline being able to ensure maximum occupancy but still having the chance to make more money. \n\nOther times it's the airline cutting a deal with the reseller/agency to ensure maximum occupancy. That's the key for airlines, they need passengers. \n\nThat being said the discounts offered aren't always there, it's common to save little or nothing depending on the route being flown. For common/commuter routes there's virtually no price difference. ",
"They rarely are, actually.\n\nSometimes a reseller will buy up a block of tickets, then resell them a discount when the price goes up. Other times what you are seeing are hacker fares, where flying multiple airlines is cheaper than what you can get staying with the same carrier."
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2y0ijy | how can you have stereo sound with a vinyl ? | I have some difficulties to understand how it is possible to create 2 different track for each speaker with just one groove. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y0ijy/eli5_how_can_you_have_stereo_sound_with_a_vinyl/ | {
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"[Here are some pictures](_URL_0_). The key point is that the groove can both vary in depth and wiggle from side to side, allowing it to separately vibrate the stylus in two directions.",
"[Here's a site](_URL_0_) with very easy to understand diagrams.\n\nYou have two dimensions to encode the sound on - vertical and horizontal. You can use each to encode a different channel, or you can use a combination of both of them, by turning the whole thing 45 degrees."
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cs6xbj | the usage of iodine | Why iodine is still being used in operations, rather than hydrogen peroxide or salicyl alcohol? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cs6xbj/eli5_the_usage_of_iodine/ | {
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"text": [
"Iodine is very inexpensive, and it won't hurt the patient if it gets inside them. Hydrogen peroxide is very aggressive and salicyl alcohol has many allergy concerns. If course, some people are also allergic to iodine. \n\n[Studies on iodine](_URL_0_ ) show it's quite effective."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2386220/"
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ffy6w4 | how do they trace the origin / first case of an outbreak of a viral disease, say hiv? how accurate are they? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ffy6w4/eli5_how_do_they_trace_the_origin_first_case_of/ | {
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"It depends on how long it has been since the first diagnosis. For Coronavirus, they figured it out extremely quickly because it occurred in an area of high-population density, (and frankly the only good thing about it) track everyone in their country. \n\nHIV is a different story. Firstly, they know it transferred to us from Africa, and monkeys of some kind there, due to the genetic similarities of HIV to the Ape version. Origin is easy in this case. \n\nNow first outbreak- that’s a different story. It depends on how long it takes for the disease to develop and begin causing symptoms, as well as how fast it kills off the host. HIV is one of those, that if it had hit humanity a few hundred years before, we would be mathematically FUCKED. But it’s only been around approx. 100 years. And how long it takes to develop vs. how many cases there are, all ya gotta do is backtrack exponentially. And accuracy is anywhere from a 20 year period to a few years- we simply can’t know more accurately than that at this point.\n\nEbola and other filoviruses are even harder to pinpoint- they kill fast, and without discrimination. Due to how fast they move, oftentimes a village could get it, and then since they don’t really talk to many other tribes or villages that often, could get wiped out incredibly easily. Which is hard to pinpoint both where it comes from And the exact time it first started. (Estimates say 10,000 years ago. It’s a good thing Ebola is kinda hard to spread)",
"Basically documenting the number of cases, where the person lives, and looking into their everyday habits. \n\nIf they notice a large portion share a location that they visited, it prompts them even further into delving at what occurred there."
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8cb24z | how does a student improve their credit score to one day get a mortgage or finance a car? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8cb24z/eli5_how_does_a_student_improve_their_credit/ | {
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"You could start with a credit card. When I started college I got one with a $500 limit. Paid it off monthly and credit started to grow.",
"Well I'm no finance manager or anything like that, and I have no idea where you are from, but in Canada, someone in you're situation could get a vehicle, under something along the lines of a \"first time buyers program\" and generally mitsubishi or hyundai have the easiest ones to get into, but they basically pick the car for you it's generally a lancer or a car under or around 20k. Other than that, from my experience, I've just been building my credit back from my past, in the first year I only went up 100 points from a phone bill and Insurance, and in the last 2 months I've gone up another 60 points just by paying my rent, my insurance, phone, internet and credit card.. I've been told if you just leave you're card with money on it constantly and only make the minimum payment or just over instead of trying to pay it down that makes you're credit go up quicker.. but I'm not 100% on that one. So my suggestion is just keep paying you're credit card down, pay you're phone bill and maybe buy a cheap vehicle and put basic insurance on it and just pay it. Doesn't have to be anything crazy.. other than that I personally have no other answer, hope this is slightly useful\n",
"First, start with some patience.\n\nYou're not likely to be set up to buy a home immediately. Take a few deep breaths and realized you have some time.\n\nIf course, don't water that time. Do some small things to establish yourself. Some of this will happen naturally, like by renting a home and paying bills. You might need to bite a higher-interest rate on something early, but you can reduce that life-long impact by making it small. A small credit card or car loan might do the trick.\n\nPay bills on time. Keep your debt-to-income ratio low. Plan for it, but wait for it, too.",
"If you’re not buying an expensive car then no credit score is ideal. I bought a 2016 Ford Focus with 0% interest, no credit history, no co-signer, no questions asked. Fairly sure the same doesn’t apply to houses though.",
"Short version: get a credit card or two, spend some money on them, and pay them off at the end of the month. Also, if you've got a brick & mortar bank, walk in there and talk about what it would take to get an auto loan. Maybe try a local credit union as well. You never want to walk into a car dealership with the dealer controlling your financing options - that's a great way to get hosed over.\n\nLong version: to build credit effectively, it helps to understand how credit works. This primer is for the US and may vary greatly from country to country. Fun fact: having a shit ton of money in the bank and never having abused credit is not considered the same thing as having good credit, so even if you are a paragon of fiscal responsibility you may have a terrible credit score just because of a lack of history using credit.\n\nIn the US, most lending offers are done based on your credit score. Your credit score is a number generated from your credit report after it has been run through a proprietary formula created by the Fair Isaac Corporation. Fair Isaac CO gets shortened down to FICO, and is generally considered to be the gold standard in credit scores. \n\nNow, something that many people don't know is that you actually have three credit scores, because there are three major credit bureaus out there that collect and track your financial behavior - Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Credit reports track things like locations that you've lived in, phone numbers that you have used, credit accounts you have open, number of times you've applied for credit, times you've had debts and failed to pay them, your employment history, and disputes that you have filed against your credit report. In theory, these reports should all be identical, but in reality they're not. Sometimes your lenders don't report all things to all bureaus, and sometimes they mess up and get bad information on your reports.\n\nIt's important to remember that credit bureaus are not infallible monoliths and you do have some legal rights regarding your credit report, such as the right to check your credit reports from each bureau once per year at no cost. You can do this through the website at _URL_0_, and this portal is the one true legal site for checking your credit reports for free. It also should be noted that access to your credit reports does not come with any legal right to your credit score based off of those reports. Most of these bureaus and other institutions with ties to banking and finance will try to sell you their approximation of your FICO score while calling it your credit score, but these aren't the same thing and can vary wildly in how accurate they are.\n\nSo, back to your credit/FICO score (I will use credit score and FICO score interchangeably, but will be referring to the same thing. I will not reference alternative credit scoring from here on out). Your credit score will be a number between 300 and 850, where 300 is basically telling lenders that they'd be better off just setting their money on fire because then they'd at least get some heat back from it, and 850 would be telling lenders that they could hand you the keys to their armored truck while they ran into a restaurant for lunch and you'd throw a few extra bucks in the truck when you gave the keys back. The average credit score in the US is around 680, and any credit score above 720 is generally considered to be an excellent credit risk.\n\nSo how is your credit score calculated? Fair Isaac has told us the following about how your credit score is calculated:\n\n* Payment History - 35%. In short - do you pay your bills on time? The longer your history of paying your bills on time, the better. If you have missed payments, it will show up here and the record of that missed payment will stick with you for years, though over time the importance of a missed payment will decline. Anything that ended up getting sent to collections will also show up here.\n\n* Available credit - 30%. This measures how much of the credit currently available to you is currently in use. You've heard stories of people getting into trouble and maxing out multiple credit cards and taking out all of their home equity via a HELOC, and lenders recognize that excessive use of credit is a major sign that someone is struggling financially. Generally as long as your use of credit below 30% of what is available to you, you'll get a nice thumbs up on your credit report.\n\n* Types of credit used - 15%. This primarily breaks down into credit that is revolving (you can borrow against a fixed pool of credit and repay at the rates you desire; think credit cards) or installment loans (you are loaned a fixed sum of money and must repay it at a certain rate at specific intervals; think mortgages or auto loans). The more diverse your borrowing is and the more lines of credit you have open and are managing successfully, the better this value is for you.\n\n* New credit - 10 to 12%. If someone who has a low wage job and never did much borrowing all of a sudden turns around and opens a dozen credit cards totaling $200,000 in credit, other lenders would seriously begin to worry why that much credit was suddenly needed and how it would all get paid off should the credit holder turn around and spend it all in a month. It also tallies how often you request additional credit, and you should expect a minor drop of several points in your FICO score any time you actively solicit credit. It should be noted that while various financial institutions will poll your credit to see whether they want to advertise you, their checking your credit because they want to does not adversely affect your credit.\n\n* Length of credit history - 5 to 7%. This looks at how long your accounts have been on file and you've been paying your bills. The more history you have of paying your bills on time, the safer it is to assume that you'll continue paying your bills on time. I've got a credit card that I got when I was young and in college, and the terms on it were the kind of atrocious terms that young men with no careers get - I think it's got like a 30% interest rate on it or something ridiculous and a limit so low that I might hit it if I coughed. But every month, I pop it out and buy a candy bar or a pack of gum with it and then pay the bill off to keep the account open and active and show that for the better part of 20 years I've been reliably paying my bills. \n\nNote that everything here is all focused on credit activity. If I won the Power Ball this week, it would have zero direct impact on my credit score because having money doesn't actually directly correlate to paying back money in a timely manner. There are plenty of rich people who screw over creditors when they see that they have more leverage in a situation. Everything relates to actual credit use.\n\nSo given that we know the basics of how the system works, you can start figuring out how to work the system. Step one: get a credit card and use it modestly while paying it off properly every month. If you've got bad credit or shit credit, the absolute last line of defense is known as a secured credit card, where you basically put down a $500 deposit with the lender and they give you a $500 limit. If you fail to pay a bill, they can deduct it from your collateral and are out nothing, but it allows you the chance to show you can pay your bills on time. This is your worst case scenario, but more than likely you can get an unsecured credit card. After a while, you open up a second credit card and use it responsibly as well. Over time, your credit score will continue to rise.\n\nAnd as I said at the top of the post, don't ever go to the dealer without some kind of financing already in hand. They basically make a commission off of sending a loan to a bank, and they've got zero incentive to ensure that you're getting the best terms possible. If you know the make, model, and year of car you're looking to buy, go into a brick and mortar bank or credit union and get pre-approved for a loan. Having this in hand means that the dealer can't give you an atrocious loan because it pays them the most commission. They might come back at you with an even better loan and save you some money, and there's nothing wrong with doing that, but their financial incentive is to get you to pay as much as possible."
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2jcjf0 | how does d-earth kill pests such as fleas? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jcjf0/eli5_how_does_dearth_kill_pests_such_as_fleas/ | {
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"text": [
"Diatomaceous Earth basically creates a \"the floor is lava\" game for tiny critters, accept the floor is a million tiny razor blades and there is no way to win this game. Look up a picture of Diatomaceous earth magnified and you'll see what I am talking about; it's essentially just very sharp, tiny sand."
]
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] | ||
1ssq8m | why is it when i have a cold or flu, i sometimes feel really cold and start shivering violently, even though when i feel my skin i'm warm? | I'm sick right now and could not stop shivering last night, even sleeping in a hoodie and under 2 bed sheets, what's happening here? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ssq8m/eli5_why_is_it_when_i_have_a_cold_or_flu_i/ | {
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"text": [
"This is a side effect of fever. Your body temperature is above normal, but your brain wants you running hot in order to help kill the infection, so encourages you to seek warmth. This is on top of the fact that because of your increased body temperature, surrounding air feels that much colder compared to your skin temperature.\n\nThere are many fever-reducing medications available OTC like ibuprofen and acetaminophen",
"One part of is that many diseases release chemicals that effect your hypothalamus, which controls, among other things, your body temperature. Another belief is that an increased body temperature can help you to fight off infection."
]
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[],
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1lq9xx | what is the difference between astronomy and astrophysics? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lq9xx/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_astronomy_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Astronomy = study of space including planets, stars, and their physics\n\nAstrophysics = branch of astronomy, focused study of physical properties of space objects and the effects they cause in the space around them (just like physicists study gravity and its effects on Earth) ",
"Astronomy - What we see in outer space. \n \nAstrophysics - Why the stuff we see in Astronomy is like that. ",
"In academia the terms are often used interchangeably. However, astronomy can also mean simple observation of astronomical phenomena, without any actual investigation into their nature or behaviour (as in the term \"amateur astronomy\").",
"Astrophysics is in many cases a branch of astronomy academically. You'll have an Astronomy Department, or physics and astronomy (or just physics with the astronomy group subordinate to physics, though they tend to not like that). Within astronomy you have the observational astronomers, who look at stuff, the experimental astronomers, who figure out how to build the equipment that looks at stuff, the astrophysicists who are trying to explain why stuff is the way it is, or to predict what sorts of stuff might be observable. \n\nMy GF has a PhD in astrophysics and she and her astrophysicist friends consider themselves astronomers, who specialize in astrophysics. Trying to get her to look for work at a department of physics is about as popular as asking her to work with business majors for some reason. "
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68ctue | what is a natural immunity? | What is a natural immunity and why do some people have them to certain specific diseases? In addition, do some people have stronger immune systems than others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68ctue/eli5_what_is_a_natural_immunity/ | {
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"text": [
"Natural immunity is either immunity that you have developed due to exposure to a pathogen or condition, such as chicken pox. You develop a natural immunity to the virus so you don't get it again after you have it once. You survive it then move on with life.\n\nOther people can have a natural immunity based on genetics passed down by their parents. Say, a natural immunity to mumps or aids. Believe it or not, there are several people who have been identified who are immune to HIV from birth. Geneticists and Scientists are trying to understand why so they can possibly synthisize an antidote or cure for it."
]
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[]
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6ltyhh | why does a fly hover around people, even when they don't have food? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ltyhh/eli5_why_does_a_fly_hover_around_people_even_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"djwlyx8"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"To the fly, you're a giant covered in oil, sugar and water - which is a major food source to them. Your skin produces a ton of oil and sweat that combined emits a ton of odor (to the fly), meaning that they believe that you have a ton of food. If you're wearing red clothing or have red hair, flys will just believe that your red-colored item is likely meat and thus fly around you. \nEven if your try and shoo the fly away by swatting at it, it cant recognize that this is another animal actively trying to hunt it, so it continues to come back."
]
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22ri9b | how is distance not affected when it comes to reflections in water. | I saw this photo in [/r/earthporn](_URL_0_). The mountains in the background don't overshadow the pond, so how come it's there? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22ri9b/eli5_how_is_distance_not_affected_when_it_comes/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgpo04z"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Ah, it's due to angles.\n\nThe angle at which the camera is looking towards the water is such that the water will reflect the mountains to the camera.\n\nIf the sun was right behind the mountains, then the shadows would cover the lake. But given the sun seems to be just over the camera's right shoulder, the shadows aren't going to cover the lake."
]
} | [] | [
"http://ppcdn.500px.org/66101933/7324fba9cc7259ff1f0f1ce2025e845baad539ca/2048.jpg"
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1r7oaf | how does the foodbank feed four people from $1? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r7oaf/eli5_how_does_the_foodbank_feed_four_people_from_1/ | {
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"text": [
"If it's a food bank (not a kitchen), then they're distributing uncooked food. They have a lot of volunteer workers and get contributed food (from stores and from individuals). Take their actual costs (building space, paid supervisory staff, other overhead), divide it by the number of meals worth of food distributed, and you get 25 cents."
]
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[]
] | ||
2w5qfa | what sets anime apart from other animated styles? | Question in title. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w5qfa/eli5_what_sets_anime_apart_from_other_animated/ | {
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"text": [
"How do you mean? In terms of art style or content? In terms of art style, it's the characteristic anime style - the big eyes, level of detail, facial expressions and use of color. In terms of content, it mainly boils down to the fact that anime doesn't pretend animation is only for children, and anime movies/series often tackle adult humor and deeply involved, serious plots that other kinds of animation generally steer clear of.",
"Anime as a medium is usually directed at smaller, niche markets. This means shows can be created to cater to specific, obscure tastes.\n\nYou really like cute girls driving tanks? [there's an anime for that.](_URL_0_) You really like pokemon, but wish it was hot girls instead of monsters? [Gotta catch 'em all!](_URL_1_)\n\nMy point is that by narrowing the target audience of the show, it allows the producers to make some really unique, groundbreaking stuff. There may be 10 shows out there that you don't like, but one that you really, really do. Disney movies appeal to a really wide audience, but they rarely REALLY connect with any single person."
]
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[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_und_Panzer",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekirei"
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1pi30z | why so avacados require grafting to produce fruit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pi30z/eli5_why_so_avacados_require_grafting_to_produce/ | {
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"text": [
"The trees that you grow from seeds have a mix of the parent trees genes. The new combination of genes can give the new tree characteristics that are different from either parent. It is rare to get a combination of genes that gives you fruit as good as the parent trees. To get around this the trees are usually grafted. When a tree is grafted, a piece of a tree that makes good fruit is stuck to the root system of the young tree. The grafted tree is them made up of two different trees. The new tree makes up the roots and the top part of the tree is a clone of a tree that made good fruit. (It is also possible to clone root stocks but it's more complicated)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
abubq8 | what determines the height of the clouds? | I mean, why are they exactly where they are? What prevents them from going a few hundreds of meters higher or lower?
Also, why somethings there are clouds so low that they reach the ground? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/abubq8/eli5_what_determines_the_height_of_the_clouds/ | {
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"text": [
"Numerous factors, and if you knew them all you could predict the weather.\n\nBut typically cloud \"height\" or altitude is a combination of air pressure, humidity and lithology (the shape of the ground).\n\nClouds are formed when air contains as much water vapor (gas) as it can hold. This is called the saturation point, and it can be reached in two ways. First, moisture accumulates until it reaches the maximum amount the volume of air can hold. The other method reduces the temperature of the moisture filled air, which in turn lowers the amount of moisture it can contain. Saturation, therefore, is reached through evaporation and condensation, respectively. When saturation occurs, moisture becomes visible water droplets in the form of fog and clouds.\n\nif you consider the Ideal gas law: \n\nPV=nRT \n\nwhere P, V, V and T are the pressure, volume and absolute temperature; n is the number of moles of gas; R is the ideal gas constant. As you alter the temperature and ambient air pressure around your water vapour, the cloud will form when the right combination in reached.\n"
]
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] | |
36zne2 | why do chain restaurants that aren't anywhere near my state have commercials on my tv channels? | I live on the East Coast and see commercials for chain restaurants that don't have places anywhere near the state I live in. Why do they do that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36zne2/eli5_why_do_chain_restaurants_that_arent_anywhere/ | {
"a_id": [
"crifoxe"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"It happens because of the cost of advertising.\n\nLet's say you were in charge of marketing for that restaurant. We will simplify the numbers a lot.\n\nYour restaurant is in 35 states. You can buy advertising state by state for $1000 per state, or you can buy national advertising for $25,000. What will you choose?\n\nOf course you'll choose the option that gets all of your markets (plus others) and saves you $10,000."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
5pkccf | why is the namib desert so dry even though it's right next to the atlantic ocean? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pkccf/eli5_why_is_the_namib_desert_so_dry_even_though/ | {
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"text": [
"Because the prevailing winds come from the east (i.e. inland). They have passed over the African continent by the time they get to Namib, so are relatively dry. Then any remaining moisture is blocked by mountains to the east of the desert. (i.e. a \"Rain Shadow\").\n\nThe moist air coming from the sea is apparently \"neutralised\" by the warm dry air from inland, which causes a lot of cloud and fog out at sea and along the coast, but effectively prevents proper rainfall from penetrating inland. \n\n "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
7a3hop | why are people getting depression at younger ages? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7a3hop/eli5_why_are_people_getting_depression_at_younger/ | {
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"text": [
"This answer is by no means exhaustive and doesn't really explain sociological, cultural or economic considerations. \n\nSome people in my graduate program study dementia and there research is closely associated with depression, the idea being that depression might be a cause for dementia. \n\nSo the reason we think depression can lead to dementia is because they both are kind of caused by similar factors, five in particular. \n\n* Long-term lack of sleep\n\n* Lack of strong, healthy social bonds and/or family. \n\n* Poor diet, especially people eating all the time, which makes you less sensitive to insulin (humans are healthier both mentally and physically when they are highly sensitive to insulin). \n\n* Lack of daily excercise\n\n* Long - term stress \n\n\nWhat we and many other scientists have found is that these 5 lifestyle problems (above) seem to cause a part of our brain to not heal or function properly. This area, the hippocampus, is responsible for a lot of things but it's famous for indexing memories and growing new neurons to index new memories. \n\n* Every night when we sleep, our short term memories (in the hippocampus) are \"transferred\" to long term storage. While we sleep, we also heal the cells in our brain, especially in the hippocampus. \n\n* We need to heal from daily assaults on our brain, such as environmental toxins, and the \"waste\" produced by our neurons as they live and talk to each other. In fact, the more they talk to each other the more waste they produce. In stressful situations, our neurons in the hippocampus talk to each other A LOT, because the hippocampus has evolved to do this, as a way to learn/adapt really quickly in hopes of surviving whatever is causing the stress or fear.\n\nAll five of those above lifestyle problems all hurt our hippocampus in various ways. \n\n**If our hippocampus is hurt and cannot heal properly, it is unable to index new memories properly, so what happens to our new memories?**\n\nThey get indexed with older ones, especially *fear* memories, which are very strong and tend not to be destroyed even when we are stressed or living unhealthily.\n\nSo while we suffer from these lifestyle deficits, new memories get attached to what are often \"bad\" memories. This makes us fear and avoid new things, or even things we once enjoyed. This makes us not want to do anything that makes us happy, which is part of feeling depressed. \n\nHere's a very thorough paper on the topic if you want, covering everything I said here but in depth: \n\n_URL_1_\n\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nSo what does this have to do with young people getting depressed? I did some research and it seems you are correct, more and more young people are getting depressed and it doesn't seem to be just from more reporting of depression than usual:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\nThese same studies suggest that the above lifestyle deficits are becoming more common in younger people's lives. \n\n* Children aren't getting enough sleep due to school schedules and mountains of homework, extracurricular, and other things that they are told they have to do to be successful as an adult. But also the amount of blue light from our electronic devices makes it harder to sleep, as it inhibits our ability to produce melatonin at the right time at night, disrupting Circadian Rhythms. \n\n* Carbs and Sugar are very common in developed nation's diets. Leading to low insulin sensitivity, high rates of obesity and diabetes, and other health issues.\n\n* Many children that are already obese or depressed may find it difficult to begin exercising, further compounding the problem. \n\n* Socioeconomic problems may lead to increased stress and less time with family and friends, which we need to be healthy and not depressed. \n\nThis is by no means, definitive, but it's the best working model we have for all the evidence about what is truly an epidemic of major depression, at almost all age groups. \n\n "
]
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[
"http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/11/10/peds.2016-1878",
"https://jmolecularpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40303-016-0018-8"
]
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2hrg3d | why does my arm hurt all day if it hung over the edge of the bed when i slept? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hrg3d/eli5_why_does_my_arm_hurt_all_day_if_it_hung_over/ | {
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"this has happened to me and i think it's because the muscles and/or joints were stressed for a long period of time. Not badly enough to wake you up out of a sound sleep but bad enough to feel it the next day."
]
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[]
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203v8h | with a finite number of musical notes, chords, and a limited number of notes that are in key with one another - are we ever at risk of exhausting all possible combinations for melodies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/203v8h/eli5_with_a_finite_number_of_musical_notes_chords/ | {
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"Vsauce did a pretty good video on this exact topic at _URL_0_",
"XKCD did a great look at just unique twitter posts. (and if it works for twitter, imagine music!) I love how he describes time on that level:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nSuffice to say you could write unique tweets for thousands of \"eternal years\", where:\n\nHigh up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by."
]
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAcjV60RnRw"
],
[
"https://what-if.xkcd.com/34/"
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5juup3 | why are oled pixels individually lit but not led pixels? | I bought an LED lightstrip and the LED's on the lightstrip are individually lit. Before I thought only OLED can be individually lit. Current generation LED monitors require a backlight to operate. Why wasn't this technology ever used in monitors or TV's (excluding OLED)?
[Don't mean to show off but the lightstrips look amazing](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5juup3/eli5_why_are_oled_pixels_individually_lit_but_not/ | {
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"The pixels are still LCD. The LED part refers to the backlight source. LCDs prior to this used CFLs as a lighting source.\n\nOLED screens have three tiny LEDs to make up each pixel."
]
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"http://imgur.com/a/qGnJB"
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[]
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4k4xrw | why do more libertarians lean towards the right? what are some libertarian values that are more left than right? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4k4xrw/eli5_why_do_more_libertarians_lean_towards_the/ | {
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"Many values of the right are geared towards smaller government and individual accomplishments.",
"The way to think of it is as follows:\n\nConservatives believe the government *shouldn't* interfere with economic issues but **should** interfere with social issues.\n\nLiberals believe that the government **should** interfere with economic issues but *shouldn't* interfere with social issues.\n\nLibertarians believe the government *shouldn't* interfere with economic *or* social issues. \n\nAs such, libertarians tend to agree with liberals on social issues (abortion, gay marriage, separation of church and state) and conservatives on economic issues (taxes, regulation, welfare). ",
"How are you defining \"right\" or \"left\"? As I was growing up I was taught \"right\" refers to people who want the government to have less power, with anarchy being the absolute, and \"left\" refers to the people who want to give it more power, with authoritarianism being the absolute. I only recently learned that this is not how most people view the \"left\" vs \"right\" spectrum, and it's actually rather arbitrary.",
"I'm guessing what you're really asking is why do most libertarians end up voting Republican. Libertarians are very generally defined as conservative on economics and liberal on social issues. So why do they almost always choose to vote for the \"conservative\" candidate and not the \"liberal\" candidate?\n\nIt's because of the solutions the liberal candidates have chosen aren't really all that liberal. Consider gay marriage. Libertarians don't think the government should have the power to prevent people from marrying each other. But they also don't think the government should have the power to force you to accept someone else's definition of marriage (Christians shouldn't be forced to acknowledge gay marriage). \n\nMeanwhile, on the conservative side, when it comes to economic policies, at least ostensibly, Republicans are proposing less government control of the economy, which is exactly in line with libertarian ideology.\n\nSo even though libertarians are liberal on social issues, they still generally don't agree with the solutions proposed by Democrats.",
"If we're talking about why there are essentially no libertarian-ish politicians on the Democrat side in recent decades, its mostly due to the increasing progressiveness of the party. Other than advocating for unrestricted abortion rights, American progressives are almost always arguing for increased intervention. At this point they've almost completely lost their anti-war credentials. As bad as republicans are on foreign interventionism and social meddling, they still pretend to believe in minimal economic intervention, so libertarians try to make inroads there. This lean right is just a reaction to the current political landscape where there is almost no common ground with the progressives that run the Democrats and a tiny bit with the neocons and social conservatives who run the GOP. ",
"Libertarians are not left or right. The political spectrum is not linear.\n\nLibertarians disapprove of all use of state power to control one's economic and personal lives.\n\nThey are anti-statists. You can be a statist conservative or a statist liberal.",
"I'm not sure if this is so relevant to the discussion, but as a liberal democrat, I do find some aspects of the right-wing cause admirable. For instance, even though I am a major supporter of gay marriage and trans rights, I don't morally agree with abortion. I guess some points are more important to people than others, and they can serve to really swing the vote. I might even vote for a more moderate republican solely because of that issue, even though I largely agree with the liberal standpoint. Interesting. ",
"The way I understand it is libertarians want small government and people to be responsible for themselves. This tends to line up more conservative then liberal.\n\nFor example libertarians are not for drugs, but they don't see a need for the federal government to tell you drugs are bad by making a law that says heroin is illegal. Heroin is bad, but you can make that decision for yourself. If your local community wants to run an anti-drug campaign then great, they are not against that. \n\nThey just don't see how the federal government making a law helps anything, because all this is doing is stopping the people who would do heroin if not for this law. This group is probably small to non-existent. People who do heroin will do it regardless of the law. At least this is the idea that I think they are saying.\n\nThe spin that occurs is that since libertarians don't want to outlaw drugs they must be for people getting high which is not that case at all. There is a youtube somewhere of Ron Paul on Morton Downey jr in the 80's talking about this issue.\n\nSmall federal government means that most issues are state issues. They believe education should be run by the states since the states should now what is best for them. This is the same with social programs, states should work to fix this on their level and not the federal level trying to make a one size fix all approach. \n\nDoes this really work in practice? I don't know, but I generally like the premise. \n"
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34kv4v | why do jeans shrink after washing and then go back to normal after being worn? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34kv4v/eli5_why_do_jeans_shrink_after_washing_and_then/ | {
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"Denim is a very strong material, it's actually so strong that it's used in paper money. When it gets washed and then heated up when dried, the fibers in the strands tighten up due to the heat. Wearing them forces the fibers back apart. It's actually what causes jeans to eventually tear because the fibers have contracted so many times that they lose their strength. ",
"When you wash them, water fills up and spreads out the fabric.\n\nWhen you dry them, the water is removed, and the fabric winds up more pulled together than before.\n\nWhen you wear them, you stretch that fabric out again.",
"Is that why every morning I go \"these jeans are too tight\" but by the end of every day they're loose and comfortable??",
"LPT: Invest in quality denim, and wash it as seldom as possible. See [r/rawdenim](_URL_0_) for more information.",
"Hydrogen bonds: hydrogen has an extreme attraction for other atoms with an opposite charge. This does not create an actual chemical bond but a preference for hydrogen containing molecules to arrange themselves a certain way. When you wear your jeans the fabric conforms to your body. When you wash and dry your jeans the hydrogen containing fibers conform to an arrangement according to their attraction to their surrounding molecules. Hydrogen bonds aren't very strong so when you put them back on you pull apart those bonds and stretch the fabric back out. ",
"Imagine the fibers are a bowl of cooked spaghetti that has been sitting around for some time and it’s sticking together a bit. When you wear your jeans, it’s like stretching the spaghetti out, but this type of spaghetti will stay where it is and after it’s stretched. The fibers will form temporary bonds in the stretched position keeping it in new shape. There is some tension in the fibers wanting to return back to the original state, but the temporary bonds are too strong to overcome. When you wet your jeans, you break these temporary bonds and the jean fibers will shrink back to the original spaghetti state.",
"Why do pretty much all clothes do this? Fucking hate having everything being one size smaller then what they should be",
"Cause I see this getting out of control, I'll link to one of several sources. \n_URL_0_\n\nTL;DR Spot clean or quick rinse in shower/ hand wash. \nWasher decreases jean life and wasted a lot of water. ",
"Can someone also help me understand why sometimes sweaters get very fuzzy and not as smooth when washing and drying them? What causes that and how can I avoid it? "
]
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[],
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"http://www.businessinsider.com/levis-ceo-dont-wash-your-jeans-2014-7"
],
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2y1s5r | why a major news network has to loop the same five second clip (for days sometimes | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y1s5r/eli5_why_a_major_news_network_has_to_loop_the/ | {
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"Because it is all that they have and want to make sure everyone sees they have it. Kinda like a child.",
"News editor here.\n\nSometimes that's all we have - case in point today the plane that slid off the runway at LaGuardia. It's passenger cell phone video we have at ABC and FOX. The passenger probably took more video but for most of it the camera is probably pointed at the ground or panning around wildly. We want clear images so viewers won't turn to other channels looking for steady video.\n\nAlso the rule of thumb is \"best video first\" - always lead with the best and most compelling video even if it's out of sequence. If you have shots of someone being rescued from a fire show the rescue first and then go to wider shots showing the whole scene. But with very dramatic video we will show the same piece over and over.\n\nIt's also the YouTube and UGC ( user generated content ) age where viewers have shorter attention spans and want to see the TL;DR version of every story.\n\nI personally like this approach because although I am slightly older than the current target demographic I am also a news junkie and like more stories in a more concise form so I can read and watch more content.",
"I'd say it's part of a feedback loop created by the way we transmit and receive info. As opposed to long form or investigative journalism, we'd rather bombard people with buzzwords and factoids over and over again. This is a useful strategy because, while people are less easy to dupe into buying the party line than in previous generations, they're still susceptible to conditioning through repetition. It's kind of like that episode of The Office where Dwight convinces Andy to sell his car by yelling, \"SELL ME THIS CAR!\" over and over again. Regardless of whether you agree with it, eventually it sticks with you. We don't want people to form opinions, we want them to accept them pre-packaged as they are presented to us in the media. If somebody has to think about a contentious issue in terms you've provided for them, then you've already won.\n\nLong chains of information suggest, on some level, critical thought. We don't want that. We want instinctive reaction from the reptilian brain. We want people to develop ADD and have a hard time focusing on complicated issues (as if the internet weren't a bad enough contributor to the mental jumble.) The more myopic their awareness becomes, the more instinctive their reaction and the less resistance they provide to the bombardment of factoids and buzzwords.\n\nPerhaps this is an overly cynical and not particularly objective explanation for media companies trying to ensure maximum coverage with limited air time. I would still argue that this leads to a decrease in the quality of information presented but anyone who has watched more than 10 minutes of cable news knows this. And it definitely achieves it's intended effect of making people more dismissive, polarized, and misinformed. We want a population that shrugs their shoulders defeatedly, not one that understands and questions. Cable News is a great asset in that conditioning process."
]
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fyrr2y | - if a mortgage group goes bankrupt, what happens to the mortgage of the properties of the people that financed through that group? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fyrr2y/eli5_if_a_mortgage_group_goes_bankrupt_what/ | {
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"The mortgages are assets and are sold on to another company and the money used to pay some of the creditors of the mortgage group.",
"Anything owned by the bankrupt company is considered and asset, anything they owe is considered a liability. What happens is dependent on what kind of bankruptcy they file. \n\nIf they are going completely bankrupt, going out of business, the mortgages they own will be sold to another institution, the new owner will have the rights to collect these mortgages. Ergo instead of sending your mortgage check to ABC Bank, now you'll send them to XYZ Corp.\n\nThe proceeds from that sale will be used to pay bankrupt company's creditors."
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3m9puh | why are clips from tv on youtube always in such bad quality? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3m9puh/eli5_why_are_clips_from_tv_on_youtube_always_in/ | {
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"Most broadcast television is not in high definition yet, so you don't see a lot of content in 1080p/i, or even 720p/i. Some of it is taken from old VCR recordings, which are not terribly high fidelity to begin with. The really terrible ones are recorded by aiming a camera at a TV screen, which looks and sounds awful."
]
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9pwhjs | the economic crisis of mexico in 1994 | Hello. I have trouble understanding this crisis from my lesson. I do not understand the correlation between the US dollar , the forex market and the the Mexican debt and how this led to a crisis in Mexico | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9pwhjs/eli5_the_economic_crisis_of_mexico_in_1994/ | {
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"Basically, Mexico's government all of a sudden was very easy to invest in thanks to NAFTA, and with a Presidential election coming up the incumbent went on a spending spree to make his party more popular so his presumptive replacement would have better chances of winning. The spending was financed with government-backed bonds that you paid pesos to buy but when they matured you were paid back in US Dollars. This made a lot of foreign investors go down to invest in Mexico.\n\nTo invest in a different country, you generally need to use the currency of that country. This is where foreign exchange starts to come in - if I wanted to buy Mexican government bonds, I needed to buy pesos. To pay me back in US Dollars, the Mexican government needed to buy dollars. And because this spending was debt-fueled, the Mexican government didn't exactly have a huge supply of Dollars readily on hand - they would buy the dollars as needed to pay back bonds as they matured. For the purpose of maintaining stability for in investing in Mexico, the Mexican central bank attempted to maintain a relatively fixed exchange rate, commonly referred to as a currency peg. They didn't want the value of the peso wildly changing from day to day or week to week. The stronger Mexican currency also resulted in a trade deficit - Mexican people wanted to buy imported goods because they were (relatively) cheap. They promised the peso would remain strong.\n\nThe problem was that instability in Mexico suddenly spiked. An armed rebellion sprung up in part of the country, and the presumptive future president was assassinated in another part of the country. These are the kinds of events that make investment risky, and risk means that you have to pay more to continue getting investment. The Mexican central bank, trying to keep investors from being scared of Mexico, began issuing bonds to be bought and repaid in dollars, and used the influx of dollars to buy pesos on the open market to make fewer pesos available - since demand stayed the same and supply went down, the value of the peso is supposed to go up. The currency remained strong even though the underlying economic factors said it should be weak.\n\nThis is where things go off the rails. Outside investors basically looked at the peso (which they had to buy in order to invest in Mexico) and realized that it was an artificially inflated bubble by the Mexican government - it wasn't worth anywhere what the foreign exchange rate was pegged at. Think of it like needing a new car and going to the GM Used Car lot and seeing them asking new car prices because they've bought up all of the used GM cars in your area. There's nothing that keeps you from going down to the used car lots for Ford or Honda or Mercedes and buying a used car at a reasonable price from them. The Mexican government finally conceded that the peso was overvalued and changed the peg point, but this caused people to not believe in the promises of the Mexican government or bank. \n\nPeople (both Mexicans and foreigners) stopped investing in Mexico and started selling their investments because everyone realized that the peso simply wasn't worth what the going price was and thus anything priced in pesos was misvalued as well. Their money went out of the country in a capital flight. The Mexican government then raised interest rates to try and attract investors back, but the flip side of raising interest rates is that it can depress economic growth - and it did. Whatever gains they might have gotten were immediately washed, and Mexico plummeted into a recession.\n\nThis is where things go from bad to worse. Remember all of those bonds that were due back in US Dollars? They all started coming due, and the Mexican government basically had no dollars to repay those bonds with because they'd spent their dollars buying pesos to maintain the pegged peso exchange rate. They had to go out and buy dollars, but nobody was willing to sell dollars to them at even the newly pegged price, so Mexico was forced to remove the currency peg and let the markets determine the value. Basically overnight, the peso lost half of its remaining buying power - where it had previously taken about 3.5 pesos to buy one dollar at the height of the pesos power at the start of 1994, by the end of 1994 it was taking over 7 pesos to buy a USD (of particular note is that this basically happened over the course of December 19 through December 23 - this collapse was *fast*). The government had to massively reallocate spending from things like social programs that provided stability to the economy to repaying investors. The collapse of the currency led to hyperinflation in 1995, which caused investors to flee not only Mexico but other developing economies in Latin America and Asia - Mexico's currency collapse sent multiple other countries into recession as investors tried to protect themselves.\n\n"
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3ff6s8 | what makes my dog hate someone he has never met? | My dog is 9 and I've had him since he was 6 weeks old. I know he's never been abused or mistreated. To tell you his breed would just be a guess. He's generally a pretty nice, chill dog but there are some people (indifferent to race, sex, or age) that he just does not like and has no problem showing it. What would make my dog hate someone he's never met? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ff6s8/eli5_what_makes_my_dog_hate_someone_he_has_never/ | {
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"He's probably doing it to protect you, dogs do that sorta thing. If he seems aggressive to someone you don't want him to be aggressive with you should attempt to correct the behavior, but use the attitude you want from him to do it. Stuff like \"its okay boy\" and pet him, then try to get him to smell the person and remind him its okay, etc. Just calm him down and he SHOULD (if he is properly submissive to you) back down and treat the person better. If he doesn't back down in response to you, he might have aggression problems and need training to rid him of it. Think \"Dog Whisperer\"",
"Dog's communicate mostly by smell and posture. Some people have an 'odd way' them to dogs. My black lab *never* barked, like ever, except the few times I would come into the house with the hood on my hoodie or ~~ran~~rain jacket up. Drove her bonkers till she smelled me.\n\nIf someone has an odd stance, shape, gait, or silhouette it can seem very foreign to them, or even threatening."
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26byjw | why is military equipment so expensive? | Like on how can a jet cost $62 million and a tomahawk missile cost $1.5 million? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26byjw/eli5_why_is_military_equipment_so_expensive/ | {
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"Because they're complicated machines. The requirement functionality list is long and the machine has to be tested and retested to work near 100% of the time. \n\nBut real reason is because that's what the US gov agreed to pay the contractor. This like aircrafts are sold at contract prices, not a market rate, since not many buyers out there that Grumman can sell to without gov approval",
"An elephant is a mouse built to a government specification.\n\nMost military gear is designed to work in extremely hostile environments, hot, cold, wet, vibration... the list is long. One has to prove that it does so, which means a lot of testing. Accordingly, design costs are astronomical.\n\nProduction, on the other hand, is often severely limited. If you can spread your design costs over millions of units, as happens in the consumer world, the per-unit amortised design cost is low. But when production is only a few tens of items, as in a fighter jet, the design cost per unit is high.\n\nThen there is tradition. Once opon a time, electronic devices were unreliable and cranky, two qualities the military can do without. Accordingly, elaborate procedures were put in place to make every component traceable to its source, in the hope that process problems could be found and corrected. These procedures are costly.\n\nModern electronics is highly reliable, even under field conditions. Think what your cellphone endures. MIlitary purchasing has not caught up with this fact, it is still in the 1950s.\n",
"ok let me put some insight onto this because I have A feeling everyone is putting their two cents in based on inaccurate knowledge. The main reason why most military equipment is expensive is because the people making the equipment know they can charge the government A certain price. I am A 92A I have access to Catalogs with price info from tanks to bolts and nuts. You would be amazed how certain companies charge the army for example, almost five grand for A battery meanwhile A M249 only costs about A couple grand last time I checked. All this mumbo jumbo about it has to be the best equipment, stand the test of the environment, extremely tough... Bullshit, complete bullshit and idk where they would get this info, everything in the military is made to the lowest bidder. Humvees break down every other week. I've seen nuts and bolts go for hundreds, the military needs certain things and companies know the government has money.",
"From : _URL_0_\n\n > Each aircraft built required \"1,000 subcontractors and suppliers and 95,000 workers\"\n\n > A request for proposals (RFP) was issued in July 1986 and two contractor teams, Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics and Northrop/McDonnell Douglas, were selected on 31 October 1986 to undertake a 50-month demonstration phase\n\nAll those years of development and man hours really add up",
"I'll weigh in on this one. \nFirst, I'll go with the accepted, official reasons. \nWhen the military buys something, it's not like they are buying it once and then driving it off the lot. I will use helicopters for my example because that is what I am most familiar with. \n\nSo, the DOD buys a helo for about $30 million per copy. As someone else mentioned, we don't by thousands of these things, so the cost per unit is high due to R & D costs and the fact that they are built by hand (not on an assembly line with robots is what I mean). But, in addition to the initial cost, the contractor agrees to continue making parts for that model helo for the life of the contract (usually 20+ years). So, that means that a helo built in the 1980s using 1970s display/avionics technology will continue to use those same old parts for the life on the contract. So something like a CRT multi-function display (basically a TV) that cost several thousand dollars to make in 1978 would only cost a couple of hundred dollars if designed and built today. The cost never goes down for the DOD though, and in fact can increase if the parts start to become scarce. Keep in mind though that when most things break, they don't just get thrown away. They can be sent to Intermediate level maintenance to be refurbished or returned to the manufacturer for reconditioning. These parts will eventually make it back into the supply system. \n\nAnyway, the point is that the cost per unit has a lot to do with the underlying cost of supporting a product over a long period of time.\n\nNow, what I believe is the real reason: because contractors gouge the government. \n\nOn the helo I fly (basically a Blackhawk), the cabin door handle costs $4,000. Now, I am pretty sure that Sikorsky has recouped the development cost of the door handle since it is the same for every model H-60 out there. One of our mission displays, which is a 13\" LCD monitor with some computer bits behind it, costs more than $300,000. That is probably because it was developed when LCDs were pretty new and fragile, so making one that can stand the vibration and harsh environments was more expensive than going to best buy and picking up a Samsung monitor. But over $300k?!?! Seriously?!?!\n\nI could give a million other examples of the government being gouged by contractors. So when politicians start talking about cutting the military budget, we should be encouraging them to go after the waste and gouging in the contracting system instead of cutting benefits to active duty troops. Consider that the cost of one of those displays could pay the salary of an E-5 for about five years.",
"Contractors. \nLiterally, in my office, there are 5 cables that look like some kind of VGA cable (It's not though) and guess how much they cost? \nEach cost over 400 dollars, and the total sum is something like 2050 dollars. \nEven if the cable, which is less than a foot long is composed entirely of gold on the inside, it wouldn't cost as much. \nAnd what is it doing right now? \nSitting in my drawer doing nothing. \nTax dollars at work my friends. ",
"Maybe a couple of examples might help. \n\nA bud was dragged down to the states about 20 years ago to help certify the onboard computer systems for a set of Cruisers. These controlled the fire control system. There were three redundant systems and a printer. \n\nTo test them they setup a CIWS operationally and flew a helicopter in to demonstrate that the helicopter speed could be picked up by the Close-In Weapon System from a particular vector and allow the helicopter to land safely. Planes have a more complex method of avoiding getting cut up by deuterium slugs fired at mach 2. \n\nSo,.. the helicopter flies in ,.. and the leading edges of rotors are cut off by the [CIWS](_URL_0_). \n\nokay.. fix that.. Trial 2: .. this time somehow someone forgot to put paper in the printer for the 3 redundant systems.. And the 1st master controller tries to print 2000 times, and fails, then the 2nd takes over and prints 2000 times, and fails and the 3rd .. So they used scotch tape to tape paper into a circle and went on to the 3rd trial. 14 mixed rockets and junk were flung at the ship at once. All but one was cut into pieces. The last was just winged.\n\nAfter 9-11 Dan, our boss sent an email to all 50,000 of us about what he went through to deliver just one part to a [Burke Class destroyer] (_URL_1_) that was leaving for the middle east in uncertain times. The ship's captain had called Dan to ask for help. Dan sent in a crew by private jet to install the thing. It was never mentioned what happened to the people who had been difficult about getting the part out earlier. "
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250mj0 | why can't i use my phone while i'm pumping gas into my car? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/250mj0/eli5_why_cant_i_use_my_phone_while_im_pumping_gas/ | {
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"You can. This is based on a totally wrong concern that using a cell phone would create a static discharge that might ignite the gas fumes and cause an explosion. This has been thoroughly debunked, most notably by the Mythbusters.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Same reason you cannot use a laptop while a plane is taking off. Rules made by people who don't actually know how things work.",
"Devices built to be used in areas with combustible fuels are built very differently. They are built so that there is practically no conceivable way for the device to generate a spark. They are built so that the device would not ignite anything if it was run over with a truck. It is a very high standard of construction.\n\nWhile a phone would not be a source of ignition in normal use, there are many, many things that could go wrong with a phone that could cause it to set petrol fumes on fire. Because of this, regulation states that they should be safely stored when pumping gas.",
"With how my body conducts electricity...I would be more concerned that I would accidentally induce an electro-static charge while pumping gas and blow myself up. :(",
"I work at a servo/petrol/gas station. The reason is not the flames and that shit. It's the same reason we don't allow 10 year olds to do it. \n\nAs you fill your car you should be paying attention to what you are doing, not playing on your phone or talking to someone. One example, your car is faulty and over flows with gas (it's happened twice this month while i've been at work so far) it then flows to the side, what at our case at work is the footpath, a person walking by then has a smoke, throws the smoke on the ground into the \"water\" what really is gas, catches fire and well... BOOM!\n\nIf we notice it we try and clean it up but if no one tells us we can't know.",
"It's one of those stupid ideas based on the concept that cell phones use electricity without realizing how unlikely it is for a spark to form via this method and ignite the gasoline fumes. It's probably based on liability so that in the odd one in a billion chance the station doesn't have to pay out a huge settlement. ",
"Because the rest of us who are waiting for gas would like you to pay attention to what you are doing, get your gas, and be on your way as quickly as possible. People getting distracted by their phones slow things down for everyone. Maybe not you, specifically. But people in general."
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a65vsw | i live on a small island, how do small insects like mosquitoes not get blown away from high winds? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a65vsw/eli5_i_live_on_a_small_island_how_do_small/ | {
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"They do— but not before they’ve fertilized the eggs for the next generation.\n\nAlso, they’re small enough that some will hunker down where they’re protected from the wind.\n\nAnd other insects will be blown in on the same winds that blow those ones away."
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3c71av | if you're busted for committing a crime in a foreign country, what can the police do if you don't provide any identification and refuse to speak? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c71av/eli5_if_youre_busted_for_committing_a_crime_in_a/ | {
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"Which country? Some will do much worse than others. ",
"Depends on the country and the crime. But you certainly wouldn't be doing yourself any favours. \n\nI mean even the US has a \"failure to identify” procedure, as far as I know you can be detained for simply not identifying yourself if suspected of committing a crime, so why wouldn't other countries?\n\n"
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1wivo3 | how is meat more calorie-dense than plants if protein and carbs have 4 cal/g each? | A variety of animal and human physiology describes the consumption of meat as crucial for brainpower and growth. I recall seeing calorie density as a dominant factor, but shouldn't the body be deriving the same amount of calories per by weight?
Yes, I know weight and density are two different things. But, plants ought be easier to accumulate than animals!?
Edit: thanks all. Appears I answered my own question by acknowledging density. I suppose prehistoric man did not have bags of flour to compare against canisters of protein powder... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wivo3/eli5_how_is_meat_more_caloriedense_than_plants_if/ | {
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"Fat. Meat proteins tend to be accompanied by fats. Plant proteins have some, but less, oil and may also have (calorie free) water."
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4m8heo | why is 5% unemployment considered by many to be ideal? | It doesn't make much sense to me that 1 in 20 people isn't working | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4m8heo/eli5_why_is_5_unemployment_considered_by_many_to/ | {
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"If 100% of people had a job 100% of the time what would happen when someone wants to hire someone new? ",
"It's the theoretical \"natural\" unemployment rate. You can never reach an economy where everyone is working, because people will always be quitting to find a better job or getting fired. 5% is the rate at which the unemployment is due to individuals, not the overall economy. \n\nKeep in mind, the \"unemployment\" rate isn't the percentage of the population without a job, it's the percentage of the population who can work and are looking for a job. People who are retired or decide to retire don't count. \n ",
"It takes time to fill jobs and time to find a job. So...100% is unrealistic - no one is looking or a job and no one is trying to fill a job because there are no people to hire.\n\nFurther, if it is 100% then the cost of labor would skyrocket which would destroy businesses, so...some slack within the labor market allows for the cost of labor to stay reasonable.",
"There will always be some amount of unemployment. In a functioning economy at any given point there will be some people getting fired and looking for new work, some businesses closing, people quitting and looking for something else, etc.\n\n5% unemployment doesn't mean 1/20 people in the workforce is unemployed in the long term, it just means there's churn in the labor market. That 5% won't be made up of the same people a year from now."
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3rrdfa | why are dogs so scared of thunderstorms? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rrdfa/eli5_why_are_dogs_so_scared_of_thunderstorms/ | {
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"Why can't I see the other two comments on this post?\n",
"Loud, unpredictable sounds from every direction. Why aren't you scared?",
"Mostly the unknown. My dogs (well the young one that can still hear well) flips out when a siren goes off too (firetruck/ambulance/police car). I'm sure some dogs have evolved to understand the noise and not be afraid, but most of dogs in homes have had evolutionary traits slip b/c they lack the need of them anymore. ",
"This doesn't apply to all dogs, and is typically a learned behavior.\n\nDog's that act this way are likely picking up cues from their owner, even if the cues aren't what we would perceive as obvious. Something as simple as you acknowledging the storm is enough for the dog to be on edge.\n\nBasically at some point, you were in a bad storm and were worried and your dog picked up on this, and took on this trait, or combined it with other scenarios with similar reactions.\n\nFor instance, I have a dog that is 10 years old. She is a great guard dog that only barks at the front door when someone knocks or rings the door bell.\n\nHowever, if I ever order pizza from my phone, my dog flips out and for the next 30-45 minutes, will bark and whine at every sound she hears outside. She has no idea that I called for pizza, but somehow she picks up on my body language that I am now expecting someone at the door. She'll then give me false positives and start barking like crazy because she thinks she hears someone right outside, which leads to me checking and nothing being there.\n\nThe best way to correct this behavior is to actually fix yourself with two steps. The first is basically ignoring the storm in its entirety. This can be very difficult with the whole lightning and thunder thing. The second step is to ignore your dogs reaction as much as possible. Anytime you try to get them to calm down, you are just adding fuel to the fire. The best thing you can do is ignore them and pretend that whatever they are getting all worried about isn't worth",
"Have you got any references? We haven't had a big thunderstorm here for a while or I can't remember the behaviour of our dogs when we had one. However, one of our cats climbed up the windowsill when at exactly that moment a thunderbolt struck. It was very near (at least for a thunderbolt) and therefore extremely loud. Ever since that happened the cat goes always hiding under a bed/couch when a thunderstorm approaches. The dog you're referring to might have had a similar experience..."
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2v7y4l | why was brian williams shamed into taking an hiatus and the same doesn't happen to fox news anchors? | Hasn't FOX News been called out many times before for making up stories? How come their news anchors are not called out and shamed into hiatus? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v7y4l/eli5_why_was_brian_williams_shamed_into_taking_an/ | {
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"I'm not sure who at Fox News in particular you're complaining about or what incidents, but the ones that get complained about most (e.g., O'Reilly, Fox and Friends) are doing opinion talk shows, not straight journalistic news, like Williams does. There are different standards.",
"It seems he lied about his personal experiences. Now if you wanted to catch out Bill O'Reilly in something similar you'd have to dig through his past and prove something like he deliberately broke the law when he was a kid and started his own house painting company in the summers. \nActually, I'd be interested in what you find, since I'm about the same age and suspect he skirted or ignored a variety of laws, OSHA regulations and IRS rules, even then.",
"I don't think Fox typically completely makes up stories. They may only report stories they like, or only report the facts which support their message, but they don't completely fabricate stuff, which it sounds like Williams may have done.\n\nPlus, Williams is not Fox. He's supposed to be a respected journalist. Fox has a reputation as a biased source, so there's no expectation of journalistic perfection."
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1lgsj5 | how would bombing syria solve the problem of syria using chemical weapons on their people (if true). | Not sure I understand this situation. Let's say it's true that chemical weapons were used. What does a military strike actually resolve here?
EDIT: thanks for the responses, but trying to work out the rationale still. Why Chemical Weapons and not any gross treatment of humanity? Are citizens any less harmed with bullets, starvation, rape and beatings? Is that considered more humane than chemical weapons? Help me understand!
The assumption that assad, or whomever is in power, is thinking rationally in a war situation seems a little unreasonable. It appears that if chemical weapons were used, it was a rash decision. Now it seems like bombing them in return is just another rash decision IMHO.
Not sure how bombing them more would actually prevent more rash decisions in war.
This one made sense thanks /u/giantstonegoat : The reasoning has absolutely nothing to do with what the government is doing to their people. Attacking Syria after they used chemical weapons is a way to say "use chemical weapons and you get bombed". It sends a message not only to Syria but to any other country which may have a chemical weapons program that they need to expect to be attacked if they use them. The advantage of framing it as "we must stop Syria from using chemical weapons against civilians" is that it's much more likely to gain support from your own population.
Basically, kill civilians with conventional weapons which aren't really a threat to other states and nobody cares. Kill anyone with anything that could be a threat to other states and people get scared. We'd be seeing the same reaction if they'd used an ICBM with conventional warheads.
What is the desired result from this bombing? That Assad or Syria will no longer make rash decisions regarding killing people and will just kill them with bullets or starvation instead? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lgsj5/eli5_how_would_bombing_syria_solve_the_problem_of/ | {
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"America thinks that if they can hit specific military targets where these weapons are being stored/produced, or hit the individuals ordering the attacks then the issue will be resolved, at least until new weapons can be produced.\n\nEveryone else thinks bombing chemical weapons stores is probably a really fucking bad idea.",
"You probably wouldn't want to bomb the chemical stockpiles directly, for the obvious containment reasons. But what could be done is drop bombs on the delivery systems; if they cannot launch rockets or artillery with the chemical payload they aren't going to be able to use them.\n\nBut even beyond that is the idea that by hurting Assad's military in a tactical sense it would discourage the use of chemical weapons in the future. If using chemical weapons gets his troops bombed in such a way as to weaken their overall function, even if those strikes are otherwise unrelated to the ability to use chemical weapons, he would tend to avoid the chemical weapons just based on that fact. It is the basic idea behind something like a parking fine; taking your money isn't really going to make you any less capable of breaking parking laws, but the consequences will shape your future actions.",
"There's a pretty good [Washington Post article](_URL_0_) that addresses this: see #7 on the list. \nThe short answer is, as I understand it from the article, is that it won't solve the problem. The importance of the strikes is to show not just Assad but the rest of the world that the use of chemical weapons is not something you can get away with scot-free. There aren't a lot of ways for the international community to punish Assad right now, so they want to shoot some missiles at Syria. The targets may or may not be chemical weapon storage/production facilities.",
"Politics isn't about solving problems. It's about managing expectations. People expect action out of their leaders, and this is about providing that action. It's not intended to really solve anything.\n",
"The reasoning has absolutely nothing to do with what the government is doing to their people. Attacking Syria after they used chemical weapons is a way to say \"use chemical weapons and you get bombed\". It sends a message not only to Syria but to any other country which may have a chemical weapons program that they need to expect to be attacked if they use them. \nThe advantage of framing it as \"we must stop Syria from using chemical weapons against civilians\" is that it's much more likely to gain support from your own population.\n\nBasically, kill civilians with conventional weapons which aren't really a threat to other states and nobody cares. Kill anyone with anything that could be a threat to other states and people get scared. We'd be seeing the same reaction if they'd used an ICBM with conventional warheads."
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5qsk1l | why exactly is it considered racist for white people to be proud of their heritage, but not any other race? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qsk1l/eli5_why_exactly_is_it_considered_racist_for/ | {
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"I feel there's a lot of confusion and misplaced outrage on both sides of the fence for this one.\nIt's only racist when you're proud (or ashamed) about having a particular skin color. I'm very interested in genealogy and my family history; I'm proud of the achievements of my ancestors, who they were, what they did. I don't particularly care what their skin color is. \n\n\nIt becomes an issue when A)people use this heritage as passive-aggressive racism e.g. I'm proud of being British (the implication being you're not) and B)when people attempt to label you based on your pride (you should be ashamed of being white because your ancestors owned slaves).\n\n",
"The basic idea is that 'white pride' has a history of including violent aggression toward POC, like the KKK lynchings, and it's part of a Western system of institutionalized racism against POC. When a Black person is participating in a 'black pride' thing like Black Lives Matter, they are trying to fight back against the system that produced slavery and race inequality, and the movement that they are part of does not endorse violence against white people. A bunch of people disagree with all of that, but that's what a BLM activist would tell you. \n\nNow, there is a way for a white person to be proud of their heritage without it being considered racist – focus on culture, not race. If you're Scottish, go to a Scottish festival; if you're French, learn French cooking, and so on and so forth. That's totally fine, because it's about celebrating who you are without putting down anyone else. \n\nAnother way to think about it: if the average person of another race or culture would be able to participate in an event or movement, it's probably okay. I'm not Chinese, but I'm going to go to a Chinese New Year event in my town because it's open to everyone and it's about celebrating culture. My Filipina friend's not Scottish, but she went to the Scottish festival with a friend of ours who is, because it sounded fun to both of them. I've marched in anti-racism protests organized by Black activist groups even though I'm white, because I care about getting rid of institutional racism. \n\nBut would POC feel comfortable at a white pride event, with all the racist history that carries? Not many would. ",
"A better question is what do white people, when considering their whiteness, have to be proud of. Why would we need to have some unity based on our skin color? Nothing in our history suggests that we need to. ",
"There are plenty of non-racist white pride celebrations, they're just more defined. My Irish and German heritage is celebrated by plenty of Americans with St. Patty's Day and Oktoberfest. ",
"I've personally always found this argument reductionist and silly.\n\nI'm of Irish descent and it's hard to find a 'whiter' group of people if we're just talking about skin tone... yet my heritage is a story of oppression and tragedy at the hands of fellow Europeans, and even fellow \"Anglo\" folks.\n\nSimilarly lumping all non-whites into this positively ridiculous POC label, at least in my eyes, just totally craps all over the various storylines that brought us to where we all are.\n\nBasically my point is there's no such thing as white people, being proud of the color of your skin is by definition racist since it's not really attached to any actual heritage.",
"Because white people although a minority globally, have been owning shit world wide for a long time. Haters are going to hate It's like being a middle school bully who was the worst kid ever then grows up and tries to change. Everyone that bully beat up is still going to be pissed off and think the bully is weak now because it's different and try and get revenge by bullying him in turn. Some people just wish that THEY can be the bully.",
"The usual answer is that it's not problematic for white people to be proud of their heritage. \n\nThis is why no one objects to, say, St. Patrick's Day parades or a \"Kiss me I'm Italian T-shirts\" or \"Daughters of the American Revolution.\"\n\nRather, the issue is two fold: first, that \"white\"---rather than some subset of white---is sort of a weird category because it's defined more as \"not non-white\" than anything else. And, that's an issue because it raises the question why are you celebrating being \"white\" rather than something more specific (American, British, Russian, etc...). And that leads into the second thing, which is that historically celebrating being \"white\" has been associated with white supremacists. So the language is kind of oddly tainted in history. ",
"My personal story is that my father's side of the family has deeply rooted KKK ties & memberships.\n\nMy grandfather personally set fire to houses near his when he found out black families had purchased them.\n\nI cannot even try to be proud of my heritage.\n\nThat is just my point of view.",
"There are tons of white people who openly celebrate their heritage and talk about being proud of it. There are Irish parades, Scottish clubs, British pubs, German celebration days, Aussie Aussie Aussie stickers, etc. People are proud of being Swedish or Dutch or English or whatever you like.\n\nThe thing is that white people are from a ton of different cultures and heritages, and celebrate those. An Irish person celebrates a heritage totally different to a Russian and if you mixed them together into eg White Heritage Day they would say \"uh, not at all the same, Ireland and Russia are totally different.\"\n\nWhen people just say *white pride* instead of their actual cultural/national background they're almost always just using it as a way to say \"we're not one of the shitty races.\" Irish and Russian people don't join the same social club to talk about their shared food and music and social traditions and literature and religion. They don't share that stuff. So if they form a White Pride club together, what are they sharing that they're proud of, other than not being a shittier race?\n\nIn the USA, it's different for black people because black Americans were plucked from a variety of countries, separated from their cultures and nations and languages and histories, and merged into one homogeneous 'black' mass, which was relegated to its own subculture, so it makes sense to think of 'black' as one background, most black Americans have the same background whether their enslaved ancestors came from Songhay or Mali. Go ask a white person where they're originally from and they'll say \"I'm half Irish, a quarter German, a quarter Romanian\", it's almost a cliche; ask a black person and they'll say \"I don't know, I'm just black, none of us know.\" In other countries, that isn't the case -- eg in Australia, you don't have *black* social groups or pride groups etc, but you do have Nigerian or Aboriginal or Sudanese groups, just like American white people have."
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22h9ia | why is windows xp very popular? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22h9ia/eli5_why_is_windows_xp_very_popular/ | {
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"It's simple, it's cheap, and almost everyone on Earth with access to a computer still knows how to use it.",
"Because it work(ed) and people don't like change",
"It was a HUGE step up from windows 98, and it was better in so many ways than the version that came after it. People waited to upgrade. Then people just waited so long, that they never upgraded. \n\nXP also came out during a strong economy, and a computer buying boom. The next version came out during the beginnings of a recession.",
"Because it is the best OS that Microsoft ever released, combined with the requirements, which today are very low, so it runs really well."
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auxu5m | how do air fryers work? i'm always baffled at the fact that air fryers can produce the same texture as conventional oil fryers. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/auxu5m/eli5_how_do_air_fryers_work_im_always_baffled_at/ | {
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"Air fryers are convection ovens - they use fans to circulate hot air. This heats a layer of oil you apply to the food. In a deep-fat-fryer, the thin layer of oil that's actually touching the food does the cooking, the rest of the oil just serves as a thermal reservoir (it stores heat, which keeps the oil that actually does the cooking hot). In an air fryer, you apply the thin layer of oil manually and you keep it hot with hot air.\n\nThis limits the amount of grease that can soak into your food.",
"As opposed to regular fryers, where what you're frying sits in actual boiling oil, air fryers use hot air to vaporize a small quantity of oil that then fries whatever you're frying. The combination of hot air, movement and vaporized oil produced the same frying effect on food, albeit with a fraction of the oil (and thus a lower level of unhealthiness)."
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fytw7m | why is the skin under my nail sensitive to water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fytw7m/eli5_why_is_the_skin_under_my_nail_sensitive_to/ | {
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"Cause it's introducing electrolytes (It's what plants need!. Electrolytes facilitate a lot of transport phenomenon in your body. Salt being poured on your wound hurts like hell because it's basically pure electrolytes causing a sudden imbalance of ions on the outside of the nerve, which opens up channels to balance it out (which stimulates it).\n\nIf you use DI water, it shouldn't hurt as much."
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391dzn | on us roads, when they do construction but after they're done the road isn't new, what did they do? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/391dzn/eli5_on_us_roads_when_they_do_construction_but/ | {
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"could be the the road shoulder, could be drainage culverts and piping, or even just taking samples to survey future projects"
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5v0mok | how did mail-order music companies like columbia house / bmg (get 13 cd's for a penny) make money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5v0mok/eli5_how_did_mailorder_music_companies_like/ | {
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"They send out the CDs, then continue to charge your credit card for years, usually sending you copies of CDs that wouldn't sell otherwise.",
"They didn't give away CDs for a penny. They forced you to purchase many CDs with those highly discounted CDs at a large markup and forced you to join a club where you were essentially on the hook to purchase a new CD monthly.",
"First off, mail order businesses run out of a warehouse in some place with cheap land has less overhead than a chain of retail music stores, so there are efficiencies to the business in that regard. Also, after getting your initial batch of free CDs, you have to buy a certain number at full value within a year or two (I remember in the 90's they were like $17 instead of 12 at the discount record stores), and you had to actively turn down the disc of the month each month, or else they automatically send it to you... most people forget occasionally and end up paying for the disc they wouldn't otherwise buy. So between the lower overhead costs, higher retail prices, and making passive sales from people who didn't opt out they made profits.",
"As someone who did this, Not only did they get their CD dirt cheap from a distributor, they also put you in a contract where you had to pay full price for future CDs, When you were close to fulfilling you contract they would try to lure you in with another deal."
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18uu7p | historical explanation for why the american academic "levels" [k-8, 9-12, college] have their respective number of years and why they are split into three separate sections? | I was thinking about a friend who graduated two years younger due to home schooling, and I wanted to know why the normal American track is 12 years [plus at least 4 for college]. When did this current model develop? Was it a loosely-based British or other European school system in its inception? And why the separation into three distinct levels of grade school, high school, and college? Is this merely an offshoot of the three levels' original length of schooling? Obviously 12 years is not necessary, but it is the system we use. Thanks for fulfilling my curiosity!
Bonus: Explain why there are three different systems of grad/post-grad [with **HISTORY**], i.e. bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree. And, if anyone knows, similar grad/post-grad systems in Europe/any place you are knowledgeable to talk about. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18uu7p/eli5_historical_explanation_for_why_the_american/ | {
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"There are many different systems for categorizing schools in the US with some still being K-12 in areas that are remote or small in population. The most common model is actually k-5, 6-8, 9-12, college, grad school, post-grad. Giving 6 categories or levels not 3. \n\nYour model of 3 levels is what was common during the the 1800s and early 1900s before education to the age of 18 was compulsory. It was viewed that everyone needed education up to grade 8, then those that needed to go work the farms and such stopped schooling but those who wanted a little more continued through high school. Then you had college that teaches specialized fields like science, theology, and medicine. \n\nThe reason we have different degree levels in college is to show different levels and focuses of expertise. As more people attend college as a default the need for higher levels of focus in degrees is needed to designate experts. "
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63zx5a | why and when did sex turned into a dirty sin and become something bad or something we can't open talk about? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/63zx5a/eli5_why_and_when_did_sex_turned_into_a_dirty_sin/ | {
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"Here's something I've kept for years that I got from another redditor. \n\n\nJesus himself does not talk about sex much, and only really obliquely when talking about marriage generally, but he did also do a hell of a lot of things that would have profoundly scandalized his audience - particularly interacting with women who were clearly prostitutes in an intimate way. You'll find a lot more in the Pauline epistles. When English translations of the New Testament bible talk about 'sexual immorality' they are really talking about the greek word porneia (πορνεία), it’s used almost every time the topic of sex comes up and generally when talking about the worst sins in general. Now porneia has always been translated into Latin as fornication, while being understood by many conservatives to just be a 1:1 stand in for 'any sexual expression not between husband and wife'. However, Porneia in post-classical Corinthian Greek did not mean generic sexual sin, or sex outside of marriage, at all [and neither did fornication in actual Latin.](_URL_0_)\n\n\nThe word porneia as Greeks actually used it was related to the verb to sell, and was only ever used in one context. A porneon was a house of forced prostitution, pornos (πόρνος) were those who sexually assaulted those forced into prostitution, pornois (πόρνοις) were more than one, the pornēs (πόρνης) were specifically those prostitutes who were 'owned' by a sex trafficker to be sold for pathetic sums to any traveler, and those sex traffickers were called pornoboskos, a singularly unpleasant combination with the verb that described the keeping of livestock such as cattle. Paul used the word over and over again in his Epistles to make two primary assertions, that the ubiquitous system of porneia (πορνεία) fed by war and poverty was fundamentally not OK, and that a laundry list of examples were pretty much the same thing. This fundamental position on sex, that it is something that even could, much less must, be divorced from exploitation was profoundly radical and novel for the time - even if it is hard to see today being the water we swim in.\n\n\nIt makes sense that Paul was so concerned about sex because it was one of the most fucked up aspects of the world he lived in, and the scale on which it was fucked up is truly unimaginable to us modern readers of the historical records we have. Indeed, the word porneia is one of the more thoroughly defined terms we have from the post-classical greek lexicon, as the ancient greeks were so legally concerned, as well as facetiously fascinated, with it; leaving us with pretty much zero doubt about what it meant to them. To really understand it requires a little bit of context. Under the laws of Draco in ancient Greece, where we get the term draconian today, any man who caught another man having sex with his wife could legally kill that man with perfect immunity. That is, in addition to being able to just get some friends together and safely jump him while he was taking a shit Pulp Fiction style, the cuckold could also capture the adulterer and inflict whatever tortures he imagined so long as he didn't use a knife. In practice this usually resulted in the aggrieved man extracting exorbitant amounts of money from the adulterer in exchange for forfeiting that immunity, but it also formed the basis for some really fascinating trials. Draconian law, as well as later codes, in this instance, only applied to wives (as well as concubines kept for the purpose of producing free children) and explicitly not to pornēs or those like them such as flute players, bridge women, wanderers, alley walkers, or ground beaters. Thus we have copious records of those accused of abetting adultery aggressively defending themselves by declaring the objects of their attentions to pornēs - while very precisely defining the term as describing women available for sale.\n\n\nIts important to keep in mind what sexual immorality - porneia - meant for the society Paul was advising his churches on how to live it. Before Paul, porneia was seen as a totally uncontroversial part of life, the systematic rape of the vulnerable that it represented was regulated by cities in the same way that roads were, as a lucrative public utility. Price caps were established to protect 'consumers', pornoboskoi were given licenses to ensure quality 'product', and districts to operate in (generally near docks or city gates) to manage the noise and filth of the whole business. The 'trade' was also clearly not small, much less a small part of life in the world early Christianity was addressing. While it is very unclear what the exact percentage of women could be described as pornēs would be in any western society before the advent of the modern census, it is clear that at the time it was at least astonishingly large - particularly after military victories against foreigners as writers would report cities flooded with more cheap pornēs than they could rape at any price. It is also important to consider that every woman in that era had the threat of being sold into porneia hanging over her head, as women who lost the social status granted to them by a man for whatever reason could always be sold for 'scrap value.' This would have been true to varying degrees whether that status was by virtue of being somewhere on the sexual partner to a man spectrum between 'wedded wife,' kept as part of a relationship with her father's family and for the purpose of producing heirs, and disposable hanger on or by virtue of being maintained as a sister or daughter or cousin. There are authors who describe, in detail that would make the vilest Pick-Up-Artist blush, how they would make it very clear to their partners that the pornoboskoi were always by the gate should they ever talk back or the sex get bad.\n\n\nIn the way Paul uses the word though, it does also pretty clearly have jargon meaning specific to the communities he was addressing in addition to the root concept that underpins it. Indeed, Paul does clearly both put on his judging face and use the word porneia when describing examples of things like adultery or sex outside of marriage, even when there are no pornoboskoi or porneon in sight and no one is exchanging money much less anything as pathetic as sums exchanged for pornēs. However, this also only really makes a lot of sense in the context of the day. Examples of economically independent women who did not rely on sex work in the Roman world were very few and far between, and almost exclusively widows or only daughters still attached to dead men. In the world that Paul was trying to change, the magnitude of male privilege was such that women were fundamentally unable to exist economically independent of men. Sex outside of the commitment of marriage really was functionally very much like porneia, and was a clear path to the real thing.\n\n\nThe Pauline model for marriage is about avoiding porneia and the laundry list of examples of things he gives as being just like it. Without Pauline marriage there was no protection from being used by a partner until old and discarded to the elements; Paul stipulated headship but also repeatedly and inescapably mandates that men place their wives before themselves, that apostasy and misconduct are the only appropriate reasons for divorce, and that women are no less than men before God. The early church was flooded with women attracted by this radically feminist message that women were actually people with dignity that was inherent to them and needed to be respected by men. Even today porneia is by no means gone, in absolute numbers there are more women in sexual slavery today than there have ever been at any point in human history. However, most of the women who aren’t will be able to avoid it into a Pauline model marriage, some variety of post-Pauline marriage, a functionally equivalent model, or into a world made safer by them.",
"When you have sex your brain is flooded with hormones designed to trigger a bonding instinct (so that you want to stay with the person you had sex with and raise babies).\n\nBecause of this sex and very strong emotional bonds generally, but not always, go hand in hand. And this is where things get messy. When one person has strong emotional bonds and the other person does not, MASSIVE disputes arise. People regularly kill other people because of these feelings.\n\nSo it makes absolutely perfect sense that there would be a social taboo around having sex with people other than a committed partner. And once you can only have sex inside a relationship it means sex is private. And because its private, powerful, and has some very strong social rules around it, it is understandable that it would have some taboos around even discussing it or going into the details.\n\nThis is reinforced by the concept of masculinity that has ALWAYS been tied to sexual performance. In biological terms if birds could gossip that \"Big Bird isn't a good sexual partner and you should have sex with Tucan Sam instead\" you have just biologically slandered Big Bird in the worst way, evolutionarily, that you could.\n\nSo again, taboo to even talk about it.\n\nAnd people then warp all those taboos into it being bad. After all, if we can't talk about it, get uncomfortable dealing with it, etc. it must be bad. \n\nThis isn't helped by the fact it feels fucking great and people have a natural tendancy to think things that are pleasurable have a negative edge to them somehow.",
"Because random fucking back in the day used to produce usually unwanted children. Also back in the day these children if they were boys tended to inherit the property of their fathers. The more bastard children you had the more problematic inheritance worked, often leading to violence.\n\nThe Church really didn't start cracking down on this kind of stuff until around 1000CE. Before then marriage and sex was in a sort of grey area. It wasn't uncommon for Christians to practice polygamy before the Church cracked down. So perhaps you can argue it was a way for the Church to sort of stabilize the newly converted ruling class of Europe.",
"I wish I knew ! I know it's definitely a cultural thing. My tribe is super chill about sex, but like when white folks forced Christianity on us it did change how we view sex to some degree. My family follows the tribal tradition so we are still very liberal about our sexual views, but Christians in our community tend to be like really weirdly obsessed with how scandalous sex is. Seems like a waste of energy to me LOL",
"if you're really interested, i would highly reccomend reading michel foucault's the history of sexuality. there's sparknotes on his chapters so it's really easy reading. just a fair warning though, it's a sociological piece so while he does talk about the victorian era and how sex or sexuality was once openly discussed, he focused a lot more on how the state and other institutions in society affected how we look at sex. \n\nbut basically it was due to a movement by the victorian government that led sex to be seen as something that should only be discussed in the private space and among family because they thought that talking about sex in public portrayed you as uncouth. ",
"It's interesting because there are tribal societies who don't understand parentage, and they have sex willy nilly with no regard. They think that spirits get women pregnant and that it has nothing to do with sex.\n\nSo I'm inclined to believe that once we discovered the parenting aspects of sex, competitive forces came back into play, and we structured our society around mitigating those competitive forces.",
"If you go outside the US, you will find many countries that are way less uptight and repressive about sex (except the reaaally conservative Catholic ones).\n\nThe weird standards in the US always amazed me. \"No, your boyfriend cannot stay the night, but here's the car, go and take a ride\". Duh, what are we gonna do? Just hold hands or something?\n\nIt sometimes appeared to me like more than half of Americans lost their virginity in the backseat of a car somewhere in the woods (That would be one statistic I'd love to see by the way).\n\nAnd as far as preventing anything goes, it doesn't even work (if you look at your place in the teenage pregnancy statistics). Kids will just be secretive about it and do it anyway, and since they can't ask for your advice, they might screw up and become pregnant or catch an STD."
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3jb2f4 | rent control | How does rent control work? How do they pick which places are rent controlled, and how do they pass it on to others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jb2f4/eli5rent_control/ | {
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"It depends on where you are. \"Rent control\" isn't a single law, it's the general idea that things need to be done to prevent people from getting priced out of homes they've been in for years by increasing rents.\n\nMost places don't have any sort of rent control at all - you could be living in a place for 10 years & your landlord can show up and say \"next month's rent is double, deal with it\".",
"It's a general class of laws that say a landlord can't increase rent by more than a certain amount every year to current tenants. It also offers protection to those tenants to keep landlords from evicting them for the purpose of getting new tenants in that they can start off at market rate rents. \nMost tenant laws are very local or at most at the state level. So if you live in San Fransisco, CA and ask a friend in Austin, TX what you should do in a dispute with your landlord because they were in the same situation, if they say anything other than,\"see a lawyer\", you're probably going to have a bad time if you listen to them. But that leads me to the way you get them is to vote in a city council that believes in strong protections like that. Or vote in a state legislature that will pass laws to allow cities to do things like that.",
"It's a price ceiling, landlords aren't able to charge rent above that price. It's normally passed by city or municipality legislatures.\n "
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60a843 | why do we, out of nowhere, take a deep breath? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60a843/eli5_why_do_we_out_of_nowhere_take_a_deep_breath/ | {
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"For those who ask: No, i don't mean yawn. Literally take a deep breath. Fill your lungs with air to their full capacity.",
"I wonder if it is an instinctual relaxing / stress relieving thing. My dog does it almost 100% of the time when she first lies down to go to sleep.",
"I don't have an answer, but I know exactly what he or she is talking about. Just a sudden, big breath. They're kind of relieving.",
"My guess is that it's an autonomic function responding to *slightly* too much carbon dioxide from just not remembering to breath enough. Your body is trying to maintain equilibrium in your blood via bicarbonate buffer system, and you simply needed to blow off a little extra CO2 to keep things optimally homeostatic. You probably just had slightly too much CO2 built up from not breathing quite deeply or often enough. Could easily happen if you're extremely relaxed or concentrating really hard on something.",
"Medical student here. The insides of your lungs are coated in a liquid called a surfactant. \n\nThis lowers surface tension, making it easier to breathe, and, crucially stops your lungs from collapsing. Specifically, it stops your alveoli, the small little containers for air, from collapsing. \n\nMy lecturers tell me that every 100 breaths or so we take a deeper inhalation, which helps mix this surfactant ",
"Medical student - We occasionally take deeper than average breaths to ensure all windpipes and alveoli are open fully and to open any closed alveoli. Think of it as almost a mini reboot of the lungs. They are named lung recruitment manoeuvres and can occur for a variety of reasons including as otherwise mentioned high PaCO2. ",
"Where do you go when you wander these things?"
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16c9ze | how is it possible to maneuver spaceships in space? | How can you maneuver in space when there isn't anything around you? Mustn't there be any matter for a spacecraft to 'turn'? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16c9ze/eli5_how_is_it_possible_to_maneuver_spaceships_in/ | {
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"Get on a skateboard and throw a BIG rock in one direction. What happens? You move in the other direction.\n\nSame idea with spaceships except you're exploding rocket fuel out your back end.",
"The force pushing the ship is similar to a balloon letting out air and flying around the room. Compressed gas or burning fuel (which turns into compressed gas) tries to push out of an opening in the side of a ship, causing it to move the opposite direction.",
"A very similar question was posed to the NASA scientists when the moon landing was being planned.\n\nYou are getting confused between something like jet propulsion, and rocket propulsion.\n\nIn jet propulsion, yes you do require air to be 'moved around', by a spinning turbine compressing air, and forcing it out of the back of the engine.\n\nIn rocket propulsion, the force is created by the chemical reaciton of burning fuel - ususally hydrogen - and then being forced through a small opening, the exhaust.\n\nNewtons ~~second~~ third law of motion - not quite 100% right, but NASA used Newton's equations when doing the moon landing because they are close enough, and far simpler to use - states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.\n\nIn the case of a jet engine, the action of compressing the air, and forcing it out the back of an engine causes a counter reaction of forward movement or thrust.\n\nIn the case of a rocket, the action of burning fuel and forcing it out the exhaust causes a counter reaction of moving the rocket in the opposite direction.\n\nOne NASA scientist proved this to journalists by creating a vacuum chamber - showing it was a vacuum by dropping a brick and a feather, the both fell at the same rate - and rigging up a hand gun and firing mechanism. When the gun was fired in a vacuum, the force of the bullet coming out the chamber made the gun move in the opposite direction.",
"Sit on a rolly chair, and grab a tennis ball, sit near a wall. Throw the tennis ball at the wall. See how much you're rolling back? \n\nNow grab the tennis ball, move farther from the wall. Throw that tennis ball. You'll move the same amount! \n\nIf you keep repeating this, you'll find that you don't actually need a wall to bounce the tennis ball off of to actually go forward. \n\nI think this is where you are are getting confused. The tennis ball doing the bouncing off the wall doesn't matter to you, how could it? It doesn't bounce back to you and push you forward again. You move forward as soon as you throw it. \n\nThis is the same as it is for a rocket. It doesn't need anything to push off of, anything to \"bounce it's tennis balls\" off of. It just throws out lots of lots of tennis balls very quickly. (Rocket exhaust).\n\nThis is Newton's 3rd law of motion. Every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.\n\nYour throwing the ball in one direction pushes you in the other direction "
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2ln14o | if magnets are bad for electronics, how does my magnetic laptop charger not mess up my macbook? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ln14o/eli5if_magnets_are_bad_for_electronics_how_does/ | {
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"Magnets are bad for certain types of electronics, mostly CRT's (picture tubes, the big old boxy TV grandma has) because they affect the very delicate alignment of magnetic fields which create the picture.\n\nThe other case would be for affecting magnetic media (disks). Truthfully, it takes pretty strong magnetic forces to do this. Waving a refrigerator magnet near a hard drive won't do anything. Putting a strong, rare-earth magnet right on top of one will. \n\nOlder storage, like floppy disks, was pretty much unprotected, so putting one down right next to a magnetic desk accessory could cause some problems.\n\nA modern laptop - especially one with a flash storage - will be almost immune to magnetic fields, unless you're talking about something much more powerful than you'd find outside of a laboratory.",
"Magnets are only bad for CRT(Cathode ray tube) monitors and TV's. Old TV's and monitors used a CRT device that emits electrons....blah blah blah, bunch of science shows pictures on the screen.....but these electrons can get deflected by magnetic fields. Since the electrons are not interacting as intended, it causes the image to be distorted.\n\nScreens, now, don't use CRT's, as most are LCD or LED. LCD and LED screens do not involve projecting electrons, so the magnet on your macbook just doesn't affect the screen.",
"Magnets are relatively weak, and the magnetic force drops off very quickly, the farther away you take the magnet. i think its an inverse square rule. The magnetic charger isn't close to any of the components in your laptop that could be affected by it."
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75exva | in baseball, why do managers and coaches meet with pitchers but not batters? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/75exva/eli5_in_baseball_why_do_managers_and_coaches_meet/ | {
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"It happens sometimes. The 3rd base coach will come and talk with the batter. Just in general it's easier to relay strategy to a batter through signals than it is to do the same to a pitcher. Pitching is also more of a mental thing then batting so the manager likes to come out to calm the pitcher down or see where his head is at. ",
"Pitchers have strategy. Batters are always trying to hit the ball, no matter how the pitcher delivers it. What would a manager say to the batter? \"Hey, this time, try to hit the ball.\"\n\nPlus, the batter was in the dugout with the coaches just a few moments before they go to bat. Plenty of time to talk to them then. "
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n5j6u | the benefits the us gets from protecting israel so much. | I've always been rather perplexed by the U.S position regarding Israel. It never seemed to me that Israel really could offer the U.S THAT much that Israel needed such protection. It strikes me that Israel can do NO wrong in the eyes of the U.S, and I'm wondering how and why such a relationship was created and persists to this day.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n5j6u/eli5_the_benefits_the_us_gets_from_protecting/ | {
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"I am sorry that this does not really work into the whole theme of you hypothetically being 5 years old, but this piece has some pretty interesting parts (some lesser parts as well) and is written not to difficultly. Another interesting note is that one of the authors is a famous realist, which is kinda funny. _URL_0_",
"Whoever supports Israel gets the Jewish population vote. Not trying to sound prejudice, but my family is Jewish and if a candidate supports Israel, they like them more.",
"Actually Israel has the most advanced weapons/military technology in the world. Since they face threats/attacks everyday they have to be ready with top notch technology. The U.S. does get the benefit of trading our weapons with their weapons.",
"Can't add much about the current situation, but I know the creation of Israel in the first place was much the result of US and UK guilt over not having done more to end the Holocaust. There was a significant portion of the WWII endgame in which the Allies knew Jews were being slaughtered but chose not to use resources to free them. Later when the whole scope of the Final Solution became clear, there was major hand-wringing by the UK (who had a \"protectorate\" over the Levant) and the US, now the world's dominant military power. US gunboats stood guard over the founding of Israel and the aid has never ceased since then.",
"I've heard our relationship with Israel dubbed 'the golden reach around'. I don't have an answer, but I thought that would be appropriate here. \n\n*Accidentally a word.",
"I am sorry that this does not really work into the whole theme of you hypothetically being 5 years old, but this piece has some pretty interesting parts (some lesser parts as well) and is written not to difficultly. Another interesting note is that one of the authors is a famous realist, which is kinda funny. _URL_0_",
"Whoever supports Israel gets the Jewish population vote. Not trying to sound prejudice, but my family is Jewish and if a candidate supports Israel, they like them more.",
"Actually Israel has the most advanced weapons/military technology in the world. Since they face threats/attacks everyday they have to be ready with top notch technology. The U.S. does get the benefit of trading our weapons with their weapons.",
"Can't add much about the current situation, but I know the creation of Israel in the first place was much the result of US and UK guilt over not having done more to end the Holocaust. There was a significant portion of the WWII endgame in which the Allies knew Jews were being slaughtered but chose not to use resources to free them. Later when the whole scope of the Final Solution became clear, there was major hand-wringing by the UK (who had a \"protectorate\" over the Levant) and the US, now the world's dominant military power. US gunboats stood guard over the founding of Israel and the aid has never ceased since then.",
"I've heard our relationship with Israel dubbed 'the golden reach around'. I don't have an answer, but I thought that would be appropriate here. \n\n*Accidentally a word."
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4csnt9 | what does it take to label a product "made in (country)"? | I see products, especially food products, labeled with a "Made in Spain" or "Made in Italy" description. Are there any sort of regulations for that or is it just a marketing gimmick? My Google-fu has failed me, so I turn to Reddit. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4csnt9/eli5_what_does_it_take_to_label_a_product_made_in/ | {
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"Country-of-origin labeling is definitely regulated, and it's required for most products sold in the United States. But although the regulation rules are fairly strictly enforced- if break the rules, you can face huge fines- the rules themselves are full of loopholes, and something *Made in Italy* may only have been assembled- or even just packaged- in that country."
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4ug2sx | how to get the rights to a piece of music for use in a movie? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ug2sx/eli5_how_to_get_the_rights_to_a_piece_of_music/ | {
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"you contact the copyright owners and tell them that you want to purchase the rights for the song. then they tell you it'll cost $$$$. and then you go to your movie producer and tell him you need $$$$ to get the song. "
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1nolw6 | why does a solid state hard drive cost so much more than a usb flash drive of the same size? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nolw6/eli5_why_does_a_solid_state_hard_drive_cost_so/ | {
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"Here's a pretty good explainer.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nBasically it comes down to different memory, different promises (reliability and service life), and different marketing.",
"Without having to read a long article: SSDs are a fuckton faster.",
"Because USB Flash drives can't do this.... _URL_0_",
"It's the difference between a normal magnetic hard drive, and a magnetic cassette tape. Sure, the technology is the same, but it ain't the same thing.",
"Here's some of the main reasons SSDs cost so much more. They have:\n\n- MUCH higher quality flash memory. Flash memory has a limited lifespan (typically measured in average number of writes it can withstand before dying), and due to their intended usage, SSDs need to be more durable (and they really are, don't worry about their lifespan). The higher quality flash also has higher speed. As a side note, the flash memory in SD cards I've heard often is awful. Always backup frequently.\n\n- an advanced, more expensive controller (this includes/is primarily a specialized CPU, but what really matters is the firmware[software, algorithms]) that manages the SSD. It does a LOT of complicated things; among them, to make the drive performs at its peak, keep it performing at its peak throughout its life, and ensure that its life is long.\n\n- (a bit of speculation from me) SSDs are expected to be more durable since they're used mostly as main system drives, so there is very likely stricter quality control and lower tolerance for failure rates versus USB drives\n\n",
"SSD has higher quality, faster memory along with a more advanced controller to go along with it. It connects to your PC using a higher speed interface like SATA instead of USB. All those things cost more money.",
"Because it is faster."
]
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7a611i | what exactly happened with kevin spacey? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7a611i/eli5_what_exactly_happened_with_kevin_spacey/ | {
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"He was accused of inappropriately touching a 14 year old boy several years ago. He issued an apology, but stated he didn’t remember the incident, and also came out as gay. He was then accused of inappropriately touching another of age man just a couple years ago.",
"He was accused by another actor of making sexual advances. This was roughly 30 years ago. The victim was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey claims he did not remember the encounter but was sorry. He then chose that moment to come out as gay. People weren't too happy. The main issue is that he appeared to use his sexuality to explain his behavior and/or draw attention away from what he did. This story prompted other actors to come forward with claims of sexual harassment",
"He asked a young boy if he could touch his pee pee. Boy was underage. Boy didn't want him to touch his pee pee. "
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3j42gb | how is it possible to get drinkable water through the public waterpipes, don't they have everything essential for harmful microorganisms to evolve? this goes especially for the hot water | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3j42gb/eli5how_is_it_possible_to_get_drinkable_water/ | {
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"Public water is is chemically treated to make it an inhospitable environment for dangerous microorganisms. \n\nThere are no public hot water pipes for drinking water. Your water heater makes the water hot.",
"Leave tap water in a bucket for a week, and you'll see life growing in it. Algae, bacteria, amoebas, molds, viruses and other microorganisms will be actively growing in the water. Some fell in on dust that settled on the water. Others were already in the water, in low concentrations. \n\nMunicipal tap water has some life already growing in it, at a level that is safe to drink. Municipal tap water is treated with various chemicals, such as chlorine gas, chloramines, ozone or even UV light to kill or reduce any harmful pathogens in the water. "
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ah5ye0 | why would anyone choose to smoke cigarettes over vape? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ah5ye0/eli5_why_would_anyone_choose_to_smoke_cigarettes/ | {
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"well there is very little long term research that has gone into the effects of vaping so tbh we don't know that its better for you than cigarettes. obviously neither of them is healthy for you"
]
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71waas | how and why can dna be represented in bytes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71waas/eli5_how_and_why_can_dna_be_represented_in_bytes/ | {
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"ObRule7: this was [asked](_URL_0_) less than an hour ago, and received answers. You'll get more information there.\n\nTo summarise, though:\n\nDNA is a sequence of nucleobases (a term which here means \"one of the basic information-carrying blocks in DNA\") - Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine. We abbreviate these as A, C, G, and T respectively. Four options, so you can represent a DNA sequence as a base-4 number - just let 0 be A, 1 be C, 2 be G, and 3 be T (that's just for example; how you choose which digit goes with which base doesn't matter. There's no particular convention, at least not yet). You can convert base-4 to base-2, also known as binary, very easily: each base-4 digit is equivalent to 2 binary digits: for our example, we're looking at the numbers 00, 01, 10, and 11. Note that these are the binary representations of 0, 1, 2, and 3, just as before.\n\nThere are 8 bits in a byte (on most modern computers. It's actually more complicated than that, because there have been machines with bytes of different length, but I'm getting off topic). Since you only need 2 bits to represent one nucleobase, you can represent four of them in a byte: for example, the byte 00011011 (=27 in base-10) might represent the fragment ACGT, using the scheme from above.\n\nEdit (for any future readers, and to wrap up): Thus, you can convert an amount of DNA to a number of bytes of data by taking the number of base pairs involved and dividing it by 4. (It may be advisable to check that you're only counting base pairs that carry useful information, and not ones in places like telomeres, before you do this). You can also convert the DNA into binary data, by choosing pairs of bits to represent each base, as described above, if you need the actual *sequence* and not just its size.",
"The information on DNA is stored in a simple code containing just four different chemicals (adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine). These form a \"code\" of instructions for how to assemble amino acids into proteins.\n\nOnce you look at them as a way to store information, it's pretty straightforward to give up that in terms of bits and bytes.\n\n4 possible \"symbols\" = 2 bits per symbol. Multiply that by the number of symbols to get the total information held."
]
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71vuoz/eli5_what_do_people_mean_when_they_say_a_singular/"
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bit6kx | if our longest finger is two away from our thumb, why is our longest toe next to our “big toe?” | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bit6kx/eli5_if_our_longest_finger_is_two_away_from_our/ | {
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"Different functions. Your hand is used primarily for grasping things; thus the finger lengths are such that, when holding a stick, the tips of your fingers are all in about the same position. Your foot is made for running; thus, longer toes (big toe & the one next to it) are located where more of your weight will be.",
"Follow up question: Why does your \"pointer\" toe (the second/big one) feel like your middle finger on your hands?",
"Evolution, my friend :)\n\n\nAs the human evolved into what it is today, we started making more things with our hands and using our feet less. For example, if you see a chimpanzee, he will grasp trees and other things with their feet too, not only their hands. Meanwhile, humans do EVERYTHING with their hands. That's why we have opposable thumbs! If you close your hand you will see your thumb ends almost in the same place your middle finger does. This happens because humans have a greater ability to do delicate things. Yes we can use hammers and logs, but we can also do origami and microsurgery, while other animals who can use tools only use sticks to try and get food in a primitive way.",
"I don't know anything about hands, but our toes are shaped like they are for balance and running. We use our 3 longer toes to help propel us. Our two shorter toes are there for balance but they are able to get out of the way during running. Having our long toes closer to the center of the body also helps us run straight.\n\nI can assume that our middle finger helps us grab things easier by putting the force closer to the center of our hand, but I don't know."
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6jth17 | how we know how much uranium a sample started with when using uranium-lead dating? | I am familiar with the process of radioactive decay, and how it can be used to meausre the age of samples, but it seems predicated on knowing, or being able to accurately predict, the original sample size of the radioactive element at the time the sample formed. How do we do this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jth17/eli5_how_we_know_how_much_uranium_a_sample/ | {
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"Something called closure temperature is used here. The closure temperature is the point where a sample has cooled to the point that your parent/daughter elements are no longer escaping the material. \n\nIn this way, it serves as a potential 'clock reset' to when the mineral was formed (solidified from its molten state). \n\nYou don't actually need to care about the original sample size of the element, but what you care about is the ratio of parent to daughter.\n\nSo for example, in your uranium lead method, a common material to study is zircon. It strongly rejects lead, but allows for uranium. Once it is below its closure temperature however, the lead can't escape. So any lead you find in the zircon is *likely* from decaying uranium.\n\nThus (in a pretend example) if the half-life of uranium is 10 years, and you find there to be 25% as much Uranium as there is lead, you know the sample reached its closure temperature ~20 years ago (two half-lives). You don't need to know how many grams of uranium there was to start with, just the ratio as it exists today. ",
"Uranium-lead dating is usually performed on the mineral zircon. When zircon crystals form, they incorporate trace amounts of uranium into their structure, but completely exclude lead (I don't know why this is, it has to do with the crystal structure and formation process).\n\nSo we know when the zircon formed it contained some unknown amount of uranium and zero lead. So by measuring the present-day ratio of uranium to lead in the zircon, we can deduce what proportion of the original uranium has undergone decay since the zircon's formation, and then using the known half-life of uranium we can calculate the time since the formation of the zircon."
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4cw6xw | how can the unemployment rate increase when jobs are added? | A CNN article (linked below) details how the U.S. economy gained 215,000 jobs in March. Yet the unemployment rate increased from 4.9% to 5%. The article says that this may be a result of people returning to the job market, but can that really account for the complete negation (plus more) of those 215,000 jobs added?
Article: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cw6xw/eli5_how_can_the_unemployment_rate_increase_when/ | {
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"Oh yes it can, quite easily. To start with you have to look at how they determine the unemployment rate.\n\nThe unemployment rate is based on adults that are not employed that are actively looking to be employed. \n\nSo people that are not employed that do **not** count as *unemployed* are:\n\n* People in school\n* People that are retired\n* People who are permanently/temporarily disabled\n* People choosing not to work (eg stay at home parents)\n* People that have just given up on finding a job\n\nYou can easily see how this number could fluctuate as people get out of school and try to enter the work force, parents return to the work force, or people that have given up search start looking for a job again.\n\nAdding to that you have to remember the US population is huge. There are about 300,000 people that turn 18 and become an adult every month. A lot of these people are entering the job market too.",
"Yes, easily.\n\nUnemployment is computed based on the number of people actively looking for, but not finding, work.\n\nIf things get bad, people stop trying. They go back to school, move in with their parents or otherwise take a break from fruitless job-hunting.\n\nThere are also seasonal fluctuations, e.g. students looking for summer jobs.",
"if you believe TODAY the US unemployment rate is about 5% - your in for some shocking news down the road ... _URL_0_",
"The unemployment rate in the U.S. is a **complete sham**. They remove people from being called unemployed 6 months after they have been unemployed and say that they are 'out of the work force and not seeking jobs' even though they are still unemployed and still looking for work.\n\n How can anyone give any credence to the so called *'unemployment rate'* when such a tactic is used? These people don't just disappear, they are still unemployed even though the government ignores them as if they don't exist anymore."
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7h5964 | why is it that freezing things, like an embryo or plant seeds, preserves them where as it would kill other living beings? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7h5964/eli5_why_is_it_that_freezing_things_like_an/ | {
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"Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I understand it has to do with water content and how fast it freezes. As water freezes slowly it creates crystals that can actually rip and tear apart the cells, whereas flash freezing will freeze the water without creating such large crystals. It is easier to flash freeze smaller things as opposed to larger things, such as a person. Again, this is not my area of expertise so someone feel free to explain it better.",
"The basic principle in the freezing of cells (like embryos) is that the freezing stops the proteins and all other stuff from working without disrupting their structure. If the proteins pause functioning, cell division and all other processes pause too, preventing the cell from aging and dying. This is applicable for single cells as all they need for survival is a working replication and protein making system. However, in bigger organisms like humans, the viability of cells is not the only concern for living. Other living beings also need their organs to work for example, which can't just be paused with freezing, basically we have a lot more complicated system than cells."
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jjou9 | what do people mean when they say 'we went to iraq for the oil' | Who got the oil? Doesn't this mean oil prices should drop? Weren't we getting oil from Iraq anyway? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jjou9/eli5_what_do_people_mean_when_they_say_we_went_to/ | {
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"After the first Gulf War, the rest of the world didn't want Saddam Hussein to use the money from oil sales to fund his military, so the UN made a rule that said he couldn't sell very much oil and that whatever money he made from it was supposed to go towards buying food and medicine for the Iraqi people and not towards guns and tanks.\n\nBut, the problem is that Iraq had a ton of oil and we really wanted it! We just didn't want Hussein to be the one making a profit from it because we knew he'd buy weapons with the money. So, we used 9-11 as an excuse to wipe out Hussein and replace his government with a government that would sell us the oil we want and would not buy weapons with the profits. This government is called the Coalition Provisional Authority.\n\nWho got the oil? Right now there are many companies all over the world that are buying oil from Iraq.\n\nDoesn't this mean oil prices should drop? It's not quite as easy as that. I mean, yes, your idea is correct but there's a ton of other factors that drive the price of oil beyond 'how much is flowing out of Iraq right now', and those factors are why you aren't seeing a dramatic effect on the price.\n\nWeren't we getting oil from Iraq anyway? Before Gulf War 1, yes, we were getting a lot of oil from Iraq. After Gulf War 1, yes, but only a little bit.\n",
"After the first Gulf War, the rest of the world didn't want Saddam Hussein to use the money from oil sales to fund his military, so the UN made a rule that said he couldn't sell very much oil and that whatever money he made from it was supposed to go towards buying food and medicine for the Iraqi people and not towards guns and tanks.\n\nBut, the problem is that Iraq had a ton of oil and we really wanted it! We just didn't want Hussein to be the one making a profit from it because we knew he'd buy weapons with the money. So, we used 9-11 as an excuse to wipe out Hussein and replace his government with a government that would sell us the oil we want and would not buy weapons with the profits. This government is called the Coalition Provisional Authority.\n\nWho got the oil? Right now there are many companies all over the world that are buying oil from Iraq.\n\nDoesn't this mean oil prices should drop? It's not quite as easy as that. I mean, yes, your idea is correct but there's a ton of other factors that drive the price of oil beyond 'how much is flowing out of Iraq right now', and those factors are why you aren't seeing a dramatic effect on the price.\n\nWeren't we getting oil from Iraq anyway? Before Gulf War 1, yes, we were getting a lot of oil from Iraq. After Gulf War 1, yes, but only a little bit.\n"
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323ekw | when you don't yawn "correctly", why do you feel out of breath until you manage to fully yawn? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/323ekw/eli5_when_you_dont_yawn_correctly_why_do_you_feel/ | {
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"I know what you mean, there isn't much research around why animals and humans yawn. \n\nOne of the reasons they think why we yawn is due to a lack of oxygen, that's why it is often associated with tiredness because when we relax so does your breathing therefore a lack of oxygen can come about. \n\nSo I would say by not yawning completely your body still wants you to take in the rest of the air to flush out carbon dioxide.\n\n(I yawned like 6 times writing this)",
"ELI5 why when I read 'yawn' in the title I yawned.",
"_URL_0_\n\nVsauce link which explains the purpose of yawning why its contagious. You should be able to figure out why you don't feel as good if you don't fully yawn",
"This could also relate to something called \"air hunger\" or dyspnea. I suffer from it and have spent some time trying to find information on it. This is what I've found from a post by /u/outlooker707 - \n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nSome people with anxiety develop a condition called \"air hunger\" the feeling of not being able to get a satisfying breath. You might find yourself constantly yawning in an attempt to get more air in or perhaps you feel as though you cannot fill your lungs completely. \n\nThis condition can range from being annoying to completely debilitating depending on how severe it is. I suffered from this for nearly a year and had several medical tests taken to rule out anything else. I'm happy to say that I was able to reverse this and restore my normal breathing (no thanks to any of the doctors I went to) but that's for another discussion.\n\nLong story short, the reason why you feel air hunger is because your body has low carbon dioxide levels as a result of stress. When under stress, you breathe in more air than usual and exhale a greater amount of carbon dioxide. This creates a viscous cycle causing your body to inhale more and more deeply to maintain the carbon dioxide level. If you continue to do this over a prolonged period of time, then your body deems your increased breathing volume as \"normal\" and as a result you will constantly feel short of breath. You can measure your carbon dioxide levels by taking the \"Control Pause Test\" which is explained in the link below.\n\nYour goal is to break this habit and restore your oxygen/carbon dioxide levels back to a healthier level. You can do this by practicing the Buteyko method. Dr. Buteyko spent decades researching how our breathing affects the body. I have left a couple links that offer guidance and techniques to restore your natural breathing rhythm. \n\nMany folks have messaged me about the great progress they have made so I'm confident that this can help you.\n\nLastly, it's important that you take proactive steps to combat the source of your stress to make this process easier. I personally took up meditation to help alleviate my stress and relax my breathing. Youtube has a lot of great meditation videos that are worth a listen.\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nA useful tool with Buteyko breathing is a simple concept called the control pause. The control pause provides feedback about your relative breathing volume. To obtain an accurate measurement, please rest for 10 minutes before measuring.\n\n* 1) Take a small, silent breath in through your nose and allow a small silent breath out through your nose.\n* 2) Hold your nose with your fingers to prevent air from entering your lungs.\n* 3) Count the number of seconds until you feel the first definite desire to breathe.\n* 4) At the first definite desire to breathe in, you may also feel the first involuntary movements of your breathing muscles. Your tummy may jerk and the area around your neck may contract.\n* 5) Your inhalation at the end of the breath should be calm.\n* 6) Release your nose and breathe in through it.\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n_URL_5_\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_3_\n_URL_1_\n_URL_2_\n_URL_4_\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------",
"Why did I yawn thinking about this question?",
"ELI5: Why do I feel the need to yawn after reading the word yawn? "
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"http://www.normalbreathing.com/buteyko-method.php",
"http://www.... | ||
3p5v08 | why are assault rifle magazines curved? | The AK 47 mag is curved like a banana, and an AR 15 mag has a slight bend to it also. Why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p5v08/eli5_why_are_assault_rifle_magazines_curved/ | {
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"Because the bullets in the magazine are thinner at the tip, thus if you stack them it will result in a curved stack.",
"Because of the [angle of the case](_URL_0_). Most cases are angled somewhat (so a long magazine will have at least some angle), but the angle on that case is quite steep. The steeper angle makes feeding in less than ideal conditions likely to work and is one reason (among many) that the AK-47 has a reputation for being ultra reliable even in awful conditions. ",
"Not all assault rifle magazines are curved. What others have said is correct; curved magazines allow the ammunition to feed more smoothly. However, they also allow more rounds to be held in a given magazine without the whole system becoming prohibitively bulky. As an example, the original M16 design called for straight magazines that only held 20 rounds of ammo per mag. The 30 round bent mag became standard after the Vietnam War not only to facilitate smooth feeding, but also to offset some changes in military doctrine.\n\nBasically, US troops blew through way too much ammo in Vietnam, which lead to a lot of the hairy battles we hear about in the movies. The full-auto option was only intended to be used by one in every four soldiers, to provide a base of fire for safe maneuvering in combat. But most soldiers used it instead of the recommended semi-auto setting. When the second generation of M16 rifles was designed, one of the deciding factors to the production contract for the US military was the removal of the full-auto setting and implementation of 30 round magazines to provide an acceptably high rate of sustained fire while improving overall accuracy and precision of the fire team and squad."
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2pby7c | why are there so many jewish comedians? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pby7c/eli5_why_are_there_so_many_jewish_comedians/ | {
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"Just a theory, but it may help to explain, at least slightly, why there are more Jewish comedians than an equal distribution of the population going into comedy would explain (e.g. Jews make up just below 2% of the U.S. population). \n \n\nThe two biggest media cities in the country are L.A. and NYC. Jews make up roughly 20% of each of these cities' populations (the combined Jewish populations in L.A. and NYC constitute nearly half of the U.S. Jewish population). If you're going to get a start in the entertainment industry, both L.A. and NYC are probably the best places to be, excluding something more \"niche\" e.g. being a country musician in Nashville (overall, still a dismally low chance of succeeding in NYC or L.A., but better than say, South Bend, Indiana). While it probably doesn't explain all of it, having your population concentrate in the two media capitals of the world probably doesn't hurt your chances.",
"Humour has a traditional role in Jewish culture, as a kind of dry form of questioning why things are the way they are. It also tends to be wittily sarcastic and self-effacing, which are traits people widely liked in their humour back when the popular image of the Jewish-American comedian was beginning to form in the 30s and 40s. On top of that, Jews have always existed in a weird, marginalised place in Western society which gives them that \"outsider mocking the powers that be\" punching-upwards mentality that again, resonates with a wide audience. It all adds up to quite an easily-appealing sense of humour that an above-average number of Jewish folk tend towards.\n\nIf you're genuinely interested, there's a fun documentary called When Jews Were Funny which investigates the topic, though it points out Jewish comedy hasn't really been as dominating in America for the past couple of decades, when alternative comedy really stole its thunder.",
"Jews are outsiders. I pass, but I am not 100% within the American culture. This gives me a critical angle on things.",
"Jewish tragedians became moot sometime in the 20th century.",
"\"God took pity on us. For every 10 Jews, God mad one absolutely crazy so the other 9 could laugh at him.\" - Mel Brookes"
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2ey7o1 | how america can have a "3 strike" rule for criminal activity, but celebrities can have drug scandal and assault scandal after another and get off with it | Celebrities can get shitfaced and beat people up or put their pickup through a restaurant window with a month in rehab and a slap on the wrist, am I missing something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ey7o1/eli5how_america_can_have_a_3_strike_rule_for/ | {
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"\"America\" doesn't have a 3-strike rule; just certain states do. And if someone goes to rehab without being convicted (for example, charges are dropped in exchange for entering rehab), or they just go to rehab and tell the story of doing illegal things but aren't arrested *and convicted* of it, that doesn't count against 3 strikes. "
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4xstaw | if india and pakistan both became independent on the same day, why is their independence day celebrated on different days? | Pakistan's Independence Day is on 14th August and India's is on the 15th. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xstaw/eli5_if_india_and_pakistan_both_became/ | {
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"Indian Independence Act 1947 recognised 15 August as the birthday of both Pakistan and India. But in subsequent years 14 August was adopted as the independence day because 14 August 1947 coincided with 27 Ramadan 1366 of the Islamic calendar, which Muslims regard as a sacred night (Laylat al-Qadr for the Sunnis)."
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56e0ru | if we can never find the end of an irrational number, how do we know whether it's truly irrational or just a rational number with an incredibly large number of digits? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56e0ru/eli5_if_we_can_never_find_the_end_of_an/ | {
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"In mathematics, an irrational number is a real number that cannot be expressed as a ratio of integers, i.e. as a fraction. Therefore, irrational numbers, when written as decimal numbers, do not terminate, nor do they repeat.",
"The fact that irrational numbers are non-repeating and unending is a property of irrational numbers in base 10.\n\nThe definition of a irrational number is a number that cannot be expressed as a ratio of integers. You can prove whether a number follows this definition or not.\n\n[Here is a proof by contradiction](_URL_0_) that sqrt(2) is irrational.\n",
"I think others pretty much covered it, but never really explained how to know if something is irrational or not. It turns out you have to prove it, usually on a case-by-case basis. Some are easy--for example, almost anybody could understand the proof that the square root of two is irrational. Others, not so much. You need a good understanding of calculus to know why pi is irrational, and with some numbers, nobody even knows. Pi and e are two of the most famous and studied irrational numbers, but nobody has proven that pi+e is irrational, even though it seems like it should be. ",
"So, like someone else mentioned, we know by Proof By Contradiction.\n\nThere are two, and only two, possibilities for a given real number — it is either rational or it is irrational.\n\nIf we determine it is not rational, then it must be irrational. \n\nThere are ways to test a number to tell if it is rational.\n\nIf it fails these tests, then by exclusion, we have determined it must be irrational.\n\nDoes that answer?",
"A number being rational or not really has nothing to do with number bases. A number is **ratio**nal if it can be expressed as a **ratio** of two integers. ½ is rational because it is 1/2 or 2/4 or 137/274. One integer divided by another integer. 13 is rational because it is 13/1 or 78/6 or (-26)/(-2). And so on. **This is a concept that's independent of number base.**\n\nIt turns out that if a number is rational (can be written as a ratio of two integers) then at some point in its decimal expansion some group of digits will start repeating over and over. This is not the definition of rationality, but it turns out to always be true. Examples: \n1/8=0.125**0**00000000… (the digit 0 starts repeating) \n1/3 = 0.**3**33333… (the digit 3 starts repeating) \n22/7 = 3.**142857**142857… (the digit group 142857 starts repeating) \n51/38 = 1.3**421052631578947368**4210526315789473684… (the digit group 421052631578947368 starts repeating) \n\nNow, this last bit about repeating digits is *not specific to base 10*. In binary you have (the left hand sides are decimal, the right hand sides are binary): \n(1/8)₁₀ = 0.001**0**00000…₂ \n(1/3)₁₀ = 0.**01**01010101…₂ \n(22/7)₁₀ = 11.**001**001001001…₂ \n(51/38)₁₀ = 1.0**101011110010100001**101011110010100001…₂\n\nWhichever (integer) base you choose, rational numbers will have repeating expansions in that base. That is a fact about rational numbers but that is *not the defining property of a rational number*.\n\nNow, if you had some arbitrary computer program outputting some number on decimal form with finitely many digits, then you are right, it is indeed impossible to prove whether that number is rational or not. You need some kind of deeper knowledge about a number than just some decimals to be able to prove anything.\n\nThe classic example of an irrational number is √2. [/u/tatu_huma's post](_URL_6_) has a link to the usual proof that √2 is irrational. Any proof that a number is irrational will have to show that there is *no way at all* to write that number as a ratio of integers. This can actually be very complicated, and for the most part proofs are tailor-made for each number. Here are some examples of numbers known to be irrational (most with links to proofs):\n\n* √*n* unless √*n* is an integer. If that sounds confusing, what I'm trying to say is that aside from the perfect squares, 1=1^(2), 4=2^(2), 9=3^(2), 16=4^(2), 25=5^(2), 36=6^(2), and so on, the square root of any integer is irrational. ([Proof.](_URL_4_ \"Start reading from \"Assume D is a non-square natural number…\"\")) \n\n* In fact, ^(*k*)√*n* is irrational for any integers *k* > 1 and *n* > 1 unless ^(*k*)√*n* is an integer. So ^(3)√10 is irrational because 10 isn't a perfect cube (2^(3)=8 and 3^(3)=27, so ^(3)√10 is between 2 and 3, that is not an integer ), but ^(4)√16 is rational because 2^(4)=16. \n(Side note: Here's a really dumb proof that the ^(*n*)√2 is irrational: Assume ^(*n*)√2 = *p*/*q*. Then *p*^(*n*) = 2*q*^(*n*) = *q*^(*n*) + *q*^(*n*). This contradicts [Fermat's last theorem](_URL_5_). This argument is not strong enough for the *n*=2 case.)\n\n* [Euler's constant *e*](_URL_1_) is irrational. ([Proof.](_URL_2_ \"This proof is actually not very difficult but the wikipedia article uses fancy notation which might make it look complicated.\"))\n\n* π is irrational. This was first proved in 1761. For reference, √2 was known to be irrational by the Pythagoreans, probably around year 500 BCE. In other words, proving that π was irrational was no simple task. There's a [whole wikipedia page](_URL_3_) with proofs that π is irrational. None of them are ELI5-friendly but more like \"explain like I'm good at calculus\".\n\nTo underline how difficult it can be to prove whether numbers are irrational or not, here are some famous examples of numbers that nobody's managed to prove either rationality or irrationality for:\n\n* π+*e*. You may ask, \"if π and *e* are known to be irrational, wouldn't that help in proving that π+*e* is?\". It turns out it doesn't help a lot. To illustrate why, both √2 and 1-√2 are irrational, but their sum is not (it's 1). \n\n* π·*e*. Similarly you may wonder \"both numbers are irrational, wouldn't that help in proving that their product is?\". And again, it kind of doesn't. To again illustrate: √2 and √8 are both irrational but their product is √16 which is 4. However, it is actually known that *at least* one of π+*e* and π·*e* are irrational. (The explanation is complicated enough that I won't clutter this post with it.)\n\n* [The Euler-Mascheroni constant, γ](_URL_0_), which crops up all over mathematics and quantum physics.",
"A major open question is whether the [Euler-Mascheroni](_URL_0_) constant is rational. It may be rational, with an \"incredibly large number of digits\" (at least 242080 in the denominator).\n\nWe can only know whether it is rational/irrational by finding a mathematical proof (or a representation as a ratio)\n\n"
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o9r72 | how to make the most out of health insurance, how to get a primary care physician, etc. | I finally have health insurance, but have no idea the proper way to use it. Before having it, I would usually wait until whatever I had got really bad and just check into urgent care if it didn't go away on its own. Now I want to get preventative care, regular check-ups, etc. I have no idea how to do this and I can't find much helpful stuff on the internet either. Can someone ELI5 what to do to get started? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/o9r72/eli5_how_to_make_the_most_out_of_health_insurance/ | {
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"I imagine contacting who ever you have for insurance would be a good start. They almost certainly have a website with a list of doctors that are covered.\n\nMost preventative care (check-ups) are fully covered. So find that list on the website, compare it to a local \"list of good doctors\" you find by googling around, and pick one. Before you go in check that it's free and do your checkup"
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49516h | is it ok to not eat many vegetables one prefers fruit instead? | Title. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49516h/eli5_is_it_ok_to_not_eat_many_vegetables_one/ | {
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"Depends on your definition of ok.\n\nIt's best to eat both fruits and vegetables in balanced well portioned amounts. Too much of anything can be bad for you.\n\nIn the end though, yes of course it's ok to eat more fruits if you enjoy them. It's better than mcdonalds.",
"Although fruits and vegetables are both considered \"healthy\" options, eating more of one does not make up for eating less of the other. Most fruit is very high in sugar. It also contains different vitamins and nutrients than vegetables."
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6zchuc | how did brazil come to have such a large japanese population when brazil has historically been an extremely inconvenient location, geographically, compared to bolivia or peru, prior to the panama canal being built? | Brazil is in the central/eastern part of South America and Japan is in the Pacific Ocean. Prior to the canal, you would need to sail southwest and then back up north to reach Brazil. Why did Japanese settle in Brazil and not in the west coast countries of South America like Peru or Bolivia? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6zchuc/eli5how_did_brazil_come_to_have_such_a_large/ | {
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"Feudalism ended in Japan and people wanted to leave because they were poor and starving. The US and Australia banned non-white immigration. Brazil needed coffee ~~slaves~~ I mean workers. Japan and Brazil signed an immigration treaty and lots went to Brazil. \n\nThat's the ELI5 of it."
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54q229 | why does microwaving a bagel make it chewy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54q229/eli5_why_does_microwaving_a_bagel_make_it_chewy/ | {
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"You're heating the free water and bound water in a bagel. The free water will turn to steam, which will hang around the bagel while it is cooking, adding the chewiness. But, you've got the bound water, as well, which is intermixed in the starch matrix. The starch matrix is what gives your bagel the structure. Heating up this bound water softens the starch matrix, to the point where it is chewy. \n\nWhen you toast a bagel, however, you're using a different type of heat that will evaporate all water in a given bagel, leaving it crispy. "
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brq1kl | what does it entail when a business is “100% employee owned”? | Do the employees get a stake in the company proportional to how many there are? Are profits shared amongst them equally? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/brq1kl/eli5_what_does_it_entail_when_a_business_is_100/ | {
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"Yeah, the employees all get stock/stake/whatever in the company, and rather than wages, the profits are split between all the employees.",
"I worked for a company that was “employee owned” and we were all given stock in the company and non-employees aren’t allowed to invest.",
"I work for an employee owned business, so my information is based on how my company works.\n\nThe founder of the company put all the company shares into a trust, this trust stated that the employees were equal owners of those shares and were to be given the dividends that shareholders would get. This means that rather than publicly trading the shares and offering dividends based on the success, the employees get the dividends. This takes the form of a yearly bonus based on the profits from the previous year. This is as a percentage of yearly pay, including overtime. But the % is equal for all, so everyone gets 5% or 10% for example.\n\nThere are other restrictions too, like how much the chairperson can be paid as a multiple of the average basic wage of the employees, and a part of the company board is elected employees from across the business."
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dcm9h2 | can electrical brainwave signals be represented in binary? | Follow up question to a post I saw a little bit ago. Since brainwaves are electromagnetic waves, I’m assuming in a similar way every day electricity is, would it be unreasonable to assume that these signals could be represented in logical 1/0 like we do for 5V/0V? And thus wouldn’t this help us map human brain functionality? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dcm9h2/eli5_can_electrical_brainwave_signals_be/ | {
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"I think the problem with mapping brain activity accurately is density of signals. With so much in the way it's hard to read them accurately especially through skulls",
"No it can't really be represented by binary. To start with, it's not electromagnetic waves. Our brains work by moving charged ions around, not using electromagnetic radiation, that's just what the sensors use to read it. \n\nNow onto why binary doesn't work. There isn't an \"off\" state like there is with binary. our neurons have a resting potential of around -70 mv. From here, negative and positive ions are added by tiny gates controlled by neurochemicals. This will either increase the voltage (making it easier for the neuron to fire) or lower the voltage (making it harder to fire). If the voltage manages to hit -55 mv, the neuron fires. This is a rapid increase in voltage to about 30 mv before rapidly dropping to around -80 mv. the resting voltage and the final voltage need to be variable and change. It's fundamental to how neurons process information. The second drop to -80 mv is pretty important as well. On top of this, the amount of the chemicals released by the neuron isn't constant and can change. So there isn't one on or off state to be turned into binary.\n\nThere's a few massive holdups to mapping brain functionality. The first is complexity. Our brains form a staggering amount of connections. Our brains have about 100 billion neurons. and a total of about 500 trillion connections are formed. you need to map out every single neuron and every single connection. If you mapped one a second, it would take about 15,854,896 years. Humans have only existed for about 200,000 years. A full mapping isn't going to happen. We've mapped out the visual cortex of cats. That took decades and the people who did it got a nobel prize. Neurons are also incredibly small. If you look at an MRI of the brain, your not seeing individual neurons, not even close. You're getting between a mm and 0.1 mm (at the extreme 100 hour scan end).\n\nThe second is ethics. As it turns out, mapping brain info is incredibly invasive and potentially dangerous. One of the ways we figure out what stuff does is by destroying the neurons. This is a no go with humans. Even with methods that don't involve intentional brain damage, it's still major surgery and you don't really do that just to see how we work."
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a1brc7 | how long dna chains such as in chromosomes stay unknotted? | [Open access here](_URL_0_)
& #x200B; | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1brc7/eli5_how_long_dna_chains_such_as_in_chromosomes/ | {
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"Um, did you post to ELI5 instead of science by chance?"
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"https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/10/10/1126"
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4k4987 | how does hydroplaning happen? is there any "safe" speed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4k4987/eli5_how_does_hydroplaning_happen_is_there_any/ | {
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"When there is water on the road your tyre has to shove it out of the way if it's to stay in contact with the road. The tyre has grooves in it to make this easier, but there's a limit to how fast they can move water. Exceed this and the water builds up like a wedge under the tyre, lifting it off the road.\n\nYou are now no longer driving but sliding on a thin layer of water. Brake and the wheels will stop but the road doesn't care (for a while) and you'll just carry on. Likewise you'll not be able to steer.\n\nAs explained, there is a speed at which the tyre cannot shift the water fast enough. Below this speed you still have contact - though as you approach lift-off you'll have progressively less contact as the wedge develops. You can sometimes tell because the road noise drops away suddenly.\n\nThe safe speed is well below this!"
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4jkm39 | how did the united kingdom, an area about the same size as alabama and mississippi, have the ability to colonize so much of the world? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jkm39/eli5how_did_the_united_kingdom_an_area_about_the/ | {
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"Size doesn't matter. It's more about technique. \n\nEngland had industrial revolution and a rather large navy while other countries, though much larger, did not. ",
"More people live in London alone than live in those two states combined. It's not a matter of land area but population. When colonial powers were on the rise, those countries had a relatively large, dense population to exploit compared to the sparsely populated areas they exerted control over.",
"Mostly how they could conquer those countries with so little manpower was advanced technology. British had modern guns, railways, ships etc so no one could really stand their power. \nThey didn't have to bring so many of their own people to those colonized countries too because they created new elite on locals which they used to control whole country. British had for example military forces in India which were consist of Indians but were ruled by British.\n \n\n",
"Later colonialism is characterized by mass invasions, forced migrations, and economic imperialism. But that stage happened after the colonial powers were already quite strong.\n\nEarly colonialism was about trading in rare goods and forging alliances. Spain's initial successes in Mexico and the Caribbean were forged through alliances with local natives, as were Britain's in India. You would find a few small factions at war, then offer aid in exchange for a key natural harbor to establish a trading post.\n\nOnce you had a foothold, you'd start to traffic rare goods. You could sell cinnamon in Europe for more than it's weight in gold, and you could sell steel tools or horses in the New World for extreme rates. That wealth enabled those fledgling empires to repeat the first process, taking sides in local conflicts, pressing advantages, until their local presence was stronger than any of the small native allies who'd survived. In Asia, piracy played a large role in early colonialism, with traders returning from Asia with cargo there was no way to know if they bought or stole the tea they were bringing with them.\n\nEven up to the French-Indian war, most European Imperial powers used native allies in warfare against one another to take lands. Once the largest enemies were taken care of, old treaties were forgotten in a drive to 'civilize' the locals, or eliminate trade rivals. Late imperialism is born out of this stage.",
"Consider, in addition to geography (a long coast with many natural harbors that encourages seafaring) and technology (industrialization), the British history of conquest. The story of Britannia is one of many successive conquests, and it could be argued that invasion and subjugation is so central to the British story that it is an integral part of the culture. Picts and Celts overrun by:\n\n- Romans\n- Angles, Saxons, Jutes\n\n(Now an interim period of all these groups forming kingdoms and regularly trying to subjugate their neighbors)\n\n- Danes (Vikings)\n- French (Normans)\n\nThat brings us roughly to the end of the first millennium A.D. The lesson learned by the British people at this point is that control of the sea means invading, plundering, and settling whatever lands you encounter, and lack of defenses by sea means risk of being conquered. \n\nNow, add in conflict with the Dutch, and longer conflict with the French to polish this worldview. The culture and geography of Western Europe was uniquely suited to advancing creating a war-fighting culture that took full advantage of the sea, and was able to administer these expeditionary forces from afar. \n\nComparing the area to US states is inappropriate because these very states are an offshoot of this culture. Still, as you may have noticed, the British colonies and their descendants in the Americas did a fair amount of conquering on their own, pushing west over land and establishing superior control over every population encountered along the way. \n\n",
"I think also important to note, is that with colonization, particularly of less developed countries, often represents a huge pool of previously untapped resources.\n\nAs an example, ore mined in colonial America (and even for some time after) often had to be sent back to England for refinining, so even if they did not make use of it directly, they at the very least took their cut.",
"Britain had a few big advantages:\n\n1) Being an island nation, somewhat separated from Continental land fighting, they had to have a solid navy most of the time. This navy would backbone the ability to have those wide reaching empire.\n\n2) Britain had subsumed one of the most creative peoples on earth - the Scots (see \"How the Scots Invented the Modern World\"). Scots engineers developed the things that really made the empire run.\n\n3) Compared to Continental Powers, Britain with its history of constitutional monarchy had a much greater expanse of what we might call a \"middle-class\", not poor but not aristocracy, who could work as administrators. Compare this to France, who would often send bumbling aristocrats who couldn't do anything except do their best to recreate France in wherever they were, and work to get back home. Brits saw these postings as a way to ensure mobility and advancement, and a young person could raise themselves up by serving overseas.",
"There are a load of factors but it all comes down to one thing: we are a well located island.\n\nEurope has seen frequent land wars throughout history because so many sovereign nations have been in close proximity. Meanwhile, the British isles has enjoyed relative peace (excluding the odd Roman invasion of course). Not only did this allow us to grow without constant harassment, it also lead to a powerful navy.\n\nGiven our sea access to both Europe and the Atlantic, we developed a powerful blue-water navy as well as maintaining costal defence. This navy gave us a huge economic boost from international trade and a powerful tool for invading other nations.\n\n",
"East India Company \n\n_URL_1_\n\nEIC was a huge company that needed a navy to protect its commercial interests in India and China starting from the 1600's.\n\nThis kickstarted UK sea superiority. The industrial revolution then gave them an extra boost. All big countries in Europe became hungry for resources, and started pillaging Africa and Asia.\n\n_URL_0_"
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1anr3s | what do the movie/tv actors actually do to to get executive/ co-producer credits on the shows/movies they star in | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1anr3s/what_do_the_movietv_actors_actually_do_to_to_get/ | {
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"Executive producers generally finance a movie or decide how much money is going to be spent. Some actors also own production companies so they can back movies that they choose to be in."
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eea8gt | how is kubernetes different from container platforms such as docker? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eea8gt/eli5_how_is_kubernetes_different_from_container/ | {
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"I'm not a expert, but Kubernetes is like the conductor and the Docker containers and the like are like the musicians on stage. Kubetenetes keeps them all working together properly.",
"Kubernetes is the automation that would configure, run, and manage the life of your Docker containers.\n\nThe most fundamental problem it solves is so that you don't have to log in to servers and run docker commands to manage your running container programs yourself.",
"Check this youtube video it explains it really well in a simple way: _URL_0_",
"Kubernetes is what is called an \"orchestrator\". It manages Docker containers for you. If a container gets killed, it gets replaced. For example. Also scaling (launching multiple containers to meet demand), security (managing secrets within a container) and networking (make sure containers can access other containers) are part of the features.\n\nBe sure to check out other orchestrators as well. I always compare Kubernetes to a well equipped truck. You don't always need a truck, a motorcycle might be enough.",
"Kubernetes is a container orchestration system where docker is the container itself. So I build an app, dockerize it, then you could just run that docker container without kubernetes. When you use kubernetes it gives you a lot of operational and production tools such as I want to run this many containers on these instances and lots more complex rules for scaling etc.",
"As you probably know, Docker provides software engineers a way to describe the requirements of a service in a consistent way so that (maybe...hopefully...usually not 😂) someone else can do the minute to minute work of running and operating that software.\n\nIt did to web application development what those standardized rectangular shipping containers did to the shipping industry: Instead of describing the exact dimensions of something that needs to be shipped, you just need to provide a recipe for a container. This allows shippers to get really good at shipping uniform sized containers.\n\nAnyways, Docker only gets you as far as allowing software engineers to describe containers, and allowing operators to run them on individual machines. With only Docker, other parts of operating a service, like detecting and reacting to non-trivial problems, monitoring load and scaling things up/down, and running containers across multiple machines requires a metric tonne of manual work. Manual work is error prone, which isn't what you want when some of this work is intended to resolve problems.\n\nKubernetes is a service that hopes to automate the vast majority of this work within a single cluster of machines. You give Kubernetes a bunch of machines, and a bunch of requirements for what should be running on those machines, and it'll make sure that those requirements are always met.\n\nYou need a container to be running 50 times across these 1000 machines? You give Kubernetes a **Deployment** describing this requirement and from then on, it'll ensure that 50 instances of that container are running in your cluster at all times. If one container terminates, another will be started to take its place. If one container simply appears unhealthy, it'll be terminated. If one machine is determined to be malfunctioning, it can be cordoned off (disallowing new containers from being run on it) and drained, allowing any containers on that machine to be run elsewhere. If you need to change something about those containers (like the tag of the image), Kubernetes will gradually roll this change out until there are 50 containers running the new configuration and 0 running the old one.\n\nAll of these constraints are maintained using Controllers that simulate all of that manual work I mentioned would have been required with Docker alone.\n\nSo, this is Kubernetes in a nutshell.\n\nJust like:\n\n* Hypervisors and virtual machines are a convenient abstraction layer on top of physical machines\n* Operating systems are a nice abstraction layer on top of machines.\n* Containers are an abstraction layer atop operating systems.\n* Docker containers are a simplifying abstraction atop containers.\n\nKubernetes abstracts over a bunch of machines and allows you to deploy containers to them. It also automates a lot of manual work involved in keeping those containers running.\n\nThe next step are layers above Kubernetes, that allow folks to manage one or more clusters (for example, clusters in different co-located zones...so if one datacenter explodes, your software will be running in some other datacenter). However, this layer isn't really standardized, and infrastructure providers are aggressively implementing their own solutions. When the dust settles and patterns start to emerge, other open source abstractions at this level will appear."
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5joaw9 | why couldn't the us just withdraw from iraq/vietnam/etc.? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5joaw9/eli5_why_couldnt_the_us_just_withdraw_from/ | {
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"They could physically leave, but the concern was with what would happen to the country afterward.\n\nVietnam was immediately taken over by Communists allied with the Soviet Union.\n\nIraq quickly fell into deep chaos, and then ISIS started taking over areas and murdering people.",
"The US had/has allies in these conflicts. It's not a simple political decision to condemn your allies to destruction because you're getting tired of the war now.\n\nMaking that choice will have severely negative implications for other alliances since you're essentially telling everyone that you're only interested in fighting with them when it's easy.",
"There is also the \"sunk cost fallacy\". I spent $500 fixing my beat up old car and now it needs another $300, so I have to spend the extra money otherwise I wasted that $500 right? Then something else breaks and it's another $150, then $400 etc. Once you step back you can see you should have cut your losses at the original $500 and moved on, but instead you got suckered into spending another $850 trying to \"save\" the original $500.",
"Despite the media attempts to conflate the two, Vietnam/Korea and Iraq don't have a whole lot in common with each other. In the case of the former, the U.S. was pushing back against communism around the world. Being seen as Abandoning an ally to the communists would be politically damaging to their interests else where. Even with this reality, there was a breaking point. When North Vietnam broke the truce in 1975, and invaded the South. Gerald Ford attempted to send troops back into Vietnam, and restart a war that the U.S. had successfully ended 2 years earlier, but congress wouldn't bite, and the U.S. had to evacuate embassy personnel in about 48 hrs, abandoning a lot of allies in the process who later died in reeducation camps. In Iraq, it's a little more politically feasible to walk away, and in fact the U.S. kind of did in 2011, but since they invaded under pretty awful circumstances, the international community expects the U.S. to try to find a way to have a satisfactory resolution.",
"Of course it is \"possible\". Anything is \"possible\". But it was inadvisable for a couple of reasons.\n\n1) From a strategic military point of view, how does it look to your allies if you basically give up and run away when things get tough? Your allies and military partners expect that if you commit to a war, you make some effort to see it through. Or at the very least, to broker some compromise peace instead of just saying it's all too hard.\n\n2) From a domestic politics point of view, blatantly changing and backtracking your position to curry favour with voters often doesn't go down well. It makes you look weak and indecisive, and that you'll abandon your principles at the drop of a hat to win votes. People do respect politicians who stand by \"difficult\" and \"unpopular\" decisions, even if they don't personally agree with them. ",
"The first couple of points I was going to write have been covered in other comments. This one hasn't:\n\nWe couldn't leave because we couldn't take the hit to our self-image.\n\nAt the end of WWII we were one of the few combatants that hadn't been reduced to rubble. We were the conquering heroes. (People who believe that we were the *only* country involved in the Normandy invasions still show up in the comments here every once in a while.) We sacrificed a lot, but we were still standing; we never had to rebuild cities, we never had foreign armies marching in our streets.\n\nThis gave a lot of the public a skewed view of war - war is something that happens Somewhere Else, and despite the losses it's really not all that bad - which in turn put a lot of pressure on the military and government, as every later conflict would be judged (in the court of public opinion) against how awesome we were in WWII and how tidily 'we' cleaned up the messy war there.\n\nEvery conflict since then *has* been affected by this. We like decisive, clean victories, like the one we got for largely geographic reasons in WWII. We can't maintain our self-image as the conquering heroes who clean up other countries' messes if we withdraw, so we don't withdraw. To withdraw would mean we are wrong and/or weak, so... we don't withdraw.\n\nWe fought (and continue to fight) in those places for the other reasons, too. But we didn't *withdraw* from those places for these reasons, too."
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c0d8xv | is ‘naturally skinny’ a real thing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c0d8xv/eli5_is_naturally_skinny_a_real_thing/ | {
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"I have had a lifetime of difficulty gaining weight, especially fat. Is that what you mean by “naturally skinny?”\n\nIt’s due to a high metabolism. Any sugars I eat go directly to heat generation instead of fat storage. It means I have to eat a lot or I get lethargic and dizzy. As a result I tend to eat slow release foods so I don’t have to eat constantly, and I eat healthy portions when I do. And then still need to carry around nuts and seeds to top up.\n\nIf I stop working out for a few days, I lose a lot of weight. It’s not a nice condition to have, just like being naturally heavy is a struggle.",
"Yes, I'd say it does exist. My cousin eats a lot, has to, but is unable to gain much weight. \n\nShe's been to the doctor for it, even. People tend to think she's anorexic due to how small she is. You can see her bones easily and you'd never know she's had six children. \n\nShe has a high metabolism.",
"With my limited knowledge on fitness, no it isn’t. Metabolism only accounts for like 200~ calories on a person to person basis so someone with a fast metabolism would only need to drink like a glass of milk to catch up. My entire life I was skinny and I think it’s because I personally just get “full” quickly and since I only ate when I was hungry, I never really ate too many calories. Plus I did running sports and didnt lift to gain muscle. Overweight people underestimate how much they eat and it’s vice versa for underweight people. The thing is that I ate really unhealthy when I was younger but I think I just never ate enough so I was teetering on an underweight BMI my entire life. No one is naturally skinny but people are all different and some may consume more or less calories before feeling full is my point",
"I used to get the same $11 worth of food at my local Whataburger so often that they knew my car and order. At the time, I was 6'1 (lie: 5'11), 160lbs.\n\nI desperately spent my high school years trying to gain weight for football and graduate with a BMI of 17.3 (underweight).\n\nI was 26 before I finally started 'gaining' weight. I've always been not just skinny, but the skinniest person I knew. I was (and still am) super self-conscious about it.",
"I believe it has to do with hormones & genetics. Certain hormones trigger the body to store fat/ metabolize foods differently. I’m no doctor but my understanding is that everyone’s body works a bit differently. We don’t all grow hair at the same rate, or get as oily skin, we react to foods differently, not all women experience their period the same way, we don’t all get cavities as easily, or have the same resting heart rates, etc. I don’t think weight gain is different than these things. :)"
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6i9qyh | how does google's search algorithm work and what was the internet like before it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6i9qyh/eli5_how_does_googles_search_algorithm_work_and/ | {
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"before google, all search engines indexed by the content of the page. they scrubbed the words on the page and ranked them by how many matches of the search string there are.\n \nit's very easy to uprank yourself. if your page is about video games, all you had to do was put a thousand repeats of the names of the hotten games out there. and you stuffed that into a non visible text area. voila! your page must be really important and all about video games.\n\ngoogle changed things by not ranking how many words matched on your page, but how many other websites linked to you about the same topic. but really all that did was change how you created fake rankings. nowadays, there's entire industry of fake website makers, called microsites, that all they do is write mini blog pages and link to your website, making google think you're the hot shit cause you have 100000 websites linking to you.",
"Google uses something similar to markov chains to evaluate how good a link is in relation to the searched topic. It's quite a bit more complicated than that but it's hard to nail down exact criteria because they constantly tweak and refine their algorithm.\n\n\nBefore Google you could wade through 20 pages of search results before getting one relevant link.\n\n\nGod I feel old. I remember the stories of the young Google running off used hardware in a garage and how entrenched Yahoo and other search engines were.\n\n\nEdit\n\n\nAlso Google returned search results several orders of magnitude faster with a simple page and no clutter.",
"Oh god, remember the early Internet when webpages used to list a ton of random words at the bottom to try to boost their search visibility?"
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3dvkk9 | communism and the differences between communist countries. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dvkk9/eli5_communism_and_the_differences_between/ | {
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"First, Marxist communism has never existed anywhere. In Marxism, the government eventually fades away as people realize they don't need it in order to maintain a stable society, which is obviously a distorted and idealistic view of human nature. All nations which have claimed to be communist have really been totalitarian dictatorships using the lingo of communism to control people too hopeful or stupid to realize what was really happening."
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