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3hbfhi | how do internet ports work. | If a port is "opened" on a server (data through it doesn't go on your daily cap), is it possible for clients to select which data goes through that port? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hbfhi/eli5_how_do_internet_ports_work/ | {
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"The port is just a number that gets sent along with each message. You can think of it like an apartment number for your computer- it doesn't change where the message goes, just what mailbox it gets put in once it gets there. Programs tell the service in charge of the network \"send any message that comes through addressed to this port to me\".\n\nI've never seen the word \"opened\" mean \"exempt from a cap\" though. It usually just means \"something is listening for data from that port\". In any event, I'll explain how I think it works and what you can do. As I mentioned, a port is not a physical thing, it's just a number. So what's probably happening is that your ISP's router is looking at all the messages you're sending back and forth. If the message is addressed to a particular port, it doesn't count it towards the cap. It probably doesn't matter what port your computer is listening on for the response (the \"apartment number\" of your web browser on your computer), just what the port of the server is.\n\nSo the problem with this is that all of the services you want to connect to are only listening on a handful of ports. You can try communicating to other ports, but nothing's listening so you won't get a response. Just add : < port number > to the end of the domain (like _URL_0_:8000) to try talking on a specific port. If you control the server (for example, if you're running your own game server), you can almost certainly control which port the server listens on but you can't control that for all servers. \n\nWhat you could do is set up a proxy on a server that's listening on one of these free ports and have the proxy relay all of your traffic to other servers on other ports for you (so if port 50 is free for you, you send a web request to your server on port 50, it sends it to the website over port 80, and then sends the response back to you). But this sort of thing is not very difficult for your ISP to detect.",
"I'm confused as to what you're asking. Ports are used to allow more than one server to run on the same machine - the port number specifies which application should process the request. \n\nApplications can bind to a specific port, and then the OS will forward all the data sent to that port to the application. Applications can bind to any port they want (although the port numbers less than 1024 may require special privileges to use), as long as there isn't already an application listening on that port (because then there'd be no way to tell which application the traffic was meant for). If a port is \"open\" that means there's an application listening on that port.\n\nClients can send data to whatever port they want. Most common protocols have standard ports allocated to them - for example, HTTP traffic is on port 80 and FTP is on port 21. If the service you're trying to connect to doesn't have an allocated port (or the server isn't running on the standard port), then you'll have to know the port it's running on in order to connect. You can explicitly specify the port to use in a URL by appending a colon and then the port number. The data will be processed by whatever application is listening on that port. If no application is listening, you won't get a response.\n\nYou can find out what ports are open on your network with a tool like [nmap](_URL_0_). It will send requests to every IP address within a specified range, and report which ones got a response. This is called a [port scan](_URL_1_)."
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49fjxh | what causes a molecule to have a taste or smell? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49fjxh/eli5_what_causes_a_molecule_to_have_a_taste_or/ | {
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"a molecule will bind a particular receptor on a cell which only it or chemicals that illicit the same smell/taste will bind to. this will unleash a signalling cascade that ends with activating the part of your brain that recognizes it as sweet or smelly or whatever.\n\n"
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5oebls | why are the flags on the moon only faded from the sun, and not entirely destroyed? | I'm under the assumption that all the acting forces that happen on the moon (solar winds, asteroids, debris, etc.) would eventually cause the flag to become weathered like it does on Earth, but that doesn't seem to be the case. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5oebls/eli5_why_are_the_flags_on_the_moon_only_faded/ | {
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"Because the chances of an asteroid impacting something the size of a flag on the moon located on the light side isnt all that likely. If it were on the dark side then chances would go up. Also solar winds are not neccesarily winds but bands of extreme radiation which would only degrade the colors. Plus the flags on the moon are made of metal foil not fabric.",
"Given a long enough time, they would be. Wind throws debris around and whips flags here on Earth. But without an atmosphere, you have to wait until some space debris just happens to crash into the moon right where the flag is. However, the Earth is much more massive and sucks in most debris. And being tidally locked, the side of the moon with the flags faces Earth, so debris that hits the moon is more likely to hit the far side instead. So the flags will likely stand for some time before enough debris comes through to destroy them.",
"The molecules that make up dyes tend to be pretty fragile, and slowly break down when exposed to sunlight, especially with no atmosphere to filter it down. \n\nThe molecules that make up a flag itself are made of sterner stuff, and stand up to the sun and the vacuum of space.\n\n > would eventually cause the flag to become weathered\n\nIt is hard to get weathered without weather. Flags on earth are subject to wind, particles in the wind, water, and biological agents. On the moon they'd get a touch more solar wind, but in general would remain relatively unmolested compared to earth."
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3g3nay | why does plugging in my headphones halfway cause sound to only come out of the left side? | If I plug it into the jack on the computer just a bit, I get only sound through the left ear. If I push it in all the way, I get sound from both ears. There's no way to only get sound from the right side.
What is the physical mechanism that causes this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g3nay/eli5_why_does_plugging_in_my_headphones_halfway/ | {
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"If you look at the plug, you'll notice it's segmented into two parts. One is for left-side audio. The other is for right. \n\nWhen you only plug it in halfway, only one side is getting power."
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fek9on | why do computer monitors go a bit weird when you touch them? | When I touch my monitor, it starts pulsing dark circles around the spot where my finger is. Why does that happen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fek9on/eli5_why_do_computer_monitors_go_a_bit_weird_when/ | {
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"Patient: Doctor it hurt when I do this. \n\nDoctor: Stop doing that\n\nBut seriously it's due to polarization in LCD screens. When certain types of plastic are under stress, cross-polarized light (which is how an LCD makes bright pixels turn dark) will create weird rainbows and other effects.",
"This depends on which type of screen you have. There are LCD screens, or Liquid Crystal Display, where pushing on the screen pushes these crystals around, similar to how water moves in a plastic bag when you push on the water.\n\nThere are also OLED, which has a carbon layer, another substance, sandwiched between two electrodes, or basically a conductor. When electricity flows through this sandwich, it will emit light. Pressing on an OLED screen will not distort the image unless you are putting excessive force.",
"The LC in LCD stands for Liquid Crystals. You can think of them kind of like water in a video game. They flow like a liquid, but they follow predictable patterns. The ones in your monitor are special in that they change their patterns when there is an electric current. So you can make them clear like water, or opaque like coffee. \n\nIt turns out this is pretty useful! \n\nLet's say you shine a light toward a piece of paper with three holes that have red, green, and blue filters. If you block all but the red one, the light will be red. If you do it with all but the blue one you'll get blue light. You can also mix and match colors to make all sorts of different colors. \n\nBlocking the holes manually takes a lot of time, but by using liquid crystals you can do it very quickly. By putting a layer of liquid crystals between the light and the holes with colored filters, you can let as much, or as little, light through as you need. So you can mix a little red, some blue, and a lot of green, or anything any between. And you can this very quickly. \n\nIf you take millions of these and make them very small, you basically have a monitor. Since liquid crystals behave a lot like liquids, if you put pressure on them they will flow. That will change how the light passes through it which causes distortions. Much like how ripples on a pond makes the bottom look weird.",
"The LCD uses liquid crystals. There's two layers that matter - the back and the front. The back filters all the light that's not polarized in a certain way (vibrating up and down or left and right), and the top filters all the light that's 90* of that. So normally, no light makes it through. The liquid crystals line up in a helix when an electric field is applied, and that twists the light from up and down to left and right. \n\nIf the layer is too thin, it won't twist enough and not enough light gets through. It's really hard to make some kind of spacer that would work, so what displays actually do is just mix a bunch of tiny glass beads into the liquid crystal solution. This keeps the display spaced perfectly. When you press your finger on it, you're squishing the layers together, squeezing the beads out of the way, and ensuring the liquid crystal is too thin or too thick to twist the light far enough. When you let go, everything springs back to normal.",
"Your monitor uses something called LCD technology. The way it works basically is that there a light shined on the back of the screen and then the light has to go through different pieces of glass and stuff before it gets to you. \n\nOne of the things it has to go through is a sheet of lots of little cells that are filled with liquid crystal (this is where the LC in LCD stands for). These liquid crystals usually act like other liquids, like milk or water, except **when you put electricity through it just right, it can tell light which way to go**! \n\nHOW COOL IS THAT? \n\nbut... When you push your finger on the screen you squish the the liquid and now it can't point light in the same ways it's supposed to. So you get light and colors going all kinds of different ways. But be careful doing this, because sometimes the liquid crystal can get stuck like that and then you screen might not work anymore.",
"I'm seeing a lot of answers a five-year-old couldn't understand. \n \nThe picture is made of many of little clear boxes. These boxes can turn. How the boxes are turned changes the color of light coming through them. Your computer makes the picture by telling each box how to turn. Your computer doesn't know if the boxes are doing what it says. When you touch the screen, you turn the boxes so the light comes out looking black. \n \nEdit: this is also the way I'd explain it to my mother.",
"Late to this thread, but:\n\nThe screen consists of multiple layers. Top surface simply is a transparent plastic sheet, then a layer with the LCD grid, and then a white white background. (Very simplified here, but you get the idea).\n\nIt's called Liquid (!) Crystal Display, because, well, it uses liquid crystals. When you push on the transparent top layer, you displace the liquid which is between these layers, this is when the monitor \"goes weird\".\n\n**\n\nI personally have not found that occasional careful touching a LCD harms it but I am sure it's not \"healthy\" for the display either. But I DID have screens break from pushing too hard. \n\nThe biggest issue with LCD displays (to me) is that they are not sealed, these several layers are just put together inside a frame.\n\nBecause there is a gap between the clear sheet (the surface of your monitor) and the LCD layer this creates capillary action that sucks in liquids.\n\nBiggest mistake is to directly spray a monitor with glass cleaner, or ANY liquid for that matter. (All I am saying is...I have cats....)\n\nThe liquids runs down the screen, and then inside the monitor and gets between the layers.\n\nSo: NEVER,spray your monitor directly with any fluid. When you clean it, always spray on a paper towel first and also make sure you wipe the screen dry after cleaning.",
"Your screen is composed of multiple layers of material. One of these layers is a grid of liquid crystals (the LC in LCD). Pressing on them deforms them, changing the way they transmit light. Hitting them with electricity also deforms them, which is how they go from opaque to transparent and anything in between."
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6k8gwi | why do we feel embarrassed ourselves when we watch an embarrassing moment from a tv show? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6k8gwi/eli5_why_do_we_feel_embarrassed_ourselves_when_we/ | {
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"Humans have a tendency to associate themselves with the charachters of a show when they watch that show. So when something embarrassing happens to one of the characters, the viewer feels that.\nIf something embarassing happened to one of your friends in front of you, you would also feel embarassed, because you are out being seen with that friend. You body doesn't realize the person on the TV isn't a real person who isn't really with you, so it has the same reaction as if you were there with the person.",
"The German's actually have a word for this, Fremdschämen.\n\nThere's varying theories as to why embarrassment is good or bad, but it really boils down to surviving in the social and cultural customs of whatever group (tribe) you're in. If you don't fit in you aren't finding a mate. Feeling the embarrassment of your friend when they're unaware that they're not fitting in allows you to step in and save them, with the understanding that they'll do the same for you...you could think of Fremdschämen as nature's wingman.\n\n\nYou have to keep in mind that at our core we're still very much socially dependent pack animals. A key part of being able to survive as long as we have is our ability to empathize with others.\n\n\nWe're capable of feeling the pain, embarrassment, and even joy of others, which compels us to help and support one another.",
"Humans contain mirror neurons, which allows our brain to experience a few of the same feelings associated with an act we are viewing.\n\nFor instance, sports. People watch football and they enjoy it. \n\nThese motor neurons might possibly have an evolutionary advantage of allowing us to become more sociable, by understanding peoples emotions through vision alone.",
"The thing is we are not sure. \n \nBut these are the plausible reasons which are widely agreed on :\n\n \n**Empathy** It is a psychological reaction which pretty much relates someone else's body to our own. It exists so that humans could work together better and to have us avoid killing each other in most cases. Well, the face reaction is really just us putting ourselves into that persons shoes, and reacting how they would. \n\nBut there is this study that claims it has nothing to do with how empathetic the person is. - [Link](_URL_0_)\n \nFrom an evolutionary view it is beneficial for us to easily remember bad memories. This helps us avoid repeating mistakes we have witnessed and keep us out of dangers way e.g. My friend was eaten by a bear in that cave, I remember this in great detail and avoid that cave in future so I'm less likely to be eaten by a bear.\nI think it might be similar for things we find embarrassing. \n \nIt's dangerous to do things that alienate you from a group since we are social creatures that rely on acceptance and group work to survive. If we remember things we've done before that threatened our social standing then we aren't likely to repeat the behaviour in future and avoid exclusion. That's just speculation though.\nfor people asking for more info on this I highly recommend looking up evolutionary psychology\n\n'Evolutionary theories of emotion view emotions a\ns adaptive traits - they help the organism to adapt to the demand of the environment and thereby survive' (Izard, 1977; Plutchik, 1984).\n \n______________________________________________________________________________________________________\n \n[Source](_URL_1_)\n",
"I think i read somewhere that if you saw a video of another guy getting kicked in the nuts. You will emotionaly feel the same as the receiver except the true fysical pain. So if I see someone getting kicked in the nuts, i feel the same as he does except the true fysical pain ( you know when you see it you immediately protect your own nuts and start to cringe ) can someone back this up?",
"People have already mentioned mirror neurons and vicarious embarrassment but I think the key feature that a lot of people are missing is this. When you do something embarrassing, you elicit a negative response from the people around you, which causes tension and discomfort among the group. The most extreme case of this would be being ostracized from a group which would significantly lower an organism's chances for reproductive success.\n\nThus, when our brains view someone else in an embarrassing situation, we recall the feelings (often literal physical feelings) of what it was like to be embarrassed; basically your brain's way of telling you \"remember how bad that feels? Don't do that!\" much the same way we remember and avoid physical pain.\n\nBasically, feeling vicarious embarrassment is our brain's way of \"sandboxing\" the emotional experience and subsequent processing of being embarrassed without having to first actually do something embarrassing. It's our brain warning us that whatever that person did that embarrassed them, we shouldn't do because it will feel super bad and risk being cast off from the group.",
"We have words for that in Spanish, not only for TV but also when someone, even a stranger, does something shameful or embarrasing nearby: *vergüenza ajena* (\"others' shame\")\n\nI believe it isn't much about empathy or mirror neurons, but for social acceptance: you feel ashamed because others might relate *him* or *her* to *you*. Proof is that it's hard to feel it if you're alone with the shameless one.",
"there is a word is spanish for it i dont think there is one in english and the concept is obviously well known. \n\nthe word is : pena ajena which translates to others shame \n\nand as to why.....its basically human empathy"
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1txv9u | why is half life 3 one of the most demanded sequels online, and why is the series so popular? | I have personally not played it due to not having a lot of interesting in it, but i am very curious to why it is loved so much. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1txv9u/eli5_why_is_half_life_3_one_of_the_most_demanded/ | {
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"It is a good game, first of all. Second, they have left us with a huge cliffhanger at the end of half life 2 episode 2. We have no idea of what it is going to happen, and we simply want to know."
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3doihx | when is something considered inciting violence or hatespeak in the us, and when is it punishable by law? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3doihx/eli5_when_is_something_considered_inciting/ | {
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"IANAL, but from what i understand, \"hatepseak\" or hatespeech by itself is never illegal, only inciting violence is. Inciting violence i pretty specific - you have to say that people should commit a violent act. \n\nso for instance a public speech in which someone says \"Canadian people smell bad, and you shouldn't hire them\" is perfectly legal. (taking that advice is not, since it is illegal to discriminate in that way. but saying we SHOULD do it is fine) \n\non the other hand, saying something like \"Canadian people smell bad, and we should all go grab our guns and shoot some of 'em\" -- THAT is inciting violence and is illegal. \n",
"Hate speech per se is never punishable by law in the U.S. At most, the manner, location, or timing of the speech might be regulated, but if you want to scream that black people who eat jews are destroying America with sharia law, you can do that provided you're not violating some other law in the process (e.g. disturbing the peace). See [here](_URL_0_), for example:\n\n > Since the 1980s, a number of laws have been passed that attempt to regulate or ban \"hate speech,\" which is defined as utterances, displays, or expressions of racial, religious, or sexual bias. The U.S. Supreme Court has generally invalidated such laws on the ground that they infringe First Amendment rights. In *R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul*, 505 U.S. 377, 112 S. Ct. 2538, 120 L. Ed. 2d 305 (1992), the Court invalidated the city of St. Paul's hate-crime ordinance, ruling that it unconstitutionally infringed free speech. The defendant in that case had been prosecuted for burning a cross on the lawn of an African-American family's residence.\n\nIndividual harassment, however, can be and is illegal.\n\nInciting violence is another matter. The law can (and does) ban speech that poses a 'clear and present danger' - for instance, you cannot yell to your followers \"kill that guy!\", but you can say \"man I wish that guy were dead\" from two states away (provided that your statement can't be read as instructing someone to kill him).",
"Hate speech is not a crime in the US. You are allowed to be as hateful as you want, and it is even protected by the constitution under the freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly in the first amendment. \n\nSpeech that incites violence is a crime. It is also very clear. For you to be inciting violence you are specifically calling for people to attack or harm someone or some group. \n\nWhat would be hate speech in other countries would also include some things that are defamation of character. This is already illegal, though for you to get arrested for this it has to be punished legally for this it has to be proven that what you say is a lie, that you said it in a malicious manner (not hard to prove in this scenario), and that you have caused legitimate damage to their livelihood. "
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4aaera | the difference between a senator, a governor and a congressman | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4aaera/eli5_the_difference_between_a_senator_a_governor/ | {
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"A governor is the highest office in a state. Kind of like the president of a state.\n\nA congressperson is a member of the House of Representatives.\n\nA senator is a member of the Senate.\n\nCongresspeople and senators make and vote on bills. Governors can sign or veto bills.\n\nThe senate is made up of politicians who represent the states equally, regardless of population. Each state sends two to Washington. This tends to be more elite and accomplished of the two branches of the legislature.\n\nThe House is based on population (California has more than South Dakota, for example). This branch is more representative of the people, at least in theory.",
"The governer of a state is the head of the executive branch of government for that State. The President of the United States is the chief executive for the federal government\n\nThe US Congress is bicameral. A senator serves in the US Senate. A Congressman serves in the House of Representatives. The House and Senate have different duties and responsibilities, which are outlined in the Constitution. Originally, Senators were selected by members of the House but this was changed to popular election. Congressmen serve 2 years, Senators serve 6. Other than the various duties of the two, there is little actual difference.",
"Governors are the chief executives of their state. Like the President of the State. They are the boss of all the state's agencies, can introduce or propose legislation, and have various responsibilities for interacting with the federal government (like requesting a declaration of a disaster.)\n\nSenators and Congresspeople both represent the people of the state at the Federal (nationwide) level. Senators serve in the US Senate for terms of 6 years. Each state has 2 Senators, regardless of population. Congresspeople (also called \"Representatives\") serve in the House of Representatives for terms of 2 years. States have various numbers of representatives depending on their population. Currently there are 435 Representatives. Because of the differences, the Senate is considered to be somewhat more prestigious than the House, but both are critical for passing legislation.\n\nStates also have state legislatures of various types and composition where the confusingly-named *state senators* serve and make state laws."
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1lweb1 | why are video games considered a waste of time, but reading books are considered a productive way to expand our minds? | I've never quite understood the argument, considering both tell a story and engage our imaginations (to a varying degree with video games). I fully support book reading as a positive way to our strengthen minds, but I'm wondering if there are some legitimate reasons for why video games seem to be lumped in with TV watching as "the worst things we could be doing with our time," especially from the perspectives of older generations. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lweb1/eli5_why_are_video_games_considered_a_waste_of/ | {
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"Because they don't understand the levels of complexity in modern video games. There's ample evidence around that playing (certain) video games can improve a variety of cognitive functions, just like reading. \n\nPeople who haven't played video games think that they're all just as simple as Pong, and immediately dismiss the notion that video games are anything other than a mindless waste of time based on that prejudice.\n\nThink of it this way: if the only books you had ever seen or heard of in your entire life were written by ex-pornstars, reality TV stars, and other airheaded pseudo-celebrities, what would you think of books as a medium?\n\nYou'd probably say that they're an idiotic waste of time that makes you stupid, because the only \"literature\" that you've seen genuinely is a bunch of vapid trash.",
"It is also because video games are a relatively new thing in society, whereas books have been around for longer and more and more people throughout the last few centuries have become literate. At one point in time, reading fictional novels that served no practical purpose among working class families was not really seen as the norm, but that changed over time along with other social norms. Also, when comic books first came out and kids started fiending on them, there was actually a fair bit of controversy over it, but that also changed over time and they became more accepted as a graphic story telling medium. video games are becoming more and more socially accepted as having merit and applicable value in our lives, and over time I think that will become more and more a social norm. way more people already play video games that they did in the 80's and even 90's. I think once our generation is nearing old age societies perspectives on video games will be very different. "
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fpo73h | what are these star-like figures i see every night moving in the sky? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fpo73h/eli5_what_are_these_starlike_figures_i_see_every/ | {
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"Most likely satellites. Maybe starlink. You can put in your lat/long in this site to see when something is going to fly over. _URL_0_",
" Satellites. Probably starlink. But there are a /lot/. GPS, commercial, governments, military, even private research are all orbiting the earth alongside the space station.\n\nIf it’s moving across the sky its almost 100% a satellite,or a planes lights.",
"If they look like stars but are very bright and hardly moving, they are planets. Or a comet. \n \nIf they are moving noticeably, they are planes. \n \nIf they are moving fast, they could be satellites or the International Space Station. \n \nIf they are really fast, they are meteors (\"shooting stars\")."
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3gmurx | what is cardio? what is actually happening as i get better at running? | I have just started running again after a month (or two) off. Those first couple runs are horrible with me gasping for breath fairly quickly. Within a couple months of consistent running I no longer gasp at all. What exactly am I building back up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gmurx/eli5what_is_cardio_what_is_actually_happening_as/ | {
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"Increased blood volume, stronger muscles (that are also more efficient and durable), and slightly reshaped bones are three of the things that you get from training that make you better at cardio.",
"Your heart is a muscle. In order to get oxygen (which is fuel to make you \"go\") to your body, you must pump blood, a combination of glucose, red blood cells, white blood cells, water, dissolved gases, etc., via your heart. As you run your body requires greater energy (meaning more glucose [a basic sugar] and oxygen). Your heart pumps harder to circulate these necessary items to your body in order to meet these demands. When you perform exercises called \"cardio,\" which means that they increase your heart rate by a certain amount to potentiate an increase in efficiency, you are exercising your heart. The more you work your heart, the better it will get at achieving this. \n\nThis has all sorts of health implications. It reduces your chance at heart attacks (myocardial infarction; cardiac arrest), heart failure, coronary artery disease, etc.\n\nAll of which you can look up definitions for:\n\nHere for the professional and technical explanations:\n_URL_0_\n\nHere for the laymen explanation:\n_URL_1_\n"
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jd3i1 | what i can do to speed up my pc. | Also anti-virus programs or any other programs I should have to help facilitate this process. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jd3i1/eli5_what_i_can_do_to_speed_up_my_pc/ | {
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"There are probably a lot of programs installed and running on your computer that you don't use. These use up resources. \n\nIf you were five, you can think of it like bringing your toys in the sandbox. The things you need, like a shovel, pale, trucks, maybe a dinosaur or two are like antivirus and other programs you use every day. You wouldn't want to bring your crayons, cards, video games, or pogs. These are things you don't need and won't use in the sandbox. Bringing them is more work for you, as running programs you don't use is more work for your computer.\n\nSo my suggestion is that you don't need more programs, you need fewer. I'm not going to tell you to uninstall every program on your computer, since that would make things unstable, but I will recommend looking carefully through your installed programs and uninstalling ones you don't need. ",
"There are probably a lot of programs installed and running on your computer that you don't use. These use up resources. \n\nIf you were five, you can think of it like bringing your toys in the sandbox. The things you need, like a shovel, pale, trucks, maybe a dinosaur or two are like antivirus and other programs you use every day. You wouldn't want to bring your crayons, cards, video games, or pogs. These are things you don't need and won't use in the sandbox. Bringing them is more work for you, as running programs you don't use is more work for your computer.\n\nSo my suggestion is that you don't need more programs, you need fewer. I'm not going to tell you to uninstall every program on your computer, since that would make things unstable, but I will recommend looking carefully through your installed programs and uninstalling ones you don't need. "
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5or89t | why is it that everything you buy, you pay a one time sales tax of whatever percentage your state charges, but property you have to pay yearly? why can't property be a one time charge of sales tax like everything else? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5or89t/eli5why_is_it_that_everything_you_buy_you_pay_a/ | {
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"Let's reverse your question for a second. Why can't sales tax be paid yearly on items you already purchased if you still own them? Because it would be a logistical nightmare for the government to try to figure out whether or not I still owned all the various things I paid sales tax on 5 years ago. For property it really isn't. Most people only have 1 piece of property that is taxable under property tax. It doesn't move, and when it's sold, it is recorded at the County Clerks office. It is very easy to continue to tax that.",
"The main reason we continually tax property is to provide incentive to make use of it. Land is a limited resource, and you don't want people just owning a bunch of land and doing nothing with it when there could be shops or houses. If the tax on a parcel of land is 3k, that requires the owner to perform at least 3k worth of economic growth to maintain it.",
"You pay property tax annually because your city needs annual revenue to pay for police, schools, parks, streets, etc. a one time payment wouldn't work, because it'd need to be a substantial amount of the purchase price and because towns would have way too much variation year to year if only collected on sales/purchases. Property taxes work by setting a total amount needed and dividing by value of all real estate and assessing based on that. \n\nSales tax is collected one time because there's no record of who owns what, how long they use it, etc. would you want to be assessed each year for each sock you own, can of diced tomatoes in your fridge, that old TV you dumped in the guest room and isn't even plugged in? Instead, your annual spending is likely to be pretty consistent from year to year, as are your neighbors and the rest of your city, state... so that can set a reasonable estimate for tax revenue annually to budget from."
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cmspdg | we all know how a heart looks like. but, where did the actual ❤️ symbol? come from since it doesn’t resemble a real heart! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cmspdg/eli5_we_all_know_how_a_heart_looks_like_but_where/ | {
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"It is not entirely clear where it came from, although there's at least some speculation that it was initially a butt instead of a heart. I wouldn't take that too seriously, it may just be a symbol that was easy to draw and bore enough of a passing resemblance to start being called a 'heart shape' before ultimately being representative of a heart.",
"There is a theory that it is based on the pericardium, which is the sac that contains the heart. It also does not look like the symbol but it looks more like the symbol"
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2f43fy | if there are more bacteria in an average sink than in a toilet, why is it not dangerous to eat food that as touched the sink? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f43fy/eli5_if_there_are_more_bacteria_in_an_average/ | {
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"First of all, I definitely would not eat food that has touched the sink.\n\nBut the danger is overall pretty low, because most kinds of bacteria don't cause disease in healthy humans with functioning immune systems and normal intestinal bacteria, especially when you only ingest a small number of them. If that weren't true, we'd be dead, because whether or not you eat food that has touched the sink, you have ingested plenty of bacteria over your lifetime. In fact, many of those sink bacteria probably got there via your skin or your mouth."
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bdswle | how do charging pads for phones, or that new samsung that can charge from another phone, work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bdswle/eli5_how_do_charging_pads_for_phones_or_that_new/ | {
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"It's a form of inductive coupling. The phones have a coil of wire, as does the charging pad. When a high frequency alternating current is passed through the wire coil in the charging pad or phone which is providing charge, a magnetic field is created that switches its orientation very quickly. If the phone to be charged is placed very close to this magnetic field, then a voltage will be induced \"created\" in it's own coil. Add in some fancy rectifying electronics to convert the high frequency induced voltage into a clean and regulated DC voltage, and you've got yourself a wireless charging system!",
"Basically we create electricity using magnets simply by moving the magnets close to a wire. Electricity running through a wire makes it magnetic. So the wireless charging pads do is run a changing electric current through their wires, creating a changing magnetic field(which simulate a moving magnet), which in turn *inducts* an electric current in the charging receiver.",
"It's called [Induction Charging](_URL_0_), ~~often abbreviated as~~ [~~QI~~](_URL_1_)\n\nIt works on the same principal as a simple motor/generator, electricity flowing through a wire creates an electro-magnetic field which induces charge in nearby wires.\n\nThis effect breaks down with the square of the distance between the wires, so you have to keep them very close together, which is why you can charge something by placing it on the charge-pad, but the charge-pad couldn't induce power in something across the room.",
"A transformer is a device where electrical energy is transferred from one coil of wire (the primary) to another (the secondary) without them actually touching. An iron or ferrite core is typically used for guiding the magnetic field between the coils, but it's not required for energy transfer to happen (the transformer then has an \"air core\").\n\nA wireless charger has the primary coil inside, your phone has the secondary coil. By putting them together you create an air core transformer.",
"If you put electricity in a wire that’s shaped the right way, it will make a magnet.\n\nIf you move a wire (that’s also shaped the right way) near a magnet, the wire will make electricity.\n\n\nSo if you keep turning electricity in one wire on and off, and you put another wire next to it, the second wire will start moving back and forth.\n\nWhen the second wire starts moving back and forth next to a magnet, electricity comes out.\n\nBecause the first wire is becoming a magnet, it doesn’t have to be touching the second wire to move it, but when the second wire moves, it makes electricity. The second wire would be in your phone.",
"You know how transformer works? One like in the picture [here](_URL_0_). Two coils on a common core (a thick loop of steel plates). One coil, powered externally, acts as electromagnet generating magnetic field in the core. The other transforms that field back into electricity - either higher voltage, lower current or vice versa, depending on the ratio of number of loops of the coil.\n\nNow cut the transformer's core in half, separating the two coils. Bring the halves together. It's still working, the magnetic field flowing through the gap between the halves of the core - with some losses, but still most of it passes fine. \n\nSame here. One half of the transformer is in the table, the other is in the phone."
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3v917w | why a zit on my back hurts so much worse than a zit on my face. | I get the occasional zit on my face and/or back. But it seems like the one on my back hurts like a MF. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v917w/eli5_why_a_zit_on_my_back_hurts_so_much_worse/ | {
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"My best guess is friction with your shirt. The zit becomes irritated with constant contact/friction. One time I had a freak zit on my thigh that got super painful after a full day of activity, it got super irritated.",
"When you pop a huge pimple on your back and your legs buckle from the pain... I've been there. ",
"I would wager a guess that it's just like any other zit, but it all depends on how close it is to a nerve. \n\nWe've all had them at one time or another, that deep under skin zit that hurts even if you move your face in a certain way. While others are 100% pain free. I think it just boils down to were you unlucky enough to get one right on top of a nerve. ",
"I feel you. Happens to me.\n\nMy guess is that because it's on the back we don't notice until it gets much bigger. Like if you didn't touch the one on your face for a while it would get bigger and more painful too.",
"I'm not a scientist or anything but my hypothesis would be that the back is really meaty with \"thick skin\" it's alway harder to pop them too because they are deep.",
"There is generally less fat on your back, and therefore a zit is more likely to be close to a nerve. For similar reasons a zit on the inside of your nose is very painful to pop versus one on your cheek."
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68gcag | how does the mafia make money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68gcag/eli5_how_does_the_mafia_make_money/ | {
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"Historically, the businesses that were the most stable and reliable for organized crime were prostitution and gambling, as well as liquor during Prohibition. This was because average people tolerated them and so cops and judges were willing to take bribes not to go after them.\n\nTo some extent loan sharks were also tolerated, typically as a side business on top of gambling since the gamblers were often in need of money, but the violence of loan sharks made it shadier.\n\nBut instead of directly running businesses like this, stronger gangsters would force weaker ones to pay them \"protection\" money. In theory, paying protection money meant that the gangster you paid would protect you from other gangsters, which might be necessary because you're a criminal and you can't go to the cops without incriminating yourself. \n\nIn reality, you paid them or *they* would burn your business down, beat you or your employees up, and maybe kill you if you kept refusing. And if other gangsters did try to get money from you, they might not even protect you then: They might use it as an excuse to demand even more money, or to make you sell out to them completely. This is under the general heading of an \"extortion racket.\"\n\nThey would also steal cars; hijack cargo trucks and sell the goods on the street; conduct armed robberies of banks and other businesses; and also burglaries. But they would do it far enough away from the neighborhoods they controlled to avoid suspicion, to maintain relationships with the community, and because they sometimes would protect the people who paid them by driving out smaller-time crooks.\n\nThe big ticket became drug trafficking in the mid-20th century, and a lot of sources credit this change with destabilizing organized crime, making it a lot more violent and chaotic. Because of all the violence and law enforcement attention, some avoided it, and some split the difference by just making drug dealers pay them protection.\n\nThey would also take over legitimate businesses like night clubs to launder money from their criminal businesses, and sometimes made them profitable in their own right. Some of them became places to retire for old members who didn't want to take risks anymore.\n\nIn modern times they've been involved in credit card fraud, phishing scams, stock fraud, and more complicated electronic things.\n\nBasically they just do anything illegal that makes money, plus anything legal that makes money as long as someone else does the work (because even smart criminals are incredibly lazy people).\n\n\n\n\n"
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4wx62i | if we found intelligent aliens living on another planet, would we be able to learn their language? | I assume we'd be able to tell that they are intelligent by sending math-type signals, and could exchange numerical information. But since I think our only form of communication would be eletromagentic waves that take years to travel in each direction, would we actually be able to learn a common language and communicate thoughts and ideas? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wx62i/eli5if_we_found_intelligent_aliens_living_on/ | {
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"It's certainly possible; humans have learned to communicate with other humans that don't share any language throughout our history.\n\nThe problem is that aliens may communicate in ways that our human senses can't even comprehend (and vice-versa) so it may be difficult or even impossible.",
"We have no idea.\n\nWe don't have the faintest clue what extraterrestrial life would even look like—some postulate that ultra-fast \"life\" could bubble into existence on the surface of neutron stars.\n\nThere is way too much possible variance in _everything_ to make concrete claims.",
"Assuming they communicate in some form of tangible construct such as a sonic exchange and they communicate in some form of structured language, we may be able to transliterate what we are hearing. If that can happen, we can build a vocabulary of nouns and verbs. The process is relatively straight forward.\n\nWalk up to a tree. Gesture to the whole tree. Say \"tree.\" If they say \"glorbhp,\" we start by assuming \"glorbhp\" means tree. Walk up to a totally different kind of tree. Same gesture, say \"tree.\" If they say \"glorbhp,\" we have a lot more confidence that glorbhp is actually tree. Walk up to a shrub. Say \"shrub.\" If they say glorbhp, we now switch gears to thinking that glorbhp might mean \"plant.\" Pull a piece of grass from the ground and do the same. If they say glorbhp again, that reaffirms the plant theory. \n\nNow grab something completely different, like a glass of water. If they say glorbhp this time, this is going to make communication significantly strained. This means either you aren't understanding them (perhaps part of their vocalization is outside the range of human hearing or is so subtle that we can't detect the difference), they don't communicate using object nouns, they don't actually have a vocalized language, or any other number of issues.\n\nIf, however, they say \"phorbte\" then you've got yourself a start. You can go back to the tree, shrub, and grass. Gesture to each in turn and say \"plant.\" Then gesture to each again and say \"glorbhp.\" Do this a couple of times. Then specifically gesture to the tree and shrub and say \"tree\" and \"shrub.\" Then say \"plant, glorbhp ... tree\" and see if they give you a more specific word. If so, then boom, you're on your way.\n\nDo the same thing for self and other references (\"human\", \"me\", \"you\", \"alien\"). Do the same thing for things like \"jump\" and \"give\" etc. Once you've established a baseline of nouns and verbs, you try to figure out how they structure sentences. \"Me give water you.\"\n\nI'm sure actual linguists can give you a better answer, but that's how I'd go about it.",
"It's unlikely we would be able to communicate without technological assistance. Reason being that even on Earth where everything has a shared evolutionary history if you go back far enough, even closely related animals can have big differences in their senses. For example, rats can hear sound frequencies much higher in pitch than humans can. As a result, some important rat vocalizations are inaudible to humans. It's not hard to imagine an alien species that communicates entirely outside of the range of human hearing and likewise can't hear the range of sounds humans make, rendering communication without a listening device impossible.\n\nBut it gets a lot worse. For one thing, the medium sound travels through makes a big difference. Ever try to talk to someone underwater? It doesn't work. They'll hear you talking, but nothing you say will be comprehensible because sound travels differently in water. Likewise, whale vocalizations are \"calibrated\" for water communication, but would fail if the whale tries to vocalize in air. Who's to say the aliens we find wouldn't be an underwater species, or live on a planet with a much denser atmosphere?\n\nIt gets even worse though. So far we're assuming aliens use sound to communicate like we do. But even on Earth that's not the only way animals communicate. There's also bioluminesence, odor, and touch, among others. And don't forget that different species have senses that cover different ranges. So it's entirely possible that an alien species could communicate solely through bioluminesence in the IR spectrum. Now what?\n\nNot only is the above possible, it's probably the most likely case. We're talking about life that has developed and evolved entirely separately from life on Earth (meaning it will be far more different than comparing any two animal species on Earth) on a planet that very likely has different conditions than Earth thus leading to different evolutionary paths. \n\nAnd yet it still gets worse. Because these aliens would be so, well, alien, their minds would almost certainly function differently. Who's to say that we would even be able to comprehend each others' grammar? They could have language constructs that don't exist in human language. So even getting past all the issues with even being able to \"listen\" to these aliens, we may still not be able to understand them because their language is simply too alien."
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3am6bz | what's at stake in the greece negotiations right now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3am6bz/eli5_whats_at_stake_in_the_greece_negotiations/ | {
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"Greece has borrowed a ton of money from the International Monetary Fund (an international organisation which holds a lot of money, and can loan it to countries in trouble when no investors will).\n\nAs part of the loan agreement, Greece has to implement austerity as well as make payments on time.\n\nThere is a huge repayment due to the IMF by the end of the month, and it is not clear that Greece has enough cash to make the repayment. If Greece misses or is late with the repayment, then the IMF has said that it will not lend any more money to Greece.\n\nThe much bigger issue comes later. Greece has also borrowed a lot of emergency funds from the European Central Bank (the bank which controls the Euro). In addition, the ECB has also provided emergency loans to all the Greek banks. Under European Law, if Greece misses a repayment to the ECB, then the ECB must immediately demand full repayment of all loans given to Greek banks.\n\nAt the moment Greece is depending on another loan from the IMF in order to pay the ECB. And if they miss an ECB payment, then most Greek banks will be in big trouble, possibly being unable to repay depositors. This would mean major social unrest, it would also leave the Greek government unable to pay its bills (such as pensions, benefits, staff wages, etc.)\n\nBecause the Greek government does not have authority to print Euros to make up a shortfall which it can't borrow, the government will either have to implement extreme austerity measures (like massive pay cuts for all goverment employees, or massive benefit cuts), or will have to leave the Euro, and restore a currency which they can print.\n\nThe current negotiations are with the IMF and ECB, asking whether they would accept a late payment or a reduced payment. "
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bh258k | how does the government in england work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bh258k/eli5_how_does_the_government_in_england_work/ | {
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"There are two houses of Parliament with the key one being the house of commons, this house is filled with locally elected representatives. The government is the party that can get a majority of representatives in the house of commons either from just their own party or from allied parties in a coalition. The governing party then has a representative the Prime Minister who acts a bit like the President in deciding the direction of key policies etc. Senior positions in the government for things like education or economy (chancellor) are formed together in the cabinet which meet together with the Prime Minister to carry through policies, they also have what is known as cabinet collective responsibility. Basically when the cabinet decides on something they all have to push that policy it they don't then they can resign from the cabinet. members of Parliament can vote on laws and policies in any way they want and not just with their party so just because the government has a theoretical majority they can lose votes. If the vote or votes are on some major issues and the government continues to lose, there may then be a call to question if the Prime minister is fit to lead so a vote of no confidence is called in the Prime Minister. Losing a vote of no confidence normally results in the Prime Minister resigning and a new election taking place.",
"They have a Parliament with seats and each seat represents part of the country. People are voted into these seats. Essentially someone says \"let's make this person Prime Minister\" and if more than 50% of the people in parliament vote yes then that person is PM. If no single party has 50% of the seats (a \"Hung\" parliment), that party will talk to some smaller parties and say \"If you vote for our person, we'll give you this thing you want\". \n\n & #x200B;\n\nE.G.\n\nParty A has 47% \n\nParty B has 45%\n\nParty C has 5%\n\nParty D has 3%\n\n & #x200B;\n\nParty B holds fewer seats than Party A, but if they can get Parties C and D to vote for their Person, they could get over 50% and \"Form Government\" which basically means take control. Party A could form Government just with Party C. When parties combine their seats together to form government, this group is known as a coalition, because they have coalesced, or \"become one\".",
"Comparing to the US system ... (Also, it's not England, but the UK, since the Westminster Parliament has members elected from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.)\n\nThe UK Prime Minister (PM) is selected like the US House majority leader; they are elected by the elected members of the majority party. The UK has many smaller parties apart from the main two so that sometimes there's no one party with a majority in the House, so one party needs to form a coalition with other parties and/or independent members to reach a majority. Still, it's almost always the elected leader of the largest party that becomes PM. During crises, like a major war, governments of \"national unity\" have ruled, with members from multiple major parties. If the House passes a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister then she must, by convention, resign. Prime Ministers are appointed by the monarch but, obviously, it's pointless for her to select anyone who doesn't have the confidence of the House, because they'll be quickly voted out.\n\nIn the US the President can choose his cabinet (except the VP), they don't have to members of congress, and the members head the various government departments. In the UK the PM has the major role in choosing her cabinet but she must have consideration to her party's (and coalition's) wishes (or they'll boot her out) and she can only choose elected members of the Commons or lords.\n\nSo in the UK power is much more concentrated in the Commons. Since the monarch now, by convention, stays strictly out of politics, there is no position like that of the US President. The UK election cycle is not like the strict four-year cycle of the US; early elections are not uncommon. These mostly happen because the government thinks they might win now but not later, but they can also happen because of a political stalemate; Brexit could yet trigger another early election. All this means that the PM, and the government too, can be changed without waiting for the end of a fixed term.\n\nThe UK House of Commons is elected like the US House of Representatives. The UK House of Lords plays a similar role to the US Senate, though its power to block legislation from the Commons is no longer absolute. Of course there are no states in the UK and the Lords are not elected as is the US Senate. Originally the House of Lords was made up of \"Lords Spiritual\" (all the bishops) and \"Lords Temporal\" (all the hereditary Dukes, Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts and Barons). Now the number of hereditary peers that can sit in the Lords is limited and the great majority of lords are lifetime appointments. Some appointments are made by the government of the day and some by an appointment committee (which also vets the government's appointments). In a way, the UK House of Lords is formed like the US Supreme Court, though it's nearly a hundred times larger."
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9ttpg4 | how does local anaesthetic work? how does it numb the nerves without damaging them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ttpg4/eli5_how_does_local_anaesthetic_work_how_does_it/ | {
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"There are quite a few different types of LAs but they essentially block ion channels in nerves. By blocking these channels temporarily nerve impulses can’t be sent along the nerves so your brain doesn’t get the info that something is hurting you. "
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21qdch | what is it about aircraft carriers that make them so important in us military power? | I know they are large and thus can carry more ammo/personnel/etc but whenever theoretical or not so theoretical discussions about the might of the United States and it's armed forces, aircraft carriers are always at the forefront. Are they really that hard to take down? Do they really make that much of a difference in a naval battle? Aren't they just as susceptible to submarines or other vessels as a destroyer or a cruiser?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21qdch/eli5_what_is_it_about_aircraft_carriers_that_make/ | {
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"Well, you'd think this would be obvious. It allows for the deployment of aircraft anywhere in the world without necessitating some airfield on land. They allow for naval operations where airfields are simply too far away to be practical. Aircraft carriers aren't just roaming around the world unprotected. They're escorted with warships and their own submarines.",
"They *carry aircraft.* Thus, we can use our air assets where they normally wouldn't be able to go, due to their range. ",
"You can make stuff blow up anywhere in the world with an aircraft carrier. ",
"_URL_0_\n\nit's not just a carrier, it's everything else it's accompanied with",
"Was stationed on two different aircraft carriers when i was in the navy the enterprise and the nimitz. Aircraft carriers get all the hype because they are quite literally floating cities 5000+ people and over 100 aircraft. They are protected by a strike group which can be 4 or 5 surface ships and a couple of submarines. Now there have been some pretty strange stories of ships actually reaching carriers though. Several years back i had a friend on the Kitty Hawk out of Japan and they had a Chinese sub surface right next to the carrier. While i was on the Nimitz out of San Diego we had some small sail boat come up right next to us and it was almost destroyed due to what happened with the USS Cole. \n\nTLDR: Lots of People, Lots of Aircraft, A Floating Fucking City",
"Most ships are fortified against attacks from other ships. They are not very well fortified against attacks from the air. If a Navy has airplanes available, they can quickly destroy enemy ships. Aircraft carriers are the most powerful ships on Earth for this reason. They are usually accompanied with many other ships to protect them, and serve as a floating naval base. Currently, the US operates more aircraft carriers than the rest of the world combined, which means the US Navy is significantly more powerful than any other navy on Earth.",
" > aircraft carriers are always at the forefront.\n\nThey're at the forefront of the US Navy because of the lessons the navy learned during World War Two. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese Navy used their own aircraft carriers to strike at Pearl Harbor; carriers gave mobility to air forces which were traditionally limited to airbases on land, so Japan was able to sneak the fleet over to Hawaii to launch a devastating air raid. The resulting attack crippled the US Pacific Fleet for a few months - from an equipment standpoint, the battleships *Arizona* & *Oklahoma* were total losses; the crew-trainer USS Utah capsized and was a total loss; *West Virginia* and *California* were under repair until '44 (July and January, respectively); *Nevada* returned to service in October of '42; *Tennessee* and *Maryland* both returned in February of '42. Several smaller ships were damaged, a few were sunk, and most of the American aircraft were destroyed. But for all of the destruction, the Japanese did not cripple the drydocks, the fuel supply, nor any other core supply depots which allowed the American military to repair much of the damage.\n\nSo, of the 8 capital ships I listed, 3 were totally destroyed and 3 wouldn't sail for action until *after* two of the most important naval-air battles of the war: [Coral Sea](_URL_0_) and [Midway](_URL_1_). Why those two? They were the trial by fire for the aircraft carriers - a role which was untested in fleet vs fleet operations - and with so many capital ships disabled or destroyed at Pearl Harbor, it was up to the carrier forces to pick up the slack.\n\nIn fact, neither battle had a single ship-of-the-line (aka: battleship) engage another ship (let alone any direct action by any surface ships). Both were chess matches where the fleet commanders of both the Japanese and Allied fleets worked to position their carrier groups within striking distance for offensive ops, yet out of range once their CAGs (Carrier Air Groups) lifted off.\n\nAt Coral Sea (May '42), the USS Lexington was critically damaged & then scuttled while Yorktown was damaged, meanwhile the Japanese light-carrier Shoho was sunk while the carrier Shokaku was damaged. This is considered an Allied strategic victory for two reasons: First, the Japanese fleets withdrew since they now lacked sufficient air cover; Second, it was the \"proof of concept\" that the aircraft carrier could and would become the major player in naval warfare, since it could launch versatile aircraft to seek and destroy enemy naval and air forces *without* (in theory) exposing friendly ships to combat.\n\nA month later, the US would win its decisive naval battle at Midway, sinking *four* Japanese carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu) while US carrier losses were limited to the freshly repaired *Yorktown* (crippled then sunk after the battle). Similarly, no surface ships fired upon either fleet; the fleets were busy defending against air raids by the opposing CAGs while their skippers maneuvered them in and out of range.\n\n\n > Are they really that hard to take down?\n\nFrom a WW2 standpoint, the answer is complex: good hits on ships have had devastating effects - the German battleship, *Bismarck*, sank the *Hood* (Royal Navy) with a well placed shot into its ammunition caches which exploded and broke *Hood*'s back, quickly sinking the ship and its crew; likewise, the *Arizona* was destroyed by a well placed (read: lucky) bomb strike that caused the *violent* explosion which sank her with her crew. But, the Japanese carrier losses at Midway in particular were because of fires and secondary explosions which could *not* be contained which led the ships to their ends.\n\nWith that in mind, the carriers were were protected by a *vast* array of AAA batteries on escort ships, air patrols, and simple maneuvering out of the combat zone. Those same principles apply today, however the advent of Anti-Ship Missiles has increased the range where ships can be shot at and sunk.\n\n\n > Do they really make that much of a difference in a naval battle?\n\nYes. The loss of the Japanese carriers at Coral Sea and Midway effectively halted the Japanese advance in the Pacific. From June of '42 until August '45, the Japanese were on the defensive in the brutal island hopping campaign. On an impact note, the \"superweapon\" of a battleship - the *Yamato* - was sunk in a desperate attempt to reverse the course of the war by American naval aviators. This was a further sign of the importance of aircraft carriers because their long range fighters and bombers could negate air power over opposing fleets and sink them well out of range of the capital ships' own guns.\n\n\n > Aren't they just as susceptible to submarines or other vessels as a destroyer or a cruiser?\n\nSubmarines were largely used as convoy raiders during WW2, however that didn't stop fleet commanders from *surrounding* their carriers with escort ships that specialized in anti-aircraft and anti-submarine warfare as well as larger cruisers with guns to cover the fleet from surface ships. All hostile ships and hostile air units were considered a threat to a carrier group.\n\nToday, the top threats come from long range anti-ship missiles and attack subs with their own ASMs capable of submerged launch. But battleships have still been used in combat operations - the USS Missouri actually fired both Tomahawks and her 19\" Guns at the Iraqis during the 1st Gulf War.\n\n*Edited for grammar and formatting.*",
"Basically they are a way to project military power further afield without first establishing permanent military bases.\n\nA carrier group is effectively a mobile airbase, when coupled with modern ranges for planes, they can be maneuvered to project military force almost anywhere.\n\nAdd to this their escorts, destroyers, submarines and various support vessels, and their cruise missile compliments, and it becomes increasingly obvious why they are essential to a world superpower that wants the ability to intercede in conflicts across the world.",
"Aircraft carriers are a very nice thing to have for many reasons. Airpower is a great equalizer when it comes to warfare, and our carrier launched aircraft are some of the most capable aircraft in history. A carrier airwing is capable of deploying SEAD (Supression of Enemy Air Defense) weapons, establishing air superiority, and then blowing up major strategic resources for an enemy. \n\nA carrier battle group, to answer your first question, is highly capable at defending itself, you have on the carrier itself few weapons, but it is the other ships in the battle group which do the defensive combat, as well as it's aircraft. Aegis missile cruisers like the Ticonderoga class are designed to down missiles and other inbound threats to the battle group, such as aircraft and others. You also have the Ticonderoga's helicopters for Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) tasks, as well as the carrier's weapons for that task. So, yes, a carrier battle group CAN be overwhelmed, but it takes a whole lot of missiles and other ordinance to do so. However, if you get a carrier in close with a cruiser or destroyer, modern warfare isn't as partial to those enemies. Yes, you can sink a carrier with a 5 inch gun, but your very likely to get hit by a helicopter or other aspect of it's air wing toting anti ship missiles which will sink your destroyer or cruiser, and the carrier also has it's close in weapons systems to down most of the missiles you throw at it. \n\nTLDR: Yes they are that hard to kill, they can make a massive difference in a naval battle, and they really are still succeptable, but they will likely sink you before you sink them. "
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway"
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dfc596 | how does the faucet aerator work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dfc596/eli5_how_does_the_faucet_aerator_work/ | {
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"text": [
"They're like mesh screens. As the water flows around the mesh, it gets mixed with air. Simple as that."
]
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[]
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2ywgt6 | how would a solar flare, if large enough, destroy communications? | Would there be any other serious consequences? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ywgt6/eli5_how_would_a_solar_flare_if_large_enough/ | {
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"The EMP would most likely destroy any non hardened electronics. One did occur in the late 1800s and I believe telegraph machines were able to function without a power source. ",
"Well, we do have a bit of an advantage planning for these things: [we've had one before](_URL_0_) to give us a sense of what will go wrong. The answer, unfortunately, is a lot.\n\nSolar flares mess up communication by adding extra energy to the wires and messing up wireless transmissions with static and noise. For telegraph operators in 1859, this manifested as a constant signal and actual shocks arcing from the wires and injuring telegraph operators. There was so much latent energy in the air that some telegraph operators managed to keep sending messages *even after unplugging all of their equipment*. Power lines encountered issues; it's expected modern transformers would fail and explode (taking weeks to replace) and telephone/cable lines would be unusable during the storm. Auroras would be widespread over much of the planet (as far south Cuba and Hawaii) which combined with signal failure means no planes in the air.",
"So, while you're right that solar flares are involved in the process, the real danger is from coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which are triggered by a flare. A CME is a large amount of hot gas in the plasma state that can be ejected from the surface of the sun during the flare. This plasma rides magnetic fields in the solar wind and can sometimes interact with the Earth and is magnetosphere.\nBecause the Earth is a spinning liquid metal ball, there is a dynamo effect that creates the magnetic shield the Earth possesses, called the magnetosphere. The special thing about gas in the plasma state is that it is confined to flow along magnetic field lines, but not across them, and when the magnetic fields of the solar wind interact and sometimes join with the magnetic fields of our magnetosphere, this hot, energetic plasma can make its way through our magnetic shield. Once in, the plasma can affect and even destroy satellites. Also, the change in the magnetic environment due to the new plasma can disrupt power grids as others have commented on. As long as we stay on Earth, the energetic plasma can't directly hurt us, but any astronauts located in the radiation belts within the magnetosphere wouldn't be to happy afterwards."
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859"
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2a5502 | how did lucifer become the devil in the bible | The Bible only refers to Lucifer as falling in Isiah, yet common belief is that he rules hell. How did he become the supreme evil being when he is barely mentioned? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2a5502/eli5_how_did_lucifer_become_the_devil_in_the_bible/ | {
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"text": [
"Most of this is from John Milton's (1608–1674) Paradise Lost. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
3nthlk | why don't more satellites get damaged from space debris? | Is there just not that much trash around our planet, or do we not hear about satellites having problems? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nthlk/eli5_why_dont_more_satellites_get_damaged_from/ | {
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"There is a lot of space debris up there actually. It's just the vast dimensions we are handling up there make it realy unlikely for debris the size of a few centimeters, or even meters to hit something. \n\nAlso most bigger pieces are constantly tracked and most satelites and the ISS can dodge them by changing their orbit slightly if the probability of an impact gets too big. It still happens sometimes.",
"While there is a lot of trash around, space is huuuuuge. And the chances of something beeing hit are pretty small. This map shows you all the sattelites in earth orbit _URL_0_ and just look at how much space there is inbetween them. ",
"For satellites people have already answered you but in the case of the ISS, debris is a constant issue that has to be managed. Trash hits the station frequently and the astronauts have to go around the station with their suits and fix the possible damages. ",
"I feel like a pretty good number of \"why doesn't ____ happen to objects in space\" questions can be answered with \"Because space is massive and mostly empty space.\"",
"Happens more than i would have thought\n\n\nBeing hit by tiny chips of paint, aluminum, steel, and other types of space garbage is a regular part of Shuttle missions, according to data maintained by Johnson Space Center’s Hypervelocity Impact Technology Facility. In 54 missions from STS-50 through STS-114, space junk and Wiki_box4meteoroids hit the Shuttle’s windows 1,634 times necessitating 92 window replacements. In addition, the Shuttle’s radiator was hit 317 times, actually causing holes in the radiator’s facesheet 53 times"
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al3zah | how can amazon already have used copies available of a book that came out today? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/al3zah/eli5_how_can_amazon_already_have_used_copies/ | {
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"text": [
"Presuming these aren't actually used, but booksellers attempting to resell via Amazon copies that they don't think they will able to shift in store."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
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3rkcvo | why does " & amp" sometimes show up on websites? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rkcvo/eli5_why_does_amp_sometimes_show_up_on_websites/ | {
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"text": [
"HTML uses characters like ampersand, greater than, less than, etc. in its syntax. So if someone wants to use those symbols in their web page, when they're putting the text in the HTML they need to put \" & amp\" for an ampersand, \" & gt\" for greater than, etc. When the browser displays the webpage, it understands to replace those with the proper characters.\n\nThe problem is that most webpages now aren't only HTML. There's PHP, Javascript, etc. and all these might not process the text in the same way. So a developer might put \" & amp\" in thinking that they need to do that, but they've made a mistake and that bit of text is actually not parsed in the same way HTML is so it never gets replaced.",
"A browser interprets certain characters as code (e.g. HTML tags) and others as text.\n\nCharacters that are normally interpreted as code need a special \"way\" of writing if they should show up as text instead.\n\nFor an ampersand character to be interpreted as text, it needs to be written as \" & amp;\".\n\nThe real reason you are seeing those characters is actually more complicated and usually had to do with the website or database using the wrong character set.",
"To write an & in HTML, you write \" & amp;amp;\". If the webmaster makes a typo, it might turn up as & amp. To make things worse, the webmaster's browser might interpret & amp as & , so they don't even notice that something is wrong.",
"### What is ` & amp` is the first place?\n\nBecause one symbol can mean different things in coding (in general), so there needs to be a way to differentiate one kind from another.\n\nFor example:\n\n- The ` > ` sign seen in `NA > EU` is different from\n- The ` > ` sign seen in ` < img src='/tomori.jpg' > `\n\nOne of them is called \"plain text\" and the other is part of the language's syntax^\\(*) .\n\nIn some languages, you'll see sepcial characters like `\\n` or `\\t` that obviously mean something other than the letters `n` and `t`. In HTML (the language of the web), ` & ` and ` < ` among other symbols are used as part of the language, so when someone uses ` & ` to mean `and`, HTML has to translate it (temporarily) to something else (` & amp`) so that it won't be confused.\n\n^\\(*) syntax is a set of grammatical rules for a given language, like how we always end a sentence with a period. In programming languages, one simple rule is that opening brackets must be matched with ending brackets.\n\n---\n\n### Why do you sometimes see it in webpages?\n\nThis has been properly covered by others. Web pages are pretty complex now with at least 3 languages interacting and multiple people working on multiple processes, so mistakes are sometimes made.\n\nThink of it like an assembly line for... smartphones: A guy in front \"helpfully\" applies glue to the battery to save some work for people down the line. Later on the battery guy actually screws the battery in. \nThe result is a confused user who would unscrew his battery but is still faced with the unnecessary glue."
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1q6rcq | why will a comment have a different number of upvotes depending on if i view it in-thread or in-profile? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q6rcq/eli5_why_will_a_comment_have_a_different_number/ | {
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"text": [
"this is to obscure the actual amount of up- and downvotes, in order to confuse voting bots.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
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"http://www.reddit.com/wiki/faq#wiki_how_is_a_submission.27s_score_determined.3F"
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3l32yp | why is breastfeeding controversial? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l32yp/eli5_why_is_breastfeeding_controversial/ | {
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"What you mean by this exactly? Breastfeeding itself isn't controversial at all - breastfeeding in public is.\n\nAs to why breastfeeding in public is controversial, breasts are secondary sex characteristics in women. Most Western societies have a taboo against bearing the breast in public due to the sexual nature of that act.\n\nBased on this, many people do not want the breast beared for any reason, even non-sexual ones (like breastfeeding). It is considered a private act that should be done privately."
]
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leekg | sometimes i drink more than i can handle. i'll be passing out, ko'ing in the toilets, and puking for hours. why then, have i never, ever, had my memory impaired. i have never forgotten a night, or "blacked out" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/leekg/eli5_sometimes_i_drink_more_than_i_can_handle_ill/ | {
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"You haven't had a blackout, because you haven't built up a tolerance to alcohol. In order to have a blackout, you have to have a lot of alcohol in your system. If you don't have tolerance, you can't get that much alcohol into your system. You will pass out or throw up before you can get to the limit of tolerance. IIRC, you need about .25% BAC before you can have a blackout. That means for a 190 pound man, you would need to be able to drink about 9 drinks in an hour and still be able to function. \n\nDon't try this at home. ",
"You haven't had a blackout, because you haven't built up a tolerance to alcohol. In order to have a blackout, you have to have a lot of alcohol in your system. If you don't have tolerance, you can't get that much alcohol into your system. You will pass out or throw up before you can get to the limit of tolerance. IIRC, you need about .25% BAC before you can have a blackout. That means for a 190 pound man, you would need to be able to drink about 9 drinks in an hour and still be able to function. \n\nDon't try this at home. "
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1v4lng | if fracking is so bad for public health, how is it legal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v4lng/eli5_if_fracking_is_so_bad_for_public_health_how/ | {
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"In theory fracking isn't bad. The chemicals are pumped way below the water table and shouldn't ever interact in a meaningful way with people's health. However in practice there have been a lot of cases of the chemicals being improperly handled on the surface (i.e. spills) and the wells being drilled improperly (allowing chemicals to go where they shouldn't).\n\nFracking is important though as currently the US (and the rest of the world) loves cheap oil and fracking helps us get more oil out of the ground at prices we are used to paying. So there is *huge* demand for cheap oil, and oil still drives the world's economies, so here we are."
]
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8zq7aj | if you transferred your brain to another body/head would you still be the same person why or why not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8zq7aj/eli5_if_you_transferred_your_brain_to_another/ | {
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"text": [
"Assuming strict materialism: mostly / Sort of. The new body likely produces some hormones at different levels which will alter the personality exhibited by any given brain. "
]
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2e76zu | how does sponsorship work for sports teams | I've always wondered why companies would pay so much to have their names put on the jersey's of sports teams. For example, a few years ago Man Utd signed a 47 million pound deal **per year** with Chevrolet. I don't get what Chevrolet will get out of it (the publicity) that will justify the massive money they will be giving Utd. Or Maybe I don't fully understand the full financial outlay of the deal. Its the same for tournaments like the world cup as well, please help explain to me!!! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e76zu/eli5how_does_sponsorship_work_for_sports_teams/ | {
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"47 Million pounds is about $78 Million.\n\nGeneral Motors (who owns Chevy) made about $155 BILLION last year in revenue. As far as they are concerned $78 Million is literally pocket change. Man Utd. is a very popular team and has a loyal fan base. Having their logo featured on Man Utd. stuff is a great deal for Chevy who gets a bunch of free publicity for (relatively speaking) pocket change.\n\n$78 Million sounds like a lot to you... but on the level GM operates its barely noticeable if its going to something that helps the business."
]
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6b3dqp | how can they be absolutely sure pi doesn't end somewhere? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b3dqp/how_can_they_be_absolutely_sure_pi_doesnt_end/ | {
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"We have [proof that pi is irrational](_URL_0_) (the proof is far too complicated for this sub though). Irrational numbers are numbers that can't be represented as the division of two whole numbers. For example 1/3 is rational, but pi or the square root of 2 aren't.\n\nOne property of the irrational numbers is that if you try to write them down as a decimal fraction, you get an [infinite, non-repeating sequence of digits](_URL_1_) (specifically, we know that if a number's decimal expansion is repeating or finite, then it is rational).\n\nP.S. The irrationality of pi is one of its least interesting properties. There are tons of irrational numbers, such as pi, e, the square roots of 2, 3, 5 and of every number that isn't a whole square number. In fact, there are more irrational numbers than rationals.",
"Imagine if pi did end somewhere, like 3.14159265359\n\nThen we could write that as one number divided by another: 314159265359/1000000000 = 3.14159265359\n\nIf pi stopped anywhere, we could write it as one big number (starting with 314...) divided by another huge number (starting with 100...).\n\nBut there are some numbers that cannot be written as one number divided by another number.\n\nAnd some math people proved that pi is like that.\n\nSo if pi ended somewhere, that would break math. But since math seems not to be broken, we feel confident that pi doesn't end somewhere.",
"I look at it like this. Take a circle, cut in half. It's still curved. Do it again and again, it's still curved. No matter how far you go it will still have a curve, therefore infinite. Disclaimer, other than being good at math, I have no expertise. But it makes sense, to me."
]
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_that_%CF%80_is_irrational",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_number#Decimal_expansions"
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4472lu | unless there is a manufacturing defect with a product causing it to injure someone, why would someone sue a gun manufacturer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4472lu/eli5_unless_there_is_a_manufacturing_defect_with/ | {
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"Usually when this happens, it's when a victim of a shooting has no one else to sue, and their lawyer wants to get paid by **somebody**, they don't care who.\n\nIn these cases, it's not really the victim who decides to sue; it's their lawyer.",
"Because somehow they are responsible for how people use their products. Don't look for logic, it isn't here. It's like suing Honda if you got hit by a drunk driving a Civic. Defied logic. ",
"I assume you're talking about the lawsuits from the late '90s and early '00s where some cities sued some gun manufacturers. The cities claimed that the manufacturers should have done a better job tracking their weapons and that the manufacturers negligently supplied shops that they should have known were selling a lot of guns that were used in crime. Essentially, the plaintiffs argued that a reasonable manufacturer of a deadly weapon would avoid supplying the weapons to merchants who did business with criminals.\n\nCongress then passed a law that protected gun sellers from being sued for the unlawful or criminal use of firearms or ammo, with a few exceptions. The exceptions mostly involve knowingly selling guns that the seller knows will be used in a crime and selling guns in violations of other statutes. So if you sell a gun to a felon (against the law) or sell one to your friend to protect himself during a drug deal, then you can still get sued."
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81boo2 | what causes throats to build a tolerance to the heat from smoking? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/81boo2/eli5_what_causes_throats_to_build_a_tolerance_to/ | {
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"text": [
"Technique mostly. If you smoke long enough, you learn to do it “well”, and our throat isn’t exposed to a very high temp at all. You get used to the other sensations, but actual heat isn’t an issue. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3si8g6 | why does a burp sometimes relieve nausea? | What's the connection between the two? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3si8g6/eli5why_does_a_burp_sometimes_relieve_nausea/ | {
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"The acids in your stomach break down what is put in, which often creates gasses as a bi-product. When you burp, some of the gasses are released which relieves pressure on your stomach and surrounding organs. \n\nSometimes harmful bacteria is in what you consume, which can also lead to nausea. The same as above applies: you are reducing the work your body has to do to repel the attack from the foreign bacteria trying to enter your system."
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5myiv2 | question about developing and genitals ? | So from what I have learnt in biology, we both develop from a more female type body, then at the 6 week mark the sex chromosomes kick in and you begin to develop into a male or female. So for a man, the ovaries drop and become the testes and the clitoris grows out to become the penis.
So my question was along the lines of genital placement. If the clitoris grows out to become the head of the penis, does that mean the base of the penis is where the clitoris would be ? and you do not urinate out of your clitoris but below it, and males urinate out of the end of their penis (Which would have previously been the clitoral head). So would someone who knows a little more be able to explain this to me.
Thank you very much :) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5myiv2/eli5_question_about_developing_and_genitals/ | {
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"Oof. This is gonna be some weird Google searches, eh?\n\nDevelopment of male genitalia is dependent upon the production of the testosterone enzyme dihydrotestosterone, which is produced by the testes. As the various types of genital tubing is elongating and growing to form the penis, the penis organ system (both the reproductive and unitary system) should contain folds. The folds lie on either side of the membrane that will begin to form the organ system, and move towards each other while they form a groove, this is known as the urethral groove. The urogenital folds fuse together on the ventral side of the developing penis, enclosing what will now become the urethra.\n\nWith a boy, the genital tuber will form the penis gland (the head). The body of the penis will be formed by the fusion of the urogenital folds, this fusion is not yet completely finished. The scrotum is formed by the fusion of the labioscrotal folds, the midpoint of which corresponds to the zone of fusion of the labioscrotal folds.\n\nFemale development is pretty much the same, however at the point where the penis would form, a vagina forms instead since the folds on a female fetus will not fuse as well. Because of this, the tubes that would form the penis shaft will now form the labia. The genital tuber will form the clitoris.\n\nSo yes, more-or-less, where a clitoris would be is where the base of a penis would be, and vice versa."
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5aksrc | how is the signal from a source such as a cablebox converted into pixels on a screen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5aksrc/eli5_how_is_the_signal_from_a_source_such_as_a/ | {
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"*(I'm going to talk about just digital, and about modern LCD/OLED screens like your flatscreen TV or computer monitor. Older analog systems and picture tube TVs worked fundamentally differently)*\n\nOne pixel is composed of a red, green, and blue light. The TV's computer is wired to each and every one of these lights, and can control how much power goes to it and how bright it shines. By varying how bright each of the three is, it's possible to paint a wide range of colors from just that one pixel. With a grid of over 2 million pixels on an HDTV, you can build a detailed colorful image.\n\nSo the signal coming in from the cable box or whatever has to describe the brightness of each pixel with a number. There's an agreed-upon system of what number responds to what color. The cable box says a number, the TV makes the first pixel that color by varying how bright the RGB lights are, the cable box says another number, the tv makes the next pixel that color, and so on. It does this **very** fast, if you're watching a high-quality HD show the signal is saying the number of each of those two million pixels thirty times a second. That's about 158 mega*bytes* per second, or 556 gigabytes in an hour.\n\n*\"But wait a minute, bizitmap...\"* you might be saying, *\"I downloaded a TV show once and it wasn't 550 gigs for an hour of TV. It wasn't 550 gigs for a whole season!\"* That's where secret sauce of **compression** comes in. Whether you're the cable company sending video over the wire, Netflix trying to stream a TV show over the internet, or *almost* any other time we send video, we use compression. The only time we don't is between the cable box/computer and it's last stop, the TV. That box \"decodes\" the compressed signal and sends it to the pretty glowing rectangle.\n\nSince it takes so long to describe the color of each and every last dot, compression helps us fudge the numbers a little bit. One common way is to not describe **every** change. Say you're watching some Seinfield. Ol' Jerry is waving his arms like crazy...but his apartment's sitting still. So the compressed video signal describes ONLY the pixels which changed, and the computer knows to keep the other pixels the same as last time. Another method is to go \"screw it, these next hundred dots are all part of leaves on a tree in the background, make 'em all the same green, don't describe each one individually.\" "
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5zwscq | why, in both providing housing and places of business, is there so much new building instead of restoring all the empty and boarded up ones? | UK based but it may be an international trend, so all answers are interesting :) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zwscq/eli5_why_in_both_providing_housing_and_places_of/ | {
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"In general it is much easier, faster, and cheaper to knockdown an abandoned building and rebuild it than it is to refurbish it.\n\nWhen a building is abandoned, there will usually be a cascade of problems, leaks, water damage, mold, structural weakening, etc. Rather than have to individually repair these costly problems, it's usually much more cost effective to bulldoze and rebuild. ",
"It's not a UK only thing. There's a chain of groceries here that has now -on 4 sites that I know of- built a newer, bigger, store directly across the street from an existing one. \n\nHere on the U.S., it at least partly has to do with changing fire codes and building codes. If you renovate that extensively, you have to bring the whole structure up to current code, which can involve additional fire systems, structural shoring, insulation to meet energy efficiency guidelines,etc, which puts the renovation costs well above the cost of new construction. And that is just too get the same size structure... If a larger structure is a business need, then adding onto a building adds a lot if cost \n\nYou then have businesses looking at the 10- year costs of operating. A new building with ground-up energy efficiency is going to cost less than an old one that has been retrofitted with energy efficient measures.\n\nAll told, new construction for retail is often close to half the 10-year cost of renovation/expansion.",
"There can also be the hurdle of the classification of the building as historic. In the U.S. this can severely limit what you're allowed to do with the building. Normally it's much cheaper to build new on a blank piece of ground than deal with extensive repairs and retrofitting.",
"Some really interest points so far, keep them coming guys. \n\nInterested as to why we don't do it with houses too. For example you will see rows and rows of empty houses in need of tlc and two streets (or blocks for our transatlantic brothers) away there is a development of new builds.",
"TL;DR: new buildings can more easily meet the UK governments aims for sustainability/accessibility of our housing stock as they regulate the big house builders. However smaller developers are converting existing office buildings to residential at a high rate.\n\nThis isn't the whole picture but I think it will add to what others are saying: With regard to UK housing, we have great swathes being built by social housing providers such as London & Quadrant (in London anyway). \n\nMany of the schemes that these providers are building are grant funded by the Homes and Communities Agency HCA and contain an element of \"Affordable housing\", which typically comprise of a mix of Shared Ownership, intermediate rent, and social rent or general needs properties (perhaps the last group is equatable to the old nomenclature 'council housing'). The HCA funding requires these schemes to be scored against a set of performance indicators called Housing Quality Indicators (HQI), which look at room sizes, accessibility and sustainability criteria. \n\nNow many of these social housing providers use these HQI scores as their own key performance indicators and obviously strive for improvements year on year, and aim for the highest possible scores so that they can continue to demonstrate to the funders that they are building houses that will stand the test of time. It is much harder to score highly in these audits if you are converting existing buildings. \n\nTo add, there is also a big emphasis on 'Building For Life' at the moment in the UK housing industry (particularly the social/affordable housing side of the industry). Homes should be designed to be adaptable for use for every stage from toddlers to the elderly. This again is difficult to achieve within our existing building stock. \n\nAt the smaller developer end however (ie. people building 10-20 flats or less), there is a huge drive of people utilising Permitted Development relaxations in recent years to convert disused or under occupied office buildings to residential. Due to changes in legislation, these types of refurbishment do not require detailed or onerous planning permissions from local government, so redevelopment of existing offices to housing is up.\n\nSource: Surveyor working with London developers. \n\n\n\n",
"I'm a huge believer in neighborhood revitalization and restoration (R/R), and it's become a huge thing in parts of the US and Canada where I've lived. Some of the projects I've seen completed have completely changed that area, and it can be a good thing for property ownership and business. But, this all depends on the area itself.\n\nTo start, it's stupidly expensive to restore an old building. As other users have pointed out, you have a lot of codes that are more than likely being violated (building/fire codes, mostly). Additionally, there may be zoning codes in place by the city that you need to adhere to. The cost of renovating these buildings is usually a lot higher than what the property in the area is worth, so it's difficult to find investors willing to spend the money on R/R and fight to bring the buildings up to code and restore them for business. From my experience, investors won't invest in this unless there is significant promise for return - The area is a \"cultural zone\" (art district, food district, historical areas etc) that already has a lot of interest from the local population. This makes sense to restore the old buildings as the area is popular and will bring in money. Also, you have to look at the ambiance of a restored building - They're suited for that retro/vintage-done-modern look that is becoming incredibly popular, but it's still a small market. Most people still prefer a more modern apartment or business space unless they're trying to fit into that eclectic niche of exposed brick and handmade goods.\n\nThere's also the aspect of the building quality. Old buildings that are run down have a high chance of asbestos, mold, lead paint/piping, water/structural damage, animal habitation (and sometimes humans squatting) or other issues. This could make it unsafe to renovate and is a huge risk for investors looking to restore an old building for future risk. It's also a risk for future residents.\n\nThere's a socio-economic aspect to this as well. A lot of areas that are run down are run down for a reason - These areas are usually on the borderline of poverty (or are impoverished) with higher rates of crime and violence. It makes no sense for an investor to dump a lot of money on an area that has no money. People that are currently in the area are not going to be able to afford the newly renovated housing that the investor is going to want to charge, and people who CAN afford it are not going to want to move into an area that has a higher crime risk. Even businesses are reluctant to open up shop in a high-risk area. The investor would get next to no returns and lose money on the project. I mean no offense, but look at the types of businesses that are most prominent in low-income areas. You'll see a lot of pawn shops, mechanics and (here in Denver now) weed shops. Higher class areas are full of boutique shops that attract wealthier clients and boost the economic growth of the area and make it more desirable. There are a lot of risks while working in run-down areas - For example, if you were to restore a series of old houses for low income families, you run the risk of those families not taking care of the property and it having to be restored again at a later time - There are a lot of damages that could come out of it based on the generalization and stereotype of the people who frequent these areas.\n\nPersonally, I feel that if an area is deemed abandoned and there are homes or buildings that could be restored, the government should step in and assist. In some places, they do this, if the district is desireable. It could be a great opportunity for low-income affordable housing to help in areas that have a housing crisis. \"Companies\" like Habitat for Humanity could work on these projects and provide more community assistance to those in need. An old motel could be turned into single bedroom apartments for those in times of need (victims of domestic violence, or even student housing).\n\nThere's a lot that goes into a decision on whether or not to restore a building for future use. I feel we as a society should look into it more, but the risks generally outweigh the potential profits.\n\n**tl;dr** Lots of factors are used to determine if a building is suitable for renovations and repurposing. These factors include the building itself, the community and whether or not a profit could be turned from the renovations for the investor.",
"I live near ft worth and have a friend to does remodeling for a living. \n\nApparently he's tried to go about purchasing a few abandoned industrial buildings in order to make loft style apartments. There are insane regulations on re zoning to residential, there are a lot of politicians who want the area to stay industry to encourage business growth, there are EPA issues that you wouldn't even think of.\n\nThe most important thing is the cost. Land in larger cities is at a premium and those buildings sit on that valuable land where they \"stake ownership\" and hardly cost a thing in taxes (relative to the cost of a business or apartment complex) and every year the land gains more value than it costs in taxes. So nobody wants to sell.\n\nEven if someone was willing to, remodeling a long abandoned building and repurposing it for something new is often more cost prohibitive than just building something from the ground up that suits your needs.\n\nAs a side note, there are cities who, in the interest of making their city more beautiful. Place extra taxes on those \"squatters\" mentioned earlier, give temporary tax breaks on turning old industrial buildings into trendy lofts for those hipsters and their fat wallets, as well as make re zoning a much less painful process. \n\nTL;DR: lazy/stupid/greedy politicians and the huge expenses associated with renovations.",
"For businesses in the US, the ADA (disabilities access) law is a significant barrier to adaptive reuse. It runs costs up and makes it easier to knock down and build a new box store.\n\nThere's no common sense or 'close enough' in the law, and there are unscrupulous lawyers that go around shaking down business owners for money if they are 1/4\" off in the measurements."
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3tcmy1 | why aren't there imperial units for large quantities of fluid? | Why aren't there any imperial units for large volumes of fluid? If you're trying to describe a long distance, you switch from using feet to miles. But if you're trying to describe how much water is in a swimming pool, or even the ocean, you typically still use gallons. Why don't we have a larger unit for volume (or do we and it's just not used)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tcmy1/eli5_why_arent_there_imperial_units_for_large/ | {
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"I think your mistake is trying to apply logic and order to the imperial system. It is an adhoc system if measurment which evolved over time. Not like the metric system which was developed specifically for it's universal nature."
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8fbc0z | how come songs with a given key can play notes that aren't in that given key? | Title is pretty simple but as an example lets say my song is in the key of Dm. Dm is: D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C, D.
If I played an arpeggio of A, C, F. Everything works.
If the next arpeggio I play is A, B, F. Everything still works.
Yet B is not in my key. What is happening here and why is this possible? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8fbc0z/eli5_how_come_songs_with_a_given_key_can_play/ | {
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"There is no reason you have to limit your available notes to the key signature. \n\nIn fact those two arpeggios fit in to the key of C. Which is why they sound fine together. \n\nUsing notes outside of the key signature creates movement in music. It creates a sense of change is another way to say it.\n\n",
"In this case, it's partly because B is actually in the key of Dm, it's part of the D ['melodic' minor scale](_URL_1_). There are three different kinds of minor scales, what you've written is the 'natural minor', there's also a 'harmonic minor' with a raised 7th and the 'melodic minor' with raised 6th and 7th on the ascent only. \n\nBeyond that explanation though, keys are not fixed things and you don't have to necessarily be 'in key' to sound good. Music composition is really about creating and resolving points of dissonance, if you only play within a key, you have fewer opportunities to create dissonance than if you include accidentals. Keys can change at a moment and many popular songs include points of ['applied dominance'](_URL_0_) that are effectively very short key changes."
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8hvm83 | the biological benifits of yoga. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8hvm83/eli5_the_biological_benifits_of_yoga/ | {
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"yoga exercises, stripped of all mental and spiritual components, develop flexibility and core strength. It's also a much lower-impact method of exercise than say, jogging (i.e. less stress on joints.)\n\nif more mental/spiritual parts of the practice aid relaxation or help manage stress there could potentially also be 'biological' benefits.\n\nalso, it makes your butt more attractive to potential mates"
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19bccl | why is thought not considered a sense? | This got rejected at /r/askscience for being too discussion-y but here goes: if something like smell or taste is a sense, why isn't something like thought or balance? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19bccl/why_is_thought_not_considered_a_sense/ | {
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" > why isn't something like thought or balance?\n\nBecause a thought doesn't *sense* things. Thoughts aren't reporting information about the world to you, although they might be processing such information delivered by your senses. \n\nBalance is typically considered a sense nowadays, though.",
"First I will say sorry for my english, now I will explain what I THINK.\n\nSenses are about the ability to take something from the enviroment to your inner \"you\", while thinking is a construction that your inner \"you\" makes surely influenced by the information collected by your senses.\nLet's try to compare it with a computer, the computer SENSES what you do with your mouse, and your keyboard, what kind of things you plug in it, but the operative system runs different kind of operations without sensing anything, so do you, you can think things, but that's not something you gathered from the enviroment, it has to do with yourself.\n\nIt would be weird if thought was a sense because the **thing you have to sense** with that sense wouldn't exist if you didn't exist, because you created them by yourself and for yourself. On the other hand, if you die, the landscapes will keep existing to be sensed by the eyes of other beings."
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bfs2oi | rapid mental calculations | How does this work!? [rapid mental calculations](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bfs2oi/eli5_rapid_mental_calculations/ | {
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"I was in a course like this when I was young and I got pretty good at it and even the students who were not that bright got good the trick was to get in from a young age so you don't feel like killing yourself because you're new",
"Im not sure what methods they're teaching these kids, but most people who do fast math in their heads just break everything into simpler numbers calculations that are close and adjust from there.\n\n\nOne of the examples used in this video:\n\n\n999 * 996 is tough, but 1000 * 996 is easy, you just add 3 zeroes to 996.\n\n\n999 * 996 = (1000-1) * 996 = 1000 * 996 - 996\n\n\nSo you've got 996000 - 996. If you cant do that quickly, think of it as subtracting 1000 then adding 4.\n\n\nSo the entire multiplication simplifies into take 996, add 3 zeros, subtract 1 from the thousands digit, then add 4. Final answer 995004, and you can do it in less than a second.\n\n\nSame concept can be used for division in the 54/7 part of the video. Think about known multiples of 7 and you'll probably get to 49 pretty fast.\n\n\n54/7 = 49/7 + 5/7 = 7 + 5/7. I'm not sure how they teach the kids to get the decimal form of 5/7 so fast. Maybe they just work with fractions a lot and know it.",
"In the video you linked, all the kids are mimicking abacus movements.\n\nThey are imagining a hand held abacus and moving the beads mentally and doing the calculations. They could Have done without the fancy hand movements. But I guess they are still learning.\n\nIt is based on decimal number system.\n\n1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000... etc.\n\nIf you don't know about abacus, watch [this video](_URL_0_) of a simple abacus.\n\nThere are other types of abacus as well."
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9wegsb | what are the benefits (if any) to grinding your own coffee vs. buying ground coffee? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9wegsb/eli5_what_are_the_benefits_if_any_to_grinding/ | {
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"It tastes better if you freshly grind it just before brewing. The longer it sits ground, the less flavorful it is. ",
"Coffee (meaning beans or grounds, rather than the brewed drink) grows stale over time. The processes that make it go stale mostly happen on the surface of the coffee that is exposed to the outside. Grinding coffee increases the surface area where this \"staling\" happens, so a pound of ground coffee grows stale faster than a pound of whole beans. So, grinding your own coffee shortly before brewing helps to keep the coffee fresh for longer.\n\nAlso, if you are a coffee-expert you may want to adjust the size of the grounds to your personal preference or the drink you want to make.",
"Oxygen reacts with the coffee and destroys its taste and pre ground coffe has a much higher surface that gets in contact with the oxygen, therfore losing its aroma much much quicker. Also with pre ground you are stuck with the grade of the grind and thats not ideal since different brewing methods require different grinds"
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3cgfou | how would a sound of 1100 decibels loud create a black hole larger than the observable universe? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cgfou/eli5_how_would_a_sound_of_1100_decibels_loud/ | {
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"First of a sound of that magnitude would require 10^98 watts/meter^2 . That is an absolutely insane amount of power, far in excess of what we can produce, and is many of orders of magnitude greater than what a supernova creates. So we don't have to worry about it actually happening.\n\nBut, now, how would that create a black hole. By E=mc^2. Put enough energy into a small enough area and it would be the equivalent of putting mass in that area, causing immense gravity. With energy as great as 1100 dB, it would create enough gravity to cause a black hole to form, and an incredibly large one at that. ",
"Decibels are a logarithmic unit.\n\nThat means 20 decibels isn't 2 times more powerful than 10 decibels, it's 10 times more powerful. \n30 decibels is 10 times more powerful than 20 decibels.\n40 decibels is 10 times more powerful than 30 decibels.\n\nEach time the decibel number goes up by 10, the power of the sound is multiplied by 10\n\nthe number 1100 is like starting with 10 decibels, and adding 10 on 109 times.\n\nThat means 1100 is 10^109 times more powerful than 10 decibels.\n\nThat is 1 with 109 zeros after. \n10 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 000000 times more powerful.\n\nI expect a sound wave that strong would have to compress air so dense that the rest mass plus the kinetic energy would mean that the mass of say a metre cubed of air would fall inside it's own Schwarzschild radius. \nWhen a mass of an object is compressed within it's Schwarzschild radius, the escape velocity required to escape the sphere of matter the compression creates would exceed the speed of light, thus a black hole is formed."
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y1aog | how removing the penny from circulation is even possible | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/y1aog/eli5_how_removing_the_penny_from_circulation_is/ | {
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"Just stop making 'em. Then, after a while, declare that in < x > more months they won't be legal tender any more. \n\nThat process was done in England with the ha'penny back in the 1980s -- when ha'pennies were worth quite a bit more than U.S. cents are now.\n\n",
"Just stop making them as **Drzowie** said. You wouldn't even have to declare them invalid actually. Coins and bills are removed from circulation all the time due to damage. Just top making pennies and keep removing the damaged pennies from circulation and they'll go away.\n\nGenerally the plan is to just round to the nearest Nickle when you check out. So if your bill came to $19.47, you pay $19.45 at checkout.\n\nThey should ditch it along with the Dollar Bill IMO. Pennies **literally** aren't worth it, cost more to make than they're worth. The durability of dollar bills are pathetic. Pennies don't interact with ANYTHING. Lincoln is still on the $5 and George Washington is still on the Quarter so you're not slighting anybody there. Expand the presidential dollar coins to be permanent.",
"Stop printing them and eventually the supply will dwindle as people lose them.\n\nAlso remove the law making melting them down illegal, pennies have more then 1 cent of materials in them so people would happily melt them down for the copper and sell it. \n\nOnce they become scarce everyone will round prices to the nearest 5 cents, and the US would save billions of dollars each year. \n\n[Death to Pennies! By C.G.P. Grey](_URL_0_) "
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37epas | why do i love hot sauce, even though it hurts my mouth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37epas/eli5_why_do_i_love_hot_sauce_even_though_it_hurts/ | {
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"Because it hurts your mouth. The pain causes your body to release endorphins to help kill the pain, that also has a nice mood boosting effect."
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6knzyi | why are some people more open to differing ideas and opinions than others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6knzyi/eli5_why_are_some_people_more_open_to_differing/ | {
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"It's probably learned. Look at how much more accepting the US is towards the LBGT community than it was just 15-20 years ago. It's changing a LOT faster than it would take to \"breed\" some genetic trait out of our genome. I know lots of perfectly tolerant/friendly people who have that one racist grandparent, and it doesn't seem like that stuff runs in the family, you know?"
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32u8u0 | is hitler to blame for the holocaust, or is this something that would have likely happened even if someone else came to power instead of him? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32u8u0/eli5_is_hitler_to_blame_for_the_holocaust_or_is/ | {
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"Based on [*Hitler's Willing Executioners*](_URL_0_) I would say that something similar could have occurred had any right-wing populist movement taken power. Germany had been extremely antisemitic for many decades. The \"Jewish Problem\" was openly discussed. In some cases the Nazis had to tell the populace to ease up on the Jew bashing until the time was right, people were so hateful of them. \n\nHitler used antisemitism to cement his rule. It was no different from a politician in the US bashing gays or Muslims or immigrants -- it appeals to a certain group in the country and they'll respond by giving power to those spewing hate. Hitler was also a true believer. When the time came and they had the power he actually followed through. That isn't always the case with a politician. It was Hitler, in Germany, after Versailles, during the depression. It took all those factors for this most horrible event to take place. ",
"This is probably the grand question of historians and time-travel stories.\n\nOne camp, the \"Great Men\" camp, says that history is made by great men (humans, not necessarily males). If you want to understand history, they say, look at the people. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, etc. For WWII, look at Nevile Chamberlain, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, etc. This camp tends to believe that if you took away Hitler, the Holocaust probably wouldn't have happened. /u/avtrchris argues this side most clearly (tell me to edit this if someone does a better job).\n\nThe other major camp is the \"Social Movements\" camp. This camp says that great men arise as a result of the times that spawned them: if Julius Caesar hadn't done away with the Roman Senate, somebody else would have. It might have happened a little slower or faster, but it was ready to happen anyway. This camp tends to believe that Hitler was just the person who stepped into place: take away Hitler, and someone else would have done something to unite Germany against someone, and the Jews (and Gypsies, and homosexuals, and other \"undesirables\") were the likely target. /u/xwing_n_it takes this point of view.\n\nWhich one is correct? Nobody is sure. Unfortunately, there is no way to know: we can't go back in time and change things to see how things turn out.",
"Thats a tricky question.\n\nThe first thing you need to understand is that the Jews weren't well liked at that time by much of Europe or even the US for that matter. People seem to think that only Germany were anti-semitic back then.\n\nOne example that I always go back to is a study in 1939 found that 53% of Americans felt that Jews are not the same as regular people and shouldnt have the same rights as regular people. Remember this is America in 1939... just across the Atlantic Hitler was killing Jews for over 6 years at this stage.\n\nNow despite what some people say, Hitler didnt get to power by promising to kill Jews. The German people for the most part had no idea about these camps. They knew there was Jewish persecution all right, but that wasnt uncommon for the time.\n\n(just while we mention it, Hitlers rise to fame was actually to tell people about the good old days just before WW1, and how Britain/France destroyed it all but he would rebuild Germany back to its former glory, which I suppose in a way he kinda did)\n\nBut the question is, if it wasnt for Hitler would the holocaust have happened?\n\nIts difficult to know. If German people knew Hitler was killing Jews he may well have lost his power. I mean just because Germans didnt like Jews doesnt mean they actually wanted them rounded up and killed. I suspect most Germans would have been happy just to see them deported.\n\nHowever without the Holocaust there wouldnt have been a sudden change in attitude towards Jews. So whos to say there wouldnt have been a Holocaust in a different country?\n\nOn a side note, its interesting to see that its only just 70 years since the Holocaust and we are starting to see people turn very anti-semitic once again.\n"
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3ekrjg | the difference between the at & t/directv merger and the squashed comcast/twc merger | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ekrjg/eli5_the_difference_between_the_attdirectv_merger/ | {
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"Comcast and twc merger would give them like 99% market share. AT & T and directv are not primarily even competitors. Direct's main competitors, Dish, and Comcast, twc will still be around. AT & T won't have a monopoly in the cell industry or the TV industry. ",
"The merger between Comcast and TWC would have resulted in the new Comcast having over 50% of the broadband internet market..well over 60% if you count the new FCC definition of broadband being 25mbps. With that kind of market power, Comcast would have been able to wield great power over what video services or other online services would or could be successful by implementing usage caps, abusing interconnection agreements with other ISPs and networks, or by providing services that they own privileged access to Comcast customers.\n\nIt has little to do with TV, which is about to undergo a very big revolution. AT & T/DirecTV will be the largest pay-TV provider, but they are still under the former cap of 30% (a cap that was struck down by the courts anyway). The FCC also recognizes that traditional cable/satellite/telco TV is about to die and have heavy competition from online services so they are less concerned about concentration in the TV industry. And, since DirecTV has no broadband network, there's no issue on the broadband side either.\n\nFinally, AT & T bribed the FCC with a promise of expanding their fiber network if they were allowed to buy DirecTV. The rationale (not agreeing with it, this is just AT & T's argument) is that by buying DirecTV, AT & T's cost of providing TV channels over U-Verse is cheaper (that much is true) because instead of a 5 million customer TV provider, they're now a 30 million customer TV provider and get better rates from the likes of CNN, TNT, Fox, etc. They then turn around and use these \"savings\" to expand their GigaPower fiber network, and claim to the FCC that they would not make that expansion without the savings from buying DirecTV."
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2hmw4m | if offensive coordinators do most of the play calling for nfl teams, and the same for defensive coordinators, what exactly are head coaches doing most of the time during a game? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hmw4m/eli5_if_offensive_coordinators_do_most_of_the/ | {
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"In general the head coach is going to work with his coordinators to decide what overall types of plays will work given the team they are playing. During the game the coach is going to be suggesting changes to these \"guidelines\" based upon the effectiveness of the schemes they have decided on. They will also be responsible for changes in personnel based upon the situations they are put in at any given time. Coach has the big plan, coordinators come up with the details, and they all pay attention to what adjustments need to be made."
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6nw9yp | how come "salting the earth" inhibits the growth of vegetation but formerly undersea land is extremely fertile? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6nw9yp/eli5_how_come_salting_the_earth_inhibits_the/ | {
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"The way plants land (generally) get water to enter into the roots is by having a lower water potential than soil. Water potential is a way to quantify the likelihood of water moving to a system, and water moves from the system with a higher water potential to the system with a lower water potential. So in the case of the plants, the roots need to have a lower water potential. There are 2 major concepts for water potential: solute potential and pressure potential. The ground is under the same pressure, so it's mostly up to solute potential. The higher concentration of solute, the lower the solute potential, and the lower the water potential. So if the ground is salted the solute potential is lower than the roots, and the water will not enter the roots.\nAquatic plants get their water from their aquatic environment, not necessarily through the ground, so the solute potential of the soil is not necessary for getting water/nutrients.",
"Once this land is exposed, over time the rain washes away the salt. Some years later you're left with nice soil that's no longer too salty.\n",
"previous comments have gotten the salt part right- salt will desiccate plants that are not well adapted for a hyper saline environment (marsh plants have developed various adaptations to either exclude or excrete excess salt from their tissue)\n\nThe reason formerly undersea land is incredibly fertile is because thousands to millions of years of sinking biological detritus (called marine snow) has accumulated on the seafloor. The deep ocean is not very well ventilated and has low oxygen levels, so biological decomposition happens quite slowly down there, and a significant portion can become buried without decomposing. This is partially responsible for the large oil reservoirs in the ocean. Tens and hundreds of millions of year ago the deep ocean was far more depleted in oxygen than it is today, so a greater proportion of organic matter that fell to the ocean floor was not remineralized back into CO2 and H2O. It was buried and stayed organic, eventually transforming into large oil reservoirs.\nAlso important to note that we like to say oil was made from dinosaurs, but really it was mostly plant matter and phytoplankton."
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e98tjq | allergies and pregnancy | If a woman is pregnant, and she has no allergies but the father to her baby has, say, an allergy to sesame seeds.
Can the woman still eat things with sesame seeds whilst pregnant? What happens if the baby has inherited the allergy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e98tjq/eli5_allergies_and_pregnancy/ | {
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"The basic idea is that yes the mom can eat whatever. Her immune system and the baby's are pretty much the same for the most part. \n\nAllergies are just an overreaction by your immune system to something stupid. They are also not entirely genetic, and are VERY affected by environment.\n\nOnce the baby is born and past the breast feeding phase it's immune system has to manage completely on its own. It might develop the allergy or it might not."
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143qfa | why can't i stand in front of a microwave when it's cooking | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/143qfa/eli5_why_cant_i_stand_in_front_of_a_microwave/ | {
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"In the beginning the seals on microwave door were not well-made and a tiny amount of microwave might leak (although there has never been a single documented case where someone got injured from it). You totally can stand in front of a working microwave nowadays as long as you don't do it all day long. ",
"A microwave oven works by emitting (duh) microwave radiation. This is a kind of light, but its wavelength is too long for your eyes to see. To \"see\" microwaves you need a microwave antenna. It turns out that a good microwave antenna is a water molecule.\n\nThis is how a microwave oven works. It emits a kind of radiation that is \"picked up\" by the water molecules in your food. These molecules then vibrate and this vibration is what our senses know as \"heat\".\n\nMicrowaves are a good way of heating food because most food contains a lot of water. Unfortunately, the same applies to you, which is why you should stay clear of high-powered microwave emitters.\n\nLike cecikierk already said, modern microwaves ovens are pretty well sealed, so this should not be a problem in practice. There are other microwave sources (like military radars) that are much more dangerous if you stand next to them.",
"You can, this may have been true in the 70s when microwaves came out. By 82 when my parents bought their first microwave oven it didn't carry this warning. They kept that microwave for like 20 years. Don't build them like that anymore. "
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6747t8 | how did ramen noodles become synonymous with the college experience? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6747t8/eli5_how_did_ramen_noodles_become_synonymous_with/ | {
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"They're cheap as *hell,* and even the least-capable chef with what barely counts as a kitchen can cook them. They also don't need to be kept cold. An ideal fit for a dorm room lifestyle.\n\nI can't come up with another food that's so insanely cheap (amazon will sell you a package of 36 for what's basically 50 cents each) and can be sucessfully prepared while blackout drunk.\n\nedit: yes im aware there's much cheaper than on amazon, but that's kinda beside the point ",
"Store-bought ramen is extremely inexpensive, and college students often have less money for things like food than they'd need to maintain or develop good food habits.",
"Incredibly cheap and you don't need a kitchen to make them. Dorms don't have kitchen and college kids are poor. ",
"Seriously? This is a real question?\n\nMost college students are, at least occasionally, broke as fuuuck.\n\nThere's not many other meals you can make with thirty five cents and a microwave.",
"They're cheap, they're easy to \"cook\", and while not any sort of highly nutritious cuisine, they are probably healthier as far as dirt cheap fast food goes compared to endless hamburgers or pizza.",
"As most people have said already, ramen is inexpensive and easy to store.\n\nFrom my own college experience:\n\n-There are multiple brands with a plethora of seasonings that you can try a different ramen every single day and still not get tired of it.\n\n-You can practically cook it anywhere with little to no cooking experience. Only needs water and heat source.\n\n-you can complement ramen with almost anything in the savory department or vegetables.\n\n-some ramen can be eaten raw for a quick snack.\n\n-takes about 3-5 minutes to cook.\n\n-Doubles as soup\n\n-Non perishable unless wet.\n\n-are Independently packed so there is almost no waste.\n\n-It fills you up\n\n-Can be made into something fancy if you have proper equipment.\n\n-If you buy the cup noodles you don't even need a bowl.\n\n-Most cup noodles come with dehydrated veggies and meats.\n\n-Tired of ramen, get the vermicelli noodles for a few cents more.\n",
"Over in Aus you can only get nasty home brand 2 minute noodles for 20 cents each every other brand is 80c minimum and the ones that come in cups are so expensive you might as well just make some rice or pasta with some sauce and vegetables for half the price per serve.",
"They are ten cents a package and one or two makes a meal. Not a good meal but a meal. That is one of the cheapest meals you can get and that is what makes it synonymous with the college experience. College students rarely have money. ",
"They are not so synonymous with the college experience as they are with the broke as fuck experience. Everyone I know has been there at some point.",
"Simple.. You can get a case of 24 or 36 at the dollar store for around $5. Throw in a few simple veggies and an egg and you have a filling meal.",
"They are cheap as fuck and don't need to be refrigerated. You can even make them in the microwave or eat it dry if you are a godless heathen."
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8mg3fi | if leaving food scraps lying around attracts cockroaches, why are the dead cockroaches i find never anywhere near the food i leave lying around? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8mg3fi/eli5_if_leaving_food_scraps_lying_around_attracts/ | {
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"Why are you leaving food around long enough to attract cockroaches? You should probably higher some pest control.",
"It's the same reason as why you don't often find humans dead at the kitchen table, it happens sometimes but not often. There are a lot of things in a bug's life besides just eating. Many bugs die because their 'brain' breaks down and they can't coordinate to flip themselves off their backs, so unless you find a bug that eats upside down they will probably die during exploration and travel."
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4i5e5g | why do some pitches on a synthesizer sound louder than others? | I recently discovered this awesome website:_URL_0_ and I was messing around with the pitch (dragging mouse left to right) and then i realised that if i set the pitch a certain way, it sounds WAY louder than any of the other pitches. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4i5e5g/eli5why_do_some_pitches_on_a_synthesizer_sound/ | {
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"You may be experiencing [resonance](_URL_0_).\n\nBasically, most waves undergo interference in the environment and quickly lose energy. Some frequencies are tuned to the local environment so the waves build up on each other instead of messing each other up. Those frequencies seem louder as a result. They're not gaining extra energy so much as just losing less than other frequencies.\n\nIt could depend on the construction of your speaker, or the size and materials of the room."
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7zeatk | can someone please explain what pareto principle is and how it helps in decision making? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7zeatk/eli5_can_someone_please_explain_what_pareto/ | {
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"In a super ELI5 it's the 80 - 20 rule. Really what it means is that the majority of your problems (80%) will come from a small amount of rootcauses (20%) or if you relate it to sales that the majority of your sales/revenue (80%) will come from a handful of clients (20%).\n\nAnd how it helps in decision making is that it helps you focus on what's important. For instance in the industry I work in (Supply chain) when we look at quality errors/complaints you tend to find that the majority of them (give or take 80%) tend to be caused by the same small group of rootcauses (say 20%).\n\nSo if you now turn this around and look at all your problems, and then focus on fixing the top 20% of them you will have fixed the majority of your customer complaints (roughly 80%). And this helps you allocate resources. It makes sense to put the most amount of effort/best quality resources on fixing this 20%. The remaining 80% of problems are less important and go down on the priority list. \n\nSo really what it does is it tells you to focus on the small group of problems that are causing the majority of your problems. (Or focus on improving the relationship/upselling to your small group of customers that buy the most of your product/service) \n\nkeep in mind it's a rule of thumb and not an exact science. It just helps making quick decisions on where to focus your effort and resources.",
" > The principle states that 20% of the invested input is responsible for 80% of the results obtained.\n\nSo, say I want to tidy up my bathroom, but don't want to spend all morning going over every square inch. I spend a couple of minutes looking for the tasks that would make the biggest difference and do those. If I choose wisely, I can make the bathroom look 80% as good as a full top-to-bottom cleaning with 1/5 of the effort.\n\nOn trickier tasks, identifying the 20% of work to do is harder. Experience helps. Tools like statistics and Gantt charts can help, too.",
"1. The Pareto principle states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. \nThe simplest way to visualize (and used almost everywhere to explain Pareto principle) is the iceberg. Only 20% of the iceberg is above the sea level, while the rest is submerged, invisible to us.\nOther cases: \n80% of sales come from 20% of customers. \n20% of patients have been found to use 80% of healthcare resources. \n \n\n2. In decision making, the 80-20 ratio is not as important as the thought behind it.\n\n3. Imagine a situation in which customers of a particular car model complain about the constant breakdowns the car goes through. The company decides to do something about it - and after a lot of number-crunching, decides to give Sam (the manager) $100,000 to fix the problem. \n\nSam needs to decide where to invest the $100,000 so that the customer complains go down. What does he do? \n\nEach time a car breaks down, it can be traced back to a car component that malfunctions. Sam did an operations course as part of in-job training and has heard about the Pareto principle. \n\nIf Sam decides to follow the Pareto principle approach to decide where to invest $100,000, Sam will study all the breakdowns that the company has serviced. He now has a list of all each breakdown and the component that malfunctioned next to it. He will count the number of times a component caused a breakdown. He notices that a vital few components help explain most of the breakdowns. \n\nHe decides to invest the $100,000 in drastically improving ONLY the vital components. The result? Most of the breakdowns have stopped. \n\nIn the real world, it will be hard to say that exactly 20% of the car components will explain 80% of the breakdowns. However, we can definitely say that a vital few car components will explain most the breakdowns. Or in other words, Sam decided to invest in \"vital few component, over trivial many components\" \n\n\n[ I hope this helps you. It's the first time I'm posting on this Subreddit. If there's any way I can explain it better, please do share :) ]\n\n\n\n",
"The idea of a Pareto chart is it will let you bin things into categories. If I am building a widget for sales and they keep getting returned to me as the manufacturer, I can use this process to determine where to focus my improvement efforts.\n\nSo I make up general causes or returns based on similar categories:\n\nWrong size\n\nWrong color\n\nBroken in shipment\n\nBroken before shipment/not put together right\n\nThen I take all the return reasons and bin them into these general categories. Then I chart it out. Usually it is more than 4 categories but you get the idea. What I may find is that 3 of these each have about 5% of the returns making up only 15% of returns. \n\nBut maybe \"broken in shipment\" represents 85% fo the returns. SO I focus my decision making and improvement on that. I contract for a new shipper. Or we package them differently. Butthios is the area where I can get the most return for my invested money in research and improvement. \n\nThis decision tool helps you make decisions based on facts/actual numbers. Without doing the research/binning of the reasons you may actually have the idea that color being wrong might be the biggest problem in your widgets because the complaints phone line has tons of calls listed for wrong color, but only a few for broken calls. That could be due to the nature of your widget, When it is the wrong color they just complain, if it is broken, they just send it back for a refund with no complaint call.\n\nIt can be hard for a business to figure out what is not profitable and what will make them more profitable. It is very easy to get caught in perceptions and make decisions based on the wrong info or anecdotal info. \n\nYou need to figure out what part of the process to improve. Where does spending a little money get us the most bang for the buck? ",
"80% of these comments are trash and will get few if any upvotes. 20% of them will be at the top and will get 80% of the karma. \n\nIn a normal distribution, things regress towards the mean. You have an average, some people are better than average, some people are worse, but on average people are ok. \n\nPareto is not a normal distribution. It is a power law probability, and the average can go fuck themselves. The winners are really going to win. \n\nSee that bear over there? It fucks. A lot. It gets most of the food, fucks most of the lady bears, and has most of the stuff. \n\nSee those other 5 bears over there? They are loser bears who will be lucky to survive the winter. \n\nHow does this help in decision making? It basically says that you can say fuck it to 80% of things, they do not matter. \n\nThose 20% of things are REALLLLY important. They are everything, if you can control those things, you will get most everything. \n\n20% of people smoke 80% of the weed. If you are selling weed, you want to sell it to these heavy users and skip the looky-loos. \n\nPareto principal works with things that can are not bounded, like money. You have a few dudes with all the money and most everyone else with nothing. \n\n "
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espga1 | how does the bullet ballistic study work? how are they able to tell this particular bullet was fired only from this particular gun, something like dna test accuracy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/espga1/eli5_how_does_the_bullet_ballistic_study_work_how/ | {
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"They take the gun and put another bullet through it, and then compare that bullet to the one they have as evidence. The rifling inside gun barrels leaves it's own distinctive fingerprint on the bullet, so you compare the two to see if a bullet came from a specific gun.",
"Nowhere near as scientific or accurate. \n\nThe inside of the barrel *(the tube a bullet is pushed through)* has pieces which stick up very slightly *(called lands, and 'slightly' is in the neighborhood of 5/1000\" 0.005\")*, and the bullet is just barely enough smaller than the inside of the barrel that they scratch the sides of the bullet *(which is much softer than the metal of the barrel)*. \n\nTheir purpose is to set the bullet spinning, like an American football, so it's more stable in flight. \n\nSome brands have arrangements for the lands which are specifically characteristic to that brand - how many there are, how fast they twist, how deep they are, the relative size of the lands & grooves *(space between lands)*, or how they're formed in the barrel. So that can give a good clue about the bullet being fired from a gun of that brand *(or more often, it excludes certain brands)*. \n\nEach barrel also gets its own wear marks, though this part isn't as clear as TV shows make it out to be. So kinda like a shoe worn by someone who drags his right outer heel makes an identifiable print, those imperfections in the barrel can mark the bullet. \n\n\n_URL_0_"
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3zav2h | when dubbing a movie in a foreign language, how do they edit the actors voices out to replace them? | I'm watching a series (Vikings) right now and i have the option to switch between English and German. The sound effects sound the same in both versions, so i assume they didn't recreate *all the sound effects* afterwards. But you can't simply cut out the actors voices, can you?
Edit: Thanks guys, i actually learned a lot! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zav2h/eli5_when_dubbing_a_movie_in_a_foreign_language/ | {
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"Audio in film is made of a number of different \"tracks.\" One contains all of the actors voices recorded by the on-set mic or during the dubbing process, while others contain music, sound effects recorded on set, and other audio put into the film.\n\nWhen they replace the voice acting of a film, all they have to do is record the lines in the new language and replace the original voice track -- the rest of audio remains the same.",
"When they record a show or film what they generally do is try to get clean dialogue and nothing more. Sound effects from the swish of a sword to the sound of you dragging your chair back can all be added and mixed in later but can't (easily) be removed if it's in the original recording.\n\nSince all the non-dialogue is added in the sound mix the same content can be added to all the language tracks equally well.\n\nThe art of making all the little sounds and details you hear is called [foley](_URL_0_)",
"You can edit out the voices if you have access to original files made in production. Audio is produced in tracks; there is a track for voice, sound fx, music, etc. and then they are combined into a mix (a 2-track stereo, or 8 tracks for 7:1 surround, e.g.) So if you are able to get the premixed splits you can easily take out the voice.\n\n",
"I work in film/TV as a sound effects editor. I will lay out the process that goes into making a show. \n\nGenerally on a film/tv set, the sound recordist will generally record nothing but dialogue. You might get the occasional sound effects (e.g. opening a door), these are called pfx (production fx) and may/may not get included in the final mix of the film dependent on if the performance/sound is fitting.\n\nWhat happens next is the video editor edits the video and once that is locked, a sound editor will come in to add in all the sound effects. All the sounds you hear will be recreated like the footsteps and movement by a Foley artist to a big robotic creature by a sound editor/sound designer. At the same time a composer will also create the music. \n\nNow we get to the mix. All of these separate parts are now played simultaneously and is mixed by a re-recording mixer. When he is done, generally he will print a master track and stems. These stems are basically individual tracks that contain all the dialogue, all the sound effects and all the music. \n\nNow for dubbing, all that the dubber has to do is replace the dialogue stem (recording the new language that is synced to the original). Since we already have the sound effects and music stem to create the full mix, we just swap out the dialogue stem for which ever language you want. "
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2w0rii | - how can mattress stores (sleep one, mattress firm, wtc) always be closing? how do you know when one is really closing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w0rii/eli5_how_can_mattress_stores_sleep_one_mattress/ | {
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"Around here it is the fancy (Persian etc) rug stores that are always saying that they are closing...but they rarely if ever do.\n\nIt would seem that people would be on to them by now; must say something about people who want fancy rugs.",
"Probably because mattresses (like Persian rugs) are something that you rarely buy, so you don't notice whether the store is really closing or not. "
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balewg | why does draining a blister relieve the pain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/balewg/eli5_why_does_draining_a_blister_relieve_the_pain/ | {
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5k3ia1 | can someone explain australian healthcare? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5k3ia1/eli5_can_someone_explain_australian_healthcare/ | {
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"We're covered by Medicare for most procedures through the public health system for little to no out-of-pocket. For more expensive treatment, we may have to pay upfront, then get refunded from Medicare. For elective procedures, many people take out private health insurance, because the waiting lists are yuuuge in the public system. I can't speak for any major or chronic illnesses, but for your everyday treatment you're covered as long as you're a citizen.\n\nI've been to the hospital maybe 6 times in my life and have never paid a cent. Also, medication is super cheap for the most part if you are a welfare recipient. It's usually a flat fee of about 6 dollars. We complain a lot here, but really we're very lucky."
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6jbjj0 | where do animals in the wild, such as birds, go to die? with so many of them, i would expect to see many dead ones. or do animals of prey get to them first. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jbjj0/eli5_where_do_animals_in_the_wild_such_as_birds/ | {
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"They often go to quite hidden places to be alone to die. Also as you said often predators will get them first.",
"Well, a lot of creatures, when they know that death is imminent might seek out a hiding place, as they feel vulnerable. They want to be alone, they want to be safe...so they hide inside things, or behind things, or under things. My mothers cat died a few days ago, and when she realized that she was not long for this world, she crawled behind a couch that she had spent fifteen years sleeping on top of. She wanted to feel like she was protected, like she was shielded because she knew she was at a point where she otherwise could not protect herself. Cats hide behind the sofa to die, dogs hide under the porch. Birds hide in the branches of a tree, or a nest out of sight, and humans hide in their bedrooms, with the door closed and the curtains drawn. It's because we want to feel safe.\n\nEDIT: I'll keep talking to you all as long as I can. this sort of turned into a thing about losing pets, if you've lost a pet that you loved, I urge you to listen to three songs. Plea From a Cat Named Virtute, and Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure both by The Weakerthans, and Virtute at Rest by John K. Samson. Thanks everybody.",
"Very few animals drop dead and die of old age, generally they weaken to the extent to which they become easy prey for animals who have them for lunch, whether or not they were invited.",
"Dying animals are easy prey. Freshly dead animals are prime for scavengers. Circle of life and all.",
"death from old age is extremely rare in the natural world. more often than not, something bigger or faster than you, eats you.",
"There's been a dead rabbit on my apartments property for the past month in the middle of the complex. I have seen the entire decomposition cycle of a wild animal daily when I walk my dog.",
"I think most of the previous comments have accurately summarized why, though I'd like to add that often times, city maintenance workers may clean up/cover corpses. Anecdotal example: A squirrel was hit by a car just outside of my house. It was moved onto the sidewalk by a concerned passerby (no sense in letting scavengers become roadkill as well) and then the next day, I watched a city maintenance work cover the corpse in soil. [The Audubon Society of Portland](_URL_1_) says that the reason why you don't see piles of dead birds from window collisions is because predators & scavengers get to them first (crows, cats, coyotes, gulls, raccoons, sometimes dogs, various insects etc.) and because the corpses are cleaned up by the city. \nThere's also aspects of bird biology that make them less likely to be found as corpses: [they tend to be lightweight and have low body fat, and relatively thin skin, and hollow bones, so they decompose much more easily compared to mammals](_URL_0_)--plus when they hit the water, they float, so they're still accessible for scavengers as well as whatever bacteria live in the water.\n\n\nNone of the sources are peer-reviewed journals or anything like that--hopefully this answer still helps, in the case of birds specifically, in North America!\n\n*Edit due to /u/spideyosu's comment:* Originally I included a reference to a spurious study that estimated that domestic cats cause about a billion bird-deaths a year, and included that as a cause for the relatively low number of bird corpses you see. It turns out that since it's [pretty difficult to figure out how many cats even have access to the outdoors at all](_URL_2_), it's by extension basically impossible to estimate the actual number of birds that killed by cats per year. Also important is the consideration that cats' safety in general might be jeopardized if they gain too much infamy from unreliable data (which I cited by mistake, and have deleted from the original text. I apologize!)\n\n\n*Edit To Add* Something else that I didn't think of, but that other comments have alluded to, is that it might just be that we don't see the bird corpses because birds, being for the most part capable of flight, are probably more likely to die in places where we'd never be able to see them unless we spent a lot of time walking around and in between houses (thanks to /u/s1mmeh for that consideration!). Birds that seek refuge in trees, between houses, or up in the nooks and crannies of buildings would probably never be found by passerby. I imagine that's what *might* be happening to the pigeons near where I live, if they're not picked off before they die by hawks/falcons or something.",
"It's insane how quickly weak or dying creatures are consumed. I found a wasp inside my window who was near death. I gave it some watered down honey and came back with a glass to transport it outside. I set it down outside our door next to a tree with more honey water and went back inside to get seeds for the birds and chipmunks. Came out 15 seconds later to see a chipmunk chomping away on a tasty honey filled wasp.",
"Animals close to dying are easy to catch and predators aren't all that squeamish about eating something that has been dead for a bit. \nToss the remnants of a butchered deer in the woods and a night later you'll only find scattered bones left. Food you don't have to hunt down? Awesome!\n\nSmall animals also decompose very quickly. There isn't much actual body mass under all the fluff. A small song bird or mouse or bat is devoured by maggots down to the bones in days. ",
"The older ones are often eaten. My cat kills many mice and birds. Most are not young ones. Most are older.\n\nMost animals die in the winter. As they are often slower to react. There are a ton of leafs on the ground. They will often get buried under brush. Soil can cover them and camouflage them. Often you don't see a dead animal. You see the higher activity of flies in the area. \n",
"As others have mentioned, hiding. However some may have habits I know ants have - they have a \"graveyard\" where they just sorta wander to when they're dying. My college kinda sorta has a deer graveyard in the neighboring woods, really creepy. Could be a local Hunter, but if so it's 100% illegal hunting - so I'd hope he hasn't killed dozens of deer without literally anyone noticing.",
"I can only vouch for domesticated cats, but they seem to go off to a quiet place where they can't be found. My\nBaby of 16 years got a blood parasite from fleas and rapidly lost weight. I got him when I was 7 and basically grew up with him. He went from 20 pounds to prob 9-10 in a couple of weeks. I was feeding him high calorie prescription food with a syringe for days trying to get him strong while the medicine was working. One day I put him on the front porch to lay in the sun, his favorite spot. I can back an hour later and he was gone. It was one of the most heartbreaking things. I spent weeks trying to get him better and it never happened and I never got to say goodbye. \n\nA few years later his sister who was about 18 did the same thing. She would have tremors here and there and was starting to act senile. My mom let her out on the porch. She never went far. Just sat on the chair and watched the cars. One day she just wasn't there. \n\nI think they know when it's their time and find somewhere to be in peace for their last moments. It's heartbreaking not to be there for them. To comfort them and show them love in the final breaths when you have such a bond. \n\nThanks. Now I'm pretty much balling. :-/ but I loved them so much and it still hurts. ",
"Wait so what about penguins?",
"Go to rivers and other sources of water as a forester I've set up miles of stream buffers and have encountered more in those areas than anywhere else. Also yes scavengers are very good at cleaning them up.",
"Animals of prey don't usually eat dying/dead animals, since they want fresh healthy meat to eat. Scavengers like vultures or crocodiles, several fungi will find dead animals and eat them up so there's nothing for us to see. And lots also get hit by cars and the government has someone pick those up often. If you lived somewhere less developed/more farmy you'd see lots more dead animals around. ",
"You'd be surprised how many scavenger animals are around. Birds. Raccoons. Opossums. \n\nAnd then insects. Maggots and ants will devour whatever is left of a dead animal in days. ",
"A mixture of they tend to seek a hiding place or shelter when they die and nature consumes them pretty quick. People have already given examples of smaller things but I remember seeing a badger be decompose once. It was interesting.\n\nI guess it was hit by a car and sought shelter in a nearby field which I used to walk my dog each day. It was dead the first time I saw it but intact. Over the next couple of weeks it was slowly picked apart by larger predators and birds (it was big so didn't move), the eyes went first probably to birds, which also allowed ants and smaller insects to get inside it and it just vanished from there. Eventually it was a skin and bones until it vanished one day either cleaned up by the farmer or some other predator.",
"A full size coyote (about 40-60lbs) will turn to a skeleton and fur within a couple of months, and that's without larger predators feeding on it (just insects and maybe rodents).\n\nAnything smaller usually gets found and eaten by larger animals quickly. If not, then the plant life grows over them fast as well so we don't really see even half of what may habe died within the area we're travelling (I'm talking from a rural point of view). Cities are just cleaner up by workers, if other animals don't find them first.",
"Very few creatures die of old age. Most die prematurely. If they are diseased and social they'll isolate themselves. If they're preyed upon little is left. When they get killed by people we find their road kill or we do away with their waste. The animals likely to not be preyed upon, like apex predators, are not many in number due to energy loss in the food chain and the low carrying capacity for populations at the top levels. But it's also important to realize that something like 90-95% of terrestrial vertebrates, are humans or their domesticated animals. Wild animals are making up a smaller and smaller portion of the animals in the world and their habitats are disappearing. There simply isn't that high of a probability that you will often find dead wild animals. ",
"As a general rule the older and closer to death most animals get the more likely they are to become pray or road kill. So that's where lots of them go. In a crows belly. ",
"Used to work for the local council waste/cleansing team call centre. Can confirm regularly sent out the bin men to pick up roadkill and other dead animals on the streets of my town. We would log each call, so that if it was a pet animal we could let the person know their pet had been found. Sad, but also useful closure I think. ",
"Do you not see dead ones? You should go outside sometime!\n\nThat said, nature is pretty good at recycling its waste! There are many animals that will eat other dead animals. Especially in the summer this process goes incredibly quickly.\nWhere I live, we have many rabbits, mice, squirrels, foxes and different kinds of birds and those are just the animals I know about because I see them every day. I would be surprised if many of these animals actually survive to die of old age. I imagine most of the squirrels and rabbits end up as fox lunch while the one or two dead and decaying foxes I have seen usually had crows and all kinds of insects all over them.\n\nStill, rabbits and such probably retreat to their lairs if they are sick/old. They will feel vulnerable and as they do, they hide in their holes and nests and hollowed out trees, where they will then quietly die and once they have (and sometimes before) other animals will start eating them.",
"[\"Carrion\"](_URL_0_) basically a classification of animal that eats dead things, also called \"scavengers\". Be it insect, reptile, bird, mammal, reptile, fish, or whatever. Some have massive adaptions like vultures, others like coyotes simply are opportunistic enough to take advantage of a free meal. In most environments, there is something that evolved to eat dead things, it is why complete skeletal remains of large vertebrates are rare and highly valued by for scientific research. ",
"I don't know a lot. But I know that seagulls go way out into sea. Salmon go the place of their spawning. But I feel most animals are picked off by other animals or humans beforehand. ",
"My city has a WhatsApp number where you can point things out like if something is on the road or even dead animals. The city employs people who are jobless and let them clean it. Otherwise, they lose their welfare. \n\nIt's not really that strict but I loved to do it for some reason. Just going around town and helping people. However, I did it voluntarily because I was bored and was waiting to be let into a special school. Which did not work out btw :/\n\nWhen there is a dead animal not in a that public hotspot, like in the woods or just brushes they let it lay there and nature will take care of it.",
"Believe it or not getting old as an animal isn't that great. They have no social security, poor health care, and children that rarely help the elderly. Perhaps taking a quick bullet to the head by a hunter, who pays to protect the habitat, and then eats the animal, is a better alternative to a predator eating it alive ass first. ",
"The way I look at it is... think about how much bird shit you see on the ground. That will last about as long as a bird corpse.\n\nNow bird shit every 15 minutes but only die once in 20 years. This isnt even factoring in that in that sick old birds are not out fluttering about like they are when they are pooping. When birds get sick or ill they try to hide it and just stay still someplace safe in the woods. So that reduces it even further. Also we are not talking about birds who get eaten as prey. So the number below is most likely tripled.\n\nSo yeah... think about that the next time you see a bird poop on the ground or your car. To see a corpse would be at least 700,000 times less likely than seeing that poop.",
"I walk dogs for a living and have noticed many dead animals along my routes (walking and driving). Many times a young bird that is not good at flying will fall to their death and are usually found in the grass or road. If an animal like a cat or raccoon is hit by a car and they don't make it to a hiding spot to die they will be by the side of the road until the body is either covered/taken away or eaten by a scavenger. Animals have a tendency to hide when in great pain or close to death so with cases of starvation you usually won't see the corpse. Micro organisms and insects also help to make sure corpses deteriorate",
"I'm sure many have said it already but nature is filled with amazing clean up crews.\n\nfrom the the mammal and bird scavengers, down to ants, maggots, and other bugs that will make a corpse disappear insanely fast.\n\nIn fact I find it more surprising when I do come across something dead and the rare occasions I walk by the same spot a few days later and its still there \nBecause that's pretty rare\n\nThere's so many types of things that go after corpses, down to the bacteria in the soil itself\n\nPlus they're usually not going to die somewhere where'd you'd see them in the first place because by the time they're even close to that weak a predator gets them.\n\nAnyway I just think it's really interesting and I call them \"cleaning crews\" because there have been a couple of times when something died in or near my house (like a critter in the wall type deal) and I thought \"well I could call someone.....or just wait like a day or so and it will probably be dealt with\"\n\nSure enough, a day or so later and suddenly there's no bad smell.\n\nThis might not work as well in a city or a neighborhood where people use all kinds of poisons \nBut I live in a sort of half rural have urban area where my house is surrounded by woods and there's no shortage of things to take care of stuff.\n\nHeck if I were really lazy, I could leave a dead cockroach on the floor and ants would take care of it in a couple of days ",
"When I was little we had two pet Budgerigar (birds). The male was getting sick and gradually got worse. In his last moment he had snuck out though one of the food bowls, that were attached to the cage, to hide and not have his birdie wife have to witness it. \n\nThe amazing part is that they had never ever used this food bowl to escape, which means they knew about it but only used it in a time of absolute need. Clever little rascal! ",
"Years ago I happened to look up at a dove flying toward me and almost immediately it folded it's wings and dived into my chest from maybe forty feet up with enough impact to knock me on my butt. Chest hurt for several days. It was either an anti people kamikaze or died in flight.",
"I live in a coastal city so there's plenty of seagulls and pigeons alike. On several occasions I've seen dead birds on the side of the road or alleyways or in a parking lot. One time last year was particularly disconcerting, as a seagull had died on a sidewalk of a very busy/bustling area. Right next to a major road and major food places and businesses. That seagull corpse was there for weeks. Made me wonder why no one had cleaned it up yet.. maybe the city maintenance where I live is just really bad :-/ \nAlthough when it happened, it made me think about OP's question and I figured I had my answer lol",
"Umm, not an expert, but I can think of a few reasons.\n\nFirst of all, location. Wild animals tend to die of two reasons; being attacked, or death by injury/illness. Others are more rare; drowning, old age, or injury leading to instant death.\n\nIf it was injured or infected, it would move to a safe place - its nest, or a hiding place of some sort. There it will either heal or die, but either way it will be out of sight. \n\nIf it was attacked by a predator or possibly a scavenger, it will be eaten. If it was attacked by a herbivore, it will probably be in plain sight, left to rot or be eaten. \n\nAbout rotting; some googling reveals that small birds decompose in a matter of weeks, and larger birds like ravens, hawks, etcetera, decompose in a month or two. If there are insect mounds or nests nearby, it's even faster. \n\nAnd then there's a point many others have raised; humans. When we see dead animals, we move it out of the way. Spot a roadkill, and I'll bet that in a few days someone has moved it to the side of the road. The government also employs people who remove carcasses and bury them nearby to feed them back into nature. \n\nLastly... there's one thing I haven't seen yet. Cats. Do you know how many cats there are on this planet? There are hundreds of millions. Low estimates range around 200 to 300 cats, but some people have estimated the number with feral cats accounted for, and end up with numbers as high as 600 to 800 million. And being one of the most popular pets available, cats are absolutely everywhere. Any bird smaller than a cat's head and several that are larger (think pigeons) can be eaten by them, and most city birds *are* that small. Ask any cat owner how many dead birds they find on their doorstep - several birds every week. And that's what house cats do - feral cats don't come home at night, don't play with yarn or lay on your couch. They hunt whenever they don't sleep. I think it's safe to say that cats are in part responsible for the disappearance of animal carcasses.",
"I've had 3 birds die in my yard. The first one months ago, just lied there, with a tiny pool of blood beneath it. Should be noted that we have many dogs but its feathers weren't ruffled or anything.\n\nThe second one happened recently and was on our smaller yard, it was cold and had probably been there for a while, a few days max.\n\nThe last one was 2 days ago, almost in the same place as the first one, and I noticed it after letting the dogs out (it was just outside the door) after I had gone and bought pizza. It was still warm and must have either died of shock when I let the dogs out or from flying into the window or something else.\n\nLike the first one the third one had a small pool of blood under it and no visible bite marks, I'm just wondering why I've seen so many dead birds while most people seem to never have seen it...",
"Great question. I've wondered myself. I found a dead bird on my backyard patio, I assumed he killed himself flying into the side of the house. I left him there for a day or two hoping some critters would do the clean up for me, but no such luck. Now I have a weird dead body stain next to my backyard hose. It doesn't stink though.",
"I've seen full sized dead deer disappear in a matter of a day or two, foxes, skunks, crows, raccoons, vultures, insects, hawks, even dogs, all have at the carcass. ",
"I actually witnessed a white ibis die recently. I live by a lake in central Florida and there are always groups of white ibises coming and going. One day I saw something white just laying in the grass. I discovered it was a seemingly tired but not visibly injured ibis. It allowed me to pet it and it just would slowly open and close its eyes. I kept an eye on it from my bedroom window to see what it would do. This is the sad part. As the sun began to set, it started slowly inching its way to the water, presumably to drink some water. Well, it kept going farther into the water and drowned itself. : ( Very sad to watch, but I guess it knew it was in a bad spot and was scared of the approaching night.",
"Do you actually walk around and look, though? I probably run into at least one or two dead birds per week while walking my dog.",
"My backyard. Second dead blue jay in a month ugh. Both seem to be natural, no blood or anything indicating an animal got them. ",
"You're at the top of the food chain that's why. Everything below you is a meal to some other creature. When animals die, there is always another opportunistic creature looking for a free meal. You not seeing it is a testament of how efficient nature is.",
"I walked out to start my car one morning and saw a mostly headless rabbit in my yard. I assume something got it and then maybe got spooked away from it's lunch since it looked fairly fresh.\n\nAnyway, I threw it off into a corner and figured nature would take its course because I had no idea WTF else to do with this thing. the only parts left after a day or two was a spine and a foot.",
"Do posts get recycled or something? I swear I read this before, with the same responses. Weird.",
"Seriously dude. I invite you to my farm 2,000 acres in Australia. Dead things everywhere, nature, animals, people...ahh umm peep...purk...sherk...sheep....yeah sheep! Dead sheep too! No people. No dead people here... ",
"I was thinking of this yesterday. I ran over a Turtle with my lawn mower and I just stopped and walked away for a few minutes. I came back to finish and he was gone.\n\nPoor guy.",
"One of my friends was telling me of how he had climbed to the roof of a building with his friends, and apparently there were heaps and heaps of dead birds on the window ledges.",
"Had baseball sized hail two weeks ago at my house. A couple of birds died during that storm and I had to remove their corpses from my driveway. So even weather events can kill birds. I've also had some just randomly dead in my yard that I've had to carry out. I didn't notice one dead in my front yard by a tree for so long its nearly completely decomposed, so I just left it (all that's left are bones and a few feathers). Same story for the squirrels. So it definitely happens, you just have to go look. \n\nMy wife doesn't like to see dead animals, so I try to carry them off before she notices. Could be the same kind of thing here in the sense that people generally don't like having dead animals laying around. They smell bad primarily, and nasty crap loves to live there (maggots, flies, bacteria/disease), so humans tend to keep that cleaned up.",
"I have used ant beds to clean deer and cow skulls. At least here in Texas it takes a few hours for something dead to be covered in fireants. Then it only takes a few more hours for the ants to strip it to nothing. ",
"There are in fact places where animals seem to go to die. Locally, we call them highways. ",
"Bit late to the party, but in the instance of sea creatures such as whales, they die, and sink to the ocean floor. It is then that thousands of detritivores start eating and decomposing the carcass. Cool fact, there is a worm called the osedax that will burrow into the whale bones and eat the marrow, also the sexual dimorphism is weird as fuck. Give them a Google! ",
"After reading these replies I have to find a threat about mourning animals and if some animals actually have kinds of funerals. ",
"I've read some of the comments and they make a lot of sense, particularly _URL_0_ small animals and birds. I've noticed the occasional dead deer on the side of the road after it's hit by a car. They seemed particularly prevalent in PA during the Bush recession when (I suspect) animal clean up services from local governments lost funding to higher priorities. I never saw crows, vultures or other carrion eaters chowing down, and some of those deer looked like they'd been lying there for over a week without their skin and fur being disturbed. Is there something about larger animals that makes them off-putting for Mother Nature's clean up crew? Thanks.",
"Nature happens fast. Scavengers such as buzzards and raccoons will clean up a dead carcass pretty quick. What they leave behind gets taken care of by maggots, worms and such. ",
"Most things that eat dead/dying things are more active at night. You may not notice many carcasses because they have already been eaten, most often times before they make it to carcass.",
"My back yard. However, we've had a family of crows for four decades, and they are a great clean up crew. However, this spring I watched them grabbing and carrying off baby chickadees from our families and they are all gone now.",
"In Vegas, they drink from the vomit and feces filed stagnant water sitting on the side of the road and then die right there. Most everywhere else, they get eaten. ",
"They're there even if you can't see them. I find tons of dead animals all the time but their rarely fresh. It's usually just some leftover fur or bones that I run into. You'd also be surprised at the number of live animals within a few feet of you. Last week I was clearing trees with a chain saw after a storm and I almost stepped on a turkey sitting on its nest. I had been in the area for hours making a huge racket and thought I was alone. I didn't think 2 foot tall grass could hide a turkey until I was within 3 feet of it. The other thing that would surprise you is the sheer amount of literal shit that covers everything off the trail. Bird shit, raccoon shit, and deer shit are everywhere. EVERYWHERE! That's just the stuff big or numerous enough to easily notice.",
"Into my wood burning stove. Yes, through the chimney, down the stove pipe, ...and into my stove. Where they are incinerated a few at a time. Maybe not all the birds in the world, but I would guess a large percentage come here to die. I swear I'm a nice guy.",
"If there's something dead then you usually smell it before you see it, unless its fresh. When I go hiking I can usually smell a dead dog or deer. Even small things like birds or squirrels smell when you're close by. ",
"Scavengers are a lot more efficient than you realize. If an animal dies in the wilderness and nothing finds it and eats it, that would be the rare occurrence.\n\nTo us, finding a dead bird would be rare even if we were actively searching, but to a dog or a buzzard, a dead animal might as well have flashing lights all around it.",
"Despite that fact that birds come in large flocks, it is very rare for people to see dead birds out and about. Most birds die only from natural causes and therefore live for only a few years. Birds will usually seek out secluded areas because sick birds feel vulnerable and want to hide away, and therefore they just die there. But they usually won't be found there either. \n\nCarcasses can disappear pretty quickly in nature because of the food chain. Small birds are a vital part of the food chain and therefore, scavengers such as rats, wolves, cats, and foxes will seek out these hideouts that birds tend to die in and of course, consume them. They will even eat the alive ones, but those birds don't resist because they are too weak. \n\nEven if predators don't find them, they will be washed or blown into the gutters and then to the sewers. Birds also die at the wheels of automobiles and are often repeatedly run over by other cars until they are part into the pavement. \n\nGenerally, dead birds are not found because of their small body mass which makes them vulnerable to any of the things mentioned above. I'm sure if you actively seek out dead birds in the bushes and the tree-holes, you'll have a better chance.",
"The desert around Moab has a lot lower density of wildlife than a heavily wooded park. One time there was a dead cow on one of the hikes I took my dog on. It took a two weeks for there to be nothing but bones. In two more weeks, not even bones were left. That was a cow exposed in the desert. \n\nWith the higher density of life in your park, you could have reducef that time to 1 week, I'd expect. It would take a lot of mice, birds and squirrels to be the mass of a cow. \n\nFrankly, I'd expect a squirrel carcass to be gone without a trace in an hour, tops. ",
"tl;dr Animals often sneak away and die in privacy. They then decompose quickly. \n\nOk so since the bot removed my overly simplified answer I'll give you another one. \n\nIn my city for example the most common animals are rats, rabbits, pigeons and seagulls. Pigeons and seagulls most often die on rooftops, because it's both their primary shelter and privacy is easily accommodated. \n\nRats are small and live most of their city lives where we don't see them, so naturally they aren't going to be found dead very often either. \n\nRabbits on the other hand die in your local park bushes and are cleared out by whoever manages the park in the regular cleanups. They aren't easily spotted unless you're gardening tbh. \n\nNow you're thinking \"But he asked about the wild and you're talking about a city.\" Yes, that is correct. Animals in \"the wild\" act much the same way - when they're sick or feel that they're about to die, they waddle off to a secluded spot and die in solitude. After they've died the corpse is exposed to the ruthlessness of the elements and therefore decompose rapidly, thus concealing them from you. \n"
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[],
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"https://ornithology.com/why-dont-you-see-dead-birds-laying-around/",
"http://audubonportland.org/issues/hazards/buildings/faq",
"http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-really-know-that-cats-kill-by-the-billions-not-so-fast"
],
[],
[],
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6oskqu | how does the koenigsegg regera accelerate to these crazy speeds with only 1 gear? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6oskqu/eli5_how_does_the_koenigsegg_regera_accelerate_to/ | {
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"Hybrids are funny\n\nAt low speeds( < 30 mph) the wheels are only driven by the wheel mounted electric motors and the engine just spins a hydraulic clutch not doing much\n\nAt higher speeds the hydraulic coupling locks the engine and the crank shaft electric motor to the wheels.\n\nThe reason we have gears is because internal combustion engines provide low torque and power at low RPMs but significantly more at higher RPMs. Electric motors don't. Electric motors produce full torque at 0 RPM and can provide full power across their range. Tying the two together gives a very flat power band, with the electric motor covering for the ICE when its at its weakest\n\nWhen at low RPMs the ICE doesn't generate much torque or power but the electric motor does resulting in tons of torque and its full 215 HP. At medium speeds the electric motor is generating medium torque but still full power, the ICE is generating medium torque and medium power. At high speeds the load will be mostly on the ICE because it generates so much more power than the electric motor once its up to its target speed."
]
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y3u6b | what actually is the futurist notion of "singularity"? | I understand it sort of vaguely, but my philosophy teacher wants bullet points before we go back to school. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/y3u6b/eli5_what_actually_is_the_futurist_notion_of/ | {
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"* The time interval between major technological developments is decreasing over time.\n\n* Based on the historical trend, within a century or so, that interval will reach zero.\n\n* Since it's not actually possible for every technological development to happen simultaneously, something weird and unpredictable is going to happen before then.\n\n\nNow, you might ask \"what counts as a major development\"? The answer is \"whatever a futurist needs to demonstrate they are right\".",
"... So you're using this subreddit for homework?!",
"Basically, the Singularity (or Technological Singularity) is a hypothetical scenario in the near/distant future (no definite dates on when it will happen, or if it ever will) where computers will become advanced enough to simulate the human brain perfectly. Basically, this would allow you to \"upload\" your mind to a computer. If it were hooked up to a robot, you could even move around and make small talk with people like you used to.\n\nNow, you said that this is for a philosophy class, so I'll focus on that. As you can imagine, the singularity introduces a bunch of philosophical (among other) dilemmas. Plenty of philosophers have constructed scenarios with similar lines of thinking, such as Descartes' ['Evil Demon'](_URL_1_), now often rendered through the thought problem, [Brain in a Vat](_URL_0_). \n\nBut the singularity brings into question the very nature of what consciousness/thought is, and how it is tied to physical phenomena. After all, what the singularity is essentially trying to do is replicate a biological process with a technological one. People have argued back and forth about whether it's even possible to simulate the brain with such precision (though I'm not a neurologist or electrical engineer, so I can't really say for sure). But, assuming you could \"perfectly simulate\" the brain in a computer, then your troubles are only beginning.\n\nFor starters, would you actually 'feel' the change? Would you begin to live as the computer, or would you simply die, and an exact copy spring up? Sure others wouldn't notice the difference, but some people are treating this like a ticket to immortality, and so they'd want to be sure that they would take on the life of the computer (so to speak). And further, imagine if you could simulate someone's brain perfectly, and keep them alive. Would they feel like they were two people, brain and CPU? Or again, would the two be separate, merely identical? \n\nNow, there are a couple other things that are more technical, but still subjective enough to be philosophy (kinda). First, it brings up the question of whether machines can really be alive, or feel thoughts. For instance, the human brain isn't just binary electrical impulses. There are neurotransmitters like acetylcholine, seratonin, etc. By contrast, computers simply [read bits, write bits, and erase bits](_URL_3_). Though, some would argue that this doesn't preclude simulation of emotions, and that ultimately anything can be simulated with binary code, it just may take a horrifically long executable program.\n\nAnd finally, there is the question of whether or not our brains can adapt to handle the different sensory inputs of a robot. In other words, our brains, and indeed our entire nervous system, have evolved to take in a certain range of information: taste, temperature, touch, pain, sound, vision, etc. But, if a computer simulation robbed us of some of these inputs, or even all of them, would our brains function the same way? Even crazier, could we adapt to take in more information than before?\n\nI suppose one interesting source regarding the fusion of biology and technology that's already happening is with Kevin Warwick, who **actually has working cybernetic implants in his body.** [Here's a TedX Talk he gave for those interested.](_URL_2_)\n\nSo, that's about it. If any electrical engineering/neurology dual majors want to jump in, it'd be much appreciated. ;) \n\n**EDIT:** Well, it seems my entire basis for what the singularity is was flawed, and that it's really about the emergence of a greater-than-human artificial intelligence. My apologies. :(",
"Here is the basic outline:\n\n-Humans are smart enough to build and improve computers.\n\n-If we make computers that are as smart as us those computers will also then be able to do what we do, build and improve computers.\n\n-Computers can then improve themselves rapidly (we already know they can do many things better than us just consider what they could do if they were also as intelligent as us).\n\n-The idea behind the singularity is that this improvement would happen so rapidly that our ability NOW to predict THEN is non-existent. If that were to happen things would change so quickly that the world would look nothing like we could imagine.\n\nSo, why does a computer being as smart as us result in a singularity when there are already billions of people that smart walking around? Well, because you can't just change some code or add some extra RAM to a human brain (yet?). Computers could make these improvements."
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8HeFNJjuj0",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine"
],
[]
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6w4a4t | why are "official" places so against po boxes? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6w4a4t/eli5_why_are_official_places_so_against_po_boxes/ | {
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"These places want more than just to be able to send you mail; they need to know where you live. For example, your DMV address will be used by the police if your vehicle does illegal things. Your job needs to know so they can deduct the correct tax and the bank probably has a similar story. In many places it would be easy to have a PO Box is a different state from your residence."
]
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2n3uob | if the lunar landing was real, why hasn't any country in the world visited the moon in more than 40 years? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2n3uob/eli5_if_the_lunar_landing_was_real_why_hasnt_any/ | {
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"text": [
"Because there's no reason to waste money on going there. Nothing is to be gained. "
]
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6o9c0k | how is car gps usage free? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6o9c0k/eli5_how_is_car_gps_usage_free/ | {
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"Once you pay for the console and access to the software (usually an expensive package) the U.S. military provides free access to GPS. U.S. taxpayers are paying for the service.",
"Your GPS isn't eating bandwidth or communicating with some satellite. It's entirely reception. Satellites are sending out a signal. Your device is receiving them from multiple satellites, and calculates its position based on what it receives. ",
"GPS was originally for military use only. If a civilian was using GPS in the 90s their location was not pin-point exact because of some intentional selective availability. \n\nClinton made a directive around 2000 that removed the selective availability and civilian use became very reliable. \n\nThe maps like TomTom and Garmin and such are privately made so you may need to pay for updates or subscriptions. But the satellite signal is free courtesy of the US government and your taxes. ",
"Think of standing in a field, with three mountains off in the distance. \nOn top of each one of those mountains is a guy with an extremely bright flashlight, in fact, three flashlights, one red, one green, and one white. Every second the people on the top of those mountains flash one of those flashlights, first they all flash the red one, then a second later they all flash the green one, then they all flash the white one, then repeat. \nIf you had a sensitive enough stopwatch, you could record the difference in time of each flash and figure out how long it took to get to you and use triangulation to figure out how far away you were from each one and therefore determine your exact location. \nThat's all that is happening with GPS. The satellites are transmitting a satellite number and a time code, over and over and over, multiple times every second. \nYour GPS receiver knows what time it is, and can determine how long each of those time codes it's picking up differ from it's internal clock. So once it picks up three or four time codes from three or four satellites, it can then do the math to find out where you are, as it knows how fast radio waves travel. \nThe satellites themselves were set up to just autobroadcast their information forever. They were set up for the military to use, so that's who is paying the bills to keep them up in the air, and to replace them when they wear out. \nPrivate companies figured out how to read the time code data that was being transmitted endlessly, and from there it was easy to build a device to do the rest.",
"GPS signals are broadcast like radio. It is only a one-way transmission, so one set of satellites can cover the entire planet.\n\nThose satellites are government owned and paid for with tax dollars. Also, the government launched them for its own purposes, we kind of get to use them as a side benefit."
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4bifi3 | how do people learn they're allergic to something? | I hear that some people can have some pretty life threatening reactions to allergies. In these cases, how do they learn they have this allergy without having an awful reaction first?
The only resources I can find involve watching out for bad signs in your kids. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4bifi3/eli5_how_do_people_learn_theyre_allergic_to/ | {
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"Ideally, you go to an allergist as a kid. They prick your arm a bunch of times and add allergens and see which cause a reaction.\n\nMany allergic reactions get worse as you get older. A child may have much more mild allergic reactions to peanuts, but as an adult that reaction may be deadly. That's why you should watch for signs in your kids.\n",
"You can get a scratch test where you go to a clinic and they scratch your skin with various potential allergens. Depending on how your skin reacts, a doctor can tell you if you are allergic to them or not. ",
"Mine was genetic. My dad is allergic to onion and garlic, so we didn't have a lot of that in the house growing up. About 10-15 years ago I noticed I would get sick when I would go to In-N-Out and get burgers with friends. I started to order it without onions and I wouldn't get sick anymore. I then noticed that at other restaurants I went to, dishes that had onion and garlic would make me sick, too. It's definitely gotten worse now that I'm older. It's unfortunate because onion and garlic is in so many things!"
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1tg5ad | where does peppermint oil, or any other kind of plant oil, come from? | Plants don't have fat, right? Oil is fat, I believe. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tg5ad/eli5_where_does_peppermint_oil_or_any_other_kind/ | {
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"text": [
"Oil is, well, oil. Many plants don't have much of it, but it comes directly from the plant.\n\nIn the case of [peppermint oil](_URL_0_), the yield is only around 0.1-1.0%. It is extracted using \"steam distillation\" - a type of distillation where steam is added to the product being distilled in order to prevent the high temperatures used in distillation from damaging the product."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.essentialoils.co.za/essential-oils/peppermint.htm#Extraction"
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ca28h7 | why do people freak out when you "disrespect the flag" but if you go to the beach you'll find half a dozen people sitting on american flag beach towels? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ca28h7/eli5_why_do_people_freak_out_when_you_disrespect/ | {
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"Because it isn’t really disrespecting the flag that they care about. That’s just a proxy for their disagreement with the protesters who use the flag as a symbol of the issue their protest is intended to highlight. They are uncomfortable being direct about their disagreement, so they attempt to reframe the issue in a way that makes people less sympathetic to the protesters.\n\nEdit: Words",
"TL;DR: It's complicated.\n\nA couple different reasons, depending on the person:\n\n* The simplest: They're using the flag to try and gain moral superiority over a group they disagree with. Sometimes, disrespecting the flag *is* a method of protest: burning a flag is a more extreme protest practice (although burning is the preferred method of retiring a flag, it is a *dignified* burning, so burning it as a protest is inherently disrespectful to the flag). If you turn on Fox, you can get an example of this today: chances are they could be discussing football players not standing for the national anthem. They don't care about the flag, they're just using it for moral superiority.\n\n* More nuanced: Although the section of the US Code ([4 U.S. Code § 8](_URL_0_) for the curious) which describes the proper treatment of the flag has been ruled as unenforceable as it violates the First Amendment (free speech), it is still used as a guideline of how to treat the flag. **The act of wearing an actual flag is disrespectful: clothing with the flag on it (even if it is entirely flag-patterned) is not a flag.** The same goes for a towel: it's a towel, not a flag, so you can toss it on the ground without disrespecting the flag.\n\nTo make things even more interesting, the US military regularly disrespects the flag: the flag should never be used to hold or carry anything. Yet it is tradition that at a military funeral, one shell casing from each volley of the three-volley salute will be put into the flag draping the casket when it is folded and presented to the next of kin."
]
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[],
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"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/4/8"
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7x625t | why is it sometimes after napping we feel more exhausted than when we first went to sleep and other times we feel energized? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7x625t/eli5_why_is_it_sometimes_after_napping_we_feel/ | {
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"You reach different levels of sleep. You sleep in cycles. A quick nap will keep you from going too deep into the cycle. When youre in the deepest part of your cycle called REM it is harder to wake up. Now im not sure what exactly makes you reach these different levels...",
"You have 5 stages of sleep :\n\nStage 1: your mind begins to drift off, you transition in and out of consciousness\n\nStage 2: light sleep - heart rate begins to slow, the core body temperature decreases, eye movement stops and brain waves slow.\n\nStage 2 is the nap money zone because it's during this stage your brain gets rid of all the useless information it's collected throughout the day. So if you wake up during this, you'll feel refreshed, energized, and your mind will feel more clear.\n\nStages 3-5 are deep sleep, the nap danger zone. If you wake up during these stages, you'll feel disoriented and groggy because you're interrupting some serious processes that happen during these stages like muscle and tissue replenishment - which requires your muscles to be temporarily paralyzed. "
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6if4vz | does penis size actually change through lifestyle habits? | Edit: I guess I'm mostly going towards diet. Like the rumor that mountain dew code red or using certain drugs shrinks the penis | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6if4vz/eli5_does_penis_size_actually_change_through/ | {
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"If you have rolls of fat, little turtle will hide its head and appear tiny. When you have lower bf% it will come out of its shell",
"I'm not anything resembling a doctor, so take this as you will, but there are at least two ways that lifestyle seems to affect it. For starters, I think penis length is relative to the pubic bone. In other words, 1\" of fat covering takes away 1\" from your length. Also, there was a guy on here that was highly active, then had an accident and became paralyzed from the dick down, then had surgery to be able to manually pump it erect. He basically used it as an excuse to post a massive album of dick pics, but one thing I took away was how much bigger and stretched out it looked when he was sexually active."
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2lws4j | what makes dog "treats" taste better than regular dog food (to dogs)? | It seems like dogs always become super attentive/come running when they hear "treat" or "cookie". What makes these canine edibles more tasty than regular old dog food? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lws4j/eli5_what_makes_dog_treats_taste_better_than/ | {
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"Perhaps it's the novelty of having something, *anything*, other than the kibble they eat the rest of the time. ",
"Its protein and fat content is higher. (Which is why it generally costs more per pound) ",
"the same think that makes chocolate and bacon taste better to you than broccoli and chicken breast.\n\nthey are more dense in fat and protein and/or carbohydrates. "
]
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3y9l80 | how do planes and now some cars support wifi without a wired modem? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3y9l80/eli5_how_do_planes_and_now_some_cars_support_wifi/ | {
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"text": [
"Basically works like your cell phone data it is 3G, or now maybe 4G, internet or they can use satellite internet depends on the airline. So no need for wires just like portable devices when you are not in wifi range."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
5ixv1l | what is supergravity / supersymmetry? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ixv1l/eli5what_is_supergravity_supersymmetry/ | {
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"Quantum mechanics divides particles into two types that obey different rules, fermions and bosons. Supersymmetry claims that, for every particle species, there is a partner species such that, of the two, one is a boson and the other's a fermion. If this is true, electrons (which are fermions) are partnered with selectrons (which would be bosons), and photons (which are bosons) are partnered with photinos (which would be fermions). In physics, \"symmetries\" are things that don't change the laws of physics, the idea being that, if you swap all particles with their partner species, the interactions are unchanged. (Well, not quite unchanged; the details depend on particle masses, and these undiscovered partners must have a lot more mass or we'd have found them by now.) But supersymmetry is the only unconfirmed symmetry nature can have, given the constraints of quantum mechanics and relativity.\n\nParticles and their supersymmetric partners have similar interactions with the Higgs field. There's a technical problem with the theory of Higgs bosons that can be easily solved if high-mass supersymmetric partners exist. And some attempts to explain gravity in the same terms as other forces in nature require supersymmetry to work. Supergravity is one such approach; another is string theory."
]
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[]
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am9e6m | at what heart rate would the average person die at | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/am9e6m/eli5_at_what_heart_rate_would_the_average_person/ | {
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"Well you’d be officially dead at 0 beats per minute. Around 20-30 bpm, sustained, you wouldn’t be able to maintain a minimum blood pressure to support staying conscious. This can vary a little bit depending on the person. If it continued down this path for a while without resuscitation, you would probably suffer from an anoxic brain injury.",
"Again, this isn't a question which has an answer because it doesn't work that way. The heart doesn't just go \"Oops, 150 bpm, going to explode now.\" A high resting heart rate can indicate other problems that could kill someone, and a very high heart rate can stress the heart to the point of failure. However the heart can also be stressed by great resistance at low rates so the rate itself isn't directly responsible.\n\nYou keep asking about two unrelated things. Try understanding what is being said and incorporating it into your thinking."
]
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41k4m6 | i've been told the universe will expand forever, but given enough time, wouldn't black holes eventually consume everything in the universe, and eventually each other leading to a singularity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41k4m6/eli5_ive_been_told_the_universe_will_expand/ | {
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"No, black holes don't have any magical 'suck' power. They're objects with a gravitational pull like any other. You can orbit a black hole. You can escape from orbit of a black hole. The special case is if you pass within the event horizon. Outside of the event horizon it is basically like orbiting a planet or star of the equivalent mass.",
"Black holes radiate energy away, getting smaller and smaller over time. This is what hawking radiation is. Lets say you have a massive black hole that has a temperature of 2K, so roughly a 3 solar mass black hole. Right now, the cosmic microwave background radiation is a little less than 3K, so even if no matter is falling into the black hole, it is getting larger very slowly, because more heat is radiating into the black hole than is escaping.\n\nHowever, as time goes on, and the universe expands, the cosmic microwave background radiation gets lower and lower as the wavelength of the microwaves are stretched into radio waves, and eventually into such low energy photons that they are undetectable. At this point, black holes will start shrinking, because they are now emitting more radiation than they are taking in. Eventually, they will explode releasing all their energy as light.\n\nSo no, black holes won't suck everything in. Although it takes an unimaginably long time, all black holes will eventually evaporate into light.",
"Black Holes can evaporate under what is known as Hawking Radiation, named after Stephen Hawking. It takes an incredibly long time and takes much longer than the entire lifetime of a star (Black Hole evaporation time is estimated to be in the trillions of years) "
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afr2qa | who gave the credit bureaus permission to gather all of our private data? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afr2qa/eli5_who_gave_the_credit_bureaus_permission_to/ | {
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"You didn't have to allow it. They aren't collecting it from you. They're collecting it from their customers - your creditors. Banks, mortgage companies etc are the customers of the credit agencies and they submit the information and use the credit info on file in order to make a decision about whether to extend you credit. You agreed to this when you signed the paperwork for your credit card, mortgage, etc. "
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kt5ai | why can't i put regular gas when my car requires premium? | I put regular gas in when my car required premium and it just shut off in the middle of the road, what gives? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kt5ai/why_cant_i_put_regular_gas_when_my_car_requires/ | {
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"premium gas explodes at a specific temperature, and regular gas is around that temperature (plus or minus much more than premium).\n\nWhen it requires premium gas, it is compressing that gas at a higher ratio (which makes it hotter). Using regular gas might explode before it is supposed to pushing the engine in the wrong direction. When it happens bad enough, it will shut the engine off.",
"The grade of gasoline (regular or premium) determines how well it burns and under what pressures. I don't want to go too much into how that works cause I don't understand it well enough myself to ELI5 it. \n\nBut here's why its not good for your car. When you use the wrong grade of gasoline (regular instead of premium) then there is a chance that the gas in your engine's pistons might detonate at the wrong time, this causes a \"knock\". An easy way to picture this is that the regular gas is not good enough for your engine, so it makes mistakes and throws off the engine, interrupting its steady power output. \n\nMost modern cars have knock sensors in the engine, these detect when things are going wrong and sometimes the engine can adjust itself, maybe it is not drawing in enough air or maybe the timing of the ignitions needs to change, or maybe you are sucking in too much dust in your air intake, or maybe the amount of gas being injected into the engine needs to be adjusted. The computer system in your car will try to compensate for any problems. On my car for example, it also requires premium gasoline, but because of its knock sensors and the sophisticated on board computer, it can detect if you are running regular gasoline instead and will automatically throttle back the power of the engine, this reduces its output dramatically but will allow it to keep running even though it is getting a lot of knocks from the regular gas. If it can't manage to adjust itself enough to handle the regular gasoline then it might be shutting itself off, or it might have stalled from a particularly nasty knock at the wrong time. \n\nRemember, for your engine to work normally, the pistons inside of it need to move up and down in a steady rhythm. Putting regular instead of premium gasoline causes the rhythm to be messed up. You'll have to check for your car model, but I've read that my car can adjust itself enough that it can run safely on regular gasoline instead of premium, with much less power output. If your car is stalling in the middle of the road, it sounds like you might be causing engine damage by running the wrong type of gasoline in it. ",
"Just to add to what's already been said:\n\nIt's a bit counter-intuitive, but better grades of gas are *harder* to get burning, to get to explode, not *easier*\n\nIn other words, the higher the grade, the more difficult it is to get the stuff to go *blam* in your engine.\n\nThis makes sense. Because higher performance engines operate under higher pressures and temperatures. So cheaper gas will go *blam* at the wrong time. You need the good stuff so it will wait to explode until the right moment. That's what engine knock, described in other comments, is. Gas exploding at the wrong time.\n",
"premium gas explodes at a specific temperature, and regular gas is around that temperature (plus or minus much more than premium).\n\nWhen it requires premium gas, it is compressing that gas at a higher ratio (which makes it hotter). Using regular gas might explode before it is supposed to pushing the engine in the wrong direction. When it happens bad enough, it will shut the engine off.",
"The grade of gasoline (regular or premium) determines how well it burns and under what pressures. I don't want to go too much into how that works cause I don't understand it well enough myself to ELI5 it. \n\nBut here's why its not good for your car. When you use the wrong grade of gasoline (regular instead of premium) then there is a chance that the gas in your engine's pistons might detonate at the wrong time, this causes a \"knock\". An easy way to picture this is that the regular gas is not good enough for your engine, so it makes mistakes and throws off the engine, interrupting its steady power output. \n\nMost modern cars have knock sensors in the engine, these detect when things are going wrong and sometimes the engine can adjust itself, maybe it is not drawing in enough air or maybe the timing of the ignitions needs to change, or maybe you are sucking in too much dust in your air intake, or maybe the amount of gas being injected into the engine needs to be adjusted. The computer system in your car will try to compensate for any problems. On my car for example, it also requires premium gasoline, but because of its knock sensors and the sophisticated on board computer, it can detect if you are running regular gasoline instead and will automatically throttle back the power of the engine, this reduces its output dramatically but will allow it to keep running even though it is getting a lot of knocks from the regular gas. If it can't manage to adjust itself enough to handle the regular gasoline then it might be shutting itself off, or it might have stalled from a particularly nasty knock at the wrong time. \n\nRemember, for your engine to work normally, the pistons inside of it need to move up and down in a steady rhythm. Putting regular instead of premium gasoline causes the rhythm to be messed up. You'll have to check for your car model, but I've read that my car can adjust itself enough that it can run safely on regular gasoline instead of premium, with much less power output. If your car is stalling in the middle of the road, it sounds like you might be causing engine damage by running the wrong type of gasoline in it. ",
"Just to add to what's already been said:\n\nIt's a bit counter-intuitive, but better grades of gas are *harder* to get burning, to get to explode, not *easier*\n\nIn other words, the higher the grade, the more difficult it is to get the stuff to go *blam* in your engine.\n\nThis makes sense. Because higher performance engines operate under higher pressures and temperatures. So cheaper gas will go *blam* at the wrong time. You need the good stuff so it will wait to explode until the right moment. That's what engine knock, described in other comments, is. Gas exploding at the wrong time.\n"
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k05gc | cia and fbi | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/k05gc/eli5_cia_and_fbi/ | {
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"The CIA is an intelligence organisation, which should predominantly monitor external threats to the US. These include other countries and hostile/terrorist organisations. It also carries out some paramilitary activities - e.g. provides some kind of combatants, trains and supports militias in other countries etc.\n\nThe FBI is mainly an internal, law-enforcement function. Operating at a national level and investigating serious and organised crime, and domestic terrorism.\n\nNot a US citizen so apologies if that's not entirely correct, or a little too brief.",
"While we're at it: Difference between CIA and NSA",
"The NSA is who you should really be asking the questions about.",
"Go ahead and explain Area 51 as well while you're at it.",
"You live in the suburbs with your parents and siblings. When Mom finds out someone eat cookies before dinner was served, she asks everyone questions to find out who did it so they can be punished. Your mom is the FBI. \n\nIt's Thanksgiving time and your dad always has a huge rivalry with the guy next door when it comes time to put up Christmas lights. This year, he wants to get a leg up on the competition so when the neighbor is out to dinner, your dad snoops around in his garage and logs onto their computer to check what he's ordered so far. Your dad is the CIA.",
"FBI are cops with jurisdiction ~~everywhere~~ in federal matters in the United States of America. CIA are spies.",
"The \"I\" in FBI stands for \"investigation\" while the \"I\" in CIA stands for \"intelligence\" (it's like useful information). Think of the FBI as detectives for the whole country and the CIA as people trying to get useful information in other countries.",
"If a guy is threatening you with a gun, you call the Police.\n\nIf the police find out he's coordinating with others, they call the FBI\n\nIf the FBI finds out that they are international terrorists, they call the CIA\n\nIf the CIA discovers they're using encrypted cell phones, they call the NSA\n\nIf the NSA discovers their leader is in downtown Baghdad, they call Seal Team Six.\n\n(edited for formatting, content)",
"Dick Gordon, \"National Security Agency. \"\n\nMarty Bishop, \"You're the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone.\"\n \nDick Gordon, \"No, that's the FBI. We're not chartered for domestic surveillance.\"\n\nMarty Bishop, \"I see. You just overthrow governments, set up friendly dictators.\"\n \nDick Gordon, \"No, that's the CIA. We protect government communications, try to break the other fellow's codes.We're the good guys, Marty.\"\n\nMarty Bishop, \"I can't tell you what a relief that is, Dick.\"",
"The FBI care about stuff that happens inside America, the CIA care about stuff that happens outside it.",
"The CIA = the United States' foreign dirty tricks department (but they do some useful work and some domestic work as well).\n\nThe FBI = the United States' domestic dirty tricks department (but they do some useful work and some international work as well).\n\n/HHOS",
"Both are considered intelligence/investigative agencies.\n\nTake your local police force for instance, they would be considered a \"responsive\" force. They respond to problems that happen. The FBI and the CIA investigate potential issues and future issues on different levels. Sometimes this does mean responsive activity, but preferably it is also to prevent future problems.\n\nThe FBI handles any problem inside of the United States that could happen. Intelligence problems and criminal problems that are outside of the local law enforcement area of control. That means they handle bank robberies, crimes that go across state borders and various other problems like that.\n\nThe CIA handles intelligence gathering and investigation not in the United States, how it relates to individuals, groups and countries not in the United States.",
"The CIA = the United States' foreign dirty tricks department (but they do some useful work and some domestic work as well).\n\nThe FBI = the United States' domestic dirty tricks department (but they do some useful work and some international work as well).\n\n/HHOS",
"Both are considered intelligence/investigative agencies.\n\nTake your local police force for instance, they would be considered a \"responsive\" force. They respond to problems that happen. The FBI and the CIA investigate potential issues and future issues on different levels. Sometimes this does mean responsive activity, but preferably it is also to prevent future problems.\n\nThe FBI handles any problem inside of the United States that could happen. Intelligence problems and criminal problems that are outside of the local law enforcement area of control. That means they handle bank robberies, crimes that go across state borders and various other problems like that.\n\nThe CIA handles intelligence gathering and investigation not in the United States, how it relates to individuals, groups and countries not in the United States.",
"The CIA is an intelligence organisation, which should predominantly monitor external threats to the US. These include other countries and hostile/terrorist organisations. It also carries out some paramilitary activities - e.g. provides some kind of combatants, trains and supports militias in other countries etc.\n\nThe FBI is mainly an internal, law-enforcement function. Operating at a national level and investigating serious and organised crime, and domestic terrorism.\n\nNot a US citizen so apologies if that's not entirely correct, or a little too brief.",
"While we're at it: Difference between CIA and NSA",
"The NSA is who you should really be asking the questions about.",
"Go ahead and explain Area 51 as well while you're at it.",
"You live in the suburbs with your parents and siblings. When Mom finds out someone eat cookies before dinner was served, she asks everyone questions to find out who did it so they can be punished. Your mom is the FBI. \n\nIt's Thanksgiving time and your dad always has a huge rivalry with the guy next door when it comes time to put up Christmas lights. This year, he wants to get a leg up on the competition so when the neighbor is out to dinner, your dad snoops around in his garage and logs onto their computer to check what he's ordered so far. Your dad is the CIA.",
"FBI are cops with jurisdiction ~~everywhere~~ in federal matters in the United States of America. CIA are spies.",
"The \"I\" in FBI stands for \"investigation\" while the \"I\" in CIA stands for \"intelligence\" (it's like useful information). Think of the FBI as detectives for the whole country and the CIA as people trying to get useful information in other countries.",
"If a guy is threatening you with a gun, you call the Police.\n\nIf the police find out he's coordinating with others, they call the FBI\n\nIf the FBI finds out that they are international terrorists, they call the CIA\n\nIf the CIA discovers they're using encrypted cell phones, they call the NSA\n\nIf the NSA discovers their leader is in downtown Baghdad, they call Seal Team Six.\n\n(edited for formatting, content)",
"Dick Gordon, \"National Security Agency. \"\n\nMarty Bishop, \"You're the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone.\"\n \nDick Gordon, \"No, that's the FBI. We're not chartered for domestic surveillance.\"\n\nMarty Bishop, \"I see. You just overthrow governments, set up friendly dictators.\"\n \nDick Gordon, \"No, that's the CIA. We protect government communications, try to break the other fellow's codes.We're the good guys, Marty.\"\n\nMarty Bishop, \"I can't tell you what a relief that is, Dick.\"",
"The FBI care about stuff that happens inside America, the CIA care about stuff that happens outside it."
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clgqlp | what is zero dimensional space and what properties would one have? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/clgqlp/eli5_what_is_zero_dimensional_space_and_what/ | {
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"Let's imagine we're looking at temperature of a room. In 3D, it means each point in the room, along the 3 axes, has a temperature assigned to it. Same in 2D and 1D, except the axes are fewer, so you need fewer numbers to describe which point you are talking about exactly (e. g. if I only care about the difference in temperature as you go higher or lower, but not sideways, I'd use a 1D model) . In 0D, the entire room is just a single point, i. e. the description of the entire room (in this case, temperature) is just one single number instead of an entire field of numbers. Our notion of space is simply a tool we can use to model stuff, and \"0D-Space\" is just the simplest, roughest description: I care that the room is X degrees, but not what the difference between the temperatures at the window, floor or ceiling is."
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3la23b | why its usually much cheaper to manufacture outside of america. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3la23b/eli5_why_its_usually_much_cheaper_to_manufacture/ | {
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"Poorer countries citizens live a much lower standard of living and thus a factory job is considered a good job. They are also willing to work for prices that we would consider absurdly low. This is just my world knowledge.",
"If you have a lot of people in a nation and no labour laws it's easier to make profit there because, as a manufacturing plant owner, you can hold wages down closer to starvation levels.\n\nAlso, manufacturing processes can be dangerous and produce lots of toxic waste. Outside of the u.s. there are many nations that don't have an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), so it's easier to just dump toxic byproducts , say, into a river, ....or not spend much money at all on worker safety. Makes bigger profit for company or corporation which owns the manufacturing plant.",
"The richer a country is, the more it costs to employ their citizens. So, suppose a given factory costs a million dollars to build, and uses $1,000,000 of plastic a year, and needs 100 employees. You can build it in America, and those 100 employees would want, say, 15 bucks an hour, working out to around 62,400 per employee (the cost of one employee is actually about double their salary, with taxes benefits, etc), or $6,240,000 a year. Or you could build it in the third third world, pay your employees a dollar an hour (2,080 a year, since you're not paying for benefits and probably paying them under the table), for 208,000 a year, plus 50,000 a year in bribes.\n\nMan-hours is the biggest cost of most businesses by far, and the difference between paying first-world employees and third-world employees is huge.",
"It's a combination of weak labor laws and environmental laws. Cadmium is the perfect example. It's biggest use is nickel-cadmium rechargable batteries. There are no more operating cadmium mines in the united states. The last mine closed down because of china. Cadmium is some nasty stuff and you need to be careful to keep workers and the environment safe, that all costs money. In China workers don't get as many safety precautions and they don't give a shit about the environment. So they undercut all the US cadmium prices because they didn't have to pay for things like respirators for the workers or proper disposal of waste product. On top of that you're paying workers penny's an hour. You can really save money when you don't give a shit about people or the earth.",
"-Much cheaper labour costs\n-Little to no environmental regulation to follow \n-Cheaper to buy the land for factories to begin with\n-Cheaper to get the resources to begin with as the huge amount of manufacturers in china order them therefore the suppliers competition pushing prices down\n-Currency fiddling (making the Yuan much cheaper than it should be) done by the Chinese government making it very cheap to buy the Yuan which will be used to pay for the manufacturing and therefore pay much less to produce than USA production\n\n\nCheap labour is pretty much not the whole story."
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3how6j | why is it the more i lie about something, that same lie becomes almost the "truth" in my head even though i know it was a lie? | Here is some backstory. I remember lying about a grade I got a few years ago. However every time that grade is mentioned, I "truthfully" say the lie. It takes me a few seconds to recall that I lied about that grade. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3how6j/eli5why_is_it_the_more_i_lie_about_something_that/ | {
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"When we remember something, we remember the last time we talked or thought about it, not the event directly. Once you started talking about it being a different way, you reinforced the idea every time you thought back to this false version."
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7elyru | why do shopping containers have ridges on the sides of them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7elyru/eli5_why_do_shopping_containers_have_ridges_on/ | {
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"The ridges give added strength. Shipping containers are often stacked 8 high. The bottom one has a lot of weight on it. You don't stack tractor trailers, so they don't need the same strength",
"It increaces the second moment of area which in turn increaces the resistance to bending the sides of the container so they can be stacked higher. Its the same reason an I beam is harder to bend than one without the top/bottom parts of the I shape. But thats kinda going down a rabbit hole.\n\nAs i say simply it makes the sides of the container stronger allowing more weight to be put on the top if you used a flat side like a truck it would collapse much more easily.",
"I'm no expert so I'm certain someone else will explain it better, but those corrugations are there to aid in structural stability. They keep the walls and sides more rigid than they would be if they were flat. Trucks don't have that because they have to be more aerodynamic and also don't have to potentially carry other heavy loads on top of itself, like containers would do inside container ships \n\n\nIf you'd like to demonstrate it a bit, yourself, you can take a sheet of paper and fold it back and forth so that it becomes a zigzagging paper wall. It stays up compared to if you tried standing up an flat sheet of paper. \n\nHope that helps. "
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bxk2v4 | what makes boilers so dangerous to be around? | Quote from /u/ABomb117 from [this TIL thread](_URL_0_)
> You know those reddit threads that are called “Reddit, what do you NOT fuck with?”
>
> Boilers. You do not fuck with boilers. There is a reason why you have to be a certified boiler operator.
---
* What makes them so dangerous? (I get it's pressurized steam, but is there anything else?)
* Are pressure cookers just as dangerous? Or Hot water heaters?
* Is it just poor maintenance? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bxk2v4/eli5_what_makes_boilers_so_dangerous_to_be_around/ | {
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"Pressure is a hell of a beast. I remember a mithbuster episode where they manipulated a boiler so that the pressure increased without regulation and the thing whent through 2 story of a building.\n\nOver that there is the fact that if it is not well mantained it can litteraly explode causing great structure damage to the building.\n\nA pressure cooker is not as dangerous as it hold less pressure than a boiler and it has only one opening making it easyer to secure.",
"Look up ntsb accident videos. \n\nMany of them are the result of failure to control pressure, either due to reactions, heat, or mechanical.",
"Find one if you can. Go stand next to the 4-6\" natural gas pipe leading into the boiler room. You can hear the flow, it hisses. If someone dents the cover, which is part of the burn chamber, basically transport line pressure gas turns any boiler room into a fuel air bomb in basically seconds. My favorite room to stand in when contractors drop 40 pound sacks of softener salt on top of the boiler in spite of three signs saying not to place anything here."
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36ynoa | why is isis targeting saudi arabia, the shi'ites and/or sunnis? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36ynoa/eli5_why_is_isis_targeting_saudi_arabia_the/ | {
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"ISIS doesn't really have a side in the Shi'ite/Sunni conflict. Their theology leans Sunni, but they're so radical in almost every way that they are perfectly willing to kill other Sunnis for disagreeing with them in any way. ISIS hates anything that isn't ISIS. "
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2my6hl | why is a signature enough proof of consent for a legal agreement? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2my6hl/eli5_why_is_a_signature_enough_proof_of_consent/ | {
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"It's not proof of consent. It's memorializes consent -- maybe you can think of it as \"evidence\" of consent. \n\nTheoretically, you could *claim* a signature on a document was forged and you never agreed to whatever contract but you would need to prove it (good luck with that). ",
"Okay, now you have to prove its a forgery. There are forensic specialists who can examine hand-writing to determine if its a forgery or not.\n\nOn top of that, a lot of legal documents have 'signature of witness', meaning somebody outside of the legal contract who attests to the authenticity of your signature, as they would have been required to be present at the time of your signature. So you've got to prove he's lying as well."
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1r346s | is it possible for texas to secede from the union? if so, what is the legal procedure of seceding? | I am a European that has moved to Texas, i have heard a lot of talk about Texas being able to secede, however I have seen conflicting reports on the internet about its ability to do so. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r346s/eli5is_it_possible_for_texas_to_secede_from_the/ | {
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"While one can probably find a judge to sign off on just about anything, most constititional interpretations suggest the answer is no. We try not to remind Texans of this fact (they like to believe they're special). \n\nIn the illustrated example, the only way to secede would be to declare independence and then win the war against the rest of the union. ",
" > Is it possible for Texas to secede from the union? \n\nNot under our current laws.\n\n > if so, what is the legal procedure of seceding?\n\nThere is none. I suppose you could try to get a constitutional amendment passed and ratified by the majority of the other stated, but there's no precedent for this, so that's just speculation.\n\nThe last time states tried to secede, we had a civil war.",
"The CGPGrey video:\n\n_URL_0_",
"Texas is not going to secede from the union just because a small, vocal minority want it to. It would take a whole lot for this to happen and a whole lot more public will.\n\nDon't worry about it, and welcome to Texas.\n\nsource: I live in Texas.",
"The others have the strictly correct answers that A) there is no legal procedure to allow for secession and B) that didn't stop the confederacy, so anything is possible so long as they win a war.\n\nBut I would like to add that the sundering of the union would of necessity take place outside the existing federal contract. If a statewide plebescite requested complete independence and the federal government approved of it, then it would, in all likelihood, simply happen.\n\nThat said, there is no majority in Texas for any sort of independence, and it is far from certain that Washington would let us go without a fight. My point is only that if everyone was in solid agreement, we would all remember that laws are made by people and are almost infinitely malleable in the presence of a strong consensus.",
"No. Texas v. White, The SCOTUS held that the Constitution did not permit states (even Texas) to unilaterally secede from the United States, and that the ordinances of secession, and all the acts of the legislatures within seceding states intended to give effect to such ordinances, were \"absolutely null\".\n\nThere is no language in the Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States (or in the Texas State Constitution or the US Consitution) that addresses Texas supposed right to secede from the US. "
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[],
[],
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S92fTz_-kQE"
],
[],
[],
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ci5p39 | how do big shipping companies like amazon guaranteed one and two day shipping while remaining efficient? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ci5p39/eli5_how_do_big_shipping_companies_like_amazon/ | {
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"From what I know from where I work, the business puts a certain amount of product in an amazon distribution centre so they are ready to be shipped upon ordering. We get notices that our inventory are getting low at amazon and we have to send more to the distribution centre.",
"Efficient isnt the issue here. They have logistics chains that have been designed for 20 years to do just this type of activity. They work on being efficient.\n\nThe question isn't efficiency, they've got that. It's doing it *profitably*, which Amazon doesn't really do, their margins on retail like this is basically nothing, with costs like this needed to gain efficiency being a major factor.\n\nAnyone could setup a system to do one/two day shipping with enough capital and resources (of course which amazon has). But to do so profitably is the problem.",
"They have distribution warehouses with common goods all over the country, and when something has to travel a long distance they have contracts with airlines to use cargo space."
]
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28umx3 | how do you go from high school graduation to the bar exam? | And not the cheapest or most expensive route either. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28umx3/eli5_how_do_you_go_from_high_school_graduation_to/ | {
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"Go to college. Get an undergrad degree. Philosophy, poli sci, english, or history would be good majors but it isn't super important for the most part. Which school you go to isn't hugely important either. Don't go to a really shitty school, but don't put yourself 200k in debt for your undergrad program. What's more important is doing well at whatever program you follow. \n\nTake the LSAT. Do well on it. Apply to law schools, with a preference for schools in the state you want to work in, but that's not set in stone. Go wherever you get in and you think you can afford. Do well. Take the bar. Pass.",
"I'll respond to your comment in an original post because it's also a direct response:\n\n > What exactly does undergrad mean? Once you pass in a certain state, can you just take the bar exam in whichever state you want to be licensed in or do you have to go to law school again?\n\nHere's how it works in America. Source: I went through this whole process. Also, I am a bit facetious throughout it but it really is the general process throughout most US states.\n\nYou go to high school, graduate and get your diploma.\n\nThen you go to undergraduate. This is typically a four year college for a bachelor's degree. You've probably seen these in movies. This is opposed to an associate's degree which is only two years. In order to go to law school, you need to have a bachelor's degree. You can pick any major. You spend four years and ~$9,000 (in-state, public institution) to ~$22,000 (out-of-state, public institution) a year on thinking big things of no consequence whatsoever. Even if you major in Our Lady of STEM, your university will still make you pay to think big things in order to graduate. Then you get your piece of paper known as a 'diploma' and move in with your parents -- I mean, forward.\n\nWhat happens next varies from person-to-person. What *must* happen is you need to take the LSAT which is a standardized test administered by the LSAC and requires purchasing a 1 gallon plastic baggy and a $118 testing fee. You can take this later in undergrad (e.g., your senior year), which some people do, or you can take it after. Some people work for a bit and then take the LSAT. One girl cried during my LSAT examination.\n\nAfter you receive your scores, you begin applying to law schools. You can apply early decision or regular. Law schools have their own application processes but most require: an LSAT score, your undergrad GPA, a personal statement, an undergrad transcript, and sometimes an optional scholarship essay. They also require a fee - usually $65-$85 per application but that may have changed since I applied.\n\nThe most important parts of your application are your LSAT and GPA, more so LSAT than GPA. The LSAT operates on a scaled score between 120 and 170. The median LSAT score is about 150 and if you get above a 160 you're in the 80th percentile. If you get a 170 you're in the [97th percentile](_URL_0_). This is considered a competitive LSAT score that will get you into the higher ranked schools, GPA and other factors permitting. Your success on the LSAT depends mostly on how much spare time you have to study and game the exam.\n\nOther factors include...wait, it's basically just LSAT score and GPA. Being part of an underrepresented demographic is also supposed to give you boost but it's mostly LSAT score and GPA. \"Softs\" like college clubs and so forth can't hurt and might inform a personal essay, but don't realistically contribute much else.\n\nSo then you wait to hear back from these schools. Usually you find out about April. You pick a school. Hopefully you pick the one that gave you the most scholarship money (probably based on your LSAT score) or else you shell out anywhere between $150,000-$250,000 depending on how sexy your school is. If you take out a federal loan (most people do), the interest accrues while in school.\n\nYou should also pick an ABA accredited law school because, with the exception of California, all states require that you graduate from an ABA accredited law school in order to sit for the bar exam (we'll get to this part later.) As you may have guessed, the ABA is the accreditation body for law schools and measures important factors like hours spent in class and other things to maintain the integrity of legal education. In its spare time, it peddles car insurance deals. It is not very good at either of these things.\n\nLaw school in the US is three years although really only one of them matters. It's a bit of mandatory 'buy one get two for hundreds of thousands of dollars' deal. You learn via the Socratic Method and whatever source of caffeine suits you best. Your weekends are spent at law school socials self-medicating in a way that runs contrary to the ABA's insistence that you avoid the substance-abusing ways of your predecessors.\n\nEach year is referred to as 1L, 2L and 3L, respectively. Your first year (1L) you learn the basics: torts, contracts, civil procedure, criminal law, real property, legal writing and probably something else that I've forgotten. Whoops. This is typically on a competitive 1L curve that applies to all courses you are taking. In contrast, most schools allow you to pick your courses after 1L year and not all of them have to apply the previously mandatory curve (i.e., it's easier to just show up and get an A after your first year.) During your summers, you ideally land an internship to gain some modicum of practical experience because law school effectively contributes nothing to learning how to practice law.\n\nOh, I almost left out the part about law review, moot court and journals. These are voluntary-mandatory extracurriculars that no one likes to do but people do them anyway because law firms think they're so hot and Harvard wants you to buy their stupid Bluebook.\n\nUsually, during 2L year or 3L year, a person takes the MPRE. The MPRE is technically part of the bar exam, it's just administered at a separate time. It tests the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Each state has its own set of ethical rules that its lawyers need to follow, but you need to take the MPRE to illustrate that you have some understanding of the basics. The passing score varies from state-to-state. California has the highest requirement of 85. I can't remember the actual scale for scoring, but I got a 118 so, needless to say, this is the easiest part of the bar exam.\n\n**SO NOW YOU'VE MADE IT TO 3L YEAR:** Here is the super fun part. You're basically waiting to graduate, but you need to start the bar exam application process. This varies from state-to-state. Two things are required in every state, and some people apply to take two bars in one testing period:\n\n1. The actual bar exam application;\n2. The MPRE exam (character and fitness portion of the *exam.*) In other words, it's the test discussed above, not the bunch of forms talked about next.\n3. The character and fitness application.\n\nIf you live in a state that only requires (1) prior to taking the exam, yay! You fill out your name, address, ABA-accredited school you went to, some basic transcript info, pay somewhere between $100-$200 and you're done! I did this. NY lets you do C/F after you take the bar exam in July.\n\nIf you live in a state that requires both (1) and (3), that kind of sucks. The C/F portion again varies from state-to-state, but it basically requires that you track down personal information about yourself to verify that you are in 'good character' and can practice law with, again, integrity. It means getting affidavits from people who know you and other attorneys verifying you're fit to practice law from an ethical standpoint. Oh, it also requires a fee. Everything you do as a law student and an attorney has a fee.\n\nIt also requires tracking down criminal background info (if you have any.) What constitutes as that depends on what the state asks for; some only care about committed misdemeanors and above whereas others will want to know about everything including traffic tickets. They will also inquire about mental health, the efficacy of which is something currently being debated in the legal community. The general rule here is to just disclose everything and explain what happened if necessary.\n\nOkay, so then you send that all in and you eventually get a buried e-mail where they've verified your credit card and you're good to go. Now you have to prepare for the bar exam.\n\nPreparing for the bar exam is shitty. It is shitty is for a number of reasons.\n\nFirst, it costs a ton of money for bar prep. To put that into perspective, one bar prep company called Themis is making successful in-roads into this market because they offer an effective, low-cost alternative at the tune of $1,000. Barbri, the more well-known bar prep company, charges about $4,000. There are ways to minimize or eliminate these costs by working as representatives, but most people will end up paying some significant cash.\n\nSecond, it starts in late May (~20th) up until you take the bar exam in late July (~30th). There is also a bar exam in February but the traditional setup is to take it in July. You study 6-8 hours a day though you probably end up sitting on your ass closer to 8-10 hours. Anybody who says they studied more is either a liar or dumb. You wake up, watch an action-packed three hour lecture of acronyms, songs and mnemonics, and then you practice, practice, practice.\n\nThird, you practice a lot of stuff. I took the NY bar exam. Per the usual, it varies between states. Some jurisdictions are UBE, some are MEE, and some are MBE (multi-state bar exam.) My exam was MBE, so that's what I will be describing. Outside of some nuances, the shittiness doesn't really vary. The MBE includes:\n\n1. The MBE - this is multiple choice and tests the general rules applicable across the majority of the US.\n2. The state specific multiple choice - the state-specific law of the state in which you're taking the bar exam.\n3. The essay portion - essays testing state-specific law.\n4. The MPT - I actually forgot about the MPT when I first wrote this because it's a closed-universe question that I only practiced twice. They give you a bunch of pretend facts and case law for a jurisdiction that doesn't exist and tests you on something 'practical' like writing a memo or drafting a will. **PRO-TIP:** It's always a memo.\n\nThe MBE consists of: torts, real property, constitutional criminal protections, basic criminal law, evidence, constitutional law and contracts. I think they're adding civil procedure in 2014 so ahhhh this year. Ha ha!\n\nState specific stuff varies. The NY bar exam has 20-something additional topics to the MBE stuff ranging from NY corporations law to NY workman's compensation.\n\nIt's extremely stressful because the nature of law school exams is to memorize every wrinkle, nuance and policy behind the law and apply it to any number of outrageous-but-possible scenarios. In contrast, the bar exam is more 'mile wide, inch deep' and focuses on issues that commonly pop up in real life since that is where you will be practicing. Adjusting to this is difficult because you need to get out of the habit of knowing all the things and rolling with knowing only some of the things across many different topics.\n\nYou need to know these things for a testing period of 2-3 days (depending on your state) at about 6 hours each day. Former SS officers patrol the testing area to make sure you are not using any James Bond equipment to cheat, including your Mickey Mouse watch.\n\nThis is how you get from high school to the bar exam. If you pass the bar exam, congratulations on your official unemployment!\n\nEDIT: Oh my god, I forgot the MPRE!"
]
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"http://www.alphascore.com/resources/lsat-score-conversion/"
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8p7sdv | what gives massless particles a 'speed limit'? what stops them from traveling faster than 299,792,458 m / s? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8p7sdv/eli5_what_gives_massless_particles_a_speed_limit/ | {
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"Simply put, we don't know. It's a very well documented and solid physical constant, but why that happens to be the universal speed limit isn't clear. There's some speculation and models that attempt to describe it, but nothing verifiable as of yet.",
"299,792,458 is the fastest *anything* can go.\n\n*Why* it's specifically that number isn't really known, it's just an observed fact.\n\nHere's some more threads on the topic, but there isn't really much to add:\n\n_URL_0_"
]
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=title%3A%28speed+light+limit%29&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all"
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20w01p | why do some brands prefer "price upon request" in magazines/advertisements instead of just telling the current price? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20w01p/eli5_why_do_some_brands_prefer_price_upon_request/ | {
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"text": [
"There are various reasons. One of the most common is that the manufacturer prohibits wholesalers and retailers from advertising prices openly to avoid price-fixing and price wars."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3tgb7y | how long would it take to go outside after a nuclear detonation? | When would it be safe to leave your hiding spot or what would happen if you leave too soon? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tgb7y/eli5_how_long_would_it_take_to_go_outside_after_a/ | {
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"It depends on how close the explosion was to ground level, and how big it was, how much protective gear you are wearing, and how long you would be staying (are you coming out of hiding just to leave the area, or are you planning to live there?) \n\nTLDR: Bigger warheads, and detonations that are closer to the ground tend to leave behind more radioactivity; the more protective gear you are wearing, the sooner you can come out. If you want to stay in the area long term, that makes a big difference compared to leaving your hiding spot and them getting the hell out of dodge. ",
"Decay rates of the radioactive fallout are the same for any size nuclear device. However, the amount of fallout will vary based on the size of the device and its proximity to the ground. Therefore, it might be necessary for those in the areas with highest radiation levels to shelter for up to a month.\n\nThe heaviest fallout would be limited to the area at or downwind from the explosion and 80 percent of the fallout would occur during the first 24 hours.\n\nPeople in most of the areas that would be affected could be allowed to come out of shelter within a few days and, if necessary, evacuate to unaffected areas.\n\nQuoted from: _URL_0_",
"Well, as long as the bomb is detonated high enough from the ground, you could be standing directly underneath it, and nothing would happen to you.\n\n_URL_0_"
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