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649x77 | who owns or will own the land on new planets that we colonize next? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/649x77/eli5_who_owns_or_will_own_the_land_on_new_planets/ | {
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"For now, no nation can claim land outside of Earth thanks to a UN treaty.\n\nRealistically, this will probably change eventually. Also, it would be really hard to maintain control of a self-sufficient Mars if they wanted to declare independence (assuming trips still take months)"
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30s2gt | what is the 'nm' in processors (more inside) | I know that it is 'nanometres' and I know that is has to do with the production process of the CPU. But is it the distance between transistors or the size of the transistors? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30s2gt/eli5_what_is_the_nm_in_processors_more_inside/ | {
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"That is actually an excellent question. The answer is \"yes\". \n \nBack in the day, it referred to the size of the transistor's \"channel\", which is a key dimension. But then companies started getting funny with things, and started using the distance between transistors. Then things got really weird, and it would take several paragraphs to describe what went on. \n \nIn general, you can assume that a smaller number means that you can pack more transistors on to a chip of the same size. But to extract more meaning than that from it requires that you get into a lot more details about the processes you are trying to compare. Including what kinds of transistors they are (planar vs. finfet), how many metal wiring layers there are and how tightly they can be laid out, etc. etc. "
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3niyvf | how did whales evolve so large? | You'd think that because of their diet, the smallest whales would be the most likely to survive. What does their evolution look like? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3niyvf/eli5_how_did_whales_evolve_so_large/ | {
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"Marine creatures can increase in size more efficiently evolutionarily because of their environment. Suspension in water reduces the strain on a body as it grows, unlike on land, and therefore doesn't force the body to undergo additional changes to support the new size. There's also a massive population of krill so they can just keep eatin. \n\nNow this all started millions of years ago but, interestingly, marine researchers have found that whales, blue whales in particular, are actually getting bigger.\n\nThere's also no predation, i.e. Don't fuck with whales",
"Also, side note, when whales have sex, one of their bros gets beneath them to support them while they do the dirty. Long story short, whales invented the \"third wheel\"",
"I do not claim to know much about whale evolution, but I believe larger sizes originally helped take them off of the food chain for many animals, which would have helped bigger ones survive. After that, perhaps the bigger ones were able to get more food than the smaller ones, which let them survive. Kind of like an arms race against fellow whales I think.",
"Whales are mammals, which means that they need to maintain a body temperature. This is a great advantage when it comes to strength and speed, but it means that they need more food and oxygen to survive.\n\nThere are two ways to reduce the energy loss due to temperature. One is to improve insulation, for example by fur on most land mammals and fat tissue on sea mammals. The other way is to reduce surface area, relative to your weight. And larger animals generally have a smaller relative surface area.\n\nAn added bonus of having less relative surface area is the reduced drag while swimming. A whale with twice the mass needs less than twice as much power swimming at the same speed - the same reason that makes larger planes and ships more energy efficient.\n\nLarge whales have a very low relative surface area and they have very thick fat tissue. That means they need very little energy to maintain their temperature and can swim faster, allowing them to dive longer and deeper than smaller water mammals, and to travel larger distances without eating."
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3r5k50 | why do fm radio waves have shorter wavelengths than am? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3r5k50/eli5_why_do_fm_radio_waves_have_shorter/ | {
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"Because they're at much higher frequencies. AM is in the hundreds of kilo hertz, FM is in the tens of megahertz (1000 times higher than kilo hertz). \n\nThe reason they're up that high is because FM can carry a much higher bandwidth and the channels need to be more separated than AM. "
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agt81f | why is to dangerous to connect to an insecure network and how would they access my information? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/agt81f/eli5_why_is_to_dangerous_to_connect_to_an/ | {
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"Dangerous is an exaggeration, an insecure network means that anyone within range can see or manipulate your internet traffic. Depending on the type of traffic it may or may not be secured in other ways. For instance most websites use HTTPS and these would be fine. Other apps like e-mail may not be secured and completely readable. A secure wireless network in a coffee shop where everyone knows the password is basically the same as an insecure network.\n\nFrom a security stand point you are better off using an insecure wireless network to connect to an HTTPS website, then a secure one to connect to an HTTP website.\n\ntl;dr Security is a multi-faceted thing, and secure wireless networks are better than unsecured ones.",
"The default assumption for a network is for it to be unencrypted. \n\nTo make an analogy to people talking, imagine you are talking to your friend, Alice, who is standing across the street. An insecure, unencrypted network is just equivalent to yelling the conversation at the top of your lungs. Anything you try to say to her will be picked up by other people standing nearby. Encryption is sort of like you and Alice came up with a secret code language, so that all the bystanders don't understand what you are talking about. \n\nIn fact, there are usually multiple layers of encryption on our communications. For example, if Alice is actually just passing messages along to Billy and Cadence for us, we might decide that we aren't sure if we really trust Alice, so we might also come up with another layer of secret code languages to talk with each of them. In this case, it doesn't *really* matter if people snoop in on our conversation with Alice, but we like to have a secret code language to talk to Alice anyway, just in case our secret code language for Billy is really easy to figure out, or something like that. ",
"Just Imagine you sending a Letter to someone else. The delivery guy is the Person of trust Here. If you send a unsecured letter he can open it, read anything inside, close it again without you noticing. But if you seal your letter you can check for the letters integrity and would notice if it get manipulated. But in a Standard scenario your delivery guy isn't the bad guy, normally it's someone who attacks him steals your letter and then masks himself as the real delivery guy. So never send unsealed letters or packages over the Internet."
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2f339c | why do my satellite navigation box and my cars speedometer disagree? which one is more accurate. | My car's speedometer says I'm doing 70 mph while my sat nav says I'm doing 65. Why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f339c/eli5_why_do_my_satellite_navigation_box_and_my/ | {
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"There are really stringent penalties for cars having speedometers reading too low, as this would lead to speeding. This means manufacturers set then so they read faster than you're doing, to account for manufacturing variation, and things like changes in tyre size due to wear and expansion from rotational forces.\n\nYour sat-nav uses (unsurprisingly) sattelites, and the timing of signals from them. These are incredibly accurate, and will be the true figure.\n\nDo, however, check your tyres for under-inflation, as this can cause speedometer errors."
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8ewced | why does radio have more commercials than tv? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ewced/eli5_why_does_radio_have_more_commercials_than_tv/ | {
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"This is likely because they are a) much cheaper to make b) less effective because they are only audio, and thus ad agencies need to saturate the air waves with their commercials and c) They are the only way for radio stations to advertise, whereas tv shows have other methods such as product placements. ",
"Also consider radio's principle audience are drivers - literally captive audiences because they're stuck in their vehicle. If all the stations play their commercials all at the same time, you'll learn this flipping through the channels, eventually settling on a channel in defeat. Eventually, commercials will kick off and you won't even bother adjusting the radio, because you know there is nothing else to listen to.",
"I’d question this assumption. Every reference I can find says the average radio station plays 25-30% advertisements. That sounds like a lot of ads, and perhaps it is... but it’s actually the same amount as a TV station. TV shows will run 8 minutes in a 30 minute block or 16-17 minutes in a 1 hour block. The numbers for radio match almost exactly."
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7rve7k | what happened in the housing market in 2008 | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7rve7k/eli5_what_happened_in_the_housing_market_in_2008/ | {
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"text": [
"Watch The Big Short on Netflix. It’s a fantastic and entertaining explanation of what happened."
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368r8a | during external respiration, why does co2 go into the lungs? | I am confused about internal and external respiration.
So my book says during external respiration, the O2 in the alveoli of the lungs diffuses out into the blood (pulmonary capillaries) while the CO2 in the blood (capillaries) diffuses into the alveoli of the lungs, and that's during exhalation right?
I am really confused as to why our lungs TAKE IN CO2, when CO2 should be exhaling/going out? like out into the blood and out the body....? HELP! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/368r8a/eli5_during_external_respiration_why_does_co2_go/ | {
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"CO2 from the blood is transported to your lungs to be pushed out in to the air so you will breath it out. And at the same time O2 is going the other way, from the air in to your blood.",
"You're misinterpreting the process a little.\n\nThe alveoli are little air chambers, and your lungs are packed with them. Blood flowing through your lungs brushes up against them and exchanges its dissolved air with the air in those chambers. \n\nWhen CO2 \"diffuses\" into the alveoli it's leaving the bloodstream and entering that small chamber of air. Exhalation then moves that CO2 out into your windpipe. \n\nFor CO2 it's bloodstream - > alveoli - > windpipe, and for O2 it's windpipe - > alveoli - > bloodstream.",
"When you inhale, your body is taking in oxygen, which flows through your respiratory structures and ends up in your alveoli, where it is diffused into the alveolar capillaries and can travel to the rest of the body. When you exhale, the CO2 traces that same path in reverse: capillaries, alveoli, rrspiratory structures, outside the body. Your lungs are \"taking in\" CO2 but you're not inhaling it, its already in your body in your blood and needs a path out. \n\nAlso, I don't think you clearly understand internal/external respiration. External respiration is exchange of gas between your body and the outside world. Internal respiration is gas exchange within your body, between tissues and your blood. ",
" > I am really confused as to why our lungs TAKE IN CO2, when CO2 should be exhaling/going out?\n\nIn order to be exhaled out, your lungs have to transfer the CO*_2_* out of your blood and into the air inside the lungs. That way, when you exhale, the CO*_2_* will leave your body."
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160bae | - how can you make a profit on a tuna or bluefin when buyers bid up to $1 million for one fish? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/160bae/eli5_how_can_you_make_a_profit_on_a_tuna_or/ | {
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"If you were a millionaire, how much would you pay to eat just a meal of a species you know is about to become extinct? If money were no object and somebody offered you a bit of dodo, what would you pay?\n\nThere's a cachet to it, even if it's a bit abhorrent to most people.\n\nSo you have 200kgs or more of fish. You only need to sell it at $50,000/kg to make a profit. That for very, very high quality bluefin is not impossible, and even if you decided to take a loss on it, think what it says about your restaurant..."
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21qysz | why aren't television logos all the way in the corner of the screen? | Is it because some people still have old-timey square TVs and they wouldn't see the logo? I notice this in a lot of places. Another example would be how the banner scoreboards in sporting events just stop at the part where a square screen becomes a widescreen. Why are TV channels catering to the tiny percentage of people who don't have widescreen TVs in 2014, and will we see those logos go back to the true corner of the screen ever? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21qysz/eli5_why_arent_television_logos_all_the_way_in/ | {
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"The number of people with crt tvs is probably higher than you think ",
"Because they want the logo to appear on 100% of the screens, and not just 100% of the HD screens. There are still many non-widescreen TVs out there.",
"Not an answer, but reddit is the kind of place for this... Can't we all band together and stop these evil screen-spoiling bastards? A relatively modest logo on the screen sucks enough already, but these huge animated logos which preview the show to be aired after the one you are (trying) to watch are just ridiculous."
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6mmjgy | how do companies find, choose, and start using a sweatshop? | I'm wondering how a company ends up with a sweatshop as their most viable option. How do they pick which operation to go with; is there a convention they all attend or maybe a central location? Or is it merely just a shady back-alley type exchange? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6mmjgy/eli5_how_do_companies_find_choose_and_start_using/ | {
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"Obviously I don't have any experience in the field, but I can imagine. So here is my guess. \n\nA tech giant advertises that it is looking for manufacturers to produce their product and they will take the cheapest option. \n\nSomeone says I'll do it for half of what the lowest option you get is. \n\nThe company agrees of course because money and badda bing badda boom your company is now using a sweatshop to their knowledge or not. ",
"Company wants to sell shirts. They take bids from various factory owners on who can provide shirts at the cheapest wholesale price. Most offers are for $1 a shirt. One guy says he can do $.50 a shirt. The company goes with $.50 man who is able to make shirts at that price because he treats his employee much worse than the other places. \n\nSweatshops are the default anyway. Especially if price is the only thing you're concerned about. ",
"Been explained well, cheapest bidder wins the contract like a reverse auction. Of course these companies know that they are being supplied by a sweat shop as no actual company can make $0.50 shirts at a profit if being ethical. However there is a chain that gives the companies protection by distance. The lowest bidder actually is a company that'll then sub-contract to again the lowest bidder. Sometimes this chain continues several times so that in reality the original company has 'no idea' where the product is made or by whom. That's why you can get $100 sneakers that are made in India for $0.10.",
"A sweatshop is a derogatory term, for a factory with low-paying jobs and poor working conditions. They often employ women and immigrants in light manufacturing, like sewing or assembly.\n\nNo one says \"I need to open another sweatshop\", the same way no one decides to go out and be a slumlord. They typically set up a factory, and then start cutting corners and coercing employees into longer hours, at which point detractors would call it a sweatshop."
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6hrdod | how do third party games profit on steam? | Specifically in the case of games with microtransactions, a lot of these games allow for steam wallet to be used as a payment option. But supposing when a steam wallet is funded and the funds go straight to steam, how are 3rd party games supposed to profit from having the steam wallet be the method of payment?
Isn't the money already with Steam, and the currency with the client is purely artificial?
EDIT*: Just to be precise I mean exclusively with microtransactions. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6hrdod/eli5_how_do_third_party_games_profit_on_steam/ | {
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"same way buying a game on steam works, steam gets a cut. \n\nSteam lets devs use their purchase system though their games so they dont have to design their own. \n\nThe way it works is; i pay company 5 dollars, they get (this will be different for each game dev so this is a completely hypothetical number just for an example) 4 dollars. Valve basically makes a dollar for doing literally nothing other than leasing their purchase system and the 3rd party dev gets the other 4 dollars. ",
"When you pay for money in the steam wallet, yes your money goes directly to steam. However, I bet this is true even when you buy a game without the wallet. More likely what happens is that Steam tracks how many copies of each game are sold, and just pays the developers in larger chunks. It doesn't matter if Steam credit is \"fake\" money, Steam still pays the developers when it gets used"
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59l6nr | why do companies design screens with seeminly stupid resolutions? for example, the new surface studio is 4500x3000... this does not scale well with any common video resolution. | On top of this, wouldn't the higher resolution also cause the GPU to work harder and cause battery life to suffer in things such as the Surface Pro which uses an even more insane 2736x1824 resolution? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59l6nr/eli5_why_do_companies_design_screens_with/ | {
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"Keep in mind, it's geared towards professional artists. Extra space for tools, even if you're working on a 16:9 project.",
"viewing videos is just one of many things screens are for. and there are already enough conflicting formats and screen sizes that everyone is used to letterboxing, so that's not a big issue",
" > For example, the new Surface Studio is 4500x3000... this does not scale well with any common video resolution. \n\nThe Studio is a content creation device, not a multimedia consumption device, so watching videos is not its primary function. If you watch the reveal video of the Studio, they go into detail why they picked the size, aspect ratio and resolution they did. \n\nAlso regarding video, given it is a 3:2 ratio, you can use a video editor, have the entire video in view, and still have plenty of real estate above and below for the toolbars and other parts of the editor on screen.\n\n > wouldn't the higher resolution also cause the GPU to work harder \n\nYes, but not in a meaningful number for anything outside realtime rendering like gaming. \n\n > battery life to suffer in things such as the Surface Pro which uses an even more insane 2736x1824 resolution?\n\nYep, higher resolution means more pixels to be powered, and they will consume more power, but usually it is worth the tradeoff."
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2j27kv | what are chiropractic spinal adjustments and do they really work? | Is there science behind the adjustments or is it like herbal remedies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2j27kv/eli5what_are_chiropractic_spinal_adjustments_and/ | {
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"From wikipedia:\n\n > Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine[1] that emphasizes diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially the spine, under the belief that these disorders affect general health via the nervous system. \n\nSo it's 'alternative medicine'. I believe in some cases the procedures may have some benefits, but I don't think it's science, per se. I have a neighbour who's arm was seriously messed up because of a a spinal adjustment. \n\nHe still has use of it; like he's not crippled or anything but it hurts him and he can't play sports very well anymore. \n",
"It's like herbal remedies. You'll hear a lot of incredible claims about the power of chiropractic \"medicine\" but spinal adjustments have zero science behind them. In some cases it can even be dangerous.",
"The entire foundation of chiropractic is that there are things called \"subluxations of the spine,\" and those are responsible for all kinds of problems.\n\nSubluxations have never been scientifically demonstrated to even exist.\n\n"
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9nd7if | if i had a teleporter and would teleport with a telescope and a space suit to a place in space which is 5 light seconds away would i be able to see myself teleport? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9nd7if/eli5_if_i_had_a_teleporter_and_would_teleport/ | {
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"If it was a magic teleporter that got you there instantly then yes (and presumably you could do the same with a wormhole, which would make physics professors cry somewhat less).\n\nIt’d need to be a *really* good telescope though; 5 light seconds is about 3x the distance from earth to the moon and you’d be rather tiny at that distance.",
"Sure. \n\nYou can do more though. With some careful/careless flying that exploits the lack of a clear definition of \"now\" in relativity, you [can do a lot more.](_URL_0_) It is unsafe to try to make teleportation fit into the framework of relativity."
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3tlq6l | how are ancient seeds found in archaeological sites still viable for germination and able to grow? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tlq6l/eli5_how_are_ancient_seeds_found_in/ | {
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"Seeds die by a random process like nuclear half-lives, there's always a chance that the seed can react to being planted and sprout, but sometimes it doesn't grow properly or not at all.",
"When seeds dry out, most of the biological processes that would cause any sort of change (either growth or decay) cease. The chemical reactions that we associate with life simply do not happen in the absence of water. Some organisms can't just recover from this state once water is restored, but seeds (and also many bacteria) can.\n\nBecause seeds sit there not changing or doing anything-- \"viable\" but not \"alive\" in the way you'd typically think about it-- it does not really matter how long they are in that state. Of course, many conditions can decrease their chances of being able to grow afterwards, and the longer they are stored the higher the chance something will damage them. It's not impossible or unusual that they *could* last so long, just rare that they would be stored in an environment that allowed it. "
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2dhaga | why is farting more embarrassing than belching? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dhaga/eli5_why_is_farting_more_embarrassing_than/ | {
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"Farts usually smell way worse. ",
"As explained *by* my five year old...\n\n\"Because it comes from your butt! Ha ha ha!\"",
"Generally an anus is less socially acceptable than a mouth.",
"Belching is compliments to the chef and farting is compliments to nobody",
"Some points i thought up:\n1) fart = stink, burp = not as stink\n2) burps are quite easy to suppress, so if one burps in public it's assumed it's on purpose so you can't be embarrassed, while farts are harder to contain secure and protect so when you fart accidentally (or rip a loud one instead of an sbd) you didn't mean it\n3) burps are just burps but farting is equated with pooping, and you might just shit your pants when you meant to fart"
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4yb5vb | how do speakers which only seem to work outward make sounds that sound like they're coming from different directions/locations | I was playing CS:GO and i can hear the enemies walking around with my headset, but how do the speakers make it come from different places. Also how does the ear know that it's not coming from one spot. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yb5vb/eli5how_do_speakers_which_only_seem_to_work/ | {
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"If they're stereo headphones then aside from panning sounds from right to left, they can use equalization and reverberation to control how we perceive a sound. We only have 2 ears, but we can tell when something is behind us because of the way the noise is transmitted. Say someone claps right I front of us. We hear the direct sound at a high level compared to the reflected sound that bounced off our surrounding surfaces first, arriving at our eardrum milliseconds *after* the initial sound hit. If this person clapped behind our backs, the direct sound would be slightly muffled from our ear shape and the reflected sound would be comparatively louder. Audio engineers know all these sort of things and can recreate environments using audio tools. They probably do things that I don't even know about.",
"We only have two ears, yet we can discriminate between more than just left/right in real life. This is because the shape of the ear and some of the body surrounding it. Sounds from different directions have a different path to the ears, each with slightly different delays and prominent frequencies. Say, sounds coming from behind sound muffled. The brain can interpret this and figure out the approximate direction, somewhat precisely front-to-back and roughly top-to-bottom.\n\nThe physical differences in how sound enters the ear are represented by the [head-related transfer function](_URL_0_). By simulating the HRTF—first undoing the HRTF from speaker to ear, and then applying the one from virtual sound source to ear—you can make something sound like it's coming from a different direction than it really is. Unless you know your own exact HRTF and speaker characteristics, it isn't going to be perfect, but it sure helps."
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s6x5j | as a uk citizen, why does it cost me less to call south africa and usa than it does to call a much nearer country like france? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/s6x5j/eli5_as_a_uk_citizen_why_does_it_cost_me_less_to/ | {
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"Just a guess, but it might have to do with prices people can afford.\n\nFor example, someone calling S. Africa is most likely poorer than someone calling France, therefore they can't afford to pay as much as the UK-France guy can for a phone call. \n\nThis is becoming obsolete though as Skype continues eating up the international call market. ",
"Each county Telco's have something called Termination fee. That is when you call some one; The company dosent charge you for calling, it charges for Terminating the call in their network.\n\nYOU-- > Your TELCO-- > US TELCO-- > US PHONE -- > Your friend. \n\nUS Phone--Termination fee-- > Your Telco-Bill for a call - > You.\n\nand another thing is US is telcos are reducing their costs via VOIP integration in their system. ( dont know about RSA) \nso France telcos have more termination fee than in US or RSA. May be this is why they have higher rates. ",
"_URL_0_\n\nhere is explanation and why france rates are higher, infact it will be higher than france in germany..... talk about profits.... "
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6imlhb | how did the first person to interact with a new language go about learning / interpreting that language? | When Europeans (or Vikings) first arrived in Northern and Southern America, how did the first person who heard Native American languages (Algonquian, Iroquoian, etc) go about learning that language? How did the Native Americans go about learning Eurpoean languages?
More broadly, how did the first person from two different language groups go about learning each others' language? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6imlhb/eli5how_did_the_first_person_to_interact_with_a/ | {
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"To put it simply I imagine it happened through immersion like [this scene from The 13th Warrior](_URL_0_) or the way it's portrayed in any other movie: pick up object and say what it is slowly, then the person whose language you're struggling to learn says their word for it, then mimic what they said, repeat until fluent.",
"Humans are capable of communicating without a common language. It is mainly done using motions and emotional cues.\n\nIt's actually great fun to do. I've had very fruitful exchanges f.ex in China when I spoke no Mandarin and they didn't speak English. ",
"Keep in mind children also play a big role in situations like these. A child from a young age can begin to be immersed in both cultures and languages and allow for better communication.",
"It's a gradual process. Like others have said, initially gestures, pantomime and trial and error all play a role. If there's trade or co-habitation between two groups with different languages, then [pidgin](_URL_1_) and [creole](_URL_0_) languages will eventually develop. Like u/has_a_nap mentioned, children play a large role in developing communication between groups as they are more easily able to acquire multiple languages."
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cc377e | how are we able to get such crisp pictures of astronomical objects, when the earth is constantly moving and destabilizing the image? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cc377e/eli5_how_are_we_able_to_get_such_crisp_pictures/ | {
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"I mean while we're constantly moving (and at a pretty snappy pace), the objects we're photographing are so far away that relative to us they seem relatively static over short time periods - just like when you're in the car driving and the Moon seems to stay in the same place in the sky no matter how fast the car goes. \n\nPlus a lot of the more incredible images are space telescopes, and so the actual rotation of the Earth isn't a factor, just it's orbit.",
"Some are from probes out in space, some are from Hubble in orbit and some are drom giant telescopes on Earth but most of them are computer enhanced to bring out the detail.",
"The moon is moving at about 3600km/h speed, or between 3 and 4 times the speed of sound. But it's far enough that it seems like it's standing still on the night sky.\n\nThe Sun is moving at 30km/s, or about 120,000km/h, or 120 times the speed of sound, relative to us. The Sun is even further away, and it too seems almost completely still relative to us.\n\n(for both objects, their \"movement\" is mostly apparent motion, caused by Earth rotating. Sun seems to travel across the sky in one day, but that's just Earth rotating. How long it actually takes for Sun to do this trip across the sky, discounting Earth rotating, is one year. But anyway, it should still suffice to note that due to the distance, this insane speed of 120 mach is just not really visible)\n\nBasically, the further an object is, less it seems to move when it does move. Think of trees when in a car. Close trees seem to pass you very quickly, far away trees and objects seem to travel slower. And astronomical objects generally are soooo far away, it's hard to tell if they even move at all without extremely fine measuring devices, despite insane speeds objects have.\n\nBasically, from Earths perspective, basically everything seems primarily dominated by Earths rotationg where everything is, on short timescales. Discounting that, on few days to couple of years timescales, objects in our solar system can be seen to move. But it actually poses a problem to astronomy that objects in our galaxy move so very little in the few centuries that we've had telescopes it's hard to spot the movement of objects. And objects outside our galaxy? Well, they are so perfectly frozen that even the most fine measurements we can make with our best equipment are quite unreliable in many ways. Funny enough, we can measure pretty well if galaxies move towards us or away from us, but the sideways motion is afaik borderline impossible to detect. And this despite the fact that say, andromeda galaxy is moving towards us at whopping 500x faster than the speed of sound. We don't afaik know how fast it's moving sideways relative to us. It's probably some mind-bogglingly large number, but the age of astronomy has been too short to notice."
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84c155 | why, when you are ill, do you generally feel worse as the day progresses instead of better? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84c155/eli5_why_when_you_are_ill_do_you_generally_feel/ | {
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"I can't relate to this at all. When I'm sick, I feel worse when I wake up and slowly get better throughout the day. When I'm falling asleep I'll usually think I'll be better the next day, but when I wake up I'm sick all over again and the cycle repeats. ",
"The disease settles in while your immune system is trying to begin fighting it off. \n\nYour immune system might start by raising your body temperature to slow the disease, making you feel feverish and pretty awful.\n\nIt might also start to notice your own cells getting damaged or killed by the disease, so it responds by sending more immune and damage control cells, which you feel as inflammation, tenderness, or soreness.\n\nSlowly, your adaptive immune system may begin to learn to better recognize, target, and eradicate the disease. It then begins to manufacture lots of antibodies specifically targeting the disease. That can take time.\n\nSo, sometimes you start to feel worse before you feel better. Just try to rest, hydrate, and contact a medical professional if symptoms continue to worsen don’t go away after more than a few days."
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85mibn | why does amazon prime offer 20% off new physical video games but has no discount on digital games? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85mibn/eli5_why_does_amazon_prime_offer_20_off_new/ | {
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"Physical copies take space in the hangar. You pay for leasing space. In 3-5-7 years media of physical game (dvd, cd) will be outdated and of no use at all.\nDigital game takes no space in hangar. Internet will not be outdated any time soon.",
"The sale of digital versions of games have far outstripped physical discs in the last couple of years - _URL_0_\n\nPhysical game discs are dying and hence Amazon gives discounts on them to:\n1. Clear them off the inventory in a specific time limit - similar to how clothing stores have end of season sales \n2. Pure supply and demand: the demand for physical games has had a steep drop in the last couple of years. So, lower the demand, lesser the price.\n\nAnother reason may be, and I'm not sure about this but since digital copies don't have a reselling market, Amazon must make most of its money from the sale of the digital copy itself. While in the case of physical discs, there is the possibility of making money on resales within Amazon - intuitively this does not seem like a big variable though\n\nAnother interesting analogy would be e-books vs physical books. Unlike the games market, both e-books and physical books have consistently equal demand. In fact, physical book sales have topped e-books in the last couple of years. Hence e-books remain less expensive than physical books. \n\nIt seems like a good case to explain how demand and supply works and how user needs dictate the price of goods. \n\nMy first ELI5 post. Hope it helps "
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1epdrg | why are so many artificial flavors (e.g., "strawberry," "grape," "peach," etc.) so different from their natural counterparts? shouldn't it be possible to chemically analyze the substances, isolate the flavor/odor compounds, then synthesize exact replicas artificially? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1epdrg/eli5_why_are_so_many_artificial_flavors_eg/ | {
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"The part you are missing is that artificial flavors need to be *cheap*. They are used in some of the cheapest foods, and, although they are used in very small quantities, they have to be highly inexpensive to be profitable.\n\nAt the same time, the actual natural flavor (e.g. of peaches) is not just a single compound, but many, many different chemicals. Synthesizing all of those for use in snack foods would be very complex and expensive. \n\nSo, food scientists work with some basic artificial flavor chemicals that can they be combined to simulate the real flavors. The right chemicals and quantities are chosen after lots of trials and testing.",
"It's worth noting that a lot of the fruit that we eat is sort of standardized varieties that have been selectively bred, and not necessarily for maximum flavor. The stuff you get in supermarkets could've been grown more specifically for its hardiness during shipping, or its size, rather than its flavor.\n\nI always thought that the grape flavor that you find in candy was rather strong and artificial tasting. But a few years ago I planted a couple of grape vines along the fence in my backyard, and damned if those grapes don't taste almost exactly like that artificial flavoring. \n\nBut there are some tradeoffs for that amazing taste. The grapes are small. Closer to the size of grocery store blueberries, nothing like the giant grapes you buy at the supermarket. Also that yummy flavor is only found on in the inside. The skins are very bitter, to the point where I don't eat them. And inside that tiny grape there's usually 3-5 hard seeds, which aren't the most appealing thing in the world. \n\nThe convenience and year-round availability of supermarket produce often means a compromise in flavor. \n\n",
"Artificial banana, that's the worst of the worst. ",
"I grow concord grapes that taste exactly like \"grape.\""
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g3ur3b | why is it okay for the head/ brain to be unprotected while using x-ray meanwhile the body has to be protected from it? ( especially for the medical staff who perform the x-ray often) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g3ur3b/eli5_why_is_it_okay_for_the_head_brain_to_be/ | {
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"x-rays are bad, but not THAT bad. if you get some on you you really will almost certainly be fine. But at the same time every time you are exposed the risk accumulates. \n\n\nSo on something like a mouth x-ray you get them rarely enough that it's not worth freaking out about protecting your brain, because you'll be fine, but it's also not worth not spending a couple dollars for a reusable lead apron to block it from places it doesn't need to be.",
"The best way I've seen it explained for medical staff is that medical staff avoid being in the same room as an x-ray for the same reason a bartender avoids taking a shot with every single patron who gets one.",
"Because the equivalent dose is almost negligible for the patient. For the medical staff that has to perform the procedure several times every year, the biological effects of radiation has to be taken into consideration since the doses are higher.",
"There are some designs for protective headwear, but they haven't caught on for a few reasons. The biggest one is comfort: when you add a few pounds to the weight of your head, your neck generally is pretty unhappy with it. But, really, the risk is minimal.\n\nRadiation of any type affects parts of the body differently. A dose to your forearm does different things than a dose to your chest. The general thought behind the whole \"lead apron\" thing was to minimize the amount of radiation parts of the body not under examination absorb. This started in the 1950s when researchers discovered that radiation affected the ability of fruit flies to breed. So, lead coverings for reproductive organs were recommended for the sake of limiting potential radiation-induced defects. As radiophobia grew, the coverings expanded under the idea of \"well, more protection can't be a bad thing, and it puts the patients at ease.\" The brain, despite its obvious importance, is relatively radiation resistant; it's tissues that undergo fairly rapid cell reproduction that are at the most risk of radiation effects, and the brain just doesn't qualify. Adding a separate cap to protect an organ that really isn't adversely affected was too much trouble for too little gain.\n\nThat said, recent research has pointed to these precautions being of dubious value. Since such shielding doesn't protect against scatter (radiation reflected from surfaces inside the body, and thus under the shielding), can interfere with the equipment itself (causing incorrect dosing), and are typically badly positioned anyway (not put where they could potentially do some good), there's building evidence that aprons and such are relatively unnecessary.\n\nNow, xray techs will probably continue to wear protection because they're around a *lot* of xrays. When you're doing a few hundred to thousand a week, that's a fair bit of radiation to be near, especially for sensitive tissues. But for patients, that's a different story.",
"Really all X-rays are bad, but they are required to see inside you. The reason they give you a lead vest is because there’s no point exposing all of you to the radiation when they only need to see a small part. Also the radiation basically has a random chance to cause damage, and if you play Russian roulette long enough you will lose eventually, so the medical staff try to play as little as possible."
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29qmm8 | "the dow hit 17,000 for the first time ever" - what does this mean? does it really matter, or is a positive indicator of the country's economic health? | As the title says:
"The Dow Hit 17,000 For the First Time Ever" - What does this mean? Does it really matter, or is a positive indicator of the country's economic health?
I know next to nothing about the stock market as well... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29qmm8/eli5_the_dow_hit_17000_for_the_first_time_ever/ | {
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"All it means is that people that are invested in the stock market are doing well for the time being. Stock market health isn't a very strong indicator of overall economic health. All it means is that over the past few years, investors have been putting money into stocks, which drive up stock prices. Of course, it could be because the economy is doing well, but that's not always the case. Some of it is due to the near-zero interest rate policy by the Fed. Some of it could be due purely to speculation. There are some trends that are troubling though and some are predicting a market correction (read: drop) in the near future. Before the recession hit in 2007, the stock market was soaring, but as we know, the economic growth was a bubble that popped and the Dow lost over 50% of it's value in 1 year.",
"The Dow is one of the oldest indexes of stocks that continues today. Because it was made long before calculation was easy, it's a very small, simple index that should have been eclipsed by better indices but remains popular because almost everyone has heard of it. \n\nWhen it reaches record levels, part of that is a reflection that a dollar is worth less than previously, and part of it is a reflection of investors belief that the 30 member companies prospects for earning income in the future looks good. ",
"Using the Dow to gauge economic health is like using the back of your hand to take your temperature and calling it a physical. ",
"It means that cheap lending provided by the Federal Reserve has provided so much cash to speculative stock buyers that the prices have grown out of control. In other words, it means the stock market has inflated an enormous price bubble. \n\nThis is not a positive indicator of the economy's health at all. Economic health is indicated by things like GDP growth, high consumer confidence levels, a lot new housing starts, and a low unemployment rate. Our economy has poor GDP growth, poor consumer confidence, poor new housing starts, and more unemployment than we want. \n\nThe stock price inflation is a serious problem. It indicates that the system is unstable and another crash and financial crisis is likely at some point in the coming months or years."
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4yvspi | how does film colourization work in photography? and how do they know the colour they put into the film is the real colouring? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yvspi/eli5_how_does_film_colourization_work_in/ | {
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"For a lot of objects you can look at later pictures of the same object and contemporary descriptions.\n\nFor things like a shirt on a random person in the background you just have to guess based on the shade and the styles of the time.\n\nA recolored photo isn't going to be 100% accurate."
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2fst5r | why top-shelf alcohols are said to give you a "better drunk" than inexpensive alcohol? | This claim is made by many friends of mine and tends to go unchallenged. But in the end, isn't the alcohol in say, Svedka the same as in Ketel One? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fst5r/eli5_why_topshelf_alcohols_are_said_to_give_you_a/ | {
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"Actually I heard it was less of a hangover.",
"By and large yes itts the same alcohol. At least with Vodkas the difference is usually purity. The Top shelf stuff has been distilled longer or more times and is more pure alochol then the cheap stuff. Those impurities though wouldn't really effect how the tipsy feeling would be, mostly its just flavour. Also if you are drinking top shelf you are usually drinking slower and enjoying it mroe. You don't do shots of Don Julio like you would Jose, unless ou are an idiot with money to throw away at least. "
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2jgfqj | time travel by ftl travel | ... as title says. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jgfqj/eli5_time_travel_by_ftl_travel/ | {
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"Faster than light travel doesn't exist, so your guess is as good as anyone's.",
"Who knows if it's possible or real, but the reasoning kind of goes like this.\n\nAs you get closer and closer to the speed of light your time slows down: time dilation.\n\nWhen you reach the speed of light your time has stopped.\n\nOnce you go past the speed of light there is some reason to believe that your time would then go negative (since that was the trend).\n\nNegative time would seem to indicate travelling backwards in time.\n\nBut it would take more than an infinite amount of energy to go faster than light so that's the engineering challenge.",
"There is a good article in Russian about relativity and specifically about time travel via FTL (in the end, experiment 5)\n\n_URL_1_\n\nYou can try [google translate](_URL_0_)"
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56jqs4 | how can you tell directions from sound? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56jqs4/eli5_how_can_you_tell_directions_from_sound/ | {
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"I recently did an explanation on this very topic!\n\nThe shape of your pinna (the outer part of your ear) channels sound and affects it such that it sounds very slightly different to your brain. There will also be echoes off of things in front of you, behind you, and to the sides. If the echoes are close enough to the original sound, your brain merges them into a single sound and discards the echoes so you don't hear them consciously but subconsciously your brain processes all that information to build a complete sound picture.\n\nYour ears locate sounds in a couple ways. For high sounds, it's pretty easy to distinguish between the volumes of left and right. If something is louder on the right, the source is towards the right. (It's actually really hard to tell the difference in volume because we're talking about a loss in volume over the size of your head...not very much. But ears can hear volumes so low they move your eardrum less than the width of an atom. Our ears are impressive, is what I'm saying.)\n\nLow sounds are a little more difficult, because the wavelengths are big enough to wrap around your head, so there's no appreciable loss of volume. Instead, your ears detect the difference in the phase of the wave. Meaning, when the wave hits your ears, for one ear it will be at, say, the peak of the wave, but for the other it will be somewhere along the curve. By comparing the timing of the wave hitting your ears, your brain can tell which side it's on.\n\nIf a wave hits both ears simultaneously, and/or the volume is the same in both ears, it's directly in front of you or directly behind you. It's certainly possible to confuse your brain so that it can't tell if it's in front or behind, but any slight turn of your head will fix that. As well, it's important to note that your brain uses input from all of your senses, and integrates them into a complete picture, so if you see something that could be the source of the sound, your brain will be biased and assume it is the source of the sound if there's no better candidate. Likewise, if you hear a sound that could be in front or behind, but your eyes confirm it's not in front of you, your brain automatically assumes it's behind you.\n\nYou can also use the sound of echoes and their volumes to tell you front or back. Since your pinnas funnel sound in primarily from in front of you, your brain can compare the relative volumes of the initial sound with the echoes of that sound bouncing off of objects in front of you. It can also compare the timing, so that if the initial sound reaches your ears before echoes coming from in front of you, your brain knows the initial sound must have come from behind you. Your pinnas also very slightly change sound as it enters your ears, and since sounds from behind you hit your pinnas differently they are affected differently and sound slightly differently. Depending on the pitch of the sound, a single factor may not be enough to let you know exactly where it is, but your brain will stitch together all of the information to create the best possible guess.\n\nBut there's a pitch you cannot possibly locate, which is the pitch with a wavelength exactly the same size as the space between your ears. At that size, the volume doesn't change enough to detect because the wavelength wraps around your head, and your brain can't detect differences in the phase because the same part of the wave hits both ears at the same time.\n\nHeadphones totally can replicate it with the right technique. It requires a really ridiculously subtle change in the quality of the sound and very faint, rapid echoes that are too close to consciously process. But that requires the person who mixed whatever you're listening to to have manipulated the recording for that. And most aren't going to bother, since one mix won't sound the same for in-ear headphones, over-ear headphones, speakers, surround sound systems, etc. Each one would have to be done separately, which is way more work that most people care to do. However, many home theater systems are sophisticated enough to create three dimensional sound spaces using many of those techniques.",
"Sound is slow enough at normal air pressure to arrive at slightly different times between our two ears. The difference in arrival time tells us the direction, and the change in timbre tells us information about whether it's above or below or in front or behind. \n\nThe shape of our ears helps us to pinpoint sound as well as the delay between arrival because of it's shape. Sounds arriving from different directions strike different parts of the ear from different directions and this changes the quality of the sound much like holding a tin can up to your ear changes how something sounds. \n\nWe call this HRTF head related transfer function. \n\nCool fact, underwater we cannot tell which direction a sound originates because the speed of sound under water is so fast that our brains can't process the difference in arrival times. "
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1jbajg | why did the rest of the world allow america to drop atom bombs on japan? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jbajg/why_did_the_rest_of_the_world_allow_america_to/ | {
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"What do you mean, \"allow\"? America didn't tell anyone they were going to do it; if they had, it's not clear who you think would have been able to forbid it.",
"One way of looking at the global political machinations of the following 50 years was a desperate attempt to prevent anyone else from dropping atom bombs on anyone else. It is hard to put the moral decision into a modern context. While, on the one hand, it was an event without precedent, on the other hand, the atrocities committed during the war - in the camps, in Russia, in Dresden, in the bombing of civilian targets in the UK and Germany, in the numerous massacres of civilians by the Germans, and so on and so on - suggest that the bar had been so lowered that anything that would bring it to an end would have been allowed. \n"
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d0orxi | if babies lungs are filled with fluid at birth, and the mother does a water birth, what would happen if the baby wasn't taken out of the water? why can't it just stay in water like a mermaid? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d0orxi/eli5_if_babies_lungs_are_filled_with_fluid_at/ | {
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"We aren't designed to breathe liquid. The only reason a baby can have liquid in its lungs in the womb is because it's getting oxygen from mom's blood, through the umbilical cord. The baby's lungs do pull in and push out amniotic fluid, but that's only to help strengthen the lungs to prepare them for breathing air later, but the baby isn't getting any oxygen from the fluid. \n\n\nThat's why the baby needs to come out of the water before the umbilical cord is cut. As soon as mom's blood gets cut off, baby needs to start breathing air on its own."
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ceqo2r | how are massive, multi billion payments made between states? | It's diffcult to fathom the amounts much less the logistics of moving that kind of money around. Are they just turned into debt or taken away from previous debt or what?
Plz halp thx | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ceqo2r/eli5_how_are_massive_multi_billion_payments_made/ | {
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"close enough. no \"physical\" money are being moved. Only \"virtual numbers\" on PC's, databases etc. There is no hard money behind that transfers."
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1y04wn | how is it that the deep web accounts for ~96% of the content on the internet? | The normal Web that the common person uses seems so vast. How is there significantly more content on the Deep Web, especially when relatively no one uses it? What is the "content?" --Thank you | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1y04wn/eli5_how_is_it_that_the_deep_web_accounts_for_96/ | {
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"The deep web is any content on the web which is not indexed by search engines. This accounts for the vast majority of content.\n\nThink about it this way, any web page which is not directly accessible (e.g. requires you to log-in) is considered to be part of the deep-web because you can't simply search for the content using Google (for example).\n\nSo even within the context of popular social media sites like Facebook, a huge percentage of profiles are not publicly viewable and indexed on the web... and even if they are, often most of the content is not publicly available to people who aren't logged in (not to mention the user typically has to be friends with the person on Facebook as well).\n\nSo the rest of the web (aka the 'surface web') only accounts for the small percentage of content which you can get to just using search queries or web directories.",
"every non public bulletin board. deep web.\n\nevery gov/company website for accessing company related information (not their public website) deep web.\n\nevery non public facing banking, healthcare, credit, shopping site, signup page page. deep web. "
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3x0gyu | please explain to me how the pre obamacare health care system in the united states, what it is like now, and how it can be improved. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3x0gyu/eli5please_explain_to_me_how_the_pre_obamacare/ | {
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"That's a big question, but here are the main points.\n\nWhat didn't change:\n\n* Medicaid: Some poor and disable people are covered by the government for free (paid by our taxes)\n* Medicare: Elderly people are all covered by the government for free (paid by our taxes)\n* Everyone else is on their own.\n* The majority get health insurance provided by their employer, the rest purchase their own private health insurance.\n* If you don't have health insurance, emergency rooms are required to take you anyway. They'll send you a bill, but if you can't pay, it ends up getting paid for by raising everyone else's fees.\n\nBefore Obamacare:\n\n* 18% of U.S. adults didn't have health insurance\n* Insurance companies denied insurance to anyone who was already sick (a \"pre-existing condition\") and dropped people after they got sick or after they paid out their lifetime maximum. So even if you did things right and had good health insurance, if you got AIDS or cancer you could find out that there was a maximum amount of money they'd spend on you and after that, you'd be left to die.\n* Insurance companies were allowed to sell plans that offered ridiculously low amounts of coverage. They were worthless if you were unlucky enough to actually get a serious illness or injury.\n* As one example, insurance companies sold young women plans that didn't include childbirth coverage. If she got pregnant unexpectedly she could end up with $50,000 in medical bills even though she had health insurance.\n* Lots of people \"mooched\" off the system by never getting health insurance, and going to the emergency room whenever they were sick or injured. They paid nothing and cost the system billions every year.\n* Medical bills were the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy.\n\nAfter Obamacare:\n\n* Every adult is now required to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty. There's no penalty if you're on medicaid or medicare, or if you make less than a certain minimum income.\n* Insurance is still private, unless you're covered by Medicare or Medicaid. The vast majority are still covered by their employer's health plan and the rest purchase their own.\n* If you make less than 4x the poverty level (so, around $45,000) you're eligible for subsidized health insurance.\n* Now only 12% of U.S. adults don't have health insurance - a drop of 6% or nearly 20 million new people with insurance (or Medicaid) who didn't have it before\n* Many states now offer Medicaid to anyone making less than a certain income threshold\n* Nobody can be denied insurance, and insurance must cover you for life. Every insurance plan must have an annual out-of-pocket maximum. No matter how sick you are, you'll never have to pay more than that amount and your insurance will pick up the rest of the bill.\n* If you have insurance, preventive care is free. They can't charge you for an annual physical or to get screened for prostate cancer, for example.\n* The law specifies exactly what health insurance must cover. For example, a woman doesn't have to worry if her plan covers childbirth or not if she unexpectedly gets pregnant; by law it's covered.\n\nHow it can be improved:\n\n* The most liberal and progressive want single-payer, basically everyone gets taxed and the government pays for all health care needs. That's how it works in virtually every other first-world country in the world.\n* Others think we should keep the current system but reform it - some people are still paying too much, too many people are still mooching off the system, and reimbursement rates are incentivizing doctors to do unnecessary tests rather than cut costs.\n"
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42nig8 | why doesn't the sun's gravity just pull everything into it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42nig8/eli5_why_doesnt_the_suns_gravity_just_pull/ | {
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"It is. However we're in orbit. An orbit is a path in which the rate that you are falling toward the object is balanced by the rate at which you are moving sideways. \n\nYou're dropping toward the sun's surface, but due to your horizontal motion (and the sun being a sphere) the surface is dropping away from you at the same rate.",
"The sun is pulling everything into it. It's just that things like planets and such that orbit it are moving out of the way and keep missing it.",
"Think about a tetherball. You can throw it perpendicular to the pole, but the tether pulls the ball toward the pole. The resulting motion is a circle.\n\nGravity does a similar thing. The Earth wants to move in a straight line, but the \"tether\" of gravity pulls it toward the sun.\n\nAnother way to think of it is that when something is in orbit, it *is falling,* but it [falls past the horizon.]( _URL_0_)."
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617wun | are sexual kinks a nature or nurture kind of thing? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/617wun/eli5_are_sexual_kinks_a_nature_or_nurture_kind_of/ | {
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"A little bit of both. \n\nA natural bit of curiosity, which often turns to nuture when a person continuously engages in the kink, and creates the relationship between that kink and orgasm. \n\nThink of it like Pavlovs dogs. Positive associations and whatnot. "
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1cyeik | ok, computer memory | I understand that it is a storage of 1's and 0's by means of a bit having a charge or not. But when you say a computer "goes" to this point in memory and "retrieves" this information or that; how does a computer physically do this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cyeik/eli5ok_computer_memory/ | {
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"The memory is physically stored in a memory chip. This contains many, many bytes of memory, each of which has an address, which is a number.\n\nThe memory chip is connected to the central processing unit (CPU) by \"busses\". A bus is lots of wires all running parallel to each other. A typical bus in a modern computer is 64 wires - that means that, by setting either a high or a low voltage on each wire, it can carry a 64-bit binary number.\n\nBetween the CPU and the memory chip, there are two busses: the address bus, and the data bus.\n\nTo read data from memory, the CPU writes the address of the memory onto the address bus (by \"writes\", what I mean is that it sets the wires to high or low voltage as appropriate). It then sends a signal to the memory chip to say \"I want to read something\". The memory chip looks at the address bus, finds the data in the relevant part of memory, and writes that data to the data bus. Then the CPU reads the data bus.\n\nTo write data to memory, the CPU writes the address of the memory onto the address bus, and the data onto the data bus, then sends a signal to the memory to say \"I want to write something\". The memory chip reads the data from the data bus, and stores it in the locations specified on the address bus."
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1cqs9d | how can money from bank accounts disappear and get untraceable when getting phished or scammed? | I've always wondered how money being transferred between bank accounts can not be tracked down by law enforcement etc. There must be some kind of trace.
Someone recently tried to scam me but it was pretty obvious so I did not fall for it.
I decided to reply and ask how much he makes of scamming people and received a reply. I was told that he makes between $30.000 to $35.000 each month. But he also told me this: "i am using some fake bank accounts to transfer the money that cost me 50% from total".
Could it be a corrupt bank taking the 50% or someone else? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cqs9d/eli5_how_can_money_from_bank_accounts_disappear/ | {
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"well, there're plenty of ways to do it, BUT you should **NEVER** try this.\n\nfor example, you cannot reverse OR cancel cash wire transfer. also, it is untraceable, especially when it's international. what's Done is done. no backsies.\n\nthere's ways to do it locally too, but i'd rather not go into that. *couch* cashing checks without a ID/bank account *cough*"
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1yjtf8 | why do european police forces uniforms, tactics and equipment differ so much from us police? | For example, is it true the common officer in the UK almost never carries a gun? and like the swedish cop on the front page, his car and uniform were a bright yellow compared to the US standard navy/deep blue color. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yjtf8/eli5_why_do_european_police_forces_uniforms/ | {
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"historical reasons mainly. like every country has a different flag, different countries have different uniforms for police, army, airforce, etc. usually there's high visibility versions as well, for those that have to work on the equivalent of interstates, such as that swedish one. a city patrol in sweden doesn't look like that, I think they wear all black then. dark green in germany, dark blue in the netherlands, etc. then there's a light blue uniform for desk-police and other situations. it really varies per country. and yeah in the UK they rarely wear guns, in large part because guns are exceedingly rare here in comparison. "
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4909u3 | rationale behind an acquittal preventing re-trial/appeal even with new evidence | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4909u3/eli5_rationale_behind_an_acquittal_preventing/ | {
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"The rationale is two-fold.\n\n1. To prevent the government's virtually unlimited resources from simply wearing someone down. If the government could retry a case every time they found new evidence they could potentially try the same case dozens of times. Eventually they'd simply bankrupt the defendant or get lucky with a jury.\n\n2. To encourage the government to only bring cases it thinks are winnable. Having only one shot at a defendant encourages prosecutors to make sure they have the strongest case possible."
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ac23sw | how do these images work? | _URL_0_
I see these pictures a lot online and I don’t understand why the “hidden” image is only easily seen when shaking your head, and I also don’t understand how people make these pictures. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ac23sw/eli5_how_do_these_images_work/ | {
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"I think it's to do with our perception of shape overriding our perception of color. Your brain locks in on the long black lines and ignores the color tinting of the lines as a distraction to be filtered out. \n\nAs for creation, again just a guess, but it's some trick with layers and transparency. They put the cat picture in one layer dial up the transparency on it, then put the black bars over top, and the cat head only tints the black bars but not the white space, or something. Maybe a photoshop expert could explain it.\n",
"First you have to understand how we perceive depth. Your brain processes the differences between the images seen by each of your eyes to determine how far away something something is (smaller difference = further). These images, when you're not shaking your head, create an optical illusion where your brain is confused, since it can't tell whether a specific line is the same in one eye's image as the other . i.e. your brain keeps going back-and-forth, mixing up line 6 in your right eye's image and line 5 in your left eye's image, and vice-versa. That creates the visual noise/movement effect when you just look at the image. It's too much for your brain to also process small differences in the lines as well, because it's struggling to identify them individually.\n\nWhen you shake your head back-and-forth your brain receives a lot more depth information since the image is changing perspective. Your brain can then understand the overall image and process the finer details. In this case, that there is slightly heavier portions of the lines that form a recognizable pattern."
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2hra5r | why do living things all have to eventually die? | I know it's the cycle of life but our cells are constantly being replaced so if someone has enough nutrition and water to keep their body going and ideally they don't end up getting cancer and dying that way or some other deadly disease, then why is no one immortal? In fact not just humans but no animal or plant no living thing can escape death. There are trees that live up to 2000 years but they **still** one day wither away. Why is this though? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hra5r/eli5_why_do_living_things_all_have_to_eventually/ | {
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"They don't. Lobsters and some jellyfish are functionally immortal",
"Telomere shortening is considered one of the primary reasons for aging and death.\n\nIn DNA replication, enzymes that duplicate DNA in cell division cannot duplicate all the way to the ends of a chromosome, so each replication results in a shortening of the chromosome. Telomeres are kind of like caps on a DNA strand. They allow the enzymes to replicate the entire length of the chromosome + some telomere length. Each duplication shortens the telomere, however, wearing down the protective \"cap\" on the chromosome. Once this is diminished to a certain degree, immune function is hampered for starters. Telomeres after so many divisions will begin unfolding which can be signaled as damaged DNA in a cell triggering apoptosis (programmed cell death), or a stop to cell growth. What happens is based on the p53 status of the cell which deserves its own topic. Chromosomes with uncapped telomeres can also fuse together which can also trigger apoptosis.\n\nOnce cells stop reproducing, organ tissues deteriorate, as do immune cells, etc. Eventual organ failure or illness happens that ends the organisms' life.\n\nTelomere shortening is just one facet of senescence, though, and none of it is thoroughly understood. I would recommend reading up on organism senescence if you want to learn more on this topic.\n\nThere are biologically immortal organisms, though. Lobsters, for instance, produce telomerase (an enzyme that \"fixes\" telomeres) into adulthood while most organisms produce it during development and stop at adulthood. The immortal jellyfish uses transdifferentiation (a cell completely changing into another cell without dedifferentiation, basically) to maintain biological function. These are simple organisms, and the only ones to display this so far. Research is being conducted on both of these for use in medicine.",
"For an actual ELI5 explanation, it's because the components that synthesize your protein from DNA aren't perfect(very accurate, but each cell has millions of lines of DNA to replicate), so each time a cell replicates, there are thousands of errors in the DNA of your cell. Over time these snowball into causing the body to fail in one or another.\n\nThat's assuming you don't die from a disease or accident or anything.",
"Reading this made me think of another ELI5 question: Do trees die of old age?\n\nSome quick googling led me to [this good overview](_URL_0_).\n\nTL;DR: It's complicated, but trees die of old age kind of like how people do. It's not that being old kills you; it's that it makes it more difficult to stay alive as you are more frail, and things that you would have survived in your youth can kill you.",
"depends on how you define 'living thing'. we are all descendants of the same cell, a cell that divided and divided and divided and never died. in that sense, we are one organism that is 3+ billion years old. ",
"A two part answer to you question.\n\n1. The first part, as others have said, is that your DNA starts to break down after billions of cell replications. This eventually causes your body not to be able to replenish necessary proteins and cells, causing death. Trees can live much longer than animals because their cells replicate much slower and the wood that they grow lasts a very very very long time, compared to humans which constantly need to replace skin, blood, liver, stomach, ect cells.\n\n2. The reason plants and animals have not evolved to live forever is because of sexual reproduction. Almost all complex organisms have evolved to reproduce sexually as it causes much more rapid mutation and genetic variation. However, after genes have been passed on to progeny, there is little-to-no evolutionary drive to keep an individual alive after reproducing (some die immediately after), except in species with very high cooperative structure. To put it even simpler, almost all life has evolved to pass on their genes as quickly, broadly, and efficiently as possible, after that, there is nothing to drive the evolution of a longer life. \n\nAlso, not all living things die. Most life on earth is cellular, and they just grow and divide until all their resources have been consumed.\n",
"They don't have to die\n\n_URL_0_\nSee the immortal jellyfish, cell lines among other \"immortal\" forms of life",
"There are two parts to this question, the *why* and the *how*. The how is easy to explain, all life is organized in such a way that it has a limited life span: it tries to maintain homeostasis and to avoid direct exposure to very damaging physical phenomena such as high heat, extreme cold, drought, and so on. Maintaining homeostasis works fine for a while, until damage accumulate to such an extent that the highly regulated biochemistry breaks down catastrophically and succumb to the stressors of the environment. For how long the organism can maintain homeostasis depends on the organism, some flies can maintain it for mere days, tortoises and whales can maintain it for a few hundred years, and some trees can maintain homeostasis for thousands of years. HeLa cells, a kind of cultured cancer cells, can maintain homeostasis indefinitely. If you look deeper and deeper into the *how* of death in flies, or in humans, or in whales, or in any other organism, you'll see a pattern. Cells continually repair damage to the genome inside them (caused among other things by radiation from the outside), and they repair damage to the organelles and the cellular plasma membrane (or wall in plants and bacteria). They cells constantly experience oxidative stress, accumulation of molecules with damaging properties, and a host of other stressors. Cells that get too damaged die (apoptosis) and are replaced. If you're a keen observer, you might ask why multicellular organisms don't just replace damaged cells indefinitely. After all, if a culture of HeLa cells live forever through continuously dividing and replacing cells, why don't any multicellular organism do the same? The answer is, arguably, *because evolution prohibit the development of such life forms*.\n\nWhoa, right? Well let me explain. Evolution is a word that explains a phenomenon *intrinsic* to all life. Evolution is what has made life possible so far on this earth. The earth is a hostile environment, but more importantly it is a *changing* environment. For life to survive on this planet for any meaningful time, it has to be able to adapt to otherwise detrimental changes in the environment.\n\nThe way life as we know it \"has solved\" this problem is by changing over generations. It works roughly as follows:\n\n**Organisms copy them selves** They copy them selves either completely (clones it self) or it copy one half of it self and merge it with one half of another organism to create a new organism with 50% of the DNA from each of the two parent organisms.\n\n**The copies are modified randomly**\nDuring the copy process, the genome of the new organism is changed slightly. Random mutations occurs in the genome such as point mutations, which are caused by radiation hitting the genome, or deletions, duplications which are introduced by the biologic machinery inside the cell during the copy/merging process. These changes makes each new organism in a population slightly different. If the environment changes dramatically, most individuals in a population might not survive, but statistically a few might have some mutations, they might be slightly different, in such a way that it makes them survive in the new environment. They will then have lots of offspring and this or these protective traits will be part of that new population.\n\nNow then, here comes the last part. To live, organisms must derive energy from the environment. On earth some life forms derive energy in the form of photons from the nearest star, the sun, (through photosynthesis). Others exploit the fact that energy is stored in the form of chemical bonds in certain molecules (carbohydrates, fat, proteins, from plant or animal matter). Some bacteria derive the energy they need by oxidizing dissolved ferrous iron or manganese. Some bacteria, *Shewanella* and *Geobacter* for instance, harvest pure electrons from rocks and metals directly. Common for all these examples is that there is only a finite supply of energy in the environment. At some point, there is not enough for everybody. This means that if organisms are going to make copies of them selves, eventually some has to die if the cycle of copying is going to continue. One of the mechanisms by which this is regulated is that organisms (or rather the replicators inside them, their genome) prioritize copying them selves over anything else (why this is so another 500 word assay). **The result is that the organism is organized in such a way as to spend all it's energy on staying alive and trying to reproduce, and once this is done the body is no longer needed and so it is left to gradually weaken and die.**\n\nTLDR: We are mortal because that's the strategy life on this planet use to continue it's existence. Limited resources and a changing environment means life has to adapt to survive, and adaptation comes from errors introduced when replicating. The environment can only support a fixed number of organisms so some has to die in order for new slightly different ones to continually take their place and ensure the cycle of adaptation to the environment continues."
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fn5yw4 | how does smart cellphone chargers work? | They have different outputs like 3v, 5v, 12v How do they know what to use.
Also can I use a Smart 12v on a device that recieves 5v? Will it burn it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fn5yw4/eli5_how_does_smart_cellphone_chargers_work/ | {
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"it's all about protocols. There is some information that goes through the cellphone and the charger. This information includes the charger asking hey, how many volts and amps do you need, and the phone replying. I don't know how smart the smart charger is but phones these days are safe to be used with higher wattage chargers. But don't charge a Nintendo switch with whatever you like. If protocols don't match between the phones and chargers, the basic USB protocol will be used which is 0.5amps and 5v. So for instance, Huawei has their own fast charging protocol that allows 25W charging, and Samsung has another protocol that allows 25W charging. But switching chargers, they won't necessarily charge at 25W because they have different protocols, even if they are rated for the same current and voltage.\n\nSo for your smart charger to work at 5v, it depends on how smart it is. If it isn't very smart, it would not charge at all because your phone will block it, or will charge very slowly at 2.5W"
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8kyxy7 | what would happen if you remove all the other planets from our solar system and kept only earth, moon and sun in it? will earth survive? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8kyxy7/eli5_what_would_happen_if_you_remove_all_the/ | {
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"Because of how weak gravity is, I think it would probably be just fine. The other planets don't do all that much for us as far as I know, just like how individual people aren't affected by eachother's gravity, even though they have it. \n\nIt's possible there's something I'm ignorant of that means earth would be doomed, though.",
"Gravity has an infinite reach, but the gravitational force experienced on Earth by the other planets is extraordinarily small. If we removed the other planets, Earth and the Moon would continue their orbits virtually unchanged. However, it's believed the gas giants play an important role in the survival of smaller planets like Earth because they act as vacuum cleaners, drawing in debris that would otherwise strike Earth. Without these giants, the Earth might still survive, but it would be in much more peril.",
"Remember that something the size of Mars once hit the earth and it still survived, though a few chunks fell off to form the moon. The earth is extremely tough and difficult to destroy. Of course much smaller impacts would kill off the human race ... but that's not what you asked about.",
"Now that the paths have been cleared, it's somewhat likely that gravitational tugs on Kuiper Belt objects by the gas giants could destabilize KBO orbits and send them in toward Earth. It could be better going forward without them there, but Earth may have turned out differently if not for the presence of the gas giants. \n\n[This article](_URL_0_) alludes to a study that showed that Jupiter offers no protection at all, and answers at least part of your question: What would happen if Jupiter wasn't there?\n",
"As others have pointed out, as a first approximation everything would be fine since the gravitational force exerted by other planets is pretty small.\n\nAs a first approximation.\n\nBut in reality it wouldn't take very long before people started to realize \"Whoa! How did Jupiter and all the other planets just go away?\" The news services would be filled with articles speculating about what might have happened. New news services would spring up to describe alien forces and foreign powers. The government would tell us everything is okay and it is being looked into. Alexa will keep you up to date about the current status of Uranus, and by the way do you need toilet paper?\n\nOr maybe instead of all that, the blast of radiation released by total mass to energy conversion would wipe out all life. The total destruction of Jupiter alone would be an amazingly bright astronomical event. Things don't simply disappear unless they are one of a pair of socks, after all.",
"I remember reading that Jupiter keeps big asteroids from coming into the inner solar system, so I think in theory we'd be fine but there's a higher risk for a dinosaur ender event",
"Thanos, is that you?",
"Here’s a related XKCD _URL_0_\ntl;dr The the gravitational pull of all the spiders on the planet does not come close to the gravitational pull of the sun.",
"You can do a simulation of exactly this in the [Universe Sandbox](_URL_0_). I don't work for them, or anything, but it's a fun toy when you want to see what happens when you do things like drop a super-massive black hole into the solar system, double the density of the moon, or send asteroids on a collision path with Earth. It's also on Steam."
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7v6bsy | with gold prices relatively much higher now than in the past compared to the cost of living, why are there very few individual gold panning/mining operations in e.g. california like the gold rush in the past? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7v6bsy/eli5_with_gold_prices_relatively_much_higher_now/ | {
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"Because humans have been extracting gold from the crust of the Earth for a very long time. That doesn't mean it is all gone, but it does mean that what is left is the stuff that was hardest to get to. Since it is harder to get to, on average it costs a good deal more per ounce to mine it. So unless a site is particularly rich in gold, it isn't really worthwhile.",
"To add to u/IThinkNotThen's comment, there is also the issue of land rights.\n\nDuring the Gold Rushes, the federal government allowed people to keep their claims, which helped to push people West into those unexplored/unsettled lands. Think of it as a temporary license to operate.\n\nToday, the federal/state government typically owns all land, air, and water rights, which means anything you mine up yourself is technically still the property of the governing body. There are some places where this rule does not apply. \n\nMining companies/operations have to purchase rights to mine openly, otherwise, they're violating so very many state and federal laws. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
71n6iu | what's up with the uyghurs in china | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71n6iu/eli5whats_up_with_the_uyghurs_in_china/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"They're a majority-Muslim Turkic minority ethnic group in the far northwest of China. Similar to a lot of other nationalist movements around the world, a lot of them would like independence. China isn't exactly known as a bastion of human rights, after all.",
"There are a lot of misconceptions about the whole Xinjiang conflict, most people either have a view that is way too biased towards one side or the other. I'm a Kazakh from Xinjiang BTW, although I moved to Shanghai and on to the US and Canada at a fairly young age.\n\nThe situation on the ground is:\n- Uyghurs are arguably discriminated against the most out of any other ethnic group in China.\n- Han's have NOT been swamping all of Xinjiang, that is a made up lie that I keep on hearing, the Han migration is mostly to Northern Xinjiang, the Tarim Basin is still over 80% Uyghur.\n- Uyghurs are not randomly getting shot or anything like that, although I was in an area where the security was more relaxed (In Northern Xinjiang the Security situation tends to be a bit better, I was in Altay anyway)\n- There is a lot of surveillance, tons of surveillance.\n- A lot of inter-ethnic hatred. Tons, I mean TONS. (Between Han and Uyghur mostly)\n- I'd probably say (anecdote) that around 50-60% of Uyghurs Support Independence (Although they are pragmatic and would probably appreciate true autonomy considering independence will become less and less feasible as time goes along). There is a surprisingly large group of Uyghurs who are somewhat pro-China, I'd estimate this group as being around 25-30% of people, the rest of the people just flat out don't care.\n- There is a fair amount of Uyghur's integrating themselves into the Chinese framework, I've seen Uyghur police officers, soldiers and others, tons, really. [Links to Pictures of Uyghur soldiers](_URL_1_)\n[Xinjiang Police Woman - Uyghur](_URL_0_)\n\"Yes, tens of thousands. This raises one of the most complex and interesting facets of modern Xinjiang. That is, despite widespread unrest, Uyghur collaboration with the state is very widespread. In fact integrated workplaces and cross-ethnic friendships are the norm(although interracial dating is very rare). It's important to add that nuance into any narrative about Xinjiang. The way that Hans as a group treat Uyghurs is troubling, but the close relationships between individuals of different ethnicity in Xinjiang are some of the coolest parts of life in the region.\"\n\nSo overall, Uyghurs are discriminated against because they are seen as terrorists and sly thieves that steal, in XJ there is a ton of surveillance and tons of security presence, some people exaggerate how bad it is, its not North Korea. Uyghurs at the same time have decent relations with the Han believe it or not, although this might only be true in North Xinjiang. People in general tend to support independence but they are pragmatic and realize that independence is fairly unlikely, they would probably rather have autonomy if they can't get independence.\n"
]
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[],
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"https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c3bf7beae7ad96e58ce303c25e4957dd-c",
"http://www.szdaily.com/content/2012-12/27/content_7547548.htm"
]
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48h0a5 | what is the difference between individual contributions and super pacs? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48h0a5/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_individual/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0jfdgz"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"An individual can give money directly to a candidate so their campaign can spend the money how they see fit. Or they can donate to a Super PAC which is essentially a third party organization that works outside of the campaign. The money doesn't go directly to a candidate. The PAC spends the money on to make their own campaign advertisements/messaging for legislation/candidates/policy, etc."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
47ugy5 | why is walmart closing so many stores and what does that mean for the economy? | Walmart is said to be closing hundreds of its stores. Why are they doing this? Why all at once? Why now vs last year or the year before? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47ugy5/eli5_why_is_walmart_closing_so_many_stores_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0fp4wi"
],
"score": [
18
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"text": [
"Most of the closed stores fall into one of two categories. Walmart Express (Like a CVS / Walgreen's) and stores in Latin and South America. The remaining few in the US that aren't one of those are within 10 miles of an existing Walmart store.\n\nIt means very little to Walmart overall. They are getting out of areas that weren't making any money. 269 stores are closing, compared to over 11000 existing stores. Those closed stores made up less than 1% of Walmarts income.\n\nIt will have a short term impact in some of the smaller communities that will be left without a local grocery or drug store, but those gaps will be filled if the need is there.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.cbsnews.com/news/walmart-to-shutter-269-stores/"
]
] | |
1ctdow | if we colonized a planet such as mars, would we not have to worry about bacteria anymore? | Assuming that in the future the human race starts to colonize planets that don't already support life but are capable of it, would that mean that bacteria and any illnesses connected to infection and stuff such as that would no longer be a threat? And if so, how much would this affect our overall health and lifespan? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ctdow/eli5_if_we_colonized_a_planet_such_as_mars_would/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9js5hf"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"sure we would. we're walking talking bags of disease. no matter where we go we'll bring disease with us, and assuming we are able to colonize somewhere, we're going to have to terra-form. if not the whole planet, moon, what have you, at least certain contained areas. this will include natural moisture in the air, increased temperatures to mimic those of earth more closely, and of course creating the oxygen itself. these will all lend to the bacteria and diseases we carry with us to evolution and thriving in a new environment.\n\nin short, just by humans being there and being the bacteria and disease infested people we are, we're going to bring them with us and create an environment for them to evolve."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
3x9e7x | what happens to your car when a car company recalls that year, make and model? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3x9e7x/eli5_what_happens_to_your_car_when_a_car_company/ | {
"a_id": [
"cy2mzhl"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"You take it in to the nearest dealer and they will repair the problem at no charge to you. That's what a \"recall\"means -- they are calling for all of the owners to bring their cars in."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3ws59n | how does snapchat know i took a screenshot? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ws59n/eli5_how_does_snapchat_know_i_took_a_screenshot/ | {
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"text": [
"because you pressed the buttons that snapchat knows will take a screenshot on your device. it's as simple as that, software knows what you're doing while you're using it (it has to, otherwise it wouldn't be able to respond to button pressed aimed at it). As soon as you press the \"snapshot\" button (whatever it might be on your device or OS) snapchat goes \"oh, wait a minute, he's taking a screenshot, I'm supposed to do something here!\"",
"This is a sensible question because the physical buttons on your device generally interact directly with the overarching OS (the home button, the lock button, the volume buttons, etc) all appear to deal with the phone directly, and not the individual apps, so it makes sense to wonder how the app itself notices. \n\nHowever, the operating system still provides 'hooks' for apps to link their functionality into these button presses, and where applicable, override their normal functionality. \n\nFor example, in IOS the volume-up button is override by the camera-app, as a shutter-button. \n\nAlso in IOS, a screenshot is taken by pressing the home and lock buttons at the same time. Now, if snapchat were to '*override*' the functionality (replace it with something else - like your phone makes a fart noise instead of going back to the home screen) then it would likely render your phone unusable (as you'd be stuck in the app, without a back button) and thus would likely not be allowed in the IOS appstore. \n\n\nHowever, if it listens for the event (the home/lock button being pressed), does some stuff, *then* allows the normal function of the home/lock button to go ahead in a timely fashion, then the appstore will allow it. \n\nNormal use of this would be to gracefully handle the closing of an app (e.g. to save stuff you're in the middle of so it can be resumed later)...snapchat just uses this millisecond to process \"The home button is pressed - is the lock button pressed simultaneriously? IF yes, record that a screenshot was taken, and notify whoever's currently on screen, if not, invoke the normal back-button process\" \n\nMake sense? ",
"Like all apps there are a lot of background processes running while you use Snapchat. Just because you are not physically doing anything with your fingers does not mean that the app isn't doing anything. It is doing many tasks, like waiting for incoming Snaps, waiting for your fingers to swipe right and left or waiting for you to tap the \"Take Picture\" button. It is also aware of the buttons on your device. So, for instance, on my iPhone, it is aware of the button combinations and how the app should handle each one. \n\nIn basic programming there are **if**-**else** statements. So **if** \"I am looking at a Snapchat and the screenshot buttons are used, notify the sender,\" is one possibility or **else**, \"there is no Snapchat being looked at, so treat this like a normal screenshot.\"",
"ELI5 Snapchat. I dont use it, does it not allow screenshots?"
]
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[],
[],
[],
[]
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3cbtcd | what's the difference between the liver and the kidneys? i know they both do filtering. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cbtcd/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_the_liver_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"csu2omn"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Simple and short answer: liver filters your blood for toxins, kidney filters blood for urine.\n\nElaboration: All of your blood supply must go through the liver through what's called the hepatic portal system. This is where toxins and other harmful substances are filtered out (like alcohol), but also where functions such as glycogen conversion takes place for blood glucose maintenance.\nThe kidneys mainly operate on water and electrolytes. They maintain a proper balance by reabsorption and secretion. It too filters the blood, but it's emphasis is on metabolic wastes, like urea. There is also a homeostatic here as well, through the blood's acid-base balance\n\nThey each have other functions too (e.g. liver's bile production or kidney's EPO release), but those are the main ones regarding filtering.\n\nSource: medical student and that fancy B.S. in molecular biology"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
2usf6b | how is it possible to wake up from a sound before the sound even happened? | I have this a lot when it's I'm sleeping and there are thunderstorms outside. I wake up hearing thunder, and when i wake up, the sound is actually there. It is like I'm waking up to a sound that is actually reaching my ears a few milliseconds later. Well, it's hard to explain, but I hope you guys know what I mean.
You think you hear thunder, but there is no thunder. Not at that exact moment, but it is there when you have woken up.
I stayed awake for a while and I noticed the time between the thunders was way more than a few milliseconds. (more like 30 seconds) so that couldn't be it.
I've been breaking my head about this for quite a while now and I'm desperate for an answer.
Thank you in advance. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2usf6b/eli5_how_is_it_possible_to_wake_up_from_a_sound/ | {
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"text": [
"When you are asleep, your sense of time is distorted. You may THINK you heard that sound before you woke up, but it's actually a trick your sleeping mind played on you.",
"Could be time dilation or your mind could subconsciously know what is going on and preemptively make you think you heard the sound.",
"You are probably already in a light sleep phase because thunders interrupted your deep sleep or you just were in REM exactly then, and the next thunder you hear comes in many chunks because your mind needs to switch to wake mode and also it is possible because of echoes that you think you didn't hear the thunder, yet you already did...\nOk you see there are many possibilities and it could be something else as well, it's not possible to say it for sure afterwards...",
"Sometimes, there is a snapping or tearing sound just before the thunder. You can kinda hear it a few milliseconds before the actual thunder so you know a big one is coming even if you didn't see the lightning itself :)\n\nedit: some reading for you : _URL_0_",
"Hearing is our most quickly transmitted sense and you maybe awoken just as the brain is interpreting and 'hearing' the sound. ",
"You have two different neural pathways that react to sound.\n\nOne is an alarm pathway, that doesn't bother to process the sound, it just triggers a reflexive response, like waking up.\n\nAnother pathway actually processes and tries to make sense of the noise, and that takes a little time. \n\nThe delay between the reflexive reaction to a sound, and you consciously become aware of it can sometimes give the impression that you reacted to the sound before your heard it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.theguardian.com/news/2011/oct/05/weatherwatch-thunder-noise"
],
[],
[]
] | |
9wjedf | can anyone explain what the difference is between oxo degradable plastics and oxobiodegradable plastics? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9wjedf/eli5_can_anyone_explain_what_the_difference_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"e9latql",
"e9lox9x"
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"text": [
"Apparently one actually bio-degrades and the other is bullshit.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Bioengineer here. Oxo-degradable plastics contain a catalyst to speed up the oxidative degradation process. (Usually Titanium Dioxide).\n\nWhat this means is the plastic will begin to break itself down, as long as there is oxygen. However, while the plastic is broken down into smaller pieces, those smaller pieces themselves may or may not be degradable. The worry is about the small fragments causing micro plastic pollution.\n\nThe term oxo-degradable plastics is so large, it contains plastics may or may not need heat, UV light, acids and/or time to degrade. There are literally thousands of formulations with different properties. Some might create micro plastics, some might not.\n\n\nOxo-BIOdegradable plastics means that the small fragments produced are biodegradable, or at least broken down till the point where microbes can absorb them.\n\nThis paper suggests that oxo-biodegradable plastics are completely broken down, then release an acid to finish the job. _URL_1_\n\nThis paper suggests that microbes in the soil can degrade the small chains left after he catalyst breaks the big plastic into smaller fragments. _URL_0_\n\n\nA paper was published by 150 companies to ban these plastics, claiming that the previous results were false, and microplastic pollution still occurs in oxo-biodegradable plastics.\n\nI personally think this is 80% true. While some oxo-biodegradable plastics do break themselves down until microbes absorb them in the lab, we have no field tests, and the formulation for such plastics is so varied that you cannot generalise them. But the plastic companies could disprove this with field data, if such data exists.\n\n\nBy the way, there are many more biodegrade plastics which are known to be completely safe, instead of these oxo-biodegradable plastics. You can use PLA, PGA, PLGA or PVA plastics, these will safely degrade after a few months to a year (not as fast as oxo-biodegradable, but known to be safe)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://resource.co/article/bbc-criticised-coverage-oxo-biodegradable-plastics-12762"
],
[
"http://www.scielo.br/pdf/mr/2014nahead/aop_matres_224713.pdf",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141391012003357"
]
] | ||
1wo4oy | why celiac's is found more often in americans? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wo4oy/eli5_why_celiacs_is_found_more_often_in_americans/ | {
"a_id": [
"cf4am5a"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"There's a degree of genetic influence involved, though the full extent is unknown. I'd say the gene's more prevalent in America, or, as one of the biggest populated countries that has a large wheat (and other gluten-grains) intake, it just shows more in us."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3jett8 | why does 60fps video on my computer look different than on my tv? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jett8/eli5_why_does_60fps_video_on_my_computer_look/ | {
"a_id": [
"cuonx49"
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"text": [
" > Are sporting events not shot in 60 fps\n\nWhether they're shot in 60fps or not, they're not *broadcast* at 60fps. TV is not 60fps, it is 30/1.001fps (29.97) or 25fps, or in interlaced form, 59.94i (which means 59.94 screen updates per second, but each update only applies to half the screen, so you're only getting 29.97 *full* updates per second).\n\nWhen you're watching on your computer you're watching at 60fps, on your TV you're watching 30, thus the difference.\n\nSports are commonly filmed at 60-180fps even though they can't broadcast it, because it lets you do slow motion replays.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
95n085 | how can underwater waterfall exist? how does it work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/95n085/eli5_how_can_underwater_waterfall_exist_how_does/ | {
"a_id": [
"e3tvmsz",
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"score": [
3,
9
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"text": [
"Certain types of water are denser than others, based on mineral content. It’s the same mechanism that causes oil and vinegar to separate. ",
"There are a few ways this can occur.\n\nSalt water doesn't float as well as fresh water, so when they meet, the salt water may stay separate fall to the greatest depth while the freshwater sits on the surface.\n\nAnother way is by temperature. Cold water sinks, hot water rises. If there is a steady supply of cold water and hot water, the temperature won't even out. The cold water will sink.\n\nWhen you see an underwater waterfall, it's because one of the sources of water has debris in it that makes it distinguishable from the rest of the surrounding water. Most times they are invisible."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
6sni1h | how come humans don't have skin tones like green, purple, pink, etc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6sni1h/eli5_how_come_humans_dont_have_skin_tones_like/ | {
"a_id": [
"dle2x3u",
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"score": [
10,
10,
4
],
"text": [
"Humans don't have pigments in their skins that produce these colors. Mammals in general have hair, and their skin colors are all moutd in a narrow range.\n\nOnly Lizards and Fish have hides of these diverse colors, and people are not lizards or fish.",
"It all has to do with melanin. This is what causes our skin to be the different shades of dark and light that we are, typically to help fight harmful UV rays. Unfortunately for us though, melanin only causes our skins to be different shades of the same brown-ish color, not primary colors of the rainbow.",
"Human melanin comes in red, brown, and black. If it isn't one of those colors, humans can't have it as their skin type because no combination of red, brown, and black will make purple. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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6o8p1z | why is there such a difference in usb cables when technically it's all supposed to be "universal" anyway? | For instance, if I get a cheap USB charger/cable from china it may make my phone go trippy whereas a proper one won't. Also, there seems to be brand specific USB cables too that certain devices "work best" with. Why come? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6o8p1z/eli5_why_is_there_such_a_difference_in_usb_cables/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"The brand specificity is a myth spread in order to make sure the user is using a proper cable - the original cable is guaranteed to be good quality while any other cable isn't.\n\nThere are multiple reasons to why a bad quality (\"Chinese\") cable will not be good for your phone:\n\n1. Quality: the wires aren't thick enough, or the insulation is bad, or the cable is simply more prone to breaking. These cables might work the first time but might cause problems later.\n\n2. Non-standard cables: USB is a specific, defined, universal standard. Cheap manufacturers simply won't implement these standards correctly, because it is cheaper not to do so, allowing them to sell cables cheaper and/or make more money.\n\n3. Different standards: a lot of phones these days come with some sort of a quick charging technology. A cable that barely meets the standard - or doesn't at all - is more prone to breaking under the pressure of this increased current/voltage that the USB spec doesn't account for, but quick charging requires.\n\n4. Quality assurance: a cable from a reputable brand is more likely to work and keep working because they're more likely to have proper quality control measures in their factories.",
"USB is universal in the sense that you can take the four wires and conenct them to two machines, and they will be able to talk to each other without further intervention. The different connectors all just use the same set of 4 cables, so all you have to do is pick the most appropriate connector for your use case, and hook it up to the correct pins on a standard USB controller chip in your electronics.\n\nThis is in contrast to the legacy RS-232 serial port, which is most popularly found as a 9 pin connector, but could also be found with other form factors with varying numbers of pins. On top of the differences in numbers of pins, the old standard of serial connector had a sort of standard default configuration, but there were a lot of options you could set, such as bit-rate, that would prevent communication if it was not set correctly.",
"Cheap chargers can be a \"kill your device\" hazard, or even a \"kill you\" one. Sometimes the circuit design and construction puts very little isolation between the mains side and the USB output, meaning you are at very high risk of a fault developing which could be lethal. (best illustration, Big Clive's [\"Pink USB Charger From China\"](_URL_0_) video)\n\nAlso, there is (for generic USB devices) an evolved standard of power supplies \"advertising\" the current that can be drawn from them by having certain values of resistors across the USB data pins - this allows a phone to know if it's safe to take more than the base standard 500mA (0.5 amps). If a charger advertises \"I'm good for 2 amps\" but it's really not built well enough to supply that safely, it could get hot / go up in smoke / start a fire.\n\nSome devices use a proprietary quick-charge system, where a special charger is recognised by the device and they agree to deviate from normal USB power behaviour to charge the phone quicker. Also, USB-C chargers might either be \"fairly dumb\" (where they behave like a traditional USB charger), or they might implement USB-C Power Delivery - where the charger is a smart thing which negotiates with the device to allow much faster charging by switching up to a higher supply voltage. A laptop with a USB-C power supply connection (new macbooks, some sexy modern Windows machines) just won't charge at all if you plug them in to a \"USB-C but it's dumb\" supply.\n\nJust to make things more fun - USB A-to-C cables (USB-A is the regular \"on your PC for plugging stuff in\" type) are supposed to have some specific wiring (a resistor across a couple of the USB-C pins) to warn the device it's going to a \"legacy\" port and it needs to be careful about the power it tries to draw. And many MANY cheap crummy cables of that type either don't have that, or have the wrong one, potentially causing a USB-C phone to draw more power from the other end than is appropriate.\n\nAnd some devices can't cope with cheap crap power supplies, if there is a lot of electrical \"noise\" on the provided power.\n\nCheap cables can use very thin-gauge wire, meaning they might heat up a bit if a device is drawing 2 amps. The connectors might be cheap or poorly soldered to the wires, causing either heating or unreliable behaviour.\n\nBuying decent USB accessories the first time is cheaper than buying a new phone if it gets fried. (Personally I've standardised on Anker for USB chargers and battery packs because they seem reliable for me and they're big-enough to have \"something to lose\" if they put out crap that starts a fire)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqJnFhhPAis"
]
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671yho | why do humans die because of wrong blood transfusion? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/671yho/eli5_why_do_humans_die_because_of_wrong_blood/ | {
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"Because blood cells of different types have different markers (signatures if you will), and our immune systems only identify blood types that have markers compatible to our own ones as friendly. \n\nBlood cells of an 'unfriendly' type are treated the same way as viruses i.e. a threat to us, and our immune system will kick into action trying to protect us, ironically often leading to fatal consequences as you have suggested.\n\nWhat makes it fatal? Well, the person was short on blood in the first place to need a transfusion so internally, one or more organs would already have been deteriorating. When the immune system kicks in to reject the fresh (incompatible) blood, it works by causing your blood to clot to prevent the foreign blood cells from reaching any organs. (Blood clotting is when your blood 'dries up' and stops flowing, like when a cut you get stops bleeding and dries up.)\n\nDue to the large amount of transfused blood in the system, the sheer extent of blood clotting involved will prevent enough normal blood reaching one's critical organs, they will all start to fail faster, leading to an untimely demise.",
"Red blood cells (RBCs) have many different proteins on their surface, with some of these being the proteins that relate to blood group (A, B, O). If a red blood cell has protein A on the surface, there are antibodies to protein B in the blood. So if a transfusion of B blood is given, the antibodies bind to the B RBCs leading to clotting of the blood, which can ultimately lead to death. This is the same for people with the B protein on the RBCs, they will have A antibodies in the blood. So if A blood is given, the blood will clot.\n\nWhen it comes to people with AB blood group, they have no antibodies in their blood, otherwise they'd have an immune response to their own blood cells. This means blood group A, B, AB and O can all be given as there will be no immune response. This is why AB+ is the universal recipient as they can receive all blood groups.\n\nFor people who are blood group O, they do not have A or B proteins on the RBC surface but have A antibodies and B antibodies. So they can only receive O blood otherwise the antibodies will clot the donor blood. This is why O- is the universal donor as all blood groups can receive it.\n\nWhat I should mention is that when RBCs are given as a transfusion on their own, these antibodies are not present in the transfusion and so the immune response occurs from the recipients immune system.\n\nFinally there is the Rhesus status, which is usually said to be positive (+) or negative (-), e.g. A+ and B-. This is another protein on the RBC surface. You either have this protein (+ve) or you don't (-). If you don't, there are antibodies to it in the blood. This is why all Rh+ can receive +ve and -ve, but Rh- can only receive -ve blood.\n\nTherefore, you can die because of the immune response to the new RBCs leading to clotting of the blood. And no blood perfusion to the body will lead to organ failure and death."
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1qvbna | how does cellphone unlocking work? and why can i jailbreak / root a phone myself yet not unlock it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qvbna/eli5how_does_cellphone_unlocking_work_and_why_can/ | {
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"Cell phone unlocking would be forcing your phone to work on any carrier's service. So, a phone you bought originally on a plan with AT & T would now be usable on Verizon or T-Mobile.\n\nSo, why can you jailbreak and not unlock it?\n\nThe short version is because that's the rule as laid down by the Librarian of Congress (LoC for short) under his rulemaking authority under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The LoC could have left both unlocking and jailbreaking illegal. But, after public discussion on the issue, decided that the best policy would be to carve an exception into copyright law allowing for jailbreaking.\n\nSimultaneously, he instituted a rule to allow for unlocking for a period of one year (IIRC).\n\nSo, why did he do that?\n\nJailbreaking was allowed largely because there is no way to purchase or otherwise legally obtain a jailbroken phone, and there was a lot of \"I own it, I should be able to do what I want\" with it. Nor does it really hurt Apple for you to jailbreak your phone.\n\nThe unlocking issue was more complicated. See, when you buy a phone under a plan with AT & T, they're actually paying Apple to subsidize the cost of your phone. Check the price for an unlocked iPhone, then check the price of a Verizon iphone. Much lower. If you could buy the phone under plan from AT & T then unlock it, that'd suck for them. And you always have the choice to pay for the unlocked version when you buy your phone.\n\nSo, the LoC basically said \"since some people bought phones before this rule went into place, you have one year to do your unlocking.\" Essentially he grandfathered into being unlocked any phones that people bought expecting to be able to unlock them.\n\nBut, that time period passed. So, while there's an exception for jailbreaking, there is no longer an exception to the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA for unlocking."
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471jrf | how do nationwide parcel delivery companies like ups/fedex get started considering their massive operating costs? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/471jrf/eli5_how_do_nationwide_parcel_delivery_companies/ | {
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"They started out by doing more localized deliveries. I believe UPS was initially only in New York. Over time, they started serving other nearby cities or started new services in other cities further away. So the New York UPS might not have delivered directly to the one in Los Angeles, but they were part of the same company. Other than that, yes, it would take years or even decades to build the infrastructure that they have now."
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6b3d4h | how exactly do tesla's solar roofs work? | I have a basic understanding of the way "traditional" Solar panels work, but how are Tesla's tiles able to produce energy despite being only coated with a thin layer of whatever is on these things? Also, obviously one tile isn't going to produce the same amount of energy as one "traditional" Solar panel, but per square foot/meter, are Tesla's tiles as effective as "traditional" Solar panels or are they just (advertised to be) able to power one's house because of the sheer number of them? Finally, how is the energy conducted to its storage? Are these tiles energy conducting themselves or is every single one linked to a cable? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b3d4h/eli5_how_exactly_do_teslas_solar_roofs_work/ | {
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"Tesla hasn't released the engineering specs so we really don't know. What has been said is that there is a cosmetic facade that faces the ground and a different part that faces the sky. \n\nThere is proprietary connectors for the tiles. It's not wires connecting each tile. My guess would be a metallic hard link system that connects to a bus on each side edge of the roof."
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3976em | what determines whether your beliefs are religious and whether they allow you to violate what is otherwise the law? | Points of confusion-
Conservatives selling cakes for a gay marriage.
Native Americans consuming peyote.
Libertarians believe taxation is theft but that isn't a religious belief.
Hobby Lobby and health care.
What prevents me from saying I have hippie beliefs so I should be able to synthesize and distribute lsd in my private church to my congregation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3976em/eli5_what_determines_whether_your_beliefs_are/ | {
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" > What prevents me from saying I have hippie beliefs so I should be able to synthesize and distribute lsd in my private church to my congregation?\n\nCurrent interpretation of the first amendment says that as long as the law is one \"of neutral applicability,\" that it's your religion doesn't matter. Hence, a law that says taking peyote is illegal for everyone---so long as it's not just a ruse to target some Native Americans---trumps your religious obligation to take it, and you can go to jail. \n\n > Hobby Lobby and health care.\n\nAfter the Supreme Court decided that, Congress and many states passed laws---called RFRAs---that basically went back to an older test. That test says that government can't substantially burden your religious freedom, whether the law is neutral or not.\n\nThis is a balancing test, so what one court might think is a fine law that balances religious and state interests properly another court might think is an unconstitutional law trampling the First Amendment. \n\nHobby Lobby was basically one example of this that got all the way up to the Supreme Court, and they decided that the particular law in question failed that balancing tests. Other laws, like, say, a law against murder, will almost invariably pass the balancing tests, because the state's interests are so great. \n\nTo the extent Hobby Lobby was different, it was for two reasons: first, it said that at least some types of businesses had rights to free exercise under the First Amendment (since it was Hobby Lobby as a corporate entity, not the people that own it, whose actions were at issue). \n\nSecond, in the past these cases were mostly about a person seeking protection directly from state interference, rather than targeting a regulation dealing with how they treat their agents/employees, but not everyone sees that as a big deal. \n\n > Conservatives selling cakes for a gay marriage. \n\nThe issue of the day. In some places it is illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of gender/orientation. So, under RFRAs and Hobby Lobby, the question becomes what to do with the conflict between the neutral laws of non-discrimination and the religious belief of the baker. In practice, there are basically no cases where courts have overturned non-discrimination laws on the RFRA-style balancing tests, but it is a thorny political/policy question. \n\n > Libertarians believe taxation is theft but that isn't a religious belief.\n\nBecause libertarianism is not a religion. I should not there's no magic bullet here. There are laws and past cases that give guidance on what counts as a \"religion\" and what to look for when examining something new that might be a religion, and they apply those standards to individual cases. Like with anything people might try to lie or be clever to exploit or expand the law, and courts just have to deal with it as it comes. "
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1ie0nx | why do you get hiccups when you drink too much? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ie0nx/eli5_why_do_you_get_hiccups_when_you_drink_too/ | {
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"I can actually take a shot at this.\n\nHiccups occur when you eat or drink so quickly that air gets trapped in your esophagus and ends up in your stomach with everything else. The air, now stuck in your stomach, rises and tries to escape. Your diaphragm involuntarily flexes to help get the trapped air out. Burping is usually enough to relieve yourself of trapped air. However, if there is an overwhelming excess of trapped air hiccuping occurs to move things along as the air bubbles continuously try to escape unsuccessfully.\n\nNow, why does it happen when you drink too much? Well actually, this could likely occur if you're consuming anything too quickly. However, when we're out drinking with friends we're more likely to chug a beer and consume more alcohol quickly in general; especially if it's a typical college party. In truth, it's not the alcohol that is causing more prominent hiccuping, but your eating/drinking habits in that particular situation that are making you get the hiccups more common.\n\nSource: Former binge drinking college student.\n\nEdit: I'll add that, much like soda, beer can become aerated or generate carbon dioxide; also giving way to hiccuping. It depends on what it is, how it's made, and how it's transported inside the brewery.",
"It's been a while, but I believe from my health class in high school, we covered this and the answer was that alcohol impairs your brain. Mainly affecting the part that controls movement and sensory input / muscular response output. \n\nFirst you get a little tipsy because you're not interpreting signals from your ear fluid and start to lose your balance, and your legs get wobbly. \n\nNext your speech gets slurred, and lights appear brighter. Your pupils aren't dilating properly, and eye movement gets choppy. \n\nKeep drinking and eventually it begins to affect even more important muscular functions, like breathing controlled by your diaphragm. ",
"You may be overstimulating your [vagus nerve](_URL_1_), which has control over input of the sensory regulation of the organs -such as the temperature and fullness of the stomach- to the central nervous system. \n\nYou're shocking the system, maybe, and this maybe a \"glitch\" in the system. Not medical advice here, but a mild [thorazine](_URL_0_) shot will sometimes be used as treatment for its neuro-sedative properties."
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d3hd0h | how do areas that process your waste (bowels, etc) not become infected even though they constantly process literal waste? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d3hd0h/eli5_how_do_areas_that_process_your_waste_bowels/ | {
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"they are designed to filter out nutrients and then moisture from food. the waste is what's left over AFTER this process. they are coated with mucous to protect and lubricate them during this process. if they were to become perforates in some manner the fecal matter would enter your body and the wound would become \"septic\" and infected.",
"Healthy bacteria is constantly battling the bad ones. Also the lining of the bowels are built to keep e.coli and the like out of the blood stream. generally as long as the lining remains in tact there's no reason for an infection to happen.",
"One of the biggest ways is that it is already \"infected\" with good bacteria, or at least *not bad* bacteria. One aspect of a healthy gut biome is a plethora of bacteria that are not harmful and take up space and resources in your guts. If a bad bacteria tries to move in, they have to find a place to live and breed. If there's bacteria in the way, they can't establish unless they can fight the bacteria to claim a space. The bacteria that's already there doesn't want that any more than you do, and it'll fight back.\n\nThere are some species of bacteria in our guts that don't seem to provide any benefit *except* that they *aren't* bad for us and they protect their \"home\" in your colon from invaders that would kill us.\n\nAnother thing is that waste isn't necessarily a hospitable place for pathogens. There things that live in blood or skin or mucus or different kinds of tissue, and none of those things are available in your guts (mostly, hopefully). Waste is *great* for the things that have evolved to use it, but it is, after all, the leftovers of what we didn't use. A lot of the useful stuff has been stripped out. \n\nThat's counting all of the stuff that can survive the trip to get to your guts. Most things can't survive going through your stomach and being digested. To be sure, lots of stuff can. Most can't, though. So your digestive system is itself part of the immune system when it keeps your guts safe. Most of your waste is mostly inert. It's only dangerous because 1) it contains a lot of stuff that would be toxic if it got back into you (which is why you're pooping it out), and 2) a lot of your friendly bacteria living in your guts would themselves be *very* dangerous if they got somewhere other than your guts. It's kind of like having a junk yard dog that attacks anyone that comes close, which is fine as long as the dog is in the junk yard where people shouldn't be. But it would *not* be fine if the dog got into the daycare next door.\n\nAnd of course, your immune system is very literally all around your bowels. Your circulatory system is picking up nutrients absorbed by your bowels, and that's a vector for pathogens to get into your body. But also you have white blood cells circulating, too. You have other immune cells hanging out just on the other side of the membrane separating you from your bowels. You can produce an immune response to pathogens inside your guts to kill them or stop them from getting inside your body. You also have an...emergency evacuation procedure to quickly remove dangerous substances or pathogens that are inside your bowels (along with everything else in there, too)."
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3i1yus | why do most phones still have cameras that shoot in 4:3? | So one of the only standards both Google and Apple agree upon so that a phone should be 16:9. Most professional TV content is 16:9. Most computers are 16:9. Most TVs sold today are 16:9. So why, does every phone on the market have a senor that requires you to shoot in 4:3 to maximize your resolution? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3i1yus/eli5_why_do_most_phones_still_have_cameras_that/ | {
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"Because they shoot at the max resolution of the camera sensor, which is typically square.\n\nOn a side note, I wonder why phone cameras can't just auto rotate the video when you start to shoot vertically, since they have more than enough resolution to take 1080p video in either orientation...",
"Picture frames are still 4:3 to stick to traditional picture sizes. A phone should be able to change aspect ration to let you shoot in either 4:3 or 16:9"
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1dmye5 | why debt is no longer a person's responsibility after death, but their wealth can be passed on. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dmye5/eli5_why_debt_is_no_longer_a_persons/ | {
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"If I'm not wrong wealth doesn't pass on until the debts are paid. Debts alone do not of course pass on.",
"Google \"probate\".\n\nCreditors can get repaid before the heirs.",
"Debt is definitely still a responsibility after death. No wealth passes on until after debts are satisfied.\n\nSource: I'm a probate attorney. ",
"\"Why is < untrue statement > allowed to happen?\"\n\nMake sure what you are asking about is actually true first :)\n\nIf grandpa dies and has 100k in stuff, but has 90k in debts, only 10k will get passed on to relatives. Caveat: The creditors generally do have to issue a claim for that money, so in theory I guess cake can be had an eaten if creditors don't try to claim a debt, but any large debts will get claimed and collected by creditors.",
"As someone dealing with this issue currently, debt are still there. They are paid by the estate and whatever is left is what the family can keep.",
"The risk of the debtor dying and the creditor being unable to collect is calculated and accounted for in the repayment rate when the loan is made. \n",
"right of refusal for potential inheritors. you would accept an inheritance that had a positive net value (e.g., $100K cash or a $300K home that came with $50K left to be paid on the mortgage) but you would refuse an inheritance that had a negative net value (e.g., $30K in credit card debt).\n\nImagine otherwise, old men with debt would name their enemies as heirs."
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4ojr5v | if the brain relies on the eyes to "see" images, how in holy hell can i "see" my dreams (and, related to that, how is it always in the first person perspective)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ojr5v/eli5_if_the_brain_relies_on_the_eyes_to_see/ | {
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"Eyes don't produce vision. Vision happens in the brain.\n\nYour eyes are just an apparatus for collecting light. Turning the information about that collected light into what you see is the brain's job.\n\nYour brain is most certainly capable of producing images without your eyes telling them \"there's some light here\" whether it's dreams or hallucinations (which are surprisingly common) while you're awake.\n",
"The brain relies on the eyes to send signals through the optical nerves to the occipital lobe. *That* is what is actually \"seeing\". The signals then get processed in the occipital lobe (which, by the way, is way in the back of your brain) and sent all over the place to be analysed and encoded as memories. \n\nWhen you \"see\" things in a dream (or visualise things), your occipital lobe does the heavy lifting. Your brain basically recalls the visual signals. Different parts of the brain will have info on *what* you're seeing and *where* you saw it. \n\n**EDIT**: Dreams are not always in 1st person perspective. But remembering dreams is unreliable at best, so you might not notice that. ",
"Your eyes are basically camera sensors. Inside is a bunch of cells that register light very much like pixels. This \"pixel data\" is sent along your optic nerve to your brain to construct into the actual imagery that you \"see\" in your head. Part of this processing is analyzing the visual data, detecting recognizable objects/interesting abstract information, building a map of the depth in the scene you're looking at (you know instinctively how far the wheel of your car is from you, or your coffee in the cupholder) and then merging this extra data back into your sense of \"vision\" so that you not only \"see\" the scene in front of you in your mind, but your mind *knows* the contents of it (it's not just perceived as an image, but as both an image and a scene with meaning).\n\nAll of that being said, your actual experience of vision takes place in your brain, not at all in your eyes. Anything your eyes pick up needs to be sent to and processed by your brain before you consciously experience it.\n\nSo with that in mind, when you're dreaming, these areas of your brain devoted to visual processing lose their connection to your eyes (partly because they are closed, but also because the state of sleep changes your brains internal patterns of signalling to not utilize the stream of vision data from your eyes even if they open briefly, hence why people can sometimes be asleep with their eyes open and not react to things in front of them), and instead they start receiving a \"stronger signal\" from areas that normally are more of a background role in thinking while awake (you start getting streams of visual and other data from your hippocampus, devoted to memory, and other areas of the brain). The dream imagery is basically a combination of memories of visual data and randomly generated signals from spontaneously firing neurons during sleep.\n\nIn other words; when you're awake your ability to visualize things from memory is fairly subtle and weak, overridden by your senses information streams (you can imagine an apple, and faintly \"feel\" it's red colour and glossy skin, but yet we all can agree it's not the same as actually seeing one). Once you're asleep, your senses are mostly discarded and this internal stream of experience can become much more pronounced and vivid. ",
"Computers use camera's to capture images. A computer can generate an image without a camera.\n\n\nA brain uses eyes to capture images. A brain can generate an image that does not come from eyes.",
"You only dream in first person perspective? Wierd",
"Let's start with the second question first: Why do you see your dreams in first person perspective? The answer is found in another question: Who wants to know?\n\nFirst Person Perspective, or point of view, is an interpretation of reality. It's a means of describing what is me and what is not me. It's a set of rules in written languages for understanding who is doing what in a written story. A story is itself an interpretation of reality, real or imagined, that allows one person to 'see' how another person organizes and sees life. \n\nWhen you read a story, your brain creates images of the things in the story, not your eyes. Your eyes are just transmitting patterns of energy from the page to the brain.\n\nNow to answer your first question, which should be more obvious now: The brain does not rely on the eyes to see images; eyes catch light and send it to the brain. The brain abstracts these signals into images. Making images is the domain of the brain, not the eyes. \n\nThis is how invention works. The brain makes an image of something that never existed before and the body translates that into something physical. Art works the same way. The brain imagines something and the artist sculpts or paints it.\n\nYou hear things in your dreams for the same reasons; the ears send signals to the brain, and the brain abstracts these signals into music, speech, etc. The composer imagines new music, and the body creates that music.\n\nYou feel things in your dreams for the same reasons; the skin sends signals to the brain, and the brain abstracts these signals into the feel of water, air, earth, sex. \n\nYou gut also sends signals to the brain for abstracting into feelings. So does you heart. So do your genitals. An erotic story or dream is the brain believing the signals are real and creating the appropriate orgasmic response in your body. Horror stories and nightmares work the same way; the brain believes the signals are real and the body responds with fear.\n\nFun stuff! Thanks for asking.",
"Are you sure you're actually seeing? "
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3k2qrm | why do android games need access to things like my bookmarks and phone call information? | I dont understand the motivation behind the permissions these apps ask for. Do the companies that develop these games sell this information on to other companies? what value do they get out of knowing who I call? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3k2qrm/eli5why_do_android_games_need_access_to_things/ | {
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" > Do the companies that develop these games sell this information on to other companies?\n\nA lot of it, yes\n\n > what value do they get out of knowing who I call?\n\nThis isn't so much of value to them, as a company. It's about knowing when the phone rings so it can save the state of the app and suspend it while you're on the call.",
"Some applications need access to private information like bookmarks, call history etc because of the way Android handles permissions. For example, an app that changes your ringtone may need permissions to access media on your device, but giving the app permissions to browse media *also* gives the app permission to browse Photos/Media/Files/Documents. Say if an app uses internet only when connected to wi-fi, the app is given \"Wi-Fi connection information\" permission which allows the app to browse names of connected wi-fi devices. But usually, just because an app *can* access specific information doesn't mean it *will* access all of it.",
"If you root your phone, then install Xposed framework with Xprivacy module, it will allow you to control the access permissions of each app, regardless of what the app wants. It's very simple and easy to use I highly recommend it because app developers have gone out of control with the privacy intrusions lately."
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1tu0qd | why are jews (race not religion) not considered to be arab? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tu0qd/eli5_why_are_jews_race_not_religion_not/ | {
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"Because they descend from Semitic, not Arabic origins. They are more closely related to Persians, who are also not Arab.",
"Arabs are a pretty diverse group and the term has evolved to be based more on linguistics than genetics. I think most studies have shown that Jews (even Askhenazi ones) are closer to Palestinians & Druze than to other groups. But remember, the concept of \"race\" is typically not based on genetics or science as much as it culture & linguistics. A Irish people are closer to Chinese people genetically than most African populations are to one another.",
"The term 'Jew' today depicts a very different person than what 'Jews' were defined as tens of centuries ago. The Jew today is a primarily defined as person descendent of what the original Semitic person was from Israel. This _updated_ 'Jew' was forced out of their land and migrated to countries like Spain, Poland, Germany, Switzerland etc.. They have infused their blood-lines with the DNA of the people of those countries and cultures and have migrated back to their land of Israel over time. But Jews and Arabs both started out as the same 'race'.\nIf you notice, todays Jews are fairer skinned, with lighter shades in their eyes and different facial tones, and hair consistency than those of their arab neighbors. These physical tenants, including the religious notations, are what differentiates them from being an Arab. \n\n\n\n \n\n",
"I'm a Jew whose ancestors lived centuries in an arab country. \n\nHonestly, I probably could pass as arab, if, you know, I learned arabic, but it's just sort of a matter of convention. If you described me as Jewish Arab, while not something we would identify with due to the nature of the conflict and all that, you wouldn't technically be wrong. At least that is my opinion. My ancestors spoke arabic at home, not Hebrew. They were dhimmis, but still, rather ingrained in the society in which they inhabited. \n\nIf you identify an Arab as one who speaks arabic and lives in the arab world, then there can be jewish arabs. If you identify it as someone whose ancestors came from arabia, then you couldn't say that. It depends on how you look at it. \n\nAccording to Wikipedia: \n\n > The Jewish tribes of Arabia were Arabian tribes professing the Jewish faith that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before and during the advent of Islam. It is not always clear whether they were originally Israelite in ancestry, genealogically Arab tribes that converted to Judaism, or a mixture of both. In Islamic tradition the Jewish tribes of the Hejaz were seen as the offspring of the ancient Israelites.[121] According to Muslim sources, they spoke a language other than Arabic, which Al-Tabari claims was Persian. This implies they were connected to the major Jewish center in Babylon.[122] Certain Jewish traditions records the existence of nomadic tribes such as the Rechabites that converted to Judaism in antiquity. The tribes collapsed with the rise of Islam, with many either converting or fleeing the Arab peninsula. Some of those tribes are thought to have merged into Yemenite Jewish community, while others, like the residents of Yatta consider themselves Islamized descendants of Khaybar, a Jewish tribe of Arabia.\nPrior to the massive Sephardic emigrations to the Middle East in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Jewish communities of what are today Syria, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt and Yemen were known by other Jewish communities as Musta'arabi Jews or \"like Arabs\". Also, prior to the emergence of the term Mizrahi, the term \"Arab Jews\" was sometimes used to describe Jews living in the Arab world.[citation needed] From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, following the creation of the state of Israel, most of descendants of these Jews fled or were expelled from their countries of birth and now live in Israel, France or elsewhere. The few remaining Jews in the Arab countries reside mostly in Morocco and Tunisia.\nModern Jews from Arab countries – mainly Mizrahi Jews, Yemenite Jews and Maghrebi Jews – are today usually not categorized as Arab, though there is still some debate on whether or not the term \"Arabs\" can be applied to them. Sociologist Sammy Smooha stated \"This (\"Arab Jews\") term does not hold water. It is absolutely not a parallel to 'Arab Christian'\".[123] Those who dispute the historicity of the term make the claim that Middle Eastern Jews are similar to Kurds, Assyrians, Berbers and other ancient Middle Eastern groups, who lived among the Arab societies as distinct minority groups with distinct identity and therefore are not categorized as Arabs. On the other hand, others gives examples of periods where the term \"Arab-Jews\" was applied in one form or another. Sociologist Philip Mendes asserts that before the anti-Jewish actions of the 1930s and 1940s, overall Iraqi Jews \"viewed themselves as Arabs of the Jewish faith, rather than as a separate race or nationality\".[124]"
]
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3elhsj | lawsuit against uber | How can Uber say that the lawsuit is without merit? How can they keep operating when it's illegal? And what is with the sudden hate on taxi drivers? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3elhsj/eli5_lawsuit_against_uber/ | {
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"ctg1mn1"
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"Not sure which lawsuit you are referring to as there are numerous lawsuits against Uber in many places for a variety of reasons.\n\nBasically, Uber has launched operations worldwide in many cities by using the same formula. Start operations without getting approval. When regulators ask questions, give the same answer: We are not a taxi company. We are a rideshare company, so we are not subject to any of your regulations. We are a technology company and only provide the app to connect customer to rides, but we are in no way a taxi company. Uber gets the masses to buy into Uber and love Uber and by the time cities begin to talk about regulating or banning the service, Uber encourages the masses to take it to social media and email/call regulators and other methods to protest restricting Uber in any form. Ultimately, the backlash forces many cities to back off, not wanting to look bad. Any places that have tried to put regulations on Uber have faced the same obstacle of Uber not wanting anything to do with regulations. So you'll see when regulations are created around Uber, they were often watered down quite a bit from their original proposals. "
]
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[]
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2v53tq | how do cells know what to do when they don't have brains? | Basically what the question says. Single-cell organisms swim around and take in nutrition from their environment, transport those nutrients to where they're needed and somehow sustain their own life. How can this almost "intelligent" behavior happen when they, according to my previous knowledge, don't have brains to tell them where to move or what to do?
Sorry if this has been asked before, couldn't find it in the search. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v53tq/eli5_how_do_cells_know_what_to_do_when_they_dont/ | {
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"Cells don't know what to do period. All cellular actions are based on DNA instructions and chemical balances interacting with super complicated proteins. They swim around, sure, but they're not choosing a direction to swim in, they're just moving, and that helps them because there's more likely to be nutrients where they aren't than where they are because they ate all the nutrients where they are. ",
"Big, complicated, multicellular organisms like us are really just the result of tons and tons of very complicated chemical reactions! \n\nFor example, blood vessels seem to magically \"know\" to grow in a pattern that oxygenates every cell. What actually happens is that, during growth, cells that aren't getting enough blood emit a chemical, and blood vessel cells are programmed to grow towards that chemical. A lot of bodily processes work like that; \"if ___ is detected, grow this direction/do this process, etc.\" "
]
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2knhup | hypnagogia and what causes it | So this morning I had a strange experience while waking up. I remember the ending of a dream, but as I was waking, it was as if I was dreaming and awake at the same time. I clearly felt myself laying in bed, but everything I heard and saw was in the dream. This felt like it lasted for about 30 seconds and then I fully woke up. It was as if I was in both 'worlds' at once. Weird stuff.
I Googled around and found a Wiki article on Hypnagogia, and more precisely, a hypnopompic state, which was my situation (onset of waking rather than onset of sleep). It mentions the person essentially visually breaking down their dream in order to wake up, in a sense, but both my vision and hearing was bypassed by my dream, and the dream was ongoing for about 30 seconds.
Has anyone heard of this event, and what causes it within the brain? This is the first time I have witnessed it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2knhup/eli5_hypnagogia_and_what_causes_it/ | {
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"I'd imagine some of the stuff that happens in sleep paralysis is at play here. When you're waking up, you're at the end of your rem cycle, but not quite out of it, and that's why you see your dream as you're waking up. \n\nIn sleep paralysis, you wake up in the middle of your rem cycle, and are still, in your mind, dreaming. And, while your body is awake, your brain hasn't quite thought \"hey, time to wake up\", and that's why you're paralyzed. \n\nI could be wrong, but that's what could make sense to me. "
]
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[]
] | |
421qjo | why does the ac in my car feel better out of the recirculated air option? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/421qjo/eli5_why_does_the_ac_in_my_car_feel_better_out_of/ | {
"a_id": [
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"When you don't recirculate the air, you are trying to get the AC to take the warm outside air and cool it down for you. This is a much harder job than taking the already-coolish inside air and re-cooling it. In other words, you prefer the results when the AC takes, say, 80 degree air and attempts to cool it to 70 degrees as opposed to taking 100 degree air and attempting to cool it to 70 degrees. You're not alone: recirculated AC is referred to in some cars as \"Max A/C\", a concession to the fact that this is a much better way to cool the air."
]
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[]
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3npyjv | why don't smartphones sold in korea have a feature to silence camera shutter sounds? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3npyjv/eli5_why_dont_smartphones_sold_in_korea_have_a/ | {
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"cvq7b8m"
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"text": [
"Because they want to discourage people from taking creepshots or other non-consensual pictures.\n"
]
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[]
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wj79t | dc comic books continuity | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wj79t/eli5dc_comic_books_continuity/ | {
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"I'll give it a shot, but mind you, without a ton of reading, all you can really hope for is a general picture. \n\nOk, the easiest way to do this is by era, and what those eras meant. The first era was what is known as the golden age, and is the oldest age for super hero comics. There are comics that are older, but that doesn't matter here. Anyway, The company we know now as DC started as National, and published a few books, but really took off with the launch of two comic series, Action Comics and Detective comics. One would be the home of Superman and the other would give birth to Batman (also, this is why DC is called DC, short for Detective Comics). There other comics they printed (the Flash, Green Lantern, etc) as well, but it was generally assumed that each hero existed in their own little universe. Well, eventually cross overs happened (World's finest with Batman and Superman and JSA for the rest). This established the early continuity, but the rules were not set in stone, and many heroes did things well outside of character (Batman with a gun, for example). As the years went on, the back stories of the heroes and villains started to shape up, and the earliest working standard continuity was formed. But then the comic code happened. What that did was put a lot of standards on what you could and could not show in comics. This almost killed comics, and Batman and Superman were pretty much the only survivors for years. After a while, comic writers wanted to tell new stories but were hand cuffed by how cheesy and cornball the old Green Lantern and Wonder Woman comics had become. So what to do?\n\nStart from scratch, pretend the older comics were more like fairy tales, and put new name and faces on old heroes, keeping nothing of the past but the names of the heroes (but with different powers or origins or genders )in many cases. This is the era of the Silver Age.\n\nto be continued. \n"
]
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[]
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2bkjjo | the cause of death through being burnt alive. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bkjjo/eli5_the_cause_of_death_through_being_burnt_alive/ | {
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"text": [
"Usually suffocation. Fires are hot and the air around is hot. When you breath in you scorch your lungs. If you can't breathe you're boned."
]
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[]
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18flhu | voice recognition software | Things like Nuance, Siri, Dragon, and Google Voice Search. How exactly does the computer "learn" words and make sense of these weird sounds that come out of human throats.
I was thinking about this today and I have no idea how it works and anything I've looked up seems to make no sense. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18flhu/eli5_voice_recognition_software/ | {
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"Words are made up of a small selection of basic phonetic sounds and there actually aren't that many in the English language (less than 50 I think). Each of these have a distinct auditory \"fingerprint\". To see what I mean have a glance at this: _URL_0_\n\nSo speech can be broken down into a small collection of basic sounds. The job of a computer is to compare sounds it hears to this collection of fingerprints. Not all of these sounds are clearly distinct from one another but with the context of other nearby sounds that are district the ones that aren't can be figured out, usually. For example, \"Everybody loves ice cream\" is more grammatically correct than \"Everybody loves I scream.\". Grammar checking can help enhance voice recognition accuracy. Further learning can be achieved by manual correction. When voice recognition software sees you correct something it thought was correct it makes a note of the difference and then uses your own voice characteristics to build a custom set of fingerprints of sorts so it becomes more accurate with training."
]
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[
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrogram"
]
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22udan | why do some pornos insist that a girl is 18 when she is clearly not? what's the point? | Especially when we all know the pornstar is probably mid to late twenties. Is it a fetish thing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22udan/eli5_why_do_some_pornos_insist_that_a_girl_is_18/ | {
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"I read this WAY wrong. Like as in, a \"that's illegal\" sort of way. ",
"There are only two ages in porn: 18 and MILF.",
"It's a disclaimer thing. By stating that all the participants in *all* of their studio's films are at least 18 years and older, the studio seeks to preempt knee-jerk reactions of \"Oh my god, she looks *way* too young to be in porn.\" \n\nIt's the porn version of \"Do not put domesticated animals in your microwave oven unit.\""
]
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1yef79 | what marvel's guardians of the galaxy is roughly about and how it connects to other recent marvel films. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yef79/eli5_what_marvels_guardians_of_the_galaxy_is/ | {
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"There's a science-fiction aspect to the Marvel Universe that can be described as \"loosely connected\" to the Earthbound part of the Marvel Universe.\n\nIn the Marvel Media Universe (which varies from other aspects of the Marvel Universe including many of the comics) Earth has only recently become aware that there are other intelligent species in the universe. These creatures were unknown to science until SHIELD interacted first with Thor, and then with the Chitari during the Battle of New York.\n\nThe Asgardians (Thor's people) know all about the diverse kinds of life in the universe but they tend to focus their attention on a limited slice of the various planes of existence for reasons known to them and not so far well disclosed. The amount of information being exchanged between the Asgardians and the people of Earth appears very limited and it appears all SHIELD knows about the Chitari comes from wreckage and debris - they don't seem to have a live Chitari in their possession to interrogate.\n\nThere is an interstellar community on the same plane of existence as earth. Aliens and alien worlds abound. That community has faster than light travel and communication, self-aware artificial intelligence, and a diverse political structure including several interstellar Empires that periodically war on each other. These extraterrestrials have interacted with Earth from time to time but have obscured those interactions well enough that most Earth people know nothing about them.\n\nGuardians of the Galaxy is going to give us our first look at the interstellar science fiction aspects of the Marvel Media Universe. Parts of long-established Marvel Universe lore will be exposed - certain alien races will be introduced and certain interstellar organizations will be introduced. They will, like much of the Marvel Media Universe, be slightly altered from how they appear in the comic books to suit the needs of adaptation to a different storytelling medium and to avoid bogging the story down with 60 years of somewhat haphazard continuity and backstory.\n\nThe plot appears to be a caper. The character of Star Lord is a half human / half alien hybrid who spent his childhood on Earth but later left and went interstellar where he lived a life as a smuggler and thief. He works with a group of aliens from a diverse background who call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy - they fly around in their own starship and have adventures. As seen in the trailer, Star Lord runs into complications when trying to acquire an item of power, and he and his friends are thrown into prison. We assume the rest of the plot involves escaping from prison, locating the missing item, confronting the antagonists, probably saving the world (and the world may or may not be Earth), and likely connecting with the Infinity Stones subplot that is running through the Marvel Media Universe backstory.\n\n[The Infinity Stones are the Media Universe version of famous items in the main Marvel Universe. The first is the Tesseract from the first Captain America movie and the first Avengers movie, the second is the Aether from the second Thor movie. The Infinity Stones can be collected together to form an artifact of awesome power called the Infinity Gauntlet, which is sought by many - none more so than the villain named Thanos who was glimpsed briefly at the end of the Avengers movie, who has a unique relationship with the incarnation of Death]"
]
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1z5zog | what's the point of eating foods like corn and peas if my body can't digest them? | Naturally, I just went to the bathroom and noticed that my Chinese food dinner seemed to be mostly wasted. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z5zog/eli5_whats_the_point_of_eating_foods_like_corn/ | {
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"text": [
"Just because you can't fully digest them doesn't mean that you can't digest any of it. ",
"I would recommend chewing anything larger than a pea with your teeth before swallowing. "
]
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[],
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23uy8w | how much would the mona lisa be worth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23uy8w/eli5_how_much_would_the_mona_lisa_be_worth/ | {
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"Exactly as much as someone's willing to pay for it.\n\nBecause the Mona Lisa has never been sold*, we don't know that figure. But the Mona Lisa has been insured for $100 million in 1962 ($780 million in today dollars). So that's a rough approximation of its market value.\n\n*the painting was sold in the 1500s to King Francois I of France for 4000 ecus (A skilled craftsman might earn about 200-300 ecu a year)",
"Art sales works in a funny way because there is only one of the desired commodity. It's not like apples, or even Lamborghinis. There can never be another. So, the price is basically set by the owner.\n\nSo, say someone bought a painting for $100. That seemed like the right value to the painter, so he sold it. Now, say the new owner runs into tough times and needs money. he may be willing to sell the painting for $100, or maybe even less. \n\nBut, let's say bad times do not come upon the new owner, and he is happy with his painting. What, then, would it take for him to part with it? Often times, more than $100. How much more? That's subjective. \n\nLet's say $200 is enough. Painting is sold for $200 to an art dealer. This art dealer now advertises the painting by promoting the artist as a revolutionary, and finding all sorts of meaning in the painting, and correlating that with current events and the condition of humanity. Then he sets the price at $10,000. What an amazing garage sale find!\n\nNow, someone comes along and buys it for $10,000. It would take some pretty hard times to get him to sell it again for $200.\n\nBasically, art is only worth what the current owner says it's worth, and what the prospective buyer is willing to pay. The man who bought the painting in question for $10,000 could refuse offers of $1 million, or he could accept an offer of $50. It's all up to him. \n\nThe reason the Mona Lisa is so valuable is due to the fact that there are people interested in owning it for various reasons, mostly due to the fact that it is very well known for being done very well, by a very famous person a very long time ago. Also, of course, the fact that there is only one, and it needs to be preserved for the future. And, don't forget about bragging rights (and, let's be honest... this is the primary reason.)"
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2smf1f | why are mobile phones processors weaker than desktop processors even though on the spec sheet they look the same? (e.g. snapdragon 801 vs. intel core i5-3210m) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2smf1f/eli5_why_are_mobile_phones_processors_weaker_than/ | {
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"Phone processors have a smaller instruction set, meaning it takes them longer to complete the same task even though they are running at the same clock speed.\n\nCache sizes are also smaller, when the cache runs out it will be slowed down by the slower access times of memory vs the very fast access time the cache has.",
"Imagine two books.\n\nThe first book is a detailed text book on physics.\n\nThe second book is the Big Book of Physics with pop up pages.\n\nThe idea is that your computer is running a processor with a large amount of instructions. This means it has a large variety of instructions on the best way to complete certain tasks.\n\nYou read words at the same pace no matter what the subject matter is but it will take a lot longer to figure out the nature of space time with the big book of physics than it will with the text book.\n\nSimilar with the processors, the clock sizes are similar but the length of time they need to perform tasks vary wildly.\n\n\nLets throw some more into the mix - lets say along with the text book you have a large table to spread your notes over and with the big book of pop up physics you are sitting in an arm chair.\n\nEach time you use all the available space for notes you need to put the notes on the shelf.\nIf you need to refer to the notes often then obviously the big table is the way to go.\nThis is how your cache works on the CPU.\n\nFinally - lets say you have 2 friends helping you bring the notes backwards and forwards from the shelf.\nThe friend helping with the textbook is another studious individual.\nHe is diligent and quick and runs backwards and forward to the shelf for you.\nThe friend helping with the Pop up book is a a dick - think of fat kevin.\nHe's slow and sloppy.\nWhich friend do you want helping you.\nThis is why fast access memory is important.\n\n\n\n\n",
"Along with everything being said here, one thing that must be mentioned, heat.\n\nPc processors have fans running on them 24/7, where as phones have to vent heat naturally, this means they cant perform nearly as many processes in the same time period safely.\n\nThis is why your phone will get hot when you play games and start to run slower"
]
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6gb6q3 | what causes these "euphoric thrusts" which last for just a very short amount of time and appear out of nowhere? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gb6q3/eli5_what_causes_these_euphoric_thrusts_which/ | {
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"diowh0o"
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"text": [
"What are 'these \"euphoric thrusts\"' you're referring to? This is way too vague to answer. A little more context would be nice..."
]
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[]
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5hkplq | why is it possible to hear sounds through sealed\closed doors or walls? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hkplq/eli5_why_is_it_possible_to_hear_sounds_through/ | {
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"text": [
"Because sound is a wave it is the vibration of the medium surrounding the observer so since a door or whatever is made up of atoms so they can vibrate and move sound waves but the heavier the medium is the more change the sound undergoes",
"Sound waves travel by vibration. Some building materials will vibrate to transfer sound through them, to varying degrees.\n\nGlass can be a good conductor of sound, but the dead space between double glazing is a poor conductor of sound. Add rubber gaskets around the glass and it's an even poorer conductor as rubber doesn't conduct sound waves much at all."
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274yjj | if rigorous exercise can lead to improved stamina and strength then why does the body perceive this as a painful thing? | During high intensity workouts, many people have to stop and take a break not only to catch their breath but because they feel pain. If pushing through this leads to increase endurance and strength then why does the body send pain signals in the first place?
It's almost as if your brain is punishing you for exercising. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/274yjj/eli5_if_rigorous_exercise_can_lead_to_improved/ | {
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"Working out causes tears in your muscles, its in repairing these tears that the muscle becomes larger and stronger. It hurts because you're damaging your body, it's just damage that pays off later.",
"When you work out, you're putting your body through something it isn't used to, so you feel pain as your body is telling you to stop. The reaction doesn't stop there, though. You build muscle so that if you go through something similar again you're more prepared to handle it.\n\nYour body changes to be able to handle what it is exposed to. 80 degrees may seem hot in the beginning of the summer, but by the end of the season your body has gotten used to it, so it feels more comfortable. The same goes with your heart and lungs from cardio, and with brain function. The more you do something, the more uour body adapts to make it easier, to an extent.\n",
"Hard exercise breaks down muscle cells and releases lactic acid, which is the pain signal. The muscle then grows more new cells than you had before, which is why you build bulk. You then have increased capacity.\nMost exercisers know there is a endorphin pay off to the pain.\nRinse, Repeat..."
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17am4a | derivatives and intergrals. | Edit: Thanks :') | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17am4a/eli5_derivatives_and_intergrals/ | {
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"I can't imagine a five year old asking this question, but here goes:\n\nPicture, if you've ever seen it, the gateway arch in St. Louis. (If not, look it up) Now, say someone wants to measure the steepness (slope) of the arch. But it's curved, so all we can do is make an educated guess. If we look at two points on the edge of the arch, we can take the vertical distance between the points and divide it by the horizontal distance between them to get a pretty good guess at the slope of the arch near those points. But what if we were to make those points really close to each other? The closer we get them, the better our guess is. In fact, if we make those points right on top of each other and take the slope of them, our guess will actually be perfect. But obviously we can't take the slope of two points on top of each other, so we have to look at what the slope approaches the closer we make the points. The equation for these slopes at every point of the arch is called a derivative. \n\nNow lets think about the arch again. Now we don't want to get the slope of the arch, we want to find out how much space is under the arch. Once again, we can guess by drawing rectangles under the arch and multiplying the height of them by the width of them and adding them all together. But the more rectangles we make and the skinnier we make them, the closer to exact out guess will be. In fact, if we make their width zero, the guess will be perfect. But we can't find the area of a rectangle with zero width. So once again, we look at what the sum of these areas approaches, and we will find the exact area, also called an integral. ",
"First it is important to understand the idea of functions. A *function* is most simply a relation between two variables. Consider your speed over time during a car trip. Your speed can be called a function of time such that at any time value you have some speed value. \n\nNow a derivative is simply an expression of how one variable changes with respect to another. In our example, the derivative of your speed over time is how much your speed is changing at any time. Because acceleration is a measure of speed changes, this can be thought of as your acceleration as a function of time. On a two variable plot, a derivative at any point is also the \"slope\" of the plot at that point.\n\nAn integral is a measure of the accumulation of some variable over a span of another. In our example, the integral of your speed over some time span is the distance traveled in that time. On a two variable plot, the integral from one x value to another is the area under the curve between those two points."
]
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[],
[]
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3mw3bw | who declared the human rights? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mw3bw/eli5_who_declared_the_human_rights/ | {
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"text": [
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created by a committee of the United Nations, led by Eleanor Roosevelt. "
]
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[]
] | ||
694u51 | how can this camera "visualize" the movement of light? | I just came across this article: _URL_0_
I know that the only way we can see things is by light bouncing off them. However, this claims that the camera can visualize the movement of light. Wouldn't that require photons to bounce off of photons, which at that scale should be seen as individual photons? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/694u51/eli5_how_can_this_camera_visualize_the_movement/ | {
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"dh3sb3t",
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"text": [
"Unlike a normal camera it doesn't capture the action as it happens. \n\nInstead, what it does is it takes many different images at different times and different experiements and then splices them together to form a coherent picture. \n\nIt's like if you wished to get a slow motion video of water falling. You could get a high speed camera, or repeat the drop many times, taking pictures at different times each drop and then combine them together. \n\nAs for the question of how exactly they captured the image, there is scattering going on. That's why they have to run this many times (many laser flashes). Every time they do it, they acquire more and more 'leaked' photons. That coupled with the previous technique gives a good imagine of where photons are and where they came from. ",
"The other 2 answers to your question so far are pretty much entirely wrong.\n\n[Here's a link to a proof of the article in question](_URL_0_)\n\nIn short, they are sending a very short light pulse through a medium, which \"activates\" the medium in a certain way. This activation of the medium is what they're visualising and resolving in time.\n\nThe way they do this is by sending in a short train of (4) very short laser pulses perpendicular to the activation pulse, let's call these probe pulses. These probe pulses interact with the activated medium and are separated in time by 200 fs. In other words: every 200 fs, the position of the activation pulse's effect on the medium is probed by the pulse train.\n\nKeep in mind that the activation pulse and the medium are just the measurement objects! They are in no way inherent in the technique, which has a lot of potential applications. They just chose to demonstrate the technique by performing a measurement of the propagation of light. And as you rightfully point out, you can't bounce photons off of photons, hence the need for the activated medium.\n\nAs for how they actually record the images, each of the 4 probe pulses carry a spatial signature, a pattern. The pulses are then all recorded on top of each other on the same camera chip, and an algorithm is used to separate them at a later stage. Please have a look at the article if you're further interested and I'll try to answer your questions if you have any! :)"
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.iflscience.com/technology/new-record-for-worlds-fastest-camera-can-picture-the-movement-of-light-itself/"
] | [
[],
[
"http://aap.nature-lsa.cn:8080/cms/accessory/files/AAP-lsa201745.pdf"
]
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2qs8zv | why didn't the pre-columbian native americans ride elk or moose or anything? | Maybe it's just me thinking that everyone would always want to ride the coolest thing possible but this has always bugged me. I mean, horses were obviously a benefit once they were introduced to the continent so wouldn't a big powerful quadruped like a Bison or a Caribou be a good mount too? It just seems to me that with a few native animals similar to horses already available they would've worked with them on a bigger level.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qs8zv/eli5_why_didnt_the_precolumbian_native_americans/ | {
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"Most animals cant be domesticated. In history i think only 14 animals have been fully domesticated. In the book [Guns Germs & Steel](_URL_0_) you can find more info on this\n",
"You ever tried to ride an elk? Yeah, don't. \n\n**tl;dr It's really, really difficult to domesticate Elk, Moose, Bison, deer, zebra, and many other quadrapedal animals that look a bit like horses, but behave very differently**\n\nThere's a book called \"Guns, Germs, and Steel\" by Jared Diamond that I read in college which goes into this a little. He uses the analogy of marrige - \"Every good marriage is good in the same ways, every bad marriage is bad in it's own unique way\". \n\nHe goes on to explain that there's a *lot* of variables in domestication of animals (so they can be use widely, not just the once) - How males get on during mating season, how they handle caging, how they react to humans as a baseline, how they mate in captivity etc. \n\nHorses have the exact right temperament, mating habits, instinctual response to humans, herd dynamics, life-cycle, etc etc necessary for domestication and widespread use as mounts/work-animals. This is mostly just good luck and not something the first people to domesticate them *did*. Animals like goats, dogs, donkeys, mules, etc all also have these traits to a greater or lesser extent. Animals like elk, moose and bison do not have these traits, and are really, really difficult to break, let alone tame and domesticate. ",
"Are you thinking of that photo of Teddy Roosevelt riding a moose across a river? That was faked, back in the day, back in the darkroom. Darkroom tricks were quite popular back in the day."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419914932&sr=1-1&keywords=gun+germs+and+steel"
],
[],
[]
] | |
34ammg | how is it not racists to say only caucasians are able to be racists | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34ammg/eli5_how_is_it_not_racists_to_say_only_caucasians/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqstgt1"
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"score": [
2
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"text": [
"Only idiots say only Caucasians cam be racist. Sadly most of the US is full of idiots speaking very loudly."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
48nrtn | how do corporations prove they cannot "find" american workers for h1-b visa purposes when they are firing american workers to replace them with foreign workers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48nrtn/eli5_how_do_corporations_prove_they_cannot_find/ | {
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"text": [
"Two ways:\n\n - Less skilled job descriptions are replaced by more-skilled jobs. Oops, we can't employ Americans, need to go overseas.\n\n - Let people go, hire another business, that second business specializes in H1B hiring. Qute frankly, many of these companies specialize in breaking the law.\n\nThe visa program gives employers quite a lot of power. Normally your boss can fire you, but if you're on an H1B your boss almost has the power to deport you too.\n\nSo, let's say they sponsor you into the USA. And they can't find work for you. Legally they're supposed to either go back to Immigration and say \"we screwed up, we didn't actually need this migrant,\" or keep paying your salary. Many will decide to do neither, so now you're in the US, not getting paid, and possibly in violation of immigration law yourself.\n\nBut what are you going to do about it, Mr. H1B? Go home and cry about it?\n\nThe system is really deeply broken; it probably needs to be scrapped and replaced by a better job placement and training program, limit the proportion of foreign workers in a company, things like that. \n\nCanada's skilled immigrant program is more like a job placement service, maybe we should crib some ideas from them. (On the other hand, they recently reorganized it because the previous iteration wasn't working too well.)",
"Wikipedia says there is something called an LCA (Labor Condition Application) that must be filed.\n\nBut, also says:\n > Yet, under the law, most employers are not required to prove to the Department of Labor that they tried to find an American to fill the job first.\n \nSo it sounds like there really isn't any requirement for proof.\n\nThe only reason this is limited is because there is a limit to the number of H-1B visas given out in a year.",
"One way to do this is to advertise the work at a pay rate low enough so that you do not get suitable applicants for the job. For instance, if you were a fast food operation like Arbys looking to save labor costs in a high cost area you could advertise the jobs at minimum wages, thus limiting your applicants. With those applicants that do try for the job you find a reason to disqualify them. You then tell the government you cannot find workers and you hire a firm to import eastern European teens that will take the low wage job and make do on the high cost of living by all living in the same house, dormitory style.\n\nArbys: Armenian Roast Beef, Yes Sir!",
"Some good answers, but another more common way (especially with IT) is to inflate the number of job requirements required for the position beyond both what is required for the job and what anyone will be able to fulfill. For example in IT, they'll list the requirement to be expert in 10-12 things and products and if you even just meet 11 of those things, sorry, you're unqualified! If there is proof, all they need to do is prove they advertised the position. They don't even have to prove that the requirements are suitable for the actual work of the position, prove that they actually got anyone that *could* do the position, or even prove that they were not posting the job fraudulently (1). Just cry to the feds that there aren't any qualified people and their in like flint.\n\n1: There's a lot of that out there, usually it's a handy way to collect data on people. But the main gist is that there's a lot of job ads out there made by people who have absolutely no intention of hiring anybody.\n\nEdit: I have to add my favorite one of these job postings. I saw a job posted once 3 months after Microsoft released .NET that stated a requirement of \"five years experience in .NET technologies\". Stupidly hilarious if it wasn't that they're keeping good American workers from being employed.",
"I have seen several openings in engineering that require experience and a masters degree, advertised at $30,000/ yr. Yeah, like anyone is gonna take that job, unless you come from a third world country. \n\nThen they claim they can't fill the position. "
]
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
b53lby | is peak oil still considered a threat? | 10-15 years ago, Peak Oil was a big part of environmentalism campaigns, a complementary part of why we needed to move on from fossil fuels and onto renewable energy, as much as global warming. Now I can't remember the last time that I heard this concept mentioned. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b53lby/eli5_is_peak_oil_still_considered_a_threat/ | {
"a_id": [
"ejayjj1"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Yes it is still a threat, fracking, technology and exploration pushed the date back but it is still going to happen or is currently happening."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
17sn1z | why humans (and mammals in general) don't poop and pee out of one hole like birds and lizards. | I had the flu last week and I was basically peeing out my butt anyway so why don't we just do that all the time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17sn1z/eli5_why_humans_and_mammals_in_general_dont_poop/ | {
"a_id": [
"c88htyc"
],
"score": [
4
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"text": [
"TL:DR - It's literally just the way our tracts work. Birds and lizards have completely different systems than humans. \n\nWhen you drink something or eat food with fluids, it gets absorbed into your body to get the nutrients and is flushed through the kidneys into the bladder. The solid mass of food you eat that isn't absorbed due to lack of nutrients are passed on as poop. One goes through your gastrointestinal tract while the other goes through your kidneys. Simple as that.\n\nThere are also mammals that poop and pee out of the same hole, called Monotremes."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
32obeu | why did spacex try to land their rocket vertically? why not just bolt a bunch of chutes on it and let it splash down gently? | Admittedly I'm using KSP logic which might be less than realistic. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32obeu/eli5_why_did_spacex_try_to_land_their_rocket/ | {
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"text": [
"The plan is for it to land vertically so it can be re-used with a significantly faster turnaround time and less damage, thus cheaper.",
"Salt water could easily ruin the rocket. Also they want to eventually land it on land. The only reason they are doing it at sea is for safety reasons until they work the kinks out.",
"Dropping your space ship in salt water isn't a good way to keep it in good shape. The whole point of SpaceX is to develop a cheap way to get stuff into space. We already have disposable rockets. They're trying to develop a rocket that can be used multiple times so you don't have to buy a whole new rocket every time you want to send something up."
]
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[],
[],
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bc3cxr | how is your offspring affected if you reproduce when you are in peak physical shape versus poor physical condition? | If you have kids when you are physically fit enough to run a 5 minute mile, are the children more athletic than if you had kids when you can only run a 10 minute mile?
edit: If a male can bench press 300 pounds at the moment of conception versus conceiving when you've lost that muscle mass, is the potential still retained in your DNA or can it change? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bc3cxr/eli5_how_is_your_offspring_affected_if_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"ekng483",
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"text": [
"None.\n\nNot even getting into sperm, but a female's eggs are all present at the woman's birth, and only degrade from there.\n\nSo all the DNA is already written, and no amount of exercise will change that .",
"Abilities are not passed on. If a pregnant woman practices the best practices while pregnant, the child will on average be healthier. Too much food is bad but too little food is also bad. The wrong foods or not enough of certain things can cause problems. If a woman is in peak physical condition but doesn’t consume enough calories of protein or vitamins, that will possibly be worse than with a woman who is overweight but consumes the right foods.\n\nWith men, age is more important than physical condition. The older he is. The more mutations there may be a risk of passing on. So an unhealthy 20 year old likely has better sperm than a 60 year old ultramarathon et."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
27cif4 | war on terror | Why was it started? How can we end it? What has Obama done to help/harm the process?
Explain like I'm 2.. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27cif4/eli5_war_on_terror/ | {
"a_id": [
"chzikkd"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"Well, you can learn a lot here:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe term was first used by the Reagan Administration in the 1980s.\n\nIt's really more of a phrase that politicians use to get applause and to refer to the general military operations against terrorist organizations and other groups vaguely like them, than an actual war.\n\nIt really kind of peaked with the 9/11 attack and the subsequent war in Afghanistan and later sort of Iraq.\n\nThe way to end it is difficult. Ultimately I think we won't ever win or lose the war, because there's no definite end goal like there is with regular wars like WWII (get the Nazi army to surrender). \n\nI think after a while, the general idea that we are at war with terror will just kind of go out of popular thinking.\n\nObama's role in the war on terror is interesting and still being worked out. He has increased drone strikes significantly more than the Bush administration, and has even used them to assassinate American citizens in Yemen without a trial (Anwar al-Awlaki). He also sent a 2 year surge of troops into Afghanistan beginning in 2010. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terror"
]
] |
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