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61g1wl | how did people navigate oceans before gps? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/61g1wl/eli5_how_did_people_navigate_oceans_before_gps/ | {
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"The only time it's not effective is when you can't see the stars at night. *Polaris* is currently the pole star for the Northern Hemisphere, and the *Crux Australis* is the closest thing to it for the Southern Hemisphere. If you can find those you can figure out where you are. Stars do move in the sky, but it's pretty slow. ",
"Celestial navigation can be quite accurate. With good equipment (a sextant and an accurate clock), you can measure your position within a mile or so. \n\nUntil accurate clocks that didn't rely on pendulums (which don't work on a boat) were developed, determining longitude was more difficult, but as long as you know where you started and had some measurements of things like wind speed and currents, you could estimate it reasonably reliably. "
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2fjdvf | why do paparazzi not get the same flak as the person whom hacked the nude pictures in the fappening? | Paparazzi who take candid photos of a celeb with a long lens while they are topless, etc seem to have no repercussions.
A hacker who steals the photos gets hunted down.
I'm not saying either of them are right. I just want to know how one seems to be ok and the other isn't.
Edit: fixed up grammar mistakes (whom/who). Suffering from a cold, so brain isn't working properly :P Thanks to those with a keen eye | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fjdvf/eli5why_do_paparazzi_not_get_the_same_flak_as_the/ | {
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"What that hacker did would be like if a team of paparazzi serial burglarized all of the hollywood hills. That hacker digitally broke and entered. Removing copies of unique property that did not belong to them. Like high end art theft. Paparazzi, as obnoxious as they often appear to get, generally are following the local laws and statutes. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public. Your cloud account is not a public place. ",
"Because when you are in a public space, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Everyone can take your photos and the photos would belong to them. \n\nA hacker on the other hand steals something belongs to you. What's in the photos doesn't matter legaly. It's yours and taken without your consent. \n\nEdit: Some people commented hacking is a federal crime. It's true. They don't even have to take anything. Just accessing your account is enough. \n\nEdit2: This is just a general ELI5 answer. There could be specific laws in place for situations like taking upskirt photos, harassment, stalking etc. Also what you can do with that photos is different in some states and countries. ",
"I think in the case of the paparazzi taking higly invasive photos (recently-ish think of the topless photos of Kate Middleton) as well as obtaining material illegally (think phone hacking) the press does come to a lot of grief albiet only in more recent years. \n\n\n\n",
"Legally, it is because the theory is that they are taking the pictures from a public setting. And if you can say you were in public when you took the picture, they didnt have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Now you could argue semantics about if being in a bush, maybe on someone else's property, and using a 3 foot long telephoto lens to take a high res picture of someone's bedroom is legal or not, but the public has accepted it. And that is the root of the issue, we have accepted that paparazzi are going to be trying to take these shots and have stopped caring.\n\nNow if i were a celeb im not sure id agree with it, because i believe in their homes anyone should have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and would likely sue over it. But due to our freedom of the press laws, i would likely lose anyway. Because while it might have been slightly illegal to take the pictures, there is absolutely nothing stopping the press from publishing them short of a gag order.",
"paparazzi has gotten a ton of flak over the years. when princess di died in an accident perceived to be caused by the paparazzi the backlash was FAR beyond what we are seeing over the hacking thing. basically, it comes down to what outrage is currently sitting in front of the public eye, and who is perceived to be the cause of it\n",
"Soooooo how funny is the world gonna get when a judge rules having stuff out in the Internet no longer constitutes a reasonable expectation of privacy?",
" > Paparazzi whom take candid\n\n > A hacker whom steals\n\nI don't know if you're a native English speaker or not, but if you don't know when to use \"whom\", I'd leave it out entirely.\n\nIt doesn't matter to whom you are speaking. Whoever they are, they will forgive a \"who\" that should have been a \"whom\" more easily than the opposite.",
"Cameras have been around a long time. Society is used to them, laws have been laid down, paparazzi know all the ins and outs and loopholes of those laws. People have been taking telephotos for a long time, so it's not new news. The legal situation is better settled, and the paparazzi usually avoid blatantly illegal tactics. \n\nIt's just a known, and therefore less interesting situation.\n\nComputer hacking and photo stealing is new, clearly illegal, and therefore more interesting and newsworthy. \n\nFrom the perspective of the person that's got their topless pics everywhere, it's more or less the same. But the other aspects are different.",
"I also don't get this apathetic attitude toward actor's privacy. Many people are like \"well, that's the price of fame\", \"they chose this profession\", \"they should have no expectation of privacy\" as if acting is done by a bunch of exhibitionists. \n\n\nNo doubt the Kardashians are different in that their bread and butter is gleaned through publicity but many *actors/actresses* are in this career field because they enjoy **acting**. Since childhood, they enjoy becoming another character, a chameleon. The side effects of success in doing so is fame but it's not what drew many of them to this field. ",
"Paparazzi take photos that are out in the open, using a long lens is not illegal, unless they were trespassing to get the photos, other wise, if it is visible in the open, no laws are broken. It's not the nude photos that are the issue so much, it's the hacking to get them",
"Because the Paparazzi are understood. It is not a new thing to imagine that if someone wants to take a picture of you it's possible for them to hide in the bush or in the trees and do it.\n\nBut people trusted a service like iCloud. iCloud is a service that will automatically back data up for you, it might keep things after you think you've deleted them. You don't even know you're vulnerable. Those photo's you'd removed off the phone, you think they are gone. \n\nBut then someone takes it, and you don't even know that they could. You didn't even know that they were still around somewhere to be taken. \n\nWith the paparazzi if you saw a picture through a window from a tree, you realize that the was a person in a tree. When you delete a picture form your phone, nobody else touches your phone, but then magically your photo is on the Internet, that's creepier. \n\nYou expect the paparazzi, and you can do things to avoid exposure. If you keep your phone safe but it automatically backs up to iCloud without you knowing and that gets stolen without you realizing it, you can't go back in time to do anything to avoid it. ",
"Because the media companies who buy pictures from paparazzi are mad that they weren't offered the pictures to monetize, so suddenly this is a \"feminist\" issue\nrelated:\n_URL_0_",
"The paparazzi got plenty of flack when they killed Princess Diana.",
"Follow the money. Where is this flack coming from? The media. The same media that publishes those paparazzi photos for profit. But, are they profiting from the leaked photos? No. \n\nThat's not to say that hacking people's private accounts is okay, it isn't. ",
"This case is entirely different than paparazzi taking photographs with long white lenses. This is a big deal because they \"hacked\" or \"broke in\" and stole these, similar to a hacker breaking into say PayPal or Sony and stealing everyone's identity. \n\nWhile both are shitty, one is very illegal the other is just morally wrong.",
"because paparazzi have a corporation behind them. If they weren't selling it to the tabloids they wouldn't survive long. ",
"Many of these paparazzi are actually called by the celebrity or their agent and told where they celeb is going to be. Celebrities count this as free promotion, some people like Kanye get fake-mad at them to make it look like he's so famous and they are ruining his life. It's all for show.",
"Paparazzi typically obtain their images in a lawful manner. According to media law, you can take pictures of anyone and anything while on public property (in most states?). Typically, their photos are taken in public. If they are shooting into private property or a home, they are not allowed to use any other lens other than a 50mm, because that's what's considered standard human POV. ",
"So does this mean if I use a telephoto lens and stalk someone to get nude photos of them (from public property) that's totally okay, so long as I don't steal the ones they took of themselves?",
"Paparazzi are part of the media. The media isn't going to report on themselves negatively. Hackers aren't part of the media so they're reported on in whichever way gets the most attention.",
"Because they work for the source of said flak. Hypocrites, all the way down. ",
"They get a ton of flack, are you kidding? It's just that there is no legal recourse for their actions, unless they cross a line.",
"Because it isn't illegal to take photos. As the paparazzo, I own the rights to my produce and can make the media vye for my work.\n\nThen, my work gets Hello and OK! magazine tons of revenue because their audience scoop up the sensationalist shit therein, which the world's leaders love because it distracts and placates our feeble minds while our leaders and their friends philander and bribe and molest and wage war.\n\nAlso, the fappening photos was an act of theft.\n\nEdit - 1st para is hypothetical, I am not a paparazzo",
"I take OP at her/his word that \"I'm not saying either of them are right\" but I am wary of posting the question in the first place. To do so vectors towards supporting an ethical makeup that right and wrong are relative to the situation. There's an inference in the original post that one group or individual (\"the person whom hacked...\") is treated unfairly versus another group (\"the paparazzi\"). Others here have done an excellent job showing that the groups aren't comparable and the supposition that paparazzi hadn't garnered flak (deservedly) is wrong.\nBut even if that wasn't true, it doesn't matter. What the \"hackers\" (I have want of a better name [and no don't suggest '4chan' -- I'm not CNN]) did was deplorable. Regardless of whether someone is in the public eye, a person suffering indignity by another's malfeasance harms all of us. We are our sister's keeper.\nI thank OP for letting me post here and hope that he/she knows that I trust their reason in posting the question. My qualm concerns how it is interpreted by others.",
"Becuase taking someone's picture, in public - or more correctly, from a public place - isn't illegal; stealing pictures, or property from someone, is illegal. ",
"A lot of people in this thread are explaining (quite correctly) that what paparazzis do is legal, as opposed to the hacking, and a lot of people are taking that to meab they're not doing anything wrong.\n\nThat's not how it works. Something can be legal and still be inexcusable. Paparazzis are still disgusting scum if the earth, they just can't be sent to prison for it.",
"Hacking is a felony. Photography is not.",
"Photographs are legally owned by the taker of the photo. They own the copywrite. So if I take your picture, then I own that picture and can do with it what I please. \n\nAlso paparazzi (typically) take photos from public property. So what they see is visible from public space... So it is not private.\n\nBoth are arguably immoral but only the theft is illegal",
"Candids are not stolen personal property",
"We really need to have a talk about who vs whom",
"Legal doesn't always mean moral, but it's worth noting that hacking photos is illegal and taking photos in public isn't. People doing things that are high-visibility and illegal tend to get a lot of flak.",
"Paparazzi get a constant, but even, buzz of hate. The hacker did something highly visible and all-at-once, so he's getting a spike of hate.",
"Because they don't take nudes of those under the age of 18 and spread them on the internet.\n\nThis guy did and deserves the wrath of the FBI.",
"There is more than enough hypocrisy going around.\n\nCompare these articles...\n\n* _URL_0_\n\n* _URL_3_\n\n* _URL_4_\n\nWith these articles...\n\n* _URL_2_\n* _URL_1_\n\n\nAll from the Huffington Post. These fucking hypocritical scumbags were actually HOSTING the Greg Oden nude photos and had a goddamn poll asking readers to judge how Greg Oden looked. Then Greg Oden apologized because, hey, when male nude photos are leaked that person should apologize but oh poor Jennifer Lawrence, you fucking perverts.\n\nThe whole thing is pretty despicable overall but these same sites condemning hackers and internet \"perverts\" are the same people posting swimsuit pictures, \"upskirt\" pictures, nipple slips, and just generally obsessing over these \"stars\" endlessly. Why the hell are people so interested in the these celebrities? Uh well maybe because these shitty sites and papers shove them down our throats endlessly.",
"Well the hacker stole the celebrities pictures, the paparazzi make their own typically outside the premises in a typically legal manner(Although still disturbing what they wait for)",
"[Ex-paparazzo here.](_URL_0_) \n\nThere's more pictures of nude celebrities in private moments that never make the light of day because they were taken outside of the legal parameters (inside someone's private property etc).\n\nI saw some pictures of Nick Lachey with Vanessa Minillo having sex in a private pool in Mexico that couldn't be published because they were that private.\n\nAlso, paparazzi get a lot of repercussions. The media makes it seem that all paps are these perverts that obsess over celebrities, when in reality is just people trying to get by with a shitjob in Los Angeles (many of them are actors, teachers, musicians, etc. just doing a job they don't give a fuck about).\n\nTHE MAIN PROBLEM is that people care. They care so much that they pay shit tons for celebrity pictures. If the people stopped caring about their fucking celebrities, then celebrity pictures would be worthless and we wouldn't have this problem. So stop hyping up shitty celebs to god status that you need to see a billion pictures off and the problem is eliminated.\n\n\n",
"The issue you are alluding to is governed by two commonly confused yet distinct and separate concepts within United States intellectual property law: right to privacy and copyright infringement. Allow me to elaborate:\n\nUnder United States law, every person has a right of privacy, however these rights are on somewhat of a sliding scale. There a few different causes of action recognized as a result of a breach of privacy (I won't go into them all). To determine whether a person, such as a member of the paparazzi, has invaded a person's right of privacy, an analysis is conducted examining different factors such as the sensitive nature of the information received, the expectation of the infringed party's privacy, and whether or not the person has thrust themselves into the public eye. The example I see a few comments down regarding a nude sunbathing person is useful. Consider you are an average person sunbathing nude at a nude beach and someone took your picture. They would not have invaded your privacy because you are in a public space with a minimal expectation of privacy. A nude sunbather in their backyard with no fences may also be considered to be in a public place. A nude sunbather in their back yard with 10 foot fences could be considered to have an expectation of privacy and there may be an infringement. In terms of celebrities, an extra wrinkle is added because these people have asked for additional fame and attention through their choice of career. A celebrity has a lower expectation of privacy because they expect people to be watching their every move, and therefore taking a picture of a celebrity sunbathing in their backyard without extreme privacy measures (acres of land surrounding you or something of that nature) would most likely not be found to be infringing on their privacy rights.\n\nThe naked picture leak has more to do with copyright law as opposed to right to privacy. Those photos were privately owned by a person, and therefore they own the copyright to those photos. Taking the photos without their permission can be considered theft, but displaying them would most likely be considered copyright infringement. Usually copyright infringement requires some degree of fiscal gain, because there are various doctrines pertaining to fair use, but most of these would not apply to stolen photos. There also may be a right of action pertaining to invasion of privacy, however the situation is much different in the sense that a private photo stored in your phone has a much higher expectation of privacy attached to it than naked sunbathing.\n\nKeep in mind that this is a barebones description of the law. Hope it helps!\n\nSource: Future attorney",
"Because the paparazzi is largely synonymous with the media. If they're not the same groups, then they have strong ties together.\n\nThe media is largely in uproar over it because the guy who leaked these images specifically refused to sell them to the sort of major media outlets that would like to have them.\n\nThey can't get clicks and ratings sharing the scandalous pictures, so they'll do the next best thing: get clicks and ratings droning on about how scandalous and privacy-invading these leaks are, laughing about the hypocrisy of it all the way to the bank.",
"You are entirely right, there should be more scrutiny on the paparazzi, but the media aren't going to light a fire behind that issue are they?\n\n",
"Islamic law on privacy is based on well known hadith:\n\n\nReported in Sahih Bukhari:\n\nVolume 9, Book 83, Number 38:\n\nNarrated Sahl bin Sa'd As-Sa'idi:\n\nA man peeped through a hole in the door of Allah's Apostle's house, and at that time, Allah's Apostle had a Midri (an iron comb or bar) with which he was rubbing his head. So when Allah's Apostle saw him, he said (to him), \"If I had been sure that you were looking at me (through the door), I would have poked your eye with this (sharp iron bar).\" Allah's Apostle added, \"The asking for permission to enter has been enjoined so that one may not look unlawfully (at what there is in the house without the permission of its people).\" ",
"If you can be viewed from a public area, you generally have no reasonable expectation of privacy. However, if somebody hacks into a device with all sorts of security measures in place, they know there is an implicit expectation of privacy and are using illegal means specifically to bypass it. Privacy-wise, it's considered to be the same as if they willfully broke into your house and started taking pictures of you, and took extensive, premeditated steps to do so.",
"One illegal and one is not to boot. \n \n > how one seems to be ok \n \nWho says it's ok? ",
"I am going to add to this question. If the person hacked the server this is illegal right? If they logged onto the account via an easy password is this still \"hacking\"? Second if the US government can consider any information you share with a third party as \"no longer private\" what's the difference between them and the leaker?",
"I think it's the nuance between taking a pic of her from outside the windows and bursting in her room with a crowbar when she is naked to take a pic",
"Hacking a phone and taking pictures from it is illegal *de jure.* As a matter of law, hacking a phone is illegal. So that's easy and clean.\n\nTaking pictures on your own and distributing them can be illegal, *de facto,* based on the what/who it's of, where you took it, and where you distributed it. The legality of what the paparazzi does is based on specifics and is more messy in a legal context.\n\nSo the simplest answer is that the hacking removes any ambiguity as to the legality. Paparazzi make their careers on the ethical line the are always walking.",
"Paparazzi usually take pics that can be seen by the public eye (celebs in coffee shops, walking down the street, beach, etc.)\nWhen paparazzi cross that boundary and reveal private pics, law suits are brought up.\n",
"The level of celebrity celebrities are trying to attain cannot be reached without papz. Also, most papz shots are prearranged.",
"People don't need a password to see you outside? You have very little expectation of privacy out in public. I guess except if your a fucking cop. ",
"There is a lot of backlash against paparazzi, as mentioned, another high profile case was the death of Princess Di, which may not have happened if the paparazzi weren't harassing the car and creating a dangerous driving situation. But there is a difference. Paparazzi are taking their own photos, and, unless they can be charged with trespassing, have a legal protection to. They are using their own cameras and they are in a public spot. It can still be unethical and some of their upskirting shots may be illegal (though mostly it's just a really horrible thing to do). \n\nThis is not equivalent unless the paparazzo climbed into an actor's home, broke open a padlock on their box of photos, and then stole the photos and disseminated them.\n\nPaparazzi don't usually go into a celebrity's personal belongings to steal photos the celebrity took themselves. It's a much greater violation to hack into someone's deleted photos than to take a photo of them on a public sidewalk, though, depending on context, again, those are both pretty shitty things to do.",
"I think you meant who*.",
"Why doesn't the gov't/NSA get flak for being up in everyones shit. But as soon as a couple famous titties fall from a cloud its all 'FUCK THIS' 'FUCK YOU' 'WHITE KNIGHT' ETC",
"'THE FAPPENING' - I will never not find that funny, despite how wrong it all is.",
"The main reason isn't that people aren't upset when the paparazzi take pictures but at the same time people are used to this and conditioned by it. Anymore paparazzi taking pictures has come to be expected so there isn't as much outrage. In this situation pictures were leaking from what was considered a safe place, this was unexpected and a new breach of security. As such people are freaking out.\n\nThe Joker - \"You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go \"according to plan.\" Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all \"part of the plan\". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds! \"",
"Paparazzi take pictures of things which could theoretically be seen by the public anyway if they were in the right place at the right time. \nWhere as getting access to someone's private photos is different.",
"Because its the press that hypes up condemnation of these \"malicious hackers\" whilst not reporting the fact that its exactly what they're doing at the same time. ",
"How about why when a celebrity gets hacked it gets investigated by the FBI but say if it happened to me it would basically go unnoticed",
"Paparazzi only take pictures when the subject is in public where there is no expectation of privacy. Pictures taken in the home have an expectation of privacy.\n\nAlso:\n\n1. The person who takes the picture owns it. A paparazzi who takes the photo of someone in public owns that photo and can do whatever they want with it.\n\n2. The pictures of these celebrities were taken by them in private. That means the photograph is owned by the celebrity and there is no fair use right.\n\n3. I know the internet like to think it knows more about federal copyright law than the Supreme Court which actually interprets it, but the fact is that the celebrities own those photos, the hacker stole them and distributed. Copyright infringement is actually a criminal as well as civil offense. although the RIAA and MPAA in their various battles have never pursued the criminal route, these celebrities could and should. ",
"Because the hacker could start hacking in to more dangerous info, while the paparazzi would still be hanging from a fence ",
"One of them is taking pictures in public places. The other is stealing pictures from somewhere private that they are not supposed to have access to.",
"If taking a picture of anything from a public space is legal, does that mean anyone can take a picture of anyone else without consent and it's legal? ",
"What the \"hacker\" did was illegal. What the paparazzi do, however morally shady, is legal.",
"tldr; double standards \n\nwelcome to human society ",
"Is this seriously an ELI5? Did it really have to be explained the difference between something that is legal and something that is illegal?\n\nPaparazzi may be scumbags but they know the damn law. ",
"Because the world is full of bullshit.",
"I can't believe even a 5 year old would ask this question.",
"Because they actually take the damn pictures. Those pictures are also almost always of people doing things in a relatively public place (beach, boat, street etc). A hacker stole photos people took behind closed doors and posted them for free on the net. Big difference in my book. ",
"The joker says it's all about expectations. We expect paparazzi but not hacker so everyone losses their fucking minds.",
"Simple the media can't sell the item for money or get rep for it so your a creep for looking at it.",
"Paparazzi are scum, just like the people who read the paparazzi magazines. ",
"One is filming someone in the street. The other is hacking into a cloud to steal nudes. Sounds like you are 5 with a question like this. "
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2eizlb | when a store goes under construction for let's say 6 months, how does that company afford to stay in business when they're not making money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2eizlb/eli5_when_a_store_goes_under_construction_for/ | {
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4trex8 | if the money loaned to the banks since the financial crisis was created for that purpose, what difference does it make? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4trex8/eli5if_the_money_loaned_to_the_banks_since_the/ | {
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" > Why could it not have just gone to cover the bad loans or even the deposits of the banks?\n\nThe bad loans were purchased by the government (not the Fed) through TARP. \n\nThe purpose of the Fed loans is to keep the financial system running. Firms routinely need to borrow money even to make payroll. Tons and tons of firms don't just have cash on hand to cover expenses.\n\nWhat made the great depression the great depression was a credit freeze. Banks experienced a bunch of runs and lending, even by banks still in operation, came to an almost complete halt. This created a massive wave of business failures and layoffs.\n\nIn 2008, the immense and rapid loss of value of CDOs backed by risky mortgages made a bunch of banks not sure if they were even solvent. The two pronged approach to this problem was to have the government buy some of those CDOs so banks didn't have to be as concerned about their balance sheet and the Fed creating a bunch of money to reduce interest rates and make sure lending continued.\n\nLet me know if I answered your question.\n\n"
]
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[]
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324sln | why do ships (commercial, cruise ships, pleasure craft, etc.) still have names but commercial aircraft don't? | Perhaps their staff/pilots name them informally? Or is it that it would be too hard to track them all? And when are the next level of larger-volume commercial aircraft estimated to come into use? I searched ELI5 and other subreddits but could only find this topic as it relates to military airplanes.
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/324sln/eli5_why_do_ships_commercial_cruise_ships/ | {
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"I know that the KLM, the Dutch airline, names its aircraft. There's always an aircraft named \"Albert Plesman\" in the fleet, because he was the person that founded the KLM. Most other KLM passenger aircraft have names as well, although I'm not sure about the cargo aircraft being named.",
"Some do. If the registration of an aircraft required a name the same way many ship registries do surely there'd be more named planes.\n\nSome aircraft have been named. Quite famously like the Enola Gay.",
"Maybe plunging from the sky to the ground is somehow regarded as less honorable and inspiring than sinking, so most people don't want THAT kind of publicity in case..."
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2jgjss | why when stopped at a red light does it feel like my car is moving? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jgjss/eli5_why_when_stopped_at_a_red_light_does_it_feel/ | {
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"If you feel this having just come to a stop at a red light, this is down to a thing called Inertia \n\nInertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion, including changes to its speed and direction. It is the tendency of objects to keep moving in a straight line at constant velocity.\n\nif you have been stopped for a while, and still feel like you are moving, then you are probably just a crazy person. ",
"They way I see it, there are three possibilities:\n\n1) It really is moving: you haven't put the handbrake on and you're on a slope great enough for your car to start moving.\n\n2) Your body has got used to the feelings of acceleration/deceleration when changing speed, and you are still feeling the aftermath of that. Think of when you push in on someone else's hands while the push out, and when you stop after a minute or two, you feel like your hands want to go inwards on their own accord, while your friend's want to go out.\n\n3) You are stationary but the cars around you are moving. When slow, enough, your body can't tell the difference between no acceleration and a little bit of acceleration and relies on sight, so if your only frame of reference is your car and the other car, your mind can be temporarily tricked into thinking you're moving when it's really them that's moving.",
"It's called vection, and it's from your brain cancelling out movement after getting used to it, and then not quite switching off the cancelling effect\n_URL_0_"
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53s5jy | why do the majority of canadian hockey players shoot left handed? | I'm from the UK and grew up playing Ice Hockey. The majority of British players I played with at junior level shot right handed - which makes sense to me as they would be right handed.
However there seems to be a disproportionate number of North American players that shoot left handed (far more than 1 in 10 - which is roughly the proportion of left handed people).
A quick google search does show statistics to back this up. Google searches also gives some answers to this question - along the lines of it is easier to have the dominant hand at the top of the stick, so that hand is always on the stick and it helps with fine control.
This is explanation seems to have some logic to it but why would there be such a difference between nations. If the reason is because it is human nature to want the dominant hand at the top of the stick surely all nations should roughly end of with the same proportion of left/right shooters. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53s5jy/eli5_why_do_the_majority_of_canadian_hockey/ | {
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"As a left handed american -- this gives me hope I can one day become a professional Canadian hockey player :) ",
"How much hockey is played in the UK?"
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6cbdb2 | why does a bag of potato chips "poof up" when you go to a higher altitude? | Bought a bag of chips in Phoenix but then when we head to Flagstaff to visit my sister it suddenly was about to explode. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6cbdb2/eli5_why_does_a_bag_of_potato_chips_poof_up_when/ | {
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"When the chips were produced and bagged, it sealed in some air that was at normal atmospheric pressure. When you went to Flag, you also went up in altitude, where the pressure is lower. That causes the bag to poof up."
]
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[]
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6wfyhr | how is it determined if the currency should be 1s, 1,000s, or even 1,000,000s? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wfyhr/eli5_how_is_it_determined_if_the_currency_should/ | {
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"Countries don't normally start with those high numbers. Zimbabwe for instance had runaway inflation. Inflation is the main culprit.\n\nA country releases a currency, and usually initially ties it to the value of another country. The US Dollar, the Great British Pound, and the Euro are popular because they tend to be pretty stable. Time goes on, and for one reason or another, people decide that what they are selling is worth more than their currency face value in USD, so they charge more. As more people start doing this, the worth of the currency is reduced.\n\nIn Zimbabwe, they kept printing more money, which meant that what people had became worthless, so the government needs to print higher denomination bills in order to continue paying their debts. In this way, Zimbabwe ended up with Trillion Dollar bills. Most countries with stable economies might have the same problem, but it happens much slower. Iraq up until the invasion had a pretty stable economy, and a 5 dinar bill was worth something. Afghanistan is even still around 40-50 Af to the US Dollar.\n\nAs for printing higher/lower bills, it just comes down to the government deciding what the people need to transact daily. They print higher bills when it becomes unwieldy to carry smaller bills.",
"Disclaimer: I'm not an expert whatsoever in this area so please correct me if I'm wrong \n\nPutting it simply the economy in the country determines its coin's worth. For example an euro is worth about 3.77 BR. In relation to the Zimbabwe's situation an euro is equal to 431.7 Zimbabwean dollars.\n\nThe reason is mainly inflation which is to increase the price of the general products making the purchasing power of your coin decrease.\n\nLet's take a look at what happened in Zimbabwe:\n\nHyperinflation. They printed out too much currency\n\n\"A country's government earns (mostly taxes) and spends (defense, education etc). General idea is for a country to loan or cut it's expenses in case it goes way overboard with it's spending. Minor differences can be taken care of by what is known as deficit financing, where you print the difference between government expenditure and income. This printing leads to an inflation, which is basically devaluation of the currency. A little inflation is a good thing because it helps the economy to move and grow.\n\nBut in the case of Zimbabwe, they printed way too much money, mostly to finance the Second Congo War and to better pay it's army officials. This is a vicious cycle, like compound interest. Today I pay you 10k, you drive the prices up, and tomorrow you will demand 20k to compensate for the raised prices. This continued for 5 years.\n\nAt the end of it all, the farmer's $100 note turns worthless. If there were 100 notes like that in the country, now there are a million. The wealth went to whoever holds the remaining 999,999 notes.\"\n\nThink of a note as just another item. If only 10 have it, then it's worth a lot. If you replicate it, then it's value decreases - it's not as \"rare\" anymore. Therefore you need to have bigger and bigger notes to buy the same things you bought before with smaller ones.\n\n\n"
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2hodgz | why does super glue fasten my fingers together almost instantly but takes forever to glue anything else together? | I'm trying to glue together a miniature bridge made out of toothpicks and I can't get the glue to set on anything but my fingers. Why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hodgz/eli5why_does_super_glue_fasten_my_fingers/ | {
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"Actually, the superglue is cyanoacrylate, which is a compound that \"sets\" when it contacts water. Your fingers are moist while toothpicks aren't. Try dampening the toothpicks and they will set very quickly.This is why superglues have warnings about skin contact."
]
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byu5r9 | why can't youtube advertisers just choose what kind of videos they want their ads on | Like with all the mass demonetization going on can't advertisers just choose what kind of videos they dont want their ads to appear on? Like couldnt an advertiser have the option to air its ads on everything but political content etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/byu5r9/eli5_why_cant_youtube_advertisers_just_choose/ | {
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"The issue here is that in general, no advertiser wants their ads on the channels in question. Pretty much no one wants to go \"I'm going to advertise my product on a channel known for defending white supremacists!\" or \"I'm okay with my ads going on someone who uses hate speech to insult gay people!\" \n\n\nLikewise, because there are SO MANY videos on youtube, having to pick and choose which channels to advertise on would be nearly impossible.",
"They try to do that, but it's hard to automatically determine the content of a video. So the automatic filters are too agressive and demonetize videos that should be ok."
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1pg8xw | how can companies like threadless and bustedtees produce shirts containing the intellectual property of other companies like breaking bad or game of thrones. | do they pay royalties ? or are they just such a small company that it doesnt matter ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pg8xw/eli5how_can_companies_like_threadless_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Bands grant IP rights to said companies in exchange for payment or contract with a percentage of sales (depending on the company)."
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3p7rg9 | are catterpillars and butterflies the same animal? | Are they considered a seperate species? Do catterpillars die and reincarnate into a butterfly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p7rg9/eli5_are_catterpillars_and_butterflies_the_same/ | {
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"They have the same DNA, so they are the same species. And it's not reincarnation, it's metamorphosis. The caterpillar doesn't die, it just changes its physical form.",
"Also, at what point (in the caccoon) does a caterpillar stop being a caterpillar, and is considered a butterfly?"
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3rehvs | citizens united | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rehvs/eli5_citizens_united/ | {
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"There was a [thread](_URL_0_) about this a few years back. I hope that helps you understand a little better.",
"Citizens United was a group that was the subject of an infamous Supreme Court case a few years back.\n\nThe subject matter of the case was that Citizens United wanted to air a political commercial which was prohibited by a law that Congress had passed some years earlier. The law said that you couldn't broadcast advertisements related to candidates within a certain period of time before an election.\n\nThe Supreme Court ruled that such a law was unconstitutional, since it infringed on the free speech of Citizens United. As a result of this ruling a corporation may spend an unlimited amount of money in support of a candidate (although direct donations are limited). \n\nThe case is frequently cited as an example of corporations being treated as people and being given the same rights as individuals. It is also frequently brought up in discussions of money being prevalent in politics. "
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bhznsy | why do waves seem stationary when viewed from the airplane window? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bhznsy/eli5_why_do_waves_seem_stationary_when_viewed/ | {
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"One major part it that a car move relative to stationary ground so it is quite easy to see that is move but out as sea all waves moves at relative same speed so to have a fixed point of reference you have to compare it to land.\n\nThe next part is that waves are relative slow. Look at the [Beaufort\\_scale](_URL_0_) for the wind speed and the resulting waves. Look at Strong breeze where there start to be white crest on the waves the wind speed is 39–49 km/h and [the wave speed](_URL_1_) then is in the 20-30km/h range compare to a car on a highway that travel at 4x - 6x time faster\n\nSo next time compare a car in a at slow speed to a wave that hit the shore or move close to something stationary."
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35i9u7 | how steven hawking and neil degrasse tyson's theories help the field of astronomy? | How does knowing their idea's on string theory and black holes help us compared to not knowing them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35i9u7/eli5_how_steven_hawking_and_neil_degrasse_tysons/ | {
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"Hawking's ideas help us look for black holes. He was the one who proved that black holes emit radiation (hence \"Hawking radiation\"), so we know that if we want to find a black hole, we should look for Hawking radiation. This is extremely useful since black holes are... well, black, and do not emit any other sort of radiation like light for us to see. They're thus pretty damn tricky to detect.\n\nHawking also was the one who laid the theoretical groundwork behind warp drives. Warp drives obviously do not exist yet and may never exist, but without his work we wouldn't have even known where to start with trying to make one.\n\nNeil deGrasse Tyson frankly does not have a particularly noteworthy resume in terms of his theoretical contributions to the field. He's more of an educator and public figure than a \"hard\" scientist. That's not to say that he doesn't know his stuff or isn't worthy of praise and respect, just that he isn't really that highly regarded as a \"physicist's physicist,\" if that makes sense.\n\nFrankly, though, neither Hawking or NDT are really considered that highly within the physics community. They're very well respected, of course, but there are a lot of men and women who most of us have never heard of that made much larger contributions to the field over the past century. Hawking and NDT are both very good at dealing with the non-physics community, which is obviously very important.",
"I just want to add that one huge way in which they help with astronomy in a non-technical way is through popularizing astronomy and cosmology as well as physics in general. For example NDT has testified in front of Congress on the importance of funding NASA and it's space exploration programs. Hawking has written some very accessible books. I'm not saying that they are single handedly keeping astronomy research alive, but they certainly help promote the cause, secure funding, and probably also help get the next generation interested in the field so there can be bright young people ready to carry on the work when their time comes. "
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1p8d7g | ammunition classifications | The way ammunition is measured baffles me a bit. For example, a .22 is worlds different from a .223, and a .44 is not even close to a .45 and are fired from entirely different firearms. I know I am missing something, help me out? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p8d7g/eli5_ammunition_classifications/ | {
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"Each bullet \"size\" is a standard that involves the width of the round but also the shape of the round, the shape of the cartridge, and so on. But, the naming convention is to call a bullet by its width in inches (eg, .45) or millimeters (eg, 9mm), and to ignore other aspects of the bullet unless you need to distinguish between two bullets with identical widths. (Sometimes it's the width of the cartridge rather than the bullet). \n\nThis means that sometimes, as with the .22 and .223, the width of the bullet--the part that gives it the name--is the least different part of the standard, so it sounds like the bullets should be similar even though they're [totally not](_URL_0_).",
"The problem you're having is that most ammunition is commonly referred to by simply the bore size. The length and weight of the bullet along with the size & shape of the casing (which directly effects how much powder) is in in a charge are all important characteristics.\n\nIf you had them in your hand, you'd see that .22 and .223 were just about the same diameter. The .223 bullet is a bit larger. The big difference comes when you look at the casing - a .223 has a casing that's nearly 3x the length and has a diameter that's about 50% wider. This gives you more than 10x the powder behind the bullet.\n\nYou can look at the specifications of rounds side by side but, ultimately, you just need to become familiar with what common rounds are to know them apart. Unless you're seriously getting into firearms, you only really need to know a handful to be comfortable with rounds commonly seen in the US.\n",
"[This picture](_URL_0_) (made by /u/DrakeGMBH) might help a little. I don't have anything else to add to the existing answers."
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8j3jqt | why is it so hard to build a bipedal robot? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8j3jqt/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_to_build_a_bipedal_robot/ | {
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"The biomechanics for bipedalism are very complex. Humans have numerous tiny muscles that exist solely to provide balance and leverage during walking, running and balancing. Replicating the mechanics of a knee joint can be pretty easy. But if it can’t be replicated, say the extensor mechanism that interacts with the arches in your foot to provide balance and complex foot movements necessary for bipedalism, then it has to be replaced with another mechanism (built by humans) that doesn’t work as well. Replicating human biomechanics is tough. \n\nI’m a kinesiology major, not an engineer tho. "
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2cpgr2 | american healthcare professionals - how are prices for procedures and appointments decided? | I was listening to the radio and they were talking about how citizens need to learn to talk to their doctor about costs, the thoughts being that the price of healthcare could be driven down if financials were discussed up front to begin with rather than accepting costs for what they are. My question is, what determines the cost of appointments and procedures ... is there a book that gives estimated cost or is it as random as it appears? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cpgr2/eli5_american_healthcare_professionals_how_are/ | {
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"I'm in the US and I worked in a hospital for a few years about 15 years ago, so things are probably different today and elsewhere.\n\nThere are a few factors at play to determine prices. Insurance companies are willing to pay what are called \"reasonable and customary\" charges, where actual costs and historical pricing and trends are factored in to what a procedure \"should\" cost. From those charges, insurance can negotiate rates that are a little lower in exchange for calling the provider \"in-network\" which can drive business to them, so it's a win-win-win when it works out (more overall business for the provider, better rates for the insurance, more in-network options for the patient). There are also gotchas that the insurance can stipulate with some procedures, such as requiring authorization, medical necessity letters, prerequisites, diagnosing guidelines, some things that are designed to make sure it's not a frivolous service.\n\nThen there are government insurances, medicare and medicaid. They just set the price they pay, and often times it's less than the actual raw cost of the procedure: the doctor's fee, office rent, administrative staff, materials, tools, etc. By the time I left the industry, there was a trend towards private insurance companies asking themselves whey they should pay more than what medicare pays, so they were matching government rates and refusing to pay more.\n\nThen there are the people who will skip out on the bill. People that either can't pay or simply choose to not pay.\n\nAll those factor in to the \"price\" of the procedure, which is intended to compensate for those losses. This is the source of the old \"$10 for a tylenol??\" frustration. What makes things more complicated is that negotiated rates are very complicated and vary from provider to provider and insurance to insurance. They are generally kept secret-ish to avoid the price matching issues discussed above with private/public insurance. After all, if your friend bought a car at $17K and you wanted to buy the same car, if you knew he spent only $17K, you couldn't be talked into paying $18K even if you think $18K is a fair price."
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53a7xn | why do marriages cost so much? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53a7xn/eli5why_do_marriages_cost_so_much/ | {
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"they don't? me and wife got married for $40 processing fee at the courthouse. \n\nperhaps you mean to ask why the ceremony and the reception cost so much? because the market says so. all the other people wanting to get married are willing to pay the vendors that much.",
"I may be totally off base, but I don't think it is marriages that cost - in Oklahoma a marriage license is $50 OR only $5 if you complete premarital counseling. WEDDINGS cost a lot. They don't have to (I'm getting married in May and we are going as cheap as possible - for example our venue is pretty ugly but we get a hella discount because my aunt has worked there for years) but I think a lot of people have a \"dream\" wedding in mind and that is what ends up being crazy expensive.",
"Marriages actually don't cost that much. It's less than $100 in most US states to get married.\n\nWeddings, on the other hand, can be very expensive. The marriage is the legal act, and the wedding is the ceremony and celebration around the legal act. Depending on how extravagant you want to be, a wedding can be very expensive.",
"Most \"modern\" marriage traditions are modeled off the traditions held by nobility in the late 1700s and the 1800s. As such they are shows of wealth and status. \n\nExamples:\n\nWhite dress: Until recently white clothing was not common because it could not be kept clean. It was Queen Victoria of England who first had a white wedding dress and the tradition stuck. This is an extravagant show of wealth not only due to the cost of the dress, but because it was basically one use only. \n\nWhite cake: White flour and white sugar were very expensive to make until the early 1900s. As such things made with them were reserved for the rich. Being able to make a huge white cake was a massive show of wealth. \n\nHuge party: Being able to feed a large number of people is a massive show of wealth. \n\nGold rings: Obviously a show of wealth. \n\nMost of the other traditions are equally a show of wealth. \n\nBy being a show of wealth wedding naturally became a competition between people who try to one up their friends and their parents. You also have the fact that people expect to pay a lot allowing vendors to charge up to 4 times what they would charge for other parties of equal size. \n\nBut when you get down to it the true minimal cost of a wedding is the $40 or $50 fee at the courthouse to process your marriage certificate and to get the Justice of the Peace to officiate. ",
"A big wedding is going to be expensive. You've gotta rent out a church or a hall for an afternoon so you can have 200 people there. You then have to rent out *another* location for the reception afterwards. Catering a meal for all those people is probably going to cost $20-30/head at a minimum. Then you've got the booze & a ridiculously ornate custom-made wedding cake. You're paying for a DJ & a sound system.\n\n...and then a fancy custom dress. Bridesmaids dresses. Tuxedos for the groom and groomsman. Gifts for the wedding party.\n\nThat doesn't even get into having a honeymoon or getting some sort of ridiculously expensive diamond ring (that \"three months salary rule\" was made up by *somebody trying to get people to spend more on diamonds*).\n\n",
"You can get married on any or no budget. A lot of people choose to spend a lot because it could potentially be the best and most important day of your life. Businesses capitalize on this by charging excessive amounts of money for everything. ",
"A marriage doesn't cost all that much. It's the party that you're thinking about.\n\nHow much do you want to spend on a party? If you want a \"rock star\" party - expect to spend a lot. If you want a \"granola hippie\" party, you're good to go with a wiccan and some flowers."
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5ypgfy | how does not working prove to the patriarchy women deserve equal pay? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ypgfy/eli5_how_does_not_working_prove_to_the_patriarchy/ | {
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"You're missing the point. The entire purpose of the protest is to say \"hey, look at how many things can't be done when women are not working. They provide a lot of value and labor to the economy. They deserve equal pay because they are of equal importance.\"",
"The point was to demonstrate that women are important to the workforce by showing what it would be like if they weren't there, in the same way that the \"Day Without an Immigrant\" was to demonstrate that the idea of removing immigrants would be harmful to the economy because they do a lot of jobs that keep everyday things moving along smoothly. \n \nIt's not clear that there was a cohesive message beyond that, so I don't know what you're referencing regarding the patriarchy and equal pay. Presumably people tried to lump some of that in as well. ",
"Isn't the statistic that they aren't paid equally hotly debated? I mean there is some truth, but also reasons aside from gender factor in. For example, of men earn a company more because they are more aggressive salesman that has nothing to do with gender. If women make more because the field serves stereotypical female traits more it's not sexist that the women make more. These are highly simplified examples and the reality is more complex and nuanced, but still it's not necessarily sexism. \n\nThis is just one article..._URL_0_"
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40knoe | was the (555-xxxx) phone number set created for the sole purpose of movies and such? are there other sets that also do not work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40knoe/eli5_was_the_555xxxx_phone_number_set_created_for/ | {
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"If I recall it was created specifically to be a fake number. In the 80s Tommy Tutone specifically chose not to use that in Jenny (8675309) which showed the need for it when people started calling that number and we're getting 50k plus calls a week",
"In the US, back when you had to call the phone company to get a person's number, 411 only gave you directory assistance for your local area. If you wanted directory assistance for some other place, you'd dial (zzz) 555-1212, where zzz was the area code. \n\nIn fact, it predates the switch to numeric exchanges. If you watch older movies, you'll often here the exchange given as Klondike 5-xxxx. Guess what digits the KL in Klondike map to."
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44s6fp | how do independent/cheap movies afford famous actors? | You would think the budget of the movie is too small to cover their pay. I guess if the director is renowned enough actors would want to work with him (e.g. Jarmusch movies often lose money but he still can work with Bill Murray or Tom Hiddleston) but what about risky movies that studios wouldn't want to invest in too much? How, for example, did Tarantino manage to hire someone like Keitel on the budget of Reservoir Dogs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44s6fp/eli5_how_do_independentcheap_movies_afford_famous/ | {
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"very often, if a famous/successful actor sees a script for an indy film they really really love, they will negotiate a low salary just so they can take the part, lend their name to the film to help it's success, and have fun doing a part they really wanted.",
"Some of it boils down to a good contact negotiations. In other cases there are people who enjoy working together and are happy to do projects that are less lucrative than others. A third option may be to do a part that an actor finds challenging or award-worthy. Not all decisions are based on the pay. ",
"There's a few reasons. \n\nA low-budget film might have an excellent script that the actor finds inspiring, and they will accept much lower compensation than they are used to for the part.\n\nActors have family members and friends who want into the movie biz. If your nephew is making some garbage movie you might be in it just to be nice, and not piss off your siblings and make Thanksgiving awkward.\n\n\n",
"In the case of Keitel in Reservoir Dogs, the producer Lawrence Bender was also an actor. Bender's acting teacher's wife was friends with Keitel and gave him the script, he liked it and helped raise an additional 1.5 million to get the film made.",
"Sometimes, they can trade salary for a great equity deal in the movie. If it succeeds spectacularly, they can get paid even more than they would have gotten for their flat fee participation in a big budget production. They could consider it an investment, where their contribution to the film is a big driver toward its success. In fact, some producers prefer a venture capital model, in which they produce a bunch of low-budget films, and only a handful need to succeed to make bank."
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1fsesi | why do caffeine and nicotine counteract each other? | When I was in school I took a class called drugs and behavior, and only retained a few tidbits of information. One of those tidbits was that coffee and cigarettes at the same time, while being delicious and seemingly logical is actual counterproductive. I'm not sure if I'm remembering that correctly or if it is a myth I've created in my head, but if it is true, why does that happen? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1fsesi/eli5_why_do_caffeine_and_nicotine_counteract_each/ | {
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"[Nicotine . . . interferes with the body's ability to absorb and utilize caffeine](_URL_0_). Apparently it is a *true* myth. ",
"I never even knew it happend, and now i even know *why*!\n\nI love ze interwebz."
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2rrh8e | what exactly does a pc cleanup do? | My PC could use some cleanup. I'm just wondering what happens exactly in a standard PC cleaning. Thanks in advance! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rrh8e/eli5_what_exactly_does_a_pc_cleanup_do/ | {
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"Clears out temporary files, clears caches, mainly small, unimportant things here and there get deleted.",
"I'd recommend getting more practical programs that can handle this for you: [Unchecky](_URL_2_), C & C Extension for [Chrome](_URL_1_) or [Firefox](_URL_3_), [ShouldIRemoveIt](_URL_0_) and a bunch of other tools that can help you clean, and help you KEEP clean.",
"\"Cleaning\" is a very undescriptive term in the computer world. In most cases, it indicates stuff like deleting temporary files (files programs create while running but don't need), deleting old versions of programs that are left behind after updating, emptying the recycle bin, and otherwise deleting files that accumulate on your hard drive but are not necessary.\n\nWindows machines have a built-in tool that can take care of most of that automatically (called \"Disk Cleanup\"). I'm less familiar with Mac and Linux, but I wouldn't be surprised if they both also had similar tools.\n\nIn general, this sort of cleanup can free up some disk space, though it's unlikely to give a large amount back. Other than that, it doesn't provide any other benefit.\n\nAs a side note, if you want to free up even more disk space and/or make your computer run faster, I suggest uninstalling any programs you have but don't use. This includes a lot of the bloatware that gets prepackaged with many computers, which tends to be unnecessary. Any program that starts automatically when you turn on your computer is an especially good target, as those will run constantly and take up some computer resources all the time. If you don't want to uninstall them, you might consider disabling their \"run on startup\" feature if you don't need them running all the time, usually found in a settings menu somewhere.",
"Temporary files such as cookies, search history, recycle bin basically tangible leftover bits of data are deleted to free up space",
"Other commenters have sufficiently [explained](_URL_1_) what \"cleaning\" software does but it is important to understand that using \"cleaning software\"(which you should never ever pay for) can only do so much to \"speed up\" your computer. \n \nWhen I try to \"speed up\" computers I usually follow these steps below, going to the next step if the current one doesn't give satisfactory results: \n**Step 1:** \nRun CCleaner \n > [Clears out temporary files, clears caches, mainly small, unimportant things here and there get deleted.](_URL_0_) \n\n\nUse autoruns(disable unwanted startup items and shell extensions) \n\nRun Defraggler \nMaybe run antimalware \n\n\n**Step 2:** \n\nCheck RAM usage and see if increasing RAM will alleviate issue \n\n**Step 3:** \n\nReinstall Windows(a fresh installation can resolve some performance issues)\n\n**Step 4:** \nInstall a Desktop Linux distribution(Mint with Mate or Cinnamon). Linux typically will run better on older hardware than Windows and it will also stay up to date. Linux doesn't have all the power saving features(for Wifi and other internal hardware) in their drivers, though.\n\n**Step 5:** \nGet a new computer"
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2qhkyv | if the person before me gets regular gas, and i need premium, how does the pump clear the gas that was in the hose? | Edit: Wow, my random "shower thought" while pumping gas has really blown up. My car doesn't even need premium.
Thanks guys, I now know more about gasoline than I ever thought I would.
For the Europeans and Australians who keep asking the same question:
[This is a common pump in the US. The left pump is Diesel and the right pump is for the three grades of gas. You Push one of the buttons to select the grade you want.](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qhkyv/eli5_if_the_person_before_me_gets_regular_gas_and/ | {
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"It doesn't. It isn't going to make a difference to your car for that small amount to end up in the tank",
"It isn't that much gasoline. You get a bit mixed in but it doesn't really matter.",
"It doesn't. You get the \"leftover\" gas between the pump and the nozzle, which is whatever the last person used. You also leave premium in the hose when you leave, so the next person gets some, even if they have selected regular.",
"Only one pump? What crazy as country would do this? ",
"It doesn't and the actual octane over your entire tank will not be exactly 91 or whatever. Is it a problem for you? Not really. Lets say you just filled up with 87 entirely. Your car would detect the engine knock and tell the ignition module to slow the timings. You car doesn't fall apart but it'll be a pretty crap performance.\n\nHowever the small amount of gas in the tube hasnt dropped your octane much if any. ",
"I had a friend in NJ who was a pump jockey in high school. (Illegal to pump your own gas, so it's a sometimes high school kid job). He had a little gallon can, and after every fill he would carefully place the hose back. Then when the car drove away he'd pour the small amount in his can. He always had enough to get to work in his moped. ",
"Lots of answers explaining that it does mix and it doesn't matter... but none explaining *why*.\n\nThe listed octane rating on the button for a given type of gas is the *minimum* octane rating. The actual rating is almost always higher, in order to protect against variance in the refining process. Even if the entire hose were full of regular, a tank of premium would remain above the minimum octane rating for the engine, even if the engine required the minimum octane rating for premium (most high pressure engines only need something between plus and premium, and will usually run on plus without trouble).\n\ntl;dr: few engines actually need premium, they just need better than plus (and premium is the overkill solution for all those types of engines). Between that and the small amounts of mixed gasoline, the octane rating stays above the tolerance of the engine.",
"Here in Australia each petrol sub-type has it's own hose. Unleaded / diesel / unleaded premium etc.. ",
"In New Zealand we just use different hoses for different fuels......\n",
"What kind of witchcraft is in play where you live?\n\nAll our petrol pumps have separate hoses \n\n[petrol](_URL_0_)",
"It doesn't really, you're going to get some regular gas in your premium while it switches from one to another from the fuel left between the nozil and valve, but it's negligible. \n\nAlso, most gas stations that have 3 different grades is actually only 2 grades, with the \"in between\" grade a 50/50 mix of the other two.\n\nAt shell stations, for example, the bronze is one octane level, the gold is the higher octane, and the silver is just half bronze and half gold that should technically give the silver octane level which is exactly between the bronze and gold, but realistically it's not exact.\n\nI know this because when we used to run out of gold we would also run out of silver.\n\nSource: Former octane delivery officer (according to my resume)",
"Since I have a motorcycle, I notice the premium gas have a greenish color compare to regular gaz. At the pump when I start pumping gas I always check when the color change and it's around 1L. ",
"In Australia, at least my city, our stations have different nozzles for different fuels..",
"Followup question having never been to the US, do your pumps operate like they do in the movies, you stick in the nozzle and set them going and they'll stop when the tank is full? British pumps don't and I've no idea why ",
"I think here in the Netherlands we have different hoses for different type of fuels.",
"TIL in the USA, the gas stations have the same hose for different octane fuel.",
"Most gas stations in western Europe at least seem to have a separate hose for each type of gas.",
"Doesn't a gas station have different pumps for each gas?"
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2n48nx | how can an igloo resist melting, even when there is a fire inside it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2n48nx/eli5_how_can_an_igloo_resist_melting_even_when/ | {
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"Snow is an excellent insulator. It's hard for heat to flow through (or into) it so even though the air temperature inside the igloo is warm, the rate of heat going into the snow is low.\n\nSecond, water ice is *hard* to melt. It takes a lot of heat energy to change it from ice at 32°F to liquid at 32°F. So the small amount of heat that does go into the snow only melts a little bit away. Igloos aren't usually a long-term shelter, more like a hunting camp or survival shelter, so they last plenty long enough."
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a1g8qx | why are home solar panels considered such an ineffective solution to energy and environmental challenges | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1g8qx/eli5_why_are_home_solar_panels_considered_such_an/ | {
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"Because they are very good at turning solar light energy into electrical power that can be used at this second in this building.\n\n But they are very ineffective in storing power for future use or sharing power with other buildings",
"Well, I don't think they are inefficient from the viewpoint of the homeowner. However, some criticisms of them are:\n\n1) Homes are not necessarily located in a place that is the most efficient for solar energy gathering/production. While houses are generally built with an awareness of how sunlight falls in that latitude (i.e. to let as much natural light as possible through the windows), they still probably can't produce huge amounts of electricity, and you have to spend energy to manufacture the solar panels in the first place. (And they might require mining rare-earth minerals in very environmentally damaging processes.) The time for a home solar panel setup to pay for itself in energy savings is usually measured in decades these days. Solar panels on homes are definitely a net energy/environmental gain over the lifetime of the house, of course.\n\n2) The financial case for solar panels on homes depends on feed-in tariffs: the money or credit that you get for sending the extra electricity, produced by your panels but not consumed in your house, into the electricity grid. Often there are local laws that make these very profitable for homeowners, as an incentive to make them invest into solar panels. But this is criticized as being a very elitist measure; it puts a homeowner with solar panels into a better position than, say, a farmer who has a rocky river on their property and installs a small hydro power station to sell energy to the grid. And it is one more subsidy to people who own their homes who are, by definition, already on the rich side of average.\n\n3) There is also the overall problem with solar power: it's not always available when it's needed. Power is produced when the sun shines; but you want to turn your lights on when the sun doesn't shine, and a factory needs to run all night. So solar on its own, without methods to store excess energy (battery banks and other ways) or conventional power stations to back it up, doesn't solve the problem.",
"The first problem is the intermittency of the power. Because they only generate power when the sun is shining, you need some way to store power for future use.\n\nThe current method is using the existing electrical grid. When you're generating power, you put power on the grid. When you're not, you pull power from the grid. However, this isn't scaleable. If only a few people have home solar, it works fine. If many people have home solar, it creates what is called a 'duck curve' where grid-wide power demands become extremely inefficient.\n\nThe second problem is maintenance. Putting consumers in charge of their own power generation is problematic because they don't have the cadre of professionals maintaining the infrastructure. This either creates an unforeseen cost for consumers or transforms it into a 'hobbyist' venture rather than the kind of fire-and-forget installation that really works for mass consumer adoption.\n\nA third problem is housing value. Whenever you make any modification to your home, it has some impact on resale value. Redo your kitchen? That's a positive for future buyers. But installing solar panels doesn't improve your resale value, so you have a large capital expenditure where you can't recoup the money spent.\n\nTheoretically, you can amortize the expenditure over the decades you own the house. But how sure are you that you'll own the house for decades?\n\nOne way to think about this issue would be to ask yourself a similar question: why do people buy cars from car dealers rather than build their own car in their garage?\n\nSome people *do* build their own cars. It's actually not all that difficult if you're willing to take the time to learn. However, it's almost always far less efficient than simply purchasing a pre-built car due to the economies of scale.\n\nThe same sort of economies of scale apply to power generation. It's cheaper (more efficient) to have a power grid built and maintained be professionals than it is for everyone to generate their own power."
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7pjymv | what is the little blade on the back of my razor for? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7pjymv/eli5_what_is_the_little_blade_on_the_back_of_my/ | {
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"It's for detail work. It's easier to shave a specific part of the beard with the single blade. ",
"Precision trimming. While the 5 blades (or however many your razor of choice has) on the front of your razor a great for cutting hair very short for a clean shave it can sometimes be a pain to edge your beard or trim your sideburns. The single blade allows you shape more easily."
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165913 | why do teachers use clips/documentaries for classes that are 15+ years old in comparison to newer material? | I was in my college class this morning and the professor used an instruction clip that was about 15ish years old to start the class out with.
I realized that even since Junior High, this was a consistent trend; teachers using old videos/documentaries for classes, most of them being burned from video tapes.
I'm confused since information, especially when it comes to science, is constantly new. So, whats the deal? Why don't instructors show clips that are more recent? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/165913/why_do_teachers_use_clipsdocumentaries_for/ | {
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"Teacher here. Schools don't have a lot of money to buy new instructional materials beyond the textbooks. I can go to the library and borrow some videos, but they have the same problem. Educational videos are really expensive and I can't pay $99 out of pocket for a 15 minute clip about any given topic. Also some teachers just get set in their ways and prefer not to change things. Hope that helps.",
"Keep in mind, too, that the purpose of schooling through high school is to give you an understanding of the basics of many fields.\n\nSince the basics of any field rarely change, there's less of a problem with using older materials.\n\nWhen you're in college and beyond, when you're training for a particular field, then the latest information becomes more important.",
"The biggest reason is because most of the material being covered in almost all of your classes hasn't changed much in the last twenty or so years. Schools and school districts have very limited budgets (why do you think teachers are paid so pitifully?). Sure, they could spend money getting brand new textbooks, reference material, etc. every year, or they could use the textbook from ten years ago that is still in acceptable condition and still contains 99.9% of the relevant material.",
"Teachers need to embrace modern media. Youtube videos cover almost every subject. Crash Course or TED Talks would supplement any program"
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3sdy1q | how do fish start living high up in disconnected streams, dams and other water ways? | When I was young my father built a dam at nearly the top of a mountain range on our farm. Some 15 years later with no human involvement the dam had eels, muscles and fish. How could they possibly have ended up there? This is just one of many examples I've seen in my life. Fish in streams near mountain peaks and in lakes high above traditional water flows. Totally disconnected from an upstream swim. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sdy1q/eli5_how_do_fish_start_living_high_up_in/ | {
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"Well, eels can travel over land.\n\nFish eggs can attach to waterbirds, and as such be transported all over the place.\n\nFor the mussels, maybe they got attached to a boat?"
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40cj2k | differences between imax format, 70mm, 65mm? | Tarantino shot *The Hateful Eight* on '70mm' and yet it is not **IMAX** format, right? Is he basically shooting on an older technology (predating IMAX) that utilizes the 70mm horizontal aspect of the film, but not the entire vertical aspect (like IMAX does)? Or are 70mm and IMAX one and the same?
The Falcon chase sequence in *The Force Awakens* was reportedly shot on **IMAX** format – when you are watching the film (especially in a true IMAX theater) and arrive at that sequence, you can see the format switch and suddenly take over the *entire* screen, top-to-bottom, and then see it switch back to the 2.35 35mm format afterward... so this is clearly a different shooting *and* projecting format from what Tarantino is doing, right? I know *Interstellar* and other films utilize this format as well.
Lastly, I believe I saw that PT Anderson's *The Master* was shot on '65mm' film. Is this the same format Tarantino is using, or is there an actual difference between 65mm and 70mm?
**So, in summation –**
– What is the difference between 65mm and 70mm, if any (is it just *shooting* format vs. *projecting* format)?
– What is the difference between **IMAX** and 65mm and/or 70mm?
– Are 65mm/70mm-capable cameras different from **IMAX** cameras?
– **Bonus Question**: Can you explain what anamorphic really means? How does it fit into this whole discussion?
– **Special Credit Question**: Why is 35mm film format called that when the film cell is actually 21.95mm horizontally, not 35mm? Is it about the *printing* format?
Thanks so much, would love to hear from a projectionist, lab-technician, or a general cinephile. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40cj2k/eli5_differences_between_imax_format_70mm_65mm/ | {
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"Old movies were filmed on 4-perf 35mm, this is around 4K equivalent. The Hateful Eight is 5-perf 70mm (technically 65mm, as audio used to be on the film and took up 5mm), so ~1.85x as wide and 1.25x as tall (so 8K in terms of width, but only a little taller, making it wider). 70mm IMAX is 15-perf 70mm (again 65mm), so 3x more area than 5-perf 70mm (so around 11000x7600 equivalent). \n \n > Can you explain what anamorphic really means? \n \nIn order to utilize more of the film, they use special camera lenses to stretch the picture onto the film, and special projector lenses to un-stretch it to normal."
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foyzew | how does my brain know that a sensation is coming from my finger, as opposed to my foot? don't all the nerve endings eventually join into a single point of entry into my brain? | Let's say I touch a piece of hot apple pie. My finger knows it's warm. The sensation from my finger travels to my wrist, where the nerve endings from my fingers / hand join up. Then the sensation travels up my arm, to my torso, to my spine, where all the other nerves from my feet and hands and stomach and legs all join.
Are there individual paths of fibers that remain distinct all the way into the brain? is there a unique 'signature' that lets the brain know where a certain nerve signal is coming from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/foyzew/eli5_how_does_my_brain_know_that_a_sensation_is/ | {
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" > Are there individual paths of fibers that remain distinct all the way into the brain?\n\nYes, basically. There is a small amount of convergence, which is why if you prick yourself on your skin with two pins that are very close together, it feels like one.\n\nHowever, for the most part, these pathways (called 'labelled lines', sometimes) remain separate all the way to the brain. Just like a woven rope seems like one strand, but is in fact thousands of tiny strands banded together. It's the same with our neural pathways.\n\nThey all end up in slightly different places on the surface of the brain. There's actually a 'map' of this sensory layout. Certain parts of our body are overepresented on this map based on their size (fingers, lips, etc). That means that they typically have much finer discriminatory sensory capacity than others.\n\n[Here's an example of that map](_URL_0_). You can see that there's only a little space for the legs, shoulder, etc, but hands get a lot more!"
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6io4n7 | what was the jury's justification in acquitting the officer who shot philando castile? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6io4n7/eli5_what_was_the_jurys_justification_in/ | {
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"Juries in the US do not provide justifications, just verdicts. The only thing we know is that they did not think the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that his actions should be considered murder.",
"Per one Juror's comments, the acquittal had to do with the specific wording of culpable negligence in relation to the crimes with which he was charged. They felt that the state did not meet the burden of proof required to fulfill those specifics."
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902ezm | getting computer programs to utilize multiple cpu cores is difficult because the programs have to be specifically coded that way. why can't cpus allocate instructions to different cores themselves? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/902ezm/eli5_getting_computer_programs_to_utilize/ | {
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"The main advantage of programs designed for multi-core use is that they can be sped up by running multiple tasks at the same time on different cores. Some tasks cannot be divided up into multiple simultaneous tasks to take advantage of multiple cores.\n\nImagine the CPU like a restaurant kitchen. The chefs are the cores. Some tasks like a main dish can be sped up this way. It can be divided up into three tasks. One chef makes the meat, one makes the potatoes, and one makes the vegetables. Since they can do each of their tasks at the same time it's quicker to make the meal than having a single chef make each part in sequence. \n\nNow imagine you're trying to bake a cake. You too can divide it up into multiple tasks. Mixing ingredients, baking the cake, icing the cake. However fundamentally these cannot be done at the same time. They have to be done in order. You can't bake an unmixed cake, you can't ice an unbaked cake. So you cannot speed this task up by doing one part at the same time as another.\n\nA good programmer will write code that makes use of multiple cores if the task they are writing can benefit from it. But not all calculations can be split up into simultaneous tasks. Some tasks, like our cake, cannot be divided into simultaneous operations to take advantage of multicore systems.",
"When a task cannot be partitioned because of sequential constraints, the application of more effort has no effect on the schedule. The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned. ",
"The problem with doing this on an instruction level is that instructions often require the results of previous instructions to be completed first.\n\nSo if you're going to execute instructions at the same time, you need something that can figure out which instructions don't rely on the results of others that haven't been executed or are still executing.\n\nCPUs already do this. But they don't send the instructions to other cores. A single CPU core has multiple ALUs (Arithmetic Logic Unit) which can operate at the same time.\n\nThere's only so much you can do with this. Sometimes it just has to wait for the something else to finish, sometimes it doesn't know what instructions need to be executed next such as when it hits a branch (i.e. an if statement).\n\nSo multiple cores exist to do parallelism on a higher level. That needs a programmer to describe how the program can be split up because it relates to the overall problem at hand, not something that can easily be done by a CPU inspecting instructions.",
"To add what others have explained before, pre-fetching and other such tactics actually already do this. CPU itself already starts to process the next instruction while it is still handling the current one. And this goes a bit further with multicore CPUs.\n\nIn certain questions, mainly those with true/false answers we can calculate what the next step is going to be ahead of time and without knowing the answer to question. Since we have only two options, we can prepare both ahead of time. The Meltdown exploit works by asking a specific question: \"Am i allowed to ask if this password is correct\". Since it calculates the answer no matter if we have rights to ask, we can scan the memory at specific point in time and get the answer to the question we didn't have privileges to. We can scan the entire memory this way, asking the same question \"can i see if this memory address has value N\" and scanning the answer. Which is why our computers now have slightly worse performance as this exploit had to be stopped (not really worse performance since the CPU has to have idle time for those pre-calculations to be done, it just can't use the small downtime it has when waiting for something else..no real effect on us users, for servers it was a bit more serious)"
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2iqg6y | how and why do styluses work on touch screens? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2iqg6y/eli5_how_and_why_do_styluses_work_on_touch_screens/ | {
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"There are two major types of touch screen, resistive and capacitive.\n\nResistive touch screens work basically by having two layers of flexible plastic over the screen. When something pushes down on the top layer, the layers touch, and this is detected. Resistive touch screens are responsive to basically anything: fingers, pencils, styli, etc. Typically you can tell something is a resistive touch screen since you will clearly feel the flexible plastic, and you can see the action of pushing down if you view the screen at an angle.\n\nCapacitive touch screens work by detecting a property of the body called \"body capacitance.\" Capacitance is a strange concept, but basically the body naturally carries a certain amount of electrical charge in the same way that rubbing a balloon against fabric causes it to have static electricity. These touch screens work by detecting this charge. They don't work with just anything (i.e. your finger or toe [try it] would work but a pencil wouldn't), so you need to get a special stylus (which is made of a material which produces a similar electrical signature to the body) to be registered. Phone touch screens are capacitive because you don't want random things jumbling around in your pockets to inadvertently call someone."
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cuk8ci | how does a missile lock warning system work? | Same as the title. Just curious how military aircraft can detect that a missle from an enemy combatants aircraft has locked onto it before it's even fired when presumably the two are using completely different systems and completely independent of one another. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cuk8ci/eli5_how_does_a_missile_lock_warning_system_work/ | {
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"Radar is radio, you can detect that someone (something) is using radar because they're transmitting radio; it's much like the detectors that detect police radar speed traps. \n\nAnd for the second part, a missile that's tracking a target will \"ping\" that target a lot more often, in order to keep up with its position changes. So it goes from one blip per second to like a machine-gun of blips per second.\n\nLasers are detectable in the same way as radar. \n\nI don't know about heat- or visual- based (passive) detection, I imagine it's harder to detect by the aircraft being chased by the missile, but an [AWACS](_URL_0_) flying above the area could keep track of all missiles and their movement, and automatically warn the combat aircraft below if any missile seems to be \"moving in their direction\".",
"Couple of different ways.\n\nThe fire control radar on the launcher changes modes from a broad sweep to a narrow tracking system and different pulse frequency so it can \"zoom\" in on you and watch your movements on a faster scale and feed more accurate tracking data to the missile.\n\nSome missiles have their own onboard tracking radar, so once it is launched and starts painting you with its own radar, your threat warning gear can say \"Holy shit, missile launched!\" vs \"Uh-oh, we're being actively tracked\"."
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1upgpb | if 2 people who have been tested and are clean of any std's have unprotected sex, is it still possible for them to get any type of infection? | Apologies if this is a dumb question but better to know the facts. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1upgpb/eli5_if_2_people_who_have_been_tested_and_are/ | {
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"No they should be fine, except for maybe a urinary tract infection but that's probably it",
"I'm gonna go ahead and assume you're not posing a hidden question here and answer plainly:\n\nNo. \n\nInfection can't just 'appear'. You have to catch it from someone else who is infected, much like a cold or the flu. \n\nYou can also ignore those wives tales of catching STDs from a toilet seat, unless you go around rubbing your genitals onto the seats immediately after people have left them, and they intentionally rubbed their pus-ridden scrotum in the same spot. \n\nIf you're both tested and both clean, go nuts, my friend. Give her one for me ",
"As long as both people remain monogamous, you're safe. If you have no infection, and are not exposed to a third party with an infection, then you cannot contract an STD. Where people run into trouble is when somebody cheats.\n\nYou can, however, get pregnant. ",
"Usually no. Some infections, like HIV, can take a few months to show up. If you have been monogamous for a few months and get tested and it's clean, you should be fine. If you've been dating for a month and get tested as clean, your chances are low, but not zero. \n\nI believe 3 months is the recommended time to wait to be sure an HIV test is accurate. ",
"Keep in mind that some infections will not show up on tests immediately, and others do not have a test associated with them.\n\nFor instance, HPV does not have an approved test for males. There is simply no test, and most men show no symptoms of the infection. This means unprotected sexual contact can spread the infection when the carrier has no idea they even have it.",
"How did the first STD come about?",
"STDs can be transfered through dirty needles. This means that drug use and medical failures present two possible avenues of infection.",
"short answer: There is always risk! \n\nApart from bacteria infections such as UTIs and \"untraceables\" such as men carrying the HPV virus, many STIs have maturation periods and won't show up on tests until much later, but are still able to infect your partners or you (looking at you Herpes). \n\nThen there are false pos, neg tests and some medical practices simply don't test for certain things if you ask for generic STI screenings (looking at you again Herpes!!!)\n\nMoral of the story, don't raw dog unless you accept the fact that there are inherent and unavoidable risk! Also, your girl should always piss soon after sexual activity, helps prevent UTIs.",
"I caught a yeast infection from a girl.",
"Additionally, please bear in mind that HSV (herpes) is one of the most commonly transmitted STIs and it is not screened for--so even when you say \"test for everything,\" your doctor will NOT screen you for HSV unless you (a) ask them to do so (some still won't), (b) have symptoms, or (c) are sleeping with someone who is HSV+.",
"Infections, yes, STDs, no.\n\nBladder and yeast infections can be transmitted when the normal flora that lives on you body upsets the balance of that found on your partner.",
"Yes and no.\nNo--If you're truly not infected with something, you cannot spontaneously get an infection. \nYes--Some STDs have other sources as well as sex. The best example is that HIV can be contracted from any kind of exposure to infected blood, such as transfusions (unlikely due to regulation though), needle sticks, IV drug use, etc. If neither of you is engaging in risky behavior, this is unlikely though possible.\n\nTo clear something else up: there are no cases of \"catching something from the toilet seat\" in the medical literature that I know of. Just so you know.",
"Also, not to mention that women can sometimes get urinary tract infections as well.",
"STD tests vary in effectiveness with time and other factors. Getting and STD test within the first few months of catching HIV for instance might not show anything. And tests for herpes are less effective in general. The most effective herpes tests are performed on the sores. A person with herpes might not be flaring up, could still be infectious, but pass a standard screening. \n",
"Herpes is not tested for in a standard STD test. \n_URL_0_\n\nMany people have it, and are contagious, but never show symptoms.",
"I'm actually going to disagree with the \"No\" trend and say Yes.\n\nReason: _URL_0_\n\n > \"Is there a test for HPV in men?\n\n > Currently, there is no HPV test recommended for men. The only approved HPV tests on the market are for screening women for cervical cancer. They are not useful for screening for HPV-related cancers or genital warts in men.\"\n\nMen can carry and infect others with the virus, and be completely symptom free. \n\n",
"Simple answers:\n\n1. STIs (sexually transmitted infections) do not appear out of nowhere. They must be transmitted from an infected individual to another infected individual.\n\n2. Tests can have significant lags. HIV is not likely to cause a positive test until 3 months after the person is infected for instance.\n\nSo, the answer is this: when someone is declared \"STI free\" by a whole gamut of testing, that was their state as of several months before the test was actually taken, because of the lag in the infection building up enough presence to show up on the tests. So if someone shows me a currently dated test showing no STIs, that does not mean they are currently STI free.\n\nTL;DR: Two people with clean STI tests today could both already be infected by STIs.\n\nedit: Source: Sexual Health Educator",
"HPV can't be tested for in men.",
"In most cases, no. [But there is one STD that is probably the worst one in existence that can spontaneously form.](_URL_0_)",
"They cannot transmit STD's if none are present.\n\nYou CAN have other bacteria/fungi that might cause problems though. Specifically urinary tract infection of the urethra. Caused by bacteria introduced to the urethra. Not hard to prevent, bathe and pee pee after sex.\n\n\nIf you are going ass to vag, WEAR A CONDOM. You also must change the condom everytime you change orifices. Poop is in the butt, poop can go from the butt to wiener, then to vag. The result could be an itchy burning sensation when you and your partner pee.\n\n\nAlso, keep in mind that there are other infections not considered sexually transmitted, yet they can be. Flu, cold, mono, all of these aren't really sexually transmitted, but the close contact (kissing) could infect the partner.\n\n\nAlso pregnancy, don't ever assume that a penis is incapable of getting a girl pregnant. Pulling out isn't an acceptable method of birth control, there are plenty of babies around that prove this point.",
"HPV is still possible as it can remain dormant for a decade. Almost every sexually active person has it. Condoms are not guaranteed to protect you from it. \n\nGenerally speaking your body is suppose to absorb it but you can be an active carrier for years. Women can be tested but men cannot. It does not seem to effect men by way of abnormal cells. \n\nHPV can cause cervical cancer in women. \n\nEdit: Forgot to mention that the only way a woman will test positive is if the HPV is currently active. She can test negative and still have it. All of the sudden ten years down the line she tests positive for HPV and she has been in a monogamous relationship for those same ten years. That's the nature of HPV. \n",
"Testing negative for STDs doesn’t mean you are \"clean.\" \n\nThe test could be inaccurate or (more likely) performed improperly, or you could have an non-symptomatic infection that developed to the point of testing positive right after (or as) you got tested. Testing is a guide, not proof you are \"clean.\"\n\nFor things like HIV, there is a window between when you can be infected and when you will test positive in an RNA test (a few days) or a more common Antibody test (which you won’t test positive for until weeks after your initial infection, because that test looks for your reaction to the virus rather than RNA bits of the virus itself).\n\nFor many other bacterial STIs (that are usually easy to treat), you can carry things that look or act like STIs but are actually just common bacterial infections, and conversely carry the real STI without knowing it. Things like NGU are sort of in the middle. You can have chlamydia (especially if you are a man) and not know it for many months, yet be contagious. You can have gonorrhea in your throat and not know it at all. \n\nAn STI clinic or your regular dr could test you for those site specific infections and give you a negative test result, but miss where your infection was actually at. So unless you got a rigorous combination of throat+anal+urine tests, you could get a negative result while actually being positive for the bacteria elsewhere in your body, then continue spreading it around and even get it passed back to you. \n\nYou can also be treated with antibiotics that fail to kill your infection, or get yourself reinfected during the treatment period when you return to a previous partner who is also carrying whatever you are being treated for. \n\n\"Safer sex\" is an attempt to do things that are less likely to pass on the worst STIs. There’s no guarantee that you are \"clean\" just because you got a negative test in one of the major things usually included in a STI testing session. And of course, being actually \"clean\" of STIs doesn’t mean you can’t get other infections that are or are not communicable via sex or even more casual contact. \n\nAnd most importantly, while STIs like chlamydia and gonorrhea are generally very easy to treat successfully, if you are not tested for them or don’t realize you need to be or are tested incorrectly or not comprehensively enough, you could carry the infection silently without knowing you have it, and that makes you far more susceptible to HIV, because a low grade infection exposes an immune response that is exactly what the virus needs to gain entry into your body: lots of T cells waiting to be infected. ",
"I created an account just to answer this question. This response won't be perfect (especially since I'm typing on an iPad) but there's some important information to know on this topic.\n\nWhile it's true that infection can not just \"spring up\" if all participants have tested \"clean\" this under no circumstances means you are completely safe from acquiring and STI. Many STIs (as others have mentioned) are not routinely tested, namely herpes, HPV, trichomonas, and hep b. Here's the real kicker, ever hear of the window period of an HIV infection? It's the time during an acute infectioun when a person is usually asymptomatic, highly infectious, and WILL TEST NEGATIVE for HIV. \n\nFrom the WHO HIV fact sheet:\n\"Most people infected with HIV do not know that they have become infected. HIV infected persons develop antibodies to HIV antigens usually 6 weeks to 3 months after being infected. In some individuals, the test for the presence of these antigens may not be positive until 6 months or longer (although this would be considered unusual). This time -- during which people can be highly infectious and yet unaware of their condition -- is known as the \"the window period\".\"\n\nBasically, the problem is our tests are never perfect. Hope this helps."
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51ww9b | a lot people know that if the sum of the digits of a number is a multiple of 3, then the number is also a multiple of three. how can this be explained mathematically? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51ww9b/eli5_a_lot_people_know_that_if_the_sum_of_the/ | {
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"If you've got a three digit number \"abc\" then you can write it as \n100a + 10b + c\n\nYou can rewrite that as \n99a + 9b + a + b + c\n\nThe 99a+9b part is definitely a multiple of 3, so the whole number will be a multiple of 3 as long as (a+b+c) is.\n\nNothing we did depended on having 3 digits, so the same argument will work for any number of digits.",
"Let's say you add 1 to a number.\n\nIf you don't have to carry, then the last digit is one higher, so the sum of the digits also increases by 1.\n\nIf you *do* have to carry, then you turn a bunch of 9's into 0's, and then increase one digit by 1. But since 9 is a multiple of 3, turning it into 0 doesn't change the remainder when dividing by 3.\n\nSo the sum of the digits will always have the same remainder divided by 3 as the actual number.",
"I like the fact that you can take any number, add up the digits (and keep adding until you get something in the 1..9 range) and if the result it 9, the starting number is divisible by nine.\n\nFive, of course, is easy. If the number ends in 0 or 5, it's divisible by 5. Two is trivial - even numbers.\n\nWhen I was a kid, I used up a lot of paper, trying to find patterns with 7. Never found one.\n\nThen I read about bases other than 10, and had more fun. My favorite base is 60, because it is evenly divisible by so many integers. The Babylonians used base 60. Thus, 60 seconds in a minute. They also defined the degrees in an angle, with a total of 360 degrees."
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5r9mtz | how are some people born "stupid"? how does that work? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5r9mtz/eli5_how_are_some_people_born_stupid_how_does/ | {
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"There are lots of discussions about the roots of intelligence and how much is / is not inherited from our parents. FWIW, a person's performance in school can be reliably predicted by examining their parent's education, their income, and their environment. People who come from good neighborhoods with high-earning professional parents are likely to perform well in school. People who come from bad neighborhoods and live in poverty are likely to perform poorly. It's really not that mystifying.\n\nThe real question is whether your performance in school really correlates with \"stupidity.\" There are lots of people who can do great in school but still make stupid decisions. And there are people who have no education but make excellent decisions and beat the odds. That's a nut we haven't cracked yet.",
"Multiple factors although its pretty hard to divorce nature from nurture. Kids with very smart parents tend to be smarter but it is not entirely certain that it is \"smart\" genes, the way the parents teach them to learn, or a mixture of both.\n\nIt's particularly hard because smarter parents tend to not have kids too early meaning the child will more likely be in a stable and wealthy home. This being the case it's hard to track smart parents who gave up their child to another family in order to separate nature from nurture. ",
"I would say that the idea of 'stupidity' relies on two things:\n\nFirst, everyone is born differently, and some people are born with syndromes that make it harder for them to learn, or make it harder for them to do certain tasks. In my opinion, these don't account for the majority of what you would call \"stupidity\"\n\n\nI think the bigger issue is that of education, and early development. Take a kid who grows up in a family that's always working, and doesn't have the time or resources to give the child everything he/she needs for proper development. Then consider a family who is really wealthy, and is able to take time away from work and focus on raising that child. If they 'teach the kid properly' (in quotations because there's still lots of debate over what's good for a kid vs what's not) then he'll likely be able to outperform the kid who had a harder childhood\n\n\n\nIn summary: Genetics, while it can affect a child's ability to learn/perform certain tasks, isn't as big of a factor in 'stupidity' as education, and proper childhood development."
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eydry0 | why the waters of lakes/seas at the us look greenish? | So from any movie/series I've watched or even documentaries the waters of lakes/rivers/sea in the US always look greenish. I'm from Greece and the waters here are blue or clear. Why is that in the US? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eydry0/eli5_why_the_waters_of_lakesseas_at_the_us_look/ | {
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"It's not limited to the USA, you'd see a similar phenomenon in much of Northern Europe and many other places.\n\nBasically, water color is largely related to the stuff suspended in the water. If there's nothing at all, the water tends to look blue. Suspended mud and sediment cause a brownish tint. Suspended algae cells cause a greenish tint. The waters around Greece are pretty nutrient poor, like many warm oceanic waters, and as a result have very little planktonic algae and have that beautiful blue color. The waters of the Northern Atlantic and Pacific have more nutrients and have a greenish tint from the planktonic algae. The Gulf of Mexico in some times and places is quite blue, but in general the Mississippi draining into it gives a green tint to much of the gulf coast waters. And most of the inland water photos you see of the USA are of reservoirs where water is held and planktonic algae gets a chance to grow. \n\nAlgae blooms can very definitely be very bad if they happen in the wrong place or blooms are too thick, but the basic greenish tint of especially the northern oceans is just the color they are supposed to be and represents the productivity that forms the base of the aquatic food chains in those areas. It's one reason fishing grounds off the coasts of the country are so productive, if not quite as pretty."
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61kiud | how does an upstairs/downstairs light switch work? | We have a light upstairs that can be turned off upstairs and turned on downstairs... and the versa. What I don't get is how does the downstairs cut off the upstairs switch? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/61kiud/eli5how_does_an_upstairsdownstairs_light_switch/ | {
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"The switches are connected with two wires - one wire connects the \"up\" position in both switches, and the other wire connects the \"down\" position. When the two switches are in the same position, electricity can travel through the wire that connects them. When the switches are in a different position, the circuit is broken.\n\n[The diagrams here](_URL_0_) demonstrate this.",
"In logical terms, it forms an XAND Gate, which stands for Exclusive AND. If both the switches (upstairs and downstairs) are ON or OFF, the light upstairs will turn on. However, if they are different (one if OFF and one is ON) the light will be off."
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3b0630 | ignoring for now the debate over natural gas, why are fracking chemicals bad and why cant we make harmless ones. | Regardless of the debate over natural gas, why are fracking chemicals bad and why cant we make harmless ones? What are the engineering difficulties behind making harmless fracking fluid? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3b0630/eli5_ignoring_for_now_the_debate_over_natural_gas/ | {
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"[Here](_URL_0_) is a list of commonly used fracking chemicals. The list is provided by 'Frac Focus' and they certainly might have an agenda, so cross-check before you write your Congressmen.\n\nMany of these chemicals are dangerous by themselves, if ingested directly by humans or allowed into the water table.\n\nFor example, anything in the 'biocide' category will destabilize the ecosystem of a lake or river if they escape. Numerous alcohols are used, which can be toxic and or flammable in some situations. Even sodium bicarbonate, found in your kitchen cupboard, can severely unbalance the pH of a water supply.\n\nSo yes, many of the chemicals used in fracking are dangerous. Can we find safe ones? Perhaps. Some of these could eventually be replaced with less dangerous products, but their required use (pH balancing, killing micro organisms) means that they will never be completely safe."
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8ty89q | what do cops do to prevent their guns being grabbed by someone else? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ty89q/eli5_what_do_cops_do_to_prevent_their_guns_being/ | {
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"Also, in addition to other answers, some holsters have more than one retention type. The holsters used by the city where I used to work (i wasn’t a cop but I was a shooting instructor) had a thumb strap, the gun had to be pushed down and then forward, and a thumb button.",
"Follow-on question for anyone, something I've wondered about from curiosity (and watching too many cop shows lol) :\n\nIs there a risk or chance that the officer could not unholster his/her weapon? How long does it take to unholster the weapon, milliseconds? ",
"They're called active retention holsters, and they require a more complicated movement than simply \"pull on it\" to release from the holster. The exact mechanism depends on brand, make, model, but typically the holster attaches to the trigger guard and has some kind of strap or hood above the weapon.\n\nAdditionally, police train specifically in tactics to prevent their gun from being stolen. Again, exact technique varies by department, and some are better than others, but police officers give a lot of thought to not having their gun stolen.",
"Cop here:\n\nFirst, as everyone said, we use retention holsters. There are various levels of retention. Most police use Level III which means you have to bypass two different mechanical retainers to draw the weapon.\n\nWe train enough to be able to draw quickly without thinking about having to bypass the retention.\n\nMost people don't know how to bypass the holster which keeps them from physically taking the gun.\n\nFor example, after the Boston Bombing, the bombers murdered a police officer to get his gun. However they couldn't figure out the holster so they left it.\n\nSecond, we train to not let anyone have the opportunity to put hands on our gun. We specifically train to keep someone from taking it. We're also looking for cues that people give off that they might attack. If you look, you'll also notice that police stand a certain way when talking to someone. Typically we'll stand \"bladed\" and turn our gun away from someone.\n\nLastly, going for an officer's gun is deadly force all day. A lot of police carry backup guns or knives for this exact reason. Basically, if I'm overpowered and keep you away from my gun, I'm going to shoot or stab you until you stop."
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3k1wqu | why do appliances use electricity when they're turned off but still plugged in? | I feel like this is either a myth or the electricity used is insignificant. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3k1wqu/eli5_why_do_appliances_use_electricity_when/ | {
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"It's real. The little blue light on a lot of monitors and tvs takes energy. Clocks on coffeemakers or stoves or microwaves. Things like cell phone chargers will continue pulling energy even when the phone is fully charged. A lot of electronics simply enter a standby mode rather than actually being powered off completely. \n\nFor an individual, it might not amount to a crazy amount of energy consumption. But multiply that by every household, and it's a lot of energy just being wasted. ",
"It should be insignificant, but it depends on the design of the device.\n\nA badly designed device might have a power supply capable of providing power to the whole device, and a processor that is running normally, just looping around constantly checking the position of the power switch. These devices use almost as much power in 'standby' than they do when powered on. Cable TV boxes are often built like this.\n\nA well designed device has two power supplies - a highly efficient, low power 'standby' supply that can only run the system on standby. On standby, the processor is running very, very slow, just fast enough to determine if the power button has been pressed, and maybe run the clock. Even the hardware receiving the remote's signals will be running in a low power, crippled manner. When a power-on signal is detected, the processor first turns on the main power supply, and then turns on everything else. If a product is designed like this, then the standby power use is minimal.\n\nOf course, there are options between those two, which cost different amounts to build and save different amounts of power.",
"It's not a myth so much as dated. Old transformers used to such down electricity no matter what was on the other end, but these days we have switching power supplies that won't draw anything unless the output end is loaded. Taking my laptop power brick - cold with no laptop, warm with light use and red hot while gaming. I could plug in the power meter I have. I'll get back to you with results. \n\nAs for things in standby, the EU at least has mandated less than 1W consumption for standby modes. _URL_0_\n\nAs for why things use power in standby - again mostly a dated thing. Older technology had huge capacitors (especially CRTs) which needed to be charged before the thing would work. Keeping them charged in standby gives you faster activation when you turn them on. Keeping the power flowing allowed cheaper volatile memory to be used rather than more expensive permanent memory. Again, all of this is pretty much irrelevant in a modern device. ",
"The AC to DC power converter is using it. The converter takes in AC power converts it to DC power and stores it in capacitors. Capacitors can be charged and discharged very vast but they don't hold power very efficiently. So the power converter is constantly trying to keep the capacitors at 100% charge.\n\nThen you take into account how well that AC to DC converter is made. The converter in the cheap cell phone charger you got for free isn't anywhere near as efficient as it could be. Even while not plugged into your phone they can use 40% of the energy that it uses while it is charging your phone."
]
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[],
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"http://www.dssw.co.uk/blog/2010-02-13-eu-policy-on-stand-by-power-consumption-for-electrical-equipment/"
],
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] | |
7jl4qn | why is it harder to paint something that is black than something that is white? | I think it has to do something with the absorption of light but I can't figure out how. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7jl4qn/eli5_why_is_it_harder_to_paint_something_that_is/ | {
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"It's usually less about absorption and more about the transparency of the paint. \n\nBlack is almost always a very opaque colour. White is frequently more translucent than opaque. \n\nIn general, darker colours (your strong reds, blues, greens, browns) tend to be less translucent than lighter colours. \n\nSo, dark colours are more likely to show through lighter colours than the other way around. \n\nFrom my own experience, oil-based paints and acrylic paints don't usually have that quality unless you water them down quite a bit. "
]
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[]
] | |
2cnd8g | if tooth enamel cannot be restored, how/why do some mouthwashes like listerine claim to 'restore enamel'? | title | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cnd8g/eli5_if_tooth_enamel_cannot_be_restored_howwhy_do/ | {
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"Can't answer that for you, but I know listerine was sued a few years back for claiming that using it was \"as good or better than brushing\" so they're not allowed to use that as their slogan anymore",
"Enamel does not regenerate, in that once your teeth have fully developed, they have all the enamel they will ever have. That being said, damaged enamel can be \"restored\" with fluoride. It fills the place of a small chemical group (called a hydroxyl) in the enamel compound that is displaced when bacteria produce lactic acid from sugar metabolism. Toothpaste, mouth wash, and even most municipal water supplies contain fluoride, which helps to reestablish the structural integrity of degraded enamel.",
"There is actually a lot of talk lately about reminiralization, which does restore lost enamel. it's still a pretty open discussion and I'm not entirely convinced by any of it in regards to HOW useful it is, but google around. "
]
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[],
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3l9lt1 | why is such an emphasis placed on only a couple states during the u.s. presidential elections? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l9lt1/eli5_why_is_such_an_emphasis_placed_on_only_a/ | {
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"The \"swing states\".\n\nMost states are typically majority conservative or liberal. It's a waste of resources to go campaigning there. The majority party wins all of the electoral votes. \n\nBut certain states are very close to 50/50 splits. These ones are worth a focus because a few points swing in voting makes a huge difference. \n\n(It's time to discard the electoral college and restore a popular vote, that's a discussion for another time)",
"Because only about 10 states tend to have more diverse political populations. There are states that candidates can almost ignore because they will always vote party lines however, the \"swing states\" don't always do what is expected. These are the areas that presidential candidates spend most of their time and focus on in getting people engaged in their specific platform.\n\nEdit: spelling",
"Due to the electoral college system in the US, only a handful of states really matter as far as votes go. 40-45 of the 50 states are virtually guaranteed to go one way or another, regardless. So candidates focus their efforts on those handful of on-the-fence states like Ohio and Florida. They call them \"swing states\" because they can determine the entire election based on which way they go (e.g. Florida in 2000 or Ohio in 2004). ",
"For a state to be important, a few things have to be true. \n\n1. They have a significant number of electoral votes. No one is going to waste a bunch of their time campaigning in Wyoming, because they have almost no impact on the final result. \n\n2. They have to have a similar number of voters for either party. Little time is spent campaigning in Arkansas because we pretty much know they are going to vote for whatever conservative is on the ballot. The reverse is true with Massachusetts. \n\nSo, that leaves a handful of states with an important number of ballot that either candidate could conceivably take for their own. These are the ones candidates tend to focus on. "
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39c7br | why are my allergies or cold symptoms always at their worst right before i go to sleep and right when i wake up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39c7br/eli5_why_are_my_allergies_or_cold_symptoms_always/ | {
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"Congestion from colds feel the worst when you wake up in the morning because when you're laying down, the mucus in your lungs pools differently. Rather than gravity pulling it to the bottom of your lungs, it gets pulled to the sides/backs of the lungs where it obstructs pipes that are closer to the esophagus. \n\nI have no idea if allergies work similarly.",
"[This](_URL_0_) is a very similar post from a year ago, and I think should answer your question.",
"If your pillow is old, it can accumulate a tremendous amount of allergens over the course of its life that you inhale while you're lying in bed. ",
"You may be allergic to dust mite. If I don't wash my blanket constantly, I tend to feel these allergies symptoms when I wake up and when I go to sleep, just like you do. I recommend you to look for a doctor, take a blood test and check if you are allergic to this. Some medications also solve this problem, so you could also ask a doctor which one you should take."
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1taxui/when_we_are_sick_why_do_we_feel_worse_at_night/"
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5ajma0 | how are underwater springs so clean and safe to drink? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ajma0/eli5_how_are_underwater_springs_so_clean_and_safe/ | {
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"Part of modern water purification methods include running it through a filter made of sand and fine particulate to strain out contaminants. Underground springs sort of take that to another level as the water may have slowly been forced through many miles of nearly solid stone and extremely fine sediment.\n\nThe water may also have been underground for an extremely long time. Any bacteria which weren't strained out in the process likely would die after being in absolutely black, cold stone for decades or even centuries."
]
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5vilme | what would the united states look like today if no humans have ever explored the land? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vilme/eli5_what_would_the_united_states_look_like_today/ | {
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"A hell of a lot of Buffaloes and Wooly Mammoth's would be roaming around. The Eastern US would have more forest than it does now."
]
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4xdwfd | special effects look great now for the most part. did special effects 35-40 years ago look that good at that time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xdwfd/eli5_special_effects_look_great_now_for_the_most/ | {
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"text": [
"It's always relative. Whatever special effects look like in 30 years, you'll look at most of today's movies with a side-eye.\n\nWhen the original Star Wars came out, there was nothing like it (except maybe 2001:A Space Odyssey). Star Wars changed everything that came after it because they had to invent things to make it work (You can thank Star Wars for Pixar since Lucasfilm's effects house made the Pixar computer). Movies had a new bar to meet for effects.\n\nA good side-by-side example with Star Wars is to watch the movie Logan's Run. It came out the year before Star Wars and, by comparison, it looks like a Syfy channel monster movie in quality. But before Star Wars, people didn't necessarily see it as bad effects. \n\nEffects are there to suspend disbelief, so as long as they do that, it works. "
]
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emkw26 | how does the human digestive system know to immediately expel spoiled food? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/emkw26/eli5_how_does_the_human_digestive_system_know_to/ | {
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"All the bacteria that were in the soup, were eating the soup before you. Your body is irritated by the chemicals they poop out. If there is enough bad chemicals, then your body has a reaction. Vomiting or diarrhea depending on how bad and where the food has reached inside you.",
"In addition to the other answers, your throat contains taste buds specifically to detect this sort of thing. You have taste buds in a lot of places in your body, but all the ones not in the mouth you are not aware of."
]
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[],
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3u4j45 | why are some parking lots angled? | I just noticed that in a strip mall with a Target and Wal-Mart close by, the Wal-Mart lot has parking at an angle whereas Target has parking perpendicular to its lanes. They look roughly the same size. They both have cart return stations throughout.
Why the difference? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3u4j45/eli5_why_are_some_parking_lots_angled/ | {
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"text": [
"Angled spaces are easier to turn into and back out of, but require that you go down the aisle a specific direction."
]
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[]
] | |
1vdomc | how can speed cameras give you a ticket in the us? doesn't the constitution state that you have the right to face your accuser? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vdomc/eli5_how_can_speed_cameras_give_you_a_ticket_in/ | {
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"text": [
"The constitution says:\n\n > In all criminal prosecutions , the accused shall enjoy the right to ... be confronted with the witnesses against him...\n\nA speeding ticket isn't a criminal prosecution. It's a civil fine. So it doesn't apply.",
"The right to your accuser pertains only to criminal proceedings under the 6th Amendment:\n\n > In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to ... be confronted with the witnesses against him.\n\nNot sure how it works in your jurisdiction but you probably enjoy a right to appeal that allows for a proper process to be followed.",
" > How can speed cameras give you a ticket in the US? \n\nThe ticket isn't sent by the camera itself. The police inspect the images from the camera, and send the tickets accordingly.\n\n > Doesn't the Constitution state that you have the right to face your accuser?\n\nThe officer who wrote the ticket based on the image from the camera will be there if you choose to contest the ticket in court.",
"How is that any different than using security footage of you breaking into a store against you? You have the right to confront evidence brought against you in court. If that evidence is photographic of video evidence, you can counter it by questioning the validity of the ID being made, or the circumstances being captured, for example."
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5plcdp | why might i feel like my car accelerates faster with a full tank of gas compared to a low tank? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5plcdp/eli5_why_might_i_feel_like_my_car_accelerates/ | {
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"How low do you mean when you say \"low\"? Because if what you mean is \"nearly empty\" then fuel starvation is a possible reason. If you mean a quarter tank, then it's all in your head.",
"because they do. power to weight ratio has a pretty big effect in performance applications. race cars and bikes have fuel tanks designed to carry the optimum amount of fuel for the track/setting. "
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3geo0d | what actually is 'love' | How does it make someone Feel?
Why can we fall in/out of love?
Why do some people seem to 'love' more than others? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3geo0d/eli5what_actually_is_love/ | {
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"I just read a book called Hold Me Tight that explained its a neuro chemical attachment process designed for survival. Why heartbreak is so devastating, on a primal level it's a threat to our survival.",
"Love is governed by three chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. These chemicals are dopamine, seratonin and oxytocin. Dopamine (the happiness chemical) is what initially allows you to start liking someone, and it's what gives you those tell tale butterflies as it stimulates the release of other hormones around your body (like adrenaline). Seratonin is the chemical that allows you to lust after someone, and it's responsible for sexual libido (hence why people on certain antidepressants - seratonin inhibitors - experience a decreased sex drive. Finally oxytocin is the chemical that allows you to bond with your partner. It's released by mothers into their breast milk which creates the bond between mother and baby, and when you are in love with someone its released into your brain and serves as an evolutionary advantage as it allows you to bond with your mate that you have chosen in order to create lots of offspring with your desired characteristics. So the 3 of these neurotransmitters work with each other to produce this feeling of love, which allows us to create as many offspring as possible with the characteristics that we want them to have. Any imbalance in these chemicals is what causes people to love more than others, and also people who don't seem to love anything. We fall in and out of love due to our brains getting sensitised to the chemicals (hence why people talk about the 7 year itch, where they are desensitised to their partners, in other words, you need to keep your relationship fresh in order to keep a steady flow of these chemicals). The feeling of love is usually identified by the feelings of butterflies in your stomach from adrenaline, blushing, pupil dilation and other signs like nervousness, and to those in love, it feels like you couldn't go a day without seeing them for fear that you could lose them. Once again this is an evolutionary thing to help create as many offspring as possible.\n\nTLDR - Love is all in your head to make you produce the best offspring you can\n\nSOURCE - I'm a nurse who is going to be starting his masters in neuroscience",
"Many great scholars have asked the same question. A group named Haddaway was exploring that very question themselves. Back in the '90's there was an entire institution devoted to the question known as The Roxbury. \n\n\nThere were no conclusive results. No real signs were found. Is it a chemical reaction? It's not fair that we don't know. What is love?",
"Don't say \"baby don't hurt me\". Don't say \"baby don't hurt me\". Don't say \"baby don't hurt me\".\n\n^^Baby ^^don't ^^hurt ^^me!\n\nDamnit!"
]
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65sxv9 | why does basic matrix multiplication work the way it does? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65sxv9/eli5_why_does_basic_matrix_multiplication_work/ | {
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"At their core, matrices are just ways of representing *linear* functions.\n\nA function is linear when scaling or adding inputs is the same as scaling or adding results: f(ax) = a\\*f(x) and f(x+y) = f(x) + f(y). Imagine, e.g., that x and y are arrows (or vectors, if you know what those are). 'Adding' two arrows means putting the end of one at the beginning of the other, and scaling an arrow just means scaling its length while keeping the direction the same.\n\nIf you have a linear function that operates on arrows like this, it turns out the *only* things you need to know about it is how it affects the arrow that points 1 foot straight up, the arrow that points 1 foot directly left, and the arrow that points 1 foot directly forward. Let's call these three arrows **i**, **j**, and **k**. You can form *any* arrow by scaling and adding together those three arrows. For example, the arrow that points two feet up is just 2**i**. **i** + **j** is an arrow that points 45 degrees up and to the left, with length sqrt(2). (**i** + **k**)/sqrt(2) is the arrow that points 45 degrees *forward* and to the left, and is one foot long.\n\nBasically, *any* arrow x can be written as x = a**i** + b**j** + c**k**. This means that (if f is linear), f(x) = f(a**i** + b**j** + c**k**) = a\\*f(**i**) + b\\*f(**j**) + c\\*f(**k**). Like we said, we only need to know what f(**i**), f(**j**), and f(**k**) are, and we can use this to figure out what f(x) is, for any arrow x.\n\nSo, we can just write down f(**i**), f(**j**), and f(**k**) in a matrix. Multiplying matrices is meant to represent _composing_ the linear functions that those matrices represent. So if A represents the linear function f(x), and B represents the linear function g(x), A\\*B is mean to represent the linear function f(g(x)). This is what motivates matrix multiplication, and why it works the way it does.",
"Suppose you were building a model of some system where there are different populations. For example, the poor, the middle class, and the rich. They start out like this: 20% poor, 60% middle class, 20% rich.\n\nThen let's say we knew about some rates of change per generation. Of the poor, 50% stayed poor and 50% became middle class. Of the middle class, 1/3 became poor, 1/3 stayed, and 1/3 became rich. Of the rich, 25% became middle class and 75% stayed rich.\n\nAfter one generation, the population shifted like this:\n\n* Poor: 0.5 * 0.2 + 1/3 * 0.6 + 0 * 0.2 = 0.3\n* Middle Class: 0.5 * 0.2 + 1/3 * 0.6 + 0.25 * 0.2 = 0.35\n* Rich: 0 * 0.2 + 1/3 * 0.6 + 0.75 * 0.2 = 0.35\n\nBefore we had matrix multiplication, we might have tried to work out these kinds of problems with basic logic, as above. This got very tedious, and people saw that many problems (in physics, engineering, statistics, etc.) were solved in a similar way, so they came up matrix multiplication and the rest of linear algebra.\n\nTo do the problem with matrix multiplication, make the population a vector:\n\n [0.2 0.6 0.2]\n\nAnd make the factors of change a matrix:\n\n [0.5 0.5 0\n 1/3 1/3 1/3\n 0 0.25 0.75]\n\nThen multiply the 1x3 vector (left) with the 3x3 matrix (right) to get a new 1x3 vector:\n\n [0.3 0.35 0.35]\n\nAnother type of problem well-represented by matrix multiplication is a system of linear equations, for example 3 equations with 3 unknowns, where the coefficients are a 3x3 matrix, the unknowns form a 3x1 vector, and the constants on the other side of the equations are another 3x1 vector. These are a little easier to solve with linear algebra."
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2yrq58 | how can we see stars as a single point if the earth is rotating at such a high speed? | Why doesn't it look like a time lapse photo? Is it because they are so far away, or does it have to do with the fact we are on a small fixed point on the large Earth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yrq58/eli5_how_can_we_see_stars_as_a_single_point_if/ | {
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"A lot of these answers are wrong. It has ZERO to do with the fact that \"stars are really far away\". If I spin around myself, I can make the stars look blurry and spin, regardless of the distance of the stars.\n This is the real answer:\n\nThe Earth is really really big, so even though the speed of the rotation relative to the CENTER of the Earth is really high, something like 1,040 mph (this is the speed YOU travel standing on the Earths surface), the rate of rotation is still really really slow. Earths rotates at 0.000694 RPM! That's suuuper slow. That's why you don't really notice the earth spinning."
]
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mlv7c | how can my headphones have control over my ipod? | It would make sense if my headphones were running through some special port, but it's just a regular 1/8th adapter. It confuses me as to how my how my headphones can pause/change tracks/control volume. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mlv7c/how_can_my_headphones_have_control_over_my_ipod/ | {
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"The headphone jack (on iOS devices) can also [read credit cards](_URL_0_).\n\nTo answer the question, though, there's a circuit attached to it that allows for more advanced controls. It's basically just another version of backwards-compatible technology -- it works with the old stuff, but there's new stuff crammed in, too.",
"It's not just a regular 1/8\" plug, which is a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve). It's a TRRS plug, ie tip-ring-ring-sleeve, giving you an extra signal line. You can send an asynchronous (ie, not needing a clock) serial signal over a single wire. I'm not sure the iPhone/iPods necessarily do this, but it seems likely. ",
"The headphone jack (on iOS devices) can also [read credit cards](_URL_0_).\n\nTo answer the question, though, there's a circuit attached to it that allows for more advanced controls. It's basically just another version of backwards-compatible technology -- it works with the old stuff, but there's new stuff crammed in, too.",
"It's not just a regular 1/8\" plug, which is a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve). It's a TRRS plug, ie tip-ring-ring-sleeve, giving you an extra signal line. You can send an asynchronous (ie, not needing a clock) serial signal over a single wire. I'm not sure the iPhone/iPods necessarily do this, but it seems likely. "
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2ssvum | if lightning is electricity, thus moving in speed of light, how can we see it move from one place to another in slow motion lightning videos? | If am not mistaken Lightning bolts are electric currents. Electric moves in speed of light (c). How can we see it move in clouds or clouds to ground in naked eye or in that slow motion videos? Wouldn't it happen in instant if its as fast as light? Thanks | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ssvum/eli5_if_lightning_is_electricity_thus_moving_in/ | {
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"Well, lightning doesn't travel at the speed of light. A bolt of lightning travels through the air at approximately 3,700 mps. The light from the bolt travels at 186,000 mps. \n\nElectricity only moves at the speeds you're describing when it travels through empty space. But air is not empty space. And electricity traveling through a cable or wire travels even slower than it does through air.",
"Electricity is moving electrons. It isn't light at all, and doesn't travel at the speed of light.",
"Electricity does not move at the speed of light. "
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2izscu | why do keyboards have 2 shift, control and alt buttons? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2izscu/eli5_why_do_keyboards_have_2_shift_control_and/ | {
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"It is to increase the speed at which you are able to type. You use the right sets of those buttons when they are paired with keys you type with your left hand, and vice verse. "
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3dfn77 | the pluto probe went right where they wanted it to. how did they do that??? | Did they do some physics, aim, and fire? Was the probe dirigible? It blows my mind that they can place a probe inside a 90-mile strike zone between Pluto and its moon, from Earth. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dfn77/eli5_the_pluto_probe_went_right_where_they_wanted/ | {
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"The probe is dirigible. It has 16 thrusters that expel material that can be used to push the probe and correct course (Newton's third law). ",
"Spacecraft have sensors, called star trackers, that they use to look at specific star formations to navigate. They allow the position to be calculated very accurately, and tracked over long flights. After that it's all geometry, math, and physics."
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1pzww0 | how does the humble bundle work? | Why are game companies willing to put their games up for practically no money? (average payment is under 5 bucks for multiple games) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pzww0/eli5_how_does_the_humble_bundle_work/ | {
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"Indie Game Developers ask the people over at humble bundle if their game can be put in a humble bundle. They do this to get more people to play their game and/or to be nice and try to get people to donate to charity. Especially with Indie games, it is hard to get the word out about your game, but being a part of a Humble Bundle exposes it to new people, those new people tell their friends, etc...",
"Often times, the game's put up for sale are older games that, while good, won't sell many more copies. Placing them in the Humble Bundle would generate good PR for the company, which is worth more than whatever sales the game's would generate otherwise.\n\nThere are occasionally other reasons/benefits as well. EA used their Humble Bundle to promote their game distribution channel, Origin. What better way to promote a game distribution channel than with cheap and/or free games?"
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2cvmoq | how do spacecraft travel so fast in space? | The European spacecraft Rosetta traveled 4 billion miles in 10 years. How does anything travel that fast? Do things just move faster in space? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cvmoq/eli5_how_do_spacecraft_travel_so_fast_in_space/ | {
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"There's no atmosphere or other matter to slow you down via friction, and gravity is minimized once you're outside of Earth orbit. So when you hit the figurative gas pedal, you just keep going faster and faster - there's no counteracting forces to counterbalance the thrust. So this way, you can just keep going faster and faster as long as you keep applying more thrust.",
"The Rosetta spacecraft did a series of [Gravitational Slingshot](_URL_0_) maneuvers, it slingshot three times around earth and once around mars, to get it's velocity. Very little forward thrust was used once it got it's escape velocity from earth. "
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5dxdnu | why does water have a shadow while it's transparent and fire does not have a shadow while it isn't transparent? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5dxdnu/eli5_why_does_water_have_a_shadow_while_its/ | {
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"Water is not 100% transparent - it can both block and bend some light. Fire, on the other hand, *is* a source of light, and, as such, cannot cast a shadow.",
"Fire is casting light so it will, by default cast away its own shadow. The vapors coming from the fire do not generate light so they do cast shadows."
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3hytz8 | why are fatally ill patients generally not allowed to try experimental/non-approved drugs that may save their lives? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hytz8/eli5_why_are_fatally_ill_patients_generally_not/ | {
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"It's sadly a numbers game. Trials want to select the candidates most likely for success. If you take a patient who is pretty far along and on their last resort, the trial stands a lower chance of success. The medicine may work on less far along cases. Too many failures and the drug can't move forward. ",
"There are ethical issues. The fear is doctors will tell a patient they're going to die when they aren't in order to experiment on them. There are also financial issues where a study my lose funding if there are a lot of deaths associated with it. ",
"Medical ethicist and medical researcher here.\n\nPeople with fatal illnesses are allowed to receive experimental drugs under a program called: \"Compassionate Use,\" see here: _URL_0_\n\nTo be considered you basically have to have a poor prognosis, no established cure, and no clinical trials involving the drug available. If your doctor thinks the drug could be beneficial and the company agrees to give you the drug, then you could qualify.\n\nThe balancing test is a basic struggle of medical ethics: protecting the disadvantaged while also giving the disadvantaged a chance at treatment. Many people who are terminal think they have nothing to lose but the potential of increased pain and complications from experimental therapies or drugs (beyond their underlying disease) is not insignificant. The compassionate use program balances this idea of protecting terminal ill patients from their own YOLO mindset while also giving them an aggressive chance to pursue therapy. \n\nedit: co-written essay by bioethicist and pharmaceutical CEO here: _URL_1_",
"Because those stats get recorded for the drug anyway.\n\nSo this guy is pretty much gonna die no matter what, and this drug that might or might not help is going through trials. Say, 100 test subjects. We could put this guy in and make it 101 test subjects, but since he's gonna die anyway...\n\nBasically 100 test subjects 2 die. 2% mortality rate while being treated with this drug (or a 98% success rate, as they'll report it)\n\nThrow in another guy who is gonna die no probably no matter what. \n\n3 of 101 die, now that's 2.9% or 3% of people die on this drug. \n\nBasically it makes the drug look worse and therefore harder to sell. ",
"In some cases, it isn't that they aren't allowed to use these drugs, it's that they have no way to access them. Doctors generally do not prescribe drugs that haven't been approved - at least, not if they want to continue being doctors.\n\nIn situations like that, some people end up going to other countries for treatment. A few years ago my brother went to Mexico for a procedure that reduced his MS symptoms (from Canada). It wasn't a cure, but it helped, and nobody in Canada was willing/allowed to do it.",
"In some cases, the problem is insurance. Insurance companies generally will not pay for treatments without experimental evidence behind them--they don't want to pay for things that don't work. In countries with national healthcare, this also tends to be the case. It's a policy that makes sense for the most part--a lot of people want their insurance to cover various quack medicines that have 0% chance of working. But the line between \"experimental\" and \"probably bullshit\" is in the eye of the beholder, and these policies definitely aren't made with end-of-life patients in mind. So the patient either has to find a free trial that will accept them, or drum up the money to try it without that support. ",
"That is not entirely true, When I was 6 I had leukemia and at one point I got internal bleeding as a result. My doctor gave me every known treatment but they didn't work. He told my parents that the only thing left to save me was an experemental drug that had only been used on like 3 or 4 people before me.",
"They may be able to enter a clinical trial, but there are certain criteria. As an example, see [this trial](_URL_0_)\n\nEligibility \"Histologically or cytologically proven diagnosis of hematologic malignancies for whom all standard therapy options have failed\" but there are also a bunch of exclusion criteria.\n\nDisclaimer: I own shares in this company (currently worth less than $1,000)."
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d4idm3 | what is the purpose (or former purpose) of the excessive pillows on beds? the long cylindrical one, etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d4idm3/eli5_what_is_the_purpose_or_former_purpose_of_the/ | {
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"The long cylindrical one can be used to 'cuddle' whilst lying down, which helps to reduce lower back twisting. They can also be helpful for pregnant women to get comfortable.",
"People with acid reflux or heartburn use additional pillows to prop themselves up while they sleep to minimize the effects.",
"People will often sit on a hotel bed more than they would at home. Extra pillows make this more comfortable"
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5mw6df | why do we have to learn "some" things in school even though we wouldn't need/use it in the future? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mw6df/eli5_why_do_we_have_to_learn_some_things_in/ | {
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"A lot of learning in school is more to teach general problem solving skills and giving a wide breadth of knowledge even if it isn't particularly deep in any particular topic.\n\nFor example, after a certain point, you *won't* use a lot of particular math concepts in your day-to-day life (work *or* home) but in learning how to do these things you also learn problem solving skills.",
"Long term: while in school, you have no idea what you might use in the future. \n\nYou are not receiving \"useless\" information, you just haven't found a way to use it. \n\nShort term: Often, smaller items are stepping stones to more knowledge. It's the base upon which continued education is built. You may also internalize some lessons so deeply that you don't even realize you are using them."
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45mbu1 | decompression sickness, aka 'the bends' | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45mbu1/eli5_decompression_sickness_aka_the_bends/ | {
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"If you go from high pressure to lower pressure (like when you quickly surface after diving), the pressure change causes bubbles of nitrogen to form in your blood. This can cause quite a bit of discomfort, but can be treated by spending some \"you\" time in a decompression chamber.",
"When you are diving, the deeper you go the higher the water pressure gets. This is not a big problem for your body tissues, because they have a very similar density to that of water, but it is for your lungs, which need to inflate to breathe.\n\nScuba diving gear solves this by adapting the pressure of the air you breathe to the outside pressure. The problem with this is that breathing gases like oxygen and nitrogen get dissolved in your blood and tissues, the more the higher the pressure is. You can think of this like a closed bottle of sparkling water. These additional gases are breathed out again when the pressure decreases upon surfacing, but if you surface too fast, bubbles can form like when you open the bottle of sparkling water. These can be especially unpleasant if they form in important blood vessels or joints.\n\nThis is the reason why (responsible) people are doing multiple decompression stops in certain depths after long and/or deep dives and also why it is not recommended to dive directly before a flight."
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1p0ysc | why didn't the gov't/news end the recession by lying to people and telling them it was over? | From my very basic understanding of the recession it was due to people not actively spending their money and buying things (because we were in a recession,) so surely an easy fix to that would have been to simply tell people the recession was over and fool them in to spending their money so that it actually would end the recession? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p0ysc/eli5_why_didnt_the_govtnews_end_the_recession_by/ | {
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"1) People aren't that easily fooled. Numbers won't lie.\n\n2) The recession was caused by quite a bit more than that.\n\n3) Even if you did successfully lie, you wouldn't stop the problem that houses were way over-valued.",
"Because reality. \"Hey it's over! Wait I still don't have a job and neither do my friends.\"",
"They did. The only people getting ahead are the rich and the very rich. The middle class is collapsing and the poor... Well, they're still the poor. \nThe numbers the government has been releasing have been increasingly biased and cooked since I first started watching them back in the early 1970s. Note- If you want to verify this, check the definitions of M1, M1A and unemployment and the dates and the state of the economy at the times they were changed. They routinely change the definitions to give the results that the political machine wants. If they were keeping honest books, they would create new indexes as needed but continue supplying the old ones for comparison."
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6qqrtd | how do (and did) composers test their orchestral works before giving them to an orchestra? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6qqrtd/eli5_how_do_and_did_composers_test_their/ | {
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"Composers know the tone of the instrument they compose for very well. They most likely write the tunes on a piano, but in their head they know how they will sound different. I'd imagine they're relatively proficient on one or two instruments as well. They might pick up a violin or trumpet just to play a couple notes and see how it comes out. ",
"In general, the ability to orchestrate well comes with lots of pratice and lots of exposure to orchestral music. Many of the great composers were also accomplished performers or conductors, offering plenty of opportunity to get used to what, say, an oboe and clarinet playing in thirds sound like. A fair few premiered their own works. Some composers did also revise works after the first (few) performances."
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3ryk2f | why whenever i'm sleeping in a car ride home, i wake up right before i reach my house? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ryk2f/eli5_why_whenever_im_sleeping_in_a_car_ride_home/ | {
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"If you've been on the highway, you'll notice the slowing down, stops/starts and turns, most likely. ",
"From what I've noticed, there are more red lights and tight turns as you get closer to residential areas. The increased stopping, starting, twisting, and turning never fails to wake up my passengers whenever I'm the one driving home, so I assume it's similar to your situation.\n\nEspecially if you've been on a road trip where most of the time has been spent on smoother highways and interstates with more gentle curves and no stops. \n\nI've even noticed that people will wake up when I hit traffic on the interstate, just like they would when we start hitting red lights and such. ",
"I used to live in New Jersey and had to commute into Manhattan for my job. For years I had to take the bus and I'd often fall asleep on the ride back home. And yet I never once missed my stop. So I started to wonder the same thing and came to the following conclusion.\n\nI think there are two factors at work here. The first is your \"internal clock\" so to speak. Have you ever noticed that you sometimes wake up before your alarm in the morning? There's a part of you that knows, generally, what time it is. It's how we managed before alarm clocks. Chances are when you fall asleep you have an idea of how long it takes to get home and your body will wake you up when that time has elapsed. \n\nBut since this isn't perfect, factor number two comes into play. Whether you notice it or not, your brain knows what your route home feels like. The amount of Gs you feel on each turn and in which direction becomes familiar after a while. Even when you're asleep your body is capable of recognizing this pattern and when your brain picks up on it it tells you to wake up. \n\nOf course this is all just conjecture on my part. I'm an accountant, not a scientist. But still, sounds about right to me. ",
"It's all that screaming from your passengers right before you drive through the garage door.",
"My dogs used to do this, driving from country Victoria to Melbourne, all through to my folks place, then a street from there up and looking out the window. Border collie's man...",
"On top of the answers that others have given, like more slowing down, turning, and things like that, I also think muscle memory plays a role. When I was a child, I remember always feeling that really familiar road near my house that we took every single time, especially while I was asleep. When I felt that, I knew that we were almost home."
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2n5pu2 | why do grocery stores require you to have a club card to receive a discount? | For instance, Ralph's and Von's will give you club card discounts, but membership costs nothing and I have seen on multiple occasions cashiers scan a blank membership card to someone who has no club card. Albertsons has switched to giving everyone the discount and have gotten rid of the membership. So what gives? Why not just give everyone the membership price considering the membership is free? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2n5pu2/eli5_why_do_grocery_stores_require_you_to_have_a/ | {
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"\"If something is free, chances are you are the product\". The fact that it's free is intended to encourage more people to get the cards, along with the discounts. They then use this card as an identifier every time you shop, to allow them to build up an idea of you as a person. Marketing can then be used more effectively to get you to buy stuff.",
"The main reason is to encourage customers to buy more items with the specific store most loyalty cards at least in Australia give you better discounts the more you spend the customers will buy more than they needed to get the discount. At Woolworths(Supermarket) they give you 4 cents a liter off petrol when you spend $50 or more in store and customers will come to the store and spend that 50 even when they don't need to so they can save the 4 cents. So the store made $50 more in store plus whatever the customer spend on fuel.",
"Exactly the same reason why you can't get any \"free\" online service without telling them your email address or, more and more, phone number. They want to be able to identify you specifically so that they can target you better.",
"The discount is designed to get you to use card, which allows them to tie your purchases to your personal demographic information, which they can sell back to the manufacturers.\n\nThe data is valuable. If you were making, say, soap, you would really like information on who buys your products at what price points. Are you trying to get a more upscale market for one of your products? Does lowering the price help? Does raising it? You can get this information by passing discounts along to retailers in specific areas if you know you'll get information back on who your customers are, not just how many bars of soap you sold."
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3pd33g | why do we get disgusted at ourselves as we see what we masturbated to, after getting off? | Because we were horny, I know that much...
But what psychological/biological thing causes us to feel disgust to what we were just getting off to, after getting off? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3pd33g/eli5_why_do_we_get_disgusted_at_ourselves_as_we/ | {
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"Not an expert, but I think after you cum, your mind ceases to be horny, it doesn't desire sex/orgasm. You can imagine it like suddenly having very high standards in adult material quality.\n\nBody releases certain chemicals post orgasm, which also have a hand in that 'sinking/depressed' feeling",
"Lol what do you mean \"we?\"\n\nI'm pretty accepting of what I get off to.",
"I've never felt disgust after masturbation - just satisfaction. \nIt could be a cultural thing, for example, if you were raised to believe it was wrong or something.",
"No disgust here. Where you raised to believe masturbation was a sin?\n\nI don't have an interest in masturbation after having an orgasm, But I'm not disgusted by what I just did. Sometimes even able to go for a twofer, just keep going after the first and another even more intense one comes not long after. I'm a guy by the way.",
"Isnt it a lot like eating.\n\nWhen i look at food hungry i long for it, but if ive just eaten im not drawn to it at all, but if i havent eaten for a while it might make me hungry.",
"When you are very hungry, most food sounds good and there's probably a specific food or foods that sound amazing. Once your body has had its \"fix\", then you likely do not want anything anymore. You just ate a whole pizza or overstuffed on french fries, and now you just push the plate away and think, \"Oh god, no more\"\n\nI don't think everyone will necessary respond in disgust after their body reaches their fix, but whatever the stimulus was that satisfied their need, it won't serve that purpose anymore. The reward is over, your mind no longer craves it, and now it's just \"there\" with no usefulness at the moment. \n\nWhether or not you look back at that greasy pizza with disgust, indifference, or save it away for later when you get hungry again is probably more of a personal preference and how you perceive yourself. ",
"Refractory period. Also, watch less gross porn. Nobody likes a prolapse after lunch. ",
"What you're experiencing is known as PEGS, or Post-ejaculatory Guild Syndrome. It's a relatively common sexual dysfunction. Most brains switch from arousal to \"meh\" after ejaculating, only with this disorder, your brain goes further and ends with negative feelings.\n\n_URL_0_",
"It's psychological. Probably as a kid you've been told that masturbation was bad and you should feel guilty when you masturbate. Even though you might not believe it to be so anymore, you are conditioned to feeling guilty after doing it.\n\nAs others said, many people don't feel the guilt you've mentioned.",
"I have had this experience so many times. Like I'll be sexting a girl, talking all dirty, or on snap chat getting nudes and getting off. And right when I'm finished, I'll feel so turned off by whatever I was just getting off to. Like this girl I like, she was sending me nudes one night, and I was getting into it. Literally 5 seconds after I finished, I instantly wanted to not talk to her anymore. Like she was disgusting and I never wanted to speak to her again.\n\nIt feels strange.",
"Pressure NOT to beat it you received during your formative years. I don't feel bad, per se, but I always go from porn to some site and look for tools or such afterwards..."
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5xhkgv | why do cold drinks "sweat" in hot weather? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xhkgv/eli5_why_do_cold_drinks_sweat_in_hot_weather/ | {
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"Air has water vapor in it, which is what we call humidity. The amount of water (humidity) that air can hold depends on the temperature; hot air can hold more water than cold air, so if its 80 degrees and 50% relative humidity and you suddenly cool the temperature to 60 degrees (the dew point), the relative humidity would jump up to 100% because the cool air is holding as much water as it possibly can. If you keep cooling it down, the humidity would exceed 100% and the water would start to precipitate, which is basically what happens with rain. Since the air is coldest nearest to the surface of the drink, that's where you see the most condensation.",
"energy seeks equilibrium, meaning same level everywhere, \n\nSo if you put a cold object (low energy) in a hot envirenment (warm air) the energy will flow from warm to cold until the object and the envirenment are the same temperature. \n\nthe thing is that the air has water vapor in it which collects on the object and as it loses energy it starts to condense from vapor to liquid water as it loses energy to the cold object. \n\nTL;DR the cold object condenses water vapor in the air as the air loses energy to the cold object. ",
"It's called condensation when the air comes into contact with the cooler container it condenses thus forming water droplets."
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9qu7ul | are quieter sounds closer to your ears, as dangerous as loud sounds further away; to your hearing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9qu7ul/eli5_are_quieter_sounds_closer_to_your_ears_as/ | {
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"Damage from sound is based on length of exposure and the decibel rating of the sound, which is a measure of the intensity.\n\n85dB and above will cause damage over a period of exposure. The higher the dB, the shorter amount of time you need to get hearing damage.\n\nSudden, and sharp sounds like a gun shot or even striking a golf ball with a driver can also cause damage",
"Yes. Sound waves have a certain power at their source. As they get further away, they need to fill a bigger area with the same power so they get weaker. When you are far enough away from something super loud, it becomes, from your perspective, the same power as something that is kind of loud. \n\nAn extreme example, a jet engine on the other side of the world is less dangerous then headphones that are too loud on your head. "
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375qae | hydrogen peroxide | Just but it on a small cut I had and it bubbled up. What exactly is causing it to bubble? Also, why does it only bubble up over wounds and not just on my skin? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/375qae/eli5_hydrogen_peroxide/ | {
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"Hydrogen peroxide is H2O2 basically water with an extra oxygen, but it is unstable and naturally degrades into H2O. Blood acts like a catalyst that speeds the reaction up without actually being used in the transition. \n\n2(H2O2) + blood = 2(H2O) +O2\n\nThe O2 takes the form of a gas and that's where the bubbles come from.\nIt is also exothermic."
]
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1g7wk1 | what does "classically trained" mean? (e.g. a classically trained vocalist) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1g7wk1/eli5_what_does_classically_trained_mean_eg_a/ | {
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"\"Classically trained\" means that you are trained in the classical way. In the case of music, it probably means something like being trained to play or sing classical music, to understand melody, harmony, composition, music theory, etc.\n\nThe reason I say \"probably\" is because there is no formal definition. In the UK, music students undergoing what might be considered a classical training will probably sit exams set by the [Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music](_URL_0_). But I've had a good look through their website, I can't find any use of the term \"classically trained\" anywhere on it. There is no formal definition, and the only real use of the phrase is as a form of snobbery - that because I'm classically trained, I must be \"better\" than you.\n\nIn reality, there are thousands of excellent musicians in the world from all kinds of backgrounds - classical, rock, folk, and many many more.\n\nThe same applies in other areas, too. Classical training in cookery is generally considered to be training in French cuisine. France is the [birthplace of the restaurant](_URL_1_), and so its cuisine is considered \"classical\". But does that mean French food is \"better\" than Italian, Indian, Thai, Moroccan or any other cuisine? No, of course not.",
"For musicians, it normally means that you either went to a conservatory (a school devoted to teaching music, especially \"classical\" music), or were taught by a teacher who is a noted classical musician himself or herself. As opposed to learning piano in order to play in a rock band, playing drums in a drums circle down at the park, or singing karaoke."
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fxcs7p | how does tourettes work and what happens during a ‘tic’? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fxcs7p/eli5_how_does_tourettes_work_and_what_happens/ | {
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"Our brains are full of \"preprogrammed\" thoughts, impulses, words, and actions.\n\nWhen you say a familiar word or phrase, like \"cheeseburger\" or \"how are you\", you're not forming them by thinking about each individual sounds and what order they're in, you just think of the whole word or phrase and it all seems to come out by itself. That's why saying an unfamiliar word can be so slow and clumsy.\n\nThe same is true for movement. For example, brushing your eyebrow uses many different muscles in coordination, but you don't think about the individual muscle movements, you just think of the overall action.\n\nAll of these programmed words, phrases, and movements are in your brain, just waiting to be triggered. Usually they're triggered by proper context. Like, feeling a slight irritation of your eyebrow triggers the eyebrow brushing movement, and saying a sentence about food triggers the \"cheeseburger\" word at the right time.\n\nWhen there's no need for those things then they are suppressed so they don't all come flooding out all the time.\n\nThere's a balance between suppression and activation, and that balance can be quite delicate though we're mostly unaware of it.\n\nWith Tourette Syndrome, some of these built in \"macros\" get triggered at in appropriate times, because they are insufficiently suppressed or because the triggers are too sensitive. Sometimes the suppression actually \"backfires\" and actually triggers them instead, so trying to hold back makes them worse. And the tics can trigger themselves so they're often repetitive rather than completely random.\n\nTourette Syndrome is really just an imbalance in normal human processes, and normal people exhibit similar behaviors as in Tourette Syndrome but they're just not as aware of them because they're much subtler.\n\nA good example is a mosquito bite - it itches, you scratch it, the itch goes away, the itch comes back, you scratch it, and so on. But if you decide to not scratch it, the itch begins to consume your consciousness and the urge to scratch it will build until you eventually give in and have a little \"scratching fest\" to ease your pent-up itching. And of course scratching it actually causes further irritation which makes you want to keep scratching it even more. If someone says \"that's a quite a mosquito bite you have there\" then that will make you think about it more and make you aware of the itching more and drive you to want to scratch it more. But if you get distracted by something else then you might completely forget about it for awhile.\n\n[Here's a good representation of how focus can drive urge.](_URL_0_)\n\nLikewise, the tics in Tourette Syndrome are compulsive thoughts or movements - they don't just happen on their own, we are driven to do them, trying to hold back makes the urge stronger, getting distracted makes them weaker, and doing the tics also makes them stronger so they reinforce themselves and are therefore repetitive.",
"I have mild Tourette’s, though I’ve mostly grown out of it as I’ve gotten older (which is common). Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority with Tourette’s don’t have vocal tics. Mine mostly involved touching, counting, looking at things, and doing strange but specific motions.\n\nBasically, you feel this mental pressure that you need to do something, and you can’t focus on anything else until you do that thing. Like when I was younger and would have to touch something a certain number of times, I *had* to do it. Dealing with the social fallout of doing weird stuff was easier than dealing with the mental anxiety of ignoring my urges.\n\nNot surprisingly, this is also how OCD works, and there is a fair amount of overlap."
]
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22hg5k | how hard would it be for someone to go off the grid | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22hg5k/eli5_how_hard_would_it_be_for_someone_to_go_off/ | {
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"If nobody is looking for you, its not hard. The hard part is staying off the grid. You need to be able to sustain yourself long-term, and needing a trip to a hospital if you start vomiting blood could mean an end to the whole thing.\n\nBut if you are wanted by the police in any serious way, the odds of managing to stay free aren't great. If you were in the military, they have your finger prints on file. And if a cop detains you ever, you can refuse to say who you are, but those fingerprints will eventually give you up."
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m0ng0 | why would a licence holder in the entertainment industry deny a licence to distribute something in a certain country? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/m0ng0/eli5_why_would_a_licence_holder_in_the/ | {
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"For any number of reasons. The most obvious is that if an equitable agreement can't be reached between the owner and the distributor, the owner won't grant the license. There are also issues of sublicensing rights, WIPO compliance and so on. Did you have something specific in mind?",
"For any number of reasons. The most obvious is that if an equitable agreement can't be reached between the owner and the distributor, the owner won't grant the license. There are also issues of sublicensing rights, WIPO compliance and so on. Did you have something specific in mind?"
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51oopw | what causes the attraction to "odd" physical traits? my attraction to slightly gapped teeth, for example. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51oopw/eli5_what_causes_the_attraction_to_odd_physical/ | {
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"Perhaps you were attracted to someone with this trait earlier in life, and you associate that trait unconsciously with a person who may have shaped your image of an attractive person.\n\nWhat is considered \"attractive\" can change from era to era, and culture to culture. One way or another we are exposed at an early age to what this image is. Straight and clean-white teeth are often a feature of the attractive people featured in media and culture, so not only do we factor that into our opinions but we imitate them to acquire some of that image.\n\nI find women that remind me of my first girlfriend have a different appeal to me than other women who may have other \"attractive\" features. Its not that my first girlfriend was stunning or conversely unattractive, but I associate with her appearance a generally successful relationship with someone I was attracted to."
]
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3a0oj3 | what is the main obstacle preventing the reunification of the korean peninsula? | Other than Just "Kim Jong-Un" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3a0oj3/eli5what_is_the_main_obstacle_preventing_the/ | {
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"The Kim family and their inner circle have no interest in relinquishing the power they have while the South Koreans have no interest in being ruled by the Kim family."
]
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] | |
2mlep3 | what exactly happened to the discovery channel, or the history channel for that matter? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mlep3/eli5_what_exactly_happened_to_the_discovery/ | {
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"To make money from ads, they gotta send shows that many people watch. so they changed their programs to some that do that.",
"Are you referring to a change in the character of programs they run?",
"It's a phenomenon known as [channel drift](_URL_0_) which devolves into a search for money and ratings. Happens all the time these days with more and more programming seeking wider audiences",
"It is no longer about producing a product that people want, It is about producing a product that will keep people watching comericals. Thats why 50% of pawn stars is telling you what they will be doing later in the show. They want you to watch commericals and structer programming around that princapal",
"What happened was a shift from being content-driven to being rating & advert-driven. Unfortunately this doesn't lend well towards more *intelligent* programming where TV's version of \"click-bait\" often gets more views (sensationalized BS littered with adverts and Buzzfeed-esque previews.)",
"They both started out as quiet little niche network, showing dry nature shows and World War II documentaries. Their rating were low, but so was their overhead, and being able to target a very specific audience was attractive to advertisers.\n\nThen *Mythbusters* happened.\n\nA surprise crossover hit was popular with a large audience, and they were seeing unprecedented ratings and ad revenue. So these niche channels tried to reproduce that success. Unfortunately, *Mythbusters* was lightning in a bottle, being smart, thematic, and widely appealing all at once. Further attempts achieved broader appeal by dumbing down the contents and drifting from theme. Unfortunately, they often worked, and are slowly transforming into more general entertainment...look at what CourtTV has become. ",
"Sort of related: what happened to TLC? \n\nthe\n~~learning~~\nchannel",
"They cut ties with the BBC , and started to try and appeal to a more broad audience , thats what happened. Storage wars instead of david Attenborough , world war 2 in colour and HD , weaponology and Elite forces. Those shows all kicked ass! The new stuff is awful.",
"As a history major and general lover of knowledge, to see what the History Channel has devolved into breaks my heart.",
"I said it elsewhere, American Chopper happened. At least that is one in my mind that was big in the very early 2000s when the shift seriously happened to those channels.",
"Yes, here in America the pursuit of money means that science, history, learning, etc., has given way to scripted \"reality\" shows lauding the brilliance of 'hillbilly know how' as it comes to making moonshine, blowing things up, and hunting the elusive chupaghostfoot monster.",
"I feel the internet killed those channels, other than the library, that’s where you were going to get documentaries or nature programing. Though overtime everyone who was interested in Discovery/History channel found the internet. Knowing you can watch the exact topic you want to learn about.\n\nedit/ spolling!",
"They started out with the general titles, which was documentaries about nature and world war 2 and such. Then mythbusters happened, and a lot of people loved it. Once they started getting this mad revenue in, they changed course. Things like pawnstars, deadliest catch, etc were the product of this new course. They wanted money, thats all. Same thing with AMC really. They were super low key, then they went a new direction in chase of money. They struck gold with Mad Men and Breaking Bad and now Walking Dead. ",
"Netflix, Amazon live stream, Hulu... all those internet options that provide nearly infinite alternatives for television viewing....that's what happened...\nSmaller overall audience pool facing more competition results in lower quality product (television fast food - cheap and easy to produce in a short period of time that appeals to those who don't expect much)",
"\"The Real Face of Jesus\", \"Bible Secrets Revealed\", \"The Bible\", \"God Guns and Automobiles\". These are all shows on what used to be \"The History Channel\". Now it's the History of the Bible Channel. \n\n\"H2\" channel has \"The Bible Rules\", \"The UFO Files\", \"Monsterquest\". It used to be a really good channel, but now they are trying to turn the Bible, which is Theology, into history, which it is not. Then they further de-legltimize themselves with UFO's and Monsters. I stopped watching it.\n\nI have most of the DVD's of the good War series they had, so I really don't need it anymore. It's pretty lame. Same with Discovery, used to be awesome, now it sucks. And before that, even \"The Learning Channel\" used to be pretty cool, but they killed that channel long ago.\n\nEverything gets dumbed down to about the Third Grade Level and that's where TV always goes, no matter where it started.",
"Just watch Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel and your faith will be restored in a good history show.\n\nIt's pretty much the best show on television right now.",
"It is very sad that this has happened. We should start a petition to bring back History and Discovery",
"In addition to what others have said, there is also the fact that these channels are sold in packages. Few people make an actual decision to subscribe to the Discovery Channel, they get it in a pack with x other channels, most of the time the most basic one. Therefore, the objective of the Discovery Channel changes from making people to want to subscribe to making channel flippers stay and watch their commercials. All of the flippers, since all of them have access to it even if they don't care about documentaries.\n\nCase in point, sort of:\n\nIn my country (Poland), we get (among others) Discovery Channel and Planete+ which is produced by Canal+ Poland (think French HBO/Cinemax equivalent). Back in the early 2000s, they were similar, I'd say Planete was a bit better but overall both had interesting documentaries on most of the time. Now the Discovery Channel is absolute garbage, and Planete is as good as it's ever been. The difference? Discovery is available to pretty much anyone with access to pay tv. Planete is available on some cable networks, but when it comes to satellite TV (popular here), it's only available on the network owned by Canal+. They don't care about the commercial revenue all that much, instead they care about people subscribing to them over their competition because of this and their other exclusives. It works BTW, if I were to choose a satellite platform I have no doubt which one it would be."
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1qou1z | who decides the sales/special offers at nationwide stores, and how are those offers decided? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qou1z/eli5_who_decides_the_salesspecial_offers_at/ | {
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"I work in a buying office (Not in the US) and within retailers like you have mentioned there is gnerally Head office staff that form part of the \"Merchandise Team\". Generally the Merchandise Team consists of Buyers (Who select range, negotiate with suppliers/brands), Planners (Forecast sales, plans how much of a product is required to achieve financial outcomes), Allocation Analysts (Decide how many each store should receive based on history and quantity forecast from the Planner), Buying Assistants (Work with buyer doing the rudimentary tasks). There is other positions with a merchandise team but this is generally the core; it will vary from retailer to retailer and the position names/roles will also be different.\n\nFrom my experience, as the Buyer and Planner are on par with responsibilities for driving the financial outcomes for there department (i.e Kitchen Appliances) they will decide pricing/promotions required to hit these sales/margin targets. In saying that there is a briefing process where they present this to their manager for approval who is generally responsible for multiple departments hence driving financial outcomes from a higher position with a focus on how to achieve financial targets as a \"group/team/division\".\n\nDepending on the setup of the individual retailers/retail stores the Marketing department may have a say in overall sales/promotions that occur. Really is dependent on the structure within the business.\n\nI should also state the above is in reference to a centralized buying process.\n\nIn circumstances where franchises and independently owned stores within a larger network operate it is possible for sales and promotions to be decided down at the store level depending on how the buying process is conducted and marketing operates within the business.\n\n"
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30pz0n | how come sometimes when i wipe my bum after i take a dump there's nothing on the toilet paper? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30pz0n/eli5_how_come_sometimes_when_i_wipe_my_bum_after/ | {
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"The elusive \"ghost shit\" is nary an explainable phenomenon. ",
"Yes. You sometimes shit without getting the outer part of your anus dirty. Maybe because it's too solid or goes smoothly trough your colon.\nRemember It doesn't have to be brown to know it's dirty.",
"Has to do with consistency. If the poo is harder it will most likely not smear on your anus as you poop. If its more soft and/or liquifyed it will be the other way around.\nAlso, if it falls vertically from your anus, it will touch less of your skin and therefore stain you less"
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531bl7 | why do we feel the bass in our chest? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/531bl7/eli5_why_do_we_feel_the_bass_in_our_chest/ | {
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"Because your chest is mostly air because of your lungs. It causes the air in your chest cavity to bounce around."
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2ce048 | everyone knows the financial system in the us was made to confuse the hell out of people. can someone take on the challenge to explain our financial system, both the pretty and ugly so that a layman can understand? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ce048/eli5_everyone_knows_the_financial_system_in_the/ | {
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"**Treasury Bond's** :: Essentially the government version of taking a cash loan. Countries are extremely stable money earners so people are very confident giving them credit at great rates. Imagine Coca Cola came to you and said *\"Pay us $10,000 and in return we'll pay you a percentage of our profit for the next ten years + interest\"*. Unless it was recently revealed Cola kills people you'd probably bite their hand off, you'd even accept just a 1% interest rate. It's basically guaranteed free money.\n\nGovernments do it to get immediate cash boosts. Taking $500m out of some pot somewhere is quite shocking but taking out a $505m loan over 15 years isn't.\n\n**fed reserve making money from air** :: Firstly, money is effectively fictional. You accept $10 because you believe you can walk down the street and trade it for something *real*. The bit of paper isn't really worth anything nor is there any gold bars that it represents.. it's worth $10 of stuff purely because we all continue to believe it is. \n\nThe purpose of the Federal Reserve is to carefully control how much money is floating around so that what we believe $10 to be worth stays as stable as possible, to match it as close as possible to the actual value of all the production output of the country. If they make too much we all start thinking money is *really* easy to get, so each bit of it becomes worth a little less. If they make too little the opposite happens. \n\n**Inflation** :: is keeping the amount of money just *slightly* above the output of the country. You make money a tiny bit easier to come buy in the hope that with a few more dollars in their pocket people will try new things, buy new things, pay more for things and ultimately push up the overall production output of the nation. 2% is where most agree we should be, 2% more money floating around than there's *actual value* for greases the wheels just enough to promote that new production, without devaluing money in any noticeably harmful way.\n\n**banks loaning out money that they don't have** :: This is fractional reserve banking. Again it's an idea designed to grease the wheels of the economy. Banks in their most basic form cause economies to *shrink*, people taking all their money and locking it away in a big vault makes money harder to come by, which means people take less risks and the economy doesn't grow as much.\n\nMost people who store their money in the bank aren't all going to turn up on the same day and take *all* of it out so you don't need to keep a huge pile sitting waiting for that happen. Why not put it to use? Fractional Reserve banking is taking a big chunk of the big pile and loaning it out to people with interest. People who need some money to do something get it, savers money is put to use and slowly the bank's pile grows (thanks to the interest) so they can loan more money to more people and grease more wheels.\n\n**the trend of mindless spending and debt will continue** :: Don't be too terrified by what you hear on the news. The US is in $17trillion debt and 'earns' $3.5trillion/year. So it's like earning $50k/year and having a $240k mortgage. The issue isn't really the size of the mortgage, it's how much spare money you have at the end of the month to make the payment (**The Deficit**). Right now the US is $500bn/year short on it's commitments, so obviously it borrows more money to cover it and the problem gets worse.\n\n*However* lots of those debts (43% I believe) are owed to institutions inside the US, so it's not quite like big bad China is coming banging on the door wanting its $17trillion back. Secondly, as long as the $500bn/year additional debt isn't accumulating faster than the $17trillion debt accumulated *eventually* they loans will come to an end, be paid off and the deficit will reduce. We just need to avoid a really expensive war for the next.. 30 years. \n"
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g0jlbg | for automated processes, for example online banking, why do "business days" still exist? | Why is it not just 3 days to process, rather than 3 business days? And follow up, why does it still take 3 days? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g0jlbg/eli5_for_automated_processes_for_example_online/ | {
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"The user access is online. The banking accounting process is still done by batch at end of day to transmit to the clearing house. The clearing house then does batch end of day to submit to the destination bank.",
"Banks still work in giant batch transactions. They don't want to constantly deal with Bank A owes Bank B $8, but then Bank B owes Bank A $9, and back and forth all the time. They want single giant transactions for processing between them to reduce confusion.",
"US banks use an old system, in Australia for example bank transfers are now instant. Your intuition is right, there is no technological reason for a delay.",
"The majority of these answers are wrong. Yes, the process takes time, but that's only because of the way they're implemented. The answer is similar to the same reason the [IRS is scrambling to hire COBOL developers](_URL_0_) to make updates - everything in this World is built on aging technology (in this example the bank ACH network), and no one wants to pay to update it when it's easier to just cobble together patches.\n\n[One of many sources](_URL_1_).",
"So, I work in IT for a utility in Canada, and have quite a bit of involvement in our posting process.\n\n \n\n\nFirst of all, we only process payments on business days. We also only perform \"batch billing runs\" on business days. More specifically, at night on business days, to avoid overloading the system everyone is using during the business day, and to avoid database locking issues. We don't invoice/bill customers on weekends or holidays. If we were bigger, we would maybe start doing those things on weekends, but that means someone has to be on call to support it on the weekend.\n\n \n\n\nSecond, the payment data files come from our bank. Payments that arrive at our bank are posted the next business day, unless we have an issue with the payment data, such as a corrupt or missing file. This could delay the payment by a day or two.\n\n \n\n\nAdditionally, the payments that come to our bank are collected from the banks that YOU bank at, so there is a one or two day delay for those payments to get to our bank before the data files with the payments are sent to us.\n\n\nEdit to add: if you pay from your account on our website through our credit card processor, we get those payments much faster, as they follow a different path. We actually process payments that come through five different possible paths before they get to us.\n\n\nTLDR: Big companies typically process things at night in batch, to avoid putting a heavy load on the system during the business day, and it can take two or three days for data to get from your bank, to our bank, and then to us to post against your account.",
"A lot of these answers are pretty good (batch processing, manual process, etc...) but you'd be surprised to know how manual it really is.\n\nIf a bank doesn't have an existing e-bill relationship with a vendor, your auto bill pay isn't really electronic at all. They actually print the check out and physically mail it for you. It's insane. Nobody is printing and mailing checks on weekends or holidays.",
"Because many people don't work on weekends like the people who would be fulfilling the order, doing the processing, etc, etc.",
"Most banking system dont have weekend as a date, ones i have seen will take the date of monday once friday’s end of day batch is ran successfully. Same happens for holidays.i believe it sent through like this as bank may have non system testing that matched their old accounting before computers and got build like to like and never got updated.",
"The government. Financial institutions that rely heavily on daily government interaction (aka banks) also will reflect government hours of operation (at least when it comes to actually processing transactions). It’s only recent that banks started having Saturday hours. \n\nBanks work with the federal reserve and regional federal reserve banks daily as transactions are credited and debited against banks. The federal reserve is not open on weekends for processing.",
"Related question: \n\nIf both banks are open on both Saturday and Sunday, then why do they still count those as separate from business days?",
"Because the back end systems are still ran in batches. Could it be changed? Probably, but why fix what isn't broken? It's a complex system that was written when it made sense to batch up transactions and process them in chucks.",
"For banking transactions there are still human checks in the process. Those checks do not happen on Saturday or Sunday because these 8-5 workers are home on these days. They also get federal holidays off, because banks.\n\nThese checks are not completed, and therefore must wait. Some things are automatic effective the next business day because those systems are trusted enough to automate entirely and only require review after the fact.\n\nBasically, people are still involved at some points and those people generally work bakers hours.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSource: Decades in banking.",
"Basically lack of will to do it faster.\n\nIn the Netherlands we have [Instant Payments](_URL_0_) which means for transfers between participating banks it takes 5 seconds at any time of the day or week.",
"Because so many of these processes are so far from automated.\n\nMost people would be horrified if they could understand the tangled mess of spaghetti code that drives so much of the world's infrastructure.",
"[This episode of Planet Money explains things nicely.](_URL_0_)",
"Like others have said, it's because the user-facing systems are designed to give the illusion that everything is automated, but in reality all it's doing is adding your transaction to a list that will then be worked manually by a human. \n\nPart of it is that automation is hard, but realistically, automation isn't hard, the thing that's hard is being able to automate a process than has hundreds of possible exception criteria when nobody can explain the exception criteria to you. It's not just financial systems, it's all IT systems that face these kinds of problems. People will come and say I want to do XYZ and get all bent out of shape when I say OK, I understand you want to do XYZ but how should we handle all of the edge cases...it's something most people don't think about / want to think about.",
"All these reasons may be true but are nonsense. If they wanted to make it faster and better for the consumer, they could.",
"I used to run these batch jobs working in IT ops for a bank!\n\nBasically, a few factors. First, as other people are pointing out, the transactions still get bunched up and sent as a batch at the end of the day.\n\nWhile real-time database access on large mainframes exists, and has since the 70s (through IMS and CICS on IBM mainframes) batch mode is much more reliable. The most important thing in any financial system is atomicity-- transactions happen 100% complete or are backed out 100% of the way, there's no such thing as a half-done transaction. You can see why this would be important, you don't want your bank account debited money, but that money never sent to the place it was supposed to go, and vice versa it's very bad for the bank to have the money sent, but not taken from an account.\n\nBatch mode processing handles this sort of thing super well. \n\nOn top of that, the analysts and other higher-up people that check and certify all of those still by and large work banker's hours. An ops grunt like me will work Christmas and Thanksgiving but the analysts and engineers are at home. We're there making sure the website works and the ATMs still run, but no file processing is going to happen.\n\nAlso, we need time to work on the systems. Mainframes are insane in terms of uptime, a few minutes a year of loss of service would be high for a properly configured IBM zOS logical partition, but the systems around them need upgrades, maintenance, patching and replacement, and we use holidays to do that work.",
"In addition to some of the comments on here, it's also important to keep in mind many transactions are required by regulations to have anti-fraud and security components in place that cannot be 100% automated. Many banks are rolling out instant transfers (like Venmo does) for certain types of transactions, but many need to be processed in batches. Also, cost is a factor - same day transactions between two banks can be done via wire, which costs like $25 and must go through the Fed and require it to be open, OR can be done for pennies using ACH, but takes a couple days to process. ACH is also much safer for banks, as there are methods of \"clawing back\" the money and there's time for verifications to happen in the event of fraud, whereas with a wire if you send the money, that money is just gone.",
"Most of these answers aren’t correct. It is because all of the banking in the US is backed by the federal reserve. So let’s say you get a check from someone using Wells Fargo and you bank at Chase. It isn’t as simple as Wells Fargo sending money to Chase. Chase has to make a request for funds from the federal reserve. The federal reserve in turn has to send that request to Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo will then take the funds from the funding account on the check and let the federal reserve know it went through, and send the funds. The federal reserve will then let Chase know transaction has processed on the Wells Fargo side. Then the actual transferring of funds through this whole chain has to happen. Add into this that the federal reserve isn’t open on weekends, and that’s why it’s business days and not calendar days. That’s also why cashier’s checks, money orders, and wire transfers are faster, because they all take out the federal reserve middle man.",
"Well, one big reason is that in the USA there hasn't been enough government intervention forcing banks to modernise. They don't spend the money to modernise, instead they get slower than banks in other countries. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nSource: Am immigrant; am constantly irritated at how slow banking is here compared to my home country a decade ago.",
"Bad implementation. Many financial processes are implemented as end-of or beginning-of day batch process and that's the only time those kinds of transactions occur. To make a change to these processes, all the implementing parties have to agree and update which is a pain. It's like saying, \"why can't text messages have read receipts and typing notifications like iMessage does?\" They absolutely can, but all of the service providers and phone manufacturers and texting client software producers would have to align on a new standard, which is hard (but Google is actually trying in this case to replace the SMS standard with RCS which would have these features).\n\nSource: I maintain shitty financial software.",
"The replies went down the road about cobol developers.\n\nAnyway I am a core banking developer and here is my input.\n\nIt pretty much depends on the type of payment first of all.\n\nIn my view, business days exist because a money transfer needs an origin,destination and in between it goes through the clearing house, and for many times, the payment may still arrive to the destination bank but with some minor validation errors that are not detected by clearing house(such as account is not open anymore, invalid name, and so on).\n\nThese payments go to pending review status, and these can be accpeted or rejected by the user working in the bank.\n\nAlso, for the majority of the payments (at least SEPA on Europe), you are obliged to follow some rules when it comes to the days that you have if you want to reject or recall the payment.\n\nHaving days going by, when no worker is able to work on them(non business days) would lead to a less good approach on the payment area, hence customers would be not so satisfied.\n\nAnother point is also the support from clearing house. If we don't have anyone working on clearing house side, things would be delayed as well. Of course the majority of the payments would go through, but some would just accumulate over the weekend. The same on the receiving bank.",
"Operations Banker here. There are a few reasons but they all remove around how manual the process actual is. Many of your online bill pays still mail a check and everything else still needs to be reviewed via reports so bank employees can catch payments etc with error or insufficient funds. These have to be fixed or rejected with specific coding to fit regulations.\n \nSo if anything the process being “electronic” is a mirage and it is actually a multi-day process that is still combed through by people.",
"It's because banks & most businesses aren't open on the weekends, or at least not for regular hours like M-F.\n \nIf you have a legal contract and it states 3 days turnaround time, then something received at 2:00 pm on Friday is due by 2:00 pm on Monday, but that really only gives the employee 3 hours on Friday and 6 hours on Monday to work on it. If you change that to 3 BUSINESS days, then it's not due until 2:00 pm on Wednesday, so the employees get the full time to work on it.",
"Financial institute make profit when money \"float\". the longer they float, the higher the profit.",
"because most systems are built on legacy systems that are a right pain in the arse to upgrade properly or replace so most people don't.\n\nIt's also the reason some companies I've worked with have had issues with expanding their Titles fields to include non-binary genders. A lot of things were hard coded or refer back to it so to change it is.... expensive.",
"It’s all down to history, and the way checks worked back in the olden days.\n\nSay this was back in the 60’s, I live in Kansas and I owed money each to 2 businesses: one in NY for $90, one in LA for $100. I mailed them a check each for those amounts. I have $215 in my bank.\n\nA few days later, the checks made it to those businesses. It takes them a couple of days to process it... you know, open their mails, log that I sent payment, etc and finally, someone on their end takes it to their bank to deposit in the morning(they had cutoff times back then, most of them were like noon—why? Cause the teller or bank manager has to manually process it, record it on the branch’s ledger of your account and phone it over and out). By some fluke, they both ended up depositing the money at 8am local time on the same Monday.\n\nI forgot about the checks I wrote and withdrew $50, leaving my account with $165.\n\nSo technically, the N.Y. checked for $90 got deposited first because 8am N.Y. vs 8am LA. Thing is, it didn’t really matter which one got deposited first. These 2 transactions will be logged by those banks, they will then get to my bank, then it will will eventually get to the branch I opened my account in.\n\n8am Monday morning the following week, someone at my bank will see these 2 checks I issued(forgot to mention, the checks I issued eventually makes it’s way back to my branch as proof I authorized the transaction—I mean, they’re the ones with a copy of my specimen signature) against my account, they’ll see on my ledger that I don’t have enough money. This person has to reject one of the transactions. They don’t know which came first. So in most likelihood, they will process the higher amounts first and then reject the lower amount. When they reject it, they send it all the way back to NY. They don’t say anything to CA since it went in just fine.\n\nWhen ACH first came online, it was designed to automate the main bank to bank transfers. What I mean is, eliminate the need to physically send the checks over. The whole manual process that happens when it leaves the NY bank branch, through to getting to my KS branch. It still left it up to the KS branch to review it since in most likelihood, records were still kept on paper.\n\nAnd 50 years later, that setup hasn’t really changed much. Lol.\n\nNowadays, when NY deposits that check, the atm machine reports to bank HQ that $90 needs to be withdrawn from my account. That is put on a log somewhere. About 10pm, all logs are collected, put in one massive excel sheet(basically) and sent to ACH. ACH unpacks the file and repacks it. It sends my bank one massive excel sheet letting them know NY debited $90 from me. Also the $100 to CA. My bank reads that and attempts to process it. They will process it by highest first so NY gets rejected. My bank will now create a log noting that it rejected the N.Y. transfer. This is included in the next time they send the massive excel sheet, which is gonna be that night. The CA debit was processed so my bank doesn’t say anything—no news is good news here as far as ACH is concerned. Anyway, NY then picks up in the morning that it was rejected.\n\nSo in our scenario, on Wednesday morning is when NY finds out it’s rejected.. 2 days later for a rejection. Remember though, no news is good news! So, it’s prudent for the bank to wait another day for good measure and “just to make sure” it wasn’t going to get rejected. ACH does give banks up to 30 days to reject a transfer.\n\nACH operates on trust. It doesn’t know any balances on the sender/receiver accounts. If you put $1B there as a deposit, it will process it. It’s up to the bank to reject it.\n\nAnyway, to answer your question: it’s because we’re still using a system designed in the 70s and kept the limitations around as “features”. You know features like leaving it up to the bank whether to process deposits or withdrawals first.",
"Where I live online Banking is instantaneous, regardless of day or time. I can transfer funds from one bank to another in seconds, until, that is, I have to deal with the United States. The problem is with the US, not banking per se.",
"Because most banks and institutions are tied to legacy technology which are not optimized for online (real time) accounting and reconciliation.",
"Oh! I know something about this with respect to banking specifically! The front-end and back-end of these systems are actually different systems and probably out of date. Say you withdraw money at 10:00am, another person withdraws money at 2pm, and a last person deposits money at 3:30pm, the front end would store those transactions until they were all “posted” to the bank simultaneously. Since that second process isn’t continuous, they don’t happen right away/transactions aren’t instantaneous."
]
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7u1gyh | why does touching a room temperature object stop pain from a brunch? | Might be the wrong flair.
Background: Burned my index and middle finger to the point of blisters and it stops the pain to touch this wooden table I'm at
Edit: Burn on title, not brunch | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7u1gyh/eli5_why_does_touching_a_room_temperature_object/ | {
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"So after you burn your skin, the burned spot and surrounding tissue remains hotter even after you have removed it from the heat source. This will result in the burn being larger than just the spot that contacted the hot surface. First aid for a 1st/2nd degree burn is always to cool the area as quickly as possible. Running the effected area under cold tap water for > 10 minutes helps to cool the surrounding skin and reduce additional damage, as well as reduce pain. Pressing it against the cooler table probably had an similar effect, my guess is that a room temperature metal table would have had an even greater effect as it would have pulled heat out of the blister even faster. Keep the cold water trick in mind for the future, it will reduce the size of the blister and allow you to heal more quickly. (just don't use ice as this can cause further damage to already injured skin)"
]
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58rj05 | are vitamin pills beneficial for us to take, or are they a complete waste of money? is eating healthy food the only real way to absorb nutrients? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/58rj05/eli5_are_vitamin_pills_beneficial_for_us_to_take/ | {
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"Realistically, if you eat a normal, healthy diet, you don't need multivitamins. But they're also probably not going to hurt you.",
"Only if your body had a need for them. If you are not getting enough of certain vitamins from your food, pills can help cover the deficit. If you are getting enough from your food, the extra doesn't help in anyway as you body just flushes it away with your waste. \n\nThe only person that can tell you is your doctor. Go for a full checkup and he can recommend what, if any at all you might need. ",
"Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble, meaning that they dissolve in fat, rather than water. This means they tend to hang around in the body for a while. A large overdose of these vitamins can be dangerous, especially a chronic overdose since it will build up in your system (this is called hypervitaminosis), but what's in a single daily multivitamin dose isn't likely to hurt you.\n\nThe B vitamins, and vitamin C, are water soluble, and tend to flush out of the system quickly. These reek a bit if you take way too much, but again what's in a single daily multivitamin isn't going to hurt you.\n\nEach of the vitamins does something specific, and can cause illness if you don't get enough of it. But this is unlikely; you can get what's needed by eating normally and healthy. An excess of vitamins doesn't really help, the vitamin C controversy notwithstanding.\n\nThere are a plethora of other minerals that are on the market. Iron, folic acid, omega-3 pills, calcium, the list goes on and on. But really, the only reason to take these is if your doctor tells you that you're deficient in something.\n\nTL;DR: They're probably not going to hurt you but there's not really a need to take them unless you're deficient.",
"They can help plug gaps if you're diet is bad but as a whole supplements just create super expensive urine.",
"I'd say the most applicably useful vitamin supplement is Vitamin D, for night owls / shut ins / people who live in far north, especially in winter.\n\nBesides that, a normal diet should cover you just fine. ",
"Folic acid supplements are recommended for women of child-bearing age, and probiotics are great for any digestive issue so there are some specific needs. It's best to get nutrients from foods in your diet, but vitamins are preferable to being deficient. ",
"They don't do any harm in taking them. However there often is no need either. If you eat veggies , fruit, meat, dairy etc on a very regular basis you should need them. If you do not eat those things frequently is possibly beneficial. They're best thought of as a fail safe. \n\nSide note. Most of the positive effects they state in the ads are basically bullshit. They're comparing people who are malnourished and starved to healthy people with that vitamin. \n",
"Well, one thing you have to realize is that it's not quite enough to just eat a variety of healthy food. Our soils are depleted in nutrients, and that affects us. When we feed cattle corn and soy instead of grass, that affects us too. So there are certain things you want to supplement with, like Vitamin A, D, C, K2 and Magnesium. A multivitamin may have some of that but probably not enough. Cod Liver Oil is a better supplement for Vitamin A & D. Vitamin K2 wouldn't be in a multivitamin normally. And a multivation generally only has about 100mg of Magnesium."
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3mpv9r | what happens if i run a humidifier in a room with 100% humidity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mpv9r/eli5_what_happens_if_i_run_a_humidifier_in_a_room/ | {
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"Removed as not ELI5 material. See [Rule 2.](_URL_0_)\n\nELI5 isn't for everything; this post may do better in a different subreddit like /r/answers.\n\nYou just get water droplets all over the room."
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3ocju7 | since they say splenda is 600 times sweeter than sugar, why do we not use 600 times less splenda? | Also on the back of the packet/box/bag, it says "measures cup for cup like sugar" but why is that we use so much of it when, technically, we only need to use a little bit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ocju7/eli5_since_they_say_splenda_is_600_times_sweeter/ | {
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"It's not pure Splenda. They use what is known as a bulking agent. It's similar to how you hear about people cutting drugs with baking soda or whatever. ",
"Because it is not pure Splenda, they add some tasteless stuff to make it more similar to sugar.\nI have some pure Splenda at home, an it is really, really sweet. Like, 600 times sweeter than sugar.",
"The bulking agent, dextrose and maltodextrose, is mixed with sucralose. There is 2000 pounds of the bulking agent to 20 pounds of sucralose. The stuff is nasty straight. ",
"pure sucralose user here. _URL_0_ I use 0.1g per liter of ice tea, which compares to 40.0g of table sugar to sweeten the same way. so the actual multiple is closer to 400 times sweeter than sugar, not 600. despite what others here say, 100% pure sucralose use is practical if you sweeten in bulk ( I brew 10L of tea at a time each weekend) with lab spoons, or prepare a sucralose+water solution that you later dispense by drops _URL_1_ this product markets as 800 1g splenda equivilant (teaspoon of sugar) when actually it's closer to half that - marketing likes to be optimistic. *since sucralose is now off patent, it's mostly made generically in china - which MAY be why it's slightly less potent than when it was first introduced 30 years ago.*"
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2fi7p7 | are there different 'degrees' of psychopathy (sociopathy)? | Can a psychopath have "some" empathy? Is a person lacking empathy automatically considered a psychopath? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fi7p7/eli5_are_there_different_degrees_of_psychopathy/ | {
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"Yes. Most psychological or neurological disorders are on a spectrum, for example autism and dyslexia. Psychopathy is no exception. ",
"That . . . sort of . . . depends on what you mean.\n\nFor one thing, the terms sociopath and psychopath are sort of frowned upon in psychology today. The term anti-social personality disorder is usually used instead as it is considered more accurate. But that's really neither here nor there.\n\nThe idea that people who have anti-social personality disorder lack empathy is sort of misleading. You probably have met a few people in your life who would be considered psychopaths if they went in for a battery of testing. More than likely they don't know it either. Why not? Because they've always been this way. How can they tell there is something different?\n\nThey may have \"empathy\" in the sense that they like people. They may be sympathetic when you are hurt. They may help you out. They may be honest and good people. They may even care about their friends and family. That's not the definition of empathy we're talking about.\n\nIn this case empathy is more like the way people actively try to guess what other people are thinking and feeling. That feeling of being in the spotlight where you worry that people are staring at you and judging you is part of it. If you don't wear nice looking clothes what will people be whispering behind my back? That thought doesn't even enter a psychopath's head. If he or she wears nice clothes it's because he or she likes them. Other people's opinions don't really register as something to be concerned about. I don't even mean they are aloof or arrogant. It's just not something they think about.\n\nPsychopaths can be very charming people. Because they aren't actively worrying whether or not people may hate them, they are often more relaxed in social situations. \n\nPsychopaths are also great at jobs like being an investor. You want a psychopath as your financial adviser. You hire him to make you money. He's not going to doubt himself and wonder if any wrong move will send a stranger into the poor house. \n\nPsychopaths can be excellent surgeons. There is a lot of risk in a lot of surgeries. Do you want the guy who goes in and gets the job done or the guy who is a nervous wreck because he can't stand the pressure of knowing one mistake might kill you?\n\nSo, yes, there are people with greater or lesser degrees of this personality type. In fact, there is a neuroscientist named James Fallon who did brain scans of killers and discovered areas of the brain that showed low activity on PET scans that were strongly linked to pathological behavior. The more of these areas that received low activity the stronger the anti-social personality disorder.\n\nIn a strange twist of irony, he had another test going at the same time with PET scans to look for anatomical differences for people who might be susceptible for Alzheimer's. He used his own family for part of those. He found a scan that was clearly for someone who showed really low activity in those areas, someone who was clearly a psychopath, and thought the scans had gotten mixed up. No, it was actually his own PET scan. That's how he found out he was really a psychopath.\n\nYou can read more about it [here](_URL_0_) if you like.\n\nSo, yes, there are degrees of psychopathy. But that doesn't necessarily correlate to criminal behavior or even being an unkind person. So you have to be very careful what you mean by \"lack of empathy.\" People can be jerks and not care about you and not be a classic psychopath. Other people can be your best friend and will do anything for you if you ask and still technically meet the definition."
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5mg9sp | why does giving babies peanuts earlier on decrease the risk of them developping peanut allergy? | I was reading a BBC article suggesting that babies should be given peanuts earlier and I was wondering why exactly this is beneficial. When do allergies develop- do they start in the womb or are they triggered by the surroundings? Or does coming into the contact with peanuts earlier on act like a vaccine sort of thing?
Sources
_URL_0_
_URL_1_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mg9sp/eli5why_does_giving_babies_peanuts_earlier_on/ | {
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"Parent of a peanut allergic kid here.\n\nUnfortunately science doesn't know yet the exact mechanisms that lead someone to develop a peanut allergy, except that certain genetic factors predispose one to allergies, asthma, and eczema (this is called atopy)\n\nFor many years the medical wisdom was that early exposure before the immune system matured could cause children to develop food allergies (since an allergy is essentially a malfunction of the immune system recognizing something safe as a risk). So by delaying introducing common allergens until 2-3 years old, you'd supposedly avoid allergies caused by doing this too early and instead waited until your immune system was trained and \"smarter\" to recognize a real hazard from an everyday food. \n\nEventually scientists noticed that this isn't true globally. For instance, in Israel few people consume peanut butter but everyone eats a peanut snack called Bamba from a very early age, yet peanut allergies are less common than in the US even among American jews who are genetically similar. \n\nAfter doing a series of studies where some babies had early introduction and other babies had the late introduction, it turned out that those with the early introduction were less likely to eventually develop an allergy. This was statistically significant, which means that some babies still had a bad early reaction, and this was more likely if you had high risk factors like family history. \n\nI don't believe there is yet a proof of the cause of this preventive measure and whether it acts like a vaccine, but the difference was significant enough that the recommendations were effectively reversed. \n\n"
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"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38518185",
"https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/04/early-introduction-peanuts-eggs-cuts-allergy-risk-eat-study"
] | [
[]
] | |
41v7xh | what are the arguments for state controlled liquor stores? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41v7xh/eli5_what_are_the_arguments_for_state_controlled/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Here is a good discussion from a month ago that you might find helpful : _URL_0_",
"Higher Taxation for a controlled / luxury item allows for higher tax distribution to harder to fund areas. For instance here in Colorado, we tax the hell out of Pot - I think its close to 20%. But as a result that excise tax goes to schools and (ironically) drug prevention programs. \n\nas the demand curve shows in basic economics as prices increase demand will decrease. So if you want your citizens to drink less you can increase the price via excise taxes and they will drink less. Though Here in America you may see riots if a price of a beer goes from $5 to $50. \n\nLastly, state controlled liquor Stores allow stipening to exists. So again if the goal is to make a community drink less they may impose a limit on how much you may buy at once. Again, here in colorado, we are limited to an ounce at a time of pot. You can also monitor the after market / black market way more effectively by tracking serial numbers, and GPS tags to see where your product is going. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wduzr/eli5_why_does_pennsylvania_have_staterun_liquor/?ref=search_posts"
],
[]
] | ||
5arr8g | tv licensing in the uk | TIL that this was a thing by seeing a video on Youtube of people denying access to their property to TV License people. How does this work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5arr8g/eli5_tv_licensing_in_the_uk/ | {
"a_id": [
"d9irmwl",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The law in the UK says anybody who has a television used to receive broadcast TV signals has to purchase a TV licence. The money from this licence goes to the BBC, to pay for its services.\n\nThe idea is that this means the BBC is publicly-funded, so it doesn't need to show commercials (in fact it's banned from showing commercials in the UK). This means that it should never be beholden to any specific advertiser's cash and therefore will be more independent.\n\nThe funding model via the licence also means that although it receives public money, it's not directly reliant on the government for its budget. So the idea is, the BBC should not only be independent of pressure from advertisers, it should also be independent of pressure from government, which is unlike the state-funded broadcasters of many other countries.\n\nBasically the whole idea is to allow the BBC to be a completely independent broadcaster so that it can concentrate on producing high-quality and factually-accurate programmes.",
"As the others have explained, It's to fund the BBC. \nUK law has a legislation (Communications Act) that makes it an offence to have TV receiving equipment installed or Have equipment with the intent to install without a licence. \n\nSo, Now you have the interpretation - If I have a TV and an aerial (Antenna), It is reasonable to assume that I am intending to watch TV. \nIf I have a TV that's setup, but not plugged into the aerial socket, There may still be grounds to believe I intend to watch TV - As all it would take is a simple cable. \nNow comes the complicated bit - If my TV is set up, but I have put a blanking plate over the aerial socket, in theory I should not need a licence. (For instance I use it for a DVD player) \nIf I don't own a TV but my aerial socket is available, In theory I should not need a licence. \n\nNow, because it is legislation, a Justice can grant a search warrant if there is reasonable belief that you are watching TV without a licence. Reasonable belief is that you have an aerial attached to your house. \nThe waters are further muddied by the Internet. Technically, you can watch BBC live online, so from September this year, it is an offence to watch or download shows from BBC without a licence. \nThis is so hard to police. I have a computer, but I don't think I've ever gone on BBCs iplayer and balls am I showing an enforcement person my browser history OR surrendering my computer for examination.\n\nThe Youtube videos are largely people who either simply haven't paid for their licence, don't want a stranger snooping around their house because they turn up in in a white van with no warrant, protest to the licence, or simply protest to people coming onto their property. \n \nThere is a part of the legislation that states it is an offence to obstruct this person in their duties to examine your crib - IF they have a warrant. Even then, it is a reasonable request to have police present. \nThe issue with this, is that the TV Licence enforcement tend to be heavy-handed, threatening and intimidating so that they don't need to go through the effort of getting a warrant.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
561sb5 | why is the media talking about a third world war? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/561sb5/eli5_why_is_the_media_talking_about_a_third_world/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8fk2b4"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"What media?\n\nWhoever it is, the answer for \"Why is the media doing X\" is always \"Because X gets viewers/readers and thus sells more ads.\""
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
22sshw | why can't i learn college courses on my own and be as accredited as a college graduate? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22sshw/eli5_why_cant_i_learn_college_courses_on_my_own/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgq0ikz"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Because your post isn't asking a simplified conceptual explanation, but rather for an answer, it has been removed. \n\nYou should try /r/answers, /r/askreddit or even one of the more specialized answers subreddits like /r/askhistorians, /r/askscience or others too numerous and varied to mention. \n\nRest assured this doesn't make your question *bad*, it just makes it more appropriate for another subreddit. Good luck! "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
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