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a42a4n | what is the difference between cbt and dbt therapies? | I'm trying to understand how they're different from one another, because from my limited understanding DBT seems like CBT+. And that seems inaccurate. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a42a4n/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_cbt_and_dbt/ | {
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"DBT is a specific section of CBT. \n\nDBT emphasizes how someone (yourself usually) reacts or acts in certain situations. Such as if someone says something bad to you, how do you take it. Or if someone says something simple, how or why does your mind take it to the extreme. Like a boss will say \"hey lets chat today\" and odds are they want to follow up or something, but why does your brain take it to the extreme of probably getting fired and everything is ruined. If that makes sense. \n\n[Here's a site](_URL_0_) that has a bit more explanation \n\nI'm not a psychologist or therapist BTW, but going through a DBT class actually and CBT with my individual therapist. I find it helpful and sometimes very difficult to dive in to every emotion, but it has definitely been helping. ",
"CBT = cognitive behavioral therapy. The idea is that how we think about situations affects how we handle them. CBT therapists teach strategies for how to shift your thinking so that you choose different actions that get better outcomes.\n\nDBT = dialectical behavioral therapy. It's a form of CBT developed for people with borderline personality disorder that's helpful for anyone with severe emotional imbalance. It specifically incorporates mindfulness (to help the person improve their ability to be grounded in the moment) with strategies for balancing acceptance of 'what is' with the ability to make changes."
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8sg1yw | why weren't the twin towers of the world trade center rebuilt after 9/11? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8sg1yw/eli5_why_werent_the_twin_towers_of_the_world/ | {
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"Maybe because if they rebuilt it it's like they're not acknowledging that people died. And they're just forgetting about it.\nEdit: no snark I don't know so that's why I said maybe."
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5p4k1u | why do we hear a high pitched whistle in our ears after a really loud noise? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5p4k1u/eli5why_do_we_hear_a_high_pitched_whistle_in_our/ | {
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"The condition is called tinitus, and, to my knowledge, is caused by distrubances to the inner ear bones, membranes, and/or hairs."
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6kuvou | how does cooking something cause it to gain more carbohydrates? | I heard this from a coworker, and I wanted to hear why. If it is wrong, please correct me but I'm rather curious! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kuvou/eli5_how_does_cooking_something_cause_it_to_gain/ | {
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"Fiber in foods represents inaccessible carbohydrates because your body can't break fiber down. However, when you cook fiber it can sometimes break down in the cooking process into something your body actually can use, and therefore increase the carbohydrates your body takes from the food. "
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7ddzqf | when you are holding in a pee, why does it feel unbearable at times and then 45 seconds later it's subsided? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ddzqf/eli5_when_you_are_holding_in_a_pee_why_does_it/ | {
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"Basically, your bladder stretches relieving the immediate urge to run to the bathroom or find a bush. You likely still feel some sort of discomfort but comparably, it's no big deal.",
"You have two sets of muscles that control the flow of urine out of your bladder- internal and external. The internal urethral sphincter stops the leakage of urine from the bladder. As the bladder stretches, signals are sent to the brain to let you determine if it is an appropriate time to empty your bladder. \n\nIf it is, you voluntarily allow the external urethral sphincter to open and you'll pee. If it's not a good time to go, then your brain overrides the stretch receptors for a while and tells them to calm down for a bit. The process is repeated as the bladder expands. \n\nIf you wait too long, eventually you'll have no control over the external muscles and you'll pee no matter what. Or, worst case scenario, your bladder can burst if there is a blockage preventing the release of urine.",
"You have different sets of muscles that help empty your bladder. One is controlled autonomically (I️.e. you can’t control it voluntarily.) When your bladder distends, your parasympathetic nervous system sends a signal to the muscles in your bladder to contract and internal urethral sphincter to relax. Your nervous system will keep periodically sending these signals until you willfully relax your external urethral sphincter or the pressure in your bladder forces open that sphincter (you pee your pants).",
"Your bladder has a layer of muscle that helps it empty. When your bladder fills up, this muscle is more likely to squeeze, which is helpful when you’re trying to pee. Sometimes it squeezes while you’re still holding on to your urine, and this can feel uncomfortable or even painful. This muscle contraction stops after a few seconds.\n\nSome people have this bladder squeezing problem at all hours of the day, not just when they are full of urine, and are generally pretty miserable as a result.\n\nSource: am a urologist.",
"The smooth muscle in your bladder has what is called the 'stretch-relaxation response'. Initially a special area at the base of your bladder is stimulated, causing the need to pee. Then the bladder will self expand outwards to decrease pressure by increasing its volume, meaning the sensitive area is stimulated less, and the need to pee subsides. \n\nSource: medical student",
"Hmm ELI5... Ok so your bladder can sense when it's full (baroreceptors). When your bladder is full, it signals to the brain, \"hey time to empty.\" That's when you feel the sense to pee, and can be uncomfortable. However, the brain, knowing it's uncomfortable, turns off those signals, until more pressure is sensed in the bladder. \n\nBaroreceptors are also what is known as a phasic receptor. Think of when you walk into taco bell and you immediately smell that familiar scent. Well after a few minutes you don't smell it anymore, right? This is your central nervous system adapting to change and turns those receptors off so that you aren't constantly bombarded with smells. Same thing applies to your bladder. Until more waste finds it's way into your bladder, your CNS will shut off those \"urges to pee\". That's why it tends to happen in waves of uncomfortability. \n\nI hope I made this easy. Neurophysiology can get kind of tough."
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6odwtv | when in a coma, are you also receiving the effects of sleep? if so, why? | I suppose another way of asking is when you come out of a coma are you well rested or can you feel sleepy still? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6odwtv/eli5_when_in_a_coma_are_you_also_receiving_the/ | {
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"Depends on the level of coma you are in but generally no you dont.\n\nSleep is a complicated systemic thing, for starters the brain rewires itself during sleep, actively, via dreaming and other neurochemical process. When you are in a coma your brain is injured so it doesnt do that.\n\nBut again there are several levels of being comatose, do you have muscle tone? Is the stem affected? Is the pituitary and hypophysis affected? Etc etc.\n\nFor example sleep causes human growth hormone secretion which a comatose state would not."
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1pvl6i | electricity - how does it work? how is it paid for? | What is a volt and what does it do for say a light bulb or electric motor? What are amps? Why is 3 phase power used versus single phase in situations? What does the electric company charge me for? Watts? Amps?
I sell large electric driven pieces of equipment , but i couldn't start to get technical with a customer about the power usage and cost. Please help explain this so that I don't sound like a complete idiot. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pvl6i/electricity_how_does_it_work_how_is_it_paid_for/ | {
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"If you imagine the flow of electricity through a wire as the flow of water through a pipe, Volts would be roughly equivalent to the water pressure, and amps would be the rate of flow (e.g. liters per second). Or in internet terms, Amps would be bandwidth while Volts would be latency. A nice little fact to know: Volts don't kill you, it's the Amps that can kill...\nA Watt is a measure of how much work electricity can do per unit of time. Things that are power hungry use require more power, and use more Watts.\n\nElectic companies don't charge you for Amps, Volts or Watts, they charge by the Whatt-hour, which means how many watts you used multiplied by how much time you used it for.\n\n\n",
"Power is measured in Watts. But that is just how much power you are using at some instant, not over time. So the power company charges for KiloWatt-Hours, or how many kilowatts were used over a period of time. You can use 1 KW for 2 hours, or 2KW for 1 hour, and the charge is the same (so long as they don't have a surcharge for peak power usage or a price break for low power usage). All other things being equal, a piece of equipment that uses 500W is cheaper to run than one that uses 1000 W. \n \nFor DC current (power supplied at a constant voltage) the power (in Watts) is just Voltage x Amperage (current). But most equipment uses [AC](_URL_0_) (power that constantly changes voltage) so the calculation is a bit more complicated. But you really don't have to worry about that. You care about Watts. \n \nSince AC uses a voltage that is constantly changing, the amount of power at any instant is changing, too. [3-phase power](_URL_1_) transmits multiple sine waves at the same time (using multiple wires), which evens out the power transfer. It also helps to run very efficient electric motors, so it is useful for things with heavy-duty motors. \n \n"
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7vf6te | how does traction control and abs help you when driving in the snow? | I'm not entirely sure of the difference between the two and how they work. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7vf6te/eli5_how_does_traction_control_and_abs_help_you/ | {
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"Traction control controls how much force is applied to each individual wheel, helping keep stable in curves (where wheels have different speeds) and wherever one or more wheels are off the ground.\n\nABS servers simply to \"vibrate\" the breaks, breaking and letting go of them about 10 times a second to prevent the wheel from locking (which essentially turns it into a ski)\n\nEdit: numbers",
"Traction control prevents your wheels from spinning too much, and just sliding over the snow. It can tell if the wheel is spinning more quickly than it should be, and can reduce power to it. \n\nAnti lock brakes prevent the wheels from \"locking up\" when you brake, which is when the brakes stop the wheels entirely but since snow is slippery the car keeps moving. It does this by activating and deactivating the brake very quickly.",
"ABS releases and reapplies the brakes rapidly to prevent/minimize skidding (tires work better if not skidding, so it makes you stop shorter).\n\nTraction control usually does two things. It cuts the throttle when acceleration causes skidding (again, tires work better when not sliding, so it improves performance). It will also typically independently apply brakes to prevent spinning (if your front tires are sliding you can't steer, if you're sliding sideways the brakes and gas are both unable to point the car forwards). Traction control will typically apply brakes on one side or on opposite corners to steer the car while letting off the gas, typically keeping the car pointing when you're steering, even without if you're going so fast that the back starts to fishtail away from you."
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bhf7if | what is it about apple cider vinegar that makes it useful in so many different applications? | It can do everything from clean your house to whiten your teeth. What makes it such a powerful cure-all? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bhf7if/eli5_what_is_it_about_apple_cider_vinegar_that/ | {
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"it is a pretty good acid that is strong but not strong enough to be harmful at normal quantities and concentrations",
"Acetic acid and malic acid formed from a second fermentation of alcoholic cider. First cultures are added to cider to ferment the sugars into ethanol, then the next fermentation turns the alcohol into acid. And marketing probably helps it have so many uses.\n\nWait a minute... you work for the vinegar companies, don't you?!"
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1rfxih | why can't i highlight phrases when i'm typing that are capitalized and un-capitalize them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rfxih/eli5why_cant_i_highlight_phrases_when_im_typing/ | {
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"It just isn't a common enough problem for it to be programmed in as a function. It is certainly easily done, but most people just pay attention to what they write."
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a59ray | why do biscuits go stale when they're left out of the packaging, but not when left covered in the packaging once open? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a59ray/eli5_why_do_biscuits_go_stale_when_theyre_left/ | {
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"Theres a certain amount of water in the biscuit. Leaving it exposed to an abundance of open air makes the water leave(evaporate) at a quick rate, drying out the biscuit, making it stale and dry. \n\nBeing somewhat sealed reduces the amount of air the biscuit is exposed to, and that greatly reduces the amount of water that can escape from the biscuit.\n\nOver time, the biscuit will still lose its water content and become stale even when somewhat sealed, the process just takes a lot longer."
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12uw6c | why rich people don't just quit and spend their life in retirement? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/12uw6c/eli5_why_rich_people_dont_just_quit_and_spend/ | {
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"Some of them just really enjoy their jobs, or are at least passionate about them. They just want to keep doing it as long as they can because they find it fulfilling. \n \nOthers are workaholics - they may hate what they do but they have the mindset that they have to keep doing it or they are failures. \n \nAnd some people simply want something to occupy themselves. People can get *really* bored when they retire, and staying at work staves that off.",
"Because what made them rich is also the thing that doesn't allow them to stop and retire easily. Most self made rich people have traits that make them strive to achieve more and do better. These aren't the type of people that like to sit down and they do genuinely like working towards making more money, not because they need if for survival like us but because its a constantly changing challenge that they can conqueror. ",
"While that may sound fun to you it would get old quick. People like to be needed for something, to do something, to have purpose. So even those who might not need to still want to work for something its just a really basic need. ",
" > Because what made them rich is also the thing that doesn't allow them to stop and retire easily. Most self made rich people have traits that make them strive to achieve more and do better. \n\nAdding onto what mxrulez731 said, many of those who are self made also don't want to abandon their companies, projects, or whatever made them money. Think about a project you worked really hard on and got praised for. It was tough to see it end, right? Now think about if that project was ongoing for years or decades and made you money. When my uncle received an enormous offer to sell his financial brokerage house he turned it down. I asked why he would reject such an enormous offer, he basically said it's like selling your kids away. You raised it, you watched it grow, and it was great to you in return. He built his life around it and that's all he knew.",
"Here's my personal take, as someone who's not rich, but who could retire right now and live comfortably, but not lavishly, for the rest of my days.\n\nI like my job as a software architect. I get to use my brain, I get to solve hard problems, and I get to make a positive impact on millions of peoples' lives. It's *fun* to take on big challenges and see them through until the end. I really enjoy it.\n\nCertainly there are the bad parts of my job, and it's not always fun all the time. And yes, there are times when I wish I could take a few more weeks of vacation. But overall, I don't need the free time that retirement would give me - I'm enjoying what I do right now.",
"They may not be able to retire and maintain the lifestyle they are accustomed to. ",
"Some people are driven to get respect, and a great field arena to pursue that goal when you have a billion dollars backing you up is business. (Donald Trump, big miss :-) ) Speaking of Trump, this is also why so many wealthy people go into politics...I tend to think it's more about ego than actually making a difference.\n\nOthers are driven by the desire to make the world a better place for everyone. If you give that person a billion dollars, they'll just start looking at more ways to change things they think are wrong. (Bill Gates, arguably Larry Page & Sergey Brin)\n\nThere are also folks that just want to take it easy. These are playboys ( < – gender neutral sense of the term).\n\nMost rich folks are a mixture of all three, but tend to skew one way or another.\n\nAlso, you have to moderate what you mean by \"rich\". For you, maybe someone with a million dollars is \"rich\". But if you drop this person in the middle of the San Francisco Bay Area, it's extremely easy to buy a fairly modest house with that money as a downpayment, and you'll still have a mortgage payment due the next month, and you'll still have to go to work the next day.\n\nIn the largest cities in the world, you could drop $10M in a person's bank account tomorrow and that person wouldn't be able to retire if they want security in their old age. When you have a lot of money, it's actually not that easy to keep a low \"burn rate\" (this is your average monthly net outgo).\n\nI was once talking to a really wealthy guy (~$150M net worth, I guessed), and he told me the math sort of changes when you hit a certain point of wealth. It becomes really easy to spend money stupidly and have nothing to show for it, and there's an entire industry dedicated to making these people feel powerful while you're spending on an experience.\n\nIt also becomes hard to spend money, in another sense. When you or I go out and buy a watch, we might buy a very nice Seiko for $300. In 10 years, that watch might stop and we're out $300. If you have $150M in the bank, you might go out and buy an $8k Omega instead. This isn't a quartz watch, it's automatic so it doesn't just stop...if it does, you get it repaired. In 10 years, that same watch might be worth $10k. If you get tired of it, you sell it and get your money out of it (minus repairs). If you or I buy a piece of art and hang it on the wall, we might spend $1k on a painting. If a really wealthy guy buys a Matisse, he stands to gain just as much as he might lose. You can be sure that all of these things definitely *cost* money–a lot of money–because you have to insure a Matisse, erect a special showcase that protects it from damage, etc. But if you bought that painting for $1M, you might spend a few thousand a year maintaining it, and then sell it whenever you want. So yea, thousands of dollars a year is a lot for a painting, but it's nowhere near the $1M price tag most of us plebs see when we hear of such a purchase. The same math goes for the watch.\n\nThe trick, this fellow told me, is to be aware of when you're \"spending\" money (the first type of purchase) and when you're \"transferring\" or \"investing\" money (the second type of purchase). If you're lucky, all your big purchases of the second type appreciate and you end up breaking even on the maintenance costs. If you're not lucky, you could lose some percentage of your investment plus whatever it cost you to maintain it, but again, unlikely to be the whole amount. If you're stupid, you can burn through $100M over several years spending it on purchases of the first type (like MC Hammer, who is now destitute).\n\nSo it all depends on what you want out of life, and how much you can generate with your time to get that life. There is certainly an amount of wealth where you hit \"escape velocity\" and it actually does become hard to run out of money in a lifetime. This is what most people call \"F U\" money (yea), where almost all of your decisions from daily to life in scope are simply unconstrained in terms of money, and you'll still never need to work again for certain.\n\nEveryone has a different amount for this based on the life they want, but to figure out what it is, take the interest rate for a conservative investment (these days probably ~4%) and then figure out how much principle you need to generate that much interest every year. For instance, let's say you want to spend $10k/day, or roughly $4M/year. To generate this much money, you need $100M in an account bearing 4% interest. (Of course, inflation will make $100M worth less every year, so you have to keep bumping that number up to keep it the same real value.)\n\nAnyway, an interesting diversion from your question, I hope."
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5funaq | how do doctors and nurses handle menstruating patients? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5funaq/eli5_how_do_doctors_and_nurses_handle/ | {
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"As a ICU RN, I have had female patients in various of consciousness, who are having their menses. Just as we would bathe and clean any patient, we would clean her up and place a pad on her. Naturally, when possible, which is almost 100% of the time, a female RN will clean up the genital area of these ladies to avoid embarrassment or distress of the patients and their families, and we give them as much privacy as possible.",
"Whether they check on arrival depends on the patient's abilities. If they are oriented and able to care for themselves, a simple \"when was your last period\" is asked during the admission assessment. Typically patients who are on their period will take care of themselves, but we do offer free pads and underwear, should they need them. \n\nWith patients who are unresponsive or unable to care for themselves. A physical head-to-toe assessment is performed. If the patient has any bruises, wounds or is bleeding from anywhere, this should be noticed by the RN and charted appropriately. This assessment includes a urogenital exam where the patient's genital area is assessed (mainly for incontinence issues, but menses would be noted also). \n\nWe deal with it like we deal with every other bodily function coma patients experience. We clean them up regularly, including a bath per day (or shift) and incontinence/perineal care as needed. Patients are placed on absorbent pads so that any fluids that do come out end up in the chux pads and not the sheets, including feces, urine and blood."
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28grc1 | how are car batteries and engines related? | I know as long as I keep driving my car, the battery stays charged even though it's always powering my vehicle. But if A/C, which presumably is controlled electrically, can make your car less fuel efficient, does that mean the battery is somehow recharged by the engine? Is every car kind of like a "hybrid" in this way, even though the battery isn't powering the wheels directly? How does this work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28grc1/eli5_how_are_car_batteries_and_engines_related/ | {
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"The battery's primary purpose is to provide the amperage necessary to crank the starter motor and engine over. You have a high torque electric motor on the back of your engine, and that guy gets the engine spinning to start it, until the first couple cylinders begin to fire and take over from there.\n\nEver turn the key to start while the engine is running? That's the starter motor's gear grinding against the flywheel. It slides in and out of place when you start the engine.\n\nThe battery also provides energy for the fuel injection and ignition system when the car starts. And it provides energy for your electrical systems when the engine isn't running.\n\nBut the battery doesn't power the car when it's running. On the front of the engine is an accessory called an alternator, and it produces alternating current that charges the battery and powers all electric components while the engine is running.\n\nYour AC isn't electric. There is a fan in the duct work in the cabin of the car, but that's just for airflow; you can use it for heat, too, and isn't specific to the AC. Your AC is a pair of radiators, and a pump. One radiator, called the condenser, exchanges heat in the freon gas with the atmosphere. The freon is thus cooled and condenses into a liquid. It then gets pumped into the cabin, into another radiator called the expander. The liquid freon expands into a gas, and exchanges heat from the air inside the cabin. The fan blows air through the expander.\n\nThe pump is what puts extra load on your engine, losing fuel efficiency. But at highway speeds, the drag from an open window costs you more fuel than the AC.\n\nMost cars are not at all like a hybrid; a hybrid has an engine and an additional electric motor, both turn the input shaft on the transmission, and the motion gets transferred to the wheels. Hybrids switch between the gas engine and the electric motor.\n\nNormal cars use gas engines as their only source of locomotion.",
"As others have mentioned, the alternator converts mechanical energy from the engine's motion into electrical power. It's basically a generator that continuously recharges the battery from the mechanical energy of the rotating engine.\n\nThe engine works by burning fuel. There are mechanical mechanisms that bring fuel and air into a combustion chamber called a *cylinder*, then a controlled short circuit of the battery is used to create an electric spark to ignite the mixture. The explosion pushes up on a piston which forms the ceiling of the cylinder. Because of a mechanical linkage, pushing up on the piston causes the engine's main shaft to rotate faster. The shaft in turn is linked with gears to all the devices in your car that require rotation to operate -- most obviously the wheels, but also the alternator and AC pump. There are several cylinders on the engine -- the number in an engine type like V6 or V8 refers to the number of cylinders.\n\nThe mechanical design of the engine requires it to already be rotating in order for the cylinders to properly work together. That means when you're starting the engine, its initial rotation can't be created by burning fuel. Early cars required the user to vigorously turn a crank to provide the initial rotation, but later designs (continuing to modern times) added an electric motor for the purpose [1], which of course must have an electrical power source -- the car battery.\n\nThat starter motor requires a lot of current, but only for a couple seconds. Being able to provide this current is the main engineering requirement for a car battery. This is achieved by making the battery's internal lead plates thin, so a lot of them can fit in a battery with a reasonable size, weight and price. The thin plates do come with a cost, however -- an automotive battery has a shorter lifespan which is shortened further by discharges, compared to a deep-cycle battery with the same size and shape but thicker plates. (Deep-cycle batteries are preferred for powering devices, for example in applications like saving power produced by solar panels for later use when the sun isn't shining. The deep-cycle battery uses the same lead-acid chemistry, but with thicker plates [2].)\n\n[1] _URL_0_\n\n[2] _URL_1_"
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5yq7td | degrees of black belts | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yq7td/eli5_degrees_of_black_belts/ | {
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"First thing to remember is that the belt rankings are a fairly recent innovation. They were created in the late 19th century.\n\nSecond creating a new ranking or degree is no different than any other arbitrary rank. A bunch of people agree on what this ranking means and you have to pass those standards to achieve this rank. \n\nThe important thing to remember is that because people are coming up with the standards there will be people that will be able to achieve those standards as soon as they are created. You are not going to create a standard that no one can achieve, you will pick somethong that is difficult but not impossible. ",
"Note that the whole belt system only dates back to the 1880s, so it is not exactly an ancient tradition. \n\nEvery school does their own thing. Your typical strip mall McDojo will pretty much give you all the black belt degrees you want, if you stick around long enough and your checks clear each month. In other schools, it might take ten years to get your black belt to begin with.\n\nAlso, beyond black belt, it becomes less about being a \"badass\". In fact, most martial arts are less about self defense, and more of a stylized fighting sport. You'll note that UFC looks nothing like Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee. Beyond black belt, other factors, like instructing, come into play.",
"It basically has to do with experience. I'm a first Dan in Taekwondo(first degree) and I should be testing for my second at the end of the year. The black belt isn't the end of the martial arts journey, but rather the beginning. Like another poster has said, many martial arts are more sports than anything else. So between your white and black belt, you're just learning how to be a black belt. See the colour belts as educational degrees, and the black belt is graduation. While you're in school, you're learning how to work in your field. After you graduate what do you do? You work. Dans or degrees signify mostly your experience. I'm a first Dan but I have beaten third and fourth dans in competitions. A higher rank doesn't mean you're better, but rather you have a lot more experience. So those girls weren't better fighters than me, but they've probably been doing Taekwondo for their entire life! Also, degrees can show where you are as an instructor. 1-3 dan is an instructor. 3-7 master. 7+ grand master, if I remember properly. Martial arts are sports but also education. \nYes, you test for your dans. Your master decides his pre requisites.\nIf you reach the level of your master or no longer really have one, you seek testing from someone higher. Eventually, yeah you test in front of a \"council\" essentially.\nFeel free to ask any other questions.",
"I trained in Tang Soo Do for ten years and have a second degree black belt. For us, basically everything before black belt was practice, and you would test every three or six months to advance your color. Then after 4 1/2 or 5 years you can test for black belt. The degrees of black belt have names, which is your rank. 1st degree is Cho Dan, 2nd degree is E Dan, and so on. Once you make 4th degree (Sa Dan) you are considered a master (but there are still tests). You have to wait specific amounts of time between tests. After 1st degree you wait two years to test for 2nd degree, then 3 years to test for 3rd degree, and so forth. There is no end to it, theoretically, though most people end up leaving for one reason or another. Eventually there may not be many people around to teach you, so you travel to train with others your rank and higher and spend a lot of time teaching. Our highest ranking person is the man who began our style, his title is Chung Ja Nim. I don't know what belt he has, or what would happen if someone made it to where he is and wanted to go further. He's been doing it a long time though, so realistically, I don't think that will happen."
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niaha | why do people like to listen to bass? | Why is it the only thing many people care about when listening to music? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/niaha/why_do_people_like_to_listen_to_bass/ | {
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"Sometimes I like to listen to transformers having sex.",
"An interesting question, this is me thinking through it as I go: \nIt's not a range that we typically experience in day-to-day life, outside of music. We mostly get thunderous sounds during storms or when big take-notice events are happening. It also seems that most of us prefer when the things we hear have some sort of grounding or metered force. Bass is usually a very repetitive, pervasive tool in music and provides that 4/4 time measure that humans naturally look for. This allows the upper ranges to get adventurous while keeping our brains ticking at the bass' pace. \nAny noise (vibration) will act on its environment but the low frequency of bass means that it acts in a much more noticeable (sometimes visible) way. It's also omni-directional. Humans are very adept at analyzing where sounds come from (eg:surround sound). Bass sort of throws our heads a curve ball by not having a real solid origin. Our natural curiosity is probably peaked by this difference.\n\nI'd like to answer that I've experienced times when bass has an almost anesthesia-like quality. But, you'll probably want to wander over to AskScience and talk to someone with psycho-acoustics experience for an explanation of that. ",
"It also has some instinctive value behind it, as it resembles a heartbeat in techno etc, primal links and such.",
"Sometimes I like to listen to transformers having sex.",
"An interesting question, this is me thinking through it as I go: \nIt's not a range that we typically experience in day-to-day life, outside of music. We mostly get thunderous sounds during storms or when big take-notice events are happening. It also seems that most of us prefer when the things we hear have some sort of grounding or metered force. Bass is usually a very repetitive, pervasive tool in music and provides that 4/4 time measure that humans naturally look for. This allows the upper ranges to get adventurous while keeping our brains ticking at the bass' pace. \nAny noise (vibration) will act on its environment but the low frequency of bass means that it acts in a much more noticeable (sometimes visible) way. It's also omni-directional. Humans are very adept at analyzing where sounds come from (eg:surround sound). Bass sort of throws our heads a curve ball by not having a real solid origin. Our natural curiosity is probably peaked by this difference.\n\nI'd like to answer that I've experienced times when bass has an almost anesthesia-like quality. But, you'll probably want to wander over to AskScience and talk to someone with psycho-acoustics experience for an explanation of that. ",
"It also has some instinctive value behind it, as it resembles a heartbeat in techno etc, primal links and such."
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5ou9nq | how can password managers like dashlane possibly be a good idea? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ou9nq/eli5how_can_password_managers_like_dashlane/ | {
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" > Are we so confident about their encryption?\n\nYes, because it's standard encryption.\n\n > Do people trust these companies enough to believe that they don't have backdoors built in?\n\nAll of the encryption happens on your local computer, and you never send your passwords to their servers until after they've been encrypted locally. You could theoretically analyze the browser plugins that handle the encryption if you know how. Plus, the discovery of a back door would instantly kill their entire business. They'd be shooting themselves in the foot for no good reason. They'd rather have your money legally than your passwords illegally."
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24erh8 | why when its nice out my veins pop out but when its rainy/snowy or general overcast my veins seem to hide or go deeper under my skin? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24erh8/eli5_why_when_its_nice_out_my_veins_pop_out_but/ | {
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"when you're warm, your blood flow is better than when you're colder. cold makes blood vessels constrict. same with if you're lying still versus if you're lifting weights. \n\nwarmth/more blood flow = more visibility. cold/less blood flow = constriction and less visibility."
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9553x6 | i've heard that humans have traces of neanderthal dna in them. would this have any effect on appearance or behavior? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9553x6/eli5_ive_heard_that_humans_have_traces_of/ | {
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"All human beings on Earth except for Sub-Saharan African blacks have Neanderthal DNA in them, as this was discovered a few years ago--Neanderthals were seen as an advancement in human evolution",
"The research is still currently being done. But from the current conclusions show at least things like 'back hair', 'straightness of hair' and 'height' are all related to percentage of neanderthal DNA variants. \nIt also somehow affects 'odds of sneezing after eating dark chocolate'! (I personally, have slightly lower odds of sneezing) \nYou can read more about it here: [_URL_2_](_URL_2_)\n\nYou can read a white paper here if you want the full science words: [_URL_0_](_URL_1_)"
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2f2fh0 | why did they stop teaching german as a second language in highschools around the usa? | It was always French, German or Spanish. Now it seems it is only Spanish and sometimes maybe French. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f2fh0/eli5_why_did_they_stop_teaching_german_as_a/ | {
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"As budgets get cut one of the first things to go is foreign language (along with fine-arts). So the less versatile languages get cut first, so German then French. Spanish is useful because of Mexico. "
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1n2ykz | how come bands/artists leave the stage and then come back to perform an 'encore'? | Went for a concert yesterday and the band left the stage, only to return 10 minutes later and play 3 more songs. These 3 songs were amongst their most popular and everyone knew they were going to play them but why the need to leave and come back? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1n2ykz/eli5how_come_bandsartists_leave_the_stage_and/ | {
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"Artist: Hey, I gotta pee. Brb. \n\n---\n\nIt's just expected these days, and part of the act now. It *may* have been in the past that the crowd would have gotten them back to play something else (\"don't let the night end! You guys SO rock!!!\") but now, it's part of the price of the show.\n\nBut hey, you dreamers out there go on believing \"YEAH! We got 'em back out!\" is a thing.",
"It's to prepare the crowd for the end of the gig. They walk off stage, the crowd realise it's over, they come back and the crowd think 'ah just that little bit more entertainment left'.\n\nAlso because their set has *finished* it lets them play the crowds favourite song again without people feeling they're padding the set or short of material.",
"You've probably only seen this with popular bands. Remember, for a band starting out, you may not have 3 popular songs to play, or the people might not want to hear anymore of you. I have been to a couple of concerts with an actual encore that didn't seem staged (I think one was Springsteen), and the crowd does have to work for those. Did you notice after the \"encore\" most people left? \n\nI think the only concert I've been to that didn't have an encore, was Roger Waters preforming the wall. It was a full album performance, and when it was over, it was over."
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akupt6 | if all humans disappeared, would the internet still exist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/akupt6/eli5_if_all_humans_disappeared_would_the_internet/ | {
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"Not fer long, matey. Humans keep the equipment running. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [How Long would the “Internet” stay online for if every human on earth vanished? ](_URL_0_) ^(_5 comments_)\n1. [If everyone but me suddenly died, how long would the Internet stay up and running? ](_URL_6_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [If everyone suddenly died besides me, how long would the internet be up for if it all? ](_URL_5_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [If every human died simultaneously, how long would it take for the grid to go down? The web to stop working? _URL_3_ to stop being responsive? ](_URL_2_) ^(_6 comments_)\n1. [If every person in the world but me suddenly died, how long would my home continue to have electricity? ](_URL_1_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [ELI5:If humans were erased from the Earth and Earth was later discovered by aliens, would they be able to access our internet to learn about us? ](_URL_4_) ^(_11 comments_)\n"
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3cl11s | - how do the scientist control the mars rover? is there a significant delay in response? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cl11s/eli5_how_do_the_scientist_control_the_mars_rover/ | {
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"They control Curiosity via a radio signal (with about a 13 minute delay).\n\nThe rover is \"smart\" enough to be able to be given some fairly high level instructions like \"go to that location\" without being specifically told how to get there, so it's not a guy with a joystick in NASA controlling the thing. However, given the rover's slow speed and the time it takes it to run experiments, the delay isn't *too big* of a practical concern.",
"It is a modified UNIX interface taking shell commands from NASA. Delay is the speed of light. From a post, \n\n\"I'm part of the engineering operations team for the Mars Curiosity rover. When we heard about Leonard Nimoy's death, I happened to be on shift for operations and so I decided to have Curiosity execute a command that would echo a message for him:\nECHO \"SOL-0914M10:26:01.537\",\"\\'RIP Leonard Nimoy.\\'.\"\"\n\nSend a command, it gets there 10 minutes later, then 10 minutes later you have a result. So usually it is programmed for a day's mission and navigates obstacles on it's own.\n\nSource:\n_URL_0_"
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5vkftr | how many earth-like planets can aliens see in our solar system using our technology? | For example if Aliens lived on a planet around Alpha Centauri, how much would they be able to tell about our planets?
& nbsp;
Would they think the probability of life on earth and mars (and venus) are pretty much the same?
Or would they say that mars is "probably" just a rock and earth has water and atmosphere? How many of our planets could they detect? Pluto < 3 ?
Could they detect any of our signals (like radio) and know that there must be life?
& nbsp;
Edit: Assuming human-like aliens, no livin gas monsters
Edit: Thank you guys! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vkftr/eli5_how_many_earthlike_planets_can_aliens_see_in/ | {
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"On one hand, they would probably have trouble seeing Earth, since we have several gas giants on the outer edge of our solar system; most Human technologies for detecting planets has to do with gravity's effects, and having large gas giants can obscure the smaller gravity wells of the inner planets.\n\nBut, if we were a human-like alien, on an Earth-like planet, with Earth-like technologies looking at Earth's solar system from light-years away, and weren't put off by Jupiter and Saturn, they would see three earth-like planets in the habitable zone: Mars, Earth, and Venus. There's a slight possibility that their math may be inconclusive and detect a 4th planet just inside Jupiter's orbit or mis-measure Mars' size and orbit, due to the asteroid belt, but the asteroid belt doesn't have much mass (less than the moon) so it might not be an issue.\n\n",
"The answer really is 'it depends'. Assuming our level of technology, their best chance of seeing the inner planets would be if our solar system happened to be edge on for them so they could see the inner planets moving in front of the sun. (Not the case for alpha centauri unfortunately.\n\nWithout that they'd struggle to pick out the inner planets thanks to the gas giants especially jupiter. They would make detetecting earth extremely difficult. Over time and with sensitive enough measurements they'd probablynpick up on Earth and Venus at about the same time. Mars would be much harder as it's far smaller\n\nFinally, they wouldn't be able to detect our radio signals, unless we sent a deliberate transmission their way. Earths 'signal leakage' is actually quite low and reducing all the time. by the time our signals reached nearby stars you'd need enormously large and sensitive telescopes to detect them. We don't have anything nearly powerful enough."
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36w1dy | why do people say "this is very humbling" while receiving awards? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36w1dy/eli5why_do_people_say_this_is_very_humbling_while/ | {
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"They're kind of being disingenuous when they say that, because obviously winning an award is a huge ego boost. BUT usually what they're trying to say is: they have now moved up to a higher peer group, they're no longer comparing themselves to \"regular\" people but instead comparing themselves to other people that have won that award. \n\nIf you have always considered yourself a very good actor, then one day you win an Oscar, suddenly you are comparing yourself to Meryl Streep. And now, despite the award, you feel you could never really compare with the all-time greatest of that field"
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6f90c1 | what causes the ridges that grow along my fingernails, and why are some solid whilst other have gaps in them? | For a pictorial example of what I mean, it's the ridges on my ring fingernail here:
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6f90c1/eli5_what_causes_the_ridges_that_grow_along_my/ | {
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"I have that too and I thought maybe I was missing some nutrient. But, just to be safe, I asked my doctor and I got that \"it's old age related\"answer. I do think that's the standard answer for when they have no idea. So, I started taking a multiple vitamin every day and that hasn't helped either. So, maybe the doc was right. I've have read that eating gelatin will make your nails stronger, but won't help with the ridges. A light buff on them will make them less apparent though if they bother you.",
"I'm pretty sure it's genetic, I've had nails like that all my life. My dad has them too, and my grandad. My mum has beautiful smooth nails, but sadly those are not the ones I got :( I don't know why the ridges vary though with gaps etc.",
"It's from a dry nail bed. Most people over the age of 25 have them simply from washing their hands a lot throughout the day, which removes oils. Once the ridges are there the next bit of nail tends to grow with the same ridge pattern, so they don't really go away once you have them.\n\nThey aren't Beau's Lines. which are horizontal depressions in the nail that might be caused by infection or injury.",
"I've got the same thing. And some of mine have pathologically weak segments that like to tear back and split. It sucks.\n\nIt is pathological variations in the block of cells that actually produce the fingernail. If some are injured or die off, or if you get some scaring deep in there, then those \"more sparse\" segments produce less fingernail-stuff. That then looks like the thinner segments.\n\nThere isn't anything much to be done about it. I chased various theories about nutrition or moisture, but it's probably more like scar tiisue and fingerprints. You've got what you got.\n\nThe times where you get the little interruptions in a particular ridge are times when the ample cells just didn't produce as much as normal. _That_ can be a question of nutrition or exposure to environmental factors, but meh, again nothing much to do about it.\n\nNow I don't think it has anthing to do with age, but it definitely has something to do with wear and tear.\n\nI had one nail that was so problematic that I eventually dug it out. I just went after it with the scizors and plyers from my swiss army knife. Yeha, it hurt, and it was a pathological thing to do. When it started growing out oddly I did it again. Once I finally got all the nail out, it grew back better than it ever was. Still not great, but greatly improved.\n\nI DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THAT. It was circumstantially necessary and a doctor might have done it, or done it better than I did myself. But at the time it was the best solution for an odd set of reasons. And to pull it off you have to be willing to endure a good bit of pain and, frankly, digging debris out of a deep wound type self control. I was sort of desperate because the nail kept splitting back to the quick and then snagging on things. So the repeated short surprising pain for years just finally pissed me off.\n\nYech.\n\nBut anyway, the condition is quite common. So much so that people, particularly women, will use a buffing stone or emery board to smooth away the ridges. And that procedure is so common that every cosmetic counter in the modern world sells that buffing tool.\n\nBodies are just imperfect and if your nails are strong enough to survive a little smoothing you can hide this imperfection at will.\n\nVery few people _don't_ have these ridges naturally. They are not a sign of illness or anything. They just aren't pretty.",
"Hmmm. I only have them on my thumbs. Right thumb has a deep horizontal valley, left thumb has vertical ridges. Regular nails are smooth. Never notices the difference until now. "
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77tlsq | why is water always level? and how can anything be level since we live on a sphere? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77tlsq/eli5_why_is_water_always_level_and_how_can/ | {
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"On a global scale water isn’t level. Water is practically level on smaller scales. Its curvature, which does exist as we do live on a sphere (as you pointed out) isn’t significant enough to matter in any manner of practical application.\n\nSo technically it isn’t but it isn’t significant until you are on a pretty massive scale",
"Level relative to the surface of a sphere works like this:\n\n1. Start at the center of the sphere.\n2. Draw a ray from the center of the sphere to a point on the surface of the water.\n3. Measure the distance.\n4. Repeat for all points on the surface of the water.\n\nIf the distance is the same each time, it's level.\n\nWater [isn't always level](_URL_0_). Even ignoring waves, the depth of an ocean at a particular place varies due to the tides -- the moon and sun pull at the water, and that's a strong enough force to change the depth by a nontrivial degree.\n\nA useful concept here is [angle of repose](_URL_1_). The idea is: if you pour a pile of this thing, how steep are the sides of this pile? For gravel, it's like 45°. For snow, it's more like 38°. And wet, sloppy clay is only 15°.\n\nLiquid water's angle of repose is 0°.\n\nThat doesn't tell you why, though.\n\nThe biggest aspect of the angle of repose is how easily particles move past each other. Boulders don't easily move past each other, so you can assemble them into a wall. Dry sand bits can move past each other a lot better, so they have a much shallower angle of repose. And water molecules can move past each other very easily, so they have a 0° angle of repose.",
"On the ocean, which is a virtually flat surface, you can only see a few miles until the horizon. \n\n1.17 times the square root of viewing height = Distance to the horizon (nautical miles).\n\nThe higher up you go, the farther you can see. This is directly related to the earth's curvature. ",
"To answer the first part of your question: the weight of the water increases the pressure at the bottom. Water flows from high pressure to low, so it will flow away from areas where the water is thicker, until the level is even everywhere.",
"The curvature of Earth is visible at surprisingly small distances. I filmed a ship for only a few minutes and it visibly 'sank' below the horizon, minute by minute.\n_URL_0_",
"You're confusing level with flat. \"Level\" in this context means that all points on the surface have the same gravitational potential. It does not mean that the surface is flat. However the difference is so slight at human scales near the Earth's surface that we don't usually distinguish. If you're making something really big (like a runway), you definitely have to decide between flat or level.\n\nWater self levels because nature prefers the lowest energy state. If you release a drop of water in the air, it will fall to the ground. If you hold up a string with just the tip touching the ground, it will fall and pool on the ground. A mass of water has no intrinsic shape (one definition of fluid is that any mass of fluid takes the shape of its container) so the top surface will \"fall\" into the lowest energy state where no part of the surface is higher than any other.",
"Gravity makes everything level out because it pulls everything towards the center of the earth. Water isn't always level(especially not on larger scales like oceans), it just typically is so close to level that we can't see the difference. ",
"Water is almost never level but not for the reasons you seem to be thinking. Also a lot of people in this thread seem to have some problems with the difference between flat and level. \r\nA drywall is flat but it is not level, it usually approximates vertical at right angles to level. \r\nA good pool table is (relatively) both flat and level. \r\nMean sea level is level but is by no means flat. \r\nMean sea level is a mathematical construct that is the average position of the sea if you remove the effects of things like wind and waves. \r\nIt is a surface that represents the position of the sea surface due to the effects of gravitational potential. \r\nIf you have a good sized lake with similar type of terrain and rocks around and no wind or anything to disturb the water the surface will approximate a portion of a sphere. This lake is level but curved, only slightly curved but curved none the less.\r\nImagine a similar lake with a large mountain at one end and a flat sandy plain at the other. The mountain will add a very small extra gravitational pull in its direction and lift the water slightly at one end because the gravity effect will diminish over distance. This lake will be level but curved not only by the general gravity of the earth but by the more specific gravity of the nearby mountain. \r\nThe lakes are considered to be level because at any point on their surface the water surface is a right angles to the force of gravity at that point. \r\nGenerally an ocean, sea or lake is not level due to effects of wind, waves, water density etc etc but if you take a lot of measurements of the surface over a long period of time and compute an average surface it will be level. It will also be bumpy not flat.",
"The globe is a lot bigger than you are imagining it. You are seeing a tiny part of it at any given time and your eyes can not detect the curve unless you get very, very high up. Like outer-space high. \n\nSo yes, water always finds it's level. And yes, that level is curved. But you have to measure such a long distance to even detect the curve you can ignore it unless you are doing something like sailing across long distances.",
"‘Level’ - perpendicular to the centre of earth\n‘Plumb’ - parallel to the centre of the earth "
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6qnjjb | why is mordern sci-fi so predominantly dystopian? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6qnjjb/eli5why_is_mordern_scifi_so_predominantly/ | {
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"Stories in general are boring if nothing goes wrong, if there's no challenge for the protagonist to overcome - no \"hero's journey\". \n\nIt is possible to tell a typical story in a SF world, which is what Star Trek was like. But the stories in Star Trek were rarely about the United Federation of Planets itself, or the near-Utopia of Earth in the future. Where the Federation was affected at all, it was often down to an attack from aliens or a rogue element within the Federation. \n\nIn a boring Utopia where everything is going well, people do boring things. So, to make a story different and interesting, it makes sense for the very environment to be part of the challenge that the protagonist has to deal with, and that's what makes dystopias interesting.",
"That's all people can imagine for our future. Back in the days of Star Trek people all had hope that the future could be like that, now less so.",
"It isn't. Think about some of the most critically acclaimed sci-fi movies in recent years like Interstellar, Gravity, The Martian, ect. \n\nAre you thinking of all the recent Young Adult stuff like Divergent and Hunger Games? Yeah Dystopia is a great way to set something in the future and have conflict but not all Sci-fi uses it as a setting.",
"Back in the golden age of science fiction you could captivate readers with imaginings about future technology and wonders. Just \"going to an alien planet and seeing strange stuff\" was already enough of a mental thrill to make your audience fall in love. This was, to me, one of the things that really defined science fiction as its own genre. It didn't need your typical dramatic story elements or plots because it could simply rely on the pleasure of imagining ideas playing out. \n\nLike in every other art for however, the audience can only take so much of one thing. We are imagined out. \n\nNow the audience wants the more familiar fiction story elements but with a science fiction wrapper (setting, idea, etc.).\n\nAnd that means conflict. That means at the start of the story something is terribly wrong that needs to be set right by the end of the story. In science fiction the most obvious candidate for what is wrong is the technology, the science aspect.\n\nIf you have some time, watch the first episode of Star Trek TNG and then the first episode of DS9. TNG starts with this wide eyed wonder and sense of exploration and moral uprightness. We are going to go out there and do great things because we are great people!\n\nStar Trek DS9 starts on a MUCH darker note. Internal rivaly, disgust... Imagine the balls it took the writers to have the new main character DESPISE the single most well liked character in Star Trek lore (Picard). Picard invites Sisko to have tea and sisko basically tells him to pour it up his butt. Amazing stuff and it goes directly to the evolution of science fiction.",
"Surprised no one mention one of the most important reasons: Lower production costs. \n \nUsually dystopian setting are much cheaper to produce. The Original 1979 Mad Max film could made on a shoestring budget because just a few decaying buildings and abandoned roads can make a very credible dystopian setting. \nFilm makers quickly realized that and ran with it the idea. ",
"Even if the setting is futuristic, SciFi usually isn't really about the future -- it's about the present. During the 50's and 60's, invading aliens were stand-ins for communism. In the 1970s, movies like Logan's Run and Soylent Green channeled fears about overpopulation. In the 80's, cyberpunk fiction and movies like Alien and Robocop reflected anxieties about corporate exploitation. \n\nIn 2017, people are drawn to dystopian SF because, deep down, they're worried that dystopia is already here. \n"
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commh9 | why did ancient civilizations make so many damn vases? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/commh9/eli5_why_did_ancient_civilizations_make_so_many/ | {
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"Storage and transport.\n\nOnce agriculture and irrigation really took off, people needed a way to store and preserve harvest for the next year. Also imagine how hard it would be to trade items like beans in Mesoamerica without a way to move them. \n\nSome cultures also saw vaseses something you'd need to take with you in the afterlife to help you in your journey.",
"Most aren't vases, they're storage and shipping vessels for everything from oil and wine, to grains. It's like asking, \"Why did people in the 20th-21st century make so many shipping containers?!\"",
"In a time before plastic containers and mass produced glassware the best way to store and transport liquids was in pottery. There were also lots of other things made but that did not last as long after being abandoned. Pieces of a vase might be the only thing remaining of a settlement after a thousand years. There might have been lots of wooden furniture and beautiful tapestry but the only thing we have left is the pottery that were used to store the jams, wines, grain, etc.",
"the main ways to hold things before glass and plastics were pottery vases, wooden bowls, or woven baskets.\n\nmost woven and wooden materials have long since decomposed, leaving us only to find the vases.",
"I feel like in a few thousand years people will be asking \"why did people make so many plastic tupperware boxes in the past?\""
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8a4oyl | the difference between subvocalization (inner monologue) and "thinking" | I always thought that my thoughts are my inner monologue (which is basically my throat moving very slightly as I type this), actually now that I *think* of it how are my throat movement's being translated into clear words, to create my inner monologue.. Omg I just tried screaming now (through subvocalization/inner monologue) but the volume is the same, yet I'm aware that this is me shouting (internally). How come I can also change the voice of my inner monologue. I'm sorry if the questions keep piling up, its just this is really interesting for me considering I don't notice it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8a4oyl/eli5_the_difference_between_subvocalization_inner/ | {
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"They're the same thing from my understanding. I believe it's more commonly referred to as 'inner speech' when we're thinking, and 'subvocalization' when we're reading, but subvocalization is what we do whenever we hear a voice in our head, whether its reading or thinking.\n\nAuditory hallucinations actually cause movement in the larynx, too, just like thinking. Born-deaf people have a visual inner-voice. They think in images, like seeing sign-language, or visualize lips moving, instead of hearing a voice in their heads. I believe deaf people who have learned how to talk can 'hear' a voice (mimic the throat movements), and their inner voice may switch between speech and visualization depending on how they're communicating, much like bilingual people. \n\nIf reading books feels more like a movie to you, its because you're visualizing, rather than subvocalizing what you're reading. According to Wikipedia 30% of people primarily think visually, 25% primarily in words, and 45% use both."
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eeuj1z | why fog to the naked eye looks more dense to the naked eye vs looking at it through a digital camera? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eeuj1z/eli5_why_fog_to_the_naked_eye_looks_more_dense_to/ | {
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"Probably because of the digital viewfinder. You're restricting your viewpoint to a two-dimensional perspective, so you're unable to see the gradients in the depth of the fog."
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73az9p | how does google instant translate (live camera translation) work? it looks like magic to me | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/73az9p/eli5_how_does_google_instant_translate_live/ | {
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"\"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic\"\n\nThe image from the camera is put through some OCR (optical character recognition) software which identifies the text and parses it. This is passed into Google Translate to find the translation, and then it uses the size and location information from where the text was originally scanned to overlay it back onto the screen."
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fysf9n | how do 360 camera views works in vehicles? | I don't understand how a vehicle shows a video of the top of your vehicle. Is it a satellite or some random camera? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fysf9n/eli5_how_do_360_camera_views_works_in_vehicles/ | {
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"The picture of the car in the middle is basically a stock photo of a car. Then there are multiple cameras (generally at least four) with very wide fields of view installed around the car (for instance, on the side they might be on the mirrors; on the rear they'll be tucked into the trunk, etc.). \n\nSo, ultimately it's mostly a visual illusion that makes it look like it's coming from \"over\" the car, but it's really different pictures coming from *around* the car."
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1w1kqo | til that your brain can't feel pain which is why brain surgeries can be performed while someone is awake. so what causes the pain of a headache? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w1kqo/eli5_til_that_your_brain_cant_feel_pain_which_is/ | {
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"I asked this in school (pertaining to hangover headaches, not headaches in general) and was told that it was dehydration causing the tissues surrounding the brain to get parched and unhappy and painful. I went to a pretty bad school though so they could of being saying it to shut me up. I really want to know the answer though, good question. ",
"There is stuff in your head other than the brain - those things have nerves and can swell or hurt in a variety of ways, such as lack of blood flow.",
"You have other stuff in your head other than the brain, like skin, blood vessels, bone, and a membrane surrounding your brain.\n\nThis membrane can swell, and this is the reason for most of the headaches. Blood vessels also have pain nerve terminations, as has the skin and bone, of course.",
"I am not a medical student, just a physiology undergraduate but I'll try to give an answer in the ball park for you. \n\n**So** the majority of the pain in your body is caused by nocireceptors detecting an input and releasing an appropriately named transmitter known as Substance P. Within your central nervous system, you have no nocireceptors which would detect damage, just the axons of them which deliver the impulses up the spinal cord. So its correct to say that the brain cant feel pain. **HOWEVER** the central nervous system (brain/spinal cord) is surrounded by the 3 layers of meninges (pia,arachnoid,dura), a vascular network, bone, muscle, and finally skin. All of these surrounding structures DO have pain receptors. So there's still plenty of room in your head to detect pain. \n\nInterestingly, according to some random medical website,([link](_URL_0_)) there are 4 main types of headaches. They suggest the most common to be tension headaches which can be loosely considered a cramp of your face, neck, or skull muscles. Others can include inflammation (like meningitis), vascular (common cause for migraines), and the dreaded cluster headaches. Fun Fact: cluster headaches are commonly thought to be close to the worst kind of pain a human can experience, more so than migraines and even childbirth. I hope this helps in some way, and to others who know so much more than me, please pick apart everything I've said that I may learn more myself\n\nTLDR: Your brain cant feel pain, but EVERYTHING around it can, and that's why headaches hurt.",
"It's not your brain that's \"in pain\" during a headache, it's the covering around the brain that gets pulled on when your brain shrinks from dehydration (just an example of what happens when you're hungover). Brainfreeze is what happens when nerves in the roof of your mouth are exposed to cold, and trigger capillaries in your forehead to expand, causing the pain"
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20ndgw | why does china keep hacking the united states? | Very unclear to me | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20ndgw/eli5_why_does_china_keep_hacking_the_united_states/ | {
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"For exactly the same reasons that the US keeps hacking, say, China, Iran, and Russia. Practice, gaining useful intelligence, demonstrating dominance in this new arena of conflict, etc. \n\nMake no mistake about it: the US is probably better and more effective at this stuff than anyone else out there, and officials have said as much in the past. The N American media may focus on attacks on US networks, but I can guarantee you that a lot of countries are struggling very hard to keep the Pentagon out of their networks, and this isn't much reported. ",
"Imagine a school yard. 2 gangs. They both hate each other, but they can't just fight it out openly. The teachers will put them into detention. They might even lose their friends or others won't want to be near them.\n\nHow do you compete against each other to be the 'stronger' gang? You can be passive aggressive. At best, playing sports against each other, at worst, probably a few insults here and there, maybe a painful pinch or two here and there.\n\nAnother method is through spying. If I can learn some of the other gang's most embarrassing secrets. Then I can call it out in public!\n\nDid you know that he asked her out and she rejected him! What a loser he is!\n\nI can try and sneak into their locker or bag pack during lunch time and see whatever secrets they have that you can call them out on, and tease them about it. This will lower their self esteem, and others may not look at them as well as they did before.\n\nThis analogy is overly simplistic, but it's how I've seen a lot of politics since similar things happening in high school.\n\nYou also have to consider that both sides want to know what each other are thinking about constantly. Only then will you be able to try and outmaneuver the opponent in whatever field.",
"Same reason the US is hacking China."
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23mvh9 | why are solar systems and galaxies all in a pancake orbit around the most massive celestial body? | General relativity, as I read it, doesn't account for this at all. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23mvh9/eli5_why_are_solar_systems_and_galaxies_all_in_a/ | {
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"Stars are made from the collection of massive amounts of matter, and later stars will be formed from the remains of earlier stars which exploded in supernova. This means that newly born stars end up with clouds of heavier materials around them. Any slight angular momentum in the originally hugely dispersed cloud turns into angular momentum as it gets pulled in closer, just how an ice skater spins faster when pulling their arms and legs in. Objects which are not in a \"pancake\" orbit tend to be pulled into one by the gravitational interaction of the matter which is, over great periods of time.",
"Solar system used to be a big spherical accumulation of gas and rocks. Then it started spinning a bit. Top and bottom of the sphere collapsed, while the 'flat' plane started spinning faster and faster as it collapsed towards the middle, until it reached speeds fast enough to orbit. \n\nHere's a [video](_URL_0_). Notice how weights spin faster the closer they 'fall' into centre. \n\nThink of it like spinning a pizza dough. You start with a spherical piece, and it gets squashed as it spins.",
"So you have gravity pulling stuff in towards the center of the body, which causes an increase in angular momentum(think how an ice skater spins faster by pulling in their arms). This causes everything to spin about in some plane. Because the stuff above and below this plane isn't spinning as much, it is free to fall in due to gravity. However, the stuff in the plane is prevented from falling in due to it's inertia, from it's angular momentum. Thus you get flat disks of objects all spinning in the same direction.\n\n[StarTalk Radio](_URL_0_) gives a nice simple explanation.\n\n[MinutePhysics](_URL_1_) gives a more in-depth explanation with neat animations.",
"I believe this video will answer you better than everyone else.\n\n_URL_0_"
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6f3q18 | at the airport, the airport cops swab you with pieces of paper and then put in a machine. what does the machine check for? how common are false positives and what do they usually come from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6f3q18/eli5at_the_airport_the_airport_cops_swab_you_with/ | {
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"The machine checks for explosives residue. False positives are fairly common and usually caused by handling explosives or chemicals that can form explosive compounds. There are lots of fairly common agricultural/industrial chemicals that can be used to cook up explosives but also have other totally legitimate uses.",
"I can't speak to how the machines work aside from this example (very rudimentary).\n\nLet's say you have gun powder, or TATP or some other homemade explosive(HME) residue on your hands, clothes etc. The swabs pick that up, and they're ran through the machine. The machine throws in ions, or whatever else that react to the ions or bonds that are on the swab and then that mixture is sucked out and interpreted based on the bonds. Results come out in a graph and the machine displays the results. It is possible that some other compounds will pop positive for HMEs, sanitizer, lotions, grease etc.\n\nFalse positives can be common based on the machine and when it was calibrated last.\n\nSource: I'm an EOD tech that responds to positive results.",
"A big thing they test for is excess nitrogen.\n\nThe most common explosives have a large nitrogen component.\n\nGunpowder has KNO3, TNT is tri nitro toluene.",
"These machines are mostly ion-mobility spectrometers (IMS). The swab sample (solid or liquid) is ionized, coming up off the swab and into the air (as a gas). Ions are electrostatically pulled down a drift tube, which has an electric field (mobility source pulling the ions) and a detector. \n\nThe detector records the time it took for each ion to travel down the drift tube, which can be compared to lookup tables for common chemical warfare agents/explosives, drugs, etc. The operator gets a red light if any dangerous matches are found.\n\nTSA can reuse a swab dozens of times as long as no positive result has been triggered.",
"Just smoking a cigarette will usually cause a false positive... 2 out of 3 times by my count. ",
"I've had a positive hit for explosives. I was skiing backcountry where they use dynamite as preventive measures for avalanches. It's was in the Denver airport so they had it happen from time to time. I was able to simply talk my way out of a full cavity search.",
"Frequent flyer here, \n\nI've gotten one false positive in addition to setting off the body scanner because there was too much metal on my jeans (noob mistake)\n\nSo before having to go through a FULL security check, I asked what could set it off and the guys response was \"Well have you used lotion recently?\" \n\nSo I'm just shocked like \"THATS A REAL THING?!?!?\" Just thought it was an old Jeff Dunham joke. Turns out that story probably was true.... \n\nIn addition, I tell this story to people when they would ask me about flying with marijuana (I used to work at a dispensary) they did not care about my lighters, I had cigarettes, my weed was in a container with my toiletries in a checked bag, about an eighght, and it was completely undisturbed. They mainly only seem to care if you have massive amounts, but this may vary by area.",
"I play the big upright bass here. When I fly with the bass (which is a huge undertaking), I put it under the plane in a hard shelled case. I watch TSA check it so they don't break my bass, and sometimes the varnish on the wood sets it off. ",
"It's been explained in detail already, but my side note is I worked as a nanny for a pilot and a flight attendant, every Fourth of July we'd have fireworks outside, and I was tasked with picking up & cleaning up the mess after because if they touched them & gunpowder transferred onto their skin it would flag them at these checks as it does not easily wash off. \n\nUnrelated but the pilot also tested positive for opium one morning after eating a poppy seed muffin. \n\nEdit: wording",
"Question has alread been answered but I have a short false positive story.\n\nI was transferring through an airport in Australia and got randomly selected to be tested. First swab fails. They bring in more security staff. Second Fails. They start this whole thing about having to 'detain' me if the 3rd test failed. Then thankfully it passed the last time. Pretty scary experience. I have to imagine this happens all the time.",
"they were checking my luggage the last time i flew as well. running their paper over everything. I was kinda freaked out for a second and asked them. \"explosives\".\n\noh well, ok. whatever then. i was already seeing myself getting carried away by security because my jacket had remains of weed on it or something. ",
"Normally checking for explosives.\n\nBeen on the receiving end of a false positive. Procedure is to call the security manager, re-test and hope for the best. Nerve racking to say the least, I'd be lying if I did I didn't have visions of being fingered on a back room.\n\nThe machines are very sensitive, many construction materials and hand creams can set them off.\n",
"I do construction at a airport and have to be swabbed multiple times a day. A coworker of mine brings Pepsi to work everyday and it sets off the alarm every time. I'm not sure what ingredient sets it off would be interesting to know though.",
"So it's a bit off topic but those machines are extremely sensitive and can detect the tiniest amounts of anything they are looking for. My local airport uses 2 machines, one to just identify *if* there's anything on your hands. If that one picks anything up they bring you to a small holding area and test your hands again this machine figures out exactly what's on your hands. How do I know this? Well...\n\nI worked on F-15's for the air force. My grandmother passed away so I flew home for a week to visit my family. A full week of washing my hands and showering daily (I shoild mention Im always very thorough ti wash the backs of mya hands). On my return trip I went to go through airport security and accidentally forgot a foil wrapper in my back pocket. They had to swab my hands as a precaution. It dinged positive. Talking to the TSA agent he was former air force and we chatted casually while he ran my hands through the bigger machine. After a minute or 2 he gets a print off from the machine and chuckles \"You said you work on airplanes? That explains why you have jet fuel on your hands.\" So yeah, even after all that time, washing my hands frequently (funeral lots of hand shaking etc.) And showering daily. Some how that machine was still able to pick up the JP-8 on my hands. I don't even work directly with the stuff it just leaks all over the place from tiny leaks in the jet's skin.",
"Why does one particular bag that I put through get tested every time?",
"Had a \"false\" positive once. Cant say for sure but ive been fooling around with ground up matchsticks and that chemical on the side of the box.\n\nWas flying like a week later. And when they swabbed me the machine did say there are explosives. Some kinda perchlorate or some shit. Cant remember. But somehow i was let off without even a check. If the machine actually detected me doing these experiments not because of errors, i will be very impressed and feel pretty confident i wont share a flight with a terrorist",
"**For those stoners that are wondering and reading tons of BS answers:**\n\nTSA security officers do not search for marijuana or other drugs. In the event a substance that appears to be marijuana is observed during security screening, TSA will refer the matter to a law enforcement officer.\n\nWhether or not marijuana is considered legal under local law is not relevant to TSA screening because TSA is governed by federal law. Federal law provides no basis to treat medical marijuana any differently than non-medical marijuana.\n\nSource: TSA's own website.",
"I purchased a backpack for a trip to England. Super simple, off-brand, all black. Came back to the USA. Now every time I travel with that backpack I am always pulled aside for the swab/machine exercise. It was like that backpack got tagged. Could this be the case? Or is it the characteristics of the.backpack? "
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3at7hq | why do taxi drivers get tipped but nobody tips the city bus driver? | I've never seen a city bus driver get tipped, even for good service for dropping someone off in a safe place late at night for example. People just flash their bus passes or throw exact change into the coin box.
However most taxi drivers get tipped even though the costs can get rather high compared to public transport ($60 from JFK to Manhattan while city bus costs only a few dollars). Is it because most of the cab money doesn't go to the driver while the bus driver already gets a secure wage? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3at7hq/eli5_why_do_taxi_drivers_get_tipped_but_nobody/ | {
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"Bus driver has a consistent route and provides consistent service. And is salaried. Where a cab driver can take you the best route possible, Play music to your liking, help with your bags etc. So his or her service level could change, And therefore you can tip accordingly. I guess like the difference between being a cashier at a take out restaurant and being a server. ",
"Part of it is because it's not an individual and custom service that's delivered precisely to you, unlike a server at a restaurant who communicates with you or a hairstylist that spends 20 dedicated minutes with you, so it never became a part of the tipping culture. \n\nAnd bus drivers are usually either direct or indirect employees of the government at the municipal level, not private companies. Tipping is usually not a feature of those jobs, possibly to avoid any sort of argument about bribing civil servants."
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2kjn9u | why did mark zuckerberg have to pay the winklevosses a settlement? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kjn9u/eli5why_did_mark_zuckerberg_have_to_pay_the/ | {
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"Because it's not always about who's right or wrong when settling a legal case. You also have to take into consideration how much it costs the FaceBook legal team to continually fight this battle in court and it's effect on consumer, and more importantly, investor confidence. The pay out issued was seen as a bargain by FaceBook as compared to the possible monetary consequences the on-going suite could potentially create. When you're a publicly traded company like FaceBook, a bad headline from a court case can loose you substantially more money in your stock price dropping than the settlement. ",
"Because he's an asshole who totally fucked his best friend, Peter Parker, over. "
]
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[],
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9o3qkf | how can services like gearbest manage to ship an item from a dutch bazaar to my door for 30¢? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9o3qkf/eli5_how_can_services_like_gearbest_manage_to/ | {
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"text": [
"They wait until lots of orders are placed, then ship it all at once. That's why it may take up to 4 weeks for shipping. Might take 4 weeks for people to buy enough stuff to justify shipping it."
]
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[]
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jhbqn | if everything is just ones and zeroes, how the hell does digital compression accomplish what it does? | I've got the gist of music and encoded movies, but what about WinRAR and 7zip type compression? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jhbqn/eli5_if_everything_is_just_ones_and_zeroes_how/ | {
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"Compression works by finding patterns in the data that can be expressed in shorthand. For example, in a book-length text, replace all of the \"tion\"s with a special 1-character long symbol (that doesn't otherwise show up in the text). Now do that for all the patterns you can find (like \"and\"s and \"ere\"). \n\n(Real compression is much more algorithmically complex, but the concept applies.)",
"Imagine you're reading your credit card number or something, and it happens to have 4 zeros in a row. If you're reading it off, you can of course, just say \"zero zero zero zero,\" or you can say \"four zeros.\" The latter would be roughly what compression is about - you've represented four numbers with two. The \"extra information\" is stored in how we interpreted that - human language and logic - which can be reused over and over.",
"A quick example. Say this is something you want to compress:\n\n 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101\n 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101\n 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101\n 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101\n\nIt's just 01 repeated 64 times (or 01010101 repeated 16 times). A compression algorithm would see that and insert a special code that means \"Repeat *01010101* 16 times\". Something like:\n\n 00011111 01010101\n\nWhich could translate to:\n\n 0001 = Repeat the next byte\n 1111 = sixteen times\n 01010101 = [the data to be repeated]\n\nCompressing it to 1/8th the size.\n\nSo, basically, a compression tool searches for repeating patterns [or pre-defined patterns] and replaces them with shorthand. And a decompression tool searches for the shorthand and replaces them back with the patterns.",
"Compression works by finding patterns in the data that can be expressed in shorthand. For example, in a book-length text, replace all of the \"tion\"s with a special 1-character long symbol (that doesn't otherwise show up in the text). Now do that for all the patterns you can find (like \"and\"s and \"ere\"). \n\n(Real compression is much more algorithmically complex, but the concept applies.)",
"Imagine you're reading your credit card number or something, and it happens to have 4 zeros in a row. If you're reading it off, you can of course, just say \"zero zero zero zero,\" or you can say \"four zeros.\" The latter would be roughly what compression is about - you've represented four numbers with two. The \"extra information\" is stored in how we interpreted that - human language and logic - which can be reused over and over.",
"A quick example. Say this is something you want to compress:\n\n 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101\n 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101\n 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101\n 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101\n\nIt's just 01 repeated 64 times (or 01010101 repeated 16 times). A compression algorithm would see that and insert a special code that means \"Repeat *01010101* 16 times\". Something like:\n\n 00011111 01010101\n\nWhich could translate to:\n\n 0001 = Repeat the next byte\n 1111 = sixteen times\n 01010101 = [the data to be repeated]\n\nCompressing it to 1/8th the size.\n\nSo, basically, a compression tool searches for repeating patterns [or pre-defined patterns] and replaces them with shorthand. And a decompression tool searches for the shorthand and replaces them back with the patterns."
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3e80hi | role of food preservative. how do some processed food claims 0% preservative added, and yet they could be used for a whole year? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e80hi/eli5_role_of_food_preservative_how_do_some/ | {
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"That food might naturally be that shelf-stable; the only claim is that they don't *add* preservatives. It's like how fruit juices advertise \"no sugar added\" because all the sugar came from the fruit themselves.\n\nOf course, without a specific example this is just guesswork."
]
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ba469x | why are sausages not straight ? | I saw yesterday a vegetarian sausage and it was straight. So i was wondering why "normal" sausages not straight. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ba469x/eli5_why_are_sausages_not_straight/ | {
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"I think it has to do something with the casing shrinking unpredictably when heated. Most uncooked sausages are almost straight, but when cooked the bend. Same for pre-cooked ones. ",
"Between the stuffing process and how you link and pack sausage it will take on a bend. As the ground meat comes out the stuffing tube into the casing it gets pulled down and will wiggle back and forth on the table. The insides are pretty loose at this point. Then youd grab and pinch and spin foot long sections. This part pulls the middle part of the link out and the twisting off of the ends really locks in the curvature. After you pack and let it refrigerate for a few hours the meat kinda gels together and will hold that shape even better. ",
"Traditional caseings are made out of intestines which arnt straight. You can get synthetic caseings made from a plastic like stuff that is straighter when theyre filled. "
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89zkps | why do all of my electronics have an fcc interference statement? | You can find the following statement on nearly all electronics. Why does the FCC require this?
This device complies with part 15 of the FCC rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/89zkps/eli5_why_do_all_of_my_electronics_have_an_fcc/ | {
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"Say there is a radio station you are listening to, or a tv show you're watching. Now imagine if someone with *insert device here* drives or walks down your neighborhood and said device doesnt comply with the FCC interference statement. Then that device that person is using can unintentionally block or interrupt your radio station or tv show. It also would prevent emergency lines from being used or blocked if I remember right",
"It proves that the device has passed a certain set of tests, designed to ensure it will not affect nearby devices. All electronic devices emit radiation to some degree, and its important when designing them to ensure the radiation isn't going to affect the operation of other devices. An example is that when you switch on a microwave oven, the WiFi signal to a PC will be interfered with. Without the FCC limits, companies could sell cheap, terrible microwaves which could wipe out WiFi networks for a block around, which would cause chaos. \n\nEdit: and it also ensures your WiFi card won't be destroyed by a microwave oven nearby",
"Nearly all electronics have the potential to generate and receive EM signals from other devices.\n\nElectronics capable of generating and receiving signals have to be regulated by the FCC and the FCC puts these things into different categories.\n\nGeneral consumer electronics are at the bottom of this hierarchy. They are not allowed to generate anything that may interfere with other transmissions generated at a higher priority and you have no recourse if they are harmed by interference generated at a higher priority.\n\nIn this sense \"higher priority\" are things like public broadcasts and emergency communications.",
"In the US the people own the radio EM spectrum and the US Department of Commerce licenses it for revenue on our behalf.\n\n_URL_0_ - there is a chart of all the frequency allocations (2003).\n\nDown at 2.7 to 2.9 GHz there is a block of aeronautic, weather and radiolocation - if you make something that emits RF in the 2.7 to 2.9 GHz range...your device can't emit strong enough to interfere with those allocated blocks and you are on the hook if your device is interfered with by those bands\n\nAirport surveillance radars typically operate in the 2700–2900 MHz range as do NEXRAD radars. In South Asia they do Direct-to-Home satellite television into that band as well in 2.5 to 2.7 GHz block",
"Tile 47 CFR part 15 states that any device that emits radio waves, intentionally or not, must be licensed unless it qualifies for an exemption.\n\nThe most common exemption is for unintentional emitters. So long as a device's transmissions are below a certain power level and transmissions of a certain power level do not interfere with the device, they do not require a license. Such device must be evaluated before they can claim to comply, and the message you reference is a statement of that compliance.\n\nFrom a consumer's point of very, if a device has that statement, you can use it as much as you like and not be concerned about any sort of license. If the device winds up causing interference, that is on the manufacturer.\n\nIf a device does not have that statement, then the onus is on the consumer to make sure they comply with licensing regulations. ",
"Unconnected (or perhaps not so unconnected) to the original purpose of this law it also means that production of EMP resistant computers for civilians is illegal, as well as systems resistant to Van Eck phreaking or TEMPEST based electronic spying. Which is the use of highly sensitive detectors to pick up the background electromagnetic frequencies that your electronics generate just by functioning then reversing engineering the signal to see what your device is doing. It also means your communications devices aren’t protected from military Jamming systems. \n"
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8365hz | why does every body fluid tast salty except for spit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8365hz/eli5_why_does_every_body_fluid_tast_salty_except/ | {
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"Also ELI5 how OP would know this?",
"They taste salty because they contain salts.\n\nSpit also contains some salts but your brain is smart enough to ignore the taste of any salts in your spit, because otherwise you'd be walking around constantly tasting salt. "
]
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1sy07c | twitter and why should i use it | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sy07c/eli5_twitter_and_why_should_i_use_it/ | {
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"Twitter is a social media phenomenon. Each user has a username, preceded by an @ symbol (for example: @yomamma. yomamma is the username). \n\nFrom there, users can post a status, known as a tweet, which can be no longer than 140 characters. In tweets, users repeatedly use hashtags to sort of \"categorize\" their tweets. For example, if you post \"I'm starving, but all I have are leftovers,\" you might use #fwp (first world problems). Twitter looks through the most common hashtags and finds the most popular for the day. A lot of TV shows aim to have their tweet as one of the most popular, so that's why you may see a hashtag on the bottom of the screen.\n\nTwitter also allows anybody to follow you and have your tweets and pictures posted on their wall. It's basically every pre-teen's dream to be able to boast 500+ followers. Which brings me to my next point...\n\nTwitter is a popular site for news, as people tweet out constantly about the world around them. For that reason, it is used by millions of people who constantly complain about their breakup, Justin Bieber (#biebs), etc. If you do decide to use Twitter, follow the people you really care about. It's basically up to you.",
"twitter is useful in 3 ways:\n\n* follow people you know to get ephemeral information about their day. this will be similar to your facebook feed\n* follow people you don't know to get an interesting perspective on what they know and think. politicians, comedians, sportswriters, internet personalities, CEOs, etc. these interesting people may also point you to things you wouldn't normally find out about.\n* tweet out what you are doing instead of text messaging. tweet out interesting things you think people should know.\n\n",
"It's just a platform for people to project their thoughts into a group of followers. You follow people, and those people's tweets show up in your newsfeed. Your friends follow you, and so your tweets show up in their newsfeed. Twitter allows people to more be connected to others, but not always in a meaningful way. \n \nShould you use it? I don't care. I don't, but I'm not going to decide for you. Many people on reddit are going to have arguments against and maybe for twitter. But the choice to use twitter depends on the type of person that you are.",
"Some industries/communities have taken to Twitter in a big way. The professional cooking (chefs actually have time for a 30 second update) and food blogging communities (who latch on to any social media platform), for example. For me, those particular Twitter communities have been extremely useful for everything from finding events to attend to finding new jobs and getting \"somebodies\" to take notice of myself and my work. It's actually really changed the professional food community in a big way.\n\nIf you don't care about food, disregard all that. It's mostly garbage otherwise."
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2mr3xn | why was the race to be the first nation to land on the moon so important the countries involved? | I always thought it was a race to see who could claim ownership, but then I learned about the [Outer Space Treaty](_URL_0_). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mr3xn/eli5_why_was_the_race_to_be_the_first_nation_to/ | {
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"The moon landing occurred during the height of the Cold War.\n\nIf someone can shoot a rocket and hit the moon, they can definitely shoot a rocket and hit their enemy's capital city. So it was a mixture of intimidation, bragging rights, and good old one-upsmanship."
]
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty"
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6iquv5 | how do you find the density of an object without the mass? | I recently started trying to get back into math for use in understanding science and I've come to a sort of road block, I wanted to be able to calculate the mass of an object, the formula is mass=density times volume. Out of curiosity I wondered how you find the density of something and the equation is density=volume divided by mass. So you can't find the mass without the density but you can't find the density without the mass? How do you calculate the density of an object without the mass? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6iquv5/eli5_how_do_you_find_the_density_of_an_object/ | {
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"Weight is mass times gravity. So you can weigh it to determine the force that gravity exerts on the object, divide by gravitational acceleration (in the correct units), to arrive at mass. Then measure the volume, and compute density as you've described.",
"1 equation, 2 unknowns. You need a second equation or more information to solve it.\n\nYou do this by performing another test for more information: something as simple as weighing the sphere and dividing by gravity, or finding the terminal velocity, etc etc etc",
"Well, if you don't know the mass you might just weigh it to find the mass.\n\nIf that's not what you mean, then you can differentially find the density by comparing it to fluids of known density. If it floats on water, it's less dense than water. If it sinks in water but floats in glycerol then it has a density between them. If it has a regular shape, you can look at how much of it is below the water line of a fluid it floats in to compute it's density directly. This presumes that it's solid and of uniform density."
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4q9l60 | outside of russian speaking soviet republics, why is russia not a major immigrant destination when it has so much land? | At a Russian campus I met students from countries like China, Korea, and parts of Europe. Even though Russian universities actively recruit students from parts of China, from what I heard is that there aren't many immigrants and unlike Canada or Australia, not many students plan to stay for the long term, become a Russian citizen or start a family here
Edit: it should be Russian speaking former Soviet republics like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4q9l60/eli5_outside_of_russian_speaking_soviet_republics/ | {
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"Much of Russia's territory is inhospitable land which is why there's so little competition from neighboring countries to claim that land or to immigrate there. You'll notice that the European part of Russia has a much higher population density than the Asian part - Siberia, which makes up 77% of Russia's landmass, only houses 27% of the population."
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2d299v | australia is closer to indonesia than to new zealand. why do australians not look asian/indian at all? | Just looked at a world map and was a little surprised. I haven't had any history lessons about Australia or Indonesia so I don't know whats going on. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d299v/eli5_australia_is_closer_to_indonesia_than_to_new/ | {
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"Australia and NZ were both colonised by the British empire quite a wee while back. The majority of the population is of European descent. ",
"Because it was colonized by the British, native Australians or aboriginals look very different. Much in the same way native Americans don't look like the rest of Americans, because most Americans are also of European decent.",
"Maybe he means why do [Aborigines](_URL_0_) look more like [Maori](_URL_1_) than [Melanesians](_URL_2_)?"
]
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"http://www.faithinterface.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/australia-aborigines-460.jpg",
"http://proquestk12.com/bulletins/11JAN/images/HH_Maori_Sm.jpg",
"http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Americas/images/image043.jpg"
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eg4z1v | how denim became so widespread and why blue became the color of choice? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eg4z1v/eli5_how_denim_became_so_widespread_and_why_blue/ | {
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"I can't say why blue is the color of choice, but it grew in popularity because it is extremely tough compared to other fabrics. Until extremely recently, the majority of the population in the west was employed in extremely physical occupations, where risk of injury was high. Tough clothing both reduced the risk of injury and needed to be replaced less often\n\nEdit: did not expect my post to get this many upvotes. I kind of got extreme tunnel vision when writing it, so I'm extremely sorry for my overuse of certain adverbs\n\nEdit 2: 69 upvotes. Extremely nice\n\nEdit 3: 100 upvotes? Guys this is getting extremely out of hand.",
"Specifically on the color:\n\nThe blue of jeans is [indigo dye](_URL_0_). Indigo is a group of plants found throughout the tropical parts of the world. The indigo plant is a legume; that is, it's related to peas and beans. It is found mostly in the tropics.\n\nThe same blue dye chemical can also be made from the [woad](_URL_1_) plant, which is native to England and northern Europe. Woad is a brassica; that is, it's related to mustard, cabbage, and broccoli.\n\nIndigo and woad have been popular fabric dyes for literally thousands of years, long before Levi Strauss or anyone else was making blue jeans. People mostly prefer to wear dyed fabric rather than uncolored fabric, both for decoration and because uncolored fabric shows stains or wear very easily.",
"The indigotin blue dye isn’t soluble in water, and must be changed chemically before the jeans are dyed. The oxidised form (indigo blue) is insoluble in water, which helps the color stick to the jeans despite being washed hundreds of times. Other colors would fade too much.",
"Denim is so popular because it's a relatively durable material that's still pretty comfortable to wear and yet is cheap to boot, so it's pretty much the perfect material for the physical laborers that were the majority of people until very recently. Blue on the other hand is because blue dye was the cheapest, blue also doesn't show stains compared to many other colors.",
"Denim became popular in the US during the mining boom of the late 19th century. Until then, pants were mostly made of light-wearing materials like linen which couldn't stand up to the rigours of the industry. A tailor called Jacob Davis made a pair of denim trousers by special request and when other people found out about it, demand skyrocketed pretty quickly. Unable to keep up alone, he made a deal with Levi Strauss & Co. and together they started mass-production in San Francisco. Various mining industries continued to boom for the next hundred years or so and during this time, jeans became the staple for working men all over the States.",
"Robert Shiller's book *Narrative Economics* briefly explains how denim jeans became so popular in the 1930s.\n\nOriginally considered only appropriate as work clothes, jeans began to be associated with different cultures over the decades. Following a period of mass consumerism in the 1920s, the Great Depression caused a shift in culture that looked down on consumerism and favoured frugality: Shiller calls this, 'poverty chic culture'. From there, blue jeans were associated with a number of movements and different cultures, e.g. the cowboy story culture, Rosie Riveter during World War II, high school, youthful rebellion, women's liberation, and exploded in the '50s, benefiting from the movie 'Rebel Without a Cause'. By this time, they likely lost all connection to the 'poverty chic culture' and probably stayed a fashion staple due to their cheapness, practicality, long life, ubiquity, and the fashion decisions of others.\n\nI didn't look too far into the comments to see if anyone else had covered this stuff.",
"I saw some explanations for color but nothing on the spread of Denim. In the simplest way to explain, I would say Gold. In the mid 1800s, 1850s to be precise, people found gold in Seattle, Washington. This triggered a massive gold rush that drew people from all over the United States. Before this people wore regular cotton pants at all times, these things tore regularly (especially in the pockets) and had to be replaced a lot. This was especially the case for the people who were digging all day and sifting looking for gold in the woodlands and rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Eventually some dudes named Levi Strauss and Jakob Davis rilled around and had an idea. They saw canvas and denim stuff already in existence, but they basically took heavy duty materials (Denim and Dungaree Cloth) and sewed them into heavy pants and figured out if they put rivets in the pockets corners they wouldn't tear as much. They patented the idea and tried selling some. It was a massive success. No longer did miners have to worry about their pockets ripping and having to get new pants or worry about fixing them. They told their friends, who told their friends, and the first Levis factory and store opened in Seattle. Then capitalism happened, and some advertising hapoened. Eventually it naturally spread everywhere as a symbol of the hard working, wage earning, tough as nails man. \n\n\nEdit: I grew up in Seattle which was where I learned this. There was a story that went around about a man who fell off a cliff, and his Levi Denim pants that he had bought the day before caught on a treebranch on the side of the cliff, where they caught and miraculously did not rip. His screaming got people to come over and they were able to save him, his story spread and so now there was a set of pants that could save your life.",
"The way I understand it is Levi Strauss created that fabric for the people who flocked to California in the early days of the gold rush. The reason indigo became the chosen dye is because it shows less stains than other colors.",
"The reason behind it's widespread popularity can simply be boiled down to Elvis Presley. With him being the first \"pop-star\" in history he transformed a garment that was normally issued and worn by prisoners because of its low manufacturing cost and durability into something that summed up his image - rebellious, outlaw, renegade, \"bad boy\" and when he wore them that trend caught on.\n\nIn regards to the dye, it seems others know more about that than I. So I think their explanations are best about the dye!",
"I'll comment on the material, since indigo has been covered. Denim just a 2x1 warp faced twill weave with the white weft threads passing under 2 dyed warp threads. The twill weave has a lower number of interlacings which allow the threads to be closer together to create a more pliable material than the Dungaree 2x2 weave. While Dungaree is more durable than Denim, Denim is preferred because it is less coarse and more pliable which makes it a more comfortable material yet still very durable. The Denim weave also creates an uneven surface and diagonal pattern which hides stains better."
]
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16vu7n | what the incentive for the bbc to make programming that draws in a large number of viewers, if since they have no advertisements, viewer size isn't how they make a profit? | I love the BBC, but this is just something that has always confused me greatly about them. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16vu7n/what_the_incentive_for_the_bbc_to_make/ | {
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"text": [
"they make profit from TV licenses, I believe that is their only income.",
"The BBC have other sources of income besides tv licensing. Two examples that immediately spring to mind are DVD sales, and selling the rights to their program abroad. Both of these rely on programs that have a reasonable size audience.",
"The same thing that motivates everyone: personal satisfaction; the desire to do a good job and have people notice and appreciate your efforts. This is especially true for people in creative professions, including any kind of artistic endeavor but also all the people in supportive roles. \n\nAlso, job performance. The BBC is made up of individuals, each of whom is expected to contribute; the goal is customer satisfaction and (one) measure of that is how many viewers there are.\n\nConsider also what motivates billionaires to continue working: it's certainly not money. Why do Bill Gates and Warren Buffett continue to go to work every day? For most wealthy people, money is not the goal but rather the metric or measurement of success. ",
"For one thing, they operate under a legally-binding charter:\n\n\n- Sustaining citizenship and civil society;\n- Promoting education and learning;\n- Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence;\n- Representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities;\n- Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK;\n- Helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.\n\nThe BBC must display at least one of the following characteristics in all content: high quality, originality, innovation, to be challenging and to be engaging.\nThe BBC must demonstrate that it provides public value in all of its major activities.\n\n([sauce](_URL_0_))"
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4dx31w | the zero-energy universe hypothesis and quantum fluctuation. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4dx31w/eli5_the_zeroenergy_universe_hypothesis_and/ | {
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"Not really sure what you mean by \"quantum fluctuation\" exactly, so I'll go for the other half: basically, most of the everyday energy that you see around is positive (this is completely arbitrary: we could call this negative, but that would be weird). To make conservation of energy work properly, you need gravitational potential energy to be negative (if you've got a mass in a gravitational field, its total energy is the sum of its kinetic and gravitational energies, and if it's in free fall, this has to be constant. An object at rest arbitrarily far from the source of that gravity has arbitrarily small total energy (an arbitrarily small amount of gravity pulling on it, so no gravitational potential, and no kinetic since it's at rest). If it falls in towards the source, it gains kinetic energy, so its gravitational energy must go down, so must be negative). \n\nThe zero-energy universe hypothesis states that the sum of all of these positive and negative energies is zero. As close as we can measure, this seems to be true. "
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7t9ckr | why does ranch, bbq sauce, pancake syrup & even salsa all come in dip cups at fast food places, but ketchup only ever comes in those little packets that you then have to squeeze out onto a napkin or something just to dip your fries? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7t9ckr/eli5_why_does_ranch_bbq_sauce_pancake_syrup_even/ | {
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"text": [
"Some have dippable/squeezable ketchup packets that are awesome...but the normal condiments ketchup, mustard and mayo so come in packets usually, probably so you can squeeze onto your sandwich easier"
]
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[]
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8t180e | - why do files and other insects lock their legs when they die? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8t180e/eli5_why_do_files_and_other_insects_lock_their/ | {
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"Insect legs are not powered by muscles like mammals. They are essentially hydraulically actuated. When the ant dies, it stops putting it the pressure to extend the legs and they curl up. \n\nEdit: This explains spiders. Not really insects. "
]
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760h8l | what happens to a pool/small body of water during a wild fire? | I’m specifically thinking of an inground pool or pond, as anything else would probably melt. But what happens to the water/animals and plants living in it? I assume the water temperature increases—but to what depth? Some must also evaporate, but does it dry up? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/760h8l/eli5_what_happens_to_a_poolsmall_body_of_water/ | {
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"Depends on how close the fire gets and what around the pool burns. It takes a *lot* of heat to warm and evaporate water (which is why it makes such a great extinguishing agent). But really, unless it's a monster fire burning for days, there's not enough heat there to do anything other than maybe warm the surface of the water a degree or two.\n\nHeat rises, so the inground pool will only get a little bit of radiant heat.\n\nInground pools also make great water reservoirs for fighting structural housefires. No hydrant at the house? Throw a suction line into the pool and now you've got 15,000 gallons or more of water to put on the fire.\n"
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81nubq | do astronauts have hearing loss from launching into orbit on giant rockets? is hearing protection good enough to prevent any damage? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/81nubq/eli5_do_astronauts_have_hearing_loss_from/ | {
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"Nope, astronauts don't suffer hearing loss. The crew capsules are designed to insulate the meatbags from the loud noises, so they're OK.\n\nMan, that'd suck though.... \"Here, you get to go to SPAAAAAAAAAACE but you'll have to learn ASL 'cause it's gonna cost you your eardrums\"\n\n\nEh, I'd still do it.",
"First, there's the Inverse Square Law to take into account. Take a measurement and note the distance; if you then double that distance, you're now measuring a force spread over four times the area; resulting in 1/4 the intensity.\n\n* So if a rocket were producing a deadly 210dB a meter from its main engines, then ten meters away, that would measure 'merely' 195dB. Still ear-destroying but already substantially less lethal. And lethal happened: old Saturn launches required cleaning up dead birds and animals near the launch-site.\n\nSound itself is vibrations through a medium. That's usually air, being displaced by all the energy and momentum from the rocket engine. If you can channel that energy differently so it doesn't *all* become a giant moving/vibrating mass of air, you're directly reducing the sound.\n\n* In the case of Space Shuttle launches, in order to protect the shuttle from all of those shockwaves reflecting off the pad and back into it, they flooded the whole platform with part of a 300,000 gallon water tank moments before ignition. This combined with the pad being shaped so as to help deflect the blast away rather than allowing it to reflect upwards, helped to reduce the acoustic level in the payload bay to just under 145dB.\n\nOf course, at this level it's still cause for permanent ear damage. However, now you add bit more distance between the payload bay and the astronauts themselves, and reflection/dampening from actual material barriers: The hull itself, the cabin, and finally what the astronauts themselves are wearing.\n\nThe maximum allowable cabin noise was rated around 120dB - painful and cause for permanent damage with long-term exposure, but only marginally worse than being at an overly loud concert. They were designed to keep it under this, much like the payload bay's limit was 145. From there, though, typical ear protection can reduce things to an uncomfortable but safe level: I'm no astronaut and the cheapo disposable foam earplugs I sometimes wear at work that we get in boxes of 250 pairs reduce what hits the eardrums by another 30 decibels!",
"MSc neuroscience here and I study the ear in space. I wrote a mini review on hearing loss in space. I'll post it one it's posted online. \n\nNASA has given over a million dollars in compensation for spaceflight associated hearing loss. Ever since the Apollo this phenomenon has been considered a medical risk. What is interesting is that the hearing loss is not typical of noise induced hearing loss.\n\nMoreover, many factors can contribute. Synergies between CO levels and noise can make sound much worse. It can also be the change in gravity impacting inner or middle ear function. "
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2114j2 | womens studies, what is it, why do people do it, and what good lasting careers can come from it. | I always hear womens studies being the butt of the joke, academic wise. it seems that most people think that people who take womens studies, liberal arts, etc. as a degree end up flipping burgers. eli5 | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2114j2/eli5_womens_studies_what_is_it_why_do_people_do/ | {
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"As a general rule, liberal arts/social science majors have a more difficult time getting a job specifically in their field. Mostly it's because there isn't nearly as much of a practical, day-to-day use for the degree. \n\nFor the record, the \"big five\" social sciences are Political Science, Psychology, Economics, Sociology, and History. Economics is a bit of the odd man out, here, and isn't always included as a \"social science.\"\n\nOthers include Anthropology, Communications, Geography, and Linguistics. Technically, things like Law and Education count as \"social science\" but since they lead directly to common professional careers they aren't usually treated as such.\n\nNow, just because someone can't get a job *in their field* doesn't mean they can't get a job. Plenty of liberal arts majors can get perfectly good, well-paying jobs; they just aren't going to be using Geography to do it. Liberal arts majors still have the benefit of a \"well-rounded\" critical-thinking skill set. It *is* more difficult to secure a job, but you also are a lot more flexible. Someone who gets a degree in Engineering or Computer Science is pretty much tied to those fields, whereas a Political Science major isn't.\n\nNow, to be fair, there's a supply-demand problem as well. Generally speaking professions and STEM degrees are almost always in demand, so they have job security and higher pay. Liberal arts isn't the same; since you don't have a skill set specific to a field, you're the first to get laid off. (Obviously, this is generally speaking; there's plenty of factors to go around.) \n\nWhich brings us to things like Women's Studies, African-American Studies, etc. Generally speaking, these degrees follow the same trend as above; however, because they are so narrowly specific in their already difficult job market, it can sometimes be a detriment. (Also, people in these narrow fields do so because they want to do something in that field, and there are almost zero jobs specifically dealing with it.)\n\nTL;DR: College degrees are what's known as a \"signaling\" device: it tells employers you have the skills necessary to graduate college. It doesn't always matter what the degree is actually in, just so long as you get one. That said, market forces tell you what's going to pay well and get you employed, and social sciences are very rarely either of those."
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3c31rq | why does too much acid in the stomach cause indigestion, rather than speedier digestion? | As the title says; one would expect the increase of acid to help with digestion rather than slow things down and cause all those horrible side effects. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c31rq/eli5_why_does_too_much_acid_in_the_stomach_cause/ | {
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"If you're saying \"indigestion\" to refer to acid reflux or GERD, the pain isn't from excess acid in your stomach. The symptoms are because the acid your stomach was producing to digest your food got into your esophagus. Imagine your stomach is like a balloon that has two knots, one at the top and one at the bottom. The knot at the top connects to your esophagus. The top knot is only supposed to open when you're swallowing and only just enough to let the food get into your stomach. When you have reflux, it's because your top knot malfunctioned and accidentally let acid up and out, instead of keeping it inside the stomach with the food. Stuff is only supposed to go out the bottom knot. \n\nEdit: There are a couple of reasons your top knot might malfunction. Most commonly it's because it could become \"lazy\" and dilly dally before closing after you swallow. if the knot doesn't close when the food goes in, the food will displace some acid and some will get pushed up into the esophagus. Aka acid reflux or GERD. ",
"Acid indigestion is usually caused by not enough acid in the stomach, such as when we eat too much food, too fast. Think of our stomachs as a bowl of stew, with the acid being the liquid and the food being the solid potatoes, carrots, onions and meat. The churning of our stomach is like stirring the stew with a spoon.\n \nUsually our stomach has enough acid \"broth\" so the solid \"food\" can swish around as the churning stirs it, but imagine a stew with too little liquid. Instead of a gentle stirring, now you are kind of flipping the contents around. It takes a lot of effort and causes the liquid to splash around a bit. When the liquid acid splashes up into the throat, it causes the burning sensation of acid indigestion.\n \nConsidering the fact that acid indigestion is caused by not enough acid in the stomach, then you may wonder why adding a base like baking soda or antacid tablets helps at all. Wouldn't lowering the acidity further in an acid deficient system just make the problem worse?\n \nWell, that's right. When someone takes antacids they reduce the acidity level in their stomach sharply. This marked lack of stomach acidity triggers the stomach to squirt out a bunch more acid to get the acid level back to normal. It's the added acid from the the stomach that smooths the digestion.\n \nUnderstanding this process is key to treating acid indigestion. You don't want to take too much antacids or take them more often than recommended, because their value is in their ability to trigger the stomach to produce more acid. An antacid is like holding a lighter under one of those heat triggered fire suppression [sprinklers](_URL_0_). The first time you are going to get a nice soothing shower, but if you go back again before it has time to reset, it won't work again.\n\nNext time you have acid indigestion, instead of trying to shock your stomach with antacids, why not help your stomach by adding more acid? Just drink a half shot of apple cider vinegar and chase it with a glass of water. Your stomach will thank you. \n \n",
"The acid in your stomach isn't actually what breaks down the food. That would take a long time and it wouldn't give any nutrients because the acid would destroy the food. Acid creates an environment for the enzymes to break down the food. Look at it like this those enzymes demand a very specific environment of 2pH and about 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit to work. Your body temp and the acid creates that environment. If there is too much acid it will disrupt that environment."
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2moncr | the big debate over the keystone xl pipeline that's been in the media recently. | What are the pros and cons of the pipeline? Why is the Senate supporting it so much while Obama might veto it | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2moncr/eli5_the_big_debate_over_the_keystone_xl_pipeline/ | {
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"Here are some of the most common pros and cons.\n\nPros:\n\n1. The pipeline would be a more efficient way to transport crude oil from Canada to the Gulf to be refined. Currently, all that oil is transported via rail, truck, and sea. This would likely reduce the price of oil/gas.\n\n2. It's a large infrastructure project, which means jobs will be created to build/maintain the pipeline across several states.\n\nCons:\n\n1. This specific \"tar-sands\" type of crude oil is rather low quality.\n\n2. AFAIK, the oil transported isn't owned by the US, nor are the refineries at the end of the pipeline, so the US won't see any \"direct\" profit from the oil.\n\n3. Although several jobs will be created to build the pipeline, other sectors will likely lose jobs as the previous methods of transportation become redundant (ie. rail workers, truck drivers, shipping, etc).\n\n4. US spending money on projects related to fossil fuels that could be spent instead developing alternative energies.\n\n\nPersonally, while I definitely support development of alternative energies, the reality is we're still pretty dependent on oil in the short term. And since I know that this oil is going to go from Canada to the gulf one way or another, we might as well do it efficiently."
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ofayr | twitter. i don't get it. can you explain it to me? | It's like... facebook, right? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ofayr/twitter_i_dont_get_it_can_you_explain_it_to_me/ | {
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"twitter is like when zack morris used to address the audience in saved by the bell.",
"Not really. You use it as a method of following those people, groups or organisations you find interesting.\n\nGame studio i like releasing some cool DLC? i find out immediately.\nComedian i like going on tour? i find out immediately.\nMy bosses favourite vegan takeout place? I find out grudgingly.\n\nIts a hasslefree way to keep up to date on stuff you like basically.",
"It's like facebook, but all you do is post status updates.",
"Ok, Twitter is I guess similar to facebook, but instead of posting things to be read by your friends, you're posting things that can be read by anybody in the world.\n\nSome people do use twitter like facebook and just tell you when they've had a nice shower, or that they hate haters, or whatever people post about on facebook.\n\nThese people, I find, are pretty boring. On twitter, you don't have ‘friends’. You have followers and people you follow. In other words, no one has to request or accept anything to read what you're posting. They just click follow and their feed will be full of messages from you.\n\nThis is great because you can follow genuinely interesting people and groups easily. Who do I follow on twitter? I follow talented comedians who write and post jokes on twitter. I follow newsrooms who keep me updated with what is going on in the world. I follow news critics who criticise those newsrooms. As a computer gamer, I follow Steam Support, who let me know when Steam will be down for maintenance. I follow QI who give me interesting trivia facts, and I follow my favourite musicians to hear about their latest recordings and shows.\n\nI also follow, out of a sense of obligation, some of my friends who post *far* too often.\n\nTweets themselves are limited to 140 characters, so brevity is important. When you tweet, you can post a link and twitter will automatically shorten the link for you. There are also things called hashtags, which is where you post a word like #this. You've probably seen people do that before. What hashtags do is they make searching for tweets really easy. Let's say you wanted to find out about a currently interesting thing, like Stop Online Piracy Act. People who are tweeting about this act might add #StopOnlinePiracyAct to their tweet. Now anyone can easily search #StopOnlinePiracyAct and get all the tweets which include this. Also, in twitter, the hashtagged word becomes a link - clicking on it will show all the other tweets with that topic.\n\nThere is are also 'mentions'. A mention looks like @myfriendharry. If you want to mention another twitter user in a tweet, putting a @ symbol before their name will turn their name into a link to their profile. The person who has been mentioned will be informed of this.\n\nThere are two special kinds of mention. One is called a reply, and it should be pretty obvious what that is. If someone tweets something which you wish to publicly respond to, clicking reply on their tweet will create a mention which links specifically to the tweet you're replying to. The other kind is a private message. Private messages can only be sent between people who are following each other. You cannot just send private messages to celebrities!\n\nFinally, there is re-tweeting. If someone makes a great post and you think your followers will like it, or a news story that needs spreading, clicking re-tweet will post that tweet to your profile while giving all credit to the original author.\n\nTweets are not limited to just words. You can post images as well. You should try it out, search for some things that are interesting to you. If you have a good mobile phone, you can usually get twitter for it, which can be a nice way to get news. Also, tweets can be updated via text message if you wish.",
"People talk to themselves, hoping that other people will \"Follow\" them, talking to themselves. Circlejerking occurs when people throw in ironic hashtags such as #Sarcasm, #IHATETHATSTUPIDFUCKINGCUNTBITCH, etc etc.",
"It's nothing like Facebook, and doesn't fill the same role at all. Forget about Facebook completely, or it'll confuse you.\n\nOn Twitter, you create an account, and then you can post *tweets*. Tweets are 140 characters of text, or an image. Each user has one page where all of their tweets are shown in order of newest to oldest. These tweets are visible to everyone in the world.\n\nIf someone likes you and wants to see what you tweet, they will *follow* you. There are no friends on Twitter, and no friend requests -- you simply follow someone if you want to see what they say.\n\nEvery user has a *dashboard*, which shows the combined tweets of every single person they follow, from newest to oldest. \n\nTwitter is very different from Facebook in that you don't add your friends and then update just to them; the entire site is one gigantic friend network and people will typically follow strangers they think are interesting or funny, send messages to other people, etc. There are also a great many celebrities or organisations on Twitter, and anyone on Twitter can talk to them. For example, you could write a tweet that says \"@ladygaga What's your favourite type of hat?\", and it would show up on Lady Gaga's dashboard for her to reply to. [Here's an example of just that: a stranger wrote a tweet about Louis CK, and he wrote a tweet replying.](_URL_0_) Many companies run Twitter accounts and let customers ask questions or make comments about them, and will reply. \n\nAnother big feature of twitters is **trends**. When you write a tweet, you can include what's called a *hashtag*, which serves as a tag describing the subject of your tweet. These begin with a hashmark (#) and are usually added at the end of the tweet. For example, you could say \"Preparing for the big storm, taping up my windows! I'm getting scared. #HurricaneJack\". The hashtag becomes a link, and when you click it, it shows you a big feed of everyone who's using the same tag -- so you'll see everyone else who's talking about Hurricane Jack, and you can talk to them about it. When a tag is one of the most popular, and millions of people are talking about it at once, it's said to be *trending on Twitter*.\n\nFor example, the Golden Globes are coming up. [Here's everyone talking about them, listed thanks to the #GoldenGlobes hashtag.](_URL_3_) This makes Twitter really useful and unique in certain situations: when the Iranian government ran a media blackout a few years ago, everyone stayed informed by using the same hashtags on Twitter and spreading the news through it. Twitter was so useful there that the American government actually asked Twitter not to put the site down for 10 minutes for scheduled maintenance, because it was a vital part of Iran's infrastructure that week. \n\nNews spreads so rapidly on Twitter that a few months ago, when earthquakes struck the United States, people would feel a quake, tweet it, and people in nearby cities would see the tweets and get themselves to shelter or secure their pets before the quake even started where they were. No radio or TV network can report news as instanteously as Twitter can. Many journalists use Twitter to break and discuss stories hours before they make it to websites or TV.\n\nMany people sign up to Twitter and never even write tweets. They follow their friends, to see what they're up to. They follow comedians they like, who tweet jokes; they follow local bands, who tweet their showtimes and ask for requests. They follow journalists and local organisations to get news before it makes it to TV/websites. They follow novelty accounts -- there's a popular one that [tweets news from WW2 in real time](_URL_1_) (that is, it's pretending that today is 14 January 1940, and it tweets headlines and events as they would happen, and tomorrow is 15 January 1940, and so on; it will keep this upfor five more years) and another one [that was turned into a TV show starring William Shatner](_URL_2_). They might tweet to their favorite bands and actors asking them questions, and they usually get replies. Want to have an online conversation with Steve Martin, Yoko Ono and the Dalai Lama at the same time? They're all on there. Australians can even message their Prime Minister."
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echvmp | what exactly is in a tumor? | My friend recently noticed a tumor but it was benign (thank god). I just wanted to get some knowledge on it. Thank you! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/echvmp/eli5_what_exactly_is_in_a_tumor/ | {
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"It's a mass of tissue that's formed by an accumulation of abnormal cells. Normally, the cells in your body age, die, and are replaced by new cells. With cancer and other tumors, something disrupts this cycle. Tumor cells grow, even though the body does not need them, and unlike normal old cells, they don't die. As this process goes on, the tumor continues to grow as more and more cells are added to the mass. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nSource: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"One of the things your cells do that's really fundamental is divide. Cells normally divide in response to chemical signals from other cells. \n\nHowever, cells can have the mechanisms that control when they should divide get damaged. Sometimes, when this happens, the cells begin to continuously divide and grow. Any such growth of cells is a tumor.\n\nA tumor is malignant, rather than benign, if it also begins to penetrate into other tissues and spread throughout the body."
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adfmfx | how (big) ancient cities, like babylon, became deserted? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/adfmfx/eli5_how_big_ancient_cities_like_babylon_became/ | {
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"Cities like that can only exist if the people there can make a lot of money from the location. When the craftsmen and traders could no longer easily buy and sell goods due to near constant warfare during the reign of the Seleucid empire, people started to leave for (hopefully) greener pastures. The ones who remained were not able to maintain and guard the gigantic, empty city, so they too had to leave eventually.\n\nThe main reason Babylon was never rebuilt was that there were plenty of other cities nearby. Both the Sassanian (Persian) capital of Ctesiphon and the Abbasid (Arab) capital Baghdad were built just a short trip away from the site of Babylon.\n",
"Take a look at Detroit for a modern example of this. Once an industrial powerhouse, it lost 2/3 of its population since 1950, and is only now maybe turning around, after an effort to shrink the city's boundaries and bulldoze the abandoned sections. Its a fantastic place to study urban prairie/wilderness now, as large sections of the city have returned to nature. \r\n\r\nHow did it get this way? Not a natural disaster, this was all man-made. Poor urban planning, job losses, riots, crime. As a result, people who were best able to moved out, and the tax base declined. With many of the best and brightest and most affluent residents gone, and no money to fund city services, it entered a downward spiral of urban blight. \r\n\r\nIt was basically one good war/major natural disaster away from collapsing entirely. Luckily it was in a peaceful, low-natural-disaster area and could count on support from state and federal sources to limp along until it found a viable path forward. Ancient cities mostly didn't have such advantages.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n"
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7bom7c | explosive decompression | What really happens when the human body is exposed to a vacuum? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7bom7c/eli5_explosive_decompression/ | {
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"Air will be sucked from your lungs, leading to asphyxiation and thus death. Bubbles may form in your blood which could be dangerous should you somehow have air to breathe. Exposed liquids such as saliva and the moisture on your eye may boil. But otherwise, the body is surprisingly tolerant of a vacuum.",
"Simply being exposed to a vacuum isn't necessarily going to be a case of explosive decompression. Generally speaking that's going to be a change of 1 atm or less, to 0 atm. In this case, you will experience gradual swelling, exposed fluids will boil, and you will die of asphyxiation.\n\nExplosive decompression is more likely in a highly pressurized environment, where there is a differential of several atmospheres, such as happened with the Byford Dolphin. Neither circumstance involved a vacuum, but a connection was formed between a 9 atm area and a 1 atm area. The person closest to the connection experienced an immediate ejection of all of his internal organs and dismemberment, in part due to being forced through a 24 inch hole. "
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43fzqe | as a man from the uk, i need to ask, why are the american police service so corrupt? and why is it not stopped? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43fzqe/eli5as_a_man_from_the_uk_i_need_to_ask_why_are/ | {
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"The US has around 18,000 separate law enforcement agencies. Many of which report to no higher power. \n\nThen again, Britain has Operation Yewtree.",
"Some are corrupt. Some are racist. Most are, like everybody, subject to a steady drumbeat of messages from the media and their peers that black people are almost certainly criminals. ",
"Well for context, do you remember the death of Ian Tomlinson and the whole kettling controversy? Do you remember the shooting of de Menezes in the post-7/7 atmosphere? A lot of the basic cultural stuff is pretty similar to that, just maybe stronger.\n\nAnother factor to add to that is that guns are much more common in the U.S., legal or otherwise. This changes the way police respond to people who don't have their hands visible, or are holding a cell phone, or reaching into a glove compartment; all of which might be mistaken for a gun. Combine that with the fact that U.S. policing is not based on the [Peelian Principles](_URL_0_), unlike in the UK, so our police are often trained to put a higher priority on defending their own safety—including against the *possibility* that someone might have a gun and *could* be about to use it to shoot at the police. In my opinion this leads to both an increased willingness by the police to use their guns, an increased willingness to use force as a tool of compliance, and a culture of \"Respect My Authoritah\" that escalates conflicts and encourages cover-ups.",
"Because they aren't. The overwhelming majority of cops never fire their weapons throughout their entire careers. You only hear about corrupt cops in the first place because they are out of the ordinary.\n\nWith that said, when a corrupt cop *is* exposed I want them punished and harshly.",
"It was not designed to be that way.\nFear campaigns, and words like \"national security\" and \"terror\" have effectively done away with what our nation was systematically designed to be. This somehow does away with balance of power and justifies modern judicial activism. Most Americans do not care enough, I blame the people not the government.",
"This is a very nuanced point that has a lot of ties in a lot of different aspects of American culture, but one major point is that police in America have the right to use lethal force in a situation where their life is in danger. However, determining when the officer's life is in danger is a very slippery judgement call, and is made on a case-by-case basis in very high pressure scenarios by the officers themselves. Of course in case of a dispute, the government is more likely to side with the (supposedly highly trained) police than the civilian unless there is evidence to the contrary (and unfortunately, often even if there is such evidence.)\n\nRace relations of course has a *huge* impact here as well, namely that the police are largely white, especially at higher levels where decisions are made. Meanwhile the majority of crime (and therefore police involvement) is in impoverished areas that typically have a higher concentration of black citizens or other people of color. So now you have a situation where white officers are in a position of enforcing law in black neighborhoods. Due to racial stereotypes (conscious or not) an officer might *feel* more threatened in such a situation, and of course the right to use lethal force is up to their judgement. And again, compounding this, the system is more likely to be forgiving toward an officer, and often the injured party would not have the money or know how to pursue legal action.\n\nAs to why it is not stopped, the situation was so well ignored for so long that it wasn't really on the radar of the average American until recently. Fortunately the propagation of cell phone cameras and the internet has given a voice to those who were traditionally less heard, and has given us so much evidence that it's much harder to ignore the situation than before (though some in this current election seem to be doing a pretty good job of it.) Resistance is always going to come of course: The opposing argument is that restricting the police will strengthen criminal activity. A country the size of America has a lot of inertia, so progress is slow but we are taking strides. Putting body cameras on police is becoming more common, for example.",
"American living in Baltimore- it's not. You're buying into sensationalism here.\n\nYou'll never hear about the 99% that do their jobs, help people, and go home w/o expecting a thank you, but you'll always hear about that 1% that's out of control.\n\nJust like every other professio out there, bad people are present in the cops too, it's just not nearly as big of an issue as it's made out to be.",
"I believe that the extent of police corruption here in the US is blown way out of proportion. I know many, many police officers; they are some of the kindest and most down-to-earth people whom I have ever met. **The only people who are scared around police officers are the ones that have something to be nervous about.**"
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2ezfjd | why does american democracy focus so much more on voting than governance? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ezfjd/eli5_why_does_american_democracy_focus_so_much/ | {
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"While determining the \"focus of American democracy\" requires some more empirical evidence, if we assume the presumption is true, a lot of it has to do with the uncodified political traditions of the United States dating back to the Founders. An important concept was the idea of approving or disapproving of statesmen and correcting political institutions through elections. This is one of the reasons why it seems difficult to remove or reprimand statesmen during their terms; many of the Founders believed vehemently in removing undesirable statesmen through simple elections."
]
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[]
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8fh9t1 | why are close-quarters self-defense devices such as police batons, blackjacks, and saps illegal to carry in many states, while guns are not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8fh9t1/eli5_why_are_closequarters_selfdefense_devices/ | {
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" People forget, gun control is more than banning them.\n\nWhen Boss Sullivan got the Sullivan laws passed, the police would only issue gun permits to guaranteed members of the Sullivan Machine. ALL other \"soldiers\" (other machines, gangs, criminals) joked about sewing their pockets closed so the Sullivan goons couldn't drop a gun in their pockets and set them up for a REAL fall."
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3lavb9 | what does the foil on the inside of chip packets do, and how does it work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lavb9/eli5_what_does_the_foil_on_the_inside_of_chip/ | {
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"text": [
"The foil is essentially an incredibly inexpensive airproof, lightproof and waterproof container that won't weaken or dissolve due to the contact of the greasy chips inside. You could use pure plastic like they do in the little tiny bags of Hallowe'en chips, but it would be thicker and not as pretty.\n"
]
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[]
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co21fp | - how does the body regain conciousness after being unconcious? what triggers us to wake up? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/co21fp/eli5_how_does_the_body_regain_conciousness_after/ | {
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"It's not just one thing, or patients wouldn't be stuck in comas.\n\nIn order to be conscious a lot of things need to be working properly. The brian needs to be undamaged, at normal pressure, and the blood needs to be at the right chemical balance with oxygen and sugar to power the brain.",
"The specific part of our brain that regulates consciousness is the reticular formation.\n\nI’m not entirely sure how the mechanics of it work but I’d be interested to find out if anyone knows?!"
]
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2kz7fd | why does the us have such a major hatred for drugs? | What I mean is that, most countries state that they are against drugs but they don't actually do anything about it but try to help people in staying away from it through rehab programs or they simply let the people use it in private.
The US, however, goes all out. From what I've read and seen is that they devote such a heavy number of resources to combat this 'problem'. Whether it be abusing laws, making up laws, and just the entire process that's been happening.
I, for one, am not a drug user but I don't see a problem with people doing something that doesn't directly affect anyone else if it is in their own privacy. There are claims, which are true, that drugs can kill. However, so does alcohol and tobacco, which are very much legal. And I do believe that people should have control of their own mortality, not anyone else's, but that is another topic.
Drugs can be very detrimental to society, certain ones and used in certain ways, but their approach has been extremely aggressive and violent, which doesn't make much sense. Rather than educate, set up programs that put people in positions so that they won't feel the need to take or sell them, and assist in rehabbing, they just lock people up.
So, I would like to know why the US, unlike anyone else, pursues drugs so aggressively and violently. Even calling it a war. And devoting a heavy amount of resources into combatting it, rather than spending it on more beneficial things for the nation. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kz7fd/eli5_why_does_the_us_have_such_a_major_hatred_for/ | {
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"Combination of racism (origins of banning weed, check it out), ignorance (ever talk to an alcoholic about how drugs are bad?), and there is big money in \"legal drugs\".",
"The war on drugs is an industry. People are making money off it, so they have no motivation to try to stop it (the war on drugs, that is).",
"There are a number of reasons. I'm not American, my country (Sweden) would probably be worse if they had the resources.\n\nWhen looking at when drugs became illegal, I think it was not one full year from the legalization of alcohol. Federal agencies were brand new, I think the first one was created to battle the booze. All of a sudden, all those handsome men in their fancy suits didn't have a job. It may sound silly, but I think the infrastructure build up around prohibition demanded something to fight. This is endless reinforcement - the more they fight it the higher the prices and then more people want to smuggle it and so on.\n\nSecondly, a lot of racism was involved, and could be said still is. Mexicans and blacks were supposed to rape white women when smoking pot, therefore they needed to prohibit it. Before this, it was used as medicin for decades in the US, and for millenia around the world.\n\nThe brutal tactics of drug dealers against rivals, witnesses and law enforcement has upped the ante, and the industrial complex selling the tanks and rocket launchers and other military stuff to the police does not help.\n\nAlso, at this point they are backed into a corner. It would be very difficult for a politician to say \"this drug thing... we were wrong. Sorry\"\n",
"I've read somewhere that the government tried to ban alcohol and tobacco once before and it didnt go well for the economy, so I personally believe that them trying to control drugs is just them trying to control the economy. ",
"Probably because the US makes a ton of money on selling drugs themselves, and they don't want too many people taking their action.",
"One of the reasons is Len Bias. He was a basketball star that overdosed on cocaine right after being drafted into the NBA. His death came as a shock to many people and is one of the reasons we now have minimum sentences for drug crimes. Now to many people rely on the \"war on drugs\" for their lively hood. Politicians don't want to seen a weak on drugs and they don't want to be seen as responsible for thousands of people losing their jobs. ",
"Lol, the US is not the worst country for drug laws. I'd say Singapore (my country) has the worst drug laws for a developed country.",
"That is a pretty Euro-centric point of view. If you are in east Asia (Singapore, Thailand, China, Korea), drug dealing is a death penalty offense. Penalties for drug dealing is also pretty high in the middle east."
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1i7ns3 | why do people go corrupt? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1i7ns3/eli5_why_do_people_go_corrupt/ | {
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"text": [
"Severe existential confusion."
]
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3hzix1 | why does mustard/wasabi/horseradish go down your nose? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hzix1/eli5_why_does_mustardwasabihorseradish_go_down/ | {
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"text": [
"well mustard and wasabi are more liquidy so its easier to suck it in, im not sure how youre getting horseradish down your nose though. Keep in mind you can also suck solids down your nose, for example sugar or cocaine."
]
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[]
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7n81qr | why is there a magnetic field-like pattern in a spinning fan? | I tried googling it but there were no results, thanks in advance! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7n81qr/eli5_why_is_there_a_magnetic_fieldlike_pattern_in/ | {
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"Please clarify. What do you mean magnetic field-like??",
"Sorry for not clarifying, it's when you look at the front of a spinning fan and there's a faint image of what appears to be magnetic field lines (like those coming out of a magnet)"
]
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2fgxzq | on a loaf of bread, what exactly is the crust and why is it different from the center? (texture/taste) | Many people ask for sandwiches without the crust and so it has me very curious. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fgxzq/eli5_on_a_loaf_of_bread_what_exactly_is_the_crust/ | {
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"The crust is just the surface dough. It's exposed to greater and more direct heat, and thus undergoes a really cool chemical process known as the Maillard reaction, which describes the processes that go on as food \"browns\" and which forms one of the backbones of the cooking process.\n\nBecause the crust undergoes Maillard reactions, it has a different flavor from the rest of the cooked bread, a flavor which is different depending on the bread in question. It's really a matter of personal taste."
]
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6rlezo | what are parabens in beauty products made of and their function? why are so many products advertised as paraben free now? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6rlezo/eli5_what_are_parabens_in_beauty_products_made_of/ | {
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"Parabens are a family of preservatives, the name is an abbreviation for **para**hydroxy**ben**zoate**s**. The reason manufacturers started to produce and advertise paraben-free products was because of a study that found that parabens had similar effects to estrogens in rats (but only for dosages far higher than you'd find in any cosmetics product - the effect is about 100,000 times weaker than the estrogen produced by the human body itself) and another study that found parabens present in breast cancer tissue (which had no control group - we have no idea whether maybe they're just as common in healthy breast issue). So really, the summary is, some people would rather be safe than sorry even when the evidence that they could be harmful is very weak.\n\n[Here's](_URL_0_) an article that goes into a bit more detail, if you're interested."
]
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[
"http://www.labmuffin.com/should-you-be-avoiding-parabens-the-science/"
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1ifipv | why are people so happy that edward snowden released all of the information that he did? | On one hand: Great, we know what the NSA has been doing.
On the other hand: So do the terrorists. Now that they know how the NSA is operating, they can maneuver around them without being seen. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ifipv/eli5_why_are_people_so_happy_that_edward_snowden/ | {
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"How exactly would they maneuver around massively widespread data gathering? not use the phone or email? Bin Laden did just that, so it's not exactly like we're giving them new ideas.\n\nAlso, most people aren't concerned about terrorism, because it's not really a big threat to the average american, you're far more likely to die a thousand of other mundane ways like driving to work. But knowing that your country is invading your privacy in a way you didn't expect matters.",
"You are 100% correct in both of your assessments. Anyone who says that it will have no effect on the ability to catch the terrorists are ling to themselves.\n\nHowever many people believe that catching terrorists at any cost is not how we as a people should operate. While catching terrorists IS important maintaining our system of liberties and ensuring the government does not violate laws is more important than maintaining our own safety.\n\nMany people believe that the steps that the NSA has taken are the first steps to living in a totalitarian state. These people believe freedom is worth more than safety. Therefore they are willing to sacrifice safety, in the form of catching those who would harm us, in exchange for maintaining the freedoms that the country was founded on.\n\nBasically they think it's a step (or several steps) to far."
]
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d3k6ox | every educated friend that i have swears that taking fish oil is nothing but beneficial, why is this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d3k6ox/eli5_every_educated_friend_that_i_have_swears/ | {
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"Basically, it's an easy source of Omega 3, and Omega 3 is good for your brain, metabolism, immune system, mood, heart, joints and vision.\nIf you don't want fish oil for personal reasons omega 3 can be found in many other foods or in other supplements like flaxseed oil.\nIf you are eating a diet with lots of omega 3, supplements aren't necessary, but Omega 3 is definitely something you should be incorporating in, one way or another."
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43wefu | why is a fraction of an object plural (ex. 1 cheeseburger vs 0.8 cheeseburgers)? | I'm referring to the 's' at the end of cheeseburgers
EDIT: As a follow-up, why is 'rice' not plural even though it is referring to multiple grains? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43wefu/eli5_why_is_a_fraction_of_an_object_plural_ex_1/ | {
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"It depends how you say it really. You could call it eight tenths of a cheeseburger or \"point eight cheeseburgers\" When you add the point eight part it is talking about the object in a set vs an individual whole.",
"[This discussion](_URL_0_) covers the subject fairly thoroughly.\n\nIt seems that, although what you've noticed is common, many style guides say it's not correct. It's common for style guides to suggest that the singular should be used for values less than 1 but more than -1.\n\nThere's a good TL;DR on the page I linked to, which I've copied+pasted below:\n\n > Let me sum up the evidence that we collected in this post:\n\n > (1) National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which is the UK's National Measurement Institute, recommends to use a singular unit for values between 1 and -1.\n\n > (2) U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual suggest to use a singular unit for values between 1 and -1.\n\n > (3) National Geographic style manual recommends to use a singular unit for values between 1 and -1.\n\n > (4) Swan's Practical English Usage suggest to use a singular unit for values between 1 and -1.\n\n > (4) Chicago Manual of style confuses matters by writting 0.003 centimeter and 0.003 centimeters in the same publication.\n\n > I agree with you that each organization could have its own style guide, however, could anyone name at least 1 offical style guide that suggest to use plural units for numbers between -1 and 1?\n\nThe answer to the last question seems to be \"no\", but I haven't yet read the discussion in full so maybe there's something contradictory later on."
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2twnga | how does sports broadcasting in video games work? | How do the broadcasters know what is going on in the game? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2twnga/eli5_how_does_sports_broadcasting_in_video_games/ | {
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"There are only so many things that can happen in a video game -- *admittedly it is a very large number of things*. Regardless, all of those different moves/situations are predictable from the game's programming. The game programmers just have the person reading the sportscaster lines to record every single one of them and then play them back when called for.",
"So each particular event that happens in the game would have a series of conditionals to narrow down to the phrase even more. For example when the player scores a touchdown there is a check to see what the score is and if it's a close game they could say something about that."
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5y9as7 | what happens to our body/mental health when we stop mastrubating and how much days does it take for the effects to happen ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5y9as7/eli5what_happens_to_our_bodymental_health_when_we/ | {
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"Nothing. There is no scientific evidence that masturbation, in moderation, has any negative effects on your physical or mental health. It's generally understood to be a normal and healthy sexual habit. It's perfectly natural and observed in many animals. \n\nDon't listen to /r/nofap. They're delusional. "
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bzk8ky | how do humans know how to have sexual intercourse without being shown? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bzk8ky/eli5_how_do_humans_know_how_to_have_sexual/ | {
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"During psych class in college I learned about a very sheltered couple that went to a fertility doctor after years of trying to get pregnant. She had nothing wrong with her except a skin irritation around her navel. He had been ejaculating into her belly button to get her pregnant....first years!\nNatural selection is real people!",
"If you have a kindergartner isolated from society, they would die before becoming old enough to reproduce. Humans really need a group to deal with the natural environment in a successful way. The whole \"raised by wolves\" story line is just fiction, if you give a toddler to wolves they will eat it.\n\nParents teach children about sex.",
"In evolution, there is something called the Baldwin effect. It’s basically the idea that people that learn a behavior quickly are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing down their genes.\n\nSo the couple that figured out the birds and bees pretty quickly had babies and lots of them. The guys that stared at the snake between their legs and had no clue what to do with it, either didn’t have kids or it took them longer to do it, so they had less. Eventually that gene that makes mating “click” becomes dominant in the population and it becomes an “instinct”. Combine that with a sex drive that has also been passed down and you get 7 billion humans.\n\nMy guess is for the vast majority of humans, they’d figure it out without having to be taught.",
" Humans evolved from apelike animals in a smooth, VERY gradual process. So picture a modern monkey or ape who instinctively understands sex. Or even a chicken or dog.\n\nHumans started from that point to get where we are now. There was never a point where humans had to figure out sex, because we had it figured out before we became human.\n\nAs humans we use a societal component to teach sex to our young, but that was also a very gradual invention, not something we started doing one fine day. So it crept into human behaviour little by little as we became more big brained, alongside out instinctive animal knowledge of sex as we started depending on instinct less.\n\nNow we learn about sex half by being told/observation and half by instinct, but that was a gradual shift from pure instinct so there was never a point where we had to figure it out.\n\nAlso, if we ever did have to figure it out, watching the gazelles and zebras going at it on the plains would have set use straight pretty quickly."
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8qiikt | does hot yoga burn more calories than regular yoga or do you just sweat more? why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8qiikt/eli5_does_hot_yoga_burn_more_calories_than/ | {
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"A significant increase in core temptreture can increase your heart rate. An increase in heart rate technically leads to a greater expenditure of energy, which can be measured in Calories/Kilojules.\n\nThat’s the very basics of it. However, to effect that loss of extra energy, an individual needs to expend the energy, sweat is one example of this, however the energy output is minimal. Exercising in heat, or increasing the core temperature during exercise, can lead to a greater Caloric “burn”. \n\nI notice this often during strength training sessions in the early morning; the warmer I can keep my core, the longer I can keep my heart rate up and the quicker I can elevate it during heavier lifts. The longer I keep my heart rate up the more I burn during the session. I measure this using a chest based HRM. It’s quite noticeable if I either don’t warm up properly, or forget my hoodie.\n\nAt a very technical level, it is highly likely you’ll use more energy in hot yoga vs. yoga. Hoewever, the overall benefit would be minimal at best. You will, as others have mentioned potentially lose fluid based weight. This would also be minimal and temporary.\n\nYou will however be more flexible... so you have that going for you.\n\n"
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6uqujo | considering the alphabet is in no particular order, why does it seem like all the least used letters in normal speaking are at the end? (ex. x,z,w,v,q) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6uqujo/eli5_considering_the_alphabet_is_in_no_particular/ | {
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"It's not that uniform. See [this graph](_URL_1_) from [this article.](_URL_0_)",
"\"W\" is actually used a fair amount in English -- more often than \"J\" and \"K\", for example -- and \"Q\" is the 17th letter, so not at all \"at the end\". That leaves \"V\", \"X\" and \"Z\".\n\nOf course, you're only talking about English. Many other languages use the same alphabet and have very different distributions of letters. German uses \"Z\" and \"V\" more often than English, and \"Y\" much less; French is quite fond of the letter \"Q\", but \"W\" not so much. And so on.\n\nIt's really just a combination of pure chance and your own slightly inaccurate perception."
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency",
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6t4lbe | betting odds! 4-1 odds. 7-4 odds. what does it mean? | I keep seeing "Vegas Odds say" but I don't know what it means. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6t4lbe/eli5_betting_odds_41_odds_74_odds_what_does_it/ | {
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"Those style of odds are called \"Fractional odds.\" The first number is how much you win relative to how much you bet (the second number)\n\nSo 7/4 odds mean that if you bet $4, and the outcome happens, you win $7 (plus your original $4.) 4/1 odds mean that if you bet $1 and it happens, you win $4 (plus your original $1)"
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bm562k | what is the bash computer language? what’s a shell? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bm562k/eli5_what_is_the_bash_computer_language_whats_a/ | {
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"A shell is a general term for a user interface. Any and every operating system can be considered a shell, be it Mac, Windows, or any of the many flavors of Linux.\n\nBash, in addition to being a shell in its own right, is also a scripting language for that shell: not precisely a programming language in its own right, but you can chain together shell commands into a script and run them.",
"A \"shell\" is how you use a computer; the shell lets you see its contents and run programs. For example, the Mac's *Finder* is a shell, as is Windows *File Explorer*.\n\nHowever, \"shell\" usually means the traditional Command Line Interface, where you type commands into the computer and it prints out the results. Old computers *only* had this type of shell.\n\nSome shells not only run the commands you type, but also have \"flow control statements\", like `if` and `else`, or `for` and `while` loops. They have enough to become little programming languages in their own right.\n\n`bash` is one of the shells you can do programming in, and programs written for it are often called \"bash scripts\" or \"shell scripts\"."
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35mnhn | why do applications such as facebook and instagram have location services for messages and images? how would this ever benefit a user? | I cannot think of a circumstance where I would want someone to be able to locate me with pinpoint accuracy where I was when I took a picture and where I was when I sent a message?
Sometimes I accidently click on Location Notification on my Facebook messenger. It USE to notify me to ask if I was sure I wanted it on, but it no longer does this.
I can only imagine this is to Facebook's advertising or data gathering benefit? Why on earth would anyone want to advertise where they are by default? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35mnhn/eli5_why_do_applications_such_as_facebook_and/ | {
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"It's not for your benefit, it's for the benefit of the companies they sell your data to. Since most phones don't let you set your own permissions, if you want to use their apps, you have to give them what they want. "
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3zpxfo | does electro-shock therapy work for any conditions and how effective is it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zpxfo/eli5_does_electroshock_therapy_work_for_any/ | {
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"Yeah, it's pretty effective against bipolar disorder, some effect on depression. It can be used as a second option for very hard-to-treat catatonia or schizophrenia. \n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n\nDo note that media depictions of forced treatment with convulsing patients are not only misleading regarding how it operates. It is not nearly as physically intensive, nor is it used forcibly against people in countries with a modern psychiatric system.\n\nEdit: By \"not as physically taxing\" I mostly mean that patients don't lie down and scream in pain. It is invasive, but again, for some people it is a really important treatment that they undergo because it's the only thing that works for them.",
"There was a really interesting IAmA interview a couple of weeks ago with a psychiatric nurse who does electro convulsive therapy. I can't figure out how to link it. ",
"The podcast \"Stuff You Should Know\" has a great episode covering this topic\n\n_URL_0_\n\nVery interesting!"
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1giqa2 | why does analog audio gear make a "click" noise when you turn it on, or switch settings? | For instance, I inherited an old Marantz receiver and when I turn it on, about 3 seconds after hitting the power button a "click" comes from inside somewhere and then it starts amplifying sound.
Similarly, if I switch modes on the receiver, there is a similar breif delay and then click sound. I notice this in just about every piece of analog gear I've seen. I've always wondered what's happening in there that makes the click. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1giqa2/eli5why_does_analog_audio_gear_make_a_click_noise/ | {
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"The delay when turning on and the subsequent click is caused by a protect circuit that disconnects the amplifier output when first turning on. It does this as the amplifier can send a surge to the speakers (makes a thud sound) when it turns on and this can damage speakers (instantly or over time, through repeated surges).\nThe click is the relay switch moving. \n\nI don't know about when you change modes - it could be the same circuit doing a similar type of protection."
]
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[]
] | |
3loc54 | could a billionaire in theory pay some failed state government in africa to form a new country or is there something that blocks that from happening? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3loc54/eli5_could_a_billionaire_in_theory_pay_some/ | {
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"A billionaire could help to kickstart a new small government/country. It'd be helpful in providing some basic infrastructure and investments in local businesses. ",
"A state is per definition a territory organized in a political community.\n\nTo create a state you simply need land and people. Money can buy both, so the answer is yes.\n\nIf its a good investment or will be a failed state also is another question completely.",
"In order to be recognized as a country you need:\n\na population that lives there\n\na set piece of land\n\na government\n\nthe ability to enter into relations with other states\n\nBasically, as long as your population and some other countries agree that your country exists, then it does. ",
"not exactly on point but I have wondered whether we should create a \"velvet prison\" for world leaders who are afraid to abdicate for fear the new government will have them jailed or killed. eg an island paradise for Bashar al-Assad where he is protected and pampered that is much cheaper in lives and treasure than trying to oust him\n\nEDIT Thanks for all the replies! ",
"If the billionaire had US citizenship, this would arguably violate the FCPA (he would effectively have \"bribed\" an entire country to \"influence\" an election) - *Edit #2, others have pointed out that this only applies to agents of publicly listed companies, thank you for the correction*.\n\nThough no doubt a clever lawyer could find a way to structure the deal to minimize that risk.\n\nFWIW, I wondered how many people could realistically do this and to how many countries, and the answer surprised me - Never mind Africa, Bill gates could basically buy anything in Eastern Europe, [in terms of their GDP](_URL_0_). And for the bottom of the list of countries, you wouldn't even need *billions* - Tuvalu has a GDP of a mere 38 *million* per year.\n\n^(Edit #1: Fixed the broken link - stupid parenthesis in URLs!)\n\n^(Edit #3: Right, raw GDP doesn't count as the price for which you could theoretically \"buy\" a country - But I didn't take the OP's question to mean literally mean buying every acre of land and personally employing every single citizen; more a question of buying influence, and I strongly suspect that anyone that can pony up cash on the scale of a country's GDP could realistically do whatever the heck they wanted in that country - Consider that the US has a GDP of 17.5 trillion dollars; if someone offered to flat-out pay the US federal budget for the next five years, what sort of perks do you suppose we would grant for that favor? Probably not \"king for life\", but I'll bet we could find a way to get him an exemption from speed-limits...)",
"There are some examples of billionaires buying islands and basically being a dictator, but what's the point? It'd be a costly endeavour and you don't become/stay a billionaire doing bad investments like that. ",
"A billionaire probably could find a way to do this but why would they want to? \n\nMost billionaires got their money by being shrewd businessmen/women. Investing tons of money in a country that currently has issues supporting itself doesn't sound like a good investment. \n\nThen there is also the chance of militants taking power from you by force at some point down the road.",
"Read Forsyth's \"The Dogs of War\" for a little fictional take on your idea. \n\nThe main thing that would keep this from happening is people are horrible at keeping secrets, and eventually it would get out and there would be a considerable amount of pressure brought to end the arrangement. The closest I think anyone's come is Bob Denard and the Comoros Islands. Not a billionaire, but rumor was his financiers were looking for a tax haven.",
"Money gives you ownership mainly under a states laws. If you were to own a country there would not be any particular organization that would back up your property rights. For example Taiwan holds that it owns the land currently occupied by China and viceversa but these kinds of claims have no actual efficiency.\n\nIt is possible to gain great social standing with people via providing them with great resources and in that sense they might humour you when you try to \"lead\" them. However the notion of \"owning\" them or their state would only work so far that they voluntarily submit to it and see it as fair. The armies of other nations will not automatically come help you. There is no court that would have jurisdiction. There would be no way of pressing your property rights against them should they try to resist them. The risk of them just nationalizing your assets or taking the sell moneys but not in fact giving any special rights in return would be very real. In practise one usually hires a group of mercenaries and threatens with military action if the ownership is not respected, but that would be a coup or a threat of couping.",
"Most of the responses are focusing on the legality of it, but the real obstacles would be making sure your leadership had enough authority to rule effectively and making sure that your leadership remained loyal to you",
"If you were a person with let's say over 10 billion dollars or more you could do all kinds of things with it.\n\nThe funny thing is, nearly all the people who have that kind of money only use it to gain more wealth. How do you think they got rich in the first place?\n\nBut let's say that one of these people got diagnosed with cancer for example and they had 1 year to live. They could just burn all their fortune on crazy things. They could build entire cities. A whole subway system to a place that has none. Castle on a mountain, because why not? Railway roads to cover a whole country, just some random country. Fund NASA for an entire year.\n\nInstead they just wither away and die, clinging to their money like their life depended on it. Though in most cases it goes to their children and they... well, I think everyone knows what rich kids do.",
"The real question is why?\n\nIt would be trivial for bill gates to go to africa and get elected president. Why though. Whats the benefit? \n\nIf he wants to be able to drive drunk, kill hookers, and not pay tax this seems like a pretty expensive and ineffective way to do that. I.e. bill gates days accruing tax liabiluty are behind him. He can hire a driver to drive for him. And there are always foreign countries with bribeable police forces for the hooker thing.\n\nBasically why buy the cow if you can get milk at the corner store. Owning a cow sucks.",
"Liechtenstein is basically that if I recall correctly. The prince of Liechtenstein bought land off a bankrupt baron and made his own principality. He then proceeded to never join another country, so Liechtenstein remains independent.",
"A lot of people underestimate just how wealthy even the poorest nations on Earth are. A billion dollars is a lot of money, but not \"Buy a part of a country and become its president\" money. For that, you'd need hundreds of billions, strong political connections, and recognition from the majority of nations on Earth (Especially the important ones like the U.S and Russia, who'd be reluctant to recognize your rule due to the fact that you bought it). ",
"...because they're not stupid? It's a failed state for a reason. \n\n",
"A Country/Nation is created by the will of someone. A tyrant or gang can be in charge unti the next, meaner tyrant comes along. For a Nation to have staying power, it requires the commitment of the people. The saying \"Freedom don't come Free\" is not a cute saying, look at the histories of all the Nations Earth has had. Like everything else in life, people tend to value things at what it cost them to acquire.",
"Africans would block that from happening. If you think stability in Africa is just a matter of throwing a few dollars at the problem then you're missing many of the deep cultural and racial divides that pits many of these people against each other to begin with. \n\nFurthermore, dictatorship is often the reason why the country can't thrive. Because the dictator is reaping all of the benifits and the people are left with the scraps. Look at Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe has completely bankrupt an entire country that used to be the \"Breadbasket of Africa.\" Zimbabwe is that country that John Oliver showed us the 10Trillion pound note that was worth 43 American Cents.\n\nAnybody that came in and bought a country in Africa would be ousted by the Natives in favor of a Native leader who in turn would be unable to effectively run and country and then the country would collapse and then get bought by China.",
"If it's a sovereign state, it can do whatever it wants. The problem with your proposition is that the billionaire would likely want a lot of control of said country's affairs and the government/citizens would not likely want that",
"You had the same idea as me OP\n\nWe can help them grow crops like;\n\nApples, Oranges and... cotton."
]
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4n1mzp | do clocks have a 'master clock' to refer to so all world clocks are synchrinized? if not, how do all clocks stay together when set? wouldn't the small margin of error when setting clocks to the nearest minute cause some clocks to refer to incorrect times when setting clocks? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4n1mzp/eli5_do_clocks_have_a_master_clock_to_refer_to_so/ | {
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"Yes, there are several master clocks across the world that track time and publish their results. The US government has two and publishes their semi-official results to _URL_0_\n\nYes, all clocks that are manually set will have a margin of error. But in most cases, does it matter if your watch is off 30 seconds? sixty seconds? Not really. You just know if you need to truly be on time such as for a train or flight, you give yourself an extra minute or two.\n\nIf you are doing something that really needs precision, you can download an app that regularly pings one of the master clocks for an update and sync. If you really really need a precise time you can buy a clock that works in the same manner as the master clock.",
"Most clocks are independent. The clock hanging on the wall in your office, the clock on your microwave or oven, the alarm clock next to your bed - you set this when you plug it in, and it keeps its own time.\n\nNone of these clocks are prefect. Over time, they will start to go off from where you set them originally - maybe by a few seconds per month. Over the course of the year, the time on this clock might be a minute or two different from the clock you used to set it.\n\nThere is a \"master clock\" of sorts, this is called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). It's not really a clock per se, but an average of the current time on several hundred atomic clocks around the world, and from satellites in space, to establish the most universally accepted \"current\" time down to the trillionth of a second or so. This time is the \"master clock\" of Earth."
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5txyhw | the events leading up to national security advisor flynn's resignation. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5txyhw/eli5_the_events_leading_up_to_national_security/ | {
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"The Washington Post has been reporting that Flynn had calls with a Russian ambassador about Russian sanctions (sanctions we'd put on Russia). Apparently he did this on a recorded line, and during the Obama administration.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nWhen asked, he publically claimed they never talked about sanctions, and VP Pence and other officials backed him up. Reporters kept digging, and State Dept. warned that he might be vulnerable to blackmail because of the phone calls. He's also on record as having attended a gala with Putin (as a retired general, it's very much a no-no) and potentially received some speaking fees\n\n & nbsp;\n\nWe haven't seen the actual logs of the calls, but the Washington Post has been reporting on it consistently.There was building pressure/scrutiny, so he resigned. It's possible that some more information was going to come out at some point, or the State Dept had fairly damning evidence. In the letter, it says he had \"numerous\" calls, and admitted to giving Pence an incomplete picture, so take that for what it's worth.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nTalking about sanctions like that off the cuff is not great (depending on what exactly he said it can be quite bad).. but lying is a career killer,and it seems he got caught. Having a senior official potentially vulnerable like that is something the government takes seriously.\n\nedit:\n\nIt's worth mentioning that while the WaPo has been reporting on it for awhile, it's likely we're going to get a lot more details in the next few days. People are going to be digging much harder, so keep an eye out",
"I wonder what if anything he may have said about this formally to Congress. It is a felony offense to lie to Congress concerning a material fact or in a false writing under 18 USC 1001. No idea if there is any indication he made any such false statement -- but if he did, consequences are more than just ethics violations. \n\nKudos to WaPo for dogged investigative reporting. ",
"Flynn spoke to a Russian ambassador about Obama's sanctions just before Trump was sworn in. That means he was just a civilian, and in the US, private citizens are prohibited from engaging in diplomatic relations. _URL_0_\n\nHe then lied about it, denying that sanctions were discussed, but caught on tape. He tried to apologize publicly to Pence as a form of admission.\n\nApology not accepted."
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1p8mwy | what is a month based on? | A day is based on the Earth's rotation
A year is based on the Earth's revolution around the sun.
So what is a month based on? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p8mwy/eli5what_is_a_month_based_on/ | {
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"The phases of the moon. It takes approximately a month for the moon to go from full to new and back to full. \nBut they also wanted to have an even number of months in a year, [so...](_URL_0_)\n\n",
"Many ancient calendars were based on the moon, since it consistently goes around the planet every 28 days. Other calendars tracked the sun because it helps to track the seasons.\n\nOur modern calendars are solar based & we've squished things around a bit to split them into chunks 'almost' the length of the moon's cycle. The two can't work together exactly because they don't line up."
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6b56qu | why do you feel tired after watching a film, even though you have just sat there for two hours? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b56qu/eli5why_do_you_feel_tired_after_watching_a_film/ | {
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"You won't be experiencing physical fatigue, as you stated you have just sat there for 2 hours. It will be a combination of mental exhaustion and straining your eyes for extended periods of time.\nThe mental exhaustion is down to the fact that you are concentrating on one thing for a very long period of time and studies have shown most people's concentration peaks at 45 minutes, after that time you actually have to put effort into focusing which can lead to feeling tired. \nThe eye strain is from looking at a screen for a long time, this can be exacerbated if the screen is bright and you are watching it in the dark or if you are too close/far away. \nHope that clears it up!"
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3n8l4e | if you can trace your ancestors back many generations what likelihood is there of any of that "famous" ancestor's genes being part of your make-up? | I saw a TV programme (UK) in which the subject traced his ancestry back to the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066. So that's almost a thousand years ago, so say around forty generations. If you calculate back on the basis that you have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great great-grandparents etc. forty generations represents a possible 1.3 *trillion* ancestors (which is of course is impossible) so it seems pretty meaningless as probably a million other people could claim the same ancestral line. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3n8l4e/eli5if_you_can_trace_your_ancestors_back_many/ | {
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"There are certain historic people that you are very likely to be descended from, based on their (and their immediate descendants) wild success in having kids, traveling a big part of the world while doing it, and living a pretty long time ago. Genghis Khan, I'm looking at you!",
"It is almost certain that since the start of time at least one of your ancestors is going to be famous for something. At the very least, you're the descendant of [Mitochondrial Eve](_URL_0_) who's pretty famous. In fact, the reason why she's your ancestor is also the reason why she's famous!"
]
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j99ks | what is a stockmarket point? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j99ks/eli5_what_is_a_stockmarket_point/ | {
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"OP, I believe you are asking about an index (most likely the DJ or Dow Jones. I further think you are asking about the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index. It is this index, that dropped 512 points (dollars) today on the NYSE.\nIt is a group of 30 stocks on the stock market that represents the economy. Some companies are periodically added and some are taken away from this group of 30. The accumulated stock price of these 30 companies make-up the Dow Jones Industrial avg. It is a bell-weather index to the overall market for Large companies. There are other Dow Jones indexes too (one for transportation companies, one for utilities, etc). Some of the companies who's stock price are added to the DJ Industrial Avg include: Wal*mart, Boeing, GE, Verizon, Proctor & Gamble and more. All of the prices of these 30 companies stocks added together make up the DJIA number. If the share price one company goes down then the the DJIA number goes down.\nThere are other popular index numbers too such as S & P 500 or Russell 2000. These track different types of companies such as mid-size or in the case of the Russell index track small companies.\nHope this helps.\n",
"OP, I believe you are asking about an index (most likely the DJ or Dow Jones. I further think you are asking about the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index. It is this index, that dropped 512 points (dollars) today on the NYSE.\nIt is a group of 30 stocks on the stock market that represents the economy. Some companies are periodically added and some are taken away from this group of 30. The accumulated stock price of these 30 companies make-up the Dow Jones Industrial avg. It is a bell-weather index to the overall market for Large companies. There are other Dow Jones indexes too (one for transportation companies, one for utilities, etc). Some of the companies who's stock price are added to the DJ Industrial Avg include: Wal*mart, Boeing, GE, Verizon, Proctor & Gamble and more. All of the prices of these 30 companies stocks added together make up the DJIA number. If the share price one company goes down then the the DJIA number goes down.\nThere are other popular index numbers too such as S & P 500 or Russell 2000. These track different types of companies such as mid-size or in the case of the Russell index track small companies.\nHope this helps.\n"
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7y6du3 | why does a coil of wire work, since the wire is touching? | I don't understand why copper coils or any coils work since all the copper is basically touching? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7y6du3/eli5_why_does_a_coil_of_wire_work_since_the_wire/ | {
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"If you mean copper coil like that of an inductor then there is a very thin insulator (non-conductive) coating on the wire. This prevents the coils from shorting together.",
"Those copper coils are coated in a clear enamel jacket, insulating them from shorts. Occasionally you'll see a transformer with a short in it, and in that case the enamel has probably worn off. That situation is pretty dangerous though, depending on the current being passed, and the application."
]
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[],
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3spk29 | why do people bash on the younger generation even though they influenced them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3spk29/eli5_why_do_people_bash_on_the_younger_generation/ | {
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"The Simpsons hit the nail on the head on this topic not once, but twice. First:\n\n > Am I out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong.\n\nSecond:\n\n > I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I'm with isn't *it*, and what's *it* seems weird and scary to me. It'll happen to you...",
"People forget that they were like that. Calling the 13 year old weaboo child sad when quite a few of us were like that as well. The MySpace, Bebo, \"deep\" lyrics stuff. Pretty sure it happens with every generation. ",
"Vsauce recently posted a great video called [Juvenoia](_URL_0_)\n\nOlder generations tend to disapprove of whatever the younger generation is doing. Even though they influence us, we have to admit that our world is very different to their's when they were young.\n\nOne of the reasons offered in that video is that the fact that the older generation has done well enough to create the new generation and in evolution terms, that's job done. So the older generation will naturally dislike changes in lifestyle and culture because the last one worked so well for humanity.\n\nAnother important point raised is that this 'bashing' has existed for centuries if not a couple millenia; it definitely *is not* a recent trend."
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9uxq4i | when driving a car i noticed a bee took a ride with me on the right rear view mirror. it fell off after about 20km. will it go back to its colony, find a new one or did the poor fella die alone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9uxq4i/eli5_when_driving_a_car_i_noticed_a_bee_took_a/ | {
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"text": [
"20km? About a 50/50 that it will make it back to the hive really really hungry. There's also a good chance it will just be lost and die of hunger.",
"She's not making it home. Bees will travel up to 5km from their hive, she'd never find it that far away.",
"Above your post was a post that says 90% of bees live solitary lives so doubtful it went back to a colony."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
2z9hai | why is it ok for microsoft to build in a cd ripper into windows media player but not a dvd ripper? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z9hai/eli5why_is_it_ok_for_microsoft_to_build_in_a_cd/ | {
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"text": [
"Audio transcoding made sense. CDs were huge, uncompressed data, while the portable devices had the processing power to deal with MP3s. CDs are really old technology, as they were designed for a device with less processing power than a graphing calculator.\n\nDVDs are digital ready and, at the time, there weren't many devices capable of video playback so transcoding wasn't a drive. The MPAA also made sure a substantial amount of protections were built into the DVD format, which made it difficult to deal with...for the first twenty minutes, or so.",
"The US law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it illegal to try to circumvent copy protection technologies. (Most) DVDs have copy-protection built into them. Audio CDs do not have any such feature.",
"Audio data on CDs are plainly available on the disc itself. It does not require any reverse engineering, hacking or otherwise unsanctioned software to get the audio data off the CD. This is no different of a process than simply playing your CD on the computer with the slight caveat that your computer is then saving the audio data to your hard disk rather than playing it.\n\nA DVD, however, requires a \"key\" in order to play. DVD players and DVD software are given this key/algorithm and thus are allowed to playback the DVD video. However, copying the DVD video data over to your hard drive alone isn't useful, as you won't be able to play that video without \"unlocking\" it in an unsanctioned way. You will then need special software to convert your video, using the special key. Since this requires unauthorized use of software to \"break\" a key or method of protection, Windows does not have this built in as not to get sued."
]
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[],
[],
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2eomof | how and why did the majority of ghettos in america form? | I would like to know at what laid the groundwork that caused the majority of the ghettos in America to form. Was it poor infrastructure planning? Was it poor location? Was it the people who happened to be in that area? Was it something else entirely? Serious replies only please. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2eomof/eli5_how_and_why_did_the_majority_of_ghettos_in/ | {
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"text": [
"There's a bunch of different things. ELI5 in each bullet point. \n\n* Housing for blacks and whites was separate. This was continued by the Federal government by denying loans and directing investment through redlining (telling people not to invest in black areas).\n\n By design, black people often couldn't buy houses in white neighborhoods. (Houses had contracts that prevented sellers from selling to blacks). They also couldn't access federal loans. After World War II there was huge demand for housing, and the government stepped in with all kinds of plans directed by housing authorities all over the country. New highways were being created, public housing was being expanded to address the shortages, loans were given out through the GI bill. Think Levitown, white picket fence sububia. At that time, housing conditions were cramped, especially for blacks. \n\n* Whites moved away, and the black middle class then moved to nicer areas with better housing, further isolating poor black neighborhoods. \n\n White people began moving to the suburbs, using their gi benefits, or following new suburban investments. This was then excellerated by race riots, and eventually the spike in crime created by the crack epidemic. Once housing desegregation began, the black middle class started moving away, looking for better housing in other areas. American cities started to lose people and wealth, allowing for fewer resources. \n\n In the sixties and seventies, with the new effort for urban renewal certain areas deemed slums were leveled. The government agencies started replacing them, but they failed to build enough to replace the units that were destroyed. \n\n* Public housing was built in a way that [failed to give people a sense of ownership.](_URL_1_) leading to [increased crime and reducing self-policing within the community.](_URL_0_)\n\n The older community ties began to break down with middle class blacks living in other areas. New tower developments were poorly maintained as cities lost people, and they were full of poorly patrolled common areas. In some instances, the police would literally refuse to enter some of these properties. This I think really starts to become a point where we see the image of the ghetto that people still hold onto today. In other countries that had similar public housing, poor people weren't isolated in the same fashion. And \nthe units also tended to be better maintained as there was so much public housing construction happening, even for middle class people. \n\n* No jobs for low-skill workers. After the war jobs moved to the suburbs, then to the Western United States. And in the Seventies up to today, globalization and automation further reduced demand for labor in these communities. Without jobs or the ability to move, things started to get worse for people. \n\n* Crime, tough prison sentences including mandatory minimums break down families. Parents and families that are unstable, giving kids fewer resources to achieve success. \n\n* A lack of job resources and the stigma after release leads to further isolation and reinforces the existing reliance on government aid and the informal black market in high crime areas for families in the area.\n\ntldr: segregation, poor planning, isolation, a breakdown in community/family and dis-investment\n\ntldr ELI5: White people didn't want to live with blacks, and the government said ok. Planners, architects and the government created bad housing that was unsafe and didn't feel like homes. People moving apart and living away from poor people made things worse because there was less money. Drugs created more bad guys. Families started to fall apart as the government locked people up for longer and longer. People, businesses and banks stopped believing that the cities were a good place to be. \n\nedit: I should say that I highlighted the poor public housing design mainly because that's an interest of mine. Not because that was the primary factor in creating ghettos. I don't know enough to say what the main cause, but everything listed above is definitely a factor. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/147952NCJRS.pdf",
"http://www.huduser.org/publications/pdf/def.pdf"
]
] |
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