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25osz5 | why do some areas become the "bad parts of town," while others become the "rich parts of town"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25osz5/eli5_why_do_some_areas_become_the_bad_parts_of/ | {
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"Rich people can afford to move to the rich parts of town while poor people can't afford to move out of the bad parts of town. Most rich parts are newer areas and a result of rich people moving there (such as the suburbs). Others are poor areas where the poor are gradually moved out by rising rent prices etc.",
"Sometimes one area really is better, for example with better views, cleaner water, better access to the major roads, far from smelly factories, etc. In such cases, the rich people usually choose the best places, leaving the others for the poor.\n\nSometimes there is no real difference, but each rich person buying a home would rather live near rich people than poor people, so pretty soon you get a \"lots of rich people\" area and a \"no rich people\" area."
]
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[],
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2smpd2 | how do people make high quality gifs of live sporting events on tv only minutes after the action occurs? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2smpd2/eli5_how_do_people_make_high_quality_gifs_of_live/ | {
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"The same way all gifs are made, just quickly. They probably have a capture card connected to their TV that they set to record the whole game, so after something \"gifworthy\" happens they just need to trim that part of the footage and convert it using any number of programs available online.",
"I have a TV whateverathing card in my PC so I can connect the antenna cable directly to my toaster and watch/record/schedule recordings directly through Windows Media Center.\n\nThis might just be arguably the best ways for such activity.",
"[Hi, this is how I do it.](_URL_0_)\n\nBasically, I live-stream the content onto one of my screens, and use a screen capture program to record the action. As soon as I stop recording I have a video file stored on my hard disk. Uploading the video to gfycat is quick and gfycat converts it to a gif for me."
]
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"http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/287fsl/match_thread_switzerland_vs_ecuador_world_cup_2014/ci88xzd"
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383t7g | how do artists become insanely popular even before their first album is released? | I've noticed a lot of bands and artists sell their debut album like crazy because there's a lot of hype for them. How do they build this hype without much music for people to really get into prior to their first release?
Some examples would be Glass Animals, Alt-J, American Football, Mac Demarco, etc. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/383t7g/eli5_how_do_artists_become_insanely_popular_even/ | {
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"text": [
"Most artists already have a following before they release their first CD. Most start out small in whatever town and start playing at open mic shows or booking gigs. After you get popular locally you can start trying to branch out and book shows in other cities and continually grow your fan base.\n\nAlso there are other things like youtube, facebook, etc to help get your music out there.\n\nFinally, several artists will do EPs. It's not a full record, so they still get to release their first record later, after they have already generated a following.",
"I have a friend in the music biz and it's a brutal, dirty business for the artists\n\n\nArtists that are \"instant hits\" are often really neither. Many have paid promoters that AstroTurf radio and local scenes or write comments, upvote etc etc to help promote the band. So there's a ton of exposure before the album is released and boom. Instant hit. ",
"There are two common routes:\n\n1: They have lots of work out there that is not contained in an album; generally an album is created because the fans want it, so an album is likely to be successful.\n\n2: They have a good promoter who puts a lot of effort in to getting people enthusiastic about an artist (though usually that means that 1 is true as well- honestly, I included this just for the one hit wonder pop bands manufactured by certain companies)",
"Mac Demarco already had material out before his \"break\". \n\nAs far as others go, they play shows and get a following. Maybe they release an EP or single.\n\nA debut album is usually the debut major album. like Kendrick Lamar before his debut had Section 80, and Arctic Monkeys had Beneath the Boardwalk. AM is a good example since they were the first big social media band. Just got big from shows and myspace.",
"I have literally never heard of Glass Animals, Alt-J, American Football, or Mac Demarco so I don't know about this \"insanely popular\" label, and I'm a working musician"
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1j7tmh | why are we getting angry at obama and his continuation of the nsa instead of george bush who started it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1j7tmh/eli5_why_are_we_getting_angry_at_obama_and_his/ | {
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"Because he acknowledged what Bush did to our personal privacy was wrong and promised \"change\" to such laws. Then did the exact same thing Bush did, shoveling us the same bullshit rationality behind it.",
"Obama ran specifically on a platform of (among other things of course) correcting the excesses of the Bush administration. It was pointed out again and again that he was a constitutional scholar and would try to roll back many of the extraconstitutional powers the presidency had assumed.\n\nHe turned out to be at least as bad, and in some cases actually worse."
]
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685xa6 | why is the default character pose in a video game a t-pose? | So I'm sure you've seen either through glitches or otherwise. For those who don't know, when a character is modeled or motion captured they are sometimes found in a default "T-pose" with their arms outstretched and their legs straight to form a "T" shape. How did this come to be the standard in a bunch of videogames/CG/etc and what is the benefit of this vs another type of pose? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/685xa6/eli5_why_is_the_default_character_pose_in_a_video/ | {
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"Pants are generally rendered with lower quality than arms, with the natural resting position (standing straight) being the preferred default.\n\nArms get much more utility and movement, and so are rendered outstretched to facilitate rendering the whole arm with textures.",
"It's easy to design, model and rig a person in the T-pose, as it exposes the parts of the body that need to be detailed and allows easy separation of the body into the riggable parts where the animator can place bones to work with.. "
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2dpt87 | how did telegraphs actually work? | I was wondering how a sender could send a telegraph to a specific receiver. With so many interconnected telegraph wires how did they narrow down onto a specific location and send it to only that location? Did the sender and receiver have specific addresses that had to be typed into the morse code machine before a message could be sent? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dpt87/eli5how_did_telegraphs_actually_work/ | {
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"It's discussed [here](_URL_1_). Each telegraph wire connected two points. Each telegraph message included a sender and recipient. The message was sent from point to point based on the city it needed to get to, and then it was written out and delivered from there. There were a variety of short forms (like postal codes) that were used to [keep the addresses short](_URL_0_).\n\nIncidentally one of the advantages of Morris code over previous telegraph methods is that it was easy to record the message on a paper tape. This meant that there didn't have to be a telegraph operator free to receive the message, only to relay it to the next point."
]
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"http://www.clubvictoriaproject.com/jackson/WESTERN%20UNION%20MESSAGE%20RE%20WIN.jpg",
"http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=665765"
]
] | |
yfouz | - how can any business, including a government one, refuse to accept cash? | "This bill is legal tender for all debts public and private". Anyone, even me here on ELI5 can understand that concept. But I was reading this story _URL_0_ and a DMV refused to accept cash. How is this legal? Is it because no one is fighting it? Can we fight it? I can't fathom a US business not accepting cash. Even the Apple Store takes cash c'mon... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yfouz/eli5_how_can_any_business_including_a_government/ | {
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" > \"This bill is legal tender for all debts public and private\". Anyone, even me here on ELI5 can understand that concept.\n\nLegal tender means that if you offer it to settle a debt, the other person must either accept it or release the debt.\n\nHowever, in the case of selling people stuff, there is no debt to settle. If they don't want to accept cash, they simply never sell you the product so you never incur a debt to them.\n\nI don't know if government institutions have any special rules, but in general, this is why businesses can refuse your money.",
"Although it applies more for retail I'd suggest reading:\n_URL_0_\n\nBasically a $1 sign in a store is an invitation for you to bargain for that item at $1 (which they'll obviously accept but they can theoretically reject) as opposed them agreeing to sell you it at $1, where they'd be obliged to accept your legal tender. Which I guess is why they're allowed to reject cash, only accept payment in cattle etc. \n\nIt's also the reason that if they price something incorrectly they have no obligation to sell it to you at that price.\n\n(Note: I know this from British law but I'm 99% sure US common law has the same thing)"
]
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"http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/17/1121432/-I-was-denied-free-voter-ID-today-Pennsylvania"
] | [
[],
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3njjpf | who is gallowboob and why is he on the front page almost daily? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3njjpf/eli5_who_is_gallowboob_and_why_is_he_on_the_front/ | {
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"text": [
"Gallowboob is a collective of users who soul goal is to post material that have the highest chances of reaching the front page."
]
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1lkizj | how can the police try a rape case from 50 years ago? | In the UK, there have been a number of rape cases against celebrities for crimes that occurred in the 60s and 70s. What evidence do you think they have that's enough to prosecute, as they can't have DNA?
Example case: [William Roache](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lkizj/eli5_how_can_the_police_try_a_rape_case_from_50/ | {
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"text": [
"Eye witness testimony, victim testimony or perpetrator testimony could all happen. Not to mention if evidence was stored in the right way there could be DNA, although it's unlikely. I'm a bit confused on the question, just because it happened in the past do you think a rapist should escape justice?"
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337020/Street-actor-William-Roache-charged-indecently-assaulting-ANOTHER-girls-aged-12-16.html"
] | [
[]
] | |
272gtt | what would happen if the passengers of a small jet plane (2-3 dozen) ran to the front of the plane by the cockpit? | I'm assuming they will crash from the weight, but if like to know for sure and any extra details would be appreciated. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/272gtt/eli5_what_would_happen_if_the_passengers_of_a/ | {
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"text": [
"It could, yes. The so called center of gravity has a limited range between which it must fall. If the center of gravity moves too far forward or backwards, it may no longer be possible to properly control the pitch of the airplane. \n\nAs an extreme example, watch this video:\n_URL_0_\n\nIn this case, cargo shifted and moved the center of gravity to such a position that the attitude of the aircraft could no longer be controlled. ",
"This [actually happened](_URL_0_) just a few years ago."
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sUWC2jfjqI"
],
[
"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/8078612/Aircraft-crashes-after-crocodile-on-board-escapes-and-sparks-panic.html"
]
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1lhfn8 | [meta] flair tweak | So you may notice that the flair ("Explained" tag) looks a little different in ELI5. Instead of being at the end of the text, it's in the left margin. And the "Explained" (or "Modpost" or whatever) is only there when you hover over it. For those wondering, we changed it to say "explained" a few weeks ago, both in to the future and retroactively thanks to a script generously written and run by /u/its_not_herpes.
So for the new look, we want your feedback! Let us know if you like it or not so much. If you have constructive (and ideally concrete/doable) ideas on how to improve it, let us know in the comments here!
Also, I added the "Explained"/"Unexplained"/"Reset" buttons to the top of the sidebar a little while ago-- if you haven't used them, give them a try! They won't take you to a search page. They're fancy-- they'll just customize the current ELI5 front page (with cool colors too).
~123421 | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lhfn8/meta_flair_tweak/ | {
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"Also, since it comes up often:\n\nNo, we cannot (and would not want to) allow OP or the mods to mark individual comments as \"best explanation\" or whatever. I can explain both why we don't want to and also why we literally couldn't even if we did want to if anyone would like to know.",
"Help why is everything so far on the left\n\ne: no seriously, it looks weirdly unbalanced and I don't know why",
"Two questions: \n\n1) Is this change purely for cosmetic reasons or does the new flair provide any sort of practical advantage over the old look? \n\n2) When I see a checkmark, I associate it with the concept of a correct or satisfactory answer like you'd see on a test, or in the case of ELI5, a post where the question has been explained well in the OP's opinion. I do not see much of a relation between the same checkmark and a Modpost. With this in mind, assuming it's doable, would it be possible to give the Modposts their own symbol, such as a capital M in a box? "
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6tgfdr | what are some ways the average person can figure out the original source of a photo or tell if it has been altered? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6tgfdr/eli5_what_are_some_ways_the_average_person_can/ | {
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"There are going to be better answers, but to me pictures of people where there has been photoshopping frequently don't have natural angles. The way relatively relaxed people hold their heads and bodies there are normal angles, planes, surfaces, shapes that simply don't look right when there has been alteration. For example the angle of the underarm: when flesh is removed from the inside of the upper arm the angle out from the shoulder is not natural.\n\nObviously when whole portions of different bodies are mixed (new heads) the angles are comical.\n\nShadows are another way. Even simple face-\"enhancement\" can screw up cheekbone shadows, etc.\n\nThis is all just me and I'm not claiming anything definitive, also I'd admit I've fooled myself into false positives about photos that have turned out to be real.",
"There are tools to inspect whether an image has been doctored. It was used to realise an international journalism photography winner was actually a fake.\nOther than that, look for repetition in detail. If areas have been cloned out, you will usually find repetition.\nFor original source, you can always try a 'reverse image search' with Google, and see what it throws up.",
"In certain photos, one of the easiest ways for me to see manipulation is clone tool patterns. Someone uses the clone tool, lets say on leaves to remove an object, and you see the same pattern of leaves or even just one leaf showing up over and over. Also, blurring around a cloned area because the person used a round soft brush."
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21yyux | do diet sodas add calories? | Recently I'ved heard people say diet sodas still "add calories" despite the label stating 0 calries, and they say they heard it somewhere else from some research article (very vague info). While I'm not claiming that soda of any kind is any good compared to regular water, but I fail to see how I would get calories from it when the label specifically says 0 calories? If that was the case wouldn't it be fraud ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21yyux/eli5_do_diet_sodas_add_calories/ | {
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"The FDA allows anything with less than 5 calories/serving to be listed as \"0 calories\".\n\n_URL_0_",
"What they're probably referring to is the idea that diet sodas can trick your body into thinking it's experiencing a sugar rush, which can cause it to produce a surge of insulin, which in turn will trigger fat storage. So even not counting whatever couple calories they may contain, there is research that suggests drinking diet soda can encourage weight gain through how it affects your body's use and storage of calories."
]
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"http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfCFR/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.60"
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3n0akz | what exactly is frying and how different it is from heating something? why oil is needed for frying and why can't you fry with a different liquid like water or milk ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3n0akz/eli5_what_exactly_is_frying_and_how_different_it/ | {
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"You can fry with different oils but it needs to be a liquid that will not evaporate at extremely high temperatures (over 300 degrees).\n\nFrying is the act of submerging a food into a boiling vat of oil until it's fully cooked and is beneficial because it's quicker. The food absorbs the hot liquid directly into it which causes it to cook much faster than conventional means AND causes it to stay moist while doing so where conventional cooking methods tends to cause foods to dry out.",
"Frying is essentially cooking with liquid heat. oil is used over other liquids because other liquids evaporate in the temperature range oil is used (350-450). The difference is the hot oil quickly cooks the outside of the food, sealing in the juices inside the food and the result is a juicy piece of meat (see chicken). its kind of like how alot of chefs sear a steak on a hot grill before finish cooking it in the oven. the juices stay in the meat, making it more tasty.",
"If you are at sea level, your pot of water isnt getting any hotter than 100 degrees, unless its a pressure cooker. Oils can be way hotter without evaporating. Something cooks a lot faster at 300 degrees than at 100. "
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6kb992 | why can't spaceships be fitted with a magnetic field generator to avoid solar radiation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6kb992/eli5_why_cant_spaceships_be_fitted_with_a/ | {
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"Generating a strong enough magnetic field to act as a shield has been discussed and theorized about for some time. However, as a practical matter, the power, size and weight requirements for using something like that on a spacecraft-\n and making it reliable enough for humans to use it safely- make it impossible with our current technology.\n\n",
"They can, but it has a two major problems\n\nFirst, a large percentage of radiation is not strongly affected by magnetic fields. Magnetic fields will only interact with radiation which carries an electric charge. Thus light is not affected by magnetic fields, and so x-rays and gamma rays emitted from the sun will not be stopped by the magnetic field. Also a large amount of solar radiation consist of neutron flux, small particles with no electric charge but similar mass to a proton, these move at very high speeds and will not be affected. All of these forms of radiation can cause cancer.\n\nSecond, magnetic fields fall off away from the point they are generated pretty quickly. So if you need to cover an entire spaceship with a field you need a extremely large source for this. This can get very energy intensive."
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1kmt3m | metal alloys | How are they researched, developed, prototyped, produced, etc?
What makes one alloy better than another? Difference in hardening, density, weld-ability, etc.?
How are they categorically named (eg. Aluminum alloy 1000 Series, 2000 Series, etc.)?
What alloys are used for what?
What's the "rarest" alloy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kmt3m/eli5_metal_alloys/ | {
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"(*Just going to say now I don't have a whole lot of knowledge of the metallurgy industry*).\n\nResearched and developed? Often in ways similar to how a good cake recipe is made. Trial and error with some careful thought about the trial ... normally. You're not likely to try improve a sponge cake by adding tomato ketchup, but it's amazing what a slightly different flour can do. The same is true of alloys. Try something, see what it does.\n\nThe main property of an alloy that makes it better than pure metal is by not having a typical metallic atomic structure. A pure metal might be arranged in a cubic fashion (imagine bricks just placed together, side by side and straight up, no zig-zag). This makes it weak because one layer of atoms (bricks) can be pushed over another layer without much resistance.\n\nAn alloy is different because different sizes of atoms are inside. That'd be like having a wall made of bricks, only some of them are half as big or twice as big and you get a strange pattern. You try pushing from any given direction and the different sized bricks get in the way, so breaking the wall is harder - the same is true in alloys.\n\nThat's just atom sizes though. Metals themselves have many properties. For example, iron rusts. This makes it a bit bad out in the open for a long time as it can begin to degrade. Basic steel (using just carbon and iron) can resist rust a bit more and is a lot stronger. More advanced steel alloys may use very specific amounts of other metals than iron, such a nickel. The addition of those extra metals can prevent the iron from rusting, given you a non-rust steel. Other alloys might resist stains - hence *stainless steel*.\n\nA common alloy in jewelry is a gold-copper alloy. Gold in itself is very weak - you can deform it with your hand alone! But, add a bit of copper and it can get stronger to a point. 24 carat (a measure of purity/weight/things in jewelry, it's a bit weird) gold is \"pure\" and weak. However, 18 carat - using a fair amount less gold, replaced with copper normally - is a LOT stronger, and a LOT cheaper. This makes for better rings and necklaces that not only look good, they also are resilient. (Also, they can give the gold a nicer look).\n\nOverall, an alloy is a way to make a metal that does a different job. Just like a cake is made of flour, eggs, milk, and sugar, an alloy can be made of various components. The painstaking development of alloys is finding out how much egg to add. (not literally).",
"Regarding categorical naming: I don't know about aluminum alloys, but I do know about steels. And let me tell you, EVERYONE has a different naming system. Most of them are \"national\" standards - so there's one that the Germans use, another that the Americans use, another that the Chinese use, etc. We have big equivalency tables that help if you're trying to buy similar steels overseas or something, but they're not *exactly* the same - a slightly larger percentage of element x, smaller percentage of element y, etc. Oftentimes, though, small changes in the chemistry won't affect the mechanical properties too much.\n\nSo generally when ordering steel, you submit a *material specification*, which is a 1 or 2-page document that outlines exactly what you're looking for. There's way too much information to be encompassed in just a quick \"1000 series\"-type number. You can specify max-min percentage values on 7-12 different alloying elements (chromium, nickel, manganese, etc.), required strength values, toughness values, hardness values, and much more. \n\nSo you show the material spec you need to the steelmaker, and in return they will provide a *material certificate*. That's like the specification, but instead of required max/min values, it shows the actual tested values (chemistry, mechanical properties, whatever) of the steel he wants to sell you. If the certificate meets the required values of the specification, you buy."
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1w4tm3 | how does intel turbo boost work? | Does it just temporarily overclock the CPU or what? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w4tm3/eli5_how_does_intel_turbo_boost_work/ | {
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"Yes, basically it allows the CPU to run beyond the typical thermal limits provided it is below them at the time. Think of it like a sprint; it can't keep it up all the time, but it can manage for short stretches.",
"Intel Turbo Boost overclocks the CPU when the CPU is faced with a load it deems stressful. The fewer cores the application uses, the higher the overclock. 95% of applications do not use more than two cores. "
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2ylawc | why are stop signs shaped like an octogon? | Why? Why not be a circle, or an oval? Just something I randomly thought of. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ylawc/eli5why_are_stop_signs_shaped_like_an_octogon/ | {
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"They're the only sign that shape, so even if they're covered in snow or otherwise unreadable, you know it's a stop sign.",
"Many other signs are circles (e.g. speed limits) or triangles (e.g. warning signs). The stop sign and the give way sign have a special form so they can be recognized from other directions. In driving school my teacher often asked me if the cross traffic had a stop or a give way sign, so I was trained to recognize stop signs (and give way signs)."
]
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cadni2 | why do birds have courtship dances? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cadni2/eli5_why_do_birds_have_courtship_dances/ | {
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],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Most species have a method of proving that they are physically fit enough to reproduce. Some like Salmon do this by getting to a hard to reach spawning ground. Some like deer have males fight each other to prove who is stronger. And for many birds they have dances that prove they are healthy and in good control of their bodies."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
1nvyly | why is fresh water scarcity such a concern for the future? we have vast salt-water resources (the oceans), and if we can take oil out of the tar sands, shouldn't large-scale desalination be fairly simple? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nvyly/eli5_why_is_fresh_water_scarcity_such_a_concern/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccmk61y"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Taking oil from tar sands and taking fresh water from salt water are both very, very expensive. The only reason it's at all profitable with oil is because there's no massive free-flowing bodies of oil."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
7edbos | why does satellite radio have dead spots? | I recently activated the satellite radio in my car with Sirius/XM because even though I live in the "Music capital of the world", the radio sucks here. No regrets with the satellite radio, but I noticed that there are a lot of dead spots around town. Certain roads or highways that I drive down, I will lose signal of my satellite radio for several moments as if I passed under a tunnel or Bridge. I can understand this happening randomly, but it always happens in the same areas. What is blocking my satellite radio? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7edbos/eli5_why_does_satellite_radio_have_dead_spots/ | {
"a_id": [
"dq46qhw",
"dq488t4",
"dq4blp9"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
2
],
"text": [
" > I will lose signal of my satellite radio for several moments as if I passed under a tunnel or Bridge. I can understand this happening randomly, but it always happens in the same areas. What is blocking my satellite radio?\n\nYou wonder why a signal from a satellite in orbit 35,786km above the Earths equator has trouble reaching your car UNDER a bridge or IN a tunnel?\n\nIts because those things are blocking the signal. ",
"Where did you mount the receiver on your vehicle.\nYou want it in the open and flat/straight up.\nIf the car/truck you drive has any kind of roof obstruction on it the signal can be obscured. When I drive in the mountains I loose the signal all the time. High buildings can be a bitch as well. The signal is line of sight and anything in the way that is solid enough can hinder the receiver. My Sirius does not work in my shop till I am almost out the door.\nWhat latitude are you at?\nI think certain cell towers if they are big enough can interfere with the satellite reception.\n",
"Since we seem to be a bit short on actual answers here, I can make some suggestions. Aside from the obvious (trees, mountains, tunnels, etc) another thing people rarely consider is interference from other sources. Transmitters with narrowly shaped beams are not perfect, and will have odd lobes of high power radio signals pointing out in interesting directions. Those signals can easily swamp out a receiver, as it is listening for a relatively small signal from space. Additionally, the transmit antennas on the satellite itself may have dead spots (or at least lower signal areas) that would make it far easier for the signal to get overridden. \n\n\nOr, as others have suggested, you may be in a tunnel. /s"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
b2ls66 | why is doing cardio to get your heart rate up good but not through an episode supraventricular tachycardia? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b2ls66/eli5_why_is_doing_cardio_to_get_your_heart_rate/ | {
"a_id": [
"eitg2uh"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"During actual exercise, the movement of other muscle groups and the widening of some blood flow pathways/narrowing of others help assist the heart.\n\nYou have a number of one-way valves in your body that allow more local muscle contractions to push blood down the pipeline.\n\nWhen you're running, these systems are at peak effect to make the heart's job as easy as possible.\n\nIf you're just sitting there at 150bpm from disease or cocaine, the heart is working hard largely unassisted and this can damage it over time."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3sllhy | why don't ambulances patrol like police cars? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sllhy/eli5_why_dont_ambulances_patrol_like_police_cars/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwybfu2",
"cwybmhl"
],
"score": [
3,
13
],
"text": [
"A police car does actually have a function while patrolling. They are not just waiting for crime to happen, they are also preventing it at the same time. Simply the sight of a police car can already make people reconsider getting involved in a crime. \n\nJust the sight of an ambulance won't stop people from getting a heart attack. What's more, in many cities, they will have far more police officers / equipped police cars than they will have ambulances. Meaning it is far more dangerous to tie up a ambulance at the other side of the city with something that serves no purpose than it is to tie up a single squad car. ",
"Because their presence doesn't actually prevent anything, so instead they [remain parked at strategic locations](_URL_0_) waiting for calls."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2geefm/eli5why_do_i_see_ambulances_parked_around_the/"
]
] | ||
60zg9m | how does your body know how to hold in waste? | Like, I could have to go badly but I hold it in and forget about it. How come whenever I sit on the toilet my body knows it's ok to release the waste compared to me sitting on a chair?
(You have no idea how much I tried to avoid making this question one giant poop joke) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60zg9m/eli5_how_does_your_body_know_how_to_hold_in_waste/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfal1lt"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Largely it's practice. The reason babies and young kids wear diapers is because they haven't learned yet. If you do something often enough it becomes automatic. \n\nIt's kinda like walking, it's something you have to learn, but once you learn it and practice it every single day of your life it happens automatically.\n\nThere's also a genetic portion to it, people have been pooping in specific places for a long time; because of that, we're genetically predisposed to pooping in toilets. \n\nNature and nuture baby.\n\nEdit: Also, your body knows because you know. You're one with your mind... man..."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
e3l2a8 | why are dads more stereotypically protective of daughters, and moms stereotypicaly protective of sons? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e3l2a8/eli5_why_are_dads_more_stereotypically_protective/ | {
"a_id": [
"f93mz1l"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Because they know what the opposite sex is thinking. A dad knows what kinds of things he was doing/wanted to do when he was a kid/teenager, and assumes other male kids/teenagers want to do those things too, and when a dad thinks of someone doing/thinking those things with his daughter, he wants to prevent it. Same with moms and their sons. \n\nA dad might not think anything of his son behaving the same way he did as a kid, because the dad also did that and it doesn’t matter to him because no one he loves is being hurt by it. It’s all quite stereotypical, and not always true. My father was never very protective of me as a child, despite me being a girl"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
a86d5e | why do revolvers have a different style handle compared to semi-automatic pistols like a glock? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a86d5e/eli5_why_do_revolvers_have_a_different_style/ | {
"a_id": [
"ec8b8b4",
"ec8b9ar"
],
"score": [
2,
7
],
"text": [
"Because the semi needs room inside the handle for the magazine, while the revolver is free to have whatever shape fits the hand best.",
"The bullets in a revolver are in a rotating cylinder behind the barrel. In a semi-automatic pistol, the bullets are in the handle. The shape of the bullets puts a geometry constraint on the handle."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
2ptqkl | the difference between the irish free state, the irish republic, and the republic of ireland | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ptqkl/eli5_the_difference_between_the_irish_free_state/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmzxx4m"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"They were all different stages of the development of the modern RoI. Pre-partition, post partition, and post civil war. \n\nOther more accurate definitions are available. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
ctpaer | why do man made structures deteriorate exponentially faster when humans don’t inhabit them? | Obviously outside of major disasters and things that would cause damage with us inhabiting it, but structures tend to degrade very quickly without us being around. Even structures built to last (I.e. major brick buildings not just like houses) tend to come crumbling down over time. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ctpaer/eli5_why_do_man_made_structures_deteriorate/ | {
"a_id": [
"exmhz69"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Because they don't get restored\n\nWhen you live in a house and see a crack in a wall you usually fix it\n\nIn an inhabited house no one see and no one repair\n\nDo it for every possible deterioration (mold, rat bite, crack, water leak, ecc. ecc.) and you get your house broken"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
4fy16l | what is the difference between a scientific/research hypothesis and having a (obvious or underlying) bias? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4fy16l/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2cxrzw"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"A hypothesis is a statement that is meant to be tested. A good scientist doesn't hope for the results to be one way or the other. Scientists are human so they need hope to get through the day, and sometimes this hope is unfortunately directed at the results of their experiments. Like you are implying, this leads to bias and can lead to bad science. So there is a difference; it's just that the humanity of scientists blurs the line a bit."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
e089ns | how do lots of people in the same area’s bluetooth devices work without interference? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e089ns/eli5_how_do_lots_of_people_in_the_same_areas/ | {
"a_id": [
"f8czj4c"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"One technique is by dividing the bit of the radio spectrum into channels, much like channels on a television. But there's only about a dozen channels, which isn't enough for 'lots of people'.\n\nSo as well as channels, a technique called CDMA is used. Basically, you have a shared, randomly generated signal between a pair of devices. If you like, you can think of it as being like a voice. You then use that to generate the actual signal that you broadcast.\n\nWhat this means is, you can listen out for the shared signal, and use it to find out what was sent. This is a bit like talking to someone in a crowded room, and picking out the voices you want to listen to, but far more mathematical.\n\nIf the room is too crowded, you simply won't be able to hear your friend over the noise. Bluetooth can similarly be overrun by noise, but you'd need a lot of bluetooth devices in a relatively small space."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
2jshkv | why doesn't a motorcycle slide when turning? | When motorcycles make turns, why don't the tires slide out from under the bike due to centrifugal force? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jshkv/eli5_why_doesnt_a_motorcycle_slide_when_turning/ | {
"a_id": [
"clen89l",
"cleoldq"
],
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2
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"text": [
"that will happen when the tires lose grip. motorcycles tires are on average much better than car tires so they can handle it. also unlike a car, motorcycle turning physics are somewhat different. if you notice, the tires are curved (for most sport bikes), not flat, like on car tires. so they are also built to turn better. likewise, since a bike leans, the center of gravity changes as well. ",
"A bike sliding out (known to those of us that ride as a lowside) occurs when there is a sudden loss of traction on the rear tire. This can occur for a number of reasons (most of which are the fault of the rider). Cold tires (rider), slippery road (50% rider's fault... if road conditions are slippery the rider should see that and not ride as hard on it), grabbing the front brake in a turn (shifts weight off rear tire and onto front tire causing rear tire to lost traction), too much throttle in a turn (rear tire spins out and loses traction), too much tire pressure so the rubber doesn't flex and grip the road (100% rider error).\n\n[There is a great video explaining the technology behind riding all by using the worst acting in the world! There is an abridged version with none of the acting but that takes some of the fun out of it :)](_URL_0_)\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVWLIfChUwg"
]
] | |
7zx31n | why is it that you can install most linux distributions out of the box on any computer but it takes weeks of tinkering from dedicated programmers to adjust lineage os to android phones? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7zx31n/eli5_why_is_it_that_you_can_install_most_linux/ | {
"a_id": [
"durbzaa"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"\n\n\n\nWhile I am not familiar with the specific OS that you are talking about, I can tell you that phone hardware is not the same as PC's - some of the hardware on phones is not something that can be modified or have drivers written easily for such as the cellular components. Those hardware components are controlled by federal law."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
168kem | how did nature know to create sight? | It absolutely blows my mind that nature would know(and know how) to give creatures the ability to see light. I understand the evolution of eyes and the visual cortex is a long and varied one. My question mainly is how nature knew to start the process of creating them in the first place.
Edit: I understand that nature isn't some intelligent being. Putting it this way seemed to be the ELI5 way to ask it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/168kem/eli5_how_did_nature_know_to_create_sight/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Well nature doesn't really know how to do anything, because \"nature\" doesn't really exist except as a collection of individual organisms.\n\nThe first eyes would have developed from eyespots on single-celled organisms. Basically they're light-sensitive \"tissue\" that tells it which direction to swim to get to food. You don't really get to eyes like we have, or like insects or squid have until high order creatures evolve. However, there are eye-like organs in a whole lot of smaller and less developed animals that do basically the same thing.\n\nIt's all about evolution: if the creature develops a mutation to allow it to catch food or avoid predators it has an upper hand in passing that gene on, and over time in many species it has become more and more efficient.",
"_URL_0_\n\nThis was a tricky question when the idea of evolution was new. Critics of the theory thought that some systems in biology- including eyes- were too complex to have arisen through the kind of incremental improvements that evolution consists of. This problem with evolution is called [irreducible complexity](_URL_1_), but in the case of eyes, it's largely been answered by describing a string of developments, each individually useful, that lead to the kinds of eyes we find in nature.",
"[Here is a video by a well known biologist about how the eye could have evolved, but explained fairly simply.](_URL_0_)\n\nFor things like this, it really helps to have pictures.",
"When some organisms became light-sensitive and others weren't, the light-sensitive ones were far better at sensing danger than others, and thus survived better. Fast-forward a few million years, and you're using this ability to look at pictures of cats."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_eye",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity"
],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwew5gHoh3E"
],
[]
] | |
534etg | why do men feel guilty after masturbation? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/534etg/eli5_why_do_men_feel_guilty_after_masturbation/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7puwd9"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"The idea of men feeling guilty for masturbating is subjective as all get out. I'm sure there's some guys who experience the guilt due to cultural or religious teachings. I personally feel no shame or guilt about rubbing one out. If someone walks in that might cause some awkwardness but not shame or guilt. If anything the person walking in on me should feel shame or guilt due to not respecting my privacy."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
4qsm3m | why is one pass when wiping a disc not secure? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qsm3m/eli5_why_is_one_pass_when_wiping_a_disc_not_secure/ | {
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"text": [
"Looks like one pass or at most two is sufficient.\n\n_URL_0_",
"It is. You can't actually recover data from modern discs after a 0-wipe. There was a paper published in the 90s that talked about a method that could recover some data, but this was only slightly better than 50% successful per single bit, and it was on discs that had much lower density.",
"Something like the Guttmann method isn't REALLY needed for a secure wipe.\nIn most memory setups, your computer keeps a list telling it where on the disk everything is kept. If there's a space that isn't on the list, it's treated like it's empty and can have data written there. When you delete something (or format in some cases) it just removes that item from this list, but it's still stored there. So if someone wanted it they could still get the data by looking in every space.\nOverwriting with all zeros erases everything on it, kind of like shaking an etch-a-sketch. There isn't any known way to recover something after that, but people like Guttmann claim the CIA can use some device to still read it, so his technique is for the kind of paranoid people who want to be extra-sure.",
"Data is stored as 0's and 1's, but there's only so much precision involved... When you write a bunch of 0's, you tag those positions on the drive to be _pretty close_ to zero voltage - so close your computer can't read it any more - but that isn't a 100% certainty. There _could_ still be some residual charge in those positions that used to be 1's, and a sufficiently sensitive piece of equipment _could_ spot some percentage of those \"old\" 1's and recover some of the data there.\n\nI don't know how reliable such methods are IRL, but the idea behind writing multiple passes of 0's and 1's is to \"even out\" any residual charges and make even those methods unusable."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.nber.org/sys-admin/overwritten-data-guttman.html"
],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
3apuef | why in the summer does water come out of the tap cold, when geothermal in the winter warms up your house? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3apuef/eli5why_in_the_summer_does_water_come_out_of_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"csetrxa"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Water in the ground generally stays the same temperature, because of the temperature of the surrounding crust. This temperature is largely dependent on the latitude of your location--generally, the higher the latitude, the lower the temperature of the [groundwater](_URL_0_). You will notice that most of the groundwater temperatures in the graphic are below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.\n\nNow, take a warm summer day, say 85 degrees in the air. Groundwater coming from the tap at 68 degrees is going to feel cool because it is nearly 20 degrees cooler than the air. Take the same groundwater at the same temperature on a freezing winter day. 68 degree water on a 25 degree day. Much warmer."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.epa.gov/athens/learn2model/part-two/onsite/ex/jne_henrys_map.html"
]
] | ||
1sxp5r | why are dryers heavier than washers? | When I help my Dad install/fix washers and dryers we sometimes have to lift them onto the bed of our truck. In the recent days however I have seen that dryers are typically heavier than washers. Is it that the bin where we load the clothes is horizontal that makes the difference or is it something more? Also what I mean by lighter than the washer I mean that the washer has been completely drained of water. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sxp5r/why_are_dryers_heavier_than_washers/ | {
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Not sure what you are talking about, washers are heavier than dryers on average.",
"Washers are heavier because they have concrete in the base to prevent them from moving across the floor whilst they're spinning and shaking themselves to pieces. ",
"Washers are more heavy due to a cement base that weighs about 100 pounds. Source: I lift several washer and dryers a day as a furniture and appliance delivery man.",
"Not many washers have concrete in them anymore. A few front load washers have 2-3 concrete weights, but most uprights have none. Dryers are just the cabinet, drum, a small motor and belt. That's the basics anyway. Washers have a drum that sits in a tub, a motor and more often than not, a transmission or gear case. I've never seen a dryer that weighed more than a washer. If you are moving a washer that's been used, it always keeps a small amount of water in it. I'm a whirlpool technician."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
47v0rj | how is it possible to find so much free porn online? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47v0rj/eli5_how_is_it_possible_to_find_so_much_free_porn/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0fsi8n"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"They are fully legal. Just as you can post your own videos on YouTube to watch, only different content.\n\nThe age verification pop up, they asked. That's all the site needs to do and even that's not required. If you say yes you're old enough, you are at fault, not them, if any legal business goes down.\n\nDonors and paid subscribers (ad free) keep the site up and running."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
8r8tzg | when you rub two things together…why do they sometimes squeak? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8r8tzg/eli5_when_you_rub_two_things_togetherwhy_do_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"e0phb73"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"[Stiction](_URL_0_).\n\n > Any solid objects pressing against each other (but not sliding) will require some threshold of force parallel to the surface of contact in order to overcome static cohesion. Stiction is a threshold, not a continuous force.\n\nSo as you move one surface against another, the surfaces stop and start in rapid succession. Making a small tick noise with each slip. If they occur at say 200 times a second, you will hear a 200 Hz squeak."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiction"
]
] | ||
6zs2jr | it seems like the porn industry completely defies the law of supply and demand, how are people still paid well when there is basically unlimited amounts of it available now? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6zs2jr/eli5_it_seems_like_the_porn_industry_completely/ | {
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"text": [
"Think about it this way. \n\n\nEvery year the trends change so new films are made to accommodate them. This means new stuff all the time. And since people will buy new stuff as it comes out (it gets old when you have seen it a lot), or work to collect series / sets. \n\nIt's an ever changing market and for many there is always something to watch. Currently we are in an incest trend which created new markets, soon it will change to something else. Thus the industry makes new and people buy it. ",
"You are also forgetting the biggest aspect of this. Advertising money! People may not subscribe to porn sites anymore, but when brazzers releases an exclusive to PH, they get a cut of the ad profits. It's how major players like PH are able to subsidize their amateur base. Pennies on the dollar, and it's basically consignment, they get paid by traffic. \nThat's the new business model, sell the customer not the product. ",
"Why pay for the next Star Wars movie when old episodes of Buck Rodgers is available for free. They are pretty much the same, right?\n\nWhile many people see porn as a single use commodity, there is a core of hardcore porn fan (hardcore fans, not the porn). They have performers and series they like and follow, and when they come out with something new, they want it now. I have a friend who works in an adult book store, and when something new comes out, they have people waiting at the doors when the open. They are the ones who pay for it.",
" > how are people still paid well\n\nYou should watch the documentary [Hot Girls Wanted](_URL_0_). The vast majority of talent in the adult industry only make a few hundred dollars per shoot and have a career life of 6 months or less. They just get paid 1x for their work -- they don't share in any of the profits.\n",
"How do you think aquafina stays in business when there's unlimited water everywhere? Everyone needs to drink but some water is better.",
"They don't actually get paid very well anymore. A lot of them are just barely getting by. Most actors get paid for a few shoots and then don't have any work for months . Some have second jobs while they don't get any acting work. It's explained that just being hot isn't enough anymore because the market has evolved into niches. So if the market favors teens and milfs or whatever then girls who don't meet that criteria don't get work or maybe they had work but don't look like teens anymore and aren't old enough to be milfs so now they're in a workless limbo. It's definitely way worse now than it was before Porn Hub. A lot of actors do custom films that vary in expense for particular people with those fetishes . \n\nA good listen is The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson. He pretty much covers the various effects of Porn Hub on the industry. ",
"There's a documentary on this issue. It's called \"The Butterfly Effect\" and it's on _URL_0_. Since the advent of Pornhub, the porn industry has completely crashed. No one is making much money anymore. A director who has been in the industry for awhile explained in the documentary that he makes very little money now, whereas he could have retired after 10 years of work on what he used to be earning. Now, he's barely getting by. People in the industry used to work non-stop if they wanted. Now, they can book very little in any given month. There's just one particular agent who has around 12 clients, and they're the only ones who have constant work. The director did a quick search of Pornhub and showed that his latest works were already on there, free. He explained that the way to get business was to upload a portion of a video on Pornhub, then when the viewer is hooked, make them pay to see the entire video.\n\nAnother thing happening in the industry is that everything is now targeted to work with search terms. Ideally with a couple of search terms to attract several groups. So, like, MILF is popular, as is teen or step-daughter or babysitter, and if you can be a MILF and also relate to another search term, then that's better. This means that women close to 30 or above can be MILFs, and women under 20 or so can be cheerleaders or babysitters, etc. But women in their early through late 20s are surprisingly not popular because they don't fit into the right search terms. They used to be among the most popular actresses. So women make due by being engaged with other related activities. One popular thing to do is to make custom porn, tailored exactly to a scenario dictated by a customer ready to pay several thousand dollars.",
"From what I understand, the majority of it is owned by a parent company. That parent company owns both the legal, paid sites and free sites. The free sites are partially illegal but If a pornstar wants to pursue the site they'll be risking their job because the site is owned by their boss. Forget the name of the company but they've got a huge grip on the industry.",
"Finally a question I can answer!!! (I think)\n\nTLDR: demand may not be huge, but that small amount of users will pay absurdly high prices. Also for the cost, the profits are amazing.\n\n1. Porn fanatics/addicts - this is the major point I think other commenters have left out. These are folks who just can't get enough and always want more new and original material. Often they'll pay premium (like way way more than is rational) to get it. They'll follow every star and buy all their merch. One dude could pour half his annual salary into the industry just cuz he's hooked. \n\n2. Novelty - people want new shit. Once I've jerked off to a porno I'm not interested as much and want to move onto something I haven't seen before. There are people who have their favorite movie and jerk off to it exclusively but most men want something new, wether it be actresses or fetishes, and want that new thing often. Going back to point 1, the fans/addicts will always pay primo for new stuff,\n\n3. Directors/producers who do it for the love - a lot of people who make porn are also fanatics/addicts so they make it for the love, even if they lose money making it. Many creators of porn get to fuck the pornstar (even if that's not the part they filmed!) which brings me to my next point...\n\n4. Prostitution - first you have directors and producers who hire the female pornstar and star in the porno too to get off themselves (like my last point and as a reference check out the director producer Mike Adriano or Rocco Sifredi) but you also have guys who hire the pornstar, fucker her off camera and then hire male talent to fuck her on camera, they publish the one with the actor. The goal here isn't to make a profit but rather make back money spent having the experience of fucking their favorite star. \n\n5. Prostitution again - many female stars don't actually make a lot of money on the porn they make. Rather they make the money from the fanatics and addicts who will then pay crazy money to sleep wth them off camera. Nicolette Shea charges $2000 for an hour, I've heard of weekends with pornstars who charge up to $80k JUST FOR A WEEKEND. Keep in mind, if a pornstar isn't prostituting herself, she's probably selling cam shows, underwear, vids or maybe feature dancing. Either way, the fact she was in a porno makes her value shoot trough the roof.\n\nIn conclusion - it's the few that pay absurd amount of money that keep the industry rolling, and the industry keeps itself propped up by men who do it for the love and women who star in movies for cheap so they can make money elsewhere.\n\nSource: Am an addict\n\nEdit: Spelling"
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2zmtlb | why is it so hard to de-salinize sea water? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zmtlb/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_to_desalinize_sea_water/ | {
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"It's not particularly hard just expensive. There is a massive amount of salt to remove. ",
"It's about volume. It doesn't take much energy to desalinate a bucket of water, but it takes a lot to desalinate the 200 billion gallons of water that a city like LA uses every year.",
"The processes are well-understood; it's just that they are expensive in terms of energy. A nuclear reactor like those used to power aircraft carriers can generate power for purifying water - but the 150,000 gallons a day it can make are tiny compared to the water needs of the desert southwest. California uses about 38 billion gallons of water a day, or about 250,000 aircraft carriers' worth."
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3fte2f | how dangerous actually are sharks like great whites, tiger sharks, etc? | for instance, if you were to dive into a deep pool of water with them swimming around, would they do anything? if you had a small cut on your arm, what about then? what if you splashed around like a seel? do you have to smell like their prey (e.g. seels) as well as resemble them and their movements? how worried should you *really* be if you found yourself in the middle of the ocean near one of these sharks (meaning great whites, tigers, bulls, makos, blues, oceanic white tips, sand tigers, etc)? are they more dangerous than orcas to humans? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fte2f/eli5_how_dangerous_actually_are_sharks_like_great/ | {
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"No Orca in the wild has ever attacked a human. That being said the different species of shark have various levels of aggressiveness. Tigers, bulls, oceanic white tips are known to attack indiscriminately... whites are dangerous because an investigatory bite can easily be fatal.\n\nSand tigers don't attack unless provoked, so don't try to grab their tails and they'll leave you alone.\n\nThe thing to think about is when you're in the ocean you're in their back yard, so tread carefully. If you're in deep murky water splashing around on the surface you're asking for trouble, if you see a shark (unlikely if it's planning on attacking you) just calmly proceed to get the hell out of the water."
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2brsyt | given the high cost of postage, how can businesses afford to sell cheap goods with free postage? | Do they get huge bulk discounts for postage? Do they just not make any money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2brsyt/eli5given_the_high_cost_of_postage_how_can/ | {
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"They can't, they can however afford to sell you a $15 item for $20 and free postage.",
"If you are using USPS, anything under 13 oz qualifies for 1st class, which is pretty cheap. As an example....shipping a package from my place on the East Coast to California that is 5oz is on $2.09. That's pretty cheap...so 1st Class is easy to offer for free if your packages are light.\n\nFor heavier packages, they are in most cases increasing the base cost to include their shipping fees. Either that, or they work in so much bulk that they can afford to absorb shipping costs. They also work in bulk discounts with UPS or FedEx since they use those services so frequently."
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30eh2j | logical positivism | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30eh2j/eli5_logical_positivism/ | {
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"More or less, it's the assertion that meaningful knowledge must be verifiable, either through logic or empirical demonstration (scientific method). "
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6esfl1 | can you tell (about) how tall someone is from there dna? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6esfl1/eli5_can_you_tell_about_how_tall_someone_is_from/ | {
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"You can look for genetic markers to see how a persons disposition for being tall is but you can easily be an inch or more off even if you had perfect knowledge about how these genes factor in because things like nutrition during growing up, hormonal imbalances through sickness for example, and even physical activity all have a very big effect on how tall you actually turn out."
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4yybha | why does the cia not do domestic counterintelligence? was there an incident that separated these duties? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yybha/eli5_why_does_the_cia_not_do_domestic/ | {
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"Basically. Up until the 1970's, the CIA was more or less a self-regulated entity...which was understandably problematic. There were several shocking domestic CIA operations that came to light during the 70's, to include MKULTRA. Once Congress learned the CIA had basically been dabbling in insanity worthy of a James Bond villain, their ability to essentially do as they please was permanently revoked as a result of the Church Committee. ",
"The FBI is older than the CIA and already had authority to investigate espionage cases when the latter was created. The CIA, among other agencies, spies on other countries and handles counterintel to prevent spying on US assets and missions abroad, but they are required to yield to FBI when their information leads to US territory.\n\nThe most immediate foreign example of this division would be British MI5 vs. MI6, although the analogy is very far from perfect: MI5 is not a law enforcement agency like the FBI, but an intelligence and covert ops agency that just happens to operate within the bounds of Britain. MI5 is not required to yield to Scotland Yard, although cooperation certainly occurs."
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def1w3 | why is investing not seen as the same way as it is gambling? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/def1w3/eli5_why_is_investing_not_seen_as_the_same_way_as/ | {
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"Gambling is an exercise of near-term risk with clearly defined terms wholly outside of your control, whereas investing is an exercise of longer-term risk with terms nearer to your control. An informed gambler isn't usually all that much more successful than an uninformed one over the long term, but a well-informed investor is much more successful than an uninformed investor over over the long term.",
"Investing is gambling, but a type of gambling with favourable odds. Unless a company goes bankrupt, their stock will trend upwards over the years. It may not go up this year, or in the next ten years, but over the course of a lifetime, it will probably go up.\n\nInvestment isn't normally called gambling because gambling is a term often reserved for betting on improbable things. In casino, for example, every game has unfavourable odds, so people call that gambling. It is the same with other things in life. Education could be called a gamble because after getting a degree, there is a chance that you will not get a job. However, unless you get unlucky, you will probably find a way to make money from you degree. This is why education is seen as an investment, not a gamble.",
"While both include Risk it might help to conciser the premise behind each, and the influence of Skill vs Chance. Spoiler: Skill good; Chance bad.\n\nInvesting grew from the idea of giving someone a loan in exchange for a stake in the business. If the business succeeded, then you were paid based upon the profits, relative to your stake. If it failed, then you lost the value of your Loan. While chance plays a part in a business' success or failure, it is generally believed that Skill plays a greater part.\n\nGambling grew out of the ancient equivalent of flip a coin. You place your stake in the pot and a random event occurs. If it's favorable, you take the pot. If not, you lose your stake. While more complicated forms of gambling have been developed that rely more heavily on Skill, Chance is still seen as the driving force. Even in games such as poker the skill comes in managing the outcome of chance.\n\nSide note: Pinball machines were banned for a while because they were considered gambling. Eventually, the idea that the game was one of skill and not chance helped changed that. ([Link to article](_URL_0_).)",
"Investing is not gambling.\n\nPutting money into a business, or a money making enterprise in return for part of the profits is not gambling.\n\nSpeculating is gambling.\n\nBuying and selling stocks in the hope of a short term rise in price is gambling.\n\nYou can never have enough information to make a true informed decision, and you can never truly predict the actions of other speculators, which directly effect the value of a share.\n\nInvestors can make a return consistent with the growth of the market.\n\nThe long term results from speculation are more consistent with random chance.",
"Gambling in a bookkeepers, or a casino, you'll never make a profit. The odds are stacked in such a way that the house wins, over all of the games played or bets placed.\n\nIn comparison, investing money tends to give back more than you put in, because then other people do actual work and you ~~steal~~ ~~take~~ receive some of the profits of those people's work.",
"when you gamble, the house is expected to win so in the end, you're expected to lose money.\n\nWhen you invest, stocks typically go up in value in the grand scheme which is why diversifying is recommended. The expected value of this action is to make money.\n\nA lot of people see day-trading as gambling which is a riskier way to work with stocks.",
"Gambling is about the distribution of some fixed pool of money. Everybody pays in a certain amount, something unpredictable happens, then everyone collects a certain amount based on the outcome of the unpredictable event. The only value created by that activity is the excitement of maybe winning a lot of money. Nothing is added to the pool. If you won money, it came directly from someone else. Economists call this a \"zero sum game\" because the winnings and losings must sum to zero. \n\nInvestment is about mutually beneficial exchanges of money across time. It typically involves someone who needs a lot of money NOW (often to start a business) and someone else who is saving money to use it for later. The first person pays the second person a fee (interest) in return for borrowing their money. This allows people who aren't independently wealthy to start businesses, own homes, go to college, etc. and generally contributes positively to the economy. Like in a lot of economic activity (but unlike gambling), both parties are better off for having made the exchange. The game is not zero sum. \n\nInvestment CAN involve a lot of risk. It's never possible to know for sure whether the person you lend money to will actually succeed and/or pay you back. There are ways to behave in investment markets that ARE essentially gambling, and they tend to get hit with the label of \"speculation.\" On the other hand, there are many investments (government bonds, CDs, etc.) that are pretty close to risk free. (A US treasury bond might not pay out... if the entire federal government collapses, but in that situation you probably have bigger problems anyway).",
"Gambling and investing are actually not similar activities. \n\n & nbsp;\n\nGambling is wagering on the outcome of some event which you are unrelated to.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nInvesting is (philosphically) supporting a business by buying into that business. If a business has 100 shares for sale, and I \"invest\" in that business, by buying one of those shares, I am not \"betting on\" that business. I am BUYING 1% of that business. I am now a part owner of that business. \n\n & nbsp;\n\nWhen the business makes money, I make money (dividends, a portion of the business profits paid to me based on how many shares I own).\n\n & nbsp;\n\nThe \"gambling\" ish part of investing, \"playing the stock market\" is when I buy shares, intending to sell those shares later when they are more expensive. \n\n & nbsp;\n\nIts not \"gambling\" for real, because its still not betting on a the outcome of an unrelated event. It is simply buying and selling of property. \n\n & nbsp;\n\nInvesting is thus no more gambling than buying baseball cards, or cars, or houses, hoping that their value will go up so you can sell them for more later."
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9cvxd2 | how come you dont feel rested simply by laying down and closing your eyes for a bit, why do you actually have to sleep | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9cvxd2/eli5_how_come_you_dont_feel_rested_simply_by/ | {
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"Because your brain has to rest, not your body. You have to let the brain go off, essentially. You have to give it time to organize things. You can't do it while you're consciously present."
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3xe5z9 | how a car jack works? how can it withold that much weight over long periods of time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xe5z9/eli5_how_a_car_jack_works_how_can_it_withold_that/ | {
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"Once compressive force is place on something which will hold it then it is basically in place forever. Maybe you are used to movies where things slipping make for good drama.\n\nThe magic of car jacks is that they use the principal of the lever to enable you to pick up a large weight by hand. hydraulic jacks do it by pumping hydraulic fluid to get a mechanical advantage. If you go under a vehicle never trust the jack to do the holding. Put blocks under the vehicle to keep it off you. I had a patient once who had to go through dialysis because of a failed car jack. Dialysis was painful those days. He pulled a knife on a nurse. The nurses refused to treat him for a life threatening condition.",
"They use rated, very strong steel, AND compressed air/gas to an extent. If a tooth of steel can support 100lb/45kf or so, imagine 20 of them. As you crank the jack, it uses more teeth and therefore is able to support a car's increased pressure more and more. I have seen jacks fail, so some responses are kinda incorrect. Sometimes it acts like a piston, to be honest.\n\n & nbsp; \n\nObviously air/gas is a slight factor, though not all jacks even use any. Also, there's the whole thing about the jack not supporting the full weight of a car; as you crank higher, more weight is shifted to the opposing side. This relieves pressure on the jack, maing it a lot more powerful..\n\nThere's many different quality jacks, and of course my example is only for illustrative purposes. Nevertheless, cars weigh a lot, and jacks most definitely are under a lot of stress. It's still a marvel of some sort, just not as greatly as you think.\n\nE: Forgot to include how minimal effort equates to applying a lot of force. Levers in general are like this, but essentially you're putting the down-force motions onto each tooth's lift as you pump it. I.E. 1-2 feet of movement are only moving a number of centimeters. These mechanisms magnify the effort put in, even if it's still a lot of effort."
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3seip7 | why is the term "white trash" so commonly used, but people consider the term "black trash" to be racist? | If both terms were to be applied to the exact same kind of people on each race, why is one term racist and the other is not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3seip7/eli5_why_is_the_term_white_trash_so_commonly_used/ | {
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"Both terms are blatantly rascist. Where are you seeing claims that one is not?",
"The most likely scenario is that white folks haven't been persistently verbally degraded as a means to diminish their humanity. Calling someone \"white trash\" or \"cracka\" isn't as *near* a social taboo as \"black trash\" or \"n**er\" based on the history of our nation. ",
"Because only white people can be racist.\n\nI'll add the /s just in case.\n\nMost well-thinking people will recognize both are racist, but you'd best save you the effort to engage in this debate that's dominated by political correctness. You'll never win for even raising the issue as a white person will result in \"You're racist\" and that being the end of discussion.",
"There's a school of thought that claims that racism can only stem from a position of power. Without the position of power to draw from, it's \"just\" prejudice. That school of thought also tends to believe that the power has to be universal. So a minority group excluding white people from a function isn't racist, because while they definitely hold the power in that situation minorities on the whole don't have that position of power.\n\nThat seems to me to be a way to generate a language nuance to justify actions that would be blatantly considered racist otherwise. Or, at the very least, the \"racism=prejudice+power\" diminishes the negative effects of pervasive prejudice because \"it's not racist!\"",
"Both are considered racist. Anyone who tells you otherwise does not understand what the term racist means. They are both disparaging and insulting as well. ",
"There is a long history of racism against black people! Google it! You'll be shocked at what went on! Seriously! Specifically look up \"slavery\" and \"Jim Crow.\" It's crazy!",
"White Trash is racist against everybody all at once because it implies that other colors are trash by default.",
"Who has ever used the term \"black trash?\"",
"Both are bad. \n\nSome people think one is worse then the other because of history.\n\nHistory is part of race. Treating people differently because of race is bad."
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8objk6 | if the hottest man-made temperature ever is 5,500,000,000,000c in the cern, how come the lab and everything sorrounding it didn't melt down? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8objk6/eli5_if_the_hottest_manmade_temperature_ever_is/ | {
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"because it's a tiny tiny tiny amount of matter that's at that temperature. the overall energy involved is far less than the energy made when you click your fingers.",
"Think about the difference between the filament of a light bulb being at about 2550 Celsius vs your entire house being that temperature. Obviously that is the difference between business as usual and your entire house burning, melting, and exploding at the same time.\n\nThat very high temperature at CERN was in a very small area for a very brief period of time. The total amount of energy was fairly small, just very concentrated at that instant.",
"The trick is to heat up a tiny amount of mass. this is first of way easier, since you need less energy to heat it up. And secondly, deals with the problem of dispersing the heat after. \n\nSo for this experiment, they basically heated up only a couple of particles. ",
"Same reason a campfire doesn't burn the forest down.\n\nThere is a very little hot stuff, and a whole lot of cold stuff, which dilutes the heat before it can do any damage. It is likely the CERN experiment only heated a handful of subatomic particles to the temperature.",
"Temperature isn’t the same as heat. Would you rather a teacup full of 100$ bills, or a bathtub full of 50$ bills?\n\nSame idea here, just because that was the highest temperature doesn’t mean there was much heat. That temperature was for so little time and in so small a spot.",
"Temperature doesn't melt things. ENERGY does.\n\nThe static voltage produced by you walking on the rug could reach 4000V but it doesn't melt you or thing you touch. ",
"Does your oven make your entire house warm up to 400 degrees? Of course not, same reasoning applies here",
"Put some aluminum foil in the oven. Touch it. It won't feel hot. That's because the amount of foil touching your skin cools instantly when you touch it, there's very little \"hot\" in it. If you did the same thing with a slab of aluminum, it would feel very hot, because while it's the same temperature, there's way more hot to go into your fingers.",
"Temperature is like density. Its a per unit thing. So a small amount of energy can still be a high temperature if its localized in a very small region. But its still a small amount of energy, and qhen you spread it out to try and heat up something big, the effect will be minimal.\n\nBurn 1 candle vs 10000 candles. They all burn the same temperature, but the latter is alot more worrisome than the former. ",
"How do you even measure a temperature that high? Is that a theoretical maximum or something?",
"Tempurature and Heat are related, but not the same.\n\nLet's say you have a kiddie pool of water, it's 60F, which is pretty cold!\n\nYou have 3 gallons of 100F water, and a teacup of 200F water... Which one will warm up the kiddie pool more? The 3 gallons of 100F water will! That's because even though it doesn't have a higher tempurature, it has much more heat (because there is more of it).\n\nAt CERN, they made an extremely small mass with an extremely large tempurature. The amount of _heat_ wasn't much, but the _tempurature_ was humongous! But similar to the teacup of near boiling water, it won't do much to the kiddie pool.\n\n"
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5nx4g5 | if i'm about to starve to death but food was present at the very last moment, would it save me? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nx4g5/eli5_if_im_about_to_starve_to_death_but_food_was/ | {
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"Depends on circumstances and type of food. Look at the holocaust victims, they were literally starving to death and if you allow them small bits of food and sips of water their body can handle it and slowly get better. Some still died of starvation even after being rescued. This is very circumstantial.",
"At the very last moment, no. The blood stream takes time to absorb food, so you would have to eat a good while before you would die. There's also the risk of refeeding syndrome, so even if it wasn't the last minute you might die anyway.",
"Look up how anorexics are rehabilitated. It really depends on how your body would react. Food/drink would have to be introduced slowly, gradually building back up to a normal diet. You could still die, it would all depend on how badly your organs were damaged from the deprivation. ",
"my grandfather told me that starved people who got to eat food the first time for a really long time in american camps(after they got captured) died because they ate too much and their bodies could not handle the food. he said the food they ate was too heavy and they got diarrhea and died because of that.\n\nhe also said starving isnt really that bad after a couple of days. your intestines shut down and it takes a while to get used to food again.\n\nhe had some interesting anectotes. one is that americans eat more pepper and less salt than germans. they had tons of pepper left over but salt was always rare.",
"No. You wouldn't be saved from eating immediately before. Your body needs to metabolize the food into your blood which isn't instant. Not only that, if you're on the brink of starvation, then your digestive system wouldn't be functioning ideally; after all, starving to death takes typically over a month (assuming you're hydrated) and in the last week or so your organs would be damaged and shutting down, plus you're barely producing stomach acid to digest anyway.\n\nTo add even more on top of that, there's refeeding syndrome which involves a number of pretty shitty disorders. Essentially though, from my understanding, during starvation, your body uses up it's resources and switches to consuming your fatty acids to conserve red blood cells. When refeeding occurs, the body tries to pump out more red blood cells, but the resources used to make those normally are used up, so some compound builds in the liver and skeleton which uses up ATP in red blood cells causing the red blood cells to not work properly and they don't deliver enough oxygen around your body. There are also other things that happen, but I'm not sure about them.\n\nOften times, when faced with emancipated, emaciated WW2 captives, allied soldiers were told not to give any food to the emaciated captives and to keep them away from finding food as it could literally kill them because of refeeding syndrome. ",
"Sugar, will entre the blood very quickly. Your not specific as to the specific time of your last moment. Starving can take weeks for you body to exhaust the last of its fuel sources to power the heart. Is this last moment you describe 60 seconds before you heart stops or an hour. My guess is you would have a ten minute to 30 minute window for sugars to get into the blood and be useful. ",
"Another issue I haven't seen mentioned on here yet is something called \"refeeding syndrome.\" It's something that happens when you haven't eaten for weeks. The influx of glucose and other nutrients into your system cranks up hormones that had been essentially shut down, especially insulin. The sudden change causes a massive shift and depletion of electrolytes like phosphorous and magnesium among others. It's so bad it can send you into heart failure. That's why if you're admitted to the hospital due to starvation, they reintroduce food very slowly with a close eye on your electrolytes. \n\ntl;dr Refeeding syndrome is more likely to kill you after reintroducing food than anything else ",
"I know most comments are about the nutritional content of the food and they are right, but speaking from a psychological point of view, you might just get the will to survive because you see food. Read more of it on victor frankl's man's search for meaning and it's sequels. He was a psychiatrist and a holocaust survivor (in the order). He came up with logotherapy.",
"Somewhat related but maybe not if someone is literally on the brink of dying...\nBut if you've been starving or severely restricting your food intake and then suddenly give someone tons of food (which is usually carb heavy) you are at risk of Refeeding Syndrome. Reintroducing food causes a spike in insulin which causes a huge drop in phosphate in the blood as it is pushed into the cells. With less circulating phosphate there's less ATP (the body's smallest most basic form of energy that is made of three phosphates) and this leads to organ failure, arrhythmia, and can cause death if not treated. \nSo there's that...",
"Short answer: Standard practice when rescuing starving people is to give small amounts of food in order to prevent refeeding syndrome. It depends on your condition and the type and amount of food you have.\n\nLong answer: With adequate food, the body primarily uses glucose for energy, but the body can't store as much glucose as it can protein and fat. Trouble is, the brain can't use fatty acids for energy, so the body produces ketone bodies to help replace the glucose you aren't eating. This process, called ketosis, releases acid into the body. If you undergo ketosis for long enough to starve, then ketoacidosis, a deadly acidification of the the blood, may occur. If you can't get treated for severe acidification, then it doesn't matter what you eat. You'll die (interestingly, this is why untreated Type I diabetes is also extremely dangerous).\n\nBut let's say your blood hasn't turned to acid before your rescue. Ketosis changes the metabolic environment of the body in other ways, but the body would prefer to metabolize food normally. If you eat a load of food, then the body will immediately shift to the normal mode of metabolism, and that shift is what causes refeeding syndrome. Several days of limited intake helps \"prime\" the body for regular metabolism and slows down the shift from ketosis to normal metabolism. If your \"last moment\" means that you have no more stored calories, then the shift from no food to enough food for you to live would probably kill you. If your \"last moment\" means that you have just enough stored calories to maintain your life until you can finish the metabolic shift, then it might save you.",
"It depends, are you asking if, \"when you're about to starve to death, you eat\", or , \"if you're about to starve to death, you see a bit of food.\" If it's the former, I saw a few other comments saying no, if it's the latter, I didn't really see any answers for it, but no, you definitely can't chain seeing different foods into being immortal, gavin. ",
"So what would be an ideal food to give to someone on the brink of starvation? Small pieces of bread maybe? ",
"Can't tell if you mean eaten then or there, or just seeing it will prolong your dying body.",
"Registered Dietitian here:\nAn entire section of our clinical manual is dedicated to the appropriate treatment of starving patients and refeeding syndrome. We take this shit seriously. The ELI5 answer is no, food would not save you at this point; food would actually harm you because your body has been slowly shutting down for so long. \nThe non-ELI5 explanation of refeeding is that it is \"the metabolic and physiologic consequences of the depletion, repletion, compartmental shifts, and interrelationships, of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium,glucose metabolism, vitamin deficiency, and fluid resuscitation\" \nThis means the first steps to treatment include carefully compounded IV fluid, carbohydrate, protein, and electrolyte replacement/restriction with the goal of avoiding hypophosphatemia. \nIf anyone would like more information on this you can PM me. "
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fgfy1p | how does exercise boost energy levels? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fgfy1p/eli5_how_does_exercise_boost_energy_levels/ | {
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"Imagine that your muscles are like a whole bunch of people, all holding hands. When you exercise, it'slike you turnedon the music. They all get up and start to dance. But then the music stops. A lot of them are having so much fun, it takes them a while to stop dancing. \n\n(I mean, you're 5, right?)",
"Your muscles have protiens that store oxygen (myoglobin) and energy (glycogen). When your muscles are low on either, they become stressed and start the process to make more storage capacity, so next time they wont run out. If you force them to be stressed by strenuous excercise you can cause them to have a lot of excess capacity.\n\nThats not the real answer though. The real answer is feeling tired has little to do with actual energy and more to do with brain chemistry. Laziness is terrible for your body. Sitting lowers bloodflow especially in the legs. Blood oxygen/CO2 is measured in the aorta which means the body doesnt always realize when the extremities are undersupplied. Fats from bad eating habits get misflagged as attacking bacteria. All of these things and more cause stress hormones to be released, putting the body in a stressed state. This basal stress is applied as a malus towards your emotional state and causes a stress response or anxiety which manifests as aversion, procrastination, and other defensive, risk avoidant behaviors.",
"Jesus so much of this is bad info. Mine, I'm sorry to say, won't be much better. (I welcome all criticism)\n\nI'm not gonna have this 100% correct, since I don't have a text for reference, but there are multiple ways your body provides energy for work, and depending on the intensity and duration of work, the absolute and relative energy provided changes. ATP and glycogen (a molecule your body essentially \"stores\" sugar as) get used up fast and quick. Great for short, intense bursts. As you perform longer exercise, your body relies more and more on fat metabolism to provide your energy, which is efficient, but not great for explosive power. If you're into computers, all this is remarkably similar to comparing memory like L1-L3 cache, RAM, and HDD storage -- all memory, but generally the faster it is, the more expensive it is, and so the less you have of it.\n\nYou can sort of separate activity by how intense it is, and by that how you get your energy. Aerobic activity is less intense, often longer exercise characterized by a more efficient process called the citric acid cycle. The easy test of whether you're performing aerobic activity is: if you can comfortably talk while exercising, it's aerobic activity. If you can't, it's anaerobic activity. This prefers something called the lactic acid cycle, which is less efficient, but doesn't require oxygen. \n\nWhen you exercise, your body adapts to perform that exercise better. How you exercise influences how your body adapts. Hard, anaerobic activity? That metabolism becomes more efficient, favors fast twitch muscle, and your heart, for example, has some of its walls grow thicker and stronger to beat harder. Less intense aerobic activity will increase the volume of the heart to pump more blood per beat, and it will favor slow twitch muscle and fat metabolism (note: High Intensity Interval Training is exercise that makes frequent switches between these modalities, and has found to increase overall fat metabolism at rest, especially compared to the time spent exercising, which is why it's so popular).\n\nA lot of what I just said probably needs correction, but at least in the context of long cardio like running for an hour a day, I can pretty confidently say you're increasing the efficiency of how much blood your heart pumps per beat, the more energy efficient slow twitch muscle fibers in your body, and increases fat metabolism, which is a highly efficient mode of energy generation, so you can get along better without those fast-but-easily-depleted reserves.",
"Exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t kill their husbands. 😁",
"Exercise is not just a common habit or routine, it's a core habit that will have large impact on many aspects of your life.",
"If a restaurant sells a lot of bacon, it makes more bacon. Your body does that too with energy. If you use a lot of energy, it makes more energy. \n\nYou can use this bacon analogy for pretty much everything.",
"Basically when you exercise, your brain releases chemicals (endorphins) these make you happy and when you are happy you feel more energised.",
"It keeps you happy in the head. When you exercise your tiredness and drowsiness fadeaways. It just makes your mind focused rather than relaxed and not fully engaged for the rest of the day.",
"This is always counterintuitive because you’d think exercise wears the body down snd should make you worse off.",
"it's hard to stop a moving train. It takes a lot to start the choo choo and it takes a lot to stop the choo. But once the choo choo is going, it takes less energy to keep it moving.",
"Potential versus kinetic energy. A body in motion and all that.\n\nAbout six weeks ago, I began bodyweight exercises at home. Historically, I've used a gym - standard lifting and cardio. \n\nActually going to the gym became my point of failure. The prep, driving, monthly fee, guilt from skipping because I paid, and irritation with others were my excuses. Unabashed old man nudity is rampant. Towels are ageless, people. Just because you can doesn't mean you should\n\nBut, I digress. I get hours energy each day from the bodyweight routines, which feeds my entire day. If I feel lethargic, a couple of sets will focus me.\n\nI have not missed a day since I began.",
"Regular exercise makes your muscles and your heart stronger. When you're stronger, it takes less effort to finish your regular day-to-day tasks. This makes it seem like you have more energy leftover after doing your regular tasks. This goes for intentional physical activities as well as just being alive (I.e. having a beating heart). \n\nIt may help to think of this in reverse. If you're in great shape, you get used to doing a lot during the day. If you were suddenly out of shape, you'd have difficulty keeping up with your former, fit self.",
"When you exercise to exhaustion your body produced certain chemicals in body that act as signals. One of those signals asks for cells to develop more mitochondrias, which act as energy engines. When you do that over and over you end up being able to run a marathon because your body is able to produce energy very quickly and efficiently",
"you got these little things in your cells that produce energy, the mitochondria. When you work out a lot, your body says oh dang, we're gonna need more powerhoues.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSo your cells end up with more mitochondria.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nI think that's what happens, someone correct me if I donked up.",
"The body responds to stresses. When you exert a lot of energy, your heart rate increases to pump blood through your body faster. Blood is part of how your body transports lots of nutrients, but especially oxygen, which your muscles need to work. This is why you breath harder when running, because you need more oxygen to supply your body with the things it needs to keep going.\n\nWhen you stop, your body begins a recovery process. It sends nutrients to repair the tiny strains and tears in your muscles. This includes things like your heart and your lungs. Your body actually senses where you need more strength and support. But like a skyscraper, it can't be built from the ground up over night. So everytimenyou exercise, it's like telling your body to build another floor on the skyscraper of your physical health.\n\nAs this occurs over time, the cumulative strengthening of muscles and systems that support your muscles, circulation, and everything else can be felt. Your body is prepared for another exertion of energy. The increased efficiency in your heart and lungs provides benefits beyond just running long distances, because the brain uses oxygen and energy, and so do all of your regular body processes. Even if you don't exercise, you still probably burn around 1500-1800 calories (more or less depending on many factors) just from keeping your body alive, digesting, maintaining temperature, and fighting off bacteria and things that could make you sick. A stronger body can handle these things more efficiently as well, so you feel stronger and more energized in your day to day when you are in good shape.\n\nThe caveat is that you can over do it. Exercise is stress on the body, and doing too much of it at once, either by going too long beyond your abilities or trying to exert too much at once (maybe lifting too much weight) can cause bigger damage than the small stresses from healthy exercise. This is also why, early on when trying to get in shape, you might feel very, very tired on days when you exercised. If this happens, you are probably pushing yourself a little too hard too fast. Exercise should make you feel very energized and strong after working out, even when your muscles and lungs feel somewhat weaker.",
"Essentially our body is good at adapting to stresses. When we stress our body physically it makes it produce all kinds of chemicals and hormones that promote growth and repair. Some examples are Human Growth Hormone and Testosterone which not only repair the body from the damage of physical stress but also make us feel more energetic and healthy. Also, an increase in muscle/cardiovascular fitness makes everyday things a little easier to do in contrast to back when you were a couch potato.",
"Exercise boosts a lot of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters which signal your brain to react to certain situations. Endorphins are one which makes you happy and relieves pain for situations like “I need to run away from this bear without my bum knee causing too much pain to run or being too freaked out to run.” Additionally it releases acetylcholine which is the molecule that is important for heightening alertness and arousal. Acetylcholine also increases brain blood flow to deliver more oxygen and sugars to your brain to compensate for it being in a more active state. These neural signals have a residual effect that lasts longer than the exercise itself",
"Your cells need two things - food and oxygen. When you sit on the couch, you might get energy from food, but the oxygen is blocked. When you even as much as take a light walk, your breathing gets deeper, and your cells get the other \"food\" - oxygen - so sometimes we get a lot of energy even from a small walk or light housework.",
"Endorphin rush and increase in dopamine levels. It is basically the same as using artificial chemicals to get high. The runner’s high is legit.",
"That's primarily the nutritional aspect of exercise. To put it simply the more you exercise the more you condition your body to use fat as energy, even when you arent exercising. Fat is a MUCH more efficient energy source than carbs, but you body would rather hold onto it unless you train it to do otherwise.\n\nEDIT: of course when you also factor in how much you build strength and endurance, you now have more energy and use less",
"Your body will adjust almost everything based on your circumstances.\n\nIf you lift heavy things, your body will add muscle wherever you used it so that next time you are better able to lift things.\n\nIf you run or jump or lift heavy enough things it will stress your bones, so your body will strengthen them so that next time you are less likely to break them.\n\nIf you run up steep hills a lot at high altitude in the heat, your body will add red blood cells to your blood, add muscle to your heart, add space to your heart, add muscle to your legs, increase how much sweat your skin can make, add blood vessles to your legs, add calcium to the bones in your legs, increase how well your liver produces glycogen, and make your legs better at using glycogen so that next time it's easier.\n\nThe thing is, your body assumes anything you do a lot is normal, so be ready for that thing.\n\nExercise means your body gets ready for more exercise. If you exercise enough then your body is ready for exercise all the time.\n\nIf you are ready for exercise, but not exercising, then sitting around will feel easy. This feels like having more energy.",
"Your muscles become more conditioned for tasks and simultaneously Glycogen stores increases on the muscle tissues themselves",
"If you exercise or do anything physical your body goes \"alright, I guess we're doing this now\" and goes from producing energy to sit on a sofa and eat doritos to running a mile. Obviously you need more energy to run a mile so your body's like \" okay this isn't what we usually do but cool I can deal\" so it produces alot more energy than it usually does, doing this contributes to feeling tired. Because when you're tired you literally have run out of energy.\n\nNow your body isn't dumb, it's a slow but sure worker and if you decide to run daily it'll change its energy production protocol from I need 20% more energy once a while to frequently. This is why you have more energy if you're active and lead a non sedentary lifestyle and also why your stamina increases.",
"On a longer term exercising is like increasing your energy budget. The more you exercise, the more the body believes it needs that energy and you'll have more to spend in general. \n\nInvest in yourself, people. S T O N K S",
"Basic answer is when you exercise, your body needs more energy by the minute. Your body increases your metabolism to use the stored energy.\n\nWhen you stop exercising, your body doesn't instantly know it and you actually get a lengthy residual metabolism increase relative to what you think of as sedentary \"Basal Metabolic Rate\".\n\nAlso, you can effectively increase your BMR if you exercise consistently.",
"With all this news of coronavirus, people are panicking that they don't have enough toilet paper. With enough preparation, everyone can stockpile enough available toilet paper (ATP) to get through this time of need. If times get rough, people will start making use of other products like wet wipes, newspaper, junk mail, even those horribly grindy brown paper towels. In truly terrible times, maybe the wallpaper starts looking like an option.\n\nYour cells react similarly to exercise, because some of them find they don't have sufficient energy sources to keep themselves running, and some of them get physically damaged or need to reinforce their structure. Cells will reach into their stores of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), then start consuming backup sources of energy like glycogen or starch, triglycerides, even spare protein. In truly terrible times, cells may even start consuming parts of their own structure just to give the body a chance to survive.",
"There is also a mental aspect to it. A lot of jobs today are sedentary. We all use computers, cell phones excessively. This all puts us very much in mental realm, partially dissociated from physical, real world. Excersise forces out of overthinking realm and into the level of physicality, aliveness. Our body kind of wakes up from turni g attention into it. Also the feeling of body aliveness becomes more noticable with high blood pressure, heart rate and breath rate.",
"Think of your body as a car that is always turned on (burning gas/energy). When you are at rest you are idling not spending much gas. When you start exercising you press the accelerator and more fuel (oxygen, fats, carbohydrates) is pumped into your 4 cylinder engine (muscles, heart, lungs). After training for a period of time whether it be cardiovascular or weight training, your engine (heart, lungs, muscles) gets bigger and stronger like you 4 cylinder car has been upgraded to a V8 Chevy. Now we can feel the boost in energy in everyday life as we are burning more energy at rest because our engine (heart, lungs, muscles) are bigger, stronger and more efficient."
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2dvnr5 | what is going on in atlantic city such that 4 major casinos are closing around the same time? | Is something happening in Atlantic City or in larger NJ different than the rest of the US? This appears sudden but has Atlantic City been going downhill for a while? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dvnr5/eli5_what_is_going_on_in_atlantic_city_such_that/ | {
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"The surrounding states have begun to legalize gambling and the draw of Atlantic City has largely been lost. Tourists are staying local to gamble or going to the beach at other tourist destinations on the coast. \n",
"Atlantic City was once the only place with legalized gambling in the entire Eastern US. It had a total monopoly on the huge New York and Philadelphia markets.\n\nNow most states on the East Coast have gambling in some form, including Pennsylvania and New York, and so most people prefer to just gamble closer to home rather than make the trip to Atlantic City. And it never became a real destination with many attractions like Las Vegas is - Atlantic City is basically just casinos in the middle of a slum with nothing else really to offer."
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113060 | how do we remember tastes? | I've heard that our sense of taste is closely related to memory. Why and how does it do that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/113060/eli5_how_do_we_remember_tastes/ | {
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"Our sense of taste is closely related with the sense of smell, so much in fact, that if you have stuffed nose, things will start tasting bland.\n\nHaven't heard about link with memory. Do you mean this [article](_URL_0_)? If so, it explains that we have preference for things from our childhood because they didn't kill us. There is no need of risking new stuff, if old stuff managed to get us that far.",
"Memories are just info stored in your brain. When you \"see\" an image in your head, your brain is really just tricking you into quasi seeing the information that you're recalling. So remembering a picture is really not any different that remembering a smell/taste. Just like storing a picture vs an Mp3 on a hard drive; they might be different files, but they're stored as data."
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34fqmy | why must safari or other non-related applications be closed when installing/updating software like microsoft office? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34fqmy/eli5_why_must_safari_or_other_nonrelated/ | {
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"Even though applications may not seem related, they often use common libraries in Windows or other operating systems. If the libraries are in use, the OS should not update them. In some cases libraries and other resources are locked or in exclusive use by other applications. Those applications must be closed for the installation to work. If the underlying OS has exclusive use of a library which is being updated the OS itself may have to be restarted or the computer rebooted. "
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26l0tr | how long does it take for the food i ingest to be out of my body. | Like, I've always wanted to be able to say "oh, there goes this morning's breakfast", or "damn, those tacos sure are hard to get through". | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26l0tr/eli5_how_long_does_it_take_for_the_food_i_ingest/ | {
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"This varies from person to person. I ask this question a lot to people for work purposes and commonly get answers of 18-36 hours. However, constipated people have given me answer of 8 or 9 days. You can do a bowel transit test yourself using corn kernels. Avoid eating corn for a week, eat a few tablespoons of it, mark down the day and time and check your stools every time you go to the toilet - you'll probably see bits of corn in it. It might only be observable in 1 bowel movement, or many, so keep checking. This will give you a rough guide of your bowel transit time (though many circumstances and variables can drastically affect this!). Don't do this test if you're allergic to corn!"
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apx3ta | how do crystals (such as quartz) vibrate/oscillate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/apx3ta/eli5_how_do_crystals_such_as_quartz/ | {
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"Just like any other material. If yo think of a tuning fork, that's just a steel crystal vibrating (It's not usually a crystal because of fabrication reasons). Quartz has a super interesting side effect, it generates electric charge when stressed. This generates a super-useful electrical signal, analogous to the sound that comes off the tuning fork."
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30md85 | how, if every door and window in my house is closed, does vital oxygen get in? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30md85/eli5_how_if_every_door_and_window_in_my_house_is/ | {
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"Oxygen is very tiny. On the scale of oxygen, your house might as well be made out of Swiss cheese. The gap between the door or window and wall is gigantic.\n\nMeanwhile, you use very little oxygen compared to the size of your house. Every time you open the door to come inside, you refresh the place with more than enough oxygen to get you through to the next time you open the door.",
"And to answer your next question about \"why we don't make our houses airtight?\" We tried to do that in the 80's/90's but found that mold was a huge issue due to the build up of moisture within the house. The thought process was that if we seal up every nook and cranny that allowed warm air to escape we could make a better insulated house. We then learned that building houses was a delicate balancing act between ventilation and insulation."
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a1w8fq | how do video games have different glitches among seperate copies ( i fall through the floor here, someone else doesn't) when they are all the same game? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1w8fq/eli5_how_do_video_games_have_different_glitches/ | {
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"They don't. There's no such thing as a glitch that appears only in one copy of a game. It's just commonly cited by people who don't know how computers work.",
"Errors can be introduced at different levels. There could be a basic design flaw when created that would be identical in every copy, but there are other places to introduce errors.\n\nFor instance, when you make a copy you could have a flaw in the copying process. Or there could be flaws introduced when the game is loaded into your computer. Or maybe your computer has flaws that cause errors when playing the game. \n\nOr are maybe flaws are introduced when porting the game to a different platform (PC/PS4/Xbox) which each may have their own flaws.",
"It’s true that the games you are running might me identical, but bugs also depend on the platform you are running them on. For instance, in poorly programmed games, if your game runs on higer framerate then your friends, it might behave differently. One of the Mass Effect 2 DLC would crash every time on a certain grafic cards. In mobile games, there might be differences detween various android versions. There are many factors. The game itself is just one of them. ",
"They don't, what happens is that people encounter different glitches.\n\nAnd that has to do with the number of variences and the number if conditions.\n\nIf you have a glitch that makes a player stuck, but it only happens if they are holding a shotgun, and turn so that the barrel hits a shelf through a wall at a specific point along the arc of a jump, and each if those is only a few pixels of tolerance then only a very small number of people will encounter that glitch.\n\nIf you have a glitch where the game freezes any time you open a specific door regardless of other conditions then a lot more people will encounter that glitch.",
"Games are made of interlocking systems and subroutines. These can interact in weird ways and cause glitches, but someone might experience a glitch in a place where another player doesn’t because a) most bugs that can be easily reproduced will be fixed in QA, and b) the second player might not have taken the exact same steps to ‘break’ the code in the same way.\n\n(For example: player 1 manages to glitch through the geometry in a map by running into a corner at full tilt, causing the collision detection to fail; player 2 is only running at 98% of full speed and bounces off the corner as expected.)",
"Former game developer here,\n\nTake a moment and just accept that video games are hugely complex systems with lots of moving parts. If two people are going to experience the exact same bug, they must both be with in the same valid range of state for that bug to occur. So if you clip through a wall and your friend doesn't, you weren't doing the same thing - it may be that you both came at the wall at different angles, or with different amounts of force, or the physics calculations came out different from one time step to the next... But make no mistake, the bug exists in both games, all else being equal.",
"Well, a pretty famous example is the first generation pokemon games and the missingno glitch. In addition to the glitch pokemon, you can also encounter several regular pokemon, the species and level of which are determined by your trainer name, so if you name yourself Ash, you might get a level 147 Tauros, and if you name yourself Gary, you might get a level 212 Bulbasaur, because your name is being converted to numbers and fed into the encounter list, causing different results for different names. \n\nIt's entirely possible that you only fall through the floor in that particular spot when you have exactly 836 experience points and 491 coins because that particular combination causes the collision detection to return a negative number instead of a positive one when you walk on a hill with a 13 degree slope.\n\nAny variable, letters or numbers which can be changed, has the potential to end up interacting with a part of the code that it isn't supposed to, resulting in glitches that do different things depending on the current value of those variables.",
"There are three main reasons this may happen:\n\n1. **Different versions:** This doesn't usually happen anymore, since patches are released online so everyone gets the update. The only way you get this is if patches are optional, allowing you to play the game on an unpatched copy. In the old days of cartridge gaming, this was more common (although game devs didn't tend to maintain their games much after launch, so it was still relatively rare - it tended to be region specific, since the bug might get fixed before it was released in Europe, but after the NA release). An example of this is Borderlands 2, where the original version has a glitch that allows you to get infinite ammo.\n2. **Different hardware:** Some glitches will be hardware specific. This happens more on PC than on consoles, since consoles have mostly identical hardware across the board. An example would be if there's a bug specific to AMD graphics cards. Players with NVidia cards wouldn't get the bug. Sometimes the bugs will be specific to certain *combinations* of hardware, which can make them hard to track down. An example is Diablo 3, which had a region in Act II which wouldn't load on certain AMD video cards for a long time (1-2 years if I recall correctly).\n3. **Different inputs:** Sometimes the glitch requires very specific conditions. in this case, the glitch is actually there, but other players may be doing things slightly differently without realizing that they are important to reproducing the glitch. [Here's a bug report for Overwatch](_URL_1_) where someone figured out how to duplicate _URL_0_'s mech (posted March 30, so possibly patched out since then). It requires starting from a specific spot (standing on an enemy) then performing a specific set of actions (jump, then use Call Mech) with a specific timing (use Call Mech must happen near the top of the jump). If someone tried to do the same thing, but they used Call Mech too early or too late, it might look like it didn't work. Another example is the soul duplication glitch in Dark Souls 1 which doesn't work if you have a female character, but it does work if your female character is two-handing her weapon, or if she has one of several specific weapons. Because the conditions are so specific, and often are tied to details that seem entirely irrelevant, it can look like your version of the game doesn't have the glitch simply because - for example - you always play as a female character.",
"Assuming the games are at exactly the same patch version for the same system, glitches that can't be reproduced by other players are almost certainly due to system differences, like hardware, driver versions, software library versions, etc.\n\nIt's possible for two players to have different versions of a game with different bugs, especially with all the online updates now. Even two retail hard copies can be different; for example, Rock Star removed the [Hot Coffee content](_URL_0_) from GTA: San Andreas after a recall."
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Coffee_mod"
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6f1dhe | how is real estate used to launder money? | ...and is there a difference between how a domestic money laundering operation would work and a foreign one when using real estate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6f1dhe/eli5_how_is_real_estate_used_to_launder_money/ | {
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"It is a high value asset which can be easily sold without attracting too much attention and can be bought in a different country than the source of the money. You sell $3 million in gold, diamonds etc. and you will attract a lot of attention sell $3 million in property and no one bats an eyelid. With property also you don't need to move the item just sign some papers and ownership transfers from one person to another no need to smuggle anything through customs. "
]
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[]
] | |
1osd4u | how glass windows can be considered to be transparent for light (electromagnetic waves in the visible range). yet, if it is dark outside, you can see your reflection in a window. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1osd4u/eli5_how_glass_windows_can_be_considered_to_be/ | {
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"They're not 100% transparent, they reflect some light.\n\nDuring the day the light coming in from outside overwhelms the reflected light from inside but at night only the reflected light is present.",
"This image from the website xkcd illustrates this:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe web page with the full explanation (and other explanations too):\n\n_URL_1_"
]
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[],
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"http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/14/short_answers_oneway.png",
"http://what-if.xkcd.com/14/"
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1ckoai | why the senate voted against background checks for gun owners and what exactly that bill proposed. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ckoai/eli5_why_the_senate_voted_against_background/ | {
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"A \"Yes\" vote for a lot of Senators would pretty much guarantee a fierce primary battle and/or general election. The Senators obviously placed their bets that gun control supports wouldn't show up to support their vote in November 2014 while a lot of the anti-gun control crowd would. \n\nIIRC the bill mandated background checks on all gun sales excluding ones made to family members. ",
"You already need to pass a background check to buy a gun from a Federal Firearms Licensee (a gun store).\n\nDepending on state laws, one individual selling a gun to another does not need to pass a background check. Though they often must need to state they are not a felon, have a concealed carry license/permit to own a gun, or other restrictions.\n\nIt would be nearly impossible to enforce background checks in private sales without a registration of all guns and periodic checks to make sure the owners still had the guns in their possession.\n\nNot to mention, this would do nothing for stolen guns or guns already being illegally sold to/from felons.\n\nAlso, medical privacy laws keep mental health information from being available on background checks.\n\nTL;DR Added cost and hassle for gun owners, little if any effect for criminals"
]
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[],
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35afrg | congressional insider trading | So what exactly goes on here and why is it so bad? What have John Boner and Nancy Pelosi done wrong? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35afrg/eli5_congressional_insider_trading/ | {
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"Insider trading can influence the market unfairly for lesser people who dont have thousands and millions of dollars tied up in the stock market and make those people who control the masses rich.\n\nExample... Stock A has 100,000 shares, and 1 guy owns 41% of the public shares, the rest are owned by other people and traded... This guy with alot of shares, is a congressman, who approved a bill that allowed this company to explode in profits, making his share price skyrocket with trading values.\n\nWhen the congressman, who approved the bill hears that this bill was shot down by the senate, and knows that stocks are going to drop because of it, he sells his shares prematurely to avoid losing money.\n\nEveryone else gets screwed.\n\n\nThis is why insider trading is so bad, and why people get into trouble for it."
]
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] | |
y1saw | how does time dilation affect different parts of the earth? | Would a clock that is at the equator run more slowly than one that is at the top of the earth (where the axis is) since the clock at the equator will be revolving with the earth at 1000 mph and the other only spinning at a revolution of 1 rev/24 hrs? Also any clocks in between those two should have a lower angular velocity as well, so many clocks would be running at different speeds, right? So if these clocks do run at different times are clocks designed for the area they are made in, or is the difference insignificant? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/y1saw/eli5_how_does_time_dilation_affect_different/ | {
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"Variation in gravity will also effect the *ticking of clocks* and since the equator bulges out and the poles are flattened, that will cause the Earth bound clocks to tick faster at the equator because of less gravity. Mountains and valleys can even have a calculable effect... even what floor you are on in a building, heck, differences in gravity can be measured if you are just near a large building (these differences can be calculated, but are not relevant to humanity... yet). \n\nLocal time can be adjusted (if needed) according to a scaling factor determined to your position in the [**geoid**](_URL_0_) which compensates for your distance from the center of the Earth and the rotational velocity at your latitude.\n\nThe Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) is computed as a weighted average of the geoid corrected time from several \"official\" clocks. ",
"The difference is massively insignificant.\n\nIn 1000 years the time dilation difference between 1000mph and stationary is 0.03506 seconds."
]
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34y8h5 | why are kids naturally mean to each other? | Bullying is such a serious problem...I am astounded by what kids say to one another. Most of these kids, do come from good homes, and do have good parents, so why are kids naturally unkind to one another? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34y8h5/eli5_why_are_kids_naturally_mean_to_each_other/ | {
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"Humans are naturally competitive in many ways, it's a basic part of our biology. The natural world is harsh and uncaring, and all animals face a constant struggle to survive and reproduce. Humans were no different. While recently our technology has potentially given us ways out of that competitive cycle, old habits die hard, and our competitive instincts are still roaming around our brains. \n\nBeyond that, kids are learning about the world, and part of learning about the world is testing limits. This includes social limits. ",
"A big bunch of various reasons. How often do you feel the urge to just slap somebody in the face as hard as you can? Exactly. \n\nHowever, you (hopefully) don't because your upringing has taught you that hitting people usually isn't a good thing or at least you have learned that there might be serious consequences. \n\nA kid has not yet learned that or is not yet able to apply those strategies in a given situation that leads to said behavior. \n\nLong story short: kids aren't any meaner than adults, they just live out their emotions. ",
"I've worked in kindergarten for two years. They really aren't as mean as they're just rude, and have poor self control. You see kids being helpful, and forgiving all the time. They'll often go out of their way to help someone, and sometimes get completely knocked on their ass and brush it off without getting pissed off. \n\nObviously however, they're still kids, and they do get pissed off about who gets a favorite crayon or what-not. Kids are still kids, and they have poor self control. There are kids that you see that do go out of their way to be dicks to others, but I would not call that the average child. The only time I've seen a stark contrast between kids and adults is when I see \"special\" kids in normal classrooms. The kids will always gang up on the retarded kid, however it seems to be partially enforced by the fact that the retarded kid is actually treated more \"special\" than the other children, while having to follow none of the rules that the normal children follow. This causes some hostilities that I probably wouldn't see in adults, however I suppose that if you had a special needs person at work who had to work less, and did nothing all day for the same pay, you and your coworkers could possibly also start to become somewhat less understanding."
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21cszc | chemotherapy | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21cszc/eli5_chemotherapy/ | {
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"Cancer cells are fast dividing cells (highly mitotic). Chemotherapeutic drugs affect cells by impairing mitosis. All cells are affected to some extent, but cancers cells are affected a lot more since they are highly mitotic (dividing). That's the basic principle of chemotherapy.",
"Cancer survivor here. 0x0001111's explanation was very helpful to me. When you're in the middle of getting chemo, Drs. don't really have time to explain all of that.\n\nI received 3 different chemo drugs for my breast cancer, Stage IIIA, Triple Negative, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Every cancer (even the same types), and every patient is very different, so I can only tell you my experience.\n\nFirst they dose you with anti-nausea drugs and steroids before they begin your drip. They base your dose on your weight and type of cancer. I experienced the following side effects: nausea (but not too often), loss of hair on my head, brows, lashes, body, exhaustion (I'd sometimes sleep for 3 days and have no memory of it), shortness of breath, chemo-brain, neuropathy, mouth sores, excessive eye watering, chills, and sores that broke out around my ankles.\n\nMy last chemo treatment was 1/25/12. I still experience exhaustion, shortness of breath, chemo-brain and neuropathy, but every day is getting better. After all, I'm in remission and I'm still here.\n\nEdit: forgot a word"
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cqoebk | some asian cultures have this idea of food being “heaty” by giving “heat” to the body or giving “cold” to the body for other foods, is there a western medical explanation to this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cqoebk/eli5_some_asian_cultures_have_this_idea_of_food/ | {
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"There isn't necessarily so much an \"explanation\" as there is an analog in Western culture. Back before modern medicine, the West used humoral theory and other kinds of ideas to explain the human body. \n\nWe also deemed foods to be \"hot\" or \"cold,\" and prescribed them as such to remedy certain ailments that caused too much heat/cold (think fever or the chills). \n\nThere is not much basis to support the use of these foods as \"hot\" and \"cold,\" so much. In many cases, the \"cold\" foods tend to be on the relatively bland side in traditional Chinese medicine (eggs, for example) or have characteristics you might associate with \"feeling\" more cold. \n\nHowever, it's very much like other pseudoscientific pursuits. You have an ancient practice proclaiming the benefits of a certain food for a certain ailment, and you eat based on that. People with a fever eating cheese sometimes do get better (though probably on their own without the need for cheese), and the cycle perpetuates.\n\n**When it \"works,\" it's most likely the placebo effect.**"
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8hepl0 | why is it some tastes linger longer in your mouth than others? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8hepl0/eli5_why_is_it_some_tastes_linger_longer_in_your/ | {
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"A few contributing factors.\n\n1. Solubility\n2. Mechanism\n3. Stability\n\nFlavors composed of chemicals more soluble in water will be rinsed out of your mouth by saliva. Oil based won't be and will sit in your mouth longer.\n\nThe mechanism of binding to your taste buds will determine how long that nerve responds. This is referred to as binding affinity. Salts typically have lower binding affinity and fats higher (for similar reasons as above) to the proteins that do the actual tasting. Higher affinity means they stay attached to that protein that tells the nerve that something is there.\n\nStability refers to how long the chemical stays as it is. Some flavors literally break down in your mouth. Once the chemical is no longer that chemical, it's stops producing a flavor.\n\nOne final note is that most of taste perception is smell. Foods with stronger smells will persist longer because you're still smelling it."
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5riz8t | does choking someone really work like the movies? shouldn't the victim stop struggling from passing out rather than just dying immediately? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5riz8t/eli5_does_choking_someone_really_work_like_the/ | {
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"No, movies aren't accurate at all when it comes to choking and yes, the victim would absolutely pass out before dying. There are two types of chokes. Ones that restrict breathing and ones that restrict blood flow to the brain. The latter of the two has a much more immediate effect. With blood chokes, a person can lose consciousness in a matter of seconds, as the flow of oxygen-rich blood is stopped from reaching the brain, but it takes several minutes for the person to actually die. If this weren't the case then (stubborn)people competing in grappling events or mma would be dying all the time from choke holds. ",
"Death from strangulation could take more than 5 to 10 minutes. Restricting the airway would probably not result in unconsciousness for two minutes. Just like holding your breath, the victim would slowly be using up the oxygen already in the lungs. Then it takes several minutes before a brain starved of oxygen would begin to be damaged. Typically about 5 minutes without oxygen leads to permanent brain damage, but death might take up to 10 minutes.\n\nNow, a choke that includes restricting bloodflow to the head would be a little different. A choke that prevents bloodflow in the neck would result in unconsciousness in 10-15 seconds. It would still take two or more minutes until death."
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6x83xi | does having marijuana in your bloodstream affect patients when donating blood? | I volunteer for a blood drive and while trying to get friends to donate blood many of them tell me they can't because they smoke weed. Does the marijuana have any affect on patients who get the blood? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6x83xi/eli5_does_having_marijuana_in_your_bloodstream/ | {
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"If they didn't want marijuana smokers to donate they'd ask about it, they don't ask. \n\nDrugs rarely circulate freely in the bloodstream, they bind to receptor sites in the body which is how they work. There *are* drugs that are specifically banned from donations and they ask about them. Beyond those few if they don't ask whatever drugs you may be taking don't much matter. I'm on three different drugs for high blood pressure and two to keep my blood sugar down and I'm a regular blood donor. Used to be a blood banker."
]
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8swriw | if i get in a car crash and it’s not my fault, with evidence and everything , but the driver dies, what happens next? do i get paid for damages? if i go to the hospital what? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8swriw/eli5_if_i_get_in_a_car_crash_and_its_not_my_fault/ | {
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"if there is a settlement it would go against the deceased driver's estate.\n\nany insurance in force would pay out as normal. issues in excess of insurance would be charged to the estate in a suit.",
"I think your insurance would cover you and then they would attempt to recoup the costs from the other parties estate. It depends on what nation/state you live in and what your insurance covers."
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128iej | why does my mouth love cold beverages but my skin hates cold water? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/128iej/why_does_my_mouth_love_cold_beverages_but_my_skin/ | {
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"**SHORT ANSWER:**\n\nThe thing is, sometimes your skin loves cold water. Your mouth likes cold water more than your skin because your mouth's temperature is higher than your skins.\n\n**LONG ANSWER:**\n\nThe reason why it feels good to have a nice cold glass of water but pouring that same water on your skin would make it freeze, is because it's warmer in your mouth than the air around your skin (most of time). Since your mouth is warm, it's a relief to have a cold glass of water. Your mouth is warm because it's inside your body. Your skin is different. It's on the outside, so it takes on the temperature of the air around it. The temperature of your mouth at a normal temperature is around 36.7º C (98.06º F). Rarely is the air around your skin that hot. But when it is, feels good to have a glass of iced water poured onto it. When it's really hot out in the summer, it feels great to go in a pool and cool off. In the fall, you'd most likely think that the same water that refreshes you in the summer is freezing cold.",
"There is a bit of a 'learned' cultural element to it. In many parts of the world, it's actually considered strange to consume cold beverages. In some parts of asia, people actually think you can get sick from it.\n",
"Says the person without sensitive teeth...",
"Apart form everything else that's been mentioned.\nwhen we are dehydrated (ie when hot/thirsty), we drink water and we feel like our thirst has been quenched. but this is not because that the instant the water goes through our mouths, does the body get hydrated again. What happens is the temperature felt in the mouth by nerve endings, get routed to your hypothalamus (which pretty much is the regulatory centre of your body's most-things-you-can-think-of), and lets it know that fluid has been drunk, chill the fuck out.",
"Strange fact... Some people who crave iced drinks and chewing ice [may have an iron deficiency](_URL_0_). Also mentioned is that chewing ice can crack your teeth.",
"I always notice in a shower how differently the mouth and skins feel temperatures. The water can be scalding to the skin but just luke warm to the mouth."
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2q2fii | what was illegal about the stock trading done by jordan belfort as seen in the wolf of wall street? | What exactly is the scam involved in movies such as Wolf and Boiler Room? I get they were using high pressure tactics, but what were the aspects that made it illegal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q2fii/eli5_what_was_illegal_about_the_stock_trading/ | {
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"They own the stock they're selling (and they're selling it without that disclosure-this is the easy to convict charge) and more importantly the companies aren't real,meaning they exist bit don't really do anything. The sales director makes up a tale about the business and they sell that.",
"Securities/Stock Fraud. The brokers tell people that certain stocks are \"really hot\" and that if they invest they will make a bunch of money. This is bullshit and the brokers know it. Sometimes the brokers even artificially increase the value of the stock by buying many shares for themselves, in order to convince clueless investors. Also getting high risk investments out of people who don't understand the risks (aka Taking advantage of people) qualifies as stock fraud. \n\n\nThe specific tactic used in the movie is called the [Pump and Dump scam](_URL_0_)\n\n",
"Check out pump-and-dump schemes. Companies particularly susceptible to these shenanigans are illiquid penny stocks, where the capitalization is smaller and therefor easier to manipulate. In the Steve Madden situation Leo, Jonah Hill, & Steve Madden owned ~85% of the shares outstanding. Now if Leo & Jonah's salesforce created enough buying, thus inflating the price, in the name the three of them could unload their shares in a managed way to lock-in profits. Steve beat them to it and cratered the stock. The people left holding the bag are the ones who bought into the story through their Stratton Oakmont broker. How those business models work is through constantly bringing in new brokerage clients because of attrition due to customers getting burned/holding the bag. That is where having a very aggressive and uninformed salesforce is key. ",
"Belfort did many illegal things but I think most people here are missing the big one. This was a 3 part process:\n\n1. He had several of his wealthiest, most trust-worthy clients buy large amounts of new stock issues (IPO) from his firm. These were his \"rat-holes.\" He would guarantee them a certain return on their investment, say 10%.\n\n2. He would then push these stocks on his other, less affluent clients. As this second wave of buying progressed it drove the price of the stock higher. For arguments sake, lets say the price goes up 50%.\n\n3. He would instruct the rat-holes to sell. They would get their 10% cut and he would pocket the difference of 40%. Scale that up by considering that he was doing this with tens of millions of dollars.\n\n**These numbers are for illustration. The actual numbers were likely much larger.**\n\nThe end result: His rat-holes made 10% essentially risk free. He made tens of millions in profit, and the vast majority of his \"average joe\" clients lost most of their investment.\n\nEDIT: People have pointed out that this just details what Jordan's process was, but not what laws were being broken. Copied from my reply buried in this thread: \n\nBelfort was brilliant because the rules surrounding this type of trading were, at the time, very vague. The SEC had to create new rules to catch him.\n\nA few things:\n\n* Guaranteeing a return on a stock transaction is illegal.\n* Owning stock on behalf of someone else is illegal (without doing it properly and disclosing ownership).\n* The types of sales practices they used were illegal.\n\nThe problem the SEC had was that these violations are relatively minor and they would not have been able to recoup investor losses.\n\n**UPDATE: SINCE I'M GETTING BOMBARDED WITH QUESTIONS I OPENED UP AN AMA - _URL_0_",
"What kind of pisses me off is that Jordan managed to make a life for himself training salespeople. It's extremely easy to sell very attractive and lucrative lies buy not easy to sell a normal product or service that has competition. ",
"I haven't seen boiler room yet so I can only speak of Wolf. \n\nIn one of the scenes Leo explains he owns thousands of shares of Steve Madden shoes. If you own more than 10% you have to be registered with the SEC. He created she'll accounts in other people's name, but Leo still held the shares. \n\nHe had his brokers sell shares of Steve Madden to their clients. The price was artificially inflated. I believe they sold high at this new inflated price. This cause Leo cheat the market. \n\nThere are also other pump and dump scenarios in the film. ",
"These are great explanations but wikipedia has a lot of good information about this. There are also many books which can be referenced from wiki or on the net. Some terms of interest, among many, are:\n\nGeorge Soros. British Pound manipulation. \nMarket Manipulation. \nGreenmailing. \nHostile Takeover. \nArbitrage (which was the title of a movie IIRC) Not specifically illegal in a very, very restricted legal sense. \nT. Boone Pickens. \nMichael Milkin. \nJunk Bonds. \nLeverage. \nMargin. \n\nAnd you've heard these terms but look them up: \n\nDerivatives. \nCDO. \nSecurity Underwriting. \n\nIn essence, 'the market', by which I mean the three main financial markets people are familiar with, called Stocks, Bonds, and Money or Currency Trading, depend on timing and knowledge to be profitable.\n\nIf everyone everywhere knew exactly what every company was doing every single time, none of these markets would exist. You could buy and sell stocks, but no one would want that job because you would just get a flat percentage everyone knew about. You'd essentially be a retail worker selling things, or a warehouse worker storing data.\n\nThe profitability of pure market trading has to do with information access and timing.\n\nBig investors like the famous Soros and Buffett market manipulate. They do this in sometimes unethical ways, and sometimes in ways that people can't see and which aren't illegal but are the same thing. Warren Buffet specifically manipulates in a very long-term way. If he buys railroads and says railroads will be the wave of the future, and all of his Berkshire Hathaway minions fall all over themselves in ecstasy at the next meeting in Omaha, you can rest assured that *associated* properties are involved. If Buffet buys railroads and holds (and that is his charm, he's not whipping out trades by the 10 billion a day), you *know* it's not about railroads. It's about real estate, oil, food, roads, or something else which railroads are associated with. If you are determined to know, you can investigate all of his holdings and understand what he's doing. But no one can do this, or no one I've heard of can do it. And if they do, they are brought into the fold.\n\nT. Boone Pickens made his fortune greemailing oil-services and oil-production companies. Then he moved on to Mom and Pop businesses. Mid-sized manufacturers which had prudent, home-spun practices like Don't Have Debt, Save Cash, Own don't Finance, and other 'common sense' type practices. That meant this mid-sized companies are like fat strawberries waiting to be plucked.\n\nHe used Junk Bonds from Michael Milkin to leverage big buys of very healthy firms. Then he would take those firms and liquidate the cash, sell the assets, fire everyone, and break the company up into profitable chunks to be sold at auction. This has been associated with Hostile Takeovers and in fact is a legitimate business tactic, one from which a famous Presidential candidate derived his family wealth, Mitt Romney. In the ecosystem, there is a place for vultures.\n\nBut when T. Boone Pickens gets on TV and announces he is starting a movement for Green Energy, and there are windmills churning behind him in the scene, you *know* it's not about green energy. \n\nWhat these people do is manipulate large numbers of people into an action, and then there are consequences to those actions, and the profit is made on the consequence. Some people liken it to Chess (which I find boring), but you also know this if you play a good-enough video game.\n\nGuys on the level of the WOWS guys just don't have enough cash to do the things I've described.\n\nWhat they do is harvest large numbers of fairly wealthy and/or foolhardy people by bald-faced lying. They get them to finance a stock which is worthless (or not, doesn't matter), inflating the price. Beforehand, they and their friends had bought all of the premium shares and agreed upon a sales schedule which would allow them to sell the now-inflated stock at a big profit. Once the selling is known, the 'common people' realize the stock price is falling and try to sell. This causes a panic or sell-off, and the stock is worthless. By the time you hear about it, the WOWS guys are already on their yacht snorting coke off of... well you know.\n\nPump and Dump.\n\nFinal note. One of the most storied methods ever used was when the British Government agreed to support the price of the Pound against the Euro using British public bonds. Every day they had a formalized meeting to buy or sell bonds, using the credit of the British people, to keep the price steady.\n\nThat is like blood in the water. That is just plain announcing that you are going to allow people to take advantage of timing and make money.\n\nOne of the sharks that assembled was George Soros. He would buy pounds at a low price during the trading day. Large large numbers of them. Then he would sell pounds at the inflated price once the British government had inflated the price again. This means he had to buy and sell in blocks, carefully timed not to upset the 'elasticity' in the market.\n\nThe British government kept financing this activity mainly to save face. A single private investor, some dude, was forcing the United Kingdom, the Realm, to finance his profits. They finally gave up after it became apparent that their stated model, their sterling word, meant that Soros could manipulate them into bankruptcy. They let the Pound float and it of course dropped in value and caused a ripple effect through the British economy which took years to overcome.\n\nAnd that is how you can be a single man in an office and force a powerful nation-state to it's knees with about 7 phone calls and two meetings.",
"The idea is that you own a lot of worthless stock. So you use pressure and lies to try and sell as much of the stock for that company as possible without declaring your own holdings of it; once the increased demand has resulted in a higher market price, you dump your stock at the going rate, and it quickly goes back to being worthless. Ultimately the only person who has benefited from the whole operation is you.",
"He would basically blatantly lie about his product. You can't say that a product will do something, when it is designed to do the opposite. This is true of all products, but is especially illegal in financial products.",
"He mislead investors into believing that his shares were public, but his friends would gobble up most of the stocks right away and manipulate a phoney high-demand which would fuel a small surge of other buyers which would briefly inflate their stock then they could sell it off. It was straight up fraud.",
"Basically, he artificially inflated stock prices, had his closest investors sell high, while tons of other low-level investors lost a lot. Boiler Room was similar, but the stocks they dealt with, they actually invested in themsevles and then they veiled these shitty companies as good ones, suckered folks into buying them and then dumped them when the price was right.\n\nLPT: don't buy stock from someone cold-calling you on the phone. Legit brokers do not do this.",
"He manipulated the market, which is illegal. With clients worth millions all buying at the same time, the stock price rises supply and demand... also he did coke that's illegal too",
"He targeted the rich. If he had stuck with fleecing the working class like he did when he started out, no one would have ever said a word.",
"As a victim of this kind of stock manipulation, these guys are not only convicted scumbags, but even with a conviction they still make a shit ton of money. (_URL_0_)\nGregg Mulholland was my neighbor and convinced my boss and I to invest in a company called RudyNutrition - a sports drink company owned by THE rudy (irish football movie fame). Needless to say that all press regarding the product was faked and I lost every penny. That was my first and last experience with wall street.",
"What he did was called the \"Pump and dump\". His company would sell stock thus rising the price, and then when the price got high enough he would sell his personal shares (held by his rat-holes). The artificial demand created for these stocks would fade away thus lowering the price back down to the original level. Everyone he convinced to buy the stock on the way up loses money, as the shares lose value.",
"a pump and dump scheme is illegal because it manipulates the stock market and gives an unfair advantage to a small number of people while harming a large number, even though this is the general basis for the stock market as a whole",
"Commenting here as a former broker who worked at the firm directly next door to Stratton:\n\nTo expand on a lot the comments below, there are some other aspects that while may not have technically been \"illegal\" per say, were frowned upon from a regulatory compliance point of view. A couple of very specific things we used to do as examples:\n\n- Churning - This is the act of making multiple trades in a customer's account which had the effect of a) creating more revenue for the firm, and b) creating more activity in the stock in question. This was fairly common practice in the firms which operated in the vicinity.\n\n- Stock Lock In - On many many occasions we (I say we, but I was simply a cold caller\\account opener with zero financial savvy) would lock customers' stocks up and not allow them to sell or trade off shares until the firm had realized the price-points they were looking for. It worked like this: Joe Blow is sold 30,000 shares of ASDF, and he is not necessarily a degenerate-gambler-type investor just yet, matter of fact he is the father of some other loser who went in large a few days before and simply engaged us based on this conversation during a round of golf with loser A. Anyway, he watches the stock closely, and sees it start trending up, up and up. On day 4, he notices a large drop-off, and using his infinite wisdom and gut instinct, he nervously decides to call our \"trading desk\" and sell his $10k worth of shares (which by the way, are now worth $2k). Well, Joe calls and calls, but he simply cannot get anyone on the phone. This is part of the design - you see *we* already know aint nobody calling in to buy stock, and if they are calling to buy then they have a direct line to the broker. If they happen to catch the broker two things happen - A) The broker usually gets the \"investor\" to effectively double-down and dump his kids college fund into whatever or B) hangs up on the customer. The underlying theme here is that the firm has a large interest in the same stock, and keeping their customers locked-in, guarantees that they can control the movement of the stock. Once the firm \"dumps\" its own shares, the stock spirals down, and customers call. Full circle fuck-ery.\n\nI have a ton of personal experiences and stories from that time, and looking back on that (when I was like 20) I can't believe I was even involved. This is really just two examples. Ask me about the 19 year old kid who drove a brand spanking new Viper to work... that was mind-blowing.\n\nedit:hyphenation",
"The idea is that the firm would have folks connected to it personally buy a large amount of a certain company's penny stock. They would use this jump in activity as a selling point to outside investors (who in the end were the victims of the scam) who would then buy more of it. As a result of all this activity, the stock's price would begin to soar. When it got to a certain point, the firm would have its connections sell their large number of shares and would make a bunch of the profits. As a result of large quantities being sold, the stock starts to drop and buyers begin to freak out and want to sell which makes the stock drop even further. The most important part of this is that the firm ensured that all of its shares were gone before addressing the needs of its clients/victims. ",
"They misled investors by making statements they knew to be false. They used psychological techniques, including harassment to make sales. There is statement in the end of Wolf about calling someone 38 times. \n\nThey also, controlled the stock price to profit internally by holding undisclosed share positions. ",
"Is he flat ass broke now?",
"I'm surprised no one went after his life since it seemed like he screwed a lot of people over..some might even lost their life savings.",
"I don't know exactly but they did explain some of it in the movie. Here's some of what they said:\n\n* He used aggressive and deceitful sales tactics (passing off penny stocks he knew nothing about as company's beaming with growth and ready to explode\n* He held large amounts of stock in an IPO he was underwriting, which is a conflict of interest\n* He would have people hold shares of a stock for him in their name, pump up the stock, then have those people cash out and give him the money. AKA a \"pump n' dump\", also not allowed. It's market manipulation as well as fraud I think since he was hiding the \"dumping\" under the names of other people so he didn't draw attention.\n\nThat's all I remember right now",
"It wasn't illegal for him to sell them, It was illegal on how he sold them. \"Misleading Investors!\" Put it like this way he told the investors they could/would make millions and high returns quickly. On penny stocks which most likely would fail, or already were failed companies!!!!!!",
"They had fake investors and companies buy up stocks in order to drive up the price, and when the price was high enough those fake companies sold off their shares and took home a killing. Meanwhile, the real investors who didn't know any better were stuck with worthless stocks. ",
"If you want real world experience of this buy $10 worth of bitcoin and go and trade on the altcoin markets. Pump and dump galore. Learnt a lot about trading doing this.",
"Well I guess I showed up to the party late, and after scrolling through about 50% of the comments, I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen somebody mention posture.\n\nPosture is important! It's the difference between looking like a drowsy, glumb, non-confident person versus a taller, more confident, more outstanding person. It's important for every aspect of your life too: sitting, standing, walking, working out etc. \n\nYou look more attractive, and it's beneficial to your health.",
"Is the Motley Fool a pump and dump? I see it's ads on right wing news sites. ",
"My older brother worked for Jordan Belfort back in the day. He would come and tell me crazy stories about going on trips with kilos of cocaine and a bunch of hookers. I remember thinking is this what being a grownup and having a job is like? I want to a be a grownup right now!!!",
"Pump and dump. Artificially ramp up the stock price by manipulating the supply/demand. Once it has peaked sell off all of your shares at the inflated price, then watch the ass drop out of the remaining shares (which you don't own, and don't give a shit about). ",
"Too late with this one. No one will see. But didn't he also do some shady stuff with IPO of Steve Madden company? Madden actually did time for it. ",
"Insider trading, manipulated marketing on that shoe company in wolf. The shoe retail company that Wolf's firm had was misrepresented to be worth alot of money. The reality was it was a small mid cap company with no money. Wolf's firm owned the company so it could put out false statements about it's equity and price. At it's hyped peak - wolf's firm sold the shares to anyone and when the company folded it left other investors out of money. \n\n Ponzi schemes in boiler room. Boiler room had no actual companies that they worked with. They rang you up wanting money to invest in companies that didn't exist. Where did the money go? ",
"Dude, why don't you check out Enron. The documentary *The Smartest Men in the Room* went into great detail.",
"It's been a while since I've seen Boiler Room, but from what I recall, they flooded the market with cold calls on stocks that didn't actually have what they were saying to the people on the phone, but the stock guys had shares in that stock. They would get people to buy stocks, and artificially inflate the price of their stocks. Then sell them the stocks they had in it for the inflated price, and cash out.",
"Sadly, what he did is 100% legal if done by a member of congress.",
"A lot of these explanations are really long. Here's what it boils down to:\n\nYou can't advise someone to buy a stock in your official capacity as a licensed brokerage firm without disclosing any and all relationships you have as an owner of those stocks. Jordan Belfort had friends buy stock for him in their name (the ratholes) to make it look like there was no ownership to disclose.\n\nThe \"high pressure tactics\" are a grey area, it's difficult to pin somebody for lying in a profession that is entirely opinion based. But you definitely cannot advise someone to buy stock that you own without telling them that you own it and fully disclosing your personal stake in the company.",
"from what I understand is that stock values go up if they are high in demand. And so, jordan belfort would have a bunch of stocks already in his possession, just under other people's names and then use the firm to get a bunch of people to buy the same stock in order to increase their value. once its up there, he would sell it all and then the stocks would lose their value, and the people who listened to the firm and bought them would lose a lot of money",
"You can actually make a good amount of money on these scams. All you have to do is find a broker that will short the stock. You buy it on margin and you know its gonna crash ( Because its a scam) and you buy it back at the lower price.",
"Points about the stock market:\n\nIt's gambling, and you probably don't know the rules.\n\nThose who enforce the rules (SEC) eventually go consult for the firms who want your money.\n\nYou also don't know the other players, or the dealers.\n\nThey don't want you around them. \n\nThey'll lie, cheat, steal, and kill kittens for money.\n\nIf they fail, they'll still get your money through Congress. "
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3uss5t | why aren't the nba and the nfl called major league basketball or major league football (or the other way around | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3uss5t/eli5_why_arent_the_nba_and_the_nfl_called_major/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxhhtfv"
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"text": [
"Because there aren't 'minor leagues' in either sport. You are either college or professional in basketball and football; baseball has minor league teams [the Staten Island Yankees for the NY Yankees, for example]. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
64e3sz | besides cannabis, are there any objects that naturally contain thc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64e3sz/eli5_besides_cannabis_are_there_any_objects_that/ | {
"a_id": [
"dg1h2hx"
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"text": [
"Almost all living multicellular organisms produce THC as a part of the regulation of the metabolism. THC receptors are also present in all of these organisms. Species as different as the simple nematode and the mighty redwood tree all have THC receptors, and produce THC as part of their normal metabolic cycle. This is why organisms can benefit from THC therapy. Because they already have THC receptors, and the THC provided in addition to their existing levels can have thereputic effects. "
]
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[]
] | ||
a55x1k | why do russian/soviet fighter jets have a distinctive look over their western counterparts? | Do they have different understandings or knowledges of engineering? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a55x1k/eli5_why_do_russiansoviet_fighter_jets_have_a/ | {
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"They serve similar functions but were designed by different people with different design philosophies in isolation. You’d think they’d become more similar over time, even if that isolation continued, but aerospace is different. Change is expensive and risky so remnants of old designs remain because they work.",
"Aircraft built in the Eastern Bloc countries were built with the ability to take off and land in the most decrepit air bases with minimal maintenance to them and not get damaged. The west built aircraft to be high performance and lighter weight and therefore needed more maintained and clear of FOD (foreign object debris) or it will damage the turbines. \n\nThat being said, both the east and west have trained and still do so by using long straight highways as temporary airports. ",
"I mean, \"distinctive look\" is in the eye of the beholder, is it not? \n\nBut more to the point about different designs: both US and Soviet jets were developed in very different cultural/military/industrial contexts. The US jets were developed in a context that encourage \"bleeding-edge\" technological superiority, at great expense and cost. This was a consequence both of US military strategy (which emphasized technological superiority, a holdover from how they felt they won World War II), and the so-called military-industrial complex, which made it very easy for vast funds to be secured for this kind of work. If there is a stereotype of US jet development, it is that the US jets had slightly better statistics than the Soviet ones (flight ceilings, max speeds, etc.), but at much greater cost, not only to build them, but to maintain and field them.\n\nThe Soviet jets, by contrast, needed of course to compete with the US ones, but unlike the US case, they tended to prioritize manufacturing efficiency, interoperable parts and maintenance, and durability over their lifetime. This was a product of their own version of the military-industrial complex, which was dominated by state-controlled design bureaus (like Tupolev), and where cost was a much more important factor. In general the Soviet approach to military technology could be summarized as, \"it isn't nearly as bleeding-edge as the USA, but it is cheaper and we have more of them, and they can all be repaired about as easily as a tractor can.\"\n\nThis same dynamic applies to a lot of different types of weapons, e.g., the M-16 vs. the AK-47; the Atlas vs. the R-7 rocket; and so on. I have not looked into the post-Soviet Russian approach; my vague understanding is that they are now more similar to the US design philosophy (fewer units, higher-tech) than the older Soviet model.\n\nThere are ups and downs to each design philosophy. The US model occasionally leads to fantastic overspending, and to the deployment of systems that sometimes end up getting cancelled in a few years because they are not adaptable to multiple war-fighting environments. The Soviet model can lead to lots of sub-par deployments that, if they fall too behind the bleeding edge, are essentially compromised against better tech. Both nations went through several \"generations,\" and many different models, of jet technology.\n\nAt the core, the US and Soviets had essentially the same knowledge of engineering. But they had very different production systems that adapted that engineering to different goals, and that led to somewhat different systems being developed."
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2fo6ff | how come homes built before the early 1900's have garages if cars weren't around yet? | Like the title states, how come homes and apartments built around or before the early 1900's have garages? Areas like San Francisco have typically older homes and apartments, a lot of them built before or right after the 1906 earthquake, yet still have garages. Cars weren't common then so I always wondered. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fo6ff/eli5_how_come_homes_built_before_the_early_1900s/ | {
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"ckb36jo",
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4,
6
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"text": [
"They're not garages -- they are carriage houses.\n\nEven before there were cars, people still needed a place to park their horse-drawn vehicles.",
"Some are carriage houses, where you would store your carriage, like you do a car.\n\nOther times, they might simply be a storage area close to the house, where you could hang dried goods, or store bags of flour, salt and sugar within easy reach, but still secured away from water and most pests.\n\nAnd they might be workshops. If you were a smith, a barrelmaker, etc. It only makes sense to have at least a small personal workshop next to your home.\n\nWith the latter two, the advent of the automobile meant that these areas made perfect storage and working areas for them."
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2ghn0n | what's going on in florida? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ghn0n/eli5_whats_going_on_in_florida/ | {
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"text": [
"I'm going to remove this as it's really vague and isn't really a complicated concept. Try /r/askreddit maybe?"
]
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1xkvuz | mind blanks. what are they? what cause them? | Thanks in advance I hate mind blanks | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xkvuz/eli5_mind_blanks_what_are_they_what_cause_them/ | {
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"Basically, your brain plays the \"word association\" game when trying to remember something. In doing so, your subconscious unintentionally blocks out the word (or phrase, thing, etc.) that it was looking for in the first place. It's hard to explain, but essentially your brain has compiled all the things it thinks are related to the thing you are trying to remember and puts it off to the side to aid you once you've got everything you need together in your head to recall it. Your brain has a mini meltdown when you realize you can't find the memory.\n\nA lot of times if you just focus on thinking of something unrelated for about ten seconds and go back to the original thought you were trying to remember, you'll remember almost immediately."
]
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[]
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b4dmuv | how is magnetism and electricity the same thing but from two different frames of reference? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b4dmuv/eli5_how_is_magnetism_and_electricity_the_same/ | {
"a_id": [
"ej61tzx"
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11
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"text": [
"Think of electricity like water flowing but magnetism the ripples. They are caused by the same thing but different effects"
]
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[]
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57a117 | televisions shows having multiple directors in a season. | What is the reason behind this. Do shows have a rotating set of directors or is this more of a freelance type of deal, directing different shows through the year? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57a117/eli5televisions_shows_having_multiple_directors/ | {
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"When you have to produce X number of episodes in Y number of weeks, the director is the one person who can't be doubled up on multiple episode shoots. Although you could say actors have to be in every episode, typically they have much less time on set than a director. It probably started as a production efficiency measure as more complicated cinema like productions became the norm, it has evolved into a way to use the strengths of certain directors to punch up a particular story arc. Look at the director list of ER as an earlier example of this.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Directors are involved in to planning, shooting, and editing. Actors are basically there for shooting only. Since production can't stop to wait for the director to finish planning and editing, other directors are used. "
]
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[
"http://m.ranker.com/list/list-of-er-directors/reference"
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j2uix | li5: wtf really happened in florida during the 2000 elections? | I was too young to understand what was going on. I thought Gore won that night, went to sleep, then I woke up and found out Bush won. I tried to get people to explain it to me, but I got explanations that bordered on the side of conspiracy to saying Jeb Bush did it or something like that. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j2uix/li5_wtf_really_happened_in_florida_during_the/ | {
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"We'll probably never know for sure. The most important point about the 2000 Election in Florida is that there were some documented uncertainties (hanging chads, missing ballots, etc) that normally would've caused a recount. However, the Supreme Court ultimately determined the recount was unnecessary, and they were halted.\n\nWith the current tally in Bush's favour, he was declared the winner.",
"This is a fun one. I can't explain it, but this documentary explains it in great detail.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Among many other things, the butterfly ballot used in Palm Beach County most likely [cost Gore the election](_URL_0_) (PDF, probably not for five year olds but still interesting).",
"1) there isnt one single election for President, but fifty some elections, all with slightly different rules.\n\n2) Americans dont seem to like using paper and pencil to vote, we tend to use devices and machines to do our counting. Some machines in Florida were... stupid.\n\n3) Elections in which millions of votes are counted, just aren't certain things. If i count one million votes ten times, i may get several different answers. Normally, the difference between candidates is larger than the error in making these counts. Not so much in Florida\n\nStarting the first count, Gore was leading. By the end, Bush had a tiny lead. The people in charge recounted, using the machines to tally votes and confirm the original count. Gore sued (contesting the results) for a hand recount, Bush sued (contesting the recount, that it was unfairly done) \n\n",
"First you need to understand the electoral college (EC). Rather than just counting all of the votes around the country (which Gore took, easily), US presidential elections are based on a system whereby each state is given a certain number of votes in the EC, and those are locked into whichever candidate gains the most votes in that particular state. (This is to make sure less populated areas like Iowa aren't ignored during the campaign, which is one reason why so many candidates travel to those places.) A candidate needs 270 EC votes to become president, so the tallying is done by states.\n\nIn Florida (where I lived during the 2000 election), the voting was very very close between Bush and Gore. In such cases, it's hard to tell on the eve of the election, who's ahead. (Keep an eye on what percentage of precincts are reporting.) Meanwhile, every other state had been called for one or the other candidate, and it was more or less tied — those 25 votes became necessary to tip either candidate over the top. Because it was so close, recalls began in areas that were the closest.\n\nObviously, it was very very important to make sure that the votes in these areas were counted very carefully. Several things made this difficult. \n\n* One of these was the design of the ballots. Every county uses its own design, and some of them were confusing, especially to elderly people, whom — as you know — make up both a significant percentage of Florida's population, and a large, active voting block.\n\n* Another problem during the recounts was the fact that, during the initial counts, machines were interpreting paper ballots. This was complex, because in some cases, the little piece of paper that the voter punched out (called a \"chad\") didn't get completely removed. (These were the infamous \"hanging chads\" we heard so much about.) Should such a ballot be counted, or not? What if there was only a depression, but the chad didn't get punctured? At some points in the process, election officials were holding up each individual ballot, and representatives from both parties (Republican and Democrat) would ask for a challenge or approval for that particular vote. Obviously very time-consuming and aggravating.\n\n* The other complication is party politics, even beyond that last point. As you noted, Jeb Bush (brother of George W) was governor of Florida at the time, and GW had said something before the election to the effect of \"We're going to win Florida; you can write it down.\" Now this was probably just a case of him being confident because of all the campaigning his brother had done on his behalf, but some folks thought it signaled something fishy going on in how the state ran the election.\n\n* More devious to many people were the actions of Florida's Secretary of State, [Katherine Harris](_URL_0_). She was accused of several dodgy things before and during the recounts, and just turned out to be a really fascinating person. Obviously her office had a lot of power during this process, and many people feel that she did not carry out her responsibilities in a fair or non-partisan way.\n\nAll of these things combined to make a crazy situation, and after weeks and weeks people were sick of waiting for the process. Both the Bush and Gore teams carried out legal procedure after legal procedure, mostly based on the idea that the recounts should continue (Gore, mostly) or end (Bush). Keep in mind, too, that each side wanted recounts to happen in areas where they thought they had more uncounted votes hiding.\n\nEventually these legal challenges made it to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that the recounts had gone on long enough, and that Bush had more votes, and was therefore the new president. Some people considered this an unfair interruption of the process, and began calling it a \"selection\" instead of an \"election\". (See what they did there? Pretty clever!)\n\nTo this day it's very much a matter of dispute who would have won if every ballot had been counted fairly, especially since the criteria for such a thing was always up for grabs. In closing, however, I will accept complete responsibility for the entire fiasco, since I was one of those people who voted in 2000 (in Florida!) for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader."
]
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[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Harris"
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66w8bo | how do poor countries benefit from globalization? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66w8bo/eli5_how_do_poor_countries_benefit_from/ | {
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"opening of markets basically. So you're a poor farmer who grows rice. Now people are trying to buy your rice, while also selling you other goods. Also, if you're a poor country by a rich country, the rich country might be taking advantage of you, but now with 2 or more rich countries in the market, they can't be as bad to you since they both now want to work with you.\n\nOften times though globalization is not that great for poor countries-its better to be a farmer being able to provide for your family and sell at the local market then work 16 hour days at the local sweatshop. Globalization can be a good, or a bad thing, depending on the circumstances",
"Having more access to other markets brings in outside/more advanced technology and more money. This allows the countries to develop more, which makes them more competitive.",
"The first world buys Chinese made goods.\n\nChina, being a vast, overpopulated country, demands insane amounts of raw materials to produce those goods as well as food to feed it's population. To a far lesser scale, this applies to other East Asian economies.\n\nA poor country that relies on primary goods extraction suddenly finds that the increased demand means commodity prices raise, which improves public accounts and creates some jobs.\n\nChina also needs to increase the productivity of its suppliers, so they can require more commodities and the supply becomes more reliable, so it loans a lot of money for infraestructure expending (to be built by Chinese companies, obviously).\n\nUp to a point, this works. Eventually, there are problems because efficient primary goods extraction tends to employ relatively few people and concentrates wealth in few hands. Also, should commodity prices fall, so would public income.\n\nAlternatively, one can do as Vietnam, hiring lots of poor peasants to sew football balls for 150 dollars per month and little if no benefits. Since textiles is a hard industry to automatize, countries which can pay very little to their workers enjoy a competitive advantage against more developed countries in which the cost of living and workers expectations are higher"
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1zoxwn | how do professional basketball players miss so many free throws? most pro sports seem so precise, most free throws tend to look about as well as i could do. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zoxwn/eli5_how_do_professional_basketball_players_miss/ | {
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"Free throws are not easy, especially after you've been running and your heart rate is racing.\nTry this, take a lap, up and down the court, take two free throws, take another lap, take two more free throws. They are not easy to score ;)\n\nPlus the sport is basketball, and not free throw shooting. If that was the case, the percentages may be higher"
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3xjop2 | when dealing with emotional trauma like the death of a loved one, or a breakup, why do emotions quickly oscillate between deep sadness and acceptance? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xjop2/eli5_when_dealing_with_emotional_trauma_like_the/ | {
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"Just because you accept something doesn't mean it will no longer bring sadness, and to truly accept something is a long process. The acceptance coincides with the pain, hence the oscillation of emotions.\n\nEventually you heal, and the feeling of acceptance become much more prominent.",
"It's like this. Let's say that your computer is broken, you know it's broken, and you are sad. Same with someone else's death or a breakup, you realize it is gone, and there's nothing you can (at least immediately) do about it. When you accept, you get a small amount of time where you're alright because you know there's nothing you can do, you just have to get it over with, but then after a while, you get remembered about all the happy memories you had, and how you want them back, and you wish you could have them back again.\n\n"
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1ahde2 | what are the consequences of not bathing and not washing clothes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ahde2/eli5_what_are_the_consequences_of_not_bathing_and/ | {
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"If you don't use *any* modern surfactants (i.e. soap, shampoo, shower gel, and similar products) but still wash using clean water, then after a month or two your body's natural oils will start to act as a barrier to dirt and microbes -- this is one of the main reasons why your body secretes oily substances in the first place.\n\nHowever if you don't bathe at all (not even washing yourself in water) you're likely to build up such an accumulation of dirt and grime that your body won't be able to keep itself naturally clean. Additionally in the summer when you sweat you're going to provide a wonderful breeding ground for bacteria (they love places that are warm and damp), and while most of the bacteria probably won't be harmful to you, they will make you stink to high heaven. If you've ever been on a bus or subway in the summer when a long-term homeless person has got on, you might know the sort of smell I mean.\n\nThe above is especially true if you don't change your clothes as well. In that case you're far more likely to pick up dangerous bacteria which could cause you problems if you ever get a scratch or a cut. You'll also run an ever-increasing risk of picking up fleas, lice and other unpleasant external parasites.\n\nTLDR: you can cut out soap & shampoo as long as you still wash and change your clothes regularly. If you don't wash or change your clothes you're going to quickly become unwelcome in almost any place."
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1s0th2 | what happens to all of the photons generated by stars over the years? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s0th2/eli5_what_happens_to_all_of_the_photons_generated/ | {
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"They keep going unless/until they get absorbed by something. High energy ones will occasionally do strange things, like create matter/antimatter pairs of massive particles."
]
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7thd1i | do bees or insects in general have ‘off days’? or sick days? how are they really held accountable for making sure they do their job? | Sorry if this has been posted before! I couldn’t find the actual answer so figured I’d take a shot at asking here. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7thd1i/eli5_do_bees_or_insects_in_general_have_off_days/ | {
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" > How are they really held accountable for making sure they do their job?\n\nInsects are closer to being biological machines than they are to being conscious entities. They almost certainly don't have a mind in the way that you or I think of that concept. They just do what they do mostly out of instinct. So they're not held accountable for \"doing their job\" because they can't *not* do their job. They're biologically wired to do what they do, and they don't really have a choice."
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1co0uw | why are emergency radio scanners (police, fire dept, ems, etc) available to the public to listen to? | I'm currently following the whole Boston madness right now and I'm listening to the police scanners and I can't help but wonder why something like this is available to the public. I mean, shouldn't they at least turn off public access during a high profile manhunt like this to prevent the suspect from learning what's going on? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1co0uw/eli5_why_are_emergency_radio_scanners_police_fire/ | {
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"Police radio is broadcast unencrypted over the air just like AM/FM radio, CB radio and other such forms of communication. So they can't just \"turn off\" public access, as anyone with a proper radio can tune in and hear. They could move to an encrypted radio, but it would cost a lot of money, and only be useful in a tiny handful of situations."
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v9nlu | the difference between copyrighting something and patenting something. also what are the pros and cons of doing so. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/v9nlu/eli5_the_difference_between_copyrighting/ | {
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"If you do anything artistic (write a book, draw a picture, record a song), you automatically get a copyright over it. This means that, for the next such-and-such years, you get copyright over it; nobody can make copies of the art without you saying they can. There are no disadvantages to you of doing this, so in most countries copyright automatically applies when you make the thing.\n\nNow, if you make some useful invention, you *can* choose to patent it. Like with copyright, nobody else can copy your invention for such-and-such years. But there is a disadvantage: you have to make the blueprints for your invention public in order to get a patent. So once the patent runs out (which will happen in about 20 years, unlike copyrights which last long past your death), everyone will know how to make your invention. \n\nIf it's not obvious how to make your invention, you might have been able to stay the only person selling it for *longer* than 20 years, by just keeping the process a secret. This is more risky than a patent though; if someone does figure out how to make it, you can't stop them from doing so.",
"I'm a computer programmer, and computer programs are pretty much the only thing that can be both patented and copyrighted. So I'll explain with computer programs.\n\nA computer program is basically a long list of instructions for the computer. You can print it out. If it's long you could make a book out of it.\n\nA copyright means you can't make a copy of that book. A patent means you can't use the *ideas* in the book.\n\nSo patents are really much more powerful, but they don't last as long and they cost a fair amount of money to get. And they don't apply to everything in the book. I need a separate patent for every specific idea.\n\nFiction can't be patented, but as an analogy: if the book were a novel, the copyright means you can't print up and sell copies of that novel, and the patent means you can't write your own novel with a similar plot twist, if I've patented that plot twist. Even if you never heard of my book and thought up that plot twist yourself, I can sue you."
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54c71f | is lava wet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54c71f/eli5_is_lava_wet/ | {
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"First question: what is wet? Definition: covered or soaked with water or another liquid : not dry.\n\nLava or magma is molten rock, it's so hot that it turns solid rock into a liquid state. The melting point for rock (that doesn't exist but ELI5) is much higher than the melting point of water. So basically it is wet, since it's a liquid. It has nothing to do with water though.",
"It's a liquid, but it contains no water. It is rock that has gotten so hot it has melted into a liquid state. So depending on your definition of wet, yeah I guess it's wet. ",
"There isn't really a scientific definition of wetness. But our experience of stuff being wet isn't so much about it being liquid - but more about it having a relatively low surface tension. When you stick your hand into water it gets wet - some of the water sticks to you and that is thanks to its [low-ish surface tension](_URL_2_). If you stick your hand into mercury (not recommended) which has a much higher surface tension than water [the experience is not one of wetness](_URL_0_). \n\nMolten lava also has a [much higher surface tension than water](_URL_3_), though not quite as high as mercury. Were you some sort of superhuman and able to force your hand into the lava without it [catching on fire](_URL_1_) or exploding due to the water in your body instantly turning to steam, it would probably not feel wet.\n\nEDIT: As has been rightly pointed out, there are scientific definitions of wetness used in fields like nanotechnology so my first statement is not technically correct. And there's a lot more going on with something being 'wet' than surface tension (which is just only one consequence of how liquids want to 'stick' to themselves - but it's a useful enough proxy). ",
"I'm assuming by wet you mean a liquid substance maintaining intermolecular interaction with a solid. \nLots of inaccurate answers on here. \n(Im on mobile so excuse the formatting. )\nIf this were ask science I'd go into detail and explain the math behind it as well as the physics but here is the gist of it. \n\nTwo main forces come into play. Adhesive and cohesive. Adhesive is what causes the stickiness to another substance. Cohesive is what causes it to stick to itself more. \n\nNow wettability depends on two main things. A strong adhesive force. A weak cohesive force. The liquid must stick more to the solid than itself. In fact, perfect wettability comes when theta is zero from this image:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nLiquids with a high surface tension have very strong cohesive forces. High surface tension is also linked to high viscosity. \n\nLava should be highly viscous even when making immediate contact with earth's surface atmosphere. \nThe high surface tension means it sticks more to itself than to any solid surface. Note: surface tension isn't what causes wettability. It's the forces. I'm only linking surface tension to wettability is it's a direct link to viscosity. If we were use a surfactant for lava, maybe we could increase wettability but that's out of my field. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nThis paper goes into the dynamics of lava flow of you're interested although it has no info on wetness. "
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4icre9 | what is the pocket in women's panties intended for? | Family discussion/ideas include stain protection, pocket for money or extra tampon. Frankly if any of these are the purpose it is terrible. Thoughts? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4icre9/eli5_what_is_the_pocket_in_womens_panties/ | {
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"I seriously doubt it's meant as any sort of storage. Lol\n\nI believe it's just meant as an extra layer of fabric to help keep any stains from reaching outer clothing.",
"Some pockets are for the remote controlled vibrators that fit in them. Like the sexy undies ",
"It's not a pocket, it's a gusset. It works as both an extra barrier for bodily fluids and allows for breathability.",
"The vagina is in a constant state of production of natural lubrication. While males are also able to produce lubricant, I do not believe that without sexual stimulation, production of male lubricant continues.\n\nVaginas, however, constantly produce this lubricant for vaginal health. If you ever look at a male's boxers, you will not see any stains of any sort (if used properly, with proper bodily functions and processes). However, after several months of use, a female may be able to see faint brown stains on the bottom of her panties. This is from repeated batches of lubricant drying on the panties. \n\nThe second layer is to protect clothing from becoming stained, and it can sometimes be made into a pocket to save production labor and costs to sew it up completely.",
"What are you talking about? I've never had a pair of panties with a \"pocket\" in them."
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77ygey | why are cameras implemented to catch people running red lights but are not used for other traffic violations such as speeding or tailgating? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77ygey/eli5_why_are_cameras_implemented_to_catch_people/ | {
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"Red-light running takes place on only a small part of the road network, where the light is located. Thus it's pretty easy to put the sensor and camera one of the poles near the intersection.\n\nSpeed cameras also exist, my local police force loves how much money they make, but you have to put them in a place where there is speeding, and with Waze it just moves the speeding to the rest of the road.\n\nTailgating can take place anywhere, and that would cost way too much."
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2qgk3v | why aren't the rockefeller family trillionaires by now? | According to Wikipedia, "By the time of [John D. Rockefeller's] death in 1937, estimates place his net worth in the range of US$392 billion to US$663.4 billion in adjusted dollars for the late 2000s, and it is estimated that his personal fortune was equal to 1.53% of the total U.S. annual GDP in his day."
But I just looked on Forbes, and there is only one Rockefeller on the billionaire's list, and he's way down at #556 at *only* 3 billion. What happened to all that money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qgk3v/eli5_why_arent_the_rockefeller_family/ | {
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"They gave alot of it away. They stopped making money",
"The family fortune would naturally diminish over generations because there are several heirs to divide inheritances. JDR Sr. had 5 kids, and many of his children and grandchildren also had 4, 5, or 6 kids. That means the inheritance would get smaller and smaller over the generations.\n\nThen you had various Rockefeller's giving money away to various causes, spending money on extravagant lifestyles, or engaging in various business ventures that didn't pay off.",
"To expand on /u/buildyourown's comment, the Rockefeller descendents have been giving away money for decades and continue to do so. The [Rockefeller Foundation](_URL_1_) and [Rockefeller Brothers Fund](_URL_2_) together fund everything from campaign finance reform, to green transportation, to food security issues and more, in both the US and around the world. \n\nThe Rockefeller Foundation gives away about [$130 million/year](_URL_0_). I don't know how much has been given away over the years, but it was founded a hundred years ago so it could theoretically have given away ~~a trillion dollars (in adjusted dollars) by now~~ edit: nope, somehow off by two decimal places -- if you just multiply that by a hundred, it's $13 billion.",
"Also, a lot of the higher estimates of the Rockefeller's worth comes by comparison to the size of the US economy at large, not by the actual cash value of their holdings. In other words, at their peak their holdings were about 1.5% of the size of the US GDP, which *would be* hundreds of billions today. Of course, this is kind of an insane way of actually measuring money, because your wealth doesn't necessarily change in the same way as the greater economy. The actual cash value his accounts at the time of his death in 1937 was reported to be something like [1.4 billion dollars](_URL_2_), and he gave away another [$500 million](_URL_0_) or so in his later years. That 1.4 billion would be equivalent, after inflation, to about $22 billion today, but in the intervening years the Rockefeller family has continued to give generously to philanthropic causes, and because of the number of children, grandchildren, etc, he has something like [150](_URL_1_.) direct descendents now, that share that wealth."
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller#Philanthropy",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_family#D... | |
4ra5fk | wahhabism | Gimmie the rundown | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ra5fk/eli5_wahhabism/ | {
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"text": [
"There seem to be no answers, and I think this is rather important so I'll give it a go.\nDISCLAIMER: I don't have formal education in religious studies, it's just a hobby.\n\nWahhabi is a Sunni doctrine, kind of like how there's different sub-groups of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) and sub-sub-groups (Calvinism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Episcopalian/Anglican) there are divisions of Islam. There is a lot of history behind this but in a nutshell the Sunni and Shi'ite split was over who should take over as leader of the Islamic community after Muhammad died. Some championed someone pious, Muhammad's uncle Abu-Bakr. Others said it should be his son-in-law Ali ibn Abu-Talib. Abu-Bakr became the first Caliph ('successor') and Ali fled with his followers, who became the Shi'ites.\n\nWahhabism started in the 18th century as a reaction to the Ottoman Empire trying to modernize. A preacher named ibn Abd Al-Wahhab started to say that Islam should revert to the original ideas of the early Caliphate, and the importance of 'Hadith,' or parables attributed to Muhammad or things he did, kind of like the Gospels being a sort-of biography of Christ. He advocated the destruction of shrines and tombs of saints and even Muhammad and his family because it was too close to idolatry. \n\nAl-Wahhab found an ally in Muhammad bin Saud (as in 'Saudi') and bin Saud, a noble who controlled the area around Riyadh. Eventually of course, his family took control of most of the Arabian Peninsula after World War I. Saudi Arabia does not have anything like a constitution because they feel that all matters can be settled by the Qu'ran.\nIt is in essence a literal, original interpretation of the Qu'ran, a set of ideas that Jehovah apparently revealed to Muhammad, kind of as a footnote to the Bible. So it's very much like Fundamental Christianity, following exactly what scripture says.\n\nThe reason this is so controversial now is that the Hadiths, purported actions and habits of the Prophet, are held in as high regard or even higher than the word of God and this is open to abuse. It's easy to forge a Hadith, such as the ones promoting military conquest through Jihad, the glory of martyrdom, and the subjugation of women and other religions. So it's similar to how the Catholic church took out Biblical statements that could challenge their authority and principles; it is (often, not always) editing done for political gain. So Saudi Arabia, the US's great ally, is a nation that officially follows this rather shoddy doctrine while countries like Turkey, Iran and Lebanon are (supposedly, theoretically) more tolerant, Turkey being technically secular, Iran being Shi'ite, and Lebanon because of a large diversity of influential minorities. \n\nTL;DR Wahhabism is fundamentalism Islam, a literal reading of scripture dominating all aspects of life, promoted and followed by the Saudi royal family.\nIf anyone is more qualified, spots mistakes, or has other interjections please let me know, and I hope this helps answer your question. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
3cbhu6 | how does the police get access to your facebook, email and such in their investigations? (e.g.: a murder case) | Do they request access to the Facebook company or they hack in?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cbhu6/eli5_how_does_the_police_get_access_to_your/ | {
"a_id": [
"csu6xxf"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"To supplement other responses, Police Departments may have fake profiles used to target suspects in gangs and the like. The local PD here does this and has found it successful."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
3st6bt | why does the thought of blending food (like a sandwich) and drinking it like a chunky smoothie seem gross, but chewing our food and swallowing it feels perfectly fine? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3st6bt/eli5_why_does_the_thought_of_blending_food_like_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cx06xxv"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Visuals. You don't took at it after you chew it (and if you did you wouldn't wanna eat it then) \n\nAlso the flavours do not blend nicely when you do this. So flavour profiles get whacked. You can see this in action by the existence of a tasty smoothie. If you shoved a bit of banana, Strawberry, yogurt and ice cubes and then tried to wash it all down with milk or yogurt, it'd taste a Lot worse than the smoothie version. \n\nTl;dr: it looks gross plus we make the sandwich with unblended flavours in mind"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
7bmrpp | why do we have aversions to certain food bring mixed together? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7bmrpp/eli5_why_do_we_have_aversions_to_certain_food/ | {
"a_id": [
"dpj8ge9"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"its cultural not biological, ever notice you can go to somewhere not in the US and they eat 'weird stuff'"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
2bjdah | how do we know how to breath as soon as we are born? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bjdah/eli5_how_do_we_know_how_to_breath_as_soon_as_we/ | {
"a_id": [
"cj5w9yw",
"cj5wb20",
"cj5wp8e"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Everyone who couldn't, didn't, and died.\n\nThere's an extremely strong evolutionary pressure to cause that sort of thing to happen.",
"Breathing is not a voluntary action - we don't learn it. While we can control it (e.g. stop it, pacer it), we _learn_ that. The actual breathing is instinctual. We also know how to suckle, cry, blink our eyes. Additionally, there are a whole lot of reflexes that develop (and disappear) at various stages of our development.",
"*BREATHE.\n\n\n\nFUCK MAN."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
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