q_id stringlengths 5 6 | title stringlengths 3 296 | selftext stringlengths 0 34k | document stringclasses 1
value | subreddit stringclasses 1
value | url stringlengths 4 110 | answers dict | title_urls list | selftext_urls list | answers_urls list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
fo264p | how was the footage of the first moon landing (armstrong emerging from the capsule) captured? was the camera attached to another module or did he place the camera down first, go back into the capsule then come back out again making it, technically, the 2nd moonwalk?! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fo264p/eli5_how_was_the_footage_of_the_first_moon/ | {
"a_id": [
"flcqlvm",
"flcwbub"
],
"score": [
18,
5
],
"text": [
"The lunar lander had a module in which they could store equipment for easy access from the surface, which had a camera facing the ladder installed in it. [This is how it looked](_URL_1_).\n\nEdit: [Better image from the wiki page](_URL_0_)",
"When he exited the LM, he pulled a cable attached to a nearby equipment hatch. This released the camera and turned it on. I believe if you listen to the full audio you can hear Houston confirm the camera is working before he continues down the ladder."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_TV_camera#/media/File:ApolloTVCameraOnLunarModule.jpg",
"https://i.stack.imgur.com/n7if4.jpg"
],
[]
] | ||
1787ud | why are so many people moving out of the northern us and moving into the south? | Why would so many people move out of the north and down to the south? It feels like some kind of great migration. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1787ud/eli5_why_are_so_many_people_moving_out_of_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"c833qs4",
"c833wrf",
"c833xol",
"c838tc9",
"c838xt1",
"c83dj4k",
"c83quhi"
],
"score": [
3,
3,
3,
3,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"People like the warmer climate, and today's modern conveniences (e.g. universal air conditioning) make this easier to do as compared to, say, 50 or 75 years ago.",
"I might guess that part of it could be because people don't like having to live and drive in the snow, or want to have to wash the salt (which makes things rust faster) off of their cars every week.",
"It's freezing here right now. ",
"The North, which dating back to civil war times was much more industrialized, also had much stronger labor movements. \n\nUnions fought for various rights for their workers, and typically organized manufacturing workers. Since the North was much more industrialized, unions also had much more fertile ground to take root in.\n\nAs these unions gained membership, they became political forces in their own right. The Socialist Party, which today barely exists in the United States, represented unions politically, and [reached its zenith in 1912](_URL_1_ ), when Eugene V Debs got 900,000 votes to the winner, Woodrow Wilson's 6.3 million. \n\nTo offset this threat, the Democratic and Republican parties embraced to some extent their ideas, leading in part to the [Progressive Era](_URL_0_), where members of both major parties adopted some ideas of the unions, such as minimum wage laws, a 40 hour work week, employer-provided health insurance, and worker's compensation for workplace accidents. \n\nThe Democrats and Republicans adopted some of the more moderate demands of the unions to remove pressure for some of the more radical changes, such as overthrowing the capitalist system or taxing the rich at 100%. In this way, union demands got diluted but also propagated through the political system to become law.\n\nWhat is important to remember, though, is that a lot of worker laws are made on a state-wide, not nationwide, basis, so the northern states which had more unions also had more union influence in their laws and protections for workers, making northern workforces more inflexible about things, like hiring or firing for instance.\n\nNone of that mattered in the early to mid 20th century, though, because the US was a manufacturing powerhouse that could easily deal with union benefits and still have plenty of money to go around.\n\nHowever, in the '70s and onward, developing countries started catching up on their manufacturing capabilities, leading to more and more manufacturing being outsourced overseas to places where it cost 1/10th the price for their labor compared to a union controlled factory in Ohio, for example. A global trend saw advanced countries like Western Europe and the United States move away from manufacturing as their main source of employment and towards other industries, like services, IT, and jobs requiring higher education.\n\nThis forced the US into increasing competition. But the inability to, for example, fire a worker without 'just cause' and other labor strictures put in place by union movements prevented a lot of US manifacturing companies from being able to compete with places like China or India, where they had almost no worker protections and could this produce things much cheaper, although their workers also died more often.\n\nThis is all, of course, a simplification, and doesn't go into detail about the full story. Even without union rights, the US would have lost manufacturing jobs as other countries had a lower cost of living and could therefore do things cheaper regardless. But it didn't help.\n\nSo, the US lost manufacturing jobs while other countries gained them. (As an aside, this actually improved both the US and the other countries' economies, although it hurt US manufacturing employees as a group.) This meant a constant fight to find ways to lower costs on the US side, leading to more efficient products, but also a political fight by businesses to remove union rights as another way to lower their costs. The unions fought back.\n\nThe thing about laws is breaking new ground is difficult, but slowly expanding already broken ground is easy. So, those union demands that had propagated through the political system had become laws, which get entrenched over time. This meant that it was very difficult for businesses to remove those protections. So they did the next best thing: pack up and move where there aren't those expensive worker's rights.\n\nAbsent moving to another country, the South provided a great location for companies: it is in the US, enjoying relatively similar levels of education, good infrastructure, and a stable political regime, while also costing significantly less in labor costs due to less worker protections. \n\nRemember: a lot of those were made on a state by state basis, but the South was much less industrialized and less unionized than the North during the early 20th century when most of those laws were being put in place, so they grew up without a lot of those laws.\n\nTherefore, companies opened up shop in the South as they closed down in the North. Foreign companies, like Toyota and Daimler-Chrysler, which are respectively Japanese and German car manufacturers, even opened up facilities, concluding that production in the US could be worth the savings in transport costs for certain bulky manufactured items like cars.\n\nThis started a general trend: economic development tends to grow on itself, so as some manufacturers and other industries moved South, it spurred more businesses to also move South, leading to a migration trend of people going south to seek work.\n\nPolitically, we still see the union versus business conflict happening today in the [right to work state](_URL_3_) conflict, which generally breaks along Democrat-Unions, Republican-Businesses lines, although not always.\n\nIn economics, the idea of manufacturing and other jobs moving to other countries or other parts of the country to equalize differences in pay and standards of living is a well accepted theory known as [global labor arbitrage](_URL_2_), among other things. Economics in general teaches that when two areas are unequal in some way they tend to equalize over time, barring barriers to this equalization like immigration quotas.",
"Less unions and more conservative state government lead to more vibrant economies and lower cost of living. It is easier to find work because a lot of manufacturing had moved south to escape the unions. Alabama and Mississippi are the new Detroit. Also the people are generally nicer, we have real football, and we really aren't a bunch of inbred racists. \n\nWhere I live unemployment is about 3.5%, my property tax is less than $1000/yr, sales tax is 8%,and the schools rank in the top 10% in the country. My friends in Philadelphia have unemployment over 10%, pay triple the property tax for less house, the sales tax is higher, and the schools are horrible. ",
"Less crime, warmer climate, not as ridiculously crowded in big cities... This is just my opinion from traveling to places like Chicago or NYC on vacation, but the southern hospitality is one thing you obviously get no where else. People tend to be a lot nicer down here. ",
"I've lived in both the Southeast and Northeast: The people & their attitudes, the job market, the weather, taxes, larger (and my opinion, better) everything."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_era",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1912",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_labor_arbitrage",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law"
],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
2s4si2 | why are humans getting faster? | It seems since they have started timing runners in the late 19th century we have slowly gotten faster (for example to [run a mile](_URL_0_) used to take almost 4m30s while today the fastest mile record is 3m43s). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2s4si2/eli5_why_are_humans_getting_faster/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnm706r",
"cnm7o4l",
"cnm7pne"
],
"score": [
11,
9,
2
],
"text": [
"Two main reasons.\n\nFirst, there's more people: The top 0.0001% of 7 billion people is a lot more than the top 0.00001% of 1 billion people.\n\nSecondly, today, we usually run on much better materials, with better shoes etc. than people did a hundred years ago, so it's easier for people to run that fast in more controlled environments.",
"* better nutrition and medicine\n* better training techniques\n* better equipment\n* the rise of professional athleticism, meaning people can dedicate their entire lives to running fast and make a living at it\n\nAlso, not to be negative, but we can't ignore the impact of PEDs.",
"We aren't getting faster. Here's an explanation that would be better than my own, plus some other info that you probably are interested in since your asking this. _URL_0_ "
]
} | [] | [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_run_world_record_progression"
] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epstein_are_athletes_really_getting_faster_better_stronger?language=en"
]
] | |
2tyc6h | bitrate vs baudrate? | In terms of radio/audio signals.
I have a basic understanding of each of them, but not enough to make this connection. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tyc6h/eli5_bitrate_vs_baudrate/ | {
"a_id": [
"co3etjk"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Baudrate signifies the number of symbols that you can transmit in a certain timeframe. There can be many different symbols, but there is only two types of bits: 0 and 1. \n\nTherefore if you have 4 different symbols each symbol can deliver information of 2 bits. Given the symbols A, B, C and D when we receive them they can indicate:\n\nA: 00\n\nB: 01\n\nC: 10\n\nD: 11"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
ao7kc7 | why does some electronic equipment (smart tv’s, consoles, computers etc) respond so slowly when they are first turned on? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ao7kc7/eli5_why_does_some_electronic_equipment_smart_tvs/ | {
"a_id": [
"efysiip",
"efyte0b",
"efywq3q",
"efyxom8",
"efz0lfw"
],
"score": [
20,
2,
4,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"They have a lot of things to load into memory and process (startup processes, kernal modules, etc)\n\nThink of it like eating breakfast. It takes a while to get to the eating part because you have stuff to do prior like cooking, getting the dishes, bringing them to the table, etc. ",
"because you are effectively booting up a computer each time you turn the TV on. What doesn't help is that you are used to analog style tvs, which just needed their components to heat up to effectively start working. modern tvs have parts the need to effectively boot to start working enough for you to see a picture. Some are better optimized than others. I know my Vizio tv will take a while to load, no matter what, but my Samsung tv can load live tv almost instantly, but loading other items seems to take a few extra cycles. ",
"Not sure if you meant first turned on in the context of a hard shutdown or new out of the box experience, so I’m putting both in the ELI5:\n\n**First turned on**: You were just born. You have to set everything up from scratch. Install a language into your brain, install the movement system, fine tune the vision system etc. before you can become fully functional. \n\n**Turn on after a full shutdown:** You just woke up after a great night’s sleep. You’re a bit groggy so you have to take some time to wake up. Eat breakfast, drink your coffee, then go to work. \n\n**Turn on from standby (like most modern consoles)**: You just took a power nap. You’re up now but your faculties are still with you, you aren’t groggy and you’ve already eaten, so you are good to get back to work. ",
"Because they're running a real operating system like Linux or BSD on the cheapest hardware available. They're a computer with a slow disk, crappy CPU and not enough memory, running a shitty, cut-down operating system that will just about run.",
"Imagine if someone woke you from a sound sleep and immediately started asking you to do math problems. It would take you some time to get yourself in the right frame of mind to add, subtract, multiply and divide, right?\n\nThat's basically what's happening inside the device, it's getting into the right frame of mind before it can respond to your demands."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
dqaxqd | what is physically happening inside a body to cause projectile puking? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dqaxqd/eli5_what_is_physically_happening_inside_a_body/ | {
"a_id": [
"f61ut3j",
"f61uvt2"
],
"score": [
8,
5
],
"text": [
"The body is trying to empty the stomach. This is just normal puking.\n\nIt becomes projectile when the stomach empties too fast and builds up pressure. Your esophagus is very narrow and your stomach is decently big. Its kind of like a squirt gun. You pump up the tank (your stomach) and when you squeeze the trigger (you start to puke), the water is forced into a tiny tube to be shot out (your esophagus).",
"Emetic (puke controlling) centers in the brain are activated. This signals the body to purge contents from the digestive tract for protection. The diaphragm and abdominal muscles coordinate in a forceful contraction to propel contents up and out of the mouth. During this process the epiglottis shuts over the airway to protect it from digestive enzymes and material entering the airway. You also secrete more saliva in an effort to protect the esophagus and teeth from the acid about go come up."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
dfef9d | what happen in hongkong? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dfef9d/eli5_what_happen_in_hongkong/ | {
"a_id": [
"f32jxme",
"f32k5mh"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"In the end, they just want a true democracy. I believe they already have elections but the candidates are pre selected by the comunist party and that winnie the pooh guy.",
"I bet r/outoftheloop will have a great explanation on this. \n\nIt's honestly really complicated, but essentially the hk were upset about the bill because the leaders in hk were essentially giving hk to the Chinese on a silver platter. Then after the protests began the hk leaders said they'd \"rethink\" the bill. Problem is the core of the bill is what the protesters don't like, so no amount of revision would be satisfactory. \n\nThen China stated threatening to use force to stop the protests and the hk people effectively said \"try us\". The hk leaders eventually scrapped the bill to try to stop the protests, but by then the protesters were too upset at China trying to strongarm them into obedience.\n\nFinally, the Chinese government is now ACTUALLY trying to use force to stop it, which is where we're at now. The US is unlikely to do anything (ironic, considering our iconography is being used by the hk people) because of our own current political shit, but idk about other countries. \n\nThe endgame is either the hk people win independence (unlikely without foreign aid) or the Chinese government squash what they term as a rebellion and everyone eventually forgets as we welcome our new Chinese overlords.\n\nHonestly this sort of conflict was inevitable with the way hk was set up, but I'd argue that the way this event plays out will affect the course of world politics for the next decade at least."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
3f4cxi | why does the estimated time remaining in a file transfer/copy always take longer than displayed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3f4cxi/eli5_why_does_the_estimated_time_remaining_in_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctl7vxi"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The computer is estimating the time based upon several factors. However, during the file transfer those factors might change. The computer processor or RAM might get lag, slowing down the transfer. Additionally, the computer may not have a full number of files that are being transferred, so that as the computer becomes more aware of the number of files, it adjusts the estimation."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3h48a8 | why do american police officers keep telling people they have handcuffed/in the process of arresting that they are "going to jail"? | I'm sure we all know what I'm talking about here (if anyone's unsure, check the videos below). I'm not going to pretend I'm a legal expert but I'm not going to pretend either that I am completely oblivious to the law. The two videos below are just videos I have happened to watch today but I have seen this countless times on cop-umentary shows or mobile clips. What on earth gives the arresting police officer the right to tell the *potential* criminal that they are "going to jail"? This, surely, is up to a judge and a jury of ones peers?
Speaking as a Brit, this is a completely alien concept to me. The police officer will no doubt take them to their police station and put them into custody but how on earth can they suggest that they know what they outcome of the *potential* offenders trial? This to me either smacks of a flawed and rigged legal system or a deliberate attempt to frighten the suspect and force their hand into possibly committing further crimes like attempted escape or fighting back against arrest.
Can anyone (preferably Americans but I'd love to hear the rest of your opinions on this) shed some light on this heartless and calculated method of dealing with suspects?
_URL_0_ (Courtesy of the FP, woman on United Airlines flight swears at flight attendant, is asked to leave the plane, is told she is "going to jail" and then ends up in a hysterical physical confrontation with police)
_URL_1_ (Man is followed by police on grounds of looking suspicious, runs, hides a small amount of marijuana under a house, is handcuffed, placed in police car and told he is "going to jail". Suddenly starts changing his story in an attempt to bargain with police officers, probably incriminating himself further.) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3h48a8/eli5_why_do_american_police_officers_keep_telling/ | {
"a_id": [
"cu42qnn",
"cu42rn6",
"cu42woi",
"cu42zu8"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
2,
11
],
"text": [
"When you get arrested, you're taken to the police station where they process the arrest.\n\nUsually, you're placed in jail until you can see a judge who determines if you should be let out on bail. Usually, this means you give the court some sort of money as a **security deposit** to ensure you'll show up at your actual trial (after which it gets refunded).\n\nNormally, if you're just awaiting a bail hearing or only in jail for a day or two, you're in a small temporary holding facility. If you're going to be around much longer, you go to a larger \"real jail\". If you're locked away for more than a year, you go to prison.",
"\"You're gonna go to jail or you're gonna get off\" before being cut off by the woman. \n\nThey have a right to arrest people, and I think you're mistaking jail for prison. Prison is when they go to court and get a verdict. Jail is where the big bad policeman takes you after resisting their orders. ",
"At least in local vernacular, Jail simply means \"holding & processing\" or basically going to the police station to be booked on charges. \n\nPrison is where people convicted of a crime go. \n\nAfter being arrested, you're taken to a Jail, normally at or near the police station, to be in-processed; having your information taken, having the charges placed against you, and being sent before a judge to have bail decided. \n\nPrison is where you go if you are convicted of the crimes, and serve your prison sentence as punishment. ",
"I don't know about Britain, but in the United States jail and prison are different things.\n\nJail is where you go after you've been arrested for a crime but before you're prosecuted, unless you post bail.\n\nPrison is where you go after you've been convicted."
]
} | [] | [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7a0eQleWiw",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhDMp_WNje8"
] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
36kdaa | what is the need for a doctor if we already have a pharmacist? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36kdaa/eli5_what_is_the_need_for_a_doctor_if_we_already/ | {
"a_id": [
"crepep8",
"crepg4u",
"crepst7",
"creqwnl"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Pharmacists know how to mix drugs *at the order of a doctor*. They may even know what the drugs do and what they teach... but they don't go to school for close to a decade (plus additional training) for the express purpose of fixing humans who are broken.",
"A pharmacist knows how to make medicine. A doctor knows which medicine to prescribe.\n\nAn auto mechanic knows a lot about cars, but they're not necessarily trained or qualified in the same way that a mechanical engineer is. The two jobs both \"work with cars\" and need to understand a lot about how cars work, but they fulfill very different needs.",
"Think of it like a restaurant. The wait-staff take care of you, they figure out what you need and then write up the order for the kitchen. The chefs then prepare the food to your request. So, Doctor=waiter, Pharmacist=Chef\n\nSort of.",
"A pharmacist is basically a chemist; a doctor is a biologist who specializes in the human body. The doctor tells the pharmacist what the body needs, the pharmacist fills the prescription. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
6h9h3x | what would happen if a helicopter took off of a moving car? | Would it decelerate instantly? Or would it slow down to zero km/h? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6h9h3x/eli5_what_would_happen_if_a_helicopter_took_off/ | {
"a_id": [
"diwjtui",
"diwkyns"
],
"score": [
2,
7
],
"text": [
"helicopters take off moving ships all the time. they are already going at the same rate relative to the inertial (non moving) earth frame as the object the helicopter is resting on. so yes, helicopters can take off from moving objects",
"It would go 'forward' (the direction of the car) and up. \n\n > Would it decelerate instantly? \n\nNo, if physics worked this way, any jump would be lethal.\n\n > Or would it slow down to zero km/h?\n\nEventually if it is not working to maintain any forward momentum, it would eventually slow to 0 relative to the surface due to air blunting the momentum it had from the car *assuming a still day."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
1k8rb8 | when you're driving down the highway and you zone out, and then later, you come back to reality and realize you haven't been paying attention for like 5 miles, what is your brain doing and how is it able to prevent yourself from crashing and maintain awareness of your surroundings? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k8rb8/eli5_when_youre_driving_down_the_highway_and_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbmhqep",
"cbmhrch"
],
"score": [
5,
6
],
"text": [
"You don't crash because of muscle memory and subconscious cues, but the reason you don't remember is your brain filters out unimportant information.",
"Driving is so routine to you that your brain can do it on autopilot. Just like how you don't think about walking, you just do it. \n\nEither that, or you are very sleepy and you actually fall half asleep while driving. This is dangerous, obviously, since any sudden or unexpected event on the road will kill you in a fireball of metallic death."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
ffifmv | why it is worse to chew gum while smoking | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ffifmv/eli5_why_it_is_worse_to_chew_gum_while_smoking/ | {
"a_id": [
"fjyog3u"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"First you would have to explain why you believe this. Only then could someone try and give you an answer, lol"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
ck8s7x | why does china have such undervalued currency and qatar have the most overvalued currency while both being highly export dependent economy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ck8s7x/eli5_why_does_china_have_such_undervalued/ | {
"a_id": [
"evl2ysx",
"evm11aj"
],
"score": [
37,
5
],
"text": [
"When the United States went off the gold standard, the dollar basically replaced gold as the main asset in which foreign governments could hold their assets.\n\nDollar inflows from export sales are being converted into your currency, increasing its exchange rate. But by buying U.S. bonds or stocks, bid the price of dollars back up against your own currency. Let’s say you’re Germany, China or whoever. If you don’t recycle your dollar receipts back to the U.S. economy, your currency is going to go up. Dollar inflows from export sales are being converted into your currency, increasing its exchange rate. But by buying U.S. bonds or stocks, bid the price of dollars back up against your own currency.\n\nSo, when the United States runs a balance-of-payments deficit under conditions where other countries keep their foreign reserves in dollars, the effect is for other countries to keep their currencies’ exchange rates stable – mainly by lending to the U.S. government. That gives the United States a free ride. It can encircle the world with military bases, and the dollars that this costs are returned to the United States.\n\nThe U.S. position is, in effect, that we are not going to repay any foreign country the dollar debt we owe them. As Treasury Secretary John Connolly said, “It’s our dollars, but your problem.” Other countries have to pay us or else we’ll bomb them. The military dimension to this arrangement is the U.S. position that it would be an act of war if other countries don’t keep spending their export earnings on loans or U.S. stocks and bonds.\n\nThat’s what makes the United States the “exceptional country.” The value of our currency is based on other countries’ savings. The money they save has to be held in the form of dollars or securities that we’re never going to repay, even if we could.\n\nThis is a huge free ride. You’d think that Donald Trump would want to keep it going. But he claims that China is manipulating its currency by recycling its dollars into loans to the U.S. Treasury. What does he mean by that? China is earning a lot of dollars by exports its goods to the United States. What does it do with these dollars? It tried to do what America did with Europe and South America: It tried to buy American companies. But the United States blocked it from doing this, on specious national security grounds. The government claims that our national security would be threatened if China would buy a chain of filling stations, as it wanted to do in California. The United States thus has a double standard, claiming that it is threatened if China buys any company, but insisting on its right to buy out the commanding heights of foreign economies with its electronic dollar credit.\n\nThat leaves China with only one option: It can buy U.S. Treasury bonds, lending its export earnings to the U.S. Treasury.\n\nChina now realizes that the U.S. Treasury isn’t going to repay. Even if it wanted to recycle its export earnings into Treasury bonds or U.S. stocks and bonds or real estate, Donald Trump now is saying that he doesn’t want China to support the dollar’s exchange rate (and keep its own exchange rate down) by buying U.S. assets. We’re telling China not to do what we’ve told other countries to do for the past forty years: to buy U.S. securities. Trump accuses countries of artificial currency manipulation if they keep their foreign reserves in dollars. So he’s telling them, and specifically China, to get rid of their dollar holdings, not to buy dollars with their export earnings anymore.\n\nSo China is buying gold. Russia also is buying gold and much of the world is now in the process of reverting to the gold-exchange standard (meaning that gold is used to settle international payments imbalances, but is not connected to domestic money creation). Countries realize that there’s a great advantage of the gold-exchange standard: There’s only a limited amount of gold in the world’s central banks. This means that any country that wages war is going to run such a large balance-of-payments deficit that it’s going to lose its gold reserves. So reviving the role of gold may prevent any country, including the United States, from going to war and suffering a military deficit.\n\nThe irony is that Trump is breaking up America’s financial free ride – its policy of monetary imperialism – by telling counties to stop recycling their dollar inflows. They’ve got to de-dollarize their economies.\n\nThe effect is to make these economies independent of the United States. Trump already has announced that we won’t hire Chinese in our IT sectors or let Chinese study subjects at university that might enable them to rival us. So our economies are going to separate.\n\nIn effect, Trump has said that if we can’t win in a trade deal, if we can’t make other countries lose and become more dependent on U.S. suppliers and monopoly pricing, then we’re not going to sign an agreement. This stance is driving not only China but Russia and even Europe and other countries all out of the U.S. orbit. The end result is going to be that the United States is going to be isolated, without being able to manufacture like it used to do. It’s dismantled its manufacturing. So how will it get by?\n\nSome population figures were released a week ago showing the middle of America is emptying out. The population is moving from the Midwestern and mountain states to the East and the West coasts and the Gulf Coast. So Trump’s policies are accelerating the de-industrialization of the United States without doing anything to put new productive powers in place, and not even wanting other countries to invest here. The German car companies see Trump putting tariffs on the imported steel they need to build cars in the United States. It built them here to get around America’s tariff barriers against German and other automobiles. But now Trump is not even letting them import the parts that they need to assemble these cars in the non-unionized plants they’ve built in the South.\n\nWhat can they do? Perhaps they’ll propose a trade with General Motors and Chrysler. The Europeans will get the factories that American companies own in Europe, and give them their American factories in exchange.\n\nThis kind of split is occurring without any attempt to make American labor more competitive by lowering its cost of housing, or the price of its health insurance and medical care, or its transportation costs or the infrastructure costs. So America is being left high and dry as a high-priced economy in a nationalistic world, while running a huge balance-of-payments deficit to support its military spending all over the globe.",
"Before going into exchange rates it's probably helpful to add some definitions.\n\nIn economics, there is a concept of \"fundamental value\". This is a value that could be expressed in any currency but we don't actually know what it is for any particular good or service. Knowing it would require perfect information.\n\nWhen economists and analysts say that a particular asset is over or under valued they mean that the price that this asset is trading at is above or below that fundamental value.\n\nNo one can ever really know if this is true but you can get good hints that it was true if it rapidly changes to a new price. So if you take two currencies their exchange rate might be 2:1 but that doesn't tell you if it's over or undervalued. That might actually be the fundamental value.\n\nFor example, imagine you have 2 countries, A and B. They both have 100 units of their respective currencies (let's call them $A and $B). In all respects the countries are identical (population, jobs, tech levels, etc) except that the government of B is willing to borrow money at some positive interest rate.\n\nNow a citizen of A might think to themselves, \"Hey I'd like to get me some of that interest but B is only willing to borrow in $B. So I'll go to some citizen of B and trade them my $A for their $B.\"\n\nOf course the citizen of A thinks, \"That's crazy. Why would I take some crappy $A when I can earn interest of my $B?\"\n\nSo instead of trading 1 $A for 1 $B they might eventually agree to exchange 1 $A for less than 1 $B. The exact amount would depend on the interest rate that $B is offering. That's your exchange rate.\n\nIn real life, investors make similar decisions. People buy one currency using an other currency based on if they think one is more valuable than an other. But in real life everything is much more complicated. When looking at the value of any given currency you look at all kinds of factors; what is the interest rate, what is the default risk, what is inflation risk, etc.\n\nSome countries try to create an official exchange rate by just stating it. This always fails and you end up with a black market where people trade the currencies based on what they think the relative values are.\n\nChina does something different. The Chinese government regularly buys dollars with RMB and uses them to buy US debt (they don't actually own as much as most people think they do but that's an other discussion). Since China is buying a bunch of dollars they bid up the dollar (and consequently bid down the RMB). They are manipulating the currency but they are not really causing the RMB to be undervalued. They are actually using market actions to change the fundamental value of the RMB relative to the dollar.\n\nAs I said above, no one actually knows what the fundamental values of currencies are. But we have a few measures that try to estimate it.\n\nEconomists usually use something called Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). This tries to compare the price of two sets of goods. The idea is that when I spend a dollar, I should be able to get the same amount of stuff whether I buy it directly or first exchange the dollar of some other currency and then buy the stuff there. This is a messy measure because it leaves out things like transport costs, differences in consumption preferences and so on.\n\nA poplar alternative measure is the Big Mac Index _URL_0_\nIt tries to compare currencies by comparing the price of a Big Mac in different countries. The idea is that you can buy one just about anywhere on earth, it's within just about everyone's budget and it's simple. By that measure every currency except the Swiss Franc is undervalued."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.economist.com/news/2019/07/10/the-big-mac-index"
]
] | ||
eyfmq8 | why does biting your tongue improve concentration when doing manual tasks? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eyfmq8/eli5_why_does_biting_your_tongue_improve/ | {
"a_id": [
"fght3so"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"A lot of your brain is devoted to controlling or getting info from your tongue. You're constantly monitoring how it's positioned, how much it's contracted or relaxed, what sense data about your mouth it's giving you at any particular time, and how it might have to move in order to speak. If you stick it outside of your mouth and hold it still with something other than your tongue (like your teeth), it frees up that brainpower for other uses."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
42gipu | if you kill someone in space, under which jurisdiction would you have broken the law? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42gipu/eli5_if_you_kill_someone_in_space_under_which/ | {
"a_id": [
"cza3vrg",
"cza3wvi"
],
"score": [
10,
5
],
"text": [
"Its alot like killing someone in international waters, whoever owns the station you are in would have jurisdiction.",
"Alright u/mrgreencannabis, since you are technically flying, it would actually be considered bird law."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
9qf6cw | why we don't have self-driving cars yet | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9qf6cw/eli5_why_we_dont_have_selfdriving_cars_yet/ | {
"a_id": [
"e88pspq",
"e88qluf",
"e88u0h3"
],
"score": [
6,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Because driving is way more complicated than it looks. You are actually ballancing many different things at once and rely often as much on instinct and habit as logic. In addition, you have to account for other people doing dumb things. \n\n\nSome of the AI driving cars have done well, but they still aren't perfect and need more time to test. In addition, they have really difficulty figuring out people doing dumb things. One got into an accident because the car in front of it had plenty of time to slow down, but the drive panicked and slammed on the breaks anyway. The AI assumed the driver would do the correct thing and hit it. \n\n\ntldr: the technology isn't quite ready yet and causes accidents because it doesn't understand that people are dumb",
"As a Chicago resident, you're quite familiar with snow and how crazy some drivers are.\n\nIt's relatively easy to make a car that can drive in good visibility with no other cars or cars that act predictably. Hell, this was accomplished DECADES ago. The issue is, creating a car that can reliably handle edge cases.\n\nIf there's a blizzard out courtesy of the lake effect snow, it's dramatically harder to get a clear and reliable picture of what's around you. \n\nWhen you're on the interstate going 70 (because hell, everyone goes 70+ in chicago in the criminally slow 55MPH zones) and suddenly a car flying 110 changes lanes twice in 3 seconds, this is harder to deal with.\n\nObviously both of these scenarios are dangerous to a human driver as well, but in this case the liability is clearly on the driver. Once the human is out of the equation, who's responsible if your self driving car drives off the road in a severe blizzard? If you hit the crazy person going 110 and die, is the car company partially liable?\n\nUntil self-driving cars can RELIABLY handle ALL situations, and it becomes clear who is liable in the event of an accident, it's not going to happen. \n\nWe're easily 20+ years away from fully autonomous vehicles being common. ",
"Right now we have prototypes that mostly work under lab conditions. \n\nBut only \"mostly\" and under perfect conditions and on roads that are studied and tracked to work with the system. \n\nFor a consumer product, you've got to work out some serious problems. What happens when a sensor is covered in mud or a lens is scratched? If every nick and splash requires the user to immediately stop and wait for repair it will tank the market for automated cars very quickly. \n\nSo maybe you dial back the safety a bit, and design the car to drive blind in one eye. Then it's blind in two and kills someone. \n\nAlso, repairs are tricky and expensive. What happens when someone 3d prints their own repair because calling a tech out starts at $1k to replace a $1 part. Will those repairs calibrate properly? \n\nAlso, what about security? If the car is web-enabled a hacker of some skill could take control and turn it into a 12,000lb wrecking ball crashing it into anything they like. Uber's automated cars could become the cheapest hitmen around. \n\nIf the car isn't web-enabled, that means the computer is on-board. That's a pretty beefy computer that won't be cheap, as it has to have 100% of the maps and navigation data it may ever need. And again, security. Physical access is full access. If the computer is in the car, people can manipulate it's logic to go faster, farther, and operate outside your bounds, but still under your brand. \n\nUber's automated cars will also be the greatest drug mules you could ever want. Spoof an account, wear a mask, load the car with drugs, and it carries them to your destination perfeclty and safely with public tracking to boot! Should something happen and the stash is discovered, who do the cops arrest? The ghost that owns the account? Uber? \n\nThen there's philosophical problems. Two automated cars are driving along a narrow, icy bridge and will definitely crash into each other if no action is taken. They do not have time to stop, and will hit each other hard enough to defeat any safety systems. Basically, if they crash, everyone will die. \n \nOne car carries a wealthy grandmother. The other carries a poor family. If one car swerves off the bridge the car that stayed true to course will survive. \n\nWhich car swerves? Profit motive says to develop your tech in a way that says \"our cars always stay true\". Is that OK? How do we decide? "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
2r9vxh | why is it harder to read sentences where every word is capitalized? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r9vxh/eli5_why_is_it_harder_to_read_sentences_where/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnduboe"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Because we read word shapes. Having all words starting with a capitalized letter or having the words written in all caps makes the word shape different than what we are used to, and therefor harder to read."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3kvu4f | australia might remove its prime minister tomorrow after the 3rd partyroom coup in 5 years. why is politics so unstable in australia when in other commonwealth countries prime minister seem to last upwards of a decade? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kvu4f/eli5australia_might_remove_its_prime_minister/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv0y9qb",
"cv0ytjh",
"cv0ytmw",
"cv0yywo",
"cv0yzgt",
"cv103a8",
"cv10fvq",
"cv10ljv",
"cv10xlz",
"cv125z4",
"cv13pa8",
"cv1kaxc",
"cv1o8mo",
"cv1splb"
],
"score": [
8,
58,
11,
133,
152,
3,
2,
10,
70,
10,
4,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The self involved narcissistic personalities that make it through the party room to the top aren't well suited to running a country. ",
"We haven't had a decent leader since Howard. Simple as that. There hasn't been a party leader worth keeping in the top job. ",
"With the current one Tony Abbott is all negative politics and no actual substance. He is the most unpopular Prime Minister is Australia's history.\n\nRudd originally lost the support of the Labor Party because many in his party felt him to be rude so they chose Gillard to replace him. \n\nGoing towards the 2013 election the ALP felt that they couldn't win with Gillard because Abbott had run a massive smear campaign against her. They got rid of her and the only person who seemed able to take control of the ALP was Rudd and so they took him back.",
"I feel as though people in Australia vote for their preferred party, regardless of who the leader is. If they representatives of the party feel that the current Prime Minister is having a negative impact on the popularity of the party they will dispose of him or her.\n\nThe current Prime Minister is completely out of touch with the country and has prioritised dealing with issues that people do not care about rather than deal with issues that the public care about.\n\n\nThe 2 before him were from a different party and were both completely outclassed by their predecessor. They spent more time bickering and fighting against one another than actually running the country. \n\n ",
"e: **WE TURNBULL NOW BOYZ**\n \nIt's mostly just the last couple of years. \n\nPrime Ministership is by the will of the party in power, not by the people's vote. The Constitution doesn't have the position 'prime minister' in it - it's a de facto position because *someone* has to be leading the party that has the most seats. \n\nAfter John Howard, a long-running, effective, but still generally evil (think reddit's standard stereotype of evil conservatives) we had Kevin Rudd, who was a charismatic, more left-wing leader of the Labor Party. \nKevin Rudd had a couple of problems. The most relevant were that his own party absolutely *hated* him and his tendency to micromanage (one of the unofficial 2007 election slogans was 'Kevin07', and people compared it to a presidential race), and that he was seen as diverging too far from Labor's ideals. \n\nIn a leadership coup, Julia Gillard took over. She was seen as a 'model Labor' PM, at least in terms of ideology. Unfortunately, leading up to the last election, she faced a couple of problems of her own: \n- general sexism (Australia's first female PM) \n- being a worse public speaker than her predecessor Rudd or her opponent Tony Abbott (the content of her speeches were good - but personally, her voice is painful to listen to) \n- having some unpopular policies, or policies that were spun to be unpopular by the right-wing media\n\nAlmost immediately prior to the last election, Gillard was replaced by Rudd, as a last-ditch effort to retain Labor's power in parliament. It failed miserably, and was spun as Labor being a shambles of a government. \nIt's important to note that at this point, Australia wasn't actually in any kind of dire situation - Labor had generally governed quite well despite these occurrences. But Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp are powerful. \n\nSo, Tony Abbott became Prime Minister. \nIf John Howard was, in nerd/RPG terms, 'Lawful Evil', Tony Abbott is 'chaotic evil'. Tony does not actually appear to have any policies that are not \"make things like they were in an imagined 1950s\". He (or his party) has done things like reinstate knighthoods, attempt to lower public health funding, force people to pay a fee just to visit the doctor, and numerous other things Australian reddit would be happy to complain about. Imagine him as George W Bush. \n\nEnter Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull has always been 'almost Prime Minister'. He's nicer than Howard. He has some socially progressive views. He's been around for a *long* time, and isn't afraid to use that to occasionally say things counter to the party line. To the public of Australia, whatever your political leaning, even if you disagree with his policies, Malcolm Turnbull appears to be 'one of the good ones'. \n\nSo with Tony Abbott appearing even to right-wing voters to be increasingly evil, unhinged, or out-of-touch, Turnbull has made some attempt to gain power. \n\nThe short version: \nA crazy man named Tony Abbott exploited Labor's conflicting egos and used the media to get himself into power. \nNow even his 'friends' publicly think he's crazy and want him out of there. ",
"Australian politics certainly is brutal. [This interactive graphic](_URL_0_) shows how over the past 13 years there have been 65 changes in positions over the 6 states, 2 territories and federal leaderships. There are a few different reasons for this: \n \n- Compulsory voting and instant run off system. What happens when everyone has to vote and rank their ballot? Well opinion polls matter. They really matter - When people are required to prefer one party ahead of the other the members of parliament in the [marginal seats](_URL_1_) can get very antsy about their chances of re election. \n \n- The quality of the leaders - Compared to previous leaders the most recent batch are seen as rather uninspiring \n \n- Factions - being a two party system there are some big factions within the party with the powerbrokers having a lot of say. These people have a lot of say as failure to follow through can see you suffer the equivalent of a primary election loss. Famously the current leader of the opposition was the power broker that oversaw Kevin Rudd lose to Julia Gillard and then Julia Gillard lose to Kevin Rudd.",
"Cynics will say it's an election strategy that they have been planning since before the last election. It's a classic \"bait and switch\" that worked for two terms for the last ALP government. They elect a party, they make all the shit decisions, then the party gets a new leader who introduces some popular policies leading into the election, people \"feel\" like the government has changed, vote the party back in for a second term, rot continues. \n\n\nTldr Australian politics is just greedy and manipulative cunts",
"I'd say our politics is so unstable because the 2 major parties have no real difference in policies. Labour is slightly left of centre - liberal slightly right of centre.\nPoliticians on both sides lie to get elected -so we the general public don't really look at policies any more - more the personalities.\nWe also take pride in being able to vote the buggers out of office and do so frequently:)",
"So there's a few things at play here:\n\n1) What we, the people think, and; \n2) What the political parties think. \n\nNow in Australia we've had a pretty good run of things up until *Kevin '07* Most of our Prime Ministers were long term. When we vote, and we have compulsory voting here, we vote for the party that we feel will best serve our interests, for our lower house- the house of representatives, and for the upper house, the Senate. \n\nWith Queen Lizzy II being our constitutional head of state, our Prime Minister is usually the man or woman voted into leadership of the party with the majority of power in the House of Representatives, so when Australia goes to the ballots, the leader of the parties have a lot of sway when it comes to policy reception, and party image. \n\nPeople **LOVED** Kevin Rudd, he was a breath of fresh air compared to John Howard who by that point (IIRC) had been in power for 11 years, and was starting to have a divide with Peter Costello, his treasurer, and generally the second most powerful person in Australian Politics. He had policies that seemed strong, for the good of the public and could communicate them well. So the Australian Labour Party won the election, based off party policy, but also the popularity in almost an American style that Rudd enjoyed. \n\nThen the wheels started to come off the bus. \n\nRudd was doing pretty well until there was a change in Opposition Leader, from Malcolm Turnbull- a Center Conservative, and Tony Abbot- a more Right Wing Conservative. Abbot came into Opposition Leadership and tore everything positive that Rudd was trying to do to shreds, with a little help from Rupert Murdoch, who has a large right wing press presence here in Australia. \n\nFacing declining popularity in the polls in his first term, as well as a hatred of Rudd by his own party die to his behaviours behind the scenes, and became the first Prime Minister to be sacked mid job since Whitlam. \n\nGillard, his former deputy stepped into the top job. She had a honeymoon period, went to an early election, and ended up with a minority partnership with the left wing Greens party and 3 independant members to keep a hold of the top job. \n\nGillard however suffered at the hands of Abbot's ruthless \"no No NO!\" and given she was a far less able speaker than Rudd had a turmultous second term, which was then ended months out from the Last election, where the Labor party felt that Rudd was their best chance, as much as they hated him. \n\nDidn't work, Abbot, while I have an insane dislike for the man I will admit was the best Leader of the Opposition I'd seen in forever, won based off of simple slogans, and Labor party leadership turmoil. \n\n*So why is this happening now?* \n\nabbot never really got out of opposition mode, and has constantly made decisions without the blessing of his party- we call 'em Captain's Calls. He's also been ineffectual in political scandals, preferring to stay true to his allies, than true to the people who employ him. \n\nPoliticians as you know are a fickle bunch and not only do they not like decisions being made without consensus, they're also not a fan of abysmal polls against someone who has the personality of a featureless rock, our current leader of the Opposition, Labor's Bill Shorten. \n\nHaving come up last in the past 30 newspolls, and seeing the front bench as an ineffective mate's party which has done nothing but spout slogans and on several occasions insult the lower and middle classes, as well as voter backlash around a lot of attempted policies which were never truly brought up during his campaign, the Liberal Party is having a spill in order to try and rectify the problem. \n\nIt's not normally this volatile, in fact I'd say the past 10 years are somewhat of a political anomaly when you look at average terms per PM, however we have had some of the biggest dickheads leading this country the past few years that this kind of thing was bound to happen. \n\n\n**Breaking News Turnbull is our New Prime Minister!**",
"There seems to be some animosity/revisionism to Rudd, so here's some background/context. \nI would like to point out Kevin Rudd, who was elected in 2007 was a superb PM, the country invested in education, started taxing mining profits more, improved health care funding, we barely felt the global recession, he represented Australia on the global stage in a superb manner. He's the brains behind the NBN that all Aussies are desperate to have. Many Aussies seem to forget this, but he had vision, on par with Whitlam in my opinion. I felt the country was ready for the 21st century with him at the helm\n\nHe was Australia's most popular Prime Minister in 50 years, Turnbull (the opposition leader then) was commonly in single figures in approval ratings, while Rudd was in 70%. Furthermore, John Howard, PM for 16 years did not win his seat in the 2007 election, something that is completely unheard of - that's how popular Rudd was.\n\nAfter introducing the mining tax, the miners ran a successful smear campaign and his approval rating dropped to about 45%. However, the Labour party hated Rudd - he never paid homage or kowtowed and was a micromanager. His deputy was all too happy to knife him in the back and in the ensuing ruckus, a lot of senior (Rudd's party) pollies resigned. This obviously set a dangerous precedent. Julia Gillard, the deputy took a ~20 seat majority to the polls and came out with a 1 seat majority, after forming a coalition. You don't go from unseating a sitting PM from his own electorate to needing a coalition in 3 years. I blame Labour leadership and Gillard for everything that went down. \n\nImagine Joe Biden and the democratic party unseated Obama in 2011 because he had a dip in the polls and the party didn't like him very much. Also, Obama had angered the shale industry or Wall St with taxes. Could you imagine such a historically popular president being unseated by the Democratic Party (whether or not constitutionally legal - it was a shock for most Australians - I never even considered it a possibility). I don't care if Rudd was a tyrannical boss - he's leading a fucking country, he can treat them however he likes. He did have hiccups - his asylum seeker policy was bad, he may have not done much to avoid the GFC other than tie our economy to China a bit tighter, but he deserved to lead the Labour Party into the next election.\n\nJulia agreed to a 30% tax on the miners instead of the 40% tax Rudd was proposing (the miners have never been significant employers and were paying very little tax). This equated to billions saved by the miners for a few million spent in a smear campaign. She then gets credit for passing legislation in a near hung parliament (which I contest was her own goddamn fault - it's like being impressed someone didn't get sick after eating food they'd dropped on the ground)\n\nKevin Rudd didn't ride into the sunset (as he perhaps should've). He felt wronged (as I did too) that as a sitting PM elected in with a significant mandate (like 60% of the vote) was not allowed to complete his term, and was not turfed out by voters, but by the 'faceless men of the labour party'. He caused some noise, hung around for 3 years, and in our last election in 2013, came back and challenged Gillard (who was looking at devastating poll numbers) to the leadership. Rudd was the only Labour politician since Keating in 91 to win an election outright. The faceless men turned back to him, Gillard's group resigned but Rudd was unable to win, as the narrative that the Labour party was dysfunctional was true, and it had been bereft of its leadership in the two challenges. They were near annihilated despite the Liberal contender being a racist, bigoted and of questionable intelligence (Abbott). \n\nYou now have a precedent of an actually competent leader being turfed out before completing his first term, as it was considered detrimental to the party, turfing this insult to humanity out of the Australian PM's office was considered a mercy - we've been hoping for this for years - I don't love the liberals, but Turnbull was quite reasonable as an opposition leader and has some potential.\n\nSo, Gillard and the 'faceless men' have likely ushered in a period of horror in Australian politics. By creating a precedent, these spills are much more common now, even a 40% approval rating is enough for a spill. Labour has no competent leaders left. Liberal's post Howard seem to be on the same Kool Aid Abbot is on, and these leadership spills remove the good people from parliament, leaving the sleazes behind. \n\nThere is a by-election in which the Libs are expected to be destroyed, so Turnbull has decided to throw his hat into the ring, likely ride into oblivion, only for Aussies to find out Bill Shorten should never be PM, and the cycle is likely to continue unless the Greens (the only sane party left with worthy leadership) manage to gain a majority (they're grabbing votes from disillusioned voters, but if they changed their name to 'Republican Democrats' or something, they'd probably have won an election years ago).",
"Rupert Murdoch controls the media. He actively supports the conservatives or destabilises the center-left, some conservative prick gets in, then later we realise what a twat they are and when public opinion nose dives, whatever party turfs them.",
"Didn't one of their PMs get lost at sea?",
"Politics in Malaysia is not stable. We have not change our PM because we couldn't do it without some very heated and possibly violent protests. Long stewardship can either mean the PM is very good and people are willing to let him to the job or very bad but is very good at holding onto power so dislodging him is very hard. \n\nThe fact that Australia can change PM without needing to reach extremely high discontentment shows that the politics is stable enough to force changes when the need arise.",
"He stopped the boats what else do we need him for?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-10/australia-political-leadership-rollercoaster/6080126",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackerras_pendulum_for_the_next_Australian_federal_election"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
7fdgrm | why does audio rapidly repeat itself when a computer crashes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fdgrm/eli5_why_does_audio_rapidly_repeat_itself_when_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dqb54m0"
],
"score": [
29
],
"text": [
"At a high level, sound cards playback sound by reading digital data from a buffer and converting it into an analog signal to transmit to the speaker. When a normal stream of audio is being played back, its data is written into the buffer as a stream so there's no hops or skips - as the digital audio converter scans back and forth over the buffer, the buffer data is overwritten as its being played.\n\nIf the audio controller crashes but the hardware is still going strong, it begins to simply replay what happened to be in the buffer at the point of the crash, causing the effect you describe. \n\nThe audio will fully stop if the OS can catch the program going unresponsive and eject it from memory, which frees the audio controller."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
9hjgpg | how is it that the flu can develop multiple strains, and how does it change every year and stay “unique” to all prior years? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9hjgpg/eli5_how_is_it_that_the_flu_can_develop_multiple/ | {
"a_id": [
"e6cemmq",
"e6cesl6",
"e6clt5z",
"e6cwtj9"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2,
4
],
"text": [
"That would be a process called “evolution”. \n\nWith the process of evolution, random mutation will sometimes result in changes to an organism (or chunk of organic rna in a membrane sheath in the case of influenza virus) which present a survival advantage to the organism. That survival advantage leads to a higher likelihood of reproduction (or infection of host cells and production of viral duplicates in the case of influenza virus), which leads to more of that mutation in the next generation of virii. \n\nInfluenza virus has a very short “generation”, so evolution can lead to new strains of the virus in a very short time. ",
"It's called evolution, and because the lifecycle of a virus is much faster than that of, say, a human, it means that various mutations die off and others succeed at a much faster rate.\n\nEssentially what happens is that while the virus triggers its host cell to replicate, errors can get into the replication instructions. If the error results in a cell that is not viral, it doesn't spread. If the error results in a cell that can replicate and transmit even faster, it does so, and so do its children. If replication happens too quickly, then transmission will fail, and the variant will die off in a single host.\n\nBack to the speed of replication thing: in humans, there are lots of replication correction mechanisms in place, and we only reproduce a maximum of once a year, usually not more than 5 times in total, and it usually takes 13-20 years before replication. This means that evolution among humans takes thousands of years to become noticeable, other than in very specific cases of natural selection where people without a certain trait all die off, forcing the trait on the entire population.\n\nIn viruses, they can replicate in minutes. This means that noticeable evolutionary changes are measured in months instead of eons.",
"Lot of great info below, but really THIS IS ELI5! Not like i'm 50 with 10 degrees!! haha! So hopefully this helps!\n\nThe flu is a virus. A virus in easy terms is basically genetic material that uses other cells to reproduce by \"infecting them\". \n\nNow, take a step back and think of the virus like you think of YOUR family lineage. Last years virus is the dad, the year before is the grandpa, the year before the great grandpa... and so on. \n\nEach year, your \"dad\" (the flu) has a child. It's mostly him, but, not exactly. This is a \"mutation\" (a random change that occurs). Now remember, instead of your \"dad\" having 1 kid at 25 years old, he has 1 kid every 20 minutes. And that kid has a kid and so on and so on. But they don't stop at 1 kid each, they have hundreds, thousands, maybe even MILLIONS! So that \"1 in a million\" chance for a mutation, well that can happen every 20 minutes!\n\nAll of this happens inside of you! So now to how it spreads: you sneeze and pass it to the next person, who sneezes and passes it and so on!\n\nCertain strains become more virulent and infectious, and those tend to spread faster and more frequently. Which causes the outbreak of the flus. One major strain will pass, but other smaller virulent ones will as well. Thats how it changes every year.\n\nHow it stays unique is simple statistics. There are thousands of genes in a cell. If you change one for any reason it changes the cell. And this happens randomly. With multiple options (not just A or B). So each line now has an exponential amount of options. So think of it like hitting the lotto. Each week the numbers are different, and its very rare that it would ever repeat. Now take 6 numbers and turn that into 100,000 or more! Its even less likely!",
"I am an influenza researcher. I'll offer some answers in non-wall-of-text form\n\n* Influenza A virus (IAV) is what you're thinking of, really. There's also IBV, ICV, and the bleeding-edge-newly-coined IDV. IAV is the most dangerous of them, every major outbreak in history has been IAV.\n\n* IAV, like other viruses, is very little more than a small piece of genetic material with a tiny number of proteins and the singular mission of replicating itself. IAV's genetic material consists of RNA, not DNA. RNA is less stable than DNA, the viral replication process is *very* error-prone with no proofreading system, and the virus life cycle is rapid. So, IAV can attain mutations very quickly.\n\n* The virus has two unique proteins that make up its surface. These can change as the virus mutates. If they are different, the body's immune system cannot recognize them. That's what a different strain is. They are hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), the H and N in, say, H1N1. N1 and N2 are similar enough to serve the same purpose, but different enough that the body can't recognize N2 even if it recognizes N1.\n\n* The virus has a wide range of hosts, not just humans. Birds, dogs, deer, cows, swine, bats... tons of mammals and non-mammals can carry IAV, and when those things get in close proximity to each other and/or humans, our viruses can basically mix-and-match to form a new strain that neither population is immune to.\n\n\nI guess that did turn out to be a wall of text, didn't it\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
640g5v | how does ants (or insects in general) know if something is edible or not? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/640g5v/eli5how_does_ants_or_insects_in_general_know_if/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfyt3l7",
"dfyxhfu",
"dfz1tdd",
"dfz8908",
"dfzsu2p"
],
"score": [
7,
12,
3,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"How do you know? \n\nIf it tastes good and smells good, and if you are hungry, you'll eat it. Same with ants. ",
"Ants are very sensitive to chemicals. They can easily tell if something is edible just by how it smells.",
"I actually just bought some traps which seemed to help for maybe a day but now the ants simply avoid the trap so they must have figured out either individually that it is indeed poison or the group has known from the previous home owners attempt?",
"Generally they look around them, and if their mates are eating it, and are not dead, then it must be ok",
"Ever notice an ant approach a recently-dropped object and they feel it up with their little antenna? They're tasting it. If it tastes good, they'll call the hive to deliver it home. If it tastes bad, they'll move on.\n\nI once saw an ant feeling up a spent cigarette, and it very quickly noped on out of there when it touched the burnt part."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
176uvk | why are apple investors underwhelmed by earnings? | I don't buy stocks but i am really confused. They just posted like some RECORD sales but why is Apple stock prices dropping?
Does it affect anybody at Apple that the prices are dropped?
Its still rather valuable as a company no?
I still use a flip phone. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/176uvk/eli5_why_are_apple_investors_underwhelmed_by/ | {
"a_id": [
"c839g4a"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"This is actually a bit more nuanced (though really simple) than a lay person might think.\n\nYes, Apple missed expectations. Arguably, not by that much and especially not by enough to warrant a 10% drop in value.\n\nThe story here isn't how Apple did in 4Q2012, but how they expect to do in 1Q2013. In addition to releasing their earnings, Apple provided guidance for the next 3 months.\n\nThe story of the guidance, is that they're not going to grow all that much. Since stock prices are primarily based on future expectations, this had a large impact on their stock price."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
698o74 | why is it that your body does not gain 16 oz after eating a 16 oz steak or etc. with other foods? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/698o74/eli5_why_is_it_that_your_body_does_not_gain_16_oz/ | {
"a_id": [
"dh4lwz4",
"dh4lykv"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Your body does gain 16 oz *immediately* after eating. But as you digest your body will absorb nutrients it needs and get rid of the rest, so the net gain will be less than 16 oz. ",
"If you weighed what you consumed, yourself before and after, it would be quite close to what you'd expect (the actual weight). However your body breaks down most of what you eat and converts it into something your body is able to use, then the rest of it is expelled through bowel movements."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
fvbuzj | why does laying down feel good? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fvbuzj/eli5_why_does_laying_down_feel_good/ | {
"a_id": [
"fmhl2n4"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Mainly because we aren't fighting gravity as our weight is distributed and supported by the bed. When we stand up our legs are holding us up and that uses energy to fight constant gravitation pull from Earth."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
655mvg | how do you know which patent you need to apply for? | I was trying to patent an idea for an app and the design of it. and it asked a bunch of questions like what type and I didn't understand the terms they were saying. It wasn't anything simple like technology, infrastructure. Or nothing like an idea or process. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/655mvg/eli5how_do_you_know_which_patent_you_need_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"dg7mr63"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"This question is impossible to answer without knowing what you are talking about. Read the patent descriptions and see where your \"thing\" fits, or if you are really confused, consult an attorney. However, you are likely needing a design or utility patent\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/patdesc.htm"
]
] | |
9yxdas | if a region wants to become independent, why do countries resist so strongly? | Seems like it’d be more beneficial in the long run because you’d let those who don’t want to be part of Country A do their own thing.
Like Western Sahara, Crimea, and Catalonia.
If they are unhappy or else identify more with another country, why not let them secede and/or become part of another country? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9yxdas/eli5_if_a_region_wants_to_become_independent_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"ea4szrj",
"ea546js",
"ea57p4j"
],
"score": [
10,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"It varies on a case by case basis but a commonality is that land and resources are valuable. Spain doesn't want Catalonia to secede because Barcelona brings in a lot of money. Bosnia didn't let Republika Srpska leave because that area had been part of Bosnia for hundreds of years. Also usually not everyone in a disputed area is pro-succession or independence, so it can be a complicated issue. ",
"Partly it's economic: you don't want to give up valuable resources, population and land if you don't have to. Why intentionally make yourself smaller, poorer, and weaker?\n\nPartly it is strategic: what if this area is in a very important location in terms of defence? Or what if it forms a close alliance with a rival/enemy? \n\nPartly it is to discourage other groups/areas from having the same ideas. If you have one area break away, even if it's small and troublesome, it might end with the entire country splintering. \n\n\ne.g. Suppose the US allowed California to become independent, and CA then forms a close relationship with China?\n\na) The US has lost a sizeable chunk of its GDP and population.\n\nb) It now has an 'unfriendly' country right on its doorstep, when it didn't before.\n\nc) States like Texas or New York are now starting to agitate that they should become independent too. The US either splinters apart, or remains as a greatly smaller and weakened nation.\n\n",
"When someone wants to become independent, what exactly does it mean? A recent example is Brexit. A referendum decided that UK wants to separate themselves from the EU. But in recent polls a majority of Brits would prefer to remain. Not only that, but beyond the rhetoric the separatists don’t have any economic plan. So what is better for the UK?\nIt’s the same with other places. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
crx2ge | when a big hollywood movie flops, why do people usually blame the directors instead of blaming the screen writers or both? isn't it the screen writers job to create a compelling and interesting script? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/crx2ge/eli5_when_a_big_hollywood_movie_flops_why_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"exac6wx",
"exae2a8",
"exaglh9"
],
"score": [
23,
7,
3
],
"text": [
"The director is in charge of putting all of the pieces together. If the story was lacking, it’s up to them to either fix it or to film it in a compelling manner.",
"Tee theory would be that everyone thought the script was good or the movie would not have been put out as a big hollywood production. Since the director has final say in everything (in most cases) they will get the blame if something that was supposed to be huge is not.",
"Film is a director’s medium. There’s this “auteur theory” of filmmaking where the director is the ultimate authority and artist of the movie. Regardless of what the script is, the director is bringing it to life, having the script rewritten if there are problems. Editing it to make the story work, etc."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
3ycxch | why are men's and women's zippers on different sides? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ycxch/eli5_why_are_mens_and_womens_zippers_on_different/ | {
"a_id": [
"cycenhx",
"cycetum"
],
"score": [
32,
2
],
"text": [
"Back in the old days women had other ladies help them get dressed so buttons and fasteners were on opposite sides so it was easier for them",
"I believe it is simply a method in which end users can distinguish a male coat from a female coat (or other clothing). \n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
c22bkx | how does the limited presence and production of petroleum keeps up with its enormous consumption? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c22bkx/eli5_how_does_the_limited_presence_and_production/ | {
"a_id": [
"erh24rt",
"erh2si9"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"By having *enormous* production. Oil is being extracted from the ground at insane rates, and also stockpiled for future use. Production of petroleum from oil is also being carried out insanely fast, to meet demand. We actually have more oil than we need at the moment.\n\nCurrent statistic is 92.6 million barrels of oil being extracted *per day* globally as of 2017. More than has ever been extracted in history.",
"Well it's limited but the limit is really enormously high. There is no conflict in your statement/question only a misconception of scale.\n\nEdit: Quick google search tells me there are around 1.5 trillion barrels of oil reserves left and around 93 million barrels are extracted per day, so at current rates enough for roughly 44 years. Could be more with oil sands, fracking and arctic extraction possibly."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
6cs8jg | psychologically, why do people take sports fanaticism to really far extent? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6cs8jg/eli5_psychologically_why_do_people_take_sports/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhx0ro5",
"dhx3oap"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"* Projection: They want to live vicariously through the athletes, and watching them allows them to to an extent.\n\n* Genuine Interest in Strategy: Sports are very complex strategically, especially football. Strategy per game or season is one thing, but the *real* interesting stuff is other the course of years.\n\n* Adrenaline: It's exciting to watch these titanic people do amazing things. That rush can be addictive.\n\n* History: They may have some familial or personal tie to the team that has endured, and they were probably raised to be fans.\n\n* Hobby: With how many statistics there are out there, it can be addicting to try to guess who will win based on player/team stats - hence sports gambling.",
"Vicarious conquest. Same as video games obsession. We're no longer tribal. We have an urge to dominate, but civilization won't allow it. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
4h1tp2 | why is cracking your neck seen as a sign of strength? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4h1tp2/eli5_why_is_cracking_your_neck_seen_as_a_sign_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2mnpa9",
"d2mnpjv"
],
"score": [
32,
8
],
"text": [
"They are not showing how tough they are. They are showing that they're stretching and loosening up in preparation for kicking butt. It's in the same class as cracking one's knuckles or taking a jacket off menacingly. ",
"I think it was Bruce Lee that popularized this. If you talk to your opponent before a fight, it makes you seem more human and your opponent can think about the conversation instead of worry about the fight. When you stay silent and crack your neck or knuckles, your opponent is left wondering what you're thinking and the mystery can be intimidating. Neck cracking is now body language for, \"I'm about to fight you.\""
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
3v0ns5 | what are the bright lights you see when you squeeze your eyes? why can you change their color just by thinking of a new color? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v0ns5/eli5_what_are_the_bright_lights_you_see_when_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxjd761"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"What? Now I have to try it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3e9cjv | how did genghis khan have such a large empire? how long would it take to travel across the mongolian empire? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e9cjv/eli5_how_did_genghis_khan_have_such_a_large/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctcs0cs"
],
"score": [
21
],
"text": [
"It was big. [I recommend this Crash Course video](_URL_0_). \n\nThe Mongol Empire on it's largest axis at the greatest extent reached from Korea to the Baltics. According to [This site](_URL_1_), that's 4537 miles (7,302km). According to [this medieval history blog](_URL_2_), travellers could expect to travel 30 miles per day (and my experience as a hiker confirms this). So, your average traveller would need 151 days to travel the Mongol empire end to end. \n\nAnd as for how it got so big, Genghis Khan and his son Kublai were *genius* tacticians. They were practically unbeatable. The Chinese and European combat tactics at the time revolved around unprofessional spear and sword-wielding armies of levied peasants, with heavy cavalry auxiliaries. It turns out that the light-cavalry archer skirmish techniques used by the Mongols was very, very effective against knights and easily scared untrained footmen. \n\nAside from this, Genghis and the Mongols administered their empire in novel ways. They did not force their religion on anyone, they were lenient towards those who surrendered to them, and they took good care to keep the people, and particularly the roads, safe. Under Mongol rule, the Silk Road opened for the first time in centuries, you actually could travel from Latvia to Korea with ten carts full of goods and never worry about being robbed. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szxPar0BcMo",
"http://www.travelmath.com/flying-distance/from/Seoul,+South+Korea/to/Riga,+Latvia",
"http://writemedieval.livejournal.com/4706.html"
]
] | ||
2mfvwg | when and why did humans develop a sense of privacy around bathroom habits and sex? | I took my dog outside to poop and started wondering when humans stopped being cool with going to the bathroom in front of each other and having sex in front of each other. Animals do that stuff in front of anyone; they don't seem to have a sense of embarrassment about their bathroom habits or sexual practices. Why do we do these things in private and when did we start? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mfvwg/eli5_when_and_why_did_humans_develop_a_sense_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"cm3u5gb",
"cm3yctu",
"cm3zfq9",
"cm4045q",
"cm44f8y"
],
"score": [
44,
7,
5,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Sex is something that is societal, many cultures do not exhibit these behaviors. Defecating on the other hand has evolutionary implications as it is not healthy to do it near others. This is exhibited by many species. ",
"There was etiquete in the 19th century not to talk to people having a shit next to the roadside. Also, knight weren't allowed to attack others having a shit. ( which is somewhat longer ago).\n \nNot too long ago houses didn't have enough bedrooms and parents and children all lived and slept in the same room.\n \nTherefore most of what you are talking about was normal up to about 100 years ago.",
"This seems like something the folks over at /r/AskHistorians would be able to answer",
"Privacy around sex is, like, thousands of years old. It's mentioned in at leas one collection of ethics in the Talmud, and the whole Adam & Eve clothes thing is even older. Check out the book \"sexual lives of savages\" which indicates taboos around sex are pretty old around the world. \n\nWhy these taboos exist and how old they are are different questions.\n\n\n",
"I always figured that it was because one was in a more vulnerable state during those activities, so isolating yourself reduced the opportunities of people taking advantage of the vulnerabilities."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
4q91u6 | clickbait articles on facebook | Okay, so clickbait articles have overrun Facebook and I don't get it. It reminds me of the beginning of news segments when they give you "teasers" of what will be reported. It lures people to watch the entire thing just to find out the "cancer saving fruit" they mentioned in the very beginning, boosting amount of viewers.
Now, I kind of understand Google pay-per-clicks ads and things like that. You click an article to find out the missing bit of information left out of the headline, scroll through this site that has all these ads, then the ads pay owner of the website. Maybe a few people give their email address or something and the website gets to spam their inbox with more money making ads.
What I don't understand is why people perpetuate this trend. Back in April there was reports of Facebook "killing" clickbait with new algorithms, but I haven't heard of any changes.
Can someone please tell me if there is an end in site to all of this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4q91u6/eli5_clickbait_articles_on_facebook/ | {
"a_id": [
"d4r5gef"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Facebook is all about making money and its another form of \"ads\". They'd go away if people ignored them but your grandma shares them. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
6jpjwg | what's the point of having two hard drives on a computer? | I've been looking into a gaming PC recently but when it comes to storage I sometimes see other people using two hard drives (ex: having a 2TB hard drive and also a 500GB to go with it) or they just stick with one. Why would I want to use two separate storage devices over just one? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jpjwg/eli5_whats_the_point_of_having_two_hard_drives_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"djg1cgo",
"djg1d1c",
"djg1gff",
"djg1rfz"
],
"score": [
3,
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I'm guessing if its a high end computer, the smaller hard drive is often a solid state drive. SSD's are very fast, but often very expensive with limited sizes, so they often need a bigger more traditional hard drive.",
"Most PC's these days come with a solid state drive (ssd), which is a lot faster than a traditional hd. They're way more expensive though so usually the smaller one is the ssd. ",
"You can use them for mirroring in order to minimize data loss in the event of a failure (though they'd both have to be identical drives ie the setup you gave wouldn't work for this since the drives are different sizes), or you could use the smaller drive for the OS and its files while using the larger for media storage (photos, games, videos & c).",
"_Usually_, more storage in a single drive = more $$$.\n\n_Usually_, a drive with 1/2 storage is < < 1/2 $$$. So usually, a lot of smaller drives are cheaper than one big honkin drive. \n\nBut your motherboard only has connectors for so many drives, so at some point this model starts to fall apart. \n\nI think what you might be looking at, given you're looking to buy a new PC, is where they give you (for example) 500 GB on one drive, but then offer $$ for a second drive. I don't know about you, but I have a A LOT of stuff to store. 500 GB is good for Windows (say 60 GB), MS Office (another 60 GB) and one or two games (each 50 GB) plus various temporary space as is required on a modern PC (browser download folders, temp space etc. etc.)\n\nFirst, I have all my digital files, pictures, cell-phone back-ups going back to 1997. Then, I have Steam, Origin, _URL_0_ and all the games I've ever bought on any of those platforms (probably 2-3,000 GB or so). Modern games (not to mention MS Office, Adobe Photoshop/Premiere etc.) take up a ludicrous amount of space. \n\nSo I have 4 hard drives in my PC. I have a 300 GB spindle drive that was my original original original PC boot and everything drive. But then I added a _solid state drive_ as my boot drive. Solid State drives = so very very fast. But it was only 128 GB, I couldn't fit all my files and games on there, so only Windows and the very _important_ games went on that drive. Then I bought ANOTHER solid state drive, this one was 500 GB. Windows and the very important games go on that one, but all the older games and all my files still live on the old drives. And so on. \n\nSolid state drives are very fast. Much fast Windows load times. Much fast game load. But very $$$ for storage. So use slower/older drives for storage, solid state drive for Windows and important things. \n\nOf course, if you have Dropbox (or similar) and unlimited internet bandwidth, then having a bunch of drives for storage is less important. If you need a game or an app or some files, just download it from the cloud when you need it. \n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"Blizzard.net"
]
] | |
44xsh2 | how can venezuelan petrol prices remain as low as they are? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44xsh2/eli5_how_can_venezuelan_petrol_prices_remain_as/ | {
"a_id": [
"cztn6z7"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"They can't, not for much longer.\n\nThe gov't set the price, but inflation has eroded it to the point is it almost nothing. Nobody wants to be the politician who raises gas prices, so the gov't has to make up the difference.\n\nIt is part of the reason Venezuela is on the verge of bankruptcy."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
2ad5zj | why do tv's have a sharpness setting? shouldn't it be as sharp as possible? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ad5zj/eli5_why_do_tvs_have_a_sharpness_setting_shouldnt/ | {
"a_id": [
"citvr2l"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Sharpening is not a simple, less blurry setting. Sharpening increases the contrast at an \"edge\", sharpen too much and this contrast can get out of hand and what qualifies as an \"edge\" becomes more lenient.\n\nFind a free photoshop like web app, upload a picture and sharpen the hell out of it, if you sharpen too much everything should have these bright highly contrasted outlines like some kindling divinity scene, if you keep sharpening all over the place ,no matter what picture you start with it should end up as a very white washed maze looking pattern and the original image should be completely un-recognizable."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
kkbhn | how does the drive-thru person know you're there? | When you drive up, how do they know that you're there so they can say, "Welcome to Derp. What may I get for you" or whatever their intro is. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kkbhn/how_does_the_drivethru_person_know_youre_there/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2ky3b3",
"c2ky54v",
"c2kyjvg",
"c2ky3b3",
"c2ky54v",
"c2kyjvg"
],
"score": [
2,
5,
3,
2,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"There is a video camera mounted somewhere that points at where you would be if you wanted to order. The person who takes your order has a tv where they can see what the camera is filming, so they see on the tv when you're there.",
"Although AndreasTPC's answer may be correct in some places, it has been my experience (McDonalds + Tim Hortons) that the drive thru's have a weight sensor built into the pavement. When a car drives onto the sensor the employee hears a beeping sound in the headset.\n\nAnother sensor is placed under the pavement outside the pickup window. These sensors track information such as: # of cars; average time it takes to greet the guest at the order box; average time it takes to place the order; average time the car spends at the pickup window; total time the car takes from beginning to end.",
"I used to work at Hungry Jack's and we had neither a weight sensor or camera, we had a magnetic sensor.\n\nWe used to take a metal bucket and sweep it back and forth over the top and the system thought it was a car, so it dropped our average drive through service times down. Made the managers happy.",
"There is a video camera mounted somewhere that points at where you would be if you wanted to order. The person who takes your order has a tv where they can see what the camera is filming, so they see on the tv when you're there.",
"Although AndreasTPC's answer may be correct in some places, it has been my experience (McDonalds + Tim Hortons) that the drive thru's have a weight sensor built into the pavement. When a car drives onto the sensor the employee hears a beeping sound in the headset.\n\nAnother sensor is placed under the pavement outside the pickup window. These sensors track information such as: # of cars; average time it takes to greet the guest at the order box; average time it takes to place the order; average time the car spends at the pickup window; total time the car takes from beginning to end.",
"I used to work at Hungry Jack's and we had neither a weight sensor or camera, we had a magnetic sensor.\n\nWe used to take a metal bucket and sweep it back and forth over the top and the system thought it was a car, so it dropped our average drive through service times down. Made the managers happy."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
227kxw | how come celebrities like roman polanski and woody allen are completely forgiven for their rapes and sexual crimes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/227kxw/eli5_how_come_celebrities_like_roman_polanski_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgk3vjj",
"cgk47o3",
"cgk5kl7"
],
"score": [
14,
8,
5
],
"text": [
"I wouldn't say Roman Polanski was completely forgiven. He pled guilty and fled the country to escape jail time, and to my knowledge has never been back to the States. (Plus, your wife being murdered by the Manson family garners a *little* sympathy.)\n\nAs for Woody Allen, the allegations against him were more or less thrown out. Although Dylan Farrow (or whatever she's changed her name to) still maintains that he molested her, and wrote a pretty damning public letter about him recently.\n\nAnyway, not to make excuses for these guys, but there it is.",
"A multitude of reasons, really although I wouldn't say they are *forgiven* more that it's easily forgotten or ignored.\n\nFirst up is straight up bias, some people view famous people as untouchable or perfect. \n\nSecondly, it's not completely unreasonable to give famous people more leeway when it comes to accusations if that nature. Famous people get all kinds of things said about them all the time, born from jealousy or just plain maliciousness so that sort of thing gets downplayed. \n\nThirdly, fear of the 'power' the famous person has. An example would be Jimmy Saville in the UK. He was thought of as a national hero in the 70's/80's, he was a children's TV presenter and he was the 'big ticket' presenter for the BBC. He was also a child molester on a really disgustingly large scale *but* that wasn't revealed until after his death because people who it either happened to or knew about it felt they wouldn't be believed or that he'd be able to shut them up/ruin them because of his 'national hero' status. \n\nLastly, extraordinary talent does kind of make people forget the bad stuff. Priscilla Presley met Elvis when she was 14 and moved in with him at 16 which you would think would raise more than a few questions but.. he's the king of rock, right?",
"Relevant reading re: Woody Allen: _URL_0_\n\nThat said, he was never found guilty in a court of law and may well be innocent, so who are you upset about forgiving him? \n\nFor Roman Polanski, various people in the film industry applauded for him at some event or other recently, but the film industry can be looked at in some ways as a big family, so it's no stranger than if you committed a crime and your family still loves you. He's certainly not forgiven by the justice system and if he ever returns to the US he'll be thrown in jail. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/27/the-woody-allen-allegations-not-so-fast.html"
]
] | ||
3iz3hi | what's astrology and can people associate stars or galaxies with the way someone behaves? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3iz3hi/eli5_whats_astrology_and_can_people_associate/ | {
"a_id": [
"cukx42f",
"cukxrwe"
],
"score": [
11,
2
],
"text": [
"They can't. Astrology is pseudoscience and nothing more interesting than a fortune cookie. It's hokum. Bogus. Fake. Nonsense. Not real. Untrue. Garbage. Rubbish. Bullshit, basically.\n\nHere are a few links from James Randi which rather quickly make astrology look like a joke (it is):\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_\n",
"Astrology is a sort of flawed, backwards science. It's the act of connecting one thing to something entirely unrelated.\n\nThat being said, the few connections between planetary and stellar positions and the behavior of an individual is the simple fact that your personality is affected by your environment. People born in May are gestated during spring, which affects the climate, what food is in season, how active the parents are, among other things; additionally, you will start exploring the world in the winter, and so on.\n\nThe problem is that astrology hasn't actually conducted any genuine research into connections between the time of year/season/climate (which can be accurately tracked using star charts) and personality. \n\nInstead, most people who practice astrology think that some magical energy is being excreted by distant stars and it is soaked up by us. This philosophy is just another deeply narcissistic explanation of the world that describes the entire universe as a mechanism that was created around us, for our benefit.\n\nWhile the initial beliefs of astrology are based in actual patterns, rather than researching these patterns more closely for a more reasonable or accurate assessment of that connection, they chalked it up to magic and ran with that assumption."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://youtu.be/3Dp2Zqk8vHw",
"https://youtu.be/r70HsEvNRck"
],
[]
] | ||
3dfyp3 | why are progressives against free trade agreements, if the main downside is a flatter worldwide job market (i.e. sending low skill jobs overseas)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dfyp3/eli5_why_are_progressives_against_free_trade/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct4rbtb",
"ct4ry67",
"ct4s79x",
"ct4sgsf"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
7,
3
],
"text": [
"It's very hard for some people to step away from what is good for themselves on a personal level and do what is right for humanity. Inperticular this happens when you can isolate a group that the indivdual belongs to that the action would also be bad for.\n\nSo for example, they might say it's bad for american workers, in addition to being bad for themselves on a personal level. They feel secure in defending american workers because it's a defence of others.\n\nBasically, it's a little to much us vs them mentality. They don't accept your premise that all men are created equal.",
" > But if you accept the idea that all men are created equal, and all humans equally deserve the dignity of a decent wage, then isn't allowing things like Chinese labor and migrant workers overall a fair and good thing?\n\nA free trade agreement doesn't necessarily grant the labourers of another country \"the dignity of a decent wage\". In China, for example, Chinese labourers are subject to the rulings of their communist government, regardless of the country's trade agreements with USA or any other country.\n\nHaving said that, generally speaking people oppose free trade agreements due to specific verbiage in the agreement rather than the general concept of free trade. For example, in Canada there's a lot of opposition to NAFTA and FIPA because they contain verbiage which undermines previously-established environmental laws and rights, and because they override labour rights granted through the nation's respective labour legislation. In this respect, these specific free trade agreements are sometimes viewed as double-standards, or being contrary to laws that were previously implemented.",
"You have a creepy crawlers machine, and you can make some sweet creepy crawlers. Scorpions, spiders, multiple colors. The good stuff.\n\nYour creepy crawlers are so good that you can trade them at lunch for Oreos. Your mom says that you're \"gluten free\", but Oreos are awesome and who cares if you have to poop during Ms. Matten's art class, sometimes twice. \n\nSo every night, you go home and make a few creepy crawlers between your reading homework and stupid piano lessons, and every day you trade them for Oreos. \n\nLife. is. good.\n\nThen one day, you come to school and find out that your friend, Kevin, got a Shrinky Dinks Monster Lab. UGH! Who would ever want a stupid monster lab monst... wait... kids are trading Oreos to Kevin for his Jelly Frankensteins? WHAT THE FUDGE! Those things are so dumb! And its not fair! Kevin can make like 15 jelly monsters to every 1 of your Creepy Crawlers because Kevin's parents don't make him do homework or go to piano lessons. Kevin's parents don't seem to care AT ALL about him! They just let him make as many as he wants without ever making him do all that boring stuff!\n\nYour Oreo pipeline has dried up while Kevin is neck deep in Double Stuffs.\n\nYou could NEVER make jelly bugs as efficiently as the guy with no parental supervision \n\nYou, a 5 year old, would have to go to Kevin's parents house and try to convince them that he needs to be taking piano and doing his homework. It's never going to happen.\n\nNow, if you'll excuse me, I'm jonesing for an Oreo.",
"Is there evidence that free trade agreements would lead to a decent wage in places like China, or would it just lead to a general depression in wages domestically without much of a boost elsewhere?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
fdz347 | how do loop pedals work? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fdz347/eli5_how_do_loop_pedals_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"fjkp2o8"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"They are basically audio recorders (before smartphones those were separate gadgets) packaged into a pedal body. Is there some specific aspect of those that sounds intriguing?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
73i81y | why our legs go out when poked on the back of the knee | I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about. When somebody pokes the back of your knee, and your leg just falls out for a couple seconds. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/73i81y/eli5_why_our_legs_go_out_when_poked_on_the_back/ | {
"a_id": [
"dnqkerc"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"This is because when you are standing up, the weight of the top part of your body is mostly supported by the bones. As soon as you bend the leg, it's up to your leg muscles to hold the weight. And if they don't contract fast enough (which is what happens in this situation), the top of your body loses support and \"falls\" down for a couple of seconds further bending the knee until you can react. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
ef96gx | why can't the dalai lama pick a new panchen lama? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ef96gx/eli5_why_cant_the_dalai_lama_pick_a_new_panchen/ | {
"a_id": [
"fbz290h"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"The Panchen Lama is believed to reincarnate. We have no way of knowing if the previous incarnation is dead."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
2fhr0s | why do people trying to go around each other end up moving in the same direction? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fhr0s/eli5_why_do_people_trying_to_go_around_each_other/ | {
"a_id": [
"ck9b4uq",
"ck9bqxx"
],
"score": [
11,
10
],
"text": [
"Because there's a 50% chance it'll happen",
"confirmation bias. You only remember the times it happened, because that was out of the ordinary enough to make you remember."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
406dh7 | if heat rises, why is it freezing cold above the clouds? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/406dh7/eli5_if_heat_rises_why_is_it_freezing_cold_above/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyrruj2"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Air also cools as it expands and/or the air pressure decreases. And, the air pressure way up there is much lower. So, high up = lower pressure and lower pressure = cooler."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
4btlis | what is the exact process that makes a song go from obscurity to ubiquity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4btlis/eli5_what_is_the_exact_process_that_makes_a_song/ | {
"a_id": [
"d1cakkl"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"There is no \"exact\" process, but what happens is the tipping point. As more people become exposed to something, the more it spreads and the more people are exposed and continue to spread it.\n\nThis process isn't linear and is self reinforcing. At some point - the tipping point - it explodes and rockets into popularity. This point is t predictable or quantifiable unless you're looking at things after-the-fact."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
1tn5qx | emergency calls only? | How is my phone able to make calls to anything (in this case emergency services) when there's no reception?
Thanks :D | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tn5qx/emergency_calls_only/ | {
"a_id": [
"ce9kr9n"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"There is reception but just not to your network. There are other networks though and they allow emergency calls to go through their network from non customers. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
2o2aw6 | why do i still have full use of software after the trial period is over? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2o2aw6/eli5_why_do_i_still_have_full_use_of_software/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmj2799"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The trail limitations are setup by the individual publisher, and can be enforced in several different ways. \n\nSome (most famously WinRar) have no limitation, just rely on a 'Nag Screen' to keep reminding you that you haven't paid, and wouldn't it be so nice if you did.\n\nOthers like your Avast software still work, but no longer obtain updates from their servers. With something like Microsoft Office that may not be a big deal, but with something like your antivirus it mans that your definitions are not being updated, and you are exposed to newer viruses.\n\nThen there are some that completely disable the software once your trial runs out, and require you to pay up if you want to open your data files again.\n\nWhy the soft-sale on some of the publishers? Different policies on combating piracy. Some publishers feel that the tougher restrictions just make them a higher target for having cracks published, making it easier for real potential customers (there are always users that they know will NEVER pay for their software) to find the workarounds."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
2k4v33 | why do governments hire private military contractors | Why not just use the regular army? The army is probably more well trained, disciplined, and have hire accountability. What do private contractors do that the regular army cant? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k4v33/eli5why_do_governments_hire_private_military/ | {
"a_id": [
"clhx29t",
"clhx2o5"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"They are already ex-military most of the time plus Govt doesn't get the \"official responsibility\" for any mishaps. Google Raymond Davis Pakistan for an example. There must be hundreds other as well but seemed to illustrate how well entrenched these practices are",
"There are a number of reasons. \nOne of which being troop limitations.\nThere was a limit of allowed soldiers on the ground in Iraq. when you hire a PMC they are civilian contractors and do not fall under your troop limits. \n\nAs for training, a lot of PMC's are ex-military as it is. \nA good example of using a PMC to get around troop limits was Blackwater in Iraq."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
45zign | why are general ed classes in college required regardless of your major? | Unless I have a misunderstanding about college, I thought college was when you took specialized classes that suit your desired major. I understand taking general ed classes throughout high school, everyone should have that level of knowledge of the core classes, but why are they a *requirement* in college? For example, I want to major in 3D Animation, so why do I need 50 credits worth of Math, English, History, and Science classes?
This isn't so much complaining about needing to take general ed as it is genuine curiosity. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45zign/eli5_why_are_general_ed_classes_in_college/ | {
"a_id": [
"d018w7j",
"d018y1b",
"d0191kn",
"d01921t",
"d01935c",
"d0193fw",
"d0194wb",
"d0197gl",
"d01awbj",
"d01d259",
"d01g1hg",
"d01gyn8",
"d01j2q7",
"d01ksgz",
"d01m8hr",
"d01mnsd",
"d01mojk",
"d01n7km",
"d01nmce",
"d01onut",
"d01p0yh",
"d01qdq1",
"d01qhii",
"d01qlbl",
"d01qtzx",
"d01r9jk",
"d01rfuv",
"d01sg37",
"d01sy29",
"d01w5er"
],
"score": [
504,
128,
6,
52,
7,
8,
8,
10,
9,
5,
5,
21,
6,
4,
6,
2,
3,
4,
5,
3,
2,
2,
2,
7,
3,
2,
2,
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"The goal of college wasn't supposed to be just a job training program. It was meant to make you an educated person with a focus in a field, not to just literally do job training that you have to pay for. \n\nThey have technical schools if you just want to specifically learn a craft or trade and not worry about general education. ",
"You have a misunderstanding about college.\n\nIt's not (in the US) to teach you about a specific topic, it's also to make you a better-educated person in general, and thus more rounded and capable. \n\nAnd also, I'd hasten to point out, a huge proportion of people in technical fields are pretty terrible at English, math, and sciences. You **will** need these things in your professional life, even if you think now that your field is purely technical. You might, for example, have to explain in written form with numbers to back it up why a certain approach is a good or bad idea.\n\nAlso, I've discovered that a fair portion of college is about learning to deal with bullshit requirements. These will hardly be thin on the ground in your career, so the better you are at dealing with them, the better off you will be in the long run.",
"You have a misunderstanding of college. You are thinking of a tech or trade school, not a college or university.",
"College is not a vocational training program. It's meant to make sure you're a generally educated person.\n\n",
"That is their purpose--to provide your *general* education. Each university has a particular vision of what it wants its graduates to be; usually it imagines knowledgeable and participating citizens of a republic, which means you'll need far more than just some skill in animation. How can you participate in politics without knowing the nation's history, participate socially without knowing the literature that our culture is built on, or use technology without understand the principles of natural science on which it relies?\n\nThese classes are required because experience shows that students often do not realize their value. Since the university's role is to educate, a little coercion can be beneficial in doing the best for students.",
"The purpose of College is not to specialize you into a specific job. It is to educate you to be a productive member of society while you are also training to do a specific job. They do this by making you take general ed classes, which in theory makes you a more well rounded student, which in turn makes you a more well rounded person and a better potential employee whatever your job may be.\n\nIf you only want training that is focused on your choice of career then you need to go to a trade school, not college. ",
"Yes, you have a misunderstanding about college. There are specialized classes in college in your major, but (at least in the US) the bulk of the classes you take will be things that it's generally considered important for an educated person to know. \n\nThere's an assumption about how much general knowledge a person has when they graduate high school, and there's an assumption about how much general knowledge a person has when they graduate college. A college grad will be assumed to be more generally well-educated than a high school graduate. \n\nIt's not meant to be a job training program. If you want that, go spend your 18 months in an associates degree program at a community college and don't waste the university's time and resources.",
"Back in the day, only the nobility was educated. Kings and dukes would pay scholars to live in their castles and share knowledge with their kids, and those scholars would take on apprentices and teach them, typically from the clergy.\n\nAs the nobility expanded, someone came up with this neat idea called a university. Basically a boarding school, you'd send your kids off there until you felt like having them back, often late into life. Part finishing school, part general studies, part daycare for princes, these places were pretty popular, helping nobles to stay ahead of the curve on technology and history. Rulers need to know about literally everything, so literally everything a ruler might need to know was taught.\n\nAt the same time, churches started to provide basic schooling for commoners, no more than a primary education, it was still helpful to have farmers that could read state proclamations or the bible, and who could do some quick math to guess how many eggs they had to sell or how much wheat.\n\nIn order to make more schools, they needed more and more teachers, who would up getting to go study with nobles in universities if they were bright enough to become university teachers. By the mid 20th century, university became a way for the best and brightest to go meet the wealthy and powerful, gaining tremendous opportunity.\n\nThen, in the 80s, people started to get this idea that university was the key to a better life for everyone. We all wanted to go, instead of just the idle rich and the scholarship geniuses. We started to borrow money to go, but fundamentally, University is still what it always was, a place for the idle rich to learn a little of everything so that they could have intelligent conversations with their advisers and ministers.\n\nSo, basically, a better question is: Why in the heck do they teach 3D Animation in a University? That should be a trades course in a technical college, and should not have electives.",
"Short answer: It's an attempt to produce \"well-rounded\" students - and the requirements vary greatly according to your institution and/or the college in which your degree is conferred (e.g. a college of engineering will have drastically different (and fewer) general education requirements than, say, a college of arts and sciences).\n\nHere's an example:\n\nI started my college career at one university. That university had a stand-alone College of Science. A biochemistry degree at that school required nearly 150 credit hours for graduation, with 70-80 of those credits comprised of biochemistry courses (most courses were 3 credit courses). I think the degree only required something like 15-20 credits of general education requirements.\n\nI then transferred to a different university. That university had a College of Arts and Science (no stand-alone college of science). A biochemistry degree at this university only required 18 credits of biochemistry courses! Only 120 credits were required for graduation (again, most courses 3 credits) with over 60 credits comprised of general education requirements! \n\nSo, a huge difference between the two schools.\n\nWhen I asked my department chair about this, his response was basically, \"We want to produce well-rounded students, if you want highly specialized training in a particular field, you should go to graduate school\". My reply was, \"a biochemistry degree should teach you something significant about biochemistry; of these two schools, which biochemistry grad would you want to hire to work in your lab - the guy with 18 credits of biochemistry or the guy with 70-80 credits of biochemistry?\".\n\nDifferent strokes for different folks. ",
"Animation is Art that uses Math and Science to communicate with other humans based on our shared culture and history, whether it speaks to, from, or against said culture and history. Art doesn't exist in or spring from a vacuum, at least not any art worth the time of any potential audience. It has something to do with or say about our existence from the common reference points of history and culture. So you need a grounding in English and History to be a communicative, relevant animation artist, you need a grounding in Art to be an expressive artist, and you need a grounding in Science and Math to be an effective and capable animation artist. And then you also need to learn about 3D animation: modeling, skinning. lighting, compositing, animation techniques, etc. But that's just the technical stuff, without an education you'll have nothing worthwhile to communicate with those technical skills no matter how inherently talented you are.",
"I don't think anyone has said this directly, but the term ~~\"university\" comes from the notion that it was originally intended to give a person a *universal* education, covering a broad range of fields. Specialization came later.~~\n\nWhen you look at the intellectual giants of our past, many were talented in multiple fields. Fermat worked in law, but did groundbreaking math in his free time. Descartes and Leibniz made fundamental contributions in both math and philosophy. ",
"I thought exactly the same way before I went to college. Nearly 10yrs later, I can't say I have used 1 thing I learned from my business classes or gen eds that I used in real life. I never once walked into work and was tasked with creating a swot analysis. \n\nWhat it did teach me is to think critically and solve various problems. I gained experience leading group projects and realized what I was good at and what I never want to do again. Independence and self reliance was always tested. It basically molded me as an adult. \n\nIt's less about you having to take random gen ed classes but more about the social maturing experience that is college. Pick some cool ones and try to enjoy them. ",
"Why are you required to take general ed classes you ask? It's simple really, let me explain. They want to take more of your money by saying you have to take more classes.",
"Lots of people are talking about the school's moral requirement to educate and create these diverse, thoughtful citizens. And to some extent, they are basically correct. A college should teach young adults to be more mindful and all that. Who wouldn't agree with that?\n\nBut the answer to your question I think is much more...boring. And, less noble.\n\nGeneral ed courses are required because of a thing called price elasticity of demand. It means that our collective demand for college degrees does not wane in proportion to how much colleges charge for a diploma. So, the more courses that are \"required,\" the more money we have to pay. And we just do it. Because we all want degrees.\n\nSchools SHOULD, in my opinion, let you forgo GE's and just focus on a major, if that's what YOU want. That should be your decision as an admitted student, in my opinion of course. The student is a consumer (customer) and should have some choice. It would reflect on your transcript, but that should be up to you. Again, my opinion. But in most cases, GE's are non negotiable. You must pay more and take them. Too bad for you.\n\nNow, many people will rebut with \"but most schools aren't for profit,\" and they're correct. But they're also incorrect at the same time. Your tuition money (and all the other money that swirls around as you linger around hammering out those GE's) matters. It all matters. Trust me.\n\nSo yeah. We agree to pay for the GE's and take them. Thus they exist. If nobody (I mean literally, nobody) accepted the requirement of GE's, then they would vanish. That is how supply and demand works.\n\nBut we don't do that. We just say okay and take them.\n\nOn a completely separate note, it does make the school look better by offering a wide, enriching array of courses. And it does increase the odds of a student finding some weird niche passion and becoming some notable figure alumni. There's that too.",
"I think a better question is, why wasn't it already taught in highschool? ",
"Because you're going to a easy American college, with only 12-18 credit hours per semester, learning only the very basic stuff about your major, and supplementing the rest of your schedule with gen-ed courses to report a high GPA (because gen-ed classes are easy). \n\nMany European universities have ~ 30 credit hours a semester, with no 'free' courses/electives until the 3rd year. \n\nFor example, I take Python (programming), English, Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology in a semester, each with their 2.5 hours of lecture and 2.5 hours practicals per week.",
"A more philosophical idea behind it (which comes also from the old tradition of the liberal arts) is really the life of the mind - being able to think critically, find joy in learning, having a versatile brain and being able to take patterns of thought and practice in any field you've learned and applying it to another. These are all skills you need professionally but they also create a pattern for your mind that enables you to do anything you want to in life, because you'll be open-minded and flexible enough to learn how to do it.",
"The original purpose of college was to make the sons and daughters of the elite more \"educated\" and \"well-rounded.\" But nowdays most people go to college because you can't get a job without a degree. The purpose and use differ. I would never pay $250k for \"well-roundedness\" if I couldn't make it back in income. Unless I was rich. College is a scam.",
"Background: I'm 7 years out of grad school with a Master's degree and a successful career. My student loans are paid off.\n\nAs others have mentioned, a university education isn't just a job training program. The goal is to produce a well-rounded person who possesses a broad range of basic knowledge, deeper knowledge in their area of specialty, and, most importantly, critical thinking skills. It's about taking the student out of the comfortable little bubble they grew up in, and opening their eyes to a larger world. Maybe that could be done in high school, but unfortunately, the quality of K-12 education is not consistent enough to guarantee that. In my case, I finished high school with no critical thinking skills, an embarrassingly narrow worldview, and a high level of gullibility.\n\nThe university classes I took specifically for my major gave me the foundational knowledge and skills specific to my profession. My general ed classes gave me knowledge and critical thinking skills that I rely on when deciding how to run my business, how to negotiate with people, how to make health decisions, how to parent my son, what car to buy, and which political candidates to vote for.\n\nI've thought a lot about what I would change if I could restructure my degree programs based on what I'm doing now. There are a few tweaks I would make to my major program, including eliminating a couple of classes, and adding some that weren't included. I wouldn't touch the general ed core, though. History, philosophy, psychology, economics, biology, chemistry, and geology have nothing to do with my career, but everything to do with the universe and people around me. I'm a better worker, a better husband and father, and a better citizen because I studied those things.",
"This probably won't be seen, but oh well.\n\nIt is all about $$$$$. This is how one of my profs explained it to me: yes colleges want their student body to have a well rounded education, but that is not the main reason gen-ed classes are required. Most major specific classes are higher level and have low amount of students, whereas gen-eds have loads of students. The cost per credit hour to take either upper level, major specific classes or the lower level classes is the same. Take dentistry for example: all dental majors have to take bio 101 (or similar) just like every other major, but they also have to take a class where they have to learn to use the equipment of their trade (drills, x-ray machines, etc.) The upper level classes are expensive to run, especially with low student population taking them. The high student population general education classes offset the cost of running the expensive upper level, specialized classes.",
"Its to make you a well rounded person. You still have your specialty, but they want to stress the importance of some advanced knowledge of the basics of math, science, writing ect. \n\nAlso, sometimes you need some basic math even as a science major, or vice versa. Like if you are pre med, you still need some physics (really you don't but they make you take it for the mcats) to understand some stuff taught in physiology. And a writing class as pre med will help in the future to make well formed essays if you ever write a research paper or whatever when you end up with a career in the med field. ",
"Part of the idea behind college is to learn problem solving skills, deductive reasoning, critical thinking, etc. These things all help you to learn how to get through situations you may not have encountered before.\n\nIf you get trained simply on a specific thing but then you have to do something new later on you'll be screwed. ",
"Besides what's already been written in this thread, the best ideas you ever have in your field down the line are very likely to be inspired by something you encounter outside that field. But you're never going to have advanced inspiration from introductory understanding. Human creativity doesn't work that way.\n\nBesides, college isn't only supposed to prepare you for a job, is supposed to prepare you for life, and if you're lucky you'll spend a good portion of your life not working. What if you get interested in flying and you never took any higher math? How are you going to pilot a plane with no understanding of physics?",
"They're not, at least they're not in the UK - here we only study the course we signed up for, so if you signed up for \"History of Art\" you'll spend 3 years studying just that. There are occasionally courses where you can spend 1 or 2 hours a week taking a language, but that's not to degree level, it's to about high school level.",
"Actually, in most countries in the world, there's no gen ed requirements as in the US, but only specialised classes right from the start. \nThe real reason is that this is due to inadequacy of high-school education in the US which requires 4 years of college where it takes only 3 in Europe. \nThere's a reason why sports and social events are so big in HS in the US, it takes the time students in other countries use to finish their general education. ",
"To help guide you in obtaining a greater understanding of life. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote extensively on why blacks shouldn't be content with just going to trade schools in the Reconstruction Era. His thoughts are worth reading.",
"Too narrow a focus prevents you from using other fields to enrich whatever goals you may have in another.",
"They charge you for each class, so it's in their best interest to make you take as much as possible. ",
"When an American friend of mine was bitching about this I thought he was pulling my leg. As a Brit, we do not do this - and indeed most of the world doesn't. ",
"My Calculus 2 teacher in college called the other buildings Job programs. He felt you should be able to pick all of your classes and other than basic English most of the other classes were to keep teachers employed. He was a really good Calc 2 prof, felt I learned more and it sunk it more with his B, then the A I got in calc 1."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
2ifa2c | why don't is hostages fight before beheading? | I am curious as to why the IS (Islamic State) hostages don't attempt to disrupt their beheading videos. Why would they not want to delay their execution or thwart the IS's attempt to make another propaganda video? I feel that the answer is that they face further gruesome torture but I am not sure. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ifa2c/eli5why_dont_is_hostages_fight_before_beheading/ | {
"a_id": [
"cl1omsa",
"cl1oqc6",
"cl1ozl6"
],
"score": [
5,
19,
11
],
"text": [
"Yeah, I assume they are threatened with a fate worse than the beheading itself. Scary stuff ",
"There was some guy doing an interview a couple of weeks ago claiming to have escaped I.S.I.L. imprisonment. A similar question was asked of him and his response was this. \nThey were tortured both mentally and physically for days at a time. faced fake firing lines, or put in the position that they thought that they were about to be executed soooo many times that by the time you see them on video, the victims think its just another mock up scene. \nMakes sense to me.\n",
"They often have fake executions. That means that each time they face three options:\n\n1. Resist, and die\n2. Don't resist, and die (because it's real)\n3. Don't resist, and live (because it's a fake)\n\nResisting guarantees that you will die. If you don't resist then you have a chance at living. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
czbab5 | water has zero nutritional value. why is h2o so necessary for carbon based life to thrive? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/czbab5/eli5_water_has_zero_nutritional_value_why_is_h2o/ | {
"a_id": [
"eyx85ea",
"eyx8hex"
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text": [
"Water is a necessary reagent in many chemical reactions that support life.\nIt's also important in that it supports the mass of the body, both inside and between cells. In vessels, water acts as the solvent or medium allowing material to easily be transported around the body.\n\nThere's more, but those are, I think, the top 3.",
"Water is necessary for any form of life, including silicon-based. Water is one of the better solvents in existence, allows for all the nutrients that cells need, as well as the waste they produce, to be transported in/out of the cells themselves. It also allows all of the organelles, the little cellular organ-like structures, to float in a cushioned, protected space."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
ct2jz5 | what is the irish backstop and good friday agreement situation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ct2jz5/eli5_what_is_the_irish_backstop_and_good_friday/ | {
"a_id": [
"exi6vit"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"There are three things that \"everybody\" wants:\n\nA) No hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.\n\nB) Northern Ireland remains part of the UK.\n\nC) Ireland remains part of the EU.\n\nAny two of these things is easy. There is no possible agreement which achieves all these things other than \"UK remains in EU\". The \"backstop\" plan essentially violates (B). NI has a hard border with the rest of the UK, so that it can share an island with Ireland."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
eat70i | how does raytracing work? not what it does, but how it does it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eat70i/eli5_how_does_raytracing_work_not_what_it_does/ | {
"a_id": [
"fax4fjy"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"A fundamental theory of light and rays and reflection is that how it reflects doesn't matter which direction it travels. A beam of light fired from point A to eventually point B (bouncing off whatever) can be fired back in the opposite direction from B to A successfully along the same path.\n\nNormally we see things because light comes from a light source (the sun, light bulb, etc), bounces off things causing colour filtering, and eventually into our eyes or a camera to be seen. Raytracing does it the other way around - starts at the camera and fires \"scanning\" rays to see what it hits and hence what it could see. That ray may also bounce or scatter in the same way light would.\n\nHistorically raytracing has been a pixel-by-pixel computationally expensive process. Obviously \"RTX\" graphics cards have changed that in an attempt to make it a nearly real-time thing. I don't know what magic nVidia has thrown in their cards to make it so fast, but I'm kinda impressed."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
992p0v | why are we taught to eat so much calcium, when people on natural diets tend to eat only around 300mg? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/992p0v/eli5_why_are_we_taught_to_eat_so_much_calcium/ | {
"a_id": [
"e4kfgqy",
"e4khoip"
],
"score": [
9,
4
],
"text": [
"I think the best way to answer this is to say that \"natural diets\", while often of high quality are not always the \"best\" way of eating. Our bones can be stronger if we eat more calcium, stronger bones are very good, so eat more. Even if people don't naturally eat that way, that's OK, we know a better way now. ",
"A human's natural lifespan is only about 65 years, give or take. Take care of your teeth and bones, and you can extend that by another 20 years or more.\n\nAnd that's all ignoring disease and other nutrition, which really cut our average lifespans down quite a bit, in the past. But you asked about calcium, specifically. \n\nThe important thing is that what's natural isn't necessarily what's healthy. It's natural to wander the plains naked, hurling sharpened sticks at prey animals, only getting to eat what you kill, not bothering to cook it half the time. We know better than that, now."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
31p75s | how do fbi rewards work? | For example how is it determined if you get the reward? If someone is convicted? If evidence you provide leads to solving of the case? Are you opening yourself up to possible legal issues if you hadn't come forward with the information previously? What if you are the perpetrator, do you get the reward?
I've always wondered if these rewards are legitimate or just a way to entice people into coming forward without paying out a reward since they were involved in some way or should not have withheld information.
Edit 1: Per /u/flait7 The FBI has a [website](_URL_1_) that explains questions like this in a FAQ. A number of users have also mentioned cases where people did receive rewards.
The reason I asked this question was the announcement that the FBI is offering up to a 300k reward for information on a train crash in 1995 in Phoenix. I was six at the time so no I don't have any information on it!
/u/MistakerPointerOuter has a very detailed reply.
Edit 2: /u/Lawfulscofflaw has a [great post](_URL_0_) about a personal experience with an FBI reward. There are answers to many of the questions that were posed. Please check out this comment! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31p75s/eli5_how_do_fbi_rewards_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cq3py9z",
"cq3q8k1",
"cq3q8yl",
"cq3qgev",
"cq3qrp3",
"cq3rjve",
"cq3rzdj",
"cq3swii",
"cq3t8ka",
"cq3tvv9",
"cq3u12x",
"cq3uk2i",
"cq3v7yp",
"cq3wlu7",
"cq3y2j3",
"cq3z5gn",
"cq40nnf",
"cq44kaz",
"cq46be0",
"cq46yjk",
"cq47cwl"
],
"score": [
75,
862,
185,
603,
197,
4,
8,
16,
10,
12,
14,
5,
3,
4,
2,
4,
3,
2,
2,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"As a follow-up, are rewards taxable as income?",
"This is my crap comment for the year but my ex-gf was a intelligence analyst for the fbi, she still met with some informants but was not to the special agent position yet. She was very reluctant to tell me anything about the actual process but a couple times she told me that it was a slightly surreal experience because she had dropped off large amounts of money to informants as part of the reward process. The largest one she told me she did was 50k. I assumed they would have the person come into the local fbi office and sign a ton of paperwork, but nope. She said her and her boss (/supervisor person, I forget their title) met them at a starbucks and handed off the cash. They didn't even 1099 which irked me a bit. Sorry for the anecdote instead of having first hand knowledge but hopefully this provides a little insight into the system. ",
"The unibomber's brother was paid out after the conviction. He donated it all to charity. ",
"The FBI has a [website](_URL_0_) that explains questoins like this in a FAQ.\n\nIn one of the questions it explains that an agency (such as but not only the FBI) will nominate you to be eligible for a reward, and then the nomination is reviewed by a couple of other agencies. Then whether you've earned a reward and how much of one you've earned is decided by them, however it doesn't specify whether it's sent by mail or placed into your account. I'd assume the latter but I have no way of confirming that. The FAQ states that it's done on a case by case basis, so there's a good chance payment varies depending on the person.\n\nThe FAQ also mentions that they don't encourage bounty hunters. I know somebody out there's wanting to be one.",
"Regarding the FBI, this really isn't my specialty, and so I can't answer with specific instances and super great clarity, but I can answer generally. FBI rewards are certainly paid out. Governments are not people; they are monolithic corporations that exist indefinitely, sometimes for hundreds of years. An entity like a government doesn't think in small-scale or for short-term benefits, it thinks about the consequences of its actions for the next hundred years. A single case of the FBI not paying out rewards means it jeopardizes future cooperation in the rewards program for the next hundred years. This is not what the FBI wants.\n\nUsually the reward will specify an \"up to\" amount. (Note I'm going to talk about rewards generally, because I don't know the FBI program well enough. You can assume the general principles apply here.) The reward pot will be split between people that offer information, presumably based upon the first person that offers a unique piece of information. So if 10 people offer the same info, usually the first one will get the money. If 10 people offer the same info plus an 11th that offers something different, it'll be split between two people. There are other rules, too. Usually the reward is offered \"for information that leads to capture.\" This means that after the police catch the person, you are eligible for the money, *even if* the police shoot and kill him or if he gets acquitted in court.\n\nThe full reward money may also not be given out (remember, it's only \"up to\") and if there is a split between two people, one person may get more. This may depend on the type of information provided. For example, let's say one person say that they've seen the suspect on Main Street, but doesn't know where he lives. Another person says he sees the person driving a blue Toyota Camry. Combining the two pieces of information, the police capture the criminal. In this case, the prize money may be split $40,000 to the guy saying he's on Main Street and $10,000 to the guy saying what car he drives. One piece of information is clearly more valuable; the other one helped find him quicker and reduce risk that he might escape, but it wasn't as essential. (Edit: If you want a real life example, look up the Chris Dorner reward money, I think that one was split 3 ways, although that was a state/local issue and not an FBI reward)\n\nRegarding opening yourself up to legal issues (which is something I'm a bit more knowledgeable about), in the US (and most common law countries), there is usually *no duty to cooperate* with the police. There are exceptions, but this is generally the case. This is why you hear about people not talking to the police, refusing to testify, etc. If there was a duty to cooperate, the police could haul you off to jail until you talked. But this doesn't happen, because again, you have no duty to cooperate, thus the reward incentive.\n\nI should make a note here about obstruction of justice, which you may have heard of. Obstruction of justice is an *affirmative act* that you do to hinder an investigation. This is stuff like shredding evidence, bribing people, or murdering witnesses. Not talking to the police / refusing to volunteer information is not an affirmative act. You're simply doing nothing. So obstruction of justice is illegal and something that you can get punished for, but don't confuse that for not volunteering information. \n\nI guess I should also talk about conspiracy and accomplice liability here. Conspiracy is when you conspire (I know, such great terminology) with someone else to commit a crime; this is known as an *inchoate crime*, meaning one that hasn't actually happened yet. Accomplice is when you actually help someone commit or cover up a crime in some way.\n\nEither way, if you have done something to have conspiracy or accomplice liability attached to you, you've *already committed a crime.* Regardless of whether you've withheld information or not, there's no way to undo your crime, and the police/prosecutor can charge you with a crime. However, volunteering information can often help reduce your charges (for example, \"I helped him but I didn't know he was going to murder her. I'll tell you where he is\"). Note that here, I mean the person making the decision (prosecutor) *may* decide to lessen your charges. He might decide to charge you with conspiracy/accomplice to a crime anyway, and he is fully entitled to do that.\n\nSo to be clear, if you are a conspirator/accomplice, the withholding of information won't get you in more trouble (it can't), however, volunteering information gives you the *possibility* of lesser charges, based *entirely on the whims of the prosecutor*.",
" > What if you are the perpetrator, do you get the reward? \n \nPretty sure that would qualify as the proceeds of a crime and thus would be immediately seized.",
"what's in your wallet? FBI reward points ... panty dropper ",
"I don't know but I'll tell you that in Colombia, when everyone was after Pablo Escobar there was a huge reward for his capture. One of the most important priests in the country allegedly had conversations with Pablo and convinced him to surrender. The priest wanted the money to build houses for the poor, but the goverment denied it, because of one word, he wasn't \"captured\".",
"Don't you do it, Derek.\n\nIt was our last job. We're out and clear now.\n\nDon't let your guilt over what we had to do fuck us.",
"[link](_URL_0_) Here's the info on the train that OP robbed when he was 6. I'm on to you op, the money is mine.",
"I have a friend that got a FBI reward. Don't want to give too much away, but he saw the guy, called the cops, and they showed up.\n\nA few days later they call him, he goes to the station, and they give him about 75% of the reward in cash. He said it felt weird cause it was kinda apparent that it was drug money that had been confiscated",
" > the announcement that the FBI is offering up to a 300k reward for information on a train crash in 1995 in Phoenix\n\noh shit.",
"Would you have to mention the reward come tax time?",
"In a first year law course we were told that rewards function as any other type of contract. There needs to be an offer and acceptance for the reward contract to be created. Supposedly you have to offer up the information with the explicit intent of receiving the reward. If you offer up the information voluntarily or without knowledge of the existence of a reward you are entitled to nothing. Seems a little unfair.",
"Quick \"LPT\" here gang:\n\nIf you have a question about a thing that has a website, maybe check to make sure they don't answer your question in a FAQ.",
"I think it's like three points for every dollar you spend at a gas station, two for grocery stores and one for everywhere else.",
"So. After giving out a few of these rewards the information must lead to the conviction of the subject your information placed under investigation. Federal investigations can take up to and over five years to complete and there must be a conviction. So if the US attorney screws up the prosecution your shit out of luck. A plea agreement also gets you your money which happens in over 99 percent of federal prosecution. I also recently received a phone call with good info and the subject asked for a reward. I said the reward was not approved yet. The subject said I changed my mine and the information I gave you was false. The subject intended to call back after the reward was offered. That's when I gave him the old aiding and abetting speech and it all worked out. I would have given him the reward anyway but he was a principle to the crime so I showed him so love as well. A paid informant and a reward for the conviction of a toad are completely different. ",
"I wonder if you get taxed then for that reward?",
"Works like this: if you did it, you probably shouldn't snitch yourself for reward",
"IRS Criminal Investigation special agent here. \n\nSince there seems to be some interest in tax investigationd, ama.",
"Was getting caught part of your plan?"
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31p75s/eli5_how_do_fbi_rewards_work/cq3wez0?context=3",
"http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/about-rfj/frequently-asked-questions.html"
] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/about-rfj/frequently-asked-questions.html"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Palo_Verde,_Arizona_derailment"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
1wylwg | matlab | I know that computer science majors and math majors use it. What does it do exactly? Does it have any use outside of university classes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wylwg/eli5_matlab/ | {
"a_id": [
"cf6k5k6",
"cf6kasa",
"cf6kaxv",
"cf6kbh7",
"cf6kcp0"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"It's a math-based software language -- it's really good for complex math that other languages aren't designed to handle. It's widely used in research and development, as well as statistics and analysis outside of academia.\n\nIt's the \"applied math\" software that the world runs on.",
"MATLAB is used for mathematical operations and can solve wider range of higher level mathematics. It uses a matrix based (MATrix LABoratory) system to take in values and opperates on them as arrays. Works alongside Simulink to run simulations and perform computer analysis on models and design before the actual construction is used. it is widely used in industries and research organisations and most have claimed that it helps in reducing designing process",
"Basically it's a programming language with a lot of subroutines built in that make mathematical operations easier. For example, you can perform operations on imaginary numbers or matrices just like normal numbers, whereas to do that in something like C is much more tedious.\n\nIt definitely has a lot of use outside of classes, as working scientists and statisticians use it for their research.",
"MATLAB is a computing environment that crunches numbers for you. You program in all your equations and numbers and tell it what you want it to do, and then it'll do all the computations for you.\n\nYou can use it for all sorts of things. You can do simple maths with it, all sorts of algebra, vectors, matrices, graphs, and statistics. There's probably even more stuff it can do.\n\nThere's programs similar to MATLAB like Mathematica or Maple. Some of them might focus a bit more on certain types of maths, but a lot of them can do a lot of the same stuff.",
"MATLAB has a *lot* of functionality. At it's core it is a calculator. You can put expressions in and get your answer out. One nice feature of this calculator is that it is very comfortable with matrices (plural form of matrix), hence its name. A matrix is just a grid of numbers. For example, a 2x2 matrix could be:\n\n 1, -2\n 5, 3\n\nMatrices are incredibly useful in a wide range of mathematics. In particular they are nice for solving systems of equations, which turn up in a lot of applications. There are a lot of built-in functions for working with matrices, and all matrices support real or complex values (complex are in the form a + bi where i is the square root of -1). \n\nAnother major feature of MATLAB is the ability to write programs in a built-in programming language. You can use that functionality to write a script that will solve a more complicated problem. It isn't the fastest programming language when running, but you can write a program very quickly and there are a lot of great tools for manipulating or analyzing numbers.\n\nPerhaps the biggest feature, though, is the vast library of built-in tools for all sorts of different analyses. You can do everything from simple plotting of data (or complicated plotting of data) to analyzing a 20 degree of freedom system and seeing how each individual object responds to different inputs, all with only a couple minutes of work.\n\nIt has a *lot* of uses outside of classes, although I'm not in a position to state how common it is to actually see it in industry (still working on an advanced degree). I know that a license for MATLAB isn't cheap and it does things that an engineer should be able to do on their own. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
7s5yl3 | how does compression clothing work and why doesnt it cut off blood circulation, especially on pieces like socks? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7s5yl3/eli5_how_does_compression_clothing_work_and_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"dt2k68t"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"I wear compression clothing for health reasons every day and I can answer with certainty.\n\nThere are two types of compression clothing: one is for athletic performance and the other is for medical necessity. There are distinct differences between the two.\n\nAthletic compression is basically a placebo except when lifting heavy weights. It does not get tight enough to produce any effects while the user is wearing the garment. It helps circulation after working out but there has been no scientific evidence to show that it helps during a workout. It makes the muscles feel tight, which DOES help produce short bursts of muscle strength but does not help with running.\n\nMedical compression is much tighter. So tight, in fact, that you need a prescription from a doctor to purchase it. What these do is tighten your fat and muscle so that it improves circulation. This helps prevent blood clots and aids the lymphatic system in removing waste. \n\nMedical compression socks go to your toes whereas athletic compression only goes to your ankle. If you needed medical compression and only wore athletic compression your feet and ankles would swell up to a dangerous size. By going to your toes, the medical compression makes sure nothing gets \"stuck\" down there."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
6f17rp | why is a lieutenant general senior to a major general? it seems backwards because a major his senior to a lieutenant. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6f17rp/eli5_why_is_a_lieutenant_general_senior_to_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"diemui8",
"diet4tp"
],
"score": [
18,
2
],
"text": [
"The rank of Major General is a shortened title. Historically it was Sergeant-Major General. Somewhere along the way in the 18th century, the sergeant part of the name was dropped. It could easily have been the major part that was dropped and that would have made more sense.\n\nSergeant-Major means \"sergeant-leader\" or \"greater sergeant\" and is an enlisted rank, greater than a sergeant but junior to a Lieutenant. \n\nAs the Major-General rank is named after the enlisted rank of Sergeant-Major and not the commissioned rank of Major, it is the most junior of General ranks. \n\nSo next time, think \"Sergeant General\" instead and it will make more sense.\n\nEdit: a word as I can't grammar today\n\n",
"A major is higher than a Lieutenant, but Lieutenant in front of a rank indicates \"second in command to\"\n\nLieutenant General falls just below General and follows the trend of Lt Colonel which falls just below Colonel and Lt Commander which falls just below commander and Lt Governor which falls just below Governor. In none of these scenarios do you shorten the rank to Lieutenant, its always General or Colonel or Commander or Lt Governor(i don't think this one shortens) so you are never referring to this person of high rank by a term that denotes a lower rank, but instead by a potentially slightly higher rank "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
fu7971 | why does a ps4 have to download a game that you have the physical copy of? shouldn’t it just play the game right off the disc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fu7971/eli5_why_does_a_ps4_have_to_download_a_game_that/ | {
"a_id": [
"fmb20si",
"fmb8jei"
],
"score": [
8,
2
],
"text": [
"It doesn't necessarily have to download anything off the Internet, but it does have to install it from the disc.\n\nBlu-ray discs are just too slow for modern games to be played from them directly. They have to be installed to the hard disk instead, which is much faster relatively speaking.\n\nWhen you put the disc in the first thing it does is start installing the data from the disc. In theory it doesn't have to install it all before you can start playing. It can install say the first level and then you can play that while it installs the rest in the background. However that's not really possible for many games.\n\nIt might also download and install the latest update. It's common for games to have updates even on the day the game comes out. But if it's a single player game you should be able cancel that and play without the update if you want.",
"Also keep in mind that day one updates are also a time-gate. Sony will release the day one update on day one, so if people get it early, they don’t always have full functionality."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
7okdlm | why does a vehicle 15 mph faster than you appear to gain a much greater distance from you depending on your own speed? | If I'm sitting still, a car going 15 mph appears to get further from me much quicker than if I was going 70 mph and he was going 85 mph. How does this work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7okdlm/eli5_why_does_a_vehicle_15_mph_faster_than_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"dsa3r6z"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Because when sitting still, you have all of your environment in the same relation to the moving car as you.\n\nHowever when you are moving 70mph, the only reference point you have is your car and the other car to judge the speed difference.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
7fxrmf | when we whistle, how do we immediately match the pitch that we hear? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fxrmf/eli5when_we_whistle_how_do_we_immediately_match/ | {
"a_id": [
"dqg0sdc"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Part of the reason we can match the pitch is because the sound we make when whistling is the sound we actually hear. \n\nHave you ever noticed that recordings of yourself don't seem to sound like you to you, even though everyone else says it does?\n When you speak or sing, a good portion of the sound we hear is actually going *through* our head, not around it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
a1d7es | is blood an irritant to most of our insides when it’s not inside the veins and arteries etc? | So I was watching [this video](_URL_0_) by this “Dr. Mike” guy who’s apparently a real doctor and stuff. So he says at one point (at 9:35) “Blood is a natural irritant to the abdominal cavity” and I’m immediately like “whaaaaat, how can blood irritate the inside of our bodies? Like, aren’t we supposed to have it, like, all over??” But then I thought maybe the reason our bodies work in a way that we feel discomfort when blood isn’t where it’s supposed to (veins, arteries? Idk) is so that we know when we’re losing blood and... do something about it I guess?? Is that how that works?
By the way, I thought this might be better suited for r/askDocs but that sub is more for personal medical problems and yeah idk where to go for hypothetical situations (also, I could really use a simple explanation cause some of these basic sciences may as well be rocket science for me...)
PS. If anyone has any recommendations for like a subreddit or YouTube channel or something where I can learn these types of things in an easy way I’d love to see them. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1d7es/eli5_is_blood_an_irritant_to_most_of_our_insides/ | {
"a_id": [
"eaotbtn",
"eaou813"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Yes, blood in non-vascular spaces causes problems. Blood is a tissue. It flows and gets replaced, but is a tissue. If it stops moving it clogs. If it doesn't circulate then it dies. Putting blood into a space that can't handle it is very dangerous. Bleeding into your brain for instance. Red blood cells will die in those spaces. That released extra potassium and cellular products into the cells around it, which causes the same process. A little bit isn't such a problem usually though. Think of how nasty it looks when you get a bruise. Now, imagine that on the inside of the body where you can't see. ",
"Ok, some parts of the body don’t use blood, but instead they have their own circulating fluid. The most famous example is the brain, which uses Cerebrospinal fluid to transport oxygen and wastes. So not every part of the body is built to handle blood.\n\nAs for what he said about blood irritating the abdominal cavity... I can find zero evidence for that. There are no papers describing this, so I can only assume he made a mistake and was referring to the peritoneal cavity instead.\n\nThe peritoneal cavity is the fluid between organs in the abdominal cavity, which is why he might have been confused. The peritoneal cavity has its own fluid, which is highly anti-inflammatory.\n\nSo I assume blood entering this space and replacing the peritoneal fluid could cause inflammation, although in most reported cases blood loss into the cavity is quickly followed by hemorrhagic shock and death.\n\n\n(Edit): after watching the full video, yeah he is definitely referring to the peritoneal cavity. It can hold up to 5L of excess fluid, so any leak from the bloodstream into this cavity would end up with your blood pressure dropping so quickly you could die from shock.\n\nStill can’t find information about it being a irritant, probably because nobody bothered to test it since the patient is dying."
]
} | [] | [
"https://youtu.be/VUA2Rfvra64"
] | [
[],
[]
] | |
4eb94u | internationally, why is uber under scrutiny from cab unions? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4eb94u/eli5_internationally_why_is_uber_under_scrutiny/ | {
"a_id": [
"d1yjsnf",
"d1yk4h6",
"d1yk6um",
"d1yu5v0"
],
"score": [
11,
8,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Because Uber doesn't operate as a cab company, they operate as a ride sharing service, meaning the drivers are not cab drivers. This means Uber and the drivers can get away with not getting the licenses and insurance that cab companies and drivers are required to have. ",
"\n* Uber doesn't always follow local insurance laws\n* Uber doesn't always follow local licensing laws\n* Uber doesn't always follow local ordinances. \n* Uber doesn't let itself be taxed like local companies.\n\nThey claim to *not be a cab company*. So they cannot be governed by these laws. \n\nFurthermore they don't pay taxes/license fees to local government which means government officials get less money which makes people mad... And those people make laws!\n\nFurthermore Uber puts cab drivers out of business. So Cab Unions don't like their members losing jobs. \n\n",
"Uber tries to skirt around the various laws that cities have in place to limit the number of taxis on the roads (through use of medallions, which act as operation license for the vehicle) and driver certification/licensing that they require.\n\nThis makes it easier for one to become an Uber driver, and it also impacts taxi drivers' ability to earn a living by adding competition. Taxi drivers are bound to strict regulations so they cannot adjust their business model (ie. changing fares, surge pricing), and because of taxi ownership/leases, medallion payments, etc. mean they can't just quit driving a taxi and become an Uber driver overnight.",
"Most jurisdictions make a distinction between taxis and car services.\n\nTaxis are highly regulated, but they can drive around looking for fares.\n\nCar service is less regulated, but they can't only do rides by appointment.\n\nUber and similar services are exploiting a loophole in these regulations. They are technically car service, but through technology, they can provide a service almost identical to taxis, but without the regulation.\n\nTaxi companies and drivers feel like this gives Uber an unfair edge, avoiding the regulations they are subject to."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
2piiqq | why is it that when i get sick, i am able to sing the deeper notes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2piiqq/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_i_get_sick_i_am_able_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmwzxwa"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"This is just my interpretation of what someone explained to me.\n\nYour vocal chords are dynamic and function kind of like a string instrument. For example, on a string instrument the thinner strings make a higher sound. As such, your vocal chords become thinner when you sing high notes. The thicker string on a instrument makes a lower sound, similar to your vocal chords getting thicker when you sing low. \n\nWhen you're sick, your vocal chords become thicker because they become inflamed. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
7eaatt | how do air breathing sea animals like dolphins or whales not drown during violent seastorms? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7eaatt/eli5how_do_air_breathing_sea_animals_like/ | {
"a_id": [
"dq3lqw1",
"dq3pbtg",
"dq3uxly",
"dq3vsga",
"dq3y4f6",
"dq3yxv0",
"dq3zigu",
"dq3zm3w",
"dq3zy94",
"dq41335",
"dq44j5u"
],
"score": [
394,
57,
978,
9,
64,
19,
28,
3,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"the more violent the storm, the larger the waves. the larger the waves, the longer the time between waves. an air breathing mammal would have plenty of time to grab a breath in a large wave trough. \n\nNot to mention - whales and dolphins can leap from the water. Not sure if they are able to grab a breath while doing so or not. \n\nEdit: Don't forget - some of these critters can hold their breath for 30 minutes or more. If you only need a couple breaths an hour, what are the chances of that violent storm just sticking around long enough to even be a challenge?",
"The surface of the ocean away from land during a large storm isn't full of breakers - it's just rolling wave after rolling wave. The waves can get quite large, but keep in mind that the animal is mostly under the water. It can surface on the back of the wave and ride the wave down to the bottom of the trough and breath that entire time, and then just submerge and the bottom of the trough. \n\nit takes a little bit more timing than on a calm surface, but otherwise is basically the same operation. ",
"I think you're greatly underestimating how comfortable marine mammals are in the ocean. They're literally in their element. They pop up and take a breath, no big deal. If you've ever seen seals in a high surf zone, they just bob & float with not a care in the world, and duck underwater at the right time to avoid injury. And *that's* near a rocky coast, a far more dangerous environment than the open ocean.\n\nFor one, marine mammals are flexible, compared to the rigid hull of a ship which is prone to breakage.\n\nFor another, they're small & nimble compared to aircraft carriers & tankers. Surfacing during huge swells would feel more akin to an amusing ride than a life-threatening scenario.\n\nThey're also made to be *in* the water, not on top of the water. Trying to keep an open canoe afloat in rough weather would be a harrowing experience. But simply floating an incredibly buoyant body near the surface? No challenge whatsoever. \n\nMarine mammals are incredibly well-designed for taking quick gulps of air, and in large seas it's easy to time breaths so they don't take in gulps of water. Finally, I'll add that all marine creatures are by definition fine-tuned to ocean living. Even experienced humans (surfers, for example) can feel inertial changes underwater and sense when wave crests are approaching. Marine mammals' ability to read water far outstrips ours, as you can imagine, which would give them further ability to withstand, even enjoy, large seas. At sea you can often see dolphins surfing the swells, and I wouldn't be surprised if they used large storms to their benefit, traveling long distances with minimal effort.",
"1. Different sized bodies experience waves differently. To toss an aircraft carrier around, the waves have to be very large. Those large waves mean a smaller body, like a dolphin, will experience that huge wave as a (relatively) flat area. This is relatively non-intuitive, but give it some thought, and maybe do some experiments with a rubber duck in ocean waves.\n\n2. Most storms move between [10 and 30 mph](_URL_0_). This means the really turbulent areas can be avoided by moving around the storm. Human ships tend to be on timetables, which constrain them from avoiding storms. Dolphins are more free to avoid the storm's path.\n\n3. Dolphins don't have any sort of water-catching system to prevent breathing in water. They have powerful diaphrams, and can completely exhale, then inhale, in under a second. So they depend on having their blowhole completely clear while they breath.\n",
"Whale Watching Captain/Naturalist here. Cetaceans exhale most of their lung contents AND inhale in less than a second. Even while they are breathing \"normally,\" they hold their breath between ten and thirty seconds. After a handful of breaths they often \"sound\" (diving deeper, and for an extended period of time- anywhere from 5 to 90 minutes depending on species). For developed adults, a storm would be well within their comfort zone. However, a storm would very likely present a threat to newborns and perhaps very young individuals. This is believed to be part of why some species (though not all) migrate to calm, warm, and protected waters during their respective winter months (when storms are most prevalent). I _URL_0_ answer helps :)",
"I don’t know the answer to the question, but I had a neat experience kind of related. I used to work on oceanography research vessels and once while off the coast of California, approx 400 Miles west of point conception we were in 40-50 foot sustained seas. I read another response on here that said open ocean swells don’t break - this is not true, they absolutely break and it is terrifying. My particular lab could not do our research in these conditions, so I would stand on deck for hours and marvel at the power of the ocean. The ocean when it gets crazy, feels dreamy to me, like the waves are surreal in their power and magnitude. Holy shit I just got the chills thinking about this. Anyway, I was standing on deck and saw a momma blue whale and her calf riding 50 ft swells. They were just nonchalantly traveling through the ocean at like 15 knots or something absurd. Marine mammals live in the ocean and are well adapted to their environment.",
".....So apparently I made it 30 years without knowing Whales and Dolphins breathe air. What are you telling me right now? I know they have blow holes but I never once thought they used it to breathe. I just thought it was somehow related to food. Like they eat something and the stuff they don't eat they blow out through the hole. \n\n\nFucking damnit I'm stupid",
"Here's a dumb question: Why would mammals that live in the water not evolve the ability to breath underwater? It would be a selective advantage, it seems like. Maybe the oxygen requirements of large brains are such that gills won't provide enough? I realize it also sounds silly but given that more than one mammal actually lays eggs, gills don't seem so crazy. The eye of the duck-billed platypus is supposed to be closer to the eye of, of all things, the hagfish than to the eyes of other mammals which also sounds as crazy as gills would be.",
"Freaky. I thought of asking the same question this morning.\n\nDid the thread on submarines make you ask this question?",
"regardless of the answers, i'm glad about the level of empathy you have in order to ask this question",
"I used to work around and with dolphins. They do sometimes mess up and inhale a little bit of water accidentally on occasion. They can then be seen sputtering and coughing at the surface for a little bit just like when a human accidentally inhales a liquid. I'd imagine this scenario could very well happen in violent storms and maybe many times during a particular storm. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/G16.html"
],
[
"hope.my"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
2zetpf | how do restaurants serve your meal in a reasonable amount of time when it would take 2+ hours to cook that same meal at home? | I know there are more hands on deck and things are prepped, but how do they deal with things that need longer cooking times? And this is assuming they aren't reheating | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zetpf/eli5_how_do_restaurants_serve_your_meal_in_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpi8vfw",
"cpi8x7x",
"cpiajgc",
"cpiciuc",
"cpigkvo"
],
"score": [
23,
8,
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Anything that requires a long cook time is put into the oven in advance, and they hope to be able to sell it. Most rib places cook their ribs for 12 hours or so - they put them in early in the day and hope they guessed the right amount - otherwise they have to tell people \"Sorry, we ran out!\" or else throw out lots of extra meat.\n\nBut you'd be surprised how many things can be cooked in parts and put together very quickly to order, especially when you have several people working on a different part at once. Things that take longer are started in large batches earlier, and the only thing that they're doing when you order is putting the finishing touches on - grilling the meat, sauteeing the veggies, putting everything on a plate.",
"A lot of stuff is par cooked or partially cooked and then finished when the order comes in. They also have lots of stuff prepped ahead of time, like veggies cut up, sauces ready to go, etc. \n\nI don't know what you're making at home, but very few of my meals take more than 30 minutes to prepare. What do you cook that takes you 2 hours if you don't mind me asking?",
"Because 85% of the time it takes to cook something goes to prep work.\n\nRestaurants have people come in before the restaurant is working to do prep, and then they continue this throughout the day. That way, all the vegetables are already sliced and ready to go, meat is marinated, soup is made, etc. \n\nIf it takes me 2 hours to prepare a beautiful meal at home, I'd bet I would easily be able to cook the same thing in 15 minutes if someone were to do all the prep work ahead of time.\n\nAlso, a lot of meat (think ribs) are cooked ahead of time. My local rib place cooks the ribs in the oven for ~6 hours, and then when you order them, they toss them on the grill and cook for 15 minutes.",
"Like everyone else said, it is all in the prep. I work at a restaurant and there are people who prep all the meats and veggies in the morning. We use projections of how many sales we will get to determine how much product is prepped out. This is accurate 98% of the time.\n\nOnce a customer orders the food, it is essentially just thrown together from the prepped products, and heated if necessary.",
"Some of it depends on the quality of the restaurant. \n\nIn your corporate \"food product\" type places (Chili's, Applebee's, etc) they likely buy their food \"almost done\" from a food service company. For example, you can buy a chicken breast in lime chipotle sauce that's about 80% cooked, complete with grill marks that have been seared onto it by a machine specially made to do that, and then vacuum sealed in a bag. The restaurant takes it out of the bag, tosses it on their grill for another couple minutes, puts it on a plate with a sprig of cilantro, and voila, their \"Signature South of the Border Chicken!\"\n\nOn the more upscale side, some restaurants have gotten into sous vide cooking for their steaks. They can toss a bunch of steaks in the \"medium rare\" tank a couple hours before opening, and then pull them out as people order them. Even if the a steak winds up staying in the tank 5-6 hours, it's still medium rare.\n\nIn just about any place that serves dessert souffles, they'll ask you to order them when you order dinner. Those take a genuinely long time to make, and you can't make them up in advance.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
80cjwk | how does datamining in video games work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80cjwk/eli5_how_does_datamining_in_video_games_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"duulczq",
"duuor6m"
],
"score": [
10,
2
],
"text": [
"You can see Datamining as the following:\n\nImagine you buy a book with 1000 Pages.\n\nYou can read 300 of these Pages immediately, the rest are hidden behind black paper, because they are not finished yet. There is some content in those sites that has been already written into the book, but isn't final so they don't let the content appear in the readable section. If you take a bright flashlight and shine through the black paper you might be able to see some of the story beforehand without them being released, giving you a clue how the story could go on or even what characters will appear.\n\nSame goes for Datamining. Most content that will come with later patches is already in the gamefiles, hidden somewhere. It's just not patched so it doesn't appear ingame. If you have enough time and search through all files for things that are not ingame you find a lot of things that are already there, but not playable right now, giving you clues about what comes next.",
"It means looking through the files of a game (which are often encrypted so you have to figure out how to decrypt or decompile them).\n\nThings like item or character descriptions, once decrypted, are written in readable text. By reading those descriptions, you can get an idea of what is in the game (which may not be available for play until future updates).\n\nAlternatively, you can try to follow the code and figure out how things work (like unlocking secret characters)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
1uk7px | is there such a thing as "thermal" inertia? | For example, I have a piece of steel at 50°F and I *rapidly* heat it from a source at 500°F. Can it ever be heated past the 500°? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uk7px/eli5is_there_such_a_thing_as_thermal_inertia/ | {
"a_id": [
"ceixhnl",
"ceixri9"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"No. However, if you're measuring temperature at a different point than the point being heated, the measurement will continue to increase after the heating has ended since the heated point is hotter and that heat continues to conduct toward the thermometer. ",
"First off, we need to clarify what we're calling inertia. If you call it \"resistance to change\", then you could possibly call things like specific heat (amount of heat required to change a material's temperature by 1 deg-C), thermal conductivity (amount of heat that can be transferred via conduction for each degree of temperature difference), or absorbtivity/emissivity (ability to absorb or emit heat via radiation) as types of inertia.\n\nBut in terms of your example, the short answer is: maybe, but it would be a very specific situation. Explaining that situation kinda goes outside the ELI5 realm.\n\nThere are three modes of heat transfer: conduction (heat transfer via contact with a solid or an unmoving fluid), convection (heat transfer via a fluid that is moving), and radiation (heat transfer via electromagnetic radiation in the IR spectrum).\n\nIn conduction and convection, the rate of heat transfer is dependent on the temperature difference between the object/fluids in question. The greater the difference in temperatures, the faster the heat transfer. The smaller the difference in temperatures, the slower the heat transfer. So when there was zero temperature difference, there would be zero heat transfer. When the steel was at 499.9 deg-F, there would be almost no heat transfer between the steel and the heat source. When the steel hit 500 deg-F, there would be no heat transfer, the steel would stop increasing in temperature.\n\nBut then there's radiation. Radiation doesn't really depend on the temperature difference between the source and the object being heated. Instead, it depends on the amount of heat the source is radiating, and the object's tendency to absorb heat from the source and to emit heat to free space.\n\nSo, say you put your 500 deg-F source and your object into a vacuum (this eliminates conduction and convection). And your object had properties such that it absorbed heat very well - say it absorbed 99.9% of the heat that was radiated onto it - but emitted heat very poorly. The object would be absorbing lots of heat, getting hotter and hotter, but emitting almost no heat. Because the object's ability to absorb and emit heat also depend on the object's temperature, there will eventually be a point where the heat absorbed and the heat emitted equaled out and the temperature would stop going up. You might be able to get that temperature to be higher than the original heat source.\n\nBut, I don't really see that as being similar to inertia. It's just shifting the equilibrium state to the point that the object's equilibrium temperature is higher than the source's equilibrium temperature."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
9bhsn6 | how did germany not go into a civil war? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9bhsn6/eli5_how_did_germany_not_go_into_a_civil_war/ | {
"a_id": [
"e534ip0",
"e53h6io"
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text": [
"There were violent clashes.\n\nHitler's first attempt to overthrow the government in Munich ended with 16 Nazis shot dead and Hitler in Prison.\n\nSeeing the guy marching next to him shot dead convinced Hitler to work inside the system instead. So he wrote \"Mein Kampf\" while in prison and when he got out he tried again this time legitimately.\n\nThere were clashes between the SA and violent groups on the other side of the spectrum, which sometimes ended with people hurt or dead, but for the most part the nazis worked inside the system.\n\nThe had enough support that they could use the rules as they were against the system itself and turn democracy into a dictatorship.\n\nAnyone wanting to stop it got turned into a criminal and a traitor by their changes to the system. There were some medium and large scale protests during the last phase but most of them peaceful. Peaceful protests against murderous Nazis don't work very well.\n\nHitler turned the system against itself anyone protesting what he and the Nazis did was not just someone with a different opinion but a criminal, traitor and enemy of the German state itself.\n\nThere were resistance movements while the Nazis were in power, but they to were in part non-violent (the Nazi's response wasn't) and some violent (Hitler escaped a lot of assassinations).\n\nThere never was a real civil war because too many supported Hitler and he took over the normal system of government gradually enough that the ones who opposed him could not really do much.",
" > Nazi regime required a long time to set up and reach its full power.\n\nNo, it didn't. \n\nJanuary 30th, 1933: Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Before this, the Nazis never had any government powers.\n\nFeburary 4th, 1933: The [Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the German People](_URL_2_) massively restricted the freedom of the press and demonstrations. Organized resistance was made much harder.\n\nFebruary 28th, 1933: The [Reichstag Fire Decree](_URL_0_) nullified most civil liberties and allowed the Nazis to imprison political enemies, including members of parliament. Resisting the Nazis at this point would get you thrown into prison.\n\nMarch 23rd, 1933: the [Enabling Act](_URL_1_) removed all parliamentary and judicial oversight of the government and rendered the constitution irrelevant. After that, there were no legal limits to what the Nazis could do."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decree_of_the_Reich_President_for_the_Protection_of_the_German_People"
]
] | ||
2jq3d8 | what will happen to the economy as a result of the baby boomers dieing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jq3d8/eli5_what_will_happen_to_the_economy_as_a_result/ | {
"a_id": [
"cle5jne",
"cle5xev",
"cle7c7s",
"cle7s29",
"cle8hpj",
"cle96nf",
"cle9emc",
"cledbf8"
],
"score": [
28,
100,
6,
60,
11,
11,
19,
7
],
"text": [
"Housing prices will plummet as a glut of houses become available. Along with that much of the savings of baby boomers will die off, and the government will attempt to prop this up; lowered interest rates and extending loan terms. Nobody will really believes this sustainable so nobody will buy up the houses, and we will probably have a small recession spanning a decade until things balance out. The idea of housing being an investment is washed away.\n\nThis is a hypothesis of course. There will likely be various progressions in things like 3d printing that may lower the cost of housing long before the boomers begin to sell their property. There could also be external factors such as immigration that could change things.",
"It's not them dying that we really have to worry about. It's the 5-10 years just before that. We consume 80% of the healthcare in our lives in the last few years.\n\nAnd with more and more seniors being supported by fewer and fewer working age individuals, it starts to look vary precarious as to how we fund the whole thing. ",
"statistics from 2012 put the number of baby boomers still alive at 65 million, of a total population of 312 million(2012) or around 20% of the population of the US. history has shown that baby boomers have had a huge effect on pretty much everything in american history since they first came into it, when the baby boomers first showed up there was a huge surge of parks and playgrounds...then they grew up and those became abandoned, then they reached teenage years in the 60's and 70's and became the hippies, in the 80's they were the yuppies. [this chart](_URL_0_) from xkcd shows the effect baby boomers have had on christmas. when you have 20% of a population (more in the past) going through various stages of life all at once it has a profound effect.\n\none area that would suffer dramatically from the loss of the baby boomers would be news organizations, the average age of a fox news viewer is ~65 over 70 for bill o'reily specifically. most news organizations don't fare much better. and of course much of the republican party base is in that same age range so politically the loss of the baby boomers would be substantial. but you didn't ask about political effects or the effects on news organizations but economic.\n\nthe biggest place to get hit will be retirement homes and healthcare. most the baby boomers have long since taken themselves out of the consumer economy, but retirement home, like the playground of their youth, have sprung up to accommodate them and like those playground when they are gone many will have to be shut down. this will mean many people in those places will be put out of jobs. as someone mentioned before for a few years they will be drawing quite a bit from social security and medicare but i disagree that this is a problem (since the money in social security came from those same people who are now drawing it out)\n\nthe death of the baby boomers will impact a few industries but not as all pervasive as if they all died in the 60's, but they will have profound effects in the politics and news.",
"1. The ratio of workers to retirees will drop. Some projections put it at 2 workers to one retiree to support. Taxes will go up\n\n1. Sell off of stocks as retirees start liquidating their assets and moving into more stable footing. This of course will cause a bigger sell off as the market starts dropping. We might be seeing this currently.\n\n1. Suburban housing will open up as seniors have to move to retirement homes/closer to major hospitals. \n\n1. There is the potential for rapid promotion as spots in management chains open up. Unfortunately because so many have put off for retirement there will be a lack of groomed young professionals to fill these positions. There will also be a lot of specific company (read \"tribal\" ) knoweldge lost and new human capital networks will need to form\n\n1. Fox news will die off as the average viewer is above 50.\n\n1. Religious organizations are increasingly dying off even today. This trend will continue\n\n1. There will probably be reform in euthanasia laws\n\n1. Sandwiched between supporting retired parents, a family, and student loans, millennials will be forced to embrace frugality much the way the greatest generation did. \n",
"Since I haven't seen anyone else do it, DYING. NOT DIEING. ",
"Not sure about the economy, but one thing I think... \n\nGet into the trades! Boomers made/make up a lot of those jobs. Want job security? Become a carpenter/plumber/electrician etc.",
"Before they start dying, we'll start to see a lot of openings in upper management of companies as they start retiring. So we've got that going for us, which is nice. ",
"Spelling will no longer be considered an important skill."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://xkcd.com/988/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
1u5wzo | why is today celebrated as "new years day" instead of any other day during the year? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u5wzo/eli5_why_is_today_celebrated_as_new_years_day/ | {
"a_id": [
"ceet0cm",
"ceetfa8"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"It is arbitrary. It just so happens that our calendars put January 1st during this time of year, and we call it the \"New Year.\" There is no scientific or astrological explanation. Most of the world adopted the same calendar to make our lives easier, and so we all celebrate \"New Year's\" on one day.",
"This is what you're looking for:\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar#New_Year.27s_Day"
]
] | ||
4f003r | the gop obsession with ronald reagan. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4f003r/eli5_the_gop_obsession_with_ronald_reagan/ | {
"a_id": [
"d24szx2",
"d24thm5",
"d24tt8o"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"1980: 44/50 states + DC\n1984: 49/50 states + DC\n[Have you seen the greatest positive political ad in US history?](_URL_0_)",
"Ronald Reagan was a very charismatic person and was able to compose a narrative of the greatness of America during a period of economic turmoil and disruption. He was able to use this to attract voters who were traditionally loyal Democrats in very large numbers.\n\nAfter he left office, the Republican party grabbed on to the general good-will people had for Reagan and amplified it. The general thinking is that the more people associate good feelings for Reagan as good feelings for the Republican party generally, the better they would do in elections and they might be able to hold on to these \"Reagan Democrats\".\n\nEither intentionally or not, this meant pulling out Reagan when talking about all sorts of things, but only citing the parts that look good or even wholly misinterpreting his record in order to align better with the desired message. Over time, this repetition has changed the way that people remember Reagan.",
"He was a really good speaker, really well liked and a badly needed breath of fresh air after Ford and Nixon"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://youtu.be/_fy-uhxiXcE"
],
[],
[]
] | ||
3trejw | why do we call the male counterpart to a “widow” a “widower?” the term sounds like “someone who creates widows” rather than a male–gender equivalent. | For that matter, why not just “widow”, or “male widow” if we see a need to clarify? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3trejw/eli5_why_do_we_call_the_male_counterpart_to_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cx8k7sc"
],
"score": [
13
],
"text": [
"In words from Old English, \"-er\" generally indicates \"man who has to do with,\" rather than necessarily someone who sells or produces something. Perhaps it makes more sense when you remember that widowhood was a social status for a person, coming with certain expectations of behavior, and not just the technical state of having a deceased spouse."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
n8int | political corruption | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n8int/eli5_political_corruption/ | {
"a_id": [
"c373e3z",
"c373zbw",
"c373e3z",
"c373zbw"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Not sure exactly what you want here...\n\nHow about, political corruption is where a politician promotes causes for personal benefit rather than the benefit of whoever he is representing. For instance, politicians might take money from the music industry to support censorship laws, so they literally profit rather than defending the rights of the people who voted for them.",
"One way of defining corruption (a little different from inc114's definition) is that corruption is when the way the government actually works is different from the way that it officially should work.\n\nFor example, if the president is supposed to be elected democratically but votes are intentionally not counted accurately, then that is corruption. By this definition, it can go in the way that we don't think about too -- if the leader of the country is legally supposed to be a dictator with absolute power, but he actually has to appease members of some parliament, then that is corruption as well.",
"Not sure exactly what you want here...\n\nHow about, political corruption is where a politician promotes causes for personal benefit rather than the benefit of whoever he is representing. For instance, politicians might take money from the music industry to support censorship laws, so they literally profit rather than defending the rights of the people who voted for them.",
"One way of defining corruption (a little different from inc114's definition) is that corruption is when the way the government actually works is different from the way that it officially should work.\n\nFor example, if the president is supposed to be elected democratically but votes are intentionally not counted accurately, then that is corruption. By this definition, it can go in the way that we don't think about too -- if the leader of the country is legally supposed to be a dictator with absolute power, but he actually has to appease members of some parliament, then that is corruption as well."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
rf14e | how did hezbollah emerge into the group that they are today? | I am writing a paper on the topic and am having a little bit of trouble understanding all of the factors (especially the religious ones) that have gone into creating what Hezbollah is today. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/rf14e/eli5_how_did_hezbollah_emerge_into_the_group_that/ | {
"a_id": [
"c45bjgq"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I found the wikipedia to be pretty informative, but it is indeed complicated. so it started with the Lebanese civil war. The PLO (the displaced Palestinians who are basically all Sunni) had a lot of political power, and when the civil war broke out, the Shi'a community faction was represented by Hizballah against the Sunni PLO. Then Israel invaded, and Hizballah turned their attention to fighting them. So their original intent was as a militant organization, then they slowly morphed into a basically legitimate political organization with seats in parliament, a television station etc.\n\nThe reason people get upset about it, besides the fact that they carry out terrorist activities, is because they are supported/funded by Iran which is Shi'a and Syria, which was/is ruled by the Al-Assad family which is Alawi(te) which is a form of Shi'a Islam. \n\nJust to be clear, in Lebanon there are Sunni Muslims, Shi'a Muslims, Christians, and Druze which are kind of like Muslims in their beliefs, but aren't really part of the Muslim 'community'."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
10jug5 | this whole 'locked in' referee thing | Or maybe explain like I'm British, as that's the reason I don't understand :) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10jug5/eli5_this_whole_locked_in_referee_thing/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6e4c39"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The NFL is trying to change the referee's retirement benefits from a defined benefits plan (pension) to a 401K (where there are no guaranteed benefits and each individual referee contributes to their own individual retirement account). The referees don't like this. Instead of trying to reach an agreement with the referees, the NFL locked them out (prevented them from working) and hired a bunch of replacement referees."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
6fcbkq | why are there new socket types for almost every cpu generation | Is there any benefit to it ? I mean, I get it that CPUs themselves are faster, but does the actual socket (for eg. LGA 1151 vs 1150) offer any additional benefits over its counterpart ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6fcbkq/eli5_why_are_there_new_socket_types_for_almost/ | {
"a_id": [
"dih443d",
"dih8f6m",
"dihl5kk"
],
"score": [
41,
19,
2
],
"text": [
"Modern CPUs have a **lot** of things built into the chip. You've got memory controllers, PCI Express controllers, USB controllers, graphics chips and all sorts of other things. Motherboards need to be designed to interface with all of these things properly. If the chip changes, you need to redesign motherboards & having different pinouts makes sure there's no confusion.\n\nIn years past, when a CPU was just a CPU & the motherboard chipset handled all those other features, it was much easier to share a CPU socket between generations of processors. Back in the Pentium 2/Pentium 3 era, there were several major revisions of the CPU that could all work with the chipsets on *Slot 1* boards and, even after Intel upgraded to *Socket 370*, they were still *logically* identical so a Socket 370 CPU could be put into an adapter board and run in a Slot 1 motherboard without a problem.",
"Consumer friendly design means that if it fits mechanically, it should work electrically. \n\nThere are a few technology improvements between the two devices you mention. The most obvious example: LGA1151 devices support DDR4 memory, while LGA1150 devices do not. Many LGA1151 motherboards only have DDR4 slots. If they allowed LGA1150 devices to fit into a DDR4-only motherboard, a lot of people would end up with a CPU that can't work with their memory and they'll be cursing intel for it.\n\n",
"New CPUs may support new features that older motherboards don't (e.g., DDR4 vs DDR3). If they make it so that the new CPU doesn't fit in the old motherboard, you're forced to get a motherboard for your new CPU. It ensures compatibility."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
26sg0j | the pros & cons of the united kingdom being part of the european union. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26sg0j/eli5_the_pros_cons_of_the_united_kingdom_being/ | {
"a_id": [
"chu169t"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"I'll try and summarise the main arguments of both sides. I'm not saying either argument is valid or invalid and the views here do not reflect my own.\n\nPROS: \n\nTrade with other European countries without restrictive tariffs on imports and exports creates employment and is good for our economy.\n\nLondon is effectively the financial capital of the European Economic Area because it is in the European Union.\n\nWe were able to opt out of things we don't like (having the Euro as our currency, Schengen agreement on border control), \n\nThe UK has a seat at the table of all the big international organisations (EU, NATO, UN Security Council) I think this makes us pretty much unique in terms of international influence.\n\nEU legislation has brought greater rights for working and anti-discrimination laws (some would argue this belongs in the CONs section)\n\nBeing friend with our European neighbours is much nicer than the centuries of bloodshed that preceded it.\n\nUK nationals can work in any EU country without worrying about visas (Free movement of workers). They can even look for work in a country and claim that county's benefits for a limited amount of time.\n\nCONS:\n\nThe EU is a huge bloated organisation that is incredibly inefficient, wasteful and corrupt and costs the British taxpayer £XX billion a year (no idea what the actual number is).\n\nThe main institutions of the EU are not democratic. The one institution that is democratic is a toothless talking shop (the European Parliament).\n\nThe Euro was a complete disaster and we are being asked to bail out countries that have mismanaged their economies (like Greece and Ireland). Why should we when we didn't want the bloody thing in the first place?\n\nEuropean legislation (in some areas) overrides UK legislation. This is a loss of sovereignty. Unelected foreigners are therefore making British law.\n\nThe laws that EU makes are barmy, like regulating how straight bananas should be and classifying snails as 'land-based fishes'.\n\nThe expansion of the EU means that free movement of workers has given millions of East Europeans the right to come and live here and claim our benefits and use our National Health Services. I'm not saying they are all scroungers and organised criminal gangs, but let's face it, a lot of them are.\n\nThe EU has changed immeasurably since the last referendum in the 1970s. Back then, it was a much smaller organisation of 'traditional' European countries like Germany and France. Now its full of swarthy East Europeans. Eurgh.\n\nThe EU is growing increasingly powerful and ambition. Clearly the end game is create an EU superstate to rival America. If that happens, goodbye to British identity. We'll all be speaking German and drinking our beer in half-litre glasses."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
76fcfu | why are chess careers still viable when computers can beat us all at it now? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/76fcfu/eli5_why_are_chess_careers_still_viable_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"dodiwdj",
"dodkbyq"
],
"score": [
18,
3
],
"text": [
"Why do people run track when cars can beat them?\n\nThe point of professional chess never had anything to do with the game having a practical value - it's about watching the best players in the world play the game.",
"Two computers can play a perfect game of chess, no move will be wrong, no piece wasted. And while it sounds great in theory, in practice it ends up being kind of boring to watch because there isn't really competition. The reason why we still watch people play chess is because they aren't perfect. You could argue that, fundamentally, the whole point of games in general is the capitalization of a few mistakes. It the same reason why watching a complete rout in sports isn't as fun either. Too many mistakes and it doesn't feel competitive anymore either. In chess, one persons mistake means that the other player has a chance to use it to their advantage. In the future, you could refine two computers playing to the point that effectively whoever went first would most likely win. Then you could argue that it isn't even a game at that point.\n\nFallibility is what make competition fun. It's why we support underdogs, there is a possibility of an upset. There are tactics, creativity, non-perfect solutions that end up working anyways. That's why chess careers are still valid, because people can mess up, computers probably won't."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
2zmadx | why do dogs act such a way when interacting with a cat? (imgur link) | I know [this](_URL_0_) is not what all dogs do when interacting with cats, but why do they do this in the first place? Like, the head bobbing and odd body movements. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zmadx/eli5_why_do_dogs_act_such_a_way_when_interacting/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpk7pxv",
"cpk7qkj",
"cpk82qn"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I'm not an animal behavioural psychologist or anything, but my guess is he's trying to entice the cat into play fighting with them the way they would with another dog. Pawing at them, exposing their neck, crouching down, rolling over, etc. That combined with being hesitant about hurting it (cause the cats so small) and their previous interactions with the cat make it look so goofy about it. Just imagine the dog thinking \"Come on! Come on wrestle with me. Look how wrestleable I am!\" and it makes a whole lot of sense.",
"I can't speak to the pawing and head bobbing at the start (although I've seen that), but I know that the part at the end, where the dog first tilts his head then lies down and almost shows his tummy, is a submissive display signalling \"I want to play\". Cats do the same thing when they meet another cat they assess as friendly. ",
"He wants to play with the cat but he is afraid of it. The dog has a lot of energy and probably lacks other animals to play with, making him excited. But the cat has probably swatted at him before leaving him deathly afraid.\n\nMy dog totally freezes when my cat attacks her. Wherever she is. Usually upside on the couch. But she will still play with the cat when the cat isn't pissed off, she is just scared of her so she acts hesistant like this. Had the cat never attacked the dog it would probably be much more confident enacting play."
]
} | [] | [
"http://i.imgur.com/xoGSIbM.gifv"
] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
52noyy | how does one get around a patent troll? | Foreword: I read recently that a patent troll is committing "passive murder" by letting insects with diseases infect and kill people around the world, by not letting an insect laser onto the market, by suing anyone who attempts to.
---
If he's a troll residing in the United States, what happens if someone *overseas* tries bringing this to market? They'd be out of said troll's jurisdiction, wouldn't they?
Then once someone successfully starts marketing the insect laser overseas, hopefully we could just order it online to have it shipped to our shores, right?
---
Now, how about if the technology gets changed to help differentiate it enough to not be sue-able?
Example:
* Laser in troll's patent is red? Make the laser green.
* Laser aperture in troll's patent is circular? Make the laser aperture triangular.
* Laser's power in troll's patent is 2 watts? Make it 5 watts.
* Laser's parts in troll's patent come from China? Make the parts come from Mexico.
* Device in troll's patent is powered by AA batteries? Make it powered by AAA batteries.
* Device in troll's patent doesn't have a solar panel? Make it have a solar panel!
* And on & on, to make it as different as possible from the original patent so that the technology being brought to market can't be litigated against. Why hasn't anyone else thought of this already?
His patent-trolling is literally claiming the lives of malaria victims and other victims of insect-borne diseases. He's a "passive murderer." | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52noyy/eli5_how_does_one_get_around_a_patent_troll/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7lqnbu",
"d7ls69j"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Most of the patents involved in these cases are really, really, vague. Like the old one that nearly killed RiM (makers of Blackberry), the patent was basically \"checking email with a phone\". Which is how they operate: have a patent broad enough to apply to an entire industry, then threaten to sue everybody if they don't pay a licensing fee. The fact that they can be so broad, and apply to basic concepts as opposed to actual working processes, is where the problem really lies.",
" > Why hasn't anyone else thought of this already?\n\nPeople have. Those people include the person who filed the patent. Strangely enough, patent lawyers tend to not make patents that are trivial to work around, because that defeats the whole point of a patent."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
2416sd | why does 20 mph in a car feel slow but on a bike or skateboard feel super fast? | I've noticed that on a bike or on a skateboard when I think I'm going fast I'm only going like 20 mph. Why does it feel like I'm crawling in a car at those speeds? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2416sd/eli5_why_does_20_mph_in_a_car_feel_slow_but_on_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch2kljb",
"ch2ne4j",
"ch2tqrw",
"ch2ymsi"
],
"score": [
18,
4,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"A big factor is physical sensation due to wind resistance.",
"I think a lot is also physiological in the sense that when you are in a car doing 20 km/h , you KNOW that it is a bullshit speed and could easily do 100km so it feels much slower.\n\nSame with download speeds, I am sure at some stage when you upgraded your internet a few years ago you were amazed at the speed, like it would only take you 3 hours to download a movie and you were happy with that because you no longer have to leave it on over night. But NOW you can download a movie in 20 minutes which is amazing, but if it was to suddenly go back to taking 3 hours you would flip your shit at how slow it is because you KNOW it can go faster.\n\nOf course wind and shit also has a factor, but also knowing the limits is important too.",
"The physical sensation is dampened while in a modern car. They feel about like sitting on a couch. Also your visual field is limited and you do not see as much change as you approach and pass objects. \n\nTry riding in a go cart sometime they feel faster than they are because you are so close to the ground and notice it passing by. You could try having a friend drive 20 mph and you open your door and look down at the road as it passes by. See if that doesn't make the 20 mph feel faster. \n\nSafety first of course.",
"You are actually [incapable of experiencing the sensation of speed](_URL_0_), if the speed is entirely in a straight line without sideways jolts. If you were in a train car with no windows and a perfectly smooth ride, you would be unable to tell the difference between the train being stopped and moving 100mph. However, rides are often not in a perfectly straight line with no jolts, and, in general, the faster you go (*keeping transportation mode constant*), the bumpier the ride gets. Hence, we use bumpiness as a proxy for the speed of the rider. The assumption is not valid for comparing different modes of transport. Compare 650mph on an airplane to 120mph in a car. \n\n\nThe only part of a car that actually touches the ground is the tires, which first of all are wider and inflated to lower pressure than the wheels of a bike or skateboard. This means that each bump in the road is smoothened out over the whole tire. Next, in a car, an elaborate system of dampening springs takes large jolts from the road and changes them into far smaller jolts on the car's frame. \n\nWe also use noise and pressure of air against our face as a proxy for speed for the same reason. A car is a closed environment. 70mph on a motorcycle feels much faster than in a car for this reason."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_frame_of_reference"
]
] | |
8h50lt | how does my insulin go through my whole body no matter where i inject it (type 1 diabetic) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8h50lt/eli5_how_does_my_insulin_go_through_my_whole_body/ | {
"a_id": [
"dyh4y2i",
"dyh4z3b"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Blood makes a round trip through you body in about 90 seconds. Even subcutaneous injections into fat and muscle make the rounds eventually. ",
"The same way everything is distributed. Blood. Our circulatory system goes almost everywhere in our body. When the blood passes the injection site it dilutes the insulin and brings it everywhere else."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
1qxklb | why are gamma waves and x-rays considered harmful but nobody is concerned about being constantly bombarded by radio waves? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qxklb/eli5_why_are_gamma_waves_and_xrays_considered/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdhidg0"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Energy.\n\nLight waves carry energy depending on their wavelength. Longer wavelength light has less energy.\n\nRadio waves are deep in the infrared spectrum, they're less energetic than visible light and don't carry enough energy to disrupt chemical bonds. The best radio waves can do is shake molecules they hit.\n\nX-rays and gamma rays are powerful enough to start blasting electrons out of molecules. In low doses the damage can cause cancer as DNA molecules accumulate defects.\n\nIn high doses the cells are badly damaged and cease functioning, causing a radiation burn to the affected area."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3egyi6 | why do retired people make more money than me? | Working in a financial industry, I often see the amount and source of individuals' direct deposits. While the amount of retired
individuals' Social Security deposits vary significantly, I often see them getting $2,000 a month or more. Why is this the case,
when I'm only making around $1,800 monthly working full time in some of my prime earning years? Did these people just have very
high incomes during their working life? It's extra troubling since I am not confident at all that Social Security will ever give
me a cent by the time I retire. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3egyi6/eli5why_do_retired_people_make_more_money_than_me/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctetzww",
"cteu15c",
"cteu3qg",
"cteu6ck"
],
"score": [
6,
3,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"$2,000 a month is only $24,000 a year, which is not a shit ton of money. That's like, a bit above minimum wage money. If you're making less than that, it sounds like you're working a minimum wage job.\n\nWell, that, or you're not living in America. ",
"A retired person has often saved up money for 30-40 years, investing and carefully building that reserve of money with the intent that at the time of retirement they'll have a large sum of money that they can live off of.\n\nAlso... 24k a year is a lot to you? That's barely minimum wage. \n\nAs a side note - I highly doubt you work in the financial industry. A) You would make more than $1,800 a week and B) You would understand how retirement works unless you are literally cleaning the toilets.\n\nEdit: This does assume you are working in the US, I'm less knowledgeable about the EU or the rest of the world in regards to this subject... but then again you did give those numbers in $.",
"$1,800 monthly is $21,600/year. Is that really how much you make or are you confusing your take-home pay (after taxes) with your actual salary?\n\nThe U.S. median income is $51,900, or about $4,300/month. It's not at all surprising that someone who made around $50k/year most of their career would collect at least $2,000/month from social security.\n\nIf you're only making $21,600/year, you're making less than half of the U.S. median income, and if you were the sole provider for a family of four, you'd be below the poverty line. You're making barely more than minimum wage, and most people don't survive on just minimum wage.\n\nIf you're in your 20s, you're *not* really in your prime earning years yet. Most people don't make very much money in the first 5 - 10 years of working because they don't have as much skill and experience. If you're 35, you ought to be making more.\n\nAnother point of comparison: the average salary for a high school teacher is $55,000.\n",
"Your prime earning years are likely to be in your fifties, especially for desk jobs like the financial services industry. Social security benefits are based on your top 35 earning years, so the more you make in your career the more you will get with Social Security. \n\nIf you're making $1800 a month in the financi services industry, you are nowhere near your \"prime earning years\"."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
2swhab | why is that top posts on the front page go very high to 10k then drop down to 5-6k in minutes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2swhab/eli5_why_is_that_top_posts_on_the_front_page_go/ | {
"a_id": [
"cntirg9",
"cntjbi4"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I think you might be seeing cross posts. Like it might have 10k on /r/TIFU (the original post) but then 5k on /r/bestof \n",
"They're fake downvotes. Reddit has some algorithm that gives down votes based on up votes to prevent spam and having things stay on the front page for too long or something."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
57cgoq | how do apple maps create 3d models of trees and houses? | I have always wondered how they generate accurate models of basically every building everywhere. I figured that it must be automatically generated but where do they get the data from? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57cgoq/eli5_how_do_apple_maps_create_3d_models_of_trees/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8qrjq5"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"They literally fly over cities, putting the imagery they recorded into a program and it spits out 3D models. It's the same with the newer versions of Google Maps/Earth as well (they used to be CGI models, [example](_URL_0_)). \n \nApple bought C3 technologies, which had models of Vegas, London, etc. when they showcased it at electronic shows, like CES, [here is one of their short interviews](_URL_1_)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2288/2462864799_aff7990b83_o.jpg",
"https://youtu.be/XnWnpZB_s0g"
]
] | |
8jmgly | probably a stupid question, but how is water so good at getting rid of bacteria? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8jmgly/eli5_probably_a_stupid_question_but_how_is_water/ | {
"a_id": [
"dz0pwd7",
"dz0q3sz"
],
"score": [
4,
12
],
"text": [
"It's not. What gave you that impression?",
"It's actually... not. Many bacteria survive just fine in water, since they are 70% made of water (just like you and about any cell).\nWhat water actually CAN reduce is the amount/concentration of bacteria. Suppose you have 100 soccer balls on a surface, and you flush the place. Now the water will flush away maybe 90 of them, leaving 10. Now you do it again, and you are left with 1. \nReduce the number of bacteria, and your bodies' defense mechanisms are sufficient to deal with them. \nThe reason we wash our hands with water is not because it's good at getting rid of bacteria, but because it is the most easily available liquid. Washing is just a fancy word for \"reducing the concentration/amount of something unwanted\". Many others are better at getting rid of bacteria (e.g. alcohol, which kills the bacteria), but those are also more expensive and also not so good for your skin as water. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
4s4869 | how mercator projections are better for navigation than other projections (like equal area projections)? | I've read that although the Mercator Projection distorts the relative size of continents, it is still used for navigation.
What would the same plotted course look like on the Peter's Projection versus the Mercator Projection? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4s4869/eli5_how_mercator_projections_are_better_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"d56e3ds",
"d56e3ny",
"d56e7hz",
"d56vf6l",
"d5910o7"
],
"score": [
29,
6,
125,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"If you distort the continents to preserve accuracy in lines of latitude/longitude, you've preserved the important elements you need for navigation. It doesn't matter if the continents are the exact shape as you'd see them from space, all that matters is that the lines you're using to navigate are accurate.",
"The Mercator projection is the unique projection that maps bearings/compass directions to lines.",
"The Mercator projection preserves angles in a way that navigation paths are shown as straight lines. \n\nThat makes it very practical for navigation: measure the angle on the map, take course on that direction, and you will arrive to your destination.\n\nPreserving angles also makes the Mercator projection to preserve local aspect ratios. That means that although landmasses appear deformed if they are too far apart (Greenland is actually as \"tall\" as Australia, not as big as Africa), they tend to appear with more or less the correct shape themselves. This is the reason why Google maps uses the Mercator projection.",
"You can't really plot anything on a Gall-Peters projection; it's good for showing people roughly where stuff is (though it still distorts some landmasses quite badly, as do all projections) but useless for actual navigation. ",
"The Mercator projection is fantastic at latititudes between 0-65 degrees North and South, which is also where the vast majority of navigation is done at sea. For the more extreme latitudes different projections are used to make for safer navigation.\n\nThe Mercator projection has a few qualities that make it great for navigation:\n\nRhumb lines are straight, making a distance between two points on the globe one straight heading.\n\nThe projection remains orthomorphic, that is the true angles of land are represented.\n\nLines of latitude and longitude are both straight and perpendicular to each other.\n\nAll of these are useful for the vast majority of navigation at sea, and thus the Mercator projection is by far the most common and most well known chart projection in use."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
9s9bjy | how tv shows plan what’s going to be on when/when to put in commercials. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9s9bjy/eli5_how_tv_shows_plan_whats_going_to_be_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"e8n5b0b"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Syndicated reruns are all timed for a certain number of commercial minutes.\n\nSyndicated reruns will even go so far as to cut or shorten scenes in order to make room for more commercials. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
f5arcn | what stops a computer game from cheating when you play against the computer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f5arcn/eli5_what_stops_a_computer_game_from_cheating/ | {
"a_id": [
"fhxio5x",
"fhxiuje",
"fhxjefd",
"fhxk7ls",
"fhxl2z2",
"fhxn7te",
"fhy2pmd"
],
"score": [
3,
10,
7,
3,
10,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"The game programmers want their game to be fun. If they let the game cheat it would just be frustrating.",
"The person(s) that made the game stops the game cheating, or inversely makes the game cheat. The game won't do anything it is not programmed to do, it is a slave to it's programming. A computer won't suddenly decide to cheat just because it's losing, it will only cheat when told to cheat. \n\nGames don't have a legal requirement to be fair, and sometimes fair is boring. If a game designer thinks that having the computer cheat makes for a more entertaining experience for the player then there is nothing physically stopping him from programming the game to cheat.",
"The programmers who design the AI purposefully program if and how much it cheats. If they make the AI use its perfect knowledge to always beat the player, the game is no fun when the players realize it is impossible to win. So the programmers purposefully limit the AI. If there's some kind of fog of war or unknown area, they can program it to only use what it would see if it were a player. If accuracy is part of the game, they'll add a randomizer which can purposefully make a percentage of shots inaccurate. If a game with turns, it will only be able to look ahead a certain number of moves. Some games do allow the AI to cheat to some degree though, but it's usually some setting you the player can choose if you want to make the game harder. But in general a well-designed game will never have the AI be so good that it can't be defeated.",
"Because they are not programmed to? The \"AI\" in traditional computer games is actually not an AI but just a lot of 'if this do that'. They aren't sentient or anything, so if there is no 'if losing badly, cheat' programmed in they won't.\n\nAs far as I remember StarCraft II actually had some difficulty levels where the computer actively cheats. The programmers gave them full vision of the map at all times meaning there is much more information to base the next move on. But these next moves are based on complex sets of algorithms, not a sentient AI.",
"Literally nothing.\n\nA game developer could make their AI as cheaty as possible, since it's part of the game's code itself. Of course, to make a fun and fair game, you would want the AI to follow the rules, lol.",
"The developer. Most AIs cheat by default, like using \"map hacks\" and such but their behavior is dumbed down based on difficulty. Reason is because it's easier to program with the AI sees all instead of having to constantly adjust based on feedback loops.",
"Often, the game actually *does* cheat when you play against the computer. It does this to simulate difficulty, since an AI cannot make as advanced or unpredictable moves as a real person. For example, the bots in Overwatch basically have an aimbot. AIs are cheating by default, but the programmers write extra code to simulate stupidity so that they aren't always winning. For example, in League of Legends, the AI opponents leave time between using abilities and making attacks, when a real player would use their abilities in much faster succession."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
1lcz4g | why can 60 degrees feel so different in my car with/without the air conditioning on? | For example: My car has a button you push to turn on the "air conditioning". Why does the air feel so hot when it's only 60 degrees without the button pressed for a/c, but when i press the a/c button 60 degrees magically feels ice cold. 60 degrees should feel like 60 degrees no matter what, no? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lcz4g/eli5_why_can_60_degrees_feel_so_different_in_my/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbxznjk"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"AC also dries out the air, which allows your sweat to evaporate more quickly, which then cools you off faster."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
3uezb8 | why might a city, state, etc. decided to build a tunnel instead of a bridge and vice versa? | On my way back from Thanksgiving dinner I had to drive through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and was just curious why some places are tunnels and why some are bridges. Is it a financial issue? Logistical issue? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3uezb8/eli5_why_might_a_city_state_etc_decided_to_build/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxeasef",
"cxeayep"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel was designed so that the shipping lane would remain open, where a bridge would have limited access for large tankers or merchant ships.",
"A lot of factors play a role, practicality is the usual culprit. If you cannot expand out, or up, you can only go down or around. A Tunnel is not as affected by weather. In the case of the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, I make the assumption that wind, rain, and current played a large factor in that decision. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
2gmr2j | - if i was american, homeless, broke, and diagnosed with a serious illness...would i get treatment without insurance? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gmr2j/eli5_if_i_was_american_homeless_broke_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckkkz01",
"ckkl30e"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"If you show up at the emergency room and have a serious problem they are required to treat you. While you were there they would probably assign you a social worker to examine your situation and maybe try to set you up with medicaid or some other low cost health plan. ",
"Treatment for chronic illness like cancer? no. Treatment for a temporary emergency like a broken bone or pneumonia? yes. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
3xasce | what are qubits/quibits? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xasce/eli5_what_are_qubitsquibits/ | {
"a_id": [
"cy30qgy"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"_URL_2_\n\n_URL_4_\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_3_\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3okhza/eli5_if_a_qubit_can_have_multiple_spin_states_but/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hi8kk/eli5_how_does_a_quantum_computer_collapse_into/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zjpg3/eli5_how_are_qubits_... | ||
4uwikc | what happens to all the caffeine, nicotine, ibuprofen, anti-depressants, etc, in your blood when you give a blood donation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4uwikc/eli5_what_happens_to_all_the_caffeine_nicotine/ | {
"a_id": [
"d5tepr5",
"d5teqm5"
],
"score": [
2,
12
],
"text": [
"They are still there. That is why you are required to disclose all your medication information when making donations. It can limit or even prevent the use of anything you donate, at least as far as actually being given to another person. It might still be valid for medical research. Disclosing some other information, like that you took an illegal drug, will probably stop them from letting you donate at all that day, as well as probably blacklist you from there out.\n\nThey also test your blood and plasma rigorously so even if you don't tell them about something, they are going to find out.",
"They get passed right along to the next person. In the grand scheme of things, your blood donation is quite small compared to the amount of blood in the recipient's body, so those extra things should have a small effect. \n\nOn the other hand, all American blood donation venues require you to list all the drugs you've been on, and I'm pretty sure anti-depressants is one of the red flags. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.