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4beqer | on what principles the romans and other early civilisations based their structural engineering without any sort of newtonian physics and what are the basic mathematical tools / thinking methods used which allow you to build basilicas, bridges, temples, aqueducts? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4beqer/eli5_on_what_principles_the_romans_and_other/ | {
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"Custom and practice.\n\nIf you build it and it falls down, you do it again differently. When it works, you keep it like that. That, and people weren't stupid or uneducated - the Greeks were fairly capable mathematicians, as were the Egyptians ",
"A combination of trial and error and over-engineering. Modern structural engineering calculations are aimed at making the most efficient use of material, which has the side effect of allowing buildings to be built that previously would have been considered too flimsy. "
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2bhnch | why does windows use file extensions everywhere (like .exe or .txt) and linux usually doesn't need them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bhnch/eli5_why_does_windows_use_file_extensions/ | {
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" > The UNIX-like filesystems use a different model without the segregated extension metadata. The dot character is just another character in the main filename, and filenames can have multiple extensions, usually representing nested transformations, such as files.tar.gz. Programs transforming or creating files may add the appropriate extension to names inferred from input file names (unless explicitly given an output file name), but programs reading files mostly ignore the information; it is foremost intended for the human user. This model generally requires the full filename to be provided in commands, where the metadata approach often allows the extension to be omitted.\n\nthey don't need extensions in filename, because it's sort of coded into the file.",
"Linux does use file extensions to help categorize some files. But extensions don't have special properties like in Windows.\n\nIn Windows, the only way that the operating system knows that a file is supposed to be executable is by the extension -- like exe, or com, or bat. These extensions tell the OS that this isn't just a file, it's a program.\n\nLinux (and all other Unix derivatives), on the other hand, have what's called an 'execute permission' in the directory entry for that file. So it doesn't matter what the extension is -- if the execute bit is set in the directory information for that file, the OS knows that it's a program and can try to run it.",
"Technically windows doesn't need file extensions either, but it does make things simpler - windows simply looks at the extension to know what program to send that file to.\n\nIn UNIX OSs they use something called a [magic number](_URL_0_) at the start of the file that identifies what kind of file it is - from there it knows exactly what the content is regardless of the name, and can send it to any program that handles that format. The disadvantage here however is that it has to read the first few bytes of every file it sees to check what the magic number is.\n\nThe reason certain types (ie. txt, html, xml) still need extensions on UNIX OSs is because they're all text - and text files both have no magic number associated, and each of those are all the same data format (plain text) but have different functions."
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5a6joe | how did game developers decide that an "s" rank would be what you get after you score an a rank? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5a6joe/eli5_how_did_game_developers_decide_that_an_s/ | {
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"It's just a tradition that goes all the way back to the old nintendo and sega consoles. \"S\" meant \"super\" or \"superior\". ",
"IIRC it has to do with the Japanese system. They consider a higher grade than we do to be a failing grade, but they still needed more symbols to convey when something was great. Since changing the scale wouldn't eliminate its stimga (like if a D were a great grade all of a sudden, people still wouldn't want it because of the emotional weight it's had), they added another rank on top.",
"This is what I could find: _URL_0_\n\nThe earliest usage of an S rank in video games seems to be in The King of Fighters '94. Supposedly comes from \"special\", in which case the usage predates video games in Japan where it has been used first as special class of seating, and then later between 1940-1992 in the classification system of alcohol where 特級 (special grade) was the highest grade."
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2lia0b | when cloning an animal (let's say a dog), how much of that cloned animal is exactly the same as the original animal? | Like looks, personality, habits, etc. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lia0b/eli5_when_cloning_an_animal_lets_say_a_dog_how/ | {
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"this is hard to answer as this argument deals with the whole nature vs nurture debate. \n\nlooks wise, they will look the same baring some environmental disaster. personality/habits would also depend on how they were raised. ",
"Behaviors are not all genetic, many are formed through experiences. If you took two genetically identical dogs and left one with an animal abuser, one with a loving family, the first might end up being far more timid or aggressive than the second. That has nothing to do with genes. ",
"Essentially, a clone of an animal is the same thing as an identical twin. 100% match genetically, but everything else is a wildcard. \n\nAnything that is directly genetically controlled will be the same, such eye or fur color. \n\nAnything that is affected by environment, habits, temperament, coat quality, size, health, etc... Will be up to chance essentially.",
"So most of the responses assume one hundred percent genetic identity. I think this is wrong. One cloning technique is Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, so basically the nucleus of a cell is inserted into an egg cell. The resulting organism will have the mitochondria of the mother of the egg cell and not the mitochondria of the line that it came from.\n\nThis can lead to some differences. At least some scientists have suggested that this is one of the problems with cloning (the lack of match)\n\nMost of our DNA is in our nucleus, but each of our mitochondria (which is the powerhouse of the cell) has it's own DNA. It is a little inaccurate to say that such a clone would be genetically identical to the original. The differences in mitochondria can be important.\n\nThere is of course also developmental issues as well which many people in thread talk about.",
"Well, it depends on the dog. Grossly, probably pretty similar. \n\nIf the coat color was solid, then it would probably have the same coat color. But if it was a pattern, the exact pattern would be different. Also, point mutations in individual follicles would create those odd mis-colored hairs in a completely different patterns in either case.\n\nIf you have a breed that can have either floppy or straight ears, what you end up having could be of a different type in your clone than the parent. This is because ear shape isn't directly controlled by gene(s), rather in the level of hormone expression during development Environmental factors during development can alter hormone levels and you could end up with entirely different ears.\n\nBehavior, temperament, personality - total crap shoot. All tings being equal they may come out very similar, but even identical twins can have radically different personalities from day 1, to say nothing about how experiences may change such traits as the animal experiences life.\n"
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8pq2l5 | why do recent scratches, cuts, scrapes, etc. sting/burn when in warm water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8pq2l5/eli5_why_do_recent_scratches_cuts_scrapes_etc/ | {
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"Because the subcutaneous (under the skin) nerves are more exposed, and are more sensitive without their layer of defense anymore.",
"As /u/Draeon143 said, the reason is that once you have scraped off the outer layer of skin (the barely living keratinized cells that effectively waterproof the rest of our epidermis), the regular skin cells and nerve endings below are exposed.\n\nBut the reason why dipping an exposed wound in water actually hurts is because of the missing waterproofing. Our cells have a certain salt concentration within them. If you expose them to water with a lower salt concentration, the water from outside will come in through channels called 'aquaporins' to try to equalize the salt concentration. (I'm sure you've heard of osmosis.) The cells will expand and eventually burst due to osmotic pressure.\n\nIf you wash out the wound with an isotonic saline solution (roughly 300 milliOsmoles) you won't feel a thing.\n\nAs for why warm hurts more than cold, it's because there is a temperature-sensitive pain receptor (or a pain-sensitive temperature receptor; we don't really know) called TRPV1 in your nerve endings. This is the same channel that is activated by capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers. Try rubbing a chili pepper on your intact fingertip vs an open wound for an unforgettable demonstration of this. It's also activated by alcohol, so if you still don't understand, pour some rum over it.",
"Damaged skin is more sensitive to stimuli. This is a protective measure your body takes to ensure you don't keep damaging the hurt area, to allow for healing. \n\nThats why when you lightly touch your wound it hurts a lot, while undamanged skin wouldn't hurt. \n\nAlso, heat contains energy and is a stimuli that excites the neurons, which triggers pain center. Pain exists to stop you from damaging your tissues. "
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1mtj3n | how come i can fall asleep nearly instantly in a school lecture when i'm trying to pay attention, but toss and turn when in a comfy bed and trying to sleep? | Edit: looks like this blew up overnight... whilst I was sleeping. I'm reading through the answers now. Lots of good information here on sleep hygiene, not so much on the topic of how its so easy to fall asleep in a hard chair. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mtj3n/eli5_how_come_i_can_fall_asleep_nearly_instantly/ | {
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"I too would like an answer to this. I suck at sleeping.",
"I'm guessing you have poor sleep habits, and stay up late and do not get enough sleep when you should. It happens to a lot of people.",
"Seeing as nobody here, including myself, has a decent answer, I would try /r/askscience.",
"Aside from poor sleep habits, concentrating intensely for an extended period of time will make you sleepy. Maybe try concentrating harder when you want to go to sleep by reading something kind of boring but challenging. ",
"It's evolutionary; our ancient ancestors did not really have to worry about avoiding predators or catching prey while in class, so they could use that time to sleep. Nighttime is dangerous because of nocturnal shit, so they had to be vigilant for that. At least that's what I tell myself to get rid of my shame as I habitually browse reddit at midnight.\n\n",
"Think of folks like me who are on the other side. I add jokes, real examples and try to ask the students question to keep it interactive and such. But still see at least 4 or 5 in deep sleep. Some with even their mouths open. I have heard a thud when someone's head hits the desk and such. I only teach parttime and sometimes I question myself for even doing this. :)\n\nThis being a ELI5 thread, I would like to hear how to help from the other side.",
"put simply: because you hate school lectures.\nyour brain is trying its best to relieve you of the stress involved with an undesirable use of time.",
"I struggled with this for years. Now I work in a 20 minute nap at lunch (try the library) , and stand at the back of the room if I'm desperate. ",
"This is most likely due to several factors converging.\nTo rectify this, there are several things you can do.\n\nFirst, try to ensure that you set aside at least 9 hours to sleep every night. Most people need at least 8, 9 if you are a teenager. Many sleep specialists speculate that there is such a thing as a \"sleep debt,\" meaning that if you do not get enough sleep for a certain period of time, you will need to make up for some of this lost sleep before you can return to what will become your normal cycle.\n\nSecond, try to avoid having any kind of stimulants after mid day. This will ensure that your mind and body are not artificially awakened when it is time for you to sleep. \n\nThird, try to avoid light exposure for around 30 minutes before you try to sleep. This particularly includes electronic screens. This will likely be the hardest part, but it can make the biggest difference too. You could try brushing your teeth in relative darkness for starters. \n\nFourth, establish a routine that takes you are 15-30 minutes to complete, and do this exactly the same every night before you try to sleep.\n\nfifth, do nothing in your bed but sleep. This, coupled with number four will train your mind and body to fall asleep when you want them to rather than when they want to.\n\nsixth, keep your room as dark as possible. The sun should be completely blocked out and if possible, there should be no ambient light sources in your room left on throughout the night. This reenforces the biological tendency to sleep during the night and wake during the day. Your brain has a tendency to start moving towards \"sleep mode\" when it is dark, and \"wake mode\" when it is light. \n\nseventh, keep your room slightly cool. Your body does not like to go to sleep when it is too warm. \n\neighth, avoid using sleep aides more than once or twice a month. These often induce a sleep like state rather than true sleep, and can make it nearly impossible to get good sleep again if you become addicted. \n\nThat should get you started. If you still find yourself having problems perhaps you should consult the internet for more suggestions. \n\nAlso, for anyone that is interested, the TED talk bellow details most of the information I just went over. It also talks about some other things to do with sleep and is quite fascinating. \n\n_URL_0_\nThat should get you started. ",
"When is this class lecture (time of day). If it's right after lunch, good luck learning anything. A high calorie food diet/ lunch in general makes people sleepy. Is the class in the early morning, did you not get 8 hours of sleep? Did you just answer yes to both of these? then it's too early, and you're not sleeping enough/ the coffee you should be drinking hasn't kicked in yet. Is it at night, after a long day of work, ya you're fucked here too. \n\nAs for the tossing and turning. Do you give yourself a hour of no computer, no T.V., no Cell Phone before trying to sleep? If no, I suggest you start. If yes, perhaps read a different book, a more boring book. T.V., Computers, Phones, all stimulate your body in a similar way that cocaine stimulates us. If you want to sleep, un-plug for an hour at least before going to bed. Also do not sit in your bed, before going to bed. Your brain adopts trends, and if you lay in bed to relax, it won't recognize your bed as a place of rest, unless otherwise exhausted. If you read out in your living room, then go to your room when you're absolutely ready for bed, this will help establish your room as a place of rest.\n\nTo fight the effects of tiredness, 8 hours of sleep (no more, no less, though 7 will do, but just barely) is a must.\n\nSource: Because I know a thing or two. Challenge me, I dare you.\n\nP.S. if alllllll else fails, drink two beers. You'll pass out soon, two beers is just enough to make you tired, without ruining your next day. 2 beers in one hour might I add, for the technical.",
"My psychology professor always explained this as your [Circadian Rhythm](_URL_0_), or \"Biological Clock\", resetting throughout the day. ",
"Anxiety. You have trouble trying to go to sleep for the night because your mind is busy with thoughts about the day to come, but in class you easily fall asleep because your mind is not busy thinking about other things and you're completely relaxed.\n",
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but what OP is really asking is why its so easy to fall asleep during class, but that same intense drowsiness so quickly dissipates when out of class and is so difficult to regain whilst actively trying to sleep. All of the advice on a sound sleep schedule is nice but I think you're missing the essence of the question. A theory I've heard is that it is because your brain tries to put you to sleep during undesirable uses of time (i.e. waiting in line, in a cubicle at your dead end job, and evolutionarily speaking, at night during non-optimal hunting/gathering times). when you regain the ability to do the things you want to do, you regain the energy to do so. As for the part about not being able to sleep at night: actively trying to fall asleep creates stress from the inability to do so. You have a goal/desirable use of time , so you have the energy to try to carry out this goal. Unfortunately the goal and the means of achieving it are at odds with each other. Instead, think about how comfortable you are, the softness of the pillow, the fabric of the blankets, boring things which do not create a desire to achieve something but rather put your brain in a sort of auto-pilot where it is only perceiving vs. actively creating. It's kind of like staring at a campfire. The brains goes on auto pilot because it is only perceiving, it is not creating any new thoughts and it does not lead to any urges for any other activity. With no task at hand that can presently be worked on, the brain tries to put you to sleep until the time comes when you can work towards those goals/desires/urges, whatever you want to call them.\n",
"ITT- nothing to answer the question.\n\nI have no knowledge except experience- I do a lot of driving, I do a lot of boring things, I have spent much time counteracting this phenomenon so I don't die.\n\nWhen it comes to sleep, circadian rhythms are paramount. I am willing to bet that the days you fall asleep in class, you didn't sleep well the night before. Further- if you did, I'm willing to bet you woke up sleepy and had to work through classes. \n\nSleepiness is a hormonal matter- dopamine, adrenaline, melatonin, cortisol.\n\nDopamine comes from achieving awards. Adrenaline counteracts melatonin. If you could see their CAT scans, would you still see it g ",
"If by nearly instantly you mean within 1 minute then you might have narcolepsy... If you meant within 10-15 minutes then because you focus on someone's voice, which tends to be at a fairly slow pace, and your heart rate often slows down to match a repetitive noise. Ever drive on a road where every half a second there is some sort of slight bump on the road? You get a similar thing where you notice yourself phasing out a bit. Classical music which has too many impulses has a similar effect again, the impulses act as a metronome and your heart rate, or breathing, slows down to match it.\n\nDepends on what the class is, try to not focus on the words being said, but the concepts. That way you bring your attention AWAY from the repetitive noise which is putting you to sleep, and you (hopefully) engage your brain. You may need to try taking notes in a different manner (I used about 10 different colored pens to get me through some of my less interesting classes).\n\nAs to when you are in your comfy bed: your brain spent the last 12 hours (or more) being active in coming up with ideas and remembering things. The brain often does not simply switch OFF when the input stops, it keeps doing what it did before. It is a good thing to have some transition time where your brain begins to slow down and you can enjoy being comfy, the problem is that when you are already in bed your brain is still in a very active mode and YOU need to create the transition from active to sleep mode. Perhaps something similar to turning off the lights in your room then stretching for 5-10 minutes while focusing on the feeling of muscles stretching and your breathing. The stretching might bring together physical activity and the mind (think yoga) to distract the brain from being active and force it into a much less active state, after which point you are already more than halfway to a sleep mode instead of active mode mentally. A cold (ice in the tub) bath supposedly works, if you can handle it. I have yet to try it... At any rate, your brain needs some form of a transition from daily life to sleep mode, you can try using a metronome or white noise to have the effect your teachers are having on your now if you like.",
"No one can answer this definitively afaik (we really know fuck all about sleep except that it's a thing we do), but imo it's likely due to attention and sensory input.\n\nAttention is like a mental spotlight that can be focused internally (ie on your own thoughts) or externally. When deprived of outside input and focused internally, this can potentially lead to heightened mental activity and sleeplessness. However 'monotonous' outside input for the mind to focus on sometimes lets it drift into a relaxed, less alert state more easily. This is why some people find white noise machines help them to sleep.\n\n'Trying to pay attention' is probably giving your mind a nice, non-stressful task that's the right mix of distracting and boring to fall asleep.",
"Depends when your classes are too. Your body's cortisol levels are the lowest around 3 or 4 pm, which make you feel sleepy. They peak around 3 or 4 am so if you go to sleep late (well, early am), then you will actually feel more awake because cortisol is one of the primary hormones that wakes you up! ",
"Use your class to your advantage! Instead of counting the sheep that you would like to poke, picture your professor giving instructions in his monotone voice.",
"[Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder](_URL_0_)",
"You are tossing and turning at night because you have a sleep disorder. Something is waking you up.....could be PLMs or most likely, you are snoring with sleep apnea. snoring/sleep apnea can and does wake someone from sleep hundreds of times a night...the wake ups could be really short (10 to 30sec) and you would not remember them.....but it does wake you up.....and when it does, this takes you from a deeper stage of sleep, back to stage one sleep....you need the deeper stages of sleep, and enough of it, to feel refreshed during the day. You body needs that sleep and if you keep kicking your self out of a deeper sleep...and back to stage one sleep, then you will have a sleep debt. So, instead of first falling asleep......spending a minute or two in stage one....then going to the necessary stages of sleep and spending most of the night in the necessary stages....you keep going back to wake, stage one....stage two, back to one, then stage two, stage three....then bam.....a loud snort.....that wakes you, then back to stage one again........remember, the sleep debt is causing you to be sleepy during the day.....you can have normal sleep without any sleep disorder....but if you limit your sleep to only six hours or less......that's not enough.....you are going to get a sleep debt...and that means....you will be sleepy during the day....",
"victor frankl: paradoxical intent\n",
"Question: How often do you feel clear in your head as soon as you wake up in the morning? or after you wake up from sleep at any time?\n\n\nIf you don't feel the clear in your head, that means your mind didn't get enough rest and so your mind and body will feel tired. In this case, you won't notice the tiredness your body/mind has while doing anything remotely interesting or very less energy demanding(like walking, talking to friends, etc). However, as soon as your mind/body requires more energy, i.e. either when you need more concentration or when you need more energy(like to run), you will suddenly feel tired all of a sudden. When you don't have good sleep, your body/mind can stay only in the mid zone when there is at least some excitement, but not a lot. During boring lectures, the excitement is zero, so you'll notice the tiredness. Even if you try to up your excitement by paying more attention, your mind can't concentrate and hence you will feel dizzy and want to rest. All this while, your mind/body was tired, but it will ignore it until the activity is 0 or more than normal. See [this crude drawing](_URL_0_) to see what I mean. Without good sleep, your mind and body will co operate as long as they are in the green or yellow zone(or as long as the activity is amusing either to the brain or your body). The moment you enter red zone, you feel sleepy.\n\n\nOn the other hand, when you had a good sleep and feel the clear in your head in the morning, your mind and body will both be willing to spend extra concentration/energy to keep you up. So, try to get good sleep. At least in the beginning, you won't get good sleep immediately, but keep trying and one day when you wake up in the morning, you will feel clear in your head. You will see for yourself that you will be active that day and it will be hard to fall asleep even in a boring lecture. With good sleep your mind and body can afford the red zone. Not only that, your enjoyment in yellow and green levels are enhanced.\n\n\nFor the second part, why you can't slip back to sleep at nights, there could be many reasons. These are the ones I could gather.\n\n* Sleep is not just a body thing. It is both a body and a mind thing. That is, both your body and mind need to rest at the same time. If you keep thinking, you can't sleep. If you have discomfort or pain even if you have no thoughts, you can't fall asleep. You'll need your body to relax consciously while avoiding thought. It might surprise you tonight, but tonight(or the next time you can't fall asleep) triple check if your body is really relaxing when you go to bed. i.e. see if the blood flow is normal and if your body feels light. If you observe some discomfort, then your body isn't really relaxing. So, shutting your brain down doesn't really mean you will have a good night's sleep, your body needs to relax too.\n* I have read that some people tend to feel stronger(or energetic) at night than in the morning(I used to have this feeling). This feeling will not let you sleep at night as you can't turn off your brain and your body won't feel like relaxing either. So, you'll spend all your energy trying to shut them down, falling asleep some time during midnight and not in a relaxed manner, and hence waking up with less sleep than required. So, you drag'll yourself through the day like a zombie(not clear in the head and not able to tolerate calmness or high energy demand). By next night, you feel more energetic at night and it becomes a habit even before you realize. This is a cycle and it all starts one night when you sleep late and wake up early and continue to do so. If you can break that cycle and give your body a good night's sleep, you'll feel clear all day. But remember, it takes just one night to break or make this cycle too, the choice is yours.\n\nThere are a lot of scientific explanations about REM sleep, deep REM sleep, waking during REM sleep,Circadian rhythm etc. and tips like don't drink coffee before sleep, keep your bed only for sleeping, don't exercise before sleeping, keep your room cool, etc. etc. etc. They are all important and will help you get a good night's sleep. But to me, what's more important is that if you don't have a good night's sleep you can't enjoy the day. No matter how much you accomplish or don't, you can't feel the life around you if you don't have a good night's sleep.",
"To help you sleep:\n\nMake a list of things to do the next day, so you can close today's chapter. ",
"I don't know about you but I had the same problem which turned out to be two separate problems and this one might or might not be of any help to you.\n\nI got rid of falling asleep in school resp. university lectures after I got glasses. I never really had the feeling that my vision was bad, but it turned out that I have astigmatism and with getting older my eyes had more and more difficulties in compensating this. After wearing glasses for 18 years now my eyes are not able to compensate it any more. I also have problems with accommodation maybe due to latent strabismus which makes looking during lectures even more exhausting since you have to switch between looking far and close all the time.\nThe next factor was that I did not get enough sleep at night, a problem which I still fight with, but over the years I managed to find out some factors and if I do it right I have no problems falling asleep.\n\nSo if I work out regularly, don't have my last meal too late, don't eat too fat and too much in the evening and don't drink coffee or black tea after 5am I normally have no trouble to fall asleep. Also not staying at the computer until 2am helps a lot to get enough sleep at night.",
"The reason you can't sleep at night - like the rest of us - is because we're all here, on the Internet, looking at shit that we really shouldn't bother with.",
"My doctor explained it to me like this. In those states of boredom such as in class your brain is not stimulated and thus wants to fall asleep. While in bed, lets say you were just on xbox or your computer doing something you enjoy. Now your brain is stimulated and if you try to sleep after that it takes a long time before you can actually calm down and sleep. \n\nMy Doctor told me that instead of giving me sleeping pills. Needless to say I don't like her very much.",
"I've found that listening, but not necessarily watching some video on your phone while in bed makes me shift my focus from trying to sleep to trying to listen the video and boom, im asleep!",
"School jacks you off with knowledge. ",
"You need to exercise.",
"You didn't sleep well, so your body tries to make up for it elsewhere.\n",
"Scumbag brain: \"fuck you, that's why\"",
"Dude, I had the same problem, which led me to fail a few classes in college and put my future at risk. \n\nTurns out I have moderate to severe ADHD - I was diagnosed this summer and put on meds, holy shit I didn't know I could focus like I do.\n\nSo yeah... maybe you have ADHD?",
"Trick is, bring a cot and try to get some good sleep while in a lecture. Some may doubt my methods, but this works for me.",
"This was all of high school for me. The answer for me was straightforard: anxiety.\n\nAnxiety floods your body with hormones that are designed to help you evolutionarily if, say, you were running from a bear. This is what keeps you awake at night. When in classs trying to listen to something, your thoughts are focused on that. Instead of your mind running wild, it chills out, and the drowsiness from the lack of sleep finally hits you. When you get home and its just you and your thoughts, with nothing to focus on or distract you, all those hormones hit you and your adrenaline spikes again.\n\nAs others have mentioned, what helps me sometimes is listening to a lecture, podcast, talk show etc or something like that while trying to go to sleep. The same effect as what happens in class can happen and youll feel drowsey, as you should, and fall asleep.",
"There are too many variables to diagnose you without a proper sleep study. However many people drink too much and don't get enough exercise. ",
"As a college professor, let me just mention how soul-crushing it is to see the odd student deep asleep in the middle of one of my lectures.",
"jeeze, there really just needs to be an /r/whycantisleep",
"*this just in:* ELI5's most asked question strikes again!",
"Pro-tip: Record your lectures and listen to them in bed. ",
"Will-Power is a muscle. When you are trying to concentrate and focus on the teacher it is expending enormous amounts of will-power energy. Just staying in your seat during a lecture that isn't wildly engaging is expending willpower energy. This tires you out. It is called ego depletion. There is a limited amount of will-power. Once you have used it up you can't just \"will\" more because you need it so your body gets fatigued as you try to force it to \"pay\" attention. \n\nThere are some things that suck up more \"attention energy\" like video games, or almost any \"screen time\". That's why you feel hungover after hours on reddit :)\n\nStart your day conscious of the tasks that will require will-power and decision making energy. Limit those types of activities if you know you will have to \"pay-attention\" later. Sit by yourself at lunch in a quiet place instead of a noisy room with people you can barely tolerate. Don't spend lunch doing things that are stimulating like gaming, or reading something really interesting. Figure out what refreshes you, a walk outside, prayer, meditation, music while laying in the sun etc. Intersperse the times of intense concentration with the things that refuel your decision making energy.\n\nMake as many decisions ahead of time for the day. What you are going to eat, what you are going to wear etc. So you don't spend 10 min deciding what to eat.\n\nHope this helps.",
"School is boring."
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dg948h | how does a single cell multiply into exact copies of itself yet somehow knows to start building into different body parts? they are all in the same environment with the same dna yet behave differently. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dg948h/eli5_how_does_a_single_cell_multiply_into_exact/ | {
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"Each cell has all the DNA, however based on external signals the cell activates certain enzymes that read specific DNA to become whichever organ. \n\nTheoretically, you can introduce a reading enzyme from a liver cell to a heart cell and that enzyme will read the heart cell DNA to make liver stuff.",
"Cells have information in their dna on how they should behave.\n\nDepending on different triggers like environmental conditions, they can trigger different sequences of those instructions. When organism starts to develop, there are instructions on how cells should divide, like what becomes an arm, what becomes a leg based on how many divisions been done and from what point. Then they just follow these instructions. \n\nThere are cases where these instructions can fail, leading to bit missing, or it being in the wrong place.\n\nWe can actually monipulare these intructions, and have on things like fruit flies. Where you can make a limb grow to a different place.",
"Because they're not in the same environment. Once your original cell divides enough times, you've become a ball of cells. \n\nOriginally yes, the new cells were in the same environment but now, as a ball, you have got inside cells surrounded by other cells and outside cells forming the surface of the ball. \n\nThe inside cells start doing different things compared to the outside cells because they're in a different environment. \n\nBecause of this, the ball changes shape and stops being bally and round and starts having a different elongated bean shape. \n\nNow the outside cells are different from each other. Some are at the 'top' and others at the 'bottom' and they start doing different things. Inside cells nearer the top outside cells start doing things differently to the inside cells near the bottom outside cells. \n\nThis continues with each iteration of change creating new environments for the cells which now react differently to their parent cell, and so on and so forth until you have all your body parts.",
"Epigenetics. The cell has different *structures*, and based on the structures of both the cell and its neighbors, it knows what DNA to activate, and which cell type to become. Cells know which cell type to become based on what the cells around them are, and what stage in development they are in."
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2kt9jp | why do men catcall? | By now, most people have seen [this video](_URL_0_) of a woman being catcalled over a hundred times over the course of ten hours.
As a man, I've never been catcalled (except as a joke, by friends), so this is quite an eye-opener for me. But I've also never catcalled anyone else, either. I don't understand why I would.
I see plenty of attractive women, but I can't think of a single positive outcome that would result in my yelling at a woman on the street. It's not like she would turn around to thank me for the compliment I shouted at the top of my lungs, much less give me her phone number or something.
I suspect many people will say street harassers are sexist and don't respect women, which is true. But that's not their *motivation*. That's just a lack of restraint (to say the least). What are the men trying to get out of it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kt9jp/eli5_why_do_men_catcall/ | {
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"Beats me ... no one ever says, \"I met my wife by saying rude crap to her on the streets.\"",
"To impress other men around them. It's pack behaviour. \n\nYou're right - no one is going to win a woman's heart by whistling at her. But, sadly, a lot of (mostly stupid) men will be more likely to see that person as an alpha or \"leader\". \n\nIt's incredibly sad - but a lot of men judge their friends by who objectifies women the most. It's not just cat-calling either. In any group of men, often the man who talks about women he'd like to have sex with is seen as being dominant. Not because he as a chance, but because he expresses it.",
"Social Learning (wiki Albert Bandura for more info if you're interested, and you'll get plenty of more modern research by checking Google Scholar). It's modeled for them on the street, by friends or family members, on tv, in movies, in video games. You learn what's normal or expected by watching other people, and those set the bar for your own behavior.\n\nOther motivations stick their head in too -- deliberate sexism, for instance. Also, low social skills may contribute, if it's the kind of guy who is extroverted enough to attempt to make contact but has no clue how to do it appropriately -- social learning is much more likely to kick in when you don't have any practice doing anything different.\n\nEdited: Because I understand the difference between nouns and adjectives but just can't type them right the first time.",
"pretty much everything we do is a risk-reward system. We avoid committing crimes if we think the punishment x probability of getting caught is greater than the benefit x chance of success.\n\nIn the case of catcalling, there largely is no downside. Most men get away with it. Women rarely say anything (and the ones who do get dismissed as bitches) and men rarely say anything (and the ones who do get punched, or dismissed as pussies/fags/whatever).\n\nSo, even if the payoff probability is extremely low (albeit probably grossly extrapolated in the mind of the catcaller), its still huge compared the expected risk (none).\n\nAlso, these guys often legitimately think they are being nice. The way men and women receive compliments is very different. If a women told a man he was attractive, even if she wasn't really hitting on him, he would take it well. That's largely a part of the problem - and why men often get defensive.",
"HEY MAMA! WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER HERE AND FIND OUT!",
"1) \"Have a good day\" is not catcalling\n\n2) Not all men catcall. \n\n3) Numbers game. If you have a 0.1% success rate and you catcall 1000 women - bam! you got a hit.",
"A crucial question I haven't even seen *asked,* let alone answered, is \"how often does this actually work?\" That is, how frequently do women respond favorably to such advances and at least flirt with the catcaller?\n\nUntil we have some kind of handle on that figure, it's premature to go pointing fingers too sternly. If it turned out that the practice DID work in some significant percentage of the cases, then maybe the angry feminists should go have a chat with their more flirty sisters FIRST.\n\nNo, that STILL wouldn't make it right or appropriate, but unless one has a serious grasp on the the root causes of such behavior (beyond a knee-jerk \"all men are pigs\" stance), one cannot possibly hope to work towards any kind of realistic solution.\n\n"
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27pmpd | why do dogs stop mid play fight and freeze until one of them moves to fight again? | Same goes for the start of the fight they get low and stare each other down before chasing each other | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27pmpd/eli5_why_do_dogs_stop_mid_play_fight_and_freeze/ | {
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"They are practicing hunting. They stop to check if their prey is still alive, if it isn't they would stop killing it. But since they're only playing, their prey is always still alive. Remember all play fighting is, is murder practice.",
"They are powering up. ",
"Those are the rules. In the OWGTBAD (Official Woof Guide to Being a Dog). It is clearly stated in section 12, paragraph 9 (in the subsection labelled \"Mandatory Random Standards\") \"If no reason is given to suddenly stop in the beginning, middle or end of a fight, brawl, tussle, or generally rough horseplay, all parties must immediately cease for a minimum of 1.5 seconds but not to exceed 20, for the sole purpose of confusing observers, participants and your own dog-self. Violators will be punished by a minimum 1 week (maximum 3) in dog hell upon completion of the dog life.\" (It is further discussed in Appendix Cii. under the \"Redemptions Clause\" that violations of this nature can be offset by \nA: Rescuing children (especially from wells) (Think Timmy) \nB: Finding lost humans or lost human items \nC: Maintaining a perfect potty record for 18 months +\nD: Protecting the human family during a dastardly event \nE: Saving another dog or human from imminent or impending doom \nAnd the very controversial \nF: Befriending a Cat, Fox, Squirrel, Bunny, Duck, Raccoon, Marmot, Beaver, Guinea Pig, Armadillo, Woodchuck, Chipmunk or any other low-dwelling scoundrel type varmint that could constitute a tasty snack or give a good chase. \n\n\n",
"I love doing this with my dog. I can always time exactly when she moves, and its really fun \"wrestling\" with her :)",
"Fighting and other dominance displays take up resources and incur opportunity costs: the time/energy you spend fighting is the time/energy you're *not* spending hunting or chasing potential mates, and you risk injury even in play-fighting. (The time/energy factor isn't really a big deal to domestic animals, but when evolutionary pressures were strongest, there was no guarantee of a bowl full of kibble at the end of every day.) Therefore there's a tradeoff in evolutionary terms: *some* dominance display is necessary within the doggie \"society,\" such as it is, to gain/maintain status, which in turn increases your reproductive potential. But do too much of it, and the costs start to outweigh the benefits.\n\nBasically the dogs (cats do this too, by the way) will pause to see if the other one will give up - it's like a game of chicken. It lets the loser leave without as much risk of damage, and it lets the winner leave without wasting more time/energy duking it out. If you watch long enough, you'll notice that these pauses are when the fight breaks up, too. They don't always go back to fighting. It's basically two animals pausing to say \"You still wanna do this? Is it still on? Okay then, let's dance.\" If one of them quits, the winner may give a token chase as the dog/cat version of smack-talking, because it costs them very little. But it's not usually a serious attempt - because what would be the point?"
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1nfvfc | does the body absorb every calorie? if i overeat like crazy will some of it just 'flow through' me or will it all be stored? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nfvfc/does_the_body_absorb_every_calorie_if_i_overeat/ | {
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"The exact amount of energy you're going to get from a meal varies somewhat. Calorie counts are sort of the \"ceiling\" of what you could extract, if your gastrointestinal system was a Bunsen burner. Everything from the ratios between fat, carbs, and proteins, to the particular microbiome in your belly, to whether you've been starving yourself lately and thus your body believes every meal might be your last, modifies just how much energy you actually get from a meal.\n\nHow much the above factors really matter in terms of absorption, doesn't seem to be all that well understood. In general though, calories are used as a useful number because they're \"accurate enough\".",
"No, your body only absorbs something like 80% of calories you take in. The rest are lost to urine and feces, or burned off by bacteria in your gut.",
"Some calories remain in partially digested food that exits your body in stool. But not enough to counterbalance the energy equation. If you overeat a lot, *most* of it will be stored in adipose tissue. The human body is very good at banking up energy reserves for a rainy day.",
"Calories aren't actually a substance. A calorie is a measure of energy and that energy comes from metabolization of carbohydrates and lipids (fat). The human digestive system is not 100% efficient. So no, not every carbohydrate or lipid is absorbed. Overeating however, increases the total amount of these substances and thus increase your total absorption to a degree. "
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9j5vbd | how can there be millions of door/car keys that are different from each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9j5vbd/eli5_how_can_there_be_millions_of_doorcar_keys/ | {
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"Because there are different kinds of keys with lots of different combinations. Some of them are the same but not enough to be a problem ",
"Same way there can be millions of cell phones different from each other...numbers.\n\nLet say your key has 8 notches in it, and each notch can have 6 different positions. That's 6^8 = 1,679,616 different positions.\n\nWhat's more, they don't have all be unique. You aren't going to run around trying your key in every car you see. So long as the probability of any two cars having the same key is very low, you are protected. ",
"I just looked at my house key, it has 6 distinct bumps on it. If we assume that key is 1cm wide (which is pretty skinny) and each pin in the lock can be accurate to within 1mm, that's 10 different positions each pin could take. 10^6 = 1,000,000 is the number of combinations my lock could have. Now we don't even need 6 pins, it could be 4 pins with 10 positions which is 40,000. You could see how we could easily get a few million combinations with the most primitive styles.\n\n\nThat being said, you don't need to have all keys and locks to be unique. You really just need to make it incredibly unlikely that your key would work with any random lock you use. If a vendor makes a key and lock system that has 4 pins you have a 1 in 40,000 chance of it working on someone else's door. For most people that would deter them from using it on anything but their own door. "
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co85dx | what are vectors and scalars? | I read about it and did some googling, but didn’t really understand it. I was hoping someone here could break it down for me. I’d appreciate both examples and definitions on the terms, as well as of course, an explanation. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/co85dx/eli5_what_are_vectors_and_scalars/ | {
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"A vector is something that has a magnitude and a direction. A scalar has magnitude but no direction.\n\nI weigh 220 lbs. That's a scalar. \n\nGet in your car and drive north for 10 km. That's a vector - it has a magnitude (10 km) and a direction (north)",
"A vector is a measurement that had both a value and a direction. These include things like your motion (10 mph to the right is different than 10 mph to the left) or forces.\n\nAnything that has a convention for both positive and negative numbers is really a vector. Positive means one way, negative means the opposite way. So +$10 in my bank means different things than -$10. One is money moving into it (the direction) the other is money moving out.\n\n\nScalar measurements are for things where there is no direction, like weight. You don't weigh -150 lbs... That doesn't happen or have meaning that is opposite 150 lbs. Sound volume is another.\n\nWhere this is important is how they combine. Moving right +10 mph, while in a train moving left at -10 mph means you aren't really going anywhere (+10 - 10=0). But for weight, you pick something up you always weigh more.",
"A vector is a magnitude plus a direction. If I'm in my car going 60 kph due north, there's a magnitude (my speed of 60 kph) and a direction (north). That vector can be canceled out - like let's say my car is on a big, crazy conveyor belt that's going 60 kph due south - now those two vectors (call them +60 and -60) cancel each other out, and I don't move.\n\nA scalar is only a magnitude, with no direction. Mass is an easy one, because if you weigh 75 kg or whatever, there's no up, down, north, south, or anything about it. It's just mass. There's no way to reverse mass to cancel that out like you could with a vector - it's just a data point. Though if you added in a direction, you could create a vector - like if you factor in gravity, now my mass is exerting a force (G) downward (because gravity pulls down relative to me). If you cancel that out with the same force going up, there'd be no net force acting on me, because +G and -G will cancel out. But even though the vectors would cancel out, that scalar number of my mass is still the same, because scalars don't have a direction and can't cancel each other. I'd just be floating with the same mass.",
"As the formal definition of vectors and scalars have already been mentioned, I'm going to give an easy example.\n\nVectors can be used to classify things. All kinds of things. Let's say you want to sell a house. Criteria for advertising are location, size, age, price.\n\nIn this model, any House can be described with a vector.\n\nAlso, this is an example where dimensions higher than 3 pop up. Our house has 4 parameters, so it's a 4 dimensional vector."
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2cpecg | why do many bars insist on playing music at deafening volumes? | I understand our has to be loud enough to hear it, but why so loud that I can't even hear myself talking? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cpecg/eli5_why_do_many_bars_insist_on_playing_music_at/ | {
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"If you cant talk, you drink more.",
"Well, if you have to speak very loudly close to someone's ear, you're not drowning out the music. The music, for everyone else, is still l0ouder then the conversations. \n\nIf it was softer, people would speak over it. The music, for everyone else, would be inaudible over the conversations of everyone in the bar. \n\nJust a guess ... ",
"I noticed when I was a waitress that customers were less grumpy and uncomfortable in a loud environment. I was always the one to ask the managers to turn down the music if I couldn't hear someone's order, but then I realized overall I got better tips and people were happier when it was loud. I hate it too, but it seems that it's more comforting for people who don't want to feel pressured to make conversation. ",
"You talk louder , you get even more thirsty , you stop talking , you have nothing to do but drink.",
"I don't have a problem with bars and clubs having music so loud by why do so many restaurants do this too nowadays? \n\nWhen I go out to eat I do want to hear my companions and want them to hear me too without having to go hoarse. ",
"To deafen the sounds that people make when they sing off tune whilst intoxicated. Plus, I think when you're of a certain age, loud music gets your adrenaline going; leads to dancing; being dehydrated and thirsty; then to drinking. Its a vicious cycle.",
"I fucking hate it, but it makes sense, adds atmosphere, takes away social pressures to engage, people will dance more to loud music, less talking more drinking. It's weird thinking about how bars do this to make it less awkward for humans to meet each other. We're a very anxious and nervous species when the prospect of finding sexual partners is up."
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6353au | why was d-day so successful? and were the germans ill prepared? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6353au/eli5_why_was_dday_so_successful_and_were_the/ | {
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"The Germans were having to defend a very large amount of coastline. By mid 1944, they were beginning to be worn down, their Air Force was incapable of contributing to the battle. and their best combat infantry units were either on the Russian front or fighting in Italy. Even so, launching a major operation like that is difficult, and their was a risk of failure even a couple of weeks after the fact.",
"No the allies faked them out. Using Patton and an inflatable (no shit look it up) army they had the Germans believe they were going to attack at Calais so most of the Germans heavy stuff was away from Normandy which allowed the allies to establish a beachhead.",
"It's worth reading/watching up on D-Day, and not just the landing scenes.\n\nThe Allies put phenomenal effort into D-Day.\n\nPrior to the operation they built huge fake military bases prepping for an invasion and planted fake information for German spies.\n\nJust before the landings they started air presence towards the fake landing sight and dumped iron shavings to create a radar image of a huge force moving towards Calais.\n\nMeanwhile as soon as they landed at D-Day they began carrying out carefully landed plans.\n\nFloating docks and wavebreaks were assembled quickly so that huge numbers of supplies and men could be deposited by larger ships. Several (!) pipelines were laid in a hurry, linking the landing area with Britain's gas and oil networks, which had been upgraded and prepared for this event.\n\nBy then the Allies had strong air superiority and decent control of the channel, they could move in bulk into the German territory, and once the front line was breached they could move forward fairly quick. "
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9fmmhx | why do attractive people make us feel nervous? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9fmmhx/eli5_why_do_attractive_people_make_us_feel_nervous/ | {
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"I get nervous around super good looking guys and I’m also married and not interested in anyone other than my husband. But it’s weird, not sure why it makes me so nervous. "
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4gujfe | how could you explain fascism to an actual 5 year old? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4gujfe/eli5_how_could_you_explain_fascism_to_an_actual_5/ | {
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"It was a way Germany and Italy governed themselves in the 1920's and 30's. \n\nThe idea was that democracies were too indecisive because everyone, or at least most people, have to agree to do something. Fascists argued that the best thing for the country would be to entrust total control of the country to one person who could make the best decisions for the country."
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1zeh7t | why do most forum-based websites or apps tend to have a very heavy political opinion lean? | I re-visited iFunny today for the sake of boredom only to come across dozens of Conservative Christian spam accounts with nearly a thousand posts in each one. I'm not asking or saying who's right or wrong, I'm just wondering how sites can get such a heavy opinion lean. Also, it's usually more than just politics, too. Reddit, Tumblr, 4chan, iFunny, etc., all have their own hive minds relative to social, political, religious issues. I'm just wondering if there's a reason to this.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zeh7t/why_do_most_forumbased_websites_or_apps_tend_to/ | {
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"I've read that reddit started out with mostly young male liberal users. The first users set the tone of the community, making it less likely for people with radically different ideas to feel welcome and stay. "
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dcesae | what is borderline personality disorder | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dcesae/eli5_what_is_borderline_personality_disorder/ | {
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"The definition on the NIMH website isn't vague at all: \n\n\nPeople with borderline personality disorder may experience mood swings and display uncertainty about how they see themselves and their role in the world. As a result, their interests and values can change quickly.\n\nPeople with borderline personality disorder also tend to view things in extremes, such as all good or all bad. Their opinions of other people can also change quickly. An individual who is seen as a friend one day may be considered an enemy or traitor the next. These shifting feelings can lead to intense and unstable relationships.\n\nOther signs or symptoms may include:\n\n* Efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, such as rapidly initiating intimate (physical or emotional) relationships or cutting off communication with someone in anticipation of being abandoned\n* A pattern of intense and unstable relationships with family, friends, and loved ones, often swinging from extreme closeness and love (idealization) to extreme dislike or anger (devaluation)\n* Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self\n* Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors, such as spending sprees, unsafe sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge eating. **Please note:** If these behaviors occur primarily during a period of elevated mood or energy, they may be signs of a mood disorder—not borderline personality disorder\n* Self-harming behavior, such as cutting\n* Recurring thoughts of suicidal behaviors or threats\n* Intense and highly changeable moods, with each episode lasting from a few hours to a few days\n* Chronic feelings of emptiness\n* Inappropriate, intense anger or problems controlling anger\n* Difficulty trusting, which is sometimes accompanied by irrational fear of other people’s intentions\n* Feelings of dissociation, such as feeling cut off from oneself, seeing oneself from outside one’s body, or feelings of unreality\n\nNot everyone with borderline personality disorder experiences every symptom. Some individuals experience only a few symptoms, while others have many. Symptoms can be triggered by seemingly ordinary events. For example, people with borderline personality disorder may become angry and distressed over minor separations from people to whom they feel close, such as traveling on business trips. The severity and frequency of symptoms and how long they last will vary depending on the individual and their illness.",
"Emotion dysregulation, interpersonal issues, and sometimes self harming behavior usually linked to early trauma or emotional neglect. Also a heavily pathologizing wastebasket diagnosis for mental health workers who dislike their patients.",
"I worked in mental health years ago and there seems to also be a difference between genders for borderline personality disorder. I may be incorrect but since I am a female, most of my female patients i worked with this diagnosis were consistently on suicide watch (why I mentioned being a female bc this includes arms distance at all times including bathroom and shower)",
"Best book title ever (imho) is about borderline. “I hate you; don’t leave me.” Perfectly sums this disorder up.",
"Completely serious, if you have time watch \"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend\" through all the seasons to watch Rebecca's journey to her diagnosis. Bonus, it's hilarious and heartfelt.",
"For normal people they seem manipulative and abusive because not even the person with BPD knows what they really want. Distorted emotions takes the best of them. Since to them they feel like they are the ones being manipulated and they go down the wrong thought loop which leads them to do the wrong thing or make the wrong decision. \n\nThis may seem out of control to the other person because all of this is imaginary. \n\nAlso Borderline personalities have had issues growing up. Abusive childhood that leads them to develop such personalities.",
"I actually have my first appt with a therapist for these very reasons(not all of them. But def a good chunk of what was included in this list.) Just kinda took me by surprising reading this",
"The word \"borderline\" means the border between psychosis and neurosis.\n\nThe NIMH definition is accurate, but doesn't ELI5 as you're requesting. Based on the book I link to below, and I can tell you also from my first hand experience, that BPD has roots in feeling worthless. Behavior which can be seen as damaging or uncomfortable or abusive, can also be explained as someone with BPD having an overwhelming need to be perceived as having worth. It's not just being \"evil\" or \"manipulative\", there's a reason WHY the behavior occurs. The mindset is closer to: \"You're wrong, you aren't hurt by me. I can't have hurt you, because if I did then I was wrong, and if I was wrong you won't love me, and if you don't love me I'm worthless and will be abandoned. So I didn't hurt you, you are not hurt, because I can't be revealed to be worthless.\" Something like that.\n\nI STRONGLY recommend you read the book [\"Stop Walking On Eggshells\"](_URL_0_), which describes BPD through the lens of the family and friends of those who suffer from it. It makes it much easier to identify, and to understand the difference between \"high functioning\" and \"low functioning\" BPD.\n\nAlso, it's worth noting that BPD is often diagnosed alongside narcissistic personality disorder, they amplify each other in some ways.\n\nI hope this helps.",
"I think one thing worth mentioning is that BPD is a treatable disorder. Since it’s often the result of trauma or neglect, basically nurture over nature, it seems to be easier to work through than say mood disorders like bipolar disorder. It’s also something that’s commonly misdiagnosed. \n\nI personally witnessed someone close to me be misdiagnosed as bipolar when they actually suffered from bpd. When we realized that the bipolar diagnoses didn’t really fit, we were eventually able to recognize that bpd might be the culprit. \n\nThe awesome part is that with the correct therapy, this person was able to get phenomenally better in a relatively quick span of time. They really turned their life around in a way that sadly isn’t typical of someone suffering from bipolar disorder. \n\nSo while many people who suffer from bpd can have a very difficult go of it, there is hope they can recover.",
"My mother had this.\n\nFor an eli5 explanation:\n\nThink of a time when you felt an extremely intense emotion. Maybe rage or grief or fear. If you have experienced an emotional extreme - and most of us have - you'll notice it temporarily changes the way you think.\n\nMost people know that thoughts create emotions, but the opposite is also true. When you're enraged with someone, you probably can't remember much you like about them. You could even forget every positive thing about them and wonder why you ever hung around with that person in the first place!\n\nNow most of us have what's called meta cognition, which is thinking about our thoughts. So when I get angry with someone and think 'why do I even hang out with this person?' there's another part of me that says 'yeah, you feel that way now, but give it an hour and you'll remember everything you like about them'. This is a type of emotional regulation that we learn through experience of noticing our thoughts shift with our mood - we start to take them with a pinch of salt and that knowledge that not everything we feel is reality helps us stay relatively calm.\n\nBut I bet you've sometimes had emotions strong enough to override that, right? You've occasionally acted regrettably due to a very strong emotion? Most people have, it's very normal.\n\nPeople with bpd tend to experience very extreme emotions on a far more regular basis and are trapped in that state where the emotion overrides regulation, so they tend to take their emotionally driven thoughts as fact and they act accordingly. They also tend to lack meta cognition - often because they haven't been in an environment safe enough to learn it - so can't calm down. They often also deal with very high levels of shame derived from an abusive or troubled upbringing that add fuel to the emotional fire.\n\nAnd that's essentially what bpd is.",
"Dave Foley, whose ex-wife was BPD, explains it like this (paraphrasing) 'when they love you, you are the most angelic creature ever. When they hate you, they'll do anything to destroy you: and you never know who's going to show up'.",
"I am not a psychiatrist but ive known 2 seperate people with bpd, so il try to explain my observations.\n\nThey tend to attatch themselves to 1 person, and dub them their 'FP' (favorite person). They were very attached and felt upset when they werent around. They also experienced 'splitting' and would be set off by minor things. They tend to see things in black and white, and tended to idolize or despise people. They also can be unstable, and threaten their FP's with Suicide, Self harm, and Threats if they think theres even a slim chance they will be abandoned. \n\nthe stereotype for BPD is that its the 'crazy ex girlfriend' but thats not always the case. BPD is highly stigmatized but it can be treated with the right help. Again, im not a psychiatrist so this is purely from observations",
"Ive heard someone say somewhere \"They are just like everyone else... Just more so.\"\n\n\"Understand the bordline Mother \" was a great read on this issue.",
"Very simply, people with BPD experience emotions very strongly. They often struggle with impulse control, see things in extremes, and have an intense fear of abandonment. A good phrase to remember is “I hate you! Don’t leave me.” They are not evil.",
"So I have BPD and I'll try to explain as best as possible but they're are a lot of good answers here.\n\nBPD is a personality disorder which means it's a group of behaviors and traits a person uses as they live their life. There is a biological and an environmental factor. Biologically, people with BPD have smaller, overactive fear centers in their brains. Environmentally, many people with BPD have trauma from abuse or some other event. \n\nHaving BPD basically means you have unstable patterns in regards to self-identity, relationships, and emotions. Much of the time those patterns are learned behavior as those patterns are what helped the person with BPD survive some type of situation when they were younger. \n\n\nFor example, many people with BPD are incredibly black and white thinkers and you can either be a best friend or worst enemy. The ability to shift the thoughts so suddenly can come from needing to disconnect with inconsistent caregivers so you don't get hurt every time they change their tune.\n\nAnother example is that many people with BPD have a lack of self-identity and can be considered social chameleons. Which basically means we kind of just change our personality depending on who we're around, mainly to please others. Which is a defense mechanism from having to change who we are to please an abuser, etc.\n\nOne thing about BPD is that you have really extreme emotions. Not like in a Bipolar sort of way, though, which can get some people confused.\n\nI like to explain it like this. We all have an emotional spectrum. 0 is completely apathetic while 100 is losing all control to emotion. Whatever your current situation is can raise or lower the number.\n\nMost non-BPD people hover around the 20-30 range normally when dealing with the situations of life like minor annoyances or embarrassment and most get up to 50-70 when incredibly upset. Someone with BPD is constantly hovering at the 50 range and when something triggers them emotionally, they can easily go into the 80s-100s. Basically, you feel the extreme version of whatever emotion your experiencing. Shame instead of embarrassment, rage instead of anger, euphoria instead of happiness, etc. \n\nThere are a lot of people who claim people with BPD are manipulative and evil. I actually lost a friend when I was diagnosed because she claimed that if I had BPD that meant I was an evil abusive person because that was the nature of people with BPD. A lot of that comes from stigma. It's one of the most widely stigmatized and misunderstood disorders. A lot of times people chalk down crazy exes behaviors to BPD when in reality they, y'know, could just be batshit crazy. In reality people with BPD are more likely to be abused.\n\nThis is not to say there aren't jerks with BPD. BPD is incredibly tough for everyone involved and when it's untreated it can cause harm to not only the sufferer but their loved ones. But people with BPD usually aren't trying to cause suffering or trying to be manipulative. \n\nA lot of times the manipulative behavior is something, again, learned in childhood that helped the person survive. \n\nAnother personal example: I have a really hard time disagreeing with other people. If I disagree with a friend I get super scared they're going to hate me and never want to be around me again and the like, so I end up beating up on myself and talking about how wrong I am and how they're right and I'm so so sorry for disagreeing with them because my opinion is worthless and theirs is perfect. \n\nThat, to most people, can come off as manipulative or guilt tripping. But when I fall into that spiral I'm being 100% serious about it all. I'm beating myself up because I've learned growing up that having the 'wrong' opinion from my caregiver will cause me pain or neglect or anything. I grew up learning that my thoughts and opinions were always wrong and the caregiver's was always right.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nBPD is an incredibly complex disorder but there is treatment for it that can be very effective. People diagnosed with BPD can also be un-diagnosed with it because they can lose the traits. They still might have the same emotional intensity, but the difference is they've learned better ways to navigate themselves, life, and others.\n\nThe reason why BPD can be 'cured' with enough hard work is because BPD, like most personality disorders, is a pattern of behaviors and reactions that are learned from the environment plus the biological component. It's possible to un-learn those patterns and learn healthier patterns even if you can't change your brain chemistry.\n\nI'm nowhere close to un-learning everything and I'm still trying to unpack a lot about how I grew up and why I am the way I am but since my diagnosis I've become a lot better at interpersonal communication, emotional stability, and the like. Once you can recognize those patterns it's easier to pull yourself out of them and change them. So I can catch myself doing something and redirect my thoughts and know that of course my friend isn't going to hate me and leave me for not liking their favorite book. You can also learn how to tell when you're reaching that extreme emotional intensity point where you have a hard time being able to reason and de-escalate before you get there which I've gotten a lot better at as well.\n\nI do want to specify that there are people with BPD that are fucking terrible. But there are also good people with BPD. Many times someone who runs into a terrible person with BPD will claim all people with BPD are like that. But, in my experience, if you've met one person with BPD....you've met one person with BPD.\n\nJust like not all people with OCD or anxiety or depression or schizophrenia are the same, not all people with BPD are the same. We're not a monolith. No group is.\n\nHoped that helped some and didn't come off as a long rambling tangent.",
"I found a great resource for this question. This video spells out the most noticeable traits: _URL_0_",
"Hey I have this - if you have any questions I’d be glad to answer them :) especially stuff relation to day to day life and relationships with my friends and family .",
"As someone with BPD, here is how I like to explain this to my friends. This may not be anything close to a scientific definition or anything, and I know that things like my ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) play a role too. \n\nThere is no middle ground. If I am thinking about ordering pizza, it's either I get a pizza and wings and bread sticks and soda and desert, or I skip it all together. I am fully aware when I am being unreasonably emotional, but in the moment it feels right. The world is constantly against you, and sometimes you do bad stuff out of fear and anger. If I am trying to imagine the outcomes of let's say me running away from home, what I see is either the cops will be involved and I will go to jail and my life will be over, or it will go perfectly and everything will work out and it will be sunshine and rainbows. My mind is not able to see that middle ground of I walk around for a bit and my parents freak out and then I come home and just get grounded, or anything like that. \n\nIt is a heavy burden on the people around you, but it is also very hard on the individual. Sometimes I will just be thinking \"what the hell am I doing\" But be unable to stop myself in the middle of one of these episodes. The hardest part is I've watched a YouTube video and then decided that I need to throw my life away, because one little thing in there influenced me, and that's all that will be ringing in the back of my head. \n\nAs someone with BPD I can say that the best thing someone can do to help when I am in one of these episodes is just accept it and don't take anything I say to heart. I know that may be hard, and I am not saying that you should accept abuse from others at all, but if you have a loved one with BPD and they are saying crazy shit like \"you never loved me\" Or \"we need to get married tomorrow\" Just try to console them until they can calm down a bit, and then have a serious talk about it. It may at times feel like you are playing into serious manipulation, but sometimes we can't control it, and feel like shit later. If it gets serious, don't accept it, don't let yourself get abused by them, but if you can just play along it can truly help them calm down quicker. Don't be afraid to after ask them \"what's going on, how much of that was rooted into the truth\" And to say \"I am not ok with this, you hurt me\", but if you can, try to help them find a coping mechanism. \n\nIf you only take one thing out of this though, if someone you love has BPD and you end up having to deal with one of their meltdowns, do not fight back heavily. Do not escalate it in the moment. Wait to talk about it once they can actually speak without shaking. It shouldn't take too long normally.",
"Personally, as someone who has been diagnosed with BPD in the past (and then read everything I could find about BPD and non-suicidal self injury in my university's library) , I think it's a reaction to growing up in unstable and abusive families.\n\nMany of the diagnostic criteria involve insecurity about relationships with others, fear of rejection, rapid changes in self image, poor boundaries, manipulative behavior, and self harm. If you grew up with erratic and abusive parents, these things make a lot of sense. \n\n- Some of the most important relationships in your early life *were* unstable. It's common for abusers to be loving, caring, and apologetic in between abusive moments. If your relationship with a parent rapidly swings between extremes of love and rage, you learn to expect that relationships will be either perfect or catastrophically bad. \n\n- You don't have a strong sense of self because you have to change the way you act all the time to try to avoid upsetting someone who might suddenly fly into a rage over something that used to be fine. You learn to manipulate people because it can keep you safe from the abuse. \n\n- People often assume that self harm is manipulative or a cry for help, but that isn't always the case. For some people, self injury can help people become more grounded when dissociating (and dissociation is a fairly common response to trauma...). Some people learn to self harm to express anger that they feel unsafe directing towards others (like, say, abusive parents). Self harming behavior has also been observed in primates deprived of maternal care (Harry Harlow did some experiments around this. They are ethically troubling, but also pretty informative/scientifically significant)\n\nA lot of borderline behaviors and emotional patterns are bad in healthy relationships, but they can be effective survival strategies for people with abusive parents. \n\nIn the long run, it's not that borderline people need to avoid abandonment, it's that they need to learn that not everyone will abandon them. (but in the short term, they need to get therapy to learn to have healthier relationships, because there's kind of a catch-22 where people are more likely to abandon you if you're not emotionally well enough to be somewhat stable in a relationship)",
"this isn’t really an answer and it’ll get drowned out in the wave of actual answers, but thank you for asking about what it really is.\n\ni have bpd. i have had friends who have done what you did, just googled it, and not knowing i had it, told me about how everyone with it is evil and manipulative and you should cut them out of your life immediately. \n\nwhen i started dating my now husband, i told him that i had it and begged him not to google it. \n\nit means a lot that you’d try to find out what it’s like, especially since there’s a good chance you’d get answers from real people who have it and can explain, since it seems the majority of the internet’s opinions are from people who have been hurt. they’re entitled to their feelings just as much as anyone else, but if you only ask people who hate, you’ll only ever learn to hate. \n\nand anyone worried if they have it, please go and see a doctor. the amount of control you gain just by getting a diagnosis is the main thing that has helped me be able to progress.",
"OP I would strongly advise you to just take heed of the top comment, BPD is one of the most misunderstood ailments on the internet!",
"A psychiatrist once explained BPD to me as essentially a disorder in which the patient lacks a coherent sense of self. \n\nIt's this sense of emptiness that leads to them seeking intense relationships, manipulating people for attention, catastrophizing any minor setback, etc",
"When people ask me what BPD feels like, I tell them it's like bipolar on speed. I can go from manic to depressive to manic again all in a span of 10 minutes. I've learned to control it since I was diagnosed though (diagnosis helps with dealing with it).",
"Not all people with bdp are evil and manipulating, majority are not either and can be very nice and genuine. They have changed the name in the uk to unstable personality disorder because the main trouble is regulating emotions. bdps are scared people leaving them and feel emotions deeply. One negative comment can make there moon drop one minute and the next minute a positive comment can make then really happy. They can love the people they love very intensely and dislike people they dislike intensely to. Manipulating and evil is a massive misconception and only apples to the minority. Some people believe that some with bdps are manipulating because when they feel that someone they love a lot might leave them they threaten to kill them selfs to keep that person to stay. Not all bdps do tis though and the reason they do it is because they love so much and it hurts so much that their emotions become so painful. Also some bdps will do anything in there power to keep loved ones from leaving so by threatening suicide it can keep the person close to them. HOWEVER out of all mental health conditions because with bdp are much more likely to kill themselves. 1 in 10 actually die from suicide. Emotions are so strong that they may emotionally hurt so much that they might physically hurt themselves to feel physical pain instead of emotional pain and this actually can give them relief. Bdps have been hurt, had trauma and rejected most of their lives so they have developed unhealthy coping strategies to simply survive."
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38t34q | wic forces the purchase of healthy foods, why do food stamps let people buy hot pockets and pizza? | Not judging, but with obesity the way it is and that it's concentrated amongst poor people, it makes sense that there would be restrictions on food stamps to promote healthier choices. It's done on WIC, why not food stamps? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38t34q/eli5_wic_forces_the_purchase_of_healthy_foods_why/ | {
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"WIC is designed for children in mind, whereas food stamps could be for anyone who qualifies. They figure adults can make their own choices for their body. ",
"OK, so I had to do a project on this topic a few years back. I started out thinking of course EBT should force people to buy healthy foods (and I still do) but the problem is logistics. When I was doing the project I keep metaphorically beating my head against the problem because it seems so simple, right? But it's just not.\n\n1) Define 'Healthy'. It's actually really hard. Okay, so maybe just ban candy. Define 'candy' and how it's different than Coco Puffs. Okay then ban cereal. Shit, this is getting confusing.\n\n2) Food deserts. More and more poor people live in areas where their food choices are convenience stores and fast food. This is terrible and depressing and true, and regulating what they can buy with their food stamps makes it even harder for them to shop.\n\n3) Food stamps are very explicit in that they are not meant to be your entire food budget, even though that of course winds up happening. Food stamps are meant to supplement 40%-60% of your diet, and the government is not interested in regulating half of a dietary regime, because it becomes kind of pointless.\n\n4) and some blah blah blah about check out systems at grocery stores.",
"Jesus, isn't being poor punishment enough? Do you really think making life worse for them, with even less joy and personal agency, will accomplish anything useful?"
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5i8nem | why do certain things seem to happen or appear all of a sudden after i learn about them? | I randomly looked up a graph of an extended factorial function (x!) 2 days ago, and literally a day after that, I saw a front-page Reddit post of someone asking for the derivative of x!.
This has happened a lot before this as well, with other random things. I learned about "onomatopoeia" or whatever a while ago, and I suddenly read that word on an online news article days later.
Are all of those things just coincidences? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5i8nem/eli5_why_do_certain_things_seem_to_happen_or/ | {
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"This is called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.\n\nThe reason for this is your brain's prejudice towards patterns. Our brains are fantastic pattern recognition engines, a characteristic which is highly useful for learning, but it does cause the brain to lend excessive importance to unremarkable events. Considering how many words, names, and ideas a person is exposed to in any given day, it is unsurprising that we sometimes encounter the same information again within a short time. When that occasional intersection occurs, the brain promotes the information because the two instances make up the beginnings of a sequence. What we fail to notice is the hundreds or thousands of pieces of information which aren’t repeated, because they do not conform to an interesting pattern. This tendency to ignore the “uninteresting” data is an example of selective attention.\n\nWhen we hear a word or name or something else which we just learned the previous day, it often feels like more than a mere coincidence. This is because Baader-Meinhof is amplified by the recency effect, a cognitive bias that inflates the importance of recent stimuli or observations. This increases the chances of being more aware of the subject when we encounter it again in the near future."
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stnli | dear eli5: why are some people upset with the dali lama? that guy seems like a pretty nice dude. | A lot of his teachings are pretty basic human decency issues, but there seems to be a group saying that he not as good as he appears. What's up with that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/stnli/dear_eli5_why_are_some_people_upset_with_the_dali/ | {
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"I'm sure that some people don't like him for lots of reasons but his main enemy remains the Chinese government.\n\nIn the 1950s Communist China and their military took over Tibet. The Dalai Lama helped broker a surrender with the Chinese, but as you can imagine the Tibetans were not very happy with the Chinese.\n\nA few years later, there was a violent uprising of the Tibetan people against the Chinese and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India, fearing for his life.\n\nThe Dalai Lama has lived in India since 1959 even though he is the leader of Tibetan Buddhism because Tibet is under the control of the Chinese and it wouldn't be safe for him to go back. Even if he could safely go back, the Chinese would try to pressure him into using his influence for their own purposes.\n\nThe Dalai Lama is effectively the figurehead of the \"Free Tibet\" movement, and as a result the government of China hates him.\n\nEven though this seems like a pretty big injustice, nations such as the USA are reluctant to openly support the Dalai Lama because China is very powerful nation and they don't want to get on China's bad side.\n\n[I don't know as much about these, but here's some other reasons why people might not like the Dalai Lama](_URL_0_)",
"Historically, his position is not just that of a spiritual leader, but at times a political one. This has included significant positions in the government of Tibet. \n\n\nAs the political status of Tibet is disputed (as it is claimed by the People's Republic of China as a part of their territory in addition to Tibet's pushes for it's own sovereignty), so too are some folks critical the Lama. \n\n\nSome are of the disposition that they are a dangerously positioned advocate that is somehow behind much of the unrest in Tibet, and as such view him as a disruptive force with no legitimacy. \n\nFor the Lama's part, they have dissolved many of their potential governing powers so as to ensure their larger work towards peace and understanding does not become unduly compromised because of this controversy, but the PRC still protests his presence at various events and award ceremonies throughout the world.",
"He's basically the Pope and king of Tibet. People like him for being the Pope and reminding everyone to get along. Then when they find out he has by birthright the power to oppress a nation ( If he chose to or better said \"allowed to\") then they feel betrayed for liking him and accuse him of being a tyrant or supporting a tyrannical system. Where the truth is he hasn't had the power of a king since his late teens/early twenties. China dislikes him because they conquered his country and the fact he exists poses a threat to their claim on Tibet. ",
" > A lot of his teachings are pretty basic human decency issues, but there seems to be a group saying that he not as good as he appears. What's up with that?\n\nELI5 answer. Under the Dali Lama's rule (not this one specifically, but all of them) the people of Tibet lived in severe poverty; basically as indentured servants (or slaves), while the Lama lived (literally) like a king. \n",
"John Safran has some interesting points on the teachings of the Dali Lama: \n[Pope or Dali Lama?](_URL_0_)\n\n\n\ntl;dw Dali Lama: says homosex is misconduct, as is any sex for reasons other than procreation, is anti-abortion, jerking off is wrong, FUCKING DURING THE DAY IS WRONG etc..."
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1sqbql | why are companies like pandora and spotify more willing to allow a free listen if we aren't the one picking the song? | This has always bugged me. With the [news](_URL_0_) today that Spotify is allowing mobile listening for free on Tablets now, so long as you have the shuffle setting on, I couldn't resist finding an answer any longer.
Spotify has always been happy to let me choose a song on my laptop, but I have to **pay** on my phone. Pandora has never let you choose your song. What gives?
I mean, I assume they have to pay royalties for any song that we listen to, so what is the big deal with allowing us to choose? Are they just worried that the songs people would pick would be the more expensive songs to play? Is part of the deal from the record companies that Pandora and Spotify expose us to music we wouldn't otherwise hear?
**tl;dr** why is "internet radio" cheaper than an "internet library" of music? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sqbql/eli5_why_are_companies_like_pandora_and_spotify/ | {
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"They do it so they can pay lower royalties for the songs as if they were a traditional broadcast radio station.",
"You kinda explained it in the OP. Each service has their own agreements with record companies, with royalties based on the rate at which their song plays. Pandora's royalties reflect the fact that any particular song cannot be streamed to a specific free user very much - in addition, songs that the free user discovers via Pandora may lead to actual sales later on. But with Spotify, since every user can listen to a song all they want the potential for users to musically \"isolate\" themselves is greater, so to compensate Spotify must pay higher royalties.\n\nExpanding to mobile services means there will be even more listeners playing the same song over and over again. So to avoid the royalties going even higher, Spotify forces free mobile users to shuffle songs. I'm not sure how they figure out the specifics obviously, but it certainly involves listener stats such as the average amount of unique songs vs. total songs listened to by free users. One thing they cannot tell however, is how many users are accessing the Web player from a mobile device and basically \"faking\" a PC listener. Not sure how they deal with that.\n\nSo tl;dr, internet radio is \"cheaper\" because it reduces the amount of times popular songs are played, while increasing the play count of less popular songs."
]
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"http://lifehacker.com/spotify-announces-free-service-for-phones-and-tablets-i-1481091778?utm_campaign=socialflow_lifehacker_facebook&utm_source=lifehacker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow"
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p39sx | how do i download youtube videos for storage, later playing and to burn on dvds? | ELI5: I'm not entirely computer illiterate but I have been having a lot of trouble being able to do this. And maybe I don't even really understand what I am doing, all the steps and formats and such. I have a macbook air and a 1tb external hard drive. I have download extra web browsers in an attempt to be able to find easy plug-in for this. I have also downloaded Get Tube, FLV Crunch, WonTube. Can't get some of them to work, or show up, when I am on YouTube. Help?? Thank you. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/p39sx/how_do_i_download_youtube_videos_for_storage/ | {
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"also, if you want *just the audio* of a youtube video, do _URL_0_ \n\nNo download is required, just plug in the URL and it brings up a mp3 version of that video.\n\nVery helpful for getting songs from people who you can't find anywhere else.",
"_URL_0_\n\nRemember, there's a reason \"Download\" isn't an existing feature on youtube's site: It's a copyright violation unless you own the rights to distribute/copy the material. Know that unless the video was released freely, you're probably breaking the owners copyright by downloading a video."
]
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[
"www.listentoyoutube.com"
],
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f0bhwd | how does a photographer take a super long exposure photo of the sky? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f0bhwd/eli5_how_does_a_photographer_take_a_super_long/ | {
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"The cameras have powered mounts that automatically keep them pointing in the same direction as the Earth rotates under them. They don't record continuously, only when it is dark.",
"They piece several exposures together, either by doing it over several nights, or by using several cameras.\n\nThey also use tracking mounts to compensate for the earths rotation.\n\n\nFor example, in [this post](_URL_0_), OP writes that he took a 31h exposure photo over a month, so averaging ~1h/night."
]
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[],
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/f08v36/i_spent_the_last_month_capturing_this_31_hour/"
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1n6bjj | what are actors/actresses actually doing when supposedly smoking cannabis in the movies and on t.v.? | Are they really getting high? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1n6bjj/eli5_what_are_actorsactresses_actually_doing_when/ | {
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"They're actually smoking crystal meth. It's all a part of the hierarchy of doing drugs on tv.\n\n\nnicotine > weed > crystal meth > Sugar candy > back to nicotine.\n\n\nIt's union rules.\n\n\nOf course I'm messing with you. They're probably just using regular tobacco or some other substitute.",
"Whenever you see actors doing anything dangerous, illegal or morally dubious, it's almost always\\* faked. Dangerous stuff is done by stunt doubles with fast-moving action so you can't see their faces, or by CGI. No one really dies, gets injured or gets high. In a scene of someone snorting cocaine, the coke might actually be icing sugar or sherbet, and the actor might be sucking it into their mouth, rather than their nose, or the sugar might be sucked up by a machine so the actor doesn't choke.\n\nSimilarly for smoking cannabis: no drugs will be involved (sometimes not even tobacco - the cigarettes might contain nothing more than shredded paper) and the actors look high only because they are acting high.\n\n\\* But not always. There are movies where actors really have got drunk, high, laid, etc on camera."
]
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evsy2k | how are people who still have symptoms of being sick no longer ‘contagious’? | I know it happens where the person is still coughing up a lung but cleared to go back to work/school from a doctor because they’re no longer contagious. Just curious as to how/why they’re no longer able to pass on the sickness. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/evsy2k/eli5_how_are_people_who_still_have_symptoms_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"ffxrwyg",
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"text": [
"Most of the symptoms of disease are caused by your body's reaction to the infection, not the bacteria/virus itself.\nYour body can have killed all of the disease causing agent away, but still need a few days to clean up the damage that was caused during the battle.",
"most viruses have a time called incubation time, where a person is contagious but doesn’t show any symptoms. As the virus’ numbers go up the body begins to defend itself and you have fever, cough and a runny nose. A typical viral infection lasts for 2-8 days. After that, the body has won against the virus and it’s mostly trying to come back to normal and a person may appear to be slightly coughing or blowing his nose. Especially with kids (because they can’t communicate their feelings and symptoms) if their general situation is good, they are happy, they are eating well, they want to play, that means their flu is over and they can go back to school."
]
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[],
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cz5ys4 | - why is some debt considered "good" and some "bad"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cz5ys4/eli5_why_is_some_debt_considered_good_and_some_bad/ | {
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"The debt itself isn't inherently good or bad— but demonstrating that you can reliably pay debt back, keep debt to a healthy percentage of your borrowing limit (usually around 30%), and don't miss payments is how you build credit. In order to demonstrate that you can do these things, you have to take out a little bit of credit/put yourself in a reasonable amount of debt.\n\nIf you keep your lines of credit at 0%, you're not showing that you're reliable for paying back debt— only that you don't take any out. So when you eventually want to take out a very large loan like a mortgage, and the bank looks at your credit score, it won't be as high as it could be if you have a long standing good history of paying your debts.",
"I don't know the context of that post, but there are lots of good reasons to go into debt. Most people could not buy a home or start a business without borrowing money. Money lenders make social mobility possible by ensuring that you don't need to already have money to do these things.",
"Debt is good if it earns you money... it has a return on the investment. You take on debt to buy a house that grows in value, pay for an education that increases your earning power, invest in a business. In each case, you end up with an asset that continues to gain value/make you money.\n\nAlso, there is a significant time/value aspects of these... it's better to pay some interest on student loans and get your degree at 22 to have greater earning potential your whole working life, than to try and save up money from low pay jobs and start college at 40 or 50 -- especially given how tuition has increases so much quicker than cost of living.\n\nSimilarly, it's better to buy a house at 30 to raise your family in, gaining its price appreciation in addition to equity from paying down loan, than paying rent *and* saving up to pay cash for a house after your kids have already left home. \n\nThese are very different than, say, taking on a high interest car loan to buy more car than you can comfortably afford since the vehicle's value will decline over time. Or using credit cards you carry balances on, spending money on unnecessary things like new TVs or vacations you cannot afford. Those are bad debts.",
"There is good and bad debt! You'll need to know a small amount of vocabulary for you to understand it.\n\n1.) Risk Free Return- this (in America) is usually the treasury bond interest rate. It's considered \"risk free\" because the assumption is the US treasury will never default on your bond, so, buying a 1,000 bond at 2% a year will always payout.\n\n2.) High interest debt: this is usually tied to the market. If you can get a return of 5% by investing your money in the market, and take out a loan with a 2% interest rate, paying back the loan faster is considered a \"net loss\" because you could be making 3% extra on your money by investing it! (Note: credit cards are notorious for high interest; 16%+!!!!)\n\n3.) Inflation: every year, inflation USUALLY occurs. This means, your money is worth less. A pack of gum today may be $1, but odds are by next year its more.\n\nBad debt: bad debt is usually associated with things like: high interest, low return on investment or an upside down investment. High interest causes you to pay a LOT of money to borrow money. Usually more than the cost of inflation or the \"risk free return\" on money. Credit cards are a great example of \"bad debt\". \n\nGood Debt: Good debt is a business term. Companies who finance 100% of their business in cash have no debt. However, its not always beneficial to come out of pocket tons of cash. This can reduce your cash reserves (the money you have to do other things). Usually \"good debt\" to leverage your assets allows you to expand your business, buy things, and most importantly, reduce taxable income. Interest on most debt is tax deductible, so borrowing money at a reasonable rate and reducing your taxes is a common practice for Good Debt. \n\nMost of the time a simple way to think of good vs bad debt is: am I better off paying cash or using debt. If the answer is \"I can do better things with my cash than pay off this or buy that\" then using debt to finance things is a benefit! \n\nNote: This is VERY general."
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6eor5q | aside from ideological political differences, why does the u.s. continue to take such a hardline stance against specifically communism? is it really still that big of a threat to global democracy? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6eor5q/eli5_aside_from_ideological_political_differences/ | {
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"Well, there's the cynical, and the not so cynical response to this. \nThe cynical response is that American businesses run the country, and they don't want communism because it would result in all of their profits being take away in any communist controlled country because all business would be state owned. This is probably true to an extent, but not completely.\n\nThe less cynical response is that communism's core ideals almost require that there is a single leader in charge of the country. There is almost no representation of the people in the government because they believe that if any citizen is allowed to have power in the government they will further their own interests instead of fighting for the greater good. What this means is that all communistic forms of government have a single leader, who furthers their own interests instead of representing the people. Communism can't be a democracy, which is why it is argued that communism is a great threat to democracy. ",
" > Americans are taught without exception that communism is to be fought and eradicated anywhere in the world. Why does the U.S. government feel such a strong need to combat communism in particular, to the point of ingraining in all Americans how bad it supposedly is?\n\nThe governemnt no longer takes such a hard-line stance against communism, but anti-communist sentiment is certainly still strong at a cultural level due in part to the past efforts of the US government.\n\nThe US government took such a strong stance afainst communism in the 20s because Russia had just been subject of a revolution that resulted in Russian communists in control of the country.\n\nMarxist Communism explicitly calls for violent revolution to remove the old capitalist system and replace it. Such revolutionary ideas are inherently a threat to existing orders, including the government, because, well, revolution.\n\nThis anti-communist sentiment was reignited in the late 40's roght up through the 80's because after WW2, the USSR seized control, direct and indirect, of a lot of East European countries, and possessed an absolutely massive military, which could very plausibly defeat the US military.\n\nThis created tension between the USA/NATO and the USSR/Warsaw Pact, creating the Cold War as each faction sought to expand their influence over the world to protect their now dramatically expanded interests.\n\nIn order to rally support for some rather ugly foreign policy, the US government played up the threat that Communism posed, under the premise that Communism was intent to be a world-wide revolution that would attempt to displace all other economic and governmental structures.\n\nTherefore, the devious, evil communist stereotype was pushed in order to suppress public sympathy for communism in general, and the USSR in particular.\n\nThis possition wasn't without justification, as there were numerous soviet spies in the US (and vise versa) throughout he Cold War.\n\nAnti-communist sentiment has persisted past the Cold War partly due to cultural inertia and partly due to the revalation of actual, historical atrocities by communist nations both with intent and simple incompetence."
]
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erpsdi | how does flying low keep you off the radar? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/erpsdi/eli5_how_does_flying_low_keep_you_off_the_radar/ | {
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"When using radar to find flying objects, you are limited by what is known as line of sight. This means that you cannot see through obstructions, such as the terrain. The lowest point your radar signal is restricted to is the horizon from where you are. Since the Earth is round, that point gets lower the farther away it is from you. \n\nSo when an airplane is flying low enough at a distance, you won't be able to see them as the curvature of the Earth prevents your signal from reaching them.\n\nThis is why many nations try to place their radar sites on higher elevations and some countries even have specialized aircraft with powerful radars on them.",
"The terrain does block the line of sight of the radar. It literally can't see your plane when it is behind a mountain. Because of this air surveillance likes to put radars on top of mountains and towers.\n\nAlso, and this is an equally \"blinding\" factor: \nThe terrain isn't plain, isn't made of the same material isn't standing still (like trees moving in the wind or water waves on the ocean) and isn't quiet in electromagnetic emissions means (radio signals, TV signals, WiFis, other emisisons on every possible frequency band).\nOn top of this all these factors literally mutilate the radar signal. Every edge, every different shape and every different material all reflect, refract, shape shift the radar's EM waves so much that it is impossible for the radar's detector to distinguish between a plane flying in all these \"noise\" and the noise itself. \n\nThe higher you fly, the more homogeneously spread the noises energy is in the sky and the higher the possibility to dedect a single object. IIRC the safe to detect height is about 5m on open seas and 15m on land. Thus youd have a hard time \"sneaking up\" below the radar without crashing.",
"What others have said regarding terrain is true. That said, radar design is all about tradeoffs. If they're good at differentiating target altitude, then they're poor at something else, or at the very least they are more complex and expensive. Air defense radars are designed to detect targets in the air, and designers must often design them to be effective against \"most\" targets, or perhaps against the most dangerous targets. So, to cover the effective altitude of \"most\" targets, a radar might be designed to cover medium to high altitudes very well, but the trade-off is reduced detection at low altitudes.",
"If you were trying to creep up on someone in open ground who was looking out for you, one of the things you'd do would be to flatten yourself to the ground and crawl towards them using tufts of grass and bushes etc for cover to block their line of sight. \n\nIt's the same with radar: the ground is covered with 'clutter': hills, buildings, towers, trees etc, and if you can keep your aircraft down close to them, you can either hide in their radio shadows (radar doesn't go through hills) or at least be confused with the background of other stuff and harder to spot as a result."
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52sxwy | what would it look like if you were standing where a meteor was about to hit? | I've seen meteors and meteor showers from all kinds of angles (mostly at night). I was wondering what it would look like, during the day, if you happen to be standing (or recording) from(or very near) the destined impact point and were looking directly at the meteor. I searched reddit and this topic and don't see this being asked or the answer to my question. Most pictures of daytime meteors we see contrails / comet-tail trails. Wondering if you were at (or near) the impact zone what it would appear like. Just a increasing fire circle, or would you see the tail beneath it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52sxwy/eli5_what_would_it_look_like_if_you_were_standing/ | {
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"You wouldn't be able to see most of the trail because it would be pointed more or less directly at you. Basically, all you'd see is an intensely bright light until the object cools down enough to the point where it is no longer superheated, at which point it disappears from view. It would still be moving at very high speeds, so it would be nearly impossible to see until impact.\n\nOf course, that's depending on the object's size. A killer asteroid would get so hot - even before impact - that anyone within the viewing area would be burnt to death almost instantly from the intensity of the heat alone."
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29n8mw | why are some bullets described as calibre (50.cal) and others described as in mm (9mm)? | are these descriptions able to be interchanged? like what would be the calibre of a 9mm round shot from a M9? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29n8mw/eli5_why_are_some_bullets_described_as_calibre/ | {
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"There's really no important distinction between them. Both are the diameter of the bullet. More specifically, the diameter of the slug and the barrel it's fired from. The metric ones are easy enough to figure out. A 9mm is 9mm across, 10mm is 10, 7.62mm is 7.62mm in diameter. With the English measures, it's done in parts of an inch. .38 is 38 hundredths of an inch in diameter, while a .45 is 45/100 and .357 is 357/1000, making it about the same size as a .38.\n\nIn fact, a .357 and a .38 are either identical or very, very close, since a .357 can usually fire .38 rounds. Same thing with the .308 and the 7.62mm rounds. I think. I remember reading someplace that the English measurements are pretty inaccurate. The .44 is something like .425 in reality, and the .38 is closer to .357, when you put some calipers on it. I'm sure there's someone out there better equipped to answer this question, and maybe provide a link to some more thorough information. [Source](_URL_0_) \n\nBasically one is metric and one is imperial measure (not English)",
"These both refer to the bullet's diameter. For the most part, they are not interchangeable, guns can only take bullets of a certain size. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is that it's fairly common for certain handguns to take .38 and .357.\n\nCaliber is measured in inches, and typically comes from countries that use(d) the Imperial measurement system, mm is metric. The only type of bullet I'm aware of that uses both systems is the .223 caliber/5.56mm.",
"The difference is basically America using Imperial measurements, while the rest of the world uses Metric. The caliber of the bullet is its diameter. A 9mm bullet is 9 millimeters in diameter. A .50 caliber bullet is .50 inches in diameter. \n\nCertain ammunition can be interchanged. Take the 5.56 NATO and .223 Remington rounds. Same basic cartridge dimensions, and one round will fit in a gun designed for the other. HOWEVER, AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, the 5.56 NATO exerts higher pressure on the chamber. A gun chambered for .223 Remington might suffer a catastrophic failure if a 5.56 NATO is shot out of it. The reverse, however, is totally acceptable. \n\nA 9mm bullet would technically be .354 caliber, because 9 millimeters is .354 inches. One could theoretically fire a 9mm bullet out of a revolver chambered in .357 or .38, but it may not work all that well due to differing shapes in the overall cartridge. ",
"Just depends on where they were made.\n\n9mm (9x19mm) was made In Europe. \n\nA 9mm bullet is a .35 caliber bullet "
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15d9t6 | how come a video editor can display a full resolution hd preview instantaneously, but it takes several hours to render the video into a file? | In this case, I'm using Sony Vegas. I can open the preview to fit the screen and I could even hook up an external monitor and play it on that. How is this different than a regular video? Why does the video take longer? What is it doing for the preview that's different than the video? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15d9t6/eli5_how_come_a_video_editor_can_display_a_full/ | {
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"When you run your preview in Vegas, you are just playing the files that already exist. You're just playing a video. Your processing hardware is juggling those files and applying new effects in order to display a newly-created video from the already-extant pieces. (If you rendered your effects, then those are plain video files as well.) To output that new video to a file, it has to apply compression to it.\n\nUncompressed video is staggeringly enormous -- a single hour of HD video with full colour is around 800 GB. You could output that from Sony Vegas if you wanted to. But you don't want to, you want to get it down to, say, Blu-ray levels -- which means you need to reduce the filesize by *95%*. \n\nComing up with ways to compress the video that don't destroy the quality is very complex, and employing those methods is very computationally-intensive. It takes your codec hours and hours to perform all the computations necessary to get the best-looking image at the smallest-possible filesize. \n\nOne of the most common and most intensive compression methods is prediction. With a predictionally-encoded video, only every 10th, 20th, even 30th or 50th frame is actually a complete frame of video. The others are predictionally-coded frames, which work with predictions -- they say \"I'm like the frame before me, but with these differences...\", and then note only those differences to save space -- and bi-predictive frames, which note the differences of that frame compared to its brothers before and after it in the stream. Doing this requires a lot of processing power during both the encode and the decode. Additionally, you can pack that bitstream -- make some video-object planes blank, and other planes contain two separate frames in the same space, so that the decoding system can look at two frames at once and not have to look into the future.\n\nThen you've got the chroma subsampling -- most videos don't include full RGB colour, they only include one colour pixel for every *X* pixels on the screen, so your encode will strip colour resolution. Then you've got intra-frame compression -- the compression *within* frames, reducing detail in, ideally, the least-noticeable ways possible. It takes an encoder a lot of work to figure out just what the least-noticeable areas are, and to decide how to compress them. And then there's the rate factor you're using -- are you keeping a constant bitrate, or a constant perceived quality? If it's the latter, which is the ideal, then the encoder has to think about how quality is perceived. \n\nNote that you can create what's called a *reference* video file from most non-linear editors. This is basically your preview function turned into a file. The video will be ~50 KB, and take two seconds to create. But all it's doing is what your Vegas is doing -- juggling all the clips your project file is pointing to. ",
"Well DinosaurPizza, videos are a series of still pictures, just like we have hanging on the wall. Except if you printed them out they would be very, very big. Now, when you want to make a copy the computer needs to cut each one down to a smaller size so it will fit. But remember there are many, many pictures that make up a video so it takes a very long time."
]
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7ixizf | the difference between trance and house? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ixizf/eli5_the_difference_between_trance_and_house/ | {
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"text": [
"They are pretty similar, house tends to be more beat driven. There is a lot of crossover really."
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83szsm | what is the difference between amortization and accrual? | Can you please give examples as well? Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/83szsm/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_amortization/ | {
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"They're really 2 different things but you can sort of think opposites.\nAcrual is when you are earning something, but it hasn't been paid to you yet. While usually this term is used to describe loans where the borrower does not have to pay interest on a loan NOW, but they still are getting \"charged\" interest by the bank and will have to pay it \"LATER\". \n\nAlso, you will hear it used in other situation like when you acrue sick days at work. You \"earn\" a set amount for every set period of work you do (depending on state law and company policy) but they won't be \"paid\" to you until you actually call out sick.\n\nAmortization is a little trickier. Basically, it's when the cost of something is broken up over time. Usually is has to do with loans, and the \"amortization period\" is the time over which the cost of whatever you borrowed money for would be broken up. \n\nIf you take out a 30 year mortgage on a house, then you would say the cost of the house is being amortized over 30 years. \n\nAmortization is also used similarly in accounting to expense or \"break up\" the cost of buying intangible assets over a period of time. In this sense, it is basically the same as depreciation, but depreciation is used for things like equipment while amortization is used for things like patents and contracts."
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8zj497 | are arthropods cold-blooded? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8zj497/eli5_are_arthropods_coldblooded/ | {
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"Arthropods are cold blooded -- which means, their body temperature depends on the temperature of the environment surrounding them. Arthropods are some of the most interesting animals in the world! They fly, they creep, and they crawl.",
"Like fish and reptiles, arthropods are unable to regulate their body temperature. However they don't exactly have \"blood\", so describing them as \"cold-blooded\" may be a little off."
]
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4rgbns | why do city planners make roads that zig-zag? in other words, why not make them all face north, south, east, west? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4rgbns/eli5_why_do_city_planners_make_roads_that_zigzag/ | {
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"A lot of cities are older than the automobile. You also have nature that gets in the way of things sometimes. I would expect a city on a flat plane with no rivers that was founded after 1950 to have a nice grid system.",
"They usually don't.\n\nRoads that zig-zag are either roads that skirt natural obstacles, like rivers or hills, or they are roads that were there before the city planners got there. Or sometimes two communities with slightly different grids grow together, and the boundary gets messy.",
"They usually don't. Most modern cities have a grid system for the most part. However, they still need to make way for hills, trees, buildings that have been there longer than the roads, water, etc.",
"It is going to change by location, but some reasons are:\n\n1. The cities weren't all that planned. They grew from random trading posts to towns to cities. By the time planning came in they had houses and buildings in place that they had to manuver around. (See how nice chicago looks after they got to start from scratch post fire).\n\n2. There are/were physical features to manuver around. Streams, woods, hills, swamps, etc. Some of these may have sice been removed but left their mark.\n\n3. When the city was more local it made sense. Many parts of big cities were originally little towns that got eaten up as the city grew. Those towns might have had their own plans that messed up the cities overal system.\n\n4. Intention. Perhaps some city planners liked the more organic feel of a european city than the rigid blocks.\n\n5. Sporadic growth. Your growing city has a dense commercial downtown. Then it has a big residential area blossoming a ways away. You want a nice straight shot to connect those, even if it isn't n/s, but then other houses fill in the gaps over the years around that existing road."
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65qdrx | why does stress often cause the inability to sleep? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/65qdrx/eli5_why_does_stress_often_cause_the_inability_to/ | {
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"This is a built-in survival mechanism. In the old days, if you were stressed, it was likely because of some dangerous threat, like a predator or an invasion. If this made you stay awake, frankly you were more likely to be alive come morning.",
"Because stress releases a hormone called cortisol and adrenaline. It all has to do with fight-or-flight. Stressful situation. Fight or flight kicks in. Body produces adrenaline to keep you boosted up, heart and blood rate up. Body produces Cortisol to deal with the adrenaline. "
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2qzgab | how are personal checks still a thing? | Considering this piece of paper which is often given to a total stranger has:
1. Your full bank account number
2. Routing number
3. Full address
4. Signature
How is this still a thing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qzgab/eli5_how_are_personal_checks_still_a_thing/ | {
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"Because some of us don't have debit cards or credit cards and we need to send things in the mail sometimes."
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cbhvu7 | when you’re drunk, how come when you speak it sounds like you’re speaking normal but to everyone else, you’re slurring your words? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cbhvu7/eli5_when_youre_drunk_how_come_when_you_speak_it/ | {
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"Your own perception of your outputted creations is not how others perceive it. The human nervous system handles other people's speech and your own in completely different ways. \n\n\n\nAs such, alcohol can attack/disrupt sections of the human body which are responsible for synthesis of speech while either sparing or also disrupting those parts which are responsible for your perception of your own created stimuli."
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5fznhf | why do we have to pee that much when drinking beer and how can we change this? | it really annoys when i always have to go to the toilet when being out with friends and drink some beer | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fznhf/eli5_why_do_we_have_to_pee_that_much_when/ | {
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" > Why do we have to pee that much when drinking beer\n\nAlcohol is a diuretic: It inhibits secretion of a hormone that tells the kidneys that it needs to reabsorb some of the water from your urine before releasing it into the bladder. Without enough of that hormone, you bladder is all, \"The brain says that we have too much water. Dump it all!\" So you start peeing a lot.\n\nAs a side note, one of the major factors in a hangover is dehydration, which is caused by alcohol making you have to pee a lot.\n\n > how can we change this?\n\nYou can't."
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321i2r | what exactly went down in the united states v. microsoft case and why did it happen. | I'm aware that it had something to do with internet explorer but I don't quite know exactly what happened. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/321i2r/eli5_what_exactly_went_down_in_the_united_states/ | {
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"The case was about the Sherman AntiTrust Act. Basically, when Microsoft bundled IE with the Microsoft OS, every single user of the PC back in the day had a copy of IE on their PC, effectively winning the browser wars and creating a monopoly."
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71hv9k | what is the back ground to the current situation in catalonia? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71hv9k/eli5_what_is_the_back_ground_to_the_current/ | {
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"Spain used to be lots of independent regions each with their own King or Queen. Each had their own dialect or language, usually descended from Latin. In the case of Catalonia this was Catalan.\n\nIn the 15th Century Catalonia became part of Spain after a royal marriage united two kingdoms.\n\nLater in the 20th Century Catalan language and culture was suppressed and forbidden by the dictatorship in Spain.\n\nSince the end of the dictatorship, Catalonia has gained more freedom, and schools in Catalonia are taught exclusively in Catalan. However due to immigration from other parts of Spain and elsewhere, 47% of the population speak Spanish as their native language while 37% speak Catalan as their native language.\n\nSome people have started asking for Catalonia to be an independent country, because they feel that Catalonia has its own separate culture and language, and also because it has a stronger economy than some poorer regions in the south of Spain.\n\nThe Catalan regional government has arranged a series of referendums to ask the population if they want Catalonia to be an independent country. The first one was in 2014 and the next one is due on 1st October 2017.\n\nThe Madrid government and court have declared these referendums as illegal. This is because they say that the Spanish Constitution doesn't allow any region to hold a vote on independence, and also because the Madrid government has not given permission. When the Catalan politicians continued with the referendums, the central government and police have raided offices of the regional government, and seized ballot papers from a warehouse.\n\nThe vote held in 2014 was non-binding, however the Madrid government still called it illegal. However the Catalan government says it will declare independence within 48 hours of a \"yes\" vote. This may have contributed to rising tensions and a strong reaction from Madrid.\n\nRegarding your last question, about how the situation can de-escalate: it's worth noting that the turnout in 2014 was quite low, and since I said that there are more native Spanish speakers than native Catalan speakers in Catalonia, I don't think it's likely that a true majority of the population would support independence. However Catalan speakers are more likely to vote in the referendums than Spanish speakers, especially given that the referendum is not \"official\" according to the central government. If the turnout is low again I don't think that the Catalan government would declare independence, so the tension may deflate slightly in that case. However there is a possibility of tensions getting higher with the police making more raids and arrests against the organisers of the vote.\n\n* edit: I removed reference to universities as university teaching is in [both Catalan and Spanish with Catalan as the primary administrative language](_URL_0_)\n\n* edit 2: Source for my claim about Catalan being forbidden during the dictatorship: \"The fascist regime that emerged triumphant from the civil war in 1939 did everything in its power to stamp out the official and private use of Catalan. Harsh penalties were imposed for speaking it.\" [Article in the Guardian](_URL_1_)",
"In Spain there are several regions with their own language, culture and history. \n\nVasque country is one of them, and they are still part of Spain but thanks to many years of pressure and helped by a terrorist group they are granted specific cultural and more importantly economic rights (taxation) that make them really set apart from the rest of Spain \n\nNow Catalonia wanted those same rights, so few years ago they politely asked for the same cultural and economic rights. Central govermet accepted every cultural and historic claim but denied any economical advantages, and so they begun this independence call. \nIt has escalated pertty quickly since central goverment is old fashion conservative and Catalonia claims to be to opposite",
"Will try to do justice to the name of the subreddit and keep things simple. \n\nCatalonia has its own language which is called Catalan. It is one of 4 official languages in Spain, the others being Basque (Euskera), Galician, and Castillian (Spanish). \n\nFor about 10 years, Catalonia's government has been lobbying the Spanish government for greater autonomy both economically and culturally (i.e. the right to collect their own taxes, the right to use the Catalan language in any context they please). It is important to remember that most important taxes in Spain are levied by the national (federal) government. This contrasts with the United States, whose citizens pay considerable taxes to local and regional (state) governments. This is why you often hear Catalans claiming that they pay a disproportionate share of federal taxes -- because the whole country pays into a pool and it then gets divied up based on need. Catalonia, as a top earner, does indeed get back less than what it puts in.\nHowever, these statistics have been politicized by both pro- and anti- independence camps and often what you hear is an exaggeration.\n\nSpain's government, run by the \"Popular Party\", is traditionalist and conservative. They are pro-Spanish unity and many of its party members have made (intentionally or unintentionally) offensive statements through the years regarding Catalonian language and culture. This is especially sensitive due to Spain's history as a dictatorship and the linguistic and cultural oppression that took place under Francisco Franco. The national government's comments and attitudes have predictably poured fuel on the pro-independence fire, a movement currently enjoying more momentum than ever before due in large part to the national government's intransigence.\n\nIn 2010, a constitutional court ruling upheld most of a previously ratified law that granted more autonomy to Catalonia. In 2012, on Catalonia's National Day, between 1 and 2 million people took to the streets to protest Popular Party's recent electoral victory. The party had opposed the aforementioned law and had tried to kill it on appeal. Shortly after these protests, then-regional Catalan government leader Artur Mas called a snap election, whose results would implicitly give or deny his government a mandate to initiate a process that would ultimately result in secession. Although Mas's own party unexpectedly lost 12 seats, overall there were more pro-independence parliamentarians post-election than there previously had been, and momentum continued to build. \n\nLater, in 2015, another regional election produced a precarious coalition of Catalan parties known collectively as Junts Pel Sí -- Together For Yes -- again with an implicit mandate to continue the march towards independence, this time with the promise of a referendum. Spain's 1978 constitution does not contain any explicit clauses on the right to self-determination and the national Spanish government has based (most of) their opposition to the referendum on that.\n\nYesterday, the Civil Guard, a national Spanish police force whose organizational structure largely resembles that of a military, arrested 14 Catalans on suspicion of taking part in the preparation and organization of what the national government considers a rogue, illegal referendum. As you can imagine, many Catalans consider these people political prisoners, while many Spaniards consider them to be illegally in defiance of constitutional law. People then took to the streets to protest their detentions and congregated around a Civil Guard building, essentially trapping them inside and forcing local Catalan police forces to provide them safe passage. This was the first time that the Spanish government took a REAL swing at the pro-independence movement. Things are tense here right now, hope this provides a bit of background as to why. \n\nWhat can be done to de-escalate? It's not clear that anything could be done at this point, although a complete about-face by the national government would certainly shock people and could potentially jump-start a new, more civil dialogue. Another possibility is that the October 1 referendum clearly lacks a mandate due to lacklustre turnout and/or a clear bias of pro-independence voter participation. Poor turnout is possible not because the measure lacks support, but because the national government seems to have actually succeeded in derailing preparation for the vote by confiscating ballots and engaging in other forms of sabotage. Moreover, and to be fair, the lack of clarity regarding the referendum's constitutionality means that many, if not most voters inclined to vote \"No\" will stay home -- a half-assed boycott of sorts. Personally, I believe that after yesterday's escalation the Catalan government is now determined to go through with independence as long as the Yes vote wins, regardless of turnout or perceived illegitimacy of the results.\n\nEdit: grammar and shit yo!\n\nEdit2: It has been pointed out that Basque Country enjoys federally sanctioned financial privileges that no other \"autonomous community\" in Spain enjoys, and this is absolutely true. This is important, I suppose, insofar as it means there is a precedent for the financial \"autonomy\" many Catalans have been advocating for years, and since most Spaniards consider Basque privilege to be the result of separatism. However, the history of these two regions could hardly be more different, and Basque Country's special status was hard-won.\n\nEdit3: It has also been correctly pointed out by u/Portarossa that here in Barcelona, at least, more than a handful of people are totally lukewarm about the entire \"Catalan Question\" as the press here refers to it. While there is plenty of blame to go around about how we got to this seemingly avoidable juncture, both people in favor and against independence are often willing to acknowledge that it is the national government who too many times fumbled the ball while it was in their court. While they claim now that their door has always been open, in 2012 Catalan leader Artur Mas traveled to Madrid expressly to negotiate a \"Fiscal Pact\" for Catalonia. Behind closed doors, it is likely that Rajoy simply told Mas that his hands were tied by Angela Merkel's austere fist. Moreover, Popular Party indeed benefits electorally when perceived to be promoting Spanish unity and a strong federal state. The point here is that yes: to people on the ground, it seems as though this crisis could have potentially been averted if only Madrid had done more to assuage extremism early on, instead of creating more of it.",
"They tried to make a referendum on November 9th, 2014, had some problems with the State not allowing it to be legal, so the result was considered unclonclusive.\n\nSo the parliament went on to an [plebiscitary](_URL_1_) election with new parties, so that they could do a legit vote, one party was big for the Yes to become independent, others didn't play the game, others said maybe, etc.\n\nAfter winning, but not by much, the Yes party, instead of declaring independence (They couldn't because they didn't feel legitimized enough), promised to hold a real referendum in 18 months.\n\nThe 18 months are almost over, and the president and catalan government, settled on a date for the referendum: [the October 1st, 2017](_URL_0_).\n\nThe law allowing that event passed at the beggining of september (and suspended the day after), the president promised to be independent by the 2nd if the Yes wins, or call up an election if the Yes loses.\n\nThe spanish government, keeps repeating that the law in Spain doesn't allow any kind of referendum nor questioning in any part of Spain, so they call it an illegal referendum that is not gonna happen.\n\nYesterday, the September 20th 2017, spanish (not catalan) police entered 40 government buildings, bussinesses, arrested 14 government officials, which haven't been yet released with any charges.\n\nApparently, the orders came by a spanish judge working in Barcelona (the number 13th) following an investigation (started this February?), the police force (clearly mandated by political chiefs) have their holidays temporarily revoked and sent to sleep in three cruise line ship in Barcelona and Tarragona's port.\n\nMore than 2000 police riot units have been sent over to control the crowd and \"pacify\" catalunya, moreover, it appears that their mission is to stop the referendum at almost all costs, as of now, they have aprehended 10 million voting ballots and a much more material.\n\nTwo helicopters have also been recently deployed in Catalunya too.",
"Some really good answers here already. I just wanted to mention one thing: It's also about political power. The separatist parties can gain a lot of votes with their emotional argument of separation from Spain. It speaks easily to everyone that takes pride in their culture and language, that maybe would not be reached with more level headed arguments. I feel it important to mention, because the separatists are very populist.\nI'm not a fan of the PP either. I just think that a separation would be very difficult for everyone. ",
"Some of it is a hang over from the Spanish Civil War. During the war Catalonia as a region strongly supported the legitimate left wing government against Franco's right wing rebels. Partially because of this, after the war Franco's dictatorship heavily cracked down on all things Catalan, trying to impose a more homogeneous version of Spain. The centralising actions of the current right wing government are no where near that bad, but they are a reminder of that time.",
" > what has changed recently to anger the Spanish state\n\nIn early September, the secessionist parties steamrolled the \"Law for a referendum of self-determination\" in the regional parliament. It calls for a vote, making it binding saying that if the \"yes\" (to secession) wins, the parliament will declare independence formally within 48 hours. It also declares that this law overrules the spanish constitution, catalan laws, international treaties and basically every other law does contradicts the referendum law. \n\nThis is blatantly unconstitutional and a direct threat at the Spanish Constitution. It's also worth noticing that it contradicts the Catalan Charta of Selfgovernment too (sort of a regional constitution). One irony is that according to the catalan law for instance, electoral law or certain appointments (for instance that of the Ombudsman, which is an agency to monitor the government) need qualified majorities to be passed. The ruling parties in Catalonia however, feel that they didn't need such qualified majorities for the laws allowing the referendum. It was furthermore approved in an urgency procedure which took a single day, without any hearings or real ammendment process.\n\nThis might sound like a loaded answer, but all of this are facts. It's importat to point them out, because they show that what the regional government is doing is pretty serious. It's a huge no go in terms of constituional law, imo democratically not justified, and ultimatley the reason why the Spanish Government will let things slide as it did in 2014.\n\nOn the other hand it's worth noticing that the police operative we saw yesterday was not induced by the government of Spain, but by a Judge who has been investigating the referendum for a couple of months now. Alleged charges are: prevarication, misuse of public funds, violations of data protection law and some other.\n\nTL;DR: the Secessionist parties have passed laws breaking the governing laws of Catalonia to pursue their referendum, which is more serious than what we have seen before. That is the reason why the Spanish Government and the Courts are also reacting harsher.",
"I was in Barcelona this past October and made the egregious error of wishing a bar full of Catalonians a \"feliz dia de españa\" as I walked in. Every single conversation in the bar immediately stopped and every guy in the bar turned to glare at me. Sensing the awkward shift in mood, I turned to the bartender with the international symbol for \"huh?\" - shrugged shoulders, elbows in, palms up.\n.\n\nFortunately, I had been frequenting the bar for the past week and had become friendly with the owner, who understood I was just an idiot American, ignorant with regard to the local history who meant no ill will. He stepped in and filled me in on why what I said was not well received. I gradually realized just how bad my faux pas really was. This would be akin to walking into an IRA bar during The Troubles and shouting \"God save the Queen!\". I decided I wanted to have more friends than enemies in Catalonia so I bought a drink for the entire bar and apologized to everyone there individually. Fortunately for me, it was a small bar! ",
"Some people were doing something illegal and the justice system acted. In order for a secession to occur, the constitution would have to be revoked. The constitution was democratically chosen by Catalans with over 91% of votes. \n\nWhat we have here are a group of political parties, with the support of 42% of the population that want to change what Catalonia voted before with less than half the support, 40 something % compared with over 91% which voted for the constitution 40 years ago. If the numbers would be the opposite, they would have a claim of legitimacy, but taking into account the reality of the numbers and that those parties decided to unilaterally revoke the constitution, there isn´t any hint of legitimacy.\nThe secessionists in Catalonia are very vocal and the rest of the population have fear of express their opinion. It´s almost impossible to guarantee a real referendum there when you know you will be persecuted if you don´t vote in a certain way. 75% of my family is from Catalonia.\n\nThe secessionist movements in Europe have always been based in economic egoism, being part of bigger countries they believe they can do better on their own, but they never acknowledge that a huge part of that wealth comes from being in the same market. Europe as a hole tries be stronger with the pass of time, greater integration, and the separatists, which say that they would still want to keep being part of the EU, are, by definition, opposed to greater integration.\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_",
"For a long time, Catalonia and Spain have lived in the same farm. The relation is not always easy.\n\nCatalonia likes to do things in her own particular way. Catalonia also has felt that Spain has not treated her fairly sometimes. Because of this, Catalonia has already has said a few times \"enough is enough, let's make a fence and separate the farm into two parts\". But things always chilled down eventually.\n\nOn the other hand, Spain has reacted to Catalonia's oddities in different ways: sometimes being totally cool about it, sometimes facepalming (\"Why do you always have to be so difficult, Catalonia!?\"), but sometimes being really really awful to her (sometimes even hitting her).\n\nWhat is going on now with them, you ask? Well, this is my opinion... A few years ago, Catalonia did some stuff called Estatut, but Spain didn't like it, and changed what Catalonia had done. This made Catalonia quite angry, and the idea of leaving came back to Catalonia's mind once more. So far, it's the same old story, but...\n\nThings in the farm were not going well. At all. Actually, it was going pretty awfully and money was becoming a big issue. When there is no money, things become more difficult and people get angry at each other for the tiniest reasons. As you can imagine, Spain and Catalonia were both in a terrible mood by now.\n\nSo for a few years, it's been \"I am leaving!\" \"No you're not\" \"YES I AM\" \"NO YOU'RE NOT\". Catalonia is maybe not making the smartest choice, after all there are advantages sharing the farm and sometimes she and Spain get along very very well. But Spain is being very nasty about it, not even listening to Catalonia most of the time, and often calling her names and being very rude to her.\n\nA few days ago, Catalonia said that she's going to decide if she's leaving or not, and she is not going to consider at all what Spain has to say. Spain got really pissed, and is now standing with a baseball bat right by Catalonia's door. Everyone, including Catalonia, Spain and the neighbors, are really confused. Everyone, including Catalonia, is wondering if she will really leave. Everyone, including Spain, is wondering if Spain will hit Catalonia.\n\nIt really is very sad they can't get along, be it in the same farm or in separate ones.",
"Independentist here. I'll go ahead and advice you to take everything you read here with a grain of salt, including my comment. Also, I'm not going to give reasons for independence, I just want to offer you an explanation on what the Spanish state is and how it works.\n\nWhat changed, you ask? Nothing has changed. The Popular Party is the political branch of the Spanish elites that have ruled the country for pretty much the last 80 years (and one could argue that for the last three centuries). Those elites also have a presence in the economic, media, state, judiciary and military sphere.\n\nTake for example the central government's speaker, Méndez de Vigo. He is related to the Franco and [Serrano-Sunyer](_URL_0_) (the one in the center wearing black) families; his wife is cousin to Pedro Morenés (military industry and former ministry of defense under the PP government) and Borja Prado (CEO of one of the largest energy corporations in Spain). J.M. Aznar, president of Spain between 1996-2004 is the grandson of Franco's main ideologist (when his party obtained a simple majority in the 2000 general elections he declared that it was \"time to get back all we gave up in 1978\"). \n\nIn 2013, the PP opposed a proposal to outlaw apologist acts of Francoism. Unsurprising: earlier this year, the second in command at the ministry of interior took part in a homage to the \"fallen soldiers\" (on the nationalist side of course). Homages to the Blue Division (that fought alongside Nazi Germany in the East Front) are conducted routinely. Flags of Franco's regime The military ranks are corrupt, sexist and nationalistic. Those that denounce the situation are marginalized and expelled from the military career. The same goes for judges investigating crimes committed during the regime.\n\nWith regards to the economic elites, this year the Constitutional Court declared that the fiscal amnesty (legalize any previously undeclared amount of money in exchange for a 3-10% cut of the pie) enacted by the PP government in 2012 was unconstitutional. Of course this will not have any repercussions other than a strongly-worded letter (maybe). The PP government bailed Spanish banks with 65.000 million euros. Earlier this month we learned that only 15.000 will come back. The PP is notoriously corrupt. Nearly 1.000 of their members in local, regional and state governments are being investigated (slowly and with judges and attorneys being pressured so that the cases prescribe).\n\nEarlier this year, we learned that a former ministry colluded with an attorney and a judge to manipulate a case against a left-wing leader. We also learned that the former minister of interior (Fernández Díaz) collaborated with a newspaper (El Mundo) and a corrupt police unit to fabricate \"proofs\" against independentist and left-wing leaders. It is also suspected that this unit fabricated a communication between CIA and a spanish intel unit, trying to put the blame of the Barcelona attacks on the catalan police (Mossos d'Esquadra). This unit has generally acted in favour of the economic elites, harassing, blackmailing, etc. anyone on their way. A physician that accused a friend of the current queen of sexual harassment (this guy is also under investigation for corruption) was stabbed by the unit's chief to have her shut up (she is OK). \n\nThe newspaper that uncovered this produced a documentary. Only the Catalan and Vasque public TVs have shown it. The media dominated by the establishment (El Mundo, ABC, La Razón, El País, TVE, T5, A3, etc.) has refused to acknowledge the case or its seriousness. When the court case started, this unit contacted two executives from construction companies and another from a media corporation (A3) to slow down and manipulate the case.\n\nThe Spanish elites don't give a fuck about the constitution or the laws. In Spain there is no separation and powers, and so if we try to fight them with \"the law\" we always find ourselves on the wrong side of it.\n"
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1rstev | if a singularity in a black hole is infinitely dense, then why doesn't suck the entire universe. | Thanks for the explanations | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rstev/eli5_if_a_singularity_in_a_black_hole_is/ | {
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"So, forget about black holes for a minute. Just think about the Sun.\n\nThe Sun has gravity (like everything else that has mass), so if you were in a spaceship in our solar system, the Sun's gravity would be pulling on your spaceship, pulling you toward the Sun. If you wanted to leave the solar system you'd need to fire your engines, and get enough thrust to get up to a certain speed, which would let you escape from the pull of the Sun's gravity.\n\nHow much thrust? That depends on how close you get to the Sun. The closer you are, the stronger the Sun's gravity pulls on you. So the closer you are to the Sun, the more thrust you need from your engines in order to get away. If you get too close, or if your engines aren't powerful enough or you don't have enough fuel, you might not be able to get away; if you really screwed up, you might even fall into the Sun.\n\nBut as long as you show up with a powerful enough engine, and enough fuel, you can get as close as you can stand. If you also have super heat and radiation shields, you could even go into the Sun and maybe all the way down to the center, then come back out. It would require one heck of a ship to do that, but it is at least theoretically possible.\n\nNow, consider a black hole with, say, 4 times the mass of the Sun. From way out you wouldn't notice anything strange at all; you'd feel the same pull as if there was just a normal star of that mass. And as you got closer, you'd feel a stronger pull, the same as if you got closer to a normal star.\n\nBut the strange thing about the black hole is that as you come in closer and closer, and the pull gets stronger and stronger, you will eventually come to a point -- a point which is *not* the singularity -- where you can no longer get away, no matter how powerful your spaceship is. This point is called the \"event horizon\", and once you cross it, you would only be able to get away if your spaceship was powerful enough to reach a speed faster than light. But that is actually impossible; it would require more energy than exists in the entire universe.\n\nSo a black hole doesn't just suck the entire universe into it; to things that are far enough away, its gravity isn't especially strong, and would feel just like a star of the same mass, and anything moving fast enough to get away from a star of that mass will also get away from the black hole, as long as it starts out from far enough away. It's only things which get too close and cross the event horizon that can never escape.",
"Black holes have finite mass and therefore finite gravity.\n\nA theoretical singularity would be infinitely dense not because it has infinite mass but because it has zero size. But that just means that it doesn't make sense to describe the density of a singularity.\n\n",
"Let's say you have two objects, call them A and B, of the same mass. A is a black hole, B is not. Let's say you're the same distance r from A and from B. (This distance is from one center of mass to the other.) If r is large, you feel the same effects from A as you do from B. This is Newtonian gravity, rather than the gravity of general relativity. Only when r is small can you tell the difference between A's gravity and B's gravity.\n\nIn particular, their gravitational effects are very different if r is less than the Schwarzschild radius of A, that is, if you're inside the event horizon. In this case you cannot escape from A but could escape from B."
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2qgdk8 | what do surveyers do? | I see these guys out in the city all the time looking through their equipment like telescopes, but I never knew exactly what they were doing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qgdk8/eli5_what_do_surveyers_do/ | {
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"They are measuring and making records of exactly where things are in relation to each other, so that accurate maps and diagrams can be drawn, and so the boundaries between properties can be effectively located.",
"making precise measurements, which you need when you want to put your nicely drawn plan to reality. Example: you should know exactly (as in: cm accuracy) where the corners of your building go, and same goes esp. for elevation (nobody wants another Leaning tower).\n\n\nPS: also what /u/APRSNerd said of course.",
"Basically, they measure land, laying out lots and blocks and sub-divisions. They also confirm and re-confirm the correct placement of \"corner or lot markers\", section monuments and sometimes re-survey large or small areas where errors have been confirmed in surveys that were done a hundred years ago or more. They measure for new construction and lay out foundation markers. They can also estimate the amount of material, soil, rocks, etc. that need to be removed for any project. They set the alignment for street construction and highways. And a ton more.",
"The equipment I believe your referring to is a \"theodolite\", also called a \"total station\". It it a range/angle finding tool that can measure three different distances (horizontal, vertical, and slope), as well as the two different angles (azimuth, and slope)\n\nImagine a cross-section of a hill where the hypotenuse is the surface of the hill, the length of which is the slope distance; the horizontal distance is the bottom leg of the triangle and the vertical distance is the opposite leg. The theodolite shoots a laser into a passive tool called a \"prism\" that reflects the laser back at it and calculates the distance.\n\nThe azimuth angle is usually taken from some fixed point due north, and this allows you to find the angles for an entire parcel of land without using a protractor or something equally inaccurate and inefficient. The slope angle is just the angle at which the hill is inclined or declined.\n\nWhile theodolites are usually the most common method of surveying, the same can be accomplished without such an advanced piece of equipment by using an auto-level and a high rod. \n\nThe auto-level is appears to be a telescope, but the distinguishing difference is that the auto-level has a series of wire suspended mirrors within the tube that ensure the surveyor only ever looks purely horizontal from wherever they are. This is used in conjunction with a high-rod, a really long stick with markings every inch or so, to determine vertical distance between two points.\n\nIf you want to know more about general surveying, feel free to ask me!\n\nSource: Civil Engineering student",
"To elaborate, there are existing documented survey monuments all over the place as well as legal pins (corners of property) You can look up the exact location of pins or the exact location AND elevation of monuments, then from there can determine and record new locations/elevations from there. The telescope looking device is called a total station. It shoots a laser to a prism which is usually mounted on the end of a pole that the survey assistant holds, then reads the distance and elevation distance between the total station and the prism. This produces very accurate measurements (within millimeters). You can also mount prisms anywhere to record ongoing movements. \n\nWhen there is a guy holding a pole with a keypad and a little round dome on the top of the pole, that's GPS. GPS is quicker and easier but the accuracy isn't as good...around 10 cm. So for example, total station would be used to lay out stakes for building corners or foundations. GPS is commonly used for topographic surveys for large projects and roads since its way quicker and tolerances aren't as crucial as a building. \nIf you want to build a new road, for example, you would send surveyors out to do a topographic survey that would include recording locations and elevations of every object around...signs, fences, trees, other roads, culverts, etc. Topographic is recording many points in a grid pattern across the ground so you have a record of the ground surface so that you can re create a model of the ground surface with a computer- this is where drafters/designers come in. \nOnce you have a model of the ground you can design the road. You need all this info for both the vertical alignment of the road (the height or elevation of the road) and horizontal alignment (where the road goes, where there are curves etc.) the topographic data helps designers decide on a few things, mainly the height of road for cut/fill balance as well as maintaining drainage. Cut/fill balance is looking at the variations in ground surface and determining the ideal road elevation so that you have a good balance of areas where you need to cut (excavate material out) or fill (place and build up material). If you don't have cut/fill balance, you would end up with either having to cut or fill too much and haul material for longer distances, which costs big money. \nNext time you're driving down a highway through a hilly area, pay attention to the structure of the roadway embankment compared to the surrounding ground. When the road goes up and over a hill, you can usually look towards the top of the hill and on either side of the road, the ground surface will slope up, and the road height is lower than the top of the hill on either side. You can imagine what the hill would have looked like before the road was built...they \"cut\" material out to get the road elevation down in order to ensure the road isnt too steep. \nOn the flip side, when a road goes through a valley, the ground on the sides of the road slopes down until it meets the valley floor. This roadway embankment is a fill. Similarly, done to maintain proper grades along the road. \nThere is a transition point between cut/fill when the road comes out of a valley and approaches a hill. Good cut/fill balance means the road is cut into the hill enough so that you can use the excavated material to fill in the embankment on either side of the hill. Cut too much and you end up with too much dirt, which is a waste of cash. Cut too little, you have to haul in dirt from another location. Lots of times you'll see sloughs along highways through flat sections...these are usually borrow pits to obtain fill material. All this is determined based on the topographic survey. \nThen once your road is designed in the computer model, you pick out a bunch of points from the model, give the list of points to a surveyor and they go put stakes in the ground that show the alignment of the road so the contractors know exactly where to work. Stakes will usually have a station number like 0+500 which means 500 m from a pre determined point, like maybe an intersection. 1+050 would be 1km plus 50 m. I don't know why they use that format. Then you will have a cut/fill value like + or - 0.35, sometimes with an arrow pointing to a line on the stake or to the ground surface. +0.35 means at that point, 0.35m of fill is required. -0.35 of course means you need to remove 0.35m of material. \nAs construction proceeds, the surveyors will continually check to make sure the elevations and locations of the road are correct. They will also replace stakes that get knocked over by machinery, which is common. \nSometimes in areas of significant cut you'll see little columns of dirt with a stake on top. This is done to maintain the stake so the surveyors don't have to return as often. \nSurvey stakes are called \"lath.\" Don't know why they call them that. \n\nThe designers also look at the elevations in ditches and make sure the slope is sufficient so water will drain properly. They will put culverts where needed as well, again, based on the topo data. \nThese concepts can be applied to any construction project. "
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92jfh0 | why does the spanish language pronounce seemingly every letter in each word, but the french language pronounces relatively few? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/92jfh0/eli5_why_does_the_spanish_language_pronounce/ | {
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"It's because of the french academy (Académie française): the pre-eminent French council for matters pertaining to the French language. The body has the task of acting as an official authority on the language; it is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the language. Its rulings, however, are only advisory, not binding on either the public or the government. \nThe task of the academy is to standardize and maintain a certain degree of continuity in the written French language. As a result, the oral and written French language has evolved differently. Nevertheless, the advantage is that Francophones can read very old texts that are written in old French and understand a very large part because the written language has been greatly preserved. As a result, letters that are not spoken verbatim are still transcribed in writing.\nIndeed, the French Academy was founded in 1634 and formalized on January 29, 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu during the reign of Louis XII.\n\nMy source: _URL_0_\n\nOther than that, I apologize if I made English mistakes. I tried to answer as best as I could."
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8ddjqp | what is the biological competitive advantage pmt/pms (heightened emotional sensitivity and anxiety at the time of menstruation)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ddjqp/eli5_what_is_the_biological_competitive_advantage/ | {
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"I would actually like to hear this one as well. I can't think of any competitive advantage. At least none which have been proven to exist for that reason."
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497e03 | what happens when your saliva hits your stomach...? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/497e03/eli5_what_happens_when_your_saliva_hits_your/ | {
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"Disclaimer: I'm just a high school student.\n\nWell, a lot of bacteria die there but not because of your saliva, it's because of the stomach acid (hydrochloric acid, etc) which makes the environment harsh for bacteria to live in. \n",
"Which bacteria are you referring to in particular? As your saliva has a small amount of anti-bac naturally which is the first line of defence your body has at killing any 'bad' bacteria from what you put in your mouth. I imagine this is why after for eg cutting a finger, we put it in our mouths."
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6diqz5 | how is it that the nervous systems of biological organisms are generally more efficient at processing information than human made computers? | I know that it's not fair to compare computers to biological organisms because the former was made by man and the latter is very complicated.
That being said, I've read countless articles saying that even the most advanced supercomputer cannot reach the theoretical maximum processing power of the human brain. Naturally this extends to the nervous system. Even in animals that have a fraction of the brain power as humans, the nervous system uses a minuscule amount of energy to process information like visual and sound input as computers do. All in the form of fibers smaller than string. The most complex human organ is the brain and it is so tiny compared to supercomputers. Yet it was capable of allowing me to type this very message and allow readers to view it.
How is any of this possible? How is it that neurons and the nervous system are capable of processing information so well compared to modern computers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6diqz5/eli5_how_is_it_that_the_nervous_systems_of/ | {
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"The human brain is much more complex than any man-made machine. More parts, and more connections between the parts. The parts and connections are very small, so you can pack a bunch of them into a head. The processor in your PC has higher complexity density, but it's like 1/2\" (1.5cm) square and only one layer of transistors thick. The brains has much more volume and dense 3D connectivity.",
"Because we are made of nanotechnology, and nanotechnology is relatively energy inexpensive to run. After all, you're only performing actions on specific molecules rather than moving millions and billions of electrons."
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497vs5 | would the human body adjust to higher gravity, extreme temperatures through slow but increased training | Disclaimer: I've seen similar questions. but they've been archived already(and not completely the same. If I started at 1.5x gravity and went to 2x then 3x etc. As in Goku training for Namek but on a much slower scale. Would our bones grow denser? Would our bodies just crush at some point? In the same rate if we trained for extreme temperatures. For instance, start at 100 go to 105, 110, 115, 120 etc. Would we adapt or reach a threshold limit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/497vs5/eli5_would_the_human_body_adjust_to_higher/ | {
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"Temperature is a lot harder! We have biological processes such as enzymes which will not change no matter how hard you train. Above certain temperatures many biochemical processes will slow and eventually cease. \n\nMuscles and bones however do respond to stress by building and strengthening tissue and bone. Lung capacity, red blood cell count wouls probably also increase under such conditions. What the upper limit of gravity a human could survive in is unknown. ",
"On top of the whole \"body adapting\" idea, another issue you're going to run into is oxygen. There is not much wiggle room when it comes to humans and oxygen, a few % points one way or the other. With more gravity, the air will be denser with will act kind of like diving underwater on earth. I don't know the limits, but there will be a point that either the high oxygen content will [poison the body](_URL_0_) or, if not enough is there, obviously you'd 'drown'. You'd need to find a place that has the perfect balance with gravity and gas distribution "
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dy6isv | why do (us) phone calls coming from your saved contacts sometimes appear unknown, unsaved or a completely different number altogether? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dy6isv/eli5_why_do_us_phone_calls_coming_from_your_saved/ | {
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"This sounds like a bug. I would make sure your contacts, images, music, etc. Is backed up and do a factory reset on your phone. If it continues to happen after that contact your provider."
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1kj82w | how is japan able to make games for just japanese people and have it still be profitable? | Examples: Ys (But I understand there are localizations now)
Bleach Heat the Soul
One Piece Gigant Battle 2
Bunch of Digimon Games | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kj82w/eli5how_is_japan_able_to_make_games_for_just/ | {
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"Development time for those games is often much lower than other games you'll probably end up comparing them with meaning they cost much less to make. \n\nJapanese people are the vast majority of their target audience and hence it would be cost prohibitive to translate the game for other markets.\n",
"Profit is determined by the money you make selling something, minus the cost of making that thing. If you make a game that costs you $1 to make, and you sell it to your friend, and only your friend, for $2 - your game was profitable.\n\nCompanies can't make games for $1, it costs them a lot more - which is why your question is a great one.\n\nJapan's population is about a third of the American population.\nJapan's economy is estimated at about a third of the American economy\n\nWhile this might sound small in comparison, it's 100 million people, and an economy worth $5 trillion\n\nIgnoring everything else, that's a very large market in which to sell a product.\n\nThere might be more information available - like maybe a greater percentage of the population plays videogames in Japan compared to the world at large - and there might be more reasons beyond that.\n\nBut the biggest reason is simply that their economy alone by itself is still very big - which means there's a lot of people who have enough money to buy their game. It might be that if they made the game for everybody, they might be able to make more money, but they've just decided not to.\n\n\n"
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4u7een | why do skydivers wear a helmet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u7een/eli5_why_do_skydivers_wear_a_helmet/ | {
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"While the helmet won't protect them if the shoot fails 1,000+ feet in the air, it can if they are coming in a little too fast and have a rough landing. ",
"Because stick your head out the window when your driving... Sorta difficult to see? Not to easy to hear things?\nImagine that at terminal velocity.\nThe helmet allows clear vision and muffles the sound. Keeps the ears warm too!",
"Because exiting the plane is a rapid and high energy activity, and if you hit your head on the aircraft you will just plummet to your death (or AAD activation) like the unprotected pillock you are.\n\nThat may sound unlikely, but people smack their helmet mounted cameras into the rails, doorframe or floor on exit fairly often. Better a helmet or camera than a skull.",
"My brother and his mates are skydivers. He told me about a mate who came in, followed by another guy. Can't remember details but it was a stunt jump of some sort, and they were landing in a tight spot. One obstacle was an upright pole which the second guy flew right into and hit him square in the face. His whole face caved in on impact and he died instantly\n\n\n",
"Several reasons. When you jump out of the plane, you're going between 200-400 MPH out the door of the aircraft, and you might hit your head on the aircraft upon exit. Also, if you are skydiving with other people, (such as in training, or in a formation, or just a jump with a rented aircraft with multiple people), people can, (and do), collide with each other. Another reason, upon the opening of your parachute, you are slowed down greatly, but are still falling to earth at around 30-35 MPH. If you happen to hit a tree, or run into a cliff, (or a bird hits you), it's going to hurt. It may knock you unconsious, or even kill you if you do not have a helmet.\n\nBasically, the same reason cliff climbers wear helmets. Yes, if your chute fails to open, you're probably going to die, but you can hit things, or thinks can hit you on the way down, (including the ground if you don't land properly)."
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3wkg39 | why should we be worried about internet regulation bills like cisa? wouldn't major tech companies like google and facebook have a vested interest not letting these bills pass and have the same lobbying potential as the people that support such bills? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wkg39/eli5_why_should_we_be_worried_about_internet/ | {
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"I'm not sure I understand the premise of your question. Large technology companies are neither all-powerful nor do they necessarily have the best interests of the public in mind. (Indeed, the directors of the company are responsible to the shareholders, not the public.) When technology companies are on the right side of an issue they may fail to successfully lobby for their side, or they might succeed when they are on the wrong side of an issue.\n\nDemocracy cannot be viable if you abdicate your responsibilities as a citizen and put your life in the hands of someone else, especially not a for-profit corporation. If you have a view on a political question, you need to make sure it is heard. "
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2bhlc2 | isn't religion just a massive conflict of interests? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bhlc2/eli5_isnt_religion_just_a_massive_conflict_of/ | {
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"Just a lots of trust. Trust in your family, priests and prophets. And it doesn't conflict with your interests, all my religion requires from me is being nice i can deal with that. \n\nAnd i even appreciate most other religions because the values they stand for are very similar. If there's my god i'll be fine. If there's karma and rebirth i shouldn't end up as a snail either.",
"I'm going to remove this, as it's not really an ELI5 question. \n\n > ELI5 is for requests for easy-to-follow explanations of complex concepts and subjects. That means no questions that are just looking for straightforward answers, that are subjective, a request for a guide/walkthrough, or that are objective but not asking for an explanation of an answer. ELI5 is absolutely not a repository for any question you have."
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fpdbxg | how easy is it for distilleries and others making alcohol to make the switch to making hand sanitizer? | With the current situation in the world, I’ve heard of some distilleries switching from making whiskey to making hand sanitizer. Is that easy and cost efficient for them to do or are they taking a huge monetary hit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fpdbxg/eli5_how_easy_is_it_for_distilleries_and_others/ | {
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"There might be some costs associated with a changeover, but it is probably fairly simple for a factory to switch from mixing up this combination of chemicals to mixing up that combination of chemicals, and changing from bottling one type of chemical to bottling another type of chemical. It would probably not be done as efficiently as a factory that was built from the ground up to produce hand sanitizer, though.",
"It likey isn't very expensive in comparison to making potable spirits, since they don't have to take any procedures to making it taste good. They would just have to make grain alcohol (ethanol), and they wouldn't have to use any premium ingredients to achieve this. Distilleries could use the cheapest grains available, distill it a number of times to yield a clear, tasteless, and odorless spirit (essentially vodka), probably dilute it to reach a safe proof, then add whatever ingredients to thicken the mixture to a gel ( I don't know how this is done, but I've seen homemade recipes that are just neutral grain spirit and aloe vera gel). \nI'm just a guy with above average knowledge of the distillation process. If anyone else can shed more light on this, feel free to correct me or add on to this.",
"Hand sanitizer is just 96% alcohol mixed with a bit of glycerine, hydrogen peroxide and distilled water. It is trivial to do, with the correct ingredients you can make it in your kitchen.\n\nSo what they do is switching alcohol products. It is not uncommon that alcohol you drink like vodka was 96% in the manufacturing pipeline and then you add water to get it to the appropriate strength. So it is no change in how you make the alcohol just how you mix it.\n\nA large part of the manufacturing cost of Whiskey is the fact that you store it in barrels for a long time. There is no need to prepare grains to get the correct tase just take the cheapest possible thing that you can ferment.\n\nI would be surprised if any small distilleries with more traditional and manual manufacturing switches production. You will see that is large industrial manufacturing.\n\nFor the economy of it that depends on if you produce stuff at maximum capacity in the past and if you think that the virus will decrease consumption. I might be a good economical idea because you can make a lot of product you can sell immediately. \n\n\nI would suppose a large part is because they think it is the right thing to do. It can, in the long run, look good for them so it is in a way a PR move.",
"Bonus question: Most alcohol based hand sanitizer uses isopropanol; are the distilleries using ethanol? Are they equally effective?",
"It's pretty easy, and fairly cheap, to switch. The big delays and expenses would have been getting permits from the FDA (which they've decided to officially ignore for now) and paying the excise tax* (which the Treasury Department has decided to waive for now.)\n\nQuite a few distillers are getting into making hand sanitizer now.\n\n*Federal excise tax is paid on ethanol (the type of alcohol made in distilleries), because it's drinkable. You can avoid the tax by \"denaturing\" it (adding isopropyl alcohol) to make it undrinkable, but it's really hard to get isopropyl alcohol right now, for the same reason it's hard to get face masks and toilet paper."
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cyu2s4 | how did people survive open wounds infection before the invention of antibiotics? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cyu2s4/eli5_how_did_people_survive_open_wounds_infection/ | {
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"Cauterization was done as first aid.\n\nDO NOT attempt to do this!!!!!!!!\n\nSo. The idea was pour alcohol on wound. Take a big gulp for yourself. Get a bunch of people to hold you down while someone brave heats an iron rod and sticks the damn thing in the wound",
"I think cauterization was the go-to method to close a wound and avoid infection.. but I have no idea to what extent it really worked.",
"Actually, even these days people can almost die from paper cut infections:\n\n_URL_0_",
"A lot of times, they didn't. \n\nHowever, methods of treating wounds before antibiotics included cauterization, alcohol, honey, moldy bread, and maggots. As disgusting and improbable as it might sound, these are actually fairly good ways of preventing wound infection in the absence of antibiotics. Other people have already discussed cauterization and alcohol, so I'll focus on the others. \n\nHoney has antibacterial properties and its gooey texture helps seal off wounds. Bread mold is basically what penicillin is made of, so... And many species of maggots only eat dead tissue, so if they're put into a wound that's turning necrotic, they can remove all the dead tissue and promote healing. For that reason, maggots are still sometimes used today.\n\nHowever, I'd really not recommend trying any of this at home.",
" [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) \n\n > Meanwhile, in Carlisle, England, officials were experimenting with a sewage treatment, using carbolic acid to reduce the smell of sewage cess pools. Having heard of these developments and having himself previously experimented with other chemicals for antiseptic purposes without much success, Lister decided to try carbolic acid as a wound antiseptic. He had his first chance on August 12, 1865, when he received a patient: an eleven-year-old boy with a tibia bone fracture which pierced the skin of his lower leg. Ordinarily, amputation would be the only solution. However, Lister decided to try carbolic acid. After setting the bone and supporting the leg with splints, Lister soaked clean cotton towels in undiluted carbolic acid and applied them to the wound, covered with a layer of tin foil, leaving them for four days. When he checked the wound, Lister was pleasantly surprised to find no signs of infection, just redness near the edges of the wound from mild burning by the carbolic acid. Reapplying fresh bandages with diluted carbolic acid, the boy was able to walk home after about six weeks of treatment.[\\[44\\]](_URL_0_#cite_note-BBC_Books_-_Randomhouse-44)\n\n & #x200B;\n\nphenol is an interesting compound for its antiseptic properties. It was championed by Joseph Lister",
"The use of Cauterization, Sulfur based drugs, Mercury based drugs, alcohol, and various herbal poultices were utilized to attempt to fight or prevent infection. None of these worked great though and people often died from infections of even small wounds or what we would consider minor breaks of bones getting infections.",
"Oh oh oh! During the civil war there was the “angels glow” which was a bioluminescent bacteria that prevented a lot of infections!",
"My grandfather told me this story shortly before he died: his father (my great grandfather) stepped on a large nail while working on the farm. He was afraid it would get infected and he would die and there were no antibiotics. \n\nHere is how he treated the wound: he ran a cloth through his foot (the nail had passed all the way through). Each day he would soak the rag in alcohol and pull it through the wound until it had started to heal sort of like a pierced ear or tongue. The alcohol helped keep it from getting infected. Grandpa said it must have hurt like hell but it was the only thing that kept his dad alive and not infected so he just gritted his teeth and did it.",
"The boring old answer is their immune system won against the infection but that's not always the case sometimes they were REALLY lucky. There was cauterization and alcohol of course and a lot of hocus pocus based off bad assumptions that did nothing actually killing them but that's not all that interesting and well others will cover it better than I.\n\nWhat about luck? how is luck a thing? well sometimes the conditions fell just right. My favorite example of this comes from the US Civil War and this particular bit of blind luck was referred to as \" The Angle's glow\". What?! you're not actually saying angles? hah no.\n\nThe Battle of Shiloh in 1862 was a wet muddy bloody mess and being injured in these conditions usually meant you're toast but something weird happened. Some of the wounded people noted that their injuries glowed a faint blue and it was noted at the field hospitals those that had glowing wounds were more likely to survive their injuries. What the heck happened? well the conditions in the area were perfect for nematodes to have a population surge! and as luck would have it these particular nematodes are host to P. luminescens a biolumenesent bacteria. This bacteria cannot survive at human body temperature but as luck would have it during the battle it was cold, wet and muddy generally miserable weather meaning that these bacteria survived in the wounds protecting the injured lucky enough to have been visited (pooped on) by a little parasitic bug.\n\nThere are countless stories like this\n\nWhy? a lot of antibiotics are discovered in the soil. A lot of the hocus pocus remedies are simple misunderstandings of what happened. They were often random microorganisms floating around doing their own thing falling into the right conditions so blind stupid luck."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.google.com/amp/s/philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2016/09/27/mans-paper-cut-turns-into-life-threatening-medical-emergency/amp/"
],
[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol#cite_note-BBC_Books_-_Randomhouse-44"
],
[],
[],
[],
... | ||
by1xa6 | when pouring a liquid, what determines if it pours out nicely or dribbles down the side of the original container? | I hate that! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/by1xa6/eli5_when_pouring_a_liquid_what_determines_if_it/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Water is a polar molecule (which means it likes sticking together and with other polar molecules)\n\n [_URL_2_](_URL_1_) \n\n [_URL_0_](_URL_3_) \n\nIn this case, depending on the material the container is made of, it'll have a certain tendency to want to stick to that as well, hence dribbling on the side. The attraction it has is fairly weak, so if you increase the angle, or the amount of water you are pouring, that can overcome it.",
"It seems it's a more complicated phenomenon than many people realize. [Here's an article on some research just this year on how the interaction between \"hydrodynamic suction\" and wetting influences whether the pour detaches cleanly or dribbles.](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8bmic7/eli5\\_why\\_do\\_liquids\\_always\\_stick\\_to\\_their/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55j6cp/eli5_polar_and_non_polar_moleculesbonds/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55j6cp/eli5\\_polar\\_and\\... | |
8gq1g9 | how did old civilizations deal with fish and nut allergies? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8gq1g9/eli5_how_did_old_civilizations_deal_with_fish_and/ | {
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"People died.\n\nSeriously, most allergies cause complaints that would have been considered minor, in a world where a small wound would lead to deadly infection, everybody had lice or flee's and clean drinking water was a luxury.",
"They just died. Adrenaline shots weren't exactly commonplace.\n\nThe concept of washing your hands was only invented roughly 500 years ago. Before then, people just died of illness a ton and that was how life was. If someone broke out in hives and stopped breathing after eating peanuts, it was probably safe to assume that the peanuts were poisoned or something.",
"Allergies were less common, it is hypothesized that's because they lived in way less hygienic environment with dirt, shit and parasitic worms everywhere. If that sort of thing didn't kill them in the childhood what chance would allergy have."
]
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[],
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1syixq | why do my food cravings change so rapidly? | For instance, when I eat something sweeter, like cereal, I suddenly get a craving for something savory. Is this my body trying to vary my diet, or am I just as hormonal as a pregnant woman for some reason? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1syixq/eli5_why_do_my_food_cravings_change_so_rapidly/ | {
"a_id": [
"ce2idyi",
"ce2ii6b"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Hormones could be making it more acute, but every person does this. Your brain knows that this food has this mineral in it, or that food has that vitamin in it... and you need that vitamin. So you'll suddenly develop a craving for it.\n\nIf you're lacking salt in your diet, you might be craving popcorn or something else salty... If you desperately need vitamin c, you might suddenly want fruit.\n\nYou're not weird. And congrats :)",
"To clarify: I am not a pregnant woman. I'm an 18 year old male."
]
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[],
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] | |
6w983q | what happens to your lungs/air-passageways if during an asthma attack an inhaler is not available? | To elaborate: would there be a change in the air-passageways once the asthma attack subsides? such as strengthened lungs that can better cope in the next attack, intake more air; or an overall change in lungs/tubing?
I am not endorsing not using inhalers or respiratory devices that may save lives, I am just curious. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6w983q/eli5_what_happens_to_your_lungsairpassageways_if/ | {
"a_id": [
"dm69lps"
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"text": [
"Your bronchioles won't be in better shape, or in any way improved for having had repeated asthma attacks. On the contrary, they'll become more damaged, inflamed and enlarged over time. This enlargement, or remodeling, of the smooth muscles then acts to further narrow the air way, making it even more difficult to breath in the future. This then creates a vicious cycle in which previous attacks contribute to future attacks, which contribute to still more attacks thereby creating an ever narrowing \"pipe\" through which air can flow. There is also an increase in the secretion of non-beneficial protein in the airway that further complicate the problem. As a result, the fewer/less sever asthma attacks one has, the healthier the bronchioles will remain and the better overall pulmonary function. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
fkgh7l | what's the difference between fiscal and monetary stimulus? how can the government go about enacting fiscal stimulus? what are the consequences of it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fkgh7l/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_fiscal_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"fkskhip"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Fiscal policy is related to taxes and government spending. Monetary policy is related to money supply and interest rates. Both can be used to affect the demand of goods in an economy.\n\nTo do fiscal stimulus, you either cut taxes or increase government spending. If taxes are cut, more disposable income is available to consumers/companies, who will spend more of that on goods/investments. Government spending can be on infrastructure projects, subsidies or other goods/services. Either way, this increases the demand of goods & services in the economy.\n\nThe consequence of fiscal stimulus is that the government needs to find money to perform the additional spending, or replace the lost tax revenue. This is usually accomplished through government borrowing, which increases national debt."
]
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[]
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2msm4z | why do some cpu's offer the 'turbo boost' feature? why can't they just have the boost as the default speed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2msm4z/eli5_why_do_some_cpus_offer_the_turbo_boost/ | {
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"Running continuously at a higher clock speed will make the CPU overheat.\n\nPreviously the solution was to run the CPU at the highest speed possible such that it'd never overhead.\n\nWhat Turbo Boost does is allow the CPU to run significantly faster, but only for short periods of time. As long as the temperature doesn't exceed the maximum, it works great.\n\nIf you're using Photoshop and a particular filter normally takes 10 seconds, this might make it take only 8 seconds because it can run the CPU at turbo speeds for 8 full seconds.\n\nOn the other hand, if you're encoding a 1-hour video to upload to YouTube and it normally takes 20 minutes to encode, it might only be marginally faster - because after the first minute or so the CPU has to switch back to normal speeds to avoid overheating.\n\nSo basically it gives you faster speeds for short tasks but not long tasks.\n",
"Because it's all based on how much heat the CPU generates. if it generates too much heat, it gets damaged. Turbo boost is meant for when you have a single task that needs a lot of computing power that can't be distributed across multiple cores. Your computer will shut down some of the cores and boost the speed on the remaining core or cores (as long as it remains within the thermal limits of the processor) to get that one task done faster.",
"Working faster causes the CPU to generate more heat, which is OK for a time, but if allowed to continue indefinitely would damage the CPU. Making the boost temporary allows time to cool down when running at normal speed.\n\nNow, you might ask why not design the system to be able to run at the higher speed without damage: Because that would cost more."
]
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[],
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ntnr8 | conway's game of life | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ntnr8/eli5conways_game_of_life/ | {
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"Life is just a grid of cells, either 'live' or not. Every now and again a 'tick' occurs. At each tick, each cell is checked against four rules:\n\n* Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.\n* Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.\n* Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.\n* Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.\n\nThe cool thing about Life is from that relatively simple definition [all kinds of cool things fall out](_URL_0_).",
"Let's see... a 5 year old explanation:\n\nYou have a gigantic town, all with houses in rows and columns. If you look at it from a bird's eye view, you'll see a grid. In each house, a person *can* live there. Now, let's start with a random pattern, with one person in each randomly given populated house.\n\nOne day passes: each house has a rule to either add or remove people. These rules are:\n\n1. If one person has less than two neighbors, that person is lonely and doesn't live anymore. (grim huh?)\n1. If one person has at least 2 or 3 neighbors, that person can stay. He has friends :D\n1. If one house (not person!) has exactly 3 neighbors, that house now has a person living in it (these people are weird).\n1. If one person has more than 3 neighbors, that person has too many friends and can't handle the stress and doesn't live anymore. (rather depressing isn't it?)\n\nAs each day passes, these rules are applied. Eventually things will come to a standstill where every house follows the rules with each passing day and the population of our little town is the same. The end.\n\nYou can look at GuiMontague's explanation for the official version of the Game of Life.",
"Life is just a grid of cells, either 'live' or not. Every now and again a 'tick' occurs. At each tick, each cell is checked against four rules:\n\n* Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.\n* Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.\n* Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.\n* Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.\n\nThe cool thing about Life is from that relatively simple definition [all kinds of cool things fall out](_URL_0_).",
"Let's see... a 5 year old explanation:\n\nYou have a gigantic town, all with houses in rows and columns. If you look at it from a bird's eye view, you'll see a grid. In each house, a person *can* live there. Now, let's start with a random pattern, with one person in each randomly given populated house.\n\nOne day passes: each house has a rule to either add or remove people. These rules are:\n\n1. If one person has less than two neighbors, that person is lonely and doesn't live anymore. (grim huh?)\n1. If one person has at least 2 or 3 neighbors, that person can stay. He has friends :D\n1. If one house (not person!) has exactly 3 neighbors, that house now has a person living in it (these people are weird).\n1. If one person has more than 3 neighbors, that person has too many friends and can't handle the stress and doesn't live anymore. (rather depressing isn't it?)\n\nAs each day passes, these rules are applied. Eventually things will come to a standstill where every house follows the rules with each passing day and the population of our little town is the same. The end.\n\nYou can look at GuiMontague's explanation for the official version of the Game of Life."
]
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],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life"
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6xux9q | are cameras difficult to operate in the vacuum of space? | A good portion of the official space footage that is shown is mainly of selective viewing angles within the ship, showing miniscule views of the Earth and space. Why is there never any footage of what is around the ISS in 360 degrees? We have 4k 360 degree cameras here on Earth by the dozen, so why hasn't one been installed on top of the station for optimal viewing? Why do spacewalk videos look as if they are filmed on a moto RAZR? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6xux9q/eli5_are_cameras_difficult_to_operate_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmimxwf"
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"The ISS was built in the 90s and pretty much runs on the same hardware from the day that it was launched. Installing new cameras would require you to take said cameras into space, which cost a lot of money, only to get a possible glitch possible making the cameras inoperable. Add in the fact that the ISS job isn't to take pictures and it makes sense why space agencies aren't willing to take the risk. Space walk footage tends to be pretty terrible because they use terrible cameras. Cameras for space walks have to be maneuverable, durable, and cheep quality of course will suffer because of this. "
]
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[]
] | |
didkcx | cash flow | What does it mean to have a 15% yearly tax mitigated cash flow? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/didkcx/eli5_cash_flow/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Let's break down these terms.\n\n15% yearly. Sounds like it means whatever you invest, you'll get 15% extra annually. So invest $1000, your investment would be worth $1150 after a year.\n\ntax mitigated: Sounds like something about the investment allows you to access the value with paying less tax on the 15% than your standard income bracket. For example, if the profit is classified as capital gains which is taxed at a lower rate than the standard income tax brackets.\n\ncash flow: The rate at which you gain money, either by cutting regular expenditures or increased payments from a paycheck or investment income. In this case, it sounds like investment income. Many investments require certain criteria to pull money out from, so this sounds like it implies you can regularly extract the expected 15% from the investment for your own use.\n\nSo putting it all together, it sounds like an investment in which you can expect to receive 15% of your investment back every year in a manner in which you can actually use it with less tax compared to normal income."
]
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[]
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6a3p4x | what does a percentage divided by another percentage mean, mathematically? | Hi Reddit
X% x Y% = a percentage of a percent
But what does X%/Y% = ?
Example I have is:
Discount type A = 15% Discount type B = 20% Effective rate = 6%
Formula (1-(80%/85%)) = 6%
It's a sheet I got at work but it's bugging me because I don't understand what it's doing.
Thanks
Edit: edited the numbers | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6a3p4x/eli5_what_does_a_percentage_divided_by_another/ | {
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"(1-(20%/15%)) isn't 6%... it's -33%. (1-20%)/(1-15%) would be a bit over 94% (or a 6% discount).\n\nHowever, if you algebraically re-arrange your division (and do the math correctly) it should be more clear what's going on:\n\nX%/Y% = Z% - > X% = Y% * Z%\n\nSo this just means that if I take a Y% discount off of an unknown discount, I know I end up with X% - so what is Z%?",
"Percentages are just fractions of 100. \n\nx%/y% is the same as (x/100) / (y/100) which is the same as x/y, (since I can multiply both the numerator and denominator by 100 without affecting the result).\n\nThat probably doesn't help very much. It seems that what you really want to know is the point of the division with respect to your spreadsheet.\n\nI can't reliably explain your sheet since we don't know what it is actually used for, or what you're doing with the effective rate. I can give an explanation where it *might* be used, and you can then see if that fits, or relates to your situation in any way.\n\nIt looks like the formula calculates 'effective rate' as the additional discount to add to a discounted number to give it a new discount.\n\nSo, perhaps I have a sale, and all goods have been priced with a 15% discount already. We now have a special offer. Everything is now 20% off. Your effective rate of 6% is how much extra discount to apply to give a 20% reduction.\n\nThe difference between 15% and 20% is 5%, so why don't we just apply that? It doesn't work because the price we have has been reduced by 15% already. 5% of the reduced *85%-of-the-original* is less than 5% of *100%-of-the-original*. The solution is to back out the original discount, then apply the new discount\n\nWhen we applied the 15% discount we multiplied by 85% (1-15%)\nSo, in order to back out the original discount, we have to divide by 85%.\n\noriginal_price = discounted_price / 85%\n\nNow we can take that result and apply the new 20% discount. We multiply by 80%\n\nnew_price = original_price * 80%\n\nWe can combine these two steps into one\n\nnew_price = discounted_price / 85% * 80%\n\n- or - \n\nnew_price = discounted_price * (80% / 85%)\n\n80%/85% is approximately 94%.\n\nAnything that has been discounted to 15% can be converted to a 20% discounted price by multiplying by 94%, or by applying a 6% discount.\n\nExample, you have something priced $85, (a 15% reduction from the presale price of $100)\n\nIf you deduct 6% of the $85 you will get to the new price of $80 (a 20% reduction from the original $100)\n\n85 * (1-6%) = 80 \n\n\n\n\n\n"
]
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8ms2h9 | how do we know the person who “created” math was correct? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ms2h9/eli5_how_do_we_know_the_person_who_created_math/ | {
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"dzpwado"
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"text": [
"No one person created math. It is the result of centuries of scrutiny by thousands of people, many of whom are paid to look for mistakes (research professors)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
d01s8m | how is a gun safety on the trigger a plausible idea? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d01s8m/eli5_how_is_a_gun_safety_on_the_trigger_a/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Glocks have a “secondary” trigger on the trigger. \n\nThe secondary trigger is just a catch, meaning unless it’s rotated out of the way, the trigger can not be depressed, by means of a stopper that rotates out of the way when your finger presses on it. \n\nGlock uses something like 7 internal safeties, rather than a safety latch. \n\nIn conjunction with the secondary trigger, the hammer is only half cocked so it takes a definite trigger pull (rather than slight pressure or a bump) to fire. \n\nMany guns have internal safeties where the trigger must be depressed when the hammer drops or it doesn’t strike the firing pin (various ways to accomplish this)\n\nLong story short, the “safety” on the trigger is one of many safeties that when used together make it incredibly unlikely the gun will fire unless the intent is to fire it.",
"A gun usually have different safeties both as redundency and to safeguard against different things. Most of these safeties are internal. For example it should be safe to drop a loaded gun onto the ground and still prevent it from going off. Blocking the trigger in such a case may not be enough as it is possible for the seer to jump or even for the firing pin to move without the trigger mechanism being activated. Similarly a trigger safety is designed to prevent against some types of accidental discharges. It makes it harder to accidentally pull the trigger while it does not prevent you from pulling the trigger when you want it."
]
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2gggrz | why won't my teachers let me use wikipedia as a source? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gggrz/eli5_why_wont_my_teachers_let_me_use_wikipedia_as/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Wikipedia isn't a source, It's a collection of knowledge. The sources are the links at the bottom.\n\nInstead of Wikipedia says that Dr S. Cience said that lasers are cool \n\nUse Dr S. Cience said that lasers are cool\n\n___\n\nWhen we examine some one's work we have to consider what they found and how they found it and whether we consider them a reliable expert on the matter. Wikipedia isn't an expert on anything, it's a website that could be written by anybody. It's usually accurate but don't take that chance quote the peer reviewed sources.",
"Wikipedia isn't the original source information. If you want to use Wiki, you need to cite the sources at the bottom of page.\n\nThere is also a stigma of Wikipedia not being thrust worthy because \"anyone can add anything\". In reality, Wikipedia is closely monitored (at least the English one) and mistakes are very rare.",
"A Wikipedia entry isn't a valid source because it doesn't come from a direct, vetted authority but rather a collaboration of many anonymous contributors. It's an general knowledge article written about a subject, and all though it references other reputable points of information through numerous citations, there is no way of knowing if the article is actually authoritative.\n\nFeel free to use Wikipedia to do your research, just cite the same appropriate sources that the entry writer did. They are listed at the bottom of the page."
]
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[],
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1tmx43 | how does your credit/debit card send a signal to your bank or acct so fast with a swipe of a strip? | How does your bank alert your transaction if you have insufficient funds or enough money in your account? How does that black magic strip work so fast and accurately? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tmx43/how_does_your_creditdebit_card_send_a_signal_to/ | {
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"text": [
"Its not the strip, its the device your swipe into and the internet. The strip is just an identifying mechanism to tell whose account to draw from.",
" > How does your bank alert your transaction if you have insufficient funds or enough money in your account?\n\nThe credit card reader is connected to a telephone line or internet connection. It communicates with the bank that way."
]
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[],
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5ozlyo | how does an automatic car not roll backwards when in drive, but a manual car does? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ozlyo/eli5_how_does_an_automatic_car_not_roll_backwards/ | {
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"A manual car has a clutch (which is a rough disc) that rubs against the engine's flywheel together (when the clutch pedal is not engaged) or are separated (when the clutch pedal is fully depressed). When the clutch is fully disconnected from the engine the car's wheels spin freely, so the car rolls back unless the brakes prevent it. \n\nWith an automatic, there are two impellers placed in fluid facing very near each other (think of two fans facing each other with one fan running--the blades of the other will spin in response to the moving air). One is connected to the engine, and is always spinning in the fluid when the engine is running. The other one spins because of the moving fluid, unless the brakes are applied (or the remaining drive system's friction is greater than the idling engine's spinning the fluid). Since they're not connected the fluid will just rush around the second impeller when the car's brakes force the wheel impeller to be stopped no matter if the engine's impeller is spinning. "
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bldqty | why do cars feel like they perform better when they're clean? | I recently just cleaned the interior of my vehicle and it feels alot smoother of a ride/quieter. Is this just psychological? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bldqty/eli5_why_do_cars_feel_like_they_perform_better/ | {
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"It might be the subconscious psychological effect of less things rolling around and rattling inside, making the vehicle feel more confident."
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6tig90 | if i seal the end of a syringe, place it underwater and so there's no air around it, and pull the plunger... isn't that a perfect vacuum? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6tig90/eli5_if_i_seal_the_end_of_a_syringe_place_it/ | {
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"No because they'll be air already inside the end of the syringe that would just spread out across the area of it, so you'll only get a perfect vacuum if you start of with one inside the small gaps within the syringe.",
"No, because the seals will be imperfect and the atoms in the syringe itself will be pulled away.\n\nA perfect vacuum cannot exist in the universe as we know it. Deep space is very close, but there are still stray atoms out there and all sorts of sub-atomic particles. *Technically* these make the vacuum imperfect. In theory, the \"space\" outside of our universe is a perfect vacuum by definition, but that's no good to us either way.\n\nIn your scenario, if you pulled out the plunger the pressure you feel is the result of vacuum. If you braced the plunger against the pull and left it in that state the vacuum would decay over time. It might take hours or days or weeks but eventually the vacuum would fill and the strength of the pull would drop. The better your seals, the longer this takes. It might only be a few atoms at a time, but all it takes is one atom to not be a perfect vacuum.\n\nEven if your seals are perfect, if you left the plunger extended then the rubber of the seals, the plastic of the plunger, and the glass of the syringe will all be giving up atoms into the vacuum. It will become measurable over time as the pressure starts to drop, but this evaporation-like process starts as soon as you extend the plunger. It only takes one atom to not be a perfect vacuum.\n\nAnd this isn't addressing the possibility of having a few atoms of water or oxygen inside the syringe before your experiment started.\n\n",
"If we assume the syringe had nothing inside it when the end was sealed (how was this done exactly, with glue? How did you get it so there was absolutely nothing between the plunger and tip?), and we assume that the plunger seal was perfect (it wasn't), and we assume there isn't anything which can vaporize within the syringe then it should be a perfect vacuum. It will take about one atmosphere of pressure to pull the vacuum.\n\nWe can make basically perfect vacuums on Earth but getting absolutely zero contaminants is extremely difficult."
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114ph1 | the white discoloration that sometimes appears on my fingernails. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/114ph1/eli5_the_white_discoloration_that_sometimes/ | {
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"The white spots occur if the layers of the nail are not bonded together tightly, so there are little layers of air between them which makes them appear white. The most common cause for this is mechanical damage of the base of the nail (where the nail is produced by your body) or as a side effect of some diseases. Generally, those spots are nothing you should worry about. You also can't really do much about them other than wait for the spot to reach the end of the nail where it will be cut of.",
"I have significantly higher levels of these white nail markings than the general population. My fingernails are strong and don't produce these markings when bent or stressed in many ways. As a child I was told it was due to a zinc deficiency, but other people I know have been told calcium. Is it possible there is more than one cause?",
"Small internal cracks or air inclusions in the fingernail. More common at older age.\n\nFingernails are the same material as horns and hooves.\n\nDisease, diet and living conditions influence nail growdth and hardness.",
"There's an old wives tale that every mark you have is either someone unknown who loves you, or someone you have undeclared love for... I can't remember which.",
"A friend in high school (circa 1983) was told by his parents that they were evidence of lies. He always had a lot of them, and as a rebellious brat, as well as semi-closeted gay, counting them was always a source of entertainment for us. Yeah, we were losers.",
"You accidentally posted this to eli5, I think you wanted askscience.",
"Side Bar on the same topic: What determines the size and number of the \"half-moons\" at the base of nails? And is is a myth that you can tell how healthy a nail is by looking to see how smooth/ridged it is?",
"Can someone explain why sometimes my fingernails are blue?"
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faedju | why does water get in clothes so easily but is hard to get out completely? | Today i was in gym, like usual, when i went to put my pants on they fell on the ground for a brief second and now they're wet.
What causes this and why is it so hard to get out? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/faedju/eli5_why_does_water_get_in_clothes_so_easily_but/ | {
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"Water, liquid water, is inherently sticky. The way it sticks to things is something like the static electricity effect you get when you rub an inflated rubber balloon on cloth, and stick it to the wall.\n\nThe reason is that water is V shaped - one Oxygen atom has two Hydrogen atoms stuck to it at an angle. The Oxygen is at the point of the V, and has a negative charge. The Hydrogens are at the top of the V with a positive charge. Positive likes to stick to negative, and so anything else, anywhere, that has a positive *or* a negative is going to get water stuck to it if that water touches it. Cloth is usually an organic molecule made of a chain of stuck together carbon atoms, and usually has oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms sticking out itself, not as sticky as water, but sticky *to* water, so if water molecules brush up against the cloth, they stick. They fasten onto their good buddy by what at called 'van der Waal forces', much like static electricity.\n\nWater also likes to stick to itself, for the same reason. So, water 'crawls' along cloth - if water touches a corner of cloth, it will spread out all along the cloth, flowing, sticking, pulling more water after it, even uphill. \n\nOne touch and your cloth is wet, and won't get unwet until the water gets turned to vapour and floats away. It's all clinging to charges in the molecules of your clothes, and to itself, and doesn't like to let go.",
"Basically it’s all about how sticky water is and what it likes to stick to. Water can’t really stick to a tile floor that well, it’s just a relatively flat surface. Your clothes are made up of millions of small fibers and pockets between those fibers that water likes to stick to, a much larger surface area than the ground.\n\nOnce water sticks to something, you either need to physically remove it or wait for it to evaporate into the air. You can’t reach all of the places water likes to sit, so you can squeeze it in the hope that those pockets will get smaller pushing water out, spray it with air hoping the air will pick up water molecules faster, or heat it so they’re more likely to jump into the air."
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2ouy9r | what is majoring and minoring in post-secondary education? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ouy9r/eli5_what_is_majoring_and_minoring_in/ | {
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"It's basically choosing to do a bunch of broadly related subjects/courses for your bachelors degree. For example, I did a science degree and double majored in physiology and pharmacology which meant I did a bunch of subjects that taught all kinds of human physiology as well as subjects that taught pharmacology. The difference between majoring and minoring in my university was how many units you chose to do for each subject.",
"A major is your primary course of study. It's what you take the most classes in, and often (but not always) is related to your career choice. For example, if you want to be a doctor, it's common (but not universal) to major in biology or chemistry. If you want to be a teacher, you will either major in education or whatever you want to teach.\n\nEdit: sometimes majors can have concentrations or focuses. This is basically sort of like a minor but for a subfield of your major instead of a different subject. As an example, at my school you can major in mechanical engineering with or without a concentration in nuclear engineering. If you take the concentration, instead of courses in computer aided analysis, electromechanical systems, and choosing electives in things like advanced fluid dynamics, vibrations, or HVAC systems, you take required courses in reactor systems, nuclear safety, and economics of power production. Business majors may be able to concentrate in HR, finance, international business, or management.\n\nA minor is something you take a few courses in, but not enough to major. Sometimes it's related to your major (a biology major may get a chemistry minor if they are more interested in metabolism, or a business administration major may get a finance minor to learn more about finance), sometimes it's just because you're interested. Usually you have to take something like 15-20 semester hours in the subject."
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2bqf3q | i hear the youth united states is quickly becoming more and more liberal, so why does the republican party still get so many votes each election? | I understand that the youth doesn't make up the majority of the population, but if the stereotype goes that old cranky conservative elderly people, and the hippie liberal young folk, won't the old people die out and put up no competition in politics?
Also, why is this happening now?
If possible I'd rather have people not be super liberal biased answers, I know that is the majority here but please refrain.
EDIT: Thanks for all the responses! It really helped answer my questions. This is my first post that ever got "big" and my phone's been buzzing all night! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bqf3q/eli5_i_hear_the_youth_united_states_is_quickly/ | {
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"One explanation is that the younger population tends not to vote (perhaps due to apathy). The older population tends to vote more.",
"The Republicans have won the national popular vote once in the past 22 years; in the incumbent year of a wartime president (two of the greatest factors that help a person win). That doesn't seem like winning the country material to me.\n\nThey're still a major force because of local strongholds and an ageing demographic. Their party line will need to change dramatically to still be relevant in the next 20 years.",
"People tend to become more conservative as they get older. It's by no means universal, but it could help to explain how liberal youth doesn't translate to more liberal overall voting patterns.",
"Because they grow up. Many of us were very liberal in our youth. Experience taught us the reasons for being conservative and cautious, as it will teach the new crop of youngsters. Note, I'm still very liberal, as in Libertarian, socially. But I am extremely economically conservative and dislike the current socialist philosphy the Democratic 'Liberals' are espousing. Does that make the water clear as mud?",
"The youth are liberal, but \"the youth\" also encompasses age brackets that can't vote yet. Also, the elderly are the strongest voting block out there followed by christians. In the 60's several fundamentalist christian representatives and religious leaders started to associate conservatism with christianity. This snowballed until the religous right essentially took over the republican party. In the mid 2000's the tea party emerged as the middle class being tired of congress' apparent ineptitude, but it was quickly purchased by the Koch brothers. The brothers are immensely good businessmen and knew the best demographic to hit to ensure their party would stay in the game and have the effects they wanted. So they courted the religous extemests, those who shouted the loudest yet represented the fewest.\n\nI have many christian friends who are disgusted by the tea party's (and republican's) actions all in the name of \"one nation under god\". It is a phase that will eventually fade, but not before there's a huge national conversation on the role of religion in the united states and Christianity's place in it and there will be some nasty fights as the more extreme branches of Christianity begin teaching their followers to treat non believers like enemies.\n\nChristianity has always been slow to change because it is the nature of religion to be like that. Those in power in the religion come from an age when the N-word was the word you used to define a black person, they're not inherently evil, but their morals are not compatible with the morals of the younger generation.\n\nFinally, in the US, there's always been a sense of american exceptional-ism. That god singled out the US for greatness. It started in the 1800's and from there it grew until patriotism essentially became a religion in of itself. Its perfectly fine to have pride in one's nation, but we take it to a whole new level. We're falling so far behind other countries in simple things such as quality of life, quality of medicine, racial equality, education, and opportunity yet we choose to ignore those things and still say we're better than everyone else.\n\ntl;dr - clash of age groups, cultures, and our history came together to make this moment inevitable.",
"Lots of youth are Libs because it's popular. As some of them grow up and begin to understand what the issues are, they realize they were conservatives all along and it tends to balance out more. Liberals are no more correct than conservatives, it is just two different philosophies and we all have a predisposition to one philosophy or the other. \n\n",
"its been also proven that after college people swing to conservative. conservatives promise lower taxes, and more \"protection\" of family rights those two things are huge for people starting and raising a family. ",
"Youth isn't quite as liberal as you may think. Yes, youth tend to be more anti-war, and more in favor of government support for social programs. But the world isn't that simple, and politics isn't that simple. \n\nCollege students aren't happy with Obama's continued use of drones, for example. And the young generation has been one of the hardest hit by \"Obamacare\", which not only forces the young to buy health insurance (though they need it the least!), but the no-preexisting conditions regulations force them to pay higher rates (compared to benefits) and pay for other's risks.\n\nYouth also aren't universally happy with economic policies that may cut future job growth. Who would have known that the Clinton-era policy which encouraged banks to give home loans to the poor would end up causing an economic bombshell a decade+ later?\n\nKids also grow up. As they get jobs, they realize that the business climate is more important to their own life and the lives of Americans. They begin to understand that a policy of taxing and spending isn't all good cheer for those in need - that is has trade-offs that hurt others. They become more likely to vote Republican as they get older. ",
"To explain why they continue to win Congressional seats is simple... Gerrymandering. It is why it takes retirement or death to get new candidates elected. And this goes for both parties.",
"beacuase those liberal kids become those crotchety old people. Once they \"get theirs\" they dont like sharing anymore and become fearful of losing what they have.",
"My friends and I are republicans but we don't full heartedly agree with everything some republicans do, (we're low 20 year olds). That being said yes, a good chunk of youths are more liberal, but they don't vote. On top of that old people love to vote and a lot of old people can live for long ass times. ",
"Because the old addage has some truth... If you're not Liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain. \n\nIt is very common for people to become more conservative as they age. \n\nThe majority of people define themselves as independent conservative. A very small portion definitely excited as liberal. \n\nGerrymandering is overblown. Democrats controlled district drawing for 50 years now the majority of states are controlled by Republican. Those in power make the rules. Congress is 535 cases of all politics is local. \n\n ",
"Because old people exist.",
"There are a lot of Christians who happen to be Democrats but most people like to conveniently forget that fact.",
"Liberals protest, Conservatives vote. ",
"I can't see why anyone one would vote for either party. They are both spending us into oblivion and wiping their asses with the constitution.",
"This is a broad generalization, but the old quote \"If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain\". The younger generation has no vested interests; for them, it's all about making thr world a better place. Once you get older, buy a house, have a job and a pension plan, all those change the world ideas become less pressing than making sure someone's not going to increase your taxes. \r\rJohn Calhoun (a brilliant senator from South Carolina who had some unfortunate views on slavery) wrote about this in one of his books, essentially saying that people value their own particular problems more than someone else's general, far away problem. ",
"The assumptions in this question are wrong. There are plenty of conservative youth. Take a visit to Texas or Utah. ",
"People often become conservative as they age. It happens all the time in every country.\n\nThink about it this way...\n\nA college student is probably going to want the government to help subsidize their education. They might want taxes to be raised on the wealthy so more money can be put towards their education and other programs; they might want higher corporate taxes for the same reason. They might be working a low paying job and would want the minimum wage to be increased. \n\nNow imagine the same person 20 years down the line. After college and 20 years of work, they now own a business and have quite a bit of money. What are they going to want? They are going to want to pay less taxes because they want to keep their own money. They want their business to pay less taxes. They don't want to pay their employees as much money as to increase profits and so might be against raising the minimum wage. And above all else, why would they want to spend *their* money to help random people get through college?\n\nAs you age, your interests will change.",
"Political Science Major. While it is true that there are more Democrats then Republican in the United States, in term of voters the split is about even. What works in the Republicans favor is the fact that the same indicators that can tell if somebody is Republican also tell whether or not they will vote. For example a 55 year old white male who makes over $200,000 a year is a likely voter and also a likely Republican, while a 18 year old high school is a likely Democrat but an unlikely voter. Also note that Republican are very popular in their individual districts and states. The idea of fading Republicanism is really more on the national level, especially during Presidential elections when all those unlikely voters are more likely to vote."
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aahdc3 | why do some holidays (like xmas and new years) have separate super hyped “eves” while other holidays don’t? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aahdc3/eli5_why_do_some_holidays_like_xmas_and_new_years/ | {
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"My guess is for Christmas it's because Santa Claus comes that night and for For New Years 12 AM is literally the start of the new calendar year so the most exciting part is counting down",
"For new years it's obvious, because everyone wants to stay up past midnight on New year's eve for the countdown.\nAs for the other holidays, I'd assume it might have to do with the fact that they are 'more important' globally as they are Christian holidays. Easter doesn't really have an eve but it's a multi-day celebration so it somewhat in line.",
"Halloween *is* the \"eve\", it's simply an \"eve\" that's superseded its holiday (All Saint's Day).\n\nEaster is sort of a week-long deal, so having an Easter's Eve doesn't really make sense. It's got a week's worth of \"eve\" leading up to it.",
"For New Years the holiday is the eve. This is because the holiday itself is the transition point between the two days, which is the transition point between the two years. \n\nFor Christmas it is a morphing of older holidays. The Christmas holiday season was a 12 Religious Feast period that started on Christmas day and lasted till Epiphany in January. The Feast and religious celebrations (for most) have shrunk down to only being Christmas Day and its Eve. But the secular recognition of Christmas has shifted from being 12 Days starting on Christmas to being around 30 days starting on the day after Thanksgiving, or even longer if shops start to put things out mid November. \n\nFor others like Halloween the Samhain Night was the primary holiday but when Christianity converted the Pagan Holiday (as most Christian Holidays are) they added 2 days of holiday focusing on the deceased. First one focusing on all Christian Saints who have died (All Saints Day), then one focusing on people who have died (All Souls Day). This was used to sap Samhain of its Pagan Religious significance. "
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725ne0 | how do countries with nukes know they'll still work if tried to be used? is there some kind of shelf life? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/725ne0/eli5_how_do_countries_with_nukes_know_theyll/ | {
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"The half-lives of fissile isotopes of uranium and plutonium used in many such devices are on the order of millennia at the low end. While hardware failures in the missiles or warheads might be compromised, the material actually used in the nuclear reactions will not \"go bad\" for a very long time.",
"They do regular missile tests, randomly choosing a few missiles to fire at a prearranged target and then seeing how effectively they're working. Missiles are reasonably complex pieces of hardware, so it's expected that some of them won't work properly. As long as that number is below whatever percentage the military deems critical in the tests, it's assumed that the missiles are sufficient.",
"To add on to what's already been stated about the extended shelf-lives of the payload as well as live fire tests, in larger and more complex weapon systems such as ICBMs and cruise missiles, the systems themselves are modular and have internal diagnostics that can be run on the hardware and control systems.\n\nIn most cases there's an entire support chain that revolves around testing, maintaining and repairing these systems to ensure they're operational and ready when needed. Many times this includes Intermediate level support where individual modules can be removed from the weapon system for further analysis, repair, and easy replacement.\n\nA regular maintenance schedule will prolong the life of the equipment significantly, and the use of proper measurement and diagnostic tools will help ensure weapons systems are utilized safely.",
"The engineering behind what makes them work is extremely precise and has been shown to reliably make efficient use of the materials used. So as long as the device passes routine maintenance checks, they are assumed to be in working order. They are on regular maintenance schedules, where the entire device is checked for corrosion, serviceability, etc. If the radioactive materials reach a certain age, I would assume that material is replaced with fresh material and the old materials are reprocessed to remove the pollutant isotopes, produced from the radioactive decay, and re-purify it. Even if the half-life is on the order of millennia, there are still decay isotopes mixed all throughout, and the ratio of decay isotopes to pure material increases daily. These decay isotopes get in the way of the reaction and slow it down. If there are too many impurities, the reaction will stop altogether and you get very low yield. So the materials are re-purified. Mind you, this is all just for the warhead, which can be removed from or attached to the carrying body as needed.\n\nThe carrying body is just a guided missile that goes really, really high so that when the warheads are released they come in at mach WTF!!, making them virtually undetectable. That missile is also well-engineered, but also goes through routine maintenance checks as well.",
"If you're really interested in this subject, there is a great book by Eric Schlosser called \"Command and Control\" that covers it.\n\nOne of the things he documents is the terrifying number of accidents that have happened in the past 50 years with nuclear weapons - they have fallen off racks, been accidentally dropped from planes, have been set on fire, etc. The main part of the book documents a huge explosion at a ICBM silo in Arkansas that killed several people and sent a warhead flying miles away.\n\nNone of these accidents have resulted in an actual nuclear explosion, which is good. However, it's debatable whether or not this is because a) the failsafes in the triggering mechanisms are that good, or b) the weapons themselves are not very reliable. \n\nThis is also one of the reasons that Trump's decision to appoint Rick Perry head of the Department of Energy is so concerning. Remember, in the presidential debates Perry wanted to eliminate it. One of the DOE's primary roles is operating the national labs that design, build, and maintain our nuclear weapons. Michael Lewis wrote an [article for VF](_URL_0_) about the terrifying lack of interest displayed by the Trump admin in transitioning control of the DOE from the Obama administration.\n",
"Absolutely there is a shelf life. Nuclear weapons, like many weapons, are modular. It is possible to service, inspect, and replace parts on them. Due to radioactive decay, the weapon cores will degrade over time. This is less a problem for the isotopes themselves as their half lives are usually tens of thousands of years. It does degrade though, however slowly, and sometimes the solids and gasses they degrade into can cause problems. \n\nThe radiation can also [cause problems](_URL_0_) in the electronics and even the physical materials of the weapon over time. The parts of a rocket for instance have all of the complexities of a space launch vehicle, coupled with the additional problems that come from storing chemical explosives, and fissile nuclear material. All must be checked regularly and maintenance performed. \n\nYou might find [this article, on NPR, interesting](_URL_1_) They reported on the US examining some of it's stock pile and discovering that over time their plutonium cores were more stable than anticipated. ",
"In the US, the Department of Energy and the military jointly conduct what's called the [Stockpile Stewardship](_URL_0_) program designed to ensure as well as possible that nuclear weapons will function as intended.\n\nEven though nuclear weapons can't be tested anymore, many individual components can be tested separately under certain extreme conditions that occur during a nuclear detonation, like using a particle accelerator to simulate extreme neutron flux, or testing bomb materials under high pressures using [diamond anvil cells](_URL_2_) (for example).\n\nOther aspects of the detonation that can't be separately tested are simulated as well as possible on computers. The [Jaguar supercomputer](_URL_1_) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for example, was built in part to model virtual nuclear detonations under different conditions, including the aging effects seen in older weapons.",
"I have no idea about the electrical components. But in fission bombs, tritium is used as a neutron source, a kind of kick starter. Where uranium and plutonium have half lives in the thousands or tens of thousands of years, the half life of tritium is only a little more than 12.\n\nA significant amount of upkeep cost is actually the manufacture of tritium, disassembly of of the missile and replacement of the tritium. \n\n\nIt was actually one of the avenues that could potentially lead to denuclearization of fission bombs. Stop the global production of tritium and you eliminate a significant amount of the global stockpile."
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1ttfft | if i cut the earth in half and one half disappears, what happens to the remaining half? and what would happen if i jumped off the side? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ttfft/eli5_if_i_cut_the_earth_in_half_and_one_half/ | {
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"Even half the Earth would be big enough to achieve what is called [hydrostatic equilibrium](_URL_0_). This means the force of gravity is stronger than the materials the planet is made up of, and it would collapse back into a roughly round shape. I'm guessing this collapse would be very messy, and everyone would die.\n\nIf you jumped off the instant the half disappeared and before the planet started to reshape itself, it would be like rolling down a hill rather than falling off a cliff, because the center of gravity would be inside the half of the Earth that was still remaining.",
"It would immediately collapse and start to form a sphere again. And all life on it would die. And it would change orbit. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrostatic_equilibrium"
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bp0s8e | why do the mints put the date on coins? | Other than being able to say to yourself, "Hey this is an old coin I've just received as change from purchasing those dildos", or whatever you might use cash for so as to not leave a paper trail. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bp0s8e/eli5_why_do_the_mints_put_the_date_on_coins/ | {
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"When worn or damaged coins are taken out of circulation, it's helpful to know how long they've been around, in order to plan coining volume for the future to keep the amount in circulation steady or growing. \n\nGovernments also have the right to declare money older than a certain date no longer legal tender, the date clearly tells you which coins are good and which should be exchanged. \n\nOriginally, Monarchs put their faces and dates on coins as a sort of propaganda, since there were very few other ways to visually communicate with their subjects, who largely couldn't read but could do math."
]
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1c40xa | why do all web addresses, in all countries, use the english alphabet? | Why don't address bars accept the characters of other countries? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1c40xa/eli5why_do_all_web_addresses_in_all_countries_use/ | {
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"I don't believe this is true anymore. Non-Latin character web addresses [have been possible since mid-2010](_URL_0_).",
"[Technically, you can use non-ASCII characters in an URL](_URL_0_ \"Although Punycode transforms non-latin characters to ASCII, so even more technically, you can't\"). \n\nFor your actual question, the Domain Name system we use today was developed in 1983, when there wasn't a standard for non-latin scripts like Unicode is today. What they had is ASCII which pretty much only encodes the english alphabet, numbers and some useful numbers.",
"Historically, computers fairly exclusively used ASCII, so non-Latin text wasn't actually a thing. An individual computer could be set up to use a different character set, but to work with other computers, ASCII was the standard. ASCII was designed in 1960, and therefore a design goal was to use as little storage as possible; between 63 letters (upper and lowercase), 10 digits, 33 symbols (including space), and 33 control characters, there wasn't room for anything else without using more storage.\n\nStorage has since become cheap, so using a bit more isn't really a problem. This allows for the Unicode standard, which attempts to allow for text using any possible character from all languages. This isn't perfect yet — some obscure Chinese glyphs still aren't available, for example — but it's enough for almost all uses. However, while it's used fairly widely, it's less used in web addresses. First, even though the standard is available, it takes time for old systems to start using it, especially when it's a *really bad thing* if those systems stop working, which is likely during an upgrade. It also takes time for the bureaucracy running the systems to decide to do so in the first place. Even when it's set up, domain owners often don't want to change, since visitors are familiar with the old address.\n\nOverall, things are changing, but slowly. Address bars in modern browsers should accept non-Latin characters (though some refuse to because non-Latin characters that closely resemble Latin characters can be used for phishing sites — you'd probably think bankоfamerica.com is actually BofA's website, but the apparent o (Latin) is actually an о (Russian)), but few sites actually use non-Latin characters, and fewer are legitimate.",
"I see people use the term english alphabet when its really the roman alphabet. there are plenty of languages besides english that uses these symbols in writing.",
"A lot of info here that isn't ELI5, so here is an appropriate answer. When the basics of what became the Internet was being made it was all in English, and made for English speakers. No thought was given to include other languages, and it was technically speaking much easier not to. \n\nEnglish has remained in place because of its status as an international language, and it actually works rather well for technology since it does not contain accent marks or very many letters. \n\nThere has been efforts to allow the use of non-English in web addresses, but it remains unpopular since English is already the standard, and works perfectly well. ",
"They don't. You can visit The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology at _URL_0_ for example. (You might need to cut and paste that URL because Reddit doesn't seem to automatically recognise and link it, but trust me, it's a valid URL)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
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"http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/web-addresses-to-extend-to-non-english-languages/3210"
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],
[],
[],
[],
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"http://موقع.وزارة-الأتصالات.مصر/"
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2ge810 | why can a teen be approved for student loans, when they can drop out and never get a job, but be denied a car loan to get to a job they already have? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ge810/eli5_why_can_a_teen_be_approved_for_student_loans/ | {
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"Student loans are guaranteed by the government, so banks give them out (almost) indiscriminately; car loans are not.",
"Student loans are backed by the government. Also, the schools that receive them typically police the students that drop out intensely, so as to decide whether or not the students have reneged on the terms of the loan (ie staying in school)."
]
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[],
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1z5qjc | why does soft bread get hard when stale but hard crackers get soft? wouldn't dry air keep crackers dry? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z5qjc/why_does_soft_bread_get_hard_when_stale_but_hard/ | {
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"text": [
"Bread has more moisture in it than the surrounding air does. Crackers have less moisture than the surrounding air does. \n\nOver time, the moisture levels average out. "
]
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[]
] | ||
3bect0 | how did the transition from classical to "modern" music happen? | EDIT: to clarify : I mean how did it happen genre-wise. What genres and how much time did it take | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bect0/eli5how_did_the_transition_from_classical_to/ | {
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"The short story is it begins in the antebellum south where slaves fused African music traditions with Christian hymns, which became the blues. After the war they spread it around the country, where it fused with ragtime and added more instruments. In New Orleans it became jazz, before spreading to New York City and Chicago. It evolved into swing music in the 40s, and after the war recording technology took off due to the Nazis and record labels started making a bunch of money recording pop music and rock n roll, which both trace their roots to jazz and blues. \n\nTl;DR slavery and Nazis gave us Nicki Minaj \n\nLots of reasons for why that happened. Most of it happened in the United States because slavery gave us a unique cultural environment, while economic hardship forced people to turn to cheaper and fewer instruments (guitar and harmonica instead of piano, drum set instead of percussion section, etc). Then touring musicians became popularized in part by Sousa's band, but also by the travelling bluesmen who played the nation's roadhouses during the first great infrastructure projects around the turn of the century. The roaring 20s and prohibition created a perfect environment for jazz to evolve and turn into swing, then after the war the US was the only nation with kids who had disposable income and threw it at record labels. \n\nI don't think you can give it a hard timeline, because what sounds modern is always changing and always has been. ",
"i just read both comments (/u/coolpidgen and /u/Holy_City), but I thought you were talking about classical to modern classical.\n\nfor classical to modern classical, i've always thought that there was great philosophical and political foment during the last half of the 19th century...leading up to the first world war.\n\nthe music took on some of the more austere aspects of the political & philosophical thought...and represented that austerity and reach quite graphically.\n\ntonality was stretched and shattered. rhythm was also affected, breaking certain genteel rules and adopting some of the rhythms of jazz from the U.S., but generally becoming very boisterous...some would have even said barbaric.\n\ncertain pieces evoked somewhat violent reactions, especially when coupled with the other arts, such as ballet and modern dance. Nijinsky's Afternoon of a Faun for the Ballet Russe comes to mind, as one particularly upsetting artistic display. here is a link: _URL_0_\n\nadmittedly, Nijinsky mimicked the faun coming to orgasm on the scarf left behind by a young woman...which caused a bit of an uproar, to say the least.\n\nthat brings me to sex and money. both were in a state of flux and disarray before the first world war...and the demand for the vote for women was also quite a source of friction and furor.\n\nadd all this up, and you have a new sort of music...displacing \"Home, Home on the Range\" with \"Rite of Spring,\" so to speak.\n\ni think it is much the same now. i grew up in the 50s/60s. the change in music between then and now has been tremendous, and the change has been fueled, in large part, by the growing pains and changes in society...in my humble opinion, of course. :)"
]
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[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afternoon_of_a_Faun_%28Nijinsky%29"
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16ykns | when reddit says "alpha" or "beta". | Like when they say beta or alpha as fuck. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16ykns/eli5_when_reddit_says_alpha_or_beta/ | {
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"Beta-male, alpha-male\n\nas in \"I was alpha as fuck hitting on that chick\" -- > \"I was the dominate male in a social situation with regard to my capacity to make flirtations with that female.\""
]
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tprdq | how 'free' are the individual american states in their legal power? | Hey ELI5!
As a law student (albeit in Europe), I was wondering how 'free' the individual States are in adopting and changing (esp. penal) laws s.l. I'm just gonna go ahead and presume that they have to respect the Constitution (right?), but are they totally free besides that constraint? Like: gay marriage, drugs,...
For example: could state "X" legalize all drug use, while the neighboring state "Y" decides to ask for the death penalty for cannabis possession? Is there anything that the federal government could do, or are the individual states fully independent in their legal and penal systems? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tprdq/eli5_how_free_are_the_individual_american_states/ | {
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"The US Constitution reserves the power to the states to govern themselves so long as their laws don't contradict the US Constitution. The Constitution sets up the federal government's powers and responsibilities so there are some things like standing armies that the states cannot form because this is a power reserved to the federal government. Also states cannot pass laws that contradict other constitutionally-guaranteed rights, such as disenfranchising individuals of their rights based on race or sex. The federal government gets jurisdiction over issues that involve more than one state (e.g. interstate commerce).\n\nThere are some muddy issues however. A state could legalize all drug use and thus no law enforcement at the state level could prosecute you for it. However, the federal government would make the case that selling drugs can have an effect on the national market and so they could still prosecute you under federal drug laws. This happened a few years back due to conflicts in law between California and the federal government, and the Supreme Court sided with the federal government.\n\nThe death penalty is an issue that deals with Constitutionality as well because we have an amendment prohibiting 'cruel and unusual punishment'. So states could not pass such a law requiring the death penalty for cannabis use.\n\nIn a nutshell, when the country was founded the states had nearly all of the power and today the federal government has nearly all of it. The progressive mindset in the US heavily favors federal control over state control because of historical hot-button issues like slavery and segregation (and now gay rights). However, in giving the federal government more power in order to prevent these types of things, we have eroded much of the original intent of the Constitution. Some would say this is good and is a natural evolution of government, which is a fair argument. However sometimes these ideals are accomplished by ignoring long-standing legal doctrine and allowing a judge to 'invent' a reason to say something is not constitutional.\n"
]
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8x200t | how come whenever someone takes a picture of a screen with their phone there is always that wave effect on the picture and when you move the picture around the wave changes forms? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8x200t/eli5_how_come_whenever_someone_takes_a_picture_of/ | {
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"[Moire pattern](_URL_0_)\n\nIt is what happens when you overlay two grids on top of each other. In this case the pixels of the screen and the grid of the CCD in your camera. ",
"This is the moire effect. It is caused when two grids of parallel lines are overlapped. When the lines of both grids are nearly parallel you get these phenomena. "
]
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[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moire_pattern"
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45hmz8 | how do outdoor soda vending machines keep the soda from freezing in the winter? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45hmz8/eli5_how_do_outdoor_soda_vending_machines_keep/ | {
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"Those things are plugged in, and most the time are spending energy to keep drinks *cold*. So they're already insulated. \n\nThat said, I live in Minnesota and I can't recall seeing any vending machines outside in the winter on anywhere *near* a permanent basis in the winter. Now possibly I'm just not paying attention, but... "
]
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40rs3y | what does it mean for us everyday working class people that barrels of oil are supposed to drop to $16? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40rs3y/eli5_what_does_it_mean_for_us_everyday_working/ | {
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"Well the biggest and most obvious difference is that petrol/gasoline prices have come down. Here in the UK they've gone from ~£1.32 per litre down to around £0.99 per litre which is a fairly heft jump. (There's a lot of tax on UK petrol, which is why it's so expensive to start with but why such a change in price is also so significant. If you're american you may now laugh at us and our petrol prices for a period of 30 seconds).\n\nHeating oil is going to be affected in a similar way, which is good news if you have oil-powered heating, but not so much if your heating is gas/electric.\n\nLonger term a lot of plastic is made using oil-based products, so there's the possibility that will help reduce product manufacturing costs and therefore prices.\n\nTransportation costs will be lowered so it's probable that there'll be a small reduction in the prices at the supermarket.\n\nSlightly more abstract and harder to notice but falling oil prices brings down the net inflation (hence why the UK had 0 inflation for a quarter recently). I'm not an economist but keeping inflation low is good in some scenarios (inflation linked prices like rail fares are in the UK can't go up as much), but at the same time inflation isn't reducing the value of your mortgage. That's about the level of detail I can cover that with.",
"It's great for the working class unless they work in the oil industry. People have more money in their pockets and will spend it elsewhere which is good for the economy.",
"For some odd reason, all the costs that used to go into delivering the stuff you buy, will stay the same.\n\nLike when coffee prices drop through the floor and somehow Starbucks keeps charging the same price.",
"Large changes of any commodity are normally unsettling to an economy. Oil dropping sounds great for consumers, \"yay cheap petrol!\" but overlook the complexity of an economy. Small slow changes are signs of a healthy economy, the size * speed of the swing has more momentum to disrupt the status quo.\n\nThe problem is if oil remains too cheap countries will buy as much as they can, when their reserves are full they have no where to store it so demand literally races to nothing.\nWe can't keep refined oil as it goes off and there are only so many places able to hold crude oil so while it's being over produced the price will continue to drop as no one can store it.\n\n\nNow the implications are people in the oil industry and supporting industries will find the companies are no longer profitable and cut jobs without intervention. This puts a lot of people out of work which is a double whammy. Firstly loss of tax income, secondly those workers now need state benefit until they find another job.\nIt's not pleasant if done abruptly as everyone is looking at the same time.\n\nWhilst the connection to loss of earnings for connected industries is obvious (e.g. manufacturers and services) it also has an effect on towns and cities where many jobs are in the oil industry. Now those unemployed people will have less to spend so all other industries suffer (with the exception of pizza and video games bizarrely!) \n\nThe bigger issue is mortgage defaults, less savings, etc.. has a massive knock on effect for the banking system. They've been stress tested in the UK down to $30/barrel to ensure they can cope.. as a global society we really don't want it to go below $30 quickly to ensure the banks continue to function without bailouts (technically it will be \"bail-ins\" next time as a new law was quietly introduced post 2008 mess, effectively allowing a bank to exchange customers savings for worthless shares in the failing bank rather than needing tax money to keep them going). \n\n\nIf oil prices do drop to a sustained $16 we want it to happen very slowly so the economy can adapt or touch $16 briefly only to bounce up again to avoid too much disruption. Who knows though, it is certainly interesting times...",
"I work in oil production and it means that a lot of people get laid off because there is not much investment in production when oil is priced so low.",
"Everyone should plan for the rug to be pulled out. Keep buying small cats or electric, and switch from oil heating to alternatives if possible."
]
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2idkbc | why do ceos or cios or any other officers in a company resign when something that is out of their control happens? | I was reading an article about the recent Target malware issue and it said that the CEO and CIO both stepped down. I never really understood why stepping down is the solution, why not just stay and try to resolve the issue? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2idkbc/eli5_why_do_ceos_or_cios_or_any_other_officers_in/ | {
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"I can't speak to Target's situation specifically - but in general, C-suite officers step down when bad, unexpected things happen because it's their job to make sure the unexpected is accounted for. \n\nA CxO or an Executive VP is usually an officer of the company - a position that has legal requirements. An officer has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders of a company (public or private), which means that the security and profitability of shareholder capital trumps all else. \n\nA CIO specifically may not have anticipated a data breach, but it's his or her job to hire really smart people who have the experience and knowledge to think about stuff like this and to make plans to avoid the unknowns. "
]
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fm69ce | when you put two phones or radios next to each other and start a call between then they make a loud ringing sound why is that | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fm69ce/eli5_when_you_put_two_phones_or_radios_next_to/ | {
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"It is a feedback loop. Basically, there is some noise, be it interference, someone's voice, footsteps, etc. This is broadcast from the speaker of one device at a slightly amplified level. The other device recurved it, then plays it back again at a more amplified level. The two go back and forth like this over and over again, each time raising the volume.",
"You know how in an auditorium, stadium, or whatever when there's a sound system you can get a single loud shrill noise when the microphone gets in front of the speakers?\n\nIt's basically the same thing with the cell phones. Sound is picked up by a microphone and send out a speaker to be picked up again. But because there is a sending and receiving delay over the cellular network for the audio, it comes in waves rather than being a single continuous noise like in the auditorium scenario."
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6bpqon | why does orange juice not turn your pee more yellow? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bpqon/eli5_why_does_orange_juice_not_turn_your_pee_more/ | {
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"Orange juice enters your digestive system just like everything else you eat and is broken down and absorbed through your intestinal lining. Then it enters your bloodstream and becomes available to your body for metabolization. The kidneys filter the blood and output the waste products including water to the bladder.\n\nCompounds which make orange juice yellow are broken down and are not generally available to make your urine more yellow."
]
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1peabu | why are there no mixed (male and female) sports teams for popular sports? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1peabu/eli5_why_are_there_no_mixed_male_and_female/ | {
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"Tennis has it.",
"Because of the enormous differences in strength and speed between men and women. Not only would it be completely mismatched, but it would be dangerous for the women in a lot of situations.",
"I think mostly because of the natural difference in strength between a man and a women but also because of the fact we live in a culture where a man should never hurt, (or hit), a women - something that is likely to happen in most sports.\n\nWhether this cultural ideal is right or wrong is your own opiniong, I'm remaining judgement free in this comment either way."
]
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bvaq6d | how do players playing high intensity sport don't have the urge to go to the toilet in the middle of the game? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bvaq6d/eli5_how_do_players_playing_high_intensity_sport/ | {
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"I can't speak for all sports, but goalies in hockey and marathon runners just piss themselves. To quote Dr. Malcolm, \"you gotta go, you gotta go\".",
"When you exercise, your body releases adrenaline into the blood. This is responsible for activating the \"fight or flight\" mechanism. When this happens, your body prioritizes what areas of your body need blood and oxygen more. Your body isn't very good at determining if you're playing sports or running from a bear, so it will respond in essentially the same way. Your body doesn't need to digest food or make urine when you're running from a bear, your muscles need that oxygen to run away! So it reduces the blood flow to your intestines and kidneys and shuttles it off to the organs that need it more. For this reason, your body doesn't produce nearly as much urine or feces during periods of high intensity exercise as it normally would."
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2uatii | even more simplified version of explaining relativity? | I know that there are a fair few posts on the topic of relativity, but apparently I am not the sharpest tool in the shed -_- but am looking to understand this topic. Errgh, anyway I was just wondering whether anyone is able to explain relativity in the most simple way so that even I can understand it. Thanks!!! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2uatii/eli5_even_more_simplified_version_of_explaining/ | {
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"Simple Wikipedia is a great place to easily learn about this. \n \n > The central idea of general relativity is that space and time are two aspects of spacetime. Spacetime is curved when there is gravity, matter, energy, and momentum. \n \nSpacetime - is when space is viewed as the 3rd dimension and time is viewed as the 4th dimension. \n \nIf you watched Interstellar, you would have seen that people experiencing different amount of gravity experienced time differently.",
"Ok let's say your friend is on a train. The train car is invisible so outsiders can see inside. Your friend has a tennis ball and as the train flys past you at some fast speed he bounces the tennis ball on the floor and to him the ball appears to move straight up and down, but to you the ball appears to travel forward with the train and down then up. Your perceived distance the ball traveled is much different than your friends because of your frame of reference. \n\nNow the tennis ball is time. As you move closer to the speed of light, you still perceive time as flowing normally, but an outside observer would perceive it as stretched out much further. Time is relative to the observer. That's relativity.",
"From the movie \"Young Einstein\"-\n\nAlbert Einstein: That's it! That's the theory of relativity! Light travels to us from the hands of the clock, to tell us the time. But, if we were to travel away from the clock at the speed of light...\nMarie Curie: The hands of the clock would appear to have stopped!\nAlbert Einstein: Time would stand still! This moment *would* last forever."
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17o4f3 | how do orange juice producers reduce calories by 50% on "with no artificial sweeteners"? | Let's take Trop50 from Tropicana as an example. How do they do that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17o4f3/eli5_how_do_orange_juice_producers_reduce/ | {
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"Orange juice manufacturers add a mix of concentrated orange juice to sweeten and flavor their mixes. This adds extra sugar, it's just not artificial. Trop50 uses PureVia which is an extract of the Stevia plant to replace some of the extra sugar.",
"The water down the orange juice and add artificial sweeteners. Don't believe the marketing bullshit. \n\nThey get away from it by using stevia extract, an sweetener made from plant extracts. "
]
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[],
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51n1qb | what technology is behind hdr tvs? | So I'm watching Sony's presentation about PS4 Pro and they add feature called HDR to their system too. I totally understand what HDR does in photo (basically combines low-exposure and high-exposure image) but cant wrap my head about HDR in TV and why do I need special hardware for that. Is it just fancy name for 10bit monitor? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51n1qb/eli5_what_technology_is_behind_hdr_tvs/ | {
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"Copy/paste from my comment over at /r/hometheater: \n \nThere are 3 main things HDR adds to regular collection content:\n \n1. **Wide Color Gamut**. A color gamut defines the max saturation a color can have, a wider color gamut means more saturated colors can now be captured and reproduced (Note, this is not the same as increasing saturation on your tv). The standard for all non-HDR digital content is Rec. 709 and HDR is Rec. 2020, [comparison image](_URL_1_). As you can see, blue is pretty much the same and red is decently improved, the biggest improvement is in greens. \nThe way this is achieved in television sets is increasing how bright a pixel can get. However, no HDR currently goes past DCI-P3 (which was/is the 2K cinema standard for over a decade), [as you can see](_URL_2_), it's like the half-way point, it'll be a few years till Rec. 2020 coverage is accomplished (and affordable). \n \n2. **10-bit Color**. In Rec. 709 content, color is 8-bit, meaning 2^8 possible combinations for each color (0-255; however, that's for computers, tv is actually 16-235 and/or 16-240). 10-bit is thus 2^10, equaling 1024 (but as with the previous caveat, it is actually 64-940). What this means is there is more precision in what colors you can choose. As an extreme example, let's say you only had 2 choices for red, 100% saturation (pure red) and 0% saturation (white), adding in 1 option will allow 50% saturation (pink). So, this means there are more shades to choose from, making your picture more accurate. [I made a relatively realistic comparison image](_URL_0_) (ignore the slightly incorrect naming for the top image, it should be Rec. 2020 + 10-bit). \nThis is achieved by fine tuning the power distribution to each pixel, getting each shade (brightness of pixel) to be produced. \n \n3. **Peak Brightness**. This deals with how bright the max white brightness is. I believe HDR content is mastered at 10,000 nits (nits is the same as lumens, like for a lightbulb), but no tv can that bright (as that's insane, probably blinding). Typically, a tv can show a little bit of white brighter than a lot of white. A 2% white screen is the smallest measurement Rtings uses, where anything above 500 cd/m2 (same as nits and lumens, pretty stupid to have 3 names for the same thing) is usually perfectly fine for a 2% window (this is one of the only main areas where the P-series is outshined by Samsung/Sony). \n \nTo my knowledge, the Samsung KS8000 and the Vizio P-series are the two cheapest sets that allow full HDR (though I just previously said the peak brightness on the P-series is not fantastic, but it gets the job done). "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://i.imgur.com/mwHq3ja.jpg",
"https://dotcolordotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/rec2020-vs-rec709-001.png",
"http://www.avsforum.com/forum/imagehosting/17662543dab6fdc0b7.jpg"
]
] | |
183lj7 | why canada remains a commonwealth country of the british empire? | As a Canadian, I understand the countries history.. But why in this day is it still linked at all to Britain in the way it is? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/183lj7/eli5_why_canada_remains_a_commonwealth_country_of/ | {
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"text": [
"We were British colonies that formed a country that was mostly autonomous from Britain in 1867. Over time we've gradually gained more and more independence to the point where our connection to Britain is entirely ceremonial. We happen to share a head of state.\n\nWhy do we still do things this way? It's a combination of tradition, people not really caring enough to want to go to the hassle of changing it, and the monumental (if not impossible) job of totally restructuring the constitution and the way our government is structured to change it.\n\nUltimately, why bother changing it?",
"There are also benefits to remaining in the Commonwealth. They tend to be behind-the-scenes things, of a diplomatic \"you pat my back, I'll pat yours\" kind rather than overt, like being a member of NAFTA. But there are definitely good reasons why countries would choose to retain Commonwealth membership.",
"ELI: Its a huge pain in the ass to change it.",
"I got a working visa in Australia and because we are part of the commonwealth countries I am allowed to extend my visa for another year. I worked with a couple of Americans and they couldn't do that. It's really beneficial to be part of the commonwealth. ",
"The British Empire no longer really exists & to say that Canada is part of any Empire is inaccurate. The Commonwealth is a voluntary collection of countries that were once part of the Empire but which now have levels of autonomy up to and including full independence, which is an arrangement which seems to suit most, because few leave."
]
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[],
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6etgh3 | how much more secure does a password become by requiring it to include both capital and lowercase letters, numerical characters and letters, etc.? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6etgh3/eli5_how_much_more_secure_does_a_password_become/ | {
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"The requirements for special characters and upper/lowercase and numbers is done mainly to steer people away from using simple, single word passwords. \n\nBy increasing the total pool of possible symbols, you increase the number of different passwords an attacker would have to go through, and (ideally) reduce the number of people who have easily guessable passwords.\n\nDifferent password requirements on different sites also means it's harder for people to use the exact same password over multiple sites, although of course not impossible.\n\nThe downsides are, of course, that people are less likely to remember their passwords, and therefore have to write them down. This can be a problem if you do it at work, where strangers might catch a glimpse of it, and where people might be specifically interested in attacking your particular computer network, but it's generally not as big a problem for home users. The odds of a hacker from halfway across the globe getting on a plane to break into your house and snatch your password notes are miniscule.\n\nOften times, if the password rules allow for it, using several random but easily memorizable words can give you stronger passwords than short passwords with lots of random characters. This of course still demands that the words you pick are actually not predictable, and that the total length of the password gets very long compared to the shorter \"typical\" passwords of 8-10 characters.",
"Length beats complexity.\n\nIf the password does not contain any words from a dictionary and someone tries to brute force it (try every option), then there are p^n options for a password of length n with p options per letter. If your password is 8 lowercase letters long, there are 26^8 = 208,827,064,576 options. An attacker doesn't know you only use lowercase letters, but they can check these 209 billion options if they have an interest in your account. If you add uppercase letters (26), digits (10) and maybe 20 special characters as options, you get 82^8 = 2,044,140,858,654,976 options, a factor 10000 more. Alternatively, you could make your password longer: 11 lowercase letters give 3,670,344,486,987,776 options, 50% more than the shorter more complex password.\n\nThe numbers above assume that you have absolutely no pattern in your password, and choose every symbol randomly. People don't do that. Replacing the \"o\" in \"password\" by a zero, capitalizing P and adding a special character to make \"Passw0rd!\" doesn't make your password strong. It is an incredibly weak password because attackers know about these obvious substitutions. They will try all the slight variations of \"password\" very early on. Password rules like \"it has to have all these things\" lead to people doing things like that. It doesn't really improve the security of passwords notably. Longer passwords are much better. A famous example is xkcd's [correcthorsebatterystaple](_URL_0_) - just lowercase letters, but much more secure than everything like \"Passw0rd!\".\n\nThere are also ways to get the password that do not depend on how complex the password is. And some attackers are just interested in getting as many accounts as possible with minimal effort - they will try \"123456\" and similar for all accounts to get all the easy accounts, and don't bother checking billions of options for each account.",
"Adding capitol letters double the possible characters from 26 to 52 and adding numbers increases that further to 62. That increase means a brute force hack has to increase the possible number of combinations by that factor as well. \n\nThis is a huge increase in the number of variables and makes it even more difficult to brute force. \n\nIt also makes it harder to guess using common words, especially when numbers are included. "
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[],
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"https://xkcd.com/936/"
],
[]
] |
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