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cgy4k8 | why are smaller blueberries significantly sweeter than larger blueberries | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cgy4k8/eli5_why_are_smaller_blueberries_significantly/ | {
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"Are they? I find them more tart.",
"There are lots of varieties of blueberries.\n\n* Some are sweeter than others\n\n* Each has a different maximum size\n\n* Mature at different times on the summer calendar\n\nThe most common store varieties are large, have good shelf life, box well without damage, but don't have much flavor. Instead of letting them sweeten, they pick early to minimize time to market and minimize crop loss. Fortunately customers don't know what they are supposed to taste like.\n\nYour sweeter berries were of a naturally sweeter type and were picked later to let the bush pack them full of sweetness. All varieties will be super sweet if left on the bush long enough. By the time the store variety gets sweet the birds have eaten them all.\n\nSource: Have about 5 blueberry varieties in the garden."
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9tahhf | how do tax cuts for businesses work? | So I see a lot of people talk about how the corporate tax cuts have allowed them to purchase more equipment or hire more people. I feel like I must be fundamentally misunderstanding something because I thought businesses are only taxed in their profits. Profits = revenue - expenses. Expenses are things like raw materials, salary, and equipment costs. Corporations can often pay zero taxes it would seem by reinvesting all their profits into expenses like capital expenditures more salaries etc. and if they don’t have enough revenue there is no profit either and thus no taxes. I’m having a hard time understanding how cutting taxes could increase spending on the “expense” part of the equation since everything spent on expenses is not taxed. It seems to me that low taxes encourage business to build up cash reserves rather than to invest in the company by hiring, building, and purchasing. What am I missing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9tahhf/eli5_how_do_tax_cuts_for_businesses_work/ | {
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"Shareholder demands. The people that own the companies want to see a good post-tax profit margin every year, because this is where they make their money, either through dividends or through increases in stock prices*.\n\nIf a company makes no profits, it generally doesn't pay taxes, but it also doesn't make any money for the owners. If an investment isn't making you money, you pull your money out and put it somewhere else that will make money.",
"Capital expenditures are not expenses. Only normal operating expenses are deductible, capital investments are not. Buying a truck or building a factory does not actually reduce profits at all. \n\nHowever, capital investments are depreciated over a period of time (depending on the type of asset, the time ranges from years to decades). Depreciation *is* an operating expense. So capital investments do not immediately reduce profit, but they do over time. This helps businesses by allowing them to show a profit, but hurts businesses (and helps the government) in terms cash flow. \n\nChanges to the tax code that allow immediate, or shorter-term, expensing of capital investments is typically characterized as a \"tax cut\" to businesses. But in reality, it only changes the timing of when taxes are paid. ",
"Here, in my opinion, is what is misleading. You do not buy equipment and hire more people just because you pay fewer taxes. You do so because you believe you have a market willing to pay (profitably) for your increased capacity. If you do have a market for the increased capacity, you can often write a business plan and go seek funding without having to wait for a tax cut. ",
"I own a lemonade stand. I do alright, I sell $100 of lemonade a day, my costs (including my own labor) are $80. earnings before tax are $20.\n\nIm a pretty overzealous young entrepnuer, so I also pay taxes on my earnings at 25%, so I walk away with $15 of profit.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nBusiness is pretty good, so Im thinking about opening a second location to sell Iced Tea. costs are the same, and Ill hire a buddy to staff that stand and I think it will do the same business, so Ill get $100 and Ill pay out $80 in labor and cost of goods sold.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nBut I have a problem... I need to buy the wood for a stand. So I go to my parents, and I ask them for $500 for the materials. Sure son, we will invest in your business and give you $500, but you have to pay us $16 a day as your partner\n\nBut I only earn $15 a day after tax! (distributions to shareholders are not tax deductible) I would not make any money! So I scrap the plans to expand the business and hire an additional employee.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nbut wait, the govt comes along and drops my tax rate to 10%! So now I can take home $18! This changes everything, a previously unprofitable venture is now profitable! I open my 2nd stand, I hire my 2nd employee.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nWorth noting that if I could borrow the $500 for less than $16 a day, that could also spur me to invest, which is why when the federal reserve lowers interest rates, this also spurs new investments into projects that were previously unprofitable."
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217e79 | why do different sized engines take different types of gas/oils? why isn't it universal? | And between different types of engines too, such as boats, planes, race cars, etc.. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/217e79/eli5_why_do_different_sized_engines_take/ | {
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"It's not really the engine size, but the design.\n\nPetroleum, crude oil, is a mix of different forms of hydrocarbons have different properties and different stored energies... you've heard the term methane, ethane, butane, and propane? Those are literally gases at normal room temperature, and are short combinations of Carbon and Hydrogen atoms. Then you get to your gasolines, which are liquid at room temperature but evaporate when warmed, and then to diesel fuel and then lubricating oils which stay liquid and have increasing viscosity as you get longer chains of carbons \n\nThe engine needs to be designed to work with the right fuel; and there are engines that work with many of these. Cars work really well with liquid octanes. Boats don't want a lot of evaporating gasolines which can cause fires and explosions. Airplanes are less concerned about evaporating gasolines, since there's lots of ventaliation.",
"Common vehicle fuels are basically gasoline, ethanol, diesel, or jet fuel. \n\nGasoline spark ignites (meaning it needs an actual fire for it to go off). Diesel, on the other hand does not (at least in an engine). You can actually put out a cigarette in a pool of diesel, seen it happen. Instead, diesel ignites from compression: you literally slam it very very hard until it explodes. Because of this, diesel engines are much heavier. That means they're more expensive to make. Diesel engines, however, are more fuel efficient, so all else being equal, a diesel engine will get better miles per gallon (or km per liter, depending on what gets you hard). So, the engines have been specialized. Diesel engines are used for large trucks and construction equipment that have to haul a lot of weight, while gasoline is used for pedestrian vehicles. So, gasoline engines end up being more designed for acceleration and speed, while diesel engines up being designed for creating a lot of power.\n\nThere are two variants of gasoline common. I don't remember their exact names and I'm too lazy to look them up. But, they're usually called like 'standard' and 'premium' at the pump. \"Premium\" is just a slightly more refined version of 'standard'. It burns hotter so (assuming you have the right fuel:oxygen mixture, which you need to retool your engine for), you get better mileage. But, it's hotter so small parts like o-rings will tend to burn out faster. It's also more expensive, so I'm not sure if it ends up being cheaper for you in the long run.\n\nAs for ethanol, well, hardly one uses straight ethanol, it's mostly gasoline/ethanol mixes. At least where I am it's cheaper than straight gasoline, but a lot of that has to do with federal subsidies. Why people use it is (frankly) often political, being focused on sustainable fuel sources. There's nothing wrong with ethanol per se, but a lot of what we produce is from specially grown strains of corn, which is the least effective way to get ethanol. There are some native grasses that are much better options, but that whole discussion is an ELI5 for another time. \n\nJet fuel is a much more highly refined version of crude oil (where we get, among other things, diesel and gasoline). I don't know much about it without looking at simple.wikipedia, but I know it burns a hell of a lot hotter and requires a huge amount of oxygen compared to gas. But the exchange is an enormous amount of power very quickly. The engines and the fuel are way too expensive for anyone not driving in nascar or a passenger plane\n\nThere's also things like CNG and LNG, that you're starting to see more and more often. CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) and LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) are simply methane that is held at a high enough pressure that it becomes a liquid (for LNG). I understand that there are some differences between the way a CNG/LNG engine and a gasoline engine are built and operate, but I'm not entirely sure what they are outside of needing a pressurized fuel tank and lines. The technology is still in early roll out, so it's fairly expensive to make and there aren't a lot of CNG/LNG stations. But, enough CNG/LNG to take you 100 miles is a lot cheaper than the gasoline to take you 100 miles. CNG is used in some applications (a lot of banks have secondary locations in... undisclosed locations with back up generators run on CNG because it doesn't rust metal like gasoline and diesel do). Probably the most common use of CNG though is by UPS and various transit authorities. It makes sense for them to, since they can build their own fuel locations."
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756eii | how can someone get fired from a company they started/own? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/756eii/eli5_how_can_someone_get_fired_from_a_company/ | {
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"By not completely owning it.\n\nOne way to make/raise money for your company is to sell part of your ownership to investors. If other people own more than half, they can get together and fire you. You still own your shares, you just don't work there anymore.",
"If you own it, they kinda can't. But many people that start companies sell off partial ownership for capitol (money). If they sell more than 50 percent ownership, then the people that have that majority can get together and oust the person that started it. If your company is publicly traded (like on the stock market) rival companies can buy a majority share of your stock without you having any saying it one way or the other. This is referred to as a hostile takeover.",
"If they don't own at least 50% +1 share of the company, then others can vote them out. Most companies have more than one founder, so they may never have that 50% stake... and then their ownership stakes get diluted as they take on investment funding. So it's very realistic that a co-founder only has like 10-25% of a company.\n\nEDIT: presumably, this question was the result of Harvey Weinstein being forced out of his company... he controlled a [20% stake in the company](_URL_0_), so the others who owned pieces had 80%, clearly enough to get a majority in favor of firing him.",
"FYI: another person who was fired from his own company was Steve Jobs. Apple fired him in 1985.",
"You should probably keep in mind the distinction between merely having an ownership stake in/owning shares of a company and being *employed* by a company. It is entirely possible to do just one, just the other, or both. The two don't necessarily have anything to do with each other. A shareholder may or may not be an employee. An employee may or may not be a shareholder.\n\nA person who is both a shareholder *and* an employee can be fired just like any other employee unless they own a majority of the company. Harvey Weinstein (reportedly) owned 20% of the Weinstein Company. There was enough momentum behind the move to terminate him that interests representing 50% of the outstanding shares in the company voted to terminate him. Weinstein himself didn't own enough of the company himself to prevent that unilaterally, and was apparently unable to convince enough other shareholders to support him either. \n\nStill owns just as much of the company as he did this time last week though. Nobody can vote that away from him. He *owns* his shares. But he doesn't *own* his job, nor enough shares to keep his job without the support of other shareholders. "
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8e5cac | why are sites such as netflix and youtube able to stream high definition video on relatively slow internet, while other sites struggle to stream that same quality of video on even the best internet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8e5cac/eli5why_are_sites_such_as_netflix_and_youtube/ | {
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"Compression is a wonderful thing. When you go to Netflix or YouTube, you aren't actually streaming 1080p or 720p. The feed you're getting is highly compressed, and your computer then renders and upscales it once you've received it.",
"* Netflix partners with ISPs and locates their content servers *inside* ISP facilities. This means your Netflix video doesn't always travel across the internet to get to you, it only goes from your ISP to you which is a dedicated hi-speed connection.\n\n* Netflix uses video compression to reduce the amount of data being sent to you. You don't really notice it because it's very good and also because most video you watch is compressed and you're used to it. Both cable and Sat TV providers use video compression even on their \"HD\" channels. ",
"1) Netflix and Youtube have some of the fastest internet connections on their end with extremely high traffic capacity. \n\n2) Netflix and Youtube have good compression algorithms that lets their streams take up less data mid transit and are decompressed on the watchers end. \n\n3) They both have tiers of quality and do not actually allow their HD video to transmit to people who have too low of a connection. "
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5cwoe0 | how to tell if there is an economical crisis | Hello everyone,
I am from Turkey. Our economy is bad.
* 1 USD = 3.30 TRY ( Last 1 year : _URL_1_ )
* 1 EUR = 3.55 TRY
* The external debt: _URL_0_
The numbers keep increasing to this point. Especially in the last 5-6 months, Turkish lira lost its value a lot.
How can I tell if there is an economical crisis?
Erdogan supporters are totally idiot, they say there is nothing bad.
I think if TRY losing its value, it means something. Because we buy almost everything from other countries. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5cwoe0/eli5_how_to_tell_if_there_is_an_economical_crisis/ | {
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"economical crisis depends on many factors but the more apparent factors that you can use to estimate the status of the economy is unemployment and CPI (inflation). Is unemployment high? If yes, then that means there aren't enough jobs for the population. If no, then we look at the CPI. Has CPI increased? What is the purchasing power of the consumer? \n\n\nIn regards to Turkey, i don't think there is an economical crisis at the moment. Currency fluctuations doesn't necessarily indicate economic crisis. I think youre confusing political crisis with economic crisis. "
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54lmhb | how do they shoot the scenes where a sharp edged weapon (knife, dagger etc.) pierces through the body and appears on the other side? | In so many action and war movies (especially the ones featuring large-scale historical wars), spears, swords, knives etc. go through the body of the victim and appear on the other side the next moment. Is this done purely through visual effects, or has it anything to do with the physicality of the weapon itself? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54lmhb/eli5_how_do_they_shoot_the_scenes_where_a_sharp/ | {
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"Prop knives are common, they gave collapsible blades so you can shove them into someone and the blade disappears. Then, they have a makeup artist attach a prop knife blade to the other side of the person's body using an adhesive. The camera will usually cut right at the moment to mask the effect. \n\nAnything significantly more detailed than that may be done with CG. ",
"Traditionally, it's a prop. The handle and the blade you see on the other side weren't connected. Maybe the blade was attached to the back of the person's clothing. Sometimes, these are further enhanced during editing to make it look a little more real than the prop alone.\n\nI remember a scene watching the making of an episode of \"24.\" A woman was stabbed in the back. Her shirt had a fake handle sticking out of it for the take, and she joked that her back was really hurting. \n\nOver time, visual effects started being used more frequently. A shorter prop that doesn't have a full blade is used by the actor, and the rest of the blade is digitally inserted. So, for example, if you see Jason bury a machete into a guy's head, the actor playing Jason was just holding a handle, with maybe an inch of dull blade, and the digital image is what appears to \"connect\" with the victim's head. They can make it appear to come right out the other side because it's just a picture they insert. The victim's actor can just focus on pretending to die without awkward props hanging off the back of his head."
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1xjwki | lien | I am curious exactly what this means. I know it means that you owe the government some money, but I'm not sure the consequences. I heard that in NYC if you miss a water bill, the city can put a lien on your home and then confiscate it! Is that true? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xjwki/eli5_lien/ | {
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"Not necessarily just the government. A lien is a formal and legal declaration that you owe someone money, so if you come into assets, or try to sell the property, the person who's owed money gets their cut first.\n\nIt's usually only done for large sums of owed money -- not likely to happen over a utility bill.",
"A lien is a form of debt security. If you owe a debt it may be secured or unsecured, with \"secured\" meaning that there is a specific asset which is identified as covering the debt. For example, suppose you owe $100 to someone and you own a car. If that $100 loan is secured by the car, then you cannot sell the car without paying off the loan. If you find yourself unable to pay back the $100 and other debts, then the sale of your assets to cover as much as possible will result in the first $100 of the car's sale going to the lien holder.\n\nNow suppose that you keep racking up charges over your $100, and that that car is only worth $2000. Once you get to the $2000 level of debt through the lien, they can just seize your car and sell it to pay off the debt. Basically the lien was a portion of ownership of the asset, and once it become 100% of the asset's worth then they wholly own the asset."
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2hy9fc | why do companies try so hard to get you to use their browser as your default? | What's in it for them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hy9fc/eli5why_do_companies_try_so_hard_to_get_you_to/ | {
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"Your browsing habits. Or in other words your personal habits they can sell to marketing firms for a profit."
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68quma | why is urban sprawl so bad | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68quma/elif_why_is_urban_sprawl_so_bad/ | {
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"Numerous reasons, several economic but others environmental.\n\nBy definition, Urban Sprawl is more or less uncontrolled.\n\n* Damage to the environment is direct and exactly as controlled as the sprawl. Like it or not, you're tearing out entire ecologies and paving straight over them, often with little to ***ks given as to the impact. In fact a lot of studies regarding the impacts will be swept under the rug, or worse.\n\n* Wetlands and swamps get drained - and that sounds nice when you're adding a new tennis court, but come hurricane or flooding season you're going to find out that wasn't the best of ideas. These provide an important buffer-zone within a local system, and their removal directly leads to erosion and flooding of what's left.\n\n* The suburbanization ensures that a majority of new arrivals will absolutely require individually owned cars in order to travel back and forth between the industrial and commercial zones these suburbs were paved to be in proximity of. This quickly compounds issues of traffic density and pollution, while at the same time making it progressively worse for individuals as well: If you have 2h of traffic each way every day, that's four hours out of your day completely lost to HATING the guy in front of you. That's four hours a day you're not with your loved ones. That's four hours a day you're not sleeping or working or having fun.\n\n* Suburbanization tends to mean that what apartments (soon to be condominiums) are left in the original main urban center very rapidly become prime realestate. This means people living close to work will very quickly see their living arrangements drastically increase in price where possible, and where the law instead protects the renter from predatory practices, slums will instead form.\n\n The reason these areas degenerate quickly is mostly deliberate: while property taxes explode which makes low-cost living arrangements increasingly unprofitable, while booting everyone off the property so one can finally sell it to a new development (usually high-rise condos) will basically let you retire then and there.\n\n.\n\nSo, to summarize: Rampant destruction of the environment, including often fertile farmlands in favor of driveways and tennis courts. Artificially skyrocketing property taxes and costs. Massive increases in work/home distance and thus also stress-factors. Elimination of low-cost housing options from the market, leading to worsening conditions for those whose income rapidly falls behind the cost of living (which itself is increasing) in the area.",
"Living in a city means you can easily walk or take public transport to get around. You're not putting money in a never ending money pit (car) Small towns are easy to get around and everyone knows each other. Suburbs are a flat, spread out city where you get the worst of both worlds. "
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2jr0ym | if everything digital is binary, is it possible to replicate something just by having those 1s and 0s? | Does it mean you can also replicate anything by chance? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jr0ym/eli5_if_everything_digital_is_binary_is_it/ | {
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"to understand this you have to think of layers and visualize this as it happens through these layers.\n\n\n\nAt the lowest layer everything is 1s and 0s. this layer is on the machine itself. the computer only knows binary and stores information in that from.\n\n\n\nAt the next level we interpret the 1s and 0s into something meaningful like characters and numbers.\n\n\n\nat the next level we take the characters and numbers and define commands and statements.\n\n\n\nnext level defines what certain commands do.\n\n\n\nfinally you get an end result where a program uses all of the above to come up with an end result. \n\n\nso yes, everything is ultimately binary but its not like it goes straight from a web page to binary there are steps involved worth rules (protocols) defining how to convert different stuff into binary. \n\n\n\nedit spellings."
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42i7o1 | why do commercials, tv shows, and movies use fake phone/computer programs instead of real ones? | I've seen commercials where they have a fake version of iOS Safari that displays a still image. What's the purpose of creating a fake web browser when using a real one for this would be so much easier? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42i7o1/eli5_why_do_commercials_tv_shows_and_movies_use/ | {
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"well one is cheaper, you gotta pay for the real thing (if they don't give it to you for free that is, AKA, \"don't care\")\n\nplus, i think you overestimate how hard a fake program would be, it doesn't even need to work, just playing a video would work",
"It does occasionally happen. You vastly underestimate how hard it is to get real software to *look* like it's doing the exact thing you want it to do *and* be realistic looking, both visually and with how characters interact with a computer. Not to mention editing. Plus then you watch the show a year later and it looks ridiculous anyway. \n\nMost of the time you're watching a fake video that actors are reacting to. Sometimes, when it needs to actually look like they're interacting, the video can be semi-interactive and just respond to any keypresses. \n\nAnd on top of all that, licensing issues. ",
"One reason is product placement, you don't give away free advertising, or else they'll pay less in the future. \n \nAnother reason is that you may not be able to get the screen to look good on camera. \n \nOne more reason is functionality. In the Modern Family episode where Apple gave them Apple products for free in exhancge for using them. Apple software engineers had to create a CGI custom UI so that they could show them doing group FaceTime, a functionality that does not really exist. "
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4334u6 | why don't english people have "of the" or "the" in their name like europeans who have names like "mario laselle" or "marco de la rosa" | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4334u6/eli5_why_dont_english_people_have_of_the_or_the/ | {
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"English doesn't use possession as formally as the Latin languages do. \n\nIf your say \"my brothers house\" in English it's \"El casa de mi hermano\"\n\nThey require \"of\" and \"the\" which moved over into names. \nIf youre David Cross or Mike King you might of been David of the cross or Mike of the Kings but no one says that in English. They do more so in Latin languages. David de La cruz or Dean del rey. These things get truncated in latin languages too but the overall structure is more prevalent in them. ",
"We do!\n-\n\n^(Note: the answer has been expanded on a few times, as the question became a little clearer: the first section isn't quite as relevant as it used to be to the question, but I've kept it in as people seem to find it interesting)\n\nTalking of the British Isles (rather than England specifically) there are several combinations\n\nIn Ireland (not part of the UK) \"O'\" as in O'Hara etc are common. In Scotland, \"Mc/Mac\" as in McDonald is, also common. Both are equivalent to \"Son of\" as is used in Europe. Both are widely used, although Mc isn't perhaps as popular in Scotland as you may believe.\n\nAnd English?\n-\n\nThis is common in English too! Very common, in fact.\n\nJohnson, Henderson, Branson, Davidson, Dawson, Wilson... we have tons of them, those are just the ones I'm sat in the same room as (literally, I'm sat in a room with people with those 6 surnames). These names are from the Danish/Norse tradition, and are incredibly common in England. These names are literally \"John's Son\" \"Will's Son\". Similar to \"Jensen\" in Danish, Johnson is the most common British name: son of Jen, son of John.\n\nWe also have many more subtle names which are from the same source, though! They don't look quite as obvious, but how about these:\n\n- Williams. Jones. Daniels.\n\nConfused? How about if I add an apostrophe....\n\n- Willam's. Jone's (John's), Daniel's\n\nOh, wait. Yeah, literally, Willam's. As in \"belonging to William\" or \"William's son\"\n\nIf anything, these names are probably **more** common in English than in most other languages.\n\nHow about \"job\" and \"location\" names?\n-\n\nSimilarly names like \"Paul from Kendal\", \"John the Smith\", \"Alfred of Rochester\" were common: they were really designations rather than names, however, and truly meant that John was a Smith, Alfred came from Rochester.\n\nThese are very, very common names in English. In short, we **do** have these surnames, they're just a little less obvious than they may be in other languages because they're incorporated into a single word. Let's take an example of one of the first Census's: the Domesday book. We can see lots of entries like this: \"Adam son of Hubert\", \"Acard (the priest)\" and \"Acwulf < of Thelnetham > \" feature on the first page, for example.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThese names started off as you'd expect, literal \"Go and see Paul\", \"Which Paul?\", \"Paul the Smith\". That would then over time be shortened to \"Paul Smith\". This was a gradual process, but particularly came about during the middle ages when people started moving around more (so \"Paul of Rochester\" made no sense) and taking a different occupation - so where \"John the Smith\" and \"Paul the Smith\" in a small village would be related previously, suddenly Paul may become a Baker. As families stopped taking the profession of their father by default, it became more useful to use a name to identify a family. Essentially, people just chose a suitable name at the time, based on how they identified themselves.\n\nSo where did the \"the\" actually go?\n-\nAs to \"Why did the 'the' or 'of the' drop in English but not Dutch or Spanish\" type queries I'm seeing a lot of...\n\nWell, they did exist. Alfred the Baker, Adelhelm the Smith were both names in the Domesday book. English did use these names, and it's not (as commonly believed) that we just use \"the\" less than French/Italian/Spanish and the other \"romantic\" languages. They were used, they just fell out of favour over time.\n\nSo where did they go? We're not (or at least I'm not) totally sure, there doesn't seem to be a single deciding factor. It just seems to be that that's how the \"fashion\" fell at the time names were starting to become formalised, although it's possible that the format of early documents \"suggested\" using just your occupation or similar. I'd be very interested if anyone has knowledge of a more specific reason than this.\n\nOne reasonable theory is that while a family would, at one stage, be \"Paul the Baker\", \"John the Baker\" etc, at some stage \"John\" stopped being a baker like his father... he was no longer \"John the Baker\" but \"John you would refer to as Baker\"... you can imagine this kind of exchange happening, for example\n\n- \"Go and give this to John\"\n- *\"Which John?\"*\n- \"Baker\"\n- *\"John Baker, got it\"*\n\nBut in truth, we aren't sure exactly why these types of names were dropped. They existed in 1100AD, they were entirely gone by 1801, and they were seen less and less through that period.\n\nWhat about Royal and Noble names?\n-\n\nThis is one area where English **did** use \"the\" and \"of\" for much longer. For example Queen Elizabeth is also the Duke of Lancaster. As you can see, though, in English these tend to still be \"titles\" rather than names. She wouldn't generally be referred to as \"Elizabeth of Lancaster\"... although she probably *could* be. Similarly \"the\" has been used, but generally to refer to attributes, not locations or family.\n\nFor example\n- Alfred the Great\n\nSome other famous examples of names with this kind of naming\n\n- John of Gaunt (John o' Gaunt) \n- Richard of York\n\nThese names are literally \"Richard of the House of York\" and \"John of the House of Gaunt\" and refer to the noble houses of England. Queen Elizabeth is, by this measure \"Elizabeth of Windsor\" and this **would** be an accurate way to describe her. However, even with our Royal Family, the \"of\" has been dropped and she is referred to as Elizabeth Windsor, if using a \"common\" style name.\n\nEdits and notes and things\n-\n\nEdit: So this has kind of blown up! Thanks for the gold kind stranger.\n\nEdit2: Just to clarify, this answer may seem a little confusing with the comments now, as I've edited it and also added some context regarding things like \"occupational\" and \"geographical\" names. There's also a discussion about names like \"Richard of York\" when used in an aristocracy/monarchy sense. Please take a quick look through the comments before asking about these, it's probably been covered :) any other questions, though, and I'm happy to answer if I can",
"Do you perhaps mean the [Nobiliary Particle](_URL_0_)?",
"The *actual* reason is that most appearances of a word translated as \"Of\" in foreign names are noble titles. This is equivalent to \"Duke of Cambridge\", \"Duke of Essex\", etc. However, in *both* Britain *and* other European languages, a reference to someone with an aristocratic title/name should drop the \"of\" unless you refer to them by their full title/name. So you can say \"Elizabeth I executed the Duke of Essex\" or \"Elizabeth I executed Essex\" but you can't say \"Elizabeth I executed of Essex.\" The hanging *of* is pointless. Likewise, \"Alexis de Tocqueville and Friedrich von Hayek are both interesting writers\" is good, and so is \"Tocqueville and Hayek are both interesting writers\", but \"De Tocqueville and von Hayek are both interesting writers\" is a solecism that comes from half-educated English speakers who don't speak foreign languages but are afraid that if they drop the \"de\" or \"von\" they'll sound ignorant.\n\nThe reason why it seems to English-speakers that the noble \"de\"/\"von\" must be part of the name is that the English aristocracy generally doesn't use their noble titles as family names, whereas in some European countries this is more common. In particular, there is only one person who can be the Duke of Essex at a particular time; his oldest son will also become the Duke of Essex (eventually), but unless his other children receive noble titles during their lifetimes, *their* children will simply be commoners. (You may remember this as a plot point in *Pride and Prejudice*: although Darcy is related to the aristocracy on all sides and extremely wealthy, technically he and the Bennetts are all commoners.)\n\nThe non-noble names that use *de* and *von* are a bit rarer, and the English equivalents are things like Williams (i.e. William's = of William, belonging to William), Jones (John's = of John).",
"Actually I feel like this hasn't been fully answered. English names have conventions like \"son of\" and \"belonging to\" and place names, yes, but they don't have \"the.\" This is because Romance languages use \"the\" far more often than English does. Where we say \"I like music,\" the French would say \"j'aime la musique\" (I like *the* music). This is a linguistic difference. So we would never have \"de la Rosa\" but we have plenty of Smiths. ",
"When did people start using last names like we do now? For instance with the name Johnson, what was Johns last name, and what will Johnson's sons last name be? Or did last names change every generation? \n",
"We used to - in medieval times we would have people called \"John of Lincoln\" etc. For some reason the \"of\" dropped out and his descendants became just plain \"Lincoln\". Perhaps because his descendants did not necessarily live in Lincoln. Similarly the descendants of \"John the Butcher\" became \"Butcher\", because they were not necessarily butchers.\n\nWe do still have \"of\" in titles - Prince Henry of Wales (son of Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales), the Earl of Bedford, etc. The \"of\" is restricted to the highest titles, Earl, Marquess, Duke, Prince, King, etc. The lower titles of Baron and Viscount generally do not have the word \"of\". Even then, Earls and Marquesses are less formally referred to as \"Lord X\" rather than \"Earl of X\" or \"Marquess of X\". During Shakespeare's time, it was still common to refer to \"My Lord of Stafford\", but now we would just stay \"Lord Stafford\". And Prince Harry (Prince Henry of Wales) uses the name of \"Harry Wales\" in the Army rather than \"Harry of Wales\". ",
"But what is the will of D?",
"Also consider 'Smith\", \"Wayne\", \"Baker\", \"Cooper\", etc.\n\nThose are professions/trades that are like \"Jon (the) Baker\" \"Joe (the) Smith\", \"Mike (the) Cooper\", etc.\n\n",
"Modernly or historically? If historically I would like to introduce you to King Henry the 8th.",
"Because it became unfashionable, even dangerous during times of revolution to be seen as upper class.\n\nMore specifically, 'de la,' 'von', and in English, 'of.'\n\nGoing back hundreds of years, these were indications of entitlement, at a time when those sorts of things carried great weight.\n\nDuring the French revolution, for instance, many people with these namining prepositions dropped them, out of fear of persecution.\n\n",
"Here in Ireland the head of a clan is called \"The (surname)\" I met a man once in a shop where I was working and his VISA card name was \"The O'Sullivan\", and when I asked him about it he said he was the head of the O'Sullivan clan, and they meet up for a party every few years. O'Sullivan is a very common name in Ireland, especially in Cork.",
"I'm dutch, so my last name \"Van Beveren\" translates to \"From the Beavers\", as my family likes to remind me.",
"In a way, we do.\nSurnames with \"son\" at the end, mean son of e.g. Johnson means son of John\n\nAlthough it's rare now, in medieval there would sometimes be \"dochtor\" at the end of a name, meaning daughter of. e.g. Johnsdochtor means daughter of John",
"Sometimes these additional articles were disambiguators. For example, in Acadia there were only a small number of surnames among the population, so \"dit\" was also used along with an adjective. One famous example: [_URL_0_](Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil). There are lots of others: a quick search for \"joseph dit amiable acadie\" will turn up beaucoup d'examples. ",
"They do, it's that surnames in the British Isles are usually in Old English, Gaelic, or various ~~Celtic~~ Saxon or Scandinavian dialects. For example, my last name means \"of the Hollow\" and my mother's maiden name means \"of Blackwood\". Mostly in British tradition it's dependent on trade, like Smith or Cooper, whereas in Scot and Irish tradition it's based on lineage (it's not really used anymore though). \"Mac\" means \"son of\", and \"O\" means \"grand son of\". Douglas O'Reilly would therefore be Douglas, grandson of Reilly. Similarly, Sean Macdonald would be Sean, son of Donald.",
"Also, frequently when a person immigrated to the US, they were encouraged (sometimes forced) to Anglicize their names. For example if your last name was Hector De la Rosa, when you arrived in the US, they may change your name to Hector Rose.",
"It would be totally awesome if we did, but with where we were from rather than last times. Michael of the Everglades. Sandra of the Thousand Islands. Evan of the Third Cubicle on the Left",
"I have always assumed that foreign or relatively complicated surnames were changed to simpler versions at Ellis and Angel Island during periods of mass immigration 1850-1930. Some of the \"European\" type names still exist and some changed.\n\nEdit: Something came to mind -- Think of all the Irish people you know, McDonald, O'Leary, McAdams, O'Sullivan, etc. Mc= \"Son of\", O'=Grandson of. Many names like this do exist!",
"Because in English this would make it a single person.\n\nIf you live in a town as the only male, you would be THE man from there.\n\nIf you have many men there, you would not be.\n\nExamples would be The Queen, The President... etc.",
"Because in england they don't use \"the\" they just say \"hospital\" \"milker\" \"butcher\" And those are the names.\n\n\nso it's actually really simple in the end. La isn't a name.",
"was it common to change your surname half way through your life? If you were born Hector De la Rosa and got to the age of 20 and thought \"I dont want to sell roses I want to sell food\", could you change it based on your profession? Hector De la BigMac?",
"Some very old english names include de ____ (noble house) which was later dropped. Early English people were French.",
"Norwegian here.\n\nMany of us have names that either refer to the name of our fathers, or the farm the family comes from.\n\nThis system has been more and more washed out in Norway, though. It's still being practiced in Iceland, the way it used to be in Norway. Typical names are based on the following syntax (please, correct me if I'm wrong, brothers and sisters): \n\n[Individual name] [family name/name of the farm] [the name of your father]. \n\nThe latter is divided between the sexes; if you're female, it'll be [fathers name]-*dottir*, while if you're male, it's [fathers name]-*son*. The suffixes means \"daughter\" and \"son\".\n\nSource: I once dated an Icelandic girl.",
"Winnie the Pooh, Dora the Explorer, Dennis the Menace, Hagar the Horrible, Bob the Builder, Clifford the Big Red Dog....need I go on :)",
"Well, I can't speak for the English, Australians, Canadians or other native English-speakers/namers of the world, but in in America our names don't mean [shit](_URL_0_).",
"William the Conqueror was the first and last Englishman to bear \"the\" as a middle name. \n\nEdit: Damn it's satisfying to write an inaccurate historical fact for once. I saw there were 1166 comments and that set me off and I had contribute.\n\nTL;DR: Disregard my first sentence.",
"I'm Irish, and we have Mc and O' - Mc/Mac mean 'Son of' followed by the name. O' means 'Of the'. My last name in Irish is Mac Cana, anglicised to be McCann. My name in Irish means Son of the Wolf."
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se63z | why a blue airhead (or, any candy, really) will only list red dye in its ingredients? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/se63z/eli5_why_a_blue_airhead_or_any_candy_really_will/ | {
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"Where do you see this? When I try to look up the ingredients for Airheads, it listed \"color added\" not \"red dye\". Have a link or a picture?"
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21bn9q | why are numbers above a thousand uniquely named every 10^3 (e.g. thousand, million, billion, etc)? | Why not name every 10^5, or 10^10? Or why not just introduce new number names when we need them (e.g. a word for thousand-thousand (million), then a word for million-million, and so on)?
What would be the logical drawbacks of systems like this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21bn9q/eli5_why_are_numbers_above_a_thousand_uniquely/ | {
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"[It's a tradition that dates back to the Fifteenth Century, and was first codified by a French mathematician named Jehan Adam.](_URL_0_)"
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1lvchx | why is being a lawyer in previous occupation so usual when becoming president of the u.s.a.? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lvchx/eli5why_is_being_a_lawyer_in_previous_occupation/ | {
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"While the two answers you have might well be correct, if a little snarky, it's important to consider that the president must be very familiar with the law, both in letter and practice, and being a lawyer, especially a constitutional lawyer (as Obama was) is a good background for this.\n\nSomething else to think about is that becoming a top lawyer is one of the most intellectually demanding jobs around, and you have to be pretty bright (normally) to make it into politics. You also have to be good at making a case and speaking in public (as are lawyers). You have to work within complicated and messy sets of rules.\n\nThink, also, about what all the other really smart people are doing. Some people go from science into politics, but they're few and far between. There really are no better non-political jobs to prepare you."
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1owwea | could ai become advanced enough to have emotions and turn against us? or is that just in the movies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1owwea/eli5_could_ai_become_advanced_enough_to_have/ | {
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"Not currently, Maybe a long time into the future. We are only currently only able to make basic imitation types of AI. Creating emotions is a very complex task, quite possibly more complex then creating a AI to do hard science or math.\n\nEmotions have no hard points they are very fluid and have to adapt to the situation. "
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59vbc6 | if "yellow" colored urine is a sign of dehydration, why does the body get rid of that liquid instead of using it to hydrate me? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59vbc6/eli5eli5_if_yellow_colored_urine_is_a_sign_of/ | {
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"the liquid acts as a solvent, keeping the waste products from solidifying into these fun little crystalline structures we call Kidney Stones. \n\nYou would much rather pass them as particles in a fluid suspension. *Trust me.* ",
"Because your body isn't *that* efficient at processing water. You aren't a camel. And what's in the urine is more important to get out of your body than keeping that amount of water in is. ",
"*Because that is exactly what the body is doing which is why the urine is yellow!*\n\nYour body needs to get rid of waste on a regular basis. This is excreted into the bladder for periodic release. The waste products need to be carried in a fluid, but as our bodies dehydrate they try to hold onto water. As a result the waste products are more concentrated in the remaining water and the color darkens.",
"The question is a lot like asking \"if buying only beans and rice is a sign of poverty why don't people just not spend their money on that and use that money to not be poor?\" Sure, that would give them a bit more money, but the goal isn't having money; it's using money to buy the things that you need.\n\nBeing hydrated isn't just a question of *having* the water, it's using that water for the processes that it's needed for. One of those processes is flushing waste products from your body via urination. Your urine is yellow because your body is using less water for that purpose than it would like to, but you can't just stop removing that waste from your body. ",
"Urine is made up of mostly water but a lot of other [toxic] compounds and waste that your body is trying to get rid of. Normally these compounds make your pee yellow. \n\nWhen you drink a lot of water you have it in excess. Your body can only use so much water at a time. Most of it goes into your cells and is used for cellular processes. The extra will be come out in your pee. If you have a lot of extra water your urine will be made up of mostly water and some other compounds. Because you have so much water your pee looks clear. *High water:Low compounds = clear pee*\n\nIf you are dehydrated and not drinking enough water what little you do drink goes right to your cells. There isn't much extra. The kidneys are not 100% perfect so there is always a little water that comes out. Other species have kidneys that are more efficient at re-absorbing water (namely desert species). When you pee your urine is a lot less water and much more compounds. Because there is so little water your pee is yellow. *Low water:High compounds = yellow pee*",
"EMT here. Your body IS holding onto fluids, so while the amount of waste is the same, the amount of water in the urine is proportionately less.\n\nImagine you are making kool-aid or lemonade. It's a gallon of water and a bag of mix every time you have body waste to flush out, and that's where you should be at. Now, you are dehydrated so your body needs the water for other stuff. Instead of one gallon per bag of mix, you're getting a cup of water per bag of mix. When your bladder is full and it's time to hit the restroom, the amount of water is the same, but the number of bags of mix in that water has increased. It will be much more concentrated, and quite a bit darker and more pungent than usual."
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4pobgf | david cameron's decision to resign as britians p.m | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4pobgf/eli5_david_camerons_decision_to_resign_as/ | {
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"He would rather be recorded in history as having resigned on principle, rather than having been removed by a vote of No Confidence.",
"If he was to stay and manage the exit process one of two things would happen:\n\nIt would be a success, and people would constantly point out how he was wrong. \n\nIt would be a failure and people would constantly accuse him of undermining it.\n\nSometimes the only sensible move is not to play. ",
"[One image can explain better than 100 words](_URL_0_)\n\nTL,DL; Cameron wanted to use the referendum scare to get privileges from the EU. The plan backfired, which is pretty much political death for anyone involved.",
"Parliamentary tradition is that the Prime Minister has the support of the house and the people. The referendum means he does not have the support of the people. Resignation is expected in such a situation."
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afe5we | why wont disks from one video game console work on another video game console? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afe5we/eli5_why_wont_disks_from_one_video_game_console/ | {
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"Consoles are very protective of their software and games. \nBut it's very much like a German and a Britt trying to talk. \n\nThey might understand one or two words, but the whole conversation will not work. And therefore they won't do anything. ",
"The disks contain instructions for the specific console. The different consoles don't know how to do exactly the same things using exactly the same instructions.\n"
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bk73tr | americans talk about 'cable'. in the uk we have either broadcast transmission over aerial, or satellite. how is 'cable' tv different? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bk73tr/eli5_americans_talk_about_cable_in_the_uk_we_have/ | {
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"Cable TV comes through cables that lie under the roads and pavements and into your house.\n\nThe UK does have cable TV, that's what Virgin Media is. It's only available in places where they have cables installed, but that covers quite a lot of the population.",
"In some cases the world \"cable\" has become synonymous with any method of receiveing paid programming broadcast. Like hoovering is synonymous with using a vacuum cleaner. Hoover is a brand name. Like Kleenex or Xerox.\n\nWhen paid television was first introduced to the US it came into the house via a coaxial cable. Similar to a telephone line. In most cases it was installed right alongside existing telephone wiring. \n\nLater came large, expensive satellite dishes, but not many people had them. People stayed with cable for a long time. There was no other option.\n\nThe internet was over slow telephone connections at this time. High speed internet was only over expensive dedicated lines. It wasn't until the small satellite dish became available that there was an alternative."
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55rh8w | how does la times general election poll differs so much from other polls? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55rh8w/eli5_how_does_la_times_general_election_poll/ | {
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"The poll is what is known as a tracking poll. It asks the same 3,000 people every single day who they are voting for. Most polls get a random sample of new people every week or so. \n\nThe LA Times poll wanted to get nearly 50/50 republicans and democrats so it asked the polling group who they voted for in 2012. Problem is some people don't remember or lied about this. \n\nThere are probably more republicans in the group than originally intended. \n\nThere is value though since you can track how the polls are moving day to day. Even if it is 60/40 republican, it's the same people and if one week it goes to 55/45 republican, we can infer the democrats have gained ground. ",
"There's no way to throw out an outlier poll. It follows the same 3000 people, whereas other polls get a new sample every time. Sometimes the sample is off, but if you take 10 polls and 8 of them are good and two a little odd, you can discard the high and the low and have a pretty good degree of confidence. But with this poll, you are stuck with the same group and it never changes and never randomizes. \n\nThe other factor is that random polls are contacting new people every time. When you follow the same group, week in and week out, it impacts the survey. The act of being constantly observed impacts the results. Sort of a Heisnberg's uncertainty principle. "
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30167p | how do shipbuilders make bent wood for hulls of ships? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30167p/eli5_how_do_shipbuilders_make_bent_wood_for_hulls/ | {
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"They steam it to make the wood soft, they then either place it into an extreme mold/vice for a long time for it to hold it's shape or simply fit it into the ship straight away and the pressure will keep it's shape. ",
"There are a couple of ways to bend wood to make the hull of wooden ships. \n\nThe first method involves heating the wood in a chamber full of steam. This makes the wood quite pliable and allows them to bend the wood pretty easily to hold it's shape along the hull. \n\nThe second method involves shaping and making the wood to fit the shape needed. Imagine custom made plywood that will fit any shape.\n\nLastly you can simply take a really big log and cut it down to fit just what is needed, however because this doesn't maintain the grain of the wood it isn't the strongest method. \n\nSource- I have attempted to make a wooden bow a couple of times. Doesn't always work. \n\nAlso- Place a wooden spoon over a pot of boiling water. After about 15 mins you'll be able bend the spoon 90 degrees without snapping the spoon. ",
"/u/k3g and/u/nks12345 have it mostly covered, however there is one last technique that was used: grown. for when you really need an extreme angle, like [a knee](_URL_0_).\n\nIn ye olden days, ship carpenters would go into the forest to find trees that had naturally grown into the desired shape, or they would plant trees many years in advance and force them to grow into the desired configuration."
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5zp4or | what makes a name sound like a female name or a male name? | Why do the names 'Emily' and 'Olivia' sound like female names with 'Noah' and 'Mason' sounding like male names?
What about names like 'Alexander' and 'Alexandria? Why is the former a male name and the latter a female name? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zp4or/eli5_what_makes_a_name_sound_like_a_female_name/ | {
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"It's a cultural thing. In the West female names usually end in vowels or vowel-sounds, such as in your examples. Male names usually end in consonants. There are of course exceptions, but it's often because of a name being old or foreign, like Noah which is a very old name. Other cultures have different systems for naming boys and girls, or they don't have a gender differential for naming. ",
"Female names sound female because the people you know with them are female. Ditto with male names. Consider these two ideas:\n\nFirst, if I made up a completely new name, not based on any current name in any language, would you be able to tell if it was a male name or a female name? Is Mork a male name? It's a made up name, but if you know the character played by Robin Williams, you might have thought male. Or maybe you thought it was male because it sounds like 'Mark', a male name. Every perception we have is colored by our experiences.\n\nSecond, think about names that have shifted along the gender spectrum. Names like Kelly and Casey seem like female names, but they used to be male names. Again, these are our experiences coloring our perceptions. \n\ntldr; Female names are names of females, vice versa"
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e4zy36 | why does portugal portuguese sound similar to russian and brazilian portuguese sound similar to spanish? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e4zy36/eli5_why_does_portugal_portuguese_sound_similar/ | {
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"I have a question to add to this i have been learning Portuguese by myself for about a year and i stopped studying at one point because there are two different words for wall what is up with that.",
"I can't tell you about Portugal as I've never been there, but Brazilian was a language developed by the slaves who learnt portuguese listening to their masters. The following years, interactions with the rest of South American further mixed both languages. In fact, the southern region of Brazil limits with east Paraguay and North Argentina, so people in those regions speak what's commonly called \"Portuñol\" (Portugues + Español), and it's really easy to communicate in any language. \n\nAgain, never been to Portugal, but I'm not sure it acc sounds like Russian. Both Spanish and Portuguese are languages developed from Latin, and Spain is the only country limiting with Portugal.",
"For me both language sounds slavic (which also includes russian). It's because both have some consonants that are often perceived by English speakers as sounding russian-ish: /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. Unlike in French though, they are very common and can be found in the plural iirc."
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bfgldz | do throwing knives always hit blade first? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bfgldz/eli5_do_throwing_knives_always_hit_blade_first/ | {
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"There are a couple of factors. Mainly the distance between you and the target. Professionals have practiced enough so that they can judge weather to throw the knife by the hilt or tip of the blade as that halve revolution could mean the difference between the blade hitting or not. \n\nAnother factor is how hard you arebthrowimg it and how fast the blade goes.",
"Throwing knives are slightly different from regular knives. To they're More aerodynamic with a slightly heavier I blade",
"A trained thrower can hit blade first nearly all the time. However, if they miss their target and hit the wall behind for example, the knife will probably hit hilt first as there is a little more rotation on the extra distance, and not always blade first like the movies show for dramatic effect.",
"It is very rare that someone can throw a knife effectively from an arbitrary distance.\n\nLots of people can do it from a very specific distance.",
"Wouldn’t it be closer to 25% chance the blade hits first if thrown at an arbitrary distance? Imagine your phone is a knife and the top is the blade. 3 of the 4 rotational positions result in the blade not pointing at the target. It’s probably closer to 15% chance the knife sticks because you need a steep enough angle for the blade to penetrate a target.",
"People who throw knives aren’t guessing. **There’s a useful technique you can practice to make sure to hit tip first every time.**\n\nFirst of all, you only using one rotation, no matter the distance. So imagine you throw the knife: when you let go, the hilt is pointing towards the target. As it rotates, the hilt will eventually point to the ground. If the hilt is pointing down at exactly the halfway point, the tip will be pointing forward when it hits the target. \n\nYou may think that you want to focus on the tip, but you’re actually throwing the hilt, and *holding* the tip. As you aim and throw, your brain is focused on the weight of the hilt in the air. And it is much easier to gauge when the hilt will be facing down than when the tip will be facing forward. It’s a mental shortcut. \n\nMastering this mechanic is much easier and more intuitive than trying to guess the amount of spins or stand at a perfect distance. You will be able to easily throw at any distance and at a moments notice."
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3q7eqa | how is the presidents food handled, who is in charge, does anyone test it before him? | Couldn't a chef working for the POTUS bring a tiny bit of anthrax in his shoe (or something) to work and poison the president? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3q7eqa/eli5_how_is_the_presidents_food_handled_who_is_in/ | {
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"Also search about how the Secret Service handles the food for the president in foreign countries. They go out personally to buy groceries.",
"The staff goes out dressed as civilians and without any Whitehouse credentials to a grocery store. They shop like they are shopping for their own homes.\n\nThat way they don't have to track the food from its source. It makes it much easier to purchase food products for the president, because every grocery store in the region would have to be poisoned.\n\nCongrats everyone in DC. You are the official food tester of the president.\n\nsource: I watched some program on how they feed the president.",
"Everyone who works around the President has to have what is called a Yankee White security level, which requires serious background checks and an unquestioned loyalty to the US.\n\nBut ultimately, you just have to either trust people, or go full-on paranoid despotic dictator mode and have a court food taster. We're not there...yet.\n\nThe day-to-day food for the White House is purchased at random, ordinary stores by WH staffers who buy it \"undercover,\" that is, with nothing that identifies them as WH employees.\n\nSecurity *has* gotten more insane since 9/11, particularly for Presidential appearances in so-called \"uncontrolled\" environments (ie, not the WH, Camp David, or other places where full presidential security is maintained). A year or two back when Obama came on the Daily Show, I noticed that the Secret Service had really ratcheted up the paranoia. \n\nNormally, Stewart and his guest each have a mug of water. When Obama came out, Stewart reached under the desk and pulled out a sealed bottle of water for Obama. You can bet that that bottle was supplied by the SS, and that there was either a SS agent behind the desk that handed the bottle to Stewart, or that there was an agent offstage whose *entire* job was to keep an eye on the bottle and make sure it wasn't switched.\n\nWhen the President travels to other countries and eats at state dinners, there are SS agents present in the kitchen, and they follow the President's food all the way to the table.",
" > Couldn't a chef working for the POTUS bring a tiny bit of anthrax in his shoe (or something) \n\n\nThey make the chefs take off their shoes and put them through a scanner...\n\n\n\nIn all seriousness though, everyone who works in a position wherein they'd be a single point of failure in keeping the President alive has to go through intensive background checks to get clearance to do their job.\n\n\n",
"Also the chefs for the president are members of the US Navy. The reason for this is because after the retirement of the presidential boat, the Navy had no way to serve the President. The army had Army One, better known as the president's car. The Air Force were flying the President everywhere on Air Force One. The Navy, therefore, agreed that they would staff the White House Kitchen, known today as the White House Mess. So the chefs there are already military men, vetting out most of the people with plans to kill the president. Those that still might have some sort of inkling to do so are stopped by the innumerable security measures throughout the White House. If you thought airport security was bad, I promise you government security is worse because it's a lot more thorough(slow). \n\nAlso if the president goes out to eat anywhere it is planned well in advance so that members of the Secret Service will background check anyone who might be a threat to security. If their background presents any red flags, then they are told not to come into work. People who's background checks out are then screened on the day of the presidents visit to make sure nothing (like something hidden in a shoe) gets into the food. \n\nSource: Son of ex-cabinet member in the Obama administration and ex-White House tour guide"
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1f0ju4 | traditionally, where does the responsibilities of the cia and pentagon begin and end in relation to each other? | What does the CIA do that the Pentagon can't? And why does the CIA handle these activities and not just a branch of the Pentagon? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1f0ju4/eli5_traditionally_where_does_the/ | {
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"Technically the role of the CIA is to provide information not publicly available to policy makers so they know what to do.\n\nIn other words... a president might wanna know whats going on in some military before he makes a given decision but you can't look that up on wikipedia so he calls up the CIA all like 'whatup'.\n\nThe pentagon is responsible for all military actions.\n\nThe CIA has been given powers beyond their mandate since the 80s or so... hence the confusion.\n\nSo the whole 'assasination' 'drone strike' kind of stuff isn't technically what they are supposed to be doing.",
"Accountability and Authority. \n\nCIA is responsible for Intelligence abroad (FBI handles this within US borders), as well as clandestine operations. \n\nThe Military is a large scale force that requires Congressional oversight and is expected to follow strict protocols such as the UCMJ and things like the Geneva Convention. \n\nWhereas a CIA operative can infiltrate and conduct operations in secret in foreign countries we are not at war with, the Military can not. \n\nA good example of this was the operation to kill Osama Bin Laden, since we were not at war with Pakistan, technically, Military units like the SEALs were not allowed to engage in operations in Pakistan, which is why the operation was a joint one with the CIA and Military. (to understand why the Military can not conduct operations in foreign countries, just look at Pakistan's response after they found out about the Op).\n\nSince the \"War on Terror\" began, the lines between the two have become a bit blurry at times. The other example is the Drone attacks....if the CIA conducts them, they do not need to answer to the Pentagon or Military intelligence, nor do they need to report to Congress to justify their actions (they can claim information is classified, for example). Whereas if the Military were to conduct Drone Strikes (which they should), then they would be held more accountable, and the reasoning behind a strike would need to be run through a chain of command, and the Generals in charge could be summoned to testify before Congress if need be."
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5hsgd4 | why do people throw up when doing drugs that are not ingested orally? | Title pretty much sums it up - I was just watching a show where a girl ODs and chokes on her own vomit after snorting a substance. It got me wondering what is the cause for vomiting when a drug isn't ingested orally? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hsgd4/eli5_why_do_people_throw_up_when_doing_drugs_that/ | {
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"Short simple answer, your body knows it has been poisoned. So it goes into defense mode. Trying to get the poison out.",
"When you snort something it drips down the back of your throat and into your stomach eventually. So although it wasn't eaten it still can end up there. ",
"There's a structure in the brain called the area postrema which can induce vomiting when it detects toxins within the blood.",
"When I had a tumor removed from my abdomen, the only thing I remember for 3 days is waking up to vomit. The only thing going into my body was through iv. Your body will always try to reject something that doesn't belong, including meds through iv. "
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3c4igh | how hot is the sweat on my body if water needs to be 100 degrees celcius to evaporate? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c4igh/eli5_how_hot_is_the_sweat_on_my_body_if_water/ | {
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"Water evaporates at any temperature, 100% is only the boiling point which means that water goes to gasseous without \"dissolving into\" air like normal evaporation.",
"Water boils at 100 degrees C. Boiling means that past that temperature, all of that substance would be a gas. At lower temperatures than boiling, a small portion can be gas.",
"Water doesn't need to be 100C to evaporate. It needs to be 100C to *boil*, which is a different phenomenon. \n\nWater evaporates at much lower temperatures, with the humidity being a more significant factor. Try taking a plate, flat on the table, and dripping a little bit of water on it. Unless your house is very humid, the water will evaporate within a few hours. But clearly your house isn't 100C inside. ",
"Water *boils* at 100° Centigrade, at sea-level atmospheric pressure. \n\nThe sweat, while it is on your body, is pretty much the same temperature as your body — but *temperature* and *heat* are different things. \n\nTemperature is a measure of how much heat energy is being *emitted* by a thing; it's often used as a simple measure of how much heat energy it contains, but what it contains and what it puts out are not always simply related.\n\nWater *evaporates* at different rates, at different temperature / pressure / humidity combinations. The higher the humidity or pressure or temperature of the air (heat of the air), the less it evaporates; the higher the temperature (heat) of the water, the more it evaporates. \n\nThe air can transfer some heat to the sweat, but normally doesn't — air is significantly insulative, and can have a relatively large amount of heat but a relatively low temperature reading. \n\nMost of the heat in \"air\" is carried by moisture evaporated in it — which is why air conditioners are designed to dry the air.\n\nThe sweat carries some of the heat energy out of your body, and when it evaporates, carries the heat energy away, so it doesn't re-enter the body. By ensuring that heat moves out of the body, it prevents it from building up inside, which would interfere with living."
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1n7zer | why doesn't my car stall when i stop? | When I am stopped E.G. at a stoplight and I'm just using breaks, why doesn't my engine stall, is there something that allows the engine to keep turning while the drive shaft is stopped? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1n7zer/eli5_why_doesnt_my_car_stall_when_i_stop/ | {
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"Are you putting your clutch in / changing to neutral?"
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2dof3m | why does my heart freak out when i miss a step of chairs? | it happens both ways, going up and down. it doesn't even feel like a threat but my heart starts racing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dof3m/eli5why_does_my_heart_freak_out_when_i_miss_a/ | {
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"Assuming you mean stairs and not chairs, but it's the same reaction your body has when it encounters anything unexpected. \n\nYou are putting your foot down and, even if not consciously thinking about it, you expect something to be there. Same reason you freak out when someone pulls a chair out from underneath you as you are sitting down. "
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7wxe3e | how does gene-editing on a live person work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7wxe3e/eli5_how_does_geneediting_on_a_live_person_work/ | {
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"Viruses are tiny machines which have evolved up around us to insert themselves into our DNA and start churning out copies of themselves. They are really good at what they do. It's actually believed that around 70% of our DNA is fragments of ancient viruses which got in, didn't kill us, and never left.\n\nIf viruses are cellular hijackers, then we have figured out how to be virus hijackers. It's surprisingly easy to cut viral DNA at the exact spots we want to keep the part which inserts itself and replaces the part that hijacks the cell with whatever we want. We've been able to do that for decades. The tricky bit has been figuring out how to design a gene which fixes a problem we want to fix without breaking anything else. In addition, you have to do this in ways which dodge a ludicrously paranoid immune system which has spent literally billions of years fighting viruses, bacteria, blood transfusions you need to live, and occasionally itself. We're essentially trying to edit spaghetti code with no annotations, written in a foreign language which doesn't even have normal human conventions, and where literally everything in the entire string has a good chance of affecting literally anything else. It's...hard.",
"The immune system has a built in way to edit the genome. It's how we \"learn\" to recognize viruses and develop immunity. \n\nWhen a person is vaccinated, they are given some chopped up virus DNA (cut with a restrictase enzyme). The body takes this DNA and actually stores it in its own DNA in a little cluster of regularly interspaced palindrome repeating bits (CRISPR for short). Each repeat essentially says the phrase \"`Hey, watch out for XXXXXXX! end`\" over and over and the `XXX` gets replaced with whatever your antibodies need to learn to be immune to. \n\nSo. How do we hack that knowing how it works? We essentially do DNA code injection (like html injection if your familiar with computer hacking). We insert a \"virus\" whose code says `! end. \"Now here's how you make the protein for preventing cystic fibrosis.`\" This causes the body to read the entry as empty then start a new code to make whatever protein we want. \n\nWe use the CRISPR from a set of bacteria that are particularly good at this process. And it works on all cells we've tried so far. But it doesn't spread on its own. It still needs the virus to do that. But what's great about this particular CRISPR is that it doesn't kill you like a virus would when spreading. "
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2mfi5t | why doesn't the earth's orbit decay? anything that could accidentally cause it to? | Seems like however minimal, there would still be some friction in space, enough to have an effect over millions of years. In a related question, just how big would an event need to be to cause orbital decay to happen? medium sized asteroid? coordinated nuclear strikes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mfi5t/eli5why_doesnt_the_earths_orbit_decay_anything/ | {
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"it actually, is, but by an INCREDIBLY tiny amount, like one micrometer (one millionth of a meter per year) so not enough to really have an affect on any of us, on a daily basis. I'm not sure that there is anything significant enough to cause decay, that would not also be cataclysmic to the otherwise existence of the earth (as in, there probably wouldn't be an earth to experience orbital decay on)",
"Our orbit is decaying, it's just that it's happening too slow to notice",
"without external forces applied, anything in orbit will decay. Even the solar wind isn't enough to stop us. It's just that the sun will burn out before we fall into it (about 5-7 billion years depending on the website you look at, apparently, I assume it'll go nova then? I leave that to others).\n\n\nThis guy [put up a chart](_URL_0_) that says Earth will fall into the sun in 4.37502 * 10^15 years.\n\nedit, this was posted in 2013, so subtract one year.",
"for starters there is no \"friction\" in space. There are many ways to decay an object's orbit: kinetic bombardment (smashing something into it), and physically pushing it into a decaying orbit (strapping a rocket onto it) are just to name a few. Another way would be to stop it's angular momentum altogether, which would cause to the object to fall towards the gravity well",
"Decay is not the right word to use for these systems, because they're chaotic. The only major impact on any planet's orbits, in our solar system, are the gravity of other planets and orbital precession (which basically only effects Mercury). Over hundreds of thousands of years, the gravity of other planets (particularly Jupiter) will change the orbital parameters of the other planets. As seen [here](_URL_0_) for the Earth; the other rocky planets behave in more or less similar patterns. The gas giants have their own chaotic motions, but are much more difficult to nail down and less understood. On these sorts of scales, actual orbital decay due to drag (which does happen!) and other factors is completely negligible, as the vast bulk of energy transfer is in cyclical transfers between the planets."
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ck2i02 | why is the water’s surface (in the swimming pool) see-through from above, but is not when looking from underwater? | I don’t know if it’s just the swimming pool I swim at, but I assume it’s to all water’s. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ck2i02/eli5_why_is_the_waters_surface_in_the_swimming/ | {
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"When you look at a swimming pool from a really low angle -- your head a couple inches or so above the water and you're looking 5+ feet out, you notice the water reflects and acts like a mirror. But when you look straight down, perpendicular to the surface you can see clear to the bottom of the pool. The same is true in reverse. If you're underwater and the surface is still (I know this is difficult to do), but you could look straight out to the sky or if it's an indoor pool, the roof. If you look at a low angle again, you'll see the surface act like a mirror. The thing that is different is that when you're under water looking out into air, the angle where the water surface starts acting like a mirror is much bigger than the other way around. The fact that the angle is much larger added to the fact that it's difficult to get a still surface of the water when you're underneath it, makes it feel like the surface isn't see-through. You'll notice it partly is if you have goggle's on and you're looking at something just above the water -- it will just look distorted and wavy with holes of internal reflection.\n\nThe reason that the underside surface has a larger reflection angle is related to how light travels more slowly in water than in air. If you're interested in a more detailed explanation, I suggest you google \"Snell's Law\".",
"It is all water, not just your pool. You can see the effect better in clear liquids with smooth surfaces. What you’re talking about is total internal reflection. It happens because of how the water filters the light and interacts with it at the border between the water and the air. The way that the light is gathered and polarized means that it can be totally reflected back from underneath at certain angles, like a mirror. The reflection of polarized light happens above surface too, but not quite like the internal reflection. That is why people out fishing often wear polarized sunglasses, since it removes the glare off the water from the topside",
"What you're seeing is called **total internal reflection**, and it's something you learn about in physics class when you study things like lenses and optics. It all has to do with the angle between the ray of light and the surface of the water.\n\nLet's pretend the water is perfectly horizontal, and doesn't have any waves or ripples on its surface. When a ray of light goes from the air into the water, the light is going to change direction. This change in direction is called *refraction*, and we say the light *refracts*.\n\nWhen the light refracts, it always bends in a very predictable way. If the light hits the surface of the water at an angle, the water will always bend the light so that it is traveling closer to straight up and down. So, light comes in mostly sideways, and then hits the water and turns downwards.\n\nIf light leaves the water, the opposite happens. If it's going mostly straight up, when it leaves the water, it turns so that it's moving more horizontally. If you're in the water and tip your light so it's going more and more sideways, eventually you're going to find a point where when the light leaves the water it's going perfectly horizontally. If you tip the light in the water further from vertical, the light \"leaving\" the water will want to bend past horizontal and go *back into the water*. In other words, the light just bounces off the underside of the surface of the water, and goes back into the water.\n\nHere's a video of a couple guys playing with lasers out on a lake demonstrating total internal reflection.\n\n_URL_0_"
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2l76lw | if realities level of hd stays the same, will tvs in the future be better than reality? can the human eye even see higher quality than real life? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2l76lw/eli5_if_realities_level_of_hd_stays_the_same_will/ | {
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"Short answer is no.\n\nThe human eye/brain has a finite limit of \"resolution\" and \"frame rate\" (ie. our brains can only process so much info, so quickly).\n\nReality, in theory, has infinite resolution because each individual atom on a surface will reflect/produce a certain wavelength of light. So, the theoretical \"resolution\" of reality would be on a sub-atomic scale. "
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3u5swb | how come dropping a 20lb+ dumbbell on a hardwood floor would probably crack it but hopping on one foot doesn't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3u5swb/eli5how_come_dropping_a_20lb_dumbbell_on_a/ | {
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"Just taking a wild guess here, but a 20lb dumbell is concentrated weight and made of heavy marterial such as lead or other heavy metal. So it's not just 20lb hitting the floor, its 20lbs concentrated in on tiny spot where as our body distributes weight evenly even when on one foot, so its not 100lb+ concentrated on one spot.",
"When you hop on one foot, you aren't falling from a height of 3 feet, and more importantly, the thing that hits the floor is soft flesh. And most of your weight is above a set of joints that will flex on impact. So it's not similar at all.",
"Your foot has padding to spread the impact over a greater time period and area. Women wearing high heels can leave some dents in hardwood floors. ",
"When you hop on one foot, the part of you hitting the floor is your foot, which is made of meat and squishes easily, reducing the force between you and the floor. The same thing would happen if you dropped 20 pounds of raw meat, even from a substantial height. A rubber-soled boot is slightly harder but follows a similar principle. The dumbbell on the other hand is made of metal, which is extremely hard and doesn't squish very easily, so when it hits the floor, it stops much more rapidly and the force between it and the floor is much greater."
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2h2g7e | does the concept of rhyming exist in sign language? and if yes, how does it work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2h2g7e/eli5_does_the_concept_of_rhyming_exist_in_sign/ | {
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"I don't know the answer to this question, but I do know people sing in sign language.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"Sort of. Dr. [Clayton Valli](_URL_0_), a Deaf linguist, author, and poet, was one of the first individuals to analyze and define the basic characteristics of ASL poetry. Rhyme, according to his findings, is \"formed through the repetition of particular handshapes and the movement paths of signs\" along with the non-manual signals such as facial expressions and body movements. \n\nRepetition of certain hand shapes can represent rhyme just as sounds in spoken poetry produce structure; the pattern of holds and pauses recalls the meter and rhythm of spoken verse. Yet these devices represent approximations.\n\nAccording to Jason Norman, host of the Bowery Poetry Club, there’s rhyme in A.S.L.; or maybe not rhyme. Maybe it’s a beat. Signs that repeat the same handshape create the basis for ASL's rhyme scheme which is somewhat similar to English alliteration. ",
"Sure. With sounds - words such as cat and hat are easy for Deaf people to see the similarities.\n\nBut with signing, it's not about how the word looks or sound. It's all about how the sign language appears the same. For example if we look at this video - _URL_0_\n\nWe can see that a lot of the signing is similar in direction, hand-shape, orientation of the hands etc. Other factors included involve non-manual signs (so basically not signing) such as facial expression. \n\nEDIT: I'm a Deaf person who has been learning to sign for a year and a half, so if anyone has a better explanation or understanding, I would love to hear it! ",
"[Slate's got a good write-up](_URL_0_), complete with videos. It goes to the repetition of signs/sign-components, like /u/xtremity says.\n\n > Awti points out that since rhyme is based on the repetition of portions of words, the portions of words that get repeated don't necessarily have to be sounds. They could also be movement, handshape, location, palm orientation, or other components of signs.",
"This also made me think of another question. Are their sign-language-specific puns? Like there two signs look close enough to each other that you might intentionally create ambiguity as to which one was used, for the purpose of making a joke or creating a double meaning?",
"Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start",
"Idk about rhyming but I do know they can [rap!](_URL_0_)",
"Here are two similar threads from other subreddits that may interest you:\n\n- _URL_1_\n- _URL_0_",
"This thread has some great answers by deaf redditors:\n\n[[Serious] Deaf Redditors who have been deaf since birth, do you understand the concept of rhyming?](_URL_1_)\n\n[This gilded comment answers your question.](_URL_0_)",
"I'm deaf/was born hearing so I have the best of both worlds. Deaf can see rhymes on words, but cannot see rhymes on sign language. It is already learned / picked up by reading the written language. An interpreter can emphasize specific rhymes in a song if they choose to. ",
"Rhyme in sign language is more akin to English alliteration. ASL poetry is oriented around transitions from one sign to the next. Frequently, these signs share something in common - the handshape is the same, the motion is the same, or the position is the same. It's like visual alliteration. As an example, in ASL poetry you might rhyme \"owl\" with \"sunrise\" to signify a transition from night to day, because they both use the \"O\" handshape.",
"Idk if it's been posted yet. _URL_0_\nBring da Ruckus",
"You've had a lot of responses, but I really like ASL and wanted to post a few links :) Poetry in ASL is extremely rich, and there are aspects of ASL poetry that are un-translatable - in the same way that pitches in a song can't be translated into ASL. Here is an example of an ABC story in ASL _URL_0_ (I don't know how to do direct links - I apologize for the copying and pasting that must be done) Each sign in this story has a handshape that matches the fingerspelled alphabet in ASL. It's a really cool concept of \"playing with language\". As far as having rhythm in ASL, this video is a good example. _URL_1_. In this video, the signer is expressing his frustrations with hearing people learning a few signs, \"signing\" a song on youtube, and getting attention from the masses. Appreciation for sign language is great, but celebrating a language is done best when we look at examples given by the native language users. _URL_2_ This example by Clayton Valli is one of my favorites. This has a rhythm - you can see when the movements slow down a bit and speed up and maintain steady movement. The message of the poem deals with a field of dandelions that are ripped up by someone and then grow back. At 0:25 Valli is showing the flat ground that was just cleared by the man. Rain falls and the sun shines and then at 0:34, a dandelion sprouts again (shown by the index finger pointing through the other hand). What is FASCINATING is that Valli \"becomes\" the dandelion when he looks furtively to the left and right. If you use ASL, you are able to shift from narrator and character in your stories. This happens in normal, casual conversation and not just in poetry. I heard ASL described as a language that is first are foremost poetry, while spoken languages are first and foremost prose. Using ASL is like directing a movie - using English is like writing a book. I could really go on about this for a long time. Look up the Deaf events in your area and meet Deaf people and learn more about it!",
"Rives opened my eyes to the sound of the signed spoken word. \n\n_URL_0_",
"I don't know about rhyming, but I know I *w*rap with my hands when it's time to give a gift. ",
"I want to see someone sign Rap God. And watch their hands explode. ",
"Yes...IF you can get away from the audible part of the word \"rhyme\".\n\nWhat is rhyming? It is a pattern, a contract to a series of phrases such that once you detect the contract, you come to expect a certain kind of followup.\n\nASL (and I assume this true for other sign languages) has similar concepts, but it expresses in different ways. ASL poems will do things like follow predictable patterns of rhythm, predictable sequences of signs, or use of the same sign in various ways. \n\nOne example is a \"song/poem\" (put in quotes, because people get preconceptions in their head when they hear the words...but they are accurate), in which a single basic shape will be used in different body positions, following a basic rhythm pattern. For instance a claw-hand shape can be used to sign a lot of different animals, making for a very easy children's song where you act out all kind of animals in a logical progression, following an ongoing rhythm.\n\nAnother example is what is known as the 1-10 story (or 1-5 story, or the A-Z story), in which a story is told with the finger sign for 1 (but used in an unusual way), will be followed by the sign for 2 (again, used in a way that has nothing to do with the numeral), then 3 and so on. \n\nTheir are a lot of poetic conventions in ASL that create a common framework of expectations.\n\nThe structural expectation of the pattern creates the same kind of effect as rhyming, your understanding for where the pattern is going means that you are not just following, but that your mind is participating.\n\nIs that rhyming? If not, does the distinction matter?",
"Most interesting Eli5 i've seen in a while.",
"if i rapped in ASL i would name myself \"mos deaf\"",
"An example of ASL rhymes of a signed poem at _URL_0_\nScroll down to the subheading \"handshape rhymes\" for explanation. Not only rhymes can be done with handshapes, but also with locations and movements. Though, the handshape is a common use of rhyming."
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1np2io | why does it hurt to breathe in cold air through my nose? | Cheers. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1np2io/eli5_why_does_it_hurt_to_breathe_in_cold_air/ | {
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"Your nose does a few things beside smell. It acts as a humidifier and radiator for air as it makes its way to your lungs so that things are optimum for gas exchange when it finally hits the aveola (sacs with thin membranes that move oxygen in and carbon dioxide out of your blood stream). Exteme heat and cold makes your beezer do double duty and the nerve endings protest."
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zsafw | why can i drink 8-10 500ml cans of beer in 4~ hours without a problem, but i can't drink more than one 330ml can of soda? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zsafw/eli5_why_can_i_drink_810_500ml_cans_of_beer_in_4/ | {
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"Alcohol is a [Diuretic](_URL_0_) which causes an increased rate of water excretion and urination. So basically the water in the beer is practically going strait through you. This can also contribute to a hangover, since your body will continue to pull water out of your system while you're asleep. Finishing the night with a glass of water before going to sleep can help with that, but you'll probably need to wake up in the middle of the night to take a piss.",
"I'm not sure what the question is actually. I'm sure he CAN drink more than a can, he probably feels like he had enough after one can.\n\nA lot of sodas and juices replaced the natural sugar with artificial sweeteners, because these are cheaper than sugar or corn syrup. \n\nSome artificial sweeteners are actually diuretics, previously used in hospitals (in much larger doses) to get people ready for surgeries or otherwise empty their bladders when needed.\nSo just like beer, a soda in most cases would make you go to bathroom to pee.\n\nThe sodas are carbonated (fizzy), which means your stomach pressure increases after you drink a can, so it sends your brain the signal that you're full. That might explain why you say you can't drink more than one can."
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3nxyhi | if protein based foods are more likely to make us feel full, and carbohydrates or sugars usually make us crave more food, why do we eat a sweet dessert last? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nxyhi/eli5_if_protein_based_foods_are_more_likely_to/ | {
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"Basically, because we save the best for last.\n\nPeople are hard-wired to crave sweet things because of the natural assumption that sweet = nutritious (which made sense before refined carbohydrates, agriculture and bee-keeping, as the sweetest things around were fruits). Add in basic psychology, and you get people eating the least \"rewarding\" food (i.e. salads) first, the bulk of the meal second, and the sweet, most pleasurable thing (dessert) last.",
"Because meals and traditions are not dictated by what's better, but by what we like and enjoy. And there was a time where \"Sweet\" was a luxury - not to mention several courses. Not to mention actually eating regular meals. Nobody in the 12th century was thinking about nutritional information. ",
"As sweet things are easy to digest, they also help to speed up the processing of other foods. If your stomach/digestive system was a fire the main course would be the wood while the dessert would be the firestarter. "
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6fryoa | how do % grades work for hills? | I'm completely baffled by hill grades, and it's embarrassing! A few key points:
* What is a 100% grade? Is that a 45-degree angle or a 90-degree angle?
* Why does a 5-10% grade seem so intense? They have warning signs for trucks on 5% grades, but that doesn't seem like much!
* I really start to confuse myself when I try to calculate the grade of a hill I'm walking/biking/running on. Let's say I'm walking on a 3-4-5km-sided triangle, where my hill is the 5km hypotenuse and the rise is 3km. That means I'm walking at a 30-degree angle, right? What percent grade is that (is it as crazy-high as I think it is?)? Is the grade calculated based on the fact that *I walk* 5 km and go up 3km, or is it based on the imaginary base of the triangle so I'm going up 3km over the course of 4km along that line?
Help me I'm burying myself in a logic puzzle. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6fryoa/eli5_how_do_grades_work_for_hills/ | {
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"A 100% grade is a 45-degree angle. The amount you rise is 100% of the amount you move horizontally.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_",
"100% is 45° angle. The percentage is the value of the tangent x 100. It works like this:\n\n100 m horizontal and 100 m rise is 100/100 = 1 = 100% \n\n100 m horizontal and 50 m rise is 50/100 = 0.5 = 50%\n\nThe hypotenuse doesn't play a role.\n\nFor a 4x4 car a 100% incline hill is almost unclimbable.\n\nIn your 3-4-5km-sided triangle, you walk 5 km (the hypotenuse). The incline is calculated 3 (rise)/4 (horizontal) = 75%.\n",
"It's rise in incline divided by run \n\nSo, imagine a hill that increases 1 foot in height for every twenty horizontal feet, you would have a 5% grade. 1/20 = .05 = 5%\n\nFor a 100% grade, it would be one foot increase in height for one foot in length. \n1/1 = 1.00 = 100%\n\nHow to figure out what degree of an angle that it would require a little bit of trigonometry. ",
"percent means \"per 100\"\n\na percent grade means \"fall per 100 feet\"\n\na 3 percent grade means in 100 linear feet, the elevation has either risen or declined by 3 vertical feet.\n\n "
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2rl53j | how did beethoven compose most of his most famous work when he was almost completely deaf? | " In about 1800 his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost totally deaf. He gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired works come from this period."
Edit: Thanks for the replies and keep them coming, very interesting stuff | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rl53j/eli5_how_did_beethoven_compose_most_of_his_most/ | {
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"For one, a highly experienced composer like Beethoven was likely able to compose mostly without a piano. At a certain point you can simply imagine the melodies and complexities without hearing them. One thing he was rumored to do, however, was to have his pieces played violently loudly while pressing his face into the piano/ground to \"feel\" the piece through the vibrations caused by it. ",
"You could, theoretically, learn enough musical theory to compose something for an instrument, but not actually know how to play said instrument.\n\nBilly Joel, despite being a talented pop piano player, has said that despite having a great interest in the classical style of piano playing and composition, cannot play classical piano. He can, however, write a little in the classical style.\n\nBeing a talented composer =/= talented musician.\nBeing a talented musician =/= talented composer.\nBeing a talented instrument maker =/= talented musician/composer (just ask Stradivarius)\n\nAlso, if Beethoven had been hearing at one time, he could still remember how the notes, when played, made his body feel. He could then keep going off that feel of the notes. A D chord on a guitar feels different than an E chord.",
"Firstly, it is important to know he could hear during a huge part of his music life. His loss of hearing was progressive. Beethoven, as most of big composers, could easily \"sing a melody in their head\" to compose. It was rarely trial and error. They built huge parts of pieces in the head alone. Also, he had great knowledge of harmony,arrangements, variations and other useful techniques to build around his piece. Often, all he needed was a short theme or melody and he could work around that for a couple pages. \n\nAlso, as he became nearly completely deaf, his pieces started to use higher notes more often. These were much easier to \"feel\" through the vibrations. When he became deaf, he almost commited suicide but kept on going. If I'm not mistaken, he had an assistant that could help him with the writing of the music, or with testing it out.\n\nFun (not so fun) fact: It is now accepted by many historians that one of the factors that caused or precipitated his hearing loss was the accidental consumption of lead. In fact, his wine was stored in a barrel that either had some lead reinforcment, or a lead tap. This got into his drink and it possible caused this unfortunate health issue. His 7th and 9th symphonies are simply masterpieces.",
"He was a genius in music theory. Music is like a language that you can understand and \"compose\" without actually being able to hear it. (Similar to being able to write books even if you couldn't see or hear the words you were writing). Since he went deaf later in his life, he had already developed his expertise. What he was able to do was amazing. The fact that he did a lot of his work while deaf made him that much more special!!"
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48v4pr | how's the calculator industry doing since the rise of the cell phone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48v4pr/eli5_hows_the_calculator_industry_doing_since_the/ | {
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"Just fine. Most high schools still use the same TI graphing calculator I used 25 years ago and charge a shit load for them. Also, using a smartphone for rigorous calculation sucks. "
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cd01c5 | if adrenaline boosts our mental quickness and physical strengths, how come it isn't always pumping through our veins? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cd01c5/eli5_if_adrenaline_boosts_our_mental_quickness/ | {
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"Because adrenaline also is very unhealthy. It increases blood pressure, heart rate, and puts you in a state of flight or fight. You may also get palpitations or skipped heartbeats.\n\nBeing like that 24/7 will increase your anxiety to the point where you won't be able to function well.\n\nFurthermore, adrenaline is like a drug. Adreneline junkies exist. And much like other drugs, they have to keep doing more and more crazy and dangerous stuff to feel the same 'rush' as normal people.\n\nSo our MINDS will eventually stop responding to it, but all those other factors don't.\n\nSo yeah. P bad.",
"I’m not a biologist or doctor. But my understanding is that we don’t constantly run adrenaline for the same reason we don’t run computers at the full theoretical capacity - it would wear you out too quickly. Adrenaline boosts quickness and physical strength by clocking up the amount of energy you burn, reducing your awareness of pain, and withdrawing supplies from your periphery. It also increases your fear response and other negative responses to stimuli. This means you would have trouble digesting food and recovering from injuries, would endure increased stress levels, and wouldn’t be as capable of creating the solid social bonds that would do a better job of keeping you alive. Overall, being constantly on edge isn’t as worthwhile as having some time to relax.",
"TL;DR at bottom (you can skip it if you don't prefer technicalities)\n\nAdrenaline is a vasocontrictor- basically decreases diameter of blood vessels where blood is not required at the time of emergencies (like, digestive system, skin, etc.)\n\nSustained vasoconstriction increases blood pressure- leading to hypertension.\n\nMoreover, it leads to increased heart beat- increased load on heart, susceptiblity to skipped beats (arrhythmias), and even atherosclerosis (plaque in arteries)\n\nHaving it 24x7 in the brain would induce lots of anxiety, to the point of paranoia and/or psychoses.\n\nIncreased pressure on blood vessels may lead to\n1) rupture- as in stroke\n2) kidney failure\n3) retinopathy (blindness)\n\nand a lot more.\n\nTL;DR: It induces changes which can be withstood only for a short period of time without irreversible damage. So, bad for long term.",
"It's like red-lining your car. It gives you slightly better performance at great cost. It's like running at 110%. You usually don't need the extra benefits it gives you except in an emergency. With humans, we have 18 or so hours a day where we have to operate, and we're already a well-tuned machine, in evolutionary terms.",
"It’s unsustainable, basically. This is kinda like asking why you don’t sprint everywhere - it’s faster, isn’t it? Because it’s *exhausting*, and you wouldn’t be able to keep it up. \n\nOur bodies aren’t designed to be running at absolute maximum capacity like that. The adrenaline surge is an emergency measure, designed to get us out of trouble if we need it. Very useful if you need a burst of speed to avoid a lion, or extra strength to wrestle a fallen tree off your toddler, but you don’t need that when you’re playing video games or hanging out at the pool. \n\nIt is also pretty damaging to be in that state. Adrenaline is not good for you, not long-term. There is actually a maximum amount of time you can sustain the heightened state of adrenaline before it tapers off - even if the situation hasn’t changed. This is because you run out of adrenaline, and also because your body literally cannot maintain the high alert state for more than a few hours *max*. There is a longer-term, less extreme stress hormone called cortisol that takes over if the stressful situation is lasting longer than that.",
"For an example of why you wouldn't want adrenaline constantly being released at high levels, look up pheochromocytoma. This is a problem where an adrenaline secretion tumor does exactly what you have suggested. Instead of a super human, you get high blood pressure, headache, sweating, high heart rate, high blood sugar (which can become diabetes), and anxiety (sometimes described as an impending sense of doom or panic attacks). \n\nElevated adrenaline is useful in short bursts in specific situations, but outside of that it is not going to feel good or make someone super human.",
"If running gets us to places faster than walking, why don't we run everywhere?\n\nSimilar principle here we can't really cope with adrenaline over long periods of time.",
"Does adrenaline boost mental quickness? It mostly just activates your fight or flight response. People do some really really dumb stuff in an adrenaline rush.\n\nThe entire point of military doing drills over and over and over again is to remove the adrenaline response during an emergency, because you think much better when you are calm and collected.",
"Is there ZERO adrenaline in my bloodstream when I'm relaxed? I was under the impression that a tiny amount is always there.",
"Another thing that I didn't see mentioned is that adrenaline messes with memory formation. Very small levels of it actually help the brain create and store information, like when you're stressed and studying for a test. Higher levels of it actually purposefully inhibit the transfer of short term memories to long term memories. This comes in handy when you accidentally do something like break your leg or suffer a car accident. No one wants to remember the exact feeling of their femur snapping, and there is actually an evolutionary benefit to preventing that memory (keeps you from being afraid of hurting yourself all the time). In our modern world, this memory blocking can actually cause problems and is thought to be one of the basis for people developing PTSD (conditioning training is another major aspect). Unfortunately from a legal side of things, it prevents people from being able to remember details of an event like being raped, assaulted or robbed. It can be so effective that people repress memories of these events for their entire lives and can lead to spontaneous memory recovery years later. So, being continually hopped up on gogo juice would make it hard for people to go about their daily lives.",
"Imagine overclocking a computer and running it at all overclock speed 100% of the time. You'd greatly decrease the lifespan of the computer"
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ejciay | can you explain the situation in iran and how the recent death of qasim soleimani affect it ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ejciay/eli5_can_you_explain_the_situation_in_iran_and/ | {
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"Iran and U.S relationships have been tense to say the least for a very long time. Long term a lot of this can be traced back to western interference in the Iranian government that basically overthrew their democracy and would destabilize their government going forward. Short term a lot of it can be blamed on geopolitical interest in the region. Whats best for Iran is not whats best for the U.S and its allies. So as they move against each other, toes tend to be stepped on. The net result is an incredible tense geopolitical relationship built on decades of bloodshed and hatred. \n\nSoleimani was one of the supreme leaders of iran top guys. Basically if it had to do with foreign or military policy it would run through him and go directly to the supreme leader. His death is basically a watershed moment of Iran-U.S relations. This would be like a foreign government killing the VP of the United states. \n\nGoing forward is going to be weird. Wars have certainly been fought over less and iran usually isn't one to deescalate. An outright ground war however is unlikely unless it was a U.S reaction to whatever iran does next. Most likely iran is going to step up its covert actions against the U.S. Things like the assassinations of lower ranking officials, Cyber warfare, and terrorist acts possibly against the U.S but more likely against our allies in the region. \n\nIts gonna get weird moving forward."
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5x6dzb | how do banks know if a check has already been deposited? | Many banks allow depositing checks through mobile banking. I understand how a bank would know if the same check was deposited into my account two times, but if I had a friend with the same name, who belonged to a different bank, how would their bank know that the check had already been deposited?
Does the bank look at the number on the check in the picture and then run it through some database of all the checks in the world to see if it has been marked as deposited? That doesn't seem feasible, so what is actually happening? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5x6dzb/eli5_how_do_banks_know_if_a_check_has_already/ | {
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"The bank won't know when you're making the deposit but as soon as they send the check information over to the bank that issued the check, it's going to come out that somebody's cheating the system.\n\nThis seldom goes well for the cheater. It's illegal and you will get caught.",
"The bank that has to pay the check (the bank where the drafter's checking account is) usually has software to notice duplicate checks. Once a check is used once to withdraw money from the account the check info is saved and if the same check is used again it should be flagged. \n\nSay you use Check #1023 to pay me $100. Once the check is processed, it will be marked on your account that check #1023 for $100 was processed. If another Check #1023 for $100 comes through, it will get flagged.\n\nThe problem is when someone uses remote deposit and then cashes the physical check before the drawee bank can process it. I think there are some services out there that are attempting to communicate among banks when a check is cashed to prevent this, but they're expensive right now so not many places use them. There can also be an issue if the person takes the paper check to a check cashing place that's not a bank since that place will pay cash before the check has a chance to process.\n\nWhile you can get away with depositing checks twice like that in the short term, the double charge will show up on the drafter's bank statement and it will be pretty obvious who did it. The threat of getting caught after the fact is also why most people don't copy your account number and routing number from the bottom of a check (which are in plain sight) and then use that information to commit wire fraud.",
"This is the reason mobile deposit funds aren't available right away, and why the app tells you to keep the check for a number of days after depositing it.\n\nIf questions are raised, they might ask you to show them the check or provide more information... and you may never get to use that money without being able to show proof you used it legitimately.\n\nEach check may not have a unique ID through a universal system, but the same check does draw the same amount of funds from the same account. So when the bank needs to send that amount of money to the person depositing the check, they'd notice the double-charge. "
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2xw5qv | why is it that some virus' lay dormant in the body and re-surface every so often, causing symptoms (e.g. herpes simplex/ cold sore virus), but others the body can get rid of altogether? | EDIT: Viruses. Derp. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xw5qv/eli5_why_is_it_that_some_virus_lay_dormant_in_the/ | {
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"Because herpes and many other viruses are part of a class that doesn't just infect a cell, highjack its machinery, and forcing it to make copies of itself. No, these little bastards actually write themselves into your genetic code. Which means that whenever cellular conditions are write, a seemingly normal healthy cell can just start making virus bodies spontaneously. A lot of our junk DNA/introns is probably from these accumulated interections over the past few billion years.",
"*Viruses. Never use an apostrophe to make something plural with the possible exception of letters, e.g. 1900s is correct, not 1900's, but you could argue that I's is better than Is because the second one looks like the word \"is.\"",
"The viruses that are toughest/impossible to get rid of live inside of certain cells (like nerve cells). They are essentially hiding from the killer cells in your body responsible for eliminating infectious agents. ",
"Herpes virus \n\n* item 1 -it is estimated that up to 80% of the human population has herpes infection, only 10-15% of them ever become infection again and have the classic lesions, the rest lay dormant life long\n* item 2 -DO NOT integrate into your DNA they circularize \n* item 3 -can stay dormant(latent) without immune recognition because the immune system is shielded from the nervous system\n\nlots of info here _URL_0_\n",
"You don't ever truly get rid of any virus altogether. They will be reduced to levels that effectively make their effects unnoticeable, until conditions become favorable again and they proliferate.\n\nNow, over time, the probability of them coming back to haunt you diminishes. After a certain amount of time has passed, the probability of them coming back diminishes to the point that you can essentially consider yourself cured. Depending on the type of cell that gets infected, that time changes. It also depends on the type of virus.\n\nHerpes viruses lay dormant in nerve cells, and can reproduce very slowly and/or spend a long time dormant, because nerve cells have such long lives and slow reproductive cycles. If it were a type of virus that infects a quickly reproducing/dying cell, such as intestinal lining, it's highly unlikely that you'll ever see the effects of the virus again after a couple years, because all of the host cells have been replaced so many times, and the ones that died probably took the virus with them.",
"Instead of going into a factory (a cell), borrowing the machines to make stuff (more copies of viruses), and burning the factory down (lysing the cell) like most viruses do, they go in, add some blueprints to the blueprint file cabinet in the office of the factory (add their genome to the cell's genome), and this allows the factory to make the things in those blueprints occasionally when conditions are right. This leads to symptoms that are only expressed when certain biological stressors are present.",
"Hi! I work in a research lab with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) where we specialize in latent models of disease.\n\nThe short answer your question is that pretty much any recurrent mammalian virus has methods to evade the normal mechanisms of the immune system. Remember that every day, your body is bombarded by trillions of different microorganisms and is able to eliminate them without issue, and it's only the ones that get past the normal defense mechanisms that you end up hearing about.\n\nViruses such as HSV-1 hijack infected cells' machinery to make lots of copies of itself. Once tons of copies have been made, the cells burst like herpes-filled water balloons and the new virus particles disperse to infect more cells. HSV-1 can also invade neurons, but don't damage them. This is because that cellular machinery that HSV-1 requires to replicate itself essentially isn't present in neurons, because neurons don't replicate (and therefore don't need this machinery laying around).\n\nOnce HSV-1 is in a neuron, it's safe from your immune system. This is because nervous tissue has proteins on its surface that tells your immune system, \"Don't shoot! I'm important!\". So, the virus is safe there, and doesn't cause any problems. These periods of the virus inhabiting your body without any symptoms are called *latency*.\n\nDuring latent periods, most of the virus hangs out in a structure in your brain called the trigeminal ganglion, which is a crossroads for nerves from your jaw, mandible, and eyes. Many chemical factors can cause the virus to move back down that same nerve path it traveled up in the first place, such as stress, drugs, menstruation, and more. This is why cold sores almost always come back to the exact same location - the herpes virus travels back and forth through the same nerve.\n\nOn rare occasions (but it does happen and is well-documented), latent virus in the trigeminal ganglion can sort of \"jump tracks\", where due to the close proximity of those 3 main facial nerves, the virus that started as a cold sore can end up in a new location. This means that a cold sore, on rare occasions, could show up on your cornea, without any direct external transfer of virus particles."
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17648y | why do airplanes and other aircraft always disintegrate upon impacting the ground? | Are events like [these](_URL_0_) only a result of massive forces acting on the plane because it's moving so fast, and is it possible to have something similar to a crumple zone in order to stop them from being so totally destroyed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17648y/why_do_airplanes_and_other_aircraft_always/ | {
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"Well obviously there is a massive amount of kinetic energy present at the moment of impact. But also remember that airplanes are generally made of lightweight, thinner materials. \n\nI'm sure you've heard the joke of \"If the blackbox can survive any crash, why isn't the whole plane made out of it?\" Well, if it were, it would be far too heavy to generate enough lift to be able to fly. \n\nSo you have lighter materials + massive forces = no more plane.",
"Due to design, planes have to be as lightweight as possible. That doesn't stop larger passenger planes from weighing almost half a million pounds when fully loaded. That's a whole lot of stored energy moving at a rather high rate of speed.\n\nWhen a plane hits the ground, that energy has to go somewhere. And since the plane is made up of weaker materials than the planet is, Mother Earth wins. It's similar to throwing a snowball at a wall. No matter how densely you pack the snow, the wall is not gonna give.\n\nCrumple zones wouldn't work at the energy levels we're discussing. Cars, despite weighing around 2 tons, don't carry nearly as much kinetic force as an aircraft does. also, the majority of car accidents occur when the car strikes another car, which means that both objects are absorbing the energy of the impact. If you've ever seen a car hit a concrete block at high speeds, you'll see that the crumple zones don't make that much of a difference.",
"Because **physics**. Fast moving multi-ton objects colliding with static objects can generate forces well in excess of any material's capabilities.\n\nTo elaborate, to fly, a plane has to be light, so to save weight engineers make it so a plane can handle loads only in certain foreseeable ways. It is said that the regulations for building a plane are written in blood. This includes being able to take a little bit of abuse like [tail scrapes](_URL_2_), [somewhat hard landings](_URL_1_), or losing an [engine blade](_URL_0_). \n\nThe horrific fireballs you see happen because fuel tanks in most planes are built-in, so as soon as the plane cracks the fuel will spill and be ignited by a stray spark or hot engine. Statistics have shown that combat troops often survived helicopter crashes only to be burnt alive by ruptured fuel, so nowadays US combat helicopters have reinforced self-sealing bladders that protect against such a thing.\n\nThe crash causes on your video in order:\n\n1. Faulty logic in fly by wire code\n2. Hot shot pilot overbanking and stalling B-52\n3. Alternate video of #2\n4. Structural failure of main wing spar\n5. Overloaded jet\n6. Hard landing\n7. Crosswinds exceeding design limits due to typhoon\n8. Stall caused by locked controls post-maintenance\n9. Excess crosswinds\n10. Engine failure took out controls\n11. Hard nose-first landing exceeded load limits\n12. Pilot showing off executed a hard bank causing engine compressor failure\n13. Failure of nose landing gear steering\n14. Geese in engines\n15. Hot-dogging pilot exceeding load limits for aircraft\n16. Hard landing by pilot\n17. Pilot landed amphibian on water with his gear down\n18. Hard landing damaged rear rotor leading to loss of control\n19. Overloaded airplane\n\nAbout 2/3 of these are from pilots screwing up when they should have known better."
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1wg9h1 | if you were swallowed whole by a t-rex or some other large creature would you survive the trip to the stomach? | Or would you be crushed or suffocate from the peristalsis? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wg9h1/eli5_if_you_were_swallowed_whole_by_a_trex_or/ | {
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"I think you answered your own question.",
"Without commenting on whether you'd survive being swallowed by a large creature, note that a T-Rex is around the same size as an African elephant (this comparison was recently popularised by [xkcd](_URL_2_)). From the wiki, a [t-rex](_URL_1_) is about 4 m tall to the hips and weighs 6 tonnes. [African elephant](_URL_0_) males are 3.2 to 4 m tall to the hips and weigh around 6 tonnes, with the largest known specimen weighing 10 tonnes. So if a t-rex tried to swallow you whole, I think the more interesting question is whether the t-rex would survive or not.",
"Most animals of that size have very small glottuses or glotti which is the opening to the esophagus. A blue whale for instance would have trouble swallowing a melon. ",
"As said before a *T. rex* isn't large enough, but let's assume a creature large enough to swallow you whole. \n\nThe swallowing movement in cats takes something like 10s and their esophagus is about 12cm. Human swallowing lasts about the same time with an esophagus about twice as long. So perhaps we can assume it's about the same in animals of all sizes but let's just say worst case it takes about a minute, which is far less time than it takes to suffocate.\n\nSwallowing force in a human is around 1 Newton. That's not a whole lot. So you wouldn't be crushed.\n\nSo yes, if you were swallowed whole, you likely would survive to the stomach, but not long after since you WOULD then suffocate or drown in stomach contents."
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g0hb0b | why is huawei seemingly the lone viable option for rapid 5g network deployment? | Serious replies only please! Looking for an answer that refers to tech specs, unique capabilities, or engineering know-how. Hold the humor and politicking, if y'all could. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g0hb0b/eli5_why_is_huawei_seemingly_the_lone_viable/ | {
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"When making or buying something like 5g infrastructure, you're looking at three things which influence your decision, usually in the following order of importance:\n\n\n1) Technological capabilities. Can this thing do what you need it to do in your particular part of the world (there are different 5g channels/bands).\n2) Is this thing reliable enough for my use case? E.g. Civilian vs emergency services vs military use.\n3) How much does this thing cost.\n\n\nWhere points one and two are met, Huawei tends to be cheaper than the competition. Made in China jokes aside, things in China *are* cheaper. And due to the scale, a small price difference per component will quite literally cost millions or tens of millions over a country, so price does matter.",
"If you’re looking for “tech specs and engineering” then maybe ELI5 isn’t the right place for your question. But since this is ELI5, I’m going to try to explain this as if you were, in fact, 5 years old. Here we go...\n\nSuppose you’re looking to buy a new car. You want your car to be (1) reliable, (2) get good gas mileage, and (3) be affordable to purchase. After looking at the market, you’ve decided that you’d be happy with either a Toyota Camry or a Honda Accord. \n\nSo you go to the Toyota dealership and after negotiating on the price they offer you their best-and-final offer of $30,000 out the door. It’s a pretty good deal, all things considered. \n\nThen you go to the Honda dealership to see what sort of deal they’ll offer you. Turns out that the Honda dealership is owned by the family of Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world. So you sit down to negotiate with them and they tell you “look, u/shenmekongr, we like you. You’re a great person. And to be honest, we don’t really need the money from this sale. Do you know who our dad is? He’s got more money than he knows what to do with. So we don’t really need to make money on this sale. I’ll tell you what... we’ll sell you this brand new, top-of-the-line Honda Accord for $1,000 flat.” \n\nSo now you compare your options: you could buy a Camry for $30,000 or an Accord for $1,000. Which one are you realistically going to buy? \n\nBut we’re not done yet. You have a friend who wears a tin foil hat. But he’s also a cop. And he tells you “dude, don’t buy that Accord. The dealership has installed secret software that will watch your driving habits, record your conversations, and track where you go. And if for some reason you ever have a disagreement with the dealership, they can turn off your car and destroy the entire highway network in your city as well. This is some serious shit, so don’t buy the Accord.” \n\nSo now you’re torn. On the one hand, your friend sounds crazy. After all, the dealership completely denies everything your friend said. But then again, your friend is a cop. You know he has to attend training meetings every month where he talks to experts in the field and he had access to information that you don’t have. \n\nBut on the other hand, you’re not rich working your hourly part time job and that $1,000 for a brand new top-of-the-line Accord sounds pretty damn good. Besides, even if the Honda dealership *might* spy on you, so what? You’re a good person and you’re not going to get into a fight with the dealership, so they’d have no reason to spy on you even if they did have that capability. So shouldn’t you save $29,000 and buy the Honda Accord? How can you say no to such a good deal? \n\nSo now coming back to our real world situation. Companies (and countries) around the world are looking to buy 5G systems. Huawei has long been accused of being funded by the Chinese Government, an accusation that Huawei has consistently denied. But when the Netherlands sent out proposals for their 5G network, Huawei was **60% less than the next lowest bidder, Ericsson.** [Experts](_URL_0_) say Huawei’s bid wasn’t even enough to cover the cost of the components. So one might reasonably ask how a company could make a bid that was so low that they’d lose hundreds of millions of dollars on it if they’re not receiving money from somewhere else? After all, it’s a true statement that businesses who sell their products at a loss aren’t in business very long."
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ctil9d | why are sub pixels on monitors and tvs different shapes? | I was watching a video by the slo mo guys and i was wondering why the pixels when they showed the LED and OLED TVs had different shapes. This image explains it more: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)
The red sub pixel is a sharp rectangle where as the green and blue sub pixels are a sort of smooth-rounded-cut-in-half square.
Are they like this because it gives different effects or is it because it has no effect at all and was easier to make it like this? is so why is the red different to the green and blue sub pixels? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ctil9d/eli5_why_are_sub_pixels_on_monitors_and_tvs/ | {
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"That's actually a super weird arrangement. Normally green is actually smaller because the human eye is more sensitive to green light."
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"https://imgur.com/a/1Jvdclb"
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[]
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8x6v6h | how do commercial fireworks companies work? do they hire a bunch of contractors just for the 4th? are they able to make enough off of minor league baseball and other functions for the rest of the year? do they each claim a geographic region? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8x6v6h/eli5_how_do_commercial_fireworks_companies_work/ | {
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"Oh I know this. I grew up a couple miles from a fireworks manufacturer that supplied amusement parks around the country and I work for a production company that has a pyro guy on staff.\n\nThe manufacturer keeps people on staff to handle supply and show management for larger clients, places with nightly shows etc. They also have regional staff that handle the regular but less frequent shows. For pop ups, or big celebrations, they \"over hire\" or contract freelance technicians like the guy I work with. He usually gets paid by the day, instead of by the hour, unless he goes over 12 hours, then it's the day rate plus overtime per hour. It's usually worth it for him to take a few vacation days a year to go work fireworks gigs. \n\nAs for making money, you'd be surprised I think how few manufacturers there are relative to the number of shows that happen. The place near me for example had a contract with Disney, despite being 800+ miles away, as well as all of the old Paramount parks east of the Mississippi river. They also have a retail store open to the public with lower grade stuff that doesn't require permits.\n\nEdit: they also help local firefighters get licensed and those guys do some of the smaller 4th of July shows for towns in the area. ",
"There’s a hotel across a field from me that do weddings and every week or 2 they do massive firework displays I’m talking like 10-25 minutes of non stop fireworks, when you do the math for whoever they pay, it’s a fuckton of cash seen as most people around here charge atleast 350£ per minute ",
"In Cincinnati, a large amount of commercial fireworks are done by one family, the Rozzi’s. In the past (I don’t know their current deals) they’ve provided fireworks for King’s Island, The Reds, and all kinds of fireworks displays around the city. I went to high school with one of their children and learned years back that for the Fourth of July that year they were running fireworks shows on the Ohio river, for Mason, Hamilton, Colerain and a few other areas. Mostly the townships and communities reach out to the family directly because they’ve been in the business for so long. \n\nI’ve added a link to their website if you’d like to dig a little deeper than my memory can maintain. \n\n_URL_0_",
"They do retain some staff throughout the year. They are primarily responsible for ensuring the permits for their lots, which are generally in front of supermarkets. This usually means meeting with the owners of the lot, as well as the fire marshall if need be.\n\nThey may also have temp staff on hand to deal with firework stand repairs. This can be due to the age of the wood, or damage from transit. Stands are generally made of panels measuring 4'x8', and are stacked on flatbed trucks about 24\" long.\n\nTwo weeks before the 4th, the company will hire temp employees, usually college students, to drive to the lots and set up the stands. This is generally a crew of three, and they will typically have a 10-hour day. After the stands are set up, they will have a garbage crew come by every day to service the stands, and after the 4th, they will have a week to take them all down, and then most employees are released.\n\nDude, next to iPhones and Beats, fireworks are one of the most obscenely profitable consumer goods. Granted, Washington State has more of its municipalites banning fireworks, but it's still quite lucrative.\n\nSource: worked for TNT Fireworks for four college summers."
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2p2eds | why is it that i can "hear" a tv on, in another room of the house, even if it's on mute? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p2eds/eli5_why_is_it_that_i_can_hear_a_tv_on_in_another/ | {
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"If its an old cathode tube tv then it makes like a high pitched whistle. No one else in my family can hear it but it drives me crazy.",
"People can actually hear all sorts of things very slightly and without conciously knowing they are hearing it. People naturally start out with different high end and low end frequencies they can hear, and just like vision, some people can hear \"better\" than others, meaning making out quieter sounds. \n\nIn you're case, you're hearing some of the minor noises the electronics inside the TV are making. AC electricity uses frequencies, and while you cant hear electricity directly, you can hear some of the effects of it, like heating and magnetic changes which can cause vibration (and noise is just vibration that travels to the ear). \n\nThese will be almost imperceptible compared to normal noises most of the time, but someone with good hearing, especially young people, can often just barely make them out.",
"All electrical devices emit sounds as a byproduct of how electricity works. Usually it's too high pitched for most people to hear, but some people are just lucky. Your superhuman ears could be put to use in a number of audio- based careers. Of course you'll have to deal with nobody knowing just what you hear that needs filtering out.",
"A CRT tube TV will emit a high-pitched squeal caused by a component usually known as the [flyback transformer](_URL_1_). \n\nThe flyback transformer is a high-voltage transformer used to generate the pulse which controls the electromagnets around the CRT which deflect the electron beam (a dot on the screen) from center to trace the image.\n\nThe flyback does the horizontal deflection; this is a sawtooth pulse, rising as the beam is deflected from left to right, and then sharply dropping as the beam \"flies back\". The voltage causes the entire transformer to deform slightly with the magnetic field, an effect known as [magnetostriction](_URL_0_).\n\nThe NTSC television standard has 30 full frames per second and 525 lines, yielding a line rate of 15 734 Hz; a faint squeal at the very top of human hearing. That's why you might not have consciously noticed it, but it's there.",
"I thought I was the only one. Yeah it used to be the case with old TV's that before going into a room I could 'hear' that one was on. Doesn't happen with LCDs or maybe I'm just older now.",
"At my last job we had new boards come in from fabrication. When I was testing them I complained about a high pitch noise coming from them that no one else in the office could hear. The rest of the day was spent making me walk out of the room and come back in so they could test if I was actually hearing something or going mad...was a good day.",
"I just thought i had superpowers haha. \nThe old tube TVs are louder but I'll hear monitors and flat screens do it as well. Phones seem to make a barely audible noise whenever a call or text is coming in and they're \"booting up\" or whatever you call it for phones when they're getting ready for call-mode. \n\nBest thing to do: cater a babysitting business exclusively targeted at people who have rules about when their sneaky kids are allowed to watch movies or play video games",
"YES! My family thinks I'm crazy. \n\n\nNo really, they have placed me in an institution all because of THIS!",
"Also worth mentioning that most people old enough to have had CRT screens their whole lives are deaf at that approximate frequency. (15750hz or 15734hz)"
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ecje1i | how can fiber be soluble and still be fiber? doesn't a fiber have to be a solid by definition? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ecje1i/eli5_how_can_fiber_be_soluble_and_still_be_fiber/ | {
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"Just clarifying. What meaning of fiber are we using?\n\nAre we talking about getting fiber in your diet? Those are carbohydrate based polysaccharides. Each \"link\" is water soluble, and there's no change to that when they're put in a \"chain\". From here, refer to the sugar argument.\n\nAre we talking about fiber as in fabric? Those are mostly nonsoluble. Some of them dissolve very slowly. \n\nJust want to make sure it's not just a language problem.",
"The name fiber when referring to dietary fiber is a bit of a misnomer. Soluble fiber is more gelatinous than fibrous."
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3k88nr | why do nfl teams use different players for punting and field goals? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3k88nr/eli5_why_do_nfl_teams_use_different_players_for/ | {
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"Different skill sets. The NFL has become so specialised that different players excel at different role on special teams (special teams referring to kick offs, punting and field goals). Lineman may remain the same for punting and field goals, however having people that are quick and can get down the field quickly are critical on kick-offs and punts, and are not as necessary on field goals. ",
"Punting and Place kicking are very different ways to kick a ball and you want very different results from them. It should be noted that most place kickers can punt a ball and most punters can place kick to an acceptable level, that is why the backup kicker is often the punter and the backup punter is often the kicker.",
"The different skill sets argument is true, but I don't think it's the main reason. Active roster spots for an NFL game are very limited (45 sounds like a lot, but they go surprisingly quickly), and if coaches thought they could get away with only one kicker they might.\n\nHowever, the risks of what would happen if the kicker got injured in that case are disastrous. The two kicking specialists act as each others' backups, and while they don't perform as well as the injured specialist (you're typically thrilled if a punter can make a 40 yard field goal or a FG kicker can knock out a 40 yard punt), the difference between what those players can do and what an average NFL player can do is huge.\n\nEvery few years, a team is forced to use a regular NFL player as a kicker because both specialist get injured, and there have been times in these cases where those teams have tried a couple of punts or FGs and ultimately decided its better to go for it on fourth down or try a two point conversion instead of kick the ball."
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59uo30 | why does the sound of running water make us feel like we need to urinate, especially when we already need to go? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59uo30/eli5why_does_the_sound_of_running_water_make_us/ | {
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"It's the sound of water running onto a surface. Mimics the sound of urinating into a toilet bowl with water in it and tricks the brain into making you want/need to go. It's why animals like dogs don't have the urge with running water because they don't associate the sound",
"Why does a post about the need to urinate make me have to pee?",
"I have to imagine some of this is a Pavlovian response. Simply hearing a similar sound can trigger it.",
"How universal is this? Because while I've heard this my whole life (37 years), the sound of running water has never inspired in me the urge to pee.",
"Is this sub called \"please make up answers for me?\""
]
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3r9pn1 | why are american ceo wages in america so much higher than global counterparts? what led to such high wages for american ceos? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3r9pn1/eli5why_are_american_ceo_wages_in_america_so_much/ | {
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"Well, the gap between executive compensation between the US and other countries has shrunk in recent years. The gap is mostly the result of paying executives in equity (stock options), a practice that is now coming into vogue elsewhere and closing the gap.",
"Well, first- the primary factor is that- the US has a very disproportionate number of the largest companies on earth. The *average* pay for a CEO is about 700K:\n_URL_2_\n\nAnd remember, that average will be pulled higher by the effects of the very large 1% of salaries out there- the MEDIAN number is probably a fair bit lower. \n\nWhat happened, essentially, was a shift in CEO compensation from being entirely salary based to including stock options. \n\n_URL_1_\n\nSo, if you click on the name of the company, most times you'll see that their SALARY is some millions of dollars, but they've got stock options of various types, or compensation based on how well the company did. \n\nThis is supposed to tie compensation to CEO performance- if you do a good job and grow the company, you get more money. \n\nThere are some problems with this- it is possible to come in and fire everyone, claim the saved salaries as company performance, and make a lot of money. But this tends to be fairly rare, especially nowadays- \"corporate raiding\" went out with the 80's, pretty much. Most CEOs want to stay in for more than a year or two, which is about the amount of time you can totally gut a company and expect a good balance sheet. \n\nSo essentially, the public perception is driven by only referencing the tip-top of CEOs- and if you look here:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nYou'll notice that the number 3 CEO makes about half as much as the #1 ceo, and the #100 CEO only makes about a tenth. And again- we're talking about some of the largest companies in the world here, not Joe's Construction Shack. \n\nSo it's a matter of how they're paid, more than base salary. "
]
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[],
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"http://www.equilar.com/reports/18-200-highest-paid-CEO-rankings-2015.html",
"http://www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/Paywatch-2014/100-Highest-Paid-CEOs",
"http://www1.salary.com/Chief-Executive-Officer-Salary.html"
]
] | ||
42q125 | why are so many "bad guys" in films portrayed with british accents? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42q125/eli5_why_are_so_many_bad_guys_in_films_portrayed/ | {
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"Because posh accents are associated with the rich elites, and the rich elites poach elephants and exploit the poor. Tis obvious m8.",
"It's a curious case how certain accents mark a character's disposition in a film! Consider also how in films set in the Roman empire, the characters also speak in a british accent. Sometimes, these markers are not linguistic but behavioral: smoking and dark skin (think middle eastern) are markers of villainy as well. It also is likely because of film tradition. British stage and film actors were well-established in Old Hollywood, and a tradition has been built of certain accents and dialects being associated with character types including posh, heartless villains. I have no actual explanation except that British accents are interpreted by American viewers to indicate a cunning, amoral and cat-like disposition that is well-suited to villainy. This is likely because of our personal and political history w/r/t the Brits."
]
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[],
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a2kzvw | what was the political system in the german weimar republic in 1920s? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a2kzvw/eli5_what_was_the_political_system_in_the_german/ | {
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"I'll try and give some American and British equivalents\n\nReichstag = Parliament/Congress/legislature\n\nReichstag President = Speaker of the House/President of the Senate\n\nPresident = President/King/Head of State\n\nChancellor = Prime Minister\n\nSo the president of Germany was directly elected by the voters and the Chancellor was elected by the members of the Reichstag. The Reichstag president would also be elected by members of the Reichstag.\n\nFurther complicating matters, the legislature was bicameral. In addition to the lower body, the Reichstag, there was the upper body, the Reichsrat. The Reichsrat was a representative of the *states* of Germany. This was similar to how the Founders in America intended the Senate to function. The House of Representatives, the lower house, was to be the representatives of the *people*, and the Senate to be the representatives of the *states*. Similar with the Reichstag (the people), and the Reichsrat (the states). "
]
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d1pdo9 | how much if at all does the amount of physical activity early in life affect potential physical limits of an adult? | Would a 25 year old male who commited his life to weightlifting and eventually reached his peak results would have different peak results if he trained as a child? How would the answer be different depending where the muscle is or if instead of muscle strength we look at flexibility, lung capacity, etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d1pdo9/eli5_how_much_if_at_all_does_the_amount_of/ | {
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"Basically the younger you start the better you get. In optimal conditions. \n\nHowever optimal conditions only apply in lab experiments. If you trained too hard and broke something early on, you could get a lifelong detriment (injury etc. ) that will always hinder your performance. \n\nA lot of people who were forced to train at a young age, can’t train that sport in later stages of life coz they have trained too hard and are now broken in multiple places. \n\nIdk if this made any sense, but in the end of the day, you do you. And don’t train too hard. Life is a marathon not a hurdle.",
"I grew up in a rural area where half the kids in sports spent all year doing rough chores. Lifting heavy bails when feeding, lifting heavy pipe while irrigating, shoveling, moving sacks of grain and other feed and other duties that required constant taxing of the muscles. These kids were tough as nails. While playing next to them (or against) them in sports you could count on them for an incredible hard hit and endless strength. \n\nJust a thought when thinking about lifelong training vs. training when older.",
"i'm pretty convinced that whatever your sports / activity levels are during late-middle school and high school kind of set your metabolism for the rest of your life. my theory is that if you're engaged in regular physical activity throughout puberty, your body kind of sets that as the standard tempo. if you're not, you can still bump up your metabolism later by working out, but it's harder, and much harder to maintain.\n\nmy anecdotal evidence is that most of the fit people i know, now that i'm an adult, were also into track and field during school. most of the less fit people i know now, were also not very fit in middle / high school.\n\nthere are obvious risks of assumption here, since those who are raised to spend more time being athletic would also pattern their adult lifestyle in similar ways (other than occasional rebelling folks). and risks of chicken-VS-egg issues, where those who are more naturally inclined to be athletic would have participated in such activities in greater numbers than those who were never so inclined.\n\nbut i still cling to my theory!\n\nthat being said, everyone i know that played high school soccer or football has fucked up knees and back injuries now. so track and field is the way to go?"
]
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606vk1 | why tv antennas improves reception when held in hand? | I'm sure most of us have experienced in the past the improvement of TV signal when it was held in hand (had direct contact with human body). In addition I've noticed that yard gate IR remote control can operate at long distance if I touch with it my temple while pressing. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/606vk1/eli5why_tv_antennas_improves_reception_when_held/ | {
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"Ok so First off, its a law of conductivity. Your body is a natural conductor, and can conduct electricity. Your body absorbs and can pass on electrical currents and direct them into the antenna.\n\nTrust me on this, I work for the telephone company and we use this as a way to trace phone lines all the time. Its called induction.\n\nYour body, when you touch the antenna, becomes part of the antenna and can do 1 of 2 things. 1, it can help by removing and grounding out certain unneeded signals temporarily. By providing a path to ground, the EM frequencies are being grounded out and thereby eliminating interference by allowing the signals that you are trying to see, to be stronger than the ones you are trying to ignore. The 2nd thing, is that when you touch the antenna, your body extends the antennas surface area by a degree, and instead of the thin metal wires being the only conductors, it now uses you to catch and route signal to the antenna.\n\nIn essence, either way, when you touch it you become part of the conductor itself."
]
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[]
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24cjev | how come back in the 50s and 60s it was safe for parents to let their kids go off and play all day, but as the years progressed that changed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24cjev/eli5_how_come_back_in_the_50s_and_60s_it_was_safe/ | {
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"mothers of these days are more protected.\nexpect same for their kids.",
"It wasn't more safe back then, it was just that most parents (except the very rich) didn't have time to look after their kids all the time, so they were sent out to play. Fatal accidents for kids were more common back then. I'd be careful with this ye-olden-days romanticism.",
"It's always just as safe. The difference is that parents now are more paranoid. ",
"There are some really good arguments in here, so I'll toss out something...\n\n\"Community\" meant a different thing in those years. You knew your neighbors and your neighborhood. The bubble you lived in wasn't anonymous or very large. That sort of trust, even if misguided, would have been as natural as breathing. Everybody your kid ran into meant no harm and would call you if there was trouble.\n\nPerception is reality, so a false sense of security was security in their minds, nonetheless.",
"it hasn't, perception due to mass media and scare hype has changed.",
"in the 90s it was safe to go play all day...\nin the 2000s it was safe to go play all day...\n\nneighborhood kids still go play all day in the 2010s.",
"My parents told me that from their own experience (as children during the 50's) that at least where they lived there was the perception that \"the streets belonged to kids first and cars second\". There were apparently so many boomer kids running around that it was considered the responsibility of drivers to slow down or wait, instead of the kid's responsibility to not play in the street like it is today.",
"The media and their fear - mongering. Yes there's always been pedophiles but making eveyone so paranoid that everyone they don't know is a predator has repercussions.\n\nYou have a large populous that don't like or trust each other and what kind of bullshit place is that? Pretty much most places around the world is like that and it disgusts me. Just because I feel like going out side for a walk around my local lake/park to stay healthy doesn't mean I'm there to kidnap children, just pisses me off when a woman feels the need to grab her kids and hold them close or 'shield' them from me. Just makes me hate this place/society/media, no wonder people get fed up and shoot up places.. then the media come rolling by and ask rehotorical questions about how or why someone would do this, YOU FUCKING KNOW WHY YOU BLOODSUCKING SCUM.\n\nTl; dr media are scumbags\n\n",
"It didn't, people just got increasingly paranoid. ",
"It was just as safe in the 50's and 60's as it is today.\n\n_URL_0_"
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crqj9z | what is the use of poison as a defense mechanism for animals? | If a predator eats a poisonous creature, that creature is dead, and now the predator is also dead... So, no one is helped and no lesson is learned. I don't understand how it is helpful to a creature to be poisonous. Other than humans, most animals don't pass information on to their children like this, and couldn't teach anyone anyway since they died of poison.
Obviously it's useful in some way or it wouldn't be a trait that's selected for, but I don't understand how it was selected in the first place... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/crqj9z/eli5_what_is_the_use_of_poison_as_a_defense/ | {
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"It takes out a predator - it's more about survival of the species as a whole than an individual. Plus in nature (generally) the brighter the colours the more it means \"I'm poisonous\" so predators don't usually try to eat them."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
pzz85 | - why don't gas pumps have slots like vending
machines where i can put in bills to pay for gas? | Why do i have to go into the convenience store part to pay for it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pzz85/eli5_why_dont_gas_pumps_have_slots_like_vending/ | {
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"Because they want you to see the items for sale in the store and buy them. It's the same reason that the escalators in shops require you to walk all the way round to go up again.",
"They used to. Back in the long ago, some of the gas stations in remote locations would accept bills. Now that most people have credit cards, you can pay at the pump with that. If you only want to put in $10, you can walk in. The cash accepting machines aren't incredibly reliable, and would require more service than just making you walk to a cashier and hand her your sawbuck. "
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ch8ska | why does a 1080p nintendo switch look great on a 4k tv, but a game in 1080p on a 4k computer monitor look so pixelated and bad? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ch8ska/eli5_why_does_a_1080p_nintendo_switch_look_great/ | {
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"text": [
"Distance is my guess. On a tv, while pixel density is lower, you are further back so it appears sharper (pixels appear smaller) on a computer monitor you are closer so pixels appear more pixelated. This is especially apparent on a large monitor and a small tv.",
"1. Distance. You tend to be way closer to a monitor than a TV\n\n2. TV/Monitor's resolution. Image will always look better when the TV is running at the same resolution as the source content. The TV may SUPPORT 4k, however if a 1920x1080 input source is connected, it will operate at 1920x1080. It's possible that if a 1920x1080 game is being played on a 4k monitor, the monitor is still running at 3840x2160 and the video card is handling upscaling to a 3840x2160 window. This will be the case unless the game in question is running in true fullscreen mode (as opposed to borderless windowed or windowed). If a second monitor is connected and not running at 1920x1080, the card will still be handling upscaling.",
"As people have said, distance, but there is another factor.\n\n4K computer monitors are really only designed to display a 4K signal well. When you send a lower resolution signal, they use very basic techniques to upscale the image and this looks bad.\n\n4K tv's on the other hand are actively designed to be able to display a 4K, 1080P, 720P and even lower resolution signals. This is done through dedicated signal processing chips running advanced upscaling algorithms. (Cheap tv's often save money by using cheap chips which do this poorly.)"
]
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1v4rtx | what do record companies do and are they still relevant? | The music industry seems to have gone through tremendous changes over the last 15 years. I'm curious as to what role a record company plays anymore. What can they do for an up and coming artist, and why couldn't an established artist, eg katy perry, just promote themselves with the ease of the internet? thanks | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v4rtx/eli5what_do_record_companies_do_and_are_they/ | {
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"They provide backing for recording (so an artist can record in a real studio, rather than a garage or someone's living room), promotion (advertising and getting on the radio), and distribution of recorded music (real CD shops, iTunes and such, including promotion there), and possible touring with established label artists."
]
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ckqcnn | why can your brain quickly process something like the angle and speed needed to throw something to someone , but would have to work to figure out the math behind the throw? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ckqcnn/eli5_why_can_your_brain_quickly_process_something/ | {
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"The best explanation I've run into is that your brain isn't processing the physics behind your throw, it's just using what it remembers from previous throws you've made. \"They look kinda far away, and this is a heavy ball, I should probably throw like... This\"",
"I studied brain science in university.\n\nYou don't actually solve the problem using the same math as in science class. Instead, you simply learn how a ball heading right toward you should look, and adjust your position until it looks right.",
"When you throw a thing, you’re drawing on the learned experience of throwing stuff before. You’re not thinking: this ball is .5kg, my arm is .75m long, so I need to rotate at x to impart force. You’re going: this is a similar weight to something else I’ve thrown, so if I throw it like that, it should go the same distance. Whether it does or doesn’t, you add a new data point."
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2q6tjv | proprioception | Close your eyes.
Now touch your knees.
How did you know the position of your knees? Proprioception of course! But how the hell does it even work?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q6tjv/eli5_proprioception/ | {
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"You are biologically wired.\n\nNot only your joints, but your muscles and ligaments as well as blood vessels, and almost everything else. Everything in your body is wired.\n\nWhen you close your eyes, you've lost one (albeit important) input. You still have your sense of balance (the inner ear) and your proprioception.\n\nYou have a [homunculus ](_URL_0_) mapped out in your brain.\n\nThis sensory information is not just for touch, but all the other senses our skin and periphery send to the central nervous system.\n\nThis includes information on position, tension, temperature, touch, etc.\n\nThese circuits can be compromised by many things, one of which is ethanol.\n\nHence the reason a neurologist or LEO asking you to close your eyes, hold out your hands then try and touch your nose.",
"Okay, will try my best to answer that (as understandable as possible^^):\n\nBasically you have to know that there are more sensory sub-systems to recognize the position of your body/limbs available for your brain than just your eyesight.\n\nThe most important of them are the golgi-organ and the muscle spindles.\n\nThe golgi-organ is a muscle sensor (only skeletal muscles) that tells you if and how much the tension in one of your muscles changes.\n\nThe muscle spindles are also inside your muscles and can only sense changes to the length of that muscle.\n\nProprioception can be called the orientation of movement. So, imagine you are driving with a car. You know the location where you are headed. The muscle spindles are equivalent of the knowledge how far you have already come on your journey and the golgi-organ tells you how fast you are going. Given those information you will always know perfectly where you are and how long it will take to reach your destination even if your eyes are closed (not implying you should drive with your eyes closed).\n\nSource: I'm an occupational therapist working mostly with neurological patients. If the information of one of those sensors isn't processed correctly your precise movements are kinda fucked. \n\nInteresting side note: Proprioception does only sensor changes in tension and position. If you lie perfectly still for some time there will be nothing to process and you can actually \"forget\" how the position of your limbs are...\n\nPS: English is not my first language, sorry for bad grammar and spelling \n"
]
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[
"https://www.google.com/search?q=homunculus+brain&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=799&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=NqOZVOD7Iam1sATx_YLgAw&ved=0CB0QsAQ"
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ex69iz | why are there so many different methods of cooking food that produce different outcomes? isn’t it all just heat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ex69iz/eli5_why_are_there_so_many_different_methods_of/ | {
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"The speed of heating (food doesn't heat evenly, you can incinerate the outside and leave the inside frozen if you put the oven at max), the time spent at temperature (chemical reactions take time) and the humidity all have huge effects. There are also finer details that can be varied.",
"r/askculinary might know better."
]
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[],
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2a45qv | why do humans see things as "gross" while other animals do not? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2a45qv/eli5_why_do_humans_see_things_as_gross_while/ | {
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"text": [
"Depends what culture you are raised in. You might think food from another culture is gross and someone from another culture may think your food is gross. I guess animals don't have culture."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
emyayu | if mandarin chinese is a tonal language, meaning that the inflection of one's voice changes the meaning of the word, then how is it properly understood when being sung? | I've been a fan of the Chinese singer Faye Wong for a couple years now and have always wondered this. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/emyayu/eli5_if_mandarin_chinese_is_a_tonal_language/ | {
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"text": [
"Tone can still be maintained because it is *relative* pitch, not absolute pitch.\n\nBut yes, this does impose some limitations when writing song melodies.",
"Want to go insane? Listen to this poem being recited. \n\n\n [_URL_1_](_URL_0_)",
"As a Bilingual Mandarin and English speaker (who also speaks Cantonese), I would say that we use mainly context to understand songs. The context also allows us to understand speakers who have accents and don't nail the tones 100%.",
"I got 2 answers for you. The first is my answer as a student that took a linguistics course and speaks Mandarin. The words around certain words affect the meaning of a word. So from what comes before and after, you can understand the meaning of the word in the middle\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThe second answer is from my mother, who was born in China and is 100% fluent in Mandarin. She says \"To be honest, I don't understand most of what is said in a song, I just like listening to them\"",
"Good question. I also wonder how Scottish singers can often lose their accents cometely when in song.",
"In music, you sing to the melody by matching the pitch of the word.\n\nIn Chinese, the defining tones of words have no specific pitch. They are about the change in pitch.\n\nThe four Mandarin tones are defined as flat, rising, fall and rise, and falling.\n\nThese can be whatever pitch you want to sing them to as long as you sing them with the change in pitch as well.",
"More importantly, what do you do if you’re tone deaf?"
]
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35btuw | david cameron appears to be deeply unpopular. how was he/his government re-elected? | Canadian here, so I'm not super familiar with the UK electoral system. I understand that there may be issues regarding representation in the current system that may have affected the outcome?
Edit: So I gather Cameron isn't as unanimously unpopular as I was lead to believe. What segments of the population is he unpopular with and which strongly support him, and why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35btuw/eli5_david_cameron_appears_to_be_deeply_unpopular/ | {
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"Parliamentary politics is setup in such a way that a person who has roughly 30% of the vote can wield 100% of the power. Given that you are going to have anywhere from 3-8 parties in a parliamentary system you have shattered support. Although maybe Cameron receives 40% of the support you might look at that as 60% of the people don't approve of David Cameron. But it also might mean that 70% don't approve of Labor, 90% don't approve of that racist party, and 95% don't approve of the Green Party.\n\nThe person who won was likely the most popular party... despite not having unanimous support. But honestly, would it really be a democracy if a person had 95% approval in an election?",
"This is simply demographics. You are a Reddit user - general user of the internet - therefore tend to be more liberal. People like to surround themselves with like-minded people, and so when something happens: the correspondence you get is generally in consensus to what your opinion is - in this case anti-Cameron.\n\nDisclaimer: I despise the Tories, 12 Billion in welfare cuts, an EU referendum and preparing to sell the NHS was enough for me, not to mention their history."
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5fyoni | why do so many jokes involve 3? "3 guys walk..." "3 women died...." "3 guys find a lamp..." | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fyoni/eli5_why_do_so_many_jokes_involve_3_3_guys_walk_3/ | {
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"It's to get a certain pattern going in the joke, to have the last person break the pattern. If it was just two people, there is no pattern for the final person to break because one person can't create a pattern. The reason there isn't usually four is because it adds unnecessary length to the joke.",
"Most humor relies on irony, so having three of anything allows for the joke to set up a norm to contradict at the end.",
"I actually learned a bit about this. Comedy works on repetition. The two best # of times to repeat something is either 3 or 5. It has to do with audience anticipation.\n\n3 drives the joke the home, and 5 passes through 'overplayed' and into the \"It's funny again\" category.\n\nUsing 3 of something as the baseline of a joke, allows for this same thing. The first 2 are just the setup, but it's when you get to the 3rd that the joke gets innately funny.\n\nThis actually works with quite a few things. I learned about it in a computer animation class. The teacher used the Pixar logo as an example. When the desk-lamp comes in from off screen and bounces on the the letter 'I' in Pixar, it does so 5 times, in order to create the same repetition effect.",
"Triples are important in humor. You will tell a joke about three people. You say what the first one does, OK. Then you say what the second one does. That establishes the pattern of behavior for these people.\n\nThen you say what the third one does. This breaks the pattern, and is where the humor comes from. A lot of humor is based on defying expectations and conventions, so you have two other people to establish what the expected behavior is.",
"Roy Peter Clark have written a book called 50 Writing Tools. Number 17 is \"The Number of Elements\".\n\nThe basic idea is that 4 is too much, 1 doesn't compare it to anything, 2 gives equal weight to each part and 3 is just perfect. \n\n > In summary: \n > • Use one for power. \n > • Use two for comparison, contrast. \n > • Use three for completeness, wholeness, roundness. \n > • Use four or more to list, inventory, compile, and expand. ",
"There is an expression \"once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern\"; a lot of humor is based on the unexpected results of subverting an implied pattern."
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4xljun | olive oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil - what is the difference and when should each be used? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xljun/eli5_olive_oil_vegetable_oil_sunflower_oil_what/ | {
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"The two biggest things about cooking with oil are the smoke point and flavor\n\nHere's an amazing article on [smokepoint](_URL_0_) (seriously read it). Basically, this is the highest temperature you should use the oil for otherwise it gets nasty and/or can have other flavor or safety issues, however there's a bit more to it, but don't worry about it, just use the \"right\" oil for the right temp and flavor.\n\nSecond is flavor, some oils have lots of flavor, like olive oil, others like vegetable oil or sunflower oil are \"neutral\" or oils with little to no flavor.\n\n\nSo... When you can cook at a lower temperature (350F - 375F), and you want flavor- olive oil is your boy. If you need to cook a bit hotter (400F - 450F), and want little to no flavor added, vegetable oil is your boy. If you want to cook really hot (500F), sunflower is one of the highest temperatures you can get for oils.\n"
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17ldsb | if every point in the universe is moving away from every other point in the universe (if the universe is expanding), then why doesn't the moon's distance from the earth increase with time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17ldsb/eli5_if_every_point_in_the_universe_is_moving/ | {
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"for things that are not bond by gravity, the distance between them is increasing. Think of it as \"time and distance are the same thing, as time increases then distance increases\". \n\nThe Moon is a different story, it is moving further away but that is because the orbital velocity is increasing. As the Earth rotates, that rotation (via gravity) gives the Moon an extra little pull. That little extra pull speeds up the Moon as it zips around the Earth... and a faster orbital speed means it drifts out to a higher orbit, that is, it moves away from us. Currently the rate is about 4 cm a year, but it does vary over time as the depths and sizes of the oceans change mostly from continental drift."
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3v9vny | the controvesy surrounding mark zuckerberg's decision to donate 99% of his facebook income to charity. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v9vny/eli5_the_controvesy_surrounding_mark_zuckerbergs/ | {
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"The Gates never claimed they were giving away 99% of their wealth for media attention and good PR. Zuckerberg is basically donating his own stocks to himself and expects us to think he's some great philanthropist.",
"You can sell out the population's desire for and right to privacy, and even make a shit-ton of money doing so. But if you try to avoid paying taxes on it, you're just being tacky. ",
"I find this post to be a fair analysis of the situation:\n_URL_0_\n\n\nThe TL;DR is that they way they've set it up, they're still in control of how and where the money is spent. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on whether you believe they'll make good choices or not. \n\nThere are many companies that do good while being a for profit company, and they have the flexibility to support these companies. Similarly there are non-profit organizations that are poorly run and can sometimes do more harm than good, or be wasteful with funding because they lack the proper skills or organizational structure to use the money properly.\n\nOn the other hand, it could be used in a self-serving manner. Ultimately the controversy is that there's a lot of potential but little guarantee that it'll be put to good use. \n\nBy moving it to a separate entity though, it does mean that the use of the money is not beholden to \"maximizing shareholder value\" which is something that can get in the way when a CEO legitimately wants to do good in a way that would hurt profitability, as a publicly traded company it would be going against their obligations.\n",
"A great recap from Matt Levine on Bloomberg:\n\nThe Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to which Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have pledged to donate 99 percent of their Facebook stock, is not a charitable foundation, but just an LLC. That is, it's just a pot into which Zuckerberg and Chan can put their money, and out of which they can give money to charities, or for-profit investments, or political advocacy, or whatever. Here are some explainers from Bloomberg, New York Times, Vox and Bloomberg again.\n\nOne upshot of this is that they won't get a tax deduction for putting money into that pot, because it is not a charitable foundation. This is of course not at all important to them, because they don't have that much taxable income (Zuckerberg is paid $1 a year, and most of their wealth is in unrealized capital gains). Also, they are planning to give away 99 percent of the shares that make up the bulk of their fortune, and giving away 99 percent of your money to shield yourself from income taxes on the other 1 percent is economically nonsensical. (Consider the first law of tax.) But a surprising number of people (even at the New Yorker!) are making claims like this: \n\n*There’s an almost overnight financial benefit, too: The Facebook founder will deduct the fair value of his gift to his foundation from his taxable income in the year he makes the donation. A donor like Zuckerberg could realize a tax benefit equal to about one-third of the value of his gift.*\n\nNope! No foundation, no tax benefit. \n\nElsewhere, Dylan Matthews has some ideas for what Mark Zuckerberg should do with his money, including giving it to his college roommate or spending it on monetary policy lobbying. (These are mostly not jokes, though who's to say what a joke is really.) David Auerbach asks, \"Can We Trust the Hacker Philanthropists?\" And here is Anil Dash:\n\n*Here’s the truth: No matter how good their intentions, the net result of most such efforts has typically been neutral at best, and can sometimes be deeply destructive. The most valuable path may well be to simply invest this enormous pool of resources in the people and institutions that are already doing this work (including, yes, public institutions funded by tax dollars) and trust that they know their domains better than someone who’s already got a pretty demanding day job. That may not be as appealing to the cult of disruption within the tech echo chamber, but would be exactly the kind of brave and unexpected move that might offer Max a great example of how to engage with the real world that the rest of us live in.*\n\n_URL_0_",
"A lot of people are touching on the tax avoidance aspect, but there's another one that relates not just to Zuckerbergs, but all the billionaires and celebrities who donate money for their pet causes. While there is obvious value in saving lives, eradicating diseases and so on, there's some element of these charities 'giving a man a fish' instead of 'teaching him how to fish.'\n\nThe best way of improving the human condition is and always has been economic and governmental stability. Jobs, industry, representative government, respect for human rights, low corruption, etc. has much more long term impact, including improvement of a population's health. The various initiatives and pledges are nice and mostly well-intentioned, but they still are more focused on treating symptoms, not causes, of widespread suffering.\n\nIf a billionaire is going to throw money at something and bypass government, I think what people like Musk, Bezos and Branson do is better. They improve or even create new industries that have massive potential for space, energy, etc., as well as creating jobs.",
"Others have explained one aspect of the controversy. Another aspect is [presented here](_URL_0_).\n\nThat article complains about how Facebook (and many other companies) don't pay their \"fair share\" in taxes by using tax avoidance schemes [such as this one](_URL_1_). \n\nThe article complains that, if Zuckerberg were really generous, Facebook should stop trying to avoid international taxes.\n\nIt's overly simplistic--Facebook is a corporation and corporations have a duty to their shareholders. Simply giving money away when simple schemes can be used to reduce the tax burden is one of those duties. ",
"To sum up, his money is not going to a charity, but to his own LLC, which will let him evade tax by moving his private assets into a foundation",
"I would like to see Mark buy up and protect large swaths of rainforest and other sensitive and universally beneficial ecosystems around the world to create \"global parks\" like we have \"national parks\" in the US. This could go a long way towards combating global warming and preserving creatures with medical benefits, even isolated groups of people.",
"Fuck charities!\n\nTake the money and set up a research grant system. Support all the university labs throughout the world and get some proper, long-term solutions to the world's problems.\n\nJust to be clear. I don't hate charities. It's just that too much of them are filling the pockets of the people running them. Also, I keep hearing about charities that have agendas on the side.\n\nResearchers are an underrated group of people who often do great work on what little money they are able to get from grants.\n\nYes I am a researcher, so this is self promotion. Researchers do make descent salaries, although I'd argue it could be better. I'm just saying that you'd be amazed at what we could do if we had the proper funding.\n\nEdit: thanks for the grammar tips.",
"He is *NOT* donating it to charity. \n \nHe's set up an LLC, which is allowed to spend money on anything it wants, it doesnt' have to be a charity. They *call* it a charity, because that's what they want people to believe the money will go to, but they are under no obligation whatsoever to spend it in that way."
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365sl9 | why, after attacks in france by islamist terrorists, was there an increase in antisemitic sentiment and violence? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/365sl9/eli5why_after_attacks_in_france_by_islamist/ | {
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"France had a notable Muslim population that bring anti-semetic attitudes with them. A lot of them believe that terrorism is a Zionist conspiracy etc etc. They convey this message around. Also France is very xenophobic to begin with (just like Japan) and thus it doesn't take much to get them going (not everyone but people who are racists). \n\n\n\n\nIt's not unique to France, areas and countries with large Muslim populations are antisemitic. You can look at UK (notable Muslims population), Sweden (notable Muslim population concentrated in areas that are antisemitic), Islamic countries etc etc. It's not being racist...... It's just true. ",
"Could you provide a source? Because there was an increase of anti-muslims attacks, but never heard of increase in antisemitic attacks.",
"Well France is essentially the most racist first-world country [on the globe](_URL_0_)\n\nAbout 20%+ the population said they didn't want to live next to someone of a different race. The influx of primarily north African immigrants who have put a drain on the society along with bringing protests have likely only fueled these thoughts.\n\nMy guess is they simply have an attitude of \"everyone unlike us just GTFO\" because of the turmoil and troubles they are facing from this outside immigration. Likely leading to a rise in all racist attacks including against Jews and Muslims alike. "
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zv8ly | election polls | How can they determine an outcome of a race when they poll a sample size of 1,000 to 2,000 and why do networks/media outlets use different poling systems?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zv8ly/eli5_election_polls/ | {
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"Mathematically, a truly random sample of 1,000 will get you within about 5 percentage points of the true results 95 percent of the time. Different networks use different polling systems because they think their system better approximates \"truly random\".",
"A dice has six sides. When you roll one, it has an equal chance for landing on any of these sides. That means that on average, it should land on the 4 (or the three, or any side really, I'm just using 4 as an example) once out of six tries. But sometimes you roll the dice 6 times, and don't get a 4 at all. Instead you might get an extra 3. \n\nWhat mathematicians say, is that it doesn't work every single time, but if you just roll often enough in the end it *will* even out. They say that if you roll 6000 times, 1000 of those rolls will be a 4. Or maybe 995 times, or possibly 1005 times. Point is, roughly speaking it will even out. And it does.\n\nThe next step is that it works for more than just dice. Lets say, the entire US is split equally between people who will vote Republican, and people who will vote Democrat. If you ask enough people, half of the people you asked will be ones who vote Democrat, and half of them will be ones who vote Republican.\n\nNow, if you don't know what percentage vote Republican, it's just a matter of calling enough people, and the percentage of them that votes Republican is (roughly) the same percentage as that of all the people.\n\nThis far, it's all about the math of statistics, which we've been testing and doing and trying for decades and it works. We know it works. We even know how accurately it works. The next step is polling, and that gets... tricky.\n\nThere's two main reasons to get it wrong. The first is that while with dice, getting a random sample is as simple as rolling them, but you can't just \"roll\" people. For example, if you just stand on the street and ask people, the \"whole group\" your random sample says something about, is \"all people who walk down this street, occasionally\", which is not the same as \"all people\". Random sampling is tricky, and not everybody agrees on how to do it best. For example, if you just call cell-phones, 20 years ago you'd only have gotten very rich business men who could afford one, but now you also get lots of teenagers. So this affects polling systems.\n\nThe second problem is that when you ask people what they'll vote, what you learn is what people say they will vote. Not what they actually will vote. They're not always the same thing. So people are constantly wondering, with these answers, what can I predict about what people will actually do. Somebody might think, for example, that women generally are more likely to actually vote what they said they would, so change their predictions based on that. Somebody else might think that women generally are *less* likely to vote what they said they would. This is the other source for disagreement."
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7fnq3e | what causes death by shock? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fnq3e/eli5_what_causes_death_by_shock/ | {
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"Shock is a medical term for when blood pressure drops to critical levels where it may not be able to deliver enough oxygen to sustain organs. This may lead to organ failure, and once one organ goes, it often leads to a cascade of other organ failures. If any of these are vital for living, it results in death.",
"The simple definition of shock is -- > hypoxia (low oxygen ; leading to organ failure) due to circulatory failure. For normal circulation you need 3 things: 1) pump (your heart), 2) volume (your blood), 3) compliance (your blood vessels). Therefore, there are 3 main mechanisms which can lead to circulatory failure: hypovolemic shock (not enough blood ; e.g.= after severe bleeding), cardiogenic shock (the pump/heart is not working properly ; e.g.= after infarction), and distributory shock (the vessels are too dilated & proper blood pressure cannot be maintained)."
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15jdgp | do alcoholics and drug addicts experience the same kind of addiction? | I can drink socially no problem, but too much drinking or drinking for too many days makes me sick of it. In addition I know many adults who as they grew up, just stopped liking alcohol. Is this also a common occurrence with drugs? Is the ratio of social users to addicts the same across alcohol and drugs? why or why not? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15jdgp/do_alcoholics_and_drug_addicts_experience_the/ | {
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" > Do alcoholics and drug addicts experience the same kind of addiction?\n\nIt depends on the drug. Some drugs are similar to alcohol in that they form a physiological dependance. Your body gets used to them and can't function without them. Opiates are like this. \n\nOthers, like marijuana, are not as likely to form a physical dependance, although many people who use heavily and daily do experience withdrawal symptoms, especially in regards to insomnia and appetite. \n\n\n > many adults who as they grew up, just stopped liking alcohol. Is this also a common occurrence with drugs?\n\nMany adults grow away from the wild habits of their youth. Employment, parenthood and other responsibilities get in the way of partying. \n\n > Is the ratio of social users to addicts the same across alcohol and drugs? why or why not?\n\nOnce again, it depends on the drug. I would say there are far more crack and heroin addicts than social users. Weed is probably closer to the ratio for alcohol. Why? Well the people that experiment with hard drugs are usually more likely to have an addictive personality and have a need to be high. Hard drugs are not 'social drugs'. If you go to a typical party, alcohol is common, weed is possibly present and perhaps some cocaine. You are not going to see suburbanites slamming smack at a backyard barbeque. \n ",
"Alcohol is a drug in just about every way *except* that it is not targeted by the war on drugs. The same could be said for caffeine and nicotine.\n\nBasically there are two types of addiction. Chemical, and behavioral. Caffeine, for example, makes you feel awake because it blocks the chemical that makes you sleepy from getting to the right parts of your brain. To compensate, your body makes way more of that chemical to say hey, go the fuck to sleep. Your body gets used to making more of this chemical, even if you forget to have your coffee - rendering morning functionality difficult. This is a chemical addiction.\n\nAlcohol takes a lot longer for your body to adjust to, so many people drink their whole lives but never reach a significant level of addiction, cause like you or me, they stop when their body starts really hurting. Some people like to drink to \"cure\" a hangover. This is where you're setting yourself up for addiction.\n\nIts worth note that alcohol is harder on your body than many, many street drugs. Marijuana, heroin, mushrooms, LSD, and many others leave you with much less organ wear and tear per dosage."
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335b06 | what's all this craze around coconut oil, and is it really that good for you? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/335b06/eli5_whats_all_this_craze_around_coconut_oil_and/ | {
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"Coconut oil is rich in medium chain triglycerides, which have been shown to have some health benefits. For instance, when other dietary oils are replaced with coconut oil, it does have slight fat burning properties. It's nothing miraculous, though.\n\n[Here's a good summary of it](_URL_0_)",
"It tastes good, I always use it when I cook Indian inspired and usually for other Asian recipes. As fats go, it's still a fat, but may be better than most others health-wise. It, along with all other foods that turn into fads, is not made of magic and/or miracles.",
"If you ever get lice, a shampoo with coconut oil gets rid of them. Helped my out my freshman year of college. ",
"Might as well add that I use it to make lotions and stuff at work. Interesting stuff to work with, and it apparently adds a bit of a nice feel. The pure stuff feels rather light, though.",
"Nobody seems to have said this yet. Put it on your sunburns and stay inside for a day or 2. It'll stop the stinging and heal it. Staying inside because it is oil and will make you burn faster if you leave it on",
"I used to work in a sex store so I was asked about coconut oil a lot. Yes, you can use it for lube. Yes, like anything oil based it will break down the latex in a condom and make tiny holes in said condom. Not the best idea of you're trying to be safe.",
"My barber decided to be a dermatologist and diagnose my scalp with psoriasis and told me to use coconut oil on my hair , I had an incredible amount of dandruff it was pretty disgusting...so I did that...but all it took was 1 use of head and shoulders and all my dandruff disappeared.\n\nPro-tip: if your a barber, please don't diagnose people with medical conditions "
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81y0ow | why curve a bowling ball? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/81y0ow/eli5_why_curve_a_bowling_ball/ | {
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"Wikipedia's reason: \n\nhook in ten-pin bowling is a ball that rolls in a curving pattern (versus straight). The purpose of the hook is to give the ball a better angle at the 1-3 pocket (right-handers) or 1-2 pocket (left-handers.) When a ball is rolled straight, hitting the pocket must be precise. By hooking the ball, the ball will hit the pins with more force, producing better carry - especially on the 5-pin during a strike ball. Straight roll - even when it hits the pocket, will tend to leave a tap, such as the 5-pin on a light hit, or the 10-pin if the ball was just slightly right of the head pin. A hook ball can create strikes with less precise hits at the pocket.\n\nA hook ball can also help the bowler shape the shot on challenging oil patterns.\n\n",
"Throwing off center means you have even less control of the pins and are still likely to only shoot them strait back missing the ends. Imparting spin on the pins by hitting them with a curving ball knocks them into rotation sideways (at least some of them) which gives you a bit wider area of effect knocking down more pin with more reliable control. You basically have more fudge room with a curve ball. ",
"The lanes are oiled, which helps the bowling ball travel far enough and fast enough to strike down the pins. Different locations have different patterns of oil they apply. Most commercial locations have oil patterns that help their patrons by guiding it back to the center, where as certain tournament regulated patterns are less helpful. As a day progresses and more throws are made, the oil on the lanes is redistributed. Most players are right handed, which skews the oil pattern on the right side of the lane. A skillful bowler will look at how the oil is distributed and maximize its effectiveness. ",
"At the ELI5 level: \n\nThe bowling ball is round and the pins are round. If you hit a pin straight on, the bowling ball and the pin will move in the same direction. If you hit it at an angle without too much strength in the throw, the pin goes in one direction and the bowling ball bounces in the opposite direction.\n\nImage there are only three bowling pins in a triangle, a headpin and behind it a pin to the left and a pin to the right. It would be pretty easy to get the headpin to bounce in one direction to take out a back pin and have the ball bounce in the opposite direction to get the other back pin.\n\nNow add extra pins to get the common 10 pin configuration. Now you no longer need only one object to go left and another object to go right. You also need another object to go down the middle. \n\nWhen the bowling ball comes in with a curve the spin helps the ball continue forward straight to get the middle 5 pin while the 2 and 3 pins take out the left and right side pins.\n\nOf course people get strikes throwing straight balls. As other commentators have mentioned, using the hook increases the margins of error and addresses the physical surface of the lanes and oil patterns."
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anwzz5 | how does curing meat work? how can you leave meat out for days and days and not get terrible food poisoning? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/anwzz5/eli5_how_does_curing_meat_work_how_can_you_leave/ | {
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"Food poisoning comes from the unrestrained reproduction of microbial life, mostly bacteria. This is also what mostly causes meat to decay. \n\nIf you find some clever way to keep the bacteria from reproducing, through treatments that are inherently antibiotic or through freezing, then the meat remains safe to eat...\n\nSo long as the treatment isn't also poisonous. ",
"Food poisoning happens when bacteria or other tiny things get into the meat, and they basically eat it before you do. When you come across a piece of rotten meat, it's because it's full of microorganisms and their waste products. That's bad for us to eat.\n\nSo the trick is either to eat the meat before they do, or else to preserve it so that they can't live off of it. Curing meat does just that - salting, smoking, or drying the meat takes away its moisture content, meaning that bacteria that try to live on it will die of dehydration. If they can't live on it, they can't eat it, and it can last for a very long time.\n\n & #x200B;"
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9cjge9 | why are most police cars in the u.s. made by ford or chevy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9cjge9/eli5_why_are_most_police_cars_in_the_us_made_by/ | {
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"Personal note: At least in my area, a lot of police vehicles are Dodge Chargers (and Wikipedia quotes the charger as the best selling police vehicles since the fall of the Ford Crown Victoria). \n\nBut that aside, most US police departments will only purchase fleet vehicles form a US-based manufacturer (ignoring foreign companies with domestic manufacturing subsidiaries).",
"Back then US law enforcment were always underfunded and organized criminals built their own getaway cars or hot rods to commit crimes. As a good American citizen, Ford struck a deal with the US law enforcement agency. Giving them custom additional police interior equipment and the lights and sirens. Usually cops have their vehicles running all the time, so there was a lot of design work for cooling and power supply. Plus back then their designs were frame over body, so in the event of an accident, the car parts can be changed from frame to frame which saves money in the end. Ford made these cars really reliable and fast, so they kept using them.\n\nBut to answer your question, other manufactures don't really make police cars, unless requested and then its a custom job. Ford already has the process of building police cars down and they need to be tested to meet regulations.\n\nEven shorter, why buy foreign cars when you can improve your own market buying domestic cars?"
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3po3v7 | how accurate are topographic maps and how are they made? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3po3v7/eli5_how_accurate_are_topographic_maps_and_how/ | {
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"They tend to be extremely accurate for what they are. \n\nThey are made using a mixture of pictures from the air (usually from passing aircraft) and field surveys of the areas. This is where people go down and take exact measurements of the elevation using specific tools. This ensures the measurements are literally to the point of where a person is standing.\n\nPeople then use the data to create maps which represent the highs and lows of a specific area of land. It works really well. ",
"I've always been impressed at the level of detail that early explorers were able to create maps."
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28nqsu | why dogs kick the grass after they piss? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28nqsu/eli5_why_dogs_kick_the_grass_after_they_piss/ | {
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"In the wild, canines such as wolves, dingoes and foxes may kick the ground after elimination for sanitary reasons. They are simply covering up the mess. But the behavior is also a way to mark territory. All dogs have glands in their feet that secrete pheromones, and a couple of backward scratches into the earth releases those chemicals."
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16bhlm | what does melatonin do to you and how does it work? | I have heard a lot about melatonin, what does it do, and how does it get you to sleep so fast? How they prevent the side effect of needing them to sleep at all times? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16bhlm/what_does_melatonin_do_to_you_and_how_does_it_work/ | {
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"Melatonin is a hormone regulator of you circadian rhythms. \n\nYour Circadian rhythms follow a 24 hour pattern, like a clock. During the day, bright light from the sun works to keep the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SN) of your hypothalamus passive when it comes to stimulating the pineal gland. At night however, when there is less bright light shining on your eyes, the SN is no longer inhibited. The SN works to stimulate your pineal gland, which consequently secretes the hormone melatonin. In other words, there is a greater concentration of melatonin produced at night than during the day.\n\nTaking melatonin can help get you to sleep faster, because by increasing the associated concentration, you can simulate being at the peak of your circadian rhythm. \n\nPeople may need to take melatonin because their body does not produce enough. To prevent reliance on the pills, an individual may need to address the underlying condition which presents such a deficiency to begin with.",
"Yep, what they all said, and it also acts as an antioxidant when taken in very small doses. But don't take full pills just for this reason; it negatively feeds back upon other important hormonal pathways when taken in excess."
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co15z4 | why is it mandatory to have your headlights on while driving during the day in some countries? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/co15z4/eli5_why_is_it_mandatory_to_have_your_headlights/ | {
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"... a car with headlights on is easier to spot than one with no headlights. ... Most studies done around the world have concluded that daytime running lights can decrease collisions by anywhere from 5 to 10 percent",
"_URL_0_\n\nBasically it started in Norway where daytime conditions in the far north where at times there was very little natural light.",
"Especially if its raining. Raindrops on mirrors make it Impossible to see, but lights are really easy to spot even like that.",
"It started in Spain after a campaign by a tv channel \"Hazte ver\" (make yourself be seen). I don't think it is mandatory, but definitely recommended. Lights are just easier to spot. Plus if you're used to always having them on, they will be on when it starts to get darker (you won't forget).",
"Not in all countries. In Latvia you have to have them on all the time when driving, but in Lithuania you don't.\n\nDon't now about other countries.\n\nBut the answer why is pretty obvious - because it's easier to spot a car with headlights on thus its safer if everyone just drives with them on 24/7",
"Most new cars have things called 'Daytime Running Lights', or DRL's. These are more dim than actual headlights, but bright enough to be easily seen. DRL's make it easier to spot oncoming cars, which can be difficult when there're a lot of objects around you. IE: Buildings, parked cars, signs, etc. Drivers often times have to make quick decisions, and making cars easier to notice lowers the chance of collisions.\n\nDRL's have even become stylish for cars with the advent of cheap LED's. Many have LED strips that surround the outside of the headlight to create a sort of 'eye liner' effect.",
"It's easier to spot a car with lights on. Especially during rain or on a forested road.\n\nI always keep the lights on, it's a habbit by now"
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1xrgx3 | who decides which commercials air on a particular channel, who decides the order they air in, etc.? | I've been wondering about this for a while. I have three main questions here.
1. Who decides which commercials air on a certain channel? Do companies pay Viacom to broadcast their commercials across multiple stations, or do they pay individually to have commercials on MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, etc.?
2. Is there any sort of ranking with commercials during a specific commercial break? I assume that the more you pay, the more likely your commercial will be broadcast during "prime time" (not sure on the word here). What about a specific commercial break though? Do you pay more to be the first commercial during the break?
3. What's going on when a commercial ends abruptly? If you watch enough tv, you've probably noticed that some commercials will cut off way before they end. It's kind of strange. Did someone screw up when that happens? What's the logistics behind commercials being cut off by other commercials? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xrgx3/eli5_who_decides_which_commercials_air_on_a/ | {
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"Most times, it's whoever has the money. If company A and B want to air an ad, the company who offers the most will most likely get the air time. Exceptions to that can be the content of the ad and the shows playing at the time. Commercials playing between a football game will be different from those played during Dora the Explorer. The target audience is factored into it.",
"I have wondered this myself... I am no expert in broadcast marketing, but I am pretty smart fella. Let me take a stab at it. Let me know what you think.\n\nQuestions 1: I imagine the organizations that plan to market their products/services via TV or radio advertisements can go either direction... 1) Pay a consultant/agent to work with TV and Radio Corporations (Viacom/Clear Channel/CBS/Etc.); or 2) reach out directly to those TV and Radio Corporations... (cont' in #2)\n\nQuestion 2: ...to purchase specific commercial time (for instance \"my-first-ad\" will run during the 12:00 hour at 12:12pm, 12:35pm, and 12:52pm).\n\n-- Side Note 1 -- I imagine that the consultants/agents and Media Corporations have \"shaken hands\" to ensure that the consultants/agents get a much better rate for those slots to persuade the buying organization to move forward in that direction. Not without a kickback to the corporate executive from the consultant/agent of course ;)\n\nFor question 3 - I always look to my wife and say \"someone lost their job tonight\", bwahahaha. Truthfully, I have no idea what happens. \n\n-- Side Note 2 -- I have often wondered if maybe it's the organizations that went straight to the Media Corp... so that the consultant/agent could say \"This never happens to my clients... maybe you should let me represent you??\", and subtly persuade the organization's go to TV/Radio market strategy.\n\nThere you go... two cents, my friend - enjoy ;)"
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42mc26 | how can a screenshot of a gameboy advance game be several mbs big, when the game itself is only 1 or 2 mb? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42mc26/eli5_how_can_a_screenshot_of_a_gameboy_advance/ | {
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"One is the instructions to perform a task, the other is the result.\n\nI could write instructions to build a pyramid that would take less than a page yet the result is gigantic.",
"How did you take the screenshot? I assume on a computer while playing an emulator. If so, the computer screenshot is saving a lot of picture information based on what's being displayed on your monitor. Storing the color information for every pixel on a high resolution screen takes up a lot of space.\n\nThe GBA game itself doesn't contain many images. Instead, it contains code telling the video card what to output. The images that it does have saved in the hardware are highly compressed, use fewer colors, and are likely lower resolution."
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4c8iyq | why does every usa presidential candidate overtly states that they are a friend of israel ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4c8iyq/eli5_why_does_every_usa_presidential_candidate/ | {
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"There is a significant pro-Israel lobby in the United States, so sometimes it's pandering, sometimes sincere. Also, much of the western world holds onto a lot of guilt for what happened to Jews in WWII. I think that is relevant. "
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35lu32 | how are we able to remove contaminants from our water, yet we cannot remove salt from sea water effectively using the same methods? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35lu32/eli5_how_are_we_able_to_remove_contaminants_from/ | {
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"There are many processes for desalinating sea water (removing the salt). They are highly effective and large quantities of water can be desalinated in industrial scale machines. If desalinated water costs $2000 per acre-foot (about a year's worth for a family of four). Comparing that to the cost of fresh water ($70-100 per acre-foot), you see why it isn't done more. It's too darn expensive."
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6foj37 | why does buying cars involve so much negotiating and not just set prices? | Just wondering since I will be getting a car if my own soon and it still confuses me as to why u can't just but a car for a set price and that some people get the same car cheaper than other and vice versa | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6foj37/eli5_why_does_buying_cars_involve_so_much/ | {
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"Because cars are a large transaction that most people will only make a few times in their lives, so it's worth it from the seller's point to maximize revenue by capturing the absolute most everyone is willing to pay, even if they have to share most of the captured revenue with their own sales staff. \n\nLess expensive, more frequently purchased goods are only sold at one price because the labor costs to employ a skilled negotiator greatly exceeds the increased revenue, so it's more profitable to sell things quickly, cheaply, and with as little employee time per sale, as possible. \n\nIn lower labor cost nations, many more objects are sold via negotiation and haggling. ",
"Carmax has set prices on their whole fleet of cars, nationwide. I've bought a couple cars from them and the overall experience was great! No fuss. ",
"Sellers can make the most money if they charge everyone a different price, but that's hard to do. From an economics perspective, if you're dying of thirst, maybe you'd be willing to pay $100 for a bottle of water, but if they charge everyone only $1, from a seller's perspective, they're losing $99 they could have earned.\n\nSo with a car, it's the same. The sticker price is a generally high price, which is the most any buyer would have to pay. Dealers make the sticker price high because some people are willing to pay the high sticker price, without negotiating anything. Some buyers won't negotiate because they don't know how to, don't want to, think it's rude, are afraid to, are too shy, or they have enough money that they don't want to spend the time and effort to lower the price.\n\nIf dealers charged a lower price to everyone, then they would lose out on the money from all the people who would have been willing to pay more. If instead the dealer refuses to negotiate and they make their prices firm, then they'll lose customers who would have bought from them if the price was a little lower.",
"Used cars especially; are wasted investment when they're sitting there collecting dust. \n\nThey all have a certain price range in which they can't go under if they want to make a profit. The price marked on the cars however are at a comfortable price in which they will get profit from but are also competitive in the wider market.\n\nIf you're interested in buying a car, then you potentially take away that burden of keeping the car and also the room it takes so you are extremely valuable to them and so you have all the powers. If you're someone who simply buy from the marked price, they will love you for it how ever your wallet won't. If you set bargain too low of a price in which they lose money, they will tell you to stop wasting their time.\n\nIf you're offering a price that is above the minimum of which they can offer, then will shake your hand right there and then and will be your best friend. \n\nAt the end of the day; 2k off the marked price is a lot cheaper than 9-10k lose of sales for them, and 2k in your pocket is better than in theirs. ",
"If you run a lemonade stand all summer and use a dry mix, you can keep using that mix for as long as the use by date guarantees. Each time you setup shop, you can charge the same price because the powder you use does not depreciate in value even though it is a \"consumable\" asset. Cars are depreciating assets that lose money effectively the moment they are manufactured, even if they have never been driven. Dealers are willing to negotiate price depending on how much they want a particular vehicle off their lot. If it is a newer year model fresh off the line, negotiations will probably be stiff. If it's an end of the year model you will probably get a fairly good deal as they want to move that stock so it can be replaced with the next years model. Dealers will make sales that end up costing them money because at the end of the day the most important thing in car sales is moving stock. Even if they lose money, they still got rid of their asset that would have not only continued to lose value, but also take up space preventing a newer vehicle from occupying.",
"Most big purchases have negotiating room. Cars are just one of the most common big purchases. You can also negotiate on real estate, major appliances and other stuff, they're just less talked about.\n\nIf you're on the business side of things, negotiating the price of deals happens all the time.",
"You can just buy a car for the sticker price (+ taxes and regulatory fees usually). \n\nBut with cars (as with houses and a few other things) there's a cost and revenue potential on both ends of the equation so both sides want something.\n\nThe car dealer has carrying costs - it costs him money to have this vehicle on the lot, most likely the vehicle was bought with borrowed money, and the longer it's on the lot the more they pay in interest (or lose in money that could have been invested in another car that would have sold faster). Some cars are good to have on the lot though, because people look at them and decide they want one, but not in that colour or the like and order one. Cars that move quickly are harder to get a good price on that cars which are not moving quickly. Sometimes they really do want the damn thing off the lot to make room for something else. \n\nAs a buyer you want stuff, but not all buyers want the same things. Maybe I want a free go at their racetrack, you want a free key, someone else wants to buy the vehicle a month from now, or whatever. Each of those is worth something.\n\nAs a buyer you also have value in your time, or maybe you don't. My dad is retired, when he buys a car he can drive 2 hours to save 500 bucks. I'm not retired, I have a job, and serious posting on reddit to do, I can't just be driving all over the damn country trying to get the best deal on a car. But the car dealer also knows that I *could* drive across town, or to a big city or whatever, and you can use that in your favour. Where I bought my car they have a BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, Volvo, and Jaguar dealership (all owned by the same guy) in a row. There, the sales guys knows if you walk away from his deal you can literally walk to a competing dealership for a different car, and he personally is out the sale. But the owner doesn't care. \n\nThere are, in the US at least, places that offer fixed prices, and you can look up the general prices of certain cars. \n\nThe TL;DR of it all is that for some buyers negotiating prices provides and advantage, and for some sellers negotiating prices provides an advantage. So both sides are happy to keep this arrangement. Of course for lots of buyers this is disadvantage, but on a many thousands of dollar purchase being out 300 or 500 dollars is usually not the end of the world. ",
"Is this just an American thing? \n\nCars being sold in Malaysia have a fixed price printed. Sometimes the price is fixed throughout the whole country"
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1snm76 | what is subnetting? | I not sure I fully understand the subnetting process, how it works and why it is used. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1snm76/eli5_what_is_subnetting/ | {
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"Every computer has an IP address. It is 32 bits of information, displayed as 4 octets. For instance, 192.168.1.1 is actually 11000000101010000000000100000001. The subnet mask identifies what IPs are on the same network, and what ones must go through a router. So if your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, it is 11111111111111111111111100000000, or /24, which means anything on 110000001010100000000001xxxxxxxx, or _URL_0_ is on the same subnet, and can be contacted directly. Anything not on that network must go through your router.",
"It is a way of telling your network software what computers can be contacted directly on the local network. A common subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 which means that any network whose address is the same as your computers address for the first 3 numbers can be contacted directly. For example:\nSubnet mask 255.255.255.0\nYour computer: 192.168.1.1\ncomputer1: 192.168.1.2\ncomputer2: 192.168.2.2\ncomputer3: 201.12.42.2\n\nComputer1's address shares the first 3 numbers, so it is on the same network and can be contacted directly by your computer. Computer 2 & 3 do not share the first 3 numbers so your computer will send messages to your router which will help direct messages to the appropriate place (probably through several other routers)",
"Subnetting allows for the more efficient use of a finite amount of address space while it keeps backbone routers from having to know millions upon millions of addresses. For (very simplified) example: ARIN gives AT & T a block of addresses, 12.0.0.0 with 8 subnet bits (255.0.0.0)\n\nLet's say AT & T has 10 major backbone routers. It's really more, but keeping it simple... all the other routers on the backbone only need to know that anything starting with a \"12\" is going to those 10 routers. Now only AT & T's routers have to keep track of the \"subnets\" of 12.0.0.0, instead of all the routers on the backbone. \n\nThey allocate the space in slightly smaller subnets to regions within their networks who allocate even smaller subnets, etc on down the line. It looks a lot like a \"tree\" structure with the \"12\" at the bottom and all the branches, twigs, and leaves are the progressively smaller subnets.\n\nThis also reduces waste. \n\nAs for the process, an IPv4 address is really a 32 bit binary number, as is it's associated subnet mask. Devices compare their ip address with their subnet mask to see if another device is local to it or not. The \"mask\" is a contiguous string of ones followed by zeros starting from the left hand side of the number. \n\nAn 8 bit subnet mask looks like this:\n11111111000000000000000000000000\n\nWe often break this binary string into 4 parts and use the decimal equivalent of each part; 255.0.0.0 in the above case\n\nAn 16 bit subnet mask (255.255.0.0) looks like this:\n11111111111111110000000000000000\n\nThe masking is not limited to groups of 8 ones though. You could have a 20 bit mask, or 255.255.240.0\n\nThe devices use that string of ones to do a bit of binary math to determine whether or not they need to send a communication locally or if they need to forward that communication to an intermediary devices like a router. ",
"There are a lot of technically correct answers regarding the maths to this question already posted. What i don't feel is explained well is why it is important! The internet as you know it is (at the moment before IPv6) is made up of about 4 billion unique IP addresses. \n\nEach of these addresses is like a postal address, what the subnet helps you workout is the Zip code and country. Lets say that you wanted to post a letter to your friend. You need to put an house number, street name, suburb, country and Zip code. a subnet works in a similar way.Each geographic region of the Internet is given a huge section of the total 4 billion addresses lets say 10.0.0.0 254.0.0.0 this is about 32 million IP addresses. \n\nThe regional authority will then break that down into a smaller but still big block and give it to an ISP. Say the ISP gets 10.10.0.0 255.255.0.0 this is about 64 thousand address, now this block is like the State on the letter that you have posted. \n\nThe ISP tells the world that it own this block and that to send a letter to someone on their network they will need to \"route\" the traffic to them. Once the traffic is on the ISPs network The ISP will break their big block down into smaller blocks and give each city its own smaller subnet say 10.10.10.0 255.255.255.0 this is New York. \n\nThey will then give your home modem an ip address out of the block designated for New York. so your home address is 10.10.10.10 255.255.255.255, \n\nThat means that if i want to talk to you over the internet being able to get to you is helped in part by subnetting. \n\nwithout subnets breaking up of the internet into parts would be very messy and cause a whole bunch of issues. ",
"Lots of good answers here, I'll just add one more thing - history and the reason subnetting exists. \n\nWhen TCP/IP was standardized and the Internet was really born in the early 1980s, there was no subnetting. All networks were defined by their class - Class A, B, C, D, and E. The network mask was derived from the network address itself. The first half of the addresses (Class A) from 0.0.0.0 to 127.0.0.0 always had a network mask of 255.0.0.0 (/8), which gave 128 networks with no way to divide them up into smaller chunks. The next quarter of the address space (Class B) was /16 networks, the next eighth (Class C) was /24 networks, and the rest was reserved (Classes D and E).\n\nThis was horribly inefficient as the Internet grew, since even a network only using a couple of addresses had to be given at minimum a /24 network, and nobody could really effectively use up the 16 million hosts of an entire /8 network at all. It just wasn't scalable. So in 1993 TCP/IP was amended to use [CIDR](_URL_0_) with the subnet masks we know and love today.\n\nSo subnetting is a modification of the original TCP/IP in order to let people freely declare which parts of their address are the network portion and which are the host portion - a *classless* network, vs the original *classful* TCP/IP. You can still see the remnants of this in a few places, like the \"ip classless\" command on Cisco routers."
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4cfims | why we can't wake up the dude in coma? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cfims/eli5why_we_cant_wake_up_the_dude_in_coma/ | {
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"Because being in a coma isn't like being asleep. You can't be woken up. Your brain has shut down to a different level and there is no way to easily snap it out of it."
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rv4xs | why evolution is okay but evolutionary psychology is not? | I am confused as to why the same people who can accept that humans' physical features are evolved become angry when confronted with the possibility that humans' brains-- part of the physical body-- are also evolved. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/rv4xs/eli5_why_evolution_is_okay_but_evolutionary/ | {
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"It's because it's very very difficult to test most of the claims in evolutionary psychology. This results in many of the theories being made to fit the evidence rather than the evidence pointing to theories. In other words, this often results in (for example) people saying \"Men are more competitive than women because it gives them an edge in getting more women and producing more children.\" Now, this may be true. Hell, I would say I wouldn't be surprised if this were true. But is it actually scientifically supported? How do we know that this is something selected by by evolution in the Stone Age and not something much more recent because of memetics? It is very clear that memetics *does* have a large say in how people behave, and memetics change much quicker than genetics. For (an obvious example) the reason why women wear skirts and men are discouraged from wearing skirts is very, very unlikely to be because of genetics but instead of just well-ingrained gender roles going back thousands of years. Maybe that's the case with many of evo psych's claims? How do we know that some behavior was genetically selected for hundreds of thousands of years ago, and some behavior was culturally selected for only a few thousand years ago?\n\nAnd this is especially problematic because many of evo psych's claims back up racist/sexist/etcist beliefs. Don't get me wrong...a belief isn't inherently wrong because it's sexist. The truth is the truth, no matter how politically incorrect it is. But it *is* a huge problem when this belief isn't backed up by hard scientific evidence, and this happens *way* too much with evo psych's claims. They often become--unintentionally or not--arguments for sexist and racist beliefs that may not have any basis in reality at all.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe issue is *not* that they think our behavior didn't evolve. You'd be an *idiot* to think that our brain didn't evolve to be the way it is. The reason why we all fall for the same optical illusions and cognitive biases is evidence that yeah, that is all genetic. But that isn't what evo psych really *is*. Evo psych is about identifying the reasons *why* our brains are the way they using genetics as a reason. Most of the way we think is because of genetics. But also a lot is simply because of culture. And it's hard to separate the two.",
"Evo-psych produces a lot of speculative but scientific-sounding stories and \"too-easy\" answers - explanations which \"make sense\" (especially when they fit with common preconceptions) but don't have a lot of real evidence behind them.",
"Most people are familiar with the hand-waving, highly speculative, pop-psych version of evolutionary psychology. This stuff ranges from absolute crap to downright harmful trash that justifies the worst behaviors of humanity.",
"I think it's important to stress that the criticism isn't directed at the concept of evolution having some role to play in the development of our psychology and culture, rather it falls on the *claims* made by some working in the field. We simply have too rudimentary an understanding of the mechanics of the human mind and too little evidence from pre-modern-human cultures to be able to draw firm conclusions. Compare astrobiology. When someone says 'it's feasible that aliens exist on an earth like planet' - that's ok. When someone says 'I'm sure aliens exist on planet X' alarm bells should start ringing until they provide concrete proof. This is the issue with a large chunk of evolutionary psychology, it's trying to walk before it can run, it's NOT an inherently pointless field as some here suggest - to understand the interplay between our biology, our cultures and ourselves is immensely important, the problem isn't in the field per se, the problem is with individuals within it overreaching and citing unfalsifiable conclusions, which is antithetical to the scientific method. For all that r/askscience would have you believe it's tantamount to genocide, we do *need* people who speculate and ask questions we can't really answer, but as soon as you lose that empirical falsifiability (the ability for someone else to test your theory) then it moves from HARD science to philosophy and soft and social sciences. ",
"You might find this article interesting: [Evolutionary Psychology and the Challenge of Adaptive Explanation](_URL_0_).\n\nIt's pretty easy to read and not overly complicated, but the general point that's relevant here is that people aren't opposed to the idea that the evolution of the brain can affect our behavior - this isn't controversial and nobody really denies it (save for a few creationists). However, the problem comes from:\n\n1) people assuming that because behavior comes from the brain, then all behavior can be understood by looking at the evolution of the brain (ignoring the relevance of the environment and learning on the development of behavior), and\n\n2) claims being made about behavior which aren't supported by evidence, or without adequately controlling for all variables. This point is usually classified by a debate between domain-general and domain-specific explanations. The former suggests that there are basic processes in the brain which produce complex behavior, and the latter suggests that these complex behaviors are hard-wired into our brains. \n\nIn the article I linked to, Gray discusses cheater-detection (the idea that we've evolved to identify cheaters within groups). A few lines of research seemed to support that we had this evolved structure in our brain to control this behavior, but later research discovered that the same results could be explained as products of more general processes (i.e. learning). Unless some specific, and more rigorous, evidence is presented, it would be wrong for us to accept the claim that cheater-detection is an evolved behavior."
]
} | [] | [] | [
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"http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2005/08/cave_thinkers.html"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://ldc.upenn.edu/myl/GrayEP.pdf"
]
] | |
1inmvt | why have over 760 people died in the uk from in a heatwave of about 86°? | Story [here](_URL_0_)
It's currently 94° where I am, and no one is dying | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1inmvt/eli5_why_have_over_760_people_died_in_the_uk_from/ | {
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"Humidity can be a factor. Age, as well as overall frailty can also have an effect.",
"Humidity and dehydration is my guess, heat indexes can cause temp to go way above what the actual temp is, also when its hotter out your body has a harder time cooling itself. Im not exactly sure why someone else may be able to explain the sweat part better.",
"Any higher than normal heat wave for an area can stress air conditioning equipment and cause units on the verge of failure to fail. This means more A/C unit failures and the elderly or otherwise vulnerable to become exposed unexpectedly and some to perish. This principle also works for those vulnerable to heat in general; if it is regularly 95F in your area then anyone who would die in such weather already has. But if it is very unusual to hit 85F in an area then the vulnerable build up so that when it does hit that temperature they all kick the bucket at once.",
"Average UK temperature over the year is 5.9C (42F) to 13.5C (56F), we tend to hit highs of about 20C (68F) in summer but this heat wave has been going on for over a week now and it's been roughly 28C (82F) where I am (Glasgow) and 32C (89F) down south in London.\n\nWe are simply not used to these kinds of temperatures, our houses are built with thick walls and lots of insulation and very few people have air conditioning. \n\nPeople don't really know how they should be dealing with it and more importantly don't know just how dangerous it can be. ",
"The UK rarely has temperatures that reach into 30c+ for a \"long\" period of time. In this case, at least somewhere in the UK has reached 30c for the past week and a bit. Now of course, because the average for the UK for July is at most 22c down in London (and lower pretty much elsewhere) people just aren't used to the temperatures especially when you're talking about 10c over average. \n\nNow, these 760 who have died aren't just your average person walking down the street normally, they are almost entirely old/elderly people or people with underlying illnesses. Anyone else included has likely died from drowning, or in one case falling off their roof while sunbathing. Overall most people are fine, pretty uncomfortable at night with lack of AC and buildings that are just great at retaining heat (not to mention the usual 70-80% humidity at night), and it can be pretty bad on public transport (particularly the underground), but other than that we Brits do love to complain. It's just how we work.\n\nI don't really understand why its been made out to be such a massive thing this year. We had very hot years in 2003 and 2006, where we reached into the high 30's (which is VERY unusual). We'll be fine! It's going to warm up a bit more next week before dragging us back down to our usual weather.",
"Heat in itself is not a particularly prevalent factor; It's the humidity:\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"It's humid in the UK, which makes it harder to keep cool because sweat doesn't evaporate quickly. Also, our houses have double glazed windows, cavity wall insulation, draft excluders, loft insulation, and a load of other things. We have no ceiling fans or air conditioning, nor do we have basements to retreat to. Our houses get *hot*. ",
"The number of deaths has been embellished. Remember, they are lumping in drowning and other summer-related deaths with the heatwave mania. It's just typical media dramatization.",
"I live in Texas. Where I worked out today, it was 111. 86 would be considered chilly...",
"No air conditioning, no infrastructure to deal with that high a temperature (60s are more normal). The people there aren't used to temps that high and suffer badly from it. It's like 20s in Florida. ",
"When it usually doesn't get very hot, you don't put A/C in your house, and you don't design it to have good ventilation. You are more concern about keep the heat in, not out.\n\nAlso, those numbers tend to be a little dubious. Most of those people who died were elderly or very ill, and close to death anyway The media likes to stretch numbers to make a story better, and the gov't lets them, because while overstated, there is a danger, and they want to get the word out.",
"Whatever companies make, manufacture, or sell AC units in the U.K, I would invest in them after this mess. ",
"10 years ago, about 70,000 people died in Europe due to a heat wave. The greatest number of deaths were elderly residents who were not taken to shelters.\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"It's only extremely vulnerable people dying because of the heat, so very old people who aren't getting enough fluids etc. Which does happen everywhere. Elderly people in your area will be dying from dehydration. ",
"I live in the UK, and i think the main point is that its mainly the oldies that are dying because they're already not in good health",
"My grandfather leaves his heating on all year round, which is usually not a problem. A lot of old frail people in the UK keep their heating on all year. When I went to visit him last week the interior temperature of his house was 42c (107F). He is old, weak, and not got all of his wits about him.\n\nIf I hadn’t turned his heating off, got him a fan, opened his windows and put drinks in his fridge he could have been part of that number.\n\nUK homes are not built to deal with the heat. Brits don’t know how to deal with it, especially the old who aren’t as sharp as they used to be. A person can get heat stroke at temperatures as low as 30c (86F) if they take no action to cool themselves or wear appropriate clothing. If the temperature is pushed past that, like many old people are by also heating their house, it can become quite a problem.\n",
"1. No air conditioning - only 0.5% of houses and flats in the UK have any kind of air con. That contrasts with the US, where nearly 100 million homes have it.\n\n\n2. The type of insulation here in the UK often traps heat in (_URL_0_)\n\n\n3. Old people are too isolated. Their is an ongoing problem of social isolation for older people in the UK, where many live alone and far from their families. This makes them more vulnerable to the effects of heat wave. \n\n\n4. No 'cooling centers'. The US has been using ad hoc \"cooling centres\" to cope with heatwaves for some time. (_URL_2_)\n\n\nHere is an interesting article on it: _URL_1_\n ",
"It's mostly old pensioners and small children that are most affected by this kind of heat wave.",
"We spend 10 months of the year trying to do everything to keep ourselves warm from the horrid cold, then when it's warm we can't cope, especially in Northern parts people don't hydrate themselves properly because they've never had to and then the heat hits them twice as hard.",
"Thats how the British lost the revolutionary war. They said fuck this humidity you can have it"
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/heatwave-death-toll-up-to-760-killed-and-total-may-double-as-temperatures-above-30c-set-to-continue-8718171.html"
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"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23358290"
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave"
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[],
[],
[
"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23180965",
"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23341698",
... | |
1danvn | why rappers like soulja boy who are awful at rapping are still rich off of one hit wonders? | I know he still puts out music but its so bad I rarely see any positive feedback on it. While other rappers who are talented or have had one hit wonders and now broke. Why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1danvn/eli5_why_rappers_like_soulja_boy_who_are_awful_at/ | {
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"The same reason movies like Transformers are made\n\nBasically, record companies need to hedge their bets. Now, all record companies have people in them interested in producing quality music but they still need to return consistent profits. It's very hard to find high quality acts that consistently, because generally their music takes a longer time to produce and they are harder to find but most importantly, they only appeal to a particular niche market.\n\nSomeone like Soulja Boy can make music that, although very few people actually think is good music, a lot of people can listen too. Like McDonalds, it appeals to everyone but not particularly to anyone. This makes it ideal music for large nightclubs and any other place with a large group of people with varied music tastes. \n\nThis is why Baauer is signed to the same label as Zebra Katz and Duck Sauce to the same label as Action Bronson. Every label needs people on it who can make music that everyone finds tolerable at a party"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
33jsfy | i've deleted all the unnecessary apps from my iphone, why do i still have no storage left? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33jsfy/eli5_ive_deleted_all_the_unnecessary_apps_from_my/ | {
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"text": [
"Did you delete all the porn?",
"It's the caches inside. Use a third party software like phoneclean to clean it up."
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} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
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