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1gceez | Why some (most?) people in America seem opposed to a national health service? | I come from the UK where we've had the NHS for years and years.
Why do some Americans seem to be opposed to implementing a national health service in America? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It is important to remember that the United States *does* have a national health service, just not a universal one. It's called Medicare/Medicaid and it accounts for [around 21% of the federal budget](_URL_2_), which is around $732 billion U.S., or 467 billion British pounds. By contrast, the NHS costs [121 billion pounds a year](_URL_0_).\n\nWhy the difference? Studies have often cited [longer wait times and lack of access to the most expensive technologies](_URL_3_) in NHS hospitals. Also, doctors in the U.S. make far and away [much more money](_URL_4_) than doctors in other countries do, which many argue leads to more skilled doctors (after all, the same argument is often used with teachers: higher teacher pay is supposed to encourage more skilled graduates to enter the teaching field).\n\nSo essentially, introducing a universal national health system with American standards of healthcare would be prohibitively expensive, and a lot of people recognize that. With Britain currently [concerned about rising costs for the NHS](_URL_1_), there are good reasons to be concerned that universal American-level coverage might not be feasible.",
"Note: I'm totally for healthcare reform, maybe not in the way the gov seems to be going about it, but I find the current system to be retarded. I'm explaining the mindset of people who hate the idea of changing it. \n\nThere are a lot of people here who really just don't do *shit*. They don't work or contribute to society in any way imaginable. These people expect to have everything that working people have, and for working people to pay for it. This pisses off a lot of working people. \n\nThis is kind of true to an extent. I used to live next to some housing projects. Hundreds of people lived there and you would have to spend all day to find one that had a job. They all had nicer cars than me (I drive a '97 pickup so that isn't hard), had cable, AC, Internet, smartphones (there was a guy who would jailbreak your iPhone for $20 bucks). They always had booze and weed (which was smoked outside daily). People with \"disability\" licenses plates would play basketball all day. \n\nThese people fucking suck and abuse the system, and there are *a lot* of them. \n\nOn the other hand, there are also *a lot* of people who legitimately work as hard as they can and still cannot afford health care. Probably even more than the number of system abusers. \n\nThis splits people on the issue. What really needs to happen is a combination of healthcare and welfare reform.",
"Part of it is the belief that insurance companies should be allowed to turn a profit.\n\nAnother part of it is a fundamental misunderstanding of what \"insurance\" is, along with cultural roots in American individualism: People don't like the idea of having to \"pay for someone else's healthcare\" while also claiming that \"I never get sick, so why should I need healthcare\"",
"There are pros and cons to both types of system, and people in the US tend to have different values and preferences to people in Europe and most of the Anglosphere. As a result of this, the prevailing opinion is that the pros of a private system tend to outweigh the pros of a collective system (and vice versa for the cons).\n\nIn addition, and I want to stress that I'm not trying to oversimplify things here, there is still a lot of opinion left over from the Cold War, when anything even vaguely similar to the Soviet Union was fulll-on demonised. That strengthens the message that state control of anything is a bad thing. There's almost an in-built assumption that private is better *purely because* it's not state owned.",
"Bunch of reasons. I won't spend much time defending them since this is ELI5 but I'll list them.\n\n1. The United States is notoriously divided on any issue because its a heterogeneous society. It's far and away the most multicultural nation on Earth and the most popular country to immigrate to. We have four regional subcultures (East, South, Midwest, West) of many different races, ethnicities, religions, and political beliefs. Because of this, you'll rarely find Americans coming into majority agreement about anything.\n\n2. Our political system gives each state much more autonomy than the counties of most nations in other countries. It's hard to get these states to agree on anything as well. Congress has the power to overturn a presidential veto if 2/3rd of the voters are in favor of overruling, but achieving this is extremely difficult. In our entire history, only 110 out of 2,564 vetos have ever been overruled.\n\n3. Currently, healthcare is largely done at the state level. Massachusetts has had [Romneycare](_URL_5_) since 2007. Nationalizing universal healthcare presents significant logistical issues: How do we decide how much money each state should get? What happens to the existing medical insurance laws of those states?\n\n4. Training to be a doctor in the States is expensive. Nationalizing healthcare will reduce doctors' wages, theoretically leading to less skilled and dedicated doctors working in the field. But if the government subsidizes med school, you could end up with too many doctors who poured in years of intensive training and can't find a job.\n\n5. Many people believe that a competitive healthcare market discourages providers from remaining stagnant. If private health insurance corporations are competing against each other, then it's a survival-of-the-fittest environment where the companies with the best coverage, best rates, and best services come out on top.\n\n6. Freedom of choice. You can choose the physicians you want to see, cut down on your wait times, and decide exactly how much you want to pay and for what services. Maybe you don't get sick often, so it's better for you to pay a lower rate but have a lower subsidy for when you actually do visit the doctor. On the other hand, maybe you *do* have to go to the doctor often, so you can pay a higher rate but in return your medical visits are much cheaper. Universal coverage isn't as flexible. You opt to pay lower or higher taxes.\n\n7. A lot of people believe that some people don't \"deserve\" healthcare because they don't \"earn their keep\".\n\nThis issue is way more complicated than people on Reddit like to think. Personally, I'm in the middle of the extremes. I completely support universal coverage. The argument that someone doesn't deserve because they don't work or exploit the welfare system is ridiculous. It's rather odd how the same people who would be deeply offended by the idea of repealing public education don't believe that access to quality healthcare should be a human right.\n\nBut even when the United States nationalizes universal healthcare (which at this point is just a matter of time), I'll most likely stick to my private plan. Everyone keeps screaming about having one system or the other when in reality that's nothing preventing us from having both.",
"This is a question that requires a lot of layers.\n\n1. As has been mentioned the American mentality regarding government intervention is one of hesitation. It extends to other social services as well and it creates a mistrust in government in general.\n\n2. The other and more prevalent reason in my mind is that a system has been created that is so resistant to change that even minor changes to the system are seen as a big deal. I could go on about the problems in a system where people can't change jobs for fear of lack of medical coverage or how the lack of centralized structure of distributing medical technology leads to \"over care\".",
"I would like to add that one pillar of this opposition is the objective fact that our government is dysfunctional, which doesn't inspire a lot of faith that the government can do anything right - especially something like the Affordable Care Act. Our policymaking body has an approval rating consistently less than 25%. Our government has been expanding by leaps and bounds over the last couple of decades (bigger security apparatus, millions more on welfare/food stamps, 99 weeks of unemployment benefits), with no discernable results. It makes people cynical, and I won't blame them, personally.\n\nTo put it in ELI5 terms, our government spends more and more money and political capital on projects that just aren't landing. For voters, signing on to comprehensive health care reform is like watching the new M. Night Shamylan movie and hoping it's going to be really, really good this time.",
"As someone who holds this view, I would like to say, the main reasons for me are:\n\n* Anything the government controls is shit, public anything is terrible. The efficiency become zero when the government controls it. But that's just general.\n* The government would have way to much control over your own body, they will be able to \"change\" public habits by restrictions of coverage if you smoke, drink, or engage in any danger at all; and I believe they have enough \"control\" over this by over taxing anyway. Also if you're over the age of 65 they probably won't help you fix anything and find ways to just wait for you to die. \n* I also think that most people don't know what they are getting and just blindly take the first universal option we've got, it seems to be pushed to fast and the bill is so large that any amount of shit can be hidden in there and I simply don't trust our government with this sort of thing. I'm worried about the overreach/over-control from the Federal Government.",
"While the other comments so far are all accurate and acceptable, there is one thing which none of them have mentioned: Americans have a MASSIVE boner for freedom. There are a fair number of people who don't have anything against the idea of national health care as a concept, what they do have a problem with is being *forced* to do anything. Requiring someone to have health insurance rubs a lot of Americans the wrong way."
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"http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2621/nhs_to_employ_1_in_8_brits_by_2060_account_for_50_percent_of_government_spending",
"http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1258",
"http://today.yougov.com/news/2012/06/27/us-or-uk-which-healthcare-system-better/",
"http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/how-much-do-doctors-in-other-countries-make/",
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} | train_eli5 | Why some (most?) people in America seem opposed to a national health service?
I come from the UK where we've had the NHS for years and years. Why do some Americans seem to be opposed to implementing a national health service in America? | [
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36qz71 | What would happen if everyone in the US that has student loan debt just stopped paying? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There is a group called Debt Collective which recently initiated a well publicized debt strike for debtors scammed by Corinthian Colleges. They plan to follow this up with a wider strike for all borrowers in the future.\n\nGo to _URL_0_ and show your support. You can also subscribe to /r/studentloandefaulters here on Reddit as well.\n\nThe debt levels have already long since jumped the shark. When people are faced with decades of payments that don't touch the loan principal, when they are locked out of participating in the economy and building wealth, and when they must defer all major life milestones they will become more receptive to active resistance.\n\nBtw this question comes up a lot here on Reddit. You are not alone.",
"Very bad things, although the degree of \"bad\" is open to debate.\n\nIn some ways you'd see a repeat of what happened in the housing crisis. Investors who hold student loan-backed securities would see their returns on those loans disappear, much like they did when so many mortgages started going belly-up in 2007. The domino effect of those loan defaults could be anywhere from bad to devastating on the US Economy.\n\nI'm not sure who would be knowledgeable enough to accurately guage the actual impact, as these kinds of scenarios quickly get extremely complicated - to the point that most experts are really just guessing.\n\nIt would not be pretty, though."
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3a3ij7 | Why does 90 degree heat feel hot while a 90 degree swimming pool feels amazing? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Water is way better at transferring heat than air is. First off, it's got a higher heat capacity (It takes 4.2 KJ to warm a kilogram of water by 1 degree, whereas for air, it takes about 1 KJ to do the same). It's also a more effective thermal conductor - water has a thermal conductivity of 0.6 W/mK, air has a thermal conductivity of .025 W/mK.\n\nIn layman's terms, it takes more energy to heat up the same mass of water, and it's easier to give up your heat to water than it is to air (because it's a better conductor). Your body has a hard time giving off its heat to 90 degree air, but it can easily give off its heat to 90 degree water.\n\nThe other thing that makes it hard to cool yourself on a hot day is humidity. Your body cools itself in air by sweating. If it's humid, there's nowhere for your sweat to go - instead of evaporating, it stays on your skin, because the air is too saturated for your sweat to evaporate. In water, you don't need to worry about the fact that your sweat isn't going anywhere, because the cool water will gladly take the heat from your sweat and from your warm skin.",
"Because water conducts heat (and cools you down) more efficiently than air. \n\nYour normal body temperature is around 98.6 degrees, and the main way the body cools itself is through evaporative cooling when it is exposed to air. In humid weather, sweat has a hard time evaporating since the air contains too much moisture already.\n\nIf your body is in water, you are surrounded by mass that is better able to absorb heat than air, so even if the water is 90 degrees, your body will feel cooler since that temperature is lower than your body temperature.",
"Arizonan here. 90 degrees is bliss. It was 115 today:( conversely, our pools are around 80. That's perfect!"
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} | train_eli5 | Why does 90 degree heat feel hot while a 90 degree swimming pool feels amazing?
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1w6zz2 | Why do women have curvier butts than men? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Curvy male ass right here. Fuck the rules.",
"Women have larger hips than men because they will have to carry and give birth to children. While that might seem like bigger asses, its actually the hips.\n\nThere's no reason why a women would have a fatter as than a man, maybe you just keep good company?",
"They have a higher proportion of body fat.",
"Hmm. This is one clusterfuck of weird ass answers.\n\nMen has testicles. These produce testosterone, the male hormone, which causes our deposition of fat to be more on the stomach and around the internal organs. Women have ovaries that produces estrogen, the female hormone, which causes fat deposition on the boobs and arse.\n\nAlso, testosterone facilitates muscle growth especially on the upper body, so men develop proportionally bigger upper bodies, making the arses smaller relative to the rest.\n\nIn addition to the above, women have different bone structure. Smaller chest and shoulders, but wider hips, so they can push a screaming 8 lbs potato through.\n\nIf a man were to train his glutes a lot, he would develop a somewhat round butt. Also, some people are just genetically predisposed to develop larger butts."
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} | train_eli5 | Why do women have curvier butts than men?
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tg5yn | - What's happening in North Carolina? | I'm English, and I can't find anything definative... | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A couple days ago NC amended the state constitution (each state has a constitution separate from the national constitution) to define marriage within the state as \"one man + one woman\" (i.e. no homosexual marriages or polygamy.) Obviously, this has upset the people in favor of gay rights.\n\nThis is reminiscent of people working to get interracial marriage made legal 50-some years ago (interracial marriage is now legal in all 50 states of the USA.)",
"The people of the state voted to change their state's ruling document to say that gay marriage is not legally allowed in their state, and no law can be made to make it legal. so, in essence, it (as I understand, not having read every word of the amendment) made it so that only a marriage between a man and a woman could be recognized by their state as a legal union, and get the benefits of the union from the state."
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} | train_eli5 | - What's happening in North Carolina?
I'm English, and I can't find anything definative... | [
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4bqx63 | Why are we able to put our hands through liquids but not solids? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Liquids can be very complicated but are still liquids. The molecules in liquids are fairly short and do not bond much with each other. I am putting in these qualifiers. That is because water is special and has polar properties. Colloids can be very complicated.\n\nIn solids there is much more bonding going on. Molecules can be very long chain. They physically confine each other from movement because they are so large.\n\nSolids include a huge number of molecules and types of bonds. There are ionic bonds and covalent bonds. Salts are solid but their structure is vastly different from covalently bonded molecules.\n\nThe simple answer is that liquids are composed of molecules which are small and do not bond with each other much. Solids are made of molecules which can be very large and interact with each other to form solids.",
"Think of a ball pit. The balls can move around freely, so it's easy to move around in the ball bit. Now imagine all of the balls had velcro on them. They'd stick together and it would not be easy to move around in the pit at all.\n\nThe distinguishing characteristic of a liquid and a solid is that in solids the molecules hold onto each other strong enough that they don't easily slide past each other, like the velcro balls. In liquids the molecules can move around pretty freely like the normal balls."
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} | train_eli5 | Why are we able to put our hands through liquids but not solids?
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1lahot | How do they put elevator cars in elevator shafts? | I just cant figure out how they get them in. Most elevator shafts are made out of concrete, right? Are they assembled in pieces? How do elevator cars end up in elevator shafts? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I will try to sum it up the best I can!\n\nThe hoist-way (elevator shaft) is generally made of block wall or poured concrete. At the landing on each floor, the openings into the shaft are roughed-in oversized so that material can be 'flown' into the hoist-way with an electric cable hoist and set into place. \n\nEach company has their own procedure on building an elevator, but in my experience, the guide-rails are installed from the top of a running platform (the elevator car skeleton without the side walls). \n\n_URL_0_\n\nThis is done by setting the first lengths of guide-rails to get out of the pit. Then each piece of the car is hoisted in and assembled, starting with the safety plank, platform, side stiles and the crosshead. Once the car is built, you start stacking rails until you top out.\n\n_URL_1_\n\nIt is at this time that the hoist-way door frames and sills can be set into place. Once this is done, the masons will infill the gaps between the frames and the oversized entrances. It is quite a process but a really cool trade. \n\nMy experience: I installed all of the elevators at the newly renovated Big House (Michigan Stadium) among many others while in the trade. Hope I didn't bore you!",
"I think that is one the first things they do when constructing a building."
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I just cant figure out how they get them in. Most elevator shafts are made out of concrete, right? Are they assembled in pieces? How do elevator cars end up in elevator shafts? | [
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4yjfuq | What is conclusive and what isn't regarding the effects of artificial sweeteners? | Nowadays, according to tabloids everything seems to cause cancer and give you diabetes. I was wondering what the consensus in the scientific community was on this? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Saying \"artificial sweeteners are bad for you!\" is a bit like saying \"liquids are bad for you!\" There are a number of different artificial sweeteners. No, they DO NOT \"TRICK YOUR BRAIN.\" Yes, they can cause weight gain and insulin resistance, chiefly through changing gut bacteria.\n\nUse _URL_0_ to search for studies on:\n\nAcesulfame Potassium (which is different from...)\n\nAspartame (which is different from...)\n\nCyclamate (which is different from...)\n\nErythritol/Mannitol/Sorbitol (which are different from...)\n\nSaccharin (which is different from...)\n\nSucralose (Splenda) (which is different from...)\n\nStevia (which is actually safe and different from)\n\nL-glucose (which is also safe but incredibly expensive to produce so you never see it.)\n\nAnother poster said \"Your small intestine can't tell the difference between a calorie-rich chocolate cake and a calorie-free coke zero, so it gets confused.\"\n\nThis is emphatically not the case.\n\nSource: I'm a researcher at NIH",
"The consensus is that the danger is extremely overblown, but also still unknown.\n\n\n\n\nThe most substantiated concern is that it impairs your body's ability to detect when it's full. Your body knows when you've eaten because #1.) your stomach expands, and #2.) your body senses sugar in the small intestine. Your small intestine can't tell the difference between a calorie-rich chocolate cake and a calorie-free coke zero, so it gets confused. After a while, it stops trusting the \"full\" signals from your small intestine, so you will stay hungry even after you've eaten enough. This can cause weight gain if you don't watch what you eat and drink.\n\n\n\n\n\nDiabetes happens when the signaling of insulin, the hormone that helps regulate the amount of sugar in your blood, gets screwed up. This signaling pathway can get confused for the same reasons listed above, so there may be a genuine link between artificial sweeteners and diabetes. There haven't been enough studies to reach a genuine consensus, but its acknowledged as a real possibility within the scientific community.\n\n\n\n\nMost of the other concerns are vastly overblown, and based on studies taken way, way out of context. If you have any specific questions I'll do my best to answer them.",
"First of all, just because it's natural doesn't mean it's safe, and just because it's artificial doesn't mean it's unsafe.\n\nStevia is a naturally-occurring sweetener that's a good alternative to sugar. As far as we know, it's safe.\n\nArsenic is also naturally occurring, and in many parts of the world it occurs in unsafe levels in well water - just to make the point that \"natural\" isn't necessarily safe.\n\nAspartame (which goes under the brand name \"Nutrasweet\") is the most widely-used artificial sweetener. It's probably the most well-studied food additive of all time. While there were legitimate questions about its safety during the first few years, the research has been completely and consistently clear, that it's totally safe."
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24c0es | What would happen if you were swallowed whole by a whale? | Just out for a leisurely swim and then gulp!, a whale swallows you.. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Well, actually you'd die from hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain) before you'd even reach the stomach.",
"You would chill for a few days and then talk to God. Duh!!!!!"
],
"score": [
8,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What would happen if you were swallowed whole by a whale?
Just out for a leisurely swim and then gulp!, a whale swallows you.. | [
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375zpq | The Charlie Charlie Challenge. | I know what it is but try to explain what is happening exactly. Also a rational explanation for this would be cool too | explainlikeimfive | {
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"_URL_0_\n\nHere's an explanation for the Ouija board. I imagine that this is very similar. If you're playing the six pencil game then you're actually moving the pencils yourself.\n\nAs for the version with two pencils in a cross shape, it's just simply someone blowing on it - again not on purpose. Try it yourself, get two pencils on top of each other and see how little effort it takes to blow on one to make it spin. Now imagine 5 or 6 people sitting around scared shitless, holding their breath in anticipation, then one breathes out and bam! Everyone loses their shit. \n\nEdit: Spellngs not so gud",
"The best explanation I have found is [here](_URL_1_).\n > You’ve probably heard of using a Ouija board to contact spirits, but I bet you haven’t heard of using pencils to have your questions answered by supernatural beings! The Pencil Game, also called “Charlie, Charlie,” is a traditional Mexican ritual wherein players (usually children) are said to contact the spirit of a child named Charlie.\n\n > To play The Pencil Game, you will need six pencils and a partner. Facing each other, each person must hold three pencils and arrange them as three sides of a box, with the open end facing the other person. It is best to use unsharpened pencils, or to hold the tips so that the eraser ends are pointed toward your partner. The ends of your pencils will need to touch your partner’s to form a complete rectangle.\n\n > To begin the game, both players must chant: “Charlie, Charlie, can we play?” If the pencils move inward or up, the answer is yes. If they move outward or down, the answer is no. If one side goes one way and the other side goes a different way, it means maybe or the question can’t be answered at this time. You can then ask the spirit of Charlie yes or no questions, and he will respond by moving the pencils. Charlie is kind of like the spirit world version of a Magic 8 ball. To end the game, both players must chant: “Charlie, Charlie, can we stop?” After the pencils move, both players drop all of the pencils on the floor to break contact with Charlie.",
"Try doing it in a huge room from a far distance from the paper. That's the only thing I suggest trying so far.",
"If you get it to balance correctly it is *extremely* easy for it to move. The slightest draft will get it to move. That's pretty much it lol"
],
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12,
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMlj9f4ZOl4",
"http://pencils.com/pencil-game-charlie-charlie/"
]
} | train_eli5 | The Charlie Charlie Challenge.
I know what it is but try to explain what is happening exactly. Also a rational explanation for this would be cool too | [
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6jf3ta | When they 'sweep for bugs' in a room what are they actually doing? What all are they able to find? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"The purpose of a bug - which is a listening device (or video) - is electronic. Which means to operate it must either be on to record, which uses/sends signals. Or it must be sending what it's receiving back to someone or some thing. \n\nUsually there are two types. Ones that send information back to someone and ones that must be retrieved to check the information on them. \n\nThink of using a metal detector on the beach. You are checking for metal that you can't see. A \"bug sweeper\" is very simply checking for electronic transmissions of some sort in the same manner. \n\nThere are obviously more complicated versions of each part of my explanation but that's the basic.",
"As previous commenters noted, they are looking for anything that sends out a radio signal.\n\nIn addition, many electronic devices accidentally emit a small amount of radio noise as they operate, and this can be searched for.\n\nIn addition, some electronics *respond* to the presence of a strong radio signal by resonating and then emitting a signal back. That can be tried too."
],
"score": [
3,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | When they 'sweep for bugs' in a room what are they actually doing? What all are they able to find?
| [
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1opctn | why do kids cry when they get tired? | I've tried looking at it from different angles. But this is something that I've never understood. Comparing the behavior to other animals, it seems instinctual for them to just go to sleep whenever they get tired. But most kids just cry whenever they are tired rather than just going to sleep. Can someone explain this to me please? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"Humans might just crave more attention from their parents than other animals. Consider that caring for children is veeery important for humans, it might be evolutionarily advantageous for babies to cry when they're tired, so that they are looked after more and aren't left to sleep where they can be eaten by predators. Just a theory.",
"Actually they feel this weird thing that is being tired but they do not know that by relaxing they will sleep and it will pass. Thats why they fight it. It is unconfortable as hell being asleep and being unable to sleep because again, they feel it but they do not know what to do and them they cry. Sorry, english as second language here. Hope I made it clear..",
"My theory is that tired children are generally feeling stressed by a stimuli and they become frustrated. ie. Wanting to play with toys, yet tired...Tired, but being kept awake, etc...It gets to a point where nature's \"coping mechanism\", crying, takes over.",
"Kids have not yet developed the concrete operational thinking unlike adults have to accurately explain their feelings, thoughts and emotions in such a way for adults to comprehend what they want to convey, essentially crying conveys all the things they want to get across for their lack of words or ability to share what they want when they are tired.",
"Man, I cry when I'm tired. I'm 24."
],
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5,
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3
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | why do kids cry when they get tired?
I've tried looking at it from different angles. But this is something that I've never understood. Comparing the behavior to other animals, it seems instinctual for them to just go to sleep whenever they get tired. But most kids just cry whenever they are tired rather than just going to sleep. Can someone explain this to me please? | [
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15nykk | What does "integrated" or "dedicated" or "onboard" mean in reference to graphics cards? | I have an AMD A8-5500 APU Quad Core processor on my computer. It also says I have an AMD Radeon HD 7560D Graphics card. Does the "d" in "7560D" mean it's an integrated graphics card? If that's the case, how/could I have another graphics card active at the same time, that's not integrated? Also, does having an integrated graphics card generally means it's worse than if it wasn't? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Integrated graphics cards use your computer's RAM and processing power and aren't very good for running 3D programs.\n\nDedicated cards don't because they have their own and are definitely better at running 3D programs. \n\nAlso, Integrated = Onboard; Dedicated = Discrete.\n\nIf I'm not mistaken, the 7560D is the *integrated* graphics card of your AMD Processor. \n\nAll in all, integrated graphics card are pretty bad for gaming or anything that needs to render 3D objects. Dedicated graphics cards are the way to go in that case.\n\nEDIT: Are you on using a desktop or a laptop? [Replacing/adding a graphics card on a laptop is very hard to do.](_URL_0_)",
"Just to confuse things, there are some laptops that have both integrated and dedicated graphics on board. I have an Asus laptop that will use the integrated graphics while you are using battery power and dedicated graphics when plugged in. Integrated graphics are less powerful and therefor require less electrical power to run them. Dedicated graphics processors require more electrical power to run them. So, in this case, when on battery power it can last much longer (up to 8 hours) and while plugged in can run programs that need more powerful graphics like games."
],
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5,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.pcworld.com/article/148909/maxlap.html"
]
} | train_eli5 | What does "integrated" or "dedicated" or "onboard" mean in reference to graphics cards?
I have an AMD A8-5500 APU Quad Core processor on my computer. It also says I have an AMD Radeon HD 7560D Graphics card. Does the "d" in "7560D" mean it's an integrated graphics card? If that's the case, how/could I have another graphics card active at the same time, that's not integrated? Also, does having an integrated graphics card generally means it's worse than if it wasn't? | [
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409im4 | Why are we so pleased with flattery even when we know it's being done to get us to do something? How does the brain understand that it's not true and yet still get so pleased? | When someone is clearly buttering you up to to get you to ease up on them for something, especially in situations where you're both strangers to one another, how come you can know that that's what they're doing, and yet still get ridiculously happy about it and many times give in and give them what they want? Shouldn't the knowledge that they're not sincere affect how you feel about their compliments? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Just because it is prompted by an alterior motive doesn't mean the observation itself is invalid. As someone approaches you to decide how to break the ice they are still looking for some feature they can believably comment. If you have messed up shoes they aren't going to say nice shoes because it will come off as sarcastic.\n\nAnd confirmation bias makes us believe them.\n\nAnd there are lots of ways they could approach. Many people would rather reward someone who asks for a favo with flattery that one who asks with condescension, guilting, or anger.",
"It is about power. It makes you feel powerful to know that you have power over them in some way (small or not). If someone is flattering you, they want something from you. This means you have some power over them.\n\nThis is why it is particularly important to watch out when someone you feel has power over you (and has misused it) begins to flatter you. It often means that you have power over them and they want to take it away.",
"All the assholes of the world don't fall for that shit. It just Pisses us off to where we won't do what you want."
],
"score": [
31,
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why are we so pleased with flattery even when we know it's being done to get us to do something? How does the brain understand that it's not true and yet still get so pleased?
When someone is clearly buttering you up to to get you to ease up on them for something, especially in situations where you're both strangers to one another, how come you can know that that's what they're doing, and yet still get ridiculously happy about it and many times give in and give them what they want? Shouldn't the knowledge that they're not sincere affect how you feel about their compliments? | [
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4jbpqy | How does a female paradise-bird decide if the performance of a male is good enough? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d35c4s7"
],
"text": [
"Well how do **you** know someone is sexually attractive?\n\nIt's a mixture of instincts and experience. Does he look healthy and colorful? or is he injured or dirty? Does he look like someone you've had good experiences with? Is he the right species in the first place, or does he do the wrong dance? And how desperate are you to mate?"
],
"score": [
5
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How does a female paradise-bird decide if the performance of a male is good enough?
| [
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2lr5kf | Why adware and spyware makers and utilizers arn't prosecuted for unwarranted wiretapping or hacking. | I've just spent the last four hours attempting to clean out all the adware and spyware that was hidden on my PC. As I type this the scan is at 681 threats. Holy shit that's a lot, considering that I haven't really seen much of a decrease in performance. Most are spyware or some sort of adware.
The question is why can't the companies that use adware be charged with hacking?
And the makers of spyware be charged with unwarranted wire tapping?
Edit: BTW SpyHunter seems to be the best scan/removal tool around. Most others I tried, scans returned clean or very few threats. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"> Edit: BTW SpyHunter seems to be the best scan/removal tool around. Most others I tried, scans returned clean or very few threats.\n\nJust because it finds lots of errors does NOT mean it's good. A quick google search shows that Spyhunter has a history of deceptive advertising and other shenanigans. I would not be surprised if they play up how many \"errors\" and \"bad stuff\" they find in your computer to make themselves seem more viable. It always feels good to see a big red number and hit clear to make it go away.",
"The makers can indeed be charged with all sorts of things. But it's complicated.\n\n1. Investigators need to contain and reverse engineer the virus to actually prove that it does something harmful. Generally not that difficult, but it takes time and someone has to do it. Anti virus companies do this all the time, but the police don't and they won't spend time and money on it unless it's big.\n\n2. They need to find the makers / utilisers. It's not really difficult to be anonymous on the internet. It's a bit more difficult when money is involved, but with some clever laundering that can be sorted too. Generally, unless A LOT of people are infected, nobody is even going to bother trying to track down the people behind it.\n\n3. They need to be prosecuted. Our virus makers could be hiding in some country far away, where the authorities don't give a fuck if some American has been visiting the wrong niche porn sites. It'll be a long and expensive process to get the criminals handed over."
],
"score": [
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4
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why adware and spyware makers and utilizers arn't prosecuted for unwarranted wiretapping or hacking.
I've just spent the last four hours attempting to clean out all the adware and spyware that was hidden on my PC. As I type this the scan is at 681 threats. Holy shit that's a lot, considering that I haven't really seen much of a decrease in performance. Most are spyware or some sort of adware. The question is why can't the companies that use adware be charged with hacking? And the makers of spyware be charged with unwarranted wire tapping? Edit: BTW SpyHunter seems to be the best scan/removal tool around. Most others I tried, scans returned clean or very few threats. | [
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2t1mbb | Why are all adverts on porn sites of such poor quality? [NSFW] | Sure, there are a whole bunch of negative connotations associated with advertising on a porn site, but I'm surprised that the sheer volume of traffic hasn't attracted SOME kind of legitimate advertising.
Assuming you watch porn even semi-regularly, think of the number of times you've seen misspelled, poorly-photoshopped clickbait.
"I got improbably rich and grew a 12 inch dick with this one weird trick"
Someone please explain! | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"cnv34cf"
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"text": [
"Sometimes advertisers purposely make their ads look like they're written by non-english speakers. I get spam on a daily basis with people pretending to be \"a young russian lady living in the boonies of ukraine. I love meeting your acquaintance on my profile\" and crap like that. \n\nThey're trying to make it seem \"more realistic\" instead of polished. It gives it a certain unrefined genuineness and non-corporate legitimacy.\n\nThat might explain some of them. As for the general low-quality of the rest of them, the internet in general isn't a very good place to do lots of advertising. Most ad companies do PPC (pay per click) at REALLY low rates - they also pad the accounts so 50 hits is only registered as 2 or 3. They'll disqualify the majority of your hits and claim that they were \"bots\" or whatever. Plus, a lot of people have ad blockers (or they just visually block the ads by ignoring them).\n\nHonestly, have you ever clicked one of those ads? That's partially why they're low quality - nobody clicks them.",
"Because reputable companies such as Adsense, Bing and others don't allow porn sites into their network. These networks along with checking the quality of the publishers site also ensure that the advertisements are of a certain quality to protect their image and reputation. \n\nCompanies such as exoclick and others, however, even allow you to put a GIF of a massive dong being flopped out as an ad for \"V-Pills\" and other bulltoss products like that... so it kind of makes you think that they'd accept anything."
],
"score": [
8,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why are all adverts on porn sites of such poor quality? [NSFW]
Sure, there are a whole bunch of negative connotations associated with advertising on a porn site, but I'm surprised that the sheer volume of traffic hasn't attracted SOME kind of legitimate advertising. Assuming you watch porn even semi-regularly, think of the number of times you've seen misspelled, poorly-photoshopped clickbait. "I got improbably rich and grew a 12 inch dick with this one weird trick" Someone please explain! | [
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37qpye | Why do people that "look" friendly, and have friendly facial features, generally end up being nice and friendly? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"[Roald Dahl had a theory.](_URL_0_)\n\nFrom \"The Twits\":\n\n > “If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.\n\n > A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”",
"Probably positive reinforcement. Someone looks friendly, so everyone's friendly to him, then he thinks 'wow,people are actually nice', so he's friendly to everyone and so on. \nPersonally, I don't think beautiful people do it consciously, because it's very hard for most people to critically examine a situation which says you're inherently better than others.",
"a lot of this has to do with perception. If you assume someone looks 'friendly', you will react to them in a more positive way. If you assume someone doesn't look friendly, you are more likely to be weary of them. This influences their perception of you because you are approaching them in a specific way and in turn is likely to affect their behaviour towards you.",
"There's a couple of reasons. \n\nFirst, as a few people have touched on, there is something called the Halo Effect. When someone or something is pretty we tend to project positive traits onto them/it. This can, in turn, create a self fulfilling prophesy as we assume the friendly looking people are \"nice\" and are subsequently nicer to them. This unfortunately works both ways and we tend to project negative behaviors onto ugly things. \n\nA second reason is simply regression to the mean. Most people are generally nice and friendly. When a mean looking person acts friendly and nice we think nothing of it (you don't get points for doing what you're suppose to do), however when a nice looking person acts nice we think \"I knew they were a nice person\" (or something along those lines).\n\nInversely when a nice person is a jerk we may start to see them as less friendly looking; their physical features may even become synonymous with \"jerk\" over time. All the while when a mean looking person acts mean, we will only confirm our suspicions. \n\nIn short. Our brains are stupid and more interested in being \"right\" than being accurate. If we assume somebody looks nice, we will look at the factors that make them nice and even ignore some evidence to the contrary. For a real life example of this, think of when you or a friend has had a crush on somebody who was not a nice person.",
"This was actually my science project in the 8th grade!\n\nLong story short... My conclusion was that friendly-looking people (also 'beautiful' people) realize very early in life that their looks get them benefits that push them ahead of others, and they quickly learn to exploit that advantage.",
"There may be an actual biological reason, as well as the sociological ones otherwise outlined. If you look at the Russian Fox Experiment, they purposely bred foxes based on temperament. They only let the mean, aggressive foxes breed. Over the course of 50 generations of foxes, not only did they become meaner, and more aggressive, their fur turned from grey to black, their hair became wiry, and they developed beady, \"mean-looking\" eyes.\n\nThey turned [this](_URL_3_) into [this](_URL_3_). \n\nWhen they reversed the process and only let the freindliest foxes breed, they turned back to silver and ended up acting like domesticated dogs and looking like [this](_URL_3_). Their fur became light, fluffy, and their tails would curl.\n\nThis doesn't relate much to humans other than as proof that behavior and appearance aren't necessarily unrelated.",
"That'a a great question, and while I'm not here to answer (sorry) I have what I think is an interesting parallel situation that seems relevant.\n\nOne of the world's oldest ongoing study is on foxes. Two groups were made. In the first, the nicest foxes were bred together. In the second group, the meanest and most aggressive foxes were bred together. Key point: the selection was done only on the basis of behavior; no physical attributes were considered.\n\nThe study has been ongoing for over 50 years. In only a few generations, the \"nice\" foxes began to exhibit common physical attributes: their tails were fluffier, their eyes were rounder, their ears were floppier, and their snouts were shorter. A few generations after that, and the nice foxes are completely physically different from the aggressive ones. They are easily recognizable from their aggressive counterparts. \n\nThe nicer behaving foxes have physical attributes that are traditionally associated with juveniles, such as the rounded eyes, shorter snouts and floppy ears. The nice behavior (playfulness, trust, curiosity, friendliness), when you think about it, are also attributes associated with young animals, not their adult counterparts. \n\nI have no knowledge of human studies in this regards, but at least in the fox experiment, you can most definitely tell the nice fox from the aggressive one simply by looking at it. But let it be clear: the foxes were bred for their behavior, which in turn led to the marked physical traits. \n\nps. their coat is whiter too.",
"I'm going to offer a different take:\n\nConfirmation bias.\n\nIt is likely that attractive, friendly-looking people are selfish, dishonest, inconsistent (two-faced), as often as other people, but you'll typically fail to think about them when you picture friendly-looking people in your mind.",
"I think it's because the things we often identify as being a friendly feature is caused by how the eyes and mouth are held. Not only in the moment when somebody has a very subtle frown or smile, but long term those expressions leave wrinkles and creases that accentuate that look. It's the subtle effect of the muscles that creates the friendly look much more than any unyielding bone structure.",
"It might be that he is friendly and you have developed an eye for that. Just meeting people through your life may have given you the experience to make a generally accurate assessment of this person by small hints in body language and facial expressions.",
"Humans are social animals and a lot of communication is non-verbal. People who appear nice and friendly to you are communicating with you via their facial and body expression and you can instinctively know what that means.",
"Unconsciously humans have features about them, the way their eyes look, shape of lips, etc, that almost universally can signal to someone else how they're feeling. Blind People who have never seen another face still use these same types of responses. It goes further than that into body language as well. You can tell if someone is attentive or interested just by looking at how they're postured.\n\n\nThing is, you might not consciously perceive all of these signals. You don't look at a face and think \"That dude looks like he's friendly.\" Instead, you get what most people call \"vibes\". I have a feeling about him or her. That's you picking up on these signals that you get from other people without putting a conscious effort in or even realizing why exactly you are getting those feelings.",
"Because people approach them assuming their friendly and treat them friendly and are treated friendly in return? My best guess. Always good to treat everyone nicely until given a reason not to though.",
"This is a cool video oh Khan Academy that may help. Consider it an Explain like I'm in HS.\n\nIt's about something called The Halo Effect\n\n_URL_4_",
"Self image. They probably look in the mirror and think the same as everyone else. Hmmm... I look friendly, I guess I'm friendly then!",
"they don't have a bunch of jerks asking them \"why are you so mad?\" all day."
],
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://keepingupwiththewalkers.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/dahl.jpg",
"http://www.returnofkings.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/agres_fox.png",
"http://www.animalfactsencyclopedia.com/image-files/620x445xfoxdomesticrussian.jpg.pagespeed.ic.yAsZIWwJo9.webp",
"https://edauer.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/fox1.jpeg",
"https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/individuals-and-society/perception-prejudice-and-bias/v/social-perception-the-halo-effect"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why do people that "look" friendly, and have friendly facial features, generally end up being nice and friendly?
| [
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o4wtg | What is the difference between blackheads and whiteheads? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c3egipm"
],
"text": [
"The oils in a blackhead are oxidized due to a hole in the skin. This changes the color to a translucent yellow-brown, which appears black when in the skin.\n\nA whitehead is not exposed to air, and the oil does not oxidize. Thus, it stays white."
],
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5
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} | {
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is the difference between blackheads and whiteheads?
| [
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3gg3j9 | Why do many bullet effects in movies (Ex. Saving Private Ryan) look so much better than bullet effects in Tv shows? (they look like sparks) | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ctxsuec"
],
"text": [
"because there is both more time and money spent on details in films. Tv shows have to work quickly enough to produce 40+ hours of content in a year and turn a profit for each episode. film has a year to produce 2 hours of content with a giant profit margin."
],
"score": [
6
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why do many bullet effects in movies (Ex. Saving Private Ryan) look so much better than bullet effects in Tv shows? (they look like sparks)
| [
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4hqfle | What is the ringing sound in our ears every once in a while, and why can no one but ourselves hear it when it happens to us? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"d2rlude"
],
"text": [
"the sound is a fault in your ears commonly known as tinitus.\n\nThe reason no one else can hear it is because it is your ear that sends a faulty signal to your brain, thus you \"hear\" the ringing noise",
"This question has been answered, but there's an interesting complication in its premise in that there's a variant of tinnitus that other people *can* hear.\n\nIt's called [objective tinnitis](_URL_0_) and is the result of spasms in the inner ear.\n\nIt's estimated that about 40-50% of people have these, but the majority simply don't notice the noises made."
],
"score": [
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus#Objective_tinnitus"
]
} | train_eli5 | What is the ringing sound in our ears every once in a while, and why can no one but ourselves hear it when it happens to us?
| [
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1y327k | How gas masks work and their effectiveness. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cfgwr6c"
],
"text": [
"The round thing on the front is a filter. If you have a Brita water filter at home, you know how a filter works; stuff comes in, bad stuff stays in the filter, and purified stuff goes through. The gas mask does the same thing, except to air, and filters more compounds than a Brita does."
],
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} | {
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How gas masks work and their effectiveness.
| [
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34vs7l | What is the reason for making a throwaway account? | I always see comments that say, "this is a throwaway account," or "I made a throwaway account just for this post." If reddit is anonymous, then what's the point of a throwaway account? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cqyiran",
"cqykgjp"
],
"text": [
"So that when you admit to killing your drug addicted brother in law it can't be traced back to you and get you arrested. (Seriously this happened). Plenty of users use the same name across multiple sites and its possible to identify who they are if you try, sometimes you want to talk about stuff that you don't want traced back to you.",
"People learn what other peoples user accounts are. If a person has shared enough over time, looking at their history you can piece together who they might be. The last thing you want to do is confess to crimes or sleeping with people you probably shouldn't have had, regardless how awesome a story is.\n\nAlso people make friends with other users with out knowing exactly who the other people are. As part of that online image you don't want to tell a story that might taint that. Especially women that want to tell a sexual story of some sort. Any mention of liking sex and bam! Inbox full of dick picts."
],
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2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is the reason for making a throwaway account?
I always see comments that say, "this is a throwaway account," or "I made a throwaway account just for this post." If reddit is anonymous, then what's the point of a throwaway account? | [
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361oic | Why does Spotify play so many ads for features on the application instead of payed ads by advertisers? | I don't know if it's just me but every single ad I listen to on Spotify is about features that it can do. I must have heard about the discovery page and playlist folders more than 100 times.
Why on earth would they waste advertising time talking about features which don't even net them any profit?
(P.S I live in Australia so maybe the advertisements they can show here are different than in the States, but that's as close as a n explanation I can figure out.) | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cr9vdkm",
"cra4qxi"
],
"text": [
"If you subscribe for premium you pay a monthly fee. I think its more profitable for them to increase paying users than it is for other companies paying for add time.",
"I work mainly in TV and radio advertising and usually if you see something like that it is because they cannot sell the airtime.\n\nNow in those industries it is very rare to not have airtime sold. If a company is advertising it's own products it can be part of a campaign they want but usually it is because they cannot sell it.\n\nIn TV they would just give another advertiser the airtime for free so why Spotify are not doing that, I am not sure, but I'd suggest it is one of the below\n\nThey might only have a few advertisers and don't want to overplay them and piss off potential customers. \n\nIf they did give it free to other advertisers they are effectively telling the advertiser that they have loads of extra inventory and the advertiser could use this to their advantage when negotiating the next campaign.\n\nFinally advertisers might a specific reach and frequency they want to achieve and blowing it all in the first weeks of the campaign might not be in their best interests."
],
"score": [
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why does Spotify play so many ads for features on the application instead of payed ads by advertisers?
I don't know if it's just me but every single ad I listen to on Spotify is about features that it can do. I must have heard about the discovery page and playlist folders more than 100 times. Why on earth would they waste advertising time talking about features which don't even net them any profit? (P.S I live in Australia so maybe the advertisements they can show here are different than in the States, but that's as close as a n explanation I can figure out.) | [
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t9dle | How college scholarships work. (US) | * How far in advance can you accept them?
* Can you use them to repay loans?
* Are they sent to your or straight to the school?
* Do you need to be accepted into a university before accepting a scholarship?
Many thanks! | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c4kn95a"
],
"text": [
"Scholarships are largely offered by a variety of organizations that are not standardized, so the rules vary from scholarship to scholarship. \n\nSometimes, you can win a scholarship as early as grade school to go toward your college education (this is rare). Most scholarships require proof that you are either currently enrolled in a university or have been attending and will be starting soon.\n\nGenerally, you get scholarships to fund your current studies, not to pay off old loans.\n\nWhether they are sent to you or the school depends on the scholarship. Some are specifically to go directly to tuition and may be sent straight to the school. Many are given for general expenses while studying (not just tuition, but perhaps books or living expenses), others are given for something very specific (I got one explicitly for air-fare to participate in a study-abroad program); these are usually given straight to the student but may require some sort of proof of what you sent it on (in my case, I got a check and had to show a copy of the flight booking)."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How college scholarships work. (US)
* How far in advance can you accept them? * Can you use them to repay loans? * Are they sent to your or straight to the school? * Do you need to be accepted into a university before accepting a scholarship? Many thanks! | [
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74uul5 | Why did coins use to have a hole? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"do18mlc",
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"do18i34",
"do18gy0"
],
"text": [
"Some kinds of coins were produced by pouring metal into molds which were then broken apart and the rough coins stacked onto a rod where they were clamped and then the sides ground down to size in batches of hundreds at a time. Square holes were even more helpful in that they tended to resist twisting in this process.\n\nIn other processes the coins were stamped or the edges left irregular, both of which didn't require a central hole.",
"Chinese coins had holes in them so people could put them on a string. I guess they didn't have pockets back then. Or maybe it was just the Chinese being strange like they always are.",
"Could also be so that the coins require less metal to make and thus \"costs\" less to produce.\n\nAlso holes add a layer of complexity to a coin so that it becomes slightly harder to forge.",
"One reason was so that they could be strung on a line, like beads on a necklace, to prevent them from being lost."
],
"score": [
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5,
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why did coins use to have a hole?
[removed] | [
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8ewced | Why does radio have more commercials than TV? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"dxylqoh"
],
"text": [
"Also consider radio's principle audience are drivers - literally captive audiences because they're stuck in their vehicle. If all the stations play their commercials all at the same time, you'll learn this flipping through the channels, eventually settling on a channel in defeat. Eventually, commercials will kick off and you won't even bother adjusting the radio, because you know there is nothing else to listen to.",
"I’d question this assumption. Every reference I can find says the average radio station plays 25-30% advertisements. That sounds like a lot of ads, and perhaps it is... but it’s actually the same amount as a TV station. TV shows will run 8 minutes in a 30 minute block or 16-17 minutes in a 1 hour block. The numbers for radio match almost exactly.",
"This is likely because they are a) much cheaper to make b) less effective because they are only audio, and thus ad agencies need to saturate the air waves with their commercials and c) They are the only way for radio stations to advertise, whereas tv shows have other methods such as product placements."
],
"score": [
3,
3,
3
]
} | {
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why does radio have more commercials than TV?
[removed] | [
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1sq6mt | Why doesn't someone just make a new site like Youtube? | The recent drama over Google+ integration and copyright claims got me thinking, why doesn't someone just make a new simple video streaming service like Youtube?
It seems like there are many professional content creators and others who would be interested in using a site like this if it were established. Surely if there was enough interest in a website like this then advertising companies would notice it and fair partnerships could be created.
I see so many people critizing Youtube's methods but hardly any improving upon them, is it just because of the cost involved in the hosting or because creating an API similar to Youtube is too much of a technical challenge? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ce02wby"
],
"text": [
"There already *are* a lot of sites like Youtube. They're just not as big so many sites that like to embed the video files may not support them."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why doesn't someone just make a new site like Youtube?
The recent drama over Google+ integration and copyright claims got me thinking, why doesn't someone just make a new simple video streaming service like Youtube? It seems like there are many professional content creators and others who would be interested in using a site like this if it were established. Surely if there was enough interest in a website like this then advertising companies would notice it and fair partnerships could be created. I see so many people critizing Youtube's methods but hardly any improving upon them, is it just because of the cost involved in the hosting or because creating an API similar to Youtube is too much of a technical challenge? | [
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2wmyra | What do blind people see, and how does it affect their sleep cycle? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cosc2hb"
],
"text": [
"They don't, imagine what you see out of your elbow. Thats what blind people see."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What do blind people see, and how does it affect their sleep cycle?
| [
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37ad5i | Why is it that when I'm in the drivers or the passengers seat and one of the back windows are open it makes this really annoying ringing feeling in my eardrums? | *Slightly open | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"crl13mp"
],
"text": [
"It is a harmonic vibration caused by the inability of the air entering the open windows to find an easy way to escape. My 2004 Jetta Wagon vibrated and hummed very loudly if you rolled down all the windows at high speed. \n\nYour ears are very sensitive to vibration (and oscillating air pressure)."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why is it that when I'm in the drivers or the passengers seat and one of the back windows are open it makes this really annoying ringing feeling in my eardrums?
*Slightly open | [
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68m5x3 | Why is there no thunder or lightning during snowstorms? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dgzha3y",
"dgzieku",
"dgzikxh"
],
"text": [
"I don't know the science behind it, but I know that I've heard thunder during a blizzard. Usually, thunder/lightning comes from lots of heat in the atmosphere where the weather front is.",
"[Good explanation](_URL_0_)\n\nTLDR: Warmer air holds more water and has stronger updrafts, both of which contribute to lightning.",
"There can be... we've had thundersnow before here in Chicago. Not super common, but does happen."
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://news.psu.edu/story/141349/2007/03/26/research/probing-question-why-doesnt-it-thunderstorm-winter"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why is there no thunder or lightning during snowstorms?
[removed] | [
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42a6fr | How come there aren't vitamins named after every letter in the alphabet? And why did they name vitamins after letters anyway? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cz8t84c",
"cz8v9pf",
"cz8ylbj"
],
"text": [
"This [video](_URL_0_) explains it very well. It comes down to being historic, the people who discovered the vitamin named it, but some vitamins were actually two substances and some were the same substance with two names. This lead to this confusing system of vitamin names.",
"part of the issue is that some \"vitamins\" are demoted over time or renamed (the former vitamin H, biotin, is now B7 or 8). e.g. inositol used to be a B vitamin (B8), but has now been demoted to a micronutrient. same with something like choline. In the case of B vitamins, there are still other compounds that are still considered vitamins, which is why we still have a vitamin B, but vitamin H is no more, since it has been renamed",
"IIRC vitamins were once considered \"vital amines\" (constituent parts of proteins). Doesn't answer your question directly but I suspect they named them with the idea they would find vitamins in the same family"
],
"score": [
10,
5,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://youtu.be/NnmgM_Lz3o0"
]
} | train_eli5 | How come there aren't vitamins named after every letter in the alphabet? And why did they name vitamins after letters anyway?
[deleted] | [
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-0.064170911... | |
1ov5wr | Why are ants considered to be especially dangerous to other arthropods? | I was reading about jumping spiders on Wikipedia, and that article, as well as a few others, mentioned that ants are uncommon prey because they are high-risk and low-reward.
Why are they high-risk? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ccvym3m"
],
"text": [
"They are heavily armoured, have jaws that can do damage, and tend to have tens of thousands of friends that could show up."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why are ants considered to be especially dangerous to other arthropods?
I was reading about jumping spiders on Wikipedia, and that article, as well as a few others, mentioned that ants are uncommon prey because they are high-risk and low-reward. Why are they high-risk? | [
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10tkvp | What does a 'kernel' do? (computers) | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"c6gtuf1"
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"text": [
"The kernel is like a traffic cop. It stands between your computer's hardware and the applications that you want to run. It allocates memory, keeps track of file systems on your disk drives, and it divides up time so that each program gets its turn to use your computer's resources.",
"In a sense, the kernel is the essence of the operating system.\n\nMost computers are subtly different. They have different types of processor, different disks attached to different ports on the motherboard, etc. Also, most programs have reasonably common requirements (read and write files from disk, request memory to put data in, read input from the keyboard and mouse, and whatever other stuff you have attached to your computer). Also, when you have several programs running at once, someone has to manage the switching between them, either explicitly (because you switched from one program to another), or implicitly in the background (got music playing in iTunes while browsing? They're not literally running at the same time, they're each getting some attention from the processor a few milliseconds at a time).\n\nThe kernel is the bit of the operating system that actually talks to the hardware, and manages its resources (well, the kernel usually employs drivers to account for the specifics of each individual piece of hardware, but that's another story). All that disk reading and writing? Regular programs don't actually do that themselves. They ask the kernel to do it for them. Keyboard input? It's the kernel that reads that stuff in and tells your application. Got several programs running? It's the kernel that will balance out their needs for CPU time (usually called \"scheduling\"). When you have several programs asking for memory, it's the kernel that gets to say who gets what pieces of memory.",
"BasementTrix and pdpi's answers are both correct. But if you ask someone researching artificial intelligence or machine learning, they might think of something completely different, but also having to do with computing. \n\nIt's incredibly hard to explain _this_ like you're 5... but here goes...\n\nImagine you have 3 apples, then 3 oranges, then 3 apples, all in a row:\n\n`--- +++ ---`\n\nSay you want to draw a straight line separating them. Obviously, you can't. But you *could* do something like move them up in a completely new dimension, based on their distance from the center.\n\n - -\n - -\n - -\n + +\n +\n\nNow, you can draw a straight line separating them!\n\nIn higher dimensions, it looks something like this: _URL_0_\n\nAnyways, what does this have to do with kernels? A kernel is a mathematical function that takes input like \"how far to the right is the fruit?\" and outputs \"how far from the center is the fruit?\"\n\nAnd what does this have to do with computers? You can use this trick for image processing, spam detection... anything where you have to look at data and classify it as \"type A\" or \"type B.\"\n\nIf you happen to be a 5-year-old math prodigy, here's what I'm referring to: _URL_1_\n\nAnd yes, \"kernel\" has a wide variety of meanings in mathematics in general, a number of which apply equally well to computing. As a grad student, I just learned about this specific definition of kernel today, and... I got carried away in writing this. Oh well. Hope people learned something from this.\n\n[](/twiright \"I love explaining my work to my friends!\")\n\n[](/ajbaffle \"WAT\")\n\n[](/ppcute \"Oh, Twi, I learned that months ago!\")",
"BasementTrix and pdpi's answers, while not bad at all, could be more accurate.\n\nModern processors have multiple security levels; programs running at a low security level are only allowed to see and touch things that that they have been given permission from a higher security level. The lower security level at which ordinary programs run is known by names such as \"user mode,\" \"user space,\" etc.; the higher one at which the kernel runs is known as \"kernel mode,\" \"supervisor mode\" or similar names.\n\nThe kernel is the part of the operating system that runs in the CPU's *supervisor mode* (which may have a different name). Traditionally it has access to the whole of the computer's memory and hardware, and because of this it serves to start user programs and grant them access to memory and hardware.\n\nA lot of operations that an ordinary program wants to perform are what is called a *system call*; the program sends a request to the kernel, which switches the processor to kernel model and activates the kernel, which then performs the program's request.\n\nWhat tasks does the kernel perform? Well, actually, that depends on the design of the operating system. In some operating systems the kernel does more than in others. In conventional operating system kernels (called [monolithic kernels](_URL_2_)) it does a lot, while in the less common [microkernel](_URL_3_) designs push more responsibility to user space programs.\n\nNote that while traditionally processors had two modes (user and kernel), nowadays nearly all PC processors have a third mode, often called a *hypervisor* mode, that sits above kernel mode, to allow multiple operating systems to run at the same time. If you've ever seen a software package like VMWare or Parallels that allows you to run a second operating system inside your primary one, that's the way those work.\n\nPS Why do I say that the other answers are less accurate? Because they fail to mention the processor mode issue (which is **the** thing that distinguishes the OS kernel), and they assume a monolithic kernel model. Again, they're not bad answers, but they just don't get",
"If my macbook is having kernel panic errors like 3x a day whats that mean?"
],
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61,
19,
7,
3,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Kernel_Machine.png",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_trick",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolithic_kernel",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microkernel"
]
} | train_eli5 | What does a 'kernel' do? (computers)
| [
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29hczr | Google Ultron | Is it a joke or is it real? How does it compare to Chrome?
I can't find a straightforward answer online. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cikwdht"
],
"text": [
"It's 100% a joke, taken from a copy and paste story about a guy faking his way through tech support.\n\nThe story: _URL_0_\nedit: this album is apparently missing a few pages, best I could find though."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://imgur.com/a/B9wqU"
]
} | train_eli5 | Google Ultron
Is it a joke or is it real? How does it compare to Chrome? I can't find a straightforward answer online. | [
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2c70tj | How Can A Game Company Offer a Free Version? | I once bought a store copy of the MMORPG "RIFT" for $40. Quickly I did quit RIFT and returned to WoW. RIFT was now an old fling one wants to forget.
Perhaps a week later, I see that it is now Free-to-Play. How? At one point it was worth $40 (I think it was a buy-once game like the Diablo model). Then it is free.
Yet there is still active development on it and active players. How is this possible? From where does profit come that can be channeled into development, maintaining the servers, etc.? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cjcjzh7"
],
"text": [
"Pay to play games rely on regular monthly spending. Every month, they know they will get $15 from 100,000 people. Releasing expansions also give a big boost of money to the company.\n\nFree to play games make everything from an item mall. Here, people can spend real money for extra benefits in game. The most profitable items are things that give a high end item or benefit by chance that cannot be bought directly. At most times, the top 5% or so of the players are 90% of the money spent. The top few may spend as much as $10,000 a month on some of them. These people help pay for the game."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How Can A Game Company Offer a Free Version?
I once bought a store copy of the MMORPG "RIFT" for $40. Quickly I did quit RIFT and returned to WoW. RIFT was now an old fling one wants to forget. Perhaps a week later, I see that it is now Free-to-Play. How? At one point it was worth $40 (I think it was a buy-once game like the Diablo model). Then it is free. Yet there is still active development on it and active players. How is this possible? From where does profit come that can be channeled into development, maintaining the servers, etc.? | [
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7msz71 | What's the difference between ibuprofen, acetaminophen and Naxproxen? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"drwic05",
"drwg8di",
"drwgb21"
],
"text": [
"For those who are not in the US.\nAcetaminophen = Paracetamol",
"Yarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: The difference between ibuprofen, advil, and tylenol. ](_URL_7_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: The differences between aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen ](_URL_0_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: The difference between Advil, Tylenol, Motrin, Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, Aleve, Aspirin, etc? ](_URL_2_) ^(_36 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: What is the difference between Advil, Tylenol, and aspirin? I know they're different drugs, but what is each one doing to my headache/ pain? ](_URL_5_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: what is the difference between Tylenol, Advil, and Aspirin? ](_URL_1_) ^(_4 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: What's the difference between popular pain medications Tylenol (acetaminophen), Advil (ibuprofen), Aleve (naproxen sodium), and aspirin, and when should each be used? ](_URL_8_) ^(_3 comments_)\n1. [What is the difference between Advil, Tylenol, and ibuprofen and how exactly do they alleviate pain in the body? ](_URL_6_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: What the difference between Tylenol, Aspirin, non-aspirin, ibuprofen or anything in the headache relief/pain relief department? ](_URL_4_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: The differences between Tylenol, Advil, and Aleve ](_URL_3_) ^(_3 comments_)\n1. [ELI5:What the difference is between Aspirin, Acetaminophen, and Ibuprofin. What are the pros and cons of each drug and in what circumstances should I use one over the other? ](_URL_9_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)",
"Ibuprofen and Naproxen are both anti-inflammatory. Ibuprofen doesnt last as long as other non steroid anti-inflammatory like Naproxen. Acetaminophen is to help with minor pains and fevers."
],
"score": [
12,
6,
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]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17fji7/eli5_the_differences_between_aspirin_ibuprofen/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rjxrk/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_tylenol_advil/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p3aer/eli5_the_difference_between_advil_tylenol_motrin/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20tz0o/eli5_the_differences_between_tylenol_advil_and/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v5xwc/eli5_what_the_difference_between_tylenol_aspirin/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/335z5f/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_advil_tylenol/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19y45h/what_is_the_difference_between_advil_tylenol_and/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ra7cs/eli5_the_difference_between_ibuprofen_advil_and/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gvkek/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_popular_pain/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/237285/eli5what_the_difference_is_between_aspirin/"
]
} | train_eli5 | What's the difference between ibuprofen, acetaminophen and Naxproxen?
| [
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3i80uo | What is happening inside my body when my stomach growls? | My stomach won't shut up today and I have to go to an important meeting | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cue2p2j"
],
"text": [
"**When people hear their stomachs make noise, most of what they hear is gas and intestinal motility, the normal movement of the intestines. Even when you’re not eating, your gut is moving. If you have food in your intestine, it can muffle the sound, but if you have air in there, and that’s all you’re moving, that is what you’ll hear. Some people are more sensitive or have a heightened sense of what’s going on inside their bodies, so they hear it or feel it more.**"
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is happening inside my body when my stomach growls?
My stomach won't shut up today and I have to go to an important meeting | [
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6n7ei8 | - why do we sweat when we eat really spicy food. | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dk7cbkl"
],
"text": [
"You don't have a \"hot/spicy\" taste receptor. Capsaicin oil, the chemical that makes things taste spicy is actually doing so by triggering the heat receptors in your mouth that normally tell you if food is physically hot. The exact opposite of effect is triggered by Menthol, which chemically triggers the cold receptors."
],
"score": [
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | - why do we sweat when we eat really spicy food.
[removed] | [
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56c94r | How did colors come to be such an important source of symbolism? | I mean, we see colors meaning things all the time. Sports teams are often represented by a set of two or three colors, companies have colors and just about anything that has a color has a certain feel/meaning to it. Do we know exactly when that became an important part of our society/brains? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d8ib753"
],
"text": [
"Colors have always been a source for feelings. Certain colors create certain feelings. For example:\n\n[Yellow and Red make you hungrier which is why McDonalds and countless others use those colors.] (_URL_0_)\n\n[Red is a powerful color that makes people more aggressive and attractive](_URL_1_)\n\nBlue is seen as more stability and trustworthy. \n\nColors have been important part of our psyche before history. These feelings are likely due to evolutionary aspects."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2013/10/13/red-and-yellow-how-restaurants-suck-us-in/",
"https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201212/is-red-the-color-sexual-desire"
]
} | train_eli5 | How did colors come to be such an important source of symbolism?
I mean, we see colors meaning things all the time. Sports teams are often represented by a set of two or three colors, companies have colors and just about anything that has a color has a certain feel/meaning to it. Do we know exactly when that became an important part of our society/brains? | [
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3oot8k | How can a state's economy be driven by domestic consumption? | I read something saying China had to, or is, shifting from an export-led economy to an economy driven by domestic consumption. I basically understand what an export driven economy is, your economy is based on exporting your goods. But what does it mean to have an economy driven by domestic consumption? What does it mean, how does it help an economy and why is it better?
| explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cvzgbwr"
],
"text": [
"Domestic consumption is your own people buying your goods and services. It is better in that it is more reliable as well as improving the life of your people. \n\nExports can swing based on currency exchange rates as well as the economy of other countries. If the U.S. stops buying Chinese goods, their economy will collapse. If China makes its money selling to people in China that is not a risk."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How can a state's economy be driven by domestic consumption?
I read something saying China had to, or is, shifting from an export-led economy to an economy driven by domestic consumption. I basically understand what an export driven economy is, your economy is based on exporting your goods. But what does it mean to have an economy driven by domestic consumption? What does it mean, how does it help an economy and why is it better? | [
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6yxf3z | How is it possible to still be susceptible to chicken pox if you've already gotten an up to date immunization shot for it? | I was reading [this article](_URL_1_) on Twitter today from my local news about a nearby college where two students tested positive for chicken pox last month and was shocked when I read something I didn't even know was possible: "...if you are immunized, it's possible you may get a milder form of the disease...". How is this even possible for people with up to date immunization shots? Also, this school [requires proof of immunization](_URL_0_) to register for classes, so it's odd how the two kids still developed it... Perhaps they were of the 1% who is vaccinated but is unlucky enough to still get the pox. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dmqwcpc"
],
"text": [
"No vaccine works perfectly for everyone. Some people don't develop a strong immune response for one reason or another. This is one of the reasons it's important to vaccinate everyone. When enough people are protected, it's harder for a virus to spread to the people who aren't protected."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.fullerton.edu/studentwellness/immunization_requirements.php",
"http://abc7.com/amp/health/csuf-students-staff-on-alert-over-potential-chicken-pox-outbreak/2392492/"
]
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How is it possible to still be susceptible to chicken pox if you've already gotten an up to date immunization shot for it?
I was reading [this article](_URL_1_) on Twitter today from my local news about a nearby college where two students tested positive for chicken pox last month and was shocked when I read something I didn't even know was possible: "...if you are immunized, it's possible you may get a milder form of the disease...". How is this even possible for people with up to date immunization shots? Also, this school [requires proof of immunization](_URL_0_) to register for classes, so it's odd how the two kids still developed it... Perhaps they were of the 1% who is vaccinated but is unlucky enough to still get the pox. | [
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5mn8vd | Why do you need a NASA lens to record candle lit scenes on film, yet the human eye is as small as a mobile phone camera and can see low lit scenes just fine? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dc4tjwt",
"dc4vulk",
"dc4w2qx",
"dc4vupv"
],
"text": [
"Our brain is incredibly powerful and can 'compute' the dynamic range and the white balance of everything we see. Even the the most expensive sensors on the best cameras available today can't recreate the wide dynamic range our eyes do for us, at least not without combining multiple images.\nExample. When driving through a tunnel as you approach the end your eyes see fantastic detail in the tunnel around you, AND in the bright outside the tunnel in front of you. Now try taking a photo of that (passenger!!) and see that you either get detail in the tunnel and super overexposed outside, or detail outside and underexposed inside.\nOne day cameras may reach this level but not for a long while.",
"You're thinking of the f0.7 lenses made in the 1960s and used both by NASA and Stanley Kubrick. He wanted to shoot motion pictures (35mm colour film) by candle light and, at that time, film sensitivity required such a fast lens to produce the required quality. Today, both film and digital sensors would be able to do the same job with f1.0 or even f1.4 lenses, which are commonly available. Professional DSLR lenses have f1.4 as a very common prime (non-zoom) aperture and f1.2 is also available. Today, pros use these more for their very narrow depth of field more than for their bright images, i.e., they want everything except the subject to be very out of focus and blurry.\n\nYou can find lenses with f numbers at and under 1.0 but they are expensive specialist items. For example, there's an [f0.85](_URL_0_) for $2000 which is only half a stop slower than the f0.7 NASA special from the 1960s.\n\nModern digital cameras will happily shoot stills and videos with standard zoom lenses in candle light. The problem is that the images will be incredibly noisy unless you use long exposures that are impossible for moving subjects or for videos. The quality would be unsuitable for movie or TV production work. The human eye is actually not too different. Yes, you can see by candle light, but your colour perception is missing or very muted and there is the equivalent of noise present. The human eye has a maximum aperture around f2.1, over three stops (eight times) slower (dimmer) than f0.7.",
"A rod cell in your eye can resolve a *single* photon. This can also be done with technology, but it requires relatively huge photo-multiplier tubes which are found in scientific apparatus and not consumer or professional cameras. The signal from the rod cells needs to be about 5 photons to be strong enough to reach the brain and be registered though, but 5 photons is still FAR better than a cheap CCD can do (I include $100k+ professional cameras in \"cheap\". \"expensive\" is the types of detectors used in multi- hundred million dollar particle accelerators that are the size of a cathedral - they can also detect single photons)\n\n(This is also helped by the insane dynamic range a human eye can achieve as the brain scales the output of individual photo receptors as needed, where a modern camera scales the output of all photo receptors together)\n\nThere's a lot of crap here that either doesn't answer you or is just plain wrong.",
"Film isn't as sensitive as your eyes, so a wide lens gathers more light to make up for it. Digital sensors that didn't exist when we visited the moon are more sensitive now."
],
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} | {
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"url": [
"https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1056301-REG/handevision_hvib4085se_ibelux_40mm_f_0_85_lens.html"
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} | train_eli5 | Why do you need a NASA lens to record candle lit scenes on film, yet the human eye is as small as a mobile phone camera and can see low lit scenes just fine?
| [
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j3s5t | How exactly do tinted windows work? | I can't wrap my head around how you can see from the inside, but not the outside. Also, I know this is extremely dumb :| | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's basically a film that you put on the window, making it darker inside than outside.\n\nYou can see through glass-like things easy if the opposite side is better lit.\n\nThis is how 2-way mirrors work, and why you can see inside lit buildings at night, but not during the day."
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} | train_eli5 | How exactly do tinted windows work?
I can't wrap my head around how you can see from the inside, but not the outside. Also, I know this is extremely dumb :| | [
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2ekw7l | How is it you can legally stream a video game but not a real sports game? | Google tried to buy _URL_0_ and Amazon finally did, for almost $1B. I don't know much about it, but it's basically a sight that streams people playing video games. But there's also just tons of Youtube videos and other videos of people just playing video games.
So do video game companies just not care, can't enforce, don't care, view it as marketing? Are there limits to how many people can view, who can comment, etc? Does it have to do with purchasing the game? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Actually, video game publishers *could* shut down streaming of their games if they wanted to, but (for the most part) they don't want to.\n\nThe legality of streaming a video game isn't set in stone yet. Game publishers own the performance rights to the characters, logos, music, and pretty much everything in the games they publish. It isn't clear if a player's playing adds enough to the performance to be considered Fair Use, as no case has been decided on those grounds yet. However, most publishers see streams as free advertising, and those that don't see it that way turn a blind eye to streaming to avoid pissing off their hardcore fans.",
"The market value of a video game is mostly in the interaction -- you tell it to do something, and it does it in the game. Streaming it online loses them little, if any, money.\n\nA real sports game, however, the market value is 100% in the spectators watching it. Television companies pay big bucks for exclusive broadcast rights for these games, and streaming it online would violate those contracts."
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} | {
"url": [
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} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How is it you can legally stream a video game but not a real sports game?
Google tried to buy _URL_0_ and Amazon finally did, for almost $1B. I don't know much about it, but it's basically a sight that streams people playing video games. But there's also just tons of Youtube videos and other videos of people just playing video games. So do video game companies just not care, can't enforce, don't care, view it as marketing? Are there limits to how many people can view, who can comment, etc? Does it have to do with purchasing the game? | [
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3f0jme | How do those bid one cent websites make money? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because:\n\n1. You pay something like $0.60 to place a bid and raise the price of the item by $0.01\n\n2. You lose that $0.60 forever, *even if you lose the auction*.\n\nSo if something raises in price from an initial $0.01 to $10, that's 999 bids, which, at $0.60 each, is $599.40 that the company has made in non-refundable bidding fees from all of the people who *lost* the auction."
],
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} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How do those bid one cent websites make money?
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3gf4wv | Why do bombs squads blow up "packages" that they determine to not be a bomb? | Earlier today a bomb squad was called out down the street. They determined the "suspicious package" was just a baseball. Yet they went ahead and blew it up anyway. Why would they do that? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Maybe it was for fun. Maybe you can't be too careful. Either way, any time a threat is made, it has to be taken with utmost precaution. Even if a baby doll sounds like ticking is coming from its leg, it's a threat."
],
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} | {
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} | train_eli5 | Why do bombs squads blow up "packages" that they determine to not be a bomb?
Earlier today a bomb squad was called out down the street. They determined the "suspicious package" was just a baseball. Yet they went ahead and blew it up anyway. Why would they do that? | [
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4xnima | Why do professional swimmers wear 2 caps when competing? | I know that they often put the strap of their goggles in between the first and second, but couldn't they just put it under the first cap? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"So I was actually wondering this out loud the other day while I was watching the Olympics with my wife, and not 10 seconds later the commentator on the TV actually explained it. He said occasionally you will see some swimmers wear their goggles with the strap on the outside of their swimming cap, but most wear them with the strap on the inside. Some swimmers wear their goggles with the strap in contact with their hair, and then a single swim cap over top, but other swimmers may feel that their hair is too slippery for the goggles' strap to stay in place, so they wear a swim cap, then the goggles with the strap over top of the first swim cap, and then a second swim cap to make sure their goggles can't slip off. He seemed to know what he was talking about, so I trust his explanation.",
"While diving in goggles and caps tend to fall off also while swimming caps tend to fall off bringing the goggles down with them. Wearing two caps helps to keep everything stay put and avoid the drag caused by your hair. This is also why goggle straps are typically placed under the cap. \n\nSource: swimmer.",
"I'm guessing, but most likely, the increased weight doesn't matter compared to the reduced drag from smooth-ass head.\n\nEdit: stack exchange is 100% better than reddit for these things.\n_URL_0_"
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} | {
"url": [
"http://sports.stackexchange.com/questions/1236/why-do-michael-phelps-and-some-other-swimmers-wear-two-caps"
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} | train_eli5 | Why do professional swimmers wear 2 caps when competing?
I know that they often put the strap of their goggles in between the first and second, but couldn't they just put it under the first cap? | [
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1kayll | The compilation process for the 'C' programming language. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yikes, it's been a long time since I've used a compiler outside of an IDE where you press one button and everything just kind of magically happens!\n\nHere's what I remember, though. And although I'm answering specifically about C, because that's what you asked about, it won't be too different for other languages.\n\n* Each source file (.C file) is processed one at a time.\n\n* For each file, the pre-compiler runs first. It handles anything beginning with a # - so that would be #include, #define, etc. These pre-compiler commands are basically just text processing.\n\n* The output of the pre-compiler is then compiled. The output of this is a .OBJ file.\n\nThe .OBJ file contains almost-executable compiled code. The reason it is only almost-executable is because of the \"extern\" keyword. If a variable, function, etc is declared with the \"extern\" keyword, this means that the variable or function is actually defined (ie. declared without \"extern\") in another source file or library. The code in a .OBJ file can't be executed, because the compiler didn't know where to find all those \"extern\" things. So it simply puts place-holders into the .OBJ file for now.\n\n* Finally, the linker runs. The linker brings together all the .OBJ files, together with the libraries, .LIB files (which are often supplied with the compiler, and are very similar to .OBJ files) that make up the project. It replaces all the place-holders with references to the real variable or function, since it will now know how to find the real thing. It creates, as its output, the executable file.\n\nApologies if that's not 100% correct, but as I said it's been many years since I had to think about this!",
"What do you mean? In general, a compiler takes human-readable code and translates/converts it into code that a computer can execute."
],
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"url": []
} | train_eli5 | The compilation process for the 'C' programming language.
| [
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5yom5n | Why does google offer services such as Google Photos, how do they benefit from hosting my personal images online for free? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Have you noticed how Google Photos groups your photos by who is in them? Like /u/leonardo_pothead pointed out, this uses Google's facial recognition software, and when you go through and mark results there as being incorrect, Google takes that into account in order to improve the software.\n\nAnd this doesn't just go for photos. You can search for other objects like dogs, cats, birds, cars, trucks, and this all improves Google's recognition software.",
"It ties you into the google ecosystem. Google Photos works great with Android phones (you probably have an Android). Maybe you'll buy a ChromeCast to view photos on your TV. They can upsell Google Drive so that you can store them at full quality.",
"Personally, I believe they are building a face database. A database of faces gathered using facial recognition algorithms/software. There could be hundreds of reasons why they would benefit from a database like this."
],
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} | train_eli5 | Why does google offer services such as Google Photos, how do they benefit from hosting my personal images online for free?
[deleted] | [
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ruwo4 | Anarchy | How would an anarchist society work ? Is it something possible in our modern eastern society context ? How would criminality be controlled ?
From my weak knowledge of the subject, an anarchic society would not have any defined law nor police force. How would rapes and murders be prevented ? I guess they can be punished, but not prevented. Would simple fear from punishment (physical punishments and tortures I presume) be enough ? No prisons ? As an anarchic society provides no help or "social security" to its members, how would the poor and the handicapped stay alive ? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"**TAKE THE COMMENT BELOW ME WITH A MAJOR PINCH OF SALT!**\n\nThere are many \"flavors\" of anarchism, some that look like Marx's idea of a stateless society where everyone shares (Anarco-Communism); some which believe in totally unrestrained free markets, probably the most literal interpretation of \"no government\" (Anarcho-capitalism); and some that believe in return to the \"noble savage\" idea of a society free of consumerism and technology (Anarcho-Primitivism). These are just a few. \n\nThe flavor of anarchism that I believe is most logical is Anarcho-Libertarianism. It believes not in a society that is free of government, but that is completely controlled from the bottom-up instead of top-down. This applies to communal control of factories, law, prison, welfare, police, and government. This seems kind of like an oxymoron, but anarcho-libertarians believe that **no government whatsoever** will merely lead to capitalist exploitation of workers and eventually warlordism and chaos. \n\nI AM NOT AN ANARCHIST AND I WILL TELL YOU WHY\n\nThere is a principle in sociology known as Dunbar's number. This number says that the amount of stable social relationships that you can maintain at one time is between 100-300. Beyond that number, people become abstract statistics and it becomes incredibly difficult to take these people into account when creating policies. This is why we see anarchism of all sorts working quite well in very small societies (Kibutz in Israel and the primitive tribes free of private property the we all evolved from). When we live in a system with more than Dunbar's #, we lose faith that people will put in their fair share for society and not abuse communal welfare systems; this cynicism makes anarchism impossible. \n\nRemember though, we have evolved over millions of years within groups of individuals no more than 50 people (hence Dubar's number); applying the natural ideas of generosity and empathy to people thousands of miles away that we never met will take a huge leap in human development, but a welcome leap nonetheless."
],
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} | {
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Anarchy
How would an anarchist society work ? Is it something possible in our modern eastern society context ? How would criminality be controlled ? From my weak knowledge of the subject, an anarchic society would not have any defined law nor police force. How would rapes and murders be prevented ? I guess they can be punished, but not prevented. Would simple fear from punishment (physical punishments and tortures I presume) be enough ? No prisons ? As an anarchic society provides no help or "social security" to its members, how would the poor and the handicapped stay alive ? | [
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zgq42 | (From my 6 year old Nephew) If mosquitoes suck blood out, why does your skin puff up? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"c64fd3x"
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"text": [
"Our body doesn't like mosquito spit - it thinks it's going to make us sick - so it sends things called *antibodies* in our blood to go fight it, and that makes that part of the skin swell up. ([More info](_URL_0_))\n\nEdit: [Here's another good answer](_URL_1_), which goes into why the bites itch, if your nephew gets curious about that."
],
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23
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito#Mosquito_bites_and_treatment",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/khqea/why_do_mosquito_bites_itch/c2kcdkq"
]
} | train_eli5 | (From my 6 year old Nephew) If mosquitoes suck blood out, why does your skin puff up?
| [
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6je693 | why is "colored people" offensive but "people of color" not? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Such terms start out innocuous, and over time, are turned into insulting language via the buildup of chosen usage. \n\nFor example, over time, the word may itself be used as an insult or it may be commonly bundled into racist, hateful speech. \n\nSo, then, over time, it becomes necessary to shake off the old word and adopt a new word that is fresh and doesn't contain the baggage... yet. As long as people contain hate for others, this cycle will continue. (this also happens with non racially charged words- many \"insults\" today were perfectly reasonable and mild descriptive terms originally) \n\nA non-race affiliated example is \"retarded\", which [started out as a medical descriptor](_URL_0_). Over time, as it was used as a wider insult and associated with negative stereotypes by unkind people, it has now *become* an offensive term to people who suffer mental or emotional disabilities- not because the medical definition is incorrect, but because the word has been changed over time by unkind usage. The word now has baggage. \n\nSide note: Regarding race related terms, it's helpful to know all this when interacting with older ones. Their usage of terms we now consider racially insensitive *may* indicate a racist or uncaring attitude.. or it *may* simply be a leftover habit from when the word was considered the most respectful and neutral term. It's likely that, as we age, we will also struggle to continue to adjust our language to the newest, \"fresh\" words- but it is always worth it to remain caring about the experience of others and to seek to avoid causing pain. \n\n-\n\nTl;dr: Over time, words pick up baggage, and eventually we have to set the word down when it becomes too heavy.\n\n-\n\nDisclaimer: I am not a professional linguist or sociologist or anyone in an official capacity on this topic. I'm simply sharing what I have gleaned about this topic over time and informal study/reading. Please, correct me if you have more accurate info/sources.",
"It's complicated.\n\nBut to reduce it down to the basics, the phrase \"colored people\" was one of the ones used during segregation in regards to which facilities were available depending on skin color. Repeating a phrase that was very heavily used in conjunction with segregation is an easy reason why it is considered offensive.\n\nYes, there is very little difference between saying \"colored people\" and \"people of color\", but that's the reason why one carries extra weight.\n\nPersonally, I, a black guy, think the terms are stupid. Last I checked, white was a color too.",
"The best explanation I received for the same question is that \"person of color\" emphasizes their personhood first, while \"colored person\" defines them primarily by their race.",
"It's the history of the terms.\n\n\"Colored people\" is a term used heavily in discrimination against Black people. \"People of color\" is a term created by people of color to join in solidarity across a number of movements against racism that targets people who are not white. The first refers primarily to Black people; the second to pretty much anyone who isn't white.",
"Whatevers most important comes first, usually. Which is more important, that they're *people*, or that they're not white? This works with other groups, too. For example: Disabled people vs people with disabilities."
],
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"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retard_(pejorative)"
]
} | train_eli5 | why is "colored people" offensive but "people of color" not?
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331w1z | How are microchips with millions or billions of transistors designed and validated? | How are microchips with millions or billions of transistors designed and validated, from the point of conception up to the point of creating the photomasks? Clearly there have to be some powerful tools and automation involved. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They are designed via VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration)... you might use a language like VHDL or Verilog to write down the large-scale architecture and the logic of each part of the chip, and that basically gets compiled into a map of the actual gates on a chip.\n\nOnce the chip is made, you can use the same Verilog (or whatever) files and a logic analyzer - basically a multi (8, 32, 64, 128) channel oscilloscope that can also think in terms of the various levels of abstraction, from electrical signals to 0's and 1's to protocols, etc - to put in signals and observe the outputs to see if they match what the Verilog logic intended.\n\nThey also build in self-test circuitry (like JTAG) to spy on things from the inside.\n\nHave you ever looked at a picture of a naked processor? You can see different sections, like watching farmland go by from an airplane window, it's almost like the physical chip is itself a block diagram of how it works. Those blocks are building blocks - math logic, cache, memory, busses, whatever - that are in turn made up of simpler building blocks, on and on... so they start with small parts that are known (or can be shown) to work, connect those into bigger structures and test those, connect the bigger structures and test those, on and on until the whole chip is done."
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} | train_eli5 | How are microchips with millions or billions of transistors designed and validated?
How are microchips with millions or billions of transistors designed and validated, from the point of conception up to the point of creating the photomasks? Clearly there have to be some powerful tools and automation involved. Thanks! | [
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4iixwv | How do electronics just 'die' all of a sudden or over a long period of time? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Some electronics wear during use. For example, electrolytic capacitors have a limited life span - usually far beyond the expected use, but a capacitor which has been used longer than expected or is faulty can burst, which can cause damage to electronics since they are filled with a conductive liquid.\n\nWhen the capacitors last, another potential weak point of electronics are the soldered connections between board and chips. Particularly CPUs require a ton of these contacts, some intel CPUs for example have more than 1000 of them on a tiny space. Since they get hot and have a rather high current flowing through them, they slowly degrade through an effect called \"[electromigration](_URL_0_)\", which thins them out more and more until they finally separate.\n\nJust like with the caps, this effect should only lead to losses long after the expected use time, but can lead to an early death if there was a fault. For example, a few years ago a line of NVidia notebook GPUs had a tendency to die off far too soon due to this, which ~~lead~~ led to a costly recall of MacBooks and other Notebooks.\n\nBut with good enough parts, electronics can last ages. I just fixed my grandma's amplifier, which had been running for almost 40 years now - all I needed to do was to remove some dust from the volume knob.",
"I worked for a circuit board manufacturer for a couple years and can think of a few reasons.\n\n1. As others have mentioned, **electrolytic capacitors** can wear out. They have an electrolytic acid in them that can break down and dry up. This would cause the capacitor to hold less of a charge, and the device to stop functioning. \n\n2. **Electro-static Discharge (ESD)**. A buildup of static electricity discharged through a device can cause it to stop working. Most electronics have shielding (metal case) around them now to prevent most ESD, but touching the connector or a poorly designed electronic can still cause ESD. \n\n3. **Mechanical failure**. Some devices, specifically ones with hard drives, have mechanical parts. Most mechanical parts will wear down after a while. When this happens to a hard drive, the drive can no longer be read. This would cause the device or computer to stop functioning the way it was intended. \n\n4. **Heat failure**. Many devices have parts that get very hot. The constant heating and cooling of a device can make parts expand and contract. Sometimes, after a while, a trace or solder joint can crack from this, causing failure. \n\n5. **Counterfeit parts**. Surprisingly, there are a large number of counterfeit electronic components in circulation. These counterfeit parts are often times relabeled genuine parts that have lower ratings. For example, if one part allows for 1 amp of current to flow through it and another allows 1.5 amps, but is more expensive, the counterfeiters might try to sell the 1 amp version as if it were the 1.5 amp version. A good quality control department can spot these, but sometimes they get through. \n\n6. **Cold solder joints/Quality Control Failure**. This would be a straight up quality control issue. If the components on a device are not properly soldered, they may work for a while, but fail when they are dropped or get hit. They may also fail due to heat failure. A good solder joint on every component is essential. A good quality control will spot a bad solder joint, but sometimes they get through. \n\n7. **Bad circuit design**. A poorly made product may function for a while, but fail due to many reasons. Maybe they didn't make a certain trace thick enough for the current it carries. Maybe they didn't design the product to be vibration-proof, even though it was intended to go in a vehicle. Maybe they ran the noisy motor power lines near the logic lines causing induction noise. A lot of poor circuit board designs could cause future issues, even if they work at the time of testing. \n\nThese are just a few of the reasons that an electronic device could fail after working for a while. I'm sure there are others out there as well. I've personally seen most of these failures happen, since I've had to fix most of them after they were returned to us. \n\nEDIT:\n\n* As many users have pointed out, **planned obsolescence** can be a factor. The manufacturers plan for their devices to fail after the warranty period, so the user will have to buy another. This is less commonly actually planned, and more often a bad design, but it can happen. \n\n* As /u/Jer_061 pointed out, **dirty power** from your house mains can be an issue. Brown-outs (too low voltage) and surges (too much voltage) can happen causing damage to your electronics. These are usually caused by storms, but can happen because of failure of power delivery equipment on the electric company's end. You can prevent these with a good quality surge protector or uninterruptable power supply (UPS). \n\n* A few users pointed out **tin whiskers**. This is a phenomenon where the tin in lead-free solder will grow metal crystals. This can cause shorts on the circuit boards.",
"The (by far) commonest reason for electronic to die is a faulty [Capacitor](_URL_1_).\n\nThese things have a specific lifetime, which strongly depends on temperature. \nInside these little \"caps\", chemical processes happen which are very similar to those in batteries. Actually, capacitors and batteries are very similar. But the capacitor is charging and discharging all the time, while in use, thus it will worn out faster. \nThe \"charging\" process generates heat, just as in batteries. \n\nAs warmer the cap get's, the more damage it takes from each unit of capacity running through. \n\nEventually, if the chemical structure got bad, they will blow while under load. When this happens, the device won't work anymore.\n\nUsually, these capacitors sit right aside to the power input or inside the power supply unit.\n\nCapacitors are very cheap and relatively simple to replace. Everyone with decent soldering skills can replace them in many devices, like TVs.\n\nCapacitors are the #1 topic in planned obsolescence. Allegedly producers intentionally use bad capacitors , even if they are more expensive than better ones, just so that the device will break soon after warranty is over.",
"What about corrosion from moisture? A friend moved from SoCal (dry) to Taiwan (humid) and they found many of their electronic things died much faster.\n\nSame with my hearing aids. It seems that storing them at night in a dehumidifier of sorts prolongs the time between service.",
"It's the straw that broke the camels back. \n\nIt's the thousands of improper lifts leading up to the one that throws out your back. \n\nIt's the last breath you take before leaving this world. \n\nIt's not that they just die, it's that they've been dying this whole time.",
"There are a few reasons.\n\n1. Electronic wear. Some parts will naturally wear out. For example, electrolytic capacitors when they age lose their dielectric effect, similarly mechanical parts that get a lot of use will wear out.\n\n2. Parts are just not made that well anymore! I have some electrical items that were manufactured in the 70s. They still work brilliantly. For example, a small clock radio that still works and goes off on time every time all the way to a Marshall Plexi half stack both made sometime in the 70s. While I've had to have the big caps replaced on it and the odd set of vacuum tubes, it still makes the right noises. Compare that to my HTC One which can't be more than five years old and it's showing definitive signs of death. I cracked open my old iPhone from way back when and frankly a lot of the parts are pretty poor quality. You can tell this thing was designed from the ground up to be disposable.\n\n3. Lead-free solder. In order to comply with RoHS regulations, any consumer device must be manufactured with lead-free solder. Why is that important? Lead has a higher melting point than the nickel alloys commonly used in solder used in manufacturing. While nickel alloys shouldn't melt on first use, for any equipment that undergoes extreme changes in heat during normal operation will mean that the solder itself undergoes a hysteresis cycle which, in layman's terms, means that the solder molecules can melt and set again instantly and cause stress and strain on the joint. This matters as less and less solder is being employed on circuitry which packs in more components and/or connections. This gives rise to chip creep by which a component can actually lose the bond between component and whatever it's connected to (usually a PCB). The only option here is to re-solder.\n\n4. In the realm of computer consoles, a lot of manufacturing techniques combine anti-piracy measures with built-in obsolescence. The Yellow light of Death and Red Rings of Death synonymous with the previous generations of consoles was largely down to a combination of these. First, again we have lead-free solder being used to attach these large components, together with the fact that a typical GPU or CPU will require a lot of connections. In order to beat piracy, most manufacturers opted to use a technique of \"balling\", which basically means the connections for these larger components are entirely underneath the chip as opposed to the legs coming out the side of the chip to attach to the board. Piracy is beaten here as there is no convenient way of exposing the signals coming into or going out of these components to find an exploit. The downside is that when these solder connections die, it's a far larger job to rectify.",
"I think its a lot less common, but I had a board in my BMW e39 go bad because of this:\n\n_URL_2_\n\nBasically, little whiskers of metal grow and can short the board. I don't think this is the most common way electronics go bad but it is more common around electronics that have high variations of temp and humidity.\n\n(I think it's also avoidable with good engineering, so it's basically a fuckup.)",
"I believe that heat damage is the primary cause. Transistors, integrated circuits, capacitors, and other parts just wear out after a while from heat expansion. Electricity causes heat buildup any time it passes through a conductive material, and then the heat drops after the current has passed. \n\nSo, the conductive material is constantly heating up, then cooling down causing expansion and contraction that eventually just wears out the material to the point that the part fails.\n\nI have replaced quite a few capacitors on computer motherboards and television main boards. When a capacitor wears it it will pop open the top and ozzes out. There is gas inside that causes this. I think it gets hot due to malfunction or bad design, and the gas squirts open the capacitor like a pimple. I remember reading somewhere that there was an entire decade where electronics makers bought shitty capacitors from Malaysia and Taiwan which lead to the early death of countless millions of various electronic devices. \n\nThere are other causes of failure as well, bad soldering jobs and poor solder quality leading to chips not making good contact with the main board, ect. The bad solder jobs is the cause of 99% of Xbox and PS failures. I have done about 200-300 reflow jobs. Reflowing is the process of applying heat to the Xbox or PS main processor until the solder turns back to a liquid and reforms. After it cools, the contacts of the chip are better connected to the mainboard or motherboard and the Red Ring of death is fixed.",
"Electronics is generally regarded as a semiconductor thing. So transistors and microchips. (which are just transistors shrunk down really small). (ok, capacitors too, which are the flakiest part of most circuits)\n\n There are lots of ways for individual transistors to fail, from overheating, solder flux creeping into the package, ambient conditions like steam or vibration, bad design of circuits leading to spikes of current or voltage above the component specification.and static electricity is infamous for destroying digital electronics because it degrades the semiconductor \"gates\".\n\nThing is, components can fail without any noticeable impact on equipment. Amplifiers may become noiser, PSU's may get more ripple, or sometimes a switch or Led no longer works. Ram can occasionally glitch and give data errors or freezing computers.\n\nNon digital equipment can be way out of spec and still be used daily. Old televisions with snowy pictures, that sort of thing. Unless something actually smokes, you may never realise a component has failed. \n\nComputer equipment is generally less likely to degrade gracefully (unless it is designed to do so) so if a transistor or microchip develops a fault, it may stop the processor or motherboard from working properly as soon as that happens. \n\nIn digital systems components can be drifting toward failure, but while they remain in the spec of the system, you won't notice, which is why one day it works, the next day it doesn't, without any sign beforehand. \n\nIn the surface mount components I used to work on, the pcb was virtually never faulty, 1 in 10,000 faults maybe. It seems to be more of a problem of quality control these days, or just massively increased complexity.",
"In my experience, most of the time it is a faulty capacitor. They aren't meant to last forever and are generally the first electrical components to fail in any system. If you ever take apart an electrical device that had stopped working, take a look at the capacitors and see if any of them are bulging at the top. 9 times out of 10 if you replace those the device will work again. Also, it usually is the capacitors closest to the inverter (big metal coil thing). Jut in the last month I've fixed a $400 audio interface and a $200 amplifier with just a $1 capacitor.",
"If you open up a machine, you will find that inside there are things called \"circuit boards\". On these circuit boards, there are things called \"chips.\" Each of these chips is carefully manufactured, and contains a certain amount of smoke. Once you let the smoke out of them, they're no good any more.\n\nSource: long-time electronics user.",
"a. Electronics are barely/\"just\" working at all to being with, so any tiny thing that goes wrong kills them dead.\n\nb. Some electronics do have partial failures. I had a cell phone that was perfectly functional except for the microphone.",
"I see a lot of great answers here, but the most simple answer would be \"Planned Obscolescence.\"",
"Thermal, chemical, and mechanical wear with heat typically being the #1 reason for failure.\n\n* Heat: causes parts to expand and contract as they heat and cool. This causes metal to weaken, creates small cracks, evaporates liquids and other things. Once a crack or similar issue becomes large enough, electrical connections can become short or open which often leads to catastrophic failure.\n\n* Chemical: Sulfur present in the atmosphere can react with the silver used in various components. This creates silver sulfide, which doesn't conduct electricity. Additionally, things like tin whiskers can short out connections. Basically, as electrical parts sit around in the atmosphere, the chemicals used within it react and eventually fail by either shorting with other connections or opening due to increased resistance. If you recall electrolysis form high school science, then you know that adding a current flow to metals can cause them to react more quickly with the environment.\n\n* Mechanical: Mainly applies to moving parts like fans or hard disks. Bearings can wear out (again, typically due to thermal stress). This will increase the clearance between parts, which can cause them to fail in various ways. For example, if bearings used on the read head of a drive wear, then the read head can wear and eventually contact the spinning platter, which is a catastrophic failure.\n\nGenerally speaking, heat is what kills electronics. When we test parts, we simulate long life in a short amount of time by increasing the heat and/or voltage beyond what it is rated for. Testing in this way and then de-rating it is how someone like a hard drive vendor can test a drive in just a few months, but still be sure they can hit their 3 year warranty (by increasing heat and voltage during testing).",
"Electronics are a bit fickle. Those little black boxes on a circuit board are pretty complex and if one little thing goes wrong the magic blue smoke will escape and your electronic device will no longer work. The \"magic blue smoke\" has many stories behind it and I first learned about it back in the 80's working for SCI and the Air Force. Normally, too much power will fry the circuits and when things go bad a little puff of blue smoke will come out of the chips on the board.\n\nPower is a big factor in electronics failing. Too much and the circuits can't handle it and goes poof, too little and it won't turn on. Think about your tv remote when didn't work, first check is the batteries. If you could put a bigger battery in your tv remote it wouldn't work because you'd fry the circuits. \n\nShort term, quick failures, are normally related to some form of power going awry. Long term failures are normally associated with basic wear and tear. \n\n@bmlbytes has a good group of technical reasons for your electronics that fail under other circumstances.",
"If you bend a piece of metal over and over, it eventually breaks off, right? That should be enough insight to a sudden failure. A power button failing after X many uses is just like the metal bending Y many times until failure. So there are pieces that are wearing, it just isn't some obvious physical wear, and often takes so long you perceive it as working perfectly and abruptly failing.\n\n Tons of electronics actually work intermittently and then fail, but often times a part that has partially failed will appear to completely fail because the entire system no longer functions properly due to that part operating out of range.",
"Having worked on all kinds of electronics, the biggest cause is heat failure. Components tend to be crammed into smaller and smaller space with less room for heat to escape and overtime, that heat damages the equipment. (The b8ggest culprits are electrolytic capacitors. The heat causes them to dry out/bulge and slowly they become inneffective. Since they are used to keep voltage at a constant level and smooth out ripples in current, as they dry out they slowly get worse,at doing their job..",
"Electromigration can cause open circuits. Electromigration happens when current flows primarily in one direction. Atoms in the conducting material (the wire, or printed circuit board trace) can shift in the direction of the current. Over a prolonged period of time, if enough atoms move, the wire or trace can separate, or become an open circuit. This isn't something that is likely to happen, though, as plenty other components in the system are likely to die beforehand.",
"My husband had a video card once that we named Lazarus. It would die bc of the soldering, so he would bake it in the oven on low for a little bit, and it would work again for a while. Did it 3 or 4 times before we had enough money for a new one.",
"To address the \"all of a sudden or over a long period of time\" part of the question, you're talking about \"The Bathtub Curve\" _URL_3_ which basically says that electrical components either fail immediately (due to a large flaw in the manufacturing process) or right about when they're supposed to and rarely in between.",
"I had a zune mini forever, great mp3 player. Additionally the games on the device were good and the fm radio worked excellent. One night i heard a loud pop, didn't think much of it. The next morning I see that my zune exploded, the battery pack expanded and blew open the device.",
"Cheap manufacturers will often coil wires around joints instead of soldering them. I noticed this in a best buy house-brand television that crapped out exactly one month after the warranty expired. Opened it up and found that a wire had oxidized away and had never been soldered. \n\nEasiest repair ever",
"hopefully someone can answer, but is it better to just leave my computer on for days at a time or shut it down after i use it? i've heard both but does anyone really know?",
"Simple TL:DR; Things get fragile over time, so do electronics and computerchips on a microscopic level. They just fall apart as time passes by due to temperature/movement and gravitation.",
"I have another question to add on to this. What does charging specifically do to our phones?",
"Is 'chip creep' still a thing? Where bonds break down and connections get weaker"
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} | train_eli5 | How do electronics just 'die' all of a sudden or over a long period of time?
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5nnm8x | The pros and cons of drinking coffee daily | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Pros: It is comforting, and energizing. Caffeine generally functions by inhibiting the enzyme that deactivates cyclic adenosine monophosphate, or cAMP, which is the second messenger in our cells that allow passage of 'adrenalin,' insulin, and glucagon (glucagon metabolizes glycogen in the liver for energy). And, it also metabolizes lipids for energy. This is why you may read that coffee has a thermogenic effect, and this is why.\n\nCons: Coffee is a diuretic, which I would imagine is caused by inhibiting the anti-diuretic hormone's release from the hypothalamus. Also, coffee can cause some form of dependency, and withdrawals. Besides that, and yellow teeth, there arent many more.\n\nI drink a lot of coffee."
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2zlu5r | Why do you sweat sometimes even if you feel really cold? | Was just walking outside and I was sweating a bit but I was freezing cold. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You sweat to release the heat building in your core. You feel cold because on the surface you are but inside your body is still heating up and needs to release that heat through your pores.",
"Okay, you know that 98.6 degrees (37 degrees C if you are not from the USA) body temperature thing? That number is really, really interesting for several reasons. One of the biggest is because proteins break down if it gets much hotter than that. It's part of the reason you run a fever when you get sick. Whatever you have that is making you sick isn't going to be able to tolerate that heat like you can. \n\nSo we run hot. Deliberately. Why? Well, in simplest terms most chemical reactions happen quicker if you add more heat. If you are waiting for two chemicals to bump into each other to create a reaction this will happen more often if you add more energy and the molecules are bouncing all over the place than if they are creeping along. Biology works under similar rules.\n\nWarm blooded animals basically have their metabolisms running full throttle all the time. Mammals and birds operate just slightly under the zone where your own body heat will start killing you. \n\nThe truth is that excess heat is a bigger problem for your body than too much cold. Yes, you get too cold and it will kill you. However, just the energy expended by moving around doing something moderately strenuous generates so much heat that it should kill you. Yet it doesn't because your body has some really, really clever ways of getting rid of all that excess heat before it does kill you. One of its more effective tools is by sweating.\n\nYou sweat every day. It doesn't matter if it is hot or cold. You are going to sweat. The more you move around the more you are going to do it. Really, really active people can actually sweat more than a less active person. Why? Because your body starts conditioning itself to recognize patterns. If it knows for a fact that once this guy starts going for a jog he isn't going to stop for another hour it figures it better get in ahead of the problem and start trying to get rid of heat first before it becomes a serious problem rather than reacting to it only after it is too late.\n\nSo, sweat is just one of several mechanisms to keep your own metabolic heat from killing you. It's actually a fairly effective one too. Yeah, it wastes a lot of water and you run the risk of dehydration if you don't stay on top of it, but it gives humans quite a bit of endurance.\n\nSo why sweat even when it is cold? Well, as someone else pointed out, what is going on with your core doesn't necessarily correspond with what your surface skin is experiencing. If you are moving you are going to be generating more heat. Even with the cold air surrounding you, you are probably going to start building up heat faster than you can radiate it off by the exposed parts of your skin. So, your body does its job to keep you alive and dumps more of the problematic heat using other means.",
"I believe there are also certain viruses/conditions that can play havoc with your bodies ability to regulate it's temperature properly. Hence why when you have Flu you can be freezing one minute and sweating the next or end up having a cold sweat.\n\nHopefully someone on here with a medical background will be able to explain why that happens."
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} | train_eli5 | Why do you sweat sometimes even if you feel really cold?
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682d3f | Why do humans have to go out of their way to take care of their teeth compared to animals in nature? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
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"We live much much longer. We can take care of our teeth through knowledge gained. Our primate ancestors did not constantly regrow teeth as other species do. We only get two sets of teeth. Elephants constantly regrow teeth. \n\nMy teeth are disappearing due to bone loss which is not a dietary issue.",
"Modern humans eat way more processed sugar than animals and that is one of the major causes of tooth decay. But, it's not like animals never have teeth problems. Elephants, which live approximately the same length as humans, also commonly have dental problems."
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} | train_eli5 | Why do humans have to go out of their way to take care of their teeth compared to animals in nature?
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2wr4i1 | how does a digital camera/phone know it's in focus? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Three main way: contrast detection, laser autofocus, and phase detection. \n \nContrast detection- the camera changes its focus until the object it thinks should be in focus has the greatest amount of contrast, where the biggest difference between black and white occur, this is where the object is its sharpest. \n \nLaser- works like sonar, it sends out infrared light. When the light goes back to the sensor, the camera figures out how far away the object is and sets the focus to that distance. \n \nPhase detection- the incoming light to the sensor is split up and compared, the camera changes its focus until the split images have the object that showed be in focus in focus."
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} | train_eli5 | how does a digital camera/phone know it's in focus?
| [
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4t0jfj | If a body is interred in concrete, will it mummify or decompose - will it leave a big hole where it was like a fossil? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"[This experiment](_URL_0_) suggests that partial mummification happens, but yes, bodies still decompose (more slowly) because of the bacteria within our body eating us once our immune system ceases function.",
"The water in the body will eventually be absorbed by the concrete, leaving a mostly empty hole. That's why when a worker falls into wet concrete and dies, their body has to be recovered before the concrete hardens or the section would have to be cut and re-poured. \n\n_URL_1_",
"Google \"Pompeii remains\" and look at the image results to see what it looks like. Thousands of people were instantly entombed by a pyroclastic flow -- a surge of volcanic rock dust that fully buried them in a concrete-like substance. Their bodies decomposed leaving gaps. \n\nLater, archaeologists took casts of the gaps which show exactly what they were wearing, their body position at death, and other details. \n\nWarning: the pictures of the casts are sad and sometimes disturbing."
],
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5,
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/seriouslyscience/2015/06/12/flashback-friday-what-happens-to-corpses-buried-in-cement/#.V4krtJMrJE4",
"http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/hoover.asp"
]
} | train_eli5 | If a body is interred in concrete, will it mummify or decompose - will it leave a big hole where it was like a fossil?
[removed] | [
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67c6yi | - Why do the sounds you make when trying to be quiet sound so much louder than when you aren't trying to be quiet? | Like when you come home late and aren't trying to wake everyone up...
Like when hunting or fishing... opening a coke, taking a piss or stepping on a dry leaf...
Taking a hearing test and all the sounds you aren't supposed to be paying attention to are so loud and effect your hearing of the tones... heartbeats, swallowing, button pushing... | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"Because generally it's very very quiet in a room when you're trying to be quiet, so even small sounds are much louder than the rest of the room.\n\nWhen you aren't trying to be quiet, you aren't really paying attention to how much noise you're making, so you don't notice, and generally the room you're in is already full of noise.\n\nTo test, have a drunk roommate come into the room at 3am in college. He isn't trying to be quiet, and he isn't noticing how loud he is, but holy crap is he making a lot of noise.",
"These quieter sounds are usually either drowned out by other, louder sounds or filtered out by your brain for not being loud enough to get your attention. Your brain does this so you're not constantly thinking things like \"what was that sound?\" to your own heartbeat.\n\nWhen you're trying to be quiet there usually aren't other loud noises to drown out all the quiet noises. You're also paying attention to quiet sounds to make sure you're not making any noise, so your brain stops filtering out quiet background noises it might usually ignore otherwise."
],
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2,
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} | {
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | - Why do the sounds you make when trying to be quiet sound so much louder than when you aren't trying to be quiet?
Like when you come home late and aren't trying to wake everyone up... Like when hunting or fishing... opening a coke, taking a piss or stepping on a dry leaf... Taking a hearing test and all the sounds you aren't supposed to be paying attention to are so loud and effect your hearing of the tones... heartbeats, swallowing, button pushing... | [
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2c0h96 | Why does adding an 's' to 'http://' suddenly make it more secure? | To access my work email that has private and secured information from home, 'http://' doesn't work because it isn't "secure." But if you change it to 'https://' it is suddenly secure? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Adding the 's' makes your browser connect to the server in a totally different way, verifying that they server is the one it says it is, and scrambling all information sent to or from the server.",
"Adding the s makes the connection secure. You are telling your browser that this is how you want to connect to their server.\n\nImagine you wanted to have a private conversation with your Spanish speaking friend in a room of Americans. HTTP is English, writing HTTPS is taking your friend to switch to Spanish so no one else can understand you.",
"HTTP is transmitted plain text, readable by anyone sniffing the traffic.\n\nHTTPS is encrypted. By adding that 's' you're telling your browser to use HTTPS instead of HTTP, so all communication is encrypted and secured."
],
"score": [
6,
4,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why does adding an 's' to 'http://' suddenly make it more secure?
To access my work email that has private and secured information from home, 'http://' doesn't work because it isn't "secure." But if you change it to 'https://' it is suddenly secure? | [
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4e4ig1 | Why is harder to breathe when my whole body except my head is underwater? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"When you breath, your lungs expand like a balloon in your chest. When your torso is submerged, there is a lot of water pressure pushing on your body (a lot more pressure than the air pressure you experience above-water), so it makes it much harder for the lungs to inflate.",
"The pressure of the water makes it harder to breathe. You are in more pressure in the water than it free air."
],
"score": [
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2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why is harder to breathe when my whole body except my head is underwater?
| [
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845c8j | Why Does String Cheese taste better when pulled apart, rather than when just biting into it? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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],
"text": [
"Likely more surface area. Reminds me of Kramer from the meat slicer episode of Seinfeld. 'the flavour has nowhere to hide'",
"Because when you pull it apart it has a chance to warm up. Cheeses taste better \"not cold\".\n\nTry this next time you want a piece of string cheese: take it out of your fridge and put it in your pocket for a couple minutes before you eat it.\n\nDon't forget the string cheese in your pocket. **Do not forget the string cheese in your pocket**.",
"The way that food comes into contact with your tongue can slightly alter your perception of its flavor.\n\nHappens with just about any food, really."
],
"score": [
23,
15,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why Does String Cheese taste better when pulled apart, rather than when just biting into it?
[removed] | [
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1ztd6k | Why do a majority of women have long hair, and men have short hair? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It used to be that men would cut their hair so it would not be a hindrance in battle, or while working jobs like blacksmithing (i.e., getting in their eyes, or getting pulled by their enemies). It became a cultural norm.",
"Cultural norms. No other reason. I would imagine it started with men working outside where long hair would make them hot and/or be dangerous around tools.",
"Traditional, someone outdated gender roles direct women towards more ornamental grooming and fashion, so they can attract men, and direct men towards more utilitarian grooming and fashion that won't interfere with any dangerous or dirty work they might have to do.",
"We can't have hair falling in our eyes during the hunt"
],
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why do a majority of women have long hair, and men have short hair?
| [
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4idz6t | Why do you still "see" a bright spot when you close your eyes after you have looked directly into the Sun or any other light source? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"There are several contributing factors, but mostly it's the effects of photobleaching.\n\nAnimals have several different types of receptor cells inside of their eyes. These all have different types of proteins sticking through their cell membranes which change shape if they get hit by the appropriate color photon. This makes them handle chemicals on the cell interior differently, which leads to stimulation of optic nerves and so forth.\n\nAnyways, once these proteins have been hit by light and change shape, they are \"bleached\" and must be reset. Most of these are probably reset by the same reaction that stimulates optic nerves. There is a limited amount of reactant inside the cell, and only one of many photo proteins need to be \"on\" to also activate the attached nerve fiber.\n\nToo much light for too long and the receptor cell can't reset those proteins as quickly as they get hit, and runs low on the chemicals it needs to do so. This results in a steady trickle of resets, which continually stimulate the nerve fiber. (So your brain keeps getting a light signal long after the light is gone)"
],
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3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why do you still "see" a bright spot when you close your eyes after you have looked directly into the Sun or any other light source?
[removed] | [
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3o6g1r | if genetic diversity is a requirement for the propagation of a species then how did organisms propagate back when life first started? | nuff said. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cvuhb50",
"cvuhi8m"
],
"text": [
"While generic variation is ideal for the long term continuation of a species, it is not 100% required. A lack of genetic variation would make it more likely that a single disaster or illness could wipe out the species, but the species would continue reproducing until then. Now onto the main question. Life began as single cells much like very primitive versions of modern bacteria. These cells could reproduce quickly, making clones of themselves. They did not have very sophisticated generic copying systems like modern cells so mutations were more common. Add to that the speed of reproduction and several thousand generations could be made with the possibility of significant mutations likely to occur. Then take into account what could happen when cells came into contact with other cells. They could trade genetic material or even firm symbiotic relationships with each other. Back then life was more of a luck of the draw kind of situation than it is now. Long story short, there was no shortage of genetic variance in the early stages of life on earth.",
"From a less complex, more finite bed of diversity, that grows in complexity over time, adapting to environmental challenges in a process known as evolution. \n\nAbiogenesis when early compounds form living things from no living things offers an explanation of life on earth and is not completely proven. A famous study on bio poises demonstrates some basic amino acid construction is possible from a primordial soup with a little electricity. Simulating the environment of early earth 3.8 to 4 billion years ago, lighting is the electrical source by the way. \n\nPlanetary seeding, a more practical solution still leaves the question of non living to living unanswered. It conceptualizes life, i.e. organic material most likely bacteria or extremophiles that hitched a ride to earth. \n\nCheck out trilobites there an early success story a little further up the chain. \n\nI think the deeper question is, is there ever a time where nothing exist? This maybe what you're asking. If that is the case you can't ever think of a time without life, without being the life (consciousness) making the observation. \nCause see you have been the source the whole time in a strange way. Being the one who occupies things calling them me. To ask the question where do \"I\" come from."
],
"score": [
3,
2
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | if genetic diversity is a requirement for the propagation of a species then how did organisms propagate back when life first started?
nuff said. | [
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55elth | Why are mercury compounds more dangerous than elemental mercury? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Many mercury compounds are more readily absorbed by the body. Even if you drink mercury metal, almost all of it will just pass through your digestive system. Inhaling elemental mercury vapor causes problems over time, though.\n\nOn the other hand, dimethyl mercury will readily pass through even the skin into the blood, and will stay in the body causing damage for a long time. It is one of the most dangerous chemicals to handle that are known."
],
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3
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why are mercury compounds more dangerous than elemental mercury?
| [
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4arzcu | What is planet X, and is it real? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"To add, the reasons for why there might be a Planet X aren't too different from the reasons we were fairly sure Pluto and it's moon Charon existed: an observation of odd behaviour of other planetary bodies (in those cases, the orbit of Neptune has anomalies that lead to discovering Pluto and the orbit of Pluto has anomalies that lead to discovering Charon). So, similar observations have lead to us knowing where to look for other planetary bodies, which means that there may in fact be a Planet X. We won't know for certain until we *see* it though.",
"Planet X is a hypothesized Neptune-like planet that is claimed to be orbiting the Sun in a really crazy orbit (takes about 20 000 years to complete an orbit). \n\nDoes it exist?\nWell, we can't say for sure. There is no real evidence to suggest that it definitely exists but it has been hypothesized and certainly is possible. So as it is right now, there is no reason to believe it exists, but there is a decent chance that it could."
],
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2
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} | {
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is planet X, and is it real?
[removed] | [
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4lugoi | If someone patents an "idea" which I later come up come up with, use, market, and sell that idea (with documentation) am I infringing? How? Why? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"You can't really patent an \"idea\" - patents are for actual *inventions*. A proper patent application requires a detailed description of *how* the invention works. You couldn't walk in and patent the idea of a \"flying machine\" - you actually have to design & detail how an aeroplane works. A patent only covers things done in the ways that are detailed in the patent application - an aeroplane patent wouldn't really cover a helicopter or a rocket.\n\nThe whole basis of the patent system is that it rewards inventors for telling everyone how their inventions work by giving them a temporary monopoly on the invention so that, in the future, society as a whole will benefit from their discoveries.\n\nUnfortunately, in recent years, there's been some funny business involving software patents & business models. Many people feel that this is an abuse of the system & should not be allowed."
],
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17
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | If someone patents an "idea" which I later come up come up with, use, market, and sell that idea (with documentation) am I infringing? How? Why?
[removed] | [
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tzlyq | Why does VLC work when DivX and QuickTime don't? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"VLC has a large number of codecs built-in to the program itself. It doesn't rely on your operating system being set up correctly. So, when a codec is missing or misregistered, other players simply fail but VLC uses its own internal copy of the codec.",
"Explaining this to a 5 year old: \n\nYou could maybe say that all videos have to be written in a specific language. DivX and QuickTime speak lots of languages, but sometimes they don't speak the language of a video you want to watch, so they can't play them. VLC speaks basically all the languages, just not always perfectly.\n\nThe more technical answer:\n\nOthers have basically covered it, but the answer is that VLC does not use the VFW / DirectShow / QuickTime frameworks, all of which are designed to be modular, and rely on third party codecs to be installed and configured properly in order to properly decode video for the aforementioned media players.\n\nVLC natively uses a library of codecs called libavcodec, which is also a part of ffmpeg/libav, and many other tools. The advantage here is that there are no outside dependencies. You can build a static version of VLC that can do its own decoding of almost anything.\n\nIt's not the perfect media player. I would argue that DirectShow based solutions (like Media Player Classic - Home Cinema augmented with MadVR) provide better image quality, especially if you're concerned with color accuracy and tearing / judder. \n\nNevertheless, VLC almost always just plays whatever you throw at it, and has a few uncommon features to boot - like Closed Caption decoding, which is handy for broadcast folks like me!"
],
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6,
2
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why does VLC work when DivX and QuickTime don't?
| [
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35j861 | How does someone escape from child pornography charges? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"If the police had a search warrant to go through his house and get his computers, then the most likely answer is that the search did not turn up enough evidence to satisfy the prosecutors that they would win at trial.\n\nProsecutors really don't like to lose, so they generally don't take on a losing case unless there's a lot of public pressure for them to do so."
],
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How does someone escape from child pornography charges?
| [
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73w0dk | Why do you need to pee after sex? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"dntjrfz",
"dntnvag"
],
"text": [
"Don't know for certain but I always assumed it was to clean out your urethra, all that thrusting probably jams bacteria up there you know? Can someone who actually knows a thing confirm?",
"Yes. It cleans out your urethra in case any bacteria got in there.",
"Agree with the people who say it cleans out the urethra."
],
"score": [
5,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why do you need to pee after sex?
[removed] | [
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2pvnu6 | Why do parents need to refer to their toddler's age in months instead of years? (Example: 18 months, 24 months etc.) | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"Because babies grow and change and learn stuff so quickly that years just aren't accurate enough. \n\nSource; I have a 13 month old son.",
"It's more useful to people to remember a toddler's age in months. I mean this in the sense that unlike say \"non-toddlers\" where our cognitive-social-psychological-biological development is more characterized in years of age e.g. puberty at 12-15; university at 18-21 years, the key developmental milestones in a toddler's life occur not in the order of years but in months e.g. walking, feeding, talking etc., and much of science and the free market has adjusted to labelling in months (think formula milk). As such, it's easier to be interested in and excited about discussions where the age of the toddler is known in months rather than years (\"Oh so he's like XX months old. Is he still on formula?\" versus \"Oh he's one. Um. That's young.\"), and if you're a doctor or any kind of psychologist you will find it more useful to track the toddler's age in months consequently as well.",
"I'll tell you one of the greatest moments in my life was when my 240 month old son could finally physically overpower me",
"That always bugged me, too. Once my babies turned one year, I referred to their ages in years. Older one is almost 3, younger one is almost 2..I once heard a mom refer to her child as 42 months and I just had to walk away from the ridiculousness",
"Because during their early life they would just be refered to as \"0 years old\", which is not useful for quickly identifying where they are/should be in development terms.",
"In the early stages, babies grow quickly and months are good milestones for development. Anything older than 24 months is pretty ridiculous though. My son is 3.",
"If you have a 12-month-old and a 20-month-old in the same room together, it's obvious that they're not \"the same age,\" even though they technically are--they're both one. But barring any developmental delays or other problems, the 20-month-old is as different from the 12-month-old in terms of independence and ability as a middle schooler is from a kindergartener. But once they get to being two years old, the differences aren't as stark from month to month.",
"I say that my daughter is a year old unless I am talking to another parent or to my pediatrician. Why make people do math? The months-as-age thing always annoyed me before I had a kid. \n\nI understand that developmental stuff is happening on a monthly basis, but non-parents usually don't know/don't care about all that. So using a month as an age when talking to a non-parent probably has no significance for them anyway as far as the milestones.",
"Basically because babies develop way quicker than older people do. There is a big difference between babies that just turned one and those who are nearly two. Saying you're baby is 1 is just too vague, hence we tell the age of a baby in months.",
"months are ok up to 18 months, but are ridiculous above 24, for example 36 month old is just crazy",
"Because the older they get, the less you care."
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} | train_eli5 | Why do parents need to refer to their toddler's age in months instead of years? (Example: 18 months, 24 months etc.)
| [
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3w8wwz | Why are taxi drivers so against Uber? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because Uber is an incredibly threatening competitor and it's seriously cutting in on cab drivers' business.\n\nIn general, Uber offers *far* cheaper rides in significantly nicer cars, with the benefit of an online platform that lets you pay, track nearby rides, and check driver reviews.\n\nFor example, in my city, I can hail an Uber to show up at my house in 5-10 minutes and take me to the airport for $9, while riding in a newer model car driven by someone with a personable disposition. *Or* I can call a cab, wait half an hour, and pay $22 for the same ride in a 1994 crown vic that reeks of whatever my super-disagreeable driver had for lunch every day for 30 years. (I'm not meaning to generalize. Cab drivers in my city are notoriously cantankerous.)\n\nNow, keep in mind that the cab drivers started in this business *years* ago, and likely had to take out a massive loan to pay for their medallion (or share of a medallion) and their car (or share of their car). A taxi medallion in a major city can very easily cost in the mid/high six-figures.",
"As far as I can tell it's direct competition and because of pre existing laws it could be viewed as unfair competition. In NYC for example a taxi is required to have a medallion and historically they have been quite expensive, up to a million dollars apiece. Whereas an Uber driver can more or less just sign up and start accepting fares. \n\nI'm sure there are a lot of other issues but that was off the top of my head."
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} | train_eli5 | Why are taxi drivers so against Uber?
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3azf9u | Drop Shipping. | This weird dude at work was talking to me about drop shipping and wasn't doing the best job at explaining it, but the concept itself seemed pretty interesting. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Let's say you have a business selling automotive parts online. In a normal business, you would order parts from a distributor, keep them in a warehouse, and when someone bought a part from you, you would ship it to them. But if you were drop shipping, you wouldn't have a warehouse. Instead when a customer places an order, you'd then call up the distributor, and pay them to ship the item directly to the customer.",
"A Manufacturer makes widgets. At a cost of $15 each including shipping costs, there is plenty of profit for them. But this Manufacturer doesn't want to deal with the general public.\n\nSo a customer pays me $20 for a widget. I pay $15 to the manufacturer who has the widget, and they send it to the customer.\n\nI get $5 profit, and I don't have to deal with inventory and extra shipping costs.",
"It lets you sell stuff you don't have without ever having to touch it.\n\nLet's say you're selling TVs. You can set up a website or an infomercial to sell the TVs. Once you have the money, you give it to the the TV company and they send the product directly to the customer.",
"I work for a pet food company. To us, drop shipping means instead of shipping to the customer,we set it to be held at the nearest warehouse and a local sales rep picks up the product, or the customer picks it up themselves. Not sure if that's what you meant.."
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} | train_eli5 | Drop Shipping.
This weird dude at work was talking to me about drop shipping and wasn't doing the best job at explaining it, but the concept itself seemed pretty interesting. | [
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331b1n | Why do power cord prongs have holes in them? | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Two main reasons: the outlets themselves contain a mechanism that grasps the plug by the prong holes, making it harder to remove (or accidentally fall out). Also, some manufacturers lockout their devices by putting plastic warning labels threaded through the prongs, in order to get your attention before you remove and use the device.\n\n_URL_0_"
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40696v | In Oman, why is using Skype against the law, the Facetime not? | My cousins live in Oman and have to use Facetime. I know Facetime uses end-to-end encryption and Skype doesn't, which is why I find it strange that Skype is illegal, not Facetime.
| explainlikeimfive | {
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"The reason it's banned has less to do with encryption and more to with Oman trying to protect local telcos by forcing voice calls to at least go through registered (and approved) channels. The concern is that VoIP would hurt telco profits. \n\nOman does seem spotty in which VoIP they block and which they don't, I'm not sure if Apple went through hoops to get Facetime approved, or if it being an integrated feature made it different somehow for compliance."
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} | train_eli5 | In Oman, why is using Skype against the law, the Facetime not?
My cousins live in Oman and have to use Facetime. I know Facetime uses end-to-end encryption and Skype doesn't, which is why I find it strange that Skype is illegal, not Facetime. | [
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21tbkp | Why things are louder when I wake up? | Ill have music on before I go to bed that seems be a perfect volume then I wake up and it appears to be turned up. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I'm just guessing here, but I like to think it's every animals instinct to be more sensitive to sound when being in a vulnerable state. We have this to sense possible danger or quickly perceive what's happening since we are suddenly analyzing are surroundings. \n\nThen again I'm just guessing. Some expert should give a better answer."
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Ill have music on before I go to bed that seems be a perfect volume then I wake up and it appears to be turned up. | [
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6beex1 | When we are hot and sweaty after a workout, we want to take a hot shower but want to drink cold liquids | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Why would you want to take a hot shower after you work out? Just to be even more hot? I've never heard of that. I've always wanted to take cold showers to cool off.",
"Simply put: your body needs repair.\n\nWhen you perform (inefficient) strenuous activities, your body needs to get energy to specific areas of your body faster than usual. To do that, your heart starts to pump faster and energy reserves are used to supply the demand. This actually 'damages' some cells. Also, the energy production also creates waste. Your body needs to get red of damage and waste, so it uses water to get it to your kidneys and liver. In the mean time, the body also needs to cool down to get back into the 'normal' state.\n\nSo you pant and sweat. Also, you start to dry out. Your body still has a basic need to replenish the LOST WATER, simply to function, so you need to drink. It doesn't matter whether the water is cold or not, as long as it takes care of the loss AND helps you cool down.\n\nPart of the repair (of damaged muscle tissue, damaged fat cells, etc.) consists of adding water and heat to the locations that need repair. That is how the mammalian body works. So after running, for instance, your legs may feel and are thicker, with tighter skin, and hotter than normal. When you warm this part up (HOT SHOWER, etc.) you stimulate the blood flow, helping the repair. When repairs are done AND the waste has been taken care of, you feel fine again.\n\nThere is also simple way that helps speed up the process: keep drinking. When you wait till after your workout to drink, your body hasn't had the opportunity to replenish. To get enough water, it has taken it from other organs, such as your guts, respiratory system, and your brain, resulting in cramps and headaches.\n\n[TL;DR] Your body needs water to function, extra if stressed. It doesn't need to be 'cold', just make sure you keep drinking.",
"I have never seen an actual scientist confirm with 100% certainty why we seem to prefer cold liquids, but it might be an evolution side effect. \n\nFor all of human evolution, running water from higher altitudes, tending to be colder, have been far safer to drink than still and stagnant water, tending to be warmer. Before artificial heating and cooling, cold water was clean, hot water often not. Cats, for example, often prefer running liquid to still, even to the point of only drinking from a mini fountain. Maybe something like that.\n\nAs for the often repeated myth that drinking cold water helps you lose weight because it needs energy to heat, see here: _URL_0_\n\nHalf a liter of 0-degree water requires 17 calories to raise to body temperature. That's about as many calories as 3 grams of chocolate or 2 grams of butter or oil. \n\nAnother effect is that cold reduces inflammation, and inflammation happens when the body is damaged, e.g. through exercise. So it also feels really good to take a cold shower. This shouldn't really apply to drinking water, as it becomes body temperature immediately and won't make your muscles colder, and we prefer cold water anyway. But could still maybe be felt positive even if it's applied the wrong place."
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5j36gn | What is happening when Sprayer bottles do that stupid thing where you squeeze the trigger and is just stays squeezed instead of releasing back into the squeezable position? | It irritates me to no end. | explainlikeimfive | {
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It irritates me to no end. | [
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1ddddx | Why are some people stupid? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I personally believe (and have no evidence to back it up, it's just my opinion) that everyone has the same relative amount of mental capacity but somewhere in our lives we subconsciously decide what we're going to use it on and then do so for the rest of our lives. \r\rThe main reason I have this theory is because I'm always amazed (less so since formulating this) at the kinds of things \"stupid\" people know, realize, or are aware of that completely escapes \"smart\" people. Some people give a lot of their mental prowess to simply maintaining what they believe is a proper method of living. They're referred to as stuck in their ways, and even though true, it is likely that few people in the world could detail the kinds of things they're \"stuck\" in. Others yet become fascinated with the stars and no matter how stressful, they determine themselves to learn all they can about the universe and are called nerds, and considered intellectual, yet things like the simplicity of picking up women or making friends escapes them. \r\rI try not to judge people because I have learned from experience that *everyone* has something they can teach me. The homeless man on the corner, and even former president George W. Bush have some knowledge that I don't. I was taught this very pointedly ten years ago when my autistic cousin showed me how to use something I was about to throw out because it seemed useless to me."
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2ckfet | How does _URL_0_ sell their items at such a low price? | I know there must be some catch, but I can't figure it out. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The catch is that you have to pay for each bid, whether or not you win the auction. If they get lots of people to bid, the fees add up to much more than the cost of the item, even if an individual person doesn't pay much.",
"Because Beezid charges you money to buy bids unlike ebay where you can bid for free.",
"There's been a ton if these web sites in the past 10 years, not many of them are still around. Seems like it's not a profitable operation."
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I know there must be some catch, but I can't figure it out. Thanks! | [
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5qjv1j | How do smartphones and computers keep time when they're turned off? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
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"*disclaimer, I did my A+ a long time ago and haven't worked much on PC hardware for about 10 years, but the answer is:\n\nThere is a CMOS battery and it powers a clock time in the motherboard even when the power is off. \n\n\n*edit here is a link to an article discussing the reason for the CMOS battery. _URL_0_"
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60svz7 | If a camera lens is a circle, then why is the picture a rectangle? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
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} | train_eli5 | If a camera lens is a circle, then why is the picture a rectangle?
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79fizb | In a reflective "corridor", why do the reflections get smaller? If they didn't get smaller, what would the reflections depict? | So if you face two mirrors at each other, you get an endless "corridor" of mirrors. Great. Why do the image reflections get smaller? And if we could cancel out whatever causes them to look smaller, what would the mirrors depict? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's difficult to wrap this in an ELI5 answer. Standard disclaimer applies, an ELI5 answer generally bends overall accuracy somewhat for the sake of simplicity but this should get the idea across. Anyway here goes...\n\n > So if you face two mirrors at each other, you get an endless \"corridor\" of mirrors. Great. Why do the image reflections get smaller? \n\nOk so the first thing to understand is that the repeated reflections you see in the mirror are not getting smaller and smaller.\n\nThey are getting further and further away. From light's perspective anyway.\n\nSo when you look at something that is close to you with your eyes, that object appears big. As it moves away from you, it gets smaller and smaller. The actual size of the object isn't changing, that always stays the same. It's your perception of it that changes.\n\nWhen you stand in front of a mirror, what you are seeing is the reflected light coming back at you from the surface of that mirror. This means that (Assuming you have a large enough mirror) if you placed a mirror 30 feet from you and stood in front of it, your seeing what you would look like if you where another person stood in your spot 60 feet away looking at yourself.\n\nBecause mirrors reflect the light in this way, light is actually travelling the distance between you and the mirror twice, and your seeing it's journey to the mirror and back again.\n\nSo if you stand 5 feet in front of a mirror, the light travels that 5 feet, hits the mirror, bounces back and travels another 5 feet back to your eyes. Ergo, you see yourself from about 10 feet away in the mirror.\n\nNow if we hold up another mirror in front of that first mirror, we create an infinite loop of this process. The light travels the 5 feet from you to the mirror, gets reflected back and comes back to your eyes. This first mirror appears to be 10 feet away. Of course the mirror your holding reflects that light back again and it travels another five feet to the mirror, get's reflected back and hits your eyes this time showing the second reflection of the mirror 20 feet away because the light has actually travelled 20 feet! This process keeps repeating and repeating, with each mirror's reflection appearing to be another 10 feet further away. And as we saw earlier, the further away something is, the smaller it appears.\n\nAnd just like if you placed a real object at 10 foot intervals, eventually it would get so far away it would become impossible to see. In the reflective tunnel scenario, this is also compounded by the fact a mirror does not reflect 100% of the light that hits it, some scatters so eventually it becomes hard to distinguish.\n\n > And if we could cancel out whatever causes them to look smaller, what would the mirrors depict?\n\nIf we cancelled out the fact light is being reflected and repeatedly travelling the distance between the mirror your looking at and the mirror your holding, you would in fact see no reflection at all. The mirror would not actually be a a mirror. It would be a spot devoid of all light.\n\nMirrors are mirrors because they reflect nearly all light, whereas most everyday objects reflect only a certain amount (Which is why some non mirror type objects have slightly reflective surfaces, e.g. silverware). Light reflecting off objects is how we see. A mirror lets us see ourselves because it reflects almost all the light that bounces off it."
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} | train_eli5 | In a reflective "corridor", why do the reflections get smaller? If they didn't get smaller, what would the reflections depict?
So if you face two mirrors at each other, you get an endless "corridor" of mirrors. Great. Why do the image reflections get smaller? And if we could cancel out whatever causes them to look smaller, what would the mirrors depict? | [
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l7rud | why my nose gets runny when it's cold | Bonus: why does it run when I cry, get allergies, or eat spicy things? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A runny nose from the cold weather, or from any cause other than allergies, falls under the blanket medical term \"vasomotor rhinitis.\" In the cold, a couple of different things are going on that lead to the runny nose. The nose is in charge of warming up air and adding moisture to it as it enters the body so that the airways and lungs don't dry out. It does this by releasing mucus. Mucus is mostly water, but it also contains some salts and proteins as well as some enzymes that help fight bacteria.\n\nCold air presents two problems for the nose: it obviously isn't warm and it also usually does not carry as much moisture as warm air. So, the nose works extra hard to release more mucus to fill up the nasal cavity so that air flowing into the lungs is both warm and moist. It does such a good job of this that we end up getting runny noses.\n\nThe second factor also deals with cold air not holding as much moisture as warm air. When we breathe out, the warm air from inside our bodies meets cold air at the entrance of our noses. As the warm air cools off as it meets the cool air, the moisture condenses and ends up leaving even more liquid at the entrances of our noses. This, combined with the extra mucus being made, makes our noses runny in the cold."
],
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} | train_eli5 | why my nose gets runny when it's cold
Bonus: why does it run when I cry, get allergies, or eat spicy things? | [
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7wvram | How does traffic work? | I just don't understand how "traffic" can occur, specifically where cars are at a standstill. It makes sense in an area where cars are having to stop at stop lights and stuff, but what about on highways and other roads that don't have mandatory stops? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Even without signals that stop traffic, there's a limit to how many cars can safely get through a stretch of highway at a given time. There's on/off ramps that don't have unlimited capacity, that *do* have traffic signals at the end of them. Sometimes punks just dart out into a lane and force the motorist behind them to brake. For a variety of reasons, cars have to stop or slow way down on highways sometimes.\n\nOnce that happens, the slow-down tends to propagate, because a group of cars don't stop and start simultaneously. If I'm behind you at a light, I don't start moving when you do: I start moving *after* you do. The guy behind me waits for me, and it goes on. So something can cause a car to nearly stop on the freeway, and even though that problem is long gone, the chain of cars having to stop for the one in front of them, and then wait to start again, continues down the freeway. This chain of slowing down only stops because motorists *should* be leaving enough room behind them so that if the car in front of them slows down, they have room to slow down a little less. Eventually the last person in the chain only has to slow down and re-accelerate a little, enough that the guy behind him doesn't need to at all.",
"Too many cars on a roadway mean people can't leave enough space between cars for proper response to braking or unexpected maneuvering. A person driving below the flow of traffic in any lane means everyone behind them has to either slow down or merge to another lane to pass them. Braking and merging mean other cars have to slow down, and if a car in front of you hits their brakes for 2 seconds, then to be safe, you have to hit your brakes for longer than 2 seconds to be sure that you don't run into them. So the person behind you has to hit their brakes longer than you did so they don't hit you, and that short quick gentile braking flows backwards through traffic, growing longer and more severe, and causes more and more people to brake or merge, which causes more braking, and eventually, everyone is stopped on the highway for absolutely no reason.",
"It’s called the Accordion Effect. If one car on a freeway has to tap his brakes it causes a series of people braking behind that person, as more people brake the average flow is affected and it all slows down. This keeps compounding until everyone on the freeway stops for seemingly no reason. \n\nHere’s a video demonstrating it\n\n_URL_0_",
"Accidents, roadwork, animals in the road\n\nBasically anything that shouldn't normally happen"
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
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} | train_eli5 | How does traffic work?
I just don't understand how "traffic" can occur, specifically where cars are at a standstill. It makes sense in an area where cars are having to stop at stop lights and stuff, but what about on highways and other roads that don't have mandatory stops? | [
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3vxz39 | How did toddlers get over ear infections before antibiotics? | My boy just got this second ear infection. I was doing some reading and 5 out of 6 toddlers ( < 2 years) get at least one ear infection. So something isn't making sense to me. Was there something back then that caused kids to have fewer, or something today causing kids to have more? If one isn't treated do they normally just go away, painfully, over weeks? Or maybe there were more deaf/hearing impaired people than I expect before amoxicillin? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Sad reality is, with any kind of infection, before antibiotics you'd probably just die, or in the case of your son, hopefully just lose hearing in that particular ear. It's as simple as that, really, which is why we experienced such a huge population growth since we came up with antibiotics.",
"Actually there is somewhat of a medical debate going on whether antibiotics should be routinely prescribed for ear infections, especially considering the increasing amount of antibiotic-resistance. Ear infections can quite frequently be caused by a virus, so antibiotics are not going to do shit in that case anyway (but still often get prescribed anyway, as it is hard to tell which is which). In certain countries, antibiotics do not get given out at the first sign of an ear infection, (mine is one) but only if a certain amount of time has passed / if the symptoms are really severe, and these countries haven't exactly got kids dropped dead in droves from ear infections. \n\nedit: and to have it from the CDC themselves: [Antibiotics are not recommended to help treat many ear infections.] (_URL_0_)",
"Also,breastfeeding into the toddler years cuts down on things like ear infections, colds and such.",
"Most ear infections will go away on their own. Very few people would get hearing damage, even thousands of years ago. The vast majority of ear infections are viral and are secondary infections from a cold or flu (both viral as well). Fluid buildup from the cold creates a breeding ground for more virus or any bacteria that may have been lurking. There are no absolute numbers but I have heard that virus account for 80%-99% of all ear infections. Viral infections are generally not as bad as bacterial infections and will cause no long term damage. Most will go away on their own in 4-12 days.\n\nSo why are antibiotics recommended for nearly every ear infection in the US? There are a couple of reasons. First, liability. If you bring your child to a doctor for an ear infection and they don't give you an antibiotic, guess who can get sued for malpractice if it does end up being a bad bacterial infection that damages their ears? Second, the general consensus used to be that low grade antibiotics were nearly harmless. This is now a controversial point as resistant bacteria are growing, but the practice is so wide spread that it has a life of its own. And in light of the first point, many doctors prefer to cover their bases. And third, because there actually is a risk of a bacterial infection, which have the capacity to be much worse.\n\nSo, ultimately, it is safer for the doctor to prescribe an antibiotic because there is a small chance it could get bad. Very small, but enough for them to want to cover their asses and yours.\n\ntl;dr: Most are viruses, the docs are protecting themselves from malpractice, and your child from very low chance terrible ear infection.\n\nEDIT: I am NOT a doctor, but I have twin toddlers who got them quite frequently. This is information I have gathered from the numerous doctors I have asked information from.",
"Whenever you hear about the average life span of a Roman citizen or a medieval serf or a Neandrethal being only 30 or 25 years, It takes into account that 1/3 to 1/2 of babies died before the reached maturity. After that, the average young adult normally lived into their 50's.",
"I kid you not, they used to use radiation. It's very likely what killed Roger Ebert so many decades later."
],
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/community/for-patients/common-illnesses/ear-infection.html"
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} | train_eli5 | How did toddlers get over ear infections before antibiotics?
My boy just got this second ear infection. I was doing some reading and 5 out of 6 toddlers ( < 2 years) get at least one ear infection. So something isn't making sense to me. Was there something back then that caused kids to have fewer, or something today causing kids to have more? If one isn't treated do they normally just go away, painfully, over weeks? Or maybe there were more deaf/hearing impaired people than I expect before amoxicillin? | [
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3vcin1 | Why is it safe to eat undercooked steak, but not undercooked chicken or fish? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
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"the thing with steak is that it's one solid chunk of meat, and as long as you sear the outside you've killed off the harmful stuff.\n\nwith chickens, there's much more processing, so higher risk of more bacteria. if the chicken was not exposed to bacteria you totally can eat it raw. same thing with fish. fish is probably the most commonly meat eaten raw.",
"Its safe to eat raw fish. Ive done it before a few times, in the form of sashimi. Its the safest of the three you mentioned actually.\n\nA steak is safe to eat because its unlikely the butcher pierced the intestines when it was being removed. Packaged (ground) beef you should not eat raw, while a steak is relatively safe.\n\nThe chicken is only especially dangerous when thawed out, since the water will often contain bacteria. The fish and beef don't go through this same process."
],
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} | {
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} | train_eli5 | Why is it safe to eat undercooked steak, but not undercooked chicken or fish?
[removed] | [
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1o6m9b | Ordering alcoholic beverages. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"This is more /r/answers-y. It's not something that needs a conceptual explanation, a good answer would just basically be a list of what drink names mean and stuff."
],
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} | {
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"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Ordering alcoholic beverages.
| [
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50glp7 | What's the point of 'C' and 'K'? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Most languages are not intelligently designed, but naturally grew out from older languages over time. Standardized spelling and grammar is pretty new, and it's quite extreme to start abolishing entire letters just because you think it's neater. For English, there is no single authority on proper spelling and grammar, while some languages have a government body for that purpose.\n\nIn short, letters don't have to have a purpose. I would say that it would make more sense to remove the letter C and use S and K instead, rather than abolishing K.",
"Was thinking about Kelvin and Celsius when I read the title, was ready to give a short lecture :)",
"Why do we have PH and F?\n\nSome languages pronounce C and K differently. Some don't use K at all. Since most words come from other languages, Greek, Latin, the spelling of that word was kept. \n\nDifferent pronunciation of C depends on the letter next to it,\n\neg. you couldn't make a rule for pronouncing C as K in the word \"kept\" because \"ce\" is pronounced like \"see\"."
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} | train_eli5 | What's the point of 'C' and 'K'?
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3muf91 | What makes the differences between cells in the human body, even though they have the same DNA but have different functions? | Its like comparing red blood cells and skin cells. Both have the same DNA but different functions, Im having a hard time with bio. Can anyone give me a SHORT AND SIMPLE EXPLAINATION. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The DNA is the blue print for making an entire functioning human. But just like blue prints for a massive building, each worker might only be working on a small part of the structure and so only used certain pages. Cells don't use ALL of the DNA ALL of the time to know how to work. They only use small parts of the total DNA. And they pick and choose which parts based on what type of cell they are and what their surroundings are like. \n\nSo, a brain cell only used the brain cell parts because its protein/RNA/hormones/external signals tells it to be a brain cell. Meanwhile, a blood cell have very different origins and very different signals telling it what to do."
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} | train_eli5 | What makes the differences between cells in the human body, even though they have the same DNA but have different functions?
Its like comparing red blood cells and skin cells. Both have the same DNA but different functions, Im having a hard time with bio. Can anyone give me a SHORT AND SIMPLE EXPLAINATION. | [
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2arww6 | Why can't I get to sleep if I'm tired and I want to? | I didn't get much sleep last night and I'm really tired so I just laid in bed for an hour with my eyes closed and still didn't get to sleep. If both my body and mind want to sleep then why am I still awake? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are different possible reasons. For one thing, there are different components to tiredness. There's what's called a circadian rhythm in your body, which alternates between tired and awake in roughly 24 hour cycles (though it can be shifted), and a thing called \"homeostatic sleep propensity\", basically a tiredness that increases the longer you stay awake. To make things more complicated, there's also an \"ultradian rhythm\" that influences your awakeness in roughly 90 minute cycles.\n\nOne reason sleep can get difficult is if these are all out of whack. You could be \"homeostatically tired\" but \"circadian awake\", or the other way around. This gives two different sensations of tiredness that *feel* like you should be able to fall asleep easily, but they work against easily falling asleep to some extent.\n\nThat's the physiological part. It's not impossible to overcome, by the way: you can learn to fall asleep even when your physiology is a bit confused.\n\nThe rest is best explained when looking at what's going on in your mind. I don't know what's happening for you specifically, but plenty of people who are having trouble falling asleep report that they find their minds full of thoughts jumping around and stuff like that, and basically they simply find it hard to let go of all of that and let the mind do whatever it does to fall asleep. A very effective solution is to sort of step back a bit from whatever is going on in your mind and body, and observe it without trying to change it. If a thought comes up, just notice that and observe what happens to it. If a feeling comes up, mentally acknowledge it and keep observing. This will seem unusual and unfamiliar at first, and at first it may seem completely impossible to spend more time observing than just letting yourself get dragged off by trains of thought, but sooner or later you'll start noticing that things change.\n\n(The same process can be used for many other things besides falling asleep, and it's much easier to practice it at times when you're *not* trying to achieve anything specific, e.g. when you're sitting somewhere not having anything else to do.)",
"you're worried about getting enough sleep. try and get to a point where you simply don't care about how much sleep you get and watch how quickly you fall asleep"
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} | train_eli5 | Why can't I get to sleep if I'm tired and I want to?
I didn't get much sleep last night and I'm really tired so I just laid in bed for an hour with my eyes closed and still didn't get to sleep. If both my body and mind want to sleep then why am I still awake? | [
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569jtp | Why is the word 'number' abbreviated 'No.' when there is no "o" in it? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It's the first and last letters in Latin \"numero\".\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_"
],
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} | {
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} | {
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} | {
"url": [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numero_sign",
"http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=No.&allowed_in_frame=0"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why is the word 'number' abbreviated 'No.' when there is no "o" in it?
[removed] | [
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31xbx4 | "It's in our nature to destroy ourselves." | explainlikeimfive | {
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"That quote is based on a Freudian concept. According to Freud, we are driven, at our very core, by two instincts: the life instinct (eros)--the need to live, create, procreate, experience pleasure etc; and the death instinct (thanatos)--the need to come to rest, to destroy, and to return to the state whence we came from.",
"It's in our nature to kill ourselves,\nIt's in our nature to kill each other \n \noh god why did that song come into my head :|"
],
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} | train_eli5 | "It's in our nature to destroy ourselves."
| [
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35m5kj | why can't we print/make more money to solve global problems? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Money is just an abstract representation of the overall \"value\" of the economy. Printing more money does not make the economy contain more \"value\" (i.e. the number of goods and services do not increase). Thus printing extra money just makes the money itself worth less.",
"Money represents value. If you just make more of it, an individual unit of money represents less value than it did before - you haven't solved anything. This is called inflation, and a certain, low, managed level of it is generally desirable, because if people's money slowly becomes worth less and less, that's an incentive for them to spend or invest it as opposed to sitting on it. But if you're \"printing money to solve problems\", that creates a problem of its own, namely, hyperinflation - any money people had before (ie, entire life savings) becomes worthless.",
"In really simple terms, the more of something there is, the less valuable it is, so the more money you print, the less valuable the rest of it is.\n\nIn fact, a very similar problem bankrupted Germany after the war, and Zimbabwe.\n\nI have a 1 trillion dollar zimbabwe note, it is worth nothing, literally.",
"Because the more of something there is available the less it's worth. This applies to money as well. It's like basic sixth grade economics. I don't mean to be insulting, it's just that the autobot on this sub would delete my answer if it was clear and concise. Also this question has been asked before.",
"The more money in circulation, the lower the value becomes. If I own a company that the government is going to give tons of newly-printed money to, I'm going to say, \"Uh, no, you're not pulling a fast one on me. The price is going up.\"",
"[This is a very commonly asked question](_URL_0_), so it has been removed. \n\nIt's fine to re-post questions, but please indicate that you did a search and that previous questions/answers didn't help you understand."
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"url": [
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} | train_eli5 | why can't we print/make more money to solve global problems?
| [
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2c3yry | What is that "light" left in our vision after something like a camera flash? | I've always wondered about this. Not just camera flash either. Things like the sun, a flashlight, whatever. | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Your eyes got a bit over-stimulated and it takes time to adjust the eyes back.\n\nIf you go out and it's quite bright your pupils get smaller so that less light gets in, and vice versa. The idea is to try and get the best amount of light through to the actual sensors in the back.",
"Light causes chemical changes on the retina in the light sensitive cells. When the light goes away, the changes are still there for a few moments and those chemicals continue to send signals to the brain. Your pupils dilate relatively quickly in comparison."
],
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"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is that "light" left in our vision after something like a camera flash?
I've always wondered about this. Not just camera flash either. Things like the sun, a flashlight, whatever. | [
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23yir1 | What exactly are stomach bugs / viruses and how do they spread? | They seem to come in big waves - a bunch of people get them ( seemingly unconnected people ) and then it dissipates. What are they and how do they spread ? | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Stomach flu or stomach bugs are neither flu nor bugs. But, the typical symptoms you get - nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc - are caused by a viral infection. Sometimes, it can be bacterial, but those are typically less communicable between people. So, let's stick with viruses.\n\nThere are a wide array of viruses that can cause these symptoms. A classic on is a group called Noroviruses. These often cause outbreaks on cruise ships and schools or other places where people are in close contact. There are others, of course.\n\nI hate to tell you this, but these viruses are transmuted via the \"fecal-oral\" route. Meaning that a person who is sick will shed virus in their feces. They can get small particles of this on their hands, which can then be transmitted to you by them touching you, your food, or other things that you touch. You then transfer this to your mouth and the virus infects you. This is why it is SO important to thoroughly wash your hands often, avoid touching your mouth and face, etc. You should also note that most of these viruses are not killed by hand sanitizer (though many, many other viruses are)."
],
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2
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} | {
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} | {
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} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What exactly are stomach bugs / viruses and how do they spread?
They seem to come in big waves - a bunch of people get them ( seemingly unconnected people ) and then it dissipates. What are they and how do they spread ? | [
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2ztlqz | What is the difference between .jpg and .jpeg files | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"The reason for the different file extensions dates back to the early versions of Windows. The original file extension for the Joint Photographic Expert Group File Format was ‘.jpeg’; however in Windows all files required a three letter file extension. So, the file extension was shortened to ‘.jpg’. However, Macintosh was not limited to three letter file extensions, so Mac users used ‘.jpeg’. Eventually, with upgrades Windows also began to accept ‘.jpeg’. However, many users were already used to ‘.jpg’, so both the three letter file extension and the four letter extension began to be commonly used, and still is",
"I'd like to add to this that file extensions *really don't matter*. Well, they're useful and convenient as a shortcut for you (and your operating systems and some programs) to determine the file type without actually looking at the data. \n\n**ELI15:**\n\n\nThere is a UNIX utility program called \"file\" which will tell you the file type of (most) files - it doesn't care about the extension. For example, of I go:\n\n % file picture.jpg \n picture.jpg: JPEG image data, EXIF standard\n\nBut if I rename it to, say, a PDF: \n\n % mv picture.jpg document.pdf\n\nAnd ask it the file type, it will still know it's a JPEG:\n\n % file document.pdf\n document.pdf: JPEG image data, EXIF standard\n\nWe use extensions in order to be efficient. First, we want to be able to tell, at a glance, what kind of file we're working with. So you and I know that .jpg is a picture, .pdf is a, well, a PDF, and .docx is a Word document. \n\nIt's also much more efficient for the operating system to \"know\" the file type without having to check the data for each and every file, so when you double-click on a .html file it'll just try and send it to your default browser rather than opening it up itself to check if it is, actually, an HTML file.\n\nBut it *does* get a teeeny bit more complicated. Lets take that .docx example from above, which we all know is a Microsoft Word document. If I ask my \"file\" program what it is, it says...\n\n % file document.docx\n document.docx: Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract\n\nIt thinks it's a ZIP file... which, surprisingly, is not wrong! MS Word's docx files *are* actually a ZIP file! \n\nSo that's one case where the file extension *is* actually vital - it tells the OS to open that file with Word rather than treating it like a ZIP file.",
"Nothing, it's just a different extension. You could change a file from .jpg to .jpeg and it'll be the exact same."
],
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54,
12,
9
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} | {
"url": []
} | {
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} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is the difference between .jpg and .jpeg files
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