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eli5_category

like 9

{ "a_id": [ "dc5bdz6", "dc5e3y1" ], "text": [ "The light emitted from the moon reflects off the snow instead of being absorbed by less reflective colors.", "Snow has some of the highest albedo (reflection coefficient) of all materials. A higher albedo means more light is reflected than absorbed. Worn asphalt averages around .12; fresh snow hits .8 to .9. Under a blanket of fresh snow, a moonlit night is quite bright compared to a clear summer day." ], "score": [ 18, 5 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5cye7", "dc5d949", "dc5gx8g", "dc5m422", "dc5u1u8", "dc5wmyt", "dc5lgmm", "dc5c7r2", "dc5rip7", "dc5powl", "dc5qbo1", "dc5lpjr", "dc5l484", "dc5o1cy", "dc5ontt" ], "text": [ "Back in the day--maybe pre-1990s?--year-round fresh (not frozen, not concentrate) OJ was not as common and was more expensive. Then, some great new process was devised and it became more common and cheaper. With the new process, it's squeezed, then stored in vats for months at a time. This process caused it to lose flavor. So flavor is added before it is sold. Different brands have slightly different flavor processes so taste different. And these have a different flavor and consistency than genuine fresh-squeezed OJ. Go get some genuine fresh squeezed from Whole Foods or similar and you'll taste the difference.", "OJ is deoxygenated to prevent spoilage. That causes flavor loss. Companies create ^artificial natural flavor packs from \"Orange essence and oils\" to reflavor the OJ. Every company uses different blends. [source]( URL_1 ) Edit: also... URL_0", "\"Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh.\" URL_0", "There are dozens of types of oranges: navels, tangelos, tangerines, temples, mercots, hamlins, valencias, parson brown, etc. Just like apples, every different type of orange looks and tastes a bit different. Some are better for eating fresh and some are better for juice. Some are very popular, some are not as popular, and some are cheap since there is a huge supply and some are expensive. Some are grown in Florida, some in California, and some in Brazil. So every manufacturer sources their oranges from a different place and of course that makes them taste a bit different. And as other posters mentioned, December is the main time for oranges to be harvested, with some a bit before that to a bit after that. Freezes can damage or reduce the crop forcing juice manufacturers to change the mix of oranges they use. Since we need orange juice year round, some manufactures put the juice in giant oxygen-free holding tanks at 33 degrees and keep it there for up to six months. This damages the taste so they add in \"flavor packs\" which are also made from orange oils (which I think is somehow distilled out of the orange peels, but I'm not really sure). So you can see, there are hundreds of variables which go into how orange juice tastes, and the big companies spend tons of money making sure that their juice tastes the same no matter what time of year it is, or what materials they have to make it with.", "[Simply Orange is anything but that, it's a Frankenstein's monster of orange juice.]( URL_0 )", "My wife worked at the Tropicana factory in Los Angeles. The stuff that went in the bottles for the expensive naked juice brand was the same as the stuff out in the cheap Tropicana bottles. Same shit, marketed to two different people at two price points", "One of the reasons that you get different flavors is time spent in processing and travel. But the biggest determiner of flavor is the orange it self. Both Tropicana and Simply Orange use oranges from Florida but they also use fruit from South America because it's cheaper. Florida's Natural however, only uses fruit from local growers and imho tastes much better! Source: my family owns an orange grove that sells its oranges to Florida's Natural and my grandfather was the president of the citrus growers association for years and years.", "Orange juice from a supermarket typically has been processed a great deal. It may have been heat treated to kill germs. It may have been stored for months. It may have been concentrated and then restored. It may have been frozen and then thawed. It may have extra orange flavor added (extract from additional oranges) to intensify the flavor.", "Because *[neither]( URL_0 )* is actually orange juice.", "The sugar content and taste of an orange varies depending on where it's produced. When Simply Orange was introduced Minute Maid chose to use a blend of oranges from different sources, with different sugar contents and tastes, in order to produce a product that both tastes like what they want and has a very consistent taste across different batches. Tropicana uses different rules for determining what goes into each batch, which results in both a different and less consistent taste. Source: My father, retired, worked for Minute Maid at a factory which produced Simply Orange.", "Basically there are a lot of ingredients that companies don't have to list, such as flavors packs. Tropicana is orange flavored orange juice.", "As already mentioned they probably have different \"Extras\" in them, but even if you would have 2 Bottles of 100% freshly pressed Juice they could taste different because some Oranges are sweeter and some are more Sour usw. If we would make everything with our own Hands the most things would taste slighty different each time we make them .", "This is just another reason you should eat fruit instead of juice. Have a fresh, delicious orange 🍊", "Because they mislead you. 100% pure orange juice (from concentrate). This is why there is no pulp. It is a bit like instant soup. They make it. Cook and dry it into a powder (concentrate) and then add water back i to it when they bottle it for sale. If you want real fruit juice your best bet is making ir yourself. You can always check the ingredients. It is the only plac they are not allowed to lie.", "Yep, OJ is fucked up. Also when you see low calorie /low sugar juice it means they add water and dilute the juice. So you just bought diluted juice, when you could dilute it for yourself. When you see \"juice\" labeled as juice drinks, juice cocktails, etc are not 100% fruit juice." ], "score": [ 833, 323, 73, 38, 35, 24, 10, 8, 7, 7, 6, 6, 4, 4, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [ "https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/2684u1/ysk_that_the_use_of_flavor_packets_in_orange/", "http://gizmodo.com/5825909/orange-juice-is-artificially-flavored-to-taste-like-oranges" ], [ "https://consumerist.com/2011/07/29/oj-flavor-packs/" ], [], [ "http://chicagoist.com/2013/02/10/simply_orange_is_anything_but.php" ], [], [], [], [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuYPdTvqitg&ab_channel=truTV" ], [], [], [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5g44d", "dc5kn5r", "dc5mflx", "dc5k8js", "dc5qbxw" ], "text": [ "The green is the colour of the solder mask, which is a layer on top of the yellowish fiberglass base and the copper traces. Green is a nice contrasting colour with the traditional white of the silkscreen, which makes text easy to read. Solder mask without many or any pigments added will look a little greenish because of the fiberglass beneath it, it's cheapest to not add any pigments. Other colours are used only for aesthetics.", "This [stack exchange]( URL_0 ) question has a couple posts which try to dig into the question of \"Why did green become the standard color?\" **trav1s** dug into the original patent and found that they did list 3g of dye in the recipe, however they don't specify an particular dye as required. **Tut** found an article that suggests that the original combination of resin and hardener formed a unpleasant brown color, and adding yellow and blue to this formed an acceptable green color.", "Work at a defense company -- for production we typically use green but I've seen various colors on custom designed boards. Also for internal projects (not allowed for sale) we use red boards to prevent any mix-ups in testing and quality sign off.", "Green is just classic solder mask, any other colours are usually a premium and don't add anything.", "The colored part you see is the \"soldermask\" and no, it usually does not matter what color it is. Sometimes you might want it to be a certain color to easily distinguish it from other boards. A company I worked at made boards with controlled impedance and we decided that green would be 100 ohms, blue was 75 ohms, etc just to make it really easy. We also had some products that had two boards (a top and a bottom) so for a product like this the top board might be red and the bottom might be blue just to make it easier on the assembly line to tell a worker that red goes on top and blue goes on bottom. This made life easier for us." ], "score": [ 173, 28, 21, 10, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [ "http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/82669/why-are-circuitboards-traditionally-green" ], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5fb6l" ], "text": [ "Government debt is complicated, but I'll try my best to ELY5. When the US government spends more than it takes in, it issues treasury bonds to help cover the cost. Anybody can buy these bonds. Citizens, banks, foreign governments, even the US government (more on this later)! The bond basically says \"I promise to pay 30 dollars to whomever holds ownership of this bond, on January 1st 2047.\" Now an investor might buy that bond today for $25. After 30 years, she can redeem it for the full (par) value. But maybe she doesn't want to hold onto it for the full time. She can sell that bond to another investor in the secondary market. As the bond gets closer to its maturity date, it becomes more valuable. So after holding the bond for a few years, she sells it for $26. Profit! So who owns these bonds? Anybody. Everybody. Doesn't matter. They are flying around in the secondary market, being bought and sold like crazy. Investors prefer US treasury bonds because they are a super-safe investment to stash money in while they search for other investments. \"But,\" I can hear you say \"isn't it bad to get yourself further and further in debt? Won't your debt payments eventually overwhelm your finances?\" Well, sort of. When the government runs a deficit, it justifies it with economic growth. As the economy grows, more taxes are collected. More taxes means more revenue for the government and thus it can support a larger debt burden. On a personal note, I think that congress has been irresponsible about running too large a deficit, but there isn't much political will to balance the budget. So how do we tell if we have too much debt? The most common answer is to examine the debt-to-gdp ratio. As long as our economy grows faster than our debt, we're winning. This might be the end of our story except there's a complication: The Fed. The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the US. They control (among other things) how much money goes into the US economy. As the economy grows, you need more money to facilitate the increased trade. So the Fed \"creates\" new money to flow into the economy. The way the Fed accomplishes this is by buying Treasury bonds on the secondary market (they are prohibited by law from buying directly from the treasury). The Fed creates \"new\" money and then uses it to buy treasury bonds. So let's suppose the Fed bought our investor's bonds for $26. What do they do with this thing when it matures? It's not like the Fed needs the money (they can magically create as much as they need). So instead, the Fed simply hands the payment right back to the treasury. This is why they say the government owes money to itself. So instead of looking exclusively at total government debt, it's better to look at \"debt held by the public\" to get a better sense of the size of the problem. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions." ], "score": [ 19 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5fy6k", "dc5ivba", "dc5klyv", "dc5ugsb", "dc5l91o", "dc5t5ue", "dc5vr90", "dc63lws", "dc5v9lc", "dc5twrq", "dc5u82n", "dc5u7fj", "dc68sg2", "dc5om7x", "dc5ytj3", "dc68ymi", "dc5uvqf" ], "text": [ "There is a tube that connects your throat to your middle ear called a eustachian tube. This tube is squeezed together the majority of the time but when you chew, yawn, swallow, etc. it opens in order to equalize the pressure in your ear with the surrounding air pressure. This is why chewing gum on an airplane helps to make your ears feel better and avoid the painful negative or positive pressure build up. You might have some excess mucus built up within the tube, some inflammation, or a normal anatomical variant that may be contributing to the sound you are hearing. Many people experience this popping or clicking sound around the time they are sick.", "Ok, stupid question, but is this normal? I was told most people don't have that - I can just flex my jaw muscles and pop them. Someone told me that was unusual.", "This happens every time I swallow. Not just if I'm sick. For as long as I can remember. Is this normal?", "People seem not to know this but *other* people can hear the clicking too if they put their ear to yours.", "Is this not a normal thing that happens to everyone?", "I'm not aware of a clicking sound when I swallow. Is OP experiencing something unusual, am I misunderstanding the question, or am I missing some click in my mouth?", "Follow up question, why can I voluntarily click/crackles the inside of my ears ? Always wondered if others could do that.", "I have had this all my life from having had frequent ENT infections when I was a child. I can get temporary relief by getting them to drain sometimes. I open my throat up as if to start a yawn deep down, and keep it open as I take multiple slow deep breaths. I open my jaw up and move it forward, and tilt my head back about 45 degrees and keep it tilted. After the first breath or two I keep my deeper throat as open as possible and close my mouth, breathing slowly in and out of my nose. It's okay to breathe through the mouth now and then too. I feel like I'm making progress when the vibrating of my breathing jumps into my ears as well. At some point at the end of an exhale I'll make a sharp inhaling breath through my nose which makes my ears feel really clogged up. (I don't recommend doing this if you have a head cold.) I leave my ears like that for a few seconds then make a full yawn with my throat as open as i can, and my head still tilted back, which makes my ears pop really good. As well flexing my jaw wide open and forward while deeply yawning can sometimes help with the drainage. Other things I've tried sometimes is the yawning technique, then closing the nose while (not forcefully) trying to breathe out, which forces air out through the ears (but this seems to keep the fluid in place I guess); and pulling on my ear away from my head to flex the ear canal while I work my jaw open and shut, keeping it jutting out. If your nose or throat feels like it's about to get runny or ticklish then you are definitely getting stuff moving around in there.", "Who else swallowed their saliva to hear this clicking sound?", "Reading the word yawn made me yawn, what's up with that?", "OMG?! OTHER PPL ACTUALLY EXPERIENCE THIS? I thought it was just me", "My 'popping' has been with me for years, is it normal? I have went to an ENT before but the specialist just briefly mentioned that there's something wrong with my eutaschian tube, possibly ETD, and there isn't anything much I can do besides living with it. It's an annoyance sometimes when it 'pops' while i talk/swallow/chill or yawn.", "Heh. I've always been able to \"click\" my ears whenever i want to. Dunno how i do it i just can. But now I know what it does lol.", "Have we come up with a solution? I went to a specialist before about this, had a CAT scan done and everything. In the finish he just asked me if I could live with it.", "Does anyone else here who can do this also get the dizzies from elevators?", "Follow up question: Why can I make the clicking sounds in my ears on command without moving any part of my jaw/swallowing. But by just doing it?", "My clicked only started happening after I went SCUBA diving 25ft down and was never able to fully equalize the pressure in my ears. Now when I swallow I hear two to three distinct pops in quick succession." ], "score": [ 1266, 144, 42, 27, 16, 12, 9, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5j734" ], "text": [ "Additionally, bread doesn't have a lot of mass compared to its size. It is more like a sponge when you look at its structure. So when you compare its size and weight to \"non-hollow\" food, you need little energy to heat it up." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5gzw6", "dc5h3ev" ], "text": [ "The simple answer is that AM/FM is an analog signal, which you can \"kind of\" pick up. Think of analog as a scale of 100-0 with the quality increasing or decreasing as you move from the transmitter. Satellite radio is a digital signal. Think 1 or 0. It's either there, or it's not. The same holds true for satellite TV, where in a severe storm your picture will be perfect right up until it cuts out into nothingness.", "This is one of the major advantages of digital broadcasts over analogue. When your analogue AM/FM radio signal is weak you start to hear background noise and interference because it becomes difficult for your receiver to distinguish between signal and noise. Even on modern analogue devices, the internal filtering can't tell if the crackling static is part of the real signal or not when it's weak. Digital is either received or it isn't. If the digital signal is weak then the receiver just doesn't give you noise since it has nothing to decode. Whereas analogue actually transmits something directly related to the audio you hear, digital is just 1s and 0s. Noise and interference just make it hard to tell what's being received - they don't change 1s to 0s or 0s to 1s. Noise on analogue still turns into noise which you can hear." ], "score": [ 21, 4 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5hbgi", "dc5iszo", "dc5ikz3", "dc5i0sp" ], "text": [ "They are often a monopoly and have really bad customer support. So their prices are too high for what you get and when there is a problem with their equipment it's hard to get them to fix it. Basically have to take a whole day off work. They also lobby to keep competitors out, are against net neutrality and enforce data transfer caps which are artificial and against FCC rules. Basically they are bullies who provide poor service but stay successful due to being a monopoly and working the political system", "Comcast and other ISPs in the USA (and a similar situation with other ISPs in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc) are **geographic monopolies or duopolies** in most cases. Meaning, in any given area, there's only 1 or 2 ISPs you can choose from. This effectively reduces competition to near-zero, especially as these same ISPs have made agreements not to compete in the first place. You'd think \"but why don't other ISPs compete with them?\", well, that's because they can't. The big ones either made it locally forbidden to do so, or do everything in their power to either destroy the ISP with legal fees from lawsuits or in the worst case, buy them up and remove any chance for competition. That's one aspect why they're hated. Second is their **horrible consumer service**. That's where Comcast takes the cake. It's as if they train their employees to be the worst kind of people possible, right below the ones that actually murder others. But Comcast would, if they could get away with it. Then there's the **net neutrality** thing. ISPs don't like net neutrality because it forces them to compete on their own qualities instead of by setting completely arbitrary restrictions on products and services of others around the world outside of their control, destroying the free market on the Internet. It requires them to treat everyone fairly. They don't like that, it makes them less money. Speaking of completely arbitrary restrictions: **data caps**. They're a cancer on mobile connections already because the layman is stupid enough to fall for the propaganda (e.g. \"limited spectrum\" or some other bullshit, not knowing shit about the physics behind that limiting only bandwidth and not data). But ISPs in the US take it even further by also restricting cabled connections, and instead of offering normal connections limited only in bandwidth, they double-dip and also limit how much data you can get in a month on top of that. They got billions in **tax-funded grants to improve their networks**. They didn't improve their networks. They pocketed the money and continued to ruin the market. I'm sure there are a dozen other reasons, but these are the ones that just popped into my head. Enjoy hating these ISPs, you deserve to.", "In November they just introduced data caps in my and many others' area. INTRODUCED data caps.", "they give you service then the next year it goes up 40bucks the next year after that another 40 but you still have the same service you started with, 2yr agreement 80$ then once its over 200$ per month, and yeah like others have said if your town wants to set up their own internet access for pennies they have to wipe out existing laws preventing them. The u.s. for all intents and purposes is controlled by corporations." ], "score": [ 35, 15, 8, 6 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5mg23", "dc5jxtv", "dc5r8pw", "dc5n4a3", "dc5nldt", "dc5nrsq", "dc5o3ib", "dc5q0jz" ], "text": [ "Doctor here, prepare for disappointment (that's how I start all clinic visits, btw). The disappointing thing is that this isn't well understood. That said, there are still some interesting things to think about so let's begin. There are two very different broad categories that could explain what is happening: 1) Emotional synesthesia. Think of the nervous system like an electrical system. Neurons are like wires that carry signals to different parts of the brain for processing. Some of these wires are known to be well-insulated and carry signals well. For example, the neurons that report light touch in the fingertips are very accurate. Other neurons are poorly insulated and the signals cross. That is why it is hard to localize pain in your gut. A pain signal from your colon can get mixed up with pain from your small intestine or even gallbladder. The physical feeling of a 'sinking heart' associated with sadness could be caused by these crossed wires. There are extreme examples of these \"crossed wires\" in synesthesia, where people see sound and hear color. However this type of thing occurs on a more subtle level in other people and this MAY be an example of emotional synesthesia where we physically feel emotion. 2) Actual sensation. The emotion of sadness may actually cause physical changes that we can feel. It is known that sadness can cause weakening of the heart, causing the bottom of the heart (confusingly called the 'apex') to balloon out and weaken. This is called Takasubo cardiomyopathy. Perhaps sadness could cause subtle changes in the chest area that we can actually sense, leading to this sensation of a sinking heart. As you can see, these two potential explanations describe very different mechanisms, one involving physical change and one purely neuronal. That is the level to which we don't understand this process. We don't even know the broad mechanism. I read some other comments here and I am concerned because they present speculation as fact. For example, [this comment]( URL_0 ) throws around a lot of unnecessary jargon that sounds like an explanation but they never identify how little is actually known about this subject. The mark of a knowledgeable comment is that it clearly defines the boundary between what is known and unknown. BONUS TOPIC: Here is something fun to think about. If the sensation is truly due to crossed wires, is that a defect in our bodies or is this a feature that was selected for? There could be a benefit of having a physical sensation of sadness to accompany the emotional sensation. By using dual negative stimuli, individuals are more likely to avoid situations that cause sadness. Perhaps this topic isn't disappointing as it shows how much good science there is left to be done.", "The feeling in your chest has been studied in the context of heartbreak and getting dumped before, and it's likely a similar set of processes involved. The part of the brain that reacts in that case (heartache) is actually the same part of the brain responsible for physical pain, so it's interpreted as actual pain. Stress hormones also have a tightening effect on your muscles that contribute to the hollow chest feeling.", "A friend of mine is going through some tough times of her own, and recently posted something about it that I thought was really beautiful. \"Grief, I've learned, is really just love. It's all the love you want to give, but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and the hollow in your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.\"", "Vagus nerve (Cranial Nerve X) - it's connected by the brain stem into the sections of the brain that handle social stuff, has to be to manage both high alert and caring simultaneously, like in the case of male prairie voles protecting their young (that species being the standard animal model for family/social relations) - you have to be able to change heart settings quickly to do that job. That nerve is surprisingly involved in mammalian social behavior and the limbic circuits. The reason you get get that feeling you heart is the same reason you get pain on other things connected to the same nerve when you get a toothache. Look up Dr. Porge's polyvagal theory some time: URL_0", "OP, yesterday I buried one of my absolute best friends from college. She died in the ER waiting room of a blood clot in the brain. Went unconscious at the doctor and then was just gone. I am so, so sorry OP. I've buried a lot of people in my 23 years, but Katy has been the most difficult. We just have to remember, /u/Trunks572, that while our friends can no longer be active in *our* lives, their lives will always continue on in our memory. We hold a bit of them in us, they just can no longer actively contribute. Humans are balls of clay, my dear man or woman; we're passed into the hands of whomever we meet. Most of the times they leave just a fingerprint; sometimes, a bit of an impression. But every once in awhile, we meet someone who completely changes a bit of us, or all of us, and we'll always have that. I'll always have Katy, and you'll always have your friend.", "Weirdly enough stress hormones can actually cause pretty severe chest pain, cause heart muscles to enlarge and very closely mimic the symptoms of a heart attack. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (AKA broken heart syndrome) is pretty interesting: URL_0 Not sure if this is related to the pain of \"regular\" heart ache or not, but it does sorta show how emotional responses can physically effect your body.", "\"To your brain, getting hit in the chest with a sledgehammer and losing someone you love are the same kinds of pain. It doesn't care where the pain comes from; it just knows when you hurt.\" That's about the simplest way I could explain it.", "Broken heart syndrome, also called stress-induced cardiomyopathy or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, can strike even if you’re healthy. (Tako tsubo, by the way, are octopus traps that resemble the pot-like shape of the stricken heart.) *Everything I've learned about illness, I've learned from watching Scrubs*" ], "score": [ 1732, 115, 51, 29, 27, 13, 9, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [ "https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mq41s/eli5_what_causes_that_sinking_heart_feeling_when/dc5kxpm/" ], [], [], [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvagal_Theory" ], [], [ "http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/takotsubo-cardiomyopathy-broken-heart-syndrome" ], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5ioe2", "dc5jg8d" ], "text": [ "Oh i know why Greenland is called Greenland! Erik the Red was exiled there from Iceland. He wanted to develop the Island more with communities and people and such. But it was a rather barren icy place, so he called it Greenland in order to attract more people there.", "Greenland is huge compared to Iceland, it's also extends further North. More land mass allows more space for ice. That's why Greenland has more ice than Iceland." ], "score": [ 7, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5k40q" ], "text": [ "It's a response to danger. The different parts of your brain can be very bad at communicating with each other, so the bit of your brain that responds to danger (which evolved very early and is close to the brain-stem, and therefore very powerful) doesn't know that the danger is only imagined or on tv or in a book so it triggers the danger-responses that are supposed to help you survive. The part of your brain that knows there is no actual danger overrides some of that fear response, which is why you don't (usually) climb on top of your bookcase every time you open a Stephen King novel, but as this part of your brain developed later and is further from your brain-stem, the message gets through a little late. When someone jumps out at you and shouts 'boo' you scream and your heart rate goes up for a moment before you very quickly calm down because the \"DANGER!\" message is sent out to your body faster than the \"That's just my brother\" message. The physical responses you notice are the effects of the rush of adrenaline that is sent through your body by your scaredy-cat brain - in a really dangerous situation this adrenaline would help you run away or fight to survive. You feel it in your stomach because adrenaline changes the way your body digests sugars - this is why some people get diarrhoea when they are nervous about something. The hairs on the back of the neck thing is the same thing you see in animals when they get agitated - you've probably seen the fur stand up in a line down a dog or cat's back at some point. In humans it's left over from the days when we had fur, and it acts as a visible signal to other individuals that we are dangerous and not to be messed with right now and also makes you look larger (if you have fur)." ], "score": [ 7 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5k12i" ], "text": [ "Alcohol is a depressant which your body is trying to fight. As the depressant wears off your body is still pushing the opposite way with adrenaline. The result is like trying to push back against someone who suddenly stops resisting: you fly forward. Your body suddenly experiences the positive effects of that adrenaline by waking up suddenly, possibly refreshed (though you'll feel like shit if you weren't drinking water)." ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5k215", "dc5ka88", "dc69ddn" ], "text": [ "The savings booklet was just your personal record. The bank's record was the final say in the matter. Keeping track of deposits and withdrawals before electronics was easier because there was a paper trail and things happened more slowly. Electronic banking enabled a host of new scams and problems because transactions can happen very quickly and a person exploiting a weakness in the system can do so from a hidden location. The *only* problem with the old way was the mountains of paper that had to be maintained and gone-through if there was an audit.", "Occasionally banks would and probably still do get taken in by confidence scams...anyone who's been a cashier long enough has encountered someone asking for change for a 20, but phrases it as \"can I get 2 fives and 2 tens for a $20?\" Anyway, there was a reliance on Photo ID's, deposit slips, accounting ledgers, and the skill to use them, along with massive physical record stores, requiring two forms of ID for common banking tasks as recently as the late 90s, and knowing customers personally... There were a lot more local banks in the 1980s, when the national outfits started buying the smaller guys like crazy. Like typesetting, and page layout, and drafting, and a half a hundred other professions at least, before computers moved in and abstracted away the physical parts of lots of industries, humans were basically the computers, and pulled off remarkable feats of precision and physical accomplishment on a daily basis. In 20 years when robots start framing buildings and hanging drywall the same questions will be asked about the construction industry.", "To get an understanding and some fun you can read (incudes a few more scams and prison time in Sweden than the movie) or watch: Catch me if you can It is the story about [Frank Abagnale]( URL_0 ) who during 6 years ran several impressive confidence scams where he ran bank scams, pretended to be a pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and a Teaching assistant. He made millions of dollars before he got caught." ], "score": [ 34, 11, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5pc6s" ], "text": [ "They will generally use high-resolution, regional weather models. These are essentially computer programs that solve a set of equations that aim to represent the physics of the atmosphere and ocean. These equations are extremely complicated so these models are also very complicated, which is why meterological agencies generally own very powerful supercomputers to solve them. There are two main reasons why there is so much uncertainty in weather forecasts. Firstly, the equations being solved are chaotic which means they are extremely sensitive to initial conditions. Whilst weather stations allow us to gather data about the weather *now* so we can plug it into the models to find out the weather in a few days, we only have a limited number of weather stations, which means we have to 'guess' some of the initial conditions. These initial guesses introduce more and more error as the model steps forward in time. Part of the way we get around this is by running a set (an 'ensemble') of models with slightly varying initial conditions to represent our uncertainty, and then look at how widely or closely the outputs agree with one another. Secondly, whilst we understand the fundamental physics of the environment, these equations have no exact solutions which means that any numerical solution we obtain through a computer is going to be an approximation. The complexity of the physics a computer can solve as well as the spatial (how small a grid cell a computer can model, the smaller the grid cell the better the results) and temporal (how small the time-step is, the smaller the better) resolutions are limited by how powerful your computer is." ], "score": [ 11 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5urc4" ], "text": [ "Beer is a sugary alcohol. It is also grain based. Sugars are processed in the liver, and when it is over saturated the sugar stores in fat cells near the liver. This type of *adipose* fat is specifically located in the belly and lower back, as well as around the liver itself. Eventually excessive consumption of alcohol (but beer in particular) leads to fatty liver and excess adipose fat. Beer is not the only substance that causes this, and excessive sugar consumption will lead to the same buildup of fat in and around the liver." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5l55p" ], "text": [ "Good question. When a nerve encounters a stimulus (such as pressure) proteins on the nerve cell's membrane called transport channels open, basically letting in *some* positively charged sodium ions. Once it reaches -55 millivolts, the membrane begins to depolarise at a much faster rate. Now, things called voltage gated sodium channels, and voltage gated potassium channels open, letting yet more positively charged sodium ions in, while letting some negatively charged potassium ions out. Once that portion of the nerve reaches 30 millivolts, the voltage gated transporters close, and begin to re polarise. In the time between when that section of the cell reaches -55 mv, and when it's restored to -70 mv(which is it's default voltage), its in whats known as a refractory period, which is where that section can't generate another impulse, as the voltage gated transporters wont re-open for a short while. This keeps the impulse moving in one direction. So yes, I think that an electrical shock would result in the electricity traveling in the same direction. Edit: made it slightly more specific. Edit 2: u/DoneUpLikeAKipper made me give this some more thought, and now that I think about it some more I realise that it would only stimulate an impulse if it raised the voltage inside the nerve to -55, which would activate the voltage gated transporters. If it where much higher then the refractory period that the channels enter would be irrelevant because they only prevent the impulse flowing backwards by stopping the ions from traveling, so the current would just flow in whatever direction. I might have messed something up though." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5l1bx" ], "text": [ "Pi is an irrational number. By definition of irrationals this means that is can't be represented as the result of a division between two integers, i.e. there are no whole numbers x & y such that pi = x/y. One property of the irrational numbers is that if you try to write them as decimal fractions, you end up with an *infinite* and *non-repeating* sequence of digits. The same is true for every irrational numbers, such as pi, e and the square root of 2, 3 and 5 (and every other integer that isn't a square number). On the other hand, when you write rational numbers as decimal fractions, you either end up with a finite sequence of digits (for example 1/8 = 0.125) or an infinite but repeating sequence (for example 1/7 = 0.142857142857142857...). There is [proof that pi is irrational]( URL_0 ) however it's too complicated for ELI5." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_that_%CF%80_is_irrational" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5lstb" ], "text": [ "The proper definition of integers relies on the natural numbers. The natural numbers are defined using the following basic definitions: * 0 is a natural number. * Every natural number x has a single successor S(x). * 0 isn't the successor of any natural number. This automatically defines the set of natural numbers - 0, S(0), S(S(0)), S(S(S(0))) and so on. For convenience, we named them: S(0) is called \"1\", S(S(0)) is called \"2\", and so on. Note however that while these \"names\" depend on which base you use, they are not required for the definition of the natural numbers. The integers can then be constructed from all the natural numbers, again without using any base." ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5lu04" ], "text": [ "Because when you sit on your hand you loose blood flow and when you touch something cold blood rushes to that area to keep you warm." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5n5pu" ], "text": [ "A lock-on is an act of focusing the sensor system on a single target so that the target can be automatically tracked. With the sensors in our case being the missile's seeker. Now, in case with an infrared missile such as an AIM-9 Sidewinder, FIM-92 Stinger or R-73, there will be no lock-on warning because the seeker is *passive*. You will only be able to detect incoming fire by spotting the missle itself, and there are plane-based infrared systems to do that for you as well. The good thing is, this is the close-range choice of sensor. There are additional undetectable options, such as no guidance at all, TV guidance (rarely used, and only against ground targets - basically the bombardier uses a camera in the nose to steer the bomb), and GPS guidance (only good enough for bombs used against stationary targets). Long-range missiles and tracking in general relies on radar or ladar; certain anti-ground ordnance relies on designated lasers, and there are similar dynamics for active and passive sonar, but we'll stick to radar as the most prominent example. Now, except for some exotic and finicky variants that piggypack on random radio waves - such as the very first one, using a BBC radio tower - features a source of radio-band electromagnetic radiation (illuminator) that is reflected from the target and then received to identify its azimuth and range. So, you're emitting something - it's an *active* sensor. Using an active sensor is the equivalent of turning on a flashlight in a dark room - you *might* see something, but you'll definitely be seen by everyone in the room. Radars can be detected from roughly twice their effective range using a Radar Warning Receiver, or just a garden-variety radio; furthermore, they can be recognized, their position approximated, their type identified, and their activity determined by their emission characteristic. You can tell whether that idiot with the flashlight is waving it randomly, or it has it pointed right at you... or if there's a beam of red light edging towards your head. A radar in lock-on mode stops sweeping and maintains a focus on its quarry. Now, there are two principal types of radar-guided missiles. Semi-active ones are broken into two subtypes. One type carries the receiver system for the radar, but the emitter stays with the launcher; there, it's just a reasonable inference that the guy who wants to kill you and has a lock also has missiles in the air. The other type are anti-radiation missiles, and they basically target the *enemy's* radar signals; Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses is basically playing whack-a-mole with their AA. The other type, true active guidance, has the whole radar kit onboard the missile, so detecting distinct new radars is already bad news bears." ], "score": [ 12 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5o0ea" ], "text": [ "This varies a lot. The props department is often tasked with finding phones for the actors. Buying new phones is expensive, especially since the phones is going to get abuse on set and might not survive. They also need to disguise the phones so you can not determine the brand of the phone as that could get them in trouble with the manufacturers. So it is much easier to get something they have in storage that they got for cheap some time back and is already made unrecognizable in the last movie it appeared it. Sometimes there may even be stunt replicas of these phones made already. Other times they may even do it simpler and let the actor use his own phone since he have it on set already and just make sure the brand is not shown. The texting and computer displays is also quite different. Again you would not want to show anything that could get you in trouble with well established brands. You also need to make sure the screen is clear of any clutter like the clock (unless required by the plot), alerts, unused buttons, portraits, etc. that would make the screen harder to read in the few seconds it is shown on camera. You also need to be able to let the actor do one thing and the phone do another thing and make sure it is repeatable for different takes. You may also theme the screens to better fit the movie or TV show. All this would be hard to do with authentic software. You might use authentic software for the initial consent but then recreate it with your modifications so it is easier to do on screen." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5uddk", "dc5pymg" ], "text": [ "Many older neighborhoods started out with much larger lots for each house. As time went on the lots were divided up and newer houses built on the new, smaller lots.", "Most neighborhoods built after the 1950s, ie subdivisions in the suburbs, are built all at once. Meaning they will all be built within a year of each other and use 1-5 building plans. Homes built in cities or on privately owned lots outside the city limits that are not a part of a subdivision are built as the owner wants them built so can vary decades from the homes around them. So yes, it is because people buy and build their homes independently rather than through a planned neighborhood. And that is not a thing of the past. You still build independently when you are not buying through a subdivision." ], "score": [ 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5pcsx", "dc66zum", "dc5yo3o", "dc6baeu" ], "text": [ "It has to be very cold, for a long time. Most people know moving water can't freeze, but in real life scenarios, there's always a spot where water comes in contact with a solid surface (The rock or ice) that momentarily brings the fluid to a stop, in that short amount of time it has to be cold enough to freeze the water, this spot is called a nucleation spot (where things start). From there it just basically builds outwards until the whole thing is frozen, the water freezing like a column as it flows down and hits the ice below, layer by layer. Edit: I am surprised by how many people find this interesting/upvoting, it's ice to see so many people take an interest Edit 2: Now my highest up-voted comment, with my lisp I never thaw that coming", "For my little ice climbing experience, sometimes only the outer layer of the waterfall freeze and liquid water is still flowing inside (That's really impressive to ear the noise of water). I've also seen some \"artificial\" ice fall made for climbing. Basically they spray water over a wall. The Water will ice on the ground or in contact with the rock, Then the water passing over will freeze on the first layer of Ice and slowly you get a fully frozen waterfall...", "A waterfall gets the water from many small water bodies upstream from the waterfall itself. If the area with the waterfall was the only area with freezing temperature, the mass of water would move to quickly to freeze. But this is not the case. As it gets colder the smaller streams upstream freezes. And all the water in the ground that eventually would make it to the river freezes solid in the soil. This brings the river that leads to the waterfall to also have less water, and eventually this also freezes. This again reduces the amount of water feeding the waterfall, making it easier for the low temperature to take hold of the water and slowly freezing it bit by bit. Where it eventually is just a trickle of water reaching the once majestic cascade, that is now a solid frozen pillar of ice.", "> If the water is continuously falling at a rapid pace In many places where you get fantastic frozen waterfalls, the water is not falling at a rapid pace but is instead a slow trickle that keeps building and building from a single icicle into an entire frozen wall. Keep in mind that river levels will drop when temperatures are below freezing since there is no runoff to feed it, so they won't be running full tilt just prior to freezing. [Maligne Canyon in Jasper, AB Canada]( URL_0 ) is a good example of that. If you go by in the summer time the walls are leaking but there is no waterfall there. In this case at least, there are parts of the river & karst system that run underground and keep the water warm enough that it will continue flowing to the surface even when temperatures are -20C and colder. Of course, when something huge like Niagara Falls freezes, that's a different story and u/Skaffer's explanation covers that scenario better." ], "score": [ 556, 17, 8, 7 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [ "http://merge.canada.travel/sites/default/files/styles/page_gallery_main/public/photo/exp/se098_01rr_mike_gere_photo_mar_08_366.jpg" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5p09r", "dc5u8v6" ], "text": [ "Obama care refers to the Affordable care act, which changed a few things about American healthcare. The whole act was extremely long, and covered many aspects, which is why it took a long time to draft and pass and take effect, and is beyond the scope for a single Eli5 thread. Of significance (from my perspective), some key provisions protected those with existing conditions from being unable to find insurance at a reasonable rate, and guaranteeing certain individuals coverage without a extreme financial burden, and extending the maximum age that some younger individuals could stay under a parent's plan. A repeal without a new plan in place would impact many people, and could leave many without insurance when they need it most. Without the Act's provisions, companies could alter rates or drop coverage to individuals, who may no longer receive the subsidies that allowed them to have access to healthcare in the first place.", "Obamacare is a name for the Affordable Care Act (or ACA). The ACA, among other things, makes it mandatory for American citizens to have health insurance. If you do not have health insurance, you must pay a fine. It also forces insurance companies to do some very basic things, like not cancel a customer's health insurance when they get sick, or refuse their service to someone who has a preexisting condition. It has been under attack by the Republican Congress for multiple years., because: 1. It forces people to buy insurance 2. Recently, it has raised insurance prices 3. It was passed by a Democratic president If Obamacare is repealed without a replacement, health providers and insurance companies could repeal a customer's service immediately after they get sick, and discriminate because of preexisting conditions. However, prices would fall (maybe)." ], "score": [ 29, 7 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5q32i", "dc5wfox", "dc5zz24", "dc6136v", "dc5yfkj", "dc5zy5p", "dc5p50z", "dc608yk", "dc62r4f", "dc5v6fw", "dc61iek", "dc5p1tg", "dc5pnoa", "dc5rbai", "dc60jmy", "dc61qla", "dc63i3u", "dc64p5p", "dc614ck", "dc667ar", "dc5ry7c", "dc5z1sa", "dc65szf", "dc5xy75", "dc66nyq" ], "text": [ "I am an EMT and it is a combination of things: * Training time. An EMT is 6 months of training. A Medic is usually another 2 years after that. So in a little over the time it takes most to get an associates degree you can be a paramedic. * Supply and Demand. While your medic isn't as prevalent as say an EMT and those aren't as in supply as people who can work an entry level job without training the pay does go up as you become more sought after. This is partly to do with how fast Medics and EMTs can be trained. There are just oodles of EMTs and still many Medics and only a limited number of jobs. * Community Resources. Big cities have more resources and can pay Paramedics more than smaller cities. Every firefighter, police officer, and EMT/Medic wants to make big money in the big city. However, for the majority of Medics in the US that work for smaller towns they simply have to cut costs where they can and this usually comes in the community service part of things. It isn't just medical, fire, and law either. Schools are seeing their budgets tighten all the time. This is just the case across the board. * Medicaid/Medicare and the Uninsured: The law says that ambulances have to treat and transport you regardless of your ability to pay and that's the way it should be. But it also puts a strain on ambulance districts in two ways and this causes or doesn't help the bullet point above. The first way is that when Medicaid and Medicare pay they don't pay full price. Surprise, the government wants to keep its costs down and will only pay a certain amount. Sure, ok. At least we get paid from those programs. But the worse thing is people without insurance because we sometimes don't see a dime from people and have to send them to collections - which is terrible to ruin someone's credit over medical bills. But at the same time it would be equally terrible to see an ambulance district not be able to afford good equipment, hire competent staff and reward that staff appropriately, or, curse the thought, close down for good, because they didn't have an income. Most community ambulance districts aren't out to make a ton of money but that extra money is nice to afford better and safer equipment and afford training for the employees. And it really is a shame too because EMTs, Police, and firefighters usually have to pay for their own training (at least some if not all) and are really great pivot points of the communities they serve. I decided to get into EMS because it was a good job to have through college and I was helping people. It gave me purpose and made me feel good (and a little bit of money was nice too) but I ultimately did not feel it was a lifelong job I could do and make a real living at because of the low wages and near nonexistent benefits in that line of work.", "I am a sports fan here in America. I have conversations like this quite frequently with people who say shit like \"it's so unfair that pro football players make more than brain surgeons\". It's all about supply and demand of the labor force. Somebody like LeBron James has a much more marketable skill than a brain surgeon, even though it could be argued that the brain surgeon as a more important job. However, the brain surgeon does not have a more *valuable* job from an economic sense. A brain surgeon is not going to sell out a stadium multiple times a year with fans willing to watch him perform surgery. And this is what you understand: the labor force in a capitalist economy is paid what they're worth economically, not morally. EMT's are common, low skilled employees that are easily replaceable. Yes, they are important, but they are nothing special. If you want a good counterexample though, there is a big shortage of nurses here in America, and therefore the salaries of nurses has gone up because hospitals have to compete with each other to attract nurses.", "You're not paid what you're worth. You're paid the minimum necessary to get someone with your qualifications to do the job. So long as they can get EMT's for the current salaries, the salaries won't go up. Same thing with firemen. If no one was willing to go into a burning building for less than $150,000/year, that's what we'd be paying firemen.", "Paramedic here, checking in late to the party, but I can offer some perspective. There are too many EMS services in the U.S. Those who do the best pay/benefits wise are those who work for large, urban or county-wide EMS systems that are funded (at least partially) by the tax base of the area that they serve. I am fortunate enough to work for a municipal system that is funded via the tax base and billing for our services. With OT, I make over $100k. Since we are a municipal system, we are ran as a public safety bureau and not like a for-profit business. Why that is important is that the finances are viewed differently than the for-profit services. My Chief's salary doesn't change based upon how much profit he can squeeze out of the budget. We are viewed by our government as a necessary public safety service instead of a money making venture. Our government knows how valuable of a service we provide to our city and understands that in order to attract good people, they need to offer a good pay/benefits package. It's the cost of providing a service, not the cost of doing business. On top of that we are unionized, which is a big help. With every contract negotiation the union is working to improve the pay and benefits that we receive. The for-profit, small town EMS systems that rely on subscriptions and billing to survive just cannot afford to offer good pay and benefits. They don't have the call volume to generate the billing revenue to bring in a ton of money, and they have to keep costs in line to remain profitable. As a result, they cannot afford to pay their employees a whole lot. That being said, many medics and EMTs will take these jobs because even though the pay isn't great, the workload is typically pretty easy, compared to what the city medics are dealing with day to day. So even if the pay is only $15/hr, a lot of guys won't mind working a slow 24hr shift once a week and then work their other jobs. Others have touched on the other issues. The relative ease of education I think is a factor, however I don't necessarily think it's as big as some other people believe it is. I don't think the answer to poor pay is requiring a bachelor's degree. The million little EMS services that are barely financially afloat cannot afford to pay much more than they currently do, regardless of if their employees have a degree or not. They simply don't have the financial resources to do so. The flip side to that is that if paramedic became a bachelor's degree, you'd end up with paramedics who would have more student debt with only a marginal increase in pay. The increased student, coupled with the still low pay, would result in even less pay to live off of due to more money being spent on student debt. TL;DR - There are too many small EMS services with poor revenue coming in that are barely surviving financially. What we need are more large, municipal, unionized, tax-funded services that are operated as public safety bureaus and NOT like for-profit businesses.", "Paramedics are licensed through the state, and have a larger scope of practice than nurses, though nurses take longer to get licensed in SOME scenarios. Paramedics intubate, perform surgical cricothyroidotomies (use a scalpel to open your throat and create an airway), use a large bore needle to decompress a pneumothorax (needle into a collapsed lung), insert nasogastric tubes, deliver babies, chemically sedate patients, mix medications, run entire cardiac codes, and do all of this usually on their own or with one other person, without a team, for up to forty minutes. Source: am paramedic in SoCal who makes $15.50/hour and gets minimum benefits required by law, because I have to have this on my resume to be a fireman, which I can't seem to even get an interview for because now LAFD uses a \"lottery system\" for applications, as a way to cherry pick minorities and females despite the fact they aren't Paramedics or volunteer firemen. I wasted my 20s and I'm very jaded.", "Wages are set by supply and demand. If there's a lot of people who can and are willing to do the job (relative to the number of available jobs), then the wage will go down. You know how programmers are well-paid? Remember this when principle every time you see an \"everyone should learn to code!\" initiative. Companies don't sponsor those out of the goodness of their hearts. It's an effort to drive down wages.", "It doesn't take as long to produce an EMT or paramedic as it does some other kinds of health professionals. Training entities are capable of producing a glut of these personnel, which contributes to keeping salaries artificially low. Just because it's vital doesn't mean it gets paid a lot", "Because pay is not based on how hard a job is, how vital or important it is, or how dangerous it is. Pay for a job is entirely based on one thing: How many people are both willing and qualified to do it for a given salary. Now, a tougher or more dangerous job might make people less willing to do it for lower pay, and a more vital job might mean there is a greater demand for those services, but so long as there are enough qualified applicants to meet that demand, there is no reason to increase the pay.", "former paramedic for 10 years A. Private ambulance service. Most community ambulances transportation occurs via private ambulance service that is dominated by American Medical Response. Profits drive that company and it's better to have high turnover, less experienced paramedics at lower pay scales over ones with more experience and will demand higher wages. Also the community ambulance 911 systems contract out emergency responses to a single company so that ambulance service is really the only game in town for a paramedic to work for. B. Lack of a nationwide or state level association/trade union. Firefighters, police and nursing have had strong associations to help protect wages and politically push for more protections. Most paramedics/EMTs don't have a strong association and either get a small local union representation (like SEIU) who are not specifically set up to handle the needs of first responders or none at all. C. Most people coming out of paramedic schools are young and the wage scale is set accordingly. It's a demanding job. The hours suck, the physical demands are high and the stress is unbelievably high. I was an EMT at 20 and a paramedic at 21. After 10 years I was in the top 20 on the seniority list out of 350 paramedics. The last 5 years I worked was hell I can't imagine working into my late 30s. D. Most career advancement paths involved moving into the fire service. Moving into a clinical setting is often blocked by a lot of factors including the nurses who don't want to give up duties to yet another healthcare profession. I never wanted to be a firefighter.... I hate heights and the smell of burning buildings. Most of my colleagues who stayed in the field got jobs with different fire services. I chose to get out of it completely although stayed in healthcare for about 20 years in medical devices.", "Employees allow it and aren't unionized. If people take the job knowing what is being paid, they make it OK. You can't negotiate when three people will take your place for less money. Also we believe management builds in additional stress and illegal actions on you encouraging you to quit so nobody builds up seniority to be needing raises. No breaks for bathroom, lunch if you're doing transports because you're always late due to over scheduling. At 500-1000 a for a 30 min transport and you're doing them all day (x8 to 12), oh yeah they're making money! You? You get $122 from a 12 hour shift (no breaks) and complaints that your not doing it fast enough. Oh yeah and your requests for maintenance on the rig brakes? Ignored for MONTHS. Source:dating an ex-emt", "Hello, lightly salted EMT here. I've worked for a private ambulance company for close to 2 years now. I graduated with a BS in Biochem and wanted to get medical experience in the field to bolster my resume for medical school. I took a fast track course after graduating and was working within 3 months of starting the month long course. The way things are, EMT's are \"a dime a dozen\" (actual words said to us upon our hiring). The EMT market is suffused with good natured people that may not have much of a formal education, to the point where I'm happy to be making over 10$ an hour. Most companies, especially privately owned, really only care about the money. Quality of care, good transport times, etc. are only fulfilled so more contracts with hospitals can be maintained. Paramedics make pretty decent money here, over 20$ an hour, with some of the senior medics making around 26$. However, when it's now possible for an 18 year old to be hired as an EMT I'm not surprised the pay is so shit. A major reason for this disparity is that EMTs are barely allowed to perform any medicine since the patient must \"always be under the highest level of care,\" thus the medics do all the real work and are in the back of the ambo. So, tldr, EMT cert is easy to get, thus there are too many of them, furthermore often treated as just ambulance drivers instead of an important facet of the EMS process. Luckily, overtime is plentiful and the only way to make a bit of dosh. Also, fucking driving with lights and sirens, that shit dangerous.", "Vital job that needs fairly little training and has lots of people who want to do it. It is an awesome and rewarding job, but only needs a few weeks of training before you can start your entry-level position. Compare that to nurse that needs several years of training.", "Supply and demand. As long as many people want to be an EMT and are willing to accept the going rate, nothing will change. I'm quite happy that we get such good service for an economical rate.", "Trash collectors and janitors are absolutely vital to our health and welfare. If we didn't have sanitation, our cities would be overrun with disease vectors. And yet they get paid next to nothing. Why? Because it is a low-skill, low-demand job. Literally anyone can be a sanitation worker with little or no training. Same with EMTs. An EMTB takes a 30 day class and a certification test. A Paramedic is usually a certificate or an Associate's Degree. These are not difficult credentials to acquire. If EMTs were rare and required significant amounts of training (as in Graduate or Doctorate level) then they would command commensurately higher salaries.", "Because in America we don't pay people based on their value to society (cops, firefighters, social workers). We pay them based on what people want to spend their money on (entertainment, etc...)", "overall relatively low skill, although important. A lot of people can do that job so there is high labor supply", "Several reasons. Modern EMS has only existed for forty or so years. In most states, EMS is not a guaranteed service like police, fire, or sanitation. Police, fire, and sanitation won most of their labored rights back in the 1950's, when they were allowed to protest, in uniform. Public education: Most people rarely if ever need us, so they don't give a shit. Most people can tell who their Fire Department is, and who provides policing services to them, but couldn't tell if they're coveyed by a municipal third service, a fire based service, a contracted commercial service, a hospital based service, etc etc. So it's hard for us to fight for labor rights and wage increases. We are, and will be for quite some time, the bastards step child of both the medical system and the public safety system in this country.", "Salary is not tied to how critical your job function is -it's based on how difficult you are to replace.", "Because people do the job, despite the low pay. Many towns even have volunteer EMS services. People literally will work as EMTs and paramedics for free.", "The fire and ambulance squad in the small town I am from is completely volunteer. I often wonder what would happen if no one was willing to do it...", "Volunteer EMS personnel worsen the wage situation. Imagine if your town was filled with lots of slutty girls who give it up for free. Prostitutes who expect to be paid for sex couldn't make much money.", "It's the same here in PA. If citizens want EMS and fire protection, then government has a responsibility to provide it. As long as volunteers keep giving it away, elected officials aren't compelled to fund it.", "Since when do wages rely on how \"vital\" someone's job is? Janitors keep us safe from disease on a vast scale. I don't see many of them driving Bentleys. Wages, as with all things money, are determined by supply and demand (except where the market is distorted by regulations).", "The bigger question is: ELI5: Why does anyone get paid what they get paid in the first place? Short answer: supply and demand. It's not about how \"vital\" their jobs are in anyone's opinion. It's about the market value of their labor. Is it fair? No. Why would you want it to be fair?", "Lots of \"supply and demand\" and \"capitalism\" comments here. But EMS doesn't really work that way. There are shortages of EMTs and paramedics all over the country (just not necessarily in the large urban areas, though i have heard some rumblings there lately too). Many rural areas are actually losing their local service because of a lack of volunteer EMTs. And that word \"volunteer\" is part of the problem. Great that people want to help people. But as in many other things, payors will lump all providers together. A large urban service and a small town volunteer service will get paid the same by Medicare (and since most insurers follow their lead, everyone else). And long ago, the payors decided that they would only pay for actual transports, not \"readiness\" for waiting crews. So if your local squad charges nothing per call (other than a membership or small tax levy), they average that with the private service that charges a couple grand. And with some kind of new math, most insurers will only pay a couple hundred dollars per transport (and may not pay anything at all for assessing someone, treating them and releasing them to family, which leads to services encouraging transports that may not be necessary). And since this rate is almost never revisited, not even to match cost-of-living increases, the employers cannot raise wages without some other source of money. This is why private, non-tax based, services usually pay less. They cannot absorb the loss that government entities can. Education has almost no relevance to wages. Many police and firefighters make more than EMTs/medics. And only a couple of states require more than a high school diploma for either. I don't want to get into a nurse vs paramedic debate, but a 2 year RN actually spends less time in clinicals than a 2 year paramedic grad in a program that follows the national standard. If you are smart enough to be a paramedic, you are smart enough to be a nurse. We are also hampered by disjointed and often adversarial organizations that represent EMS. The fire guys have strong groups all the way up to chief's associations. But they have different priorities from the private ambulance associations and the rural/volunteer groups (never seen a \"volunteer nurse's association\"). This leads to confusion for lawmakers. Maybe we could copy the Australian model, but that would take some doing, since it can only exist in a socialized health system." ], "score": [ 1403, 316, 151, 138, 71, 51, 41, 23, 21, 19, 18, 12, 10, 10, 6, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5quu9", "dc5r00k", "dc5q7ii", "dc5zweg" ], "text": [ "They don't make any claims to know how the universe was created and definitely not that it created itself. They've laid out the scientific theory that at one point in time, our universe was concentrated into a high density, high temperature state after which it started to expand, which is what we can measure currently. They make no claims to know what caused the universe to be in such a state and certainly not the claim that it started from nothing. The fact is that we cannot know the answers to these questions because our very law of physics and every way we know to measure something are tied to our universe and its current state.", "We don't know whether the Universe created itself or was created by some outside event. Or if it has always been. That's about the size of it.", "> How could the universe have caused its own existence? This is too simplified and wrong. Universe was in very high density and high temperature state in one small point. So it's not like it created itself from nothing - just everything was compressed in one small point and then expanded in what we see now.", "it's not so much that the universe created itself. that would imply the universe existed and then made itself into existence. that's just nonsensical. what has been proposed as a hypothesis is that the universe popped into existence with no outside energy. and thus the universe itself is net sum 0 energy and thru quantum fluctuations, just pop into existence URL_0" ], "score": [ 9, 6, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EilZ4VY5Vs" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5qs16", "dc5wacf", "dc5y9kr", "dc5xbo5" ], "text": [ "Pencils grind a layer of graphite onto the surface of the paper. Erasers work by rubbing off that layer of graphite. But since the surface of paper isn't even, it has little pockets, the eraser may not be able to get all the graphite out.", "if you stop pressing so hard while writing so that your pencil doesn't leave dents in the paper then you'll be able to erase things fully.", "close up, paper [looks like this]( URL_0 ). Pencils write by rubbing off very fine powder onto this very rough surface. It's amazing that (good) erasers work as well as they do - trying to remove the graphite powder by just rubbing the surface.", "Paper isn't perfectly smooth it has very small bumps and dips called the tooth. If you press too hard while writing or drawing you flatten out that tooth making your pencil marks into deep valleys that the rubber is too large to get into. Try to practise not pressing so hard when you use the pencil and you will find it easier to erase later." ], "score": [ 39, 8, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [ "http://microvisionlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/Office%20Paper,%20500X%20SEM%20image.JPG" ], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5yu3a" ], "text": [ "Emotional pain is interpreted the same as physical pain in the brain. Body releases adrenaline in a fight or flight reaction, just like with physical pain. In that state of mind, your body's focus switches over from digestion and relaxation to escape or fight. Muscles tense, digestion slows down, heart rate increases, and your body get a ready to do something. Panic can be a normal response to this." ], "score": [ 59 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5sahe", "dc5r2h2" ], "text": [ "Have you considered that perhaps you are getting a cold?", "What exactly was the deep fried stuff? Fatty foods often leave an oily feeling in people's throats, which is probably somewhat lubricating. There's a good chance you were eating SALTY fried stuff, which will dry out your mucous membranes (such as the back of your throat) by drawing water out of them." ], "score": [ 6, 5 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5rly2", "dc5u4t6" ], "text": [ "The beep is a sonar ping. Sonar = SOund Navigation And Ranging Yes, in the movies submarines ping all the time. This is not how they work in reality. Submariners call their work \"the silent service\", as they spend all their time sneaking around stealthily. They use passive sonar, listening for the sounds that other things make, as their primary way of keeping track of other vessels. They have high percesion inertial navigation to keep track of where they are. However, in a movie watching some experts stand silently around with headsets trying to hear very feint sound would be **Super-Duper Boring**. The bings cue you that it's a submarine, as though the cramped quarters wouldn't do that.", "Former Submarine Sonar Technician here. The sound you hear is \"active sonar\" which means we make the sound, wait for the return and using geometry that gives us a range to the object. However this is rarely used as it lets the enemy know exactly where we are. If you watch the movie \"The Hunt for Red October\" this is the job Jonesy is doing. However, again, that is far fetched. Normally we have no less than 5 sonarmen listening at the same time to make sure nothing is missed. The most accurate submarine movie for submarine life IMO is \"down periscope\", but the most actually accurate one would be u-571." ], "score": [ 20, 13 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5rgjz", "dc5tirc", "dc69yos", "dc5rcy1", "dc65hqk", "dc6a57l" ], "text": [ "Despite what you might think there aren't as many common medications available. Also, pharmacies only need to keep enough of any given medication in stock as long as they get frequent shipments every few days. They determine which medications are the most highly used by local physicians and stock those up enough to last until their next delivery with a safety supply always in reserve. And if they get dangerously low all they need to do is make a special order that comes a few days early. But pharmacies are getting shipments of medications all the time so this really shouldn't be a problem. Another thing that helps is that shelf life of most medications are at least a year. So even if you have to stock some exotic medication that no one really ever gets prescribed you can keep a small supply tucked away somewhere and have a computer system track when it is going to expire and you need to toss the old stuff out.", "They don't. No where near it in fact. It's simply that most prescribers stick to a small list of drugs they are comfortable with and local pharmacies adapt to local prescribers. Anything unusual can be ordered and in the next day.", "Theres a lot of things pharmacies can do to predict trends. For example, coming up to bank holidays we order in surplus antibiotics, morning after pills and other contraceptives. We try to have a nine month supply of the more popular contraceptive pills so if someone comes in and wants their six month supply we can give it and still have enough for three other women to get a one month supply. At the end of August we get a big delivery of our flu vaccines, which we can top up if needed. Our computer system keeps track of sales statistics for each of our medications, we try to get people to leave in their prescriptions on file. It makes it easy for them, we get it ready, text them when they can collect and text them again of they havent collected after two weeks. But it also helps us predict what medications will be needed each month/week. Our pharmacy gets twice daily deliveries from our main supplier, and once daily delivery from our other suppliers so if the customer is in early and we dont have their meds in stock, we can have it for that afternoon. But we would still have a lot of medication readily available on the shelf, some of which we haven't dispensed in a year. Source: Pharmacy dispenser.", "Pharmacies often work in networks. Common medications will be kept on site, and less common ones will be kept at a larger pharmacy or central supply hub and sent to the pharmacy as needed. You may not notice this if you live in a city where things are transferred quickly and pharmacies are larger, but if you live in a smaller town you will often have to wait a few days or even a week to have some meds filled.", "I worked at small pharmacy for many years. it doesn't take a lot of space to store small bottles of 1000 pills. and we would get about 4-5 shipments per day from different companies for our supply.", "They dont. I use to take a lot of medications and different pharmacies had to special order or were out of stuff all the time. But, when I was using, I use to regularly dream of having free reign behind a pharmacy counter with a big bag taking everything I wanted." ], "score": [ 111, 52, 21, 17, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5tk6n", "dc5xuq0", "dc5yhwz", "dc6ixmg" ], "text": [ "Everyone is different, so some may never have to clean out their ears and some have to regularly. I get large buildups in my ears of I do not clean them regularly. I used to think it was normal until I met my former SO. She never had to clean out her ears ever and her 'wax' looked different from mine. The oils my body produces mix with the wax in my ears and makes it thicker. My doctor would usually have to flush out my ears every so often because my ears would get infected every year or so. I never used Q-tips because I knew it could impact the wax and make it worse. I ended up getting a simple cleaning kit from the store with drops and a bulb syringe. A few drops in the ear then flush out with warm water. Haven't had any problems since then and it seems to work great!", "I clean my ears in the shower. When the shower is hot I just get my index finger and wipe around. I don't have any problems", "Or, if you are in India, you could pay an ear cleaner on the street to do it for you: URL_0", "I get lots of earwax sometimes, to the point where i can suddenly lose 40%+ of my hearing simply by breathing and having earwax block the entire canal, i usually rub my ears over with soap to get through particularly bad times until i feel true skin texture instead of waxy/oilyness, then i dip my pinky's fingertip in about half its fingerprints length starting as far towards the back of my head moving forward not inward, sort of forming a light suction effect that i very precisely control the intensity of because hey its suction and it shouldnt hurt. Actually i dont do the suction part in the shower often just because of having better control and stability sitting on a toilet, but on bad earwax days where my hearing is impaired it'd bring out a glop of oil about the size of three cooked rice or maybe 2/3rds of a plump large sunflower seed. I dunno, it seems to have always worked for me, i haven't had an ear problem I've had to really look into. It's not even really a habit, just when my ears feel a bit off i manually remove the wax." ], "score": [ 21, 6, 5, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [ "http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2242882/Wax-work-Traditional-Indian-ear-cleaners-charge-25p-scrape-dirt-gunk-needle.html" ], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5s5ae" ], "text": [ "It's the vibrations of the flyback transformer that is responsible for the horizontal deflection of the electron beam that creates the picture. You can figure out the approximate frequency by thinking like this: There are 525 lines drawn on a television and the display refreshes at a frequency of (roughly) 60Hz (it's actually a very strange 59.94Hz) BUT REMEMBER THAT IT'S INTERLACED. This means that the signal that causes the horizontal deflection has to sweep across the 525 lines of the screen 30 times per second (half the image is drawn in an interlaced pattern at a time). 525*30 = 15.75kHz This is why only some people can hear it. That's out of the hearing range for a large number of older adults. Why do transformers vibrate? I won't go into that, but you'll be familiar with the problem if you've ever been near a device with \"60Hz hum\" that didn't come from a speaker. It's the power transformer vibrating at 60Hz." ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5u8x8", "dc5xh98", "dc6neq1" ], "text": [ "Because parents have made peanut allergies more prevalent by not giving peanuts to their kids because they're scared they have a peanut allergy.", "It **is** a bit random. Basically, the immune system is always on the hunt for invaders. Antibodies, which bind to stuff to flag it as bad, are made in a mutation-heavy process, so you can constantly make new types to bind to different stuff. There are all kinds of checkpoints to prevent this from going haywire, but hey, nobody's perfect. As a rule, the immune system hates unknown proteins worse than anything. The most common food allergies are protein-rich: Peanuts, tree nuts, milk, fish, shellfish, eggs, soy, and wheat (the allergy is to gluten, the main protein.) Proteins can have very large and complicated structures that present all kinds of potential targets to the immune system, while things like fats and carbohydrates are way simpler. Why do immune systems tend to particularly hate some proteins, and really flip out about peanuts? We're still figuring that part out. The immune system basically works by touch on a very small scale, and some things just sort of feel suspicious. Some proteins are harder to chop up in the digestive system, which makes them more likely to cause trouble. It also depends on how you're exposed. Proteins that are eaten are viewed with much less suspicion than those that show up in the blood suddenly. As for peanuts specifically, it's been suggested that boiled or fried peanuts are less likely to provoke the immune system than dry roasted peanuts, which is the most common style in the United States. Couldn't tell you why.", "I live in Argentina (South America). I have never seen anyone with peanuts alergy. May be we've followed [Lois CK advice]( URL_0 )." ], "score": [ 30, 16, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [ "https://youtu.be/wEb5a-I0kyg" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5t86v" ], "text": [ "The swimsuit is made of special fabric that absorbs as little water as possible. There is water between the fibers, but none inside them. Some clothes will dry quickly, but the nice soft snugly clothes have cotton or wool in them. Those fabrics absorb water into the fibers, taking much longer to dry." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5vikr", "dc5tpdq" ], "text": [ "Brown sugar is actually white sugar, however they add in about 2% unrefined molasses for colour and flavour. 'Organic' sugar does not receive milk of lime in the refining process (the step before the product is turned into white sugar), which leaves in brown in colour too, making it slightly more healthy (according to the tour guide). SOURCE: Durban sugar tour", "There is more molasses in brown sugar. White sugar is very highly refined, almost pure sucrose (^C 12 ^H 22 ^O 11)." ], "score": [ 15, 11 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5yrkd" ], "text": [ "The FTC has a clause on their small business [FAQ]( URL_0 ) which describes the requirements around disclosures. An interesting snippet reads: \"Although **there is no hard-and-fast rule about the size of type in a print ad or the length of time a disclosure must appear on TV**, the FTC often has taken action when a disclaimer or disclosure is too small, flashes across the screen too quickly, is buried in other information, or is otherwise hard for consumers to understand\" ___ This pretty much answers your question. It would be better to just have a code which has a font and duration requirements which links to the disclosure statement on a FTC controlled database." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [ "https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/advertising-faqs-guide-small-business" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5wjpe", "dc5x4ke" ], "text": [ "I am no expert but, people tend to want to satisfy their curiosity and that includes delving into the taboo.", "Porn companies are like any other form of media, they copy what seems to be doing well. A few years ago it was all about parodies along the lines of \"Not Star Wars XXX\". Add in the naughty/taboo aspects of human nature, and things like this take off pretty quick. It'll eventually move on to something else." ], "score": [ 4, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc5xenn", "dc5xgti" ], "text": [ "If I remember correctly if they recognize it as a genocide, they have to compensate the recognized group. As well as the fact that they may not like them.", "Turkey is an important country that sits at a highly strategic spot and buys lots of goods from other countries. They have power and play it off between the US and Russia well. Armenians have no power and really nothing to offer. Their pride just isn't worth the cost of pissing off the Turks and losing them to our competition. TL;DR Politics." ], "score": [ 15, 11 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc64qjt", "dc61pr6", "dc5xw6u", "dc65fye" ], "text": [ "> If almost all countries are indebted and they can't repay their debts Your premise is wrong. While most countries do have some level of debt, they can pay it off. There's nothing \"bad\" about debt, unless you can't afford to pay it back. > why not just start from scratch with 0 debts for everyone ? They do. It's called a default. However, defaulting causes a lot of problems- your money becomes worthless (which makes life for your citizens hard, especially the ones who loaned you money). It also means even if you start with new money, no one is going to trust you for a while - why should they, you didn't pay back last time? It's not any different than being the guy at work asking to borrow $5 and never paying it back. Even if you aren't in debt with the new money, it's going to be worth junk. The thing that gives money value is trust. If no one is willing to take your new dollar, you're still in a bad spot. Eventually, your new currency will probably be cheap enough that people will use it, but not after doing massive damage to your country and economy.", "> If almost all countries are indebted and they can't repay their debts With the exception of a few countries, they can and do repay their debts. Most sovereign debt is owned by citizens of the country which issued it. Meaning that if government X decided to stop making debt payments, the people most affected by it would be individuals of country X.", "Because these debts aren't owed to other countries (or at least, not all of them). Also remember that one mans debt is another mans loan. Someone owns that debt, and someone is going to get very pissed that his money is gone. Most of the debt is owed to the general public and private companies. Imagine if you suddenly decided that you, personally, would not pay back *any* debt, loans or payments that you owe to anyone. How do you think that will go for you? Going to the other side, if someone who ows you a couple of grand came up to you and said \"hey, I'm not paying you back, cya!\". how much will you now trust this person? would you lend him again later? Same thing if every government decides to not honor their debt. The world economy would simply crash in a horrid spiral where nobody trusts in the value of the government backed currency and financial system. The government would loose its ability to do modern business and we would have a very-great depression.", "First of all, being in debt isn't bad. Most homeowners buy houses with a mortgage, most students take out a student loan and even millionaires probably take out loans for large purchases. As long as you can pay it back, debt is fine. The problem arises when governments become irresponsible. For example, Greece allowed people to retire at 55 whereas in the UK people had to work almost 10 years more. The pensions are paid by the government; one was responsible and the other was irresponsible - guess who had a debt crisis? Also, governments don't always loan money to each other. Instead, you have government bonds which is a piece of paper that you pay a certain sum of money for and the government pays it back with interest. Most of these bonds are owned by individuals and companies rather than other governments. Also, if a country is drowning in debt the government can just say 'Sorry, I can't pay you.' and they won't have to pay it. However, this is bad for the citizens of the country because business won't trust that country and that means jobs, infrastructure and their money becomes worthless. Edit: grammar" ], "score": [ 10, 8, 5, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6j8r8", "dc5ya24" ], "text": [ "There is a natural small release of \"good feeling\" chemicals in the brain when you scratch anything. This came about through evolution. If you have a mite or dangerous parasite your itching will kill it or at least it is worth a shot is what your brain tells you. This is my understanding as a five year old not very complete but simplistic :).", "Im not an expert, but it is because the mild pain signals from your itching drown out the discomfort, so the discomfort can no longer be felt. You no longer feeling that \"itchiness\" feels nice, as it is relief from that discomfort. It's somewhat like those things that pass a small electric current through your body so that you feel less pain." ], "score": [ 6, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc605nt" ], "text": [ "If the Universe has positive curvature then it will be finite. Having positive curvature basically means that giant triangles will have the three angles summing to more than 180 degrees. (Negative curvature means the three angles of giant triangles will sum to less than 180 degrees, and a flat universe has zero curvature and the sum of the three angles of giant triangles is 180). You can see an example of positive curvature by drawing a triangle on a globe with one corner at a pole and the other two corners on the equator. The sum of the three angles will be greater than 180 degrees... spheres have positive curvature and if the universe was like that it would be finite." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc610e9" ], "text": [ "What does absolute zero really mean? --- The belief that 0K impies that all motion stopps is a popular misconception. Quantum mechanics tells us that bound particles cannot have an arbitrary amount of energy. Instead, they can only hop between energy levels. And the lowest of these energy levels is still not 0J. Thus, a bound particle can never have no motion energy. What absolute zero really means, is that all particles are in this lowest energy state, whih is called ground state. And Heisenberg's uncertainty principle tells us that this is impossible. What is a negative temperature? --- Negatve temperatures are not, in fact, colder than 0K. In a sense, all negative temperatures are even hotter than all positive temperatures. So.... how can the temperature of a system be negative? This is a consequence of the \"proper\" definition of temperature: **1/T=( & delta; S/ & delta; U)*_V,N_*.** Here, S is entropy, U is internal energy, V is Volume and N is the number of particles. What this equation says in words is, that 1/T (the inverse of temperature) is equal to the change in entropy over a variation of internal energy when volume and particle number are constant. Thus, **if the entropy of a system decreases as it gains internal energy its temperature will become negative.** This can only happen in very peculiar cases, as an increase in internal energy usually leads to an increase in entropy, but it is possible. Since those systems are kind of weird, they are not very stable. When a system of negative temperature comes in thermal contact with a \"normal\" system of positive temperature, the negative temperature system will lose energy to the normal system, because ubstable systems want to become stable if they can. That is why I said negative temperature systems are hotter than positive temperature systems: a system A is hotter than a system B, if A will lose thermal energy to B when they come into thermal contact. Which is exactly what happens here." ], "score": [ 16 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc68jr4", "dc625yo" ], "text": [ "They weren't confident of WMD in Iraq. The administration goons pushing for war were knowingly lying.", "First of all, the intelligence analysts looking at American cyber-security and those looking at international weapons capabilities are students of different specialties. Secondly, the Bush Administration pushed the intelligence that supported their predisposition for the war, and didn't feature at all the deep division in the intelligence community at the time, and the dissenting voices were effectively ignored. Including UN weapons inspectors. Thirdly, since then reforms have been enacted. URL_0" ], "score": [ 4, 4 ], "text_urls": [ [], [ "https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/12/13/the-pre-war-intelligence-on-iraq-wrong-or-hyped-by-the-bush-white-house/?client=safari" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc621vs", "dc647tk", "dc62gyr", "dc6henx" ], "text": [ "It's not \"made up\" anything in particular. It's just a concept. A byte is a string of eight bits, and a bit is just a binary digit. A number. And it doesn't make much sense to ask \"what is a number made of, and how big is it?\" In computers, bits are stored in lots of different ways, depending on the device. HDDs store bits as the alignment of magnetic fields on a spinning metal platter. SSDs store bits as extra electrons being pumped into memory cells. Your CPU deals with bits as being different voltages across wires. A CD stores bits as raised and lowered regions of the surface that reflect light differently. In short, a bit is just a number that can be either 1 or 0, on or off, yes or no. Any thing that you can think of that can store and represent two states can store a bit. The light switch on the wall in your home stores one bit of information. Up, and the light is on. Down, and the light is off.", "It's basically just a bunch of 1s and 0s that make up binary code. 1 byte = 8 bits, or a series of eight 1s and 0s. A gigabyte is 1 billion bytes. When you store these bits on something, you're just storing a representation of the bits. For example, with DVDs/Blu Rays, this bits are represented by a series of \"pits\" that the laser can read off the disc. The data is written in a track that goes around the entire disc like a record. As the laser passes along this track, it can detect when there's a pit, and when there isn't. These spaces of \"pits\" and \"not pits\" represent the 1s and 0s of binary. There are many other ways to store this type of information, and people are always looking for faster, cheaper, more dense ways of storing bits. You could, in theory, simply write a series of dots and dashes on a piece of paper and store binary information that way.", "A byte is just stored information made up of eight bits. Bits can store two states either a yes or a no represented by a 1 or a 0. They can be stored two ways depending on what type of storage you have. A SSD stores information inside transistors utilizing electrons. If there is voltage inside the transistor it is a 1 otherwise it is 0. Technically increasing the amount of data inside an SSD will increase its weight just by a completely useless to even mention amount. Each one of these transistors store one bit. A physical platter hard drive uses a metal disk that we can freely alter and read the magnetic fields at any given point inside the disk. If the magnetic field is facing one way it is a true if it is facing the opposite direction it is false. Each one of these domains that we can alter and read would be one bit.", "Alright. A byte is made up of 8 bits. A bit is a number that can only be 0 or 1. It can basically have two states - 1 or 0. It can be represented anywhere where there's two states - a light switch can be either on (1) or off (0), as an example. That's a bit. Bits used to be represented as all sorts of things. For example, on a punch card, the presence of a hole means a 1, while the absence of it means a 0. The computer used a light sensor to determine whether there was a hole punched in or not. And a bit is as large as the device that's used to represent it. Or, a bit can be as small as you can make it. For example, on a modern hard drive, a bit occupies an area of 250x25 nanometers, or 6250 square nanometers. Or 0,000000000000000000625 square centimeters. And if you can change the state of something that represents a bit, you can write a bit. It's as simple as that. On a hard drive, bits are represented by magnetic fields. It's basically like an old audio cassete, but stretched over a disc. The platter inside a hard drive is basically like a \"magnetic canvas\", and the read/write head can either sense the magnetic fields change as it spins, or overwrite the magnetic fields by using an electromagnet to \"paint new magnetic fields\" over the old ones. Certain patterns of magnetic fields represent a 0, and some other pattern represents a 1. About if it changes the weight of a hard drive... it doesn't, and it doesn't need to. Imagine a light switch - it weighs the same whether it's on or off. The only difference between it being on or off, is that the light will glow if the switch is on. But that's not always the case - on a thumb drive, for example, bits are stored as an electrostatic charge, which does have some weight - but it's so small it's basically undetectable. And about bytes, megabytes, gigabytes... A byte is basically an array of 8 bits. Together, they form a number that can range from 0 to 255. How is it so? Just like you can form numbers up to 99.999.999 by pairing together 8 digits, by pairing together 8 bits you can form numbers up to 1111 1111, which is the same as 255 in our decimal system. A kilobyte (KB) is a group of 1024* bytes. A megabyte (MB) is a group of 1024* kilobytes. A gigabyte (GB) is a group of 1024* megabytes. A terabyte (TB) is a group of 1024* gigabytes. And so on. You might be wondering why computers represent numbers as bits instead of decimal numbers, for example. The reason is that bits are very easy to read and write, while numbers with more states can require some guesswork to decide which state it's at. A good way to understand this is to picture a volume knob that goes from 0 to 9, but just has the 0 and the 9 written on it. Can you accurately tell at a glance which number it's at? You can guess, but you won't be right 100% of the time. *1 KB is technically 1000 bytes. But if you use Windows, it considers 1KB as being 1024 bytes. The unit of measure that actually represents 1024 bytes is called kibibyte (KiB). This is also why when you buy a 16GB flash drive, Windows reports that it only has 14,9GB instead of the 16GB it's supposed to have." ], "score": [ 33, 9, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc63gmz", "dc6f7ml" ], "text": [ "It's all connected together. Kind of like the internet. When your phone is turned on and connected, the tower is constantly checking in. It'll \"ping\" your phone like \"whaddup, 999-555-5555, you still there?\" And your phone is all \"sup tower, yah I'm still here\". When you make a call, your phone contacts the tower like \"hey guys, I'm trying to make a call to 1-800-255-3700, any idea how I can get to that?\". So then the tower is all \"yeah hang on, let me forward to over to the central office, they'll be able to hook you up\". Then the central office picks up and is like \"whaddup tower?\" And the tower is all \"yo office, we got a phone looking to call 1-800-255-3700, any chance you could hook a brother up?\". So the central office leans over to the other guy at the office and is all \"yo, where's 1-800-255-3700 at?\" And the other guy is like \"hang on let me get out the Rolodex\". And he spins through all the records and is like \"aight, I found it. Looks like it's another cell phone on the Verizon network\". So the central office is like \"aight hang on tower, we're going to forward you over to Verizon\". Then the Verizon central office picks up and is all \"whaddup genericcellcarrier\" and genericcellcarrier is all \"sup Verizon, I got one of my phone's looking to call a 1-800-255-3700. Rolodex says it's on your network\". And Verizon is all \"Yeaup, that's one of ours, hang on while I forward you\". Then Verizon's central office sees that one of their towers has been pinging the phone that number belongs too all day. So they hit up that tower, and that tower is all \"yo, 1-800-255-3700, I got an incoming call from 999-555-5555, you want this?\". Or something like that.", "It's simple. Whenever your phone is within range of a cell tower, the local telephone exchange knows which tower it is connected to. And the tower always keep \"pinging\" your phone to check if it is still there. So, the local exchange always knows where the cellphone is. When you dial in a number, the call request gets offloaded to your local phone service provider by the cell towers. There, they receive your request and check if the number you called is on their list of local numbers. If it is, they just contact the cell tower where the phone is to alert it that it's receiving a call. If not, they offload it to a bigger station where they try to find in which region that number is located. They basically have a constantly updated database of which phone numbers are active in each region. And when they do find it, they send the call request there, and the destination phone is alerted of the incoming call. And what about long-distance calls? Well, that's why area codes were invented. If an area code is detected, your local phone exchange just sends it to the corresponding area where they'll try to find the destination phone. If all fails, a message is sent back to your phone telling you that the destination number does not exist or is outside cell coverage. An interesting point to note: This process is not instantaneous. Sometimes, when you call someone on their cellphone, you might hear a few short beeps before the ringing tone begins to ring indicating that the destination phone is ringing. Those beeps are there to tell you that the local cell towers at the destination are trying to communicate to the phone to alert it of the incoming call. They're very common when a phone is on a weak coverage area with lots of interference, or when they're crossing a tower's coverage border and the nearby towers are trying to contact it." ], "score": [ 422, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc67bk5" ], "text": [ "They influence factors like metabolism, appetite, subconscious activity (neat) and decrease water retention" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc62far", "dc62bbd" ], "text": [ "Using cameras to capture the light and film to record the images. You do know that cameras existed for quite a while prior to the 90s, right? The technology for cameras may have improved but they still work by pointing them at what you want a picture of and pressing a button.", "I'm not really sure what you mean. Ultrasound has been around for a really long time. This is the classic imaging technique. Relatively small scopes for filming have been around since the 20s." ], "score": [ 10, 5 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc658ir", "dc62nf8", "dc62obx" ], "text": [ "Draw a line from each rod and cone in your eye, through your lens and out into the world. Your field of view is composed of anything that intercepts those lines. These lines expand outward in a cone shape (because your eye's lens is convex), so objects that are closer are \"hit\" by more of these view-lines than they would be if they were distant. The lines represent how light travels from objects they're reflected off of, through your lens, and onto your rods and cones. Ultimately, the number of rods and cones an object activates determines its \"size\" in your field of view. This is also why holding an object closer to your eye in low-light conditions makes it easier to see: you're activating more rods and cones with the limited amount of light being reflected from the object.", "Easiest way is to assume your eye has coverage of 10,000 pixels, when close the tower takes up 1000, the further away you go the fewer pixels it takes up the smaller it seems.", "Your field of view is constant, but what is in that field of view isn't. Pick up a pillow and put it over your face. Assuming there's enough light, you should notice that the pillow is consuming your entire field of view. Now put that pillow on a chair and walk back a bit from it. Notice that your can now see things other than the pillow now. Your field of view hasn't changed, so necessarily the pillow must appear smaller within that same field of view." ], "score": [ 16, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc63uty" ], "text": [ "From what I remember learning, it's very similar to a hangover. You become dehydrated from dispelling so much fluid out of your eyes. You tense up while crying, so the blood vessels in your head become strained. So if you don't drink water after a crying spell you essentially get a hangover." ], "score": [ 10 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc65dhx", "dc64pv5", "dc65mut", "dc643fm", "dc65nx8", "dc67nia" ], "text": [ "the core of Buddhism is that you are a human being who is driven by need. the need for money. the need for material things. the need for happiness. the need for fulfillment. your entire life, you are a slave of need. if you don't get what you need, you're in suffering. therefore the state of life is suffering from need. in order to get away from that, you need to reach the state of enlightenment, no longer bound by the suffering of need.", "The goal of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment. People make the mistake of assuming its a religion, but it's much more of a philosophy. It's about being happy and making those around you happy. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, \"There is a misconception that buddhism is a religion and that you worship Buddha. Buddhism is a practice, like yoga, you can be a Christian and practice buddhism. I met a Catholic priest who lives in a Buddhist monastery in France. He told me that buddhism makes him a better Christian. I love that.\"", "It's not that hard to study what Buddhism is, it's based on what's called the Four Noble Truths. The first Noble Truth is the existence of something that in India at the time was called [Dukkha]( URL_1 ). It is a little difficult to translate, it means an badly placed axle hole (making for an uncomfortable ride) but is often translated into English as suffering/dissatisfaction/stress. The second Noble Truth is that that thing (Dukkha) arises during the life and death of a human being. The root cause is something called [Taṇhā]( URL_2 ) (the pain of thirst). Generally there are three categories of that thirst/craving/desire: Greed, Hatred, Delusion. Wanting something you don't have, not wanting something you have, and being unclear on the nature of reality (seeing it as different than it is). The third Noble Truth is that Dukkha can cease. One outlook in Buddhism is that all things that arise pass away. The fourth Noble Truth is something called the Eightfold Path. It's a list of practices/suggestions/principles that allow one to reduce the amount of Dukkha that arises in oneself and others. All of these eight qualities/areas are prefixed by a word hard to describe but it boils down to nurturing/complete. Often the word 'Right' is used but that some folks have a negative associations to the concept of Righteousness. Also if something is Right means there is something that is Wrong. It's more a sense of finding a complete/helpful way. One of the Eight is Wise Speech. Nurturing/complete is what is meant when when someone talks about '[Right Speech]( URL_0 )'", "Buddhism is like drinking chocolate milk after finishing all your chores. You are happy, your parents are happy, the world is happy. Attain inner peace.", "Buddhism, as others have mentioned, is about attaining enlightenment. Different Buddhist sects have differing methods on how this is done: some focus on chanting the Lotus Sutra (Mahayana Buddhism), while others focus on repeated, structured meditation. Ultimately, Buddhists aim to free themselves from earthly desire by letting go of their stressors in life, in this way \"enlightenment\" can be viewed similarly to \"contentment\" -- Buddhists strive to be content in their surroundings. It gets a bit more complicated when you look into attaining Buddhahood or becoming a Bodhisattva -- but basically a Buddha has mastered their craft to the point where they have moved on to another dimension. Conversely, a bohdisattva's job is to provide teachings throughout multiple lifetimes -- they do not attain enlightenment in the fullest sense -- but always return to the earthly plane to teach others how to attain enlightenment. At the risk of making comparisons that may mislead you, a bohdisattva is more like Jesus (in a sacrificial sense), whereas the Buddha has achieved enlightenment beyond our understanding (kind of, but not really like how the Christian God \"works in mysterious ways\" beyond human understanding).", "What makes you depressed or angry? You must desire something to ease those emotions, a desire of something that is unattainable at your current moment in time. If you can understand what you desire, you can understand why you're suffering. For example, if a loved one dies you will suffer. You will desire their continued life. Is such a desire reasonable? No, because immortality is not possible. You must eliminate the desire to ease the suffering. Furthermore, rituals can be performed to ease suffering. Many religions and cultures perform rituals. You may visit a gravestone, light a candle, or put some photos on a shelf. We must not let our desire take hold and a ritual can ground our state. We artificially attain enlightenment or Nirvana throughout our lives and watch as it slips through our fingers. We try to catch it but still some falls to Earth. We're left with less than we had before which may lead to more suffering if we don't understand our desires. When one truly attains Nirvana they are happy with even a single grain of sand or none at all, it belongs to Earth. I don't claim to be an expert, this is how I perceive it. You should do some research on the Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path." ], "score": [ 13, 7, 6, 3, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [ "https://storyofstoryinsouthasia.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/the-historic-conversation-of-the-buddha-and-prince-abhaya/", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%E1%B9%87h%C4%81" ], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc653v1", "dc64yd6", "dc69ynh" ], "text": [ "Regardless of their status, every child in America has a legal right to a K-12 education. There was a supreme court case that makes it illegal for schools to require anything only a legal citizen could obtain (social security number) or inquire about anything that may out their parents as illegal immigrants. Housing discrimination based on immigration status is illegal also. And as far as work goes . . . It is illegal to hire illegal immigrants as far as I know. But you *know* that they are getting hired in large numbers for low-skilled jobs. tl;dr: America goes out of its way to make sure that illegal immigrants can't be discriminated against.", "it's not legally required to prove you're a legal immigrate to go to school. you can rent without needing to break out your birth certificate or passport. landlord wouldn't even know how to authenticate a passport anyway. fake ID's are easy to get...just ask any high schooler. you can find a job for a boss that looks the other way. because he's going to pay you less than minimum wage.", "Okay, I'm going to out myself as breaking US federal law, but as I already paid a fine and discussed it with immigration before, I don't feel too bad. Granted, my case isn't like what you imagine when you say \"illegal immigrant\". I've since returned to the US several times, legally and for extended periods since so I figure they've had a few chances to slap the cuffs on. Systems may have changed since I was there to make how I did it harder. I have worked illegally in the US twice. I've done it in Florida and California, both states that are pretty tight on illegal immigrant checks. About 10 months each time. A buddy and I decided to go to the US to \"tour\" like many of our friends did, except not to the UK or Europe like them. The \"tour\" is basically a rite of passage for a lot of Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans. We did some visiting with friends in several states, and ended up buying a truck in Utah, from a govt auction site. When applying for insurance, all of them required a SSN. They simply had no system that would accommodate the idea of two foreigners just wanting to insure a vehicle for a few months with an SSN or a US driving license. So we went off to the local govt office, and asked. It was that simple. We both got an SSN for about a $10 processing fee and it had a bold stamp on it saying \"Not valid for employment\". Fair enough. With that, we got a $5 Utah id card (So as not to have to carry passports any more at places that carded customers), and then also applied for a driver license. Both of these were official government issued, and bore the SSN and *no* employment status indicator. We toured for a bit more and were in California when money became short. We had open return tickets, valid for the 3 months of the visa waiver terms, but decided to stay. (Young, dumb and full of cum. Right?) So we got jobs. I had a semi skilled job helping some guy install electronic systems, and my buddy found another role. Both places asked for ID and SSNs, and the driver license satisfied both. We got an apartment in Santa Ana, paid rent on time, and paid taxes (automatically deducted). The second trip I had, I met up with him in Florida. There I got a job with him doing manual labour doing office installations. Again, they only needed basic proof of SSN for tax purposes. No-one gave a shit. In economies where a lot of the jobs are by word of mouth, or people get their relatives hired, *no-one* confronted us with a \"You took er jerbs\". In fact to most they were amused that two white boys were working illegally in California and Florida. We kept our noses clean, kept our vehicle roadworthy and legal, and paid taxes. We had insurance but never needed to use it, and the emergency funds to leave if we ever had to in a hurry. The immigration system may have changed since then, but I bet there's still loopholes. I'm sure it's harder since 9/11, but that's only for entry. If you're not on any lists or from any flagged nations, I bet you could get in and disappear. Many people from tin-pot nations meet the financial requirements of being able to support themselves for those months by bring cash from people in their home country and simply bank it in the US so that those people can get their own assets out of the country easily and have a bit of a nest-egg should they need to flee. I've since been back a few times, two of them while employed by a UK company, and once prior to that to attend an American university as a foreign student with full compliance in immigration. In all that time, I got stopped once when visiting with family and paid a $95 fine for overstaying my visa on my second trip. I fessed up to it at customs when the guy entered my data and asked me if there was something he should know. Didn't bullshit them. They would have turned me away that day if I tried to lie about it." ], "score": [ 43, 10, 8 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc65sly", "dc65loh", "dc65hc3", "dc6aygv" ], "text": [ "Honestly its not a \"huge\" issue but it does need to be addressed. Most people accuse Illegals of taking jobs and utilizing social programs without paying into them, which is mostly bs. For the most part the jobs they take are low wage laborer jobs that no one else will take. They also are not eligible for social programs and are able to pay taxes so they are usually not a \"drain\" on the economy. They do however have an unemployment rate higher than the national average and are a high risk group in terms of crime. They also tend to send more money out of the country than any other group. Honestly the U.S immigration problem is a systematic more than anything else.", "Yeah, it's not remotely ruining our economy. If it was, you guys would have felt it, given that your economy is basically an extension of ours. That being said, illegals do have effects. They generally take very low paying jobs in agriculture or industrial work, and as a result compete with American workers. However, there's also quite a bit of evidence to suggest that Americans simply won't do the kinds of jobs illegals end up doing in the United States, and because they lack proper identification they can't really work \"real\" jobs in the US at all. The biggest problems are that illegal immigration is going to be associated with all sorts of other negative issues, particularly crime, gang, and drug related stuff, but that's also pretty much confined to areas where illegals end up living (e.g. they're a problem in Texas or Southern California, but not in North Dakota). They also eat into our welfare programs a little, but there's reason to believe that they generate a fair amount of economic activity, such that their net effect on the economy is probably impossible to conclusively pin down as a net positive or negative.", "Not as much as he would make you believe. It isnt whats killed our economy, although it does cost us. the healthcare they get for free (usually through clinics) are payed by the tax payers. However, a lot of stuff that get attributed to them simply isnt true. *illegals* arent stealing our jobs. Its exceedingly difficult for illegals to get any kind of work, benefits, food stamps, etc. Theres a lot of red tape and citizenship verification, you *need* a social. which they dont have. The jobs they do get, are ones American citizens turned down. These are under the table positions (for under min wage) at small town businesses. The equivalent of a parent making their child work in the family business (which in many states doesnt have to be a paid position). Except doing this with illegals is highly illegal. It isnt affecting crime like he says, gangs are, but our Hispanic gangs are filled with citizens who were born here, not illegal. its a problem yes, but it isnt whats killing us nor is a wall going to fix things. But its very, very easy to build a platform or get votes if you can channel blame.", "It's hard to quantify. That whole \"undocumented\" thing makes them pretty hard to track. One thing that few try to dispute is 10 million illegal immigrants depresses the average wage." ], "score": [ 11, 11, 5, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6b7fc" ], "text": [ "From my understanding, this is due to REM sleep cycles. When you sleep, your body goes through 90 minute Rapid Eye Movement cycles. Near the middle of these cycles, you go into deep sleep, where most of your dreams are. So when waking up after a full night, you have already done 5 or 6 otr 7 of these cycles and dont seem so disoriented. When taking a nap, if you nap for perhaps only 60 minutes, you are waking up in the middle (deep sleep), causing you to feel very disoriented. This is why you commonly hear \"90 min powernap\" becuase you are waking up after completing a full cycle and not in during one." ], "score": [ 16 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6i2a8", "dc6jkpa" ], "text": [ "Because that's how the laws of physics works. In order to make your arms move, for example, you need energy. There's no way of making something move without using energy. And energy is not infinite. When we use up too much energy, we feel tired, because that's the way our brain tells us that we need to stop what we're doing and go rest or eat something, since we don't have much energy left to do it.", "I assume you're asking about the actual feeling of tiredness rather than lack of energy. It's not something known for sure, but most likely it's for us to know that we are low on energy. As a living being, it is much safer for us to actively seek some place safe to rest instead of dropping on the floor when we actually run out of energy. The dropping levels of energy could be due to our bodies attempting to conserve energy to stay awake longer, or it could be why our eyes get sore, to force us to stop the energy intensive activities. As to why we need to sleep to regain energy is even more of a mystery, it's simply how we evolved as high leveled animals. Mostly all animals sleep in some form or another, even those that may not seem like it. Dolphins sleep with half of the brain at a time, alternating between the two due to the dangerous environment they live in, and the need for sleep. Giraffes in nature sleep for about 30 minutes at a time, but will still lie down when they are sick or in a region where they seem as absolutely safe, such as in captivity." ], "score": [ 6, 4 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc68ukx" ], "text": [ "In a word: Tradition. Horse-related occupations (racing, breeding, etc) tend to be very traditionalist and old-fashioned, so they still use the old-fashioned measurements." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc66wui" ], "text": [ "model naming is completely marketing. there's no rule you're required to follow. most owners of your existing model would like to buy one with a number that's bigger than the one they own." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6ff3p", "dc69uej", "dc6pnbh", "dc6altw" ], "text": [ "Several recent studies have shown that 90+% of folks with reported history of penicillin allergy are not allergic when tested. This probably happens for three reasons: 1. Common side effects of medication and infections may be misinterpreted as signs of allergy, e.g. developed a rash while on medication. 2. Not all \"hypersensitivity\" reactions are allergies, which are caused by a very specific chemical - IgE antibodies, not IgM, IgG, or cell-mediated. The other types of reactions don't show up in some allergy tests. 3. It seems like people frequently outgrow penicillin allergies. This happens with many allergies, but not all. For example, kids are much more likely to outgrow a cow's milk allergy than a peanut allergy. The first two reasons basically argue that the allergy never existed. Source: I am a physician", "Most people that think they are allergic are actually not. It usually is a misunderstanding that leads to the label. eg A kid develops diarrhea while using penicillin - which is a common side effect. The doctor blames the penicillin and the mother assumes he is allergic. And you are doomed to the hell of expensive antibiotics with more side effects for the rest of your life. Penicillin allergy is life threatening. You will not find a doctor that will give you penicillin - just to see if you are still allergic. Even if your test comes back negative, I doubt that anybody will prescribe penicillin for you. The test is used for when you have a life threatening infection and only penicillin will work. Then the doctors will prescribe penicillin if you are negative.", "As a pharmacist, this is one of those things that drive me crazy. We have to ask every new patient for allergies, and about 25% of people will often report a PCN allergy. Every time I see this, I always ask the patient, \"What did PCN do to you?\" Most of the time the response is diarrhea or stomach cramps. These are not true allergic reactions... just side effects. I always take a moment and attempt to educate the patient about that. It may seem trivial, but in the big scheme of medical treatments, its a pretty big deal!", "It's common for young kids to either grow into to an allergy or out of it as their immune system encounters more things and changes. A lot of childhood viruses also causes rashes and can make it seem there's an allergy. You can see an allergy specialist to test out of being allergic. There are enough antibiotics out there that you can probably safely avoid it for the rest of your life without an issue. Skin testing can be expensive (I live in the States) but is an effective way of finding out if you have a life threatening allergy. Most adults I test end up tolerating the test and turn out to not be allergic to penicillin." ], "score": [ 8, 7, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6aogk", "dc6bs7j", "dc69wo2", "dc6az7b", "dc6p0cw", "dc6mcp2", "dc69xp5", "dc6ld9m", "dc6ce8j", "dc6j8y8", "dc6jy3v", "dc6ig5z", "dc756m5", "dc6oipz", "dc6kabq", "dc75eq0", "dc6cm83", "dc73n52", "dc6l6tw", "dc6k2kn", "dc6e6gs", "dc6l47r", "dc6dtal", "dc6i9ew" ], "text": [ "Certain things are not in fact sweet, but are highly associated with \"sweet\" in our culture - and thus when we smell them, we smell \"sweet.\" Vanilla, cocoa, cinnamon are great examples: not one of these is sweet. Put them on your tongue and they're all bitter. Put them under your nose: do you smell sugar? But a huge swath of western cooking only uses these things in sweets, and so we've drawn that association. Start using them in other dishes for a while, and you'll notice they no longer smell \"sweet\" to you. edit: Non-ELI5, since people seem intent on calling bullshit on this. Sweet is mediated predominantly by hT1R2 and hT1R3 g-protein coupled receptors on the tongue, largely found on the tastebuds of fungiform, vallate, and folliate papillae. These receptors are not found in the nose, and odorant receptors for glucose have not, to my knowledge, been identified. In fact, in animal model experiments, glucose vs. other sugar oligomers have been used as rewards/punishments coupled to smell stimuli - because glucose and the other carbs *did not themselves influence the experiment through smell.* But, hey, if you don't like the ELI5 explanation, by all means, provide a refuting source. Just saying \"nah, bruh, bullshit\" is somewhere between useless and worse-than-useless. edit2: /u/notebuff kindly [provided]( URL_0 ) a link to a paper documenting the existence of \"sweet\" receptors to the nose - linked to immune regulation ('cause glucose is the primary foodstuff for bacteria), but not taste! That can plausibly provide a mechanism for impaired upper respiratory immunity in diabetics. Thanks to /u/notebuff for teaching me something new today. And for completeness' sake, I'll add a [link to an NMR analysis]( URL_1 ) examining hT1R2/3 interaction with sweeteners. It's hard to find a source that just bluntly says \"this is how sweet works,\" 'cause it's far from a \"new\" discovery - it was in the physiology textbooks by the time I reached grad school.", "Vanilla doesn't smell sweet. It smells like vanilla. Your brain associates vanilla with sweetness, so you think it smells sweet. The brain can do weird things like that. Like how you aren't really capable of feeling wet. You use a bunch of other cues to determine if your hand is wet or dry, and it's why its so hard to tell if laundry is dry after it's become cold. Edit: Added [link]( URL_0 ) on the wetness thing for the curious.", "My understanding for vanilla extract mostly is because of the alcohol found in it. I don't know the science in it or all the actual reasons but in my mind, its like how cinnamon vodka can smell like you just walked into a Dutch bakery full of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, but the second it touches your tongue it tastes like alcohol fermented with 20 year old rubber from the bottom of a factory workers boot. When the vanilla is combined with the right ingredients the bad flavor can be counteracted or canceled out it can add a pleasant flavor to baked goods.", "Smell and taste are not intertwined, smell and flavor are. You can't really smell something as salty, sour, bitter or sweet. Those are tastes, and your tongue is responsible for detecting those. The way these molecules interact with your olfactory nerves and your taste buds is different, and they are interpreted differently. With time you may learn to correlate certain smell/flavors with tastes, but these are merely based on experience. Try sniffing around a bunch of salt, for instance. Or try smelling strong chocolate or coffee with and without sugar if you can, without knowing which is which. (They have to be similar brand/type). Before you touch it with your tongue you won't really know if it's sweet.", "In an unrelated note, I used to work for a large spice company and spent a few weeks in the very coveted and air conditioned vanilla extract room. Everybody who works around vanilla extraction ends up euphoric. Stuff gets you high.", "It isn't actually sweet. You just think it is because it's always used with something sweet, so when you smell it you go \"oh, it's sweet\". Very dark chocolate (or just cocoa powder) is a good example, because that *doesn't* smell sweet or taste sweet, but you think chocolate is sweet because usually it's put in something with lots of sugar. Source: lots of cooking", "Things like extracts are highly concentrated. When you smell it you don't get all of it at once like you would by tasting it. Dilute it a bit and it won't be so strongly bitter.", "I hate to be that guy but i.e = in other words. e.g. = for example. ( an easy way I remember it is e.g. As in eggzample", "Taste and flavor are two different things. Taste is handled by the taste buds on your tongue and flavor is handled by your nose. While there is a correlation between things that smell \"sweet\" (misnomer btw, since technically you can't smell sweet) and things that taste sweet, it obviously isn't a perfect relationship.", "An extension to this question; why does coffee smell so delicious but when I drink it it tastes like bitter hot water?", "Things like vanilla and cinnamon contain compounds that actually activate pain receptors within the body known as the transient receptor potential ion channels. These channels can actually become activated less and less by chemicals when exposed to them repeatedly. For example, if you were to consume cinnamon in small enough quantities in foods, over time you would become accustomed to them and the pain receptors would not act as strongly in response to them. So, if the cinnamon were to be consumed often enough in \"sweet\" foods, we would associate it with that food and with the \"sweet\" sensation, as it would no longer be strongly activating the ion channels. This is how people in various cultures become accustomed to foods that people in other cultures consider as \"spicy\" or \"bitter\". Vanilla still activates these pain recepting ion channels, but does so at a much weaker level, so it is much easier to associate vanilla with sweetness than cinnamon when it is consumed often. However, if it is consumed in a high enough quantities, it can still strongly set off the ion channels.", "Other things that smell great, but taste awful: cigarettes, some liquors (like Southern Comfort comes to mind) Other things that smell awful but taste great: stinky cheeses, durian, coffee (to some) I know there are others, so feel free to add your own ideas.", "Congrats for reaching r/all/top/ (of the day, top 50) with your post! & nbsp; ***** *^I ^am ^a ^bot, ^probably ^quite ^annoying, ^I ^mean ^no ^harm ^though* *^Message ^me ^to ^add ^your ^account ^or ^subreddit ^to ^my ^blacklist*", "Secondary question: to me, vanilla extract mostly smells like alcohol. It's news to me that it smells sweet to anyone. So...what's that all about? Different associations with the smell based on personal experience, or actual physical differences in the nose?", "Vanilla is very sweet too, you are likely tasting the alcohol they use as a preservative, it's like 50% alcohol (with no odor). The alcohol mostly cooks out though and you are left with the sweet taste of vanilla (with odor).", "FYI pure vanilla extract is by law 35% alcohol. The FDA says that to legally call it pure vanilla extract it has to be 100g of vanilla beans soaked in 1 liter of 35% alcohol. So the alcohol could be the nasty flavor you're tasting.", "From what I can recall, vanilla extract is alkaline (basic) which register as a bitter taste.(Acids can have a sour flavor such as citric acid). Our taste buds evolved to taste alkalines as bitter(unpleasant) to warn you that the food might be poisonous (plant poisons tend to be alkaline)", "\"Sweet\" doesn't have a smell. I was actually just explaining this to my wife a few days ago. If you bake a batch of cookies but don't add any sugar, it's still going to smell exactly like any batch of cookies do, and you won't be able to tell it's not sweet until you taste it.", "Taste and smell are different senses. While it is true that a huge contributor of what we \"taste\" is smell, taste is specifically: salty, bitter, sweet, sour and umami. Along with smell and the sense of touch (texture and heat) our overall perception of \"flavor\" is formed. If you look at flavor profiles, you notice that sweet and these scents like vanilla or cinnamon pair well together and through cultural exchanges have more or less universally become accepted as \"sweet\" ingredients. There are of course exceptions, you find \"sweet\" spices in savory dishes, and some savory herbs make it into sweet candies.", "What about the opposite? Things that smell bad that taste good, like certain types of cheese. Maybe poop actually tastes good. Someone should go try it for me. 😅", "Vanilla extract is quite concentrated, as flavorings go. The bitter aspects of it are quite diluted when mixed into the recipe. Also, vanilla \"flavor\" is almost entirely a smell, not a taste. The scent of vanilla, mixed with milky and sweet tastes, is what we perceive as vanilla.", "Vanilla has a sweet smell but it's extract is mixed with 30 percent alcohol so it tastes bitter", "Sweetness is one of the tastes that you taste primarily with your tongue. Since vanilla extract doesn't have any sugar it doesn't taste sweet.", "It's all about concentration. You put a teaspoon of vanilla extract in an entire batch of cookies because it's strong enough to flavor the entire thing. It's like salt. If you take a few grains, you can handle it, but if you take a spoonfull, it's unbearable. Same reason for smells. It's diluted by the air." ], "score": [ 12559, 4613, 509, 358, 64, 31, 21, 20, 17, 16, 15, 12, 10, 9, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [ "https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mtj2d/eli5_why_do_certain_foods_ie_vanilla_extract/dc6ghn6/", "http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005273609002405" ], [ "http://jn.physiology.org/content/112/6/1457" ], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc68mq9" ], "text": [ "You are mildly mistaken. Unlike US, most European bailouts needs an underlying security. So Germany has to pawn assets in order to give the money to Greece. The European Central Bank can only buy assets and thus the quantitative easing (buying bonds). The balance sheets of the rescued banks just appear worst because of a bigger debt even though they get cash that they needed. This is why Bassel III is important as it also props up the Shareholders Equities section of the balance sheet. US banks have mostly complied but not European banks. Also without individual currencies, Euro countries cannot print money to pay off individual national debt. And with interest rates set to increase in the next few years, Euro countries would have a harder time paying off debts." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6891o", "dc68o80", "dc686wp" ], "text": [ "supply and demand. There are not many people who will pay to watch a math mathematician work. There are many people who enjoy sporting events enough to pay to watch either via broadcast or even more to watch in person, and even more to be closer to the ball. This sets up a basic sports economy where the more popular you are to watch the more money you command.", "Money is not awarded for jobs based upon the effort or dedication required to complete them, but by the resources available to the party offering them and the amount they would need to expend to achieve the desired result. What that means is that trying really hard for a long time doesn't guarantee you a good paycheck. People who want something from other people, such as work of any kind, are going to purchase the services of whoever can do them at the lowest price. They are also limited by what they can afford; if solving a math problem doesn't make the buyer any money then even a $20 payout is a loss. Athletes on the other hand are entertainers who are very effective at bringing in viewers. A \"better\" athlete may bring in another $100 million in revenue for people wanting to see them, so if they need to pay $5 million more to obtain their services as opposed to them working/playing for another team it is well worth the price.", "Because athletes bring in hundreds of millions of dollars of profit by way of ticket sales to sporting events, and all of the ancillary industries (concession sales in sporting arenas, selling of collectibles, advertisement slots in television broadcasts, etc). No one pays to watch mathematicians solve problems." ], "score": [ 26, 8, 4 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6bu3x", "dc6h16m" ], "text": [ "You refrigerate it so bacteria don't grow in it (or at least, are very slow to do so). Bacteria cannot grow in dry sugar powder because they require moisture to live and reproduce. But a lot of water with some sugar is an excellent environment for bacterial growth.", "The container the beverage is stored in is not free of bacteria or yeasts. Nor is the water that was added to the powder to make it a beverage. Both may have had safe levels. But when the sugar in the powder was added, it created a moist and nutrient rich environment to rapidly grow. Refrigeration retards the bacterial growth." ], "score": [ 8, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6dnab" ], "text": [ "Your blood contains a clotting factor that causes the blood to clot and close the hole. The hole is really very very small os this can be done quickly and easily. Plus after the hole is made, the phlebotomist typically tells you to apply pressure, which closes the hole and speeds clotting. In contrast, occasionally, the person making the needle hole can mess up and poke a hole into the vein and then out of the vein on the other side. In such a case, it does keep bleeding for awhile and you get a big bruise from the blood that escaped the vein." ], "score": [ 9 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6hve0" ], "text": [ "Generally because you are sleeping with your mouth open which dries out the mucous membrane. If you don't believe me, try keeping your mouth wide open and breath in and out for an hour and tell me how your throat feels." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6meis" ], "text": [ "It actually takes quite a bit of brain power to have a concept of \"self,\" and an even greater amount to recognize that this animal you see in front of you is actually not an animal but a visual representation of yourself projected on front of your eyes. This is not something that would have ever been helpful in nature, so it takes a brain that evolved enough processing power generally have this one specialized skill available accidently." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6hgbs", "dc6k5uk", "dc6j7ox" ], "text": [ "cosmetic, privacy, and it also keeps the car cooler, and prevents sun damage to the interior of the car.", "Texas checking in. Without tint on your car windows you will in all probability catch on fire.", "Keeps UV rays from damaging the interior. If you live in an area that gets super hot, it really does make a difference." ], "score": [ 9, 7, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6soxv" ], "text": [ "It sounds like you are talking about a temporal artery thermometer. When you take your temperature, do you swipe it across your forehead from around center to around your eye level? If so, that's it, and it is intended to be for your forehead only. It is measuring the temperature of a particular artery that runs through your forehead. Cool infrared technology! URL_0 Now, you have other arteries running through your head, but I don't know if they are close enough to the surface or too deep to get a reading. Maybe someone else can address that. In short, no it can't be anywhere on your head as that thermometer needs to detect an artery at a certain depth. However, there are other specific areas of your head that might work." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [ "http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/infant-and-toddler-health/in-depth/thermometer/art-20047410" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6l8pd" ], "text": [ "When you “crack” your knuckles, or any other joint, it expands the space between your bones, creating negative pressure that draws synovial fluid into the new gap. This influx of synovial fluid is what causes the popping sound and feeling when you crack a knuckle" ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc7je2r" ], "text": [ "It's called 'gustatory rhinorrhea' - in some cases a reaction to spicy foods which are an irritant; in other cases, like if your nose runs no matter what you're eating, its a mistaken stimulation of the nerves running to your nose that create mucous - the nerves that control saliva flow upon thinking about eating, or eating, or smelling food smells. The mouth glands are normally stimulated into producing saliva, but in these cases, your nose gets involved by mistake also." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6th2z" ], "text": [ "The earth orbits the sun in an ellipse which means it moves faster when it's closer to the sun. This makes the sun appear to move fastest across the sky in January and slowest in July. If you stick with pure sundial time (noon is when the sun is highest in the sky) then the length of the day varies a little and you don't see the effect you're describing. This time is called Local Apparent Time (LAT). Around 1800 common clocks were accurate enough that people started changing to a system where all the days were the same length. This is called Local Mean Time (LMT). This means that apparent noon is no longer exactly at 12:00pm each day, but can be up to 16 minutes different depending of the time of year. The difference between LAT and LMT is called the Equation of Time which can be shown as a list of how many minutes to adjust given the day of the year. Some sundials include such a correction table to allow you to convert to LMT. It's the day-to-day change in the Equation of Time that stops sunrise and sunset times from being symmetrical. The most obvious effect is that the shortest day (solstice) is around 21 December but (in NYC) latest sunrise is not until around 4 January and earliest sunset is around 8 December. The exact dates will vary slightly on different years." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6q4wc", "dc6o2xd" ], "text": [ "Most anti-viruses do it very similarly. Here's what Symantec/Norton anti-virus does: 1. Load the malicious file into memory. 2. Encrypt it with a simple algorithm. (Something similar to subtracting 10 from every byte. So if the virus's code looked like KLM, the encrypted version would become ABC.) 3. Move the encrypted version to some folder like C:\\Symantec\\Quarantine. 4. Delete the original file. The encrypted version is basically rendered inert; it's as if it's been deleted. The bytes in the file are completely different and cannot be run, opened, viewed, etc. If you open Symantec and view the quarantine folder, you can choose to restore it, which just means decrypting it and moving it back to its original location. This is also why ransomware malware is effective. By encrypting every file on your computer and throwing away the key (retaining a copy for themselves, privately), they've effectively made everything inert, as if they deleted all your files. By paying money, they can send the key back to you.", "Virus applications vary in their methods. One method I've seen is that the application will 'delete' the file from the current existing location. What may actually happen is the virus application will move the file to a secure location (determined by the virus application), rename it, and log it as a quarantined file. In this way, the file is still available to the virus application and is now secured so it cannot propagate or run on its own. This is due to a possible false-positive detection. Likely the file could be cleaned also, depending on the virus and/or strain. When you open and review any files your virus application has quarantined, you could review, and if needed either restore the file or delete the quarantined file (along with many others)." ], "score": [ 14, 5 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6n6ce", "dc6ocx8" ], "text": [ "Alcohol has many effects on the mind and body. The most famous is obviously that it reduces *inhibition*. Inhibition is your self-control, the voice that tells you \"don't do what you're thinking about doing, it's probably not a good idea.\" So some get drunk, and maybe they're the kind of person that often has to talk themselves out of starting fights or hitting people, and once the alcohol is in their system, that self-control vanishes and they just act on impulse and start picking fights or hitting people. The same reduced inhibition can cause all kinds of emotional changes. Usually when we go about our lives, little things might irritate or frustrate us, but we use reason and judgment to decide not to make a big deal out of it, not to get upset or lash out at others, or we reason that the irritating thing wasn't actually someone else's fault or isn't something worth getting upset over. When we're drunk, we lose our judgment and inhibition, so maybe when something frustrates us, we get mad immediately and don't think better of causing a scene. If you're looking for the actual *chemical* reason for all this, it's very technical and I don't really understand it but Wikipedia says: > Ethanol [alcohol] inhibits the ability of glutamate to open the cation channel associated with the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subtype of glutamate receptors. Stimulated areas include the cortex, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens, which are responsible for thinking and pleasure seeking. Another one of alcohol's agreeable effects is body relaxation, possibly caused by neurons transmitting electrical signals in an alpha waves-pattern; such waves are observed (with the aid of EEGs) when the body is relaxed.", "Alcohol reduces your inhibition, some people get horny when their inhibitions go down, others get giggly, and some get violent." ], "score": [ 14, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6nqaf" ], "text": [ "Supershooter here, I was the first United States National Pinball Chsmpion. The loud noise is a mechanism located at the top inside of the back glass part of the machine. This makes a loud noise to let everyone know a game has been won. In old game rooms, it was loud to let others know you won a game. I have a few machines and have put a cloth in to pad the noise in my home." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6oyia", "dc6nu7d", "dc6pb1f" ], "text": [ "Possible side effects aren't guaranteed side effects. You may get one side effect, or maybe another, or probably none at all. Drug makers are required to advertise all possible side effects that occurred in their clinical trials. Those trials comprise probably thousands of people; conceivably if one person got a runny nose and thought it was because of the drug, that would end up listed as a side effect (that's probably an exaggeration but you get the point). I've been taking an acid reflux drug for a few years. I just looked up the side effects and I've literally never had any of them (or if I did, it didn't affect my life enough for me to notice). This is the intended experience of the vast majority of drug consumers.", "They test to make sure that the drug is better than the thing it's curing. That doesn't mean it's completely harmless. Most of the side effects are quite rare, but they have to list pretty much anything that anyone on any of the studies reported experiencing while taking the drug.", "They are required by law to inform people of all side effects, and in doing so they avoid being able to be sued." ], "score": [ 9, 8, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6p6jn" ], "text": [ "Description on amazon for the first brand of 'splash-less' bleach I searched for says 'thicker formula' which would make it flow slower out of the bottle, and less likely to splash." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6ph0q", "dc6qbf5", "dc6x2lq", "dc7fugk", "dc6sdkh" ], "text": [ "Because of your culture. In comparison, here in germany it's the other way around. We're more lax on the sex and nudity, but violence, gore and the like get the boot.", "Video games are largely a USA centered industry, with Japan being the 2nd place, grandfathered in. The USA is a country which is totally fine with murder and blood and violence. We figuratively get off on it. Probably literally, too, some of us. Also, the largest games are marketed to and prodicrd with intent on 12-14 year old boys in the US, and they demographic wants to be violent and heroic at the same time. The more blood, the better.", "Top voted comment is everyone in america loves violence and hates sex because they're dumb, but it's really just an aspect of our culture. not just american culture, virtually any culture. imagine you walk in on your two kids having a pretend gun-fight in the living room. They're just playing. Play-fighting, wrestling, all these things are just completely ingrained in us as a species. Now imagine you walked into your living room and your kids are pretend fucking. That's a whole other situation isn't it? Like it or not, fighting, and violence is something that we see in children's cartoons because mild conflict and fighting is something even babies are capable of. Sex however is something that's supposedly much more mature than just imaginary shoot-outs or car crashes, because it's honestly not really something that people want kids to be exposed to at an early age. I get it, some countries are cooler with it than other countries, but you have to be a complete idiot to not understand why someone wouldn't think twice over lego dudes killing each other, and might be hestant about seeing barbie giving ken a blowjob.", "Some really weird comments in here skewering western culture and claiming the pervasiveness of violence is because of the culture these things come from. That is total bullshit. Games depict violence, normalize violence and contain violence as a central theme because of the very nature of games. In most games, and video games are no exception, you have winners and you have losers; you have win conditions and you have fail-states. Imagining a game where victory is achievable through violent means is easy; you win, you live and progress, you lose, you die and go no further. Now imagine what a game would look like if its core mechanic was sexual in nature. What is your win condition? Getting to have sex? Getting married? You can't gamify sexual content without doing one or all of the following: * alienating half of all possible users by making your win-state a relationship with a woman, thus losing the interest of all possible people attracted to men * alienating everyone that doesn't find the \"win-state\" of your game to be even desirable. ie. how do you make your game-girl universally appealing to everyone in your male audience * Objectifying women/men by making your win condition a relationship. A trophy. These games exist, they are called dating sims and they are very niche products which many people find creepy or demeaning. Imagine if mainstream gaming depicted sexuality and relationships to the degree it does violence, and how much more damaging that would be to people's ability to form meaningful real-world relationships. Violence on the other hand is more universal, more immediately identifiable, and more easily translated into a game. Not only that, but people understand that there is a time and place for violence, that society universally condemns the use of extreme violence to solve our problems, whereas sexuality and its expression is more nuanced. **TL;DR** games are violent because winning and losing is clearer, less morally grey, and easier to understand than if the goals and subject matter of the game was sexual", "Maybe it has to do with all the fundie Christians here. There are European countries with lots of religious people but they're religious in a different way it seems. Not so preoccupied with normal human sexuality (except maybe homosexuality)" ], "score": [ 86, 24, 20, 5, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6rxh2", "dc6rov0" ], "text": [ "Because copper is far less fragile than fiber, and is adequate for almost all applications. I mean, sure, you could have a fiber connection to a portable hard drive, but it won't be any faster than USB3 because the line speed is already greater than the disk speed.", "If I see how my relatives do treat the cables of their appliances, that question answers itself. Tying knots into optical fiber is not recommended, nor is mangling and twisting the cable beyond recognition, as people do all the damn time with their copper based cables." ], "score": [ 9, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6t2ki" ], "text": [ "I took a few theoretical math courses as an undergrad and grad student, and my general idea is that you need to explicitly state your intuition and any relevant theorems and their relevance. Avoid using words like \"clearly.\" Even if you're thinking that word, there's probably some intuition you need to write down. Think about how your audience might interpret your proof and make sure all leaps are explained. A similar question has been asked and answered on Stack Exchange, also asked by an undergrad student. You might find it helpful: URL_0 You have the right idea of asking your professors. Not only can they give you general guidelines, but rigor has slight subjectivity, so each professor has different expectations that you need to understand. You're asking for an exact distinction but there isn't an exact one because rigor is about convincing your audience that your proof is complete." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [ "http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1283974/what-really-is-mathematical-rigor-how-can-i-be-more-rigorous" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6sl0o" ], "text": [ "It doesn't \"know\". The electrons don't move because there is not pathway. When you hook up a battery or some other voltage source, not only are electrons pushed one way, but positively charged areas that can accept electrons are created going the other way. For short we call them \"holes\". Also electrons actually flow the opposite direction from what you would assume. When Ben Franklin decided to make one direction positive and the other negative, he had a 50/50 chance of being right. He was in fact wrong. So electrons actually flow from the negative side of the battery." ], "score": [ 7 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6t105" ], "text": [ "Trump proposed that if companies leave the US he will create a strong border tax. If companies start investing in the US it means they will not have to pay this Tax or maybe they will be exempt from it. Hence why ford just backed out of Mexico and a 1.something billion dollar plant. Border tax and how it would work as explained to a 5 year old. Ford makes a car in US, car sells for 30,000 Ford moves to Mexico, Car is now TAXED and now has to sell for 40,000. (they need to make up for the tax they where just charged, so to off settle it they need to increase the cars sales price) well who's going to by a ford when they can buy a car that is = in performance and 10,000 cheaper cause its here in the US. By keeping companies in the US it would keep Jobs here as well as people would continue to keep buying vehicles. But Tax and locations are not what will kill the car industry, it will be automation." ], "score": [ 9 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6tha1", "dc6tlz3" ], "text": [ "A lot of learning in school is more to teach general problem solving skills and giving a wide breadth of knowledge even if it isn't particularly deep in any particular topic. For example, after a certain point, you *won't* use a lot of particular math concepts in your day-to-day life (work *or* home) but in learning how to do these things you also learn problem solving skills.", "Long term: while in school, you have no idea what you might use in the future. You are not receiving \"useless\" information, you just haven't found a way to use it. Short term: Often, smaller items are stepping stones to more knowledge. It's the base upon which continued education is built. You may also internalize some lessons so deeply that you don't even realize you are using them." ], "score": [ 4, 4 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6v3fx" ], "text": [ "If you are in interstellar space like halfway between here and alpha Centauri, it would look pretty much like a normal clear moonless (and planet-less) night sky. Without the atmosphere getting in the way the sky view would be a lot clearer, but looking only with your eyes you might not notice that too much. The closest star may look a bit brighter than the rest, but that would be about it. Of course elsewhere in our galaxy it would look different, if you are in a location where stars a closer together, it would look much brighter and if you are in region where there are fewer stars it would look darker. Deep in intergalactic space, like halfway between here and Andromeda it would like be really, really dark. the only lights you could see would be distant galaxies and not much in the way of lone stars in the sky." ], "score": [ 9 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6usmu" ], "text": [ "The use of a 24 hour clock relates back to the Ancient Egyptians (and relates to why there are 60 minutes in an hour). Thanks to documented evidence of the Egyptians' use of sundials, most historians credit them with being the first civilization to divide the day into smaller parts. The first sundials were simply stakes placed in the ground that indicated time by the length and direction of the resulting shadow. As early as 1500 B.C., the Egyptians had developed a more advanced sundial. A T-shaped bar placed in the ground, this instrument was calibrated to divide the interval between sunrise and sunset into 12 parts. This division reflected Egypt's use of the duodecimal system--the importance of the number 12 is typically attributed either to the fact that it equals the number of lunar cycles in a year or the number of finger joints on each hand (three in each of the four fingers, excluding the thumb), making it possible to count to 12 with the thumb. The next-generation sundial likely formed the first representation of what we now call the hour. Although the hours within a given day were approximately equal, their lengths varied during the year, with summer hours being much longer than winter hours. Officially, it was at the International Meridian Conference (October 1884, Washington DC) that Lewis M. Rutherfurd proposed: \"That this universal day is to be a mean solar day; is to begin for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian, coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian; and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours.\" The conference adopted the resolution and that's why we have a 24 hour clock. But the issue of why we have 60 minutes in an hour has a foggier answer. Although it is unknown why 60 was chosen, it is notably convenient for expressing fractions, since 60 is the smallest number divisible by the first six counting numbers as well as by 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30. So that is why our system of time consists of 24 hours, each of which are made up of 60 minutes. (EDIT: Citations) Scientific American Wiki Article" ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6vsqr", "dc6w21u" ], "text": [ "Well, generally speaking people associate a face with a voice over time. I can recognize my friends voices without even seeing them. It's a learned thing. Just like with the electronic stuff. It's learned. The speaker picks up on your voice by asking you to say a sentence or 5, with the knowledge of what the preset sentences are, the device associates the vibrations the speaker picks up with the words you're saying, and learns the way you speak because of the sentences it's asked you to read to it. Or something like that. Idk man. I just write shit down and hope for the best.", "Sound travels in waves. When the sound waves hit the microphone, the computer converts the sound into a digital signal (i.e. a set of 1s and 0s). This is done through sampling, where the computer takes the sound at small intervals and records it (a bit like a pixel in a scanned image), the more samples the better the sound quality. This gives you a digital representation of the spoken voice. Now, there are two things we can do with this - either identity verification, or text-to-speech conversion. In the case of recognising a person speaking a password, the computer is 'trained' with a previously recorded sample, and compares the set of 1s and 0s from the training example with the one it just received. If the match is close enough then bingo! This is relatively simple, as you are trying to find something that is as close as possible, so flexibility isn't a big factor. Text-to-speech is more tricky, because you have to allow for the different intonations of people's voices, so the data won't be identical. Thus, the computer will try to isolate phonemes, percussive sounds that help us distinguish one word from another (like b, p, t, d sounds). If it can divide the signal according to these phonemes, then the phonemes can be compared to known examples it has been trained with. The computer will then use probability to follow the sequence of sounds and try to identify the words that they make up. This may be done through the use of something like a Markov chain - which is a way of modelling probability in a computer by looking at a sequence of events and the probability of each event occurring. By looking at the sequence of phonemes, the computer can identify the most probable correct interpretation. If the computer finds a sequence of phonemes that correspond to a known word it will then display that word. Good systems will also consider the other possible words in a similar manner to predictive text - so if it is unsure which word is the correct choice, the surrounding words may give a good clue. These contextual clues are discovered by training the system according to some machine learning techniques - i.e. you provide a ton of sample data and the computer can find patterns and connections between words (this is more effective than teaching grammar rules, which are frequently broken). Tl;dr the computer converts the voice to digital data. It breaks the signal down into sounds and uses probability to guess the words that the sequence of sounds are most likely to make. The computer is trained using sample sound and text data to help improve its guesses through probability values." ], "score": [ 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6xg2y" ], "text": [ "It is not bad. Cakes and such are made to look delcious as well taste like it. When it's smooth it may look more delicious to some people." ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc72r6k" ], "text": [ "I don't know for sure, yet it seems rather obvious to me. Normally, when you are not on vacation, you wake up in the same bed, in the same house, and that is the place that you spend most of your time in. When you've been on vacation for a while, your brains have adjusted to living in a different environment, and they have sort of \"forgotten\" about your home. When you return home and see it again, the memories of your home flood back. It smells and look different from the place that you have been having a vacation at for the past days. That's why it feels kind of outplaced, different." ], "score": [ 13 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc6ygtn" ], "text": [ "Alright, going down the list of the ones that you have probably seen, there are a few more. The most common type you see is USB type A. The thin rectangular one most likely in the side of your computer. This was the original design of USB, however it should be noted that USB was designed with what is known as a master-slave relationship between connected devices, or at least that was what developed. This is where USB type B comes in. The side where USB A is connected is the master device, it is the one that does all the controlling, it does all the commands and charging. It controls the other device. USB type B, the bigger more square one which isn't that common today (more on this later), is the slave device, the device the master controls. This is why USB type A inserts is pretty much exclusively on computers, or at least this was the standard. The main reason this exists is to prevent short circuiting, but since it is the USB type A port generally sending the signals, it became dubbed the master. Now, USB type B was somewhat replaced by USB mini, which is the smaller connector that is jagged on the sides, it was smaller, phones were becoming popular and smaller, a smaller connector was necessary for USB type B connection. It however was somewhat flawed, it apparently was structurally poor, wore down the port too much, so it was redesigned again, to make USB Micro, the common connection on Android phones today, but slowly getting replaced once more by the next port. USB type C is the replacement for pretty much everything on this list. It gets rid of the issues that a same port Master Slave system has, such as short circuiting, is reversible, most likely a trait borrowed from Apple's lightning connector. It is the best USB connector at the moment. But we are not done yet. USB versions, this one is fun. So, versions of USB 1 were practically not used, so we skip that to USB version 2.0. Classic USB port, sadly still very widely used even if newer versions are available. Has 4 pins inside of it, 2 for power delivery (+5 Volts and ground), and 2 connections for data transfer. USB type B has the same pins, while USB mini adds a 5th pin for mode detection, which detects the type of connection on the other side, this one can actually have the other cable be connected to USB B, and this last 5th pin is added as a detector for it, if it is USB type A, it is hotwired to the ground wire, if not, then it isn't connected at all. Now, it is 2008, the 480 Mbps of USB 2.0 is starting to get slow, so our boys at Intel and many other companies get together and make a new version of USB, version 3.0. This changes the type A connector by adding another 5 pins to increase the data rate to a whooping 5 Gbps. Compatibility with USB 2.0 ports is kept by adding these last 5 pins in the back, where they will only be connected if both the port and the cable are USB 3.0, if not, those contacts will never touch, and it reverts to USB 2.0 mode. It is also denoted by having the plastic in the port or connector be a blue color. So, type A was updated, and guess what that means? More wall of text because now we have to update type B ports, including the mini one. Type B maintains its overall shape but gets a weird \"roof\" to house the last 5 connections for it. [Here is a nice image]( URL_1 ). But this will largely be ignored because type B is being replaced by microUSB, which was also updated... except microUSB 3.0 is also largely ignored because its primary use, phones, did not need the speed until now, and the connector needed an extension to house the extra 5 pins. [So now it looks weird as fuck, because the ports have to maintain compatibility with classic microUSB 2.0, which can be plugged into half of the port, [as shown here]( URL_2 ). Mini USB was abandoned, as it was replaced by MicroUSB. But we are not done yet. Small revisions to USB 3.0 without changing the pinout allowed for USB 3.1 to transfer 10 Gbps, so a small update was made for that. Then, for some weird as fuck reason, they decided to rename normal USB 3.0 as USB 3.1 Gen 1, and the 10 Gbps ports as Gen 2. And now at this point, once again, our boys at Intel, Apple, and several other tech companies gathered around, sat down, took a look at [this clusterfuck]( URL_0 ), took a deep breath, and said things must change. So, they got their asses working on yet another port. In 2014, these engineers released USB type C. Once again, reversible, USB 3.1 bandwidth, and can even support a little something called Thunderbolt 3, which has a whooping 40 Gbps data transfer rate. It does away with the master slave concept, meaning that it also replaces all connectors, type A, which was replaced since there is little purpose in such a large connector, type B, because it is unneeded without the master slave concept, microUSB since type C is also tiny. There is also mini USB type A, and several other connectors, but I think you get the point. /walloftext" ], "score": [ 21 ], "text_urls": [ [ "http://www.mycablemart.com/images/usb_connectors_20_30.jpg", "http://blog.macsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/USB-BTYPES.jpg", "https://www.pretzellogix.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/microusb2-vs-microusb31.jpg" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc76agq", "dc70ewd" ], "text": [ "> What causes some adults to be attracted to children? We haven't figured that out yet. > Is paedophilia normal or a psychological disorder and why? *Long semi-tangential stuff* To answer that we really need to lay down what exactly these mean. What exactly does it mean for something to be normal? Usually it means that it occurs frequently enough that we accept it as part of life. It does not mean unavoidable. What about a disorder? What does that mean? A psychological disorder is a pretty broad concept. It's any psychological issue that is problematic. That leads to who decides what is problematic? In general it's the person themselves. However, there is a big caveat for when there is risk to either the individual or others. You can imagine a situation where somebody is having voices telling them to murder people: that's a clear risk to society so they would be considered to be ill even if the individual can't see it and will be institutionalised involuntarily. Lastly, we need to define paedophilia. There is a technical meaning and a lay meaning. The technical meaning is somebody sexually attracted to prepubescent children. The lay meaning is more or less child sexual abuse. I'm only talking about the technical definition of attraction. Back to the questions. Is it 'normal'? No, it's considered rare enough that we do not consider it normal. However, it is unavoidable. Much like homosexuality it does not appear to be chosen. You could also frame it as being analogous to murder, another abnormal thing that will never be eliminated and thus, unavoidable. Is it a disorder? The technical definition is considered a mental disorder **if** it causes problems: either personal distress or if they have acted upon the desires. (note: this is contentious, however it's the current diagnostic standard in the [dsm5]( URL_0 )). I mentioned homosexuality as another sexual preference that is not chosen. Why isn't that considered a disorder too? The difference is in the risk of harm.", "Note that there is a different word based on which age range you're talking about, but reality is never black and white. Media pushes women to look younger. Sexual attraction to someone like \"little\" lupe Fuentes who was of age during the beginning of her porn career skew the line even more. Also, as I've read another comment before, there's a difference between being attracted to a younger person, and being attracted because the person is young." ], "score": [ 9, 6 ], "text_urls": [ [ "http://dsm.psychiatryonline.org" ], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc70j3o", "dc6zg3i" ], "text": [ "This is very complicated and not all economists even agree on the basic facts. Moreover it's very difficult to seperate the effect of NAFTA from the effect of other macro-economic things happening at the same time, like automation. That said, economists agree on a few general principles: 1. Lower tariffs in general is better in the long-term on average. Part of this is producing labor intensive products in places where labor is cheap, but the other part is producing education-intensive or engineering-intensive products in places with good education systems. 2. The winners and losers are specific to the particular negotiations and the particulars of the existing tariffs. There are no \"good deals for America\"--winners and losers in trade deals are industry specific. Even figuring out the balance of the winners and losers in a giant deal like NAFTA is difficult. However, in a populist politics and to some extent in the press, almost all trade negotiations are considered bad deals by everyone involved. NAFTA for example is often blamed for job problems in Mexico, Canada, and the US. Why? This is because the job losses tend to be concentrated and the job gains are diffuse across the whole economy. In other words, the losers see the next factory built in Mexico and the local one closed. This is an easy story for the press to cover. In contrast, the identity of the winners is not as clear. For example if Boeing sells a few more planes at lower tariffs to Mexican airlines, the jobs that those sales create are hard to tie to NAFTA in the press and the popular imagination. It's just that Boeing's profits are higher and they employ more people, but that \"win\" is mixed in with whatever else is going on in Boeing's balance sheet and employment situation for that particular year. This is not an easy story for the press to cover. This diffuse gains and concentrated losses situations often leads to inaction. So why do free trade deals happen at all? In this case the potential winners are companies (e.g. Boeing) and companies do a lot of quiet lobbying and they are often organized into industry lobby groups who quietly pressure congress. So what happens is that many congresspeople will be publicly opposed to trade deals (because of the optics of closing factories) but be privately in favor (because of the diffuse benefit to many companies). The press coverage on the other hand is almost always about the specific downside risk to specific existing jobs, which paints free trade as a job killer. TL;DR: After trade deals, the losing companies and workers tend to be concentrated, loud, and angry, but the winners tend to be diffuse and quiet. The losers drive the press narrative, but reality is much more messy and complicated.", "From the position of an opponent of these deals, the problem is indeed > jobs lost by Americans to cheaper labor overseas Furthermore it's the loss of ability to set tariffs that privilege domestic manufacturers, or can be used for political pressure. Fords getting outcompeted by imported Volkswagens? Hike those tariffs! (example that covers TT**I**P, same thing) The Philippines' foreign policy not to your liking? Hike those tariffs! Now, the problem is that, firstly, that job that's now gone to Bangladesh **it isn't going to replace itself**. There is a high risk that the now-unemployed person will stay unemployed because they lack the qualifications for better jobs. This creates a permanently disaffected class that survives on food stamps and crime. Furthermore, the risk of having your job outsourced overseas creates downwards pressure on *everyone's* wages. You either accept lower pay, or your employer kicks you out and moves elsewhere." ], "score": [ 8, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc77jh3", "dc70p8y", "dc70oxx", "dc7c3gw", "dc7m7ug" ], "text": [ "The pound sign, £, is a stylized capital letter \"L\". It stands for \"Libra\", which is Latin for \"pound\", in the sense of weight. The British pound [in sense of currency] used to be defined as a pound [in the sense of weight] of sterling silver. Hence why the British currency is often referred to as Sterling.", "URL_1 > Inspiration for the € symbol itself came from the Greek epsilon (ϵ) – a reference to the cradle of European civilization – and the first letter of the word Europe, crossed by two parallel lines to ‘certify’ the stability of the euro. URL_0 > The best documented explanation holds that the sign evolved out of the Spanish and Spanish American scribal abbreviation \"pˢ\" for pesos. A study of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century manuscripts shows that the s gradually came to be written over the p, developing into a close equivalent to the \"$\" mark.[3][4][5][6][7] A variation, though less plausible, of this hypothesis derives the sign from a combination of the Greek character \"psi\" (ψ) and \"S\".[8] (there are various other hypotheses in the same link)", "The dollar sign has been around so long that it's origin is no longer known with any certainty. Two leading derivations are that it is an overlay of P and S, an abbreviation of the Spanish Peso, eventually losing the loop of the P. Another is that it is an overlay of U and S for United States, with the U becoming narrow and eventually losing the loop at the bottom. The first uses of what is now the 'dollar sign' cleraly referred to the Spanish Peso, lending credence to the first derivation.", "This slides explains the design considerations and meaning behind the not so long ago introduced Indian currency symbol. Rupees URL_0", "Well, the South African Rand is a R, so that seems quite self explanatory. The band itself comes from the area where most of the gold was mined at the time, the Witwatersrand (White Waters Ridge)." ], "score": [ 97, 93, 33, 11, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_sign" ], [], [ "https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/riarui/design-of-the-indian-rupee-symbol" ], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc74mg9" ], "text": [ "I had to create an account just so I could explain and discredit the \"faster than light\" reply. Nothing that we know of travels FTL. Anyway. Consider the average classical computer. Every bit has two states, 1 or 0. Just like a light switch. It's either on or off and nothing in between. With some clever manipulation, and counting in base 2, we can use a ton of these to do some neat stuff, like add and subtract. A quantum bit is the same with one difference. It can be a mixture of a 1 and 0. Like when you hit that sweet spot on a light switch in between off and on. Understand that this is not a third state, nor has the light switch become a dimmer switch (where you can control the amount that light is on - that's analogue and quantum bit is still digital). The quantum bit is a superposition of both off and on. What's the point of all this? In the classical computer, you run a calculation, then run the next etc. In a quantum computer, you could run them all simultaneously. Useful for brute forcing encryptions, querying a database and modelling particles. That's about it. For these things there is the quantum computer, for everything else there are classical computers. Source: Msci physics degree. I only have fundamental knowledge of a quantum computer after module based around quantum bits themselves." ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc71jl1" ], "text": [ "Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe viruses are too small to reflect visible spectrum light. So, in essence they are colourless. However, whether it be for aesthetic detail or visibility they are pseudocoloured to what ever is appealing or appropriate. Bacteria on the other hand, do express colour. Due to their larger size they reflect visible spectrum light and some express pigments such as chlorophyll. Some can be colourless, whilst others are pseudocolour. They can be stained with GFP (green fluorescent protein) to be easily identified. To clarify, I'm not too familiar with this aspect of pathogens so feel free to add anything below or correct me. Hope this helps." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc7c58x" ], "text": [ "But behaviorally animals can be more or less likely to domesticate. Wolves, for example are social animals and so integrating into a mutually beneficial situation with another species is more likely. Cats can be, too, but I don't know if that was true of the domesticated cat's ancestors. Cats are very opportunistic, so that may have been enough. Also, in the domestication of livestock, disposition played a role. Cattle, pigs, and sheep were native to eurasia and easier to domesticate. The americas had bison, moose, deer, etc that were nearly impossible to domesticate. This contributed to more nomadic lifestyles, especially in North America, which had a major impact on the cultures of the people and their resistance to disease. When the Europeans, who had been exposed to livestock and their diseases, came to the Americas it spelled biological disaster for the natives. Edit: After reading some follow up comments I wanted to clarify. One, I'm not a historian, so have not studied the nenative population trends in depth. I do know, however, that europeans brought disease and that the natives had no immunity to them, resulting in sigificant death. I think Guns, Germs, and Steele covers a lot of this." ], "score": [ 12 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc7250c" ], "text": [ "Body temperature doesn't increase because you're nauseous or vomiting. It rises so it can kill the intruder, like bacteria. Vomiting happens so the body can get rid of the bacteria. I assume the main reason for vomiting is that the body tries to get rid of the material that has the intruder in it. Like spoiled food. It also happens even if you ingest safe substance because the body doesn't know it's safe." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc73xvm" ], "text": [ "My degree is in microbiology, not optometry, however I can see the reason they would recommend this. Not all bacteria are easily killed by means of boiling. In fact, for nearly every means of disinfecting bacteria we have, there are some bacteria to which it does not affect. More importantly, solid surfaces such as the inside of your contact case are susceptible to biofilm formation, which are clusters of bacteria that are incredibly difficult to penetrate even by antibiotics. If biofilms form on your contact, you risk obtaining an infection known as a stye from Staphyloccocus aureus. So even if you disinfect your contact case with everything from heat to antibiotics, it's safer to just obtain a new sterile case. For the same reason you should always take your contacts out and rinse them in new solution. It's possible that you could sterilize your case by boiling it, but these types of recommendations are for general advice; you won't be able to know if you've effectively sterilized your case." ], "score": [ 15 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc74l7c", "dc7fcdq", "dc78j4b" ], "text": [ "Hoarding *is* an obsessive-compulsive disorder. OCD basically makes your brain do a lot of very incorrect If-Then statements. \"If I leave the house without doing my ritual, something bad will happen!\" and that type of stuff. Hoarding is pretty much the same. \"I'm going to need this empty soda bottle someday so if I throw it away people could die!\"", "With OCD, you feel anxiety if you don't do something. It may be an unfocused anxiety, or it could be specific, like my children will die if I don't wash my hands enough. Hoarding is a form of this. People feel a need to accumulate things, and feel and irrational anxiety at the thought of getting rid of them.", "OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. Obsessions are things people think about over and over again in this case bad things. For example, in a classic case of OCD, someone thinks, if my hands are dirty I'll get myself sick or my family sick and we'll die and I'll never forgive myself\". These thoughts often sound 'crazy', but people with ocd know the thoughts are crazy, and they know it's highly unlikely to happen. Then, a compulsion is something a person with ocd does to relieve the anxiety and panic brought on by the thoughts. So, 'ill get my family sick, so now I'm washing my hands now repeatedly to get rid of the germs\" these rituals are done until the anxiety is relieved which is why they can wash their hands for hours or until it feels 'just right'. Now compare this to hoarding, these people obsess about their things, and guaranteed it's almost all they think about. Obsessive thought might be: \"i can't throw this thing out because it will definitely come in handy and if I get rid of it something bad might happen if I need it and I'll never forgive myself for throwing it out when I need it most and the object will be upset with me (even though I know it won't) or the object reminds me of my daughter so if I throw it away something bad will happen to her etc etc\" you get the message, and the compulsion is to not throw or give it away, ever. If it's hard to imagine, think about something you own that's very useful and that you like, and imagine someone trying to take it away from you. Now imagine that feeling x10 and with every single object you own or buy or get as a gift. That's why it's a disorder." ], "score": [ 7, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc7k6ia" ], "text": [ "[This]( URL_0 ) is a pretty good description for why they don't freeze. In a nutshell, bird's feet are little more than skin, bone and sinew, and their blood flows so fast that it doesn't have time to freeze in the first place. Their circulatory system is also set up to reduce heat loss through their feet, which could make the rest of their body colder." ], "score": [ 8 ], "text_urls": [ [ "http://askanaturalist.com/why-don%E2%80%99t-ducks%E2%80%99-feet-freeze/" ] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc77l0z" ], "text": [ "If you are thinking about Polyphasic Sleeping, then it depends. Sleeping multiple times a day for a couple hours at a time will technically leave you with more time to do things throughout the day. However, you won't end up with the same rest as those who sleep throughout the night. So it depends on what you mean by more beneficial. If more time in your day is beneficial, then it will help. If a healthier more rested sleep is beneficial then sleeping many times throughout the day in short durations isn't beneficial." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc75u4c" ], "text": [ "They are pretty distant from the \"normal bears\" (brown, black, grizzly, polar), in taxonomy terms. All are members of the Ursidae Family, but pandas are a unique subfamily (Ailuropodinae), genus (Ailuropoda), and species (Melanoleuca)." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }

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{ "a_id": [ "dc75mmj", "dc77ph2", "dc7juna" ], "text": [ "There are many different categories they can claim to be #1 for. Comedy, animation, art house, etc. They just don't mention how specific the category may be.", "There are a number of ways that it could be determined, and they'll pick any that fits their film including (but not limited to): highest dollar amount of ticket sales, number of tickets sold (kids movies and/or movies more popular in less urban areas where theaters are cheaper), ratings by critics and then narrow by genre (best comedy/action/drama/animated, etc), time frame (it's opening weekend? since it opened? just the past weekend?)", "First, because anyone can make the claim, there's no \"official\" body governing what the #1 movie is...I can claim that this is the best comment on the internet...anyone gonna stop me? Second, because you can apply any criteria you want for what #1 means...it's similar to the way every car and truck built by any company is the \"best\"...\"Best in class towing capacity,\" \"JD Power and Associates highest safety rating,\" \"Best in class cargo space,\" \"The best-selling car in America,\" \"Most awarded car company in the last X years,\" etc...there's a category you can apply to basically anything that allows it to be the best." ], "score": [ 7, 3, 3 ], "text_urls": [ [], [], [] ] }

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