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[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why does the quick-E-mart on the corner sell copper scrubbers with the drug paraphernalia?"
] | Copper scrubbers are an essential part of a homemade crack pipe. You buy one of those little roses in a glass tube, take the ends off, toss the rose, shove a little copper scrubber in, insert crack, and light. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we get shakey?"
] | Electrolytes. Salt, magnesium, and the such... Like an engine will shudder on Empty with no fuel. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do they manage to find precise recordings to make those composite/mash-up videos, of hundreds of clips of a person speaking certain words, to make them sing a song, etc?"
] | I've actually also wondered the same thing and I think I have an answer. I don't know this for certain but I imagine that what the people do is find several speeches by the figure they are using and then find the transcripts of the speeches. This is not normally very difficult particularly for public figures such as the president. They then just need to ctrl-f the speech to find the words they want and then go to that location of the video. They can then cut that part of the video out and rinse and repeat. It's still time-consuming but it's much faster than just blindly watching hundreds of videos. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are we more attracted to a person when they're tan?"
] | Are we? This seems much more like a personal preference than a universal truth. I searched for your question and found an answer [here](_URL_0_). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we have accents?"
] | Speech and how it's learned is basically the longest running game of telephone. Things get passed down and eventually someone hears something slightly wrong and says it slightly wrong or with different emphasis. It keeps going for generations and impacts the population. Since populations of people (Southern, Texas, New York, etc) aren't in contact with each other as much as they are in contact with themselves, each one changes at different rates and in different ways. Specifically for the US, since there are so many cultures, people tend to settle together. And they bring their language with them. That language has certain ways they pronounce letter combinations and vowels, so when they learn to speak English, they learn with a mix of their native language in it. And it just keeps mutating like that over generations. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why can blank CD's hold the same length of music at different bitrates?"
] | > why can a CD that can hold 80 minutes of 320 kbps not otherwise hold 200 minutes of 128 kbps? Because CD audio doesn't have a bitrate the way MP3s do. It's raw, uncompressed audio (essentially the same as a .wav file on your computer). So both the 128 kbps mp3 and the 320 kbps mp3 will be uncompressed and converted to wav format before being written to the CD, at which point their equivalent bitrates are the same. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is the presence of complex organic molecules discovered on Comet 67P and other objects not enough evidence to definitively say that life exists beyond Earth?"
] | Complex organic molecules can form and exist without life. By complex, we are talking simple amino acids, nitrogenous bases, super-simple polycarbons. These are not the same as the long polymers you would get from carbon-based life. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"In video editing, what's the difference between Drop-Frame timecode, and Non-Drop-Frame timecode?"
] | In non-drop-frame, there are exactly 30 frames in every second of footage, i.e., the timecode endings for every second go :00, :01, :02, ... :29. You should only use non-drop-frame timecodes if your footage is 30.000 frames per second. In drop-frame, the first second of every minute not divisible by ten misses the first two frames, i.e., 54 seconds every hour have only 28 timecode endings like ;02, ;03, ;04, ... ;29 Thus 108 timecodes are missing per hour. Otherwise there would be 108,000 timecodes per hour so the drop-frame system removes exactly 1 in 1000 timecodes. Note that no frames are dropped, just that some timecodes are missing so that frame 00;01;59;29 is followed by frame 00;02;00;02. Semicolons are used instead of colons to highlight what's going on. This is done because NTSC has only about 29.97 frames per second. In fact NTSC is exactly 1 part in 1001 short of 30 frames per second so the drop-frame notation, using 1 part in 1000, is not exactly right, but it's close enough. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is there is demand for high frames per second in video games, but it's ok for movies to stick to 24 fps? Is there a visible difference between the two mediums?"
] | Movie motion isn't designed to feel completely real, it has a bigger than life dreamlike feel that comes from the motion blur that occurs at 24 frames per second. Most games on the other hand are trying to be immersive and give you the feeling of being there and that requires the motion to be smoother. While not a direct game to movie comparison, watch a movie and then watch a soap opera or a late night talk show. You can clearly see and feel a difference and that is because the movie with its dreamy 24fps and the soap or talk show which is running at a more natural 30fps. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How are we able to make an emergency call on a cellphone with no service or provider?"
] | It's the law. The FCC requires that any call to 911 be put through, regardless of the carrier.Your SIM card just identifies your phone to the network. The phone itself has the capability to transmit the call and the network will pick it up. If the network can't identify the phone, or the service is invalid, it refuses the connection, unless it is going to 911. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why and when exactly was the death penalty reinstated in the US after being abolished in 1972? Is it really because \"murder rates soared\" following its abolition, as some claim?"
] | The death penalty wasn't abolished in 1972. Instead, the Supreme Court ruled that certain *specific inconsistent applications* of the death penalty violated the "cruel and unusual punishment" portion of the constitution. So the states voluntarily suspended the death penalty while they worked to bring their policy in line with the requirements set forth in the justices' opinions. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What happens if I use a top loader washing detergent in a front loader machine?"
] | I did this by accident once a year or two ago and a giant meteor crashed into Russia. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do scientists know there are x unknown animal species if they weren't discovered yet?"
] | If I recall from ecology, basically what happens is that you can chart how many new species have been found each year (adjusted for how many people/man-hours were spent actively looking), and the resulting graph shows a gentle curve and leveling off over time - indicating a point in the future where it's flat (meaning we're not discovering any new species). So, the space between where we are and where that graph ends up going flat is a rough estimate of how many species we probably have left to find. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do we remember tastes?"
] | Our sense of taste is closely related with the sense of smell, so much in fact, that if you have stuffed nose, things will start tasting bland. Haven't heard about link with memory. Do you mean this [article](_URL_0_)? If so, it explains that we have preference for things from our childhood because they didn't kill us. There is no need of risking new stuff, if old stuff managed to get us that far. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How come on the show \"Drugs Inc.\" they can interview a drug dealer without him getting arrested (when he clearly admits to his crimes)"
] | Saying you've committed a crime at some point isn't enough evidence to convict you of a crime. He could just say in court that he was saying it for entertainment, or fun, or was joking, or any of a million things. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How did they send people into space in the early days of space exploration without computers and GPS technology?"
] | Well, there were computers, though they were far more primitive. Often, this meant trajectories had to be calculated by hand. Navigation was another matter. Though GPS didn't exist, ground stations could locate space probes based on radio signals, similar to Gps. Otherwise astronauts had to use a sextant to navigate by the stars. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How people make a living off investing"
] | 1. They don't make steady income off investments... it's an irregular earning pattern. They may have a great day and make thousands or they may have a bad day and lose thousands. 2. Options are contracts to buy or sell stock at a certain price on a certain day in the future. They go up and down in value depending on the value of the underlying stock and likelihood of the option being "in the money", ie. paying out on the expiration day. They can swing much more volatility than the underlying stock, and as a result can pay off big. But they can also move the other way and because of the limited time horizon can also very quickly lose everything invested. 3. No, it's not possible to start with $1000. Even $100,000 is virtually impossible to invest as a primary means of income. Making a living off investing is a classic "takes money to make money" endeavor. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does counting sheep help you go to sleep?"
] | It is more a cliche about counting sheep being boring and tiring than actually being an effective sleep aid. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Are there cultures where marriage doesn't exist?"
] | I'm hoping somebody will name one for you but my money is on "no" — see e.g. _URL_1_ — mainly because marriage can appear in [so many different forms](_URL_0_). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why aren't there hedge funds for middle class / poor people?"
] | Hedge funds can only accept a certain number of customers by law, so they will generally only take wealthy people. A lot of them have minimum buy ins. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
". In the big picture what will raising the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 really accomplish?"
] | To be perfectly honest, young people are dumb, impulsive & have a poor understanding of the consequences of their actions. The general principle behind gun control is to make it harder for impulsive people to get their hands on guns - if something is illegal to purchase and now costs 3x what it did when it was legal, you're less likely to buy it for stupid shit. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do Kenyans consistently outperform other nationalities in long distance running?"
] | I've also read somewhere that a large percentage of the Kenyans who have performed so well in endurance racing come from one specific ethnic group in Kenya. This group apparently has genetically adapted to have a more efficient cardiovascular system due to where they live and how they live, and this has led to their success. I don't remember where I read this and maybe it's not true, so anyone who knows more about it please correct me if I'm wrong or elaborate. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How are naked four-legged mountain goats successfully able to traverse mountainous cliffs, while two-legged humans require climbing gear?"
] | Well, they're not naked (they have hair) and they've got four feet instead of two... which is a help, not a hindrance. They also have uniquely designed hooves to help them balance and climb over rough terrain, and they're far more dexterous than we are. They're also acclimated to the habitat. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"ELI5: Why are internet entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos of Amazon or Evan Spiegel so much richer than major real estate developers?"
] | One of the key things to remember is to exclude this bias for "internet entrepreneurs" and think of the businesses behind it. Bezos (Amazon) operates a world wide insanely effective and complicated logistics company, perhaps the best in the world! They get tons of stuff from A to B, everywhere in the world, easy, cheaply, and fastly. Thats what Amazon is, its a logistics company. This has incredible value. Many consumers get confused about Amazon, they say "oh i buy stuff there, oh i watch amazon video or have a tablet by them". These companies have existed forever, there have been catalog companies and tech an entertainment companies. Amazon is none of those, its all just to support and use their incredible logistics business. Snapchat is an ad platform. Just like say running an ad on the walking dead or billboard on the side of the road or during hot Beatz 106.3 FM's top 40 morning drive show. It's just a method to advertise products. Advertising is big businesses. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do laser guided missiles work?"
] | The laser illuminates the target with a frequency of light not typically abundant in ambient light. The missile has sensors to detect this frequency and thus can look for the bright spot, adjusting its fins to aim for it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how does scraping scissors/blade along a ribbon make it curl?"
] | When you run a blade along a ribbon, you are using force to stretch the polymers beyond their elastic limit causing permanent deformation. (Think of pulling a spring too far, and it doesn't go back to it's original state.) This causes one side of the ribbon to be longer than the other. The shorter side appears to be "contracted" while the longer side appears to be "expanded" this causes a spiral, which is the curl. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how is music and movies digitally remastered?"
] | Older movies (pre-2002) were almost all on 35mm. 35mm when scanned has a max resolution around that of 4K. Plus, they also use Photoshop like programs to correct scratches and other imperfections, as well as the color, they might remaster the audio as well. [Here is how they did it with Jaws.](_URL_0_) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How long after birth do eyeballs grow, if at all?"
] | > The vertical measure, generally less than the horizontal distance, is about 24 mm among adults, at birth about 16–17 millimeters (about 0.65 inch). The eyeball grows rapidly, increasing to 22.5–23 mm (approx. 0.89 in) by three years of age. By age 13, the eye attains its full size. The typical adult eye has an anterior to posterior diameter of 24 millimeters, a volume of six cubic centimeters (0.4 cu. in.),[3] and a mass of 7.5 grams (weight of 0.25 oz.). Quoted off of Wikipedia: _URL_0_ tl;dr: Our eyes are generally 16-17 mm at birth, rapidly grow to about 22.5-23mm by age 3, and finish growing at about 24mm at age 13. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why did silent films exist? Don't microphones pre-date the video camera?"
] | Films were recorded on - you guessed it - *film*, which predates modern microphones. While the technology to record and replay sounds did predate film, you weren't able to record them from multiple sources and on editable media. The most you could do was record music and play it on a record player along with the film. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do painkillers know which part of my body is in pain?"
] | They don't - they inhibit pain receptors everywhere. You only feel the pain relief in places where the pain receptors were firing, i.e. places that had pain. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do video games rely on mega high resolution textures to appear more realistic, when a DVD movie can look far more realistic with a resolution of only 720x480?"
] | because texture in a game are applied to surfaces that can be viewed from as close by as the player wants. If you have a rock with a 64x64 texture, that looks great if the player is far away enough to make the rock only take up 48x48 pixels on screen. But if the player walks up to said rock and looks closely at it, that rock might be filling the entire screen. Then a 1920x1080 screen is being filled by a 64x64 texture. That doesn't look very good. So to conclude - it's because in a game the player has the freedom to look around and zoom in. Edit: **Professional video game programmer here** ;) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If I wake-up, have breakfast, and try to go back to sleep, my body resists by giving me fatigue, slight pain and an increased heart rate. Why does this happen?"
] | Increased heart rate, sudden (little)burst of energy and wakefullness is normal. You just ate and you are starting the digestion process so your stomach needs more blood (Increased heart rate) for the cells to produces acids and do their stuff. Now fatigue and slight pain? I'm no expert but I don't think it's usual Discomfort maybe? If you lay down over a full stomach it can provoke some discomfort due to the pressure on it. I don't see other reason. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why don't fish freeze when the water above does?"
] | The ice above forms an insulative barrier to keep in the heat from the Earth below and in a bizarre twist the water below the ice is actually slightly above freezing. Some fish, being cold blooded creatures adapt to this situation. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why you need to put cold water/anything cold on a burn."
] | Your body is a piece of meat that is being cooked and you need to stop it from cooking. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do snipers account for wind and gravity on long-range shots?"
] | Lots and lots of practise in differing conditions. Long shots require elevation to compensate for the drop due to gravity, also you need fire at where they will be and not where they are now. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why Do Some Sites Require Credit Card CCV Numbers, and Others (like Amazon) Do Not?"
] | The CVV2 number isn't *required* to charge the card, but it reduces the risk of fraud. If the transaction is fraudulent, the merchant might end up having to pay fees or fines to their payment processor, so merchants have an incentive to check CVV2s. But if they don't want to and are willing to risk more chargebacks, they can decide not to require it (which is what Amazon's done). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does a torrent ever get seeders if it can't be downloaded when it has 0 seeders?"
] | The person that starts the torrent is the first seeder. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If 12 years of war has cost us 6 trillion dollars, what have we GAINED financially? Is there a net gain or loss?"
] | When a country becomes a democracy the rights of citizens to own property and businesses becomes better protected. This means that more people are able to buy and trade in the global economy than they were before and multinational corporations benefit from this increase in market potential with American companies like Halliburton gaining first dibs. It would be like if you wanted to go trade marbles with your neigbor's children but their mom was a dictator and their dad was really nice. Lets say that the mom was so restrictive it made it impossible to play with those kids. If your parents went over to their house and deposed the mom and let you now play with their children, you would have increased access to trade with the children of that house. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is actually occurring in the brain during a seizure?"
] | There are many different types of seizures, but to be general: To send signals around your brain, neurons send electrical pulses. The circuit is either on or off. At some point, at the onset of the seizure, one of them glitches. It just keeps flipping on and off over and over again. This overwhelms the ones next to it and they start doing it, and the ones next to them, and the ones next to them. Every time one fires, it keeps sending a signal to the next one down the line. What exactly stops a seizure is not entirely known, but the most likely hypothesis is that at some point, the rapid firing makes electromagnetic changes in the brain that make sending signals difficult. The signal weakens and everyone calms down. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is the Panama Paper's leak not being extensively covered by American news media outlets?"
] | Because it's difficult to understand and boring. Now how about that Trump!? It's like he's sayin' whut we all thinking! |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How can I set up a corporation to purchase my (and everyone else’s) student loan debt and then dissolve the corporation via bankruptcy?"
] | Nice try, but that won't work. To buy up the debt, your corporation's going to need money. It doesn't have any, so it'll have to either take out a loan from a bank, or sell shares in the corporation to raise some. The bank and the investors are going to ask, "what's your business plan to pay us back?" When you as the CEO say you don't have one because you're planning on declaring bankruptcy and sticking them with the debt, they'll kick you out of their office. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why Australia is protesting right now and what are they protesting over?"
] | There are a number of issues that people were protesting, but overall it was to show that they feel that the current government is malicious and incompetent due to their policies, comments, and broken promises. This is to do with things like education funding, worker's rights, public assets, social security, and the environment. It's not like what is happening to Turkey and Venezuela, no riots or clashes, just people showing that they are frustrated and scared with what the government intends to do. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How can the US be trillions in debt but still able to spend over 600 billion in its army?"
] | Most US debt is owed back to whoever owns it (mostly other parts of the US government and American citizens) on a set basis. The debt owners will be repaid according to a set schedule. There’s no super bank ready to foreclose on the US government or that controls all US debt. What this means is that the US has to set aside enough each year to pay its debt obligations for that year. This amount is less than what the US government brings in taxes each year, so the difference between the tax income and the amount used to service the debt is what pays for everything else (and there’s always borrowing more money if taxes aren’t enough). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are you required to take the full course of antibiotics even if you start to feel better?"
] | to ensure that the bacteria are all dead. if you take antibiotics, and stop once you feel better, that doesn't ensure they are all dead. those that survive, could develop resistances to the drugs. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"'Modern humans' have existed for 130 to 300 thousand years. Why then do nearly all modern cultures seem to stem back no more than 6,000 years in origin?"
] | Because we spent a very long time pissing about in small little family units getting eaten by wolves and fornicating like primitive pre-civilization primates do. Civilization, or something that we could reasonably call the start of it, occurred around 12,000 years ago when humans finally stopped roaming in an area of the Fertile Crescent and started building stuff. This marked the break point where humans started living in larger and larger communities in a single geographic area. Slowly that led to the development of farming as a primary means of food production and the increase in food availability allowed division of labor which fast forward 12,000 years is why we both have computers and can sit here and talk on the internet. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are most of the world's deserts covered in sand and not just dry soil?"
] | Soil is largely made of sand (or other minerals), organic matter, water, and gas. When you don't have precipitation, you lose out on organic matter and water, so you're left with minerals and rocks that form sand. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What's the deal with same-sex marriage in the US?"
] | Every time I read a post starting "what's the deal with ..." I imagine it's by Jerry Seinfeld. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How are we making higher capacity HDDs year over year while keeping them the same size (or even making them smaller)?"
] | Don't think of it like storing water in a bucket - water is a physical thing that has a more or less fixed size. We aren't storing a physical thing, we're storing data. Data is abstract and in theory doesn't have any density or size in physical dimensions. Because of this data doesn't have to be stored in a fixed-sized container. It's like writing. When I write out 'Hello, Dave' I'm not storing a physical entity on the paper, I'm storing the thought. Since it's just symbols I don't actually lose anything by writing it as this size^or^this^size As long as it can be read by my reader - so in this case I can see it myself - it's the same amount of data stored in different amounts of space. HDD technology is allowing for smaller 'fonts' that can still be read by the HDD. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What's the best way to wash blueberries?"
] | Stick 'em in the sieve, rinse 'em, an you're done. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do our mouths salivate right before throwing up?"
] | Since stomach contents are highly acidic, vomiting can be quite harmful for the throat, mouth and teeth and salivating helps to reduce this by diluting and rinsing. Saliva is also weakly alkaline, which helps to neutralize acid. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are girls in middle school and high school almost always generally more mature than guys in high school and middle school?"
] | They really are not. Girls tend to be socialized more so they may present the appearance of maturity more often, but they are in no way any more mature on average that boys their age are. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Is it truly possible to make a computer program that deletes its entire self and any evidence it was there in the first place?"
] | Remember that the executing program is in memory, so it can delete any copy off the disk or whatever it loaded from, then reboot the system, which clears the memory. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why don't US citizens get to vote about entering Syria?"
] | Because the United States federal government is a Republic, not a Democracy. In particular, it is not a direct democracy where citizens vote on everything. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Coders/Developers of reddit. How exactly does my video game console detect that the disc a copy?"
] | The pressed disk has data on it in special places that you can't write your own data to on a writeable disk. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Movies and TV show cliche Cat and Dog as arch rival.e.g. Tom And Jerry. But, I see a lot of cat and dog living peacefully as pet in same house. What's behind rivalry cliche?"
] | First, Tom and Jerry are a cat and mouse, not cat and dog (; In the wild, dogs DO tend to chase cats. In the wild, dogs will also chase mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits, birds, raccoon and hell, anything else that runs away. They're hunters, it's what they do. Now, since most of those are *not* well-established pets (yes, including rabbits) it doesn't surprise people when dogs chase them. But when dogs *live* with another creature - be it a cat *or* a rabbit or a bird or whatever - they can easily accept them as part of the Pack and recognise they are *not* prey. Especially if the dog was introduced to them at an early age. Note that this is not always true for every dog. Some dogs just never get along with any other animal - including other dogs. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do rappers like Wiz Khalifa who do drugs on occasion, even tweet and post pictures of their drugs manage to not get arrested?"
] | A picture doesn't actually tell you that they're doing drugs - not even a video is actual proof. All they would need to do is say, "I have an image and I was just acting. That wasn't really cocaine/meth/weed." If it's a white powder it could sugar, flour, or chalk dust. Tweets are the same way. Just because you say you're doing something doesn't mean you ARE doing something. Basically, it'd be impossible to prove, without a doubt that they are, in fact, engaging in illegal drug use. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why haven't Native Americans moved away from reservations and into cities where they might be better off?"
] | Basically since the 1850s we have pushed them further and further (white encroachment) until in the 1890s when the Dawes Severalty Act was passed, the government paid them for land and separated tribes and what not. Well years pass, and they gradually get less land, and finally permanent reservations are established, but by this time; native Americans haven't kept up with modern jobs. Most are vulnerable to poverty and many don't graduate high school so drug addicted teens typically won't make it past 30, and will stay on sight becuase there is literally no where to go. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why all the planets are turning in the same direction"
] | They dont (referring to planet rotation). Venus, Uranus (and Pluto) rotate clockwise, the rest rotate counter-clockwise. When the solar system was first forming, it was nothing but a giant cloud of dust, and because of gravity and the Sun, it had a counter-clockwise spin to it, and as the planets began to form, they kept this rotation, which is why they all revolve around the sun in the same direction. Venus and Uranus are theorized to have clockwise rotations because they were probably impacted by large planetoids early in their development, which shifted their rotational axis, and in the case of Uranus, completely shifted the axis to horizontal. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are some pages \"intentionally left blank\" in some books?"
] | Look at a book from the top of the spine sometime - you will see that the paper is glued in bundles - 8 sheet/16 pages per bundle. It is very cheap to make books with these bundles, so almost all books are printed this way. This means that the final page count needs to be a multiple of 16. Some of this can be taken up with "other books by this author" and other content, but sometimes, the pages are just left blank. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is touching a computer screen such a big deal?"
] | oil on fingers and all your finger shit gets on my pretty screen and I have to wipe it off. My pretty screen takes a lot of maintanence and careful wiping to keep it smudge free. Then you come in with your cheeto fingers and now there are orange smudges where my spreadsheet folder is. nerdhulk is angry but to beta to do anything about it, so nerdhulk complains on reddit. TL;DR people who care about their equipment notice things like smudges and oil stains on a monitor, especially if you spend all damn day looking at it. therefore, touching a computer screen that isn't yours is kind of a shit thing to do. As far as ones that are yours, well if you want a crappy smudgy computer screen, go for it. But there is no advantage to be gained from touching the screen in order to show where to click/go. Also if you poke it too hard you might break the screen. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we expect cats to come home after being let out but not dogs?"
] | * cats don't have the same sense of territory that makes dogs roam and mark * cats don't pose a serious danger to people, so letting them out doesn't threaten anyone * cats can climb, jump over, or crawl through obstacles dogs can't |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The difference between HIV and AIDS"
] | HIV is a virus, AIDS is a condition. HIV the virus destroy a certain kind of immune cells that helps make antibodies, molecules that identify and tag diseases so other cells can destroy them. So when cells die you can't make antibodies. When enough of these cells die (I think it's 90%), you are said to have AIDS. TLDR; HIV is a virus, AIDS is a condition caused by it |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why aren't human races classified as species like animals are?"
] | There is greater genetic difference between two individuals than there are between the "races", the concept of race is fundamentally superficial genetically speaking, in fact humans are one of the most homogeneous species known to exist For two animals to be considered different species, they must not be able to produce successful offspring - this is clearly not the case with different races of human |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do leggings keep somebody warm in the fall and winter months?"
] | For me it's two words: Fleece-lined. Marvelous, I tell you. Keeps you kinda toasty even if you're in the Midwest like me. Sometimes she might be wearing an extra pair. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is it that anytime I'm interested/thinking about a certain thing, I find references to them in real life?"
] | Basically you weren't looking for it before, but now that its in your subconscious, you notice and process it, giving the illusion of frequency. This is called the [Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon](_URL_0_). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do spicy foods like wasabi kill bacteria?"
] | The active ingredient is [Allyl isothiocyanate](_URL_0_) which is mainly to deter animals - caterpillars etc. and larger animals like grazers - from eating the plant. It harms bacteria too by damaging their cell membranes, which are the outer containers holding all the machinery inside their cells. When this membrane is damaged, they start leaking, stop working properly and die. The exact way it damages them isn't fully understood yet. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is my belly button currently attached to, and does it serve a purpose anymore?"
] | Your belly button is where your umbilical arteries/vein connected to the placenta via the umbilical cord. After birth they shrivel up and become ligaments (fibrous tisue), the arteries becoming the [medial umbilical ligament](_URL_0_) and vein becoming the [round ligament of the liver](_URL_1_). They don't do anything post-birth. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"In the US, what's the difference between manslaughter and murder? Also, why are there three \"degrees\" of murder?"
] | if i understand correctly: 1st degree - you plan to kill someone and you kill them (ex: you find out your wife is cheating on you, so you go the store, buy a gun, hide in the bushes somewhere and kill your wife) 2nd degree - you kill someone in the "heat of the moment" (ex: walk in on you wife cheating, so you pull out your gun and shoot her) 3rd degree - manslaughter, you meant to hurt someone but not kill them, but they die anyway (ex: you confront your wife about cheating, slap her, she falls down, hits her head and croaks) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What the difference between a Democratic Socialist and a \"traditional\" Socialist is?"
] | A few days ago I found an interview with Prof. Wolff posted on reddit [Marxism 101: How Capitalism is Killing Itself ](_URL_1_). An in this lecture he explains the difference very well: [Socialism for Dummies](_URL_0_) Both videos let me understand the concept of socialism better than reading articles about it. Edit: Formatting. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do unripe bananas develop at home?"
] | They're fully grown before they start to ripen. The ripening process is caused by the plant growth regulator (like a plant hormone or plant neurotransmitter) 'ethylene', and begins to turn starch in the banana into sugar. Bananas are not the only fruit to work this way (storage then ripening). It's a common survival strategy because it lets you make sure your seeds and fruit are fully mature before anything tries to eat it (as opposed to ripening while growing). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How come anti-trust/monopoly laws are no longer pursued in the United States?"
] | They still are Comcast was allowed to buy NBC , but had to sell the Hulu piece off. Couple years later Comcast wasn't allowed to buy Time Warner . Also Sysco foods (distribution) was blocked from buying US foods Those two come to recent mind |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If it's illegal to not have auto-insurance, why doesn't the government control and regulate auto-insurance as a Tax, rather than letting private companies sell you a mandatory service?"
] | The government *does* regulate and control auto insurance. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does traction control on a car work?"
] | You can think of traction control as basically ABS in reverse. When you accelerate, the car senses whether the tires are slipping on the pavement. If they are, it will automatically adjust the throttle to help them keep traction. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do fan power knobs go 0-3-2-1"
] | Things like well pumps have electric motors like fans do. They require a capacitor to get the motor going and then the normal current can sustain it. Like how you can't start in 5th gear but you can drive in fifth gear after you get going. Fans have this configuration to extend the life of the fan. They can normally start on one when they are new, but over time the lube wears down and dust gets in there and friction grows and this friction needs to be overcome to get the fan going. When it gets bad 1 won't work if you switch it directly to it. You need to start it on 3 and then it can keep going on 1. Putting 3 first allows for this to be done without most people noticing and allows the fan a longer lifespan before someone decides it's broken. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do construction workers use big tall tower things to pour concrete? Pic Inside"
] | That's called a [concrete pump](_URL_0_). It's used when you need to inject pressurized concrete someplace rather than just pouring it. If you're filling an underground hole with concrete to be the base of a pillar, for example, then if you just pour it into the hole it might not fill every nook and cranny. Pumping it in under high pressure ensures that the whole space gets filled. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Anti-intellectualism in the US"
] | You are just informed enough to realize you don't know things. You mistakenly believe that being less informed means you think you know less. This terms out to not be accurate. People who aren't informed about things actually tend to think they know quite a bit about something. Basically, ignorant people think they aren't ignorant, therefore when they see people talking about college education (or any real education) they don't see the value, because they don't believe they are missing anything. Since they aren't missing anything, this talk about "experts" is just showing off, they are angry about what they see as people just trying to look smart. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does it seem like video games from the newest generation seem to have far more bugs and glitches than previous generation games?"
] | A few factors ... * New games are way more complex. This means more code, and as the number of bugs per LoC is pretty static you get more bugs. * Today it is pretty trivial to push patches to the users as they have fast internet. * Deadlines have become a bigger factor esp. when it comes to franchise titles. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do India and China have such massive populations in comparison to the rest of the world?"
] | I'm almost certain this has been answered before, but it's largely due to geography. India and China both have exceptionally fertile river valleys capable of supporting large populations with pre-industrial technology. Even before the world population started exploding during the past two centuries, they were the two largest and richest civilizations on Earth - for example, in the early days of India being a part of the British Empire, it's 'GDP' was over half the productivity of the entire British Empire (including the British Isles themselves). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do people build all those machines that carve different custom details? Do they invent them every time?"
] | A machine like the one that makes the spring in your example is a collection of different technologies combined into a new system (pneumatic arms, motorized discs, etc. "Carving" would be more along the lines of a CNC mill or lathe, a laser cutter, or water jet machine that has programmable paths. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"\"this video is not available on mobile devices/in your country\" on YouTube"
] | One big factor: advertising. Say Burger King has a deal with the owner of the video that they will run an add before it every time it is played. However advertising laws vary from country to country and are very complex. For example, my country does not allow fast food advertising aimed at children. So it's simpler for the provider just to block the video outside of their country and avoid possible legal issues. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What the whole \"Cake is a lie\" business was all about."
] | During Portal, the psychotic AI (GLaDOS) promises you cake after the test. However, as you go through the tests and discover the depth of corruption in the facility and GLaDOS herself, you see messages from a man named "Rattman". He leaves messages saying "The cake is a lie." This just sort of caught on with fans of Portal. The reason it's "a scourge" is because it was beaten into the ground. It's much like the "arrow in the knee" thing from a while back. By the way, I *highly* recommend playing Portal. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If humans were to ever come in contact with colours beyond our colour receptive cones, what will we see ?"
] | We come into contact with "colors" beyond our color receptive cones everyday. Your eyes are only able to pick up on certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, this is what we see as light. If the wavelengths are shorter (like x-rays) or longer (like radio waves) then you simply won't be able to see them. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Can a business refuse to sell stock to a person or company?"
] | If a company is publicly traded, like on one of the stock exchanges, they can't control who buys stock in them. A closely held company, like a family business, generally can. In between, there is lots of room for lawyers to argue. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What's going on with the DHS funding and why can't they come to an agreement?"
] | The executive wanted a bill passed regarding immigration. Congress did not pass a bill that the executive wanted. The Executive said he was going to make an executive order to do what he wanted to do. One of his subordinates then gave an order that basically did what the Executive wanted without being an executive order. The legality is questionable and the precedent is less than ideal. The Republican majority is insufficient to override Obama directly. As a result, they either need to push funding to a standstill and hope they cave first or bribe a few democrats over with support for issues they like that aren't too offensive but are large enough that they will risk going against their party for them. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are we so good at telling apart different people, but so bad at telling apart different animals of the same species? Do humans just have more variance in appearance?"
] | We're biologically pre-disposed to be able to tell human faces apart (especially the ethnicities we grew up around). I'm not sure what studies have proved this to be the same in other animals, but they obviously can. Dogs can tell each other apart from their scent (and I imagine other species as well, given a strong scent). I believe it's because due to natural selection, those who could tell different people apart (friend or foe) would have a survival advantage, and at this point it's just so ingrained in us. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why cant the internet version of youtube \"minimize\" the current video into the corner while I browse for another one, like it does on the app?"
] | I use the chrome extension [Seek n Play](_URL_0_), which adds this feature. I also have [AlienTube](_URL_2_), which replaces the YouTube comments with any reddit posts it finds that link to that video, and [Adblock For YouTube](_URL_1_). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The South Australian Statewide power outage and upstream transmission supply of power"
] | It means all in-state power plants are offline and the lines that bring power in from out of state are down aswell, they may physically be damaged or they cant handle that amount of power so they shut them off so they dont burn up |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is it in most animals that makes them \"shut down\" with a blindfold on?"
] | You try walking around with a blindfold on and see how long it takes for you to hurt yourself. Now amplify the fear you should feel by a million because animals don't have hospitals and minor injuries can easily be fatal. Also, there are things that will eat them. There aren't things that would eat humans really. They do it because it is much safer to stop moving when eyesight is your main sensory ability. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why don't the radio waves used to transmit information all superpose?"
] | They do superpose in the most general sense, but a radio receiver has a circuit that filters out everything but the frequency it wants. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Short of shutting down entire city blocks, how do they film street/public setting movie scenes without getting the crowds of gawking people in the shot?"
] | I know the question states "short of shutting down entire city blocks" but I think the best answer is they shut down entire city blocks. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does my cat sometimes run around the house like a maniac?"
] | Cats are made for a world that punishes unecessary use of energy. They sleep to save up energy for their hunt, usually hunting is done at night. In a domestic enviroment the cat doesnt "need" to hunt but its energysaving ways are hardwired. All that energy needs to go somewhere and they will handle it by running around like crazy furballs on speed. In some cases it will help to play more with your cat, letting it use its huntingreserves. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we eat different foods depending on the time of the day? i.e. cereal for breakfast, burgers for lunch/dinner"
] | It's purely cultural. Check out these [articles](_URL_2_) on [breakfast around the world](_URL_0_) --- people in different places eat lots of different stuff for breakfast. There are some trends --- pretty much everybody wants something easy to prepare (eggs are popular everywhere), people in cold weather places tend to eat hot, filling things (oatmeal, porridge, congee) people in hot weather places tend to eat lighter (coffee and toast, fruit, yogurt, cheese). But nothing hard and fast --- France is temperate weather wise, but people there eat very light breakfasts. Cereal is so popular in the U.S. because a couple of health nut brothers (the [Kelloggs](_URL_1_)) started a fad for it in the 19th century, convincing people that it was better for you. People used to eat steak and ham and eggs for breakfast and stuff before that. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"ELIS I know it's a bit late but how exactly did the Lehman Brothers go bankrupt?"
] | the housing market crashed happened when people agreed to adjustable rate mortgages that they couldn't afford. before these mortgages defaulted, lehman brothers (among other finance companies) bought these mortgages that were lumped in with other debt and rated higher that they actually were. standards & poor's (who does the rating) was basically bribed into doing so (by the people who were short selling the bad mortgages) and then said "we just rate it, we don't force you to buy it". For more info read the book "the big short" by michael lewis |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is fire used to make land fertile? Wouldn't the heat from the flames cause a dust bowl effect?"
] | Fire is GOOD for nature for many reasons; you may have heard that coniferous trees (trees with cones) will only spread their seeds when the heat from a fire melts the resins in the cones and allows them to open up. Fire is also beneficial in that, once the trees are burned, the remaining ashes contain lots of nutrients that will aid in the regrowth of the area. Mountainous areas with lots of trees aren't as prone to the dust bowl effect because the dead trees still prevent the wind from blowing at gale forces. Not to mention that dead trees still have plenty of roots to hold the soil in place. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is blood red but do our veins look blue?"
] | The fat under your skin absorbs low frequency light. The higher frequency blue wavelengths are what you see while the lower reds are filtered out. Some people try to spread the old wives tale that blood is blue when it's in your veins, but that is not the case. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do people's personalities change when they experience memory loss or brain damage?"
] | Because your brain has your personality in it. If a bullet goes through your brain and damages it, you'll be missing a significant amount of pathways that were present before. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why isn't car bodywork made from stainless steel?"
] | Because its too expensive. But that didn't stop DMC from building the deLorean. Thank goodness for poor business decisions. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What would happen if all bacteria was removed from my body?"
] | The vast majority of cells in your body are bacterial cells (something like 90-99% of all cells are bacteria), so the effects of removing all bacteria would be widespread and effectively leave us unable to survive. Removing bacteria from the gut would prevent absorption of many vital nutrients. This is actually one of the dangers of taking antibiotics too aggressively: they kill all bacteria, good and bad, and can lead to malnutrition and other complications. Bacteria also utterly occupy our skin and actually out-compete many dangerous species of bacteria. Without these benign bacteria growing on your skin, you'd be more prone to infection. This is a major reason why doctors don't recommend constantly using antibacterial creams and the like. [Source](_URL_0_) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"When high-level world leaders (like Obama and Putin) talk to each other on the phone, do they speak in the same language or do they need a translator? And if they need a translator, isn't that a serious security concern that someone knows everything they're saying?"
] | The translator only has to be trusted by the party that hires him. Usually Obama brings a Russian translator, and Putin brings and English translator. The translators work together and check each other to verify what the other is saying is accurate. A Presidential translator has passed the requisite security clearances and background checks to have access to the sensitive information that a President does. With those clearances and background checks comes an inherent trust and professionalism that the translator will accurately and faithfully represent what's being said. Also, many foreign officials also speak English. I don't think Putin fluently speaks English, but many others do. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Want to learn C#; can someone explain the different versions of C#, .NET, and Visual Studio, and how the parts relate to each other?"
] | These explains the versions of C# in relation to the .NET frameworks. _URL_0_ _URL_1_ You'll want Express for Windows Desktop. The "Windows" one is misleading and only for lesser "Windows Store Apps" ie not proper full blown programs. Also, because there's no direct equivalent of this in Java it's worth mentioning an extension to the language called LINQ. I think you'll love it. _URL_2_ See how you can replace complex if statements with very small pieces of code? It's like SQL for your code. |
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