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[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why can we easily distinguish between faces in photorealistic games and real faces?" ]
> Many photorealistic games are indistinguishable from actual photos, except when human faces are there. What exactly is the difference? The difference is *you*. Humans are highly adapted to recognize slight differences in human faces because it is very useful for humans to tell humans apart. Crows for example might look pretty much all the same to humans but crows have no trouble telling each other apart as that is what they are adapted to do. So the reason human faces are so hard to replicate is because humans are unusually picky about them in particular.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why haven’t we begun colonizing the moon?" ]
Cost > Benefit Or as per the conspiracy theory there is an alien observation post and we have a pact not to go there.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "does gum (like orbit advertises) actually clean our teeth?" ]
Gum that has sugar in it does not. Otherwise it can yes by removing crap off your teeths and also chewing makes your blood go to your teeth feeding them and making them stronger
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "If I bang my leg, I get a bruise. The same blow to the head results in a lump. Why does the same body react to the same accident in different ways dependent on the impact site?" ]
Two factors - first, your leg is squishier than your head when it gets bumped by the same object. You are likely hurt in different ways. If you hit a mattress or a table with a baseball bat, you get a different effect. Second, your leg is again squishier than your head when you get swelling. The swelling makes a lump on our head because it can't push our skull out of the way. In your leg, you would hardly feel the same amount of swelling, because it can push the muscle out of the way.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why is \"drinking alone\" stigmatized?" ]
I often drink, to get drunk, alone ,and don't care if it's stigmatized or celebrated. I would prefer to be drunk in my own home, with my own soundtrack, my own volume, and the comfort of my own couch. There's no risk of running into an asshole looking for trouble, there's no risk of getting bored of the people I'm with, there's no risk of spending more than I planned, there's no risk of getting volcanus the next morning from eating Taco Bell..mainly because I don't have one in my house, but I digress. I do enjoy going out, but I stay sober. I prefer drunk interwebzing and listening to my own music. In fact, I'm doing this stigmatized activity right now. Listening to Brown Sabbath (check them out if you dig Black Sabbath. They do covers with a smooth jazz infusion) and not worrying about anything but somebody showing up unannounced and trying to drink my beers.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "When we sing, why do our voices sound so much better to ourselves than when others hear them or we hear them on a recording?" ]
Read this to my 5 year old, he didnt understand a word of it. You have let my son down now he will never be president.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Is the ending scene in Rush Hour, where Carter saves Lee from falling to his death by turning a giant curtain into a slide, actually possible?" ]
According to the description, "Jackie Chan -- performing his own stunts as per his earlier films.", and other sources back that up. So, I'd say it's possible but it would depend on the material and the thickness of the fabric. I'm not 100% sure on the physics of it but since he's falling at more of a vertical angle when he first hits it plus the distribution of force throughout most of the surface of the curtain I don't think it would rip or get pulled out of someone's hands depending on the fall position.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do many websites not allow me to access them until I accept one or multiple cookies?" ]
In some countries/regions it's a law that users give permission for the site to use cookies. [Link Explanation](_URL_0_) In addition, like @StrangelyTypes mentioned, a lot of sites won't function perfectly without the use of cookies, so it's best to ask the user/inform them to turn them on for the best experience.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Compared to other East Asian countries such as Korea, China, and Vietnam, the Japanese have much longer names, often with 3+ syllables, while in Korea, China, and Vietnam people usually have one to two syllables in their name. Is there any cause for this, whether linguistically or culturally?" ]
It's funny you noticed that; I never had, but for other reasons entirely I just learned recently that the Japanese, for the most part, didn't have surnames at all until relatively recently in history. But around the turn of the last century, the government decreed that they all adopt formal surnames, and they got to pick what to use. That resulted in a much greater variety of Japanese surnames than are found in other languages, and I wonder if that might have something to do with the syllable thing. Not a linguist or anything, that's all just something I happened to read the other day.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why does fuel efficiency decline so quickly the faster you go?" ]
Because air resistance increases with the *square* of your vehicle speed. If you double your speed, you quadruple the wind force fighting you. That means your motor has to work four times as hard to keep you at that speed. So you have to burn a lot of fuel to keep it up.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why is there a small portion of Russia between Lithuania and Poland?" ]
Kaliningrad was a part of Germany before WWII. It was called Königsberg . In the post WWII readjustment of borders, Russia insisted on retaining control of that territory and the other Allied powers acquiesced.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How is Friend of the Court, not considered a conflict of interest?" ]
I have seen lawyers act as a "friend of the court". From my experience it happens when a defendant does not have a lawyer present and the court needs a lawyer to explain a matter of law to the defendant or to stand in while the court address some sort of administrative issue, such as changing a court date or scheduling future dates.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "The answer to the math problem about the game show where there's three doors with either goats or a car behind them. (Variable change)" ]
Think of it this way: The ONLY way you're leaving with a car when you're NOT switching is if you pick the right door the first time around. Chance is 1/3. If you switch, the ONLY way you're NOT leaving with a car is if you did NOT pick the right door the first time around. Chance is 2/3. Bam.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How do speed detectors work?" ]
There are multiple different types of speed detectors. The three common ones are Radar, LIDAR and cameras. Radar works by sending out radio waves at fixed intervals that hit a car, and the difference in time taken to get to the car and back can calculate the speed of the car. It also takes advantage of something called the Doppler Effect, which is what causes emergency vehicle sirens to switch pitch when driving towards you vs away from you. LIDAR works basically the same as radar, but using lasers instead of radio waves. Traffic enforcement cameras work by having sensors in the ground (usually) that tells you how long it takes for a car to go from one point to another.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why more recently than ever do webpages refresh and not actually go back when you hit the back button?" ]
It is more and more common mispractice to include a 0 second redirect in a site, which as soon as you load a page, redirects you to a slightly different page they actually want you to see. So far, this isn't a bad thing, it helps site design. The problem is, if you hit the back button on most browsers, it will take you back to the page with the instant redirect instead of back PAST that page to the page you came from. It is bad design, and SHOULD be easy to avoid, but some web designers are idiots. Source: I'm a web developer.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do cigarette companies like Marlboro don't make cigarettes healthier? And wouldn't it be better profitwise since costumers live longer?" ]
I'm not an expert by any means, but maybe I can help a little here. Tobacco is inherently unhealthy. People aren't fond of blanket statements, but it's true. Marlboro isn't out there slathering tobacco leaves with tar before rolling them up; tar is found naturally in tobacco. Also nicotine is terrible for your vascular system. It causes your blood vessels to narrow which, over time, leads to permanent narrowing and higher blood pressures. The higher blood pressures/decreased blood flow to tissue increases your risk for heart attack and stroke. Source: I'm an OR nurse and some surgeons I work with won't perform non-emergency surgery if you're an active smoker because the risks for complications are that high. Edit: Companies might be able to remove some unhealthy additives, but tobacco will always be bad for you.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How is bubble wrap made?" ]
well i would expect they mold a plastic with bubble, then attach another plastic layer on top of it. _URL_0_ yeah, they just roll two peaces of plastic together. one has the bubbles on the roller.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do airline pilots print off large piles of paper on a dot matrix printer at the gate?" ]
They need a hard copy of the flight plan in case they have a hardware failure. And even then, they won't rely completely on the electronics to fly correctly. A plane isn't navigated by electronics as such because aeroplanes rely on analog hardware to control the aircraft.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How much of a person's personality is shaped by environment and how much is purely influenced by genetics?" ]
TL;DR: It depends. Every person is different. A person who has more traumatic experiences is obviously going to be affected by the environment more than a person who didn't. That said, some people have genetic traits that make dealing with stressful situations easier, so they're affected *less* than others. This is one of these things that isn't actually quantifiable, and we can never really be sure. You can study an individual and try and determine, to a degree, what contributed to what personality trait, but unless you know *every single detail* about their lives, and unless you have a complete genomic makeup and actually understand what it all means... well, even *then* you could be wrong.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "When a baby is born addicted to opiates because of the mother, what is the effect on the baby? How is it treated?" ]
Injections of morphine. A friend of mine had family friends that looked after an addicted baby and they had to give it injections of morphine once every 4 hours to begin with. The dosage is slowly tapered off. This is mostly because opiate withdrawal is only deadly to babies.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "If I own a great deal of stock shares in a company, does my selling them all at once have any economic impact on that company?" ]
Yes, if you own a large amount of a company and then try to sell all of your shares at once it will most likely cause the price to decline significantly. It's basic supply and demand, when you sell your shares you are increasing the supply and not changing the demand so the price will go down.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What exactly is the Commonwealth? What purpose does the association have?" ]
It's basically the continuation/what's left of the British Empire. It's more of a mutual relationship/organization now, rather than the British controlling everyone, and lots of countries have opted out. But just about everyone in it used to be owned by the British and probably speaks English as a first or second language.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why is the atom considered to be the smallest unit of matter if there are things smaller such as quarks?" ]
Because it's not a type of matter until it's an atom. You can't build a table out of leptons. You don't have a hydrogen quark, or a gold electron. We call things smaller than atoms particles - building pieces of matter. That said, that's a bit of a revisionist narrative. When we named the atom we didn't know there were things smaller.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "why I go to bed after eating a good meal and wake up with a growling stomach, but when I go to bed after having not eaten I wake up not feeling hunger." ]
If hunger is a conscious experience, it might be because your consciousness only notices the difference between 'just a minute ago' (right before you fell asleep), because you weren't conscious during your sleep. So that, by contrast, it seems you are getting a lot hungrier in a small amount of time. Just a guess though. I do get the feeling that most of our sensory experiences and estimations are based on comparing one time to another, rather than having an absolute value to measure things like hunger, thirst, sleepiness, etc. A quick change in the measured value leads to the body assuming that a need is quickly increases and will need to be satiated soon.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "WHERE DO BIRDS GO AT NIGHT" ]
They go back to their little birdy husbands, Their little birdy wives. Their little birdy children. Their little birdy lives. Nestled close together, They sleep beneath the starry skies.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do people wake up when they are about to die in a dream?" ]
I don't wake up. Throughout my life I've always had a few reoccurring nightmares that even when in them I know how it's going to go some how. For whatever reason in one of them I die and I don't wake up, it just carries on. --- Edit. Wow, I never expected so many replies! Nice to know I'm not the only odd one out there. It does feel like this comment chain should be it's own DAE now.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What causes us to randomly stare off into space?" ]
Look up the word for this , called "daydreaming"
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "why does a video game character always look at his hands" ]
Because, in reality, when something like an explosion happens, you normally check yourself for damage if you are nearby. You block your face with your arms and hands and then it is natural instinct to check yourself for harm or shrapnel, so you check your hands because they are typically the only part of your body that you almost always see.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do I always have to pee right after I fap?" ]
It's natures way of cleaning the pipes. EDIT: I think it's the prostate gland who gives the "order"
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What does single payer health care mean? How is it different from any other kind of health care?" ]
Single-payer healthcare basically just means that everyone (in the country) is on the same (in the current example nationally run) health insurance plan.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What happened to the Occupy movement? Are people still \"occupying\"?" ]
The Occupy Wall Street movement itself is no longer taking place. However, many would point to the strong support of people like Trump and Sanders instead of the normal institutional candidates as indicators that the unrest which caused that movement is still alive and well. Income inequality is still an issue that is highly relevant and the political climate we are currently living in is very likely an extension of the exact sentiments that sparked the Occupy movement.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "White Male Privilege" ]
When controlling for other factors such as age and education, asian americans earnings are far below whites. Asian American immigrants tend to be highly educated compared to the average white American and thus get high paying jobs. ([here](_URL_0_) is a paper loaded with relevant data). The issue on that slide isn't (or at least shouldn't have been) that whites earn more than others, it's that two people who are identical except for the color of their skin tend to get paid differently in the US (with whites tending to earn more).
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why does every country aside from the US have really crazy skyscrapers/skylines while New York mostly looks like a bunch of boxes" ]
I am not an expert on architecture but I think it has something to do with the time at which most of these buildings were made. Also keep in mind that even in cities with artistic buildings many will still be very basic looking because it is spatially and economically efficient.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "the chemicals in cigarettes." ]
There is a [list of cigarette additives](_URL_0_), all of them are FDA approved food ingredients, but the FDA doesn't test for saftey when burnt. Obviously that list includes everyone's addatives, so no cigarette has all 599 addatives (many ingredients have similar purposes). The issue is when the tobacco leaf is cured, it's kept in a smoke house which deposits lots of burning byproduct chemicals, and when the cigarette is burned lots of additional chemical bonds are broken and reformed, so the smoke gets filled with lots and lots of new chemicals (this is where most the absurdly high number of chemicals comes from).
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How can stores like Menard's give away products (after rebate)?" ]
Two things: * Many people don't follow through with the rebate process (laziness, forget, etc.). That's why the rebate process exists - why not just make it an instant discount? Because if there's a process, many won't go through with it. That way on average, they can still make a profit on the item, even though on some consumers they lose money. * Probably not in this case, but possibly loss leaders: Stores often are willing to sell some things at a loss, in order to get people to come in & then hopefully buy other things that they sell at a profit. Think turkeys at Thanksgiving, cheap french bread everyday,e tc.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How do engineers calculate the maximum weight a bridge can support?" ]
The structural strengths of all common building materials are well-studied and well-known. The actual practice is more complex than this, but the basic idea is you say "This pillar is 1000 square inches of steel in cross-section, a square inch of steel can support a ton, so this pillar can support 1000 tons". Then you divide by 5 or so to provide a safety margin, to protect against errors or people misusing the bridge.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do small phantom files appear whenever I copy folders from a Mac to a PC?" ]
The phantom files are bits of information made by OS X during the copying process to help Windows track bits of information about those files that its filesystem isn't able to support by default. .ds_store files tell the Mac how to display a particular folder. For example, if you drag the icons around to be arranged in a certain way, or if you zoom in on them to make them bigger, the .ds_store file for that folder stores that information. Both sets of files are completely normal; they're not visible from OS X because it's a UNIX system. Files that start with a . are hidden by default.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "The formation of the moon (The Ejected Ring Theory)" ]
The capture theory doesn't work because the mass of the moon vs the earth make it unlikely; the moon is just too massive to be captured by the earth. The Ejected Ring is basically: a large body (about Mar-sized) crashed into the earth, a bunch of rock was ejected into orbit (first forming a ring around the earth), it collected around the earth into the moon. This is bolstered by the similar mineral compositions of the earth and the moon.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How Pilots and Trucks driver communicate over the radio ?" ]
YouTube has interesting conversations between tower and planes. Search for "ATC recordings." A guy named 'Kennedy Steve' is famous because of his delivery/humor. You could just search for that as well.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why are brass, copper, and bronze used in pluming?" ]
They're very corrosion resistant, considering the constant exposure to water. They're also very malleable (meaning they're easily shaped into tube and pipe) and not toxic, plus it is easy enough to be bent by hand rather than having to fabricate exact curves and lengths. In addition, the three metals are also resistant to the growth of bacteria and other microbes. Brass, copper, and bronze are all mostly copper. Admiralty brass, the type of brass you'd normally see in plumbing, is only 30% zinc. Bronze is typically no more than 12% tin. Keeping the metal mostly the same also helps limit corrosion. Typically you'll see copper tubing and brass fittings, because pure copper doesn't hold its shape very well under the higher stress at a fitting.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why are my income tax rates going up this year? What's included in the increase?" ]
That isn't your income tax rate. That's FICA, which goes to pay towards Social security. it's a tax on your income but not THE "income tax", which is the same for most americans except the rich. That clarified... A few years ago congress (in order to help out early in the recession) passed a bill which temporarily lowered the amount you have to contribute to Social secuirty. That bill expired at the end of last year, so it went back where it used to be, which I think is around 6% (it was lowered to around 4%) It's to pay for social security and is necessary to make sure the program continues to exist in the future, it wouldn't run forever at the temporary lower rate.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Do animals have the capability to remember or even understand that they were rescued from terrible conditions in the immediate and distant future?" ]
Most animals dont remember anything very well, but they get habits ingrained in them. For example, i have a rescue cat who still eats every meal like its her last and that she has to scrape up every last bit (even though shes absolutely fed enough). so in that sense they "remember" So with all that in mind, I don't think they can comprehend the concept of being "saved"; and I think any searching for a "gratitude" is humanizing animal emotions more than is correct to do. Animals are very much in the moment, and if you're making them happy in that moment, that's what matters.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why is it when a skunk is killed or run over everything for miles is saturated with the stench. How can it cling to so much air in so much space?" ]
It's s powerful chemical called thiols, sulfur based. Extremely concentrated, even bears run from it. It's like the stuff put in natural gas so you know a leak. A very little goes a long way
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Most of my friends have iPhones or Macs, and the insulation on their chargers always seems to disappear. Where does it go?" ]
Well, onto the floor. If the floor is carpeted, it will be very difficult to find. Then, whenever the floor is vacuumed, it gets picked up. The reason it brakes off in the first place is because the owners aren't carful with it, most likely having bend it at either/both ends, [like this](_URL_0_) I don't think I've ever had a cable that only I used break apart.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why does our body produce lactic acid when we exercise?" ]
Not enough oxygen to go around. Normally, any of our cells with mitochondria (which is most of them) would prefer to undergo aerobic respiration. It's very efficient, allowing you to get a buttload of ATP (an energy carrier) out of each molecule of glucose. The thing is, you need oxygen to do it. At rest, that's fine. During intense exercise, however, cells are undergoing aerobic respiration at a breakneak pace. They're using oxygen as fast as it's being supplied, and still need to make more energy. So, they start undergoing fermentation, which is way less efficient than respiration, but doesn't require oxygen. Breaking down glucose without oxygen can make a couple of things, and the one our body makes is lactic acid. Lactobacillus, one of the bacteria in yogurt, does the same thing with lactose in milk, making yogurt pleasantly sour with the acid. Yeasts, on the other hand, use the same process to make different products from simple sugars: Ethanol and carbon dioxide. Thus, beer.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "If Trump gets elected as president how exactly will he get Mexico to pay for this wall that has proposed?" ]
I think he was going to sanction mexico until they built it... but thats not how this works... that not how any of this works.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "The Export–Import Bank of the United States" ]
The main purpose of the ExIm bank is to backstop loans to US businesses that want to conduct business with customers overseas. A typical commercial bank might find that loaning a business money to expand operations to serve a foreign client is too risky: what if the customer fails to pay their bill? The ExIm bank will guarantee the loan made by a domestic bank, and will even insure that the US business will get paid. This basically serves to grease the wheels of foreign trade, opening new markets for US goods.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why would the Turkish military attempt a coup against the Turkish government?" ]
The Turkish military has a long standing history of being the liberal safeguard against conservative (Islamist) leaders or groups. Erdogan, who is the current President and leader of the Turkish political party AKP, has taken many steps in a very conservative, Islamic direction. Along with the worsening security situation (the airport bombing), some in the military may have felt it was time for another coup to bring the government to heel.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How do they measure the distance players run/cover in a soccer/football game?" ]
They basically film the field and use computer software to track each player and calculate how far theyve traveled. Basically if you know the scale of the field in the camera its easy.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How were drugs made in the first place? like who decided \"I'm gonna get gasoline battery acid and gravel and mix in a leaf, and then light it on fire and breathe next to it\"?" ]
Many drugs including pharmaceuticals originate from botany. A lot of tropical climate plants contain chemicals which can be studied and modified to increase psychoactivity. Many other drugs are synthesized by modifying the chemical structures of existing drugs. Hence the constant bombardment of new pills and such being advertised.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "When performing live, why do the artists alter the melody of their well known songs so often?" ]
If a band or solo performer is on tour, it's likely they are playing that same song over and over and over again. If it's currently a hit on the radio, not only are they playing it nearly every night, but they are also using it as their sound check song because they want to make sure it sounds perfect since the that's the song the whole audience will know. That means they could be playing it three times a day every day. Eventually they *need* to mix it up to stay sane and engaged. Otherwise they might zone out during a performance. Billy Joel famously said he almost lost his place while playing *Piano Man* one night at a show because he zoned out and started thinking about what he was going to order for room service later that night.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Since the president of Comcast said, \"We don't enforce data caps.\" publicly and there is proof that they do, why couldn't a civilian sue them?" ]
"Suing" isn't that simple in American common law. Strictly based on what a Comcast executive said according to your post and not in regards to any other business practices of the company, no civilian would perceivably have legal standing in court. The first hurdle of holding legal standing (even in class actions if you were involving Comcast and not just the President) is injury-in-fact: that the plaintiff suffered or will suffer actual and particular injury (financial, physical, etc.). There are two more hurdles in proving legal standing, neither of which are relevant because a case based purely on this information would not make it past the first step. Again, this is in regards to the information of your post and exclusively that. Other factors and information regarding the business practices of Comcast and their executives' actions and legal responsibilities would of course change the situation.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why are chimps so much stronger than humans?" ]
This is a good, straightforward article on the matter: _URL_0_
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why is Java popular and why did Google write Android OS in java?" ]
Java initially gained traction by being write-once-run-anywhere. It was the best-maintained language offering that. Additionally, Java is great for object-oriented design and very easy to write a good program in compared to C or Fortran. There are good open source development platforms, I strongly believe that Eclipse had a major role in the huge popularity of Java. Finally, competitors in that space, like C#, were platform specific.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "With all of the mind-altering drugs out there that damage your memory, thinking, and brain in general, how come there are no \"good\" drugs that alter your brain in a good way?" ]
That's the funny thing: The good drugs are often the same drugs as the bad drugs. You've just only been hearing the bad things, because that's all anyone has a vested interest in telling you. Medical marijuana is a big thing, after all. Not to mention the growing research into medical usage of psychedelics on depression/anxiety and MDMA on autism.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "BIOLOGY] Is there a limit to how much a person can be massaged?" ]
Massaging is essentially just providing external stimulation to the skin/muscles. If you keep massaging a single muscle/muscle group, after sometime, you'll start feeling numb as the brain just starts ignoring the massage stimulation coming from the nerves of that area. On the other handd , If you are giving a full body massage and moving from head to toe and repeating the process, the nerves would have enough time to reploarize, you'd just feel sore and probably ache from the stimulation.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "how can a layer of metamorphic rocks be on top of a layer of sedimentary rocks? Shouldn't the deepest layer have higher pressure and temperature?" ]
You are absolutely right, the deeper a layer gets buried, the higher pressure and temperature it is subjected to. However, there are two ways to explain your question. Compressive tectonic forces can fold or fault rock layers which would place metamorphic rocks above sedimentary rocks. A thrust fault is a type of fault that pushes deeper, older rocks over younger rocks. Imagine pushing two pieces of paper together on a flat surface. One would slide on top of the other, which is exactly what happens in a thrust fault. There are places in Canada where very old granite has been pushed up on top of young sedimentary rocks via thrust faulting. For the folding example, think about a tablecloth pushed over a smooth table, it would bunch up in a series of small folds. The same thing happens with rock layers. Sometimes rock layers get folded so much they become overturned, which means a "lower" layer would be on top of an "upper" layer.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What exactly is the role of a movie producer?" ]
Producers make the movie happen. They find a script, they get it rewritten, they get funding, they approve the casting, they approve the locations, they hire the director, they make sure it doesn't go over budget, and they sign it off when it's complete. It's the non-arty side of movie making. Executive producers are generally less hands-on. They do more of the finance and business meetings side of things. Often this role is given to actors who are considered integral to the ongoing success of a series. "A remake of the Lone Ranger you say? Not sure that'll work...Oh, Johnny Depp's coming here to discuss it? Okay, set up a meeting" Production assistants act as "runners", copy scripts, make phone calls, drive trucks, recce locations and generally make sure everything gets done smoothly.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why are so many intelligent, gifted individuals so frequently unable to find happiness for themselves?" ]
The saying is "Ignorance is bliss" so the less intelligent you are, the less stressful your life is in a sort. You don't have to worry about a lot of responsibilities and issues(even if its your job to, you simply don't as you're inferior in intelligence and cannot comprehend the need to worry about them) Edit: this was so hard to write without offending anyone xD
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "why is it possible for sprinters to get faster times.through the decades?" ]
There's some difference between what athletes of today can accomplish with better sports science and nutrition and athletes in prior times. Also, there are a lot more people alive today than there were even two generations ago, so there's a greater chance that the fastest person ever is alive today than two generations ago. The big difference, though, comes from shoes and track surfaces. Surfaces and shoes that allow for the right amount of bounce, firmness, and friction all help improve times.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What would it take to get a third party into the debates and why can't they just be included automatically?" ]
The Commission on Presidential Debates requires that a candidate be polling at at least 15% to be included in the debates. the reason third parties can't be included automatically is because dozens of people run for President in every state. If you didn't establish a cutoff somewhere, you would have a stage with literally hundreds of people on it, almost all of which aren't even running in more than a single state.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "The differences in the different types of motor oil for automobiles. 10W40; 0W20; etc." ]
When you see a W on a viscosity rating it means that this oil viscosity has been tested for **winter** use at a colder temperature. The numbers without the W are all tested at 210° F or 100° C which is considered an approximation of engine operating temperature. In other words, a SAE 30 motor oil is the same viscosity as a 10w-30 or 5W-30 at 210° (100° C). The difference is when the viscosity is tested at a much colder temperature. For example, a 5W-30 motor oil performs like a SAE 5 motor oil would perform at the cold temperature specified, but still has the SAE 30 viscosity at 210° F (100° C) which is engine operating temperature. This allows the engine to get quick oil flow when it is started cold verses dry running until lubricant either warms up sufficiently or is finally forced through the engine oil system. The advantages of a low W viscosity number is obvious. The quicker the oil flows cold, the less dry running. Less dry running means much less engine wear.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why is fish not considered \"meat\" by those who want to avoid eating meat for certain religious beliefs?" ]
Early Christianity's official language was Latin, and in that language there are distinct words for the flesh of land animals and the flesh of water-dwelling animals. So in early proclamations about fasts in which one refrains from eating what **we would call "meat"**, the Latin word "carnis" would have been used, which would not include "piscis", or fish. That distinction has been carried over into the other languages of the church since then. If you want to read or listen to a piece about the history of "fish fasting", [there was one on NPR a few years ago](_URL_0_).
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Bernard Madoff's fraud" ]
Let's say start an investment fund. I get you and 100 of your friends to each give me $10K, I take it and buy stocks and bonds and such, and because I'm good at it, I make a 20% return. That's real good, so of course you are going to keep you money in my fund...you'll probably put more money in, and get your friends to do the same. Now let's say it was all a lie. I told you that you made a big return, but that was just so you'd give me more money and get your friends to sign up. I set enough money aside to pay off the people who cash out, and live large on the rest. So long as I have more people coming in than going out, I can keep it up indefinitely. Or least until people figure out I am full of shit...then everyone wants their money back, and their isn't nearly as much as I told everyone there was.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Do tax refunds affect the economy?" ]
On a long term basis, no. Tax refunds come from money that has been taken out of your paycheck by the company that you work for. The company sends that money to the government and 'pays the taxes for you'. If you didn't have the money taken out of your paycheck, you would 'get your refund' right away, in small amounts each paycheck. When you compare the 'refund' to the 'no refund, but more in your paycheck', the amounts are the same, so there is no real difference to the economy. You might be able to call it a 'forced savings' program, where no interest is paid. In that manner, it might enable people who don't ordinarily save their money to make larger purchases, like a new kitchen appliance, or money to move from one apartment to another. But in that case, economists would say that there is an *opportunity cost*, and that money could not be spent on other smaller items throughout the year.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do cockroachs can survive after a nuclear attack?" ]
This is a ELI5 explanation, it's more technical, but contains the good bits. Radiation damages your DNA (anything's DNA, not just humans). Most of the time, this just kills the cell. If it happens while the cells are dividing, this is really bad, because your new cells will be damaged and always produce damaged cells. Human cells are dividing all the time. Each individual cell divides about every 30 days, but it's not like it all happens at once, each cell can be on a different schedule. Cockroaches and flour beetles (Mythbusters did a test and flour beetles handled radiation better than cockroaches) don't have frequent cell division like humans do, they tend to happen all at once for them, so they're less susceptible to radiation damage.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "The controversy with Supermax prisons" ]
1) Human rights mostly, though not many people care about the prisoners that are sent to a supermax. These prisons tend to be the most inhumane and secretive about their practices. It is also very expensive to house prisoners there (see 2). 2) "Supermaxes' average cost to taxpayers is about $50,000 per inmate per year-compared with $20,000 to $30,000 for lower-security prisons-this is hardly an economically efficient arrangement." ([source](_URL_0_)). 3) It's unclear. Yes in some states, no in others. Yes to some forms, no to others. It leans a bit towards no (due to court costs, etc), but that's no at all a certain answer ([source](_URL_1_)). It's politically charged and exaggerated in a lot of ways, so it's hard to get unbiased answers.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Where does burned fat go?" ]
if you mean when we lose weight, mostly into carbon that is exhaled. we breathe in O2 and breathe out CO2, a product of metabolism.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "If the USA decided to go with full universal healthcare, what would happen to the private insurance companies?" ]
There are a lot of models for universal health care, so it depends on how it gets implemented. For example, in the UK, the NHS covers all basic services, but plenty of people buy private insurance for increased convenience of services. Any way you cut it, private insurers are going to lose a huge number of customers and have to drastically cut back their workforce.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "If we were a computer, what would be our equivalent specifications?" ]
Most of us would be the free calculator that you get when you open a new checking account.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How does an octopus know when its changed to the correct color of its surroundings?" ]
There is a theory that their weirdly shaped pupils result in something called "chromatic aberration", the result of different wavelengths of light refracting at different angles. In humans this causes colored "fringes" around objects which can be observed at the edges of eyeglasses or if your eyes are dilated at an optician. Octopus and squid may be able to use this to determine the color of their surroundings in order to create a match.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why does it take weeks (or months) to receive results from multiple choice exams when everything is corrected and generated by machines?" ]
I would imagine they have tens of thousands of sheets to mark. Then keying in marks, typing out certificates, etc for some exams. I've been waiting on my UNSW ICAS results for MONTHS.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How can dogs drink from dirty puddles and eat off the ground, which would make us sick, but they get sick from eating a lot of human food, such as fried food and onions?" ]
Drinking from dirty puddles and eating off the ground would make you sick maybe 1% of the time, if you did it a lot. (Since your immune system isn't used to it, if you did it just once, you'd probably have more than a 1% chance.) If you were okay with getting food poisoning or getting worms every couple weeks or so, sure, you could eat unhygienic food like dogs do. But food poisoning sucks, and, unlike dogs, people know what they can do to prevent it- like not drinking muddy water or eating floor candy.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do streamed movies cost the same as DVDs/Blu-Rays?" ]
They charge that amount because people pay it. Yes, it's cheaper to stream than to produce a physical product, but since people will still pay the blu-ray prices for a streamed movie, that's what they charge.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "- Why do we only ever see white people with down syndrome" ]
Only 0.1 percent of the world's population have down syndrome. White is the most common demographic (in most western countries). The reason why you never see a black or Asian with down syndrome is because there are simply less people total to get the condition.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What effects would consuming an excess amount of protein do in the long term?" ]
According to the Wikipedia article on "protein poisoning" or rabbit starvation (since historically the way to get this condition is to consume large quantities of rabbit - an extremely lean meat), excessive protein in the human body would lead to excess ammonia and urea in the bloodstream due to amino acid decomposition which leads to the blood becoming too basic. Excess urea usually gets deposited into the joints, and so one long-term result of this diet is gout, assuming one doesn't die earlier from blood pH imbalance.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Who sets the start time for basketball/sports games and why do they start at random minutes?" ]
Short answer: Because TV Longer answer: By starting 11 minutes early, in your example, the broadcast has time to start, do a little lead-in/pre-game show, if you will, and get things rolling before the actual game starts at the top of the hour. Also, it doesn't happen as much anymore with people DVR'ing everything and using built in channel guides, but it used to be to catch the channel flippers as well. They'll catch that the game is starting (remember, without channel guides people often knew that a game was on, but would sometimes forget which channel) and stay there rather than keep flipping and miss the beginning.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "When i eat am I actually chewing as loud as it sounds like to me?" ]
No, when you chew, vibrations travel through your jaw bone and directly to your inner ear, where you hear them. On the other hand, the vibrations have to travel through air to get to someone else's ear. Sound travels best in solids, followed by liquids, and worst in gasses. This is because molecules are closer together in denser materials which allows for better transference.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How does a show like Survivor / The Amazing Race capture so many angles in a scene, especially the critical ones in the plotline?" ]
I have an anecdotal answer for you. Several years ago, I spent a while working with a guy who won a season of the Israeli Survivor. Talking about how "real" it was, he said that all the tasks and results were legit, but that they often reenacted them shortly after they finished to allow the camera crew to get better angles.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why can cops let you off the hook in certain situations? Wouldn't letting them do something illegal be illegal too?" ]
He's hoping that he has scared you into learning the error of your ways. The best form of policing is *preventing* crime, and by doing things the way you described, it sounds like he's achieved his goal. You're thinking about it. "I got away with it this time - next time I might not be so lucky, so I won't do it". funnily enough, I had this very conversation with a policeman friend of mine just a couple of months ago.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why can we walk for hours without our legs hurting but standing still for less than an hour starts to hurt" ]
We evolved to stand as a way to walk, and everything about it is adapted to that purpose. Our balance is better when walking than standing still, circulation better, everything about it revolves around movement. To stand still is inefficient, joints don't work as well because they're not being regulated by a rhythm, we have to keep making all sorts of fine adjustments to stay flexible (basically moving in place), and aches and pains will pile up more quickly.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do I gag when I put a finger down my throat but food doesn't have the same effect?" ]
Because when you swallow, peristalsis is pushing the food down that way and your brain recognises that. Also, you tend not to hold food right at the back of your throat with your throat open. If breathing through your mouth, your tongue tends to hold the food away from the back of your throat anyway so you don't inhale it. Edit: spelling
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How do animals know who won a fight for dominance?" ]
The same way that you'd know who won if you got into a physical fight with another human.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How do surfers speed up to escape a crested wave?" ]
It's mostly unweighting off the bottom of the wave, the "flats", and hopping the board up onto the face of the wave, even ever so slightly like you see when she is near the white water. By unweighting and getting the board up, she can then redirect the board down and use both gravity and the push of the wave from behind to generate speed. There may be other subtle factors, like if she's riding a three fin board they create a bit of drag when going straight and release when turned using two of the three fins, but it's mostly the unweighting, hopping up, and coming down to make speed.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What would happen if The Moon was to blow up tomorrow?" ]
We'd have to worry about several things: 1) the tides. The tides would be all messed up, and we certainly would see changes in the way our seas and oceans behave. 2) We'd have to worry, possibly, about pieces of the moon falling on us.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "When we launch space missions, what's stopping other nations from believing that's a targeted bomb or nuke and how is it different from an actual attack?" ]
Massive differences in the way they are launched. Space launches direct the craft upwards until the gravity turn which applies the force necessary to attain orbit. ICBM's, however, would never waste the fuel in doing such a maneuver as it would severely reduce the payload of the rocket. Even if a nation were to try and fool everybody with a space-launch-looking ICBM, there is still the problem of the fact that it's really easy to differentiate a sub-orbital flight from an orbital flight. Orbital launches are defined by exerting massive forces at the desired altitude to get into orbit. Not applying that force would be highly irregular. Even if a nation managed to fool another nation with a space-looking launch, it would be one, small, payload. It doesn't give you first strike capability, thus making the attack no more useful then a 'conventional' missile bombardment.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do Americans dye their cheese orange?" ]
What color is cheddar cheese where you come from? All cheese is naturally white, or off white, or even a golden yellow, depending on the type of milk used. But you'll never find a cow that gives orange milk. The color instead comes from the flavorless Annatto seed, which gives Wisconsin cheddar that pumpkin orange hue. Found this cool article explaining the history which actually started in England by the way. _URL_0_
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why can't two anti-virus protectors work together?" ]
Let's say you hire two security guards to guard your bank - without telling each other. When one of them sees the other enter the bank at night, with a gun, would you be surprised if he just shoots him? The security guards will be able to work as a team, only if they know each other and work out a way to share their duties. Two different Anti-virus programs can play well together if they are designed to recognize each other and play well with each other. If you use two programs not originally designed to work with each other, expect problems. As a trivial example, if one of them locks access to some system files as a matter of protection, the other can recognize that it is being blocked and will identify the blocking software as malware.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "What makes Unreal Engine 4 so... unreal?" ]
In simplest terms, no other game engine has the sheer amount of man hours poured into it as Unreal Engine. UE has had a ton of resources available to hone their craft. Keep in mind this is the 4th iteration...Unreal Engine 1 came out in 1998. [Here's a pretty comparison of versions 1 through 3](_URL_0_)
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why don't we trigger our gag reflex when we swallow food, but we do if we put our finger down our throat?" ]
Our body doesn't like something being both down our throat and out of our mouth at the same time as it will choke you. Same goes for toothbrushes. You mouth is very aware of the size and shape of things you shove it it.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How does the \"bidding website\" scam work?" ]
Those web site you see ads for that say PS3 just sold for $2.56. Well it did "sell" for that but the trick is that you must pay for each bid you enter like $1.And they will keep changing the end time of the auction so more people will pay that dollar to enter a bid. Technically it did sell for that, but that was after several hundred bids were placed at a dollar each, so really it is that sell price plus how many bids were placed, they make a lot of money off that.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why when you pour water into a pot with hot oil it reacts like that?" ]
Oil floats on water, so the water gets under the oil, quickly boils, and the escaping steam blasts little droplets of oil all over the place.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "EL5: Honestly, what the fuck could happen if my iPad stays on when the plane lands? (I'll check this in 15 minutes when I'm on the ground)" ]
Nothing electronic-wise. Its so you 1)Will pay attention if there is an emergency and not be listening or music or distracted. 2)In case there is a hard landing they don't want those things flying around the cabin (hence stowed). Off is so you won't be tempted to grab it anyways.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "- Why the countries of the world don't cancel their financial debts to one another." ]
Because the countries that lent money are made up of people who lent money and want it back, with interest. There is no one entity called "a country" that leads money to other countries. It is people who back financial tools such as bonds with the expectation that there will be a return on investment.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do we use anti-bacterial toilet bowl cleaner?" ]
Bacteria grow and make bad smells or nasty looking messes in the bowl. Killing them stops that.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "If I pay off my visa with a mastercard within my 21-day grace period, assuming the mastercard had said grace period as well, could I not just shuffle a debt indefinitely?" ]
What you're describing is called a balance transfer. Most credit cards only give you the 21-day grace period for making purchases. You have to pay interest immediately on cash advances and balance transfers. TL;DR - probably not. You'd have to pay interest on your MasterCard from the day you use it to pay off your Visa. But check your cards' terms and conditions, because I'm only generalising.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why do I feel like shit after a nap?" ]
You wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle. When you sleep, your body is reorganizing your brain. Waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle is like waking up when your body has pulled everything off the shelves but hasn't started putting it back yet. I started using _URL_0_ and it made a HUGE difference.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How does mopping clean the floor, if the soapy water just stays on the ground?" ]
you will typically mop in back and forth passes. The mop will get the floor wet which will help dissolve dirt on the floor. A second pass will catch the dirt. You repeat multiple times until the floor looks clean. You then put the mop in the bucket to get fresh water and release the trapped dirt. You do not necessarily use soapy water. That can leave a residue. Other cleaners that evaporate however can be used.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "Why does the scent of petrol, cellotape, glue, correction fluid and a few other objects that aren't used for their scent appeal to people?" ]
A lot of those chemicals contain some amount of benzene. Benzene-like compounds are referred to as "aromatic". They have a fairly strong and often pleasant or sweet odor.
[ "Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum", "How does a speedometer work?" ]
Speedometers work by linking a flexible cable to the car's transmission. As the engine powers the drive shaft, it spins the cable about it's central axis (can I use axis)? The cable then spins a magnet near the speedometer. The speedometer has a metal needle and a spring that pushes the needle towards 0 mph. As the magnet spins faster, the needle is pulled along with it. The spring prevents the needle from just flying wildly around. The physics behind how the magnet pulls the needle is fairly cool. It involves eddy currents, but it might be too much for ELI5.