Recent comments in /f/explainlikeimfive
KoukiRin t1_ixy0c4a wrote
Reply to ELI5: What exactly are viruses? by viktorepo
Imagine that you open your letter box, and inside there’s a crumpled-up paper ball and a letter addressed to you.
You find the paper ball suspicious, so you dump it, and you take the letter in. You open the letter, and its from your aunt, who is one of those chain letter types, and she’s sending this nice, handwritten postcard asking you to make 2 more such postcards and send it to people you love and care about.
Since it’s from your aunt, and you figure why not, after all the effort she apparently went through to put it in an envelope and all, and now you’ve made 2 more such postcards and sent them along to your friends/relatives/neighbors.
The letter in this case is like a virus because it has the instructions needed to make more of itself (the genetic material) and a packaging that it comes in (the envelope) that allows it to enter your house (your cells).
It’s not alive in the sense that it can’t make more of itself, by itself. The letter can’t make more letters without you (a cell), your ability to read the instructions (the enzymes that can replicate the genetic material and read it), and the printer/ink/paper in order to actually make the new letters (your ribosomes and DNA or RNA polymerases, depending on the kind of genetic material in the virus).
Now realistically, if the letter were to function like an actual virus, it might have instructions instead to "Print more copies until your printer catches on fire and explodes" and "Mail the letters to every person you personally know", and after this letter gets around for maybe a day or two, the law enforcement shows up to bust your chain letter syndicate by burning your house and all affected houses down (which is kinda analogous to the programmed cell death process of apoptosis), assuming your house wasn't already destroyed by that aforementioned printer. But that's a discussion for another day.
crazyhadron t1_ixy08l8 wrote
Because, when you look at the female anatomy, you see that the uterus/womb is basically a grapefruit-sized balloon sitting right on top of the bladder, with the mouth running down to the vagina like a long tube. I bet that puts a fair bit of extra pressure on the bladder, especially when they move around or jump.
Milocobo t1_ixxzmhh wrote
Reply to comment by Whyevenbotherbeing in ELI5: What exactly are viruses? by viktorepo
It's not about whether they exist or not. They definitely exist.
It's about "what is life?" which is a much, much harder question to answer.
The truth is, it's a separate question. It's easy to define what a virus is, but you can debate all day about what exactly is life, and whether viruses fit into the definition that you land on.
If you're asking what a virus is, it is genetic material, wrapped in protein, that infects other cells, usually very specific cells, repurposing the cell to create copies of the genetic material, wrapped in protein.
pdpi t1_ixxzg1b wrote
Reply to comment by kenhutson in ELI5: Why does it seem to be harder for women to control their bladders? by RandomKidIsMe
Thats the point — the uterus also has nothing to do with urine, but actually does interfere with how often women have to pee.
Men’s reproductive organs don’t interfere with their urinary tract because they’re external (except for the prostate, which does join in on the bladder-bothering fun as men get older).
Women’s reproductive organs do interfere with the urinary tract because they’re internal, so they apply pressure on the bladder and just generally take up space that would otherwise be occupied by the urinary system and other internal organs.
I do mean that last bit literally — a friend of mine had a hysterectomy, and it took some time for her innards to adjust to the extra space.
Tibbaryllis2 t1_ixxzd3z wrote
Imagine one of those firm silicone straws. While someone is drinking from the straw, try to stop them by only being able to pinch the straw with your pinky and thumb in one small space. Now try to stop them by being able to grab the whole straw with your whole hand.
Women, generally, have a short urethra with weaker muscles. Men have a longer urethra with stronger muscles.
Women also have smaller bladders, and the muscles involved in their urinary track serve additional roles with the uterus and anus.
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Eastofdark t1_ixxyuzv wrote
Reply to comment by RevealStandard3502 in ELI5: Why does it seem to be harder for women to control their bladders? by RandomKidIsMe
Fair enough. Sorry for your troubles.
[deleted] t1_ixxy9qf wrote
knightlife t1_ixxy0am wrote
Reply to comment by Whyevenbotherbeing in ELI5: What exactly are viruses? by viktorepo
AFAIK, it’s roughly kinda the same theory we have as to why/how life itself exists. Certain chemical compounds—in the right structure—could potentially spontaneously allow for reproduction, based on the physics/chemistry of those structures. Some of those eventually evolved into what we now are / know as “life”, while viruses are (in some ways) perhaps a more primitive version of that.
usrevenge t1_ixxuznd wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
Uh like an actual circle jerk?
It's when a group of people form a circle and masturbate. This also includes when a group of people form a circle and jerk the other person usually to their right.
Circle jerking on reddit is usually the phenomena where reddit comments will breed reddit comments agreeing if it isn't countered quickly enough. You see this a lot in terms of fanboyism or random hatred
Example is how everyone on reddit is hostile to Fortnite, ea games, and Activision. Going so far as to make stuff up about these games and companies.
The circle jerk there is how everyone joins in and beats the dead horse.
explainlikeimfive-ModTeam t1_ixxuuft wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
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AdmiralAkbar1 t1_ixxur4x wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
Literally? It's when a bunch of guys stand in a circle and give a handjob to the guy next to them, jerking everyone off.
Metaphorically? It's a more vernacular way to describe a place where everyone pats each other's backs about how right they are, but there's no real insightful discussion or debate—the rhetorical equivalent of jerking each other off. It can also be called a "hugbox" or "echo chamber."
It's often used on reddit to describe subreddits where there's one overwhelmingly popular opinion, and any disagreement with that opinion is despised. For example, if someone says "/r/gaming is one big anti-EA circlejerk," they're saying that any post that's critical of EA, even if it's lame or unoriginal, gets upvoted, while any post that suggests EA isn't all that bad will get a bunch of downvotes.
[deleted] OP t1_ixxumj2 wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
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[deleted] OP t1_ixxugfj wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
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[deleted] OP t1_ixxu5sx wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
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[deleted] OP t1_ixxu17d wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
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Intergalacticdespot t1_ixxtf8s wrote
Reply to comment by Fluffy-Jackfruit-930 in ELI5: In recent years, new formats like webp and jfif have started popping up. However, if I rename them to gif or jpeg, they still work. How can it be that renaming the extension doesn't ruin the image format? Why do they even exist then? by Luthemplaer
Technically whichever company invented jpeg owns all pictures encoded as .jpeg. I'd imagine it wouldn't hold up in court because it's been unenforced for like 20-30 years now. But in theory jpeg itself is the same way. Was one of the earliest mass copyright attempts. And why I still prefer gif or png when at all possible.
[deleted] OP t1_ixxsirt wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
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JackkPat t1_ixxs8ht wrote
Reply to comment by Valiantheart in ELI5: Why does it seem to be harder for women to control their bladders? by RandomKidIsMe
I’m no expert but I would say the shorter urethra could explain that. Their urine only has to travel ~1.5 inches (female) as opposed to ~15 inches (male).
[deleted] OP t1_ixxs5b1 wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
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[deleted] OP t1_ixxs4td wrote
Reply to Eli5 what is a circlejerk? by [deleted]
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Aussie_Mo_Bro t1_ixxqtba wrote
Reply to comment by -WhatCouldGoWrong in eli5: flint and wheel lighters vs electric click lighters..why is the flint and wheel still a popular design by -WhatCouldGoWrong
Sorry, typo.
Piezo. Charge builds up in a crystal when struck. This charge is dissipated as a spark
[deleted] t1_ixxqrzo wrote
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Whyevenbotherbeing t1_ixxpz87 wrote
Reply to comment by Riconquer2 in ELI5: What exactly are viruses? by viktorepo
Do we have any theories on why they might actually exist?
RevealStandard3502 t1_ixy0w2s wrote
Reply to comment by Eastofdark in ELI5: Why does it seem to be harder for women to control their bladders? by RandomKidIsMe
Thanks. It's hard to talk about in person, so I get a little passionate about it online. Or defensive. You know embarrassing and all that.