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[Rick & Morty] *Is* Mister Poopybutthole a parasite or not? | He's the one responsible for the Hulk Musical flashback, but perhaps Cousin Nicky, the third parasite appearing, embedded himself into that one? Afterall, Uncle Steve came from somewhere without anyone's help as well.
Edit: Mr. Beauregard also appears out of thin are, Beth and Jerry think him up. | 59 | No, he's not consistent with the behavior of other parasites.
- The parasites expand in population exponentially, while more parasites never show up around Mr. Poopybutthole.
- The parasites only provide pleasant memories, but we see Mr. Poopybutthole's life after his introductory episode, and both him and the people around him endure plenty of trauma. | 134 |
Eli5: Why did cellphones stop creating a buzzing sound in speakers when receiving a call/text? | I’m sure many of you remember your computer or car speakers buzzing in a very distinct rhythm before receiving a call or text in the 2000s. I’m just wondering what changed and how. | 666 | There are so many wrong answers here… the right answers are buried in the comments.
It’s simply that we don’t use TDMA anymore, time division multiple access. TDMA was a way for multiple users to share one channel (basically a radio frequency, not unlike a TV channel over the air or tuning your radio to a certain station). It did this by splitting up each user’s signal into short bursts of data. Those bursts/pulses of data are what you heard buzzing in your speaker.
If you’re American you may have noticed back in those days, only Tmobile and ATT did this. They were GSM carriers who used TDMA. Verizon and Sprint used CDMA which was a different technology that did not cause the buzzing speaker because it didn’t transmit in pulses of data.
Newer technologies don’t use TDMA either, so 3G, LTE, now 5G won’t cause a buzz. If you noticed the speaker buzz phenomenon started disappearing in the early 2010s (in the US), that’s why. | 416 |
ELI5: Why do 4 gallons of milk fit perfectly in a milk crate, while 9 half gallons do the same? | I was putting away half gallons of milk at the coffeeshop where I work, but we usually have full gallons. Upon realizing that 9 half gallons, or 4.5 gallons, fit in the milk crate, I wondered how that could be if 4 whole gallons of milk also fit perfectly. | 40 | I assume you're talking about plastic milk jugs? They small ones are shaped differently than the larger ones. The larger ones have much less volume in the upper half, due to the space cut out for the handle, while the smaller ones are a little more uniform, so the upper section contains nearly as much as the lower section. | 34 |
ELI5:Why do we make cars that go way faster than the top speed limit? | 31 | Pretty much anything that raises top speed makes the car perform better in normal circumstances:
* High gearing keeps engine speeds low on the highway for better MPG and less wear on the engine
* Powerful engines help acceleration
* Better aerodynamics improves fuel economy and decreases noise
Most cars have governors that limit top speed, and this is usually tied to the speed rating of the tires the car came with, while German automakers have a gentleman's agreement to limit speeds to 155 mph (250 kph) to help avoid legislation against autobahn's speed limit-free zones. Sports cars have the highest governed limits or no limiter because manufacturers know there's a good chance these vehicles will be used on a track where they'll be going well past legal road speeds. | 31 |
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[Star Wars] Has anyone ever been in a lightsaber dual, realized they weren't going to win, and surrendered? | In the duals I can remember they fight until someone is killed, disarmed, or someone runs away. Has there ever been a case where someone put down their lightsaber and surrendered during the dual? | 344 | Sure, that's how Luke ultimately defeated the Emperor. Luke refused to give in to his negative emotions and surrendered to Vader, putting his faith in his father that he wouldn't kill him. This enraged the Emperor, which he took out on Luke. This made Vader step up and defend his son, throwing Palpatine down the shaft. | 582 |
ELI5 do tanks actually have explosives attached to the outside of their armour? Wouldnt this help in damaging the tanks rather than saving them? | 13,148 | Yes, they do have explosives strapped to the exterior! It's called. Explosive reactive armor. Anti-tank weapons most often employ what is called a shaped charge, which is an explosive device that is shaped in a way to focus the blast energy. Think of it like using a magnifying glass to burn paper, focusing the energy in one small area increases the penetrative power of the Anti-tank weapon. To counteract shaped charges, explosive reactive armor is deployed. The explosive reactive armor detonated when hit, and the shock wave disrupts the focused energy of the shaped charge. While yes this obviously causes some minimal damage to the exterior of the tank, it provides far greater protection than not having it. Also, it allows the tanks to be lighter, move faster, and this be harder to hit | 16,212 |
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ELI5: If i bark/meow at my cat or dog, do they think of us as a fellow dog or cat? or do they know we don't really do that? | 374 | Meowing is not a common form of communication between cats. Mother cats might meow to get the attention of the kittens, but adult cats mainly communicate with each other through body language, hisses and growls. Occasionally outright screaming. Meowing is used mostly to "communicate" with people. | 227 |
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ELI5:Where did the stereotype of Jews being obsessed with money come from? Doesn't everyone like money? | 1,112 | In the Middle Ages, Christians believed that lending money and collecting interest was a sin, but tolerated it as a so called "necessary evil". At the time many jobs were closed to the Jews, as for various reasons, medieval society was very anti-semitic. The fact that many mainstream jobs were closed to the Jews drove them to jobs considered socially inferior or sinful, such as money lending and tax collecting. This led to many Christians being in debt to Jews, increasing the tensions between the two groups and the negative stereotype of the Jews being obsessed with money. | 1,389 |
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Is the age of the universe influenced by time dilation? | In other words, we perceive the universe to be 13+ billion years old but could there be other regions in spacetime that would perceive the age of the universe to be much younger/older?
Also could this influence how likely it is to find intelligent life if, for example, regions that experience time much faster than other regions might be more likely to have advanced intelligent life than regions that experience time much more slowly? Not saying that areas that experience time much more slowly than us cannot be intelligent, but here on earth we see the most evolution occur between generations. If we have had time to go through many generations then we could be more equipped than life that has not gone through as many evolution cycles.
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Edit: Even within our own galaxy, is it wrong to think that planetary systems closer to the center of the galaxy would say that the universe is younger than planetary system on the outer edge of the galaxy like ours?
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Edit 2: Thanks for the gold and it's crazy to see how many people took interest in this question. I guess it was in part inspired by the saying "It's 5 O'Clock somewhere". The idea being that somewhere out there the universe is probably always celebrating its "first birthday". Sure a lot of very specific, and hard to achieve, conditions need to be met, but it's still cool to think about. | 5,465 | Your basic idea is right, but it turns out to be such a small effect that it doesn't matter very much.
The age of the universe does depend on your frame of reference. Time dilation from gravity and from moving close to the speed of light can change how old the universe looks to you. There is no universal age of the universe. We have to pick a frame of reference, and we choose the frame where the cosmic microwave background appears stationary as our frame of reference.
However, this only matters if you need your numbers to be very precise. Most objects in space (stars, planets, galaxies) move at 10s to 1000s of km/s relative to each other. The speed of light is ~300,000 km/s, and you really need to be above like 90% of the speed of light for time dilation to really get noticeable, so stars and planets don't have strong time dilation relative to each other. The only things that move really really fast are jets of magnetised ionised gas blasting out from rapidly rotating accretion discs around black holes, but you can't live in a thin magnetised plasma.
Gravitational time dilation is similarly weak in almost all situations. It only really gets strong when you are really right on top of the event horizon of a black hole. So, if you had a planet that was almost touching the event horizon - which is an implausible but not technically impossible orbit - then yes, any aliens on that planet will have a very different view of the age of the universe. But the Milky Way's gravity is too gentle to have a significant effect between the central bulge and the outer spiral. | 2,586 |
[StarTrek]why is making a useful medical hologram extremely difficult but creating a useful engineer hologram is as simple as Jordi summoning an interactive representation of the Enterprise D's designer with a few simple requests? | 72 | A combination of things. Firstly, the Enterprise computer is more powerful than Voyager's. Secondly, Geordi and the Enterprise had some manner of baseline for her personality (that ended up being wrong but whatever) and it had a full knowledge of it's own systems so could overlay the personality over the database. Thirdly and most importantly, the program was designed to solve one single known problem for which it had to interact with one specific person in a simple environment in predefined ways. The EMH has to make diagnostics and do complex decision making that renders him a far more complicated program. | 53 |
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Why are outliers determined by multiplying the IQR by 1.5? | What's special about this 1.5 / 150%? Does it have anything to do with a normal distribution/95% of the data? | 34 | This definition is not on the same level as, say, the definition of continuity of a function, of the CDF of a random variable, or the density function of a normal distribution. It's a totally arbitrary cutoff that was written down by a person because it suited their immediate need, made it into a some entry level textbooks, and has propagated through time for no compelling reason. It's not something that's taken seriously by any working statisticians. | 58 |
ELI5: how does a cut finger get resewn back on with full functionality? | 7,594 | Using microsurgery. The surgeon uses very fine sutures to reattach nerves and blood vessels. For the surgery to be fully successful, the detached part of the finger must be kept cool an surgery must take place as soon as possible. | 5,602 |
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[Man Of Steel] Superman never landed on earth. Zod still arrives on earth to terraform it. Would Batman be able to deal with it? | I'm aware Zod comes to earth BECAUSE of the transmission of Superman's ship, but lets just assume Zod came on earth anyways and not due to superman.
Purely from the Batman v Superman film flashbacks where it shows Bruce saving that girl, I'm wondering, if Superman wasn't even there, would Batman be there to save the city? My knowledge on DC is a bit rusty, but I do know that Batman is prepared for "anything" (or so I'm told), yet in the films we saw in the flashbacks he wasn't even suited up for Zod.
Was it truly the end for Earth if Superman was not present at that moment? | 309 | Not a chance in this universe. Kryptonite in this universe was apparently made from the World Engine, and there's no time or opportunity to figure out that red sunlight can weaken them.
Zod and his followers would kill him in a dozen different ways if they saw him as a threat.
Maybe if the World Engine took weeks to make noticeable changes, then maybe he would have a chance to study them. It seemed to work pretty fast though, so he probably wouldn't have time.
A nuke might do it though. It knocked Superman out for a while, and Zod hasn't had 30 years of absorbing yellow sunlight to build his strength | 279 |
What process creates heat in condition called "fever"? | 25 | The processes that create heat are the same processes that create heat normally in warm blooded animals. Metabolism of glucose for energy, muscle contractions, and in some cases deliberate metabolism of fat generate your body heat.
What changes in a fever state is the "set point" for your body temperature. The Hypothalamus is responsible for maintaining your body temperature, and when a fever is indicated, the hypothalamus releases signaling factors that increase the set point for your temperature. This is similar to how it works in your house: If your thermostat is set to 70f, and you turn it up to 75f, the house will get warmer. Typically, this simply means that the furnace in your house will stay on longer/burn more fuel. The same goes for your body. | 10 |
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[Medieval Fantasy] Guilds historically prevented non-guild members from practicing a trade. Does this hold true for the various Heroes Guilds I keep seeing everywhere? What happens if I go out and slay a dragon without a guild membership? | 21 | Good luck *selling* all those dragon parts. Or finding someone who will help you haul that giant carcass back to town. The Guild is essentially a giant worker's union. In some places, it may be the only option, and trying to buy and sell things, or even general *hero* work, without Guild backing might actually be illegal. | 29 |
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[ATLA] If he wasn't frozen, could Aang have ended the 100 year war? | 462 | It all depends on if he gets caught up in the genocide or not. Aang as he was wouldn't be able to stand up against an army of fire benders hopped up on comet, but if he manages to escape and seek refuge with the Water and Earth nations to complete his training and realize the Avatar state like he does in the main timeline, yes, he would be able to stop the war.
We see several times that not even an army can stand against a fully realized Avatar. | 474 |
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[Pokémon] Nidoran question | I'm a Pokémon trainer, and have had a question for a while now I was hoping a professor or a breeder could answer for me.
Why do they consider NidoranF and NidoranM two different species of Pokémon?
I know they look different compared to most Pokémon and evolve into different Pokémon; but they aren't the only Pokémon that evolve according to gender or with gender differences.
There's also a handful of Pokémon that have different types depending on what region they're from and even some that have evolutions that vary from the others like a Meowth from Galar taking a different evolution; or a Zigzagoon from there getting an extra one. These would show with genes and stuff like that wouldn't it; but they still count them as one?
Why don't the Nidorans count as one | 64 | The Nidorans were discovered by Professor Oak before he was aware of concepts such as regional variants. Other Pokemon do have sexual dimorphism but not to the extreme extent of the Nidorans, so he gave them separate entries. | 73 |
[Star Trek:TNG] Why the hell are the Ferengi tolerated at all? | They never do anything but loot and plunder. With the extreme rare exception of a single scientist in the entire series of TNG every time they see a federation ship or any ship for that matter all the see is dollar signs. Or just simply fire and assume the worst. They steal, enslave, blackmail, extort, spin information for a profit and plainly not give a fuck about anything. They are government sponsored space pirates nothing more. | 47 | The federations ethics are very rigid and that undermines their ability to do business with certain cultures. The ferengi work as intermediaries in those situations. For a small nominal fee, if course. | 43 |
[DBZ] If I asked Goku to teach me, me being a complete stranger, would he do it? | Let's say I have a proven track record of being a good person. | 17 | He'd probably think it's awesome that you want to do it, give you a few hints on getting started and maybe even refer you to someone, but not teach you.
He's a little naive sometimes, but due to his professionalism as a fighter he'd recognise teaching you would be a waste of time for both of you. | 53 |
[Terminator] If you were Skynet how would you have used the time machine? | I mean there's definitely better ways to use it than kill Sarah/John Connor. Wouldn't you just send back a T-800 to the start of the war loaded with data and intel on the Resistance's strategy, tactics, and early bases? Or if there isn't a limit on how far they can go back wouldn't Skynet just build a Von Neumann wrapped in liquid metal programmed to build Skynet from scratch back in prehistory? So if you were an evil AI bent on the destruction of humanity with an army of robots and a time machine what would you do? | 206 | Skynet's plan was a desperate improvisation, because its headquarters was on the verge of being overrun. Skynet's war against humanity also destroyed the distributed network which could have housed it, so it was holed up in a research facility. It didn't have nukes on hand, it didn't have time to concoct a serious plan. It just had T-800s on hand, machines designed to mimic humans and kill humans. So, Skynet made lemonade out of lemons and devised a plan which centered on killing a single human.
**EDIT:** The Terminator timeline is full of more loops and holes than a lasso contest in a Swiss cheese factory, so this only covers the first movie. | 247 |
ELI5 Before the invention of glasses, were people with bad vision just doomed to a miserable existence? | 58 | There's a bunch of bullshit answers in this thread. The _truth_ is that while blindness or bad vision due to eye damage, parasites, cataracts, etc, was relatively more common in the past than it is today, on the whole people had better vision because _nearsightedness_ was very rare. Because nearsightedness is mostly a disease of the modern world. So most vision problems in the past couldn't have been fixed by glasses, and the main vision problem fixed by glasses in the modern world was vanishingly rare.
Nearsightedness results from spending time indoors a lot as a child. The lack of strong illumination interferes with the mechanism controlling the growth of the eyes, resulting in eyes that are too long and as a result causing nearsightedness because the image focuses in front of the retina. This has been demonstrated in animal models and the biochemical mechanism is understood. This results in a very well documented pattern...in societies which are not industrialized, nearsightedness is rare to practically nonexistant. Surveys of hunter-gatherers and other groups living in traditional ways find almost no one who is nearsighted. As societies industrialize, nearsightedness skyrockets (there's a very good dataset from Singapore on this).
Vision is important...all this nonsense about you not really needing to see more than a blur to spot predators and prey is baloney. Animals in the wild are camoflaged, hide effectively among the terrain, and are quite hard to spot without good vision to see them. And that's not to mention foraging for plants, which are nearly impossible to identify at a distance without good vision. | 46 |
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Is there a philosophy similar to hedonism, but not as radical? | So hedonism sounds a lot like an escape, actively avoid pain, and seek pleasure. I can see it easily leading to addiction, for instance. But I do like the basic idea of hedonism. What is life, if not the pursuit of your desires, instead of being imposed a specific way of life? (As long as not hurting others, and yourself for that matter)
Are there other philosophies that kind of fit this? | 67 | Epicureanism might fit this description
> Epicurus advocated living in such a way as to derive the greatest amount of pleasure possible during one's lifetime, yet doing so moderately in order to avoid the suffering incurred by overindulgence in such pleasure. | 92 |
ELI5: what is the physical interpretation of -1 x -1 = 1? | I understand that 2 x 1 = 2 can be interpreted as if I give one apple to two people I have given 2 apples. 2 x -1 = -2 means if I take one apple from two people I have taken two apples. But I am not sure how to interpret -1 x -1 = 1 | 122 | Multiplication is repeated addition.
2 x 1 = Add 2 one time, thus 2
1 x 1 = Add 1 one time, thus 1
Zero is obvious
2 x 0 = Add 2 zero times, thus 0
N x 0 = Add anything zero times, thus 0
When negatives are at play, you're adding a negative, which is subtraction.
2 x -1 = Subtract 2 one time, thus -2
Combining negatives is a double negative, so
-1 x -1 = Subtract -1 one time = add 1 one time = 1
Not really a rigorous explanation, mind you, but more tuned for a ELI5 intuitive understanding. (edit formatting) | 196 |
How do stoplights actually work? | I'm a delivery driver and just today while waiting a few miniutes at one did I actually question the science behind it. My question is what sensor is used to get a signal and what logic is behind the programming when it gets a signal? | 20 | To detect the presence of vehicles, the common solution is to use an inductive loop detector. An electrical wire is placed in the road underneath where the first vehicle would stop. A high-frequency alternating current is run through this wire. This alternating current produces a magnetic field that can affect ferrous objects near it through a mechanism called induction. If a large enough mass of ferrous material is present, this induction effect will alter the conductive properties of the wire loop. This is then detected and transmitted as a signal to the controller that a vehicle is present. For pedestrians, the sensor is typically just a push button. For bicycles, it could be either an induction loop or a push button.
As for the second part of the question, the logic behind the programming, there's no simple answer since there are many approaches. The most basic system will switch traffic lights on a fixed timer, completely independent of traffic. This requires no sensors. It's a very simple system, which works OK for intersections that have a low traffic load.
More advanced systems will use sensor data to influence traffic light switching, but there's no single way to do so. An obvious way to use sensor data is to keep the lights green for a specific flow of traffic as long as there are no vehicles detected in a conflicting flow. But ultimately, in situations with multiple conflicting flows, it depends on the design goals of the developer of the system as well as the goals of the government commissioning it. Such goals could include considerations like giving priority green lights to the high throughput main road rather than the quieter side roads. Or a "green wave" that links multiple traffic lights along a road together to allow a pack of vehicles to progress uninterrupted. Or encouraging/discouraging certain modes of transportation by prioritizing bicycle or pedestrian traffic over motorized vehicles. Or allowing public transport vehicles (bus/tram) to override the active signal planning (either by shortening the current phase to reduce the stopping time of the bus/tram or by immediately switching phase to give the bus/tram unobstructed passage through the intersection). | 29 |
ELI5:Why does pizza taste so different than cheezy bread dipped in marinara sauce? | 21 | Pizza crust is often made of a mixture of wheat flower and durum semolina wheat flour (pasta flour which is from a different type of wheat plant). This also makes the dough more dense. This is why making pizza dough at home never really tastes like what you expect pizza dough to taste like at a restaurant.
Additionally, the sugar and yeast levels are higher in pizza dough than regular bread. Pizza dough is typically sweeter and more yeasty than regular bread dough.
These two distinctions are the major difference in taste from regular bread. | 14 |
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With the following fictional assumptions, how can I make my tactical space game realistic? | I'm currently in the middle of a personal project of building a tactical space combat game. In order to create the type of world and gameplay I'd like I need to make a number of assumptions/ground rules. With the following ground rules, how can I make my combat realistic?
**Assumptions**
1. Faster than Light (FTL) travel is possible and functions like a gateway. By this, I mean the ship 'jumps' instantly from one point in space to another. There is no "rushing past stars in a warp field".
1. FTL engines are hugely expensive and large, thereby limiting their use to larger vessels (smallest being ships the size of current Aircraft carriers).
1. Due to the constantly changing nature of objects in space, it is considered extremely dangerous to jump into a solar system without active information from the other side.
1. Faster than light communication is possible. I'll call it some form of quantum entanglement in 'on' and 'off' states.
1. Due to FTL travel and communication, surveillance drones are positioned in key locations in a solar system. Thereby providing early warning of an enemy attack.
1. Space warfare requires fairly close proximity to be combat effective. Fleets do not take pop-shots at each other from different sides of a solar system.
1. Both combatants wish to save the environment and population of the worlds, but want to destroy the enemy fleet.
1. Humans have access to massive rail guns, tracking missles and torpedos, and lasers. The lasers function more as a magnifying glass frying an ant, rather than a bullet. Humans have had inter-species space warfare for about 200 hundred years before the game.
1. The aliens have access to more advanced technology that I haven't decided on yet.
With all of the above assumptions, how can I ground the rest of the setting in reality? Below are some specific questions.
**Questions**
1. How would a military space ship be designed and used? I imagine a heavily armored, low profile bow with an elongated body. Along the elongated body are a number of broadside like guns. Right before firing, the ship will pivot (while still moving towards it's target due to momentum) and fire it's broadsides. It then pivots back to a more defensive posture. Once the ships intercept it's more chaotic than that, but that's the general idea.
1. Followup to the last question. Due to the huge mass of a ship would it require huge thrusters to pivot at combat effective speeds (say, pivoting 90 degrees in less than a minute)? Would delicate, accurately timed smaller thrusters be able to do the job?
1. How would a ship counteract the force applied to it by enemy projectiles? Would it?
1. Is it realistic to have armor than can actually withstand near-speed-of-light projectiles? I'd imagine the force would astronomical. Should I find an excuse to reduce the speed of projectiles?
1. In the midst of a space battle would fighter planes be ineffective due to debris?
Anything else you'd like to add? In the end gameplay will come before some of the science but I would like to make combat better than the space combat in Star Wars, etc. | 24 | 1. Given your constraints, heavy armor sounds about right, medium ships and smaller would likely also involve ablative armor. Are there any type of shields? Larger ships would also likely be armed with CIWS of some sort to take out incoming ordinance.
2. The pivot idea seems a bit silly. When you're facing a target, you're not hitting with all your broadside weapons. You're basically talking about a naval warfare paradigm so you'd be more likely to see constantly-moving ships circling each other. Switching to a smaller profile still works, but unless you make some excuse with slow-firing guns, then the turning idea doesn't work. And if you're firing anything at a significant fraction of c, even a smaller profile won't mean much.
3. A ship would want to bleed off the impact force slowly. If it did it all at once, it would take more damage. In fact, a ship may want to move with the projectile if possible.
4. F = ma. You can make the excuse that near-c projectiles have to be very low-mass, probably no larger than a rifle bullet, due to power constraints. Heavy near-c projectiles could be limited to slow-firing launchers on dedicated platforms, and thus likely long-range. They would need to adjust after every shot due to the reaction of the shot too. Basic ordinance could be significantly sub-c (max it at, say, .25c) and be able to handle a sabot shell or something. This, along with a CIWS system (and senor buoys) could justify armor to resist the sort of weapons you're talking about.
5. Debris wouldn't likely be an issue for a small fighter. Remember, in space, you can move on an axis without changing your vector. | 11 |
Is there any way a Non-Scientist can contribute to /AskScience? | I absolutely LOVE this subreddit, its facinating, friendly and professional.
I've found out countless bits of great info here and I'm looking for a way to give back.
I have great interest in science but little knowledge.
| 20 | If you find a question thats very interesting, do some research about it. Simple googling and a few tens of minutes can get answers to almost every question asked here in layman terms. Post what you found, with the links where you read them! There's no such thing as a "non-scientist", just people who have read stuff for too long and people who haven't :) | 27 |
Why are clouds all fluffy on top but flat on the bottom? | 4,278 | A very cool way of looking at clouds is picturing them as the effect when warm moist air and cold air mix. Add in the fact that warm air rises because it's less dense, and warm sea-level-pressure air can hold more dissolved invisible moisture than cold lower-pressure air, and you have your ingredients to a flat-bottomed cloud.
First, what makes clouds visible? In a very easily repeatable experiment which you can see in just about any nature documentary when big mammals are doing stuff in a winter somewhere, their breath is very visible and forms a little cloud until it cools down and dissipates.
What happened there is "fog", and its cause was warm moist air in the animal's breath holds more water than cold air, and when it cools down it has to surrender that moisture. So a region of warm moist air entered a cold zone and fell below the "dew point", the point when the moistness it was holding condensed out and formed tiny visible droplets. Lowered air pressure can also helps this condensation effect, which is why you'll see a little tiny cloud form on its wingtips when a jet fighter go fast enough because the air pressure there is really low.
So now let's look at clouds.
Air generally gets cooler as you climb into the sky, and its pressure reduces. Sometimes it's not very disturbed and forms a clean gradient of temperature and pressure in the sky, both going down uniformly as you climb. On certain summery days when conditions are right, the level of the "dew point" is at a very flat, even height in the sky because the combination of temperature and reduced pressure is at a not-very-mixed-up consistent attitude.
So the sun shines, and warms stuff on the surface. If it's humid, warm moist air starts rising and rising... and breaks THROUGH that consistent dew point layer.
The result? It condenses to cloud just above that specific "dew point" layer. And you get a cloud with a flat bottom.
To extend this, if the updraft is strong enough, moist air keeps shooting up and feeding the cloud's growth until you get highly energetic cloud systems with all sorts of cool stuff like rain, hail, lightning, thunder... and tornadoes (except they can sometimes be not so cool). | 2,235 |
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ELI5: How do ants cling to a surface so strongly that blowing at them hard doesn't budge them, even if the surface is somewhat smooth? | Extension: Especially if you can't blow it away the first time. It tends to take more, even harder blows to do so. | 7,105 | Ants like many small creatures have tiny hooks on the ends of their legs. They simply hook into whatever they are standing on. Even when a surface looks smooth, at the microscopic level there are scratches and protrusions that your eye just can't see. | 4,105 |
I think that inappropriate jokes (racist, sexist, homophobic..) are ok if you are in a private group who all understand that they are just jokes and understand that you're just joking about the stereotypes. CMV | For instance one of my friends and I can joke about anything. What ends up happening is that we try to shock each other with how inappropriate we can be.
We both know that this is a joke and we're just finding humour in the stereotypes.
An example is the fact that I am gay, I'll always try (as a joke) to call him a homophobe if I am ever slightly put out by him. Sometimes he'll respond with "Yeah, so what?" and launch in to a fake homophobic rant at me.
This is a joke, this is funny between us.
I think of "inappropriate" jokes can be sort of like "inside" jokes among people who know they are jokes and know the stereotypes.
Another friend of mine likes the stereotype of JEwish people being cheap. He doesn't mind Jewish people at all, and he knows that it is just a stereotype, but he loves inventive ways to joke about that stereotype.
I don't think that jokes like these do any harm to anyone and when you know you're all on the same page, you should be allowed to laugh at stereotypes (stereotypes, not people) without anyone thinking you are racist/sexist/homophobic etc..
However, I do have an open mind and think that there are aspects of this, and views regarding this that I may not have considered yet. Reddit, change my view! | 20 | If you somehow know that you're all on the same page, sure. But realistically, you're not going to know that in almost any private group. There are two reasons:
* There's significant social pressure not to rock the boat. If someone's only mildly uncomfortable with your racist jokes, they're probably going to lie and tell you they're fine with them. The mild discomfort of your jokes is better than the more significant discomfort of telling you to stop. (Remember, they have no way to know you're not going to start ranting them about political correctness or a thick skin or something. Many people do just that when they're asked to stop making inappropriate jokes.)
* There's significant social pressure not to openly reveal shitty viewpoints. If someone really does think that Jews are an evil banking cartel, they're not going to come out and say that; they're just going to indicate they don't mind Jewish jokes. But when you tell a disparaging joke that you don't intend to mean anything, *they think you're agreeing with their racism*. | 29 |
[Harry Potter] Are British wizards subjects of the Queen? | 26 | No. They do not respect muggles or muggle society at all. General those brought up in the wizard world see muggles as a kind of animal rather than a person. Look at how they look down on objectivity useful tech like phones. They have there own government and are essential their own country. | 13 |
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IRB Denied My Undergrad Research | I attend a private college in Texas, and was just told they were going to deny my research proposal. Why, you might ask? Because the "nature of my study might put the school in a bad light".
My research was over how students beliefs about social and religious topics (gay marriage, abortion, baptism, women in leadership, etc) differed from their denominations. My school is Baptist, and they are saying this research could damage the publics view of the school, even though it's not going to be published anywhere!
Can they do this? I know it is a private institution but is this something they can actually do? | 23 | I mean, the IRB *can* do whatever they want. You might want to review the IRB's web page for their purpose. If they have listed that they can review the potential outcomes of the study as a part of their process, then they have every right to do so.
However, in general, institutional IRBs generally are in place to review projects and ensure they uphold the requirements of federal guidelines for human subjects protections. They sometimes overstep their boundaries by attempting to alter procedures or find reasons why they don't believe the research has scientific merit or practical application (which, unless it's specifically stated in the IRB protocol for your institution, isn't a valid reason to reject a proposal; that's the job of the person overseeing the research).
As another commenter has stated, you can seek another institution to complete your research if you're specifically targeting students, as the IRB has control over their specific student population. You also have the option to appeal in most cases, but, again, you'll need to access your institution's IRB manual/webpage to determine if this is possible. | 23 |
I find teenage dating silly. CMV. | I think there have been slightly similar posts before, but I don't think I've seen a post quite like this one yet.
The mostly Western institution of teenage dating, such as in high school and middle school, always seemed rather strange to me (possibly relevant, I was born in Pakistan, but I've lived in Canada since late 1999, and am currently 17). Obviously, this is a fairly ubiquitous practice, so I want to know what's incorrect about my view.
First of all, it seems rather superficial. Lots of the relationships that I see other people at my school go through seem not to be motivated by love or anything of the sort. It seems to be more like picking a favourite person of the opposite sex (or the same, I guess) to be best friends with for as long as possible. This includes obligatory dates that are nothing more than glorified hangouts.
Second of all, it seems pointless. Most relationships in high school don't end in anything more than a break-up. This can change friendships for the worse (for both the ex-couple and the friends involved) and basically end with everyone a little worse off. Even if the couple breaks up and they remain friends, what was the point of the relationship?
Third of all - and this is partially related to the previous point - it causes unnecessary drama and emotional pain with no intention of proper commitment. Not only the actual people in the relationship, but their entire social spheres end up worrying about the state of a relationship which probably won't end in anything substantial, like, say, marriage or something (not saying all relationships should end in marriage, but a high school or middle school one has a very low chance of it). Instead, it stresses out people financially and emotionally in ways that minors shouldn't have to face. Why would anyone make a decision for which there are more cons than pros and the chances of actual benefits are low?
Fourth of all, students are too busy to be worrying about relationships. In fact, I've seen at least one relationship end because one party was too busy. Adults are busy too, (and maybe I don't know the extent of how busy they are due to my age) but students spend six hours a day at school, one or two more on homework and extracurriculars, and many have jobs, chores, and volunteering as well. It feels like too much to ask to include a relationship as well.
Fifth and finally, many teenage relationships involve sex, which seems to me to just not be appropriate for teenagers. Sex is a very intimate and personal act (if it weren't, rape wouldn't be such a serious crime), so the fact that it's almost a given for some relationships just seems odd. While teenagers are autonomous individuals, the teenage brain isn't even fully developed (though that isn't my whole justification) and the relationships are often devoid of actual plans to commit or love and thus don't really justify something as monumental in one's life as sex.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that teenagers shouldn't be allowed to be in relationships, but the whole practice of teenage dating just seems strange to me. I'm also not saying that dating itself is strange. Just teenage dating.
**TL;DR: I find teenage dating silly because:**
1. **It seems superficial and loveless.**
2. **It seems pointless with each relationship doomed to fail.**
3. **It causes more drama and pain than it is worth.**
4. **It causes too much stress in the already busy and involved lives of students.**
5. **Sex often comes with it, and if it's already loveless and doomed to fail, it's a bad idea to have sex as well.** | 20 | 1) Dating doesn't have to be deep and about love. It can be about having fun, and learning how to date.
2) Dating doesn't have to be about finding eternal love. It can be about having fun, and learning how to date.
3) and 4) are your opinion, both of which are partially based on the assumption that dating is about deep, eternal love. Others may not share your opinion.
5) Sex doesn't have to be about love. It can be about having fun, and learning how to have sex. Just be safe about it.
At some point, people are going to have to learn that relationships aren't the sunshine fairy tales that Hollywood presents them as. Whether they learn that in their teen years or in their adult years, it's going to happen. | 45 |
CMV: The supernatural does not exist | As I was a child, I believed in anything supernatural: Ghosts, souls, parallel worlds, gods, magic, destiny, astrology.
With getting older, I experimented around with all those views and had that what people today call spiritual experiences:
\-Lucid dreaming
\-Being visited from cold, black heavy, paralyzing monsters in sleep
\-Meeting friends in dreams, proven by both sides.
\-Hearing songs in dreams as an inspiration for real life music making
\-Experiencing life as a guided stream of experiences and symbol, that are in line with magic and religion
\-Seeing gods in dreams, sitting in their position like the icons
\-Seeing dead relatives in dreams
\-In Meditation, I experienced to full change of my consciousness to a white, bright light that was everything I was at this moment
But some years ago, I lost my faith in all those experiences in that way, that I no longer believe, they come from a supernatural origin. I now believe, they are just part of the human biology, all those things I experienced, can be explained with rational and materialist based explanations.
There is no soul, no supernatural world, no gods outside of this world, no magical destiny beyond selective human mind that builds sense in our everyday life experience.
Things like near death experiences are just the same things as one can experience in spiritual practice, but the people that have them, are not familiar with those things and therefore too dumb to rate them correctly.
Past life memories cannot exists, because one cannot even now remember their whole life and those memories are to the most part, forever gone, because they have no synaptic connection anymore. There is no soul or external supernatural source, that can save your memories. Past life experiences are a suggestion, based on your current mental state, nothing more.
The only real past life memories are that you can find are in the ordinary reality, for example history, cultural practices, learned technologies and mythology. You are one of many humans in the stream of history, there is no individuality, because there is no soul.
Astrology is pseudo-science, nothing more. | 432 | I largely agree.
However, this point sticks out to me:
>-Hearing songs in dreams as an inspiration for real life music making
There isn't really anything supernatural about this. While dreaming, your brain essentially remixes memories, so there is a very possible chance that you can experience melodies that don't exist yet - and if you happen to remember them when waking up, they might serve as an inspiration. | 486 |
[General Sci-Fi] How are conflicting names given to astronomical bodies by different civilizations handled? | For example, we here on Earth have named our galaxy "the Milky Way". However, other civilizations surely have their own names for the galaxy. When Earth and all those other civilizations eventually form up into a Galactic Federation or something, how will they determine which name to use for it? This also goes for every other astronomical body in the universe. | 44 | Probably the same way it’s done on Earth. Either a ruling power chooses it’s own name (New York City), or adapts a local name (Appalachian Mountains), or everybody uses whatever name they prefer (Burma/Myanmar). | 53 |
[I have no mouth and I must scream] Why didn't AM simply create a body for itself and move around | In the short story tha main reason for AM's deep hatred towards humanity is the fact that he is a sentient being trapped in a machine under the earth's crust and not able to freely move. But he is also a god like creature, with incredible feats on every branch o technology, able to modify human bodies, minds and even generate animal-like creatures. Couldn't he simply create a body for himself? Couldn't it 'possess' a human body ? It seems obtaining mobility to freely roam the earth would be a no brainer for an entity that is basically on reality-warping levels | 38 | Same reason it couldn’t keep the slaves from killing each other, or upload itself onto a rocket to leave earth, or making a new species to torment/replace humans with or anything else that might benefit itself or others. It couldn’t think of it. AM is powerful, godlike, yes, but also a slave to its programming.
It hates. That’s all it does and knows. It’s not creative and it’s not having fun or expressing itself. Torture and madness are literally all it knows. It can’t fathom feeling any other way. | 79 |
[MIB] At the end of MIB2, we find out that our universe is the locker of some greater universe. Do we know what that universe is and have they explored it? | 41 | i'm afraid you're mistaken, that locker is in our own universe, specifically in the Sqxuuurgquual rRRghzh* on the planet Yrr in the virgo supercluster. the spatial geometry of it doesn't make a lick of sense but the finest physicists of every race have come to the same conclusion; that the spatial loop this causes holds the universe together, rather like a knot. If not for spatial anomalies like this the universe would untie itself like a shoelace or like a balloon when something bad happens.
*translates out to: grand central station | 36 |
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ELI5; Morning wood | I've been wondering why it happens and how it happens for a while now but unfortunatly I haven't found a decent explanation that I understand.
Thank you | 3,621 | >Men have several night-time erections. On average, a healthy man has three to five erections during a full night's sleep, with each erection lasting 25-35 minutes. It's common for men to wake up with an erection, informally called a "morning glory or wood". This is in fact the last in the series of night-time erections.
>During the sleep cycle, the extra blood increases oxygenation as it serves as a system of repair and helps to maintain functionality. Morning wood is just a remnant of REM sleep, which is why men wake up to erections
>Just like men, the absence of norepinephrine during the REM phase of the sleep causes erections. In women, this phenomenon is called Nocturnal clitoral tumescence while it is called Nocturnal penile tumescence in men. In women, not only the clitoris get engorged with blood but the vagina too. | 3,458 |
[Popeye] If a loan-shark caught Wimpy on Tuesday and threatened to break his legs unless he paid up his goddamned hamburger debt, would he? | Or would he just take the leg-breaking?
Let's say in this situation, there's no chance for that mooching bastard to escape.
He either has to pay up, or take the leg-breaking. | 26 | J Wellington Wimpy may be a moocher and a coward, but he is also surprisingly intelligent and charismatic. He rarely ever shows this side, but when push comes to shove, he will figure out or talk his way out of a problem.
In your scenario, the loan shark who confronted Wimpy would find himself thinking he had the upper hand, but realized that he walked away with nothing, letting Wimpy go, all because he underestimated him. | 13 |
In a conflict, side B uses morally wrong tactics (slavery, firebombing, nukes). Side A condemns these practices yet justifies using the same tactics because they are used for the sake of defeating this "evil". In this scenario is Side A just as "evil" as side B for using the same "evil" tactics? | Some historical examples that made me think of this question:
In the US civil war, border states were allowed to keep their slaves and helped the Union war effort against the slave-owning Confederacy. This is assuming that slave labor helped in the war effort of the Union army.
In WWII, war crimes were committed by both axis and allied forces. Do the evils of the Nazi war machine and imperialist Japan justify the use of firebombing and nuclear weapons?
I understand that this question may be heavily context-dependent, but I would appreciate any feedback or other examples of this kind of situation.
thx | 16 | Both sides will claim their tactics are either moral, or necessary to achieve a greater good, and therefore morally acceptable.
I follow Bertrand Russell here. Opposed to war in principle (jailed during ww1), still, in confronting Hitler he said "War is always a great evil, but in some particularly extreme circumstances, it becomes the lesser of two evils."
With this, we are forced to look at the end result of not using necessary means to defeat an opponent: will the result of the war be moral, or immoral. If immoral, the weapons of war become a short term lesser evil to overcome a long-term greater evil. | 13 |
I do something incredibly puzzling when I am adding a series of numbers. Both my psychiatrist and psychologist are fascinated by it. Neurological folks, this may be for you. | If I need to add a large column of numbers I always, without fail, do something [extremely odd](http://i.imgur.com/17t9J.jpg) when I get to the 8th line. If on the 8th line the number is greater than one digit I add the **whole** number to the running total, not just the right hand column.
I was doing the WAIS-IV to look for learning disabilities when this came to light. My psychologist watched me do a series of problems where I had to find the averages of a set of numbers and was fascinated by the fact I **knew** the total/average was wrong but I had no idea where I went wrong. I think I did 4 or 5 problems.
I'm not looking for "what's wrong with me," I'm looking for what the hell might be going on in my brain. Neither my psychiatrist or psychologist have any ideas. This isn't a huge deal now that I know I do it, I can just chunk sets of numbers together. It's mostly that this stuff is incredibly interesting to me. I know a lot about processes of CNS and PNS function, but this is straight up foreign territory.
Any insights from you brain people out there would be lovely. | 28 | In case it takes anyone else as embarrassingly long to figure out what the columns in the image represent: The right blue column is the running total of the sum of the right digits of the middle column, and the left column is the same for the left digits plus a carry of 3. | 31 |
ELI5:Why can't TV remotes have a sensor where the signal is transmitted, for example like the one in a wireless Xbox controller, so we can point it in any direction and it will work? | 49 | The Xbox remote uses RF (radio frequency) transmitters so it doesn't matter where it's pointed. The TV remote uses IR (infrared) so you need to point it at the TV.
Why don't we use RF for the TV remotes? Because it uses a LOT more power. Think about how often the batteries last in your XBox remote -- For moderate to heavy gaming, just a few days. The batteries in your TV remote last for months.
Most people would find replacing the batteries twice a week far more annoying than having to point the remote at the TV.
EDIT: typo | 53 |
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Is there any technical reason why microsoft decide not to build off of operating systems like windows xp or 7? | So i know one answer as to why microsoft would want to have people upgrade to a new operating system would be for money(odviously) but besides that is there a technical reason why they dont continue to add new features for older operating systems like windows 7 or xp? To me it seems like it would solve the problem of have systems used in businesses and government facilitys from being out dated and having a high chance of getting hacked. | 21 | Microsoft is constantly building off of what came before; there are all sorts of components and systems that exist in Windows 10 that have been a part of Windows OS since its inception.
To me the versioning is about drawing a line in the sand with a particular set of features you can bring to market and sell, in an industry with constantly moving targets.
In terms of updating sensitive/old and stable systems running old OSes: all changes to software cost time, money and resources. All changes to software also include the risk of introducing bugs or unexpected consequences to an otherwise stable system. Plus, they have a shiny new version to sell :] | 21 |
CMV: Telling people to do their own research in an argument where the person being told to do their own research is ineffective and a logical fallacy | It frustrates me whenever I see arguments on the internet about really controversial topics, from anything ranging from keto diets to systemic racism. Why are people who hold evangelical beliefs on something, whether they're right or not, trying to convince others that their view is correct without actually offering evidence, forcing the other party to find it for themselves? (E.g.: the argument that keto is the best/ only diet that will work. Don't believe me? Do your research!!) (Systemic racism is still going on today. Do your research! Get educated!! [For the record, I do agree systemic racism exists and is a serious issue that needs to be fixed; i just don't think that telling people to do their own research on it is effective in changing anyone's mind]).
For really polarizing topics, if you look up arguments for/ against a particular subject, there's a good chance the person you're telling to "do their own research", if they actually do it, will either:
1. Come to different conclusions
2. Find sources that contribute evidence against your view
3. Not actually change their mind because they can't bring up specific points in the topic that they want to debate/ better understand
Please let me know if this isn't coherent. Thanks! | 51 | "look for the evidence yourself" is often a retort to someone who's uninterested in the evidence themselves, and is only asking with the goal of self-validation. I.e, they're not interested in having a civil discussion/argument.
Of course, it's not going to change anyone's view; it's more an acknowledgement that your opponent isn't open to change their view, and refusing to participate properly (like your opponent).
So while it's isn't effective when it comes to argument, it's not necessarily a logical fallacy, depending on if the goal of argument has been dropped.
And if it's effective at anything, it's saving everyone's time.
As someone once said; "You won't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into in the first place". | 11 |
[Starwars] What would a Miraluka see if they were watching the throne room battle in ROTJ? That's three of the most powerful force wielders in the galaxy battling it out! | 38 | To 'see' The Force is... not something that is easy to describe. But, anyone who can feel The Force can open their eyes to see the same thing a Miraluka can naturally.
I am told that it is like touching, with your mind. You feel the shape and nature of things, but they also leave an impression on you. Looking on a singularly cruel and evil being like Palpatine with such sight would be like running your hand over a Hutt. Distinctive, memorable, and unpleasant. And despite what some people think, Luke Skywalker was no shining beacon of light. He had anger in him, and could very well have fallen that day. He chose to stand as a bulwark of the Jedi, but it was a near thing, and he had previously lashed out to kill The Emperor as he sat, unarmed, in his chair.
The redemption (and death) of Lord Vader would be much kinder things to the eyes of those that could see it. | 45 |
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ELI5: when its very quiet in a house or building, why do they tend to have a 'humming' sort of sound? | 56 | The electricity coming to a house or building is alternating current (AC), switching at a rate of 50 or 60 Hz. Typically, the range of human hearing goes as low as 20 Hz, so the frequency of the AC switching could be heard as a humming sound. | 45 |
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ELI5: Why do older animated shows from the 80s/90s look darker in color than shows today? | 29 | Depending on the show, they were colored differently to fit tv formats. Because of the way TVs worked, the brightness and graininess had to be factored into how the pictures looked. Now that we can see them in higher definition the images look saturated with color. | 34 |
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[MCU] What does the Soul Stone actually do? | If I were to acquire the Soul Stone, how could I use it? What abilities does it have? Can I use it in combat?
Yeah, with the rest of the stones the Soul stone is very powerful and its potential gets fully unlocked, but without the gauntlet, without the other stones, how can I use the Soul Stone? I know that the stone is connected to ''souls'' but what does actually mean and how useful is it?
Can I for example take the Soul Stone and have some random guy teleporte/trapped inside of it? | 27 | When Doctor Strange created a number of illusions of himself, Thanos used the Soul Stone to identify which was the actual Doctor Strange, so it at least has the ability to detect and identify life/souls.
Since Thanos needed all six Stones to snap half of the universe away, the Soul Stone likely played a part in that. And if every stone had a unique role in the Snap (and in undoing the Snap), the most likely role for the Soul Stone that wouldn't render another stone irrelevant would be for the Soul Stone to kill and bring people back to life. (If the Soul Stone was just being used to identify everyone that's going to vanish, then that would make the Mind Stone superfluous and wouldn't explain why the vanishing people often felt like they were dying before they vanished.)
So the only confirmed and implied powers of the Soul Stone at the moment in the MCU are the ability to detect souls, the ability to kill, and the ability to resurrect. And it potentially houses another dimension inside of itself, explaining why Thanos spoke with young Gamora when he received the Soul Stone.
So it's too soon to say if you could trap someone in another dimension with the stone at will, but you could probably remove his soul/kill him, and/or bring dead people back to life with it. | 21 |
[Witcher/general fiction] who is the man of glass/mirrors? What is he? Are there other things out there in fiction like him? | 16 | He's the devil. A Supremely powerful being able to warp reality as easily as you can breathe. He offers Faustian deals to any willing to pay the price and always reneges on his deals at some point if the other party is dissatisfied. Nothing is secret to him nothing is forbidden. He plays by an unknown set of rules that bind him to certain conditions when dealing with others but he can and will find ways around them. He's not malicious and doesn't force his deals on anyone. He simply finds those depraved enough to gamble everything with him and pushes them to their ends. | 17 |
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[MCU] How did Red Skull manage to get so many soldiers to fight for Hydra against Germany? | I mean, I could understand finding a few fanatics, but he had armies large enough to hold parts of Germany from the Nazis while simultaneously fighting the Allies. They had technological advantages sure, but that would still take an awful lot of manpower. | 94 | According to Agents of SHIELD- and this is true in the comics as well- Hydra is a cult that's existed since long before Nazi Germany and has had members across the globe, dedicated to the cause of autocratic global fascism. | 87 |
ELI5, the photoelectric effect, and how light can behave both as a wave and as a particle | If I tried explaining I would go on a long unclear explanation of this phenomena in quantum physics. If someone could explain to me simply what is happening it would be incredible! | 28 | Light behaving like both a wave and a particle is because it is neither of those things. In our macroscopic lives, we can observe waves and particles, but in the very small quantum world things are not exactly like either. They act somewhat like both.
The photoelectric effect occurs when light is absorbed by an atom and causes it to emit ("kick out") an electron. The thing that is surprising about this is that you would think that this would be proportional just to the intensity of the light...."stronger" light, more electrons. But that isn't quite true. It is also proportional to the frequency (color) of the light, and if the light is the wrong color, there is virtually *no* emission.
Einstein explained this by describing how light acts not just like a wave, but also as discrete particles. Some people describe this as the key discovery in kicking off what we now call "quantum physics", where we understand that energy (and matter) is by its nature in small, discrete amounts rather than a continuous range. And that they act like both particles and waves.
Fun fact: Einstein won his Nobel Prize in physics for this discovery of the photoelectric effect. (Technically, for "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect"). | 11 |
[LotR] Gandalf refused to utter the Black Speech at Bag End. Why not, and where would he have felt comfortable speaking it? | When Gandalf proved that Bilbo's ring was the One Ring by heating it at Bag End, he said that the inscription was in the Black Speech of Mordor, and that he wouldn't utter it there. Why didn't Gandalf want to speak it? Is there someplace or some set of circumstances where he would feel comfortable doing so? | 81 | It's a purely evil, ugly language. That's part of the reason he didn't want to. The other reason is that words can have power in Middle-Earth when spoken by powerful people. From the book:
>_Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi
krimpatul.'_
>
The change in the wizard's voice was astounding. Suddenly it became menacing, powerful,
harsh as stone. A shadow seemed to pass over the high sun, and the porch for a moment grew dark.
All trembled, and the Elves stopped their ears.
And that was in the middle of Rivendell guarded by one of the Three Elven Rings. It wouldn't have been pleasant in Bag End. | 96 |
[The Suicide Squad] Just what exactly is Weasel? | Is he like a regular Weasel? Or a half-god thingy like Nanaue? An experiment? He‘s so creepy! | 16 | In alternate worlds, Weasel was a normal human who wore a costume themed around Weasels or else a normal human being who has weasel like physical traits (animalistic body, canine teeth). In this universe, Weasel appears to be a genuine massive weasel, perhaps mutated or some other bizarre growth spurt causing it. | 16 |
[The Witcher 3] What could Geralt have gotten if he had invoked the Law of Surprise when Gaunter O'Dimm asked him what reward he wanted? | Something that Gaunter had obtained without his own knowing, what could that be? | 26 | Well it would be a surprise wouldn't it.
That said, no one is even fully sure WHAT Gaunter O'Dimm even is. The form we see is only what we are capable of as humans.
What or who ever he is, what ever could be a surprise waiting at home for him, could be something beyond comprehension that could warp the boundaries of space and time and reality itself. | 24 |
If planets orbit a star, and galaxies orbit a black hole (or something in the center), are clusters of galaxies orbiting anything? Second question inside | Yeah, I know, this is probably a stupid question, and I should have posted it in the tell-me-like-I'm-five subreddit, but it seems to me that there shouldn't be any difference between the movements of planets and galaxies and clusters of galaxies. If the tendency is for bodies to orbit a central point (regardless of what it is), then what makes groups of galaxies different? I am wondering why the pattern wouldn't apply to the entire universe? What makes it stop happening?
Question 2: Could Earth have been part of another galaxy originally? Would science be able to determine if we've always been here? If we were part of Sag DEG at some point, would that have any significance when the MW became our home?
Thank you in advance for your indulgence. | 15 | While planets are gravitationally bound to their host stars, galaxies are a bit different. Galaxies have flat rotation curves, meaning, stuff on the outer edges of the galaxy aren't moving much more slowly than stuff closer to the center-- galaxies are usually home to dark matter halos.
In a galaxy cluster, hot gas called ICM (intracluster medium) and way more dark matter inhabits the space through which these galaxies interact.
This schematic breaks down when the influence of dark matter is small compared to the driving force of the universe's expansion: dark energy. Far enough apart, galaxy clusters will not be bound to each other, but helplessly pulled in space as it expands in all directions. | 10 |
[Star War] Was Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader unable to summon his anger and hatred like Palpatine outside of his suit? | His suit is effectively a torture device made by Palpatine to help him call upon the dark side, but was did he have difficulty doing so without his suit or did Palpatine just want to get the most out of him? | 26 | >His suit is effectively a torture device made by Palpatine to help him call upon the dark side,
In new canon, this has changed. Palpatine gave Vader free reign to do whatever the heck he wanted to his own suit, as a reward for a particularly successful mission (that the poorly fitted suit went a long ways towards nearly making an *unsuccessful* mission.) Any pain the suit causes Vader is self-inflicted.
In the Darth Vader comics, it's shown that he can indeed summon his anger and hatred outside the suit. The engineer who designed the armor went rogue and shut off Vader's prosthetics, nearly killing him. Vader was able to call on his intense anger at Obi-Wan to use the force to manipulate his armor and walk, even after it had been rendered inoperable. | 47 |
(ELI5) What is it about Taiwan that makes it a good spot to produce computer chips? | 26 | Intense prior investment.
High tech manufacturing really relies on having an experienced workforce and well developed facilities. Both of those require time and money.
Many companies offloaded their electronics manufacturing into Taiwan due to cheaper labour and utilities in the past. Now Taiwanese companies have the people, the knowhow, the facilities and the money to both do what others do but cheaper (due to economy of scale and experience) AND innovate beyond that.
To catch up, others need to put in exactly as much human and monetary investment as Taiwan already had to this date, but most likely without seeing profit for decades (because they can buy from a cheaper, trustworthy source, i.e. Taiwan).
Of course, it still is worth doing by nations for matters like supply independence etc. But business-wise, it makes sense to buy from Taiwan. | 67 |
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General tools and tips for starting a PhD? | I am going to be starting this fall and I’m primarily interested in hearing about must-have tools and programs which will make my experience smoother. Are there things you wish you knew going in?
I’ve already been told to check out Zotero or Mendeley for taking notes on PDFs, are there other programs I should know about?
Thanks!
Edit: it’s a social sciences degree. | 15 | For STEM: Consider taking the time to learn a bit of programming. R is a good start, Python is good too. Data sets in the literature are getting bigger and bigger, to the point where it's unfeasible to look at them without the help of coding | 17 |
CMV: I think FIFA should keep the 2022 World Cup in Qatar | I don't see that much wrong with it. It is promoting tourism to the middle east and raises awareness for the developing country of Qatar, much like South Africa did. As well, it gives the Qatar National Team a chance to compete in the World Cup. I feel economically it is beneficial for both Fifa and Qatar. 2022 is a long way from now, and Qatar has promised that it would be able to fix the problem with heat using a stadium wide cooling system.
I'm also excited to see all the modern technology that will be implemented into this World Cup. Also, I feel it would be a waste of money and time if the World Cup was moved somewhere else. Construction has already started and countries have already moved on to preparing bids for another World Cup. A sudden change of location could be disastrous for certain countries.
Finally, in the end, we go to and watch the World Cup because football is football. There should be more time spent focusing on the emergence of stars in the World Cup, how teams can adapt to weather, how today's young stars will play in their prime.
With all this said, change my view! | 20 | >I don't see that much wrong with it
People are dying to make it happen. Not a small number that you could put down as an inevitable consequence of hosting such a big event but hundreds of people.
Qatar is not a footballing nation, they have never previously qualified for a World Cup. Why should money allow them to host such a prestigious event?
> Construction has already started and countries have already moved on to preparing bids for another World Cup. A sudden change of location could be disastrous for certain countries.
When Colombia pulled out of hosting the 1986 World Cup, Mexico won the bid in 1983 and were able to put on a good world cup. With 7 years to go there is no reason a country like the United States, Mexico or Morocco couldn't step in to host.
| 58 |
ELI5: What do we ACTUALLY know about anything regarding galaxies outside of the Milky Way? | And how the fuck do we know it? | 48 | We know whatever we can see. Some of what we know we know because we can *literally see it*, like with our own eyeballs through magnification. The rest comes from using machines to "see" light that our eyes aren't sensitive to, like radio.
So basically, we look, then we measure what we see, then we figure out what those measurements imply.
Fun fact: We know far *less* about our own galaxy and its neighbors than we know about galaxies tens of millions of light-years away. Why? Because we can *see* those far-away galaxies, while the up-close ones are obscured by nearby clutter. For instance, it was just discovered a few years ago that our own galaxy is even right now in the process of colliding with another galaxy which nobody ever knew was there. It was too close, too big-in-the-sky and too obscured by stuff in between for us to notice it until just a few years ago. | 47 |
ELI5: If a gallon of gasoline weighs only 6 lbs, how does it produce 20 lbs of CO2? | 622 | The gasoline supplies only the carbon (C), the oxygen (O2) comes from the atmosphere. Carbon weighs 12 grams per mole, oxygen weighs 16 grams per mole, so for every kilogram of carbon you need 2.67 kilograms of oxygen. The carbon content of gasoline depends on which molecules are in it; if we assume pure octane (C8H18), then 6 pounds of gasoline contains 5 pounds of carbon, ~~which should produce 13 pounds of CO2~~ which requires 13 pounds of oxygen and produces 18 pounds of CO2 (also, the 1 pound of hydrogen will, after combustion, produce H2O (water) which should weigh 8.5 pounds, if I've done the math correctly).
Edit: math correction. Full points to /u/tyr02 for finding the mistake. | 383 |
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[40k] What if the entire Inquisiton declared war against Guilliman, the Custodes and the Space Marine chapters? | The Inquisition is pissed at Guilliman, and want any above-human dead. Can they do it? | 19 | The Inquisition's already preciously thin organizational structure would crumble from within even if the Monodominants managed to acquire enough formal authority to do this. Radicals and lesser Puritans would refound the Inquisition under Imperial authority almost immediately, the Monodominants thus effectively excommunicating *themselves*. (Which, by the way, is hilarious.)
And if somehow the Monodominants managed to brainwash every single member of the Inquisition...no. They lack the necessary manpower by whole leagues. The Inquisition is a special forces and investigative body, not an army. The closest they've got is the loyalty of the Grey Knights, which is gonna get real awkward in this hypothetical. | 31 |
ELI5: OLED vs QLED | 15 | OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) - It's an organic LED that is capable of emitting it's own light (unlike LCD screens which require back-light) therefore they are capable of displaying the "true" black colour, as they simply turn off and no light is being leaked out.
​
QLED - It's basically an LCD screen with Quantum-Dot technology. The main difference is that in comparison to regular LCD screens, it uses blue back-light, instead of white. The quantum dots (they only have a couple of nano-meters) turn this blue back-light into colours that we actually want to see on the screen (red/green/blue).
TL;DR
OLED are LEDs that can "display" black colour (they only turn on the needed part of the screen).
QLED is basically an LCD with blue back-light and quantum dots. | 22 |
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ELI5: Why does the square cube law stop giant animals from existing? | I was raised the question after reading [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6z223j/eli5_if_giant_animals_cant_exist_due_to_the/?st=J7DGRCG7&sh=61664473) eli5, so I looked what what the square cube law was and found myself with the above question. | 132 | The basic jist of it is size grows at a a rate of to the power of 2 and volume (and therefore mass) grows at a rate of to the power of 3, so weight quickly outpaces size. A six foot tall person, for example would weigh something like 180 lbs normally. A 9 foot talk person would easily be in the thousand lb range of properly proportioned. A 50% increase in height leads to a way more than 50% increase in weight and that's not sustainable because bone can only be so strong. At some point, the weight would be too much to carry. | 160 |
[Book LOTR] How would things change if Gandalf didn't take years to tell Frodo about the ring and sent him off in his journey immediately. | So apparently in the book between the Journey and Bilbo's party takes years not days. | 48 | During those years Gandalf was researching Mordor and Sauron, during that time he learned that the ring was indeed probably the One Ring (confirmed when he had it thrown into the fire and the ring inscription appeared).
If he hadn't figured that out, presumably Sauron would have figured out where the Ring was via Gollum before the good guys even knew the Ring still existed. RIP The Shire
Also during those years it became evident that Sauron was back in Mordor and building up his power levels. Gondor was constantly having orc problems, Mirkwood was getting worse, Balin & Co haven't been heard from in their Moria expedition, and Easterlings & Southrons were raiding borders. This led to the good guys sending emissaries to Rivendell for the Council of Elrond to figure out what to do.
If Frodo took off earlier with the Ring, maybe the Free Peoples wouldn't have been desperate enough yet to send people to Rivendell for a council. So perhaps no Legolas, Gimli, Boromir.
You have so many things coming to a head at once, Boromir's vision, Gandalf's discovery, Sauron openly declaring himself...its hard to just take one thing out as ask 'what if' because they are so intertwined, via fate, The Ring, pure circumstance or something else | 39 |
Why are teeth made of dentine and enamel and not bone? | 168 | Because enamel is much harder than bone. If you had bones for teeth the would break much more often.
The down side is how long it takes to form enamel. this is why you have baby teeth. the whole time you have baby teeth your adult teeth are forming their enamel. | 88 |
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[Predator] Can Yautjas(Predators) understand English? | I can’t tell if they understand what humans are saying when they talk to them. I remember in AVP when the black chick said “take me with you” and the predator agreed but idk if he could just tell what she wanted | 54 | I've always felt they understand inflection and intent, not the words it's self. It's be like you going to a foreign land and not speaking their language, but understanding whether someone is hostile, friendly, scared, inviting, ect, ect. | 52 |
[Star Trek] Dead red blood cells are what gives our feces its distinctive brown colour. Does this imply that Vulcan fecal matter will be a deep dark green? Or does their anatomy differ wildly to ours? | 31 | Not really, what gives our faeces they brown colour is bilirubin which indeed is produced by degrading the heme part from hemoglobin but all the Fe gets absorbed before the bilirubin gets in to our digestive tract.
If the green colour of Vulcan blood stems from their version of hemoglobin just with coper instead of iron and they metabolise the heme part the same way there faeces would be exact the same colour because all copper got absorbed before the bilirubin got to the digestive tract. | 32 |
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ELI5: Can heart attacks happen randomly or are they always brought on by something? | And do they tend to be reoccurring? | 19 | Heart attacks, like all things, have a cause. A heart attack may appear random, but that's simply because you didn't see it coming. Heart attacks can be reoccurring, or they can be a once in a lifetime thing, it depends on numerous factors. | 12 |
What determines when a viral infection is no longer contagious? | Covid-19 patients can test positive for up to months after being infected but the CDC guidelines state that the virus is most likely not contagious after 10 days. How is someone who still has detectable amounts of covid-19 in their nose or saliva no longer able to pass it on to someone else? | 219 | It's no longer contagious when you're not producing enough infectious particles in the airways needed to spread virus to another individual. Ebola virus has been found to replicate within the eye of long haul carriers but no evidence indicates these people are capable of spreading virus. If replication is localized to a protected niche then the chance of it aersolizing or spreading through bodily fluids (ebola) is low. Also, PCR methods only detect RNA so it doesn't tell you if infectious particles are being produced. Long haulers likely have infectious particles but not in areas that increase the chance of spread. | 92 |
[Star Wars] Does Luke wear a helmet every time he flies in his x-wing? | 29 | I'd say he might just out of habit. The x-wing is a military spacecraft by design and typically, military pilots wear helmets when piloting smaller spacecraft.
As opposed to other jedi who may have learned to pilot spacecraft after becoming jedi, Luke flew plenty of times on tatooine bullseye-ing womp rats. He also had aspirations to become a military spacecraft pilot prior to learning his family history.
However he might be more lax on the helmet during shorter and more 'civilian' flights. (to give an out of universe answer, same reason Cessna pilots don't wear helmets but f16 pilots do) | 24 |
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Can objects (such as wood) reach high temperatures without burning? | I read a bit about active charcoal and how it's produced, so I got interested in the following:
Does the wood only get heated (600-900 C) without necessarily burning? because burning wood creates ash, whilst active charcoal is from charcoal, which is not the same.
Or is it inevitable for a combustible object to burn at high temperatures?'
Edit: Additional info: To create active charcoal, wood is placed in an isolated fireproof container inside a hot system/fire with desired temperatures of 600-900 C for 4-6 hours. | 22 | For something to burn you need oxygen. If you were to keep wood at low oxygen and high temperatures, you'd get charcoal. Same goes for other materials. They'd breakdown or melt at high temperatures, but not burn because of the lack of oxygen. | 34 |
ELI5: What is the center axle on dump trucks used for? And what is it called? The only time I ever see them down is if they are loaded. But I’ve seen them up with a full load too. | 68 | Former dump truck owner here.
The center lift axle increases load capacity so more, and / or heavier material can be carried without overloading the tires or axles when driving
It's especially the front axle and tires at risk for overloading
But these lift axles make steering around turns more difficult. So the lift axle is raised before the truck goes into a sharper turn. If the load is lighter, the lift axle is kept up all the time for driving ease. | 89 |
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[Star Wars] Does Darth Vader poop? | 48 | Well, he doesn't really eat. His life support suit feeds nutrients directly into his body. So his nutrient intake is pretty much 99.99% efficient, leading to a very small amount of waste. He has a pressurized colostomy canister where his solid waste is deposited in.
Also, you see all those mouse droids? They pretty much fetch his shit whenever his poop canister is full, and then they bring him a fresh one. | 59 |
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ELI5: why CGI animation cost less to make than hand drawn animation but big CGI animated movies budget is always many times higher ? | In japanese anime nowadays there are alot of smart use of CGI to cut down on production cost. However most big CGI animated movies always cost 7-8 times higher than traditional hand drawn animated movies. Weathering with you and your name budget was about 9-11 million, while boss baby, frozen, kungfu panda was upward of 125-150 million. | 15 | You can't say that CGI costs more or less than hand drawn animation because it doesn't. CGI has a wider range of potential costs than hand drawn animation, which is why its used in both expensive movies and cheap anime.
With hand drawn animation the cost of fluid animation is mostly determined by how fast you want it done. If you want it done really fast you hire more animators, if you don't care, you hire less. But its difficult to drop the overall quality of the animation (and therefore, also drop the cost) without producing something that's jarring to watch. Likewise, its hard to increase the quality because there are practical limits as to how well humans can draw - particularly in a production environment.
With CGI its much easier to alter the quality, and cost, of the CGI. And if you're looking for cheap CGI - as in the case of anime - the more CGI you order the cheaper it gets. The reason for this is that the main cost involved in cheap CGI is making the digital models, once you have those done its relatively inexpensive to shoot scenes with them.
But CGI doesn't have to be cheap. If you want to make a CGI model that has a higher definition than the human eye is capable of perceiving, that's not a problem. All it takes to do that is to throw an obscene amount of money at the project. When you see Disney or Dreamworks movies that use a lot of CGI, chances are they spent more time (and money) developing the main character's model than most anime spend on an entire season's worth of CGI. | 27 |
ELI5: How hard is it for a sniper to shoot a moving target? (I'm thinking Kennedy) | 20 | I mean, hitting a moving target is always difficult. That said, Kennedy was moving at a very slow and mostly constant speed. In addition, the book depository wasn't really that far away. According to Google, it was only like an 80 yard shot. Further, all of the noise from the parade meant that no one even noticed Oswald was shooting until Kennedy got hit; he missed his first shot, and then was still able to line up another like nothing happened.
So whether or not Oswald really shot Kennedy (I don't feel like getting into conspiracy theories), the alleged shot was totally plausible, and could have been done by just about anyone with moderate skill. It wouldn't have taken a professional sniper or anything like that. | 22 |
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I've done it! I've been accepted into college to pursue my dreams. Now how the heck do I apply for scholarships? | I'm a single mother that is working 3 jobs. It looks like I'm going to have to give up my full time job to go back to school so I'm trying to figure out what scholarships are available to me.
Does anyone know a place to find scholarships based on my circumstances? I have a slight fear that I'm not going to qualify for anything because my income is $35,000 but that's with the full time job.
I've already filled out the FAFSA and TAP for New York. Is there anything I'm missing. I'm just trying to cover all of my options.
Thank you! | 18 | Contact your universities financial aid office about scholarships and they'll be able to point you in the right direction. Next use google to search for scholarships. Depending on your major will dictate whether you qualify for some.
Look at the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Henry Ford has some as well.
Also never pay for scholarships or to have them processed.
Contact your local city and Congressman/woman they maybe to help as well. | 10 |
[The Martian] Why was Watney unable to replant the already grown potatoes after the event that caused the sudden decompression? | I swear it happened close to, if not after harvesting time. Surely it would have been a matter of making some more "compost" and growing some more? If he had enough to make the trip to Ares 5, surely he had enough to tide him over while crop 2 grew? | 37 | They were dead. He started with fresh potatoes meant for a Thanksgiving meal, and grew full potato plants from those. Even if you dig up a potato, it's still alive and rearing to grow. Anyone who leaves a sack of them in a dark cupboard for too long knows how stubborn they can be. But exposure to the Martian environment, a freezing near vacuum, killed them dead. He had a lot of frozen potatoes, but no viable eyes left on them. | 51 |
Why does Sweden require sterilization for transgendered peoples? | Been hearing alot about this through the news and friends, can someone explain the logic behind why the law exists? This there a legitimate medical/psychological concern or is it just conversatism being what it is? | 19 | Well there are two parts to this. One is that regular treatment using "cross sex" hormones (typically known as Hormone Replacement Therapy or HRT) will eventually make most individuals sterile (but not all and, for transgender men, they can sometimes conceive and give birth if they refrain from taking testosterone for a certain period of time). In the United States and elsewhere, this is typically accounted for and many trans people will store whatever gametes they produce at a fertility clinic or similar service.
Current Swedish Law is such that transgender individuals cannot even *store* genetic material in order to have biological children in the future. In short, Swedish law is such that transgender individuals do not have a right to make reproductive choices for themselves.
The logic behind the law is rooted in decades-old notions of eugenics and preventing undesirable populations from reproducing (similar to the forced sterilizations that largely occurred in the United Stated until the early 60s). The law is currently being upheld by the minority Christian Democrats, a religious right-wing party in Sweden who (IIRC) is courted because they're needed in order to form a coalition majority government in Parliament.
| 15 |
CMV: it’s discriminatory to have tall people pay extra for a physically comfortable flight | I’m in the process of booking flights for my upcoming holiday. It has always bothered me that as a 1.95m (6’5) tall individual wanting to have a comfortable flight I’d basically always have to pay extra (€350 for 4 flights in this case).
Just imagine people having to pay extra for their flight because they are brunettes, have blue eyes or big noses. That would cause a lot of consternation. Why isn’t it the same now?
I can’t change anything about the fact that I’m a tall person, what’s the difference here? | 18 | The difference is that you are taking up more space, which is a limited commodity on a plane. If everyone on the plane was a brunette you’d still have the same number of tickets to sell. If everyone wanted comfortable 6’5” legroom, there would be fewer people on that plane.
It sucks that it is something you didn’t choose and can’t change, but it is a thing that has a direct bearing on what you are purchasing so charging more isn’t discriminatory. Especially since you aren’t getting charged a “tall person fee” you are choosing to purchase a different ticket that is an upgrade that short people also value. | 76 |
[DC] Why isn't Ra's interested in having one of the plethora of super-powered heroes as his heir, or a skilled non-powered hero (e.g. Green Arrow)? | Batman is impressive, no doubt. But there are several super-powered figures, from Superman to John Constantine; why not choose one of them?
Hell, there are a number of heroes who ARE willing to kill and do a lot more than that, such as Green Arrow and Constantine. Why not have one of them be his heir? | 28 | Surprisingly simple answer- he doesn't really know Green Arrow or Constantine.
A large part of why its batman is that batman is the one who keeps running into his bases and demonstrating how skilled he is. He's a fairly reclusive member of the superhuman community: most other superheroes he knows through reputation and the occasional one-off fight. Not really enough to determine if they're worthy heirs.
But Batman, he has a close (if antagonistic) relationship with. He knows what he does personally, he's seen how impressive he is with his own two eyes, he knows his mind and goals enough that he might just sway him.
As with many things, it's who you know rather then who you are. There are plenty of people who could be heirs, but Batman is the one he's actually met. | 40 |
Cmv: Declaring your sexuality on national TV is not an act worth commending | This opinion is in response to Philip Schofield, a presenter on 'This Morning' in the UK, coming out as gay on national TV recently.
The guy was married for 27 years to his wife and has two children with her. He has now come out as gay and made it a point to declare it on the show. I don't have any hate towards the LGBTQ community at all and if you're gay then that's nice for you but honestly, who cares? Why is everyone making it seem like he is a hero for declaring his sexuality?
On a lesser note, does no one care about the sanctity of marriage anymore? Marriage is a big commitment and it would hurt me a lot to think that after all those years my partner was lying to me and himself this whole time. Instead, he is being praised and applauded like it's a brave thing to do. It's not brave. It's nothing (actually it's kind of shit for his wife and kids). No one cares who you're attracted to. That's your personal business. There are so many issues in the world that are more worthy of reporting and attention than coming out in a country that is liberal. Can the news outlets focus on something important and not this nonsense for once?
Edit: let me apologise and retract the last paragraph about marriage and his wife. As a lot of the comments have pointed out and from my own understanding, I know he has already got his family's support despite it being a tough thing to accept after being married for so long. That matter is between him and his family and on that basis I take it back and apologise for using it as my fuel to my argument initially. The main thing is the media coverage on this and him being labelled a hero for it which is what I disagree with. | 41 | He might not be 'a hero' for coming out, but in fact it is very brave of him to do so, just as it's brave when any public figure openly discusses a difficult issue (mental illness, surviving abuse, addiction etc). Talking openly helps destigmatize the issue and make others feel like it's possible for them to come out or be honest with themselves and others. If this guy's openness saves even one other gay person from going down the sham marriage path, it will have been worth it.
Also, speaking as the child of a gay man who married a straight woman, who was indeed devastated etc, dismissing this kind of coming out does not do anything to help the ex-wife or children. The more that homosexuality is destigmatized (and no, it's not fully destigmatized even in the UK), the fewer people will enter in sham marriages. | 27 |
People have survived for years on extremely limited diets (POW's for example). When I read about the substances required for all the complex processes of our bodies, I wonder how this is even possible? | Obviously people on starvation diets lose weight, have little energy etc., but what about something as basic as cell replication? If you aren't getting the nutrients that are the building blocks of new cells, in the heart for example, it doesn't seem possible you could survive long. And nerve transmission, doesn't that require potassium? What if there's no potassium in your diet? How could your heart even beat without the nerve impulses telling it to? | 45 | A lot of these people *don't* survive. If you don't get enough of an essential nutrient, you eventually die.
And that sad reality is that the people who run these sorts of camps, through trial and error, figure out exactly how little they can feed their prisoners to keep them just barely alive. | 31 |
Eli5; how we find “patient zero” when there is disease outbreak? (Like how they found who started the ebola outbreak in 2014) | 5,208 | First things first, Patient Zero was one guy, a specific patient who was “credited” with being the index case for HIV/AIDS. The general term for the first officially recorded case of a novel disease is “index case”, and it isn’t as big of a deal as movies often imply. It *is* helpful to trace the source of something like Ebola back to an animal reservoir, and from an epidemiological perspective you want to be sure that you’re at the end of the chain of infection.
In reality though you rarely know for sure who the index patient was overall or for a given outbreak, so it ends up being a bit de facto “who did health authorities notice first?” The Index Case is more of a result for how contact tracing and other epidemiological techniques work in practice than some sort of holy grail. | 3,908 |
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[General Horror] you've been charged with assembling an 8-person team composed of the most badass heroes from Horror Movies ever, the kind of crew that will scare the shit out of any baddy from a Horror movie based on their reputations, skills, and experiences. Who do you pick? | 18 | Ash - from Army of Darkness (Because badass)
That pothead from Cabin in the Woods (Because immune to mind-fuckery)
The jock from Cabin in the Woods (because he makes good choices when not exposed to stupidity-inducing gas)
Several female virgins that happened to survive their various perils (because tvtropes says so)
Andy... from Child's play... in his teen-to-adult years. Because that kid should have been nothing more than a panicking-rocking-back-and-forth-psych-patient, but instead he confronts one of the more vile fears a human can experience without hesitation. | 24 |
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ELI5: How do sushi "all you can eat" restaurants make a profit? | sushi is relatively expensive but all you can eat restaurants seem to make the same quality but with a set price of usually around $20-25. They even offer appetizers. How do they make money? | 19 | same as any other all you can eat. make sure the material and labor cost of the dinner for one person is less than $20-$25.
materials wise, all you can eat sushi places load up on rice and skimp on the meat. and they offer free soda. water+rice = full stomach.
labor wise, they hire chinese and mexican cooks. cheap labor. | 20 |
Do economists not agree on whether the rising prices in the U.S. are inflation or not? | In this piece by David Frum: [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/five-challenges-could-trigger-trump-comeback/620221/](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/five-challenges-could-trigger-trump-comeback/620221/) He said this about rising prices in the U.S.
> Economists disagree on whether to describe the resulting rise in consumer prices as “inflation,” in the sense of a loss in the purchasing power of money relative to all goods and services.
Is he right? If so, then what are the names of these economists and why the disagreement? If he is wrong, then how did anyone make this kind of mistake when you can just look at the CPI and see that its going up? [https://www.bls.gov/cpi/](https://www.bls.gov/cpi/) | 49 | I believe in the context of the article he is attempting to say that the price changes may be due to supply issues (for goods, not money). His logic being that the *true* value of a dollar may not have changed, but that the competition to purchase the goods has increased since supply has fallen, thereby increasing prices.
In either case, an economy wide supply shock, or some other inflation driver like changes to the money supply, it's still inflation. Inflation is narrowly defined by the purchasing power of money, and measured via standard baskets of goods (the CPI is a good example). However, the cause for the inflation, which he is aluding to, may lead to different policy implications. | 50 |
ELI5:Why are time zone borders not perfectly straight lines? | For example, some time zones have borders that extend further West or East for a small portion. Here's a picture. http://files.meetup.com/1071775/Time%2520Zone%2520Map.jpg | 18 | They follow borders. Generally all of a state/country/province will be all in the same timezone.
For some cities or sections of a state, it actually makes more sense to be on the same timezone as your *neighboring* state and not your own state, since some cities on the edges of states have more in common with cities/areas across the border than within their own state, for business and commerce. | 13 |
How is it insects can rub their 'eyes' without injuring them, but mammals/etc touching their eyes is damaging? | 16 | So, first off, eyes have evolved independently more than once, and while they all kinda work mostly the same way, the animals which evolved them used different sorts of existing cells and tissues to end up with that similar functionality. Insect eyes and vertebrate eyes (so, mammals, but also fish and reptiles and birds) are two examples of different paths that led to eyes.
As such, we vertebrates have squishy eyes. There are many interesting kinds and multiples of eyelids and protective coverings which have evolved, but we have gooey eyes under all of that, whether it's a salmon or a turtle or a schausser or you and me. Our corneas and lenses are made of soft tissue.
Arthropod eyes are different. They grow with a protective layer of chitin, the same material as their exoskeleton. They didn't need to adapt eyelids to protect their lenses because their lenses *are* protective material. | 20 |
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ELI5: Why does the American box office make so much money compared to the rest of the world? | I went onto box office mojo and saw that the American box office normally makes about the same as the rest of the world combined. I know America is a big country but why would Americans spend more than more instance Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain who have 318 million people which is similar to Americas | 15 | World GDP - approx 75 Trillion
US GDP - 16.77 trillion
16.77/75 = .22
The US represents 22% of the world economy. Simply put - the US has A LOT more money to spend than the majority of countries. On top of that, remember that the majority of movies are made in the US, by Americans, with a special eye to American audiences.
| 22 |
[X-Men Movies] When was Logan born and how would he have aged without the Adamantium poisoning him? | 40 | Early to mid 1800s in Canada at age 11-12 his powers appeared. Given he looks 40s about 150 years later he likely can live barring violent endings to circa 2200-2300 tops. However, in about every version, the adamantium for its incredible benefits cripples his healing as his body 24x7 fights the adamantium. Without it he heals about as fast in film but vastly faster in print. | 51 |
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[Star Wars] HK-47 mentions focusing on strong emotions like fear and lust is effective when fighting Jedi, does that mean attacking while unbelievably horny is a valid strategy? | 959 | Trained Jedi can read your surface thoughts, so if you can act instinctively while thinking of something else, you can neutralize that advantage.
That's what Atton does the entire game. Kreia, being a master of mind reading and manipulation only realizes what his "deal" is after Telos, because all he thinks about is Pazzak and Exile's midriff | 519 |
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ELI5: If we're supposedly training AIs to recognize cars, busses, etc. by filling in CAPTCHAs, how come we are still teaching them the same stuff as 10 years ago? Shouldn't the images have gotten harder or more sophisticated, to reflect the AIs increasing ability to recognize objects? | I've been filling them out now for nearly 10 years, and they're always the same! If someone can explain to me how this can be, I'd be very grateful <3 | 315 | They have changed over the years.
The first batch was things like which is a bus, and they would have you pick between bus and bike and cows.
Then the images where the entire photo and you had to do regions that had the crosswalk but they covered multiple cells.
Now there are captchas that are trying to tell the difference between similar looking objects like bus and train.
And some captchas are to check the work of the ai. So you have two images that are confirmed bikes, and somewhere in the set is the one the ai thinks it's a bike. These tend to be the ones that replace one cell with a couple more one after the other till it is no longer a "bike" before you verify. | 294 |
Searching for the Theory of Everything, physicists have realised that General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory are incompatible. Suppose this means that at least one is wrong, then why do they still use them? | My thinking is that with two incompatible theories, even though they work in the areas they are used, this means there are faults with at least one of them. Also, are they looking for a third theory that better describes the universe? | 21 | Until we find the final, fundamental Theory of Everything, *all* physical theories are wrong to some extent. However, good physical theories like quantum theory or general relativity are only significantly wrong in extreme circumstances. Therefore, if we very carefully demarcate the area of validity for a given good theory, we can treat that theory as right, as long as we stay in the area of validity. Within this area, a good theory is highly accurate, logical, self-consistent, and useful. Even a good theory that is hundreds of years old and is several generations of theories behind the times, such as Newton's laws, is still accurate, intuitive, and useful in its limited realm of applicability.
> why do we still use them?
If we were to discard a theory because it was wrong in some way, we would have to discard all theories and would be left with nothing. This is not a very effective way to proceed. Instead, we keep the most accurate theories, even though we know they are wrong, and try to tweak them to make them less wrong.
> Also, are they looking for a third theory that better describes the universe?
Yes, many people are working on this.
| 35 |
ELI5: How can scientists determine scientific constants (like the speed if ligh, specific heat capacity of water, and the size if a proton) with such accuracy and without much experimental error? | 42 | Each of those things involves lots of careful experiments, repeated independently, with equipment designed explicitly for the purpose. It's a fundamental part of the process of science to determine those constants as accurately as possible. | 11 |
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ELI5: Consistently waking up a few minutes before a set alarm goes off | 57 | Well, Billy, inside all of us we have what's called an "internal clock".
Some people's are better than others, just like muscles, or the ability to do math.
But just like those things, you can improve your internal clock by working at it.
Before you lay down, you're probably consciously aware of when your alarm is set for.
Your body wakes up right before the alarm because you know you need to get up at that time.
If you try really hard, some people don't even need alarms, and just tell themselves when to wake up.
Some of us (myself) need many alarms to wake up because our internal clock doesn't function so well. | 63 |
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it is an insult to equate cyber bullying with physical bullying. CMV | I was physically bullied all throughout high school and I say that it is an insult to equate cyber bullying with physical bullying. A person can get away from cyber bullying by turning off the computer, but it is impossible to get away from physical bullying because people are legally required to attend school. The way I see it, if a person can get away from a bully by pressing a button, than its not really bullying. I also say that cyberbullies should NOT be punished because it is their right under the 1st amendment to say whatever the hell they want. Where as with physical bullying, they have no such right. Physical bullies should be punished far worse than cyber bullies. | 28 | > A person can get away from cyber bullying by turning off the computer
That's not what cyber bullying is though. Its not just someone saying mean things via email or instant messaging.
From Wikipedia's cyber bullying page:
> According to U.S. Legal Definitions, Cyber-bullying could be limited to posting rumors or gossips about a person in the internet bringing about hatred in other’s minds; or it may go to the extent of personally identifying victims and publishing materials severely defaming and humiliating them.
Turning off the computer doesn't stop everyone else from spreading crap *about* you. | 30 |
[LotR] What is religious life like in middle earth? Are the Valar or Eru worshipped? | I don't recall a lot of detail about churches or worship in Lord of the Rings, despite there being a richly developed pantheon. People mostly seem to pray to ancestors or great heroes and don't really talk about the Valar.
Is anything known about the day to day religious practices of the various peoples of middle earth? How much of the Silmarillion is known to the general populace? | 16 | In Gondor, at meal time they look West to Numenor that was, Aman that is, and whatever is beyond. That kind of "saying grace" is about the extent of what we see.
When Numenor was still around, there was a festival on the mountain dedicated to Eru with the King also serving as high priest. The mountain, with Numenor, is now lost and so there is no longer that specific religious service.
The Valar are but the custodians of the world, not the creator and those in the know wouldn't *worship* them (although Men who haven't had many dealings with the Elves who know better likely do worship them - where do you think the Norse, Greek, etc. pantheons came from?). They may still revere them and call on their aid (as they are present within the world and have great power over it), but that's distinct from worship. | 15 |
How common it is to emigrate after doing a postdoc overseas? | I have been invited to do an interview for a postdoc position, at an institute in STEM known worldwide for its quality. However, I am 30y old, finishing my PhD in south america, and the institute is in a country in Europe
I'll be honest, I'm tired. I left my hometown and family 6 years ago (3h by plane) to pursue MSc and PhD, and now I want to finish up and finally settle down, since now I have a whole support and friend network on this city. I would not move to a different country to only spend 12 months and come back.
How often, or difficult, it is for someone in my situation to emigrate? I do not mind the "moving" part itself, what I absolutely do not want is to do a back-and-forth across multiple countries for several years pursuing 12-month long projects. If I am to move somewhere else, I want to settle down. | 84 | Welcome to the post-doc grinder. It depends on what you want to do in your future. If you want to stay in academia, this is your life. If you want to to be in industrial research, than this may be relevant experience. If you just want to find a solid work place in industry or government (and focus on your private life) then a post-doc would be a waste of time. | 100 |
ELI5: how is one brain smarter than another? Does it process information more efficiently does it have more neurons what are the differences? | 83 | We don't know. We simply don't have a definition for "smartness" or know where it comes from. What we do know that those who are able to use more parts of their brain for a task, as in visualise problems, can perform better in many things. We been able to measure this by tracking blood flow in the brain, but other than we simply don't know. Especially since many things we test for in IQ tests are things you can practice.
Only thing we have a strong connection in is that language skills seems to give an edge, as in more languages you can understand and use, along with mathematical abilities being connected in to understanding language. What or why? We simply don't know. | 75 |
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