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ELI5: How can 100% orange juice have calories but something like flavored sparkling water containing fruit juice have no calories?
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Even if the amount of fruit juice in the water is small, it's still calories, isn't it?
| 29 |
There is sugar in an orange so there are calories in an orange.
The sparkling water might have an sweetener that our bodies cannot digest (= 0 calories), or one that does not need very much to achieve the same level of sweetness that sugar does (<5 calories = 0 calories).
| 22 |
How can two images look exactly the same and have exactly the same resolution and metadata but be drastically different sizes?
| 23 |
Are you talking about different image formats?
Take an image that has a simple white background and white black line across the middle.
A pixel based format would need to store each individual's pixel data at every location.
Whereas a vector stored format just needs to know the instructions of draw a white background with a single line.
You can see how the vector format saves a lot of data, but then when it comes to more complex images the pixel based format would have a lot more quality whereas the vector based would have to reduce noise and would lose pixel resolution as it would generalise shapes a bit.
On the other hand this means it's difficult to reshape and resolve pixel based, whereas for vector based the instructions would stay the same so it can resize with no pixel loss easily
| 15 |
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[Star Wars] What did Sidious think of himself? How did other people describe him, and how did people describe Sidious to his face?
| 25 |
He saw himself as the culmination of Sith achievement. The smartest, most powerful, most dangerous mastermind in galactic history.
Others, to his face, probably described him much the same, excepting "Sith" for "leader".
Privately, he probably had his detractors - every man in charge does - but the general consensus would still be favorable. Only an idiot would deny that history's first galactic emperor must be a pretty shrewd, capable guy.
| 27 |
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Identical twins marrying identical twins
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Let's just say we have two sets of identical twins, one set of women and one of men. The two identical women marry the two identical men. What is the likelihood that two children, one from each couple, would be identical without being twins?
| 275 |
Barring mutations and other genetical shenanigans, it's exactly as likely as two siblings born to the same parents being identical, which is to say: very unlikely. The probabililty of obtaining the same chromosomes from each parent is 2^(–46).
| 211 |
argument against a priori knowledge
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I was reading a paper that says the following:
*"According to one influential argument against the existence of a priori knowledge, there is no a priori knowledge because (i) no belief is immune to revision, and (ii) if there were a priori knowledge, at least some beliefs would be unrevisable."*
Please note I am not a philosopher. I am just interested in topics related to philosophy. I studied law.
Now, I am thinking how can you explain the statement "every mother has a child" or 1+1=2 or "single men are not married" . How are those not unrevisable? Those are things that are accurate dead on their face and require no or minimal independant verification or observation.
Thoughts would be appreciated I would like to learn more about this subject.
| 16 |
Kant responded to Hume’s argument for the existence of a priori knowledge by arguing that in addition to matters of fact, which Kant calls “analytic a priori” ( all bachelors are unmarried) — there are “synthetic a priori” statements which are derived from the combination of basic concepts; mathematics is synthetic a priori because “12” isn’t a concept that is already contained in “7+5”
Quine is a modern philosopher who rejects the analytic-synthetic distinction altogether. Quine says that all “analytic” truths require synonymity with facts in the world. Synonymity requires synthetic propositions, so all analytic truths and be reduced to synthetic truth. This seems to be close the kind of argument against a priori that you presented, that we could could revise our previously held a priori truth because or scientific understanding of the world changes.
| 10 |
Is it true that America does not negotiate with terrorists? Why not?
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This was a question my little brother asked me after watching The Dark Night Rises.
| 16 |
If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk.
If you negotiate with terrorists, it feeds the cycle that people can manipulate you by being terrorists. Hence you get more terrorists.
| 46 |
How would academia change if the same (or similar) brains behind the shift in non-traditional work environments redesigned schools?
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[A lot of companies](http://www.incomediary.com/top-20-most-awesome-company-offices) (Google, Facebook, Zappos etc etc) are integrating work and play into the work environment. The basic premise is that this fosters creativity in the workplace.
How do you suppose schools will change if they were redesigned with similar goals in mind? How would elementary, high school and/or college classes be taught? How would you improve on how schools are run?
| 15 |
I would counter and say *very few* companies do that. It's a tiny minority of companies in very specialist niche industries.
School is not business, and the aims are different. You are also dealing with young people, not adults. So the implementation would have to be vastly different. Let's also bear in mind that schools already bring 'play' into the environment - sports sessions, varied activities through the day, interaction in different groups. These are ultimately the same things which the Google etc work set-ups are enabling - not play *per se*, but more flexibility than working at the same desk for 10 hours a day.
| 13 |
ELI5: If skin doesn't pass the scratch test with steel, how come steel still wears down after a lot of contact with skin (e.g. A door handle)
| 9,315 |
Can’t scratch is not the same as can’t damage.
Every time your skin contacts a piece of steel, it’s leaving behind oils and moisture.
The oils and moisture can chemically corrode the steel surface ever so slightly, forming iron oxide.
While iron oxide is still harder than your skin, it’s also weak, porous, and brittle. The next touch or cleaning can wear it off, exposing clean steel that can be corroded and eroded again.
It might only be a few molecular layers at a time but over hundreds of thousands of uses the wear adds up to a noticeable amount.
| 8,094 |
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[Harry Potter] Was there ever a particular reason given for why Voldemort was so terrified of death?
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Was there a traumatic incident during his formative years or something? Or was it just a phobia with no clear source?
| 27 |
It's not so much that he was terrified of death, but more that he felt he was above petty mortal limitations.
This included the rules around what magic was considered acceptable, all the way to the limitations of a human body. Riddle didn't so much fear death, but rather feared weakness.
Death was the ultimate human weakness, and mastering death would allow him to remove all weakness from himself.
| 53 |
[Star Wars] Cautious of Kenobi's "more powerful than you could possibly imagine" statement, Vader opts to have his Stormtroopers stun and capture Kenobi. How does this affect events?
|
Vader: "Your powers are weak, *old man*."
Kenobi: "You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can *possibly* imagine."
Vader: "Y'know what, as much as I want to kill you, I'm thinking 20 years in hiding Force-knows where could give some credence to that threat."
*Steps back and stows Lightsaber*
Vader: "Alright Stormtroopers, take him alive like we did Leia on Tantive IV."
Assuming Ben takes a stun shot after Stormtroopers surround him, how do things go now? Do Luke and the others still fly off, or do they attempt to stay and rescue him? Does the Rebellion adapt their plans to save Kenobi or does he become Vader's permanent favourite torture victim? How does Palpatine react to Vader having captured Obi-Wan? All in all, what transpires?
| 196 |
Luke has no one to train him, and the rebellion puts a lot of resources into rescuing him. Or they consider him expendable and he dies when he death star blows up, since its unlikley he is held anywhere else. If that happens, its possible he becomes a ghost after all, and the story continues as before, just luke is a little angry at the rebellion for not saving him
| 146 |
Does the age of the universe (13.7 billion years) account of the time dilation factor caused by velocity of the earth through space relative to a object with zero velocity?
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As an object gets closer to the speed of light, there is a time dilation factor, and Earth is usually used as zero. however the earth is moving within space, so does the age of the universe (13.7 billion years) include our time dilation factor? if not,what is the age of the universe for a object with zero velocity?
| 24 |
There is a reference frame in which the cosmic microwave background is most isotropic, that Earth is moving about 600 km/s relative to. There are no special physics in this frame, it is not preferred, but in it the universe is oldest and that frame is what that measurement corresponds to. However, the difference between that frame and the Earth's frame, in terms of relativistic effects, is smaller than the uncertainty on the measurement.
| 45 |
Why do stars appear to flicker but planets don't?
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Is it because the planet is close and it is much less likely that another object passed in front of it before the light reached us? Or does it have something to do with emitting light versus reflecting light? or something else?
| 15 |
It has nothing to do with the distance the light travels, because all the twinkling we see happens in the last 50 km the light has to travel. The Earth's atmosphere is solely responsible for twinkling (and is a major advantage offered by telescopes in low Earth orbit, such as Hubble).
The reason stars twinkle and planets do not has to do with the apparent size of the object. If you look at most planets through even a small telescope, you'll see that they show a tiny disc. Almost any star in a telescope, though, will show a point, because it's well beyond the resolution limit of the telescope.
Now, picture our atmosphere as a roiling, turbulent fluid made of individual turbulence cells each moving around with their own slightly different densities/temperatures. Since stars are so small from our perspective that they can be treated as point sources, the light from a star is a pencil-thin beam that can only ever pass through one turbulence cell at a time. Whatever the temperature is of one turbulence cell along that path at any time, the light has to follow. Sometimes it refracts right, another cell quickly moves into place and it refracts left, etc. - and what you're left with is twinkling.
The light beam coming from a planet, on the other hand, is much wider, and will usually pass through multiple turbulence cells at a time. The light's direction is not completely determined by a single turbulence cell's temperature, and instead the light tends to follow the path determined by the average of all the cells' temperatures it passes through. That's much more steady, and doesn't produce twinkling.
**TL;DR**: From our perspective, stars are point sources, but planets are not. Light from stars can pass through only one turbulence cell in Earth's atmosphere at a time, while light from planets pass through multiple cells at a time, averaging out any individual variations.
| 15 |
CMV: Not being able to finish his story makes George R.R. Martin a bad writer
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A major part of the story is the ending. Endings can make or break stories, and I do think they are difficult to write. GRRM has been putting off ending the Game of Thrones series since he started and has changed the projected amount of books a couple of times. Many people say he knows how he wants it to end, he just doesn't know how to get the characters there, but that's the point of good writing. You get your characters there and create a great ending. Writing a story that you can't end makes you a bad writer. If he does finish the story that's a different conversation, but really I don't think he ever will because he can't because he's not a good writer.
| 60 |
I have a different theory to propose—Martin is a good writer who no longer gets good editing.
Some writers may not need strong editing, but it’s clear that others do, even good ones, especially those whose strong suit is building well developed worlds.
A good editor, especially for those types of authors, provides necessary detached perspective to help the author trim out the fat and focus the text on what makes the book better.
Martin seems to have fallen into the same trap that other famous authors seem to hit. They submit a book as a relatively unknown but talented author. A good editor helps them polish the early work into some excellent books.
Then they get popular. That translates into more power for a more famous and important author. The author feels empowered to keep more of their ideas, since their ideas are clearly so good and popular. Editors and publishers are increasingly wary of questioning their cash cow. As a result, the books get longer, more detailed, and flabbier, with more ideas introduced than the author can possibly resolve well. In Martin’s case, he’s gotten so far afield that it’ll be nearly impossible for him to bring it back.
The other obvious example is JK Rowling and how much messier Harry Potter books got deeper into the series and pretty much everything she’s done since then. If you go into the movie world, it’s what led George Lucas to make increasingly bad decisions about Star Wars. There just seems to be a type of creator who excel under constraint but go off the rails once the shackles come undone.
I don’t think that makes them “bad” writers, just good writers who don’t succeed under the wrong circumstances.
| 56 |
ELI5: Is there any evidence to suggest that current animals have evolved to overcome specific environmental challenges due to human intervention? I.E. Roads, Buildings, Pollution?
| 20 |
Yes, definitely. A very early and popular example are/were moths in Manchester in England. Basically, the moths tended to be the color of tree bark for camouflage, but in the 19th century soot from factories in Manchester caused the trees to be darker in color. Moths with darker bodies and wings skyrocketed in population while that of the tree bark colored moths declined.
Humans have impacted just about every environment on Earth and subjected the organisms within it to at least *some* kind of evolutionary pressure.
| 15 |
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ELI5: Why do opposite charges attract each other?
| 23 |
It's not very satisfying but the answer is **because they do**.
Electromagnetism is one of the fundamental forces that holds the universe together. There's not really a "why" involved, it's just how things work.
| 20 |
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CMV: It is unreasonable for a gender fluid person to expect me to correctly label them
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I feel like gender fluid people are expecting and unreasonable understanding of whats going on in their head.
So if i understand it correctly if you are gender fluid you can from one moment to another change what gender you "feel like" you are? but the problem i see is, that, as someone who is not in your head i have no way of knowing how you are identifying.
If you want to identify as a woman (it doesn't matter what's between your legs). you can put on a dress and look pretty and feminine, that's great you are giving me the social clues to put you in the box of "woman", i can call you a girl and give you that gender.
You dont have to do things that are traditionally girly, you can wear a nice dress and do something that traditionally would be considered "manly" say working on your car or poking a fire with a stick (just be careful not to ruin your pretty dress)..but because i have the physical social clues i can identify you as a woman and act accordingly.
In other aspect of life if the gender of something is unknown, say an unborn child or a dog at the park or a person on the internet i will default to "he" because i need a way of describing that person or animal. Our language has a built in binary gender, he or she. Because of the way our language is i need to physically label you as one or the other to stop confusion. I dont believe this means you have to act in a certain way or it means you are entitled to be treated in a certain way. But physically i need a way to identify you in a story or to other people. yes i could say some gender neutral term like "they" but that then implies you are more than one person.
The social construct of gender is something i can see as different from the above physical appearance. no one has the right to say something is "girly" or "manly". You might have ideas about what you think is feminine or masculine but they are just your ideas and they bear no bearing on your appearance, you give me social clues that i respond to.
It's unfair for you to be upset if i misinterpret your social clues and mislabel you.
Its like if you have very dark brown hair, you might think its brown but if it looks black to me i will describe it as black, and thats fine im not putting you in a box where you can only do and say things that are confined to only people with black hair. I'm not going to treat you differently because you have black hair, i just need to be able to say:
" oh yeh that bag belongs to the black haired girl in the pretty dress. yeh, the one covered in oil stains and smoke soot.. I did try to warn her."
EDIT: I guess , and this is probably insensitive but really **it shouldn't matter because we should be encouraging people not to be defined by their gender rather than trying to redefine it.**
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 19 |
> Our language has a built in binary gender, he or she. Because of the way our language is i need to physically label you as one or the other to stop confusion.
You could use the singular 'they' which is perfectly grammatically correct. That is the non-gendered pronoun.
> yes i could say some gender neutral term like "they" but that then implies you are more than one person.
No, it doesn't. 'They' is a valid singular pronoun.
> It's unfair for you to be upset if i misinterpret your social clues and mislabel you.
If you are unsure, then simply ask their preferred pronouns, that is the polite way to handle the situation.
| 23 |
[The Avengers] So Loki blows up a police car outside when he's in Germany, and there are a bunch of police cars behind that one. Are the police just standing there watching Loki scream at people? Why aren't they doing anything?
| 33 |
German police generally aren't the "slam you on the ground and cuff you" type. Or the "shoot you" type. More like securing bystanders and waiting for either deescalation or a SEK (SWAT). And this sounds like a situation to call in the SEK.
| 51 |
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What actually kills you when you are dehydrated?
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What goes on in your body that causes you to die from dehydration?
| 252 |
The two most significant issues with severe dehydration are the loss of perfusion volume as well as the electrolyte abnormalities that develop. If someone is hypovolemic enough, they will not be able to maintain an adequate blood pressure to supply oxygen to their organs, which results in multi-organ failure (in particular, the heart, brain, kidneys, and liver are particularly vulnerable). In addition, changes in electrolyte concentrations in the blood (most typically sodium or potassium) can result in comas or seizures as well as cardiac arrhythmias.
| 176 |
[Marvel] How does the public know whether a superhero is a mutant? Why are mutants negatively received anyway, like if for some reason the Fantastic Four are revealed to be mutants would they be negatively received as well?
| 72 |
Bigotry isn't usually logical. The Fantastic Four are heroes. The X-Men are also heroes, but people often hate them. The thing is, most mutants aren't heroes. Some are heroes and some are villains, but most are just people's neighbors, and they look weird and have weird powers so people hate them.
| 81 |
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Are icebergs made of ocean water or freshwater?
| 26 |
Sea ice is frozen sea water where the salt has been forced out as it freezes. Sea ice can freeze to a thickness of 2 - 3 meters but rarely gets thicker than that. Multi year ice May pile up into greater thicknesses of tilted slabs riding on top of each other to the point that some might call it an iceberg...but real icebergs hundreds of feet thick break off from glaciers entering the sea. They come from falling snow piled up year after year on land until compressed into ice. That ice then flows down hill into the ocean where it breaks off into bergs. Real icebergs are freshwater
----EDIT----
Chunks of frozen sea water aka "sea ice" are typically referred to as "ice floes" rather than "icebergs"
| 45 |
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ELI5:how does a company like McDonald's make their food taste exactly the same on such a large scale?
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forgive my ignorance. but a bigmac has tasted the exact same in Maimi in 1999 as it does in LA in 2004. its always the same no matter the time or place.
| 396 |
Highly controlled food quality, highly controlled cooking process, highly controlled preparation.
That's one of their big selling points as a restaurant. It doesn't matter where you go... the food is the same. Not necessarily good (for you or otherwise) but its the same. A safe bet if you are new to the area.
| 300 |
Are any of Einstein's predictions yet unproven, and if so, which would be the most groundbreaking if proven correct?
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Over 100 years after they were predicted by General Relativity, gravitational waves were observed by LIGO last year. Are there any more of his predictions floating out there?
| 119 |
Gravitational waves were only recently detected directly; we've had pretty good indirect evidence for many years.
I would nominate hidden variable theory. Einstein never really accepted quantum mechanics as a fundamental theory of the world, and said that there must be something deeper going on, something which unlike QM actually makes sense. Bell's theorem shows that this cannot be the case, so as far as we know this is a mistaken prediction, not an unproven one, but you never know: we might have missed something, and Einstein might have been right after all.
| 28 |
[ASOIAF] is there still anything alive in Valyria? What possible kinds of stuff, people, monsters and the like could be found there some four centuries after the Doom of Valyria?
| 123 |
If there weren't, then everyone would try to claim parts of Valyria due to the strategic location of the peninsula remnants. But everyone who sails there (except Jorah and Tyrion, who sailed in the show) doesn't come back.
If the sailors' ships didn't break apart from encountering rogue cliffs hidden in mist and ash, then some sea beast could claim them. If the sea beast didn't claim them, then they probably got lost because of the mist. And if they ran out of supplies while trying to find open water, they'd try to forage for something... when there's nothing left. They're now stuck in who knows where without food. They resort to cannibalism and none return home.
So many things could go wrong; especially when nobody managed to make a clear map of Valyria (because the cursed land is unnavigable). Whatever lives there has a hand (or claw, or fin) in the disappearance of all who sail there. And even if the beasts don't do anything, the land itself dooms the sailors.
| 93 |
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ELI5: How can communities where polygamy is common, have a large enough quantity of females when the the boy to girl ratio is around 1:1 ?
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I have mostly Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints and Muslim communities in my head but i know that there are plenty more that have polygamy as a part of their culture/tradition.
| 75 |
These communities typically fall into one of two categories:
1) Males tend to have higher death rates than females, likely due to active armed conflict with another group
2) Most males, for one reason or another, are socially ostracized and kicked out at a young age, leaving more women than men remaining in the community.
| 74 |
ELI5 Why I should buy locally?
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What are the benefits?
| 19 |
One of the biggest reasons is that it costs money and fuel to bring things to you...bringing a banana from South America to your local supermarket in New York City before it goes bad means spending a lot of gas. Most scientists are convinced that the Earth is getting hotter due to too much carbon emission, mostly from burning gas, coal and oil. By buying locally, you can cut down on a lot of this wasted fuel - it's just more efficient.
Some scientists are also concerned about the long-term effects of taking, taking, taking from an area without giving back - some countries that export bananas, tobacco, etc. end up depleting the soil and need to pay for (mostly) oil-based fertilizer, which means using up oil and gas even faster!
Another reason is more controversial: if you buy locally, you'll keep jobs in your area, which means more people with money who will spend at least some of their money locally, too. The more jobs you can keep here instead of "over there," the more jobs will be created to take care of those working people, so the better off the whole community will become. Of course, these jobs are coming at the expense of people "over there," and not all these jobs are well-paying, and people don't always spend their money locally, but it's an idea a lot of people like when there is a lot of unemployment.
| 21 |
CMV: The United States should not have birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants
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As the title says I don't believe that the United States of America should allow the children of illegal immigrants to get citizenship, for example "anchor babies". The reason is that people will be much less likely to immigrate illegally and have kids here if they know that those kids will not be guaranteed citizenship. The act of allowing illegals to have kids who automatically become citizens is encouraging illegal immigrants to come and is later used against us, for example people will say that you are breaking up families if you want to deport illegals because their children are citizens. These people ignore the fact that the parents chose to come here illegally and should be the ones blamed. Preventing illegal immigrants children from getting automatic citizenship will take away that argument and put the responsibility of illegal immigration on the parents, not on the government and citizens of the United States
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 410 |
> These people ignore the fact that the parents chose to come here illegally and should be the ones blamed.
Which is why punishing the child is nonsensical. The child was born (and raised) here, they are American by all definitions.
> The act of allowing illegals to have kids who automatically become citizens is encouraging illegal immigrants to come and is later used against us
I don't think this is as big of a deal as you think it is, honestly. Why do you think it's worth redefining what an American citizen is?
| 430 |
ELI5 What is log and natural log??
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I just don’t get it. From high school til now post college graduate, I still don’t know what logarithms are.
| 54 |
Suppose we have two numbers, X=2 and Y=8.
Log simply asks: how many Xs we need to multiply together to get Y?
Or in this case, how many 2s do we need to multiply together to get 8?
Since 2 x 2 x 2 = 8, the answer is 3. We need to multiply 2 by itself 3 times to get to 8.
In math notation, we write this as logₓ(Y) or in our case: log₂(8) = 3.
Sometimes we call X (2 in our case) the "base". It's just the number we want to multiply several times to get to Y.
Turns out, for various calculations we are interested in multiples of the *natural constant* "*e*" (2.71828...).
Rather than writing logₑ(Y) or log₂.₇₁₈₂₈(Y) every time, we just abbreviate it as *ln*(Y) where *ln* stands for "natural log".
So "natural log" is just log with base = *e*.
| 153 |
ELI5: Why every number to the power of 0 is equal to 1?
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I'm too dumb to get it
| 8,269 |
x^n / x^m = x^(n-m) , right?
That means that, for example,
2^2 / 2^2 = 2^(2-2) = 2^0
Since
2^2 / 2^2 = 4 / 4 = 1
Then
2^0 = 1
Another way to look at it is to go backwards.
2^4 = 16
2^3 = 8, or 16 / 2
2^2 = 4, or 8 / 2
2^1 = 2, or 4 / 2
2^0 = 1, or 2 / 2
Does that help?
| 11,630 |
ELI5: Why is the Periodic Table shaped the way it is?
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I have basic knowledge of chemistry, but I've never received a straight answer on this.
| 15 |
To assemble the table:
* Line up all the elements according to the number of protons in their nucleus (hydrogen 1, helium 2, and so on).
* Noble gasses stand out because they're chemically inert (I'll get to why later). Take this long line and split it at every noble gas to make a new row, keeping the noble gas on the right edge.
* You'll end up with some elements above others with different chemical properties. For example sodium would be above copper when it is much more similar to potassium. Introduce gaps so the chemical properties match vertically and you'll end up with the periodic table.
If you're ok with this explanation the rest is just chemical detail and tl;dr.
*Why* it behaves like this is because of electrons. Noble gasses have complete electron shells and therefore are inert. The first column has one electron in its outermost electron shell, and is therefore very reactive, the s shell can hold two electrons so that explains column 2.
The transition metals (centre of the table) are filling up the d electron orbitals, the first d shell isn't filled until after the 4th s shell (4s), that's why they don't appear until the 4th row of the table; the d shell can hold 10 electrons so the gap is 10 elements wide.
The elements on the right hand side have full (or missing) d shells and will fill up their p shell, which can hold 6 electrons but isn't used until after the 2s shell is full, which is why hydrogen and helium stick out the top of the table.
The block at the bottom of the table can also be visualised as slotting in between columns 2 and 3 of the main table. These elements are filling their f electron shell, which isn't done until after the 6s shell is full.
Why are shells filled in this order? Because putting an electron into the 5f shell takes a lot more energy than putting it in the 2s shell, electrons will fill shells from the lowest energy up.
EDIT: Formatting
EDIT2: There are other forms of the table that don't have gaping holes in the top, you can find them on Wikipedia.
| 12 |
ELI5: What is that hiccup like thing I feel after eating a big meal?
| 47 |
Irritation of your diaphragm, which is a muscle under your lungs that allows a good ventilation (by allowing your lungs to expand when inhaling and decrease when exhaling), is a known cause of hiccups. After a big meal, your stomach is full and may irritate your diaphragm. Ingestion of air may also be a factor.
| 18 |
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Academic Appeal - PhD removed without fair cause
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Hi all!
Further to my post from a few weeks ago when I was initially removed from my PhD project. All your comments and advice were really helpful!
On 19/06 I was informed by my assessor and supervisor that they could not condone my transfer into 2nd year due to "poor writing" of my continuation report. No actual instances of poor writing were highlighted, my supervisor had actually read the report and said it was fine to submit, and no concerns of writing ability were raised at any point prior.
Additionally, a colleague and I had compared our reports and feedback comments. I was negatively marked/criticized for points he was praised for. We both used the same journals/figures as our introductions covered similar areas albeit different organs as endpoints. He was positively marked for good use of figures whereas I was told “Figures are of poor quality”. I was negatively marked for not using a GANTT chart in my planning, where it is not a formal requirement and he didn’t use one either and it was never raised. “The future plans seem a bit general” We were told to keep future planning broad as this is not a “final paper”, arguably I had shown potential and well thought out avenues for future works and exploration for the study though kept in mind the ability to expand or adapt depending on future results. I was negatively marked for this whereas he was not.
On 20/07 a progress committee meeting was held with myself, my supervisor, and the PGR assessors to discuss outcomes. I highlighted that at no point in the year had any concerns been raised. I have always performed well and have been well praised by my supervisor. My supervisor had read the report and not mentioned any issues that would significantly hinder my progression so to remove me based on "poor writing" when 1) no evidence has been provided and 2) as if writing skills cannot be taught/improved over the course of my PhD education is a very drastic and final approach. It was also at this time I was prevented from speaking about the bullying/harassment I have faced in my lab and told that this was only a discussion on the academic side of things. In this meeting, I mentioned that in light of the COVID lockdown/closure of the university. I had to carry out my assessment from home, no support or guidance was offered by my supervisor aside from a link to a ‘phrasebook’. I addressed all the points and adjustment which were highlighted in the initial assessor's feedback and had weekly meetings with my supervisor/team, though no support was given/offered.
In this meeting, it was also admitted by my supervisor that he did not offer/implement any support. Though he tried to cover his own back by saying he had “reservations since early in the year” (though this was never highlighted, discussed or anything spoken about as a point to improve) and that I “was an average student and not forward-thinking” which I have evidence to the contrary that I have performed well and produced a number of plans/presentations and avenues of exploration for future work. I also achieved all the milestones set for the first year, the work was otherwise well praised and had also carried out extra work to help on other projects.
Following this, on the 22/07 I received an email that it was decided that the decision to not support transfer into the 2nd year could not be overturned and it was a unanimous decision by the panel that the written work would not be sufficient for an MPhil re-write as I “demonstrate at the Progress Committee Meeting a full understanding of the extent of your writing difficulties and the requirement to improve your written communication to an extent where writing for a research degree would be possible”. Concerningly overlooking the aforementioned points of lack of support, communication, and consideration to the COVID lockdown. So I have worked for two years in this lab only to be removed with no fair cause and no further qualification/career development.
As I am in the process of launching an appeal. I had requested a copy of the meeting minutes to compare with my own. Strangely all mention of my supervisor not supervising was omitted. It downplayed any of the supervision shortcomings and painted me to be a lost cause/bad student – saying that I did not provide drafts (I sent my supervisory team drafts 3 weeks before submission and also sections with their comments/adjustments) and I have the email logs to prove it. Saying that I had not taken any initiative to seek support – 1) no issues have ever been raised prior relating to my writing, 2) I had elected to attend a number of development and training workshops on my own accord 3) In light of the COVID lockdown, any access to support and guidance was severely limited/if any provided at all.
I mentioned in my earlier post that the lab that I worked in was notorious for politics, nepotism, and bullying. The student who had the project before me was bullied into leaving after a few months. It has become clear this is a reoccurring issue involving the behavior of particular senior members of staff which I and others had tried to raise. In my own experience, I had found myself subject to unwelcome comments regarding my appearance and stature made by a senior member of staff. Rumors were being spread about my apparent use of enhancing drugs (I don’t use) and that I was “all brawn, no brains”, comments to that effect. Furthermore, on a number of occasions, I had also experienced uncomfortable and unwelcome physical advances by a member of senior staff who would grope my chest and arms. I made it clear to this individual that I was uncomfortable with this behavior and in a professional manner would not like to be viewed as such. Unfortunately, this unwelcome physical behavior continued. In addition to remarks being made that I do not partake in social drinking (due to my religious beliefs) or the eating of shared food items (pork, meat, bacon). I had highlighted this to my supervisor. Particularly the physical harassment and groping who told me he was aware of this individual, politics such as this has a history and that his advice was to “keep your head down, let it happen and you can get your PhD at the end”. Members of the lab were frequently told to not socialize with me, not talk to me, “I don’t want to see you with him” which cultivated an environment of isolation. Finally, I raised this to the Head of Department via email, because it was taking a toll on my wellbeing and the enjoyment of my work being in such a negative and isolating work environment.
This culminated in an interaction a few days after sending the email, where the senior individual in question lured me to a private corner of the workspace for “a quick chat” and attempted to intimidate me saying I should stop talking to members of the office (my friend/colleagues) and that I should stop talking about the issues and that I wouldn’t be remaining for much longer and that things could be made difficult for me. It is impossible to say whether these instances of bullying and harassment may have tainted my character in the eyes of senior staff for whistleblowing and potentially influenced the channels involved in my academic progression. As I had made it clear that I was not going to be subject to intimidation. It is arguable and perhaps logical that I was removed as a means to silence these issues. As I have highlighted before, written communication is an extremely atypical reason for such a drastic and final solution. Particularly when I have demonstrated promise in all other aspects of my performance.
I would appreciate any advice/avenues to explore. I am currently launching an academic appeal so I can get a proper grading or an MPhil to at least show for my years of work. In addition to contacting the OIA, Research Excellence Framework, and potentially the local press / the Independent and the Guardian do articles based on student submissions and academic experiences to name and shame these members and faculty.
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I would not contact the press, that could (and will likely) blow up in your face. However, contacting an ombudsman or barrister/lawyer to explore legal avenues at this point would be worth your time.
If these allegations are true, there are some serious issues with that lab and most involved. At very least, pursuing physical harassment charges would likely be possible (as this is a charge the university could hardly argue to handle internally).
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[DC] Would the Joker in all of his psychopathy have any sexual urges/inclinations?
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Is he capable of such basic instinct?
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Depends on which one you're talking about. The DCAU Joker definitely had and enjoyed sex with Harley. Apparently whoopie cushions and cream pies were involved.
The Joker that we saw briefly in Azarello's Joker raped his henchman's wife.
And in the post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint continuity, there was a point where he thought Batman was dead and gave up his identity as the Joker to become Joseph Kerr. He settled down, got a job, and, IIRC, even got married before seeing evidence that Batman was alive again and running out on his girl to become the Clown Prince of Crime once more.
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ELI5 why ships don't use left, right, front, and back.
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I assume it's so sailors can insult the Lilly livers land lovers.
| 50 |
Originally, ships had a "larboard" and a "starboard". The "starboard" meant literally the side where the steering paddle was located -- compare German "Steuerbord", where "Steuer" means "steering".
This is because early Germanic ships had the steering paddle on that side. The other side was the side used for loading and unloading, and was originally called "larboard" -- "loading side". That would get confused with "starboard", though, so it was later replaced with "port", meaning the side of the ship facing port when docked.
So that's port and starboard for you: the loading side and the steering side.
"Bow" is an old word that originally meant an animal's shoulders, so where the sides of the ship curved at the front was considered to be the ship's "shoulders". It's not clear where "stern" comes from, but it may be again related to steering, since the steering rudder was not only on the right side of the ship, but also at the back. But that's conjecture -- nobody seems to know for sure.
Why don't they use the normal English words? Well... why should they? It may be that some sailors centuries ago literally didn't know their left from their right, but they knew damn well which side of the ship was the loading side.
| 53 |
ELI5: How does something become a commodity and what does that mean for public access to the item - like water, gold etc?
| 17 |
Generally commodities are less expensive than otherwise due to the greater competition between suppliers. If you want gold then any gold will do from anyone who has it, but if you want an iPhone only Apple can produce it.
Of course this doesn't mean that a commodity is inexpensive overall, gold being an example. It just means there aren't any differentiating features between one supplier and another.
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[Civilization] Why does Gandhi decide to become imperialistic?
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Gandhi is a cold-hearted cynic who will use any tactic necessary to win. In the case of 1940s India, he knew the best tactic was a form of non-violent protest to embarrass the British. However, if he had had nukes, then we'd have seen Mushroom clouds from London to Edinburgh.
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ELI5 What is the Boehner Bill that just passed? What does it cut?
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The bill passed the House of Representatives but was rejected by the Senate.
In the United States, in order for a bill to become law it must:
- Pass the lower house (House of Representatives)
- Pass the upper house (The Senate)
- Be signed by the Executive (The President)
This bill cleared the first hurdle but never had any chance of passing the 2nd or 3rd.
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ELI5: Why does paper product (paper towels, napkins, etc.) become transparent when wet?
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Imagine you are at a restaurant with a self-serve soda dispenser and a clear glass cup. First, you fill the glass with that finely-crushed ice they have at soda dispensers. Now look through the glass. What color does it look? White. Opaque. Like a white paper towel. You cannot see through the glass at all. If there was an object (like a cell phone cover) behind the glass, the ice obscures it completely so you can't even tell what color the object is.
Now fill the glass with cold water (or Sprite™). Most of the crushed ice is in there, but now the glass is translucent. Like a wet paper towel. Although you couldn't read a book through it, you could certainly see the color of an object behind the glass.
When ice and air are mixed in a glass, their very different indexes of refraction make light beams bounce around a *lot*, mixing everything up until you can't see through it.
When ice and water are mixed in a glass, their index of refraction is the same (in fact, if the ice itself didn't have air bubbles inside it, the glass would be almost completely clear and see-through). So less bouncing of light beams.
The wood pulp and other material in paper has an index of refraction closer to water (and ice) than it does to air. So the effect is the same.
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[Harry Potter] Im the President of the European Union of Magic and I hear some bad news about a dark wizard on England who is creating a War. Shouldnt we send some help?
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Sorry for my english.
Ok if the European Union is not a thing.
Im the President of Spain and I hear the same. Shouldnt I send some help to England in order to calm things a little?
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It comes down to a couple of things really.
To start with the Ministry of Magic, led by Fudge, steadfastly refused to believe that Voldemort was or could be resurrected, so entrenched was their fear that they publicly mocked any who believed such claims, even going so far as to drag both of their idols names through the mud. This went on for an entire year and in a society that held Azkaban as a very real possibility for going against the Ministry, it’s of little surprise that most people kept their thoughts to themselves in regards to this.
The other factor to consider is Grindelwald, a man who rocked the Wizarding World to its collective core and forever left a scar on their society. His impact essentially paralyzed the European countries from aiding Britain the first time Voldemort rose to power, as they feared any misguided action on their part could cause another international incident and severely reduce the fighting power of their countries as a result. The world certainly knew of Voldemort and his power, Harry's recognizable figure at the Quidditch World Cup shows that; they were just simply scared and looking after themselves.
For the final factor, just remember how few wizards actually took part in the Battle of Hogwarts and in Voldemort’s second campaign in general. Half the fighters in the final battle were little more than children clinging to school loyalty and even then many, unsurprisingly, fled the battle.
Essentially it boils down to fear and incompetence; if the British Ministry is this poorly managed then it’d be no surprise that the others would be the same.
Edit: Formatting
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ELI5:Voyager 1 is the farthest spacecraft traveled from Earth, where does it find all of that fuel and how can scientists still manage to control it?
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Question number 1: I understand that the Voyager 1 is a probe and there is no gravity or air resistance in space so you can move a great distance with little force but it still need the fuel to propel itself or change direction from time to time and it has been traveling for a very long time, so where does it find all that fuel?
Question number 2: the Voyager has gone out of the solar system, which is VERY far away, how can they still manage to control it? what method did they use?
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It has very little if any fuel left. It is simply just flying through space. You said it yourself there's no air resistance. Now that it's moving it doesn't need any fuel to keep moving. They dont change direction ever. They don't really do much control anymore. They just receive data from some of the sensors. If they do want to control it they have to issue the commands in sequence so that voyager can execute them automatically once it receives them.
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ELI5: What gives the USD value if it is no longer backed by gold?
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Trust. All forms of money are based on the trust that it will be valued when it is time to exchange it again. Whether it is elements and minerals, like gold, or paper currency and coinage, when a person accepts it as compensation, they are trusting that when they go to give it as payment, it will be accepted. Even gold only has value because we all trust that it does. A person who accepts gold (or gold-backed currency) in payment, does so because they trust that when they try to give that gold to someone else, that person will accept the gold as valuable.
Currency is trusted because the government that created it says its good and will be acceptable. That's one of the factors accounting for the fluctuations in currency exchange rates. How confident are people that the government will continue to be able to back the money they issue.
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[Sea Lore?/Pirates of the Caribbean] Was the Flying Dutchman ever going to be upgraded as time went on? Like would Davy Jones be attacking modern battleships in that Galleon?
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I admit I'm not very familiar with Davy Jones and all that. But he apparently interns sailors for up to 100 years, so even from the Golden Age of Piracy on at the latest he'd be fighting some of the most powerful sailing warships ever built. Would he keep going as time went on in the same ship or?
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Pirates, traditionally, avoid fighting warships seeing as warships have lots of war and not lots of loot, this being the opposite ratio that pirates generally go for when they attack things.
So, yeah, I'd say it's likely the Flying Dutchmen was upgraded significantly and repeatedly over the years... but likely not with multi-inch gun/cannon, but with better engines to catch ships with lots of loot.
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[DC] Since the Flash always "stands" on the surface, doesn't that mean his weakpoint is under his feet?
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Flash is extremely overpowered, that much is given. I was wondering what if someone booby trapped the ground itself so that you take out Flash's greatest weapon: his feet. technically he can't phase through the ground because he's always standing on the surface, so unless he's fine falling inside the Earth, it seems like his main weakness are the soles of his feet.
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He can phase through the ground. He just usually stands on it. He doesn't automatically phase through things or turn it on and off. He has to carefully match his vibrations to whatever he wants to phase through. If he wants to start walking underground, he just has to not match frequency with the ground further down and he can walk on that.
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ELI5: how we know that the universe will die and no new stars will form?
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Stars are made from certain elements. They have to also be collected into nebula. This can't go on forever. In fact, by looking at star formation in the past and star formation now scientists can see that star formation is really low now. Most stars to ever exist already have.
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CMV: People letting dogs lick babies is absolutely disgusting
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I see videos all the time of people introducing their newborns to their dog or small children hanging out on the floor with their pets because it’s cute or whatever but this seems like a huge risk?? Also ew??
Don’t get me wrong, I like animals. I have a dog, two cats, two guinea pigs, and in the past a hedgehog. However I don’t have children so maybe I’m missing something.
I know babies need to be exposed to germs to build their immune systems but this seems extreme. Dogs lick themselves and eat pretty much whatever they can get away with and I don’t think newborns are ready to handle all those germs at once.
Edit: thank you for all the responses, i appreciate people who can handle a healthy, mature debate :)
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“All those germs at once” isn’t really a thing—either your kid is exposed to something harmful or they aren’t. And a lick isn’t going to expose the baby to anything, since that’s what skin is for.
Also, babies are already gross, especially babies that are crawling on the floor. That dog isn’t exposing them to much they aren’t exposing themselves to.
Wash their hands and don’t let the dog lick their mouth or in their eyes. Not much worse than a normal afternoon for a baby.
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ELI5:Why do men appear to have a "stitch line" or "scar line" at the base of their ballsac?
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Is this scar line related to that whole "we start out as women" theory? Is that scar line where our vaginas were?
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Saying it "started out as a vagina" is an overstatement, but it's grounded in truth.
When we're forming in the womb, we start with a shallow slit between our legs. For women, that slit deepens while in men it stitches together.
Calling it a vagina at that stage in development isn't really accurate; a vagina is more than just a gap in skin, it's a structurally complex organ with a dozen different unique cells and its own intricate biology. The prenatal gap superficially, however, *is* closer in appearance to a vulva than to testicles, hence the common narrative that we all start as women.
EDIT: To add what many other helpful users are posting, we do "default" to female; the activation of the Y-Chromosome causes a release of testosterone which promotes the growth of male sex characteristics. Even if a Y-chromosome is present, if testosterone fails to release then the fetus will progress and develop as basically female.
| 5,519 |
ELI5: Bacteria become resistant to antibacterial products but why not bleach and alcohol?
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I understand that some of the bacteria survive the antibacterial products and the ones that survive are more resistant, however why doesn't some bacteria survive alcohol or bleach and become more resistant to those products?
For example, if I swap my skin with alcohol even if the bacteria under the swab are all killed when there be some on the edge that would survive but get a partial dose of alcohol?
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Imagine a bacterium as a big factory, with the bacterium's membranes and cell wall being like the factory's walls and ceiling, the enzymes like the factory's machines and the DNA like a big book of instructions for building the factory.
An antibiotic is like sending a saboteur into that factory - maybe to break a critical piece of machinery, or to blow up a structurally important support pillar. The factory could counteract that sabotage by, say, positioning guards that could catch the saboteur (similar to how bacteria may become immune to an antibiotic by mutating an enzyme that can break down the antibiotic.
Bleach or alcohol (or also heat) are more like carpet-bombing the factory until just a pile of rubble remains - they damage a bacterium in many different places at once, and in a much cruder manner. That is also why you cannot use them internally to fight an infection - they would cause too much collateral damage to your body's cells.
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ELI5: How are telemarketers benefiting by calling me and hanging up without saying anything?
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I get these calls all the time from random numbers, and when I answer there's no one there. A lot of the time when I call back it will say "You have reached an nonworking number." How is that benefiting whatever company is calling, if they're not even trying to sell me anything?
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As soon as a telemarketer is free for a new call, their systems will dial multiple numbers hoping that someone will pick up. The first person to answer is lucky enough to talk to the telemarketer, the rest of the calls are either kept on hold waiting for another free telemarketer or hung up on.
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ELI5:How did they figure out what part of the blowfish is safe to eat?
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How many people had to die to figure out that one tiny part was safe, but the rest was poison? Does anyone else think that seems insane? For that matter, who was the first guy to look at an artichoke and think "Yep. That's going in my mouth."?
Edit: Holy crap! Front page for this?! Wow! Thanks for all the answers, folks! Now we just have to figure out what was going on with the guy who first dug a potato out of the ground and thought "This dirt clod looks tasty!".
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Well, you've got a bit backwards. A small portion is dangerous, and most of it is safe. If it were nearly all poisonous, it probably would never have become a food.
The dangerous part contains a chemical which is so fast acting that you can feel its effects on you within seconds after touching it to your tongue. So it's not that hard to figure out which part contains the poison.
| 3,197 |
[Star Wars] What did Palpatine go splat on after Vader tossed him down the hole?
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The hole couldn't be too deep since the Force explosion happens pretty quickly after Palpatine gets thrown.
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He smacked into a plasma conduit on the way down. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it was enough to break his hip and let loose a blast of super-hot plasma that fried his hair and clothing and made that impressive display back up at Luke's level.
After that, Palpatine continues falling towards the core, blacked out from the pain, caroming off the walls like a pinball, before finally arriving at his destination.
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ELI5: If I swat at a mosquito and miss, will it remember/fear me? Or does it just dodge on instinct and go back to its usual buzzing around/hunting?
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Insects only have a basic nervous system, so they're not capable of that kind of memory. Essentially, when a mosquito dodges a swat, it's because they interpret moving shadows/lines as predatory movement. Their compound eyes augment this survival reflex.
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[Star Wars] Did many people know Darth Vader's true identity or how he became trapped in a life support suit?
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No. The official story is that Darth Vader is the right-hand man of the Emperor. If you fucked up, if the mess on your hands was beyond your capacity, if you were a high enough position to commit treason and have done so, if Jedi presence was confirmed to be there, Vader is who the Emperor will send to clean it up.
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ELI5 why we should wash our hands with comfortably warm water. Isn't that the ideal temperature for germs and bacteria to grow/multiply?
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It is, but we're not really worried about bacterial growth *while* we wash our hands. We're not even usually worried about bacteria *growing* on our hands at all— the danger is that we'll transfer germs, via our hands, to a new place (inside out bodies, on our food, etc) where they can grow out of control.
Meanwhile, warm water makes soap more effective at removing germs from our hands, interrupting their movement before they can reach places they'll be dangerous.
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What exactly makes things "cute"?
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What is it about puppy eyes or sleeping kittens that are appealing to humans? Why can it also apply to inanimate things? (i.e. A "cute" hammer) And why, when I see a really cute picture do I sometimes feel that it's "too cute" to stand, and I want to physically grab/eat/coddle it? Does the base idea of cuteness apply to all humans? Was it like this in the, say, 1500s?
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In human evolution, natural selection favored parents who had strong, positive feelings for their infant children. Puppies and kittens have similar geometric shapes to their faces as infants. It's a simple matter of mistaken affection that actually worked out pretty well for all parties involved.
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ELI5: How do they make such complex ASCII art?
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Usually with computer programs. There are many different approaches to generating an ASCII image, depending on how you want your final image to look. For example one simple method would be to transform a picture into a low-resolution grid, where each cell in the grid is assigned a letter depending on the brightness of the picture inside of that cell. It's also possible to mimic certain patterns in each cell, for example a "`L`" can be used to represent a right angle, a `#` can be used for heavy shading and a `+` for light shading, etc.
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[Infinity War] was the order in which Thanos obtained the infinity stones determined more by how difficult it was to get them, or because of their abilities?
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ie, did he get the Power Stone first because it was easiest to just steal from the Nova Corps, or because he needed its powers first?
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The Power Stone made Thanos essentially invincible; he was able to go against the Hulk without any trouble once he had it, and was also able to ditch his armor. That seems like it would have been a top priority for a guy like Thanos.
Running into the Space Stone was at least partially a coincidence, but it's very possible that Thanos was on his way to Asgard anyway. The Space Stone allows the now-invulnerable Thanos to instantly travel to the location of any otherStone.
The Time Stone was the next target, because it provides the biggest hax in the game. You could make a good case that the Time Stone is, in isolation, the strongest Stone of them all. Strange used it to defeat a dimension-ruling deity, after all.
They went after the Mind Stone next, probably due to its proximity to the Time Stone. Even though Cap shut that down, Thanos was still able to gather the other Stones, indicating that the Mind Stone's power wasn't essential to that quest.
The Reality Stone was in a well-known location, and Thanos hung out there because he needed Gamora to find the Soul Stone. While Thanos did use the Reality Stone's powers, it was mostly to craft illusions and fuck with his enemies. He didn't make very good use of the Reality Stone's full potential.
The Soul Stone was planned to be the last Stone he acquired, because it was the hardest to find.
The Mind Stone was the one he actually acquired last, because his first attempt to grab it failed.
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Mitochondria have their own DNA; do all mitochondria in a person’s body share the same DNA?
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You normally inherit your mitochondria from your mother. However, as they replicate, they tend to collect mutations. Eventually you will have subpopulations of mitochondria with slightly different genomes, what we call heteroplasmy. They typically aren't particularly common, maybe accounting for 10% of all mitochondria. But because they are randomly assorted between dividing cells, it is possible for a cell to inherit a significant proportion of mitochondria with a deleterious variant, impacting the viability of the cell, and potentially causing a localized mitochondrial disease.
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[Warhammer 40,000] What interactions occurred between the Eldar and Dark Age Era Humanity?
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I've heard that at it's height, the Eldar empire was the pre-eminent power in the Galaxy. Similarly, Mankind was at its technological height during the Dark Age of Technology. If I'm reading things correctly, it seems like the Fall of the Eldar and the Age of Strife both occurred nearly simultaneously. Furthermore, it would seem that these two societies co-existed for nearly 10 Millenia.
My question is, what sort of interactions did they have. If Mankind reached it's zenith in terms of technology and spread at the same time as the Eldar were the Galaxy's most powerful society, how could they have co-existed as they did? Given that the current Imperium encompasses nearly the entire galaxy, and Dark Age humanity was apparently even more widespread, I don't see how the Eldar could ALSO have been controlling most of the galaxy.
Basically, both species were at their heights at the same time, and the current Imperium is big enough to control the majority of the galaxy right now. So how the hell could both of them have controlled more than 50% of the galaxy at the same time? Plus, whatever the relationship was, what do know of their interactions?
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They didn't.
Mankind, at that point, had no single, unifying leader. They had technology which was closing on the Eldar, who weren't really advancing - having a webway, a post-scarcity society and an infinite supply of chocolate sauce and lubricant does that for you. Die? Fine! Just run straight into the warp and hang around for a few minutes until you can reincarnate. This caused warp storms, which began to become more and more frequent during the DAoT, a time when Man had no single leader. The Emperor was lurking on earth somewhere, but he hadn't really subjugated the world yet. Working on it, though.
Anyway, while man puttered about, the Eldar had truly staggering amounts of sex and drugs and everything and being so massively psychically active, pumped all that excess into the warp. Travel became extremely difficult if you relied on the warp. And dangerous. Warp storms gathered more and more around the embryonic Slaanesh, until its birthscreams created the Eye of Terror, ended the Eldar (barring a few hardy dissidents who decided they would follow excess in their own way, the Exodites, or excess in denial, the Craftworlds, while claiming not to) and got rid of all the warp storms shrouding the galaxy.
This was the point when Big E said to himself "Now or never" and launched a tiny little galaxy-spanning crusade to find his lost kids and unite the galaxy under his iron-fisted rule.
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Is anything in the universe truly random? (For Physics majors)
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I was wondering if any event in the universe is truly random. I mean, since we have so many laws and models that can predict the behavior of most particles, then technically isn't everything predictable... Doesn't every action and reaction of a particle happen a certain way, which is dictated by the laws of nature.. random energy doesn't just appear or disappear to make particles act randomly
I mean sure, someone might point out that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle shows that we don't know where an electron is on an atom, we can only guess where it probably is... but I would argue that its just because we dont have the proper tools to see where an electron is on an atom, and/or we dont have the proper models or laws to predict where the electron is
I mean, hypothetically, there shouldn't be any random actions of small particles ... If a small particle seems like its doing something random, its just because of our incomplete understanding of the laws of physics
This leads me to my next conclusion.... that if every reaction is predictable.. then does that mean that the universe is predictable, and that it only had one possible "destiny"
This can be translated to us humans as well... Even our actions are dictated by our biology, which is dictated by our chemistry, which is dictated by physics, which is dictated ultimately by math... so at the most basic level, even our actions are technically are predictable and not our own, but are in fact a culmination of an infinitely large number of reactions at the subatomic level.... Its like we are slaves to the laws of nature
EDIT: What is the mechanism that causes something, like quantum mechanics, to be random.. what is the process of randomness....
| 16 |
There are aspects of quantum mechanics that, as far as we know, are totally random. An example is radioactive decay: an unstable atom will decay randomly without warning or trigger. You can attempt to modify quantum mechanics in a way that there is order to the randomness that we are unable to detect (hidden variable theory), but this has observable consequences that we are starting to be able to probe experimentally.
| 15 |
ELI5: why does a broken leg essentially mean a death sentence for a horse?
| 22 |
Horses legs are under high tension with tight tendons from the knee down. This means that when they break they often shatter. That same tendon situation also means there fairly little blood flow down the leg which makes healing slow. That means that the horse would have to spend a long time on only 3 legs, something it is too heavy for without damaging those 3 legs, or spend that time lying down or in a rig to hold their weight both of which have a high likelihood of them developing colic which is a potentially lethal twisting of the intestines.
| 22 |
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[Fallout 4] What's the deal with these Mini Nukes creating no rads?
|
Hi, I'm a Lone Wanderer from the Commonwealth. Through my adventures I've become fond of using the Fat Man and it's upgraded MIRV variant, but I'm wondering, why isn't there any radiation present after impact? I'd assume that a mini nuke would flood the immediate area with rads, but avoiding the primary explosion is the only concern.
It seems to defy physics, like when I loot a long closed off army base, only to come back a week later and find it restocked again. If I take enough Med X, Psycho, Buffout and Whisky while in decent power armor, I can even withstand a mini nuke detonation and receive less rads than simply standing on the corpse of a recently killed Ghoul. So what's going on here? Is the mini nuke emitting some sort of radiation my Pip-Boy isn't detecting? Or is it a misnomer, and in fact just a powerful explosive with no post-detonation radiation?
| 35 |
Mini-nukes rely almost entirely on fusion and therefore can detonate with a minimum of radiation. Given that they were designed to be used tactically rather than strategically against those damned reds it was a requirement that they didn't release much harmful radiation.
| 46 |
ELI5: How exactly the symptom of rabies, the fear of water, the hydrophobia works?
|
One of the rabies symptoms is a fear of water, also called a hydrophobia.
Wikipedia article on rabies even shows a diseased trying to drink water but still unable to.
My question is: how it works on the biological level? Is it happening in consciousness, subconsciousness, or where? How does the sickness knows the water is approaching the mouth? How? Can one trick the sickness by making person close their eyes? Or by putting water in a closed box and then moving it towards the patient? Etc?
| 102 |
The hydrophobic comes from the nerves in the throat being damaged. If anything touches the back of the throat; any water or saliva or food, all the muscles in the throat and neck suddenly tense up with maximum strength causing extreme pain and choking.
Because having anything in their mouth (including water) causes extreme pain, they can't drink and have to drool because even having saliva in their mouth will be incredibly painful.
| 142 |
How come almost every other mammal (carnivore or herbivore) can eat their meat completely raw and we have to cook ours or else we could potentially die?
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I don't understand, every mammal I can think off of my head can heat meat off of the newly dead animal coated in whatever dirt and bacteria came with it while obviously being completely raw. However we have to cook all of our meat for fear of salmonella and other things that can make us very sick. Where did we go wrong? Surely we didn't evolve to adapt to go through extra work to eat.
| 60 |
Humans can eat raw meat easily enough. Ever had sushi, sashimi, steak tartare, or (for that matter) a rare piece of beef? We don't have to cook our meat. However, there are benefits that come with doing so. A reduced chance of parasites and bacteria, for one.
| 87 |
Given our society's rules, slut shaming is completely acceptable. CMV
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I see this tired argument every single day: "If a guy has sex with a lot of girls he's a god among men, but if a girl has sex with a lot of guys she's a hoe!" Well no shit. Know why? It's because girls *themselves* perpetuate the archaic stereotype of being pure, non-sexual beings in public, never asking guys out, never admitting their feelings for another guy, etc. (And yes I know, just like with every generalization there are exceptions.) So why are there girls that complain about slut shaming when they themselves are the cause of it? You can't stop slut shaming without restructuring society as a whole from the ground up. Unless girls magically become as open about their sexuality as guys are, slut shaming will be a thing forever. Women/girls will always be devalued for having lots of sex while guys who do the same will be praised and looked up to. You can't be mad at a guy for slut shaming a girl if promiscuous girls *are* deviant in our society.
| 16 |
Generally it's different girls -- some perpetuating the stereotypes and others complaining about being slut-shamed.
You're falling into the classic problem with prejudice: even when most members of a group are statistically one way, not all are.
Besides that, you're making a "two wrongs make a right" kind of argument. Harassment is wrong, period.
| 60 |
ELI5: if I make coffee (acidic) with high pH water (basic) would I have a pH neutral beverage?
|
Wondering why this wouldn't work to take out the acidity of coffee. Would it just taste terrible? What makes coffee acidic in the first place?
| 19 |
>Would it just taste terrible?
Yes. The acid is a key flavour component in coffee and without it (or with the addition of base to "balance" the pH) it will taste flat, and exacerbate other negative characteristics of the drink. The by products of the acid/base reaction may also contribute off flavours of saltiness or soapyness.
> What makes coffee acidic in the first place?
The acids present in the raw coffee fruit before they are dried, processed, and roasted are mostly responsible for the acid in the finished drink. Just like apples or lemons contain acid, coffee cherries do too. Some additional acid is produced by fermentation of the beans which happens after they are harvested.
| 16 |
ELI5: Is it me or whenever I'm done working out I randomly get full and don't feel like eating ?
| 17 |
This is a common thing.
There is a hormone believed to be responsible for your body creating that hunger feeling or having an appetite.
And studies have shown that it seems physical exercise suppresses the release of that hormone.
One theory for why this happens is it a beneficial reaction developed through evolution. For most of human history the only time you’d really have super intense physical exercise is likely in life and death scenarios, like say, fighting off, or running away from, a predator. The theory is that in these kinds of scenarios, it is beneficial to not be distracted by hunger pains.
| 13 |
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[D&D] I've been seduced by a bard. Apparently I consented, but I don't remember a thing past the CHA check and my spouse is furious. Can I sue? Should I?
| 253 |
Everyone knows no matter how high a persuasion check, it's not a Mind Control spell.
I mean we've all heard tales of legendary bards, and how women just can't help themselves. Doesn't hold up in court, your husband has valid grounds for a divorce. Sorry.
Just remember: Persuasion is not Mind Control. Stealth is not Invisibility, Acrobatics is not Flight.
| 309 |
|
What is the difference between an accent and a dialect?
| 17 |
On a surface level, an accent is purely differences in pronunciation, while a dialect includes differences in grammar and vocabulary.
In practice, much like the definition of species, the differences between accent, dialect, and language are just a matter of degree; i.e. accents are less different from each other than dialects are. It's a judgment call made by linguists and consensus, and whichever label is most useful to better understanding language.
| 52 |
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I believe the western countries are socially liberal only because of a higher material standard of living and not some sort of higher enlightenment on the part of the citizens, CMV
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I see it quite often, living in the western world and consuming western media, this attitude of latent superiority over the "backwards bigoted people with Wrong™ beliefs", be they the Muslims with their treatment of women or the older generations with their treatment of gays, I'm talking about this idea that people have, to use a hyperbole, ascended to some sort of objectively higher plane of existence by virtue of the civil rights movement.
I disagree with this whole premise, I believe that the trend of social progressivism that occurred during the 20th century was a by-product of improving standards of living during that time, and not wholly a deliberate effort on the part of the masses. While there were definitely people pushing the civil rights movement for women, blacks, gays and the rest it seems to me that the reason these have caught on is less to do with people becoming more educated in the relevant fields and more to do with the standard of living improving for people enough that they simply occupy themselves with something else and don't bother exerting energy to follow these political trends, opting to just roll with it.
The reason I feel this way is because I see a direct link between poverty and discrimination. We can of course account for different cultures like those of Islamic countries, but even in westernized regions there appears to be a clear relationship between the two. The most conservative parts of the United States are those with the highest poverty levels (the bible belt), the most socially liberal parts of the EU are those with the best safety nets for the population. Furthermore, due to the economic crisis it appears that the trend is reversing, with attitudes to immigration worsening and some countries outright acquiring Neo-Nazi movements.
If this is the case, can it really be said that the civil rights movement is an inherent part of western society, or is social progressivism just another aquired luxury of first-world living?
**TL;DR: I believe the social liberal trend in the west isn't so much an ideology in itself but the absence of any conservative counter-ideology, with people becoming accepting of gays and the like because of material comfort-induced indifference rather than an informed conviction. Ergo, I believe that if the average standards of living in the west deteriorate things may very well go backwards on the civil rights front.**
| 100 |
It isn't that the standard of living is higher, it's that education is better. Poverty does not correlate with bigotry because being poor causes you to be bigoted, it correlates with bigotry because the poor are less likely to be well educated. You will find that the actual causal relationship is between education and bigotry, not wealth and a lack of it.
| 36 |
[ELI5] Why does the moon look so tiny in pictures when it looks so large from where I took it?
| 241 |
It looks small in pictures because it's a photograph.
1. The lens you are using. Most cell-phones/digital cameras have a fixed lens, and it is usually a wide angle. The zoom that is available isn't optical zoom. It's digital. This means that the lens doesn't make anything bigger, but the image itself is cropped. This is why you see a loss of resolution when you zoom in. If you have a dSLR with a zoom lens, you're physically moving lens elements to make the image bigger/closer. Another thing that wide angle lenses do is they make far away things look SMALLER than close things. This is why a lot of times when a person takes a selfie, they look like they have a big nose and small eyes: the nose is closer to the lens than the eyes, so it makes it bigger.
2. You're viewing a very small image. This is mostly psychological. You're looking at a small photograph, and in comparison, the moon is huge, so it makes it look even smaller. Think of it this way: you take a picture of your dad, and he looks smaller in the picture than how he really is. The reason it's not so apparent is because you have a better reference of your father since you see him physically in front of you (as opposed to far away like the moon). Now, if you want a larger version of your father, you would have to print a bigger picture.
| 86 |
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[MCU] [Avengers] If the infinity stones are so crucial to the flow of the universe that the Ancient One won't even let Bruce borrow them at first, why isn't it a problem that they're destroyed now?
| 439 |
Her visualization of the timeline splitting looked nearly identical to the timelines splitting at the end of Loki. This implies the disaster she was anticipating *has come to pass*, and she was simply wrong about the root cause.
| 472 |
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[The Dark Knight] What makes Health Ledger Joker impossible to manipulate/threatened compared to other criminals/villains?
| 20 |
He doesn't care about anything except getting a rise out of Batman. He barely cares about survival, he has no loved ones, and he's not interested in wealth. Essentially he's dangerous for many of the same reasons Batman is.
| 84 |
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ELI5:ELI5: When a person exercises and burn calories, what is actually happening to the fat? when someone loses weight where is the fat going?
| 60 |
Your fat is made of hydrocarbons - molecules of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. When you inhale oxygen (O2) and exhale carbon dioxide (CO2) you are literally exhaling the carbon from those fat molecules as you burn those calories. What about the hydrogen and oxygen? That becomes water which you urinate/sweat out.
| 30 |
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Do plugged-in laptop and phone chargers et. al. continue to use electricity even when the paired device is not connected to them?
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If I leave my laptop charger plugged in but do not have my laptop connected to it, does that still use power? I frequently unplug my devices' chargers/power cables from outlets, even when the device is not attached, because I suspect that having a cable plugged in still uses electricity. is this so?
**thanks for the knowledge, guys! very helpful in clearing up this mystery for me!**
| 53 |
Once the load (device to be powered/charged) is removed from the charger, very little power will be used. Most power bricks have little LEDs that remain on, and there is a small amount of power dissipated in the cord/other components that stay electrified (commonly referred to as phantom power), but only a VERY small amount of power is still consumed.
| 26 |
[Monsters inc] so you’re telling me that an adult would NOT be scared shitless if Mike wazowski walked outta their closet door? Wouldn’t a grown ass man’s scream be louder and much more effective than a toddler’s?
| 1,202 |
Yes, it would, as we saw in Monsters University. But the problem with scaring adults is if a bunch of adults start saying they see creatures coming out of closest, then the human world is going to start investigating.
If little kids do it, then people just dismiss it as nightmares or overactive imaginations. Remember that the Monster world considers humans to be poisonous. The goal is to get scares *without* attracting attention to their world.
| 1,137 |
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ELI5: Implosions
| 28 |
An explosion is when something is under very high pressure - so high that whatever is trying to contain it, can't contain it any more. Imagine a sealed drinking cup with a straw. When you blow into the straw, you increase the pressure in the cup. Eventually, the cup will explode - it won't be able to hold its contents, and they will be thrown out under pressure.
An implosion is exactly the opposite. It's when something is experiencing very low pressure, so low that its container can't keep the outside stuff out any more. Imagine the same sealed drinking cup, but this time you suck on the straw. Eventually, the cup will implode - it will crumple as the air outside the cup tries to fill the space you emptied by sucking on the straw.
With your drinking cup, neither the explosion nor the implosion is particularly spectacular. But depending how much pressure you add or take away from a container, you can get some very spectacular explosions, and some very spectacular implosions too.
| 24 |
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ELI5:Why are all "As Seen on TV" commercials so similar to each other?
| 23 |
These companies carefully study what works -- even trying different versions of an ad to see what brings in more orders.
What you see now is the optimal format -- the one that brings in the most orders -- so everyone tries to use it.
| 12 |
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CMV: Children should not be allowed to go to church
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EDIT FOR DELTAS:
So my view was changed in several ways which I'd like to note here:
1. I think I was painting all religion with a very broad brush due to my upbringing and several people have given some examples of how their religious upbringing was quite different and did not pose the problems I stated.
2. I had not considered the value that places of worship have with regards to community and having a "third place" for children to interact. I think, especially in smaller rural communities, that my view would be harmful for the community.
3. Keeping kids out of church isn't likely to solve the indoctrination problem, and may actually worsen it as it would force parents to be even more active in the brainwashing at home.
**Thanks to everybody for sharing your views and giving me some new perspectives. Love yinz.**
First some definition of terms:
By children, I mean anyone under the age of 13. By church, I mean any place of worship, not limited to the Christian faith. The place of worship must be delivering sermons or performing some other form of religious ceremony. Visiting a temple and simply performing a ritual as seen in Buddhist or Shinto faiths would not qualify here.
Now to explain:
I grew up a Jehovah's Witness. I had no say in the matter. I was inculcated and indoctrinated for as long as I can remember, and I think the same is true of most children raised in religious homes. As a kid, you go with your parents wherever they go, you have no choice. When that includes church, you're essentially forced to learn certain teachings and beliefs, and as a child you trust your parents' judgement and do not question it. This is basically a form of brainwashing.
I believe children's minds should not be subject to this, which is why I propose the age limit of 13. By then, you're at the age of reason and can think for yourself for the most part. An adolescent inserted into church at that age would be able to critically evaluate the claims made by the preacher, and would be able to decide for themselves whether or not this is true. When you've been raised in that faith from birth, it's much harder to question it and look at it objectively.
In addition, I think that religion generally does not teach critical thinking and actively discourages it in favor of blind obedience. This is not healthy for children and is not beneficial to their long-term thinking skills later in life.
I realize this opinion is somewhat radical as it strips parents of their authority over their children. My view won't be swayed by first amendment arguments regarding freedom of religion, as I believe that you are essentially depriving children of that freedom by indoctrinating them as parents. I would, however, be open to considering potential benefits of children attending church services or arguments as to why it's not detrimental to their development. Or whatever else you guys can come up with, so change my view.
| 96 |
I think your childhood experience as JW is being generalized across all religions, which is inaccurate. In the mainline Protestant denominations, for example, critical thinking, doubt, and questioning are encouraged - how else does one understand something complicated without examining its contradictions and questions? There are *certain* religions that discourage critical thinking (like JW, perhaps?) but by no means all.
Also, as distasteful as it is, a large part of parenting is what outsiders might call "indoctrination" or "brainwashing." That does not necessarily make it wrong. Parents teach their children what they (the parents) believe is right and wrong, which is the prerogative of parents. Many parents do this poorly, but just as many children reject those teachings as adults and form their own opinions and ideas.
Critically examining what your parents taught you in chdhood, and coming to your own conclusions about those issues is a BIG part of growing up. Religion, politics, and worldview are all elements of this.
| 44 |
Is the purpose of life to contribute to society?
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Is the purpose of life to contribute to society?
An average life consists of surviving, learning, reproducing, teaching, working. Then you're finished. You're born, you contribute a small bit of your existence to the world then die. Outside of that, there is using your physical and emotional functions to work through life and its obstacles. That's life. There will be suffering, there will be joy. Then there are experience such as sport, love, sex, drugs, games, and many more other life experiences to try.
You can look back on all lives in the past and you can see that pattern in what we do. It seems happiness can come from your experiences, but meaning comes from contributing to society on your work, or just passing on your knowledge to many or few. That seems to be the meaning and purpose of our lives. That do you think?
| 84 |
It really depends on your definition of "purpose".
If by your definition of purpose then yes. You will find the answer to that in many western political philosophies especially the philosophy of communitariansm, utilitarianism and socialism. You'll find alot of what you're looking for in Jean Jaque Roussoeus work and the social contract or Thomas Hobbes idea of how a society should be run also helps. Then again purpose draws a fine line between the individual and the community. If you are familiar with any sort of works regarding existentialism it is based almost fully on the self and personal freedom. As for linking that to society that has more links to social science and political philosophy. Then again, your question is very subjective since purpose is a very broad term.
| 32 |
CMV: Those in nursing homes and other settings for long-term and/or end-of-life care should have basically unlimited access to recreational drugs.
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The main argument against recreational drugs seems to be that it's detrimental to your health and makes you less likely to be a contributing member of society. These are settings where these arguments no longer apply. If these people want to gamble their health then that's their choice, so long as they feel this gives them a higher quality of life in the interim. There is no argument that I can see that they're somehow going to be less productive citizens, because they're already in their end-state as far as their participation in society goes.
| 2,879 |
Physiological differences make it hard to predict people’s reactions to various recreational drugs. Sure, you might handle most of them fine, but even the most benign one could trigger severe bouts of extreme paranoia or aggression in someone else that could lead them to harming others - especially in a situation where people are aggregated together like that. Then there’s also the issue that many recreational drugs can interfere with the intended physiological effects of the copious amounts of life-sustaining drugs many of these people are already taking.
| 597 |
ELI5: How is Ebola able to spread the way it has during the current outbreak?
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I am seeing reports that multiple medical professionals have begun to contract the disease. How is this happening if it is so hard to transmit and what is preventing this from spreading further, if anything?
| 90 |
Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person; every droplet of a sneeze has the potential to infect, and so do other fluids as well. It also stays virulent after death, so touching the dead body during funeral rites also has the potential to infect. There is a pretty high chance you will be infected if you do come into contact with the fluids of a sick person, but if you don't then there is very little chance of catching the disease. Even with all of this; most of the problems with spreading during this epidemic have been because of extremely poor facility conditions and the medical practitioners often having little or no access to water or proper hygiene equipment. A large portion of the people getting infected are themselves health workers attempting to take care of the sick in appalling conditions, which could be solved with better equipment and education about how the disease spreads.
| 44 |
Do scientists testing medicine on animals have to give the animals the disease first?
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Is there a market that sells animals with the disease you want or something?
| 53 |
This really depends on the study. Many studies just test the effects of the drug on healthy animals. Often the disease cannot be vectored in the animal, as it the case with some viruses, so you cannot give it to the animal. However, most of the time you are able to introduce or induce the exact or similar human disease into an animal. Commonly studied diseases like cancers do have markets that sell diseased animals, or will do the entire animal part of the study for a lab or company. In the end though, lab animals are not humans and human tests will need to be done.
| 11 |
Could living things sink or dive into lava? Or is it simply too dense?
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This link is near the top of r/all right now: https://gfycat.com/GranularAnnualBactrian
The comments are full of people talking about diving in.
Would a human actually sink or even be able to get below the surface? Or is molten rock too dense for that? I've wondered this since I was a kid and saw Arnold lowering himself into molten steel at the end of Terminator 2!
| 19 |
Kilauea lava is about 2.6 times as dense as water; the human body is slightly less dense than water. Lava is also significantly more viscous than water.
If you jumped off the edge of the crater you'd sink a little because of momentum, but you would easily float in lava. The net force pushing you to the surface of lava is stronger than the force of gravity on your body in air.
| 25 |
CMV: Raising minimum wage isn't the answer to poverty and correcting the wage gap. We need to institute a maximum pay gap within companies, get rid of tax loopholes for the super rich and stop taxing low income brackets
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Disclaimer: This was written from a Canadian point of view, having seen minimum wage rise, and the effects it has had on my Provence, cost of living and other challenges we face, but I do think it would also benefit America and other countries in a similar wage to cost of living situation. The research I did was mostly based on American wage and tax history due to the availability as well as the expected readers and response, though Canadian numbers were very similar. The rise of minimum wage and cost of living inflation was more focused on Ontario pricing and wage correlations, because I have personally witnessed it, and believe it to be the best example of what will happen if similar systems ie. the US were to try as well. I broke down my opinion into 4 seperate points so you can pick at any leg of the table you choose.
Minimum wage: Raising minimum wage has historically backfired. While the reason for the institution of a minimum wage remains important, the way the economy reacts to it is different and more volatile. When minimum wage rises, workers getting paid higher than minimum wage don't get a raise, and the perceived value of the work drops. At the same time, the people setting the costs, raise their prices. Now, some people who could comfortably afford things cannot, and those who couldn't afford it before still cannot. This doesn't effect the rich at all, but hurts the middle and lower earning classes. This is why this option is not a solution, and we need to stop using it.
Maximum wage gap: Instead of raising minimum wage, we need to incentivize the billion dollar industries to pay their employees better, and help people making low end wages earn more. The best way I see in doing this is enforcing a 10:1 pay ratio for highest earning in the company vs lowest. I could understand an argument for owners making 25:1 because they have to hold the liabilityand chance of failure. It should all be based on hourly wages, and salaried positions can only be based around a 40 hour work week. Management/ownership pays themselves a bonus, everyone else gets at least 10% of that. While this seems like small numbers, it would actually result in a massive pay jump for pretty much the entire working class, as employee to employer earnings are currently sitting at about 221:1. It would take a huge hit to the super wealthy, but that is kind of the point, redustribute and balancing the wealth, and making it so everyone can put food on the table, correcting a flaw in the capitalist system without completely removing the free market. Making highly profitable businesses pay their epmloyees better without raising minimum wage and making businesses with tighter profit margins go under.
Taxing low incomes: The majority of the taxes paid come from business tax. Income tax provides a much smaller slice of the pie. Of that smaller slice, the top 1% pay about 40%. The amount that comes from the bottom tax brackets is negligible from the government side, but the amount thats taken from the under 50k brackets makes a huge difference in their quality of life. By not taxing the first 50k in income it makes living on lower incomes a lot more sustainable. This is a choice that could drastically effect quality of life, and help give everyone an equal chance and leading a successful, happy and not have to decide between eating, paying taxes and having a place to live.
Tax Loopholes: So with the top 1% paying 40% of income taxes, you would think they are doing their part. The issue with that is once you start getting into those who control more than 100 million, those individuals end up usually not paying very much as they are able to invest in what they need to hit tax writeoffs to the point of negating paying anything. While the amounts the low income group is paying is negligible, the amount the 100 million plus are writing off and avoid are not. By eliminating write offs and making the payments mandatory for anyone earning more than 1 million, we are more than covering the bit the government are losing by not taxing those who need it, and getting even more to work with to provide nessiscary services. What ends up being done with that money is a different debate, but this would result in a better balanced tax system, putting the burden on those who can provide, and taking it away from those who struggle to.
| 283 |
The issue with this is you are misunderstanding how these people at the top are making money. No one is making 100 million in a salary or a bonus or anything like that. Comments like: "The issue with that is once you start getting into those who control more than 100 million, those individuals end up usually not paying very much as they are able to invest in what they need to hit tax writeoffs to the point of negating paying anything." Do not even make sense. Because that is not how that works. They aren't writing of 10s of millions in taxes.
Most wealthy people have their **wealth** increase by owning assets that have increased in value. They aren't paid. They aren't avoiding taxes or writing it off because they haven't observed any gain until they actually sell those assets. So even though they have a massively increasing net worth, they haven't actually "made" the money yet. Those kinds of gains are called capital gains. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than your standard income tax, in part because we want to incentive this type of activity.
So if we look at someone like Bezos. He had a salary of under 100K his entire time at Amazon. So how did he become the wealthiest man? Because he owned an asset (Amazon shares) that exploded in value. And when he sells those shares he then pays a capital gains tax on the amount he made.
| 127 |
ELI5: How can politicians make promises and not be held accountable?
| 34 |
Under the law, at least in the United States, you have no liability for a "promise" except in certain specific circumstances. Thus, you can't just sue a politician for breaking a promise.
But, that doesn't mean they're not held accountable. The way we hold politicians accountable is through the vote. If a politician breaks a promise, the accountability doesn't come through the courts, it comes through the ballot box (either directly, if they lose re-election, or indirectly, if their party or allies suffer.)
| 10 |
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[MCU] Does War Machine's suit have its own snarky AI?
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I don't think we ever see Rhodey bantering with his suit or even issuing it verbal commands. But after JARVIS disappears in Age of Ultron, Tony has to install Friday on his suit, implying it does need some kind of AI to operate.
| 24 |
> Tony has to install Friday on his suit, implying it does need some kind of AI to operate.
Tony installing FRIDAY does not mean that he *needs* to have her on the suit. He repaints his suit when it gets scratched off after a fight, doesn't mean it needs that hot rod red to operate.
IW Spoilers
>![Tony loses his connection to FRIDAY after leaving Earth and he does fine without her. Peter doesn't have Karen either.]
| 26 |
If rogue waves occur in the ocean, and rogue sound waves also occur?
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To my knowledge a rogue wave occurs when lots of smaller waves converge in the right way.
My question is, does this happen with sound waves? Could a loud booming sound occur at random from the confluence of many low amplitude waves?
| 31 |
Theoretically yes, small amplitude sound waves can converge to form a large amplitude wave. In practice however this is ridiculously unlikely, and even less likely that it will occur somewhere that it can be heard.
| 16 |
[Harry Potter] Could you splinch/telefrag someone by using a Time Turner?
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If your point of arrival in the past happened to be where someone was standing, what would happen?
If you've been standing in the same spot for an hour then travel back one hour, would you telefrag your past self?
| 37 |
#DO NOT MESS WITH TIME
Ahem.
Time-Turners operate within consistent loops. This is *not* a feature of time-travel itself in HP; it is indeed possible to change time and e.g. erase people from time (though time seems to have some kind of Butterfly Effect immunity; if you give someone's father a condom, they vanish from time, but it doesn't retroactively edit the whole world the way you'd expect from chaos theory) but not with a Time-Turner.
Clearly, the closed-time-loop function of Time-Turners, whereby you can't change time because it's already happened, is a built-in safety feature of the device itself, and it probably has other safety features.
Presumably, if you tried to perform a Time-Turn that would kill someone like that, it would fail for timey-wimey reasons, the same way it would if you went back in time and tried to kill your past self, which obviously can't happen because it would cause a paradox: you reach for the Time-Turner and inexplicably keep dropping it, or it breaks in your hands, or you have a heart attack and fall over before you can.
| 43 |
ELI5: Why is honey dangerous to toddlers and infants?
| 13,569 |
Honey often contains botulism spores, growth of botulism is suppressed when there is low water activity (such as in honey), and it's suppressed when the pH is low. It needs to get 125'C to kill the spores. Botulism produces one of the most toxic poisons known to man when it grows.
The temperature to kill botulism is too high for honey (it would ruin it). For adults this is a non-issue because it doesn't grow in honey, and when you eat it your stomach acid prevents it from growing. Babies don't have a low enough pH in their stomach (not enough stomach acid basically), so botulism can grow in a babies stomach after it mixes with water in their stomach which could be deadly.
| 18,591 |
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When should I tell my supervisor that I’m thinking about dropping out of my PhD?
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Here’s my situation, in a bit more detail: I’m just at the end of the Master’s portion of the degree, and would be leaving with a good grade in that; I’m in a social sciences/humanities programme in a world top 10 institution for my subject; I am in the UK; I’m fully funded by a research council.
I’m basically 95% certain that I want to leave, and have already started searching for jobs. I don’t want my supervisor to put work in to my project when I know I’m planning on leaving - I would feel really guilty about it. On the other hand, I can’t afford to pay my rent if I lose my funding before I find another source of income and am a big fan of not starving to death - I don’t know if telling him means the institution will be alerted and cause me problems on that front, especially because I have no idea how long it will take for me to find something. At the minute, I’m considering not saying anything until I have a job secured, but again, I’m worried that that’s a dick move.
What would you guys do, in my position? I can provide more information about my reasoning/situation if that helps - I’m being purposefully vague about the specific university and course.
| 49 |
Don't say a word until you have a new source of income. It's just about priorities, and your supervisor should understand if they're a decent person, and if not then meh, they evidently care more about their convenience than your wellbeing. But also: you don't \*know\* what'll happen, maybe you look around and are disappointed and end up being very happy to continue with that very decent-sounding funded project. It's just way premature to think about making waves and potentially screwing yourself over, however (overly) nice and considerate it is.
| 118 |
ELI5 if every cell in your body gets replaced over time, how does your brain maintain memories?
| 34 |
Neurons that compose memories do not normally die and are not replaced by newly forming cells. The cell is replaced in the sense that sooner or later every molecule is swapped out as a normal part of cellular maintenance but the entire cell is never replaced all at once.
Think of a car for example. A normal cell dying would be like a car exploding so you buy a new one. For neurons, its like replacing a wheel one day, the windshield the next, and the seats sometime after that. Sooner or later its a new car because the parts are replaced but it still operates the same and carries the same function.
| 29 |
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CMV: The best way to reduce immigration is to make the countries of origin better places to live.
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The United States spends billions of dollars trying to prevent people from Central and South America from immigrating to the US. If we spent some of that money to invest in those countries, and making them better places with more opportunity and less corruption and crime, then people wouldn't need to emigrate in the first place.
We spend trillions on a military that as far as I know does absolutely nothing at the moment (which is better than just bombing the crap out of the Middle East at least). If that military went down into Mexico to help build infrastructure projects, and combat rampant gangs and corruption, we would not only be making people's lives better, we would also be building a more stable trade partner, and preventing the need for people to have to cross the border.
I would assume many Americans wouldn't be on board with this idea because they'd see it is free handouts, and they'd rather keep putting people in cages at the border instead of actually helping our neighbors.
But down the road spending money on our neighbors now, seems like it would save us money in the future.
| 1,650 |
the problem isn't lack of money, the problem is corruption. sending huge amounts of money is just going to result in that money getting stolen. unless you want to annex those countries into the US and subject them to US laws and US institutions, it is going to be very difficult to fundamentally reform those countries.
and even if quality of life was marginally improved, life in the US would still be better. you may no longer be in grinding poverty, but why would you settle for poorly paid job when there are much better jobs in america?
| 584 |
ELI5: Why is shampoo usually translucent but conditioner opaque?
| 3,083 |
Because conditioner is marketed as a "cream". (In fact it's sometimes the case and used to be the case back in the day that people would call conditioner "cream rinse".)
We associate opacity with creaminess and moisturizing properties, while we associate clarity with cleaning properties.
Kind of like why Crystal Pepsi didn't do well as a product, and why the SNL spoof commercial for "Crystal Gravy" was so hilarious.
TL;DR It's all marketing/what we expect the product to look like.
| 2,149 |
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How many calories are we capable of burning in a single two second burst?
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I saw [this](http://i.imgur.com/0Sr6t.jpg) pic in another post and I couldn't help but wonder how many calories were burned in that single throw.
| 48 |
If a shot put is accelerated to ten meters per second, that's still about 10% of a dietary (kilo)calorie in terms of kinetic energy. Elite cyclists are able to output upwards of 1500 watts, which is about 0.3 (kilo)calories per second.
| 13 |
If I shout into a breeze blowing straight at me, does my voice travel less distance then if I was to shout without a breeze?
| 50 |
Basically, yes. The speed of sound in a medium is always measured with respect to the medium itself! If you speak on a very windy day, then your voice will travel at different speeds *with respect to you* in different directions depending on the direction of the wind.
If you visualize the sound you produce by shouting as an expanding spherical wavefront, if there is no wind then this sphere expands with you at its center. If there is wind, the center of that sphere will move with the wind. So if you shout into the wind, by the time your voice reaches the same distance as on a still day, it will have spread out more and therefore it will be quieter!
| 19 |
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[Thor 2] Odin-Loki-Thor conversation and post credits scene.
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If Loki disguised himself as Odin to talk to Thor then what happened to Odin? Is he aware that Loki alive, is he aware that Thor turned down Asgardian throne? He would want to listen to Thor's reason.
Is it possible that Loki disguise himself as Thor to have a conversetion with his father? If Odin alive then what will Loki do?
Second part of my questions concerns scene after credits. Lady Sif and Volstagg brought mini version of Aether in a container (just like Tesseract one) to a blond guy played by Benicio Del Toro and a hellboyish looking female apprentice.
So what did actually happened there? I doubt that was sunctioned by neither Odin nor Thor. And that collector guy looked evil to me, smells like betrayal...
| 51 |
Benicio Del Toro was playing "The Collector," one of the "Elders of the Universe," the last remaining members of their otherwise extinct species who were the first to gain sentience after the Big Bang. As their various races died out, Death herself gave immortality to the last remaining members.
These Elders basically need to have an obsession, otherwise living for billions of years will drain their sanity and their will to live. While otherwise immortal, they will waste away and perish if they lose that will to live.
The Collector's obsession, as you might guess from his name, is in collecting. At first, he collected things because he had prophetic visions of great creatures who would threaten the universe. Should any of those creatures succeed, he would be able to repopulate a new universe with the biological specimens he gathered, and then share the knowledge he had gathered as well. That noble view has deteriorated after a few billion years, however, into an obsession with collecting all things rare and valuable.
This would explain his final statement: "One down, five to go." What good is collecting one Infinity Gem if you don't go for the complete set?
If you wanted to keep something safe and away from others, the Collector would be a decent choice. As one of the Elders, he has access to the Power Primordial, the remnants of the energy of the Big Bang. Akin to the Cosmic Energy used by the Silver Surfer, it makes any Elder, the Collector included, a dreadful opponent.
Bear in mind that the information presented here is based on the Collector from Earth-616. Earth-199999, the dimension of the cinematic universe, may alter this to some degree.
| 60 |
ELI5: why does having a baby with a sibling create deformities and weaker genes in said baby?
| 57 |
It doesn't unless the aforementioned siblings have recessive defects. You need to have two copies of recessive defects to see an effect. Two siblings are more likely to share a recessive defect since they share a parent that could have one. If both siblings have this defect and pass it on, then the offspring will definitely exhibit the mutation.
| 36 |
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What would happen if we paid off our debt?
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What would happen to the United States economy if a large percentage of individual Americans made an asserted effort pay off their debts (Homes, Credit Cards, Student Loans, Cars, ect) in the next 5 years? How would it effect our economy in a whole over short period of time (5-10 years) and how would it effect over a long period of time (20-50 years) Would it be wise for a politician to ask his/her constituents to pay their debt to help the economy?
| 35 |
Money spent paying down debt is money not spent on consumption. If everybody redirected their income from consumption to debt repayment, it would probably spark another recession in the short run. In the long run, total interest payments would be lower due to the reduced debt burden and so the money that would have been spent on that could be redirected to consumption and in the long run there could be a boost but the positive impact of this would depend on the severity of previous recession (i.e. if it caused a very horrible recession, it's unlikely that the positives would outweigh the negatives).
| 23 |
Eli5 - How do the USA test top secret aircrafts such as the B-21?
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I'm pretty sure the U.S. revealed the B -21 bomber because they have other top secret aircrafts that make the B-21 look like childs play. I don't think we would reveal anything that would give competitive information to enemy countries. Based on those logic, how do we test out to secret aircrafts without getting caught on satellite cameras from other countries???
| 19 |
That's why they have test ranges like Area 51, to protect things. What was shown in the reveal probably did not actually contain any competitive information. And it's going to be a nuclear-capable bomber, and one of the big reasons for a nuclear arsenal and platforms to begin with is deterrence. It helps to keep your enemies deterred when they actually have an idea of what you're working with.
| 41 |
ELI5: Why do people get a knot in their stomach when something bad has happened or they are anxious?
| 8,056 |
I actually know this one! Sympathetic nervous response (SNR) more commonly known as “fight or flight”. When you induce stress on the body it begins releasing dopamine and adrenaline to give you the best chance at surviving the immediate stressor; shutting off digestion and using that energy for more immediate things like beating your heart more and getting more oxygen rich blood to muscles etc.
Issue is most stressors these days are stuff like debt that being able to run faster doesn’t actually solve so the body runs down its reserves and basically fucks itself trying to prepare you to punch a wolf to death or whatever.
| 7,198 |
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How does killing the heads of terrorists groups actually help end terrorism?
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Are the few individuals at the top that skilled in planning attacks that their respective #2 (or 3, 4, 5...) wouldn't be able to step in and execute as well? It just seems like we cut a head off and three more grow in it's place.
| 21 |
Terrorist organizations are complex. They look for financing, they build networks of suppliers and friendly organizations, they recruit and train, they plan and execute on objectives. These are complex actions that are more like that of a global company than what you might think. Terrorism is complicated work, and as with most companies, if you get rid of the leadership, everyone else will have a lot harder time making an impact.
| 14 |
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