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[MCU] What is Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet made out of? | Title. | 38 | Uru metal presumably, considering it was made by the same guys that made mjolnir and that seems to be what godly weapons are made of. Vibranium has shown fantastic physical abilities, but Uru is the only metal shown being able to channel power. | 64 |
Does my standard PC use more floating point calculations, or more integers? | Assuming that I dont run computer games.
I think that computer games might use a lot of floating points, but what about "normal" programs? | 19 | Integers get a work-out any time you're dealing with pointer arithmetic. Under the hood, this includes pretty much all code that works with arrays or structs, which is the majority of code in general. Even the large floating-point areas of game graphics include a decent chunk of integer arithmetic, from the indices into arrays or matrices of floats (although this is cut down on GPUs that act on whole arrays rather than individual elements).
Almost all data in a real-world application is a compound object represented in-memory as either a struct or a hash table. In either case, a program will access data contained in that struct through integer (or bitwise) operations: pointer arithmetic in the case of a struct, or hashing functions + array access in the case of a hash table. This is doubly-true for programs written in high-level or garbage-collected languages, where even very simple values are embedded in a larger structure that contains type and GC values. Memory allocation and garbage collection are also integer operations.
String & text manipulation is also manipulated with integer math. The encoding of characters to numbers isn't straighforward with Unicode, but all the operations are defined as bitwise or integer operations, not floats. | 28 |
ELI5: stack overflow and buffer overflow | I've come across these few terms a couple of times when I'm reading computer-related stuff. Wikipedia's explaination is too tough for me to understand so I hope someone can explain what these 2 terms mean and what are the implications of having a program having such problems | 27 | **Stack overflow**
Whenever you call a function, memory for that function is allocated in a place called the call stack. When the function completes its run, that memory is released. A stack overflow happens if too many functions are called, and there's not enough room in the stack (which has a hard size limit) to allocate more memory.
How can this happen? Look at the following code for example:
int foo() {
return foo();
}
When you execute foo() for the first time, memory for it is allocated on the stack. But then the function calls itself - so memory is allocated again. The 2nd invocation of the function calls itself a 3rd time - and so on, to infinity (and beyond). Eventually the stack will run out of memory and the program will crash. | 12 |
Why do most people with Downs Syndrome look nearly identical? | I've always wondered this. | 440 | A symptom of those with down syndrome is a specific set of physical traits. Puffy faces, wide eyes, and general disproportion.
Because these difference are so distinct compared to normal people, it's often the case that we notice that before unique physical traits. | 419 |
ELI5: Caffeinated, regular brewed coffee/coffee-based drinks make me feel awful, but cold press and caffeinated tea make me feel great - is this an effect of acidity of the drink or concentration of caffeine? Or neither? | Edit: "Awful" is defined as the shaky, sick-ish feeling that occurs | 30 | Caffeine in tea, especially green teas,is bound to an aminoacid which makes it much easier for the body to digest. As a second effekt the caffeine is metabolized slower which leads to less of a caffeine kick but rather to a prolonged and slower effect. | 11 |
CMV: There is absolutely no unrealistic beauty standard, for both men or women. | Hey /cmv/, I expect this to be a doozy.
Basically, I see people complaining all the time about the media and their 'unrealistic standards' for beauty. And I get that the magazines will take models and photoshop the hell out of them. Okay, of course you can't photoshop yourself like a magazine ad in real life.
But go on Instagram right now and check out some of the girls on there. And I'm not talking about the professional models who use photoshop, I'm talking about the college girls who get ~~HUGE~~ relatively large followings and tons of 'likes' because they are drop dead gorgeous. The only thing they are using to adjust their pictures are Instagram filters.
I personally am friends with some of these girls, and they are just as drop dead gorgeous in real life as they are in their photos. Hell, in my opinion these girls look better than the photoshopped ads!
As a result, I don't believe there are unrealistic standards for women to be beautiful, because I see regular girls reach those standards all the time.
If you are a guy or a girl and want to be more attractive, it's very simple. Hit the gym, dress well. Done. Congratulations, you have achieved the 'unrealistic' beauty standard.
To me, it seems that most people who are complaining about these unattainable standards just don't want to put the time and effort needed to look good. And hell, I'm one of them! I'm not super jacked or anything. But I acknowledge this is my fault, so I shouldn't feel bad when all the guys in the ads are way better looking than I am.
So go ahead guys, C my V!
_____
> *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!* | 28 | > Hit the gym, dress well
Maybe spend hours straightening your hair, get breast implants, wear contacts instead of glasses, make sure your makeup is done right, get your teeth whitened... you get the idea.
Sure, it's not "technically" unrealistic, but at what point does it become ridiculous?
Also, us guys don't have as much pressure on us to be attractive, which is why we don't notice these things as much. | 30 |
[General Sci-Fi] I'm looking to buy a second-hand shrink ray, but the sellers don't know their specs. Typically, do the smaller or larger models reduce size more? | 89 | The default for mad scientist ray of all sorts is that their power (in range, area of effect, or intensity) increases directly with the size of the Projector. For shrink rays, anything that shrinks object larger than an 18 wheeler is likely to require a vehicle of that size to move it.
But there are variables?
Is is a prototype? Those are typically much larger than a refined model. Unless the inventor has died without telling anyone how to make one, in which case it will be miniaturized for its effect.
Models requiring exotic isotopes or particles are smaller than those what use common materials. A good examples is Cobra's Mass Device. It had intercontinental range with satellite relay but was like the size of a tank AND needed 3 exotic materials to work!
All devices tend to shrink gradually with time. Though without a time machine that's no real help now. As ever, the military usually has tech 20-30 years ahead of the private sector. Super-Scientist heroes have versions many (50+) years in advance of your average bumbling professor type puts together in the garage. | 34 |
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ELI5: How did the craters on the moon form? If by asteroids, where did the asteroids go? | 17 | They were indeed created by asteroids/rocks smashing into the surface of the moon. The impact is usually very powerful, so powerful that it pulverizes the part of the moon that was impacted (thus forming the creator), along with most (if not all) of the comet itself.
Edit: typo | 22 |
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How did the n-word go from being a slur to casual slang among African-Americans? | I'm interested in how this occurred, how exactly did it go from being a racist slur against blacks to being thrown casually thrown around by African-Americans? | 75 | This article speaks directly to your question:
Rahman, J. (2012). The N word: Its history and use in the African American community. *Journal of English Linguistics, 40*(2), 137-171.
**Summary**
The N-word "persists in the lexicon of African American English because it conveys a social meaning that is foundational in the identity of many African Americans. Use of this form allows a speaker to construct an identity representing awareness of the history of African Americans and practical knowledge of the nature and implications of the diaspora experience. The form has been productive in its capacity to convey a range of attitudinal stances related to its basic meaning, including solidarity, censure, and a proactive stance that seeks to bring about positive change."
**From "hard 'r'" to "soft/open-ended"**
Slurs are ostensibly meant to injure, but fundamentally and unconsciously work to discipline "the disparaged group by imposing a negative identity on them." However, those social meanings can be transformed by "licensed speakers."
"The variant that developed among the slaves took an open syllable ending, as is common in West African languages (Bhambose 1969; Dakubu 1988)...A continued desire to “maintain distance, distinctiveness, and some sense of ownership” (Gomez 1998:177) is among the social factors that contributed to the retention of the open syllable ending and other African features in the language of the slaves…This article posits that in the counterlanguage, discussed below, social meanings developed among the Africans that reflected a view in which they saw themselves as survivors and as humans whose freedom and dignity had been assaulted."
**Different Contemporary Meanings**
* Solidarity - "While projecting identity as an African American who is conscious of survival in the diaspora, n[\*\*\*]a may add a dimension to that identity by projecting an attitudinal stance that shows solidarity with another African American or with the African American community. This solidarity is generally based on perceptions of racial injustice." This use is moderated by gender (not used to refer to women) and situations of social conflict (substituted with "brother").
* Censure - "The core social meaning of n[\*\*\*]a may also be overlaid with an attitude of disapproval or censure, where a speaker assumes the attitudinal stance of judge. Using the term in this way performs the illocutionary function of serving notice that another African American, as writers observe (Kennedy 2002; Asim 2007), has behaved in a way that does not conform to the norms or expectations of the African American community...While the racist use of n[\*\*\*\*]r criticizes a presumed innate moral and intellectual inferiority of African Americans, the meaning under discussion is a biting criticism from within the African American community that suggests that a behavior of the referent lends support to racist claims of inferiority. The expression that someone is “acting like a n[\*\*\*]a” is similar to “acting a fool” (Morgan 2002:41-42), with the added dimension that it appears to sarcastically reference the racially insulting form..."
* Hip-Hop - "The hip-hop comedians have been involved in a movement to erase negative associations of the word, turning it on its head by presenting an enhanced version of the African American meaning that emphasizes a self-empowered and self-determined African American identity...The identity that the hip-hop comedians project through use of n[\*\*\*]a is an effect of exercising agency in exploiting the meaning potential that inheres in the tradition where African Americans see themselves as resourceful, pragmatic survivors (Rahman 2004, 2007)." | 53 |
ELI5: Why do colors fade in the sun? And not just fabrics but also painted and plastic items? | 428 | The sun's energy is radiation. Basically, any objects in the direct path of sunlight is getting blasted with radiation. The radiation breaks down particals and causes deterioration. This is also how people get skin cancer. | 304 |
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[Halo] Is the Needler reload motion canonical? | The Needler reload motion does not seem canonical. It does not appear in any non-game media in the franchise. Some modder made a reload motion wherein the user opens a hatch and places the ammo inside. What are you folks' thoughts? | 23 | You’re probably right. Like, when Spartans use med packs, they don’t walk over them and instantly heal. They have to open it up, pull out the biofoam capsules and spray it on their wounds.
Same goes for the difference in power of weapons from their descriptions in books and their effects in game. In the books, a single plasma round is enough to burn right through several layers of ODST armor and severely (usually fatally) wound a human. Likewise, MA5B bullets are strong enough to rip through elite shields and brute skin in a couple shots, rather than requiring an entire ammo clip like on the “default” difficulty of Heroic | 37 |
CMV: Elizabeth Warren's decision to release her DNA results, and the way in which they were released, was both strategically and morally wrong | There are two components to my argument. First, I believe that releasing the results, in the manner that she did, will strategically/politically hurt her chances in 2020.
* It makes it look like she is stooping to Trump's level: by playing ball with Trump, she has taken the bait and is now stooping to his level of ad hominem politics.
* It gives the right a ton of ammo for attack adds and talking points. They can now say that Warren has benefited from her claim of Native American heritage while being scarcely Native American - this fits very well into the right wing narrative that Democrats are obsessed with 'identity politics' and fetishize minorities (I'm not saying this is true necessarily, but Warren's actions fit neatly into that narrative).
* The questionable morality of the entire thing will make many advocates for social justice, as well as Native Americans themselves, second guess whether Warren would be a genuine advocate for the oppressed or whether she is merely riding this wave for political gain which will significantly reduce the votes she would otherwise get if she kept silent on the issue or released a more appropriate video.
Second, I believe the way in which she has sold her Native American ancestry is morally wrong.
* In her release video, she claims that the DNA results validate her Native American heritage. However, in the past, Warren has gone even further than saying she has Native American heritage - she has claimed that she is Native American. This is a big distinction, and to claim that you are Native American when you are likely less than 1% Native American, have never had tribal contact, and have never suffered any form of oppression that actual Native Americans suffer, comes off to me as overplaying a minority status for political gain.
* Native Americans themselves object to the use of DNA tests to validate ancestry - the whole idea (to them) is demeaning and ignores the fact that culture and shared experience are much more important than DNA in terms of Native American (or any cultural) identity. By ignoring this opinion from Native Americans, Warren is tone deaf at best and at worst is knowingly acting against their wishes by going so public with her results.
How should Warren have proceeded? I believe that she could have publicized her results without coming off as offensive and culturally incompetent. She could have used the video to honestly explain that her family had hyperbolized her Native American roots, that she does not identify as Native American, and that she has not been oppressed in any way because of her ancestry. This has been a rambling post, but I think ya'll get my major points.
​
Edit#1: Thank you so much all for engaging in this conversation. I have tried to respond to as many posts as I can but unfortunately have to get back to studying. My perspective is largely unchanged but I will continue trying to respond when I can. Furthermore, there has been some misinformation about the DNA test results and how they are interpreted. One user linked me [this](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/18/just-about-everything-youve-read-warren-dna-test-is-wrong/?utm_term=.2f555f2d4de4) article, which has a great breakdown of what the test means. In summary, it is much more likely that Warren is 1/64th native American as opposed to 1/500th or 1/1,000 Native American. This doesn't really change my main points, but it is good to get the facts straight.
​
Edit#2: [This](https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2018/10/15/warren-addresses-native-american-issue/YEUaGzsefB0gPBe2AbmSVO/story.html) boston globe article has a good summary of the situation at hand. A lot of people are saying that she has never identified as Native American, but that is contradictory to this relevant passage:
"In an interview with the Globe [published](https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/09/01/did-claiming-native-american-heritage-actually-help-elizabeth-warren-get-ahead-but-complicated/wUZZcrKKEOUv5Spnb7IO0K/story.html) last month, Warren explained that she identified herself as Native American in the late 1980s and early 1990s as many of the matriarchs of her family were dying and she began to feel that her family stories and history were becoming lost.
Ivy League universities, like the ones where Warren taught, were under great pressure to show they had diverse staffs.
The University of Pennsylvania filled out a document explaining why it hired a white woman over minority candidates — clear evidence it didn’t view her as a Native American addition. And the Globe interviewed 31 Harvard Law School faculty members who voted on her appointment there, and all said her heritage was not a factor."
So, while I don't think it's likely that her career has been significantly furthered by claims to Native American heritage, the fact is that she has identified as Native American historically. I believe that she should have addressed this in her video and been explicit that it was a mistake to ever identify as Native American. Also, before you comment, I would strongly recommend reading the two articles I have linked as they provide most of the information you need to know. | 4,098 | I think the main strategic advantage of Warren’s decision is that it disarms one of Trump’s primary avenues of attack, name calling. Pocahontas has been Trump’s go to name for Warren for quite a while. If Warren brings up the million dollar donation every time Trump says Pocahontas she either galvanized her base by continuing to point out that Trump is a hypocrite or pushes Trump away from using that name. Either possibility is beneficial. | 541 |
ELI5: Why do so many foods have a ‘chicken’ flavour, when the flavour tastes nothing like chicken? | 34 | Chicken flavored spice packets in things like Ramen noodles are almost always made of actual chicken, so they do in fact taste like chicken.
That said, the reason there is a different flavor is essentially the same reason that orange juice taste different from oranges. Chicken itself is very quick to spoil, so it has to be processed in order to turn it into a shelf stable product. Which in the case of chicken flavoring packets, basically means boiling the fuck out of chicken, grinding up any of the organic material, and drying it out. That breaks up a lot of the larger proteins and other molecules and changes the flavor somewhat. | 32 |
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[Economics] Why does nearly everything feel overpriced? | I know this is a complicated and subjective question, but I've noticed that it is very rare for me to exchange money for goods or services and feel like I got my full money's worth. In fact, any time you actually do get your money's worth on a purchase people proclaim what "a great deal" or "a steal" it is, because the converse is so much more common.
Example (in the US): I go to Five Guys and get a burger, fries and a drink. If you were to ask me what a good burger, fries and a drink should cost, I'd say about $8. However this would actually cost me closer to $11. If you go to McDonalds and get a shitty Big Mac, fries and a drink -- to me this inferior meal is worth about $5, but in actuality costs closer to $8.
It seems everything in the grocery store costs $1 to $4 more than it's worth, and the price/value disparity seems to grow bigger with more expensive items. Do I just have a weird sense of value, or is there any statistical proof that an item is overpriced, and what causes it? | 46 | Consider this: 'Stuff' is actually extremely cheap in our age. We live in an era where throwing out things and buying new is usually more economical than having people repair it. Labor is expensive.
Also you have to take inflation into account. 10 years ago those prices sound about right. Now, not so much. Your perception of value is probably stuck in the past.
Remember, things are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. | 35 |
[Predator] if a predator was hunting and they found a man who was mentally and emotionally unstable and ill due to a tumor would they still kill the man? | 41 | In general they wouldnt, it would be a kill without honor involved. They will generally only attack prey that provides them a challenge or they can handicap themselves to the point it is a challenge. A predator that over prepares and effectively slaughters a defenceless prey effectively shame themselves.
Thats not to say they wouldnt kill the man. If attacked, they will defend themselves, they just wont take any pleasure from it or deem it as a worthy kill. They arent going to spend time judging the mental ability of the prey. But generally will avoid children, the unarmed, the weak and frail, etc. They would presumably figure out the mans worthiness during the stalking phase of the hunt. | 85 |
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ELI5:Why Russian rockets have branching thrusters, while American ones don't. | 254 | The Soyuz rockets used technology directly derived from the V-2 missile. The problem the Soviet engineers faced when making the R-7 launcher for the Soyuz was that, when they attemted to scale the engine larger, the engines became more unstable. They began stuttering and exploding.
The US took years to solve this problem in the F-1 engine program, which were used in the in Saturn Rockets.
The Soviets engine designers solved the combustion instabilities by using one large powerful turbo-pump that feed four small chambers instead of a one large. This resulted in more stable combustion. Which, allowed for a larger and more effective turbo-pump.
The Russians have kept this concept of clustering many small chambers and feeding them with a common turbopump. The RD-170, the world's most powerful liquid-fuel rocket engine, use the same idea of using four smaller chambers feed by a common turbopump.
| 76 |
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Sooo... turns out I don't have security clearance to present at a conference tomorrow. Plan B? | My funding comes from the government, and while the work I'm doing involves a publically available dataset with publically available methods, I need security clearance to give my talk. This is despite having already attained clearance for our publically available paper that the talk is about.
So, yeah. I'm going to a conference where I probably can't discuss our work. Any ideas? I may cut out all discussion of our paper and instead talk about the papers related to the data set and the method. | 104 | Wow, that sucks! I’m sorry that happened. Had a lab mate have a similar issue with DOE data - approved for the publication but found out days before that somehow the approval doesn’t transfer to talks and he needed an entirely different form... no time to get it of course. what he did was present (he had a talk) the motivation, then future work on an upcoming dataset (so basically the intro and “future directions” of his original talk). It was not ideal but the talk was only 10 min so it was okay. Do you have a talk or poster? | 75 |
Are dream memories stored in the same place in your brain as normal memories? | When I have a vivid dream, I feel like what happened in the dream actually happened, even though I know it didn't. Just wondering how the brain treats dreams vs reality | 173 | Memories aren't really stored in one "place" in the brain. Rather, they're made up of certain synaptic connections spread over a distinct neural circuit. The strengthening of those connections is what encodes memory. Now, there are many structures which have special roles in encoding memory (hippocampus) and those which are involved in certain types of recognition (fusiform gyrus for facial recognition) and of course the regions responsible for processing the stimuli in the first place. Encoding of dream memories occurs largely as other memories are formed. So, when you remember a dream, you're really activating a large, complex neural circuit distributed throughout different regions of your brain. | 21 |
[DBZ] Why the hell hasn't Goku wished for immortality? | He is the strongest being in the universe, guardian and protector of all good. The only thing stopping him from saving the world in any given plotline is him dying. On top of that, gathering the dragonballs is more of a relaxing day trip than some grand arduous journey it used to be. | 78 | He basically is immortal. He may be "dead" but he's not some random ghost. He gets to stay himself and train with the kai's. Like you said in your response to the other comment, Goku likes fighting, eating, and training above all else. Being dead really allows him to do this more than being immortal on earth. | 72 |
ELI5 How does milk put the flame out in your mouth after eating spicy food? | After eating spicy food, if the heat is too much to handle, you drink milk. It makes it less worse, but why is that? | 22 | Spicy food is spicy because of an oily compound called capsaicin. Oil isn’t soluble in water so drinking water doesn’t wash it off, it just glides over it. The fat and protein in milk bind to the capsaicin and dissolve the oily compounds, removing it from your mouth when you swallow. | 38 |
[MCU] Clint (as Ronin) hunted down the worst of the worst. Why was he (and several of the Avengers) so disturbed by his actions, when a) former SHIELD, who probably did shady stuff; b) targeting scum? | Clint wasn't targeting innocent, or even morally ambiguous, individuals; he targeted the worst of the worst, those that escaped punishment due to an upturned world.
So why are several of the Avengers, especially Natasha, so disturbed by his actions? After all, Natasha probably had a rap sheet WAY worse than Clint could ever hope to match. Plus, Clint must have done shady shit for SHIELD, too, right? Why does he feel so guilty? | 24 | He wasn't doing it because it was a job required of him by the US government, he was doing it to cope with grief and loss. Murder is not widely prescribed by most therapists and might be worse than self-harm as a coping mechanism. | 55 |
[Bioshock] Could Rapture have survived if Plasmids were never developed? | We know that the development and use of Plasmids had a direct effect on Rapture's fall. Even if the Rapture Civil War was concluded quickly, having litteral super powered people who go insane with use, creates a very dangerous situation in a city bellow the surface.
If Plasmids were never invented, there would be no genetic arms race, no bands of insane Splicers, no Little Sisters. If Plasmids were never developed, would Rapture have survived? How would its lack have factored into the conflict between Ryan and Fontaine? How does its inexistance play out in Columbia's downfall? In other words, was it the invention of Plasmids that doomed Rapture? | 72 | Canonically it would likely have collapsed sooner, actually.
Rapture was by design a heartless cutthroat society- escaping "petty morality"was one of its explicit aims- and by location a society with no escape and a zero-sum game in terms of space and resources. This rapidly lead to problems- a massive wealth gap, extreme poverty and wage slavery, an elite that was comprised entirely of mercenary assholes and increasing class warfare between rich and poor.
This lead to serious worries of full-scale revolution a few years after founding - what likely stopped it was ADAM, acting as an opiate of the masses and boosting the economy enough to help the people at the bottom.
Columbia is a good example of the issue: its collapse had nothing to do with vigor or dimension travel, it was due to being an incredibly bigoted society that crushed large chunks of the populace until they snapped. Replace racism with classism, and same applies here.
The Rapture Civil war would have always happened- when most of the population are starving and the elite are throwing elaborate parties, how can it not? If it wasn't plasmids, something else would have brought them crashing down. | 80 |
ELI5: How do "Moon Pools" work? How can a ship have a big hole in it yet not sink? | 4,711 | Other top explanations are forgetting that moonpools can be below the water line. This is because the air in the moon pool room is the same pressure as the water outside the moon pool. Experiment to show a similar effect: invert a clear glass over some water push the glass underwater, there eill be an air pocket in side. That is a moon pool the air compresses until it is the same pressure as the water outside so the water cant get in. On a ship they can pump more air in to push out more water to make the water stay at the same level. | 3,631 |
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ELI5: Why is it Universally accepted that Green means GO and red means stop? | 17 | I don't know about green being universally accepted as "go", but the fact is that red is accepted as "stop"
The reason for this is simple:
Red light penetrates better (whether it be through fog, smoke, rain, etc), due to its wavelength.
Now say you're driving on a super foggy day, and approach a stoplight. If it's green, but you didn't see it and you drive past the intersection, everything is a-okay. Now if you're suppose to stop, and you drive through the intersection, that's just disaster waiting to happen.
That's why you need a color that can penetrate well to represent "stop". Of course, throughout the years after it was implemented, humans are now programed through habit to relate "red" with ''stop" | 19 |
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[Pokemon] Team Rocket always gets hit with powerful moves and "blasts off". How the hell aren't they dead? | Seriously, how come no one brings up the fact that sees three are some kind of immortal beings? Countless times they've been hit with moves that cause enough force to fling them out into the sky and they always magically land safety. Not a broken bone, no cuts, clean as ever the next time Ash and his gang run into them.
What gives? | 19 | In the games, specifically in Gen 4's canalave library, there are texts that would suggest people and pokemon share a common ancestor, so Jesse and James would be taking "Hp damage", but not enough to kill them, perhaps they have the ability sturdy. | 20 |
ELI5: The reason for breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth | 40 | The nose has mucus and air to filter out dust and bacteria. Also the nose's insides are a bit warmer and damper than the mouth so that the air is a bit easier to breathe in and to prevent pneumonia.
Basically, nose boogers are just a ball of nasty stuff that would've gone through of you'd have breathed through your mouth. | 40 |
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CMV: Psychopaths aren't evil, they are unwell | Poorly-managed psychopathy can cause some people to behave in terrible, evil ways. However, not every person who is diagnosably psychopathic is evil- in fact, most of them are much like everyone else, they just have brains that are wired differently in a way that is understood for a lot of other illnesses. Psychopathy, recently re-labelled as anti-social personality disorder, is a disregard for social norms and difficulty empathizing with others- this can lead to harmful behaviour but more often leads to avoidant or apathetic behaviour, and psychopathy is a lot like depression in this regard. People mistake empathy (feeling what others feel) for compassion (wishing others well)- a psychopath is not empathic but can be compassionate, and it's ultimately compassion which is more important.
There are evil psychopaths. But in general, most psychopaths are not evil- they have an illness that, if treated, needn't prevent them from living a fairly normal and ethical life. | 38 | The problem with this type of thinking is that it means that nobody is responsible for anything. Everyone is always acting in accordance with the electrochemical machinery of their brain. Anyone doing ANYTHING evil would just be doing it because of how their brain is wired.
Have someone who is a "good guy"? Maybe their brain is just wired to enjoy other's happiness more so you can't give him credit for doing selfless act because he is just acting in his own interest.
Mental health diagnosis is pretty rudimentary and is almost entirely symptom based (it'd be like giving everyone that had a cough the same diagnosis without understanding the underlying conditions) and then putting everyone with that symptom or combination of symptoms into categories. As we learn to actually understand more and more of the brain, we could get to the point where we could understand any action by anyone. But just because we can label it and understand why their brain worked in an anti-social way in that particular instance doesn't remove responsibility unless you're prepared to say that nobody is responsible for anything. | 15 |
ELI5:What are the colors in space? | I see pictures of outer space and I see all these vibrant colors. Can you explain this phenomena? Like I see a cluster of stars and like pink, green, purple, blue etc. Like what is that? How does that occur? I have no experience in astronomy if you couldn't already tell.
Here's what I mean:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LH_95.jpg
| 56 | Most of the color you see in pictures of distant galaxies and nebula is added in. The images are typically created using electromagnetic waves outside the visible spectrum of light, but this will vary picture to picture. If you posted an example picture of what you're talking about, you're more likely to get the exact explanation for that specific picture. | 27 |
ELI5: Why does sweat smell distinctively different in different areas of the body? | 58 | There are two distinct types of sweat glands found in humans: the eccrine and apocrine sweat glands. While eccrine sweat glands cover every area of your body, apocrine sweat glands only appear in axillary (armpit), external genital, perianal and areolar (nipple) areas. While secretions of both glands are initially odorless. The content of apocrine sweat glands' secretion includes proteins and lipids along with water and minerals while the secretion of eccrine glands only contain water and minerals. Bacterial breakdown of the apocrine glands' secretions is what causes the odor, not the secretion itself. As there is nothing to break down, the secretion of the eccrine sweat gland remains odorless. | 26 |
|
[Star Wars] Did the Clones receive any specialised training beyond basic soldiering? | Kind of three questions here, because I don't want to spam the subreddit with multiple posts.
1) **Did they train in hand to hand or melee combat?** I've noticed that a certain popular Stormtrooper has been trained in wielding a staff, but obviously he's likely to be a recruit rather than an original clone (plus the Clones are going to be dead or extremely old by that point). **Were Clones trained with lightsabers or taught how to handle lightsaber users**? On the face of it it seems like a pointless training exercise, but surely with Palpatine's ulterior motives with Order 66 it could've come in handy. Jango Fett clearly had trouble facing lightsaber'd opponents, so that seems like a weak spot in the Clone's skillset.
2) Jango was a skilled assassin and bounty hunter, expert marksman and tactician amongst other skills. He never comes off as an open combat soldier, and yet his Clones *are*. **Do the Clones possess Jango's stealth/assassin capabilites?** Or were they dropped in lieu of overt combat skills? Are they all equal to Jango in level of skill, or were they purposefully dialled down a bit?
3) Obviously the Clone army was part of Palpatine's master plan. But **did he** (through "Syfo Dias") **alter the training and Cloning programs the Kaminoans used for the Clones to ensure they were effective carrying out Order 66**? Was he relying on generic firepower and potential element of surprise overwhelming the Jedi, or were the Clones trained in dealing with Force-Users and lightsaber wielders (perhaps carrying Force-suppressing darts or wearing lightsaber resistant armor when near lightsaber users)? | 20 | Like any functioning military clone units were trained based on personal skills. Some proved to be rash and agressive, given heavy weapons to fight on the front lines. Others proved to be natural born leaders, given leadership training or were invited to join the elite ARC forces.
Clones were given basic hand to hand combat training but their entire battle policy was often mid range volleys of blaster fire in great numbers. A Clone did something wrong of they were fighting hand to hand.
None of them had any lightsaber training, those things are too expensive to just hand out. Clones killed Jedi with sheer numbers. Sure a Jedi can block some blasters...not from 200 clones though. | 16 |
ELI5: How do different types of pain feel, well…different? | I know that pain is a signal sent along nerves to the brain, but how do different types of pain actually feel different? Like what causes the difference between a stabbing pain vs a dull ache vs burning pain, etc? | 6,585 | Nerves from your brain go to your spinal cord then split up and reach your internal organs then go to your skin.
* Stabbing pain: There are many pain receptors on your skin and they are close together. So the ones that are damaged report pain to your brain and the ones right next to them that aren't damaged don't report pain. So you can point to the exact spot that hurts. This is sharp stabbing pain because it's like a fine knife going into your body.
* Dull ache: This is often used to describe pain on internal organs where the pain receptors are more spread out. So you can't pinpoint exactly where the damage is because one pain receptor is covering lots of area.
* Burning pain is often used to describe when the nerves themselves are damaged.
* Colicky pain is when a hollow organ squeezes over something hard. Your gut pushes food forward like when you squeeze the last bits out of a toothpaste tube. If there is a hard mass inside, you'll feel pain when it squeezes around that part then the pain goes away when the squeezing moves forward. Then it comes back at the next squeeze. The same goes if you have a hard stone in your urinary tract.
* Radiating pain is when your brain confuses the internal organs with the parts of skin that share the same nerve. For example, the nerves that cover your heart then go on to cover your left arm. So if you have a heart attack, your brain might confuse the heart pain with left arm pain. This feels like the pain starts in your heart, but then moves out to your arm.
There are many other terms, but this gives you an idea of how specific injuries and the anatomy of nerves affect the terms we use. The actual terms aren't that important. There are hundreds of languages, but all humans experience the same types of pain. They're just helpful for doctors to try to narrow down what's going on when they first meet you. | 4,864 |
[Star Wars] Rogue One Spoilers | Why did Saw Garrera just give up? I guess I can understand narratively why his death fits, but it was portrayed as though he could just as easily have escaped with Jyn and company. I'm wondering if I'm missing some of his backstory (I only know him from Rogue One) that might make the "I will run no longer" line sound a bit less melodramatic. | 129 | He was using a mask to breathe, and it doesn't look like he adapted to that as well as our favorite Dark Lord. It's uncertain whether he would have made it to the ship, or whether he's able to run at all.
He also seemed to be losing his mind a bit with his treatment of the defected pilot, really paranoid fellow and not without reason. That probably was getting to him.
(He apparently has some additional backstory coming up in a to-be-released episode of Rebels) | 144 |
If nylon stockings rip all the time, why don't we use another material? | Surely another, more suitable, material exists? | 2,906 | There is. Silk stockings don't rip nearly as often as nylon. However, they're much more expensive and still run occasionally. Most women buy the cheap ones, knowing that multiple pairs of them will ultimately cost less than a really good pair of silk ones. | 1,745 |
Why do air bubbles in bottles sometimes split ? | I thought theoretically there should be only one bubble which points upwards because air is lighter than water
Here are some pictures I took : http://imgur.com/MLf72TE
http://imgur.com/UvU2A7Y | 34 | It's more energetically favorable to have less water-air interface area, just like it's more energetically favorable to have the air on top of the water. In this case, the split bubbles reduce the surface area by making rounder shapes, which offsets the energy required to lift the water in between up that little extra amount. | 11 |
How do we define what is rotating in the universe? | In relativity, we find that if a moving observer would look at the distant stars and it would seem as if the he is stationary and the stars are moving about him/her, it does not matter whether it is the observer moving or the universe is moving past him, they would experience the same relativistic effect, however, if there was an object spinning in space, there are 2 ways of looking at it. Either the object is spinning, or the observer and the entire universe is rotating around the object. So which inertial frame of reference is the right one or does it not matter? also since rotating bodies experience centripetal force, would the spinning body experience the centripetal force or would the observer experience it? | 24 | You kind of answered your own question: pseudo forces appear in accelerated systems.
Rotation is an accelerated movement and acceleration is Lorentz invariant. That means, all observers in every inertial (un-accelerated) frame of reference measure the same acceleration of a given system.
Thus, there will always be an experiment that tells you whether or not you are being accelerated at a time. | 11 |
How small can a nuclear reactor be? | I remember reading an article several years back about about the [Toshiba 4S](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_4S), a small "nuclear battery" (their words), and recently an article about Terrapower, which claims "hot-tub sized" reactors with 25MW output.
Obviously, I'm unfamiliar with the requirements for these reactors to produce energy (other than the need for fissile material, and a superficial understanding of TWR vs. breeder vs. fast neutron - VERY superficial). I was curious what the smallest amount of nuclear material is, what kind of support structure would be required to harvest energy from it, and how much shielding is needed to make it safe for sustained proximity.
This is all a result of paying $50 in gas for my Corolla, which doesn't have a very large tank. Given that it's for cars, I started doing a little math:
According to Wikipedia, the Tesla Roadster uses 135 Wh/km. Rouding that to 150 Wh/km (because an upper limit is a safer limit!), to travel at a sustained 100 km/h, the reactor would need to produce 15 kW. These reactors, which produce orders of magnitude more energy, are already relatively small. Can a reactor small enough to produce *only* 15 kW be created? What would happen to the excess energy when the car wasn't being used?
**tl;dr: gas is expensive, and I'd rather drive around with a small reactor in my trunk than continue paying $100/month in gas** | 76 | The smallest amount of mass required to create a nuclear reactor would be the critical mass of a fissile isotope. This is excluding any of the heat->electricity equipment, which is a large portion of an operating reactor.
If you wanted to run a steam car, i'm sure you could do it pretty easily with just the critical mass of a pure isotope.
The problem is, you would have no control over it after it went critical, as there would be large thermal effects which changed the nuclear properties (cross sections) of the fuel, hence altering the critical mass.
To make it safe you would have to shield yourself from neutrons (pretty much the worst external radiation hazard per unit radiator), which would requires a few inches of hydrogen dense molecules+Boron. These neutrons would activate other nuclei, making them radioactive in the form of gamma rays, which would have to be shielded with high Z nuclei (lead or greater). You would need a good amount of shielding in your car.
Also, you would have to operate at high power all the time, venting steam if you didn't need it. Changing the power level of a nuclear reactor quickly causes changes in nuclear poisons (things that absorb neutrons without making more neutrons).
The list goes on and on....there's a reason why there's only reactors in large machines (Subs, Airplanes, Carriers). You need a lot of equipment.
| 34 |
Accomplished academics of reddit: if you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you started your first tenure-track job, what would it be? | Edit: so much helpful advice coming in. I love this community. Please share and keep it coming! | 105 | Work 9 to 5.
Protect your time.
Write first thing in the morning.
Trust your gut.
Ask for help.
Be social.
Realize you can’t save students.
People will stop asking if you say no.
No one is accomplished. Everyone is faking it. | 190 |
How is the USA able to print money month after month with no consequences, but Venezuela and Argentina entered butt-destroying levels of extreme hyperinflation in 5 minutes after printing? | 30 | Currency is affected by supply and demand.
USA are able to print money month after money with little consequences because it is the most demanded currency in the world, and usually it is even more demanded through crisis. Even printing more, most of people don't untrust on the currency (so far) and keep demanding it.
Venezuela and Argentina don't have the same demand, neither the same trust. The supply increase affects in two ways: increasing the supply for the first demand, and making people untrusting on the currency and thus decreasing the demand for the currency.
Note that although it is unlikely, if people started to untrust USD, it would have bigger consequences, and it is hard to win people confidence again after the first breaking in the confiability, that's why most of countries that suffer with a monetary crisis tended to launch a new currency through the history. | 36 |
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[Fallout 4] Who taught the inhabitants of the Commonwealth to read and write? | 24 | Their parents? Their family? Their community? Their school, if they're lucky enough to have one? The signs, journals, books, and ads plastered all over the world?
It's not like all human knowledge was wiped out and they crawled out of nothingness from a rock. They learned from their parents who learned from theirs who learned from theirs.
How did you think a real-world person learns? Its the same thing. | 51 |
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ELI5: why do we sleep 8hrs on/16hrs off instead of, say, 24hrs on/48hrs off? | 43 | Daylight. Our bodies release different chemicals when the sun goes down to encourage sleep.
Interesting to the second part of the question, a famous experiment was done where a scientist remained underground cut off from time and day/night. It found that her body became confused and eventually she remained awake for about 24 hours and slept up to 12 hours, creating a 36 hour day for her. | 48 |
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ELI5: why did older bikes have one large wheel in the front and a smaller one in the back | 782 | Before derailleur drive chains and geared hubs that allowed a varying ratio between the rider's legs' rotation and the wheel's rotation became common, the only way to change that ratio was to use a different sized wheel (a larger wheel requires a greater effort to turn, but moves more per turn).
(Such a setup like you describe could also me manufactured relatively simply, as the cranks were fixed to the wheel: no ratcheting mechanisms or chains needed). | 346 |
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ELIF: Why does Root Beer foam so much when poured onto ice cream? | 289 | It's a combination of two major factors:
- Ice cream has a lot of surface area, which means more nucleation points. More nucleation points mean more bubbles.
- Milk and cream have a higher surface tension than water. This means the bubbles are stronger.
-----
The reason why Mentos in soda makes it fizz is because all the pits and holes means the surface area is ***huge*** compared to the volume. You could get similar effects from a spoonful of sugar or sand.
Easy experiment: Get a bottle of seltzer or clear soda. Get it nice and cold before opening and pour it into a glass. Pour slow so it doesn't fizz too much. Wait for the bubbles to stop and drop in a few grains of sugar or salt. You will see that the bubbles will form around the granules until they dissolve. Use a few grains of sand and it the bubbles will keep forming until there is none left, which will probably be longer than you are willing to sit around.
-----
/u/GaidinBDJ has the dissolved gases issue backwards.
Hot liquids will hold more solids (salt, sugar, minerals, etc.) while cold liquids will hold more gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, etc.)
One of the worries with global warming is the amount of methane dissolved in the ocean. Warm up the ocean and the methane comes out. Methane is a much more effective greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. If enough methane gets into the upper atmosphere, the global temperature will skyrocket in a runaway reaction and life as we know it is ***fucked***. | 143 |
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How far back in human history would we have to go before modern humans could not reproduce with their ancestors? | i.e. how far back would we have to go to be technically considered a different species? | 776 | Other great apes have 24 chromosome pairs while humans have 23. There is speculation that this happened when human population was very small and was a mutation that spread through the entire population.
If you were to try to breed with a human from before this mutation you would probably be unsuccessful.
I don’t know when this happened, it must have been during Homo Erectus or earlier since we know that Sapiens bred with at least two other descendants of Erectus the Neanderthals and Denosovians. | 405 |
ELI5: Whenever I hear a fork scratching the surface of a china plate, my body shudders. What causes this to happen? | 2,685 | AFAIK, there are 2 different explanations proposed:
- The primate heritage hypothesis: Hypothesizes that the sound bore some resemblances to the alarm call of macaque monkeys, or it may have been similar to the call of some predator.
- Physical hypothesis: Hypothesizes that the unpleasantness of the sound is caused by acoustic resonance due to the shape of the human ear canal which amplifies certain frequencies, especially those in the range of 2000 to 4000 Hz (the median pitches mentioned above), at such a level that the sound would trigger pain in our ears.
| 1,664 |
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[Superman] What does Clark Kent do at The Daily Planet? Is he considered a decent journalist? | 26 | Clark Kent is an investigative journalist. His specialty is deep research pieces on public interest topics, but he also does a lot of low level reaction and personal interest stories in response to disasters and super-powered incidents.
He is a solid writer, but not nearly as passionate or focused as Lois Lane. | 36 |
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[MCU] What does the Punisher think of the Avengers, especially Captain America? | 26 | We have no data yet in the MCU as we haven't seen the Punisher interact with the Avengers and we haven't heard his thoughts on them. However, traditionally, Frank Castle usually has great respect for Captain America because he was a soldier just like Frank. | 38 |
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ELI5: Why can i skype across the world with no significant delays, but a news channel can't have a proper conversation with their reporter? | 33 | Often times their reporter is in a remote location and communicating via satellite instead of hard wired networks. This introduces the massive delay you might see as satellite communication isn't as stable. | 27 |
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ELI5: Why is the ocean sometimes really dark, like in the north Atlantic yet in some places a turquoise colour like in the Caribbean or South Pacific? | 4,711 | It’s because dead animals and plants sink in water. That might seem obvious, but it means that any nutrients in sea water are rapidly used up by animals and plants and when those organisms die they sink to the bottom taking the nutrients with them. The only way those lost nutrients can be replaced is if water from the ocean bottom, where all those dead organisms go, can be moved to the surface again.
That cycling can’t happen in warmer regions because the surface water is warm and warm water floats on the cold water of the ocean bottom. As a result warmer waters very rapidly become nutrient deficient.
Because they are nutrient deficient very little actually lives in tropical waters. Very few algae, very little plankton and so forth. And because nothing much lives in tropical waters they remain clear. That means that light can get go waayyy down into the depths, and as light passes through the water the blue wavelengths get scattered. That produces a vivid turquoise blue ocean.
In contrast cold waters are dirty and full of life due to the upwelling of water from the ocean bottom. All that dirt and all the life it supports absorbs sunlight very fast. Light will only penetrate a few meters in cold waters. With very little penetration the light also doesn’t have much chance to scatter. That produces an ocean that is very dark colored, and where the blue wavelengths are muted by the reds and greens to produce a muddy blue-gray.
So what it all comes down to is that tropical waters are clear, and they are clear because they are sterile and nutrient deficient. Coral reefs thrive in tropical waters precisely because they are clear and sterile and that allows enough sunlight for the photosynthetic symbiotic algae that live in the coral and that provide most of their food. | 5,413 |
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Does the "location" of a headache have anything to do with the cause? | I guess this is based on the premise that headaches that "feel" like they're in different parts of your head have different causes, which may well be false.
Assuming it's true, could you reason that a headache in the back of your head is related to eyestrain (occipital lobe)? Alternately, is a headache caused by dehydration located in a different place than one caused by ice cream?
I'm guessing migraines are an exception to this. | 104 | Some conditions classically present with pain in specific paces, e.g. Subarrachnoid haemorhage classically feels like someone hit you on the back of the head with a baseball bat and that is where the pain is typically localised to, despite the bleed being spread all over the place. Others however like acute angle Glaucoma can present with pain localised around the orbital area.
The majority of headaches however are termed tension headaches and while their aetiology is essentially unknown, they are quite benign with no underlying pathology identified. The idea that stimulating your eyes could cause pain in the corresponding brain area is flawed as the brain is incapable of feeling pain and therefore the perceived location of the pain is unlikely to have anything to do with the inputting sensory organ. | 25 |
ELI5: Why does multiplying two negatives give you a positive? | Thank you guys, I kind of understand it now. Also, thanks to everyone for your replies. I cant read them all but I appreciate it.
Oh yeah and fuck anyone calling me stupid. | 4,758 | I give you three $20 notes: +3 × +20 = +60 for you
I give you three $20 debts: +3 × -20 = -60 for you
I take three $20 notes from you: -3 × +20 = -60 for you
I take three $20 debts from you: -3 × -20 = +60 for you
Edit: Gold thanks! $ signs, and quick note - the result is the gain or loss from where you started. | 6,667 |
CMV: It’s valid to feel sad about growing up in this era. I missed out and the world is worse in a lot of major ways | I’m 19. Over and over again I see adults feeling sorry for people my age for growing up with x (usually social media or tech or Covid or polarization or whatever), and missing out on y (when music was good or some random nostalgia like that).
I know that every generation since forever has done that to the next. But I can’t help but feel like there’s some truth to it, and that I was born at a bad time and that life without the internet was more fun and that I have forever missed out on some good times simply by being unlucky to be born this time.
Basically: can you deinstall the “this generation and time is bad” message I’ve been fed my entire life? | 52 | With exponential technology advancement, each subsequent generation is living in the best time to be alive as a human. With the advent of the internet/widely distributed free information, today, a five year old has more information at their fingertips than the US President did 50 years ago. Today, HIV isn’t a death sentence—heck, properly treated, an infected individual will live a normal lifespan. That’s wasn’t the case 30 years ago. Today, many cancers are treatable.
Sure, there are some things from the past that some people describe with rose colored glasses on, but the vast majority of the world has more wealth, information and autonomy than they had a generation ago. | 65 |
I am making a bank program in java, I'm trying to generate unique bank account numbers | So I'm doing homework for a class and I have to make a banking system where you can sign up and make an account. However I have difficulty trying to create an account number that wont repeat itself. Can anyone help me with this please? | 41 | usually you would use a database to store the accounts, the idea of signing up would mean you need to store that data and create an account number which is like a key to that data.
Most databases have an Identity column which is ideal for Primary Keys and could be used as a unique account number.
I am keeping in mind this is for school so sequential numbers is not likely an issue. | 31 |
ELI5: Where do deleted files go when you delete them? | 21 | nowhere, they stay on your hard drive. the os keeps pointers and only deletes the pointer to the actual location on the hdd, until they are over written. so if you could manually look at the data in your hard drive and knew exactly where all the pieces are, they you can reconstruct the original file. | 16 |
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ELI5: How are certain foods made to be “instant”? Such as instant oatmeal, potatoes, pasta, etc. | 39 | Each product is prepared in a different way, but the general strategy is this: Do most of the cooking process, then dehydrate it so it will last in a package, then package it. That way when the customer gets it, they simply have to add hot water which will rehydrate it and finish the last 10% of the cooking process. | 61 |
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[Star Wars] If it's so easy to go to the Dark Side, why are there so few Sith? | Anger, hate, jealousy, rage, personal attachment and only two Sith in the Galaxy? | 45 | There use to be tons of Sith, there was an entire Sith Empire that was constantly at war with the Republic, but the Empire imploded due to lots of infighting among the Sith. That's when Darth Bane came along killed all the other Sith and invented the Rule of Two, which stats that only two Sith Lords could exist at any given time: a master to embody the power of the dark side of the Force, and an apprentice to crave it.
Also Dark Force User != Sith Lord, Sith are a very specific "cult" of dark force users, for example Kylo Ren is not a Sith, he is a Dark Force user. | 67 |
ELI5: How close are we to WWIII right now? What single thing has to happen? | I'm not asking for karma, I'm asking for an answer. A simplified one. | 36 | World War 3 isn't even on the horizon at the moment. In fact, it's going to be totally impossible until we can develop a way to neutralize the danger posed by nuclear weapons. The Cold War might be over, but MAD is still in place; none of the major players on the world scale can fight it out without killing themselves. Until we perfect missile defense technology, or develop missiles which can be delivered across the world faster than an enemy country can retaliate, all of the big countries are going to be relegated to proxy wars at worst. | 37 |
[The Simpsons] How smart is Bart? | It seems a little inconsistent, but I get the feeling that Bart is actually incredibly intelligent and capable of a lot, he’s just too bored/too distracted to realize his potential. | 132 | Pretty much. It's like he might have ADHD. In a normal classroom environment he's a disruptive mess that doesn't pay attention. But if you lock him in a closet he can memorize nine whole planets.
When he applies himself, he does well. But he can't apply himself out of compulsion. Due to the, uh... temporal plasticity of the reality Bart lives in, he may or may not be smart enough to become supreme court judge. Which generally requires some rudimentary understanding of law.
He might also wind up a beach bum. | 153 |
ELI5:Gravity aids us in our digestion. However, in space, how is food digested? Does it float around in your digestive system? | 30 | Remember
>Gravity ***aids*** us in our digestion.
Which means there are other ways to move food down the digestive system. The answer is muscles. Food in your mouth is pushed to the stomach by muscles in the lining of the tube between mouth and your stomach. Then, in your stomach the digested food is pushed again into your intestines. While in the intestines it is pushed all the way to the, well, to the end.
As a simple experiment, try drinking water while standing on your head. You will be amazed that you can indeed swallow the water. You could even eat a full meal on your head and you would have no problem getting your food where it belongs.
Also your digestive system, when empty, isn't just full of open space where food can float around inside like you see on cartoons. Your stomach shrinks down as food passes from it and can expand as much as 50x in size! But when empty your stomach isn't just a gallon of empty air. | 16 |
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ELI5: Why Does it seem like every single country sells arms to Saudi Arabia, and why does Saudi Arabia need so many in the first place? | 35 | Most advanced western nations, particularly and overwhelmingly the US, sell weapons to just about everyone willing to pay, and if they are even willing to sell you weapons, you get all the money together to buy them because they are so wildly good that you will never be able to produce them yourself even in 50 years. It’s that wild. These weapons are worth far more than their weight in gold. We sure rename “Weight in gold” to “weight in US weapons”, it’s better than gold, silver, diamonds, anything. It jumps your military up decades in an instant.
Saudi Arabia has tons and tons of money. They also have minimal domestic military production. But they want to field a modern military. So they use that money to buy weapons (they can’t make their own) from everyone who is selling them, and as much as they are willing to sell. | 30 |
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Where does body heat come from? | I understand that blood is warm and the cardiovascular system distributes blood/oxygen/heat throughout the body, but how does the blood get hot in the first place? | 44 | The catabolism of sugar, fat, and protein with oxygen to make ATP (basically transferring energy from chemical bonds to a different type of bond that is used by the body's cells as fuel) is not 100% efficient. This produces heat and thus warms our blood. The blood circulates to your core and warms your body.
Heat and sound are types of energy leaving a system. An engine, for example, is not efficient and loses a lot of energy from combustion of fuel to heat and sound. | 13 |
ELI5: Why did the NFL choose the small town, Green Bay, to have an NFL team over Milwaukee and Madison? | Over all the cities in Wisconsin, why Green Bay? | 15 | The team was founded BEFORE the modern NFL. Back in the early 1900's "pro football" was concentrated in the Midwest and tons of towns like GB or Duluth had teams, GB is just the one that survived till the sport got big. | 27 |
What is the ELI5 for how RegExp works? | For me, Regexp feels like magic. It's like you can parse anything with a few short keystrokes. Prior to Regexp, I'd be writing extemely complicated for item of string.split loops, to get the things that I would need.
I'm pretty curious as to how it works under the hood. | 41 | First, that gibberish-looking `[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*\s*=\s*\d+\s*;` syntax is just some notation. The regex engine reads this notation and builds its internal representation - a _state machine_.
A state machine is basically a directed graph whose nodes represent questions about the next symbol in the input stream and the edges are the possible answers to these questions _and_ instructions to go to the next question.
For example:
1. Is the current symbol one of `a-zA-Z_`? If yes, read next character and go to state 2, else _NO MATCH_;
2. Is the current symbol one of `a-zA-Z_0-9`? If yes, read next character and go to state 2, else read next character and go to state 3;
3. Is the current symbol a kind of space (the syntax is `\s`)? If yes, read next character and go to state 3, else read next character and go to state 4;
4. Is the current symbol a literal "equals" sign (`=`)? If yes, read next character and go to state 5, else _NO MATCH_;
5. Is the current symbol a kind of space (the syntax is `\s`)? If yes, read next character and go to state 5, else read next character and go to state 6;
6. Is the current symbol a digit? If yes, read next character and go to state 7, else _NO MATCH_;
7. Is the current symbol a digit? If yes, read next character and go to state 7, else read next character and go to state 8;
8. Is the current symbol a kind of space (the syntax is `\s`)? If yes, read next character and go to state 8, else read next character and go to state 9;
9. Is the current symbol a literal semicolon? If yes, __FOUND A MATCH__! Else, _NO MATCH_!
Say, your string is `"abc = 82;"`. You read the first character and go to state `(1)`.
If you arrive at state `(9)` and get a match, this means that, well, the regular expression above matches the string, or, in other words, that string can be generated by the grammar encoded by the regular expression.
If you arrive at `NO MATCH` _anywhere during the execution of the algorithm_ (not necessarily in state `(9)`), you stop and report an error because the regex doesn't match the string.
As you can see, this can be easily implemented with `goto` statements and labels:
```
azAZ_ = "abcd...xyzABCD...XYZ_";
azAZ_09 = azAZ_ + "0123456789";
START:
ch = getchar();
if (ch in azAZ_) goto _2;
goto ERROR;
_2:
ch = getchar();
if (ch in azAZ_09) goto _2;
goto _3;
_3:
ch = getchar();
if (isspace(ch)) goto _3;
goto _4;
_4:
ch = getchar();
if (ch == '=') goto _5;
goto ERROR;
// and so on...
_9:
ch = getchar();
if (ch == ';') goto MATCH;
goto ERROR;
ERROR:
printf("ERROR at character '%c'!\n", ch);
MATCH:
puts("Yeah, everything is OK!");
```
Now, you wouldn't normally generate that code from the regex string above (although you could). Instead, you'd build some kind of graph (like a linked list, but a graph whose node can link to _any_ other node, including itself), whose nodes will execute some functions that can return, for example, a pointer to the node where the algorithm will jump:
```
node *start; // will be filled up by analyzing the regex string
node *current_node = start;
while (1) {
current_node = current_node.step(string_to_match);
if (current_node.tag == NODE_ERROR) {
printf("ERROR at character '%c'\n", current_node.character);
break;
} else if (current_node.tag == MATCH) {
puts("Yeah boiiiiiiiiii!");
break;
}
}
``` | 64 |
[The Flash t.v.] What is the origin of time wraiths? Why don't they like time travellers, and are they a subspecies of something else that's familiar? | 22 | it seems that they are beings that serve the speedforce, and live in it. same thing the black flash later started to do.
the speedforce doesnt generally like time travellers, and either created or "hired" the time wraiths to hunt them down. it seems that the black flash took their job | 23 |
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[Marvel] Why is Mephisto present in the abstracts meetings ? | He is a skyfather level demon and thus very powerful, but why is he present in the meeting of abstracts ?
He is not a cosmic entity,and is ruler of his own hell,so why is he there ?
Or any of the skyfathers or hell lords for that matter ?
| 27 | I suppose the simplest answer would be "Because he wanted to, and nobody bothered to banish him out".
While he isn't an abstract entity, he is, as you've said the most powerful archdevil in the Lower Realms, so he's powerful enough to make anyone's business his business.
I would assume other Skyfather gods are more preoccupied with their own pantheons, especially considering that in Chaos War there was a whole slew of godslaying going on, and thanks to Thor, Asgard pretty much pushed aside most of the other pantheons in the mind of the mortals. Even though Russian Winter Guard managed to get their hands on Perun and Chernobog of slavic pantheon, Perun is clearly not as strong as Thor, and Chernobog is basically uncontrollable and does whatever it pleases -\_\_-"
And Japanese pantheon is probably still ashamed that one of their own started the Chaos War in the first place... | 20 |
Is this weird? (CW: possible borderline sexual harassment; tl;dr at end) | Hello all,
I am fairly new to academia. I'm in a grad program, but I'm collaborating on a project with a researcher who works at a local-ish nonprofit, not at all affiliated with my university. We've only met a few times but have been working together on a manuscript for nearly a year. For context, this person is significantly older than me, close to my parents' age. The project involves research with transgender communities. I am trans, my collaborator is not.
Our previous meetings were strictly professional and occurred with another person present. However, recently, we met one-on-one in a coffee shop. My collaborator offered to give me a ride there since the weather was bad. We had coffee (collaborator paid) and had a normal, professional conversation about our project.
When we were wrapping up, my collaborator changed the topic to general life/career advice. They mentioned a couple other transgender people working in our field. They told a PG story about bringing one of these people as a date to an event. I ignored this point and asked questions about where the person worked. A bit later, my collaborator was talking about a recent conference they had been to with a different transgender colleague. My collaborator described, in detail, how attractive this person was and how they were disappointed that the two of them didn't have sex when they shared a hotel room at the conference. I laughed nervously and pretended I had to answer a text. Since this person was my ride, I then got in their car and gave them an address to drop me off at. They deliberately took a circuitous route (ignored the GPS) and offered to take me to a liquor store or bar. I declined, and the conversation ended there.
In my previous field, this would *never* be something discussed in a professional context. I got the feeling that this person was trying to communicate to me that they are attracted to transgender people. I was uncomfortable with these stories and changed the subject each time.
**My questions:** Is this weird for academia? Is this "locker-room talk"? Am I right to feel a bit weird about it? This person has reached out about our project again-- am I in the wrong to want to back out of in-person meetings?
**tl;dr:** Am I being overly cautious or is an older colleague talking about how much they are attracted to trans people to me, a trans person, creepy?
​ | 88 | This collaborator's behavior is predatory. Please document every interaction you've had with them and maybe figure out who to contact in your department. But even if you don't talk to anyone around your program, go straight to your school's equivalent of an office of equal opportunity/Title IX people and get their advice. | 156 |
[Dead Space] Origin of the Necropmorhs? | What is the origin of the Necromorps and the Markers? Are they a bioweapon developed by an unknown alien species that they lost control of when they deployed it or had an accident with it or are they just a fluke product of evolution? | 16 | Prevailing theory is that they're a race that has ascended to evolutionary perfection. Functionally immortal and able to exist for billions of years. They're the true end of existence a perfect harmony between life and death. Reproducing by seeding worlds with their markers and waiting millions of years to gestate into a new moon.
Another theory is that they're the natural universe and we're the aberration. That death and lifeless rocks are the natural order and worlds like tau volantis and earth are freak mutations the brethren moons correct. | 19 |
ELI5 why Serbia and Kosovo still are in a conflict und why is it getting more aggressive atm? | 82 | They are in conflict as Kosovar Albanians desire independence, while Serbia refuses to recognise this. There was a recent escalation as the Serbian Prime Minister claimed the Serb minority in North Kosovo are being threatened, and that the NATO-led Kosovo force is failing to protect them. The PM also stated they may deploy troops to Kosovo which would radically raise tensions. | 55 |
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[Mad Max: Fury Road] What is the world like outside of Immortan Joe's sphere of influence? | Gas Town and the Bullet Farm are about as militarised as Joe's lunatic death cult, so clearly they need that firepower against someone. The Rock Riders have no clear means of surviving other than robbery, and the Buzzards are clearly regular raiders themselves. The Vuvalini/Many Mothers are also used to ambushing travellers.
Joe's citadel is the only place we see actually grow food, but who are all these other people brutalising? Clearly there must be a fair amount of prey to support this many predators. | 67 | It's generally believed that the land is divided up into zones where different warlords take control of the area *or* different survivors attempt to eke out a living among the wastes.
From the closest that we see of the world to the Fury Road movie, the video game developed by Avalanche, there are a variety of settlers around the area which is only tangibly related to Immortan Joe's operations (you still explore Gas Town and the enemies are War Boys, however).
We see people attempting to settle a disused oil refinery in Mad Max 2 and there are two warring warlords who are trying to keep order in another town in the third one. | 65 |
[1984] something I always wondered about 1984 is who is actually reading the old newspapers that Winston edits. It's hard to imagine anyone from the porles or outer party doing it. | 16 | It doesn't matter if anyone *would*, just that they *could*, and if they were to they must not be allowed to believe any differently from the current part orthodoxy, no matter how nonsensical or mercurial that standard may be. | 27 |
|
[Super Heroes] I’ve been planning on developing some unique super powers. Any suggestions as to which radioactive animal bites would give me some amazing atypical powers. Something novel to help me stand out from the typical super hero? | 22 | I've thought about this before.
The obvious answer is a flea:
- super fucking insane jumping power
- tough as fuck and really goddamn difficult to kill
- drinks blood (uh maybe you want to be a villian?)
| 27 |
|
ELI5: The levels of police officer | What's the difference between a sheriff, deputy, lieutenant, detective, etc? Why do I only see police cars with "sheriff" on them? | 18 | Sheriff is an elected position which generally derives it's powers from the Constitution of the state. Sheriffs Deputy or Sheriffs Officer are "deputized" to act on behalf of and have the powers of the Sheriff. They're also usually officers of the court and have power to enforce civil law, which is why they serve civil writs, documents related to child support, divorce, etc.
Police departments and state police are the law enforcement arm of state, county and local governments. They enforce traffic and criminal law, but cannot enforce civil matters.
Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, etc. are part of the rank structure, both within Sheriffs departments and police agencies. They are typically supervisors in charge of deploying resources, management and oversight.
Detective is a specialized position who focuses mainly on the investigation of crimes and apprehension of criminals. This can vary from insurance fraud to homicide to high level drug smuggling. They specialize and take courses above what a patrol officer would need for his typical day to day interactions. | 13 |
ELI5: How exactly does a 401(k) work? | 21 | Untaxed money is taken out of your paycheck, and put into an investment account. Your employer matches what you put in up to a certain amount. That money grows tax free, and you pay taxes once you withdraw it in retirement. Very basic lowdown, a lot more info can be said. | 27 |
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[The Culture] What does gridfire look like? | 162 | Blinding white light.
Gridfire is just energy manifested in this universe. Its the "fabric" that separates dimensions and that fabric is pure energy. We smash the atom to release the energy in the bonds holding it together resulting in a very large explosion. This is the same principal just removing the atom smashing part. Just opens a door to the explosion dimension.
Gridfire simply opens a hole in that fabric, that hole can be pretty much any size and at any location.
You can*t defend against it, all you can do is avoid it. | 76 |
|
I believe that Libertarians have no idea how their dogma, especially the "non-aggression principle" would actually work in a real society. Please CMV! | As a disillusioned citizen, fed up with the antics of Republicans and Democrats alike, I embraced the Libertarian movement during the last Presidential election. Granted, my enthusiasm for Libertarinanism was fueled by questionable online sources that portrayed Libertarians as a moderate combination of Republican and Democrat principles. After subscribing to /r/Libertarian, I learned that the conceptual framework of the party was significantly different from what I thought the party stood for.
I have since grown disillusioned with the Libertarian movement because, based upon conversations and questioning of /r/Libertarian members, any question that I posed that had real world implications was not addressed to any degree of sufficiency. For example, the Libertarian non-aggression principle states that the government has no right to enter or seize property. Reality, however, dictates that their are circumstances in which the non-aggression principle does not hold true.
Also, based upon my questioning of /r/Libertarian members, they believe that private security forces are superior to government forces. I completely disagree as sell swords (to use a popular vernacular) are only loyal as far as the dollar goes. IMO, this is hardly a reliable or fair system for governmental and public accountability.
All this being said, I still want to embrace the Libertarians. Please CMV.
| 39 | The principle of "banning the initiation of force against another" is *already*, for the better part, the rule we abide by in 99% of our dealings with each other - every time there is an exchange between 2 or more people that is voluntary. Like most of our internet interactions.
It's violated in the case of taxes, regulations - and from ordinary thieves which are rare etc, but that represents a small percent of most of our interactions.
You see it actually working in society all the time!
When it does get violated, the right to retaliate is (ideally) reserved to the government - and that should be their primary function. (The non-aggression principle is only about outlawing the *initiation* of force). (I think those libertarians who advocate no government police/army are actually anarchists?)
| 22 |
Does the observed state of a particle at a given time affect future evolutions in its wave function? | I'm struggling to reconcile the physical and mathematical interpretations of the evolution of quantum particles. If an individual particle can be observed in a random (but predictable) state, does this observed state affect the probability of it being found in a given future state? If so, how can the properties of the wave function evolve deterministically? | 19 | If you know the initial state of the particle and you allow it to undergo unitary time evolution, you can determine what its state will be at any subsequent time using the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.
The state at some time in the future will in general be different for different initial conditions. | 11 |
How is our liver able to regenerate itself, when our other organs cannot? | 30 | Many other organs can regenerate. For example, skin, bones, blood vessels.
But liver is the only internal (visceral) organ that can regenerate.
The reason for this is that the main function of liver is to remove ingested toxins from blood before they reach main circulation, and liver cells are relatively often killed off in that process. (Because toxins are, well, toxic.)
Most other organs have no strong need to replenish their cells, and as a result they are unable to recover from a significant loss. But again, organs that *do* have a strong need to replenish their cells (like skin) can (and do) regenerate from significant damage. | 36 |
|
Does price influences demand, or does demand influences price? | How would you answer this question? Sounds like a chicken and egg problem but I would like to hear some thoughts on it. | 54 | Demand affects price, which then affects quantity demanded.
In other words, the general demand of a good (how much people want to buy it at any given price) intersects supply somewhere to establish an equilibrium price. This equilibrium price then determines quantify demanded (not the same thing as the demand curve from before). Quantity demanded is the actual number of units of a good that are bought at a specific market price after the market clears. | 63 |
From a science perspective, where do you see the next big leap coming from? (Sputnik moment from Obama) | I'm curious on what the scientific community is most excited about.
Personally I'm excited about the level of research being done at CERN, but unable to grasp what the potential discoveries will mean for my life, or for anybody else.
I see excited postings from various sources each day about this or that new thing being discovered, but which ones are really exciting and which ones aren't? | 23 | I have to say that science doesn't usually come by leaps and bounds. Most of the genuine, non-sensationalistic science out there takes a lot of hard, grueling work for a lot of years by a lot of unsung heroes grinding away at a problem until some rando from the media suddenly thinks it's a great story to pick up on.
We're learning new things all the time - our body of scientific knowledge doesn't grow by leaps and bounds. We push outwards, slowly, in all directions. | 12 |
[iCarly] Theoretically, if done in the modern day, how bad of a controversy would Neville and Victoria's careers and social lives if Carly and Freddie went vocal about what these people did to them? | I have rewatched part of the first season of the show and those episodes feel like today they would be some prime youtube drama if those stories went out. To summarize:
Neville had harassed and used his influence onto Carly to get her to kiss him in order to get a good review on their webshow.
Victoria manipulated Freddie and almost Sam to leave the show and join her instead out of a sense of being recognized from her instead of Carly. | 132 | Depends entirely on who their audience is how they're distributing content and who's reporting on it. There's a lot of variables and moving parts that would have to be guessed at. Icarly used it's own website and a spread mostly via word of mouth. If they did that in 2021 no one would care beyond a few fans. If they're on youtube trying to break into the success the show had would require working with bigger creator collaborations and even then it's doubtful their stories would gain any drama alerts without involving another bigger tuber.
Without taking a lot of guesses and assumptions id say their drama was extremely boring and minor compared to most influencers and given their ages wouldn't get beyond their immediate fandom. It'd be small potatoes and doubtful it'd be anything more than the usual amount of hate/cringe/creep mail. | 59 |
ELI5: What makes plastic surgery look so obviously overdone? | It seems you can always tell when someone has had work done on their face, but what is it exactly that gives it away? Shouldn't the goal be to not tell you had work done in the first place? | 46 | It's like CGI in films. You don't notice a lot of it. You only notice what stands out. Tens of thousands of people undergo cosmetic surgeries every day, and you'd have no idea. It can be simple things like having protruding ears pinned back, eyelids changed, lip lifts, nose jobs etc etc.. if surgery is done well, you'd never know. It's when people go crazy with lip filler and augmented cheeks that things start to get noticeable. | 44 |
Eli5: Why does research take so much computing power? | I always hear about scientific research needing crazy amounts of computing power but I have no idea why. As someone with an interest in hardware, I’ve always been intrigued by this. | 23 | A lot of of problems that come up in science are not solvable by straightforward algebraic methods. Things like protein folding, fluid dynamics, stress/strain, gravity/orbits with multiple bodies etc end up with fairly complex differential equations. In the past, the only method was do make a lot of simplifying assumptions in order to make the problems tractable. As computers develop, there needs to be fewer assumptions and the computer could do a lot more grunt work calculations to get more accurate answers. But there are still classes of problems that are best approached using simulation. These generally require stepping forward in small increments (usually time) and solve the state of the problem, then step forward in time and use the end result of the previous stage to calculate the current state.
This requires huge amounts of computing power if the time steps are small and if the systems for each state are complicated (say modelling movement of all the stars in the entire Milky Way or weather patterns).
Then there are classes of problems requiring optimization - for example complicated molecules like proteins can be "folded" in many ways (think in terms of trillions and billions of ways) There is no way to predict what "works" so each configuration has to be simulated separately and tested.
Then there are just the complicated observations (say astronomy) and experiments (say the LHC) which generate terabytes and petabytes of data. It would take thousands of years for a person to analyze the data by hand to extract meaningful data and patterns that might be useful.
Some of the examples in research that take advantage of computing power. | 36 |
Why is it that animals such as birds are "scared" of humans, while smaller insects like flies are not? | 1,184 | Birds have a lot more "brainpower", which is metabolically expensive but gives them greater behavioral flexibility than insects. In general, birds are more capable of learning about humans (or even recognizing them as distinct entities), while insects rely on high reproductive rates and a series of inflexible but very fast and effective escape maneuvers.
EDIT: flies in particular might be better off being attracted to humans, since we aren't particularly good at killing them and tend to be associated with good food sources. | 1,118 |
|
ELI5: If your body reacts to certain foods it perceives to be a danger to you for the purpose of keeping you alive, how is it that the allergic reaction itself is so often what kills us anyway? Is it just bad at this? | 419 | Essentially yes, it is sometimes bad at this. Allergies are your immune system mistaking something harmless for something dangerous. Your body can then massively overreact to the percieved threat, and do you harm. | 259 |
|
ELI5, How La Croix flavors it’s water? | Ingredients: “only carbonated water, naturally essenced.” What is the natural essence??
EDIT: Hoping I picked a close enough flair | 77 | The FDA requires most ingredients in a food product to be listed by their actual name. However, the names of some ingredients can be hidden under the groupings "natural flavors" or "artificial flavors" - depending on the exact production method used to obtain those ingredients.
99% of the time, if a company is able to list an ingredient as a "flavor" then that's what they do, but again, they don't have to. They can use the actual name for the flavor instead.
Some ingredients have stupid actual names. One of those is "essence". "Essence" is the industry term for fruit flavors derived from a specific method of production (basically they subject the skin of the fruit to very high temperature/pressure steam and concentrate the fluid that comes out). That resulting concentrate tastes like the parent fruit but doesn't have any sugar in it.
That's what Lacroix uses to flavor their drinks - its the same natural flavor that is found in a lot of other foods. In fact, Lacroix used to list it as "natural flavor" on their ingredients label. But they've gotten clever and realized that "essence" sounds healthier than "flavor" and since the flavor itself is actually named "essence" they're allowed to call it that. | 168 |
ELI5: If I have 600 MB of storage left on my phone, why do I get a warning for "insufficient storage" when downloading a 15MB app? | Per the title. My phone only has 8GB of storage. Sometimes I get to the point where I only have 600 MB of storage left. If I try to download an app that's only 15 MB, it tells me there is insufficient storage and won't download. Can someone ELI5 why this happens? | 64 | Super simple answer: Your stomach tells your brain that you are full before the food is backed up to your throat.
I think most operating systems try to reserve a little space in case it's needed for something essential. | 45 |
Can someone explain to a dumb person like me how printing that much money won't increase inflation? | There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to economics,
And on Twitter I mostly follow right-wing, conservative, pro-bitcoin influencers that say we will soon enter hyperinflation as the government is printing too much money.
The US government doesn't seem to think so...
Can someone explain to me HOW printing that much money won't cause super high inflation? | 113 | If the economy were operating at its potential output level, then you would be right. However, in a recession (such as this one), the economy is operating at an output level lower than its potential. This means that there are unused resources in the economy -- things are not operating efficiently.
Monetary policy (manipulating the quantity of money in the economy) is a tool that is used to help correct this. In the case of a recession, increasing the money supply theoretically stimulates the economy, and helps us return to potential output. This happens because in a recession, the velocity of money is lower than usual, so the quantity theory of money (which assumes the velocity of money is constant), doesn't really apply. The quantity theory of money is where economists get the idea that generally, an increase in money supply leads to an increase in the general price level.
Despite a low interest rate, people are still saving, when we want people to be consuming (putting money back into the economy). So money is being stored away as opposed to being circulated (this is what's meant by low velocity of money).
For example, you can take a look at the stats after the 2008 recession. The Federal Reserve increased the money supply in a similar way, but it didn't result in hyperinflation. | 114 |
ELI5: Why do old people sometimes have shaky voices? | What physically causes it? Thank you. | 138 | Vocal cords vibrate - that’s part of their function. And vibration is a really great way to cause wear and tear on any material. Especially over long periods of time, vibration can wear down vocal cords and the muscles that move them so that motor control over them degrades.
Certain medical conditions associated with old age are also associated with a loss of muscle control which can affect the vocal cords. And being older also increases the risk of regularly inhaling things like cigarette smoke which can also damage tissue along the throat.
Another cause is the respiratory system. Older people are at higher risk for respiratory conditions which make the power of their lungs reduced. At that point, they may have trouble sustaining airflow for a stable voice. | 92 |
ELI5: Why is it ~40% more expensive to buy a laptop/phone in England than it is in the US? (Trying to bring mom out of stone age) | Insane what it costs to buy the exact same phone/laptop from .co.uk (play store/amazon/e-shops) than from US.
(+Kudos for helping me make it affordable. Right now im trying to find if even with 'import fees', will it be cheaper than buying it in England).
Why is this? Regulation hurdles? Import tariffs? Exchange rate (this one i least understand)? | 22 | There are a number of things to consider:
* VAT (value added tax) adds 20% to the price of any taxable items, and unlike in the US, advertised prices have to include all applicable taxes.
* Warranty coverage. Within the EU, consumers can make a claim for faulty/misdescribed goods within the first two years, and British law goes beyond that in some cases. Because by law consumers essentially get a 'free extended warranty' and retailers/manufacturers have to bear the costs for that, this will usually result in higher prices.
* Manufacturers do set different prices in different countries partly because they can. | 22 |
ELI5:Why do Power Transformers explode? | 102 | Power transformers run at fairly high voltages. The voltage is so high it can actually throw lightning around inside, so they put oil inside the box to keep the electricity going where it needs to, since oil can hold back higher voltages before it throws lightning.
Unfortunately, in some worst case scenarios, the oil can't hold back all of the voltage, so it gets ignited by the lightning in the box. Then it builds up pressure that the box can't hold. In the end you get a giant fireball, and lots of people lose power. | 42 |
|
Why do small spiders have venom so strong it can kill a human? | If it can kill a human, it would certainly seem very overkill for its intended pray? | 21 | Venom is required not only to kill the prey, but to subdue it quickly. While there are some snakes who will bite prey, then track it while the venom goes to work spiders have the integrity of their web to worry about while scorpions actually hold their prey in their claws actively fighting against the prey. Thus, the battle needs to be over quickly. Stronger venom assists in this. | 11 |
Math as synthetic a priori | I just had my first lecture on Kant. My teacher of course talked about the synthetic a priori, but only went on to talk about it in regard to Kant's description of space and time.
I remember reading about Kant asserting that synthetic a priori knowledge also presents in the form of math, for example. My teacher stated during the lecture that math is analytic a priori, as David Hume claims. I stayed behind after the lesson and asked him about it, but he didn't seem to agree that math can be viewed as a synthetic a priori.
Doesn't Kant indeed say that math IS synthetic a priori, and if so, is that view accepted in contemporary philosophy? | 21 | For Kant, mathematical judgments have an intrinsic connection to space and time. He thinks of math as involving geometry and arithmetic, and the basis of geometry being the quantity we apprehend as extension in space while the basis of arithmetic is the quantity we apprehend as extension in time. Accordingly, for Kant the question about the nature of math's bases becomes the question about the nature of our apprehension of the quantities of spatial and temporal extension.
So, on the basis of taking space and time to have an *a priori* source he infers that mathematics has an *a priori* source. But the nature of this *a priori* source, on his view, is not merely one of recognizing the content of concepts we already possess (like when we judge that a bachelor is unmarried), but rather has its basis in our capacity to synthesize spatial or temporal extension in order to arrive at propositions describing geometric or arithmetic quantities. So, by taking mathematical judgments to be acts of syntheses involved our apprehension of space and time, he takes them to be synthetic *a priori*.
I don't think that there's any consensus about the foundations of mathematical judgments these days; it was a heated dispute in the early twentieth century. On one hand, there was definitely opposition to this Kantian account, which argued in favor of an analytic *a priori* basis for math, and this has had a wide influence on how philosophers think of mathematics. On the other hand, one of the major proposals during the crisis about math's foundations, which remains a significant though minority interest among people working in this area, was deliberately modeled after Kant's view, which was articulated in a systematic way as a basis for thinking about and doing (it had some consequences for how math is done) mathematics--this is Brouwer's "intuitionism." | 13 |
CMV: The use of an phrase like "unless you're a Native American, you don't belong in this country either" should not be used as an argument. | In dealing with the hot button issue of immigration, one of the most common arguments that is brought up in the United States is that the general population of Caucasians shouldn't be opposed to higher / more liberal immigration, amnesty, path to citizenship, etc. because their ancestors immigrated to this country as well and "took it" from the Native Americans.
I'm not here to debate immigration's pros and cons. Instead, I take issue with this particular rhetorical device. With the exception of Mesopotamia, the entire geopolitical story of planet Earth is people group A moving from place A to place B and becoming people group B. After enough population spread occurred, this became people group B taking place C from people group C and either integrating or destroying them.
I would imagine there are almost no countries currently represented on the United Nations that started out as a coherent geopolitical whole. Italy wasn't always composed of "Italians," China wasn't always composed of "Chinese," and while some of those establishments are more or less centuries old, the recency of that change shouldn't be a factor in acknowledging that ultimately, every citizen of every country on planet Earth is descendant from an immigrant.
The method by which that change happened is also not dependent on the legalities involved. When the Normans invaded the Anglo-Saxons in 1066, I'm pretty sure the Anglo-Saxons would have considered their "immigration" to be illegal. The Anglo-Saxons themselves took the island from the Britons five centuries earlier.
Thus, "if you're not a Native American, you don't belong in this country either" is an invalid argument. CMV
Edit: For the purpose of clarity and to narrow the field a bit, I'm specifically talking about illegal / undocumented immigration, not refugee resettlement. Generally speaking, people who are immigrating to this country from another one for work or opportunity.
_____
> *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 | I think that you're reading too much into the argument, and are straying into strawman territory as a result.
The first thing to understand is that the current argument revolves around political and religious *refugees* specifically. These are immigrants, yes, but the nuance is significant.
The (current) backlash against refugee in the United States is largely knee-jerk and is unsubstantiated by data. Proponents claim that there is a present danger of allowing radicalized migrants into this nation and that we need to lock down, ignoring the facts that:
* Refugees undergo the most rigorous entry process to the United States of any immigrant
* There are no recorded cases of terrorism or mass killings from refugees
* Refugee populations are proven to stimulate the economy of the area where they relocate
* Accepting refugee populations is a storied tradition in the United States
Anti-refugee rhetoric is based on the "us and them" mentality; that refugees are somehow fundementally different than Americans and therefore can't be trusted. This is where the "Native American" argument comes into play.
The goal of this rhetoric is simply to challenge the "us v.s. them" mentality. It's not *literally* saying "you don't belong in this country either". That's an absurd conclusion, which is the point - if you apply the same logic used to claim Syrian refugees shouldn't be allowed here to our own ancestors, you'll arrive at that ridiculous idea. We tend to forget that Americans whom are descended from Europeans reached the continent as religious refugees.
The "Native American" argument isn't meant to legitimately meant to convince people that caucasian Americans don't belong in the U.S. It's meant to show how similar we are to refugee populations of the modern day, and why we should show them sympathy. What separates us from Syrian refugees other than a century or two? | 26 |
How do liquid fuel rocket engines reignite in zero-g without destroying the turbopump? (fuel sloshing problem) | Hi! This is for You rocket engineers out here!
From my (very limited) understanding, a big problem with reignition of a liquid-fuel rocket engine in space is the 'sloshing' of liquid within the tanks.
When the engines are already fired it causes no issue, since the g-forces during acceleration keep the fuel at the 'bottom' of the tank, where the pump is.
But how is this risk, of the pumps running empty, mitigated during reignition? I can imagine you could give the rocket a "push" with reaction thrusters to force the fuel to the bottom of the tank and then start up the pumps, but I haven't managed to find any real literature addressing this problem.
If You know something about this I would be interested to hear Your take on it!
Thank You! | 821 | >I can imagine you could give the rocket a "push" with reaction thrusters to force the fuel to the bottom of the tank and then start up the pumps
This is a solution that's used. They call those specific thrusters "Ullage motors". There are also baffles in the tanks that keep the fuel towards the pump.
There's still a ton of research needed (and being done) on sloshing and how to combat it | 453 |
[LOTR] Why does the Ring abandon Isildur after only a few years when it stays with Gollum for centuries and Bilbo for decades ; | Was Isildur great enough that the Ring could actually be effectively used against Sauron and thus would be too dangerousto keep in Isildur's custody? | 19 | The Ring abandoned Isildur at a time where there was a relatively high chance of it falling into the hands of the enemy; during the middle of a battle against Orcs. The likeliest outcome was that the Orcs would claim it.
Same thing happened with Gollum. It abandoned Gollum in the depths of a goblin infested cave. Again, the likely outcome was it being claimed by the enemy. As for why it abandoned Gollum when it did and not sooner, until that time it was content to wait. There was no rush for it to get back to Sauron, who was still recovering his strength from his defeat on the plains of Dagorlad. But once Sauron was ready and was actively preparing for war, the Ring took the first opportunity to leave Gollum.
And no, no one could truly use the Ring against Sauron. In doing so, they would end up falling in exactly the same ways he had, and he would just wait to take it from them. Unless the Ring was destroyed, Sauron couldn't be beaten, He could be scattered, weakened temporarily. But only the destruction of the Ring would defeat him permanently. Thus, all he would have to do is wait for the bearer to become corrupt, and then take it back from them. | 29 |
[General] What are some creative Sci-Fi Weapons that should be more common in other Sci-Fi's | 170 | Railguns are underutilized, they are based on a simple principle, easy to get ammo(quite literally a chunk of a magnetizable material) for and not too power consuming either(provided improved batteries) | 157 |
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[Star Wars] How does Tatooine sustain a breathable atmosphere? | How does Tatooine sustain a breathable atmosphere without any vegetation or trees?
​ | 20 | A long time ago Tatooine was covered with rainforests and oceans, but something happened to turn it into a desert. The breathable atmosphere was developed then, and gravity keeps it there now. The population is so small that any drain the atmosphere basically won't cause problems for millions of years. | 43 |
CMV: Negotiation is a weakness of Trump | Edit: 's
Trump has always made strength in negotiation his hallmark, using "The Art of the Deal" as reference. At the beginning, it seemed even his critics accepted this as one of his strengths, instead questioning his extreme views and ethics.
His spectacular failure to repeal Obamacare, despite Republican control of all branches of government, made that view less tenable. Currently, in his negotiations with China and North Korea, it doesn't seem like he's won any concessions - or whatever has been offered is unlikely to be repeated. I realize this is ongoing, so part of this depends on events yet to occur, but I haven't heard any real ideas about what a prospective deal might look like. I don't believe that's just because he's just been so tight-lipped, but rather he really is flying blind.
Just so it doesn't look like this CMV is based on anti-Trump bias, this is in relative terms, compared to certain other strengths. He is charismatic, and able to understand political winds beyond what's revealed by polls. He has misled people about this strength, and by and large, people have bought it.
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> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[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)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | 38 | Why would you expect to hear some official explanation of what a deal would look like? That just weakens your position for the actual negotiation. As soon as you say "we want X and will give Y in return" that becomes the absolute ceiling of what the other party would give you. You can't request for anything more than X because they already know you will accept X.
And then when the actual deal comes, if it's worse than you advertised previously (and it almost certainly will be, given the above), you look weak and like a failure to the public.
There is no advantage to talking publicly about a deal and many disadvantages to doing so. | 13 |
[General] Werewolves usually have the traditional fatal weakness to silver. What if a metahuman with the ability to turn into (organic) silver and/or has silver-coated bones is bitten by a werewolf? | Does the transformation still occur? Can they even be infected?
If so, will the person die when they transform, or - thanks to required secondary powers - their werewolf form is resistant/immune to silver? | 47 | If there's silver physically present in the victim's body then usually the infection is either warded off or kills the victim, depending on how far through the body the infection spreads before it reaches the silver; the werewolf is usually greatly injured or even killed biting into them. If the victim can transmute their own body into silver at will, however, then they could still be infected, though their body would probably instinctively begin the silver transformation whenever the werewolf transformation occurs. This would partially counter the latter metamorphosis, and result in a more humanoid, metallic werewolf, with the victim maintaining most of their normal mental functions instead of becoming an animalistic monster. | 40 |
[illuminated Medieval Texts]From wherth doth come the snails of size most great, jousting the flowers of nobility and threatening all of Christendom? How can ye gentle serfs protect thyselves from such devilry? | Why doth such fell beasts vex us so!? | 192 | Like the colossal rabbits and flesh-eating cabbages, they are demons sent by God to test the faithful.
The common man can rely on bows, crossbows, and slings to defend his home. Though the Pope has banned their use against Christians, they are acceptable arms to battle animals, demons, and Saracens. | 95 |
ELI5: How did LED lights become so cheap to produce? | Through the 90s you never saw LEDs, and their lifespan was awful. Now, they are so ubiquitous you see them embedded in every cheap thing you can imagine -- and super bright ones, at that.
I have an LED police flashlight that could blind Zeus.
So, what advances were made that allowed them to be produced so cheaply, and so efficiently? | 145 | I don't think that an extended lifespan is the main reason why they are so popular nowadays, but it's rather the color:
LEDs have been invented in the 1960s, but the colors which could be produced in a cheap and efficient way were red, yellow and to some extend, green. However, in the early 1990s, a Japanese physicist, Shuji Nakamura, found a way to produce LEDs which emit blue light.
Using red, blue and green LEDs together, you can mix these and get white light (light of any color, actually). It took some time for these to come from the lab to the consumer (probably also advancing in lifespan and brightness).
Essentially, without blue LEDs we wouldn't be able to use LEDs to light a room or as a flash light. | 68 |
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