post_title stringlengths 5 304 | post_text stringlengths 0 37.5k | post_scores int64 15 83.1k | comment_text stringlengths 200 9.61k | comment_score int64 10 43.3k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
I think raising the minimum wage is a bad thing. CMV | I head Joe Biden's address today regarding the plans to increase minimum wage, and I find his arguments weak, rationally inconsistent, or outright wrong. For example,
*There’s clear data that shows fair wages generate loyalty of workers to their employers, which has the benefit of increasing productivity and leading ... | 62 | You want spenders to have cash to further the economy. Man with 30 million gets another million, that money is getting invested, not moving the economy.
1000 people making living by the paycheck get an extra 1,000, that money is immediately getting pumped into the economy.
Also, you want to encourage people to work... | 50 |
ELI5: How has the previous generation “ruined the housing market” for millennials? | ELI5: As a millennial, I keep hearing people blaming the baby boomers for ruining the housing market. Can someone explain how exactly they did this? | 244 | The short answer, we don’t make as much money as they did.
Slightly longer answer: US household median income in 1970 was $9,780 which has a buying power of $64,700 in today’s money. The current median US wage is 61,800, about $3,000 less or effectively 5% less money available per year than they did.
Next, median home ... | 540 |
ELI5: What exactly are the moles on your body? Why do we need to go through surgery to actually remove one? | 74 | A mole (or melanocytic nevus) is an often benign local overgrowth of melanocyte cells. Melanocytes are the cells responsible for making melanin, a dark skin pigment. That's why many moles appear brown or dark - the large number of melanocyte cells make lots of melanin, which give the mole its colour.
There are numerou... | 62 | |
CMV If abortion is an option, child support should also be an option. | Title says it all. If a woman can decide whether or not to keep baby and therefore support it, a man should be able to decide as well. I’m not here to argue abortion itself, I’m morally against and will always disagree with it BUT I’m also a avid supporter of individual liberty and as such only extend my views to my li... | 18 | Men have the same rights as women when it comes to abortion. They both have the right to terminate a pregnancy that is happening in their bodies, within the limits of the law.
With current technology, all pregnancies exist in female bodies and that is why men don't get to choose to terminate their pregnancies. Men are... | 20 |
ELI5: If the universe is always expanding, that means that there are places that the universe hasn't reached yet. What is there before the universe gets there. | I just can't fathom what's on the other side of the universe, and would love if you guys could help! | 20,932 | The best metaphor for this is to imagine the universe is 2D, not 3D, so it's basically on a plane, like stars are painted on a sheet of paper. Now imagine it's not a sheet of paper but the rubber surface of a ballon. Now imagine the ballon is inflating. More and more space (the surface) is created, it is expanding, but... | 8,117 |
ELI5:Why do I hate the sound of my own voice? | 46 | Do you mean when you hear a recording of it?
Most people dislike hearing recordings of their own voices, because they sound "wrong". When you hear your voice as you speak, a lot of the sound is being transmitted through the bones in your head. This leads to your voice sounding deeper when you speak. No one else... | 65 | |
[SW] How can or how are a few Sith able to cause a massive shift in the Force? What exactly are they doing that causes a shift in the Force? | 19 | The exact mechanism by which they amplify the power of the dark side and upset the balance of the Force is unknown, and always has been.
Theories abound, but really? The Sith had been actively corrupting the Republic leadership for decades if not centuries in preparation for war, fostering hatred and anger and sufferi... | 14 | |
How is Kodak getting handed $765 million helpful? | 15 | To understand what's going on here, it's necessary to talk a bit about Kodak. Until the early 2000s, Kodak and Fujifilm were happily doing what they do best - manufacturing the top of the line photographic cameras. Yes digital cameras were starting to be produced by competitors like Sony, Canon, and Nikon; but all Koda... | 19 | |
ELI5:Why is Whiskey so seemingly integral to the Irish identity? | I love Irish folk music and have visited Ireland twice and I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Whiskey really is a part of Ireland. What about it or the Irish makes the two so synonymous? Beyond the outside perceived stereotype (if it's not just that). | 51 | Because it was more or less invented there. Distillation was invented in the east but it was used to make perfumes, not alchohol. When the Italians got their hands on the process they discovered they could distil liquor from wine and from there the process spread via the network of monasteries throughout Europe. When i... | 34 |
What causes an ice age, and is it possible for us to have another one/when could the nearest one be? | 4,518 | We are technically still in an ice age, called the Holocene, which started 2.6Mya. That 3 massive ice sheets (Arctic, Greenland, Antarctic) still exist, and that year round alpine glaciers still exist, is the reason why. Once they are all gone, you could say the ice age was over.
We are in a warm period of that ice a... | 4,647 | |
ELI5: Does humans being allergic to pollen have any benefit for trees, or is it just an unfortunate accident? | Yes I'm salty because I can't breath | 19 | It's an accident.
The leading theory is that allergies are the normal immune system responses to actual illness. Since we live in a much cleaner society than our ancestors, your immune system notices it is not getting used enough and assumes that the issue is that it's failing to detect diseases, rather than that th... | 24 |
ELI5 What is Californias worse case scenario concerning the drought? | I honestly am not sure thise is the right place for this but it fits for now. i know the articles say California has a year of water left. Obviously during this there will be fines and mandates restricting use. So what happens when we run out regardless of the fines and restrictions? Will the government step in? Will w... | 63 | Since normal people actually only use a small fraction of the water and most of it goes to agriculture. It is to hoped that the government would restrict the use of water for things like growing alfalfa.
Alfalfa makes up 15% of the water used in California and most of it gets shipped to Japan and China. That is right... | 43 |
Is it weird to reach out to old PI after 3 yrs? | Hi all! I’m currently a 3rd year phd student and randomly today I realized I haven’t reached out to my old undergrad PI since my first month of phd. I worked for him for 1.5yr during undergrad and he helped me a lot during my application process. I originally planned to send him a email every year or so and feel super ... | 27 | I don't see why it would be weird; it's always nice to stay in touch with people you had a good relationship with. Ask them how they are, how they handled the pandemic, what they're working on right now; tell them about the cool stuff you're doing in your PhD. Just do it, don't overthink it. | 30 |
[Goosebumps] In “The Beast From The East”, where exactly did the kids end up? | They’re walking through the normal woods, not that far from their campsite.
Suddenly, the plants are weird and otherworldly, there are strange animals and there are Beasts. I’m pretty sure that the sky changes color, too.
Is this really just an isolated part of the woods? If not, where did the kids end up? Is this an... | 15 | It's been ten years since I've read these books, but presumably there was a natural portal to another world.
It probably wasn't intentional by some powerful being, but rather these things naturally occur sometimes; think of in Alice in Wonderland, where the portal to Wonderland just naturally occurs in the woods in th... | 18 |
How do you make objections and counter arguments in continental philosophy? | Imagine I'm reading something like Hegel. He makes an argument along the lines of "a philosophy/idea/whathave you never comes before its time" or "truth is constantly becoming". Descartes's system was necessary for Spinoza's system to come about.
Kierkegaard might say something like "in subjective thinking there is a... | 26 | One approach is to try to render the narrative that is being presented implausible in some way. For example you might imagine a counter-example or 'edge case' scenario where applying the narrative as given would lead to repugnant or absurd consequences - consequences that you don't think the author you are engaged with... | 20 |
ELI5: Why do certain injuries heal and leave behind darkened skin while others leave scar tissue | 84 | The darkened skin is a kind of scar tissue. How a wound heals and what kind of scar it forms (light vs. dark, raised vs. indented) depends on a couple of different things that vary during the healing process like hormone levels, wound care, and general health. | 27 | |
[Planetside 2] Why are we fighting planet-side, and why doesn't anyone use nukes to defeat the enemy factions? | Like, we're all infantry units and not a bunch of marines but wouldn't it be more sensible to just blow the enemy battleships out of orbit (from orbit)? Why do they have to send everyone down to the planet to slaughter each other down here, while all the ships that took us here are heaving teaparties with the enemy abo... | 21 | The New Conglomerate dogs and the Vanu Sovereignty's tech heads have stolen critical facilities from the control of the glorious Terran Republic.
With the advent of rebirthing technology all sides believe (us correctly) that they can capture and defend these facilities in tact.
When our troops are cheaper to replace t... | 13 |
How much of height is determined by genetics? | My brothers and I are all ~6'4", my mom is 5'8" and my dad 6'2", and I was wondering if it was purely genetics or if some outside factors could have had a say in the matter. For instance, when we were growing up we'd go through about 8L of milk a week and we spent the majority of our childhoods swimming. Could this hav... | 113 | Your maximum potential is based solely on your genes. However, in order to reach that height you need adequate nutrition. Anyone eating enough calories to grow and not suffering from malnutrition will grow to their maximum height as dictated by their genes. | 40 |
[Star Wars] Which is the better Sith Ruling? Rule of Two or Sith Empire? | I was wondering what made the Rule of Two more successful than say the Sith Empire? From what I've read in the Jedi Temple, the Sith Empire had powerful Sith Lords about as powerful as our own Jedi Masters.
Also, wouldn't the Empire be better since it allowed the Sith to grow and also give way to lesser Sith to rise t... | 27 | The Rule of Two allowed the sith to become more powerful in the long run by eliminating much of the infighting, keeping the sith out of conflict with Jedi, and letting the masters pass on a larger portion of their knowledge to their apprentice.
In theory, the master can't be attacked by more than one aspiring sith lo... | 24 |
CMV: Black on black homicide is a HUGE issue. | The fact that it is commonly used by racist to downplay systematic racism does not change its severity in any way. The causes are several obviously, but you can’t say it doesn’t exist.
EVEN IF white people kill white people a lot as well. Americas very segregated still, so that’s pretty much gonna happen. The point i... | 41 | 2018 US homicide rate: 4.96 per 100,000 people
1991 US homicide rate: 9.71 per 100,000 people
We’ve already cut the homicide rate in half in one generation. Where does this false idea that we’ve made no progress and aren’t making progress come from? Not from the data. | 45 |
cmv: as an American I believe patriotism is a bit too over the top in terms of the nation | As an American, I often feel as if we as a nation are too narcissistic and full of ourselves. Think of a stereotypical high school jock. they’re big, soften airheaded, self absorbed, and even violent. Despite this they are extremely popular, and so strong that you wouldn’t even try to take them down. America is much li... | 101 | Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him in so far as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent t... | 26 |
[Star Wars] Yoda successfully kills Emperor Palpatine and Obi-Wan defeats (but does not kill) Darth Vader, as usual. What changes? | Title. Answers can be based on canon or Legends. Darth Vader can die on Mustafar if not rescued.
In both the canon timeline and the Legends timeline, the Jedi High Council is almost entirely wiped out, the Temple under the control of the Empire, and the Jedi Order itself is an enemy of the state. Who would take con... | 105 | The Jedi would be persona non-grata, and the galaxy would be in chaos, but the factors leading to it state of darkness and oppression would be gone, so it would be able to eventually recover. Perhaps, after a bit a new Jedi order could emerge and rebuild. | 84 |
[GoT] Are Danni's dragons able to mate? | Serious question. This lady has three of these things and I have to be honest, I am surprised she is able to control then. What if they start having their own brood? | 17 | There's no reason they can't mate, apparently dragons are gender fluid to some degree.
The problem is that because dragons have been gone for so long a lot of knowledge and research on them has been lost to the ages or is subject to debate, so even if Daenerys wanted them to mate she probably wouldn't know how. | 16 |
ELI5: When I have a cold, how does my body produce so much mucus that I have to blow my nose every 10 minutes? | I have a cold, and I've had to blow my nose every 5-10 minutes. Where does all this mucus/snot grossness come from?? | 176 | Under normal conditions, nasal mucus is part of the system by which your body inspires air. It is actually a prevention or defense mechanism.
When the air goes by, the dust and whatnot sticks to the muscus-lined sides. And then the cilia (little hair) and the mucus move it to the rear of the mouth so that can hawk it u... | 38 |
(Eli5) what's the difference between all wheel drive, symmetrical all wheel drive (remember this from a commercial, Subaru I think) and 4 wheel drive? | 18 | First 4WD vs AWD.
4WD is generally used in Trucks and SUVs and is generally not an "all the time" thing, it is just engaged when it is necessary. What takes place is a mechanical locking of the differentials to ensure that all 4 wheels rotate "as one". what this means is all 4 wheels are rotating the same amount which... | 23 | |
[Star Wars] Why did Anakin cut Mace Windu's arm off, why not just block his sabre when he was trying to kill the senate? | 80 | The ideal in any swordfight is for your first blow to be the fight's last. Blocking your opponent's sword means he can try to hit you back. Cutting your opponent's sword hand off settles things fairly conclusively.
Drastic? Maybe. But Master Windu had a reputation of being the deadliest warrior in the Jedi order; if t... | 97 | |
[GoT] I'm a rich shop owner in Kings Landing. Stannis Baratheon is said to be marching towards the capital, and everything is going crazy in the city, do I have a chance to move out of the capital? | Since Robert Baratheon died things have started to go downhill in Kings Landing. Some days ago the mob attacked King Joffrey and his guards. The mob started a fire and burned down this goldsmith's house because he had a full larder, thank god they didn't burn my house down because I'm considerably well off, I have enou... | 34 | Probably go to Braavos using a smuggler if needed. The Iron Bank has its home in Braavos and banks tend to rely on stability so it's a good indicator that its stable, also the Iron Bank has a lot of sway across the world due to debts its owed.
As a successful business man it's safe to assume you have savings in Braavo... | 20 |
ELI5: If Climate change is happening, where does the water go? | Okay, so we know Climate Change is happening, I believe that, i know that. The polar ice caps are melting. This should mean *rising* sea levels. But we know that Climate change is also causing drought. While I'm not sure how we have both drought and rising sea levels, if we're in a "closed" atmosphere, does that mean t... | 38 | Yes, water in the wrong place, basically.
Sea level rise is partly from ice on land melting, and partly from the water expanding a little as it heats. But sea ice is floating so melting it doesn't directly raise sea level, although it can unleash glaciers it was previously holding back.
Droughts and floods are mainly... | 51 |
ELI5: Could someone live off a diet of pills containing the nutrients we need to live? Or does food have something "more" that we need to survive? | 262 | If we were sure we had all the nutrients (and enough calories to use for energy) then we could live off that. It would be too much to be compressed into pills probably, but some companies do sell powders and shakes that you're supposed to be able to live off of (for example soylent.com). The real question is whether fo... | 142 | |
ELI5: What is actually happening when a computer/smartphone is booting? Why isn't it usuable immediately upon turning it on? | 15 | When you interact with a computer, you're interacting with software that lives in "memory". However, for the vast majority of computing devices, memory can only retain the software while it receives power.
There are other storage areas on computing devices that can retain software and data even while powered off. On ... | 13 | |
A team from the WHO is currently in China looking for the origins of SARS-CoV-2. How do you look for the source of a virus? | 159 | Take a close look at all the slight variations in way the RNA mutates over time (note: usually they make artificial DNA from the RNA because it's more stable). If two different cases share almost all the same mutations then they're probably closely related. when you look at the small differences between four or five yo... | 74 | |
Is it possible for a deaf person to have tinnitus? If so, how does it work? | 4,292 | Yes. The ringing is actually coming from your brain and not your ear.
When hair cells in the inner ear get damaged, the brain creates an annoying "eeee" sound becausd it's missing that proper connection.
There have been people who had severe tinnitus and got their auditory nerve, from their hearing organ to their br... | 3,811 | |
[Star Wars] Why did Yoda and Obi Wan have to split up to defeat Palpatine and Vader? | Wouldn't it have made more sense for both Yoda *and* Kenobi to gang up on both Sith lords? Obi Wan had to cross the galaxy to take on Vader. There was no rush to kill Vader. He was off starting his dark path, but nothing he did was time sensitive.
If Yoda had had a bit of help he could have taken down the emperor... | 51 | Yoda knew that Obi-Wan had no chance against Sidious. Even if both of them attacked Sidious together, Obi-Wan would likely die. Among the Jedi still alive, Yoda was the only one who had any hope of standing against Sidious in battle and living to tell the tale, and Yoda knew it. However, while Obi-Wan would not be m... | 61 |
CMV: Internet IS representative of the real world and it has done more than people usually give credit for | I don't know how many times I have heard this both offline and online "Internet is not real life. Meet people in real life". My teachers, parents, friends, politicians, people from Quora, people from Reddit, etc have often said that internet is different from real life, that politicians use internet for propaganda and ... | 60 |
# Internet IS NOT YET representative of the real world
As weird as it sounds, internet is still in its infancy, and had not penetrated society fully. MOST people on the planet never use the internet, or rarely so. Either because they are too old, or too young, or too poor, or live in a country where internet i... | 25 |
ELI5 how do they make keyboards for languages like traditional chinese, which has over 3000 individual characters? ive seen mandarin typewriters, and theyre pretty cool, but how do laptop keyboards work? | 30 | Other than pinyin, which romanized the pronunciation of the character. There is also the wubi system which codifies the sequence of strokes of the writing of the character.
To put it into English sense, the letters a-z are typically treated as atomic elements. You describe 'a' as just 'a'. Nothing less. The w... | 43 | |
[Star Wars] How was a 14 year old Amidala elected Queen of Naboo? What did her political campaign look like? What campaign promises did she make, and why did the people of Naboo think that she was capable of accomplishing them? | 502 | The people of Naboo have the cultural notion that children are "pure" and unbiased, and therefore can make good decisions if presented all the information. That is why their Kings and Queens (which are just the terms for their head of state and is an elected position with strict term limits) are chosen from their young... | 462 | |
Eli5: Why is it easier to darken white paint than it is to lighten dark paint? | I remember in elementary school that I was mixing paints and to make grey, and I found that a small quantity of black darkens white super easily whereas even a 50-50 split of black and white leaves an almost black color. Is black paint more potent? Is there some kind of complicated color theory? | 40 | Paint color works by removing light, adding just a small amount of black pigment can darken white pigment a lot because it goes from absorbing \~0 light to more . But to lighten dark pigment you can only dilute the pigment. | 34 |
What data should I be looking at to know if my state's minimum wage increase is working? | My home state of Illinois is increasing their minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next several years. This is something I generally support, based on studies that I've seen, but all the media coverage I've seen thus far has just been interviewing random restaurant owners who say "It's so bad, we're so broke, etc." wit... | 16 | Getting data is a small step in seeing if it's working (assuming you have a clear definition of working).
This is an important question that very smart people have tried to answer for decades. There has been a fair amount of research done on minimum wages' effects and presumably meta-studies as well. I'd start with a ... | 10 |
[Treasure Island] Why didn’t Billy Bones want to get the treasure? | It’s my favourite book and I’ve read it probably 30 times, but I can’t understand why he wouldn’t want to get the treasure with Flints old crew. Did he plan to get it himself? That wouldn’t make sense. | 46 | I think he and Silver had some kind of personal beef going on, and the old crew were loyal to Silver. For whatever reason, keeping Silver and his friends from having the treasure was more important to Billy than getting it for himself. He'd rather die poor than enrich his enemy.
So why not scrape together a new crew a... | 34 |
ELI5: Russian last names: Uncle Ruslan's last name is Tsarni, but bomber's last name is Tsarnaev? | Do Russian surnames change? Upon marriage or region or...? | 36 | It's not a Russian name. It's a Chechen one with a Russian suffix appended to the end. This was commonly done for all sorts of non-Russian nationalities in the Russian Imperial days, and they've persisted. Some people prefer to use the non Russified version. | 19 |
ELI5: why are Americans so apathetic in demanding/enforcing the "free market" they supposedly value so highly? See - Anti-Tesla legislation, AT&T, Comcast, etc communication monopolies, lack of transparency in healthcare pricing, ad infinitum. | 816 | Invoking the free market is a rhetorical bludgeon, much like the terms 'socialism' or 'terrorist', designed to draw an emotional response and not an actual thing that people understand or even truly desire in most cases.
I would be willing to wager that only maybe one in fifty Americans who bring up Adam Smith have ac... | 379 | |
[Lord of the Rings] What's life like in the Undying Lands? | Is it pretty much normal life or is there anything particularly special about it? | 283 | Well, you can meet gods and stuff. That's neat.
No wars, either. Or any strife, really. Not for a long time.
If you're mortal, you won't last there very long, but you'll be at peace while you are. | 187 |
[Star Trek / Norse Mythology] Thor throws his hammer at the Enterprise | So Thor throws Mjolnir at the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E). The Enterprise has enough time to get to warp and flee. Does Mjolnir hit the Enterprise?
According to legend, Mjolnir can never miss and can never be thrown so far as to by irretrievable.
Would Mjolnir catch up to the Enterprise? Surely hundreds of light-yea... | 72 | Mjolnir is powered by magic, specifically an extension of Odin Allfather's power, the Odin Force. Odin is generally regarded as one of the more powerful entities in the Marvel universe, capable of reshaping reality and the laws of physics at will, or even simply ignoring them. Take, for example, the magic that prevents... | 48 |
[Harry Potter] How effective would a gun be against wizards? | Is the protego spell strong enough to block bullets or not? | 385 | We never see it but considering what other shit protego has stopped it could certainly stop bullets.
But that doesn't matter because a gun would take out a wizard much faster then almost any wizard could cast a spell to either defend or attack. | 351 |
How is it possible that satellites last far longer than planned? | For example, the Meteosat-7 satellite was launched around 20 years ago and is still working fine without the need for maintenance. The satellite was supposed to stay in geostationary orbit for only 6 years. | 553 | Usually when engineers say something will last for X years, it means that the thing has 95% (for example) chance of still working after X years. It doesn't mean that as soon as the X years have passed the satellite will stop working. This is something people often don't understand when they are talking about planned ob... | 365 |
CMV: Some Video Games Should be Revered as Much as Classical Art Displayed at Museums. | We're talkin' about a painting of a lady who can't decide whether she is smiling or not holding a place at a distinguished museum that people travel to witness its tiny fragile frame and yet there are entire worlds with storylines hashed out for several characters, physics engines, incredible details in some cases, and... | 15 | Museums exist to protect _singular_ artifacts and allow people to experience them. A video game (or anything digital, really) doesn't require protection because it can be perfectly duplicated an infinite number of times. You can't do that with a Picasso.
Moreover, what would the benefit be? You can't experience a v... | 36 |
CMV: The best foreign policy to deal with terrorist would be to do literally absolutely nothing | 130 | Many people thought like you during WWII. They thought that we would be better off doing nothing.
By us doing nothing, tens of millions died at the hands of the Nazis.
For you to assume that these terrorist organizations are small in nature and can't flourish to pose serious threats is naive.
The reason we haven't ... | 66 | |
ELI5: Are we the only species to get headaches if so why? | 197 | No, many species are physiologically similar to people. The same imbalances that cause headaches in humans cause them in other species.
Brain tumors give bears headaches.
Rats can get hangover headaches.
Cats have been disfigured by selective breeding and have sinus headaches. | 111 | |
[The Purge] How does the Purge affect other countries? | Assuming it only happens in the US, how does the rest of the world prepare?
I assume both Mexico and Canada would have already walled key border crossings.
The only safe way would be for full army and police mobilization, a curfew and a general state of readiness.
What happens with border towns? Do they get evacuate... | 19 | I would assume that most countries deal with a ton of visa requests in the weeks and months leading up to the purge. Right after the purge they probably have a ton of request for information about emigration requirements. | 29 |
ELI5: Why does some thunder crack through the sky doing a csshhhkrr sound and other ones produce a deep bass-boosted BOOOM? | Yes, we've had a thunderstorm recently and I love them, but can't get my head round this. | 50 | It largely depends on how close you are to it. The closer you are, the better the sound. It should resemble a loud crackle. But as you move away from the thunder, the sound wave starts to disperse and the sound gets less clear. So you ear a *boom* type of sound. Picture the sound wave as a bunch of people pushing each ... | 31 |
[Spider-Man + MCU] Spider-Man can stick to surfaces with his feet and hands. Does he ever use this while fighting hand to hand? Make bad guys' fists stick to his palm? | also in Homecoming, why would he stick his backpack near street level? wouldn't he put it in a "spidery" spot just like momma spiders leave eggs? up high somewhere, outta sight in a nook?
and why wouldn't aunt may know he snuck in the window the night Ned discovered him? its not a huge apartment. u cant really com... | 110 | AFAIK, Spider-Man himself hasn't used the sticking power in an offensive way as you are describing. But his dark and edgy clone, Kaine regularly did. He'd intentionally use the adhesive power of his hand to brand enemies by ripping a layer of skin off their face. The handprint scar left behind was referred to as the 'M... | 122 |
[Percy Jackson] Do demigods from Greece not have dyslexia? | So in the PJO universe, demigods tend to be dyslexic because their brains are hardwired for ancient Greek. I've looked up differences in the scripts of ancient and modern Greek, and apparently while there are differences in accents and stuff, the letters are mostly the same. So, does it mean that if you grew up in Gree... | 22 | Yes. I’m fact, those for whom Greek is their first language would probably be even more proficient in it than they should be if they were normal kids. They would probably have increased language skills compared to their peers. | 23 |
3 completely identical human beings stop eating fats, carbohydrates and proteins respectively. In what order to they die, if at all, and what happens? | Let's just say hypothetically that the human beings are cloned so that conditions are exactly the same.
They are a a completely average 30 year old male.
So, just to elaborate, subject A stops eating fats, subject B stops eating carbohydrates and subject C stops eating proteins. What would happen in each case?
Edi... | 24 | they die in this order, from first to last:
C -> A -> B.
you need proteins because there are amino-acids that you can only get from proteins from food. you need fats because there are 2 fatty acids that you must have but can not synthesize.
your body can exclusively use fats and proteins for energy, and there... | 15 |
ELI5 - How can the concepts of mean reversion and independent events coexist? | I flip a coin 4 times and they all landed on heads. I'm about to flip a coin for the 5th time.
Independent event theory would suggest that my probability of getting heads or tails is still 50 50 for this flip.
However, according to mean reversion, the average number of heads should tend towards 0.5 and hence isn't th... | 28 | Mean reversion doesn't require the probability of tails on any individual flip to become higher. Instead, it's the number of flips that causes the average to tend towards 0.5.
Suppose you've flipped your 4 heads. Rather than thinking about the next flip, think about the next 100 flips. You'd expect to get something ve... | 27 |
CMV: Trying to understand yourself through your ancestry is meaningless | Some people take a DNA test, find that they have some high percentage of an ethnicity that they know nothing about or maybe didn't even know existed, then suddenly they identify with its culture. I think that it's meaningless and just another type of horoscopes.
My main point is that culture is lived and experienced, ... | 81 | For some people, it helps give them a sense of belonging, especially for people who don’t know their ancestral roots, it can help give them a direction for a culture to explore and adopt.
Sure, it’s not the end all be all, but can give people some direction. | 31 |
ELI5: What is it about electricity that kills you? | 28 | It can kill you in two ways.
The first way is burning you. In general, current generates heat. If there is enough current going through your body, your body will literally heat up and you will burn to death.
The second way - if there isn't enough current to burn you - is the electricity just interfering with your bod... | 44 | |
How do oil paints dry? | Acrylic based paints dry by water evaporating, and oil paints dry by "oxidation." What is being oxidized, why does it cause the paint to become less wet, and why does it take so long? | 15 | Oil paint is a colloid; the pigment is suspended in a liquid-in this case, a hydrocarbon oil dissolved in a solvent that makes the paint more fluid and easier to move around and manipulate.
After application, the solvent evaporates, leaving the pigment and oil. The oil gradually oxidises and hardens. As this involves... | 16 |
ELI5: Why are the 'Made In China' stickers and imprints necessary? | They can't be for crediting someone, because you can't give credit to a whole country. So why are they there? | 37 | U.S. law requires the country of origin of a product to be clearly displayed on the product, or on the product's container if it is enclosed.
a lot of people also like to have this information available, especially in the US, because due to this law, countries build up a certain reputation for certain products. | 36 |
CMV: Store bought costumes should never win costume contests | By nature a contest should be about who does something the best. In theory if you have enough money you can go out and buy any costume and look exactly like your favorite character. You are not "doing" anything in that case other than spending the most money though. Sure, my store bought Darth Vader costume might look ... | 22 | > Convincing me that someone can have put more effort and/or creativity into their store bought costume than a self made one.
A lot of costume contests end up with poor participation. Say you have a work contest and only 3 people actually participate:
* Bob wears a white t-shirt on which he has written the word "... | 27 |
Are we smarter than the first humans, or is it just collective knowledge? | When I asked this is class, it started a debate that led nowhere.
Would like to see what fellow redditors have to say on this subject. | 888 | If you could raise a baby that was born 200,000 years ago with modern technology and methods, would they less capable that a modern baby? Would a 50,000 year old baby have the abilities of a modern human? | 244 |
[Harry Potter] Did Western wizards participate in colonialism, or did they regard their fellow wizards in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia as equals? | 129 | they probably had more of a 'the muggles discovered new land, eh, let's go check it out and get a gauge on the potentially undiscovered magical properties before they stumble across it' sort of attitude (at least those that weren't just posing as muggle explorers) and ended up staying there | 52 | |
[DC] Who and how good are Lex Luthor's PR people? He seems to shift from known Supervillain, to Super Hero to President with ease. So what kind of Godlike PR does he have? | 72 | History has shown that politicians who pander to certain segments of society can largely ignore their own criminality and moral shortcomings so long as they utter the right platitudes to pacify their base. | 85 | |
[General Superheroes] What are some good examples of seemingly low-level superpowers that can be extremely useful if taken to their full potential? | 79 | Useful? Many of them have physics bending powers that could be amazingly useful powers for legitimate noncriminal uses.
Take a fairly unsuccessful villain like Pyro, who can control flames. Imagine his use to a major metropolitan fire department. Can he control anything else? The rate of chemical reactions, or nuc... | 61 | |
ELI5, and then ELI20, both sides of the Amanda Knox trial. | Edit: Thank you all for the explanations so far, they are very helpful! Can someone now please explain why it seems like the majority of Americans are happy she's released because the majority think she's innocent while the majority of Italians are upset and chanting 'shame' because the majority believes she's guilty? ... | 354 | To make it short: Knox was living with Meredith. Both are from upper middle class families from US and UK respectively. Knox is naive and generally only book smart and not street smart. She has her 1st bf while in Italy on a study abroad program. One night she comes back home and finds blood in the house and toilet whi... | 200 |
[XMEN] How exactly does "good luck" work as a super power? | What exactly is considered good luck in the context of the situation? If someone has a gun to your head does the gun jam or do you survive the shot? | 104 | Luck like domino's power is very difficult to explain. It's similar to spidey sense and temporal manipulations. On a subconscious level the mutation constantly views various alternate timelines and possibilities every moment of every day. Whenever it finds a variation of reality that is beneficial to the mutant in ques... | 85 |
[Star Wars] If the Clone Wars series is considered real primary cannon, then where is Asoka (Anakin's padawon) during AOTC and ROTS? | 84 | She left the order after losing trust in it after she was falsely accused during a terrorist attack. She went off the grid and didn't resurface until well after Order 66 and began to organize rebel groups. | 119 | |
ELI5: How do they shoot space movies to look like zero gravity? | I'm talking older movies, too, like 2001 a Space Odyssey when superior editing technology was still a ways off. | 39 | In the case of 2001 it was actually really clever: They suspended the actors on wires just like a lot of movies used to do, but they built the set sideways and put the camera on the ground pointing upwards.
This accomplished two things: First, the actor's body hid the wires so you didn't have to try to remove them in... | 42 |
[Star Wars] Why was Jango Fett chosen to clone? Wouldn't there be much better soldiers fighting for the Galactic republic army? | 109 | The physical attributes and descent, his achievements and the fact that the Republic Army has always been a bit of a joke. Plus they didn't have to kill him afterward, allowing them to use him for other things. The candidate selection was not handled by Sifo Dyas, in fact.
After the project was commissioned, Sifo-Dyas... | 128 | |
Solar panels directly convert sunlight into electricity. Are there technologies to do so with heat more efficiently than steam turbines? | I find it interesting that turning turbines has been the predominant way to convert energy into electricity for the majority of the history of electricity | 7,011 | There are thermoelectric devices that can convert a heat differential directly to electricity (Peltier device - (edit, the Seebeck Effect generates electricity, the Peltier Effect is the reverse. Same device though)) or motion (Sterling engine), but these are actually not as efficient as steam, at least at scale. If yo... | 2,614 |
[Star Wars] If Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan managed to capture Maul, how much information would the Jedi be able to learn? | 16 | Not much. At least, not much more than they would have already known from history and could have guessed from Maul's presence alone. Even though the Jedi were already aware of the Rule of Two, they were also of the belief that the Sith had gone extinct long ago. So Maul's presence as an actual Sith apprentice would be ... | 14 | |
[Harry Potter] what is the process of creating a spell? | 47 | At least for wand users:
It pairs a release of magic shaped by the magic users will with a specific focus word. This word then allows the user to use the shaped magic more easily in the future as the shaping of the magic becomes more of an unconscious action. It also seems to imprint this word upon the collective magi... | 36 | |
Why do I feel like Deleuze's "rhizome" is stating a very obvious observation? | Maybe I'm just not understanding everything, but I can't help but feel that Deleuze's ideas are pretty simple, but dressed up in a forest of dense, arcane language. He objects to the dominant conception across the history of Western philosophy ("arborescence"), symbolized as a central tree trunk, sprouting leaves and t... | 124 | The "rhizome" seems obvious to you because you don't seem to get what exactly Deleuze is talking about. The rhizome isn't a "conception of knowledge," it's a way in which things can be organized. Note how the first examples given of rhizomes in the introduction to *A Thousand Plateaus* are all material things: books, t... | 85 |
Well, r/pics got my curiosity up, what is this stuff on my fence? | a picture of my fence here: http://i.imgur.com/OO2Fb.jpg
A little background info to prevent confusion:
* I live in Minnesota, not near any large bodies of water
* This picture was taken an a sunny 75 degree day
* I'm assuming that it is a metal fence with some kind of rubber/plastic coating(do not know for sure)
... | 1,039 | They're evaporites... obviously some mineral on the fence dissolved in water and then precipitated out. Air temperature change would account for the rings as different temp water has different precipitation points. The rings are a dead give-away. | 545 |
ELI5: Why does the sun make me sneeze? | 22 | It’s called a photic sneeze reflex, or Autosomal dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst - ACHOO syndrome for short. It is estimated that 17-35% of the population have it.
But no one knows why it happens. The best guess at the moment is that it’s because the nerve cells that carry information from the eye and th... | 16 | |
If we were to build a radio transmitter capable of transmitting at the frequency of visible light, what, if anything, would we see coming off the antenna? | And if it would emit light, would it be of any use as a light source? And if it is possible to build, how long do you think until we'll be able to?
Edit: I think my use of the word radio is leading to some confusion. By radio transmitter, I mean the type of transmitter, not what part of the electromagnetic spectrum it... | 15 | We already have lots of radio transmitters that emit visible light. Your computer screen is one, a light bulb is another...They're emitting electromagnetic waves in the frequency of visible light (along with some others). We simply do not use this light for communication in most cases, because other wavelengths are mor... | 28 |
CMV: Sometimes people discussing their mental health issues is attention seeking behavior. | I see a lot of "debunking the myths of mental illness posts" on my facebook and a common one is that people are absolutely not talking about their suicidal thoughts, self-harm behavior, anxiety, etc. for attention. I believe this is a false statement. I honestly believe that certain people (not all) do engage in attent... | 34 | Excessive attention seeking can also be a sign that someone is unwell. This is why when you receive training to manage mental illness you learn that all concerns are valid. The patient report may not be face valid, but it is almost always indicative of some type of problem worthy of sympathy and help. Someone excessive... | 14 |
CMV: Our Democracy is Broken | The only way to understand someone's politics is to acknowledge who they are and what they want. I will do my best to lay that out before I espouse my political ideals. I also apologize for any Americentrism in advance, but I think the problems in contemporary American society overlap with most similar Government stru... | 166 | 200 years ago widespread electoral fraud ruled politics - gangs were hired to round up voters by force, many voted numerous times in the same vote and the poor were paid for their votes. Back then the average working man had little interest in politics - not the ideas the parties represented or even the expectation tha... | 48 |
[DC/Marvel] If an old person were to suddenly gain the power of Regeneration, would their body become young again? | Would it also heal any mental illness? | 16 | There's different kinds of regeneration in fiction. In some cases, the body simply has a base state that it tries to return itself to, which might allow someone to remain a certain age, but there's also regeneration that's simply extremely accelerated healing. So, maybe, depending on the canon/source of regeneration. | 21 |
Geology (and some astronomy) question: Why do we find elements and compounds in veins and generally clumped together in the earth? | Most heavier elements are formed in supernova explosions and float through space as dust until they are coalesced into planets. Does dust of the same element just generally form together and stays close together and so eventually it ends up either clumped up in a single deposit? Or do elements of the same variety have ... | 44 | There are mechanisms that essentially sort them. You see this process on a normal time scale with something like Italian dressing. :)
The primary mechanisms are density, and melting points.
You have a big pool of mixed elements and compounds just swirling around. In general the denser liquids will settle to the bo... | 39 |
Using work without permission | My former advisor published a paper I wrote without requesting permission or making me an author. I am in the credits.
I had submitted the paper and gotten it accepted but was unable to do the experiments requested to finalize it and set it aside.
The text is about 70% similar to the version I submitted, and I hav... | 36 | 1. Was this published into the same journal that your version was accepted into?
2. Was it part of the same submission, or did you need to withdraw/fail to meet a re-submission deadline?
3. Was this an undergraduate advisor? Masters? PhD? Employer?
I would suggest that if you want to pursue this, you involve your i... | 16 |
Regarding a moon colony; does sound at 1bar behave differently in 1g or 0.16g? | 17 | Not really, in practical sense. Gravitational effects of sound are so weak, scientists are still verifying their findings.
If we assume the pressure and composition of air are the same at the "floor" level of a lunar base, the noticeable effects will have to do with:
- weaker convection
- smaller vertical density d... | 16 | |
CMV: America is a great country when compared to the world as a whole. | People who say America isn't great because it falls short of an ideal perfect benevolent country are not being logical because there is no other country that hasn't fallen short in some way as well. Moreover, it is unreasonable to expect 250 years of fallible leaders to always make decisions that will look good in retr... | 43 | People who would say "America isn't great" typically don't do so based on its failure to be a utopia, but because America has actual problems that affect its citizens in a tremendously negative way. It does not matter whether other countries are worse in some fashion, the same way it doesn't matter that "there are star... | 59 |
ELI5: Why is it that a person can't take a large amount of over the counter pain relievers, like Tylenol or Ibuprofen, to get the same effects as stronger pain killers like Vicodin or Hydrocodone? | 49 | Different method of action. Opioids like hydrocodone and Oxy work by binding to neuroreceptors(neuro means brain) which send a depressive signal, which basically means that the signal numbs your central nervous system.
I don't remember the exact MoA of the others so to just put it simply, ibuprofen and aspirin work by... | 32 | |
[Portal] How much (if anything) did Black Mesa steal from Aperture? | From what I know Black Mesa is highly sophisticated, while Aperture seems to be slightly more **un**predictable mad science. Now that doesn't mean that Mesa is better than Aperture. Odds are that Aperture does have better results, at higher costs. But Black Mesa *is* more organized.
In short: did Black Mesa ever s... | 102 | They simultaneously raced to develop the same technology, quantum tunneling, and developed it in two different ways. That's pretty much the extent of it that we know of.
EDIT: Aperture's actually the one who canonically stole things, including the Gravity Gun, wall-based medkit things, and HEV Suit chargers from Black... | 83 |
ELI5:Why do Large Planes Require Horizontal and Vertical Separation to Avoid Vortices, But Military Planes Fly Closely Together With No Issue? | 13,825 | Military pilots are securely attached to the plane and willing to tolerate much more extreme maneuvers than commercial passengers. To reduce the "fear of flying" and avoid spilling drinks, commercial aircraft desire a much more stable ride. | 11,946 | |
Do trees create less oxygen in the winter after their leaves fall off? | 40 | Generally, yes. Photosynthesis, of which oxygen is a byproduct, happens in the chloroplasts.
The vast majority of the chloroplasts are in the leaves, so a deciduous trees ability to produce oxygen is drastically reduced after shedding its leaves. | 45 | |
[Super heroes] In universe, can they sue for merch? or collect royalties? | Spider-man has rent to pay, and some company makes merch off his image. How is that not a potential law suit? | 20 | So, you're peter parker. Prove you're Spiderman.
There are three options here.
One: show up in a Spiderman costume and demand royalties. This doesn't prove anything. Anyone can put on a Spiderman outfit.
Two: show up as Spiderman, throw some webs around, climb on walls, etc. This proves you're Spiderman, probably, b... | 24 |
[Star Trek] Why is Klingon opera so often maligned by non-Klingons even though it is very similar to human opera? | Do people who dislike Klingon opera generally dislike human opera? Did human and Klingon opera styles develop independently or did they influence each other? | 38 | Klingon Opera revolves around a very small number of similar plot-lines and tropes, and is heavily focused on combat. Klingon singing is.... disharmonious to most non-klingon listeners, and the harsh tongue doesn't lead itself to some of the more intricate or delicate movements possible in the "opera" equivalents from ... | 48 |
What do modern day Iranians think of Alexander the Great? | From a TIL thread yesterday
>I have a Zoroastrian friend who told me that in her culture, "Alexander" is a name roughly on par with "Hitler" in the west, because of what Alexander did to Persia, where the Zoroastrians are from.
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2d0yjx/til_when_alexander_the_great_was_... | 41 | You should know that Iranians are not Arabs (something that they seem to be particularly sensitive about) and have wildly differing histories and cultures. The "Arab world" wasn't really a thing during Alexander's time, it would be 900 years before the nomadic tribes of the Peninsula were united by Muhammad. | 40 |
ELI5 what is happening when you get random muscle twitches? | For example, the muscle running up the outside of my left hand has been twitching causing my left finger to move. What's going on in my body (chemically, etc) that causes this to happen? | 27 | The motor neurons that mediate movement aren't perfect, nor are any neurons. In order for a muscle to contract, the motor neuron that is attached to it must fire numerous action potentials (an electrochemical signal). If a motor neuron "misfires" only once or twice, the result is a twitch instead of a full contraction.... | 10 |
CMV: Those who redefine selfishness to include altruism are not doing anything useful | There have been many, many threads about how everyone is selfish because any action you feel like doing is something you want to do, and people are altruistic because they want to be altruistic. This is not one of those threads.
This is a thread about how the above is silly.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar... | 39 | It's useful for people who want to justify selfishness by painting all actions as inherently selfish. If other people are making you look bad through altruism then if you can make them have the same impulses and reasons as you then that is very psychologically comforting. It can also be useful to portray people who wan... | 15 |
ELI5: If the Big Bang happened +/- 13.5B years ago, and if matter - and thus the universe - has been expanding outward ever since, shouldn’t there be a massive void in the center of the universe? | 20 | This is a common misconception. There is no center of the universe, the Big Bang happened everywhere at once. The point is that *everywhere was very close together.* The entire universe was basically in the same place; not that all matter was in the same location, all **locations** were close together.
So the universe... | 57 | |
[Marvel][XMen] What really is Apocalypse's thing? | I'm not a real Marvel Fan, I haven't read the comics. So what I can see from the X-Men: Apocalypse Movie, he can amplify a mutant's existing powers and he can steal powers via the Pyramid device (which he acquired regeneration). Things he has that other has is telekinesis, matter manipulation, Professor X like powers a... | 154 | In the comics, Apocalypse's main power is high-level shapeshifting/control over his own body, which grants him near-immortality, superhuman strength, invulnerability, etc. He enhances these powers with vast amounts of Celestial technology (the ancient space-gods glimpsed briefly in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies), ... | 169 |
[Rick And Morty] There are a lot of Ricks and Morty's, and there aren't a lot of Ricks and Morty's..? How many of them are really there? | Sorry for the title gore, but let me explain.
In Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind, it's established that there are a lot of Ricks and Morty's from different dimensions. Not gonna delve too much into details, in case I might spoil someone. But at the same time, Rick had (relative) trouble finding an alternate unive... | 37 | He wasn't just looking for a Rick and Morty pair to replace, he was looking for a Rick and Morty pair that fixed the gene modding problem AND died immediately afterward. Either or these happening on their own is very unlikely, both of them happening one offer the other is almost impossible. | 47 |
Eli5: how do modern cutting tools with an automatic stop know when a finger is about to get cut? | I would assume that the additional resistance of a finger is fairly negligible compared to the density of hardwood or metal | 12,291 | It is based on the capacitance of the finger. The technology is quite similar to modern touch screen technology which is only able to detect fingers but not gloves. Wood is usually too dry for the sensors to trigger and the metal is too small for it to trigger. This is of course something the designers have to take int... | 6,274 |
CMV: Boston Strong is the most hilariously arrogant movement | The US Government, constantly bombs and terrorizes villages in Yeman, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan with drones, so much that now many children in those countries hate sunny days (better for drone strikes).
The US would bomb a spot two times killing first responders that go to help victims (imagine a father ... | 82 | Boston is just a city inhabited by humans. Some of those humans were profoundly impacted by a bomb made by another human. Probably, none of the humans in Boston will ever bomb another city or group of people. The politics and warfare of countries don't enter into it. Boston, as a group of humans, doesn't wage war again... | 119 |
Math people, explain Monte Carlo integration like I'm 5. | If you could also explain importance sampling that would be awesome. | 130 | You have a rectangular back yard that is 10 by 15 feet. There is a pond in the middle of irregular shape. You want to know the area of the pond. You start throwing small stones toward the yard randomly, and record the frequency of stone landing on water versus dry land. The portion of stones landing on water multiplied... | 119 |
If you wrapped a human in a theoretical blanket that was able to insulate 100% of heat produced by the person, would that person’s body temperature eventually reach equilibrium, or would their metabolism cause them to keep getting hotter and hotter until they perish? | 23 | Metabolic activity continuously produces heat as a byproduct. Without a method of dissipating that heat, a person would quickly overheat and die.
Normal responses to hyperthermia include vasodilation and sweating as methods to facilitate heat transfer out of the body, but if the surrounding environment is already ‘to... | 47 | |
[Halo] Why can't the Halos target the Flood directly? | If the Forerunners from the Halo series could create the Halo array to destroy all sentient life in the galaxy to starve the flood, why couldn't they use the halos to target the flood directly and not any other life forms? | 23 | Killing pretty much all life in a Galaxy in and of itself was a major undertaking. Tuning the process to effect just the flood may not have been possible while under direct invasion from the Flood. Further more the flood infect their "food" to make more flood. Even if they could kill the parasites, they may not ha... | 24 |
ELI5: When someone is choked until unconscious, what separates them from waking up (like in UFC fights) and dying? | 42 | A choke cuts off the blood supply to the brain causing unconsciousness. You would have to maintain the choke for a much longer period to starve the brain of oxygen to kill a person. Just think of how long strangulation takes to kill a person. | 29 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.