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ELI5:How do people have photographic memories while others do not? | 41 | Photographic memories as you know them don't exist. In fact, everyone has a photographic memory because everyone can think in pictures. It's just used for people that happen to have above-average memory skills | 10 | |
How long would it actually take to learn programming from zero? | I'm a synthetic biology PhD student and I have recently realised the strong need for dry lab skills! Ive always had an interest for modeling biological systems, but the thought of learning programming seems overwhelming. Also knowing that it probably will take so much time to only achieve average coding skills makes me... | 67 | I’m going to disagree with others’ advice here and say that it would be most effective for you to take an intro to programming course. This is because although you can learn most coding by working on a project and googling, even knowing what to google (keywords etc) is challenging for complete beginners. Taking an intr... | 114 |
I'm fascinated by phenomenology, but I don't have much experience with philosophy. Should I even bother trying to learn about it? Where do I start? | I came across [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaGk6S1qhz0) on youtube. I watched a few of the other sections, and I'm pretty blown away by these concepts. Like I can't stop thinking about it in daily life. I picked up a copy of *Being and Time* and a few "intro" books on phenomenology, but it seems like th... | 18 | Husserl and especially Heidegger are notoriously difficult. If you don't have both a general familiarity with philosophy and also particular familiarity with the German tradition Heidegger is responding to, you're going to find *Being and Time* a rather rough slog.
If you want to read the big-name phenomenologists in... | 15 |
I think going through with an unwanted pregnancy and putting the child in foster care is irresponsible and wrong. Please, CMV. | I'm a pro-choicer by nature, and I respect that many women and men believe that abortion is morally wrong. The issue that I have is with an alternative option for many of these couples/moms/dads, etc, which is to continue on with a pregnancy and have a child that they do not want, only to leave the child in Foster care... | 27 | There are a lot of Americans who want to adopt a baby. In fact there is a shortage of babies.
If you want to get rid of your child immediately after it is born the process is very easy. When at the hospital people can just ask the doctor and s/he can set it up for them or get someone else to do all the work
Childr... | 10 |
ELI5: Why did we have to learn farm animal sounds as a kid? | 173 | It isn't really about "what the animal sounds like", it's just teaching children how to make different sounds and about our culture. As a quick example, in most English speaking countries, the cat goes "meow", but in Dutch it's "miauw", and in Greek it's "miaou", and in Japanese it's "nyan nyan" or "goro goro" (for pur... | 203 | |
Why does having a BMI of 40 or over make you eligible for a free flu vaccine (UK)? Is flu more dangerous for obese people? | 73 | Yes, most diseases are more dangerous for obese people. The chances of having other health issues such as heart or breathing problems increases with weight gain. As we cannot guarantee to have diagnosed everyone who actually has a heart condition or other illnesses it is safer and more cost effective to treat people wh... | 57 | |
ELI5: If humans have infantile amnesia, how does anything that happens when we are young affect our development? | 4,247 | Lack of autobiographical memory is not at all the same as lack of learning. You probably don't at all recall learning to speak, but the effects of early exposure to your native language are still burned into your brain and reinforced by a lifetime of daily use. | 3,386 | |
CMV: I don't think Nintendo had to apologize for not including gay marriages in Tomodachi Life | Nintendo fell under a surprising amount of heat for their recent "life simulator" game Tomodachi Life, because they allowed people to get married, but not same sex couples. In my opinion, he fact that this was controversial is somewhat ridiculous: this is a game which sole purpose is to be silly. You can make your frie... | 121 | It's true that this game is aimed at children, but that's exactly why it's important to include the possibility of same sex marriages.
In a modern, western society we accept homosexuals and give them the possibility to marry, because we view all those couples as equal. By not including same sex marriage in the game, N... | 30 |
[This Little Piggy nursery rhyme] How many little piggies are there? | For those who don't know, this is a nursery rhyme that is usually said while counting off one finger/toe for each piggy:
This little piggy went to market
This little piggy stayed home
This little piggy had roast beef
And this little piggy had none
And this little piggy went wee wee wee wee all the way home
I ... | 112 | Well the existence of a market implies that there is at least one civilization worth of piggies, probably both little and large. So it's entirely likely that there are thousands if not millions of little piggies out there.
Though in the story we only get to meet 5 of these piggies. | 78 |
Why is ductility often listed as a separate property of a material from malleability? | To my understanding, malleability is a material's ability to be shaped (as opposed to being brittle and failing) and ductility is a material's ability to be drawn into wire. Is drawing into wire not simply a certain way to shape something? Are there materials that are malleable, but not ductile? Are there materials ... | 50 | They refer to doing the plastic deformation using different methods.
Namely, ductility is the ability to be plasticly deformed under tensile stress, whereas malleability is the ability to be plasticly deformed under compressive stress.
Lead is an example of a material that is very malleable, but not very ductile. It ... | 31 |
ELI5 - Why are Railguns such a complex feat of technology? How is the Railgun any more than just 2 very large magnets and a generator? | I also understand there's some form of issue about the rails overheating (particularly in the U.S. Navy project), but isn't the solution to simply add more armor to them? How much funding could possibly be needed to do R&D on more heat-resistant materials? | 226 | Well for one a railgun doesn't need magnets. In it's simplest form you have two parallel rails and a conductive projectile.
A railgun passes huge amounts of current through one rail, into the projectile as it slides forward, and out the other rail.
The huge current combined with the sliding contact is the single bigg... | 393 |
If you put all the black holes of the universe on one side of an imaginary scale and all the rest of the universe on the other side, then which side has more mass? | 21 | The non blackhole side. There are several hundred billion stars in a galaxy, the lightest of which have a mass of around 1/10th of our Sun, overall the total mass of our galaxy is nearly a trillion times the mass of our Sun. In comparison, the supermassive blackhole at the center of our galaxy weighs only around 4 mill... | 18 | |
What does lava smell like? | How is it supposed to smell? | 125 | It's tough to remember smells, much less describe them, but growing up in Hawaii I've smelled lava several times. It doesn't have a really strong odor on its own, it's like ... well, hot rocks. A bit like hot metal, say a soldering iron or a hot stove, a bit like regular stone, say a pile of dry gravel or concrete mi... | 173 |
[Disney] Are all humans aware of talking and anthropomorphic animals? | We know a good part or the Disney univere is talking intelligent animals and it's hard to imagine the humans don't know that the animals are on the same intelligence levels as us. They are very human like and live around humans and even wear clothes on occasion. You can't exactly miss a team of rodents dressed in cloth... | 35 | There are two levels of reality in Disney. At the higher level, Mickey and Donald, Jiminy Cricket, Bambi, and all the other characters exist as actors working for a studio. They are aware of the audience, and in the olden days Mickey would sometimes have conversations with Walt. Everyone is aware of everyone else.
... | 25 |
CMV: There is absolutely no reason for me to keep my Wii U and I should just sell it. | Complete minimalist here. In Christmas of 2013, I got a Wii U (only because my sister got a Wii in January 2008, and I only wanted to "upgrade"), despite it being very low on my wish list, and throughout its commercial lifespan, I only had no more than 6 games in my Wii U library, and I felt very regretful to own it on... | 33 | Wii u upconverts to HDMI. It technically has better output than your HDMI dongle.
Virtual console, which probably not get ported to the switch in It's complete state.
Nintendoland won't get ported.
No more Wii fit u.
Smash is still several years away. As are most of the ports you mentioned. Do you think Nintendo w... | 20 |
I believe that suicide should be legal and the government should provide a painless suicide options to all citizens. CMV. | **UPDATE:** There are too many comments to reply now, so I will summarize my opinion. I think that the subreddit did a great job at trying to convince me otherwise and provided many excellent counterpoints. I won't award anyone a delta since I haven't changed my view completely, but the following ideas deserve half-a-d... | 592 | I reject premise (b). The goal of government is not to maximize individual happiness. The purpose of government is large scale coordination of activities limited to enacted laws.
Side notes: its irrelevant if suicide is legal. there can be no consequences for a successful suicide. | 141 |
Do we have any photos of the moon landing sites taken from earth? How strong a telescope would you need to see any remnants of the landings from earth? | Just thinkin' 'bout how people say we didn't land on the moon n stuff. | 35 | No, there are no photos of the moon landing site taken from Earth.The equation for determining if a telescope can resolve a feature is called the Rayleigh criterion. It says that in order to resolve a feature with a telescope you need a lense with a diameter 1.22*(wavelength of light)*(distance to object)/(size of obje... | 36 |
ELI5: Why do people move their feet (marching in place quickly for example) when they have to pee, and why does that make it feel like you temporarily don't have to pee as badly anymore? | I am guessing because it mimics the feeling of walking, and your brain knows you shouldn't pee while you're walking. Is that the reason? Is there another reason? | 32 | I’d say because it sends signals to your brain that distracts - similar to how if you bump your knees for example, vigorously rubbing that area makes it “feel better” because it sends a distraction signal | 13 |
ELI5: If all drugs were legal wouldn't criminal organizations still have an advantage since they don't have to pay min-wage, taxes, and can sell at a cheaper price? | 64 | For a possible parallel, look at alcohol.
Some people in rural areas still distill and sell moonshine, both as a sort of "Screw you" to the government, and also because it's strong and cheaper to buy with no taxes attached.
However, bootlegged liquor is many, many orders of magnitude less popular than it was during ... | 58 | |
ELI5: why are there rain delays in certain sports, like baseball, but not football (American or non-American) unless, of course there’s lightning. | 186 | Because football is less affected by torrential weather than baseball. While the passing and kicking game is *impacted* by heavy rain, you can still play a somewhat functional game of football no matter how heavy the rain is. Baseball, however, is simply not playable if rain is too heavy. For one, pitchers can’t grip t... | 311 | |
Since there isn't any resistance in space, is reaching lightspeed possible? | Without any resistance deaccelerating the object, the acceleration never stops. So, is it possible for the object (say, an empty spaceship) to keep accelerating until it reaches light speed?
If so, what would happen to it then? Would the acceleration stop, since light speed is the limit? | 6,389 | The most intrinsic problem is that Newton's second law (F=ma) is actually only a low speed approximation. If you are thrusting in the direction of your motion, the force is actually:
F = (1-v^(2)/c^(2))^(-3/2) ma
When v is much less than c, that first term is basically 1 and you get F=ma. But as v gets closer to c, t... | 8,597 |
ELI5: In humans, what is the functional difference between wide, flat noses and narrow, pointed noses? | Or is there a difference? | 65 | The various shapes of noses appear to be tied to adaptations to climate.
The nose must properly heat and humidify the air that you breathe. In a cold climate, it's advantageous to have a narrower nose. That's so that when a person inhales, more air comes into contact with the mucosal surface of nose, which provides mo... | 28 |
Why is it recommended to completely finish an oral antibiotic prescription, while topical antibiotics (ex. polysporin and other antibiotic creams) can be applied as needed? | Hello! I understand that when taking oral antibiotics, you're strongly recommended to finish the entire prescription, since finishing early could allow resistant survivors to reproduce and cause an antibiotic-resistant infection. However, with topical antibiotics like creams and ointments, it's recommended to apply lib... | 161 | It's because most topical antibiotics work by mechanisms that bacteria can't build resistance to ie they rip cells open. They're too toxic to use systemically but resistance isn't really a problem. Plus to be honest anything you can "treat" with a topical antibiotic probably doesn't need to be "treated" in the first ... | 136 |
CMV: It is 'correct' to be depressed. | We can all agree that intelligent people tend to have higher rates of depression, but this view isn't going to be an appeal to that authority given how irreverent people are these days.
Something that's always bothered me is popular understanding of depression. My problem isn't with semantics - the manner in which de... | 15 | Depression isn't sadness. Depression isn't being worried about the state of the world. Depression is being unable to leave your bed all day due to extreme lethargy. Depression is hanging out with your friends and being unable to enjoy yourself like you usually do. These things have nothing to do with your perspective o... | 14 |
Do the heavier elements that make up the Earth come from one specific supernova? | If they are the product of several supernovas, can we trace back the general area they came from? | 61 | This question can't be answered at this time. We have only a very small amount of isotopic compositions of meteorites, and they pretty much all appear to be the same. When we DO find some other meteorites with a different isotopic composition and a fair sampling of what that frequency is, we might know something.
We d... | 12 |
ELI5: What is buckling in structural engineering? | According to Wikipedia, it's a sudden change in shape due to an applied load that is parallel to the beam. How does this differ from compression in beam theory? | 60 | For ELI5: Imagine a dollar bill folded zig-zag, standing on it's edge on a table. If you are very careful, you can put a brick on the dollar bill and it will hold it up, because the paper is strong if the weight on it is exactly up and down (vertical). You know that if you poke the bill sideways, you'll make a crease a... | 68 |
[5th Element] What was the plan to recover the stones if everything went according to plan? | In the movie the Mondechiwans presumably have the stones and 5th element on board the primary ship that gets blown up. Secretly they have surgically implanted the stones in Pava Laguna who has a prior commitment and presumably scheduled to deliver a world famous opera concert at the exact time the stones are needed on ... | 24 | The same way they actually were picked up, just with considerably less shooting and explosions.
They'd land, Lelu (or the Mondechiwans themselves) would explain the ruse, and they'd fly out to Floston and pick them up from the Diva. Remember the Diva wasn't surprised to see Lelu there, from her perspective it was a... | 12 |
CMV: Respect for elders and authority figures shouldn’t be expected, but rather earned like the rest of the population. | First time poster here :)
The idea that one should always maintain respect for those older than them, or more powerful, doesn’t seem to stand currently. And this can be perceived as largely constructive, as there is no longer blind respect for authority figures, and people are better able to speak out against oppressi... | 30 | 1. Everyone deserves respect. Aretha Franklin wrote a song about it.
2. Elder people have earned respect throughout their lives by raising the next generation of humans. Building and maintaining a society and literally creating our generation is worthy of respect on it's own.
3. People in positions of authority dese... | 16 |
[The Martian] Why didn't Watney just use the RTG he dug up to power the rover? | From the recent documentary film on the incident of leaving behind Dr. Mark Watney on Mars, it was noted that in order to extend the range of the rover, Watney did a battery swap routine as well as powering down all non-essential systems such as the heater. So he dug up the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator which I... | 30 | He does for the pathfinder trip. It ends up cutting his recharge time from 13 hours to 12 hours.
For the trip to the MAV, he has the RTG inside a plastic bag, in a tank of water. Not a very attractive situation for wiring.
Also, over a day the RTG would only produce 2.46 pirate ninjas of power. | 88 |
Can chimps pass down cooking? | Hi, I was wondering if you could teach a whole generation of chimps to cook, and have it pass on down generation after generation to perpetuity.
So let's say you give a whole tribe of chimps a sort of relatively safe reusable firestarter device, and a frying pan/stand setup. You teach the whole tribe to use them using... | 27 | I studied chimps for several years. One big issue with teaching them how to cook is you must first teach them how to make fire. Making fire would likely prove a bigger obstacle than actually learning that cooked food is better than uncooked.
Chimpanzees have been demonstrated to have a capacity to understand cooking a... | 10 |
ELI5: Why is the penalty for attempted murder often so much less than that for murder, when often the only difference between attempted murder and successful murder is how successful a doctor or paramedic is in reviving the victim, which has no bearing on the severity of the act itself? | 30 | Attempted murder isn't necessarily always whether the doctor can revive the victim. It can also be a failed murder plot. It's like the difference between the different degrees of murder and manslaughter. Premeditated murder is punished more severely than provoked murder. Because premeditated murder means there was inte... | 16 | |
ELI5: Why is it so easy for hackers to disrupt government services and access private information but no one has erased all credit card debt for everyone? | 150 | Because, no matter what movies and TV shows teach you about hackers, in the real world we have redundant servers and offline backups to prevent what you're talking about.
Sure, it's remotely possible to delete all of that data at an institution -- but just for a few hours. Then they restore it, and you get 10 years in... | 132 | |
CMV: Your degree is not at important as the network you create and maintain |
Higher education is important and essential for a higher paying job, and to have a skilled job. However, the degree you obtain does little to no good without a network of people looking out for you.
After graduation, it is important to have people to reach out to. They can vouch for your work ethic and are able to ... | 21 | This issue is entirely job specific. Some careers are completely unavailable without the degree (doctor, nurse, lawyer, psychologist, social worker, engineer) while others put very little weight on a degree (sales, assistant). You've essentially taken a hard stance on an issue that is completely continent on the situat... | 19 |
[MCU] What makes Kingpin such a good crime boss despite being very temperamental? What is he able to do that other crime bosses can’t? | 75 | Capital is a big part of it. Other crime lords slowly amass power and wealth through crime, then use that power and wealth to attract more, but their wealth is derived from criminal activity, will always be criminal, carries a lot of risks, and can easily be lost in a second.
Fisk has an incredible amount of legitimat... | 81 | |
ELI5:Why we have evolved with the ability to physically shut off our sense of sight, but not any of the others.. hearing, smell, taste and touch? | Sitting on the tube and realising i made huge error of leaving my headphones at home it got me thinking, why can't i "close" my ears. That is, without of course sticking my fingers inside, why haven't i evolved to protect my hearing at will, much like how eyelids protect eyesight? I have been reading many papers on our... | 33 | Just because you close your eyes, you don't "shut off" that sense. You're still very much able to see the light that get through your eyelids. Furthermore, eyelids were not evolved to turn off your sense of vision, but to protect them from different stuff that can get in to them and damage them, and keep them moisturis... | 42 |
[Fatherland]how is Hitler still alive in 1964, his drug addictions were already basically killing him when he shot himself in our timeline? | Hitler was regularly taking opiates by 1941, which is a year before the novel deviated from our timeline in 1942.
EDIT:https://www.npr.org/transcripts/518986612?t=1651359365895 | 15 | 1. Being head of state gives you an impressive amount of medical care. The leading factor with disease is wealth, and the Reich would go to extreme lengths to avoid their Victorious Leader dying of an overdose in a back alleyway. Even in the 40s and 50s, we had enough medical tech to keep him alive.
2. The leading fac... | 23 |
[Buffyverse/MCU] Would the First Evil/Hellmouth have a lot of impact on the MCU? | Basically the Hellmouth opens in a small Californian town and for the fun of it we'll just assume vampires and demons have been roaming Earth without SHIELD or any other organization catching wind of them. Does the Hellmouth and the First Evil stand a chance in the MCU? You can use any time period during the movies. | 54 | Doctor Strange would be horrified to learn that the only people protecting the biggest source of magical turmoil from overflowing into the normal world was a group of teenagers and a middle aged librarian. | 60 |
ELI5: How can electronics with rechargeable batteries tell how much energy is left? | My laptop can tell me exactly what percentage of the battery is remaining, but what is this number based off of? | 97 | A fully charged battery will be at a certain voltage. As the batteries energy is depleted the voltage will drop. A fully depleted battery will have a voltage of zero. By monitoring the battery voltage the device can estimate available battery power. | 28 |
Is a thermometer affected by wind chill? | Are the measurements of either mercury or electronic thermometers affected by a high wind speed relative to it?
I know humans feel the cooling effect due to the evaporation of sweat and was wondering if the same principle applied | 92 | Where humans feel cooling (or heating) based on the rate of heat transfer from/to their body, thermometers typically measure the actual temperature, rather than the rate of heat flow.
Take for example the mercury thermometer. This device functions using the fact that mercury expands when it heats up. This property app... | 54 |
(ELI5) How do hot teas help with sore throats? | 40 | Other commenters have commented on the chemical compounds within tea leaves, but there are also the important elements of heat and hydration.
So even drinking warm water without tea leaves (sometimes with honey and/or lemon, or even just plain), can provide immediate relief for sore throats because:
- **heat** reduce... | 15 | |
CMV: In the Naruto series, the idea that "Naruto is the hard worker, Sasuke is insanely talented" is flipped. | I know that among the fandom, it's common to say that Neji was right and hard work doesn't matter as much as "fate". I more or less agree, but that isn't exactly what this thread is about. Now obviously, both Naruto and Sasuke both work hard and are both talented. However, I'd say if they each lean more towards one,... | 30 | Note: time=/=effort
Sasuke is a gifted learner. When he puts in X effort to his training, he sees Y reward in his abilities.
Naruto is not a gifted learner. When he puts in X effort to his training, he sees <Y reward in his abilities.
In order for Naruto to increase his abilities at a rate similar to Sasuke, Na... | 14 |
[DC COMICS] Who are the top 10 smartest people in the New 52 DC universe? | I know Batman, Lex luthor, Superman, and mister terrific. Who else? | 20 | I cant give a list but characters like Static, Braniac 5 and that scientist who created Firestorm (Name escapes me) would probably place on the list as a starting point. The problem with many of the Smart people is that there skills are not transferable or broad enough, e.g. while Bruce Wayne is smart at business and ... | 21 |
ELI5: Why aren't there many engineers or scientists in congress/politics/government? | I get that people think differently but why isn't there an effort for this? I DO believe there are SOME issues that engineers would solve/attempt to solve better than current politicians. | 21 | Engineers do what they do generally speaking because they like to solve problems. Engineers design better things, fix broken things, make things more efficient. Making an engineer work in government would essentially be putting him into some sort of engineer-specific dante's circle of hell. | 25 |
[Marvel] Have Apocalypse and Juggernaut ever fought? | We've got the Juggernaut, who throws around Hulk like a doll.
We've got Apocalypse, who is nigh-unstoppable on Earth.
&#x200B;
Have these two beasts ever fought each other, have they ever thrown hands at each other? If not, why not? | 25 | As i recall Apocalypse once didnt have enough to chip in for the sampler appetizer and clearly ate most of it and Juggernaut changed his shared netflix password and didnt talk to him for like three weeks. | 20 |
ELI5: Why do share owners lend their shares to short sellers? | This is in relation to the gamestop short squeeze & short selling in general.
Why do the original share owners offer up their shares to short sellers. Aren't they getting the same amount in 3 months as if he just sold them himself three months down the line? Is there some sort of benefit for the original share ow... | 16 | When a share owner is lending a share out like this, they are being paid a fee for it. Not a very big fee but... That is still more than getting nothing during that same period from the share just sitting in your account. | 14 |
[Terminator] What if Sky-Net had sent one of the rubber-skinned infiltrator models back in time? | So, in the first movie, Kyle Reese talks about rubber skinned terminator models that people spotted easily.
How would the 80s world that the Terminator is sent back to going to react to that sort of thing?
I mean, how rubbery are we talking? Like, is the average person from the Eighties going to think "killer robot" ... | 358 | Imagine a big ken doll that's built like a Mack truck coming at you. It's human from a distance but too big to be normal unless a weight lifter and doesn't act human except to say a few phrases. If it were sent back instead of a t 800 it'd be spotted pretty quickly and be involved in a massive shootout with police si... | 237 |
[ASOIAF] What does the other three quarters of the planet look like? | So it's been mentioned that Westeros, Sothoros and Essos only encompass three-quarters of the surface of the planet. Has the other three quarters been conquered by the Others? Has Bran the Builder set up an empire in Northoros? Is Ibben simply the outpost of a gigantic whaling empire? Is Asshai bigger than anyone thoug... | 26 | nobody knows, and anyone who has seen the rest of the world never survived a return trip, even the fastest ship takes months to get from Dorne to Quarth, and King Brandon Stark who sailed west with the most of the Northern fleet to find new lands, was never seen again. in this new age of dragons and the resurgence of m... | 19 |
CMV: There is NO legitimate reason to be an "anti-masker" and NO good reason anyone should refuse to wear masks. It is one of the most pointlessly selfish things someone can be in times like these. | So I work as a security guard. Lately a big new part of my job has been reminding people that they need to wear their masks. This as you might imagine inevitably has lead to many a heated conversation with people who just cannot wrap their heads around why I'm asking them to follow this simple rule. Even aside from wha... | 347 | There's one medical issue that actually collides with masks: Trigeminal neuralgia. Patients with that condition can't wear one since the mask itself would cause them immeasurable pain.
But those patients know how to handle the issue and how to behave/handle their daily tasks including going outside. And they're the la... | 164 |
Disregarding the fact that people are considered mature or an adult at age 18(in most countries). At what age do different philosophers consider a person an adult? | I'm guessing that people have different ideas of what's the ideal adult age. I think that I could consider myself an adult at age 25 and beyond. I could call myself an adult at age 18 anytime but I wouldn't feel like one. | 17 | What we mean when we say that someone is mature is that they have developed a certain set of capacities. These capacities can be a number of things, including things like the capacity to drive a car well. But the most important type of capacity we tend to associate with maturity is rational capacities. The reason that ... | 11 |
[Star Wars]So I'm a newly fallen Dark Jedi, where can I get some troops, starships, and a few super-weapons to take over the galaxy? | So I'm a newly fallen Dark Jedi. I don't feel like joining up with Snoke, Kylo Ren, and the First Order (my neck gets sore looking up at tall holograms, and Kylo Ren's a bit too whiny). How do I go about procuring legions of faceless stormtroopers, powerful starships, swarming starfighters, and a few super-weapons?
... | 44 | You think you can just up and decide you're a dark Jedi and that troops, ships and doomsday devices will just fall into your lap?
Fuck off grasshopper, Papa Palpatine worked his entire life to build the Empire.
Either you take it, or your don't.
There are no handouts. | 80 |
How do scientists schedule time with the JWST Telescope? | I’m assuming it’s an appointment thing, but I’m just curious if anyone knows how the process works? | 35 | Astronomer here. Almost all telescopes (JWST included) have a peer reviewed proposal process. We write proposals for using the telescope, explaining what scientific goals we have, how it impacts the rest of astronomy, why we really need JWST, and how it extends work we have already done. These are scrutinized by specia... | 49 |
ELI5: How come in some instances we don't feel pain until we look at the injury? | I remember getting a huge gash in my hand and I didn't feel a thing until my friend pointed it out to me. Happened to a lot of my friends too | 49 | The ability to ignore wounds like that was a significant evolutionary advantage: in general, getting wounds means that you're probably in danger. There are very few kinds of danger for which sitting around immobilised by pain and screaming is a good way to get out of the danger, but an awful lot where not having to wor... | 28 |
ELI5: Why are people given a paper bag when hyperventilating? | I was just sitting at work and got a sudden case of laboured breathing. I thought, "Wow, I wish I had a paper bag so that I could-" and then I realized I really had no idea why I would need one. Can someone explain the purpose of the bag?
Edit: formatting | 15 | When you hyperventilate you blow CO2 out faster than you can make it. The issue with this is that your body uses CO2 levels to judge if you need to breathe or not. If your CO2 levels are low it thinks you don't need to breathe and you pass out.
To prevent this you basically need to maintain your CO2 levels by breathi... | 23 |
ELI5: When a movie star signs up for a big budget movie how/when does he/she get paid? | Do they get a weekly or bi-weekly paycheck? A lump sum? | 41 | Talent agent here... they get paid multiple times in various ways. There's the lump sum upfront guaranteed money (ie We'll pay you $10M dollars to do this film), royalties (plus 2% of box office sales, TV broadcoasts and DVD sales), and bonuses/incentives (plus another $1M if you do a publicity tour in Europe, with an... | 57 |
ELI5:Why are the hairs that grow in moles thicker and blacker? | 728 | Moles are basically a tumor. The unusual cell cluster pushes on the follicle, making it grow hair faster than usual. They're darker because of the extra melanin in the area from the mole. It's actually a good thing if your mole grows hair because that's a sign it's not cancerous.
I copy/pasted it from another ELI5 fro... | 515 | |
CMV:Rio shouldn't have been chosen to host the Olympics at all. | In 2009, Rio de Janeiro, or the """""Wonderful""""" City, was chosen to hold the 2016 Summer Olympics. Rio de Janeiro has a lot of social and structural problems: the Guanabara Bay is too polluted for the sailing competitions (but there is a lake region just outside the city), the three illnesses carried by the *Aedes ... | 40 | In 2009 Brazil was one of, if not the best, country in the world in terms of projected growth. We were just coming out the 2008 crash and Brazil was basically unaffected
Also, you have to take into account hosting the games in a 3rd world country is great for the Olympics committee. In Brazil billions were invested in... | 18 |
Does pressure affect the way atoms bond? Are there any compounds/reactions that are not possible at NTP but could be if the reactants are placed in a chamber with a higher/lower pressure? | We all know how pressure affects intermolecular forces, but how about *inner* molecular forces? | 27 | This might not be quite what you are looking for but there are actually many fancy materials that you can form at high to extreme pressures.
For things achievable on earth a common example would be diamond. Less well known would be the various different types of ice (like ice V, VI, VII, XI).
More theoretical and p... | 19 |
[Harry Potter] I am Lord Voldemort. I control the Ministry, including its supply of Time Turners. Should I issue one to each one of my Death Eaters, to use to reverse time in case I am killed in action? | Time turners are obviously very dangerous, and I wouldn't want my followers using them while I am still alive, lest they unintentionally erase me from the timeline, but if I am killed, what do I have to lose? I could always cast a spell upon them that stops them from working while I am still alive.
The Ministry should... | 24 | In the HP universe, time is fixed in the sense that the modifications done due to time travel have always happened- there is no changing established events since time travel becomes part of established events.
So if Voldemort dies, he dies, end of story- time travel is not going to change that. Any attempts to do so... | 41 |
ELI5: Why do chameleons walk like they're pondering every step? | 21 | They are trying to look like a branch or leaves waving back and forth in the wind, instead of like a walking chameleon. If they just strolled along then their prey would spot them and they would starve, or predators would spot them and they would be eaten. | 26 | |
[The Matrix] What's so special about a hard phone line that allows it to bring someone out of the matrix? | 35 | Hardwired phone lines are part of the Matrix infrastructure. When someone hacks into the Matrix, encryption prevents them from leaving. So you need to get to a connection that is not being encrypted to get back out. | 29 | |
ELI5: Why is AM radio so much less popular than FM? | Is AM "dead"? Why? | 38 | Some people still listen to AM radio but not nearly that many. The reason is actually pretty simple.
AM can't sound as good as FM. I'll explain why later. AM is good enough to listen people talking but it isn't really good enough for music. AM is mostly for talk radio like news or opinions. People dont listen to that ... | 41 |
[WH40K] Can Dark Eldar revert to a lifestyle similar to the normal Eldar? | So one day a Dark Eldar wakes up after the usual 2 week long sadomaso torture orgy with a terrible hangover, takes a look at all the blood drenching his carpet, the pieces of brain matter hanging from the ceiling and the partially eaten corpse of a human child lying in a corner, realizes that he has to clean all that a... | 24 | I think its possible.... but insanely unlikely. There would have to be some heavy shit go down for an Eldar to feel bad about anything non-Eldar.
A human childs corpse in the corner torn to shreds is meaningless to a dark eldar. Do you ever get home and see an ant corpse in the corner of the room and have a life chan... | 25 |
Brits and bad teeth. History of a stereotype | Everyone knows the stereotype, but where did it come from? British people have the best dental hygiene in the world, so is the stereotype one of opposites. Maybe we once had awful teeth and now we are over compensating. Where did the stereotype come from? | 17 | It's a stereotype that originated in America. In the early parts of the 20th century, aesthetic dentalwork like braces and teeth-bleaching became absolutely required for Hollywood actors, in the classical era where the studios cultivated an image of glamour and perfection -- Hollywood being America's cultural represent... | 23 |
ELI5: The skill behond the STRATOS jump, and why
someone else couldn't do it just as easily. | 35 | I suspect anybody in good physical condition could ride in a balloon and jump out. The thing is you need somebody who can do that in the worst possible conditions. What if his parachute got damaged in the balloon ride? Would you be able to repair it or even tell if it's repairable? What if some technical gear failed? W... | 30 | |
[General Fiction] Which normally-ruthless villains have the most interesting moral code, in terms of certain evil acts they will flatly refuse to do because of their personality or backstory? | 53 | FMA Brotherhood Kimbly had a real interesting moral code. He hated people who claimed to believe in something but then acted otherwise. If you couldn't walk the walk, he had nothing but contempt for you.
&#x200B;
Kimbly himself liked murdering people, and slaughtered hundreds.
&#x200B;
But he had more resp... | 48 | |
ELI5: Who can the authorities prosecute during all these celebrity leaks, and is actually looking at the pictures illegal? | 15 | To answer what you're probably more concerned about, the only way they could really prosecute you for just looking is if any of the pictures are of someone when they were under 18, and honestly even then it's probably way too much trouble for the authorities to track down and load up the court systems with everybody wh... | 11 | |
[LotR] How does Gondor supply all those men who light the beacons of Gondor? | As seen [here](https://youtu.be/i6LGJ7evrAg), the beacons span a huge distance, winding through desolate mountain tops, and each one is manned by at least one Gondorian (apparently at all times, just in case).
Given their remoteness, how do these men survive? Are they constantly supplied with food and provisions? Do t... | 31 | >Are they constantly supplied with food and provisions?
Yes.
>Given that there is a need for a supply chain, why not just use that chain to transmit the messages?
You act like there's constantly a line of people from Gondor to the beacons. It's just like one dude with a cart who goes by once a month and drops... | 55 |
[Star Wars: Original Trilogy] Is the power to blow up a planet *really* inconsequential compared to the power of the Force? | The Death star blows up a planet, wholesale. On the other hand, the force users can wield a lightsaber. It would take several thousand years for them to dust the plant, at minimum. The best feat of raw strength of telekinesis is Master Yoda lifting the X-wing. So what? A crane can do that too. Manipulating weak minds? ... | 529 | Thanks to the dark side of the force, Palpatine and Vader were able to rise to positions of power where they are now able to tell the guy with the planet killing weapon what to do. That's what Vader means. | 698 |
ELI5: Why are many female animals larger than their male counterparts but human males are larger than females? | 118 | It all has to do with how selective the females are for mates. Typically in mammals, the reproductive process involves really significant resource expenditures by the females. Plus, the amount of offspring produced in one birth event is relatively low. Cats will have maybe 4-10 kittens in a litter, dogs will have 5-10,... | 72 | |
How big would an explosion have to be to measurably affect the Earth's orbit? | For instance, (ignoring environmental issues), if we took all the nukes and blew them all up in one location, would it affect the Earth's orbit? Or if we somehow took all the world's radioactive material, put it in one place and managed to ignite fission, would that do it? | 25 | None of those would do anything (other than destroy all life on the planet). Momentum is conserved, so assuming no debris from the explosion can escape Earth's gravitational pull entirely, the Earth must continue on its path. | 11 |
[MCU] What would have happened if Hela fell out of the big rosy and landed in Sakaar? | 55 | She's too powerful most likely for the net or the obedience disks to work on so she'd most likely just try to find a way back to Asgard. She would probably go to the Grandmaster and ask for passsage to Asgard. If he refused she'd lay waste to the place. Remember Grandmaster thinks Hulk is awesomely strong Hela can w... | 58 | |
ELI5: Are there any other societies like the Amish that stopped with tech at different points in history? | They Amish chose not to use any technology after a certain point. Are there people out there that stopped even before the Amish or more recently? | 16 | That's not how the Amish choose what tech to use or not use. They didn't 'stop at year xyz.' They evaluate technological innovations amongst their communities and determine what technologies are considered useful enough, and what technologies are too disruptive to their way of life. Some use cars, some use phones. Each... | 15 |
ELI5: How does anti-venom render venom useless so quickly? | 35 | Venom is like a bunch of evil LEGO pieces that are designed to fit into critical spots on your cells (nerve, blood, etc). Antivenin is a collection of antibodies, which physically attach to the venom molecules like sticking more LEGO to them. The result is that the venom can no longer fit into the spots in your cells i... | 102 | |
So, Nuclear Subs can stay submerged for about as long as they can keep the crew fed and sane - no worry of oxygen. Why cant we make a space station like that - without worry of oxygen running out? | 21 | Nuclear submarines can produce oxygen by using electric power to electrolyse water. Spacecraft can do that too, and in fact that's how the ISS produces its oxygen, but spacecraft aren't surrounded by water so it needs to be sent up on rockets anyway. | 93 | |
ELI5: How come our bodies adapt so we only get the chicken pox once, but we always get the flu and other things? | Why can people's bodies adapt so we can only get the chicken pox once, but we can never adapt to the flu or the cold or other small sicknesses? [Answered] | 18 | It isn't our bodies. It is the illness. The cold and the flu are actually tons of different rapidly evolving viruses. You do actually become imune to a particular cold strain once you get it... but there are a few hundred more waiting to get you next.
As to why the flu and cold viruses adapt faster than the chicken p... | 10 |
What exactly are tensors? | I recently started working with TensorFlow and I read that it turn's data into tensors.I looked it up a bit but I'm not really getting it, Would love an explanation. | 465 | The word "tensor" is overloaded in mathematics, statistics, and computer science. In this context (TensorFlow, and data science more generally), tensor usually just refers to an array of numbers (which may be higher dimensional than a vector or a matrix, which are 1- and 2-tensors, respectively). This is similar to the... | 291 |
[FMA]Why can't Father just use alchemy to make the giant transmutation circle? | Couldn't Father just use alchemy to make a hole in the shape of a giant transmutation circle rather than using Sloth to dig it? | 16 | Maybe, but it would be an immense effort and Father had better things to do. Sloth can dig the hole in a reasonable timeline without much trouble, and that gave Father plenty of time to work on the rest of the plan. In addition, an alchemical work of that magnitude is very likely to be noticed. Having someone dig a lar... | 11 |
[Bloodborne] A few questions about Blooodborne |
Beat the game but still not completely sure what was going on...
From a lore perspective, how does the Hunter's dream allow me to resurrect after dying?
What exactly is the One Reborn and Rom?
Was the Research Hall trying to convert people into Great Ones?
Is there a difference between the Ashen Blood and the Be... | 16 | In the universe, dream realms are actual distinct realms of reality that you can travel to physically. Some say they're the home of the Great Ones. They tend to be made be the Great Ones for humans who call out to them; The Hunter's Dream was made for Gehrman when he was "retired" by the Church and felt purposeless, th... | 19 |
ELI5: How does quicksand form, and what causes its texture? | How does sand become [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omBFjFGwRhs)? | 123 | normally, sand sinks to the bottom of water because it is more dense,a dn it settles against other sand, which it catches against (close up, sand is lots of little jagged pieces of rock)
Quicksand is formed by water pushing up through a layer of sand- this pushes the sand apart so that the jagged pieces are forced aw... | 29 |
[General] From where or when did the class/title of Paladin develop? | 31 | The Paladins were another name for the Twelve Peers-- basically, like the Knights of the Round Table, except there were only 12 of them, and they worked for Charlemagne rather than King Arthur. The name itself derives from the Palatini, the guards of the Roman Emperor's personal palace of Palatine hill. Like the Knight... | 37 | |
[Seinfeld] How does Kramer keep his apartment? | He hasn't worked in 10 years (I think), how does he survive at all? | 23 | "*Kramer* goes to a fantasy camp. His whole *life* is a fantasy camp. People should plunk down $2,000 to live like *him* for a week. Do nothing, fall ass-backwards into money, mooch food off your neighbors, and have sex without dating. *That's* a fantasy camp."
Kramer always has some scheme going on. Coffee table book... | 43 |
ELI5: Getting sick when the seasons change? | 45 | It's mostly down to timing. For one most schools start back up close to the start of fall. Schools are great places for things like colds to spread. Kid brings cold to school, spreads around class to class. Those kids bring them home, infect parents and siblings, who take them to their schools and work. Rinse repeat.
... | 11 | |
Would destroying the moon effectively rid our world of werewolves? | On Dragon Ball Earth during a tournament, to prevent Goku (who had transformed into a gigantic ape) from hurting anyone and to bring him back, Master Roshi destroys the moon, ending Goku's rampage. Assuming we could repeat the feat, would such a solution work at preventing people with lycanthropy from becoming werewol... | 59 | I can imagine one particularly disastrous scenario - if you just "blow up the Moon", ie, blast it into dust, you'll create a gigantic ring around Earth composed of moonrock. That moonrock will be reflecting an enormous amount of sunlight. It'd be clearly visible throughout both day and night, from every place on Earth.... | 37 |
[MCU] Why isn't Thor's hair burnt off on Nidavellir? | 55 | It's made of the same extra durable Thor-matter as the rest of him. There's no reason to assume that a creature who's body is able to withstand direct exposure to a star, won't also have really tough hair. | 69 | |
ELI5: Why are there nuclear subs but no nuclear powered planes? | Or nuclear powered ever floating hovership for that matter? | 5,400 | It's been tried! But nuclear generators are very heavy, especially with the kind of shielding that you'd need to actually protect your crew from being irradiated. If you're in the ocean, that's a lot easier since added weight just makes you slower, it doesn't change what you need to stay aloft.
For a plane, you gain t... | 5,692 |
[Star Wars ROTJ] Why did taking out the super star destroyer's bridge cause it to go careening down into the death star? | Surely the crew should be able to stabilize the attitude, take evasive action or simply bug out from some other part of the ship. | 19 | The Executor was in the process of a maneuver to better accommodate the approach of Rae Sloane's star destroyer, the Vigilance, so it could have a covered flank, the other flank protected by its extremely close proximity to the battle station itself. While its engines were firing (hence the order to intensify firepower... | 22 |
ELI5: How is it that Mayonnaise, which is made out of whole eggs and egg yolks, have absolutely ZERO protein? | I'm talking about on the nutrition facts. I mean, it must be in there, right?
Thanks to a few people this post is now:
[Explained]! | 57 | It has some protein, yes. Nutrition facts are essentially rounded, though: that's why you can have things with "0 calories." They still have calories, but if it's like .4 calories, they can say it has 0.
A serving of mayonnaise is very small since it's a condiment, so if it has like .3 grams of protein or whatever, th... | 21 |
ELI5 : Why can't internal organs be itchy? | If internal organs can hurt, why can't they get itchy? | 35 | I think the body would evolve to discourage that. The only way to scratch that kind of itch is going to harm you.
Consider the reason for an itch evolved in the first place... it's to get you to brush off bugs and other critters. And for this it's better to have false positives. But bugs don't tend to get inside yo... | 50 |
How do we know the population of deep sea fish? | People bring up that the bottom of the ocean is less known than the surface of the moon, and yet, when I go to the Wikipedia page for Frilled Sharks, I see that it's classified as 'near threatened'. How do we know the population of such a deep sea species well enough to term it 'near threatened'? | 818 | In biology, where a species is either widespread, or for some other reason, counting individuals exhaustively is too difficult, numbers are calculated from exhaustively surveying a set area of habitat then extrapolating based on area of known territory.
E.g. A bird species has confirmed sightings in 10 different area... | 160 |
ELI5: What happens when I’m passing out after seeing blood or getting blood drained? | 44 | I know a few people with the same problem. It's called vasovagal syncope.
"You faint because your body overreacts to certain triggers, such as the sight of blood or extreme emotional distress. It may also be called neurocardiogenic syncope.
The vasovagal syncope trigger causes your heart rate and blood pressure to ... | 29 | |
[LOTR] No, that doesn't work. | No plan to hide or protect the One Ring will work. It calls out; someone will always find it, or the person who was supposed to throw it into space *won't do it,* or whatever. Every time someone asks "But what if we did THIS with the ring?!" the world gets dumber. | 16 | It's also irrelevant. Sauron was winning by attrition, no one could stand against his forces in any drawn out conflict. Destroying the ring was the only way to win, hiding the ring, especially in ways which safely seal it away for long periods, do nothing to inconvenience his plan | 18 |
[1984] The epilogue implies that The Party is no longer in power. What exactly caused this fall? | 121 | When reading *The Principles of Newspeak*, it is tempting to say it's referring to the Party in the past tense, but that would not necessarily be an accurate deduction. Instead, the passage only goes so far as to refer to Newspeak in the past tense. Admittedly, Newspeak was such an important aspect of Ingsoc that it'... | 102 | |
ELI5: Why do pills such as Paracetamol come in a nice number like 500mg, But others such as Aspirin come in numbers like 81mg? why not 80? | 105 | For some medications it's because they come in both micrograms and milligrams so they make one of them slightly off so people don't accidentally take 1000x the usual dose. Baby Aspirin comes in 81mg because it's 1/4 as much as normal Aspirin which is "5 grain" or 325mg. | 57 | |
CMV: Friendships are reciprocal, and you should only put into a friendship as much as you're going to get out of it | I had a discussion with someone recently, and we were talking about the nature of friendships.
I am of the opinion that you should only put in as much effort into a friendship as the other party/parties are putting into it. For the sake of your own mental health, I don't think that it makes sense to be devoting a lot ... | 47 | What about when your friend is going through a bad time? Let’s say they just lost a family member to an early death. Surely they need you to support them extra for a while with no expectation of reciprocity.
To turn friendship into a scoreboard watching game means friendships end when they are needed most. | 20 |
CMV that bitcoin is a flash in the pan and in 5 years we will all laugh at the people who used them. | I get the feeling that bitcoin has inherent issues that will eventually come to bite all those who deal with them in the ass. Namely I think there is going to be a major supply issue as the mining difficulty skyrockets. I think there is also going to be an issue with bitcoin black holes as people lose bitcoins from har... | 79 | >proving financial records would be even more difficult
This is thoroughly untrue. Every bitcoin transaction is very public; it's the most fundamental part of the protocol, really. It would be good for you to read up more on exactly how it works. | 59 |
CMV: The Eric Garner case shows a major problem in our justice system, and shows that we need a major overhaul of how we choose to indite. | What happened to Eric Garner was a horrible tragedy. But I don't blame the NYPD for it. Occasionally a cop goes insane and does something like this. The NYPD commissioner seems to be on Garner's side, and many officers have said that what the police officer did was not protocol and was wrong.
But the police can't know... | 563 | We already don't *really* use grand juries to indict. The grand jury is a puppet of the prosecutor. It's set up in a way that allows the prosecutor to get indictments (or non-indictments) pretty much at will.
Imagine if you had a trial where only one side was allowed to present evidence and the threshold for guilt is ... | 198 |
ELI5: What makes scientists think that there is more than three dimensions? | And how is time considered the fourth dimension? | 25 | It's based on math.
You need two dimensions to determine the location on a piece of paper, or plane. You need three dimensions to determine the position in space. the fourth dimension you can determine the position in space at any given time.
What will blow your mind is getting you head around the fact that some sc... | 23 |
CMV: I think arguments against equal pay that are based on women's lower productivity are invalid. | "Pregnancy and periods reduce the value of women as workers by bringing down their productivity and in a capitalistic society its only fair if companies choose to pay them less than they pay men" is an argument Ive encountered many times while debating equal pay. Here is the best way to logically dismantle such argume... | 30 | >It is true that periods and pregnancy reduce a person's productivity and value as a worker, but so do migraine, horniness, being fat, insomnia, having too many kids etc. So a person who thinks that women's periods and pregnancy should be taken into account when deciding their pay
This is where you're missing the p... | 36 |
Last night, I was running my fingers through my blanket. I could hear crackling sounds, and when i saw from inside the blanket, I could see flashes of light. How and when does this phenomenon occur ? | I also noticed that more fingers I used, the bigger the area of the illumination was.
Is this due to static electricity ? | 49 | It's static electricity. You're seeing the sparks from the discharges, they should look blue/white colored. If you have a carpet or fuzzy jacket you can make your own "lightning shows" in the dark by building up voltage and discharging it with another object. | 67 |
Looking for good texts on the concept of *reciprocity* in social, cultural, or even commercial contexts. I have a few already, but I wanted to mine the great wisdom of /r/asksocialscience for more. | Thanks. I owe you one. | 25 | I presume you've already found Marcel Mauss' 'The Gift' and/or Marshall Sahlins' 'Stone Age Economics' for more general theory? Are there specific contexts/situations/societies that you are looking at? | 11 |
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