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ELI5:what is the deep web? | 48 | All the deep web is, are things that aren't indexed by search engines. Stuff that's not on Google, Yahoo, etc. Look up TOR and check out .onion sites if you're really interested. But be VERY careful what you click on. | 25 | |
CMV: There is No Free Will | With our ever advancing knowledge of neuroscience and the chemistry involved with it, I do not see any place for the idea that any animal, including humans, is truly capable of making choices. We are capable of recognizing choices, that is obvious, but I'm not convinced that the chemical pathways for neurons leaves any... | 34 | I'd go one step further and say that the concept of free will is meaningless in any universe. If you are subject to laws in which cause leads to effect without exception, you cannot have acted otherwise and therefore your will is not free. If you are not subject to such laws, you must be acting randomly (without cau... | 22 |
What causes the body to produce dental tartar, and how does tartar control toothpaste reduce the amount of tartar buildup on the teeth? | 373 | Tarter is caused by a bacteria that resides in your mouth, plaque. When plaque builds up it creates a biofilm. If you leave this biofilm on your teeth it will eventually harden which is commonly known as tartar. Toothpaste uses a combination of “cleaning” chemicals that interact with the biofilm to dispel it, however, ... | 226 | |
[SpongeBob] Why did Bubble Bass hide the pickles under his tongue instead of just swallowing them? | 27 | A whole host of reasons:
1) Like any Greek tragedy it’s all back to hubris. He thinks he’s amazing: so his victory is all the better tasting of the pickles are in his mouth the whole time.
2) He enjoys his food and pickles are delicious- can’t just swallow those. You have to enjoy them slowly.
3) His tongue is huge - ... | 51 | |
[Dc Comics] Does Batman have detailed files on how best to take down villains like he does for the League? Who would have access to them? | 68 | Batman has intel on everyone. I'd assume any Justice League members as well as the Bat family would have access to most of it relating to the villains, but he is known to withhold sensitive information. | 55 | |
ELI5: Why is it, when people are drunk (often in films), they offer them coffee? | Often you see in films, and I have seen in myself too, people offering coffee to drunk people who tend to be very exuberant. I would've thought the effects of coffee would further heighten said exuberance; e.g. Caffeine. | 16 | Coffee does nothing except keep you alert for a bit and in one place while you drink it. It actually will make your hang over worse, because caffeine is a dieretic as well as alcohol.
Fun fact: if you feel as if you're going to vomit after a night of drinking, or feel full, you can drink a cup of water without gettin... | 11 |
[The Matrix] Why does Neo not use guns in the sequels? | 45 | Even in his first fights with the agents it's clear that it is almost impossible to hit them with bullets, they're simply too fast. It's only when they are completely surprised that they become susceptible. When he realises that they have "upgrades" it becomes pointless to even try.
His hands and handheld weapons can ... | 81 | |
ELI5: What was Portugal like before they legalized drugs? What have been the effects, both positive and negative? Can similar policies be adopted by other nations? | 50 | Portugal didn't legalize drugs, they **decriminalized** them. It's a big difference.
It's still illegal to buy and sell drugs, you just won't go to jail if you had an overdose with said drugs. That gets more people to seek medical help when they need it. | 33 | |
[Fantasy] If a Vampire Lord hosted a Party what would it generally have? | I'm trying to fit a Halloween party in a story hosted by an actual vampire. It happens in a castle but I don't know what activities to expect. Non-Vampires with invites are allowed in but children will be present.
Here's a castle size idea:
[Castle](https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.EOH2kxsHzYNNqBrs-UhMTwDMEx&pi... | 27 | That would depend on the time period, the culture of the attendees, the knowledge of vampires in society at large, and, most importantly, on the vampire itself.
With nothing else to go on except "vampire throws Halloween party in a castle" it could be anything from a modern fancy party to a medieval murder orgy. | 22 |
[Avengers: Endgame] Who was funding the Avengers after the Decimation? | I mean, Nat pretty much lived there until 2023. The entire building looked clean and there still was electricity.
Seems a bit much for just one person.. | 88 | Stark was still around, just because he wasn't an active team member doesn't mean he cut everyone else off. Wakanda may have also provided assistance. They were in the middle of revealing themselves and their tech to the world when this happened, it would be well within their power to pay for electricity and peanut bu... | 127 |
Can someone explain how surface water could freeze in such a perfect triangular pattern ? | My uncle took [this picture](http://i.imgur.com/ls1xd.jpg) of the water in a barrel near his house. He says he saw the same thing occur in the same barrel around ten years ago. There was some unusual temperature fluctuations in the past few days but that's about all I know. | 48 | Crystal growth is the short answer. Three different crystals started growing along three different axes, and the triangle was produced when the crystals met one another (as do any three nonparallel lines on a plane). | 17 |
[Lord of The Rings] Why didn't the White Council follow up on Sauron after they chased him out of Dol Goldur? Especially seeing as he went to the most obvious place in Middle Earth, his old stomping grounds in Mordor? | 882 | Primarily, Saruman, leader of the White Council, had become corrupt with a desire to have the ring for himself and misled the council with false advice. After Sauron openly revealed himself in Mordor, the White Council, in its last meeting, debated what to do. Saruman claimed that the One Ring was lost forever and that... | 509 | |
Is Psychology a useless major? | I’ve had my heart set on becoming a psychologist for a long time now. I like psychology and according to the research I did in one of my classes it seemed like the job openings for psychologists would be increasing in the future. The pay isn’t as high as a doctor’s but it’s enough. So, considering all of this I figured... | 30 | A psychology major is what you make of it. It's basically a requirement for going to grad school to become a psychologist. It can also be an excellent foundation for graduate school in something like public health, neuroscience, decision science, or even business, but the applicability to those fields will highly depen... | 49 |
The Matrix Series: Neo vs Smith in the real world question | So there's this thing that has been bugging me for ages about the fight they had in the real world in the Matrix revolutions.
When they were fighting it just seemed to be standard scrapping. What I want to know is why did they use any martial arts? It's something that's been bugging me for a while. Obviously they can... | 21 | I would imagine that it would be similar to learning to play the piano in a dream, and not having the skill transfer into real life. In the matrix, all activities are just an extension of your conscious thought. In the real world, your physical body might not be so cooperative. | 20 |
[The Boys] What is the use of Lamp Lighter | Looking over the original 7 all if them have a particular purpose
A-Train- Mobility unmatched ability to cover a massive swath of ground and collect information as well as deliver and receive critical goods
Homelander and Maeve- Brute tanks. They can break into any criminal stronghold
The Deep- Able to get info on... | 28 | Well the 7 tend to take care of crime in the most brute force way possible from what ive seen. So having a guy who can set you on fire with a thought would act as a huge deterrent. being killed by homelander laser eyes or exploded by a-train is bad enough but its instant. Dying while being on fire hurts the whole time ... | 25 |
ELI5: How did we decide in PEMDAS as the proper order of operations? | 17 | Parenthesis go first because you need a way to specify an order when the default order is incorrect (or you just want to be explicit).
From there it's entirely convention, but the convention isn't without reason. One thing that winds up showing up a lot in mathematics is a polynomial, such as x^2 - 4x + 3. Ideally y... | 23 | |
What effect did Chomsky have on philosophy? | His wikipedia has a lot of references to him being a philosopher and being a major figure of philosophy which is contrary to what I've read but I'm curious what effect he actually had on philosophy? | 109 | Chomsky's been pretty engaged with two important branches of contemporary philosophy: language and mind. His book, New Horizons In The Study Of Language And Mind lays out some key philosophical commitments, including methodological naturalism (belief that we can study L&M using the methods of the natural sciences) ... | 82 |
How is the Doppler effect different for sound vs light waves? | I made a bet with a friend of mine on this (I said they were somehow a little different), but everything I'm reading online seems to support his side. I did manage to dig up a sentence from Lawrence Krauss' "A Universe from Nothing" where he says that "It turns out that the same phenomenon occurs for light waves as sou... | 146 | They are mostly the same with a few subtle differences.
With sound, it matters how fast the emitter and observer are both moving with respect to the medium. With light, it only matters how fast they are moving relative to each other. With light, things can be moving fast enough that the relativistic Doppler effect has... | 36 |
In binary 1 represents the existence of electric flow and 0 reps the none exists of it. Theoretically does sending information that contains more 0s than 1s will consume less power? | 28 | If that were the case you would be correct. But this is not the case.
0s and 1s represent voltage levels not current levels. For the shake of simplicity let's say that binary 1 means 1 volt and binary 0 means 0 volt.
Modern CMOS implementations theoretically consume zero power when idling, that is they consume power ... | 47 | |
ELI5: How do investigators figure out the cause of a fire, including the massive California wild fire? | 32 | It's not an easy task, because fire destroys the direct evidence.
However, there are signs that trained investigators can read within the context of what burned.
Example: in an apartment fire, maybe they notice that the ceiling is more damaged in a corner rather than in the opposite: so it's likely that the fire starte... | 15 | |
[Ghostbusters] How exactly does the Containment Chamber trap the ghosts ? | We're shown a different Containment chamber in each Ghostbuster media, with two showing how it looks inside (The real ghostbusters and Xtrem Ghostbusters) and all showing its outside aspect. As far as I know, although we know the function of the Containment unit, we're not given any clue about its method of operation, ... | 90 | There are different methods of operation in different canons. In the film canon they are essentially creating an energy field "bottle" (similar to the magnetic fields used to control super high temperature plasma in fusion experiments) that holds ectoplasmic entities in a way that no conventional wall could. They devel... | 56 |
[MCU] Whatever happened to Dr. Stephen Strange, MD? | I'm in my 4th year of residency and I hear he is one of the greatest neurosurgeons of all time. Apparently he got into a car accident that left his hands badly damaged and he couldn't operate anymore. Why doesn't he teach? Where is he? Has anyone seen him? What's he doing with his time now that his surgical career is o... | 364 | Had a break down like any normal person would after losing his life's work, the hot girl, career and dreams. Went to the Far East to "find himself". Probably died of some messed up disease that melts your insides which Western Countries don't have in some crappy mountain village. | 397 |
ELI5: Why are women exempt from the draft? | 36 | Because selective service was established long before women ever could fight in the military, and it was never updated to include women. Trying to do so, especially in the current war weary climate, wouldn't go over very well by anyone so there's no pressure on politicians to change it. | 53 | |
CMV: Public Universities should not prohibit the formation of White Student Unions. | Henceforth WSU will refer to White Students Union and not Washington State University.
I can certainly understand why a University would be concerned about a WSU being founded as, or devolving into, a White supremacist organization. This is a serious concern, and should be addressed with faculty attention.
Supposing ... | 15 | Looking at Response B -- have you ever known any collective "white pride" group that *wasn't* about white supremacy? You mentioned a group that celebrated, for instance, European history, etc. Those groups can and do exist. You can find a Norwegian students group, a European history study group, etc., if you look.
... | 19 |
Why can we discover planets thousands light years away from us, but "miss" Neptun-sized planets in our Solar System? | 74 | The key is that the planets we are discovering around other stars are **much** closer to their star than this new hypothesized planet is.
This new planet is about >20x further away from the sun than Neptune is. Even from Neptune, the Sun wouldn't appear to your eye to be very different than a bright star. It would... | 68 | |
ELI5: Why is there such an uproar from within Brazil over the world cup | I just figured that a country with such a successful soccer heritage would be happy to host | 49 | Because there are bazillions of poor people in Brazil who resent that resources are being spent to impress the rest of the world over a sporting event, instead of, say, bringing running water and schools to the slums. | 78 |
[WP] I am a stormtrooper serving on the ISD Devastator. Lord Vader summoned my fellow stormtrooper and myself to his chambers, cut my friend down with his lightsaber, looked at me, and then told me to get back to my station. What just happened? | Title explains it all. Why did Lord Vader cut my friend down with his lightsaber? We're just stormtroopers. We didn't let any rebels escape.
I thought he was going to kill me, but he looked at me for a few seconds without a word and told me to get back to my station. I obviously did as he told me to do.
What happened... | 82 | Using the available evidence, he'd narrowed the possible traitor down to just two candidates. When he called you before him, you were probably feeling nothing more than mild trepidation mingled with curiosity; you didn't know why you were there, and were expecting some kind of orders.
Your friend was the traitor, and ... | 155 |
[MCU] Why don't Bruce Banner uses beta blockers or anxiolytic drugs to prevent unwanted Hulk transformations in stressful situations? | It seems like a no brainer that a guy with a Ph.D. in biochemistry would:
1. know about these drugs
2. have access
3. be open to using them. | 106 | > Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. It didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it.
- Nick Fury to Captain America in Winter Soldier
I think Banner have tried all available alternatives before creating | 122 |
Why doesn't aluminium spark? | Hi guys, I was just watching some youtube video of Adam Savage and as he sands down some aluminium and it doesn't create any sparks.
I have never really noticed it before, can anyone explain why that is? | 49 | Because it's too soft. Grinding sparks occur when two conditions are met, the metal needs to be flammable, which aluminum certainly is, and it needs to be hard enough for the grinding process to heat it up to the ignition temperature. The harder the metal the more work needs to be done to grind it and the hotter i... | 30 |
What if persons, seen as mentally ill, are in fact perceiving the "real reality"? | Because mental health is determined by how the majority of people "is". But what if the mentally ill minority, are those experiencing reality? | 143 | Partly the answer will depend on what "mentally ill" specifically means-- after all, we now recognize many mental disorders, of some considerable variety. To take just two major ones, schizophrenia (itself found in many forms) and major depression are quite different, and involve experiencing self and world differently... | 83 |
How are underwater cables laid? Plus other related questions in the text. | I understand that This has occurred since the days of the telegraph and now with the internet and so on. But I wondered how the process laying the wires is undertaken. What do the wires look like, is there protections against marine life, pressure, conditions down there.
Do they wear out? Is maintenance done? How are... | 49 | Seabed cables and pipelines are very complex, and to answer all the questions you've asked would take the better part of a 100+ page technical report.
In short, cables are typically manufactured in protective, elastic sheathes, designed for the operations conditions (depth, etc) and deployed by spool from the back o... | 18 |
ELI5: What are canker sores and why do they only occur in the mouth? | 44 | Canker sores are small, shallow ulcers that appear in the mouth and often make eating and talking uncomfortable. There are two types of canker sores:
Simple canker sores. These may appear three or four times a year and last up to a week. They typically occur in people ages 10 to 20.
Complex canker sores. These are les... | 20 | |
ELI5: How can something be artificial if everything is made from naturally occurring elements? | 2,050 | It's essentially a convenient term for indicating a specific group, ala "Stuff made in a lab" vs "stuff we found in the ground, or a plant."
Certainly, one can argue it does not really hold to the 'spirit' of the definition of "stuff in nature" any more than 'organic potatoes' are any more organic than regular potatoe... | 1,599 | |
[DC] If I put on a pair of glasses in the DCU, would my friends be able to recognize me? | 32 | Sure. If you want to do the Superman thing, you'll also have to heavily slouch, use your superstrength to compress your spine, raise your voice an octave in pitch, act completely opposite to your normal personality, and use super speed to subtly blur your face | 51 | |
Why does a wooden spoon on top of a boiling pot of water prevent the water from boiling over? | 240 | Generally it doesn't, it just delays it at best. If you boil things long enough in water, enough starch will accumulate in the water that the spoon doesn't help much anymore.
I don't know the full chemistry behind it, but in the example of pasta, the starch molecules released in to the water causes bubbles that stick ... | 138 | |
AskScience AMA Series: We are Andrea Copping, Biological Oceanographer, Genevra Harker-Klimes, Physical Oceanographer, and Meg Pinza, Coastal Scientist. We study the environmental effects of marine energy at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Ask us anything! | Hi Reddit!! Marine energy is a huge, largely untapped energy resource. So huge that more than 10% of Pacific states' electricity demand could be satisfied by developing a fraction of the wave energy available off the West coast.
Imagine a future where we could harness ALL of our oceans' energy, including energy from m... | 225 | Hello, thank you for taking the time to do an AMA with us! This is a really interesting topic. What sort of potential environmental impacts have you found from marine energy? Are there ways to mitigate them? | 11 |
ELI5: Why did crude oil go down in price so much? | 65 | The short answer is "on purpose". As more and more American oil companies began fracking OPEC and other traditional crude oil companies drove the price down to keep the fracking process from being profitable. It they drive them out of business they can raise the oil prices much higher with theirs being the only supply.... | 52 | |
[tenet] How do inverted bullets work? | Specifically I have two questions:
(I made up nicknames because I couldn’t remember the characters’ names but, in my defence, neither could the movie)
1. When we see a person get shot, the bullet travels from where it landed, through them back into the gun. This undoes damage to the place it landed (bullet holes in g... | 34 | Since inverted actions are an exercise in will over determinism and the observer effect, the difference between a wall and a person getting unshot is somewhere in that. A wall doesn't have the capacity to subjectively feel and understand taking a bullet, a person does | 21 |
What are some skillsets that you would expect any Sr. Developer to have? | Basically...
I'm reaching the point where, strictly speaking on years of experience, I can start to call myself a Sr Developer, however, I feel like a fraud on this regards since I strongly believe I have a huge amount of skillsets/techs that are missing from my portfolio, it's just that I don't specifically know what... | 33 | Knowing, that you don't know everythig, would rank pretty high.
Generally Id say writting clean code, understanding how to abstract and transform your problem space so the solutiom becomes clear and elegant. Being able to learn new subjects quick and adapt. Knowing how to teach others. Some leadership skills. | 35 |
I think the studying the arts in high school does not help prepare students for the "real world" CMV | I am having this argument with a colleague of mine, he is the one that holds this opinion. He thinks that focusing solely on studying core classes such as mathematics, social sciences, and history is much more effective than wasting time with arts such as theater or music. He argues that the real world application of t... | 41 | * First off, there simply aren't enough "real jobs", as your coworker calls them, for every high school student
* Also, arts have a very important place in our society; they are representations of our beliefs, values, etc. They are part of what makes us human.
* You can also tell her that art students such as graphic ... | 37 |
Why is there such intense radiation around Jupiter? | From what I understand, Juno is about to get slammed with radiation which will slowly take out its instruments. What is the source and nature of this radiation? How would a human visiting Europa or Titan be able to withstand it? | 29 | Titan is a satellite of **Saturn**.
Jupiter has a massive magnetosphere, both in intensity and size. Solar wind (which is radiation composed of charged particles) is unable to penetrate it.
Primarily, the radiation around Jupiter comes instead from gases from its innermost moon Io, which has intense volcanic activity... | 28 |
[Marvel] what does Tony Stark do now? | So Tony stops production of weapons in Iron Man after finding out they've been selling to both sides. But what does the company do now? There can't be much money in making your own superhero suit. How does Stark industries stay a float? | 144 | Stark industries powers almost every piece of technology you own.
Your phone? Stark. Your computer? Stark. Your fridge, oven and microwave? Stark. If it's new and electronic, it's Stark.
In addition to the consumer goods Stark Industries is a heavy industrial and biomedical producer as well. Power plants, stee... | 184 |
How do countries with more than one official language write their laws? | I'll use Canada as an example. When they translate a law from English to French, does it ever lose its intent or true meaning? Who does the translating? | 15 | They have the law in both languages. There are specialists who draft laws and its special language. They also tend to do the translation work.
Laws tend to be written in a peculiar style of writing that really is full of legalese and rather clunky. Strangely enough, this makes translation somewhat easier since it ... | 15 |
[Star Trek] Why aren’t fighter craft more common in Star Trek? | Within the Star Trek universe, with few exceptions, there is a distinct lack of fighter spacecraft, with most battles being fought between capital ships.
But much like the parallels with real-world naval combat, with the emergence of aircraft, large capital ships going head to head began to wane in favor of sending sm... | 22 | Star ships can one shot a fighter craft with very accurate weapons they can spam. Anything that isn't large enough to carry a power plant for ship based shields is a sitting duck. When we do see the Federation use fighters it's in fleet maneuvers where there are so many targets that the Peregrine fighters stand a cha... | 36 |
[MCU: Civil War] Why was Rhodey part of the Sokovia Accords? | Maybe I missed some important aspect of his character, but isn't James Rhodey an active duty Air Force Colonel in Civil War?
Why would he be considered part of the Avengers? Did the Air Force transfer Rhodey to fall under the hierarchy of the Avengers? Does the DoD want Rhodey to be some kind of military/Avenger repre... | 72 | The Sokovia Accords were written *because* of the Avengers, not explicitly for them. It specifically governed international deployment of enhanced individuals. All such individuals were "asked" to sign. The War Machine suit is keyed to Rhodey specifically, so if Rhodey doesn't sign the Accords, the Air Force can't lega... | 87 |
CMV: Government bodies shouldn't be allowed to forcibly stop people from suicide or refusing treatment | I just wish the governments would just let me take ownership of their own existence. I didn't choose to exist, be transgender or anything and yet as soon as anyone I know catches wind of how I feel about myself it generally ends with some busybody sending the police around on a "welfare request", shouldn't the police h... | 70 | > why does the government think it has the right to determine what we do with our own life?
The short answer is because what we do with our life often affects other people. This is why it's mostly restrictions on what we can't do, because those things interfere with other people's rights in various ways.
So in a h... | 28 |
Musicology PhDs! Where you guys at? | I’m currently a vocal performance major at an undergraduate conservatory in Asia. I would love to pursue a PhD in musicology after my graduation and I’m slowly but surely learning the ropes in regards to reaching my goal (eg. GRE prep etc etc). However I understand that the niche nature of the musicological field, is s... | 32 | Musicology is not that different from other humanities disciplines when it comes to preparing for grad school applications:
Do several independent studies (or whatever they are called in your institution) with several faculty members if that's an option. This way you get some research experience, have a few writing sa... | 11 |
Eli5 how do cargo ships not tip over? Aren't they super top heavy? | 197 | They can in fact, tip over, but a lot of time and planning is spent so that they don’t. Cargo ships are not just platforms with cargo on top, there are giant engines underneath, the enormous prop shaft, fuel tanks, the bilge, and often more storage. Pains are taken in assuring that the ship isn’t unstable in any way, o... | 294 | |
[MCU] What are the limits to Heimdall's vision? Potential spoilers for Thor Ragnarok | I personally consider Heimdall's sight to be the single most useful superpower in the Thor movies. That being said, despite its apparent ability to see literally anywhere in the universe, I wonder what it's limitations are.
How was Loki able to hide himself from Heimdall? Was it limited to just him, or to the general ... | 18 | > How was Loki able to hide himself from Heimdall? Was it limited to just him, or to the general area of Jotunheim he visisted, considering Heimdall couldn't see ANYTHING Loki did?
Loki was a master illusionist, devilishly clever, and intimately familiar with the layout of Asgard. If anyone could hide from Heimdall... | 17 |
ELI5 Why are some Water Towers very tall and skinny with small reservoirs while some are pretty short and fat with huge reservoirs. | I know it has to do with water pressure and gravity but the range of size and height, which I have seen, is quite vast. In fact, by our home we have 2 that are on either side of the freeway. One is tall and skinny with a small reservoir and one that is short and wide with large reservoir. Why? | 76 | One major factor for the height of the water tower depends on the terrain. You need to have the tank high enough over the area supplies water to for enough pressure. If the ground is flat you need to build a tall tower but if there is a hill that is high enough you can just put the tank on the ground on top of the hi... | 56 |
I thought "Arab Spring" meant these countries were gonna be more democratic and progressive. What happened? Should Western countries do anything about it? | When the different revolts started happening I thought that these countries were going to be taken over by more progressive secular parties, but instead it seems like they're just as extreme as before. What happened?
Also what should western governments stance be on it? They seem to hate us so should we not go there ... | 17 | Lot's of questions so I'll try to answer generally. The "Arab Spring" started because of corruption and inequality between the upper class and lower classes of society in the middle-east. It was a rejection of the way things have been done for the past 30,40,50 years and a demand for change. That change was never going... | 10 |
CMV: A couple renting a two bedroom with an individual should split the rent three ways. | The argument against seems to come down to the fact that the couple considers themselves as one entity while the individual sees them as two separate people.
 
You can argue that you're paying for 50% of the bedrooms (true but that's your personal decision) and 50% of the living space (wildly inaccurate as n... | 165 | The truly fair way to do it is cost per square foot.
Total rent / total square footage = cost per square foot.
Living room, shared bathrooms, kitchen, etc - all common spaces - square footage cost is divided evenly between the three roommates. This isn't about who uses the space more, but that all three have equal ... | 165 |
ELI5: How can a tree grow on an abandoned roof? Don't its roots need to be connected to the soil somehow? | I was watching an episode of "Life After People" and at one point they showcased the breakdown process of a set of buildings that have been abandoned for the last 25 years.
They showed a tree taking root on one of the building's roof: [Pic 1](https://i.imgur.com/i1jQb8b.jpeg), [Pic 2](https://i.imgur.com/qzKJ2GO.jpeg... | 45 | It's because other organic material got to the roof in similar ways that the tree got there. Then that organic material broke down/rotted and created dirt. Trees to some extent can find nutrients in typically nutrient free locations and have been known to grow in the side of a rock on various mountainous areas.
In you... | 51 |
ELI5: if the whole point of washers is to disperse the force of screws and nuts to prevent them from digging into the material, why not simply create screws and nuts with extra wide heads? | 25 | Washers spread out the force like you said, but they also reduce the friction between the bolt head or nut and the surface they're being tightened against. When you tighten a fastener, most of your torque goes towards overcoming the friction in the threads and under the head of the bolt or nut. About 40% is lost in the... | 37 | |
[Adventure Time] Is Ooo's gravity greatly affected by the huge chunk removed from the planet from the explosion from the Mushroom War? | [For reference]( http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110217221247/adventuretimewithfinnandjake/images/7/7e/AT_earth2.jpg)
Edit: And if so, how did it affect the physiology of its inhabitants? | 65 | Well, here's the thing. The missing chunk appears to be approximately sphere shaped (or at least part of a sphere). The radius of that sphere appears to be at most 1/2 of the radius of the earth, meaning the entire sphere would have a volume of 1/8 of the earth. But, the chunk missing is less than half of that hypothet... | 53 |
[Harry Potter] Did the Death Eaters have a particular role within Voldemort's inner circle? | For instance, Lucius was an interrogator and manipulator, Bellatrix was in charge of "negotiations" (threatening), etc. If so, which ones do we know? | 25 | Bellatrix was his Murder Ho (to quote Otto from The Simpsons), who he trusts with most of the important jobs somewhat inexplicably. Beyond that, there doesn't seem to be that much said. The safe guess is Lucius being primarily their money guy since he mostly sits in terror in the later books, clearly out of his depth. ... | 18 |
[Hannibal/Batman] What if Hannibal worked at Arkham Asylum? | How would he react to being the psychiatrist of various elements of the Rogue's Gallery?
For example, the Joker.
Let's say it's the TV series version of Hannibal. | 15 | Binging the show now.
Joker would try to get inside Hannibal's mind, and by observation realize how crazy Lecter was. There's one comic where Joker breaks a light bulb in his cell and uses the ground glass to poison a guard/orderly. When he did something like that and Lecter's mask slipped mr. J would know what he w... | 10 |
[Doctor Who] Why doesn't the Doctor overthrow tyranny on Earth as often as other planets? | 32 | There are a lot of dictators on a lot of planets in a lot of times. They aren't necessarily shown, especially if the doctor is NOT visiting those times. So yes, he does overthrow tyranny plenty of times, he's not exactly cleaning them all up either. Another question to ask: maybe he has overthrown tyranny on earth, or ... | 32 | |
ELI5: Why has there been a sudden influx of sites warning about the use of cookies? | I thought that a decent amount of websites used cookies by default. Now all of a sudden there are dialog boxes popping up on what it seems like every website stating it uses cookies. Did a huge lawsuit create this? Or maybe it was always like this and I just never realized. | 60 | There's been an EU directive requiring those warnings since 2011. It may be that you've been visiting a lot more European sites lately. You're right, almost every website (especially every website with some sort of log in system) uses cookies. | 44 |
ELI5: What is the difference between poison, venom, and toxin? | 31 | *Toxins* are substances which have a profound negative effect on the body, which may be produced by the body or from an outside source.
*Poisons* are toxins which are ingested, and often are produced by plants. Potassium cyanide is such a poison. Lead and arsenic are examples of inorganic poisons (they have no carbon... | 27 | |
Why is/was Hegel considered so important and had such a great sphere of influence considering it seems almost nobody understands him? | Probably a terrible question I know | 19 | Lots of people understand Hegel. Hegel definitely has a reputation as a difficult philosopher, but he shares that reputation with many other influential philosophers, like Kant. Hegel's difficulty does not prevent people from understanding him. It just makes it tough. | 28 |
Science should override any and all parental wishes in regards to children's well being in things such as education and health care. CMV | There are many parents out there who will not get their children vaccinated, allow their kids to attend schools that teach ***REAL*** science, and emotionally scare them be adhering to strict religious bylaws.
Parents will refuse vaccinating their children/or getting medical attention based on information which has n... | 44 | First off, you're saying that education that is in line with parents views should be replaced with education that is in line with your views. You are asserting that your views are superior to any that run contrary.
Second, parents without the option of sending their kids to a religious school may choose not to send k... | 42 |
[Star Wars]Why did Yoda go in exile? | This is something that has always bothered me about the historical documentaries. They're always a bit vague about why Yoda went into hiding. Obviously the Jedi had been mostly wiped out, but Obi-Wan was still alive. The battle between Yoda and Palpatine clearly ended in a stalemate, with no clear victor. Shouldn't the... | 165 | It's a fair question. However, by the time-frame you are referring, the Jedi had been destroyed. In order for Obi-Wan and Yoda to take on Palpatine, they would have to get to him through all the military forces of the new Empire. And it would not simply be a matter of sneaking in using stealth and Force powers; Palp... | 148 |
ELI5: Why does hitting my hand against something hurt more when it's cold? | It's now winter here, and any time I pump gas or work outside, and I bang my hand against something, it hurts so much more than when it's warm. Wouldn't the cold numb my hands? Why does it seem to hurt so bad? (I don't mean the pain from the cold itself). | 21 | Cold dulls your nerves, and makes them less sensitive... EXCEPT FOR PAIN NERVES. They actually function *better* at colder temperatures. You have to be *really* cold for those nerves to become *less* functional, cold enough that you have bigger problems with hypothermia and frostbite. | 22 |
CMV: Donald Trump wasn’t the worst president in American history by a long shot | It has become fashionable in both popular discourse and mainstream media to refer to Donald Trump as “the worst American president in history”. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend that view.
Sure, Trump is a criminal, a racist, an idiot, and a narcissistic sociopath who would happily kill to get his way – *but loo... | 3,628 | The difference between Trump and the other “bad presidents” you mentioned is that those presidents had major achievements that offset the negative aspects of their presidency.
FDR guided us out of the Great Depression and through WWII. Truman ended WWII. Through nukes, yes, but that was arguably better than the altern... | 3,299 |
ELI5: AES, DES, 3DES and Blowfish, whith regards to cryptography what are these things for, how they work and what's the difference between them? | 54 | AES, DES, 3DES, and Blowfish are some different types of encryption — mixing up and substituting information in a *message* according to a *key*, so that it is extremely difficult to figure out what the *message* is without reversing the process with the same *key*.
Starting with DES:
DES is the **D**ata **E**ncrypti... | 30 | |
[Harry Potter] About Wizard's Chess...(Sourcerer's Stone) | Do the pieces reform after being destroyed? Since this is a magical world,there's gotta be an enchant that fixes them up,either that or someone has to manually do that. | 15 | We know from the clothes enchanted with the Protego charm sold by Fred and George that it is possible to imbue and object with the properties of a spell. It's likely that the chess pieces were enchanted with the Reparo charm. | 14 |
ELI5: Why do cold surfaces sometimes feel wet even though they aren’t? | 875 | Because you can't really feel wet - you feel the difference in temperature (usually colder) and the slickness, then the shortcuts in your brain conclude that it's wet. A surface that's colder than your hand and slick feels enough like wet to trick you. | 720 | |
ELI5: Why are male Homo sapiens typically stronger than females when the opposite is true for most other spiecies? | Emphasis on most.
I was watching a documentary and they said that females are typically larger, stronger, and more aggressive then the males. Why isn't this true in humans? | 38 | A lot of those species, in which the female is larger, stronger and more aggressive than the male are species where the animals are solitary. For a female to be bigger and more aggressive than the male helps her when she needs to protect herself while pregnant / needs to protect her young afterwards.
Humans, however, ... | 77 |
ELI5: 20/20 vision. What does it mean, why 20/20, and not 10/10 or 50/50? | 22 | At some point it was decided how clearly a person should be able to see at a distance of 20 feet. If you can see from 20 feet what a person "should" be able to see from 20 feet, you have 20/20 vision. As your vision gets worse, the 2nd number gets larger - e.g., 20/200 (IIRC, considered 'legally blind' in the USA) mean... | 19 | |
[XCOM Enemy Unknown] so we defeated the alien invasion, but now I have these Mech Super soldiers, what am I supposed to do with them now? | 58 | They're only super soldiers when they're in the gigantic mechanized suits. They can expect the same sort of life as pretty much any other quadriplegic veteran once the fighting's over, although whoever ends up acquiring the suits in the war's aftermath will certainly have need of MELD-infused operators for them. | 55 | |
ELI5: do pups in a litter all share the same DNA like human twins? | Do multiple pups in litter (or any other animals born as several at a time) share identical genetic code like human twins?
I'm hoping for a true Eli5 and a deeper explanation as well.
| 96 | They are more like fraternal twins, so they have as much in common genetically as normal siblings. Dogs release multiple eggs during ovulation, whereas humans usually release only one, which is why multiple births are the norm in dogs and not humans. It's also possible for there to be two or more fathers to a litter (t... | 79 |
[40k] A what-if concerning the IoM's intolerance of xeno tech | I've been thinking on this one for a bit and I'm not entirely sure how to apply the 'kill all xenos' rule to this. Say a group other than the AM (who would just hide it) finds a compatible ftl drive that completely bypasses the warp (a la Star Wars), uncorrupted, with the only downside being that it's a filthy xeno's d... | 16 | Probably.
The Emperor himself actually had some pretty good justification for his "kill all xenos" madate, but as usual the Imperium took it a bit to far after his battle with Horus.
See, during the great crusade, humanity was just pulling itself back from the scraps that were left from the age of strife. And it'... | 28 |
ELI5: Executive Privilege | I've been hearing the media talk about 'Executive Privilege' in-regards to Presidents of United States testifying and answering questions in court?
I'm from outside the U.S. so I have no knowledge of what it means. | 23 | "Executive privilege" refers to the notion that the President of the United States (and by extension certain other members of the Executive Branch) doesn't necessarily have to respond to subpoenas issued by the courts or Congress. There are two basic kinds of executive privilege: deliberative and communications.
"Deli... | 10 |
How does the Taylor series know that angles are measured in radians? | To find the Taylor expansion of, say, sin(x), you find all the n-th derivatives of sine, but regardless of the units you measure angles in, the derivative stays the same. How come, then, that if you calculate the Taylor approximation for a given angle, it only gives you the correct answer if the independent variable is... | 26 | > regardless of the units you measure angles in, the derivative stays the same
This is not true, though. Let's call sin in degrees “sind.“ Then, as you may know,
sind *x* = sin (π/180 *x*)
So when you differentiate, you get
sind' *x* = π/180 sin' (π/180 *x*)
Derivatives are *not* invariant under a change of uni... | 67 |
[Iron Man] How does the suit compensate for extreme g-forces? | 64 | It automatically diverts power to inertial dampeners.
Other than that, it functions as a flight suit much like fighter pilots wear, it compresses the lower body and provides oxygen during high g-force maneuvers to prevent the wearer from passing out. | 56 | |
[Star wars] What were the non-soldier clones actually doing during Order 66? | Suppose a Jedi was on a hospital ship during Order 66. What would they have done then? Or the men on the bridge of a Venator (see clone wars season 7) then what do the clones do that actually operate the guns or just do repairs? | 25 | Insofar as they had access to a Jedi, they would try to kill them. Otherwise they just continue to support the combat clones by carrying out their assigned roles and duties like any other time.
Order 66 was just another mission directive from their point of view, they'd play their part like they would in any other mi... | 30 |
[DC] How does Bruce Wayne purchase his Batman equipment without raising any red flags? | 93 | If there's one thing the hyperwealthy are very good at, its obscuring their finances. There have been people purchasing literal slaves for decades without raising any red flags.
With high powered enough accountants and enough levels of obscuring paperwork, buying a "custom car with self-defence modifications" is nothi... | 159 | |
ELI5 Why do whales beach themselves? | Just saw a headline: "Whale stranding: Most of 230 stuck on Tasmania beach die".
Is this some sort of navigation error? | 20 | Welcome to a well debated question in marine biology!
There’s a few solid hypotheses about it but not one solidly accepted answer.
Habitat change, weather, weird echolocation situations, herd mentality, and naval activity are all cited as reasons.
Weather and habitat can change hunting patterns to lead the p... | 30 |
What is the current scientific consensus on marijuana causing brain damage? | I heard Jeb Bush mention this in the CNN town hall. AFAIK most of the studies have shown marijuana as having a relatively low risk to health. Is there much truth to what he said? | 33 | There really is no scientific consensus at the moment, sadly.
You'll find dozens of studies that all contradict one another. The problem with research in the cannabis industry is that, not only are there opposing sides on the issue that will fund research papers that support their position, it is *very* difficult to f... | 11 |
[Star Wars] We see Jedi with knowledge in advanced fields, such as medicine. At what point in their training do they learn these skills? | 56 | This answer is going to rely on Legends. Part of the Jedi Order was the Jedi service corps, with divisions for exploration, agriculture, medicine, and education. Initiates that finished basic training but were not selected to become padawans could instead join a Service. A Jedi that completed Padawan training and gradu... | 30 | |
Ways to ensure my payment/reward on opensource project | Hi, everyone;
I've got a kind-of urgent question to ask.
I've spotted an opensource project on Github to which I've been a contributor in the past.
The project's creator has opened an issue asking for help implementing several features and is willing to reward the person who does the job with a good amount of mone... | 17 | It sounds like a “bounty” not you being hired.
You have no real guarantee unless the projects creator uses a 3rd party bounty service that acts as an escrow and the creator funds the escrow.
Sometimes you just have to trust people though. | 12 |
CMV: 'cancel culture' is not new and it is a misleading descriptor for what people use it for in the first place. | I am posting this because I'm pretty sure I'm right but also feel like I'm missing some context or history to this since I am not on Twitter. Feel free to respond if you mostly agree but see holes in my argument or exceptions to what I am saying. Just please don't be mean or condescending, I am super open to my opinion... | 286 | 3 a tiny but obnoxious minority harassing corporations into banning someone. This is not a popular backlash, and it is not about losing followers.
The targets include Advertisers, social media platforms, payment processors, and venues.
This often takes the form of spammed leading and aggressive questions like why do ... | 47 |
I believe individuals are smart, but organizations and groups of people generally only cause problems. CMV | **edit**: I think, thus far, my opinion has altered a bit but not totally. I still think innovation and new, fresh ideas comes from individuals. But organizations and groups (while I still feel that they have many, many negative sides) are the only ways to deal with certain things. I.E., political parties will alway... | 36 | Society. Mankind only gets out of the caves and builds cities by forming organizations. Heck, most higher apes can't survive without organizations.
As far as your examples:
* There is also plenty of positive peer pressure.
* Just look around an you'll see plenty of religious nuts and conspiracy theorists without an... | 24 |
[Wizarding World] How does Hogwarts get muggle born wizards to suddenly believe in magic when they get their invitation letter. Better yet how do they figure things out like currency, platform 9 3/4s, and Hermione somehow being an expert before even getting onto the damn train. | 133 | Can’t remember where, but I’m pretty sure the school will actually send someone to explain it all with the Hogwarts letter. Kind of like Hagrid did with Harry, although probably a bit better. Hermione knew so much because she read it all after she was taken to Flourish and Bouts and bought a book like the nerd she is. | 124 | |
ELI5: Why is porn arousing to us? Why does other people mating turn us on? | 189 | Because it is human imagination. Porn isn't just watching two people having sex; it is a fantasy. We are putting ourselves into one of the positions. This is why people tend to like porn that they like to do themselves. | 90 | |
eli5:Why is flourine not as dominant as Oxygen in earths rocks and minerals even though it is a better electron acceptor? | 298 | It’s just rare. Oxygen is formed in huge quantities in large stars as a fusion product and is the third most abundant element in the galaxy.
Fluorine is produced only through more unusual pathways, so it sits down in the 20s somewhere.
It is actually more abundant in the earth’s crust than its concentration among th... | 229 | |
[Chip N Dale] Why is Ugly Sonic an entirely separate entity from the real Sonic? | 19 | Iconic fictional characters like Ugly Sonic are egregores given life by collective belief. Since the world decided that the Sonic seen in the original movie trailer was ugly and needed to be redesigned, Ugly Sonic split off from the main Sonic to become his own thing.
Look at Pepe the Frog for another example. His c... | 27 | |
[Young Justice] So what exactly was "the light" that all the villains were obsessed with? | 27 | The "Light" isn't anything. It's basically what the villains called themselves and a metaphor.
You know how people "seeing the light" means that they're seeing the truth? That's really what they meant. They wanted people to see the 'truth' that heroes were holding them back. | 19 | |
ELI5: Why did Rock Band and Guitar Hero die? Could they ever make a comeback? | Rock Band and Guitar Hero were some of my favorite games to play, because they were unholy amounts of fun. The setlists were great, the instruments were fun, and it was the perfect party game.
But why did it fail? Over saturation? Not enough creative ideas? The setlists weren't good enough? I don't know. I just feel l... | 49 | >Why did Rock Band and Guitar Hero die?
Overexposure. They made way too many titles, and people got tired of buying the same thing over and over.
>Could they ever make a comeback?
Why couldn't they? | 67 |
ELI5 The political tensions between India and Pakistan | 20 | Because the british played their cards well
But on a serious note. There are two parts to this
British Raj Era -
India, pakistan, Bangladesh were one big subcontinent. You had muslims and hindus and sikhs living together for centuries. Then came the british in like mid 1800's and found lots of resources and decided... | 28 | |
ELI5: Why is it that, despite the fact that I haven't slept in over 30 hours, I am completely unable to fall asleep? | 114 | Overtiredness.
"Once overtired, stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline flood your bloodstream. These are often referred to as ‘fight or flight’ hormones because they increase your state of awareness, speed up your heart rate, raise your blood pressure and cause tension to build up in your muscles. Despite b... | 46 | |
[40k] Is it possible for humans who are taken into the Tau to be redeemed in the eyes of the imperium? | I understand they would be considered traitors to humanity but in alot of cases it could be argued they were simply left behind by the imperium and had their systems occupied. Is there any case of them being forgiven by the imperium? Further more if this is a thing what would the Tau treat them as? | 27 | It really depends on who shows up to do the redeeming. Lost worlds are, to this day, routinely discovered and brought back into the fold with nothing more than a declaration that they will accept the Imperial truth, worship the Emperor, and contribute to the imperial levies. A commander who makes the call that this i... | 39 |
[DC/Marvel/comics] What's the most callous comic book murder? | I've just read the Injustice comic where Sinestro kills a Green Lantern (no spoilers on who) by removing his ring in the middle of space - which seems unnecessary callous. Are there any others like this? | 206 | The murder of Green Lantern’s girlfriend Alexandra Dewitt being stuffed into a refrigerator had an impact in both the DC and Marvel universes as villains gradually stopped murdering/raping/depowering the girlfriends of male superheroes for the sole purpose of affecting/motivating them to action. I’m not sure how the Ma... | 210 |
Why don't they make 3D printers like such? | 30 | First, you have a potentially good and profitable idea...keep that in mind.
3D printing is very useful, but not applicable everywhere, because of inherent advantages and disadvantages. It's very useful, for instance, when a one-off item must be quickly designed and fabricated. It's also good for prototyping new conc... | 13 | |
ELI5: Instead of trying to be emotionless, why poker players don't exaggerate fake emotions to confuse the opponent? | 26 | Doing nothing all the time gives away nothing. Exaggerating fake emotions is you doing something, doing something can be tracked. In the case of poker where there are so many hands, you trying to mimic exaggerated movements will eventually lead to inaccuracies where your "tells" will become known. This technique may... | 47 | |
[Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood] How exactly does a human based philosopher's stone work? does it's body need to eat or sleep? who's soul is picked to be in charge? does it still need to expell waste or other normal functions? If it reproduces do the resulting children get souls from the stone ? | 21 | A human-based philosopher's stone feeds on the souls within it as sustenance if there is no food around to feed it. It's established in the canon that humans can use their own souls to transmute at the cost of shortening their lifespan. If the souls are added in a ritual, the original soul is in charge. If the souls ar... | 16 | |
[DC] Batman is a genius on all fronts. His ability to do good with his wealth/power/genius is hindered by deploying himself as a front line combatant. Wouldn't he be much better suited for command and control rather than single combat? Couldn't he do more good as a commander rather than a soldier? | 374 | Arguably he already is a commander. Over the course of his career he builds a network of numerous collaborators and proteges who multiply his effectiveness and the reach of his mission.
Per an observation by Barbara Gordon, at some point in Bruce's career, probably the moment he adopted Dick Grayson and taught him to ... | 301 | |
How come there's no thunder and lightning when it snows? | I've found [this article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundersnow) on Wikipedia on thundersnows, but I don't quite understand the phenomenon and more importantly, why is it so rare? | 40 | It's because there's generally a lack of liquid water in snowing updrafts (snow rapidly depletes any nearby liquid water droplets due to the saturation vapor pressure of water over ice).
Evidently, liquid water droplets are important for charge separation in convective / lightning producing clouds. Also, the tropopau... | 33 |
CMV: Conservatives aren’t funny | I guess the most obvious angle here is that there’s no politically conservative equivalent of Jon Stewart. No one on late night TV is getting laughs with witty defenses of Trump or Mitch McConnell. When someone does make a funny and insightful joke at the expense of a Democrat, that person is usually a liberal themselv... | 209 | >I guess the most obvious angle here is that there’s no politically conservative equivalent of Jon Stewart. No one on late night TV is getting laughs with witty defenses of Trump or Mitch McConnell.
To be fair, if you watch the late night shows a lot of what they say aren't jokes that get laughs, they are statement... | 429 |
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