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[Star Wars] How do the people on Coruscant breath, eat and drink without any nature left? | Also: Why did they destroy all nature? At least something like the parks in New York should be there. | 25 | A gigantic portion of Coruscant's space and air traffic is the infrastructure that imports and distributes off-world food, water, and other resources. A significant amount of the galaxy's trade and business is done on that one planet alone, and a huge amount of it is the simple buying of food. It's one reason the Separ... | 39 |
[The Witcher] I'm back. So I escaped to Novigrad and, long story short, something is eating my neighbors, probably a monster, and everyone wants to pool their resources and hire a Witcher, which, fuck that idea. Do we have any other recourse for help, or is that White haired prick our only option? | 26 | You don't need a Witcher in particular. If its a run of the mill physical monster anyone could kill it, may need a whole posse to go after it and you'll probably lose some people but its still just a physical creature that you can stab to death. If its a curse or a wraith or something else incorporial you could go to... | 54 | |
[Harry Potter] Is Hogwarts really the greatest magical school in the world? | Aside from the danger the students are in every year, the faculty leaves a lot to be desired.
Snape torments his students.
The rotation of Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers.
Binns putting his students to sleep and teaching the same of subject of Giant/Goblin Wars.
Divination as a class is a joke, Albus wou... | 381 | No student has ever died for any reason other than 'Got in Voldemort's way'. Literally every single death at the school (at least, since the Triwizard Tournament was cancelled centuries back) is directly caused by Voldemort or his followers.
Snape is a meanhearted, cruel bully who makes children cry and attempts to p... | 311 |
[The Mask] Who would be the absolute worst person to wear the Mask who hasn't already? | 458 | Batman.
Most of the answers in this thread are people who already dont have many inhibitions and would just be slightly more powerful versions of the terrible people they already are. Batman, on the other hand, knows full well how terrible a person he'd be without inhibitions and has developed an adherence to rules t... | 795 | |
ELI5: What is exactly meant when someone says they are a "consultant"? | I often meet people my age (mid/late twenties) who work in "consulting"...usually a male who majored in something like business or finance in college, likes to wear suits out to the bar, we all know someone like this.
Whenever I ask for an explanation of what they actually do, the typical answer includes a lot of wor... | 39 | Typically, they look at a specific area of how a company works. They identify what the company is doing right or wrong in that area. Then they write a long report with their findings, and charge the company lots of money. | 27 |
Eggs are a big investment for birds, so why do chickens lay unfertilized eggs? Why don't they 'hold on' to that investment until it's fertilized? | Come to think of it, don't humans do the same thing every month? | 652 | Veterinarian perspective here: we have bred this into chickens, AND eye laying rate is related to nutritional intake. So, we're selecting for the layingest of layers, and feeding them the perfectly formulated feed for maximum production. The average layer hen is actually VERY skinny, because all of their resources are ... | 227 |
[DC & Marvel] Who can punch harder? Superman or the Hulk? | Who would win in a fight is irrelevant. If you had a strike force impact detector with no upper limit, which one of them could punch it the hardest? | 33 | Superman hits exceptionally hard but he has a finite limit to his strength. The hulk has no limit. If the hulk is sufficiently angered and capable of hitting the target with his full strength then the hulk will hit harder.
If the hulk is not angry enough, then superman hits harder. If the target is not something the h... | 37 |
CMV: I don't think reparations for slavery (in the US) would be fair or actually solve anything | First, let me state that I believe that there is still far too much racism in the US, and that slavery is still not recognized as the injustice that it actually was. That being said, I strongly disagree with the idea that reparations should be paid as a result of slavery. I am very interested in hearing opposing argume... | 29 | Reparations were originally planned in a far more direct form. Land was taken from the rebellious southeners and given directly to newly freed slaves so that every freed slave received 40 acres and a mule. Many slaves did, in fact, get their 40 acres, before the government changed their mind, kicked the slaves off the ... | 13 |
ELI5: How did inorganic matter combine to form the first life on earth, and have we been able to do it ourselves yet? | It seems to me that, providing that life arose spontaneously from elemental chemicals, we should be able to recreate those conditions and do it again, why haven't we? | 54 | We have, sort of. The Miller-Urey experiment attempted to mimic the conditions of early earth, inside a lab, to see if they could recreate the chemical beginnings of life. They put a bunch of water, methane, ammonia and hydrogen in a test tube and subjected it to heating (like from the earth's interior) and electrica... | 32 |
[wh40k] At the absolute peak of their power, what race is the most powerful? | Saw the recent post about the most powerful race (Tyranids, apparently). I was wondering if things change if you consider each race at their peak, i.e., Man with a functional Emperor, the Eldar before the fall, etc. | 25 | Necrons were able to subvert the C'Tan, star-eating sentient beings. Eldar in their prime forced the Necrons into stasis. Tau have no prime because they are relatively new. Humanity at its prime had technology beyond that of the Necrons and were able to go toe-on-toe with the Eldar Empire. The Orks are currently in the... | 32 |
[Marvel] Mister Immortal is said to be "homo supreme", a step above "homo superior" (i.e. mutant). So what does Magneto, an ardent pro-mutant, think of the man? | Magneto is all for the superior species, but Mister Immortal is technically even more superior than the standard mutants. So what does he think of the man? | 41 | You're taking the scientific names too literally.
They're a different sub-species from homo sapiens. The name doesn't actually mean anything other than that.
Homo novissima and homo mermamus follow suite.
Magneto has no personal reason to be bothered or to think about Craig Hollis, unless he represents a threat to... | 43 |
How are modal logic possibilities known ? | Modal logic is concerned with logical possibilities so it has the broadest set of possibilities.
For example we can imagine a world where there is FTL or a world where thermodynamics doesn't exist. There's nothing non contradictory about those at face but how do we know weather there's something or not about the ligh... | 43 | > Modal logic is concerned with logical possibilities
Modal **logic** is concerned with inferences or relations between modal propositions. Asking 'how are specific necessities or possibilities known in modal logic' is somewhat similar to asking 'but how are truths or falsities known in propositional or predicate l... | 13 |
[Marvel] Azgardian magic is said to be science that humans haven't discovered yet. Has Marvel ever shown an Azgardian that understands the science behind the magic? | As far as I can tell, Azgardians enchant objects, cast spells, and use "magic" objects such as Mjölnir. Do we know of an Azgardian who understands the physics, chemistry, and/or biology of how all of it works? | 181 | Yes. In The Dark World, it is shown that the techs working on Jane understand the principles of their machine.
> JANE [still curious about the energy field]: That’s a quantum field generator, isn’t it?
> EIR: It’s a Soul Forge.
> JANE: Does a Soul Forge transfer molecular energy from one place to another?
... | 322 |
Is there a certain amount of "real estate" at the a given Lagrangian point? Could we potentially put too many stations, observatories, or other spacecraft there and run out of room? | 582 | Sort of. The further you are from the Lagrangian point, the further your actual behavior will be from the theoretical behavior exactly at the Lagrangian.
At an unstable Lagrangian, that means that the further you are from it, the faster you will diverge from the point. A station that wanted to sit at an unstable Lagra... | 134 | |
ELI5: Why do they call it a season of television in the US but call it a series in Britain? | 64 | Network TV in the USA has a pretty regimented schedule, running from fall to spring, with around 23 episodes per program, year after year. With this sort of regularity, it makes sense to call it a season.
In the UK, programming is more irregular. *Sherlock*, for example, only did three episodes a year, once every tw... | 35 | |
China dumps USA debt, what happens | I read today that if China where to sell US debt, treasury bills (1.3 Trillion dollars +/-) I believe to other countries then that would cause an event similar to 2008 financial crisis, or worse. If US debt was sold, wouldn’t we just owe the buyers of the debt the debt payments?
What would actually happen, if China o... | 31 | No, China deciding to sell their grand total of ~4-5% of total US debt would not cause a financial crisis, and they are extremely unlikely to sell anywhere near that amount because they would share in any negative effects of the sell off. In order to sell that much in a short period of time China would have to sell the... | 58 |
ELI5: Why are all the gas planets big and all the rocky planets small? Is there a maximum limit for rocky planets, or could we theoretically have jupiter sized rocky planets? And vice versa, could we have earth sized gas planets? | 25 | It comes down to gravity
The reason Earth doesn't have much hydrogen or helium in the atmosphere is that they're so light and gravity is relatively low, so its relatively easy to bump them up to escape velocity from their speed at normal temperatures. Once they hit escape velocity they're going off into space and not ... | 29 | |
CMV: tough on crime policy doesn't prevent crime | It actually increases it in the long run. Poverty and low social mobility are one of the biggest contributors to crime, and harsher punishment only increases those. You will move to problems to a different time/location or reporting on crime will drop .
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/five-things-about-deterrence
... | 267 | Depends on what you mean by "tough on crime". If you are sufficiently tough on crime to the extent of straight up obliterating criminals, then society doesn't have to deal with much crime. For example, Singapore generally doesn't have social welfare and crime rates are very low there. | 99 |
Why is the formula E^2=(mc^2)^2 + (pc)^2 so similar to the pythagorean theorem? | Why is the formula E^2 = (mc^2 )^2 + (pc)^2 so similar to the pythagorean theorem? | 21 | Because it's the same thing, just in a different space.
Instead of a^(2) + b^(2) = c^(2), it's E^(2) - (**p**c)^(2) = (mc^(2))^(2).
c is the length of the vector < a, b > in R^(2). And mc^(2) is the "length" of a four-vector < E, **p**c > in Minkowski spacetime. The minus sign is the difference between th... | 49 |
ELI5: What happens when our ears “clog” when swimming or taking a bath? Also does the water flush out ear wax or push it further in? | 32 | Water does exactly that--it clogs the ear. The ear canal is small enough that the surface tension of water can hold it in place, filling up the entire canal, even when you are standing upright. It does little to the wax, because the wax is mostly hydrophobic--it doesn't dissolve in water. Maybe some small loose bits wi... | 32 | |
ELI5: How did ancient people figure out that sex leads to kids, since the effects are so delayed? | 14,869 | They observed animals. They noted that women who did not have sex did not get pregnant. Some Neolithic art can be interpreted as showing that they were aware of the relationship. But we can never know for sure. | 8,381 | |
ELI5: Why can we have dozens of normal interactions and a few positive ones every day, but we fixate on the one negative one for hours? | 95 | Because your brain's primary directive is survival. Good things, positive things, are normal and help your survival. In these cases, your brain did what it was supposed to, increase your chances of survival. But when a negative experience occurs, your brain turns on it's memory and activates other things which help you... | 63 | |
ELI5: Elements want 8 electrons in their valence shell to become stable. Why do atoms want exactly 8 valence electrons, and why is it impossible to have 9 valence electrons? | 76 | The reason is to do with the quantum mechanics of how an electron bound to a nucleus behaves. The electron's wavefunction has to take the shape of a set of mathematical functions known as a spherical harmonics (you can Google these to see what they look like). The reason it's a spherical harmonic is that is has the rig... | 25 | |
Is Nietzsche alone in his view on rights? | Nietzsche argues (I’m pretty sure it’s in *The Gay Science*) that a right comes into being when someone who has power over you willingly limits that power. In other words, if you have a right to something, that means that there is some person or institution who could deny you that something, but—for whatever reason—has... | 124 | It's not really absent in any liberal philosophy. The whole idea of a social contract is that you give up absolute freedom to the social order, and you do so rationally to support your own best interests. Nietzsche is perhaps taking a closer look at that freedom that is given up, but it's not a concept that was comple... | 43 |
ELI5 the pros and cons of GMOs | 17 | Pro GMO foods: Crop yields can be improved by as much as 10x, allowing more people to be fed. Crop diseases can be wiped out, improving yields further.
Anti GMO foods: Risk of the unknown. GMO's are man-made, and might have health or environmental risks that we can't predict or test for. Most GMO strains are produced ... | 19 | |
Can someone explain exactly how Spider Web is stronger then steel? | You always hear that spider silk is stronger then steel but how exactly is this? Considering anyone can break a spider web in half with almost 0 effort, is this based on something to do with equal amounts of spider silk vs steel?
| 140 | The reason spiderwebs are so easy to break is that they're just very thin. If you had really thin steel wire, it also breaks pretty easily. If you had a giant mutant spider that could produce a fat cable of spider web, then that would be stronger than a similarly-sized steel cable.
So yes, it has to do with equal amou... | 187 |
ELI5: Why do you preceive some kind of "pressure" when using noise canceling headphones? | So I was searching for posts concerning noise canceling headphones and I found a few posts about how they cancel out noise.
As I understand, the headphones basically listen for incoming "noise" and send out the "opposite" wave. OK!
Then I was wondering: if the two waves cancel each other out, why you perceive some kin... | 27 | This is a fun one. Our brains react to certain input from our senses based on instinct. When you put on noise canceling headphones they cancel out low-frequency outside sounds (and other frequencies). But that lack of low frequencies is also what happens naturally when there is a pressure difference between your inner ... | 26 |
What are the differences between Adult Stem Cells and Embryonic Stem Cells in research? | Besides the obvious answer of their source (one comes from an adult and the other from an embryo). Which are preferred to work with and why? Are there more drawbacks to using one versus the other? Is one easier to work with or does it survive longer? Is one better for growing limbs and another better for repairing orga... | 15 | To put it simply, one (adult) is already more differentiated, meaning it has already undergone some changes that make it more like the normal adult cells in your body and less like the pluri potent stem cells that can turn into anything (if they get the right signals to do so)
edit: see ren5311's comment below | 10 |
[Fiction] So, really, are 'universes' and 'dimensions' two different things? If so, then why people get them mixed up when it comes to the multiverse? | The reason I ask this, is because for the longest now, I've always assumed that 'universe' and 'dimension' are the same thing but are said differently, when talking about characters travelling through the multiverse in fictional stories.
However, apparently, from what I've heard, universe and dimension are actually tw... | 38 | When the two terms are used distinctly, a universe usually contains dimensions. Dimensions are essentially different planes or pockets of reality within a singular creation, that singular creation and all that it contains being called a “universe”. | 44 |
ELI5 how do arm prosthetics work especially when you have almost your whole arm gone? | 21 | Sensors are placed to pick up signals both electronically and physically from remaining muscle structures left around the stump
These are used to actuate the various artificial muscles of the prosthetic either through mechanical action or electronic/pneumatic actuators | 14 | |
CMV: Religions only hinder scientific progress. | I believe that religion has in the past, and continues to now, halt progress in the growth and development of certain scientific fields that their beliefs clash with. I think we can all agree on scientific breakthroughs from the past being hindered by the Catholic Church and perhaps other religions from seeing the ligh... | 15 | You might be surprised to know that it was religious conviction that drove the first geologists to learn that the earth was older than 6000 years old. They were interested in "studying god's creation" and exploring and documenting the soil, rocks, and flora/fauna. In doing so, they found sedimentary layers that they th... | 16 |
ELI5: When you are fingering a girl, why do some vaginas feel pretty smooth inside while others feel quite rough? [NSFW] | 144 | The vagina is mostly muscular tissue that can stretch enough to accommodate childbirth. All that extra tissue has to go somewhere, so when the vagina isn't stretched out (most of the time) it sort of folds up into wrinkles. The folded wrinkles on an organ are called rugae (other organs have them too, most notably the s... | 135 | |
[General Space Sci-fi] What's the scariest thing in any franchise/story's setting that is outside of its galaxy? | So in 40k, people theorize that it's more Tyranids, Orks, or something that the Tyranids are running away from. In Halo, if I understood it correctly, you have another Halo ring (or was it a Halo creator?). In Star Wars Legends, there was the Yuuzhan Vong. Mass Effect, you have the reapers hibernating.
What about othe... | 22 | The time war. Literally rewriting time to use it as a weapon. Billions dying and being resurrected every second. Entire species being being wiped out of history, coming back and only to be wiped out again. You could be living it right now and never no. | 33 |
eli5: Why are skyscrapers nearly always covered in glass completely in contrast to small buildings? | Like is there a specific reason or is it just a design choice? Or do they have so many tall windows to let as much sunlight in as possible?
It just occurred to me since the futuristic full glass look of skyscrapers really stands out against normal building surrounding them. | 67 | It's for both aesthetic and practical reasons.
Aesthetically it looks stylish, and allows for a lot of options for colors and tinting. It also makes the offices inside more desirable when they have big windows with nice views and lots of natural light.
Practically glass is lighter and easier to install and maintain t... | 104 |
ELI5: Why does alcohol leave such a recognizable smell on your breath when non-alcoholic drinks, like Coke, don't? | 14,436 | The smell lingers as long as you're drunk because it's not coming from residual booze in your saliva, it's the smell of your blood itself.
When you imbibe an alcoholic beverage, ethanol (the active ingredient that gets you drunk), is absorbed into your bloodstream. Ethanol is a volatile chemical (it evaporates easily)... | 21,132 | |
If a photon experiences no time, could all photons we observe from our reference frame really just be the same photon in every possible position in the universe? | I'm a photon/relativity noob, so please excuse my ignorance. I often wonder about the fact that an object that moves at c experiences no time. Does this not imply that a) from our reference frame the same photon must be at every conceivable point in the universe simultaneously, and that b) there is just one single phot... | 75 | Nope. It's pretty trivial to show that a photon propagating along a geodesic trajectory cannot deviate from that trajectory. If it did, then there would exist some inertial reference frame in which the photon, during deviation, was not propagating at *c,* which is prohibited by the principle of covariance. | 30 |
ELI5: The phantom text, how does the brain feel something that isn’t happening? what causes this sensation? And are there other known symptoms of this phenomena? | Surely you’ve experienced it, you feel your pocket buzz, as if you had received a text message, only to find your phone is not even in your pocket that moment. What causes this sensation? Whatever this phenomena is, are there other examples of it?
Sometimes we feel like we are still wearing glasses when they are take... | 21 | Your brain has to process a *lot* of sensory input all at once. Way too much for you ever to really handle on a conscious level. To compensate for this, your brain learns to look for patterns in the raw information and then slots new sensory information into those patterns whenever it thinks it fits.
This is why you c... | 31 |
[Batman] How does Bruce explain Damien to the world at large? Especially considering he’s had two wards before “finding” a biological son. | Considering his playboy lifestyle, would there be rumors that he was a pederast or at least had a strange lifestyle related to boys? | 166 | His playboy lifestyle is the perfect way to explain Damien. One of his countless nights spent with beautiful women ended in unsafe sex. And it wasn't until years later that he found out that single act resulted in a son.
And given that Bruce's tragic history is public knowledge, there aren't many people who seriously... | 204 |
CMV: Politicians should wait in line for medical treatment just like anyone else. | In the US in particular, it's unfair how politicians can get priority treatment over others who are turned away from the hospitals because they have no money or connections to get the treatment they need for the same health condition. I'm not just talking about the current situation, but in any situation where medical ... | 95 | What sort of politicians are you arguing for? Politicians like your local representative or your Prime Minister? Because there are huge ramifications when it comes to the top brass.
People like the PM get first treatment because they are incredibly important to a Country actually functioning and the stability of a nat... | 17 |
How does the body decide where to store fat? | In general, females seem to store fat around the hips and thighs, males around the gut. Why? How does the body decide where to store fat? | 7,670 | Beyond the generalized sex differences, there are a number of hormones that affect where and how we store fat - for ex. estrogen encourages the more 'classically feminine' fat storage patterns (hips and thighs) whereas stuff like cortisol and insulin production lead more to belly fat. As the latter two, cortisol in par... | 4,180 |
As a junior developer, how to stand up to yourself and your coding decisions? | We got a new hire who is more experienced than most of the people in the office. He is talking shit about our code that we wrote with a previously given scope in mind (we had absolutely no idea of those new features that are requested now), taking tasks that I am working on and finishing them quicker than me, making me... | 67 | This actually isn't your problem, this is the new developers problem. Everyone thinks other people's code sucks (and it probably does), but you're being hired to work with the code as it is, not as you'd like it to be.
Don't let yourself be bullied, but you don't have to defend the code base either, remember you're no... | 52 |
ELI5: How come raw eggs are bad to eat now? 20 years ago, I'd put a raw egg in a milkshake and eat the hell out of cookie/cake/brownie batter. Now if I do it, I get sick. What happened? | 21 | If you are a healthy person with normal immune system, then raw eggs are just edible as they were before. However people with compromised immune system are more at risk of contracting serious salmonella infection (which is rare, but if it happens it can be life threatening, even on otherwise healthy people). Restauran... | 22 | |
[Warhammer 40k]Can you bore a Noise Marine to death? | If I placed a Noise Marine in a completely dark and quiet room, would the sensory deprivation affect them more than a normal Astartes? | 24 | Yes.
Slaaneshi cultists - of any variety - are addicted to sensation. It's their defining characteristic. They don't deal well with sensory deprivation. If you somehow managed to contain a Noise Marine, he would get more and more desperate to feel something, *anything*, eventually turning to self-mutilation, which ... | 42 |
[Star Wars] In the ROTS, did the High Ground give Obi-Wan any actual advantage in the fight vs. Anakin? | When Obi-Wan said "It's over, Anakin!" he implies that just by having the high ground he's automatically won the duel. What was so different about this instance vs. any other time in that fight? | 63 | Fighting uphill is a massive disadvantages in melee. You spend a lot of energy fighting both your enemy and gravity. Meanwhile the one on top has gravity working with him.
You always try to keep the battle at least on even ground. If not you lose all your limbs and fall into a lava flow. | 113 |
CMV: High earners who do not use tax-funded services should really be taxed less, or at least acknowledged in some way. | I don't really *want* to hold this view, but I currently do and can't properly counter it, so I thought I'd come here to have it challenged.
I was recently talking to my girlfriend's parents, who have done very well for themselves financially and, as a result, pay a huge chunk of their income (I believe around 40% - w... | 18 | The government is not supposed to benefit everyone equally. Such a thing should be obvious, if you look at it from the other direction. Poor people barely pay anything in taxes, but they're often the primary beneficiaries from many social programs.
The entire point of the welfare state would be impossible if everyone ... | 36 |
[Invincible] If Monster Girl stopped transforming would she grow to adulthood again? Could this effectively recharge her cap on transformations? | 43 | Yes.
Her comic book origin acknowledges that she would age normally if she didn't use her powers for a length of time. But she has a Spider-Man-esque need to help whenever she can, so she is never able to stick to this. | 68 | |
[Star Wars] How long does the Order 66 command last? | We see in Clone Wars that a lot of the clones had good relationships with their Jedi’s and were forced into killing them by Order 66. But how long did the hold that Order 66 had on the clones last? Like if, for example, Commander Cody met Obi-Wan years or even decades after the Clone Wars, would he still be forced into... | 32 | Most clones felt an overwhelming desire to act on order 66 and target all known Jedi immediately. Within hours to days the clones were given new orders and the compulsion to hunt Jedi was replaced by a desire for military order and structure. Cody may think to kill obi-wan years later but would be able to resist that u... | 37 |
Do kangaroos give birth directly into their pouch, or does the baby have to climb in? | 30 | According to kangaroocreekfarm.com:
At the end of the pregnancy the expectant mother takes up a sitting position and grooms her pouch. The baby emerges from an opening at the base of her tail called the cloaca. The infant is very tiny, only about the size of a lima bean. It’s pink and largely undeveloped except for it... | 85 | |
ELI5: Why is USA Daylight savings time starting tonight when the UK won't see it for another 3 weeks? | 85 | The US government extended DST in 2005 because a dept of energy study said it would save energy.
After the change, they measured and found energy consumption dropped 0.03% compared to the previous year. So it wasn't really worth all the bother of being out of sync with the rest of the world. | 40 | |
How do all-purpose cleaners work? | I have a bottle here that lists several ingredients including: decyl glucoside, sodium citrate, glycerin, and a lot of natural oils. How do these ingredients actually clean a surface? | 19 | Molecular magnets!
Some things have an electrostatic charge, some do not.
Charged things like to mix with charged things.
Uncharged things like to mix with uncharged things.
Water is charged, so it can dissolve and wash away material that is also charged.
The problem is with uncharged things, since water can't was... | 17 |
[Pokemon] Why are Jesse and James so obsessed with Ash's Pikachu? | By now they should have realised that Ash's Pikachu is not special. Why are they spending so much time and money trying to steal that particular Pikachu? And why is their boss ok with this? Why doesn't he fire them for being useless? | 28 | Ash's Pikachu **is** special. It's somehow capable of supercharging itself. In the first episode it gets struck by the lightning storm around the Pokemon center and creates a massive electric bomb. That is exactly the type of thing Giovanni was looking for.
Have they spent too much time on it? Yes. But it is a unique ... | 62 |
Are nuclear propulsion systems used for spacecraft? If not, why not? | 19 | No nuclear propulsion systems have yet to be used in space, though some systems have been tested on Earth. They haven't been used for a variety of reasons.
First, not enough research has gone into them. Nuclear systems are expensive to develop and nobody's done the work for it. Second, most nuclear propulsion systems ... | 30 | |
How does raising the interest rate help inflation? | It certainly appears that it only removes lower wage people from accessing loans, lowering the overall spending for the economy.
What am I missing? | 34 | Raising interest rates raises lending interest rates from banks, once rates rise this discourages taking loans including credit cards, this slows spending, when spending slows demand drops, when demand drops prices drop. It also encourages people to save money because interest rates are high so people will put money aw... | 30 |
[Bleach] So Ichigo has just died of natural (or mundane) causes, what now? | So will he appear in Soul Society with his full powers? If so, would he be able to officially join the Shinigami divisions, as a rookie or directly as a captain? Is the procedure the same for other exceptional living humans like his father? | 17 | If you aren't trapped as a hollow or parakeet or whatever when you die, you show up in Soul Society very shortly thereafter. Parakeet-kid remembered his mortal life, but this seems to be inconsistent, with other characters (e.g Zaraki) talking about how they just woke up in Soul Society one day with no memory of how t... | 18 |
ELI5: How long range missiles fly horizontally despite not having any type of "wing" to keep it airborne. | 33 | By not pushing themselves perfectly horizontal. They aim upwards a bit, so their thrust is pushing them mostly forwards but also a bit up. This counteracts the gravity pulling them down, so they can fly horizontal. | 26 | |
[StarCraft] How exactly was Kerrigan transformed into a Zerg? | 237 | She was captured, encased in chrysalis and emerged as zerg. She later infiltrated terran spec ops compound to remove leftover ghost implants.
So it's not like her body was melted and remade butterfly-style, but rather it was exposed to various mutagens and transformed. | 178 | |
[WH40k] How much do the citizens of the Imperium know of the Horus Heresy? | In several of his memoirs Commissar Cain references Horus specifically, however I have yet to see another reference throughout the collective writings of the Black Library or anything else.
As an Emperor fearing citizen obviously studying the Heresy would be, well, heresy, but at what level would the knowledge of the ... | 45 | Most Imperial citizens are going to be aware of the Horus Heresy, because it was the pivotal element in the Emperor's ascension to the Golden Throne, but the details, particularly pertaining to Horus' allegiances, would be almost entirely unknown.
To your average bloke, it's a God-Lucifer arangement. The Emperor creat... | 47 |
[DC Comics] When Damian Wayne had powers, why did he have heat vision? | The rest of the powers (even flight I guess) make sense, sense they're just stronger natural processes. Yet none of the other heavy hitters have heat vision besides supes, who's has solar power, and MM who is a weird alien. I also don't think Icon can who has lots of similar powers to Supes and some crazier abilities. ... | 15 | Given that those powers came from New Gods energies, he could've been omnipotent. Sky's the limit with that stuff. Obviously, those energies would've needed to be sustained to keep those amazing powers up. | 10 |
[Wild Wild West 1999 Will Smith Western Action Comedy] What's up with the henchmen on the giant spider? Did Loveless create a cyborg using steam power and 1860s technology? | 29 | Essentially, yes, in much the same way he created a giant spider mecha using the same.
I mean, consider: Loveless pretty much already *is* a cyborg using steam power and 1860s technology. Not much of a stretch for him to scale up the techniques, both in size(the spider) and in cohesiveness (the henchman) | 34 | |
[Mass Effect] How are the Geth powered? | 38 | Varies by platform. Your typical Geth drone just operates off batteries This works better than you'd think, humanoid forms are *very* energy efficient, and its not as if we're free of the need for food, sleep, or oxygen to keep going, all of which Geth platforms do *not* need. It logistically simpler than fuel cells ... | 30 | |
Eli5 How did ancient drawings in caves survive thousands of years without wearing away completely? | 159 | Caves are protected environments. No wind, no water, few animals. The cave drawings that survive are generally in very isolated , deep parts of caves where's there even less of those factors.
Prehistoric people probably drew lots more stuff in lots more places, but those places would be more affected by erosion, weath... | 191 | |
CMV: Sending trash into space (especially far from earth) isn’t a bad idea. | First of all, I must acknowledge the fact that this is hypothetical because we can’t shoot rockets into space efficiently enough for it to be worth it, so I guess this view won’t matter until a time when our resources/tech advance enough to be worth launching thousands of rockets full of waste into space.
However, on... | 20 | The main issue with this is that in the long term the planet then has no opportunity to reclaim the matter taken from it. Plastic takes a long time to decompose, but it does eventually decompose and return to the Earth. Shoot enough trash into space and eventually you're going to completely ruin the decomposition cyc... | 20 |
CMV: Elders don't deserve respect just for being old | Why should I respect someone for being old?
I get that as a majority senior citizens are probably wiser than those younger due to their experience in life, but there’s no way that’s true in every case. When I meet someone, it doesn’t matter their age / gender / appearance, I judge and respect them based off how they ... | 164 | the reason that we do things like designate certain seats or parking spots for the elderly, disabled, pregnant, is that because one important marker of a society is how well it treats the infirm and vulnerable. same with entitlement programs like medicare and social security. it's not saying *they're* inherently more i... | 101 |
If differences in human phenotypes such as skin colour, hair colour, etc. are due to clinal adaptation, what clines lead to the development of East-Asian slanted eyes? | Since there is good evidence to suggest we radiated from Africa, I presume that primitive humans did not have slanted eyes, but I guess a possibility is that primitive humans did in fact have slanted eyes, and the change to non-slanted eyes is actually an adaptation. In either case, why/how did this happen?
EDIT: Also... | 52 | The explantation for epicanthus is that Central Asian steppes, the area where proto-Mongoloids origated, were very dusty with common dust storms and the epicanthus helped them to protect their vision. But it's also possible that it was a random mutation and an example of the founder effect.
Because epicanthus doesn't ... | 33 |
[Comics] What contingency plans do governments around the world have in case powerful / overpowered heroes like Superman, Dr. Strange, or Reed Richards, go rogue? | 26 | In Injustice they sent a powerful hero after Superman to whoop his ass. Worked until Wonder Woman showed up.
Also the thing that makes Reed scary isn't his power. It's a good power but the real danger is his mind | 33 | |
Do plants ever die of age? | I know plants die out of lack of nutrients, water, too much/too little sun, diseases, being eaten, etc. I also know that some plants only live certain seasons and then die, and others don't die but the visible part dies and the root goes into "hibernation mode" sort of speak. But do plants die of age?
Even plants (mo... | 39 | trees dont actually die from old age, they senesce. They lose their competitive abilities and lose out to more vigorous competitive individuals.
There are rare occasions, such as with giant redwood, where the tree becomes so massive that it cant produce enough photosynthate to support its own living tissue. There are ... | 35 |
[MCU] Do I exist? | I was watching Luke Cage and all the references to pop culture figures got me thinking... if Notorious B.I.G. exists in the MCU, for example, then so too must Biggie's manager. Same would then go for his manager's assistant, and that person's spouse, and so on. And what with the [Six degrees of separation](https://en.... | 67 | The MCU (Earth-1999999) is supposed to be an alternate universe running parallel to our own (Earth-1218), and the universe seen in the comics (Earth-616), but that doesn't guarantee that there's a version of everyone here in there, or if there was, that they would be identical.
Generally, the extent that person or eve... | 56 |
[LOTR] What would have happened if an eagle was given the One Ring? | What would the long term effects be for middle earth? | 18 | since Eagles are a very proud race, it'd be corrupted pretty easily by the Ring. the Misty Mountains would basically be impassible because the Eagles would just fuck up whoever was trying to stop them. it'd be a pretty big deal.
i mean, they could be killed even by Men (Lord of the Eagles explicitly states at one poin... | 43 |
ELI5: If you make a chicken soup lets say, and then boil it every night for like 10 minutes (or however long it takes to kill all the bacteria) could you keep it in your fridge indefinitely without it going bad?? | 29 | No. Unlike what the other poster said, though, it's not because of bacteria between boilings or (usually) toxins produced by them. Bacteria between boilings would simply be killed with the next round and with most bacteria we encounter, it's an infection of the live bacteria in our bodies, not the toxins they produce, ... | 11 | |
[Detroit: Become Human] What is going on with the economy in this world? | The year is 2038. A hotel room costs $40. It ain't the Plaza, but it's perfectly acceptable. A whole-ass android that can cook and clean and raise your children and do anything else you need costs all of $799, less than an Android phone costs today -- and the android is also a phone anyway! You can even rent a fully fu... | 23 | I'd assume extreme automation- while more expensive to begin, keeping one robot manufactor going is much cheaper then paying 100 human workers- not to mention not needing toilets, cafeterias, break room and so forth.
That's why things are so cheap- manufacturing costs are very low, (it's also why unemployment is so hi... | 19 |
[Marvel & MCU] Why are so many countries and organizations trying to replicate the Super Soldier Serum? | It doesn’t have a good record and super soldiers have largely been surpassed (in 616) by mutants and other meta humans.
But in both 616 and McU, we see that so many different countries and organizations have attempted to replicate the super soldier serum. We know that super soldiers in the MCU can be surpassed by tec... | 69 | Meta Humans such as Spiderman are the result of very bizarre and unique circumstances that can not be (easily) reproduced. Governments don't know HOW people like Spider-Man got their powers.
But the Super Soldier syrum is different. If it could be replicated you could make an entire army of, well super soldiers. The o... | 85 |
[Warhammer Fantasy] If you could give the Empire of Man, one weapon(or weapons) from our modern age, what would it be? | They'll also have unlimited resources to build that one weapon(or weapons) and the entire EoM would accept it as given blessings by Sigmar.
Me: Howitzers | 27 | They do have cannons, but their cannons suck and they suck at using them. No radio to call in long distance strikes, terrible accuracy, no smokeless powder.
Radio alone would be a good choice. At times Warhammer Fantasy armies seem to be controlled by benevolent all-knowing entities that float above the battlefield, b... | 31 |
Enders game: SPOILERS. Question about the fleet deployed | Why did the fleet that was sent to destroy the bugger's home world have to be piloted by real people if Ender and his crew (essentially) remotely operate the ships anyways? Seems like a lot of lives could have been spared by using the ansible to r/c the ships. | 32 | Ender and his squadmates weren't commanding individual ships, they were giving orders to groups and they were being followed by local commanders in charge of the actual ships. There is also the fact that while orders could be transmitted instantaneously, you still need someone on hand to service and repair the ships if... | 77 |
CMV: a large part of what labeled racist is just overreaction. | A bit about my background: I was born in Asia, not white, not American, and don't speak English as my first language.
From my observation, many of the things labeled racist in the States seem to be overreaction, rather than truly racist. When I interact with others, I take care not to say things that might offend them... | 18 | >H&M using a black kid model for a jumper sporting the phrase "Coolest monkey in the jungle":
This wasn't racism. It was just culturally insensitive due the historical background.
>Jimmy Fallon being called out for doing a black face in a sketch 20 years ago
Again this was culturally insensitive not racist... | 14 |
CMV: Complaining about diversity in the Oscars is pointless because the award is | I see in the news that once again the Oscar nominations are out and the usual 'diversity' story is doing the rounds.
The whole award is just a circlejerk for the industry itself, companies pay millions to help them win.
It has nothing to do with us common folk and not representative of the public
Then they tell us w... | 41 | The industry is about 1 thing, $$$.
The Oscars don't usually represent the most profitable movies. They represent an old-guard set of self appointed taste setters who, most movies fans generally agree, get it wrong.
However, the answer isn't to repair the Oscars. The answer is up stand up a better awards show that ac... | 11 |
How do governments tell the difference between nuclear launches and peaceful space missions? | This has two parts:
1) Governments monitor the launch of nuclear missiles. But there are rockets being shot into space all the time. How do they know that those rockets aren't carrying nuclear weapons.
2) Satellites are shot into space regularly. How do we know that they aren't hiding nuclear weapons? | 18 | 1. They don't know. Any unscheduled launch is considered a potential ICBM launch. This is why such things are actually publicly announced, even if payloads are classified.
2. They don't know. Also there are some spacecraft with nuclear power sources (RTGs but also fission reactors). Still, there are literally handful o... | 19 |
Are there any equivalents to logical gates in the nervous system? | Maybe there doesn't need to be anything of the sort. I'm just wondering if there is anything like it, analog or digital or something else. | 23 | Neurons function similar way as logic gates in computers (in reality they are more complex). A neuron receives input signals through its dendrites, then integrates over them and fires if some threshold is reached. Synapses can be inhibitory, excitatory, weak or strong.
Some examples of neuron with two two excitato... | 12 |
Do rubber soles on our shoes actually protect us from lightning strikes? | 55 | No, it's very unlikely that they do.
Air has a dielectric strength of 3 MV/m. To travel 1 m, we need 3 million volts. To travel two meters, 6 million volts. And so on.
Rubber has ~15 MV/m. It seems a lot more insulating than air. This means that for electricity to travel through your 1 cm soles, we need a voltage of... | 58 | |
ELI5: How do we know Lucy skeleton is 3 million years old? | i understand that carbon dating can only estimate, and the estimated age can only go back 50,000 years (am i wrong about this??). so what other form of dating is used to determine Lucy living over 3 million years ago? | 28 | Carbon dating only goes back so far because eventually you run out of relatively short-lived carbon isotopes.
To accurately date older materials you can use longer-lived isotopes with much longer half-lives, and/or try to date the rock layer they were found in.
Lucy was dated by using argon isotope dating in the adja... | 73 |
I need to understand servers well enough to explain the concept to my boss... | Hi wise reddit friends,
Let me start off by saying that, while I'm not a computer illiterate person, I don't work in the IT realm and I don't understand this concept as well as I would like.
Preamble: Imagine there are 3 sites, each with their own local database sitting on their own SQL server (which I'm also not enti... | 19 | On the technical side, you *can* run the database management software and the web server on the same server. But it makes the database too accessible, so it's considered a pretty big security risk.
Speaking loosely, a web server is supposed to accept connections from everybody in the world. A database server is *not... | 12 |
ELI5: In bright light it hurts to open both my eyes fully, but if I close one eye, I can open the other eye much wider without pain. Why? | 354 | You're not actually feeling the intensity of the light with your eyeballs. The brain triggers the pain/wincing reaction in response to an overall level of white light being processed by the cranial nerve. The amount of light being brought in through one eye doesn't trigger that response, but the amount from both eyes d... | 177 | |
[MCU] What is Hydra's endgame? What do they want? What's their motive? | 28 | Honestly, there's no single endgame.
By design, Hydra is supposed to fragment, shift and evolve as needed to stay alive an effective. In the process of this, their actual agenda can shift quite severely, to the point of the different "heads" of Hydra coming into direct conflict. Hydra under Red Skull had an endgame o... | 56 | |
How close are we to getting actual physical images of an exoplanet? | 294 | I believe there is a "dream" project of NASA called the exo-earth imager which would involve a minimum of 20 6-meter optical telescopes spaced hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart in space. it would provide us with a 30x30 pixel image of any exoplanet within 3 parsecs. The milkyway is 31k parsecs wide for referenc... | 93 | |
[Futurama] How did palm trees get chosen as the replacement as X-Mas trees after pine trees went the way of the poodle and modesty? | 40 | Climate change and abundance.
As the climate regions shifted the palm tree became more suited for much of America. Following this palm trees became much cheaper to farm and cities also began planting them in public places instead of the mor expensive types. So with palm tree proliferation and then the subseuent world ... | 29 | |
ELI5: Why is it I eat a clove of garlic and it spews out of my pores for 2 days, killing those around--but if I eat a slice of apple pie I don't smell like a bakery? | I would like to smell like a bakery. | 27 | A quick search shows something called allicin causes the smell, which then breaks down into four other compounds. Looks like the worst of them is allyl methyl sulfide, which can linger in your body for a long time. Also gets into your sweat and urine.
I assume that, while tasty, the apple pie doesn't have anything tha... | 15 |
CMV: FIRE BAD! | ME NO LIKE FIRE.
FIRE BURN MY WOOD HOUSE.
MY BABY GO CLOSE TO FIRE. FIRE BURN HIM.
ME USE ANIMAL SKIN FOR WARM, NO NEED FIRE TO KEEP WARM.
ME SLEEP AT NIGHT. NO NEED FIRE TO SEE.
FIRE BURN FOREST. FIRE BURN TREES. FIRE BURN ANIMALS.
FIRE TAKE AWAY MY FRUIT AND MEAT. FIRE MAKE ME STARVE TILL I MOVE AWAY.
EVERYBO... | 2,613 | FIRE GOOD
FIRE WARM NO NEED SKIN FOR WARM
USE FIRE SEE IN CAVE
FIRE BURN MEAT
ME EAT MEAT
BURN MEAT
EAT GOOD
FIRE SCARE ANIMAL
FIRE SCARE TIGER
FIRE SCARE MAMMOTH
FIRE SCARE SLOTH
FIRE SCARE BAD MAN
SPEAR KILL ONE BAD MAN
FIRE KILL LOT BAD MAN
FIRE COME FROM ANCESTOR
ANCESTOR LOVE US
FIRE GOOD
| 1,011 |
[Harry Potter] Has the wizarding world actually left Earth? | Has the wizarding community been to the stars? Can they? Do they have the ability? If they don't how do they view the moon landing? | 19 | No. In many respects, the wizarding world is INCREDIBLY stagnant, mostly thanks to their small population and no real necessity to innovate and improve. If a magic spell fixes a broom every time it breaks, why make a stronger one? It's easier for them to make new spells than it is to make new items. And there's no need... | 26 |
How to create a software development business that fundamentally doesn't have horrible chances of success? | I am a 9-5 smartphone app developer. Although this is an ok thing to do when working for somebody, it becomes a mission impossible when trying to run your own small business by selling your apps in android market or app store. The number one issue is that there are about 2000 new apps being shited out every day from a... | 22 | Money for advertising, whether inside of the app store or not. Don't sell your own app, sell the base model to someone else and make it their problem. Or be ready to deal with the woes of marketing the app. | 10 |
Time cloak: how does it work? | I just saw this article (http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-pentagon-backed-cloak-clock.html) on the front page. In terms that someone who understands at least the basic principles of relativity, quantum mechanics, etc. can understand, how does this work? | 32 | It's a fascinatingly simple idea.
A light pulse has a certain bandwidth (i.e. it contains a bunch of different frequencies), which is larger the shorter the pulse is.
In this time-cloaking experiment, they "pull apart" this light pulse by accelerating the blue part of the spectrum and slowing down the red part of i... | 18 |
ELI5: Why is Ebola more dangerous than other diseases? | 16 | TL;DR It's not.
Ebola is contracted in poor African villages when people have to resort to eating dead animals (fruit-bats mainly) they've found in the rain forest. It then spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids (blood, sperm, etc). These people can't afford the necessary healthcare and it ten... | 27 | |
ELI5: How do they balance planes that have uneven numbers of seats on either side of the aisle, such as 2-1 or 3-2? | I think the title pretty much explains it. But this is something I wonder about whenever I fly on a plane with such a seat configuration. Thanks in advance. | 20 | Left Right balance is pretty much a non-issue. The people are all very close to the center of mass so it doesn't create much torque even if wildly imbalanced. Adjusting the trim flap a tiny bit on the end of the wing 10+ meters away results in significantly more torque.
Only front back balancing really matters because... | 33 |
CMV: Scientists should be allowed to experiment on fetuses | Following the logic of the popular belief that abortion should be legal because the fetus isn't a person yet, I think it should be acceptable to conduct any experiment or test on fetuses, either lab grown or biologically grown. The findings could contribute to natal/pre-natal health, and perhaps in other areas as well.... | 17 | >I think that if you think abortion should be legal, then you morally can’t disagree with fetus experimentation.
I do not think this is true because not everyone believes in abortion, "because the fetus isn't a person yet", many people simply feel that no one should be physically tied to another living thing. So ... | 24 |
ELI5: How do we assure that there are enough key/keyhole combinations for doors to be safe? | 38 | We don't, not really. Most of the doors in the USA can be picked with your average rake/tension wrench combo in under 5 seconds for anyone who has done it once or twice before. It's a really simple lock.
Car doors have more tension in them, so you need a slightly stronger tension wrench to counter act it, and you migh... | 33 | |
ELI5: What is it about cellphones that causes speakers to do that morse code thing? | 21 | The sound is sent to the speakers over wires as an electrical current with varying strength.
Almost all wires behaves as antennas to some degree and can send and receive radio signals, often unintentionally.
So what happens is that the radio signals from the phone antenna are picked up by the wires, and this changes ... | 13 | |
ELI5: If we breathe in O2 and use the oxygen, how do we release CO2? The same ammount of oxygen we took in, just an added carbon atom | 126 | It comes from the food you eat. The nutrients that you consume get broken down to a molecular level during digestion, and changed into simple forms like Glucose, a common sugar. One Glucose molecule is made of six Oxygen atoms, twelve Hydrogen atoms, and six Carbon atoms.
When your cells 'burn' glucose for energy by c... | 147 | |
Why do a lot of numbing chemicals/medicines end in the word “Caine”? | Examples: lidocaine, novocaine, benzocaine, tetracaine ect. | 21 | The 'caine' part is from cocaine.
Etymonline:
novocain (n.)
also novocaine, 1905, originally a trademark name for procaine (by Lucius & Brüning, Hoechst am Main, Germany), from combining form of Latin novus "new" (see new) + -caine, abstracted from cocaine. As a local anaesthetic, it began as a substitut... | 33 |
ELI5: The difference between melody and harmony. | 19 | Melody is a sequence of notes.
Harmony is when multiple notes at the same time sound good together.
When you sing a song by yourself, you sing the melody. When you have a choir singing along with you, you get harmony. | 27 | |
Why is the inverse square law so prominent in physics? | Almost every subject that my physics coursework covers has included an inverse square law (Newton's law of gravitational attraction, Coulomb's Law, Biot-Savart Law, intensity of radiation, etc). Is there something fundamental about an inverse square law, or is this all just purely coincidental? | 293 | It has to do with the fact that our universe has three spatial dimensions*. When you have a field whose intensity is spread evenly over a surface (e.g. a gravitational field is the same everywhere at a fixed distance from a central mass), and the surface area of a sphere grows with the square of its radius, the field t... | 443 |
[Vermintide 2] Is Kruber violating his oath as a grail knight by using grenades? | The whole no ranged weapons thing.
Side question, is there some form of ranged combat that a Bretonnian knight can engage in without violating their oath? | 15 | The spirit of the knightly oaths is all about chivalry, about the nobility of honourable combat and disdain for the dishonourable.
Everything about the Skaven is the complete antithesis of honour, nobility, and chivalry. To them, cowardice is a virtue, honour a weakness, and chivalry a concept so alien that they would... | 15 |
[WH40k] How is the Emperor of Mankind still alive? I know he's sustained through sacrifices and the Golden Throne but what are the scientific/psionic principals behind his longevity? Nanomachines? Mental Upload to a computer? | I've seen images of the God Emperor of Mankind. At the risk of being submitted to inquisition, he's basically a skeleton or perhaps a mummy. There's nothing there to keep alive anymore.
How do we know he's even doing anything and the Golden Throne isn't just sustaining the Astronomican beacon by itself at this point ... | 78 | Even before he was interred onto the Golden Throne, the Emperor was straight-up immortal. He had been alive for something in the neighborhood of 35,000 years before his altercation with Horus. So the potential and some of the groundwork for serious biological longevity was already present in his body before the mechani... | 76 |
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