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How much blood can a human body receive from a donor in one go. Can excessive blood cause the veins and arteries to burst due to the buildup of pressure? | For example, a balloon can pop if it’s over inflated, can this happen inside the veins and arteries? | 105 | Theoretically yes you could pop like a balloon if enough blood was forced into your circulatory system. Realistically, you'd go into congestive heart failure first. Basically the pressure in the system (your blood pressure) would get so high that your heart would be unable to generate enough force to expell any blood... | 84 |
ELI5: How do razors/sharp blades cause scars but regular cuts heal without such obvious damage? | 15 | Razors cut such a clean edge on the skin, theres nothing for the red blood cells and platelets to grab onto to start forming a clot
Regulate cuts leave jagged edges in the skin, even if you can’t see them, for the red blood cells and platelets to attach to. | 31 | |
[DC] Has Batman ever beat somebody so bad that they decided to quit crime upon recovery? | 41 | The Wayne foundation provides safe halfway housing and other help for former criminals who want to go honest. They have to agree to serve any prison time and to work towards being a productive member of society, but virtually everyone in the program is there after either having Batman beat them up to Oblivion or threat... | 46 | |
ELI5: How does stress cause acne? | 254 | Acne is predominantly triggered by hormonal imbalances. When you are stressed, your body produces excess stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol.
Just imagine your computer's available memory being your skin. In order for it to run smoothly, you don't want to clog it up by running a ton of unnecessary progra... | 114 | |
How do fish naturally "spread" to other lakes/ponds? | For a little background to my question. My uncle bought a house with a decent piece of property. He dug a large pond that he has been intending to stock with fish for his grandkids, nieces and nephews. He dug this pond a couple of years ago, and has been letting the natural plants grow around it, balancing the PH, and ... | 25 | The general hypothesis is actually not that the birds carry the fish themselves and drop them into a lake. It's that fish eggs in the water stick to the feet of birds, and they deposit the eggs into a new body of water when they fly somewhere else. To answer your question though we have no clue. There was a big study a... | 22 |
ELI5: What are Cankersores and why do they hurt so badly? | 66 | canker sores are ulcers - sores where the surface tissue over an area has disintegrated, leaving an open wound that heals slowly.
It hurts because its an open wound that heals slowly in a part of the body that moves a huge amount and is unavoidably exposed to food and drinks, which irritates them and makes it hurt mor... | 48 | |
ELI5: how does putting a plastic bag on your atm card help it read when it's having issues? | This is our go-to solution at work for getting troublesome cards to read, but no one seems to know why it helps. | 2,530 | Imagine there was a scratch on the painting in front of you. You know how you can deliberately make your vision fuzzy? Imagine doing that. You still see the painting, but no longer see the scratch. Of course, you the painting is a bit fuzzy, but everything is RELATIVELY in the same place.
That's all the card reade... | 3,434 |
[Marvel/Wrestling] What if the radioactive spider had bitten John Cena instead of Peter Parker? | 25 | The spider enjoys a nice bite of potato salad.
More seriously, we get a somewhat less emotionally traumatized, all in all healthier (if not as bright) Spider-Man. Less web swinging, more clinging to walls and then suplexing people. | 24 | |
ELI5: How are newer cars stolen? | How are modern cars stolen? With all the anti-theft technology, I am curious how they are defeated? I have seen gone in 60 seconds, but all the car thieves I see arrested have neck tattoos and their area code tattooed on their knuckles. | 25 | Thugs do thug shit, the same as always. They:
* Steal keys from your house
* Steal keys when you're not looking
* Take cars with keys in them
* Car jack you
* Ride off with your car when you thought you could trust them
* Get the title transferred in their name using forged documents
* Get someone in a dealersh... | 21 |
CMV: Billionaires SHOULD exist. | Abortion and guns are two things I will never change my mind on. But I’m willing to forget those issues in favor of things I think are much more important. Because of that, I am considering switching from conservative to liberal.
So the issue I want my mind changed on:
1. Billionaires SHOULD exist. I am not saying it... | 123 | The billion is an arbitrary number that is used because it sounds good but the general idea is that it is unjustified for a society to structure itself in a way that allows some people to live in extreme abundance while others suffer or even die due to poor economic conditions.
Its a conditional statement, should bil... | 123 |
[DC] lantern corp combinations | I remember seeing an old post a while ago of someone asking about if someone can wear more than 1 lantern corp ring. I'm curious about what rings would actually he a strong combination and what rings would be weaker. Would Hope and Compassion be a powerful combination or would they be a much weaker combination? Would R... | 27 | the blue and green lights are well established to be ludicrously powerful when combined, most of the others dont really feed into each other though, i guess love might inspire rage via jealousy or revenge for a loved one, it might also go well with greed if your going for the yandere "hes MINE" kind of love | 26 |
[dragon ball] If cell somehow manages to get the DNA of a god, can he become a god? | Will his power be boosted, if so so how powerful he would be if he had gotten beerus’s dna, will he have god aura? | 47 | 1. Cell has Saiyan DNA, which should allow him to become an SS God, or something quite similar to it. He doesn't need to absorb some other God's DNA. It's quite likely he'd be able to keep pace with Goku and Vegeta all the way up to the height of their power.
2. Buu Absorbed a god, and didn't become a god. So, just... | 47 |
CMV: The fact Ben Shapiro is being mocked for issues in his personal life is demonstrative of a huge issue in politics today - that point scoring and “burns” are becoming more important than addressing political stances. | Let me just preface this by saying I personally cannot stand Ben Shapiro - I feel like his “debating” is based on punching beneath his intellectual weight and arguing in bad faith. However, recently, my social media and friend groups have been flooded with memes, tweets, jokes and burns about how Shapiro is unable to s... | 283 | >I’ve seen similar things with a lot of politicians - Donald Trump misspeaking, Obama and his “fancy mustard”, and closer to home, Boris Johnson’s full name sounding pretentious.
Do you notice a pattern in the types of people you're labeling here (with the exception of Obama)? All of them have a history of personal... | 96 |
I'm a postdoc giving a talk this summer in front of leaders in my field. Is it okay to mention that I'm looking for a faculty job? | This will be in front of a bunch of leaders in my field that would very likely be collaborators when I'm faculty somewhere. Would it come off as tacky to mention I'm looking for a job? What about just mentioning that my postdoc is almost over? We're going to a glam journal with the results I'm presenting if it matters.... | 25 | I've seen people give talks and at the end mention that that they're on the job market. I've also seen people who don't say it out loud, just have at the bottom of their last slide ("I'll be on the job market Fall 2017!") | 26 |
[Metal Gear] Can anyone provide a good ELI5 version of the Metal Gear Solid series' plot? | Like seriously, wow. I have a pretty busy schedule and don't really have time to go through the whole series but I always thought MGS4 on the ps3 looked cool and my friend said he would let me borrow it for a while, but I'm sort of lost. If anyone could help explain this stuff, that would be great! | 20 | Synopses:
MGS1: Snake is sent to take out Liquid who has stolen a nuclear stockpile and is holding the world ransom. Snake makes best buds with a nerdy scientist who calls himself Otacon. It turns out that Snake and Liquid are both altered clones of Big Boss. Liquid thought Snake had the superior genetic engineering b... | 30 |
[MCU] Google now has digital copies of all the sacred texts in the Ancient Ones library. What's the worst that could happen, and what should I do to fix it? -Dr. Strange? | I took photographs of all the sacred texts so that I could run them through Google Translate. I forgot that I had my phone set to automatically back up my photos to my Google Drive. Google now has a complete set of high resolution photographs of the incantations and instructions for the most powerful sorcery known to h... | 74 | The apocalypse. Contact Google. Major publishers have gotten stuff pulled and/or blurred before.
Or just wait until the first near apocalypse and then enlist Tony Stark and/or Cable to erase all copies of the image. If anyone can do it, they can. | 31 |
[Pirates of the Caribbean] At worlds End. Why was the final battle a 1v1 despite the vast amounts of ships on both sides? | It always confuses me as I’ve tried going scene by scene to the end to find out why it’s only one on one. It seems super lame too since after this huge inspiration speech it’s just two ships instead of the whole navy vs the pirates. | 17 | It's basically like combat by champion, but with ships instead of single people. They let their best ships fight, and the side whose ships win get the victory of the whole combat. That greatly reduces the price in ships and lives. | 20 |
[Marvel] How powerful can Galactus be. | I have been getting into comics more and Galactus seems to be a cool character and want to know just how powerful can he be. I see the name Black celestial arc Galactus thrown around as being possibly a multiversal threat. I would like to know more about this character. | 25 | Well for starters:
> The first (and oldest) living entity in the universe, Galactus employs advanced science capable of creating the Ultimate Nullifier (capable of destroying and remaking the multiverse) and the ship Taa II. Reed Richards speculated that Taa II (the Möbius strip-shaped, solar system-sized home of G... | 21 |
[Spy Fiction] Why do female operatives always seem to wear a catsuit as their uniform for their operations? | Honestly, those things seem rather impractical for any field work- it's hard to move in them, they get really sweaty, they don't have any pockets, and they cause some rather unwarranted attention. Why wear them at all? | 413 | Usually it seems to be for the same reason ninjas, gymnasts and superheros wear such form-fitting suits. It's useful to move around in tight areas without getting caught in things, like if you are crawling in a airduckt. (also useful if you need to do karate.) As for a lack of pockets, they usually have a utility belt ... | 462 |
ELI5: How is the military spending of the US ($682 billion) justified when it's 4 times more than that of the 2nd highest? ($166 billion - China). Are we really being threatened that much? | 65 | In terms of coverage and force projection the US is unmatched. They feel the need to have these capabilities in order to protect american interests in foreign lands. Meaning, it's not the US itself that is under the threat. But rather American businesses, factories, mines, refineries, and ships that are under threat ... | 30 | |
ELI5: Why does gold run in veins? All heavy metals like this come from supernovas. Why would they concentrate in some position when they eventually make it to Earth? | 27 | It's not like gold is formed in a supernova or some other celestial process and then slowly makes its way to an already existing Earth. What happens is that billions and billions and billions of years ago, certain elements were formed in supernova and widely dispersed. These elements ended up intermixed in giant cloud... | 30 | |
ELI5: If HIV can be spread through body fluids, why can't it be spread through saliva? | 280 | Saliva has very little “bodily” material for the HIV to reside in. Its mostly just water and salt. And as always dose makes the poison, so technically you could get HIV from saliva, but you would need to drink liters of it to even have a chance. | 338 | |
eli5: If the US is a net exporter of oil, can’t we easily become self-reliant for oil? | Am I just confusing crude oil for “petroleum products”? Or is there too much money exchanging hands? I’m just confusing by all the rhetoric around us being dependent on foreign oil when statistically speaking all the data I see shows 1) the US produces more oil than any other country in the world and 2) we export more ... | 51 | There are different types of oil, Heavy/Light describes one aspect and Sweet/Sour is a terminology for the amount of sulfur. Years ago we invested heavily in factories that handle Heavy Sour oil. Turns out after the Shale breakthrough to all that oil in the US, we have much more Light Sweet then we estimated. It’s not ... | 68 |
[Batman] I recently started as a patrol officer in Gotham. How much will Batman know about me? | In different iterations of Batman, he's seen as knowing the names of officers making up whole departments. How much does he actually know about each one? | 46 | He has supercomputers and an extraordinarily advanced research capability at his disposal. He doesn't know anything about you initially. He has an excellent memory, but Gotham is a big city with a big police force, and your one guy. When your normal duties cause you to become involved with a major super villain he does... | 52 |
ELI5 - Islamic/ Sharia Banking | I understand that usury (interest) is not allowed but I'm still unclear on the work arounds. | 55 | in some cases it is handled the same way that christian usury standards were circumvented in the middle ages: the "late" fee. a lender would charge a a borrower a "late fee" if the loan weren't paid on time, which would be commensurate with the interest they wanted to charge. the borrower would pay 1 day late along wit... | 23 |
How feasible would it be for a major publicly traded company to become employee owned? | Think Amazon or Apple. How would it be possible for them to become majority (or completely) ESOP? Or an “employee owned corporation?” | 29 | Assuming no expropriation, and using your examples unlikely. Taking Apple as an example, it has 123,000 employees and a valuation of 1 trillion. Every single employee would have to stump up several million . The numbers are a little less extreme for Amazon, but still well outside plausibility. | 19 |
CMV: The hijab oppresses women. | As a straight white male living in a heavily Muslim community, it seems to me that forcing women to wear a covering on their heads is oppression. Forcing anyone to cover up any part of themselves is oppression.
However, living in this community, I have noticed that women who wear the hijab are happy, well adjusted,... | 57 | >Forcing anyone to cover up any part of themselves is oppression.
Even Western society requires that people cover their genitals when in public. Do you consider asking people to cover their genitals and anuses in public a form of oppression? | 29 |
[Married with children] How is Al blind to the fact that Peggy is hot? | He acts disgusted with the idea of kissing her, winces when he sees her picture and once feel out of a window because he saw her portrait and reeled in horror.
But... Peggy is hot. | 30 | So what? He is tired of her shit. He is tired of her spending all the money, not pulling her weight in the relationship, and how she treats him. So she's conventionally attractive. That doesn't mean Al _likes_ her. | 35 |
ELI5: Why is it that when we sit in the sun with our eyes closed for a while, when we open them again colours look so much more vibrant? | 17 | The skin of your eyelids lets light shine through. But there's blood inside that skin. So you see a red/orange color. After you've stared at red/orange for a while the color cones in your eyes get "tired". When you open your eyes, the opposite colors - green/blue - will look way bright because those cones are fresh. | 13 | |
Do tree squirrels live together as mating pairs in a nest? | There's a hole in the tree outside my office window and every day I see 2 gray squirrels go in and out. Are they mates, or parent and child? I'm curious about my little friends! | 176 | Eastern gray squirrels build a type of nest, known as a drey, in the forks of trees, consisting mainly of dry leaves and twigs. Males and females may share the same nest for short times during the breeding season, and during cold winter spells, squirrels may share a drey to stay warm. They may also nest in the attic or... | 24 |
ELI5: Why do you hold your arms up while you run but hold them at your sides when you walk? | 64 | Holding your arms up when running makes it easier for your arms to keep pace with your stride because you are swinging a pendulum the length of your shoulder-to-elbow instead of swinging a pendulum the length of your shoulder-to-fingertips. | 44 | |
Often, people argue that an influx of immigrants to Sweden/Britain/the United States would destroy either the economy or the culture of the destination country. But has this ever happened? | I'm defining immigrant as somebody who moves into an area with an established government in hopes of economic success. In this context, English settlers in New England are not immigrants, but Irish people who crossed the Atlantic in the 19th century are. | 66 | In the 1820s, the Mexican government invited Americans to immigrate into what was then Northern Mexico. Eventually they rescinded the invitation, but Americans continued to enter the area illegally. Didn't work out so well for Mexico -- today, we call the region "Texas." | 34 |
[DC] Is superman stronger than his own durability? | Has anyone tried mind controlling superman into killing himself and would that work? If a villain mind controlled superman to rip his own heart out, would that work or is superman even more durable than his own strength? | 19 | It's possible. Humans have enough strength to kill themselves. But there are structures in place to prevent the use of your own strength directly to kill yourself. For one thing, you can't choke yourself to death normally - your hand would go limp when you fell unconscious (though, don't try this - you still risk da... | 23 |
[40K] If a human vehicle is red and is fighting orks, does it go faster? | 68 | Yes, the power of the waaagh isn't limited to only having effects on Orks. It's one of the reasons Yarrick is still alive, they actually believe he can't die, and that's why they like fighting him so much. | 126 | |
ELI5: What would Hans Gruber have been able to to with all those bearer bonds? | Surely he wouldn't have been able to do anything, right? I'm not entirely sure how they work. What are they, like, currency or something? | 28 | Bearer bonds aren't really issued anymore because of their strong link to criminals and money laundering, but yes, he could use them.
They are unregistered, whomever is holding the piece of paper at that time, is the owner.
Sure he probably couldn't walk into the Nakatomi HQ and turn them back in for cash, but he cou... | 13 |
ELI5: Why are bathrooms all gender specific, rather than having one restroom with all stalls, for both genders? | 380 | A long time ago there used to be "powder rooms" that ladies can use both for the toilet and to adjust their clothing or touch up their makeup. Since doing either in public were seen as impolite these powder rooms were explicitly private and for ladies only. | 338 | |
ELI5 why devices don't accept fingerprints after restarting or updating | if I restart my phone it says "pin is required for restart" and on my computer says "use password for fingerprint". why is it any different for when I'm normally logging in? | 325 | It is for your protection.
You can be (legally/forcibly) compelled to give your fingerprint.
You cannot (in most states) be compelled to give a piece of information held only in your head.
If you want to protect your privacy, say at a border crossing, you could restart all your electronics. Even if you are detained... | 528 |
[Assassin's creed] If all the Assassin's killings are so brutal and in public, how are they not noticed by the crowd around him? | Especially when he tries to blend in public walking along like he belongs, in an assassins uniform. | 16 | Keep in mind that the Assassin uniform is designed to look like normal clothing - Altair's dress was similar to the local monks', Ezio's was a nobleman's tunic, Edward Kenway wore a sailor's gear etc. It wasn't especially unusual for those ensembles to feature hoods - they might earn a second look, but there was nothi... | 26 |
CMV: Blue Cheese is an abomination that should be abolished from the face of the Earth | First, why I hate it :
1. It has a strong smell that instantly instigates a fight or flight response, meaning there is some primal instinct that is telling me blue cheese is NOT of this world and is here solely to make me suffer
2. For something that's supposed to be edible, it looks TERRIBLE. Look at a honey glazed d... | 48 | Melt it over a burger with some caramelized onions. It’s gonna: 1) look like a burger with some melty cheese, 2) smell like a burger, and 3) taste like a burger but with some tangy elements that elevate the overall experience beyond the reliable goodness of ketchup
Edit: 4) This burger has a decent 401K | 26 |
[Halo/MCU] Could Steve Rogers safely wear MJOLNIR powered armor? | Assuming he was given a neural interface, would Cap's super-soldier serum altered body allow him to wear and operate a SPARTAN's powered armor without injuring himself? | 48 | For those wondering about the question, the first iteration of MJOLNIR power armor was practically unusable by humans, mostly on account of reaction time. It severely injured several of its operators because of the amplified speed and strength it granted, John 117 nearly gave himself a concussion the first time he salu... | 58 |
ELI5: Why can't a bullet proof vest protect you from a knife stab? | I mean, it's designed to stop a bullet which delivers much more force than a human being can ever produce during stabbing | 798 | Bullet’s tend to be wider than a sharp knife blade. That increase in surface area makes it easier for the Kevlar to prevent it from penetrating. Most vests however have inserts for plates which can protect against knife attacks/larger caliber rounds. | 1,094 |
CMV: You shouldn't punch nazis. Unless they're ACTUAL 1940s Germany Nazis. | Can you guys stop glorifying violence against somebody because of their political views?
Seriously. I mean, sure, call nazis retards. They are! But don't say that because you find their politics abhorrent, you can commit violent acts. People on Reddit don't seem to be able to grasp this concept. Nazis are sacks of shi... | 27 | > Imagine the outrage over the headline "Alt Right man punches registered Democrat in the face."
You're suggesting that it's hypocritical or logically inconsistent to want to punch Nazis, yet not want democrats to get punched.
It doesn't have to be. If someone's point of view is "I want to punch people who advocat... | 49 |
How long does a supernova last? | Like a year?
1000 years?
5 million?
What ballpark are we talking? | 21 | The core collapse takes less than a second, the shockwave takes a few hours to blow all the star out of its way, and the "rest" takes a few years at most before it's gone. They are an incredibly fast process for the scale they're at. | 30 |
CMV: Subreddits like r/LateStageCapitalism are just as bad r/T_D, and if one is banned, so should the other. | Currently, on r/bestof there is a post celebrating a user who is continuing to cite r/T_D's offenses that u/Spez apparently ignored during his recent Q and A. This reminded me of another list of offenses cited during Spez's post for r/LateStageCapitalism and other leftwing subreddits.
I think freedom of speech is imp... | 109 | I notice you throw "hate speech and radical politics" together as if they are the same thing. Subs should be banned for attacking people. Brigading, attacking people, and inciting violence are cause for bans. The political leaning is irrelevant. If the mods at latestagecapitalism are allowing or supporting those things... | 84 |
[MCU/Spidey FFH] - If everything Mysterio does [Spoiler] then why did Peter [Spoiler] | If everything Mysterio does is controlled by projections/holograms/drones, then how did Peter possibly get wet when he was "punched" by the water monster in Venice? Similarly, why did anyone feel actual heat coming off the fire monster? If it was all projections shouldn't it have just felt like nothing at all? | 146 | It obviously wasn't *all* a projection. It appears that at least some of the drones were at least equipped with water cannons and flamethrowers in addition to their more traditional guns.
What they didn't have was a lot of mass, so they had to simulate the damage caused by giant smashing fists by shooting up whatever ... | 232 |
ELI5: Why do frozen, raw chicken products keep getting recalled for salmonella? Wouldn’t the solution be to cook the product properly? All raw chicken could contain salmonella. | 61 | There are two normal issues governing a recall due to salmonella. The first is the actual loading or the amount of salmonella present, so there isn't a recall if there is some salmonella, but if there are substantial amounts of salmonella. The second is if the salmonella is an anti-biotic resistant strain. | 53 | |
Can you explain what socialism is (like I'm five) and why everyone seems to hate it? | 1,115 | Socialism can mean several different things depending on context.
Formally, socialism is an economic system where the production of stuff (eg food, housing, and "commodities") is controlled by the people doing the producing. This is opposed to the current system where a small class of wealthy individuals owns controll... | 888 | |
[The Matrix] The war is over. How do they handle "the ones that want out?" | At the end of the last film, the Architect promises the Oracle that everyone who wants to escape from the matrix will be freed. How exactly are they planning to handle this? Does some representative program debrief them? Do the machines run rapture.exe? | 53 | Simple, they make a series of movies detailing exactly what the Matrix is and release them onto the masses. Some people just see them as pop-culture, others see the truth and ask to be freed.
We are the ones who chose to be enslaved. | 117 |
[Overwatch] Has the supernatural been confirmed? | I know the Overwatch game isn't entirely accurate, but it's based on real people, right? Can Hanzo and Genji really summon dragon spirits? And what about that stuff with Reaper feeding off of people's souls? And Zenyatta can hover people and heal while he's meditating and all that. Is that just stuff he built into his ... | 22 | Hanzo has a nanotech energy generator embedded in the tattoo of his arm. Genji has the same tech, but it's in his sword. They took inspiration for the weapons from the Shimada family legends.
Reaper is able to convert the residual bio-electric field from a dead body into repairing himself (bodies run on energy, right?... | 16 |
ELI5: If you hurt yourself why does shaking that part of your body relieve the pain? | 35 | This phenomenon is called the *"Pain Gate Theory"*.
When you injure yourself, pain signals travel from the site of injury to your brain.
When you do something else to that part of the body, for example rubbing it with your hand, this also sends signals to your brain.
However, because both signals are coming from t... | 42 | |
ELI5: Could an unbreakable wire that is one atom thick slice through you and would it leave you in two separate pieces? | 3,028 | Yes. It would break all molecular\* bonds in a plane, cutting through anything. Molecular bonds are what holds solid objects together. No bond, and they slide apart.
The question is if the bonds would reform after being cut. For metals, the answer is yes. Metals would act like sticky putty. The bonds reform as soon a... | 2,124 | |
[starship troopers] why don't the arachnids launch a full scale attack on earth? | After behemacoytl consumes the Sky Marshal, he had ample time to send the information back to the other Queens to launch a full scale attack in earth, as they now knew about all of earth's military. | 67 | They can't. They didn't hit Buenos Aires with an asteroid either. The government did to drum up support for the war while drawing attention away from domestic problems. Unless you believe that the bugs threw a rock across the galaxy and the Federation somehow missed it?
Buenos Aires was an inside job.
There is no... | 119 |
[MCU] How did Tony Stark program F.R.I.D.A.Y to have Sass if it isn't an A.I? | So from my understanding, Ultron is the first true AI in the MCU which is why he was a big deal and Tony and Bruce tried to work on him.
Jarvis behaved like a regular program, monotoned, does what he is told, and relays the information accurately.
F.R.I.D.A.Y on the other hand, has an attitude, is verbose and behaves... | 16 | Probably the simplest way: a massive database of sass responses, based on his own experience as a sassologist, and archived sass found online.
FRIDAY does not actually understand sass, she simply has a canned sassy response for each and every possible conversation or situation, and can improvise additional simple s... | 68 |
[Dark Souls] So whats in space? | Is the rest of the universe going through the eternal cycle of life and death or is it all just on this single planet? | 50 | There is very little talk of celestial bodies in the lore, with the Sun and Moon only referred to in their deific forms rather than their position in the skies. One theory is that the land lies in eternal night, and the sun went out as part of the Age of Fire ending (it's illusory whenever you see it). Hence, there are... | 32 |
[Dragonball universe] What does it feel like to sense someone's power level? | When a Z Fighter is clearly frozen in shock while sensing a significant power level, what are they actually feeling?
Is it something they feel in their gut, or is it more in the mind? Obviously there's a sense of fear, but it seems like their fight-or-flight response doesn't kick in until a few minutes later. They jus... | 64 | Y'know that feeling when you're getting a snack in the middle of the night and you feel like there's a presence behind you and you don't want to turn around because it would just confirm your fear? You feel frozen in place, powerless to what is going to happen. Your eyes grow wide, your hairs stand up, your body feels ... | 62 |
ELI5:When the weather is very cold, why do some of my electronic devices operate slow? | Hello ELI5, we had a very cold winter this year, and I noticed that some of my electronic devices would operate slower than normal.
For example, when I shovel my driveway I listen to music on my iPhone. I noticed when I wanted to switch songs via the touch screen it seemed slower than normal(swiping from song to song f... | 61 | Both cases you described use a LCD screen, liquid crystal display.
As the liquid gets colder, it responds more slowly. The device, the processor, the electronics, are working as fast as ever (maybe even faster, processors like being cool), the delay comes from the screen.
Around -40 or so, the screen can actually fre... | 54 |
[Star Trek] What haven't the Borg sent (n) cubes to assimilate the Federation where n>1? | Is it the Q or some other transcendent force taking an interest in the Federation ensuring the Borg never send more than they are capable of overcoming? | 32 | The Borg Cube encountered at Wolf 359 was sent as a scout to asses the Federation. Following this incident we realized that we were woefully unprepared to combat a serious Borg invasion in our current state. As a result military research was ramped up. The most notable example of this military ramp-up was the developme... | 23 |
[Harry Potter] Are ghosts really the souls of wizards or mere inprints left behind? | It's kinda unclear | 15 | Ghosts would be the souls. Spirits would be a closer word, but it is actually them. Portraits are imprints. It's said that ghosts are made when someone isn't ready to go on. They're afraid of death or are very connected to the locations they haunt. | 20 |
Is there any science to, "liquor before beer or beer before liquor"? | Just wondering whether it truly adds up to anything physiologically. | 16 | No, there's no basis to this from a biological standpoint. From a psychological standpoint, though, there very well may be.
Okay, so you've had a couple of drinks. You're buzzed, and you're feeling good, and you decide to drink more. If you're drinking beer at this point in the night, you might down three or four beer... | 18 |
CMV: Cosplayers who publicize themselves on social media but can't handle mean comments online and immediately break down shouldn't really be publicizing themselves on social media at all. | I have to prelude that of course, the ones most at fault here are the people slinging insults at a cosplayer who presumably worked very hard on their cosplay.
I have so many cosplayer friends who have such a huge problem with ignoring hate comments. They are perfectly fine cosplayers,but I see them complaining about h... | 68 | Taking a jab at someone's looks is a crappy, small-minded thing to do. And telling cosplayers to just keep it to themselves because the internet is filled with trolls, is basically the same thing as telling black people to just avoid the deep south, because its filled with racists. Or telling gay people to simply move ... | 30 |
[Middle Earth] How would the history of Middle Earth change if Eru had completely detached himself from Arda the moment after its creation. | In this timeline, he would not perform any kind of intervention, direct or indirect. He would be completely silent, not communicating anything to anyone, not even the Valar. All he would do is silently watch the events of the world take place. How would history change? | 20 | That's basically what he did. Eru only intervened twice in the history of Arda. Once to sink Númenor and remove the Undying Lands and once to destroy the One Ring.
So it really wouldn't change too much history-wise. If Eru didn't interfere well the Numenoreans land on Valinor only to get crushed by the might of the V... | 13 |
CMV: If Brexit doesn't happen we have made an absolute joke of democracy | I've been thinking this for a while. And for those interested in the referendum I voted remain, and still feel that way however I find the fact that we voted for Brexit and now every politician and MP is doing everything they can to railroad Brexit and sabotage the plan.
If we all came together, to perform in the int... | 82 | Asserting that the referendum really is the "voice of the people" is the real mockery of democracy. Democracy depends of the affected people making decisions about known quantities and coming to clear majority consensus. None of these things were true about the brexit referendum. Even if we give the leave campaign abso... | 87 |
ELI5: Why on old cartoons, did a scenery object look brighter if the characters were going to interact with it? Why would the quality differ regardless? | 31 | They were being drawn in different layers.
Old cartoons were literally drawn on clear plastic sheets like you'd get on an overhead projector. Character's movements therefore had to be drawn and redrawn for each frame. The background didn't. It would stay the same for multiple shots. These different layers would be... | 47 | |
Differences in UK and USA PhD programs | I recently accepted a PhD program in Canada that is based on the English style of program. Can someone tell me the pros/cons and generally what the differences are in the style of degree programs? | 25 | US programs require coursework (~30-60 credits), expect incoming students to have a more general background typical of an American bachelor's program, and usually take at least 5 years post-bac.
UK programs don't have coursework, you are treated like an employee of the university, and typically last 3 years because co... | 15 |
Where does the beep be-be-bop be-be-bop sound from my speakers come from when I get an incoming call? | Whenever I'm about to get an incoming call and I'm near my PC, the speakers start playing out this beep be-be-bop be-be-bop thing which stops as soon as my phone starts ringing.
Obviously my phone is talking to the gsm network and the signal is somehow interfering with the speakers, but I get that beeping only just be... | 48 | Transmission spikes as your phone switches from a passive to an active connection with the tower. The cord of your speakers acts as an antenna and picks up the digital signal. Once the active connection is established, the signal strength goes back down.
If you have super sensitive stereo equipment with unshielded cab... | 45 |
[UPDATE] Question about academic integrity | Hi /r/AskAcademia,
I would like to thank you for your advice input in the previous thread (linked here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAcademia/comments/43kbrb/addressed_towards_professorstas_question_about/). I am posting this here because several people were curious as to what my professor would say, and for future peo... | 31 | Look, everyone has been very kind and you're a very stand-up person. But you need to hear it: calm down for fuck's sake. Your reaction to this whole thing was completely disproportionate. At some point in your life you're going to reach an *actual* moral crossroads, not accidentally commit a minor mistake that 1. your ... | 27 |
The 2011 earthquake in Japan shortened the length of the day by 1.8 microseconds. How was this measured? | 30 | Atomic clocks have no problem keeping accurate track of a microsecond, or even a nanosecond, over a day. You just need a good reference, e.g. from the sky. By comparing the signals multiple radio telescopes receive you can determine the current rotation angle of Earth very accurately: The time delay between the signals... | 12 | |
[Pokemon] Are gym leaders in the order they are because they WANT to be, or is it an indicator of their skill? | Like, some gym leaders are older than others, you'd expect the older spectrum of trainers to be stronger, but sometimes we see adult gym leaders earlier on and then 6,7,8 gym leaders are sometimes even kids!
Are they in order of skill or do the gym leaders just prefer to be where they are? For example, can the first ... | 17 | The explanation in the Pokemon Adventures manga and Pokemon Origins series, which are the closest adaptions of the games, is that the gym leader chooses their Pokemon they fight with based on the number of badges the other trainer has. This explains why in Gold & Silver for example, Brock has higher level Pokemon t... | 33 |
How do our ears make wax? Is this the only place in our body where wax is made? | 750 | Ear wax (cerumen) is a secretion produced by your ceruminous glands, which are only found in your ear canal. It's a mixture of sebaceous secretions and secretions from modified sweat glands, and serves to trap anything foreign that gets into your ear canal (e.g.; dirt, insects).
Your body has other sebaceous glands t... | 445 | |
We live in a society that values having children too much and anyone who prefers having children over adoption is selfish. CMV | My perception of the latter statement developed from a conversation I had with my girlfriend. When we were talking about children, I expressed having an interest in adopting a child. Immediately, she was taken aback and spit out, "Absolutely not," outlining how she would never love the child as much as a kid that she b... | 389 | It may sound a bit cold, but just because there is a societal problem, that doesn't mean that any given person should be required to help fix it.
Yes, more people should be open to adoption and yes doing so would make our world a better place, but that doesn't inherently make someone selfish for not wanting to adopt.
... | 236 |
With a heavy vehicle trying to stop on snow, what is the relationship between the higher mass increasing traction on the snow, but also increasing the momentum that has to be stopped? | I often see pickups loaded with snow for traction, but it seems like extra weight might work against you at a certain point | 2,596 | That's an interesting question, let's look at the math.
As you point out, there are two factors at work here.
First is the kinetic energy of the vehicle,
Ke=1/2 m*v^2
M is the vehicle mass, v it's speed.
Second, there is the friction term. This one changes depending on whether or not the car is sliding or the tir... | 855 |
ELI5: Why does it seem like some colors look good together and others clash? | 68 | As with most things dealing with human perception, there is probably an evolutionary basis for what colors look good together (for humans at least). Perhaps during hunter-gatherer times, certain color combinations in nature would indicate whether food was fresh or, if it was unsafe to eat. There are probably many facto... | 24 | |
ELI5: Would it be possible for an average person to safely land a plane by talking to somebody on the ground? | You know the movies, etc.
Say you were to be in the cockpit of a passenger plane (or a small Cessna) and there is nobody on the plane with any flying experience.
Could you bring the plane to land by any means or would you not even be able to figure out how to work the radio? Would you be able to land on an airstrip... | 2,096 | Yes. Mythbusters tried it in a professional simulator. Some ATC operators are experienced pilots (and those who aren't usually have access to someone who is 'current on type' for the aircraft you're flying), and all commercial airliners are required to have autopilot functionality. Most can even land themselves (cal... | 1,795 |
Why/how do benzodiazepines and Z drugs/sleeping pills cause damage when used long term? | 214 | Both drug families target the same binding site of GABA(A) receptors and potentiate GABA responses. This causes an enhancement of inhibitory signals in the neural circuits. As a consequence, there are less action potentials and thus we get relaxed and less responsive at sensible doses.
In a healthy individual there i... | 154 | |
I have a question on 0 Kelvin... | So, this is kind of a fail thread because I don't have a link, but I read on r/science that the coldest... system? Something, I don't know, it's irrelevant, but it's only 1 Kelvin. I know there are multiple theories out there on what would happen at 0 Kelvin, but what seems most plausible to men and women of Reddit, an... | 16 | All the particles go into their ground state, which means different things for fermions and bosons.
Most properties of everyday objects are controlled by fermions, and room temperature is already really, really cold for fermions. Thus, not much happens to a normal object, it would just be really cold and have no the... | 12 |
ELI5: When a human is buried in a coffin, what actually happens with the dead organic matter? | I mean, if one just dies on the ground, the bugs and animals and smaller organisms will consume it. But if it's isolated in a coffin, does it just, mummify? | 26 | depends how much embalming fluid there is in their veins. generally, after 10 years there's a lot of liquid in there, recognizable skin and bones lots of hair and a dank smell. if the coffin leaks and doesn't flood they get leathery but if it collapses its usually just dirt and bones. i woked at a cemetery. people ... | 27 |
CMV:I do not think affirmative action is wrong | The statement "affirmative action is wrong" is very subjective. This can be twisted in many ways. For the purpose of intellectual honesty, we should argue whether affirmative action helps minorities more than it hurts those in the majority. We should also examine whether or not injury to the majority is such that affir... | 18 | I believe that affirmative action policies, for women as well as racial minorities, address an extremely important issue but do so at the wrong point in time. In terms of both college admissions and job hiring, there is clear evidence that white males have a statistical advantage. But why? Yes, it is because they enjoy... | 20 |
CMV: Without appropriate education, general wealth is dangerous on the long run | Wealth is dangerous for most people
Please note that I am trying to address people on average. I am well aware of the variance in people's lives and that my statement may not represent every single individual.
I am a millennial and throughout my upbringing I have been taught about the two World Wars which devastated ... | 152 | Not really sure what you’re arguing here- your post seems to be a tangent off your header. Can you clarify what you mean by appropriate education, general wealth, & what you feel is dangerous in the long run about it? | 41 |
ELI5: what exactly are DJs such as Skrillex and Deadmau5 doing when they perform live besides just playing the songs from their album? | Just from watching videos, it looks like they are busy turning knobs and flipping switches, but then I've seen clips where they will dive into the crowd for several minutes with no discernible affect on the music.
I realize that the songs are probably mixed differently from what's on the album, but couldn't they just ... | 635 | Back in the days, when laptops were not used for live performances, the main task for a DJ was basically to beatmatch 2 tracks.
This was done by listening to the track you want to play next on your headphones and concentrate on the beat to get an approximation on the bpm (beats per minutes). Now you check out the trac... | 759 |
What is the difference between aesthetics and morality? | 26 | Aesthetics is about art, beauty, and other related topics. It discusses questions like "what makes something beautiful," "what is art," "is artistic merit subjective or objective," and so on.
Morality is about right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and vice, duty, and other related moral topics. It discusses questions ... | 28 | |
[Witcher] How are doppler so often defeated in combat when they take on their clones mindset too? | 19 | They don't take their full mindset and they don't capture all of their memories or experience.
Think of it like watching someone paint. You can see every brush strokes and make an effort to mimic them exactly, but even then you'll make mistakes and produce an inferior product. The Doppler is trying to do the same th... | 32 | |
[Fallout] Do merchants only accept Nuka-Cola/Sunset Sarsaparilla caps? | For example, I know there are only Nuka caps in FO3 and Sarsaparilla caps in FNV but if there were other brands would merchants accept them? Would they have the same value? | 47 | Probably, yes. Mind you that caps only have value because traders at the hub started accepting them; and they only started accepting caps at all because of their small size and relative durability. The only reason why traders might not accept other kinds of Caps is if accepting those kinds of Caps distabilised the "c... | 55 |
ELI5: People get Parkinson disease due to loss of Dopamine, Since Dopamine also controls the reward system of the brain, so does that mean that people with Parkinson disease are usually sad and depressed? | 17 | > People get Parkinson disease due to loss of Dopamine
That's not true. There's a *correlation* between the two, but we don't know it's the cause. It might be that whatever causes Parkinson's *also* causes the damage to dopamine receptors.
Also, depression is linked to serotonin and norepinephrine, not dopamine. ... | 17 | |
CMV: Trading stocks is glorified Pokemon card trading | I've recently started looking into trading, and also buying a bunch of shares here and there. But I can't help the feeling that all of this is just glorified Pokemon card trading. Hear me out.
1. The relationship between the company's performance (which should theoretically be measured by profit) is lost. The valuatio... | 19 | Pokémon cards don't pay dividends.
That's the major difference. You literally get a part of the profit merely by owning a stock (without buying or selling). There is no comparable mechanism in Pokémon cards.
Also, you can VOTE you shares to decided the board of directors. No similar mechanism with Pokémon cards. | 43 |
ELI5: if there is no actual "touch", just electric impulses between atoms that give the feeling of touching, how does a knife, for example, break bonds to "cut" something? | 81 | There are two kinds of bonds- intramolecular (forces that hold atoms together in a molecule) and intermolecular (forces that exist between 2 or more molecules). Typically intermolecular forces are much weaker and those are the bonds you can sever to make a "cut". For visualization, think of a bowl of uncooked rice and ... | 97 | |
[Harry Potter] If i were to give my House Elf money to buy new cloths because theirs are tattered and smell bad, would that count as me giving them cloths? | I cant have my elf walking around in cloths that smell like they do, does me giving them an allowance to buy cleaner/newer cloths count as me giving them their freedom? | 23 | No. They do laundry at Hogwarts, and that's more like giving them clothes. If a House Elf really wants to be free they could interpret some odd things as giving them clothes, but in general it's not something you can do on accident. | 30 |
Is the night sky noticeably different on Mars? | I know the stars are crazy far away, but 140 million miles between vantage points seems like it might not be wholly insubstantial.
Would the constellations be familiar? Unrecognizable? Slightly distorted? A combination? | 114 | The biggest noticeable difference would be the absence of Mars and Luna in the sky and the addition of Earth, Phobos and Deimos. The position of Jupiter, Saturn, Venus etc against the constellations would also be noticeably different. The shape of the constellations would look identical, although Polaris wouldn't be th... | 42 |
eli5 how do casinos determine if someone is counting cards? | 62 | Counting cards is a simple idea: in blackjack, the cards that have already been dealt can't be dealt again until a reshuffle. Therefore you can determine some information about what cards are coming next. The more high cards that are left, the better for the player (more blackjacks and more dealer busts). If you know t... | 174 | |
Does an X watt appliance also act as an X watt heater? | To my understanding the energy that goes into an appliance plugged into your wall is lost in the form of heat and light (which eventually bounces around your room enough times to also become heat).
Does this mean that any appliance that produces heat as a byproduct is equally efficient as an electric space heater?
Do... | 2,102 | Yes, assuming it's actually drawing X watts. All of the energy that comes out of the wall has to go somewhere, and heat is the overwhelming majority of it (you'll probably lose some tiny amount of it through light out of the window and such).
> Does this mean running a PC in a thermostat heated room is essentially... | 1,090 |
ELI5: why do the fastest bicycles have really thin tyres but the fastest cars have very wide tyres | 19,249 | Bicycles are power and endurance limited by the cyclist so minimizing friction and drag are paramount.
Racing cars on a track with curves is typically grip limited (ie tires lose grip before engine max power). So wider tires that improve grip reduce the time it takes to go around the track. | 14,214 | |
[Marvel] How is Dr. Doom evil? | I'm struggling to grasp on the concept of Victor Von Doom being a villain. From what I could gather, he genuinely want to develop his nation of Latvia and the world into an ideal utopia. Sure, he is willing to do some shady stuff like murder and torture in order to ensure his goals be met, but doesn't that apply to all... | 86 | Basically: Cool Motive, Still Murder.
Yeah, Doom might technically be working towards a good future but the way he goes about it has some serious morally evil things to do. Many other people could create a place as utopian as Doom's vision, the thing is that the rest of these people have a moral center and do not wish ... | 152 |
I am a *bad* PhD student that is about to graduate. How do I cope? | I have very good intuition, and am smart, but not studious. I got into academia for the wrong reasons a long time ago. I had a partner who was becoming an academic, and I felt I should be one too to be good enough. We broke up, and I was too deep into my degree to know what else to do.
I just realized that I misunder... | 67 | Actually, this sounds like the definition of imposter syndrome.
Until somebody in authority tells you that you must do major improvements, or kicks you out, your thinking that you will be a "bad" PhD is very likely wrong. There are always people who act in a condescending fashion, as if they are far smarter than you,... | 161 |
ELI5: What is 'cold working' & 'hot working'? | In terms of metal works, etc. I've also read the term 'the rivet is driven cold'. What is it? How is it done? | 26 | It very simply refers to the temperature a metal is worked at. Cold working means simply working the metal as it is, hot working means working it when it's hot.
Hot working obviously requires the metal to be heated, but makes it softer, as well as leaving less residual internal stresses behind (by heating the metal, i... | 26 |
ELI5: Tear Gas. What is it and what does it do to the body? | 65 | You know mace/pepper spray?
​
Package that up with a minor explosive/propellant and you have tear gas.
​
It's not simply capsaicin, there are more chemicals in it. What they do, they irritate the eyes and cause them to swell. This is where it gets it's name, as the eyes produce tears to wash i... | 62 | |
ELI5: How did ancient astronomers distinguish planets from stars? | 37 | The word "planet" means wanderer. When ancient astronomers looked at the night sky they noticed that most of the points of light were fixed in relation to each other. Each night the stars would all be in the same place as they moved across the sky. But, a few of the points of light would move from night to night.
Ove... | 49 | |
Why do politicians and economists claim new construction is important for the housing industry (eg. to lower prices) when there is already a large number of (even vacant) houses? | Doesn't dedicating resources to building new houses when we already have many vacant houses a bad allocation of our land, labor and capital -- not to mention unnecessarily bad for the environment? | 115 | Because the general idea is that where demand is is not the same place that supply is. There is a lot of demand for housing in urban areas, hence they tend to be significantly expensive. But it’s the opposite effect in rural areas where there is low demand. So, by building more housing in urban areas we can shift the ... | 173 |
ELI5: Why is Phillip considered a prince, even if he's married to the Queen? | 75 | The wife of the King is a Queen (Queen Consort).
The husband of the Queen is a Prince (Prince Consort).
Phillip is not King. He is husband to Elizabeth, who is Queen (Queen Regnant).
The difference between Queen Regnant and Queen Consort is that Queen Regnant is Queen by her own right, while Queen Consort is Queen t... | 88 | |
[WH40K] Can an ordinary human use Space Marine Armor? | Outside of heresies in using them. Can salvaged SM Power Armor be used by an ordinary human? If not in a moments notice, can he/she modify it to work? | 47 | No, but there are variants of power armor specifically designed for normal humans. Space Marine power armor is designed to interface directly with his body in such a way that it becomes a natural extension of his own self. They can move and interact with other objects as if they were using their own flesh.
Examples ... | 44 |
[Supernatural] When Angels take a vessel where do their blades come from? | 16 | Since the "weapons" of heaven are shown in *The French Mistake* to just be a powerful cleansing light from the user's body, one can assume that Angelblades are similar, and exist by default in a spiritual state, not a physical one. When you see one slide out of an angel's sleeve, that's probably them summoning it into ... | 11 | |
Why do the people of Earth love the Fantastic Four, but hate and distrust the mutant threat? [X-men, Marvel, Fantastic Four] | The difference between natural born mutants and the scientists zapped by cosmic rays is purely intellectual. And the 'threat' of a superpowered person who can beat the safeguards society has put in place to make people feel better remains with the F4. So why the difference of opinion between the two types of mutants? | 27 | Good publicity, and the fact that they were born human. Even before they gained superpowers, three of the members of the team were already nationally-recognized celebrities. The media was all over it, and they had numerous public appearances and interviews which put a very positive light on them and their unique situat... | 40 |
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