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ELI5: How the repeal of some provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act in 2000 led to the economic problems of 2008-present. | I'm somewhat familiar with some aspects of the contributing factors behind the economic downturn, such as the artificially created CDOs/housing bubble/AIG bankruptcy , but I keep hearing mention of the topic in the headline as a significant factor as well. Can someone explain how Glass-Steagall fits in? | 37 | Well, this is a bit complicated. There are three levels to it. There's what Gramm-Leach-Bliley *actually did*, in terms of the law. Then there's what *actually happened* as a consequence of those changes to the law. And then finally there's *how some people interpret* those two things.
Most superficially, Gramm-Leach-... | 106 |
[Star Trek] What was the effect of the discovery of warp capability on Abrahamic religions on Earth? | 51 | Warp itself didn't have much of an impact on religion, everything that came after did.
After The Eugenics War and WW3, most humans were either leaving in scattered colonies or living in ruined cities trying to survive. Earth was in a bad place in a number of ways and organized religious institutions weren't anywhere ... | 42 | |
[Fountains of Wayne] Did Stacy's mom know that the boys in the neighborhood thought she was the hot mom? | 199 | Outside of the fantasy sequences, the real mom doesn't appear to be thinking about the boys at all in the music video. The "I could tell she liked me by the way she stared and the way she said you missed a spot over there" in the song lyrics appear to indicate that the speaker is misconstruing any interactions between... | 233 | |
Given the pace of technological advancement, what popular science fiction media are anachronistic and how could they be updated to fit our modern view of what science fiction is? | I was watching Black Mirror (The History of You) yesterday and was immediately struck, that while the focus of the show was a 'grain' implant which allowed the user to record and playback anything they had seen or heard, there was plenty of low-tech around as well which I felt would not really be there in that world. ... | 21 | 90% of Isaac Asimov's robot series is incredibly obsolete - he predicted that it would be easy to make robots that move, but difficult to make them speak. Things seem to be moving in the other direction.
| 26 |
CMV: Female Dating Strategy is as toxic as incels | Edit 1 :FemaleDatingStrategy subreddit**
Edit 2 :Not as toxic as incels for sure BUT both toxic in the end of the day.
Edit 3: Wanted to post this in unpopular opinion but it was removed for some reason.
They have the same ideology of being against the opposite sex (stems from different reasons, sexual frustrations,... | 1,111 | We know that incel ideology has been responsible for acts of domestic terrorism and murder in the USA. Can you show me that the same is true for FDS, or will you agree that it isn't nearly as toxic an ideology? | 463 |
ELI5: What is the difference between selecting debit or credit on the same checking account card when making store purchases? | 66 | Debit purchases are "online" purchases. The transaction will rather immediately be processed from your account.
Credit purchases are "offline" purchases. The transaction will be processed whenever the business processes their credit transactions. Typically every 2-3 business days. | 45 | |
ELI5:Why do batteries especially phone batteries eventually stop holding as much charge? | My phone batteries and computer batteries always seem to stop lasting as long. | 81 | Imagine batteries as buckets that you can fill up with liquid energy. The nice thing about rechargeable batteries is that you can fill the buckets up many many times with liquid energy, and pour out a little bit at a time into your phone or your computer or really whatever electronic device you want to power. However, ... | 86 |
ELI5:What happens if you never repay your loans? | 15 | There are two types of loans: secured, and unsecured.
A secured loan is a loan for an object that has value, like a house or a car. If you stop making your car payments, the lender takes back the car. Legally, when you took out the loan to buy your car you gave them the right to do that.
An unsecured loan is just cas... | 17 | |
[Fallout New Vegas] How did the Mojave BOS do so well for itself that they were able to refuse using recycled Energy munitions? | If the Courier helps the BOS out enough they fill a footlocker with recycled energy munitions everyday. The BOS Mojave chapter are doing so much worse for themselves compared to the other major branches (almost no trade or manufacturing capability that we can see) and yet their Knights and Paladins scoff at the reused ... | 41 | The Mojave branch used to be doing a lot better for themselves. Controlling Helios one and Mccaran, manufacturing their own tech, trading back and forth with other outposts along with House and possibly the NCR. It's almost certain that they had a huge supply of all types of pre war tech including massive amounts of e... | 19 |
[Sonic] Who are the casinos for? | There's one in like every game for the Genesis | 16 | Eggman needs cash.
Do you think a giant army of robots is cheap? What about the numerous excavations for ancient artifacts, space ventures, construction work and other projects he initiates?
The simple fact is that Eggman builds the best casinos on the planet. Yes they fund an evil company, but the average citizen do... | 15 |
[SCP] with the constant loss of scientists and tactical teams, how is it that SCP keeps their personnel numbers high enough to maintain operational effectiveness? | 39 | Basically, we only read the reports where something happens- we don't see the reports for "we find the SCP and take it into custody with no problems" or "the scientist ran some routine experiments and got the expected results". A lot of experiment and report logs are "abridged" for seemingly this reason.
It seems like... | 58 | |
ELI5: Why is the Fort McMurray fire uncontrollable? | 21 | It is just after winter, so nothing was really green yet (evergreens still are green, but haven't come out of dormant state yet). That means everything is still dry. It is really hot, 30°C (unusual for early may). The relative humidity was low. And high winds make the fire move quickly.
Forest fires happen a lot. It i... | 14 | |
Jewel of Quantum Field Theory | Is this ["Jewel" of quantum field theory]( https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130917-a-jewel-at-the-heart-of-quantum-physics/) an implication of a physical simplicity previously undiscovered or a useful mathematical technique for solving equations?
(Or is it a subgroup of E-8 theory) | 19 | It's too early to say. So far, it's a new mathematical technique. It will need to be confirmed thoroughly before it will see widespread use in that function. If it turns out to make correct universal predictions, it might well hint at some underlying new (and more elegant) physics. | 14 |
[Star Trek TNG] Realm of Fear... In it Reginald Barclay asks La Forge about transporter accidents. Less than 5 or 6 episodes ago La Forge phases out of sync. Can walk through physical objects and is cloaked. But Laforge tells Barclay he has never experienced an accident. | They also tell Barclay that in the last 10 years there have only been 5 or 6 transporter accidents.
How many of those happened on the Enterprise? Are they lying to the astute Reginald? He'd look up their numbers if they didn't seem right... What's going on here? | 49 | The transporter didn't malfunction then; it actually was highly successful at overcoming the interference from the Romulan ship's phase inverter device.
Very few of the "transporter accidents" the Enterprise dealt with were actually the fault of the transporter itself. It might seem like a bit dishonest, but the state... | 45 |
ELI5: How did talk show host Oprah Winfrey become so rich and powerful? | 19 | Oprah managed to very shrewdly work herself into a market that didn't have anything else like her.
She started as a really low-brow talkshow. Not quite as bad as Jerry Springer, but definitely one where the worst kinds of people would be featured. This built her an audience during a time when these shows were very po... | 18 | |
[Star Wars] Once joining the Rebellion, did members still have a civilian life or were they stuck living on bases or the fleet? | Would they be arrested immediately if they appear in public/go home in a civilized system? | 106 | It really depends on what their role is and where they are.
There will be members of the Rebellion whos entire role is " Just keep minding your shop but keep this rug over your basement and if someone says "Hoth is surprisingly warm this year" then let them take shelter", guys who are X wing pilots but go back to thei... | 121 |
CMV: Universities should not be able to take 50% of scientific grant money, just to funnel it into slush funds for the rest of the university. It should be required to stay in the department. | I feel like a lot of people don't know this, but when an investigator at a research university gets a grant, typically about 50% of it is taken by the university. So if a cancer researcher gets $10 million, he gets $5 million to do research, and $5 million goes directly to the university. Of course, part of this $5 m... | 791 | The university isn't just providing the project with the building cost and power to carry out the research, it is also providing the opportunity for the researcher to apply for grants in the first place. They did not just fund your project, but a half a dozen other projects that never receive grant funding. Did you ... | 240 |
ELI5: What makes C++ a better language than C? Or in other words, what are all the advantages of Object-Oriented Programming? | My main hurdle is that I don't understand *why* it's beneficial to combine data with code. I'm having a hard time understanding why a programmer would want to make the paradigm switch and what the advantages are. I have a small background in C and every explanation I've heard for C++ leaves me scratching my head. | 17 | Object-oriented helps keep track of things in a logical, reusable, and extendable structure.
Think about a video game. In a video game, there are plenty of characters on the screen. Every character has a model and a location in the world. With classes, you can make a "character" class that holds all that character-... | 10 |
[Godzilla] The physiology/chemistry/physics behind Godzilla's atomic breath? | 18 | The kaiju are basicslly natural nuclear reactors that feed off radioactive energy. No doubt they form a gland or organ that can store this power or generate it.
Now depending on what version of Godzilla you use it can vary what exactly his breath is. It's possible he is super heating gas in his throat and creating som... | 15 | |
CMV: Americas don't really understand what "Far-Left" means | I'm going to start this post by saying that I'm super jet-lagged and I'm just looking for a way to pass the time while I try to fall asleep. So, please forgive me if this does not make much sense and please know that I'm more than ready to change my view, or at least have it adjusted.
Anyway, it seems to me that a ... | 161 | >Anyway, it seems to me that a lot of American media has no idea what "far-left" means.
I would argue they know exactly what it means. Many Fox News pundits are college educated. But they purposefully distort its meaning for political gain against liberals.
>true "radical leftists" would oppose identity politi... | 72 |
What is the difference between a quantum and a photon? | Also, where actually does Boltzmann and Planck fit into the grand scheme of concepts like "The UV Catastrophe?" | 47 | A "quantum" of anything is just a small, indivisible, discrete piece of it. Something is "quantized" if it only has certain values it can take, like an electron in orbit around an atom.
A photon is a quantum of light. We think of light as being continuous, almost like a fluid, in our everyday experience, but on smal... | 28 |
[Doctor Who] Why can't The Doctor visit fixed points in time? | Such as Rory/Amy when the are touched by the weeping Angel. And He warns he will not be able to save them. | 34 | He can visit fixed points in time, he just can't changed them in any significant way which given his nature torments him so he tries to avoid them.
What you mean is the convolution of multiple paradoxes around the time-space in Manhattan created by Angels feeding of people they trapped in time-loops and Rory's sacrifi... | 41 |
[Assassin's Creed] [Assassin's creed:Rogue] Forgetting game mechanics, could the Morrigan actually go toe to toe and defeat most of the other ships in the game, let alone the Assassin Flagship Storm Fortress? | It's stated that the Morrigan is a heavily modified "Sloop of war". So yes, I guess it's modifications give it an advantage but should these modifications have allowed it to survive and defeat the Storm fortress, let alone the other legendary Man-o-war ships you face.
Not much of an expert on old ship Types so I can't... | 22 | A Sloop of War was typically the smallest class of warship at the time. Given to Heavily Modification, the ship is ultimately limited by it's size and ability to displace water while taking on armour, guns, and mast strength for sail speed.
A single one might be able to take on a Frigate if lucky. A Frigate sized Man... | 18 |
[Star Wars] In terms of pure, raw power, what do you think the most powerful force ability is? | 80 | I don't know what you mean by raw power. Lord Vitiate's ritual on Nathema is pretty damn destructive, but it doesn't blow anything up in any spectacular fashion.
The ritual killed every living thing on Nathema at once. Every man, woman and child, every insect, everything that was even touched by the force died, and th... | 96 | |
I believe life is more fair to physically attractive people.CMV. | I'm no Mr.Handsome but I like to consider myself slightly below average looking and from my life experience people who are attractive seem to have better lives as far as their sex life, jobs, careers, confidence, and possibly social skills go. People who are attractive statistically have a slightly better chance of ge... | 15 | Actually, life is *more than* fair to physically attractive people. They are treated better than they should be, and this is in no way more fair than how ugly people are treated, and is actually less fair than how the average person is treated. | 13 |
ELI5: How can we suck out oil from the ground without it caving in those areas? | 66 | Mostly, oil-bearing rocks are somewhat spongy rock, not underground pools. The oil may be under pressure, in which case, drilling into it will reduce the pressure, but not to zero. In other cases, drillers have to pump water or gas into the rock to extract the oil, which maintains the pressure. | 44 | |
ELI5: Why can't we sleep when we're nervous? For example, the night before a big exam, the thing we need most is sleep. | Or before a new job, a marriage proposal, etc. | 17 | Our body only has one response when we are nervous: activate the fight or flight mechanisms by pumping adrenaline and other chemicals into our blood stream to make us more alert. The body doesn't differentiate if we are nervous because of a exam, a new job, a proposal, or a if there might be a large animal that can att... | 20 |
Are 'Discourse on the Method' and 'Meditations' different books? If so, which one is better suited for an assignment which asks to explain the proof of his own and the God's existence? | 25 | The *Discourse* was intended as the introduction to three science books but is nowadays mostly read on its own. It is great because it is very short and introduce many important themes in cartesian philosophy. In here you find the famous *cogito ergo sum*.
However the *Meditations* is the book where his metaphysical/e... | 23 | |
ELI5: Why do we empathize with animals more than we do with other human beings? | I noticed that I feel empathy for dogs to a greater extent and more easily than I do for other human beings. From an evolutionary perspective, maybe it is because humans are competition? Maybe because animal/dog nature is less evil compared to human nature? What are people's thoughts? I know there probably isn't a clea... | 18 | I think it has to innocence and simplicity. A lot of people feel the same way about children. There's this idea that animals and children don't "deserve" any harm that is coming to them. If someone were to beat up an adult man (and yes, it can and does depend on gender), a reasonable assumption could be made that they ... | 33 |
Why are the eyes of burn victims often left intact? | I know it's not always the case, but when you see people where their face has practically melted off, how are the eyes still functional? Aren't they fragile to high temperatures?
| 19 | Eyes are covered and filled with fluid which is mostly water. Water has to absorb a lot of heat to increase in temperature as compared to most other materials. Because water can carry a large amount of heat, we use it in heating system and cooling system (like radiators).
Skin, muscles, and connective tissue have much... | 11 |
ELI5:Why do dogs love to ride in cars, but cats generally hate it? | 766 | I thought it was because dogs bonded to a group (other dogs originally, then people) while cats are territorial and geographically oriented.( starting small, then expanding their territory)
In a car the dog sees his clan is present and does not worry about the new and rapid relocation, but a cat is getting torn fro... | 679 | |
ELI5: How do scientists predict, down to the exact degree, what the temperature will be for the next week? | 17 | They will generally use high-resolution, regional weather models. These are essentially computer programs that solve a set of equations that aim to represent the physics of the atmosphere and ocean. These equations are extremely complicated so these models are also very complicated, which is why meterological agencies ... | 11 | |
How do you measure the volume of a chunk of space in curved spacetime? | Specifically, I'm asking how you calculate it, not what tools you would use | 53 | So you mean compute, not measure.
If what you have on your hands is the metric g_ij, the (signed) volume of an infinitesimal bit of spacetime (or space) with sides dx^(1), dx^(2), ... dx^n is
dV = sqrt(|det g|) dx^1 ∧ ... ∧ dx^n
That's really the only possibility considering it has to be invariant under coordinate c... | 21 |
Would burying the deceased without the use of coffins have a significantly positive effect on Earth's environment? | Do coffins themselves eventually decompose? If so, approximately how long does it take? How much could discontinuing their use reduce the amount of time needed for animal decomposition? | 27 | Yes. To boost profits, the funeral industry has convinced people that they want their loved ones "preserved." This has led to caskets that are built to withstand an apocalypse: layers of concrete, bronze, and plastic, all sealed airtight with a hefty butyl rubber gasket. Ironically, the actual embalming of bodies isn't... | 24 |
CMV: Minimum wage should NOT be a living wage | I don't believe that minimum wage should be a living wage. I hold this view because it is my belief that money trades hands when the service/goods someone is providing exceeds the value of x dollars the buyer is offering. It is absurd to me that the government has passed legislation that dictates how much I value servi... | 17 | Because he/she is doing work? If you value him/her enough to keep them there for eight hours a day, you should value them enough to pay them enough so they can eat decent food and sleep under a roof during the other 16 hours a day. If you don't value the work enough to make the work worth living on, you don't value it ... | 41 |
Comparing the Economic Development of 2 Countries | What are some countries whose economic performance has diverged over the years and are worth learning about? Haiti and the Dominican Republic come to mind as they had a similar GDP per capita in 1950, but are vastly different nowadays. What are some other good comparisons you can think of? Thanks! | 22 | The countries in South East Asia have had diverse experiences. They are all worth looking at. But in terms of a pair with similar starting points but different outcomes, you can look at Malaysia vs Philippines from 1960 to 2010:
GDP per capita in 1960
* Malaysia 234.94 USD
* Philippines 254.46 USD
GDP per capita i... | 16 |
ELI5: Why have we settled on 16:9 as the standard aspect ratio? | 226 | 16:9 is the aspect ratio that can most easily handle all of the other historical aspect ratios (like 4:3 for broadcast TV, 2.2:1 for Panavision (movies), 2.39:1 for Cinemascope) with a minimum of picture loss and a maximum of the screen used. When they were developing the HD standard and needed to come up with an aspec... | 439 | |
ELI5: What on earth is Metaphysics? | 25 | Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the abstract concepts in relation to the actuality of the universe: Time, history, cause, existence, identities, etc.
Similar to how metahumor is the humor found within the concept of humor itself, metaphysics is the physics pertaining to concepts. | 43 | |
ELI5: Why are we so dependent on Taiwan for microchips? Why couldn't these be manufactured elsewhere, in addition to Taiwan? | 1,643 | They are manufactured elsewhere, TSMC is just the biggest company. Chip foundries are extremely specialized and require a lot of investment into equipment and facilities. Companies are working on building more to keep up with demand, but that process takes several years. There is just too much demand for the handful of... | 1,515 | |
[Batman] Bruce Wayne never witnesses his parent's death. Does he still become Batman? | On that fateful night, Bruce is sick and wants to stay at home. Thomas and Martha enjoy a date night in the city. They still run into Joe Chill and they die. The police come knocking on the door ,Alfred lets them in. They inform Bruce on what happened.
​
How will this change Bruce's life? | 33 | It'd be a less traumatic experience for sure, but probably not enough to entirely derail his path going by comic world logic.
I think the biggest thing that would change is that he probably wouldn't hate guns as much as he normally does, since a big part of that hate stemmed from the vivid experience of hearing seein... | 32 |
ELI5:Why are we spending so many resources to lower transistor size in microchips? Why not just increase chip size to fit more transistors since silicon is so cheap? | I don't get why instead of pouring money and research into making microchip transistors and components smaller, you would just make the chip itself bigger to fit more components?
Take a computer for example, the size of the processor is extremely small considering it's the heart of the machine and compared to the siz... | 483 | There are at least three good reasons.
The first is that smaller transistors require less electricity, as by being smaller, it just takes less energy to make them switch. Owners frequently spend more on electricity to power a chip over its lifetime than they spent on buying the chip in the first place, especially if ... | 580 |
[Spiderman PS4] Did Peter's lateness from helping to arrest Kingpin contribute to Otto's personality change? | In the tutorial sequence, Peter gets calls from Otto asking him to come in to run safety checks on their equipment. When Peter finally comes in to work at the lab, he sees Otto using the equipment himself, moving the robotic arm and matching its movements to his own arm. From that point on, Otto slowly becomes more ang... | 18 | Did it contribute? Probably, yes. Can we blame Peter for it? No.
Before Otto started work on replacement limbs, he had a whole walk-in closet full of issues - not the least of which was being unappreciated, having credit stolen from him, being labelled a failure, and watching Norman Osborn succeed while he could not. ... | 23 |
What is the cause of a photographic memory? | I was wondering the other night, what causes extraordinary memory? Is it a genetic trait, or is it developed as an infant by external stimulus. If the latter is the cause, what could a parent do to improve the odds of their child developing superior memory recollection skills? | 28 | The existence of true photographic (eidetic) memory is controversial, and it is not at all apparent that it actually exists outside of legend and hoax. See the Wikipedia page on the controversy surrounding it for an overview. | 13 |
[Marvel/DC] As buff as everybody is, how are they able to fight crime? Shouldn't they constantly be sore/weak from the gym? | The types of physiques superheroes rock take serious, dedicated bodybuilding routines. You have to have hardcore workout sessions most days of the week in order to simply maintain those muscles.
Some characters like Batman slap on all the plates they can fit on a barbell in order to workout. How does Batman have the ... | 47 | Batman spent years training before he even started fighting crime so he was already pretty dam buff. After a certain point you don't have to work out as hard and just make sure you are actually exercising (which Batman does) to maintain that physique. Also, keep in mind that just because you worked out a muscle a day b... | 47 |
CMV: I think that Medical Tourism should have no governmental regulation | _____
Medical tourism, the practice of travelling to a foreign country to undergo a medical procedure, is becoming increasingly popular. If a procedure is expensive, unavailable, or illegal in a person's country of residence (it could be anything from cosmetic surgery to various dental procedures to abortions and eutha... | 56 | The US government provided subsides/cheap care to many people (Elderly, those who qualify for medicaid, those eligible for subsides under ACA, etc...).
It is possible that medical tourism will lead to certain countries may lead to many botched procedures and treatments that will have to be fixed in America on taxpayer... | 15 |
ELI5: How does Disney Channel manage to stay on the air and be profitable for so long when all of the commercials shown on there advertise for upcoming Disney Channel shows? | 96 | The Disney Channel is a full-time advertisement for the Disney brand. Children are immersed at a very young age into the Disney universe. They grow up continuing to be exposed to Disney content. Disney knows this creates demand for their products that FAR outweighs any potential revenue from third-party advertising on ... | 103 | |
[DC] Why doesn't Superman (or other Kryptonians) use the Daredevil lie detector technique more often? | Daredevil uses his super hearing as a tool to listen to one's heartbeat to see if someone is telling the truth or not.
It recently occurred to me, why doesn't Superman do that too? I know he can and he probably has at least once, but why doesn't he do it on the regular?
I wonder if it's an ethical thing with him. Ev... | 24 | He does. But he doesn't really question people. Even criminals he tries to encourage to do better because he wants to save them too. He always looks for the best in people.
It doesn't work on Batman, after he used it once Batman figured out a way to mask it (mostly so he could do the whole disappearing when Clark turn... | 35 |
ELI5: Why are vegetables and fruit so important for your diet? | 52 | Both veggies and fruits have a ton of vitamins that humans don't naturally produce. Several vitamins originate in plants, with the amount we get from eating meat being diminished by the animal in question using them.
Vegetables have tons of fiber, which is good for your digestive health because humans can't digest mos... | 104 | |
ELI5: How do etch-a-sketch’s work? | 33 | Contrary to popular belief, the stylus you use to draw doesn't draw the line.
The inside "screen" of the toy is coated in aluminum powder, and when the stylus scrapes it out, it reveals the darkness inside the toy. When you shake it upside down, the beads inside the toy coat the screen, making it look "blank" again.
... | 28 | |
What does it mean for a speaker to be "blown"? And how does it happen? | I've always heard that turning the volume up too high can blow your speakers, but never really understood what that meant... Please ELI5! | 22 | *Blowing* a speaker is basically an umbrella term for catastrophic physical failure. This can take the form of a circuit overheating and melting (or burning), or sometimes it's because of mechanical damage.
The mechanical damage happens because of the way sound works. Sound is created by making something vibrate, wh... | 15 |
ELI5 How An Unopened Can of Soda Thrown Into An Industrial Smelter Could Cause A Significant Thermal Explosion? | One of my shop teachers back in high school said he used to work in a recycling plant and the biggest boogie men of the industry was having an unopened can of soda hitting a smelter at max temp. He told us the resulting explosion would be enough to take out the entire recycling facility. Is this even possible? | 39 | When the can melts it's contents instantly turns to steam. The expansion ratio is about 1700 to 1. So imagine in the middle molten metal when that can melts through there is an instant volume increase as big as 1700 soda cans. | 35 |
ELI5: What happens when a man orgasms after he's had a vasectomy? | Is it just like a poof and dust comes out? If a vasectomy is reversible, then isn't the sperm still being released inside the body? Where does it go? | 608 | The whitish fluid that is released during ejaculation is produced separately from the sperm. Before a man ejaculates, the sperm mixes with this fluid. After a vasectomy, however, the sperm can no longer mix with the fluid. Ejaculation still occurs the same as before — the only difference is that there is no sperm prese... | 1,420 |
[Cyberpunk 2077] How is maritime travel still possible? | It is stated in a shard (and I believe other places) that during the 4th corporate war, Arasaka, in their benevolent wisdom, flooded the world's oceans with self replicating mines. This has basically made maritime travel nearly impossible and made the necessity to build a wall around Coronado Bay. Why then do we see mu... | 30 | There are ways to temporarily clear a path and get ships through, and there are also safe zones near coastal areas where more hardened defenses keep the replicating mines away.
Maritime travel is basically impossible, but it still can be done at great cost and effort. All this did was limit non-essential travel and in... | 41 |
ELI5: Why is Africa so underdeveloped compared to other continents? | 201 | One of the bigger reasons is that a bunch of European powers (France, UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal) went and colonizied it. They pretty mich sucked out a lot of resources, killed a bunch of people and made everybody else poorer and more desprate. After the Europeans left, the main peace keeping force at the time... | 200 | |
ELI5: Why do some batteries "re-charge" themselves a little bit after they already died and you wait for a while? | 39 | Batteries create electrical charge off of a chemical reaction occurring within the case. However as the reactants are not gaseous, it is very hard (teetering on impossible) to react all of the stuff together on the first go. Meaning, if you mix two liquid reactants together by pouring one into another, it is impossible... | 21 | |
ELI5: Why do really long exposure photos weigh more MB? Shouldn't every pixel have the same amount of information regardless of how many seconds it was exposed? | I noticed that a regular photo weighs a certain amount of MBs, while if I keep the shutter open for 4, 5 minutes the resulting picture is HUGE.
Any info on why this happens? | 3,584 | The jpeg format we store photos in is designed to store a good photograph efficiently. A good photo has large areas of smooth, even gradients, and Jpeg does a great job of *compressing* these to take up less space.
A long exposure photo will have more random 'roughness' in the picture. It will be much more *noisy*, wi... | 2,679 |
[Scott Pilgrim] If Todd broke his vegan diet twice, why did the vegan police need to arrive to strip him of his power? Wouldn’t they just go away if his diet changes? | 27 | No. He received the powers as a result of his graduation from Vegan Academy. All the hype about veganism clearing the mind and allowing access to higher brain functions is just hype; the powers are given as a reward for adhering to a vegan lifestyle and pushing the vegan message.
Hence why they didn't go away when he... | 54 | |
ELI5: The Armenian Genocide. | This is a hot topic, feel free to post any questions here. | 4,092 | The Armenian Genocide was the systematic killing of approx. 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire. It occured in 2 stages. First all able-bodied men were either shot, forced into front line military service (remember 1915 was during WWI) or worked to death in forced labour camps. Second, women, children a... | 3,511 |
ELI5: why do we sometimes sweat excessively when sleeping? | Last night, after an hour and a half of sleeping, I woke up and my bed sheets were soaked with sweat, as in you could actually see patches, not just damp.
How come I don't subconsciously throw the duvet off myself iny sleep, or even wake up before I start to sweat excessively?
| 86 | There's a lot of reasons, one person mentioned being overweight already, you could possibly have eaten a huge meal before bed and that could cause it, you might have had a nightmare and then the sweating would be due to excess nervous stimulation (sympathetic response), or you might be like me and life in a place where... | 16 |
[Star Trek]was Odo conscious before he the Bajoran discovered him? If “yes” how did he not go insane from boredom, floating in space for decades or centuries? | 15 | Changelings view the universe different from solid lifeforms and vague sense of time.
Odo, who was a new Changling when he was found, was probably barely sapient in his container and would remain so until he ended up landing somewhere.
| 15 | |
ELI5: Why did Rand Paul say that the GOP "hawks" created ISIS? | and is there any truth to it?
I understand that the buildup to what we currently know as ISIS took place over several decades, but how much of that was due to US involvement? And was it just the GOP, or were the democrats involved as well? | 24 | Paul is strongly anti-interventionist. In other words, he generally doesn't support the US going to war overseas. In the case of ISIS, while its roots are complex the leadership itself came together in an Iraqi prison camp post-invasion. The GOP charged in back in 2003 without much of a plan beyond removing Saddam. Pau... | 20 |
CMV: If you want to keep the electoral college, you should have no problem if they pick someone other than Trump | Technically the electoral college can vote for whoever the hell they want. A lot of pro EC folks have been saying "yes, but they both knew the rules of the game was not to get the popular vote but to get the swing states"
Well, the rules of the game also dictate that the electors can also vote for whoever the hell the... | 72 | I'll have a problem with that, because (in some states) even though they *can* vote for whoever they want, they're not *supposed* to. The elector has pledged to vote for that candidate, and not fulfilling that promise is unacceptable to me (and to many states). Their purpose isn't to change the outcome of the election ... | 20 |
ELI5:ELI5: If Cancer is spread via the lymphatic and blood systems, can't we disconnect all the ones that travel to and supply the tumour, thereby preventing it from spreading or growing? | 24 | That's exactly what you do to surgically excise a tumor.
Some tumors grow in locations where surgery would be impractical or extremely dangerous though. Which is where treatments like targeted radiation come in. | 17 | |
[Culture] What exactly are Displacer units, and how do they compare to forms of FTL travel found in other popular SciFi ‘verses? | 40 | Displacers encapsulate matter in a containment field and then shunt it through hyperspace to another location in realspace. The energy requirements rise dramatically with the amount of mass and the distance displaced. Culture Displacers were precise enough to accurately deliver chemicals into a biological body for medi... | 32 | |
What is dust? Why is it, no matter how much I clean, just as much (or more) reappears by the following day? | This is driving me mad. It makes my home feel nasty and dirty all the time. | 54 | Dust is, quite simply, everything you know and love slowly disintegrating over time. A lot of it is skin cells from people and pets (dander), pollen from plants, and small particles of everything that wears down over time. | 71 |
How can I smell a piece of metal if it doesn't expulse any matter? | I understand that flowers, liquids, etc. stink because gaseous compounds get out of them and they activate my nervous system, but I can still smell a piece of metal and I don't know how.
Edit: Thanks for the answers guys
| 3,814 | You're probably smelling molecules that are oxidized. Many compounds can react with oxygen in the presence of a metal. That metal acts as a catalyst to facilitate the reaction, and you can smell the oxidized byproduct. | 3,170 |
ELI5: How does quantum computing work? | 39 | Regular computers store the values of 0 and 1. To represent a series of numbers, they must store them all, like this.
000
001
010
011
100
101
110
111
Quantum computers store numbers as 0, 1, or 'superposition', which is 0 and 1 at the same time (Q). This means that they can save the same range of numbers as QQQ.
This... | 15 | |
[General Sci-Fi] Plausible stories for evolution of sapient aquatic species to space-faring status | Many Sci-Fi series throw in an occasional aquatic space-faring species. However I've never come across any stories on how such a species achieved such a route, e.g. through tool use? metallurgy? how did they exit their gravity well? did they "deep air" explore? Can anyone point me to any stories along these lines?
No... | 36 | Just as humans explored the depths of the oceans as part of their quest to explore every part of their planet, so too do intelligent, aquatic species eventually explore the surfaces of their worlds. From there, the progression is much the same - use the lessons learned exploring the hostile environment of the surface, ... | 38 |
[Black Panther] How did the Wakandans or the king stop themselves from becoming an empire? They've utilized vibranium for centuries. They could have easily conquered their neighbors and beyond. What stopped them? | 20 | What would they gain by conquering their neighbors? Wealth? They had all the wealth they needed. Security? Security from whom? As you say, they could have easily conquered their neighbors, so they weren't really under threat. Glory? Well it would be fair to say that this has been the motivation for many conquerors thro... | 39 | |
ELI5: Why are 9mm bullets less dangerous than 7.62 or even 5.56 ones? Shouldn’t they deal more damage with bigger size? | 130 | 9mm bullets are dangerous.
However they are a handgun round. They're less aerodynamic and have less power coming out of the barrel. They're not designed for long-distance flight.
7.62/.308 and 5.56/.223 are rifle rounds. They have more power out the barrel and are designed for long- distance, accurate engagement. | 153 | |
[Futurama] If cannibalism and the consumption of foreign sapients are both normal in Omicronian society, why did they react so negatively to humans eating the Omicronian young? | For example, Lrrr mentions he finds it strange that Ross, as the largest Friend, did not simply eat the other friends. This would imply that in Omicronian society, it's normal to cannibalize other Omicronians in a display of might or power.
We've also seen Omicronians eat, or attempt to eat, humans on multiple occasio... | 136 | Cannibalizing children is different to eating potential rivals as a display of dominance.
To the Omicronians, it was a simple manner of the who gets to eat whom. If humans eat omicronians, then the omicronians can eat humans. Earth knew if this came down to a war of who could eat who fastest then the Omicronians wou... | 109 |
[His Dark Materials] How come bigger dæmons are not more frequent? | I don't recall seeing anyone with Giraffes, Elephants or Hippopotami (is this plural correct lol) | 23 | Remember- you can't stray too far from your daemon. This means its final form can be very inconvenient.: we have an example of someone who's daemon is a dolphin and thus had to live at sea because otherwise his daemon would be beached.
These people have it worse. If you're unlucky enough to have an elephant as a daemo... | 33 |
[LOTR] Why isn't there more scientific advance in Middle Earth? | And I don't buy the usual "because they had magic they didn't need to develop technology" thing. That is fine for the Elves of which every one could sing out a magic bow out of a tree, ok.
But Men? Except 5 Wizard (which just look human but weren't) and some bloodlines living longer and the Righteous King having a he... | 76 | >scientific progress is seven times quicker during war.
This is a sort of Sid Meier's Civilization way of looking at scientific progress that doesn't apply to our modern world, or to the Third Age. Science is a process that the Third Age simply didn't have. The process of hypothesis, test, confirm/deny, re-hypothes... | 63 |
If the type of element is directly correlated with its number or protons/neutrons/electrons, why aren't there infinite elements and why is 'discovering' a new one a big deal? | 16 | There are not necessarily infinitely many elements that can exist, because eventually there will be a point where the system is so heavy that it won’t be able to sustain bound states if you add anymore nucleons.
Discovering a new one is a big deal because we’ve already discovered all the ones that aren’t extremely dif... | 20 | |
ELI5: How do we know what the Milky Way looks like? | If we're part of the Milky Way how do we know what it looks like? How do we observe a galaxy that we're part of? | 28 | Three things
1 - We understand the orbital mechanics of galaxies. We understand what shapes are possible and what are not possible due to the current laws of physics.
2 - We can look at other galaxies and see examples. For example, we see that spiral is a common shape for a galaxy.
3 - Most importantly, by lookin... | 18 |
[harry potter/DC] what would happen if Harry put on the helmet of fate? | I'm not incredibly versed in the harry potter universe but if the helmet of fate was still able to posses it's wearer would Harry be able to resist it? | 21 | No. Nabu is orders higher than the greatest wizards of the Harry Potter universe combined. He is a Lord of Order, responsible for universal balance.
Even with Harry's special protections, there's a strong chance that Nabu would totally overwhelm him in order to carry out his duties as Doctor Fate. | 20 |
ELI5 why does fiber cause gas? | 107 | Fiber refers to carbohydrates, such as cellulose, that aren't digestible by humans, and pass through the digestive tract relatively unaffected, at least on a molecular level. This contributes to fullness / satiety, and it helps make sure that there's solid matter moving through the GI tract, which helps keep you regul... | 46 | |
ELI5:Why do large commercial planes have two steering wheels and two pilots? | How exactly does it help to have two people steer a plane at the same time? | 17 | Virtually all multi-seat planes have two sets of steering wheels; even the lowly Cessna 172.
Note that the controls *cannot* be used independently: moving one set of controls will also move the other set.
With those preliminary concepts aside, the basic answers are: redundancy and specialization. The co-pilot might p... | 13 |
CMV: Billionaire philanthropy is a good thing. | The levels of wealth inequality in the world at the moment are far too high and there are plenty of reasons to want to see the super rich taxed more.
However, when the super rich voluntarily give away their money to solid, non-political causes, then that's a good thing that should be praised and encouraged.
I've see... | 21 | The issue with billionaire philanthropy is that it requires the existence of billionaires.
which could only happen in an economic system that is wildly unregulated, and built on elitism / allowing a select few to hold power over others. | 27 |
Why do some nations that produce enough food to provide for their whole population end up importing that same food? | I believe this is the case for Canada with wheat. | 62 | The reasons can be very simple. Canada has free trade with the US. The border between the two countries is very long and most of the population of Canada lives very close to the border. As a result, the transport cost of transporting a good across Canada may be larger than the administrative costs of importing it from ... | 89 |
ELI5: Is it Loud Inside Our Bodies? | ELI5: Weird question but the body does a lot of cool things, while eating for example, but just in general keeping us alive, pumping blood and oxygen around it.
It just kinda made me think, if we were inside our bodies, would it be loud or just kinda quiet, I don’t know if there is a scientific explanation. | 132 | So there are some people that have a malformation in the inner ear where they have a small hole in the bone and they state that it’s like being on a busy street all the time. (It’s called canal dehiscence syndrome) | 103 |
What can be known with little or no evidence? | Some things, like math or "I think therefore I am", can be known a priori. Is there anything else? Is reasoning futile without good information. Why or why not?
| 15 | Tautologies, e.g. "All bachelors are unmarried".
One need not consult experience to determine whether all bachelors are unmarried. Now of course -as one may object- experience is required to understand the concepts "bachelor," "unmarried and so forth. However, the a priori/a posteriori distinction as employed by Kan... | 13 |
Does Supersymmetry include antimatter? | So would we in theory have an anti-selectron and an anti-squark? | 42 | Sure. Everything has its antiparticle unless it is its own antiparticle (like the Z boson), and every known particle has a superpartner, that includes antiparticles.
The Higgs sector gets more complicated. You get at least one pair of Higgs bosons and three that are their own antiparticle - and their superpartners. | 11 |
What does a whitening toothpaste contain that is responsible for whitening teeth? | 6,928 | Hi dentist here. Usually some sort of abrasive particle. Different material depending on the toothpaste. But its not going to do a great deal for your teeth. It will only remove surface stains from coffee, wine etc. and could actually harm your teeth long term. To actually whiten teeth you would need actual bleaching a... | 4,838 | |
ELI5 why carbon monoxide is so poisonous to breathe when carbon dioxide is not. | 15 | Carbon monoxide binds very strongly to hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in your blood. When it does so, it stops hemoglobin from binding to oxygen, and limits your body's capacity to get oxygen in the process.
Carbon dioxide, which is almost completely non-reactive, doesn't do that. | 33 | |
ELI5: If you skip law school but pass the bar, what happens? | 244 | You can't be a lawyer without legal training, whether or not you pass the bar exam.
Some states do allow a kind of apprenticeship instead of law school. But you have to find someone who agrees to do that with you first, and most lawyers won't. | 92 | |
ELI5: Why isn't our sun and solar system slowly being sucked in to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way? | There's been some news about black hole discoveries recently, but we don't here much about the black hole in our own galaxy. What effect does it have on our solar system? | 48 | Black holes aren't the cosmic vacuums that some media has made them out to be.
Once you get very close some odd things happen due to the immense gravitational forces, but at a distance they behave like any other large object.
The Sun more or less orbits the massive center of the milky way galaxy. The black hole at t... | 26 |
Why does my ear suddenly start ringing and stop just as abruptly? | The other day I suddenly lost hearing in my right ear, and it began ringing loudly. This went on for about a 45 seconds, and then it stopped and all was normal. What happened? | 21 | It's called spontaneous tinnitus, and it's something that everybody experiences from time to time. It doesn't usually last as long as 45 seconds; it usually resolves itself in about ten seconds, on average. It's possible that it just felt longer than it was.
The short answer to your why question is that nobody knows e... | 11 |
What kind of fallacy is this logic/argument (if it is one at all) ''I haven't experienced it/seen it, therefore it must not exist'' ? | 29 | This is just a laughably bad argument-- there's no specific name for this sort of thing, aside from a general non sequitur, which isn't terribly helpful. Regardless, it's usually not very productive to try and play "spot the fallacy." Just consider the actual argument: the person is saying that unless they have persona... | 61 | |
ELI5: What really happens when bread, cookies, chips, and other similar foods go "stale"? | 24 | It has to do with changes in the structure of the molecules that give the food its usual texture, but the specifics vary depending on the type of food in question and what it's made of.
With foods that are normally moist and pliable/chewy (bread, cake, some cookies, etc.), the starches (long chains of sugars) that mak... | 11 | |
Why do solar panels use Silicon cells rather than a metal with a lower work function, such as Cesium/Caesium? | Silicon has a work function of 4.05eV, whereas Cesium/Caesium which is 2.1eV. Surely solar panels made with one of the many other metals with a lower work function would produce a higher electrical output? | 1,688 | Solar cells operate through the photovoltaic effect, work function numbers are for the photoelectric effect which is different. Even if that wasn't a factor, Cesium is very expensive and has the nasty habit of reacting violently with water and igniting spontaneously in air. Additionally, it has a low melting point of 2... | 1,203 |
How far from a mirror do you have to be to see yourself blink? | I understand that there is a delay in the time for the light to travel to the mirror and come back at any distance, so technically you always see a tiny portion of your blink in the mirror, but how far would you have to be so that you clearly see the blink and comprehend that you're seeing yourself blink. | 199 | Let's say that you want to see the entire blink, from the moment your eye closes until when it opens again. Therefore, your eye must re-open before the light from the moment your eye first closed has had time to travel to the mirror and back. If the mirror is a distance *R* from your eyes, then it takes a time 2*R*/*c*... | 129 |
ELI5: how do anesthetics knock you out within 10 seconds of being injected? | 257 | Nobody is actually answering the question: which is how do they **knock you out in 10 seconds** not just “how do they knock you out” which is much less clear.
The answer as to why does it work so fast is that anesthetics are extremely fat soluble, which means they enter the brain extremely quickly. Anything which can ... | 363 | |
[MCU] What if Tony Stark had never become Iron Man? | How would the MCU change? | 26 | Tony is captured by the Ten Rings but never builds the Mark 1 suit to escape from the cave. He either submits to his captors' demands and builds a Jericho, or he adamantly refuses. Either way, Tony Stark is killed.
Obadiah Stane takes over Stark Industries as its chairman and CEO. Under his control, Stark Industr... | 90 |
CMV: Abortion is moral because of lack of sentience and therefore lack of desires | I know abortion posts are probably fairly common, but my point here is one I haven't seen specifically addressed.
On a legal and practical level I think you can make strong arguments for the pro-choice position pretty close to the point of birth. However I do also think the moral position is very justifiable, at leas... | 131 | Under your axioms (it's only immoral to kill someone that has experienced sentience and will experience it again), your logic is sound, even if many people will disagree with some of its implications.
However, these axioms are based on just what *you* feel - why would they hold universally, or, in fact, in what way is... | 66 |
CMV: CEOs don't single handedly make decisions that justify their pay and are overpaid | My brother and I always have this discussion so I want to see what reddit thinks.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/08/16/ceos-see-pay-grow-1000percent-and-now-make-278-times-the-average-worker.html
I do think CEOs should be paid more than the average employee, obviously they have more responsibility ... | 49 | The difference between a good and bad CEO can literally be over a trillion dollars. Steve Balmer wasn't a terrible CEO, but under his leadership, Microsoft was stagnant. After Sataya Nadella became CEO in 2014, Microsoft's valuation skyrocketed by over 400%, which is $1 trillion increase. His compensation in 2019 was $... | 31 |
[Ready Player One] Why isn't anyone playing with a mouse and keyboard? They would absolutely destroy everybody else who uses a VR headset. | *who uses a VR headset and haptic gloves/bodysuit, as some people kindly corrected me. Moving a mouse a few inches would be much quicker than moving your whole body. | 387 | I believe in the book it's implied if not stated that to play the Oasis a player has to be using a VR setup. The complexity and quality of the VR setups vary, but it seems everyone uses them. This is also probably due to the variety of activities needed to be preformed in the Oasis, like driving, sword play, or even ac... | 325 |
how does fat and protein digestion works? difference between lean and fatty protein and the effect on digestion time? | Hello altogether,
unfortunately I have many different questions about all things fat and protein digestion, specifically regarding animal products with different fat content.
I want to understand the science and the chemistry behind the whole topic and also educate myself even further because it seems like I know no... | 1,592 | GI physiologist here: absorption of food stuffs depends entirely on chemical composition of the food. The food must move from the lumen of the gi tract across the walls of the cells lining the the
small intestine and thence into the bloodstream. The cell walls are composed of lipid (fat), thus only fats can cross th... | 486 |
ELI5:How does headache exactly hurts your head if your brain cannot feel pain? | 37 | There are literally hundreds of of types of headaches, so each one can be representative of something different.
Sinus pressure, vascular issues, tumor increasing intracranial pressure, muscular tension, trauma etc. The brain could be the issue but it's usually transmitting from somewhere else. | 20 | |
Can there be a case of information asymmetry where buyers have more information than sellers? | 79 | Sure, think of estate sales for example where people often don't bother to tally up everything exactly but just sell things in bulk and experienced people go there to grab the items that are sold way below value. | 113 |
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