post_title stringlengths 5 304 | post_text stringlengths 0 37.5k | post_scores int64 15 83.1k | comment_text stringlengths 200 9.61k | comment_score int64 10 43.3k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Why are women who have had hysterectomies restricted from lifting? | I did some preliminary research on Google scholar and based on the abstracts (the research was paywalled) of a couple of studies and one metanalysis done in 2013, I found that there seems to be no conclusive research on the effects of post-operative activity on hysterectomy patients. The actual restrictions (weight lim... | 109 | In the sense of recovery after abdominal surgery, general recommendations for hysterectomy won't differ substantially from any other form of abdominal surgery.
Generally, recovery needs to be long enough to let a significant portion of healing of the abdominal wall occur. Typical recommendations for this length of ti... | 33 |
[DC Comics] How long is Superman’s natural lifespan under a yellow sun? | Assuming he doesn’t get sick, injured, or murdered, and that he leads a reasonably healthy lifestyle. | 49 | Immortal. His natural state is like that of humans, but the yellow sun is constantly charging up his cells keeping them from going through the decay that ours do, and he actually has the potential for more because the sun is constantly filling him a little more than it did last time. | 49 |
ELI5: Why are food cans ribbed? | 78 | Structural rigidity. Same reason corrugated cardboard is stronger than paperboard.
edit: a ribbed structure can be compressed because the ribs can bend and flex, whereas something like a soda can has a harder time being compressed because the metal might just shatter instead of bending. | 69 | |
Does Nietzsche comment on enlightenment values in any way similar to his comparisions between judeo-christian and presocratic greek moralities? | 26 | Maybe not as a whole, but definitely in certain measures. We might find, for instance, a bit of the Will to Truth in the Enlightenment project of scientific reason. (Nietzsche is not down with the Will to Truth.) Similarly, we find in the political values of the Enlightenment commitments to freedom, liberty, and som... | 13 | |
ELI5: If our body creates memory cells for immunity after we have an infection or virus, how come cancer survivors are more likely to contract cancer again and die from it? | 751 | Cancer isn't bacteria or virus, it's you body's own cells malfunctioning. Normally your immune system can notice when cells are reproducing uncontrollably, but not always. They are your cells, not foreign bodies.
Even when tumors get destroyed, there are often still rogue cancer cells floating around in your blood tha... | 418 | |
Why (or how) is the age of the Methuselah Star older than the universe? | Admittedly, I heard about this first on the assuredly reputable site Cracked.com, but the NASA article they linked to seemed credible, and mentioned that the Methuselah star is 14.5 billion years old, plus or minus .8 billion years, whereas the universe is only 13.8 billion years old (plus or minus .04 billion years). ... | 54 | It's quite simple - it's not older than the universe, and nobody in astronomy is claiming that it is. Most of the articles and headlines that have claimed the star appears older than the universe just don't understand uncertainties. It's certainly an *old* star, but a more accurate headline would be "age of star is c... | 36 |
ELI5: If an electrical outlet (120 volts) can kill you, how come a taser (50,000) can't? | 385 | ELI5 version:
Voltage is like the speed of a projectile. Current is the weight of it.
A pea from a pea shooter may have the same speed as a cannon ball, but the cannon ball will hit harder.
So, the taser can deliver a lot of voltage, but not much current. So, basically, it's a pea shooter with an extreme muzzle velo... | 764 | |
ELI5: What would be the difference between a 48v 350w and a 36v 350w electric motor? | 221 | You could think of the motors like riding two different bicycles, one with a lower gear and one with a higher gear. If you ride both at the same speed, you're doing the same amount of work (the 350w), but the lower gear one would take less force but you'd have to pedal faster (the 36v one) and the higher gear one would... | 223 | |
How Do Spiders Know How To Make a Web? | Hi AskScience, the other day, I was lucky enough to see baby spiders float away like the end scene in Charlotte's Web as they emerged from their egg sack. It got me thinking, since the baby spiders don't learn web-making behavior from observing their parents then how do they know how to make a web?
I'm a layperson, so... | 19 | How do baby horses know how to walk? How do baby turtles know how to get to the ocean? How do baby humans know how to suck breasts?
Some complex behaviors are simply inborn and not learned. Animals develop the neural architecture that is necessary to perform these behaviors in the same way you develop an arm-- it is p... | 15 |
Why is a degree in philosophy always considered one of the most useless degrees of all? What do those of you currently studying philosophy wish to do after graduation? | 37 | > Why is a degree in philosophy always considered one of the most useless degrees of all?
Well, it's not; though perhaps it's *often* considered this.
Presumably the reason for that is that people are under a lot of misapprehensions about the utility of different degrees. On the basis likewise of traditional ped... | 29 | |
[Star Wars] Would Anakin have been less likely to fall if Ahsoka's framing was handled better? | Anakin turning seems pretty sudden in Episode 3 over some relatively minor points. But if contextualized with TCW, it does make more sense that the seeds of distrust were planted and took root with how The Council handled Ahsoka. If they had remained loyal to their own from the beginning, would denying Anakin Masterhoo... | 29 | I don’t get how people think Anakin’s fall is sudden, they spend 2 films setting up the premise that he is willing to disregard Jedi teachings if pushed too far, they also establish he is willing to break any of the Jedi’s rules to save someone he loves.
The entirety of Episode 3 he says he won’t let Padme die, he spe... | 46 |
Where in the night sky is Voyager 1 headed, in the long term? | From [this skypath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#/media/File:Voyager_1_skypath_1977-2030.png) of Voyager 1's trajectory, generated from NASA data, it looks like Voyager 1's location in the night sky is asymptotically approaching a point somewhere in the triangle formed by Rasalhague (α Ophiuchi), Rasalgethi ... | 26 | It will keep this direction as long as it doesn't get anywhere close to other stars (which won't happen in the next 100,000 years, not sure afterwards). Over tens of millions of years you'll see gravitational effects from the overall star distribution in the galaxy, but over these timescales the constellations change m... | 17 |
Why is Marx irrelevant in economics but important in other fields? | Many students in the humanities engage with Marx a great deal but it doesn't feel like this is the case for economists. Why is this? | 16 | Marx' economics doesn't really hold up, and hasn't had a lasting influence on the field. He's influential outside of economics for non-economics ideas, such as "all history is the history of the class struggle", and the idea of "base versus superstructure". | 48 |
When Oxygen was plenty, animals grew huge. Why aren't trees growing huge now given that there is so much CO2 in the atmosphere? | 1,537 | your initial statement about oxygen is only partially true. During the oxygen peak of the carboniferous/permian, insects (and other arthropods like millipedes) did grow to ridiculous sizes compared to their relatives today. These kinds of animals do appear to be limited in their growth by the availability of oxygen. ... | 1,142 | |
[Ghosts] why are so many ghosts so dickish? | So, I just moved. Old building, countryside, big garden, someone was murdered in there, generally nice place. But... There's a ghost. And he won't leave.
I tried everything: Oujija board, (not alone, I said hello and goodbye) an exorcist (he assured me it is no demon), the police (the murderer was found a decade ago, ... | 491 | Confirmation bias.
Nobody remembers (and often doesn't even know about) the silent ghost granny who likes to knit ghost sweaters in the attic when nobody is looking.
They all remember that asshole that clanked around and made you reflection bleed tho. | 463 |
CMV: It is bad for society for pharma companies to massively hike the prices of critical medications like Daraprim | [You might have seen](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html) that a pharma company which manufactures a medication used by AIDS patients was acquired by a company which raised the price from $13 a tablet to $750.
I work in private equity and do bel... | 32 | >IP law is super strong
This medication is off patent.
>this seems like a case of market failure.
Not exactly. The FDA has been massively increasing regulation on pharmaceutical manufacturers, and the cost of compliance with this regulation has been skyrocketing. At $13 per tablet, the drug was unprofitable ... | 15 |
ELI5: How did Tim Tebow go from seemingly the most wanted quarterback to almost completely irrelevant so quickly? | 15 | He really wasn't a sought after QB, in the NFL. It was a surprise that he was taken in the first round. He was a very good college QB, because the skill set required is very much different for college vs. the NFL. He could bowl guys over in college--in the NFL, defenders are WAY bigger and faster. You get hit enough by... | 22 | |
[GEICO] If GEICO only insures humans, who insures the Gieco Gecko? | 41 | The Geico Gecko is a special case, in that it needs no insurance. In fact, the Geico Gecko is immortal and eternal.
You may recall the 'fiction' film Matilda. You may remember, specifically, that Aunt Trunchbull was forced to drink a glass of water containing a gecko by Matilda. This film was not fiction. This film wa... | 31 | |
ELI5: What's the yellow liquid on top of the ink in my pen? | 64 | It's a gel that stops the ink from drying up. It can't be a solid plug, the ink would stop coming out due to the partial vacuum created.
So, basically it's a movable plug to stop air getting to the ink. | 79 | |
Are magnetic materials stronger than they would otherwise be without their magnetic field? | To clarify the title, does magnetic force within a magnetic object, like a natural magnet, contribute to its actual structural strength? Is say... a magnetized piece of iron stronger than a non-magnetized piece?
Would the magnetic force within the material hold the atoms more snugly together, or am I completely off-ba... | 41 | The short answer, no. What makes a piece of iron non-magnetic isn’t actually the lack of a magnetic field, but the randomness of it. Magnetism is based upon the spin the the electrons in the atoms. When something is magnetized, the direction of the spin of all atoms is aligned to the same direction. When it’s not magn... | 31 |
Can I duck dive under a tidal wave? | If I were treading water in the ocean and a massive tidal wave was approaching me, would it be possible for me to swim under the wave and wait for it to pass? | 30 | No.
A tidal wave, or tsunami, has a small amplitude (wave height) and very, very large wavelength. If you were well offshore, you might not even notice it. If you were near the shore, it would be like the water just coming and coming and coming at you. | 14 |
[Superhero] I can make pocket dimensions by painting them. Who has jurisdiction over this "terra nullis" as the authority of the United Staes claims? | They can't enter my painting without my specific permission and even if they destroy the painting while I'm inside, I can still paint my way out. Can a country really claim jurisdiction if they can't enforce their will on that territory? | 28 | Jurisdictions, borders, etc. are essentially diplomatic alternatives/complementary to shows of force to exert control. With you being the sole force-owner for that space, unless you yield that control, anything they claim is moot.
They can enforce consequences on you otherwise in an attempt to coerce though. | 30 |
What are the main academic criticisms on Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities"? | Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it.
I have just finished "Imagined Communities" and found it to be a great book. I found it explained his theory very clear. After finishing it however I am keen to look at the main academic criticism or counter-theories to his book. Who are the main ... | 55 | Anderson is kind of funny. He has one of the most widely cited definitions of nationalism (that nationalism is an imagined community, imagined in that it is both limited and sovereign) but few people accept the argument itself. The main criticisms of Anderson are his emphasis on modernity (that nationalism is a modern ... | 23 |
ELI5: How do you properly use ";' and "-" in writing? | 27 | The semicolon is properly used in at least two ways.
First, it can be used to separate items in a list when some of those items contain commas. For example, a normal list would go like this: Apples, pears, bananas, and kiwi fruit. (Note: that last comma is not used by everyone. It is called the "Oxford comma", and peo... | 54 | |
[Star Wars] Since there are no forests, is the oxygen supply in Coruscant artificially produced? How does it stay breathable for humans? | 16 | If recall from the book version of Phantom Menace the atmosphere is maintained through giant oxygen regulators/carbon dioxide scrubbers which filter and purify the air. Even with this technology though, the lower you lived in the planet (lower level of buildings, deep down alleyways, etc), the more polluted the air te... | 29 | |
ELI5: Do other languages have as many accents as English? Why or why not? | There are wildly different English accents across the globe, but does this happen with other languages? I feel like it would, but I've never heard/seen anything about it. | 46 | Everyone is giving examples of specific languages, so I'll just give a general answer: it's a resounding yes. Virtually all languages will have some kind of accent variation based on geography. Accents may also be based on things like social class or ethnicity, and other languages will have those as well.
You hear mo... | 33 |
[FOX Animation] Does The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Futurama, Bob's Burgers and The Critic exist in the same universe? | Do all of these adult-oriented FOX animated sitcoms and shows exist in the same universe? They have crossed over before and allude to one another's existence in different ways. | 20 | Only when it's convenient. Family Guy and American Dad definitely do. Simpsons and Futurama is tricky because there was an episode where Bender is sent back in time to kill Bart, but in the Simpsons they also meet Matt Groening "Creator of Futurama". Likewise, in Futurama, Bender found a Bart doll in the trash asteroid... | 24 |
[MCU] Why is there only one Winter Soldier? | The Winter Soldier was created when Zola experimented on Bucky, presumably copying some of Erskine's work. The experiment was a complete success, and unlike Erskine, Zola wasn't killed and alive for decades afterwards.
So why didn't Hydra build a legion of Winter Soldiers? They had decades to perfect the process and p... | 91 | There are two reason that come to mind.
1. We don't know if Bucky was unique or not. While, Bucky was a complete success that doesn't mean that there weren't many other failures. Zola obviously saw the potential of his experiments so it is reasonable to assume that he did try to create other Winter Soliders. It cou... | 79 |
ELI5: How weather prediction works and why it requires massive computing power | 16 | We take the (imagined) atmosphere and divide it into really large slabs - about 20km on both sides horizontally and about 1 km up. With each of these slabs there are some well understood equations around the amount of air that's going to flow into and out of each of the six sides. Unfortunately this movement depends on... | 12 | |
ELI5: What is it about Johnson & Johnson's baby powder that could cause ovarian cancer? | Considering the decision today that J&J has to pay a massive fine to claimants regarding their baby powder reportedly causing ovarian cancer, I'm unsure about the science behind the claim.
What's in talc powder that could be risky? Are the same risks concerning men who use the powder to dry their groin area?
Tha... | 11,335 | Scientist here. The science behind this talc powder cancer claim is somewhat nebulous.
A long time ago, talc contained some asbestos. Asbestos is bad because it causes cancer. If talc is highly refined in modern facilities, it *should* contain no asbestos.
There have been a few articles that show a minimal correlati... | 11,482 |
[Batman:TAS]Would plastic surgery fix the damage done to Two-Face? | Immediately after the accident, the doctor treating Harvey says he's scheduled a plastic surgery consult. Was the full extent of the damage not immediately known? Or did the chemicals continue to change him even after he was treated at the hospital? | 24 | It would fix his face sure but not his mind. In Batman The Dark Knight Returns, which is set with an older retired Batman, Harvey Dent did have plastic surgery for his face. However, his mind was still fragmented and he returned to crime shortly after. | 25 |
[Lord of the Rings Books] All armor that I read about seemed to be mail, or perhaps scale armor. Did full suits of plate armor exist? | If not, why not? The Numenoreans and Noldor and ancient Dwarves had very advanced crafting, at least. | 26 | During the events of LOTR, Middle Earth is in something of a "Dark Ages." Much knowledge was lost when Numenor fell and their "craft" (for lack of a better term) continued to decline as they mixed Numenorean blood with those of lesser men. Perhaps at Gondor's peak they had such armor, but after its collapse, they proba... | 28 |
AskScience AMA Series: We’re a team of researchers who’ve created a tool to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of different oils around the world. AUA! | Hello Reddit! We are team members representing a first-of-its-kind project, the Oil-Climate Index (OCI). The OCI analyzes the overall climate impacts of different oils from extraction to refining to combustion. We tested 30 oils from different sources around the globe, and you can find the results of our research [here... | 1,514 | I often wonder about the greenhouse gas emission of pretty much anything. Is it better to buy a Tesla or to just keep your old car, or buy a 1980's nissan with great mileage. Those sorts of questions. Is there an accessible methodology where the public can figure that stuff out? | 25 |
CMV:Wars aren't caused because defense industries profit from it. Defense industries profit from it because the society wants war. | People love to believe that they don't really want War, its their leaders because corrupted by the defense companies who want war.
To be clear, I am not saying that defense industry doesn't influence politicians, but I am against this notion that somehow our noble society wouldn't harm a fly if not for these evil prof... | 92 | >somehow our noble society wouldn't harm a fly if not for these evil profit making organizations and military-industrial complex.
I think you may be blowing this view out of proportion. No reasonable person is saying that these companies are the ONLY reason we go to war. But no one can deny that they profit from ... | 19 |
Could the "exact" value of pi be calculated to an exact value, if we consider a "perfect circle" to be a circle draw to the accuracy of the planck length exactly? | I was going to post this to /r/askscience but I decided it's more of a philosophical question. But the basic premise is that the Planck length (in chemistry) is considered to be the smallest possible length in all of the universe. Could we not consider the accuracy of this value (1.616255(18)×10−35 m)1 to be the needed... | 32 | You could begin your investigation into this question by starting with the ancients and reading about Plato's idea of forms. Plato posits that there is a difference between the idea of a circle (exists in your mind) and the most perfect physical instance of a circle (exists in reality). All physical circles can be benc... | 24 |
[James Bond] Who are the other 00 agents? | Has 007 ever collaborated with them or do they work alone? | 15 | James Bond's mission in Arkhangelsk in 1986 was a team effort between 007 and 006, Alec Trevelyan, with 006 ending up seemingly killed in action.
Agent 009's death in 1983 in Berlin is also the impetus for 007's mission, but they don't meet. | 35 |
ELI5: Why is it cheaper to imprison someone for life than to give them the death penalty? | 400 | People who receive the death penalty are entitled to an extensive appeal process which can be very expensive. People who are imprisoned for life are not given the same privilege. This is because killing someone is an irreversible act and we don't want to make mistakes (Unfortunately we still do). The appeal process is ... | 331 | |
ELI5: Why are freckles or 'beauty marks' next to eye and on upper lip so common compared to others? | 172 | If you were to sample all people you would probably find that moles occur in equal amounts all over the body. Ones around the eyes and mouth are considered pretty, so people with them are overrepresented in art and media | 61 | |
In Terminator, when they say skynet "begins learning at a geometric rate," what does that mean? | 31 | A geometric progression, or geometric sequence, is a sequence of numbers where each number is obtained by multiplying the previous number by some constant.
For example:
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ...
Every next number is twice the previous number.
But the following is also a geometric sequence:
1, 0.9, 0.81, 0.729, 0.6561
H... | 56 | |
ELI5...If aliens put a satellite into earth orbit to observe us, would we even notice with all the other satellites up there? | Topic. | 215 | Yes. Astronomers carefully track all sattelites - as do some world governments. Even space junk is tracked.
Astronomers need to know where sattelites and debris are so it does not interfere with looking at stars.
Governments want to know where spy sattelites are and who is looking at what.
NASA and other space ag... | 154 |
lab politics is killing me | I am a research fellow at a lab which has 2 active collaborations at other institutes.
I have been working here for 3 months and I have noticed that the team which I am a part of and includes two other people is actively involving in institutional politics .
The other two of my team mates often
1) sit with each other d... | 71 | Kick the living shit out of one of them and make sure the other one sees you do it.
Make sure to posture like a chimpanzee after. Chest banging and all that shit. The other one will get the picture quick. | 72 |
Can t-cells turn into cancer? Are they any more or less likely to do so than any other cell? | 37 | Any cell in the body can accumulate mutations that eventually allow it to evade destruction by the immune system by neither being recognized as part of you or foreign, replicate (grow), invade surrounding structures and in some cases metastasize either through the circulatory or lymph systems predominantly. T-cells are... | 43 | |
[Harry Potter] every time a horcrux is destroyed, Voldemort has a freak out because of him having a connection to it (it is a piece of his soul after all). Did the same thing not happen when he killed that part of himself inside of Harry? I feel like it should have. | 32 | In the books he does not feel it when a horcrux is destroyed because he has been disconnected from them for so long.
However, when he blasted Harry he was also affected by it and fell down. Whether this is because of the horcrux dying is unknown, but Bellatrix attempted to help him up and he rebuffed her. | 60 | |
[World of Warcraft] So I come to Draenor and find "True Iron Ore" all over the place. If this is true iron, what the hell is this grey metal I've been mining in Redridge for the last 9 years? Furthermore, how is it different from (apparently) fake iron? | 49 | True Iron and Iron are entirely different metals, the same as Truesilver and Silver are different. The name is simply the product of idiot Orcs naming the stuff, and humans just using the translation. | 50 | |
[Star Wars] Would Sidious have intervened in the crash landing? | So Anakin successfully pilots the wrecked *Invisible Hand* down to the surface of Coruscant. The back half of the ship was torn off as they entered the atmosphere, so there was very little control and it was more like a disaster that they happened to survive.
Sidious of course is still acting like Palpatine the freed ... | 220 | I think maybe he doesn't get enough credit for his go getter attitude. We tend to think of all bad guys as selfish and all self preserving but with a plan as bold as his, the very real possibility of death must have been faced at many turns. He had a go big or go home attitude and was prepared for an unexpected death i... | 231 |
ELI5: In neutral terms, how the Rothchild family became so rich, why they are not very public and why there are so many conspiracy theories surrounding them. | 18 | In neutral terms it is far less interesting. They became rich via banking, and that's really the end of it. Most if not all the conspiracy theories about them are really about how fractional reserve banking is evil. What better target than old money bankers involved in an evil money making conspiracy theory.
They ar... | 19 | |
What physical quantities are upper-bounded? | Are there any upper-bounded physical quantities like velocity?
Does the current model predict an upper limit on temperature, acceleration, electromagnetic-waves frequency, ...? | 198 | Loudness of sound is bounded by the density of a substance. Because sound is a pressure wave, and because a wave peak cannot be any higher than the depth of its trough, the amplitude of a sound wave is bounded by a relationship relative to its density. For air on earth, it is ~194db, the difference between 0atm and 2at... | 113 |
Could a generated magnetic field protect a spacecraft and astronauts from charged particles and em radiation? | From my understanding, solar wind and cosmic rays are bombarding Earth constantly and are being deflected in part by the atmosphere and partially by Earth's magnetic field. Can this sort of shielding be replicated and how much energy would be required to produce a magnetic field capable of radiation shielding. | 577 | There is still significant research to be done and hurdles to overcome with this. However, US Patent application ID US 12/990,420 is for a magnetic radiation shiled.
>In order to provide an effective shield, the strength if the shield magnetic field at the source is perferably at least 1x10^-4 Tesla. To obtain a b... | 207 |
ELI5: Where does thunder (sound component of lighting) come from? | I get the concept the lighting is electronic plasma in a supercharged cloud looking for the shortest path to the ground to discharge or something but why is it fricking loud? | 25 | Lighntning is a sudden, strong stream of electrons between clouds and the ground.
Those electrons heat the air so much, that the air surrounding the lightning bolt can, for a fraction of a second, exceed the temperature of the surface of the sun, by a lot in fact. The surface of the sun is around 10,000F, and the air... | 27 |
Why doesn't my field of view change when my pupils contract/dilate? | 160 | Field of view depends on focal length -- the distance between the lens and the retina (technically the ratio between the size of the retina and the focal length).
The size of the pupil is the aperture size, it only changes how much light enters the eye, just like in a camera.
The reason for this is that the pupil is ... | 52 | |
ELI5: Why are countries like Great Britain in the European Union but they do not have the Euro? | I guess I understand that they simply chose not to switch their currency, my question though is, what lead them and others to decide this? What sorts of costs or benefits does their choice give them?
This question came about as a result of my reading [this NYT article.](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/world/europe/... | 15 | Switching your currency to the same currency as the other countries in the eurozone means that they are no longer in as much control of the value of their currency. The value of the pound is controlled by the value of the british economy, whilst the value of the euro is controlled by the value of the european economy. ... | 13 |
Private property, best arguments for and against | I'm familiar with Locke's argument of natural property rights but I find it quite unconvinving really, is there any other arguments which build on it/are based on it with great detail?
Would also like to read some proper philosophical arguments against the idea of private property, is there Marx/Engles I should be re... | 33 | In Hegel's Philosophy of Right he offers a defense of property by claiming that property is an extension of the individual will, and in order to be fully free we must be able to make our will exist in the external world through property. | 26 |
Why does Superman 'waste' his powers on petty crime | Of course stopping Lex Luthor et al. is important but why doesn't he spend more of his time improving the life of the general population of earth a la http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2305 ?
Does he only fight bad guys because that turns Lois on? | 42 | Any answer to this question would be conjecture. In interviews Superman claims that he's just doing what seems best at the time, and helping to make the American dream possible. That's obviously false. Superman is no idiot, according to some accounts of his exploits he has a genius-level intellect and may actually be a... | 47 |
ELI5: If Puerto Rico votes to become a state, how would/could the US proceed? | 44 | Legally speaking, voting to become a state is irrelevant. It is a signal that a territory is ready to become a state, but congress is under no obligation to act upon it. Similarly, congress could make PR a state even if it voted against it.
The power rests solely in congress, any vote in the PR is purely symbolic. | 25 | |
ELI5: Why is it that when a person has an epileptic seizure/fit that they feel so tired and out of it for such a long time. | Asking as I'm epileptic and it throws me out for a good day or two like I've not slept in days. | 24 | Immediately following a seizure is what's known as the postictal state. In this state, the person is pretty much completely out of it. Yeah, they're "awake," but not really. They just kinda sit there and look exhausted. That's because they are! You could say seizing is expensive for the body. In the brain, the uncontro... | 32 |
If the voltage id high enough, would electricity be able to arc in space? | 26 | What we see as an arc is the effect of molecules in the air being excited by the impact of electrons that are accelerated by the voltage. These excited molecules then fall back to a lower energy state and emit a photon. This is the light we see when there's an electric arc.
In space, without air, there's nothing to ex... | 13 | |
ELI5: Why does Windows even allow deleting system32 if doing so will make it unusable? | Title | 31 | The reason that they allow you to do it is because sometimes it is fundamentally necessary to delete, change, or add files to system32 in order to fix bugs in the system or upgrade things. The user either has access to the files or doesn't have access to the files. If they have access to the files, they can do what the... | 23 |
ELI5: What is the difference between computer science and computer engineering? | 42 | Computer engineering is primarily about designing computer hardware.
Computer science is primarily about the theory of how computers work and what they can do. It also tends to include "how to write computer software," but that's really a separate field usually labeled software engineering. | 22 | |
Why biofuel? isn't it just burning what amounts to man made fossil fuel? how much better is it for the environment if at all? | I saw [**this story**](http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/12k7uh/biofuel_breakthrough_quick_cook_method_turns/) on /r/science but they used the term biocrude, making me think this is something similar to crude oil. What is the difference? What are the byproducts? how are those byproducts different from petroleum | 100 | If a biofuel requires no fossil fuels to produce, it's better because it doesn't introduce new carbon into the system. This is the problem with fossil fuels: when burned, the carbon they introduce into the system is new carbon, in the sense that it has been sequestered and kept out of the system, and now it is being re... | 133 |
CMV: Technology is making us smarter | Technology has allowed our society to advance - by automating so many of our mundane tasks, humanity has more time to think, create, improve and iterate. Technology has improved our quality of life and our health. It has made education more accessible and personalized. It makes us more efficient at getting places, maki... | 97 | The rise in political polarization and anti-intellectualism in the West seems to correlate with Internet access.
The Internet, specifically social media, enables people to find echo chambers that reenforce their preconceived notions of how the world is. A creationist who is otherwise engaged with the real world can sp... | 64 |
[Star Wars] Are all members of Yoda's species Force Sensitive? | I know of three members of Yoda's species (Yoda, Yaddle, and Grogu), and all three of them are force sensitive. Do they all just have Force Sensitivity by chance like everyone else, or are ALL members of the species Force Sensitive? | 40 | Those are the only known members of their species so as far as we know, we could say yes. But that’s not really a lot to go on, they could have been a very isolated species that doesn’t get out into the greater galaxy much and the only three we know were pulled into the order. | 39 |
ELI5: Why do we not feel the weight of water above us in swimming pools? | If we placed, for example, 100 litres of bottled water on our body when lying flat on the ground we would expect the bottles to feel heavy against our body (pushing down on us). Why is it that when we are at the bottom of a swimming pool with hundreds of litres of water on top of us we feel no such pressure? | 16 | You do feel the pressure. You need diving equipment because you feel the pressure. Your ears pop because you feel the pressure. Submarines need to withstand the pressure.
Edit: It occurs to me now that you meant "why don't we get pushed deep underwater because of the pressure above", and the answer to that is that the... | 29 |
ELI5: Where exactly does all the fat and especially excess skin go when we lose weight? | Does the extra dead skin just fall off at a higher than normal rate? How does the body "know" it doesn't need it anymore?
EDIT: I've marked this as "explained" because the first post did explain it for me, but there is not a secondary question that has popped up: "How much weight loss will result in excess skin on ave... | 15 | Skin is flexible. It stretches in all sorts of ways.
Fat is also flexible. Fat cells simply get bigger. (although they are replaced, you don't have less than this or more than that, unless all the fat cells are full, in which case, more fat cells will be made... and then destroyed when you don't need the excess cell... | 10 |
What is going on in a tree stump immediately after the tree is cut down? Does the stump continue to try to live? Is the tree instantly dead like a human would be if the human suffered something equally catastrophic? | 225 | stumps OFTEN try to come back, and succeed.
They rely on stored energy in the roots to produce new shoots that are quickly productive on a small-scale. The root infrastructure for getting water and minerals is still strong. | 183 | |
ELI5 - If the brain releases chemicals that paralyse the body during sleep, how come people still turn around many times throughout the night? | 190 | That is because sleep always goes in cycles.
These chemicals are released during a REM cycle. You get about 4 of them and they last around 20/30 minutes.
These are the times where your brain activity is high but you get paralyzed becaude otherwise your body would act upon your brain activity.
Otherwise you are not ... | 131 | |
ELI5: Is there a difference between having two 4-hour sleeps or having one 8-hour sleep? Why? | 151 | There are four stages of sleep. The last one, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, is what really counts because it's when you really get to rest and recuperate. However, to get there you have to go through the earlier stages and then back out to wake up. If you sleep for 8 hours straight then you spend more time in REM sle... | 47 | |
Do North Koreans know how physically tiny their country is? | I've noticed that on N. Korean propaganda videos, when the world or a globe is shown, North Korea never is. It got me wondering whether this is done on purpose. If citizens saw how tiny and relatively insignificant the country is (about 1/100th the size of China for example) they may start to question all of the "we ar... | 83 | The better question is, do NK citizens buy *any* of the propaganda, or do they recognize it for what it is and just put up with it?
But a country's size really isn't at issue, after all Germany is the size of Wisconsin and gave the world a run for its money. Economic and industrial capacity and efficiency is more imp... | 102 |
How does hair conditioner work, and why do we use it? | 636 | Conditioner reduces friction between the strands. The mechanism by which conditioner works is pretty f interesting. The chemical structure of hair has a lot of amino acid cysteine, when washed they tend to gain a negative electrostatic charge due to the removal of a proton. The ingredients in conditioners are attracted... | 895 | |
Can plants get viruses or transmit them? | 505 | Yep! In fact, the first virus to be discovered attacked tobacco plants, the tobacco mosaic virus.
Plant viruses do have to figure out how to get through cell walls, and they have to be able to spread without relying on their hosts moving around, so they're a bit different from viruses who go after animals. | 442 | |
[Star Wars] Why was the Force unbalanced? And did Anakin Skywalker bring balance to it? | If the Jedi believed the Sith were extinct why did they believe the Force was unbalanced? What balance did they think Anakin would bring? And if he did bring balance how did he do it? | 15 | Balancing the Force means removing the taint of the Dark Side from the galaxy, since evil represents a perversion of the intent of the Force.
The Force is the embodiment of life, and the connectivity between all things. The Dark Side is an inversion: selfishness, the accumulation of power with no regard for others.
A... | 30 |
ELI5: The differences between Pink noise, White noise and Blue noise | 22 | The colours of noise are named after light.
White light is made up of all the frequencies of light, so white noise is made up of all the frequencies of sound.
Pink light is low frequency light, so pink noise has more low frequencies.
Blue light is high frequency light, so blue noise has more high frequencies.
To cr... | 29 | |
CMV: a guilty finding in most courts, is a 5-10 year ticket to poverty. | This is the kind of population control that exists today, but since it doesn’t affect those who soundly reside in the system, as such, it doesn’t matter to them.
In this case “them” is anyone who can pass a CORI check. It’s really pretty sick; you were bad, so let’s lock you out of good jobs and make you wash dishes.... | 39 | Prisons don’t need to be like that. Plenty in other countries teach life skills and give rehabilitation therapy to prisoners that don’t land them in poverty.
Also plenty of countries have good safety nets that stop that as well.
What would you like to be done with prisoners? A 5-10 year sentence is usually a severe c... | 15 |
CMV: Luxury watches are useless in the practical sense | I am not talking about the watch you use time your interval training, or the waterproof watch you bring for diving. I am not even talking about smart watches such as the Apple watch.
I’m talking about the Rolexes. This piece of luxury good is special in that it serves no conceivable practical function as almost everyo... | 22 | Do you consider a necktie to be useless in a practical sense? Or makeup? Or tooth whitening toothpaste?
A luxury watch is like any other accessory, it is designed to make us more attractive, either to others or ourselves. A feeling of confidence from looking good can propel you through all kinds of stressful situat... | 12 |
[the culture] are drones human conscience in robotic bodies or are they sentient machines ? | And what's this 1:1 intelligence, is it a rating system for how smart a thing is ? | 52 | They're sentient machines created and raised in such a way that they can interact with humans in a natural fashion.
It's possible for humans to become drones, but this is considered eccentric and would result in awkward interactions with other drones.
Drones tend to have mental capacity generally similar to humans, o... | 49 |
What happens to the puss in the pimples you don't pop? | 354 | Your body reabsorbs it. The pus contains the cells (phagocytes) that eat the intruding microbes or foreign material of some sort. The pus is kind of in a capsule to protect neighboring cells and tissue from further infection. So don't pop it.
Edit: Changes macrophages to phagocytes. | 180 | |
ELI5: What is the benefit of making/using charcoal as opposed to regular wood? | Why do we make charcoal? I don't see how charcoal could have more potential energy than the original wood it came from since it used to be wood and some of it has already been spent. | 43 | While wood has more potential energy, a lot of it is wasted evaporating/boiling water and other noncombustible impurities. By heating wood slowly in the absence of oxygen, these impurities are removed, leaving mostly the combustibles.
This makes charcoal lighter, yet because it is porous and lacks the noncombustibles... | 39 |
CMV: Private schools (in the US) either need a lot more regulation and oversight or need to be shut down | I went to a private christian school throughout high school and after college I've been married to a wonderful woman who had the misfortune to teach at a private christian school for three years before she finally made the switch to public (starting this year!) Over that time I've noticed some egregious problems with t... | 26 | You've mentioned several times how the existence of private schools (even a majority of private schools) that perform better than public schools doesn't justify not having oversight.
But government oversight is exactly what gets us *public schools*. You really can't discount the notion that heavy regulation of schools... | 17 |
ELI5: Why does a candle need a wick in order for the wax to burn? | Wow, this really blew up! Thanks everyone who answered :) | 1,327 | The wax doesn't burn while it's solid, or even liquid. It melts and gets sucked up the wick where the heat of the flame boils it and the vapors burn. A big old pool of wax will burn without a wick, but you have to get it super hot first and get it to start boiling and those fumes need to ignite and keep the thing going... | 1,150 |
[The Matrix] What are the downsides to being in the Matrix? | Okay, so you're a prisoner but you have no idea about it, and if you feel like something's wrong then it's nothing more than a nagging itch at the back of your mind. A shrink would probably diagnose you with some kind of disassociative disorder and prescribe some medication.
To over seven billion people, The Matrix i... | 19 | The Matrix enforces arbitrary restrictions which limit human ambitions. One man managed to incur the wrath of several agents just because he broke the 100m record. If humans start to develop an in-Matrix AI, expand to the stars, etc., the machines would step in and say no. The world of the Matrix is stagnant. | 32 |
How does body hair "measure" its own size and when to stop growing? | Body hair has a set length (correct me if i am wrong but afaik it is set in the genes?), but how does a single hair "know" how long it currently is or when to stop growing? | 36 | >Body hair has a set length
Close. Each hair has a set **time** for it to grow. After spending that set time growing, it will fall out and a new hair will start growing from the follicle.
So, for instance, if you cut a hair, it won't grow to its full length. Rather, it will keep growing for its set time limit. ... | 36 |
[Superman] Would Superman prefer to live on Earth or Krypton? | I'm reminded of a Justice League episode where Superman is stuck living his ideal life. He lives on Krypton and isn't married to Lois. That strikes me as odd for a guy raised on Earth his entire life, but I guess it's not a black and white issue. | 23 | I mean, he wants to have grown up at home with his parents on a world that wasn't destroyed. Every kid would. It doesn't mean he doesn't love Ma and Pa, he just sometimes wishes he didn't have to.
He's never looked for a chance to permanently leave Earth to return "home" though. And he had a restored Kryptonian city i... | 47 |
ELI5:Why, when we are sick do we take medications meant to lower our fever? Isn't a fever one of the body's ways of fighting infection? Aren't we reducing our immune system's efficacy by doing this? | I mean, I know fevers can run high enough to become life-threatening and in that case anti-fever drugs are lifesavers, but short of that it seems to me we should let the body do what it needs to in order to get rid of what's making it ill.
| 120 | It's an interesting question. No doubt fever is part of our immune response. Fever is the result mainly of cytokines (like the immune systems hormones) released from where the infection in the body is activating the immune system and going through the blood stream to the temperature control center in the brain stem. Th... | 44 |
ELI5: Why do radio stations always end in odd decimals? | For FM radio anyways | 49 | FM radio has a maximum of 100 channels, and each channel is .2 MHz. The strongest signal is at the center frequency so that's what you tune to. 88.1 is actually being broadcast on 88.0-88.2.
They have to be all odd or all even for this to work. Plus, if the stations were closer together they might overlap a bit and no... | 59 |
[Alien] Judging by our current military and defense capabilities of all countries, how many Xenomorphs would it take to overrun the planet? | 41 | In one of the books a bus full of fanatics crashed through a research compound hell-bent on being impregnated by these monsters. Within months the planet was swarming with them and people were abandoning Earth. It started with about 20 people. | 35 | |
[Star Wars] How many planets are there in the New Republic, and what are those worlds doing right now? | There must have been -- thousands? tens of thousands? millions? of planets in the New Republic. The First Order destroyed five of them, in *The Force Awakens*. Why don't the remaining worlds choose new leadership according to whatever the succession laws are, scramble their ships (even with one warship per planet, it a... | 30 | The thing was, the worlds they blew up included the capital - where pretty much everyone of any political note was.
We don't know how many worlds were in the New Republic. We only know it was smaller than the Galactic Republic, and much more of a loose federation of worlds than its predecessor governments were. | 30 |
[Star Wars] I am a powerful Force user who chooses to openly follow Sith philosophy as far as the law will permit me without breaking it. Will the Jedi council allow me to embrace my beliefs in peace, including approaching other Force sensitives in the search for my own apprentice? | 19 | Jedi Council doesn't go after people just on basis of their religious beliefs. Just look at Nightsisters. Although given that you're a very powerful force user, who practices sith teachings, it won't be long until the law becomes just another chain for you, at which point Jedi would be fully justified in bringing your ... | 37 | |
CMV: A traditional "zombie apocalypse" as media presents it is a practical impossibility. | This is really more of a fun one. But most of the time I watch a movie or a TV show of this subject, my cynicism is always nagging me. Ofcourse it's fiction, and creative liberty can be taken, and I am obviously willing to accept some compromises in realism, proportionate to how much fantasy is involved. But in most - ... | 22 | >World War Z
Have you actually read the book World War Z? Or have you just seen the ~~movie~~ unrelated cash grab? Because the book World War Z actually addresses a lot of the points you make.
In addition, there are a lot of variations in how the story is told. True, something like *28 Days Later* is unlikely t... | 14 |
[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]Why would anyone choose to follow Chairman Yang? | I mean, the faction description outright says "brutal serfdom". If it's the appeal of an orderly society, Miriam and Santiago offer that. If it's about not letting archaic morality stand in the way of human progress, Zacharov offers that. | 33 | You've escaped a dying Earth, only to have your spaceship suffer a critical systems failure shortly before arriving at your destination. You're not particularly keen on the notion of a divine plan at this point. Santiago does seem to have what it takes to survive in a cruel, uncaring universe, but the militancy is a bi... | 30 |
[Dune] Why did the Emperor give Duke Leto of House Atreides the planet Arrakis if he was only going to let the Harkonnens attack them later on even giving the Harkonnens ferocious Sardaukar troops in disguise. Why not just attack the Duke on his home planet of Caladan? | The Emperor sees House Atreides as a potential future rival and threat, and conspires with House Harkonnen, currently in charge of spice harvesting on Arrakis and longstanding enemies of House Atreides among the other Great Houses of the Landsraad, to destroy Leto and his family after their arrival. Leto is aware his a... | 87 | The whole reason for giving the Atreides the planet is to set them up for the knockdown. Atreides is a very popular house...and that makes all the other houses and the Emperor jealous and fearful. Everyone thinks Atreides is succeeding at what they are all trying to scheme into: intergalactic power consolidation. The E... | 97 |
ELI5: Why do people trust journalists when they say off the record? What's stopping the journalists from printing what they talked about? | 342 | Nothing is stopping them from printing such things, except the potential damage to their reputation. A journalist that gets a reputation for always printing stuff that was said 'off the record', will find it very hard to get people to agree to do interview with them / tell them anything else off the record. And when in... | 304 | |
ELI5: Why do certain toys and boardgames have an upper age limit, usually 99. | 25 | For games designed for very young children, the mechanics might not be engaging for those who are older. Candy Land is great for a 3-year-old to learn colors. Not so much fun for a 12-year-old.
For those with a high limit such as 99, it's simply a lighthearted joke, as they usually say from 9 - 99. If 100-year-old gra... | 43 | |
CMV: Felons should be allowed to vote | I think, personally, that felons should be allowed to vote. It is a human right for someone to vote for their government, and is listed as such in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (I've forgotten which article). Just because someone makes some decisions, no matter how bad, doesn't take away their status as a l... | 119 | > Just because someone makes some decisions, no matter how bad, doesn't take away their status as a living, breathing, human being and should not have their inalienable rights as people taken away.
You also have inalienable rights to privacy, free movement and assembly, free speech, etc. All of these are taken awa... | 34 |
[Marvel] How does Galactus eat? | Obviously he consumes planets. But how? Do we know?
Like does he just grab a planet and take a literal bite out of it? | 323 | He absorbs the life force of a planet. He will sometimes use an elemental converter to transform a planet into pure energy in order to make his feeding easier, but he can consume energy on his own as well. | 255 |
eli5 how does red blue and green lights in screens create a white light and all other colors? | how does this work in phones? | 18 | We know how human eyes work. They have rods and cones, and the colour sensitivity is to red, green, and blue. So we built computer screens with those colours to basically stimulate those things in your eyes exactly the way we want them. It's not perfect, but it's close enough.
If we were a different species with diffe... | 29 |
[Starcraft] Why is copper sulfate so important? | The minerals are made out of [copper sulfate](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Copper_sulfate.jpg) but why is it so important? Is everything a copper alloy? | 32 | Oh no no no... They may LOOK like Copper Sulfate, but the mineral deposits you see are actually a super dense quantum-morphic substance which, when exposed to electrical current, can be reconfigured at a subatomic level to form any element you could need. They're literally a poor-mans matter compiler. | 50 |
[DC Comics] Why did the Guardians switch the Green Lantern Corps to an inferior ring? | This needs some explanation, so bear with me for a moment.
The modern Green Lantern Rings are constantly draining their power, but last for over twenty-four hours. They can make nearly anything, as long as the wielder can imagine it and will it into being. They are, quite possibly, the most powerful weapons in the uni... | 51 | Quite simply, because the great Power Battery no longer holds Parallax prisoner. Before he escaped and merged with Hal Jordan, the power battery was engineered not only to provide the lanterns with energy, but also to keep Parallax contained. His will, though borne from fear, is mighty, and was able to sustain the Powe... | 73 |
ELI5: Why do we hiccup? | 154 | This is a surprisingly great question.
It may be related to a time when our ancestors were sea creatures transitioning to living on land and it may represent a reflex to help clear our breathing system of water.
Or, it may be a reflex that mammals developed to help get air out of the stomach; air introduced when suck... | 48 | |
CMV: Transgender rights is a low priority issue and the left should divert its political capital elsewhere for now | First off I think there are issues that dwarf it in importance.
* You're not going to be able to get your transition meds if you can't afford healthcare.
* Is your gender identity really going to matter much when climate change hits in full swing?
* You're not going to be able to be your true gender if you're in... | 133 | If standing up for trans people is the right thing to do, why should we set it aside? To be clear, there is no real reason we cannot tackle all the problems you listed *and* protect trans rights. And as they say in the BPRD, "in the absence of light, darkness prevails".
The fact of the matter is, the left should c... | 49 |
ELI5: How are we able to bleed from anywhere on our body when veins, arteries, and capillaries are in set places? | Yeah, the title
How are we able to bleed from anywhere on our body (when cut/injured)? | 25 | It's possible to poke a needle through several layers of skin and not bleed. Presumably you've had a papercut at some point too?
But beyond that, the veins you can see are the main ones, but they get regressively smaller in a fractal sort of pattern as they branch off from the main ones. If you cut a bigger vein you g... | 22 |
ELI5: What happens when you crack your knuckles? Is it bad for you? | 647 | In and around your joints is a very special fluid called "synovial fluid." This fluid is like oil or lubricant for the joints. This fluid kind of feels like egg yolk and it is great at making sure your joints don't grind together and hurt. This fluid is made by a kind of skin or membrane inside your joints called a "sy... | 1,095 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.