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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
[Marvel] Why doesn't Tony Stark (A.K.A. Iron Man) build a suit out of adamantium? | Tony Stark, perhaps better known as Iron Man, has access to a vast wealth as head of Stark Industries. In fact, he is one of the richest men in America. As such, he should be able to obtain a vast amount of adamantium or even vibranium. Yet, despite the repeated destruction of many of his suits, he does not utilize the... | 45 | There are a few reasons why not.
1. Adamantium is a tricky material to work with. Once you refine it to it's liquid form you can mold it, shape it and forge it to the components that you need. After it sets it is nigh impossible to reshape.
Once Tony made a suit of adamantium there would be no way to modify it. Tony... | 74 |
What are examples of "bland" or relatively non-regional accents/dialects in other languages? Which accents/dialects are most popular for news broadcasts, for example, in languages other than American English? | I remember reading this article about [General American](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American), which is the dialect/accent most popular with national news broadcasts, and is based on how people speak in parts of the Midwest / Great Plains. I also remember a story on NPR (though I can't source it right now) t... | 38 | The Arabic of officialdom and journalism is Modern Standard Arabic ("fus-ha"), a modernized adaptation of Classical or Qur'anic Arabic. Lawyers, newscasters, diplomats, politicians, professors, and clerics all speak in MSA on the job, but most will switch to colloquial forms with friends and family.
It's not just an a... | 30 |
ELI5: Why is it that after you had a cough drop, cold water feels even colder when drinking? | ELI5: Why is it that after you had a cough drop, cold water feels even colder when drinking? | 17 | It's because of the menthol in the cough drop. A protein called TRPM8 regulates the movement of ions across the membranes of cells, and reacts to temperature, sending a signal to your brain telling you that it's cold. For some reason we don't fully understand yet, it also reacts with mint and menthol, sending the same ... | 12 |
[The Avengers] If the Hulk was the last Avenger left and the portal stayed open could he destroy the entire alien army by himself? Or would he run out of stamina/rage? | . | 46 | No matter how strong, fast, or angry, Hulk is one entity.
Send three of those snake behemoth things at him. By the time he's done with them, your army is through the portal and spreading in all directions. Hulk won't stop, sure, but he also can't catch up. | 34 |
What (if any) physiological changes do men experience when their partner is pregnant? | As a follow up, what drives these changes? Pheromones released by the woman? Just seeing a pregnant belly? The conscious brain trying to process and prepare for the future? | 673 | **HEY EVERYONE!** Make sure you distinguish between research on father's-to-be vs. fathers. The findings are better understood for fathers, whereas there is far more dispute regarding changes in expecting fathers. | 414 |
ELI5: Why do shows like Netflix's "House of Cards" release all their episodes on a single day once a year? | It seems to me that shows released weekly or in some sort of order (like Game of Thrones) generate prolonged publicity (news articles, online discussion) between episodes, while shows like "House of Cards" are super popular for those few weeks after release but then dies down for the rest of the year. | 61 | Its a different market approach.
Cable (and HBO) subscribers are used to the typical "one a week" format so that is how the shows are released
Netflix users are more "binge" watchers, so they release everything at once to satisfy them. | 93 |
If a human being were crushed down past their Schwarzschild radius, would the resulting black hole pull in enough surrounding matter to sustain itself or would it shortly evaporate in a devastating explosion? | 28 | a crude estimate for the remaining lifetime of a black hole is given by
t = 10^(-26) (mass in grams)^3 seconds
A 70kg BH would be gone in ~ 10^(-12) s.
The total energy released is Mc^2 ~ 6 * 10^18 Joules, about 30 Tsar Bombas if you need a reference. | 37 | |
[Injustice] What changes if Batman kills The Joker instead of Superman, and decides to create a regime? | Joker uses fear gas to trick Batman into killing his pregant wife (Bats has a lot of love interests to choose from, so just choose your fave.) And nukes Gotham.
Batman decides "Fuck it." And basically goes down the path that Supes went down in the original story.
What changes? Does he make more or less progress than S... | 109 | He makes way less progress. Most of those heroes that sided with Superman did so because Superman is the ideal hero and think that if he's doing something it's probably the right thing to do. Batman does not have that kind of goodwill behind him.
Most the heroes that sided with Batman did so because they disagreed wi... | 107 |
[Pulp Fiction] Who was Jimmy, and why was he even marginally okay with Jules showing up at his house with a dead body? | Jimmy seemed like a pretty whitebread, domesticated dude. So why was Jules able to show up at his house with a dead body and have him not completely flip his shit? What kind of history did he have with Jules such that, although he was married to a nurse who would absolutely divorce him if she came home and found gangst... | 188 | I think the implication is that Jimmy at some point in the past had been involved in 'gangster shit' with Jules. He may or may not been working for Mr Wallace previously.
The Wolf sort of implies that Jimmy wasn't familiar with the scene, but the Wolf doesn't know specifically who Jimmy is- only that its his house, an... | 144 |
If we were to magnify to an almost molecular level the edge of a circle, would we reach a point when it is completely straight? | Not sure if the question makes a lot of sense since English is not my first language, however what I am trying to ask is: Is there such an area on a circle which is completely straight? | 343 | You need to decide if you are talking about a physical object or a mathematical object.
The analogy breaks down "at the molecular level". No real object can be a perfect circle. If you zoom in enough you wil get to a point where the edge is niether circular OR straight. It will just be a jagged edge.
A mathematical c... | 141 |
[The Purge]If I was a victim of sexual violence during the purge, can I seek child support from the father nine months later? Is starting a forest fire with a box of matches legal? What about emptying the contents of a chemical plant into the environment,c causing massive environmental damage? | 286 | Fathering a child is not a crime. You would not be able to prosecute the father for rape or sexual assault, but he is still obligated to provide support for his children, regardless of how they were conceived.
The second part of your question shows the true downside of the Purge. All corporations would just wait unt... | 208 | |
Why was the number 299,792,458 chosen as the definiton of a metre instead of a more rounded off number like 300,000,000? | So a metre is defined as the distance light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second, but is there a reason why this particular number is chosen instead of a more "convenient" number?
Edit: Typo | 6,953 | The principle was to keep the definition consistent with previous measurements, within their uncertainty. We already had a definition for the metre, just not as precise as the current definition, and we want the new definition to be as consistent as possible, but just easier to measure precisely. Rounding to 300,000 km... | 6,298 |
[The Matrix] Aren't there better batteries than human bodies? What about whales, or ants, or actual batteries? | 56 | To hell with all the "the script wasn't supposed to be like that" answers. That is irrelevant to how the movie turned out and it is not in the spirit of this sub.
It didn't need to be practical. The machines in the matrix were not malevolent, the humans were the ones risking the destruction of both races just to win t... | 101 | |
What's the academic path in your country? | I'm always intrigued by how different it is in every country. I'll start!
Brazil:
3 year high-school -> 4-6 year bachelor's (engineering and psychology take 5 years and medicine takes 6) -> 2 year MPhil (you must porsue a masters in order to apply for a PhD) -> 4 year PhD
Thanks! | 20 | Canada:
* Undergraduate degree (3-4 years)
* Master's Degree (2 years)—optional in many situations
* PhD (5+ years)
* Optionally (but most likely) followed by a post-doc (1-3 years) before getting a tenure-track position; this is *not* a degree (it's just some time doing research and improving your CV) | 13 |
Why do car wheels look like they're turning in reverse when they're driving forward? | 17 | Our eyes take in sight at a limited speed. When you look at a wheel that is turning, you don't see it at *every* position from 0 to 360 degrees. Instead, you see it's position at certain intervals of time, for example, every twentieth of a second.
But what if the wheel is rotating 20 times a second? Then, every time y... | 17 | |
[Spider-Man] I know that Spidey has his ‘no kill’ rule, but he’s been known to work with the police. Would he go out of his way to stop them from opening fire on a super villain? | 115 | Depends on the context, but not usually. First, most supervillains can tank bullets in some way. Second, Spidey understands that deadly force is something cops are both trained for and legally allowed to use. | 105 | |
CMV: I believe that child beauty pageants are part of freedom of expression and it is morally wrong to ban them. | Note: I am not "pro-pageant," and would certainly never force my child partake in them.
Complaints on reddit about the evils of child beauty pageants are not at all difficult to come by. Every "What is something that is legal but shouldn't" askreddit thread is typically headed by this sentiment.
From what I've see... | 17 | > From what I've seen, beauty pageants take on a "cutesy" vibe, not a sexual one.
I think many people are opposed to the sexualized pageants. Putting on makeup and revealing clothes are a sexualization of children. This is not a pageant of little kids dressed as cartoon characters or woodland creatures (not furries... | 13 |
What causes a computer to slow down over a period of time? | At my workplace we have some computers that are about 6 years old. These computers are only ever used for word processing and browsing the Web. They are also 're-imaged' or have their hard drives effectively wiped every year at around this time. So why is it that when they were new they were lightning fast but now, eve... | 36 | From a purely web viewing perspective, a lot of web sites are pushing more work to the browser. Where in the past a website would contain mostly static HTML, a lot more websites are making use of Javascript.
Javascript allows a browser to change the contents of a webpage after the browser has already rendered it. Fo... | 28 |
[General sci fi] Things like Xenomorphs or Cell are said to be perfect, in a biological sense. What would a structurally/biologically perfect creature actually look/behave/act like, and what sort of traits would it have? | Title. A lot of sci-fi claims to have a "perfect lifeform" in it, but what would a perfect lifeform actually look like? How would it be structured? What biological abilities would it have? How would it act and behave?
I get that "perfect" is subjective, so I'll leave the exact definition up to you, but I think ou get ... | 35 | Perfect isn't really subjective, it's just highly variable based on the function that they need to perform. Every species alive can be said to be "perfect" for their existence in their biological niche. The Woodpecker is perfect for getting grubs out of trees in its habitat with its prey with its predators with its rep... | 49 |
[Sherlock] Who is the most famous fictional detective in history? | 59 | There are lots of them. From Britain and Europe we have Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. In the same vein we also have C. Auguste Dupin, a French detective created by the American Edgar Allan Poe.
Going on with the Americans we also have characters like Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and The Continental... | 47 | |
ELI5: What does it mean when someone says horror is “campy”? | I read it a lot. I don’t get it, though. Does it mean tacky? Far fetched? What constitutes a campy horror film? | 16 | It's exaggerated for the camera and humor, e.g. the Adam West Batman TV series was campy, but the new ones are not, they are serious. Shaun of the Dead, Chucky and Army of Darkness are campy horror movies, it as as much goofiness in it as it does horror, but not It and The Conjuring are not campy. | 19 |
[Star Wars] How could star systems slip through Tarkin's fingers? | How could a star system openly rebel or even moderately help the Rebellion without the Empire finding out and sending a fleet to ravage the planet? The entire planet's population would need to keep a secret, which isn't reasonable. Is the Rebellion strong enough to hold territory against the Empire to protect key syste... | 16 | The Empire's main concentration of power was in the Core Regions and Inner Rim, which is most of the territory controlled by the Republic during the Clone Wars, and was the historical center of power for the galaxy for millennia. Countries in the Mid and Outer Rim were more likely to have sided with the CIS during the ... | 22 |
ELI5: How is it possible that you can order something on ebay for $3 without shipping payments? | How can they ship the item for less than 3 dollars. They dont even make 3 dollars profit so it has to be less than 3 dollars. | 109 | Usually it's coming from China. The Chinese government subsidizes parcels moving out of the country if its for the purpose if ecommerce, which makes international postal rates for Chinese sellers ridiculously low. | 44 |
[Spider-Man 2/Raimiverse] How did J. Jonah Jameson takes the news, that his son’s finance left him for his photographer? | Considering that Peter works for him.
How would it go for Parker after JJJ learns the truth? | 20 | This version of JJJ appears to be rough around the edges but generally principled. So he'd probably find some way to satisfy himself that nothing illegal or immoral happened (for example, there was no cheating or coercion), and then treat Parker pretty much the same as before.
Though he'd probably be miffed that he... | 33 |
[Star Wars] How come Anakin/Vader lost in his duel against Obi Wan Kenobi on Mustafar? | Anakin had a connection with the Force supposedly on a level above anybody else, allegedly fathered by the Force itself. He had fallen to the dark side, fueled by fiery rage, and the duel took place surrounded by lava, hardly the place for Jedi-like dispassionate self-control. The fight was emotional for both participa... | 45 | Kenobi had the high ground!
But seriously, Kenobi shouldn't be underestimated as a Jedi or as a warrior. Are there stronger Force users? Of course. Yoda, Windu, and Palpatine are all more powerful, but Kenobi is still up very high on the "all time greats" list.
Furthermore, Anakin was only starting to realize his Dar... | 80 |
ELI5: Why do so many racing video games look almost photo realistic when games from other genres don't as much? | Games like Forza, Driveclub, and Project CARS look almost indistinguishable from real life, where so many other games aren't as close. Even some amazing looking games like The Witcher 3, The Last of Us, and Ryse have plenty of things that make it obvious that they are video games. | 18 | Machines are easier to render than people or real animals. Nothing is linear about people or animals. There are no straight lines. On top that the pieces of a living thing change as they move. Raise your knee to your chest and observe how that changes the shape of your thigh. | 29 |
Why are professional philosophers dismissive of Slavoj Žižek?—Is there documentation of the former's views on the latter? | Zizek is fun to listen to (lots of videos on YouTube), but at this point I am looking for information that is able to situate his writings within (or possibly against) broader contemporary philosophy. For example, I already know Noam Chomsky is no intellectual ally of Zizek, whereas someone like Cornell West is compara... | 33 | > If some (e.g.) analytic philosophers are dismissive of Zizek, what rationale do they provide?
Generally, no one is going to take the time to write an article on something they find unworthy of their consideration. If a philosopher writes a paper, they are already considering the work or person worthy of their tim... | 19 |
[Popeye the sailor man] can anyone Gain godly super strength from the spinach or is it just Popeye? | I never thought about it before but is he the only one who gets godly strength from the spinach or could anyone get strong from it? And if so why hasn't every person In the world bought that spinach by now? Why is Popeye the only one eating that stuff???? | 450 | It doesn't grant him godly strength. It unlocks it.
He originally gained his super strength by rubbing the head of the Whiffle Hen, which can grant powers. Usually luck, but how luck manifests is what a person needs, and Popeye generally needed strength and durability. Because this was granted so often, it sort of mor... | 335 |
CMV: building a wall will won't stop the influx of immigrants into the United States | You still frequently see Trump supporters chanting the "Build The Wall '' slogan and probably still believe that Mexico is going to pay for it. Hint: They won't.
A physical wall has long been obsolete. People have been finding ways around, under and over walls for centuries. It's a useless waste of tax pay dollars as... | 17 | No one is saying it will completely stop them... just slow them down enough so that our law enforcement can handle the rest.
Physical walls have never been obsolete. If you truly believe that, then why do prisons still have walls? Why did the USSR put a wall dividing Berlin? That wall worked really well. Israel has ef... | 19 |
ELI5: Why does pee foam when it hits the ground outside. | 41 | Foamy urine can be caused by rapid urination. At times, when you delay going to the washroom, large amounts of urine gets collected in the bladder. Also, proteinuria or presence of significant amounts of protein in the urine, is one of the most common cause of foamy urine. | 13 | |
ELI5: is there a unit of Neuro signal to the brain, similar to "gigabit" and "megabit" and rate per second? | 25 | Not really, no. Some very long neurons (like one from the base of the spine to the foot) propagate signals very quickly on the order of 100+ meters per second. But as far as storage capacity, researchers use digital-world units (like petabytes)... which are basically guesstimates. | 16 | |
[Westworld] (Spoilers) What now? | So the hosts are alive, have killed many people, and are likely going to take over the facility and kill more.
So what happens now?
Is there an emergency shutdown?
Is the military called in?
Do they just EMP the area?
Can humanity survive the war with the hosts? | 21 | Fair question. It's a cliffhanger, and it is *highly* unclear how they'll take it from there.
>Can humanity survive the war with the hosts?
The hosts are a handful (thousands, tops) of individuals with limited mastery of modern technology. They are not much more dangerous than a domestic terror group. Humanity can... | 20 |
ELI5:What is stopping me from buying hundreds of Zimbabwe $100,000,000,000,000 bills and just sitting on them until the economy recovers? | 1,685 | If at any point the economy actually recovers without the government collapsing the money will be revalued at significantly below face value.
What this means is that the government will come out and say "One new Zimbabwe Dollar is worth 1,000,000 old Zimbabwe Dollars" and there will be a deadline to turn in old curren... | 1,504 | |
[MCU/Black Panther] How are the traitors regarded in Wakandan society? | The traitors who sided with Killmonger and W'Kabi over T'Challa lost at the end (obviously).
However, now what? Are they social pariahs? Do they have to lie and say, "No, I *totally* sided with the king when he returned, you must have me confused with someone else!"?
Are they distrusted ("They betrayed this country o... | 16 | I would expect some amount of lenience because at the time they thought Killmonger was the rightful king and that they were acting in Wakanda's best interests, however misguided they were. Remember even the Dora Milaje followed Killmonger's orders at first, until they realized T'Challa was still alive and the challenge... | 40 |
Can the ISS orbit the earth in such a way that is always day? (Or night?) | If it so chooses?
For the people onboard that is.
Edit: Thank you guys for such wonderful responses. Summarizing the things I learned today for anyone else who might have a similar question:
1. Constant day is possible - constant night, not so much. More like constant eclipse - but not really night. (Have I got this... | 442 | Yes this would be an orbit with an inclination of slightly over 90 degrees. This is called a sun synchronous orbit. Not only is it a polar orbit in which the sun doesn't set during one orbital period. But due to the equatorial bulge of the earth the orbit also processes around just quick enough for the axis of rotation... | 276 |
ELI5: Video games: What are "particle effects" and "ray tracing"? | I work in the games industry and am embarrassed to ask my co-workers as I feel this is something I should "just know". Please help! | 82 | Ray tracing is working out how light bounces of objects before arriving at the viewer.
This allows you to have more realistic looking environments as irl were not just lit by direct light but what the light bounces off | 70 |
[Power Rangers] I think my teen is in a gang | A few weeks back, monsters attacked the city, and ever since then, crime has been on the rise. Recently, I've noticed my teenaged son walking around with a mysterious wristlet I don't remember buying for him, wearing only a single color, and disappearing at all hours.
Should I be worried? Is he in a gang? Should I ... | 74 | Definitely. The Power Rangers will definitely give him a good talking to.
​
Just be aware, they probably won't ALL be there. One of them is definitely going to be away, probably off fighting monsters by themselves.
​
Try to give your kid as much privacy as possible, you can trust the Power Ran... | 56 |
ELI5: Why American films/tv shows look so different to others... | I can't quite put my finger on it but there is something in the cinematography that is different to the likes of say, a lower budget Australian film... | 135 | It's partially a technical issue, America has always had a different TV system to most of the rest of the world. Traditionally it was 525 lines and 30 frames a second, whereas almost everywhere else was 625/25. Therefore American programmes have always looked a bit odd here in the UK and there's presumably the same is... | 61 |
ELI5 - Why do rooms full of people suddenly seem to get quiet at the same time? | I'm sitting in a courthouse, waiting for election results to be announced. There's probably about 40 people in a medium-sized lobby, and everyone just simultaneously stopped talking for a couple of seconds. There was no stimulus to get people to stop talking. Why does this happen? | 17 | It's either a random coincidence that the natural pause in everyone's conversation happened at the same time, or it's a natural part of social behavior.
Humans are social animals, so we pay attention to those around us. In a courthouse, there are moments when everyone is waiting to go quiet for courtroom protocol. If ... | 19 |
[Star Wars] How does Tatooine support its megafauna? | For a desert planet, these seem to be many large herbivores on Tatooine, and at least two large predators. Rontos and banthas must require a large amount of plant matter to survive. Each banthas could probably eat as much as an Earth Elephant everyday, rontos probably more than a modern giraffe. Womp rats are said to m... | 46 | They evolved on a desert planet with scarce resources is the simplest answer. They are biologically adapted to those conditions. Assuming a bantha would eat as much as an elephant is assuming an awful lot. The creatures could be cold blooded as they would never be short of sunlight and as a result have slow metabolism.... | 54 |
Why does so much philosophy seem so unscientific? | For example, Spinoza and Berkeley's Metaphysics and Epistemology just seem like people making claims and following those claims logically, but without any evidence. The ideas of substance and of God and modes just seem like an arbitrary way of organizing things without any proof. | 117 | Spinoza fucking loved contemporary sciences and heavily advocated for people to study them. The issue is that you're ignoring their historical place. The sciences were totally bound up with the rest of philosophical investigation, which included things like God. Things like "substance" were just ways of discussing thin... | 353 |
ELI5:If we regenerate new skin cells, why/how does our skin wrinkle? | 78 | ELI5: As you age your skin becomes deficient of natural molecules that help your skin look young (collagen, which makes your skin more firm, glycosaminoglycans which provide water to your skin, and elastin which causes your skin to snap back into place). The combination (or rather lack of) of these compounds cause your... | 28 | |
CMV: Going to the movies is a crappy date idea. | I just don't see the appeal of going to the movies for a date. You're not supposed to talk during the movie and it would be rude to others if you did. If you or your date gets bored of the movie its rude to the other person to ask to do something else so you're stuck there. You're not even looking at your date. The cla... | 35 | Movie dates are great for younger or less experienced daters who might not have the courage or self confidence necessary to make it through an hour long dinner and 2-3 hour long (insert other social date activity here) without embarrassing themselves or dying from the pressure. It also facilitates an environment where ... | 70 |
ELI5: How is "mains" electricity a circuit? | I grew up on a farm in rural Australia and we had a single wire via power poles from property to property. In science class it was demonstrated that for electricity to 'flow' it has to be a circuit starting at the source, going to thing to be powered and then back to the source.
The mains electricity on the farm came ... | 29 | So what you have had is what is called a swer line (single wire earth return)
The generated electricity is pushed down the path of the wire and once used through your device the loop is formed by electricity passing through the earth back to its point of generation /substation | 35 |
[Castlevania] Simon here. Can I wait until daylight to storm Dracula's castle? It seems like that would make my job a lot easier. | 73 | It won't bare much difference. It's a creature of chaos, same as any other demon inside the castle.
You could be going in at around midday and it'd still be pitch black inside. You could be around the castle about a mile away at midday and it'd be pitch black outside. | 59 | |
ELI5 . How can the potassium in bananas not kill us as it’s one of most reactive elements in the periodic table? | 39 | Pure Potassium being reactive means that it wants to violently bond with some other element. That's what makes it dangerous, but the potassium in bananas is in a molecule meaning that it's already reacted with something. That's what makes it safe.
This is the same reason that the chlorine in tablet salt doesn't kill y... | 88 | |
ELI5: When you open someone's eyes while they're sleeping, why don't they see you and immediately wake up? | I used to do this to my dad while he was sleeping on the sofa when I was a little kid. His eyes would just kind of blankly look at me with this weird, cloudy, empty look. Why didn't he wake up?
I was a creepy kid... | 2,525 | The eye doesn't do the seeing. The eye is just the thing that takes in light, bounces it off the optic nerve, and sends that message to the brain. The brain is what does the seeing. It takes in the electrical impulse and translates that into what you understand as a visual image. Unless it is asleep. Then it isn't taki... | 2,784 |
ELI5: Why do people from the US never consider voting for a party other than the Democrats or Republicans? | I hear comments from people that lead me to believe that their choice of party essentially boils down to picking the lesser of two evils and I cannot understand why they wouldn't simply support a party who actually represents their views.
I understand that those parties are very large and powerful but that doesn't me... | 15 | Do you know how single member district plurality voting systems work? It's the voting system used for national elections in the United States. People vote for a single person in each voting district, and votes are tallied at the district level, with the person with more votes than any other winning the election in eac... | 15 |
If we can replicate the natural process for making diamonds, why can't we make petroleum? | 64 | If you’re asking about man made fuels and oil, we can. It’s very expensive though. That’s why synthetic oil for your car is more pricey. Synthetic gasoline is so cost prohibitive right now that oil prices would have to be around $150-$200 a barrel for that it to be worth producing. Mother Nature did us a huge favor in ... | 81 | |
ELI5:How do things grow on you mentally? Why can you start to like something over time that you initially hated or disliked? | For example: I got a half finished cross-stitch kit from my MIL that was produced in 1982. I HATED the colors as of last Sunday - all dusty roses, grey-blues and browns. As I worked on it yesterday I realized I now think the colors are nice and look good together. What happened?? | 134 | It could be that you're avoiding cognitive dissonance - if you're going to work on it, it doesn't make sense not to like it.
It could also have to do with an inherent human dislike or mistrust of new things if they don't fit any existing categories or "schema" that we have. It's like a kind of "stranger danger" react... | 32 |
Eli5: Why is tomato-sauce so good at coloring plastic red in your dishwasher, unlike raspberries or strawberries for example? | We like tomato sauce, but one must be careful with what to put into the dishwasher, to not have plastic bowls, storage boxes or other things dyed red...Why is tomato sauce this potent in coloring plastic. It's like it's in the fabric of the plastic itself after it comes out of the dishwasher...why not the same effect w... | 14,042 | The colour in tomatoes that makes them red, and it is very concentrated in tomato sauce, is lycopene.
Lycopene loves plastic, it sticks to it and doesn’t want to let go. Similar to the yellow pigment in Tumeric (that spice in curry that turns everything a funny yellow colour). When a pigment sticks to a surface that ... | 6,902 |
ELI5: why can't I put my medicine (pill) in my drink and drink it when it's dissolved? | offspring asked, I answered some bullshit reason. his father said I was wrong, which caused the offspring to argue it as well. it is ww3. please help. | 36 | Some pills are designed to be absorbed slowly or in parts in your stomach or even your intestines and they have a 'cover' around them so that happens.
By disolving them in a glass and drinking them, you are messing up the rate and the place of absortion and can have different effects than the planned ones. | 29 |
ELI5:How can a company sell what they say are $50 coins for $9.95 + $5 shipping? | 78 | There are no $50 coins in legal currency. What you are buying are "commemorative decorative currency" which isn't actually legal tender and is made by a company that is named like some official mint but actually isn't. In short it is a borderline scam for foolish people. | 108 | |
Publishing as an unemployed/independent/between-jobs scientist | Hi all, title says it all - I'm between jobs and have been keeping myself busy by brushing up on my data science skills and analyzing data that is freely accessible. I found an interesting pattern that I believe is scientifically relevant and should be published, but as I am unaffiliated with any university/company at ... | 30 | The comments on this thread are strange.
OP there is no reason at all why you cant submit your work to a journal/conference, you dont need to have any university affiliation or email address.
If youve never dont academic research before then its possible that you will struggle to write up your findings in the "corre... | 34 |
ELI5 the difference between 32 and 64 bit. | 18 | It's how big of math the computer can "do in its head" without having to "write things down" into RAM.
You know how to multiply 3 × 3 in your head. Maybe you can even multiply 101 × 101. But you probably can't multiply 456789 × 789456 without writing something down, just because it's too much to hold in your head at o... | 46 | |
ELI5 Why didn't things like polio and smallpox mutate as much or as dangerously? | 27 | Different types of viruses mutates at different rates. Viruses like Rhinovirus and Coronavirus is known to mutate very fast which helps them avoid the immune system. But the changes means they only last for a short while, maybe just two years, before being out-competed by a new variant of themselves. However viruses su... | 34 | |
ELI5: Why does the battery in my phone that I've had for 2 years not hold a charge as well as it did when I first got it? | 21 | Batteries degrade over time. The interior parts of the battery are subject to fairly intense chemical reactions...you drive it one way when you charge, and the other way when you use the device. The chemicals and parts in the battery are not perfect, and eventually impurities cause a tiny failure. This begins to incr... | 22 | |
If this was 1636, would The Fed step in to buy tulips? | Does “Price stability” still apply? Some jobs were probably lost too yeah? | 126 | The purpose of central banks isn't to maintain asset or commodity prices, it's to ensure that the economy in general, and currency in particular, is in a state that we want it to be in. For example, when the fed buys bonds, the purpose isn't to make bonds more expensive, it's to lower interest rates to stimulate inflat... | 60 |
ELI5: Why do cats feel the need to sit or nestle into things like boxes, bags or small enclosed spaces? | I've always wondered why they feel the NEED to sit in or under things. Halp? | 19 | For much the same reason a child will use blankets to cover themselves up even if the temperature doesn't call for it, it grants a feeling of safety and concealment. Cats are also stalking and ambush predators so any place they can hide is probably instinctivly a 'good' place.
| 16 |
[Star Trek] Why do Starfleet crews not exhibit surprise or disbelief when extremely unlikely events occur? | Things like that would trouble most people.
Examples:
* Iconian virus that infects computer systems of ships that weren't invented for thousands of years after the virus was made?
* Anything involving Q
* Pitcher plant being able to telepathically manipulate human minds which it has never encountered before.
* O... | 18 | 1. All of Starfleet's members are professionals, many have been traveling the galaxy for years. So there's an "seen some shit" factor.
2. Q is, well... Q. Stuff like that is to be expected around him.
3. Space is big. Like, really big. Why should anything you can or cannot imagine *not* exist somewhere? | 27 |
[Harry Potter] What kind of jobs are perfect for graduated Hufflepuffs? | 16 | Hufflepuffs are hard workers and they're everyone's best friend, so anything interpersonal would be awesome - education, media, diplomacy, medicine come to mind.
While Slytherins and Gryffindors may be the more natural or ambitious leaders who are more likely to ascend to high-level posts, Hufflepuffs would probably... | 17 | |
How does super massive black holes like Sagittarius A* come to form? Does every galaxy have such a black hole at its center? Why don’t they pull each other in instead of rushing away from each other? | 40 | > Why don’t they pull each other in instead of rushing away from each other?
Our supermassive black hole has less than 0.01% of the mass of the Milky Way. It's very important in the center but negligible for the overall gravitational attraction between galaxies. | 34 | |
[Marvel] How is New York able to rebuild so quickly after the constant super villain attacks? | New York is constantly getting wrecked by super villains, giant monsters, invading aliens, etc. And yet, after the story arch is over, they're able to quickly rebuild and get the city back to normal.
How is this possible? The city is a battle ground. Why isn't it in rubble after so many attacks? How is it that w... | 38 | This is covered in the Netflix run of Daredevil. New York was flooded with federal disaster relief funds, federal loans, and donations from private parties after the Chtauri invasion. Stark Enterprises also helped rebuild things. Apparently having a supervillain wreck your town evokes a lot of charitable sympathy from ... | 50 |
What makes things sticky? | I'm guessing it's an electromagnetic interaction, but what's going on? What's different between paper and tape? | 41 | It's not a simple question, but really it comes down to intermolecular forces: van der Waals, dipole, hydrogen bonding, etc. It depends a lot on the molecules involved, both composition, position of end groups, size, sterics, etc.
E.g. polymers sort of layer on each other like a pile of spaghetti. There is a lot of ... | 11 |
CMV: Management and upper management should focus on educating entry-level employees in to more advanced business practices to encourage critical thinking and improve productivity. | I always thought that entry-level employees should be encouraged to learn more about internal company processes to increase agency and bridge the gap between leadership and subordinates in the workplace.
The lack of business-oriented education on entry level employees is in my point of view a barrier to entry to mana... | 55 | Any reasonably competent manager will do exactly as you are suggesting they should — but most employees have no desire to improve in these ways that are actually beneficial, so it will largely appear to any outside viewer that “management doesn’t put in the effort.”
The employees that do want to move up and put in the... | 14 |
[Warhammer 40K] Do orks really even hate their enemies? | Their only source of pleasure is to do battle. Would that not mean that they are the least hateful race in the galaxy?
While we are on it, what is their emotional spectrum like beyond WAAAAGGGG? | 21 | Essentially, no.
Orks can certainly be cruel, and they are capable of hating things (peace, boredom, a rival Ork/tribe), but due to the way they love a good fight it's hard for them to hate any race that gives that to them. | 28 |
ELI5: What can Obama do before he leaves the presidency? | I mean, what can he do (within his power) before leaving and have that decision to stick even with incoming President, Senate, House or Supreme Court?
What are his extend of powers? | 77 | Nothing beyond his current Article 2 authorities. And that's the point. Imagine 4 or 8 years from now... would you want the outgoing president to have unlimited, autocratic power? Peaceful transitions of power are essential to our nation. Those unhappy with the result of the election get another chance to vote for a pr... | 66 |
ELI5: What exactly does Narcan do in the body to stop an overdose? | 79 | In the simplest terms: think of Narcan and an opioid as magnets vying for the same space on a magnetic surface. During its potency Narcan has a stronger pull to the receptors than the opiate and pushes it out of the way so that the Narcan can sit in that “magnetic spot”. However it only lasts for a little while which i... | 116 | |
[Lord of the Rings] In say, Rivendell, what kinds of food/drink do the elves eat? Do they believe in hunting and eating meat? | 42 | From the Hobbit, when they meet the "Elvish looking folk": "The smell of the roast meats was so enchanting that, without waiting to consult one another, every one of them got up and scrambled forwards into the ring with the one idea of begging for some food."
So the wood elves definitely ate meat.
| 39 | |
How much voltage deviation is acceptable? | Like if you have an USB Stick, which needs 5V, but your System only provides 4.8V. Why does it still work?
Similarly, when is a battery 'empty' or 'loaded'? If you try to measure battery voltage, you get a result, but how do you find out, if the voltage is sufficient to operate the system? | 15 | Well, you can never get a voltage to be *exactly* 5V, because there will always be some noise and measurement error. So as a matter of good engineering practice, we try to design circuits so that their behavior is stable even if the supply voltage varies slightly. Of course, this has to be balanced against all of the o... | 15 |
Do thin people have more sensation on their skin because their nerves aren't as spread out? | 651 | To a certain extent yes, the nerve endings can be closer together and have more response but it's largely overruled by other things I.e personal threshold for pain, the circumstances of whatever stimulus, medications... Its a factor yes, but not one of particular influence.
Edit: Closer together, not closer to the... | 103 | |
ELI5:Why do we never have any mist in the eyes during a sudden temperature change? | Excuse me for my english, this is not my first language. | 15 | Are you asking why eyes don't fog up like glasses do when you go from cold to warm and humid?
That's because our eyes are already warmed by our body so they aren't really at condensing temperatures, also there are wet so any condensation that formed would just become part of the film of water that covers our eyes any... | 12 |
[SW] You're a middling Jedi knight who just landed on Coruscant after a two-year service in the front lines of the Clone Wars. | After spending some time in the capital, you begin to sense some strange things. The Chancellor in particular gives an unsettling feeling, like something's not quite right with him, in a way that could suggest a Force interference of some sort. Not only that, but that Anakin guy he hangs out with looks a little too... ... | 118 | This likely means you're exceptionally powerful in the Force, because Palpatine's dark side Force shroud was enough to hinder even the likes of Yoda and Mace Windu, without anyone the wiser. Similarly, most people didn't sense Anakin's gradual transition to darkness, not even Obi-Wan Kenobi (though Kenobi's blindness ... | 176 |
ELI5: How does the meat industry worsen climate change? | I know I sound like an utter idiot to most of you guys right about now, but I have no idea what the correlation is between meat and climate change. I read people on here typing "Don't eat meat" when talking about how to slow climate change, and It confuses me. When I googled it, I honestly got the impression that "Meat... | 24 | A cattle farm produces as much waste as a small city. Meat production is highly inefficient; they have to grow grain to feed to the cattle, and the animals produce waste and gaseous emissions. It takes 3 times as much crops to feed the animals we eat than if we just ate the plants we grow. Animal farms use a third o... | 20 |
CMV: Military fitness standards shouldn't account for gender or age. | here are the fitness standards in question, which I found on wikipedia
http://i.imgur.com/zKxXBDd.png
the reason for the modified standards is the strength and endurance difference associated with gender and age. that doesn't make sense to me because in practice a certain task will not magically be easier for someone... | 513 | If you raise the fitness standard for everyone to be as fit as an 18 year old, then you are drastically cutting the pool of potential recruits.
You also ignore the potential non-physical benefits that come with age, like experience and leadership. | 122 |
[ASOIAF] What are the Westerosi laws and customs regarding homosexuality? | It doesn't seem to be forbidden exactly, because everyone seems to know that Renly and Loras are gay yet Stannis never used that to argue against Renly becoming king.
On the other hand, people are hesitant to talk about how Whoresbane Umber got his nickname, because the whore in question was a man. This suggests it is... | 44 | Consistent with a lot of historical Western culture, from Alexander the Great to (maybe) James Buchanan: it's considered a perversion, but people tend to look the other way if the homosexual in question is a person of power. | 62 |
ELI5: Why are TV car commercials so formulaic? | A list of features, some feel good background narrative, some prices at the end. Almost as formulaic as drug commercials, presumably without the same regulatory restrictions. | 50 | Many car commercials are actually only local broadcast. Local dealers run commercials using stock car footage supplied by the manufacturer's marketing dept and plug in the VO and titles... they have no budget for anything more complex.
National campaigns are less formulaic. The Lincoln commercials with Mconaghey are... | 18 |
CMV: The Democratic Party Establishment Does Not Respect Poor or Young People | For starters, let's define the Democratic Party "Establishment" as:
1) Current and recent prominent party leaders (Clinton's, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, etc.)
2) Major Democratic donors and think tanks like 3rd Way.
3) Media institutions whose coverage is rarely, if ever, critical of special interest influence in Democ... | 34 | " reveal a distinct preference among poor and young voters for anti-..."
preference does not mean all of them. that means there are poor people who prefer Buttigieg and Biden.
the establishment can have their own preferences.
there are democrats who are not poor. they matter just as much as those that are poor. i... | 15 |
Eli5: I once heard that the relative size of spiders is related to the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, is this true, and why? | 353 | Yes, generally speaking. Spiders (arachnids) and insects don't have lungs like you and I. The way spiders and insects breathe are slightly different, but in both cases they are limited by how much oxygen in the air is available.
For insects, they get oxygen through tiny holes in their bodies that are connected to a ne... | 344 | |
ELI5: Are rolling blackouts absolutely necessary, or are they a way for the electric companies to save money during trying times? Why are some residences affected but others aren't? | 55 | Rolling blackouts become necessary when there is far more demand than supply of electric power.
In developed countries with stable and reliable grids they are rare, but in places where the infrastructure is not really fit for purpose you may end up in situations where there is more demand for electricity than you can ... | 121 | |
ELI5: Why are we not literally shitting the bed often? | Since being married I've learned that we all fart in our sleep. My wife does it, but she claims I do it a lot.
At the same time, I'm sure we've all trusted a fart we shouldn't have in our lives. So how is it our unconscious self has better control over our bodies than our conscious self?
At first I thought the answer... | 33 | Essentially you kind of do. When you fart, tiny bits will fly out. However, it's easier for gas to accelerate quickly out of the opening in the sphincter than large solids that are easily seen. If you blow on a paper wad or something, you'll see how much air you have to blow to propel a solid forward. It really do... | 39 |
ELI5: When you lose sleep you feel your body being heavy. What happens inside your body when you don't sleep enough ? | 25 | We really don't know much about sleep. Scientists really don't understand the mechanisms by which it works, why it's important, or even its real purpose - which is crazy considering how important it is to our health.
We know some of the side effects of lacking sleep - your brain cells have a hard time communicating w... | 15 | |
ELI5: Why do we need to stretch our muscles? In the wild we wouldn’t have time to stretch before running from danger so shouldn’t our bodies be ready to move optimally whenever needed? | 36 | We don't and static stretching is highly discouraged.
What we do need to do is "warm up" the muscles. This entails some minor activity to increase blood flow to the area. This helps protect the muscles when in use.
If you stretch a "cold" muscle you're more likely to cause tears and further injury. | 46 | |
[WH40K] What if every Chaos God became "good" | Just like instead of being the pure face of sin they became the pure face of love and joy? | 99 | The Chaos gods are a corrupting influence. Sure there are would be cultists who go in with deranged murderfucking as their goal from the get go but often the Chaos gods attract the unwary, the bereft, the shorn.
So what if instead of primordial annihilators they were benevolent? Instead of corrupting the weak and impu... | 145 |
ELI5: how do outside temperature readings in cars not be impacted by windchill, engine heat, or being baked by the sun? | I know it’s not linked to a satellite or radio reading as it reads the temperature from the garage and it changes fast once the car is outside. | 19 | First, wind actually makes a thermometer more accurate. Windchill is something warm people feel because they want to be warm, and the wind makes the skin closer to air temperature, so we say wind chill because it makes our skin colder. But really wind makes things get closer to air temperature, and get to that temperat... | 36 |
ELI5. How can car dealerships be selling 2016 models already when it's only May of 2015? | 16 | The "model year" of a car is mostly a marketing thing, and not an actual description of when the car was made. A "20XX model" car is generally used to mean "the model that will be on sale for the majority of the year 20XX." In the US, there is only one regulation surrounding which year number they can use:
>In th... | 11 | |
If dark matter generates a gravitational field, and dark matter can 'clump' like ordinary matter, can dark matter collapse under its own weight like regular matter to make a dark-black hole? | Sorry if the question is poorly formed. I was just recalling something about dark matter; something about a 6:1 relationship to regular matter, and was wondering whether dark matter amasses like regular matter does; capable of making 'dark-planets', 'dark-stars' or even 'dark-black holes', if such a thing is even intel... | 20 | > dark matter can 'clump' like ordinary matter
No, it cannot.
Regular matter - there's gravitational attraction, and then there's friction (collisions) between particles. Gravity pulls everything together, and then friction slows particles down (relative speed decreases) so that they can "clump" together. This is ... | 13 |
[40k] I have just woken up on a hive world transported from my comfy life here in our time to the 40th millennia. i am not in the underhive but somewhere in the middle. How long do i have left to live ? | 24 | It depends. If you survive past the first few hours you'll probably live a few decades.
You'll be undocumented, have a peculiar accent, and not know the first thing about how to survive in the hive world, but many of the lower classes in Hive worlds suffer from similar handicaps and they get along just fine. You wil... | 47 | |
[DC] Why doesn’t Powergirl wear the House of El “S” symbol anywhere on her? | 27 | At one point she mentioned that she wanted to create her own symbol to put on her costume, but could never come up with anything, so she just left the hole there.
She fully admits she knows people think she's being lewd but she can't think of anything. The hole is both literal and a symbolism of the emptiness she feel... | 53 | |
CMV: Astrology is fake | Astrology and horoscopes makes no sense. It is statistically innacurate to describe people’s traits based on their birth date and time. Theres no valid science behind it. It makes absolutely no sense to read daily horoscopes in newspapers. There is no rational way to explain how 1/12 of the population will inexplicably... | 32 | This is like fortune telling, ofc its fake, but its fun... No reason to get upset.
However, assigning traits to birth months can have some merit.
Think of it this way, when kids enter a social construct, lets say school, each class will have all the kids that were born in the same calendar year.
So a kid born in Jan... | 15 |
CMV: Sex is about having fun and pleasure. | This is the only view I've ever been exposed to since I learned about sex through porn. Im interested in hearing arguments for the "sex is about romance and intimacy" side. I honestly want to think like that, I don't want sex to just be meaningless in my mind.
I think of sex as something done for pure pleasure and fun... | 15 | Well, to have sex you have to expose yourself to somebody else. All the flaws you may cover up normally, ever bit of you that may not "measure up" to perfection gets shown. That alone seems pretty intimate to me. It is important you can trust the other person (not NECESSARY for a long term relationship if that is no... | 14 |
What is the theoretical limit to lossless data compression? | Binary (digital) information is represented as 1s and 0s. Obviously with only two potential states, you can't store the information of an entire photograph.
Assuming unlimited processing power, what's the smallest possible compression ratio for any type of lossless compression? | 16 | Lossless compression makes use of known patterns in the data to reduce the number of symbols required to describe the data. All lossless compression schemes either *do nothing* or *expand* most of their possible inputs. It's easy to see why: with *n* symbols, each of which can take any of *b* values, you can represent... | 22 |
Is the Sun Radioactive? | 103 | The fusion in the sun produces a lot of radioactivity: positrons, gamma rays, neutrinos. The neutrinos leave quickly but the positrons and photons interact quickly with the surroundings in the solar interior. Because of its heat the sun emits a lot of thermal radiation, some of which is in the x-ray/gamma-ray end of th... | 63 | |
How would the water cycle be affected if we were to switch to hydrogen as a fuel for the majority of cars? | Would there be a net change in the amount of water on the planet? What would be the ramifications long term (100 years, or more into the future)? | 2,004 | It depends on the source of the hydrogen. If hydrogen is obtained through electrolysis of water then the net change would be zero. However electrolysis of water is a relatively expensive way of obtaining hydrogen.
Currently the most common way of obtaining hydrogen is through refining natural gas (natural gas reformi... | 1,049 |
Fellowship says "annual salary of X, including fringe and indirect" -- what is fringe and indirect? | What the title says.
I was awarded a postdoc fellowship that says the above. What does it mean by fringe and indirect?
I'm new to the world of fellowships.
Edit: Ok, I found that in a different place they mention it as:
>cover an annual postdoc salary of $XYZ, plus fringe and indirect costs (capped at 35%)
So I... | 70 | Fringe is insurance and other non-salary benefits that you receive. Indirects are charges the university adds to grants to cover its costs of administering grants and supporting research. The agency is saying that it will cover your salary plus up to 35% for these other things. Fringe and indirects are typically much h... | 48 |
How can one explain the wrongness of sensory deprivation as a form of punishment? | I recently came across a thread in /r/relationship_advice where a teenager who uses a hearing aid was complaining that his mother takes away his hearing aid as punishment. All the commenters were quick to call it abuse, but gave little justification beyond "would you take away a blind man's service dog?".
From an app... | 100 | Punishment for punishment's sake is cruel and pointless. It mostly just creates depression and fear. The kid won't take anything from this experience other than resentment for that parent for abusing them.
It's also teaching the kid that it's acceptable to deprive others of their possessions if they do something you d... | 53 |
Why are so many people in America wary of the UN?? | It seems lately that a lot of people in America have called the UN a threat to sovereignty. Why this sudden uptick in paranoia? | 87 | As you've seen in the other responses, lots of people in America believe completely untrue things about the UN. They think that the UN is some kind of world government, or that we've put our laws into its hands, or that it's in charge of world security. It'd be perfectly reasonable to be scared of the UN, if it *actual... | 48 |
ELI5: Why does an extreme lack of sleep seem to temporarily change an individuals mannerisms and personality? | For example, if I go a very extended length of time without sleeping and I'm at a point where I don't feel tired at all, I've noticed I tend to get a bit "goofy" with how I act. I've also noticed that I have less of a filter and will verbally respond to things much differently than I would otherwise.
 
Ver... | 7,482 | Mood and sleep are linked. When you are overly tired, you lose some abilities to regulate your emotions, so you feel more emotional extremes than usual.
At the same time, sleep deprivation causes the same kind of impairment as alcohol intoxication. So you subjective understanding of what you are experiencing isn't nec... | 2,517 |
[Iron Giant] What is the world like after the movie ends? | A talking 100 ft. tall metal robot from space got blown up by a nuclear missile. News had to travel fast.
What is the world view on this? How does it affect national and economic relations? | 120 | Obviously, the military had time to examine and analyze that piece they found. Using rudimentary techniques, they eventually extrapolate the rough designs of the machine and begin construction. In this universe, it's more than likely the transistor isn't invented. Computers remain large and bulky. Nuclear energy is uti... | 183 |
ELI5: Why is the US college tuition so high? | And where is the money going? Are all colleges private? | 69 | Price discrimination. Those who can afford to pay, do so. Those who can't are given various amounts of financial aid to lower the price to a more reasonable amount.
At least it works like that ideally. In actuality many people have to take out loans, although by going to state schools you can limit those loans to well... | 22 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.