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[ghosts] can ghosts levitate things or can they just pick things up when we can't see them so it looks like they're levitating? | 16 | I would think it's actually a bit of both. The concept of a body that can move and move things is actually just the ghost projecting what they think they should look like into reality. They are of course a formless conciousness given form by their own expectations on how they should look.
Since ghosts are basically a... | 15 | |
[Harry Potter] What happens if a wizard and a muggle get divorced? | How is it handled logistically? Does the muggle get their memories altered to forget Wizards exist? Or are they closely monitored by the ministry? What if kids are involved? | 19 | If someone came up to you right now and said that their recently divorced partner was a wizard from a centuries old secret community hidden across the world who trained in a magic castle to cast spells and brew potions and who travelled via broomstick, teleporting fireplace and magic toilet and who has encountered drag... | 21 |
ELI5:Why is alcohol so fundamentally ingrained in our culture, especially when it comes to socializing? And why it over other equally dangerous drugs? | 33 | Alcohol was historically important in Western culture as a way to preserve fruit and grain as well as provide a liquid that was safer to drink because of alcohol's effect on bacteria. You'll notice it is less ingrained in Asian cultures where water was rendered safe by boiling to make tea. | 28 | |
[Alien] Does the xenomorph die when it cuts the power? | There a lots of instances of the aliens cutting the power; how does that work? Do the bite/slash the cables? Melt them with acid spit? Do they destroy the generators? Are they are risk for electrocution? Is it a calculated decision; would a lone xenomorph take the risk in injuring itself by cutting the power? | 16 | I do believe that usually it is a group of drones that disconnect the power, usually by killing one of the drones and using it's acidic blood to melt the cables. This has been documented several times, a group of drones stuck in a locked room will escape by killing one of the group and using it's blood to eat a hole in... | 12 |
[DBZ] If someone during the DBZ saga actually had the chance to wish for immortality or ultimate power how would that have affected the tournament of power? Would they let him/it compete? | Lets say frieza or Vegeta actually did get all the DBs and wished for immortality would they be eligible to compete? | 55 | Sure. In a timed battle where killing is an automatic disqualifier and you can just be thrown out of bounds, immortality by itself isn't a major asset. At best, the regeneration would help your stamina so that you could keep fighting hard longer, sort of like how the androids had infinite energy. | 56 |
CMV: There is no cultural appropriation. | My main problem is this, when does it stop? When is it ok to take things from other cultures and when is it not?
The compass and printing press were all Chinese inventions, as was paper money. The zero was invented by Muslims. Pants were originally worn by Germanic invaders of Rome. Haikus are Japanese.
So when doe... | 169 | Cultural Appropriation is not the free exchange of cultures. There's no problem with that, it is natural that human groups would exchange ideas and elements of their cultures willingly.
The problem is when a majority culture co-opts a minority culture without A) any due respect (see: Native American Headdresses being ... | 73 |
[Harry Potter] How many Wizards know of the true extent of Muggle technological progress? | Do they know about Fighter Jets, Nuclear weapons, space travel?
And how would the majority of wizards react to knowledge of these inventions? | 309 | This is one of the reasons the harry potter world is hard to take seriously. There's just no justification for the strange apparent lack of knowledge about normal society. In fact, if that was the case it would read almost more like a dystopia. People with understandings and probably ethics indicative of the middle age... | 298 |
(How) Can morals exist without religion? | I've recently left Christianity, and this is the main question I'm grappling with.
Take what are, at least in my opinion, the two basic "moral" standards most people hold: the golden rule and justice/fairness. From a religious perspective, actions in line with these principles are objectively good because they please ... | 145 | Most philosophers believe that even if God exists, morality would not depend on God, because either morality is just what god wants, in which case it is arbitrary and so there is no reason to follow it, or God knows moral truth/the correct moral standard, so it exists external to him and we could presumably find it. T... | 155 |
[Chosen Ones] Private McNobody accidentally touched an ancient Mcguffin of power, and now it only works for him. What do we do with him? | The exact details aren't quite in yet; there was apparently a giant incident at the location of the claiming, and accurate reports are still trying to be pieced together. Whether it was a gun, a sword, a robot, or some fancy android, we aren't sure. What is clear however, is that said item got them out of an otherwise ... | 20 | Were orders disobeyed? A field-expedient execution might be necessary to separate Pvt. McNobody from the Mcguffin.
Was the operation a success, or was he an unlikely sole survivor? *Corporal* McNobody has a slightly higher pay grade, and may sound better on the PR / PsyOps side.
If there item is entirely bo... | 18 |
[Marvel/DC] How would people's feelings about heroes and vigilantism break down along party lines? | Recognising that the actual politics of the DC and Marvel comics universes are pretty well hidden from partisan identification, supposing Spiderman were real and were a controversial figure in the media, or supposing Batman existed in the same universe. Would it be the Republicans or the Democrats who are on the suppor... | 15 | Well, in the context of the Marvel universe anti-superhuman activists like J. Jonah Jameson, Thunderbolt Ross, and William Stryker are almost always conservatives. Within the context of political policy, the Republican Party seems to push more for government regulation over superhumans, but many of these regulatory eff... | 16 |
[DC] Let's assume I'm some sort of God-tier being with potentially limitlessness power, does Batman accept my offer of resurrecting his parents if he quits being Batman. | Stipulations: Thomas and Martha Wayne will be brought back from the dead as they were the morning the day of their shooting to live out the rest of their lives (no bamboosles), if, Bruce agrees to step down in his vigilante role; he can either discontinue the Batman role or give the title to someone else, but can have ... | 26 | Can he still try and do good as Bruce Wayne though, as well as help out the Bat-Family in the background, or does he have to cut ties off completely?
If he had to basically completely abandon Gotham and the Bat-Family, he'd probably say no.
If he could still do social crusader stuff as Bruce Wayne, and act as a guid... | 28 |
[Fallout - New Vegas] What's Benny's last name? | 17 | Since he was part of a raider/tribal gang before becoming part of the Chairmen, it's doubtful he has one. If anything, he might identify with his roots, and might consider himself a "Boot Rider". Or perhaps he takes more of an interest in old world American history, and calls himself "Benny Siegel", since that's the ma... | 18 | |
In what way does a body accept a new donated organ? Is it related to blood type? What causes it to be rejected? | 121 | It is not related to blood type. Every human cell expresses a type of proteins called major histocompatability proteins (MHC proteins) that serve as a marker for "self cells". The sequence and "shape" of these proteins varies greatly between people. Your white blood cells will destroy any cells or tissues expressing MH... | 33 | |
[W40K] Are Jesus Christ and The Emperor the same being? | 36 | The Emperor never hogged the spotlight prematurely. He wasn't Jesus. He was the teacher who whispered in Jesus' ear as a child. He was the voice that spoke to John the Baptist in the wilderness. He raised a cheer when the moneylenders were expelled from the Temple, and he howled for blood when Jesus and his fellow rebe... | 82 | |
Men and Abortion Rights | So, for my Sex and Love class we were given the exam questions to study. One of them is if men should have any rights in regards to abortion.
Such as cases where mother wants to abort, father doesn't.
I want to say in a theoretical world yes.
If greater utility is brought by keeping the child than aborting it is,... | 17 | >But obviously this can't work in real life.
You should reexamine your argument if your moral conclusions only make sense when starting with a "theoretical world" instead of the real one. It seems like you're starting with assumptions that abstract away from relevant moral considerations like a person's bodily aut... | 24 |
ELI5: How do 2-party governments work? Surely one party would always have a majority in the goverment, and therefore win every vote. | 25 | Not necessarily, especially in countries like the US. Here in the US, the elections of our executive branch are separate from the elections of our Representatives, which are again separate from the elections of our Senators.
What this means is that you can have a Democratic President, and a Republican controlled House... | 22 | |
[General] If someone is strong enough to wield an oversized sword, do they really need a weapon? | I recall watching a youtuber named Skallagrim who talks about weapons. I think in a video where he talked about Dark Souls or Berserk he said that if you're strong enough to properly use a sword like Dragonslayer you're better off ditching it and just tearing through enemies with your bare hands. Is this true? If so, w... | 22 | More reach, for one. Your hands can only reach as far as the ends of your arms, a giant sword can reach quite a bit farther than that. It's very useful to be able to hit people before they can hit you.
Also, giant swords are generally made of tougher material than hands are. Your sword isn't going to bet bruised or bl... | 45 |
[Star Wars] Instead of cloning a bounty hunter, why not clone a Jedi? | If instead of cloning Jango Fett, why not clone a Jedi? Would it not be more beneficial to have an army of Jedi vs an army of bounty hunters? Although Jango is a skilled combatant, I would have to imagine a one million Jedi army would be unstoppable. | 31 | Legends have it that cloning a Jedi is a pretty bad idea and generally doesn't work out too well.
But we don't have to look to legends to get an answer. The thing that makes a Jedi special is Force abilities, but Force ability isn't a genetic trait. Force ability runs weirdly strong in the Skywalker family, but ev... | 51 |
[Harry Potter] How to shift Hogwarts' balance of power? | 3rd year Ravenclaw here. I can't help but notice some serious favoritism among the houses. It feels like all of the popular and powerful wizards are sorted into Gryffindor and Slytherin, like the Potters and the Weasleys, and even the goddamn Malfoys! I'm not saying this is absolute, I mean Hufflepuff had the a competi... | 44 | The Houses don't really mean anything. It's not like winning the House Cup gets you extra hall passes or better grades. Ravenclaws figured that out a long time ago, and Hufflepuffs are loyal enough to not question it.
It's just pridefully ambitious Slytherins and chest-puffing Grffindors who really give a damn about i... | 30 |
CMV: An armed populace has real benefits and this should not be ignored when debating gun control. | So, this post is inspired by something I’ve noticed about American political discourse around gun control, which is that it mainly focuses on two questions: "Will gun control lead to a safer society?" and "Even if it would, do people have an inherent right to own guns?". I won’t focus on either of these, but I’m not he... | 584 | insurgencies can go the opposite direction.
Hitler had an armed militia surround the legislature for the passing of the enabling act. This was after that same militia had violently targeted Hitler's political opposition.
Mussolini had his black shirts (edited: thanks u/5xum for the correction).
People with guns can... | 608 |
ELI5: How do big companies assess whether their TV ads were useful or not? | 5,421 | When we do other market research we will sprinkle in questions about whether they saw advertising, what they saw, what was their impression of it, etc.
Other times we do specifics research explicitly about the advertising. | 2,083 | |
[Star Wars] Would Yoda have died to Order 66 if Palpatine called Gree first instead of every other clone commander? | While in these circumstances, he wouldn’t sense the all the Jedi’s deaths, he could still be aware enough to kill the clones before they killed him anyway. | 558 | Most likely it would still be the same. Yoda was a master Jedi, and was a expert with defending from Blaster Bolts. Also he could sense a attack from a light year away, so I'd see good odds in him surviving. | 421 |
[World War Z (book)] What were "those sick f*cks at China Lake* doing? | During one section of the book, a character mentions something about "those sick f*cks at China Lake" and their high suicide rate. In a footnote it's mentioned that China Lake was some kind of weapons research facility. What do you think was going on there? | 134 | Could be any number of things. Bioweapons, experimenting on people who haven't turned yet, trying to turn Zeds into living weapons, cutting them up to see what makes them tick. It's one of those "nothing is scarier" kind of things, all we know is it's *bad*. Like the Black Hills. All we know is that there were sucessio... | 91 |
[Power Rangers]What happened to the Dragonzord after Tommy lost his powers? | 46 | Iirc it simply went back to its hiding place under the ocean off of the coast and lay dormant since there was nobody left to call upon it.
It is possible though that Zordon or his allies made an effort to retrieve it and use its power to grant Tommy access to his Green Ranger powers again since he is clearly in his Gr... | 27 | |
eli5: How does the linux kernel include so many drivers without having a gigantic file size? | I saw that the linux kernel includes many drivers in itself. How is this possible without the kernel file size being absolutely ginormous? Would it have something to do with every device being a file? | 43 | Because drivers are usually quite small (small number of kilobytes).
This may be unexpected. That is because most "drivers" for Windows are massively bloated things. They include the actual driver, the installer for the driver, some useless documentation, a multi megabyte program to run constantly in the background ... | 125 |
[General SciFi] How does one "hack" a door? | You've seen it in plenty of games and movies, with everything from recrossing a few wires to ripping the keypad off with a knife and shoving a device in it or even a wire to let them try and manually do it. My question is, what are they really trying to do? What would the steps be? | 322 | There are two... maybe three methods of doing this, not counting the external device variant.
The first is controlling the mechanisms that open and close the door. Now, these can be code- or lock-controlled to stop anyone from opening them but by ripping off the panel and directly interfacing with the electronic contr... | 253 |
ELI5: Why is Google abandoning an established brand and creating a new company called Alphabet? | I mean, it's one of the most recognizable brands in the world. WTH?
What are they trying to accomplish? What are the risks? | 439 | Imagine you are running your own lemonade business, Lemon Party, and things are going fantastic. You expand into every neighborhood in your town. You start making cookies and they take off as well, as does the on-demand delivery business for your cookies and lemonade. Lemon Party is making consistent profits every year... | 504 |
If we were to discover life on other planets, wouldn't time be moving at a completely different pace for them due to relativity? | I've thought about this a bit since my undergrad days; I have an advanced degree in math but never went beyond basic physics.
My thinking is this: The relative passage of time for an individual is dependent on its velocity, correct? So the relative speed of the passage of time here on earth is dependent on the planet'... | 2,920 | Celestial velocities may be huge, but at least for orbits in the galaxy they top out at hundreds of kilometers per second. Since the speed of light is about 300,000 km/s, the stars' velocities relative to us introduce only a very very very miniscule change in the passage of time.
The amount of time dilation is propor... | 1,867 |
CMV: The US is not inherently worse or more evil than any other great power. It only appears that way because of its size and dominance. | I'm sure a lot of you have heard the argument often spread by certain historians that the US is a uniquely [evil or brutal empire](http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/10-reasons-america-will-be-judged-as.html?m=1) in its treatment of its citizens and the citizens of other countries, and you can find plenty of [polls](h... | 159 | Suppose you are right that size and dominance inevitably leads to these things.
Could it not be argued, then, that seeking size and dominance is itself evil? Consider that the US became physically large through the conquest of native lands. It became influential on the world stage partly through Cold War politics, w... | 56 |
Am I my thoughts, or am I the thinker of my thoughts? Am I my feelings, or the feeler of my feelings. Thanks | 95 | In Buddhist philosophy of mind, thoughts are not substantially different from visual or auditory perception. In the same way that the eye perceives visual forms, the mind perceives mental objects. The mind is one of the six sense-bases. From this perspective, it doesn't make sense to attach your personal identity to yo... | 77 | |
If a nerve in your body is severed, can it grow back
together? | I really don't want medical advice or anything, something just got me thinking recently... can a severed nerve repair itself? I really know very little about the nervous system of the body, but if someone were to cut their arm bad enough that it slices through a nerve and perhaps makes their hand partly numb, obviously... | 19 | The axon of a nerve cell—the long part that travels through nerves and conveys signals—can indeed regrow. There are some caveats. (Boy are there caveats.)
* The axon gets all its cellular nutrients from the cell body.
* The part of the broken axon no longer connected to the cell body lacks nutrients and gets disintegr... | 27 |
CMV: It's not wrong for me to dislike the police |
_____
I'm a (generally) law abiding citizen with no arrest record, however, every experience I've had with the police has been negative in one way or another. Whether it was being afraid of being caught for underage drinking, getting pulled over for some minor traffic violation, etc. All non "criminal" activity that... | 18 | Your argument boils down to "I don't like the police because they are doing their jobs."
If you think the laws they enforce are bullshit, that is ok. But that also isn't the fault of the police. They don't write the laws. We have elected representatives who write the laws. So if you think there should be no age restr... | 20 |
[Batman] I'm a generic thug looking to affiliate myself with one of Gotham's established villains/crime lords because I make poor life choices. Which villain to I benefit most from joining? | To be clear, I'm essentially asking which villain would be most beneficial to provide henchman services to before I'm inevitably taken out by the Bat?
At the very least, Joker seems like one to avoid. I've heard a good number of his staff have died for lols. | 116 | Penguin is by far the most normal and has the most amicable relationship with the Bat. He is the most likely to give you relatively safe job prospects with actual opportunities for promotion within his organization. | 133 |
ELI5: Why do cats purr around humans? | 40 | "A cat’s purr begins in its brain. A repetitive neural oscillator sends messages to the laryngeal muscles, causing them to twitch at a rate of 25 to 150 vibrations per second. This causes the vocal cords to separate when the cat inhales and exhales, producing a purr." From mmn.com
So these oscillating brain signals ca... | 22 | |
ELI5: How does Google search such massive amounts of data and return results in less than a second? | I get they are probably doing some optimized caching and their algorithm is proprietary but at a high level, how does Google work with such good performance numbers? | 21 | >I get they are probably doing some optimized caching and their algorithm is proprietary but at a high level, how does Google work with such good performance numbers?
They do not perform live-searches on websites. They search their own **index** which is basically a collection of cross-referenced dictionaries c... | 56 |
ELI5: If bad posture is so bad, why does it feel so good?! | 2,405 | Because your body is used to it. if you slouch all the time and then try and sit up straight, you're forcing seldom used muscles to work. If you sit up straight all the time, slouching will hurt because your back muscles will stretch awkwardly in an unfamiliar way. If you sit for a long period of time, you'll probably ... | 2,143 | |
[Marvel-616] Since Eminem definitely exists in the Marvel Universe, and he just dropped a new album with a song about Venom, what are Eddie Brock's thoughts on having a song from such a famous rapper dedicated to him? | 140 | Just because Eminem definitely exists does not mean that his entire catalogue of music exists unchanged. In Marvel-616 he is likely to have released a different album with different songs that are tied into a different movie that we'll never see in this universe. | 123 | |
ELI5: Why do burn injuries feel like they are "throbbing" or "pulsing" when exposed to another heat source? | I recently burned my arm on a machine at work, it's a very small burn, so I just continued to work as normal. The machine the injury occurred by is constantly heated, whenever I get the arm with the burn near it, the burn feels like it's throbbing. I understand why the heat would make the burn more painful, but not the... | 8,894 | The throbbing is due to the slightly increased blood flow to that region of burnt skin. After the burn, your skin receptors become a bit more sensitive in that locality and so you tend to sense that pulsating blood flow easier.
The body sends more blood there to fight infection, begin wound healing, stem any blood lo... | 3,850 |
Will putting the end of the garden hose underwater slow down the rate at which the pool fills? | Is there a difference between letting the water fall into the pool from above the water line? | 65 | The discharge pressure will affect the flow rate, yes, assuming a constant-pressure source. Keeping the end of the hose in the air ensures that the discharge pressure is atmospheric; submerging the end adds the hydrostatic pressure of the pool, meaning that the flow rate will decrease.
Now, you're not likely to se... | 18 |
ELI5: Nietzche's philosophy | Specifically, what his stance on suffering is, please?
I know this is kind of a weird request, so thanks to anyone who wants to answer! | 215 | There is a direct correlation between suffering and joy. If you're not willing to experience and grow though a lot of suffering, you won't experience as much joy. If you always try to diminish displeasure and suffering in your life, you're also going to diminish your capacity for joy.
"[N]o one is able to produce a g... | 316 |
How much economic damage is being done by the blockage of the Suez? | 30 | It depends on how long it will take to clear the blockage.
Shipping firms generally have a few days allotted for delays. If they clear the ship – or just move it out of the way – in a few days, this will be minimal. If they accidentally blocked off the canal just like during the Six Day War, then there might be goods ... | 21 | |
ELI5 The difference between JPEG and PNG. | 462 | Ok, pretend that you have a book, and you want to make it smaller. The JPEG way to do it is to read the book and summarise it, so for example, you say, "On the first page you're introduced to the main character, Joe Bupkins, who is a retired mechanic. There are two paragraphs about his childhood, when he broke his le... | 897 | |
Why does paper feel different after it has been wet and dried? | This may seem pretty basic, but why does paper, after absorbing water and drying, have a much harder/brittle texture than normal paper? I'm not sure how to explain it properly, but the paper is often slightly warped and crustier. Is this a chemical reaction in the paper?
Preemptive thank you for your time. | 677 | Well, in the paper making process, the pulp is strained to create the initial textured/brittle paper, but the process doesn't end there. The textured paper must be put through high pressured steam rollers to create the smooth paper you've come to know. This setting process causes all the fibers to be pressed flat and p... | 459 |
[Skyrim] Why is the dawnguards weapon of choice against vampires the crossbow? | Like, I understand wanting to keep distance from the vampire, but it seems like it'd be easier to just use a normal bow instead of basically inventing(I actually dont know if the dawnguard invented the crossbow Tes lore is not my strong suit) a new weapon which requires new ammo not sold anywhere. Plus, a big appeal of... | 20 | The dawnguard didn't invent the crossbow. They perfected it. The main appeal of using it over a bow is stopping power and minimum range.
A bolt can punch through plate armor fairly easily and requires almost no training beyond point and loose. Against a vampire it can knock them off their feet and back against a wall ... | 46 |
[Mad Max] Why did Max make Furiosa and the many mothers turn back when they could have made it? | After watching Fury Road for the 4th time, I realised something was a bit off about the many mothers and 5 wives travelling when they set off. In a nutshell, I think Max convinced them not to go because he knew they would reach land and wanted to go alone. More info below.
Intro/backstory
In Mad Max: Fury Road when h... | 30 | Going off piecemeal information from the video game and director's own words here. Max was planning on committing suicide by just going east into the Silent sands iirc the name or the Pacific Ocean. He knew you'd have to be insanely lucky to hit one of the island chains or land masses between the two continents and t... | 30 |
ELI5: How can helium be a liquid at absolute zero, if absolute zero is the point where the molecules stop moving (theoretically)? | 824 | The answer requires accepting that according to quantum mechanics, atoms and molecules can only have specific energies, called energy levels. You can be in energy level 0, 1, 2, etc, but higher energy levels require the atom to take in energy from the surroundings such as from heat. At absolute zero there is no heat, s... | 495 | |
ELI5: How come we can enter a password for years but forget it just when thinking about what it is? | 6,691 | Because you enter the same password every time it is required (if you use the same password for everything, which most people do), eventually it becomes part of your muscle memory, where you don't even have to think about what you are typing, you just do it because you have learned that it will get you to where you wan... | 1,884 | |
[DC] How did Green Lantern do this without causing mass destruction (scan in description)? | http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11123/111231883/4560645-3189133-1649876955-28153.jpg
How did Green Lantern wrap the earth in a claw-grip construct without crushing billions of people and causing trillions in property damage? | 23 | The image simply doesn't show the underside of the claw arm. What's actually touching the ground are billions of pillars that reach to the sky and are attached to the claws, which are actually tens of thousands of feet in the air. Each one of the individual pillars is automatically guided by the sentience of the ring t... | 35 |
[Warhammer 40k] The Eldar never create Slaneesh. How does the WH40k universe change? | 21 | No eye of terror?
Well fuck me rotten like the Eldar do, things are nice. The Human Empire doesn't Fracture, the Emperor arises without issue, no Primarchs probably, maybe no Space Marines, Humanity goes a' conquering. Maybe an alliance with the Eldar. Maybe even the first friendly encounter in 40k every. Probably... | 31 | |
Moving countries... is it worth doing a PostDoc in the new country before going into industry? | My long term plan after my Masters and PhD is to move from the UK to Canada.
Basically, because i'd be moving countries, would it make any reasonable impact on my ability to get a research job at a company like Microsoft or Google if I had some experience in Canadian academia? Or would I be better off just applying f... | 15 | I would have thought to hedge your bets it would be better to apply after a PhD, then if you don't get the job do a postdoc, then reapply.
At least this way you maintain a sense of what they're looking for and can further focus yourself through the postdoc. | 13 |
ELI5:how hot is it in space? | i was just thinking about how weather, atmosphere, area of the world etc you are in determines how hot it is, so how hot is it if you had nothing but the rays of the sun on you in space? for examples sake.. whilst orbiting earth? | 28 | Deep space is at roughly -269 degrees centigrade, four above absolute zero, but without any air or other gases around you it's very hard to lose heat. We naturally radiate some heat in the form of photons (light), but this effect is not very noticable for cooler objects - that's why only really hot objects glow visibly... | 29 |
Which is worse for the environment: driving an average car powered by gasoline, or driving an electric car powered with electricity that was obtained by burning coal? | 19 | gasoline is worse. the pollution in inner cities causes respiratory and health problems that aren't even accounted for properly. Estimated 10,000s of deaths every year.
electricity need not be generated by coal, but eve if it is, we can confine the environmental damage better, and it's easier to keep tabs on that... | 11 | |
CMV: it doesn't matter when somone loses their virginity. The concept of virginity hurts almost everyone. | Young or old. Loss of virginity has little impact on who someone is. Being a virgin does not mean someone is less likable or less socially adept.
The focus on virginity makes everyone either lose it for bad reasons or be really nervous the first time.
Speaking from personal experience, I had a terrible girlfriend pre... | 991 | you're right. it doesn't matter. it's something personal that others have no right to know unless you wish to tell them.
but people cherish firsts. firsts are thresholds and to some extent change your life. virginity doesn't matter in the same way that your first steps don't matter or your first words don't matter. t... | 226 |
CMV: We should abolish the electoral college | As you probably already know, we don't vote in the president directly but rather through the electoral college. There are actually 50 presidential election for who the electors are. On December 14, the electors cast their votes and the new president is chosen.
I am going to list my reasons for opposing this system:
*... | 173 |
>The purpose of government is to improve the welfare of its citizens. If more citizens live in one state, it makes sense that it would receive more attention.
This is the main problem with all the "abolish the electoral college/senate" views. It fundamentally misunderstands why the government is structured as it i... | 90 |
ELI5: Why do peanuts and tree nuts cause more allergies than other foods? | There's always so many people with allergies to nuts but not as many people allergic to other foods. Is there something specific in nuts that makes more people allergic to them? | 73 | If we knew the definitive answer to this, we'd be in a much better place.
The probable answer here is: chemistry. Peanut proteins are especially allergenic chemicals. This means they bind very easily to the antigen receptors on cells, because of their chemical properties. The antigen presenting cells are the first ste... | 51 |
[Star Wars] I remember a comic panel where a stormtrooper sees Vader without his mask and freaks out, Vader kills him. Why? |
Is it not common knowledge Vader is a human that has some kind of injury? And even if the poor trooper did not fully realize the extent of the damage, what justification does that give Vader to kill off one of his own men? It wasn't even a strategic decision. Why does Vader care if someone saw how he looks?
The tro... | 25 | So he woudln't die for nothing.
But main issue is of course that he witnessed Darth Vader in a moment of weakness, however small or inconsequential it might be. Yes, Darth Vader survived an assault that put him in this pile of rubble - filename says it was AT-AT fire - and that's pretty impressive, but having one wi... | 47 |
[DCEU] Why didn't Superman get involved in post-battle reconstruction? | In Dawn of Justice, the main reason why everyone, especially Batman, was so angry at Superman was due to the battle in Man of Steel that left Metropolis levelled and hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions of innocent people dead in the process. Afterwards, Superman seemed to just move on from the fight, not bother... | 16 | He probably did. Dawn of Justice's hate towards him wasn't that he just left a huge mess, but that his presence brought the conflict there to begin with.
It was exacerbated by Lex Luthor, of course, just as the anger towards Batman was. | 17 |
[Star Wars] WTF happened to Palpatine's face? | His face turned all grey and bubbly and ugly when he was hit by his force lightning. This didn't happen to Yoda or Luke when they were hit with it, and afaik it didn't happen to Mace either. Why did Palpatine's face turn all buttugly? | 24 | I've always seen two possibilities:
* Palpatine dropped all defenses, allowing the lightning to do maximum damage in order to get Anakin's and the Senate's sympathy, OR
* Palpatine was already all wrinkly and gross, and was using the Force to hide his corruption. The lightning either overcame this defense or he allow... | 51 |
ELI5: why are there no conservative hosts on npr? | 17 | If you listen to NPR you find that politics is a very small portion of their programming.
They play news morning noon and night for about an hour, but in between are shows about all sorts of things. Science, art, literature, entomology, cooking, car problems.
When they do talk politics, they bring in pundits from ... | 35 | |
Are claims that the electromagnetic field of the heart is 100 times stronger than that of the brain true? Is it even capable of emiting such large fields? | So I've been trying to investigate these New Age claims that say our heart is basically an EMF transmitter but didn't find any convincing proof that this is actually true.
Obviously the heart operates through all sorts of phenomena, electricity being involved as well. Where there is current, there are electromagnetic ... | 268 | I looked at a few of the images from the article, it's definitely quackery. That said, note a few things:
* Something being 100x greater than something else does not necessarily mean it is strong or significant in everyday practical terms. The ear, for instance, can detect sounds that differ in power by a factor of 10... | 168 |
ELI5: Why the GOP hasn't been able produce a well-liked, uncontroversial candidate for 2012 | 38 | It's simple: Most of the time, it's very hard to beat a sitting president in an election. All of the well-liked, uncontroversial candidates are waiting for 2016 to run, because they see a republican defeat in this election as a forgone conclusion. | 40 | |
How can I be a good leader if I'm just as unexperienced as everyone else? | I'm a current undergrad in a research experience position in physics. Myself and the other undergrads are all being sent to our country's telescope array to spend 24hrs taking observations and then a week analysing the data. Since there are about 12 of us in total, they're splitting us into groups with separate project... | 33 | First, it's a really good sign that you're self aware enough to seek insight on how to lead people. Many terrible leaders are that way because they lack empathy and self awareness; you've already gotten past the first step.
There are so many books and articles on leadership and many of them are terrible. I'll just c... | 19 |
ELI5: aren’t all the soaps antibacterial? How come some soaps (e.g. Dove) don’t mention anything about its antibacterial properties? | 153 | All soaps have the property of weakening bacterial cell walls, and washing microbes off surfaces, but in terms of a legal definition they don’t hit that 99.9% kill rate that’s considered antibacterial. Soaps with additives such as triclosan and the like do generally kill at a much higher rate, but they come with their ... | 266 | |
ELI5: How do very young or verbally challenged children get fitted for glasses if they are unable to verbally indicate that their vision is much clearer? | 230 | With normal vision, an object from the world should focus to tight spot on the back of the eye, known as the retina. One way to check this is to shine a beam of light and see how big of a spot it is on the retina. Someone with bad but correctable vision would have a large spot rather than a tight one.
By adjusting the... | 231 | |
[ELI5]: Why do pigs go through a big transformation if they're introduced into the wild? | How does a domesticated pig turn into a wild boar when released to the wild? | 435 | A creatures phenotype (physical manifestation) is dictated by its genetic code. There are actually different ways in which genetic code will be expressed depending on the environment that the creature finds itself; this phenomenon is called epigenetics. There is another phenomenon called neoteny in which creatures reta... | 232 |
CMV: The national media is very much at fault for causing the rise in conspiracy theories and our inability to convince people that the theory is not true. The media rightly can not be trusted they have cried wolf so many times that its understandable that many simply do not trust anything they say. | If the media were even a little bit responsible they would not report things they know to be untrue, they would not race bait and they would not have caused people to not trust them. They have a long history of lying in order to promote whatever positions the reporters and news directors have not what is real. We used... | 51 | So your stance is that because some of the most watched news stations "MSM" have examples of poor journalism that all journalism is therefore bad? Isn't that kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater? What about the AP, Reuters, and NPR? Solid news organizations. NPR has a left lean but they still report facts a... | 20 |
ELI5: A couple days ago, a 300 year old Stradivarius violin was stolen (and later found.) What would be the point of stealing something so famous that anyone who can afford the million-dollar price tag would recognize as a stolen item? | This question really goes for any rare, famous, and/or expensive item, but I found the violin case particularly intriguing. I would imagine that anyone with loads of money and knowledge of violins would want an item that can be played without the neighbors calling the cops. What, then, is the market for very expensiv... | 45 | Theft by contract.
A millionaire decides that he wants something his money can't buy in a conventional way, so he pays someone to steal it for him.
He doesn't care if people know that he has it or not; the satisfaction of possession alone is worth the price he pays to have it stolen. | 60 |
ELI5: Why do (most) toys targeted at young girls incorporate pink and purple in their design, whereas boys seem to have a much larger choice of colors to choose from when it comes to toys? | Whenever I got to the shopping mall, if I walk past the 'girls' aisle my eyes will see nothing but pink. I understand that western culture has assigned the different genders various colors, but they could at least get some variety in. | 38 | Marketing reinforcement - companies, especially established toy companies, are unwilling to try something new.
You teach girls from a young age to like pink and purple but not like "boy colours". Then suddenly you start releasing things in "boy colours" - uh oh, now the girls don't want it! You'd need to switch your... | 19 |
Could you just sit in cooler temperatures to burn calories? | And if so what sort of temperatures would the effect be enough to make a reasonable difference. | 35 | Yes. There are two components to this: shivering and non-shivering thermogenesis. The latter is driven by brown adipose tissue (BAT) which has only recently been investigated in detail in humans.
If you do a search on Google Scholar using some of the above terms (also "cold-induced thermogenesis"), you'll find loads o... | 11 |
[Guardians of the Galaxy] Rockets Moon Destroying Bomb? | 37 | This is the one he was trying to find a box for, right? Not the BFG like weapon they use on Ronan?
Anyway, Rocket is a genius when it comes to weaponry. Like, one of the brightest creatures in several galaxies. Not EVERYONE can build a bomb to blow up moons out of scrap on a ship. | 30 | |
[Harry Potter] What would have happened if they didn't know Harry was a horcrux and took out Voldemort anyway? | Basically, what if they never knew Harry was a horcrux and he didn't go willingly to his death but they still somehow took out all his other horcruxes and then him, perhaps by reflecting his own killing curse back at him somehow again? | 15 | Voldemort's shade continues to cling to this world, seeking a host for possession or else being available for the resurrection ritual.
You could get a soft win against him by killing every last Death Eater and trying to make sure nobody is tempted by his shade, but Voldemort is a one-man army and is going to keep tryi... | 19 |
Do humans instantly die when the heart stops? | As someone who is not expert in biology *but* has a know-how in mechanics (totally unrelated, I know) I find it strange that in movies, when someone's heart stops they instantly collapse like a ragdoll. Why? Only the "fuel" line got severed, not the nerves. The muscles have internal oxygen reserves as well.
They say ... | 24 | Your brain and other organs don't die instantly, but you do go into shock immediately. When your heart stops, your blood pressure collapses, triggering a wave of biochemical responses. Your body has a strict hierarchy of organs to protect, and skeletal muscles are not high on the list. They get shut down while all of t... | 28 |
ELI5: What do animals actually do during hibernation? | Do animals actually 'sleep' for such long periods of time? If so, how do they stay asleep for so long? | 84 | Hibernation means the animal literally just sleeps. It cannot get any meaningful amount of food during the winter so instead he just kinda skips it. He sleeps all the way through to conserve energy instead of walking around and doing stuff, and the fat it put on right before winter is whats being broken down and consum... | 66 |
I've heard about efforts to eliminate mosquitoes by genetically modifying them to be sterile. How would the gene spread if the individuals with this gene couldn't have any offspring? | 19 | I’m not sure if this is exactly what you are referring to, but there is a method used called Sterile Insect Technique where large numbers of insects (usually male) are irradiated in order to sterilize them, then they are released in the wild. Females who mate with the sterile males will produce no offspring, thereby re... | 20 | |
Were any of the primary architects of the Iraq War significantly influenced by Leo Strauss? | I would ask historians if this were a little bit older, but for you scholars of the fairly recent political scene:
I was just reading [an article (pop journalism)](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/magazine/79747/reading-leo-strauss-in-beijing-china-marx) about Chinese interest in Leo Strauss, where the author... | 29 | Yes. Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Abram Shulsky have stated that they were influenced by Strauss. In addition, Irving Kristol,(father of William Kristol) who founded the Neoconservative movement, was influenced by Strauss. Whether or not Strauss would approve of the movement is another question.
Drury, S. B. "Revi... | 17 |
[TDK] Harvey Dent survives the fall from the building but is knocked unconscious. What do Gordon and Batman do now? | so at the end of tdk, batman saves gordon's son's life by knocking harvey off the building (and himself), killing harvey - but what if harvey had somehow survived?
it seems like the only reasonable option here would be to have gordon kill him, as he was insane and probably would have confessed to killing the cops/oth... | 23 | I think they would have stuck him in a dark corner of Arkham and pretend he had died as that is what the city needed.
Alternatively Batman could keep him in the Batcave, and that would be fucking awesome. He is cool with Alfred but flips when Batman comes knocking.
Or, maybe Bats notices he isn't dead when they land,... | 20 |
I have anosmia. Is it still possible for me to be able to smell, even for just a minute (or less)? | 139 | Well, is it nerve damage, or is it b/c of compression of the olfactory nerve? B/c if there is nerve damage, the peripheral nerves have some capability for regeneration, depending on the extent of the damage.
Have you been to a doctor about this? | 14 | |
[Portal] How would radiowaves and gammawaves work with portals? | Say I have a WiFi box in my house. Next to it, I place a portal. I place the other portal in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Does that portal have WiFi?
Also, if a nuke went off near my house, would the Sahara be irradiated too? | 41 | Mass and energy can pass through portals, so you will definitely have WiFi in the Sahara. However, high energy particle emissions from nuclear fission may interact with the portal itself. Or it could act as a pinhole lense, firing a shotgun blast of plasma into the desert. The implications are interesting. | 42 |
ELI5: So I know that when you feel something cold or hot, it's your skins particles exchanging their kinetic energy with the particles of the other medium. So how come in space, where there is no medium to exchange heat, your body heat can't just keep you warm instead of instantly freezing? | 15 | First of all, you wouldn't instantly freeze.
Secondly, there are multiple ways of transferring heat. You described the process of conduction, which is indeed not possible in a vacuum. However, heat transfer in space is dominated by radiation.
All objects radiate thermal energy, and how much and what kind is determin... | 29 | |
When will the Andromeda Galaxy be close enough to be visible to the naked eye? How big would it be in the night sky? | In reference to this post/picture: [Andromeda's actual size if it was brighter](http://i.imgur.com/EpuhHJa.png).
At what point in time will the Andromeda Galaxy be close enough to be visible to the naked eye, perhaps not as bright as this picture depicts it. And, how big would it be in the night sky?
Thanks. | 38 | Andromeda is visible to the naked eye now, in decent light conditions. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.4. It is more than six times the width of the moon in the sky, but the full diameter is not bright enough to be seen. | 37 |
[startrek]Suppose I walk into a holodeck and say "create an interactive Sherlock Holmes simulation about solving the Piltdown Man hoax" or "show me a version of John Fletcher's Valentinian play with the setting changed from Roman to Mayan". Is there a limit to how specific & esoteric you can get? | 111 | Not really a limit, no, beyond the computing power behind the holodeck and its available database of information.
That said, it also can't really be assumed that the holodeck or computer will understand every request or always get things right. This is, essentially, the difference between typing "Fruit," or "grapes,"... | 96 | |
How does diet affect the risk of heart disease? | There is a lot of conflicting information out there. The common story is that (saturated) fat and cholesterol in meats are the primary culprits, but now a lot of (pop) science seems to claim that those are relatively harmless and sugars are instead the main culprits. What does the actual scientific evidence support? | 226 | I don't have a lot of time to go into an in-depth answer, but cholesterol and fats were vilified mainly because when you looked at the hearts and blood vessels of people with cardiovascular disease, you see a lot of plaques which grow and harden and constrict the blood vessels around the heart and the rest of the body.... | 155 |
CMV: Food Delivery Apps Should Change their Tipping Model | On all the food delivery apps I use, they recommend tipping the driver on a percentage of the total bill. Why is that?
I'm arguing that delivery drivers should be tipped on an algorithm based on distance they have to travel to deliver to the household, and not based on how much a person has paid for the food.
It's n... | 359 | The tipping system in these apps is all about incentivizing you to tip, so as to incentivize more drivers to join and get the existing drivers to do more deliveries. They have no incentive to make algorithms to "tip fairly", but you are well within your rights to do such a calculation yourself. | 109 |
A 2-prong question: what was the highest temperature achieved in a lab? Is there a universal limit on how high temperature can go? (we all learned about 0 Kelvin as being lowest possible, but I never heard about the highest) | What happens to matter at the highest temperature extremes? (if possible, please keep in mind that I love science however my science education level is "amateur" at best). Thank You! | 78 | In some theories, such as string theory, there is a maximum temperature possible called the Hagedorn temperature. As the system approaches this temperature, heat put into the system excites more states more than it increases the temperature. | 22 |
ELI5: Objected oriented programming | 165 | As opposed to procedural programming? Or just OOP in general?
OOP is method of computer programming that involves using 'objects'. An object is essentially a piece of code that lets you create many similar pieces of code without actually re-writing the code each time. This is done by first writing a 'class', which is ... | 72 | |
Ethical debate about possibly ruining someone's life for actions against me | Long story short
My roommate horribly violated my personal information, went through my personal items, my medication, my reddit account and my computer, and shared information (including nudes of me) to many other people. This significantly affected me and probably has fucked up my social standing for good.
I have pro... | 17 | I think it's important to make it clear that he can't get away with this behavior without consequences. The motivation for punishment doesn't necessarily have to be retribution - you don't want him doing the same thing to other people.
Perhaps you can consult a lawyer to see if there's a way to bring charges without ... | 34 |
Eli5: why aren’t busses designed to be more aerodynamic, like cars and SUVs? | 529 | Because they don't tend to move at high speeds so aerodynamics are less important and square shaped are better for packing more passengers into, you can't put seats under a sloping roof.
Coaches or long distance buses fall in the middle so do tend to be a bit more aero. | 904 | |
CMV: Pulling oneself up by their own bootstraps is physically impossible. To defend a social, economic, or philosophical outlook based on this phrase betrays a lack of awareness of the impossibility described in the phrase, and a related lack of awareness of the viability of the abstract idea. | "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps". From Horatio Alger to Trump, and beyond, it holds a huge place in the popular imagination, particularly in the USA. It is often a key phrase used to describe a philosophical outlook which emphasises the individual person's responsibility to endeavour to work as hard as possible to... | 144 | >Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is impossible.
It actually is possible.
try the following:
Walk up to a stair case:
Relax your left foot, grasp your bootstrap on the left boot and place your left foot knee-down on the staircase.
Shift your weight onto the left foot.
Now pull your right foot by y... | 82 |
Are there ways to make historical/dialectical materialism compatible with religion or spirituality? | I know most hardcore marxists are atheists, but still are the two things reconcilable? | 26 | This is arguably what Walter Benjamin was trying to do. You might also find Mark Fisher on materialist spirituality interesting. In the last instance, Terry Eagleton will probably have something to say on this as a major Christian Marxist. | 19 |
ELI5: Why Does curly hair stay curly? | I understand *why* people have curly hair, but why/how does it go back to being curly after using a straight iron, or after being pulled straight in a ponytail all day? | 46 | There are actually a lot of different things that factor into making your hair curly. If i remember right the amount of Sulfur-Sulfur bonds or "disulfide" bonds. These are from the tertiary structure of the protein in your hair. The more disulfide bonds your hair naturally has, the more curly. | 15 |
CMV: Violence is a perfectly acceptable method of protest when peace has been repeatably proven to not be effective. | I have seen so much condemnation for violence and looting from the media and politicians, but I just see this as the next logical step. If you hold one protest after another about the same thing and the people in power continue to do nothing to acknowledge let alone alleviate your concerns then it only makes sense that... | 45 | I get that you're talking about police brutality and whatnot, but do you think this argument still holds water when you apply it to *other* issues?
Climate change - peaceful methods haven't worked and we're still burning fossil fuels. Let's burn down a Walmart to expedite the process.
The school system needs more fu... | 16 |
ELI5: why insects are attracted to lights | 33 | Insects navigate by using a reference point of light. Normally this would be the sun or the moon. They are far enough away that insects can put the sun/moon at a certain degree in their vision, and they know they will be traveling in the direction they need.
If they end up using a street light, things don't go as plan... | 36 | |
ELI5: Could a new eye color come bout? | 25 | Yes, but no. While DNA usually doesnt mutate as much as, say, RNA, There is a *tiny* chance the genes that controls eye color could mutate, resulting in a new eye color. for example, blue eyes are a genetic mutation, and while it doesnt have any effect on us or give us an adaption we could use to defend ourselves, it s... | 14 | |
[40K] Are there any stories relating to the origins of the Chaos gods other than Slaanesh? | Slaanesh has a pretty fleshed out backstory relating to the Eldar while Khorne, Tzeentch and Nurgle just sort of "are". Papa Nurgle is said to be the oldest, so there has to be at least some sense of their beginning.
I've also seen it said that Slaanesh is distinctly Eldar in nature and thirst for souls. Do the other... | 38 | I've always been under the impression that the other 3 gods had always existed in one way or another, due to representing 3 universal constants: Decay, Death, and Change. Stuff has been doing those three things constantly forever, so they've always had a powerbase to build on.
But Slaanesh was different. It wasn't til... | 34 |
How can white noise and the Dirac distribution have the same Fourier transform? | I have learned in school (and confirmed with a quick Google search) that the Fourier transform of both white noise and the Dirac distribution to be the constant function F(f)=1
However, I am under the impression that the Fourier transform is a bijection, although I have never seen a proof of that claim (but I suppose ... | 536 | The catch is that white gaussian noise is a random process, not a deterministic signal like a delta function. Fourier transforms are defined differently for random processes. Strictly speaking, they do not exist. But we can still get information about the spectral content of a random process through defining it's power... | 91 |
[Aladdin] Did Aladdin end up being a good sultan? | cartoon version
him becoming sultan one day was kind of a big deal in the first film, only to never end up being brought up again | 29 | Going from the their relationship in the series, Jasmine's going to be running the actual administration, Aladdin will be her champion and be dealing with villain attacks. Agrabah will benefit from having him, but he'd be a lousy sultan if he had to govern alone. | 28 |
ELI5: how do rich people with massive net worth(Ranging from $10 million to hundreds of millions of dollars) manage their money? | I am curios to see how do they manage such a large amount. | 50 | I would have to say most if not all hire professional money manager and let them handle it. It's kind of like retirement. They get an amount to live off of each month and they can tell the money manager to give them more if they want to buy a new Gulfstream. | 30 |
[Star Wars] What would Palpatine's plan be if Anakin's potential wasn't restricted? | As we're aware, Anakin's role as Darth Vader was to effectively become the Emperor's attack dog in his cyborg suit. The Emperor knew that he was no real threat to him any more, and that without some element of divine intervention (enter Luke), he had no reason to fear him.
However, how would things have played out if... | 131 | Anakin may have been stronger with the force but Palpatine would always be wiser. Palpatine would manipulate Anakin to achieve his goals through politics and as a mentor. Palpating would operate even further from the shadows always on the move where nobody could harm him. One way or another Palpatine could always keep ... | 119 |
CMV: Beauty Pageants do not need a 'brainy section' where contestants are forced to answer supposedly brainy questions | There is nothing wrong with beauty pageants simply being beauty pageants; a beauty pageant is merely a contest to see which contestant is the most beautiful, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Is it superficial? Yes, but it is no more superficial than literally any other contest or sport; we don't demand ... | 160 | Beauty pageants don't really "need" any part of the way they currently operate: it's an arbitrary panel giving arbitrary titles to contestants based on arbitrary subjective judgement to generate publicity for everyone involved.
I suppose that for the contestants, a couple of minutes where they're seen speaking, regard... | 105 |
ELI5: Is intelligence entirely determined in the early stages of life or is it something that can change later on? | Whenever I read about influential scientists and mathematicians, I notice how their upbringings had a similarity: their curiosity and intellects were all nurtured as children. Do people farther down the road of life still have the ability and potential to grow their minds to reach the same heights? | 37 | Your genetic code mostly determines how your brain will form and develop, but environmental factors (nutrition, injury, etc) during the growing process play a big part in this. But most healthy brains end up similar to each other in most ways, so barring disabilities, that's not that important.
Most people have the ca... | 23 |
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