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ELI5: How come celebrities can't sue the tabloids for libel, when the tabloids print and publish so many false things about them? | 147 | in the US it's notoriously difficult to win a libel lawsuit. The person suing would need to prove that the statement was false, caused harm to them, and was made without research into the truthfulness of the statement. If the person is a public figure they also need to be able to prove the statement was made with the... | 58 | |
Why can't we create underwater breathing technology | by mimicking what happens in fish' gills?
Edit: I mean by "extracting dissolved oxygen from water to stay submersed indefinitely." (thanks ragnarokrudolph) | 63 | We are endothermic and have a high metabolic requirement--one that is further stressed when we are submerged. Animals with gills, on the other hand, are almost exclusively poikilothermic and require much less oxygen. For us, the challenge is getting enough oxygen from the water to sustain our metabolism. | 43 |
What happens in a photon-photon colliding when each photon energy is 120 Mev? | Hello,
I am a 17 y.o stduent who is trying to fully understand photons colliding. We usually know that when two photons collide and each one's energy is 0.511 Mev they produce an electron and a postiron and this idea is the same for other particles. But what if two photons with an energy, which is not equivalent to any... | 18 | They can pair-produce other particles, as long as the energy in the center-of-momentum frame exceeds twice the mass of the produced particle.
They can also scatter elastically without producing any particles. | 28 |
ELI5: Why are so many countries such as Germany, France, etc. able to implement universal healthcare, but the US can't? | 490 | Lots of people make a lot of money from health care. Many of the richest people would lose a lot of money if the system changes.
So they spend a lot of their riches to convince everyone else that any change in the system would be a disaster for everyone. Even though it would clearly be good for almost everyone.
But p... | 1,191 | |
ELI5: Why does our face, especially the nose and forehead get oily but other body parts like your knees don't? | 222 | Our faces are very porous- little holes from where hair used to be. While cells on our face stopped making hair (at least some of them), some of those oils are still being made; the oil isn't soaked up- and there is a lot more being made compared to our knees.
Also the sun stimulates production of these oils.
On a... | 88 | |
ELI5: How do the heart rate monitors that clip on to your finger also find oxygen levels? | 7,458 | One side of the clip has a light and the other has a sensor. When you clip it on your finger, it shines both red visible light and infrared light through you finger and it hits the detector. oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood absorb different amounts of infrared and visible light, so by comparing the amounts that ... | 8,642 | |
[Elf] Does Buddy the Elf have (magic) Powers or is he an ordinary human? | He starts life as fully human, but when he was taken to the north pole, did his mortal self 'die' at the hands of elf incompetents only for them to bring him back to life with aid of their magic so that he could become this elf/man immortal? He reveals some special powers of song, dance, merriment (charm spell?) and sn... | 43 | In order to master something, you need to do it for 10,000 hours or consistently for about 10 years as a common rule of thumb. That's about an average of three hours of practice a day, every day of the year. Now imagine doing something for nearly 16 hours a day for 30 years. People are gonna think you're downright magi... | 46 |
ELI5: If L Ron Hubbard was such an experienced Sci Fi writer prior to Scientology, why are the themes in Scientology often a bit "goofy" even from a realistic science fiction standpoint | Im trying to avoid breaking rule 7 here, but I guess thats a question I've always had. Here you have this guy whos written tons of Science Fiction books, but his big crowning achievement of Scientology has a bit of a.. silly "plot" Even in book format I think many people would say "Oh well thats lame". So maybe I don't... | 248 | "Experienced" does not necessarily mean "good". Hubbard has never been considered a particularly good writer by most people who read sci fi, except for scientologists who, admittedly, have to be brainwashed into thinking it.
He was creative, sure, but that also doesn't mean you're actually good. But hey, people have t... | 138 |
[MCU] Captain America has been drinking. Will a breathalyzer or blood test pick that up? Is he legally considered drunk? | Hypothetical here: If Captain America, for whatever reason, goes to a bar and puts away three bottles of whisky in under an hour, then gets on his motorbike, starts riding home, and gets pulled over by the local sheriff's department, will he register as drunk on a breath or blood test?
We know he can't get drunk, as s... | 15 | The reason he can't get drunk is that his body's metabolic rate is so high that the alcohol leaves his bloodstream before the effects can occur. It's not that he just powers through his drunkenness, there just isn't any in his system. So a breathalyer test would show the same results as a sober person and since the leg... | 39 |
ELI5 What exactly happens to muscles when they go "sore" ? | 32 | When you use a muscle to the point of soreness, you are literally tearing the muscle fibers apart. They rebuild themselves and get larger and larger (that's what lifting weights does and why you get bigger muscles)
But just like a cut on your finger, while being repaired, they are kind of tender, raw and stiff. Your h... | 27 | |
CMV:There's no reason to wash your hands after going number 1. | For the record, I always wash my hands. But it is partly as a social courtesy. The other part is psychological. If I don't wash my hands, I "feel" like they are dirty.
That said, if you've only urinated, then your hands are not any dirtier than before you went to the bathroom. A man can pee and touch nothing more ... | 51 | Washing hands, in general, is a way to keep the spread of germs down. A typical person will go #1 3-5x each day. And if you just wash your hands each time you do that, you're washing off the germs you accumulated over the last few hours. So it's less about washing off germs you got in the 2min you were in the bathroom ... | 72 |
ELI5: Existential Nihilism | 24 | Basically some people wonder what's the point of existence because they have realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves | 58 | |
ELI5: Why do people still need to fight so hard for net neutrality if they already voted into office a president who promised to support it? Why didn't the democratic voting process settle it? | 2,792 | Let's say your teacher wants to read you Horton Hears a Who!
And the kids in your class, even little Dilly, they all want to read it too. They shout, "We want Who! We want Who!" And so do you. And so do you.
But the Librarian, Mrs. Pennysnatch, gives you Babar. The fucking elephant.
"That's French!" you cry, "And he... | 2,547 | |
How do gas mask filters for radioactive particles work? Why do they expire if not used? | 205 | Its the valves which expire rather than the filter media. Inside the mask, there are thin rubber sheets which act as one way valves. One the rubber starts to break down, it allows contaminates to be breathed in via the exhaust. | 122 | |
ELI5: What actually happens when we fall asleep and why can’t we do it on demand? | 33 | The human brain sleeps in cycles, it's called your circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm controls when you need to sleep and then controls the cycles of your sleep. Some people call it your internal clock.
The circadian rhythm is influenced by a lot of factors, many related to evolution and the habits of human civil... | 15 | |
Does infinity naturally occur physically in the universe? | Is there any evidence that shows something goes to infinity in nature? Like there is infinite time, or infinite space in the universe?
If there is no evidence suggesting that, does that mean there may be a finite amount of time or space? What would be the implications of that? | 18 | We don't know if there's infinite time or space, because we can't see that far into our universe and we don't live forever. In fact, we think the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace, but what will ultimately happen we don't know! Will it eventually slow down? Will it continue to accelerate out forever?
Now,... | 10 |
ELI5: Pork rinds are incomplete protein and are labeled "not a good source of protein" but beans are also an incomplete protein and do not have this same label. Why? | 24 | Because it's not just a question of protien, but of the types of protien and the regulation. In the USA, the Food and Drug Administration requires that food for people aged 4 and over that has, "a protein quality value that is a protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score of less than 20" must have the label, "no... | 29 | |
[Astro] Does our Sun radiate anything else other than photons? | 187 | Yes, plenty of stuff. For one, the fusion reactions that power all the good stuff also produce neutrinos. These are extremely light particles (the lightest particles with non-zero mass that we know) that almost never interact with other particles. Right now, there are hundreds of milions of neutrinos going through your... | 68 | |
CMV: Since the minimum age required to gamble at a casino is 18 (United States), video games that let players buy loot boxes with with real world money should receive an AO (adults only) rating. | Slot machines give randomized rewards and so do loot boxes yet you have to be 18 to play slots at a casino. Both [tribal](https://www.500nations.com/Indian_Casinos_Minimum_Age.asp) and [non tribal](https://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/gambling_age_chart.htm) casinos have a minimum age requirement of 18 for pretty much ... | 147 | Either lootboxes are not gambling and the ratings are fine, or they are gambling and should be treated as such. This would mean games are actually responsible for ensuring buyers are 18 and they follow all the other national and local gambling laws. Which would effectivly be a ban in most places. Calling them gambling ... | 19 |
ELI5: Why do movie studios care if I pay for Netflix and use a VPN to change my location? They are getting paid either way. | 242 | The problem is that when Sony released a movie in Australia, it formed a contract with a studio in Australia to do that. So that studio owns the right to distribute that movie in Australia. If you use Netflix and a VPN to access the U.S. version of Netflix, you're cutting out the Australian company that actually owns t... | 153 | |
ELI5: How can Netflix acquire the rights and permission to ship DVDs of a movie, but not acquire the rights and permission to Instant Stream it? | I understand why every movie ever made isn't on Netflix, and I understand why new movies don't immediately appear on Netflix too. What I don't get is why would a distributor of a movie would agree to let Netflix ship out their movie on DVD but not allow them to stream it. | 57 | Why indeed. What's the truth is that the digital streaming rights are negotiated completely separately to the DVD Rental rights, and movie studios see streaming as a threat to their big-ticket DVD sales, that's why hardly any new releases get authorized for streaming. Understand that Netflix WANTS to stream everything ... | 22 |
How do blackouts work? Was the memory never recorded, never saved or deleted while sleeping? | 4,094 | There are three stages to memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval. During a blackout from drinking, the prefrontal cortex is inhibited, which is responsible for a large portion of encoding events into short-term memory. Information must be encoded into short-term memory before it is stored into long-term memory. There... | 3,441 | |
AskScience AMA Series: We are the Forensic Psychology Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. We research how psychology can improve the criminal justice system and are joined by world renowned honorary member Professor Elizabeth Loftus. AUA! | We are the [Forensic Psychology Unit](http://www.gold.ac.uk/psychology/) at [Goldsmiths, University of London](http://www.gold.ac.uk/) and are here with world-famous, honorary member [Professor Elizabeth Loftus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Loftus) to talk about how psychological science is improving the eff... | 1,761 | Have there been any developments in the presentation of police lineups?
What's better, to present the whole lineup at once, or to present lineup members one-by-one? If the latter, is it better to ask them "is this the perpetrator" after each person, or to let them see all of them and then ask for a decision? | 50 |
ELI5: Why do coin batteries seemingly die, then after a days rest return with renewed vigour? | 15 | Battery voltage depends on how much load is being placed on the battery. One that's 3.0V at rest will fall to, say, 2.9V with a light load. Under a heavy load, it might fall to 1.5V.
The reason is there is a rate limit to how fast the chemical energy can be converted to electrical energy. If a battery is placed under... | 18 | |
How does Bender survive for thousands of years under Planet Express in Bender's Big Score with no alcohol/fuel? | 28 | At first Bender made do with a sort of "Mushroom Schnapps" that he brewed himself. He also had a few six packs hidden away. But after all the alcohol ran out he simply shut himself down. In shutdown mode robots require no alcohol. | 28 | |
What happens to the atoms in a black hole? | When things get sucked into a black hole, do the atoms all just get compressed? Do they break down into quarks? I know they can't just be destroyed. | 22 | We have no idea. Black holes are these things that pop up in the general theory of relativity, which is a classical, non-quantum theory. It doesn't really deal well with particles and atoms as such. That said, we can make various approximations and come up with some ideas about the way black holes interact with particl... | 25 |
[Dune] Why did Paul's prescient talents expose themselves on the night of the Harkonnen attach on Arrakis? | It seems that something happened that night... When Paul and his mother are in the tent, Paul becomes something... different. Why? It seems like a coincidence that that happened to be just enough time to get enough spice built up in his blood. Was it that? Or was there something else that happened that night? Per... | 22 | Paul and Jessica were being sent into the deep desert to die. They struggle for their lives, and find the package the traitor left (a thousand deaths are too little for the traitor). They realized Leto is dead, their friends are dead, the House is lost, and they are alone.
All of this trauma, coupled with being in t... | 33 |
[Star Wars] Did Anakin and Padme have access to contraception? | Wondering because it seems out of character for Padme to not be prudent about that kind of thing (though Anakin totally seems like the kind of person to rely on pulling out).
So, what does birth control look like in the Star Wars universe? | 577 | In novel "Queen's Peril," Padme (then 14), her handmaidens, and female members of the royal security forces are on menstrual suppresion shots administered by medical droids. It didn't seem to be a big deal among the Naboo people. | 343 |
Struggling to give life meaning | 30yo male here.
Struggling to find my meaning of life. I find Stoicism very appealing but mostly to deal with personal things. Meanwhile I'm floating to and fro, from feeling a deep sense of civic duty and desire to be active in politics to hedonism or nihilism.
I'm hoping to find a balance and to find an answer (tha... | 42 | For a philosophically informed self-help take on such matters of finding a balance, you can take a look at Edith Hall's Aristotle's Way. Not a work of philosophy, but it's written by a respectable classicist who appears to love Aristotle.
For Aristotle, virtuous activity includes, among other things, finding the righ... | 13 |
Why is my beard hair different than my head hair? | My head hair is very curly
http://i.imgur.com/ddSwb.jpg | 457 | The growth and the distribution of hair are under the influence of the sex hormones. At and following puberty, longer, coarser, more heavily pigmented hair, called terminal hair, develops in the armpits, genital regions, and, in males, on the face and sometimes on parts of the trunk and limbs. The hair of the scalp, ey... | 401 |
ELI5: When a company is bought for "$3 billion in cash" what actually happens? | Is cash actually exchanged, or is cash just a liquid asset that is transferred to a different account digitally? | 55 | The "cash purchase" is a juxtaposition to an equity exchange where stock is used to purchase another company. A literal transfer of funds occurs - just like if you were to do a bank-to-bank transfer between two of your accounts, or to execute a wire transfer. | 32 |
ELI5: Why can't eyesight fix itself? Bones can mend, blood vessels can repair after a bruise...what's so special about lenses that they can only get worse? | How is it possible to have bad eyesight at 21 for example, if the body is at one of its most effective years, health wise? How can the lens become out of focus so fast?
Edit: Hoooooly moly that's a lot of stuff after I went to sleep. Much thanks y'all for the great answers. | 4,323 | It can. If your eye is damaged, it will at least try to repair itself. Lenses are usually left foggy afterward, as scar tissue does not play nice with the optically smooth surface needed for a good lens.
If you're referring to nearsightedness/farsightedness, they happen because your body makes the eye the wrong shape.... | 4,999 |
Was The Dude ethically or morally entitled to get a rug from The Big Lebowski? | In case you haven't seen the movie: Bunny Lebowski is the much-younger wife of wealthy (sort-of) businessman Jeffrey Lebowski. She owes money all over town, including to known pornographers. Some of these people she owes money to sends a couple of goons to collect on her debt. However, the goons mistakenly visits the w... | 219 | Sort of. Maybe.
The Big Lebowski is enabling his wife's irresponsible behavior. While he could not foresee the specific consequences of this morally blameworthy behavior, he could foresee that bad things would happen to people due to his behavior. Woo urinating on The Dude's rug is one such consequence.
Because the c... | 74 |
Skin Color question | I have always understood that it is predicted that human beings first developed out of Africa (Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, Etc) and I was wondering what gave the rise to skin color?
Did the changing skin color help is adapt to new weather patterns throughout the ages, and is that why Nordic people have lighter skin... | 430 | It is simple natural selection, maximizing the amount of vitamin D synthesized, and minimizing any potential damage to the DNA in the basal layer of skin cells. For example, in Africa, there is incredible amounts of ultraviolet light, so African natives have been selected for very dark skin. The large amount of melanin... | 415 |
How do satellites fall out of orbit? | I've heard of satellites that fall to Earth, and I've wondered how that happens. | 16 | Even at the altitude that many satellites orbit, there is still a tiny amount of air, which causes some drag. This slows down the satellite, causing it to drop into a lower orbit, where the air density is a bit higher, etc...
Without correcting the orbit of the satellite every now and then, satellites in low orbits wi... | 29 |
ELI5 Why do toenails grow so much slower then fingernails? | 18 | Your toenails are subjected to a lot less trauma than your fingernails. Your fingernails have to compensate for this trauma by growing quicker, about 3 times as fast.
If they didn't, we'd tear our fingers to shreds. Figuratively speaking. Nails protect the soft tissue around them and help with dexterity by providing ... | 14 | |
ELI5: police, sheriffs, state troopers, highway patrol. What’s the difference and why aren’t they the same organisation? | 23 | This is a result of how the matter of policing the laws is done in the US and may not make sense for the rest of the world. When the US were founded there were fully functional governments in the colonies. They had their own laws, their own police forces and even their own armies. The US started as an alliance rather t... | 24 | |
ELI5: how exactly does water ruin electronics, assuming that they are turned off after and dried throughly, what damage to hardware is done that is irreparable? | 368 | Different components react differently to water. Most ICs, for example, will dry just fine, but may end up with residual water stuck underneath the chip, unable to dry.
Capacitors can corrode from the inside out, and transistors do weird things when exposed to water, but immediate drying and cleansing with alcohol wi... | 165 | |
What do you do when you can't find a scientific explanation for your results? | (Almost) 3rd year meteorology PhD student in the UK.
I've had some interesting results from one of my model sensitivity tests but I'm really struggling to explain the result scientifically. I've come up with multiple hypotheses on the basis of the model change, but none of them have borne any fruit.
The dataset does ... | 37 | UK Physics PhD just for perspective: For your thesis, it's probably okay to have just exhausted all the likely possibilities.
Your thesis is basically an argument to show you approached your work in a scientific manner, and thus can actual do research independently.
Outlining what you found, what models you tried to... | 40 |
ELI5: Why is it that I have the ability to independently move one eyebrow but not the other? | 29 | Because they're 2 separate muscles controlling your eyebrows. Apparently this skill can be learned, but basically it comes down to some people's brains are able to independently control the muscles under your eyebrows, and some people's brains can't do it. | 10 | |
[Purge] is conspiracy a thing in the Purge universe? If I wanted to kill someone on purge night, so stockpiled weapons, and dug out a tunnel below where they’d be meeting (as in Election Night), and wrote down detailed plans to murder them, but was caught before the night, would I be prosecuted? | 474 | Yes, and yes. It's Purge *Night*, not Purge Week.
By the law as writ crime is only legal during the event itself. If you get caught engaging in a pre-Purge crime, you're pretty much at the mercy of the officer who caught you. Depending on the cop's opinion on the Purge, and what you're up to at the time, your mileage... | 323 | |
Getting tired of moving every few years? | Hi,
It comes to no surprise that, as an academic, you have to be mobile and willing to relocate to score a good position. The last 9 years or so, I have been going through different countries in Europe to build up my career, but now that I have found a good position, I am hesitant to move again.
I have finished my po... | 24 | It sounds like you're looking for the validation to draw the line and put your life before your career and let me tell you, if you have a nice social circle and it's convenient with your family, don't be so quick to discount that. You can get academic accolades from anywhere, but having a nice life situation is harder ... | 23 |
Do different neutron stars differ in composition? | I know that on the one hand black holes "have no hair" (any two with the same mass, change, and spin are identical), while on the other hand normal stars can be different from each other by having different concentrations of elements (hydrogen-rich vs metal-rich etc.).
Which of these extremes is more similar to neutro... | 45 | > Which of these extremes is more similar to neutron stars? What material properties, if any, could be different in one neutron star vs another?
They are remarkably smooth, smooth to an insane degree, but given how dense they are even a teensy bump is the weight of a mountain. And there can be quakes. Massive ones.... | 29 |
ELI5: Why does oil in a frying pan, sometimes pop while it heats up ? | I am curious as to what causes this issue where sometimes my oil seems to explode upwards and splash all over my kitchen.
It never seems to happen when the Oil is fresh.
It stops happening once the Oil gets hot enough.
But why ?! | 39 | It’s bubbles of boiling water forcing its way out of the oil. The oil in the bottle/can accumulates some moisture from the air after it has been opened. Also the pan might have had some water on it when you started cooking. It stops happening once all the water has boiled away. | 47 |
How do antivirals target only viral RNA and not host RNA? | Edit: I understand that many antivirals affect the viral polymerase, but I’m most interested in nucleoside analogs like molnupiravir… how do they affect only viral RNA and not host RNA? | 1,510 | The drugs don’t target RNA per se, but the enzymes that make the RNA. since the viral enzymes are different than human enzymes, it is possible to find drugs that inhibit viral RNA synthesis but don’t inhibit RNA synthesis by our cells. | 1,040 |
How much radiation am I exposing myself to when I reach into a microwave after it's finished heating my food? | 123 | As /u/rupert1920 said, microwaves dissipates very quickly, as quickly as visible light. By the time the "pling" or "beep" indicating that the microwave oven is done reaches your ears, the energy in the microwaves will have dissipated.
If you by radiation mean "nasty radioactive stuff", the answer is simply "none". A ... | 264 | |
[Superman] I'm an average guy but Superman really ticked me off and I want to get back at him somehow, what's the best way to do it? | Superman was fighting some freak from space and he tried to laser him and ended up hitting my car, damage wasn't too bad but he ruined my weekend and I'm out the insurance deductible. Like I get that things happen but he shouldn't be firing off his eye beams willy nilly in a parking garage. Point is I want some revenge... | 139 | Supes is pretty sensitive, if you actually faced financial hardship from the damage to your car (whether through actual repairs or being unable to commute) and told him about it he’d feel bad about it. He’d also probably find a way to make restitution to you. If you just want to be petty... (mildly NSFW) >!line a ro... | 220 |
ELI5: No matter how many videos i watch, I just can't wrap my head around the concept of Analog and Digital (in sound) and the difference between them. Please make it as simple as possible for a 16 year old with a slow brain like me. | 15 | All sound you actually hear is analog. You are hearing minute rapid pressure changes over time in the air and these happen continuously (as in there are no instantaneous jumps in the pressure, it rises and falls continuously and smoothly in time). It's a bit like drawing a wiggly line across a piece of paper.
The diff... | 41 | |
ELI5: How do owls achieve noiseless flight? | 59 | A quick and simple explanation: they have huge wings compared to their body mass, they glide when they can, and are very good at gliding very slowly and thus quietly. In addition they have special structures their feathers that help reduce noise. | 82 | |
Why did modern man's ancestors migrate to cold climates from warm ones? | It is well established that modern human ancestors began in warm climates, and migrated over many centuries into colder climates. So, why did they leave warm, hospitable climates for colder, harsher climates in the first place? | 19 | Any area can only support a limited amount of population, after that its starvation or migration. Plus natural disasters make people move. Repeat. In most places it gets cold just very little over distance so the migration is very gradually. | 10 |
ELI5 How unplugging and replugging my modem helps my internet connection. | 68 | Most modems have provision to reduce the data rate on the line if the error rate gets too high. Not all have the ability to try again later at a higher data rate, and revert if all is well. So each burst of interference on the line triggers your modem to reduce the data rate. To start again at a high rate, reset the mo... | 21 | |
[DC] Does Batman ever make use of Scarecrow's fear gas? | Right so mainly focusing on Batman Begins fear gas (as that version is what I'm most familiar with), it's clear that it works a charm at making affected people experience horrific hallucinations for a brief time. Its effects are not long term (besides recurrent flashbacks to the horror they experienced), and is practic... | 20 | I've read that Batman has contingency plans for other heroes by using fear gas, specifically against Aquaman in the Tower of Babel storyline; by making Aquaman fear water, he would die. Arguably he could also have used it against any Green Lanterns (whose weakness is fear), | 27 |
ELI5: How can computers detect and tag people's faces on Facebook, but can't read CAPTCHA? | 35 | Faces are all similar so can look for patterns like two eyes and sections of skin above (forehead) the eyes or below them (cheeks) while captchas generally dont have a pattern. The letters can be twisted or covered by lines which makes finding the shape hard. | 13 | |
What is the white stuff inside pimples? What it's made out of, why we have it, and why does it exit in this way? | 13,019 | A pimple is an infection. Bacterial infections begin with a bacterial pathogen and an inflammatory response to the pathogen. For pimples, anaerobic bacteria colonize a hair follicle and consume the sebum produced by sebaceous glands. This forms lipid byproducts which irritate the surrounding area. This inflammatory rea... | 11,367 | |
[marvel] why does galactus hate thanos? | [https://i.redditmedia.com/6oGnKjyK1MHKDwJPGJDsDiNYDGrikuyFQD5Nf3Onjak.jpg?s=76c4e44e8e22767fed4894ba93ccc0d5](https://i.redditmedia.com/6oGnKjyK1MHKDwJPGJDsDiNYDGrikuyFQD5Nf3Onjak.jpg?s=76c4e44e8e22767fed4894ba93ccc0d5)
does galactus just hate everyone? or is thanos just that annoying to be around because of his ego? | 146 | Hate is a strong word. Annoyed is more accurate. Galactus basically survived the Big Bang and is one of the oldest entities in the universe. He has no time for hanging out with people, he can barely put up with the Silver Surfer, one of the purest folks in the universe. He has to constantly plan to consume planetary bo... | 193 |
[Mass Effect][House of Cards] What would happen if Frank Underwood is Humanities Representative to the Citadel Council? |
[XPost: Writing prompts ](http://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/20vng2/eu_frank_underwood_is_humanities_representative/)
| 18 | He'd certainly have his job cut out for him convincing the Turians to turn funding from Engineering to Gender Studies.
Jokes aside, he would be limited in his ability to prove humanity's worth under the "kick-ass" model of diplomacy. Probably, we would see him unable to secure the Council's regard by direct means, op... | 13 |
Why doesn't plato appear as a character in his dialogues? | Just wondering why he writes as he is socrates, instead of writing as himself? or even writing about himself in third person? I know that he mentions himself very briefly but why not more? I have been searching for this answer for a long time and have yet to find a straightforward response. | 81 | >I have been searching for this answer for a long time and have yet to find a straightforward response.
That is because there is no straightforward response to find. Plato did not write down anywhere his motives for not putting himself into his dialogues. We can speculate about why he did things, just like we can s... | 49 |
ELI5: How are spiders able to crate webs from A to B if said points are two trees or poles several metres away from each other? | Saw a line of spider web earlier today stretching across 2 trees that were several metres apart. The web was about 2 metres high off the ground. How exactly did the spider get from point A to B with It's web
? | 307 | They let out a web string and let it flow on the wind. The string is sticky, so as soon as it touches the other tree, it attaches there. Afterwards the spider can use that string as a base to create the rest of the web. | 153 |
ELI5: Is picking and eating the contents of your nostril genetic? Also, is there a reason "we" do this? | I'm 27 years old and I think I've reasonably hidden this from my partner of 6 years. We have a 1 year old and a 3 year old. Our 3 year old also openly picks her nose and eats it, and continues to despite us chastising her every time she does.
I know I enjoy it because it's salty and helps unblock my nose. I also hold... | 18 | I suspect this behavior is quite common, and that it's similar to when animals lick to groom themselves. Eating boogers could provide information as to whether one is sick, or perhaps help avoid leaving that information for predators. | 12 |
Is 0 a number? | My math teacher said that 0 isn't a number and that Siri is a fool for dividing 0 by 0. But I don't know if this is true, and I'm too lazy to do my own research on this topic.
[View Poll](https://www.reddit.com/poll/jismci) | 39 | There is absolutely no discussion about is it a number. Yes, zero is a number.
The only possible discussion is should it be considered a natural number, and there it's basically a matter of personal preference, and changes nothing of substance. | 110 |
ELI5: Is there something about soap in particular that makes it hurt more when it gets in your eyes? | I understand that eyes are sensitive organs and the body wants to protect them from pretty much everything, which is why we have eyelids and tear ducts and eyelashes. But it doesn't hurt all that much to open your eyes in water. Is there something in particular about soap, maybe its hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature or it... | 29 | Soaps are generally strongly basic, as bases are good for rendering the protein and fat molecules which we wash off plates and ourselves when cleaning. Breaking these molecules up allows them to be more easily wiped away. In addition, soap is a surfactant, which means it is capable of causing oil and water to mix by bi... | 29 |
[LotR] Hypothetically speaking, is it possible to use the One Ring as a bashing weapon and beat Sauron to death with sheer brute force? | If yes, how often would such a person have to do this to keep Sauron dead most of the time? | 17 | You can't kill Sauron. He doesn't die when he's defeated; he is merely diminished. `
Also, short of the Valar or Eru himself (or Tom Bombadil, but... that's a different case), there isn't anyone who could wield the Ring without succumbing to it. It's a part of Sauron's being; it is literally impossible to use it again... | 15 |
ELI5: How did the pointed arches of Gothic architecture more efficiently support the weight of buildings, therefore allowing for taller buildings? | 23 | The real genius behind Gothic architecture wasn't so much taller buildings, which you got with earlier styles of architecture at the expense of creating dark, windowless spaces. Rather, their genius was being in able to remove so much of the walls and just leave the arches.
The innovation with the Gothic style was the... | 20 | |
ELi5 : How do modern smartwatches calculate steps, blood pressure and oxygen level in blood ? | What are the technology behind this ? | 29 | Oxygen level is done via the color of your blood. That is called *Reflectance pulse oximetry.*
The watch shines a light on your skin and the color reflection lets it measure blood flow and oxygenation.
Steps are calculated by the accelerometer, which basically measures how fast and where the watch is going. There is... | 23 |
ELI5: How did a piece of leather sharpen an olde timey razor when leather is softer than steel? | 30 | The purpose of the leather isn't to "sharpen" it's to "hone".
In the first stage of getting dull the tip of the razor will bend. The leather strop is used to 'push' the tip back into the right alignment without removing any material. This process is called "honing", you should do it a lot, which is why you don't acut... | 37 | |
[Men In Black] If MIB uses a Neuralizer on you, will it affect you if your eyes are closed or if you are looking the other way? Does it only affect humans or can it do aliens too? Can you develop a resistance to it after multiple exposures or by willpower alone? | 17 | No, it does not affect you if your eyes are closed. It doesn't work through certain sunglasses either.
It doesn't affect you if you are looking the other way, which is why they ask you to look at it before they flash you.
It is alien technology, so it obviously affects certain alien races as well.
No, you can't dev... | 19 | |
ELI5: How does the human body metabolize stored fat? What can you do to help it metabolize at maximum efficiency (i.e. burn fat at greatest rate possible)? | For example, I see a lot about the importance of drinking water but no real explanation of why. Online sources all speak in technical language I cannot understand or are simply weight loss sites spouting pseudo science. Brilliant scientist redditors please help!
EDIT: Assume that I am already heavily restricting cal... | 260 | ELI5:
Your body has two main ways to make energy: Carbohydrates, and fats.
Your body normally prioritizes carbohydrates to burn over fat.
If there are no carbohydrates left then it will have no choice but to burn fat (Ketosis).
Your body is not very good at controlling how much fat to burn because it is not its... | 68 |
[MCU] Where was the Wakandan Air Force during the Battle of Wakanda in Infinity War? | I can’t understand why the only air defense they used were Sam and Rhodey, when Wakanda obviously has planes. | 54 | The real issue here is that Wakanda's military has been pretty much entirely ceremonial for centuries. Oh, they train and keep equipment up to date, but in terms of actual tactics and experience, Wakanda is awful at it, as they've never really had to fight a modern war, and are so caught up on keeping their past tradit... | 118 |
ELI5: Why can I not plug a double ended USB into 2 laptops and just transfer files across? | 333 | Because USB protocol follows master-slave convention. One device is "ruling" USB bus and other devices must follow. If you connect two computers that way, both would want to be "masters". There is also electrical problem, because both PC are providing power to 5V lines. If that circuitry is badly designed it could just... | 161 | |
Do the Gamblers Fallacy and regression toward the mean contradict each other? | If I have flipped a coin 1000 times and gotten heads every time, this will have no impact on the outcome of the next flip. However, long term there should be a higher percentage of tails as the outcomes regress toward 50/50. So, couldn't I assume that the next flip is more likely to be a tails? | 688 | Past results do not influence future results when flipping coins. There will not be a higher percentage of tails to have the outcome regress to 50/50 - there will simply be so many flips that the thousand heads become an irrelevant factor on the total.
Also, getting a thousand tails in a thousand flips isn't going to h... | 470 |
ELI5: Why is it that on most fans, the switch is ordered as off, high, medium, and low? | I know this is a silly question but it always puzzled me. Why don't they just do off, low, med, then high?
| 148 | When you turn the fan on, the motor that powers the fan is running at max speed. When you turn the fan to medium or low, the motor is slowed down. Running the fan at the maximum speed of the motor is more efficient and the fan will last longer since the motor does not have to adjust to the increased power flow as you g... | 127 |
ELI5: Would placing 2 identical lumps of radioactive material together increase the radius of danger, or just make the radius more dangerous? | So, say you had 2 one kilogram pieces of uranium. You place one of them on the ground. Obviously theres a radius of radioactive badness around it, lets say its 10m. Would adding the other identical 1kg piece next to it increase the radius of that badness to more than 10m, or just make the existing 10m more dangerous?
... | 6,591 | Both. There isn't a fixed radius of "badness" around it. It's not like some discrete bubble around the material where on the inside of the bubble you get fried and on the outside nothing happens. There's just less radiation the further away you get. If you have twice as much radioactive material, you'll get twice the d... | 5,178 |
[Aliens] Were the Colonial Marines familiar at all with fighting alien life? Was this their first encounter with the xenomorphs or what? | In the film, Hicks even asks if it's another bug hunt. Is this related to xenomorphs or had they just been fighting other alien life? | 23 | It was the first encounter with the xenomorphs, because they had too many questions about them which Ripley had to answer. And the fact that she was there as a consultant at all shows she was the only person available with knowledge of the species.
There's definitely other life out there that the marines may have foug... | 25 |
ELI5: Does it rain over all the Oceans and Seas? Are any areas over an Ocean or a Sea classified as deserts? | Well I was watching some documentary and they mentioned ancient dried up seas. This got me wondering why they dried up, the obvious answer was the geology changed. But then I thought to myself, so why didn't a giant lake form here instead and I realised that since the geology had changed, there had been so little rainf... | 26 | There are definitely bodies of water which get rained on more or less depending on where they are. The amount of precipitation which falls in the arctic is very small compared to that which falls in a tropical region. Areas of ocean which are downwind from deserts also get very little direct precipitation.
Oceans and ... | 11 |
CMV: Anti-feminism is not pro-misogyny | I'm a male and I'm a rabid anti-feminist. Many feminists, including people in academics would say I'm a misogynist. But I disagree. I'm very much for equal rights of women, and I do think we live in a sexist society. However, I'm very much against what feminism has become in the last few years or so. I'll break down on... | 63 | >Feminists are now running the government
Citation needed.
You have provided evidence of things done by a scattered group of people on the internet, one example of a proposed state level law, and an example of one case on a college campus which you've based on your memory of an article that you can't find. | 52 |
ELI5: Why does the liver have so much more regenerative properties than other organs? | 446 | Firstly, the liver is not a mechanical organ like the heart or kidneys. It’s functions are based entirely on chemistry, not on structure. Any liver cell anywhere can do what a liver cell does. So, if you remove a piece of the liver, the liver still works. This would not work for a mechanical organ like the heart, becau... | 772 | |
Eli5, how do selective herbicides such as broadleaf weed killer work? Why do they only kill certain things? | 57 | By targeting something that only that species or group of species have.
Because they are broadleaf, that means they are all related. Much like humans, chimps, gorilla's all share many characteristics because we all primates.
So we find something that all broadleaf has in common, that other plants don't and target tha... | 39 | |
[blade runner] Deckard's gun has 2 triggers and other design elements that are characteristic for a rifle rather than a handgun, what could be the in-universe explanation for that? | 46 | The androids he’s typically running down are significantly tougher to stop than a normal human being. His sidearm is designed to give him a *small* advantage over routine police weapons in these situations, by providing variable ammo payloads and firing a higher caliber, higher velocity round. It’s why the thing kick... | 45 | |
[superman] Were the kryptonians aware of their power before superman went to earth? | kryptonians were far more advanced than humans currently are. So, were they aware of their physiological reactions to the yellow sun? I was wondering if they could have simulated a room that would give them a massive dose of yellow sun radiation. Then, they could put on a space suit, and walk around their planet as a g... | 36 | In the movie universes, Jor-El at least definitely knew. In MoS its implied that is why he chose Earth as the destination in the first place.
In the comic universe its slightly less clear. Sending Kal-El away is often shown as a last ditch, spur of the moment decision to save their son rather than being premeditated ... | 27 |
I think I should go around telling a lot of the people in CMV that they have great views that don't need to be changed, CMV. | I was just reading the rules and I noticed that responding to OP is limited to challenges to the view and clarifications on what is being said.
I am bothered that I can't support their views directly and encourage them to feel good about their naturally formed opinions. | 67 | Consider the possibilities for each OP you encounter.
Possibility #1: The OP is posting in this forum specifically because they want their view challenged. They are either secure enough in their view that they aren't actually worried about said challenges, or they genuinely want to have their view changed. Thus, the... | 51 |
Could someone step me through the math/deduction/reasoning that Einstein did to come to the conclusion that bodies of mass and energy distort space-time, hence macroscopically observed as gravity? | Large or small, Responses all! | 30 | You need three assumptions:
The laws of physics are the same for all inertial observers.
The speed of light is the same observers.
An observer in freefall is in an inertial frame.
A corollary of the third is that acceleration is indistinguishable from a gravitational field. Imagine being in an elevator in outer spa... | 61 |
Why is it that a single good deed isn’t enough to pardon a life of evilness but a single act of evil is enough to condemn a life of good deeds? | This was a quote in a movie. But this seems to be true in real life as well.
By extension, if we quantify good vs evil, does this imply effect of 1 unit of good < effect 1 unit of evil?
And depending on the answer, do utilitarians take this factor into consideration? That, for example, harming 1 person may irresp... | 307 | From the point of view of moral psychology, it's to do with trust.
Our conceptions of morality and especially our moral intuitions serve to structure our social interactions. When we think about people being good or evil, that informs our interactions with them. We don't just enter into every social interaction with a... | 147 |
ELI5: Why do US gold coins have a particular value (i.e $25) attached to them if the gold itself is worth hundreds, if not thousands of dollars? | https://invest.usgoldbureau.com/50-gold-american-eagle-1-troy-oz-gold-coin-bu?custentity_campaign_search=AdWords&custentity_campaign_type=Search&custentity_campaign_keyword=&custentity_campaign_family=87949694839&gclid=CjwKEAjw7e66BRDhnrizmcGc8VcSJABR6gaR9zFCXoZwkHfWOavCR60v6-V9fu2QMKgkZcwwScg2tBoCxBHw_... | 20 | In order to be minted as valid currency, they must have a value assigned to them. Since the value of gold fluctuates, it makes no sense to print actual value. Instead, the mints choose smaller denominations, knowing that no sane person would actually spend the coin as currency at that value. | 24 |
What happens at a biochemical level to cause problems when a fever runs too high? | As a layperson, it seems sort of unbelievable that the reactions critical to human life could be optimal at 98.6 F, but be so far off base by 104F-106F that death is a possibility. Can someone give some specific examples of why cells begin to die when a fever runs that high? | 33 | Eggs are mostly protein. When you cook an egg, do you notice how the white part of an egg is originally colorless and see through? Then after the egg reaches a certain temperature, the color turns white and it solidifies? Those physical changes occur because the protein has denatured. That is similar to what happens to... | 14 |
In light of two decades of Europeans complaining about US foreign and military policy, the US and Canada should abandon Ukraine and the EU handle the current situation. CMV. | Given the near-constant complaining the EU does over US policy, the US should abandon the EU to let them handle Putin on their own. In the interim, the US should adopt a policy similar to that of China when it deals with Russia "Stay out of mine, we'll stay out of yours." Possibly going so far as to leave NATO.
This... | 30 | You do realize that when we say that we are doing various foreign policy related things because we want to help our allies or feel concerned about the state of the world or want to protect human rights, that's all propaganda and bullshit, right?
The US, like all countries, makes foreign policy decisions based on one a... | 15 |
[Marvel] could Venom use a corpse to have a body without dealing with another mind? | if so, it would be an easy fix to do what he wants without worrying about what a host wants or needs. | 370 | No, as his species name implies he's in a **symbiotic** relationship with the host and among other things absorbs nutrients from the host to survive.
So while he could suckle someone dry all at once it's more economical to just deal with them. | 405 |
ELI5: Why most animals can walk after birth but human babies and some others take a long time to learn? | 17 | Humans are fairly unique among animals, in that the brain keeps growing after the baby is born. This is because human brains are so large, compared with our bodies, that human physiology is stretched to its limits at childbirth to try to accommodate it.
Human babies' heads are huge compared with their bodies! Women's ... | 15 | |
[Star Wars] Are there other grand moffs? | So IIRC, Grand Moff Tarkin was specifically in charge of the Outer Rim. In A New Hope, he mentioned that after dissolution of the senate, the regional governors will enact direct control over their territories. So, are there other grand moffs in charge of say the Mid Rim or Core Worlds etc? | 15 | Yes. A Grand Moff is the chief military and civil leader of an Oversector, which is really just a large or politically important sector. At the time of the Battle of Yavin, there were two: Wilhuff Tarkin, Governor of the Outer Rim, and Lozen Tolruck, Governor of the Kashyyyk Sector. Grand Moff Randd would be the last "... | 24 |
Eli5: why is it so hard for Tesla to get their fit and finish up to the standards of other car companies? | Yes I have searched and I couldn't find an answer.
I can understand why perfect paint jobs are hard, they just are. However, with things like panel gaps being bigger in some spots, or interior panels not lining up correctly, how does that happen? I would think that all these body panels and interior panels are stampe... | 70 | Cars are incredibly complicated assemblies. The major traditional manufacturers have spent decades working out how to do this. You are correct that stamped parts coming off a tool will be very similar, although tools do wear over time. The variation can also occur when parts are assembled. If you have 0.5 mm variation ... | 71 |
CMV:I believe hunter and gatherers are more content with life than civilians in the civilized world | In a practical sense, our basic needs are pretty much nutrients and water. Everything is society, such as wealth, income, education, and etc are just there to make our lives appear meaningful. They don't exist in the physical world. Hunter and gatherers don't need these social hierarchies to find meaning in their exist... | 18 | Every time this question comes up it's framed as it technological advancement were some supernatural change that had been thrust upon us.
***Hunter gatherers built the civilized world in order to escape theirs.***
History has already asked the hunter gathers which world they preferred. Those chose ours, and dedicate... | 21 |
[Star Trek] Was Noonien Soong's given name ever described as taboo? After the Eugenics Wars, it kind of feels like naming your kid "Adolf". | 87 | Modern Trek really overhypes Khan as the definitive Big Bad of Earth's past, but that's not really the case. When Kirk's crew first picks up Khan and popsicles, they don't even recognize him. They have to look his name up in a database just to see who he is, so that answers your first question. The name "Khan Noonien S... | 96 | |
How has psychiatry changed since the Rosenhan experiment? | I've just read the write up of the Rosenhan experiment, in which 9 mentally healthy people initially feigned symptoms and then acted normally inside of mental hospitals. Their treatment there was worrying from a human rights and a medical point of view, as normal things were seen as pathology, and pseudopatients asking... | 674 | One big difference is the growth of the field of counseling, which still doesnt get the recognition it deserves as its own field. In counseling we use the "wellness model," in which the client (as opposed to patient) is viewed as functinoing on a continuum of wellness. You are not a depressed person, waiting to be cu... | 186 |
[Star Wars] Do the 90s Thrawn books still fit the timeline of the 2017 reboot? | Hello!
I just started reading Thrawn (2017) and realized there are 3 previous books that are now Legends from the 90s by the same author.
I understand that these are no longer *canon*, but if I were to choose to read them after Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, and Thrawn: Treason would their story make sense and still fi... | 48 | There's a ton of stuff that doesn't line up or fit anymore. While the broad strokes aren't going to contradict each other all the minor details that build the story will. The clone wars in 90's legends were vastly different. Thrawn himself is a little goofier but still a great character. Several very important figures ... | 34 |
(Iron Giant) Where did the Iron Giant come from? | Why was built in a human shape but could transform? What was he sent there to do? Was he a possible emissary for an alien species (given his ability of speech, and learning), and if things went awry was he to destroy humanity? | 37 | I always thought he was an advance weapon ala the Infiltrator Scarabs of the Reach. Same concept. Iron Giant hits his head, malfunctions, forgets his mission. That's why he had all those weapons--he was supposed to take over the world.
Same concept as Goku, as well. | 21 |
ELI5: What are the cultural differences between China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? | I understand most of the political history, but aren't the cultures of these three remarkably similar? Is it just the governments keeping these peoples separate? | 121 | This is a huge question. The "major" difference is that Hong Kong and Taiwan are more traditionally Chinese (pre-Cultural Revolution), but with a tiny bit of Japanese influence from WWII occupation. (Hong Kongers and Taiwanese are, at least, less likely to viscerally hate Japanese.) In fact, Hong Kong and Taiwan have m... | 33 |
ELI5: How did seemingly uneducated individuals such as the Wright brothers and John Moses Browning accomplish such feats of engineering? | Is it related to the time period?
This question applies especially to the wright brothers, since aerospace is such a difficult area of research. | 16 | A proper education is just formalizing the process of getting knowledge. Just because they didn't go to school for aerospace engineering doesn't mean they were clueless on the subject matter.
The levels of details and feats of engineering are completely different between back then and today. Back then they just needed... | 12 |
[World of Warcraft] What are the broad political and military goals of the Horde/Alliance? | Is the Horde solely a collection of races, or does it have its own political goals and cultural tenets? If I'm a Human, and I disagree with the direction that the Alliance is heading in, can I defect to the Horde? Would I be welcomed? Asking for a friend | 40 | The Horde’s main goal (assuming you mean the New Horde, founded by Thrall and currently lead by Sylvanas as Warchief) has always been survival. The scattered tribes of Tauren, then exiled Darkspeare, and broken clans of Orcs banded together to survive the threats in Kalimdor. As a group they, and the Forsaken and Blood... | 33 |
ELI5: How do trees determine where to branch, and is it more dependent on DNA or environment? | 24 | Photosensitive growth hormones.
Just like your body uses chemicals such as testosterone to tell it's cells when and how to grow, trees and plants have their own equivalents, only some of the plant-hormones react to light.
The hormones that decide where a new branch start are (in some trees) more active when exposed... | 16 | |
Why do some electronics (wifi routers) tell us to wait five minutes when restarting? | 24 | Many rectified low voltage electronics have capacitors that smooth the voltage. When in use, these devices use a small amount of current. When unplugged, the capacitors will have a residual charge that keeps the system "powered" for a brief period of time. You may notice an LED light slowly dim when unplugged before... | 27 | |
Why is Spain’s interest rate different from Germany’s? | Or for that matter any two EU countries. To maintain a currency union only one center country conducts autonomous monetary policy while the others set their interest rates to equal that of the center country. I assume this center country is Germany because that is the location of the ECB. So why does Spain have a highe... | 49 | Your idea of how ECB monetary policy is derived is completely false. The ECB's monetary policy is not determined by Germany. It is determined by the Governing Council which is made up of the heads of all 19 Central Banks in each country plus the 6 members of the Executive Board. There is no center country.
The currenc... | 66 |
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