post_title stringlengths 5 304 | post_text stringlengths 0 37.5k | post_scores int64 15 83.1k | comment_text stringlengths 200 9.61k | comment_score int64 10 43.3k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
[MCU] What is Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet made out of? | Title. | 38 | Uru metal presumably, considering it was made by the same guys that made mjolnir and that seems to be what godly weapons are made of. Vibranium has shown fantastic physical abilities, but Uru is the only metal shown being able to channel power. | 64 |
Does my standard PC use more floating point calculations, or more integers? | Assuming that I dont run computer games.
I think that computer games might use a lot of floating points, but what about "normal" programs? | 19 | Integers get a work-out any time you're dealing with pointer arithmetic. Under the hood, this includes pretty much all code that works with arrays or structs, which is the majority of code in general. Even the large floating-point areas of game graphics include a decent chunk of integer arithmetic, from the indices int... | 28 |
ELI5: stack overflow and buffer overflow | I've come across these few terms a couple of times when I'm reading computer-related stuff. Wikipedia's explaination is too tough for me to understand so I hope someone can explain what these 2 terms mean and what are the implications of having a program having such problems | 27 | **Stack overflow**
Whenever you call a function, memory for that function is allocated in a place called the call stack. When the function completes its run, that memory is released. A stack overflow happens if too many functions are called, and there's not enough room in the stack (which has a hard size limit) to all... | 12 |
Why do most people with Downs Syndrome look nearly identical? | I've always wondered this. | 440 | A symptom of those with down syndrome is a specific set of physical traits. Puffy faces, wide eyes, and general disproportion.
Because these difference are so distinct compared to normal people, it's often the case that we notice that before unique physical traits. | 419 |
ELI5: Caffeinated, regular brewed coffee/coffee-based drinks make me feel awful, but cold press and caffeinated tea make me feel great - is this an effect of acidity of the drink or concentration of caffeine? Or neither? | Edit: "Awful" is defined as the shaky, sick-ish feeling that occurs | 30 | Caffeine in tea, especially green teas,is bound to an aminoacid which makes it much easier for the body to digest. As a second effekt the caffeine is metabolized slower which leads to less of a caffeine kick but rather to a prolonged and slower effect. | 11 |
CMV: There is absolutely no unrealistic beauty standard, for both men or women. | Hey /cmv/, I expect this to be a doozy.
Basically, I see people complaining all the time about the media and their 'unrealistic standards' for beauty. And I get that the magazines will take models and photoshop the hell out of them. Okay, of course you can't photoshop yourself like a magazine ad in real life.
But g... | 28 | > Hit the gym, dress well
Maybe spend hours straightening your hair, get breast implants, wear contacts instead of glasses, make sure your makeup is done right, get your teeth whitened... you get the idea.
Sure, it's not "technically" unrealistic, but at what point does it become ridiculous?
Also, us guys don't h... | 30 |
[General Sci-Fi] I'm looking to buy a second-hand shrink ray, but the sellers don't know their specs. Typically, do the smaller or larger models reduce size more? | 89 | The default for mad scientist ray of all sorts is that their power (in range, area of effect, or intensity) increases directly with the size of the Projector. For shrink rays, anything that shrinks object larger than an 18 wheeler is likely to require a vehicle of that size to move it.
But there are variables?
Is i... | 34 | |
ELI5: How did the craters on the moon form? If by asteroids, where did the asteroids go? | 17 | They were indeed created by asteroids/rocks smashing into the surface of the moon. The impact is usually very powerful, so powerful that it pulverizes the part of the moon that was impacted (thus forming the creator), along with most (if not all) of the comet itself.
Edit: typo | 22 | |
How did the n-word go from being a slur to casual slang among African-Americans? | I'm interested in how this occurred, how exactly did it go from being a racist slur against blacks to being thrown casually thrown around by African-Americans? | 75 | This article speaks directly to your question:
Rahman, J. (2012). The N word: Its history and use in the African American community. *Journal of English Linguistics, 40*(2), 137-171.
**Summary**
The N-word "persists in the lexicon of African American English because it conveys a social meaning that is foundational in... | 53 |
ELI5: Why do colors fade in the sun? And not just fabrics but also painted and plastic items? | 428 | The sun's energy is radiation. Basically, any objects in the direct path of sunlight is getting blasted with radiation. The radiation breaks down particals and causes deterioration. This is also how people get skin cancer. | 304 | |
[Halo] Is the Needler reload motion canonical? | The Needler reload motion does not seem canonical. It does not appear in any non-game media in the franchise. Some modder made a reload motion wherein the user opens a hatch and places the ammo inside. What are you folks' thoughts? | 23 | You’re probably right. Like, when Spartans use med packs, they don’t walk over them and instantly heal. They have to open it up, pull out the biofoam capsules and spray it on their wounds.
Same goes for the difference in power of weapons from their descriptions in books and their effects in game. In the books, a sing... | 37 |
CMV: Elizabeth Warren's decision to release her DNA results, and the way in which they were released, was both strategically and morally wrong | There are two components to my argument. First, I believe that releasing the results, in the manner that she did, will strategically/politically hurt her chances in 2020.
* It makes it look like she is stooping to Trump's level: by playing ball with Trump, she has taken the bait and is now stooping to his level of ad ... | 4,098 | I think the main strategic advantage of Warren’s decision is that it disarms one of Trump’s primary avenues of attack, name calling. Pocahontas has been Trump’s go to name for Warren for quite a while. If Warren brings up the million dollar donation every time Trump says Pocahontas she either galvanized her base by con... | 541 |
ELI5: Why do so many foods have a ‘chicken’ flavour, when the flavour tastes nothing like chicken? | 34 | Chicken flavored spice packets in things like Ramen noodles are almost always made of actual chicken, so they do in fact taste like chicken.
That said, the reason there is a different flavor is essentially the same reason that orange juice taste different from oranges. Chicken itself is very quick to spoil, so it has ... | 32 | |
[Economics] Why does nearly everything feel overpriced? | I know this is a complicated and subjective question, but I've noticed that it is very rare for me to exchange money for goods or services and feel like I got my full money's worth. In fact, any time you actually do get your money's worth on a purchase people proclaim what "a great deal" or "a steal" it is, because the... | 46 | Consider this: 'Stuff' is actually extremely cheap in our age. We live in an era where throwing out things and buying new is usually more economical than having people repair it. Labor is expensive.
Also you have to take inflation into account. 10 years ago those prices sound about right. Now, not so much. Your percep... | 35 |
[Predator] if a predator was hunting and they found a man who was mentally and emotionally unstable and ill due to a tumor would they still kill the man? | 41 | In general they wouldnt, it would be a kill without honor involved. They will generally only attack prey that provides them a challenge or they can handicap themselves to the point it is a challenge. A predator that over prepares and effectively slaughters a defenceless prey effectively shame themselves.
Thats not to ... | 85 | |
ELI5:Why Russian rockets have branching thrusters, while American ones don't. | 254 | The Soyuz rockets used technology directly derived from the V-2 missile. The problem the Soviet engineers faced when making the R-7 launcher for the Soyuz was that, when they attemted to scale the engine larger, the engines became more unstable. They began stuttering and exploding.
The US took years to solve this p... | 76 | |
Sooo... turns out I don't have security clearance to present at a conference tomorrow. Plan B? | My funding comes from the government, and while the work I'm doing involves a publically available dataset with publically available methods, I need security clearance to give my talk. This is despite having already attained clearance for our publically available paper that the talk is about.
So, yeah. I'm going to a ... | 104 | Wow, that sucks! I’m sorry that happened. Had a lab mate have a similar issue with DOE data - approved for the publication but found out days before that somehow the approval doesn’t transfer to talks and he needed an entirely different form... no time to get it of course. what he did was present (he had a talk) the mo... | 75 |
Are dream memories stored in the same place in your brain as normal memories? | When I have a vivid dream, I feel like what happened in the dream actually happened, even though I know it didn't. Just wondering how the brain treats dreams vs reality | 173 | Memories aren't really stored in one "place" in the brain. Rather, they're made up of certain synaptic connections spread over a distinct neural circuit. The strengthening of those connections is what encodes memory. Now, there are many structures which have special roles in encoding memory (hippocampus) and those whic... | 21 |
[DBZ] Why the hell hasn't Goku wished for immortality? | He is the strongest being in the universe, guardian and protector of all good. The only thing stopping him from saving the world in any given plotline is him dying. On top of that, gathering the dragonballs is more of a relaxing day trip than some grand arduous journey it used to be. | 78 | He basically is immortal. He may be "dead" but he's not some random ghost. He gets to stay himself and train with the kai's. Like you said in your response to the other comment, Goku likes fighting, eating, and training above all else. Being dead really allows him to do this more than being immortal on earth. | 72 |
ELI5 How does milk put the flame out in your mouth after eating spicy food? | After eating spicy food, if the heat is too much to handle, you drink milk. It makes it less worse, but why is that? | 22 | Spicy food is spicy because of an oily compound called capsaicin. Oil isn’t soluble in water so drinking water doesn’t wash it off, it just glides over it. The fat and protein in milk bind to the capsaicin and dissolve the oily compounds, removing it from your mouth when you swallow. | 38 |
[MCU] Clint (as Ronin) hunted down the worst of the worst. Why was he (and several of the Avengers) so disturbed by his actions, when a) former SHIELD, who probably did shady stuff; b) targeting scum? | Clint wasn't targeting innocent, or even morally ambiguous, individuals; he targeted the worst of the worst, those that escaped punishment due to an upturned world.
So why are several of the Avengers, especially Natasha, so disturbed by his actions? After all, Natasha probably had a rap sheet WAY worse than Clint coul... | 24 | He wasn't doing it because it was a job required of him by the US government, he was doing it to cope with grief and loss. Murder is not widely prescribed by most therapists and might be worse than self-harm as a coping mechanism. | 55 |
[Bioshock] Could Rapture have survived if Plasmids were never developed? | We know that the development and use of Plasmids had a direct effect on Rapture's fall. Even if the Rapture Civil War was concluded quickly, having litteral super powered people who go insane with use, creates a very dangerous situation in a city bellow the surface.
If Plasmids were never invented, there would be no g... | 72 | Canonically it would likely have collapsed sooner, actually.
Rapture was by design a heartless cutthroat society- escaping "petty morality"was one of its explicit aims- and by location a society with no escape and a zero-sum game in terms of space and resources. This rapidly lead to problems- a massive wealth gap, ext... | 80 |
ELI5: How do "Moon Pools" work? How can a ship have a big hole in it yet not sink? | 4,711 | Other top explanations are forgetting that moonpools can be below the water line. This is because the air in the moon pool room is the same pressure as the water outside the moon pool. Experiment to show a similar effect: invert a clear glass over some water push the glass underwater, there eill be an air pocket in sid... | 3,631 | |
ELI5: Why is it Universally accepted that Green means GO and red means stop? | 17 | I don't know about green being universally accepted as "go", but the fact is that red is accepted as "stop"
The reason for this is simple:
Red light penetrates better (whether it be through fog, smoke, rain, etc), due to its wavelength.
Now say you're driving on a super foggy day, and approach a stoplight. If it's gr... | 19 | |
[Pokemon] Team Rocket always gets hit with powerful moves and "blasts off". How the hell aren't they dead? | Seriously, how come no one brings up the fact that sees three are some kind of immortal beings? Countless times they've been hit with moves that cause enough force to fling them out into the sky and they always magically land safety. Not a broken bone, no cuts, clean as ever the next time Ash and his gang run into them... | 19 | In the games, specifically in Gen 4's canalave library, there are texts that would suggest people and pokemon share a common ancestor, so Jesse and James would be taking "Hp damage", but not enough to kill them, perhaps they have the ability sturdy. | 20 |
ELI5: The reason for breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth | 40 | The nose has mucus and air to filter out dust and bacteria. Also the nose's insides are a bit warmer and damper than the mouth so that the air is a bit easier to breathe in and to prevent pneumonia.
Basically, nose boogers are just a ball of nasty stuff that would've gone through of you'd have breathed through your m... | 40 | |
CMV: Psychopaths aren't evil, they are unwell | Poorly-managed psychopathy can cause some people to behave in terrible, evil ways. However, not every person who is diagnosably psychopathic is evil- in fact, most of them are much like everyone else, they just have brains that are wired differently in a way that is understood for a lot of other illnesses. Psychopathy,... | 38 | The problem with this type of thinking is that it means that nobody is responsible for anything. Everyone is always acting in accordance with the electrochemical machinery of their brain. Anyone doing ANYTHING evil would just be doing it because of how their brain is wired.
Have someone who is a "good guy"? Maybe t... | 15 |
ELI5:What are the colors in space? | I see pictures of outer space and I see all these vibrant colors. Can you explain this phenomena? Like I see a cluster of stars and like pink, green, purple, blue etc. Like what is that? How does that occur? I have no experience in astronomy if you couldn't already tell.
Here's what I mean:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi... | 56 | Most of the color you see in pictures of distant galaxies and nebula is added in. The images are typically created using electromagnetic waves outside the visible spectrum of light, but this will vary picture to picture. If you posted an example picture of what you're talking about, you're more likely to get the exact ... | 27 |
ELI5: Why does sweat smell distinctively different in different areas of the body? | 58 | There are two distinct types of sweat glands found in humans: the eccrine and apocrine sweat glands. While eccrine sweat glands cover every area of your body, apocrine sweat glands only appear in axillary (armpit), external genital, perianal and areolar (nipple) areas. While secretions of both glands are initially odor... | 26 | |
[Star Wars] Did the Clones receive any specialised training beyond basic soldiering? | Kind of three questions here, because I don't want to spam the subreddit with multiple posts.
1) **Did they train in hand to hand or melee combat?** I've noticed that a certain popular Stormtrooper has been trained in wielding a staff, but obviously he's likely to be a recruit rather than an original clone (plus the C... | 20 | Like any functioning military clone units were trained based on personal skills. Some proved to be rash and agressive, given heavy weapons to fight on the front lines. Others proved to be natural born leaders, given leadership training or were invited to join the elite ARC forces.
Clones were given basic hand to hand ... | 16 |
ELI5: How do different types of pain feel, well…different? | I know that pain is a signal sent along nerves to the brain, but how do different types of pain actually feel different? Like what causes the difference between a stabbing pain vs a dull ache vs burning pain, etc? | 6,585 | Nerves from your brain go to your spinal cord then split up and reach your internal organs then go to your skin.
* Stabbing pain: There are many pain receptors on your skin and they are close together. So the ones that are damaged report pain to your brain and the ones right next to them that aren't damaged don't rep... | 4,864 |
[Star Wars] Rogue One Spoilers | Why did Saw Garrera just give up? I guess I can understand narratively why his death fits, but it was portrayed as though he could just as easily have escaped with Jyn and company. I'm wondering if I'm missing some of his backstory (I only know him from Rogue One) that might make the "I will run no longer" line sound a... | 129 | He was using a mask to breathe, and it doesn't look like he adapted to that as well as our favorite Dark Lord. It's uncertain whether he would have made it to the ship, or whether he's able to run at all.
He also seemed to be losing his mind a bit with his treatment of the defected pilot, really paranoid fellow and n... | 144 |
If nylon stockings rip all the time, why don't we use another material? | Surely another, more suitable, material exists? | 2,906 | There is. Silk stockings don't rip nearly as often as nylon. However, they're much more expensive and still run occasionally. Most women buy the cheap ones, knowing that multiple pairs of them will ultimately cost less than a really good pair of silk ones. | 1,745 |
Why do air bubbles in bottles sometimes split ? | I thought theoretically there should be only one bubble which points upwards because air is lighter than water
Here are some pictures I took : http://imgur.com/MLf72TE
http://imgur.com/UvU2A7Y | 34 | It's more energetically favorable to have less water-air interface area, just like it's more energetically favorable to have the air on top of the water. In this case, the split bubbles reduce the surface area by making rounder shapes, which offsets the energy required to lift the water in between up that little extra ... | 11 |
How do we define what is rotating in the universe? | In relativity, we find that if a moving observer would look at the distant stars and it would seem as if the he is stationary and the stars are moving about him/her, it does not matter whether it is the observer moving or the universe is moving past him, they would experience the same relativistic effect, however, if t... | 24 | You kind of answered your own question: pseudo forces appear in accelerated systems.
Rotation is an accelerated movement and acceleration is Lorentz invariant. That means, all observers in every inertial (un-accelerated) frame of reference measure the same acceleration of a given system.
Thus, there will always be... | 11 |
How small can a nuclear reactor be? | I remember reading an article several years back about about the [Toshiba 4S](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_4S), a small "nuclear battery" (their words), and recently an article about Terrapower, which claims "hot-tub sized" reactors with 25MW output.
Obviously, I'm unfamiliar with the requirements for these re... | 76 | The smallest amount of mass required to create a nuclear reactor would be the critical mass of a fissile isotope. This is excluding any of the heat->electricity equipment, which is a large portion of an operating reactor.
If you wanted to run a steam car, i'm sure you could do it pretty easily with just the criti... | 34 |
Accomplished academics of reddit: if you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you started your first tenure-track job, what would it be? | Edit: so much helpful advice coming in. I love this community. Please share and keep it coming! | 105 | Work 9 to 5.
Protect your time.
Write first thing in the morning.
Trust your gut.
Ask for help.
Be social.
Realize you can’t save students.
People will stop asking if you say no.
No one is accomplished. Everyone is faking it. | 190 |
How is the USA able to print money month after month with no consequences, but Venezuela and Argentina entered butt-destroying levels of extreme hyperinflation in 5 minutes after printing? | 30 | Currency is affected by supply and demand.
USA are able to print money month after money with little consequences because it is the most demanded currency in the world, and usually it is even more demanded through crisis. Even printing more, most of people don't untrust on the currency (so far) and keep demanding it.
... | 36 | |
[Fallout 4] Who taught the inhabitants of the Commonwealth to read and write? | 24 | Their parents? Their family? Their community? Their school, if they're lucky enough to have one? The signs, journals, books, and ads plastered all over the world?
It's not like all human knowledge was wiped out and they crawled out of nothingness from a rock. They learned from their parents who learned from theirs wh... | 51 | |
ELI5: why do we sleep 8hrs on/16hrs off instead of, say, 24hrs on/48hrs off? | 43 | Daylight. Our bodies release different chemicals when the sun goes down to encourage sleep.
Interesting to the second part of the question, a famous experiment was done where a scientist remained underground cut off from time and day/night. It found that her body became confused and eventually she remained awake for a... | 48 | |
ELI5: why did older bikes have one large wheel in the front and a smaller one in the back | 782 | Before derailleur drive chains and geared hubs that allowed a varying ratio between the rider's legs' rotation and the wheel's rotation became common, the only way to change that ratio was to use a different sized wheel (a larger wheel requires a greater effort to turn, but moves more per turn).
(Such a setup like ... | 346 | |
ELIF: Why does Root Beer foam so much when poured onto ice cream? | 289 | It's a combination of two major factors:
- Ice cream has a lot of surface area, which means more nucleation points. More nucleation points mean more bubbles.
- Milk and cream have a higher surface tension than water. This means the bubbles are stronger.
-----
The reason why Mentos in soda makes it fizz is because a... | 143 | |
How far back in human history would we have to go before modern humans could not reproduce with their ancestors? | i.e. how far back would we have to go to be technically considered a different species? | 776 | Other great apes have 24 chromosome pairs while humans have 23. There is speculation that this happened when human population was very small and was a mutation that spread through the entire population.
If you were to try to breed with a human from before this mutation you would probably be unsuccessful.
I don’t kno... | 405 |
ELI5: Whenever I hear a fork scratching the surface of a china plate, my body shudders. What causes this to happen? | 2,685 | AFAIK, there are 2 different explanations proposed:
- The primate heritage hypothesis: Hypothesizes that the sound bore some resemblances to the alarm call of macaque monkeys, or it may have been similar to the call of some predator.
- Physical hypothesis: Hypothesizes that the unpleasantness of the sound is caused ... | 1,664 | |
[Superman] What does Clark Kent do at The Daily Planet? Is he considered a decent journalist? | 26 | Clark Kent is an investigative journalist. His specialty is deep research pieces on public interest topics, but he also does a lot of low level reaction and personal interest stories in response to disasters and super-powered incidents.
He is a solid writer, but not nearly as passionate or focused as Lois Lane. | 36 | |
[MCU] What does the Punisher think of the Avengers, especially Captain America? | 26 | We have no data yet in the MCU as we haven't seen the Punisher interact with the Avengers and we haven't heard his thoughts on them. However, traditionally, Frank Castle usually has great respect for Captain America because he was a soldier just like Frank. | 38 | |
ELI5: Why can i skype across the world with no significant delays, but a news channel can't have a proper conversation with their reporter? | 33 | Often times their reporter is in a remote location and communicating via satellite instead of hard wired networks. This introduces the massive delay you might see as satellite communication isn't as stable. | 27 | |
ELI5: Why is the ocean sometimes really dark, like in the north Atlantic yet in some places a turquoise colour like in the Caribbean or South Pacific? | 4,711 | It’s because dead animals and plants sink in water. That might seem obvious, but it means that any nutrients in sea water are rapidly used up by animals and plants and when those organisms die they sink to the bottom taking the nutrients with them. The only way those lost nutrients can be replaced is if water from the ... | 5,413 | |
Does the "location" of a headache have anything to do with the cause? | I guess this is based on the premise that headaches that "feel" like they're in different parts of your head have different causes, which may well be false.
Assuming it's true, could you reason that a headache in the back of your head is related to eyestrain (occipital lobe)? Alternately, is a headache caused by dehy... | 104 | Some conditions classically present with pain in specific paces, e.g. Subarrachnoid haemorhage classically feels like someone hit you on the back of the head with a baseball bat and that is where the pain is typically localised to, despite the bleed being spread all over the place. Others however like acute angle Glauc... | 25 |
ELI5: Why does multiplying two negatives give you a positive? | Thank you guys, I kind of understand it now. Also, thanks to everyone for your replies. I cant read them all but I appreciate it.
Oh yeah and fuck anyone calling me stupid. | 4,758 | I give you three $20 notes: +3 × +20 = +60 for you
I give you three $20 debts: +3 × -20 = -60 for you
I take three $20 notes from you: -3 × +20 = -60 for you
I take three $20 debts from you: -3 × -20 = +60 for you
Edit: Gold thanks! $ signs, and quick note - the result is the... | 6,667 |
CMV: It’s valid to feel sad about growing up in this era. I missed out and the world is worse in a lot of major ways | I’m 19. Over and over again I see adults feeling sorry for people my age for growing up with x (usually social media or tech or Covid or polarization or whatever), and missing out on y (when music was good or some random nostalgia like that).
I know that every generation since forever has done that to the next. But I ... | 52 | With exponential technology advancement, each subsequent generation is living in the best time to be alive as a human. With the advent of the internet/widely distributed free information, today, a five year old has more information at their fingertips than the US President did 50 years ago. Today, HIV isn’t a death sen... | 65 |
I am making a bank program in java, I'm trying to generate unique bank account numbers | So I'm doing homework for a class and I have to make a banking system where you can sign up and make an account. However I have difficulty trying to create an account number that wont repeat itself. Can anyone help me with this please? | 41 | usually you would use a database to store the accounts, the idea of signing up would mean you need to store that data and create an account number which is like a key to that data.
Most databases have an Identity column which is ideal for Primary Keys and could be used as a unique account number.
I am keeping in mind... | 31 |
ELI5: Where do deleted files go when you delete them? | 21 | nowhere, they stay on your hard drive. the os keeps pointers and only deletes the pointer to the actual location on the hdd, until they are over written. so if you could manually look at the data in your hard drive and knew exactly where all the pieces are, they you can reconstruct the original file. | 16 | |
ELI5: How are certain foods made to be “instant”? Such as instant oatmeal, potatoes, pasta, etc. | 39 | Each product is prepared in a different way, but the general strategy is this: Do most of the cooking process, then dehydrate it so it will last in a package, then package it. That way when the customer gets it, they simply have to add hot water which will rehydrate it and finish the last 10% of the cooking process. | 61 | |
[Star Wars] If it's so easy to go to the Dark Side, why are there so few Sith? | Anger, hate, jealousy, rage, personal attachment and only two Sith in the Galaxy? | 45 | There use to be tons of Sith, there was an entire Sith Empire that was constantly at war with the Republic, but the Empire imploded due to lots of infighting among the Sith. That's when Darth Bane came along killed all the other Sith and invented the Rule of Two, which stats that only two Sith Lords could exist at any... | 67 |
ELI5: How close are we to WWIII right now? What single thing has to happen? | I'm not asking for karma, I'm asking for an answer. A simplified one. | 36 | World War 3 isn't even on the horizon at the moment. In fact, it's going to be totally impossible until we can develop a way to neutralize the danger posed by nuclear weapons. The Cold War might be over, but MAD is still in place; none of the major players on the world scale can fight it out without killing themselves.... | 37 |
[The Simpsons] How smart is Bart? | It seems a little inconsistent, but I get the feeling that Bart is actually incredibly intelligent and capable of a lot, he’s just too bored/too distracted to realize his potential. | 132 | Pretty much. It's like he might have ADHD. In a normal classroom environment he's a disruptive mess that doesn't pay attention. But if you lock him in a closet he can memorize nine whole planets.
When he applies himself, he does well. But he can't apply himself out of compulsion. Due to the, uh... temporal plasticity ... | 153 |
ELI5:Gravity aids us in our digestion. However, in space, how is food digested? Does it float around in your digestive system? | 30 | Remember
>Gravity ***aids*** us in our digestion.
Which means there are other ways to move food down the digestive system. The answer is muscles. Food in your mouth is pushed to the stomach by muscles in the lining of the tube between mouth and your stomach. Then, in your stomach the digested food is pushed again ... | 16 | |
ELI5: Why Does it seem like every single country sells arms to Saudi Arabia, and why does Saudi Arabia need so many in the first place? | 35 | Most advanced western nations, particularly and overwhelmingly the US, sell weapons to just about everyone willing to pay, and if they are even willing to sell you weapons, you get all the money together to buy them because they are so wildly good that you will never be able to produce them yourself even in 50 years. I... | 30 | |
Where does body heat come from? | I understand that blood is warm and the cardiovascular system distributes blood/oxygen/heat throughout the body, but how does the blood get hot in the first place? | 44 | The catabolism of sugar, fat, and protein with oxygen to make ATP (basically transferring energy from chemical bonds to a different type of bond that is used by the body's cells as fuel) is not 100% efficient. This produces heat and thus warms our blood. The blood circulates to your core and warms your body.
Heat and... | 13 |
ELI5: Why did the NFL choose the small town, Green Bay, to have an NFL team over Milwaukee and Madison? | Over all the cities in Wisconsin, why Green Bay? | 15 | The team was founded BEFORE the modern NFL. Back in the early 1900's "pro football" was concentrated in the Midwest and tons of towns like GB or Duluth had teams, GB is just the one that survived till the sport got big. | 27 |
What is the ELI5 for how RegExp works? | For me, Regexp feels like magic. It's like you can parse anything with a few short keystrokes. Prior to Regexp, I'd be writing extemely complicated for item of string.split loops, to get the things that I would need.
I'm pretty curious as to how it works under the hood. | 41 | First, that gibberish-looking `[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*\s*=\s*\d+\s*;` syntax is just some notation. The regex engine reads this notation and builds its internal representation - a _state machine_.
A state machine is basically a directed graph whose nodes represent questions about the next symbol in the input stream and... | 64 |
[The Flash t.v.] What is the origin of time wraiths? Why don't they like time travellers, and are they a subspecies of something else that's familiar? | 22 | it seems that they are beings that serve the speedforce, and live in it. same thing the black flash later started to do.
the speedforce doesnt generally like time travellers, and either created or "hired" the time wraiths to hunt them down. it seems that the black flash took their job | 23 | |
[Marvel] Why is Mephisto present in the abstracts meetings ? | He is a skyfather level demon and thus very powerful, but why is he present in the meeting of abstracts ?
He is not a cosmic entity,and is ruler of his own hell,so why is he there ?
Or any of the skyfathers or hell lords for that matter ?
| 27 | I suppose the simplest answer would be "Because he wanted to, and nobody bothered to banish him out".
While he isn't an abstract entity, he is, as you've said the most powerful archdevil in the Lower Realms, so he's powerful enough to make anyone's business his business.
I would assume other Skyfather gods are more... | 20 |
Is this weird? (CW: possible borderline sexual harassment; tl;dr at end) | Hello all,
I am fairly new to academia. I'm in a grad program, but I'm collaborating on a project with a researcher who works at a local-ish nonprofit, not at all affiliated with my university. We've only met a few times but have been working together on a manuscript for nearly a year. For context, this person is sig... | 88 | This collaborator's behavior is predatory. Please document every interaction you've had with them and maybe figure out who to contact in your department. But even if you don't talk to anyone around your program, go straight to your school's equivalent of an office of equal opportunity/Title IX people and get their ad... | 156 |
[Dead Space] Origin of the Necropmorhs? | What is the origin of the Necromorps and the Markers? Are they a bioweapon developed by an unknown alien species that they lost control of when they deployed it or had an accident with it or are they just a fluke product of evolution? | 16 | Prevailing theory is that they're a race that has ascended to evolutionary perfection. Functionally immortal and able to exist for billions of years. They're the true end of existence a perfect harmony between life and death. Reproducing by seeding worlds with their markers and waiting millions of years to gestate into... | 19 |
ELI5 why Serbia and Kosovo still are in a conflict und why is it getting more aggressive atm? | 82 | They are in conflict as Kosovar Albanians desire independence, while Serbia refuses to recognise this. There was a recent escalation as the Serbian Prime Minister claimed the Serb minority in North Kosovo are being threatened, and that the NATO-led Kosovo force is failing to protect them. The PM also stated they may de... | 55 | |
[Mad Max: Fury Road] What is the world like outside of Immortan Joe's sphere of influence? | Gas Town and the Bullet Farm are about as militarised as Joe's lunatic death cult, so clearly they need that firepower against someone. The Rock Riders have no clear means of surviving other than robbery, and the Buzzards are clearly regular raiders themselves. The Vuvalini/Many Mothers are also used to ambushing trave... | 67 | It's generally believed that the land is divided up into zones where different warlords take control of the area *or* different survivors attempt to eke out a living among the wastes.
From the closest that we see of the world to the Fury Road movie, the video game developed by Avalanche, there are a variety of settler... | 65 |
[1984] something I always wondered about 1984 is who is actually reading the old newspapers that Winston edits. It's hard to imagine anyone from the porles or outer party doing it. | 16 | It doesn't matter if anyone *would*, just that they *could*, and if they were to they must not be allowed to believe any differently from the current part orthodoxy, no matter how nonsensical or mercurial that standard may be. | 27 | |
[Super Heroes] I’ve been planning on developing some unique super powers. Any suggestions as to which radioactive animal bites would give me some amazing atypical powers. Something novel to help me stand out from the typical super hero? | 22 | I've thought about this before.
The obvious answer is a flea:
- super fucking insane jumping power
- tough as fuck and really goddamn difficult to kill
- drinks blood (uh maybe you want to be a villian?)
| 27 | |
ELI5: The levels of police officer | What's the difference between a sheriff, deputy, lieutenant, detective, etc? Why do I only see police cars with "sheriff" on them? | 18 | Sheriff is an elected position which generally derives it's powers from the Constitution of the state. Sheriffs Deputy or Sheriffs Officer are "deputized" to act on behalf of and have the powers of the Sheriff. They're also usually officers of the court and have power to enforce civil law, which is why they serve civil... | 13 |
ELI5: How exactly does a 401(k) work? | 21 | Untaxed money is taken out of your paycheck, and put into an investment account. Your employer matches what you put in up to a certain amount. That money grows tax free, and you pay taxes once you withdraw it in retirement. Very basic lowdown, a lot more info can be said. | 27 | |
[The Culture] What does gridfire look like? | 162 | Blinding white light.
Gridfire is just energy manifested in this universe. Its the "fabric" that separates dimensions and that fabric is pure energy. We smash the atom to release the energy in the bonds holding it together resulting in a very large explosion. This is the same principal just removing the atom smashing... | 76 | |
I believe that Libertarians have no idea how their dogma, especially the "non-aggression principle" would actually work in a real society. Please CMV! | As a disillusioned citizen, fed up with the antics of Republicans and Democrats alike, I embraced the Libertarian movement during the last Presidential election. Granted, my enthusiasm for Libertarinanism was fueled by questionable online sources that portrayed Libertarians as a moderate combination of Republican and ... | 39 | The principle of "banning the initiation of force against another" is *already*, for the better part, the rule we abide by in 99% of our dealings with each other - every time there is an exchange between 2 or more people that is voluntary. Like most of our internet interactions.
It's violated in the case of taxes, reg... | 22 |
Does the observed state of a particle at a given time affect future evolutions in its wave function? | I'm struggling to reconcile the physical and mathematical interpretations of the evolution of quantum particles. If an individual particle can be observed in a random (but predictable) state, does this observed state affect the probability of it being found in a given future state? If so, how can the properties of th... | 19 | If you know the initial state of the particle and you allow it to undergo unitary time evolution, you can determine what its state will be at any subsequent time using the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.
The state at some time in the future will in general be different for different initial conditions. | 11 |
How is our liver able to regenerate itself, when our other organs cannot? | 30 | Many other organs can regenerate. For example, skin, bones, blood vessels.
But liver is the only internal (visceral) organ that can regenerate.
The reason for this is that the main function of liver is to remove ingested toxins from blood before they reach main circulation, and liver cells are relatively often killed... | 36 | |
Does price influences demand, or does demand influences price? | How would you answer this question? Sounds like a chicken and egg problem but I would like to hear some thoughts on it. | 54 | Demand affects price, which then affects quantity demanded.
In other words, the general demand of a good (how much people want to buy it at any given price) intersects supply somewhere to establish an equilibrium price. This equilibrium price then determines quantify demanded (not the same thing as the demand curve f... | 63 |
From a science perspective, where do you see the next big leap coming from? (Sputnik moment from Obama) | I'm curious on what the scientific community is most excited about.
Personally I'm excited about the level of research being done at CERN, but unable to grasp what the potential discoveries will mean for my life, or for anybody else.
I see excited postings from various sources each day about this or that new thing be... | 23 | I have to say that science doesn't usually come by leaps and bounds. Most of the genuine, non-sensationalistic science out there takes a lot of hard, grueling work for a lot of years by a lot of unsung heroes grinding away at a problem until some rando from the media suddenly thinks it's a great story to pick up on.
... | 12 |
[iCarly] Theoretically, if done in the modern day, how bad of a controversy would Neville and Victoria's careers and social lives if Carly and Freddie went vocal about what these people did to them? | I have rewatched part of the first season of the show and those episodes feel like today they would be some prime youtube drama if those stories went out. To summarize:
Neville had harassed and used his influence onto Carly to get her to kiss him in order to get a good review on their webshow.
Victoria manipulated Fr... | 132 | Depends entirely on who their audience is how they're distributing content and who's reporting on it. There's a lot of variables and moving parts that would have to be guessed at. Icarly used it's own website and a spread mostly via word of mouth. If they did that in 2021 no one would care beyond a few fans. If they're... | 59 |
ELI5: What makes plastic surgery look so obviously overdone? | It seems you can always tell when someone has had work done on their face, but what is it exactly that gives it away? Shouldn't the goal be to not tell you had work done in the first place? | 46 | It's like CGI in films. You don't notice a lot of it. You only notice what stands out. Tens of thousands of people undergo cosmetic surgeries every day, and you'd have no idea. It can be simple things like having protruding ears pinned back, eyelids changed, lip lifts, nose jobs etc etc.. if surgery is done well, you'd... | 44 |
Eli5: Why does research take so much computing power? | I always hear about scientific research needing crazy amounts of computing power but I have no idea why. As someone with an interest in hardware, I’ve always been intrigued by this. | 23 | A lot of of problems that come up in science are not solvable by straightforward algebraic methods. Things like protein folding, fluid dynamics, stress/strain, gravity/orbits with multiple bodies etc end up with fairly complex differential equations. In the past, the only method was do make a lot of simplifying assumpt... | 36 |
Why is it that animals such as birds are "scared" of humans, while smaller insects like flies are not? | 1,184 | Birds have a lot more "brainpower", which is metabolically expensive but gives them greater behavioral flexibility than insects. In general, birds are more capable of learning about humans (or even recognizing them as distinct entities), while insects rely on high reproductive rates and a series of inflexible but very... | 1,118 | |
ELI5: If your body reacts to certain foods it perceives to be a danger to you for the purpose of keeping you alive, how is it that the allergic reaction itself is so often what kills us anyway? Is it just bad at this? | 419 | Essentially yes, it is sometimes bad at this. Allergies are your immune system mistaking something harmless for something dangerous. Your body can then massively overreact to the percieved threat, and do you harm. | 259 | |
ELI5, How La Croix flavors it’s water? | Ingredients: “only carbonated water, naturally essenced.” What is the natural essence??
EDIT: Hoping I picked a close enough flair | 77 | The FDA requires most ingredients in a food product to be listed by their actual name. However, the names of some ingredients can be hidden under the groupings "natural flavors" or "artificial flavors" - depending on the exact production method used to obtain those ingredients.
99% of the time, if a company is able t... | 168 |
ELI5: If I have 600 MB of storage left on my phone, why do I get a warning for "insufficient storage" when downloading a 15MB app? | Per the title. My phone only has 8GB of storage. Sometimes I get to the point where I only have 600 MB of storage left. If I try to download an app that's only 15 MB, it tells me there is insufficient storage and won't download. Can someone ELI5 why this happens? | 64 | Super simple answer: Your stomach tells your brain that you are full before the food is backed up to your throat.
I think most operating systems try to reserve a little space in case it's needed for something essential. | 45 |
Can someone explain to a dumb person like me how printing that much money won't increase inflation? | There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to economics,
And on Twitter I mostly follow right-wing, conservative, pro-bitcoin influencers that say we will soon enter hyperinflation as the government is printing too much money.
The US government doesn't seem to think so...
Can someone explain to me HOW pr... | 113 | If the economy were operating at its potential output level, then you would be right. However, in a recession (such as this one), the economy is operating at an output level lower than its potential. This means that there are unused resources in the economy -- things are not operating efficiently.
Monetary policy (man... | 114 |
ELI5: Why do old people sometimes have shaky voices? | What physically causes it? Thank you. | 138 | Vocal cords vibrate - that’s part of their function. And vibration is a really great way to cause wear and tear on any material. Especially over long periods of time, vibration can wear down vocal cords and the muscles that move them so that motor control over them degrades.
Certain medical conditions associated with... | 92 |
ELI5: Why is it ~40% more expensive to buy a laptop/phone in England than it is in the US? (Trying to bring mom out of stone age) | Insane what it costs to buy the exact same phone/laptop from .co.uk (play store/amazon/e-shops) than from US.
(+Kudos for helping me make it affordable. Right now im trying to find if even with 'import fees', will it be cheaper than buying it in England).
Why is this? Regulation hurdles? Import tariffs? Exchange rat... | 22 | There are a number of things to consider:
* VAT (value added tax) adds 20% to the price of any taxable items, and unlike in the US, advertised prices have to include all applicable taxes.
* Warranty coverage. Within the EU, consumers can make a claim for faulty/misdescribed goods within the first two years, and Briti... | 22 |
ELI5:Why do Power Transformers explode? | 102 | Power transformers run at fairly high voltages. The voltage is so high it can actually throw lightning around inside, so they put oil inside the box to keep the electricity going where it needs to, since oil can hold back higher voltages before it throws lightning.
Unfortunately, in some worst case scenarios, the oil... | 42 | |
Why do small spiders have venom so strong it can kill a human? | If it can kill a human, it would certainly seem very overkill for its intended pray? | 21 | Venom is required not only to kill the prey, but to subdue it quickly. While there are some snakes who will bite prey, then track it while the venom goes to work spiders have the integrity of their web to worry about while scorpions actually hold their prey in their claws actively fighting against the prey. Thus, the b... | 11 |
Math as synthetic a priori | I just had my first lecture on Kant. My teacher of course talked about the synthetic a priori, but only went on to talk about it in regard to Kant's description of space and time.
I remember reading about Kant asserting that synthetic a priori knowledge also presents in the form of math, for example. My teacher stated... | 21 | For Kant, mathematical judgments have an intrinsic connection to space and time. He thinks of math as involving geometry and arithmetic, and the basis of geometry being the quantity we apprehend as extension in space while the basis of arithmetic is the quantity we apprehend as extension in time. Accordingly, for Kan... | 13 |
CMV: The use of an phrase like "unless you're a Native American, you don't belong in this country either" should not be used as an argument. | In dealing with the hot button issue of immigration, one of the most common arguments that is brought up in the United States is that the general population of Caucasians shouldn't be opposed to higher / more liberal immigration, amnesty, path to citizenship, etc. because their ancestors immigrated to this country as w... | 19 | I think that you're reading too much into the argument, and are straying into strawman territory as a result.
The first thing to understand is that the current argument revolves around political and religious *refugees* specifically. These are immigrants, yes, but the nuance is significant.
The (current) backlash a... | 26 |
How do liquid fuel rocket engines reignite in zero-g without destroying the turbopump? (fuel sloshing problem) | Hi! This is for You rocket engineers out here!
From my (very limited) understanding, a big problem with reignition of a liquid-fuel rocket engine in space is the 'sloshing' of liquid within the tanks.
When the engines are already fired it causes no issue, since the g-forces during acceleration keep the fuel at the 'bo... | 821 | >I can imagine you could give the rocket a "push" with reaction thrusters to force the fuel to the bottom of the tank and then start up the pumps
This is a solution that's used. They call those specific thrusters "Ullage motors". There are also baffles in the tanks that keep the fuel towards the pump.
There's sti... | 453 |
[LOTR] Why does the Ring abandon Isildur after only a few years when it stays with Gollum for centuries and Bilbo for decades ; | Was Isildur great enough that the Ring could actually be effectively used against Sauron and thus would be too dangerousto keep in Isildur's custody? | 19 | The Ring abandoned Isildur at a time where there was a relatively high chance of it falling into the hands of the enemy; during the middle of a battle against Orcs. The likeliest outcome was that the Orcs would claim it.
Same thing happened with Gollum. It abandoned Gollum in the depths of a goblin infested cave. Agai... | 29 |
[General] What are some creative Sci-Fi Weapons that should be more common in other Sci-Fi's | 170 | Railguns are underutilized, they are based on a simple principle, easy to get ammo(quite literally a chunk of a magnetizable material) for and not too power consuming either(provided improved batteries) | 157 | |
[Star Wars] How does Tatooine sustain a breathable atmosphere? | How does Tatooine sustain a breathable atmosphere without any vegetation or trees?
​ | 20 | A long time ago Tatooine was covered with rainforests and oceans, but something happened to turn it into a desert. The breathable atmosphere was developed then, and gravity keeps it there now. The population is so small that any drain the atmosphere basically won't cause problems for millions of years. | 43 |
CMV: Negotiation is a weakness of Trump | Edit: 's
Trump has always made strength in negotiation his hallmark, using "The Art of the Deal" as reference. At the beginning, it seemed even his critics accepted this as one of his strengths, instead questioning his extreme views and ethics.
His spectacular failure to repeal Obamacare, despite Republican control o... | 38 | Why would you expect to hear some official explanation of what a deal would look like? That just weakens your position for the actual negotiation. As soon as you say "we want X and will give Y in return" that becomes the absolute ceiling of what the other party would give you. You can't request for anything more than X... | 13 |
[General] Werewolves usually have the traditional fatal weakness to silver. What if a metahuman with the ability to turn into (organic) silver and/or has silver-coated bones is bitten by a werewolf? | Does the transformation still occur? Can they even be infected?
If so, will the person die when they transform, or - thanks to required secondary powers - their werewolf form is resistant/immune to silver? | 47 | If there's silver physically present in the victim's body then usually the infection is either warded off or kills the victim, depending on how far through the body the infection spreads before it reaches the silver; the werewolf is usually greatly injured or even killed biting into them. If the victim can transmute th... | 40 |
[illuminated Medieval Texts]From wherth doth come the snails of size most great, jousting the flowers of nobility and threatening all of Christendom? How can ye gentle serfs protect thyselves from such devilry? | Why doth such fell beasts vex us so!? | 192 | Like the colossal rabbits and flesh-eating cabbages, they are demons sent by God to test the faithful.
The common man can rely on bows, crossbows, and slings to defend his home. Though the Pope has banned their use against Christians, they are acceptable arms to battle animals, demons, and Saracens. | 95 |
ELI5: How did LED lights become so cheap to produce? | Through the 90s you never saw LEDs, and their lifespan was awful. Now, they are so ubiquitous you see them embedded in every cheap thing you can imagine -- and super bright ones, at that.
I have an LED police flashlight that could blind Zeus.
So, what advances were made that allowed them to be produced so cheaply, a... | 145 | I don't think that an extended lifespan is the main reason why they are so popular nowadays, but it's rather the color:
LEDs have been invented in the 1960s, but the colors which could be produced in a cheap and efficient way were red, yellow and to some extend, green. However, in the early 1990s, a Japanese physicist... | 68 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.