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Is there a way to establish a network? | Hi, I would like to know how do you start to establish a network with other researchers. I'm actually an Assistant professor at a top-3 university in Brazil, so I'm already in academia.
However, I'm having too much difficulty in establishing a research group/network or any type of contact with other researchers to wor... | 15 | A good place for me has been by attending conferences for professional associations and organizations. Those provide a good place to meet and talk with like-minded individuals and begin to build relationships that can turn into research collaborators and co-authors. | 12 |
[Hansel and Gretel] Were the Witch and the Stepmother the same person? | 36 | First edition of the story: No.
Later editions of the story: Maybe.
The original story has about a million variations that have popped up over the centuries. Some versions of the story do have an association with the (step)mother and the witch, who is sometimes Baba Yaga.
There is unfortunately no fully watsonian a... | 33 | |
ELI5 How does Google know that this exact tiny restaurant on the 4th floor of a building full of other restaurants and cafes is "usually busy at 8pm on Wednesday"? | 78 | Because people tell it.
It often gives you the option to say how busy somewhere is after you've been there.
It also uses the data of people who used google maps to navigate there specifically rather than to one of the other restaurants | 141 | |
[Predator] At what point would a potential prey be so overpowered that a Yautja would just nope out? | I'm sure that Wolverine, a jedi knight, or any other number of heroes or villains would make desirable trophies for a hunter. But the Hulk? Thor? Thanos? What would a Yautja have to see a new potential prey do in order to decide that it was just out of the hunter's skill or level to even try? | 33 | Well the Yautia would go ahead and attempt to kill any kind of potential prey overpowered or not.
They absolutely love to hunt extremely dangerous prey.
An excellent example would be a Xenomorph Queen.
If a yautja killed a Queen it would be like getting a Nobel prize.
In the event of it losing they are expected to ... | 58 |
[Star Trek] Why does it seem all space ships are piloted with a keyboard and not a joystick? | This has to be among the least optimal ways to pilot any vessel. Especially in a combat setting you want as quick a response as you can get to move your ship into and out of position and danger and your typing skills shouldn't be the main factor of life and death in a space battle. But man every time they need to mov... | 36 | Because the ships are dealing with potentially hundreds of Gs of acceleration, faster-than-light maneuvers etc. The ship isn't a fightercraft in world war 1 making lazy strafes with fixed machine-guns, the pilot is half-piloting and half-programming the ship to go through various maneuvers coordinating with the shields... | 86 |
CMV: Republicans and Democrats need to figure out how to get along or our nation will fall apart. We need moral leadership and a resurgence of rational debate. | As a Libertarian in college, I know what it’s like to feel like my voice isn’t heard. To feel like my values and issues aren’t being taken seriously or heard at all. I know what it’s like to feel silenced or misunderstood by people who disagree with me politically. I’ve felt the frustration of our party (Libertarians) ... | 258 | The GOP refused to admit that Biden won his election. Which he did.
Millions of Trump voters still believe the lie that the election was stolen.
You can't negotiate with people if those people aren't acting in good faith. This isn't a both sides issue. | 190 |
[General] How strong are reanimated skeletons? | Without any muscle tissue, what's the base strength of a skeleton? Assuming it's animated due to black magic, is there a limit for it? Like the strength of the
skeleton is based on the strength of the magic, or is there a physical limitation to it? | 40 | It depends on how much milk they drink.
In Oblivion skeletons were rather tough.
Meanwhile in Skyrim skeletons are pathetic.
Why the difference in the exact same universe?
Well Milk-Drinker is an insult in the land of Skyrim but not in Cyrodiil. So in Skyrim there is less milk being drunk resulting in weaker bone... | 102 |
[Star Wars] Where does the Tantive IV entrance connect to in Rogue One? (Asked before) | I already asked this before but only a few people answered it and some of them had answers that I debunked. Anyways, my question is where the entrance of the Tantive IV connects to. Heres a couple of things we know:
* The Tantive IV have entrances at the left and right side.
* The door that Vader leaves is where the ... | 17 | The docking arm from the *Profundity* leads to one of the side air-locks of the *Tantive IV*.
When the (emergency) launch lever is activated in the Tantive IV, the entire Profundity docking arm *pivots* 90 degrees forwards, away from the departing ship. It pivots rather than retracts since there may well be people in ... | 20 |
ELI5: Why do text messages have character limits, and why is it measured as 145/1 until I use it up and it becomes 145/2? | Also, why is it that sometimes it stops me at 145/1 and doesn't go to 145/2? | 30 | The number after the / isn't related to characters, it's the number of SMS messages which will be used to send the text written. If your phone stops you at the 145 limit, it is doing the behaviour of older phones which only allowed a single text to be sent at a time. | 14 |
[IT] What if I have a fear of heights | I have a fear of heights and I was curious how Pennywise would show to me? How would he manifest himself? | 15 | He manifests as a giant eagle with the face of a clown, snatches you off the ground with it's talons, and flies straight up into the sky, giggling while you scream. Once at a good height, there's a few rounds of letting you "accidentally" slip and fall, letting you plummet a few seconds before diving after you and snat... | 11 |
[Star Wars] Would Anakin have been more powerful in his prime as a Jedi or Sith? | I'm aware this could come down to a debate between the light side and the dark side, but is there any way to determine if the full power of the chosen one would have been more powerful as a Jedi or a Sith? | 80 | It's two different kinds of power. Prime Anakin as a Sith would have had a terrifying amount of destructive power at his fingertips (George outright said Anakin had the potential to be twice as Palpatine), but a theoretical Prime Anakin would be a match for Sith!Anakin in containing that destruction.
The other thing i... | 95 |
ELI5: How do medial professionals decide treatment for a comatose person w/o family? | Say someone (in the U.S.) without any family at all winds up at a hospital and goes comatose, needing to be on life support. Would they be on life support indefinitely or would anyone have the authority to ‘pull the plug’ so to speak? Sorry it’s kind of a dark question but these are the kinds of things keeping me up at... | 206 | Hospitals have a medical ethics committee that would come in and make that decision. Pulling the plug, essentially removing the patient from a mechanical ventilator, is often seen as essentially allowing someone to pass away. Going a bit further, oftentimes it also means removal of life sustaining drugs for supporting ... | 164 |
ELI5: If a glass is clear and water is clear, why can you see water in a glass? | I mean, it's not like there are shades of clear. Why can't we see air either? | 16 | You can see water in a glass because the two materials have different refractive indecies. RI is a measure of how light moves in a given material compared to in a vacuum. The refractive index of glass is about 1.46 and the refractive index of water is about 1.333. This difference makes light travel differently so they ... | 12 |
[General]How are traditional spells discovered? | 21 | Of course they won't be the same for all cultures. But, often, they were the result of a magician wanting a specific effect, with the words and spell components only there to help focus it.
Let's take the legendary Bigby's Hand Spell, for example. The mage, Bigby, wanted a spell that let him manipulate things at a dis... | 12 | |
ElI5: How do hackers use brute force attacks like dictionary attacks if I get locked out of my account after 3 failed attempts? | 36 | Usually they do this either on systems that don't have such lockouts (to prevent just those kinds of attacks) or they steal an encrypted database and can try those attacks on them at their own leasure. | 33 | |
"If our message does hit another planet then, almost certainly, it will be so far away that if those people up there had a telescope looking back at us, then what they would be seeing is not us at all, but the dinosaurs that were here 65 millions years ago": How true is this? | I just heard Richard Dawkins say it. I hope somebody could explain how that would be possible. | 19 | That's not quite right, no. If our message, traveling at *c*, hits another planet then anyone looking back from that planet would see the Earth as it was when the message left Earth. If they see a message we sent 80 years ago, they'll see the Earth as it was when the message was sent.
What's more, the timescale of 65 ... | 38 |
[General] What is a greater feat of destruction destroying a star or destroying a black hole | I think destroying a black hole is greater feat but I’m not sure if black hole destruction is greater feat then what is better black hole destruction or galaxy destruction | 25 | In reality we know much, much less about black holes and how they actually work than we do stars. That being said, if we had the materials and technology necessary then destroying a star would be like cutting a piece of bread compared to destroying a black hole. Also, stars eventually destroy themselves on their own. | 36 |
ELI5: Why are so many people afraid of clowns? | It is such a common fear that many movies have profited off of this fear. Whenever I see an evil clown in a movie, I just laugh because it is such a cheap, overused trope. | 21 | It's a distortion of a familiar figure to a young child. You take a basic human shape, give it long feet, baggy clothes that give it less physical form, and the face is heavily exaggerated with makeup and bizarre wigs.
Some children respond to it with delight at what's essentially a caricature, usually when old enough... | 20 |
ELI5 Why is it that it can rain heavily for days on end yet it seems like the rain clouds don’t get smaller? | 43 | There are a few reasons. One is that you only see the bottom of the rain clouds, particularly if they're nimbostratus ones. They may be getting smaller in ways you can't see. Another is you might also be seeing many huge rain clouds crossing the sky if they're traveling along a front, and not just one. There are also o... | 40 | |
ELI5: Why are there different accepted measuring systems for weight, speed, distance etc. but only one for time? | Have there been any others? How did we all land on this one across cultural and geographic lines? | 89 | Much of time wasn't formalized until far later than languages. Years, months and days are natural phenomenon (earth's orbit around the sun, the moon's orbit around the earth, and the earth's rotation), but beyond that there was quite a few different formats that most people didn't really care about. Hours were flexib... | 150 |
[LOTR Movies] Before they got to Rivendell did Frodo ever tell Pippin and Merry what the ring was, who Sauron is, and why they were leaving the Shire? | even in the extended cut? is there any scene where frodo pulls pippin and merry aside and say’look, see this?...’
or did all they know is...scary guys on horses are chasing us keep running? | 18 | No. Contrary to popular belief, Pippin and Merry weren't idiots, at least not when it came to understanding Hobbits. They could simply tell from Frodo's behavior and demeanor that this was something serious that needed their support, no questions asked. | 39 |
[General time travel] You're sent back in time into your own body 15 years ago, retaining all knowledge you have today. How much can you use that knowledge to change your life, or change the world, before the changes you make affect the timeline enough to render your future knowledge useless. | 70 | Read "Replay" by Ken Grimwood. It's about a man, who at the age of 48 "dies" and is transported through time into his 18 year old body. He successfully makes a very large fortune using only his knowledge of the future. It talks about how even with his fortune, his ability to push events is limited. It is a very good bo... | 61 | |
[MCU] In Iron Man 1, does the second arc reactor house an electromagnet inside itself? | Watching Iron Man 1, and noticed during the scene where Pepper helps Tony replace the arc reactor, that she pulls out the entire electromagnet as he’s warning her not to. Tony then tells her not to put it back in, and has her throw the second reactor in without replacing it.
Maybe I’m missing something, but it is my u... | 29 | I think based on context, the magnet he had first was literally a rare Earth magnet, with a copper wire wrapped around it, boosted by the arc reactor, whereas the replacement was an electromagnet he built and powered, if that makes sense. | 25 |
[Marvel] Why can’t Professor X just use his powers so that no one hated mutants? | 22 | Apart from the fact that giving someone a personalityectomy is usually a strictly temporary measure...
It's morally wrong to deprive people of their free will like that. Xavier would never go for it. | 34 | |
Are there any cases of other animal species displaying symptoms analogous to human mental conditions (such as schizophrenia, depression etc.)? | I was wondering if there are any examples where other animal species have been described as having a metal disorder especially with symptoms that are analogous to human conditions. | 209 | Jane Goodall made an old documentary about the chimps in Gombe called "People of the Forest". A large portion of the documentary focuses on "Flint", a young male chimp who remained so dependent and attached to his aging mother that he continued acting like an infant long after he should have asserted some independence... | 100 |
CMV: Artificial general intelligence will probably not be invented. | From [Artificial general intelligence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence#Artificial_general_intelligence_research) on Wikipedia:
> Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the intelligence of a hypothetical machine that could successfully perform any intellectual task that a human being ... | 219 | > That is, the model would be incapable of representing itself within its own framework.
Assume all intelligence happens in the brain.
The brain has in the range of 10^26 molecules. It has 100 billion neurons. With an MRI (maybe an improved one from the current state) we can get a snapshot of an entire working ... | 136 |
[Marvel/Preacher] Would Kilgrave of Jesse Custers power work against someone who doesn't speak english? | And has anyone ever misinterpreted or misunderstood what was said by either of them? | 17 | Jesse Custer's power only works on English speakers.
He can be misunderstood, but mostly only because the hearer is compelled to follow the exact words. You can't get away from the Word by finding some eye-rollingly technical language quibble. | 13 |
CMV: art critics are full of shit | Don’t get me wrong, I love art. I’m an artist myself. However, every time I hear art critics talk about a piece and how it “invokes feelings of _____” or how “the artist was expressing ______”, I think they are full of it and making that stuff up. Yes, obviously art can have deeper meanings, however for most art (which... | 56 | Art critics aren’t making grand objective statements about what a particular piece is factually conveying or what the artist was expressing. It’s to provide, well, a critical look at the art and try and get the ball rolling on a conversation about it.
All art has deeper meaning, even if the artist didn’t intend on tha... | 20 |
[vampires/catholicism]Can a Vampire survive on the blood of christ? | so according to the miracle of transubstantiation wine blessed by a priest turns into the blood of christ upon consumption. Vampires need blood to eat, does this work for them? | 95 | Gonna go with a no on this one. Blessed wine is still blessed, so it's going to be like drinking holy water. If it transubstantiated to the Blood of Christ, that's straight holy man juju right there. Not healthy for a hungry vampire. | 125 |
ELI5: What is dandruff and why does it only appear on my head? | 606 | People often confuse little white flakes on the shoulder as dandruff. Thats not. Thats just dry skin. Dry skin falls off of all of your body. Your head and shoulders are visible and your shoulders provide a nice landing spot to show case some dead skin cells.
Dandruff is a totally different animal. Large yellow greasy... | 829 | |
[Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire] Does the Wizarding World have no way to stop Rita Skeeter telling lies? Could Harry have gotten her banned from Hogwarts during the tournament? | 91 | The only institutions with that authority would be the Ministry of Magic, or the Daily Prophet, neither of which have any political incentive to 'restrict' Rita Skeeter.
The Ministry of Magic uses the Daily Prophet to syndicate pro-government propaganda, and organize (dis)information campaigns. As such, the Ministry ... | 67 | |
ELI5: Why are you at risk of slipping into a coma after a serious concussion if you sleep for to many consecutive hours? | A friend of mine has to wake up every two hours during the night or he's at risk of slipping into a coma after a serious concussion. | 15 | If you suffer from a concussion, you are at risk for a slow bleed inside your skull that will eventually build up pressure and cause a coma (and/or death.) Most people who have had an injury just want to lay down and rest, but a sleeping person with a worsening brain injury doesn't look or act any different from a slee... | 43 |
How can there be enough photons released from distant objects e.g. stars and galaxies to form a constant image for an observer on Earth? Does wave-particle duality explain it? | Say you are looking at a star in the night sky, and you keep your eye focused on it while you step 1 metre to the left.
While you move, the star would remain constant in your vision, surely meaning a stream of photons from that star was impacting your retina the entire time in every position while your head moved.
W... | 20 | Consider the star Sirius. It is 25 times as luminous as the sun, has 1.7 times the diameter, 8.6 lightyears from Earth, and has its peak emission around the blue spectrum at around 300 nm. If we just make a simplified assumption that it is constantly emitting photons at that wavelength and spewing them out in all direc... | 44 |
If light is a constantly shifting electric/magnetic field, why does it not interact with other external electromagnetic fields? | I understand that photons themselves lack charge, and light interacts with things like other photons and electrons etc. but why don't the electric and magnetic field interact with, say the magnetic field around a magnet? | 17 | Maxwell's equations are linear, which means that EM fields obey the superposition principle. If you bring together two sources of electromagnetic fields, the net field at any point in space is simply the sum of the two individual fields. | 13 |
ELI5: What happens to your stuff when you die if you don't have a will? | To cover all the bases:
1. If you have a spouse? If you have no spouse? (What is the order? If your parents are alive, do they trump your siblings? What if you only have one distant cousin, etc. is an effort made to find them? By whom?)
2. If you have a mortgage? If you have other debts?
3. If you have wholly-owned ... | 40 | >If you have a spouse? If you have no spouse? (What is the order? If your parents are alive, do they trump your siblings? What if you only have one distant cousin, etc. is an effort made to find them? By whom?)
It depends on jurisdiction. Since 16 states have adopted the Uniform Probate Code, let's look at that.
... | 39 |
I don't think smoke breaks should be allowed at work, CMV | I am a smoker myself, but I never smoke on the clock. Hell, I don't even bring my cigarettes to work. I don't think it's fair that people who don't smoke have to work while people who do smoke (an addiction brought on by themselves) get to leave work for the 5 minutes it takes to go smoke a cigarette a few times during... | 613 | It makes sense to me to simply declare how much break time is permitted, and allow people to use that break time as they see fit.
Anyone who is taking time above that for smoking should be curtailed, and anyone who doesn't smoke is able to use that breaktime for whatever else they want. | 356 |
The USPS is struggling financially and therefore eliminating Saturday deliveries, while UPS and FEDEX are doing just fine. Why doesn't the USPS try and model itself after them? | 1,213 | Got it backwards, kind of. UPS, Fedex and other carriers were modeled after the USPS.
As for why the USPS is struggling, the answer is that the USPS has an albatross around its neck that nobody else has: In 2006, the Congress — *God* knows why — passed a law requiring the USPS to shovel *vast* sums of money into a fun... | 1,367 | |
ELI5: What is my microwave doing differently when I set it to defrost mode instead of regular heating? | Just occurred to me today I've been using the defrost button for 20-something years to quickly thaw meats, but have absolutely no idea how it makes a difference. | 668 | Depends on the microwave, but most of them basically turn the microwave on and off, more off time than on time, to reduce the amount of heating taking place over time. The intent is to allow the item your cooking to warm up more slowly, otherwise you'd end up with a burnt exterior with a frozen center. The outside of... | 427 |
why don't wages just increase with inflation? | If prices double because we printed 2x as much money why don't don't wages double with it so everything is the same? Like if money is just a representation of value. If a table cost 100$ but now there is 2x as much money so the money is half as valuable but the table still has the same value as before the money just be... | 66 | You are asking the important question. They do but they do often more slowly than prices, which is one of the main sources of pain during inflationary periods. Wages are said to be “sticky” relative to prices. “Wage stickiness” has been proven in multiple contexts beyond inflation. | 93 |
I believe it is hypocritical to be pro-life, but not a vegetarian. CMV | My main argument is that it makes no sense to be appalled by the death of an early term fetus, which is not viable or sentient, and yet be perfectly okay with killing and eating fully grown animals that are sentient and have emotions just like humans. For the record, I am both pro-choice and a vegan, and I often bring... | 41 | I think many who are pro-life believe there is a special quality of humans, which begins at conception, which makes them "sacred" (special, seat apart) in one way or another. Many of these political/social views are tied to religious views concerning the "sanctity of [human] life".
Such people could potentially use y... | 31 |
Thoughts on cheating students | I'm an instructor who works in a department of a university that will remain nameless. Essentially I have caught two students cheating and I feel my department is not handling the situation in the right way. I caught the two students looking at each others papers and talking prior to both of them turning in their exams... | 20 | Document everything and go to the chair of the department. The cheating students aren't as big of a concern now that your job itself is on the line. If the chair doesn't quietly resolve the situation, go to the Human Resources department. At this stage, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. | 21 |
[DC Comics] How do I get connected to the Speed Force? | The Speed Force sounds like the most amazing power source for a superhero, ever. It laughs in the face of all laws of physics and all I have to do to use it, is some innovative thinking and believe I can do it!
So how do I get connected to it? Just drench myself in heavy water and wait for a lighting storm? | 39 | You can't really force a connection with the SpeedForce, at least not on your own.
The SpeedForce itself is sometimes said to be sentient, and deliberately chooses people to become speedsters. Whether or not this is true, the fact of the matter is that overwhelmingly, people either discover or access it by accident or... | 24 |
CMV: The death penalty is *never* okay. | If we look to the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The very first right is Life. We have been given a life to live, and taking it a... | 15 | After a conviction you lose many of your rights. Your right to vote, right to bare arms & the right against certain searches ( depending on the conviction).
Those who have shown the utmost disregard to human life and have undoubtedly committed the most heinous crimes should not draw breath any longer.
So should ... | 16 |
[Wizard of Oz] Is the Lollipop Guild some kind of Munchkin organized crime group? What were they up to in the sewers? | 49 | The Lollipop Guild is an entirely legal, law abiding, noncriminal fraternal order of confectionery professionals. Rumors and urban legends about "The Sugar Scalding" as a form of retribution or the use of molten chocolate for the disposal of corpses is a form of height bigotry and highly offensive.
And you *don't* wa... | 49 | |
[Potterverse] Does the wizarding world have instantaneous/light-speed communications? | The Weazleys have a clock-like object which tells you where people are at any time. Does it update instantaneously or at least at the speed of light?
At some points it seems they need to wait for newspapers to find out what was going on, but at other times it seems they have a form of radio. Also speaking to people th... | 24 | Yes.
Wizards do have radio (although only a few stations, and it seems like there's more music than news on). IIRC we never see wizarding radios in Hogwarts itself - perhaps the ambient magic messes them up, just like mundane radio? Radio-based news was important post-Voldemort takeover, because it's harder to censor ... | 17 |
ELI5: In MLB baseball they have technology to show if the ball was inside or outside the strike zone, so why do they still have home plate umpires making subjective calls? | 20 | Tradition, and what people like. A ref's judgment is part of the game. Consulting a replay or computer to see if a ball was in or out of the strike zone every time there's a dispute changes the flow of the game. | 21 | |
ELI5: Can someone explain to me why they don’t recommend putting car jumper cables on the working battery black terminal to the dead battery black terminal but rather to an unpainted metal surface on the donor car? | Also, how does electricity flow from one car to the other if there isn’t a loop? | 51 | Non-perfectly sealed car batteries will slowly leak flammable gas, and an active spark would light it on fire. So the proper procedure has you connecting the last time (which is most likely to produce sparks) far away from this potential fire source.
Cars are wired so that 'ground' connects to the negative terminal, a... | 94 |
ELI5: "Scratch a pessimist and you find often a defender of privilege. -William Beveridge" | 63 | A pessimist is someone who has a gloomy outlook on what will happen in the future. People who are societally hopeful hope for good things for those in need, but a pessimist doesn't share that hope.
You say to the pessimist: "Hey, let's do this thing to make society better!" and the pessimist says "No, let's not do it... | 46 | |
[Spider-man] How is the relationship between the Green Goblin and Norman Osborn? | Green goblin, is his sole purpose in life to keep Norman safe or he only cares about him because they have to share the same body?
If he could get rid of Norman like, deleting his mind forever or jump into a new body just for himself and then kill him, would he do it?
Harry is what Norman loves most, would the Green ... | 22 | Green Goblin isn't Two Face. The dual sides of his personality aren't at war with each other. Goblin is Norman's id and they generally want the same things. Goblin is just ruthless and rigorous in his pursuit of goals, whereas Norman is broken and dysfunctional. | 19 |
ELI5: Why is it that TV shows which make profit require release forms, whereas news broadcasts do not; yet they also make profit? | It bothers me a little bit. | 56 | The two things you describe are Commercial and Editorial.
Commercial works require a release from the person on the screen. These can be works of fiction. Their main goal is to provide entertainment in a fictional manner.
Editorial works do not require a release and are generally for telling the "facts", like repor... | 13 |
[Lord of the Rings films] Could Saruman have shot fireballs down at all the Ents that were invading Isengard? | 260 | Yes, he could have. He didn't follow the rules the Istari were supposed to follow, particularly on not using the full might of his powers unless the situation absolutely demanded it (e.g. Gandalf battling Durin's Bane). Perhaps the fireball was an extremely powerful spell and he couldn't spam it.
Edit: Typo. | 155 | |
[DoctorWho] Did the Time Lords have off world colonies? | If they did, what happened to them? | 19 | The reason is a secret that they never let the "lesser" races in on, but the fact is there for all the galaxy to see. *They never made colonies.* No one knows exactly why. Maybe they wanted to stay close to the Untempered Schism. Maybe their population was so efficiently managed already they felt no need to expand outw... | 39 |
CMV: Fast food joints should be completely automated | Work in fast food places is one of the most mundane and monotonous. It could and should be totally or nearly totally automated. Let's start with cooking, no one will notice if robots will start flipping burgers. Next step should be cashiers. Ideally every fast food place should have 1 on duty operator, that will just o... | 87 | >it would make fast food even more affordable
Do you think that McDonald's (etc) isn't ruthlessly profit focused enough to think of that? The reason they use workers is because it is cheaper than using automation. | 114 |
ELI5: Why does paper yellow with age? | I was originally going to post something to the cooking subreddit about old recipes on old, yellowed notecards.
But.. I don't know how old they are and assumed they where old because of their yellowed, stiff feeling. Then I realized I didn't know why paper yellows at all.
Is it like wood aging? | 133 | There are two main components to wood. Cellulose structures which make up the cells, which is what most paper makers are after, and lignin which is what makes trees rigid. Lignin basically glues the tree's cells together. Some paper is made by just grinding up trees and bleaching everything. Other types of processes us... | 52 |
ELI5: bread and cookies | How/why does putting a piece of bread in the bag with your cookies keep the cookies from getting dry? How does just the bread get hard but not the cookies? I’m befuddled. | 27 | It's the sugar in the cookies. It's hygroscopic (has a great affinity for water and will suck it out of the surrounding air) due to the amount of sugar in the cookie - bread has much less sugar and more moisture. Cookies suck up moisture and poor bread gets gross and hard. Cut the bread into 4ths and replace every othe... | 15 |
[Star Wars Remastered Editions] On Endor, why does Anakin's force ghost look like his young Clone Wars self when Obi Wan's force ghost looks like his old Post Clone Wars Self? | 25 | Obi-Wan: Your father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed.
There's an argument to be made that while Anakin was redeemed in his final moments of life, his connection to the Force was stron... | 52 | |
What does Camus mean by this | from the myth of sisyphus
If I judge that a thing is true, I must preserve it. If I attempt to solve a problem, at least I must not by that very solution conjure away one of the terms of the problem. For me the sole datyr.
is the absurd.
The first and, after all, the only condition
Of my in-
quiry is to preserve the v... | 27 | He deems the absurdity of life to be true. He is attempting to solve the problem of absurdity and human existence. The absurd "crushes" him, makes him feel existential dread.
Therefore the thing that crushes him, by his own logic, must be preserved and respected. He must not conjure away any part of the problem of th... | 35 |
ELI5:If someone 'Objects' during a wedding ceremony, what happens next? | I've always wanted to know this, and Google is throwing up mixed answers. | 57 | Everyone gasps at the shocking breach of decorum, and the objector is not invited to future weddings.
There is no legal consequence, and the priest/judge/rabbi has no requirement to listen to the disruptor. A wedding can proceed after any objection or other outburst, provided that the bride and groom and officiator s... | 90 |
[Marvel's Defenders] (Spoilers) What would have happened if Davos had become the Iron Fist instead of Danny? | K'un Lun wouldn't have been left unguarded, that's for sure. Probably Danny would have still come back to the US to take his company back. The Hand would still have come looking for "The Substance," but Danny wouldn't be able to unlock the door. The Defenders wouldn't have an Iron Fist (although Danny is still an exper... | 41 | Danny leaving K'un Lun fucked up a bunch of things, but you've already pointed out the big two: the Hand wouldn't have been able to open the dragon's tomb, and K'un Lun wouldn't have been left unguarded when ... whatever happened, happened.
Without access to the tomb, the Hand slowly dies off. They'd still be an impor... | 22 |
ELI5: Why does a movie like Suicide Squad have the trailer out now, but a release date in over a year from now? | What happens between now until release? | 37 | > What happens between now until release?
Did you see how many of the scenes had special effects? A lot of them, right? Adding special effects to raw film takes awhile. The raw, effects free, filming has been done. What they're doing now is adding effects, composing and adding music, etc.
Basically, they're turni... | 26 |
ELI5: How is it sanitary for doctors and nurses to wear scrubs on their commute to and from work? | 1,346 | There is *some* evidence that shows that the bioburden (amount of bacteria) on uniforms is higher on scrubs that have been home laundered versus those laundered by a hospital facility. This is a topic that has been going round and round with Infection Control, the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Nurses... | 470 | |
CMV: Cigarettes should be sold without a filter to eliminate environmental pollution. | Cigarette butts are the number one most littered object in the world. This year alone, an excess of 950,000,000 kg of cigarette waste will be produced. A single ingested used cigarette filter is toxic enough to kill small freshwater fish. British Columbia, Canada has started a recycling program where they pay people $0... | 26 | Intensive for smoking? A pack of smokes costs between 5 to 10 bucks. Some places even more. At a penny per filter you would make 20 cents on a investment of much more than that.
That's a crappy return. But that one penny now turns a value less product into something with value. Homeless people could collect butts to ... | 12 |
[The Matrix] How different was The Matrix from the real world? | So, there seems to be an implication that the Matrix program was designed to be similar to the real world, there seems to be some implication that a decent bit of their replication of 1998 was changed to better suit their purposes.
The Zion might be seen as suggesting that the Real World had a lot better technology at... | 17 | The Architect used things from the human pyche when he made ghosts and vampires and such. It was part of the effort to force the mind to accept the simlulation to include uncomfortable but familiar things. | 12 |
[Matrix] Why are all the Zion residents (Zionites?) black? | I noticed that the only white people in that movie were people who were pulled from the matrix. Whats up with that? | 153 | They most likely aren't.
We only see them as being black because of American cultural perception (this goes back to miscegenation laws and something called the one drop rule).
This is similar to how president Barack Obama is considered to be black in America even though his mother is white, and strictly speaking he'... | 164 |
ELI5: What do those massive shoulder mounted TV cameras do that a nice handheld video camera cannot? | 75 | As an operator of one of those big cameras, here's what's going on.
**Enormous lenses and sensors designed to let in a lot of light, plus a mechanical aperture.** This gives the camera the ability to operate in a wide range of lighting conditions. That lens assembly usually extends back into the "body" of the camera q... | 153 | |
CMV: It is not possible for a large media company to be unbiased, and this is detrimental to the education of the people. | Allow me to start off by saying that this is not a stance that I hold proudly, but one that I really would like to see a solution to.
It has become increasingly more evident to me that there is certain trend with the growth of media companies. As a media company begins to make profits, the likelihood that they will t... | 38 | I think people have it in their minds that there was a period of history during which media was not biased to some degree. This is not the case; from destroyed oil paintings and altered texts, revisionist history and yellow journalism, capital ‘O’ objectivity is a moving target because like other concepts such as fairn... | 14 |
[serenity/firefly] A question about reavers. | How are reavers so organised? If they were that aggressive wouldn't they have turned on each other while floating in space. Not forming a fleet, maintaining space craft and sending out raiders. Also why is no one doing anything about them. | 41 | So, reavers only go full aggro in the presence of outsiders. They're violent assholes in general, but the pure LETS KILL EVERYTHING only comes to surface when they are dealing with non-reavers.
As for why no one is dealing with them, it was believed that they would just die out after a generation or so, and thus the ... | 45 |
ELI5: How did wearing caps and gowns at graduations become a thing? | 306 | Originally, the cap and gown was a practical uniform for medieval university students, much like monk's robes and nun's habits. The design was meant to be practical and warm while distinguishing scholars and teachers. There are many traditions of rank and specialty which are actually remeniscent of military uniforms.... | 161 | |
ELI5: How come we grow large lumps on our heads if we hit it instead of the skin bruising? | 19 | It's still bruising. Bruising is when broken capillaries cause blood to pool under the skin. In the case of the scalp the skin is so thin that when the blood wells up it bulges the skin out since there's nowhere for it to pool. | 20 | |
ELI5: How are commercial airplanes supplied with electricity? | To power screens, Air conditioning and lights etc, do they use alternators on the engines or generators inside the plane? | 81 | They have two sources of power, and there is a third (ground-power) when on the ground. The primary source is the engines, through an internal power take-off (PTO) shaft. When the engines aren't running, the auxiliary power unit (APU) provides starting air and electricity. The APU is restartable in the air, to recov... | 41 |
[Gundam franchise] What is the most cost-effective strategy the major powers choose when it comes to fighting wars with mobile suits? Do you spend your budget on 100 "meh" pilots flying mass production mobile suits, or train 10 aces piloting very powerful Gundams? | 15 | 10 Aces every time.
Always go for high quality highly trained group of hardened soldiers.
100 meh pilots are just cannon fodder.
The problem is at least 3 of those Ace pilots are going to turn coat and become the main villain. | 23 | |
ELI5: Why does the value of art change by orders of magnitude depending on who created it? | Something I've often wondered, and [this BBC article](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21712209) reminded me about it: how come the painting is worth £3,000-5,000 if one guy did it, but up to £1m now it turns out to be a different guy? | 27 | It's similar to why some kinds of comic books are really expensive.
there is the value of the comic book itself to a casual comic book buyer (for reading, enjoying etc) and the value of saying "it's in mint condition" which is what the collector markets want.
As a painting, it might only be worth $3k. It's pretty,... | 18 |
[LotR] Do the Silmarillion and other books exist in the canon of the universe? | The hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were more or less written by Bilbo and Frodo respectively. Do the other books in the Tolkien universe have canonical authors too? | 35 | Bilbo also wrote The Silmarillion.
Tolkien toyed with other explanations, such as having a 10th century Anglo-Saxon mariner (and descendant of Eärendil) named Ælfwine set sail and wind up on the beaches of Tol Eressëa where he learned all the tales in The Silmarillion from the Elves there. He eventually returns to Eng... | 34 |
ELI5: How does tobacco cause cancer? | 15 | Several ways. Nicotine speeds up cell growth, and decreases tumour suppressant chemicals in the body. Then you have all the other stuff they add to the tobacco to control burn rate and so on, like acetone, formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and carbon monoxide, none of which are good. | 19 | |
[star wars] Is being a Jedi(Force sensitive) inheritance only? (SPOILERS FOR TFA) | So after seeing TFA, me and my friend were talking about who Rey could be. He basically said she had to be Luke's daughter, because you have to he the child or related to a Jedi to be force sensitive. He claimed mitochondrians were inherited and such. Can anyone help me sort this out? | 30 | Name any other Jedi, other than Luke, who had a parent who was Force sensitive. They all talk about being taken to the Jedi Temple as kids. But if their parents were Force-sensitive, wouldn't they have been Jedi, and not allowed to have kids? | 55 |
How to read complex papers faster | I'm starting a PhD in the fall and I have a problem: I'm a slow reader, and when the material gets even a little complicated, I become *really* slow.
Since my PhD is in physics, this hasn't been a serious handicap so far, but I assume that I will eventually have to start reading a large amount of papers to keep up in ... | 33 | it is very simple.
1. read the conclusion first, because introductions usually suck
2. read the first and last paragraph of each section
3. read the full sections that apply to your work or interests
4. read the abstract.
5. skip the rest.
| 42 |
[ELI5] When you cut a picture into pieces, each piece has only part of the picture. But when you cut a hologram into pieces, each piece has the WHOLE picture in it. How? ELI5! | I've read [this](http://science.howstuffworks.com/hologram.htm) a few times but I still don't get it. Help? | 101 | That's slightly misleading. It's not so much that you see the entire image in each piece, but rather you are able to see the image from the perspective of each piece.
Think of a hologram as a window. Anywhere you look through a window, you see what's on the other side. If you were to paint the window black and scratch... | 117 |
Validity of the Coase theorem? | I am an econ undergrad and just did a unit on the Coase theorem in an environmental econ class that I'm taking. At the end of the unit the professor noted that in order for the Coase theorem to hold, *all* of the following must be true:
* Perfect information.
* Consumers and producers are price takers.
* There is a ... | 29 | Like all economics, you have to break a few eggs (make some assumptions) to make an omelette (theorem). You will see this a lot over the course of your education - don't get too hung up on it! The aid to understanding a situation that comes from a neat theory can be worth much more than the mind-gunk that comes from if... | 13 |
why high-speed wind feels colder? | why high-speed wind feels colder? | 5,157 | There are two potential reasons. One requires the wind to be cooler than the object, which we will assume is you from now on. The second requires some moisture on the object.
First, the rate of heat loss is what makes you feel cold. This rate increases with wind because the wind reduces the temperature gradient betwe... | 3,134 |
[Sonic the Hedgehog] How come Sonic can't dodge a tranquilizer gun but can dodge tons of missiles? | 23 | It could be something akin to how different comics Flash is to CW Flash. Comics Flash has the Speed force active at all times, so he lives in slow motion. CW Flash (from what I've seen) has to initiate it himself, that's why he could move so fast time stops in one scene, but is able to get nailed by an enemies superpow... | 30 | |
[The Matrix] What would happen if some too powerful, important and influential to just ignore and cover up takes the red pill and is unplugged from The Matrix, Say for example the POTUS? | 93 | Not everyone in The Matrix is represented by an actual person in a pod.
People of political power would most assuredly just be part of the program. "Real" people lead boring mundane lives inside The Matrix. | 148 | |
Why is the sun composed of just hydrogen and helium while the rest of the solar system is made predominantly of heavier elements? | If we (and the planets) are indeed made of stardust from exploded stars, why then isn't also our sun? | 27 | In terms of mass, most of the mass of the planets is also hydrogen and helium. It's just most of that is in Jupiter and Saturn, not Earth. The reason the inner planets lack hydrogen and helium is that their gravity is unable to hold those lighter elements, with the temperatures of the inner planets, they simply escap... | 51 |
[MCU] Endgame implications | Time travel makes whole new timelines, in some of which thanos is still around in a presumably gets the stones and does the snap.
This is where things can get confusing...
If the avengers in those timelines go back in time to get the stones will they find our avengers already there taking them? (as that what happened... | 20 | The way the film presents it, when you go back in-time you create a different timeline from your own. So any Avengers in alternate timelines going back in time, will just spawn a new timeline *based* on their own.
So going by the movies rules, taking Captain America as an example. If CA#2 from alternate timeline went ... | 14 |
What is the probability of an agent attempting to find one thing hidden in 1 of 100 boxes with 50 tries? | So, my friend told me a statistical riddle, involving 100 boxes hiding unique and randomly ordered numbers 1-100, and an several agents with 50 attempts to find a specific number.
If you are curious about the riddle it's presented [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eivGlBKlK6M). I ended up working out the riddle, ... | 38 | Here is the fallacy. (I am just rewording what others have said).
You argue as follows: You look in the first box. Your odds are 1/100 of winning. If it's not there, you look in the second box. Your odds are then 1/99 of winning. Etc.
The second sentence is true, but it started with a conditional, "if it's not there... | 48 |
[DragonBall] If I die, then get brought back, can I still collect my life insurance? | 16 | I would say yes for a couple reasons:
* Resurrection doesn't appear to be common enough on Earth to cause major legal turmoil for enough people to warrant legal changes
* Being declared dead causes a lot of issues for an individual who has been brought back. Taxes, employment, contracts, loans, etc... will all need t... | 22 | |
Is it possible that, in our universe, there are entire galaxies made out of anti-matter? | Most, if not all, universe documentaries that I have seen consistently say that we are the remnants of this great battle between matter and anti-matter. But, isn't it possible that there is still quite a bit left, and it could have formed into an entire galaxy? | 15 | The space between the stars in a galaxy is filled with a very thin gas - the "interstellar medium". Even between galaxies there is the "intergalactic medium" too. This means stars and galaxies aren't completely isolated in space - there's gas everywhere. This means you'll have matter and antimatter annihilating each ot... | 10 |
[MCU](Endgame spoilers) Two questions... | - When Thanos is searching Nebula’s memories for mentions of Infinity Stones, why isn’t their encounter on Titan included? That could have thrown an immediate wrench into his plan or at least his relationship with Gamora with the reveal that he killed her for the Soul Stone.
- What’s the state of the Sokovia Accords ... | 21 | 1. They wouldn't have had the time to fully go through a full four years worth of recorded memories -- they likely just searched for data involving the Infinity Stones and glanced over them, with particular emphasis on how his campaign eventually ended up and whether or not he succeeded or not.
2. Before Decimation th... | 35 |
[General] What would happen if two zombies from separate infections met. | Something along the lines of a horde of left 4 dead zombies bump into a horde of world war z zombies. | 47 | "Living" zombies, those who are merely infected with some sort of disease, would probably ignore dead zombies. They might be attracted by the motion, but once they got within range they'd smell the death and then move on.
Dead zombies, those who are of supernatural origin, may attack living zombies if they still cons... | 47 |
[Fantasy] On the natural magic resistance of dwarves. | How do you explain the common dwarf's natural resistance to magic?
Is it the very stone that the first dwarves were carved from their respective deity that bestowed the resistance to magic on them, passed down to their breaded descendants? Can they use magic despite the magic resistance? | 17 | > breaded descendants
I prefer batter-fried dwarves, honestly.
You could explain the magic resistance a few ways:
- The dwarven deity provides magic resistance.
- Dwarves create enchanted armor and wear some all the time.
- Magical beings are magic-resistant. Dwarves are magical beings and stubborn jerks beside... | 33 |
I want to create a webapp that takes the ingredients you have in your fridge, and comes up with recipes. Need a bit of guidance. | I understand there's plenty of websites that do this. I'm writing it as an exercise.
​
I'm currently going through Colt Steele's "Web Developer Boot Camp" on Udemy so I can get the fundamentals of web dev down. My question is: How can I get the app to "browse" the web and return links to recipes that inclu... | 20 | Your questions are quite broad, so I'll throw one back at you; How do you want it to work?
You could crawl a subset of websites for recipes, parse them into some standard format and display them in your app. A lot of work, but gives the best user experience.
You could use Google, as you suggest, to find recipes with ... | 12 |
If I wake up from sleep, and try to go back to sleep, does my "sleep cycle" reset, or pick up where it left off? | Does it matter what point of the sleep cycle I was in when I woke up, or how long I was asleep to begin with? Does it matter how long it takes me to fall back asleep? | 516 | The interesting thing is that our natural sleep cycle includes a period of wakefulness. Before the advent of electricity and the lightbulb, it was very much natural for people to have a split sleep cycle, called bimodal or segmented sleep. They would sleep for several hours once the sun went down, wake up in the midd... | 164 |
ELI5: How does higher quality microphones filter out most of the background noises? | 16 | There are a few things that you should probably look at. Some microphones have different recording patterns. You can choose an optimal recording pattern depending on the setting. Cardioid mode records what is directly in front of the receiver versus say an omni\-directional mic that will pick up in a 360 degree pattern... | 10 | |
[Star Trek Into Darkness] What would have happened to the crew that were sucked out of the ship during warp? | What are some of the physiological consequences of a human body? | 38 | The second those people leave the Enterprise's subspace field, they decelerate instantly to a fraction of C without the inertial dampeners to compensate. They are most likely liquified.
Starfleet produces man portable inertial dampeners for the case of an abandon-ship action at warp, but it was unlikely that the crew... | 48 |
CMV: If I amass considerable wealth during my lifetime, I don't believe in leaving anything to my descendants. | I realized this was a controversial view yesterday while driving with my family to Thanksgiving dinner. My sister was speaking about leaving her money to her kids after her passing, and I casually mentioned how I don't believe I'd leave any. This was met with much more vitriol from both my mom and sister than I expecte... | 33 | You make it seem like checks are cut right after your funeral. There's alot more you are missing.
When you pass away, someone has to become responsible for your financial world. This person has to file your estate with the courts, set up a bank account for any outstanding bills, file all the paperwork with the govern... | 19 |
If you could look through a telescope at the edge of the observable universe in real time would you see new features appear seemingly out of nowhere as “new light” reaches us for the first time? | Edit: Thank you everyone for your comments so far! Although I am more confused now than when I came in it is only because you have all turned me on to elements of this problem that I was not aware of before and for that I am grateful.
I can never quite believe how utterly fascinating our universe is. | 142 | Things at the edge of the observable universe are actually disappearing due to the metric expansion of space, but the general concept of "look into a telescope and see things that happened a really long time ago" is accurate. | 27 |
[Doctor Strange / Marvel] Relations between dimensions and planes of existence | So, in the Doctor Strange movie, we are taught of three dimensions: the astral plane, dark dimension, and mirror dimension. Does the dark dimension have its own mirror dimension or astral plane?
Similarly, as I know the different realms are, in fact, realms, in the comics, is there an astral plane for Asgard?
Essent... | 44 | The Asgardians use the term "realm" in the same way as old kings; it means an area under a sovereign's rule. When Odin conquered the "nine realms," it just means he took over nine planets: Asgard itself, Earth, Jotunheim, and a few others.
All of these realms exist within the same universe. You could get to Asgard for... | 25 |
ELI5: Why does sunburnt skin feel warm to the touch? | 279 | Your body opens up capillaries in the burn area and flushes blood there as part of the healing process. Redness and warmth to the touch of sunburnt skin is caused by there just being more blood than usual in the area. | 205 | |
Are humans closer in relative size to the planck length or the entire observable universe? | 15,373 | Definitely the latter; the comoving radius of the observable Universe is on the order of 10^(26) m, while the Planck length sits at about 10^(-35) m. The metre is closer to the cosmological scale than the Planck scale. | 8,106 | |
CMV: If there were a Hell, not even Stalin would deserve it, nor would it be logical to send him there. (Nobody deserves Hell) | First off, I consider myself somewhat agnostic atheist. But when it comes to scripture, I am not that agnostic about it, since it's too selfevidently flawed.
Obviously, this is not only about Stalin.
Yes it's partly about Stalin, but more as an example of how far I'm going with this. It's about nobody deserving it,... | 15 | You're simply putting words in god's mouth. You - absolutely, beyond a doubt - do not get to decide what someone "deserves". The seriousness of a sin and whether you are forgiven or not is the determination of god, not you.
To accept the envelope for your argument that is god's existence, but then reject the informat... | 10 |
[War of the Worlds] Did the Martians land anywhere but England? | Supposedly so, but I don't think it's mentioned anywhere; How do you think the rest of the world would have dealt with a Victorian era invasion of the Martians from HG wells book? | 83 | I believe that in the original book it was an issue localized to England; there's a comic book out there about the British Government using their newfound monopoly on scavenged Martian tech from the invasion to redouble their grip on the empire. | 78 |
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