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[Mass Effect] If the Reapers have been exterminating the Milky Way's sentient life every 50K years, what is the sentient life situation in other galaxies? | I'm assuming the situation in the Milky Way is quite abnormal. If the reapers are millions and millions of years old, what level of advancement are sentient life forms in other galaxies at? | 59 | The Reapers do not travel outside the Milky Way (except for their hiding spot), because it would probably take them more than one cycle to arrive. There will be a few stable civilisations in the other galaxies, which will be old enough to wipe the void with the Reapers.
However, nearby galaxies like the Magellanic cl... | 46 |
All philosophy is situation? | After reading Victor Frankl's "Man's Search For Meaning" it struck me that the philosophy that came out of the book seemed very much as response to his situation, and that is it no surprise that he didn't adopt a philosophy of something like Utilitarianism instead. This got me to thinking that most if not all philosoph... | 59 | You might be interested in *moral particularism* \-- the view that there are no authoritative ethical principles, and that moral judgment consists of nothing more than deliberation about particular cases. | 44 |
Why does humidity kill static electricity? | When I take off a fleece coat in dry winter you can hear it crackle with electricity but in the humid summer it doesn't. What is it about humidity that kills the static? | 137 | Static electricity on clothes comes from electrons separated (by friction of putting it on for example) from their original molecules. The separated electron acts as a negative charge, while the left behind molecule now has net positive charge. This local charge surplusses and deficits are what makes up "static electri... | 70 |
ELI5: Why are there only 12 notes in music? | So I understand the formula for the major scale, and I understand the need for accidentals in order to preserve the formula for the major scale regardless of the tonic. I understand how this gives rise to the chromatic scale. What I want to understand is, from a physical/acoustical perspective, why there are only 12 to... | 18 | It is all about the chords.
Two notes played together sound pleasing when their waveforms line up nicely. Frequency ratios of 2:1 and 3:2 sound better than 13:9 or 23:17. 12, being divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, gives a lot of ways to hit these good ratios, in a way that 10 or 13 would not.
Also, there are some musi... | 15 |
[The X Files] How much did Mulder and Scully make? What kind of performance reviews did they receive? Are they collecting a pension now? | 20 | In today’s money, FBI agents make 50k or so starting. This is about 25k 30 years ago. It’s a government job, so good benefits including a pension are part of the package.
Mulder was top of his class at quantico iirc. Scully was recruited as an MD. So I’m guessing they got something like too starting pay, so maybe more... | 25 | |
ELI5: why do things like metal and lava turn red when they are are hot? | 125 | It is thermal radiation. The thermal radiation that everything emits depending on temperature.
Glowing orange red is the lowest temperature that emit visible light. The hotter it gets the whiter it gets and even hotter it will look blue.
The light from a incandescent light bulb and the sun is black-body radiation bu... | 87 | |
If we existed on the planet found orbiting Alpha Centauri, would we be able to detect the Sun's planets with our same technology? | Obviously it would be too hot to exist on, I'm just trying to grasp what sorts of planets we are able to discover at this time. | 26 | There are two primary methods for detecting planets, the transit technique and the radial velocity technique. The transit technique looks for dimming of the parent star as the planet crosses in front of it. This technique works very well for large planets (e.g. Jupiter) but is sensitive enough to detect even Earth-size... | 10 |
[Zombies] In modern stories where zombies/walkers are treated like purely scientific carnivorous animals, why aren't the zombies all starving to death within a year because their prey is being driven extinct? | 48 | This happens in 28 Days/Weeks Later. Humanity still ends up ruined, but the zombies do starve given enough time. Humans take weeks to starve, records are pretty sketchy here as most of the "longest without eating" claims are religious figures claiming supernatural assistance.
Lets say 45 days is the limit with no foo... | 55 | |
[Dc] Why is constantine tolerated in the justice league? | His main character point is he is untrustworthy and backstabs and tricks everyone, so why is he allowed to be in the justice league or the justice league dark? | 87 | Because he is a master magician and expert on demonic magic that is an invaluable ally. Keep in mind, that doesn't mean he's completely tolerated - his ex Zatarra can barely tolerate his presence >!due to his involvement in her father's death!< and he's been kicked off Justice League Dark at least once because of... | 78 |
[Harry Potter] What's the point of the sorting hat if it puts you in the house you want anyway? | Like can't they just let the kids pick which house they want in a secret vote or something so they don't get peer pressured?
Also, how did the hat start talking? Like is it an actual wizard that was trapped in the hat, did Dumbledore create it himself or did he just find it already talking? | 357 | The hat doesn't put you in the house you personally want to be in, after all, Hermione had more of a preference for Ravenclaw before she was sorted. What it does do is look into your heart to see what kind of a person you are. Harry's desire to not be in Slytherin showed the hat that despite Harry's great potential to ... | 360 |
[The Expanse] How is Mars able to stand any sort of chance against Earth? | Earth has several billions of people, and the economy that comes with that. I don’t know what the population of Mars is, but if they have to live in habitats, it can’t come close to Earth’s. There just isn’t enough collective physical and mental manpower on Mars to keep up with Earth both logistically and technological... | 40 | Earth has a population of 30 billion, however most of the population lives on "basic" assistance, essentially struggling below the poverty line.
Mars has a population of 9 billion and their entire culture is near militarized towards their goal of terraforming the planet - they look upon the people of Earth as weak, su... | 75 |
Are there any philosophers who speak about the preference of death over an afterlife? | Has there been any philosophers who have objected to the heaven/hell dichotomy preferring eternal destruction of the self over a continued existence in another realm? | 59 | In Plato's *Apology*, Socrates argues that we have nothing to fear from death because both an afterlife and oblivion are desirable states.
Schopenhauer, taking a cue from Indian philosophy and religion, believes both in a cycle of endless reincarnation and that this process of reincarnation is a bad thing; he sometime... | 29 |
ELI5:Is there a specific reason why our forearms and calves have two bones instead of one? | 16 | It allows them to rotate axially, for example turning your hands from palm down to palm up. Imagine you had one big bone in your forearm - how the heck would that work? You would have to twist the bone itself, and spiral fractures are no fun. Instead, the two bones just shift around each other. | 22 | |
[Star Wars] How can one rogue apprentice destroy all the new Jedi with Luke Skywalker being around? | 36 | By being the apprentice Luke loved best.
Ben Solo was Luke's nephew. Luke would have known him from the day he was born. With no family of his own, Luke would have loved him like his own son.
When Ben turned on Luke, it would have been shattering. Heart-breaking. Luke would have hesitated. He would have tried to talk... | 61 | |
[WH40K] There is enough evidence to convince the Imperium beyond reasonable doubt that the EoM would come back within a millenia if the Golden Throne were destroyed. Would they be able to afford to do this? | If they go through with it, what's the holding pattern while Big E regenerates/reincarnates and makes himself known again? | 50 | No, the Imperium can't afford even minute interruption in the work of Astronomicon beacon, let alone millenia, and God-Emperor and his Golden Throne are integral parts of the beacon. Without it, Astronomicon would go out and ships won't be able to safely navigate the Warp, basically starting another dark age and needin... | 64 |
CMV: mocking or distorting academic meaning of important terms is heavily contributing to post truth world we live in | I see all the time people completely disregarding what important concepts actually mean and putting popular understanding (many times shaped as propaganda) as a more valid definition.
Good example is happening in CMV right now in discussing USSR where word communism is used a lot. Popular mocking phrase in USA/interne... | 20 | On the issue of the USSR "not being communism" because they called themselves socialist... you have to be very careful about taking a country at its own word about what it says it is, versus how it actually functions in practise. For example; North Korea calls itself "The People's Republic of Korea". So, taken at face ... | 12 |
ELI5: when you buy bananas that are green and not ripe, how do they become ripe and yellow when they are not getting any nutrients from the tree but just sitting in your house | 84 | Bananas do not ripe due to nutrients they get from the tree ....instead bananas release a gas called ethylene from their stems which make them ripen ....
not only bananas ...ethylene can ripen other fruits too if you keep them close to the bananas . | 97 | |
CMV: Cancelling student debt seems like a terrible idea | Obviously, student debt is a huge issue for many Americans who are stuck managing it for years if not decades but I feel like the core of the issue can solved in so many other ways other than cancelling the debt as a whole and that taking this route would not only be unnecessary but also unfair.
Why are we so hyper f... | 23 | I imagine that most people who want student debt cancellation also want the increased price of education to go away, either via free college or something else.
Also, "I suffered so other people should suffer too' is the worst reason to write laws. | 37 |
[MCU] How does Captain America age? | He goes into the ice and comes out without aging a single bit. Then he gets sent back in time and seemingly aged normally, him being an old man at the end of Endgame. Does he age slowly because of the super serum? | 16 | He was 39 when he went back in time, if we assume he went back to that point at the end of WWII (1945) and lived till Endgame in (assuming 2019), he'd be 113. It's not an impossible age for a normal human, he was just very healthy for his age due to the super soldier serum, probably a couple decades younger physically ... | 30 |
Why is escape velocity so high? | Why is the escape velocity for earth 11.2 km/s? Can someone explain why it needs to be such a high speed? Why can't a vehicle just travel at a steady 1 km/h until is out of reach of the planet's gravity? | 39 | It can, it would just need to be thrusting the whole time. Escape velocity is the speed you need to escape without adding any more energy - just coasting. That is why escape velocity depends on altitude - the higher up you are, the less speed you need to go the rest of the way. | 86 |
[Jessica Jones] How does Jessica Jones' abilities rank in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? | It appears to me that she probably wouldn't survive against a well-trained SHIELD agent or any super-powered humans in the MCU except for some of the Inhumans. Like she is clearly not bulletproof and can't dodge bullets any more than the average person. What sort of level of strength does she have? They do show her hal... | 200 | Jessica is strong but she's entirely untrained. That's why she struggles sometimes fighting multiple people, she punches badly and throws people. She has no idea how to really fight properly. Someone like Cap would utterly destroy her in a brawl (Cap with his shield could more than likely beat Luke Cage even though).
... | 214 |
[Arrival] Why doesn't Ian learn the heptapod language as well so he can see his daughter? | We're told the reason Ian eventually leaves Louise is because she gives birth to their daughter despite knowing she is going to die. This is made worse by the fact that while Louise has the ability to go back and "visit" her daughter in a sense, Ian can't as he doesn't seem to know the language in the future. My questi... | 25 | It's not just that she learned the language, but that she became so deeply involved in it that it changed the way her brain processed the world around her.
The short story goes into this phenomenon more, setting it up with examples like a culture that doesn't use relative directions (left, right, etc), only absolute (... | 40 |
Does the Wharton salary question have greater implications? | Academics spend their lives working in higher education and are often times quite comfortable and surrounded by other like minded academics their whole lives. The recent [Warton salary ](https://www.phillyvoice.com/penn-wharton-professor-nina-strohminger-viral-tweet-average-american-salary/)question may show how out of... | 64 | The answer by those Wharton kids has more to do with the fact that UPenn has more people from the top 1% than the bottom 20% and rich kids don't understand the privilege. Plus the median income of the family of someone who goes to UPenn happens to be above 100k, so the answer reflects the students' immediate bubble. It... | 99 |
[Star Wars]Why does C3P0 refer to R2D2 as his "counterpart"? | Is it standard for droids to have a partner droid? | 233 | Droids that work together on a regular basis can, over time, become so accustomed to each other that they are considered counterparts. They essentially both develop code that forms a kind of "shortcut" when they're interacting, letting them function together much faster than normal droids can. They can also use that co... | 196 |
[LoTR] What if Morgoth and not Sauron had been the one to have the idea to create the One Ring and vest the majority of his power into it as Sauron had done? | 32 | Morgoth *did* in a sense create a Ring of Power. Tolkien says that because Morgoth invested so much of himself into corrupting the material world, *the world itself was his ring*. Hence the name of Morgoth's Ring, one of the books of the History of Middle Earth. Because of this investiture, his power over the physical ... | 48 | |
[Star Trek] Why are the Borg so dangerous? | I have a question about the Borg, why are the Borg so terrifying and dangerous? Is it possible to defeat the Borg? | 38 | They're dangerous because they have an overriding directive to assimilate other species' technology and biology into the collective. If you resist being assimilated, you're an enemy. Also, they are hard to fight because they can alter their technology on the fly to counter nearly any kind of weapons, armor, or shields ... | 42 |
ELI5: What is meant by right-wing & left-wing in politics? | 2,885 | So the actual origin of the term goes back to the French Revolution where people who supported the revolution literally hung out on the left side of the room while supporters of the king hung out on the right side of the room.
So the left wing was the more liberal side of the group as a whole so now any group that re... | 4,481 | |
ELI5: Why can a company fire an employee for a Facebook comment, but not sue a non-employee for defamation because of a Facebook comment? | 69 | The standards are different.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, an employee is "at will." This means that the employer can fire them for any reason or for no reason at all. In the present day there are some restrictions on this---you can't fire someone because of their religion, for instance---but very few.
Thu... | 25 | |
Do straight lines exist? | Seeing so many extreme microscope photos makes me wonder. At huge zoom factors I am always amazed at the surface area of things which we feel are smooth. The texture is so crumbly and imperfect. eg this hypodermic needle
http://www.rsdaniel.com/HTMs%20for%20Categories/Publications/EMs/EMsTN2/Hypodermic.htm
With that... | 359 | Not in the sense you have in mind. Even atomically smooth surfaces are bumpy at the atomic scale. Straight lines (and smooth surfaces) are mathematical constructs that provide useful approximations to reality in many situations.
| 315 |
Are you at greater risk of sunburn up on a mountain? | I remember being told that sunburns are more likely when you're up in the mountains because the air is thinner. And that's why Andean peoples wear wide brim hats most of the time. And I think my own experience matches that. I've burnt pretty quickly when up in mountainous terrain.
But I also know (believe) that UV is... | 59 | The ultraviolet spectrum is pretty broad (400 nm – 10 nm) and is divided into three sub-bands. Ozone is really good at absorbing the short UV-C wavelengths and moderately good at absorbing the medium UV-B wavelengths. UV-A and UV-B (which are responsible for sunburns and skin cancer) are mostly absorbed by water vapor ... | 50 |
ELI5:What makes a tree live on, while plants such as corn die off quickly?If a tree grows on and on without disturbance,is there a limit to its lifetime? | 379 | #Slow and steady vs. Fast and furious
The main difference is how each handles reproductive events. Reproduction is the most energy and resource consuming event any organism can live.
Herbs (what you would call "plants") have chosen the strategy of tanking stressful environment as a seed or tubercule, gather resource... | 331 | |
ELI5 why is it that you can break a piece of a tooth and it doesn’t need fixing, but if you have the tiniest cavity it has to get filled ASAP? | 1,878 | A cavity is decay-it is dead and dying areas with bacteria, and can spread if not taken care of. A cracked broken piece of tooth, depending on how deep the break is, won't cause increasing problems over time. | 1,076 | |
[Warhammer 40K] Can you boost the collective intelligence of the Orks by telling them books make you more killy? | 32 | I mean, "collectively" orks are already as smart as any other space faring race. They've collectively got the knowledge to build spaceships and other technology on par with anyone else.
Besides, most orks can't read, so not like books are gonna do much besides get thrown around or lit on fire. | 36 | |
ELI5: What is quantitative easing? | 29 | Quantitative easing is a tactic used by a country’s central bank (eg. The federal reserve) to add money to the country’s economy, primarily in times when the economy is slow or have collapsed. Because the central bank cannot give away money for free, it makes large purchases of government bonds or financial assets(Bill... | 10 | |
ELI5 how does freeing up storage space make your computer faster? | 24 | In general, it doesn't.
If your hard drive is almost completely full then it can have an impact. Your operating system may temporarily dump some of the values it's tracking in RAM to your hard drive to make use of RAM for something else to speed things up. If there's not enough space on the drive to do that, it could ... | 60 | |
If a woman doesn't get her period and is not pregnant, what happens to the eggs? | For example, taking contraceptives that may stop a woman from getting a regular period. | 54 | Nothing happens to them. When a baby girl is born, she already has all the eggs she will have for her whole life in her ovaries. If she doesn't menstruate on any given month, it just means no egg(s) exited her ovaries. | 17 |
ELI5: How the Credit Card Competition Act works and why it could mean no more credit card rewards programs | 39 | The general idea is that right now, merchants pay money on every credit card transaction in their store. With this new act, the government wants to try to drive the cost of that fee down. But if they do that, then credit card companies might reduce or even cut out some reward benefits because they themselves would be e... | 84 | |
ELI5:What are the strings in String Theory made of? | 17 | They're made of strings.
In string theory, the strings are the most fundamental object in the universe, so they can't consist of anything else. It's like asking what an electron is made of, it's nonsense because (as far as we know) electrons are just electrons. | 11 | |
[General] If the multiverse has every possible outcome in all existences, and it is possible to travel between universes in it, shouldn't every universe be filled with multiverse travelers everywhere? | 61 | There would be infinite travelers, so there would be universes full of them. There would also be infinite universes that had none. And infinite universes that never spawned them. By definition, one possible outcome is a universe with just one traveler. And another with just two. And another with just two but they're sl... | 75 | |
[Disney's the Little Mermaid] King Triton is extremely powerful. Why can't he destroy the contract Ariel signed? How is it protected? | Ursula says something about the contract being legally binding, but what does that actually mean in the context of an absolute monarchy in a magical environment? | 141 | The magic of the sea is old and strong, and of all magics the binding power of a contract is one of the oldest and strongest, especially a contact agreed to by royalty.
King Triton is strong, but even he cannot breach the foundations of the magic of the sea | 107 |
CMV: Human Resources is the laziest and biggest drag to a company's bottom line | Background: I'm a Director level professional with 30 years in my field. I have two certifications, one of them being the top in my field. I've worked at both corporate and non-corporate levels, both franchisor and franchisee sides of my business. I've had roles where I supervised employees and roles that I did not... | 25 | The flip side is that lawsuits can be very expensive & potentially a PR nightmare, so HR is the price companies pay to try and make sure they can prove in court they crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s. | 16 |
ELI5: Why do animal brains tend to operate far more efficiently than even the best computers? | Brains occupy a low volume and use very little energy compared to computers. How is this possible? What's preventing computers from becoming more efficient than the brain? | 15 | What makes you think they are less efficient? Computers are vastly more efficient than brains, at some tasks. Running a modern game requires billions of floating point calculations per second. Even if you drafted the entire population of the planet you couldn't get that kind of throughput. We win at other tasks like pa... | 15 |
CMV: On social media, more people should attack bad ideas/posts from people from their own tribe | Couple of semantics to get out of the way.
1. By social media, I am talking about forums/websites such as facebook, twitter, reddit where people exchange ideas and debate about different topics. I am hoping that this CMV does not devolve down to arguing over what is and what isn't social media.
2. By "attack bad idea... | 134 | Let's view this from a game theory perspective. If your group does this, and the other group does not, you could run the risk of the other group abusing this by driving a wedge between the sub-group, making your group splinters, and weaker.
A temporary example would be Russia, China, and Iran, using online trolls to e... | 18 |
ELI5: In a few billion years when the sun expands and grows into a red giant, how fast will it expand and "swallow" the inner planets? | 187 | The sun is expected to last another 5.4 billion years before the hydrogen in the core runs out.
When that happens, the core will start to collapse in on itself due to its own gravity, and will increase in temperature. This allows for hydrogen fusion outside the core to happen (the strong temperature gradient doesn’t ... | 162 | |
ELI5: What causes blood to randomly rush to the penis, causing a random erection? | 25 | It’s not a random rush at all. Many times during the day your autonomous nervous system reacts without you consciously having to think about it - you breathe autonomously, you get hiccups autonomously, your intestines are told to move autonomously etc. Similarly, a stimulus you’re not even aware of might trigger the re... | 19 | |
My manipulative professor | I have been manipulated by my professor for about 2 years now.
He always threatens me with my scholarship. He knows I can’t afford living without it.
He denies me basic PhD merit like having my own study, using our lab’s databank or even attending conferences.
He always like to put his name first on all papers and he... | 24 | Get out. Find somewhere else. Not necessarily in that order.
You're not going to learn anything from this professor that will make you a better researcher, and they are not giving you the opportunities you should be getting. | 42 |
ELI5: Why are everyone in '50s & '60s photos so thin? | 33 | In all seriousness, because people are fatter now.
Children moved more in school, and we're much less likely to be driven to school, more likely to walk or ride a bicycle to school. Play was much more likely to be outside - no video games, no computers, no mobile devices. Oh, yeah, talking with friends? You gotta w... | 72 | |
CMV: Public exams in schools are relics of an outdated system and should be removed; they serve no useful purpose in preparing children for real life. | As children we are taught that we are essentially the same under the eye of authority, and that what determines one's worth is a number on a written assessment. Children are shown that it's the one that memorises information and retains it the best that achieves the most, or the one that can work under timed conditions... | 31 | Allow me to challenge you: How can you know if a student is proficient or they need additional practice in an area, if not for an exam? How can you compare students' performance for merit-based scholarships, if not for exams? How can you compare students from different classes, different schools, or different states ... | 12 |
[Generic Fantasy] What makes iron so poisonous to Fae? I figure they're creatures of the "natural" world, and iron can be naturally found all over in ore veins and such. | 19 | Naturally occurring iron ores are generally bonded with other stuff in the form of magnetite, hematite, etc. This is different than refined irons and steels which are not naturally occurring and instead a product of civilization. So, the way I've generally understood it is it's only the processed/pure stuff which is ha... | 29 | |
ELI5: Why is bread more nutritious than flour? | 27 | Really really simple explanation. The energy in bread and flour is contained in little batteries (sugar molecules). But, the batteries in flour have a coating over the plus and minus terminals that slows the electricity that can flow out of the battery. If you cook the flour (bread), the heat removes the coating on the... | 32 | |
ELI5:When and how can you make a citizen's arrest? | 38 | In the US you can make a citizens arrest if someone has committed a crime in front of you, or you have reasonable suspicion that they've committed a felony. It's important to remember that this only extends to the point where you can hold onto the person but you must notify the police immediately, and you can't do any ... | 34 | |
ELI5: Why aren't Nagasaki and Hiroshima nuclear wastelands? Surely they would still be inhabitable due to the radiation? | 67 | Movies have lied to you about the effects and duration of radiation. Most of what movies show about how radiation works are distorted and exaggerated.
This will also blow your mind: over 500 nuclear bombs have been set off in the US back when we still tested nuclear bombs, some as close as 65 miles away from las vega... | 76 | |
[Marvel & DC] How strong is the Hulk compared to Superman? | 18 | The very strongest Hulk has ever been (World Breaker Hulk) is much much weaker than normal Superman. Superman is approximately 6.5x10^19 times stronger than base Hulk (Hulk is a 100 tonner while Supes benches the weight of the Earth). | 21 | |
ELI5: Capitalism vs. Communism during the Cold War, why does America care so much how other countries are run? | It's been a few years since high school. I understand the Cold War and Vietnam Conflict existed because of the spread of Communism, but I still don't understand why America was so threatened by a different ideological view. | 89 | It was less about ideology and more about rivalry.
The US and the USSR were struggling for global dominance. Since communism and capitalism were largely incompatible, they were useful tools to force countries to pick one side or the other, and to stay on that side once it was picked.
If instead of Russia, communism ... | 48 |
Why is teaching in academia looked at so badly? | I'm a PhD student hoping to graduate next Spring. I've got quite a bit of teaching experience over the course of PhD, and my goal after I graduate is to land a teaching-focused position at a university.
I talked to my department chair today about becoming a lecturer in our department after I graduate next year (I will... | 49 | Academic snobbery and elitism. I've encountered a lot of PIs, usually the stodgy older ones, who look down on alternate career pathways, industry positions, pre-medical undergrads, etc. simply because they're not interested in an academic research career. I've known many people who have hidden their true career goals f... | 72 |
[W40K] Why are ground troops still relevant? | Today, outside of territory occupation, most of the war is fought by drones, airplanes, etc; with ground forces being used only for small guerrilla style operations (special forces). Sure, a lot of troops are deployed to actually control land in hostile countries (eg occupation of Iraq by the US, or the current Centraf... | 52 | Firstly these drones sound an awful lot like AI which is a big no no.
Your enemies also have spaceships so you cant really just perch and fire unabated.
You might not want to destroy everything in that area. Retrieving a relic or securing a position doesnt always necessitate orbital bombardment.
Its also about re... | 87 |
ELI5: Why do right wing Americans support Israel so much? | I tried searching with less that great results on ELI5. Basically, what is the cause of the right wing republicans in the US to have such a strong support for Israel; even expecting military action in some cases while being opposed to increased military presence in the american embassy in Afghanistan. I don't understan... | 27 | It's not just right wingers. It's liberals as well. Republicans typically support because of the necessity for a strategic ally in the Middle East. Democrats typically support because the Jewish traditionally have a high voter turnout and not backing Israel will probably lose them enough votes and enough campaign contr... | 30 |
ELI5: China vs Porcelain vs Ceramic vs Earthenware | Some of these may be overlapping categories but I have no idea. | 84 | All of these are examples of Ceramics, which covers the entire set of the other items you are asking about. Ceramics are typically any sort of hard shaped material formed at least partly out of Kaolinite Clay.
The main differences between the types of ceramics are:
* Earthenware, fired at lower temperatures than o... | 39 |
CMV: All drugs should be legal | Yes, I mean crack and LSD etc. I wouldn't touch substances such as these for health reasons but I don't think I or anyone else has the right to forcibly prevent another adult from voluntarily using a substance. I think the effect this prohibition has on law enforcement is huge, meaning it puts a ton of cases on the dep... | 23 | Drug use have a lot of externalities that go beyond a single individual "voluntarily using a substance". Addiction is a chronic health problem that society pays for in many ways. They are less productive and often can't hold a job. They require a lot of public health services that society has to pay for. Addicts are m... | 12 |
[Star Wars] Why can’t Jedi or Sith use the force to crash/crush enemy vehicles or starships during battles? | 44 | It takes practice and concentration. Something like a starship or large vehicle is usually beyond the capabilities of your average force users. In the middle of a battle there's too much going on to try and create a force crush unless you're a powerful force user and not busy trying to not get hit. | 50 | |
I believe that authoritarianism is preferable to democracy, CMV | There are a few key points that my opinion is based on:
* I don't trust other people enough to vote for the future; as far as I'm concerned the vast majority are somewhat-educated Luddites who really don't care what happens as long as their head is on their neck and their pockets have some loose change (I know I'm th... | 27 | All of your points work on the assumption that the leader of your country is going to be (for want of a better phrase) a 'good person' responsive to the views and interests of their citizens. Sometimes that'll be the case, sometimes it won't be; in an absolute monarchy, there's no guarantee that a good king will follow... | 41 |
[Giant monster films in general] Whenever a giant monster attacks a city, why do military pilots almost always fly right next to the monster? | Why would a military pilot fly right next to a giant monster destroying a city? For example in Pacific Rim, at the start of the movie, some F-22 Raptors flew so close to Trespasser that one of them literally flew under Trespasser’s armpit and got destroyed. Why would military pilots do such a thing when they can engage... | 407 | It's to keep down civilian casualties. If you manage to distract the monster by flying close to it (like that mosquito that annoyed you while you were trying to work), you give the civilians in the city time to evacuate. Of course you're taking a huge risk on your own life - but so do firemen when they go into burning ... | 185 |
ELI5: Why does vibrato "sound good?" | 40 | Here are a few things i can think of
- vibrato hides some pitch problems. With a straight pitch, intonation is more obvious
- it gives the music more "texture", so theres more to listen for
- vibrato is variable (in speed, pitch distance, etc), which allows more expression without changing the notes of a piece.
- t... | 58 | |
[Star Trek] It's been said that Q aren't really "gods", just really advanced aliens who have technology that makes them damn near omnipotent/scient. The Borg stumble across a fatally injured and weakened Q and manage to assimilate it. Could they succeed at this? What would the Borg become? | 18 | Honestly, this feels like a scenario that could be best metaphoricalized by asking "A slightly brain-damaged pygmy lemur happens upon a smart-phone with no charger. How long until it becomes the CEO of Facebook?"
Q and the Borg are so unutterably distant in terms of development that an assimilation attempt, even on a... | 27 | |
[Avengers] Could Antman actually explode Thanos from the inside by crawling up his ventilation shaft? | I'm dead serious, would Antman even have the time to get to max size before being snapped away? Or would he even be able to get close? How would this all even play out? | 26 | Reality, power and space stone could easily deal with the issue - time stone could rewind on the off chance that Scott managed to get large enough to actually start doing damage.
Of course that's not taking into account the fact that vanilla Thanos is so fucking durable that he can tank punches from Hulk - so no, re... | 50 |
ELI5: Why do US cities expand outward and not upward? | 8,026 | They expand upward when land is scarce or expensive, and they expand outward when the opposite is true.
In most cases, it is the later. The US is _huge_ and available land is not a problem that we have to deal with. Most major cities have more than enough surrounding land to expand on to at a fraction of the cost of... | 8,971 | |
How does MOND make dark matter unnecessary for explaining the movement of galaxies? | 123 | The idea behind MOND is that at very long ranges, the strength of gravity falls off at a lower rate than the one predicted by newtonian gravity (and general relativity). This would mean that the higher velocities of stars around the edges of galaxies could potentially be explained without the need for (a lot) of invisi... | 100 | |
I have read group theory is used to study a molecules symmetry but why would you want to know its symmetry in the first place? | 25 | The symmetries of a molecule affect its chemical and physical properties. For example water, H2O, is slightly asymmetric (looks like ^H O ^H ), which leads to it freezing in a crystal lattice instead of staying a fluid, and it happens in way higher temperatures than it otherwise would. Contrast CO2, which is symmetric ... | 28 | |
CMV If a business is failing, the taxpayer shouldn’t have to prop it up | So this is the article that got me thinking about this, for reference:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-49598977
For anyone who isn’t going to read it, it basically says that a thinktank has come up with the idea of taxing supermarket alcohol higher than alcohol sold in pubs because more p... | 260 | I would agree with this is a world where anti-trust laws were enforced. The problem with companies like Walmart or Amazon is that their size begets size. Walmart is so large, that if it chooses to it can put pretty much any style of local business out of business if they choose to.
Even if the Walmart product is s... | 72 |
How do strawberries get infected with hep A? | Title. Is it something to do with the fertilizer like ecoli? Or is Hep A something that survives in the soil? | 2,898 | Hep A is transmitted through fecal particulates from an infected individual either directly or through contaminated sewage. You can contract Hep A by eating food that has been prepared by an individual with Hep A or had direct contact. Unfortunately studies have shown washing produce does not fully disinfect from Hep A... | 2,482 |
eli5: How did philologists (people who study ancient languages) learn to decipher ancient texts, if there was no understandable translation available upon discovery? | To me it seems like this would be similar to trying to learn to read Chinese with absolutely no access to any educational materials/teachers. | 790 | Two ways: 1 finding cases where it's translated into another language, that's why the rosetta stone was such a big deal, it had several languages all saying the same thing on it, one of which was ancient greek, which we already knew so they could use that translation to work backwards.
The other way, is what another c... | 856 |
[Marvel Cinematic Universe] When Cap's shield is thrown, why does its edge sometimes (elastically) bounce off things, while other times it (inelastically) gets lodged inside things? I've watched numerous movies carefully but I can't find any pattern or governing principle. Thanks! | 158 | Its all about edge alignment. If the edge is oriented such the it strikes on the surface of the shield's 'dome' then it bounces elastically. If it strikes on the edge in a scooping motion it cuts. Cap is just so proficient with it that he can control which alignment will strike the desired target. | 142 | |
ELI5: Why when I use a pen and it stops writing, I can go to another place on the paper and continue to write, but when I come back to the spot it stopped working at, it doesn't work? | 103 | Sometimes there's a tiny bit of grease on your paper, in an invisible layer. This grease (finger oil; french fry grease; maybe some dripped from a roller at the paper factory) stops your ball-point pen's ball from rolling, which stops the flow of ink. | 60 | |
ELI5:How do guitar pedals work? | I'm teaching myself how to play guitar on an acoustic, but I'm saving up for an electric. I want to know everything about pedals, and how they work with a guitar because I feel like it's necessary. If it helps narrowing it down I'm saving up for either a Fender Strat or Tele. Thank you! | 38 | An electric guitar, as you probably know, uses a magnetic pickup to transform the vibrations of the strings into an electrical signal. This signal is then carried to an amplifier and in turn a speaker (of course there can be PA systems and such but let's keep it simple.)
An effects pedal will take this electric signal... | 15 |
[Star Wars] Would Luke had turned to the dark side if Han and Liea had died if they were killed instead of being captured twice at the battle of Endor? | 32 | At that point, yes. Absolutely. He was *inches* away from falling by the mere threat to Leia. If his friends die, there's no way he doesn't succumb. At that point, he wasn't even near to becoming the wise Grand Jedi Master he would be destined to become (talking Legends here, of course. In canon... well, you know). It... | 37 | |
Why does an RH+ mother's cells not attack their RH- baby? | 412 | Hi, Rh positive mothers will not have antibodies to the RH protein. If they produced antibodies, they would attack their own cells.
The issue with Rh occurs when Rh negative mothers produce antibodies against the Rh antigen in their baby’s blood. The Rh antigen in this case will be recognised as foreign by the Rh nega... | 394 | |
Can executive functions be improved? | Hello. Apparently fluid intelligence can not be improved, yet. Can we do something about executive functions? Wikipedia article about executive functions says it can be improved at any age.
I am 22. Perhaps, I can specifically do certain things since the prefrontal cortex gets myelinated between ages 20-30? Can adults... | 26 | Studies show that meditation builds executive function. The most useful part of executive function is that it controls impulsivity, and that is something that meditation helps with. The less executive function you have, the more you are on autopilot when it comes to your emotional control and decision making. Meditat... | 16 |
Are there any aspects of the mind/consciousness that have never been changed following brain damage? | Are there aspects of personality that remain constant no matter what? | 63 | It's been the model of structure creates function in brain medicine and neurosciences for a good long time. This was the "Astonishing Hypothesis" by Sir Francis Crick.
There is not any function of neuronal brain without structure to create it. | 15 |
[ the matrix] would the people in the program see neo as some kind of terrorist after he takes the red pill? | when i think about it, everyone sees morpheus as a god in the real world or a terrorist in the program. since all the stuff he's probably done to the agents. but when neo takes the red pill and he did all the stuff in the matrix and in the matrix 2. would there be news coverage of it? would the police investigate all h... | 68 | Firstly, in the real world Morpheus is seen as a bit of a crackpot, he just has a bit of a following.
Yes, in the Matrix there are "news" reports that label them as terrorists. Sure the police might investigate stuff (we see them break in on Trinity) but once it's clear to the Agents that there's RedPills involved the... | 58 |
What causes a burning sensation when you get salt in an open wound? | 183 | It is just basic electrophysiology. When you have an open wound, the solution around nerve fibers is directly accessible. Nerve fibers work via gradients of sodium and potassium inside vs outside the cell. If you really boost the sodium concentration outside the cell, it becomes hyperexcitable. Now, it is a wound, so C... | 64 | |
If a room was perfectly sealed from all external forces, would the air inside naturally settle with the heavier compounds to the bottom and the lighter to the top, or is air always continuously mixing? | 20 | Yes, mostly. Gas will naturally settle, like liquids, with the most dense at the bottom. Look up "gas stratification" to read details. This can be very dangerous in certain situations. For instance, a closed off industrial space such as a bridge compartment can have rusting metal. This uses up the oxygen. Or a closed ... | 14 | |
Why does having diarrhea cause pain in the intestines? | I understand why constipation is painful, but why is diarrhea painful? | 38 | Diarrhea usually is caused by irritation to the intestinal lining. Your intestinal lining has pain receptors but your brain has difficulty localizing it specifically. The casing around the intestines (peritoneum) has pain receptors that your brain can localize. Irritation causes inflammation, which involves the release... | 27 |
CMV: Being uncomfortable with certain actions does not make you a bigot. | In a college class today I was labeled a bigot for saying that I am uncomfortable seeing two gay men making out. I even qualified it by saying that I am by no means saying it is wrong or that they shouldn't be allowed to do it, just that it makes me sort of cringe. I also said that I cringe seeing two straight people m... | 24 | In your defense, you said that its "outrageous PDA" that makes you uncomfortable, not the gay or straight angle.
But your statement wasn't that public displays of affection makes you uncomfortable, it was that gay people engaging in such behavior do. Why did you specifically single out gay people in your statement,... | 21 |
ELI5: Why do cinder blocks have holes in them? | ( http://www.dimensionsinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Hollow-Block.jpg ) Someone told me it's because it dries faster when being made as opposed to making one whole block. What I want to know though, is the effect (if any) it has on infrastructure. Would using whole cinder blocks with no holes be any different tha... | 644 | Cost. Making them solid doesn't make them very much stronger but adds significant cost. Also n some construction, rebar is embedded into concrete poured into the stacked blocks to add strength, which would not be possible if they were solid. Being able to add strength only where necessary minimizes cost. | 582 |
Why are there no Chihuahua or Great Dane sized cats? | Why is there less variability in cat breeds as compared to dog breeds?
If there is selective pressure in a village or area to have a huge or tiny dog, why wouldn't the same pressure apply to cats? | 84 | Because nobody's tried to breed them for that.
Dogs were purpose-bred for specific tasks. None of them were specifically bred to be large or small, it's just that the slightly larger or smaller ones were better at some job, so those were the ones that were used for breeding. Repeat for a couple dozen generations, an... | 47 |
CMV: Candidates should be able to bring notes, tablets, phones, ect. to political debate stages. Debates should also not be shown live, but delayed and showed with fact checking done my multiple organizations. | For some reason, it has always been a rule that candidates are not allowed to bring outside help to debates. The Democratic debates tonight will follow this rule, as well as the Republican debates that already took place.
If candidates were allowed to bring sources, facts, tablets with internet access, ect it would be... | 49 | I think debates, for most viewers, are less about policy and more about how candidates present that policy, along with themselves. Many voters who have a specific issue that they really care about will just look up information on different candidate's ideas, but the debates serve a different purpose.
A future preside... | 18 |
[MCU]: Aside from intentionally being stripped of its power, are the effects of the heart-shaped herb permanent? | Does T'Challa have to worry about eventually losing his powers if Erik really did destroy *all* of the herb, and was T'Chaka still more powerful than a normal human when he died? | 52 | Probably. [Black Panther film spoilers](#s "The gardener told Erik Stevens that the herb was needed for the *next* Panther, and clearly didn't want to burn it. Telling him that he'd need it himself in a few years would have been a good way to save the crop, but she didn't try that.") | 43 |
ELI5: Why is saltwater marine life usually so much more colorful and vibrant? | 50 | If you’re talking about aquarium fish, it isn’t because they’re saltwater. Plenty of saltwater fish are boring. It’s because they’re tropical. Animals throughout the tropics are more colorful and if you were going through the trouble of having a saltwater tank (which is very difficult to take care of), then you might ... | 15 | |
Why is it that we as humans generally dont eat carnivorous animals | Apart from a few cases we tend to eat vegetarians and as far as I know carnivores don't tend to eat other carnivores. Why is this? | 35 | It's easier and cheaper to domesticate and farm herbivores. The higher you move up the food chain, the more energy you need to sustain life because of the energy loss between levels. In order to feed a pack of wolves, you have to first raise some sort of food source for wolves. You also don't have to worry about cow... | 82 |
ELI5:How are the courts able to try a minor as an adult? | I always thought law was pretty rigid, so if someone is a minor and they're being charged with a crime, they would be tried as a minor. However, there are many cases where a minor gets tried as an adult. How do they do this? What's the law that allows them to do it, and is it only with specific crimes? | 24 | IANAL so pinches of salt.
It's basically a matter of severity, intent, and the individual circumstances.
Consider 2 hypothetical incidents involving a minor (Lets say about 7-9 years old).
In the first, a kid somehow gets hold of a gun, and shoots someone they don't like - killing them in the process, but makes no e... | 26 |
ELI5: Why do old jazz recordings sound better than other records that have been released later on? | It seems to me as if most jazz records of the 50's and 60's sound way better in recording quality than most of the other music at that time (e.g. blues, country, rock, etc.) or even later on. Why is that? | 63 | **Why do they sound better than most of the other music at that time?**
Jazz music, including its crooner singers and big bands, was some of the most popular mainstream music at the time. As a result, they had more budget and resources for good recordings.
**Why do old jazz recordings still sound better than newer m... | 27 |
ELI5: During conception, are there hundreds of thousands of different, unique potential people who don't get the chance to be born? | 559 | Here's the thing that gets me: it's not even enough to have a particular sperm and egg combination to determine a self. Identical twins come from the exact same sperm and egg, but are different selves.
Even after the enormous improbability of your particular sperm and egg meeting up, your parents could still have end... | 224 | |
[Animal Crossing] How do you end up in a world of anthropomorphic animals? | 23 | If you're asking how the player character got there, in their world anthropomorphic animals are simply normal. It's pretty consistently implied that they moved there.
If you're asking how to get into such a world, you need some kind of interdimensional portal or something. | 18 | |
CMV: I'm a woman but don't think women have structural barriers to success. | First of all, I realize this is not *that* unpopular of an opinion, except that I'm a 1) college student in a very liberal area and 2) a Democrat and have been for life, so this view doesn't align with many of my peers.
I also want to note that I have been privileged enough to grow up fairly well-off (upper middle cl... | 154 | I think you're not seeing the gender barrier because you're focused on the class barrier, that is much more apparent from your vantage point. Once you have a certain status or class, all barriers are weaker compared to those experienced by those in lower classes. | 138 |
[Star Wars] How many separatists were there? If you would take away the droids, how many actual people were opposing the republic? | 31 | The Separatist Movement was thousands of worlds which aligned with Dooku, but the majority of the "senate" were leaders of guilds and corporations, not government. And their main motivation was money - the Banking Clan loaned to both sides of the conflict, and the Trade Federation sold droids to their side.
But ther... | 30 | |
[star trek]suppose I replicate some ...fish and ships. If I looked at the fish meat under a microscope would I find actual codfish DNA, or is there no need to make the recreation that elaborate? | 21 | It wouldn't be that accurate. The replicator is a combination of a bunch of technologies. One of those is the protein synthesizers that used to be the only option in the past. In short it doesn't just blindly reproduce a single pattern like a transporter, going full matter replication is the last resort. There's no nee... | 36 | |
ELI5: how the heck can a ladybug (or other bug) hang onto the outside of a car window at highway speeds like it’s nothing? | Glass is slippery! Wind blows hard! It’s a bunch of bologna | 221 | The friction of the glass means there is a tiny layer of air that is almost stationary called the boundary layer. The insect is small enough to be within that layer.
Imagine a three lane road where you have loads of cars using the road sensibly and pulling into the slow lane when there's no other traffic.
Now imagine... | 124 |
CMV - I believe that Biking will never be a viable, large scale mode of transport in the United State's and investing in infrastructure for bikes is a waste of resources that could be better spent on other things. | CMV - Biking sound's good at first glance, but when all of the factors are considered, it has some serious flaws when used as a large scale transportation system. The biggest flaws that I can think of are listed as follows.
1. A large segment of the population are not physically able enough to ride bicycle for long pe... | 46 | What biking infrastructure? Bike lanes? It's just some extra paint and a law not to drive in it.
Raised bike paths? Can be walked too. Any biking path can be walked except the painted ones on the road.
Bike racks? Every single one I've ever seen got a lot of use out of it. | 40 |
ELI5: The reason why a Television show has an opening on every single episode after the first initial episode of a new season... when it could be replaced with a short title introduction. | I've always wondered this since I was a kid, sorry if this has been asked before. | 15 | A lot of people are not progressing through the season, like on Netflix, but are glancing it during programmed television. It's important to brand identity and recognition by outsiders of glance-watchers.
Quick, attach a category filter, before mod-bot arrives! | 12 |
[Marvel] Could healing mutants like Wolverine provide an endless supply of donated organs and blood? | 85 | No. Your immune system will reject organs it doesn't recognize. Healing factor includes a hyperactive immune system, so Wolverine's blood will fail to recognize you and fight you off. His blood is poisonous. Wade Wilson was given his healing factor, but that was a much more complex process than a blood transfusion. | 68 |
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