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[Meta] A small clarification about historical fiction | We've had a few questions recently pertaining to issues people had with works of historical fiction. This is kind of a grey area with regards to the rules, so let me clear up how it should work, in theory.
I was initially going to remove this but as far as I can tell the historical Guy Fawkes never actually attempted to set off the gunpowder once he was cornered-- it was an embellishment created for the series.
It's pretty simple: Any element of the story based on actual documented historical events is not okay here. Take that stuff to /r/askhistorians, you'll be better off for having done so.
Anything that is invented for the story is fair game.
Let's use Titanic as an example:
* Asking why they didn't put on enough lifeboats to save everyone is against the rules-- that's a question about the real world, the movie just accurately reflects it.
* But asking why Thomas Andrews, in his last moments, would apologize to Rose in particular is okay, because while Andrews was a real person Rose was not and any interaction between them is likewise part of the fictional story.
I hope this is all clear and makes sense to everyone, please feel free to ask any questions you may have. | 91 | I think this is a great clarification. After all, for fictionalized history, we assume it happened as in the real world unless otherwise required for the plot (implicitly or explicitly).
Answering these kinds of questions amounts to "it's like that because that's how it actually was." | 21 |
[LOTR] Gandalf says "the world is gnawed by nameless things. I will bring no report to darken the light of day." Were all the nameless things so evil and scary that people couldn't handle knowing about them? | Wouldn't it be a good idea to inform the world about potential threats? | 3,376 | I always thought that to mean Gandalf knew of lots of evil creatures hidden in the dark, but they would never come out to threaten Man so there was no reason to get everyone worked up regaling them with horror stories, especially in light of the current conflict. | 2,227 |
Why the hell does Amazon not pay taxes? | 22 | This is a large oversimplification. What they mean when they say that is that Amazon did not pay any federal corporate income taxes.
They still paid payroll taxes on all their employees, Sales taxes in states they operate in that have them, state franchise taxes, property taxes.
In Federal taxation there is a concept called the Net Operating Loss or the NOL. As a corporation you file your taxes every year even if you did not make money. If you lost money that year you generate a NOL. Those NOL's can roll forward until you do make money.
If you make a Corporation in year 0. Year 1, you lose 1,000 and year 2 you lose 500, in year 3 you make 1,500, you will pay 0 income taxes in year 3. Then some journalist says, "Amazon doesn't pay taxes." You click on his website and he gets that sweet sweet advertising money.
I don't know if Amazon does this but a lot of countries use overseas subsidiaries to avoid tax. Basically you make a corporation in a beneficial tax environment, like Ireland. (They are typically small island nations that don't have much in the way of resources, Bahamas, Cyprus, Malta, Ireland) Then you license the right to do business from your U.S. Corporation to that corporation and move all the profits onto it. The problem is, you can't get the money back into the U.S. without paying tax on it but you can stash it in an overseas bank account and avoid tax until you need it. | 194 |
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[The Matrix] How can the machines feed all the humans | According to the films the dead are reprocessed to feed living.
However i am asking if an adult dead bodys biomass would produce enough energy to feed one person for his livetime.
I highly doubt that. And if this is not the case and the earth surface is destroyed wouldnt that mean that the machines would have to grow and harvest something with artifical light.
Would that not mean that the power output of a human far outweights the power to sustain him. | 35 | One of the best fanfic excerpts I've seen:
>Neo: "Doesn't harvesting human body heat for energy, violate the laws of thermodynamics?"
Morpheus: "Where'd you learn about thermodynamics, Neo?"
Neo: "In school."
Morpheus: "Where'd you go to school, Neo?"
Neo: "Oh."
Morpheus: "The machines tell elegant lies." | 64 |
ELI5:How does healthcare in the US work? | If a person of their family can't pay for their medical bill what happens? Does the hospital just pull the plug and just let the person die? | 20 | No. Hospitals are not allowed to turn people away or stop treating because they can't pay. Instead, the patient gets a bill that they cannot afford to pay. They then go into bankruptcy and have a slew of financial problems due to the unfortunate circumstances of getting sick. Sadly, even with insurance, many Americans face bankruptcy after serious illness due to high deductible plans. | 17 |
ELI5: Why, when you buy cakes from the Costco, Market Basket, etc. bakeries, they have ingredients like propylene glycol, caramel color, xantham gum, etc., that I would never use in a cake? Do they have vats of that stuff to bake cakes with? | 27 | Most of those additives are to preserve the cake so it can sit out for several days without tasting too stale, or to keep it from drying out. Artificial colors have obvious uses.
Vats? No, just bottles/cans like you would expect other ingredients to come in. | 20 |
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Why is it believed black holes preserve mass, charge and angular momentum, but not baryon number, weak isospin and lepton number? | 50 | Basically nobody has a fully quantum mechanically sound theory that relates to black holes, so people don't know whether they expect these things to be conserved or not.
I would say these quantities probably are conserved but don't affect the properties of a black hole. To an outside observer matter never even reaches the singularity of a black hole, or even cross the event horizon if the black hole is not growing. As such there is no time (to an outside observer) for any weird physics to break conservation of these quantities.
The particles don't actually need to enter the event horizon to contribute to the black holes mass via the holographic principle. | 11 |
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How safe can monosodium glutamate actually be if it's an excitotoxin? | Normally I'm one to ignore the fads of calling foods unsafe because of one flawed study or something like that. But according to a couple reasonably reliable sources, MSG is an excitotoxin, and excitotoxins kill nerves. So how safe can MSG actually be if it's an excitotoxin? | 105 | Lots of things are toxic in large quantities. The LD50 of MSG (the amount of a substance that needs to be consumed for a 50% chance of death in most subjects) is 15-18 g/kg of body weight; the LD50 of salt is around 3 g/kg. As a simple additive, you're more likely to die from acute salt ingestion.
That's not to say there couldn't be other possible side effects, but the current state of affairs seems to suggest little to no real negative side effects. | 86 |
ELI5: Why does whole grain food cost more if it presumably requires less processing? | 20 | When you have a production line optimized for one product, it takes extra effort to make it do something else, even if it involves doing less.
In the case of whole grains, it is not just less processing. Whole grains have different textures, tastes, and baking properties, so you have to change ingredients, mixing procedures, baking times and temperatures, and other parts of the production process. | 18 |
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ELI5: If pets require protective collars to allow wounds to heal properly how do wild animals repair wounds? | http://www.drsfostersmith.com/images/Categoryimages/normal/p-78083-61207C_510-dog.jpg | 23 | They die a lot of the time from those types of wounds. The cones are generally used so the animal won't pick out the sutures. Any animal in the wild would probably die from a wound that needed sutures anyway. | 41 |
[UPDATE] After eight years of PhD, I'm consumed by fear, I don't think I can finish. I've lost myself and my confidence. I just woke up crying. I desperately need help. | Dear AskAcademia,
It was 9 months ago that I poured my heart out here and you guys read my words and gave me the strength I needed to push forward [original](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAcademia/comments/3eb7aa/after_eight_years_of_phd_im_consumed_by_fear_i/). **Thank you!!!**
I wish my update was exclusively happy, but an interaction that I had yesterday with my advisor has made it bittersweet, and I'm still trying to make sense of it. I'll give you the full story.
After my last post, I read ALL of the books you guys recommended. What can I say? They were fantastic! I learned to be mindful and my depression went away, I learned how to make good habits and get rid of bad ones, I lost the few extra pounds I had gained due to eating when anxious, and I stopped, cold-turkey, taking Prozac. I felt good and I managed to **finish my thesis!!!** It has gone through my committee, and it is now with the board of examiners (I don't know the proper name in English, but the doctors who will evaluate me when I defend my thesis). I have received 3 postdoc offers from researchers in my Institute, and even my advisor has offered me two different postdoc options to continue with him.
However, *this will become very relevant*, I took out a loan to cover my food and rent expenses during all these months. Juggling working while trying to finish my thesis and publish all of my chapters (which my advisor insisted I do) was a huge source of stress. My advisor likes to see us in the lab all day, so I always felt guilty while at work.
The day before yesterday, a colleague sent me a link to a postdoctoral research fellow position in Europe and, when I read it, I could not believe it! I'm a good candidate for it, since I have all the essential attributes they listed and most of the desirable ones. Also, their line of research is very interesting and in the direction I want to go, more conservation. And yet, I was not considering doing a postdoc outside of the city I'm currently at, because my husband is here working on his PhD and needs a couple more years to finish. However, the money for this postdoc is 3 times as much as the money I can get for a postdoc in my country, and I could pay the money I owe to the bank. Also, it starts this summer, whereas the call for postdocs in my country comes out until January, and I won't start working until June of next year.
I spent hours talking with my husband about me doing this postdoc. I hadn't told him how much money I owed, or how the interests are pilling up, because I did not want to burden him. I've already put a lot of stress on him because of the depression I went through. He was very supportive and understanding. He told me he would figure out how to get the money, but I asked him not to. His student scholarship is just enough for him and he is already overworked. He said that I should apply, that I needed to get away from my advisor and that I would be some sort of Phoenix and become great again, like I once was. That he would visit me whenever he could. I cried, we hugged for hours and I decided to apply. It was not an easy decision, my husband is my life.
Yesterday I started the application process. I felt confident with our decision and excited about the possibility of being accepted. Then I reached the part in which they asked me for the contact details of my current boss. I filled that part out and decided to let him know that, if they considered me a good enough candidate to interview, that they might call him. What happened next killed me. Perhaps I'm oversensitive or he is an ass**le, maybe both.
I asked him if he had a few minutes and he took me to his office. I explained that I wanted to apply for a postdoc and gave him the specifics, told him that I consider myself a good candidate and, that if they thought so too, they might give him a call. I'll try to quote him as best as I can:
Him: "You're skilled, but you're slow. When they call me and ask me why it has taken you so long to deliver, what am I going to say to them? It is a highly competitive position, and they are looking for someone who delivers in reasonable time."
I felt so little. He sounded aggressive and I couldn't understand why. I felt broken again and crushed. Yes, it will take me 9 years to graduate, I once heard that the average time for his students is 8 years. Yet I have more manuscripts than any of his other students, 4 as first author and 3 as second author.
When he said that, I felt that I had to justify myself. And while I was struggling to do so, I felt like a toddler trying to form coherent arguments and failed. At least, I didn't cry. If you guys are interested, or if you think it is relevant, I'll try to remember what I said and all the other hurtful things he said next.
But this interaction with him has made me doubt myself again. I now imagine myself alone very far away from my husband, in a very cold place, and wonder if I can actually do it. I know that what they need of me, won't be easy, and I'll need to work very hard to get it done.
To make me doubt even more, it will be in the Country where my advisor was born, what if I get another advisor like him? But honestly, after how this conversation went, I don't think I'll be accepted. I know he won't spare the flaws he sees in me, and he is a harsh judge.
I'm left wondering if his reaction is normal, do advisors commonly act like this when you're graduating and looking to move on? Is he worried that I'll embarrass him if I don't deliver? I don't think its personal because I'm sure he does like me. We get along quite well as long as he is not revising my work. Though my husband has mentioned stockholm syndrome.
I'm lost. Should I apply?
**EDIT**
**You people are beautiful!!!**
I've read ALL of your comments and upvoted them. They were all full of awesomeness, and u/Respectfullyyours even called me a "Hero". Thank you :)
You were all unanimous, and I've decided to **APPLY!**
Someone asked for book recommendations, so I will list the ~~3~~ 5 books that helped me most:
1. **The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness** by Mark Williams et. al
2. **The 7 Secrets of the Prolific: The Definitive Guide to Overcoming Procrastination, Perfectionism, and Writer's Block** by Hillary Rettig
3. **No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline** by Brian Tracy
4. **The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are** by Brene Brown
5. **The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing** by Marie Kondo
| 76 | the question remains, if you are slow and not worth hiring, why has he offered you two postdoc positions to continue with him? seems like he is trying to dissuade you from leaving because you are a good asset to his lab...i would say apply for the european post doc, get the position, and get far away from that asshole. | 62 |
[Tolkien] So do the Dwarves get the short end (no pun) of the eschatological stick? | So I get that The Gift of Men (mortality, being free to forge their own path, being independent of the world and going someplace "else" upon death) applies to Men and Hobbits. I get that Elves are tied to Arda and to the Music of the Ainur such that they are effectively bound to both until the world ends and the music ceases. What I don't get is... just how shafted are the Dwarves by all this?
Like, Dwarves are not immortal as the Elves are (living for a few hundred years tops). In this respect, they share the concept of mortality with Men. However, Dwarven souls also don't go someplace "else" upon death (the halls of Eru Illuvatar?) as those of Men do; likewise, they don't enjoy the power to forge their own destinies as Men do, and are just as bound to the fate of nature as the Elves. So just what exactly happens to a Dwarf soul when the body dies? Does it just cease to exist? Do Dwarves get the negatives of both Elven and Human fates while enjoying the benefits of neither?
Or is it simply the case that Dwarves don't have souls of their own, despite being gifted with true life by Eru Illuvatar? | 81 | No body knows, the Dwarves weren’t planned like elves and men but Eru gave them life anyway.
The Dwarves have their own beliefs about the nature of their souls and their afterlives. Good luck getting them to tell you their religion, they don’t even tell outsiders their actual names. | 83 |
ELI5: Why does alcohol get processed at a set rate but caffeine decays 50% every 5 hours | 337 | Metabolizing different things in your body requires the necessary enzymes to physically come in contact with whatever is being metabolized. Usually this means that if you have more (for example) drug in your body, that means you'll have drug bumping into enzymes at a higher rate. In the same way, after a while and a lot of the drug has already been metabolized by your body, it takes more time for your enzymes to randomly bump into the drug because theres less of it floating around.
Whats different about alcohol is that when you drink, all the enzymes for metabolizing alcohol are WILDLY outnumbered by the alcohol molecules. Theres so much more alcohol than there are enzymes that pretty much every single enzyme is working maxed out. This rate remains constantly at full speed until alcohol levels drop low enough that the enzymes arent completely saturated, which i think is in a range considered sober. | 261 |
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[Star Wars]What's the reasoning behind putting an astromech droid in an x-wing? | The scene in A new Hope where R2D2 winds up fixing a small part of Luke's ship is pretty iconic, but it got me wondering, an astromech is only going to have access to a very small part of the ship for in-flight repairs.
What else does the AM unit do that makes it valuable enough to add so much weight to the ship. | 155 | They're used to calculate jumps to hyperspace, getting to a distant area takes many jumps requiring accurate calculations to prevent crashes into planetary bodies etc. The X Wing isn't big enough for a computer for this without sacrificing its ability as a fighter so astromechs are used. | 151 |
ELI5: What makes "ice-breaker" ships so different than regular ships that allows even the smallest ice-breaker ship to easily get through ice-covered waters that would pose a giant risk to a regular ship? | 1,710 | An ice breaker is built much stronger than a large ship. You might think that a large ship is unbreakable, but that is not so. It really doesn't take much to damage a ship beyond repair. A simple beaching onto sand in rough weather can do it!
They also have different shaped hulls. The main idea is that the hull is rounded, so it rides up on top of ice instead of trying to push through it. When the ship is on top of the ice, its huge weight breaks the ice. This shape of hull is not as good for normal water - it is less stable, so rocks more, and less efficient.
Riding up on top of the ice is basically pushing the ship out of the water. This requires enormous force. So an icebreaker has much more powerful engines. | 1,395 |
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How do underground caverns support their weight? | It seems strange to me that caverns can form miles underground, and are able to withstand the immense pressure of all the Earth above them. How do they manage to stand under this pressure, and how did porous areas in the Earth form in the first place? | 73 | That appearence of stability is an ephemeral transient phenomenon. Caverns usually form through progressive dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, from the infiltration of slightly acidic surface water. As dissolution progresses, they indeed become progressively less stable and frequently collapse. Ultimately, the larger caves of most mature karst systems finish off as sinkholes (dolines). | 28 |
Why did penicillin replace sulfa drugs that were used prior to its discovery? What was so great about penicillin in comparison to them? | 29 | Efficacy and toxicity.
Penicillin actually kills bacteria in addition to inhibiting their growth by interfering with their ongoing activity of remodeling their cells walls. Sulfa drugs do not kill bacteria, they only inhibit bacterial growth by inhibiting cell division by inhibiting folate synthesis - folate being necessary for nucleic acid synthesis. This makes penicillin more effective under many circumstances.
The sulfa drugs have a substantially higher rate of adverse reactions, many of which are comparatively much more severe than with penicillin. ~3% of people have adverse reactions to sulfa drugs, most commonly rashes or hives, but there are a variety of severe and potentially life threatening reactions. Because these drugs are meant to be so widely used, 3% ends up being a large number of people. ~1% of people experience potentially significant adverse reactions to penicillin, with a very small fraction of these being potentially life threatening.
If you were treat a million sick people with different infections at different levels of progression with either type of drug, more of them would be effectively cured with penicillin than sulfa drugs, and more of them would experience adverse reactions - especially life threatening adverse reactions - with sulfa drugs. | 21 |
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[Star Wars] Could Yoda and Mace Windu have overpowered Palpatine? | If Yoda had been on Coruscant when the Jedi went to arrest Palpatine and he had gone with them, would they have been able to arrest him? Would he have let Windu kill Palpatine?
Would the "coup" even had happened if Yoda was on Coruscant? | 16 | Mace Windu alone overpowered him. Mace and Yoda together could have defeated him, but alas it was not to be.
[This is straight from the RotS creator commentary track that Mace overpowered Palpatine.] | 42 |
ELI5: Why can you charge Nintendo Switch using a laptop but if you connect it to a MacBook you actually charge the MacBook instead of the console? | 78 | USB-C negotiates bi-directional power control and communication on a per device basis. If the MacBook USB-C controller determines that the Switch is a valid recipient for power, it will reverse the power direction and provide output power from the charging port.
This was intentionally part of the design to lead to greater flexibility for systems. | 38 |
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CMV:One-Day self defense classes do more harm than good. | ill be the one to say it, taking one day self defense classes does more harm than good. If you wanna learn to protect your self, do it right and continuous or better work on your sprint times. I hate to see someone get hurt because they gained the confident to protect themselves and decided to act upon their fight instincts except run because THEY TOOK A ONE DAY SELF DEFENSE COURSE THAT WAS OFFERED SOMEWHERE. im more into people owning a taser or what not, than squaring up against a thief with a bone to pick. Those perpetrators have prepped for those encounters and already got into mind that a physical conflict might happen, your helpless self walking down the street have better odds of safety by running away or giving up your good rather than infuriate this person.
Edit: I conceit my view , apparently they teach people proper self defense in good classes.
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | 18 | Have you ever taken one of these classes? The purpose of these classes is for two effects: 1.) Break away if you are being held or disable the person if they are blocking your escape, and 2.) Run.
As someone who's taken a proper self defense course, they don't teach you to engage an attacker. They teach you to escape one. Self defense courses are there to give people enough skills to break a hold and to disable an attacker with a direct hit to the junk. That's it. It's not rocket science, but it is effective. Whoever you have watched that has decided to stay and fight in a situation like that hasn't taken a proper course, and their instructors obviously didn't drill them enough to say "RUN." Because that's what proper courses teach you. Get loud, get out. That's basically it. | 15 |
[Soylent Green] Is humanity doomed to extinction? | 28 | They obviously can't support themselves on just Soylent Green, But in the worst case scenario if there's mass starvation that would leave plenty of farmland for them to grow food to feed whoever is left. | 27 |
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ELI5: Why are some people so eager for the Baby Boomer generation to die off? | 1,559 | You know how when you are constipated, and you spend a lot of time pushing that first big block out? The job market and economy are constipated, and once we squeeze all the baby boomers out of our economic rectum, the younger turds will have room to breathe. | 3,055 |
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[Batman] Does Bruce Wayne know what it is like being a poor person? | Bruce has faced numerous tragedies in his life, but it seems like in general he grew up in a very pampered household. Parties, sports cars, yeah sure he became the Batman, but does he know what it is to be a destitute, or a person with no money? Can he sympathize? The dude lives in a mansion and has his own butler and is a billionaire who has friends in high places.
As a superhero, isn't he a bit disconnected from say, a homeless joe who is on the streets? Can Batman relate? | 22 | In some continuities he spent a lot of his youth bumming around the world picking up skills. Most of those skills came from places where one simply couldn't live like a rich person; getting trained in a temple in Japan or leaning escape artistry in a circus means living the life of a temple student or a carny. He's lived among a lot of different types of people, and while he always had his cash as a sort of "emergency parachute" he did share their day to day life and bear witness to their struggles. | 38 |
From personal observation, a majority of mothers over 35 years old appear to be on some form of antidepressant/anti-anxiety. Is this observation accurate? Why is this? Is the rate similar in men as well? Why or why not? | 27 | Are you talking about women who give birth after the age of 35? Or are you talking about every woman who had a child at any age being depressed after age 35? You may want to clarify that in your post. | 12 |
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I saw an intensely green meteor shoot across the sky. Why was it green, and how common are they? | Additionally it had a very flat trajectory and flew slightly slower and farther than most other meteors I've seen. Color reminiscent of bioluminescent plankton, or the green hues of an aurora.
First time I've ever seen one, it was very beautiful.
Thank you! | 42 | It's green for the same reason that auroras are green mostly. Oxygen is excited by the passage of the meteor and release green light to get back to its rest-state.
It does happen quite often, the only thing necessary for the green light to be seen is that the meteor stays mostly in one piece down through the lower stratas of the atmosphere. | 28 |
ELI5: How do butterflies keep from getting dizzy? | Almost every butterfly I see bobs up and down while they fly. Do they have the same fluid system for balance that we do? How do they navigate the world and what is their system for balance?
Edit: SOLVED by: u/jsonnen | 146 | They do not have an inner ear, which is our fluid filled organ that gives us orientation. The reason that you get dizzy after spinning is that while you may have stopped the fluid in your ear has not. this fluid interacts with tiny hairs that give you a sense of motion. A butterfly orientation is achieved by their antennae. | 133 |
ELI5: The process for remastering old games (PS1 etc) for new consoles (PS4/XBoxOne) | 26 | The first and primary thing done is porting the game. For these consoles that usually means there are different graphic APIs, and you need to update the game engine to use the newer APIs. Going from something like PS3 to PS4 shouldn't be a lot of work, Sony wants to make it easy for you. But stuff like PS4 to XBoxOne isn't necessarily easy, PS4 uses GNM and XBoxOne uses DirectX, there are other system APIs that change and everything in your game using them needs to be changed to match. Then you need to account for differences in CPUs and how your code interacts with it. On older/slower CPUs it was very common to use non-portable cpu-specific code to speed stuff up, it's less common with newer systems. Anyways, all that stuff needs to be updated to work on the new processor.
After doing all that, the game should mostly run as is on the newer system. Re-mastering additionally includes things like updating textures because the faster system can handle it and making a few improvement to the graphics engine. That is all normal game development stuff, and they do it as much as they want really. | 14 |
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[Half life 2] What's the difference between humans and trans-human overwatch soldiers? | The combine are supposed to heavily modify humans to turn them into Overwatch soldiers, but they don't seem to have any special abilities. They can only carry a normal amount of weaponry, and go down when hit about the head with a crowbar, same as regular humans
What is the point of all that modification? | 45 | The transhuman modification process physically rebuilds the person to be both wholly reliant on Combine tech (the suit and mask are environmentally sealed so the transhuman inside can survive) and utterly brainwashed to be loyal to the Combine. The Overwatch uses them as disposable grunts since they're unfailingly loyal to the Combine, despite being mentally crippled to the point of being automatons. There have been cases where they won't get out of the way of a speeding car or falling objects so they can keep shooting at their assigned target.
There's regular humans in the Overwatch as well, race traitors who've sold out to the oppressors in order to secure a slightly better standard of living and better food rations. Barney is one of these - no transhuman modifications and the suit/mask can be removed. | 34 |
ELI5: Why are faces the biggest factor in attractiveness? Is this consistent through cultures? through time? | faces are the most important part of initial attraction, at least in the developed world. What does the face convey that drives sexual selection to favor facial features even more than muscle mass or height? Is this consistent through cultures and time? What about other primates? do they also value facial features more than the other typical selection markers? | 22 | A lot of genetic abnormalities express partially as craniofacial abnormalities, and these same abnormalities can indicate abnormalities with brain development or systemic abnormalities that reduce survival and general fitness.
| 11 |
[Gravity Falls] What did the kid in pool solitary do to warrant such a sentence? | Like, if we take the after credits scenes as fact, he was in for a long, *long* time, well after the current summer ended. What could he have done that wouldn't get the *actual* police involved(inept as they may appear)? | 24 | At the very end, you can see the boy raise a flag that's very similar to Chile's (it's actually a super-simplified US flag, but go with me here), along with a cryptogram that comes out to: "VIVAN LOS PATOS DE LA PISCINA".
This leads me to believe that Soos was not the first to want an inflatable duck revolution, and Poolcheck's first response was to confine the initial collaborators rather than violently eject them from the pool. | 20 |
[The Orville] Why is pop culture from the 21st century so important in the 25th century? | Every Earth based member of the crew, including and especially the captain, make references to 21st century pop culture, music, and art. Did culture stop producing humour? Why the emphasis? The oldest cultural references I can think of all reflect geniuses like Shakespeare, Leonardo, Mozart, etc. so is it implied that the 21st century was the peak of pop culture? If so, why do their references stop in the earlier 21st century and don't bring up events in the late 21st century? | 55 | You would be surprised at what informs our pop cultural references, and use of phrases in everyday language, from the Bible, to Aesop's fables, and various Greek plays.
We also have things like the SCA which actively work to promote older skills and art forms.
Finally, we have way more video references of current popular culture than we do of past works, which means things will likely last longer in public awareness. | 43 |
Are there any papers showing that privatization reduces corruption? | I'm trying to come up with a BA thesis topic, and one thing I considered was that privatization can reduce corruption, but increase inequality. So it may be a good policy to have temporary privatization in government agencies during a transitional stage of democratization. | 55 | I feel like (from your description and title) like you're seeking to show that "privatization -> reduced corruption". A better way to phrase this (since you're doing it for a BA thesis) would probably be "what is the relationship between privatization and corruption" | 39 |
ELI5: How does glue not stick to the inside of the bottle ? | 17 | The glue is dissolved in a solvent. When the glue is exposed to air, the solvent evaporates, leaving the glue to harden (and glue things together!).
Think of a bowl of salty water. The salt is our 'glue' and the water is our 'solvent'. Once the water evaporates, the salt will be left behind (and it will be in a different form, instead of dissolved in water, it will be crystalline. Similar to the glue!). | 17 |
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[Harry Potter] What happens when one without fear stands in the presence of a Boggart? | sorry in advance if this has been asked before but i for the life of me cannot find a conclusive answer. | 56 | It's near impossible to honestly not be afraid of *anything*. There's plenty of people who don't give in to fear, but that doesn't mean they aren't afraid.
In the incredibly rare instances where someone just doesn't *have* that emotion for some reason then I'd imagine that they won't see anything at all, or they'll get the magical equivalent of a BSOD where the boggart should be. | 67 |
Can fetuses heal? | I was thinking about this today, and I legitimately have no idea. If there was a fetus in a womb, and a doctor scraped part of it's skin with a knife/scapel, would said fetus heal, or would it grow with a skin defect in that area? | 75 | They can heal. Fetal surgery is actually performed to treat a birth defects before birth. After the surgery the fetus continues to develop and heal from the procedure until it is delivered as close to full term as possible. | 29 |
ELI5: Why indigenous women in Canada have been murdered or gone missing at such a high rate? | 224 | The Highway of Tears dissapearances have gotten a lot of publicity, and the public perception is that Native Women are being killed by a serial killer or something similar.
Several advocacy groups are claiming that the police aren't doing anything about the problem, and draw comparisons to the Pickton murders, which further causes fears of a serial killer.
The truth is, however, that the vast majority of native women who suffer violence do so at the hands of people they know - friends and family members. Furthermore, native men actually disappear at an even higher rate than native women in Canada, but since there is no stand out incidences, the issue hasn't gotten much attention.
When you look at the statistics and control for poverty - the increased rates of violence and disappearances don't seem to be racially connected, but the extremely high correlation of poverty and race in Canada leads to a statistical increase for natives.
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[D&D] Is Chaotic Evil character capable of love? | 15 | Of course. Alignment doesn't say much about personality and emotions, just morality. And it is not restrictions, but tendencies.
For example, The Joker is one of the most iconic CE characters and he loves Harley Quinn. | 23 |
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CMV: South African farm murders are racial attacks. | Had a debate with a relative who told me that they're not.
For some explanation (other than what Google can offer): some Africans in SA say the farmers' land belongs to them. I have no idea if it actually does. But there are hundreds of brutal farm attacks and murders, and this happens daily. Sometimes nothing is stolen, it's just brutal murder.
I'll add that from what I have seen, farmers being murdered are white people, I genuinely do not know if other races are targeted too.
There is also a song by a well known political party called "Kill the Boer (farmer)".
So my relative says they are not racially motivated, and I disagree.
I looove a good debate, and I'd enjoy hearing some different viewpoints! | 42 | There are basically no farmers that are not white, so it would be impossible for farm attacks to not appear racially based.
The problem is that because of the way South Africa is (I live here) anything that can be attributed to race can just as easily be attributed to class. | 26 |
Does everyone use an AdBlocker now? Is it just "required"? | Earlier this evening I saw some news about a popular MMORPG, and in the process of googling it, I clicked on a link to a popular gaming website (deliberately obfuscating them as I don't want to give them traffic).
The site I ended up at, despite being one of the internet's most popular gaming sites, was **unusable**. Half the screen was a banner ad. The site was jumping all over the place as ads appeared, before one of those interstitial popups appeared FOR THE SAME PRODUCT.
I guess I want to ask... How did things end up this way? This wasn't the case only \~5 years ago. Is it genuinely because the sites only care about views? (like if I open one of these sites, and it loads, and I IMMEDIATELY quit due to it being unusable, I am effectively a perfect customer for them?!)
Does everyone use adBlock? I've never bothered with it. I used to use a few similar tools back when genuine popups were a common thing (just to block them) but these days most browsers have that feature built in.
How does that even work? How can running major websites in a way that angers their readers be a successful business model? | 30 | Hello,
Declining ad revenues plus no or under-regulation, coupled with lack of (perceived or otherwise) of alternative sources of income have created an environment leading to the display of more ads, as well as more invasive ones.
In a sense, it kind of reminds me of how we used to have waves of adware and spyware 10-15 years ago, followed by fake AV programs, then malvertising and now malicious browser extensions as criminals experimented with what generated the most revenue for them.
The advertisement industry is going through a parallel lifecycle, with both good and bad players. The problem is that the bad players are rewarded more with higher revenue, so it encourages them to engage in worse and worse behavior.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky | 16 |
How do we know the actual wavelength of light originating from the cluster of galaxies that are receding away from us when all we observe is red shifted light because of expansion? | 3,774 | Every element has its own characteristic spectrum of light, so we can look for this fingerprint in the light we receive. Since hydrogen is by far the most abundant element, we expect the spectrum of hydrogen to feature prominently. However, the features of the hydrogen spectrum won't appear at the same wavelengths as they do when we measure hydrogen in the lab, because of the red shift.
Instead, the spectrum is shifted by a certain amount. But despite the shift, the structure remains unchanged, so we can identify the spectral lines of hydrogen in the light we collect. And by the amount it has shifted from what we measure in the lab, we can obtain an estimate for the speed with which the source is moving away from us. | 2,090 |
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ELI5: how do ceiling fans collect dust while the fan is on? | 22 | The surface of the blades isn't entirely without friction, and dust comes in different sizes and forms. As the blades turn, dust small enough to fit gets trapped onto small cavities, ridges and hooks of this surface. The more dust that gets stuck this way the easier it becomes for other bits of dust to get stuck to the existing bits, creating layers. Everything that moves also build up a charge of static electricity, which makes matter such as dust cling to it easier.
The compact layers of dust that forms on them is why it appears so dark when wiping fan-blades. | 27 |
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[MCU] What was stopping Thor from tearing his way out of that "freaky circle" jail cell on Sakaar? | 90 | Well, for starters it was built to contain superhumanly strong creatures such as Korg - fighters powerful enough to survive against the Hulk long enough for the fight to be considered entertaining.
But more importantly, Thor was at an absolute low point, psychologically speaking. His father had died, his hammer was broken, his brother had betrayed him yet again (okay, that one really shouldn't be having so much of an effect these days), and on top of everything else his beautiful hair had been lost to him. Is it any wonder that he could not muster the energy to even attempt to shatter the walls? | 150 |
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ELI5: Why aren't we (the people) presented with the evidence (which Obama clearly stated that they have) that the Syrian Government were the ones who used the chemical weapons on the people of Syria ? And why aren't more people asking to see the evidence? | 194 | Because in America, it's not the people's job to decide to go to war. It's Congress's job, and Congress was given long presentations about Syria and Obama's reasons for wanting to attack. They were given the evidence. | 118 |
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CMV: Mandated reporting is a terrible idea | I understand the principle behind mandated reporting. If someone, especially a kid or a teen, is planning on doing something that would hurt themselves or others, the person they are talking to should notify people who can help.
The problem is, this eliminates any trust between the patient and counselor, and eliminates the counselor as any sort is serious confidante. If the patient is having suicidal thoughts, they would be much more likely to withhold them if they knew the person they are talking to would be required to report them. We need to encourage discussions like these, not discourage them.
It seems infinitely better to develop trust between the counselor and patient instead of discouraging difficult discussions. The counselor could get help as they see fit.
You can change my view by showing that my understanding of mandated reporting is flawed, demonstrating why the reporting needs to be required, or by showing benefits of mandated reporting that aren’t initially obvious. | 17 | I don't think mandatory reporters have to report suicidal thoughts. They have to report child abuse.
 
> A mandated reporter is a person who, because of his or her profession, is legally required to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect to the relevant authorities.
 
The above quote was from some generic social worker website, but even the California specific site only mentions abuse. Not sucide. | 15 |
ELI5: The Big Rip | Dark energy, phantom energy, energy density, observable universe? My mind cannot comprehend. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip | 16 | The universe is expanding, kind of like a balloon being inflated. It also appears that the expansion is getting faster as time goes on.
Imagine on the surface of the balloon there is an ant. The ant walks between two points. If the balloon is expanding, the distance between the ant and the second point is increasing, meaning that the point is "moving" away from the ant (it's not really moving, but it appears to be). The farther away the point is, the faster it "moves", because there's more balloon to expand in between the ant and the point. If the balloon expands fast enough, the point moves away from the ant faster than the ant can walk toward the point, which means the ant can never reach the point.
Our universe is similar. Since it's expanding, things that are far away from us appear to be moving away. If they're far enough away, they're actually expanding away faster than the speed of light, which means we'll never see them. This limit is called the observable universe, because we will never see anything outside of that limit. If the expansion universe is in fact accelerating, then the edge of the observable universe gets closer and closer. If it keeps accelerating, the observable universe will become smaller than a galaxy, which means galaxies will no longer be able to stay together (because gravity moves at the speed of light, just like light). If the observable universe keeps shrinking, then solar systems will stop existing, then individual stars, then molecules. Eventually, everything will be accelerating away so fast that each individual proton, neutron, and electron will be unable to interact with each other, effectively tearing the entire universe apart at the atomic level. | 15 |
ELI5: If calories are just a unit of energy then how can things like Redbull have 0 calories but still give you energy? | I feel like there's some crucial bit of understanding that I'm missing here. | 62 | Energy is an odd word when it comes to food. You derive energy only from foods containing calories. However, there are substances that for various reasons give you the perception of being energetic, or awake, or whatever. Consider that a pound of fat has approximately 3,500 calories worth of energy within it to use. That's enough to run for several hours. What things like Red Bull do is introduce chemicals into you that block receptors that tell you that you are tired. There are also other chemicals with no value, or little value, or that aren't really understood very well. Generally, it's the Caffeine and Guarana that are assisting in making you feel less tired.
The rest is likely psychology, and later on psychological addiction. You'd be better served drinking a cup of coffee and avoiding the rest. Better safe than sorry. | 37 |
[Berserk] Yeah I've just been sucked into this hellish dimension with a bunch of my friends and told I'm destined to sacrifice them to become a demon king. I don't really want to, is there a manager I can speak to or something? | 38 | You wouldn't be in this situation if deep down you didn't want to murder all your friends in exchange for power. It's not like their sacrifice will be in vain. You will have the power to make the world a better place that conforms to your ideals. Are the deaths of a few people who have been willing to follow you through hell and high water really worth more than the lives of the rest of the people of the world and successive generations? Go ahead, eat your friends. Just lay off the forced NTR. That's a bit excessive. | 27 |
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If there’s no treatment for Coronavirus, how do people recover once hospitalized in critical condition? | 3,851 | Essentially, people hospitalized for COVID-19 are not being treated for COVID-19, they are being treated for its symptoms, which are what kills the most people.
Namely, respiratory difficulties caused by the virus can kill, but can also be alleviated with assisted respiration equipment.
If done right and without too many complications, these band-aids on the lethal symptoms can keep the person alive long enough for their body to develop effective antibodies and, eventually, beat the virus down and become immune through their own immune system.
For this, a functional immune system is still required. If the immune system is too slow, or too weak, it's possible the body might never be able to defeat the virus, or may end up having to deploy its biggest guns because there's too much of the virus everywhere in the body, at which point the immune system can simply kill the person. This is why older victims and those with immune system preconditions are more at risk. | 6,937 |
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[Star Wars] Did the Empire pick up stranded TIE fighters after a battle? | Say a Rebel attack destroys the capital ship carrying the TIEs but the already scrambled TIEs manage to kill or drive away all of the Rebel forces. Given that TIE fighters do not have hyperdrives, will the Empire pick up these remaining TIE fighters or let them die of starvation or asphyxiation when the life support runs out? | 265 | The Empire does view TIEs and their pilots as expendable, but that doesn't mean they're wasteful with them.
Yes, they will send a ship to pick up the stranded TIES, if possible. Depending on how many there are, you're looking at a Gozanti or up to a Quasar Fire if there's a lot left. In the case that the pilots are low on life support, they'll send anything nearby to get the pilots, then come pick up the ships later. | 296 |
[MCU] Does Tony Stark know of/ is he aware of Hank Pym's work with the Pym Particle? At least maybe prior to civil war? And after? | 25 | In a deleted scene in Iron Man 2 he looks into project GOLIATH as one of the things his dad worked on for SHIELD. This is the project Bill Foster and Hank Pym were involved with as mentioned in Ant Man and the Wasp.
So he at least has access to files related to Hank Pym.
Of course, at that time he was pretty busy with trying not to die of palladium poisoning and creating a new element | 31 |
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After billions spent on HIV research, it became more profitable to sell meds for the infected than it would be to sell a vaccine to everyone, so we'll only see a vaccine when this scenario invert. CMV. | In short, I believe that only when the number of HIV infected people drop below profitable scale, we'll see a vaccine, mostly because for now, companies have to get the research invested money back by selling other drugs to control the symptoms.
When this number shift, it will become more profitable to sell the vaccine to the world.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 60 million people have contracted HIV and nearly 30 million have died of HIV-related causes. Today, more than 34 million people now live with HIV/AIDS.
If the infected people number drop below 15~10 million, it may be more profitable to just sell a vaccine. Let's say this would take place from 10 to 20 years from now.
Many can say: "Hey, there's thousands of good scientists working on a vaccine right now", but then I'll say: "Yes, but how the big pharma is going to get it's research money back if a vaccine becomes available before their research ROI?".
In the end, money has a voice on this matter, and I wanna talk about how important it really is, when we're talking about it instead of the product of it (the vaccine).
And I wanna stress that I'm not a conspiratard or anything like it, but money is VERY important and I just wanna talk about this vaccine from this perspective.
Change my view. | 31 | Unless a mutual conspiracy was agreed upon by the big pharma companies, capitalism would solve the problem. Say we have three companies: X Y Z. They all sell HIV medication. X actually finds a vaccine for HIV. It only costs $400, much less than HIV medication, and the current situation is much more profitable. But he knows that eventually patterns will wear off and Y and Z will get the vaccine too. But X could have a monopoly for while and sell all of the $400 vaccines. | 22 |
ELI5: When you buy software, the source code usually is not made public, but doesn’t your computer still have to run the code to use the software? How can it run the code without allowing the user to see the code? | 19 | Say you have some source code... in your source code is the line "if playerhealth<0, gameover = true." Seems pretty easy to understand.
Now the compiler will convert that into binary. It will look something like this "010111000101010010."
You can decompile it, but the compiler through out all of the variable names and just gave them numbers, so now you're left with
"If AE0<0, 0F1=1"
Now maybe you can play around with the game and the code, and eventually you'll figure out that AE0 means playerhealth and 0F1 means gameover... but you'll have to do this with hundreds or thousands of variables. It would be a daunting task for any modern software, to say the least. | 29 |
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Why does sexual fetishism exist and, moreover, why are some fetishes more common than others? | 82 | I just finished a Human Sexuality class, and our professor showed us studies in which fetishism developed due to early sexual experiences, many times including trauma, stress, or punishment. However, fetishism varies case by case.
In one case, a man with a shoe fetish described how as a child, his parents were hyper vigilant about knowing where he was and what he was doing every second of the day. He was caught masturbating a couple of times and punished harshly. From there on out, every time he wanted to masturbate, he would hide under his bed and do it as quickly as possible. From under the bed, all he could see were shoes. Every time he masturbated under the threat of being caught and severely punished, he would get under the bed, and his view was always shoes.
Thus was born his shoe fetish.
| 34 |
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ELI5: why do so many people run for president when it's obvious they aren't going to win? | Cruz and Sanders must know they aren't going to win, right? What's the point of running? | 17 | To boost their own credibility. Sure they won't win, but they're making a name for themselves and making themselves known. It's what they say and how they say that generally drives people to see what they're capable of and what they want enacted if (but very unlikely) they become President. If they can't be elected (and they won't), they can at least say they ran for President and will try to use their influence on a smaller level before they ran. | 15 |
[Terminator] What is a Terminator's plan for living out the rest of its life in the past, assuming its assassination mission is completed? | In T2 Arnold S. said he could not self terminate, so we know they won't commit suicide. So what's the plan for after the target is eliminated? Live quietly until the war starts, then link up with Skynet? That's gonna be difficult (for a non-shapeshifter) who is a murderer being hunted by law enforcement. | 47 | He is not a human, he doesn't have needs like humans do and doesn't act like one. It's very hard to find such a thing.
He just has to find a hole to hibernate in until Skynet has enough influence to use him in war effort. | 48 |
[KOTOR] Was Kreia right? | She seemed pretty convincing, wars are fought over and over again to maintain the "balance" of the force. At the cost of billions of lives, endlessly. The great hyperspace war, the Jedi civil war, the Cold War, the clone wars, the Rebellion, to name just a few. There are tons of references to the force having a "will" forcing events one way or the other.
Was she right in saying the galaxy would be much better off being deafened to the force? | 23 | Of course it would be. Most of the conflicts you mention were started by force users.
That doesn't mean wars would disappear, they would not. But there would be smaller in scale because when Jedi and Sith are involved everything goes out of hands.
Now, let's be honest, you all would be Mandalorians now, without Jedi there is no chance the Galaxy can defend itself against us. | 16 |
[MCU] How was Red Skull appointed as guardian of the Soul Stone? | We know that the Tesseract sent the Red Skull to Vormir, but what I'm confused about is how exactly did he get the job of protecting the Soul Stone. Who approached him when he came to Vormir, gave him his robe and knowledge of the Stone, and said "this thing's your problem now."? | 21 | He seems to have some degree of super knowledge or awareness now, hence his little trick with naming the parents of everyone he meets (and he's available for birthday parties!).
Possibly he has some connection with the Soul Stone now that's feeding him this information, and also tells him what he must do. | 27 |
ELI5: Why wouldn't a flat tax work for the United States? | Like Herman Cain had proposed with his 9/9/9 stance. A flat tax for income, state, and federal. | 23 | The reason is that it would actually increase taxes on the poor.
Sales taxes are the same for rich people and poor people, but they hit poor people harder.
The reason is this:
Let's say the sales tax is 10%
Suppose you are a rich person making $1,000,000 a month.
There is no way you are going to spend that much money in the month.
Maybe you spend $200,000 that month and save the rest.
That mean the sales tax is $20,000 or 2% of your income.
Suppose you are a poor person making $1,000 a month.
When your pay check comes in your are likely to spend almost all of it, on rent, bills or food. Many do not have left over to save.
Say you spend all $950, you pay $95 in taxes
That means the sales tax is 9.5% of your income.
9.5% is a lot bigger than 2%, which is why income tax seeks to equalize it.
As to why it makes sense economically. Again you give a rich people a dollar they'll save most of it, maybe they'll invest a small part of it. Give a poor person a dollar they'll immediately put it back into the economy. | 35 |
[Overwatch] Why doesn't D.va replace her MEKA's shotguns with rocket launchers like Pharrah's or gatling guns like Bastion's? | I think it would make sense. | 39 | She's a pro-gamer, not a MEKA engineer. She just pilots the thing, she doesn't design or build them.
Integrating such drastically different weapons systems is beyond her ability, and frankly would likely compromise the operation of the MEKA in undesirable ways. | 56 |
If I'm flying by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, would I see them bright and colorful or would they be somewhat dark because they're so far away from the sun? | 836 | The fact is, you can see Jupiter and Saturn here on Earth without trouble.
Which means they are reflecting PLENTY of light for you to see them up close just fine.
Y'all can take your math and cram it up your bung holes. | 700 |
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ELI5:How can a small amount of medicine (like a pill) affect my whole body? | 20 | It's not unreasonable that small amounts of things can have a dramatic effect on the body. A tiny thorn only effects a very small number of nerves (compared to your entire body) which sends a small number of signals to your brain. Yet it can overwhelm your senses. A small amount of poison from a sting can effect your body. Also consider that your body produces minute amounts of hormones to control your body functions.
This is the only way that your body can function. It has to be designed so that small amounts of substances can produce large changes. This is true for any effective system. A large company is controlled by a few people at the top. An airport is controlled by a few people in a tower. An army is controlled by a few generals.
Similarly, your body is controlled by *signals* in the form of chemicals. That's what many medications are. They are signals. Those chemical signals end up creating various larger changes in the body.
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When asked for cookies on a website, is it taking information on you already before asking and hoping you click accept? How can one tell if the cookies are being used before approving it on the website? | I guess I'm just wondering, are cookie requests really just asking for forgiveness when prompting? Or are they really not collecting information until you say "I accept." | 44 | Cookies are one of the most reliable way of tracking you, but there are others. Like a combination of up address and browser information. There are sites that will display all the information your browser will leak.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that refusing cookies protects you. They are just the low hanging fruit of monitoring.
They can can be used for good, like keeping preferences etc. but like any good thing they were turned bad. | 18 |
ELI5: what's actually occurring on a microscopic level when a sticker is stuck on a surface | 19 | basically you have a goo kinda like gum and it makes little voids that create a vaccuum when they're pulled apart, resisting being pulled apart. its just mini- vacuum balls that get stronger as you pull (until they pop) | 17 |
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[MCU] If the US government was able to successfully mass produce and weaponize the Yellow Jacket program, how would it fare against another alien invasion? | 37 | Fielding an army of super-soldiers that the enemy can't even *see* would be great. It's probably better than either of Tony Stark's mechanized army ideas.
Of course, the Avengers have a Hulk, and that's hard to top. | 32 |
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[Musicals: Tangled, Frozen, Hairspray, et al.] How do people know all of the words to spontaneous outbursts of song? | So, I was walking through the grocery store the other day minding my own business and this young couple was singing to each other. It was super adorable and stuff, but then all of a sudden they hit the chorus and a bunch of people around me started dancing and singing along with them out of freakin no where man. And I'm standing there in the middle with no clue what is going on.
Like what the hell? Was this practiced? Did they all share some weird mass delusion? Are they all psychically linked? Should I move before I become part of some mindless musical performing hive mind?
Any info would be much appreciated. | 16 | Musical-Universes are parallel universes which have several roving hive minds. These hive minds are pseudo intelligent, but they lack bodies or emotions (and therefore free will). Therefore, a hive mind's goal (in the same sense that an electron has a "goal" to take the path of least resistance) is to find a group of people experiencing strong emotions. Once it has found such a group, it wants to use it as a body of sorts.
The hive mind is controlled by the emotions of those who are experiencing strong emotions. Emotions of humans and beings with thought-patterns resembling humans associate music (and therefore dance) with emotions. The result is that it becomes the will of the hive mind to coordinate the persons within it's sphere of influence in a dance. The persons at the heart of the emotional tempest have the greatest degree of impact on the dance hive mind. As a result, a few important people in the dance will take on special roles. | 38 |
Could you beat a magnetized piece of iron until it loses it's magnetism? | Is a magnetic field subject to shock-induced interference? If I rubbed an iron rod with a magnet and magnetized it, could I then pound that piece of iron until it loses it's magnetism? | 213 | It is possible to demagnetize a ferromagnetic material with high pressure or force but for iron the stress needs to be similar to hearing to 1000 Kelvin.
A way easier way to do it is using electricity specifically high frequency alternating current. The magnet will try to align with the direction of the field but if the frequency is high enough it will be switching faster than the material can align so when the current is turned off everything will end up aligned randomly, making it non magnetic. | 109 |
[Jupiter Legacy] Is the Jupiter Legacy world another kitchen sink world like Marvel, DC, and Invincible? | So far recent superhero worlds have been stand-alone versus where only one power system exists and only one genre exists. The big 3 are MHA, The Boys, and Worm. MHA only has Quirks, The Boys only has compound V, and Worm only has shards. Aliens, demons, vampires, werewolves, wizards, dragons, etc are not really things that exist in The Boys or MHA world. Not in a separate power system sense at least. Because im sure a lot of Quirks and Compound V or Parahuman abilities powers can mimic most of the beings I mentioned. Maybe Aliens might exist in Worm if you count shards. But Worm is still a strong standalone verse and not a kitchen sink world like Marvel or DC
In the show Jupiter Legacy it seems like all the powers come from the island. But it still seems like heroes can get powers from different sources in the Jupiter Legacy verse. For starters, super technology can easily be another source. I.E. the teleport stick. And it's stated maybe as a joke. That the Union has been fighting Robot and Wizards for a century. Even though this could possibly be a joke.
So that makes me wonder. Is Jupiter Legacy a kitchen sink world like Marvel/DC/Invincible? | 15 | The island released an unknown energy source into the world. The main characters all got their powers from this energy source or from those directly connected to the source as their offspring. Others became infected by the power source as well later on creating supervillains and lesser heroes who had no connection to the island. Super technology does exist but it either captures a piece of the island power by itself or was created specifically to counter or mimic the islands power.
You don't have wizards and demons and aliens and robots running around. You have people who are mutating and evolving with a new power that's randomly choosing them. They adopt personas to hide their identities for various reasons or just develop technology specifically to counter the new powered people. So it's just one power system with some drama club trappings and DARPA level interference. | 15 |
ELI5:Why do your gums bleed/hurt more if you don't floss regularly? | After flossing for the first time in a few months, it hurts a lot more and might also bleed. Why does this happen? | 15 | They're being deteriorated and broken down by sugars and acids in the plaque hiding between your teeth.
Floss. Bleed. Rinse. Heal. Repeat. You'll be happier for it and so will whoever you talk to every day. | 11 |
[Zombies] Why are animals usually unaffected in zombie apocalypses? | I know for a few universes (Red Dead Redemption for example) animals are turned into zombies, however it seems like the majority of zombie apocalypses leave animals unaffected. Is there a reason zombies only go after other humans? Maybe the virus only transmits between humans but wouldn't their craving for brains still have them seek out other animals for food as well? | 18 | Viruses rarely jump from one species to another, which is why it's big news whenever it happens. As for why we don't see zombies going after animals as often, it's probably because most animals have better senses and better survival instincts. They also tend to be faster runners. Basically, for a setting to have a lot of zombie animals several things need to happen:
- The virus (or magic) needs to affect animals as much as it does humans.
- Zombies need to be fairly omnivorous. They don't just go after humans.
- Human zombies need to be fast enough to catch animals. Alternatively, animal zombies need to retain their speed in order to infect other animals. | 39 |
ELI5: Why do abandoned houses fall apart structurally? | 15 | Basically, because abandoned houses lack residents/caretakers to maintain and protect them. When an occupied house develops a leak, or a tree branch falls through the roof, or termites infest it, or it suffers minor fire damage, the owners fix it. An abandoned property, conversely, is simply victim to the vagaries of time and nature.
Similarly, homeless people, vandals, and thieves are less likely to intrude and damage/take from a house with residents. If someone lives there, you’d worry about getting shot/arrested/etc. if you broke in. | 16 |
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ELI5: How do solar sails/photonic propulsion work if light is massless? | 1,283 | Light is massless but not momentum-less. You know that whole E = mc^2 equation? Well, that isn't the entire thing, actually. The actual equation is
E^2 = (mc^2 )^2 + (pc)^2
where p is the momentum of the object in question. Photons have energy, and even with zero mass, they still have momentum, and so they can impart that momentum into something else. | 680 |
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[Warframe] Can someone give me a rundown of what exactly is going on? | I'm a particularly new Tenno. I've seen a few planets, killed a few Grineer and the like, but...
How did any of that get here? Why is the solar system in so much disarray? Why are we fighting these guys? And who are the Orokin?
Thanks.
-a concerned Tenno | 42 | The story is vaguely described so far. Basically in what would be our far future humanity has colonized the entire solar system. The main government was the Orokin Empire. Portrayed as decadent and caste oriented, things were at least pleasant. The more advanced technology appears to involve manipulation of the Void, a form of hyperspace. There is no cheap FTL travel, but there is limited jumpgate technology, "solar rails".
In an effort to colonize another start system they sent out artificial lifeforms the slow way, who would build interstellar solar rails and allow the Orokin to exploit a brand new system. The record is vague, but the artificial life forms achieved sentience and were in fact called the Sentients. There came to be war between the Sentients and the Orokin, which the Sentients initially were winning due to their ability to adapt, and to adapt enemy technology to their uses. In response, the Orokin used those who had been warped by the Void, encased them in metal Warframes, and sent them out with combat skills of old, like gun and blade. These are the Tenno.
The Tenno won the war for the Orokin and saved humanity. Before celebrations had even ended the Tenno are recorded as turning on the Orokin leadership and slaughtering them all. This collapsed the weakened Orokin empire and lead to a dark age. People are still a bit sore about that. The exact reasoning for this betrayal is not known at this time, but it appears to be from the Tenno leadership. With no enemies to fight the Tenno went in to cryo sleep to await further need.
A thousand years pass, civilization rebuilds in the solar system. The Corpus control much of the resources, business is literally their religion. The Grineer are a race of clones created by their twin "kweens" and have conquered the majority of humanity and tolerate the Corpus holdings. Though being clones of clones of clones they are in decline.
This is when you wake up, Tenno. Your old coordinator, the Lotus, has decided it's time to change things. It's not a pleasant time to be an unaligned human in the universe as is, and things are stirring in the darkness.... | 20 |
ELI5 how does a search engine search the entire internet in a couple of seconds? | 208 | It doesn’t. It searches an optimized index that the search engine company has carefully built over a long time. Instead of driving around the neighborhood making a list of all the businesses, it just looks in the phone book. | 474 |
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ELI5: How does the destruction of thousands of tons of illegal ivory help fight poachers and the black market? | Wouldn't that make them that much more valuable? | 52 | In order to make money on poaching, there's two steps. First, kill the rhino. Second, sell the horn. (or whatever animal.) If you only complete step one, you wasted a lot of time and effort.
By destroying confiscated ivory, you ensure that step two doesn't ever happen for a LOT of poachers. Yes, a few who didn't get caught will make a lot of money. But it means that *most* poachers will be frustrated out of their profits and hopefully discouraged from trying again. | 38 |
ELI5: How can we discover planets that are so far away? | I always wondered how can we find those planets that are light years from Earth. | 27 | Usually exoplanets are discovered by looking for a characteristic wobble of stars in a telescope.
Because gravity from planets will affect the spin of their star, stars with planets will appear to wobble back and forth compared to other, naked stars.
Then, by calculating the expected size of the star and the size and frequency of the wobble, they can make an educated guess as to the size and distance of the exoplanet from their star, or even if there are multiple exoplanets. | 18 |
How much of an impact does body weight have on lifespan? | I would guess that more body weight, regardless of muscle or fat, leads to a shorter lifespan since the more body mass you have, the harder your internal organs have to work, wearing them out faster, but I'm not completely sure.
Edit: I am referring to human body weight, but studies on other organisms are ok too.
Edit 2: Interesting answers here. I didn't take into account that more cells in the body might also mean an increased risk for one of them to become cancerous, but it can be different for other species. I guess at least for humans shorter people have a possible comeback against taller people now haha. | 444 | If you live in the UK or US, weighing 1/3rd more than your optimal body weight results in a lifespan which is 3 years shorter.
But things really aren't straight forward, and there's a lot of other factors such as adaptability and routine which are very common in those aged 100 or older. But on average people who are normal weight live longer than those who are overweight.
And living to great ages doesn't really happen simply because you're healthy, you also have to be happy. When researchers looked at those aged 100 or older they found plenty of daily routines such as a daily shot of whiskey, daily Dr Pepper, daily ice cream and daily bacon. But it is important to avoid excess. | 418 |
[Dune/WH40k] A survey team has stumbled about the planet with the spice. What is the quickest, fastest way to commercialize the drug and get it into the greedy, grasping hands of the IoM? | ***NOTE:*** None of the houses or imperial shit from Dune exists. Only the planet Arrakis is there, and nothing else. WH40k remains the same, except with the inclusion of Arrakis, and of course, the spice. Nobody in the IoM knows just what the spice is, or how it even works, or even how to farm it. But people do know the spice is highly addictive and they want more of it. Lots more.
How do we commercialize the sale of the drug for consumption by the IoM? | 46 | I'd guess the Inquisition would come down on that like a ton of bricks. They probably wouldn't glass the place, but they'd definitely put a lockdown on the spice. Anything that will let you see the future like spice can has got to be touched by the warp and must be kept from the public, but the spice itself would be seen as too useful to completely destroy. There would definitely be some black market smuggling, though, so the richer, less moral citizens could still get ahold of it. | 35 |
[Codename: Kids Next Door] What would happen if some who knows about the KND but not apart of them turned 13? | We know that when a KND operative turns 13 they get decommissioned. But how would the KND react to someone who knows about them but isn't one of them turning 13?
(Edit: Also on a related note... how would they handle kids who are related to people who know about the kids next door?) | 88 | It depends. If they've been super loyal, they get to join the top secret wing of the KND called the "Teens Next Door," which consists of teenagers who were not actually decommissioned.
Other times they join an anti KND group and are issued their Battle Ready Armor.
And other times they simply don't care as long as they don't use their knowledge for evil.
As for your edit question, Nigel's dad knows about his adventures, but they don't really do anything because he mostly just thinks they're silly games of pretend. | 46 |
Cause of inflation | Is the reason for inflation increasing general spending power of the public/velocity of money and not the absolute amount of money printed? If billionaires and business sat on their wealth it wouldn’t circulate and so there will be reduced velocity of money right? If so this would explain why printing money doesn’t necessarily cause inflation with Modern Monetary Theory, which I know very little about. Or is it instead because all the dollar printed is being converted to equity? | 23 | Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomena. If you don’t believe it, read the historical evidence. The velocity of money is not nearly as volatile, and as a practical matter most economists take it as a given constant in most models. Ironically, the velocity of money only starts to increase in a meaningful way when demand-pull inflation has already reached a critical point. A good example of this is where factories in Germany would literally let their workers leave at lunch to spend their wages before they lost their value by dinner. The cycle then perpetuates itself before collapsing.
It’s true the quiescent inflation is dogging economic models and has been for 10 years. But one important distinction which needs to be made is between the Fed’s Quantitative Easing and what’s referred to as “money printing”. It’s not quite as simple as firing up the printing press (or computer ledger these days); the Fed transmits its policy through broker dealer banks. If banks don’t want to lend all of their excess reserves (cash they receive when the Fed buys the Treasuries/MBS), they can just park them at the Fed and earn a small interest on them. In fact, most of the “money printing” that you’re referring to has done very little to stimulate bank lending since the Lehman and Great Recession aftermath; the real impact was to drive up valuations and drive down borrowing costs, especially for risky borrowers. If that was their true goal, they were incredibly successful. But the impotence of monetary policy has been exposed. They have no ammunition left.
Fiscal policy is much more immediate and, if done properly, far more inflationary (if the government doesn’t apply the regulatory shackles, admittedly a bit if). These stimulus checks are about as close to “helicopter” money (or printing money, whichever you prefer) as we’ve ever gotten. You can see it showing up in all kinds of data: the savings rate at historically elevated rates, the monetary base inflating like a balloon, etc... If the Fed and Treasury persist on their present course, it’s not a matter of if, but rather when, the inflation arrives. In a way, people have (whether by accident or not) acknowledged this reality by buying up BTC and other alternative cryptos. They fear that fiat currencies will soon lose their ability to function as a store of value. Almost Entirely due to inflation | 13 |
How infected does the body have to be in order to trigger an immune response that you notice? I. E. Fever, congestion, cough, etc. | 221 | It's not such a simple equation. But in general, all it takes is one and your body will start responding to the threat. The response might be all out war, or it might be to just encapsulate it. That depends on other things. Some general categories are:
1.) The type of invader. (Bacterial, Viral, Allergen, etc.)
2.) Where the invader, invades your body. (E. Coli is fine in some parts and not in other parts.)
3.) How aggressive the invader is. (Take the strain of nora-virus that has hit many of the states really hard the past 12 months. It has taken as few as breathing in 3 of the virus to infect you.)
4.) The individuals sensitivity to the invader.
5.) The current strength or health of the immune system.
| 50 |
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CMV: No matter how cool Bernie Sanders seems, he will accomplish none of his campaign promises because Congress. | Bernie Sanders is running a campaign on promises like free college and getting money out of politics. Nearly everything I've heard his campaign promise requires congressional action. As a congressman Bernie Sanders knows that.
From the [Huffington Post](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/26/bernie-sanders-2016_n_7446570.html) : "Among the specific items on his campaign platform include establishing a $15 minimum wage, closing the gender pay gap, investing $1 trillion over five years to rebuild infrastructure, and overturning the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision"
Each of those things requires new legislation. With 16 years in the House and 2 terms in the Senate Sanders should be familiar with the limits of each branch of government. This makes me think he knows he can't win so he is recklessly promising absurd things. When he inevitably loses and the winning candidate fails to deliver on the impossible goals he set out he can say "I would have done it differently" but we should know better. Even if he wins, he'll blame Congress for blocking his agenda. The only way he can possibly accomplish anything he promises is if 1) He wins the presidential election, 2) Like-minded democrats win a majority in BOTH houses of congress. Which, while it would be cool, is only possible in some incredibly unlikely fantasy land.
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If Bernie Sanders becomes the nominee, than he can get many of his ideas included in the Democratic platform. Once that happens, he will have the support of many Democrats in Congress. Then, he can work on getting his ideas made into law.
This is standard for all presidential candidates. This is basically exactly how Obama approached the idea of universal healthcare. | 161 |
ELI5: If you have a pile of mulch/woodchips/etc and leave it long enough it can start to smoke. How? | I understand that it's the breaking down of the organic material that's generating the heat, but how in the world does it generate enough heat to start to smolder? | 48 | A large enough pile will be generating heat all through it, and the stuff in the middle has nowhere for the heat to go, so it builds up. Eventually, you'll hit the smoke point for something in the pile (the wood, the resins in the sap, small children, you know) and voila! Smoke! | 36 |
Can a psychologist cure her-/himself if he/she has a mental illness? | Sorry, this might be a stupid question. But medical doctors for example could cure themselves if they have a disease. | 17 | Not really. You can for example come up with a behavioral excercise to help yourself somehow but it's not anything somebody with a good self-help book couldn't do as well. We're also kinda trained in introspection which should theoretically help us getting an insight on our conditition. However, if we're talking about "curing", a crucial part of therapy is therapeutic relationship and alliance which is hard to establish by yourself. | 11 |
ELI5: Can I "build" a server and give it whatever ip I want? | By server I mean a website, but without registered domain. I mean you type the ip in your browser and there is your site. If you can, then what would happen if I have the same ip as google? And what if the site is temporary down? Thanks! | 158 | IP addresses are a lot like ZIP (aka postal) codes. If you want to declare your ZIP code to be 60601-2015, that's certainly your choice, but don't expect the US Postal Service to deliver your mail to that address unless you just happen to live in the right block in Chicago.
You don't need a name -- a web site will work just fine with simply an IP address. But you have to get the IP address assigned to you by somebody who acknowledges that the IP address is within their management realm. | 162 |
ELI5: why are there weight limits on suitcases but not the people on the plane? | 452 | It's worth noting there may be weight limits depending on the size of the plane. A large airliner doesn't really matter, but a small passenger plane has to know the weight of the passengers and make sure they're evenly distributed around the plane. You can't have a 500lb person in the right side and a 30lb person in the left, the balance of the plane will be too far off. | 422 |
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My chi-square analysis indicates a significant association but my logistic regression indicates no significant association. What does this mean? | I’m fairly new to statistics so I apologize if this is an easy answer. Right now, I’m just playing with some public health data.
I have a dichotomous exposure and a dichotomous outcome.
My chi square analysis indicates statistical significance between the exposure and outcome.
When I run a logistic regression in R, the adjusted odds ratio is 1.2 but the p value is 0.059 which indicates it is not significant. In the logistic regression, I controlled for 5 other variables (two of which have a p value of less than 0.001).
What does this mean? Should I not be comparing chi square outcome with logistic regression outcome?
Thank you! | 25 | You did different analyses. You shouldn't expect the same result.
If controlling for variables didn't change the p-value, you wouldn't do it.
&#x200B;
Run a logistic regression in R, without the control variables and you should get the same result. | 22 |
Eli5 - What is a DJ like Tiesto actually doing when performing a live show? | I don’t really know much about the process of remixing a song but I can imagine it is a process that is like editing a video - layering tracks, adding beats, etc. They are clearly not doing that kind of editing live so they are basically playing something that’s already had some amount of that already done.
So what are they doing live besides maybe mixing between songs?
I just don’t understand what all the knob fiddling is about. | 862 | In order to get a basic understanding, imagine a DJ standing in front of actual turntables. They start playing a song, and it has a downbeat (imagine if you're bobbing your head to a groovy song, when you bob down, that's the downbeat). As that song nears it's end, the DJ doesn't want dead air, so they choose a song that has the same beat. They put the record on the other turntable, and listen to it with their headphones. They listen and slow down/speed up the second song until the beat lines up perfectly, then fade the volume of the first song down while fading the second up. That way you're listening to a new song, but the transition was so seamless, your head bobbing hasn't stopped, or even been noticeably altered.
A skilled DJ can fade back and forth between two or more songs, do things like slip the hook from one song into the place where the hook would have been in a different song, and all sorts of other tomfoolery. The more sources of songs, samples, and sounds, the more knobs they need for volume, tempo and effects.
Then imagine someone mixing the sound for a live band. They have a slider for how loud the drums are in the house speakers, how loud the vocals are in the speakers playing back to the band. The DJ needs these too, so they can alter what they are hearing and what the house is hearing separately. | 1,316 |
[House] Morally speaking who's the most good character? | House is out for obvious reasons.
Wilson is a genuinely great guy with a few flaws.
Same goes for Cuddy (although she's arguably got more issues than Wilson).
Foreman's a sob.
Chase is just neutral; leaning good. Give him major props for killing that dictator. Sic semper and all that.
Cameron is good with a flawed reliance on emotion that means she often does bad in the name of good.
Taub isn't evil but he is a weasel.
Kutner is as nice as you can be and still interact with House.
Thirteen is a hedonist (but for understandable reasons) and other wise seems like a decent person.
CB; yeah she's a dick.
I'm saying Kutner; what do you guys think? | 27 | via the **Theory of Moral Value (Moral objectivism)** and the **Rational-Egoist Theory of Morality**, House is the most moral person, since he has the most objective value as a doctor, and recognises that value in himself, acting accordingly.
via the **Pragmatic Moral Theory** (Moral Pragmatism/Consequentialism/Utilitarianism) House is also most likely the most moral person, since consequences of his actions saved the most lives (though it would take a difficult calculation to be certain of that).
via **Deontological Theory of Morality** (Rules Based Morality) and **Social Contract Morality**, Wilson is the most moral one, since he is least likely to break social, legal and corporate rules he agreed to uphold.
Via **Divine Command Theory of Morality** all of them are sinners one way or another, and none of them is good enough to qualify as a moral person.
Via **Ethics of Care Theory of Morality,** again, probably Wilson, though after so many seasons, it is hard to say.
In other words, if we were to divide the whole problem into two problems: **Moral Actions vs Moral Stance**, then House performs the most moral actions while Wilson has the best Moral Stance. Or to put it another way: House is a bad person who does good deeds for bad reasons, and these good deeds have good consequences. Wilson is a good person who does (usually ) good deeds that sometimes have bad consequences.
The difference comes from the fact that House, regardless of his morality, is a much better doctor and a brilliant man, and thus can see the consequences of his actions several steps ahead, so even when he acts immorally (from Rules Based perspective) it is for the greater good in the end. Wilson is not so brilliant, so he acts morally NOW, on the problem at hand, even if it has bad consequences down the road. | 38 |
Libertarianism, especially that in the USA, could never successfully work without the 250 years of prior government investment and regulation of infrastructure and society. CMV | As far as I can see, Libertarians want to do away with government. I believe that there are things far too big for private enterprise to undertake without state assistance: communications, schools, infrastructure, police, currency and finance etc.
I think that Libertarians can only claim to be able to live in a truly libertarian way because a succession of governments has advanced the country to the point where they are privileged enough to live in an advanced economy in a first world society.
I'm from the UK, which I guess makes me a filthy socialist. | 34 | As /u/swearrengen said, you might be conflating libertarians with anarchists too much.
Anyway, the U.S. had a largely libertarian style of government for a long time after its inception. Most libertarians would probably be satisfied with a return to that style of government. Except for in times of war, government spending was under 5% of GDP until 1913 and the creation of the income tax.
A lot of people want to pretend that a libertarian state could never work, but it *did* for at least 85 years (if you think the Civil War marked the end) or as many as 137 years. Those aren't big numbers if you're from Europe, but the USA is only 237 years old in total.
If anything, the current conditions make libertarianism HARDER to achieve in the US than it was in the past. | 14 |
ELI5: What exactly stops our bodies from defecating and urinating as we sleep? What acts as an "alarm" that jolts us awake when we do need to do these things? | Edit: Jesus, this blew up. Instead of replying to everything (of course I'm going to try to get to a lot), I'd just like to say thank you to the massive knowledge drop I've received. I did not expect so much information about how my body is basically an automaton. Super cool!! Thank you guys! | 13,045 | So your body has these muscles called internal and external sphincters. They act like these rubber bands around your rectum and your urethra (where pee comes out). You can control the external sphincters but can’t control the internal sphincters. The feeling that you need to pee or poop comes from the internal sphincters saying “hey we need to go” to your brain and then they relax/open to let said pee or poop out. The clinching feeling when you’re trying to hold it in is your external sphincters, which you can control. When you’re sleeping/awake these sphincters are constantly contracted/closed but if the internal sphincters relax/open, then your brain will wake you up because you have to go.
| 8,792 |
[General] Vampires and religious symbols | I'm worried about defending myself against vampires and need to know if only crosses work, or should I also carry around other symbols, like a star of david, or a star and crescent. | 59 | Different rules for different universes. The possibilities run the spectrum from:
* Only crosses
* Only blessed holy symbols
* Any holy symbols
* Only holy symbols that the vampire believes in
* Some other unique-in-universe symbol
* Any of the above but with varying effects (ie. some hold vampires at bay, others can burn them)
* Symbols don't do anything at all (usually when vampirism is classified as a virus or parasite.)
So first, you need to provide some information about which of the above universes you are calling from.
| 56 |
Could someone please explain what overclocking is, like i'm 5? (In terms of computers) | 30 | It's essentially just telling your computer processor (or sometimes videocard) to run faster (do more stuff per second) than it was meant to by the manufacturer. This is at the price of it running *hotter* which may or may not be potentially harmful for it depending on how much you overclocked it. Sometimes it's necessary to add or change the cooling device for the component to make sure it doesn't overheat.
edit: oops, at the price of running *hotter*, not faster. you already knew it was faster | 20 |
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ELI5: How do large and complex projects - e.g. the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - keep pace with, and accommodate, technological changes over extended design and build periods? | For example, JWST's control systems originally designed in 1992 would, I'm sure, look very different to control systems designed today. Will they have been updated multiple times along the way? | 29 | Systems might be updated during multiple rounds of the design process, but at some point the technology is locked in, which is essentially the same as a freeze in software engineering. At that point, no further changes or updates are made even if new technology becomes available unless it's to fix some problem that comes up in testing. Things that go into space are very expensive and once they're up there, there's no way to swap parts or change or fix things, so you want something that as reliable as possible, which pretty much always means something that's been around longer and has time to have been extensively tested and have had all the bugs worked out. Reliability is what's most important, not what's newest. | 31 |
ELI5: Can someone explain the Syrian Civil war to me? | How did it start?
Why did it start?
Who are the main combatants?
Why is it so devastating?
Why are its effects seeping over into the Western world? | 99 | >How did it start? Why did it start?
Like other Middle Eastern nations that were part of the Arab Spring, there was an undercurrent of discontent in the Syrian population that finally reached a boiling point. It started with relatively peaceful protests that the Assad regime responded to with violence. That escalated things really quickly and many members of the Syrian military defected to join opposition groups. Commence a civil war.
>Who are the main combatants?
You have:
* Assad's regime which is backed by the Syrian military in addition to some other militia and paramilitary groups.
* The opposition, comprised primarily of the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic Front.
* The Islamic State.
* The Kurds, backed by the Peshmerga/YPG.
* The Coalition Joint Task Force, comprised of Western nations who are more opposed to the Islamic State then they are allied with any other group.
* Russia, Iran and Hezbollah who support the Assad regime.
>Why is it so devastating?
Because it's been a bloody stalemate reminiscent of World War I. Going back to who the combatants are, it's a total clusterfuck of entangling alliances. The United States supports the Kurds, but the Kurds are at odds with Turkey (a NATO ally) and elements of the opposition groups. Russia supports Assad and is opposed to the Islamic State *and* the opposition groups, while the United States is opposed to Assad and the Islamic State but not the opposition groups. The Assad regime has essentially decided it would rather let the opposition groups fight it out with the Islamic State, and many argue that Assad has given indirect support to IS. Meanwhile IS is selling black market oil to Turkey, which the United States does NOT like.
So there are many competing interests and there is very little room for any of these groups to compromise with each other.
As you can imagine, this puts the Syrian people in a truly unfortunate situation—no matter who they side with, they're fucked. Some elements of the opposition have walked back to Assad with their tails between their legs because their choice is effectively between living under Assad or living under the Islamic State.
**It's a total war.** Civilians aren't off limits, and acts of barbarity have been committed by actors on all sides. It's understandable why so many Syrians are so entrenched in whatever side they're on.
Adding to all of the devastation is the emergence of the Islamic State, which has been notoriously ruthless and brutal in its goal to establish a caliphate in the region. Their emergence also turned this into a war over religion, and when religion gets involved... people tend to become very irrational and stubborn.
> Why are its effects seeping over into the Western world?
Two major reasons. One, the Islamic State has been recruiting from Western nations and executing attacks on Western nations. Two, Syria is profoundly important from a geopolitical perspective. It borders Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Israel and is on the Mediterranean coast, making it an important location for trade and commerce. Russia wants to construct a pipeline that would deliver gas from Iran through Iraq and into Syria. Meanwhile, the Assad regime had rejected the construction of the Qatar-Turkey pipeline, which was supported by American and European interests. Now, to be clear, the pipelines are just one aspect of the war, but they are certainly an important motivation for many of the actors involved.
This is all a simplification and I've left many details out, but that's the basic overview.
Edit: Just want to plug /r/SyrianCivilWar. It is by far one of the greatest resources for keeping up with everything that is going on over there, and it is interesting community where people on all sides are represented. If you want some perspective from actual Syrians/other people directly impacted by the war, it is a great place to go. | 73 |
Why does adding an acid to egg whites help stiffen it? | When banking things like chiffon or sponge cake, egg whites are usually beaten with some acid to help stabilise it and ultimately get stiffer peaks. I can only think of acids creating an unfavourable environment for enzymes but that doesn't seem relevant here :) | 60 | Egg whites are made of proteins, which you can imagine as little tangled balls of fuzzy threads. Both heat and acid can *denature* these proteins, or untangle them into long threads of basically velcro. This allows them to stick to each other, stiffening the whole mix. | 63 |
[LotR] Would Sauron still have been able to eventually regain power if Isildur had succesfully delivered the One Ring to the Keepers of the Three rather than dying at Gladden Fields? | Normally I dislike nebulous "what-if" questions, but I intend this to be a question of the elves' capabilities more so than what would happen in the aftermath. I would think the answer would be yes, considering time was on Sauron's side given his growing forces and the continued decline of the kingdoms of Man. However, would there have been something Gandalf, Galadriel, and Elrond could have done to keep Sauron in check in the long term if they had been given the One Ring by Isildur, or would they have only.managed to further delay Sauron's rise? Alternatively, at the time of the Disaster of the Gladden Fields, could elves and man have returned to Mordor to destroy the One Ring? | 17 | >would there have been something Gandalf, Galadriel, and Elrond could have done to keep Sauron in check in the long term if they had been given the One Ring by Isildur, or would they have only.managed to further delay Sauron's rise?
Yes. Gandalf could have taken the Ring for himself and claimed it. This would have the same effect on Sauron as the Ring's destruction did. The end result wouldn't be any better though - Gandalf would have been an even worse Ring-lord than Sauron, turning good into evil. In any case, he wasn't even in Middle-Earth yet at this point. When Isildur died, the Three were held by Elrond, Galadriel, and Círdan. Gandalf was still in Valinor.
>Alternatively, at the time of the Disaster of the Gladden Fields, could elves and man have returned to Mordor to destroy the One Ring?
They could have returned, but it's unlikely they'd have been able to successfully destroy it. They'd have gotten to Mount Doom and given in to temptation, either by claiming the Ring as Frodo did or else failing in some other way. | 13 |
[LOTR] Where are all the dragon's besides smaug? What do we know about there powers? | I have read anything outside of the 3 books and the hobbit and not for a very long time. So where are all the dragon's? And what could they do (power wise) and where did/do they come from? | 76 | Many of them simply died out over time. They were bred by Morgoth for the War of Wrath.
The largest and most powerful dragon of all was Ancalagon the Black (Briefly mentioned by Gandalf in LOTR), his death at the hands of Eärendil and the eagles (Specifically his bulk hitting the ground) destroyed Thangorodrim (The tallest mountains in Middle Earth) and reduced them to rubble.
Dragons are very smart, very deadly, can hypnotize you with their gaze, and the greatest of them had fire that could melt Sauron's rings (But NOT the One Ring), which is what happened to a few of the Dwarven rings. | 86 |
ELI5: How do dollar stores work? | I sometimes see name brand stuff in the dollar stores and they aren't expired or near the expiration date so how can dollar stores get away with selling things for so cheap whereas other store sell them much higher? | 23 | Usually dollar stores will sell smaller sizes of that item, i.e. 1.5oz of deodorant vs 3oz, which is the 'regular' size.
But you wouldn't notice that because you see the '$1' sign, whereas you might be paying around $2 anyways, or even less, on the 3oz deodorant.
Other reasons could be that the items are second-grade, meaning that they have been deemed not to sell as well in grocery/department stores in that condition. The items are still perfectly usable, but their packaging may have suffered.
Or possibly the dollar store companies will take a hit on their profits in order to maximize revenue/market share. | 22 |
What is a fool-proof way to remember the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning? | 39 | In deductive reasoning, the truth of the conclusion is *necessitated* given the truth of the premises - you cannot mantain that the premises are true and the conclusion is false without contradicting yourself. In inductive reasoning, the premises provide *support* for the conclusion, but not to the degree of logical necessity. Even in the most convincing inductive argument, you can imagine a case, however unlikely and contrived, where the premises are true but the conclusion turns out false. | 46 |
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ELI5: why do people weigh less first thing in the morning (or, presumably, directly after sleeping) than they did immediately before sleeping? | This is without any excretions. | 31 | You constantly lose mass in two ways. One is that water evaporates from the damp insides of your lungs, and unless you are very cold, you will still sweat by a small amount.
The other is that living involves losing mass. You breathe in oxygen, and breathe out CO₂. For every two atoms of oxygen you take in from breathing, you breath them out with an attached atom of carbon. That carbon comes from stored sugars, fats or proteins in your body, and it leaves you - completely - as a gas.
It's like how the majority of the mass of a tree comes from thin air. | 34 |
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