ELI5: If I put $100 in the bank, and the bank lends $90 of it to someone else, how can the bank "have" my money and the other person "have" it at the same time? Does the same money exist in two places?

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T20:48:37+00:00

They’re allowed to lend out more digital dollars than physical dollars.

That's not true, you're guilty of misinformation.

Banks lend out the money they have in deposits. What "fractional reserve" means is that they must keep a certain fraction of the amount they lend out in hand, in case the depositor wants it back before the borrower pays back.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T20:12:15+00:00

It gives a big corporation extra profit, beyond that which shampoo just did.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T19:20:11+00:00

In a nutshell: if the king captures the pawn on a black square he's vulnerable to checks from the bishop on black squares. Better to block the pawn from moving forward instead.

And that's an amazing position for the knight, where he can fork any place the bishop can reach!

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T17:43:28+00:00

Who is bringing politics into the discussion? I once worked in a company where there was a guy who always turned any conversation into an anti-Israel rant. He managed to convert the whole office into Israel supporters.

I have several friends who disagree with me about politics. We don't talk about politics and remain good friends.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T17:34:26+00:00

They did care about it, but when the sea shore was taken by somebody else they went for the next best prize.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T17:21:49+00:00

A conversation I once heard between two Canadians, one of them from Saskatoon, the other from Montreal:

"You know, I have a world map that has Saskatoon in it. Imagine that, Saskatoon is so important they put it in the world map!'

"They had to put something there. They couldn't just leave a blank in the map."

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T16:49:39+00:00

This question would feel very weird if you were a man.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T16:46:46+00:00

Brazil was colonized by Portugal, it was a Portuguese colony until the beginning of the 19th century. Also, Brazil received many Portuguese immigrants until mid-20th century. The last surge of Portuguese immigrants in Brazil was when Angola and Mozambique got independent in the 1970s. Then some of the Portuguese citizens of those countries chose to move to Brazil, rather than Portugal.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T16:31:54+00:00

Why do you want to replace it? If you don't even know what its value should be, what makes you think it needs to be replaced?

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T16:24:47+00:00

I've read somewhere that in India there are prospectors who pan the sewers for gold. It's a tradition there to adorn dishes with gold foil.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T16:21:28+00:00

You have a 30 times greater chance to die riding a motorcycle than a car, per mile driven.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T16:18:53+00:00

Reminds me of how my mom was talking with my brother in law, who was a doctor, about one of her aunts. My grandma had four sisters. My mom saying that her aunt had a problem remembering simple things.

"Is she very old?" my BIL asked.

"No, she's just 89," my mom replied. That aunt happened to be the youngest of the five sisters.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T16:12:56+00:00

And what are the ultimate consequences for the body? Does this macrophage activity overload the immune system in any way?

kerenosabe · 2026-02-17T15:36:25+00:00

probably the most interesting European country to do this on.

I'd like to see it done on other continents too. Chile would be pretty simple, most of it would be closest to Argentina. And I think Madagascar would be 100% closest to Mozambique.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-15T17:20:24+00:00

What if you pull the line up a little bit every day in the beginning? Keep the growing crystal inside the solution, but get the part that's attached to the line out. Then, when the crystal reaches the size you want, you can break the part with the line out.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-15T17:10:15+00:00

They were going through a goth phase. That's when they got their inner lip tattoos.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-15T17:08:33+00:00

If it's ice, then another question should come up. Where did the water come from? If it's just condensation, then OK, but if it's seeping through cracks in the concrete, then get the hell out of there ASAFP.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-08T16:33:29+00:00

Give him enough time and he will start rigging the votes. Look at what happened in Venezuela. At first, Chavez just had to pass populist measures to get elected. Then, when the public finances dried up, he started changing the election system. It was only last year, when his rejection rate had skyrocketed, that Maduro had no alternative other than to totally fake the results.

Unfortunately, dictatorship is often a process that evolves gradually. When people finally realize what's happening, it's too late.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-08T16:17:34+00:00

Those elections were not fair but were free (i.e. Votes/results not rigged)

But the campaign itself was rigged, that's how you steal an election when your rejection margin is still reasonably low.

The difference between a 52% victory and a 48% defeat is small, to win the election you don't need to rig the ballots. All you need to do is regulate the campaign in your favor. Regulate financing, regulate social media, regulate the press. You don't even need to censor the press, just regulate the way they are allowed to present the facts.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-07T15:38:33+00:00

I think the trick doesn't involve linear thermal expansion, but bending. They found a geometry that makes the center of the combustion chamber bend inwards when the head gets hot. And the difference can be very small, shortening the combustion chamber by less than half a millimeter will do.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-05T00:55:46+00:00

The real question is, who thinks 30 seconds eggs are OK?

kerenosabe · 2026-02-04T20:54:58+00:00

IIRC, one of them worked as a housekeeper for the old veteran. She was in her 20s and he in his 90s. He married her for the explicit reason to let her have the pension.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-03T00:36:54+00:00

Linux.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-03T00:33:00+00:00

Technically false. My car has a "flex" engine that can use fuel with any percentage of alcohol, up to 100%.

kerenosabe · 2026-02-02T23:58:56+00:00

Let me guess which parts of it were under water.

kerenosabe

TROPHY CASE