[Stephen Crye] "Finally, why the heck is it named "ripple?""
Probably because it "ripples" the changes across the timeline to compensate. So if you remove 5 seconds from one event, it will "ripple" those 5 seconds to the right to move all events left by the same amount. It's called the same thing in other NLE's so it's a standard term for the behavior.
~jr
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