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ELI5: Agile methodologies in software testing | In general terms, how does this methodology work? | The basic concept is that you decide on details regarding implementation and testing while developing.
In more classical methodologies you generally spend a lot of time in the beginning of a project to plan everything on a high detail before writing the first line of code.
In agile developement you make a very rough plan and decide the details as you go along. It is more of a "Try and error" method that is a lot more flexible but have some other drawbacks. | 16 | 30 |
[Valve] What is the relationship between Black Mesa and Aperture Science? | Are they competitors? Why does Gordon Freeman make no mention of Aperture? Do the Combine know of Aperture? | They competed for grant money for anomalous materials and advanced scientific research back before the Seven Hour War. Ultimately, it was Black Mesa's ability to consistently undercut Aperture Science on price that enabled them to starve out Aperture Science over a period of decades.
Thing is, even with Black Mesa undercutting them they still remained a viable business and a strong competitor due to a heavy emphasis on automation. That worked well until their central testing AI, GladOS, wiped them all out with deadly neuro-toxin. As far as anyone outside the facility knew at the time, the facility had gone into lockdown. Those sent to investigate were both passively and actively deterred from entering the facility. Some were sent home in body bags, others in soup cans, and still others were never seen again at all. More forceful means of entry, such as nuclear weapons, were conceived of as impractical due to both the possibility of international repercussions and the sheer immensity of the facility's fortifications. Further contact with the facility was shelved until either someone from the facility made contact or something horrible started shambling out of it.
With Aperture Science gone seemingly without explanation, observations about it became increasingly speculative and short-lived. Black Mesa may or may not have been aware that it's main competitor had dropped off the face of the map. In the game of highly secretive advanced science research, who can say? But it is more than fair to assume that after several years of inactivity Aperture Science became little more than a memory and certainly nothing to talk about on a daily basis.
As for the Combine, their goals are primarily resource exploitation and secondarily population control. Earth is so far on the periphery of the Empire that no serious attempt has been made to investigate the technological prowess of a race they bested seemingly without effort. Until the destruction of the Citadel, the prospect that Human's might even be capable of surprising the jaded intellects of the Combine Empire was little to none. Since then, however, they may have reconsidered the potential value of such endeavors. | 44 | 26 |
ELI5:How middle names came about. | In most cultures, names are for
A) Identifying an individual
and
B) Identifying the individual's lineage.
So for example, in Pakistan, a person called "Mohammad Adil Abbasi " is generally so named because
- his father's name was Muhammad
- his name is Adil
- he is from the "Abbasi" family or tribe
so it's kinda your own identifier. | 50 | 80 |
|
ELI5: Why does only one sperm cell get to fertilize the egg? How is multi-sperm fertilization prevented and does this prevention ever fail? | So, there are 2 main ways this prevention of polyspermy happens.
1st, there is a fast reaction by the egg upon sperm entry. It depolarizes the membrane, which prevents other sperm from being able to bind to it. Kinda like a magnet.
2nd, is a slow reaction. It is the hardening of this egg membrane, which is called cortical reaction. This hardening of the membrane makes the egg impenetrable to other sperm. | 29 | 18 |
|
Is there a philosophy (ontology) of economics? | I've been getting more and more interested in economics lately.
I'm reading a paper by an economist named Metcalfe, who criticizes more orthodox economists for being too committed to [methodological atomism](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/methodological-individualism/). Metcalfe proposes that "the economy" and its dynamics are actually an emergent property. It seems that what he's getting at is almost like a Platonic view or some kind of object oriented ontology ala Graham Harman. "The economy" is a real object, not just the aggregate of all its pieces (like labor+ capital + inputs + outputs+...). In other words, its irreducible. If this is true, then the assumption in contemporary orthodox economics of methodological atomism is wrong, and can have major implications about how we view economics as a discipline, and affect the kinds of policies we enact as well.
​
I found this all very interesting, and noticed that economists tend to ignore these kinds of discussions. Economics is often framed as a purely quantitative science. The underlying ontological assumptions are ignored and rarely discussed. Is there more literature to look to on this or similar subjects? | According to a certain reading (Lukacs and Adorno, for example), this is precisely what Marx is doing: What is called the "the economy" and "the market" in liberal economics is really grounded by the metaphysical status of the commodity and value itself - that it is, the eradication of the particular through the universalization of bourgeois universality. | 15 | 15 |
CMV: Pokemon is a bad video game series. | Pokemon as a game is bad.
Let me count the ways:
-The entire focus of the game is that you're supposed to gather as many as you can, but there is zero incentive for doing so.
-The element/type system is set up to encourage diversity in your team and strategic gameplay, yet every challenge you come across can be bested with brute force.
-There is literally nothing stopping you from playing with just your starter and never training another pokemon.
-Challenge in a game should exist even if the player chooses to take the path of least resistance. In Pokemon, taking the path of least resistance should mean capturing many types of pokemon and using them strategically, but doing so takes *more* effort than just not giving a crap, for no gain. Yes, it'll be easier to fight multiple trainers along a route if you have a fire pokemon, a water pokemon, and a grass pokemon, but the time spent training them to all be around the same level is essentially wasted, because you can best those trainers just fine using one single pokemon. Spreading your efforts doesn't really make things easier, and it takes longer. Playing the game "right" is a chore. Playing the game "wrong" is a bore. Neither option is preferable. X/Y fix this a bit by adding EXP Share as a default early-game thing, but it's still pointless. I still beat the whole game by picking a favorite and not giving a shit about any other pokemon.
-The plots are abysmal. Here's the plot: You're a kid going on a pokemon pilgrimage. You fight gym leaders, discover some bad guys, play a part in bringing down their organization (between gyms, of course!), and ultimately beat the Elite 4. Which game was I describing? Hint: All of them. Every single one. They're all the same thing.
-The game as a whole is just not challenging. No strategy is required. You can mash A and you'll win, continute to do so and you'll still win. Any other JRPG, you can't do that. You have to at least try. You might be able to do it a while, but eventually things get tough and you can't just spam attack to get by. Not so in Pokemon.
-The variety of pokemon is trivial, as what really "matters" is their typing, of which there are only a few combos amongst the 700+ pokemon. And the number of types is too many...as the rock-paper-scissors mechanics become spread far too thin, and said mechanics are mostly meaningless anyway, because they aren't set in stone. A fire pokemon's disadvantage over a water pokemon is pretty trivial when it comes down to it. It's not like Persona where a fire attack on an enemy weak to fire literally cripples them. It's not like SMT where the same grants you an extra turn. It's not like FFX where you do so much damage (or so little if you use the wrong element) that it seriously affects the tides of battle. All 3 of those games include monster-raising and fighting of some sort, and all 3 do it significantly better. In all 3, what you do with them and which you use against which enemies *matters*. In Pokemon, it just simply does not.
TL;DR Pokemon games are boring, bland experiences with horrible plots and gameplay that just doesn't have any challenge. CMV.
_____
> *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!* | There's an important distinction to be made here: is Pokemon a game you like versus do you think it is a good game. Given the kinds of assumptions you're making, it seems like you're actually arguing that you don't like Pokemon, which is a very different point of view (it's, for starters, a subjective one in the technical sense, versus the objective opinion of 'this is a good game')
Some of the assumptions you've made are:
- That games require incentives for exploring content to be good (this would exclude, say, Fallout, and the Sims, and Minecraft from being genuinely good games)
- That plot complexity is tied to game quality (this would exclude games like Journey and Kairo)
- The the use of strategy is tied to game quality (this would exclude most shooters from being good games)
Can you justify any of those as legitimately tied to game quality? | 31 | 26 |
ELI5: How did the Western US and the North Eastern US both become majority liberal despite being on opposite sides of the country? | I was reading a New York Times article on Gay marriage and realized that the two "sections" of the country that are farthest away from each other seem to be the most similar politically. Is it something to do with their proximity to the water and therefore trading and immigrants? Just a thought. | Big coastal cities have more commerce and a stronger economy. More commerce means a higher population, and strong economies mean better education systems. Higher educated, more affluent people tend to lean more liberal statistically. They also tend to be less religious, and many American conservatives are deeply religious. Even in large cities in conservative states, they tend to be more liberal leaning than in rural towns. For example, a mostly religious and conservative city like Salt Lake City is considerably more liberal in overall attitudes than in small towns around the U.S.
Edited: for clarity, redundancy. | 37 | 32 |
So I have a cockroach problem, but my mum doesn't want to buy bug spray, because she believes that the roaches that survive will adapt and produce offspring that are completely immune to the spray. Is this true? | Edit 1: I didn't expect this post to get so big, but I want to thank you for all your replies. I'll try to reply to as many of your solutions as possible. I actually want to lock this discussion, so that more people don't reply. I already got the answer - the roaches don't get immunity to the spray, because they don't propagate as fast as bacteria and don't produce genetically identical offspring. I've also now learned that I should use boric acid powder instead of bug spray, because it clings to the body of the roaches, then they carry it to the nests, where the babies also eat it and die. I want to close the discussion, but I only see the option to hide the post. I don't want to do that because it'd be nice for people with the same questions as me to be able to find this thread. Does anyone know how to do that?
Edit 2: I got the bug spray and haven't been using it for a few hours now. I found 4 of their nests by following them and heavily sprayed the locations. They all came rushing out, then just flipped on their backside, while having some type of seizure. From what I observed, they take a long time to die from this. Something like 30 minutes. My mum says they simply passed out and will regain consciousness in a few minutes. Can they actually survive? | She has a solid, basic understanding of evolutionary biology. That is, it may be the case that some of the survivors are more resistant to the spray, and the next generation from them will also have the same higher resistance. However, there is no reason to suspect the offspring will be MORE resistant, except by a very small, random chance of genetic mutation.
​
When you are dealing with millions of bacteria that reproduce at rates of up to every 20 minutes, these mutations can become statistically significant and you end up with highly-resistant strains. This takes thousands of generations of organisms with enormous numbers. It will not happen with roaches in your house.
​
If an individual roach builds up a tolerance over many small doses, that may be a tough roach, but its increased tolerance will not pass on to its progeny.
​
Spray 'em. | 697 | 411 |
What shape is the universe? Also what's outside of the universe? | Measurements indicate that the Universe has overall flat curvature. Why this should be the case is contested, but that's what the data suggests. This also means the Universe is probably infinite in all directions, though not the *Observable* Universe. It's hard to grasp what curvature means in a 3D space but it's mathematically well-defined and has to do with whether or not parallel paths remain parallel - in curved spaces, they will not, either converging or diverging.
Outside the Universe is a question which we cannot currently answer, and may possibly not be able to answer, since we are limited in our scope of what we can observe. In fact, the question may not even make sense, philosophically-speaking, since outside implies space and space is a property of the Universe. | 39 | 23 |
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ELI5: Do your grades in highschool really affect you in the real world? | They affect your ability to get into good colleges. Going to a good college can really help your future and make your life easier. More to the point, the skills you learn while earning good grades help make you better qualified for many jobs. | 12 | 16 |
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ELI5: Why do humans tend to open their mouth when they are surprised? | Human gestures are dominated by two functions: Reflex and social cues.
The gasp is likely a reflex inherited from distant ancestors who out competed others by quickly breathing air as an automatic response to surprise. They were perhaps better able to survive a flood, or were better prepared to outrun a threat. Who knows?
For whatever reason, we are descended from gaspers who gasped when surprised.
But we are also born into a community of gaspers. We often want to tell others that our feeling is authentic surprise - which really can't happen if all we do is say, "I am surprised." Performing elements of our shared gasp reflex (dropping the jaw, opening eyes wide, inhaling, etc) is a way of telling others how you feel be cause both sender and receiver inherently understands what a gasp is. | 36 | 43 |
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[Portal] What would happen if you sent a portal through a portal? | Say if the portals in "portal" existed. If you put one of the portals in a box, close the box and throw it through the other portal. What would happen? Imploding sounds like a reasonable thing but I dont know. | Once the distance between two portals becomes of the order of a few nanometers but before they intersect each other, the Casimir force between them becomes significant and causes the portals to collapse. | 42 | 28 |
Why can we ignore the imaginary part of the simple harmonic motion displacement equation? | If you derive the displacement of a mass on a spring from the first principles F = mx''(t) = -kx(t) then you get the equation x(t) = Acos(wt) + iBsin(wt) where A and B are real constants and w is the angular frequency (sqrt(k/m)).
Why can we eliminate the second half of the equation? Is it ever used?
My working for the derivation is as follows, there may be a mistake as google is fruitless:
F = mx''(t) = -kx(t)
x''(t) + kx(t)/m = 0
let x = e^nt
n^2 e^nt + k/m e^nt = 0
n^2 + k/m = 0 as e^nt =/= 0
therefore n = +/- (-k/m)^0.5
x(t) = c1e^iwt + c2e^-iwt (Substituting w for (k/m)^0.5
Applying Euler's identity:
e^iwt = cos(wt) + isin(wt)
x(t) = c1 + c2)cos(wt) + i(c1 - c2)sin(wt)
x(t) = Acos(wt) + iBsin(wt) | Once you get to the general solution you have to get the particular solution by applying the initial conditions. Say you know the position and velocity at t=0. This first means that A has to be equal to the initial displacement x(0). Looking at the derivative you have
X'(t=0) = iBw
So unless you have an "imaginary" initial velocity, which is an unphysical thing, B must be a function of 1/i, or in the case of 0 initial velocity, 0/i = 0.
In short, you'd need an imaginary displacement or velocity as an initial or boundary value for B to end up nonzero (or A to be imaginary). | 39 | 71 |
ELI5: How do birds go forward when flying if their wing movement makes it look like they would only go upwards? | The flapping motion itself is generally used to build or maintain height. However, with the angle and shape of a birds wings, a bird can adjust its tilt slightly while flapping or gliding to build forward momentum. The forward momentum builds as the bird tilts forward, and will accumulate as the bird flies through the air. Birds can adjust the angle of their wings to flap with a combination of upwards and forward momentum. | 14 | 22 |
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Why is my frosted notebook cover transparent when close to an object, but opaque at distances? | I was in class and I realized that as I opened my notebook cover, the text underneath became rapidly out of focus. The cover to the notebook is a frosted plastic. When the cover is closed and the plastic is directly above the text, everything is easy to read. Once the cover is a distance of a few centimeters from the page, nothing below can be made out.
I assume this is based upon some refraction principle, but I could not find a good explanation anywhere. | the cover refracts light at different angles (most likely due to surface roughness). thus, at close distances, rays aren't bent much, but when the distance between the medium and the subject are increased, increased refraction blurs the image. | 10 | 41 |
Why did penicillin replace sulfa drugs that were used prior to its discovery? What was so great about penicillin in comparison to them? | 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 | 29 |
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ELI5: If two identical balls are connected to the same very long rope, and one of the balls are floating in space and the other one is hanging above earth's surface. What would happen? | So my 7-year old asked me this and as much as I would love to be able to give him a proper answer, I couldn't.
Does ball A (in space) float away, taking ball B (above earth's surface) with it? Will the balls stay somewhat fixed or will ball B force ball A down? | All of these outcomes are possible, depending on the exact location and speed of the balls. It is possible to set up the balls above the equator in such a way that they’ll just stay there - the lower ball hovering near the ground and the upper ball circling in orbit around Earth. You can then go up and down the rope to get into orbit and back at a fraction of the cost compared to rockets. This is the basis behind the concept of “Space elevator”. You can look it up and tell your seven-year old they’ve come up with a great idea independently. Technically the only setback is that we don’t yet have material strong enough for the rope, but we are kinda close to it, so it’s not unrealistic to hope that we will have it eventually.
Edit: somewhat expanded. | 30 | 16 |
ELI5 What the Glass-Steagall Act is and what it has to do with speculation | Without too much background knowledge: banks can have two arms - personal banking and investment banking. These were laws that prevented banks from taking money from personal banking and using it for investment banking. As a result, banks have less money to invest and turn less of a profit. The important part is that if the bank were to invest in something that goes bust (mortgages for instance), individuals with personal accounts are protected because their money couldn't have been used in the investment and the bank couldn't have lost that money. As opposed to now where, if a bank loses all its money in poor investments, it can't guarantee the money of its individual banking members | 12 | 57 |
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AskScience AMA Series: I am Avi Loeb and I'm here to explain how I noticed the first tentative sign for Intelligent life beyond earth. AMA! | I am the *Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science* at [Harvard University](https://www.harvard.edu). I received a PhD in Physics from the [Hebrew University of Jerusalem](https://en.huji.ac.il/en) in Israel at age 24, while leading the first international project supported by the [Strategic Defense Initiative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative) (1983-1988). Subsequently I was a long-term member of the [Institute for Advanced
Study](https://www.ias.edu/) at Princeton (1988-1993). Throughout my career, I have written 8 books, including most recently, Extraterrestrial (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), and
[about 800 papers](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/fq=%7B!type%3Daqp%20v%3D%24fq_database%7D&fq_database=database%3A%20\(astronomy%20OR%20physics%20OR%20general\)&p_=0&q=author%3A\(%22Loeb%2C%20A.%22\)&sort=date%20desc%2C%20bibcode%20desc) (with an [h-index of 112](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CvQxOmwAAAAJ&hl=en)) on a wide range of topics, including black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of the Universe. I
had been the [longest serving Chair](https://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/astronomy-chairs) of Harvard's [Department of Astronomy](https://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/) (2011-
2020), Founding Director of Harvard's [Black Hole Initiative](https://bhi.fas.harvard.edu/) (2016-present) and
Director of the [Institute for Theory and Computation](https://itc.cfa.harvard.edu/) (2007-present) within the
[Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/). I also chair the [Board on Physics and
Astronomy of the National Academies](https://www.nationalacademies.org/bpa/about) (2018-present) which oversees all Decadal Surveys in Physics and Astronomy. I am an elected fellow of the [American Academy
of Arts & Sciences](https://www.amacad.org/person/abraham-loeb), the [American Physical Society](https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/), and the [International Academy of Astronautics](https://www.iaaweb.org). In addition, I am a member of the [President's Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Council_of_Advisors_on_Science_and_Technology) (PCAST) at the White House and a member of the Advisory
Board for ["Einstein: Visualize the Impossible"](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nobel-laureate-top-physicists-join-hebrew-universitys-einstein-visualize-the-impossible-project-301073770.html) of the Hebrew University. I also chairs
the Advisory Committee for the [Breakthrough Starshot Initiative](https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/leaders/3) (2016-present) and serve as the Science Theory Director for all [Initiatives](http://www.breakthroughinitiatives.org/) of the [Breakthrough Prize Foundation](https://breakthroughprize.org/). In 2012, [TIME magazine [pdf]](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/TIME.pdf) selected me as one of the 25 most influential
people in space and in 2020 I [was selected](https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/lifestyle/most-inspiring-israelis-we-met-decade-2010-2019) among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the
last decade. Click [here](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/Opinion.html) for my commentaries on innovation and diversity.
I will be on at 11a.m. EST (16 UT), AMA!
Username: /u/Avi-Loeb | After reviewing your introduction, you appear to specialize in theoretical research. Do you have any observational experience with studying comets, particularly Oumuamua, that gives you insight in this topic? If not, is there any reason your theory regarding an extraterrestrial origin for Oumuamua should be preferred over the other speculations provided in this comment section? | 389 | 2,774 |
[Star Trek TNG] Why does the crew experiment on/with the ship's warp core while theyre exploring the galaxy, or even while people are onboard? Is that not seen as risky? | These tests don't come out of nowhere, they've been validated theoretically, in simulations, and in the laboratory. Field testing is the last phase of a long process. Eventually any new configuration must be tested out on a real ship. Of course there is still some risk, but that's the nature of the job. In the immortal words of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, "Risk is our business."
Starfleet has ample resources, but not infinite resources, they can't just keep an entire Galaxy class starship around for no purpose but experimentation. Even if they could, it still wouldn't reflect real operating conditions since real ships see stress.
The only solution, therefore, is to have a ship currently in the field which has the latest model system test out the new configuration. The reason the *Enterprise* sees so many upgrades and tests is precisely because it is a top-of-the-line starship. It's engines are new, as is nearly every other system, based on tests run on earlier ships. The results impacted the design of subsequent Intrepid and Sovereign class starships.
The *Hood*, a veteran Excelsior-class ship, doesn't see these tests because that class has already been run through all these experiments and that ship has been upgraded as much as it can be. Those tests were used to inform the design of the Ambassador and Galaxy classes. | 69 | 93 |
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How does stretching actually make the body more loose and flexible over time? | I recently started kickboxing and I'm extremely stiff. However, my legs are gradually becoming more flexible and i find the process fascinating!
EDIT: Wow thanks for all the interest everyone, learning a lot. It's kinda crazy we still don't have the complete facts about how muscles become flexible through yoga and stretches. | There are 4 things that limit your mobility range (in very laymans terms)
1. Length of muscles (least of an issue)
2. Length of tendons (very hard to change)
3. Bone structure (for some specific stretches)
4. Neuromuscular response (most important issue)
​
1. Length of muscles can be changed through stretching similar to tearing your muscles through weightlifting. But unfortunately you can't approach stretching with that mindset as there will be other things that will impede you from making any gains. "No pain, no gain" - doesn't work with stretching. Pain = injury/slow recovery/loss of mobility/one step forward two steps back. Lengthening of muscles is more of a passive thing that can't be targeted, it just happens when you stretch properly. Stretching through pain can work if youre really young and can recover quickly but in general it is considered a bad, inefficient and outdated practice.
2. Length of tendons is something that is very hard to change and if you didn't stretch through puberty it's very unlikely you'll reach a contortionist level flexibility. With that being said something like splits would still be achievable by most even inflexible people. There are simple physiological tests you can perform to see if your body would actually be capable.
3. Bone structure. Some stretches like a "perfect" ballet turnout require certain bone structure and again can only be achieved through stretching through puberty.
4. Neuromuscular response. Now this is the main culprit of stiffness. Your brain likes to keep your body safe and will contract and tense up muscles if it deems them extended past the safe point. This part of brain is autonomous and cannot be overriden it can only be "trained" by tricking your brain into thinking that the movement range you're trying to achieve is safe. Don't push too hard, relax, and do it often. Frequency over intensity is the key here. It's 10 times better to stretch 20 times a day for 1 minute than one time for 20 minutes. | 2,104 | 3,338 |
CMV: God could be either benevolent or omnipotent, but not both. | I have yet to see an argument that adequately explains the existence of suffering in the face of a benevolent, omnipotent God.
Provided God were both of these things, it wouldn't have created suffering in the first place. There wouldn't have been a need. To say that a God had to necessarily do something makes it no longer omnipotent.
I often see people say that suffering serves a purpose, such as bringing us closer to God or giving life meaning.
But once again, if the God were both benevolent and omnipotent, suffering wouldn't have had to be created in the first place. An emotion humans perceive as positive could just as easily take its place. If you claim otherwise, then that God is either no longer omnipotent or no longer benevolent.
No longer omnipotent because it can't get rid of a negative emotion, no longer benevolent because it can and chooses not to.
Edit 1: my opinion hasn't been changed but I've learned new concepts and been introduced to some novel ones, so the thread was still a success!!!
I decided to stop answer as most responses are currently bringing up free will, but the concept of that is for another thread entirely.
I respect what others are saying, but i feel like ones conclusions about free will and the benevolence of creation is completely experience based. As such, I don't see a point in arguing over it as you can't change someone's life experience.
I'm still reading the responses, and will answer any that I feel I didn't address elsewhere in the thread.
Thank you all for your responses!
Edit 2: upon answering (I hope) every comment so far, it seems free will is more closely tied to benevolence than I'd originally realized. So I'll make a separate thread about that once I make my thoughts up on it (free will is one of those things that scare me, lol, so give me time pls). | What if earth is just a training ground, as many religions believe? You live, you learn, you die. Then you start over (ie Buddhism, etc).
Suffering - although might seem very significant here and now - is ultimately just a tool to help is grow and learn. Might suck that your kid died, but in the grand scheme that kid's soul is just starting over in a new body and regenerating and you probably went through some sort of growth in the process.
Nothing really matters except for our continued growth and experience, guided by an omnipotent god.
Think of it like high school (earth). 14 year olds might think events that take place there are earth shattering and pivotal, while adults looking in from the outside (ie "god") know that all the drama really means nothing at all. | 25 | 98 |
If light has no mass, why does it travel slower in water and other substances? | A good rule of thumb is that light travels as a wave but interacts with matter as a particle. This means that any interaction with matter - absorption and emission- must occur in discrete quanta of energy. Things get very messy if you try to use the particle picture to explain how light travels.
Since your question is about how light *travels* through a material, it's most appropriate (and perhaps least confusing) to use the wave model of light. Basically, the electrical and magnetic properties of the material given by the permittivity and permeability of the material (epsilon and mu) determine how fast the EM wave travels through the material. Epsilon and mu are determined by things like chemical composition, the bulk material structure, how tightly the electrons are bound to the atoms in the material, etc. The speed of any EM wave is determined completely by the permittivity and permeability, which varies from material to material. | 24 | 23 |
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ELI5: What are these lines on satellite imagery of earth's oceans? | https://imgur.com/gallery/YGwQSk8
Someone explained to me that these may be areas where higher resolution sonar imaging is available as opposed to the surrounding areas of which would be low resolution.
Could someone explain in more detail/lay man's terms?
Also, if the above explanation is along the right lines (pun unintended) are such images readily available to the public? | What you see on Google Maps is not always satellite images. If you zoom in on land, you mainly the images taken by aircraft, and only if you zoom out far enough do you get satellite images -- for land and freshwater lakes.
For the seas and oceans, it's not images at all, but a 3D rendering showing how deep the sea is.
To do so, they use depth measurements taken with echo sounding: a ship sends a sound wave down and measures how long it takes to hear the echo coming back from the ground.
Google seems to mainly use data from surveys mapping out the depth along a rather loosely spaced grid of points of the ocean, as such data has been used for making nautical maps since long.
Along the lines you see, they have finer data: obviously a ship was going slowly along the line and mapping the depth directly below and a bit to the sides with much higher precision than usual. | 478 | 266 |
Why don't humans have a mating season? | Most mammals have a mating season. Why not humans (not that i'm complaining) ;) ? Was there any such thing at any point in human history. | Many mammals breed opportunistically. The basic rule seems to be, if a breeding g season results in the survival of more offspring, the there will be a breeding season. If not, then not.
Humans, other apes, rodents, domestic dogs and cats and many others don't have a season.
The animals that do tend to "plan" their births around the arrival of plentiful food and/or good weather. | 35 | 39 |
ELI5: What’s is the difference between a sales tax and VAT (value added tax) | ELI5: A politician in the UK has just said that he wants to remove the VAT system and replace with a new sales tax. What is the difference between the two and what would be the benefit of scrapping VAT for a sales tax? | VAT is paid at each stage of production by the people "adding value" to the product. So you start with a raw material, you make it into something (say a flat sheet of metal), you charge VAT on your part of the job. The next company who takes \*that\* and turns it into, say, a metal pole does the same for the work \*they\* did to it.
At each stage, you pay VAT on the product you bought, and charge VAT on the product you sold so the only tax you're actually paying is on what \*value\* you added to the product.
A sales tax is, quite literally, just an end-tax on the final product.
This means that sales taxes are paid by the consumer, and the "other" tax along the way is not collected but is "paid" because of the higher prices charged by each person along the way because they can, and limited only by what the consumer spends.
VAT is difficult and expensive to administer and audit, sales tax is easier. VAT taxes everyone involved with a product along the chain. Sales tax charges the final customer (which affects demand, no doubt, but that's about it). VAT is charged on imported goods, etc. too so you can't just make things cheaply in Europe and out-compete local businesses while only paying tax once in the end country, sales tax isn't (though there may be other import duties).
Basically, sales tax is a lazy tax that misses the big picture of employment in the country you're in, local industry, complete taxation of every stage in the process, etc. VAT is more complex but helps to even the tax burden among all producers along the chain and encourages you to not just produce things cheaply abroad and claim that you added a ton of value to a particular good for performing a simple action (if you get given cheap materials, then do little to them, but charge a fortune to the next guy up the chain for your end result, you have a \*ton\* of VAT collected, almost none given out, and the difference has to go back to the taxman - basically the more you pretend what value you added, the more VAT you have to pay).
Gove is an idiot trying to distract from political finger-pointing in his direction by gaining the support of "big business" who don't want to have to pay or administer VAT, and gain support from "the little man" who just sees a "20%" figure on everything he buys. Gove knows perfectly well that those people don't care/realise that a sales tax of even a lesser percentage means that the country ends up taking less tax and encourages losing jobs, shipping manufacturing abroad, and cutting corners, in an unregulated environment which favours profiteering and inflating the prices of products.
It's literally a distraction technique because the news for the last two days has been about him doing cocaine. | 507 | 584 |
Was Europe the only Old World civilization to separate philosophy from religion? If so, why is that so? | I am ignorant in philosophy so the following surely contains a lot of misconceptions. Pls pardon and educate me. If I'm being Eurocentric, that's a subconscious bias, I don't mean here to say that Europe is superior and the sorts.
In my layman knowledge, both the philosophies of India and China are intertwined with religion - Buddhism and Confucionism doesn't even have gods, they're just the teachings of the Buddha and Confucius. Afaik the Near East also didn't have a tradition of philosophy until Islam, and Medieval philosophy there is dominated by Islam. Don't know about Persia but I assume philosophy there would also be dominated by Zoroastrian religious teachings.
Even in Europe the Middle Ages was dominated by Christian philosophy, it looks. Why is it that the Ancient Greeks and then EM Europeans (apparently picking up from where the Greeks left) separated their philosophy from religion? | Actually within the classical Islamic period there was a distinction between rational theology “Kalam” and philosophy or “falsafa”. In the latter philosophy was viewed as a discipline unto itself, where philosophers put reason and philosophy independently and on some level above revelation.
Granted however they still believed in God and acknowledged the Islamic scriptures, but they never used philosophy to understand or develop their theology or religion. Rather they put philosophy as independent to revelation though they may be inspired by revelation. What this meant was that individuals like Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) would have controversial and non-orthodox views. Ibn Rush for example was understood to have proposed a double truth theory in Europe where he seemed to separate philosophy from religion with his double truth theory (it was mistakenly assumed as such) where religion was for the masses and philosophy was for the intellectual
Elites. Ibn Rushd did inspire the western tradition to separate the two as well, in fact he might have even planted the early seeds. The proof of this is the philosophical school in Europe that existed in the late medieval time period known as the Latin Averroists. | 66 | 89 |
ELI5: In computer colors why is it RGB, and not ROB or RPB? What significance does green have that orange and purple do not? | The more that I read my own question the more I can see how RPB is out because there is no yellow. But why not ROB? Orange has yellow in it. | The three types of color receptor cones in the human eye are most sensitive to red, geen and blue spectum wave lengths respectively. If we had a different visible color spectum it would likely be different. | 23 | 29 |
eli5: Why does a glass of water left out overnight have bubbles in it the next morning? | Is it to do with the glass? Does the H2O split (and if so, what gas is in the bubbles)? What is the cause? | Water from the tap has some amount of gasses dissolved in it, mostly oxygen and nitrogen picked up from the air at some point between the water treatment plant and your house. Gasses have an easier time staying dissolved in cold liquids than in warm liquids, so when the water warms from the cold temperature out of the tap up to room temp, some of the gas can't stay dissolved anymore and forms those little bubbles of gas instead | 87 | 91 |
CMV: Affirmative action would work best if directed at those in low socioeconomic standing, as opposed to those of minority race status. | I know that affirmative action has come and gone here, but I'm not arguing about giving a leg up to those who have not experienced privilege. Rather, I would like to suggest that basing it on socioeconomic status instead of just race would do more to help.
1) If minorities are statistically prevalent in low socioeconomic standing, then providing affirmative action to all people of low socioeconomic standing would still proportionately benefit minorities.
1b) A more minor point, but doing so would eliminate sentiments of people who are white but poor that they are being reverse discriminated against. I'm not arguing that they are, just that this is a perception that cripples the purpose of the idea because it hastens support.
2) There are poor whites who are disadvantaged where a minority in higher socioeconomic standing may fill a quota and be able to qualify for (insert thing here) ahead of them.
3) By making affirmative action benefit all people impoverished, we actually treat everybody with the same dignity, but because of point 1, we avoid allowing traditionally privileged institutions from monopolizing their societal influence for future generations.
Notes:
a) I understand that there is definitely a distinction between privilege and wealth, and I am in no means trying to d an apologist for those who believe in reverse discrimination. I merely hope to highlight that within all of that bullshit may be a grain of truth.
b) I feel that this is the best way to address socioeconomic inequality because:
- educational attainment levels have traditionally correlated with socioeconomic success
- any system that highlights diversity as if it itself is a disadvantage seems to me to be inherently racist. It is not the minority status that disadvantages minorities, but the refusal of the privileged to grant equal status. By granting privilege to people based purely on economic need, it grants them privilege while both allowing its attainment to not be clouted with the ideas of determinism while also preventing those of privilege from refusing to acknowledge resultant achievements due to any perception of reverse discrimination (because right or wrong, the reality is that this perception exists).
I'm sure I'm lacking in some perspective here. I am white and grew up lower middle class, though we tasted poverty on more than one occasion.
So change my view! | Affirmative action is often considered to be important at a societal level and not at an individual level. At an individual level, nobody has the right to go to Yale. There's no specific reason to choose one person over another other than the benefits they bring to Yale. There is a societal issue, however: we want black children to see black doctors/engineers/astronauts, in order that they may see those as possibilities for themselves. Race is visible in a way that birth socioeconomic status isn't, and so affirmative action doesn't specifically give poor people role models whereas it does give minorities role models.
Besides, it's much easier to fake socioeconomic status than to fake race. | 26 | 57 |
ELI5: Why is it that it takes few seconds for our body to decide that it's had enough water not to be thirsty, but several minutes to recognize that no more food is needed cuz it's not hungry? | Sensors in your mouth, back of the throat and oesophagus can detect how much water has been consumed and report this information to the brain. Fairly shortly after drinking water, the bode will start to behave as if that water is already in the bloodstream, even if it is still somewhere in the digestive tract.
Food is a completely different story. The brain relies on stretch receptors in the stomach, hormones produced by the process of digestion, and sometimes chemicals generated by the bacteria living in the intestines. This is a much more complicated process that takes longer, which leads to a lag between actually being full, and the feeling of fullness. | 8,969 | 22,968 |
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ELI5: Why does holding hands feel weird when you and your partner's fingers are in the "wrong" order? | Edit: Thanks for sharing personal experiences! It aids deeper thinking. However, am I to gather that the answer is "no one knows for sure"? Was looking for biological theories like the way the brain is programmed. | Hand clasping preference has been studied by many people. It seems to have some basis in genetics, but not entirely. It's not linked to handedness. In most studies, preference was about 50/50 as to which way people preferred to link hands. | 696 | 2,305 |
(Star Trek) Why are human augments condemned as second class citizens in the Federation? | I know everyone feared another Eugenics War and another Khan Singh. That everyone is so obsessed with fairness that even the Federation has condemned augments to live as second class citizens, but it still makes no sense. By the 24th century, we've seen advances made in medical technology that eliminates the augment's tenancy for superior ambition. We've seen from people like Julian Bashir who has not only lived normal lives, but also contributed greatly to medical science. Of course people still fear that for every Julian Bashir there is 100 Khan Singhs, but the idea that "superior ability breeds superiror ambition is simply not true. If that is the case, then why does Starfleet permit Vulcans to join? They are physically on par with augmented humans, but suffer no discrimination. It would seem that by now, the Federation would have ended its campaign of hate against genetically engineered humans | Note that it's not just genetic augmentation. Cyborgs, beyond basic prosthetics to correct disabilities, are also discriminated against, and AIs, androids, and sentient holograms are rarely treated as citizens at all. Not only that, but even as enlightened and progressive a Federation citizen as Jean-Luc Picard was actually *surprised* when a member of another species pointed out to him that treating a sentient android as property is functionally equivalent to slavery.
Occam's Razor suggests that it's likely all these strange cultural blind spots have the same ultimate cause. Although the details of this dark period in Earth's history have been largely lost to the mists of time, most historians conjecture that for whatever reason, the Eugenics Wars were so profoundly culturally traumatic for humanity as to have created an extreme taboo around most issues even tangentially related to transhumanism. | 52 | 79 |
Why is it important to study and learn philosophy? | Why should one spend their time, energy and money, going to university and such, on academic philosophy? Apart from the fact that it is deeply interesting....why we find it interesting is also a good question..
I'm not a philosopher or a philosophy student btw. But if I did become one, I feel like I should be able to give people an explanation of why I chose the path, apart from the fact that it was fun and it interested me. I feel like there should be some more important reason. Like finding out what is true and real or something.something of philosophical significance. Something that can convince people that it isn't just about fun or that it isn't useless or insignificant,, because I don't feel it is.something that can convince others to feel the same way.
EDIT: Just want to say thanks for the great replies, people. For the record, I find myself agreeing with those along the lines of verbim's answer to the question. | Philosophy is inescapable. Whether you accept whatever dominant views you were raised with, or actively question them and pick new ones, there are many non-trivial assumptions about yourself, the world, and views themselves that you must make.
If you don't study philosophy, you're still *doing* philosophy. You're just doing it *poorly*. | 16 | 15 |
[LOTR] Why don’t royalty ever wear helmets during battles? Aragorn, Boromir, Elrond, Legolas, etc. never use them. Even Theoden ditches his quickly. Is it a cultural thing? | It seems like it would keep them all a lot safer. | Many of the people that you named are leaders who, in addition to actually fighting, are also important for maintaining the morale of their men. They can do a better job of that if they can be clearly identified, which is easier without a helmet. As for Legolas, a helmet might interfere with his archery. | 44 | 55 |
How can I become a programmer | Hello everyone!
At 27 years of age (a bit late), I think I’ve found something that really interests me from a career standpoint and it’s, no surprise, programming.
I’ve got the full Python, Wordpress, and JavaScript courses on Udemy, and want to dive headfirst into them. I’m hoping that by the end of the year I’ll have passed them. They not only include theory and examples, but projects that I can do that puts these skills to the test.
My question is, is it realistic to assume that I’ll have viable work options for me by having taken these courses and made my own examples through the course? Will I be screwed without a college degree?
Edit: can’t thank you all enough! | You don’t need a college diploma but you’ll definitely need a lot more than a couple of Udemy courses to learn enough to get a job. The best thing you can do is make stuff, break stuff, and read stuff online.
Learning React will probably get you a lot further than WordPress when looking for an entry level job, but that’s really up to what interests you more. | 37 | 39 |
When a person is born deaf, what language do they think in? | I know they eventually learn how to read and understand other human beings, but what happens until then/what would happen if they simply never did? | To elaborate even further on the first two responses. People think in pictures, mental images. We don't begin to assign words to those images until we learn language. People also have basic needs such as food and water. In that case we are not thinking in images but rather based on instinct. We then assign words to those needs. | 12 | 23 |
[Star Trek] If TOS Romulans and TNG Klingons are supposed to follow a strict code of honor, why do they both use cloaking devices? | Isn't stealth one of the least honorable ways possible to fight? | Simple answer, cultural relativism. What we consider to be honor isn't necessarily what the Klingons or Romulans consider to be honor.
For instance, the Romulans value the ability to be a manipulative and devious politician as the height of political prowess. They celebrate people who arrange for things to work out to their advantage. With that kind of "cloak" and dagger behavior valued in their politics, it makes sense that they would have no problems with ships that you can't detect until they are on top of you.
For Klingons, it is probably more a matter of practicality. Their chief enemy is generally the Romulans. They stole their cloaking tech from them. It was probably a case of: If our enemy is going to use this, then there is no honor in being outmatched. | 24 | 18 |
[40k] Is hitting someone while they aren't looking brutally cunning or cunningly brutal? | Inquisitorial report: 25454.23
Ordo Xenos
Orkoids behavior pattern
No answer have been found to the common used phrase "Brutally cunning" and "cunning brutal". Even two orkoids from the same group seem to have disagreement on such a issue until a larger orkoid is presented. The larger orkoid makes a statement regarding the issue and the two smaller stops fighting.
Conclusion: It's worthless, the orkoids will disagree on anything just to have an excuse to fight each other, no information of value can be gained. The phrases seems to have a primitive religious meaning but even it can't be put in any notion of order.
The test subjects will be now terminated.
==========][==========
*He who allows the alien to live shares in the crime of its existence.* | 44 | 17 |
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ELI5: When my blood donation reacted during a test What is it that's reacting and what does this mean? Also why can't my blood donation be used? | So I received a letter from my local blood bank and after a few rejected donations I was told that my blood donations continue to give a "reactive result" They perform these tests on every donation and I won't be eligible to donate any more.
Apparently these reactions are quite common and nothing to be worried about.
What exactly do they test for? (apart from the obvious diseases and infections) and what is it that gives this reactive result?
| They test blood for all diseases that could be transmitted through a blood transfusion.
Some people have antibodies that cross react (don't have the disease, just have an antibody that binds to the site that causes the test to be reactive)
The first tests are incredibly sensitive, but not very specific, so when they get a reactive, they do a confirmatory test, which is very specific, but very expensive, which is why they don't do them on the whole lot. Confirmatory tests also take a long time to complete.
If the confirmatory test is negative, then you don't have the disease, but the FDA says that the blood still cannot be used. | 16 | 54 |
CMV: I am a meat eater. | I understand there are strong arguments to be made for going vegetarian, or even vegan. I'd love to have them expressed to me through this format. As of now I'm a rather ignorant consumer of meat. Most of my meat is store bought, and I am unsure of where it comes from. I understand it's popular opinion to take issue with the ethical implications of things like factory farming, but again, I have little to no exposure to such arguments or reasonings.
My reasoning: It's been something I've consumed far as long as I can remember. I am also unaware of the adverse effects it has, in terms of suffering and the environment.
If you are able of convincing me to become vegetarian, I will award you a delta. | 1. First of all, ALL necessary nutrients needed to be healthy and survive can be found somewhere in plant form, some in the form of supplements.
2. Meat is not only unnecessary for healthy living, but consumption can lead to higher risk of disease. There is a lot of evidence that red meat leads to a higher risk of bowel cancer for example. Good Netflix documentary to watch is “what the health”, full of the health side effects from meat consumption.
3. Animals are a lot more intelligent than most people think. Sciencey people have found that pigs and cows have similar intelligence levels as dogs. Factory farms lock these animals up their entire lives, no room to move, forcibly impregnate them and rip their offspring away from them as soon as they are born. They are hit and shocked with electricity to move them around . Their entire life, from birth to death is misery. And when thy are killed, it’s not always instant, sometimes they are left to bleed out to death, it’s not pretty. Watch some videos on YouTube of factory farms in action. And if you haven’t seen Okja on Netflix give that a watch.
4. There are around 70 billion animals currently imprisoned in factory farms today, that’s 10 animals for every human. The methane and CO2 produced by these animals and the processes use to farm them, contribute more than all the cars, airplanes and trucks we use. That has a huge impact on global warming which is another thing altogether. (If you want to help unfuck the world a little extra visit beanunfucker.com)
5. Sure meat tastes great, but is it really worth the suffering? Imagine if animals could talk, some pig would get up on stage one day and give a speech.. “I have a dream..” but they are voiceless and defenceless so activists have speak for them, but activists have a bad image (created by the meat industry’s propaganda) so people rarely listen. Show some compassion and make this change. Other people will take you as an example and maybe you can change other peoples minds, get them to convert too.
What ever you decide to do, have a nice life. | 63 | 127 |
ELI5: Why does microscopic views of salt and sugar reveal near perfect geometrical shapes? | [https://i.imgur.com/MvJKiCB.png](https://i.imgur.com/MvJKiCB.png)
Inspired by this post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/amjpbb/grains\_of\_salt\_under\_electron\_microscope/](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/amjpbb/grains_of_salt_under_electron_microscope/)
This is really intriguing. I know they are man-made so does this have to do with the process of creation or something else? Thanks for your time!
​ | The arrangement of the atoms that make up crystalline structures determine the shape of the mineral.
Think of a mineral like salt you see in a microscope as made up of layers. Layers of atoms bonded in a specific arrangement form a lattice work in the shape of their various atomic bonds, stacking on top of one another to build up bigger to the point they form a visual structure.
The tighter the layers and interlayer bond, the tougher the mineral.
Diamond Carbon atoms are compressed super tight to one another and all bonded to each other like a criss cross interlocking weave.
Graphite, like mechanical pencil lead, has weak interlayer bonds, while each flat layer is connected well, the connection between the layers are weak, so it flakes easy, leaving the writing on the page.
Edit: to add.
Salt and sugar are both cube like atomic structures, this is why they both appear near geometrical and similar.
But the closer you get you start to see the difference in appearance between the two, sugar more column shaped. Salt more flat | 34 | 85 |
ELI5: What happens to your stuff when you die if you don't have a will? | To cover all the bases:
1. If you have a spouse? If you have no spouse? (What is the order? If your parents are alive, do they trump your siblings? What if you only have one distant cousin, etc. is an effort made to find them? By whom?)
2. If you have a mortgage? If you have other debts?
3. If you have wholly-owned property? Partially-owned (i.e. there are other co-owners) property?
4. What happens to your bank accounts?
5. Who is in charge of doling everything out if you haven't declared anyone? The government?
6. Are there taxes involved? | >If you have a spouse? If you have no spouse? (What is the order? If your parents are alive, do they trump your siblings? What if you only have one distant cousin, etc. is an effort made to find them? By whom?)
It depends on jurisdiction. Since 16 states have adopted the Uniform Probate Code, let's look at that.
Under the UPC:
1. If no parent or descendant (child or grandchild) of the dead guy survives, the spouse gets the whole thing.
2. If the only surviving relatives are children of the dead guy and the spouse, the spouse gets the whole thing *if the spouse has no kids who aren't from the dead guy*
3. If a parent of the dead guy is alive (and no kids), the spouse gets the first $200,000, and 75% of whatever's left over.
4. If the dead guy has no parents or kids alive, but the spouse *does* have kids alive not from the dead guy, the spouse gets the first $150,000 an 50% of the remainder
5. If the dead guy has surviving kids who are not from the spouse, the spouse gets $100,000 and 50% of the remainder.
For the part the spouse doesn't get (or the entire thing if there is no spouse), it goes:
1. To the kids of the dead guy.
2. If there are no kids, equally to his parents (if they're both alive), or all to the surviving one
3. If no surviving parents or kids, then to brothers or sisters (including half-brothers and sisters) in equal share
4. If no parents, kids, or brothers or sisters: half to the paternal grandparents, half to the maternal grandparents. If no grandparents on one side, it goes fully to the other. If no grandparents either, then to the grandparent's descendants.
>If you have a mortgage? If you have other debts?
Debts are always paid out of the estate before it goes to the heirs, even if you have a will.
>If you have wholly-owned property? Partially-owned (i.e. there are other co-owners) property?
That depends on how the property is owned (joint tenancy versus tenancy in common versus tenancy by the entirety). Here's the short version:
1. Tenancy in common: if you die, your share becomes part of your estate.
2. Joint Tenancy: If you die, your share goes to the other owners (note that joint tenancy doesn't happen often). This is called the right of survivorship
3. Tenancy by the entirety. It's only for marriages. There's a right of survivorship, it goes to the spouse.
>What happens to your bank accounts?
They become part of the estate.
>Who is in charge of doling everything out if you haven't declared anyone? The government?
The state will appoint an administrator (called in some jurisdictions, including Colorado, a Personal Representative) whose job it is to sort this stuff out. It's a gigantic mess, and plenty of probate lawyers make their entire living working on these kinds of cases.
>Are there taxes involved?
It depends on the size of the estate. But, AFAIK there are no more taxes than if you had a will.
And if you have literally no one who can inherit it, it may go to the state. | 39 | 40 |
ELI5: why do drivers who hit/kill cyclists with their vehicles seem to get just a slap on the wrist mostly? | Maybe this question could be applied to any driver who hits any vehicle/bicycle/pedestrian and kills someone. Barring bad weather and including things like drunk driving and speeding, I've seen a lot of articles on /r/bicycling over the years where the drivers don't seem to get in too much trouble. | The US criminal justice system requires one of two things; intent or actions that were reckless to the point they willfully disregarded human life. A standard car accident where you didn't see the bicyclist, and weren't driving unreasonably(speeding, weaving, on your phone etc) is not a crime. Now you would be civily liable for damages you caused the cyclist(medical bills, lost wages etc), but that's another matter. | 10 | 17 |
Does light leave a trace or a signature on objects? | For example can you tell how much light was in a room if it is completely dark with some kind of device to measure the energy left by the light on the solid walls? How long will the signature remain? | Light excites the outer electrons of atoms to higher energy states. Additionally it transfers energy in the form of heat. So you would probably be able to pick up different thermal signatures in a room that had light shining in it versus one that didn't. In both cases the amount of time that the "signature" remained would depend on the heat conductance and material properties of the molecules. | 51 | 161 |
Dealing with a student's religious objections to course materials- English instructors' advice especially appreciated | I could use some advice from other instructors. A student approached me after our English class today and said that he can't read our assigned text, as it offends his religious beliefs and makes him uncomfortable. I appreciate his discomfort, as the book is critical of Christianity, in addition to depicting sex acts, though I wouldn't describe it as inflammatory or aggressively anti-Christian. Still, I can see his point.
I could exempt him from the reading and all related assignments and assign him an alternative text. But he would not benefit from any class discussions about his chosen text, and our class discussions about the offending book would be sure to upset him.
And moreover, what is his college career going to look like if he sets this precedent for himself? English class exposes students to a range of provocative materials, and I had always considered this to be a net positive. Surely students who wish to shield themselves from such views often go to Bible college. In the wide world of secular academia, religious discomfort is inevitable.
Still, I place myself in his shoes and imagine reading something I find deeply troubling and morally outrageous. And I feel pretty good that he felt he could say something to me about it. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this. | The ability to meaningfully engage with work that doesn't agree with one's core beliefs (and is perhaps critical of those beliefs) is one of the greatest lessons one can learn and is something higher education should strive to encourage in students.
Tell this to the student and strongly suggest that he do the work.
Alternately, shield him from views that do not accord with his own and help us down the path towards a planet full of blinkered ideological subgroups that are absolutely incapable of meaningfully interacting with one another. | 106 | 44 |
When a natural disaster happens, how do insurance companies not go bankrupt? | I'm guessing that a lot of the people in Houston right now are insured, and those insurance companies are going to have to shell out a ton of cash- how do insurance companies have enough money to pay for all these damages? Do insurance companies expand and diversify locations to minimize the probability one disaster wipes them all out? | Not very knowledgeable here, but here's a brief explanation on two main ways:
1. Large enough insurance companies have policy holders across the country, even if one area is hit hard the rest may never get hit at all. It's a numbers game, do we have enough low-risk policy holders to compensate us for the high risk ones?
2. Insurance company's take out insurance against things like this, just in case.
Insurance is just a fancy term for 'financial contract for if shit hits the fan'. This is where we get things like the Futures/Forwards market from, people trying to hedge their risk by selling to people willing to gamble. | 29 | 40 |
ELI5 the appeal to Atheism | Imagine that you have substitute teacher in school. A little before lunch time, you get a math worksheet. 19 of the questions are very easy, simple adding and subtraction questions that you can easily do. The last question, however, doesn't look like anything you've done before:
Let f be the function given by f(x)= e^(-2x^2) (read as e raised to the negative 2 x squared)
Find the first four nonzero terms and the general term of the power series for f(x) about x=0.
The substitute has no idea why that question would be on there, she just says everyone needs to complete the sheet. A lot of your classmates are spending a ton of time trying to figure out the answer. They start looking in their *1,2,3 Math Made Easy* workbooks, they start taking big guesses, and smaller groups start forming, confident that they have the right answer. Soon, it's 12:00pm, kids are shouting at each other over something they really don't know anything about, a bunch of groups claim they are correct, and all you really want to do is write down that you don't know, and go to lunch. | 205 | 34 |
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What did Deleuze mean when he said "we no longer want to talk about schizoanalysis, because that would amount to protecting a particular type of escape, schizophrenic escape" | > Consistent with his commitment to ongoing transformation and to resistance to mechanisms of capture, the year after Anti-Oedipus was written Deleuze commented that ‘we no longer want to talk about schizoanalysis, because that would amount to protecting a particular type of escape, schizophrenic escape’. Deleuze’s statement is not a questioning of schizoanalysis per se but an affirmation of the multiplicity present in life, multiplicity that the clinic needs to take account of.
> Standing in stark contrast with the reductionist tendencies inherent to a royal science of evidence-based practice, Deleuze insists on the impossibility of controlling change and of predicting the flow immanent to life. There is no one method that will do the trick, and there is no one ending to the story. The presence of health is, in fact, measured by its gradient of differentiation, which is to say, by its creative and novel way to provide unique responses to the problems inherent to living a life. It is in this sense that, for Deleuze, the experimentation that takes place in the clinic is more like a stutter than a well-polished script..
Was Deleuze trying to force the affirmation of a brand new multiplicity by no longer wanting to talk about schizoanalysis?
Have any modern-day Deleuzean philosophers found a new multiplicity to affirm?
And does he ever identify any particular types of escape that should be protected?
Thanks. I've been watching The Good Place and I am trying to predict where the show is going because their writers are supposedly Deleuzean-inspired. :) | Deleuze and Guattari wrote A Thousand Plateaus, which took up several distinct starting points. The stuff about war machines and the state as an apparatus of capture (released as its own work in English under "Nomadology" or something) is basically a rewriting of this "line of escape" way of thinking. That's also where the "royal science" thing comes in - that's from a discussion in ATP.
There's no "new multiplicity to affirm" because that's contrary to Deleuze's point here - to say that "this is the multiplicity we should affirm" would be to make the very move that Deleuze refused to make here by prioritizing one means of deterritorialization over others, thus creating a sort of makeshift binary hierarchy. That's why he doesn't say that any one way of escape should be "protected." The ATP chapter "How to Make a Body Without Organs" is helpful here as well, because they go in detail about the nature of experimentation vs. suicidal deterritorialization.
The applications of Deleuze's work to feminist philosophy, philosophy of race, anti-colonial philosophy, trans and queer philosophy, etc. are all probably along the lines of what you're talking about, though, and there's tons and tons of that work out there. Just put your favorite keywords next to "deleuze" in google scholar and you'll find plenty.
PS - The writers of The Good Place weren't inspired by Deleuze. Schur read Todd May's book on death and was inspired by it. Todd May happened to have written about Deleuze earlier in his career when he wrote about post-structuralist anarchism, but that's not what his book on death was about and it's not related to the show whatsoever. The Good Place mostly just touches on broad areas of philosophy with some well-known, popular references. Referencing Deleuze wouldn't even be possible; if they tried, they would have to make it a different show. It would have to be like a Twin Peaks fever dream on DMT. | 30 | 41 |
What actual improvements are made year-to-year to improve mileage on cars? | I am learning about Otto and Diesel engines in ChemE Thermodynamics, and we talked about the volumetric ratios in pistons as a main way to increase the efficiency of an engine. However, my professor noted that it hasnt really changed much over time (from 6 or 7 in the mid 1900's or so to 8 or 9 today). I'm wondering there the improvements, even if small come from (I can't imagine its only because cars are getting lighter, and theyre only getting marginally aerodynamic at best IMO.)
Thanks! | * Continuously variable transmissions (CVT) - allows for engine to run more of the time at its most efficient RPMs
* Electric power steering assist (as opposed to hydraulic) which only uses power when needed. Belt-driven hydraulic power steering is always pumping regardless of need - can cause loss of ~1 mpg
* Electronic fuel injection instead of carburetors
* Engine control module to measure engine temperature and combustion gases - adjusts input fuel mix for best efficiency.
* Variable valve timing
* Low-rolling resistance tires | 14 | 33 |
What are the top 5 most important works in political philosophy? | If you had to pick the top 5 works in philosophy on politics, what would you choose? I'm compiling a reading list to educate myself on the topic, and decided to ask for suggestions.
If it isn't to much trouble, please also include why you picked the work you did. :) | If your goal is to educate yourself, you're probably better off starting with a broad overview, like *Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction* by Kymlicka, rather than a grab-bag of a few primary texts. | 33 | 25 |
Applying for job during tenure review process — bad idea? | Posting from my burner because I’m pretty sure my chair is a Reddit lurker.
tldr: I’m about to start tenure review process but am annoyed about being underpaid. Is now a bad time to get a competing offer to leverage a raise?
I’m a TT AP at an R1 in STEM. I am preparing my tenure packet currently and chair/everyone has assured me it should go through no problem.
I like my job and department but I’ve felt for a long time that I’m underpaid. I’ve brought this up every year at my annual review and the chairs have generally been good about giving small raises (above cost of living but not dramatically so). Last year I low key threatened to get a competing offer and the chair gave me a slightly higher raise. But I still feel I’m underpaid because:
1. We recently hired someone in my area and they’re great, but are making 20-25% more than me. Our research output is comparable while my teaching/service is considerably more than theirs given teaching relief etc.
2. We are a soft money school and I am funded literally 99% on external grants while also teaching more than required and supervising/funding the largest number of students in the department. So it’s not like the department even foots the bill for my salary (I’m well below NIH salary cap).
3. I have recently helped negotiate academic salaries for two mentees that are *higher than my current salary*. One of those position was not even tenure track.
So I’m just a bit peeved. I found a job at a comparable university for a comparable position that I am contemplating applying for. As I said, I like my job and don’t want to leave but I also want to be paid competitively. I feel the only way to achieve that is by getting a competing offer.
My question is: is now, while my tenure packet is being reviewed, a really bad time to do that?
Any perspective from people who have been through the retention process would be appreciated. | The year you go up for tenure is typically the best time to be testing out the job market as well, as a fallback option if you fail to secure tenure, and as a bargaining chip if you do get tenure but wish to renegotiate your salary. You're on a 90% soft money position that is massively underpaid, what is the big deal if you do piss off your promotion and tenure committee? | 51 | 33 |
[Game Of Thrones] If Westeros ever reaches modern-day tech/society levels, how will the characters and events of the series be portrayed in films and television? | Centuries later, Westeros looks like modern-day Earth, with skyscrapers and cars and computers.
If the events of *Game Of Thrones* were made into a movie, how will the characters be remembered and portrayed so long after they’ve faded from living memory? | Depends on who writes the histories and what verifiable texts survive. Caligula is portrayed as an absolute maniac but there's a school of thought that its propaganda, that after his assassination he was pretty thoroughly vilified and made into a monster. A lot of the info regarding him was written well after his death (at least a hundred years later).
The fact at the end of GoT Sam tells Tyrion he isn't in the book ASOIAF is a pretty huge omission. His kidnapping by Kat Stark essentially started the ball rolling, he was hand to Joffery, was the mastermind behind the victory at the Blackwater, killed his father/ kingshand, was then Dany's hand and was instrumental in her assassination but no mention of him in a book that's likely going to be a go to source regarding these events. | 46 | 47 |
Why do cancer cells consume so much sugar? | Stumbled across a method of diagnosing cancer in which the patient is given slightly irradiated sugar, and as the cancerous cells consumed more sugar than non cancerous cells, they were "highlighted" so to speak.
Additionally, could there be a way of "spiking" sugar with a toxin that needs to reach a certain concentration in a cell for it to have an effect, so would only affect the cancer cells as they would consume more sugar than non-cancerous cells?
| Cancer by definition is unrestricted cell growth and replication. This activity requires high metabolic activity and therefore consumes higher than normal amounts of glucose. In a PET scan (positron emission tomography) we use this fact to find areas that are highly metabolically active, such as tumors or more specifically, metastases.
Using glucose as a vehicle to target cancer cells isn't really a viable option since the whole body uses glucose whether the tissue is dividing or not. For example, cells in the brain do not divide but consume a huge portion of the body's glucose. Lacing sugar with a toxin would be catastrophic.
We take advantage of the fact that malignant cells grow and divide without restriction by using chemotherapeutic agents that disrupt cell division or DNA replication. An unfortunate side effect of this is that any other areas of the body that have high cell turnover are also effected (bone marrow, lining of the gut, hair follicles etc). Some chemo agents tag specific cancer proteins or receptors as well, making them targets for the immune system.
Cancer is a very misunderstood disease by most people. Some cancers are highly curable because we've discovered a specific target to act against, one notable example is a type of leukemia cured by all-trans retinoic acid (vitamin A). Other cancers are so malignant the only treatments we have a palliative. There may never be a 'cure for cancer' because there are so many types of cancers and so many ways for the cell cycle to lose its regulatory mechanisms and run amok. Hope this answers your question and clears a few things up for you. | 29 | 78 |
CMV: I think coffee tasting notes are completely made up | Let me first say, I don't drink coffee. I've drunk coffee at different points in my life. I just don't now because I find the level of caffeine too high. So, these days I drink tea, lemonade, or just plain water. But I've drunk different coffees and I accept that there are different tastes to the different roasts, and I sort of agree that there's some taste difference from the origin. That is to say, I am completely in agreement that some coffee is more acidic, or more bitter.
But what I object to are "tasting notes" that coffee critics use to describe coffee. A few months ago I watched a YouTube video where a coffee reviewer (who I guess was supposed to be "legit"? He was hired by some clickbaity website like Vox or something) drank some coffee, and he literally gagged on it and said, "Blueberries! It's just... blueberries! Oh my god, get that away from me. It's sickeningly sweet. It's literally drinking fruit juice."
To which I can only say, "You have never drunk fruit juice if you think that is what fruit juice is." Because I have never, ever, ever mistaken coffee for any kind of fruit juice, even for the briefest moment.
It just makes no sense to me that people will drink coffee and say, "Tasting notes of chocolate, peaches, cinnamon, and nutmeg" because I will buy that same coffee and drink it and say, "It is... coffee."
Critics say, "This is a fruit-forward coffee, full mouth feel. Very pleasant and naturally creamy, though there's a muddy aftertaste with notes of burnt caramel" and I'll say, "It is... coffee."
Tasting notes are \*bizarrely\* specific sometimes, like I once met a critic who told me a coffee had tasting notes of, "The first grapes of a winter season, the sort that makes a fine Riesling" and I'm like... that has to be made up. There is literally no possible way that the coffee has that taste in it, nor that anybody could so accurately identify the taste of \*that specific\* grape mixed in with the rest of the flavor of coffee.
That said, my wife routinely reads the tasting notes on the packages of coffee we buy and she agrees that they are correct. She'll say, "Oh yes, I taste the peaches distinctly. Yes, that's actually a very good description." And I don't know if this is just the power of suggestion, but she has a very discriminating sense of taste, so I'm at least open to the possibility that there's some kind or peach flavor isomer in there somewhere.
So... what's the argument that coffee tastes like apricots, pineapple, tumeric, or other things that I think literally (chemically) are not in coffee?
EDIT:
I guess I'm asking at least partially, does any PROOF exist that these "experts" are actually able to identify these flavors? Can chemical flavor trackers of apricots be found in coffee? This should be empirically testable, but as far as I know, no such evidence has ever actually been collected. Similarly, do these experts show inter-rater reliability in a double-blind taste test? That is to say, if you give the same coffee to two testers, do they both say, "Yes, apricots"? Again, this should be empirically testable without a lot of difficulty.
It seems to me like a lot of people are saying, "Well, they said they tasted it. So, it's there!" but I'm saying, no its fictional. They're making it up to make themselves sound smart, or sell a product by making it sound fancy, or something. I do not believe that their ability to taste is actually this super-refined. | Tasting notes in things like coffee, wine, whiskey, etc. are completely dependent on getting past the “base” taste of the drink. Since you aren’t accustomed to drinking coffee, all you taste is “coffee”. After you drink it long enough, you’ll be able to distinguish between light and dark roasts, and type of beans, and eventually will be able to pick up on the subtler flavors. | 37 | 17 |
Official ELI5 Thread: DOMA and Gay Marriage in the United States | The US Supreme Court is currently reviewing the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act which defines the federal view of marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman.
Here is the place where you can discuss the history of the issue in the US (and the rest of the world), explain how this fits into the framework of the Constitution, describe the judicial procedures, etc.
This is a sensitive subject for many, so be sure to remain respectful! | Can someone ELI5 how it could be decided that equal rights to marriage could be decided to be unconstitutional? Especially in terms of the 14th amendment's Equal Protection Clause:
>All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. | 23 | 85 |
ELI5: What's the difference between concrete, cement, and asphalt? | Cement is one of the ingredients in concrete (a mix of cement, water and aggregates like sand and gravel).
Concrete and asphalt are two different materials, with different sets of properties that can suit different uses.
Concrete forms a very rigid material that can support huge loads - great for things like house foundations that cannot be allowed to move (or the house above would crack), and also things like a commercial yard where there may be very heavy objects like industrial racking or cranes.
Asphalt is a mix of bitumen and aggregates. This makes a cheaper and more flexible material. It cannot support the same heavy loads as concrete, but because it has a little more flexibility than concrete, it will move slightly rather than cracking.
This means that for most normal roads, asphalt is ideal - it will easily support normal vehicle loads, and won't crack.
Concrete is kept for places where we need it's structural properties - very heavily trafficked roads and intersections where asphalt will wear away and flex from large vehicles continually passing over, or where heavy loads will be left (such as commercial yards). | 24 | 35 |
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ELI5: Why do pullies make objects seem lighter when they are lifted? | Pulleys are a way of transmitting work (Force x Distance). The pulley systems effectively reduce the amount of force required to pull an object, but inversely proportionally increase the distance you need to pull.
Thus moving a 10kg a distance of 1m with a simple 2:1 pulley system would require pulling 2m of rope with a force of 5kg.
You can then increase this pulley advantage to lift very large loads, but very slowly. | 17 | 21 |
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CMV: Arguing adults should just "find a better job" is not an answer | In arguements about things such as minimum wage, employee rights, and tipping. A lot of people tend to say
"If they want __________, get a better job"
The blank could be replaced with more wages, rights, etc.
I noticed this a lot in a threads about tipping. If this person wanted to be paid better they should have got a better job.
If this person doesnt want me to stiff them out of principle they should find a better job.
You know the discussions.
Now, I don't believe the large majority of people struggling are complacent. Yes, they have people who are financially taken care of that can afford to work lower paying jobs with no problem.
Also people working incredibly dangerous or physically demanding jobs tend to not do it as their dream job. Even if they are getting payed better, it still may bring problems.
But most people working jobs that could lead to serious life problems. Like lack of money, time, etc. are not doing it because they want to but because they have to and have no other choice.
While you can always apply places for better jobs. A lot of places arent hiring. Its incredibly hard to even find a lower paying job that will schedule over 40 hours. Also seeking a new job while at your job in a right to work state can lose you the job you have now. Even getting a second job part time can cost you hours at one job leaving you back at square one.
And constantly switching jobs, even if to higher paying ones looks horrible on resumes. If someone making 8.50, finds a better job 3 months later at 9.30, then 6 months later at 10.50, they may lose their chance at an even higher paying job because they lack loyalty.
Higher education isnt feasible for everyone for upward mobility. Even community college can cost enough time and money to make living impossible.
And some people will say, well just move where the jobs are. Also extremely difficult. To break the lease on my apartment, id need several thousand dollars, plus the cost of moving and several hundred more dollars for new deposits. Also those really struggling may still live at home.
Goverment aid is also hard to get for some. For example. I wasnt allowed to take off work for my food stamp interview and am now barred from applying for a year.
Now all this being said.
I think telling people who complain they should just get better jobs is not a valid rebuttal to complaining about their current situation.
Again, most people in the struggle are not there out of choice.
Im not defending the small population who make choices that put them in this position. (Facial tatoos/piercings or people with loud hair, people who cannot pass a drug test, those who live off their parents intentionally) But the majority of struggling Americans who cannot make ends meet because of a combination of social and economic factors. You can argue peoples wants but not their needs. I want a Nintendo Switch, its not necessary for me to live. I need food, shelter, and water. No one trying to support themselves on lower paying jobs is working those jobs because they want to. Its because they have to. If everyone had the luxury to just switch to something better, dont you think everyone would?
Edit: A lot of you all are missing the point.
I am saying in large scale discussions. Not personal situations, but on the whole..
Everyone cannot just get a better job, because there will be no one left to do the jobs they left.
An example would be a discussion about tipping.
If a person says they dont believe they should tip, because they server should just get a better job, I dont think thats an answer to the problem. | Everyone knows its a hard to find a new job but telling a person to get a new job is basically telling the person to take responsibility for their own situation. For example think wages suck? - then get better wages, do not look to others to give you better wages. | 11 | 23 |
ELI5: I understand how my body heals itself on the outside, but can someone explain what the process is on the inside. Not just like a simple cut, but more like a sore on the stomach lining or even a gunshot wound. | Had a Shower thought, but I actually wanted to understand it. I'm literate so go ahead and give me the actual process don't hold back.
Edit: First comment covered a small, but helpful amount of Information. I would like to go (deeper ;) ) more in depth. I am quite intrigued by this function in my body.
| White blood cells clean up the area of bacteria and junk
Platelets and clotting factors help reduce bleeding
Blood vessels dilate to let more traffic into the area to help out
Fibroblasts repair the infrastructure
If possible, the cells who died will eventually divide and restore the population. If a nerve or a big part of a muscle fascicle died, nothing happens.
Angiogenesis is initiated and new blood vessels grow into the damaged area to replace damaged ones.
All of these are done via chemical signals released by cells in the location of the injry and the white blood cells. | 11 | 28 |
ELI5: How do linesmen detect where the breaks in wires are to repair them? | They can't obviously cut every piece of electrical/telephone wire to find it, because it can involve lots of cutting and digging, which would just not be economical | I do telephone and we use a TDR (time domain reflectometer) that sends a pulse out and times how long it takes an echo to return the unit (based on a given gauge of wire) and it shows the length on the wire. We have records that indicate what the distance should be and compare that to the result. | 19 | 29 |
Eli5: How exactly does a bee hive work, and how does the honey production cycle work? | Bees live in a beehive, mostly workers and one queen. The queen lays eggs in honeycomb cells in the center of the hive. The outer areas are filled with pollen, nectar, and honey. Pollen and nectar are collected by the worker bees from flowers.
Honey is created when a worker drinks honey in a second stomach and starts digesting it. They they spit the honey into a honeycomb cell and fan it so that the water starts evaporating. Once enough water has evaporated, they cap the cell to store it for later. This is what gets collected by beekeepers to process and sell. | 10 | 20 |
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What causes "legs" - the droplets on the side of wine or whiskey glasses - and why do they form with some alcoholic drinks but not others? | Alcoholic beverages are mostly ethanol and water, sometimes with some other things like added color and flavor. Legs, sometimes called tears, have to do with the surprisingly complicated interaction between the water and the ethanol molecules. The difference in surface tension between water and ethanol results in something called the Marangoni effect. Essentially, each water molecule is attracted more strongly to the other water molecules than to the ethanol molecules. In the bottle, water and ethanol are mixed more or less homogeneously, hence no Marangoni effect, but in a glass, which is open to the air, evaporation happens. Since ethanol evaporates faster than water, the thin layer of liquid on the sides of a swirled glass has a higher concentration of water than the body of the drink in the glass. The Marangoni effect means that water molecules from the bulk of the liquid creep up the sides of the glass, since they want to stick to the other water molecules. The water accumulates until gravity eventually causes it to drip down in little watery rivulets that we call legs.
Generally they form in drinks with higher alcohol and/or sugar content. There's a lot of conventional wisdom out there about what these legs tell you about the drink, but really they don't mean anything. You can't analyze a drink by it's legs, and the don't indicate whether a drink will be "good" or high quality. | 54 | 36 |
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CMV: Engaging in a relationship that is knowingly susceptible to being dysfunctional is unethical as it can cause more suffering than being alone. | To be more specific, I'm talking about relationships where one or both parties have extreme anxious and/or avoidant tendencies that can make it be susceptible to dysfunctionality and abuse, even if it is unintended. My argument is that because these characteristics hold so much destructive potential in relationships, it would be better to remain single than to risk significant harm to yourself and others.
It should be seen as irresponsible to engage in a relationship while knowing that one or both parties have these traits. | I can't speak on neurological based mental disorders like schizophrenia, but several personality and mood disorders like anxiety are actually improved with time and exposure and support from others. That is to say if a anxious person or someone with BPD or whatnot wants to get to the point where they can be in relationships, especially long term relationships, the best course of action is to seek therapy AND try relationships.
Mental illness aside, most people need to actually try in relationships rather than be perfectly sane, perfectly physically fit, perfectly whatever. None of those qualities can account for putting in effort in relationships and having a mental disorder doesn't excuse or bar anyone from putting in effort. | 12 | 15 |
Have human beings ever created a new species? | We're in AP Biology discussing speciation and the argument desperately needs some hard supporting facts. Microevolution is most definitely observable, but have we ever truly accomplished speciation?
Pardon the awkward wording; I'm trying to pay attention. Currently we're discussing pigeonesque chickens. | Bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, maize, dogs, etc, etc. Humans have artificially selected for any number of desirable characteristics in indigenous species--some to the point where interbreeding is no longer possible. | 98 | 115 |
[Star Wars] Why did the Empire phase out all the perfectly good technology from the Clone Wars? | In ROTS, specialized clone trooper units, multiple walker types, and perfectly functional Venator class Star Destroyers were all shown late in the film as belonging to the new Empire. Why did they eventually replace these with more standardized units when they could've kept them for different situations (ex. Venators as carrier ships)? | Cost-cutting necessitates standardization, and even with the assets of the Separatists seized, the Empire needed a way to pay its war debts. When the galaxy is relatively at peace, there's no need for all that specialization.
Besides, a lot of that older equipment was getting on in years and maintenance was becoming a hassle. Contractors went out of business, parts became out-of-stock, the sort of thing that's given engineers and managers headaches since the invention of replaceable parts. At some point, it's cheaper just to bring an entirely new vehicle into service than to keep fixing the old one. | 67 | 51 |
CMV: Businesses should not be forced to serve customers if the order is contrary to their beliefs. | I'm making this post in response to [this](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11211789/Christian-bakery-ordered-to-recant-over-Bert-and-Ernie-gay-marriage-cake-or-face-court.html) story which is being debated at the moment.
I feel that if someone is uncomfortable with completing an order that they feel will violate their beliefs, they cannot be forced by law to do so.
For example, say I'm a pro-choice events planner and a pro-life organisation wishes me to plan a fundraiser/rally for them; should I be forced to do this even though it violates my beliefs?
Don't get me wrong, I think the people in this story are bigotted assholes and the guy behind [this](http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/paul-givan-conscience-clause-mla-a-politician-on-a-mission-30850887.html) bill is a homophobic jagaloon. I just feel that, as you wouldn't force someone normally to violate their beliefs, the fact that they operate a business shouldn't make a difference.
I want my view changed because, quite frankly, the only people who might be on my side are bible-bashers. Plus, Stephen Fry disagrees with it and I love that guy.
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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!* | In order to run a business, one needs a business license from the government. The government serves the public interest, and businesses are *regulated* to ensure that they do so as well.
Imagine a business where the owners have a belief that they don't have to pay taxes. Guess what? They are forced to pay taxes. Imagine a business that produces toxic waste, but the owners have a belief system that exempts them from responsibility. Guess what? They are still responsible.
If one gets a business license, they already know what the existing requirements are to run a business, and they also know ahead of time that the government has the power to regulate businesses so they serve the public interest.
Having beliefs is a *right*, but running a business is *not*. And at this point in time, when you run a business, you have to comply with regulations, regardless of your beliefs. | 41 | 45 |
ELI5: Why does some ocean waters seem so crystal clear and others aren't as blue? | Why do some parts of the world have the most beautiful shores and clear water but others are meh... | If you notice the areas with clear waters, they are tropical and are usually on the east coast of a continent.
That's actually because the way water flows around the equator stacks up warm oceanic water along the east coast of continents.
Along the west coast, and at more extreme latitudes, the water is coming from the local area and is full of sediments.
By getting all of the clean oceanic water, the east coasts get water that has had the sediments settled out of it.
(Edit: Typo.) | 21 | 38 |
[Doctor Who] Why does UNIT becomes so incompetent? | They are able to effectively deal with Sontarans on the ground in 2008, but by 2015, they appear barely trained and the entirety of their British forces are killed by a handful of Zygons in a series of obvious traps. What happened? | They've had to expand quite a bit, and in a rapidly expanding government quantity tends to be an inverse metric of quality until there's been sufficient adjustments to account for the increased size. UNIT has doubtless recently undergone a period of rapid expansion, which results in a net drop in quality preceding a logarithmic increase after some time. | 13 | 17 |
How can we experimentally see the functions of each organelle ? | Hi,
I was wondering, how can we see the experimentally the function of organelles, like how did scientists see what mitocondria or ribosome does ? Microscopes I imagine have very los resolution to see this? Thanks | Generally speaking, in order to define function of something in a complex system, you will try to isolate its functional units and try out things either by chance or based on previous evidence.
In biology, you will isolate proteins, determine their function, modify their structure to be recognizable (for example introduce fluorescent domains), reintroduce the coding DNA into the host organism and observe where the protein is located inside a cell under different conditions. By knowing what the protein does and where it is, you basically resolve the function of a structure.
Determining the function of a protein is basically trial and error. However, we have huge databases by now that contain data on function and structures of different proteins. Once you know the structural makeup of a new one, you can compare it to those databases to find structural similarities that will usually translate to functional similarities.
Another way to go about it is to take away what you are researching and observe which processes in your complex system fail due to the lack of it. If you remove something vital, an organism will struggle to stay alive. If you remove something functional, you will have to find what changed when you took it away. | 14 | 18 |
How to move on | I have been looking for a PhD for over a year now (and sent a bunch of applications). A while ago I applied to a position that seemed perfect. I had lots of experience with many of the required techniques, in depth knowledge of the subject, and I did an internship that was very closely related to this position. I was invited to a first and second interview. In the end I got rejected.
All in all I am disappointed, but i get that they had to make a choice (between me and 2 other candidates) However, the reason is what keeps bugging me. You see, I am quite introvert (especially in the beginning). During the interview I was asked to give a presentation and my nervousness was very noticeable.
This is also what they told me in the rejection letter. They doubted my social capabilities and if I was able to interact with the colleagues on the different departments I will be working with. They did tell me that my lab and writing skills were very good and I should not let this prevent me from looking for a PhD.
I have a hard time moving on from this and I am feeling extremely demotivated. I feel like almost all employers can't look past this shyness as this has also been a problem in the past. Also, this is simply my personality. It has been a problem all my life and not something I can just change overnight.
This position felt perfect for me and if I have not found anything I like this much in over a year. I also feel that everybody is going to reject me over this in the end and a PhD is just not a option for me. How do I continue? | Unfortunately, science communication including presentations infront of an unfamiliar audience, is an important skill for a researcher. If they have two candidates, each with a strong writing and research background, they are going to choose the better presenter every time.
The good news is, presenting well is a skill and not a personality trait. Even when you do get admitted to a program, this is going to be something you will need to work on, so you might as well start now. A therapist who specializes in social anxiety might be a good step to help you find some coping skills and to describe some good opportunities where you can practice facing your fear in a lower stakes environment. No program should expect you to undergo a completely personality shift, but they will absolutely expect you to be able to perform every crucial part of the "job", and that includes oral presentations of your work. | 182 | 122 |
ELI5: Facebook privacy and does that disclaimer I'm seeing actually do anything? | I've been seeing a lot of people put up a disclaimer (skeptical that it even does anything) but why exactly are people flipping out? What's the worst possible outcome and are my kittens in danger? | The disclaimer is a good way of discovering who in your friends list has a high school level understanding of contracts and End-User License Agreements, Terms of Service, etc.
Legally it holds as much ground as going outside and saying, "I declare bankruptcy" does to ease your debts. | 75 | 42 |
ELI5 - Utilitarianism | Utilitarianism is basically the principle that the best course of action in any given situation is the one which maximizes the overall well being or good of the most people. There are other types but pretty much its just the greatest good for the most people is rational | 18 | 36 |
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ELI5: How do accents, like the American accent, form? | Isolated communities help accents and languages form more quickly. Then they just slowly evolve. Sometimes a very powerful or popular person can spread a change. Look at it on a micro-level. In your group of friends, what if the coolest guy started slurring a word or two or sounding a little different. Pretty soon when you're around him you might slip into it as well. Then it just keeps going. | 82 | 122 |
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Why does adding a single extra oxygen atom to H20, which is something we need to survive and drink daily, suddenly causes it to become extremely toxic to even breathe? (H202) | The difference between H2O and H2O2 is not simply "adding a single extra oxygen".
The structure of H2O is H-O-H, one oxygen atom bound to 2 hydrogen atoms.
The structure of H2O2 is H-O-O-H, a hydrogen atom bound to an oxygen atom which is bound to another oxygen atom which is bound to a hydrogen atom. That oxyen-oxygen single bond is called a peroxide and it is very weak. The entire molecule doesn't need much persuasion to fall apart into two hydroxyl radicals, which themselves are eager to react with important molecules like fats, proteins, and DNA. | 487 | 181 |
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ELI5: When a precious mineral like jade gets carved, what happens to the leftover shavings? | I know that for diamonds, they get used as diamond dust because of diamond’s natural sparkling quality, but what about for minerals that aren’t naturally as brilliant (Ex. Jade)? Do they just dispose of the shavings and pieces too small for use, or is there something else that gets done with them? | That depends on what type of material you are working with and how large the piece is when you start working. If you have a large piece, you may be able to get many pieces cut and polished into cabachons or faceted for jewelry before you are down to scrap. In that case, the ‘scrap’ may be large enough that you can cut a slab or make something else out of the material. If you are working with a smaller piece, there may only be scrap left after you use what is the best part of the stone. These may just be shards or tiny particles which would not be used for much, or they may be large enough to be cut and polished into a small piece for a repair. Again, depending on the material itself, you can end up with chunks, shards or just tiny fractured pieces. In the case of turquoise, vendors will often take the tiny shards and scraps and pack them in pound or kilo sized bags and sell the small chips and pieces for those who make inlaid furniture to use in the inlay. | 41 | 42 |
[D&D/Generic Fantasy] How the heck did 'human' end up as the Common language? | Especially for written language. I mean, sure, we reproduce faster than elves or dwarves but our societies have been intermixed since humans have had something that you could call a society at all. Their languages are many times older than ours, and yet we developed our own and somehow it became the standard.
What gives? Are we just linguistic geniuses that managed to hit on a language easy and flexible enough to use that it was simpler for everyone to switch to it for trade and general conversation? Too collectively stubborn to settle for being taught how to write by another culture? Was it initially developed as a way to pass private messages and secrets that evolved into something more over time? | Humans are far more culturally diverse,open, and relatable than the other races. The languages of dwarves,elves, dragons, for instance, are very old and heavily influenced by their history, mentality, and culture. It is questionable whether a non-elf or a non-dwarf can really *get* their languages.
Because human culture is so pluralistic, the common language is far "wider" and shallower. It doesn't require you to think like a human or dwarf, in the racial sense, in order to fully get it. It's mostly about function.
Humans are also everywhere, trading and maintaining relations with everyone. The language travels with them.
Last but certainly not least, you can bet your balls that races which have historically had tension among them (dwarves/elves, dwarves/orcs, dragons/everybody, etc.) are NOT that much interested in learning/speaking the others' languages. | 63 | 62 |
[James Bond] It takes 2 kills to become a 00 Agent. Why? | Does this mean if any agent who wants to become a 00 has to go out and kill 2 people, or is he ordered to assassinate 2 before he can be promoted? Also, what if a lesser agent kills people by accident? Is that against MI6 regulations? | Its ordered by command as a test, that you're capable of doing the deed and still function normally afterward. Someone could be the best at sneaking around but completely fall to pieces after the first kill, so they make you do two to be certain you won't break in the field. | 303 | 319 |
Medieval opposition to the idea of God? | I'm reading Copleston's History of Philosophy volume 2 on Medieval Philosophy and just about all the philosophers he discusses whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim advocate proofs for God, almost always the same arguments: First Mover, God as a stable platform for eternal truths or the Cosmic Argument. Ignoring the arguments themselves I don't get why they each advocate almost identical arguments for God when it was such an accepted fact at the time. Were there any writers or philosophies at the time denying the existence of god? I understand the philosophers that propose original arguments (i.e. Saint Anslem's Ontological Proof) but rehashing the same arguments seems unnecessary when there's no opposition.
Sorry if this is a really dumb question but it's confusing me a lot | They formulated arguments for the existence of God for a number of reasons. They thought it was worthwhile to have reasons for the things one believes in, even if no one is challenging you to defend yourself. In particular, they thought rationally investigated something you believed in helped you to better understand that thing, so that by reasoning about the things one believes in, one comes to better understand those things, regardless of whether anyone is challenging you to give up those beliefs. Notably, the arguments for the existence of God are inseparable from the arguments regarding the nature of God, so that what is at stake in these arguments is not just the question of whether God exists but also the question of what it means to say that God exists--i.e., reasoning about God not only served to warrant the belief that God exists, it also explicated what that belief means and what it's significance is for other beliefs. Furthermore, while the arguments might look all the same to you, in their technical details there are often important differences between various arguments of this general type. For instance, there are a variety of "first mover" arguments, which differ significantly when it comes to the concept of God and the concept of nature involved in them. And there were considerable and heated debates on a wide variety of subjects pertaining to the existence and nature of God and our ability to know about these things, so there was lots of reason, from the point of view of polemic and defense, to engage in these sorts of arguments as well. | 14 | 16 |
How much value do easy-to-read books on philosophy have? | So I'm a youngun who recently got into philosophy, I very much enjoy the idea of it, and I find it very entertaining and enlightening. I started out with crash course philosophy (which I've heard is crap from the people over at r/philosophy), then articles, then content on r/philosophy. That being said, no, I don't know much about the history of philosophy and only really know the basic principles of famous philosophers like Descartes and Nietzsche.
Now for my doubts.
I recently bought two books on philosophy: [*Breakfast with Socrates*](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7021630-breakfast-with-socrates) and [*How to be an Existentialist*](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7115171-how-to-be-an-existentialist). I am in the midst of reading the former and have not started the latter, I mention both to show that I really only got them because of their easy-to-read nature and style of writing, they both have the word "witty" in their reviews printed inside the book.
As I was reading a chapter on "Going to the Doctor", the book began to mention how illness is mysterious in and of itself, but only because we as patients do not have the knowledge a doctor has. It then goes on to say that illness has a mystical, ethereal property to it and supports the use of witch-doctors and such, it does not explicitly disregard *chi* and *chakra*, but mentions them as if they were to be regarded as valid, if only to a certain extent.
My question is, since this is not explicitly a "self-help" book like *The Secret*, why does it make mystical claims as it does? Is this book implicitly a "self-help" book? It has many references to prominent philosophers, it mentions Karl Marx and explains his philosophy on the class system, and even if I don't agree with him, I understood the need for this philosophical objectivity in terms of other philosophical viewpoints. The illness part however, cited no major philosopher and instead mentioned only *Illness as a Metaphor* by Susan Sontag. Am I missing something? Is Sontag a big name in philosophy?
I am barely getting into philosophy and I wanted something easy to read, but I worry that I'm sacrificing commodity for quality. I really don't want to start of on the wrong foot of philosophy, so I would appreciate it if anyone could offer some insight on whether books like these are good for beginners or a waste of time.
\*\*Sorry if this belongs in /r/philosophy, let me know if I need to post this there, I read the posting guidelines and was left with more questions than answers. | I find the best way is actual lectures, look on YouTube at the Oxford University Philosophy Lectures, they run through different areas of philosophy, you can learn the ideas of the topics in philosophy, then extend your reading through there. | 19 | 24 |
How famous was Plato in his own time? | Reading Plato, I often wonder how many people got to know his magnificent philosophy during his own life time and the generations right after. Were his books 'published' and available outside his academy? If Plato was well known, would his fame reach beyond Athens and Attica? | We know that most of Plato's work (unlike Aristotle's lecture notes) was written ("published") for an audience of educated Athenians, and that his works were probably read by by contemporary members of different schools in Athens and then within the Roman Empire.(Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus show acquaintance with his work, whether from complete copies or digests is a moot point). Given his immense influence in philosophic thought in the Classical world, one must assume that some or at least portions of his writings were widely available, even though he failed to rise to the "best sellers" list. | 12 | 33 |
Eggs are a big investment for birds, so why do chickens lay unfertilized eggs? Why don't they 'hold on' to that investment until it's fertilized? | Come to think of it, don't humans do the same thing every month? | Veterinarian perspective here: we have bred this into chickens, AND eye laying rate is related to nutritional intake. So, we're selecting for the layingest of layers, and feeding them the perfectly formulated feed for maximum production. The average layer hen is actually VERY skinny, because all of their resources are going toward eggs. If they can't keep up with the production, their production levels usually go way down before their health does. | 227 | 652 |
ELI5: why does my body need various metals like zinc, iron, manganese, etc? How does my body process these metals? | What the layman understands as 'metal' with 'metallic' properties (a certain look, feel, taste, electrical conductivity etc.) only exists when there are large quantities of the specific metal atoms that form special metallic bonds.
In the body, where metallic atoms are required in very very small quantities ('trace elements'), they are usually present in single-atom form and thus do not show any 'metallic' properties. As single-atom elements, they perform duties much like any other element that you need to survive: Because of their specific properties and interaction with other elements, your body uses them in the construction of specific proteins with specific forms and functions. An iron atom, for example, makes it easier/possible for a protein to bind/unbind oxygen atoms, therefore iron atoms are used in the construction of hemoglobin, the protein that transports oxygen in your blood.
Because our supply of trace elements usually comes in the form of other organic material, they are already present in single-atom form, so the body has no need for mechanisms or enzymes that break down metallic matter (although some exist). That's why metals aren't considered foodstuff, and you don't crave for them, even though your body needs some of the atoms they are made of. | 22 | 30 |
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CMV: I see nothing wrong with businesses requiring a COVID vaccine "passport" for entry to ensure guest safety | I recently read about NY's COVID passport, which is to be used by vaccinated persons to show proof of vaccination before being admitted to certain venues, and was shocked to see so many negative opinions. I don't see how having to show that you've been vaccinated is any different than when businesses were taking temperatures before admittance. I honestly don't know how else sports and concert venues, cruises, etc are expected to safely open back up without this until the US has achieved a herd immunity vaccination percentage. | We already have laws preventing discrimination due to medical history, as well as medical privacy laws. Why make an exception for COVID vaccines if not for other things as well (say, other vaccines, STDs, etc)? It leads to a bit of a slippery slope when it comes to people disclosing their private medical information. | 21 | 31 |
eli5 Why do some songs sound so much louder despite having the same decibels? | When I played smells like teen spirit at 90% volume on AirPods it registered at 86 decibels, then I did the same with shape of you by Ed Sheeran same volume it also had the same decibel reading.
But smells like teen spirit sounds much louder to me, how is this possible? | Decibels are not the only factor that contributes to our perception of volume.
Decibels are a measure of intensity in a logarithmic scale.Two waves with the same intensity will have the same decibels. It's useful but not the ultimate word.
The perceived volume is not only related to the decibels, but also to the root mean square. Which is a measure of how "crisp" is the sound.
The intensity of pure tone of a flute is very soft it goes up and down like rounded mountains
/‾‾\_/‾‾\_/‾‾\_
And a pure tone of a clarinet is like cliffs
_|‾‾|_|‾‾|_|‾‾|
At the same intensity the clarinet sound at more volume because there is more abrupt pressure changes. | 149 | 57 |
ELI5: If all carbohydrates get broken down to their most simple form, sugar, why is it unhealthy to just eat tablespoons of sugar? | Most of the dangers come from the glycemic response to these various foods.
Pure sugar with nothing to slow the absorption rate will spike your blood sugar. This causes your pancreas to release Insulin to counteract that spike, which in turn reduces your blood sugar below normal levels, so your body releases glucose into the blood stream to compensate, which spikes it again, causing your pancreas to release more insulin... Lather, rinse, repeat until your glucose levels have hit a steady baseline.
This yo-yo effect taxes your pancreas significantly, as well as has other downstream effects on your body.
The more effort it takes your body to absorb the sugars, the healthier it is for your system when consumed in moderation. | 116 | 127 |
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Why are only 151 cases of Covid-19 sufficient to demonstrate that Moderna's vaccine is 60% effective in a trial with 30,000 participants? | I read [this article](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/health/covid-moderna-vaccine.html) in the New York Times today. It mentions the different points at which they will analyze the data, but I don't understand how this conclusion can be reached from such a low number. | That is enough to determine that, with statistical relevance (2-3 standard deviations), that more people in the control group (placebo) contracted the virus than those in the test group. With 30,000 participants, if 1% contracts COVID in a year, only 150 total participants can be expected to test positive in 6 months. If half are in the control group and half are in the test group, then you can say with a measurable confidence that the vaccine is not effective.
The FDA has stated that 50% efficacy is required for certification. If only 2 people in the control get COVID and 1 person in the test group does (say in the first few weeks of testing) this could mean 50% efficacy or it could just be a random chance based on many uncontrolled factors. The more people you test and the more people contract your confidence of being correct goes up because it helps normalize the other variables (lifestyle, living conditions, etc.). If 60 people in the control group get COVID and only 2 people in the test group do, that would result in very high confidence that the vaccine is at least 50% effective. If the vaccine is about 50-60% effective, it requires 151 cases (presumably 100+ in the control group and <50 in the test group) to meet the confidence interval set by the FDA (which is not listed in the article).
The other option would be to test 100,000 people to speed up the analysis, but that increases risk of getting people sick with side effects on an untested vaccine- higher assumption of risk. | 509 | 1,044 |
ELI5: Signatures, how does 1. It bind me to an agreement 2. How does one prove it's actually your signature 3. What stops someone from forging my signature by being close enough and 4. What if I start writing my signature differently? is it still valid? | The primary purpose of a signature on a contract is not to establish identity, but to establish intent -- namely, a signed contract is a contract you have agreed to abide by, rather than something you're still negotiating, and the best way to signal that you agree to a contract is the sign it.
Typically, the way your *identity* is established in contract cases -- that is, you are the person who signed the contract thereby assenting to its provisions and it wasn't some one else trying to run a con -- is that they ask you in court and you tell the truth, because it's a felony to lie.
Therefore, any mark you make which is meant to signal assent will count as a signature, even if it is different than one you've made in the past. | 29 | 21 |
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How is biological/chemical hazardous waste treated and disposed of once it leaves my lab? | I know the procedures I'm supposed to follow on MY end in the lab, but I was curious what happens on the receiving end.
Is the whole container rendered chemically inert? Does each reagent get extracted and disposed of separately? Are we able to recycle anything in the process and, if so, how much? Also, what happens when waste labels are not properly filled out and unlisted reagents are present in the container -- are we able to screen for those, and how does it affect the safety of the people who handle the disposal? | Chemicals are generally incinerated in specially designed furnaces that ensure complete combustion; so the only emissions are CO2, water vapor and a bit of NOx which is usually scrubbed out anyways. Resulting ash is landfilled.
Recycling is generally not done because like a box of chocolates, 'you neva know what you gonna get' So to make it work you have to be really restrictive about what you accept.
labels and reagent lists matter more for the DOT regulations than anything, in case there is a spill, at the incinerator it doesn't much matter what goes in (as long as it's not explosive), it all gets burned/flashed-off/otherwise oxidized to inert crap.
Source: Chemical Engineer
dunno about bio-waste /u/coolmanmax2000 seems to know his/her stuff. | 222 | 715 |
ELI5: If MRIs can detect Cancer and early detection is so important then why don't we all go for full body MRI scans every year or so? | Seems at least on the surface that we already have a cure for Cancer and it's early detection. If it's a resource issue then why doesn't the government (or insurance companies in USA) simply buy a lot of MRI machines, seems they would pay for themselves though savings to the medical system. | Another thing to keep in mind is that while early detection is good, yes, MRIs don't just detect cancer early. They detect a whole host of things that are 99% of the time completely benign, however each of those things would still need to be looked into. That means extra cost of running tests, extra stress for the people undergoing these tests, extra man hours for doctors, all to detect something that... wasn't worth detecting. | 1,207 | 1,391 |
ELI5: why is it when during the winter I have my heater set to the same temperature as I have my AC during the summer, and yet I'm cold in winter and warm in summer? | To some extent this is a psychological effect. In cold weather you tend to worry about being too cold, and in hot weather you tend to worry about being too hot, and this alters your subjective perception of the room temperature. | 15 | 26 |
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[Dragon Ball/Z/Super] What determines the color of a specific energy attack? Is it something the user can choose at will? | It seems tied to specific techniques.
Generally people seem have their own Ki energy, but people with similar styles/training share the color.
Turtle School / Kamahameha : Blue Energy
Kaio-Ken : Red
SSJ Ki: Yellow
Since Ki is just a manifestation of the users energy in DB, it's most likely just focused in a different way or perhaps amount resulting in a different appearance. | 41 | 71 |
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How can bacteria develop immunities to threats if they reproduce asexually into genetically identical cells? | Wouldnt the cells have the same set of genes and wouldnt there be virtually no diversity? | You would think however there’s 2 additional points to consider. The first is that bacteria can horizontally transfer genes to each other that can upgrade survivability (i.e. antibiotic resistance) and the second is random mutations that allow for Darwinian evolution. For this one, consider a mutation that theoretically allows 0.1% of a population to just hang on and survive a certain concentration of antibiotic exposure just a bit better than the rest. Those few will then proliferate to create a potential new strain. | 25 | 24 |
[ELI5] Why are fingers different length? | Different lengths makes for a better grip when clutching an object, as the ends of your fingers provide the strongest point of grip, and varied finger lengths allow their strength to get staggered along different points of the object. | 24 | 33 |
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Why does it take two weeks post vaccination to create immunity? What is happening at the cellular level? | I've seen general answers to the question but I'm looking for a specific one. What are the cells produced after vaccination (macrophages, neutrophils, b-cells, t-cells, memory b and t cells, etc) and when are they produced? How do these cells degrade over time, and how do we retain the immunity?
I was curious about this question because we need two weeks post vaccination to develop full immunity. Why is there such a long lag time? Which of these immune cells needs the longer time in order to be produced? | You make many hundreds of thousands of different antibodies, but the human genome only has about 20 thousand genes. How then, can you make such a diverse range of antibodies which outnumber all the other genes in your body?
The solution is that each BCell is created with a unique antibody gene by doing some copy/paste and adding/deleting random bases of DNA to make it's own antibody. When you are vaccinated, the BCells which happen to make an antibody which weakly binds to the vaccine are activated. They then replicate themselves many times over, and introduce mutations in each daughter cell. The daughter BCells which bind more strongly to the vaccine then reproduce, and create new mutations. What happens over those two weeks is your BCells evolve a highly specific antibody to bind to the target, and then reproduce to high enough numbers that they can create a huge quantity of antibody to flood your body and protect it.
Some of them go on to become memory BCells, so they can reactivate if you get infected again. | 70 | 67 |
ELI5: Why do we subconsciously immitate others' body gestures? | It helps us feel empathy for others. When you talk to another person, you will also subconsciously imitate their facial expressions. The small changes in muscle tone of your face muscle will send feedback to our brain which can identify the corresponding feeling better. Infact, experiments have shown that people who use BOTOX(a chemical which is a toxin to nerves that is injected to your face to remove wrinkles. No working nerves serving the facil's muscle= lesser skin stretching= lesser wrinkles formed) will show a lesser degree of empathy compared to those who did not use BOTOX. | 11 | 17 |
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Can you inheirt trauma via your genes? | Someone sent me this article, but I don't have the educational background to judge it.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/parents-emotional-trauma-may-change-their-children-s-biology-studies-mice-show-how | This hypothesis is based on epigenetics (these are messages on top of the DNA, so the environment in these situations doesn't change the sequence of the DNA, but the special signals on top of the DNA which tells it when to be expressed). This can be passed down the generations. They have found this with grandmother's who experienced a famine when they were young and this impacted their grandkids. There is a great documentary on this which explains it in an easy to understand why for the public called 'Ghost in your genome' produced by PBS and is available on YouTube. | 35 | 18 |
ELI5: What happens to surplus political funds if a campaign ends prematurely? | Assuming you're taking about the U.S.:
There are a number of options. These apply to both candidates for office who drop out before the election, lose the election, or retire, and still have funds left over.
1. The campaign can save the money in case the candidate chooses to run again.
2. The campaign can donate the money to PACs and SuperPACs
3. The campaign can donate the money to national, state, and local party committees
4. The campaign donate directly to other candidates election campaigns
5. The campaign can donate to funds to charities
6. The campaign can return the funds to the donors
The one thing that's *not* allowed is for the candidate to keep the money for personal use.
Edit: Since people keep bringing it up, candidates can't *directly* transfer money from a campaign account to a personal bank account, but if they want that money, obviously there are some loopholes and unethical yet legal (or at least not illegal) ways to get it. | 135 | 129 |
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ELI5: Is there a correlation between a bird's weight and its wingspan? Is there a formula or pattern that is followed? | Similarly if you had a bird the size of an elephant how large would its wing span have to be to fly? | What you're looking for is called "wing loading" and tells you the ratio between the mass of the object and the area of the wings.
Birds have wing loadings between 1 and 20 kg/m^2 . If you assume 20 then even a small 2500 kg elephant needs 125 m^2 of wing area or 2 8x8 meter wings. That's a lot of wing, more than an A320! | 10 | 16 |
ELI5: How are the raw images sent back from space probes processed in such a way to give a vibrant and colourful image? | Let's use Saturn as an example. [This is a raw image from Cassini](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR7fWONJDSdJ0Wjjt-YmSB0DMW2J-y220vEFlbm-iSTU4ko7htM), and [this is a processed image](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQHxPXJjxzxA-dzVH56zmW7Vn0pE_oy4A_a5YvG4zIyG-AbtH0T).
Additionally, if I was to jump in a space ship and fly out to Saturn, would it look like the second image? | Cameras aboard spacecraft like Cassini take photos using filters that isolate different wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. Some, like red, green, and blue, capture light the human eye can see. Others, like ultraviolet and infrared, capture light it can't. All the images arrive to Earth as black-and-white frames, and then are assigned colors digitally and compiled into a composite. Sometimes the composite is a false-color image, where colors may be assigned to show infrared or ultraviolet that we normally can't see with our eyes. Others may be composites of visible light plus infrared and/or ultraviolet. The second image you linked happens to be a true-color composite, although it may be edited to make the colors pop a bit more. If you hitched a ride on Cassini, that image is more-or-less what you'd see with your own eyes. With a decent backyard telescope you can see Saturn with the same colors, albeit a lot smaller and in not nearly as much detail. | 22 | 22 |
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