post_title
stringlengths 9
303
| post_text
stringlengths 0
37.5k
| comment_text
stringlengths 200
7.65k
| comment_score
int64 10
32.7k
| post_score
int64 15
83.1k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
ELI5: How much of what we say do dogs actually understand? | Is it only basic words like their name, out, food, treat, ect; or do they understand more of what we say? | they associate sounds with a result. let's say cookie, they know they will get a treat to eat, but don't understand the actual meaning. If you say "nookie" instead of cookie, there is a big chance your dog would still act like there is a treat coming. | 23 | 27 |
ELI5: How do cysts form? | I am aware that there are forms of cysts.
So why is it trauma to an area causes the body to create a "sack" instead of just pus (white blood cells?) in some cases. And if it is a sack, how does it fill up from the inside and then grow and grow to the point it protrudes? | There are many examples of cysts as you stated, but here are a couple. A bakers cyst forms behind the knee any time there is an injury or condition in the knee causing an inflammatory reaction leading to increased synovial fluid production. The rear of the knee is just the least structurally stout area so that is where the fluid tends to collect. A ganglion cyst usually forms due to a weak spot in a tendon sheath like a weak spot in an inner tube. The fluid in the sheath tends to “inflate” the weak spot, then stagnate and gelatinize forming the cyst. Bones can have an infarct or other condition that can cause an area of medullary bone death that is typically walled off by the body and then a cyst forms in the void. There are many more but these are a few. | 21 | 20 |
How close are we to being able to make our bodies grow hair where we want it and not grow hair where we don't, without physically transplanting or destroying hair follicles? | Rogaine works to certain degree. It was originally developed for heart conditions as it increases blood flow. They noticed that their test subjects were growing hair and found hey could make much more money there. However, if you stop using it the hair will disappear.
*Viagra was developed for ~~heart conditions~~ as well.* | 128 | 338 |
|
[Warhammer 40K] How much fighting does the imperial guard do against other humans compared to the amount of fighting they do against xenos/chaos threats? | What I really want to know is how likely is a solider to see combat against what? | The Imperial forces are more likely to see action against Rebels, Separatists and Heritics than any other threat. These are ongoing struggles throughout the Imperium, even though they somehow manage to keep knowledge of Chaos on the down-low.
The next most common threat are the Orks. They are everywhere, and almost impossible to exterminate. The majority of these encounters are likely dealt with by PDF formations as they are little more than feral Orks who haven't reached the population necessary for Meks to manifest.
Next come Tyranids. These are increasingly common on the Southern edge of the Galaxy, though wandering splinter fleets have been seen as far north as the Eye of Terror.
The least common of the major powers are the Eldar (both types, though Dark Eldar are more likely to attack human worlds) the Tau and the Necrons. These powers, while mighty, are either too localised or too disinterested in the Imperium and it's worlds. Conflict only comes when the Imperium is the aggressor, or under rather specific circumstances (neutralizing threats, trespassing, or even helping against common enemies). | 31 | 28 |
Many popular articles say “we don’t know if cov2 antibodies provide immunity”. Are there any cases of known diseases where the presence of antibodies for it do not give a reasonable amount of immunity to prevent sickness or transmittal to others? | First, let’s emphasize that when scientists say “we don’t know if antibodies protect... “ they are not saying “we know that antibodies don’t”. They’re simply pointing out that the evidence isn’t complete yet.
Second, let’s point out that those statements are now outdated. We *do* know that antibodies protect, at least under some circumstances (because in the preliminary animal test of COVID vaccines, monkeys have been protected). We don’t formally know what percentage of people have protective antibodies after infection, but the expectation is that it’s pretty high.
Ok, so actually answering the question - Some viruses that are resistant to protective antibodies include most of the herpesviruses, which can stay latent without offering targets to antibodies and which can spread from cell to cell without entering the extracellular region where antibodies can see them. HIV, which can hide in cell DNA and which has a heavy glycan (sugar) coat covering its surface proteins. Dengue, which can take advantage of low levels of antibodies to enter new cell types and worsen an infection.
Note, these are not necessarily always true. Herpes only is hidden from antibodies after it’s set up an infection, so it’s hard to eliminate infection but potentially possible to prevent it. Dengue only can take advantage of enhancing antibodies in a narrow range of conditions, and is neutralized if the antibodies are at high enough levels.
And of course, antibodies are only one branch of immunity. T cells can also give protection.
And none of these seem to be true for SARS-CoV-2. It doesn’t go latent or hide from antibodies. There was early concern about enhancing antibodies, but so far there’s no sign that they’re an issue. So even though we still have some uncertainties about protection against SARS-CoV-2, pretty much everything we’ve learned over the past 6 months has been encouraging, which is why scientists remain optimistic about effective vaccines. | 15 | 19 |
|
How do our ears know where sounds come from? | All sounds enter our ear canal...how can the brain distinguish where it comes from when they all hit the ear drum? | Yeah having two allows you to pinpoint left vs right. Up vs down (and left vs right really), comes from developmental learning. Specifically, the different shapes of the outer ear cartilage will reflect sound at very slightly different frequencies (and wavelengths). Your mind learns to associate these tiny differing frequencies with differing locations.
You can hack this by filling your outer ear (not the canal) with tape or something and trying to locate various sounds. You’ll find yourself pretty terrible at it.
| 34 | 18 |
Does the imaginary part of the voltage in an RLC circuit really exist, or is it just an artifact of the math we use to derive it that can be discarded? Is there any way to measure it? | So in my physics class that I took last semester we learned about RLC circuits and my teacher sort of handwaved away the imaginary part of the voltage, saying "we only care about the real part." Is this totally true or is there just a deeper rabbit hole he didn't want to get into for the purposes of our class?
If we have a capacitor, resistor, and inductor in series and in a closed loop with no external voltage source (for the purposes of this explanation, anyways.) We can use kirchoff's law to derive the fact that the voltage drop over any closed loop is zero, so we get:
 
-L(dI/dt)-IR-(R/C)=0
 
=-L(d^2 Q/dt^2 )-R(dQ/dt)-(Q/C)=0
 
=(d^2 Q/dt^2 )+(R/L)(dQ/dt)+(1/LC)Q=0
 
So now we have a differential equation, whose solution we can guess is something like : Q=Ae^iωt
 
Therefore:
 
-ω^2 A^eiωt +iω(R/L)A^eiωt -(1/LC)A^eiωt =0
 
=-ω^2 +iω(R/L)-(1/LC)=0
 
Where (1/LC) is some resonant frequency ω*_0_* squared, so we can solve the quadratic:
 
-ω^2 +iω(R/L)-ω*_0_*^2 =0
 
to find ω, which will be:
 
ω=i(R/L)±sqrt(ω*_0_*^2 -(R^2 /4L^2 ))
 
[edit: i skipped some parts here, i'm just going off what i have in my notebook]
 
so finally Q=Ae^((-R/2L)^)t ^+iωt
 
which is e to a complex power, which can be re-written using euler's formula, which gives a real and an imaginary part:
 
Q=Ae^((-R/2L)^)t cos(ωt)+Ae^((-R/2L)^)t isin(ωt)
 
so now for Q we have a real and imaginary part. So what does the imaginary part mean in reality? If we tried to see it on an oscilliscope, per se, could we? Could we have some sort of device that would measure charge or voltage in the complex plane? Or does none of this matter because the imaginary part is just an artifact of the mathematics that doesn't have any real meaning?
 
thanks for your time, anyone who reads and is able to respond to this. | The imaginary part helps to determine the phase of the oscillatory part. It has a real meaning in the sense that different initial configurations of the capacitor and current will result in different values for the real and imaginary parts. | 819 | 2,595 |
ELI5: What does “decentralized government” mean? | People reference this idea all the time without explaining. What would decentralized government look like - are they really referring to municipal governments making decisions that are now federal, or is it more than that?
Furthermore, what about decentralized banks? Another idea I hear people stating then nodding in agreement. | Decentralization is simply the concept of power being spread outing more local, while centralization is the opposite, concentration of power in a single location/entity. So shifting power from the federal government to the states would be decentralization. When speaking about banks it's probably means decreasing the power of the US Federal Reserve. | 55 | 65 |
What makes a person "good" at philosophy, and what people–who are currently working–are really good? | I've been studying philosophy on my own time over the last couple of years, and have come across many different people with different ideas. I just wanted to know how one considers another "good" at philosophy? Also, can you name some good philosophers? People who are considered good from multiple fields? Cheers and thanks for the info. | Being a good philosopher requires a few different aspects but at a bare minimum a philosopher needs to be able to read, understand, and critically analyze dense philosophical texts and papers. An undergraduate degree in philosophy really focuses on this aspect of the education. To go further in philosophy you need to integrate into a problem context. Essentially what this means is that you have thought about a philosophical problem long enough that you have a novel idea that adds to the relevant discourse. Being a good writer is generally ancillary to being a good philosopher and it is possible to be a good philosopher and a bad writer. That said, as a philosopher you should try to be as clear and concise in your writing as possible because if people have to difficult a time understanding what you are trying to say then they will not consider your work worth their time.
There is a whole history of philosophy full of good philosophers but a few of the more recent ones that have gained a lot of attention in the past 50 years or so are people like, Saul Kripke, Philippa Foot, Michael Thompson, Hilary Putnam, Peter Singer, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, David Lewis, Derek Parfit, and Gregory Vlastos. This list is by no means exhaustive but names a good amount of philosophers who worked in the second half of the twentieth century and are generally regarded within their fields as having made a major contribution. | 11 | 22 |
If a molecule can only have fixed energy levels then why is a Boltzmann distribution a smooth curve? | Hi, If a molecules energy level is quantized, why does a Boltzmann distribution look like this: http://noyesharrigan.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/file/view/MD_distribution.png/250991340/MD_distribution.png
and not a linear distribution? | The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution describes a classical ideal gas at equilibrium. The energies of a classical ideal gas are not quantized.
Even in the case of quantum gases (Bose or Fermi), the equilibrium distribution function for an ideal gas is a continuous function. The energy levels of a particle in a box are quantized, but in the limit where the box size goes to infinity, you have a continuous energy spectrum. | 24 | 16 |
ELI5: How come our eyes can scroll when focusing on a moving object, but we can't casually scroll our eyes when not focusing on something? | The control systems for your eyes are *specifically adapted* to help you fix your vision on specific objects so you can see them. There is no advantage to being able to move your eyes arbitrarily, so the control system has no special features to make this easy. | 129 | 247 |
|
When you shine light at a mirror, does the amount of light in the room change? | This seems like a dumb question. But what if you looked at the light and it's reflection in the same visual frame? Then would the amount of light be double? | The number of photons emitted - what you perceive as "light" - would be unchanged. The mirror would only distribute them differently. So the perceived increase in brightness from the reflection in the mirror is offset by the shadow the mirror casts. | 11 | 21 |
CMV: If we believe helping victims of crimes is important, we ought to support restorative justice | *I'm writing this from Australia, but this is equally meant for people in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and wherever else.*
**Quick Introduction**
Restorative justice basically advocates for the placing of the victim and offender of a crime in a kind of therapy together where they discuss what happened, why it happened and how it affected them.
**Basic Argument**
* Premise 1: We ought to make our justice system increase victim satisfaction and health
* Premise 2: Restorative justice increases victim satisfaction
* Conclusion: If we ought to increase victim satisfaction, we should support restorative justice
**The evidence**
A 2007 meta-study of all research projects concerning restorative justice conferencing published in English between 1986 and 2005 found positive results, specifically for victims:
* Greater ability to return to work, to resume normal daily activities, and to sleep.
* No cases of offenders verbally or violently abusing victims.
* Reduced fear of the offender (especially for violence victims); lower perceived likelihood of another offense; increased sense of security; reduced anger towards the offender; greater sympathy for the offender and the offender's supporters; greater feelings of trust in others; increased feelings of self-confidence; reduced anxiety.
[https://www.iirp.edu/pdf/RJ\_full\_report.pdf](https://www.iirp.edu/pdf/RJ_full_report.pdf)
What do you think? | Restorative justice isn't therapy--it's the concept of making the victim whole again, often through the repayment of the value of whatever was lost as a result of the crime. Sometimes meetings can be involved to determine how best to meet that goal, but it's more likely that they are for mediation, which is a method of having two parties discuss disputes through a third person to meet a settlement.
The source you cited says "The review employs a broad definition of restorative justice (RJ), including victim-offender mediation, indirect communication through third parties, and restitution or reparation payments ordered by courts or referral panels. Much of the available and reasonably unbiased evidence of RJ effects on repeat offending comes from tests of face-to-face conferences of victims, offenders and others affected by a crime, most of them organised and led by a police officer; other tests cited involve court-ordered restitution and direct or indirect mediation."
It's not a therapy session, but a system in which instead of punishing the offender with a retributive mindset, they instead have the offender personally make the victim whole again. | 13 | 89 |
ELI5: After fetal surgery, how do Doctors seal up the amniotic sac? How do they make sure there is enough amniotic fluid during and post surgery so fetus doesn't get exposed to breathing in air? | There are a few types of fetal surgery. One type can be done basically laparoscopically, and the small hole in the amniotic sac will usually seal itself, preserving most of the fluid.
The second type of fetal surgery is done similar to a c-section. The incision in the uterus is done to expose as little of the fetus as possible while still allowing the surgery to be performed. For example, surgery for spina bifida only exposes a small part of the spine. Once complete, the amniotic sac and uterus are stitched back up and most of the fluid is preserved, ideally.
The final type of fetal surgery is more "partial birth" and is called an EXIT procedure. In this case the surgery is followed by immediate delivery of the baby so the amniotic fluid is no longer necessary.
All of these are risky, with the biggest risks being premature rupture of membranes, preterm labor and birth, or fetal demise. Most fetuses can survive for some time without amniotic fluid as well, although this carries additional risks. In all of these surgeries (if the fetus is viable) there is a neonatal team standing by in case emergent delivery is necessary, in which case they will attempt to resuscitate the baby and provide care in the NICU.
Source: NICU RN | 49 | 117 |
|
ELI5: What's the difference between a recession and a depression? | Length and intensity. The generally-agreed-upon definition for a recession (the one that is used by the National Bureau of Economic Research) is two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. There isn't really an agreed-upon definition for depressions, but if the recession lasts a long time (more than two years or so) or is particularly deep (real GDP declines by more than 10 percent or so), people will call it a depression. | 156 | 357 |
|
What do ambassadors do? Why are countries removing Syria's ambassadors? | So obviously its a reaction to recent horrible events in Syria. But is this anything more than a token gesture or might the action of removing Syria's ambassadors have genuine results.
I don't really know what ambassadors do in the first place to comment on the effectiveness of kicking one of them out. | 1. Ambassadors present in a country means that you have diplomatic relations of some sort with that country and can communicate directly with it via the ambassador. It generally signals a net positive relationship between two countries.
2. The building the ambassador resides in is considered to be sovereign territory of the ambassadors homeland. So for instance, the german embassy in australia is technically on german soil. This is why we have dissidents able to flee to an embassy of another country and not immediately get arrested by their own government - to do so would technically be an invasion of sovereign territory.
3. Embassies are used to help facilitate tourism by giving tourists a safe haven should something go wrong either legally or whatever.
4. If you pull your ambassador out of a target country, you are effectively saying that you are so pissed off that you wont even talk. This is *sometimes* a prelude to war. Removing ambassadors for any reason is considered a very extreme act because it signals the end of all possible diplomatic discussion.
5. It is extremely rare for a country to kick out ambassadors, but it does happen. Usually because the embassy was housing spies or doing some other action that was harmful to the target country. | 10 | 18 |
ELI5: Why is hand-made stuff "better" than machine-made stuff? | A lot of high end suits and shoes brag that they're hand-made. Why is this better than machine-made, where the machine will do things precisely, while the man making it could make mistakes? | Machine-made generally means something that's designed for mass manufacturing. There are shortcuts in the design, because it has to be efficient to manufacture in quantity. The materials involved also have to be suitable for mass manufacturing and, ideally, inexpensive.
A good craftsman can do much better work. This involves skill, time, and generally better materials, because there's no point in wasting skill and time on inferior work. | 97 | 71 |
ELI5:How does our body gain tolerance for things? (alcohol, Caffeine, drugs, etc) | There are proteins in your body called enzymes. There are many enzymes in your body that breakdown drugs so your body can get rid of them. When you ingest more of a certain chemical over a period of time, your body makes more of the enzymes that are used to break them down. Since the chemical is being broken down more quickly, you need more of the compound to get the same effect. | 14 | 39 |
|
ELI5: How can people be allergic to things like Fish or Apples raw but not allergic to their cooked counter parts or vice versa? | If you are allergic to something, your body overreacts when detecting certain chemicals. Chemicals such as proteins in food are denatured and change structure when cooked, so the body recognises it as a completely different substance. | 19 | 21 |
|
ELI5 Scientific realism vs Scientific anti-realism and the arguments for and against them. | The way these terms are normally understood is like this:
> Scientific realism is the thesis that the (theoretical) objects that we study in science are in fact real; that is, when we discover that (say) electrons have spin, we are discovering real properties of real objects.
> Scientific anti-realism is the thesis that the (theoretical) objects that we study in science are constructions that are useful to us in representing and explaining the world around us.
Most scientific realists will tell you that they aren't committed to *every* object that science studies. Some are better confirmed than others.
Usually, the main argument given for scientific realism is the "no miracles" argument: it would be a miracle is somehow this vast lie we've been telling ourselves happened to consistently have true results in the way that science has had. Anti-realists respond by pointing out that the whole point of science (in their view) is to produce the sort of results that we're talking about, meaning that the lie is told precisely because it is useful.
All of that is overly simplified, but you did say ELI5. | 22 | 18 |
|
Why is slightly rotating things while pulling out easier, than only pulling without rotating? | Sry for MY bad english. And thanks for any reply! | For a variety of frictional and adhesive forces, the strength of the force is reduced once an object is in motion. Additionally, for a wide enough object, it's generally easier to exert a torque to produce twisting than a linear force for pulling, because torque increases with the radius of rotation, independent of applied force. The twisting motion makes the object move, reducing the adhesive force, which then makes pulling easier. | 100 | 133 |
Eli5: When a house gets completely burned down, how can experts figure out where the fire originated? | I am a licensed General Contractor, noticed the responses didn't give any insight as to what fire inspectors look for so i thought i would try to. To start, one must understand how houses are built to a small degree. By today's standards, all materials are built with materials that have a fire rating. Drywall for example is comprised of approximately 1/5th water, when it burns the water converts to steam slowing the fires ability to spread. This also means that each material reacts differently to heat and flame over time. Fire inspectors have the knowledge of what materials look like after being exposed to different temperatures at different lengths of time. Similar to how an ice cube will melt faster on a hot day than a cold one, fiberglass insulation, OSB, and framing studs burn at different rates. When homes are being built they add "fire barriers" to slow the burn. Fire calk and fire resistant insulation between levels of a home is a good example of this. These slow down the fire, so the materials toward the origin of the fire will have been exposed to more heat and flame for a longer period of time so the damage will be more severe. another thing they look for are common causes each with their own signs. For example an electrical fire will show signs of arcing or "black marks" on the walls etc. Hope this helped a little bit. | 51 | 108 |
|
ELI5: Why is it that modern professional athletes are/seem so much more talented than original teams in the past? | I understand that equipment gets better in relation to better technology but why does it seem that, for example, a modern NHL player would just absolutely demolish a player from, say, 1975. Are there other underlying reasons why it seems that modern teams are more talented than their predecessors?
BASICALLY, why is it that the overall skill level seems so much higher in today's professional sports? | Money, technology, retained knowledge, cooperation between sports and other fields.
A professional athlete from 1975 probably started playing when they were young, then started taking it seriously when they got higher up in rank. At the same time, they were probably working to support themselves. A modern pro-athlete will have spent a lot more time training by the time they are 18, then they are compensated a lot to maintain an intense training schedule.
When the athletes are training, they now have cheap stopwatches, flat springy surfaces to train on, isolation machines to grow specific muscles, ect, ect. This is much better than what was available in the past.
The coaches and trainers and even parents of athletes have the benifit of looking back at past athletes to see what training methods worked and which didn't. Therefor, the modern athlete will be given better instruction during their training with less chance of injury.
Fields like medicine, engineering and nutrition have all contributed to the pool of knowledge that the athletes, coaches and trainers can draw from. Some things are simple like the lesson of tackling lower to give you more leverage. Other things are more complicated like supplementation in the diet of creatine, protein, ect.
| 40 | 68 |
Can metals be transparent? If not what quality do substances like glass have that allow them to be transparent? | Well, it depends how you want to define metals.
Can metals in compounds be transparent? Yes. Corundum (ruby, sapphire) for example contains aluminum and is transparent, or coloured transparent depending on impurities which are other metals. Gypsum (when not more of a powder) is transparent and contains calcium. Countless other metals in the form of salts/rocks/gemstones are transparent/translucent.
Are pure metals transparent? No, ,not in any meaningful thickness. Metals have electrons in a very open energy band under normal conditions, which means electrons are free to move. This gives metals most of their notable properties, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, malleability, reflectivity, and opaqueness. Light is an electromagnetic wave, which mean it has oscillating electric fields. Metals contain free electrons which respond to the electrical field in such a way to generate an opposing field and expel the electric field, which means light has little penetration (opaque) and a lot of reflection (silver colour). All metals electrons have a maximum light frequency which the electrons can no longer move fast enough to respond, typically happening in the UV region. Some metals have this occur in the visible region in the blue end, meaning the absorb rather than reflect blue making them gold/copper coloured rather than silver. So for the most part, all metals are very opaque and a highly reflective silver or sometime gold colour. | 35 | 22 |
|
What experiment shows that gravity travels at the speed of light? | I've seen it mentioned on this forum that gravity travels at c, but I'm not sure how anyone could set up an experiment to confirm that. Do we have experimental evidence, or is it more of a "well, according to our theories, it should behave this way" kind of thing? | Gravitational waves have yet to be experimentally observed, but the purpose of experiments that are attempting to do so (such as LIGO) is to use these waves as telescopes, not as confirmations of General Relativity. General Relativity has been confirmed in many other ways by many other experiments, and also happens to predict gravitational waves propagating at speed c. Given its extraordinary previous predictive success, there is not reason to believe that it is wrong in this instance. | 14 | 44 |
ELI5: Why were scientists able to make the fusion H-bomb in the 1950's but have not yet created a working nuclear fusion reactor? What are the major challenges of the second that don't appear in the first? | ELI5: Why were scientists able to make the fusion H-bomb in the 1950's but have not yet created a working nuclear fusion reactor? What are the major challenges of the second that don't appear in the first? | > What are the major challenges of the second that don't appear in the first?
1. Detonating a 50 kiloton fission first stage to pump a deuterium fusion stage is generally considered to be unfavorable as a method to jumpstart a commercial fusion reactor due to the tendency of this technology to fucking turn the town into a crater.
2. A thermonuclear device only needs to work for a fraction of a second. Sustaining the reaction indefinitely is way harder, though less exciting-looking. | 136 | 24 |
ELI5: How can a game like FFXV be in development for 10+ years and stay graphically up to date? | In the modern age, code and code-based projects are incredibly modular. You can work on gameplay systems without touching graphics systems. In fact, gameplay systems that are affected by graphics systems would likely be poor design as a change to the graphical system could mess up code in other areas. | 50 | 61 |
|
ELI5: What are REITs(Real Estate Investment Trust)? | So lets say that you are an investor, and you would like to purchase a Skyscraper or a Shopping Mall but you either don't have the millions of dollars it would cost to buy one or you don't want to spend the millions of dollars required on just 1 building.
A REIT is where you and other investors can get together and pool your funds to purchase either a single building that you would otherwise not be able to afford or to invest in a range of properties that you would otherwise not be able to afford.
There are 2 other important advantages to REITs:
1) They are liquid - once you buy a shopping mall or even just a single residential investment property they can be very difficult to sell. It can take a long time and cost a whole lot of money. Often REITs are listed on Stock Exchanges so they can be easily bought and sold just like a stock in a company.
2) REITs are professionally managed so you don't have to worry about personally managing the property. | 10 | 29 |
|
Why is everybody watching resale value of the car and not driving it until it falls apart? | Why is everyone obsessed with resell value of their new car?
Why is everyone buying new cars just to sell them after 3 or 5 years?
Why is everyone buying car using credit/loans when you know it depreciates in value.
When I buy car, I buy it for its lifetime until it rust and it literally falls apart.
Why dont people resell their washing machines or refridgerators? | 1-newer cars get better gas mileage
2-newer cars require less maintenance than old cars (cars don't nickel and dime you, they result many times in thousands of dollars of repairs when things start breaking down)
3-Older cars are not as safe as newer ones
4- Auto loans for 2% or less interest loans can be a decent bargain for many people (if that is what they prefer to do) | 37 | 31 |
Why are the males of some species bigger and stronger, but in other species, it's the females that are big and powerful? | What exactly makes it more advantageous for some species to have strong males and weaker females, while some other species have huge females and relatively puny males? | There are a variety of reproductive strategies which lead to different types of sexual dimorphism. In many species, males have to fight with other males in order to establish dominance, which allows them to mate with females. Hence, there is evolutionary pressure for males to become bigger and stronger. But if we consider a spiders, for example, males do not fight with each other, they just mate at will. The female spider needs to be larger than the male because the eggs which the female will lay are much larger than the seminal fluid that the male needs to produce, and there is a biological cost to producing those eggs, which requires the female to be able to consume more food, and to hunt more effectively. | 19 | 45 |
ELI5: Why does too much direct sunlight fade out the colours? | Colors are created molecules in the material, called "Pigments". These molecules are just atoms bound together in a special way, kind of like they are holding hands.
Sunlight is a mixture of different forms of light energy, called radiation. One specific form of light energy is called "Ultraviolet Light" and it's just the perfect size and power of radiation to smack into the atomic hand-holds and separate them. So UV light breaks up the pigment molecules and since they are different now, they don't make the same colors they used to. | 50 | 27 |
|
Why do top economics journals publish articles that seem tangentially related to economics? | For example, [this article in the QJE] (https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/136/2/1199/6039346?redirectedFrom=fulltext) looks at the impact of sentencing rule violations on recidivism. [This AER article] (https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20181607) measures racial bias in policing. [This AER article] (https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20180284) looks at the legacy of colonial medicine in Africa.
These all seem like important topics and I can see how they are related to broader economic issues (e.g. racial bias in policing leads to disproportionate arrests which weakens the economic power of the targeted community; distrust of medical institutions make a population more prone to illness and thus less productive), but they don't seem like economics in the traditional sense that most people would think of. Am I missing the bigger picture here?
*Note: I don't mean to pick on these authors in particular. I was just looking at some recent issues of the two top journals I'm familiar with and these articles stood out to me.* | Economics is defined more by its approach than anything else. Macroeconomics studies what the layperson thinks of when they hear "economics" but micro studies pretty much anything related to human decision-making. Add in the empirical approaches of econometrics, pretty much all social science can be studied through an economic lens.
That said, even respectable academics are sometimes justifiably critical of the relevance of some publications. The editors are human and often make unpopular decisions based on their own judgment/bias.
edit: on second thought, economic research has to involve some decision-making agent on top of mathematical rigor. After all, theoretical physics is structurally modeling physical processes and pure reduced-form modeling is just statistics. | 97 | 83 |
What distinguishes philosophy from the social sciences? | A good example would be political philosophy vs political science or philosophy of mind vs cognitive psychology. I have a feeling that empirical research (being a tool of science) may be the answer but am unsure. | Political science looks at different forms of government, demographics and voting trends, policies and their outcomes, etc. Political philosophy and theory deals with questions like what is power and how does it operate, what is the moral or ethical basis for political legitimacy, what metaphysical or epistemological ideas underpin our political beliefs, etc. | 39 | 48 |
According to Foucault, what factors led to punishment shifting from public torture to more ‘humane’ and private forms of punishment? | I’m reading through Discipline and Punish and am finding some of it quite dense. A brief summary of some of his arguments would be very helpful :) | In Discipline and Punish, Foucault appears to put forward the proposition that, while judicial respect for the humanity of the criminal certainly draws support from the empathic inclinations of the psyche, the transition from excessively brutal public executions to highly constrained and inconspicuous legal procedures resulted mainly from the necessity to maintain social order, during the unprecedented growth of technologically-complex economies.
That is to say, in relation to the health of economic and political structures, the unmitigated power of the sovereign, manifested in the barbarous acts committed on the judicial scaffolds, was as destabilising a force as the criminality it intended to suppress, due to its despotically inconsistent nature and the empathy -induced anarchy that it tended to elicit among the witnesses; therefore, an increase in economic complexity, lead to the necessary development of an increasingly differentiated and consistent judiciary. | 29 | 61 |
Why is Watson considered the father of behaviorism? |
I'm taking AP Psych, and I can't figure out why Watson is regarded as the father of behaviorism when Pavlov experimented with classical conditioning before Watson and helped in switching the focus of psychology from introspection to objective observation. Does anyone know why Watson is considered the father of behaviorism and not Pavlov? | Watson was the first person to identify reinforcement/punishment (operant conditioning principles). Essentially, he realized if good things followed behavior, the organism would do it more and if bad things followed, they would do it less
Pavlov was the first person to identify respondent conditioning, but this part is not as heavily focused on as operant conditioning. His is more about how the presentation of a stimulus causes a response, and how those effects can transfer to new stimuli. E.g. the smell of food causes salivation, but when paired with a bell, the bell can cause salivation.
BF Skinner is actually most commonly referred to as the father of behaviorism. His whole life's work was dedicated to refining what we know about operant conditioning, its nuances, and the types of experiments that behavioral psychologists use | 22 | 19 |
ELI5:Whats the difference between Christianity and Orthodox Christianity? | The meaning of "Orthodox" in the Christian teaching is to denote a kind of Christianity that, according to the speaker, is close to the early Christian beliefs. This means that many different branches of Christianity are likely to regard themselves as orthodox, even if they are at odds with each other regarding theological matters.
"Orthodox Christianity" is often used to refer to the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is one of the branches of Christianity, one that is mainly practiced in Eastern Europe, Greece and Russia. In this sense of "Orthodox", the question about the difference between Christianity and Orthodox Christianity is similar to asking "what's the difference between a sandwich and a ham sandwich?". Eastern Orthodox Christianity is one of the branches of Christianity.
Basically, like the Roman Catholic church, it believes it is the kind of Christianity that carries on the original intent and authority of Christ and His apostles. Unlike the Roman Catholic church, it is not united under the authority of a single pope, but rather it is a group of related churches with their own religious leaders. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church (which also calls itself the Catholic Church) were joined together in most matters until 1054, when they split due to disagreements. One of those was the issue of the authority of the Pope. | 12 | 24 |
|
ELI5: Why are TV Sitcoms always 30 minutes long and Dramas generally 60? | Has their ever been a 60 minute comedy? This was kind of a random shower thought I had this morning, but seemed like a question worth asking. | Dramas need more time to show a problem, explain how the problem is being solved, and then the outcome of the situation. To get enough details in there 48 minutes (for an hour show) is a good amount of time.
If you've ever watched a comedy film you'll realize that the first half is almost always funnier than the second half. This is because the end of shows need to resolves the problem created in the first half. Creating problems is funnier than solving them. Sitcoms are 30 minutes because anything longer means the characters need to solve a larger problem which means more unfunny time. This is why there are so many very short comedy clips (like Chapelle's Show, SNL, etc). Less time = more jokes without needing to resolve any problems on the show. | 47 | 28 |
How do you judge the PhD options? Basically, choosing among 2 options, with different pros and cons, I was wondering which factors to value more. | Some of the pointers I have in mind:
* Prestige of the university (which can effect citations)
* Supervisor (particularly, how active he is himself in both publishing and hands-on support, and how good is connections are, also I think that in turn will also effect citations)
* Country of the institute
I am interested in both topics so there is no issues there. There is also the element of my own research work. I believe that is most important but I don't know if it overshadows prestige of university etc.
If there are some factors I should consider let me know. | Advisor advisor advisor. Simply how well you will be able to work with them. That includes productivity, topics, but also interpersonal relationships. It includes how strong the other faculty and chair and structures are for the department and university. The question here is really do you see yourself enjoying working here for several years even though you think you are being underpaid, overworked, etc.
After that it’s ability to make ends meet. Are there assistantships? Will you be able to get a part time job in the program? How expensive is the city/town? You should not go into any debt for a graduate program in STEM. | 64 | 32 |
ELI5: How do hand-drawn animation studios keep a frame-by-frame consistency in art style with so many artists? | So for big movies like "The Princess & The Frog" or hand-drawn cartoons like Adventure Time or Stephen Universe, or even anime, every production has its own unique art style, the way characters and environtments are drawn, etc. But if you have a studio with 50-100 animators working on a project (I have no idea on the actual number of artists that work on these types of projects) how does each frame end up looking like it was done by one artist, as opposed to 50 different people drawing the same character? I guess I mean to ask how does a studio account for individual differences between artists when making a uniform production? | Being able to emulate any given style is simply a bsic skill that a professional artist in many areas has to learn. Additionally there are lead animators and animation directors whose job it is to enforce a consistent style. | 14 | 23 |
ELI5: Maybe explain like I'm 1 years old... Just read an article on a team of researchers who recently created a video of a Space-Time crystal. Pls can someone explain in the most basic way possible what a time crystal is? I've read previous ELI5 posts on this and I still don't understand :( | Link to article is [here](https://scitechdaily.com/see-worlds-first-video-of-a-space-time-crystal/). | A crystal is a material whose internal structure is a highly ordered geometric pattern. So, like a regular crystal's atomic structure repeats in space, a "time crystal" is an atomic structure that repeats in *time*. It's a set of atoms that seem to go change between several different configurations and do so in a loop that repeats forever.
I really don't know how that works, at all | 62 | 65 |
Why is lobbying legal? ELI5 please | Lobbyists are good because they can explain things to a Congressperson in a way which makes a Congressperson understand and care about the things. Lobbyists are supposed to help Congresspeople understand things so they can vote responsibly on a topic on which they are not experts.
Lobbyists have a bad reputation because of some of the bad things some have done in order to get the Congressperson to care and vote a certain way. | 52 | 78 |
|
ELI5: Why are seas different from open ocean? Why do we name some swaths of water but not others? | This has been on my mind for a while, and I've never gotten a real answer. Why do we name seemingly arbitrary places in the water a sea? Are there any differences between the sea and another part of the ocean? Why are these artificial boundaries created? | We name all swaths of water. Locals will often name stock ponds and tanks.
A sea is smaller than an ocean and separated/partially separated from it in some way.
These boundaries are created like all boundaries are and are just as arbitrary. Boundaries show who owns what area, clarify the location you are talking about, and help general navigation. | 14 | 47 |
[Star Trek] Why don't the Klingons consider their cloaking devices cowardly and dishonorable? | Any hunter will know that camouflage, hiding from, and stalking your prey is part of the hunt. A warrior knows that subterfuge and stealth are the hallmarks of the greatest combatants. Only the brash young fools charge headlong into every battle. Some of them survive long enough to become wise to tactics.
A Klingon grows to learn that there is a difference between dishonor and stupidity. | 88 | 54 |
|
CMV: Listening to audio books is not as good as reading books | Okay, this may sound controversial, but I have my reasoning for saying this.
First of all, this doesn't include people that ~~cannot physically read~~ find it easier to listen. Obviously audio books are better for them, and that's fine.
You cannot simply sit down and listen to an audio book, you can only listen to them when you are doing something. This is because they are often read at a very slow pace, far slower than anyone actually reads, and it would be better to just read the book if you have time (rather than just sit there and listen to someone read it). This causes some issues to occur, starting from this dilating your attention span. You begin to do multiple things at once, which inevitably means that the effectiveness of one action becomes worse. You can't focus on one thing while simultaneously doing another, unless you want to have a worse result. Let's say I was both reading about a concept in physics, and listening about a concept in chemistry. I could either entirely ignore one and get a better understanding of the other, or get a worse understanding of both. This means that by listening to an audio book you aren't actually appreciating the book itself or any meaning it may have, you are simply understanding it on a surface level (that deepens depending on how little effort you put into another activity).
I would like for you to try to convince me otherwise, or tell me some uses for audio books that are beneficial. More beneficial than reading books that is. | If you have a commute, listening to an audio book can be a great option as it's one less thing to carry, you can listen and drive, or if you are on mass transit, you don't have all the disruption of bouncing around while trying to read the page (which lowers the chance of eye strain and motion sickness). | 10 | 46 |
Can you create DNA in a lab? | With companies such as 23andMe mapping your genes, could someone take that raw data and artificially recreate your dna?
What would be the implications of such a thing? | Yes, you can synthesize DNA in the lab.
But mostly it's shorter stretches, from 10s to 100s of basepairs. They are widely used in molecular biology and genetics labs.
If you want to generate a whole genome from scratch that's a bit more complicated. Genomes can be very large and repetitive which can make quality control more tedious. | 150 | 139 |
CMV: Holding the maximisation of economic growth as an immutable imperative of society will ultimately lead to humanity's downfall | Humanity is currently faced with an ever-growing list of existential crises, the large majority of which are related either directly or indirectly to the rapid growth of the global economy and population. The sluggishness of humanity's response to many of these makes our chances of overcoming them slim in my view.
While it can be argued that technology brings about new solutions (e.g. developments in new antibiotics, green energy, desalination), most of these are stop-gaps and not tackling the root cause of the issue (e.g. abuse of antibiotics in livestock herds across the world, energy companies like Shell stymieing adoption of solar power and climate research for decades, continued excessive use of fresh water for brewing alcohol, bottling soft drinks, and industry).
Off my head I can currently think of:
* climate change
* growing antibiotic resistance in bacteria
* the replacement of millions of hectares of lush rainforest with grazing land for a homogeneous population of livestock and all the accompanying piss and shit and gas they produce
* deoxygenation of the ocean
* massive loss in biodiversity, both plant and animal
* falling population of pollenating insects
* catastrophic loss of coral reefs
* potential impending collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet
* soil degradation and salination
* widespread loss of fresh water, both terrestrial and in aquifers
* plastic pollution
* industrial chemical pollution
* potential release of methane clathrates stored in permafrost
* increased desertification
* and an ever-growing population on top of all this
I realise that a lot of these issues are interconnected by their nature, but I feel they all merit mentioning.
Essentially I believe that this pattern of humanity achieving "mastery" over nature, only for it to repay us in unforseen circumstances further down the line will continue as long as we hold the maximisation of economic growth as one of the main societal drivers. I'm not an economist so the following statements are likely where I will most easily change my view, but it seems to me that any savings in the efficiency of industrial processes brought about by technological advancement are reinvested to grow the industry, and while that happens in an unrestrained manner humanity will continue to grow unsustainably. My example would be the growth of the solar panel industry, which of course is great for reducing CO2 emissions worldwide, but makes use of minerals that often come from unethical sources such as the Congolese rainforest and harm the environment in a different way, whilst failing to fully address the root cause of the problem which is the massive energy requirements of human civilisation.
The alternative is not pleasant either, any kind of restructuring of society on this scale is like to be horrifying in the human cost. It would require those in the developed world to either "pull the ladder up" on the developing world which they plundered over the last few centuries, or for global wealth redistribution and the inevitable violence that would ensue. So please, CMV because it's a really miserable view to have.
Edit: formatting, sorry my first time posting
_____
> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[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)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | Your list of problems themselves necessitate solutions, and whichever areas humanity needs solutions for is itself a new market for growth. So it can't be growth itself that will lead to our downfall. Growth means problems are being solved, that the world is getting better.
Your list may indeed be problems today, but the existential crisis of each is less than the severity of the existential crisis that was solved in the past. And when we solve these crisis, we will no doubt create new ones, but these will be less severe on the whole too.
Those past existential crisis that we solved included: shorter lifespans, floods, diseases and plagues, famines and starvations, that wiped out millions upon millions year after year, that caused wars and raping, cannibalism and chaos and just truly horrific suffering that is barely believable today, really "immediacy" existential threat level stuff.
It is not growth but the opposite, stagnation, that will lead to our downfall - when we stop fighting to overcome existential threats, when we give up or are too chained to fight.
As each one on your list becomes more threatening, so does the value in action, and so does the economic incentive to act. None of the issues on your list are insurmountable when solving them becomes profitable.
| 14 | 114 |
ELI5:What does it mean when a city is incorporated or unincorporated and why do they post signs stating "Blank City Corporate Limits"? | I see signs in my travels stating "Blank city corporate limits" what does it mean for a city/town to be incorporated or unincorporated and why are the limits of it important? | An incorporated city has a charter from the state and a proper municipal government that exercises powers within the boundaries of the city's incorporated area.
An unincorporated area is not a city. It doesn't have a municipal government, and is governed as part of the county in which it is located. | 13 | 26 |
With our current capabilities, would we be able to tell that our own system contained a habitable planet if we were a number of light years away? From how far out would be be able to identify this? | What would we be able to tell about our own system and its planets if we were in another system? Would we be able to identify the number of planets or would we only see the effects of the gas giants? | This has been the subject of multiple spacecraft investigations.
Both the Galileo mission and the EPOXI mission observed Earth to determine if they could detect signatures of life from only spectra of our planet to determine its chemical make up.
A few things stand out strongly among those:
- Free Oxygen in the atmosphere. It's very rare to find this, since oxygen is incredibly reactive with just about everything. One would expect it to quickly decay, but the abundance in our atmosphere suggests some very interesting process must be producing it.
- Free Methane in our atmosphere. Methane on its own isn't all that uncommon (the outer planets all have a good deal) but it simply shouldn't exist in the presence of free oxygen without some process actively producing it to keep the planet in "chemical disequilibrium".
- The Red Edge. Chlorophyll produces a distinct spectral feature in the red part of the spectrum. This isn't the strongest signature of life (other chemicals can produce similar features), but when combined with free oxygen, is a very strong indicator of plant life.
The red edge is probably the easiest feature to detect, but also the weakest evidence of life of the three. Exoplanet spectra are pretty ratty right now, and generally not good enough to pick up anything but the red edge (particularly for Earth-sized planets), but give it 10-15 years. Once the James Webb Space Telescope and the ELT come online, we should be able to pick up more of these definitive spectral features on exoplanets at least a few hundred light-years away. | 11 | 35 |
ELI5: What are the "means of production" in Socialist theory applied to a post-industrial economy such as the UK? | Means of production is just a society's ability to produce (things of) value. Everything from ideas to resources to individual effort is part of the collective "means of production."
I'd say it's about the same; however globalization is reducing geographical limits on Means of Production. | 12 | 44 |
|
ELI5: how does saline mix (salt and water) helps with healing sores such as wisdom tooth extractions or episiotomy? | I have had wisdom tooth extraction, navel piercing and episiotomy. In all instances my doctor/administrators said to soak the area with a saline mix. What's the benifit of doing that? | At the cellular level, concentration gradients are critical for cellular function. Saline is isotonic with human blood, meaning that it has roughly the same concentration of salt and water in solution as blood does- so there is effectively no difference between the two.
This means saline doesn't disrupt those concentration gradients by sucking water or electrolytes out of your cells or forcing them in. This is great for wound irrigation, since you can wash away dirt and bacteria without damaging your cells as they heal. | 297 | 246 |
ELI5: what are wormholes, and are they real? | A wormhole is basically a hole that connects two places in space time. It has an opening at both ends, with a tunnel between the two. In theory, it's meant to join two far apart places, because traveling through it is meant to be much quicker than traveling as the crow flies, some scientists even postulating that traveling through them could enable faster than light travel.
It's all theory. There's never been an observed wormhole. Physicists have done equations and things in which a wormhole could feature, but we've never seen one and have no definitive proof they exist. | 12 | 30 |
|
ELI5: Can radiant heat also be incandescent heat? | I know toasters use incandescense to toast the bread, but other websites say that toasters use radiant heat. Which one is it? Can it be both? Please explain!
Thanks! | Radiant heat is heat applied over a distance by radiation, such as infrared as compared to direct contact.
Incandescent heat is generated by heating something, generally a metal filament, hot enough that it glows. This generates radiant heat; all incandescent heat is radiant heat, but not all radiant heat is generated via incandescence. | 11 | 31 |
Why is general knowledge important? | There is a peculiar sentiment in modern day America. No matter your occupation, you are expected to *keep up* with everything. World events, medical knowledge, the economy, social issues, pop culture, everyone from professional bimbos to plumbers to public officials to that smartass at your local bar has to have their own take on every issue under the sun. Why?
I thought the whole point about specialization is that everyone gets their own domain to work in. Woodcutters cut wood, farmers mess around with eggs, prostitutes fondle balls, and doctors do the same but with latex gloves.
What is the philosophical justification for this? I was scorned recently for not knowing what **drinking the kool-aid** refers to. Bitch, I am a swimming instructor, not a historian. | In one way, it's valuable to be social. It's useful to communicate and connect with others to have a vague set of knowledge that one can participate in with anyone in general. You're sitting at an airport waiting on your flight and the guy next to you also looks bored as hell so you might endeavor to broach a conversation on the event of the time, maybe the baseball playoffs, an election, some scandal in the media. General knowledge is a pool which anyone of a specialization, or even no specialization, can drink from and be a society.
In another way, it's valuable to the human experience. What's a well-lived life if it stays in one corner, in one profession and carries out its duty until it dies? Maybe knowing a range, but maybe not everything, can give us a well-rounded perspective on being a person? We, by our nature, are intellectually curious, sexually curious, ingenuitive, artistic, political, and so on. Why should we relegate our humanity into boxes beyond what's economically convenient? | 21 | 17 |
How does fabric softener work? | So fabric has lots of little fibers of which it consists. If you look at your clothes, you'll see little short tiny fibers sticking out in all kinds of directions. Fabric softeners cause all those little fibers to more prominently 'stick up', as opposed to being more 'pressed against' the fabric. As more of those fibers stick up, the fabric feels softer as those fibers provide some bounce and rebound when we touch it.
​
On a related note, silk feels extremely smooth because the fibers that make up the fabric tend to bind very well to the fabric - there aren't a lot of bits of fibers pointing off in random directions. | 16 | 21 |
|
ELI5: The Pros and Cons of Universal Healthcare. | Pros:
* Everyone has health care coverage.
* Catastrophic illnesses or accidents no longer bankrupt families.
* Theoretically, the state could drive preventative care programs as a way to reduce costs.
Cons:
* It costs money. Someone has to pay for this with taxes.
* The state gets even more involved in your private life.
* There may be moral hazard attached to getting something for free. | 171 | 220 |
|
[Wh40k] How does one combat warp corruption? | So, i just cleansed out a lot of heretics from a local jungle, but now i notice that the foul taint of the warp have taken root, both in their houses, the ground, the plants and the local people here. How do i proced to cleanse it?
DO i just fireblaze it all, even the ground? Carpetbomb it? Do i need to call in psykers to exorsit the area? Or special tech? Or do i need to get some blanks to suppress the warp taint? Or just close/destroy the source and let it vanish on it own?
I myself is a blank, although a weak one, but i am atleast protected from the taint. But i do need help with the rest of this place, casue the floor is starting to turn fleshy. Respond quick please. | There are three main ways to protect against corruption, brother:
* Ignorance
* Faith
* Bullets
It is the skillful application of these techniques on a large scale that mark a successful Inquisitor. One should first strive to make sure that the minds of the people are unaware of the horrors that lay beyond reality, that the abominations that should not be continue to be the abominations that aren't. Close off all avenues of information, contain all those who have seen the darker truths of the universe, purge all traces of evidence. You must excise the knowledge of what happened as though it were a cancerous lump.
Should that fail, should there be too much information and too many eyes sullied by the view of hell beyond the veil--you must strive to ensure that the people hold to their faith in the One Who Overcomes All Evils, the one who sits the throne of Terra and protects his children in his eternal benevolence. You must rally the priests who have gone silent in their chapels, you must school the cynical upon their folly, you must ask the Emperor to endow you with victories against evil and then praise his name in celebration, to remind the terrified to hope.
And if these two methods, tried and true as they are, fail to contain and cleanse the taint... *you must burn it out*. When the foulness has wormed its way into the masses, when the lines between the protected and the enemy become muddled, the only answer is to deny the hated enemy its victory. Blast the corrupted cities from orbit. Round the tainted survivors up and cull them. Gun down any who would attempt to flee, as *it* will hunt for any path of escape and propagation you allow it. This is an ugly task, but take heed that you do not lose yourself in sympathy for those dying. It clouds the mind, and prevents swift and efficient execution of the critical task. Take comfort in knowing that the Emperor will protect those innocents that die, and the salvation granted by death will be far greater than anything you could offer them in life. | 40 | 39 |
ELI5: Why do some people have such a difficulty remembering names? | I have real difficulty remembering names of people. It is really frustrating sometimes. Someone could introduce themselves, and halfway into the conversation, I would forget their name. I have friends who are able to instantly remember name that was mentioned once in a conversation and recall it years after.
Why? and is there a way to improve this? | Its probably the fact that a name is introduced first and then comes the information with which people recognize a person. Physical characteristics, voice, behavior and whatnot will leave a bigger impression than just a name. | 208 | 517 |
ELI5: What do we ACTUALLY know about anything regarding galaxies outside of the Milky Way? | And how the fuck do we know it? | We know whatever we can see. Some of what we know we know because we can *literally see it*, like with our own eyeballs through magnification. The rest comes from using machines to "see" light that our eyes aren't sensitive to, like radio.
So basically, we look, then we measure what we see, then we figure out what those measurements imply.
Fun fact: We know far *less* about our own galaxy and its neighbors than we know about galaxies tens of millions of light-years away. Why? Because we can *see* those far-away galaxies, while the up-close ones are obscured by nearby clutter. For instance, it was just discovered a few years ago that our own galaxy is even right now in the process of colliding with another galaxy which nobody ever knew was there. It was too close, too big-in-the-sky and too obscured by stuff in between for us to notice it until just a few years ago. | 47 | 48 |
Asked my chemistry teacher (first year of highschool) this "Why do we use the mole (unit) instead of just using the mass (grams) isn't it easier to handle given the fact that we can weigh it easily? why the need to use the mole?" And he said he "doesn't answer to stupid questions" | Did I ask a stupid question?
Edit: wow, didn't expect this to blow up like this, ty all for your explanations, this is much clearer now. I didn't get why we would use a unit that describes a quantity when we already have a quantity related unit that is the mass, especially when we know how to weight things. Thank you again for your help, I really didn't expect the reddit community to be so supportive. | We use moles instead of mass since it accurately shows how many molecules of a substance we have. The chemistry behind reactions is dependent on the number of molecules present, not their mass.
To put more simply, it's more important to know many ingredients you have for making a hamburger, then it is to know how much the ingredients weigh. It's more important to have two buns instead of just knowing you have 100g of buns.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the OPs question is not stupid, and is completely reasonable. As some others pointed it, it would be a good opportunity for the teacher to emphasize the importance of moles vs mass. | 32,734 | 23,932 |
CMV: There is no good enough reason to let parents refuse medical treatment for their children. | Get a second opinion, fine, but if an Md tells you your kid needs something and there’s no verified follow up made within a reasonable amount of time at that point it’s medical neglect and authorities should be required to step in.
My own parents refused to treat my adhd because of misinformation. We’ve got antivaxers and faith healers coming out the woodworks. I understand parents think they know what’s best but clearly that’s not always true.
People feeling entitled to have this right over their offspring as if they’re property is not healthy.
“Gubment can’t tell me how to raise my churn.”
You bet your ass it can and it should!
Edit: so I still think fundamentally that just because a parent says “I believe” that should be irrelevant to any medical care for their child. Freedom of speech/religion/belief be dammed I don’t give a fuck. However I have been shown that there’s a lot of nuance which is what I was hoping to learn about in the first place.
The lack of universal healthcare is a massive barrier, and sometimes there are interesting cases that present complicated ethical issues.
I don’t think the antivax crowd deserves the consideration or to be equivocated with Terri Schavo case, we seem to be worried about overstepping parental rights in this arena which is dumb imo
we also and there have CPS helping as someone said. This service is however underfunded and drowning. | Some points for your consideration
1: At one point in time gay-conversion therapy was considered real science.
2: In America activities like circumcision are considered the norm and were (for a while) recommended by doctors for genital health of boys.
3: Forced medical procedures HAVE been used by the US government to sterilize minorities and native Americans. | 12 | 35 |
[MCU] In Iron Man 2, what exactly does Tony do to create the new core for the arc reactor and how did he get that information from his dad’s old stuff from the World’s Fair? | I know it has something to do with rearranging the pavilions into a model of something but what exactly did he do? | Howard Stark's study of the Tesseract led him to theorize the existence of a new element that could serve as an exotic power source. At the time, however, there was no technology with which he could synthesize this theoretical element. What he hid in the pavilion was a model of the atom so that Tony could synthesize it in the future when the tech was available.
edit: He creates the new element by throwing together a makeshift particle accelerator in his basement. | 242 | 198 |
ELI5: Why cans/tins of foods such as soup and fruit, as well as jars of food, are mainly cylindrical rather than other forms, such as cuboidal. | Canning involves changing the pressure on the inside of the vessel, and using a shape that has edges makes those points weak spots which could collapse, crack, or break. By being round, all the pressure on them is distributed equally around, like an archway in a stone wall. It's also one of the most efficient storage shapes that has little wasted space but is still able to bear weight when stacking. | 24 | 17 |
|
ELI5: How do we know what names mean? E.g. Hercules wife was called deinara, which means husband destroyer. In ancient greece was this woman literally called husband-destroyer? | We do have lots of ancient texts which uses these words and some even explain the words directly. And "husband destroyer" is not any more unusual name then a lot of modern names like Patience, Faith, August, Angel, etc. However most modern names are traditional and even in other languages and the meaning is lost to us. But in the ancient world it was more common to have names that would be a word of phrase in the language as they did not have the big pool of names to draw from. | 6,406 | 15,612 |
|
Eli5: When falling asleep, how does your body know when you're taking a short nap (1-3 hours) vs actual deep sleep (6-8 hours) | The brain is more than just your conscious experience. Like right now, you're not consciously aware of it, but your brain has a goal of listening for your name being called (the cocktail party effect), and that's why you can hear your name even in a crowded, noisy room.
So even though your state of consciousness is "asleep," that doesn't mean your brain is inactive. It's actually doing quite a lot during sleep; including listening to the environment (I can yell to wake you up). And it can have a goal of waking up soon. However, it doesn't always work. sometimes you oversleep.
Finally, your body has a natural internal clock. If you sleep during the middle of the day to take a nap, your natural internal clock is going to want to wake you up soon anyway because it's your normal waking hours. Whereas at night (or whenever you normally sleep), your internal clock is ready for a longer sleep. | 123 | 50 |
|
ELI5: How does sleep affect muscle growth? | A certain sleep stage increases production of growth hormones, which promotes muscle growth. Also, adequte rest after working allows the body to repair the used muscles and consequently increases volume and strength. | 4,649 | 8,034 |
|
ELI5: What is the difference between the Classical concept of full employment and Keynesian concept of full employment | I am having a hard time on understanding the concept. I have minimal knowledge on economics and I am seeking here for an explanation about this. Thank you people. | In classical full employment, everyone has a job. In Keynesian full employment, everyone who wants a job has a job. If someone is moving from a Walmart stocker to spaceX engineer, it’s probably a good thing that they were unemployed for a month. | 187 | 232 |
If we can't get an ought from an is, how else do we get an ought? | For example, if an anti-realist says morals come from our emotions and empathy, and that we ought to follow these emotions and empathy, then isn't this also falling into the is-ought gap? | The is-ought gap describes the logical problem of not being able to justify a particular conclusion based on given premises.
So one way to approach this question would be to consider the possibility that at least some 'oughts' are basic or implicit rather than being conclusions that are produced _a posteriori_ after a due consideration of facts.
For example, you couldn't have articulated this question without already having implicitly accepted that you ought to drink and eat in order to survive. But this isn't the sort of ought that you arrived at as a logical conclusion; it's an ought that we can recognize as being implicit in your behavior and in your ongoing survival. | 10 | 17 |
Multiple ponds and lakes have been around for 100s if not 1000s of years, sediment goes into them every rainfall, how can they stay there so long and not fill in? | Short answer, compaction. Long answer is, it’s complicated and every system has different variables as to how much sediment is depositing, fluid flow in/out of the lake or pond. But in general, as sediments get buried by new incoming sediments, it compacts due to the weight of the Warner and sediments above which leads to a reduction of pore space between individual grains, thereby reducing its volume. | 20 | 16 |
|
ELI5: Why are there so many sex scandals within the Catholic Church and not as many reported with other religions? | I honestly want to know. | Doing a quick search will yield numerous sexual abuse cases involving other religions. Also if you are basing your sources off of western media sources then you need to remember that Catholicism is a much more popular religion than say Hinduism in major western societies which makes it a much more relevant topic to report. | 34 | 24 |
ELI5: Why do insects have much better vision than humans, despite having smaller eyes? | Depends on how you define “better”
Insects have compound eyes that have evolved a number of functions that human eyes don’t have.
Dragonflies have nearly 360 degree vision. Bees can see near-UV light. Moths can see in very low light conditions.
What they *don’t* typically have is depth and focus. Human eyes have a very different design and are built to track the 3D location of a single object. We do this incredibly well, and your visual distance and clarity blows away that of any insect.
You can’t see a full sphere around you at all times, but a dragonfly can’t focus on objects more than a few meters away. Insects live in a very small visual world.
And that’s just the best of them, many have terrible vision. | 41 | 27 |
|
Advice on improving Academic Writing! | I'm trying to form a habit to practice academic writing regularly. My experience so far has taught me that I need to focus on following things:
1. Grammar
2. Critical Thinking:to form sound arguments and synthesize material
3. Overcoming procrastination: because I'm absolutely terrified of writing.
I'm brushing up grammar and studying about critical thinking through MOOC courses. (I can link it up in the comments, if anyone is interested). However I've come to realization that I need to practice alongside learning all this. If not, this goal will easily take a backseat for me.
Presently I'm trying to follow Patricia Goodson's Becoming an Academic Writer. (I also intend on going though books by Paul Silivia and Helen Sword)
What I need help with:
1. I'm confused about what to tackle during these exercises (for example, setting aside time daily for writing). Should I work on some specific project or take on any random topic that comes to my mind?
2. What other aspects of writing and practice should I focus on?
(About me: I'm a psychology undergraduate, looking forward to start MSc in Clinical Psychology. English is not my first language) | You need to write alongside a good writer -- edit and criticize manuscripts together. Your mentor will tell you why your outline is trash because it does not flow logically; why each of your sentences make no sense and are ungrammatical; and why the words you choose are basic or invalid! You are trying to standardize it way too much -- writing is not a Science, you just have to write, then re-write, and have multiple audiences read your writing. Eventually you will have the audience's perspective in your mind and you will become a great writer! | 49 | 117 |
What's the difference between analyic vs synthetc, and , a priori vs a posteriori. They seem like the same concepts but just with different names | ***Analytic proposition*** is when a concept is contained within the subject
*"All humans on Earth are mammals"*
***Synthetic proposition*** is when the concept is not contained within the subject.
*"All humans within compound X are happy"* wherein happiness is not contingent upon being a human.
​
***A priori proposition*** is when a proposition does not require experience. This can be observed in mathematics such as "1 + 1 = 2"
***A posteriori proposition*** is when we have to prove through experience and requires perception to prove all humans in compound XYZ are in fact happy.
​
Hope this helps. | 14 | 18 |
|
ELI5: What philosophical concept is Sartre alluding to? | There is a famous anecdote Sartre (I think it was Sartre) used to explain some philosophical concept. Roughly, he describes a person ordering a coffee without cream. The waiter explains that they don't have any cream, but they can make a coffee without milk.
What exactly is this analogy alluding to? What is the philosophical idea behind it? Something about negatives or absence? | Sartre was into phenomenology, looking at ideas of conscious experience. In opposition to certain other philosophical schools that held "being" and "existence" as the absolute measure of something, Sartre held the perspective that negation and absence are also concrete realities and experiences in and of themselves. For example, if a loved one is absent and you miss them, their absence is not just a lack of presence, it is a separate and specific experience. He wrote a book called *Being and Nothingness* on this topic.
The joke in question takes this philosophical position to an absurd extreme, proposing that the deliberate absence of cream is its own specific experience, distinguished from an involuntary absence of cream due to lack of availability. In this world, the absence of milk is a different experience than the absence of cream, so the waiter needs to ask if it is an acceptable substitute. | 86 | 72 |
What are some colleges are institutions that teach new theories about economics? | What, if any, places teach about theories of economics that you would say are novel and revolutionary? Also are there any recent groundbreaking theories?
I want to get into learning about economics and finances but I'd like to know if there are any novel ideas and theories being thrown around. Also are there any specific general programs that teach these? I have a beginners knowledge concerning economics in general, but I'd like to know if there are any divergent paths to take concerning education. | Academia (and understanding in general) is like a tree. You can't have the branch without the stump. All programs teach new and revolutionary ideas, but only later in the program. Usually, high-level grad and post-grad courses deal with knowledge at the frontier, especially if they are specific. | 74 | 66 |
ELI5: How are weather balloons deployed so that they do not pose a risk to commercial air traffic? | Given the fact that weather balloons are frequently deployed to obtain critical measurements for making more accurate weather forecasts, how do pertinent governmental agencies ensure that they do not pose a risk to commercial air traffic where there is a likelihood that a collision/impact with these balloons may take place? | There is a suggestion that the local air traffic controllers be notified of the intended launch of a high altitude balloon so its presence is known, but the more relevant regulations regard the content of the payload. There are limits on the total weight and density of the payload, as well as the separation force of the payload from the balloon. The intent of those regulations is that on the exceedingly low chance that such a balloon would be struck by an aircraft it wouldn't cause any significant damage.
Remember that the sky is very large and there aren't really that many aircraft in flight. Hitting a weather balloon by accident is just an incredibly remote chance; far more likely is hitting a bird of which there are quite a few. If the payload is roughly the size and weight of a crow then a commercial jet engine would deal with it in much the same way it would the crow, namely going "Nom nom nom!" and not really caring. | 18 | 19 |
ELI5 why do more libertarians lean towards the right? What are some libertarian values that are more left than right? | The way to think of it is as follows:
Conservatives believe the government *shouldn't* interfere with economic issues but **should** interfere with social issues.
Liberals believe that the government **should** interfere with economic issues but *shouldn't* interfere with social issues.
Libertarians believe the government *shouldn't* interfere with economic *or* social issues.
As such, libertarians tend to agree with liberals on social issues (abortion, gay marriage, separation of church and state) and conservatives on economic issues (taxes, regulation, welfare). | 72 | 121 |
|
ELI5: Why can large loans (e.g. mortgages) be structured so that your first several payments are mostly interest and little principal? | Is there a better reason than, "Because they can"? It seems so unfair to the borrower. | Loans do not have to be structured that way; that's just the result of homeowner's desire to have a stable payment for the life of the loan.
If your payment is fixed, some of it must be allocated to interest and some to principle. Early in the loan the principle is large, so the interest is large, and the interest has to be paid every year (this is what you're paying the bank to have the loan). As a result, once you pay the interest, there isn't much left over for paying principle.
Over time, as the principle shrinks, the interest gets smaller but your payment is the same size, so more goes to principle.
If you don't have fixed size payments, you can do whatever you like after you pay the interest. You can structure a loan so that you pay the same amount of principle on every payment, but then your total payment will be much larger early on when the interest is also large (many home equity line-of-credit loans can be paid this way).
| 46 | 102 |
Why is so much easier to balance on a moving bike than a stationary one? | I imagine there's some physics involved here...does the momentum somehow make it easier to keep going straight than to fall over? | While you are moving, you can make corrections in your trajectory (by adjusting your balance or shifting the handlebars) in order to keep your balance. At slow speed, the correction required becomes larger (since you are moving over a smaller distance), hence why it is easier to balance a bike at speed.
When you are stationary, you can't make corrections at all, and you have to balance through other means. Most of these involve turning your front tire to the side and being able to move backwards and forwards (either from being on a hill or riding a non-freewheel bike). | 13 | 28 |
ELI5: What exactly would classifying Internet Service Providers as Title 2 Common Carriers do? | They would then have to allow competing companies the opportunity to make use of their infrastructure. You could purchase cable TV or internet from any entity that chose to lease the lines from the common carrier.
The common carrier (the current cable company) could continue to offer service, and they would have the right to charge other companies that wanted to use their lines, but the end result would be that you would have only one set of physical cables that theoretically any company could offer service over. | 10 | 32 |
|
Eli5: What’s the point of crushing confiscated cars? Isn’t that just a huge waste of valuable resources? | I just saw the mayor of NYC announce the destruction of hundreds of ATVs / Dirt Bikes etc. They were impounded for being ridden illegally on city streets, but isn’t destroying the bikes a HUGE waste of resources? It took a lot of time effort and money to even CREATE those vehicles….why are we just so casual about destroying them? | There are a few reasons nations/governments do this:
- they’re not street legal to sell and so can’t be auctioned
- there are concerns about corruption within the government itself trying to confiscate and sell vehicles for profit
- simply to make a dramatic point to smugglers | 1,044 | 838 |
[The Witcher] Who is the intended audience for the notice boards we find in those backwater villages? It's likely that very few of those people are even literate. | People travel. People talk. And a lot of people are looking for work no matter where you are. Even if they can't read the posting themselves, they might have a friend who can read it for them, or they might overhear other people talking about it. Which would get them to inquire about the job posting without even having to look at the board.
It should be noted that Geralt tends to focus on specific postings, usually those looking for swordsmen or those that pay a generous amount of gold for a seemingly impossible task. The rest of the board would normally be filled with people looking for a few laborers to help carry lumber to a building site. Or stand watch over a charcoal operation overnight. Boring stuff that would only pay a pittance. | 25 | 17 |
|
Is the brain capable of true multitasking? Or is does it achieve it through quick switching between tasks? | Computers simulate multitasking by switching focus between different tasks quickly so it feels like they're doing everything at once.
So which is it for the human brain? And is it even possible to test/prove it? | As others have said, the brain is multitasking in that it is always processing multiple inputs at the same time.
Your consciousness, however, is not multitasking. You can only concentrate on one thing at a time. | 11 | 26 |
What are the big name journals for Meta-Ethics? | Metaethics is written about in all of the major general philosophy journals, like Philosophical Review and Mind. For journals restricted to ethics, Ethics is probably the most well known and well regarded, but encompasses more than just metaethics. Lastly, there’s Oxford Studies in Metaethics, which is an annual collection of papers presented at Shafer-Landau’s metaethics workshop. | 13 | 28 |
|
[Star Wars] What did Palpatine and the Jedi think of other force sensitive groups? | Were there even any? Did the Jedi mind if other groups existed that studied and used the force? Did Palpatine want to destroy them? This is a question about both canon and EU. | There were hundreds of known other traditions. Mostly they didn't bother each other (as most traditions are far more localized - most of them present really only in a single system or even just on a single planet - than the Jedi and Sith), though in some instances there was some resentment between groups regarding recruitment. There are instances of learning between groups, yes.
As for other tradition's fates under Palpatine, it's a bit ambiguous - but there are indications that he did in fact pursue other Force-based organizations, if not to the same extent as he did the Jedi. | 49 | 39 |
I am an atheist who believes that people who are religious breed more hate and violence than their non-religious counterparts. CMV. | Most days when I turn on the news I see reports of religiously fueled violence, not just in other countries but in America as well. I feel that the tolerance for people to get along in this world (when you think in terms of religion) is very low. There are many cases of violence in history that can be directly traced to religious roots and I feel that as we advance our own history this mentality is not changing.
This is not an argument saying that people who are religious are violent. Nor is it an argument saying that religion is the cause of hate and violence. I want to question why it is that religious tensions lead to these kinds of actions of hate and violence.
| You are confusing cause and effect. A large portion of the population is suceptable ideologies of closed, unnuanced thinking where good and evil--right and wrong--are clearly defined and thus finding one's purpose is clear. Religious systems, admittedly, are systems which are usually well suited to this sort of ideology, but the religious content is separable from the ideological content. Modern Chinese nationalism is an ideology which sanctions the sometimes violent subjugation millions of people who belong to state identified ethnicities in need of reform, but without a religious context.
One problem which might be causing your view is that religion has and still does play an indelible role in personal and societal identification which makes it easy to see things in religious terms. Also, in much of the west, atheists tend to be 'free-thinkers' who don't seek out large social institutions to give their lives meaning, resulting in a skewed demographic.
Ultimately, there are many frames which can fulfil the requirement of people, but religious views were nearly completely dominant until very recently in history and thus they are overwhelmingly represented when looking at the conflicts caused by the underlying phenomena. | 15 | 24 |
ELI5: Why do our energy levels go down when we're depressed? | Depressed people I've seen generally feel more tired and fatigued than usual and end up sleeping more than usual. Why is this? | Depression in many ways puts your body through the same processes that a lot of physical illnesses do. One part of that is that both are associated with the release of what are called pro-inflammatory cytokines in your body. Like the name implies, these are chemicals that cause inflammation in your body. Evolutionarily speaking, what humans and other animals do when they are sick is retreat and rest. They retreat because they are weak and wouldn’t be able to defend themselves against enemies. They are fatigued because their body is fighting off whatever is making them ill, and sleep more to reserve their energy. A lot of other stuff can happen here as well, but essentially your body shuts down everything that is not necessary for your immediate survival (sex drive? being able to solve super difficult sudokus? you don’t need that right now!) Collectively these are called sickness behaviors, and they developed because they are adaptive for your survival. Only with depression things get a little trickier because there is no obvious virus or bacteria to fight off. But essentially you’re body is confused but trying to help the best it can: it can hear the alarm bells ringing, and the alarm signal sounds a lot like being physically injured. | 17 | 18 |
Why is economics considered a science? | Does your definition of science differ from the conventional definition? The science of economics is concerned with testing hypotheses motivated by theories about the world that are either justified or not by available evidence, and rendering those theories predictive and useful through coherent models. There are good economists and bad economists, but that's certainly not limited to that field. | 12 | 15 |
|
ELI5: why does an air bubble in your blood kill you? | First let’s cover some basics. Almost every part of your body needs oxygen to survive. Blood is what delivers that oxygen, and here’s how:
When blood comes through our lungs it loads up with oxygen and flows immediately to your heart. To get all that oxygen to your body, the heart pumps the blood through vessels that get smaller and smaller until the blood delivers its oxygen. Once the blood gets through the really tiny vessels, it has delivered all the oxygen and the vessels start getting bigger again and heading to the heart to load back up on oxygen.
This system normally works great, but you can have major issues if something gets into the blood that isn’t supposed to. For instance let’s say a piece of fat come off of the inside of a large vessel near the heart. The piece will keep flowing in the blood until it gets into a vessel that gets too small for it to get through. It gets stuck in the vessel and slows or completely blocks the blood flow behind it. Now the part of the body on the other side of that blockage can’t get oxygen and starts to die. Depending on where the block is, and how big of an area is blocked, this can be REALLY bad. For instance If the blockage happens somewhere in the brain, it’s called a stroke. Parts of your brain are literally dying.
So how does can an air bubble kill you? Believe it or not it does the same thing as the scab in the paragraph above. Our blood carries oxygen from our lungs inside special cells. It won’t form a bubble. But if a bunch air enters our lungs in another way, the air can form a bubble big enough to block a vessel. Depending on what part of are bodies the bubble is keeping oxygen from, and how big the area is, the bubble could potentially kill us. | 47 | 28 |
|
ELI5: What is the mechanism that wireless devices use to generate electromagnetic waves, millions per second? | I heard it has something to do with electrons moving back and forth really quickly..how does it do this exactly? | Electromagnetic waves generated by our current generation wireless technology (what are called "transverse electromagnetic waves" or TEM), are thought to be alternating areas of (relatively) strong electric field followed by strong magnetic field followed by strong electric field, etc. The change of intensity of one type of field leads to the creation of the other type like ripples of water on a pond (this phenomenon was explored by Michael Faraday, and described mathematically by James Clerk Maxwell, Oliver Heaviside etc.)
It follows from their discoveries that charging up a metal conductor (like an antenna) and discharging it rapidly can lead to these TEM waves rippling outwards. Charging and discharging is actually just another way to say "electrons moving back and forth" (though they actually move quite slowly), and every time these electrons change direction, another wave ripples outward.
How do you charge up and discharge an antenna rapidly? Well you need some way to connect it to the positive side and then negative side of a battery (or other source of voltage) millions of times per second. The positive side will suck electrons off the antenna, and the negative side will pump them back on the antenna (this may sound backwards but isn't, electrons are negatively charged and hang out in greater numbers at the negative terminal of a battery).
Modern transistors (essentially electrically controlled switches) can switch on and off millions (and billions) of times per seconds, and so are great for this. To do this switching, they only need a small electrical control signal, which is changing exactly as fast as you want the antenna to charge and discharge. These transistors that do the actual charging/discharging are called "amplifiers", because they amplify the power of the small control signal to give the antenna a stiff charging and discharging with each cycle.
But how do you make a small electrical signal change millions of times per second? For that you need what we call an "oscillator".
In modern radios this is usually a special arrangement of transistor amplifiers put in feedback with each other to create an electrical "ringing". You know how putting a microphone up to a speaker causes a screeching sound? That's what we call feedback. Same idea, just a much higher pitch screech. We can even change the pitch of the screech electrically by using neat tricks. One circuit that does this is called a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (or VCO), and it uses a neat trick with a diode that lets us easily pick different "channels" to broadcast on (you know, all those different spots on your radio dial).
VCOs are not known for making really pure and pitch-perfect tones however, so like a singer before a performance we tune them up. In the radio world, our electrical tuning forks are made from precisely cut pieces of quartz crystal surrounded by yet more transistors. The transistors help keep the fork ringing as long as there is power in the battery. We use precisely cut quartz for this, because when tickled properly it can "ring" electrically with a very pure tone (and pure tones are very important - they help the cell tower pick your phone out from the crowd).
So there you have it. Today's wireless devices start with a pure tone generated by a quartz crystal tuning fork, that is used to tune a screeching-feedback VCO. The (now much cleaner) tone from that VCO is then used to control amplifying transistors, that charge and discharge a piece of metal, that causes ripples of electromagnetism to radiate outwards. | 18 | 35 |
What makes a conflict a "world war"? What would have to happen in the current world conflicts that would confer "world war" status on them? | Hearing about all the countries involved in the current conflicts, especially the ISIS conflict, it reminded me of past world wars in that there is a coalition of international forces coming together to fight another force that spans over multiple countries. I was wondering what makes this technically different than other wars that have been deemed "world wars" and at what point would we use that term again?
Is it possible that we won't ever call something "World War III" because of the cultural connotations of that term, the increasing globalization of conflicts and how hard it would be to get people to agree on what makes a war a "World War"? | The first use of the term was at the beginning of the 20th century, in the title of the German novel "Der Weltkrieg: Deutsche Träume."
It was a story of a war against Great Britain. Since then, it has come to mean a war between the great powers of the world, especially when there multiple powers on each side, and the war spans multiple continents.
Note that there have been wars In the past that might've been called world wars, if the term had existed before. The 7-years war was so called by Winston Churchill, after the fact.
Recent conflicts in the Middle East would not be considered as the fighting has great powers only on one side, and the conflicts have been localized to just one region.
Source: A History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill. | 29 | 59 |
[D&D/General Fantasy] Do Paladins need to be genuine in their faith? | Can a Paladin (or a person powered by some otherworldly being) just do things their god likes because it gives them power, or do they have to actually believe in/want to do the action?
Like, could I not give a rat's ass about the poor and hungry, but take care of them because a benevolent god grants me power to kill bandits better if I do? | Depends on the world of course. Generally speaking they have to be genuine in their faith, their patron Diety can tell the difference.
Take Dragonlance for example. In Krynn's history there was a time where the Gods got pretty pissed off at this one very powerfull Cleric who thought himself Godlike himself. He called upon the gods to destroy all evil essentially. Now during this time all the true clerics of faith were raptured essentially and removed from Krynn and all the "clerics" who were not pure of faith remained and continued to not have any real powers. Instead of destrying all evil the Gods threw a mountain at the land, and fucked its capitol in particular. What followed was a period of time where no true clerics existed, but many false ones were around. They had no powers because they did not genuinely believe in the true Gods (or even acknowledge they existed). | 27 | 32 |
How does cancer spread? | I've recently learned that cancer may spread into different tissues (for example prostate cancer into the bone). Since cancer is usually not caused by any pathogenic microorganism, which could infect other parts of the body, how does it spread into different organs? | In order to spread (metastasize), cancer cells must detach from the primary tumor, invade into the circulatory (blood vessels) and lymphatic systems, evade immune attack, extravasate at distant capillary beds, and invade and proliferate in distant organs (such as bones in the case of prostate and some other cancers).
How cells manage to do each of these steps is very complex and the subject of intensive research. | 1,502 | 3,300 |
CMV: A suit and tie is not necessary (and should even be discouraged) to wear to work. | First, just to get this out of the way: If you love wearing a suit &tie because it makes you feel confident, helps you focus, it's comfortable to you, or any other reason that benefits you: that's great. Not saying you should be banned from wearing something that looks good on you and makes you feel good. Second, my personal perspective is that of a gay, lower middle class, white man who works as a social worker, but who has also worked in oil and gas, architecture, and other "corporate" environments as well as service industries.
Certain professions require specific clothing for safety (examples: construction workers may need a hard hat, surgeons should wear gowns/gloves/masks, etc.). Besides this, requiring that certain items of clothing be worn in order to appear "work appropriate" is an outdated, uncomfortable, disrespectful, and even oppressive idea. Why should anyone be required to wear something like a suit and tie to work? If you have to sit at a desk all day and are required to wear something with a collar, tucked into slacks, and leather shoes, what is the benefit to this uniform?
These types of clothing are typically uncomfortable. Wear a pair of leather oxfords for 10-12 hours without taking them off one day and then wear a pair of sneakers for the same time the next; what do you think will feel better? And if you don't think comfort should be considered, what do you think is better for your feet? I understand the idea is that businesses want to maintain the appearance of "professionalism". But is the current standard of what is "professional" still necessary? Many wildly successful tech companies are notorious for having casual attire as a standard for its employees. The lack of employees wearing a silk noose did not get in the way of their exponential successes.
Beyond that, and this is where I feel I might lose some of you, I don't believe I'm the only person who can make a connection between the "ideal" of a suit & tie, and the influence of classism, sexism, colonialism, and other outdated ideals such as meritocracy and conspicuous consumption.
We can already see some movement in what women wear to work. Women aren't necessarily expected wear leather heels, a wool-blend jacket, or a blouse buttoned to the neck anymore. Women can wear clothing that is best suited to the weather if the want. In comparison, even at a not-for-profit where my clients were typically very low-income, I've been told that wearing navy dress shorts was not appropriate for work in 30+ degree weather (Celsius).
Finally - I am not advocating for wearing pajamas, sweatpants, or slippers to the office. But one thing working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic has confirmed is that wearing these types of clothing while working doesn't prohibit someone from doing a good job when their job is just sitting at a computer. I get that there's got to be some minimum requirement. But I believe we have a lot of room between that minimum and the suit and tie. | The issue is that you’re centering the argument around the employee (his comfort and his ability to produce the same quality of work in another attire) while neglecting the holistic view and the broader picture.
Companies can only be successful if their consumers enjoy their products and therefore adopting a customer-centric approach. You used the example of tech companies adopting a more lenient approach when it comes to attire, and that’s true, but what’s important to point out is that tech companies don’t need a lot of in-person meetings with clients when it comes to delivering customer success since their products are mainly digital. Google just needs to make digital tweaks on their platforms based on consumer feedbacks (obtained digitally) for their customers to enjoy their products even more. And more importantly, tech companies are rather “recent” (most were founded in the 21st century where millennials were already challenging the whole suit/tie approach).
More traditional companies such as finance and law firms are way older and thus it’s more difficult to instil change in workflows that have been persisting for several decades. Secondly, their success relies on in-person meetings with their clients (to the contrary of tech companies who don’t necessarily need physical presence to produce platforms that are enjoyed by consumers). As such, the in-person meetings are crucial to exhibit credibility and trust, and of course one’s look isn’t the sole factor taken into consideration to cement that trust, but it will be whether subconsciously or not, factored in the prospective customers opinion. | 13 | 20 |
Is a fan’s blade size or spinning speed more important in determining the strength of the gust it produces? | I hope I worded that well. | It depends on several other variables, including (but not limited to) blade shape, blade pitch, and power.
Eg. A very sharply pitched blade will gain more benefit from increased blade size, whereas a very shallow pitched blade will benefit more from increased RPM.
Practically everything in fan design is a balancing act for efficiency | 18 | 17 |
ELI5: How does upscaling work? | How does it compensate for lack of pixels? | If you're doubling the number of pixels, for example, you take the adjacent pixels and take a guess at what the one in the middle will look like. You can't necessarily take a simple average, because that might look wrong on edges and stuff, so IIRC there's edge-detection and stuff which copes with that. | 11 | 25 |
ELI5: Digestion takes about six to eight hours through your stomach and small intestine. Food then enters your large intestine for further digestion. What happens when you eat something bad, and all this is reduced to minutes? | So your bowels are like a long train track and your food is like a set of cars on the track. Transit time between Point A, your mouth, and Point B, the chute, is a bit flexible but normally operates on a regularly scheduled basis.
When you eat, you put cars on the track and send them to Point B. As these cars go to Point B, they lose passengers (nutrients) at various points in the thin tunnel portion (small intestine). The journey isnt complete and the journey has already altered the shape of the car pretty significantly giving a rusty color. Once in the larger portion of the tunnel, the cars are checked for stray passengers and are hosed down a bit so that transition out of Point B isn't so bad. Sometimes, the train cars park juuust outside the gates of Point B so they can exit at the best time for the operator (toilet).
Now, all of this goes fucking nuts when you load a bad set of train cars at Point A. The track sensors located everywhere along the track, detect this alien set of cars and sends a distress call to the Supervisor (your brain). The Supervisor wants to handle the situation without having to phone the Manager (your consciousness) about the craziness on the tracks and also wants to make sure you never know it was on the tracks. It has to make a choice now: send it back to Point A violently and somewhat painfully risking tearing the tracks, or send it to Point B as fast as fuck? Depending on where it's located on the track, it'll choose the best route.
Let's use the destination Point B. The Supervisor hits the panic button and puts all the train cars that are on the track (in your body) on overdrive. The tunnels are flooded with water and lubricant to speed all the cars up and get them the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Cars collide with each other, and previously well formed cars are just flooded with water and lubricant that they are just a soggy, shadowy reminder of their former glory state.
The Media (pain) hears about the car collisions immediately begins filming live the high speed, flooded train cars out of control. They want to knos how an alien set of train cars were put on the tracks and they want someone to pay for such carelessness. The Manager is just watching the horror unfold on Live TV but cannot do anything to stop it, because the Supervisor was deaf and he had not installed a means of communicating with him after hours in the office.
I hope this answers your question.
TL;DR when you get diarrhea, everything gets pushed out, one way or another. There are no passing lanes.
Source: /u/jiggity_gee | 31,873 | 20,391 |
|
How do animals know that they should perform certain behaviours, even if never shown by their parents/peers? | For example, my rabbit was kept in a hutch from birth separated from the mother. And as soon as I took her home and allowed her to run in my backyard under supervision, the very first thing she did was start digging a burrow. How did she know to do that? She had never, ever been shown to do that by any other rabbit. | All organisms have certain instincts or reactions built into their biology.
This is why, within reason, animals and plants will always exhibit characteristic behaviours when given the opportunity.
It's very literally in their genes. They simply learn faster and potentially more effective ways to use those instincts (for sentient creatures) if they witness another creature exhibiting the behaviour. | 11 | 16 |
ELI5: What's cholesterol and why is it good or bad for it to be high or low? | Asking for Ron Swanson. | Cholesterol is used by the body to build cells and transport nutrients. So some is good and needed. The problem comes from too much of the "low density" or LDL type. This stuff is big and fluffy and has a tendency to get stuck in arteries and blood vessels. This makes your heart have to pump harder and wears it out faster. | 4,305 | 8,677 |
ELI5: Why do magnets get demagnetised? How long does it take for that to happen? | Magnets depend on the orientation of the atoms in a material. They will pretty much tend to stay that way. But there are things that will de-magentize them. It's not simply a matter of a certain amount of time.
Ways to de-magnetize:
(a) Heat the magnet above its "Curie temperature". That allows the atoms to have enough thermal energy to move into random orientations.
(b) Wait a long time and let regular room temperature thermal energy do the same thing as (a).
(c) Expose the magnet to a magnetic field that is in a different direction than the one it already has.
(d) Whack the magnet with something hard or against something hard, repeatedly. (Really, this works.)
(e) A combination of the above. | 13 | 15 |
|
ELI5: How did the first programming /markup languages syntaxes come up and how does semantic processing and syntactic processing recognise the right symbols ? | An analogy would be great.
EDIT:
I'm wondering what would be the simplest explanation in a way that almost anyone can get the clearest view on the subject. | Well, a programming language is just defined with a standard. Write up a long document specifying what the grammar of the language looks like and a bunch of other stuff and you have a programming language.
Programming languages aren't real useful without a compiler or an interpreter, though. For example, C++ needs a compiler like GCC (which is written in C++!), and Haskell needs a compiler like GHC. These just translate programs into assembly code, which is then translated into binary (machine code) by an assembler. So if you have an assembler, you can do anything you want. Assemblers are pretty simple too, since assembly translates almost directly into machine code. You can actually assemble by hand, it's just kind of time consuming. So, to answer your question, you just write an assembler by hand, then use that to build a compiler.
Of course, that kind of glosses over a lot of the history of computer science, but that's really all you need in order to understand how you go from legible code to 1s and 0s | 22 | 177 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.