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[Star Wars] Are non-force sensitives immune to the Dark Side corruption? | It is often shown that some Sith artifacts and holocrons have a corrupting influence on Jedis, slowly turning them to the Dark Side.
But would a normal person, with no force sensitivity whatsoever, be immune to this influence? And if not, would said person gain any power along with the corruption? | > But would a normal person, with no force sensitivity whatsoever, be immune to this influence?
So this can be taken two ways. Either they are not gifted like Jedi/Sith are or are outside of the force (ie Yuuzhan Vong). They have different answers, so I'll address them both.
1. They are weak in the force: Because the force still flows through them, they can and will be corrupted by the dark side. There's cases where entire villages, up to even planets, have been under dark side corruption so long that it actually twists their bodies as well as their minds, going so far as to turn them into different species.
1. They are outside the force: Yes, they're completely immune to the Dark Side, but for some reason this tends to have a negative effect on their mental state if they are part of a species that once was force sensitive.
> And if not, would said person gain any power along with the corruption?
For the people that can get corrupted, not really. The ones that turn into beasts do gain strength, agility, etc, but at the cost of their faculties. It's like the One Ring from Lord of the Rings, only Gollumn is actually an ideal outcome, because at least you have some measure of freewill. | 26 | 46 |
ELI5:Who is Davy Jones and why is the bottom of the sea referred to as his locker? | To understand, you need to know how language and slang has changed.
Duffy used to be a word meaning ghost.
Jones used to just mean some random person.
And locker was . . . Well, still a locker.
Originally, the term was probably Duffy Jones's Locker, which meant the grave of all the unknown ghosts of people who had died at sea.
Over time, Duffy became Davey, and so the original meaning of a nameless forgotten ghost was confused.
So what originally meant "The graves of the forgotten" became "The grave of this one guy." | 1,284 | 2,028 |
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I'm interested in Rousseau, specifically his ethics. Which work of his should I read? | I have a very limited background in philosophy (namely some classes in high school). | *Lettres Morales* and in sections of the *Confession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar* which is a part of *Emile, or On Education*.
You might also look at *Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men*. | 14 | 48 |
ELI5:How does my car know it's actual speed in a slippery condition when the wheels are spinnging? | So I realize my base assumptions are incorrect as I originally thought the rotation of the wheels determined the speed the speedometer read out. I was driving in snow up a hill and my wheels began to spin, rpm went into the 7000's yet I was still only doing 35-40km/h. I just wonder what the mechanism is behind keeping the speed read out accurate while the wheels do what they do. What's happening? | Modern motor vehicles have a speed sensor on each wheel. It uses the data from each wheel to determine which wheels are gripping the road, which wheels are spinning, and which wheels are locked when braking.
If your front tires are spinning, the computer would only use data from the rear wheels to determine your speed. | 12 | 31 |
[MCU] How is Dr Strange's magic different from Loki's? | They dont look similar at all. If we believe Ancient one's reasoning of magic, what does Loki do? | There's more than one way to acheive an effect - just as there's more than one kind of technology there's more than one kind of magic.
Dr Strange uses mandala magic that was brought to Earth by Agamotto, but that doenst mean that's the only way to interface with whatever backend systems involved in magic. We also canonicaly know that asguardians use magic, so their magic must look/be different.
Just like someone solving a problem with an electronic device vs someone solving it with a chemical reaction - it's all tech, they just look wildely different. | 48 | 44 |
CMV: Asset Forfeiture is morally wrong and it should never be the law | Police can confiscate property and use it for their own funding on the basis of suspicion of a criminal activity. For example, people have been accused of crimes like drug dealing because they had large amount of cash on them during a traffic stop, and had their money taken away. Subsequently they were not charged or not convicted of any crimes, but their money was never returned to them. It's the law in the USA.
Change my mind that it's a bad law that should be repealed. I think that "innocent until proven guilty" and the 6th Amendment directly contradict this law.
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> *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!* | There are two types of asset forfeiture in US law - civil asset forfeiture and criminal asset forfeiture. Even if you, like me, object to civil asset forfeiture, criminal asset forfeiture is not at all problematic.
In criminal asset forfeiture, the assets seized are held in trust by the government while the criminal case against the defendant is pending in the courts. If the defendant is convicted then as part of the sentencing the government can seek to have the assets permanently forfeit as being assets related to the crime of which the defendant has been convicted. | 12 | 49 |
ELI5 : how does reverse image search work? | How boys and girls? How? | well it basically works like google.
First, you'd want to know where are **every** image on the internet. So you'd need 'robots' (really programs) that scan the internet all day long for images. (You can just use google's but whatever).
Then you want to compare images? But how to?
The "easier" way would be to compare pixel by pixel each image, and to change as soon as you suppose the two images to be too different. But that would be extremely long. So the best is to do a "map" of frequencies you found in the image.
Effectively, each image could be depicted by different mathematical factors linked with the presence of different frequencies. A low frequency represents the background ( similar colors, with a few changes between pixels) and a high frequency represents the details of the picture (edges and such.)
So basically, if you depict a map of the frequencies in the images, you could just compare a few of the frequencies factor, which are less variable than the color, which doesn't vary that much when the size of the image is changed, and which are mmmuuuuuuuch less heavy than an actual image file .
FYI That's actually also the way algorithms like shazam's works... | 26 | 78 |
ELI5: Why is it okay to eat blue cheese, but not other things that are moldy? | Different species of mold have make different byproducts as they grow, and not all of them are harmful. Through experience we know some that are safe, like those used in making cheese. (Yeast is also a fungus, but not a mold, and is used for baking and brewing.) When food around the house gets moldy from whatever spores were in the air, it's a bad bet: there's a big risk that whatever mold it is either is generally poisonous or might produce something you're allergic to.
This why cleanliness is actually very important when working with mold. Get the wrong kind of fungus in your product and it will ruin the whole batch. | 5,865 | 9,285 |
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At which point or job position is the amount of work the highest for people in the academic-researcher career? | Non-native English speaker here.
I am referring to anyone above a PhD. That is postdocs, and those in the academic-researcher career ladder from Lecturer till Full Professor, Chair, Dean etc.
At which job position or point along the career ladder is the amount of work the most for people in the academic-researcher career? What does this high amount of work and stress look like? | In general, the more early work you do (and the higher the quality of that work), the better the career. Thus, the work during graduate work and postdoc period (if there is one) and early years in a Tenure track job has the biggest impact on one's career - so a clever person is working their hardest then. | 38 | 25 |
[Elder Scrolls] Because the characters are labeled as "race" instead of "species", can different races reproduce with one another? Can an Orc or Argonian breed with a Nord? And if so how are their offspring? Is there any documented lore of this? | So, based on in-universe books:
"Race" is acknowledge, even in universe, as being a slightly inaccurate term, and in-universe scientists have tried to determine what's actually what.
Humans and elves *can* reproduce with each other, although the fact the child is almost always the "race" of the mother rather then a hybrid casts doubt on whether this is interfertility in the conventional sense. Presumably, by extension, Orcs (a race of elves) should be able to interbreed with humans too, although no recorded case has ever been found. But then, how many humans and orcs try?
In the case of the beastfolk- argonians, kajhiit, dragons, so forth- the name is simply the wrong term. Urban legends and folk tales aside, they cannot interbreed with humans or each other. They're separate species by every measure, and at least some in universe experts are annoyed at the inaccurate colloquial term. | 425 | 559 |
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[MCU] was there any political repercussions from the fact that the nuclear weapon used in the battle of Manhattan was mounted on a platform that was supposed to be conventional only? | during that battle of new york SHIELD used an AGM-154 JSOW to conduct a nuclear strike. there's one problem with this though, the JSOW is supposed to be a strictly [conventional weapon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-154_Joint_Standoff_Weapon)
was there any political fallout from this? if the world found out that the United States had secretly deployed nuclear platforms it could deeply hurt the reputability of the US | Well, your first assumption is that those standards are one-to-one from our world to the MCU. If that's not the case, then this is kind of a moot point. But that's boring, so here are some other possibilities.
1) SHIELD launched the missile strike, not the United States. The US government has plausible deniability about SHIELD's actions in this instance, and the people in a position to ask questions like yours were more focused on the giant flying invisible aircraft carrier.
2) No one saw or reported the missile strike, and accounts were heavily propagandized. Basically, S[HYDRA]IELD just launched a nuclear weapon at one of the most densely populated cities in the world, they did their best after the fact to cover it up.
3) People were a little more interested in the Alien invasion, and the sudden appearance of the Avengers to stop said invasion. | 62 | 49 |
ELI5: how does the geometry of a bike change performance? | There are a huge amount of factors that go into the geometry of a bike, but the main idea is changing the relationship between the various contact points and components to alter how they work in comparison to each other.
For a few examples;
The angle of the head tube controls the angle that the forks sit at - by changing this angle you change how the forks steer, with a steeper head tube making the forks easier to steer (and more twitchy), a slacker angle harder to steer (and more stable).
The height of the bottom bracket basically sets the height of the rider on the bike - and is a balanv beteeen a higher BB giving more ground clearance for the pedals, while a lower BB drops the centre of gravity and makes it more stable.
The length of the wheelbase (the distance between the wheels) affects how maneuverable a bike can be - the longer the bike the harder it will be to get it round a corner, but the more stable it will ride at speed.
The relationship between the angle of the seat tube, chainstay and top tube length will affect where the riders weight is positioned on the bike and how it will balance - forward is good for ascending, rear descending, and a balance somewhere in the middle.
A lot also affects the riders position - narrower bar is more aerodynamic (loved by the roadies), while a wideone gives more control (loved by the mountain bikers), a long stem stretches out the rider and makes the steering react slower, a short stem moves the rider back/upright and makes the steering twitchier.
Rider comfort is also a big consideration - the best positions for aggressive riding and control, or for aerodynamics are typically not the most comfortable, while a very relaxed, upright position that is comfortable going to the shops is inefficient and gives much poorer control and balance in more challenging terrain.
The biggest thing is that everything alters everything else, so designing the geometry of a bike is a giant balancing act.
If you want to use narrower bars for example then that will make your body more upright, so you would have to change your stem length (which changes the steering characteristics), or get a frame with a longer to tube to compensate. A bike with shorter chainstays will be more maneuverable, but will also have a shorter wheelbase so will be less stable... | 24 | 26 |
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ELI5: Why is it that a covariance of 0 does not imply that two variables are independent? | I'm kind of having trouble with coming up with an example/thought experiment that could explain this. I tried to look around for a simpler explanation but wasn't really able to find any. I do know that two independent variables have a covariance of 0 but why is it that the other way around does not work? | Covariance is a measure of how linearly related two variables are. Independent variables are not related and therefore have a covariance of 0; however, the covariance can also be 0 if the variables are dependent but do not have a linear relationship, for example the points that make a circle. For that reason, you can not assume two variables are independent given that their covariance is 0. | 73 | 40 |
What causes bays to form? | So, the overall shape of a continent is decided by tectonic movement, but what causes the shapes of the shorelines you see when you look closely at a map? | Usually the formation of bays is due to different types of rock. Where the rock type is more easily weathered away by the sea then a bay will form. Conversely, headlands will form where the rock types are less easily weathered. | 10 | 19 |
ELI5: Why is it legal that I can google an US citizen and find out he or she was arrested for something? | Some time ago I met this guy at a conference, we talked a lot and hat some beers. Next day I google him and first thing I find is he was arrested for public intoxication some years back (It happened in Utah...). I was really surprised - not by the fact *this* guy was publicly intoxicated, but by the fact that EVERYTHING was online (and can only be removed for a fee, which sounds like extortion).
How is that legal? What is the rationale behind that? Here in Germany you could probably raise hell if the state made personal information like that public.
EDIT: OK, let me clear this up. I'm not asking why the state is keeping public records on legal processes. I am asking why there is basically an online pillory for misdemeanors.
In Germany for example you nearly always have to hand in an official, printed copy of your criminal record when you apply for a job. This document is regarded highly confidential. So a potential employer can check you. But I can't just google my neighbor and start a witch hunt.
Edit 2: Some quite important words. | The actions of the court system and the police system which are funded by taxpayers are generally considered public information.
Once your actions force the government to punish you, they're no longer really personal anymore. | 23 | 15 |
ELI5: How do microphones work? I just do not get it. | The sounds we hear are vibrations of air molecules. The pitch of those sounds relates to the frequency of those vibrations. Microphones have a lightweight sheet in them that easily starts to vibrate with the vibrations in the air. The sheet is attached to a magnet, (or a coil of wire) which also starts to vibrate.
Around this magnet, there's a really long coil of very thin wire. Whenever a magnet moves inside a coil of wire, (or a coil moves around a magnet) an electric current is induced into that wire. In a microphone, that current is very small, so the wire is connected to an amplifier which reads the current and makes it stronger while keeping its frequency untouched.
We can then take this current and feed it to a speaker or a recording device.
Fun fact, speakers are reverse microphones. Sound waves vibrate a magnet in a microphone which generates a current. A current vibrates a magnet in a speaker which generates sound waves. | 310 | 175 |
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Where does the energy in inelastic collisions go? | In school today I got an assignment of calculating how much energy was lost during an inelastic collision, the explanation I got for where the energy goes is into heat and deformation. However if I have two elementary particles in a vacuum which collide in an inelastic manner, some kinetic energy is lost but where does it go? | Thermal energy. The objects and the surrounding air all increase in temperature slightly. This increase in temperature requires energy. If you were able to track everything perfectly, you would find that the increase in thermal energy exactly matched the decrease in mechanical energy.
Elementary particles typically do not collide in-elastically. The exception to the rule would be if the mass of the system changes. In that case the kinetic energy is transformed into rest energy via the equation E=mc^2.
-Dr. Ted | 40 | 89 |
Which Economics PhD subdisciplines has the toughest math and which has the least? | I am curious. Which Economics PhD subdisciplines has the toughest math and which has the easiest or least math?
EDIT: If possible can someone please rank all the economic PhD subdisciplines based on how mathy each is? | Economic and econometric theory are applied math. Academics in these fields are often well-trained mathematicians.
Economic history has a higher density of simple, OLS analyses than most empirical fields. This is true because the data is sparse and low quality, limiting the use of large, structural models. | 44 | 55 |
ELI5: The process and significance of "making partner" in a law firm | How does one become a partner? What changes? What are the advantages/disadvantages, if there are any? | It takes anywhere from 2 to 10 years to make partner at an average law firm (sometimes longer). In order to be considered for a partner position (while working as an associate), you usually need to work very hard and contribute a lot to your firm's business. It helps if you can pull a lot of all-nighters, find new clients through connections, publish articles in law journals to gain prestige for your firm, or show great talent in a particular field of law that your firm works in.
In some firms, once you've gained enough experience, you're given a big, important client or assignment. If you succeed, you are promoted to partnership. A partner usually owns a share in the company, which means that they automatically make money every year by receiving a portion of the company's profits. There is also less pressure on a partner to work hard, because they've already "made it". So as a partner, you can take it easy unless you're really into your work or want to make even more money. An associate at a big law firm makes around $100,000 per year. A partner at the same law firm will make anywhere from $300,00 to over a million. In small firms that only have a couple of partners, your last name will also be added to the firm's name. So if your name is Johnson and you work at Anderson and Smith, your firm may be renamed to Anderson, Smith and Johnson once you make partner. | 209 | 235 |
What would be the effects on western society of abolishing paid advertising? | It seems that so many wealthy people owe their fortunes to the effects of paid advertising (everything relating to TV and the internet, for example, not to mention political campaigning in the US).
The purpose of advertising is, after all, to "push" information about something out to the general public. If this mechanism were to be removed entirely, then the public would need to seek out this information for whatever they are interested in, or, perhaps there is some model for how this might work in a society where advertising is provided as a public service by the government.
Has anyone ever done a study or simulation or thought exercise about how the removal of paid advertising would effect society? I started thinking about this the other day and it got so huge and far reaching I became unable to think about it clearly. | I can't speak to this exactly, but you could look into studies out of Sao Paolo, Brazil.
The city banned billboards, and some other forms of public advertising. Basically, the city looks a lot less cluttered. | 14 | 32 |
ELI5: What is a"Tick" in gaming development terminology. | If you have a game that runs in realtime, you are generally simulating some processes - they can be as simple as Mario moving right and jumping, or as complicated as the physics in a flight simulator.
But the key point is that you cannot simulate these processes perfectly smoothly - you cannot have an infinite number of simulation steps per second, because that would require infinite computing power. So what games do is that they cut up time into discrete steps, and the calculations are done for each step.
Each of those steps is a tick, and having a tick of, say, 10 ms means that you have one of those steps every 10 ms, or 100 every second. | 775 | 1,260 |
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ELI5: Why is it ~40% more expensive to buy a laptop/phone in England than it is in the US? (Trying to bring mom out of stone age) | Insane what it costs to buy the exact same phone/laptop from .co.uk (play store/amazon/e-shops) than from US.
(+Kudos for helping me make it affordable. Right now im trying to find if even with 'import fees', will it be cheaper than buying it in England).
Why is this? Regulation hurdles? Import tariffs? Exchange rate (this one i least understand)? | There are a number of things to consider:
* VAT (value added tax) adds 20% to the price of any taxable items, and unlike in the US, advertised prices have to include all applicable taxes.
* Warranty coverage. Within the EU, consumers can make a claim for faulty/misdescribed goods within the first two years, and British law goes beyond that in some cases. Because by law consumers essentially get a 'free extended warranty' and retailers/manufacturers have to bear the costs for that, this will usually result in higher prices.
* Manufacturers do set different prices in different countries partly because they can. | 22 | 22 |
How do blackouts work? Was the memory never recorded, never saved or deleted while sleeping? | There are three stages to memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval. During a blackout from drinking, the prefrontal cortex is inhibited, which is responsible for a large portion of encoding events into short-term memory. Information must be encoded into short-term memory before it is stored into long-term memory. Therefore, because this information can’t be properly encoded and stored into short-term memory, the memory is unable to be processed into long-term memory via the hippocampus.
Think of a livestream that’s not being saved.
So basically the information is never recorded. | 3,441 | 4,094 |
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ELI5: What decides the strength of a currency? | "Strength" and "value" of a currency are two different things, often conflated. I'll try to pull them apart.
The strength of a currency has more to do with the direction in which the currency's value is going. If it's going up, and doesn't tend to fluctuate very much, then it's said to be strong. The exchange rate between the currency and, say, the US dollar could be 1000 to 1, but the currency is strong if last week it was 1050 to 1.
A currency will generally be strong based on three factors.
The first is whether or not the demand for goods from the native country is large. If US cars start suddenly becoming popular, then demand for the US dollars to buy them will go up - making the US dollar stronger.
The second is whether or not other currencies have become weaker. If the world is in a recession, but China alone seems to be unaffected, then the yuan will be seen as relatively strong.
The third is a little less straightforward - it's whether or not the currency is "trusty." People who buy the currency want to know that it will retain its value, that the government in charge of printing that currency will not devalue it, or that the economy is not on the verge of collapsing. The US dollar is one of the "trustiest" currencies in the world, whereas countries that print too much money lower the value of their funds, basically flooding the currency market.
"Strength" of a currency is basically still just an exercise in supply and demand. | 42 | 68 |
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Is it appropriate to offer a letter of support to a professor? | Say for example I have a professor who I thought worked very hard and I felt that he or she was a really effective mentor, could I offer to write them a letter of support for their tenure application?
My school doesn't traditionally ask students for their feedback and instead relies on course evaluation forms that we are given 5 minutes to complete with 3 comment lines and a pencil.
I also hear that it is not really appropriate for a professor to approach a student to ask him or her about a letter.
That all said, would it be appropriate to write a note after the semester with something like: "Hi, thanks for blah blah, good luck with your application later this year and if you would like a letter of support please do not hesitate to ask"? | Yes. It would be an unsolicited letter which can be helpful depending on the school. Near in mind it's unlikely to make the difference, but it doesn't hurt. You should first check with the dean of faculty if they allow this - it would also need to get approval from that faculty member to go in their file so you may want to ask them as well.
It really depends on the school. The tenure process is often highly regulated by the faculty governance or union (if there is one) and casually it won't just be added to their list. However, at the very least, a strong letter sent to the department chair would perhaps favorably impact the departmental level of the review. Politics between faculty members may be problematic though, so it's also unclear if the chair happens to be an ally or opponent of that faculty's tenure. | 21 | 28 |
ELI5: Why is cannibalism so bad for our health? | One thing that always comes up in any conversation about cannibalism - not that it comes up OFTEN in my circles, I just want to clarify - is that cannibalism is bad for the health of whoever or whatever is partaking. Why is this the case, and why are some species able to indulge in cannibalism on a regular basis with seemingly no adverse effects? | Diseases often have trouble jumping from one species to another. The closer related to you your food is (evolution wise) the smaller the gap the disease needs to jump. This is why eating bushmeat from apes is more risky than eating some less closely related animals.
The above is true especially for viruses. Parasites are another problem. One thing that has been big in the news are prions.
Prions aren't really living things at all. They are just certain types of proteins which cause the proteins inside of you to become like them by their mere presence. In particular the prions everyone is worried about are ones that are inside your brain and nerves. If you eat another humans brain who has such a prion disease you will become infected yourself.
Normally this is not such a big deal as people aren't in the habit of eating each others brains.
However in cultures where cannibalism was practiced, such disease can become a problem. One example is Kuru also called the laughing diseases which used to be found among cannibals in places like New Guinea.
Another example is mad cow diseases which became a problem when stupid people got into the habit of feeding cows the ground down remains (including brains) of other cows.
In fact mad cow became such a big problem that enough cows with it ended up in the food chain to possibly infect humans despite the species gap. Creutzfel-Jacobs is what the disease is called that many think is what happened if you eat cannibalistic cow brains.
The TL;DR of all this is that if you plan to eat humans make sure to only pick healthy looking ones, stay away from their brains and avoid eating any known cannibalis who seem to have the shakes. | 145 | 84 |
The Glass-Steagall act and why it may (or may not) be to blame for our current economic conditions. | The very basic idea of Glass-Steagall was to enforce a separation between banks that handle consumer accounts like savings and checking, and financial companies that try to make money on the market or by creating and selling more complicated financial products such as derivatives. Those latter activities allow for much higher profits, but also come with greater risks of losing everything. If you keep the basic banks separate from those activities, far fewer of them will fail; also, the government can insure people's deposits in case banks do fail, without having the side effect of government insurance for riskier and more speculative activities.
Glass-Steagall seems to have worked pretty well from when it was passed during the recovery from the Great Depression in the 30s, until federal regulators started reinterpreting it in weaker ways and allowing more exceptions 50 years later in the early 80s, and then it was eventually finally repealed in the late 90s. Once that happened, a lot of regular banks and investment banks merged with each other and became giant megabanks with both consumer banking and speculative activities as part of their business.
Whether that's "to blame" for our current economic conditions is not a simple yes/no question, but it does quite clearly seem to have contributed a lot of problems to the situation. For one thing, it means that when an investment bank fails, it takes with it a lot of consumer bank accounts. For another, it means that a large financial company that has a lot of consumer accounts is benefiting from cheap FDIC insurance on lots of that money, while using that money to make very risky bets in the markets, which gives them unfair advantages against other banks, a form of government subsidy. It also means that a lot more consumer money gets funneled into riskier financial activities. | 18 | 72 |
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CMV: I believe that CS:GO, LoL, and Dota 2 are "Drying up" the gaming industry | ByHi. First of all, I want my view to be changed and am not trying to complain about these games. I just feel like my view is flawed and that it can be looked at a different way.
I'm going to talk about how games are marketed, their success, and how these competitive games affect the market and why I believe that it is drying up the rest of the industry.
Generally, developers and publishers want their games to become a long term success, and remain relevant for more than 3 months. Some even look to set up the next big franchise.
Evolve, for example, probably was envisioned by the developers to be successful and played for a year or two, at least. If we look at the game now, hardly as many people play this game now than launch time. However, this can easily be argued that this is the result of poor market practices with all of their DLC, addons, etc. The game had a "pay to play, pay to win" vibe.
If we look at a more original game like Titanfall, which suffered a similar fate, we can see it may have been for other reasons. Titanfall is generally accepted to be a good game. It's marketing strategy was generally successful. Recently, all DLC went free for certain platforms. It was also a a relatively different style of gameplay.
There are *many* games with similar set ups, and similar fates
So how does CS:GO, LoL, and Dota 2 affect these games? Obviously these games affect PC gaming the most but the idea of what they do happens across all platforms. What I believe is that many of these games fail or drop dramatically in popularity because eventually, people want to go back to playing CS:GO, LoL, and Dota 2. This makes it hard for developers to make a new game and get people to keep playing it.
A number of other factors can affect why people stop playing a game, like repetitiveness, feature creep, etc. but one can also argue that games like Dota 2 are *very* repetitive, changes get made that are unpopular, etc.
How do we change this, if it is at all the problem? We don't. These games will have to run their course or become the next big thing. I'm absolutely OK with the either outcome because I support a free, ever-changing market and the gaming industry cannot become stagnant.
Gamers are going to play what they like the most and it is neither fair nor logical to ask them to stop liking what they like. But it is not unfair to ask someone to try something new.
Again I restate my original point. I believe that this thinking can be argued against fairly easily, and I'm more than willing to CMV if someone show me how I am wrong.
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | The fact that a game can be a persistent long-term success provides an incentive for developers to build games which have a chance of doing so. Not every game will succeed of course, but there are lots of markets where people throw a lot of stuff at the wall hoping something will stick and become a blockbuster. Movies are a classic example. Film studios know many movies will flop. Lots of movies come out hoping to be the tentpole for a new franchise, underwhelm, and are never seen again. But the ones that do succeed are big enough to make it worthwhile to keep trying. | 71 | 154 |
An ontology of society? | Do you know of any resources I can use to get information on what exists within a society and what some necessary processes are. These seem like obvious questions, but I haven't found anything that answers them thoroughly. I'm also not talking about something as fundamental as an ontology of the *social world*. I'm aware of social ontology. I'm asking for an ontology of a society itself. A more empirical, less abstract approach of just 1) What exists within it (people, governments, markets etc.) and 2) What the main processes are
Isn't this supposed to be common knowledge among anyone in the social sciences by now? | Well, this is not going to be very satisfying, but you're going to get very different answers depending on what field you ask, and there is no one resource that anyone can point you to that is going to make them all coalesce into something unified, because there is no unified theory of society, and many of the existing ones are either mutually exclusive, or simply largely ignore one another.
Your intuition is much the same as Auguste Comte's was two centuries ago, when he was writing The Course in Positive Philosophy. "We take a problem, we smash science into it until we figure it out. So why can't we just do the same thing with society? If we haven't figured it out, then it's probably because we haven't smashed enough science into it yet."
But it hasn't quite worked out that way yet. If you ask Berger and Luckmann, their going to give you an answer on how we interact collectively and how our shared meanings form. If you ask Paul Krugman, he's going to give you a very different answer with a focus on macroeconomic forces. If you ask a whole bunch of people *over there* they're going to tell you about how we shape society, *over there* about how society shapes us, *and over there* how evolution has shaped us and collectively shaped society in turn and also shaped the extent to which it can shape us and we can shape it. And in the corner there's a bunch of people mumbling to themselves about how evolutionary psychology isn't really a science.
The short answer is, we don't really know, but a lot of people have very strong opinions on the matter. | 14 | 27 |
ELI5: Mass explanation: I’ve always been told that mass was not the same as weight, and that grams are the metric unit of mass. But grams are a measurement of weight, so am I stupid, was it was explained to me wrong, or is science just not make sense? | The difference is gravity. Weight is dependent on gravity while mass isn’t. So if you had a 5 kg object and you brought it to space, the weight would be 0 but the mass would be the same.
Grams are a measure of mass, not weight. If you’re being pedantic, newtons would be the measure of weight in the metric system, but since the vast majority of us only have to deal with Earth’s gravity, we use mass and weight interchangeably. | 4,964 | 1,870 |
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ELI5: Why does wildfire smoke turn the sunlight red/yellow instead of gray like on an overcast day? | In the simplest terms, light on the longer end of the visible light spectrum (reds and yellows) is able to pass through the smoke and other small particles in the atmosphere, and the shorter wavelengths (blue and violet) are scattered.
This is the same reason that sunsets are red. The light has to pass through more of the atmosphere, thus having to travel through more of these small particles, which creates the reds and yellows we know and love. | 129 | 263 |
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Why is The Republic revered when it doesn’t really fit with Western views? | Genuine question coming from someone who has read several of Plato’s dialogues and am about halfway through The Republic. His views on the perfect society include things like censorship and a class system.
I like Plato, but I’m wondering why The Republic is considered fundamental in political science and Western thought, yet the ideas seem completely different.
Edit: Thank you to everyone for the comments. I just expected a brief explanation, but got way more! I'll try to respond to several of you. | The fact that a philosophical treatise includes or endorses ideas we wouldn't feel comfortable espousing today does not mean that the text itself can't be illuminating in various respects—in fact, I'd argue that precisely because it seems antagonistic to modern values, it can help us shed light on them and understand them more clearly. Philosophical texts are not books of answers, but rather books of questioning. | 243 | 165 |
CMV: Recreational cannabis flower doesn't need child resistant packaging and this packaging is a massive, needless source of plastic waste. | Child resistant packaging is only meant to deter 85% of 5 year olds for 5 minutes. Cannabis needs to be decarboxylated to become psychoactive, non heated cannabis flower is as dangerous to a 5 year old as lawn clippings.
If your 5 year old has access and knows how to use a lighter or the oven, they and your community is more at risk than if you intentionally passed them a blunt and a glass of bourbon.
The packaging requirements are fairly ridiculous in every state. In mine, I have to get a massive thick child resistant plastic container, which is then placed in a child resistant plastic pouch.
I'm not required to store my cannabis in this, as soon as get home, I transfer to an opaque glass jar with an airtight lid that I've had since before legalization. I should be able to bring that jar to the dispensary and have them slap a label on it, more or less how I did back in the grey market.
I could go to the liquor store and buy a bottle of birthday cake flavored vodka, with brightly-colored packaging and a screw off cap. 5 year olds would potentially be interested in this, and it could easily kill them.
This structure is needlessly wasteful and generally dumb, its universality in legal states confuses me, especially when many of these states have banned plastic bags in grocery stores.
CMV! | Optics is important, especially for things society sees as controversial. Many people didn’t want marijuana to be legalized for fear of children ingesting it or taking it without knowing what it was. It doesn’t matter that there would be no or a substantially small effect, they’re going to hold that fear. However, doing something like putting child resistant packaging is going to put enough people at ease to be ok with legalization. It’s more performative than functional. | 20 | 18 |
I believe we should be governed by scientists, CMV | Our leaders need to be able to deal with the ever increasing complexity of our technology, economy and society. Therefore, I think, it should be mandatory that every politician goes through several years of education in undergraduate level mathematics (especially statistics, formal and informal logic, calculus), a technology/engineering related field, economics and ethics. As a result prestige wouldn’t arise from origin, charisma and eloquence anymore, but from honesty and clear, intelligible logic. | You don't think people whose job is to make *laws* should study law? They have nothing to learn from history, a large part of which involves studying the successes and failures of past leaders? Or geography, an understanding of which is vital for knowledge of global politics? Or philosophy, which is the only way to determine what ultimate goals they should be aiming for, and what is right? Or political science so they fully understand the democratic process? Or sociology so they better understand the nature of society? Aren't all of these things more relevant for politicians than undergraduate mathematics and technology/engineering? (I agree with economics and ethics, but they're hardly standard subjects for "scientists")
Since the voters aren't getting any more educated, why would origin, charisma and eloquence stop mattering? Most famous scientists (at least of modern times - Dawkins, Sagan, Hawking, Feynman, Einstein etc.) were reasonably eloquent, and they weren't in a job where they literally *had to* persuade the public they were right about incredibly controversial subjects. | 287 | 271 |
[40k] What are the limits of an Omega-minus Blank's null-aura? | It is said their aura can turn daemons to dust, what would happen if one just flew into the Eye of Terror? | Consider the following:
Inquisitor Ravenor is an extremely high Alpha, if not Omega level psyker... His presence, and that of a high powered Warp Entity (Possibly a Daemon Prince of sorts), wore down a blanks null aura.
Enough background psyker nonsense, and even the strongest blanks will cease functioning.
Edit: Added some feats to back his Alpha level status in a post below | 11 | 15 |
ELI5: How do the archeologists calculate and predict that so & so landmark or site is xyz years old? | There are a number of techniques that can be used in combination. A key element is that a site can be identified with a specific, known culture which already has an identified time period. Some such techniques are:
1) Epigraphic evidence, a.k.a. written records ranging from inscriptions to bureaucratic documents. The type of language used can be studied to date the time of origin, as written languages develop over time. Extraneous written records can also be referenced (this is how Mycenae and Troy were discovered)
2) Artistic styles, including technique and visual style. For example, Neolithic cultures are often categorized by their pottery types
3) Stratigraphic analysis, meaning a study of where a site is positioned in the soil layers. Older sites tend to be buried lower in the soil than newer sites. There are all sorts of secondary conclusions that can be drawn here; for example if a culture uses a specific type of dishware for a big chunk of a layer, then a small layer of ash is found, then a new type of dishware is introduced on top of that, it’s likely that that culture was conquered violently (people are often conservative when it comes to changing how they eat food)
4) Radio-carbon dating can be used to date organic matter, giving a reasonable estimated range
And so on. In combination such techniques along with academic debate can produce estimated time periods | 14 | 15 |
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[General scifi/fantasy] A lot of books posit that the best warriors come from harsh environments; what are some good novels where the badassery comes from the gentle green fields of a temperate climate? | Looking at **you**, Dune... | Many stories set in a classical medieval setting fit this bill. A Song of Ice and Fire, the Lord of the Rings with the rangers, etc.
Dune is an interesting one. The Fremen are a warrior society due to the harsh conditions and constant external threats, but it's the spice which makes them exceptional. Saluca Secundus is arguably worse than Arrakis, but the Sarduakar weren't any match for the Fremen. | 34 | 43 |
Why does the world bounce around when viewed through a camera while walking but stay steady when just using my eyes? | If I hold a camera and walk, when I view it later it makes me nauseous. Running with a camera is even worse (obviously). How do our eyes filter out the bouncing? Do they somehow stay steady while our heads bounce or does the brain somehow filter it to make everything appear much more stable? | The vestibular system corrects for motion and smooths it out.
You can "bypass" this by closing one eye, then taking your finger and repeatedly (but gently!) pushing your other eyeball to the side. You will see the world move around as you push, because your vestibular system isn't aware of the force that's causing your eyeball to move. | 22 | 22 |
What did Nietzsche mean when he said that matters of interpretation are subject to power rather than truth? | I have recently been paying closer attention to how much value is placed on perception in post modern life and who ultimately gets to decide what is "proper" perception and/or interpretation. Is Nietzsche saying that ultimately those in power get to decide what is proper perception rather than allowing empirical truth to guide us in perception? I also don't understand exactly what he means by power? Does that mean a person, an institution, an idea, or even a perception in itself of power? I am sorry it is difficult for me to place into exact words because I am new to the study of philosophy. If anyone here is a Nietzsche expert I would trust your interpretation! Thanks!
EDIT:Here is the link to the quote for those interested:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/22323-all-things-are-subject-to-interpretation-whichever-interpretation-prevails-at
| You are asking good questions. But I'd caution you about getting too far ahead of yourself with Nietzsche. It's important to understand the philosophical context he wrote in, and that means having a good level of familiarity with the philosophical tradition he is responding to - even if he is challenging or rejecting significant parts of it. So really you should just be reading more philosophy in general, and supplementing that with Nietzsche, at least if it's something of more than just passing interest.
With that preamble out of the way, let's address the question of power. Nietzsche is _not_ saying (well not exactly) that 'people in power' decide what proper interpretation is, mostly because he does not think of power as something that can be owned or possessed. For Nietzsche power is more like a force that gets transmitted _through_ beings than something that resides within them. So while 'powerful people' may certainly try to delimit interpretations, and may even succeed to some extent, this kind of control can only ever be partial and incomplete. All beings participate in power relationships, and this makes the structures (including interpretive structures) that power generates inherently subject to change. Michel Foucault is probably the most famous philosopher to explicitly explore Nietzsche's conception of "power", so if you are looking for a focused treatment on this particular subject he might be worth looking into.
With regard to interpretations, Nietzsche doesn't buy into the idea of there ever being one 'proper' interpretation. Rather he would say that different interpretations serve different purposes, and that while some can be better and some can be worse, it ultimately depends upon the context and upon the task at hand to decide which interpretation is most suitable. For a different task, under a different kind of light, another interpretation may suit better. This approach to truth and interpretation in Nietzsche is sometimes referred to as _perspectivism_, and he thought that the wisest people were those who could shift their own perspectives around with facility and adopt multiple frames of reference. Note that Nietzsche is definitely not saying that all interpretations are equal. He's just saying that when determining the value of anything context always needs to be taken into account, and consequently that trying to determine a 'best interpretation' to fit _all_ contexts (for example, he probably thought that Plato's "forms" were an attempt to do this) is ultimately a kind of folly. You can probably see that Nietzsche's attitude toward truth connects with his idea of power in a multitude of interesting ways. For example, it is quite often 'powerful people' who insist on the notion that there IS only one correct interpretation - and it is usually the one they are trying to sell you. | 26 | 35 |
ELI5: How did the United States function until 1861 (temporary) and then the 16th Amendment passage without an income tax on the people? | I know that we had tariffs for imported goods, but did this give the government enough money to operate? And if so, is it possible to create a system where our citizens aren't taxed? | Ok, let me chip in as an economist.... a very general explanation.
There are four ways a government can finance its operations:
* **taxation** of income, wealth, trade
* **borrowing** on the market or from the citizens
* **state-owned enterprises** producing income such as monopolies or land sales.
* **money creation** which causes the so-called Cantillon effect (transfer of wealth through extraction of purchasing power from the existing money by increasing the amount of money in circulation)
The early US governments used all of those methods to finance the operations but the main one - since the rebellion was about taxation and not everyone was as rich as George Washington to just give their own money - was borrowing and money creation.
That was essentially the main reason behind the creation of the first Bank of the United States - to consolidate all the states' debt and state-issued money floating around and continue on the credit issued abroad. There was a very serious economic crisis resulting from the debt the US incurred fighting for independence.
In the subsequent years there was very little need for taxes because governments didn't need money for social services or the like. But in the 1820s and on there grew two movements - industrial protectionism and internal improvements - which required money. Some of that came through sale of land, some of that had to be collected through taxes. The taxes at the time were mostly **tariffs**. Tariffs were import taxes - especially against foreign industrial production and it led to many conflicts along the North-South lines because North was undergoing intense industrialization and started to produce its own industrial goods while South was heavily agricultural but also export-oriented and it used its cotton production to buy everything it needed. North wanted South to buy northern stuff and lobbied heavily for protectionist tariffs against British and other European products.
Over time - as North grew in population, wealth and influence they managed to pass more and more tariffs which the South really didn't like and it was one of the foundations of the upcoming war. By the time of the Civil War the overwhelming majority of the taxes in the federal budget would come from the tariffs (IIRC as much as 70%) the majority of which were paid by the then "richer" South so you can clearly see how the tariffs were going up and down depending on who currently held the advantage in the government. The taxes were actually quite severe - around 1830 the tariffs were close to 50% - although the US had a serious war debt to pay off (1812).
Still you have to remember that at the time the US government was practically nonexistent compared to the organization known today. There was no large standing military and a fairly symbolic navy. There was no social security, no medicare, no agricultural subsidies, no apollo program etc.It was just a bunch of politicians, some bureucrats and some cronies. The idea that this was what government was supposed to look like was so strong that even after the Civil War (which cost a fortune and required both tarriffs, and income taxes, and debt and money printing, and confiscation) when the feds started the railroad subsidies they would subsidy it with land rather than direct financial investment and only create bonds and bond markets off of those land grants.
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As for the question whether it is possible to create a system where citizens aren't taxed. Yes it is - it is called **anarchic society** and depending whether you lean left or right it would be anarcho-collectivism or anarcho-capitalism. You find people who think like you do and you work together to achieve the same goals the state is providing for you now. | 17 | 38 |
[The Thing] Why does The Thing lose some of its shapeshifting ability after it assimilates someone? | When The Thing assimilates someone, it perfectly copies their every internal and external feature, right down to their memories and personality. However, after someone has been assimilated, they're limited to splitting open and creating crude appendages of previous assimilations. Why can't assimilated humans simply shapeshift into entirely different people/creatures that the Thing has assimilated before? | Transformations require time and energy. And the Thing generally needs a giant, toothy maw on the order of "*right fucking now*." And it doesn't seem to have a *perferred* form, just whatever is good enough for the job. It's more utilitarian that way, conserving energy between meals. | 38 | 21 |
ELI5: Why do we zone out? | Our brain activates a particular set of brain regions when we are paying attention to something, or doing a complex task that uses our attention and memory stores. It activates a totally different set of brain regions (the “default mode network”) when we let our mind wander or zone out. Some researchers think this is because it gives our brain time to process things we’ve learned, store memories, think about ourselves and our emotions, and so on. The same thing is thought with dreaming, that it gives our brain time to process and store memories. | 12 | 47 |
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CMV: I, as an individual, can not influence any large issue. | I really struggled with what I wanted my CMV to be.
Is feminism a stagnate movement? Does recycling have a real benefit? Does voting matter in an area where the majority is against you? Is homelessness an unsolvable problem? Will the wealth divide only grow? What is the point of animal shelters if they euthanize?
So, I searched the sub for those answers and more.
I now realize that there is a prevailing view that spans all those issues: I don’t think that I as an individual, outside of extraordinary exceptions, can make a difference.
The problems are just too big, for me to make any meaningful, measurable, change.
What can does me tsk-tsking another man for sexism do to really change anything when weighted against millions of minds that need to change?
Look out at the endless fields of trash, and ask what does four plastic bottles and five cardboard boxes a week do to slow such rapid destruction?
Save one kitty cat’s life, and see hundreds of thousands die.
Pay your few thousand dollars of taxes, and watch as the wealthy keep billions out of reach.
Ladle another bowl of soup with the knowledge that that the U.S. produces enough calories to feed the world.
Work your entire life on any one of these issues and die with nothing having been changed.
Often people will say “But if enough people work towards X, then it would be solved!” but they have been saying that for decades, and the message is clear… not enough people care.
But that’s beside the point. That’s not addressing my concern. I’d never argue that hundreds of millions of people working towards a goal isn’t a powerful force for change. I’m saying, that with out immeasurable wealth, influence, power, or fame, Me… John Blair… will never move any issue in a way that can be measured.
So, why bother? Why spend your energy, time, and money, pursing something that you will never affect, or if there is a change you’ll be dead or too old to care. Why, for example, adopt a hundred kitty cat’s when I could use that time and money to make a meaningful impact on my life right now? Something real and tangible that I can change… like airplane tickets to Europe? I’ve always wanted to see the world outside of the states and it would be something I could point to and say “look. I did that. I completed that goal, and I am better for it.” As opposed to “I tried to change men’s minds about women. Nothing changed. It was a foolish, ideological, and naive waste of time.”
So there it is:
Lacking influence, wealth, and power, I, as an individual, can’t change any big issue in any meaningful way. My time and resources would be better spent elsewhere. Please Change My View.
**EDIT: A big thank you to the CMV community. I really did try to read all replies [and will continue until the thread dies], and respond as best I could. While I still want there to be change, and my view of humanity as a whole is rather dim, you all have really helped me move out of the non-participation realm with regards to those topics I feel strongly about (even if we are all doomed).**
**Special thanks to GnosticGnome, and Moonmixer. While I realize their messages were similar to others theirs got trough (and I realize that may be purely a matter of timing).**
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | Meaningful and measurable are quite different. If you change one mind, you've made a meaningful difference. It can't be measured by pollsters, but it's meaningful. If you save one life, you've made a meaningful difference, even though demographers' tools will never detect it. | 12 | 18 |
ELI5 Why does common advice stipulate that you must consume pure water for hydration? Won't things with any amount of water in them hydrate you, proportional to the water content? | >ELI5 Why does common advice stipulate that you must consume pure water for hydration? Won't things with any amount of water in them hydrate you, proportional to the water content?
Not if the body needs to expend more water to separate that water content from the other ingredients. Salt water has approximately the exact same "water content" as fresh water or even distilled water - the differences are rounding errors. Yet it will not hydrate you since your body does not receive those resources in neat separated piles - here's the H2O, here's a pile of NaCL - but has to do all the processing itself. And your kidneys can only concentrate salts in your waste to a certain degree, not arbitrarily. So now the body has to *expend* water to dilute the salt water in order to get rid of it. | 2,645 | 2,726 |
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ELI5: How can a web form instantly tell that a credit card number is invalid even if it's one number off? | For example, I put in my (valid) credit card number, but I'm accidentally one number off. It instantly returns that the card number is invalid. However, if I enter the wrong zip code, it has to process for a while before coming back invalid. Why doesn't it have to do that with the card number? | Serial Numbers are created based on a mathematical formula that takes many paramenters. Imagine this example:
XXXX - XXXX - XXXX - XXXX
And the following rules:
+ The total number of numbers under 3 (0's, 1's, 2's) are divisible by 2.
+ The 4th number is smaller than the 9th number.
+ If you add the 1th and the 10th number you get the 3rd number if the sum is <10, or the sum of the 2 digits of that sum if >10
+ etc...
So any number can be checked really quickly against those rules to see if it is valid (it may be valid but not correspond to your account btw, you will get a different error).
Zip codes don't follow any rules like that. The program has to actually make a Database Querry to check if X zip code if for the place you claim it to be for | 12 | 17 |
How do we know aliens (if out there) require the same resources we do to support life? | I've seen time and time again in press releases and news articles (most recently with NASA's latest release of the discovery of over 700 new planets) about how "___ number of planets found could support life". My question is, though, what is determining what supports life, and how do we know that aliens would require the same factors to live? Could they not have new biological features that would allow them to bypass that certain need?
For instance, water. It is obviously essential to life on our planet, but what if on another planet, the "common ancestor" of all species did not require water, and instead required a different material to survive? Is this a feasible thought, or is there something in the field of biology that would prevent this from being reality? | What is usually left out of those reports is "Habitable for life **as we know it**".
What we are looking for is for environments which are similar to that of earth. Since we only have one sample of life in the universe, ours, we can only realistically look for life which is similar to our.
Is it possible that there is life out there that doesn't require water? Of course! But, if we don't know what conditions are needed for that life, how could we even begin to look for it? We can't look for something that we know *absolutely* nothing about. So we do the next best thing and look for something that we know *a little bit* about.
We can look at earth and say "this environment produced life". We can look at other environments and say "we have no idea if this environment would produce life or not". So it only makes sense to look for the conditions that we are *certain* can produce life, those conditions being that of life on earth.
| 14 | 15 |
In Babylon 5, many of the floors are visibly curved - but should all floors be curved? | Many of the scenes show a huge curved inner floor - are all the inner floors aimed so that their bottom is facing outward for gravity - but at what point does that stop, and you start installing flat floors?
It seems the middle sections (where C&C is) would be difficult to set up - and transitioning from one section to another would be hard. | Part of it is simply a matter of perception; the further you get from the outer hull, the smaller the radius of the station, so the curve is more visibly pronounced to the naked eye.
The other part is that the nicer areas of the station - the parts you are more likely to see on Interstellar News Network reports - are usually closer to the outer hull, where many of the rooms are installed with flat floors. The curve there is gradual enough, and the rooms so constructed small enough, that the volume of the station that is sacrificed is small.
Critical facilities such as the C&C are set up that way for practical reasons; pretty much every species in the galaxy is used to level floors, and they are easier to navigate in a crisis.
As for transitioning from one level to another, the lifts that go between levels have independent gyroscopic controls that line them up with their destination. Travelling by access ladders in an emergency can be a nauseating experience, though. | 18 | 32 |
ELI5: How does your body produce blood? | Blood is composed of several components, each produced in/arising from various places. The bone marrow is responsible for the production of most blood cells including platelets and red & white blood cells (although some white blood cells, such as T cells, will mature in the thymus). Plasma (the liquid) is simply made up of the water and salts absorbed from the digestive tract. Hundreds of soluble proteins are also found within the blood which can be produced from almost any organ or tissue!
The process of blood cell production is called haematopoiesis, where progenitor (stem cells) specialise into the various types of red and white cells. | 15 | 21 |
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[Marvel] How does Quicksilver's body work? | Quicksilver unlike most speedsters is a physical speedster. He can run as fast as he does "natural" no "Speedforce" or turning his body into light or any of that. His body is built from the ground up to run at super speeds, so what does that mean?
Pietro has got some power creep/ungrades over the years and now runs at around mach 4300-4800 or so. With a few light speed feats that IF taken into account I would consider close to killing himself.
The [respect thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/respectthreads/comments/3f3r20/respect_quicksilver_marvel/) show him strength,durability and such but what about everything else? He is able to breath,hear,see at these speeds so how enhanced are his eyes,lungs,ears? He eats fast but he doesn't eat extremely often or huge portions so what is his digestive system like and finally and most puzzling to me the heat. He has been shown giving off heat due to friction and flash boiling water when he ran over it at high speed but then that heat is gone how, is he an ectotherm and absorbs the heat to live? | Most mutants have additional powers allowing them to survive the effects of their mutation. Storm can call lightning without getting electrocuted, most flying mutants are durable enough to handle high speeds, and so on. Quicksilver is thus tougher than normal humans, allowing him to run quickly and not burn to a crisp. | 14 | 18 |
ELI5: calculating percentile ranking | How do you calculate a percentile ranking if you know the national average and your test score? Google isn't helping me | In order to calculate your percentile for a test you need to know more information than just your score and the average. Say, for example, 100 people take a test. It's possible that everyone gets a 50 and you get a 75. That would put the test average at about 50 and you would be the 100th percentile, since you got the highest score. It's also possible that one person gets a 0%, the next gets a 1%, the next gets a 2%, etc. In this example, if you get a 75, you're only in the 75th percentile.
You also need a piece of information called the standard deviation, which is a measure of how spread out the scores are. If it's a really common test you might be able to look up standard deviations from previous years, but it would still only let you estimate your percentile. The only way to accurately calculate your percentile is to have every single test score, which is information only the body that issued the test has. | 13 | 31 |
How do drugs target our cancerous cells, and not our normal cells, when administered? |
If we have a population of normal and cancer cells, and we give a drug to this population. And lets say this drug induces apoptosis. Usually, the drug would have a detrimental effects on the cancerous cells, but would pretty much cause the normal cells to be unaffected. How is that? If the drug can induce cell death in both normal and cancerous cells, why do the cancerous cells tend to die first? Is it because cancerous cells are way better at metabolism than non-cancerous cells, and so they suck everything from their environment; Therefore the normal cells get a small quantity of the drug, while the cancerous cells consume most of it and hence die?
(I know that some drugs might target molecules that are unique to cancerous cells. However for the ones that are non-specific, how do these drugs manage to destroy our cancerous cells pretty well, while sort of not over-harming our normal cells)
(if anyone has like really credible references that would be nice also | Ok so aside from targeting the molecular differences between cancerous and non cancerous cells (of which there are more and more new therapies), older chemotherapy and non-specific anti cancer drugs don’t necessarily target cancer cells, hence their significant side effect profiles. Instead, they are often destructive to cells which are more frequently dividing. Cancer cells divide frequently, which is what makes those cells more sensitive to the drug than normal cells, which may be less likely to divide.
Also, note that some cancers are targeted by adjusting things like hormonal milieu. Prostate and breast cancers are often hormone sensitive, so if you limit those pathways, you can starve the cancer cells of their signal for growth.
I’m sure there are more. | 111 | 122 |
Do you need both a -10 and -35 sequence for a promoter to bind? | Just a bit of background. I have a DNA sequence I am trying to interpret and there is a -10 sequence for RpoD (regulatory gene regulator) and there is no -35 sequence that matches a promoter for RpoD. However, at the -17 position I have a sequence that matches AlgT (sigma factor/transcription factor) and a promoter sequence at -42. Is it possible for the RpoD to only bind at the -10 sequence and initiate transcription? Is it possible for AlgT to initiate transcription even if it is 17 nucleotides downstream of the promoter? | The sequence regions in question are part of the promoter, and help to recruit the transcription multiplex. Both -10 and -35 are not in general required, but a closer match increases the probability of recruitment and promoter clearance. One of the first, most basic regulatory controls is the overall strength of the promoter and how easy it is to transcribe in the first place, i.e. promoter sequences that deviate from the strongest binding sequence are inherently less active. | 13 | 56 |
Do plants get climate shock when being moved to the other hemisphere? | Like say a full grown tree from the north hemisphere is moved to the south hemisphere during January. | Plants in general have a ton of different receptor pathways to regulate their response due to environmental changes. However stuff like you are describing can put these cycles out of phase. Plants are for example known to show Jetlag. After a few days however, the regulatory enzymes are updated through stuff such as duration/intensity of sunlight, etc. And start to put the cycles responsible for the plants response back into phase. So for your described problem, the plant would for a few days be jetlagged just like us humans would, which would most likely make them more susceptible to the current conditions, but after some time they would be able to adjust. | 19 | 29 |
ELI5: How does an architectural drawing get translated into a physical building? Who decides how many bolts, the type of material, etc? | I am a plumbing designer. The basic answer is that all the pieces go through many hands before a building is built and it depends on what kind of project.
A structural engineer will determine what type of skeleton holds a building up, concrete footers, if steel and concrete, what columns and beams hold up the floors, ect. Framers work with them to determine trusses in wood frame buildings.
On big enough projects(basically anything commercial and not just single houses), there is a design process for each trade. Engineers most of the time come up with plans for the trades but depending on the quality of engineers(usually cheaper bids taken and therefore corners are cut), the level of detail and similarity to what actually gets built will differ.
I work for a company that installs plumbing hvac and fire protection systems. In the office we have project managers, estimators and designers(me).
Between us we take plans that architects and engineers produce and turn them into workable and cost effective projects for our trades. Construction companies work on maybe a 5% profit margin so this is important because the plans we receive are generally not set up to be cost effective(knowledge of code and experience in the field is important to know what does and doesn't work and how to save money and be more effective with time).
Jobs tend to change while in progress as well so we have to be able to adapt to make a functional building.
Estimators bid a job based on rough plans.
They determine what type of materials in a bid based on job specs, cost and codes.
Designers take those plans after a bid is won and produce shop drawings for the field guys and do material takeoffs as well sometimes to determine what is needed for the project.
Project managers take this info and convey it o the field foremen who make it happen on site.
Hope this wasn't too wordy. Any other questions related to this are welcome | 19 | 24 |
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I don’t understand why Kant is so influential. | Why is Kant’s critique of pure reason considered such a turning point in philosophy? I’ve heard many say that it rendered all previous philosophy obsolete. Is this an overstatement? Is it partially true? If it is true, why should I even bother reading pre kantian philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, aquinas, Spinoza, descartes etc...) if I want to understand the current state of philosophy? | In the CPR, Kant was able to move beyond Cartesian rationalism and Humean empiricism. He created a comprehensive theory of mind, systematically mapped out exactly what we can and can't know (and how we know it). He ushered in a new system of metaphysics in the West (numinal/phenomenal distinction). Simply put, the CPR (as well as his other works) became the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and essentially every post-Kantian thinker has had to wrestle with Kantianism. If you want very practical implications, Kant's thinking influenced Hegel to an immense degree, who subsequently influenced Marx's historical materialism, which has had profound effects on the world (for better or worse is your call and not the point of this post). Without Kant, the modern world would be completely different. Now, onto ether you should read pre-Kantian philosophers: of course! Just because Kant was super influential doesn't mean he has to be right. There are cases to be made for modern neo-Platanism, for example, so don't discount older philosophers out of hand. Just read a lot of philosophers. Evaluate their arguments. Come to your own conclusions. | 305 | 222 |
[Avatar/The Legend of Korra]Why do most Bloodbenders need the full moon to bloodbend while bending the water inside plants is fairly easy? | The moon amplifies the abilities of Waterbenders, allowing even the most novice of waterbenders to do amazing feats, and allowing masters to do things never before thought possible.
&#x200B;
Every living thing has Chi(Or chakras, if you're going by the Western Air Nomad terminology) and the more complex the organism, the more Chi they have, which offers a natural resistance to the interference of other's energy reaching inside them and disrupting the flow of things.
&#x200B;
Plants have nearly no complexity or Chi (if any) and thus can be reached into and manipulated easily. | 35 | 21 |
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Eli5: How golf cameras are able to follow the ball on its fly? | It takes a lot of practice but the short answer is very good camera operators.
Camera operation is an art unto itself and it demands 100% attention and an incredible ability to multi-task because they have to spot, pan, and zoom as smoothly as possible within seconds of a que they have no control over.
On something like that there are usually multiple operators covering from different angles and the director is watching a bank of monitors calling out which feed goes live to the audience. So if 5 cameras are covering 1 or 2 lost the ball and the other 3 are of varying quality and the best one goes out to broadcast.
Shouts out to IATSE. Without hands the show don't go. | 111 | 65 |
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[Pacific Rim] Why didn't the Precursors devise a more "implicit" kind of weapon, like advanced virus or mind control? | Did it have something to do with their culture?
Yes, at some point of the war they tried to infiltrate the mind of an important figure, yet they still use their beloved kaiju just to blow up Mount Fuji. | The Precursors' plan was thus: Get a Kaiju through the Breach and onto Earth, make the Kaiju jump into Mount Fuji, and the subsequent reaction between the Kaiju blood and the volcano would spew toxic poisons into the atmosphere, killing all of humanity and terraforming the planet to make it suitable for the Precursors.
*(This does raise the question of why Kaiju starting out in the middle of the Pacific and heading to Japan would end up attacking places like Sydney, Anchorage, and Hong Kong, but let's just assume the Kaiju didn't know where Mount Fuji was and never stopped to ask for directions.)*
Thus, from the perspective of the Precursors, there's no need to implement complicated plans like a special virus or mind control. They just need to keep sending Kaiju until one makes it far enough to jump into the volcano. They had plenty of "spare parts" to make Kaiju, and they could keep sending Kaiju through the Breach at increasingly higher frequencies. It was just a matter of time before one of their Kaiju found its target.
Granted, Gipsy Danger managed to make it through and then blow up the Breach, so that sort of threw a Jaeger-sized wrench into their plans. Fortunately, though, they had a connection into Newt's head thanks to his injudicious decision to drift with a Kaiju brain, so that's what they decided to use for their second attempt at Earth. | 59 | 41 |
CMV: all drugs should be legalized, manufactured, and available for public use. | My view here stems from 2 ideals, a personal one and a logical one. The more succinct ideal is a personal view that it is not, nor should ever be up to the government to decide what I can or can't do to my body.
My logical (and more detailed) part of this view is on how society would benefit. Drugs are currently being used at a staggering rate. And yet these drugs are illegal. As prohibition of alcohol has shown us, making something illegal doesn't erase the market, but instead creates a black market for that product. With black markets come crime, corruption and violence which adds stress on our healthcare and justice systems. As well, overdose due to drugs cut with unknown and dangerous substances and the spread of diseases through sharing needles is an epidemic that is a further tax on our healthcare system. By manufacturing these drugs and having them available for public consumption we could eliminate the spread of diseases, and prevent overdoses by controlling the whole process of drug addiction. And by this extent we're able to even help people out of addiction, instead of letting them fend for themselves. | Available how? Are we talking corner grocery stores and super markets?
Also, let’s not say all drugs please. People do not need easier access to roofies, to fentanyl, to carfentanyl, and to untested and dangerous synthetics like K2 and smiley. | 45 | 109 |
Why are good conductors of electricity also good conductors of heat? | I understand that good electrical conductors are such because of their free electrons. But why is this correlated with heat conductance? | The microscopic property leading to both is a highly regular atomic lattice. For electrical conductors, electrons can move freely between the atoms through the lattice as you said, and for heat conductors, sound can propagate better through a regular atomic lattice, which improves heat transfer.
There are exceptions, such as diamond which is an excellent heat conductor but an electrical insulator. | 16 | 30 |
The principle of charity | How seriously is this principle taken within academic philosophy? One thing that's very easy to see within more popular/non\-academic forms of communication is an almost wilful determination to think the worst of people who disagree with you, or think you're wrong, to the point where they aren't just wrong, but also morally disgusting, repugnant, and vile. Even when doing my PhD in Psychology, it was not uncommon to see very uncharitable interpretations of statistics, theories, hypotheses etc., within academic journals.
On the rare occasion when you see a philosopher comment on something in more popular media \(I'm thinking of Dennet's response to Sam Harris' book on free will, as one example\) it's astounding how well\-mannered the complete disagreement can be. Is this style of discourse the norm, or the majority? Is it common \(for instance\) to dismiss an objection simply because it violates this idea to some degree? | >How seriously is this principle taken within academic philosophy?
Very.
>Is this style of discourse the norm, or the majority?
Yes.
>Is it common (for instance) to dismiss an objection simply because it violates this idea to some degree?
Yes. | 30 | 28 |
CMV: If your hamburger/cheeseburger can't fit in my mouth, it's poorly designed. | Listen, if I can't just take a bite of the burger you made me without needing to learn origami to get it down to a manageable size, it's not well crafted, defeats the point of the burger, and detracts from the overall dining experience.
I don't care if you put Excalibur sticking out the top of it, I shouldn't have to cut it or press it down with the flat of the knife to eat it. I shouldn't have to smoosh the ingredients and juices to hell and back to get it to fit.
As a side note, if you need a toothpick or some such device to hold your toppings in the burger, it's also poorly designed. I didn't come to your restaurant to finish preparing my own meal. Make your food edible as presented or change the recipe.
A burger doesn't need to be big to be flavorful. I should be able to enjoy it as is without a hydraulic press.
Edit: I'll clarify that if advertised as such, a massive burger is perfectly acceptable, but if your default "cheeseburger," as ordered, comes out on a forklift, you're just wrong. | Different people need different amounts of food to feel full. Why can't you buy a smaller burger, and people who want a larger one, buy the larger one? There seems to be a market for large burgers, so why shouldn't buying one be an opportunity?
Sure, people could buy more burgers if they need to, to feel full, but that would ultimately increase the amount of bread, which isn't everyone's favorite part of the burger. | 735 | 14,676 |
I've seen a lot of criticisms of Monsanto and genetically modified foods. Where does the science currently stand on the harmfulness/harmlessness of it? | Genetically modified foods on the market are considered safe. They have undergone testing to show no adverse effects, and there is no good evidence that there are risks.
One of the arguments against genetically modified foods is that they could contaminate the "natural" plants, and then we could discover too late that there is a serious danger with the genetically modified strain. | 49 | 56 |
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What are the "C languages" useful for? | Hey guys! I've recently gotten into html/js coding and so far it's been a generally smooth ride. So I was wondering: what is the use of languages like C, C++ and C#? They seem a bit more convoluted so it would requiere a steeper learning curve, by the looks of it.
I'm not saying that I'll stop learning js, but I want to know what these languages are used for, and if they are worth learning for me | C and C++ are mostly used for very low level stuff or high performance (OS, drivers, games and embedded).
C# is a different beast, it's not a system programming language, but is used for creating all kind of desktop apps. | 35 | 21 |
ELI5: The game of cricket, and how/why can the games go on for days | As an American I've always been curious, but without any media coverage it's hard to understand both the rules and gameplay. Especially how games can have such huge scores and go on for such long times. | The basic idea is similar to baseball, softball, rounders, and so on. One team bats and tries to score runs, the other bowls and fields and tries to get the batters 'out'. Cricket games owe their length to one simple aspect of the rules: *the batsman doesn't have to run*. They can face ball after ball from the bowler, just defending and making sure they're not put out, and waiting for the opportunity to make a great shot. Combined with the batsman using a wide flat bat that gives them more control than the round bat used in baseball, a batsman can stay in for a long time. In the long form of cricket each team bats twice and they keep batting until all but one batsman is out and can take four or five days. (In fact if the team batting last still has two or more batsmen in when the last day finishes, the match is a draw no matter what the runs scored are.)
'Limited overs' cricket matches are shorter and have become popular, such as one-day (matches last, dur, one-day) and Twenty20 (matches last about 3 hours). These all work by limiting the number of balls bowled in an inning(s), rather than playing until all batsmen are out. (An 'over' is six balls bowled). | 27 | 95 |
Is there something like a Lagrangian point for a galaxy? | Space is expanding. Two objects will have an acceleration relative to another dependent on how far apart the two are. If two galaxies are close enough, however, like the Andromeda and Milky Way are, their gravity can accelerate them together faster than space can "push" them apart.
So is there a distance at which the two cancel out? Have we discovered any galaxies which are positioned like this? | Short answer: any such situation would be unstable and we don't have the precision to measure it anyway.
The expansion of the universe happens outside of gravity wells, where objects are too far away to fall toward each other. Interactions between galaxies are a fuzzy thing, with tidal forces being quite important due to the large scale of galaxies. If you had two galaxies in a situation like the one you describe, they would exert tidal forces on each other, stretching each other and moving closer.
We can measure radial velocity-- the speed at which a galaxy is moving toward or away from us-- with a high degree of accuracy. Measuring distance is much more fraught with error, although we can often get a good distance measurement to within a few percent for galaxies in the local neighborhood. Measure transverse velocity, the apparent motion of a galaxy on the sky, is currently not feasible for anything outside the Local Group. | 12 | 29 |
ELI5 how does sound travel through a cable? this is absolute witchcraft to me. | Information can be transferred as long as the sender and receiver agree what certain symbols/actions mean. If someone read aloud a letter or email, does that mean the sound was transferred in the letter? It simply means we have a system that most of us agree on to convert certain markings on a paper into words. We then agree that words should be pronounced in a certain way to form speech.
It is pretty much the same for electronic communications of any form whether that information are sounds, videos, texts etc. There are standards that the makers of equipment agree to that certain electrical signals should be interpreted in certain ways. And we also design equipment that converts these signals from one way to another (like a picture on a screen or sound out of a speaker). It isn't magical just like reading aloud words from a book isn't magical. | 41 | 21 |
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[MCU] Do the Infinity Stones work in alternate universes? | Traditionally, in the comics, Infinity Gems from different universes don't work outside their home dimension. For example, there are several alternate Reed Richards who have acquired their world's Infinity Gauntlet, but they can't come help him out because they only work in their own dimension.
However, Dr Strange was able to use his Infinity Stone in Dormammu's Dark Dimension and be all
>"Since you gave Kaecilius power from your dimension, I brought some power from mine. This is time."
Which is cool (although the Dark Dimension clearly does have time so whatever), but makes me wonder whether MCU Thanos could go conquor the multiverse with his omnipotence once he assembles the Gauntlet. | Your conflating dimension and universe. Dormamu from MCU is not the same as the Dormamu from mainline, or from Ultimates, or from whereever else. The Infinity stone worked in that *dimension* because it was still the same *universe*. | 62 | 45 |
[Jack and Jill (not the movie)] Why is a water source at the top of a hill? | While normally considered to be a well in many illustrated iterations of the story, careful analysis of the text reveals no specificity about the nature of the water source. There is no reason that the water being fetched might not from a mountain creek or natural spring (indeed, mineral springs abound in the regions where the original rhyme comes from). The latter is an especially enticing possibility because mineral water would be much more valuable because of its purposed health benefits - some of which might well be true; springs of lithia water with dissolved lithium salts being especially popular - and a combination of lithia water and a steep descent possibly a reason why Jack fell down and broke his crown. | 64 | 43 |
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Why does continental philosophy appear more relevant to personal experience? | In my reading of philosophy, it's usually the continentals who speak more directly to the experience of being a human in the world. I'm aware that analytic is more popular and academically valued, but whenever I read it, I'm left with the impression that it's primarily focused on arid logical analysis of conceptual problems, reminiscent of mathematics. It seems as though continental philosophy is focused on the macro, and analytic on the micro.
Is this normal? Am I reading the wrong philosophers? Are there analytic philosophers that are more engaging to read? Is philosophy still for me if I don't particularly enjoy the analytics? | Perhaps another possibility not mentioned so far is the influence of phenomenology on a great number of the key thinkers in the continental tradition. The first person perspective is taken as quite important in phenomenological theory so this may be one of the causes of the impression you're getting. | 30 | 28 |
[Avatar the Last Airbender] Why was Firelord Ozai not mad at Azula for lying about the Avatar's death? | I understand that Azula said that Zuko was the one to take him down but she still said that he died which turned out to be a lie, and that's a pretty big thing to lie about. So why was Ozai not mad at all instead he decides to promote her to Firelord? | It could be a mixture of:
- It was Zuko's failure, not Azula's. She credited him, therefore if the Avatar is alive it's Zuko's fault. We see Ozai hasn't exactly been fair to his kids, so she could be Ozai's blindspot
- Who else could he choose? Azula seems to be the only one left in the royal family who is loyal | 15 | 17 |
[Star Wars] What possible reasons could the Trade Federation have for continuing to employ such an incompetent droid army? | An obvious advantage to a droid army would be a lack of traditional supply lines, you don't need food, water, or shelter. But you would need constant maintenance, parts, and power supply. The standard droid although seemingly cheap and quick to assemble, still relies on an extensive and vulnerable supply line to provide raw building materials. The standard droid is loyal without question but comically inept at anything remotely battle related such as shooting and fighting. The vast numbers are an advantage but that is consistently overcome with smaller forces, even nonprofessional forces such as Gungans, combined with special forces such as Jedi, and they are defeated by a smaller professional army of clones. There are better versions of droids with heavier weapons, armor, and shields but they don't seem to be present in numbers large enough to sway battles. Why does the Trade Federation employ battle droids as a standard trooper? | Easy to mass produce and they were actually very effective in a lot of cases, such as the battle of Jabiim. It's not about the quality of the soldier, it's about having twenty times the amount of soldiers your enemy has and totally overwhelming them.
Edit: Also, most of the Republic's army was conscripts and average people, not the elite fighting force that was the Clone Army. A droid vs a clone is 10:1 in the clone's favor but a droid vs an average human gives the droid a much better advantage. | 34 | 26 |
CMV: I believe that doing an accent is not racist no matter who you are and what accent you are doing. | I believe this for one main reason. Accents and language are part of culture. Not race. While the two may be connected, it is important to make the distinction. When somebody is doing an accent, they are mocking a certain culture, not a skin colour. If I were to do a British accent in an attempt to be funny, I am not mocking white people. Blacks, Asians and other races living in Britain will also have the British accent. The accent you have does not conclusively determine your race but instead the culture that you or your parents come from.
One could argue that doing an accent in culturally insensitive in some circumstances but given that has nothing to do with race, it is a different issue. People should be allowed to mock and criticize other cultures in certain circumstances.
I am willing to change my view so please have at it.
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | If you have any idea how language works, you know that the defintions of words and the way people use words are fluid. It is obvious to any English speaker that many use "racist" to mean "offensive to a particular group divided by a particular ethnic background" even if that's not *quite* the dictionary definition. | 27 | 60 |
ELI5: Why turning your phone sideways takes a wider angle shot. Isn't the camera the same size no matter what angle its on? | A camera has two main parts:
- A circular glass called a lens, which focuses light.
- A rectangular light catcher, called a sensor.
The first is a circle and so the angle does not change. The second is a rectangle. When you flip your phone sideways, you flip the rectangle sideways, too. | 21 | 35 |
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ELI5: Why do electric utility companies (in the US) subsidize the cost of LED light bulbs? | In many places in the US, you can buy LED light bulbs for rather cheap. They are heavily discounted over their actual price because the local electric utility subsidizes the cost. Sometimes you'll see signage on the shelves mentioning this.
What is their incentive in doing this? It seems counter intuitive, since using these bulbs means you are going to be buying less electricity from them than if you used incandescents (or even CFLs). | (I work for a private regulated monopoly utility company)
So being a monopoly power provider has many obvious benefits. You don't have competition, and basically as long as there are people, you'll have customers.
The reason the government sets up these situations is that they believe that it is cheaper to grant monopolies to companies in areas and regulate them heavily, than it is to have competition, considering the infrastructure (power lines) that would be required. This isn't done everywhere, so there can be arguments against it, but it's not a completely unreasonable idea.
But there has to be downsides. In many cases the utility companies are actually restricted in how much profit they can make, and they also are limited in how much they can raise prices, in some cases requiring state governmental permissions.
Also, they have an obligation to provide enough power for anyone. If apples makes 2 million iPhone X, but 3 million people want them, oh well. Or they can just raise the prices until they line up. Not with power in these cases. They**must** provide power to all our customers, at all our levels. If it gets hot they must provide more power for more air conditioning. If more people move in they must generate enough power for everyone.
But opening a new power plant is not normally profitable. So these companies instead spend a little bit of money giving out cheaper light bulbs, which lowers the demand they have. In addition it creates good press, which is helpful if they later have to go to state governments and ask for rates to be increased for whatever reason.
So even if you don't think highly of these companies there are good buisness reasons to do this, and also good PR reasons, and customers do benefit from them. | 19 | 15 |
If studies that are not successful in proving their hypothesis are generally not published, then how do we know what didn't work out. In other words, why don't scientists make the same mistakes over and over? | 1. Word of mouth. There are scientific conferences, people will shoot the shit and throw out unpublished results, provided they are sufficiently uninteresting that they aren't worried about getting scooped. "Oh yeah, we tried that, and we couldn't make it work".
2. There actually is a fair amount of duplication of effort. If something seems like a logical step, probably multiple labs try it. If they all fail, that's a pretty good indication that the hypothesis wasn't correct.
3. Some duplication of effort is good. What if someone tried to test a hypothesis, and their experiment failed because it was a bad experimental design, or their reagents were bad and they didn't know it? It's better that they not tell anyone, because they might scare others from attempting a similar experiment that might actually work. | 56 | 81 |
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ELI5: Why are so many news websites formatted so badly? | It seems like it's intentional. | They're designed around two things- making you click on ads, and making you click on more articles. The confusing layout is, indeed, somewhat intentional. They don't want you to just read the article and close the webpage- they want you to get distracted by another headline, load another page, and possibly click on an ad or two by accident. | 17 | 16 |
[Star Trek] Why is Genetic Engineering in humans frowned upon, but admitted for human-alien hybrids? | Über-humans like Khan cause a fit of outrage, but human-alien hybrids like Spock - people who need genetic engineering to be produced in a viable way - are seen as ok. Why is the Federation so selective on what is acceptable in terms of genetic modification? | The Federation is fully accepting of vital life-saving genetic engineering, especially for unborn children who would have a hard time being born, or potentially live a challenging life. Some of the most common medical procedures in the Federation are screenings for genetic disorders, and then distributing gene-therapy cures to make sure they don't crop up later in life. Only the rarest and/or newest problems are incurable, and lead to heartache for everyone involved.
Hybrid children are very often in need of these vital procedures, and no planet in the Federation would ever stop parents from seeking out treatments to help their child grow up healthy.
The line is drawn where the engineering goes from *"helping an otherwise disadvantaged person live a healthy lifestyle"* to *"turning a healthy person into a superhuman"* (for lack of a better term) As we've seen time and again, superior ability breeds superior ambition, and basic human nature makes these people start viewing their peers as lessers, if not straight-up inhuman. (us-vs-them tribalism) And when an augmented being starts dehumanizing the "normals", they can do horrific things.
A few people, like Julian Bashir, can resist the temptation, but they're an extreme rarity. The chances of another Khan happening are too great when the idea of engineering becomes a pursuit of superpowers. | 54 | 63 |
ELI5: What is being transgender, and how can there be more than two genders? | I'm confused, do transgenders consider themselves to be another gender? I also saw people on tumblr saying how stupid it is to think there are only two genders. Thanks for the help! | I'll attempt to provide some info on the second point. There's a difference between biological sex and gender identity. Your biological sex is assigned at birth based on biological characteristics, male or female. This is in most cases a binary, except in the case of individuals born with ambiguous sexual characteristics, often termed "intersex" individuals because their biological sex falls somewhere between simple "male" or "female".
"Gender" is socially constructed, meaning that we as societies and individuals determine what it means to be male or female. Behavior, appearance, dress, speech, all are examples of gender norms. Gender roles change over time and space, meaning that what it means to be a woman or a man means different things in different places.
People referring to there being more than 2 genders may be in reference to the idea that gender is fluid, or is kind of like a spectrum. People express their gender identity in shades- for instance, some women wear dresses, some women wear pants, some men are masculine, some men are less masculine- there are thousands of ways to express gender.
| 13 | 17 |
ELI5: Why is heart cancer so rare compared to other types of cancer? | Cancer is a failure in growth regulation that results from mutations. The way tumors develop is these damaged cells divide and make daughter cells that are likewise damaged.
Cells that divide a lot are more prone to cancer (like skin cells)
Heart muscles don’t divide much so they don’t copy their dna mistakes and make damaged daughter cells. | 8,309 | 8,592 |
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ELI5: How do we communicate with robots we send to alien planets? What kind of lag is there and is it the same way we would communicate with astronauts on those planets? | > How do we communicate
Radio
> What kind of lag is there
Well it depends on where you are. On Mars it's about 12 minutes IIRC (it can vary depending on where Earth and Mars are in their orbits). Radio waves travel at the speed of light (because they're light).
> Is this what we'd do with humans?
Yep | 12 | 19 |
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Is there any reasonable argument for the coexistence of both free will and an omniscient higher power/creator? | This is one of the big flaws of Christianity and some other religions that I just can't wrap my head around. I know that with the rigor applied to these religions, I can't be the first one who has struggled with it. So what are the arguments?
If God knows beforehand every single choice I will make in my entire life, and God cannot be incorrect in this, how is it possible that I have any choice? If I cannot ever act outside of God's foreknowledge, in what way is there free will?
EDIT: Wow, I thought this was kind of a silly question. I have very little knowledge of philosophy but it seems there are quite a few in here who disagree with each other. What a fascinating conversation! | A further question -- does God knowing something some necessitate that God is causing that thing to happen? What about a God who, armed with perfect knowledge, is merely a perfect reasoner who can ultimately predict, but not occasion, every event in the Universe.
That is, your choices are still your free and independent choices, God is just smart enough to use his perfect knowledge of the universe to accurately predict everything you will choose.
(which is just one compatibilist argument. There are many) | 14 | 21 |
Does the body all die at once if the brain dies first? Or do things shut down at different times? | There is both a scientific and an ethical/practical answer to this question. As far as brain death goes, multiple parts of the “higher brain centers” that carry out cerebral functions may often cease functioning before the brain stem does. The most important function being carried out in a “brain dead” person is the respiration reflex, which is initiated by the brain stem and is sometimes the last thing to go. Therefore, complete brain death can only be confirmed if there is a loss of neurological activity in both the cerebral and brainstem areas. After complete brain death, the heart may actually be able to continue beating for a short period of time due to its own intrinsic electrical system. However, without using a ventilator to keep artificially circulating blood and oxygen, this would soon die out. Additionally, following the removal of mechanical ventilators and during tests for apnea (one of the tests run to confirm brain death in which external breathing assistance is removed to check for the body’s own respiration abilities), there may be spontaneous limb movements and even muscular reactions to touch. This is because many of our muscular reflex arcs loop through the spinal cord without ascending to the brain. In fact, with a loss of input from the brain to these reflex arcs, the reflexes are usually exaggerated because the brain functions to inhibit these reflexes.
For a physician, complete brain death (both cerebral and brainstem) is equivalent to the death of the person. While the body may be kept “alive” for some while with mechanical ventilation, hormone treatments, artificial heating/cooling systems, etc, at that point you are only treating the body. Without the brain and without the respiration reflexes of the brainstem, bodily function is not possible | 28 | 37 |
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ELI5: Why does it feel cold when I set my air conditioning to 70 degrees in the summer, but when I set my heat to the same temp in the winter it is nice and toasty warm? | Just wondering why the same temp feels so much different. | Your body acclimates to the seasonal normal temperatures. If it's 50 F in July everybody is looking for a jacket, but if it's 50 F in January, people are getting out their shorts. The human body does a lousy job at determining the actual temperature. | 20 | 23 |
ELI5: How did the states get their shapes? | I actually searched for this and surprisingly it wasn't on /r/eli5 .
I googled it also and just came up with a TV show and no real answers. I guess my question is. Was it just who claimed the land while the states were being formed? Or is it a real reason behind the random shapes of the states? | Sometimes it was geographic boundaries like rivers or mountain ranges. Sometimes it was done via treaty with other countries (and they stuck when the state borders were formed). Sometimes they were just chosen arbitrarily (especially where the straight lines happen).
Obviously there are more details with every state, but the above is a good generalization. | 18 | 18 |
CMV: Working class white people in America are not being left behind or victimized in any way | **tldr; There is no justification for working class white people to feel victimized by society, specifically the left, for recent events highlighting social and racial tension in America. That is, unless those people are prejudiced themselves, in which case they are no more victims than any aggressor in the past has been a victim of self defense from the groups they attack.**
*****
For context, I just returned home from overseas to see my family. I've been outside of America for a year now, since a little before the general election. I was/am a Bernie supporter, college-educated, and a straight white male.
My family, on the other hand, all revealed to me that they voted for Trump recently, and were commenting on the Fox broadcasts of the Robert E. Lee statue and the Charlottesville protests as I was walking through the door. The past few afternoons and family dinners have been rife with heated conversation, where some stray comment has inevitably perked up the ears of the opinionated folks that I call family (myself included).
While talking about these recent events, I took some time to watch the Fox coverage they watch, peruse posts on subreddits like /r/politics, /r/changemyview, and /r/AskReddit, as well as doing some legitimate research online. I understand that all of these sources are biased, and in gathering perspectives I tried to be as objective as possible in the conclusions I've made from them. I've been taught to trust sources as opinions at worst and perspectives at best, so I felt fairly prepared for conversations I might have with my family.
*****
Well, as soon as we began discussing current issues and events, I started to form my view. My family was:
* Extremely critical of the counter protesters, Antifa members and the "alt left" specifically. They seemed to believe that violent protesters on *both sides* were wielding cudgels and torches and engaged in unwarranted violence, yet the white supremacy protesters were the sole victims of harassment and violence.
* Claiming a double standard on discrimination and persecution of gay people vs "white people", citing a lawsuit against a bakery in Colorado and recent actions against "white people" seen in media. I should note that my family is putting themselves in the passenger seat here for being victimized, despite the "white people" they are referring to all being affiliated with some extremist ideological group, like neo-nazi/KKK/white supremacy groups. I'll mention it later, but another point they make is that they are being persecuted and oppressed as working white people by liberals and society, and they wish not to be lumped into the same groups as these white supremacists (arguably terrorists).
* Critical that pulling down statues was doing anything for social progress in our country, and that instead it was the current liberal society reaffirming its oppression over white culture. I mentioned that the statues being taken down were less culturally relevant to whites or post-confederate states, and more culturally relevant to a re-affirmation of white dominance and traditionalism in the most socially progressive times in our culture (the turn of the century and just after the mid-century). Their response was that then, every politically-motivated statue should be taken down under that logic, including those in historically confederate areas (like Richmond, VA) and any statues of Malcolm X (because, in their minds, he was just as racist against white people as the KKK was/is).
* Dismissive of my points and perspectives, because I am young, liberal, "trapped in a college bubble", and "haven't seen the world yet". However, whenever an individual view, perspective, opinion, or fact of theirs is challenged, I am met with deflection and a scathing criticism of the modern media landscape. I suspect this attitude of mistrust has been partially inspired by Trump's push against "fake news", although the media itself is not exempt from responsibility for its fair share of inadequacies, failures, and deception.
* Frequently creating false equivalences to set up an "us vs. them" dichotomy. As previously mentioned, the lawsuit against a Colorado bakery set against current persecution of neo-nazi and white supremacist supporters. (As a side note, I would argue that one group is being judged for an unchangeable facet of their existence, whereas the other is being judged for their chosen beliefs. Another comparison I've mentioned that they believe is the "radical racist similarity" between the KKK and Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and other groups. While the end result of philosophies from Garveyites and white supremacist groups may have been the same, the purposes for separation in both are wildly different.)
*****
For the record, I am (hopefully) not engaging in these discussions with a bullheaded, ideologically-driven approach, despite how I feel about the topics at hand. I know that people become further entrenched in their views the more they are challenged, but also that you should remain firm yet flexible in your beliefs. I think that many aspects of my ideology have been misrepresented by people who claim to side with me. I feel that this is how many modern equality movements are being undercut. The loudest, most extreme members of these groups ruin a chance at progress by giving their enemies something to point its finger at.
* For feminism, it's loud voices like the infamous Big Red or the "Hugh Mungous" interviewer, or a bevy of emotionally driven college students who instigate more than they engage in productive conversation.
* For Muslims, it's a small group of extremists who "poison the well", giving opponents a violent act or a terrorizing sound byte to instill fear and doubt in a larger group.
* For African Americans, it's individuals that take justice into their own hands and shoot police officers, giving media an all-access pass to paint a second side to the war between black communities and police forces.
* For working class white Americans, this group is white supremacists. KKK, neo-nazis, etc. --- perhaps Westboro Baptist could fall in a similar category for Christians, you should get the same idea.
*****
The point is, all of these smaller, radical groups are largely detested and denounced by the bigger factions they claim to represent. Some working class white people (anecdotally, my family) seem to view this push-back against white supremacist movements as a push-back against white people, and claim that they are being unfairly targeted by modern social movements, media, and law.
However, in all of the aforementioned examples, all members of the ideology were punished for the actions of the radical few. Black Americans were (and arguably, are to this day) encouraged to lead unsustainably flawless lives, so as not to give civil right's opponents a target. If you lash out at a sit-in, you become a caricature of the violent monster that the other side portrays you as. Muslims and brown people of any faith are disproportionately targeted for security checks at airports. Women may feel hesitant to ask for promotions in the workplace or time off to raise a child, not due to any lack of ability or initiative, but because it is seen by some as "asking for more than their fair share".
*****
Where is the push-back for being working class and white? Is it people knocking down a couple statues of some racist confederates erected during times of civil strife to celebrate the status quo? If so, then the push-back isn't against you as a working class white person, it's against you as someone who fails to see the racial motivations behind symbols in our culture... or you as a racist.
Where else might it be? Is it in outspoken white supremacists being shut out of popular websites or storefronts for their (chosen) viewpoints and actions? If so, then again, you're not the victim. That is, unless you sympathize with white supremacists or neo-nazis.
Anything else? What about some media characterizations of southern, working class, white Americans as fat, slovenly, overall-wearing hicks? Is that your punishment for being white and having a decent job? What about the overwhelming portrayal of white working class people in the media that, for decades, has been a varied and multi-faceted view of many lifestyles and characterizations?
*****
From my perspective, **if you are a working class white person in America, you are not being persecuted, targeted, or unjustly treated for being so**. Perhaps the only time I believe this could be justified is when looking at affirmative action, which has been banned in a few states and remains a contentious topic of debate. I think the sentiment of AA is pure, but that it's ultimately a short term solution to treat the symptoms of inequality and not equipped to deal with the underlying problems.
Regardless, **if you do feel persecuted for being a working class white person in America, I would further argue that it's all in your head, perhaps as a manifestation of your own conservative viewpoints, prejudice, or guilt.**
I sincerely hope someone can help me understand why my family, like many others, feels so left behind, because I'm having a hard time not viewing them as racist / prejudiced conservatives.
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> *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!* | Do you mean to exclude the ones that are literally left behind by industries they relied upon for work and instead focus on whether or not they're socially stigmatized? Asking for clarification.
Second I'd ask how general you're being. If a person can find instances of persecution toward white people at certain schools or workplaces will this be dismissed as not common enough or relatively less common than persecution toward other groups? | 30 | 50 |
Eli5: Why do very salty foods dehydrate you but drinks like Pedialyte and Gatorade, which have a lot of sodium, rehydrate you? | Electrolyte-rich drinks are typically balanced between their salt and water levels. Salty foods have practically no water of their own, so our pre-existing water content has to counter-balance the salt.
Think of it like: adding plain salt to a pitcher of water will always make it saltier. But adding slightly less-salty water to already-very-salty water can make it less salty overall. | 377 | 317 |
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How can one get a sense for the "hottest" (most popular) and "newest" (most recently posed) problems in philosophy? | How can one get a sense for the "hottest" (most popular) and "newest" (most recently posed) problems in philosophy?
**Edit**: Just to add an extra question: Is it important to get a sense of "motion" in philosophy, because the field can feel like a massive, immovable thing that never moves? | See what people on the job market from top schools or people at post docs at top schools have on their websites. Take special notice of papers that are going to be published in top journals. Bonus points if all of their citations are from other papers that are going to be published in top journals. At some point you will reach the hot philosophy singularity. | 55 | 101 |
What is the best way to study for computer science? | I am struggling in some of my classes. I can do the programming projects with 100% score, but when it comes to tests that dig deeper into the language, I flunk them everytime. What is a good way to study for these and how can I start getting myself ready for my finals? | Sometimes it just takes raw understanding of the concepts. Take search for example: BFS, DFS, and A*. Walking through the algorithms on a white board using a bunch examples will help solidify the concepts.
Also understand your professor’s teaching and what they will ask. You can usually gain an intuition by going to office hours and asking for help. | 12 | 19 |
ELI5: How do directions work in space? | They're either relative to the orbit that the ship is on(prograde, retrograde, normal, anti-normal, radial in, radial out) or relative to a fixed set of reference points(Earth, moon, or sun) which you can then use up/down or north/south, east/west to refer to directions.
Once you have your reference set you can define things with angles just like we do here on Earth with incilination(up/down) and ascension(left/right rotation) | 14 | 18 |
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Thorium has no risk of a nuclear meltdown, enough material to power civilization for 1000 years, cannot be used to create a bomb, and produces 1000 times less waste than uranium. Is there a scientific reason why it isn't being used right now? | All these holy grail of clean energy technologies seem to have one thing or another wrong with them. What is wrong with Thorium?
http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle#Advantages_as_a_nuclear_fuel
Edit: A lot of people are citing research/political issues. What are the actual scientific issues, if any. Every technology has its drawback but there doesn't seem to be any for this technology. Assume limitless funding, awareness and political support. | Engineering.
Making a nuclear reactor is hard, an we have about 60 years of practice doing it with uranium and plutonium...that's why we know a lot about their drawbacks.
With thorium, everything is speculation. It sounds really good, but mostly because we haven't used it enough to find out what's bad. | 21 | 21 |
According to wikipedia "Current generations of nuclear submarines never need to be refueled throughout their 25-year lifespans" | How much of that is true? The citation doesn't mention anything about 25 years lifespan: http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/astute/ | Naval nuclear reactors use uranium that is enriched to much greater levels than what civilian commercial reactors or research reactors use. U235 levels typically vary between 20% and +95% (weapons-grade, for some subs). This greatly increases energy density of the fuel rods and allows a full lifetime without refueling, reduces the necessary reactor size and simplify operations and maintainance (refueling is a complicated and lengthy process because the reactor has to be shut down, which is not as simple as turning a key, fission products remain hot for a long time because of radioactive decay, see Fukushima and why it's still an on-going crisis.) | 13 | 28 |
ELI5: how are we able to put information on radio waves? I know how radio waves travel, but how do we get info on them like music or news? | There are two* ways to get information onto light (which is what radio waves are): change the brightness (amplitude modulation or AM) or change the color/frequency (frequency modulation or FM).
You can't extract information from the raw carrier wave, but, if you track how the wave changes from baseline, you can extract a signal.
For the simplest of analogue AM radios, you can adjust the intensity of the carrier wave in time with the sound wave. Your radio will move its speaker cone a distance proportional to the strength of the signal; if the signal gets stronger, the cone moves forwards, and if the signal gets weaker, the cone moves backwards. Since the signal strength is moving in time with the sound waves, the speaker cone will move in time with the sound - *producing sound* in the process.
FM radio does the same, but equates the frequency/color of the signal to motion of the cone.
Digital works the same as both, but instead of adjusting the signal based on an analog audio signal, it adjusts it to simulate the bits of data in a computer, which a more advanced radio antenna can decode and feed into a computer on the receiving end. | 251 | 443 |
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CMV: If Hillary Clinton is president, I don't think she will lead a transparent administration. | Obama has been a disappointment in this regard, after promising to be the most transparent president. I believe Hillary will be even worse, because even as she is running for president and apparently trying to get our votes, she doesn't seem to value transparency.
From my point of view she has already shown herself to be opaque. She rarely speaks to the media compared to other candidates, and recent events like pointing white noise at reporters reinforces this. Last year she went months without taking questions, because she politically calculated she could get away with it.
The transcripts issue is paramount to my view here. The Wall Street speeches are an issue, whether you like her or not. The fact that she has completely blown this off and refuses to give the transcripts makes me wonder how much worse she will be once she is president. Her reason for not releasing them is ridiculous. I don't care about Ted Cruz's speeches, I already know he is in the pocket of big business. I cannot accept this lack of transparency from Clinton.
The fact that she thinks she can get away with this lack of transparency to voters makes me terrified of what she will do once she isn't accountable in an immediately upcoming election. Imagine when the issue is drone strikes and foreign policy. I don't expect she will be more transparent as president. I think she will continue to be opaque as president because she has shown that she believes she will come out ahead politically by doing so.
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | what is the standard you want to achieve? No president has been transparent. so why hold H.R.C to a higher standard?
I think the bigger issue is why presidents aren't transparent, not why one might or might not be. | 62 | 308 |
ELI5:Why do some scientists believe that we are living in a simulation? | We think it should be possible to create convincing simulations of our universe within our universe using computers. Why, then, must we be at the "top" of the simulation stack? When you consider that any given "real" universe could contain any number of simulations, and that each simulation capable of supporting computation could also support any number of simulations, you suddenly realize that simulation universes become a ton more likely to be chosen at random from the universe pile.
It also explains some of the weirdness surrounding quantum physics. Why does observing particles seem to give them a history they didn't have before? Because our observation forces the simulation to update the particles and make them more than a probability field for us to observe! | 34 | 31 |
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ELI5: How does irradiation work for non-humans? (Trees, for example) | I watched Chernobyl by HBO and have some basic understanding of what radiation poisoning does to human cell structure. But what about plants? Why does the Red Forest still exist? Why there are grass and, probably, flowers all around the nuclear plant? | So the way radiation works in basically every creature is that it's the cells that are currently being born that are the most heavily affected.
In animals new cells are constantly being born, and then those cells travel all throughout the body to go to work. So with radiation what happens is those cells end up all over the place and damaging all your systems, liver, lungs, everything and then once those systems are damaged there is very little your body can do to recover from that. If you liver fails you die. If your lungs fail you die.
&#x200B;
For plants the exact same damage happens, in that their newly born cells get damaged. But plants have a few things working for them. First off, their cells don't travel all through the body in the same way, new cells get born right where they are needed. This means the damage stays localized. Secondly, unlike animals plant are a lot more redundant. Has a root completely died? Simple, don't use that root. Has a giant tumor grown around it's trunk? Reroute nutrients around it. So even if they do get damaged they rarely die from it. It's more like getting a scar for a person, it's annoying but we will be fine given enough time.
&#x200B;
Currently living cells get affected too, but it's usually not the biggest danger outside of *extreme* levels of radiation that kill you basically instantly. Even in this case plant cells have something called a cell wall around each and every cell, which helps protect against radiation a bit in the first place. | 21 | 21 |
ELI5 - Why do we have moles on our skin? | And why do some people have more than others? | 1. Natural carcinogens in the environment (e.g. UV from the sun) cause mutations in your skin cells.
2. Some of these mutations cause those cells to grow unnaturally crazy (think first steps of cancer).
3. In built defense mechanisms steps in and detects abnormal growth or messed up genome that cannot be easily fixed.
4. Cell decides to self-destruct.
5. Results in a mole.
This is a good thing. Following the logic, tendency to form moles means you're less susceptible to melanoma. | 81 | 128 |
ELI5: How British royal titles work (lords, ladies, princes, dames, barons, etc) | Who gets the titles? How can someone today earn a knighthood or a title (like actors, musicians, etc)? Do they come with any special privileges or perks in this day and age? What the heck are barons and counts and dukes? What is the hierarchy of ranks in relation to each other? | Knighthoods (or Damehoods for women) are conferred upon individuals by the Queen. Individuals are nominated for this by a committee sitting within government, and any member of the public can write to the committee to suggest specific individuals. Typically, you would have to have done something notable with your life that brings credit to the country, to gain a knighthood. So while a typical sportsman or actor wouldn't be knighted, one who has been at the top of his or her profession for many years and is globally renowned might be. Equally, very-long-serving civil servants and those in similar professions might be rewarded with a knighthood. There are no perks (financial or otherwise) that come with the knighthood, other than the right to call yourself Sir or Dame.
Other lordly titles are a bit different. Traditionally titles were given out by the monarch to individuals who had greatly pleased them -- perhaps a general who won a major battle. This would be a hereditary title, meaning it could be passed down to your children, and came with the privilege of being able to sit in the upper chamber of Parliament (the House of Lords) and therefore make laws.
Nowadays hereditary titles like that are largely meaningless. Few hereditary lords get to sit in Parliament any more, so again it's largely a symbolic thing -- just because you're the "5th Earl of Somewhereshire" doesn't give you any special privileges.
Much more common these days are the "life Peerages". This is a lordship that can be given to someone but which cannot be passed down to their children. Life peers do still have the right to sit in the House of Lords and vote on legislation. It's a common reward for retiring politicians, and for other people who have contributed significantly to politics. A good example might be Doreen Lawrence, who was made a life peer when she was given the title of Baroness Lawrence, due to her decades of work campaigning against racism following the murder of her son by racist attackers in the 1990s. | 11 | 22 |
ELI5: How exactly do movies and tv shows work when an actor or actress starring in them is also the one directing it? | I am referring to major roles, not just cameos. For example Aziz Ansari directed a few episodes of Master Of None and he is the main character. | In cases where the director is also on-screen, not much is different. Prior to filming a scene, everyone involved will have a meeting to discuss challenges and other talking points. This makes sure everyone is on the same page, everyone understands their blocking, discussing last minute script changes, etc. This little pow wow is standard practice and minimizes reshoots.
One of the biggest differences with an actor-director is that they themselves are going to have twice the work to do, since they have to create and direct a scene, review and approve dailies (all the scenes that get shot over the course of that day), send progress reports to the producers, wrangle the crew and any other 3rd parties involved with the shoot, etc; all while also fulfilling the full time duty of an actor.
As far as actually directing the scene, directors say and do very little while a scene is filming, since all of the finer points should have been covered prior to slate. Though we see it a lot in Hollywood movies about Hollywood (director storming onto an active set yelling "cut cut cut") this happens very little, as it's a sign that person is not a good communicator, and poor communicators make very poor directors. Most of the time, after discussing the scene and possibly doing a dry rehearsal, the actor will take their place before prepping the crew and then either they or an assistant will call "action" and the scene will start filming.
In the end, it's really just more work for an actor, as now they don't get to stop working/caring once the scene wraps.
Source: have worked theater, family working in Hollywood. | 39 | 65 |
ELI5: How do white blood cells "chase" something? Like I get how they move, but how do they know the thing is there without eyes? And how do they make decisions to follow it without a brain? | I've seen videos of white blood cells chasing down various bacterium or whatever and they appear to be distinct organisms with decision-making abilities and whatnot, but surely it's just chemical reactions (and far simpler chemical reactions than our own decision making processes).
I'm not so much asking how they move, but how they "know" to move, and where to move, and how they "know" what is an invader and what is not. | They can track them by touch and by smell.
Basically how it works is each of your B lymphocytes (the white blood cells that chase down bacteria) gets randomly assigned one specific antigen (a cell part visible from the outside of the cell) to look out for for and then gets released into your blood to float aimlessly around gloming onto cells and seeing if they match that antigen. (This is also how they know which things are invaders and which aren't: the cells are 'trained' in your bone marrow by basically exposing them to your own cells and killing any of the ones that exhibit an immune response - these ones are defective and would attack your own body, so they get weeded out before they're released into the bloodstream.)
If they ever find a match, that B lymphocyte starts releasing a variety of chemicals into your blood: antibodies (which latch onto the antigens it found and makes the bacteria sticky and visible), and cytokine (which are signalling chemicals which your other white blood cells can 'smell' and follow to the site of the infection, based on the concentration gradient of that particular cytokine). It also starts rapidly dividing and reproducing into a host of B lymphocytes that all match that one antigen, many of which undergo a different developmental pathway (which is based on the presence of those cytokines) to specialize them for different roles in the immunological response. | 579 | 1,159 |
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