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ELI5: How to submit a tv show idea to a network and what prevents them from stealing it?
| 25 |
To submit ideas, you need representation, generally. You need an agent or someone who knows the legal layout of entertainment, and who has enough pull for the network to know that their time isn't being wasted.
The reason for this is that so many people in the past have been burned by studios/networks/publishers from idea stealing that rather than dealing with the repercussions, all pitches, ideas, whatever, MUST be solicited. This means a meeting, representation, and all the right players in the same room.
If you submit something unsolicited, they won't look at it at all. Trash/returned script that says "hey, we can't look at these. It's our policy. Don't send us these." Nothing guarantees that they can't just steal the idea and then send you the letter, but then again, you have postmarked correspondence that might be able to be used in court.
Plus - networks have so many people in their, well, network, that they're not short on good ideas. They're not in the business to steal from the little guy. Even if your idea is the best they would have ever seen, there are thousands of ideas that will work just fine for them.
| 11 |
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Why do our eyes involuntarily shut when we hear loud sounds?
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For example when hammering nails, i mean wouldn't it be better to look for the source?
| 26 |
Survival.
Loud sounds are often the result of things hitting each other. Falling rocks, someone getting creative with a hammer, etc.
These types of loud sounds often send chunks flying, so we evolved to close our eyes to shield them from any shrapnel that may get sent flying.
| 39 |
CMV: Service animals should have some kind of required verification, such as official papers or even a special badge or tag for their harness.
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Yes, I understand that "WORKING DOG: DO NOT PET" harnesses are there, but anybody can buy those. I've seen many a fake service dog wearing such a harness--I know these were fake service dogs because these dogs barked at everything, jumped at people, and a few have tried to eat the food out of my hand at the bus plaza when I was minding my own business. It sucks that these owners make real SD owners look bad.
I've seen many videos of people's SD's being denied because they don't have any kind of paperwork. Service animals don't have that, and legally you can only ask two questions about the dog. The thing is, not a lot of people know this, and lots of them will deny entry to these handlers and even harass them.
Having actual paperwork (or something less cumbersome) would eliminate the problem of only asking two questions and the ignorance surrounding that rule, and would deter fake SD owners. The papers don't need to have the person's issue or anything. They could just have the answers to those two questions and some kind of government stamp, or even something similar to an ID with the animal's picture.
I feel like there's an obvious issue with this that I'm missing, or else this would be the standard.
| 72 |
Actual service animals do have paperwork certifying them as service dogs. The law makes it illegal to ask for that paperwork (Americans with Disabilities Act). People take advantage of this and claim all kinds of animals are service animals that really are not.
Also there are other type of animals that are not service animals, but are outfitted similar and have similar names like comfort animals etc. These animals are not service animals and not protected under the ADA, but people also take advantage of this.
| 27 |
Planets can have rings. Can stars have the same sort of rings?
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I don't think Sol's asteroid belt would count as a ring because, I assume, it's not nearly as dense as the rings around Saturn. Can a star even have a ring so dense as to be very visible?
Thanks in advance!
| 170 |
It is definitely possible.
First, a solid celestial body would have to enter the star's sphere of gravitational influence. Then, it would have to pass through the Roche limit. That's the distance where the tidal forces will rip the object apart.
If the object wasn't on a collision trajectory with the star before disentegration, then it will form a ring around the star.
| 65 |
CMV: The US should not re-impose lockdowns/restrictions, and instead allow people who choose to be unvaccinated to become infected and/or die, per their wishes.
|
Given the Following Facts:
* [Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated](https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-941fcf43d9731c76c16e7354f5d5e187)
* [Vaccination status is highly correlated with political affiliation](https://jahoo.shinyapps.io/vaxpolitics/)
* [Total vaccinations are plateauing, showing no sign of increased growth.](https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/paighowal/viz/TrackingCovidVaccinationsintheUS/CovidVaccinationsintheUS)
* [Projections show we will only ever reach 65% total Vaccination](https://covid19-projections.com/path-to-herd-immunity/), leaving 100+ million people unvaccinated.
Obvious Caveats:
* Children, Pregnant Women, and those with legitimate medical condition preventing vaccination should be cared for and protected within reason, provided all medical care necessary, etc.
* The US should continue to provide vaccines to any and all who want them, and try to reach rural communities who may not have easy access.
**My Position:**
We can never eradicate Covid, as it has already become endemic. The vaccines have been proven effective with no long-term side effects, and have been made freely available along with incentives and a massive PR initiative. IE: Covid is an inescapable, but preventable illness at this point.
**Thus, we should accept the bodily autonomy of the willingly unvaccinated, and allow them to be infected and/or die of coronavirus.**
I would even go so far as to say we should allow insurance companies to deny them medical coverage. If they want to take their chances with the virus, that's their right, and we should let them.
Furthermore, if we allowed this population to become infected, that population would build some natural biological immunity to current and future covid variants. It would be better to build that immunity now, while the vaccines are still effective, than hold out trying to prevent transmission until a new variant emerges that the vaccines do not work against. The Devil we know (Delta primarily) is better than the Devil we Don't know.
Please, CMV redditors.
**Edit/Update:**
Thank you for all of your wonderful and insightful comments everybody. You've given me a lot to think about and helped work through some of my misconceptions. I am pretty genuinely moved by the empathy and love that many of you have shown both for those vulnerable and even to those who are unvaccinated.
You have softened my views considerably, though I do think there may come a time in the future where our society has to have this kind of discussion. But until that point, we all need to take responsibility for ensuring this pandemic be mild, even if that means doing more than our fair share.
If anyone reading this is not vaccinated, PLEASE, go get the jab. Most people have very mild symptoms, and you'll be protecting not only yourself, but those around you. It is safe and effective. please, do the right thing.
| 7,123 |
Doesn't seem very fair to the people who can't have the vaccine for whatever reason, or had the vaccine and had a poor immune response to it due to age/immunocompromised/whatever.
I agree that endemic covid is likely but we can at least try to bend the curve on delta cases somewhat so that people who have a decent chance at hospitalisation despite getting vaccinated can have an unburdened healthcare system rather than a crowded disaster ward full of dying people. It's all well and good to say "let's help these people and let those other people die" but the reality is that dying people consume medical resources whether they deserve it or not. Also this approach would buy more time for developing and rolling out delta-specific boosters which seem increasingly necessary as preliminary data shows vaccine effectiveness decreasing c. 6 months out
I would say re-introduce low-impact measures like mask mandates, ventilation, etc. and hope to Jesus you don't get to the point where you're looking at a new lockdown because it would almost certainly do more harm at this point just through backlash. Probably the worst possible course of action is to wait too long and then re-introduce all the heaviest restrictions at the last minute
| 1,572 |
[Avengers] What is the origin/ purpose of the Tesseract? How did it end up on Earth, and why hasn't anyone from Asgard come down to retrieve it?
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A friend and I were watching Avengers the other night, and she would not stop asking about the tesseract. Any help would be much appreciated.
| 59 |
With regards to it's origins, the tesseract is almost certainly an alternate/cinematic universe incarnation of the "Cosmic Cube", a number of which can be found in the mainstream Marvel universe. From Wikipedia:
>The Cosmic Cube is a containment device created by various civilizations throughout the Marvel Universe at various times, including the Skrulls...
>These matrices—which may or may not actually be shaped like a cube—are suffused with reality-warping energies of unknown composition that comes from the realm of the Beyonders.
Additionally, you'll notice that someone from Asguard did come to retrieve it. His name was Loki and he was the main antagonist for the film.
Odin, of course, cannot be personally responsible for every powerful artifact in the Marvel Universe. He simply takes them into his possession whenever necessity requires that they be protected. In so far as the tesseract is not used for substantial, world altering harm, Odin has no reason to retrieve it.
| 37 |
Would it be possible to put a satellite in joint orbit around the Earth and the moon in a figure 8 pattern?
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And has it been done?
| 33 |
This is called a free-return trajectory, and it has been done. But it's temporary in nature, it can't keep up with the Moon's orbit. The angle of the elliptic would stay the same relative to the Sun, but the moon would keep moving along in its orbit. Once the moon passed by, the elliptic wouldn't be aimed at the moon anymore and it would just be a long ellipse instead of a figure-8. A satellite on this path would probably crash into the moon when it came back to the same part of the orbit a month later.
All of the Apollo moon missions were put on an orbit like that so that if anything went wrong, they could just "not do anything" and the spacecraft would naturally orbit back towards Earth by itself, passing around the moon harmlessly. The astronauts would then make minor corrections so that they would proceed to reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
| 22 |
ELI5: Since F=MA, is no force applied to a wall when leaning on it?
|
Similarly, if a truck were trying to remove a tree stump with a chain,and the chain is pulled tight but neither the truck nor the stump were moving, is the force 0 since there is no acceleration? Where does this energy go?
| 93 |
F=ma is not actually the expression.
NET force = ma
The combination of all forces will result in acceleration.
If the combined forces result in zero of net force, no acceleration occurs. Even though they're are multiple, and often very strong forces present.
| 202 |
[Planet of the Apes 1968] Shouldn't the fact that the apes were speaking 20th-century American English tipped Taylor off to the fact that he was still on Earth long before he ever saw the Statue of Liberty?
| 302 |
He was not in a situation to take time to evaluate his situation. He was attacked, his friends were killed and he was thrust into a situation where he needed to pay attention to the immediate rather then think about the larger situation. He also likely was in denial about the situation and ignored the fact that they spoke English until put into a situation where it was impossible to ignore that the planet was earth
| 204 |
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Since mealworms eat styrofoam, can they realistically be used in recycling?
|
Stanford released a study that found that 100 mealworms can eat a pill sized (or about 35 mg) amount of styrofoam each day. They can live solely off this and they excrete CO2 and a fully biodegradable waste. What would be needed to implement this method into large scale waste management? Is this feasible?
Here's the link to the original article from Stanford: https://news.stanford.edu/pr/2015/pr-worms-digest-plastics-092915.html
| 2,179 |
It's not really recycling if you turn it into CO2 + some stuff that degrades into more CO2 and water. Seems a bit pointless if you want mealworms to replace an incinerator; burning accomplishes the same result at a much larger scale, too.
What's interesting is the potential use of polystyrene-eating gut bacteria to degrade plastic waste in the wild.
| 980 |
ELI5: Why do I fall asleep at work/school/want to be awake, but can't fall asleep when I want to sleep?
| 270 |
When you're doing something you don't want to be doing, your brain tries to escape by putting you to sleep. This is the other side of being wide awake when you're doing stuff that really interests you - your brain has the energy and focus you didn't think was there.
Also, there's a part of your brain called the ARAS: the Ascending Reticular Activating System. It's basically a novelty addict, and it tries really hard to keep you awake and going when there's things around to keep it interested. Cut off all the stimulation and interesting things, and it'll lay off and let you go to sleep. Turning off the lights and cutting out sounds help to stop feeding it stuff to keep it going.
| 150 |
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ELI5:What is plastic made of and why do we make so much of it?
| 21 |
Plastic is made of dead dinosaur food: let me explain!
Plastics are a general category of different materials: Plastic bags are made of polyethylene, bullet proof glass is made with polycarbonate, teflon is good for slippery chemical resistant coatings, polyester is often used in clothes, PET is used in water bottles, PVC is used for pipes. What all these materials have in common is they are generally big long tangled chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms (with other elements mixed in).
Oil is often used as the starting material (feedstock) of plastics because it also is made of long chains of carbon and hydrogen. It can be reacted in different ways to rearrange the chains to form different plastics.
Oil is made of decomposed biomass from a long time ago that has been transformed by time and pressure below the earth's surface. That biomass is mostly plants and the like from long ago, and could've been eaten by dinosaurs.
Plastic as a category makes a great material in many applications because it's cheap, light, and relatively resilient. As an example, think of disposable medical syringes. It's easy to make syringes by molding molten plastic. It's cheap, so we can just throw away the syringes instead of cleaning and reusing them. It's light: imagine the weight of glass syringes and the cost in shipping them. It's durable: imagine dropping a glass syringe versus a plastic one.
| 20 |
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I saw a picture claiming that manhole covers are round because a circle is the only shape that can't be made pass through itself. Is it true?
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I saw [a picture on cracked.com](http://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/5/0/2/381502_v1.jpg) claiming what I described in the title.
I wonder, is it really true?
| 33 |
A circle can pass through itself. If the diameter is the same in the hold and cover, it will fall through both flat and tilted. To solve this, all manholes have a lip on the part in the street that makes the hole smaller so the cover doesn't fall through. The reason manhole covers use circles is because when rotated their shape does not change. If a square was used, it could be tilted so it was vertical and rotated so it went through diagonally. Interestingly, circles aren't the only shapes that can do this, and equilateral triangles can do the same thing.
tl;dr Circles could fall through if there wasn't a lip, but with circles they can't be rotated to fit through.
| 31 |
ELI5: What does the half-life of a prescription drug mean? And why is it longer than the duration of the medication?
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So I take a medication that has a duration of 4-6 hours, and the pamphlet said the half-life is 11-13 hours. How does that work?
| 15 |
The half-life is the duration after which only 50% of the initial dose remains in your system.
The duration of the medication is shorter most probably because said medication needs more than 50% of its initial dosage to be effective
| 21 |
Why does shaking a can of carbonated beverage increase its internal pressure?
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If you shake a can of coke before opening it, it will froth up and release as high-pressure foam. What's happening at the molecular level that causes the compressed carbon dioxide in the liquid to decompress faster after agitation?
| 23 |
shaking the bottle creates tiny bubbles and these act as nuclei for bubble formation when the pressure is released. Without these nuclei bubble formation is mostly by heterogenous nucleation on the bottle walls, and that is slower.
| 11 |
[Star Wars] Did Bail Organa have any biological kids? Or was Leia an only child?
| 15 |
Bail's wife was unable to bear children. It's sad but makes sense why no one would wonder about them suddenly having a child around and they didn't want anymore children as Leia was a handful as a child
| 20 |
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[Lord of the Rings] Would it be possible to encase the One Ring in anything to prevent its power?
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Either prevent or reduce the power of the Ring, or the ability for the ringwraiths to find it?
| 17 |
Tolkien geek here.
This is actually addressed in the books. The suggestions include:
1) Sailing it to the undying lands. This wouldn't work because the 'gods' of middle earth aren't to happy about dealing with mortal affairs. The ring is made of middle earth, and therefore it belongs their. This isn't their fight its middle earths.
2) Drop it into the middle of the ocean. There are 2 reasons this wouldn't work, and both are given. The first being Sauron is immortal, and oceans aren't, or "What lies at the bottom of the ocean may one day be a mountain peak". Also in the Silmarillion. When one of the silmarils is cast into ocean it is thrown back by Ulmo.
3) Building something around it. Really no. The 'lore' (see skill) to build the ring is really only known by a handful of people who all left for the undying lands, and the rings they made were powerful but kinda knock copies of the real ring. So the only person who can build a box to contain it, built the ring... Well technically Morgoth probably could, but he's worse the Sauron.
4) Just keep hiding it in Rivendale. This doesn't work either. While the Nazgul have trouble entering Rivendale with elvish magic and all that. A entire army of orcs wouldn't, because well 25 million orcs verses 300-500 elves is going to be a wash. Because that's how numbers work.
:.:.:
Ultimately the fellowship was formed because Time was on Sauron's side. The longer it took to deal with the ring the easier it would became for Sauron to get it back. Sauron wanted his enemies to be weak, and divided. He wanted them to take a long time to deal with the ring while he quietly crushed Gondor and Rohan.
| 15 |
[MCU] Question about the Bifröst
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If Odin's staff can be used to open the Bifröst, as seen in Thor 1, why does Hela need Heimdall's sword?
| 19 |
It's more that Odin can do it, because he's REALLY powerful. It's not the staff doing it, as much as it was Odin focusing his power through the staff. Hela wasn't quite as powerful as Odin, and thus needed an additional tool to make it happen.
| 32 |
[Harry Potter] If I attached a strap to my wand, would the Disarming Charm still work? Would the wand try to fly back but the strap stops it, or would the spell also loosen the strap to do its effect?
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I'm not talking about any old Velcro strap, I'm talking about a strong, tight leather strap with a metal buckle or something else durable and not easily shaken.
| 91 |
Expelliarmus isn't the "yank really hard" spell, it's the disarming spell. Its metaphysical nature and capability remains no matter what you do, because it's magic. You might get your wrist mangled if you had a leather strap around it, or your hand might come off, or your wand might have a "spontaneous" magical reaction with Expelliarmus and phase through your hand.
| 72 |
[SCP] do the employees of the foundation have vacation days?
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Title says it all. I know that these guys are working with the most dangerous things the cosmos has to offer, but they _have_ to have at least some form of vacation days or days off. Right?
I hope this isn't a question that leads to a [REDACTED]. I'm just curious...
| 23 |
For the most part, yes. Lots of SCP folks have regular schedules, sick days, PTO, all that jazz. The main exception would be crews on tasks that require deployment away from civilization (like the mobile task forces tasked to ocean anomalies, requiring extended time at sea) or ones with mandatory brain-wiping before departure (like the Montauk Procedure crew), who work more like an oil rig crew, with X number of days on alternating with X number of days off.
And then there's the D-Class Personnel. They work non stop from when they get recruited until they get retired, at which point they take a vacation from being alive.
| 28 |
ELI5: If a person is convicted of a crime and gets imprisoned, and then escapes, but then it's proven that they never committed the original crime, can they still get in trouble for escaping?
| 47 |
Yes and no. Escaping from a prison facility is a felony. And any additional crimes committed during the escape are also still punishable. But if the escape didn't hurt anyone or property and you were found to be innocent while you were on the run it is unlikely that a prosecutor would file charges as long as you were cooperative. It is also likely the facility would insist that you divulge the details of your escape so that they can prevent further attempts.
It would likely also require that you don't file a civil case against the state.
| 30 |
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In your gut how do Dandritic cells differenriate between commensal and pathogenic bacteria?
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I have been wondering this, I mean can they differentiate. Dandritic cells penetrate their membrane extensions through epithelial cells of gut and react immediately if the sense a pathogenic bacteria, does it react the same way if it senses commensal bacteria??
| 22 |
They can't tell the difference between commensals and pathogens if they are at sites we normally expect bacteria - i.e. in the intestine or on the skin. Your DCs will have a minor response to either. It's not until a pathogen causes disease causing cell damage or bacterial toxins being released, that your immune system including DCs will try to mount a protective response in these sites. So in that way it's about the site and context surrounding the bacteria. If you cut the skin and a commensal bacteria gets in there it will be attacked and killed just like a pathogen.
| 17 |
[Harry Potter] Why didn't Voldemort hire a muggle assassin to kill Harry?
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I've only seen the movies (please don't hate me), but it seemed to me when Harry, Ron, and Hermoine were running from Voldemort's thugs they only worried about wizards attacking them. The easiest way to kill Harry (as far as I can tell) while he was in the muggle world would have been to hire a sniper or simply some dude with handgun to run up and pop a cap in Harry. Why is this method not feasible?
| 88 |
Voldemort would be the absolute last person to trust a Muggle with a task that important, or even be seen cooperating with one. Muggles are worse than dirt to him. Now, an Imperiused Muggle? Maybe. But then the question becomes about how much direct control there is under the Imperius curse? Assuming that Voldemort knows next to nothing about firearms, could he direct someone under his control to operate one? Also, Voldemort has no way of knowing what kind of charms Harry may have guarding him. It's possible he wouldn't even attempt it, assuming that Harry would have already protected himself.
| 142 |
Is Mt. Everest the highest point on earth ever to have existed?
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AFAIK, Mt Everest is the highest point above sea level, and the Himalaya are still rising. But is there geological evidence for a mountain that was even higher, that perhaps eroded or blew up in an eruption?
| 23 |
It's impossible to say for sure. The tallest mountain ranges generally form early on in the collision between tectonic plates, before they can slow each other down. This phase of mountain building involves the sedimentary rocks on the edges of the colliding plates. These rocks are soft and vulnerable to rapid erosion, meaning the mountains they push up erode away quickly.
Mt. Everest is a perfect example. The upper 6,000 feet of the mountain are sediments deposited off the northern coast of India 400-500 million years ago. These sediments are mostly limestone and mudstones, which are extremely susceptible to erosion.
Once the sedimentary cover has eroded off, the core of harder igneous and metamorphic rocks remain, but by then the energetic first stages of collision are over, and their rate of uplift is slow enough that erosion can keep pace.
Several mountain ranges may have reached the altitude of the Himalayas in the past. The Appalachians, which involved three large continents with a lot of momentum colliding may have pushed up a spectacular mountain range. Other remnants of this mountain range can be found in the Caledonian Range of Scotland and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
The Rocky Mountains of the western US may have also been a much higher mountain range. Between 100-60 million years ago, three separate microcontinents collided with the western coast of North America, then in Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. Each collision pushed the region higher, and what is now Nevada might have been part of a plateau of comparable altitude to Tibet. However, something funky happened with the oceanic plate subducting behind the mountain ranges, and starting about 20 million years ago, the entire area started ripping apart, creating the current landscape of low mountain ranges (6-10,000 feet) separated by valleys not much above sea level.
| 16 |
Why can we ignore the imaginary part of the simple harmonic motion displacement equation?
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If you derive the displacement of a mass on a spring from the first principles F = mx''(t) = -kx(t) then you get the equation x(t) = Acos(wt) + iBsin(wt) where A and B are real constants and w is the angular frequency (sqrt(k/m)).
Why can we eliminate the second half of the equation? Is it ever used?
My working for the derivation is as follows, there may be a mistake as google is fruitless:
F = mx''(t) = -kx(t)
x''(t) + kx(t)/m = 0
let x = e^nt
n^2 e^nt + k/m e^nt = 0
n^2 + k/m = 0 as e^nt =/= 0
therefore n = +/- (-k/m)^0.5
x(t) = c1e^iwt + c2e^-iwt (Substituting w for (k/m)^0.5
Applying Euler's identity:
e^iwt = cos(wt) + isin(wt)
x(t) = c1 + c2)cos(wt) + i(c1 - c2)sin(wt)
x(t) = Acos(wt) + iBsin(wt)
| 71 |
Once you get to the general solution you have to get the particular solution by applying the initial conditions. Say you know the position and velocity at t=0. This first means that A has to be equal to the initial displacement x(0). Looking at the derivative you have
X'(t=0) = iBw
So unless you have an "imaginary" initial velocity, which is an unphysical thing, B must be a function of 1/i, or in the case of 0 initial velocity, 0/i = 0.
In short, you'd need an imaginary displacement or velocity as an initial or boundary value for B to end up nonzero (or A to be imaginary).
| 39 |
ELI5: Why don't all MLB baseball fields have the same dimensions?
| 24 |
There are many dimensions that are the same, such as distance between bases, distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate, height and slope of the pitcher's mound, the minimum distance to the outfield fence, etc. These standardized dimensions are the most important to the actual play of the game.
The areas where fields are different can be broken into two categories: foul territory and the outfield fence. Both came about in the early days of baseball due to the fact that stadiums had to be located in less-than-perfect locations, and flexibility in fence locations could help equalize fields on different shaped/sized lots (the "Green Monster" outfield wall at Fenway Padk, for example is very tall to make up for the fact that it is rather close-in to home plate, which is due to the fact that the stadium was constrained by a street on that side when it was built). Foul territory was influenced the same way. Odd-shaped lots caused there to be areas where the stands were very close to the a tion, but the strict 90 degree geometry of the baseball diamond sometimes created gaps between where the stands were and where a grandstand that foloowed the property's contours might be.
As baseball became an ever-larger business, these designs became more about local history or creating advantages for the home team (an unusual corner in an outfield fence can cause a ball to careen in a direction a home-team player could anticipate, but that might surprise a visiting outfielder) but there is no outcry for dimensions to become more standardized--in fact, these idiosyncrasies are seen as adding to the charm of the individual parks--so stadiums continue to add their own character through unique outfield and foul-territory dimensions.
These playing differences can be attributed to two simple quirks of baseball. First, the area out of bounds (foul territory, or the area not between the first and third base lines) is still a usable part of a baseball field. And secondly, since offense and defense are played in turns, but by the same set of players llaying both sides, a team can be built according to strengths that take fhe park shape into consideration.
For reason 1: a ball hit into the air and caught in this foul territory counts as an out, so it's construction makes a difference in how a team is positioned and how batters approach their at-bats. On fields with a lage amount of foul territory, more pop-ups will be caught for outs. A pitcher might be more willing to trade a small chance at a long hit in order to try to cause the batter to hit a pop-up into foul territory for an easy out, while the batter will not swing at as many close pitches to avoid fouling a ball into the air in-bounds that may be caught for an out.
On fields with small foul territories, a pitcher won't be able to rely on a as many pop-outs, and may pitch a batter in a way to cause more ground balls to be hit. Batters, on the other hand, will be able to swing more freely because it will be easier to deflect a close pitch into the stands rather than into the air above the in-bounds foul territory of the playing field.
For reason 2, a team with a large outfield can afford to spend less on pitcher's because lesser-quality pitching will be masked somewhat by a more difficult distance to hit a home run. This team would spend more of its budget on fast outfielders who could not only cover the larger area and reduce doubles and triples afforded by the larger dimensions, but who could run faster when batting to stretch singles into doubles or doubles into triples in the larger outfirld, against players no accustomed to covering such an expansive area.
| 17 |
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Where does the endless flow of electricity come from in an electrical generator?
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Mechanical rotation in a generator (fueled by flowing water, wind power, diesel burning etc) creates electricity.
But the coil of wires and magnets rotating inside the generator is finite in mass, even though the electricity generated is endless. So where do the electrons/electricity come from?
| 16 |
Short answer: The electrons just wiggle back and forth, being pushed by the generator.
You might have the misconception that electricity works by sending electrons to whatever device uses them and that the device eats them up, like electricity worked the same as burning natural gas for your water heater. But it's quite different. The number of electrons in the generator and all the wires going to your outlet does not change, and the electrons are already there to begin with. The usefulness of electrons comes from their bulk motion. A generator is just creating the force to push those electrons back and forth, and when you make a complete circuit by plugging a device into your outlet then the force of that push is transmitted to your device.
| 23 |
[Bruce Almighty] Could Bruce have remained god?
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Ok so Bruce learnt his lesson and handed back the powers. But what would have happened if Bruce was less inclined to do that? God says he gave him *all* of his powers, does this but Bruce on par with God? Could he have kept the powers even against God's will?
| 28 |
No. God never actually gave Bruce all his powers. God used his own powers in a way that it appeared to Bruce that HE was doing everything. Basically, Bruce wanted a monkey to appear, so God made a monkey appear in exactly the way Bruce intended.
| 26 |
[DBZ] Why are all the fusions so arrogant?
| 23 |
They seem to take on the flaws of both fighters as well as multiplying their powers. Piccolo points that out to Vegeta in Dragonball Fighter Z when talking about Gotenks. Perhaps they get magnified like the power does. So Trunks and Vegeta's habit of taunting enemies gets magnified.
| 49 |
|
If I hold a weight directly in front of me and don't move it, no work is being done as work = force*distance. So if no work is done why does it use up energy?
|
Sorry for my teenage understanding of physics.
| 150 |
You are not able to hold static loads without using energy. The cellular mechanisms that move your muscle fibers involve small combustion reactions rotating proteins. It is like trying to push on a wall with water from a hose, you need a constant stream of material to get a constant force.
Stiff objects do not have this issue. A broom can lean against the wall and apply a constant force forever, using no energy. The floor is able to hold you up indefinitely without requiring work.
Don't be sorry about questions, this is a great one and a very common misconception. Our muscles can make physics really confusing!
| 163 |
Is it possible for the neurological effects of autism to wear off as a person gets older? If so, how?
| 45 |
Typically improvements in symptoms are seen through skill acquisition. If a child (or adult) with ASD has great parents and/or professionals in their life they can learn to mitigate many of the impairing effects of Autism.
Wear off probably isn't quite the right term however, because on the flip side a person with ASD can tend towards isolation and repetition which puts people at high risk of worsening symptoms over time and as they get older.
Sauces: psychologist and work with people with ASD
| 36 |
|
Why cant we dissolve toxic or radioactive material to make it harmless?
|
Im curious.. basically everything known to human has a specific arrangement of atoms or molecules. Why are we not able to lets say split up oil or plastic into an endproduct harmless to earth and its creatures?
edit: thanks everyone for your long and detailed answers!!!
| 49 |
Dissolving it, melting it, etc. doesn't really affect it on the nuclear level. The nucleus of each radioactive atom remains unstable after you do these things.
In fact, now you've potentially made it *more* dangerous by melting it or dissolving it in solution, because it's free to flow around (assuming it started as a solid).
| 87 |
[Last Airbender] What cant Waterbenders hurt their adversaries by sucking the water out of their eyeballs, collapsing cells, bursting their bladders or otherwise affect water within a body?
| 249 |
They can. It just takes a lot of focus and energy to specifically target the water within an animal, and thus it's very rarely done. It's easier to get water from plants, as they have a weaker Chi, and thus have less resistance to waterbending.
Basically, the life energy of a human makes them a bit more difficult for a waterbender to focus on. So usually just freezing them is easier.
| 299 |
|
42% of adult Americans have switched religions at least once in their lifetime. Do any other countries have similar numbers?
|
Source for data: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/27/10-facts-about-religion-in-america/?amp=1
Do any other countries have similar numbers to this? Finding survey data on this topic is a bit difficult. Grateful for anyone who can provide any type of data for other countries.
| 97 |
As it says in the report, that number is counting things like switches from Protestant (Church of Christ) to Protestant (Southern Baptist). A lot of people aren't going to see that as switching religions even though there may be some theological differences between the two traditions.
| 45 |
[The Hunger Games] What’s happening in the rest of the world while America / Panem is going through with the Hunger Games?
|
I mean, they’ve basically become an even more violent and brutal North Korea. Haven’t other countries tried to stop this? If not, why? What does the political climate of the rest of the world look like? How are they faring?
| 404 |
England is ruled by an isolationist-fascist regime.
Japan in run by an AI-based nanny state that conscripts people with PTSD to work as detectives.
Australia is ruled by warlords and some very creative mechanics.
| 341 |
CMV: Brand loyalty is useless, and is currently used as just another bullshit tribal marker.
| 15 |
> Who cares what brand something is?
Consider you find a mechanic that did a good job for a fair price. The next time you need your car fixed, do you spend a lot of time researching mechanics, or do you draw from past experience and use a *known* good mechanic? Perhaps the mechanic will be drunk the next time he works on your car and make a huge mistake. However, it's more likely you will be treated the same as the last time you went. The mechanic is the brand, and loyalty saves you time, effort, and risk when using mechanics.
Brand loyalty saves us from the worthless and time-consuming task of copious amounts of research before every purchase. If we know a brand to be of a consistent quality in the past, then it's reasonable to assume the same quality in the future.
| 28 |
|
Do any other species besides humans bury their dead?
| 11,426 |
Elephants have been seen using sticks and other plant matter to throw onto and partially bury their dead friends and relatives. They also show behavior similar to humans visiting graves of loved ones, such as stopping by old skeletons when they pass by and caressing them with their trunks. They've even been seen "burying" other animals and enacting typical mourning behavior, at least one of which was a sleeping human who had a very rude awakening.
Elephants are crazy smart, man.
| 8,581 |
|
ELI5: what causes death from old age?
|
Why is it humans rarely make it to 100 let alone 100+ what is it that gives out to cause death assuming no illness and why is it so rare for humans to live to that sort of age but some animals have been known to live way over 100.
Edit: ok so I get that basically our bodies stop bring able to repair themselves/keep parts working but why is it that some animals can do it for far longer?
| 17 |
You don't actually die from old age. Most people die from Pneumonia or some other complication that has to do with aging.
Bust basically your bodies cells are constantly dying. Your entire bone structure is replaced every 10 years. Your skin gets replaced roughly monthly.
As you age you replace dead cells less and less effectively. Until you cannot replace cells effectively in a key place and you die.
| 14 |
ELI5: The CISA BILL
|
The CISA bill was just passed. What is it and how does it affect me?
| 4,169 |
No, it passed the senate. It has not been passed into law yet. It won't be affecting you (yet). The House of Representatives and the president still has to pass/sign it.
The CISA bill basically tells cyber companies to "anonymously" share its data with the government for the sake of cybersecurity. In other words, your name (or whoever is paying for your internet's name) won't be connected to the data that cyber companies are ~~forced~~ "asked" to share with the government. However, given the wording of the bill, this anonymity isn't guaranteed, and there's a loophole where your name still could be attached to your data as it is passed to the government. Further, the NSA and FBI will still be able to over-rule the part of the bill that grants anonymity, so they will know who certain data is coming from.
Taken from a recent news article, a former government security officer said that this bill basically increases the NSA's spying abilities, and that is supposedly the real point of the bill.
| 2,528 |
[LOTR] How important is a Wizard's staff?
|
If something broke Gandalf's staff could he make/acquire a new one (without dying that is)? Is he significantly less powerful without it? He can still do some magic right?
If a non-wizard with some magic got a hold of it, like Galadriel or even Aragorn could they use it to become more powerful?
Saruman accuses Gandalf of greedily wanting the staffs of the five wizards, would Gandalf actually be stronger while duel wielding staffs? Could he use five at once?
| 65 |
A Wizard's staff is as important as a king's crown. It has no intrinsic power to speak of, but it has great symbolic significance. We see that the Wizards can get by fine without staffs when necessary - Gandalf breaks his in Moria and is still able to fight the Balrog afterwards - but they are very reluctant to part with them. Gandalf casts Saruman out of the order by breaking his staff, for example. Some like Wormtongue evidently believe that the staffs have inherent power, but Wormtongue also thought that the palantir was a worthless rock and threw it out a window, so his opinions on magic cannot necessarily be trusted.
| 79 |
ELI5:Why does ClickBait still work even if I know it will disappoint me?
| 23 |
You are weak-willed and/or bad at distinguishing between authentic content and clickbait.
But seriously, it's mostly just clickbait titles lie to you about their content. Best solution is to be able to recognize standard clickbait titles, e.g. "10 amazing...", "You'll never...", "Watch what happens...", and just never click on those links.
| 11 |
|
When a person gets more flexible by training, what is physically happening to their joints?
|
Besides the obvious like losing excess fat that's "in the way" such as on the stomach, which limits spine flexibility.
| 55 |
IIRC, nothing is happening to the joint. However, the muscles around the joint and connecting tendons are being used more which makes them more pliable and stretchable. If somebody had a lot of fat, losing it would also get rid of the obstructive fat; like taking off a really puffy jacket.
| 16 |
Just got my PhD. Now what?
|
It all feels less spectacular than it should.
I loved my field when I decided to pursue a PhD. And then I started getting worn out. I dropped out because I was having too much trouble working with other graduate students.
I found a job in the field, and seeing how my profession works in practice killed any last passion I had remaining for the subject.
I ended up losing my job during the pandemic and decided to finish my degree. It was the easiest option, and an option that meant I could stay at home. The passion never came back, but I was able to finish writing and defend my dissertation.
So, now what? I'm working for my advisor and will do so for the next couple of months. I hate every minute of it. Doing anything feels like a hassle. The thing I hate doing most is *writing*, which is not a good omen for a future academic career. I can't imagine doing this for the rest of my life. I feel trapped.
I know I can't be the only person who's gone through this. How did you pivot to something else? How do you find meaning in your work?
| 321 |
Don’t try to find meaning in your work, find meaning in your life. Find something that pays well enough with a better work-life balance…for me this year it meant going from a post doc to a government job.
| 192 |
How do metal detectors work?
|
To clarify, why does not all metal set off a detector? Such as zippers on jeans, or metal buttons? Do these detectors not detect certain kinds of metals, or do they just need at least a certain amount?
| 20 |
A metal detector makes a varying magnetic field in an area using an electromagnet. Conductors such as metal will temporarily block magnetic fields from entering them due to the skin effect. The driver used to power the electromagnet will be affected due to the presence of large amounts of metal, since it has less space to fill with magnetic field. The power being supplied to the electromagnet will be noticable different, but the amount of difference depends on the conductivity and volume of the material, as well as how close it is to the electromagnet. The distance issue is why an airport security officer will sometimes use a hand wand, since it can be placed much closer to the body.
Conductivity varies a lot between metals. The skin depth is proportional to the square root of conductivity. Stainless steel is 45 times less conductive than copper, so the thickness of stainless steel that is "invisible" to a metal detector is 6.7x more. These thicknesses will still be incredibly thin, at 1MHz the skin depth of stainless steel is 0.5mm.
| 11 |
ELI5: How do scientists determine the possible habitability of exoplanets?
|
With the search for possible Earth analogs in our universe going on still, how to scientists determine whether or not a planet is habitable even tho often times they can't physically see the planet?
| 16 |
They can tell how bright the star is fairly easily. From this information they can determine how much energy the star is putting out. Then, they look at how fast the planet is orbiting around its star by measuring how often the planet causes the star's light to dim or wobble. From information about how fast the planet is orbiting they can determine how close it is to its host star.
Now that they have the energy output of the star they can determine if the planet is in the range where water can be liquid. If the planet is too close then all water will evaporate but if it's too far then the water will all freeze.
| 12 |
ELI5:If we are in the Milky Way galaxy, when people see it in the sky or see the photos of it, what part are we actually seeing?
|
just curious
| 43 |
We're looking "across" it. The Milky Way is shaped roughly like a disk and we're not in the center, we're about halfway between the center and the edge. When we look "up" or "down" there's fewer stars between us and empty space outside the galaxy because it's so thin. When we look towards the center, we see many more stars because it's so wide.
| 19 |
[Fallout] Who are these Dunwich guys that bought a building near my company?
|
I'm a wealthy corporate businessman looking for a little dirt on my neighbors just in case we need to expand some. Thing is, I found nothing on them. I mean, NOTHING. Just who are these guys?
| 23 |
Take the advice of an experienced private detective. Drop it just sell the Land for whatever you can get and move as far away from dunwich as you can get. These guys make mobsters look like puppies.
| 22 |
The validity of cardinal utility?
|
Ordinal utility makes sense: someone can value *x* either more or less than *y*. However, I don't know how cardinal utility makes sense. Cardinal utility means someone can value *x* at 10 "utiles," *y* at 11 utiles, and *z* at 23.1 utiles. How does it make sense that goods can be numerically valued and measured in "utiles"? It would be silly to say "I value a TV at 10 utiles, a house at 11 utiles, and a car at 23.1 utiles," wouldn't it? So, how is cardinal utility a valid strarting place for scientific inquiry?
| 43 |
Yes, that is the problem with cardinal utility. That's why economists don't like using it much these days.
For that reason economists today think of utility functions different to the economists who first began using utility functions. Rather than thinking of them as representing an amount of utility, they think of them as representing an ordering of preferences.
| 31 |
Why is PH 7.95 considered a tipping point beyond which the ocean is "too acidic" for carbonate shells even though PH 7.95>7 is alkaline?
|
[The paper I'm being confused by, for reference.](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3860950)
| 22 |
Something can be "too acidic for X" while also being alkaline the same way something can be "too cold for X" while also being hot.
For example, 50C is far too cold for iron to be a liquid, but even folks in Arizona think 50C is hot.
| 75 |
ELI5 Why it's called a semi truck.
|
If that's semi, what's a full truck look like?
| 28 |
The "semi" doesn't refer to the truck. It's called a semi truck because it's built to carry what's known as a semi-*trailer*: a trailer which doesn't have front wheels on it, because it just slides on top of the truck. (There are full trailers that do have front wheels, but they're much rarer.)
| 34 |
ELI5: Why does trauma that happens when you are a baby / toddler, affect you as an adult if you can't remember anything from that time period?
|
EDIT: Thank you to everyone opening up and sharing stories, and for all the informative explanations . These are interesting and helps me understand my baby's development different than I originally thought.
| 1,023 |
The trauma alters brain structure. Everything we do and perceive is interpreted by the brain so any change to your brain affects the way you interpret your experiences.
You can only build and develop from your current state; As you experience and your brain continues adapting and learning the foundation its building from is an altered/traumatized brain, skewing the way you perceive the world
| 970 |
[Dune] Would a AI/robot fleeing into unknown space provoke humanity into pursuing it?
|
OK, so here's a question. I'm semi-familiar with Dune, I've seen the movies, skimmed some of the books and read discussions of them, so my insight is limited.
I get that general-purpose and networked computers are total taboo and not allowed (though Ix did eventually start using simple computers to get around certain tech' problems), any automation is highly limited and analogue (if present at all), however humanity also seems restricted to a specific area of space and doesn't care to expand.
Taking that into account, if an AI/robot was discovered or sighted at the edges of Known Space, it didn't take any aggressive action towards humans, didn't seek to interact with them, and was solely interested in leaving human space and never returning, would humanity attempt to pursue and eradicate?
I guess what I'm asking is, the Butlerian Jihad applies to everything in human space, but would they travel far from their sphere of influence to destroy a thinking machine if no further contact was anticipated, or if that same thinking machine said it actively wanted to avoid them? How deep is their taboo and hatred? Would they be able to ignore such a thinking machine if they'd never see or hear from it again, or would humanity/the Spacers Guild/The Sisterhood/someone else absolutely go out of their way to destroy it?
Any thoughts, examples or opinions appreciated in advance, I'm just trying to get a grasp of some nuance here.
| 27 |
Given the premise that "thinking machines" would evolve and outpace mankind, they would have no other choice than to seek out and destroy any and all existing AI. The initial intent of said AI has no bearing on this. No matter how far, or how many generations pass, the hunt would never end until the task was done.
| 29 |
Cmv: lawn work is unnecessary
|
This isn't out of a hate of lawn work or anything like that, I just purely do not understand why we decided that half- decapitated grass is the status quo. Why is this normal? Who made this decision? Can I have a yard of cloves and flowers and ferns instead? I think that there are so many other ideas of what could make a "lawn". Why did this start and why can't we change this idea. I would rather every house have a field of flowers or something. I really do not get any of this. Does this keep insects away? Fight me.
| 31 |
Historically, grass was a sign of wealth.
If you owned a farm, every square inch was valuable. "Wasting space" was a luxury of the rich. Hence, grass.
You are correct that in the modern day, it isn't strictly necessary. You could put any number of plants there. You could make a rock garden. You could put down astroturf.
But much like the wedding cake, the wedding dress, and high heeled shoes, that which the rich used to do, became the norm for everyone, once everyone could afford it.
| 19 |
Eli5 why does wet sand stick together?
| 64 |
Damp sand sticks together because water forms little grain-to-grain bridges. Surface tension--the same force that lets some insects walk on the surface of a pond--acts like rubberbands between the grains. Adding water to damp sand fills spaces between the grains. The bridges vanish and the sand begins to flow more easily.
| 36 |
|
[Genral] Who do the number of superheros increase exponential after the first one appears?
| 55 |
They was never a time without heroes.
Remember Hercules? King Arthur? The Amazons and Atlanteans have been around as long as there have been people, if not longer. There have always powerful men and women ready to take on the evils that threaten mankind. When the times are dark, new lights are lit to push it away.
What has made it look like seemingly massive numbers of them existing is the dawn of media. You can now hear about heroes from all over the world who once would only be famous in their immediate area. WWII also seemed to be a catalyst for superbeings to come out of hiding, no longer able to say they must stay isolated when the world teeters on the edge of collapse. Lastly heroes are now more organized than ever, with groups like the Justice League reaching world wide and recruiting all heroes who want to help.
| 65 |
|
How can some animals "smell" fear?
|
I'm sure you've all heard it before, but how do you scientifically explain it?
| 21 |
They don't. Most mammals have good eyesight and are very good at reading body language, and that's what they're responding to. Cringing, backing away, jerky movements, high-pitched noises, and certain eye movements are indicative of fear/distress in a lot of mammals (and more importantly, their prey).
| 25 |
Professors with a research interest on the Phenomenology of suicide
|
Thought it'll be easier if I asked Reddit.
Hello, I am currently an undergraduate student at the University of Alberta (Canadian citizen) studying a double major in Psychology and Sociology [with a minor in Philosophy and an Applied Social Science Research Certificate]. I just finished my 2/5 year, and am beginning to panic a bit 😅....
My interests are along the lines of Existential based depression, anxiety and suicide; Phenomenological Existentialism; and social influences on suicide (particularly amongst men and the LGBTQ community).... I'm looking to get an MA and/or PhD in either Sociology or Psychology with a research interest along the lines of "Phenomenology of Suicide"
I was wondering if anyone knows of a professors (those seeking to supervise graduate students) with a research interest in suicide, depression, anxiety, and/or phenomenology. (my focus is on Canadian and United States Universities, but I'm open to ones from Europe as well)
| 51 |
Try looking up Anna Mueller. She is currently at the University of Chicago but is moving to the Sociology department at Indiana University next year. She studies the phenomenology of suicide in adolescents, particularly suicide clusters.
| 20 |
[Marvel] Galactus is suddenly erased from existence. What are the consequences?
| 21 |
This actually happened, Galactus got sucked into the Ultimate Universe and no longer exists in the main continuity. The main heroes never noticed it, the Ultimate Universe got rocked, but came out fine.
| 23 |
|
Why do people's noses get runny when they go out in the cold?
| 182 |
The blood vessels in your nose also expand to keep up with their job of warming up the air that you breathe in before it goes further down your respiratory tract. That in turn further activates your mucous producing cells, who among other things help moisten the air you breathe. All of this results in a runny nose!
| 112 |
|
[General Science] It is 7286CE and you are 1 of 280 billion human brains uploaded to a Noosphere centre orbiting around the planet Mars.
|
7286CE: you are 1 of 280 billion human brains uploaded to a Noosphere centre in Mars' orbit.
An ET berserker probe swarm hell-bent on destroying all sentient life is enroute to our solar system. From observation, it would appear that the swarm is destroying all advanced forms of life.
Do you recreate physical bodies and leave or what do you do, bearing in mind that our species is still only capable of interstellar manned travel speeds of 0.01%lightspeed - and the swarm is unmanned and capable of much higher speeds?
| 19 |
Why recreate physical bodies that can only attempt escape at an ineffective speed of 0.01 lightyears (that's a distance not a speed btw so lets assume you meant 0.01% of lightspeed) when you already exist as digital information capable of being broadcast as light at lightspeed. That's just asking to get genocided.
| 18 |
ELI5: What is a think tank and what do they do?
|
In political news stories you often see mentions of "think tanks" that lean either left or right. I'm curious what exactly a think tank is. How are they formed? How are they funded? What do they do?
| 36 |
Think tanks are a specific kind of lobbyist organizations that advocates for certain things by employing university level academics to write white papers, policy documents and model legislation. These documents are, of course, the same documents that governments themselves prepare as part of the legislative process, and think tanks contribute their documents to relevant governments free of charge in the hope that the government will adopt the think tank version in whole or in part, rather than writing their own version.
Obviously, as a type of lobbying organization, they may be general purpose and lean towards a broadly leftist or rightist agenda, or they may be single issue or specialist focus in which case they may not really align fully with either party. But they will almost certainly have some viewpoint that they are pushing for.
Like all lobbying organizations, they get started by various people or organizations that want to lobby for a particular viewpoint and who like the think tank model. They are also funded in a whole variety of ways, some by various industries, some by various individuals or foundations, some by political parties, and some are even partly publicly funded.
| 29 |
There shouldn't be a separation of genders in society, especially in basic things like different toilets, without which a great step would be taken for the end of gender discrimination. CMV
|
Edit: Thank you everyone for the great discussion. I've learned a lot. Although I can't say that my view is completely changed, I can say that I've found quite a few problems with it. This is my fault though, I'm too tired to answer anymore today. Thank you, once again. This subreddit is awesome, I'll probably reply back tomorrow to those who I missed :)
Prove me wrong if you can, for something like this which has been integrated to our culture as humanity for a long time now should have some reason to it. Yet, I fail to see a reason that I can not immediately shoot down without hesitation.
Firstly, I believe that there is not much difference in the two genders. There are a few biological differences, but anything other than those are all created due to socio-ethical pressure. This pressure leads to deformation of character in individuals and thus leads to the two gender stereotypes. The emotional, always crying, weak female and the fearless nor emotionless, strong, muscly male.
Now I'd like to list some real differences between the genders to try and set a standard for this discussion.
* Males are physically stronger than females
* Females are more emotional then males and are less stable in terms of controlling emotions
* Different hormones in each gender shape the thoughts of the individuals to a certain respect. This can be things like love, greed, need for superiority or need for protection (or feeling protected and safe).
I believe that we should stop this socio-ethical pressure on the two genders. This pressure is put on at birth and deforms the character slowly, from the core. In our culture lie many things (from marriage to raising a child) which are gender specific. One simple thing is that males are supposed to be good at sports. strong and also successful in their jobs to attract females, females are supposed to be pretty and thin. Although I can look at this through a lens of "biology" and say that it seems quite normal. "Pretty" in terms of the male, means healthy mate and a healthy host for children. Strong and successful men means that the children are going to be protected from possible attackers and no one will be hungry because the male has enough money. However, we're not "animals". We're... biologically, but there is an undeniable superiority in terms of self awareness in humans. We shouldn't live by standards put by something like evolution as we are already above it. Humans can shape the world, rather than adapt to it. We don't need to obey the laws other animals do.
So, what does this socio-ethical pressure actually do? Firstly, it strengthens "standardization", which is another topic I am anarchistic about. Secondly, it destroys morale and self confidence. Thirdly, it makes people think that being "normal" and "just like everyone else" is necessary for a happy life, rather than being yourself.
How does this happen? It happens because people treat different genders... well... differently. Males are pressured into hiding their emotions. Males are supposed to be robots who work out in the gym, who get a lot of money and are "alpha" about everything. Why do you think that males are usually the jerks? This is why... Females, on the other hand, are pressured into letting go of their selves. They're supposed to be thin, supposed to be secretive about stupid stuff, supposed to be hard to get and supposed to be hard working. Why do they have to even be shy about simple things like their period? That is a biological process, nothing abnormal. If you have a period, tell me and I'll understand that. Anyone who doesn't has already been brainwashed into the point of oblivion.
I am not supporting that physical beauty is unimportant. It is actually very important. A species sense of beauty grows around the concept of health. The healthier someone is, the more beautiful they are... well... that's how it was before. Now, it has grown insane. Television shows and posters decide what beauty is. I usually find those "10/10 girls" disgusting most of the time. They don't look healthy, they look like someone painted them with a brush to hide every damn humane factor about their body. Media is generating a lot of this problem, but only because we let it.
So, why did I give the example of toilets? Because I think that is one of those things that are a problem. It might seem very normal that there are different toilets for the both genders, but thing again. When you look outside the box, you'll see that it is quite stupid. What do you do in the toilet? Shit, urinate, clean yourself up and tidy your hair/clothes. Why does there have to be two different things for this? There doesn't have to be dammit. Sexual abuse is another problem of society, not something that originates from genders. This is something unrelated to it. This is basically discrimination at it's finest. I don't even understand some of the clothing sections in some stores. There is a lot of clothes that are labeled for one gender which would fit perfectly on both. However, just because of the label people are scared to get near them. It is not that the clothing itself is bad, it is that the label being of a different gender is somehow "scary".
This discrimination of gender only leads to arrogance and ignorance in humanity. It leads to nothing good. There are a lot of other problems with society, but if we can't even treat biological differences like race and gender... I fear all hope is lost.
Edit: I've digressed a lot and tried to wrap it all up in the end. There is just so much to this topic that it's impossible to fit it in an organized text. Sorry for that :S
| 19 |
I wrote out a really long, 500 word response and ended up deleting it for something more succinct.
Equal doesn't mean the same. Sometimes women like a space they can feel safe. Somewhere they can go to escape significantly larger, sometimes aggressive people. Somewhere they can go and not worry about being sexualized or raped. Somewhere they can take their baby.
Oppositely, sometimes men want to go somewhere where they feel safe, and alone. Where they can escape sexuality and the other gender.
Gender differences are biological. We are different. Chimpanzees separate by gender in troupes, so do other primates. Hell, most mammals have gender separation.
I just don't think that certain differences and impulses are societal. Yes, rape is partially a social issue, but there are always going to be people who want to rape. Developmental issues occur, and you end up with people who get aggressive. Why not have a place to yourself?
These things are conveniences. You use clothes as an example. Separated sections isn't discrimination, it's convencience. It's so much easier to shop when you can skip half the shit you know doesn't fit you. Women's clothes are made for women's bodies, and men's for mens. No one is stopping you from shopping in the other section, they're just divided for convenience. If someone does give you crap, then *that is* wrong... But the solution isn't to just throw all the clothes together... it's to tell that guy not to be a dick.
| 20 |
ELI5: What does caffeine acctualy do to your body in order to keep you awake?
| 40 |
There's a molecule called Adenosine. As you go longer without rest, it builds up in your nerves. If adenosine were to dock with adenosine receptors, you would feel drowsy and tired. Caffeine comes in and docks with the adenosine receptors, preventing actual adenosine from binding to them. No binding = no sleepiness and more alertness.
Over time the caffeine you have is metabolized or gotten rid of, and you get tired again.
| 56 |
|
[Star Wars] Why didn’t the First Order just send TIE Fighters to destroy the rest of the Resistance ships?
|
Kylo and two TIE fighters destroyed an entire cruiser by themselves. With an entire fleet of Star Destroyers, including Snoke’s personal ship, they should have had enough TIE fighters to turn the rest of them into space dust as opposed to firing from a distance and waiting for their fuel to run out.
| 93 |
The reason they pulled Kylo and the other fighters back in the first place is that the Resistance had pulled enough distance that the cruisers couldn't support the fighters any longer, which puts them at greater risk. With no powerful need to destroy them immediately rather than in a few hours, there's no reason to throw away those ships and pilots.
The other bit is that it opens up an escape opportunity for the Resistance. If the First Order launches fighters, the fighters make the transit to the Resistance ships, then the ships jump away, the First Order has to recover fighters before they can jump as well. That gives the Resistance a window of time in which to make a second jump and break the hyperspace tracking lock.
Now they couldn't actually do that because they were too low on fuel for two jumps, but the First Order didn't know that for sure, and so had to take that threat into consideration.
| 85 |
[Star Wars] What would have happened if Luke Skywalker had joined Darth Vader to kill the emperor and rule the galaxy together?
|
I've always wanted to see this in the movies even though it would mean Luke would fall to the dark side or Vader would come back to the light.
| 51 |
Striking down the Emperor in anger and in the quest for power completes Luke's fall to the dark side. He is probably severed from the force ghost advice of Obi Wan and Yoda, and gets real dark as Vader's apprentice.
Things start as a standard master-apprentice affair between Luke and Vader. The presence of the dark side and the corrupting influence of Sith training erodes anything resembling a father-son relationship.
Like Vader did under the Emperor and like the Emperor did before him, Luke trains secret Sith apprentices and Vader does the same. Luke probably wins, assuming his eventual Jedi Master strength level translates to Sith Lord power. Luke rules in the place of the Emperor.
With his new apprentice, he consolidates power and rules as he sees fit, which is likely to establish rule by the power of the Force. Luke probably doesn't keep the anti-human prejudices of the Emperor, in which case the Empire becomes more inclusive. Still, it's rule by force and strength, it's a dictatorship, and Luke's rule bears all the trademarks of any other Sith rule.
It's not the worst outcome for the galaxy, but certainly not the best.
| 39 |
CMV: Feminism is better off identifying as 'Women's Advocacy'. 'Equality' is too broad a scope.
|
It's easy to see that women can get the short end of the stick in our society. Personally, I believe it's crucial that women have a voice for *advocacy*. I can't think of a any group more suited to rally the electorate around reproductive rights than feminists.
Similarly, it's also not hard to find plenty of areas in society where men are disadvantaged. Again, who better to *advocate* for fair child custody for men than MRA's?
'Equality' is a vague term once you leave the sphere of mathematics. Men and women aren't numbers. Their strengths, their weakness and the value they provide to society can be highly contextual and vary on an individual basis. The value in question here is subjective. **In short, it's arrogant for any one group to assert that they're an authority on how any demographic deserves to be treated, or not treated and in what context.**
Rather, society as a whole should be responsible for carving out the definition of 'equality' through *advocacy* and *compromise*. You can really only trust people to act in their own best interest. Only society as a whole can determine what works best for society as a whole.
Unfortunately, the 'equality' narrative from feminists hasn't had the unifying effect one would hope. Instead, for the reasons I listed above, it's perceived as disingenuous. It seems to suggest that the feminist perspective of 'equality' is greater than perspective of the whole. Further more, since the switch to 'equality', the movement has gotten more extreme and more sectarian within itself, while simultaneously hemorrhaging support from would be sympathizers.
_____
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| 39 |
"Better off" is a very different concept for "more straightforward/accurate." Feminists could rebrand themselves as "women's advocates," but why would they? It is in their best interest to identify themselves primarily as advocates for equality, so that they can portray gender issues as issues of feminism vs. inequality, regardless of whether or not that is true.
| 15 |
[Physics] If strong force is strong enough to keep protons together, why do atoms need neutrons to keep the protons from tearing apart?
|
I was watching Crash Course Chemistry and watched the lateral SciShow video about how quarks are held together with strong force, which keeps protons together and also ties together the whole atom through nuclear force. When I got back to the video on the nucleus, however, Hank stated that neutrons are important because without them the protons would tear each other apart.
Wouldn't the strong force be more likely to pull the protons in close? What force would be pushing the protons apart and creating a need for neutrons?
| 20 |
You might be tempted to say that the Coulomb force is what prevents all-proton nuclei from existing (except hydrogen-1 obviously). But that's not the full story.
In fact, if you replace all the protons with neutrons, the system is still not bound.
So the **nuclear force itself** simply cannot bind a system of multiple protons (neutrons) without any neutrons (protons). Then of course Coulomb only makes things worse in the case of protons.
The nuclear force between two nucleons can be attractive or repulsive depending on their distance, spin orientations, etc.
If you try to put a bunch of *one* kind of nucleon (either kind) together, they just don't form bound states.
You need protons and neutrons (for A > 1) to have any hope of forming bound states.
| 13 |
[ASOIaF] What if Renly Baratheon took the throne?
|
Renly wipes out Stannis, marches on Kings Landing with his massive host, seizes the city and takes the throne. How will the War of Five Kings play out?
| 23 |
I believe he had agreed to let Robb remain King of the North, didn't he? So, once Renly took the south, he'd be just sort of done. Robb would've been able to focus on the North.
I think the Greyjoys hadn't invaded at the time Renly was killed. If there was no war to distract Robb, and no reason to send off Theon to get an alliance with Balon, there would've been no war in the North. Even if so, if Robb's host had been at Winterfell, it wouldn't have been sacked.
It's hard to say what would've happened with the Freys. Robb may have gone through with his marriage contract (he met Jane Westerling on the field of a battle that wouldn't have happened), or he may have met her elsewhere or met somebody else and fucked it up anyway. However, without the war, Robb wouldn't have been in a position to get himself killed regardless, and the Lannisters wouldn't have been there to back the Frey in Robb's killing. So breaking a marriage contract would have had little impact on the anyway.
Only question is whether the realm would be any better prepared for either Dany or the White Walkers when those come into play. (I haven't gotten that far in the books yet, incidentally)
| 40 |
ELI5: Why do sapling trees not lose their leaves in the winter while adult trees of the same species do?
| 33 |
Some like beeches hold onto dead leaves to collect snow at their base for added water when it melts. Saplings in general hold onto their leaves longer than the larger trees to get some last minute sugar from the sun without the shading of the larger trees.
| 15 |
|
ELI5: why is it that things like ribbons curl up when dragged up against a sharp object like a scissors?
| 454 |
Imagine folding a piece of piece of paper in half, then opening it up. The crease down the middle remains, and the paper no longer lies flat. Imagine creasing the paper once every inch across, now it will curl up a bit. When you drag a ribbon across a pair of scissors, you are creating one continuous crease. This makes it curl up!
| 556 |
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[Star Wars] Had Anakin Skywalker never been burned and used the suit, would Luke learn of his identity much earlier?
|
So after the Obi-Wan and Anakin battle, Anakin is left burned and near limbless. This prompted for him to have to use the iconic Darth Vader respirator suit.
Luke eventually learns of his heritage later on...and the rest is history.
However... what if things went differently??
**SCENARIO:** Obi-Wan manages to knock Anakin out and leaves on the ship. He drops the babies off to their respective future homes. Anakin wakes up, somewhat humbled but furious. But he continues his path , secretly, as Darth Vader.
Anakin now does not need to hide his appearance and keeps his full name for the public.
Luke grows up and notices this man on the news who he looks strikingly similar to, especially in the eyes and hair. Not to mention, they share the same last name. And he starts asking questions. Will he learn early on? Who will tell him? Would it change anything?
| 15 |
We know from Legends that Sidious was grooming the public perception of Anakin to be a post war hero. he was publicly seen as the only good Jedi, the one who did what had to be done, while not letting the Meek suffer needlessly. what's more after his assault on the Jedi Temple he effectively crushed a Jedi coup d'etat and saved not only the republic but the chancellor. Anakin losing large portions of his body mass, as well as his defining features was a terrible loss to the Sith cause. it's severely weakened anakin's connection to the force and effectively demolished all previous work done by Sidious towards the perception of Anakin. if you read the Darth plagueis novel it would be a similar master apprentice reflection of the book, we're Sidious was the background master puppeteer, and Anakin was the political Poster Child for the postwar era.
If Anakin had retained his Skywalker Monica, then it's entirely possible that through Imperial propaganda of anakin's face, and the extremely well known name of Skywalker, that the idea may have cropped up to young luke.
| 12 |
ELI5: Why is space black?
|
Why is space black?
| 35 |
Color comes from light, light directly from a source or light reflected/scattered off a surface. where there is no source or no surface there is no light. Space is a vacuum so there is no source and there is no surface, so there is no light in space. That makes space black.
| 27 |
What happens to electricity pushed onto a grid beyond that grid's capacity to use it?
|
With the ascendancy of renewable or otherwise privately generated electricity, many electric companies allow electricity produced in excess of private use to be 'pushed' back onto the wider grid, even paying for that generated electricity in many cases. It makes sense to me that, most connected users being net-electricity-consumers, whatever electricity I push onto the grid is just used by someone else connected to the grid.
My question is, what happens once private generation exceeds grid usage? Where does 'unused' electricity go? What method or mechanism is used to shed excess energy in an electrical grid?
| 101 |
The grid is composed by several sections that can be opened, closed and rerouted to match supply and demand without putting too much current in the grid. If you put too much current elements of the grid would fail (transformers, breakers, even cables that could melt).
Depends on where the electricity is coming from you can disconnect that section not to overload the rest of the grid. The same can be done with demand (if an area is pulling too much current it could bring the rest of the grid down).
Grid management will make sure that excess current is disconnected from sections that can't support it. With power companies those loads are negotiated every morning and planned carefully during the day.
With home generation that production can also be predicted but contrary to the power plants, that current can't be disconnected easily, at least not without causing at least some local issues.
So there are two methods, either you get power plants to reduce production (which is not that a fast thing to do and after the bidding is done in the morning prices are already set) or you disconnect other big renewable generators (wind, and solar farms). Those can be disconnected from the grid and the energy is just lost to heat.
| 22 |
[Wicked] How on earth can Fiyero fall in love with Elphaba so quickly and want to lose his life for her when they only knew each other for a semester or 2?
| 134 |
2 semesters is nearly a year, so that's a reasonable amount of time to know someone.
Elphaba was the first person in his entire life to truly challenge him. Look beyond his looks and actually care who he was. In a sense she was the first person to ever know him.
Also he was a vapid teen up until then, so let's not be so surprised that he was ready to do something so dramatic.
| 118 |
|
eli5, how do "store brands" work?
| 350 |
Stores contract with manufacturers to make product specifically for them, usually at a cheaper rate.
Some ways that they get a lower cost:
sometimes the food manufacturer is not the same as the brand name one. sometimes this is cheaper.
sometimes its the same, but volume agreements are negotiated leading to a cheaper price. sometimes the same, but the packaging is cheaper, or the ingredients are cheaper.
usually this provides little margin for the main manufacturer, but it keeps the lights on/machine running when its very expensive for machines to be down.
sometimes its whats called a 'copacker' and they usually do the packaging in place of a manufacturer actually producing it. for them, its a matter of replacing the packaging/labelling and continue producing. ive seen very little difference in product (brand v "generic") when its made by a copacker.
source: i work with copackers, private labels, and brands for some of these products
| 545 |
|
[DC (Green Lantern/ Superman)] do you have to have permission from a kryptonion to send someone to the phantom zone? Could Hal Jordan, or any of the other lanterns, send a villain to the phantom zone?
| 32 |
I think Superman's got the only Phantom Zone doorway so you would have to ask his permission to use it.
Or sneak/break into his Fortress. Good luck with that though. You'd have a tough time just lifting the key to the front door, let alone getting past the robot butlers.
| 28 |
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[LotR] How old can Orcs get?
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Assuming they weren't murdered, or fell ill from poison or disease?
| 69 |
> They could be slain, and they were subject to disease; but apart from these ills they died and were not immortal, even according to the manner of the Quendi; indeed they appear to have been by nature short-lived compared with the span of Men of higher race, such as the Edain.
~Morgoth's Ring "Myths Transformed"
So they weren't immortal, and were apparently short-lived compared to Men of "higher race". What does higher race mean in this context? Tolkien mentions the Edain, but the Edain of the First Age had an average lifespan of 70-100. The problem with Orcs living shorter lives than the original Edain is that we have one documented lifespan of an Orc: Bolg. Bolg's father, Azog, was slain in 2799 TA, and Bolg himself was killed at the Battle of the Five Armies in 2941 TA. So Bolg must've been at least 142 at the time of his death, which means that either he was just an exceptionally long-lived Orc or that Orcs live longer than the Edain of the First Age. So in that case, Tolkien might've been referring to the Numenoreans, direct successors of the Edain. They lived 200-400 years, depending on their bloodline, so if Orcs are living to around 150, then they would be "short-lived" compared to the Men of "higher race".
So in other words, Orcs could live to the age of 140+, but they probably didn't live much longer than that. And it's likely that few Orcs actually made it to Bolg's age, considering the violent nature of Orcish society.
| 82 |
eli5: why aren't more portable devices waterproof by now? It seemed like the direction things were going a few years ago.
| 15 |
Extra cost combined with not much need.
Its a handy feature to have when you need it, but for the most part people aren't trying to use their devices in the rain/water.
Waterproofing all of the seams and openings takes extra time and effort which makes manufacturing more expensive and complicated.
| 22 |
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CMV: High street retailers should share at least 10% of their sales profits with their employees
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I've believed this for quite a while and I reckon it would increase productivity, happiness and the overall value of teamwork while at work as well as an extra incentive to encourage sales for the company you work for.
Let me elaborate the title further. Say a supermarket makes £300,000 profit in a month in sales. The supermarket has 100 employees (including management). 10% of £300,000 would be £30,000. Dividing that with 100 employees would mean a £300 bonus at the end of the month. This percentage could increase during the Christmas period
| 1,271 |
I mean, businesses already "share" a portion of their "profits" with their labor force -that is what wages are. People come in, do a job, and get an agreed upon amount of compensation for that job.
While it is certainly nice when employers do profit sharing like you mention, it shouldn't be an expectation of a business. Those employees were (probably) not there when the business was just starting out and the owner might have been funneling in money from their own pocket to keep the doors open. Those employees probably weren't working 7 days a week those first few years because the owner couldn't afford additional labor quite yet. Those employees aren't going to chip in from their own pockets during the months where the business _loses_ £300,000 because of various reasons.
This is the difference between owners and employees - the owners have capital at risk and (typically) go above and beyond for their businesses when those businesses demand it, while employees just do the job they are paid to do, good times or bad. If you are not willing to go above and beyond what is needed during the bad times, then you are not entitled to the surplus during the good times.
| 975 |
If Deadpool can break the 4th wall and change continuity, does that make him the most powerful Marvel character of all time?
| 117 |
After a character breaks the fourth wall, it's no longer the character's "power level" that matters but the writer's. And the writer always has less power than the company.
For example: the writers on DC's "Batwoman" wanted the titular character to marry her girlfriend, but DC editorial didn't allow it. The marriage didn't happen because editorial is more powerful than the writers.
Deadpool loses all power in the presence of an editor. By the metric of "continuity changing aptitude = power level" the most powerful character in the Marvel Universe is the Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso. Deadpool can't do anything without Alonso signing off on it, and Alonso can authorize the erasure anything Deadpool has ever done.
However, Alonso is beholden to something even more powerful. Not a character, but a rule. The Math. A book's sales are too low? The math says the book is cancelled. Sales go up during giant bloated annual crossovers? The math says they have to do crossovers.
| 190 |
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I read that all the cells in your body are completely renewed every decade or so. If you have a transplanted organ, how does the body replace its dying cells?
| 27 |
The cells of the transplanted organ will divide and replace themselves, just like the rest of the organs in your body. The transplanted organ will still be made up of cells 'from the donor' 10 years later. They will never be replaced 'by your own cells'. That's why transplant patients need to take anti-rejection drugs for life.
| 17 |
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ELI5: What is the deal with Asian people always squatting down to do stuff (eat popsicles, smoke cigarettes, etc.)?
| 17 |
Before the invention and wide distribution of the chair, everyone relaxed like that. A life time of sitting in chairs will make your hamstrings, and the muscles and connective tissue in your thighs, calves, and lower back less supple, to the point of making squatting uncomfortable or even painful. In parts of the world where chairs are less common, most people squat to relax or socialize. Chairs are bad for you. In Japan people traditionally sat on the floor at a low table to eat their meals; watch a traditional Japanese family sit down to dinner and see 80 year olds easily fold their legs under them and sit down.
| 24 |
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CMV: Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.
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The title of this post is a famous quote from the Scottish philosopher David Hume.
Hume's argument, which I think is correct, is that reason alone cannot be an effective guide to human action, because only through "passions" which are Hume's terms for emotions and desires, do we have motivation to act.
That is, in the Humean worldview, reason is an instrumental tool which is only useful when given a motivating direction by passions, which exist independent of reasoned thought.
It has been a while since I read Kant or any of the a priori reason arguments he made, and I am looking to see if I'm missing something from them, or perhaps an argument I have entirely not considered.
| 74 |
The problem is that we can’t really distinguish the two. Reason and passion are just combined cognitive processes - you’re not just rational or emotional, you’re always both. Thus trying to say one precedes the other is a bit like saying cart before horse when in fact it’s just a horse.
| 26 |
[Weekly Discussion Thread] Scientists, what causes you to marvel in wonder at science and the world?
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This is the fourth installment of the weekly discussion thread and will be similar to last weeks thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/udzr6/weekly_discussion_thread_scientists_what_is_the/
The topic for this week is what scientific achievements, facts, or knowledge causes you to go "Wow I can't believe we know that" or marvel at the world. Essentially what causes you to go "Wow science is cool".
The rules for this week are similar to the weeks before so please follow the rules in the guidelines in the side bar.
If you are a scientist and want to become a panelist please see the panelist thread: http://redd.it/ulpkj
| 32 |
The scale of everything. We play with quarks all the way up to galactic superclusters and everything in between. Our habitable zone is as thin as a soap bubble and just as vulnerable and insignificant.
| 20 |
CMV: being fat is an eating disorder too. (TW)
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Discard from that simplified statement the obvious outliers, such as those with thyroid issues or other health impediments.
We drink water when we are thirsty, we don't obsessively binge water (again, ignore conditions like diabetes which have a physiological effect on thirst).
Food should be no different. We have energy requirements, so we should eat to meet our bodies' needs.
Excessively counting calories and starving ourselves in order to hit arbitrary weight loss goals, or even good goals in an unhealthy manner, is rightly considered to he an eating disorder. The damage it does to our bodies is immeasurable and well documented.
Similarly, eating obsessively in such a way that we overstep the guidelines our native appetites naturally impose on us is a form of eating disorder.
The prevailing narrative right now is about body positivity, which is quite a noble one. Nobody should be bullied or harassed for their bodies. However, a harmful consensus has emerged where we are now discouraged from speaking negatively about the state of being fat, partly out of fears that we will induce eating disorders in people as they attempt to lose weight.
This fear of calling a spade a spade normalises the deadliest and most common eating disorder in existence right now. We shouldn't be afraid to call being fat an eating disorder in case it causes in an inverted eating disorder.
| 26 |
No it's not really. Grocery stores didn't exist in the natural environment humans evolved in and where all these eating behaviors come from. Your brain wants you to take every opportunity to sit on your ass all day and eat ice cream, because in nature it thinks this is going to be a rare occurrence and you will have to go back to failing to hunt deer tomorrow and that extra fat will help you survive.
| 17 |
ELI5: Why is it when I move my cursor to the right of my screen, it disappears, but to the left it stops at the edge?
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Similar question for up vs. down.
Edit: Has to be the fastest answered question ever.
| 56 |
The actual position of the cursor is at the end of the point. That position stays on the screen - on the left, that doesn't allow any of the rest of the cursor (which extends to the right) to fall off the screen, but on the right, the actual position of the cursor can be on-screen even when most of the image is not.
| 90 |
eli5: How do your lungs filter out dust in the air?
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I was cleaning out an A.C. Units air filter and it got me thinking. We breath in the same air so how do we clean out our filter?
| 21 |
Naturally, the hair in your nose doesn’t get everything. Big things, like grit or dirt will get caught in your mouth or throat, finer particles will get stuck in membranes further in your lungs and coughed back up as mucus. We catch and spit up most.
When it comes to work, If you can see it in the air, you are breathing it and need a mask. If it’s a manufactured material, it likely contains toxins you won’t cough up.
| 18 |
Eli5: why do we not use tooth filling to fill gaps between teeth and eliminate need for flossing?
| 26 |
Your lower jaw and skull are flexible, and your teeth shift with each bite.
If you connect each tooth to each other with fill material, it would crack them with each movement of your jaw.
Braces are something that take advantage of this by connecting each tooth with strong ductile wire that causes teeth to shift more, and in a restricted direction, with each movement of the jaw.
| 57 |
|
Capitalism is the only moral economic system. CMV.
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If you want to develop a game and sell it, it's not moral for me or the government to stop you from doing that (assuming you respect the rights of others^1 ).
If you make a profit because other people voluntarily pay for your game, nobody else can seize control of those profits. The only morally acceptable 'theft' is taxes, to pay for things that can only practically be done collectively (like funding an army).
I'd like to clear one thing up:
**Liberty**
[Ubisoft trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rwCyP1LLg) about pirates: *"For a brief, shining moment in history, a select breed truly lived free".* No! Capitalists, libertarians or objectivists don't want an end to all laws or restrictions: they want to end *involuntary* interactions. As Ayn Rand writes..
>"It is not society, nor any social right, that forbids you to kill—but the inalienable individual right of another man to live. This is not a “compromise” between two rights—but a line of division that preserves both rights untouched."
The government should protect you from others and itself. The government shouldn't oppress *nor* help companies - it should just end all involuntary interactions.
| 29 |
>Capitalists, libertarians or objectivists don't want an end to all laws or restrictions: they want to end involuntary interactions.
We can agree that workers traditionally are not paid the full value of the items they create, right? If they were, there would be no profits, since profits are considered to be part of the value of the product they're selling.
For a worker to be fully compensated for the value of their work, they'd have to be paid in profits (in other words, they'd have to be owners of the company as well, a worker-owned firm).
Now, as a regular worker, let us say you are hypothetically given these three choices.
1. Work and be paid in both wages and profits.
2. Work and be paid in wages, but not profits.
3. Don't work, earn no income and starve in the streets.
Assume the occupation involved in #1 and #2 are equal.
Economists assume that people are rational, in other words they will choose that which maximizes utility. As such, they would assume that the typical worker would choose #1. They'd never choose #2 because they'd just be leaving money on the floor. And they'd never choose #3 for obvious reasons.
Choice 1 is pure socialism.
Choice 2 is capitalism and state-capitalism i.e. USSR and other "state socialist" systems. Capitalism is not distinguished from socialism by the existence of markets, but the private ownership of the means of production. We know this because markets are possible even when workers own the means of production.
**In capitalism workers are not allowed to make the rational choice, rather they are forced to choose between #2 and #3, which they otherwise would never take either. This can hardly be considered a voluntary system.**
*IIRC it was Schumpeter who equated state socialism with capitalism. In both cases, a separate entity from the workers making the product create the profits, state socialism merely restricts market activity by enforcing a monopoly on economic activity.
| 44 |
How come when I chew speariment gum and then drink cold water the water feels so cold that it hurts my throat?
|
It's really painful and I hate it. What gives?
| 68 |
At the heart of the minty matter is a protein called the transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 8 (TRPM8), which is expressed in sensory neurons. TRPM8 is an ion channel, a type of protein that regulates the movement of ions across the membranes of cells. Just like only certain keys can open a lock on a door, only certain stimulants can open the ion channel and access the cell. TRPM8 opens in the presence of cold temperatures and allows Na+ and Ca2+ ions to enter the cell. This changes the electrical charge within the neuron and the information being sent from the neuron to the central nervous system, eventually leading to the perception of cold.
TRPM8 doesn’t just respond to cold temperatures, though. It also activates in the presence of menthol, a waxy, crystalline organic compound found in peppermint and other mint oils. (It responds to other “cooling agents,” too, like eucalyptol and icilin. Why, exactly, is unknown; menthol just happens to fit the cellular “lock.”) In the presence of menthol, TRPM8 ion channels open up the same way they would if the ambient temperature in your mouth dropped. The same “hey it’s cold in here!” signal is sent to the brain, even though menthol doesn’t actually cause the temperature in the mouth to change. And just like that, the wondrous human brain is tricked by a piece of Doublemint.
Even after you spit the gum out, a little menthol will remain and the sensory neurons will stay sensitized. Drinking anything cold or even taking in a big breath of cool air will cause the neurons to fire again, and the double whammy of the cool temperature and the menthol will make your mouth seem extra cold. Even a hot drink will seem weirdly cool and refreshing.
| 116 |
ELI5 what happens when lightning strikes and the power goes out for a minute or two then comes back on.
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It obviously affects the power grid but how does it get fixed so quickly.
| 23 |
There are grid protection systems, basically big versions of the circuit breakers you have at home, that can be tripped by a lightning strike or other events during a storm.
These big circuit breakers are smart enough to check to see whether there is still a problem (tree on a line or something), or if the problem has gone away (if nothing was damaged by the lightning). If there is no problem anymore, the breakers will close themselves automatically.
| 11 |
Are there any particles that are not affected by gravity?
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And how would scientists go about detecting them?
| 53 |
No, there are not, and it's actually quite easy to see why.
Gravity is the observed fact that things fall when dropped. This observed fact is a *consequence* of the fact that the geometry of spacetime is curved.
Any object — cricket ball, electron, hypothetical magic leprechaun particle — moving through spacetime will, well, *move* through *spacetime.* Therefore any object will move along trajectories that are determined by the underlying geometry of the region of spacetime through which they move. Therefore everything falls.
| 100 |
hey small town girl here tryna educate herself by reading an intro to philosophy textbook. would be very grateful for help regarding what 'philosophy can be abstract and theoretical' means? emphasis on the abstract part. does abstract in this context refer to ideas relating to that which doesn't inv
|
\-olve a referent to the physical word and if so, how is that even possible? for example when u take a fictional invention like a mermaid or something, tho this invention does not exist in reality, isn't it founded on a culmination of different referents to the physical world? apologies in advance for my stupidity. yours sincerely, the idiot
| 152 |
Abstract can be juxtaposed to "Material", or "Concrete". If you think abstractly, you think about how to categorise and evaluate the "material world" in ways that aren't immediately obvious to that world. In other words, you have to make up concepts which help you understand the world around you. These concepts aren't immediately knowable from you interacting with that world, but are developed through reflection, and so brought to bear on it from outside. This is what abstract means in its root latin--it means "detached", "apart from".
A simple example of abstract thinking would be calling your friend (let's pretend their name is Pete) a human. You are applying a "detached" concept from outside your material experience of Pete ("human") to help you better understand Pete using categories that aren't self-evident to your relationship with Pete.
You can also abstract further from this; you can call humans mammals, and mammals animals, and animals organisms, and so on. Philosophy, when it is abstract, deals with these higher order concepts of categorisation and attempts to sort between them to get at what the world is, and what it does, on a conceptual level.
You are quite right when you say all abstraction is based on referents in the physical world. Abstraction depends on some kind of physical experience to be sensible--it is only our place as thinking, feeling beings in the world which gives us the "raw material" of experience to begin abstraction. What makes something abstract is NOT being unrelated to the physical world--it's rather that it's not *immediately obvious* to our experinece of the physical world. Abstraction lies in this "bringing in from outside"-ness, where you think in terms of ideas, concepts and categories which have been developed through reflection and evaluation.
So when someone says philosophy can be abstract and theoretical, they are saying so because abstract and theoretical are in many ways sister concepts. If you think in abstractions, you will often think "theoretically" to develop broad-strokes stories, premises, and systems to arrange your abstract concepts. This is how you get biological systems like phylum, kingdom, species, organism (to keep to the above examples).
You should note these explanations will not hold exactly across all philosophical texts as many thinkers will develop their own systems for understanding terms like "abstract" and "theory". However this should help you get a broad-strokes foot-hold on the general usage of the term.
| 117 |
[Harry Potter] What would happen if the Wizard community of one particular country decided enough was enough and they would no longer abide by the statute of secrecy, the country's magical authority deciding it was time to publicly out themselves?
| 16 |
The International Confederation of Wizards didn’t intervene in Britain when Voldemort’s forces were blowing up bridges and setting giant’s loose in villages. Voldemort was demonstrably a terrible threat to the Statute of Secrecy, and yet they did nothing when he seized control of the country. Why? Well, because they are a bloated, toothless beurocracy, as you would expect from any large international organization.
While they would certainly oppose any country trying to reveal magic to the world, there’s no way they would move quickly and decisively enough to stop it.
| 25 |
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How to deal with a PI that just won't do tasks?
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I'm a postdoc in a biology lab of a big university. My PI is, of course, incredibly busy and has many demands on her time. However, I wrote a review article and gave her a basically completed draft ready to submit 5 months ago and she just won't read it. I send her reminders, she doesn't respond. I bring it up in person, she smiles and says "it's top of my list". At this point, it's really impacting my motivation and honestly hurting my career. I'm doing okay in the lab in terms of papers, but I can't help but think how much better we could all be doing if she didn't retard things by being so slow.
How would people deal with this situation. Obviously I can't force her to read it and sign off. But I do need her to submit it, I need her for future work and letters of rec etc. etc.
Would a frank email explaining how much this is impacting me work? I know it's only a review article, but I'll be entering the academic job market in a few months and every paper will help.
Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.
| 34 |
This is just commiserating and is likely not helpful, but a friend of mine had something similar during his PhD. His supervisor had a ready-to-go paper on his desk for a year (**a year!**). It definitely affected his work with his supervisor and his work ethic generally. He tried everything to get his supervisor to do it but nothing helped. Eventually he just sent his supervisor an email that he was going to submit it on a certain date, and he'd need feedback by then. The supervisor didn't give any feedback, he submitted anyway, and the paper is now published.
| 31 |
CMV: All public funding for neonatal circumcision should cease
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As an intactivist sympathizer I do not support neonatal circumcisions at all -- the only exceptions to this are when a baby provably has a foreskin infection that circumcision can prevent. But absolutely no government money can go towards circumcisions. All neonatal circumcisions, or circumcisions given to anyone under 18 (who cannot give informed consent), must receive no public funding and should be fully fronted by the requesting parent(s) (or a charity as long as that charity is not funded by the government). Medicaid, medicare etc -- absolutely none of these services should fund circumcisions *unless* there is provably an infection that has or will occur in the baby that a circumcision is sure to prevent.
If you think that circumcision is so great that you are willing to do it to a baby incapable of giving consent, then you should be willing to pay for it -- an unwillingness to pay for it is an appalling contradiction in this regard. I think it would be *very* telling if, after this were to be hypothetically instituted, circumcision rates in states that cover circumcision would fall.
To make this debate flow easier, I will say that you can boil my view down to "neonatal circumcision, outside of special cases, is not medically valuable enough that it should be covered by government subsidies".
CMV
**EDIT**: To add in, I will expand it to include *any* major medical issues with the penis that may be resolved by circumcision. So developmental, infectious, long-term issues etc..
**EDIT 2**: Since charities are tax exempt, I'll exclude any tax exempt groups from the criteria
_____
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| 122 |
Your premise here is the assumption that the government only has an interest in sponsoring procedures that will save a life or improve one's general health. This is not supported by any precedent or judicial ruling in the United States. Government-funded programs exist covering birth control, erectile dysfunction medication, surgery for cleft palates, wisdom tooth extractions, even acne-medication. Any argument about what the government "should" or shouldn't subsidize is subject to the broader questions of the government's established interests and roles in society. This varies a lot by different countries, so it's hard to know exactly what you're arguing for and why you think this issue is different from any other non-lifesaving thing the government pays for.
| 23 |
If Newton's Law of Gravitation is only meant for point masses, how come we use it to calculate force of gravity on a massive body like Earth?
| 77 |
For extended bodies, the force law holds for each infinitesimal piece, and so the total force is the sum (i.e., integral) of each of these infinitesimal forces.
For a spherically symmetric object *A* (this means the object is a sphere and its mass density depends only on the distance from the center), it turns out that the gravitational force from *A* on any other object *B* that is *exterior* to *A* is just the gravitational force on *B* as if all of the mass of *A* were concentrated at its center. In other words, spherically symmetric objects act as if they were point masses, but only on their exterior. This can be proved using the divergence theorem from advanced calculus, and in physics it typically goes by the name of Gauss's Law.
| 74 |
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ELI5: Why commercial airliners don't use ejector seats?
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If fighter jets use them, why don't we put them in commercial airplanes? And would they be safer than current safety measures?
| 18 |
Two reasons, mainly.
1. They're ridiculously heavy. You're flying, you see. Weight is the opposite of flying.
2. They're ridiculously expensive. Would you pay an extra $10,000 per ticket?
More reasons than that, but those should cover the most important.
| 11 |
ELI5: How do we know the universe is constantly expanding if only 4% of the universe is visible to us?
| 36 |
The figure of 4% of the universe being visible is not what you seem to think it is. What they are saying is that "of the visible universe, 4% of the mass we can tell exists is visible to us." That means that while we can look at a galaxy and know how much gravity is required to make that shape, and from extrapolation how much mass must be there, we can only see 4% of it glowing like stars or lit up nebula.
What is that other stuff? Probably in large part "dark matter" which is a fancy way of saying we don't know. There is speculation that dark matter is some special form of matter which doesn't interact with the electromagnetic force very much if at all, which makes it extremely difficult to detect. But it does have gravity so it has effects on a very large scale.
But that 4% we can see is spread all over and we can see that on the whole everything is moving away from everything else on scales where gravity or other forces don't dominate. That tells us that the universe is expanding. But that is only 4% of the visible universe; the entire universe may well be infinite in extent.
| 23 |
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ELI5: Why are there so many languages in which cats are referred to women's genitals ?
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English, German, French, Dutch, Russian, Danish, ~~Portuguese~~, Arabic^?, etc...
EDIT: I’ve read a few comments dealing with the fact that some languages I’ve quoted actually don’t match with my fact (you folks might be right for Portuguese).
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy#Female_genitalia
| 3,526 |
Because it's something small and furry, and to gain its favor you have to stroke it gently. It’s not hard to imagine courting a woman, going over to visit and sitting on her sofa, softly petting her fickle cat, to show how loving and patient and domestic you are.
In English, of course, we also have the c-word, which comes from the word cunny, which sounds like coney, which is what English speakers used to call a rabbit. (In Spanish, conejo means rabbit but also is slang for vulva.) It’s not a coincidence that the words coney and cunny are so similar; both probably go back to the Latin for hole or tunnel.
English speakers got tired of all the cunning puns, so we started calling them rabbits instead, and changed the first letter of coney to make the kid-friendly word bunny.
It’s fun, knowing the etymology and slang uses of these words, to see places on the map like Coney Island or Conejo Valley.
| 3,036 |
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