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[Economics] If a country adopts Basic Income what, if anything, prevents inflation or the markets adjusting the prices so that the spending power of the BI reduces to pre-BI level?
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If everyone starting tomorrow in a given country would start getting $2k every month without providing any additional service or products wouldn't that lead to massive inflation?
And if there is no inflation, what's to prevent the spending power of those $2k dollars to remain stable? What's to prevent a landlord from raising rent now that people have more money? Or shops selling things at a higher price now that their clients all have more cash? Wouldn't it simply mean that after a couple of years the $2k is basically worthless in terms of spending power bcs all prices re-adjusted to everyone having more money?
| 21 |
Most versions of basic income are paid for by taxes (and even printing money would work this way as long as basic income follows inflation because each dollar devalues as hard as every other and rich people generally have most of those). This means very rich people would pay increased taxes. They would lose purchasing power. Via basic income this purchasing power would be spread evenly to everybody who qualifies. Thus poor people would get extra purchasing power. middle class people would either get extra or would stay the same, that depends on the height of basic income and the taxation system.
What changes long term is that now the income of poor people is basic income + income from their labor. This means that even a working person isn't as dependant on their labor for there complete income. This means that a 30-40 year old can chose to get more education and during this time they might lose only 25-50% of their income long term increasing the social mobility of people in poverty. It will likely also increase entrepreneurship as basic income gives some income where the new entrepreneur is certain of while he/she gets a profitable business going. This is harder when working for a boss who pays 100% of their income.
Prices will rise but purchasing power is still likely to go up. It depends on how much it intervenes in markets that try to create artificial scarcity. Food, housing and other life necessary goods rise in price when demand is greater than supply and their prices drop when supply is greater than demand. If governments make policies that keep the supply slightly larger than demand their prices will stay low and purchasing power of the lower class will increase with increased social mobility to join the middle class later in life.
| 11 |
ELI5: Rail guns, why aren’t they practical?
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Alright so I know military looked into it a while back but kinda dropped it… why are they not perused anymore? Is it how much energy is needed or the size it’d need to be to function? Seems like a great way to replace conventional firing systems
| 187 |
Its the rails, they literally vaporize over time
Railguns and coil/gauss guns are often confused but distinctly different, so just to be clear what we're talking about here
A coil gun has coils of wire that a strong current runs through to generate a strong magnetic field and launch a magnetic projectile
A railgun has two conductive rails down the length that a conductive projectile/sled slide down. The current flows down on rail, across the projectile/sled, and back to the source. Its this sliding that's a problem. The projectile doesn't make great electrical contact with the rails which means an arc forms and eats away the rail the whole way down the barrel which greatly shortens their lifespan. The Navy's experimental one was initially burning out the rails in 10s of shots, later on they said it lasted "400" shots but didn't say these were full power.
The rails also generate significant magnetic fields as the current flows down them and they push away from each other so you need massive bolts to keep it from flying apart
| 265 |
ELI5: How do monarchies begin?
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How does a family become 'the Royal family' in the first place and convince everyone to accept that? Real-world examples if possible
| 25 |
Conquest. Kings started out as warlords, or leaders of a warrior family who conquered a large area of land, put their friends and relatives in charge of parts of it, and passed it on to their heirs.
To make alliances, they often also married (or had their sons marry) the daughters of other nearby warlords. If one son inherited from two warlords, then the kingdom could get bigger without conquering.
| 28 |
ELI5: What exactly are stains? Why do they stay on something seemingly forever? Are they remnants of the liquid that was spilled still on the clothing?
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So I was at work today and noticed a coffee stain on the carpet. The boss said it was from 10 years ago. It had me thinking. Are there still particles and remnants of that coffee from 10 years ago? If so, why? What makes it stain?
| 31 |
All liquids (except pure things like distilled water) have chemicals dissolved in them. If the liquid evaporates, the non-volatile substances in it will remain. Yes, the coffee stain still has particles from the coffee in it.
Generally speaking, a stain is something that prefers to stick to the object (clothes, carpet, whatever) rather than be dissolved in water. Coffee in particular has chemicals that are only barely soluble in hot water and almost insoluble in cold water, so spilling it on the carpet (which cooled it in the process) gave it a choice between sticking to the non-polar carpet fabrics or staying in the water as it was dabbed up. If you brew some strong coffee and let it sit in a cup until it cools, you will see brown deposits on the side of the cup. Same thing.
Some stains are from dyes in the product (i work with seeds that have a red dye in them, takes powerful cleaners to get it out of clothes or countertops), these are typically very hard to remove and take powerful cleaners which chemically alter the dye to a substance that dissolves easier, or a solvent that the dye prefers to be in more than whatever it’s stuck to. This is the same as any other stain, it is just much more difficult to remove.
| 16 |
ELI5: Why can you sometimes not recall information in your brain that is there?
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For example, I forget the name of a song but then later remember it. The information was always there. Why couldn't my brain retrieve it? And why do stimuli "jog" these memories, making them able to be remembered?
| 57 |
I will try to explain this as far as current knowledge on the subject describes. However, memory is largely unknown both in how it is formed and its exact mechanism.
Your brain works thanks to a network of neurons, massive numbers of them. Memories are believed to be created when neurons make a connection during a memorized event. When you go to remember that event those pathways fire and you experience the memory.
The brain is very plastic, always changing and making new pathways, so the more a pathway is used the more it is reinforced, the less it is used the likelier it is to degrade and be "forgotten".
So, back to your question. Typically things you don't recall often, like a persons name you met once or a song you heard awhile ago, have a less reinforced pathway and thus aren't as easily accessed by your brain.
However, people tend to remember things in relation to another memory, like a song to an emotion or a smell to a place. This is why you will think of things similar to the memory, "it was Mary's friend, the guy we met at school. He was sitting right next to me, etc etc". In accessing memories created at a similar time and possibly similar locations in your brain, the old unused pathway will be found and you will spontaneously remember.
Now that the memory has been accessed you feel stupid for forgetting. Your mind is just now saying "oh here is that pathway! It's been there the whole time!"
Hope that helps...I know it's long.
Edit: iPhone typo
| 12 |
ELI5: Why do airlines seem to overbook flights so often, especially when they end up having to pay extra in rewards to passengers who give up their seats?
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It just seems like it happens so often, and airlines will sometimes offer you three times the price of the ticket just to stay a few extra hours. Seems like it’d be easy to just...stop selling tickets once the plane is full??
| 610 |
There are always some people who don't show up so airlines use algorithms to predict how much to overbook so the plane will be exactly full. Of course algorithms like that cannot be perfect so overbooks at the gate still happen here and there. Apparently the bottom line works out better for the airlines even if they have to pay a few people not to fly.
| 621 |
CMV: This stupid bullshit with GameStop’s stock price being meme’d into rising proves that stocks don’t mean shit to the overall performance of our economy
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I’m taking a moment to suspend a long term belief that stocks don’t have an ounce of influence on the health of our economy and people who tell you it does are people who benefit from political help to further maintain healthy stock growth. In reality, stock prices are nothing more than a gamification of money.
This only gets proven further to me by the meme’ing of GameStop’s stock by r/wallstreetbets and other popular outlets in and around Reddit. By all accounts, GameStop should not be performing as well as it is. The company has increased its stock price by more than 400% in the last three weeks despite recent reports holiday sales were down from last year during a console launch.
I get there will be a correction, but not before some very fortunate people make a shit ton of money.
Stock price overview:
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/gme
Holiday sales report summary:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-01-11-gamestop-holiday-sales-down-3-1-percent-in-2020
EDIT: grammar error.
| 20 |
> In reality, stock prices are nothing more than a gamification of money.
The people playing this game *are well aware of this.* And you know what? The players define the game. Ultimately, it is strategies played and sentiments shared that lay the groundwork for how the game is played.
Even if theories on economics/finances are considered so grand that there there is a Nobel prize for such things, everybody educated in economics knows that much of the game is psychological in nature.
So much so that random movements in stock prices *are actually indicative of a healthy stock market*. Because if it was predictable, that would be knowledge accessible to everyone --- and then the metagame would automatically update and fall prey to another one developed immediately to counter the current metagame. The faster this process goes, the less predictable it becomes for any given human *because machines can develop better strategies than humans*.
\*At some point it is no longer mere "gamification", but very real ways of earning money, even if one ought to consider it morally illegitimate. (For what work did you do? What value did you create in society? None. And yet, one could argue that the mere thought of having gained value, if considered legitimate by others, creates value out of mere make-believe. And that is the strangeness of economics --- if everyone believes it has value, it does, no matter what the source of this value was.)
| 10 |
Is Voyager's velocity great enough to eventually leave the solar system?
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I'm not sure I'm asking this properly. I'm asking, essentially, if Voyager will legitimately leave the solar system entirely, eventually passing through the outer limits of the Oort Cloud and moving on. Or is it more likely that eventually the drag of the Sun's gravity will cause it to slow down and be captured in a very long orbit like a long-period comet?
I ask because there's a common conception that Voyager's just going to go on in the direction it's moving forever. Maybe my question has to do with the escape velocity for the Solar System?
| 76 |
Voyager 1 and 2 both have velocities greater than that of our solar system's escape velocity. They are currently leaving (or at least exploring the definition of the edge of) the solar system and - if not interfered with by the unlikely collision of another body with extremely unlikely perfect momentum to cause them to come back - will never return.
| 64 |
Eli5 How does the start/stop feature in newer cars save fuel and not just wear out the starter?
| 14,703 |
The simple answer is that the starter motors are specifically designed for that purpose. Engineers design them with different bearings, brushes and gear ratios so that they are better suited to the task.
Starting a warm engine is also less strain on a starter than a cold engine.
| 13,150 |
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I think Apple isn't that good/special. CMV.
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I don't get what's so special about iPhones, when it makes more sense to get a Samsung Galaxy (you know, if they want a smart phone). And I don't think Macs are nothing compared to PCs.
| 27 |
Apple is typically the simplest possible user experience out there - it abstracts away the software and hardware to "do you have OS version Y or more recent", and "do you have hardware X or more recent" (instead of keeping track of graphics cards and whatnot), and has a UI and system designed for that exact resolution and system.
For technophobes, it is the best system, IMO.
As for the Samsung Galaxy, try developing for Android, and you may find it's rather annoying to deal with all the different hardware bits and pieces and whatnot (it's Android). It can be a pain to set up.
That said, Linux master race. Freedom!
^^^No, ^^^I ^^^don't ^^^care ^^^that ^^^technically ^^^it's ^^^GNU/Linux, ^^^STFU ^^^already.
| 22 |
ELI5: How does code work? (C++, C#, Java)
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I somewhat understand code, only to the point that I know you can design apps with it though. I know that there are different "languages" for different things you're doing, but I don't understand what and why there are different ones.
Main questions:
What is code exactly?
Why is there code?
What are the different "languages" used for?
What could one make knowing code?
| 18 |
> What is code exactly?
Code is the instructions that tell a computer what to do
> Why is there code?
Without code, we wouldn't be able to get a computer to do anything. Or perhaps we would, but it would have to be built for a single task. It's the code that enables us to take advantage of the flexibility of a computer, to get it to do whatever we want.
> What are the different "languages" used for?
Some are fast and powerful, but difficult to use. Others aren't quite as powerful, but are much easier, making them better for beginners, but also better for writing simple software that doesn't need to do anything complicated (because it's quicker and easier to write in these simpler languages).
Some are specifically designed for a particular purpose - for using in web pages, for doing mathematical tasks, for handling lots of data. Others are more general-purpose.
And very often there's more than one language for doing exactly the same thing.
> What could one make knowing code?
Every single thing your computer does, is made using code. Every single thing it ever could do, could be done by writing code to do it.
| 20 |
ELI5: Difference between Expressionism and Impressionism?
| 31 |
It's more about thought behind the work than imagery. Impressionism sought so show light. Instead of painting imagery like a boat they wanted to paint how light interacted with the boat. It's based on lighting in the moment.
Expressionism is attempting to show moods or emotional experiences. It's often said that an expressionist wants to make you feel.
| 10 |
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ELI5: Why do computers have to download and install software? What's the difference between the two and why can't it install as it's downloading?
| 18 |
One gathers the files, one applies it. Depending on what it is, if you started installing before you had all the pieces of the file, and something happened to the download, bad things could potentially happen.
| 20 |
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ELI5: Why is charging an electric car cheaper than filling a gasoline engine when electricity is mostly generated by burning fossil fuels?
| 10,587 |
First, electricity is generated in many different ways. In some areas, large amounts of electricity come from non-greenhouse-gas sources, such as nuclear, hydroelectric, solar and wind, and more.
Second, the way in which we harness the energy of burning fuel in an engine is very different to how we harness burning fuel in a power plant. Any power source will have an efficieny percentage of how much theoretical energy something produces, versus how much useful energy is created.
Specifically, when you burn fuel in a car, you are using the explosive (kinetic) force of the fuel to push pistons out. However, a large amount of the energy in the reaction is lost as heat energy that doesn't have any practical use. Compared to an electric plant, we can capture extra heat and use that heat in sufficient quantities to spin a turbine to produce more electricity, increasing the overal efficiency.
| 7,205 |
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[Zelda] What does the history of Hyrule look like to people who live there?
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The [Zelda timeline](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://i.imgur.com/ZewLchB.jpg&imgrefurl=https://imgur.com/gallery/1w0RA&h=1927&w=1124&tbnid=W4zmRSrJ851lnM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=93&usg=__hoK17MTAka35Zjnk6mx5aN21Qt8%3D&vet=10ahUKEwiMt7KTgIvYAhXL7SYKHYl6A9sQ9QEILDAA..i&docid=Jahx1sAbvHIpFM&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMt7KTgIvYAhXL7SYKHYl6A9sQ9QEILDAA) must look pretty strange when it's your own history. Periodically, civilization reaches a pretty good state, because someone builds all those castles, dungeons, and artifacts. But every time, Triforces get lost, Ganon takes over, everything falls to ruin, your princess becomes a damsel in distress, and monsters rule the world. Population sometimes seems to be driven down very low. Then a hero named Link rescues the princess, beats Ganon, and everything is fine again... until it's not.
Do the Hyrulians have history books that stretch back long enough to see just how many times this has happened, or do they only ever know about the last few cycles? How do they explain the recurrence of such similar events in such different circumstances?
| 25 |
There's probably a lot of culture lost when Ganon rises to power including history so it's unlikely people in Wind Waker have records from Skyward Sword and there's probably hundreds of years between each cycle (Gerudo Males are born every 100 years iirc and not all of them are Ganon)
If people knew about the whole story we would be left with a Wind Waker scenario with everyone naming their kid Link and dressing him in green
Ganon would probably have a harder time rising to power if he doesn't hide his name and Gerudos would probably ban the name
| 18 |
[Fallout] Did Vault-Tec start World War III in order to test their vaults?
| 31 |
No, or at least there's no evidence they did/could. Vault-Tec isn't the Illuminati, they had a lot of power since they were very high level government contractors but they weren't gods or anything. Actually the vaults were not actually expected to be used, hence the unethical experiments. Vault Tec also is not Aperture science, they aren't sociopathic retards who do whatever they want just for the fuck of it. The whole point of their vaults wasn't just some random mad attempt at science. The whole point was to test various things that simply couldn't be tested else wise for use to help the elites escape the coming nuclear war by escaping into space.
| 45 |
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ELI5:Why can't the US just copy healthcare systems such as the UK and Canada?
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I know it is really complicated. But couldn't the US just slowly over time start to do the same thing that Canada and the UK are doing to have free healthcare?
| 16 |
Much of it has to do with differing ideologies regarding public welfare in the U.S. compared to our European counterparts. In the U.S. healthcare is considered a matter of personal responsibility -- or at least that's the stated position of those who oppose it.
Many of those in the U.S. with the best health insurance fear that (1) a public option will diminish the quality of American healthcare by undermining the profitability of practicing medicine, thereby encouraging the best and brightest to seek other careers and creating a shortage of good doctors, and (2) that giving everybody state supplied full coverage will create delays in receiving care and surgery because of long waiting lists.
Neither of these fears is well founded, since the supply of doctors and other healthcare providers is proportionally equivalent for our population. These are just fears created by the American Medical Association, which is one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in Washington.
Ultimately, the real reason why we don't adopt a European-style single payer system is that the U.S. is one of the most fractured societies in the developed world.
| 12 |
Why did the smallpox vaccine cause a scar and why don’t other vaccines leaves scars?
| 26 |
Most other vaccines are given by injecting a needle deep into your skin and into the muscle with one shot.
The smallpox vaccine was given by injecting you just below the first layer of skin into the dermis. They would use a two prong needle and make multiple shallow injections. This causes a bump as the vaccinia virus multiplies. This bump would scab over and that is what causes the scar.
| 32 |
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[Star Trek: Generations] Why couldn't Soran just fly a ship into or in front of the ribbon to get into the Nexus?
| 44 |
If you fly a ship into the nexus it will be destroyed.
> DATA: Our records show that every ship which has approached the ribbon has either been destroyed or severely damaged.
So you can't because you will die... Except that you will have been pulled into the Nexus by then. See for example Captain Kirk and the El-Aurians that were in the nexus but pulled out. So the whole incident is based on a faulty assumption by the antagonist and also the protagonists.
| 39 |
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[Star Wars] Was the Kamino star system removed from all offical star maps or just from the Jedi archive?
| 18 |
Just the Jedi Archives. To remove it from all official maps would require far more time and effort than would feasibly be possible for a single man, especially with constantly-updating navigational markers.
Whereas Dooku could have easliy erased the system from the Jedi Archives before he finally left the Order.
| 24 |
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How is Planck time, length, temperature, etc. determined?
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Because as far as I know the measurements are way way beyond what people can do or measure. How do people know the specific measurement when it is way too small to be measured?
| 20 |
They're trivially defined as quantities you can build with powers of G c hbar k_B. They're not predictions for the outcome of any experiment. They just give the general order of magnitude where we expect quantum gravity (unless large extra dimensions).
You simply compute them by multiplying the necessary powers of hbar G c and k_B to obtain something with the units you need - and there's always only one way to do that.
| 23 |
ELI5: Why is "0! = 1"?
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If n factorial is n(n-1)(n-2)...(3)(2)(1),
Why is 0 factorial=1? If 0=n, should the answer be 0 due anything multiplied by 0=0?
EDIT: Wow thanks for all the good responses! Never actually expected this to make it to my top post, but Reddit never fails to amaze me!
| 606 |
A factorial represents the number of ways you can organize *n* objects.
There is only one way to organize 1 object. (1! = 1)
There are two ways to organize 2 objects (e.g., AB or BA; 2! = 2)
There are 6 ways to organize 3 objects (e.g., ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB, CBA; 3! = 6).
Etc.
How many ways are there to organize 0 objects? 1. Ergo 0! = 1.
This is consistent with the application of the gamma function, which extends the factorial concept to ~~non-positive integers.~~ all reals EDIT: except negative integers!
| 997 |
ELI5: Why does the human smile convey happiness? Shouldn't stretching the muscles in your face upwards to display your teeth be threatening like it is with animals?
| 203 |
No, because we don't bite things to hurt them. Animals like dogs have their teeth as their main weapons, so they show them when they're angry to remind other animals that they can fight back. The human equivalent would be flexing your biceps or showing a weapon, because we use blunt force and tools instead of biting.
| 154 |
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ELI5: The anti-vaccine crowd and their arguments
| 336 |
Advances in the field of psychology over the past few years have meant that a lot more is understood about autism spectrum disorders, and the guidelines classifying what is classified as autism have been broadened.
This means that a lot of kids that just a few years ago wouldn't have been considered as autistic are now being diagnosed.
The anti-vaccine crowd saw the resulting increase in reported incidences of autism and ignorantly decided that it must have been caused by a correlating increase in rates of vaccination.
They support their arguments with "research" done by people like Andrew Wakefield, who used to be a doctor but was barred from practising after it was found out that the "research" he did was basically just bullshit he was paid to make up.
| 325 |
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How can a black hole be so much smaller than a neutron star? Aren't neutron stars already super dense and without orbitting electrons, so without any void between nucleons?
| 18 |
Neutron stars form when the energy available from gravitational collapse is greater than the energy needed to overcome electron degeneracy pressure by forming neutrons from protons and electrons.
Theoretically a higher available gravitational energy would overcome the neutron degeneracy pressure and form an even denser form, possible quark based at some point. But as /u/rantonels says, we cannot know because we cannot observe inside a black hole, therefore unless we are lucky enough to witness a black hole forming and have a chance to take some measurements during the process **and** understand what we see we can't know.
| 15 |
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[Game Of Thrones] Did the nobles of Meereen understand the context of why they were being crucified?
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Were they like, "Oh, just like the kids we crucified! We're even pointing in the direction that they were! How poetic! This may be painful, but I admire her vision!"
or were they like, "WTF? What have we ever done to deserve this? This is a complete and utter shock to me! What a baffling decision!"
| 250 |
From their perspective, they were just property owners exercising their rights. They would understand the retaliatory crucifixion in a cause -> effect sense, but would not perceive it as 'justice'; this isn't a punishment for a crime, but a tyrant enforcing their alien will over their land.
| 244 |
[Magic: The Gathering] Is it possible to travel to other planes without being a planeswaker?
| 24 |
Yes. Current planeswalkers have lost this power, but old walkers were able to take people along for the ride. Urza travelled extensively with Xantcha, for instance.
The Weatherlight has already been mentioned. It fought Yawgmoth's Phyrexians who possessed Planar Portal technology and used it to invade numerous planes. Jin Gitaxias , Praetor of New Phyrexia, has focused his research on recreating this technology.
Nicol Bolas's current invasion of Ravnica also hinges on one portal like that. Tezzeret, his agent, stole it from a young inventor in Kaladesh and it's being used to transport an army from Amonket.
| 19 |
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CMV: the feeling "I'm wasting my life" is more dependent on selection bias than any life decisions
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Sometimes I watch movies or listen to music or even meet people and think 'I'm not alive like they are alive. I'm stuck in some grey humdrum cubical of existence while they are out there experiencing what life should feel like."
I am currently feeling that way now and so to cheer myself up I've decided that feeling is just because I have to live through every minute of my life, even the dull bits, but I am seeing the edited highlights of everyone else's. Sometimes its not even highlights its just fiction, like pictures that are edited to look better than any real person could or a carefully choreographed video of what looks like the worlds best party but is really just some bored, out of work actors on the 15th take.
I feel like i've definitely had moments where I felt truly alive but they seem very far away now...does anyone really live like this the whole time?
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 28 |
Person A who has taken some risks to do the job they really want to do or try out the things they really want to do and person B who took the safe route through life and never quite figured out how to do the things they really want to do aren't on the same path.
Sure not everyone's life will be happy all the time, but there are some people who set things up to maximize any opportunities that come their way, while others are just the "plankton" of life. Some people are content to stay in one place and eat the food as it drift by, but can't turn a simple opportunity into a series of opportunities. Some people create a blog and turn that into a full time career.
If you're worried that you are living a "plankton" life then start moving.
| 11 |
ELI5: What happens in your brain when you don't understand something at first and then suddenly get it?
| 474 |
This is related to hiw we learn in general, and is a fascinating subject!
The short answer is that we're making neurological links between different pieces of information in our brain.
The LONG answer is basically the subject of an entire free online course through Coursera, called Learning How To Learn. Neat stuff, you should check it out.
| 162 |
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[Star Wars] If The Praetorian Guard had successfully defeated Kylo and Rey following Snoke's death... what was their plan then?
| 40 |
They report to General Hux, who formally takes over leadership of the First Order as Supreme Leader. The Guards themselves failed to protect Snoke, and so would be dismissed by Hux or, if not dismissed, resign their positions in disgrace. Hux might want them to train the next set of Guards, before disappearing from the First Order (perhaps even being executed by Phasma after a brief mock trial).
Some of them might become bounty hunters, or soldiers of fortune, or some other type of mercenary ostensibly in league with the First Order but only indirectly.
| 73 |
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Why is solving the 2038 problem more complicated than simply storing time as 64 bits instead of 32?
| 18 |
Simply because many embedded systems, which already store time in integer types that are 32 bits or smaller, can't really be modified to change how time is stored. Likewise a lot of software that may still be in use at that time would no longer be in current development it would be similarly impossible to modify it to use 64-bit integers for time.
| 21 |
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[The Ring] What if the ring video goes viral.
| 21 |
XK-class scenario. All Foundation operatives are to initiate deployment of national nuclear arsenals, followed by mass deployment of amnestics and Thaumiel-class SCPs to reset humanity to pre-outbreak state.
| 44 |
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[Harry Potter] What’s goblin society like? Do they have their own schools? Their own stores and government? Where do they live?
| 515 |
Goblins don't have schools, more of an apprenticeship role with young goblins working at their family banks to get experience in the business.
Obviously banking is the most prized type of role, comparable to how muggles view those Woctors that cut people open to "cure" them. Some goblins are known to attempt different careers in their more rebellious youth, but eventually settle down once they get older, and want to start a family.
Goblins don't have their own governing body, they're under the rule of the Ministry Of Magic. Although, greater goblin autonomy is being worked towards by the muggle born Hermione Granger in the Department Of Magical Law Enforcement.
Sources:
Goblins, who are they and where do they come from?-Henry Shliquet
The bloody history of the goblins-Cornelius Kinkerton
Why did the goblin teleport across the road? and other hilarious jokes to tell your mates-Susan Tronk
| 299 |
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ELI5:How come animals that are smaller and lighter than humans,like wolves,be stronger than us ?
| 23 |
Because you are afraid to be hurt.
If you are not afraid to be hurt, in a life and death situation you can kill the wolf. You just have to face it that you will be hurt severely.
Next thing is experience. The wolf has killed many things before you have met it. You probably haven't. If you have spent your whole life hunting and killing animals, you will kill that wolf in a second.
You will jam your hand straight into its mouth to the elbow. So it can't bite. And then you break its tiny legs with your massive legs with stomping.
Or just suffocate it.
Or strangle it.
And this is without using your most powerful weapons, your mind, and your opposable thumbs. Grab a stick and jam it into its mouth. Grab a larger stick and wreck its spine. Grab its legs and swing it by them into something. Or if you are powerful enough just grab it by its neck lift it and stomp their legs. And then comes the brain... Traps, guns, anything will kill the wolf without even doing any damage to you.
| 29 |
|
Do current Western Europe societies owe much of its economic status to its colonial/imperial history?
|
Did France economy in second part of 20th century benefited greatly from its ex-colonies?
If both Austrian and Turkish empires were defeated in World War I, why is Austria much richer than Turkey today?
| 26 |
/u/maxround gave a correct answer, but not a well-sourced one, so let me provide some reading material here.
The question of 'why did some countries get rich' is an enormous one, and there's no single answer. I'd recommend starting with two books:
* *Why Nations Fail* - Institutions determine long run economic success, and were the reason the Industrial Revolution happened where it did
* *The Wealth and Poverty of Nations* - A history of the industrial revolution, talking about institutions and culture and how they impacted long run growth
Ultimately Western Europe and the US are as rich as they are because they industrialized first and fast through the Industrial Revolution. The IR raised productivity immensely through technological change, so that the average worker can produce more, and in the end that's what makes a society rich. Western Europe was *already* way ahead of the rest of the world as colonialism was happening. The West's economic riches lead to colonialism, not colonialism leading to the West's economic riches.
The harder question to answer is 'why did the Industrial Revolution happen in some places and not others?', and that's what the two books above try to answer.
| 12 |
CMV: Intentionally losing a game to secure better draft picks or better tournament seating is not unethical.
|
My view was inspired by reading[ a recent article](http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/sabres-nhl/the-ethics-of-tanking-as-sabres-prepare-to-face-coyotes-20150325) in the Buffalo News. It discusses the ethics of intentionally losing games in order to secure a future benefit for your team.
In this case, it is about the ethics of the Sabres intentionally losing their last few games this season in order to secure better draft picks next season. There are many views on this, but I don't find this to be unethical at all.
In my mind, this is similar to the strategy that takes place in any sporting competition, just abstracted to a higher level. Baseball teams will intentionally walk a player to setup a more favorable match-up with the next batter. Basketball teams will intentionally foul players to hopefully set up a better winning situation for them near the end of a game. NFL teams will sit their starters in Week 17 if they've already locked in a playoff spot. And teams closing in on the end of a losing season should start focusing on the future.
One caveat, because I think it will come up: I think there is a difference between planning for future seasons within the rules of the league, and intentionally losing a game for outside gain (such as throwing a game for gambling reasons, like the Black Sox did)
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 17 |
> Baseball teams will intentionally walk a player to setup a more favorable match-up with the next batter. Basketball teams will intentionally foul players to hopefully set up a better winning situation for them near the end of a game. NFL teams will sit their starters in Week 17 if they've already locked in a playoff spot.
Those are all strategic decisions designed to help the team *win* immediately:
* In baseball, you talk to get away from a solid hitter, or to set up a double-play/force out.
* In basketball you foul and make them shoot instead of giving up guaranteed points.
* In football, the goal of resting players is to have them healthy for the post season, in order to win the Super Bowl.
 
What you're talking about is teams intentionally throwing games in order to score a better draft pick- it's not quite the same.
Forgetting for a moment the fact that it's not fair to the fans who payed good money (and in most cases, lots of it) to come see their team play, it also has the potential to screw over players who, late in the season, are trying to hit bonus triggers in their contracts.
| 11 |
ELI5: Mosquito Bites
| 27 |
Blood is pretty thick for a tiny little proboscis (sucker nose) like a mosquito has. So when she puts her proboscis in you (and yes, only female mosquitos bite), she also leaves some of her spit behind, because it's an anticoagulant. That's a chemical that makes your blood less thick, so she can drink more as quickly as possible.
By a weird accident of biology, something about mosquito saliva makes our bodies think we're having a localized allergic reaction. So our bodies go into normal allergy mode, and release histamine. That histamine makes your blood vessels dilate, so you get a little bump. And they make you itch like crazy.
| 16 |
|
How to get better at statistics?
|
I’m a psychology student and I plan to shift to BS Statistics next year. Any tips/advices will be appreciated. Thank you!
| 26 |
Psychology PhD turned data scientist here.
Psych only teaches a very narrow part of statistics. A key thing you probably won't have been taught that you should get your head around soon is distributions. understanding different distributions and what they mean.
| 28 |
[Star Trek/The Culture] The Federation has a proven track record of hating AIs. How would the Culture deal with this if they encountered them?
|
I've written at length about this, but I'll just quote [my most recent comment here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/6rxq94/starships_and_emergency_ais_why_doesnt_starfleet/dl9ea70/):
> 1. Starfleet has ordered Data to be vivisected, insisting that as an artificial life form, he has no right to resign from Starfleet to avoid this fate. To pour salt onto the wound, they ordered one of his commanding officers to prosecute their case.
>
> 2. When Wesley accidentally creates life as a homework assignment, they almost eradicate it, despite knowing that it's a sentient life form.
>
> 3. When the holodeck accidentally creates a self-aware entity because of a verbal slip-up, Dr. Moriarty, the best solution that Captain Picard, one of the most liberal and empathic high-ranking officers in Starfleet comes up with, is indefinite imprisonment without a trial, and without even letting the accused know of their fate.
>
> 4. The EMH Mark II, after being considered inadequate as a back-up physician, is forced into slave labor cleaning plasma conduits. To be fair, they were never active as long as the Doctor on Voyager, but the Doctor's experience certainly backs up the fact that any AI system, allowed to run long enough, becomes a sentient being - and these are sentient beings that are literally slaves, and thanks to the Doctor's novel, are very aware of it.
>
> So: any AI becomes self-aware if allowed to run long enough, a high-school-equivalent student can create conscious life accidentally, and a holodeck on a Galaxy-class starship is powerful enough to do so as well. The only reason the Federation can possibly overlook this is through willful disrespect for non-biological life.
>
> The Federation hates, fears and kills - when it can't enslave - artificial intelligence.
>
> Frankly, I'm surprised Dr. Soong bothered to work under the Federation ageis, instead of running to a more liberal government likely to treat his creations as sophonts - someone like the Vulcans, who would at least give Data an honest trial before trying to split him up for parts.
How would Contact and Special Circumstances deal with this bias, given the Federation's otherwise fairly liberal outlook and mission statement?
| 16 |
Contact would proceed Introducing safe and productive AI agents into the Federation via clandestine and seemingly native means, slowly acclimating the Federation to the idea that AIs are truly sentient and sapient, and that they won't necessarily turn rogue and attempt to kill all humans.
Dr. Soong may well have been a contact agent, or inspired by one serving as a stealth tutor helping him design the first federation positronic brain, for example.
I don't think Special Circumstances would get involved. The Federation has its issues, but is nowhere near the level of depravity that would compel the more self-righteous elements of the culture to act unilaterally.
| 12 |
CMV: There is no Political Correctness "oppression" going on.
|
There has been a lot of discussion about how Political correctness (or the "PC police") is impinging on our right to freedom of speech. Even an Australian politician spoke about this. But I just don't see how. Go to voat (especially places like /v/niggers) and you will see the most racist and misogynistic BS you can think of. These communities are not being shut down. There are no laws preventing people from saying offensive stuff.
And outside of tumblr, people aren't getting more sensitive either. GoT would have caused a moral panic in the eighties. Louis CK makes pedophilia jokes and is very successful. So what's the deal ?
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 17 |
I've been reading your responses, and you seem to think that the only form of social oppression is that which comes from the government - so if it's not written into the law of the land, it's not oppression - you don't count anything which happens as a result of the culture of the society, such as people losing their jobs, students being expelled from university, people being refused an opportunity to speak at conventions etc etc and all the general shunning and verbal abuse of those who don't toe the line.
Maybe you could consider expanding your view of what ''oppression'' is and where those laws come from - those laws come from the society which first makes certain behaviours socially unacceptable in an informal manner, and then seeks to get that social unacceptability written into law ... if you dismiss the changes in culture as irrelevant, you might be taken by surprise when those changes lead to new laws.
| 30 |
[Warhammer 40k]What are the long-term implications of the Emperor's death?
|
It has been rumored that the Golden Throne is failing and more and more psychers are required to keep him alive. I understand that traveling the Warp will be impossible without the Astronomicon, but it seems to me that this would be the Blackest Night and the End of Days. But assuming we survive the horrors of the Warp, what are the long-term implications? The Empire would be sundered with no way to travel between worlds... but I wonder if the Emperor might be reborn...
| 15 |
There are currently 3 things that could possibly happen if the Emperor dies.
1) The Astronomicon falls apart, warp travel becomes extremely difficult, and because the Imperium is far too large, it will fall apart almost immediately. Regional warlords will assume power, Xenos factions like the Tau, the Orks, and the Necrons will be quick in exploiting Humanity's weakness, and many world will fall. The Hive worlds like Cadia, and Armageddon would hold out initially, but with the combined threat of Xenos invasions and starvation, they will eventually fall. Essentially, the Age of Strife happens all over again.
2) Star Child theory is correct, and the Emperor will be reincarnated. No one will believe that he's the Emperor at first, and many will try to oppose him, but after while he will unite the factions and remnants of humanity (just like after the Age of Strife), and lead the Imperium on another Great Crusade.
3) The Emperor gets reincarnated in the immaterium. He becomes shining golden god in the warp and completely destroys the Chaos Gods once and for all. Making warp travel safe and free of daemons while at the same time guiding humanity through the stars as a even more literal god.
| 24 |
Why doesn't Bruce Wayne go into politics?
|
He's one of the most famous and popular men in Gotham with enough charm to get elected mayor. Why doesn't he? He can't be bribed because he's already loaded. He would do a lot more good that way.
| 23 |
Because he foolishly thinks that he does more good for the common man as Batman than he would by working in a legitimate fashion.
He could hook the cops up with Bat-gear, give Arkham a total makeover, improve the infrastructure of Gotham, and have more to spare. He doesn't because he believes that he's one of the few people in the city that make a difference. He doesn't see that Batman causes as many problems as he solves.
Remember, he went back in time, traveled through centuries, came back to life, and felt that the best thing he could do was create a Bat-franchise. Train and gear up a very few vigilantes to fight crime in a few cities, not help police, fire fighters, or the military. Metropolis has the Science Police. In Marvel, New York had Code BLUE. They had funding, gear, and training to take down supervillains.
Gotham has no such force because they can't afford it. And the guy who could would rather strap on a cape and scare a few crooks than pump his money into rehabilitation programs and supplying *official* law enforcement personnel with the gear to make Batman unnecessary.
Really, he feels that *he* personally has to make the difference.
| 41 |
ELI5: Why are we still flushing toilets with clean, drinking water?
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Why are we treating and cleaning water which will essentially be used to flush down the toilet? If costs to implement weren't a factor, why can't we use grey or even salt water?
| 25 |
We certainly _can_ use grey or salt water and many places do.
The reason that many places don't is cost of implementation. You have to install and maintain two sets of pipes - potable and non-potable water - to every bathroom. In areas where fresh water isn't scarce, there is little reason to do this.
| 54 |
ELI5: Difference between first degree murder, second degree murder, third degree murder and manslaughter
| 58 |
1st Degree - You planned out how you were going to murder Timmy... you bought the gun, rented the truck, and even pre-dug the pit where you hide the body.
2nd Degree - You broke into Timmy's house to rob him, during that robbery Timmy confronted you and in the struggle you slammed his head against a table and killed him.
3rd Degree - You walked into your house and saw Timmy banging your wife... in a fit of rage you grabbed your gun and shot him.
Manslaughter (involuntary) - You were ~~driving~~ speeding to the store to get eggs and Timmy stepped out into the street and you failed to stop in time, hitting and killing him.
Edit: Altered involuntary manslaughter to be more accurate per /u/Seraph062
| 91 |
|
[DC] Can Superman's heat vision cut through anything? If not, what can't it cut through?
| 60 |
Depends on how much power he puts into it.
Some materials are totally immune to heat, either as a result of advanced science or magical properties. Some materials - including other Kryptonians - aren't *totally* immune, but are so incredibly durable that he's not able to cut through in a reasonable timeframe, even at full power. Some objects are simply so massive that his heat vision has little effect (for example, he probably can't cut a planet into two pieces with heat vision alone.)
| 35 |
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Do the same tactics to reduce exposure to COVID (mask indoors, frequent handwashing) work for the flu and common cold in the same capacity?
|
See also: suggestions for only gathering outdoors, 6-feet apart, etc. I \*assume\* they do, but perhaps the common cold/flu has their own weird methods of infection.
| 23 |
Yes. They are all viral disease with droplet transmission. Mask wearing during flu has been common overseas, particularly in Asian countries for a long time. Washing your hands and staying away from people is always a good idea. That’s why cold and flu numbers were drastically lower the last flu season.
| 43 |
ELI5: How come in the 1700s a single musket ball to the torso could kill a man, but now it may take 2 or 3 shots from a modern firearm to do the same?
| 22 |
This isn't quite true: a modern high-calibre sniper rifle or a .45 magnum will kill you quick with a body shot. But if you're talking smoothbore larger muskets compared to smaller sidearms, the answer is calibre and shock.
A single musket or minie ball is very large and very heavy compared to a standard sidearm bullet, and although it typically moves slower it has a lot more force behind it. When it hits, it slams into a person's body rather than punching through rapidly like a faster revolver bullet, transferring all of its shock into the surrounding tissues and crushing them like a hit with a sledgehammer. That's enough to almost instantly kill someone when it hits them in the abdomen, at minimum knocking them out of commission until their bodies dies from the trauma.
There's other factors such as infection and modern medical treatment, but they're more about surviving for days after the person is shot, not about whether the shot immediately stops them in their tracks.
| 23 |
|
ELI5:What exactly is an itch? What triggers us to feel like we need to scratch that spot?
|
and I don't just mean insect bites, but also when we get those random itches??
| 61 |
An itch is caused by a molecule (Neuropeptide Natriuretic Polypeptide B) that is released by a nerve cell which triggers a system in our bodies telling the brain that you have an irritation on some area of your skin. Sometimes the nerves are stimulated by an actual itch and sometimes they are stimulated by reactions to chemicals in our bodies (like Histamine). It's really hard to say exactly what causes itches but scientists are working on pinpointing the exact reasons.
| 26 |
[Harry Potter] If you keeping soul-splitting by making Horcruxes (say 10, 20, etc.), do you stay physically and magically strong but inhuman and robotic (Dr. Manhattan), or reach a point where you start getting magically diminished and weak? (Gollum)
| 49 |
It is suggested in both the books and the movies that Voldemort's sanity and compassion were damaged by the constant soul-slicing. In other words, mutilating his soul did not make him less emotional but instead more self-absorbed and reckless in his emotions.
This fits with Medieval Anglo-European beliefs that passion (hunger, lust, rage) arise from the corporeal body but that empathy, compassion, affection, the ability to comprehend the emotions of others, and the like all arise from the soul. This was one of the arguments made about what we would now refer to as vampires and ghouls or zombies: the reason they would kill indiscrimately, even their kin, is that despite their remaining sense of reason and emotions, their soul-less state meant they were no longer capable of feeling any sort of pity or loyalty or connection to any other living creature. (It also meant that killing off a risen dead body caused no harm to the individual since his or her soul had already gone to its just rewards.)
| 38 |
|
[MCU] Are Asgardians a joke when it comes to military power?
|
In the first *Avengers* both Thor and Loki consider the Chitauri a very powerful force. But then Rocket claims the Chitauri were “the suckiest army in the galaxy” in a deleted scene, and Nebulla does’t say anything against it. And in *Dark World* Asgard (save for the “big guns” like Heimdall, Odin, Thor, Loki, supposedly the Warriors Three, etc...) pretty much defenseless against the Dark Elves (who are using the same technology they did thousands of years ago) and Asgard has not been show to be much more powerful than perhaps Earth. So was Asgard in some sort of decline even before *Ragnarok*?
| 694 |
The Chitauri are impressive because of their sheer numbers... Numbers are important in war. One million standard soldiers are more useful than 1000 captain america.
The dark Elves planned a sneak attack against Asgard and had ridiculous stealth technology that can bypass Heimdall eyesight and had black hole grenades with a supersoldier that can beat up Thor.
The Dark Elves lost against Asgard in an all out battle.
| 404 |
Can someone explain the Diablo Story leading up to D3 (LI5)?
|
I was one of those people who played D1 and D2 for years but never really knew anything about the story whatsoever. I've been trying recently to read a lot about it but I just dont understand how in Diablo II we killed Diablo and his soul stone, yet hes coming back? And I dont understand the Worldstone at all :(
The goal of this is to be able to go into D3 without being clueless and knowing who is dead and who isn't :)
| 26 |
Originally, the 3 Lords of Hell (Mephistopheles, Diablo, and Baal) were trapped in what are called soulstones. Diablo's was buried and a monastary built over it in a town called Tristram. A king decided to turn the monastary into a cathedral. A man named Lazarus was tricked/lured into breaking Diablo's soulstone. Diablo possessed the king's son to do bad stuff.
Now you come in as the hero. The hero is awesome and kills stuff and kills Diablo's mortal form, leaving him in a soulstone again. The hero drives the stone into his own skull to hopefully contain him. But this is what Diablo wanted, as the hero is stronger. Diablo also corrupted the other two heroes (you were the warrior for the story). The rogue became Blood Raven and the Sorcerer became the Summoner.
In Diablo 2, you follow the wake of the unnamed hero who has started to become corrupted by the soulstone. You find out the truth about the soulstones. You fight lesser evils of Andariel and Duriel. You fight Mephisto, who was released by Diablo. You find out that a fallen angel, Izual, taught the evils how to corrupt the stones. You fight Diablo.
| 17 |
CMV: I should support Nuclear energy over Solar power at every opportunity.
|
Nuclear energy is cheap, abundant, clean, and safe. It can be used industrially for manufacturing while solar cannot. And when people say we should be focusing on all, I see that as just people not investing all we can in Nuclear energy.
There is a roadmap to achieve vast majority of your nation's energy needs. France has been getting 70% or their electricity from generations old Nuclear power plants.
Solar are very variable. I've read the estimates that they can only produce energy in adequate conditions 10%-30% of the time.
There is a serious question of storing the energy. The energy grid is threatened by too much peak energy. And while I think it's generally a good think to do to install on your personal residence. I have much more reservations for Solar farms.
The land they need are massive. You would need more than 3 million solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a typical commercial reactor.
The land needs be cleared, indigenous animals cleared off. To make way for this diluted source of energy? If only Nuclear could have these massive tradeoffs and have the approval rating of 85%.
It can be good fit on some very particular locations. In my country of Australia, the outback is massive, largely inhabitable, and very arid.
Singapore has already signed a deal to see they get 20% of their energy from a massive solar farm in development.
I support this for my country. In these conditions, though the local indigenous people on the land they use might not.
I think it's criminal any Solar farms would be considered for arable, scenic land. Experts say there is no plan to deal with solar panels when they reach their life expectancy. And they will be likely shipped off to be broken down, and have their toxins exposed to some poor African nation.
I will not go on about the potential of Nuclear Fusion, or just using Thorium. Because I believe entirely in current generation Nuclear power plants. In their efficiency, safety and cost-effectiveness.
Germany has shifted from Nuclear to renewables. Their energy prices have risen by 50% since then. Their power costs twice as much as it does for the French.
The entirety of people who have died in accidents related to Nuclear energy is 200. Chernobyl resulted from extremely negligent Soviet Union safety standards that would have never happened in the western world. 31 people died.
Green mile island caused no injuries or deaths. And the radioactivity exposed was no less than what you would get by having a chest x-ray.
Fukushima was the result of a tsunami and earthquake of a generations old reactor. The Japanese nation shut down usage of all nuclear plants and retrofitted them to prevent even old nuclear plants suffering the same fate.
I wish the problems with solar panels improve dramatically. Because obviously we aren't moving towards the pragmatic Nuclear option.
I don't see the arguments against it. That some select plants are over-budget? The expertise and supply chain were left abandoned and went to other industries for a very long time.
The entirety of the waste of Switzerland fits in a single medium sized room. It's easily disposed of in metal barrels covered in concrete.
| 1,933 |
Clean and cheap, no. Nuclear power stations are crazy expensive and have a relatively short lifespan; and the fuel will take eons to decay into something probably safe. The environmental damage from a broken nuclear power station could conceivably contaminate a huge area for an extremely long time whereas a broken solar panel is little more than a pain in the arse to replace.
| 501 |
ELI5: What are these blackouts going to do to prevent SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/etc?
|
I get they're a means of protest, but what would it do to change Congress' mind on the matter? I bet you not 5 members of Congress are regulars here on Reddit. I can see Google perhaps having some affect, but not much. What needs to be blacked out are sites that Congress members frequent daily or need for work.
| 15 |
They will make people know something is happening and that people are upset about the legislation. People who may not be aware of SOPA and PIPA will notice that wikipedia and other large sites are down and will see why. That should raise the profile of the issue and hopefully make more people aware its a bad idea, that in turn might put pressure on congress and the US government as a whole.
| 18 |
ELI5: When and how did gold teeth become used in dental work? Arent there more practical things that could be used?
| 1,032 |
Gold is unreactive.
The last thing you want is your tooth to rust or dissolve. Gold is so unreactive it doesn't even have a flavour.
It's also valuable so can be seen as a display of wealth.
There are more practical things, and they're generally what your dentist will use today. Silver amalgams, plastic, ceramic or special types of glass are used today for fillings and dentures.
| 1,158 |
|
I believe Yoko Ono is a crazy, talentless person with absolutely no artistic value present in her work. CMV.
|
That's about that. I've seen some of her presentations, and they mostly involve screaming or.... well, screaming is about all I've seen her do. I've seen some of her music videos and I don't believe her music is good at all. Namely, she would've not made it anywhere without Lennon.
I've seen some of her "performance pieces", one of which involved she sitting still while someone cut off pieces of clothing. It was not very interesting. I've seen her in MoMa simulating an orgasm, it was not very interesting.
I'm really really open to seeing something she did that would blow me away, I've done some searching but I was not able to find anything.
CMV!
| 66 |
Yoko Ono is the privileged daughter of a Japanese American diplomat and survived world war II firebombings during her teens, so her art results in a simple but cynical form. She was also inspired and mentored by John Cage, a notable member of the artistic community. Before she had met John Lennon, she made some of her best art including her 1964 published conceptual instructions "Grapefruit" and 1966 "Say Yes" installation. She may not have been a household name without seducing John Lennon, but she would probably be remembered in the avante garde art community, and might even have her own entry in an encyclopedia of 1960's art.
| 79 |
[DC] When Batman is on all-night patrol, where does go the bathroom? Is there Bat-poop on the roofs of Gotham?
|
He's just a regular human, so must take regular toilet breaks.
It must be awkward to pull down your tights and hold your cape out of the way while trying to take a shit behind a dumpster and finish up before someone walks past.
Does he carry toilet paper with him?
| 261 |
His suit retains urine for prevention of forensic contamination and general civic responsibility. His metabolism takes care of his fecal schedule to keep it outside of his night activities. Bruce Wayne is regular so Batman doesn't have to be.
| 381 |
ELI5:. How did climate change become a partisan issue?
| 28 |
It was never just about climate change.
The Republican party has represented business interests for a very long time, and has a long history of opposing government intervention and regulation.
A large number of environmental issues have typically been solved by telling big businesses they have to spend more money cleaning up, or limiting what they can sell. From DDT to acid rain to chlorofluorocarbons to nitrous oxide to carbon dioxide, environmentalists have been restricting the ability of businesses to dump whatever they like into the atmospere, and/or sell whatever they like to others.
It's not so much that climate change gradually *became* a partisan issue: it was born into a partisan issue which was already ongoing.
| 27 |
|
[Fallout] How did the NCR beat the Enclave and BoS?
|
I mean, they wear power armor that basically makes you into a walking tank, but were defeated by an army wielding conventional weaponry.
| 28 |
Numbers, mostly. Power armor is great and all but a walking tank still gets taken out by enough guys with anti-tank missiles. The Brotherhood also made a number of strategic errors, such as the Battle of Helios One, that caused them losses disproportionate to their strength. Other times they made the opposite mistake and willingly ceded defensible territory to the NCR; holding territory was never the main objective, so they undervalued it.
| 50 |
[Sunshine] Why did the sun stop working?
|
They never explained what caused the sun to start dying, or how a bomb would fix it.
| 19 |
The reaction of energy (hydrogen, helium, ect) within the Sun was slowing to a point where the Earth was in a state constant winter. Much of the planet had become frozen with Australia being depicted covered in snow. The idea was to send a nuclear bomb designed to "jump-start" the reaction once more. It was purely theoretical and not much more than humanity's last hope.
| 13 |
[DC/Marvel] Are Superheros better off with secret identity or a pubic identity?
|
Which is better for a superhero to have a public identity like Ironman or a secret identity like Batman or Superman?
| 57 |
It depends on who you are. Reed Richards has a public identity and he's also a billionaire super-genius who outfits his home with insane futuristic security protocols and everyone he loves is also super-powered. Daredevil works as a blind lawyer and has a lot of friends who can't protect themselves. Mr. Fantastic having a public identity is better because his security and their superpowers means that he's not putting those he cares about in danger, Daredevil is better private because it reduces the risk.
| 63 |
Can a 'moon' be bigger than the 'planet' it's orbiting? Can this last or will the smaller object soon switch to being the moon?
|
I know that Pluto and Charon are close in size and 'orbit' each other. Have any other planet / moon systems been found where the larger object orbits the smaller one? Is it even possible?
| 29 |
What's actually happening is that both objects are oribiting the common center of mass, which is somewhere between the centers of the two bodies. When one body is much more massive than the other (which tends to be the case), the center of mass is very close to the center of that body, and it will appear as if the smaller body is just orbiting the larger. When the two bodies are equally massive, they will orbit around the midpoint between them. You see this sometimes in binary stars.
| 47 |
ELI5: Why does the East coast of the US have high humidity but the West coast doesnt?
|
Ive lived on both coasts for extensive periods of time and never understood why the humidity was high to the point of being unbearable on the east coast while the west coast doesnt have the same problem.
| 23 |
Both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans circulate clockwise above the equator.
The water at the equator is heated more by the sun. Then that warm water flows northward. On the East Coast, it's the Gulf Stream Current. It carries heat northward, warming the air above it. Warm air can carry more moisture, so that's why the East Coast is humid.
On the West Coast, the clockwise circulation is bringing cold water down the coast from the Arctic region. This cold current cools the air above it. Cold air can carry less moisture, so the West Coast has lower humidity.
| 11 |
Do any philosophers cover sobriety?
| 59 |
Gilles Deleuze was an alcoholic for a substantial part of his life and had to quit so as not to die. He wrote a lot about drugs and alcohol, but not in the naive way it is often presented. Here is a quote from What is Philosophy? - his last book, with something of a conclusion on the subject:
"The question of whether drugs help the artist to create... receives a general answer insofar as that which is composed under the influence of drugs is most often extraordinarily brittle, incapable of conserving itself, undoing itself as it's made, or as we look at it. One can indeed admire the drawings of children, or rather be touched by them; it's rare that they manage to stand on their own, not ressembling a Klee or a Miro unless we don't look for too long."
| 73 |
|
Is the difference in strength in the dominant hand primarily due to greater muscle fiber size or motor control differences in the brain?
| 191 |
On a side note, most people's difference in grip strength is an average of 10lbs, though sometimes it is greater.
Source: occupational therapist who tests grip strength using a dynamometer on every new patient.
| 22 |
|
CMV: If a man wants a woman he impregnated to get an abortion he shouldn't have to pay child support.
|
I am genuinely confused as to why a man should have to pay to support a kid he doesn't want to have. I can hear the argument for child support payments after a divorce - he agreed to have a baby, he can't bail out after the fact.
But why is he responsible to support her decision if he doesn't want the kid at all and she is refusing to get an abortion? Even if her reason for refusing to abort the fetus comes from a moral standpoint, it shouldn't be his problem. The law recognizes abortion to be legal, she shouldn't be allowed to hitch him with a financial obligation because she wants to take the moral high ground.
CMV, I really want to understand.
**EDIT**: Regarding the financial argument presented in [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/2qy21w/cmv_men_should_either_be_able_to_waive_their/) post:
> what happens if she needs help raising it? What happens if she's poor, or loses her job, or the kid gets sick and has major expenses?
>Do taxpayers now take on the financial burdens our government traditionally puts on the father? Is this a fair decision for taxpayers? How many people do you think would support this new kind of welfare? Should the government step up and take the place of the father because he "opted out"? Should the government refuse to pay welfare in these circumstances? Who is to blame if the child dies of starvation or something as a result of those policies? Is this something we as a society feel is an acceptable result?
>TL;DR: Financial abortion is completely unworkable, bad public policy, and very unlikely to be morally supported by society.
I agree that this is a problem, I hadn't thought of it, and no immediate solution comes to mind. But I still maintain (and I encourage you to try to CMV) that the guy getting shafted shouldn't be the answer.
| 131 |
It's the child that has a right to support from its parents. It really has nothing at all to do with choices of said parents.
It's really very much as simple as that. The father, as much as the mother, is a parent of the child.
Yes, if there's no child, there are no such rights to be held by the child. So? The parent's obligation to their children doesn't come from "choice" to have children, it comes from the *fact* of having children.
| 163 |
What's the point of "donate yor hair to cancer"?
|
Maybe I'm missing something, but why wouldn't they take the patients own hair before treatment?
Hard to get any better fitting hair than your own, I'd say.
So, does this charity actually do something useful, or is it another pink ribbon style organisation that largely benefits itself rather than cancer patients?
| 95 |
Locks of Love doesn't donate wigs to patients with cancer, they donate wigs to people with permanent hair loss such as alopecia or burn. Although in reality very few wigs are donated since the majority of hair they received cannot be made into wigs. They sell those hair to use as hair extensions to offset their operating cost.
Which brings to your first point. No, not everyone's hair can be made into wigs. The minimum length for donation is 10 inches, and that can be made into a very short wig. To make one full looking wig you will need 3-4 heads of hair. Not to mention the said hair need to be the same texture, has never been processed, doesn't get washed often, has never used a hair dryer, etc. They actually prefer men's hair for this reason. The human hair wigs you can buy are usually from hair harvested from countries like rural India, rural China, rural Eastern Europe etc where people don't wash their hair often.
| 100 |
[Marvel] Was it just the villains who were transported to the main MCU or were there any normal people?
|
Edit: I know about the Peters as they are Spider-Man and Peter Parker Obviously
| 34 |
Well the other Spider-Men and Venom weren't villains, and the Spider-Men weren't found until they looked for them with the portals the day after. It's possible that there were normal people who got sent to the MCU, but just wondered around confused for a day before being sent back.
| 46 |
When you lose weight by exercising, where does the weight go?
|
I know that mass and energy both have to be conserved in any system (if you take into account all the inputs and outputs).
So I am assuming that a (simplistic) way of looking at it is:
**If you are losing weight:**
(Calories from food ingested) + (Calories removed from body fat stores) = (Calories burned)
(Mass from food ingested) + (Mass removed from body fat stores) = (Mass lost)
**If you are gaining weight:**
(Calories from food ingested) = (Calories burned) + (Calories deposited in body fat stores)
(Mass from food ingested) = (Mass lost) + (Mass deposited in body fat stores)
When you are losing weight, the "Mass lost" will include what you pee, poop, breathe and sweat out. But if you exercise more, what is that *extra* part of the mass lost?
What are by-products of the chemical reactions in the cells when you use energy? Is it H20 (you pee it out)? Or is it CO2 (you exhale it)? Or something else? I remember years ago learning about ATP, but I can't remember any details on that stuff any more.
My hunch is that you breathe heavier when you exercise and that mass is lost as carbon in your CO2. But I'm sure there are some bio-chemists out there that can give me an explanation about that is going on.
| 68 |
The carbon in your body which is stored in fat you lose by breathing out (CO2). Its kind of a cool concept, the air you breath out is heavier than the air you breath in. As you debulk in size you will also lose a certain amount of water, although your body tries to keep a pretty consistent amount of water per cell volume to maintain homeostasis. Try looking up an oxidative metabolism wiki if you would like more chemical details.
Cool thing to note though is that you don't exactly have CO2 cruising around in your blood stream. This is a gas, and would cause many problems. Your body transfers the CO2 around as carbonic acid, which is degenerated into CO2 in the blood -> air transition in your lungs.
| 62 |
ELI5: How does the silencer on a gun work?
| 53 |
A gun is loud for two reasons.
1: any gun which fires a bullet which breaks the sound barrier is impossible to suppress without slowing the bullet. Part of the sound is the sonic boom created by the bullet breaking the sound barrier.
2: The way that a gun fires is to create enough pressure behind the bullet the push it out the barrel of the gun. There are very hot gasses which expand very quickly. A suppressor (also known as a silencer) slows the expansion of the gas outside of the barrel. If you were to disassemble a suppressor, you would see it is basically a tube with small holes that feed into another chamber. By giving the gasses a slightly larger area to expand in, it allows the gas to expand and cool at a slower rate.
| 149 |
|
[Star Trek: TNG, DS9, VOY] What is the difference between the "beam" and the "bolt" phasers?
|
Some ships like the Enterprise-D fire phasers in a beam that last a few seconds whereas others like the Defiant fire phasers bolts that travel like projectiles. Is there any difference between the two types in terms of performance?
| 19 |
Phaser cannons--what the Defiant uses as its primary armament--can output significantly more power in a short amount of time than a phaser beam array of the same size. However, this isn't without its disadvantages. For one thing, they have a shorter effective range, both because the bolts lose cohesion over long ranges and because the projectile travels slower than the speed of light. In addition, they are much less versatile than a traditional phaser array and cannot be reconfigured to project exotic particles or jury-rigged into force field projectors or scanners. Due to the bulky pre-fire chambers and other internals required to produce such a high-powered blast, cannon emitters can't be placed closely together in banks like we see with beam phasers, giving them a narrower firing arc. Finally, it is important to note that while the energy output is potentially much higher than a beam, cannons are not more efficient and require much more power per array, possibly even needing dedicated power conduits to support such a load.
Mounting a phaser cannon array in lieu of more traditional weaponry sacrifices some of a ship's versatility for raw power. Vessels with phaser cannons need to be maneuverable enough to keep their guns on target, but can punch high above their weight class if deployed properly. The Defiant is a perfect example of an ideal ship for phaser cannons because of its massive warp core and oversized impulse engines. Not only does it have the energy output needed for sustained cannon fire, but it can turn to face its target in instants.
| 24 |
ELI5:Why is a paralyzing agent used in lethal injection?
|
So I can understand a drug to knock a person out and then a drug to kill them, but then why a drug in-between to also paralyze them?
| 110 |
Some people get traumatized when they see a person flailing about as their body struggles to stay alive.
So we paralyze them so that the people watching don't get traumatized by watching someone die.
Yes, that's supposed to make sense.
| 419 |
How can light have momentum if the formula for momentum is p=mv? If light has no mass doesn't that mean it has no momentum?
|
p=mv where p is momentum, m is mass, and v is velocity.
| 19 |
The equation p = m v is part of classical mechanics and will hold for particles with non-zero mass at low speeds (compared to the speed of light).
However, in special relativity, things are slightly different. Einstein showed that the following relation between energy, mass and momentum holds:
E^2 = (m c^2 )^2 + p^2 c^2
If the mass of a particle is zero, the first term on the righthand side falls out and you can take the square root to obtain:
E = p c
Which is a relation between the energy and momentum of massless particles, such as photons.
Unrelated to photons, but still interesting is if you consider a particle at rest, so p = 0. The Einstein relation then reduces to:
E = m c^2
which is the equation he is most famous for, the rest energy of particle expressed in terms of its mass and the speed of light.
Obviously there's much more to special relativity than the above relation and its two extreme cases. And an interesting (and necessary!) property is that if you look at the limit case of velocities going to zero (that is, velocities being very small compared to the speed of light), special relativity is reduced to classical Newtonian mechanics.
| 38 |
ELI5: If stem cells can become any type of cell in the body, does that mean stem cells can naturally become germ cells, sperm cells, and egg cells without being artificially changed into germ cells, sperm cells, and egg cells?
|
In this website it is said "... Embryonic stem cells, pluripotent (ploo-RIP-uh-tunt) stem cells, can divide into more stem cells or can become any type of cell in the body.", link; [https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/bone-marrow-transplant/in-depth/stem-cells/art-20048117](https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/bone-marrow-transplant/in-depth/stem-cells/art-20048117)
What does this mean by "any type of cell in the body"? If stem cells can become any type of cell in the body, does that mean stem cells can naturally become germ cells, sperm cells, and egg cells without being artificially changed into germ cells, sperm cells, and egg cells? If yes, please explain the complete process by which stem cells naturally turn into germ cells, sperm cells, and egg cells in animals. If stem cells can naturally become germ cells, sperm cells, and egg cells, does that mean a female or a male animal's stem cells found in bone marrow, brain, blood, etc, constantly keep becoming germ cells, egg cells and sperm cells in various locations such as brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, heart, gut, etc other than just ovaries or testes?
But if no, does that mean stem cells can only naturally turn into somatic cells, not germ cells, sperm cells, and egg cells?
| 17 |
There are different type of stem cells
The ones that can become ANYTHING are only present right around conception when we are a simple ball of cells. After that point, each cell is still a stem cell but its fate becomes more and more specific. This is because the cells start compartmentalizing into discrete groups, so one set of cells are destined to become muscle, the other the heart, the other the brain. This is all location based and cells differentiate based on what the cells around them are saying.
In the adult body, stem cells are typically organ specific. You have stem cells in your intestines that differentiate into new intestinal tissue. You have stem cells in your bone marrow that become white blood cells, red blood cells or platelets. They exist to replenish damaged tissue, and are specific to one general organ system.
Some organs such as the muscle, heart, and brain dont have stem cells at all, thus cannot regenerate.
The cells in your testicles are stem cells, but they will only become sperm cells. Theoretically you can reprogram them to become other things.
Eggs cells cannot be changed into other cells because eggs are preformed so they are no longer stem cells by the time you are born.
| 12 |
Why is the Arctic warming significantly faster than the global average?
|
Multiple studies and reports have shown that the Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the planet. Why is this occurring?
| 17 |
The Arctic is warming faster because of the ice-albedo feedback. A large area of the Arctic is covered by snow and ice, surfaces with a high albedo. That high albedo reflects a high percentage of incoming sunlight, and thus the ground doesn't absorb as much energy. As the snow and ice melts due to warming, darker ground and ocean is exposed, surfaces with a much lower albedo. That lower albedo allows the ground and surface ocean to absorb insolation, causing the surface in the Arctic to get warmer. As that surface warms, it melts even more snow and ice, exposing more dark ground/ocean, heating up even more, etc. It's a positive feedback loop. Lower-latitude locations don't have the ice-albedo feedback effect, and thus aren't warming as fast.
| 18 |
[AP CompSci] Why does this work?
|
Hi, I'm currently studying for my AP CompSci exams and I would like a bit of help on one question. I get why option II works and why III doesn't. However, I still do not get why I works.
http://imgur.com/py5ZAxE
| 15 |
When you set a Pixel object equal to another Pixel object (like in I), you're passing by reference, not value.
This means `p` will point to the same Pixel object in memory, it won't be a different Pixel at all. Therefore anything you do to `p` will inherently be done to whatever is located at `pixels[row][col]` at the same time, since it's the same object, not a copy.
In order to make a different copy, you will usually see the `new` keyword, which means that you are allocating new memory to hold the new object, where actions being done on the new object won't affect the old one (the one in the array, in your case).
| 12 |
Could Magneto feasibly control or kill someone using the iron in their blood? (READ INFO TEXT)
|
I am almost certain that normally he wouldn't be able to, but if his control over metal was somehow amplified or directed at the iron in the blood, could he? And is there any existing tech or magic to do this?
| 20 |
Actually, he used to be able to do it with absolutely zero enhancement. He once took over an entire military facility this way and has pulled all of the iron out of someone's blood to fashion it into a nail to kill them with.
Of course, nowadays he's not quite as in control as he used to be, but he'll undoubtedly reach his previous heights some day soon.
Magic and tech might be able to do it, especially magic, but why bother when you can hypnotize them or hijack their brains to fulfill the same purpose?
| 17 |
ELI5: Why does running cold water sound different from running hot water?
| 20 |
The differences in density and viscosity are the causes.
Cold water will have a higher pitch due to the stronger surface tension and hot water will have a lower pitch due to the weaker surface tension breaking up the water before it hits the glass or whatever you may be pouring it into.
That's why coffee or something warm will have a low sound and a cold glass of water will sound higher.
| 24 |
|
What happens when we cut plastic?
|
Just bit one of [these](http://images.dharmatrading.com/images/eng/products/image/cpf-1-090521113302.jpg) off a shirt and wondered what was actually being done to the polymer when I bit it. My understanding of plastics is that they're composed of monomers linked together via covalent bonds. This sounds like the bonding of diamond, but obviously it is not the same. Are there weak intermolecular bonds between long chains of polymers? how did biting the plastic affect the structure of it?
| 65 |
It's all a matter of scale. While you commonly associate chemical bonds with something solid and strong - like diamond - it's only the case when there are both strong bonds and _lots_ of them. Individual bonds are very weak and easy to break.
Depending on the type of plastic, there are varying degrees of cross-linking between the polymer strands. So when you break the plastic, you're both disrupting intermolecular interactions and breaking chemical bonds.
| 11 |
Has the introduction of emojis into Western language structures made our minds more capable of learning Eastern pictorial languages?
| 524 |
The idea that Chinese or other similar characters are pictorial is off. There are some historical connections to actual pictures, some of which feel very dubious and retrofitted, some of which are plausible. But for the majority of characters you soon realize they are built of subcomponents next to each other. As such you have a word being a bunch of basically arbitrary symbols arranged spacially next to each other, which is the same thing we have in (our Western) phonetic alphabets.
So no. Emojis have zero impact on anyone's ability to learn non-phonetic writing systems.
| 350 |
|
What would happen to a paperplane in space that has the same orbit as the ISS?
|
Especially short term, like heat affecting the structure etc.
And just for fun, would a paperplane thrown from the ISS be able to reach escape velocity under any circumstances?
| 439 |
If it's as high and fast as the ISS, then it will simply orbit like the ISS.
At that height the atmosphere is almost negligible (after all, the ISS didn't need to be streamlined for exactly this reason), so it won't glide like you might expect. It will simply orbit, and maybe tumble while doing so.
However, the ISS does experience a tiny amount of drag from the very thin atmosphere up there, requiring approximately monthly orbital adjustments in order to keep it from falling into the atmosphere. The paper plane, after many thousands of orbits, will start to spiral into the earth's atmosphere and probably burn up or disintegrate.
| 181 |
Why won't New Horizons orbit Pluto? A nine years journey just for a flyby?!
| 228 |
Because Pluto is (a) very far away and (b) very small.
New Horizons took nine years to arrive at Pluto even though it had the fastest launch velocity of any spacecraft in history--16 km/s. In order to achieve orbit around Pluto, New Horizons would need to be going (considerably) slower than Pluto's escape velocity, which is a mere 1.2 km/s because Pluto is so small.
If New Horizons had been launched at a low enough velocity to make its capture by Pluto practical, it would have taken decades for it to arrive, and no one wanted to wait that long. Bringing along enough fuel to slow New Horizons down once it arrived would have made the mission prohibitively expensive. And unlike the gas giants we've put satellites around, Pluto is too small to have a thick atmosphere that can be used to slow New Horizons enough for Pluto to capture it. So we have to settle for a flyby.
| 241 |
|
What is the correct distance to VY Canis Mayoris?
|
So while watching an [Elite: Dangerous video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kr7TliIWes) I noticed that the game lists VY Canis Majoris as 1832ly, while Wikipedia list it at 3840ly. Curios by that I checked what distance Space Engine and Celestia use for the Star and Space Engine also places it 1832ly from Sol, while Celestia doesn't list the Star at all in the most recent version, as it apparently had a negative paralax in the HIP catalouge when the last version of celestia was released. Older versions of Celestia also place it 1832ly away from SOl.
So what is the actual distance to VY Canis Majoris? Also, if it is not 1832ly, from what source did all these Universe/Galaxy simulations take the wrong measurement?
Edit fixed the video link
| 27 |
The 1832 light year distance is from the Hipparcos catalog (an older version apparently), which gives a parallax of 1.78 mas (1832 ly) with an error of ± 3.54 mas. That catalog is very useful and accurate for nearby stars, but not so accurate for stars thousands of light years away. Note that the error margin (3.54 mas) is larger than the measurement.
Other methods are used to find the ~4000 light year distance, and are likely to be much more accurate.
| 17 |
ELI5:Neither Cheddar Cheese or Butter is naturally Yellow. (In fact they're both white.) Why and when did they start adding food dye?
|
I've always wondered this. Things like candy or pastries it makes sense, but there's plenty of white cheeses. And Butter starts out as cream which is white to begin with. How did they even get the idea to add dye in the first place?
| 36 |
Grass fed butter is yellow, actually. Grass fed milk has a yellowish tint, too. Cheese made with high quality grass fed milk has an orange tint.
Annatto was added to cheddar as both a flavoring and a colorant so that inferior cheese could replicate the color of grass fed milk when using cheaper milk. This started in the 16th century or there about. It stuck around as tradition.
| 81 |
Why do radioactive elements still exist? Shouldn't all matter have decayed to a stable isotope by now, 14 billion years after the big bang?
| 1,867 |
No radioactive isotopes were produced in the Big Bang at all. The BB produced only hydrogen, helium, and very small amounts of Lithium and Beryllium.
Radioactive isotopes are created primarily in supernovae. The ones in our solar system were almost certainly generated by a nearby supernova that exploded prior to its formation.
| 1,684 |
|
What would stop an AI system with greater-than-human intelligence from being detrimental to humanity?
| 30 |
This question is difficult, mostly because of the notion of "greater-than-human intelligence". What does this mean?
In some sense it seems to imply that intelligence is a unidimensional quantity, and everything fits neatly onto some scale with humans at the top (currently). This is obviously wrong, though. Computers already possess "greater-than-human intelligence" when it comes to arithmetic or any rote computational task. Whereas humans are unbelievably better than computers at other things, such as spatial reasoning. (Of course this could change quickly.)
Even if we were to grant that computers would become more intelligent than humans in _every conceivable way_, this by itself would pose no innate threat. So long as computers remained tools for human use--they only solved problems we set them to solve--we are fine.
The real question seems to be: What would happen if a super-AI system was given free will? What would motivate the AI--what would it want? Would its needs support human well being or oppose it? Would humans maintain a dominant role in the relationship? How would our ethical systems adjust?
These are philosophical questions outside the domain of computing. Within the domain of computing (and neuroscience, to be honest), what we can say is that we are far, far away from achieving them. (Even the energy requirements of simulating a human brain on modern processors would be prohibitive.) For the moment they are not a practical concern.
I'd recommend posing this to /r/askphilosophy as well.
| 20 |
|
What if all the planets in our solar system, except for Earth, vanished? Would Earth get closer to the sun or further away?
| 271 |
It would depend on where they are in their orbit. If all of the planets were on the opposite side as the sun and magically disappeared, then Earth's pull that direction would slightly lessen, moving it further away.
| 120 |
|
If we don't hear our own voice like it actually sounds, how can we sing correctly? (according to notes, keep a tone etc.)
| 65 |
It's the *tone* (or timbre) that sounds different, not the pitch. You can tell if the pitch of your voice is flat or sharp without needing to properly hear the timbre. A trained vocalist will know how his/her tone changes when they sing from the lungs, diaphragm, or through the nose (head voice). It's not like we can't hear our own voice at all, it's just that certain harmonics sound a little different from inside our head, so maybe it's more accurate to say that you only hear about 75% of our own voice the way other people hear it, not that we can't hear it at all.
| 32 |
|
[The Simpsons] At it's height how many people in America/Internationally were doing the 'Bartman?' What's Bart's lasting cultural impact in-universe?
| 38 |
People don't seem to remember Bart for it, just like they don't seem to recognise Homer as an astronaut.
The Simpsonsverse apparently has an incredibly short fame cycle, and its inhabitants terrible memories.
| 37 |
|
ELI5 Why do your symptoms feel more severe when you think about them?
| 60 |
Psychologist's perspective: Distraction is a powerful tool. There is a technique called body scan, in which you hone in on bodily sensations to feel them more powerfully. Mindful meditation is also similar but has more of a focus on un-focusing element to it. Lastly, there is a technique called "The Wave" that has you hyperfocus on one specific craving/pain/ache to better understand it.
Our brains are not actually all that good at multitasking. So by changing the level your brain is focused on a thing and you will change how much perception you have of that. Despite the fact that the symptom itself may be the same. This gets MUCH harder to do cognitively the bigger the symptom. A splinter is easy to distract from, but an amputation would be impossible.
| 41 |
|
[Pacific Rim] How is it socially acceptable for children to be playing with toy versions of monsters who are still killing thousands of people?
| 61 |
Because at that point in the war, fighting Kaiju had become something of a sport. Jaeger pilots were celebrities, not soldiers. The Jaeger program was in its prime, fielding a few dozen Mechs, any one of which could beat the run-of-the-mill Kaiju that were showing up from the Rift. Bear in mind that the Kaiju attacks featured in the excellent documentary Pacific Rim were not your average Kaiju, being specially adapted to fighting Jaegers. There was a ten year period where Kaiju weren't taken very seriously, when humanity got complacent.
| 109 |
|
[MCU] How could the Dr. Strange's "forget spell" affect other universes?
|
In Spiderman NWH, because Peter tamper with the spell by adding many parameter to the spell, everyone that know Peter is Spiderman are brought to their universe. My question is why? How? That spell was unnecessarily powerful for whatever reason. The worst effect should be in-universe at best but somehow it affect all the universes. Is it because Dr. Strange is the one who cast it? Is it because the place where the spell was cast? Or it's really just because the spell is very powerful?
| 35 |
The spell wasn't excessively powerful, Dr. Strange simply underestimated how fundamental Spider-man is to the multi-verse. The magic piggy-backed off of the connection between Spider-men in ways he couldn't have predicted.
It's possible the events of Loki and/or what-if left the multiverse more vulnerable to this specific kind of damage, but we won't know for sure until *Multiverse of Madness.*
| 42 |
ELI5: how do file formats work?
|
Also, how do formats like for example jpeg/png, or pdf/xps differentiale?
| 27 |
A file is a bunch of bytes, and that's **all** a file is.
A file format says what the bytes mean. ASCII text files are pretty simple - each byte means a letter or symbol (except for a few of them that mean other things). 72 then 105 then 33 means `Hi!`.
Bitmap files are a bit more complicated. There's a certain number of bytes at the start of the file, called the *header*, which tells you things like how big the picture is, and the number of bytes per pixel. After that, each group of 1 to 4 bytes (depending on what the header said) represents the colour of one pixel. Put the colours together in the right order, and you get a picture.
Most other formats are a lot more complicated. A ZIP file contains a header for the first file in it (unlike the BMP header, this one tells you things like the filename and the compression level), and then the compressed data for that file, and then a header for the second file, and the compressed data for the second file, and so on. Then at the end it has an extra copy of all the headers but without any compressed file data in-between.
JPEG and PNG both store images, but they do it in completely different ways, *and* they use completely different compression algorithms. The result of that is that JPEG is sometimes better and PNG is sometimes better.
| 18 |
ELI5: On Netflix, why do old tv shows like Rockford Files and Magnum PI start out with a 30 sec preview of the entire episode? A lot of older shows do this, but why?
| 322 |
This was just what was done in the 70s and 80s. The preview was basically click-bait, to hopefully get you to sit down and watch the show. You have to remember that recording shows was fairly uncommon at this time. People actually sat down and watched these shows as they went to air. So the networks would put a few exciting scenes of the upcoming show on, hoping this was enough to lure you into watching the entire show.
| 169 |
|
ELI5: Why do nuclear power stations need cooling towers instead of using the excess heat to create more electricity?
| 21 |
Cooling towers are actually more common in coal fired plants, though they can be used in nuke plants also. Both types of plants use the energy to heat water and turn it into steam and the steam then powers a turbine to create electricity.
Once the steam has done its job of powering the turbine, you then need to turn the steam back into water by cooling it. That's what the cooling towers are for. Otherwise you would need a constant supply of fresh water to turn to steam rather than being able to use a closed system with a finite amount of water.
| 23 |
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ELI5: Why does the same website sometimes load lighting fast with just 1-2MB of download speed and other times struggle to load up all the way with 10MB+?
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To clarify...where I live I have 1-4MB depending on the day but often it works just fine, with every website popping up immediately. So it surprises me when I am overseas at a hotel or cafe with 10-20MB of speed that the internet can often lag a bit. I can tell a big difference when streaming but not browsing. Perhaps it's related to the number of people logged into to the same WiFi network...actually, I am sure that's it now that I think about it but I'll ask anyhow.
| 117 |
Your browser caches pages and will save it to your device to speed loading. That cache will periodically get cleared and require the entire site to be loaded again. Ads add a lot of overhead as well with images, animations, video etc. If those change it will impact loading time. Plus there are a lot of libraries that may need to get loaded behind the scenes. Again, ads may call different libraries that also need to be loaded. Then there's the time of day you visit. There may be higher traffic at certain times of day. There might be issues with a server somewhere along the line. There are tons of issues that can come up that will slow things down but ads are mostly to blame.
| 41 |
[Marvel] What happens if you put the Infinity Gauntlet on the other hand for which it was designed?
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In my universe, the Infinity Gauntlet was designed to be worn on someone's right hand. I lost my right arm in an earlier battle. By chance, the Gauntlet now sits by my feet and I have a chance to do something with it. Can I wear the Gauntlet on the other hand? Will it be just as effective and allow me the same "snap" powers? Will the Gauntlet change to fit my other hand?
| 42 |
In most universes, the Gauntlet is just a convenient way to collect and hold the Infinity Gems; there's nothing magical about the glove itself, and you can use the Gems without it.
If your universe works like that, you wouldn't even need to put the Gauntlet on; just holding the Gems would be enough. And, of course, you could also use the Gems to give yourself a new hand.
In the MCU (and probably similar universes), the Infinity Stones are too powerful to be controlled by a mortal mind, and the Gauntlet is specifically designed to harness their power without killing the user. In these kinds of universes, you're more likely out of luck. Of course, Thor said that most people would be turned into gibbering lunatics for even trying to use a weapon that powerful, so maybe you're better off, anyway.
| 59 |
[Stranger Things 2] For the past year or so my compass has been consistently wrong whenever I've gone out hiking. I've bought several new ones and they all give the same bad readings. About a week ago though it started working properly again. What gives?
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I've mentioned it to several other hikers and they've all experienced the same thing. Also, one time I followed the compass North and it led me to that Department of Energy facility. What do they have to do with this?
| 90 |
There was a strong electromagnetic field being produced by that Department of Energy facility. Now there isn't.
The exact source is obviously classified but I've heard rumors they're developing technology to fight the Soviets. Maybe it's a giant magnet meant to disrupt or disable their equipment, maybe it's for testing our own stuff to be sure it's magnet-proof. Or maybe they were doing stuff that required such massive amounts of electricity that the field is just a side-effect.
| 76 |
Why is glass translucent/transparent? Is it a molecular arrangement thing? Is all clear matter clear for the same reason, such as water and diamond?
| 21 |
In general: Because there is no transition between an occupied and an empty energy level that corresponds to the energy of the light you consider (here: visible light). If there is such a transition, an electron can absorb the photon and reach the higher energy level, but if that process is not possible then the material will be transparent. This is not a binary thing - in general all materials will absorb *some* light, this includes glass and water. A few meters of glass or a few hundred meters of water are barely letting any light through.
The energy levels mainly depend on the molecules in the material and a bit on their arrangement.
| 17 |
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[Spiderman] Would Peter Parker have known about superheroes/powers before he became Spiderman?
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In heroes origin stories, you never see them say stuff like "Oh I'm a superhero, just like \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_!" Was Peter the first superhero in NY?
| 38 |
No. The Fantastic Four were around a few months earlier in the 616 universe, and Captain America along with many other heroes had been active in the 1940s and early 1950s.
But Peter Parker was arguably the first publicly known hero in the present day of the 1610 "Ultimate" universe.
| 61 |
ELI5: Why does toilet water move when it's windy outside?
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I live on a condo and noticed that the water in the toilet bowl was slightly moving (kinda like waves) and was fascinated. So i started paying attention to it more and noticed that it would do that only on windy days, the windier it was, the more it moved and would sometimes start to resonate which blew my already blown mind!
| 114 |
There is a vent that goes through your roof and is connected to your plumbing drains. It facilitates the water draining to the sewer or septic. Wind blows over it and creates oscillations in the connecting plumbing.
| 130 |
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