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ELI5: if plants need to absorb sunlight in order to do photosynthesis, why aren't they black?
| 22 |
There are two reasons.
First, Because they need to absorb certain colors of light.
During photosynthesis plants use the light hitting them to excite electrons. They then use the energy of those excited electrons in a series of reactions to store that energy as sugars like glucose.
For this to happen most effectively there are specific colors of light the plants “want” to absorb, because since different colors of light have different energy levels which excite the electrons to different energy levels, certain colors excite the electrons just the right amount. Those happen to be in the blues and reds, since the plant doesn’t need the green light, it’s reflected away.
Also. Fully black leaves could absorb TOO much sun and overheat the plant.
Plants can also overheat and get burnt by the sun, if they were black they would absorb even more light and really heat up on a hot sunny day. Like when you wear a black shirt out instead of a light colored or white one.
| 46 |
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[The boys] Would A-train have won the race against supersonic if he never used the V compound in the first place and thus being healthy for the race?
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Basically is healthy A-train faster than healthy supersonic?
| 54 |
That's hard to predict.
- Other top-tier superheroes (Homelander, Stormfront, Soldier Boy) don't seem to have problems with aging, and A-trains main character flaw is his own insecurity, so it's entirely possible he never needed the boost in the first place.
- On the other hand, not *everyone* gets the lack of aging thing, so he might have just lost the superpower lottery.
- On the other *other* hand, A-train is just the first speedster to get famous, he isnt necessarily the fastest one. Supersonic, or some other speedster, might just be faster than him out of luck. The trend does seem to be newer superheroes being more powerful as Vought gets better at making and using Compound V.
| 81 |
ELI5: How do websites modify/inject data into your copy/paste?
|
Like on this website, if you copy a joke from here:
http://www.jokes4us.com/yomamajokes/yomamasouglyjokes.html
Then when you paste the joke somewhere, it comes with both the joke and an additional line that says "source.... etc".
How does a website change what I copy?
| 60 |
It's done in Javascript.
When you select a piece of text and copy it via control-C or control-insert or right-hand-mouse-button paste, the browser sends the "copy event" to the page. If the page catches this event, it can adjust the contents of the selected text, copy it into the clipboard and then remove the adjustments again.
| 29 |
Are dreams powered by the same parts of the brain that are responsible for creativity and imagination?
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And are those parts of the brain essentially “writing” your dreams?
| 3,360 |
The topic of dreams is still very much an open question for Neuroscience but scans from fMRI and EEG data seem to suggest that both dreaming and daydreaming are related, though obviously there is even more deactivation of task specific areas of the brain during actual dreaming.
Imagination and kind of idle behaviour are all linked to a large collection of different parts of the brain called the Default Mode Network. This network is generally active when subjects in scans don't have a set task they are trying to accomplish. Sleep and Daydreaming are also linked to this same network.
However, there is much more to dreams than just that. There is a lot of reactivation of parts of the brain during sleep that basically replays recent memories. This is thought to help with memory consolidation and formation and more detailed analysis on other animals (as this requires implanting probes directly into the brain) show brain patterns that both match previous awake patterns in the past, match those patterns but in reverse, and patterns that are similar but with some variation. So it seems the brain not only goes through the days experiences but also creates variations based on them. While most of this seems to happen in Slow Wave Sleep rather than REM Sleep where most Dreams are, there's more recent evidence showing it happens there too.
Together, it seems that, at the very least, Dreams are combinations of imagination, your previous experiences and memories, as well as variations and combinations of them.
That is not to mention the very likely possibility of other smaller (in terms of measurable electrical activity, not in terms of effect) contributions that we can't easily find with non-invasive methods in humans.
| 811 |
How did Max Planck calculate a Planck Length?
| 1,094 |
Essentially you have three constants which relate to different areas of Physics. There is planck's constant hbar which relates to quantum mechanics, the speed of light c, which is to do with relativity, and the universal gravitational constant G, which relates to gravity.
There is only one way to combine these three to get a length which is
L = sqrt ( hbar G / c^3 ) =1.61 ×10^-35
By dimensional analysis, this should occur as a natural length scale when dealing with the quantisation of gravitation and the curvature of space. It also occurs in an entropy calculation for black holes
S = A / (4 L)^2
With A the area of the event horizon.
| 314 |
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ELI5:What is "information" as used in physics?
|
Hello,
I have been watching a ton of Youtube videos trying to under exactly what is meant by "information" when used in physics. All the videos they discuss possible means, methods, conceptions of "how, why where" information is.
But, I cannot wrap my head around what exactly information IS?
| 20 |
You ever play the game Guess Who? You get to ask a series of yes/no questions to identify one person among 24. On average, the best questions will eliminate half the available characters from 24, to 12, to 6, to 3, to 2, then finally 1. Meaning you should be able to win in 5 questions.
So we would say, then, that this system has 5 bits of information. Information is basically the number of yes/no questions you would need to completely specify all of its properties.
| 33 |
CMV: when recruiting, asking 'where do you see yourself in five years?' serves no purpose
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I'm looking at this from an office job perspective as it's really the only one I've ever had in my professional life.
Hardly anyone can reliably tell you where they see themselves in five years. Five years is a very long time; people may develop a passion for completely new things, obtain new skills, discover hidden talents. They also may not fully know the organization where they're applying and therefore they may not be fully aware of the opportunities that the organization may or may not offer.
Moreover, someone may be a kickass employee right now but lack the foresight and maturity to be able to tell where they would like to be in five years' time.
I would be happy to find out what recruiters would like to hear as a response to this question.
| 48 |
It isn’t a practical question. It’s supposed to highlight ambition and see if the candidate is interested in growing with the company.
I’ve certainly asked this plenty of times and had a slew of answers. If you’re chasing ambitious people the answer is important.
| 23 |
If we knew the exact age of an atom of radioactive material, would we be able to predict its alpha and beta decays?
| 20 |
Current theory strongly suggests this is absolutely random. This is known as the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum physics.
The alternative is the hidden variable explanation, there is some non-random mechanism, we just can't see it.
Scientists have been looking for these hidden variables ever since Copenhagen, but have found little evidence for it. In fact, Bell's Theorem puts serious restraints on what form these variables can take.
Science is about finding the best explanation for what we observe, no matter how strange it may seem. Theory and experiment point to randomness, so it would be unscientific to discard this explaination.
| 17 |
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CMV: Waiting for a teenager to turn legal so you can subscribe to their Onlyfans is damn creepy.
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[Here's the link if you want to see the whole thing for yourself.](https://twitter.com/BhadBhabie/status/1377717608225460225). (Maybe by now some of them could have deleted their tweets, if that's the case I'll upload screenshots I took yesterday) The girl saying herself she was 'tired' of people asking is already setting off alarms, but then scroll down to replies and people are actually talking about waiting for 5 years for her to make an Onlyfans? When she's just now 18? and I don't know whether those people don't know what they sound like or they straight up don't care, but it's insanely creepy either way.
| 130 |
First of all: is this really a topic you want to change your opinion is?
If the answer is yes: would you agree that maybe there's some specific cases where it's less creepy? because of course a 50yo seeing a 13yo and thinking '5 years to wait" is **awfully creepy** but if a 18yo follow on tiktok a 17yo girl posting dancing videos who said that when she is 18 she will start posting nudes and is pretty excited about the idea, isn't that way less creepy?
| 38 |
ELI5: What is "space - time"?
| 21 |
Imagine the universe is a table with ants crawling across it. Then you could take a bunch of pictures of that table and stack them on top of each other. The table itself is two-dimensional (flat), but the stack of photos is three-dimensional. That third dimension is proportional to time (scaled by the rate you take photos and the thickness of each photo). So what we have is a single object made up of two spatial dimensions and one time dimension.
Now, the real universe has three spatial dimensions. If we were to similarly "stack" snapshots of the universe, we would get a four dimensional object, where the fourth dimension is proportional to time (scaled by the speed of light). That's what we call space-time.
| 14 |
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ELI5: If the wages go up to combat the inflation why do we keep bumping up the price of things instead of leaving it as it is?
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Edit: thank you very, very much for all the anwsers. At this point I'm not in total darkness and have a big picture of how economics works. It's FAR more complex than I initially thought it would be. It's crazy!
| 84 |
Prices mostly go up mostly as a result of low supply combined with high demand. When interest rates are low (money is ‘cheap’), people borrow/spend more (think mortgages, car loans, credit cards, etc.) This increased demand drives up prices. This is inflation. Companies, i.e. employers (whose revenues have increased because prices have gone up) pay their employees higher wages, because if they don’t they lose them to a company that pays more.
It’s important to keep in mind that the price and wage increases for the most part cancel each other out - in principle anyway. There are other reasons, however, why a high inflation rate is not desirable. To keep inflation in check, the Federal Reserve will typically increase interest rates to discourage excessive borrowing/spending.
| 20 |
[MCU] Why out of all powerful superheroes, it was Spider-Man that resisted dematerialization from Thanos Snap for the longest time?
| 591 |
Spidey's Spider-Sense told him that *something* real bad was happening, but not exactly what, so he was basically having a super-powered panic attack. He didn't fade away faster, he just called attention to his own dematerialization earlier than the others, so we saw it all in excruciating detail.
| 964 |
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[Harry Potter] Do all of Hogwarts' houses produce Dark Wizards, and if so, what is the frequency of each? And do Heads of House have any sort of training on working with potential future Dark Wizards? Like how to discourage the Darkness?
| 16 |
Well, yes, for any number of reasons. People may attempt to justify their actions any given way, but everyone has the potential to become a Dark Wizard - it's our choices that make us who we are, remember?
However, Slytherin has a reputation for producing Dark wizards more frequently than others and this may be due to the fact that one of the House's key traits is ambition and cunning, traits you'd commonly see in someone who'd go bad.
| 16 |
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[Deathnote] If you had a Lifenote which was the polar opposite of a Deathnote, what would it's rules be, how would it work and what could you do with it?
| 42 |
**Rules of the Life Note**
1. The human whose name is written in this note shall not die *from a particular cause of death.*
2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
3. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will *not* happen.
4. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply be restored to perfect health.
5. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
| 35 |
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ELI5: What happens if a person is given the wrong type of blood for a transfusion.
| 129 |
Blood has anti other blood sensors on it. Type A has anti-B, type O has anti A and anti B, type B has anti A and type AB has neither. So following these rules, Type A can receive from only A or O. Type B can receive B or O. Type O can only receive O. Type AB can receive O, A, B, and AB. This is why type O is considered the universal donor while type AB is the universal receiver. If they are not a blood match, the blood will attack the foreign blood. The reason someone is getting a transfusion is because they need blood. Adding bad blood triggers an auto response from the blood to destroy the foreign blood. This exacerbates the lack of blood issue by causing existing blood cells to die and destroying the transfused blood cells as well. Now the body not only has survive whatever trauma but also has to clean up the giant mess in the bloodstream now with multiple clots that can reach cause heart attack or stroke. Most likely it kills the patient if not caught immediately.
.
Edit: Rh factor is another aspect of the blood. This is either you have Rh factor (+) or you don't (-). Those who don't, don't want it and those who do don't care if they don't get more.
| 117 |
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[TMNT] What would the offspring be like if the turtles fertilized some non-intelligent females of their same species?
| 157 |
In nature a new species can be created when an existing species is divided somehow and the two groups begin to evolve differently. Over time mutations will arise in both populations and once sufficient differences have occurred it will no longer be possible for the two groups to mate and create viable children.
Although that's not exactly what happened here, certainly the four turtles underwent extreme mutations and it seems highly unlikely that they would still be able to produce viable offspring with females of their previous species.
I think that if they mated then the offspring would not be viable enough to come to term and the eggs would abort in early development. It's shame but the four turtles will likely be the first and last of their species and once they are dead their bodies will be stuffed and put on display in the natural history museum. Well that's what I'd do with them anyway.
| 128 |
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As someone Diagnosed with Apsergers Syndrome, Social Anxiety and Depression I think that self medicating with Alcohol is a viable option to live a decent life CMV
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When I say self medicating I don't mean getting hammered in social situations however the difference between me sober and quite tipsy is huge.
I feel like a totally different person when i'm drunk, I can talk to people more openly, empathize with them more, I'm much more flirty (I've only ever kissed girls under the influence). Sober i'm a nervous wreck in all aspects of life but even if I did want to change I rarely have the energy to do so. I get easily embarrassed and i'm scared of women despite me being a male in his 20's with a sex drive (drunk me is actually very brave around women). Lately being sober has become really boring and the highlight of my day is going to sleep at night or going out drinking, I've also been having many suicidal thoughts but as soon as I drink alcohol I feel fine.
I wouldn't call myself an alcoholic either. I can go for days sitting on my own or with close friends sober however I do prefer to use it when in social situations.
Alcohol does two things for me, it either calms me down if I've just had a drink or two making me almost human or it makes me the life of the party if I've had more.
| 26 |
Yes, to a certain extent many people who suffer with social anxiety use alcohol to calm down their nerves, but the problem is that the alcohol eventually becomes like a crutch if not used properly and can lead to dependency issues.
| 12 |
ELI5: Why does electricity "fork" or move in a "branch out" pattern?
| 34 |
Electricity takes **all** the paths at the same time. However, the lower the resistance, the greater the fraction of the current that takes that path. It turns out that a few paths have less resistance, and almost all the current takes those paths. If there is a fork, then at that time there are two paths with equal resistance, and half the current takes each path.
| 26 |
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ELI5: How do deserts form? Where are those sands coming from?
| 34 |
So let's limit this to the classic Sahara-type "desert" with sand dunes and dry landscapes.
One of the main factors that turns a normal place into a desert of that sort is an absence of water. This prevents plants from growing, and in turn removes the normal process of plants capturing carbon dioxide from the air and converting it into carbon compounds.
Now normally those organic compounds plus tiny bits of rock plus water form a sort of glue that keeps the ground together as a form of soil... and then plant roots can sink into it and help keep it into place even better. But no plants or water in a desert means nothing to keep the bits of rock stuck down... and so the next ingredient, wind, takes effect.
Wind picks up the bits of rock and blows them around... and the lightest forms of grit become blown away completely, perhaps out to sea, while the larger, sandy-sized bits more or less stay. So you end up with fairly uniform and often very stable dunes of sand.
And the final piece is rock erosion. Hot sun, cold nights, constant wind abrading away rock faces with blown grit... over thousands of years it adds up into more crumbling dry rock that eventually forms more sand.
| 29 |
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CMV: You can be racist to white people
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Recently, my elementary school going brothers were learning about racism and anti-racism in their schools. I asked the question - can you be racist towards white people? My youngest brother (age 11), thought about it and said no. My other younger brother (age 15) said yes. Naturally, this led to a good discussion and we all agreed that on principle you can be racist towards white people.
We spoke about how marginalization exists beyond skin color - such as class and socioeconomic status. We talked about how imitating “rednecks”, “hillbillies”, “white trash” is similar to imitating Chinese people or Indian people. Or saying - “no whites allowed” in your restaurant is at the same level as saying “no Blacks” allowed. Which is why in my view - you can be racist towards white people.
I’m open to all perspectives, and want to see my viewpoint can be changed. I understand from grad school that people in power can always go back to their comfort of power and privilege and that allows any racist attitude to simply rub off their backs - but this is a viewpoint that I believe to be contrary to human experience.
For context - I am brown, South Asian.
| 129 |
Here are some tips that may save you a lot of time:
​
1. This question is incredibly common in CMV. If you want some insightful answers, just search "racist to white people" in the delta search.
2. The long QAs almost inevitably end up being a definition debate. The definition debate takes the following form:
Person A: Defines "racism" as prejudice + power as many people do, and then argues that the places where white people hold the power are places you can't be racist to white people.
Person B. Defines "racism" as prejudice based on race only, as many people do, and then argues you CAN be racist to white people.
| 26 |
CMV: Candy and Alcohol should be banned from advertising just like Cigarettes
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I am not advocating that candy and alcohol not be sold at all because that is in my opinion unreasonable due to how we would create a similar situation as the prohibition period. However, i do think these unhealthy foods should not be allowed to advertise just like cigarette brands cannot. Candy and alcohol contribute nothing positive to society. Just like cigarettes these foods (if you can even really call them that) slowly kill you over time, and alcohol is just a way for people to temporarily forget about their realities. We see evidence of this in the disgustingly high obesity rates we have in the United States, and in the ridiculously high amount of deaths caused by alcohol use. I see no reason or benefit to society to be advertising these things that are literally as addictive as hardcore drugs (and I honestly consider alcohol to be a hardcore drug itself but that's another topic for another day) as anything remotely good for you. Right now you see advertisements full of colors, and good mood-setting tones that make people subconsciously associate candy and alcohol with good. My view is that this only promotes unhealthy lifestyles without any positive benefits for society. I would also like to clarify that I AM NOT advocating these things be removed from shelves, just that they be given the same advertising restrictions as cigarettes and other tobacco products like chew.
Edit: Someone pointed out to me i I should have been more specific when i said candy, i mean foods/drinks with no purposeful/intended health benefits that are usually pumped full of artificial sugars and high fructose corn syrup
| 91 |
That opens the door to the government banning advertisements of anything they think is unhealthy or dangerous. In the past, that would have extended to things like book, movies, cars, city living, or immigrants.
| 66 |
If it wasn't for air resistance would balloons rise with the same acceleration as gravity?
|
I realize that there needs to be air for the balloon to rise
| 95 |
Ignoring air resistance, the forces on the balloon are gravity and buoyancy.
F = rho_air * V_balloon * g - m_balloon * g
where rho is a density, and g is the gravitational acceleration. We can also write
V_balloon = m_balloon / rho_balloon
so
F = m_balloon*g*(rho_air/rho_balloon - 1)
Newton II says F = ma so
a_balloon = g*(rho_air/rho_balloon - 1)
in other words, the balloon acceleration upwards depends on the ratio of densities of the surrounding air to the balloon contents. It will have an acceleration upwards equal to g if and only if rho_air/rho_balloon = 2 -- if the balloon is half as dense as the surrounding air.
This is also ignoring any expansion or compression of the balloon as the outside pressure changes.
| 49 |
ELI5: How come that aerial bombs from WW2 are still found e.g. in Berlin nowadays? Weren't they visible after having been dropped? Why did they build over them?
| 722 |
Many of them ended up being covered by the rubble from other bombs dropped in the same area. Bombs were often dropped in clusters and by groups of bombers, so overlapping blast debris isn't uncommon. Once they ended up covered by rubble, nobody knew that they were there and they were bulldozed with the rest of the terrain when restoring the cities and ended up buried beneath the new structures.
| 520 |
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ELI5: Why are people either Righties or Lefties and not all ambidextrous? What makes us either a Righty or a Leftie?
| 31 |
Some scientists think it has to do with how our brains divide up the labor, such as since most people use left side of the brain to do fine motor skills (aka speaking and handiwork), and left hemisphere of the brain control right side of the body, most of us are right handed.
of course, there's also genetic contribution to this. if both parents of a child are left-handed, there is a 26% chance of that child being left-handed.
There are other theories out there, all with very good evidences, but the top two i mentioned are the most popular one.
Source:
> Banich, Marie (1997). Neuropsychology: The Neural Bases of Mental Function.
> McManus, Chris (2003). Right Hand, Left Hand. Phoenix Paperbacks. ISBN 0753813556.
| 11 |
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ELI5: This paper which proves that coin-flipping is actually biased & not a 50-50 proposition.
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[This](http://comptop.stanford.edu/u/preprints/heads.pdf) paper has some rigorous physics & mathematics which I can't wrap my head around. Can someone ELI5 ?
| 16 |
Pushing past the intense math, basically they are saying that if you flip a coin with the same force, without spinning it around multiple axes, it is no longer random because it will always land the same way.
So if you get really good at flipping a coin a certain way with the same flick, to the point where you can get it to land on heads every time, it's obviously no longer random. This is near impossible, but can be done with a machine (as shown in the paper)
| 15 |
Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion?
| 106 |
In areas where Buddhism is traditionally prevalent, there is no idea of 'religion' and 'philosophy' as being different things.
*Religion* as an analytical category is a Western invention. In Tibetan and Sanskrit, two languages traditionally used in Buddhism, there isn't really a word for religion. Buddhist writers refer to Buddhism with the equally untranslatable word *dharma*, which has connotations of law, practice, virtue, and teachings. In Japan, if you ask people if they're 'religious', almost all will say no, but if you ask if they practice Buddhist or Shinto rituals, almost all will say yes.
All of the great Buddhist philosophers were also practitioners. From the Buddhist viewpoint, studying philosophy without also practicing the 'religious' aspects of Buddhism like meditation and ethics is a total waste of time. The purpose of Buddhist philosophy is to train your mind and progress towards enlightenment.
| 171 |
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For everyone with technical questions about science (how to troubleshoot instrument problems, how to approach a reaction, etc...), I have created a new subreddit. (Sorry for cluttering r/AskScience)
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Go to [r/AskSciTech](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskSciTech/) and post away. These questions don't really fit into the theme of r/AskScience and are too specific for r/AskReddit. I hope you all enjoy and become active members. Thanks.
| 143 |
So would the idea of r/AskSciTech be to field questions such as: "I want to measure galactic cosmic rays, what methods are available?" and "What is the best way to digest calcium carbonate off rocks?".
| 19 |
[Star Wars] If Jabba had ordered Han and Chewie to carry out an assassination/mob hit would they have done it?
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So it seems to me that while wet work isn't Han's expertise he doesn't have any problem with killing people, stormtroopers and rival gang member mostly, in the course of his criminal enterprises. This begs the question would Han and Chewie be willing to do that sort of work for Jabba if he'd asked/ordered?
| 35 |
No. Han and chewie are criminals and willing to kill for a reasonable cause but aren't killers. They'd ask/beg jabba for anything else since they're better smugglers and gamblers than killers. If Jabba forced the issue they'd find a way to avoid killing the target and instead kidnap them for Jabba or find a way to scare them off permanently.
| 46 |
There is no viable alternative to capitalism, though the current system can be altered to serve people's needs. CMV
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(I've tried researching discussions on this topic before but I only found ones involving incredibly biased participants. Hope you guys can do better)
I honestly don't understand how there is a significant number of people who believe that capitalism* can be replaced. History shows that absolutely no ruler in a socialist or communist regime is capable of upholding their ideals. If you subscribe to the notion that socialism/communism is supposed to exist without a state, then I respond that in any circumstance, whether it's survival or business, etc, people will gravitate towards leaders, whether it's in a formal or informal fashion (for instance, my workplace has a fairly "flat" structure but even within my group, I always seek the advice of the more experienced people).
Furthermore, even though I do agree that everyone has the right to have their MOST basic needs fulfilled (via, say, some basic income that allows people to eat, drink water and practice basic hygiene with anything else having to be worked for), I don't understand how one can transition to an economic system that no longer seeks profit. Yes, infinite growth in a finite world and all that, but without profit, we have stagnation. If you were to tell me that my income would not change for the rest of my life, I would only do the bare minimum to get by, regardless of how much I enjoyed my job. I deserve to be rewarded for my efforts.
Therefore I do not understand why is it not possible to simply retool the existing system (by enforcing tax laws more harshly on large fortunes and boosting the welfare state, for instance) to allow everyone to have a living wage. Yes, some might call it implausible but I find it much less implausible than the alternative.
Forgive my lack of coherence and I understand I might have some incorrect notions about this topic but that's what I am here for. I await a hopefully enlightening discussion.
* Note: let's be exact here: I also think that when people online call for the end of capitalism, most of them are referring to the capitalism practiced IN THE UNITED STATES: As a European citizen, I honestly look at said system more as borderline Cyberpunk-esque anarcho capitalism more than anything else. Do you think the discussions I mentioned are mostly a result of semantic differences? (I have heavily considered this as well). If so, please mention it below.
| 56 |
Your argument assumes incorrectly that the economic system and the government are identical. Capitalism is not a system of government, and socialism is not a lack of government. You could just as easily have a totalitarian capitalist state as you could have a democratic socialist state. So in the interests of of a little clarity, I'll just tackle the economic plane:
1) There is no choice between on the one hand capitalism and the other hand socialism. The majority of modern democracies, as you note in your discussion of safeguards, use a blending of both economic systems. Neither pure capitalism nor pure socialism has ever existed on the scale of a nation-state. So there is a viable alternative to pure capitalism: socialized capitalism. At what point, through the process of retooling, does the current system become a different system? What's the minimum number of features that need to be changed before it's not capitalism anymore?
2) Your rejection of socialism based on the economic motivation argument (you'll only work hard for the possibility of a raise) presumes that you're in a capitalist system. In a pure socialist system, you'd have everything you wanted. So why would you work hard for the possibility of a raise? A raise would get you nothing. You'd likely still work for promotion, prestige, or to prepare yourself for placement in a more satisfying job.
3) I'd argue that history shows that no capitalist leader is capable of holding to his/her ideals. Power corrupts. It doesn't really matter what the economic system is. Plus, most of the systems you're probably thinking of failed not because of the economic system, but because of the governmental system.
| 26 |
ELI5:Why does it thunder when it rains but almost never when it snows?
| 2,323 |
Lightning (and the resulting thunder) typically occur in an unstable atmosphere. An unstable atmosphere occurs when cool air is above warm air (warm air rises). This is a very common thing to happen during the summer in the United States, thus we hear a lot of thunder here. During the winter, the atmosphere is typically stable. Most snowfall events occur with cold air at the ground and warmer air aloft, so there is rarely instability required for lightning and thunder. (Disclaimer: This is an extremely general explanation. Specifically, lightning is caused by charge separation in the cloud, but the processes that create this charge separation are not fully understood)
| 1,260 |
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[Dragon Ball Z] What if Bardock had went to earth with Goku?
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* Remove everything from the retcon from Dragon Ball Minus. Work with the Bardock from "The Father of Goku" movie. This one probably hooked up with some female Saiyan to have Goku, maybe Fasha or whatever.
Scenario: Bardock does not make a last stand, and the saiyans still get destroyed. He takes a ship and goes to find his son on earth. Goku has just hit his head. Bardock finds him with Grandpa Gohan, and takes him back. However, Gohan offers to teach Bardock about life on Earth, and Bardock accepts. Bardock and Goku become neighbors with Gohan. Bardock settles to live a quiet life with his son, but will still train and teach him about his home planet. Due to freak luck, Gohan still dies, but Goku still has his father. Bardock inherits Gohan's property. So when Bulma comes around, things are different.
What else changes? How does the character of Goku change? The others?
| 16 |
Bardock sends Kakarot off (no one but Gohan ever called him Goku) with Bulma because why not, worst case he can probably eat her. Brardok keeps his training up but generally considers Earth a bit of a backwater where he is hiding out. Kakarot keeps his desire to get stronger, but probably acts more like Raditz.
​
Dragonball doesn't change much. Bulma smooths down the rough edges of Kakarot somewhat just like the Anime but making him less abrasive and annoying to be around. While there are some differences, ultimately the story line ends up playing off mainly the same. Kakarot still marries Chichi but doesn't become a farmer as that is beneath his warrior heritage. He makes bank off of all world martial arts tournaments and other feats of strength as necessary. Bardok isn't idle, but he tends to do other stuff and really isn't up for world domination. The Dragon cannot restore a planet (for plot reasons) so Vegeta stays destroyed.
DBZ is slightly different. Raditz finds his father and brother on Earth, he's stronger than Kakarot but Bardok is very close to his level. Piccolo plays a much smaller role in the series. Bardok eventually convinces Raditz to join them when they figure out the dragon balls. Prince Vegeta overhears and decides to go visiting.
The Saijan saga plays out similar, Kakarot never died and ends up being the weakest (but getting stronger) character. Bardok and Vegeta fight while Nappa takes on the sons. Kakarot doesn't learn the spirit bomb or the Kaio Ken, but has been training hard with his father and brother for a year. The Z fighters still win, its narrow, Bardok allows Vegeta to escape because of some honorable reason.
The Namek saga is where it falls apart. Bardok has gone SS in some continuity. So Kakarot is sent on ahead, again while he's strong he doesn't have that special training to make him Goku(tm) with Bulma and Yamcha (still dating) . The Namek saga plays out mostly the same, Vegeta fights Kakarot and can beat him up with great difficulty. Eventualy the Ginyu force arrives and tries to take the Dragon Balls. Fight is MUCH more even (rather than a Goku stomp) because Super Kami Guru unlocked Kakarot's hidden potential which was immense.
Vegeta and Recoom fight, Vegeta loses but then unlocked Kakarot fights and easily defeats Recoom. The fight continues and then the ship shows up with Piccolo, Raditz and Bardok onboard. Those three, along with Kakarot and Vegeta easily crush the Ginyu force. Ginyu does the body swap with Bardok, but Bardok swaps back before Vegeta kills him.
Back to mainly normal, Piccolo goes to get the last Dragon Ball while everyone else rests up. Frieza appears and the fight is on. Due to the fight Vegeta got his boost, he's as tough as Kakarot again. Raditz and Bardok trained under 100g and are both actually higher than that. Piccolo finds the shattered remains of Nail and fuses with him and gets the boost from SKG. Dende comes along.
Frieza goes through his first 2 forms pretty quickly as they are outclassed by the Z fighters. Third form does better because they insist on one on one fights. Frieza takes down a few of them, not knowing that Dende is healing them. Kakarot does very well in one pass so Frieza changes to his final form, unpowered. Bardok hasn't entered the battle yet letting his sons and the prince go first.
Finally Frieza gets annoyed and decides to destroy the planet. All the Z fighters join up for a massive Final Spirit Cannon to deflect Frieza's enormous planet buster attack. They are able to narrowly deflect the shot back into Frieza, but all of the Z fighters have collapsed. Game over...
The Frieza returns, cripples Raditz and Vegeta and Kills Kakarot with his exploding attack. Bardock loses his mind and goes SS1, and they fight. Blah Blah, good wins, evil dies.
Bardock learns the Teleporting technique after not dying. Kakarot learns the Kaio Ken and Spirit Bomb, after dying. Raditz and Vegeta develop a strong rivalry . Bulma breaks up with Yamcha (he's useless) and both Saijans spend their time courting her while beating up on each other (it is set in the DB universe)
Next we move to the cell games but that's just Kakarot becoming Goku for the most part (Gohan exists but he's a kid and doesn't fight). All the Saiyan's can go SS1. Kakarot figures out how to do SS2 correctly.
The Buu saga is also impressively similar. Kakarot is now more powerful than the other Saiyan's, Bardock is getting up in the years. Raditz married 18. Vegeta married Bulma. They all have a mess of kids. Series still focuses on the adults so the tournament plays out somehwat normally but the kids (Trunks, Goten and Turnip) form up into a 3 man version of the masked fighter.
Vegeta and Raditz get the buu marks and fight against Kakarot and Bardock. Kakarot gets trained by the Supreme Kai. Final battle between tall of them ends up with Kakarot playing most of Gohan's parts and Bardock playing Goku's. Vegeta and Raditz fuse into Rageta. But the story line is more or less the same. Bardock takes out Majin Buu, but this is is retirement fight and he fights smarter not harder to achieve it.
Dragon Ball Super has Kakarot, with the other Saiyans doing stuff. Power levels are basically the same with Raditz and Vegeta being on a level thank Kakarot. It would basically be DBZ with one extra Saiyan.
​
​
​
| 20 |
[Fresh Prince of Bel Air] How did Will manage to seamlessly transfer from a potentially below average high school in the ghettos of Philadelphia into a top private school in Bel Air?
| 470 |
Will was actually always a good student, he brought his text books home hidden in a pizza box. He would have no problem with any entrance exams Bel Air academy had. On top of that a lot of private schools have rules about letting siblings in as a legacy even if they dont meet the enterance requirements.
| 547 |
|
ELI5: Why did colonial armies fight by lining up in large blocks and attacking head-on? What were the advantages?
| 24 |
Lack of firepower from an individual soldier. Each soldier carried a musket that could fire two rounds a minute not very accurately. It could also have a bayonet mounted on it to turn it into a short spear, or be used as a bludgeoning tool in a melee attack. With these limits, if a small group of soldiers met a larger group, or even worse Calvary they'd be swiftly defeated. Bunching together to concentrate your firepower was the most effective use of infantry. Today a single soldier carries an M-4 that can fire 30 rounds in 4 seconds. They'd typically have 210 rounds on them in total in addition to two hand grenades. This soldiers firepower doesn't need to be bunched together with others to be effective
| 30 |
|
Can a star be so hot it is invisible to the naked eye?
|
The hotter a star is the higher the frequency at which it glows. So can it be so hot that it is 'glowing' at x-ray frequency and is invisible to normal light?
| 109 |
No. As temperature increases, the intensity of every wavelength always and only increases. Different wavelengths increase more than others, causing the peak to shift, but still the intensity everywhere increases. If it's glowing at X-ray frequencies, it also glowing quite brightly in the visible as well.
| 119 |
How would it impact the economy if Americans ditched consumerism en masse, saving and investing most of their disposable income instead?
|
Something I hear occasionally on /r/financialindependence (a community about saving most of one's income to invest in assets to be able to retire very early) is stuff like "good thing most people spend everything lol, if most people were like us the reduced consumption would crash the economy".
But is that really the case? Since both consumption and investment are part of GDP, shouldn't reducing consumption and just redirecting all that money to investment have zero net impact? What would this actually mean for the economy though? There are many businesses that would definitely not be viable if consumer demand plummeted, so how would we actually see that zero net impact? Presumably other parts of the economy would have to grow?
| 74 |
>But is that really the case? Since both consumption and investment are part of GDP, shouldn't reducing consumption and just redirecting all that money to investment have zero net impact?
No. Consumption now determines the level of GDP now. Savings being for this purpose essentially the same as investments, might lead to a lower level of GDP right now, but a higher ratio of investments also leads to higher growth rates of GDP.
The optimal ratio is called the golden rule of savings and at least the US is most likely a good bit below that, and a higher savings rate would help the economy in the long run.
| 73 |
ELI5: How come when im expecting something to happen (like a jump scare) I get spooked/jumped more than I would not expecting it?
| 37 |
If you're expecting it, your fight or flight response is already readied and your body and mind are focused and tense. However, in a situation where you're not expecting anything, there's a delay between when the stimulus is registered and the body reacts. There's less built up tension and prepared response with a random spook than if you're already expecting something to happen.
| 25 |
|
CMV: Ethical Vegetarians are inherently selfish.
|
The ethical argument for being vegan or vegetarian is that animals shouldn't be used, abused, and killed for our own unnecessary pleasure. That's not what this CMV is about, though. Vegans live by this belief by not eating meat, dairy, eggs, wearing leather, wool, etc. while vegetarians just don't eat meat but DO eat eggs and dairy and other animal products.
So why are ethical vegetarians selfish? Well they choose not to eat meat but still choose to eat eggs and dairy. They're apparently not okay with animals being murdered for them but imprisoned, tortured, etc. is all okay to get them their milk and eggs. Ethical vegetarians realize that it's messed up to eat meat because it's so obviously disgusting, whether just the taste or how it looks, but they still WANT to eat non-meat animal-based products like cheese because they like how it tastes. They use bullshit excuses to say "well it's wrong to eat meat but okay to eat dairy and other animal-based stuff." They use the same kind of excuses that meat-eaters use to eat meat.
Basically, I'm saying that vegetarians are much closer to meat-eaters than to vegans. Veganism is the only ethical diet done out of selflessness rather than selfishness. Vegetarians just don't eat meat to "feel good about themselves" while still indulging in cruelty but subconsciously making excuses about how that cruelty they indulge in is okay. If ethical vegetarians TRULY wanted to not profit off of animal suffering, and really cared about animal suffering, then they'd be vegan. But they are mentally weak in that they either don't actually care about animal suffering or are too selfish to give up cheese, eggs, etc. in support of their "ethical beliefs."
So, CMV. Explain to me how ethical vegetarians do what they do out of selflessness rather than selfishness (and please don't bring up psychological egoism or stuff like that, we're talking about general "selfishness" or "selflessness" here).
_____
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| 40 |
Causing less harm is still better and less selfish than causing more harm (even if there are those that cause even less harm). Or are you saying that "ethical vegetarians" only don't eat meat because they don't like the taste of it?
| 38 |
How difficult is it to provide cell service on underground services such as subways?
|
If we can have cell assisted Internet access on above ground services like trains why can we not do the same underground?
| 291 |
Very good question. It depends. If you put your transmitter above ground, it is almost impossible to get the signals deep underground and it would be a waste of energy to try to. If you put transmitters inside a tunnel you can actually reach quite far with them because the signals would reflect a lot. So we could do it. We probably don't because it takes a lot of money and it isn't really worth anyone's time since you will be above ground soon anyway.
| 94 |
ELI5: How come human infants are (seemingly) much needier and more frail than any other infant animals in the animal kingdom?
| 30 |
Humans are born with underdeveloped brains. This is for multiple reasons such as we grow up to have really huge brains and that'd kill the mother during birth. Another reason is that the human brain evolved to learn rather than just be filled with extincts. We start off behind and then catch up and overtake by a lot.
| 28 |
|
[Marvel] Can Flora Colossi produce speech using the same phonemes as, but in a different order to the phrase "I am Groot" ?
|
Hypothetically it should be able to produce words such as Arm, Room, and even Rhyme, no?
| 24 |
Possible, but likely very difficult.
When you hear "I am Groot" that's mostly a side-effect of the Flora Colossi speaking. It' s unlikely that they're even consciously forming those sounds. Imagine if we met a species who communicated using the specific way they flex their diaphragms. We too flex our diaphragms when we speak (and breathe), and could make noises in their language--but it would be very difficult for us to actually replicate their language.
| 14 |
[Mass Effect] How much does the Shadow Broker know?
|
I know that the Shadow Broker has agents everywhere (supposedly), but how much does the Shadow Broker know? All information has a price, even if the price may not be huge.
Can I get the insider stock tips on Elkoss Combine?
Can I get the latest EKG results of Councilor Valern?
The schematics for Eldfell-Ashland's new refinery tech?
Those are all fairly valuable info in the right (or wrong) hands, but what about lesser facts?
Is my wife cheating on me?
Am I the primary beneficiary in my brother's will?
These aren't important on a galactic scale, certainly not worth millions of credits, but they're worth SOMETHING.
Does he already have this data, or does he keep fairly little data on hand and instead acquires it as needed?
| 18 |
The Shadow Broker likely only knows those things that have enough value to turn a profit. To him, her or it, information is a commodity like any other and it's only worth purchasing those secrets that offer a return on investment in credits or favors greater to the amount spent.
If knowing that your wife is cheating on you holds a monetary value greater than the price it cost to acquire that information and the Shadow Broker has both the time and interest in making a profit, then yes, they may know that. However, if you are a person of little means, say for example a dancer at the Afterlife Club on Omega, then the price it would cost the Broker to get that information may be more expensive than what you could pay the Broker for it.
Also, secrets can have a shelf life depending on how much of a secret it is. If your wife is cheating on you, it might be a secret to you but there are likely other's privy to that kind of information further making it a poor investment on the Broker's part.
| 12 |
Why does this wrench with 50,000 amps current running through it appear to heat up from the edges inward?
|
I would expect since roughly the same amount of electricity is flowing through the whole thing that it would heat more evenly. What's going on?
​
[https://i.imgur.com/Um00Qdr.gifv](https://i.imgur.com/Um00Qdr.gifv)
| 160 |
I'd also like to point out that there's no way there's 50k amps going through that. Even if the wrench had a resistance of 0.001 ohms, that would still be over 2 million watts and the whole thing would have instantly vaporized.
| 125 |
The US has a ~6% inflation, but the $ went up ?
|
Hi, me and my boyfriend have been stumped by this question, we don't know a LOT about economics so the answer might be really simple.
We both live in France, but he works for the US, and is paid a US salary in dollars. When he gets his salary in his account, the money is transfered to €. In recent months, his € salary has went up by 300€ approximately (but his salary in $ remains the same). I told him that was because we are currently suffering from a huge inflation spike right now, so the value of the € went down. But we recently learned that inflation in the US is actually worse than that of France right now, which is confusing because then you would think the dollar would have lost a ton of value, right ? And yet, the dollar is much more valuable than the euro right now. How is that possible, when inflation in the USA is around 6% and we are at around 4% in France ?
Thank you for anyone who takes the time to answer.
| 35 |
Prices of consumer goods are sticky, but exchange rates are not sticky.
This means it's possible to forecast medium term inflation from past price data. But you cannot forecast exchange rates from past price data.
For a simpler example, say Apple announces that it will raise the price of iPhones in one month because it thinks that will increase its profits. Even though the price change hasn't actually happened yet, the price of Apple's stock will increase today because people expect higher profits next month.
Exchange rate prices are going to reflect all information currently available to investors and inflation forecasts should be priced in.
| 28 |
[Marvel] I'm in a Karate kid scenario where I have to become a competent fighter and 3 experts are offering to train me. One is Steve Rogers, one is Matt Murdoch, and one is Danny Rand. What can each mentor offer me that the other 2 can't?
| 427 |
I'd go with Cap. He'll put you through brutal workouts and give you the willpower to complete them. His encouragement and leadership skills will push you farther than the other two possibly could, and his fighting is grounded in practicality. He'll give you the best baseline competence most quickly.
Danny Rand is a distant second choice. Vastly competent as a fighter, but his discipline requires years of meditation and body hardening to master. You're not going to reach more than "good henchman" level training under Danny.
Despite being the strongest of the three (fight me!), Murdock will be the worst coach. His skills are based on abilities you'll never have, and he can't translate that into sight-based fighting for you.
| 485 |
|
If humans need connection to other humans to survive and thrive; why do so many humans hate being around other humans?
| 92 |
People need other people, but often, the particular people available aren't capable of meeting specific needs.
So we end up needing people, but not *those* people, and many eventually give up trying to find their people.
| 73 |
|
[Star Wars] How was the blockade of Naboo "perfectly legal"?
|
Do we know when a private group blockading an entire planet became ok? That seems like an insane proposition. Could you imagine if some shipping company decided to blockade an entire island nation here on Earth?
| 117 |
It's not. This is rhetoric by the trade federation, who are acting under prior instructions. Calling it legal allows them to stall for time and makes sure the blockade actually takes effect. They're unhappy about something the Naboo government is doing, they have droids to back it up, so they hold everything up.
It makes more sense if you consider the private groups as more like sub-nations. Almost everyone is under the republic, but the republic is a little like a more powerful version of the UN. Like the UN, they have a big discussion forum and they have a peacekeeping force, but they're not going to intervene unless they absolutely have to. Mostly this has worked pretty well for them.
In this case, as per usual protocol, they're not too keen on the blockade. They don't think it's legal, so they send some Jedi to negotiate. Hopefully this can calm things down and they can avoid some sort of escalating violence.
| 130 |
ELI5: Why has the fasces symbol, which is often associated with fascism, been incorporated by so many official offices and institutions in the United States?
|
Before you ask, no I'm not a conspiracy nut, but I genuinely want an explanation because I'm curious.
[The fasces symbol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Fascist_symbol.svg) is often associated with fascist movements, along with the [Swastika](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Flag_of_the_NSDAP_%281920%E2%80%931945%29.svg) and [Celtic cross](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Neo-Nazi_celtic_cross_flag.svg) (here it is on the [flag of the British Union of Fascists](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Flag_of_the_British_Union_of_Fascists_%28original%29.svg). IT was also incorporated on the [logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/National_Fascist_Party_logo.svg) and [flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Flag_of_the_National_Fascist_Party_%28PNF%29.svg) of the Italian [National Fascist Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Fascist_Party), founded by Benito Mussolini).
For some reason it is also displayed by the federal government of the United States, most notably on the [Lincoln Memorial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_Memorial_Inside.jpg) and [statue of George Washington](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/George_Washington_Statue_at_Federal_Hall.JPG) at Federal Hall, but also on the reverse side of the [mercury dime](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Mercury_dime_reverse.jpg).
What's the explanation for this?
| 24 |
You've got it backwards. The fasces was a symbol of power which the fascists adopted later, just like how the swastika was a symbols before it was adopted by the Nazis.
It was a symbol of government power going back to the Roman empire, and the founding fathers, who attempted to emulate Rome, adopted it themselves. Mussolini did the same thing, but it was 200 years after the founding of America.
| 56 |
I don't think religion deserves respect. CMV
|
I think that religions are almost laughable, that everyone that follows them is extremely gullible. I am open to the concept of religion, I just "haven't seen the light".
| 36 |
If you don't respect if for the fact that you don't have faith, and trust me, neither do I. It should be respected in the fact that it should be studied and well understood from a balanced academic view because of its effect its had on world history. Islam in Middle Eastern History, Hinduism in India, Christianity across Europe and in North/South America, and the various other religions/philosophies of the Far East and Africa. So, while it does seem laughable in some aspects, it has had a profound impact on history that should be respected in any respectable academic environment.
| 22 |
What is the essential difference between the first three Ways of Thomas Aquinas? Aren't they referring to the same thing?
|
I am talking about the following Ways/arguments: the argument from motion, the argument from causation and the argument from contingency.
Aren't all of these argument describing the same idea: that there should be an initial uncaused cause that has caused everything in existence?
Aren't these three arguments just the Cosmological argument?
I am really confused.
Thank you:3
edit: formatting
| 23 |
> Aren't these three arguments just the Cosmological argument?
Yes, they are cosmological arguments. There isn't one single cosmological argument. They differ with regard to causation and contingency.
| 10 |
[Dungeons & Dragons] Outsiders don't have a soul that's separate from their body, but "native outsiders" can be resurrected the same way mortals are. How does that work?
|
Both the thing with outsiders having wonky body/soul structures and how native outsiders can be revived like mortals when non-native outsiders can't.
| 20 |
>The souls of outsiders and elementals are so intrinsically tied to the essence of their home planes that they evaporate into the fabric of the plane rather quickly. That's why it takes the true resurrection spell to bring them back from the dead; the magic must sift through the plane and reconstitute their dispersed souls.
Basically, outsider souls are part of a greater whole, only existing independently when embodied, while mortal souls are independent entities and don't need bodies to remain independent. Think of it like humans versus Eldar in the 40k universe; human souls dissolve into the Warp on death, while Eldar souls are powerful enough to maintain cohesion (at least until She Who Thirsts noms them). This comes with benefits (some outsiders reform in their home plane after death outside it, because their life energies naturally return to that plane) and disadvantages (you can't resurrect outsiders as easily outside their plane, and need some material from their home plane to do it.)
Because outsider souls don't remain coherent, they lose their individuality on death, as their souls dissolve into the whole. This is what's meant by 'outsiders don't have souls' or 'outsiders have no afterlife' - the energies that composed them remain, but they cease to exist as independent beings unless their bodies are reformed. Some planes (eg the Hells) allow for that reformation, others don't.
| 11 |
ELI5: Why does the Isle of Man have a disproportionately high number of motorbike related deaths?
|
Even when you don't include those that take place during the Isle of Man TT, why are there so many motorbike related deaths on such a small island?
| 78 |
Just because a death doesn't occur as a *direct* result of the TT, it doesn't mean it's not TT-related.
Plenty of bikers go there all through the year and ride like they're Joey Dunlop - right up to the moment they discover they're not Joey Dunlop.
| 45 |
Is electricity affected by gravity?
| 43 |
It is, in principle; electrons have mass and energy, and hence they are pulled by gravity.
In practice, the strength of gravity on an object with a mass of something like 10^-31 kilograms is imperceptible, especially in comparison the relatively huge effects of electric fields on electrons. So in almost every instance, we can neglect the effects of gravity on electricity.
| 46 |
|
[Star Wars] Could someone master the force without becoming a jedi or joining the dark side?
| 89 |
Yes. The Jedi and Sith are two sides of the same coin, part of the same religion which is merely a way of looking at the force. The force exists independent of the Jedi/Sith and its possible to master it without the knowledge of training available from those organizations. It might be harder and require intense experimentation and quiet a bit of trial and error, but there is no reason an independent force wielder cannot advance their own person knowledge and relationship with the force.
| 90 |
|
ELI5: If Canada is to legalize marijuana, what would happen to all the folks in jail convicted of marijuana crimes? And what would happen to the arrest records of those arrested for these crimes before it was legal?
| 31 |
Nothing. It was illegal when they did the crime, so they are still guilty. They might then go back and let people out, or commute people's sentences, but that would be a separate piece of legislation to do that.
| 50 |
|
Political Philosophy: Equality of Punishment?
|
Equality of justice is supposed to be a fundamental aspect of democratic societies. But it seems there are many difficulties in actually implementing it.
Let's say there's a law that punishes a crime with imprisonment of 3 months. Now for two different persons, this punishment can have different costs. One of them may have a family to take care of, an examination to appear in that would affect his career significantly or other promises/contracts to keep. The other person may not have similar obligations. Therefore, the punishment, although equal in duration, will have completely different costs to these two convicts who committed an identical crime.
This becomes a very real issue when we consider fines. Let's say there's a 100$ fine for speeding. Now to someone rich, 100$ is bare change while to someone who only had 100$ to get some urgent medicine for himself, the effective costs are huge. Clearly, the law has affected them unequally.
EDIT: On the other hand, if the fines are made proportional to wealth, the system will have incentives to target the rich.
How can we actually achieve "equality of justice"?
| 46 |
many countries calculate fines on (serious) traffic violations as percentage of income, or a combination of fixed amount+percentage of income. the process is usually automated, so incentives to target "the rich" are not realy a problem. the reasoning behind all this is not necessarily to achieve equality in justice, but rather that not doing so would not have a deterrent effect on wealthy people.
| 19 |
How did fish get in lakes and ponds?
|
Before humans started introducing fish to pond and lakes, how did fish naturally get in them? obviously if there is a river connecting them to an ocean or other body of water than that's an obvious answer, but what if there isn't any connection to other bodys of water?
| 34 |
most likely there used to be a connection to a body of water that either dried up or diverted away after a while. the fish left in the pond are the descendants of whatever fish happened to live in the area when the main water supply was cut off
| 26 |
[MCU Infinity War] Weren’t Scarlet Witch and Vision more than a match for the aliens in the train station fight?
|
I just got the gist that they’re far more powerful than the three that came to help them, which ultimately forced the two aliens to retreat. Am I missing something, or not understanding their powers in the MCU?
| 109 |
Based on the fight turned out, no. In an even match, perhaps (head to /r/whowouldwin for a more questions on arena type fights), but in this case they were both taken by surprise by an enemy of unknown quantity and power and iirc their first indication something was amiss was when Vision was wounded, severely reducing his abilities and forcing Wanda to spend her efforts assisting him rather than going full aggro
| 156 |
Are there any defenses of feudalism as an economic system?
|
I am not a neo-feudalist or anything, I just need help with a DnD character.
| 67 |
Since questions like these are grounded in morality (as economics cant answer moral questions), I'd say most economists think liberal society is the most preferred society. Feudalism is at odds with liberalism.
| 28 |
[MCU] How is it possible that only Hank Pym discovered the pym particles in the whole universe?
|
How come other intelligent creatures with more advanced technology(and maybe brain) haven't discovered their existence?
| 49 |
We don't know that some alien species hasn't found them.
We only know that Pym found them and was working with them. We also know that Pym found that unshielded work with them is... detrimental to mental well-being.
| 61 |
ELI5: How do our hearts beat 24/7 without needing to take a break/rest period?
| 3,661 |
They’re hyper-specialist cells for just this purpose. Cardiac muscle cells ditch all the storage space and reproductive parts and max out on mitochondria.
100% power all the time.
They don’t need to save fuel, they’re in the heart and have first dibs on fuel.
They don’t need to have regenerative capacity, you’re double dead if you take damage there anyway and they’re encased in a bone shield
They don’t need to worry about waste buildup - just dump it into the passing blood flow.
They don’t need to manage temperature changes, they’re deep in your core and well insulated.
All the things normal muscle cells have to worry about don’t matter, just max power all day every day.
| 10,152 |
|
[Family Guy] Why don't the Child Protective Services do something about the abuse that Meg suffers from her parents?
|
Peter named her "Megatron". That alone should have been a huge red flag.
| 437 |
I think there was an episode, where Meg had enough and told all of em to kiss her ass and was about to leave. The threat of her leaving was causing her family to fall the fuck apart and we find out that shitting on Meg was the only thing keeping the family together, so she took one for a team that clearly doesn’t deserve her and stays.
| 382 |
ELI5: Why did historical diseases like the black death stop?
|
Like, we didn't come up with a cure or anything, why didn't it just keep killing
| 16,553 |
By the way people still get bubonic plague in some parts of the world, just not in endemic scale. Probably because of sanitation it’s not spread like it used to in Middle Ages. Still it’s not completely eradicated at all.
In general, infectious disease never keeps going forever in high rate, because as soon as number of healthy people drops significantly (due to getting infected, immunity, or death), transmission rate drops. Because there is no more available supply of fresh host to spread to. That’s the reason deadly diseases only comes in sudden waves and die down - not keep going. So the key to control infectious disease is to reduce number of susceptible people by any means. Vaccine, quarantine or getting them all infected all works.
Just want to add: if you want to read up on it, it’s called SIR model (Susceptible-Infected-Removed). It’s basis for all infectious disease models. It’s a bit mathematical though.
| 12,501 |
[Star wars] I am a mid ranking imperial officer on board the Executor who has made a mistake on a command decision. When confronted by Lord Vader I told the unaltered truth and made no attempts to hide my mistake. Prior to this I had a flawless record. Will I survive the encounter?
|
It has been two years since the empire lost the death star and a general broadcast order said to conserve replacement parts due to a supply shortage.
I was in command of a weapon's battery, one of the power conduits showed slight signs of damage but remained serviceable for standard use. I made the command decision not to replace it.
In our last encounter with a rebel ship, lord Vader attempted to engage the cannons at a higher power level than standard. Doing so overloaded the conduit and caused my canon to misfire. My team was able to replace the conduit within half the average repair time however the rebel ship escaped. Its shields had failed right before it entered hyperspace and it is likely even one more shot would have crippled it.
I have taken full responsibility for the failure of my canon and attempted no subterfuge. What will lord Vader do with me?
Edit: Bonus question, how would it differ from Grand Admiral Thrawn?
| 168 |
Most likely, yes. Vader is actually pretty chill as long as you follow basic workplace etiquette. Don't make fun of the guy's disability or his religion, and you will most likely survive any encounter with him. Even gross negligence would really only get you a brief choking as a warning.
| 138 |
[General Fiction] Are there any stories where the existence is the afterlife is not only a confirmed part of the setting, but also actually affects how the characters think about death?
|
I was watching the latest season of the Magicians, and one of the main characters was pretty unbothered by the possibility of their imminent death because one of the consequences of their various adventures was that they knew the afterlife existed, they had a rough idea what it was like, and they knew they could be reunited with a love one in death.
Are there any other stories that have scenes like that? Any horror stories/movies where the protagonist stops and thinks about how, if ghosts exist, than souls must also exist, and so stops fearing death quite so much? Or stories where farming karma in order to get a good reincarnation is actually something somebody cares about?
Essentially, any good works of fiction where the afterlife isn't just something people believe in, but an actual, tangible part of the setting that actually affects how people think and act?
| 43 |
Order of the Stick takes place in a D&D universe so resurrection spells are available to anyone who can pay for them. Roy's girlfriend isn't really that broken up hearing about his death since they have the body and he didn't die of old age. There's still a whole story arc revolving around coming up with the expensive material components, but at the end of the day it's an obstacle, not a tragedy. Roy's father's death of old age, meanwhile, is treated as seriously as the comic can manage, since that means no coming back to the material plane. But even then the comic has an afterlife to soften the blow.
| 39 |
ELI5: How do stealth planes work and why can't radars detect them?
| 20 |
Radar works by shooting out invisible light waves in all directions. That light gets reflected back to the antenna which can detect it and based on any frequency/amplitude changes and signal lost it can determine the size of an object and its distance away.
Stealth planes operate on the basic principle of making sure as little of the reflected light makes it back to the radar antenna to be detected.
The first method was design of the craft. By situating the panels of the craft at specific angles you could ensure that only small bits ever reflected light in one direction at any given time. That's why the initial stealth craft, like the F-117 Nighthawk, looked weird with their triangular shape and sharp edges.
The second method was material type. By making the shell of the craft out of special material it could absorb the radar light, rather than reflect it, making it invisible to radar.
As technology improved they could rely more on the radar absorbing material and less on the design, which allowed them to go back to the more standard aircraft design as seen in the F-22 raptor.
| 17 |
|
What is fire?
|
Essentially, is it a kind of plasma? Is it pure energy? What?
| 54 |
It's a reaction between oxygen and a fuel (usually a hydrocarbon or related compound) producing carbon dioxide and soot. The reaction is really hot so the products start to emit blackbody radiation, and also rises because hotter gas is less dense.
| 41 |
ELI5: Nationalism and Globalism
|
Hi! I'm wondering about the stances of nationalism and globalism.
These are two political stances that I've heard about, and wondering exactly what they imply.
Thanks!
| 29 |
First, it's important to note that both of these are generally derogatory terms used to put down the political opposition. As such, you'll often see them miss used or applied in odd ways.
Nationalism: the belief that your nations interests must come first, regardless of the effects on other people or nations. A nationalist would be in favor of strictly limiting refugee intake if there's a risk terrorism or instability, regardless of how small that risk is.
Globalism: the belief that nations must act to benefit everyone, even if it comes at the detriment of the nation enacting the policy. A globalist would be in favor of expanding the number if refugees allowed into the nation, even if it resulted in some economic or safety risks.
| 15 |
[MCU] Does Iron Man have a Doctorate Degree?
|
Random thought. I don't think it's ever mentioned in the MCU, and that version of Tony seems like the type of person who'd skip getting an official degree just to prove how smart he already is.
| 16 |
comics Tony "only" got a double master's in engineering and physics no reason it would be different for mcu. when has parents died he probably left school under the very true idea that he was already beyond anything MIT could teach him.
| 24 |
[Star Wars] What were the separatist planets grievances with the Republic?
|
Did the separatists have legitimate grievances? It seems like hundreds of systems joined Count Dooku for nothing and were then willing to trust their fate to droids.
| 57 |
The Trade Federation, intergalactic banking clan and several other powerful economic factions were disillusioned with the Republic as it was growing inefficient and full of corruption with a heavy bias towards the core worlds.
All of the problems of course were orchestrated by Palpatine to start a rebellion.
| 43 |
If I hit a baseball with a bat, can the ball go faster than the speed that I'm swinging the bat?
|
I'm thinking of a ball that is stationary, like on a tee. I guess that maybe the question would work better for a golf ball now that I'm thinking about it.
If it is a pitched ball, can the ball ever go faster than the combined speed of the bat and the ball? Does it matter what the ball is made of, or how strong the person swinging the bat is?
| 17 |
Yes, the ball can. Assuming an elastic collision, both kinetic energy and momentum of the system must be conserved. Focusing on the small period of time surrounding the hit of the ball, obeying these two conservation laws means that the ball can shoot off with a much higher velocity than the bat, because the bat has a much larger mass (and benefits from the mass of the person holding the bat).
The material matters because this determines how elastic vs. inelastic the collision (between the bat and the ball) is. More rigid materials will lead to more elastic collisions (meaning less energy is lost to heat) and hence more energy stays as kinetic energy and the ball shoots off faster. Squishier materials lead to more inelastic collisions (meaning more energy is absorbed into deformation of the materials and generating heat) and so the ball will not bounce off as fast.
| 19 |
[Sandman] if the Endless are single entities that do one thing at a time, how do they affect all humans?
|
We see Death bringing...well, death to people. and doing the first phase of bringing people to the afterlife. We see her do this as a single entity that does only one thing at a time just like a regular earthly mortal animal would. Her actions, movements and thoughts move at human speed.
So how does Death kill all the people it kills at once and is everywhere when she is not?
How does Morpheus bring sleep and dreams to all the humans that are sleeping at the same time?
| 274 |
We know Morpheus visits individual peoples dreams but also delegates much of his work to others (the Corinthian, Fiddler's Green, etc). There's enough infrastructure and support in place that the dreaming continues even in his absence (albeit slowly decaying).
Presumably Death's operation works the same way. She handles some cases herself, but has enough support to tackle the whole volume without her individual involvement.
| 182 |
[MCU]Why did Stane tried to kill Tony in Afghanistan?
| 15 |
Plausible deniability. Stane wanted control of Stark Industries, hence the implied assassination of Howard Stark. He already played the "car accident" card, don't want to be too suspicious. A reckless playboy getting blown up in the middle of a war zone wouldn't merit too much investigation.
| 20 |
|
[Star Wars] Why didn't Vader kill Admiral Piett?
|
Was the revelation to Luke far too upsetting to him, or did he have ah int it wasn't Piett's fault and that executing him would not have helped?
| 71 |
He killed Ozzel because he was an arrogant priss who thought he knew better than Vader. He screwed up a large military operation with his own pride.
He killed Needa because he had the Falcon dead to rights and lost it off his scope. Instead of continuing the search, he gave up. Vader probably knew the ship couldn't have gotten far and was pissed Needa came grovelling instead of keeping up the chase.
Piett wasn't arrogant and didn't show weakness. He was a good commander and didn't flinch even in the face of failure and retribution. Vader recognized that and combined with his own internal turmoil decided it wasn't worth it to kill him.
| 109 |
eli5: If most electronic appliances' efficiency losses are through heat, does that mean that electric heaters are 100% efficient?
|
Edit:
Many thanks for your input everyone!
Just to clarify, I don't want to take into account the method of generating electricity or shipping it to the home, or the relative costs of gas and electricity. I just want to look at the heater itself! i.e. does 1500W of input into a heater produce 1500W of heat, for example? Or are there other losses I haven't thought of. Heat pumps are off-topic.
| 1,061 |
Yes, electric heaters convert 100% of the power that they consume into heat. So they have an efficiency of 100%.
Heat pumps move heat from one area (outside your house) to another area (inside your house) The amount of heat they move is typically about 3 times more than the power they consume. So the in terms of energy-to-heat efficiency, they are 300%+ efficient.
But thermodynamically they are not “creating” heat from nothing. So heat pumps are not perpetual motion machines, they don’t break any of the laws of thermodynamics.
| 922 |
ELI5:Why do banks get to charge 20% for credit cards and I only get 0.01% for a savings account?
|
Seems pretty unfair to me.
| 109 |
how exactly is that unfair? it is *their* services that *they* are providing for *their* price. they are allowed to do it because they are a business and are allowed to make profit and charge their customers for their services
| 71 |
ELI5: how can NASA connect to distant planet rovers and far off satellites but there are still dead zones to cell phone coverage and internet connectivity on Earth
| 22 |
NASA's satellites have a clear line of sight between whatever's on Mars or in space.
On earth there's a ton of radiation interference and construction materials that block radio signals... cell signals are also based on towers on the ground. If you live 500 miles out in the woods and you're the only person there and there's no tower you're not going to get a signal.
| 22 |
|
[Star Wars] Why was the Death Star falling to pieces around Luke while he was dragging Vader to the ship?
| 37 |
The reactor had just had a furious ball of Dark Side-fueled lightning dumped into it, and sections of the unshielded Death Star were being pounded by rebel forces, and the *Executor* had just crashed into the side of the thing. The station was in horrible shape already, the destruction of the central core was just the final nail in the coffin.
| 76 |
|
CMV: Deadpool is one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen.
| 86 |
I would you encourage you to actually read some of his comics. Anything from the Joe Kelly run, Cable and Deadpool, or his most recent run.
Personally the arc "the good, the bad, and the ugly" (deadpool vol.4 15-19). Is the best comic arc that I've read in the last 5 years.
When Deadpool is done right he is a tragic character first, who uses humor to mask his depression. When deadpool is done wrong he is a Jar Jar binks who makes pop culture references. We just have to hope we get a well written dead pool during the movie.
Also both of the images that you linked aren't from deadpool comics, they are fan made.
| 58 |
|
CGP Grey said that Brown Dwarf Stars "blur the line" between what a planet is, and a star. What exactly differentiates a cool Brown Dwarf from a Gas Giant?
|
Are there other oddities in the universe that make the difference between certain stars and planets hard to define? What is the difference between extremely cool gas giants, and extremely cool stars?
| 374 |
There are a couple different ways you can draw the line between brown dwarfs and planets.
The most common one is that anything massive enough to fuse deuterium for a short time in the core is considered a brown dwarf. The pressure never gets high enough to stably fuse normal hydrogen like a star, but can fuse deuterium and release some energy very early in its life. But we're not exactly sure where that limit is, and it's tough to observationally prove that an object we see managed to burn some deuterium when it formed.
Another possible dividing line is one of formation. It's thought that brown dwarfs can form in the same manner as stars via collapse of material from a gas cloud. Gas giant planets are instead typically thought of as forming from the core-accretion model of planets. But again, when you look out and see a particular object near the border line, you can't generally prove how it formed to differentiate it.
In the end, it's likely that there's going to be a continuum between the two, and any line you try to draw between gas giants and brown dwarfs is going to be somewhat arbitrary and you'll probably find exceptions to it.
| 86 |
ELI5: What is the feeling in my stomach when i drive over a hill?
| 34 |
There’s a cast network of nerve connections within the body, handling messages between the spinal cord, the brain and other structures.When you hit the peak of a roller coaster and start dropping so quickly, things inside start to shift around.The liver and spleen are relatively secured by suspensory ligaments,But the intestines themselves are relatively mobile. While your body is secured by your seat belt, the organs are free to move about by some extent. That contributes to the free-fall floating sensation that either calls us back for more, or has us running to get sick from nausea.The movement isn’t only the movement of the organs, it is also the movement of what’s inside the organs.The intestines, the stomach, they hold liquid,The bladder; the same thing. It’s relatively fixed, but the fluid within those structures probably plays a role in that sudden drop.There’s no long-term danger from your organs slightly shifting around. They go back to where they started. But the movement is enough for your nerves to notice that something’s happening.
| 25 |
|
ELI5: how is there a color wheel if colors of light are on a linear spectrum?
| 32 |
It’s an artifact of human vision. The human eye can only detect the amount that our red, green, and blue color sensing cells are triggered. Put red green and blue at equal distances around a circle, and all the other colors will appear to us to lie somewhere in between those regardless of where they lie on the wavelength spectrum.
So for instance violet happens to excite our red-and blue- sensitive cells, so we see violet as somewhere between red and blue even though it’s totally not between them in wavelength.
| 60 |
|
[Star Wars] So the jedi have 7 types of lightsaber combat. Do the Sith have any equivalent forms of combat? Or do they use their own forms?
| 36 |
There are actually more than just 7 forms. There is the Vapaad variation on Juyo, Jar'Kai and forms dedicated to specific weapons, the saberstaff, saberpike, and lightwhip.
I'd assume we can infer from this that there would also be a dedicated form for crossguard lightsabers.
But the answer is no.
Consider that the Sith Order is a organisation that stems from the Jedi Order as it is. Their combat teachings are the Jedi teaching. The evolution of forms happened to counter the threats as they arose in the Galaxy. The Sith faced the same challenges.
What's more probable is that the Nighsisters of Dathomir likely have their own forms of combat that are ancient and specific to them.
| 31 |
|
[Far Cry 5] what did the Peggies do to all the cars in the county?
|
I hope this works. Not sure how many of my fellow Cougars remember the ebulletin board at the library. It's hosted local, so we can still get to it. (Though it hasn't really been that big of a deal. I've been talking to people all week as far away as Georgia with my HAM radio. And when I get really antsy I just grab one of many, ***many** planes just sitting around and fly one or two counties over and go see a movie and get dinner someplace nice like Hardee's)
Got a little off topic there.
In the raids I've been in, and some of the gun fights, when someone gets killed while driving, why does the door open and they fall out onto the street? I've even seen this in a truck I was riding in when the driver took a 30.06 to the head. Next thing I know, his body is no where to be seen.
Did the Peggies cut all the bolts on the door hatch to every car, truck, and bus in Hope county?
But if that's the case, why was I able to get the door shut when I slid over and drove away?
Is this just the Bliss talking?
| 25 |
It's a weird cultural thing around here. Folks drive with their hands on the door latch. Lots of times it's that they're antsy about getting out, but half of it is just habit.
They get shot, they twitch, the door opens, and they fall out. Simple as that.
| 21 |
How "accepted" is Feser's thesis that modern philosophy emerged out of a *desire* to displace scholastic Aristotelianism?
|
He makes this argument in *The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism*.
He basically maintains that if the metaphysical assumptions of Aristotle/Aquinas/etc are accepted, then the idea of a God, the soul, objective morality, religion, etc. being true is almost inevitable. These assumptions include the distinction between actuality and potentiality, the idea that all things are irreducible to matter and form, realism about universals, four causes, etc.
He lays out some reasons for why modern philosophers (i.e. beginning with Descartes, etc.) were motivated to reject Aristotelianism. These reasons aren't as important as the fact they were motivated, not by rational argument, but a priori conclusions. They then constructed arguments to fit these conclusions. (Note that Feser *doesn't* claim that there was *no* arguement, but that there was *little* argument; and that the little argument—against scholastic Aristotelianism—was weak.)
This took place, primarily, in the scientific domain; where ideas like formal and final causes were displaced by "mechanical philosophy": a theory of science where everything is made of atoms which act in accordance to arbitrary laws of nature. This removed all meaning from nature. The modem project, then, defined itself *in opposition to* that metaphysics. It didn't offer solutions so much as it *rejected* that metaphysics.
I, being not well-read in this area, am not in a position to evaluate his conclusions - hence the question in my title.
EDIT: I was asked to provide quotes from the book. So here's a pertinent one:
> So, while the ancients pursued wisdom and virtue for their own sakes, and
the medievals applied ancient learning to shoring up the claims of religion and
directing man toward his destiny in the hereafter, the moderns, naturally enough
given the new cultural climate that shaped their values and perceptions, sought to reorient intellectual endeavor to improving man’s lot in this life, and to
defusing post-Reformation religious tensions by sowing a general skepticism
about the possibility of attaining much in the way of religious knowledge, so that
there’d be little left to fight over. Hence Bacon’s conception of a new science
that would give us mastery over nature, the promise of new technologies, and
hope for making this world a fitting habitation for man. Hence Locke’s aim of
drawing definite limits to what was strictly knowable where religion was
concerned, so as to put all conflicting creedal claims on an equally low epistemic
footing and thereby to lay the predicate for his doctrine of religious toleration.
“And what is wrong with all that?” many readers will ask. Well, there
might be nothing at all wrong with it; and then again, there might be something
very deeply wrong with it. But the point for now is not to determine whether this
project was good or bad, but rather to emphasize that to a very great extent it
was *a desire to further the project*, and not an actual refutation of Aristotle, that
moved modern thinkers away from his metaphysics. The agenda determined the arguments rather than the other way around
(Emphasis his.)
Although, later, he does say this:
> Animus, attitude, agenda, but little in the way of argument. That, I have
suggested, is what lay behind the intellectual revolution that displaced the
classical philosophy of Plato and Augustine, and especially of Aristotle and
Aquinas, and enthroned the modern philosophy of Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes,
Locke, Hume, and all the rest. But “little” is not “nothing,” and there were some
arguments, though none of them very impressive.
He then goes on to explain how, in his view, early modern philosophers' criticisms of scholasticism were flawed. In particular, he focuses on Locke.
| 24 |
The thesis you describe has not even negligible acceptance in the broader philosophical community. More than that, it's bad to the point of coming across like satire, and it would be good advice if you were encouraged to get your knowledge of modern thought from a different author.
Feser's account is unhistorical in a lot of ways. Popular Thomists like him like to present medieval philosophy as involving an enviable unity brought about by Aquinas, which continues until it's disrupted by modernity. There never was any such unity: Aquinas was met with sustained criticism from the get-go and represented only one of many major schools of philosophy even if we restrict ourselves to 13th century scholasticism. The challenge to the traditional metaphysics broadly shared by scholastics in this period didn't arise with modernity but rather with late scholasticism around the turn to the 14th century. The challenge to scholasticism writ large, including this later tradition antithetical to Feser's interests, likewise didn't arise with modernity but rather with humanism and subsequent schools of Renaissance philosophy beginning with the 14th century.
Invoking God in this narrative is particularly unhistorical, as modern philosophy remained not just theistic but theocentric, and the change away from this style of philosophy occurred not with the shift to modernity but in the middle of the 19th century.
And much of the technical content Feser likes to point to are just red herrings without significant bearing on the issue. For instance, actuality and potentiality: the sense of these terms needed for the cosmological argument is perfectly consistent with the characteristic premises of modern philosophy, in any case this argument is happily reformulated in terms of cause and effect or necessity and contingency or grounding relations... etc., in fact such formulations were already developed in the ancient and medieval periods -- in fact they predate Aristotle's formulation of actuality and potentiality, and in any case the cosmological argument remained a mainstay well into the modern period rather than being undermined by the shift to modernity.
The whole shtick about just "wanting" to get rid of Aristotelianism, rather than being persuaded to on rational grounds, is just a an extended exercise in ad hominem. There is extensive argument offered for modern anti-Aristotelianism, and it is a product of a long trend of philosophical development at each step of which we find extensive argument. The thing to do is deal with the details of those arguments, not try to impugn the chsracter of one's interlocutors.
The bit about not offering solutions is nearly uninteligible. There's, like, all of modern philosophy that offers putative solutions. Just open any page of any modern philosophy book and throw a dart at it, and you'll likely to hit such a putative solution being offered.
| 31 |
ELI5: Why is Ronald Reagan held to be one of the best US presidents, even among scandals like Iran-Contra that would have destroyed the reputation of other presidents?
| 1,216 |
Two reasons.
* He was really, really, likable. He filled the stereotype of a friendly old grandpa very well, so many people are willing to overlook his scandals.
* The modern conservative movement holds him up as an example of all that a US president should be. His actual actions aren't even that consistent with modern conservatism, but again, he's likable so people are willing to overlook that.
| 685 |
|
[RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK] When Belloq opened the Ark of the Covenant, why were he and all of the Nazis killed, but Indy and Marion were not?
|
Indy told Marion to close her eyes and not to open them. Both of them survived, and everyone else present was killed.
Why?
Also, what is the range over which the Ark is lethal?
| 254 |
Because Indy was a scholar and knew Samuel 6:19
"And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men..."
The Nazis hadn't read their Bible.
| 364 |
ELI5: Why does Scientology oppose Psychiatry so vehemently?
| 22 |
Mostly because psychiatry offers explanations and treatments for things Scientology offers. Therapy and medications are better than E-meters and auditing, so Scientology wants rid of the competition.
| 31 |
|
ELI5: How do bodily functions work when someone is in a coma?
| 31 |
It's auto pilot; it just happens.
It's contained and managed most simply by briefs aka 'adult diapers' if you're not into promoting respect.
Specifically for urine: Texas/condom cath to mke it easier for caregivers. Maybe an indwelling cath, but this shouldn't be used as a long term solution. A suprapubic cath is a longer term solution.
For BMs/poop: One could get a colostomy bag to manage it easier... ish.
| 15 |
|
What makes a virus airborne? Some viruses like chickenpox, smallpox and measles don't need "droplets" like coronavirus does. Does it have something to do with the size or composition of the capsid?
|
In this comment: https://old.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/fjhplb/what_makes_viruses_only_survive_in_water_droplets/fkqxhlu/
he says:
> Depending on the composition of the viral capsid, some viruses can be relatively more robust while others can never survive outside of blood.
I'm curious if size is the only factor that makes a virus delicate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsid this article talks about capsomere and protomere, but doesn't talk about how tough it can be.
Is there any short explanation about capsid thoughness, and how it related to virus survival?
| 4,222 |
Size does play a role. But, in general, the big difference is between enveloped and non-enveloped viruses.
Some viruses have a capsid that is surrounded by a fatty "envelope." Fats, or more precisely here lipids, are more susceptible to disruption by things like soap, acid, or alcohol. If the envelope is destroyed, the virus is no longer able to infect cells. This is why many viruses that infect your gut (and have to survive your stomach acid) are non-enveloped.
The composition of the capsid or envelope also plays a role. Embedded in the envelope are proteins that can confer stability. Stomach acid will destroy many envelopes, but some are protected by protein "reinforcements," as it were.
The size of an envelope also affects stability. Smaller particles will have higher curvature, a physical property. High curvature can reduce the stability of envelopes.
| 896 |
[Star Wars] Did Luke Skywalker even love his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru? Because apart from being briefly sad after discovering their burnt corpses, he never mentions them again.
|
It seems rather cold blooded and sociopathic that the same guy who’s sensitive enough to try and save his mass murderer father from the Dark Side with love, can’t even bother to shed a tear for, his all intents and purposes, parents.
Hell Leia can’t even bother naming her only son after one of them. Just this smelly desert weirdo that she knew for like 30 seconds.
I don’t really recall them playing that big a role with him in the EU either.
It’s kinda fucked man.
#justiceforowen
#justiceforberu
| 303 |
Of course he loved them.
Unfortunately for us we only get to see a small slice of their relationship before and after their deaths, but in that few moments we can see a lot.
All Luke wanted to do was leave Tattooine, find a life somewhere. However the first real opportunity that he gets, when Obi-Wan offers him a chance to go with him to Alderaan and join the Rebellion, he refuses. He felt such duty to his family that he was willing to give up his chance because he knew they needed him.
Then, when he finds out that the Empire might have tracked down his homestead, he rushed off to try and save them. He was willing to face the Imperial Army alone, because he cared that much.
Finally, when he found out about their deaths, he was despondent, however, at that point, events happened so quickly that he didn't have time to properly grieve.
We may never have got a chance to see his mourning or memorializing Owen and Beru, but Luke did love them, he may not have always gotten along with them, what teen always did when they were that age, but he did. You can be sure that for the rest of his life, they were never far from his thoughts.
Edit: what does Leia have to do with it? She litteraly never met them. Luke was the only one with a relationship with the. As for Obi-Wan, he did play an important role in her life, even if it was short. Besides she might have just liked the name Ben, people are allowed to name their kids names they like without having some deep personal connection with some other person who has that name.
| 312 |
ELI5: why traditional Catholics are upset with Pope Francis.
|
http://news.yahoo.com/popes-foot-wash-final-straw-traditionalists-004235548.html
This article says that traditionalists are upset with Pope Francis' "militant humility." As someone born Protestant I don't understand why this is actually a thing. Can someone lay this bag of snakes out?
| 18 |
There's a line of thought in traditionalist Catholicism that the church isn't *supposed* to be all that humble. We're supposed to be a beacon of light to the world, they argue, and parading around in fancy gold stuff helps people notice the beacon.
| 17 |
Is there a point somewhere inside Jupiter where the matter above you and the matter below you gives you a net gravity of 1 G?
|
Of course, I'm sure there'd be plenty of other things to worry about, like pressure and temperature and electrical storms, but regardless of all that, does such a point exist?
| 91 |
It does exist, it's where the amount of mass below you is exactly the same as the mass of the Earth. The mass above you does not contribute at all to the gravitational pull on you.
**edit** See sxbennett's reply for an important caveat.
| 37 |
ELI5: Is there a practical reason for a car's driver to be on the side rather than the middle?
| 203 |
Others have mentioned the proximity to the door. The only thing their answers don't explain is why cars with front bench seats (which are rare these days, but used to be common) don't have the driver in the middle. This is because of a couple of reasons. First, the steering column. This is a relatively straight piece of metal connecting the steering wheel to the steering rack (or in older vehicles, the steering box). This box needs to be on one side, because the engine is in the middle. The other reason is that older cars were predominantly rear wheel drive, which means the transmission sits between the driver's and passenger's feet. This means that if the driver was in the middle, log room would be minimal, and there would be no room for pedals.
| 229 |
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[General fantasy] Do Lawful Evil characters generally have more in common with Lawful Good characters or Chaotic Evil characters?
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If put into a situation where they were forced to "team up" one way or the other how would they go?
| 73 |
Lawful characters by default would work better together, due to the shared nature of lawfulness. While transgressions would be better accepted by a CE character, otherwise cooperation would be hindered by their...*personal* interpretation of the cause.
For example, in Planescape there's an example in the form of the Mercykillers, who were formed by the merger of a LG faction with a LE faction. The result you get is rather clenched teeth and most certainly uncompromising, but essentially functional. The Mercykillers are extremely harsh and kill-happy, but also reliably consistent and follow their own rules even when they don't like it. Hanging judges to a man, but as much judge as they are hanging, and won't slaughter you in the streets until they have proof of your crimes.
Compare this to the best known interaction of LE and CE, which is the Blood War.
| 74 |
ELI5: Why are vanilla flavored items always white, when the bean itself is dark?
| 16 |
Vanilla flavored items are typically flavored using vanilla extract, as opposed to using the actual bean. The extract is made by submerging the beans in a liquid solution which then absorbs the flavor. The vanilla extract is actually yellowish. This is why a lot of vanilla ice cream has a yellow tint. If the ice cream is pure white, then it has likely been flavored using imitation vanilla flavor instead of real vanilla extract. This is common in cheaper products because vanilla extract can get expensive.
| 13 |
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Does a cancerous cell still does it job as a cell i.e would a cancerous kidney cell still filter blood?
| 293 |
Sometimes. Cancer cells are generally bad at their jobs.
Melanocytes make melanin, a pigment that gives skin color. Most melanomas are dark-colored from overactive melanocytes that are still doing their job, albeit in a disorganized out-of-control fashion.
Some melanomas are depigmented. These look more like an expanding pink or white scar. They've lost the ability to make their characteristic pigment!
Children with pituitary gland tumors often grow extremely tall because the tumor cells still produce a flood of human growth hormone and develop other problems from over/under-production of pituitary hormones. Thyroid tumors are really bad because an overactive thyroid from an adenoma will force your metabolism to go at warp speed and make you overheat and force your heart to beat really fast all the time.
To answer your question, maintaining organized plumbing is important for a kidney. Even if cancer cells are still trying to filter and concentrate waste it probably won't be very helpful.
| 187 |
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[Marvel/DC] Has there ever been an immortal who's not a megalomaniac or an arrogant god?
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The immortals either think we need to be their slaves or we are not worthy of them. Has there ever been an average Joe type immortal who lives among us?
| 17 |
The number of people who are "immortal" in one way or another in Marvel/DC is ridiculous. Can you be a little more specific? Do you mean something that transcends time and space like The-One-Above-All, or do you mean something lesser like Wolverine?
| 39 |
How do stock trading companies, like Robinhood, get access to the NASDAQ and NYSE? Is there an API that allows anyone to connect to these exchanges?
| 72 |
There are many 'private' API's companies use to exchange data. So it's not 'anyone', but it often is 'an API'. But you won't be able to access these private API's without signing a contract (and generally paying money).
| 37 |
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ELI5: Why does only one sperm cell get to fertilize the egg? How is multi-sperm fertilization prevented and does this prevention ever fail?
| 18 |
So, there are 2 main ways this prevention of polyspermy happens.
1st, there is a fast reaction by the egg upon sperm entry. It depolarizes the membrane, which prevents other sperm from being able to bind to it. Kinda like a magnet.
2nd, is a slow reaction. It is the hardening of this egg membrane, which is called cortical reaction. This hardening of the membrane makes the egg impenetrable to other sperm.
| 29 |
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CMV: Vocational school is just as difficult as a university (relatively speaking)
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Why is vocational school often recommended for people who aren't college material/ intelligent? Trades and vocational school are still difficult and require intelligence. Whether it be electrical, welding, HVAC, etc it still requires math, reading comprehension and basic skills.
Why is it viewed that a welding class or a automotive repair class is easier than college courses ( more specifically freshman level history, college algebra, business etc). If anything I would view learning to weld as a more difficult skill than passing a college class.
Additionally you still have to take math and English in most associated degrees. I’ve seen a lot of people even in college struggle with basic algebra and fractions, now how would they be able to thrive in a trade that uses decimals, fractions, micrometers etc quite frequently? Also trades are physically demanding. Someone who has never worked a physical job/ been active will have a difficult time digging trenches, lugging pipes/sheet metal.
I just think the grass isn’t greener on the other side and trades are just as difficult as a general degree. ( not comparing it to Ivy League level/pre med/high difficulty degrees)
| 19 |
Oftentimes, people who are bad at school are bad at particular aspects of schooling, such as classroom learning and dealing with high levels of abstraction.
For many people, practical applications of math or engineering principles are much easier than purely abstract mathematics, even if the core concepts are the same. Additionally, they are able to embrace the task more clearly because it is tied to a practical end result, as opposed to being a purely academic exercise.
It isn't to say that trade programs are necessarily easier than ordinary undergraduate programs, but they're difficult in different ways that make them suitable to different people. So someone who is bad at ordinary academic programs might still thrive in a well designed trade program that better suits their learning style.
| 17 |
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