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ELI5: How does Alzheimer's disease work?
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My grandma was diagnosed with it and since I know little to nothing about it, I was interested to know in particular the illness will worsen over time and how it will affect her everyday life.
| 65 |
Basically it destroys the communication between neurons and destroys the cells. Parts affected are related to memory, as the hippocampus, that’s why memory degrades and yes, it worsen with time, as more neurons are destroyed and other parts of the brain also get affected.
I’m sorry for you, this should be a hard process to see in a loved one. Best wishes
| 55 |
A core tenet of the Christian belief is that the Christian God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and most especially, omnibenevolent. Then how can this apply to God's actions in the Old Testament which were often motivated by anger or God sending the sinned to hell?
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The main concept of Christianity is that the Christian God prophesized the arrival of his son, Jesus, to save humanity from their sins to guide them to the truth, which is God himself.
The Old Testament is a collection of stories that build up the arrival of Jesus via the use of other prophets who also wanted to guide people towards God and teach them about the name of God.
As Jesus is also technically a part of the Christian God, as stated in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, both Jesus and God (and the Holy Spirit) are powerful and capable of all things and present in all ways and most importantly, benevolent in all ways and more "benevolent" or "closer to the truth" as a Christian theologian would say, than the other deities such as the "false" polytheistic gods, and enemies of God such as the Devil and his followers.
The problem is that if God is meant to be omnibenevolent since the very beginning, then what are the explanations for some of his actions towards humanity that were sometimes motivated by jealousy or anger but later wanted to "repent" for his actions by doing something more benevolent?
For example, the story of Adam and Eve and how he banished them from the Garden of Eden and when Cain killed Abel, God punished him with a mark and condemning him to a life of wandering.,
Or the story of the Tower of Babel where the humans wanted to build the tower to be closer to God but the latter deceived them linguistically and destroyed the tower and made the human confused about one another which later led to the creation of different languages.
Or the story of Noah and how God flooded the Earth and drowned all the sinners and later created the rainbow as a reminder to not killed humans at a mass scale again.
Or the story of Moses and how God wanted to show the Pharoah his might by causing many plagues and later drowning the Egyptians in the Red Sea.
Or the story of Sodom and Gomorrah where God wanted to punish them for their sins.
​
This is a stark contrast to the benevolent God that is implied in the Christian religion and it contrasts with the notion that if God is omnipresent and omniscient, then he would have been capable of knowing the consequences of his actions all along instead of attempting to make amends for his actions or succumbing to his emotions of anger or jealousy.
This is also in contrast with God wanting to save humanity and give them an eternity of paradise after death but if they do not follow his rule or way of life, then they are punished in hell for an eternity which is ruled by the devil and his followers which are technically the enemies of God so allowing the enemies of hell to work well with God and willingly take his creations and give them an eternity of suffering or torment them and warp them into his followers in counter-intuitive to what defines what God is.
So how can a God do all of the things mentioned above but also be capable of doing certain acts?
| 66 |
The short answer is that G-d as portrayed in the Tanakh is simply incommensurable with the theology of the New Testament.
The earlier books of the Tanakh were written such a long time before the New Testament, in different cultural climates where G-d was understood in a different way. Even monotheism is not always a given in the Tanakh, and many of the authors believed there were multiple gods but only one who they ought to worship (i.e. monolatry). Meanwhile Asherah and the Nehushtan (the bronze serpent Moses erects in the book of Numbers) were still worshipped as secondary deities in the Temple until the time of King Hezekiah (you can see him cast them out in 2 Kings 18:4).
Further, the G-d of the Tanakh is treated as a personal deity who has a specific relationship and covenant with the Israelites and guides those people to prosperity. This G-d is not everyone's God. There is also no Hell, and 'Heaven' is understood in a very different way. G-d rewards and punishes people in this life.
The New Testament, on the other hand, has universalist goals. God is portrayed as a universal God for all people who offers a different covenant (a 'new covenant' - the same new testament in the title). As part of these universalist goals, it was really important for the authors to emphasize his omnipotence, omniscience and omnibenevolence. He rewards and punishes everyone, but not necessarily in this life (he has Heaven and Hell to do this *after* life).
In other words, they are two different conceptions of God. It is worth considering that they simply may not be reconcilable (and they may not even have to be). The bible is not a single philosophical argument put forward by a single author that we can critique and find contradictions within. In many ways, it is not surprising at all to find that 7th century BCE Israelites of the Babylonian Exile understood God differently to 1st century CE Hellenistic proto-Christians.
| 59 |
[LOTR] Would it have been possible to discard the One ring someplace nobody could find it?
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I mean if Frodo hucked that thing deep into the Dead Marshes, who could ever retrieve it? Or if they took it as far away from Mordor as humanly possible and threw it into a normal volcano, so it was encased in rock. Maybe leave it in the caverns under the Dwimorberg, throw it down a chasm and let the Dead Men of Dunharrow handle it.
I know the ring has a habit of getting itself found, but you can make it so difficult to get it that it would eventually just be forgotten entirely, right?
| 22 |
No. The ring WANTS to be found, and has the power to do so. If thrown into a volcano? The volcano would eventually harden, and dwarves or goblins would tunnel and mine, and find it. Or perhaps a dragon would choose that volcano of all others to make its lair, and the One Ring would find itself in that dragon's hoard...
The Dead Marshes? Many are those that are drawn there and yet still wander free, more still would do so if the One Ring called. The Dead Men are not immune to the Ring's charms... even one of they might keep it for a few centuries, as Gollum did, but always will it call for others to take it home...
It can never be lost, only found. It can never be wielded, save by its own choice - except by the Dark Lord on His Dark Throne. The Nine Kings each thought they were clever as you and could outwit the magic of the Ring... and each was wrong. It WANTS you to think that. It WANTS you to think you could hide it, keep it from harm through your cleverness. But you'd always be wrong.
No, no. Best to give it to me, to be safe.
| 77 |
ELI5: How does your brain automatically know how to make your entire body function?
| 18 |
Basic bodily functions like breathing and heart beat are plain hardwired in to your body. Just like simple electrical circuits. Yes, there are things (hormones) that can regulate them up or down, and your concious brain can override the signals. But evolution has conserved this feature because it is so efficient at keeping animals alive.
Your heart beat for example is controlled by the "sino-artial node". It is basically an electrical timer that self regulates it's electrical pulses, and doesn't even need input from your brain to keep your heart going (hence why you can be brain dead, but still "alive").
| 11 |
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[MCU] where did stark industries get its money after tony stopped selling weapons?
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i’m stupid
| 128 |
Well Tony did invent a clean, cheap, high intensity, fully renewable power source based on an entirely new element. Just the profits off that would be enough to keep the lights on for a few centuries.
| 245 |
How long after the Big Bang did the first supernovas happen?
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Was it shortly after stars formed? Or was it millions of years later?
| 17 |
Don't forget, in astronomical terms, millions of years later *is* "shortly" :) The first stars are thought to have formed roughly 100 millon years after the Big Bang. These would most likely have been incredibly massive, a few hundred times or even a thousand times more massive than the Sun. Stars this massive can't form today, because the clouds that form stars are filled with heavy elements that quickly cool the gas as it collapses. But these heavy elements were created by stars, so the first stars had no such impediment.
The more massive a star is, the shorter its lifespan - a dim red star, less massive than the Sun, will have a lifetime longer than the present age of the Universe, lifespans of tens of billions of years or longer, while these extremely massive first stars would have only been able to survive for a few million years. So the answer to both of your questions is yes - the first supernovae happened very shortly after the first stars formed, only a few million years later :)
| 18 |
ELI5:Why is a single cherry on every traditional sundae?
| 43 |
The ice cream sundae was invented by Chester Platt who owned the Platt & Colt's drugstore in 1893. Platt prepared a dish of vanilla ice cream for the Reverend John Scott on a Sunday. Chester Platt spiced up the ice cream with cherry syrup and a candied cherry. Reverend Scott named the dish after the day. An advertisement for "Cherry Sunday" served at the Platt & Colt's drugstore has helped document this claim.
The birth of the sundae goes to Ithaca, New York, which as what is the earliest known documentation via an ad placed by Chester Platt in the Ithaca Daily Journal on April 6, 1892 for the “Cherry Sunday” served at Platt & Colt’s soda fountain.
| 48 |
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[LOTR] What are Galadriel's powers?
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Does Galadriel have some kind of magical powers, or are those caused by her wearing one of the three elven rings?
I'm mainly talking about the stuff she did at Dol Guldur when fighting Sauron and in Lothlrien when talking to Frodo about the ring.
| 27 |
Magic doesn't really work in Middle Earth the same way it works in other universes. Most of her power is keeping Lothorien from fading and her people from declining faster. She can will nature in a way, but nothing like casting fireballs from her hands.
| 28 |
ELI5: Movies and film from past decades still look fairly decent. Why do live sports from the same eras look so bad? Even highlights from just 10 years ago look greatly inferior to nowadays.
| 24 |
The type of recording media being used.
Film looked (and still looks) awesome, but it's really expensive and time consuming to work with. It also takes extra steps to take something shot on film and broadcast it on TV. So for sports, it just wasn't an option.
Recording to magnetic tape systems was much less expensive, and the signal that comes out of that kind of camera can pretty much go straight to broadcast, making live TV possible. But they didn't look as good, and duplicating a tape (which often had to happen for archival purposes) or amplifying the analog signal (necessary if you're broadcasting a national game to local affiliates) hurts the quality even further.
Modern broadcast systems are digital, and the reason for that is that digital format things do not degrade in quality when duplicated. Ten years ago the switchover process was still happening, analog TV was still a thing until 2009.
| 20 |
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ELI5:What is it I'm actually smelling as a thunderstorm approaches?
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Just today I walked outside to overcast skies, and I could smell the storm coming. What did I smell?
| 19 |
An electrical charge—from lightning or a man-made source such as an electrical generator—splits atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen molecules into separate atoms. Some of these recombine into nitric oxide, and this in turn reacts with other atmospheric chemicals, occasionally producing a molecule made up of three oxygen atoms—ozone, or O3. (Most atmospheric oxygen is made up of two atoms—O2.) The scent of ozone heralds stormy weather because a thunderstorm's downdrafts carry O3 from higher altitudes to nose level.
| 16 |
ELI5: Why do these power-adapters have to be so HUGE?
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Honestly. Everything in techonoly is getting smaller and smaller, lighter and lighter.
BUT THESE DAMN POWER ADAPTERS.
WiiU, Xbox 360, Xbox One, etc. etc. etc.
I mean: look at these monsters:
[Exhibit A](http://www.destructoid.com/ul/266017-ps4-vs-xbox-one-comparison-and-gallery/DSC03634-620x.jpg), [Exhibit B](http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/power-bricks.jpg), [Exhibit C](http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/251385166185-0-1/s-l1000.jpg), [Exhibit D](http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2006/06/13/3d_gaming_notebooks/alienware_aurora_m7700_power_supply_002.jpg).
Sometimes I think they grow over the years - MASSIVE BRICKS!
Can anyone eplain to me why these have to be THAT big? Since like.. forever?
Has it to do with the power the devices need? (example: Apple TV - just a cord needed)
Which phyisical problem keeps them that big?
Can we expect them to be smaller in the future?
Don't let me down, future of technology - you did a nice job with smartphones, now work on these power-adapters!
| 17 |
You've got 110V coming out of the wall & you only need like 12V for your console. Dropping voltages like that requires a transformer.
The size of that transformer is defined by laws of physics (as a function of the voltage change & how much power you need to push through it). It's not a semiconductor device that can be shrunk with better technology - it's a chunk of metal with wires wrapped around it.
...and as long as new consoles keep needing more power, they'll need to keep making larger power bricks.
| 12 |
CMV: America is desperate to wedge a new Cold War against China to preserve U.S. hegemony
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"Fuck the CCP. No, not Chinese people, I'm not a racist, just their government, because everyone knows China is a brutal dictatorship where elections don't exist. All Chinese people are brainwashed by their government and should be freed from their own oppression even though most vocally support it."
This is the prevailing view on Reddit and most comments that try to dispute those baseless claims and defend China often get downvoted into absolute oblivion.
Now let's see watch history.
1945: Nazi Germany and Japan are no longer a threat, the Soviet Union's ideology entails a worldwide workers' revolution against capitalist oppression and the USSR becomes the US' #1 enemy even though both fought the most evil regime on Earth together. The United States overthrows countless democratically elected governments around the world in favor of fascist regimes for the sake of containing communism. Americans eat each other apart over the Red and Lavender scares. Some say it's a war of ideology, I say it's two countries trying to dominate the world as best as they can for their own selfish interests.
1991: The Soviet Union collapses. It's no longer a threat either. China has long abandoned the core tenants of communism and instead creates their own approach to governance without interfering in the rest of the world affairs. US hegemony is wholly uncontested.
Unfortunately for the US China has 1.4 billion people and the US only 328 million. It's an impressive achievement that the US has managed to remain the global superpower with a global minority, yet that is mostly the cause of Europe being devastated by their own internal conflicts and the failure of communist economies. The US cannot sustain itself as the global policeman, yet instead of embracing a multipolar world and respecting countries' sovereignty, it has engaged in blatant propaganda of the same scale as the USSR's to rally the world against China and hurt them diplomatically and economically in order to advance American imperialism.
When was the last time you heard about the Chinese government arguing for economic sanctions against the US because black people are getting killed on the street for being black? When did China argue that democracy is bound to fail, inefficient, idiocratic, plutocratic, and that the rest of the world should embrace China's more authoritarian approach to governance? Never. They respect the rest of the world's sovereignty and instead of virtue-signaling the world they try to solve their own issues. Yet most Westerners are convinced that the CCP is absolute evil even though the National People's Congress is directly elected by the people. Most are convinced that propaganda only exists in China and that they know better than the Chinese people what is better for themselves just like the US and Britain felt entitled to overthrow the Iranian government because it was leaning towards socialism. In the case of Iran it has only led to a much bigger disaster in the country becoming an anti-Western authoritarian theocracy. And no one can argue that America isn't evil when it sawed so much chaos in Latin America and the Middle East, so these hyper-reactionary governments are justified in one way or another.
American hegemony benefits no one but Americans and the rest of the world should not let America dictate the narrative and let us go to war against China.
Now let's talk about the reasons of why we are supposed to hate China so much:
* **Falun Gong**: a cult with that promotes heteronormative norms, is sexist, homophobic, anti-evolution, and has deep ties to American far-right politics. The Epoch Times, Falun Gong's newspaper, has supported QAnon conspiracy theories and is nothing more than a Trumpist propaganda outlet that bashes China left and right funded by reactionaries of the West.
* **The Uyghurs**: Xinjiang has experienced several terrorist attacks in the past and China is right to deal with the situation. As we can see in France, assimilation doesn't work so well by letting people do what they want. The Uyghurs have been approached by the Turkistan Islamic Party which is universally recognized as a terrorist organization and something needs to be done about that. China recognizes 55 different minorities and they have all enjoyed an exemption to the 1 child policy, lower taxes and affirmative action through positive discrimination e.g. easier entry into university. Why would China want to commit a cultural genocide against the Uyghurs specifically and not other Muslim minorities in China?
* Most news you see regarding the Uyghurs boil down to a very few select sources. One of them is [Adrian "led by God against Beijing" Zenz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Zenz), a Christian fundamentalist who does not speak a word of Chinese, has not been in China for years, yet self-indentifies as an expert on China. Guess who Zenz works for? The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. You cannot make this shit up. This man has used very dubious methodology to justify his claims, and yet the BBC and respectable Western news outlets parade his work as the ultimate truth regarding the Uyghurs, convincing people that China has actual concentration camps even without rock-solid poof, further fueling "Fuck the CCP" sentiments. The Uyghurs concentration camps are basically the new weapons of mass destruction of Iraq. America mustering public opinion to justify its war against China.
* There was an "Uyghur activist" who attempted to [host an AMA on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/e9ad4n/i_am_rushan_abbas_uyghur_activist_and_survivor_of/) to spread Uyghur awareness and turned out to have worked for the CIA among many American agencies including at Guantanamo as a translator for Gitmo's own tortured Uyghurs prisoners because they do exist too. Any attack against this person was rebuked as "The Chinese Communist regime"'s shills, as if any criticism whatsoever on the veracity of her claims just had to be paid trolls. This is how propaganda works, deny everything, prove nothing. Anything defending the Chinese government has to come from Chinese troll factories. Anyone critical of American propaganda is a "tankie". People who actually live in China and have a much better access to the truth than us are still dismissed as brainwashed nationalists who can't see past CCP propaganda. If you're Chinese and have spent a lot of time outside China you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. They'll ask you about politics and try to get you to admit that the CCP has guns on your family and you secretly hate your government. When you don't say that and praise China, you must simply be brainwashed.
* **Climate change**: this is mentioned less frequently than the Uyghurs but some Westerners blame China for destroying the environment even though China pollutes a lot less per capita than the US. Yes they have a massive population, they're going to pollute more nominally, this should be common sense. Yet China is moving aggressively into renewable energies because in China the government controls corporations and not the opposite. They are in the best position to tackle climate change free of the lobbies which literally own US politics and work directly against democracy. China's successful response to the -disease I'm not mentioning by name because mods are asleep and won't approve my post- is another instance where authoritarianism can benefit the population and save lives. Yet Reddit still believes the CCP should be completely dismantled. For what? So that a demagogue like Trump or Bolsonaro can take over? Benevolent dictatorship is better than democracy. The West is currently experiencing a major crisis of democracy, embracing conspiracy theories like never before, losing faith in the election process, and Biden's victory is only a bandaid to a resilient disease that will continue to bring extremists with facist tendencies to power when the political class fails to address the needs of the population. I firmly believe China will come out very strong in the distant future. And Americans are terrified of it. If I wanted to be dramatic I would say there is a substantial chance China will mark the of Western liberalism and prove that the fetishizing of freedom and democracy has gone too far and has only led to the errosion of said democracy. But this is mere personal speculation.
I'm sure there's some unethical things happening in China, I know the reeducation camps are real but they aim to address terrorism and I am not convinced they form cultural genocide. I'm not a Chinese person and I have no personal interests in defending China yet I have high regards for the truth, I'm fascinated by politics and history because they shape the entire world, and to me it seems like Westerners twist the truth like shoelaces to rally the world around Cold War II in the hope of making the Chinese government collapse and preserve Western hegemony.
We are bombarbed non-stop with news regarding the Uyghurs, alleged forced ogan harvesting of Falun Gong members, and the debt-trap diplomacy apparently ruining African nations even though last I recall it is not China who cannibalized the shit out of Africa for centuries. I can't recall a single instance of positive news about China or the CCP hitting the frontpage of r/worldnews. It took me a lot of time to realize this because I have always been personally opposed to authoritarianism, but propaganda seems to go both sides, and I wish more people could see this and use some critical thinking.
If we can go back and look of how much damage anti-communism did with the Vietnam War killing countless innocent Americans and Vietnamese people for a war of men in suits, I think we should now look at the present and watch if we are not making the same mistake again. Is China becoming the new Nazi Germany? Do they really need to be stopped? Should we let this narrative destroy both China and the Western world for the sake of alleged human right violations?
| 20 |
You need to look back a bit further than just the most recent years to understand the China US conflict today. US was actually a friendly nation to China in the 1970s up to the early 2000s despite any criticism on Chinese undemocratic practices by the US. Nixon re-established relationship with China, Carter extended a most favoured economic partner to China in support of the modernisation of China. US adopted a policy of engagement with China as another pillar to contain the USSR then this was mutually beneficial as China has pivot towards developing a market economy.
Since then, US continues to criticise China's human rights records but these criticism is just playacting amongst nations with no serious implications. Both China and the USA know it's largely for political show to its own constituents - it's normal diplomacy modus operandi. US foreign policy then move towards encouraging modern development in China with a view that a modern China is more likely to develop democratic practices. It is in this environment that USA supported China's entry into the WTO in the 2000-2001 in return for promises that China will be a fair trading partner and exercise a better human rights record. This turned out to be one of most consequential misreading of China by the US
China didn't end up being a fair trading partner at all and continued to undercut all businesses and WTO members. They practice industrial espionage and many US big business willfully went along with the ride. China's human rights record has actually worsen especially since the ascension of Xi Jin Ping in 2012.
Before that there were a bit more mutual respect between US and Chinese leaders, now the gloves are off and Xi Jin Ping is no longer subtle in its rivalry with the US, and the US is responding in kind. It's more than just Falun Gong and Uyghurs which are just a smokescreen for US to criticise China. Even the jailing of Hong Kong human rights and COVID 19 is a non issue in the whole scheme of things.
The real issue is that China has continually exercised its self interest and dropped any facade of mutual benefit with US and other nations - and it's not shy about lying about it. COVID and the Hong Kong human rights being the clearest example. So the issue itself is not the worrying part, it is China's consistent demonstration its untrustworthiness especially in pursuing its self interest. This is the main reason why nearly all countries have a purely transactional relationship with China (including US). US has the added pain of feeling betrayed for the broken promises expected from supportin China into the WTO.
The real concerns is the bullying in the South East China Sea against other smaller nations, China's Belt and Road Initiative as a stealthy way to acquire strategic economic resources via financial servitude of smaller nations, technological advance built on industrial and commercial espionage. Also China doesn't respect other nations, just like other nations doesn't respect it much - most have purely a transactional relationship with China because that's what China has succeed in establishing so far. China consistently look down at smaller nations, it just don't have any desire to militarily impose their will because it's not worth their effort so far, and they have calculated that any benefit is not outweigh by the potential costs and difficult to quantify fallout.
This however is yet to escalate to a Cold War because China's expansion is not a political one, it seeks its own area of influence mainly in the Asian sphere and it has yet to demonstrate any intent to start wars to achieve. It's aim is an economic one and a defensive one.
What you are seeing is similar to a more sustained and more acrimonous competition between Japan and US during the 1980s and 1990s and not a Cold War. There's plenty of reasons why America has justification to defend itself from unfair trading practices on an ongoing basis
Trying to understand who's "fault" it is in such rivalry is meaningless, China is pursuing its own agenda, US is pursuing its own agenda. Until 2000 the agenda were consistent, now they are in opposition. That's just how geopolitics work throughout history. If China had transformed into a more democratic and fair trading partner as originally planned, America will react differently today.
| 16 |
ELI5: Does the US have a plan for it's debt? What is the endgame?
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I know the debt is more complicated than it seems but it is a gigantic number that just keeps rising. What will eventually happen? Can it get too big?
| 15 |
National debt isn't like personal debt. We don't need to pay it off. As long as we can keep making the required payments on it, people will gladly keep loaning money to the US government.
The debt is only really a problem if it starts growing faster than the economy & we *can't* make payments on it.
| 28 |
[Mr Roboto - Styx] Who is Kilroy and why was he turned into a cyborg?
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We know that Mr Roboto isn't what he seems, the man behind the mask is someone named Kilroy, but that is all we really know. Who was he and why was he turned into a robot, and just what is he planning to do?
| 16 |
So Mr. Roboto is a disguise Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (ROCK) used to escape imprisonment by Dr. Righteous the leader of the MMM (Majority for Musical Morality). The whole album is a rock opera.
Edit: also thanks for the earworm...
| 19 |
[Zelda] Lore-wise, don’t you find any non-monster skeletons anywhere in the ruins of Breath of the Wild?
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I get that the most likely answer is “it’s a family friendly game” but after I00 years there would still be skeletons in these ruins (especially near the Castle) unless someone or something removed them. Did people brave the danger to retrieve the bodies over the years? If so, where are the cemeteries? LoZ is no stranger to cemeteries after OoT so it seems the bodies just completely disappeared after the Great Calamity.
*Lore-wise, why don’t you find any…
| 17 |
A couple of possibilities. The survivors may have recovered them in order to give them a proper burial, or the monsters may have eaten the bodies and/or used their bones to make things. The monsters use a lot of bone-themed imagery, so it may be a part of their culture or ritualism.
| 19 |
How does one move their lab from one university to another when taking a new TT position?
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Let's say you've been a tenure-track (or maybe even tenured) professor with a lab at one university, and you've been offered a position at a new university. What are you typically allowed to take with you to the new university, and what do you have to leave behind?
I'm thinking of more portable things like computer equipment, grants, students, incomplete research data, incomplete papers, or related paperwork--as opposed to, say, heavy lab equipment. Obviously this may be different by field of study.
| 17 |
This is negotiated as part of the offer and bridge funding with the new school.
Generally (in life sciences):
- positions and space for all students and staff in your group who want to come with you will be provided (must be negotiated with the new institution, but this is expected). Matching existing fee waivers or institutional funding of student support must also be discussed, but would not be unreasonable
- all data generated in your lab remains in your lab. If this is collaboratively generated data, it remains collaboratively "owned"
- all papers that you are working on are yours, they come with you. It is usually expected that you will include both institutions in your affiliations if the work straddles your time in each.
- patents filed through your institution remain the property of your institution, though you remain the named inventor and can continue to receive royalties if licensed.
- laptop computers containing research typically come with you, this may vary.
- any scientific equipment paid for in full from your grant budgets including institutional funding such as recruitment or bridge allowances will come with you (benchtop centrifuges, PCR machines, flasks, etc)
- lab samples generated during your research, including live animals and human data come with you, providing any applicable MTAs and IRB requirements can be secured or updated.
- Officially, except for "investigator awards" (K-awards, studentships), any federal or external grants that you are named a PI or co-I are the property of your institution. However, unless you are leaving with very bad blood, they will typically move with the investigator. State-level or institutional-level funding may disappear or phase out, these will depend on the specific awards.
| 12 |
ELI5: How do produce stands in NYC, Montreal, and other major cities sell their items for less than most big box chains?
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In NYC, there are plenty of produce vendors on the street that sell aesthetic, fresh fruit for less than cost conscious mega-chains, like Wal Mart, Trader Joes, and Wegmans. The big chains have negotiating power, wholesale discounts, and economies of scale to help them profit on tiny margins. So, how is it that my small, local, fruit stand can outcompete pricewise with national chains and still stay afloat?
| 2,634 |
There is normally a food terminal in city where produce arrives. Everyone can go and bid on the produce. The buyers for the big supermarkets will probably be buying 100 crates. But then they have to put them in that trucks and take them to that distribution center and repackage them and send them to the store and that cost a lot of money.
The little stands bid on 1 or 2 crates, then throw them in the back of the van and drive to the side of the roads with very little overhead. They're not paying for a refrigerator distribution center or rent and maintenance on a massive supermarket.
The lack of cost that they have between bidding at the food terminal and selling at the side of the road is why it's cheaper for them.
Edit: fixing a couple of words from drunken voice typing
| 1,859 |
[MCU] In the 1st Avengers film they use Loki’s staff to access the Tesseract and close the portal, saying you can’t protect against yourself’. But the staff had the Mind stone, the tesseract was the Space Stone.
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so what happened? Could the Time Stone have also penetrated the energy barrier and close the portal?
| 68 |
Erik Selvig says "Loki's sceptre. The energy. The Tesseract can't fight, but you can't protect against yourself." Since Black Widow replies "It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing," Selvig seems to be speaking in the context of being mind-controlled.
Selvig had rigged the Tesseract-operated portal device to respond to the sceptre - possibly its energy signature - in order to shut it down. He couldn't have known about the stones, because the sceptre was only revealed to have something in it after substantial analysis - that, and Ultron removing it from inside, and all of that wouldn't take place for another few years.
| 54 |
It might be time for a change
|
I'm currently a math instructor with a PhD in Statistics at a decent university in the Midwest, and most days, I enjoy it. The problem is it is starting to get boring. I have been here seven years, and I have to teach the same gen ed courses over and over because the tenured or tenure track professors get first choices of courses. It is also the same school I received my degrees from. I have thought about moving into institutional research, but I like student interaction. Have any of you made a change out of teaching into a staff position?
| 35 |
You're not tenure line and you've been teaching seven years? Definitely time to explore non-teaching careers. And you'll absolutely able to find ways to interact with students in non-instructional roles, btw.
| 27 |
Eli5: Why does it take so long to change a channel on modern TVs?
| 191 |
Old TVs were analog. The signal was encoded in a simple way than needed just basic electronics to decode and display. This was fast, so old TVs changed channels quickly. However, such a method of transmission was inefficient: just one TV channel per frequency. It also did not allow for a high quality of image. The only edge of analog signal is that it is robust: it can be displayed no matter what the interference, it will get blurry, snowy or lose color, but it still will be decipherable.
Modern TV is digital, it uses complex computerized encoding that allows to pack ten or twenty channels in one frequency with much more quality. However, deciphering this signal is harder and needs a mini-computer that is built in every modern TV set. That's why the slow down: it's the wait while the minicomputer processes things.
| 173 |
|
Is the atom considered stateless?
|
I understand the interaction between between atoms (distance, composition) determines whether a mixture or compound is a solid liquid or gas. does this mean the individual atoms themselves don't fall into these categories?
| 61 |
In terms of gas, liquid, solid, etc. states. Yes a single particle doesn't really have a definite state.
If you have thousands of molecules that fly about not really caring about each other, you have a gas.
If you have thousands of molecules that can move, but are really close to each other, you have a liquid.
If you have thousands of molecules that are pretty much frozen in place in a compact space, you have a solid.
There is of course other states with variable definitions, but those three are the most common of course.
| 19 |
[Superman]where does the cape go when he's in his Clark Kent getup.
|
This is one that has always bugged me, but now that my 3 year old is starting to learn more about superheroes, I feel like its going to come up. That cape is pretty billowy - in many depictions it goes all the way down to his calf, if not the floor. How does he fit it under a dress shirt and suit jacket?
| 33 |
That super-suit is made of Kryptonian fabrics, salvaged by his adopted parents (the Kents) from Kal-El's spaceship. The material has some very advanced properties, such as being nearly indestructible, and appears to have some sort of adaptability function as well. The billowy cape and boots, while obviously being thick and substantive when Superman is in hero costume, are able to fold and compress away into unnoticeable thicknesses when Superman is hiding them under his civilian persona's usual business attire.
Note that Superman, since he has super-speed as one of his abilities, isn't significantly hampered by those instances when he has to wear t-shirts, gym shorts, bathing trunks or other apparel that wouldn't conceal his super-suit - he can simply conceal the suit "nearby" (i.e., somewhere within a few miles of his current location) and move so fast he's unseen to retrieve it and change into costume.
| 27 |
The principle of charity
|
How seriously is this principle taken within academic philosophy? One thing that's very easy to see within more popular/non\-academic forms of communication is an almost wilful determination to think the worst of people who disagree with you, or think you're wrong, to the point where they aren't just wrong, but also morally disgusting, repugnant, and vile. Even when doing my PhD in Psychology, it was not uncommon to see very uncharitable interpretations of statistics, theories, hypotheses etc., within academic journals.
On the rare occasion when you see a philosopher comment on something in more popular media \(I'm thinking of Dennet's response to Sam Harris' book on free will, as one example\) it's astounding how well\-mannered the complete disagreement can be. Is this style of discourse the norm, or the majority? Is it common \(for instance\) to dismiss an objection simply because it violates this idea to some degree?
| 28 |
>How seriously is this principle taken within academic philosophy?
Very.
>Is this style of discourse the norm, or the majority?
Yes.
>Is it common (for instance) to dismiss an objection simply because it violates this idea to some degree?
Yes.
| 30 |
[28 days Later] What do the infected eat?
|
As far as I'm aware, the Rage Virus effectively turns people into ravenous, rabid animals. That said, they don't tend to eat people, more just kill them in a fit of rage. The Major talks of how Private Mailer will teach him how long it takes the infected to die of hunger, yet since they aren't technically 'zombies', I didn't think they would eat flesh.
| 19 |
The urge to kill overrides all other desires. Any eating that the Infected do is more accidental than intentional. This is why the Infected in Britain were all dead after 28 weeks. This was when the last wave of "fresh" Infected died of starvation.
Maintain the Quarantine.
| 30 |
ELI5:why do (some) digital clocks run behind/ahead after a while
|
I noticed my digital clock (which i use to wake up in the morning) started running ahead of the real time. I'm now trying to keep a log of how much it runs ahead, to see if it's significant. Last year it didn't have a significant difference between displayed time and actual time. (The clock was plugged out for a month or two)
So I wanna know why they can run ahead or behind in time.
| 26 |
Digital clocks work thanks to Quartz crystal oscillation.
Basically, if you take a quartz crystal and pass an electronic current through it, it will oscillate at a specific frequency.
Most work at about 32,768hz, which is 2^15 cycles per second. Basically, a computer chip counts the oscillations. Every 32,768 oscillations, the clock moves forward one second.
This is very accurate and reliable, generally speaking. The issue is, pressure and temperature affect how fast the crystal oscillates. A 10C difference can cause about 2min/year to be lost, a 20C difference can be a difference of 10min/year. If your unit gets hot, or sits in a hotter than normal area (like over a heater, on a sunny window sill), it can have a noticeable difference.
| 15 |
ELI5: How TV ratings work
| 395 |
There are two different ways Nielsen measures ratings in the United States, either by a set top box or someone takes a daily journal of what they watch and when.
These numbers are separated into two numbers, rating and share. Rating goes by points. One ratings point is one percent of the total number of households with TVs. So if a show has a rating of 5, that means that 5 percent of people with TVs are watching that show.
Share is similar but the difference is share takes into account the percentage of people actually watching TV. So a show might have a rating of 5, or 5% of households with TVs, but it might have a 15 share, which is the percentage of people actually watching TV are tuned to that show.
Networks then use these numbers to determine how much they can charge of advertising time during shows. Higher ratings = ability to charge more. That's why Super Bowl ads are so expensive.
EDIT: Grammar
| 108 |
|
ELI5: Why do you have to download Java and Flash to run things in Java and Flash, but don't have to download C/C++ libraries to run programs that are coded in C/C++?
| 23 |
C/C++/Etc... are compiled languages. That means that the code has been converted into a form that your processor can execute directly, with relatively little interaction from the operating system. But, because they are converted down to that level, a program compiled for one type of computer, like your PC, won't work on another type of computer, like your phone.
Java and flash on the other hand are at least partially interpreted languages. That means that they are delivered in a form that is processor independent (The same code will run on lots of different hardware types). But, to understand that more general code there is a program interpreting the general code and converting it into hardware specific machine language on the fly as you use the software.
What you are downloading is the specific program needed to convert from the "generic" java code to your hardware's specific "machine language".
Edit (to elaborate): The converter is always compiled, and is always hardware specific. Therefore, the copy of Java on your phone is different than the copy of Java on your PC, but they will both run the same java programs.
| 27 |
|
ELI5: Why does medicine such like anaesthetic and painkillers make you constipated? What are the chemicals doing to your body to stop the poopin'?
| 22 |
Opiates (like morphine) basically act on the gut to reduce the movement of the gut that moves your poops along, reduces the secretions that the gut makes, and absorbs more fluid from the poop.
So it dries them out, and keeps them in a long time.
| 11 |
|
ELI5: Why do ~2 hour movies take 2-3 years to make, while an 6+ hour TV season can be made in 1 year?
| 1,979 |
\*Some\* movies take 2-3 years to make. The "blockbusters" with lots of CG, locations, etc.
Other movies that are just people talking in ordinary places with no pirate ships, monsters, or giant fights can be made in less than a year.
| 1,426 |
|
eli5 Why do devices still briefly have power when unplugged?
|
Say you unplug your tv, the standby light will remain on a few seconds before going off?
| 80 |
Electronics use components called capacitors to regulate voltage. These capacitors act like little, short-life batteries - which still hold a charge when the power source is disconnected. The stored power then drains out and keeps other components powered for a short period of time.
| 168 |
ELI5: Old Cathode TVs would sometimes display an image that would roll up the screen and come back up on the bottom. What was happening that would cause that? And furthermore why did slapping the TV on the side sometimes fix it?
| 90 |
In old broadcasts, pictures were generated one line at a time, roughly 500 lines per frame, with a blank interval between each picture. Both the transmitter and the receiver had to be synchronized with the start of each frame.
When you saw the screen roll it was because the TV became unsynchronized with the broadcast and it was trying to find the frame. Most, if not all early TVs had a knob that allowed this to be tuned, while later TVs had better circuits to handle this.
Modern broadcasts don't require it.
| 80 |
|
[Zelda] Why does Zelda have a legend written about her?
|
I know basically nothing about the franchise except that Link is the player character. So why is the legend about Zelda instead of Link?
| 16 |
Canonically, Zelda is an incarnation of the deity Hylia who, along with Link and Ganon, is locked in an eternal cycle of struggle due to the dying curse of the Demon King Demise. While Link is the playable character, Zelda is generally just as central, if not more so, to the plot of the games.
| 25 |
Why do we call elements above uranium man-made?
|
This is a trope I've heard repeated over and over since grade school, that elements higher than uranium don't exist in nature and are only man-made. Doesn't that seem a bit arrogant considering the awesome forces in supernovas and black holes?
| 36 |
We call them man made, because with the exception of trace amount of neptunium and plutonium, they don't exist on earth unless manufactured. They most certainly did exist in supernovae, but since we are 4 billion year removed from the last one, they have decayed away and aren't available to us anymore, unless we make them.
| 55 |
[Star Wars] Why is Palpatine so powerful?
|
I could go a long way with describing his many feats.
Darth Maul and Savage Opress who Obi Wan and Anakin had a hard time beating were completely at his mercy. He forced chocked Dooku light years away. Took 3 Jedi Masters in a few seconds. He went up against Yoda who was the strongest Jedi at the time and overpowered him. He did lost to Mace Windu but only due to him using Vaapad.
Why is one Sith Lord stronger than the entire Jedi order? I understand the Sith seeks control of the Force through the faster, easier path of letting strong, powerful emotions dominate you. But due to being chancellor and a politician most of his life wouldn't he have needed to set aside training in lightsaber and force use?
| 49 |
Palpatine is the end result of the Rule of Two, which causes each successive Sith lord to be slightly more powerful than the one before him. After a thousand years of this cycle, we arrive at the end of history. A single Sith who is powerful enough to overcome the entire Jedi order.
| 70 |
ELI5: Why do modern graphing calculators have such a terrible resolution?
| 191 |
Some of the graphing calculator models have basically remained unchanged for decades. This has two benefits:
1) it's all standardized so regardless of how old the calculator is, all the calculators of that model number will have the same features and functions and same sort of style/interface which makes it a lot easier to share calculators and teach groups of students how to use a graphing calculator.
2) Each calculator model is intentionally limited in its functionality. Even though the capability exists to make very powerful graphing calculators with amazing high-resolution 3D graphics and powerful mathematical functions without a significant increase in price, schools want students to be purposefully limited to certain functions found on specific calculator models. The primary reason for this is that it makes sure everyone is on the same page and that no student has an unfair advantage or the ability to use the calculator to 'cheat' and perform advanced functions/calculations that the school wants students to learn how to do manually.
Edit: by the way, there are other more advanced graphing calculators out there that have color displays and higher resolution displays, it's just that the most popular models (the ones that schools usually require students to use) contain only the basic functionality and low-resolution monochrome display that has been around for ages.
| 85 |
|
ELI5:Why is Microsoft Word so delicate and finicky with its formatting sometimes?
| 19 |
I don't know if anyone can explain MS Word's logic, but you can at least reveal their method by pressing Shift-F1... it'll open a "Reveal Formatting" pane. Wherever you put your cursor, it'll tell you both the current formatting and how to change it.
| 11 |
|
CMV: voting should not be mandatory. choosing not to vote is a perfectly valid form of participating in a democracy
|
voting is mandatory in my little european nation. well, showing up is, anyway. you can hand in a blank ballot or write some anarchist message on the paper with your pathetic little red crayon, but you're legally required to show up.
imo in a true democracy everyone should be able to choose whether they want to vote or not. not showing up to the polling station at all is also a form of participation, because you're still *choosing* not to vote for anyone. making voting mandatory encourages people who have not done any research and don't care about politics in any way to just check one of the boxes to get it over with.
---
edit: a third of these comments appear to only be relevant to the US and have very little to do with the point I'm making.
I'm not sure why you lot seem to think I'm talking about american politics when I specifically mentioned in the post that I live in europe. I'm talking about democracies as a whole.
---
edit 2: I'm not here to have you talk me into voting. if voting weren't mandatory, I would still vote. that's not the point of this post.
| 2,239 |
>imo in a true democracy everyone should be able to choose whether they want to vote or not
You can choose whether you want to vote or not. As you have said, you can do whatever you want on the ballot. Leave it blank, paint a dog, your options are limited only by the tiny red crayon.
More importantly, non-mandatory voting means that politicians can win elections not just by convincing voters, but also by frustrating voters into not voting.
It invites corruption into the voting process. America is a great example here. Predominantly black area tend to vote democrat. Closing voting stations in those areas causes long queues, thus causing people to not bother. As a result, you can sway the election.
| 1,489 |
[DC] if superman gets shot in the head and "killed" when next to kryptonite, but his body gets moved away from the kryptonite, will he die?
| 15 |
Kryptonian physiology is pretty weird under normal circumstances. Add in solar radiation from a yellow sun and it just gets weirder. Popping a vulnerable superman in the brains isn't even guaranteed to kill him but may put him into a near death state. While in this state his body will gradually heal itself until he's whole but may come with a slight case of amnesia. Depending on which multiverse version of Superman we're talking about could take days or even years to fully recover from the original wound and some versions of him aren't able to regenerate at all.
| 17 |
|
Why do we use three phase instead of two phase?
|
I understand why we use three phase electricity instead of 4,5,6 etc but why don’t we use 180 degree shifted two phase systems? Thanks in advance
| 64 |
The main benefit of 3-phase power is that the available power is never 0.
A 180-degree shifted 2-phase system would actually be very similar to the 1-phase system that most household outlets provide. One of the downsides of this is flicker. Electric devices must contend with short periods of no power ~~60~~ **120** times a second.
| 78 |
CMV: There is no justifiable reason for organizations to offer internships that are unpaid
|
Unpaid internships are labor theft. There is no reason a person contributing to an organization should not be compensated for their work (and no, experience does not count as compensation). The idea of an unpaid internship is elitist and discounts tons of qualified individuals who may not have the means resources to work for free. I feel this further contributes to the diversity problems of many organizations and industrires as it sets those who can afford to go months without pay ahead of those who cannot. Organizations that cannot afford or refuse to pay interns should not offer internships.
| 495 |
>There is no reason a person contributing to an organization should not be compensated for their work
For an unpaid internship to be legal, the intern needs to be the "primary beneficiary" of the arrangement. There is a 7-point test to determine this:
>1.The extent to which the intern and the employer clearly understand that there is no expectation of compensation. Any promise of compensation, express or implied, suggests that the intern is an employee—and vice versa.
>
>2. The extent to which the internship provides training that would be similar to that which would be given in an educational environment, including the clinical and other hands-on training provided by educational institutions.
>
>3. The extent to which the internship is tied to the intern’s formal education program by integrated coursework or the receipt of academic credit.
>
>4. The extent to which the internship accommodates the intern’s academic commitments by corresponding to the academic calendar.
>
>5. The extent to which the internship’s duration is limited to the period in which the internship provides the intern with beneficial learning.
>
>6. The extent to which the intern’s work complements, rather than displaces, the work of paid employees while providing significant educational benefits to the intern.
>
>7. The extent to which the intern and the employer understand that the internship is conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.
| 103 |
[Rebels] If Kanan was properly trained, would he have the potential to become a top Jedi? His feats seem at least good for someone who never completed his training?
| 28 |
Kanan got on the job training. What the pre-purge Jedi did was when you don't have to fight for your life on a weekly basis, and aren't pushing back the dark side in your mind as you resist taking vengeance. He became a superb knight, just not Chosen One levels.
| 32 |
|
When objects give off an aroma/odor, does the object lose mass?
| 212 |
Yes-the sensation of smell is from molecules of the object you're smelling entering your nostrils and interacting with nerve receptors from your olfactory nerve. So, while the mass loss may be pretty much negligible, the object is still losing some mass.
| 92 |
|
ELI5:If most citizens of a nation don't really understand economics, geopolitics, or even most of history, why does Democracy give the masses the ability to decide the future of the nation when most them don't really know how things work?
| 45 |
Most "democracies", especially the US, are actually Republics, which elect representatives that then decide on policy for economics or politics.
In a true democracy, every single individual would vote on every issue, which as you get even a modest sized society becomes unfeasible. Just look at how poor voter turnout is for Presidential elections, then imagine needing to get more people than that for each policy change.
| 27 |
|
ELI5: Does my dog understand that I'm putting cream on her foot to help it heal, or does she just think I'm am asshole for rubbing weird stuff on her open wound?
| 15 |
Your dog understands you are the pack leader, you are in charge, and you typically act in her best interests and she trusts you.
She does not understand specifically that putting cream on a wound is helping her, and might be confused why you are doing something that hurts her.
| 15 |
|
[Star Wars/Trek] Would a Vulcan make a good Jedi?
|
Conversely, would a Romulan or Klingon make a good Sith?
| 18 |
Not particularily better than humans, at least.
Their tendency to ignore emotion, letting it pen up over time then finally explode could be Dangerous, though.
Romulans sounds like they would fit in as Sith, but not particularily more than humans. Being passionate, cunning, and opportunistic is hardly unique.
Klingtons, with their tough builds, and easily exploitable honor codes would make **excellent** cannon fooder. Think wookies, but easier to exploit ^(dumber).
| 18 |
Eli5: how do those water dispensers heat and cool water so quickly?
|
Like those water dispensers that have the hot and cold water. How does the hot one produce near boiling water and the cold one really cold water directly after one another?
| 49 |
There is a small holding reservoir for each side, that is heated or chilled. It is not an infinite supply, and you will eventually run out after filling multiple water bottles, and would eventually get room temperature water.
| 59 |
CMV: Swear words are usually not problematic unless they're sexual or racial, and we shouldn't refuse to use them around kids
|
The only reason swear words are so bad seems to be that religions want to protect their gods and religion. Using swears doesn't make you a bad person, so why are they bad? I can understand and I agree that kids shouldn't hear "cunt", "fuck", "dick" or "fag" (although I might be fine with dick), but words like "shit" and "damn it" are pathetically weak.
It's not disrespectful to say it just because it's informal, and it's not unprofessional for any other reason than what seems to be culture. I'm not saying words don't matter, I disapprove of racial slurs and discriminatory language, but I see no reason to bleep some words for the sake of our children.
_____
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| 86 |
Swear words provide a means to escalate language. We insert them into our sentences to make a point more forceful. They're a useful tool but they only work if there's some taboo left in them. Our reluctance to swear around kids or in polite company is what makes swearing effective when we do it--otherwise, swears are just other words. Sanitizing children's language preserves the power of swearing for future generations--it's an important public service that we should all give a fuck about.
| 46 |
[Star Wars] We are storm troopers assigned to guard duty on the death star, but we woke up with our uniforms missing and in the cargo hold of a smuggling ship. How do I explain this to my superior with out alerting Vader about the fiasco?
| 50 |
Well good news for you. Vader not only knew of your capture and replacement he planned on it. Bad news is he assigned the most replaceable and useless inspection team possible to the task in the event Leias rescue party was feeling murderous. So not to worry you won't be punished any worse than knowing with proof now that you are cannon fodder for the imperial war machine even on a place as secure and important as the death star.
Now report to your stations for battle against the rebel scum on yavin 4. Today will be remembered as the day the rebellion died at the hands of grand moff tarkin and you played a vital if insulting role in that.
| 44 |
|
ELI5: How can AdBlock detect ads?
|
EDIT: There are not a lot of comments, but if you didn't see the comment already /u/SmallLady came up with a pretty good follow up question:
How do some sites know you're using Adblock and put messages in place of ads about said use of Adblock?
| 72 |
There are certain servers that host ads. A website with ads reserves a portion of the page to that information, and points the browser to where to get it.
AdBlock just needs to keep a list of all these server addresses and when the browser is told to go there, stop the connection.
| 50 |
[Dragon Ball Z] How is the original timeline SUPPOSED to end?
|
We know things happened the way they did because of time travel shenanigans, but let’s ix-nay all the time travel.
The Androids kill Gohan and Trunks leaving them able to roam free until that timeline’s Cell wakes up, absorbs them, obtains his perfect form, and probably destroys the planet afterwards which means that Buu is probably never awakened unless his little stasis thing survives the explosion. So where do things go from here?
| 16 |
Realistically if Cell becomes too much of a problem the Gods will deal with him, hes a universe level threat.
But... more likely what happens is some young scrapper either human or an alien trains his McGuffin to challenge cell, whole arc takes a season or two, lots of yelling and montages of things lost etc before our new hero taps into super ultra mega god ki-chi and summons the souls of Earths mightiest heroes into a final attack that just barely works.
| 25 |
[DC] Are there any known planets that give humans superpowers, like how Superman gets powers on Earth?
|
Some alien races get powers on different planets, like Kryptonians on Earth, and I think there are others, but do humans get juiced up on any alien worlds?
| 109 |
I don't know of any in the main multiverse but in Batman Brave and the Bold cartoon there is a planet called Zur-En-Arrh that has an atmosphere that gives humans Kryptonian like powers, and a weakness to an element called Rodon. Oh and the powers are permanent (unless counteracted with a different special spray) so they don't have to stay on that planet.
| 104 |
CMV: After a Certain Point You did not Earn that Wealth
|
So as a general rule if you want to find out how wealthy someone is and how much money they make the three things you want to know are how educated someone is, how intelligent they are and how hard they work. In general most western nations which provide free education seem to follow this trend.
However there comes a point at which outsized wealth becomes completely unjustified. Taking a relatively simple example of Jeff Bezos, a man whose services I use daily. Yes this man designed a good product and to an extent he should be rewarded. But that he is now a multi billionaire for helping code something in the late 90's which had multiple competitors is patently absurd. It is highly likely that if Jeff didn't make amazon someone else would have and they'd now be the multi billionaire. Especially considering most change in management and oversight has shifted away from Jeff and towards managers.
There have also been studies done which show that if you already have a lot of money, chances are you will automatically just gain more. This gain is not merit based and you thus did not "earn" it. [https://sci-hub.se/10.1142/S0219525918500145](https://sci-hub.se/10.1142/S0219525918500145)
Anyways, CMV!
Edit: this post has garnered a lot of traffic. Please be patient while I get round to it.
| 30 |
If you plant a tree, you can eat the first fruit from it. Then as the tree grows, you get more and more fruit.
You don’t have to keep planting trees to earn more fruit. No one else planted that tree, it is yours. Eat from it as long as it provides.
| 20 |
What would happen if every mosquito on earth dropped dead right now?
|
This includes every mosquito egg, larva, etc from every mosquito species.
| 103 |
Depends on the region you are considering. In the arctic, which has very low species richness, you would have removed one of the key links in the very short food chain. Migratory song birds which feed of the adults would go hungry and probably fail to breed. Char and lake trout who feed off the larvae and nymphs would loose their main food source. These effects would then work up and down the food chain.
INB4 "blackflies will take up that niche": Blackfly larvae could not substitute for mosquito as they live in biofilms on rocks in springs with strong current. Mosquito larvae colonize small stagnant pools and lakes and ponds with low currents. very different conditions.
| 38 |
By the 20th century smallpox was estimated to have killed between 300 and 500 million people in the course of its history. What made smallpox so deadly to humans?
| 27 |
Smallpox was an extremely deadly disease due to it's ability to maneuver into the blood stream from the lymph nodes (our highway for waste and immune cells) from the digestive tract after initial infection. When a pathogen reaches the bloodstream - it's like the highway system for our body. It now has access to all our vital organs. In the case of bacteria - it's called sepsis. For viruses - it's viremia.
So not only was smallpox deadly, it was extremely contagious. The signature symptom of the disease was lesions and skin pimples / rashes, as the virus would target and replicate in skin cells. Making it relatively easy for this virus to be transferred from host to host.
Surprisingly, the molecular mechanism (i.e the microscopic specific step by step) way in which Smallpox invades the body is unknown to this day. But we have a vaccine for it - and has since been eradicated. Ironically - the first vaccine was derived from a similar form of smallpox - or cowpox.
| 37 |
|
[Matrix] If you get a gender reassignment surgery in the Matrix, does anything happen to your real body?
|
Assuming you're still plugged in. Do the machines perform surgery on you? Do they artificially change the hormone levels in your body? Does your brain "make it real?" If everyone in the Matrix got a sex change at once, could that strain the caretaker systems?
| 19 |
This is a very interesting question (actually it is).
There is no canonical evidence to support the sexual reassignment of a person's body outside of the matrix. At least not in the terms you mean.
However, the character Switch may meet some of your criteria for gender selection or gender reassignment. This character changed genders upon entering the matrix. But there is no physical change to the body outside the matrix.
As an aside, author Robert A. Heinlein tackled some aspects of gender identification in his story *I Will Fear No Evil*.
| 18 |
ELI5: What is the difference between LTE and 4G? Is one “better” than the other?
| 44 |
LTE is one of the 4th generation cellular networking technologies, and the only one in common use these days (WiMax never really took off), although some devices may label hspda+ as a 4th gen cell network technology
| 22 |
|
[LOTR] Would the Ring have been destroyed if Gollum didn't charge Frodo and fell off?
|
Was Frodo just about to keep the Ring to himself? Would have Sam been able to stop him?
| 28 |
I believe Tolkein himself said that Frodo could not destroy the ring by choice, no one could.
If Gollum had not attacked him, the Nazgul would have shown up and gotten him to come out so they could snatch him.
| 33 |
ELI5: Why are sun-dried foods, such as tomatoes, safe to eat, while eating a tomato you left on the windowsill for too long would probably make you ill?
| 9,261 |
Below 3.5% moisture content most bacteria can’t live. Sun dried tomatoes are sliced and dried so most of the moisture is gone and bacteria can’t be supported
A tomato on the windowsill still has a lot of moisture in it and the bacteria are having a feast.... and you ingest them when you eat them
| 6,890 |
|
[Twilight] Why don't vampires rule the world?
|
In most vampire fiction, vampires have weaknesses. At the very least, they're vulnerable to armies and suchlike. Hence why they skulk in the darkness.
Not so the twilight vampires.
They're capable of full on comic-book level superhuman feats, are basically immune to human weapons, can regenerate from being pulled apart and have various random but powerful magical abilities. They're also immune to all normal vampire weaknesses. Sunlight just makes them fabulous, they're very difficult to set on fire, and everything else- garlic, running water, dropped seeds, stakes, crosses, whatever- does nothing.
It's explicitly canon that it's only recently that humanity's weapons reached the point they had any chance- against a WW1 soldier, never mind a medieval man at arms, they'd be unstoppable. So, why didn't they take over the world before then?
They're easily powerful enough to sweep through a medieval army and have a good incentive to keep humans as cattle rather then letting them technologically develop. And it's only the cullens who have any ethical concern about human well-being, and even them not very much. Why are they skulking in the shadows? At any point prior to the modern day they could have just shown up to humanity and started dictating terms.
So why did they just sit around wandering the woods until we invented the hellfire missile? Why not just take over?
| 62 |
If the vampires take over and turn humanity into cattle, being a vampire becomes mundane. As a vampire you wouldn't be anything special anymore. You wouldn't prowl the night (sparkle the day?) hunting for your victims - instead you'd feed on cattle like shooting fish in a barrel.
The vampire rule would also necessitate a mountain of bureaucracy and a large scale blood farming industry that would take away most of the appeals of being a vampire. You'd still have immortality but you'd lose the freedom that comes with effectively being an outlaw.
The Volturi leaders, for example, are *already* bored out of their mind from ruling just their tiny coven and enforcing just a couple of laws to maintain the status quo. They'd go insane if they had to oversee a world government.
And what if human cattle doesn't work out? You could run into Matrix-esque problems of humans simply not flourishing as blood bags. What about overpopulation of vampires? Wars over blood supply?
| 43 |
Why is the UK so economically dominated by London?
|
I get the impression that the UK's economic activity is particularly skewed towards London, with the rest of the UK lagging behind a lot. Other countries often have strong centres of economic activity outside their capital city.
This seems to cause a lot of problems (high house prices and overcrowding in London, a feeling of left-behindness elsewhere) so I would be interested in knowing why it's happening.
| 50 |
I can answer this as somone who has studeied the UK's history and lives here.
The UK's north south divide started to become apparent in the interwar period. This is for several reasons. The north had iron/steel works, ship building and other heavy industry like coal mines. However, these industries went a long painful death that saw the economies of that area go down and down. The Great Depression exacerbated this. Northern Towns suffered higher rates of unemployment and economic deprivation. Jarrow, a ship building town, saw roughly 80% unemployment.
In Comparison, London was the financial capital of the world. Britain's trade decifit was only pallatable due to the export of financial services to the rest of the World. Britain has only increased this divide as globalisation has brought in new markets for its financial services alongside deindustrialistion and the fact that the coal mine and industry of the north has lost either its market or profitbility.
| 23 |
Why was nuclear power originally researched?
|
What was the original purpose for studying nuclear energy or nuclear fission? Was it to help man-kind originally, or was researched to create a new weapon? I am just trying to understand the historical purpose of nuclear energy and what the scientists had in mind when originally researching it.
| 24 |
The first experiments were pure scientific research into the nature of the atom and its nucleus. But after that, the applications for power and bombs were thought up pretty much simultaneously. The same team of French scientists, on the same day in 1939, filed patents for nuclear reactors and for nuclear bombs. The first working reactor, Chicago Pile-1, was built in 1942 as part of the Manhattan project.
The investment of money and effort was heavily towards building an atomic bomb, because of the historical coincidence that the relevant science was discovered just before the Second World War.
| 58 |
[Harry Potter] Does Mad Eye Moody know what boggarts really look like?
|
I remember in the third book that Lupin says no one knows what a biggart really looks like as they always change shape. But in the fifth book Moody looks into a cabinent with his weird eye and says its a boggart. So does that mean hes the only wizars to know what a boggart really looks like?
| 39 |
Could have been a few things. Either his magical eye lets him see things on the magical spectrum and he recognizes the boggart's particular waves. Could also be he looked into a cabinet, saw his fear which is something unlikely to be in a cabinet at the Order of the Phoenix headquarters, and then deduced it was a better chance of being a boggart than whatever it was.
| 47 |
[General] Do superheroes have a holiday dedicated to them the same way we have Veterans Day for people who served in the military?
| 17 |
Generally, you have localized celebrations for your town's heroes. New York has Avengers Day for instance, where there's a parade. National holidays for superheroes never quite caught on, mainly because superheroes tend to be such a localized phenomena. You get them in big cities and nowhere else.
| 11 |
|
ELI5:If a single state, like Colorado, passes a single-payer health insurance program, what's to prevent people who don't pay taxes from rushing the state?
|
I've read that Colorado is debating implementing a single payer state health insurance system. My dad, who is in his 70s, and doesn't work any more, is talking about moving there because his health coverage is garbage. Would the new health insurance not cover people like my dad who only collect Social Security, or do they have a plan to prevent the system from collapsing? What's to prevent millions of non-working seniors and other disabled people from moving to Colorado for the "free" health insurance?
| 25 |
I do not understand why your father does not have Medicare which is not garbage. Colorado may establish a residency requirement stiff enough to discourage this mass movement.
Colorado will not be able to forbid immigration. But they could establish a one year residency requirement for the new program.
| 38 |
[Powerpuff Girls] Why are the Girls complete and utter jerks to Rainbow the Clown?
|
Happy and cheerful clown gets into a freak accident involving bleach and turns into the evil Mr. Mime, who wishes to fade all the colors of the world. The Girls use the power of music and love to restore all the colors and save Rainbow the Clown.
They immediately proceed to brutally punch Rainbow and throw him in jail.
Why in the hell? It wasn't his fault. He got turned into Mr. Mime accidentally. I will concede that the Girls didn't know who he was, so they didn't have any reason to assume Mr. Mime was good but got corrupted by bleach. But immediately after restoring him, he is all apologetic, thanking them deeply for saving him, and shows no signs of being an enemy. They still assault him. They don't even just restrain him for the police to arrest him, they actually punch him over and over again, until he's completely beaten up. The fuck?
[Allow me a quick out-of-universe comment that's not relevant to the question. The original ending had the Girls forgive Rainbow the Clown and everyone was happy. The network interfered because they wanted a more "usual" ending which required *someone* to be arrested, because obviously it's no true happy ending if someone doesn't end up in jail. Think for a moment how fucked up this is.]
| 40 |
The PPG universe is kind of fucked up. Most superhero settings are already messed up in that super-powered vigilantes exist, but in Townsville the super-vigilantes are *five years old*. Life-and-death moral choices are being made by girls who haven't even left kindergarten.
So of course Rainbow the Clown got a beatin'. To a five-year-old, all clowns are evil.
| 49 |
[Spider-man/Marvel] What's Norman Osbourne's deal? Is he crazy? Is he just a prick? What is he?
| 64 |
He's some combination of crazy, evil, and the victim of his own scientific experiments. The thing that varies in different incarnations is if he started evil, experimented on himself, and drove himself crazy, or if he started crazy and evil and then experimented on himself.
| 48 |
|
Eli5 Why do we not taste the sodium in sugar free soft drinks?
| 18 |
You do. If you took it out it would taste worse.
At very small quantities we don’t perceive salt as salty, we perceive it as enhancing other things (notably sweetness in this case). This is why almost everything has at least a small pinch of salt.
| 21 |
|
ELI5: How does the "one country, two systems" method of goverance work between Hong Kong and China? Are citizens of Hong Kong also technically citizens of China?
| 37 |
People from Hong Kong are not just "technically" citizens of China--Hong Kong is now considered an integral part of the territory of China. However, the Chinese government has committed to granting Hong Kong autonomy for at least fifty years, meaning that the local government has more power than other local governments and Hong Kong does not have to follow the strict economic laws the other parts of the country do.
| 16 |
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ELI5: Why does pain (i.e. migraines, hard hits to the head) cause the body to vomit?
| 101 |
Nausea is pretty much the body’s go-to solution when feeling bad. Extreme pain? Puke. Concussion? Puke. Nervous about your final exam? Puke. It’s essentially a safe guard against poisoning, where your monkey-brain tells your stomach to empty its contents in case you’ve eaten something you shouldn’t have.
In some cases of more severe concussions, it can also be a direct result of swelling in the brain, where the «bruise» you got when you hit your head causes a swell in your not-too-spacious cranial vault. This might result in pressure on the part of your brain that causes vomiting, known as the vagus nerve.
| 96 |
|
What exactly happens in our brain when we get bored of something?
|
For example, if you turn on the radio and hear a song you really like for the first time, it's a positive thing and you really enjoy it. But as time goes on and you hear this same song played on the radio over and over again, you can become bored and even annoyed with this song. So my question is, what exactly happens in our brains that makes us become bored/annoyed with something that we previously enjoyed?
| 122 |
Your brain does a lot of interesting things, such as when wearing pants or a watch, eventually your brain filters these things out.
Your brain does tons of filtering and rewards (endorphins/enjoyment) for every little thing you do.
Also like a drug addict who gets high off a drug, the more they take the drug seeking the high or enjoyment, the more the body adapts and filters it out, or fewer receptors to absorb the drug are available, thus the drug addict requires more drugs to compensate.
The same thing happens with our bodies, with foods that taste good or songs that sound good, or even when you exercise/weight lift. Your body adapts, filters, gives mini rewards(eventually stopping if no shock or surprise)
So the song for example, once you've heard it so many times, your brain has almost filtered it out sorta like noise, it knows what the next tune will be, there is no newness or excitement, and thus your brain gives less and less rewards (endorphins) for it. This can be prolonged by listening to a mixture of music between each listen of the song. But eventually your brain does adapt. Some people can find enjoyment of fewer songs for much longer than others, while others can often get bored of the song very quickly. Keeping in mind that enjoyment or memorization of the song may not have any direct impact on it.
~~Also like weightlifting, your muscles get used to an exercise and eventually you will stop growing muscles from that exercise very much and you have to 'mix it up' and challenge yourself in new forms for continued growth.~~
All these things fall back to the reward system of the brain and filtering. Though everyone is different on how this occurs.
| 35 |
CMV: Women and men are equal, but should not be treated identically.
|
As the title clearly states, I am under the belief that although men and women are equal in merit and value, they should not be treated as if they have no differences.
Of course, this is somewhat true of any person: You should not treat anybody the same way as anyone else.
I am specifically applying this to the argument of biological sex because that is the area of this belief that I am most uncertain of.
However, I will provide my admittedly insubstantial evidence for this belief in order to give the fine folks here something to specifically refute, so, here we go on the ride of my train of thought.
​
Firstly, men and women have different biological features. This is a fact, irrefutably, although the extent to which the sexes differ is not entirely known.
Furthermore, continuing this chain of thinking, perhaps their brains are different. Women, for example, have been shown to have superior verbal aptitude compared to men, and men have more effective visuospacial skills. At least, according to this study I found: [https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2017spring/how-mens-and-womens-brains-are-different.html](https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2017spring/how-mens-and-womens-brains-are-different.html)
I will, however, concede preemptively that there are exceptions. Many women and men have shown to have traits inconsistent with this evidence, so I am not saying that all women are one way, and all men are another way. It is, sadly, much more complicated than that, although I will not go down that rabbit hole here if I can avoid it.
But, with the evidence described above, wouldn't it make more sense to treat someone differently when they are a woman than when they are a man? So as to ensure that everyone is comfortable in a given situation and that their differing physical and emotional needs are taken care of?
I am legitimately curious as to what sort of evidence is presented against this viewpoint, and I am happy to change it if the opposition is sufficiently persuasive(after all, if I wasn't, why would I be posting to this subreddit?).
​
EDIT: I no longer believe in gender roles, but I do still believe in being considerate of men and women's issues, basic things such as leaving the toilet seat down and being more cautious when playfully touching my female friends compared to my male ones(a belief which I personally doubt anyone will openly refute)
| 20 |
Treat each person, as a person.
If someone demonstrates verbal aptitude, expect further verbal aptitude.
Don't expect verbal aptitude, just because they are a woman.
If someone demonstrate spatial awareness, expect further spatial awareness.
Don't expect spatial awareness, just because they are a man.
​
Don't expect traits to appear, simply based on gender. Treat people based on the traits they demonstrate, rather than what you can divine based on gender.
How do you expect to treat men and women differently, if you cannot readily expect any particular difference (other than purely physical)? In a world where men are increasing doing dishes, and women are putting in more time at the office, where men are increasing becoming stay-at-home dads and women are forgoing pregnancy altogether - what differences do you honestly expect? Especially as gender roles continue to devolve?
| 27 |
Is there a genetic difference between the races?
|
I'm arguing with someone on another subreddit and we've pretty much exhausted google. So I'd appreciate some expert help. Thanks!
* Is there a significant genetic difference between the races?
* Is one race more intelligent than other races?
| 18 |
There are genetic differences between races, but most of those differences are relatively insignificant. Human populations are actually relatively low in diversity, compared to other animal species. It's been speculated that the human population was bottlenecked down to as few as maybe 5,000 people only about 50,000 years ago by the Toba supervolcano eruption. Two mice species that look very similar to each other (to our eyes) can actually be more distantly related than humans and gorillas. And they can successfully interbreed.
So compared to that, our racial differences are pretty much trivial. Also, our ideas about race actually correspond pretty poorly to the actual genetic data. The most egregious example of this is just lumping african populations together. There is more genetic diversity contained in african populations than there is in the rest of the world combined. An average swede is more closely related to the average mongolian than two africans that may live in the same city.
As for intelligence, the current thinking from genetic association studies and twin studies is that 40-50% of intelligence is determined by your genetics. The rest is environment. However, given the degree of genetic diversity in place, you can't make a blanket statement that "africans are dumber than europeans". Africa contains so much genetic diversity, it will contain individuals that are "genetically" much smarter than europeans, as well as individuals that are less smart. The distributions of those and averages may be different, but it's hard to define the relative contributions of genetics for someone who grows up as a sub saharan tribesman and someone who grows up in sweden with free education. There is very little in common between their two educations, so it's very hard to make an IQ test that encompasses everything they both are good at.
| 37 |
When the Falcon 9 reenters the atmosphere for landing, why doesn't seem to need a heat shield?
|
Every craft in my memory seems to need a heat shield but here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jEz03Z8azc&feature=youtu.be) it seems to reenter without a problem. Is it going slower than capsules or shuttles would normally go, or is it returning at a different angle to reduce drag from the increasing air?
| 39 |
it's going much slower than reentry speed, and it does a slowdown burn before entry to cushion the heating effect. also the engines are built to handle pretty high temperature as it is so that helps too. but in the end it's the speed difference that makes it possible
| 19 |
ELI5: How does paracetomol work?
| 55 |
The mechanism of action for Paracetamol/acetomenophen is not entirely understood. It *probably* inhibits COX, which is an enzyme that is part of the chemical pathway for chemical pain signals in the body. Inhibit the enzyme, the body makes less pain-signalling chemicals.
| 16 |
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[T2] Is there a reason why T-1000 killed some people and let others live?
|
I get why it kills the cop, it needed a disguise and the poor guy was just convenient. It kills the stepfather, later it kills the security guard but leaves the doctor and other staff alive, during the Cyberdyne company it lets the police helicopter pilot live, then later kills the truck driver. I may be missing some.
Is there is a reason why it let some live and others die?
| 21 |
Convenience, mostly. It's not there to kill humans, it is there to kill John Conner. Any humans that are directly in the way or at risk of making that goal even slightly more complicated are expendable, sure, but the goal is getting Conner, not Kill All Humans.
The major question would be the helicopter pilot. Why tell him to "Get. Out." instead of just killing him? Because killing him would have made it slightly more difficult to pilot the helicopter effectively in the pursuit of John Conner. Telling him to Get. Out. removes the pilot from the situation, removes the pilot's body from the helicopter, and all with virtually no effort needing to be expended by the T-1000.
The truck driver, similarly. Killing him was the fastest way to remove him from the situation.
And the foster-father was posing a minuscule-but-real annoyance to the plan of enticing Conner to return to the foster-home.
| 36 |
ELI5: is there a way to figure out if the email you received was ‘spoofed’ or if the email came from a hacked account?
|
I think I understand the difference between the two concepts of spoofing vs hacking, but if I want to know how practically to tell the difference between the two if I am the email recipient (and if that’s even possible).
So for example if I received two emails from the same ‘sender’: one that is legitimate; and one that is either spoofed or hacked, can I figure out if the second email is illegitimate as the result of spoofing or hacking?
| 18 |
It depends on the content of the message. The rule of thumb is - never click a link inside the email, especially the ones that are hidden e.g. hyperlink behind word “…click here”.
If the account is hacked there is no way to say it, as it is legitimate account but is used by hackers. If it was spoofed it’s also hard to say. Usually the email will contain either attachment or link to site for stealing your information as it is the primary goal to either infect your device or steal your personal data(name, passwords).
If the email is from someone who you don’t know try to find this person online e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook etc. and try to contact them directly by other means.
If it is email from say “google” asking you to click a button to change your settings - never click it, just go to google.com or other site and login through direct link from search engine.
If it the person you know and he’s asking or sending weird stuff or ask you to click somewhere- again, don’t click it but contact him by other means and ask if it was him.
| 11 |
CMV: If the police displace you from your home in the process of doing their job, the government should pay for any and all accommodations, food etc. Until the police resolve their conduct.
|
Recently, there has been a standoff down the street from me. An adult who lives with his parents had a warrant put out for his arrest on the basis of sexual assault. He took his parents hostage in the attic with a handgun.
I know one of the neighbors to this standoff, and they were not allowed to enter or leave their home until its resolution. The standoff began at 4PM and did not conclude until 10PM the following day. While displaced from their home, they were on the hook for room and board and food despite the fact that they had both readily available to them but were not allowed to utilize it under threat of force/arrest.
I am all for being safe, but even more than that I value bodily autonomy. If someone wants to take the risk and barricade up for the night in the comfort of their home they should be allowed to do so. However, IF the precedent for keeping people (I.E. The Police) safe outweighs that, then it should be the government that pays for the upheaval to people's lives when an arm of the government acts as such.
| 1,911 |
Do you think that the government's role in this circumstance differs substantially from an evacuation order due to a natural disaster such as a wildfire or hurricane?
The government did not cause the hostage situation. They're not responsible for damages caused by it. Their job is to limit the damage and loss of life caused by it. That's what there's doing in your scenario.
Secondarily, having people around can make it more difficult to do their job. Similar to how a building fire is much easier to manage if there's no one inside.
| 254 |
ELI5: Can animals be mentally ill?
| 19 |
Yes.
Harry Harlow have used a apparatus called the "pit of despair" to create depressed and antisocial monkeys. Basically, he would lock a newly born monkey inside a cage completely devoid of contact from other monkeys. That monkey would eventually become extremely mentally disturbed, unable to cope when reintroduced into a population of healthy monkeys and would simply just sit rocking back and fourth in a corner.
As we can't actually talk to animals, we can only judge if an animal have a mental illness based on visible symptoms, and we have many cases of animals exhibiting pica (eating and craving non-food items like dirt or rocks), or OCD (where neglected/understimulated animals will start to groom themselves nonstop, until they start bleeding).
Furthermore, to facilitate the research of psychiatric drugs, various strains of mentally ill mice and rats have been created (e.g. rats with schizophrenia, depression, OCD). It's not known if these animals are *actually* experiencing what humans with these diseases would experience (after all, we can't interview a rat to see if it's depressed), but these animals all act abnormally in one way or an other compared to normal animals (they are less socially adept, have trouble finding mates, have trouble dealing with new situations, have trouble learning, etc).
| 16 |
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CMV: Student loan debt shouldn’t be forgiven, but rather refinanced
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TL;DR we shouldn’t forgive up for 50k in debt. Instead we should make all interest rates 0% and let past payment count toward the original amount of debt.
Edit: I realize I should’ve said cancelled instead of forgiven too keep in line with the current messaging about the issue.
Preface: I believe public universities should be free, but that legislations is harder/more complicated than addressing student loan debt in the current administration. I’m also basing my argument on recent proposals from AOC and chuck Schumer.
Eliminating student loan debt with some type of executive order isn’t sustainable. Congress won’t pass a law anytime soon so exec order has been the biggest avenue discussed.
It’s also just not fair to people who paid of their debt for other to get $50k free. Sure it would instantly help the economy. But if you hadn’t taken out loans you would still be expected to pay for school in some way via cash, scholarship or grant. Therefore loans shouldn’t be forgiven, but “refinanced”
Essentially, interest rates should drop to 0% on all government loans and any payments made count toward the original loan amount. For example if you took out 100k in loans, paid 50k so far and currently owe 75k. 25k of interest payments would go toward the original loan instead. For those who paid off their loans, they should get some type of tax credit.
This is more sustainable than just 50k in forgiven debt, and accounts for varying amounts of debt or financial situations fairly compared to an up to 50k policy. In this case theirs no cap on debt forgiven. Current proposals bank on free college passing soon. And what happens to the next round of graduates who take on loans? We theirs be guaranteed cancelled? Or do we continue the cycle?
If you didn’t take out loans or didn’t go to college, this is fair to you because you were either able to pay for school, or you made the decision that college was too expensive for you. Neither of these groups are entitled to any money despite their complaints on Twitter (ps: I paid worked through school and got scholarships so I fall in this group)
For those who think student loans should remain as they are:
Many people signed up for loans at 17 or 18 and were sold a false promise of a good career as long as they went to school. Two economic depressions in 15yrs, rising housing prices, and stagnant wages said otherwise and they were screwed. Also, government loans should not have interest anyway. For banks they make profit off of interest or stake in a company. The government gets stake in you in that, by giving you a higher education your wages increase and so does the number of taxes you pay and GDP you generate.
Until college is free, I believe this is the only truly fair solution to the student loan debt crisis.
I’m not an economist, so if you can demonstrate that the 50k plan is better for the economy overall and sustainable I’d love to hear it.
Edit 2: I also agree with the idea of not everything is fair and the 50k plan makes life better for everyone even if other suffered in the past “that’s just how progress works, we have to get better”. But it’s not as fair as just eliminating interest. This way you literally just pay what you owe and you are paying the same as everyone else, those who paid it off & those who never got loans, just at a different point in time.
Edit3: I guess to clarify, I’m asking is there a good reason why I should feel the 50k plan is better than what I explained above. Or even why we shouldn’t address the issue at all for those who are against any kind of debt reform.
FINAL EDIT: I appreciate the conversations and I definitely had my view altered a bit. I still would argue for refi from a politically feasible POV. At this point the comments I’m getting are just all of us circle jerking about how terrible student loans are, which isn’t what I was discussing in my post. I was wanting to hear about which of two interim solutions would be best. For the fairness point: what I mean by that is I would say it’s better to have a bill that helps BOTH people who overpaid via interest and those who still owe. My understanding is that refi would allow this but cancellation would not. I know this is about a small amount of money compared to the entire budget and that debt should be payed off now no matter what, but that’s not what this post was about. Debt cancelation is being heavily debated in Congress anyways so I wanted to talk about two possible solution.
Goodnight y’all
| 1,002 |
> It’s also just not fair to people who paid of their debt for other to get $50k free. Sure it would instantly help the economy. But if you hadn’t taken out loans you would still be expected to pay for school in some way via cash, scholarship or grant. Therefore loans shouldn’t be forgiven, but “refinanced”
I'll only address the fairness point.
Basically you are saying: Others had it bad, so everyone after them should have it bad, too. In another thread with the same question someone said it quite nicely:
If there's a row with 10 people and the first two get stabbed, then it wouldn't be fair to stop the stabbing after those two...
| 493 |
ELI5: How do movie 'flops' ever get released?
|
Movies all seem to take a good few years to go from initial detail to actual release in the cinema, how could it go so wrong, with nobody intervening along the way? (e.g. Jack the Giant Slayer)
| 831 |
Imagine if you put 30 hours into an assignment and read it and you realize that it's shit, but you either fail to turn it in and the teacher gives you a big fat zero and writes you up or you turn in your shitty assignment, maybe get a bit of bad rep in the teacher's eyes, and at least get any grade at all (maybe you flunk narrowly or get a bad but passing grade).
You can always do a better assignment later on to make your teacher change his or her opinion of you, but if you don't turn it in, you'll have wasted 30 hours, gotten a zero and been written up t the principle, all at the same time.
Even simpler, $20,000,000 spent on the movie + $5,000,000 made on the movie from stupid weekend moviegoers who didn't have anything else to watch is a $15,000,000 loss, whereas $20,000,000 spent + $0 due to a no-release means a $20,000,000 straight up loss + you get a reputation for being a guy who can't deliver a finished product.
| 1,181 |
[Marvel/DC] How different are the various vampires in the two universes?
| 17 |
Worlds apart. Just in marvel you’ve got the original official Count Dracula with mind control, bats and the whole shebang. But also morbius, who is a scientist where a failed experiment turned him into a vampire. And then the more monstrous blade vampires
| 18 |
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ELI5: I brush my teeth right before going to bed and all I do is sleep for a number of hours. Why is it than when I wake up, my mouth is in a much worse condition, in regards to taste and texture, then when I went to bed?
| 1,749 |
The bacteria in your mouth poos in your mouth all night long. It does this during the day, too, but when you're sleeping you don't have as much spit rinsing that poo off as you do during the day.
When you wake up... you taste and feel the poo on your teeth.
| 2,502 |
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Is academia broken? And if so, how can we fix it?
|
Throughout my academic career up to this point (approaching the end of my first postdoc in biology) I've been inundated with the problems of academia but never any talk about solutions:
From the overproduction of PhDs, to the travails of the current publishing and funding systems, to the problems of scientific reproducibility and sheer amount of data\papers out there, to ineffective teaching practices, and so on.
Here, I'd like to initiate a discussion on how serious these problems really are? How do they translate to the social sciences and arts? And most importantly, have any of you great minds out there (or between us all) got any ideas for how to fix it?
| 80 |
The concept of postdoc positions as "training" positions needs to end. Either the PhD programmes are preparing people for a career in research, or they're not. Current postdocs need instead to be recast as junior faculty -- similar to they way an Assistant Professor used to be. If the person isn't up to scratch after 7-10 years of training, they're not likely to ever be so.
PIs who need extra technical assistance should be given grants to hire technicians instead of postdocs.
| 79 |
ELI5 Why is being sedentary so bad for your body?
| 26 |
Your body is sort of like a machine. Regular use keeps the machine in good working order. Your bones and muscles stay strong, your tendons and ligaments stay flexible. So if you don’t exercise or have regular physical activity then you become weak. Your body also more fuel in the form of calories the more it works. So if you’re sedentary you run the risk of storing excess calories in the form of fat. That fat and weight gain can cause significant health problems. So it’s best to stay physically active.
| 24 |
|
If hand sanitizer kills 99.99% of germs, then won't the surviving 0.01% make hand sanitizer resistant strains?
| 28,646 |
Most hand sanitizers use alcohol, which kills indiscriminately. It would kill us if we didn't have livers to filter it, and in high enough doses will kill anyway. Some germs survive due to randomly being out of contact, in nooks and crannies and such, not due to any mechanism that might be selected for.
| 25,329 |
|
[Star Trek] How did the Klingons manage to become technologically advanced enough to become a spacefaring race?
|
There are a few reasons I can see that would make it very difficult for Klingons to advance scientifically:
* Their culture reveres warriors. If you're not going to be a warrior, why put forth all the effort to become a scientist if you're not going to get any respect for it?
* Klingons are innately aggressive, so it would seem that they lack the natural curiosity to even want to become scientists. Furthermore, even if they attempted to become scientists, physical aggression isn't particularly conducive to science.
* How did they manage not to destroy their own civilization once they had the technology to do so?
| 359 |
The Klingons were invaded by the Her'q in the 14th century. During the invasion the Klingons managed to get warp techonolgy. This allowed them to conquor other technologies from other space faring races.
Just because they are aggressive doesn't mean they don't respect science. Indeed it makes thesis defenses both literal and quite interesting as a scientist should be expect to honrably defend his designs and theories before his peers.
They almost did destroy their civilization, Quo'nos was ravaged by many destructive wars and required major efforts to remain habitable. The high council as created by Kahless also played a major role in uniting the Klingon people against a galaxy of worthy foes!
| 264 |
[Marvel-616] Why don't the FBI and other government agencies aside from S.H.I.E.L.D. have high tech equipment?
|
So when you've lived in New York as long as I have, you start to notice the little details amongst all the chaos. Details like how S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D., H.A.M.M.E.R. and whatever other stupid alphabet agency that can't seem to go a total of two years before it's corrupted, dismantled or warped to another dimension, seem to have all the cool toys while the more longstanding government agencies such as the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. seem to be stuck in the '90s. We're talkin' jet packs, laser beams, robots that look and sound just like real people, and discount Iron Man suits while the Feds only ever seem to show up with standard ballistic weaponry and traditional body armor.
A while ago, after the Avengers and everybody beat back the Skrulls, the Black Panther's sister took up the mantle after her brother disappeared. [She even met with President Obama.](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/j_SEZqJRYmDs16W-RXNj6mPlyqYQM8y6gTr_pfdA8XlzUx3KJUXDBW7lE6EFfLqqmbP_cJE7_j4K=s0) [The goons that showed up to pull a hit on her](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/JY-NSsM-qysqnm4rJ3l_2soaSv-mXPNi9U7-tbSnjXSQGyNg2c2_YTbvrqtjGGnVUoCnk1tFlg-9=s0)[ all had stolen Stark Tech.](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/ytimkv_CNlh8c264XwTwi2KqIaST7T4T2jRJoddOCL1wiuU4h0AZ-ZO0tzp5Iz4lCSd1JdNJNC-q=s0) Like I said, details. Anyone with a pair of eyes in this city can spot Stark Tech from a mile off, with how often it gets jacked. (Black Panther vol. 5 #7)
Most recently, when that new Ronin showed up in New York (Hawkeye: Freefall), he hit a truck of Federal Agents carrying an important package. [Looks to me like they were just carrying pistols.](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/W5ondGlkYLKq7Xxg5Ic8IiHtv_oTHO3sSrS_HiXfsarmDtmC--btf2Muf4wJypH8teyLO2ebriaQvzzxSVlONurLlJS08MTCFco1-MNZu9_pxYQi2KUcggZZjQR3DElLp7XTT9Jeug=s0) If the package they were protecting was so high value, why didn't they at least have a laser machine gun or something? Seems to me like most of NYC's street thugs are packing more heat than the Feds.
I remember way back when, Devil Dog or whatever his name is, was on the run from the Feds and a buncha ninjas showed up. Just another Friday night in Hell's Kitchen right? What surprised me the most, was when the Feds finally took their sweet old time getting here, [they showed up with typical ballistic weaponry.](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k_jLt74Zc0U/VkAUx9dePMI/AAAAAAAAC60/_zj8xF4N1d4/s0-Ic42/Daredevil%252520v2%252520080-017.jpg) I dunno about you man, but if like 50 ninjas were to show up on my turf and I had the chance to start blasting 'em left and right with one of them laser shooters those A.I.M. guys are always hauling around...I mean, can you think of a better time to do so than when 50 ninjas show up? Sure you can say they weren't prepared for the ninjas, but I kind of find that hard to believe when even I know Devil Dog Dude showing up most likely means ninjas are in hot pursuit. This is the FBI, they should be prepared for everything. (Daredevil vol. 2 #80)
Anytime I see Federal Agents around, they seem to be outgunned by even the most basic goon on NYC streets. Why is our country's defense budget so high if our agents don't even get to use the toys that should be coming out of R&D? Didn't Stark used to deal advanced weapons to the government before he turned over a new leaf? Why are our government's weapons and defense systems (minus the Sentinels) so outdated? Where the hell are all my tax dollars going towards in that supersized defense budget the government has? I understand not wanting civilians to have access to such high tech equipment but when the criminals have them, why not level the playing field for upper tier law enforcement?
(These are the few examples I had off the top of my head, but it is a trend I have noticed for a long time, especially with the C.I.A. They never seem to have advanced equipment!)
| 463 |
**Budget**
You can't tell me that it's a coincidence that only rich people like Norman Osborne or Tony Stark are put in charge of these organisations, probably brought or build most of the equipment themselves.
SHIELD's supertec is probably the reason why most federal agencies still use 80s/90s tech. Like you said all these "agencies" are corrupt, that's why they get all the good stuff!
| 252 |
ELI5: Why a lot of car manufacturers release models such as Camaro 2015 in 2013?
|
Specifically why name them a model more than a year later than the announcement/release date?[](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/ford-mustang-2015-photos_n_4391013.html?ir=Detroit)
| 50 |
At least in the north american market, the next model of cars are put on the market around the third quarter of the fiscal year (sept-ish timeframe), though marketing and advertising can start earlier. So for example, the 2014 Camaro's are being put on sale now just ahead of the holiday timeslot, but they'll spend most of their time being sold and manufactured during the 2014 calendar year. If there's a 2015 model in the news, its a concept release, meaning that's what they intend to sell during the 2015 calendar year, not the 2013 nor most of the 2014 (save for the last few months).
A car model would sound old if you sold the 'brand new 2012 Model' in 2014.
| 26 |
CMV: A diet can include meat and be as environmentally friendly as a vegan diet.
|
I'm not arguing the average meat diet has the same carbon footprint as the average vegan diet. What I'm arguing is that you can easily include meat in your diet and remain within the carbon footprint of the average vegan diet.
Examples: chicken has the same carbon footprint as rice
Mussels have the same carbon footprint as tofu
Hunted meat, especially in countries which have overpopulation of some species (eg deer, boar etc) not only has an extremely small carbon footprint, but by removing these animals you are actually helping the environment and boosting biodiversity.
There's a secondary argument about the destruction of land for animal farms, which by nature takes more room than growing crops. The counter to which is that fish and mussel farms take up even less space, and when located correctly do not have negative impacts on the environment. Hunting of course doesn't negatively affect the environment when done sustainably, but this isn't a global solution obviously.
| 25 |
I'll agree with you, non-vegans can be environmentally friendly; however, a vegan diet will always has the capacity to be more environmentally friendly than an equivalent non-vegan diet.
You have to think of the thermodynamics of our food energy. For every calorie of meat we consume, that animal had to consume many times that amount of calories in feed. If we cut out the middle man, and eat what the animal is eating, our carbon footprint would be reduced.
| 31 |
[Star Trek: DS9 - Profit and Lace] How did the Ferengi convince Dr. Bashir to perform the operation?
|
As part of the plot, Quark needs to be altered to look like a female Ferengi to have a meeting.
There's a quick comment about how "Bashir did a good job."
How did they get Bashir, the medical officer for the station, to perform such a radical operation on a whim?
| 17 |
It's not that radical of an operation. This kind of cosmetic surgery is routine and perfectly safe given the level of Federation medical science.
They didn't have to convince him, they just had to make an appointment.
| 18 |
ELI5: Why is it impossible to swallow rapidly over and over with nothing in your mouth, but chugging water is easy?
| 565 |
Swallowing solids and liquids works slightly differently.
Swallow with an empty mouth and pay attention to what you're doing: The tip of your tongue presses against the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth, then 'rolls' along the roof of your mouth backwards towards your throat.
Basically, it's two actions: You open your throat and your tongue forces your food towards it.
When you chug water, you don't do that. There's no need to force the liquid to the back of your mouth, because your head's tipped back and gravity takes care of that for you...basically all you're doing it rhythmically opening and closing your throat.
So, swallowing with an empty mouth is a complex action, and because you're not swallowing anything but saliva and air, you have to manually 'reset' your tongue between swallows.
| 308 |
|
Why wouldn't my friend's idea for "free energy" work?
|
This may sound like a /r/shittyaskscience question, but hear me out:
So my friend understands that virtual particle/antiparticle pairs are continuously being created and annihilated by "borrowing" energy from the future and the annihilation "repays" it back. And that when this happens on either side of a black hole's event horizon, the black hole has to "repay" the energy and loses mass while the other half escapes as Hawking Radiation.
He then reasons, that if he separates the particle/antiparticle pair with an extremely strong electric field, the energy "debt" never gets "repaid", and he has created free energy.
Obviously this wouldn't actually work, but I'm finding it difficult to argue exactly why. My reasoning is that either:
- The antiparticle would anihalate with some of the machinery to repay the energy debt
- The energy required to maintain such a strong field would create another particle/antiparticle pair that would annihilate with the original pair to get the energy back
- or, the energy required would create a black hole.
Would any of these things be correct? If not, what would be the best way to explain why this system won't work?
| 15 |
How do you produce an electric field? Suppose that you produce the electric field by separating positive charges from negative charges, in a configuration like a capacitor. So imagine that you have negative charges on a plate on the left and positive charges on a plate on the right, and an electric field in between. In order to produce the electric field you have had to do work on the charges to separate them; you have expended energy in doing mechanical work on the electrons and converted that energy into the potential energy between the positive and negative charges. Now suppose what happens when your E-field produces and separates a particle-antiparticle pair. The positively charged particle will drift toward the negatively charged plate, and the negatively charged antiparticle will drift toward the positively charged plate. When they reach the plates, they will annihilate a corresponding particle or anti-particle in the plate, thus 1) radiating mass-energy in the form of photons and 2) reducing the total number of positively charged particles on the positively charged place, and negatively charged particles on the negatively charged plate, so that the E-field between the two plates will be smaller than what you started with, and total energy is conserved. Since the E-field between the two plates is reduced, you can easily see that this process cannot continue indefinitely without continuing to supply energy to build up charge again on the two plates. Therefore your friend's idea does not produce free energy.
| 23 |
Why do we humans call our hairs...hair? But call animals's hair fur? What's the difference?
| 16 |
There is no definitive difference, it's mostly semantics. Basically, usually humans are described as having hair, animals have fur.
A less human centric difference between them is that fur usually grows of a year or less before stopping and falling out. Like most dogs, cats, and other animals who shed every year.
Hair grows for many years before stopping, so isn't shed every year. Human head hair usually grows for 5-7 years. This is like Human head and beard hair, sheep wool, poodle hair etc.
This isn't perfect because human body hair grows for up to around 3 months. That means humans have hair on our head, but fur on our bodies.
| 13 |
|
ELI5: Why are so many jazz groups named simply after one man/woman instead of having a band name (ex. Metallica has 4 members, Duke Ellington had many more)
| 114 |
Because most of those bands have a leader and an often changing. Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, all of them had rotating cast playing different stuff. If metallica replaced half its members and stopped playing the same songs, they wouldn't be metallica. This is what happens in jazz.
| 61 |
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Books (or the written word in general) are not inherently more "intellectual" than any other form of media. CMV
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I saw [this](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1dzik1/perhaps_the_kids_will_be_alright/) thread on the front page about kids on a bus reading books. I've often seen on Reddit the belief that books (automatically) = "intelligent"/"thoughtful"/"creative"/[insert other positive descriptor here], but I think it's hogwash. (I'd like to point out that there are probably many examples of people *not* holding this view, but, from what I've seen, the vast majority of highly-upvoted content seems to follow this trend).
WHAT you read is infinitely more important than simply the act of reading, in exactly the same way that television is not all mindless dribble/smut/garbage.
I'd also add that the same goes for video games, movies, etc...
I think this quote from Groucho Marx exemplifies what I think is BS:
>I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
| 30 |
The written word has a very high information density. How long would it take a television program to explain something like calculus? And how much of it would simply be *reading from and showing things in a text*? For entertainment or easy concepts, a book has no serious advantage, but for learning complicated things, the information density inherent in a book makes it a far more efficient venue than that of other forms of media. As a result, books are perceived as more intellectual, because there are some forms of learning that the written word is the only reasonable solution for.
| 23 |
CMV: Headlines should not say "Inflation surged 9% in June," but instead: "Prices rose 9% since last June".
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Or something like that. Setting aside that business people and economists often use the term "in" to mean "for the year ending in" - every month now it seems like Media outlets who target ordinary consumers claim that Inflation "rose X% this month." That's not literally true, and News Organizations know this, but saying it shorthand makes it more sensational.
A lot of Economics is about consumer sentiment. It seems irresponsible to give some Americans (who aren't hip to economics) the impression that inflation is going up by 8 or 9 % every month.
EDIT: A lot of people are focusing on "**Prices rose 9% since last June"** and saying this is incorrect because inflation is a '**basket of goods**' not **prices**. As many have pointed out (thanks) **inflation** refers to the process of prices rising (in general, or as specified with respect to a basket of goods). So it sounds awkward (and is possibly inaccurate) to say "~~Inflation~~ The Rise in Prices Rose..." My main point was the problematic confusion over the timeframe in which prices change. When I said "or something like that" (above) I mean that I am not that adamant about the word Prices being used if there's something better.
​
​
​
​
| 523 |
Ok, let's just address the simple facts, "prices" didn't increase 9%. That's not how inflation is measured, and is both incorrect and irresponsible. It's not even the average price increase, but rather the price increase of a basket of goods.
What news articles say are perfectly fine.
| 156 |
Why does this subreddit have to be so involved with regulating answers?
|
For some posts the reply takes two or three days, and the majority of the comments don't get seen at all. If the posts were not regulated the comment with the best most suitable answer would be upvoted anyway. So why does this sub get so much regulation?
| 36 |
>. If the posts were not regulated the comment with the best most suitable answer would be upvoted anyway.
Have you seen /r/economics?
I assure you the best comments by informed users aren't the ones getting upvoted, generally.
There are lots of bad comments/answers on here that are better off not seen. It would not be helpful to let them be seen.
| 147 |
[WH40K/Avatar:TLA/LOK] A rogue trader comes across the planet that TLA/LOK happens on. What happens?
| 41 |
1. Explorations are made to see if it's valuable.
2. Rogue Trader doesn't find anything truly valuable (archeotech/STC fragments, major resources, stash of old Imperial tech, etc.), but passes on word of the planet to other organizations who may find interest in the planet.
3. Mechanicus Explorator fleet with Ecclesiarchy missionaries show up.
4. Ad-Mech doesn't find too much, but the Ecclesiarchy gets to preaching the Imperial Cult right away.
5. Imperials discover the existence of Bending, and start to lose it. Zealotry begins to take hold.
6. Luckily, a (more radical) Inquisitor gets word of this newly discovered planet where a large majority of the population appear to be able to manipulate Warp energies in strange ways.
7. The Inquisitor gets to the world in time to stop the Ecclesiarchy from turning it into one big fireball of religious intolerance.
8. The Inquisition takes control of the planet and study it for the next few decades, allowing for it to become normalized into the Imperium proper.
9. A century later, the planet, now known by the Administratum-given name as *Laogai Primus*, is known for producing large amounts of seemingly incorruptible "Elemental Psykers" who are used in combat zones across the galaxy's many war zones. Laogai is also well-known for its Imperial Guard regiment, the 2005th Avatars.
10. Some douchey Space Wolf Rune Priest hears about the 'Elemental Psykers', and once again tries to claim that the Rune Priests of Fenris also derive their sorcery from the elemental forces of their planet instead of the Warp. He is wrong, and always will be.
11. Half a millennia after its discovery, Laogai is bathed in an unholy orgy of Chaotic destruction, as every Elemental Psyker on the world is simultaneously possessed by servants of the Architect Of Fate. As they were thought to be incorruptible, many of the Psykers (known as 'Benders' within Low Gothic slang) never underwent proper training that other sanctioned Psykers go through, making their corruption infinitely easier. Within three weeks, all PDF and Guard forces have been slaughtered by the renegade Benders, causing the Inquisition to take extreme measures and launch an Exterminatus against the once great Laogai Primus. Any and all Benders serving across the Imperium are quickly purged with maximum prejudice.
12. Laogai Primus is now classified as a half-dead world/half-daemon world, quarantined by the Inquisition as there are hundreds of Warp gates scattered across its surface.
13. The Rogue Trader who first discovered Laogai Primus, now an aging veteran, comes across a strange new world. Upon the planet's surfaces he hears rumors of an organization known as a 'Ninja Academy', where disciples learn how to control and activate sorcerous abilities called 'jutsus'. He passes knowledge of the planet on to a Mechanicus Explorator Fleet which has some missionaries attached.
| 105 |
|
ELI5 is power only generated by spinning turbines? (besides solar)
|
Nuclear power appears to be a powerful way to make steam that spins a turbine. Same with geothermal, wind, & hydro. Maybe not solar? Isn't energy lost in the multiple energy conversions (heat, water state, kinetic)? Is it theoretically possible to have a power source that more directly moves electrons through a circuit? If solar is the only one that can, it's limited in efficiency and where it can be used. What about power generation undersea or on Ganymede or something?
| 586 |
Electricity is generated by the movement of electrons through a circuit. You seem to understand that part. That motion of electrons can be cause by several different methods. Solar uses photons of light to push electrons across a semiconductor and generate a voltage. Fuel cells use hydrogen and a catalytic material to strip an electron off and generate a voltage. Spinning rotors use mechanical motion to cause changing magnetic fields to generate voltage. Thermocouples use heat differentials across different materials to generate voltage.
Thing is, all of these methods include losses. Transferring one type of energy to another always will. It just so happens that spinning rotors have some of the best efficiencies, so they’re used most often.
| 688 |
What do we know about when humans started wearing clothes? When? Where first?
|
front page! and i got a job today! my life will forever be a succession of glorious moments from this point on
| 1,631 |
Archeologist believe man began wearing clothing sometime between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago. Most of the evidence is indirect, based on finding tools that would have been used to make clothing. The oldest stone age sewing needles are about 70,000 years old found in South Africa. However, by the time you develop tools for sewing, you've probably already been making clothing from other techniques. Older scraper tools going back to 500,000 years suggest early man was cleaning skins for some use. Clothing is an obvious use, but it could also have been for making containers, bags and buckets and the like. Hence, the wide range in the earliest date for clothing
| 851 |
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