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[Tolkien] Why did Aragorn's family not reclaim the throne before the events of Lord of the Rings?
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If it was always known that Aragorn's line was the line of Isildur, what was stopping Aragorn's father or grandfather from doing exactly what Aragorn did? Why did they wait until that generation?
| 54 |
They did, or at least they tried to. Ancient Middle-earth history time!
The original High King of Arnor and Gondor, Elendil (the leader of the "Men" half of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men; the one who died in battle with Sauron) had two sons, Isildur and Anarion. The descendants of Isildur became the kings of the northern kingdom of Arnor, while the descendants of Anarion became the kings of the southern kingdom of Gondor. Arnor quickly fractured into three kingdoms over succession disputes: Arthedain (which in hindsight is known to have the correct claim), Cardolan, and Rhudaur. Cardolan was itself fractured and eventually destroyed by wars and plagues, while Rhudaur was corrupted by the sinister forces of the kingdom of Angmar (at the time ruled by the Witch-king, hence "Witch-king of Angmar"). Eventually, in Gondor, a King named Ondoher died without any male heirs. King Arvedui of Arthedain was married to Ondoher's daughter and the two claimed rulership of Gondor as well as Arthedain. Arvedui also claimed that Elendil had never meant for the kingdoms to be separate forever and that the heirs of Isildur (the elder of Elendil's sons) had the rightful claim to both kingdoms. However, politics intervened and the nobility of Gondor instead decided to crown the great general and recent war hero Earnil (who also happened to be a distant relative of the late King Ondoher). Shortly after this, Arthedain was destroyed by Angmar and Arvedui died (though his son survived), and in Gondor Earnil's son Earnur was the last king before the line died off (Earnur thought it would be a good idea to meet the Witch-king in a one-on-one duel in Minas Morgul). It wasn't until the great deeds of Aragorn II during the War of the Ring that Gondor accepted a northerner as a king.
| 54 |
ELI5: Why is the purity of precious metals measured in karats rather than just using percentage?
| 233 |
Carats were/are a measure of weight, not purity. In olden times they thought carob seeds didn't vary in weight much, so they used them on balance scales as a unit to measure weight. At some point, there was a gold coin (there's debate about which, though most think it was a Roman solidus) that was pure gold and weighed 24 carob seeds/carats. Pure gold came to be known as 24 carat gold. If you mixed in other metals, you'd reduce by the number of carats, so 50%gold would be 12 carat.
In the US, to lower confusion between carat as weight and carat as purity, they agreed to spell it karat when applying to purity. Otherwise, is just a term that's been around a long time.
| 98 |
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eli5: Why do regular batteries last for so long whereas rechargeable ones have to be recharged so frequently?
| 280 |
Some hold less energy but also the chemicals in rechargables produce a lower voltage (1.2v instead of 1.5v) lots of devices will detect rechargables as less than full battery even when fully charged since the voltage is lower. On top of that the voltage might drop below operational threshold sooner since they start lower.
To add to that regargables degrade over time so eventually they hold less charge and wear out with greater frequency.
| 144 |
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Are swimming pools breeding chlorine-resistant organisms?
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Like the overuse of antibiotics. Are we breeding super microbes through the use of pool chlorine?
| 1,448 |
If you think of microbial resistance in human terms, it makes more sense. If you send out a plague that kills a lot of people, some will survive and will likely be more resistant. The plague is a very specific, complicated way of killing an individual. Now if instead, you threw every human in lava, nobody would survive to develop resistance. Lava is simple and direct, and you can't have a "lava doesn't kill me" gene.
Think of antibiotics (specific, complicated, potentially survivable) as the plague, and the chlorine as lava (non-specific, simple, very difficult to survive).
| 1,613 |
ELI5 Benghazi, the controversy, and the hearing that took place
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I would love a brief description of what happened and why it remains in the news. Obviously it's a divisive issue, so nonpartisan explanations or an explanation of both sides would be fantastic. Thanks
| 20 |
So, basically what happened is this-
There's some question of what exactly was being run out of the compound- House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence cast doubt on this alleged U.S. involvement and reported that "All CIA activities in Benghazi were legal and authorized. On-the-record testimony establishes that the CIA was not sending weapons ... from Libya to Syria, or facilitating other organizations or states that were transferring weapons from Libya to Syria.". On the other hand, lots of people say they were. On the other other hand, many of those people are people who don't like the US.
What happened was there was a large, preplanned terrorist attack on the compound that killed several people.
It should be noted that all these people were most likely dead before any response could have reached them.
This is where it gets murky- there's indications that the Administration pulled back available military resources from a rescue operation- again- it seems likely they were already dead.
Further, after the attack, the administration denied that it was a planned attack, and claimed it was a response to an extremely obscure youtube trailer for a film called "The Innocence of Muslims." The creator of which was later arrested. This was later pretty throughly debunked, and the administration admitted it was a planned terrorist attack.
That's the part that troubles me, honestly- attacks happen. Maybe not sending in people was a military decision about risk and so on. But trying to pawn it off on your political opponents, and violating someone's first amendment rights, is BS.
The investigation seems to be focusing on the "withdrew military support" line of questioning.
| 14 |
What's your favorite statistics interview question?
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What are your most **interesting** / *appearing to be hard but* **easy** / *appearing to be simple but* **complex** statistics interview questions?
Please feel free to add questions you've come across or even thought of that can test conceptual understanding.
Let's make this thread an invaluable source of quality statistics interview questions!
| 21 |
> What's your favorite statistics interview question?
*When can you start?*
TBH I've never been asked a stats question interviewing for a stats-related job. I've had conversations about statistics though, or talked a bit about some specific topic.
| 30 |
ELI5: When you get skin indentations from clothing or leaning on something, what's happening on a cellular/biological level?
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Not the kind of long-lasting indentations from actual skin disorders (which is all that google search seems to turn up). Just the normal marks that anyone gets when leaning against a textured wall or accidentally resting your arm on your headphones cord, which go away after a while.
It changes the surface of your skin pretty dramatically and often lasts for several minutes, but never has any permanent effects, so I'm curious what's actually happening.
| 45 |
Physiologist here: Your body is a bag (skin, tissue) that contains a bunch of smaller water-filled bags (cells) that are surrounded by more water (what is technically called interstitial fluid).
Pressing a textured pattern against the skin causes higher forces to be imparted on the skin by raised surfaces - resulting in more water being pushed aside in the tissues in and underlying the skin. This is grossly observed as the pattern of a textured fabric/wall/whatever temporarily imprinted in the skin.
Over a few minutes of removing the textured surface, the interstitial fluid redistributes itself, and the textured imprint on the skin disappears.
| 13 |
Why does silver have a really high coefficient of friction with itself, but low when it has friction against other materials?
| 1,136 |
Silver is relatively soft and has a low strain hardening coefficient (deforming the surface doesn't make it very hard). At the same time, it has a relatively high adhesion with many metals, a low cohesion (self bond strength), and a low melting point.
The combination of all these properties results in a thin transfer layer of silver to mating surface of dissimilar (harder) metals, which keeps the local surface bond size and Strength low, resulting in low friction.
For self- mated silver pairs, the soft metal results in local contact areas that grow relatively large. This results in high friction.
| 394 |
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ELI5: Why do all of my packages from China get shipped as a "gift" even though I paid for it? Also, how do they get away with shipping a sale as a gift?
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I believe everything I've ordered so far from an unnamed site with most of their suppliers shipping from china gets shipped with the label of "gift." Why is that, and how do they get away with it if it is some sort of workaround to something?
| 31 |
It's a customs / import duty thing.
In some countries, if you're bringing a gift into the country, the recipient isn't eligible for import duty or extra taxes, whereas they are for items that have been purchased.
| 12 |
ELI5: If water is better at conducting electricity than air, why do static electricity shocks happen more often in dry air?
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Every winter I get zapped with shocks by static electricity whenever I touch something metal, or another being. Why does this seem to only happen in the dry winter months and not in the humid summer months?
| 172 |
You have almost answered your own question. You get static shocks when the air fails to connect you electrically with the things around you, so when you finally touch them, any electrical difference is resolved very suddenly. Ouch. When the air is moist, you have a constant though very weak electrical connection with the things around you, so the electric difference does not build up.
| 139 |
If space is ever so expanding, do we seen new/farther everyday we take photos of the outer edges of space? Do we add on to “observable universe” everyday too?
| 15 |
Kind of.
So, the universe as a whole does not have a boundary. The expansion of the universe is not the expansion of the *edge* of the universe, but rather everything getting further away from everything else - it's not expanding at the edges, it's expanding *everywhere*. In fact, the evidence is somewhat pointing towards the universe being *infinite* in size.
However, the *observable* universe *is* expanding. The edge of the observable universe represents the distance that light could have travelled since the beginning of the universe. The universe is about 13 billion years old, so the light from the edge of the observable universe is the light that has travelled about 13 billion light years (although the universe has continued to expand since the light was emitted and the images we see from this light are from objects that are now much more than 13 billion light years away).
This means that the images we see of the very edge of the observable universe are images of the very very young universe. This is the universe before there was any structure - it was a dense, uniform, opaque fluid of energy and particles. Because the universe was opaque, we can't actually see the light from the very beginning of the universe. Instead, we see the light that was emitted just as the universe got cool enough and sparse enough to become transparent. This light forms a background behind everything else in the universe. It has been redshifted over billions of years into microwave frequencies, which is why we call it the Cosmic Microwave Background, or the CMB.
So, as the observable universe expands, what happens is that the CMB radiation that we see is from slightly further away. What's happening is that the CMB radiation was emitted *everywhere*, but because it takes time for light to reach us, every second we're seeing CMB radiation that was emitted from gas about a light-second more distant than what we received the previous second.
This means we are technically seeing new parts of the observable universe, but it's not like we're seeing new galaxies turn up - we're just seeing slightly more distant "slices" of the CMB. The CMB is far too uniform over time for us to really see any change over decades though.
| 26 |
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CMV: Predators using advanced technology to hunt comparatively primitive species is not a good test of skill
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Predators consider themselves the greatest hunters in the galaxy, and test their skill on the most dangerous people of other planets. But they have developed incredibly advanced hunting technology that many of these species either a) have not discovered or b) do not have equipped during the hunt.
Stock car racing purists enjoy it because everyone competes with the same equipment so the only variable is strategy and personal skill. Every time a heat-seeking, invisible predator kills a normal guy with a gun, the only thing it's demonstrating is that Predator _technology_ is advanced.
To the obvious point, Arnold Schwarzenegger killed a Predator without access to this technology. I recognize failure is a possibility for them. But I pose the following points:
* The Predator's cavalier attitude suggests that primitive targets do not usually offer endanger them. While the humans may have prevailed, that doesn't mean that other species haven't been hunted without putting up a fight.
* Regardless of the outcome, without competing on equal technological footing a Predator's hunt will _never_ demonstrate the species' inherent skill as hunters
| 31 |
Hunters generally use unfair advantages all the time.
eg; lions use ambush and group tactics, most big cats use speed and claws.
Thats why they are predators - its not a competition or a sport whereby its equal footing for all combined. So they can still show skills its just a different set of skills.
| 17 |
ELI5: Why is vaping nicotine supposedly better for your health than smoking cigarettes?
| 25 |
Forget the nicotine, that is not what is bad about smoking. smoking is bad for you because of the chemistry that happens when you burn stuff. It's why people die from smoke inhalation during house fires. Smoking causes you to ingest all sorts of toxic chemicals. Not because they are put into cigarettes, but because they are created when you burn them.
| 41 |
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CMV: Every fine should be income based, no exceptions should occur
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This is the only fair way to financially punish someone, whether you should do that in the first place is a topic for another day.
The only way you can make sure rich people won't just shrug and metaphorically throw a moneybag at every policeman who wants justice is to make them pay a percentage of their monthly salary. Likewise this ensures everyone can pay their fine. This isn't more different than getting the same amount of years in prison irregardless of things like race and gender.
Why rich people should be above the law buggles my mind.
Edit:
To address the "how" question I get all the time. What I'm asking is implementation of [Day fines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-fine) on every fine. This is already happening in some nations especially for speeding tickets and I see no reason not to expand it to everything.
Edit: Since I can't keep giving out deltas for the same argument. I admit there might need a minimum amount of a fine.
Edit: The idea of choosing between a fine and community service has been brought up. I like that suggestion very much since it's an option for those too poor to lose even a percentage of their monthly salary.
Update: Today I realized how little I know about the rich. It probably won't come to many in here's surprise to learn I have no friends in the upper class. The more you know and all.
Update 2:
First off, it seems the biggest problem of my suggestion is how to target the very rich. On the other hand I get many suggestions besides income as a way of measurement of riches. The two biggest ones I noticed are "net worth" and "expenditures".
2nd of all a comment which is now buried (I really tried to find it, please respond if you read this) was for me to react to [this](https://youtu.be/Jtxuy-GJwCo) video or just as likely giving out deltas for the contents. Here's my 2 cents: I believe Steve Jobs made millions off stealing Bill Gates and Samsung's ideas except making even worse products that breaks or get obsolete within a year, so the first myth is lost on me although it makes me feel nostalgic for the day where currency didn't exist. I'm an advocate for "equality of outcome" and thus day fines are the way to go. It's like pushing the tall guy to the left off a box he doesn't deserve. I'll say Steve Jobs is plundering. Side-comment: Why am I looking at Mr. Burns? I don't see why the last myths are relevant for this post but let me know if you want my opinion on those too.
| 15,613 |
I hear what you're saying. That being said, we shouldn't be determining a person's punishment based on their wealth. Imagine if we handled prison sentences like that: should someone who is wealthy get a longer sentence just because they're wealthy? Linking fines to wealth makes plenty of sense until you realize that you're then directly linking a crime's punishment to something that has *nothing to do with the crime itself.*
| 543 |
ELI5: Every country seems to know how terrible Kim Jong Un is and how oppressed the people of N. Korea are. How come the worlds more powerful nations haven't "taken him out" by now, Either overtly or covertly?
| 93 |
1. Not every nation cares about North Korea all that much. As much of a headache as North Korea may be to Russia and China (the only non-Western nations with the power and reach to affect North Korea), they've generally not cared at all when dealing with foreign nations no matter how reprehensible their governments are.
2. Since 1950, North Korea has been a useful buffer for China. Throughout the Cold War, it was feared that any war with North Korea would draw China back in again. And even since then, China has largely shielded North Korea with their veto power in the UN.
3. Speaking of China, while it is unlikely China would go to war with the US or Japan over North Korea, there has never been a resolute and solid answer that they wouldn't get involved either. As long as that question persists, the question is still: is fighting North Korea worth the risk of a major war with China?
4. The policy of most Western nations towards North Korea has been one of isolation and/or sanctions towards the regime. The hope is that political, economic, and social instability will topple the regime from the within and limit the loss of lives to people of other nations and effect a more peaceful transition. Unfortunately, that hasn't worked out despite two power transitions since Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, died.
5. The Korean War, fought from 1950 to 1953, saw over 2 million people die in just a span of 3 years, making it one of the most bloody and destructive wars post World War II. Any actual or perceived provocation towards North Korea that may well trigger a full blown war is cast with a wary eye by all parties involved, especially so now that South Korea has grown as prosperous as it has and since it is a major economic player now.
In sum:
* The costs of war would be high, even if victory is assured for South Korea/the US/the remaining nations of the United Nations Command.
* There are question marks about China's role in all of this that make the risk even higher
* The long term goal has always been to hope that reform and/or internal collapse will happen by itself barring nothing changing in the status quo.
* The cost to rebuild the nation would be immense. Even the US at least tried rebuilding Iraq after 2003. Where would you even begin with North Korea?
| 89 |
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When you see weightlifters lifting hundreds of kilos at a time, how close are they to breaking their own bones?
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I've seen them rip muscle off the bone. Is it even possible to break your own bones with the strength of your muscles?
| 28 |
Weightlifters that you see in competitions are lifters whove been lifting and perfecting their form for years. If their form wasnt perfect, they wouldnt have reached the strength level that they are today. Perfect form involves eliminating all sheer forces on the bones in our body. The only forces at play are compressive forces, and bones can handle orders of magnitude more compressive forces than even the heaviest weights lifted by professional weightlifters. They may tear muscles and tendons, however broken bones only ever come from improper form. Something almost exclusively common to amateurs and beginners and practically never seen in the top ranks. Plus, broken bones are very very uncommon due to the lack of movements that directly bend bones enough to break them.
| 13 |
When I bashed my head as a child I cried; as an adult I get angry and swear. When did the change occur and why?
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Bashing my head still *really* hurts, as do other injuries. But as a child I would burst into inconsolable tears now I stamp my feat, shout "fuck" and I'm moody for a little while. Has my perception of pain changed?
| 39 |
Crying from pain is pretty damn useless if not to alert adults that a child is hurt. Anger on the other hand causes adrenaline and endorphin levels to rise significantly, which is useful both in suppressing the pain and dealing with any potential threats.
Crying helps to relieve anxiety; it helps when we are distressed and sad. It's calming.
| 21 |
ELI5: Why do we say "Shhh" when we want someone to be quiet?
| 487 |
I would assume it's because a shhing noise is what we hear in the womb, and it calms and soothes babies when you loudly shush them. I've heard that mothers across cultures all "shush" their babies when they are little. Maybe it is ingrained from us very young to continue using the phrase on adults.
| 588 |
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ELI5: Why does the stock market exist, and why is it such a big deal in our economy?
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Woah, first page. Didn't expect that. o.O
| 396 |
Well, before explaining the stock market, we need to understand stocks. Thankfully, it's not that hard. To start a corporation, a group of people each put in the initial money. Each of these persons gets a number of stock shares proportional to the amount of money they put in. Owning shares of the corporation means that if and when the corporation pays out some of its profits (if there are ever any; this is not guaranteed!), the shareholder will receive some of it, in proportion to the number of shares they own.
Now, stock is also *transferable*. It means that if you own stock in one corporation, you're not stuck with it forever; you may give it to other people in exchange for money, as a gift, or your children may inherit it. When this happens, the corporation is notified that the number of shares in question changed ownership, and they write it down in their records. Anytime the corporation pays out some of its profits to its shareholders, it uses these records to determine who to pay and how much.
Now, the stock market is just a set of financial institutions to make it easy for people to buy and sell stock. Why is this so valuable? Because the existence of the stock market makes it easier to find people willing to invest money to start corporations. If there was no stock market, and you gave some money to start a company, you'd be stuck with that investment forever; if you had an unexpected family emergency you'd have no way to get any of that money back quickly, so you'd be very unwilling to invest your money that way unless you were very, very rich and could spare it.
If there is a stock market, however, and the stock may be sold freely and easily in it, then that lowers the bar a lot, and people who would otherwise find it too risky to invest into a corporation are now able to. It's still risky, because the corporation may lose money, but you have much better chances of being able to get some of your money back for an emergency.
| 143 |
Finished my PhD, then ruined my life. Former advisor's advice is awkward, but it couldn't hurt, could it?
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I finished my PhD three years ago, left academia for an industry career. Realized I hated it, left it, now I’m scraping by with part-time teaching gigs. Sat down with my old advisor to talk about where / how to publish my dissertation, and she said, in a concerned way, that if I wanted to get back into research, I should start asking mutual contacts at my alma mater for admin-type jobs while I publish more. Is this a thing people do? How does this email go? Do I include my CV? Do I sound apologetic? I’m not too proud, I’m just surprised by her suggestion.
| 76 |
What is your degree in, because this seems like odd advice to me.
I would suggest leveraging your industry experience to sell yourself as a great manager and start talking to professors looking for postdoc or bench professor jobs. You can help run the research and begin to bolster your publications.
| 80 |
ELI5: Why are there so many varieties of apples yet other forms of produce may only have 2 or 3 varieties (or none at all)?
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If I go to the grocery store I'll see multiple bins with different types of apples, but if I look at the banana section it's just a bin of same variety bananas. Why?
| 15 |
In apples there are a variety of varieties that folks use for different things.
Just like you have white onions, yellow onions, sweet onions, green onions.... Or red peppers, orange/yellow peppers, green peppers, mini peppers, jalapeño, habanero, Serrano.... Or russet or Yukon gold, or baby red potatoes.... Or Roma tomatoes or beefsteak or cherry.....
But some produce has become particularly popular or comoditized in just a few similar variations for various reasons. Bananas for example are a clone of the variety that transports well and folks are familiar with. Carrots used to be all sorts of colors, but orange settled into popularity and the different varieties grown are all pretty similar in form and flavor - and growth so they're good commercial variants.
Most produce there are dozens if not hundreds of varieties available, but they don't all transport or sell well at retail. Of the thousands of apple varieties, you still only get a handful in the store.
| 15 |
Russia has great incentive to downplay economic damage caused by sanctions. What are some indicia of declining economic activity that are hard to conceal or fake?
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We're already seeing evidence that the [ruble is being propped up, quite possibly at the cost of the real economy,](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/opinion/russia-ruble-economy.html) because it's a metric with visibility to outsiders and it's in the interests of the ruling party for sanctions to look impotent. What other things are useful to figure out what real economic activity is doing in a country that has every reason to put its thumb on the scales to the best of its ability?
| 91 |
Imports/exports can be tracked using other countries’ data. You could see if domestic economic activity has waned using satellite data to track light emissions from the country- theoretically, if many businesses are shutting down then you would see that it’s darker at night. However, that would probably require pretty big changes to be really noticeable.
| 16 |
Are there "deserts" (vast areas that don't provide any life-sustaining resources) in the ocean?
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There are many nature shows that talk about how life in the oceans is in so many ways different than that on land and adapts to extreme conditions - depth, temperature, non-iron-based blood, etc.
My question is, are there large areas in the ocean devoid of what is needed to sustain life in any form?
As a follow up, if so, what is the equivalent of a camel in the ocean? A creature that packs in its energy to traverse or live in these areas? (and does so)
| 1,788 |
I'd like to point out that actual deserts are not without "any life-sustaining resources". They do in fact host various ecosystems. Therefore, answering your question becomes a bit problematic. Do you mean:
1. Nutrient-poor environments in the ocean (like a desert) that only specialized species can exist? or,
2. "large areas in the ocean devoid of what is needed to sustain life in any form" and therefore an area with no active ecosystem?
The second interpretation is unlikely at any surface water where you can get cyanobacteria growing.
| 671 |
[ATLA] Did each of the four nations only have benders of their respective element? Ex: Were there any earth or water benders living in the Fire Nation legally?
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If so, why didn't they aid in the war? Earth benders with allegiance to the Fire Nation would have been very useful in breaching the wall around Ba Sing Se.
| 87 |
Bending is as much genetic as it is spiritual, so some of the nature of bending passing between generations is up for debate. But yes, it seems like benders of one specific type congregate and have bender children of that type within the confines of their nations.
Cross-bender migrations and contact happened before the war, as evidenced by the swamp benders being a long-lost group of waterbenders far from the poles. (and perhaps sandbenders learning airbender techniques to augment their natural earthbending) But it's very probable that 100 years of constant fighting with the fire nation consolidated and segregated the remaining bender population. Especially since the firebenders held themselves to such a supremacist regard, and seemed unwilling to use other benders as allies except in very specific scenarios, often ones where the firebenders are clearly in a superior position. (referencing the way Azula used the Dai Li)
Waterbenders would not have been able to live in the fire nation, since it was accepted knowledge for many decades that the previous airbender avatar was dead, and the next would be born a waterbender. That's why the southern tribe was so brutally attacked and stripped of its benders. And the north was barely strong enough to resist, but it would have come under heavy assault even without Aang's reappearance.
| 71 |
[Monsters Inc.] Why do monsters think that the touch of a human child can kill you?
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Where did the myth come from? Why is it so pervasive, even though dozens of monsters regularly enter the human realm? Shouldn't they have noticed that all those scarers have come and gone from kids rooms nightly for decades without ever dying?
| 17 |
It could be deliberate propaganda. Since powering the monster world depends on terrifying and traumatizing human children, they can't risk scarers empathizing with them. Look what happened when Sulley scared Boo after getting to know her. He was heartbroken.
So, the monster government, the CDA and the higher-ups of the various scream companies deliberately spread misinformation about human children in order to demonize them. So long as monsters fear humans, monsters are happy to frighten humans. If monsters start liking humans, the whole system breaks down.
| 36 |
Are there any philosophers that write about the perceived conflict between a seemingly random universe and our causal and determinant perceived reality?
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This is a bit specific to a train of thought I've been nursing for a while so I might not be explaining it well enough for a third party. So I'll elaborate if you don't mind. I apologize for my BS background too.
PRESUMPTION: that the universe's smallest structure, quantum interaction, is the 'original' \(genesis definition\) and 'fundamental' \(starting building block\) aspect of reality.
OBSERVATION 1: Human experience and knowledge arises from classical interaction and obeys rules of determinism; cause leads to effect.
OBSERVATION 2: Quantum interaction is potentially [non\-determinant](https://physicsworld.com/a/quantum-mechanics-trumps-nonlocal-causality/) and [non\-local](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_nonlocality), but like general thermodynamics obeys stochastic models.
Question: How does one make sense of a completely probablistic/possibilistic 'fundamental' coexisting and laying the framework of a precise reality that is determinant?
I'll give a shout out to a fellow redditor on this sub who pointed me in the direction of Leibniz and his theory of Monadology. But its a bit dated \(1600s\) and relies heavily on a presumption in antithesis of mine.
I really appreciate your time!
| 32 |
Not sure how specific you are looking for but Wilfrid Sellars' "Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man" seems close enough.
If you're cool with swapping out quantum phenomena for the *thing-in-itself*, then Immanuel Kant's *Critique of Pure Reason*.
| 16 |
Will getting the Johnson and Johnson vaccine impact the efficacy of future gene therapy treatments?
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Given that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and many gene therapy treatments both use adenoviruses as a vector, could getting the J&J vaccine limit your options or decrease the efficacy of gene therapy treatments later in life? I was wondering if your body might recognize the gene therapy virus as the J&J vaccine virus and attack it before it can get its job done.
| 15 |
We don’t know. It’s possible, but it’s more likely that the immune response to the adenovirus vector will be so low, and so short-lived, that it wouldn’t impact subsequent exposure. Remember that the adeno component doesn’t replicate or amplify itself whereas the antigen passenger (spike protein) is driven by a powerful promoter so will be expressed at thousands of time higher than the adeno component, so the latter is probably marginally antigenic. Until J&J or AZ etc publishes details on the response to their adeno carrier we won’t really know.
In any case even if it does, it’s a minuscule concern. The number of people getting gene therapy is very small, the number getting chimp ad or Ad26 specifically is even smaller if not 0. It’s not worth worrying about in the general case. If someone is already lined up for gene therapy it might be a consideration on which of the (now multiple choices) vaccines to take, but it’s not something for the general public or even vaccine manufacturers to bother with.
| 10 |
eli5: how do paint rattlecans work?
| 16 |
The contents of the paint can are under pressure. Some form of gas (usually nitrogen or carbon dioxide) is in the can, as well as liquid paint. The amount of gas greatly outweighs the amount of paint, likely at a 10:1 ratio or greater.
When you shake the can, you're agitating the paint so it's suspended among with the gas, creating an aerosol of gas and paint. When you press the nozzle, the gas rapidly escaping the can 'pulls' the paint with it, spraying from the tip of the can which directs the spray in a fan pattern.
As the aerosol moves from a high pressure to a low pressure environment, the gas dilutes in the air you sprayed it in, but the paint remains on the surface you aimed it at.
| 25 |
|
[Warhammer 40000] I'm a Rogue Trader who turned a few eldar soul stones into magical dust and decided to snort them over the ass cheeks of my mistress. What's going to happen to me now?
|
I mean we all want that ultimate high and it was really good. Like I don't think I've ever had such a high before.
| 427 |
You absolutely did not have a real Aeldari spirit stone. The psychic energies contained within their crystalline structure is immense, and breaching them has been known to cause massive damage to the nearby area. A space marine named Trythos once smashed one with his power axe, and was flung several meters backwards in the resulting explosion.
So whatever it was you smashed wasn't anything close to a real spirit stone, count yourself lucky. Whatever mind-altering effects that came with the experience were either entirely in your head, or the product of the other drugs/alcohol you ingested that night.
Your most immediate danger is the same thing that happens when inhaling any kind of dust made from crystalline substances. Inflammation in the lungs, a bad cough, maybe even outright trauma and scarring to the lung tissue if the particles are in there long enough. Good luck having full lung capacity ever again.
| 367 |
What are the mutations in the Omicron COVID variant, and what is it about these particular mutations that make scientists worried about it?
| 4,430 |
The multiple mutations are centered in the spike protein, and according to WHO increases the risk of reinfection and thus continuous spreading with this viral strain.
However, please remember that these are only preliminary findings, there is still a lot not fully investigated with this virus strain yet.
| 3,450 |
|
ELI5: Why do teeth consistently grow crooked, but other bones don’t?
| 28 |
Jaws of modern humans are too small to accommodate the teeth. Our jaws grow in based on genetics and the food you eat. Modern foods are too soft so your jaw doesn't grow to it's full potential causing overcrowding in your mouth.
| 41 |
|
ELI5: How can aliens listen to the golden record on Voyager 1 if they ever found it?
|
Assuming that someday they find it, how can they have the technology to play a record or understand it works?
| 15 |
The record comes along with the device intended to play it, as well as instructions that are decipherable as long as they understand basic scientific concepts (which, if they are a spacefaring civilization, they likely will).
| 21 |
ELI5:Why can't shows like Mythbusters show brands in their TV shows?
|
They always put tape over it or cover it in some other way, I've seen this done in a lot of other shows as well (DigitalRev)
| 21 |
The presence of one brand may piss off one of their advertisers, who may produce a competing brand of the same product.
i.e. They are seen using a Coca-Cola product and now Pepsico refuses to advertise on a show that promotes their competition.
| 46 |
[Harry Potter] How big is the student body at Hogwarts?
| 47 |
Well there's 6 Gryffindor boys in Harrys year. If we assume that is standard, there's 12 Gryffindors per year, so 48 students per year. That's 336 students overall and makes sense with the number of named characters. But remember that we're seeing a generation of children born from the survivors of a war. There may usually be many more students, but too many young adults died, leaving an almost empty generation.
| 41 |
|
ELI5: Why are some U.S. cities, like NYC, designed in a nice grid-system while others, like Boston, look like something a drunken toddler with a magic marker drew on his parents' walls?
| 187 |
Some cities' roads were planned in advance - SLC and Chicago are good examples. They laid out the streets in a grid BEFORE people started building roads, houses, etc.
In the case of Boston (and many old cities in New England, Europe and elsewhere) the cities were not really planned in advance. The roads at the time were often originally based on native american paths through the woods (which themselves might have been based on trails that deer and other animals used), or just random trails/roads between farms, things like that. Stuff that didn't need to support a lot of traffic and just went from point-to-point.
Once you build up a whole area like that, it turns out completely random and stupid. But after it's built up, it's too late to change.
| 94 |
|
[Star Wars] What if Obi Wan throws a little force push down the hill before walking off on Mustafar.
|
You know, because Anakin is slowly burning to death, and Obi-Wan doesn't seem the torture type, and because he wants to make sure the job is done properly, he makes sure Anakin actually dies by pushing him all the way in to the lava.
How does the rest of time play out with no Vader? Can they train Luke and Leia to the point where they can defeat palpatine?
| 34 |
Let's ask why Obi Wan *didn't* finish off Anakin.
Obi Wan faced his own former pupil and best friend, who had spat in the face of everything Obi Wan ever taught him and became one of the monsters they were both sworn to fight. Just as importantly, he was facing a fully defeated opponent. To finish off Anakin under those circumstances would have been an act of revenge, an act of the Dark Side. Its entirely possible Palpatine would have used this incident as leverage against Obi Wan, slowly corrupting him to the Dark Side.
But even if that doesn't work out for Palpatine, the Emperor will still benefit from Obi Wan's choice. Vader was the reason Luke trained to become a Jedi. Sure, he left Tatooine for adventure, and joined the rebellion because of ~~his hot sister~~ a Princess, but the reason he went willingly into Palpatine's chambers was the fact that he believed his father could be redeemed. Without that motivation, Luke never confronts the Emperor, and the rebellion never scores its victory at Endor.
In fact, Obi Wan's attempts to train Luke probably would have been disastrous. When Skywalker and Kenobi met, Kenobi was an old, broken man, haunted by regret and the memories of the terrible decisions he had made. If he had taken the easy route and simply killed Anakin, he would have been a very different man. His training of Luke probably would have been similar to his training of Anakin, an attempt to fix his earlier wrongs. We know that Luke has the capacity to fall to the Dark Side--he almost did, when facing the Emperor. If he was trained by a Kenobi that was a wanton killer, Luke very well may have become the monster the Emperor intended Anakin to be.
| 47 |
ELI5: Been watching cooking shows lately, is there a reason why chefs choose to forego measuring their ingredients?
|
Edit - Oh and I forgot: It is in shows like Iron Chef America, Cuttthroat Kitchen, Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped, Kitchen Nightmares if that helps.
| 16 |
if you are cooking and not baking, then measurements are pretty irrelevant. You season food to taste not to any specific measurement. You add an onion because you have an onion, it doesn't matter if it is 1 cup or 1.2 cups it will still taste good. Things like that. In the end if you taste your food and adjust accordingly it will turn out well.
| 33 |
When a star runs out of fuel and collapses, does it happen all at once or does is slowly “deflate?”
| 16 |
Yes and no. In the grand scheme of things, it is very fast. But it still takes such a long time that a person living on a planet around it would hardly notice what was going on.
From the point where the star begins expanding to the point where the core is left as a white or black dwarf, it can take a few billion years.
That is, except if the star goes nova. The explosion of a supernova can be as fast as 100 seconds in duration, effectively making it so if you see the explosion, the star is already gone.
| 11 |
|
[Raimiverse/MCU] Why was there artificial intelligence in Doc Ock's tentacles to begin with?
|
In Spider Man 2 and No Way Home, it's explained that Doc Ock's tentacles had their own artificial intelligence, and so Ock had to invent an inhibitor chip to prevent the AI from taking over his mind, which it did when the chip was destroyed by the electrical discharge of his fusion experiment, and MCU Peter Parker had to create another inhibitor chip that is resistant to electricity to fix Ock.
But why was there an AI in Doc Ock's tentacles to begin with? Why couldn't he control the tentacles with his own mind?
| 42 |
Without that it would take forever to program it to take full advantage of the flexibility offered by the design, and it would probably always have been clunky.
Controlling them directly with his mind would probably have lead to some other, similar form of psychosis. You really don't want to be the test subject for the world's first neural interface.
| 75 |
ELI5: Why are there so many Islamic extremist groups in the world even though the Qur'an explicitly promotes peace regardless of beliefs, race, or nationality?
|
In the same breath, is the amount of Islamic extremists in the world a misconception propagated by Hollywood and the news media?
| 33 |
The real cause of conflict is rarely a religion. That's just used as a justification and to produce fanatical combatants.
The actual cause is usually one of the following:
* lower standards of living in one place (grab those riches or resources from next door)
* a threat to ones own leader's power (including perceived threats along racial or religious lines due to prejudice)
* desire for more power
* internal power struggles (leader is challenged and needs to unify his support: wars are great at that)
* external pressure being applied by another country which is unfair or damaging
Very rarely is it an actual ideological or theological struggle. Most people just want to live their lives in peace.
Countries which are mainly Christian tend to be Western countries with high standards of living. The last major war between them was WW2, which was caused by pretty much all of the above in varying degrees.
However, if you go back before then, you see huge amounts of warfare. Europe was at war every few decades at least. The USA had wars against Mexico (hello, Texan resources), and against its own native population (hello more resources and removal of an internal threat and it was popular politically).
Further back, we find things very much like Islamic Extremism, such as the First Crusade. Soldiers raped, committed genocide, and ate babies (really) all in the name of Jesus and against Mohammed.
You have the Inquisition. And the burning of witches not so long ago.
Much of the Islamic world is populated by people with little or no education and low standards of living. Add to that the fact that the West invaded most of them for Imperial reasons, and took their resources... then add in the fact that Western governments still prop up corrupt and abusive regimes and you have all the ingredients for conflict.
The surprise is not that there are extremists but that there are so few. And the further surprise is that so many people think the solution is to bomb or impose sanctions: reinforcing the reasons which generate new extremists. But politicians love a good conflict. It makes them popular by looking strong. It's in no politician's interests to build schools, send aid, make allies, and resolve the conflict.
And that applies to the head of Hamas as much as the president of the USA.
| 76 |
Why brakes lose their braking power once they get hot?
| 54 |
Its basically because the friction material on the brake pad begins to break down and produce gas after a certain temperature. This cushion of gas stops the pad touching the disk/drum and braking efficiency is lost
| 22 |
|
[Fantasy] What creates bottomless pits?
|
My name I don't remember, though I am from Ohio. I had a wife and children and good tires on my car. What took me from my home and put me in the Earth was the mouth of deep dark hole I found behind my barn.
We chucked in garbage since I don't know when. We threw everything, dead chicken, tractors that broke down. After a while, I sat at the edge of that deep dark hole and the thought of the bottom could not escape me. I rigged myself a chariot of the old clawfoot and my wife helped me.
I sank away and when the last rope pulled tight, I had not reached the end. I got out my knife and told my wife goodbye. I cut loose from the rope and I've been falling ever since.
Will I ever hit the bottom? I can't see anything, but I know my skin has wrinkled and my body feeble with the age of an old man. How do I escape? What created this evil pit?
| 82 |
Pits were invented in early antiquity, in order to make kicking people more dramatic. This technology stagnated during the middle ages, until the pit-bottom was invented by William Pitt (no relation) in 1756. While building codes have ensured most American pits built after the 1930's have bottoms, bottomless pits are still frequent sites in rural areas that lack proper funding or materials for pit-bottoming. This is especially prominent in Ohio because the lack of geographical features means most people are not aware of the hazards of elevation-change-related scenery.
| 113 |
do atoms experience changes in vacuums?
|
do atoms experience changes in space Atoms have relative atomic mass, though mass isn't effected by gravity do the forces holding the atom in place shift due to being in a vacuum, space for example? This might make me sound so stupid but i just had to ask
| 15 |
No, not really.
You can build a formal, quantitative description of an atom that includes an outside gravitational potential, but that potential will provide an immeasurably small perturbation under all but the most extreme conditions, so it can generally be ignored entirely.
This isn’t a dumb question, though, and I’ve seen somewhat similar things asked of students in QMech classes to give a sense of the relative contributions of coulomb and gravitational effects to the properties of an atom. Turns out the former absolutely dominates.
| 11 |
CMV: Institutional racism and racial prejudice are different things, and our focus on prejudice not only is a waste of time, but it can make it more difficult to discuss the more important realities of institutional racism. Please, CMV.
|
I think it is important for everybody to understand the difference between racial prejudice and institutional racism. I also think that discussions about institutional racism are far more important and interesting than discussions about racial prejudice.
**Racial Prejudice:**
I'm defining racial prejudice as the kind of adverse judgement based on race, formed beforehand, and not based on facts. It tends to be learned behavior and manifests itself in merely saying tasteless things or being irrationally suspicious. It is overt. Sometimes it can escalate into violence, and it can be experienced by all cultures and races.
I don't think that this kind of racism very often (if ever) translates into more systematic forms of racism, such as only hiring white people in your place of business, because of its overt nature and how easily it can be identified and shamed. I also think that fixing this kind of racial prejudice couldn't possibly solve any of the problems that we see with the more covert institutional racism that exists in our society.
**Institutional Racism:**
I feel like institutional racism is far more important of an issue to discuss and to attempt to fix. The mere fact that I as a white person in America have more opportunity in almost every aspect is institutional racism. The mere fact that because I'm American I have more opportunity than most of the third world might be the same thing on a global level. This is covert, pernicious, and a problem that is tenacious and difficult to solve. It causes a significant amount of harm. I feel like this is the problem that needs to be quantified, talked about, and fixed.
It seems to me that compared to the reality of institutional racism this, racially prejudicial words are irrelevant. They are merely a red herring. They don't cause the kind of damage that institutional racism causes because although harsh words and a loss of friends can be tragic, the absolute inability to increase one's standing in life has far greater potential for damage. If everybody on this planet were to suddenly stop saying racially prejudicial words (like the N word, or C word, etc.), literally nothing would change. That's how irrelevant these tasteless and offensive words are. Overt expression of attitudes based on irrational racial opinions also are not as damaging as institutional racism.
**Why the focus on prejudice damages the discussion about institutional racism:**
The problem is that it is that tasteless and offensive prejudicial words are more immediately offensive to people, and because of that they tend to dominate discussions about racism. Even though we're all prejudiced, and even though we all live in a society that is institutionally racist, the term "racist" is used as a pejorative towards those who say tasteless and offensive things. This leads to a populace that thinks racism is merely a question of what words someone might use, or which [silly opinions someone expresses on the internet] (http://sharknaldo.tumblr.com/post/69387862795/httpinstagramcomtallychyck). Rarely does a discussion of racism try to uncover and fix the covert institutional racism that does the most damage.
The focus on prejudice, or bad and tasteless words, takes away from the discussion of the important realities of institutional racism. If people focused less on mere prejudice we might be able to focus the discussion more on what could actually make a difference. Focusing on which bad or tasteless words a person uses is literally a waste of time.
**Disclaimer:**
I think it is possible that I'm not understanding some of the key aspects of racism. I think it is also possible that both covert and overt racism are more tied together than I think. Maybe there is a lot I don't understand here. Please, CMV.
**Edit:**
Thanks everybody who contributed to this discussion and helped me refine my position on this. I'm a little bit disheartened by the amount of downvotes my comments got and the amount of people who assumed my position was that racially prejudiced words are acceptable. I think that reflects poorly on the community, and while nobody asked my opinion on this community, it is still a bit of a bummer. This was my first attempt at a CMV post and while I was wrong about many aspects of my argument it was still counter-productive for people to downvote me because of it.
I was wrong about the idea that racial prejudice and systemic racism were different. I think the biggest problem I had was that I wasn't able to draw a meaningful line between something like racial prejudice in the real world (ie, a police officer who enforces laws unequally based on ethnicity), and the social media callout culture that many times will focus on racial prejudice (ie, if someone says "I'm not a racist, but..." they are literally Hitler). The first is clearly a problem that contributes to institutional racism, and the second clearly gets in the way of rational discussion about racism. Our discussion here helped me see this, so thank you.
I now see how prejudice can create institutional racism, but I still feel that much of our social media's focus on racially motivated tasteless words and comments is a waste of time and actively damages our overall effort to fix institutional racism.
Again, thanks for your help in changing my view. I feel like I'm walking away with a more thought out perspective because of your participation.
_____
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| 48 |
Part of the institutional racism is that hurtful racial slurs are normalized and viewed as less damaging than they actually are.
So while, technically, your point might have some validity, in practice, fighting overt racism *is part* of fighting institutionalized racism, because it's part of institutionalized racism.
| 12 |
[DC/Batman] What are some examples of Riddler having actually clever riddles?
|
I know he's capable of a good riddle. I've seen him dispense a few coins from a payphone to Batman's hands and Batman had to figure out Riddler was at the police station.
But most of the time... they ought to call him the Joker cause he doesn't have riddles, just jokes. (What question can you not say 'yes' to? Are you dead?) One time he didn't even have that, he just set up a race course for Batman to drive through.
We all have our off days, but surely he's got something going for him? (Outside the animated series.)
| 15 |
**Arkham: Living Hell**. Riddler is being snotty during an interview with one of the Asylum's doctors. They mention another doctor who usually treats him, and Riddler patronizingly says "Yes, how is the deer girl?" \[sic\]. This is actually a clue to something going on at the asylum that nobody on the staff was aware of: >!A deer girl is a doe. That female doctor had been killed by a patient known only as Jane Doe, who was impersonating her.!<
| 22 |
[War of the Worlds] What was an average day in the life of a Martian like?
| 76 |
There isn't much. But from the original source only, it is believed that they once resembled and functioned like Humans do.
But they are much evolved, they are octopus like with much large cranium, they do not digest foods directly instead are transfused with all they need, and on earth this is witnessed by blood transfusion from humans and also from a slave/animal race brought from Mars.
They do not have any visual or audible communication whilst on Earth but are seen to work together, so it is assumed there is telepathy there.
It is also known that they do not reproduce sexually, and are completely ignorant of disease.
From the limited information we have about them and the hostile conditions on Mars (evident from their desperation to leave, so we again assume they find it as inhospitable as we would) we can guess the following:
They are a survivor race and have survived the devastation of their planet through genetic mutation or guided evolution.
Because of the hostility of their world their population must be small, and we have never observed any visual signs of activity on Martian land, so they must remain either underground or in cave complexes, meaning their society is closely grouped together and small in number.
I imagine these intellectual giants as controlling their population size, expending as little resources as possible, and either largely in hibernation or set only on finding a new world and research into how to colonise it.
| 38 |
|
ELI5 How an oversupply of solar energy could lead to a blackout
|
I live in South Australia where 35% of households have solar panels. Some of these panels were temporarily switched off recently in order to avoid a "state wide blackout". How does an excess in energy to the grid cause a blackout?
| 34 |
Traditional power plants (except hydro) can't switch on/off instantly, it can take hours or days and costs $$. And obviously solar can't generate during the night, so those power plants have to be on and generating at night. But they can't stay on and generating _as well as_ all these solar panels unless there is demand to match the generating capacity (too much energy -> things start tripping to prevent overloads etc., harder to balance) so since the solar panels can be turned off pretty easily, they get shut off first.
This is why Tesla and their giant batteries is such a big deal: if you can take the excess capacity from wind and solar and store it for use overnight or when its cloudy you _can_ turn off the generating plants and save a whole buncha money.
| 29 |
ELI5: why does sugar help a burn?
|
My friend burnt her finger and her son said to "put in in the sugar." She did and felt immediate relief. We looked online and found that sugar is indeed used to help burns, but nothing about why it helps.
| 29 |
There's a couple ways it's beneficial.
Primarily, sugar absorbs water really well. This sucks up all the water in the wound, inhibiting the growth of bacteria that proliferate in wet wounds. This also has the effect of reducing swelling in the area.
Additionally, cells use sugar for energy. When a burn occurs, the normal distribution network of our skin is disrupted, cutting cells off from the nutrients they need to live. There's evidence that sugar can act as an energy source for those cells when it's absorbed into the blood- keeping cell death to a minimum while the wound heals.
| 36 |
[MCU] Can anyone with sufficient strength wield Stormbringer?
|
We never saw anyone put the “May he be worthy” enchantment on Stormbringer like Odin did to Mjolnir. Can anyone potentially wield Stormbringer if they’re physically strong enough? I know we also saw Captain America recall Stormbringer from afar but I don’t know what to make of that.
| 29 |
Indeed, Stormbreaker has no worthiness enchantment. So as long as you're physically capable of holding it, you can use it. Not only did Cap briefly summon it, but Thanos almost killed Thor with it before Cap proved he was worthy to wield Mjolnir.
| 44 |
ELI5: why does a Geiger Counter have that distinctive sound when detecting radiation instead of just beeping the intensity?
| 28 |
Radiation particles striking a gas filled vacuum tube create a "spark" (keeping it simple for a 5 year old). The tube is hooked up directly to a speaker so you're hearing the actual noise. By not introducing another layer of circuitry to transform the no3ose into a beep, you keep the cost and complexity down. First Geiger counters were early 1900s when technology was more limited so the simple but effective design has stuck.
| 41 |
|
[Dark Knight Rises] Where was Joker?
|
In the Dark Knight Rises, Bane liberates all prisoners from Blackgate, which means that the Joker should’ve shown up in the movie, so then where was he?
I’ve seen it argued that he was sent to Arkham after the events of TDK, but that’s not possible. The Dent Act that was passed in that movie denies the insanity defense to those with ties to organized crime. Joker was paid by the mob to kill Batman, so he can’t be declared insane.
The logical answer from that point then would be that the Joker was executed, especially since the Dent Act also guarantees maximum sentencing for those connected to organized crime. The problem with that, however, is that Gotham City isn’t in a death penalty state. Neither New York nor New Jersey (the two states where people think Gotham is in) have capital punishment.
With tall of that out of the way, I ask once again. Where is Joker in DKR?
| 58 |
Joker wasn't sent Arkham. He had escalated his antics to domestic terrorism and no longer fell under the jurisdiction of Gotham police or their courts. Somewhere between the two films he was transferred to bell reves or whatever the name of the supermax that is shown in suicide squad is. They're better equipped to handle a prisoner of his classification than a mental asylum or Gotham prison.
The only reason the FBI and other alphabet agencies weren't involved in the dark knight is very little time passes between his attack on the hospital and his arrest which would have warranted their involvement instead of a mob task force.
| 87 |
At what size of a particle does classical physics stop being relevant and quantum physics starts being relevant? Why?
| 125 |
Classical physics starts deviating significantly at the molecular level, so on the magnitude of ~10^-8 m. There is no clear boundary between classical and quantum mechanics, it's more of a continuous transition.
With that said, quantum mechanics can be used to predict phenomena on a larger scale, it's just that classical physics approximates it so well that they're basically identical.
| 66 |
|
[Marvel's Spider-Man] What do Daredevil and The Punisher think about Spider-Man's work?
|
In the beginning of the PS4 game, Spider-Man helps the police take down the Kingpin. Wilson Fisk is also known to be an enemy of Daredevil and the Punisher, so how would they react to the news of his arrest at the hands of Spidey?
| 440 |
Daredevil approves, as a backpack item you collect is a business card for his lawfirm. Murdoch had approached Peter in his civilian identity and offered his services in case they were ever needed on Spider-Man's behalf (this seriously shocks and confuses Peter).
In all honesty, Punisher would be disapproving of Spider-Man... since he's not massacred the mob like he would've done.
| 411 |
[Metal Gear Solid 3] Without saying the words nanomachines or parasites, why did The Fury explode into a fireball with a face that followed Snake and screamed at him?
| 19 |
The Cobra Unit members were able to harness certain supernatural abilities through very advance tech and expert skills(i.e the fear: controlling hornets with a device that emits pheromones and or a certain frequencies, the fear: using octocamo and very skilled acrobatics) also each member had small microbombs on their person set to detonate when they died. Now the really crazy shit we see, such as the aforementioned fireball face. A lot of these over the top escapades could be taken from the perspective of snake, who is an unreliable narrator sort of speak. He has been in the dense jungle for a few days; most likely severely dehydrated, under fed and sleep deprived, not to mention the funky shit he eats along the way can all alter his perception in a huge way and by the time snake meets the fury he's been at this shit for awhile, so it's safe to assume he's incredibly delirious; so picture it from his perspective. Munching on poison frogs, glowing mushrooms, multiple injuries with minimum care, low access to clean drinking water, lack of sleep and running on pure instinct and adrenaline. Snake just finishes beating the fury, he's screaming and yelling at snake as he starts to ignite, snake books it out of there just as furys microbomb goes off, his jet pack and the fuel tanks around them explode in a huge fiery ball as the fury screams in agony, it's safe to assume snake is hallucinating the furys fire ghost as he tries to out run the explosion.
| 12 |
|
Did Derrida write in an obscurantist way? (asking for people who have studied him)
|
I have a hard time understanding him. I'm not trying to insult him by asking this question, but I am genuinely curious. Sometimes I feel like he's trying to seem profound with convoluted sentences, but I'm probably not smart enough to understand. Can someone who has studied Derrida deeply share their thoughts?
| 31 |
I think a better way of considering his writing style is that it is confined to sometimes odd constructions by the way he thinks language works. He is also frequently mobilizing an entire contextual knowledge of a thinker (and sometimes implicitly—in these cases *maybe* it is fair to critique him as obscure, or unclear in a way that isn’t necessary).
Briefly, one part of the problem for Derrida is that language doesn’t just represent some pre-existent ideal content and then communicate it. Language is actually a condition of possibility of this content in the first place, and confines and fissures that content by the iterability of the bits of language that are used. His writing tries, among many other things, not to fall into the trap of pretending that it can or does transparently represent some set of ideas, without already having contaminated them and related them to other ideas which exceed the “intention” in the case at hand.
A good place to begin with this problem is “Signature Event Context,” and it would help to have a good knowledge of J L Austin’s speech-act theory.
| 35 |
[Pokemon] If Humans are "normal type" pokemon, could you catch a human?
| 21 |
Humans are not a normal type Pokemon. Humans aren't really Pokemon, even if humans and Pokemon have a common ancestor. Mammals and birds have a common ancestor too and they're both warm blooded vertebrates but we don't say that mammals ARE birds, we understand that there was divergent evolution.
Humans aren't Pokemon. Pokemon lay eggs, humans do not. Humans are vertebrate, Pokemon can be vertebrate or invertebrate.
| 18 |
|
ELI5: what is the difference between a proposition and a proposal
| 29 |
"proposition" is a word with a lot of meanings.
It can mean proposal (especially in a political or business setting). But in an academic setting it's an opinion/judgement.
Generally the difference is that a proposition is a "This is how we should do it" while a proposal is "This is how we could do it"
| 53 |
|
ELI5:why can i read reddit for hours but can't focus on doing schoolwork or studying?
| 268 |
Quickly changing topics keep you interested because your brain is always "expecting the next thing to be even better". Delving deeper into a single topic is harder to stay interested in because your brain expects the next thing to be harder to understand.
| 227 |
|
[Neuroscience] Why can't we use adrenaline or some kind of stimulant to wake people out of comas? Is there something physically stopping it, or is it just too dangerous?
| 11,181 |
Adrenaline, cortisol, and other stimulants are like an alarm. They're a chemical signal that can quickly travel around the body.
People fall into comas for many reasons, but generally increasing the 'wake up' signal won't do anything. It's like a ringing alarm clock for a deaf person.
Most comas are caused by drug overdose of one kind or another. This tends to cause coma through damage to a region of the brain stem called the Ascending Reticular Activating System (ARAS). In particular, synaptic function is impaired. Basically the neurons that form the 'wake up' button lose the ability to talk to each other. Pressing the button harder won't make a difference.
Other times, there's systemic damage to the brain. The 'wake up' button may work, but the stuff it's connected to can't sync up correctly. This is particularly true for damage to the outer layer of the brain - the cerebral cortex - which is where consciousness seems to happen.
| 11,721 |
|
[ Marvel Comics ] Why don't king Tchala end the African poverty or at least hunger?
| 40 |
Because of a large variety of reasons, mostly because they were extremely isolationist - a depiction that carried over into the MCU. They were so isolationist that they weren't even allowing their own citizens to leave to other countries for education - T'Challa was legitimately the first Wakandan to study abroad.
| 72 |
|
Is there a fundamental and consistent difference between fields that follow the inverse-square law and fields that follow the inverse-cube law?
|
Inverse-square: gravity, electrostatics, etc.
Inverse-cube: magnetic
| 97 |
All three of the forces you mention are “fundamentally” inverse square forces, meaning that point sources produce 1/r^(2) fields.
All of these fields can be expressed in terms of potentials, and the potentials can be expanded in a multipole expansion. The multipole expansion is an infinite series consisting of monopole, dipole, quadrupole, octupole, hexadecapole, etc. terms.
In all three cases the field due to a monopole goes like 1/r^(2), the dipole field goes like 1/r^(3), the quadrupole as 1/r^(4), etc. The 2^(L)-pole field goes like 1/r^(L+2).
So a point charge and point mass produce 1/r^(2) electric and gravitational fields respectively. If a point magnetic charge existed, it would produce a 1/r^(2) magnetic field too. But as far as we know, magnetic monopoles don’t exist. There’s nothing fundamentally stopping them from existing in theory, they’ve just never been observed. Since the monopole term is observationally always zero for magnetic fields, the lowest-order multipole that has a chance of being nonzero is the dipole, and the field of a dipole is 1/r^(3).
| 109 |
CMV:Gender Studies is a Pseudoscience with a deep ideological bias and shouldn't be taught in publicly-funded Universities.
|
I freely admit that I have never taken any gender related course in university or any other education environment, so there will be things I'm not aware of.
But what I am aware of paints the picture I described in the title. For one, gender studies seem to be based in large part on Freudian psychoanalysis (this is according to Wkipedia) which has been pretty much debunked (again not a psychology major, this is just what I was taught in psychology class in high school). It's as if I could take a physics class based on Deutsche Physik.
Like Freudian Psychoanalysis, Gender Studies doesn't seem to be based on the scientific method of making hypothesis and then testing them with experiments made with empirical measurements. To a certain degree this might be necessary since it deals with things that are not really measurable, as feelings and identities tend to be.
This is where ideological bias comes in. The vast majority of Gender Studies are Feminists, and generally left-Wing. And this in my view taints how these fields are approached. It's perfectly fine to personally believe that for example women are oppressed, but quite another to teach that as fact to impressionable students, when even a way to clearly measure that has never been presented, much less multiple experiments in controlled environments performed.
So I think subsidizing these courses with tax money would be like funding creation science courses. If you want to pursue an ideology and pay for it yourself, that is fine by me. You do you. But we fund Universities to teach scientific fact (including historical facts like the history of feminism, or description of what feminists believe), not political opinion (like feminism itself).
_____
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| 21 |
In order for it to be a pseudoscience, Gender Studies would need to claim (wrongly) to be a science. Gender Studies departments by and large do not do this, both because it would be inaccurate (Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary field) and would be insulting to the non-scientific members of the field (such as those from philosophy, history, media studies, etc.).
Additionally, many universities fund departments that are not scientific, including departments (e.g. Theology) that are intensely and inherently ideological. Why should Gender Studies be attacked in particular?
| 50 |
ELI5: How is an economy "stimulated", what does it mean to stimulate an economy, and what leads to inflation?
|
This might've been asked before but it's something I've never understood, so thought I might as well ask.
| 34 |
Two methods: fiscal policy (government decisions to tax more/less or provide more:less subsidies and payments to businesses or people) and monetary policy (a central bank managing interest rates). These days the big one is the latter.
All interest rates in a country (eg your interest rate on a line of credit, personal loan and mortgage) are based off that country’s Policy Rate. Commercial banks can borrow from the central bank at that policy rate (well, not exactly at that rate but let’s not go into details about that). They in turn lend that money to people and businesses. If the policy rate goes up, then the rates at which they lend go up (to maintain their profit margin). If the policy rate goes down, then the banks lower the rates at which they lend to consumers.
The policy rate is raised to cool down an economy (that is, to keep inflation in check) if it’s overheating. This happens since higher central bank rates mean people and businesses are less likely to take out loans to spend on things like houses, cars etc. If people aren’t spending as much there is less demand for products so prices don’t increase very fast, which means inflation won’t increase (in theory) very fast. The economy starts to cool off since spending is one of the main components of a country’s GDP (the others being investment, government spending and net exports)
Or the central bank can do the opposite: lower its policy rate so banks can lower their lending rates. People decide to borrow more money to buy more stuff, increasing gdp. demand goes up but that also leads to inflation.
Basically it’s a big game of equilibrium and balance. Banks like to keep an inflation target typically around 2% since that leaves a nice buffer to avoid deflation (ie negative inflation, or decreasing prices) which is a whole other story and which can be very dangerous to an economy.
| 22 |
ELI5: If electricity moves so fast, why does it take so long for phones to charge?
| 189 |
Because batteries do not store electricity.
They store chemicals. And when those chemicals react they MAKE electricity to power your phone.
Plugging your phone in doesnt fill your phone with electrity, its using the electricity to move the chemicals back to where they were.
And when that happens, the battery is able to make electricity again.
| 566 |
|
[The last of us] Is Ellie going to grow up fine anyway?
|
So Joel chooses to save the kid, yay him. However, it seems to me that what Ellie has is more of a resistance than an immunity. That wound wasn't healing, and looked pretty manky. And the fireflies found some spread of infection in her brain, just not as aggressive as normal, or enough to impair her faculties.
Yes, Ellie may not have turned in the usual time frame, but what's to say she won't slowly become an infected in a few years?
| 63 |
The 'infection' in her brain is what's actually causing her complete immunity. It was caused by some kind of anomalous genetic interaction that occurred right after she was bitten. That's why the wound looks kinda gross - it's because the wound *did* fester for a bit before the mutation in her brain kicked in and gave her full immunity to the disease.
As far as we know, her immunity will last until she dies. Of course, if there was some other trigger to make her brain mutate in a different way, or if she was to lose that part of her brain in some kind of accident, then she would probably fully turn into one of the infected.
| 50 |
CMV: Disability wage gap is a more serious and less mentioned topic than gender wage gap.
|
Disclaimer: I am not downplaying the importance of gender wage gap, I am merely stating that disability wage gap seems to be more serious --- if anything intersectionality would imply that different sorts of identities compound onto its social impacts.
&#x200B;
I am a person with multiple chronic issues and have been struggling really hard in finding higher education / jobs. As a person who has long been following gender wage gap, it has only recently hit me that disability wage gap is probably a thing. And indeed, after searching a bit, there has been researchs made which outlines and states the figures of how disabled people are paid less in the workforce.
So cmv: are disabled wage gap actually less severe than gender wage gap? or cmv: are disabled wage gap actually discussed or promoted often in media? or cmv: whatever you see fit
Edit: Thank you all for your comments! I am trying my best to get to them one-by-one!
| 24 |
Any studies on that topic would need to find and correct for some factor for the reasonability of "reasonable accomodations". Because disabled people not getting jobs that they just can't reasonably do isn't an serious failing of employment practices, just reality.
Did those studies you find do that? It seems like that would need to be done for each kind and severity of disability separately, so that would be kinda hard to get an overall number.
| 33 |
ELI5: Why does feeling or hearing certain things, such as rubbing your nail on sandpaper, literally send a shiver down your spine?
| 1,192 |
Human hearing has evolved to be much more sensitive at certain frequencies (in particular the 1-4khz region). This is so that we can more clearly distinguish things like human speech, crying babies etc.
As a trade off of this, certain sounds that have their root frequency (lowest and generally loudest frequency in their spectra) or a lot of harmonics (higher frequencies above the root frequency) within this range are extremely jarring to us, as they reach the "peak" of our hearing at much lower sound pressure levels than other frequencies will.
This is why sounds like scratching cutlery, smashing glass, babies crying and nails on a chalk board can catch our attention so easily and have the potential to be downright painful.
Source: years of audio engineering
| 375 |
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ELI5: Why aren't electrical prongs hot when they're removed from an outlet?
|
If high amounts of energy are being conducted through these prongs, shouldn't prongs be glowing hot when they're removed?
| 147 |
Heating occurs when there's a significant amount of resistance.
Significant resistance can occur if the material you're using is a poor conductor, or if you're using a conductor that's physically too small.
In the case of the prongs of a plug, they're both made of metal (good conductor) and fairly large in size. Therefore, there's no major resistance, and they don't heat up noticably.
| 224 |
[MCU] how many powered people are there in the MCU?
|
We know there’s enough for there to be a dedicated prison for them so presumably there are at least several thousand just in the US even with a relatively high rate of incarceration. Do we have any indication or guesses as to the total number of people with powers in the MCU both worldwide and in the US?
| 38 |
No way to know for sure. The phenomenon is widely enough known that people immediately understand when they encounter someone who is powered, but rare enough that it's still a surprise.
A couple of government agencies were tasked with cataloging them all. One terrorist organization specifically targeted them. At least two enclaves of Inhumans existed - Afterlife and Attilan.
You'd have to decide what criteria to use to consider someone powered, too. Many people just have high tech gadgets, like Shocker, Diamondback, and Toomes. Even a lot of Avengers like Stark, Rhodes, Sam, and Clint are normal humans with technological enhancements.
Then there are combat drugs taken by people like Trish Walker and Simpson. T'Challa also is technically just a normal human who doses with herbal enhancers and has a high tech suit.
Thousands or tens of thousands is a good guess.
| 26 |
Does the recipient of a heart transplant inherit the resting heart rate of the donor?
| 59 |
Only sort of. After a transplant, the heart is generally not connected to the nerves that regulate rate. But cardiac muscle is not like skeletal muscle, in that the nerves do not directly initiate contraction, they just speed it up or slow it down. The heart itself has autorhythmicity. Not connected to those nerves, the heart will beat at its intrinsic rate, which is usually around 100 bpm.
| 24 |
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[The Midnight Sky] What the hell happened?
|
There aren’t many clues for this one but radiation is steadily advancing outwards from all the major urban centers on the planet. It’s so hopeless that the staff of an Arctic observatory is flying home to be with their loved ones for the end.
The radiation is projected to reach the Arctic station about 15 days after “The Event” and slightly before that birds start falling from the sky and convulsing on the ground outside the station.
The view from space is pure WTF dust storms.
| 18 |
It's Nevil Shute's *On The Beach* updated. Nukes probably, lots of 'em apparently, don't dwell on sciencey shit. The end of the world is just a MacGuffin for the story.
>!Two parents and a child on a fresh planet is still extinction.!<
| 11 |
ELI5: Who or what determines a road's speed limit?
| 1,283 |
Who sets it, and puts up the roadsigns? Typically whatever governmental body is responsible for the roads in that area. In the U.S. most highways are managed at the state level, and local roads at the county/city level.
Sometimes there are laws that determine default speed limits; other times the relevant Dept. of Transportation determines it based on conditions.
Those conditions typically are:
- How narrow the road is, and how many lanes there are.
- How many houses/businesses are along the road.
- How much the road curves or changes elevation (which effects visibility).
| 421 |
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ELI5: how do animals with extremely acute hearing not get bombarded with loud noise all the time.
|
with my only frame of reference being my own hearing.. I struggle to grasp how this works. If you can hear a whisper across the room.. Shouldn't every sound in your immediate vicinity be blaring loud? Any insight would be appreciated.
| 17 |
Animals like dogs & cats have 'directional' ears, so if a sound is uncomfortably loud they can turn their ears away from the sound to help. They will also have ears that can 'adapt' to the ambient sound level better than ours.
| 12 |
CMV: There is nothing wrong with non disabled actors playing mentally disabled characters. It’s actually essential for certain movies.
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Sometimes I hear from comments online and even YouTube videos dedicated to the subject, that it is offensive for non-disabled actors (example: Daniel Day Lewis, Tom Hanks) to play disabled characters. Instead we should have disabled actors play these roles because they truly know what it is like- that is the argument.
And yes, there are performances by actors that are straight up offensive and lack depth (John Travolta in The Fanatic) but there’s nothing wrong with a sincere performance played by an actor who cares, and a story that respects the disabled community.
Yes, movies like “Peanut Butter Falcon” are wonderful for the exact reason that Zack Gottsagen gets to shine in the story. But not every film production is able to bank on someone that’s not a big name star.
Also, for certain performances it can be an extra challenge for directors to give disabled actors playable direction on set.
I am an actor myself and three years ago I acted in a short film alongside a teenager with autism. He was a super sweet kid but the director had a difficult time giving him direction. Unfortunately it was very difficult to act alongside him, since he was so unresponsive at times.
My point in sharing this story is that there are sometimes extra challenges for film sets that involve individuals within the disabled community.
Sometimes it is essential to have a big name actor play a disabled character in a sincere way.
It’s not offensive at all if done in an authentic and respectful manner.
| 2,763 |
Is it actually essential, or are studios just unwilling to provide accommodations for disabled actors because of the perceived cost?
The issue people have with non disabled people playing disabled characters is that there are so few opportunities and representation for actually disabled actors, and when a movie about a disabled character is made by non disabled writers and directors and played by non disabled actors, it can often turn into inspiration porn.
| 711 |
ELI5: How does a gun silencer work?
| 431 |
Ever open a soda can quickly and hear a pop? If you have, then you've no doubt tried opening it slowly and noticed that it's a lot quieter -- it just sort of hisses.
This is fundamentally how silencers work. The barrel in the silencer has a bunch of little holes that bleed gas into the body of the silencer. Inside the body, there are lots of little pannels that slow the gasses down, so that when the bullet exits the silencer, there's not much pressure left behind it. Because of inertia, the bullet is still travelling very fast, although noticeably slower than without the silencer.
It's important to understand that silencers only get rid of muzzle noise. You usually want to use special ammunition that doesn't go faster than the speed of sound, or the sonic boom from your bullet will be very noisy. It makes a long crackling sound.
| 516 |
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CMV: The left (particularly on reddit) should be universal in unequivocal condemnation of tankies and should reject them from all leftist spaces and movements, with no exceptions.
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I've been on a pretty plodding journey to the left over the course of the last year or so, and one of my biggest hangups has been the left's acceptance of tankies.
For those that don't know, a tankie is an authoritarian leftist, often a Stalinist or Maoist, who sees the most abominable acts of the most abominable leftist regimes not as mistakes or failings or "not real X," but rather as the proper way to build the best possible society. For example your average leftist trying to be an apologist for the USSR might point to certain things that regime did right while condemning the oppression and bigotry and ethnic cleansings and mass killings and genocides and ideological imprisonment and torture and all the rest of it; a tankie, if they acknowledge these things happened at all (many tankies are the left wing equivalent of Holocaust deniers when it comes to leftist atrocities), will often celebrate these things and view them as the proper way to practice leftism. They don't look at Stalin and find things to admire despite him being a tyrannical despot - they love him *because* he is a tyrannical despot. They see the fact that the USSR has committed more of the largest genocides in human history than any other power in world history to be a good thing (again, assuming they acknowledge it at all and don't try to conspiracy theory their way out of it). Or while your average leftist might support an abolition of for profit, capitalist landlords, a tankie would think landlords ought to be rounded up and shot without trial a la Mao.
In short, at least to my eyes, tankies seem almost unreservedly evil. I view them very much to the left what Neo Nazis are to the right - obviously on the same side but a crazy, malignant fringe that at least *ought* to be rejected by the mainstream.
Cue my surprise, then, at the level of acceptance they seem to have at least among the reddit leftist community. [Using subredditstats](https://subredditstats.com/subreddit-user-overlaps/shitliberalssay) you can see that very mainstream leftist subreddits like r/socialism, r/breadtube, r/ENLIGHTENEDCENTRISM, r/COMPLETEANARCHY, r/fragilewhiteredditor, r/therightcantmeme, r/anarchism, r/vaushv, r/socialistra, r/latestagecapitalism, r/lostgeneration, and r/toiletpaperusa all have *massive* user overlap with openly tankie subs like r/ShitLiberalsSay and r/GenZedong (as they did with the late r/MoreTankieChapo). Subs like r/DankLeft even have rules, ostensibly in the interest of promoting left unity, that make critiquing tankies a bannable offense.
While I might forgive open shitpost subs where the whole point is to allow *anyone* to post (e.g. r/PoliticalCompassMemes) for allowing tankies to find a home there, many of the subs I just listed are incredibly popular leftist subreddits that proport to be a good place for leftist news, ideology, theory, and discussion. I dont know about you but if I was moderating or very active on a sub and I found out that people who used an openly nazi sub were up to 70x more likely than the average redditor to frequent my sub *I would freak out.* But to the contrary I see very few leftists who seem to give a shit that they're rubbing digital shoulders with tankies every day on reddit. Ive met a handful of anarchists who openly profess their hatred for tankies, but thats about it. I've even had many otherwise very reasonable and intelligent leftists calmly explain to me that they *need* tankies in their ranks to achieve their goals, which again strikes me like an otherwise mild conservative telling me they *need* Neo Nazis to be a part of their community.
There's been a lot of hurdles towards my becoming a leftist and the biggest, most off putting concern now that I am is the notion that amiable participation on any leftist sub (and one might wonder to what extent this applies to irl leftist communities) means being buddy buddy with tankies. Even if theyre not spouting tankie rhetoric to me at that very moment I would feel tarnished and dirty just by association. And I can't fathom why this isn't a near universal belief among other leftists. Many of those subs are very quick indeed to ban people for saying non-leftist stuff or even just for having participated on non-leftist subs, so clearly all those subs i listed have the *capability* to drive out the tankies *if they wanted.* But they don't. *Why?* I don't understand it, and frankly it seems kind of nefarious to me and makes me wonder if the progressive "we just want a better world" rhetoric among common leftists isn't just a thin veneer hiding much more sinister intentions.
| 46 |
I think you just need to disengage a bit from the internet. I’ve been involved in left wing politics for 20 years and this is the first time I’ve ever heard the term tankie. It seems more like an internet comment phenomenon more than a real element of politics.
| 39 |
ELI5: Why shouldn't you put hot water from a tap into your kettle to boil?
| 16 |
Hot water heaters hold water for long periods of time, and as such they often have buildup of various sediments and other contaminants that you really don't want to be ingesting on a regular basis.
Also, it fouls the flavor of the water. Especially if you have scale issues.
Take two cups. Fill one with hot water, fill another with cold. Put them both in the fridge.
Once the hot water is cold, taste both cups. You'll see that the taste of the hot water is not nearly as good as the cold.
| 34 |
|
CMV: I’m not happy with the political party I mostly support. I shouldn’t donate a dime to anyone until I am happier.
|
I am approaching this from a non-political perspective and I feel like this could be party agnostic, but I’m really not happy with the political party I have supported in the past. They are awful and disappoint me at every turn. Every election, they induce a “most important election of our lives” narrative, but don’t really deliver when in power IMHO.
I am a member of multiple minority groups (intersectionality is a thing), and I feel very much taken advantage of. I have advanced degrees in public policy and law, so I have an understanding of how US government and politics works. Voting for the current ecosystem of the other party is not an option.
I am starting to get fundraising emails, invitations, etc as 2022 starts to ramp. I feel that there is no good reason to donate my money to candidates or political party. The amount I am able to donate does not get me “access” to a candidate, just more spam emails and calls.
My friends believe that this is still important to donate. CMV: Why should I still donate to this machine?
EDIT: Its probably germane that I am in the United States and I live in DC where I have NO direct representation in federal elections.
| 51 |
If you wait until the general election to support candidates, you are too late to make any real change to your party. Changes to the party happen during the _primaries_, where multiple candidates within the party compete for the main nomination. _This_ is where new ideas are introduced and the party moves further left/right based on who wins the primary.
Case in point, AOC unseated Joe Crowley - a 10 year veteran of Congress - in the Democratic primary, pushing that seat _much_ further left. A Democrat was always going to win that seat, but real change was made there because Democrats made their voice heard when it _really_ mattered. Similarly, Trump came out of nowhere to win the 2016 Republican POTUS primary, fundamentally changing the GOP.
If you support your candidates _then_, you can actually influence things in a meaningful way. So you 100% should donate time and money to candidates - you just need to do it _earlier_.
| 40 |
How does a vine searching for and object to climb “know” not to wrap around itself?
|
I’ve seen a time laps video of a climbing vine and as it circles around searching for something to climb it seems to run into a chute from itself. Upon interacting with itself it simply disengages and continues its search for another object.
How does it recognize itself?
| 19 |
There are surface proteins which sense when the vine is touching something. When it does it sets off a signal cascade which causes growth/elongation on the opposite side of the vine.
There are a number of processes at work, almost all of which are poorly understood and heavily researched. They also vary between organisms that exhibit the process.
If you're interested in diving down the rabbit hole Google "circumnutation" or "helical growth in plants".
| 11 |
CMV: YouTube Kids should be based on a whitelist of approved channels.
|
You might have heard about the controversy associated with YouTube Kids, which has [frequently suggested bizarre and often disturbing and/or violent cartoons for children and parents.](https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/9/16629788/youtube-kids-distrubing-inappropriate-flag-age-restrict) Very many of these cartoons show iconic, copyrighted characters engaging in out-of-character behavior, including [depictions of Elsa engaging in gun violence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDgokvFC_-E). These videos are quite controversial and can be traumatizing to children, and furthermore may harm iconic and beloved brands.
If YouTube is going to be explicitly branding towards children, they need to ensure that every video they offer is both a) child-friendly and b) depicts characters in a way that's consistent with their creators' intentions. I'm not at all opposed to fanfiction, but Elsa robbing a bank is not something that is child-friendly and not something that fits with Disney's intention or reputation at all. What I think should happen is that YouTube Kids should be limited to channels that are reviewed by humans who are employed by a reputable firm (either YouTube employees or the firms whose intellectual property is being used) and verified to ensure that they are age appropriate.
_____
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| 2,631 |
I don't understand how your point about copyright is relevant. Whether or not something violates copyright (and whether or not the creator actually tries to get it taken down) and whether or not it's child-friendly are two completely unrelated things.
| 226 |
[TF2] in meet the heavy it's stated that the mini-gun cost 200 thousand dollars to fire per minute. is this just hyperbole or is the TF2 universe economy just super inflated?
| 54 |
Gray Mann has so much money he uses it as fuel for his robot army. The other two most influential CEOs in the world have decided to prioritize a massive stalemate for worthless pits of gravel. FDR perfected the modern staircase after losing his legs rocket jumping. It's safe to say people with influence over the economy in the TF2 universe do not allocate it properly.
| 63 |
|
ELI5: What makes a fake smile different from real one?
| 68 |
Humans are extraordinarily good at picking up very minute changes in facial expressions. Most of it happens unconsciously, that is to say automatically. Same kind of thing happens when you display emotions on your face. Tiny tiny muscles arrange the skin bits in very particular order to display an emotion, say a happy smile face. Im sure both of these things can be practiced to a point, but mostly it is all autonomous.
Fake smile is someone putting a smile-mask on top of some other emotion and it looks different because your brain does the brain-work automatically and the smile seems off.
| 85 |
|
ELI5: Why are bright white LED lights allowed on cars for use at night when white light reduces your ability to see in the dark?
| 176 |
Hm lots of misinformation here. First, the DOT doesn't approve headlights. There are SAE tests for legal headlights. If your product passes the tests, it is DOT compliant and can have the lettering on it. As far as LED headlights, they're just vastly superior. AAA just put out a study which showed you could see almost 20% further with LED headlights. The color temperature that you speak of is also much better. Usually around 5200K, which is about the color of daylight. They last longer, typically 30,000 hours on low beam while halogens will last about 3,000 hours, and they are durable as hell. If you are seeing glare from an LED headlight, they are either not DOT compliant or they haven't been aimed properly. All headlights should be aimed.
Source: work for a headlight company
| 43 |
|
[Harry Potter] Why keep certain creatures a secret from the non-magical population?
|
Why do wizards keep the existence of unicorns, dragons, hippogriffs, etc. a secret from the muggle population? Why aren't they just normal animals to humans?
| 23 |
Many of these animals have magical properties (unicorn blood's properties being the most obvious, but also dragon's breath, the fact that hippogriffs probably fly at least partially by magic since their actual proportions are impossible, etc.) and if muggles were to witness these magical properties, they would try to analyze them/study them, and might either stumble across magic, or try to abuse their observations of it for personal gain (imagine what would happen if muggles tried hunting unicorns for sport to drink their blood).
| 42 |
[Marvel] Can commands from The Purple Man/Kilgrave override someone’s physical disabilities?
|
If he orders someone to stand and they’re in a wheelchair, what happens? They can’t do it physically but is there something magical about his powers to force that person to find some fucked up way to stand?
| 51 |
No. His powers only work on the mind. So, if he tells someone in a wheelchair to stand up, they will attempt it and fall out of their wheelchair. However, he could tell them to abandon their wheelchair and crawl everywhere, which he would probably do because he’s the Purple Man.
| 70 |
What would happen if I stuck a really long pole into a black hole?
|
Would the part that is in the event horizon break off if I pulled back on the pole? Would it get sucked in instantaneously or would it take time?
| 23 |
So here's you, chillin', hanging out *by some witchcraft* at rest relative to the black hole.
And not just any black hole, right? A *magic* black hole. A black hole that is not boiling and seething with a highly energetic stretched horizon.
You begin lowering your pole. Unseen by you, the stress on the pole begins to climb. Soon, there's insane internal stress on the pole, due to the difference between four-acceleration where you are and where the end of the pole is.
Then snap. Pole breaks. And it will always break *where it can be observed by you.* That is, it will break *before* the four-acceleration on the end of the pole goes infinite at the event horizon. The fragment or fragments that break off fall toward the black hole and vanish; the bit you're holding on to remains intact until you either pull it back, or lower it farther until it, too, breaks.
Don't ask what would happen if the pole were infinitely strong. Everyone always does, and the answer's always the same: you can't have infinitely strong materials and black holes in the same universe.
| 46 |
How often do cancer cells develop in our body that self-terminate or are caught by the immune system before doing any harm?
| 25 |
We can estimate each parent line experiences cancer cells within 10-100 generations, depending on the cell type and risk factors. With each variable generation speed, you're looking at between 4,000 to 40,000 new cancer cells every day.
| 23 |
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I would have thought that by now the optimum spout-shape (as on jug or kettle) is longsince known - that is, 'optimum' in terms of water falling cleanly from the spout & not dribbling back along the underside of it: so does anyone know whether such an optimum spout exists?
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And if so, then why it's not so that _absolutely all_ spouts are made that shape.
I don't think such a spout-shape could be _calculated_ ... so I'm not asking for a _mathematical equation_ for the curve of it (unless it be a _parametrised empirical_ one). Also such a shape, if it does exist, has possibly been known for two or three millenia ... or _yet longer_, maybe!
Actually - it's just occured to me now that _each individual material_ might have its optimum shape, according as the affinity of water for substance varies from one substance to the next.
This question was infact prompted by an actual act of pouring water from a jug, & thinking "that spout could be a better shape than that!".
| 51 |
I suspect that an 'optimum pouring' spout might be impractical, since 'not dribbling back' can probably best be achieved with a sharp edge (fluids flowing along a smooth surface tend to adhere to it, whereas a sharp corner can break the adhesion). Depending on the material the container is made of, this would liable to be easily damaged and/or hazardous.
| 15 |
ELI5: How important is dust removal and how dangerous is room dust?
|
Aesthetics aside, how important is it to remove dust?
Since I was small, I was always told by my parents, that one has to remove the dust, because, of course, it looks cleaner, but also because othewise it's unhealthy.
How true is it though? I get that it might not be very healthy for the lungs to directly sniff in the dust from the table, but how dangerous is it if I just live in a moderate dusty room, like with only removing the dust in areas were I'm most active?
My thought is, if the dust lies there, it's mostly because it doesn't get airborne and go directly into my lungs. Of course because of various factors, there is air circulation and this leads dust to go from surfaces into the air, especially in areas were one is moving the most, however how impactful is it, if some dust is in the air? And is is it even dangerous at "moderate" exposure?
Thx in advance.
| 29 |
some dust can be very dangerous, for example if you're doing renovations or construction and end up pulverizing cement, you should wear a mask because the dust fucks up your lungs. but regular household dust is harmless, it just looks bad
| 18 |
CMV: I've seen a claim that calling out DUI checkpoints helps "deter" people from driving drunk. This makes no sense to me.
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For the app description of one "Mr. Checkpoint" service (which has over 60k twitter followers and relays reports of checkpoints, DUI or otherwise), they claim that it helps to "deter DUI and promote public safety". I've seen people call out check points plenty, but this is the first time I've seen a dedicated service and the claim that such a thing would "deter DUI".
This simply doesn't make sense to me. If anything, if I were somebody planning on getting behind the wheel after having some drinks this would be the kind of app I'd use in hopes of *getting away with* drunk driving.
This isn't a particularly staunch view, and I'm not looking to debate regarding the use of the checkpoints themselves. The view I'm looking to have changed or at least see an argument against is that the idea that it would somehow "deter DUIs" makes no sense.
| 26 |
I think the idea is that if there's a DUI checkpoint in the area that someone is planning on drinking in then they won't bother to take the risk of driving in that area in the first place instead of trying to avoid the checkpoint. Getting a DUI can be extremely harmful to someone's life (aside from the fact that driving drunk endangers everyone on the road), so some people might decide that it's simply not worth the risk to try to drive drunk and avoid a DUI checkpoint.
| 18 |
CMV: Piracy as a "demo" is morally justifiable as long as you buy it or stop using it in a 'timely fashion'.
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Pirating a game to see if you like it. Pirating a new version of Windows to see if you like changes. Download music (ok, you could just go to Youtube, but bare with me) is all morally justifiable if you're using it as a "demo" version and buy/uninstall it.
Many people claim that you're taking someones work and not compensating them, however, I feel that there is nothing wrong with this, as long as you don't keep using the product after a "trial" period. Think of it as purchasing a new item and returning it before the cut-off date.
So, Change my view, is downloading a game or other product not morally justifiable if you're doing it solely to see if you enjoy it, it runs on your computer, ect?
| 49 |
But what is a "timely fashion"? In the past, if you wanted to play a game, you had to buy it. Now you still have to, but if you want to try it out you can pirate it. You are still reaping the benefits of the labor of whoever made the game without compensating him/her... supposing you decide you're done with it after your arbitrarily defined "timely fashion," you have still used it without compensating the developer.
I think that answers the point, but as a relevant tangent, ask yourself how many people actually go back and buy the game that they already have, save files and all.
| 16 |
[Star Wars] Was Darth Vader still attracted to women after the Mustafar incident?
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He might still long for Padme but if he sees an attractive woman, would he check her out?
| 46 |
There's an instance in the Vader comic that's the closest we've seen to Vader getting presented with a romantic situation. Darth Vader is a guest at a planet's ballroom dance. There's a royal guy who keeps insisting that Darth Vader dance with his daughter. Darth Vader gets annoyed and says "I'll just dance with you bro." Then Vader starts force choking the guy in the air and waves him all around the dance floor.
I don't think he feels those feelings at all anymore. And even if he did, he'd realize he's just more machine than man and it'd be impossible to do anything about it, thereby just pissing him off.
| 77 |
ELI5: Why can metal go into commercial microwaves in restaurants but not my microwave at home?
| 42 |
SOME metal is microwave safe - Most is not. Rather than try to have home microwave users differentiate between good metal and bad metal, they just say don't use any metal, because the potential risk far outweighs the potential benefits of using metal in the microwave.
In professional kitchens, there are some metal tools that they know to be microwave safe, and they use that specific tool in the microwave - but that doesn't make all metal safe in commercial microwaves. They just know the difference.
| 34 |
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ELI5:Do donated organs age according to the donor´s age or do they adapt to the age of the new body?
| 7,366 |
Organs are made of cells, like pretty much the rest of your body.
A transplant procedure just hooks up the organ to the new body's blood supply (veins and arteries), so that the cells inside the organ can have oxygen and food, and basically survive and do their jobs. That's it.
There's no "adapting", the cells in the organ don't change their DNA or makeup in any way, so basically they'll live and divide and function based on the DNA that they have (which is, the donor's DNA).
So, to answer your question, the organ "ages" according to the donor's DNA and "age".
But the biggest issue with transplanted organs is that the recipient's immune system (which is in the blood), recognizes that the DNA of the organ is NOT from its own body, and attacks it as if it's actually contamination. The immune system tries to kill all the cells in the organ, as if they were microbes.
To prevent this, every person receiving a transplant organ must go on medication to disable their own immune system from being so aggressive. Of course, if you disable a person's immune system, they'll get sick extremely easily, so you can't disable it 100%. You can just reduce it a bit.
So the organ does eventually get attacked, because the immune system is not disabled, just reduced, so it does still attack the organ over time. 5 years, 10 years.
Basically, age isn't a problem for the organ, as much as being "killed" by the new person's immune system.
| 6,435 |
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ELI5 What's the difference between page.site.com and site.com/page?
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It seems like both are ways of having a sub-part of a website, but I'm not sure (from my non-web-savvy POV) what the difference is.
| 23 |
page.site.com is a subdomain. It acts like a top-level domain and can point to different web servers than other subdomains (for example, page1.site.com and page2.site.com can be on different servers).
site.com/page represents a directory (page) on the site.com server. So site.com/page1 and site.com/page2 are both on the same server, but are different directories.
You can think of site.com as being your house, page.site.com representing a specific computer in your house (called page), and site.com/page represents a specific folder (called page) on a computer. So if you have comp.site.com/page, you're requesting the page folder on the comp computer that is in the site house.
| 33 |
eli5: Why do humans find dangerous/deadly animals cute?
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How is this explained biologically/psychologically,
| 19 |
Human beings have evolved to find babies cute. This makes us love babies and want to protect them, which leads to babies growing up with the support and help they need to become successful adults and have their own babies.
We recognize baby features as cute. Babies have big heads (in relation to their body size) and big eyes (in relation to the size of their head). They have high pitched voices and soft features.
Many animals also have these features - like cats (big eyes, big head, high pitched, soft features) which leads us to find them cute too. Sometimes though, our love for these things leads us to ignore their dangers when those cats get big.
That said, evolution has equipped us well to survive, so most of us don't have the instinct to cuddle with and/or pet snakes, scorpions, etc.
| 42 |
ELI5: How do smart watches and fitness trackers know when you've fallen asleep?
| 17 |
You don’t move much anymore and your heartbeat goes down. Both metrics such a device tracks.
It tracks your heartbeat over the day and thus knows your “at rest, but awake” value and the sleep value typically is even lower.
Possibly it also notices that you are laying down, which is another clue for sleeping.
So the combination of ‘lower than average heartbeat frequency’, ‘doesn’t move much’ and ‘is laying’ would be a good indicator for ‘is sleeping’
| 26 |
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[The Walking Dead] About the walkers they "kill"....
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Whenever the group stay in places for a while (e.g the prison or more recently Alexandria) Would it not be a more viable option to spread corpses/walker blood around the walls? Haven't we learned that by covering yourself in walker blood and guts that they show absolutely no interest in you, why don't they cover their walls in it? Wouldn't that actually cause the walkers to take no notice of it?
| 21 |
The prison is big, way to big to cover all the outer walls (casue i assume you dont want the inner walls covered in blood), duye to lack of enough walkers and lack of time. Also, who would wanna go around, dragging zombie corpses (or harvesting them for blood) and paint the walls with rotten blood. The blood would rot fast, or evaporate, meaning you would need to paint it often. And thats even if you can find walkers where the blood have not evaporated, so they need to be relativly fresh, otherwise they will dry out.
It would just be too much work, between hunting walkers, harvesting them for blood then walking around the whole damn prison painting the damn thing every day.
| 26 |
ELI5: Why are carpet floors so ubiquitous in some countries? Are they worth all the extra hassle?
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For an equivalent price, carpet brings more headaches than tile: stains are harder to clean, carpet wears down, fungus or other stuff can more easily grow in it, vacuum cleaning is mandatory—cannot just sweep a broom over it, cannot wash it with a mop.
Coming from a country where tile/hardwood is the absolute norm, I'm still struggling to understand.
| 36 |
I'd say the main two reasons are warmth and comfort. It's much more pleasant to walk on without shoes/slippers because it's soft, and warm. It also keeps your room warmer since it helps further insulate the air from the cold ground (unless you have underfloor heating, of course). Lots if people also find it a makes for a more pleasant environment since it helps to absorb sound so rooms feel cosier since there's less echoing of noise.
I'd also say that vacuuming is easier and more convenient than sweeping/mopping to be honest...
| 46 |
[Star Wars] Why do the ion cannons on the Malevolence and the one used during the Battle of Hoth look so different?
| 15 |
One was built for use through an atmosphe and had to withstand frigid temperatures and snow, the other in the vacuum of space.
Additionally, the ground-based one had a steady power source while the ship-based one had to be charged.
Same tech, completely different environments.
| 27 |
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