post_title
stringlengths 5
304
| post_text
stringlengths 0
37.5k
| post_scores
int64 15
83.1k
| comment_text
stringlengths 200
9.61k
| comment_score
int64 10
43.3k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
Why is an electron microscope more detailed than than a (light) microscope?
|
When I see images from electron microscopes it seems we are able to look at smaller objects than light microscopes. Why?
| 285 |
To put it simply the wavelength of a light photon is much, much bigger than the wavelength of an electron, the smaller wavelength of electrons allows for more EM waves to hit an area increasing the resolution, think about it like trying to fit basketballs in a room vs ping pong balls, if the balls were coloured you could create a much clearer image with the ping pong balls than basketballs, in this case light wavelength are the basketballs and electrons the ping pong balls.
Edit: Photons have 'bigger' wavelength, not 'lower'
| 90 |
Eli5: why didn't the spanish die of native american diseases but the other way around?
| 418 |
Mainly because there weren't many virulent diseases that humans in the Americas suffered from. Syphilis is the disease most commonly associated with the Americas, but even this has been disputed. One theory as to why there were so few diseases in the Americas were because of how spread out people were and that domestication of animals wasn't very common on the continent. Another reason was because, unlike Europeans, Native Americans had an actual sense of hygiene. Comparatively Europe was a giant petri dish of disease. People lived very close to one another, we're in contact with other animals (and their waste) on a daily basis, and had infamously terrible cleanliness. All these factors allowed for diseases like smallpox and plague to thrive and evolve in preindustrial Europe.
| 335 |
|
[CW Flash] Why have none of the Flash villains testified about his illegal prison?
|
Granted, he only really used it for one season, but still, he held over a dozen people in solitary confinement with no trial, and with apparent will to hold them for life.
After season 2, with metahumans being processed by the proper justice system, why have none of them testified against Flash's illegal prison?
| 25 |
This is a guy who can move too fast to be seen, who thought nothing of sticking them in tiny empty boxes with no stimulation whatsoever for indefinite periods. They're all far too terrified and traumatised to even consider speaking out.
| 28 |
ELI5: Why do two images with the same dimensions and file type have different file sizes?
|
Do some colours take up more space or something?
| 24 |
No, it's the relative mix of colours that do.
Have a look at this sequence of numbers.
1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-12-12-12-12
You can describe that much faster as "13 ones and then four 12's". And your computer can save storage space in its memory by saving it in that way.
Now try that with
1-2-1-1-6-5-24-1-6-2-6-1-2-14-12-12-6
Even though the list of numbers is the same length, because the numbers are all mixed up and different, its not going to save much space if you group the few pairs of numbers there. So it takes more data to store the second stream of numbers in a computer.
Stored images work the same way. The computer 'compresses' them when it can to lump same-numbered colour together so it can be saved in a smaller space on the hard drive. The more an image is made out of fields of colour that are almost identical or have less complexity, the less space it can compress the image into by grouping like numbers and doing other things.
So in the end, a simpler image with less colours such as a birthday cake with one candle in a dark room can take a lot less disk space than a same-resolution image of a sunny autumn forest that's blazing with all sorts of different coloured leaves, has branches and tree trunks and bushes, and so on.
| 31 |
Absurdism and the myth of Sisyphus
|
As a frenchman, I'm familiar with Camus' and Sartre's existentialist philosophies. They practically force it down your throat in school. However, after reading Camus' essay on Sisyphus, I have a few questions.
Does Camus envy Sisyphus? I cannot understand what is Camus' ideal in life: if our lives are absurd and meaningless, what course of action should we take?
| 19 |
> if our lives are absurd and meaningless, what course of action should we take?
Camus' point is that once you accept the absurdity of the world, you're free to choose how to live. He doesn't make a normative claim of the best way to live other than to do so consciously. This is reflected in the line "What counts is not the best living but the most living."
| 13 |
ELI5: Why does sound travel faster in helium that is lighter than air but also travels faster in water that is more dense than air?
| 129 |
If you think about it this way. Air is mostly nitrogen and oxygen which are both heavier elements than helium. So getting air to move a certain way is going to take more energy to get things going and will also be slower in doing it. It's exactly like if you push on a car, it's not going to move much but if you push on a ball it'll roll away from you easily.
For water, the atoms are all packed in together and all but touching. The moment you hit one water molecule, the energy quickly transfers to the next because it doesn't have far to go to do it.
For another example, think about a game of billiards. Except at the start you line all the balls up in a straight row touching each other down the length of the table. Hit one end of the row and the ball at the other end pops off almost immediately. That's how water do.
Now put an inch or two between each of the balls in that same kind of line and when you smack one end it takes a few seconds before the ball at the other end starts to roll. That's how gas do. (In this case water vapor)
If you replaced the billiard balls with say squash balls or tennis balls, it should take a little less time for the far end to get moving because there's less momentum to overcome for each ball in the chain. That's how it looks for any gas lighter than water in gas form. Which is similar to how helium is "lighter" (less massive) than air.
| 159 |
|
ELI5:What exactly happens when we black out from drinking?
| 17 |
First of all, it is important to understand that your brain is communicates with itself using neurotransmitters, which relay (transmit) messages around the brain to neurons.
There are two types of neurotransmitters: excitatory and inhibitory. Excitatory neurotransmitters increase brain activity (through the cascading release of other neurotransmitters, the creation of electrical impulses, etc.). Cocaine acts to increase the activity of dopamine and norepinephrine, two excitatory neurotransmitters. Inhibitory neurotransmitters have the opposite effect. They decrease activity.
Alcohol potentiates the effect of GABA, which is the brain's primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. This means that every time your brain releases GABA (which it does all the time to regulate itself), alcohol makes the effects of GABA much stronger than normal. When you black out, your brain is prevented from forming lasting memories, as GABA is inhibiting (with heaps of help from all the alcohol, of course) every attempt to do so. That's all a black out is: a void where no lasting memories were able to be formed.
| 17 |
|
How does the body decide on when to use diarrhea or vomiting as a method of excreting hazardous food?
| 24 |
First it would depend on a substances location. After it's left the stomach it doesn't have a mechanism to return. Second it would depend on it's ability to cause water to be released into the intestinal lumen.
Something like an industrial solvent could alert your brain that something is wrong immediately and cause emesis.
There are lots of substances that can cause irritation to the intestine, eg bacterial toxins, which in turn would cause water release as your body tries to get rid of it. Alternatively, a substance could draw out moisture by osmosis eg magnesium citrate.
| 12 |
|
Does drinking water help break down fat?
|
If the human body beaks fat down into water and salt, does drinking more water prohibit or inhibit the breakdown of fat? Is some amount of the water produced from the break down of fat used for hydration?
| 28 |
Drinking water has no effect on breaking down fat, unless you're severely dehydrated maybe.
Fat is basically long chains of CH2, and ultimately breaks down into CO2 and H2O. The H2O produced goes into your body just like water you drink.
A 65 kg (140 lb) person produces about 1 kg of CO2 and 400 grams of H2O per day from basal metabolism.
| 11 |
[Marvel] How would The Punisher deal with a killer who is a child/teen?
| 271 |
Assuming it wasn't an accident and was clearly a premeditated act of malice? He'd shoot him in the head.
The Punisher doesn't enjoy what he does. He does it because he feels it's necessary, and he has immersed himself in horror so that nobody else will have to.
If he thinks a child needs killing, he'll kill that child - not without remorse, but without hesitation.
He believes the world's right to not have bad people in it is more important than his own right to not have to do horrible things.
| 401 |
|
[LOTR] What if my greatest ambition is to rid the world of the one ring?
|
How would it go about corrupting me?
Note, I'm not saying it can't or won't. I'm legitimately wondering what would happen.
| 82 |
Here's an important question: *why* is your greatest ambition to rid the world of the One Ring? Is it to protect the world? Is it for the fame and glory? Is it because Sauron killed your family and you want revenge?
Whatever the underlying motivation is, it's a weakness. Sure, you could protect the world by destroying the Ring, but think of how much better you would be at protecting the world *with* the Ring. Yes, you'd become famous for destroying the Ring, but you'd be even more famous if you kept it and used it to build your empire. Of course destroying the Ring would spite Sauron, but wouldn't it just drive him crazy to know that you were out there, wearing *his* Ring?
This is why Gandalf refused to take up the Ring. He knew he would use it, for good, noble reasons at first, but that it would eventually poison him.
| 179 |
ELI5 How are electric fences "safe" considering the high voltage? And why is the high voltage necessary?
|
I understand basically that the current, or amps, are what cause harm, but based on Ohm's law, V=IR, for the amps to be so low with such high voltage, the resistance must be very high. So why do you need such a high voltage in the first place? Wouldn't that require a transformer to step up the voltage? And doesn't such a high voltage create a safety risk, for instance if a conductor with lower resistance came into contact with the voltage source? Or arc flash? If you want low amps as not to electrocute animals/people, would it not be easier to use lower voltage?
Just curious and trying to understand. Electricity is like magic to me.
| 73 |
You have a correct understanding of ohm's law. We need high voltage *because* the resistance of people and animals is so high. A lower voltage would not produce any meaningful current and then we wouldn't feel it.
It may need a transformer or it uses an inductor (half a transformer) to boost the voltage using a DC-DC converter.
If a conductor with a lower resistance touches the wires then it could start a fire. A good shock device should have the ability to detect when it is touching a low resistance object and either limit current artificially or shut down.
| 39 |
[Marvel] What would happen if a full speed juggernaut ran into a wall of vibranium/admantium?
|
Assuming he can run through the walls, how thick would they have to be to stop his momentum? (if at all)
| 52 |
I don't think he would be able to run through an adamantium wall, maybe he could run through a vibranium wall.
It seems more likely that he would impact the wall, and if he kept moving, take the wall with him.
Juggernauts thing is that his momentum can't be canceled, right? P=M*V, so he just gets slowed by having to carry the wall with him.
| 59 |
What does Nietzsche mean when he says "only the human being is a burden to himself! This is because he lugs too much that is foreign to him"?
|
...but only the human being is a burden to himself! This is because he lugs too much that is foreign to him. Like a camel he kneels down and allows himself to be well burdened.
Specifically, the reason he gives, after "this is because..."
Edit: forgot to mention, this is from Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
| 43 |
This is an excript from one of the first stories from Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where he describes what path the mind must take to overcome itself.
First when he sees the dragon (representing religion and other moral/value system), with his shiny flakes (representing individual values themselves), he becomes overwhelmed by dragon'a significance and his own insignificance, so he burdens himself with his values.
He takes pride in this achievement, but he is burdened greatly by it. That's where the "he lugs to much what is foreign to him" makes sense, since the dragon's values are foreign to him, and not of his own creation.
At some point the burdens becomes to great to carry, and the transformation into a lion must occur. The mind of a lion says "No" to every "You shalt" from the dragon. He destroyes the beliefs and values of the dragon, until there are none left.
Then another transformation occurs, not into the child. With genuine curiosity, openmindedness and such, the child creates his own values.
Or so spoke Zarathustra.
| 42 |
[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders] How do the characters get away with all this murder?
|
Everywhere they got hey leave a trail of corpses.
Now, these are all baddies. However, the police doesn't know this. So how do they get away with this?
| 16 |
The Speedwagon Foundation's reach is incredible. If you consider Purple Haze Feedback canon, the SF has the money to buy out a major sports stadium on the night of a championship game, just to set up a dramatic meeting for 2 people.
If you're a member of the Joestar bloodline or one of their pals, you can do anything.
| 18 |
ELI5: What, biologically, happens to make some insects, like cicadas, have such short lifespans? Can they be kept alive longer in lab settings?
|
EDIT: Going by the comments, cicada may have been a bad choice. How about a praying mantis? (Thanks to u/Darth_Squid)
| 194 |
Their *adult* lifespans are short. The actual life span for cicadas is typically 13 or 17 years.
It would be very difficult if not impossible to increase the life span of a cicadas because the adult forms do not have the ability to consume or process any food.
| 87 |
Is it true that in the US there is inequality in school education due to schools being partially funded by local property taxes?
|
I have heard this a lot but I think I also recall hearing that there are subsidies that almost completely alleviate this inequality.
Thanks.
| 263 |
Only about 8% of the education budget comes from the federal government. This is not enough to offset this effect. It also means that if you live in a state with a low state income-student ratio, there will be less overall funding. It's also worth noting that most federal and state programs are designed to assist only the lowest-performing school districts and bring them up.
| 31 |
[40k] are there human vs human conflicts still?
|
So I know humanity is mostly under the imperium. And I know there is chaos space marines.
But given all the planets in the universe. Are there wars between human vs humans. Like imperial guard vs some other military, or two human militaries battling it out in a civil war unrelated to the imperium?
I'm still new to the 40k lore, so forgive my newbie questions.
| 15 |
Despite the Divine Light of the Emperor shining across the Imperium, there are of course those who struggle and fight against their fellow man. Civil wars for control of a local planetary government are fairly common across the Imperium, but these are largely ignored by the Imperium at large unless the tithe is interrupted, heresy and Chaos are spreading, or more planets are dragged into the conflict. As well, the majority of Chaos forces consist of human cultists, who will often attempt to take over a planet in the name of the Ruinous Powers. In these cases, the Imperium will often send Imperial Guard units to fight the traitors and reclaim any lost territory for the glory of the Emperor.
| 25 |
[Mass Effect] How do drones like Glyph or Chatika work?
|
Both the info and combat drone look like holographic projections, they can change size and are practically see through. Yet they must require some sort of physical structure to house it's VI, mass effect core for firing bullets, and either rockets or some form of flame thrower. However as we can see through them we never see such an object large enough to do so.
How do these drones work?
| 36 |
They are not projections. Omnitools can be used to fabricate small stuff. For example, the omniblade, commonly used for melee attacks, is made of silicon carbide, and suspended in a mass effect field. They can also be used to make graphite rods for the M-920 Cain particle accelerator, from other heavy weapon ammunition.
Iirc they transform omnigel into certain materials. With that and eezo, you can make a small, disposable drone.
| 28 |
CMV: birth control should be covered by health insurance
|
1. As a person of the female gender, I have been taking birth control, not as a contraceptive, but rather as a way to keep my menstrual cycle regular, as well as reduce my severe pains from menstruating. In this way, birth control is a drug to keep one healthy, not a drug with any moral complications.
2. If our taxpayer money is not going towards birth control, than I think we then must pay for the healthcare of any child born from an accidental pregnancy, whose parents don't have the means to support that child. A child is does not deserve to die of some illness because their parents cannot afford to raise them. A person does not deserve a shitty life simply for being born.
Here is a hypothetical: A person cannot afford birth control and therefore has unprotected sex. They end up with a child that they didn't necessarily want. They are still poor, and therefore unable to pay for health care for that child. Therefore, that child is being payed for by our taxpayer dollars. We must support that child for 18 years, instead of paying for pills, shots, or some rubber, all of which are significantly cheaper than a child. Won't the community paying for birth control allow more children to live quality lives, while we pay less?
3. Now, I do believe that this could all be avoided simply by people having less sex, but as of yet, that is just to optimistic, so we should use contraceptives instead of preaching abstinence.
Edit: it has been brought to my attention that I mentioned health insurance rather than general health care and widespread coverage. I do not mean specific companies that launder your money for you, but rather the government and community as a provider of care.
| 236 |
If we have some universal coverage, it should include birth control; likewise taxpayer-funded medical assistance should cover it, etc. But you're talking about health insurance. The whole point of insurance is that you pay a little money in exchange for coverage in the event of rare events. Birth control is something you can anticipate that you need every month. When insurance companies cover it, that means that you are paying them to tell you what specific birth control method to use and what ob/gyn you should see, and to handle your money for you. It's wasteful. It would be more efficient to just pay for your own routine care and let insurance be insurance - a method of making sure you can afford it if you get cancer or get hit by a bus.
| 75 |
This is really hard for me to word right. We only know the "observable universe" because light passed the 13.8 billion LY mark hasn't reached us yet. Is there new light showing up all the time?
|
I hope that makes sense. If I were to look into a live image of the farthest known universe, would I see new light popping up?
| 176 |
The Universe is either infinite or so damn big that it might as well be infinite as far as we're concerned. So over time we keep receiving light from new parts of the Universe, places which are so far away that their earliest light is just barely reaching us.
By the way, this will not go on ad infinitum. Because of the fact that the expansion of the Universe is *accelerating*, there are certain parts of the Universe so distant that their light will *never* reach us. This is true of anything farther away from us today than about 63.4 billion light years. As time goes on and on, we'll see the earliest light from objects which are closer and closer to that distance, called the *horizon*. But we can never see beyond it.
Why is this? It has to do with the fact that the expansion started off decelerating and is now accelerating. Roughly speaking, we'll see a galaxy (or some point in space) if it is receding from us at a speed below the speed of light. (This is a rough heuristic, so it's not exact, but it's close.) In a decelerating phase, a galaxy's velocity away from us slows down over time. That's what it means for the expansion of the Universe to be decelerating - things like galaxies are expanding away from us, but they do so at a smaller and smaller rate. So over time, galaxies above that speed-of-light threshold came below it, and as a result they came within our view - we could start to see their history.
But a few billion years ago, the expansion stopped decelerating and started to accelerate. This means that galaxies now move faster and faster away from us over time. So galaxies which we can see, which are receding from us more slowly than light, will eventually be moving away from us faster than light, and after that time (roughly) we won't be able to see them, because they'll be moving away from us more quickly than the light they emit can reach us. This means that past a certain distance, the horizon, we will never be able to see anything.
| 122 |
DC's New 52 sucks and I hate the direction they've taken certain things. CMV
|
Honestly, I haven't kept up too much but the stuff i've seen here and there just annoys me. I hate how superman is detached from earth and him being with wonder woman instead of Lois. I hate that Nightwing now looks like Chris O'Donnell in Batman Forever. Cyborg "graduating" from the Titans onto the League is way better than making him a founding member of the League. Having, ANOTHER Robin die seems redundant. I know Comic deaths are common and they happen, but this is the 3rd Robin we've seen die under Bruce. It's getting kind of ridiculous. No Wally West is also a huge bummer. I want to love DC Comics, but I just have a hard time understanding what they're trying to do with their characters.
| 21 |
DC had to reboot to remain relevant in a world where they had some very convoluted storylines and too much fracturing. Comic reboots, like it or not, are a way of life in the industry and won't change.
With that said, you say you haven't kept up much, and this might be why you don't know the good that has come from New 52:
* *Animal Man*, written by Jeff Lemire, is widely hailed as one of the best superhero comics of recent times. It has turned what was previously a comic that wasn't taken seriously into a pretty great horror comic.
* *Swamp Thing*, as well, has been widely hailed as a great look at what was previously something that became corny character.
* *Batman*'s "Court of Owls" arc is considered one of the great *Batman* stories *period*.
* *Wonder Woman*, which arguably hasn't had a good arc since Rucka's run, is coming up with its first competent, enjoyable stories in close to a decade.
* Even *Aquaman* has been solid, being able to nod knowingly at itself as an abused character in the DC canon among fans and provide stories that actually make some sense.
* Plus, we're seeing a lot of old characters get a second look: Blue Beetle, Frankenstein, Resurrection Man, and so on. Not all of these have been successful, but that DC was even willing to entertain a second look at these characters tells us a lot about the investment they have in *storytelling*, not just moving a lot of units.
And we can go on and on, but if you really need evidence that this was good for DC, Marvel chose a similar route in response in "Marvel NOW," which hasn't been nearly as successful.
So, ultimately, what are they trying to do for their characters? Make the stories relevant to a modern audience by rebooting them and giving new readers a starting point without completely ignoring that core audience that drives industry sales. Indications are that they've basically succeeded.
| 13 |
Can someone explain the differences and similarities between Epicureanism and Stoicism
| 16 |
I'll assume that you're presently more concerned with a comparison in their ethical theories rather than metaphysical ones, since thats usually what most people are invoking when they compare the two. A brief summary would be as such
The Epicureans believed that the good life consists of 'eudaimonia' or 'happiness'. The 'happy life' however is not one of trying to just pile as many "happy moments" on top of each other as you can like some wild hedonism party. This is because since these types of short-termed intense hedonistic happinesses often lead to greater suffering later on, with the standard example being that of someone who gets heavily intoxicated and then suffers from a terrible hang-over the next day. In addition to obviously avoiding immediate pain and distress, one should also avoid the fleeting pleasures that lead to them. Additionally, the more things you come to find pleasurable the more things you desire, and if any of those things are taken away you will fall into grave pain or distress. Thus the "happy life" is a simple one which is free from pain and distress but which also enjoys modest pleasures such as gatherings with friends fueled by good conversation rather than good alcohol.
The Stoics agreed with the idea of living a simple life but for different reasons. The good life for them was not defined by having the proper formula for acquiring proper "happiness" but was a purely defined just by freedom from pain and distress. This freedom they called "apatheia". The person who has attained freedom from suffering acquires it by living in conformity with the will of the Universe or Nature. The only thing which we are fully in charge of is not the circumstances we find ourselves but rather how we view and judge these circumstances. If you want things to happen in a way that contradicts Nature then you will suffer, but if you instead want Nature to happen as it happens then you will be free from suffering. So for the Stoics the good life is determined by how one views and judges their circumstances. If they judge in accordance with their Reason and follow Nature, they will not suffer but if they follow their irrational Passions and desire that which Nature will not bring then they will suffer. Hence the Stoic quote "Men are not disturbed by things but by the views they take of them".
| 13 |
|
ELI5: Why do our eyes see 'noise', like high ISO photos in dark rooms?
|
It has the same effect but only a little less colorful.
| 4,426 |
Imagine you're in a crowded, noisy auditorium. You need to shout loudly just to talk to the person next to you. Even when the speaker goes up to the podium, they can't be heard above the noise of everyone speaking. However, once the speaker gets everyone's attention, everyone starts to quiet down until it's silent enough that everyone can hear the single speaker talking.
The same thing happens in our eyes. Our eyes are capable of looking at a extremely wide range of brightness from direct sunlit days down to moonlit nights. While we can quickly adjust from going from dark to light, our eyes have the downside that going from light to dark takes a long time.
When our eyes are adjusted to light, a percentage of the chemical sensitive to light (rhodopsin) is getting recycled. This recycling can stimulate the nerves that see light, providing the noise in the auditorium. If something is bright (loud) enough, you can notice it over the noise. However, when there is nothing bright enough (if you go from a bright environment to a dark one), you just notice the "noise" from the chemical recycling which can look like noise from high ISO photos. This appears to us in black and white because our most light sensitive photoreceptors in our eye can only sense brightness, not color.
After about 15 minutes, the light sensitive chemical recovers completely, resembling the time it takes to quiet down a noisy auditorium. Now, your eyes are the most sensitive to light. There still may be some noise since the blood flow through your eye can accidentally cause enough pressure so that the light sensitive cells think they see something. This also contributes to the noise you see in darkness.
| 2,079 |
[Star Wars] How would things have turned out in Jabba's palace if Luke took his lightsaber with him instead of hiding it in Artoo?
|
Also, why bother smuggling it in at all?
| 25 |
Luke was doing a Palpatine and pretty much going scorched earth on Jabba. It's the most dark side thing he's done during the trilogy.
Basically if he walked in there with his saber and instigated a fight, he'd have ended up like any other jedi during order 66. Ie. he'd have gone down in a hail of blaster fire.
Instead he plotted. He coldly used his friends as pawns, putting them in very dangerous but advantageous positions. He send in Lando as an inside guy. Then he send the droids to smuggle in the tools he needed. Then he leveraged Leaia to get Chewie close to Han. He put all of them at incredible risk if he couldn't pull of his end of the plan.
And then Luke goes in like a force of... well the force really. No subtlety, no light side, straight up dark side. He force chokes every Gammorean Guard who get's in his way. He crushes Bib Fortuna's puny mind and puppet master's his way straight to Jabba's throne.
Once there he doesn't bargain with Jabba. He makes Jabba an offer once, follows up with a threat which Jabba laughs at. And from that point on Luke pretty much proceeds to curb stomp Jabba's entire operation. By the time he's done Jabba is dead, his massive sail ship destroyed (with most of his top cronies on board) and his palace is a tomb. The entire Jabba the Hutt crime empire is over. And he did it with a smile.
Compare that to how Obi Wan always tried to do things and Luke pretty much straight up dark sided his way through.
| 81 |
CMV: Journalists should be held penally responsible for what they publish, and so should the journal they write for.
|
This world is now FULL of information. Literally everyone and everything can publish something online, yet the thing that makes us either believe something or not is the reliability of the source. Journalists were once widely trusted and highly regarded but modern journalism, with fake news, clickbaity articles or flat out lies has practically gone down the drain and there seems to be NO repercussions, at least where I live, for bullshit journalists writing bullshit articles that can and will damage people's life. Given the power they hold, is it only fair that with great power comes great responsibilities. But it seems that this isn't the case as journalists can write whatever they want and the responsibility to verify what they are saying lies on us.
What's the point of having newspapers if I have to personally verify what they say? It defies the point of having journalists in the first place. We trust doctors with our own lives because they face BAD consequences if they screw up: no one tells us to "verify what your doctor prescribes and look up online your meds", that would be 100% bullshit and no one would buy it. Because doctors are supposed to do their job correctly, and if they don't, people can die, and doctors go to jail (ok, exceptions apply but you get my point). Yet this doesn't seem the case with journalists, who hold just as much as power. Why is that? Because it would hurt those in power? Maybe, but they still should be held responsible. No journalist should be able to sleep well, knowing nothing will happen, if they publish a bullshit article. Write bullshit, get (legal) bullshit.
EDIT Going to reply asap This was originally a r/unpopularopinion thread, FYI. Want to see what could be wrong with my idea.
EDIT 2 Thank you all for the replies and insight. I have changed my position. As much as I'd like this to happen, I realize that it would only work in an idealized world, and ours is hardly one. This would cause more harm than good. However, I still one hundred percent think that journalists should strive and be held to higher standards, as I regard a circus crew to be more reliable and sincere than a modern newspaper and their journalists.
| 137 |
Whoever is in charge of prosecuting these punishments would have enormous potential to abuse that power.
Wherever you draw the line between what is legal and illegal is naturally going to be somewhat subjective. *Someone* is going to be looking at each case and making a judgement call about whether they cross the line. It would be easy for partisan political operatives to (consciously or subconsciously) be far stricter on news that opposes their personal view than news that supports it.
That's why, as it is (in the US at least) the line is *very high* and very difficult to cross without clear wrongdoing. Defamation exists, but in the past it was absolutely used as a political weapon - For example, newspapers reporting that civil rights protesters had been injured would be sued for reporting that 13 protesters had been injured when the number was only 12. That's why the standard for defamation is as high as it is.
| 62 |
Has the string theory been validated by any experimental evidence like from the LHC?
|
Are there better contenders for the theory of everything?
I know just the basics of what the string theory is, that is using vibrating strings and extra dimensions to explain all the different forces and particles. I come from a medical background, so please excuse any gross misunderstandings of the concept.
| 22 |
Some required aspects of string theory have been constrained by the LHC.
1. String theory requires more than the 4 dimensions of space time. The size of the proposed dimensions has been constrained as if they were larger we would have seen things that disagreed with the standard model.
2. Super String Theory requires super symmetry. Low energy or "Natural" Super-symmetry was not found. String theory is compatible with any energy of super symmetry below the plank scale however. So lots of proposed models of string theory were shown to be incorrect, but not the general model of the universe.
This has caused some worry in physics as it now appears that string theory will not have any interaction with experiment for the foreseeable future. That may change with gravitation wave astronomy, but so far there is zero experimental disagreement with General Relativity.
| 16 |
[Avatar: TLAB/LOK] Why aren’t the Water Tribes a maritime global superpower?
|
Something that’s always intrigued me is the fact that the Water Tribes (or at least the Northern Water Tribe) didn’t establish some sort of maritime empire akin to the British Empire. I mean, imagine if the Northern Water Tribe managed to expand its reach from the North Pole down to the northern shores of the Earth Kingdom, propping up colonies along the way. I don’t know if they’d be the strongest nation but they’d be economically powerful, especially if they can control and manipulate maritime trade routes/international shipping lanes, strategic ports, canals, etc. This would give them a major economic advantage that gives them massive leverage.
Militarily speaking, I’d argue that they would possess the most powerful navy in the world, leading in the realm of naval/amphibious expeditionary warfare doctrine, naval engineering, etc.
Obviously the relatively small population and lack of substantial natural resources is a major hindrance towards a hypothetical Water Empire. Their geographic isolation probably also doesn’t help them with expanding. But what other reasons may contribute towards the Water Tribes to not being a global superpower?
| 43 |
They have been at other times in history. But the 100 year war decimated the Southern tribe, and forced the Northern tribe into seclusion. Even with the advantage of waterbending the Fire Navy was simply too advanced for them to hold onto control of the sea with.
| 63 |
Do insects perceive time differently than humans? Is that why they have such quick reflexes?
|
I heard once that time is much slower to them, which is why a fly avoids a flyswatter with such ease. Is that true?
| 57 |
Flies avoid being swatted at because the cilia on their body is disturbed by moving air. That cilia is connected to nerves that go to their very tiny brain, which pumps out an almost immediate reaction to follow a pre-set avoidance route.
You can pretty easily trick a fly by one of three methods. The first and simplest is to use a fly swatter. Fly swatters have lots of holes in them so that they don't move very much air as they swing. This tricks the fly because it doesn't have an advanced warning.
The second method and slightly more devious, is to catch the fly. Say a fly is sitting on your desk. If you cup your hands about a foot away from the fly on each side, and then clap your hands together, you will usually miss the fly. However, if as your hands get closer to the fly, you also lift them up off the table about three or four inches, you can usually trap the fly. What you're doing is creating false information. The fly thinks your hands are moving towards it at a much lower area, so it flies upwards to avoid getting squished. Your hands end up going where the fly's predetermined it's route of escape will be.
The third method is to go very very slowly. You will disturb less air, and the fly won't respond to minor disturbances.
| 41 |
ELI5: What is the difference between "&" and "and", and in what context to use one over the other?
| 93 |
In most cases there's no difference. A good rule of thumb is to always use "and" unless there is a specific design/stylistic reason to use the ampersand.
There are industries and contexts where they can mean different things. For example, in screenwriting, "By John Doe & Jane Smith" means that the two people collaborated together on the script, while "By John Doe and Jane Smith" means that they worked on different drafts or versions of the script, and may have never even met each other.
| 93 |
|
[Doctor Who] Why didn't the Time War destroy the space-time continuum?
|
When the Doctor's TARDIS exploded it caused cracks in the fabric of the universe all across time and space. The Doctor's TARDIS is an obsolete Type 40. Gallifrey fought a war across time and space wherein hundreds if not thousands or more TARDIS' that were more powerful than the Doctor's were destroyed.
So, if one TARDIS going boom cause cracks across time and space why wasn't that damaged magnified a thousand and more fold by the casualties of the Time War?
| 33 |
Several possible explanations of varying plausibilities and speculativities:
- The Doctor's TARDIS may have been intentionally destroyed in a specific, time-rupturing manner that could not, in a normal combat situation, occur.
- The manner in which the Doctor's TARDIS was destroyed may have been easily preventable by another Time Lord with another TARDIS, so as long as there were multiple Time Lords around, such a cataclysm could have been prevented.
- Most TARDISes may have been far less important in the history of the universe. TARDISes don't necessarily exist in linear time (Sexy remembered future console rooms), so the destruction of a TARDIS could cause its whole history to come undone. The Doctor has saved the universe many times over, so destroying his TARDIS and undoing his good works could have torn history to shreds.
- As each TARDIS contains an aspect of the Eye of Harmony, which is said to regulate the Web of Time itself, the Doctor's TARDIS may have contained the only remaining aspect of the Eye in the entire universe. With the main Eye sequestered away with Gallifrey and no other TARDISes containing aspects of the Eye in existence, it is possible that the violent destruction of the only remaining aspect was enough to rupture the Web of Time itself.
| 22 |
ELI5 What happens to brand new cars that are never purchased?
|
If they just go to used car lots, how can manufacturers keep up with the losses?
| 16 |
Usually, dealerships will just offer more and more discounts and deals until the car gets sold. Even if they eventually end up selling the car at a loss, at least they recouped some of the investment.
Manufacturers usually do a good job of using data from past years to figure out how many of each car model to produce, so there aren't very many unsold new cars anyway.
| 16 |
CMV: Formal/business attire is unnecessary
|
What I’m saying is that “casual” attire is also decent for office/official visits. Everyone should be able to wear what they are comfortable in and worry about their work and not about whether they are looking good enough or fitting in (in terms of clothing).
This means if someone wants to wear flip flops with jeans to office, even if they have a meeting with the client, they should be allowed to.
Same in politics and other areas, people should be able to fully represent the population and still be and feel like a part of it.
The fashion industry will, of course try to peddle the mindset that business clothes are better because that’s how they can price it higher.
EDIT: changed my view. It is necessary in present day and age
“Yes, its not fair, but it definitely is kinda necessary in the current society we live in.
Explaining it to myself: Current society also believes a lot of other things that I agree with but someone else does not. A sort of majority rules because it is all a societal and human mind’s construct, including fairness itself.”
Thanks all you lovely people
| 40 |
There was a study where people were asking money for a bus ticket on the streets. When dressed in dirty jeans and hoody they were less likely to get anything while wearing suits they got the money without effort. Same person, different clothes and different results. What you wear makes a difference.
| 19 |
[Superjail!] Where does the warden get the funding for Superjail?
| 27 |
Jared seems to handle Superjail's financials, but the exact source of income is largely unknown. The jail makes a huge profit from using inmate labor in manufacturing which can be seen in various episodes. There are a lot of drugs and crime which circulate through the jail, there may be a black market which is secretly run by Jared to help cover the enormous operating expenses. Also, many of the services provided by Superjail are run by inmates keeping worker costs minimal. Due to the extremely violent nature of Superjail's inmates, some governments contribute to its funding just to keep them incarcerated.
| 17 |
|
How is biological/chemical hazardous waste treated and disposed of once it leaves my lab?
|
I know the procedures I'm supposed to follow on MY end in the lab, but I was curious what happens on the receiving end.
Is the whole container rendered chemically inert? Does each reagent get extracted and disposed of separately? Are we able to recycle anything in the process and, if so, how much? Also, what happens when waste labels are not properly filled out and unlisted reagents are present in the container -- are we able to screen for those, and how does it affect the safety of the people who handle the disposal?
| 715 |
Chemicals are generally incinerated in specially designed furnaces that ensure complete combustion; so the only emissions are CO2, water vapor and a bit of NOx which is usually scrubbed out anyways. Resulting ash is landfilled.
Recycling is generally not done because like a box of chocolates, 'you neva know what you gonna get' So to make it work you have to be really restrictive about what you accept.
labels and reagent lists matter more for the DOT regulations than anything, in case there is a spill, at the incinerator it doesn't much matter what goes in (as long as it's not explosive), it all gets burned/flashed-off/otherwise oxidized to inert crap.
Source: Chemical Engineer
dunno about bio-waste /u/coolmanmax2000 seems to know his/her stuff.
| 222 |
Why are excessive sleeping and insomnia at the same time symptoms of depression?
|
How do our neurotransmitters and brains as a whole work with regard to disordered sleep and depression? Also, how do these two seemingly opposite ends of a spectrum of disordered sleep occur co-morbidly in the depressed?
| 64 |
It’s not as simple as to be boiled down to neurotransmitters.
Depression is a complex disease, and it’s causes vary, though likely some combination of biological, psychological, emotional, and behavioral. This combination vary from person tocpersonZ
Why person A with depression sleeps excessively and person B is an insomniac is best explained as to what factors cause their depression and how they react to it behaviorally and biologically.
The excess sleeping may very well be a learned behavior to cope with the depression, or it may be of a biological origin. Alternatively, the insomnia may be excess chattering in the brain that a person compulsively indulges in, or the product of neurotransmitters and hormones keeping them up.
It’s complex and varies from person to person.
| 40 |
ELI5: The main points on why the NSA "spying" on citizens is bad
|
When I google, I just see things like "Why did it get so bad" and "Snowden leak bad for US business", but no one actually telling why it is bad.
What is the reason that I should be worried? Perhaps a link to somewhere, if you know a page that explains it well.
| 81 |
The main reason you should be worried is that the potential for abuse is huge. The NSA as it is right now is a little known organization with very little oversight and even less transparency. It's practically a stranger compared to other government departments.
The FBI tells us how many people it incarcerates each year, for what, and for what purposes. It follows the constitution, miranda rights, regularly PROVES that it follows these things, and is subject to pressures from congress. It's also supposed to be stopping many things that can be akin to terrorism.
The NSA will not even tell us how many terrorist threats it has thwarted, or how many it has detected, or how many it has failed to stop. It follows the constitution... for Americans only, and is overseen by a secret court no one is allowed to view or speak about. What this amounts to is "we follow the American Constitution and we aren't breaking any rules, Scouts Honor". Now they have access to everyone's history for the past few months, texts, facebook, games, EVERYTHING in a format that they can search on a whim at their leisure.
All you have is Scout's Honor keeping an NSA employee from using the search engine to check out that girl in the Yoga class on the way to work. Discovering she's single, and she's into jazz and frequents the bar downtown, and tailoring himself to be the perfect man in her eyes so he can get with that. Scout's Honor is all that's preventing an NSA employee from finding out that the math teacher in his son's catholic school is gay and threatening to out him to his peers if his son doesn't pass that midterm. Scout's Honor is all that's keeping the NSA from discovering your local senator is cheating on his wife, it'd be a shame if it got out, but we wouldn't out you if you stopped talking about all this NSA stuff.
Is this happening? We have absolutely no idea. All we know is that they have the data to pull it off, stored in a location to look at in their leisure, and most of them probably aren't Boy Scouts.
| 292 |
ELI5: Why do different human languages sound so different but the same animal from around the world sounds so similar?
| 19 |
Human languages are learned, rather than being hardcoded into our DNA. Most animals don't have a true language; rather they just have a set pattern of sounds that mean certain things.
Some animals, like dolphins and crows, *do* have a (learned) language, and individuals from different parts of the world can't understand each other. They still sound similar to us, but we probably all sound similar to them.
| 22 |
|
When a psychotic hears voices in their heads, why is it always something like the neighbor's dog telling them to kill, not to plant a nice rose garden? Is it simply because the people who do plant rose gardens don't make the news, or is psychosis inherently violent?
| 16 |
No, psychosis is not inherently violent and violent acts by psychotic people are rare. The idea that auditory hallucinations are usually violent is just a stereotype. They can have a wide variety of content and are often voices that denigrate the person or comment on their actions. In some cases they are positive and may be the voices of dead loved ones, for example. It's a well-known fact that their content differs dramatically between cultures.
| 28 |
|
[Halo] Did the UNSC have any reason to suspect a hostile alien force before first contact?
|
It's been a while since I read the novels, so my memory is a little fuzzy. I ask because it seems like earth and the major colonies had MAC stations in orbit around the planets before contact with the Covenant. I understand UNSC had been in a long standing war with the Insurrectionists, but as far as I remember they didn't have too much of a threatening fleet. What need did the UNSC have for so many orbital MAC stations? I can understand why the fleet was so large, they had a decent chunk of galaxy to patrol.
| 54 |
Yes. They were already aware of Forerunner facilities, and had been researching the few artifacts they had dug up. Some of the spookier factions of the UNSC pushed for more military hardware because they were expecting first contact with a technologically superior species like the Forerunners (and they were half right).
There was also some indications that frontier colonies were trading with Covenant merchant ships. ONI desperately wanted to cover that one up because of the Covenant's policy on client races, which would have sparked an all-out revolt before anyone would have figured out the Covenant would exterminate humans rather than bring them into the fold.
| 31 |
[Harry Potter] Just how sentient is the sorting hat?
|
Would it be easy for him to giving up the life of sorting kids in their respective school groups or is he forever bound to his duty?
| 37 |
The sorting hat doesn't sort because he's been told/ordered to do it, he sorts because he wants to do it. The same way you want to do things that make you happy, the sorting hat wants to sort children because that makes it happy. While you might get tired of doing one thing all the time and try other things to be happy, the hat has no desire to do so because of how fucking much he likes sorting kids.
| 42 |
ELI5: Why do I have a problem peeing in public restrooms when other people are around?
|
I've heard the term "shy bladder" used before but it seems to be more of a mental thing.
| 42 |
Short answer is that your nervous system has two sub levels. One that kicks in when we're feeling safe and relaxed and promotes digestion, urination, sexual arousal etc etc, things we'd like to do when we feel safe. The other one kicks in when we're not feeling very safe and is responsible for the flight-or-flight response you might heard of. Taking a piss when you're in some kind of danger isn't a very good idea. And while you might not be in any danger in a public restroom your body isn't smart enough to understand that and will just know that you do not feel comfortable in this place and is getting ready to escape if needed.
| 25 |
What happens to oxygen (gasses in general) that get lost into the vacuum of space? Could (theoretically) we pump oxygen in space to create breathable pockets?
| 65 |
Gravity.
You need something to "anchor" that gas locally, and only gravity can do that. To have enough gravity, you need a big enough lump of something. That's basically a planet.
TLDR: You need a planet to keep the gas from wandering off into space. EDIT: Otherwise the gas cloud just keeps expanding.
| 36 |
|
[Fallout] How exactly does Mama Murphy's "sight" work?
|
In Fallout 4, there's a character named Mama Murphy, who supposedly uses the addictive drug "Jet" to see into the future, or know things that she has no way of knowing. She calls this ability "The Sight".
She knows that the Sole Survivor came from 200 years ago, despite never being told.
She predicts the Deathclaw attack at Concord.
She knows that Nick Valentine is being held hostage underground.
She knows where Kellogg's house keys are located.
And, most surprisingly, she knows the exact deactivation code that can be used to shut down Z2-47. She recites it word for word, exactly, despite there being no logical way she could possibly know that.
Is there any logical explanation for how she gains this knowledge? I don't have a clue.
| 45 |
Mama Murphy is most likely a "Psyker". The only other Psyker to have similar powers was the Forecaster in Fallout New Vegas with the only difference being that he had to stop taking medication instead of taking drugs to see the future.
| 40 |
[Star Wars] How common are force sensitive people, and how common is it for a force sensitive person to choose the Dark side of the force?
| 31 |
Not a complete answer, but there are force sensitive people, and then there are those among them that realise it and may choose to dedicate their lives to mastering their connection to the Force. These individuals undergo training, the two most common pathways being the Jedi and the Sith. There are off-shoots and branch paths, like the Grey Jedi.
I may be wrong, but there are probably dark side Force using normals who aren't exactly "Sith" or evil, just assholes, chanelling anger and such.
| 28 |
|
How exactly does soap wash you hands?
| 29 |
Soap acts as a detergent. It acts to add a hydrophobic component to water, causing lipids to dissolve more easily in water and wash away. Cell membranes have a phospholipid bilayer, meaning there’s a hydrophilic component sandwiched between two hydrophobic layers. Breaking up those layers can disrupt the cell membrane enough to kill bacterial cells, and may also disrupt adhesion molecules enough to cause those bacteria to detach from the surface of your hands. Warm water increases the solubility of particles in the water as well, which is why we use warm (not scalding) water to wash hands.
| 15 |
|
[MARVEL/MCU] What happens when someone walks on the cloaking mountain disguise that Wakanda uses? Do they walk on it as if it were an actual mountain or will they phase through and fall into Wakanda?
| 67 |
They would go through it as it's just a hologram, but no one's getting that close. The border tribe is there to stop intruders. They're also there to fool outsiders by disguisng themselves as simple farmers and hunters.
| 70 |
|
CMV: Wealth inequality is only bad if the success of the "top 1%" actually hurts the "bottom 99%"
|
So a lot of people talk about how the top 1% of our economy/the world economy owns X% of all the resources, and then they assert that this is a bad thing. They also tend to suggest that this inequality should be a major priority for policymakers. However, I feel like the type of inequality matters. Whenever I see conversations on this issue, the language surrounding the discussion tends to fall into this idea that the 1% are stealing from the bottom 99%, and that this is why they have so much money. People think the distribution is unjust, because the wealthy are taking more than their fair share of the pie.
But that's not really how it works. The economy, as I understand it, is not a zero-sum game. Most of the wealth that the 1% has comes from investments or from ownership of different companies/projects/properties, so it's not like their wealth is coming from burglary. I could understand the argument that inequality in previous centuries was fundamentally harmful. But I feel like a lot of people misunderstand what inequality means.
Articles like [this one](https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2017/11/09/the-3-richest-americans-hold-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-of-country-study-finds/#28e2473b3cf8) assert that, for example "the three richest Americans hold more wealth than the bottom 50%". And just like most people, I have a very negative gut reaction to that. It feels like an unfair distribution of wealth. But why? If Jeff Bezos, Gates, and Buffet all quintupled their net worth tomorrow, on paper the economy would have become enormously more unequal. But would people's lives be any worse? No, nothing would have changed for them. Similarly, if those three people and all their money disappeared tomorrow, the economy would become far more equitable. And yet millions of people would still be in poverty. Nothing changed for them. So when we talk about inequality, we're not really measuring how unfairly the pie is distributed. We're really just talking about how wealthy the top section is in relation to the rest. And it doesn't necessarily hurt or harm the other parts of society for that top section to be better off.
So does the relative wealth of the top 1% really matter? I don't think so. Does inequality really matter? Maybe not as much as most people think.
I'm not saying that poverty isn't a problem, or that we shouldn't tax the wealthy in order to fund programs that benefit society and give down-on-their-luck people a chance to succeed. All I'm saying is that I don't think inequality in and of itself is such an enormous problem, or something that we should make a top priority. The goal should be to increase outcomes for everyone, not necessarily to make ownership equitable.
Thought?
_____
> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 114 |
A successful economy comes from the circulation of its currency. If 1 million people each spent 20 dollars at 1 million different businesses that would be better for the economy than 1 person spending 20 million dollars at 1 business. One or few people holding most of the wealth just keeps that money in limbo when it could be spent on businesses and goods across multiple people.
| 77 |
[Fallout] So what does the rest of the world look like?
|
I know that information is sparse, but I really wonder how the Soviet Union, Europe, China, Japan and Australia faired the various wars that ultimately consumed the world in and around 2077. Anyone got any hard sources or conjecture? I know Tenpenny claimed to have made it out of England, so we've obviously got something resembling global travel still.
| 27 |
***USA/Canada*** is basically the same all around as shown in all the Fallouts. In all likelihood, is doing the best post-war, even with FEV mutants running about, due to the Vault Program, and somewhat being prepared for a nuclear war. Alaska was pretty bad off, seeing as it was a war zone for nearly a decade, right up until the GW. FEV is rampant.
***Europe*** is an even greater shit hole, as even right before the Great War, it was in the middle of it's own giant conflict, leaving most of it's nations in ruins by October of 2077. (Aside from the Soviet Union). No FEV.
***Asia*** we can assume was mostly China and it's allies, or American Allies (Japan) is annihilated. Right before the Great War, US Troops were only days outside of Beijing, so China was already pretty war torn before the bombs fell. The Middle East was totally destroyed even right before the Great War, via it's war with Europe. Likely no FEV.
***Australia*** Was spared bombing mostly, except for major cities, and US/Ausie Military Bases.. However, in the months proceeding the war, a vast swath of Radiation enveloped the nation, killing most of it's inhabitants/plant life. No FEV.
***Africa*** Suffered the same fate as Australia, if not worse due to it's proximity to bombed nations.
***South America*** suffered the same fate as Australia, and Africa. The damage to Rain forests is likely horrible.
| 19 |
ELI5: How is the United States able to rack up US$16 trillion of public debt?
|
This question have been bothering me for a while, and the [wikipedia article ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt) doesn't really explain it in a way someone with little economics knowledge can understand.
Who is the money owed to?
Why is nobody claiming back the money owed to them?
How did anyone allow the debt to spiral to such an incredible amount?
Is it ever possible for the US to pay back all their debt?
| 18 |
When the US federal government needs to pay more for things than it collects in taxes, it sells "Treasury Bonds" which pay a set (but usually small) amount of interest. Treasury Bonds are low return but from a country like the US they are as close as the world gets to no risk. The US has never missed a payment since 1775, and there is no reason to think it will stop any time soon. So by buying these bonds you trade high return for high security.
The rate of return (how much money is payed to bond holders) is set by a combination of the Federal Reserve's interest rate as well as the demand for bonds. The lower the interest rate the less the debt "costs." Right now a 5 year bond has a .8% interest, then if you buy $5,000 worth of bonds you will receive .8% interest at the end of five years on your $5,000. The payments are on a fixed schedule so people can't just suddenly "demand their money early."
Most bonds are bought by Americans or American institutions like banks. In 2008 as the height of the collapse (for example) there wasn't even enough bonds to go around because security was valued so highly at the time, so they could be offered at near zero (.001%) return and banks would still buy them because it decreased the risk they had. Of the current $15 (not 16) trillion, about $11 trillion are owned by Americans or American institutions. So while we owe China money, they aren't the ones who own most of the debt.
The debt is in a never ending state of being re-payed and then re-borrowed. Alexander Hamilton wanted there to be a US debt because it both establishes a base interest rate, allows credit to flow between banks easily and a few other technical things. Andrew Jackson was the one and only president to pay off the debt in full, and when he did and there were no more bonds the credit and banking system of the country froze up. It caused a financial "panic" and a minor recession. Jackson then started borrowing again and as a result credit began to flow more easily.
But it is possible to pay the debt back, though not advisable to pay it all back until there is no debt at all. Following World War II we had (adjusted for inflation) roughly double the debt we have today. Then in the rest of the 40s and into the 50s the government kept taxes high to pay back all those people who bought bonds. The debt kept going down until the 1970s when the economy slowed down, but by then we had reduced the debt to pre-Great Depression levels.
The reason why the debt is so big is quite simple: low taxes. Reagan's tax cuts lead to him tripping the debt in eight years. Clinton raised taxes and eventually got a surplus. Then the second Bush cut taxes to below Reagan's level and Obama has cut them further than that. Bad economies always lead to more debt, but the reason why its *so* bad is the low taxes. We have the single lowest tax rate in the first world, and that's not from some liberal think tank, that's the CIA's own numbers. If we ever want to pay back the debt we need to raise taxes, and not just on the rich, everyone needs to pay more taxes.
TL;DR: The money is owed to many people and institutions, but most of them are American. People do claim the money they are owed because payments are made at a regular schedule like paying off any other kind of debt. The debt increased from $1 trillion in 1980 to $15 trillion now mostly due to low taxes, but the explosion since 2008 has been due more so to a bad economy than anything else. It is possible to pay back all the debt, but *some* national debt is good for the economy because it creates bonds which are the safest form of investment. World War II lead to double the debt we have now, and we paid most of that off easily with a good post-war economy and high taxes.
| 55 |
ELI5: why do all your joints ache when you have an infection?
| 76 |
When you have an infection, your body fires up an immune response. Think of your body's immune response as the SWAT team.
When you first get infected, a minor response is made by the body.. cops are called essentially. 8/10 times Cops get the job done. Sometimes, the cops are not equipped well enough, so SWAT is called. SWAT basically goes everywhere and causes inflammation while fighting away the infection wherever it may reside.
The inflammation causes your joints to hurt :)
Tl; dr - Infection causes immune response and inflammation. Systemic inflammation causes joints to ache.
Source: Med student
Edit: Grammar
| 82 |
|
Dear Askscience, how small of a dose of arsenic, a day would i need to take to develop an immunity to it?
|
I'm a fit, Caucasian, 18 year old male who weighs about 65kgs. how much (how little) arsenic, over how long would i need to ingest for me to become immune to future assassination attempts? is there a mathematical model that can be applied? will this mathematical model work for other poisons? is it even possible to become immune to a poison such as arsenic? Thanks for your help :)
| 27 |
Quick rule of thumb. Repeated exposure to poisonous metals makes you sicker not stronger.
This is particularly true for the heavy metals like lead or mercury that build up in your system and can't be flushed out without medical intervention.
| 47 |
ELI5: Why when we are put under pressure to think of something, we can't.
|
For example, if someone asked you to think of a word beginning with a letter, why you can't think of any examples.
| 41 |
The reason is, when we are put under pressure (stressful situations), our brain simulates a fight or flight response which effectively gears us for physical action - our brains go into old school reptile mode and shut off the thinking through stuff/problem solving mode. So in short, we stress, our brains think we need to fight or run and put all our capacity into doing those things and we lose our FULL ability to think in the best way we can usually think.
Hope this helps!
Ray
| 13 |
ELI5: Why is a metal a metal?
| 54 |
If you zoom into a metal atom, you will see that it has "shells" in which its electrons can orbit. It's outer shell is called the valence shell, and the number of valence electrons that orbit in this shell depend on the atom.
Metals are made up of numerous metal atoms, such as copper or iron, that share their valence electrons between them in order to fill their valence shell. These valence electrons can move freely between the atoms making sure that each atom has a full shell. If a voltage is applied to the metal, a current will flow as the electrons can move freely around.
The freely moving electrons also allow the metal atoms to be easily moved without breaking the bonds between the atoms. This allows metals to be malleable and ductile.
| 16 |
|
Does an insect, like a fly or a mosquito, have itches?
| 121 |
Yes, if their exoskeleton gets irritated. (Itch: An uncomfortable, irritating sensation that creates an urge to scratch that can involve any part of the body.) For example, put a drop of formic acid on a cockroach's abdomen, and it will rub the area with its legs to clean it as it's irritated.
| 64 |
|
[General Fantasy] What makes a vorpal weapon vorpal? Is it the material from which it’s made? Is it its manner of making? Is it the enchantments applied to it? The skill of the wielder? Or some combination of the above?
| 21 |
> He took his vorpal sword in hand,
> longtime the manxsome foe he sought
> So rested he by the Tum-Tum Tree
> And stood awhile in thought.
[...]
> One, two! One, two! And through and through
> The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
> He left it dead, and with its head
> He went galumphing back.
- Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky"
The implication of the vorpal sword is that it is sharp enough to easily cut off an opponent's head; this idea of "extreme sharpness" is carried on in *Dungeons & Dragons*, where vorpal weapons are normally enchanted, but not always - the implication being it is the *sharpness* that gives the vorpal quality, not the necessarily enchantment itself. No particular material is specified for the blade, and no reference made to particular skill of the wielder - you might compare Death's scythe in the Discworld, which "exudes an aura of sharpness that extends several inches from the actual blade."
| 39 |
|
ELI5: what makes a leaf of lettuce more digestible than other leaves?
|
It's clear that our stomachs can't break down most greenery around us, like ruminants with 4 stomachs can. But what makes one leaf digestible to us and another not?
| 27 |
Cellulose. Humans lack the enzyme cellulase thus leaving us unable to digest plants that are high in cellulose. However, a plant like lettuce has a relatively low amount of cellulose compared to other natural greens and leaves, and contains a higher amount of digestible material and our body just filters the cellulose through the stomach undigested which it is able to do since the amount is low.
| 41 |
What would food look like at each stage of the digestive system?
|
If I were to say eat brisket for dinner tonight what would it look like when hitting my large intestine, small intestine, stomach etc?
| 49 |
Food that is partially broken down in the mouth is mixed with saliva and enters the stomach as a bolus, which is basically a mass of food that will look somewhat like a mashed up and slightly more liquid version of what you ate. After leaving the stomach the food is called chyme, which has more of a semiliquid state after mixing with the gastric juices in the stomach. Macronutrients are absorbed in the small intestines, while water, fiber, and some ions are absorbed in the colon. The material entering the colon will more or less be in a liquid form as well. Some metabolites (e.g. vitamins) are also synthesized by gut bacteria and absorbed by the large intestine.
| 19 |
ELI5: Why do hairs grow longer/darker out of moles or freckles?
| 16 |
A mole is basically a benigh growth of pigmented skin cells aka melanocytes. Scientifically known as a melanocytic neavus. So any hair that outcrops from these regions are darker, thicker and coarse due to the increased presence of melanin.
| 10 |
|
ELI5: Why do almost every modern houses I visit have a crawl attic, as in an insulation floor, as opposed to a full attic where you can store stuff and walk around?
|
CONTEXT: I live in Alberta, so building codes might be different for me.
| 36 |
Most of the ones that had an attic were not well ventilated or insulated. They had a floor over the ceiling joists for the floor below. If you pulled those up they had nothing in the space in the way of insulation. The house was constructed with a mostly load bearing floor/ceiling (the ceiling between the attic and the room below was probably NOT 2x4s) and the roof was built one-off with a ridge line and a lot of birdsmouth cutting to make the roof it self. If you go into one of these homes and look, the roof is going to be at least 2X6 for the pieces that go from the ridge line to the sides of the house. There will be fewer supports in the center of the spans as well.
New homes are built using pre-built truss for the roof. It is smaller dimensional lumber that is pre-made into triangles. The roof and the ceiling are actually one constructed piece vice two stick built pieces. They are not designed to have much load between the top (the roof) and the bottom (ceiling). They also have a lot more ties that go from the roof to the ceiling to tie the structure together. These keep the area between the roof and the ceiling cluttered and hard to have a floor.
Insulation. The old homes probably had very little. Heat rises so having insulation in the attic is big deal for heating. Attics get solar heating in the summer and will generate a lot of heat, if not insulated it makes the house hotter. So to keep it warm in winter and cool in summer you insulate. Truss ceilings are usually only 2x4 for the ceiling joists. R-30 is recommended in attics now. That is between 8 and 11 inches of insulation thickness. So the insulation should be way thicker than the joists. So to put in a floor you need to buildup the floor surface which adds cost and weight or you need less insulation which will increase your heating/cooling costs.
Also with insulation most houses are now built with vapor barriers for insulated to not insulted space. They want the attic to ventilate to get the hot air out in the summer and to prevent moisture build up in the winter. (The attic is NOT inside the vapor barrier.)
This means the things you put in it would be exposed to temps that hit 130-140 easily in the summer and as cold as it gets in the winter. It may be exposed to higher levels of humidity than what exists outside. It is bad for whatever you are storing, and is not encouraged. (Basically an attic today is only really keeping the rain off.)
| 15 |
[Godzilla 2014] What was Godzilla even doing?
|
So the footage shows the first two MUTOs popping up and we are immediately told that they eat radiation and boom that's what they are doing, that's why they are causing havoc. Ok I understand that.
Then out of no where Godzilla shows up, swimming around after these two MUTOs. He kills them both and then just kinda fucks off? What was his reason for fighting? It surely wasn't for territory, Godzilla being a marine creature and the MUTOs are terrestrial, it wasn't to secure food because he never once tried to eat anything radioactive, and it wasn't to eat them (which is what I initially though as they explain Godzilla is an apex predator pretty early on) because after the big fight he just swims away.
So what was his motivation for anything that happened?
| 74 |
Godzilla sees his territory as the entire planet. Anything that is big enough to threaten him is automatically on his hit list. As soon as he heard the mating calls of the MUTOs, he knew it was Godzillering time
| 189 |
The Kinsey Studies
|
I learned a little bit about Kinsey in sociology classes, but would like an ELI5 explanation.
| 26 |
I don't see why this should be NSFW, since sexuality is a legit field of study and all, but... (also, not ELI5, but too lazy to try and do that)
Dr. Kinsey wrote what is known as the "Kinsey Report," which is made up of two books, *Sexual Behavior in the Human Male* and *Sexual Behavior in the Human Female* about sixty years ago. In these, he extolled his findings which were extremely taboo at the time.
His subject of study was sexuality on various things: masturbation, sadomasochistic arousal, but more importantly (or at least what he's known for), sexual orientation. He proposed that sexual orientation wasn't limited to just 'gay/straight/bi'. Instead, there's a whole big spectrum of sexual orientation. Think of it as a sliding scale, with 0 being purely hetero and 6 being purely homo. Now, every time that you've had a sexually arousing homosexual thought or experience, you're knocked up the scale a bit. Every time you've had the same, but heterosexual, you're knocked down.
What was shocking is that a large majority didn't fit in the strictly hetero or strictly homo category. Most people fit in the middle somewhere. How they present themselves is an entirely different topic all together, however, which is why you don't see everyone putting "Interested in: Men and Women" on their Facebook profiles.
| 42 |
[South Park] Justin Bieber is Canadian. Why doesn't he have a flappy mouth and beady eyes?
|
[Video evidence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTvTvhqkqKc)
Is he some kind of mutant? Are there other examples of this rare sub-breed of Canadian?
| 27 |
I speculate it is plastic surgery to appeal to American audiences. Other Canadian celebrities like Alanis Morissette appear to have changed themselves in this manner to hide their heritage. Celine Dion and Rush have embraced their true Canadian features, however. Also Bryan Adams, but the government of Canada has apparently disowned him.
This also raises the question, however--what's up with Saddam Hussein? He's got the flappy head. Is he a Canadian? Half-Canadian?
| 37 |
[MCU] Are the assembled infinity stones the most powerful thing in the universe? As in, could they be used to permanently defeat something like Doomsday/Darkseid/Dr. Doom/Dr. Manhattan/God?
| 17 |
> Are the assembled infinity stones the most powerful thing in the universe?
Yes, within that universe.
> As in, could they be used to permanently defeat something like Doomsday
Yes
> Darkseid
No. Darkseid is beyond the power of a single Universe.
> Dr. Doom
Yes, provided he isn't mid-plot on taking over the multiverse again. With prep he'd probably survive it somehow.
> Dr. Manhattan
Yes
> God
If God is limited to this Universe, yes. If he is multiversal/TOAA, then no.
| 37 |
|
[Westworld] How did the park keep guests from harming each other, by means other than firearms?
|
It was common for the hosts to be stabbed, physically assaulted, blown up, etc. and we only saw the bullets not being able to go through human flesh (which still doesn't account for shrapnel or eye injuries). And it was sometimes difficult to tell guests and hosts apart. So how did the parks manage this?
| 54 |
Guests were kept apart for the most part. On the train ride in guests would also meet other guests as a sort of meet and greet so that helped some.
The main thing is the park employees kept a very tight watch on the guests for spoiler reasons which would prevent most bad situations.
| 53 |
Can we theoretically travel forward in time by vibrating? Or rather continually moving at a high speed but only moving within a small area?
|
I was doing some reading on time dilation and as I understand it Time Dilation is caused by moving at higher speeds. Does that mean that if we theoretically had the ability to simple move on object or vehicle extremely fast in a relatively small area it would travel forward in time faster than everyone else? That is to say if we ignore the drops in speed that would be caused by needing to drastically turn or change direction in less than a second.
(Noting that I've mentioned speed but the time dilation formula is based on velocity, could this be the reason for why this doesn't work? As the object is not experiencing huge changes from their original position would this mean that this is not possible?)
Second time posting here so hopefully there are some thoughts on the idea!
EDIT: Wow large amount of feedback. A large amount of people have suggested that a more practical version of this would simply be spinning in a circle. If an object could keep a total constant speed going around in a circle (That is to say that the size of the object doesn't cause the outer or inner parts to come apart) would this be a more practical approach?
| 186 |
This would work, it would just be very impractical and lethal to constantly accelerate with such a high magnitude.
The idea is essentially the same as the twin paradox repeated multiple times. The vibrating person will experience less time than the person at rest.
| 72 |
[Star wars Ep 4] How did Darth Vader not know Han Solo was flying in behind him at the Battle of Yavin?
|
He would have had to know by either
A) the force
or
B) the imperials would have picked the falcon up on radar and warned him
| 27 |
B: The Falcon is a smuggling ship, difficult to pick up on radar unless you know exactly what to look for.
A: Han Solo is not a force sensitive, making him harder to detect with the force than people who are, especially with Vader's senses focused on the very powerful force user right in front of him.
| 35 |
[MCU] What would happen if Steve Rogers drank the potion that gives power to the Black Panther?
| 84 |
I don't think we know. In the MCU hulk movie, the bad guy took super soldier serum and then later tried to add hulk's abilities. The scientist guy said the combination could be an "abomination," which was right. So it's not clear what the end result would be of combining the super soldier serum with other enhancements.
| 84 |
|
CMV:Gal Gadot's tweet about Stephen Hawking was not ableist.
|
https://twitter.com/GalGadot/status/973919102174711809
She said he was free from physical constraints. People have somehow interpreted that as "death is better than disability". Those are completely different statements. She did not say that Stephen Hawking is somehow better because he is dead. That stuff is complete nonsense.
Even if we do concede that she did say something like that, is it still ableist? No. Firstly, whenever anyone dies, sometimes people will say "X is in a better place/is in heaven", etc. That is clearly indicating that the person is better off being dead. Nobody considers that offensive.
People even say things like "X is free from pain anymore" and stuff like that. How is that different from saying "free from physical constraints"?
Even if we do concede that she believes death is better than disability, is that offensive? Again, not necessarily. Euthanasia/assisted suicide is debated, and it is perfectly reasonable, and not offensive, to believe that it is better to die than to be disabled and in pain. Stephen Hawking was at risk of developing locked-in syndrome. It's not at all offensive to believe that death is better than that (I'm not saying I believe it, just that it's not offensive to believe it).
People don't say things like "free from being a racial minority" when someone dies, but I don't understand how that is relevant.
_____
> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 21 |
It seems to me there’s an ableist way to interpret this and a non-ableist way to interpret this.
Your CMV is not about Gal Gadot herself, who may or may not be ableist (I don’t want to read too much into someone from a single tweet) but about her tweet, which is definitely open to an ableist reading.
You then go on to say that it’s not ableist to say that it’s better for some disabled people to die. That’s a decision a disabled person must make themselves. To assume a disabled person is better off dead, without knowing if this is how the disabled person felt, also seems ableist to me.
What bothers me more about Gadot’s post is that it suggests Hawking has passed on to some manner of afterlife, an idea the decidedly atheistic Scientist has called a “fairy story.” From Hawking’s point of view, death would be the greatest possible physical constraint.
Edit: Also Hawking was an eternalist. He believed the past physically exists even though we are ourselves stuck in the present. So even though Hawking is dead in the present, he would believe that he still exists in the past, both as an older disabled man and as a younger abeled man. This would also be a physical constraint of sorts.
| 11 |
[Fallout] How is it that Dogmeat manages to stay as healthy as he is?
|
When not in the possession of the Player Characters, Dogmeat seems to operate mostly independently. As intelligent as he is, how is it that he manages to avoid getting infections (outside of obvious gameplay reasons) if no one is there to clean or heal him?
| 62 |
It has been 210 years since the nuclear war and collapse of society. A German Shepherd will mature about 2-3 years old so we could be looking at around 70 generations of dogs who have had to survive in extremely harsh environments with little veterinary care.
Dogmeat is the evolutionary product of a chain of dogs that have survived and thrived in this environment. He is able to heal quickly, be minimally effected by radiation and will rarely get any kind of infection on his injuries. He's basically a superdog.
| 104 |
ELI5: Why is it that Wild animals are able to drink “wild” water (lakes, rivers, etc) yet humans appear to not be able to drink water out of a wild water source?
| 18 |
Gut flora is the main reason. Over time we have lost the ability to digest complex microbioata that are dangerous. Also it's not safe for other animals to drink contaminated water, they face similar problems and die to ameobic dysentery as well
| 22 |
|
ELI5 why do you save fuel if you drive a distance slower.
|
In school we learned '' what you save in energy, you have to increase the way.'' By that rule you should use the exact same amount of energy (fuel) for the same distance no matter what speed. I've asked a few people, but no-one could give me a good answer.
| 17 |
Two reasons -
1. Car engines do not have the same efficiency (likes gallons of gas per miles) at all speeds. In reality engine efficiency is mind bogglingly complex but manufactures "tune" the engines they design to *most efficient* around the speed limit-ish. So outside of any other reasons, a car engine might get 20 miles per gallon driving at 50 miles and hour, 30 miles per gallon driving at 60 miles per hour and 10 miles per gallon driving at 70 miles per hour.
2. Air resistance increases exponentially with speed. Meaning there is much, much more air resistance trying to push back on a car when it drives at 70 miles per hour than there is when driving at 60. So it takes more energy (burns more fuel) to keep a car driving at 70 than it does at 60 because the car needs to overcome that air-push-back.
EDIT - to clarify what you learning in school - you're talking perfect, ideal physics. Yes, you can do physics math to calculate the energy required to move a car from X to Y. But that's the ideal, perfect, *minimum* energy required. In reality something like a car engine can only extract around 30% of the chemical energy in gasoline and then turning into motion energy in the engine with all the moving parts sucks that down, and air resistance sucks that down, friction between tires and the road sucks that down etc. etc. So when we talk about real life systems the method of getting from X to Y is very important.
| 68 |
[Superman] Can Superman drown or be poisoned? What ways can he be killed other than Kryptonite or magic, if any?
|
I mean, just cause his skin is impenetrable doesn't mean his lungs are, right?
Could you force-feed him adrenaline pills or something to make his heart beat so fast he has a heart attack?
Does he need oxygen to survive?
| 21 |
Brute Force from a being as strong or stronger than him (Doomsday, Darkseid, etc).
Magic: Vulnerable to any weapon, spell, or force powered by any kind of magic (I.e. Shazam's punches, WW's weapons)
Kryptonite: Obvious
Drowning/Suffocating: Depends on the Canon. In the DCAU, Supes needs a spacesuit while in space. In most comics, he does not. It varies.
Red Sun Radiation: The sun of Krypton was red. Red Sun Light doesn't hurt Clark, but it does drain his powers as the yellow sun energy in his cells is replaced with red son energy. In Infinite Crisis, Superman & Earth 2 Superman tackles Superboy Prime through a red sun to stop his reign of terror. Clark lost his powers for a year and was essentially a normal human.
Captain Atom is a huge threat to Superman because of this since he can shoot red sun radiation at him.
| 24 |
ELI5: How do trains make turns if their wheels spin at the same speed on both sides?
| 15,227 |
Train wheels are actually conical. So, when a train turns, it slides to the larger part of the cone on the outside wheel and the smaller part on the inside wheel. That way the wheels still turn at the same rate, but their radii are different.
| 11,583 |
|
ELI5: If your period is just blood and uterine matter that your body has been storing up for a month expelling from your body, then why do some women become anemic?
|
I'm currently on my period and it's been a rough one. I've been very weak and having hot flashes and craving red meat like crazy. I have a tendency of becoming anemic during my period which leads me to this question.
I know periods are from your uterus getting ready fro pregnancy and expelling it when there is no fertilized egg. What I don't understand is if it's a month long process, then why does it make some women anemic? Are we losing NEW blood?
| 16 |
Yes, you are losing it only then and yes, it's new.
Your uterus does not fill with old blood all month, it builds an increasingly big layer of tissue on its walls.
When you are not pregnant, a lack of hormones causes the vessels nourishing the tissue to close, the tissue dies.
The muscular part of the uterus then starts contracting and the vessels close and open periodically to get rid of the old tissue. That's when you bleed.
Normally the amount of blood lost during menstruation is quite small, about 50-120 ml. As a reference: when donating blood you give 500 ml.
If you loose more than that or your blood levels are already low maybe that could make you anemic.
| 22 |
CMV: I don't believe it's any more racist for me to imitate an Indian accent than it is for me to imitate a British accent.
|
I recently made a joke among some friends wherein I imitated an Indian accent. One of my friends pointed out that that was slightly racist. I don't see how it possibly could be. First, the joke was not the accent itself or the culture of the person in question, the joke was on something the person, who happened to be Indian did. If they had been British it would've been a British accent. Second, why would this be racist? What does an accent have to do with race? Aren't accents attributed to culture?
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 1,123 |
It really doesn't depend on *what* you did. It depends on why you did it.
If you did it because you think Indian people are silly, or uneducated, or in some other way "inferior" and as a result think that using an accent in your joke increases its humor, then obviously it's racist for that reason (possibly unless you're Indian yourself, but let's leave whether a member of a race is racist when making fun of the race for a different CMV).
If you did it for some other reason, it might not be racist. Indeed, it sounds like in this particular rare instance it almost certainly wasn't.
All the same is true of using a British accent (and, again, let's leave whether making fun of the dominant race in a culture can be racist for another CMV). Or a Russian accent, or whatever.
But then we come to the crux of the problem that you're missing, which is "why did your friend say it was racist?".
And the answer to that question is that the vast majority of people using an Indian accent in a joke are doing it for one of the many racist reasons.
This is true in a way that using a British accent isn't true, in America, anyway (don't know where you are), because a lot of our humor comes from Britain, and people are using the accent for the reason that you happen to have been using an Indian accent in this isolated instance.
What you're dealing with is context and history. There are no absolute black and white rules about this kind of "perception" thing. It's all about context and history.
| 488 |
[Doctor Who] Using a Tardis to travel into the far future, is there any useful technology to farm?
|
So let's assume I've got a working Tardis post Time-War, but due to the loss of Gallifrey my technical and industrial resources are severely limited. If I wanted a specific kind of tech', like anti-ageing tech', enhanced sensor suite or service robots, if I travel millions, billions or even trillions of years into the future will the technology I find be as good as or better than Gallifreyan technology?
My understanding is that the Gallifreyans never traveled to the end of the Universe because they were sure a more technologically advanced power would exist there. Is this plausible or likely?
Can I travel into the future to farm advanced technology that will actually be useful when incorporated into my Tardis? Does anyone know how far I should travel before I can find goodies like that?
Cheers for reading, thanks in advance for any responses.
| 16 |
The 10th Doctor had trouble understanding how anything worked in 100,000,000,000,000 AD.
Human technology has cycles of rise and fall. Try aiming for the 51st century; humans had time travel and sonic weapons then.
| 12 |
ELI5: Why is KFC a christmas thing over in Japan?
| 206 |
KFC put a lot into marketing. Christmas in Japan is a fun, commercial holiday. Closer to valentine's in its seen more as an adult and romantic holiday then religious or for kids.
The marketing worked, they offered much higher quality meals on top of the normal stuff, and so people liked it and it became a thing.
| 470 |
|
[Star Trek/General Sci-Fi] What prevents an aggressor from simply orbiting a planet in their ship and locking on to all of the inhibits hearts and teleporting said organ out of the body. Seems like an easy way to pirate planets.
| 51 |
Easy? Even a small colony likely has a couple hundred residents. Have you ever worked with a transporter?
Even assuming you have the proper equipment, such as many banks of extra buffers, and power supply for a large scale transport job like that you still have to target all these individuals. Oh, and not just the individuals but specific organs! Even from people who may be on the opposite side of the planet from current orbital position! Yea, good luck getting that kind of range.
Hell, remove the technical limitations you're still talking about a lot of calculations necessary to get this done. Not really possible and even if it was possible it certainly wouldn't be easy!
| 30 |
|
Are we constantly getting small amounts of cancer cells and having our immune system kill it immediately?
|
A weak immune system increases the risk of cancer, so this prompted this question in my head.
| 26 |
The short answer: yes. natural-killer cells, part of the T-cell lineage, are meant to pick these neoplastic cells off before they become too numerous and cause problems. As another poster mentioned, there are numerous mechanisms within the cell that can allow the cell to correct genetic damage, and if all else fails, to commit cellular suicide (apoptosis). This may occur if things have gone wrong beyond the cellular ability to repair the damage.
| 20 |
[Discworld/LOTR] Could the Luggage dispose of the one Ring?
|
Either through consuming it, carrying it to Mount Doom, or another method I haven't thought of, could The Luggage dispose of the One Ring? Assume the Luggage is motivated to destroy the ring, whether to protect Rincewind or otherwise.
| 32 |
The Discworld runs on the element of narrativium. It’s one of the fundamental properties of the Disc, like physics or mathematics is in our Roundworld universe. The laws of Narrative Causality there are as incontrovertible as, say, the laws of gravitation or electromagnetism are in ours. That is to say, there are weird exceptions and caveats (black holes, fourth wall breaks, The Big Bang, illegal Auditor interference etc.). But they hold up for the most part
So no, the Luggage would not be able to destroy the ring just by gobbling it up or beelining straight to Mount Doom, because it wouldn’t make for a very dramatic story.
It is technically possible for the Luggage to destroy the Ring, but it would have to do so in the context of a traditional Western style narrative, with rising tension, climax, resolution, denouement, stuff like that.
None of that postmodern subversion of tropes stuff, or anything resembling messy real world causality and logic. Just good old fashioned drama, with clearly articulated themes, character development, catharsis, satisfying conclusions with few loose ends etc. Bonus points for something at least vaguely resembling Campbell’s Hero’s Journey
So for the Luggage to destroy the Ring, it (and probably Rincewind, possibly Twoflower or whoever else) would have to go through a long, epic journey filled with sacrifice, suffering, eternal bonds of friendship, and the overcoming of impossible odds
Then, at the end of it all, some divine contrivance or Macguffin would grant the Luggage the power to destroy the Ring. But even then, there has to be a moment where the plan goes wrong and all hope is seemingly lost, before some heroic effort, deus ex Machina, revelation, surprise twist, epiphany or change of heart saves the day
Like, maybe the Luggage and Rincewind discover the true power of friendship at the end, or some crap like that, and this gives them the strength to resist the power of the ring and destroy it once and for all
Or the Luggage and Rincewind (or whoever) have an epic duel on top of volcano or something, before the hero realises that they’ve both been consumed by greed, and the only way to defeat evil is to let the ring go, because evil will undo itself eventually - and they feed the Luggage eat the ring, destroying them both.
Or the Luggage, after many trials and tribulations, finally becomes a real boy with a soul, and the power of love redeems Sauron and frees the Ring from his influence once and for all.
Or something equally melodramatic. It doesn’t have to make complete sense, as long as the events follow the basic outline of a three act structure, the plot will be resolved in the end, and the Ring can be destroyed
| 58 |
ELI5 with water's persistent and powerful erosive power, how are all rivers not straight lines from source to ocean by now?
| 125 |
Because water has momentum. The flow around a bend digs into the far side of the curve while it slows down and deposits sediments on the inside of the curve.
The result is that curves are exaggerated over time, and can even form circular oxbow lakes. The sediment deposits close off the circle and the river continues around it.
Over geological time, the actual path of a river can change a LOT, wiggling across the land, carving new paths.
| 107 |
|
ELI5: What is the role of a female orgasm during reproduction?
|
I've always wondered but never really understood if the male sperm is in any way helped by a females orgasm and vise versa. I know its a cheeky question, but would like to understand that like I am 5 cause I really dont understand it.
| 90 |
A couple possible theories but nothing proven.
1. Helps increase uptake of sperms into the uterus.
2. Helps increase probability of male orgasm to increase chance of conception.
3. Just a byproduct of a 2 gendered species. Just like how the male nipple is practically useless, the female orgasm might just be the pairing of the male orgasm and has no practical use.
| 88 |
CMV: I feel like the world is going to get a lot worse soon.
|
_____
Considering overpopulation, global warming, rising tensions between different countries and demographics, better technology, AI and automation replacing jobs.
Also it seems like, even if our technology is miles ahead of what early humans had, we haven't really evolved mentally enough to handle it in a rational and forward thinking way.
These are some of the main ones, but it's pretty easy to feel like we are heading for a dark place, or at least a pretty harsh bottleneck before it gets better again.
So please Reddit, give me all you got, prove me wrong.
| 44 |
Our medical technology is leaps and bounds over 100 years ago (see the eradication of smallpox). It's entirely possible to see polio eradicated in your lifetime.
Other good things: prosthetics that are controlled by neural implants exist and will increase market penetration over the next decade. Exosuits will help people with mobility impairment, and telemedicine will mean the best practitioners call help people thousands of miles away.
| 14 |
Can X-rays be red-shifted until they're visible to humans?
| 48 |
Sure! It's a simple Doppler calculation.
We have our initial wavelength (low energy X-Ray) at about 6 nm and a visible wavelength of yellow at about 600 nm.
Using the redshift equations:
1 + z = 600 / 6
z = 99 (This is our redshift index)
So for an object moving directly away from us, that gives a speed of:
1 + z = 1/sqrt(1-b^(2))
100 = 1/sqrt(1-b^(2))
b = .99995
So that x-ray emitter would have to be moving away from us at 99.995% of the speed of light. Which is pretty fast.
| 28 |
|
[40k] There is a lot of discussion about how other sci-fi universes would get destroyed in on land battle with the Imperium. But what kind of Sci-fi verse would Actually be on equal ground or even superior if it came to on land confrontation with 40k stuff in reasonble quantities?
| 47 |
The Culture by Iain Banks has handheld weapons that could vaporize a significant percentage of a planet's surface. They're inevitably forbidden from being used in story, but they exist. The culture also has genetic engineering capabilities far beyond what would be necessary to create space marines. They don't because it isnt necessary
| 53 |
|
Eli5: How does a hotel always have hot water for every occupant?
| 2,006 |
Some have really larger boilers and storage tanks. Others have multiple smaller instant boilers around the building.
Essentially the system is designed to handle the load.
Residential systems are often under powered or "right sized" for the owner that installed it, but that doesn't mean that sizing works right for everyone.
| 1,958 |
|
[ELI5] The North American Free Trade Agreement
|
What is it for? How does it work? What are its benefits? Please eli5 or eli4
Edit: thank you all for the responses!! Im reading each one and its honestly hurting my stupid brain but they are all super helpful.
| 65 |
When a company imports or exports a product to another country, they have to pay a tax called a tariff on that product. NAFTA was an agreement between Canada, the US, and Mexico to allow imports and exports for free. The idea is that free trade makes it cheaper and easier for companies in one country to sell products in the other countries, thus improving the economies of all three. The down side is that it also makes it cheaper for companies to move their plants to whichever country provides the cheapest labor. That was good for Mexicans but bad for the American workers who lost their jobs.
| 22 |
ELI5: Why does a paused YouTube video not retain the same video quality as when its playing?
| 29 |
YouTube compresses video fairly aggressively. One of the ways this manifests itself is blocky artefacts. Normally these artefacts will blur across frames, meaning when frames are viewed at the normal speed you generally don't notice the artefacting as much, but paused only artefacts on that individual frame are seen, resulting in an apparent drop in quality.
| 20 |
|
ElI5: turbocharging as it relates to automobiles.
|
How does it work, what function do all the different components (blow-off valve, dump tube, wastegate, intercooler, hot side/cold side etc.) perform?
| 26 |
In a normal NA engine, exhaust gasses are sent straight down the exhaust pipe and are not used.
In a turbo engine, exhaust gasses are re-routed back into the turbo-charger. The exhaust gasses spin up the charger which compresses the air which is then sent into the engine. Because the air is compressed, it makes a bigger bang, which in turn makes more power.
There are two sides to the turbo, the hot side and the cold side. The hot side is the bit which the exhaust is piped into - this is the gas which is used to spin the turbine to compress the air. The cold side is the bit which is drawing in the cold air which is sent into the engine to make the bang.
The cold side will be plumbed into either a standard air filter or into an inter-cooler. If it is plumbed into the standard air filter then it will breath regular air. However, if you want to make more power, you can plumb in into an inter-cooler which means it will be taking in cooled air. As cooled air is more dense, there is more of it in a given area, thus it makes a bigger bang which makes more power. Out of the factory, most turbo cars have an inter-cooler. However, many people who want to modify their NA cars to add a turbo often skip the inter-cooler due to space limitations in the engine bay or to save a bit of money.
The turbo needs a mechanism to regulate the amount of compression. If you have too much, it can put more air into your engine than its designed to manage and cause serious damage. Therefore the turbo includes various mechanisms to regulate the boost pressure. The wastegate is an example of this, its purpose is to act as a control valve so that should the pressure reach more than your pre-defiend acceptable level, it will enable excess air to escape thus keeping a managable level of boost. The wastegate sits in the pipework between the engine and the hot side of the turbo and can release excess pressure before it gets to the turbo.
Many people who modify their turbo cars to make more power do so by stopping the point at which the wastegate dumps air - this increases the boost pressure beyond the manufactures level and is an easy way to make more power. The downside is that it comes at a risk of if you set it too high, the engine blows up.
A blow off valve / dump valve (same thing) sits on the pipework leading to the cold side of the turbo. This is often confused with the wastegate but its a different thing as its on the cold side rather than hot side. Its job is to dump any excess pressure when the driver lifts off the throttle (eg gear changes) to ensure that any back-pressure which is built up which could mess with the turbos compressor is dumped rather than goes into the turbo. Some dump valves are pretty much silent and they re-circulate this air back into the system, others make a 'tsschhhh' type sound which is when the compressed air is being dumped into the atmosphere. Most cars come as standard with the silent recirculation type but its a fairly easy modification to swap it too the louder one if thats your thing.
| 18 |
According to Foucault, what factors led to punishment shifting from public torture to more ‘humane’ and private forms of punishment?
|
I’m reading through Discipline and Punish and am finding some of it quite dense. A brief summary of some of his arguments would be very helpful :)
| 61 |
In Discipline and Punish, Foucault appears to put forward the proposition that, while judicial respect for the humanity of the criminal certainly draws support from the empathic inclinations of the psyche, the transition from excessively brutal public executions to highly constrained and inconspicuous legal procedures resulted mainly from the necessity to maintain social order, during the unprecedented growth of technologically-complex economies.
That is to say, in relation to the health of economic and political structures, the unmitigated power of the sovereign, manifested in the barbarous acts committed on the judicial scaffolds, was as destabilising a force as the criminality it intended to suppress, due to its despotically inconsistent nature and the empathy -induced anarchy that it tended to elicit among the witnesses; therefore, an increase in economic complexity, lead to the necessary development of an increasingly differentiated and consistent judiciary.
| 29 |
ELI5: Does the President of The United States actually get to relax when he is on vacation?
| 17 |
Oh dear god no.
I mean yes... he can try... but you don't get to relax when you have that much weight on your shoulders.
Its the same for most CEOs, Actors, and anyone else who is in the public spotlight. Its impossible to fully relax because you are always either on call... or on camera.
| 20 |
|
[Star Wars] Please explain how gravity in the Death Star works.
|
The Death Star is plenty large enough to create all the gravity that those aboard would need. But it would seem that the Empire is using an artifical system to counteract and over power the natural system. When standing on any level of the station one's feet should be pointed towards the core but no, insted the are aimed at the souther pole (or rather the plane the the pole would sit on). The best visualization if this is when ships dock and depart. The aim for the center of the station and pull in nose first and land flat without changing orientation. So what kind of artifical gravity is being used? And more importantly why?
| 19 |
Actually, the Death Star is not massive enough. For the small radius it has, it would need to be insanely dense. It has a low gravity like that of a medium-sized moon, but that isn't viable for a space station. The core levels had a reasonable amount of gravity and used concentric decks with the floor facing the core, but outside of those first few levels artificial gravity was used and oriented towards the "south" pole. The gravity itself was created by standard artificial gravity generators that can be found in any ship larger than a fighter. There were quite a few of them all hooked up in a matrix in order to make the gravity uniform throughout the station.
| 31 |
CMV: It is offensive to call descendants of slaves African American and is better to call them black
|
My argument basically hinges around the fact that
A. calling black people African American subtly makes them seem less American (they are not).
B. White people are simply called white (people generally don't call them Caucasian in general conversation)
C. African American naming has an actual utility: for first-2nd generation immigrants that immigrated here from Africa
D. Not all people that are called 'African American' are actually from Africa (obviously we are all 'from' Africa, but that was far longer ago and out of the scope of this point).
​
In essence, calling descendants of slave, "African American", is incorrect and subtly makes them seem less American. The vast majority of them are not culturally African, were not raised by culturally African people & their only tie to Africa is several (5 or more most likely) generations ago. I think calling them black is more inline what calling Caucasian people white and respects that they ARE American firstly and not Africans firstly.
The only exception to this would be people who wish to be called African American, but unless they say to call them that, I would think it would be less offensive to simply call them black.
| 40 |
"Black" is ambiguous, since the people who are considered "black" varies from culture to culture.
"African American" refers explicitly to black people in the United States. It refers them having at least some degree of African ancestry
| 28 |
CMV:People who aren't open to donate their own organs or another body part should not be given one when they need it themselves.
|
Let's say that you are someone who does not want to donate or are never open to do a donation. I'm not just talking about kidneys or part of you liver, but also about stemcells, blood or other tissue. This way you are not improving someones life quality or chances to live. We have a shortage of organs and the list is growing for people waiting for a donation. According to [Donatelife](https://www.donatelife.net/statistics/) every 10 minutes someone is added to the transplant waiting list. Every day 22 people die and we have 118,000 people waiting for a donation. The numbers are big and we already have a certain ruling about who should get the organs. So I want to add another criterium for the priority selection. People who were not open to donate should not receive an organ when they need one. This ruling is only used when there is a shortage of organs (which is almost always). Ofcourse when there is enough for everybody then the people who aren't open to donate should receive their organs. But for now I don't think that hypocrits should be benefiting of a system that they are not open to join even when they know they can save lives.
I know there are some points where you can say that donating might not be possible for someone. Those people should be excluded. Also it is known that donating a kidney increases health problems. My point is that you don't have to donate a kidney to help someone. Everything can help. If we force people to help others in our society we will be able to help many many people. Think about the lives you can save. Think about the fact that one day your family member or your friends being able to survive due to people being open to donate. When we look at the recent bombings or attacks here in Europe we see many people donating blood. So many people are donating that there are too many donations which is maybe the best thing to have an excessive amount of.
Donating should be also very important in this day and age. We are improving everyday in the medical science and we should be taking advantage of that. We have the capability to help many people but we aren't using it the way we should. If you want to see the impact one donation can have I recommend watching [this vox video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7EglP5A2Hg). In the video you see that one donation is able to help multiple people. So when we look back at the transplant waiting list you see that we don't need 118,000 donations, but even less than that. 118,000 is a big number, but the amount of people who can donate makes this number look miniscule.
So we know the statistics, the numbers and the reasons why donation is such an important thing. It might come over as forcing people to donate, but sometimes a little push does more good than harm. Sometimes you should force people into a corner and make them do certain things to improve our society.
_____
> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 3,170 |
This goes against a core principle of ethics in medicine. Doctors swear an oath to help their patients. Their job is not to judge who deserves organs. We already prioritize donors over non-donors as recipients. The only scenario where your suggestion would come into play is if a person isn't behind any donors on the list and is being denied an organ anyway.
| 544 |
CMV: Nothing can replace the social value of smoking tobacco
|
Tobacco has social value in many situations.
**In the workplace**
* Smokers often take breaks with each other and socialize
* Sometimes these smoke breaks lead to networking that is beneficial to one's career.
* Being part of the "smoking group" can lead you to meet people you would not otherwise meet
**At bars, concerts, clubs, bowling alleys, etc.**
* Again, smokers often take breaks together. If smoking is done outside due to laws then it provides valuable quiet time for conversation.
* And again, smoking leads to meeting new people
**Every day life**
* "Hey, got a light?"
I think part of the reason for this is that there is an unstated bond in doing something that is bad/wrong/shunned. There's a solidarity that can be found in a shared vice.
I don't think anything can replace this. Coffee comes close, but still falls short since it really only applies in an office setting and getting coffee doesn't take as long a smoke break.
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 55 |
I would argue that anything can replace it if you do it right. You use coffee for an example. Several of us from work routinely leave to go get coffee, just as the smokers go outside to take their breaks. We try a new place in town each time, and it takes about 20 minutes to walk there and back. Different people join us sometimes, and I've made a number of new friends by others being invited to the coffee walk.
It doesn't share the "vice" aspect, but somehow it still has that same vibe.
| 45 |
CMV: DC should not reboot its cinematic universe.
|
A lot of DCEU fans think that a reboot by James Gunn and Peter Safran would be successful for some reason. But I highly disagree with that for the following reasons:
1. The general audience has a negative preconception about DC, and that stigma is not going away anytime soon, at least not in this decade. So while a reboot might be exciting news for someone who is already a DCEU fan, the casual audience is still not going to care. And if the general audience is lukewarm about your IP at best, then it shouldn't be a surprise when the upcoming movies disappoint in the box office.
2. A reboot doesn't guarantee better quality. How are you so confident that the next cinematic universe won't also have its fair share of duds? How would the quality of a newly introduced franchise with no previous baggage like Black Adam have changed? If you're simply rebooting your cinematic universe because your movies suck, then are you gonna reboot the next one as soon as you get a few mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes?
3. If you're not rebooting because of the quality of the previous movies, but because of a messy established continuity, then how are you going to start the new continuity? Are you really going to start from square 1 with Superman's and Batman's origins being told all over again? Don't you see how unbelievably stale that is? Especially when so many people are complaining about "superhero fatigue"?
Keep in mind, I'm talking about a hard reboot. I have no problem with DC doing a soft reboot where they keep everything that worked and toss out everything that didn't.
| 18 |
Have you considered that there shouldn't be a DCEU? Best DC property movies have been those that haven't been part of DCEU.
Instead of making decent Flash movie in DCEU make a great Flash movie that has full artistic freedom to do whatever they want without being constrained by existing DCEU property, actors and storylines. Or even previous Flash movies.
Also MCU have become so bloated that you have to watch seven movies and half dozen Disney+ exclusive shows just be able to enjoy one summer blockbuster. Having independent free floating movie with superhero is much more easily approached than this.
So DCEU should be rebooted. With a nuke and it shouldn't be rebuild.
| 25 |
[Star Wars] Who had more potential; Anakin or Luke?
| 18 |
honestly, even considering his homebrew training, canon luke is a pretty shitty jedi. canonically, pretty much the only thing he managed to do was get on vader's good side(had vader not intervened, the emperor would have thoroughly destroyed Luke's shit; he did not win that fight). other than that, he opened up a jedi school he was unqualified to run and drove Ben solo to the dark side, and in doing so, indirectly cause the death of han solo. oh, and now he's got a new padawan to fuck up, so that's cool.
| 31 |
|
CMV: Separating Islam from Muslims in Discussions About Terrorism is Dishonest
|
After every terrorist attack we hear "Not All Muslims", "The Quran Doesn't Support This" and similar phrases to weasel out of admitting that Islamic Terrorism is by definition terrorism associated with Islam. In addition to this even the most cursory examination of the Quran will urn up verses supporting violence, the same verses which terrorist groups use as justification for their actions. With such a clear connection between the holy book and the actions of these groups, I can see no way to separate them from the overall ideology which isn't a clear attempt to legitimize Islam.
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 47 |
I think "dishonest" is a mischaracterization. It's a *tactic* of deciding how to frame an argument to best thwart the intentions of the enemy.
The basic fundamental principle of terrorist tactics is that they desire to pit their targets against the moderate members of a group they belong to.
Terrorists want the U.S. to associate terrorism with Islam. They want this to be perceived by moderate Muslims as the West and Christianity being at War against Islam, because they know that this is the best way to recruit more followers.
It would be fucking stupid to give them exactly what they want.
People choosing this kind of wording aren't avoiding "connecting" terrorism and Islam, they are avoiding using words that make it sound like we're at War with Islam, because they have an IQ in double or even triple digits.
Neither the rhetoric that Islam has nothing to do with terror, nor the rhetoric that it's so dangerous that we must be at war with all Muslims is correct. The right answer is somewhere in the middle.
Obama frequently talks about terrorists that have perverted Islam to their own ends. That's exactly the "middle" that is the right answer both tactically, and as a matter of factual accuracy.
| 52 |
[Tolkien] Why do Gandalf and the other Istari(Wizards) appear to defer to Galadriel and Elrond?
|
I understand that the elves are ancient, and have technically been on Middle Earth longer than the wizards. But the Istari, being Maiar, are as old as creation itself, wiser and more powerful than any of the elves, are they not?
I understand respect and taking advice, but in many instances Gandalf almost seems to see Galadriel as his superior(this could be me misinterpreting, admittedly).
Can anyone shed some light on the relationship between the two groups in the White Council?
| 106 |
The role of the Wizards is to advise, encourage, and guide, not to lead. The Elves, though fading, are still those who are supposed to lead. Gandalf also defers to Denethor, despite their somewhat antagonistic relationship, right up til Denethor goes off the deep end.
Also, the wisdom and power of the Istari was greatly limited by their Istari form. They could not remember much of their past, or of Valinor.
| 93 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.