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
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
[Batman] I am a good citizen walking home from work. What are the chances I run into trouble? What are the chances Batman saves me from said trouble? Should I cut through alleys, or just take the sidewalk? | 24 | It's a big city, the bat can't be everywhere at once.
You could get attacked and he might be in the vicinity and he might save you. But please, don't take tempt fate.
You never know what clowns are lurking in the shadows. | 29 |
|
Does your digestive system work like a queue, I.e. first in first out, or can food pass other food in your digestive tract? | If I ate corn Monday, peas Tuesday, and carrots Wednesday, would I poop corn, peas, and then carrots in that order? What if the peas were no good and got me sick, could my body poop them before the corn? | 1,625 | Almost. There can be mixing in the stomach, even over the course of a few hours. But after it moves to the small intestine, it's first in, first out.
So expect to get your dinner appetizer and dessert scrambled and mixed, but breakfast is coming out before dinner. | 1,124 |
Do cables between Europe and the Americas have to account for the drift of the continents when being laid? | 3,363 | I am in the submarine cable business, and can answer: No, there is not compensation as drift is inconsequential (2.5 cm or 1 inch per year). One reason is the bottom of the ocean is not flat - but has mountains and valleys like dry land, so extra cable is 'payed out' (let off the ship) to fill in the valleys so the cable isn't left suspended between peaks. Think of paying out rope from the back of a helicopter over the alps. If you just let out a meter for each meter of flight, the rope would be suspended across all the valleys. If there is any wind (equivalently sea currents for undersea cables) it would rub through the rope where it contacts the peaks. So the bottom line is there is excess cable laid just to accommodate the topography of the ocean bottom, so the inch/year is not an issue.
Hope this helps! | 3,159 |
|
Is protein from meat "better" than protein you get from other sources? | 1,419 | Proteins are made of chains of amino acids. If you take apart the protein, you get a certain amount of each amino acid. Meat/dairy is more "efficient", because the ratios of the different acids are the same from one animal to another. Plants will usually be short on one or two amino acids, so you don't effectively get as much protein as it says on the label.
You just need to have more than one kind of grain/nut/legume in your diet, which you probably have already, unless you're a farmer going through hard times in 1400. | 1,386 |
|
Why is America so hesitant to cut Russia off from the SWIFT banking system? | The only reason I can think of is that cutting Russia off from the SWIFT network would push some countries to adopt a blockchain-based monetary system, which in turn would reduce their reliance on a US-centric international monetary system.
Is this the main fear? Is it the ONLY fear? | 239 | Russia has its own Swift alternative SPFS that it could impose on say the BRICs type countries as a condition for buying its oil. In short cutting off Russia from Swift would mean making cutting anyone else from Swift less powerful in future as there would then be a good alternative. | 107 |
[Mecha] How do Mecha compare against more conventional types of vehicles such as "regular" tanks and planes? | 22 | That depends on where it is on the scale of Real Robot vs. Super Robot.
Real Robot:
They're able to go on rougher terrain than tanks. You can't just drive a tank up a mountain. Planes are even better than that for obvious reasons, but they can't be given as heavy loads.
Mecha pay for this by being much more expensive and prone to breaking than tanks.
Super Robot:
They're much easier to control since they can just copy the motion of the pilot. Due to using extremely expensive alloys, they're incredibly well armored and they rarely break down. Since the materials are so expensive, a tank with the same armor would be almost as expensive, but not nearly as agile, so it's not worth it. | 20 |
|
[Star Wars] Why are there unknown regions in the galaxy? | So apparently (according to other posts I've read on this sub) there's a hyperspace cosmic horror or something that keeps them trapped in the galaxy. But why haven't they fully mapped out their own galaxy, yet?
I get it, space is big. But ships in Star Wars move very fast. [Apparently a fast ship like the Millenium Falcon can travel 25,000 light years a day](https://www.tor.com/2014/12/08/star-wars-how-fast-is-the-millennium-falcon/). 25,000 light years a day means you go from one end of the galaxy to the other in 4 days, assuming this galaxy is similar in size to the Milk Way. I understand the Millenium Falcon is an exceptionally fast ship, but if the average ship is even half as fast, that's still travel the entire diameter of the galaxy in barely more than a week.
And they've had tens of thousands of years of space travel. How have they not mapped out the entire galaxy? | 53 | Because travelling that fast means you don't stop to see the sights.
Assuming their galaxy is similar to the Milky Way, it has at least 100 billion stars in it. If they've had 100 thousand years of interstellar travel, they'd need to survey and map one million a year to get them all. And 100 billion is a low-end estimate. | 67 |
ELI5: What happens when you crack your knuckles? | 17 | Your joints are filled with liquid to keep things lubricated and moving properly. Sometimes air bubbles get stuck in this fluid in your joints. When you crack your knuckles you are popping the air bubbles. | 12 |
|
[Buffy verse] Why on earth don't vampire slayers wear shirts with crosses on them? | If all it takes to repel them is just two crossed lines; then why on earth wouldn't you put that symbol onto everything you own, wear, and use?
The only excuse I can think of is damaging friendly vamps (somewhat valid but doesn't occur enough to justify the idea being used at least occasionally) and principle; I could see maybe Christopher Hitchens refusing to wear one but not Buffy. | 17 | The Watchers keep a relic from the 1600s, the armor worn by a slayer named Jeanette. It was a light plate in the French mode, with blessed crucifixes on each major armor piece. The thinking was that if a vampire should attempt to grab one's arm, one's arm should have a crucifix there to counter it. Fourteen separate crucifixes were used in the construction, and the armor itself was a marvel, light and beautiful.
It is slightly marred by the large iron crossbow bolt embedded in the back plate.
It is to the benefit of the Slayer to look like a harmless young girl, to encourage the predator to reveal itself within striking distance. Announcing yourself as a greater predator only encourages them to remove you with a more... *oblique* approach. | 27 |
ELI5: When weather cancels 2800 flights, and 50k people are displaced, how to they all get back on schedule since so many of the flights for the next few days are already booked up? | 2,503 | When 50K people can't get home due to cancellations, that means about 50K never left home due to cancellations. A lot of those people are going to cancel their trips, or reschedule them a ways into the future. Their seats become available to help the stranded get home. | 1,678 |
|
[Marvel] If Wolverine’s bones are coated in solid metal adamantium, how does his body transport blood? | Wouldn’t the metal coating kill off any nerves or veins going in to his bones?
Does his healing factor affect how his body accepts ot rejects foreign materials?
How can he even walk with all that extra weight? | 24 | > If Wolverine’s bones are coated in solid metal adamantium, how does his body transport blood? Wouldn’t the metal coating kill off any nerves or veins going in to his bones?
Wolverine's healing factor was active and at its most potent when he was given the adamantium coating. As he was given the coating his bones were pumping out new blood cells like crazy; as the adamantium was coating his bones, it was still pliable for a few moments so the blood/veins were able to force their way through and create micro pores to travel through.
> Does his healing factor affect how his body accepts ot rejects foreign materials?
Yeah, his healing factor is weaker. When the adamantium was ripped out if his body, his healing factor went into overdrive mode and distorted his body to be much more inhuman.
> How can he even walk with all that extra weight?
Regular humans can break through walls with though training. Someone with a healing factor as advanced as Wolverine can get gains almost instantly, so the extra weight doesn't affect him much, even in situations where it should. | 30 |
ELI5:Why does really hot water rinse food off of dishes so much faster than cool water? | 92 | it cleans grease and congealed fat off of dishes faster because it melts it back to liquid form.
Fun Fact though: the temperature of the water doesn't matter as far as sterilization. hot and cold water kills just as many germs with soap. To get to sterilization level of hotness with the water it would have to be well beyond the tolerable levels of your hands I.E. 2nd degree burns. thats what the dish washer takes care of for you. | 51 |
|
[The Boys S2] What would happen if a Supe enlisted in the military as a soldier rather than as an employee of Vought? | And as a secondary question, in his lecture to Homelander about the founder of Vought, Mr. Endgar mentions that the earlier tests of Compound V were done with Soldier Boy who "killed Germans by the dozen". Assuming he meant German soldiers, it implies that Supes have been in the military before. But since a large portion of season 1 was about introducing Supes in the chain of command, this seems contradictory. Did something happen in between that time? | 28 | They would probably have to hide their powers as having them probably would bar one from military service. There may be a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in place regarding supes in the military. They’re likely to explore this more in season 3 since they’ve cast Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy. | 21 |
CMV: Frozen and canned fruits and vegeatables are better than fresh | Frozen and canned have more nutrients due to the shorter time between harvesting and processing compared to the long time for fresh in transport to your home, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1255606/Why-frozen-vegetables-fresher-fresh.html
Frozen and canned tend to be cheaper per unit of usabled food since you are not paying for the inedible portion. At my grocery, canned diced tomatoes are $0.0793 per ounce while fresh are $0.1869 per ounce.
Frozen and canned are safer, they are handled by less people before being consumed. From http://pennstatefoodsafety.blogspot.com/2014/03/canned-and-frozen-fruits-and-vegetables.html
> As the world population grows, canned fruits and vegetables may provide cheaper and safer access to healthy food, they concluded. Aside from saving on the grocery budget, the high-heat canning process provides the safest means of preserving foods as microorganisms responsible for causing foodborne illnesses are killed instantaneously. Such illnesses send 127,000 Americans to the emergency room every year.
Central processing plants create jobs, centralize waste handling allowing more efficient recycling for compost.
They are more convenient for consumers as you don't waste time inspecting the quality of the items at the grocery. There is less waste at the grocery who need to discard the fruits and vegetables that were not selected by picky customers.
You save time at home preparing the fruit and vegetables. You will have less waste to discard.
Given all these advantages, I recommend avoiding fresh produce.
**EDIT**: The only claimed benefit of fresh over processed produce had been taste, which I have not experienced as being better.
_____
> *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 just 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!* | 29 | Well taste is a major factor when it comes to fresh being better than frozen or canned.
Also, if you buy from a farmers market, almost all of the advantages of fresh and frozen (besides storing at home) disappear.
But if you are buying from the grocery store, then yes, there are many advantages to frozen and canned. | 27 |
[Spy Films] Volcano Lairs - Feasible? | Hello,
I am an evil crime lord with some money to throw around. Recently, my attempts at world domination have been thwarted by \[superhero/British Intelligence/etc.\], and I am looking for a place to lie low for a while and scheme. There is some really prime real estate on this remote volcanic island in the Pacific, and I have to be honest, I really dig the aesthetic of subterranean lairs. However, I have my reservations about drilling into the side of an active volcano.
So, Volcanologists of [r/AskScienceFiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/), what advice do you have for me? Is a subterranean volcano base feasible, or should I look into other options? | 47 | Of course it's feasible, why do you think so many supervillains have used volcanoes for bases?
First off, you get unlimited free lava and magma. The possibilities with this are endless, from waste disposal to energy generation.
Some people might warn you of "toxic gasses" and the like, but they're just scaremongers. All of those so called "toxic" gasses are actually very useful, many have industrial and scientific applications, or they can be used in various traps and self destruct sequences. And let's be honest, most of them aren't that toxic, your average minion can survive several minutes to an hour of breathing them.
Others might try to tell you that a volcano isn't tectonically stable, or prone to earthquakes. Sure, they might be, but that's more of an upside than anything else. Think about it, random earthquakes are just an excuse to do some redecorating, and it keeps your lazy henchpeople busy cleaning up. Plus no pesky heros can memorize the layout of your base if it's always changing.
One consideration you will need to make is for turnover. For some reason this tends to be a bit higher in volcanoes than in places like office building or abandoned factories, but again this is more of a pro than a con. Sure you'll need to be hiring more than usual, but with the high turnover that means only the most skilled and lucky henchfolk survive, increasing the overall quality of your organization. | 32 |
[Star Wars] Can people leave the galaxy? | Everyone that wants to hide, goes to the outer rim of the galaxy. No one talks about other galaxies or leaving that one. It's possible? It's feasible? | 56 | The edge of the galaxy features a hyperspace disturbance that makes extragalactic FTL flight impossible. The Outbound Flight project planned to use a cabal of Jedi to force its way through, but this was ultimately never attempted.
And even then, travel outside charted routes is an extremely risky activity. | 70 |
[Star Wars] What is the canonical reason that Anakin & Obi wan didn’t go back and rescue Schmi from slavery, after the events of the Phantom Menace? | If memory serves, Qui-gon jinn just didn’t have enough money on him at the time to buy both slaves, & the plan was to go get some more from the Jedi council & return for her later.
It’s not like they were in the full swing of the clone wars yet either. | 33 | (From the canon book Queen's Shadow)
Qui-Gon probably would have, but he was the only one aside from Anakin. And his death closed one of the best avenues of rescue.
The Jedi simply didn't care. Nor did the Republic feel like messing with affairs in Hutt space. Even a minor thing like taking a slave from a backwater like Tatooine would cause problems with the Hutt cartels that the Republic at the time was ill suited to handle.
Obi Wan was too strictly adherent to the Jedi code at the time to allow Anakin that kind of personal attachment. All Jedi in one way or another is cut off from their families. It's supposed to be how they operate and how they remain neutral in a constantly changing galaxy. He and the other members of the order constantly told Anakin this, and he pretended to accept it. (although we see how he really feels in Episode 2)
That being said, Padme had some aspirations to do exactly that when her time as Queen was done. Not only to rescue Shmi, but to free more slaves from Hutt control. It was Palpatine who convinced her not to go, mostly because of the potential catastrophic political consequences.
Instead she sent her handmaiden to do the job. Unfortunately, the handmaiden reached the planet almost exactly after Shmi had joined the Lars family. She did not get any solid leads on Shmi's location, unfortunately, and considered the task a failure. | 66 |
[Dexter's Lab] Where does Dexter get the resources to build and equip his secret lab? | I mean, it's full of state-of-the-art scientific instruments, not to mention the structure itself with its many secret entrances and vast airplane-hangar-sized spaces. How could an elementary-school kid afford or get his hands on all that? Even a simple collection of test tubes and beakers would be hard to come by for a regular person, let alone a child! | 40 | Judging by his accent, Dexter appears to be from somewhere in Eastern Europe. He was probably sent to the states by his country to build a laboratory in the middle of suburban America, likely to keep an eye on that American genius boy Mandark. Essentially turning the lives of two young children into another cold war. Mother Russia, or whomever, supplies him with everything he needs and he keeps them supplied with fantastic amounts of research data. Meanwhile, Uncle Sam keeps Mandark going and they're able to get a ton of research data without having to pay someone since they're basically using child labor.
| 54 |
What does serotonin do in the gut, why is it there and how closely related is it to the serotonin in brain? | 121 | Increases gut motility, propelling stuff along.
Why is it there? It just is. Serotonin is evolutionarily conserved. Tiny worms use it, fish use it, humans use it. Its functions can vary wildly, but it's always somewhere.
Relation to brain serotonin: Nil. Serotonin can't cross the blood-brain barrier. (The exception is in the area postrema at the base of the brain, which monitors the blood for certain chemicals, producing nausea in response to high blood serotonin.) Similarly, dopamine and norepinephrine have totally different functions in the brain vs in the body. | 24 |
|
CMV: Libertarians are closer to Tea Party Republicans than any other common political group | I hold this view because when I think about Tea Party Republicans, especially in the earlier "grass roots" days of the movement, it is extremely against big government.
This, to me, is the core of the libertarian ideology, that the government should have almost no influence on the economy or on the lives of the people.
Yes, there are small differences in the beliefs of social liberty, but those are not driven by a feeling of "inherent rights" a la classic liberal claims of rights which must be enforced by the government, but instead, these feelings come from the belief that the government has no place to regulate their lives, regardless of the issue at hand.
Many self proclaimed libertarians seem to take great issue with me comparing the two, but no one has bothered to say why libertarians are not just secular Tea Party republicans.
Change my view, or at least help me understand why you think that libertarians have more in common with a different political group than Tea Party republicans.
EDIT: I'm as guilty of this as all of you, but if we could all try to keep to the topic of comparing the political views of the Tea Party Republicans, in all its forms, and the Libertarian Party, as well as its comparison to other popular political parties, that would be great.
THIS IS NOT A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE VALIDITY OR NON-VALIDITY OF ANY POLITICAL VIEWPOINT, SIMPLY A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE POSITION ON THE "POLITICAL SPECTRUM"
EDIT #2:
I have awarded a delta to /u/Mablun for [THIS COMMENT](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/33ct7k/cmv_libertarians_are_closer_to_tea_party/cqk3lwj) It is the best effort made to try to draw any correlation between libertarian and liberal.
My view has perhaps shifted, not changed, but I do not feel that there is a compelling argument that will change my opinon that Libertarians are secular tea partiers (or at least what the tea party wants/wanted to be), and are much more closely related to the tea party in terms of base ideology than they are to the liberal viewpoint.
Thank you all for being involved and I hope that we've all managed to learn something not only about Libertarians, but also possibly a little more about the Tea Party as well. I've certainly learned more than I thought I knew about them since I had to defend their ideals to a certain degree.
_____
> *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!* | 219 | Tea Party uses libertarian rhetoric, because the whole thing WAS an explicitly libertarian grassroots movement before it got co-opted by mainstream Republicanism and corporate interests. Now it contains a bunch of cunts who think war is a good idea and pot should be banned, but still talk the talk to appeal to the uninformed. Libertarians are annoyed because what was supposed to be THEIR movement was basically hijacked. | 163 |
Why can't human cells use anaerobic processes to create ATP when in an atmosphere of no oxygen? | I know that some single-celled organisms are capable using fermentation to catabolize glucose and other sugars to create ATP in the absence of oxygen, so what prevents humans from being able to do the same? We have the enzymes necessary and use anaerobic fermentation at times of high exertion, so why can't we use fermentation at times of low exertion to keep the body alive when in the complete absence of oxygen? My best guess is that the body isn't able to use fermentation to create ATP at a rate that matches the body's energy needs, but I'm hoping it's a little more interesting than that. | 20 | The majority of ATP resulting from respiration is generated through a process called "oxidative phosphorylation" which involves using an electron transport chain to generate a gradient of hydrogen ions outside of the inner mitochondrial membrane and then allowing it to flow back in through a molecule of ATP synthase which is basically a molecular turning engine embedded right into the membrane. The ATP synthase "turbine" can't function without the gradient of ions, and the gradient of ions can't be created without the electron transport chain, and the electron transport chain can't function without an oxygen atom to serve as the final electron acceptor.
The best we can do in the absence of oxygen is lactic acid fermentation. Fermentation involves only the initial step of respiration, glycolysis, which produces four molecule of ATP but uses two in the process for a net production of only two molecules of ATP for every molecule of glucose consumed. Not very efficient when compared to aerobic respiration, which can produce up to 32 molecules of ATP for every molecule of glucose consumed. | 19 |
[MCU] if the chitauri attacked earth again prior to the destruction of s.h.i.e.l.d, would the three helicarriers make a difference or would the results still be the same? | 33 | Could it help? Absolutely. Those Helicarriers are armed to the teeth and have absurd range. Add in the Avengers, still riding high from their first victory and you have a fighting chance.
Would it have assured victory? Ehhhhhhh, maybe. That conversation is more for /r/WhoWouldWin but IMO, it depends entirely on how incensed the Chitauri were about conquering Earth. | 42 |
|
What causes pictures to appear discoloured after being in direct sunlight for years at a time? | Just clearing out some old Xbox games and the logo on the side of them have turned blue after being in sunlight untouched for several years? | 19 | The effect is called photodegradation.
The part of a material responsible for it's color is called a chromophore. A chromophore is just a group of atoms in a molecule which are responsible for the molecule's 'color' - they have a specific absorption / reflection spectrum.
Sunlight can cause reactions in the molecule which change the structure of the chromophore so that it no longer has that specific absorption spectrum. Usually what happens is that the molecule no longer absorbs visible light, and now appears white. The more molecules are affected like this, the more bleached or white the paint will appear. | 15 |
ELI5: If we all suddenly started driving Teslas, wouldn't the corresponding electricity demand (and coal burning) negate any positive effect of the drop in vehicle emissions? | Maybe I'm missing something in the equation? | 2,124 | Yes, you're missing the fact that a lot of energy is generated in other types of power plants, like hydro, nuclear, solar and wind power plants. Coal power plants are also usually pretty far from city centers, so it would definitely make the air quality in the cities better as well. | 1,440 |
How much energy is released by dropping a pen on a neutron star? | Hi guys. Neutron stars fascinate me. Crushing the mass of 3 suns into a Manhattan sized ball of neutron soup is a mind blowing concept. Anyway it's been said that if you were standing on surface of a neutron star and you dropped a pen it would approach the speed of light as it hit the ground.
it's been well over 15 years since I've crunched logs and sci notation and I can't get the units down right, so my question is how much energy would be released by a pen hitting the floor at near speed of light? Not sure how much a pen weights... 10 grams?
Thanks | 2,387 | Dropping a 10 gram pen from 1 meter above a neutron star with a gravitational acceleration of 7×10^12 m/s^2 would yield 70 GigaJoules of Kinetic energy or the energy released by 16.7 tons of TNT.
Now, a 10 gram pen traveling at .99c would have a kinetic energy of 2.213×10^16 joules or roughly 5.3 Megatons of TNT. | 1,047 |
[Marvel X-23] How much do Laura's forearms weigh? | Logan is buff partially because he's carrying around a heavy metal skeleton but Laura only has the claws. Does she have weirdly strong arms or do the claws not weigh much? | 67 | Adamantium is a strong metal but it's also light. Wolverines bone weight literally only added 100lbs to his overall weight (going from 240lb to 340lbs. If you factor in he's a fully grown male, that's even distribution across his body, it's not that much weight on his arms.
The same would apply for claws. I'd say conservative estimate is 1lb per claw which we can say for Laura. As such, her forearms only have 2lbs extra weight. It really isn't much. | 58 |
How is testicual cancer (or any cancer in less than vital organs like cervix, breasts etc.) potentially lethal? | Of course, I am going under the assumption that such a cancer will, untreated, ultimately lead to death. I am, however, not exactly sure how.
What I am thinking is that, as organs like the testicles, ovaries, and breasts are (seemingly) not vital to staying alive, it is not that cancer in itself that will cause death. Rather, it is the metastasis to vital organs (or several non-vital leading to increased stress, in some way) that will lead to complications in those organs.
Am I on the right track with this way of thinking? If not, why? | 61 | Look at something called Cancer Staging, it will give you some defined framework on how professionals look at things. Here is a quick way to look at it. Lets start with an abnormal breast cell that is the start of cancer. This cell reproduces over and over but due to the mutations in this cell the result is not other healthy breast tissue but rather cancer. Since it is not typical breast tissue when it replicates the cells do not stay put. The bad cells can branch out, they reproduce and follow pathways in the body. Things like the lymphatic become mechanisms for these cells to grow in other areas of the body. So now cells that started as just mutated breast tissue are growing and taking over areas like the lungs. | 17 |
[Nightmare Before Christmas] Shouldn't Jack be mayor? | Even at the beginning when Jack tries to be humble about their Halloween celebration, the mayor praises him saying that they couldn't have done it without his leadership. What does the mayor even do? Who was mayor before he was elected? Was it Jack? I feel like Jack just sort of does his job for him. You know what, fuck that guy. What a useless whiny piece of crap. | 37 | I think the issue is that being Mayor has a lot of other little duties to handle, paperwork primarily, that Jack doesn't want to do. He could be Mayor if he wanted to, but running Halloween is more fun. | 49 |
[Venture Bros] What happens if a villain actually took over the world? Does that break Guilt Law? | 25 | An unspoken part of the guild system is that it acts as a check on unbridled power. Ambitious protagonists are teamed up with ambitious antagonists.
Double crosses are encouraged within the Guild so if someone monopolized the world and had no good guy equal they would face detractors from within.
But it’s ultimately up to the OSI and the protagonists to stop this from happening. It’s probably not against Guild law unless they realize it would lead to a disproportionate response from the OSI, so the Guild might act to stop a gross overreach. It’s hard to imagine a Guild member taking over the world without violating a treaty with the OSI so they would at least be forced to try to punish the offender for those violations.
Taking over the world could break the economy of the Guild so they might fight it on a bureaucratic level.
But it’s probably ultimately self correcting. If someone takes over the world this would make plenty of guild personalities envious and they would act to bring the person down. | 23 |
|
[general vampires] Would a 21st century vampire still hunt humans by night, or would it instead try and rob a blood bank or hospital for blood products? | If a vampire could steal and store a bunch of platelets, FFP, RBC's and just raw blood like from a red cross blood drive, they could probably live a long time without hunting I bet. | 35 | Some lores do admit vampires living of stored blood or even artificial blood, while others don't. Usually in the second case it is hinted that the blood is just a conduit for the victims lifeforce and stored blood will soon lose that.
Even in the lores that do admit vampires feeding on stored blood, though, usually that's described as not the same thing as feeding directly from the victim. One has to keep in mind that the contact of the vampire with the victim is almost sexual (sometimes *literally* sexual, and for both) and drinking stored blood from a bag will sound and taste quite bland in comparison. | 42 |
[Harry Potter] If the Killing Curse is so hard to pull ff, and literally tears your soul apart in the process of casting, then why does anyone bother with it? | It would be just as simple to levitate a mother fucker three hundred feet up and drop them, or set them on fire, or blast a hole through their chest. Conjure an attack-monster or just straight up stab someone.
Why go to all the trouble of using the special "kill you" spell, when a ton of other basic utility spells can be just as lethal? | 113 | *Any* form of murder rips the soul. It is an act of ultimate evil. The fact that the Killing Curse see such widespread use is because it is cast by Dark Wizards and Witches who *want* to kill, with every fiber of their being, they mean for their victim to die. That and unlike other curses it is nearly impossible to block magically.
A Blasting Curse or Severing Charm or any other manner of curses could kill, but it is not guaranteed, can be blocked by a powerful enough Shield Charm or similar enchantment, and honestly, a little messy. The Killing Curse kills, leaves no mark, and to be hit with one is to die instantly. Therefore, it is useful to a murderer, soul tearing or not. | 149 |
[Harry Potter] Apparently my daughter is a witch? Very concerned about this strange low-tech angle! | I live in London, where my wife and I both work in software development. We're not tech rockstars, but we have the opportunity to spend our days with brilliant groups of people who are doing cutting-edge, important work. It provides a good living for us and our daughter, who — oh yes! — apparently is a witch. A very nice man who is evidently a witch schoolteacher come to our house and explained to us that like him and many other people, she has magical powers and will need to go to magic school. He was very kind and reassuring, gave us his full attention, answered all our questions, promised further assistance. My little girl wasn't scared; actually, she seems relieved. Agreed with everything he said, wants to go to the school. We'll probably eventually allow it after we wrap our heads around this whole thing.
But there's something that bothers me and my wife quite a bit. Especially for someone who works with young children, this teacher is *catastrophically* ignorant of anything to do with computers, smartphones, or technology in general. And it's not just him; it seems to extend to this whole secret world. I asked him for contact information for himself, his school, and other people who could help us, and all I got back were mailing addresses! How can you possibly run a boarding school in England and not be reachable by phone? I wouldn't have thought that's even legal! And my daughter herself also wouldn't be reachable by phone the entire time she's away at school. And the teacher seemed to think all of this is the most natural, inoffensive thing ever, often telling me, "She won't need that." He was so calm and unconcerned, I couldn't even get angry.
My wife and I both feel that for my daughter's generation, an awareness of technology, especially coding, is going to be critical in living a life of empowerment. For us, it's for work; for her, it'll be for everything. The idea of removing a bright young girl from that world for several years because "she doesn't need it" is almost cultlike.
What's going on here? Why this strange ignorance? AND IN GOD'S NAME WHY DON'T ANY OF THESE PEOPLE HAVE A CELL PHONE?! | 18 | It's not so much an anti-tech angle as the fact that high concentrations of magical energy tend to... interfere with electronics. Unfortunately, this means that any reputable school of magic is simply physically incompatible with your devices. But hey, maybe your daughter will grow up to be the one to crack that problem! Wouldn't that be something?
Furthermore, electronics require a level of infrastructure that such a naturally small population has a difficult time supporting.
More to the point, wizards do *not*, in fact, need many of the conveniences of modern technology, especially in terms of communication, as several means of instantaneous travel are available to wizards, negating much of the necessity for long-distance communication. Meanwhile, if she needs to contact you from school, or if you need to contact her, there are means-- as her immediate family, the statute of secrecy is somewhat relaxed for you. (Consider applying for a variance with the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office to allow you and your wife to own a set of two-way mirrors-- your daughter's teacher will have contact information for the Ministry.)
Lastly, and most importantly, wizards have their own economy. Many lucrative careers will be available to her that are not reliant upon a knowledge of Muggle technology (beyond perhaps a basic working level for functioning safely in public places.) | 14 |
CMV: Edward Snowden failed to gain support from the left because he attacked a democratic president and his administration. | If Edward Snowden had revealed NSA secrets during a republican administration, he would have received more support from left-leaning politicians and from liberals and democrats. Because he presented as a libertarian, and was perceived to have attacked the Obama administration, democrats and liberals were not receptive to his disclosures.
Republicans generally tend to be supportive of a strong military defense, and so the NSA's actions naturally align with republican leanings.
So, he received no support from the republicans or democrats, and this has played a part in how his message has been framed in the media, and what our political representatives say about him.
EDIT: /u/NorbitGorbit changed my view. He pointed out that following 9/11, both parties went along with passage of the Patriot Act and other government actions (the establishment of the Homeland Administration), and so the climate was supportive to surveillance across party lines. Had Snowden made revelations under the Bush administration, in that climate, they wouldn't have been well-received by either party. He didn't use those words exactly, but I think that was his point. /u/NorbitGorbit, let me know if I misunderstood your post or misrepresented it.
> *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!* | 24 | To begin with, you have a lotta people with a lotta different ideas on the left. We ain't all liberals. Hell, despite what the Republicans would you believe, liberals are pretty much in the minority. That leaves a lot of room for people who are more center-left.
People who, perhaps, didn't take kindly to Snowden having dumped *massive amounts* of US state secrets and intelligence that had *nothing to do* with domestic surveillance.
People who, perhaps, didn't take kindly to Snowden having fled the United States after having dumped said massive amounts of US intelligence. Had Snowden simply revealed domestic surveillance without having revealed shit that many people on the left believe should have *remained secret* and caused harm to our nation and our interests, then I'd probably like to be his secret santa.
People who, perhaps, felt that perhaps Snowden was not a whistleblower... considering the fact that he colluded with journalists and possible a foreign national to literally infiltrate the NSA under the guise of legitimate employment in order to said state secrets and then dump them. | 18 |
Eli5: What does epistomology and ontology mean in simple words? | 15 | Epistemology: the branch of philosophy that investigates what knowledge is; what it means to know something; how we come to know things.
Ontology: the branch of philosophy that investigates what kinds of things there are; what it means for something to exist in reality; the status of different kinds of things such as numbers, ideas, persons or objects | 31 |
|
Working in tech industry without a good computer. | Hi, I think the title maybe not straightforward to the real problem but here's the long story.
I don't have (by I, I mean me and my family) enough money, we're even afraid of turning on the ac for long time because it may cost a lot of electricity that we can't even pay the bill, I do have a pc but it's too old I can barely open visual studio or even sublime text to code it gets too slow and turns off.
I also been really ambitious and hoping to make some mobile apps but as you know android studio requires much ram and a good gpu, so I focused more on web apps.
But even web apps requires at least a good ide and at least 8 gb ram so that I can run both the browser and the ide, my pc is an hp with intel i3 2.20 ghz, intel 3000hd gpu and 4gb of ram.
I currently work as an intern for a tech company and I'm obliged to bring my pc at work but I get all the problems (too slow, gets hot, apps that I work freezes and turns off).
Please if s.o else been with the same problems maybe have some advices for me.
PS: I'm 20 years old.
Edit: Thank you so much guys for the support <3 | 32 | Ask your company for a computer/workstation. If they have the money to pay for you labor, they have enough to get you a half-decent laptop. If they push back (for whatever reason), just tell them your current machine is impairing your work. | 33 |
eli5: Why is 70 degree F water so much colder than 70 degree F air? | I can hang out buck naked in 70 degree F outside all day but not touching 70 degree F water. | 19 | It's because of the efficiency of heat transfer--when thermal energy moves from something warm to something cooler. In this case, from your 98.7 degree (F) body to the 70 degree air or water. Water is a better conductor than air, so when you get into the water heat escapes/is transferred out of your body at a much faster rate, leaving you feeling colder, faster than you would if you were just standing in 70 degree air. | 27 |
[Civil War] How might things have turned out differently if Thor had been present during the "Civil War" events? | 95 | Probably relatively similar to how things worked out with Black Panther.
As an alien sovereign, they have no explicit authority over Thor, but they can maneuver things around him to their interests and his.
Thor is short tempered, but he's not about to go to war with most of Earth's governments. He's also not going to be at their beck and call. So he can't overtly help Steve's side, but he also isn't going to be a thrall on Tony's side either. At best, he can cooperate with Tony like T'Challa, which he might do in the interest of keeping the Avengers together for the greater threat he can see forthcoming.
**Ultimately, he doesn't really end up participating.** Even if he feels the Avengers need to stay together for the greater cosmic threat, you can't beat Steve into submission and arrest him *into* teamwork. He's not going to upend Earth's own governance and dissolution of the Avengers for the sake of Steve's friend... a warrior's duty is to his people and not just his comrades in the field... but beating Steve up isn't going to do anything either. He stays out of it and doesn't go to Germany. He stands as a second voice establishing the unity of the Avengers is more important to the cosmos than petty politics, personal sacrifice, individual loyalty or autonomy or familial division... making Steve even more stubborn and less sympathetic to the audience by putting the fate of one single friend ahead of the safety of the known realms and beyond.
That said, if the matter becomes intractable, he might offer Asgard as a safe haven to preserve what remains of the team until the appointed time... rendering Black Panther somewhat irrelevant.
Basically, the story doesn't work unless Thor is conveniently missing.
If, for some inexplicable reason, Thor participates in Germany, Steve's team is arrested. End of story. Too many places where Thor's intervention wrecks Steve. Giant Man is nothing. Thor is able to catch the Quinjet in Avengers to get Loki, so Steve's not getting away. Thor probably can save Rhodey, so Iron Man is still free to catch or stop Steve. His area-effect attack alone has the potential to stun and drop all of Steve's team.
I don't see Thor motivated to arrest Steve, but if he wanted to, there's little they could do to stop him. | 86 |
|
CMV: The Defund-the-Police movement is potentially dangerous and may end up doing more harm than good | A few things to clarify off the bat: (1) I strongly believe that the US has a systemic racism problem, specifically with police and more broadly in our society. (2) There definitely needs to be criminal justice reform in the US. Particularly, the privatized prison system, the "War on Drugs", police militarization, etc. (3) I believe drug use should be de-criminalized, period.
So now that I've gotten those out of the way, I still believe that the Defund-the-Police movement (as it stands right now) has a lot of major issues that could end up being very dangerous. The first is that I don't believe having a well-resourced police force is an inherently bad thing. Police need funding to solve and prevent crimes. They need manhours, equipment, lab-work and technology - especially for major crimes. Reducing funding for police could have two major negative effects. First it will reduce the police's overall ability to solve major crimes. Second, by reducing funding, there will a natural inclination to shift resources to lower-cost and much less effective forms of police work (e.g. instead of resource intensive major investigative police work, more street level cops busting low-level offenses). This last one in particular could actually exacerbate the issues of police brutality.
Furthermore, in order to shift police mentality from the militarized and combative force that we have currently to something that actually serves the needs of the community, we need a lot more police training and reprogramming efforts. The current time an average policeman spends in training is laughable. Those programs also require lots of funding. People talk about police needing to be better at things like de-escalation and community engagement. Guess what, that doesn't happen without more training hours being spent on each rank-and-file police.
CMV
TL'DR. Defunding the police at the moment is dangerous and if anything I think we need more police spending - it should just be spent on different activities within the police force. Taking away funding and pushing it to social welfare programs sounds like a good idea, but it's not going to be for the overall benefit of the public. | 27 | >People talk about police needing to be better at things like de-escalation and community engagement. Guess what, that doesn't happen without more training hours being spent on each rank-and-file police.
One of the ideas is to save money by moving this responsibility away from police entirely. When you have community and mental health professionals responding to minor violations and non-violent incidents, the police can focus on the incidents that actually do need the training and equipment that you mention.
Also, defunding the police is a nebulous term because there isn't a finite goal. But, if you believe that those minor, non-violent incidents are better handled by people other than police, then you might be in alignment with a portion of the defund the police movement. | 25 |
Is UUID collision free? | I’m using uuid libraries for things like user id, task id, property id etc. to be more specific these are some of them:
* js - [https://www.npmjs.com/package/uuid](https://www.npmjs.com/package/uuid)
* go - [https://github.com/google/uuid](https://github.com/google/uuid)
I know its hard to get a collision because the chances are so slim and I know every UUID implementation is different than one other. Think of it as a general computer science question to make it a little bit more clear. So, my questions are:
1. Is there a chance for collision or libraries, in general, have safeguards for that?
2. Do I need to use something like bloom filter to be on the safe side.
3. How do big applications solve that issue. Is there an established industry standard? | 22 | A bigger problem with GUIDS is that people think they’re truly random 128-bit integers. They are not. There are more deterministic versions of GUIDs (non v4) that have date/time/network data encoded within.
The 6 and 8 bytes have some very specific requirements in v4. As hex it means that the third clump must start with a 4 and the 4th clump must start with 8,9,a, or b.
The digit where the 4 is must be a valid GUID version. If it isn’t, some parsers will crash/throw, which is why bad GUIDs are a bigger risk than duplicates. | 21 |
ELI5: Why does American fuel have less octane than European fuel? Aren't we driving sort of the same models that should require the same kind of fuel? | e.g. I live in Germany and our *Premium* fuel has 100 octane, regular has 95. Amercian gas stations I've seen sold gas with anything between 89 and 93 octane (which was considered *Premium*)
What's the reason for this?
/edit: An answer has been provided, see [tracingspirals](http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1iedtv/eli5_why_does_american_fuel_have_less_octane_than/cb3p4nw)' or [fanofdisco2](http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1iedtv/eli5_why_does_american_fuel_have_less_octane_than/cb3nqqe)'s response.
Note: There is no correlation between the fuel's octane rating and the mpg you get out of it. | 732 | ITT: tons of people act like they know what they're talking about.
Octane is a measure of a fuel's resistance to burn. Higher octane gas does not contain a different amount of energy, it's just harder to burn. This is advantageous for higher compression motors as it reduces pings and pre ignition.
As far as the difference in numbers, it's entirely because of the method used to calculate the octane. In the states, we use the ((R+M) /2) average, which sits about 5-10 octane lower than the standard RON measurement Europe uses.
| 906 |
Why is the air mixed? | Air consists of Nitrogen, CO2 and O2, right?. These molecules have different weight (mass). Why doesn't it stack up layers with the heaviest in the bottom? | 69 | Thermal motion. Gas particles have enough energy to fly around in the air, rather than just being confined to the ground.
Because all the different atoms and molecules collide with each other and exchange energy/momentum, they end up diffusing and mixing together rather than being sorted by mass or type. | 33 |
ELI5: What exactly is anti matter? | How did it come to be, how is it different on an atomic and physical level, why isn't there any floating around my house? You get the point | 88 | Anti-matter is just like ordinary matter, except with opposite charge. An anti electron is positive. An antiproton is negative. Opposites charges still attract. Like charges still repel. Put an anti-electron with an anti-proton and you'll get anti hydrogen. Put two anti hydrogen with an anti oxygen and you get anti H2O. You could have an entire anti-universe and it would behave exactly like ours.
But that anti-matter can't coexist with our matter. If antimatter comes into contact with regular matter, they both annihilate and turn into pure energy. So there is no antimatter floating around your living room - if there were it would annihilate. And we can't store it in containers (because containers are made of matter). | 56 |
ELI5: Why can horses and cows eat grass alone yet still pack on muscles while humans need more than just vegetables to bulk up? | 511 | Grass has plenty of proteins. The problem, for humans at least, is that the cell walls are cellulose which the human digestive system can't break down. Cows have several stomachs. One of them called the rumen has a wider variety of bacteria to help break down cellulose. Cows also regurgitate what they eat and then chew it some more, which is called ruminating (animals that do this are called ruminants).
Horses are not ruminants. They have single chambered stomachs, but also an enlarged and specialized cecum in the bowels where plant matter is fermented by bacteria and broken down. | 381 |
|
[MCU] It seems like the Jarvis AI isn't really around anymore, but why is that? He just agreed to copypaste his entire OS into the Vision body, right? Did that somehow delete the original? | 220 | However Jarvis was designed, it definitely doesn't seem to follow normal computing conventions. He needs to be manually uploaded/downloaded into the suits from the home for the first suits, reinforcing that he can only exist in a single "node" at a time. While we see multiple automated suits/Ultron drones more than once, we actually never see one of the personality AIs in two places at the same time.
This lends proof towards them not being standard electronics. Whatever "pattern" they may be, it doesn't seem to support duplication, only transfer. | 175 |
|
ELI5: Where do the rockets that a spacecraft leaves behind go? | If they fall down to earth does that mean they come crashing down on land or sea? And isn't that dangerous threat to people who may be on ground or maybe a ship like a Cruise ship? | 19 | >If they fall down to earth does that mean they come crashing down on land or sea?
Yes
>And isn't that dangerous threat to people who may be on ground or maybe a ship like a Cruise ship?
Not really, no. We can predict the crash zone, and plan the mission to make that zone an empty patch of ocean. The location of launchpads all over the world are influenced by having good options for crash zones. | 26 |
ELI5: Dungeons and Dragons | Hows does it work, and why do people take it so seriously?
I recently heard a story where a group of friends played D&D all the time together, and had been working on their characters for years, and then one day the person in charge killed all their characters, and they can never use them again, and these people never talked to him again.
I knew people took this game seriously, but that didn't make sense. | 17 | That would be like your mom and dad giving you and your siblings cute and fluffy and UNIQUE toys to play with that no other kids in the world have. You have them growing up. Years and years you've played with these toys. You've grown attached and formed a special bond with it. Then when you reach high school, they take the toys from all of you and throw them into the fireplace. How upset would you be? You just lost something that you have spent years playing with, creating stories with, and felt like a part of you.
Think of D&D as a mix between acting, board games, and group storytelling. The story you mentioned is an example of a **bad** experience. That was probably a group of friends that played together for years and the person "in charge" (most like the "Game Master" or "Dungeon Master") probably surprised them with a TPK. (Total Party Kill, sorry)
You might learn some things from r/rpg.
Big community of gamers that play not only D&D but other similar games like Savage Worlds, Exalted, Shadowrun, and more. | 20 |
[MCU][Marvel Comics] Does Ant-man ever help cure a disease? If no, why not? | He can go subatomic, so I assume he can go cellular and just cut out tumors. Or bring back a virus for closer study. Or punch a bacterial infection. Is there anything stopping him from doing this? | 21 | I don't see how that would actually accomplish anything, unless the tumor was deep inside and hard to reach. We can cut out most cancers with machines easier than Ant-Man could, we can pretty easily get samples of a virus to study, and there is so much bacteria that him punching lots of them would make no difference. | 34 |
[Star Wars] Was Darth Vader's origin widely known in detail before the prequels? | To what extent was the origin of Darth Vader known? Are there any comics that were retconned by the prequels? | 16 | Lucas had said "final battle with Obi-won on a volcano planet" in interviews before the original trilogy. Now, the prequel era was purposefully left vague by the comics and novels after the original trilogy concluded.
Some comics and novels got rewritten, mainly the really early ones that had Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker as two separate people who Obi-Wan was training. | 27 |
Taking a year out from academia? Pros/cons | Brief summary. At the end of a three year postdoc, I don't have a job lined up for the fall. I'm waiting to hear back for several positions so this question may be redundant but I'm exploring all options. I am in a physical science.
My PhD advisor has offered me a temporary postdoc if I don't end up with anything. Probably for less than 9 months. Just enough to get me through another round of tenure track/fellowship applications.
Alternatively I am likely to be offered a job outside of academia. It would basically be sales - selling the lab equipment that I currently use to academia and industry. Probably no conference attendance, definitely no publications. I would stay for a year while applying for academic jobs.
So. Which would you advise? Why? I'm torn. Going back to advisor means staying in the academic world, and another chance at getting a job. Other job means I don't run back to advisor, but I might not get back into academia. | 19 | You're considering a academic-career ending decision. If you want to stay in, now is the time to fight.
God damn it! Fight and submit another round of applications. Also, be willing to move anywhere globally.
| 21 |
If we applied the same selective breeding to humans, that we use for dogs, for 10 000 years or more, could we achieve comparable variety of shape and sizes while keeping them as one species? | 36 | Yes, but possibly not to the same extent that dogs do. Its believed that humans went through a genetic bottleneck resulting a major decrease in genetic diversity when we left Africa so we might have less to work with. But you could definitely amplify pre-existing traits to the point that there would be clear "breeds". | 18 |
|
ELI5: Why do car doors have those “checkpoints” when you open them that causes the door to swing back if you don’t get it just right? | 37 | There is a spring-loaded wheel with notches at specific points. It is good at holding the door steady with no effort by you, but the side effect is that it pushes the door *away from* spots between the steady spots. | 33 |
|
CMV: Being Trans is not inherently mental illness | Prior to about 1 or 2 years ago, I was of the opinion that all Trans people are mentally ill, due to the fact that they tend to have gender dysphoria. However, I've found a few points of reason that make me lean towards believing that Trans people aren't mentally ill, however I'm still not convinced of one or the either. Still, this culminated in a post on a gaming Facebook group where I learned a lot just reading journal article after journal article so I could source them. Below will be mostly a copy-paste from this post. I fear that I've delved too deep into bias, so I would be interested in seeing where my arguments here were fallible, as nobody in the Facebook group could do so.
&#x200B;
To begin, it's important to point out that many studies have found structural differences in the brains of biological males and females. These develop several months after the gonads develop when the SRY Gene becomes active on the Y Chromosome and inhibits the gonads from developing into ovaries. This serves as the basis as to why so many claim sex and gender have to be separated. Any abnormality in the development of the brain after gonad development can be traced back to this window of time. This makes sense considering only 0.6% of people are transgendered to begin with. As a note of opinion, the whole trans movement is about accepting trans people for who they are in much the same way you wouldn't shame a physically disabled person.
Sources:
Brain difference between sexes- [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3896179/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3896179/?fbclid=IwAR3PwD1NolQuEn-8hiVIH7WsTv6yCyqw17S9mEm0QbwgQRe98zA3an70ovM)
Brain development vs Gonad development- [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4350266/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4350266/?fbclid=IwAR1JdeldqyiIGRU9BSHPcAlgKRMNi-dtaDGpD8wuBywbqrtPYG8beQIwTxc)
Study on Sex vs Gender- [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21334362](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21334362?fbclid=IwAR1D_L6dRpZ9zVgRfaR7Wr9OmnWeozafpJHOc_OfdK-oqMJrtU2ErkNRhbc)
&#x200B;
Regarding claims that Transgenderedness is a mental disorder, that's not entirely true, at least it would seem. The WHO took away that classification, not to mention the DSMV only classifying Gender Dysphoria. Gender Dysphoria is the feeling of depression or anxiety that comes from not being the gender your brain most feels comfortable as, at least by DSMV definitions in a nutshell. Those that transition are typically relieved of Gender Dysphoria, according to many psychologists and clinical psychiatrists. It might be important to also not that you won't be suicidal as a trans person without Gender Dysphoria, unless you're subject to normal depression and anxiety. It would be commonly believed that those that are Trans and commit suicide are experiencing Gender Dysphoria (uncured) or abuse from an external factor.
Sources:
[https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria](https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria)
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23398495](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23398495)
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5178031/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5178031/)
&#x200B;
The third thing I'd like to bring up is that there's multiple upon multiple papers showing how the brains of trans women (XY genetically) are much more like normal female brains, and vice versa. No paper says that the brains are entirely like the other, however, which actually only strengthens the idea that something we don't fully understand yet is occurring between the development of sex and gender. If I had to take an educated guess, there are many factors that determine sex and gender other than Testosterone and the SRY Gene, and a change in one of these genes (possibly by a crossover event between the X and Y gene) might create an incomplete/non 1:1 sex and gender relationship. Also regarding genetics, something I learned that's new to me the more I read is that there's plenty of evidence that this incongruity is passed down generations, strengthening my hypothesis. A trans person is likely to have a trans biological relative; a little like the genetic patterns found for gay people. There's even evidence for a specific gene being involved, CYP17, though it's only found to be valid for female-to-male and not male-to-female so it's no smoking gun. However, that still furthers my multiple factors hypothesis I suppose.
Sources:
Brain similarities of Trans people and felt gender (Notice how this is a paper from 1995 calling it Trans-sex, which is different from Transgender as we define today. A testament to how new all this is and how neuroscience is still evolving. We, after all, don't know much about a LOT of things)- [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7477289](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7477289?fbclid=IwAR3-jUYTQ2qHmS2ZF2Yv1bVzxKrenwkgYtUAbuHeuIrVKOrtHQELZVoarsk)
Further brain similarities study- [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22941717](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22941717?fbclid=IwAR0Vmg7mfwHE_B5e3VIc4DWV5RrIhxxnxWj7_Gr029ExXXI0ZTUQ1xB_lC8)
Further brain similarities study- [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4037295/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4037295/?fbclid=IwAR2Dc_KQTGAPkQiIPYNtinCcBILaatzgSrFiSsCkjge6ScugdwYmX96DT-Y)
Genetic link of Transgenderedness implied by Transgenderedness in family trees- [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10983252](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10983252?fbclid=IwAR2RUyEb48nQXC0oxT5g8CQsTEZPdH1EOo7raUARkRn69hWjRoBMoyfRpXk)
Polymorphism of CYP17 gene- [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17765230](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17765230?fbclid=IwAR1dLBCDqUVY4FVh-3570kODydpqz-0bapDYR0aMYM9sPAO7C9zh0fgXdZI) | 16 | How would you define "mental illness"?
For example, here is the definition from the Australian Department of Health site (first result from google)
>A mental illness is a health problem that significantly affects how a person feels, thinks, behaves, and interacts with other people. It is diagnosed according to standardised criteria. The term mental disorder is also used to refer to these health problems.
Having a female brain in a male body for example, is still a health problem that affects how a person feels, thinks, behaves and interacts with other people.
As such, it would seem that all your arguments more or less support trans being inherently a mental illness unless of course you have a differing definition. | 18 |
CMV: it should not be 'teethpaste'. | [A recent screen grab I've seen](https://cdn.dopl3r.com/memes_files/stephen-atstephenjmolloy-atmerriamwebster-can-you-add-me-so-l-can-dm-you-a-suggestion-it-should-be-teethpaste-and-you-know-it-739-pm-start-a-message-gif-you-are-blocked-from-following-atmerriamwebster-and-learn-more-ABLHA.jpg) states that 'toothpaste' should actually be 'teethpaste.' I'm not sure where this conclusion comes from, perhaps because it's a paste for your teeth rather than paste for one tooth. Either way, we don't call it a 'dishes washer' despite it washing multiple dishes rather than just one dish. Considering this is an example of a noun acting as an adjective, we must remember that adjectives don't mark for plurality in English. Please CMV.
_____
> *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!* | 145 | Tooth isn't an adjective in the word toothpaste.
It loses that designation when combined.
Toothpaste is one word, and it's a noun
As a noun, it should describe its referent in a way that makes it clear what it is, and having less modification to its components makes a compound noun more easily understood, and it IS a paste for cleaning teeth after all.
| 31 |
Does a condition in which the human body produces too much/more blood exist? | 15 | It depends on what you mean by “blood”. There are a number of components of blood, like red cells, white cells, proteins, and water, among others.
Overproduction of red cells is called polycythemia vera. If, however, you are discussing the total volume of blood, an overall increase in total volume is most usually caused by a number of disorders that result in over-retention of water by the kidneys. | 19 |
|
[Discworld] How did (alternate) Ankh-Morpork lose the war so quickly? | Partway through _Jingo_, Vimes grabs a dis-Organizer belonging to a version from him from a different pants leg of time, one where he didn't go to Klatch to stop the war from happening. As a result, we're treated to a terrifying view into what would happen - Klatch invading Ankh-Morpork and killing him and everybody...
Except... at the time he gets that view of the alternate present, the two armies are only about to clash... in Klatch. There's little doubt the A-M army is about to be soundly trounced, but it's still a long while before the Klatchians can cross the sea the other way and get their murder on.
So... if Vimes' decision is the only thing that differs between the pants legs, how did it prevent the invasion happening so soon? | 35 | Klatch Army and Navy is probably prepared and just around the corner. Its the actions of men like Vimes and Ahmed that prevented a massacre of An-Mo...and in a few years down the road, complete conquest of Klatch by AM merchants from within.
Klatch was ready to annihilate Ankhmorporkian military, but was woefully unprepared for being ankhmorporked from within. Ankh-Morpork is not a city, it is a *state of mind* a viral tumour of urban cynicism that would subvert them.
It was in the interests of both nations NOT to fight, but both were 100% prepared to win. | 12 |
[The Lord Of The Rings] Who is the Mouth of Sauron? | Is he a some sort of ringwrath?... a Nazgul?.... why is his name "Mouth Of Sauron"?... and why is Gandalf so concerned about him watching the hobbits in sorrow? | 76 | He's a Numenorean who speaks for Sauron and is the steward of Barad-Dur.
As far as Gandalf is concerned, he got told that the Hobbits were being tortured to death, that Sauron has the Ring and he doesn't know if it's the truth. | 82 |
Is it just a coincidence that the powers of 11 can be read off of the rows of Pascal's triangle? | I remember being amazed in my maths class last year when I saw this demonstrated but I never got an adequate explanation as to why it occurred | 17 | The Nth row of Pascal's Triangle are the coefficients of (x+y)^(N).
* (x+y)^(0) = **1**
* (x+y)^(1) = **1**x+**1**y
* (x+y)^(2) = **1**x^(2)+**2**xy+**1**y^(2)
* (x+y)^(3) = **1**x^(3)+**3**x^(2)y+**3**xy^(2)+**1**y^(3)
* (x+y)^(4) = **1**x^(4)+**4**x^(3)y+**6**x^(2)y^(2)+**4**xy^(3)+**1**y^(4)
* etc
Compare these coefficients to Pascal's Traingle:
1
1,1
1,2,1
1,3,3,1
1,4,6,4,1
...
Now to the powers of 11. "11" is just a shorthand for **1**\*10+**1**. So we have that 11^(2)=(10+1)^(2). Applying the above formula to it, we get
* 11^(2) = (10+1)^(2) = **1**\*10^(2)+**2**\*10+**1**
And just as 11 is a quick-and-easy way to write 10+1, 121 is a quick way to write **1**\*10^(2)+**2**\*10+**1**. In general, if we have a number written in base 10, then it's secretly just shorthand for a sum like this. So 493 is just a convenient way to write **4**\*10^(2)+**9**\*10+**3**, which is what the number *really* is. When we do the powers of 11 using (10+1)^(n), then expanding it gives a sum of decreasing powers of 10, whose coefficients give the base-10 representation of the number.
* (10+1)^(3) = **1**\*10^(3)+**3**\*10^(2)+**3**\*10+**1**, which is more conveniently written as 1331
* (10+1)^(4) = **1**\*10^(4)+**4**\*10^(3)+**6**\*10^(2)+**4**\*10+**1**, which is more conveniently written as 14641
All we are doing is plugging in x=10 and y=1 into the above formulas. This works only as long as the corresponding binomial coefficients are single digits. For instance, 11^(5) = 161051, but the sequence of coefficients is 1,5,10,10,5,1, so it breaks down. If we do this out, we get
* (10+1)^(5) = **1**\*10^(5)+**5**\*10^(4)+**10**\*10^(3)+**10**\*10^(2)+**5**\*10+**1**
which we have to simplify to
* **1**\*10^(5)+**5**\*10^(4)+**1**\*10^(4)+**1**\*10^(3)+**0**\*10^(2)+**5**\*10+**1** = **1**\*10^(5)+**6**\*10^(4)+**1**\*10^(3)+**0**\*10^(2)+**5**\*10+**1**
before there can be a shorthand expression. In this case 161051. If you make your base bigger, it will work for longer though. | 25 |
CMV: Athletes that use their platform to promote a political message aren’t doing anything wrong | Every aspect of the world has some intrinsic political integration. Sports are no exception. Athletes like LeBron James with the Shut Up and Dribble movement, Colin Kaepernick with his legacy of kneeling during the anthem and countless other massive public figures are using their platform to promote a message.
The vast majority of professional sports stars in the United States are African American. If people around the world are enjoying their work but they’re being mistreated in their own country they have a right to try to change that using their platform. | 37 | Lets put the shoe on the other foot. An Athlete or other celebrity that uses their fame to push a racist ideology is doing something wrong. They should rightfully be condemned for it, and their fans that object to racism should punish them for it.
Its not objectively wrong to use your fame as a platform to advocate for things you believe strongly in. But subjectively, how people view you doing so will depend on what they think of the underlying belief you are advocating for.
What athletes are not entitled to, is to be free from consequences when they do use their platforms for advocacy. And without all coming to some grand agreement on the rightness of a every political position, there wont be an objective right or wrong to it. | 10 |
ELI5: How can people ejaculate twice in quick succession? | How do people do this? The second time someone ejaculates there is still cum left. Why wasn't that shot out in the 1st time? | 27 | The majority of semen is secreted by several different glands in the male reproductive tract during arousal/stimulation. It's not stored. Sperm cells are the only part that gets depleted and needs to be replenished, but even those won't all be gone after just one ejaculation. The quality of sperm does deteriorate with consecutive ejaculations though. | 23 |
ELI5: Why do some helicopters have two rotors on top of one another while others do not? | 18 | The main rotor of a helicopter also causes the body of the helicopter to rotate in the opposite direction. Normally, this force is countered by a rotor on the tail. However, you can accomplish the same task by having another rotor on top that is rotating in the opposite direction.
At low speeds, two top rotors are a more efficient configuration. However, they're less effective at high speeds. So when you see multiple top rotors, it's normally on cargo helicopters or drones that don't expect to operate at high speed. | 16 |
|
[Star War] What was the difference between Anakin becoming a Sith instead of a Dark Jedi? | I've always wondered why it was that when Anakin turned he became a Sith when we have seen other dark side user's such as Kylo Ren [](#s "who was originally a jedi but was turned by Snoke yet didn't become a Sith.") | 57 | To become a Sith, you require training either directly from a Sith, or from a Sith holocron.
Kylo had neither.
The Sith are a specific group of dark side users who have their own knowledge, techniques, rituals, and beliefs that were unique to the Sith. | 124 |
Guidance w/ Open Source Contribution | I have tried looking for projects for months to contribute to. But every time I open a project I get overwhelmed and dont understand where to start and how to begin. I am quite proficient in python, django, js..
I am having trouble getting started. Can you suggest project where I can start and connect me to someone who can guide me or tell me how to start. Thanks.
PS: this is my github profile [https://github.com/goyal-aman](https://github.com/goyal-aman) | 17 | I honestly think "I want to contribute to open source software, so I've got to go find a project to do that" is the wrong approach.
Just use open source software. You will eventually find some program you use a lot that has a bug that annoys you. _That_ is a perfect place to start: you've got the motivation to fix it because it will improve your day-to-day experience with it. | 12 |
ELI5: What is the difference between dubstep, house, progressive, trance, electro, and techno? | I need to know. | 28 | Without sounding biased, here goes:
--Dubstep: usually around 140/70 BPM and more emphasis on the bass rhythm than actual melody.
--Progressive House: Around 120-130 BPM, primarily focused on having an evolving melody that builds and releases tension.
--Electro House: Usually between 125-130 BPM and is generally more "dirty" sounding than its progressive house cousin in regards to the instruments, samples, and over all composition.
--Techno: between 110-125 BPM. Usually centered around one hook that grows and expands throughout the track. Its build ups are very lengthy and its drops are usually very minimal but they maintain the mass amount of energy gained in the build.
--Trance: 130-140 BPM usually. Pounding beats, pure melodies, and euphoria. Generally characterized by its massive, expansive breakdowns in the middle of the tracks. Also usually built around a hook that appears early on and is maintained through the majority of the track.
All of this is very general and is nowhere near as technical as it should be, but it'll get the idea across. | 20 |
Is is possible for an asteroid to enter Earth's atmosphere, not land at all, then just leave Earth's atmosphere? | I know it would have to be going very fast and that it would definitely get sling-shotted by the Earth with the possibility of hitting the Moon. But is it still possible and what would the conditions have to be like for something like this to be possible? | 102 | Yep. It depends a lot on the angle of entry, it can just skip back out. A Chinese space probe did just that late last year, it dropped off a lander to Earth, then it skipped back out, and is now up orbiting the Moon. | 34 |
[Transformers G1] Why didn't Soundwave stop Starscream from throwing Megatron out of Astrotrain? | In the Cartoon Soundwave was made out to be one of Megatrons most loyal Decepticons. So much so that he retained his position under Galvatron, and Galvatron even had Soundwave rebuilt after Blaster destroyed him in the Headmasters series.
Yet Soundwave didnt do anything when Starscream threw out Megatron. Why is this? | 30 | Decepticons are survival-of-the-fittest. If Megatron couldn't stop Starscream himself, Soundwave wasn't going to help him. Soundwave is loyal to the Decepticon ideal, not to Megatron alone.
Look how fast he tried to take over. If he wasn't such an uncharismatic boor he probably would've. | 15 |
CMV: It's not sexist to have the masculine gender as default. | I will talk about languages here. My native language is Portuguese, one of the many languages with gender-based grammatical classes. Those who only speak English may not understand it very well, so I will show an example:
> Michael has ten wives. They live in a big house.
Translating it to Portuguese, it ends up as
> Michael tem dez esposas. Eles vivem em uma casa grande.
"Eles" is the masculine plural third-person pronoun. If we replace "eles" with "elas" (the feminine counterpart), it means that only the wives live in the house, not Michael. Portuguese, like other Romance languages, doesn't have a gender-neutral third-person pronoun, probably because the Romans (or the people who spoke Proto-Italic) valued telling the gender of a group of people or something.
Why am I doing this CMV? Some feminists think that it's sexist to use the masculine gender as the default. We can easily change the meaning of words, but not major grammatical features like pronouns. For example, the word for "candidate", "candidato". Because of the masculine gender of the word and the ending "o", the feminine word "candidata" exists. In order to not exclude female candidates, they write "candidatos e candidatas" or "candidatos(as)". The former isn't very efficient in number of words, and the latter has awkward suffixes in parentheses that will be more numerous if there are adjectives. LGBT groups use new suffixes to replace "o" and "a" in gendered words, like "x", "@" and "e"; making "candidatos(as)" become "candidatxs", "candidat@s" or "candidates"; but I don't think these suffixes will ever be accepted, because non-binary people are so rare that many people don't know about their existence.
_____
> *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!* | 20 | Language programs expectations and assumptions.
Using masculine as the default normalizes masculinity and makes everyone else a variant of masculine; anyone who's not a man becomes a subset of men.
Using language that way creates an underlying picture of the world where men are in the middle, with everyone else ranged around them. Since men are not the default humans, this is inaccurate and is prejudicial to everyone who's not male.
There's research dating back to the 70s showing that when someone refers to a mix-gender group as, "you guys," listeners tend to think of that group as male, not as generically ungendered. | 41 |
ELI5 - why can telescopes see millions of miles away but can’t see the surface of such planets? | I’m meaning further away planets as opposed to the Moon/Mars | 19 | the things that telescopes see tend to be either huge and/or emitting a lot of light or other EM radiation
planets are small and don't emit light
it's like driving at night and seeing the lights of a distant city. The city is huge and glowing so it's easy to spot against the night background. But a black cat crossing the road 100 ft away is going to be invisible - it's small and its not glowing, even though it is much closer than the city | 72 |
[Assassin's Creed] How come Haytham Kenway wears the same outfit every time we see him? | 44 | Because he makes it look good.
Alternatively, he didn't always wear the same outfit, but he's portrayed that way to save storage space. (Assassin's Creed is one of the only fictional settings where that can be a Watsonian *and* a Doylist answer.) | 93 |
|
ELI5: why do digital thermostats have both heat and cool settings, as opposed to a singular temperature control | (e.g why does 70 degrees on “cool” feel colder than 70 degrees on “heat”)? | 122 | Depends on the thermostat, but generally cool is connected to an AC unit while heat is connected to a furnace. When heat is on the temperature might go above the selected temperature and when cool is on it might go below the selected temperature. It would be extremely inefficient to make the temperature be exact since a house has a pretty large volume. Thus the heating/cooling system is more of a greater than/less than system. | 84 |
ELI5: Why can airlines have the movie rights to recently released movies so quickly, but it takes a lot longer for Netflix and other streaming services to add new movies to their catalogs? | Sometimes they even have movies that are still in the theaters of the country they are flying to/from. The question is, how can they get it so fast and why does it seem easier for them to get the rights to stream those new movies if Netflix seems to have a larger public?
I might be mistaken in some aspects (the fact that it looks easier and the public size), but I did see movies in the plane that were in theaters in my country. | 387 | Streaming services are the last to acquire rights to the video because they represent the customer segment with the lowest profit margins.
Why should a customer pay more to see the movie in a cinema/airplane when they can watch it at home anytime they want? The airlines are willing to pay a higher price per customer to capture passengers, and movie theatres are willing to pay even more, which is why they get the rights in that order. | 308 |
Is there at least 1 molecule of Dealer Gas in my car after 10 years? | I've heard some intriguing stories lately indicating just how many molecules are in volumes of liquid. So I came up with an interesting problem. I can't remember my high school chemistry enough to remember how to solve this question, although I'm sure its at a grade 11-12 level. Maybe Askscience can help me?
Does my car still have at least 1 molecule of gasoline in it from it's first fill up? Given information:
- Assume I fill up exactly once a week
- Assume I've been filling up the car for exactly 10 years
- Therefore there has been exactly 520 fill ups since purchase
- Assume that every fill up, brings the total volume of gasoline to exactly 50L
- Assume that I fill up when there is exactly 5L left every time
- Therefore I add 45L to the tank at each fillup
- Assume that the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and any other factors that slightly skew volumes are constant all year. If you need to assume a given temperature, pressure etc. to solve this; you pick average plausible numbers.
- Assume that gasoline from the station is 100% pure gasoline. Don't worry about additives, ethanol, stabilizers or anything else,
To Clarify: We will assume that the car came with 50L in it. We will call that "Dealer Gas". Since purchase there has been exactly 520 45L fill ups. Since the tank has never run dry, it has only been diluting: is it probable that there are no molecules of "Dealer Gas" left, or are there so many molecules per litre, that it is exceedingly probable?
I'm not looking for an answer along the lines of since we are diluting, we are always approaching 0 molecules of gasoline, but never reach it; therefore there will always be some dealer gas. I'm looking for something formula based, likely involving moles, molar masses, and the like.
Thanks Reddit!
EDIT:
Wow, thanks guys.
OK here is a better question.
After how many fillups, that meet the above criteria, is it likely that there remains no molecules of Dealer Gas.
Thanks for all the insight thus far! | 257 | The solution is relatively easy, as what you're doing here is no different from a serial dilution (assuming homogenous mixing after each fill up):
You have 1 tank, and you're doing 1:10 dilution 520 times. This gives a dilution factor of 10^520.
Your original tank of 50 L of gasoline (we'll further assume it's pure octane, since gasoline is a mixture of a large number of organic compounds) will have 35150 g of octane (density of 0.703 g / mL), which is 307.7 mols of octane.
Apply the dilution factor, and you get 3.077 x 10^-518 mols octane (from your original tank) in your final tank. This translates to 1.8 x 10^-494 _molecules_ of octane. Since molecules are indivisible, you can say there is a 1.8 x 10^-492 % chance 1 original molecule remains.
This also happens to be the exact same calculation for why homeopathy is BS. | 376 |
ELI5: If SMS is not encrypted, why do companies send 2FA over text instead of email or something else? | Couldn’t someone intercept the text and get into my account? | 632 | As mentioned in another comment, SMS isn’t as secure as a dedicated authenticator app. But it has a couple of advantages.
- Not everyone has a smart phone and so can’t install a dedicated app.
- Authenticator apps can be a pain when you move to a new device. Some will transfer over, others may not. SMS doesn’t have this problem.
- Almost everyone knows how SMS works, authenticator apps are a bit more complex. Less technically minded people may have trouble installing, setting up, and transferring codes.
- Even with SMS being less secure, it’s still more secure than nothing at all. Every extra layer or step the attacker has to go through decreases your chance of getting compromised. It’s just not the best step to take. | 659 |
I believe that pay and salary information for every worker should be public and easily accessible for everyone to see. CMV. | There are a few different reasons I believe this.
* Discrimination and pay-inequality would be much more apparent and easily identified.
* It incentivizes a more merit-based employment system. If everyone can easily see that Bill is making $20k more than me, but I do all the work, employers and managers will have to justify this somehow. Related to the first point.
* It produces a more competitive and fluid labor market. If I work at Wal-Mart for minimum wage, but easily see the workers at Costco are making $10+ an hour, it creates pressure on my employer to match that or for me to shop my skills out elsewhere.
* It allows realistic and functional debates over things like wealth inequality, labor prices, minimum wages, etc. How much does Mcdonald's spend on labor across the entire business? Who knows! The data just isn't available for analysis.
* It provides consumers another tool to discriminate among competing companies, increasing competition and thereby improving the market. It also allows potential investors and shareholders more data on which to evaluate companies.
So really, I can't think of many downsides. Sure, your neighbor Bob now realizes how much you make, but really, why do we have such a burning desire to keep that private, anyways? | 158 | I think that people have a right to privacy, and this means the ability to not let people know how much you make, benefits to society be damned.
But in terms of drawbacks, I'd be worried that if this info was easily accessible on some website or something, it would lead to price discrimination. So if Amazon knew your identity, and knew how much you made, they'd charge you more for a toothbrush than someone with less money. | 78 |
Why does electricity always hum at a B-flat pitch? | Whenever I pass a power plant or hear a lot of electricity running through my house, I always hear that pitch.
Edit: To those asking, I am a musician.
| 15,038 | Electricity is run on an alternating current (AC) which reverses voltage in the pattern of a sine wave. In the US, the frequency of this alternating is 60 Hz, which is a B flat (more of a flat B or sharp B flat, really). Sometimes interactions with surroundings, especially at high voltages like in transformers, can cause a hum at the frequency the grid is run on. In most of Europe, as an example, it's run at 50 Hz not 60 Hz, so you would hear a G (a little sharp) instead of a B flat. | 12,823 |
ELI5: What is happening when a person rubs their eyelids and momentarily loses vision? | After a person rubs their eyelids, with a bit of force and then re-opens them, their vision appears to come back from total black and then grows in size from a circle of light in the center (this normally only lasts a few seconds). Almost like the vision is re-calibrating or the eyes have some sort of safety measure. Why does this happen? | 78 | rubbing your eyes increases the intraocular pressure by quite a lot. normal intraocular pressure is between 10-21 but rubbing for eyes can make it go up to 80-100. if the pressure increases enough then it prevents blood flow to the optic nerve and retina thereby causing loss of vision. once the blood starts flowing the vision returns. | 45 |
Probability Question - If you roll a set of traditional set of RPG dice (d4, d6, d8, d12, d20, and d100), what is the probability that at least half of the dice (3 or more) will end up with any combination of 1's and 0's? | This is a oddly specific (and selfish) question. But I'm creating a board game which uses a traditional set of RPG dice. I'm planning for the answer to this question to be part of the game rules and mechanics. In the rulebook, I would like to include the probability of this happening.
---
d4 = 4-sided die with values 1-4
d6 = 6-sided die with values 1-6
d8 = 8-sided die with values 1-8
d12 = 12-sided die with values 1-12
d20 = 20-sided die with values 1-20
d100 = Combination of two 10-sided dice; one with values 0-9 and the other with printed values of 00, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90.
---
If all of those dice (7 total dice resulting in 6 values) are rolled at the same time, what is the probability that at least half of the values (3 or more) will end up with any combination of 1's and 0's?
---
Step 1: Individual die probabilities of values of 1's and 0's:
d4 = 1/4 = 0.25
d6 = 1/6 = 0.1667
d8 = 1/8 = 0.125
d12 = 3/12 = 1/4 = 0.25
d20 = 3/20 = 0.15
d100 = 2/10 * 2/10 = 1/5 * 1/5 = 0.04
---
Step 2: ??? | 16 | There are 2^(6)=64 ways to choose any subset of the dice, 6C0+6C1+6C2 = 22 ways of which have fewer than three dice, and 64-22=42 ways in which you have at least three.
Since 22<42, it will require fewer computations to compute the probability that you don't get three or more dice that qualify, but either would be fast work for a computer (which you should probably use).
However, by hand, let A, B, C, D, E, and F represent d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d100 respectively. List all 22 ways to use these letters to get a valid scenario, e.g. A, AB, empty word (no dice qualify), E, BF are all valid ways to not get the desired result whereas ABCDEF, CDF, are invalid ways. Basically, write all the ways you can use between 0 and 2 letters inclusively. There is 1 way to use zero letters, 6 ways to use one letter, and 15 ways to use two letters.
For each of the valid scenarios (in this case meaning fewer than 3 dice i.e. what you wrote down), compute the probability that it happens. For example, ABC has probability (1/4)(1/6)(1/8)(9/12)(17/20)(96/100) where 1/4, 1/6, 1/8 are each the probability of getting the desired result for d4, d6, and d8 whereas 9/12, 17/20, 96/100 are the probabilities that d12, d20, d100 do not have the desired result.
After listing each of the 22 scenarios, computing each probability, add them together to get the probability of not getting at least three qualifying dice, which you can subtract from 1 to get the desired probability.
To solve this with a computer initialize p=0 and make six nested nested for loops, with variables a,b,c,d,e,f that are each either 0 or 1. Since the computer is doing it, we'll use the direct route looking at the 42 ways that we get at least three dice. Inside the loops, compute a+b+c+d+e+f. If this is at least 3, initialize a variable q at 1. Then, if a=1, multiply q by 1/4 and 3/4 otherwise, if b=1, multiply q by 1/6 and 5/6 otherwise, etc.The resulting q is then added to p. This will happen 42 times. After all's said and done, print p.
Edit: some corrections to the algorithm | 10 |
ELI5 When a company gets fined $100,000,000 by the FCC, when do they pay out the money, where does it go, and what is it used for? | 2,155 | **US code Title 47, Section 504(a)**
>The forfeitures provided for in this chapter shall be payable into the Treasury of the United States.
So basically, it goes to the treasury and becomes part of the US Budget. | 3,031 |
|
[DC] Why doesn't another hero, without the inhibitions against killing, "take care" of The Joker? | 264 | Let's assume you're one of the handful of good guys in the 'verse that *does* kill and is still allowed to operate (feasible, but rather rare).
Let's then assume that, through some fashion, you're capable of tracking the clown down (for sake of argument we'll narrow it down to Gotham, but that's still a huge city with millions of people and the Joker - theatrical and colorful though he may be - is only one of them).
When you do, let's then assume you're capable of reaching him (even Batman usually has to *react* to the Joker rather than *act*, so best of luck to you if you're kicking down doors) in a reasonable amount of time (such as during one of his televised killing sprees, which would probably be your best bet if it's some big spectacle, like bringing big balloons to the 200th anniversary parade).
So all that's done, now let's think about something else; who is...
* likely also en route
* likely *waaaay* ahead of you
* likely wearing something with a cape and pointy little ears
* likely knows you're in town and is already miffed about that
* and really, really, *really* doesn't like killing?
So there's *that* to contend with...
But most of all, think on this. The Joker's the guy that other supervillains tell stories about when they want to scare each other. The Joker's the guy that Lex Luthor *always* invites to his team-ups specifically because he'd rather invite his inherent chaos and deal with it internally rather than face the wrath of a jilted Clown Prince of Crime. This is a dude with clown makeup, a purple suit, and a friggin' *flower*, and in a world where people can bend steel with their pinky fingers, wear rings that let them do almost anything, and move so fast as to be imperceptible, he is *still. Friggin'. Here.*
And you're gonna go and put one in his chest? Godspeed. | 347 |
|
Why do some metals rust and some dont? | 15 | All metals except precious metals will oxidize when exposed to electrolyte and oxygen. If you are referring to stuff like stainless steel, it has chromium in it which reacts with atmospheric oxygen, forming a protective layer that protects the steel. | 31 |
|
Is the steam emitted from a nuclear power plant radioactive? | 63 | Nope. It's just regular steam as the water does not come into contact with anything that is radioactive.
Nuclear is one of the cleanest forms of energy we produce with very little waste and a lot more reliable than other clean energy sources and produces much more energy for its footprint size. | 184 |
|
[Milkshake] Kelis has brought all 3.5 billion boys to the yard. What happens now? | 502 | The sheer mass of so much humanity in one place causes death and denaturing from the heat of compression alone.
All the hydrocarbons are slowly rendered from the now-geographically-classifiable deposit.
Humanity goes extinct, except for a small band that have survived the Kelis Migratory Extinction Event because their male children had been conceived, though not yet born at the time.
Alluvial sediments borne by rising tidal waters bury the formation, and the weight of eons of accumulated dirt press and cook the remains. Civilisation falls and humanity scrabbles and falls and rises once more.
Once-banned literature is rediscovered, and a renaissance flourishes, a second coming of humanity, as they search — mostly in vain — for easily accessible petrol deposits.
Two brothers with inherited adjoining plots of land over the deposit, one directly, one adjacent, fall into conflict over the mineral rights.
In a plot to exact revenge on the more privileged brother, the more conniving one sinks a diagonal shaft into the Kelis formation and pumps it nearly dry.
When confronted, an argument ensues, and at the height of emotion, explaning his doublecross, the conniving brother shouts
"I. DRINK. YOUR. MILKSHAKE. *I DRINK IT UP!*". | 586 |
|
ELI5: Why doesn't water hurt when it touches our eyeballs | Why is it when we get something in our eyes we can use water to clean it out and water doesn't hurt out eyes | 17 | Our eyes are naturally lubricated by a "saline solution" (essentially water with a bit of salt in it). It's what your tear ducts give off when you see something like when Eve saves Wall-E. :)
Water is just saline solution without the salt, so pure water is harmless and non-irritating to eyes because they're bathed in something that's almost like it.
When you come up from that dive for air, the saline solution cotain on your eye is replaced the next time you blink. | 17 |
[LOTR]If only greater divine beings can resist the Ring, if the Ring Wraiths caught Frodo early in his journey and took it, wouldn't one of the Wraith's keep it? What would the wraith do then? | 167 | For all their power, the Nazgul are actually puppets to the will of Sauron. Sauron seems to have a thing for bending the mighty to his service, and the Nazgul - while individually fearsome and collectively almost unstoppable - are one of Sauron's favourite toys.
He forged the nine rings of power that made them what they are, and consequently he controls them. Everything the Nazgul do, they do to further Sauron's goals.
The Ring itself wants to return to Sauron. So if the Nazgul catch up to Frodo early on, they aren't going to kill him and pick up the One Ring themselves. They're going to take the ringbearer back to Mordor and hand him over, to allow Sauron to reclaim what is his.
Essentially, they don't have a choice in the matter. | 155 |
|
ELI5: Why is it that when watching a movie at 24 frames per second it seems perfectly normal, but when playing a video game it is almost unbearable? | 333 | Film frames can capture motion blur of fast moving objects, essentially the object is appearing in several places at once.
Video games render a series of still images of objects in a single location at any point in time (for the most part).
When viewed at full speed, the motion blur captured on film is much more pleasing to the eye than a bunch of sharply rendered video game frames. | 134 |
|
[X-MEN] How exactly can people discriminate against mutants in a world of superheroes? | They already co-exist alongside people who have gotten their powers through freak accidents, being government lab rats, or even magic for fuck sake. How can the average person tell the difference?
If someone found out I had the ability to transmutate any base metal into gold just by touching it and then I told them I was bitten by a radioactive leprechaun, why wouldn't they put me in the same box as the Avengers? | 47 | A hero is created by random happenstance. A twist of fate that's unlikely to be recreated ever again. A mutant is a genetic abnormality that is both capable of reproducing more mutants and thanks to years of propaganda and scientific research the next step in human evolution. Imagine waking up to find out your grandchildren aren't going to be human. Doesn't matter that cultural norms and moral values are still upheld the political will of the world says they're not human and are lesser for it. Your children could unknowingly date a mutant and have non-human children. And because of motivated hate mongers you have this inkling dread that mutants are trying to replace homosapians as the dominant species. Spiderman is a kid messed up by a freak accident but gambit is coming to steal your wives and children away in the minds of anti mutant groups. | 57 |
ELI5: If modern chess was invented around the 10th century when women's status was.. not all that high, how come the queen is the strongest piece on the board? | 1,133 | Chess was "westernized" a bit, the queen piece was originally called an advisor for the king who often wielded the true power while the king held a more ceremonial position. Like Jafar from Aladdin.
| 959 |
|
ELI5: Why is the uvula such a sensitive gag reflex point? | 31 | The gag reflex happens due to something in the nervous system known as a reflex arc. In a reflex arc, sensory nerves transmit information to the spinal column. In the spinal column usually information travels upwards towards the brain in order to be interpreted. In a reflex arc, the interneuron in the spinal column immediately send out a signal to motor neurons to do something.
The best example is touching something hot. Once the Interneurons in the spinal column get this signal, they signal to motor neurons to move the hand away. The information is also simultaneously sent to the brain so that the brain can understand why this sudden movement just happened.
The uvula hangs down from the roof of the mouth and can work to prevent large objects from going down the esophagus. If a large object tries to go down our throat it will activate the gag reflex which should hopefully prevent choking. | 13 |
|
ELI5: If I was in a plane travelling just behind the speed of sound, if I ran forwards at the necessary speed, could I break the sound barrier? | 23 | No. Breaking the sound barrier requires you going faster than the air around you. As the air in the plane is travelling at the same speed as the plane you could not break the sound barrier by running down the aisle. | 43 |
|
Are there stars in space "Independent" from Galaxies? | Stars, Planets and a bunch of other stuff make up Galaxies, but how common is it that some stars dont belong to any Galaxies at all? Do they even exist? Just there all by themselves millions of lightyears away from anything else? and if they do, is there a possibility of a Blackhole exisiting seperately from a Galaxy? | 138 | Yes, they do exist. It's hard to say how many there are, since they're hard to find. Stars can be thrown out of galaxies by gravitational interactions with other stars; it's hard to think of a scenario where a star could form in intergalactic space, though. | 75 |
Little Boy v Fat Man: why were different cores used? | LB was a uranium bomb and FM was a plutonium bomb. Why wasn't the same design used for both drops? | 41 | This touches on a core aspect of the Manhattan Project and how exceptional it was as an R&D project. Compare to a more normal R&D project like the Apollo Program where scientists and engineers work together to come up with the best design for a system, build it, and ultimately work towards making it operational. But where there's potential to end up in some blind developmental alley or to have the whole program stall out due to some core aspect of the program being delayed or just plain unsuccessful.
The Manhattan Project didn't work that way, they didn't figure out the best route to the bomb and then pursued that. Instead they pursued *every route to the bomb simultaneously*. They pursued 3 different fissile fuels, 2 of which worked. They pursued 5 different methods of production for weapons grade fissile materials, 4 of which worked, including 3 different techniques for isotopic enrichment, which they ultimately just used as different stages in a pipeline to increase production capacity on a short timescale. They pursued 2 different bomb designs for each fuel (so in total 4 different designs), but ended up finding each fuel had a design more suited to it, at least in the short term.
This is why the end result of the Manhattan Project wasn't just one bomb design with one type of assembly, one type of fuel, and one method of producing that fuel. It ended up being 2 completely different designs using completely different fuels one of which had one method of production and the other of which had 3 different methods of production. It easily could have ended up being more designs/fuels/production methods had things worked out a little differently. Or fewer, had engineering or manufacturing of various facilities lagged behind.
This shotgun approach was a core reason why the program was so successful so rapidly (just 8 years after the discovery of the phenomenon of nuclear fission, in fact). Had they instead used the traditional approach they almost certainly would have gone with Uranium-235 as the fuel using gun assembly and centrifugal isotopic separation for enrichment. These we're all the best and most promising bets beforehand. And centrifugal separation is indeed one of the better methods for enrichment, but it took literally decades to advance the state of the art to the point where it was practical. The Manhattan Project attempted centrifuges, but it ended up not working out, while other methods of isotopic enrichment were easier to achieve with 1940s technology. Pursuing that route would have resulted in the program hitting a roadblock on fissile material production. It also would have resulted in a very slow pace of bomb production due to the sheer amount of material needed in gun assembly devices (about 10x as much as with implosion), it would have taken years after 1945 for the first bombs to become available.
This also helps explain the enormous costs of the Manhattan Project, of course. Because it wasn't just "one" project but effectively several different projects all working in parallel, some of which succeeded some of which failed. | 59 |
ELI5: Why are people more likely to become carsick when riding in the backseat? | 19 | Motion sickness comes about when the brain receives conflicting sensory signals. If you sit in the back of the car and stare at the head rest in front of you, read, play on your phone, whatever, your inner ear is sensing the motion of the car, but your eyes aren't passing that same information on - as far as the eyes are concerned you're staying still.
In evolutionary terms, the only thing that could induce this difference in inputs was some kind of poison, so the body's response is to feel nauseated to try and make you throw up whatever it is you ate.
When you're in the front of the car, you're more likely to look up at where you're going, and even if you don't, your peripheral vision is more likely to pick up the movement of the car with the added view through the windshield.
So if you don't want to get carsick in the back, make sure you look up and out of the window regularly so your brain doesn't get conflicting signals. | 31 |
|
[star wars] Coruscant is covered by a single city, Galactic City. What are the municipal politics of Galactic City like? | Washington D.C., Ankara, Mexico City and pretty much every other capital city have all have a municipal structure separate from their national government; each has a mayor along with their country's head of state. How does Galactic City function? Is there a mayor? Does the functioning or the form of municipal administration change much in the transition from republic to empire to new republic? | 198 | Complicated.
The whole planet-city has to be as big as it is to support all the different species from all over the galaxy that come there, either as part of the galactic government or with the hope to find work or riches among the most powerful beings in the known universe.
Because of this complexity and the sensitive nature of dealing with every known sentient species all in one place, the whole planet has to be run by the galactic government. Under the Republic, the Senate had a special committee that oversaw the important decisions and allocated funding for planetary needs, while the day to day operations were run by a typical bureaucracy. Under the Empire's rule, the military eventually took over from the Senate, once it had been dissolved by the emperor, and all non-humans were purged from the bureaucracy, as was standard under the imperial military code. Otherwise, the bureaucracy ran pretty much the same way, just with different priorities. The Empire was more concerned with security and surveillance compared to the Republic's focus on accommodating outsiders and funding religious sects. | 80 |
ELI5:Why can't the police and military forces in places like El Salvador and Honduras control the gangs in their countries? | 53 | The same reason the Afghan National Army can't fight off the Taliban. A "gang" in this context isn't a bunch of hoodlums running around with handguns; they are highly organized and well funded organizations | 24 |
|
[DC] Do Batmans villains evolve to counter Batman? If so, what are some examples of this? | 66 | The Penguin countered Batman by.... going mostly legit. He's still involved in smuggling, information brokering, and various soft crimes, but he has abandoned theft, murder, etc. All the things Batman actually cares about stopping.
He can't beat the bat, but he can stay off the bat's sonar. And most of the time he's more useful as an informant rather than a prisoner. | 92 |
|
Could the rings of a planet like Saturn eventually either all fall into the planet itself or compact themselves into a new moon? | 73 | > Could the rings of a planet like Saturn eventually either all fall into the planet itself...
They can only do that if they lose enough angular momentum, which can only happen via friction. So yeah, over time they may thin out, but it seems there is not much friction between the objects in the ring happening, so it will be a very slow process. Some estimations say that the rings ar as old as the solar system itself, about 4,5 billion years.
> ...or compact themselves into a new moon?
This is almost certainly not happening. The rings are within the Roche limit, where tidal forces prevent the formation of bigger bodies. It is actually believed that the rings were formed from a moon that passed the limit and got completely disrupted by these forces. | 26 |
|
What's the difference between being knocked out and being unconcscious when you sleep? | 18 | Sleep is a complicated, organized process in which your brain slows down but does not stop working. Many parts of your brain remain active while you sleep.
For example, you might sleep through a quiet conversation in the same room, but then suddenly wake up when someone says your name. The part of your brain that processes sounds is active enough to recognize your name, interpret that it might be important, and send a signal that prompts you to wake up.
Unconsciousness is different because it's an abnormal state. The system controls wakefulness is either not working properly, or is not able to communicate with the rest of the brain. An unconscious person cannot be awakened by any stimulus.
In the hospital, this is one of the quick ways we distinguish true unconsciousness from sleep (or acting). We provide a noxious stimulus, something that a sleeping or wakeful person would be unable to ignore, such as ammonia vapors in the nose or a painful rub on the sternum. A sleeping person would respond by waking up, but an unconscious person cannot wake. | 27 |
|
ELI5: Why do all animals have natural animal instincts that allow them to nurture a child but humans need parenting classes and support when raising a child? | 25 | In traditional village (or nomadic) living conditions, children frequently see nearby parents raising other children. They learn by watching, and—when they are asked to help—they learn by doing. Often they were helping with their own younger siblings, or maybe with cousins, or maybe even the children of their older brothers and sisters.
In modern society, with people having kids much later, and living in their own isolated houses, this kind of learning by doing is much less available.
In other words, modern society has broken the cultural system that allowed earlier humans to successfully raise children, and parenting classes are a poor substitute. | 46 |
|
[Dragonball]why did Vageta let Bulma cut Trunk's tail off sometime between birth and the Android Saga, in Saiyan culture that's almost analogous to castration? | 45 | Because after his long stint on Earth he learned that the tail wasn't the source of a Saiyain's strength it was a crutch, and in fact their biggest most easily exploited weakness.
He also didn't care much for Trunks since he didn't even look Saiyain from the get go, so it was a lot easier for him to let go of any potential traditions. | 58 |
|
[The Matrix] Why didn't the machines, with all their technology and power, colonize space? | 96 | Why are we assuming they didn't / haven't?
We know that they honored the accords and kept most of the human population alive and in a simulated reality when we surrendered to them, and that the remainder ran around a small chunk of mostly-underground Earth without any astronomical observational tools.
Quite reasonable to assume they had, but it wasn't an agenda item in the Zion rezoning meetings so never came up in the context of the films. | 69 |
|
ELI5: What are some of the most common editing/composition techniques used by TV shows/movies that make scenes seem higher quality than what amateurs produce? | Professional film quality always looks better than anything I could ever shoot. How? | 70 | They use higher quality cameras to start with, they also have the budget to have higher quality set-design, props and costumes than an amateur. In terms of composition that really depends on the director. But one key difference is that they have more time and larger teams to do things than someone not paid to do it. The director gets a shitload of footage to cut together from pieces he or she likes in post production. They storyboard scenes typically and run through them a bunch of times (if time permits), this gives them numerous selections of each frame from the scene, which they can cut together to make the best of what they've got. They also have booms, which are those microphones on sticks that you see in blooper reels. The boom allows them to record audio separate to the camera, which also lets a sound engineer pimp it out to sound ideal for whatever's going on. And let's not underestimate the skill of the camera operators, who've been doing it for years and therefore have excellent motor control, as well as a keen eye for where the camera should be focusing (not just looking in a general direction but where it doesn't blur the image, you'll notice most shows use at least slight depth of field to make the actors or important parts of a shot "pop"). If you want more specific stuff just respond with what you want more details on. :p | 38 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.