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
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
What about a lack of oxygen makes a cell die? | Why does a lack of oxygen kill a cell? What is changing that causes this? | 25 | Basically, oxygen is required for the formation of ATP in cells. ATP, in turn, is responsible for most of the energy requiring functions that a cell performs. And life, to the extent that it can be meaningfully defined, might be considered the development and maintenance of homeostatic conditions at temperatures, ionic concentrations, and electrical potentials that are inconsistent with the environment that surrounds them, resulting in the ordered information that is capable of self-replication. (Note, though, that a duracell battery meets many of these criteria.) All of those differences from the environment require energy to generate and maintain. Without that energy, the cell will lose its instructions and generally whittle down into a non-functional bit that will hopefully be engulfed by a neighbor. Otherwise, it might explode, damaging nearby cells
(not good) | 25 |
Academia in Japan | Hi!
I'm a physics student, currently in Spain and would love to start my academic career in Japan. Can someone give me some insight on ways to start, or of it's possible at all for a foreigner to get to those jobs? | 26 | For grad study, universities in Japan do not in principle pay grad students. Your best bet for funding is to apply for a MEXT scholarship. The application process for MEXT is extremely long and bureaucratic, so get started early. There are a tiny handful courses that do offer full funding, so they're another option. Your final option is to apply unfunded and hope you can gather enough jobs and scholarships to cover your expenses, this is obviously a bit risky.
For a postdoc, either apply to labs/universities directly or via JSPS. Postdocs are relatively plentiful in Japan and it's certainly possible for a non-Japanese person to do this for 1-3 years. They're fairly well paid, JSPS generally pays better than direct hire.
For faculty jobs, good luck. Staying long-term and making a permanent career will be extremely difficult. Aside from the fact that making a career out of academia is difficult anywhere in the world, lots of Japanese universities have a policy of not giving tenure to non-Japanese people. | 28 |
Are doppelgängers genetically similar to their look-a-like? | We all have met people who could be sibling because they have the same build, colouring, even mannerisms yet they are not related. Could there be a relation several generations back that they are not aware of or is this just an anomaly? Would this show up genetically? | 858 | To demonstrate that doppelgangers have genetic similarities would require a large study for a few reasons.
1. We have a massive amount of unexpressed information in our genes and we can't (at the moment) just narrow it down to the genes responsible for our appearance.
2. We would need a large amount of people to participate in this study to achieve a result that is statistically significant (if indeed there is one).
3. Doppelgangers are not (in reality) exact copies, so to perform a study to answer your question, there would need to be a large amount of facial/body analysis to determine how similar two people look... doing that would probably result in the generation of new units of measurement.
I don't believe anyone can answer your question at the moment, sorry.
To answer the opposite question: how often are people with different appearances genetically similar?
I was going to say that individuals from different races can be more genetically-similar to each other than to members of their own race, but that information has been re-examined and is very likely untrue.
Currently, it appears that two individuals of the same race are more similar to each other than to individuals of a different race (Witherspoon et al. Genetic Similarities Within and Between Human Populations. 2007).
| 478 |
Why should you not buy a house during a recession? Surely house prices are low then; buy low sell high, right? | 16 | I'll give you two simple examples of why people might not buy during a recession.
a) If a recession is causing a decline in house prices, it's hard to know whether that decline has further to go.
b) In a recession, you have a higher chance than usual of losing your job and it might be some time before you find a new one. Probably not the best time to take on a big financial responsibility.
One of there reasons the business cycle exists is the way that bad economic news feeds into people's beliefs about the future and the risks they face which often drives more bad news. | 23 |
|
[Assassin's Creed 1]How was the Battle of Masayf Altair's fault? | At the start of the game, the Templar's attack Masayf after the Assassin's retrieve the Apple of Eden.After the Battle Altair is stabbed and demoted for breaking three tenants of the order, with Al Mualim(the leader) saying 'every man lost today, was lost because of you).How was it exactly Altair's fault?If he hadn't killed the innocent at the start of the game, prehaps he would have blabbed to the guards, but ill assume the guy could have been knocked out.The second tenant he breaks is not being discreet, when the Templars seize the apple,How could he have been discreet?, if Altair hadn't gone straight for them, the Templars would have seized the Apple unnopposed, there was no discreet option, it was a single room with only 2 exits.Third Altair somehow compromises the Brotherhood by attacking the Templars and the Templar attack is blamed on him, but the leader(Robert) says at the start that he was already planning on attacking Masayf, Altair made no difference.If Altair hadn't attacked them, the Templars would have the apple and could just enslave Masayf unopposed and the Assassin's would have lost before the game even started.I just started the game and already it is confusing me haha. | 15 | You're forgetting in the beginning he launched a moderately unsuccessful attack on a Templar operations that cost one of his brothers and arm and incurred the ire of the Order. The Order attacked the stronghold because of his blatant disregard of the rules. | 14 |
ELI5: Why does it seem that being negative is way easier then staying positive? | 343 | There is a negativity bias in the brain. Psychologists think this is because evolutionarily speaking, noticing the negative is beneficial for survival. If your brain didn't notice the negative first, you might not react quickly enough to get out of the way of danger.
Source: psych major | 309 |
|
What makes a gas a greenhouse gas? For example, what are the molecular properties of carbon dioxide (CO2) that allow it to retain heat, that nitrogen (N2) lacks? | 2,462 | Greenhouse gases absorb and re-emit infrared radiation. This means that instead of passing through the atmosphere and directly into space, some of the infrared radiation is re-emitted back toward the surface of the earth, increasing the net heat on the planet's surface. If it were re-emitted in the same direction that would be no problem, but the absorption and re-emission randomizes the direction of the light, effectively bouncing some of it back to the ground. Like a greenhouse does, hence "greenhouse effect".
The molecular property you're looking for is frequencies of vibration. The ability to absorb and re-emit infrared comes from a molecule that has a change in energy of vibration frequencies that corresponds to infrared energies. They absorb the photon, vibrate at a higher frequency, and re-emit that photon as they return to their less energetic state. Vibration frequencies are characteristic to each molecule, and in fact are often used as an analytical tool to identify unknown ones. So, the gases with vibration frequencies that can be perturbed by infrared radiation are greenhouse gases while gases like nitrogen, oxygen, and argon are not. | 971 |
|
ELI5: How do body organs remain in their place without plopping to the bottom of the belly (for humans) and crushing themselves? | 19 | Connective tissues.
Think of each organ as also kinda having a net around it. Each organ kinda hangs off of the other in a chain from your skeleton. It would be like taking a bunch of ball nets and tying them together, then hanging them from a rafter or the like. | 33 |
|
Can light be infinitely brighter? | Is there a certain point where light cannot become any more bright? | 45 | Brightness is determined by the number of photons you see. If you have enough energy to power whatever is outputting the photons, you can have as many as you want. Any limit would be practical rather than theoretical. | 23 |
[DC] So what exactly IS the Anti-Life Equation? Is it knowledge? Is it an object? | In some continuities it seems to be something that you can give to someone and something that someone holds, but in how its described it seems to be more like something that you just know. | 20 | It has been portrayed in different ways but generally it is just an mathematical equation outlines the truth and proves the futility of life. Which gives you full control over any sentient being.
As to why it is depicted differently and often not at all like how we would write an equation, is because of our limited human perception. This isn't just a formula like 2+2=4, but gives absolute truth all know universes and beyond.
The New Gods live outside of the universe we are familiar with. There is only one true Darkseid that sends Avatars to interact with the 52 known universes. In his true form he is more powerful and somewhat beyond human understanding. And just as Darkseid is a being beyond our understanding the equation is beyond our understanding. Just as new mathematics had to be invented to describe the movements of heaven, mathematics we haven't even dreamed of are required to understand the Anti-Life Equation. And it can't just be written like a formula we are used to, it has to be represented differently. | 28 |
eli5: How can a tv show make ten episodes lasting 10 hours every year while it takes 2 years for a 2 hour movie? | Has it got to do with that a tv show has a bigger team or has it to do with movie theaters? I have absolutely no idea please help. | 199 | One reason is that they have already gathered the parts. For a new movie, you need to get a script, cast all the parts, find all the locations and create all the sets before you can film it. Each movie is pretty different and its likely that anything you build or any actor you cast is just for the purpose of shooting that movie.
Whereas in tv, once you have done all the same set up, you can just get filming without putting in the same effort for every episode. You have a base of sets that are likely to be re-used. The actors will be the same, the characters the same. It basically requires less work to keep something running, than it does to start from scratch every time.
I think thats a large part of it anyways. Theres probably a lot more to it that ive not even considered though. | 177 |
ELI5: What's the actual, non-conspiracy-theory explanation for why World Trade Center 7 fell? | Googling this leads me down so many rabbit holes. | 35 | It had a huge gash torn out of it by one of the other towers. That included some support structures.
Further damage from fire led to the tower being too heavy for the remaining supports to hold up. And the gouged portion basically "tugged" the standing portion down when a crucial pillar (79) couldn't hold up further.
Edit: had a wrong piece of info. Added the exact failure point for the major collapse. | 64 |
[Terminator] How would T2 have gone down if both Terminators were T800s? | So we had Arnie protecting John Connor, and another T800 send from the future to kill John (doesn't have to be Arnie: Model 101) how would the movie have played out. Since both robots are physically equal and I their "programming" is also the same, the only difference being one has to protect and one destroy. Would the "evil" Terminator have the edge because he just has to think about killing, whereas the good one would be at a disadvantage because he has to keep John alive also? Would be able to pre-empt every move the bad Terminator would make?
Also, question 2, what if the roles in T2 were reversed so that the T800 was sent to destroy and the T1000 to protect? It seems to me like the T800 is better at protecting since he can absorb gun fire without much effect whereas T1000 is downed after a few shotgun blasts (yeah I know Arnie is downed by a shot gun in Terminator 1 but he seems more robust in T2. Thoughts? | 23 | I think the guardian T-800 would have had a much easier time protecting John against another T-800.
For one thing, it still would have had the element of surprise as the assassin didn't expect to be facing off against another Skynet android.
Also, the guardian T-800 probably would have an intelligence edge as well, because John would still unlock the full capacity of it's neural chip, which the assassin T-800 wouldn't have, which would keep it pretty predictable to John, Sarah, and the guardian T-800.
Between the three of them, they probably would have come up with a plan to take out an assassin T-800 quicker than the T-1000.
| 27 |
How does antibacterial soap kill bacteria? | I understand mechanical agitation and good ol’ water can wash away bacteria, but what exactly does antibacterial soap do. Answers that involve organic chemistry are welcome! | 28 | Most antibacterial soaps contain triclosan, which inhibits one of the chemical reactions required for the production of fatty acids that are used to make cell membranes. In high doses, through this and other mechanisms, this causes bacteria to die. In low doses it causes bacteria to stop growing. Humans also make fatty acids and cell membranes, but our chemical pathway for it is different enough that it is unaffected by triclosan (we do have other molecules in our body that are affected by triclosan, but only at much higher doses than you get from washing your hands with it).
As a side note, antibacterial soaps have proven totally unnecessary for ordinary daily activities. The point of washing is to get the bacteria off your hands - it doesn't matter if you kill them on their way down the drain. The only time you should want to aggressively kill all the bacteria on your skin is when you're going into surgery (either as a patient or a doctor), or have just been exposed to something particularly dangerous.
This is all (both the mechanism and the lack of necessity) totally different from hand sanitizer, as in the stuff you rub on your hands that quickly dries by itself. Better to just wash your hands, but it has a convenience factor over soap. Most hand sanitizers are just good ol' fashioned alcohol, mixed with some gelling agent. | 27 |
What are the main criticisms of Bordieu's work? | Just looking into his stuff and wondering what people haven't liked about ideas like habitus, fields, or anything else from him. | 29 | ah, god. where to begin? There are tons, and i disagree with most of it and think that many critics do not supply the flexibility necessary to correctly bourdieu's work. By and large (and to state the obvious), most critics think his concepts/theories are overstated and overdeterministic and that his findings from one specific (and many would argue unique/peculiar) situation in france do not warrant generalizations.
Here are two of the primary ones, mainly from sociology of ed.
1. He's too structuralist. Too much of a strict reproduction theorist and, by dependence on concepts like habitus, he does not account for the many changes that happen within and between people. Symbolic interactionists (and others) are the type to make this argument. Alexander and others also make this kind of argument - that Bourdieu's version of 'culture' is all just a series of taking self-interested moves that 'immediately reflect class-position'
2. Cultural Capital is a concept with much more limited applicability than he and others suppose (i.e. outside of 1960s french society and prior); it is so limited, sometimes it is impossible to even identify elsewhere (at least in so far as it affects outcomes in schooling). Like Kingston 2001. | 19 |
Is there any study on wheter the increase of depression rate in the last decades is an actual increase or an increase on diagnosis only? | 67 | They also loosened the definition of depression so mild sufferers can also seek medical assistance. Which is good. They’ve made it far more “mainstream” so obviously there would be an uptick. A decent study would take into account the times that the definition changed and show accordingly on their stats and would or at least should mark them out. Always remember the source of any “study”. Is it funded or aka bias in some way. People who want funding to combat the uptick in community depression would try to minimize that particular information where their detractors would focus on it. Any study that doesn’t show and mark out those divinations isn’t a study worthy of note | 12 |
|
Can you be an "expert" in a field without its highest academic distinction e.g. Ph.D.? | 51 | Getting a PhD in a field doesnt make you an expert either.
Becoming an expert or even anything close to that takes years of learning and dedication and having a constant thirst for the knowledge one is seeking. | 97 |
|
ELI5: How do electronics know what battery percentage they have? | 179 | In short there are two ways, sometimes combined.
1) Measure the battery voltage and compare this against a graph that you obtained through calibration. This will tell you at what voltage, what the battery SOC (State-of-Charge) is. This will not be a linear relation. (being halfway between two extremes does not imply being half charged). Generally this is the *least* accurate way to measure, but it isn't affected by long-term errors.
2) You measure the current going in and out of the battery. You know how much energy a battery will hold if full. Current can describe how much energy escapes the battery every second. Therefore if you measure half the energy has left, the battery is half full. This method is affected by errors over long periods of time, but is much more accurate on shorter periods. | 98 |
|
I'm interested in doing a philosophy degree, but not keen on the types of jobs that you can do with it, other than maybe research. What sort of research does a philosopher do and to what extent would I be able to work on my own theories? | Also how much do the researchers make? | 117 | Just one opinion from a person with a philosophy degree, only do it if the satisfaction of learning is enough. Philosophy can lead you to more creative thinking, which is helpful in any job, but it won’t help you GET the job. Unlike pre-med, or engineering, a philosophy degree isn’t really the start of a career path. | 157 |
ELI5: If you gave me the name of any movie, I could tell you if Ive seen it or not. But I couldnt list all the movies Ive ever seen. Why is that? | 112 | **The quick**: The brain is less like a filing system, and more like a bunch of interconnected webs built on top of and next to each other.
If it was a filing system, you would just go to the "movies" folder and retrieve all the movies you have seen.
Since it isn't a file system, the first movie you ever saw maybe connected to an embarrassing event that happened in fourth grade. This is why memories can be "triggered".
It is easy for a brain to trigger a memory when someone asks, "have you seen Star Wars?" Star Wars is a term that is related to a set of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures. If someone asks, "what are all the sci-fi movies you have seen?" that is a harder task for the brain. There is no master index or master list.
**Further Information**
Benedict Carey's "*How We Learn*" is a book that looks at how the brain learns and stores information. It is very interesting if you are into this stuff.
Also, this triggered recalling is the basis behind *Sherlock*'s "Mind Palace" technique. People are extremely good at remember experiences and locations, not so good at remembering statistics or "data" (no context). The technique behind the Mind Palace is that you create a literal palace in your head, with visuals, sounds, smells, textures - and then you "store" information around the palace. You visualize storing your credit card number in your palace mailbox - then every time you need to recall that information you imagine walking up to your palace, opening the mailbox, and pulling out your credit card number. | 55 |
|
CMV: The "Old Soul" concept is an egotistical and overexaggerated way for people to unfairly place themselves above others. | I've talked to a lot of people who consider themselves "Old Souls" and the more I hear about it the more I think that the concept is so egotistical and unbelievably.
**Old Soul** doesn't have an official definition but I see it as someone who:
- Generally "more developed" or "more mature" than others in their age group
- Pursues interests that doesn't interest the greater populace, such as wisdom, truth, etc.
- Seeks a deeper meaning and deeper level of understanding than everyone else
- Are able to see past the surface of everything and can introspect the world's problems, not just their own
- Doesn't care about the small things, like day-to-day annoyances or materialism
- Feels that they do not belong because no one understands them.
And I've seen *so* many articles that take these "definitions" and twist them to become a good thing. I understand that they might try to look at things deeper and take certain things more seriously, but by naming themselves "old souls" they force a type of segregation on the rest of society by essentially saying "I'm better than you and this is why."
They're saying that they're *better people* and have *better minds / souls* because they choose to focus on their things both on the surface and deep inside. And they refuse to align themselves with societal mannerisms because they believe that normal people are incapable of thinking deep and introspectively.
Is it true that a lot of people live entirely on the surface and don't think deep? Yes. There are absolutely people who aren't thoughtful or who only care about menial things.
But we have no right to judge people for how they feel *internally.* In fact, we don't even know. Just because someone is materialistic or "shallow" *on the surface* doesn't mean they aren't thinking about the deeper and the more spiritual meanings of life. We don't know that for sure, and we have no right to assume that they do. Not everyone is comfortable talking about it. Not everyone even wants to talk about it. A lot of people just prefer to live their lives in an easy-going, happy, fun, exciting way instead of digging deep and trying to understand everything. **And that's OK, because that's a very valid way to live life and we have no right to segregate them from us.**
Old soul is such an egotistical term that the definition *itself* says that they're deeper and more introspective than others. And no one in my opinion has the right to say that about themselves and say that about other people.
And, furthermore, *so what if someone else IS more shallow?* Again, not everyone wants to be deep or introspective, and it certainly isn't a requirement of life. I'm sure plenty of "shallow" people are happy with their lives which, in the end, is really all that matters, so why do they need to label themselves as "better?"
It's just an excuse to be more of a dick and think they're smarter than everyone else.
**For this CMV,** please do not argue about the definition of old soul. Everyone has their own definition but this is the one I've seen the most and dealt with the most, and this is the one I'm referring to. Thanks!
_____
> *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!* | 38 | There are shallow people and there are people who have a level of insight.
I've know 16 year olds who got concepts that 30 old women didn't get.
And they just got them. They nailed it.
They talked the talk and they walked it too.
They were deeper then others. They were more aware.
If someone has the goods they have the goods. | 14 |
ELI5: How does bug spray affect an insect? | 210 | Bug spray is usually nerve gas for bugs.
Depending on the exact compound it causes the nerves to fire constantly, randomly or not at all. In any case it's not firing when it's supposed to or firing when it's not supposed to. The bug then suffers something like a heart attack or stroke. | 107 |
|
ELI5: How come online banking transactions still follow bankers hours if it's all computerized? | How come I can't pay a credit card bill that's due on a Saturday, on a Saturday? How come it still takes 2-3 days to electronically pay bills online when I can download pretty much anything from anywhere in the world instantly? | 375 | #1
Many systems that process banking transactions use Mainframes which process transactions in batches and more recently in Real-Time using CICS. Most banks uses software that processes banking transaction that were designed back in the late 70s-80s and still work great today. For instance, cashing checks, although there might be an online system that displays the transaction in Real-Time, ultimately it needs to be processed and balanced in a mainframe batch by each bank at the end of their day. So, the Federal Reserve bank or ACH (Automated Clearing House) sends transactions to banks every 4 hours and then there is a delta or EOD file sent at the end of the day, say 6 PM, for banks to process all their transaction in batches; normally mainframe batches run between non-operating that start around 8PM-7AM. This is why SWIFT (same day) money transfers are expensive, they don't use the ACH system rather they use a Real-Time messaging network run by the SWIFT Organization.
#2
Technology was designed a long time ago and modeled around how the human transaction worked and limitation around hardware. With the advent of microcomputers (your PC) and the internet, people expect transactions to happen instantaneously which requires a major overhaul of the software banks use today. That means it costs banks a lot cash in order to redesign the systems and a lot of risk given the systems work well today. For a bank it's not worth the expense and risk to make these transaction live.
#3
By banks keeping the system rigid they can more easily garner fees from its customers as Net Interest Income drops because of the low interest rate environment and losses to other fees based on regulations on capping overdraft fees and late payments. So, a bank could lose millions by allowing its customers to pay, say a credit card bill past 5 PM the same day or allowing the cash to show up in one's account the same day rather than the next. By removing the 5pm rule, they would lose out on all the fees they charge customers that do this. The bastards.
| 116 |
EI5: when i read "Economy sinks on fears of a global slowdown" who are this scared people? why they cant just be brave and not sink the economy? | Would there be any difference if they were not scared? | 24 | Imagine you and all your friends are a baseball card collectors. You like to trade cards between each other and, occassionally, sell them for money to a card shop. If you're a good collector and trader, you can make more money than you started off with.
One day, one of your friends hears a rumor that the card shop isn't doing too well and may not pay as much for your cards any more. In fact, it may go out of business. If you don't sell your cards before the shop closes, you won't be able to make any money. (Imagine, for the moment, that you no longer really like baseball cards and are only in this for the money).
Now you have two options. As your first option, you can run to the card store and try to sell what you've got. Other people may be running over there as well, and they might be willing to sell their cards for less than you are. To compete with the other people, you might have to lower your asking price and get even less money from the sale.
Your second option is not to believe the rumor. You think that the card shop will continue operating. In fact, you can try to convince all your friends to give the card shop a loan, to help it through these tough times. If the card shop lives on, you can sell your cards later and might even end up making more money.
If you choose the first option and you're wrong, you don't lose much. If the card shop keeps operating, you can go back and buy more cards at a later date. You'll have lost some money, but you protected yourself against the rumor. If you choose the second option and you're wrong, you lose a lot. You're left holding cards that you can't sell. And if you ended up giving the card shop a loan--and it still closed--you're out that money too.
So it's not necessarily a matter of being "brave." It makes good sense for you to sell your cards early and at a lower price. That way, you might make some money and you at least cut your losses. The bad thing is, all of your friends are making this same decision too. So everybody starts selling early and for cheap, which causes the card market to lose a lot of its value. | 16 |
ELI5: How are new digits of Pi discovered? | 63 | There are some infinite series that equal π. The most well-known is
> π = 4 * (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 ± ...)
Computers calculate an arbitrary number of digits of π by just calculating more and more terms and adding them up. In practice, they don't use the series above, they use a more complicated one that converges more quickly, but the principle is the same. | 84 |
|
ELI5: Why is 'to' pronounced like too but not like go, so etc? | 567 | Couple of reasons.
As someone else pointed out, English vocabulary has mixed origins. Words come in from a variety of different languages and, as such, the spelling of it may reflect the way a different language pronounces it.
Another reason is that English's spelling rules are just completely screwed up. It would take a lot of history to go over everything but, in short, how we apply spelling rules is dependent almost upon whim.
The spelling of some words were changed to be more consistent with Latin even when the words had no Latin origins. Because academics can be jerks.
Some words used to be pronounced completely differently so their spelling makes perfect sense for the old way of pronouncing it. Like the word "knight" used to be pronounced more like "kenayghit." Then the Great Vowel Shift occurred and we stopped pronouncing vowels sounds like German vowels and more like Normandy French vowels. Then some of the letters became silent. Yet we never changed the spelling. However, other words we did change the spelling to reflect the new pronunciation. Church used to be pronounced more like kirk. We altered the spelling of that one.
Some words get even weirder like colonel. That one is spelled nothing like it is pronounced because it got mangled in French and Italian before coming back to English.
Further complicating things, a school teacher in the United States decided to simplify spelling rules. He started creating materials to with his new and improved spelling rules. Except he didn't apply them everywhere. He just picked a few words he thought should be simplified and taught his students his preferred spelling and created lesson plans for it and did a lot to toss out his version of these words. This is largely the reason America spells some words different from the way England does. Colour versus color, wagon versus waggon, and labour versus labor just to name a few.
If that wasn't bad enough, English really doesn't have any formal decision making process for the "correct" way of spelling things. So, it was not terribly uncommon for words to have regional spelling differences. A word could be spelled several different ways depending on where you were. Eventually a preferred method of spelling would tend to win out but it didn't mean it was the most logical spelling. Just the one that became popular.
English spelling rules are screwy. Don't try to make sense of them. You can't. | 273 |
|
ELI5: What causes grade inflation at universities such as Harvard to get so bad? | 29 | The opinion in society that every student should be capable of getting an A in a subject. In the actual design of the system an average student should be getting a C (or 2.0) in a class, above average getting a B (3.0), students gifted in the subject should be the only ones getting an A (4.0). But society has seen fit to assume all students should get an A in a subject if they do the work and that means that the standards to get an A have to be lowered. | 23 |
|
ELI5: What makes Earth’s core hot? Why isn’t it just a cold blob made up of metal and minerals? | 31 | Two major reasons:
1. The earth was formed as a result of accretion. Small particles gradually attracted each other due to gravitational forces and formed bigger objects. This process accumulated a lot of heat; when two objects collide, heat is generated. And as a majority of the heat was retained and never lost, the earth's core remained hot.
2. However, a majority of the heat (>90%) is produced through the **decaying of radioactive elements**. The nucleus of unstable elements like U238 (Uranium) gradually break down, releasing energy. | 48 |
|
ELI5: How do restaurants make their fajitas sizzle so much? | The waiter can walk through the whole dining room and those things are sizzling with the fury of a thousand suns. When I cook something, it stops sizzling as soon as I take it off the heat. | 97 | Chili's: Meat and veggies cooked on the grill or whatever while the cast iron skillet stays over an open flame, staying super hot. Then, when all the other food is ready, the server tells the cooks to send the fajitas out. The cook puts all the meat and stuff on the skillet, squirts "sizzle sauce" all over it (soy sauce, oil mostly) so that the sauce begins to boil and steam, and the fajitas are then IMMEDIATELY brought out to the table before they calm down. | 102 |
ELI5:Difference between "Decriminalize" and "Legalize" | So I'm trying to figure out the difference between legalizing something vs decriminalizing it? E.g. Marijuana | 26 | In practice, "legalizing" something allowes the government to regulate it in a way that allows for some legalty. With marijuana, legalizing it is the process of getting the government to approve a legal amount to possess and tax the sale of it.
Decriminalization is more straightforward- it simply means making it a non-criminal offense, like a speeding ticket. If marijuana were to be decriminalized, it would not be regulated by the govenrment, so you would only be fined for posession and the government would not regulate it with taxes. | 20 |
ELI5: Why is a car brand like Volkswagen still in business after we discovered they've been lying to us for years and years. Why are we still trusting this company and why hasn't it gone bankrupt? | 29 | Losing a third of shareholder value, getting massive negative PR, massive fines, and possibly having a number of executives held criminally responsible isn't enough?
Why would you expect this scandal to completely bankrupt the largest company in Germany? | 46 |
|
Should I learn C and C++ before Python | Hi there. I had started to learn Python and then I found a curriculum of MIT and some other sources said that one should learn C and C++ first to be a good developer. Do you think this is really matter what language to learn first? I would like to do it properly in the long term. And what else should I learn from the very beginning except of programming language and math (I learn Calculus)? | 24 | Honestly, it does not matter. Depending on area of programming you like, C/C++ might not even be relevant to you. It's barely used in web. A lot of scientific computing uses Python.
Python can be a decent first language for the simple reason that there are a lot of resources using Python for new programmers. | 31 |
ELI5: What is the psychological reasoning behind pulling pigtails. (Teasing or physically hurting somebody your are attracted to.) | 30 | Antagonism is more socially acceptable than affection, especially when it is mild. Also, using antagonism does not expose a person emotionally the way a direct expression of affection might. You can give attention and not be outright rejected.
| 44 |
|
[Fallout - New Vegas, Old World Blues] Between Robert House's setup, the Trauma Override Harness and whatever the Think Tank have become, how can I extend my natural lifespan and/or cheat death? | 49 | Via removal of the brain/head and storing it in a medi-gel resivoir, there are many people who have survived over 200 years. (See robobrains, Think Tank) Brains in medigel has the disadvatage of having your brain removed, which has problems, such the surgical procedure possibly failing, your brain being damaged, becoming brain-dead, and cognitive degeneration. The brains in robobrains were from death row inmates and people from chineese internment camps. The brains were just efficient processors for the robots, they were wiped and tortured so that the personality of the "donor" would not come back. Brains thet were not wiped properly seemed to suffer from depression, sucidal thoughts and actions, and a variety of other conditions. It will keep you alive but not nescessarily sane.
An alternative is Mr House's setup. You are kept in a coffin hooked up to machines for 200 years. This of course will keep you alive, but you will not be healthy and happy. You will look like and have the immune system of a 200+ year old, with 200 years of atrophy. You will be alive, sane-ish, but requres an extensive setup and lots of go-betweens for interacting with the world.
Cryogenics are another choice. You freeze yourself and have a computer or timer decide when to release you. Bonuses: you will be perfecrly preserved, and can have some fun VR while you are waiting, but things might not ever get better and the life support could fail.
The trauma override harnesses are just suits with dead bodies in them. They were made to carry wounded people to medics even if they were unconscious, but they also work when the person is dead
Becoming a ghoul could also work, but you could go feral.
FEV can make you live much longer, but you will likely loose intelligence and be horribly deformed. | 42 |
|
ELI5: When we start reading a piece of text, how do our brains know to read it in such a way that accounts for both the upcoming punctuation and sentence structure that we haven't gotten to yet? | 17 | The structure of our language syntax accounts for this, usually. There is also a lot of implications involved, sort of 'read between the lines' type stuff that's supposed to be inferred.
Are you reading this with an upward inflection as to create the tone of a question?
The first word of the sentence set it up to be a question. You know this inherently, but you probably can't site any specific rules off the top of your head for how or why this is. | 15 |
|
ELI5: How does radiation make you sick/kill you? | I understand the symptoms of radiation poisoning, but what I don't understand is how it actually makes you sick. | 33 | Radiation is made up of tiny particles. These tiny particles are so small that they can fly right through your body without stopping, but occasionally, they smack into one of your cells. Radiation particles are super-tiny, but so are cells, so sometimes, a particle can kill a cell.
Sometimes, there's a lot of particles, so a lot of cells die. But in fact, that isn't usually what kills you. What kills you is what happens next.
Your body notices that there's a bunch of dead cells, and it doesn't know why they're dead. But it suspects a virus, because that's the usual culprit. Your body is wrong, but it doesn't know that. So your body sends in its virus-killers, the white blood cells.
Unfortunately, white blood cells have a hard time swimming through solid muscle. So your body makes it easier for these white blood cells to get to the dead cells by pumping up the muscles with extra water. That's called "inflammation."
Unfortunately, if too many cells died from the particles, the body goes overboard. First, it pumps too much water into all your organs. Your organs can't handle all the water and they start malfunctioning. Then, at the same time, your body tells the white blood cells to get super-aggressive. The white blood cells lose track of friend-vs-foe, and they start wrecking the place.
That's "acute radiation poisoning."
| 54 |
[Monsters Inc] What made the monster world believe that kids were hazardous? | 26 | So, monsters inc (the company) went into full production in 1895. Which means we know at least one thing that happened shortly after they began exploring the human world in earnest.
The Spanish Flu.
One of the deadliest pandemics in human history, infecting a third of humanity and killing 60 million people.- and that was humans who were used to flu viruses. Imagine how devastating it would have been for a species that had no prior experience.
As scare workers came back dead from being around humans? Well. "humans are deadly to be around" isn't a wildly unreasonable conclusion for a panicked society to reach. It should be noted that it seems the higher ups are aware they aren't dangerous- they know its was a pandemic now over- but the common perception is harder to erase. | 61 |
|
How do you use "a priori" properly in a sentence? | 25 | There are a few ways of using it.
* "'2+2=4' is a priori knowable" : here it works like an adverb, meaning independently of experience.
* "'2+2=4' is a piece of a priori knowledge" : here it works like an adjective, meaning piece of knowledge, which is independent of experience. | 27 |
|
ELI5:What is the "Dove Foundation", and why do they endorse awful kids movies? | I often see a lot of knock off animated movies that have a Dove " Family Friendly" logo, why do they ALWAYS have this logo? | 22 | The Dove Foundation is one of those groups that review movies/media for "family friendliness" (which really means "adherence to conservative Christian morality"). Few mainstream movies usually hit these groups' ideal for "perfect" family friendliness, so the ones that DO (and get the seal) are usually ones made and marketed directly towards that market: smaller markets, smaller budgets, specifically targeted market = "awful" movie. | 24 |
ELI5: What is it that gives us the feeling of sleeping on clean sheets? | Definitely a dumb question BUT, sleeping on fresh sheets is one of the most satisfying things. Why does it feel so nice? | 16 | The sheets smell like detergent rather than your own sweat and body oils. They also feel clean since detergent washes away your dead skin cells and body oils. They're a fresh canvas for you to make gross again. | 15 |
ELI5: Why is 3D printing becoming seemingly more viable for creating mechanical and moving items (such as prosthetic limbs) compared to whatever existed before 3D printing? | 43 | It allows for there to be specific parts made a certain size without having to make a mold to create it in. Quality prosthetic legs are created to fit a persons body part perfectly, and having a 3d printer makes it as simple as designing something with a computer program, and having a 3d printer. The materials and labor involved are almost nothing compared to what used to be done. | 23 |
|
Economics student here. One thing I do not understand is how a bond is different from a loan. Can someone explain this to me? | 18 | Nothing at all separates a bond process from a loan process, including the payment plans, because bonds and loans both can have any kind of structure to them. It is commonly used as a debt instrument for companies or governments to raise money. But a bond can be thought of exactly as a loan, because it really is the same thing. | 14 |
|
ELI5: Why does it seem like it's more the single women who get "accidentally" pregnant and worry so much about becoming pregnant, but it's the married couples that have to "try" really hard? | 135 | * A married couple gets pregnant. Nobody is surprised.
* A married couple can't get pregnant. It's really sad.
* A single woman gets pregnant. It's probably sad news.
* A single woman doesn't get pregnant. Probably nobody cares.
Make sense? Nobody cares about a dog biting a man. But if they hear about a man biting a dog, then everyone tells that story! | 232 |
|
[Logan] Question inside. (spoiler) | Can't Xavier just wear a helmet like Magneto's to avoid killing people with his seizures? | 63 | Theoretically, yes he could. The problem is that Logan has no way of getting hold of one, either the original or a new one. He can't leave Xavier alone for more than a few days, he has no resources to call on, and anyone who could or would have helped is most likely dead. | 58 |
ELI5:How can films shot in the 80s look amazing in hi-def today? | In honor of the passing of Roddy Piper, I re-watched They Live in HD and the picture was amazing. It looked even better than I remember watching it in the theater, and most definitely better than the many times I watched it on VHS/on cable. How is this possible? | 20 | Movies were historically shot on film; film doesn't really have a "resolution" in the sense of "high definition" what have you. Film is an analog medium, and it holds a LOT of detail. When you watched it on VHS or on TV historically, you were watching a low resolution digital scan of the analog film; when HD technology came around, they rescanned the film at high resolution.
What we now call HD doesn't even capture like a tenth of the actual detail on 35mm film, however. 4K, which is about four times the resolution of HD, only captures about one fourth of the resolution that 35mm can really capture. To get a scan of ALL the detail of 35mm film, you have to go all the way up to about 8K. You can keep scanning past that, but without much additional returned for it. | 45 |
[Star Wars] What is the difference between a Dark Jedi and a Sith? | 32 | A Dark Jedi is an individual trained in the way of the Jedi who has fallen to the Dark side. A Sith subscribes to the Sith philosophy but doesn't necessarily have to have been a Jedi previously.
When Anakin Skywalker fell to the Dark side, he became a Dark Jedi. Once he accepted the mantle of Darts Vader and became Palpatine's apprentice, he became a Sith. | 43 |
|
ELI5: How is it that I receive spam emails trying to get me to open a file, but if I try and send a reply to the address, it gets rejected? | 28 | When you have control of a mail relay (or find an unsecure one), you can pretty much list whatever you want as the source address. Sometimes spammers intentionally use fake addresses, and many times they don't know how to configure their own software so they leave it as the default. Looking at the headers can reveal the actual return path.
That said, **do not reply to those messages**. Don't even open them. Just delete them immediately. | 10 |
|
Where do the photons go after the light is turned off in the room? | 7,969 | They get absorbed by the surroundings! Photons are electromagnetic waves, so when they come to matter, they "wave" the electrons in the matter around, so the photons lose their energy are are absorbed. This is why a wall in the sun feels hot! The light is being absorbed by the wall and all energy goes into the wall feeling hot.
As a side note, this is a simplification. Like mirrors don't absorb light, they reflect it. For that matter, most materials reflect some amount of light, that's why we can see them. But all materials absorb light, even in small amounts, so eventually all the light would be absorbed by the material. | 6,192 |
|
How come Stephen Hawking is still alive and kicking (aged 69) even though sufferers of ALS usually succumb in their early 30's? | 110 | Most ALS suffers die when their motor neurons degenerate to the extent that they can't carry out essential bodily functions such as breathing ~~and digestion~~. Stephen Hawking's ALS isn't as progressive and has only had neuro degenerative effects on his muscular side rather than the **respiratory side he needs to live.** | 49 |
|
[Wh40k] How does one join the Cult Mechanicus on Mars, and what are the processes to become a Tech Priest? | Greetings! After generations of waiting since my family first requested, I finally got cleared to go to Mars from my forge world. I wish to be a member of the Cult Mechanicus, as knowledge is a blessing from the Omnisiah himself, and the Emperor is his avatar. I wish to aid in the quest for non-heretical knowledge. So, how would I do this upon my arrival to on the Red Planet? | 25 | Every citizen on a Forge World is a member of the Cult Mechanicus in some way. The majority are just workers, but they still adhere to the rites and practices of the Machine Cult, even before their adherence to the Church of the Savior Emperor.
To become initiated in the Tech-Priesthood, however, is not as simple. It is a matter of merit, not adherence to the faith or willingness to serve. Tech Priests of all ranks identify individuals with mechanical skills, and recommend their entrance into the Cult Proper. Refusal is not usually an option.
So, the best way to become a Tech Priest is to show a knowledge of and skill with technology. But only so long as it adheres to the proper observances of the Omnisiah. | 20 |
[Videogames] When a powerful bad guy is defeated, why does their base/island/asteroid/planet explode? And why does defeating a good guy not also cause things to explode? | 27 | This is usually because the villain has somehow become linked to their base of operations in some way or form. Sometimes this is intentional, other times it is just a by-product for whatever magic/technology they are using to further their plans.
For the first, its not entirely out of character for certain villains to consider their own lives worth more than anything and everything else combined. To that end, they could deliberately rig their base to fall apart in the event of their death. A sort of 'taking you with me' ploy for one last chance to take out as many people as possible. Or even just as a gambit that they hope never comes into play. "If you kill me, this whole place will explode and all your friends will die" is a good incentive for the hero to make sure you survive.
For the second, which is much more likely with magic-based villains, sometimes they just become so linked to their base that its existence literally depends on theirs. Particularly if the villain used said magic/technology to create the base in the first place. When the villain dies, the will that kept the place existing is gone and the whole base falls apart. Or explodes. | 29 |
|
ELI5: Why is it that the majority of sinks dispense aerated bubbly water rather than a smooth uninterrupted stream? Is this done on purpose? If so why? | 31 | Yes it's done on purpose, the tap of your sink has an aerator on it. If you look at it from below, you can see the little mesh screen, and you can unscrew it if you really want to. It's in place to reduce the amount of water you use because you will almost never need a solid column of water. It also helps to keep the water from splashing all over the place or coming out at weird angles. | 17 |
|
ELI5: Why are Banksy's paintings, grafitti, and other artwork worth so much money? | 19 | Honestly, because people are willing to pay that much for them. That's why most things cost what they do. As to why some artists take off while others stay penniless, nobody has ever come up with a good way to explain fashion trends. | 21 |
|
ELI5: Why do old emulated games still suffer from slowdown and lag when they run on modern computers? | 29 | Old consoles have CPU running synchronized with video and audio chips. Some games depend on the exact time of code execution to issue commands in the right time. Games can, for ex., change graphics settings in the middle of frame drawing - this can produce visual effects, that the video chip cannot do on its own. Emulator, of course, have to simulate all delays, because they can be meaningful.
Example: Super Mario Bros. has scrolling levels, and a status bar, which does not scroll. But NES' video chip can only scroll the entire screen. So, the game sets 0 scroll, waits until the last line of status bar is sent on the TV, and then changes the scroll. But for that the program on the CPU must be able to keep the time somehow. NES doesn't have timers, so the game can only rely on instruction timings for timekeeping. | 46 |
|
CMV: Answering questions about race or ethnicity can only lead to discriminatory results | This question pertains to those questions on applications, often government applications, which ask about the racial background of the applicant. At least in the US these are normally marked as optional, I very rarely if ever see one on an official application (rather than some weird online thing that doesn't matter) that is actually required. But, for whatever reason, the application to enroll or oldest kid into kindergarten has questions for 'local race (select one)', 'is the student of Hispanic origin?' and 'federal race (choose all that apply)'
I fundamentally disagree with the asking of these sorts of questions because while I believe the data may be interesting at times, I don't see many ways in which it can ultimately be used that are not discriminatory toward one race or another, or simply used to contextualize things in a racial way that I feel we need to move beyond.
Thus, I typically simply or these questions. But the rigid online school application won't let me move on without these required questions being answered. My default impulse was to fill in obviously useless data (i.e. for question 1: asian; 2: yes, of Hispanic origin; 3: select black, white, Asian, Pacific islander, all the ethnicities!) Having had the night to sleep on it I decided it may be a better approach to come here and see if there are actually useful but non-discriminatory ways in which this data is likely to be applied and which may thus motivate me to answer honestly rather than get into it with the school right off the bat :) | 27 | I live the in a community that has a large Arab population. Since 9/11, they regularly refuse to fill out their race and ethnicity on government forms, fearing that to do so will lead to government surveillance and harassment. Or if they do they fill out “white.”
Last election rolls by, and there was surprisingly high turn out by the community. Out of a community of several tens of thousands, normally only a hundred show up to vote. (Again they are afraid to register to vote, believing it will be used against them). This time over a thousand show up to vote. Yet many are turned away at the polls (which is illegal, separate issue) because the polls do not have enough translators or forms printed out in Arabic and Farsi.
The government needs this sort of information to properly serve communities. | 33 |
What does Math in Quantum Physics "look like"? Is it still much like applied math, or does it start to look more like doing proofs? | I've heard that a lot of the really theory-heavy areas of math show up in quantum mechanics a lot; things like linear algebra, group theory and complex analysis. Moreover, it seems like there are some folks in the pure math camp that are also doing stuff related to QM.
Does quantum physics mostly rely on the computational results coming out of these fields, or do you start working at a higher level of abstraction and do a lot of proving? | 34 | The two main ways of "doing" quantum mechanics are through the Schroedinger equation and through Heisenberg matrix mechanics. The path integral formulation is generally used in quantum field theory.
The Schroedinger equation is a second order differential equation, which is solved according to the boundary conditions giving a wavefunction describing a probability amplitude. The expectation values of various things (like the average position of a particle) is found by integrating the product of the wavefunction, the thing, and the adjoint of the wavefunction.
In matrix quantum mechanics, the vectors representing the state of a system are eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian matrix, with each eigenvalue being a discrete energy the system can take. Bra-ket notation is generally used here.
| 35 |
CMV: There is no way anyone can actually believe in their heart at this point that the 2020 election was stolen without believing that "certain types" of Americans shouldn't have a right to vote (i.e. without being racist, sexist, homophobic, classist and/or fascist). | A total compilation of the evidence obtained and shared to the American people by the Jan 6th House committee includes.
1: Over 60 lawsuits filed by Trump and lawyered by Giuliani failed to prove any fraud in the election of any kind and resulted in Rudy legally not being allowed to use the word fraud in the courtroom. Many of these suits were led by republican appointed judges. This eventually also led to Rudy losing his license to practice law.
2: Testimony from innumerous witnesses, including a vast majority of republicans and family members as well as Trumps own DOJ, stating that Trump both knew he had lost the election and had planned in great detail that if he lost he would in fact say it was fraudulent and claim victory anyway.
3: That over and over again the many individuals who ended up being convicted of crimes in the Jan 6th insurrection point to Trump as the instigator and motivator of their crimes.
4: Evidence proving Trump repeatedly tried to illegally cajole and manipulate governors of states into "finding" votes that would turn their electorates for Trump.
5: Being linked directly to a plot that included many GOP members trying to falsify electoral college certifications illegally claiming Trump as the winner of their state.
6: Hell, at this point I feel like there is so much more proof they have uncovered that I am probably forgetting things.
I want to know with all of this proof how anyone could still think Trump won without believing certain types of Americans shouldn't have the right to vote.
I don't want answers from someone who agrees with me but thinks they know what "they" could still believe. I want to hear from actual people who can justify their belief that the election was truly stolen and how it could have been stolen without that belief being motivated by a hatred for a certain set of Americans. | 488 | You have to consider the media diet of a person such as this. They are being told that the election was stolen and news channels have been invented for them to watch so that they can be shielded from any evidence that comes out against that narrative. Don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity. | 263 |
[MCU] What have the world militaries been up to lately? Did Tony Stark really privatize World Peace? | Sorry if this sounds long or rambling, I just wanted to post my observations and discuss the state of the world's different militaries as they stand in 2018 and beyond.
It seems like military branches in the MCU have less and less influence on the world as time goes on. During Iron Man 1 and 2, they get involved but kind of eventually let Tony Stark do his own thing. He has even gone as far as declaring that he has privatized World Peace. The US government played a big role in The Incredible Hulk, but have since stepped down and backed off. After The Avengers, we don't see much government stuff, as the focus is put onto SHIELD (Which is later shut down).
I know General Ross is in Civil War and Infinity War, but we don't really gain much understanding of what the military does, or how influential they are in this post-Avengers world. The Avengers pretty much still tackle every major threat, and the Army never exactly steps in to help. Where were all the tanks or soldiers in NYC during Infinity War? Where were they in Endgame? I acknowledge Thanos probably did a ton of damage to the army, but surely, there would be some kind of organization trying to keep things in order or enact Martial Law or something? | 94 | In the years since Captain America saved the world from Hydra, the world's militaries spent a significant amount of time and resources trying to recreate Erskin's super soldier serum. The end results were things like the Hulk, Black Widow, and a variety of other enhanced individuals. Governments witnessed the effect of deploying a single super-powered individual into combat zones and it changed the face of warfare in their world as much as the atom bomb changed ours.
Given this sudden emphasis on intelligence and espionage over large scale conflict, government focus (and funding) went less into stockpiling nuclear arms and into designing and creating super soldiers and arming them appropriately. Of course, no one was really as effective as they would have liked to have been, but this new military landscape led to the rise of clandestine organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. and facilities like the Red Room. It was in everyone's best interest to keep their inner workings locked down, since everyone was trying to copy everyone. And when dealing with super-powered individuals, mistakes tend to be... abominations.
To answer your specific questions;
The military's involvement in the Battle of New York was delayed because they had no idea what was going on. The National Guard was deployed because when reports started coming in that there was an Alien Invasion they assumed it was hysteria. The military officials that were involved and actually understood what was going on fired a nuke at the city.
In Infinity war, there was no response team because there was no response time. By the time the military had mobilized, the fight was over.
Same thing with Endgame. Strange and the sorcerers didn't open up a portal to a military base because they would have had to convince the soldier's to march through it. They needed a timely response to Thanos. | 87 |
ELI5: Why does whacking the remote when it's low battery actually work. | 907 | Microscopic(or larger) corrosion can occur between the battery ends and the controllers contact terminals.
This corrosion increases circuit resistance - making it harder for charge to flow from battery to device. Basically more resistance lower voltage, and every electronic device has a minimum operating voltage.
By wacking the controller, you are repositioning the contacts ever so slightly and may get a better contact between power source(battery) and the controller. This better contact lowers resistance, allowing a slightly higher voltage to flow in to the controller, letting it work a little longer. | 597 |
|
[Planet of the Apes; 1968] How did Taylor, an astronaut, not immediately realize they were on earth simply by looking at the stars or realizing the moon looked just like Earth’s? | 25 | Taylor's natural assumption was that they had landed on another planet. Since this is a first time deep-space voyage, they would have little to no point of reference to identify that planet's constellations nor any reason to. Trying to analyze the stars would have been pointless so he probably never bothered to even attempt it.
Also, despite the absence of a moon (for whatever reason) one of the astronauts comments that "there's always a strange cloud cover at night." (Again, for whatever reason) so viewing the night sky probably wasnt possible. | 35 |
|
[Pirates of the Caribbean] I pierce Davy Jones' heart in the middle of Germany, far away from the sea, surrounded by a small army of soldiers. What happens? | The Dutchman must have a captain. And the crew will seek out the person who pierced the heart of Davy Jones to make them their captain.
But what if I do it while I'm about as far from the sea as possible, far from water, surrounded by men armed with the finest sabers and muskets?
Does the crew manage to find me and cut out my heart? | 281 | The crew can teleport, and it's only Jones who can't walk on land except once a decade. They will find you no matter where you are. Your army won't be able to stop the immortal crew of the Dutchman. | 211 |
ELI5: How do game show award money amounts work? Some game shows are only able to give away a few thousand dollars and others can give away millions. Who sponsors / funds shows and how are final award amounts decided? | 22 | gameshows basically buy an insurance against larger winnings. it is then the banks job to figure out the probability of such large wins, and offer a premium to the gameshow they have to pay regardless what is won.
for small amounts (a few thousand) the gameshows itself can probably handle, for larger ones you need insurances (but are great advertisements). In the middle range you would basically still need insurance, but the premiums (and financial overhead) would probably be too high. | 16 |
|
Does DNA change over time? | Does the human DNA genome change as a person ages? By this I mean could you test the DNA of a child and get an exact full profile match to the same person when they have reached old age? | 271 | Every cell division can result in random mutations. Also DNA of single cells can mutate due to radiation and other events. So you would not get a 100% match in a DNA test, wenn you sequence a single cell. Certain cell types also change their DNA permanently (B and T lymphocytes to be able to produce the same antibodies permanently). However, when you sequence a sample of a lot of cells these mutations won't be visible in the results because it would be just noise. So overall, the result should be close to 100% but there will always be sequencing errors as well.. And there are telomers sequences, which get shorter every cell division. So these will be different as well.
On the other hand when you look at tumor/cancer the DNA can be very different. But this is a topic for itself.
I hope this helped! | 216 |
ELI5 (or an American) - European Soccer Schedule | I understand that each country has it's own league (la liga, EPL, etc) and that the Champions League are the top teams from each league. But when is the Champions League played? How do you get into the Champions League (is it like the postseason). What happens during world cup and euro cup years? | 37 | Most 5-year-olds would have fallen asleep during the answers so far. Soccer schedules are ten times simpler than North American sports schedules. Here's what you need to know.
1. Champions League matches are played during the regular season.
2. Qualification for the Champions League is based on the previous season's performance in the national league.
3. The World Cup and European Championships are played every four years in the off season (i.e. summer). The European Championships are happening now. The next World Cup is in 2014. | 28 |
CMV: Men have no defense against a woman who threatens to say you raped her. | I was discussing female on male rape the other day, and I was reminded of an AskReddit from a while back that asked men to tell their stories.
One particular story that stuck in my mind was about a woman that wanted sex from a guy. He refused. She said that she would claim that he raped her if he didn't have sex with him. He thought nobody will believe me and my life will be ruined, so he had sex with her.
I cannot think of a single defense that a man would have against this. Even if he isn't prosecuted, the social stigma will be forever there and he'll always be seen as "a rapist that got away with it" instead of "a man that was falsely accused of rape."
To add to this, there is very little disincentive for a woman. Take the woman who was actually recorded in the Uber saying she was going to claim rape. No punishment for her what so ever. There are many women who were caught specifically lying about false rape claims... Zero consequences. Note, I'm not saying there wasn't enough evidence one way or another. Like, the guy being out of the country at the time or receipts that show he wasn't anywhere near her kind of lying.
Then you have feminists pushing the "listen and believe" campaign that tells society that we should automatically believe every woman who claims rape. No consideration that false rape claims do happen.
For the life of me, I cannot think of any defense a man has against this. If a woman says she's going to claim he raped her, his options are to give her what she wants or become a social pariah (and possible, although unlikely, prison time).
CMV
Edit: I thought I made it painfully clear in my post that I'm not taking about having no legal defense, but more about having no social defense. Once a man is accused of rape, that's it. Nobody will believe the man and everyone will believe the woman. He will most likely lose all his friends, his job, possibly get divorced, etc. | 96 | If you're actually threatened with a false rape accusation, start to immediately record the conversation as you continue it. Phones typically come with voice recorder programs and can record conversations discreetly, just act like you're checking your texts or something.
All you need to do is get the woman to reiterate the threat one more time after you have started recording, then go to the police and report the attempted blackmail using your recording as evidence.
No rape accusation ever even gets a chance to be made.
This tip also applies to any case of blackmail. | 55 |
ELI5: What exactly is "Sunk Cost"? | My wife and I are having a disagreement as to what it means. She says that it means the cost of something you purchased some time ago, and had you not purchased it the money would be gone anyway.
Basically, 3 years ago we decided to purchase something to hold onto and sell later on when the value goes up. She says that the purchase price can be considered as profit since it was so long ago. I disagreed. Anyway, she calls it "sunk cost". | 57 | Sunk cost is just a cost that cannot be recovered so it shouldn't be used in decision making. Eg you paid to see a movie and you have watched half of it but you aren't enjoying it. You also can't get a refund. The sunk cost is the amount you paid and the time already spent. So in deciding if you want to leave the theater or watch the rest of the movie you shouldn't be using the fact that you paid or the time spent as a reason to stay since those costs are not recoverable. | 239 |
[Warhammer 40K] what if the Empire managed to find all of the lost Standard Template Constructs (STCs), how would that change things? One more question as well. | * Is Warhammer Fantasy considered to be in the historical past of Warhammer 40K? | 33 | You don't need to find them all, just a complete one.
Officially 40k and fantasy are two completely different settings, but there are many fan theories of Sigmar being a lost primarch and the world being stuck in a warp storm. | 30 |
[MCU] In Captain America:TWS the hydra guy cap interrogates states hydra are monitoring people of interest and mentions "Stephen Strange" why was he of interest to hydra back then? | Was it just because he was an extremely talented Surgeon/Doctor? | 37 | He was brilliant, extremely driven, focused and not one to respect authority.
He's exactly the kind of person who could be a major problem should he turn his attention from surgery to the world around him. | 103 |
CMV: Creating a charity every time your kid dies is a waste of time at best and at worst actively helps the cause that killed your child. | It's always bothered me that people create charities at the drop of a hat. ~~Someone's kid died from a rare disease? Make a charity in the dead kid's name.~~ Someone fell ill with a perfectly average cancer? A loved one founds a new charity. Someone fell off a mountain and died while trying to raise money for their cousin's charity? There's bound to be someone close that will set up a charitable foundation in his name that celebrates his life and supports those who have hurt themselves while trying to perform charitable acts.
Seriously, how could such a glut of charities possibly be a good thing? They're just leeching off each other and losing donations to overhead.
EDIT: I seriously messed up the title of this post. The second half of the sentence should read: "and at worst negatively affects the cause that you're establishing a charity for in the first place." **Basically, I'm saying that it is inefficient to start another charity for a large and visible cause in a situation where one already exists. And for the large and visible causes, MANY already exist.**
_____
> *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!* | 126 | >They're just leeching off each other and losing donations to overhead.
That's assuming that the people giving to brand new charity B already knew about charity A. It's possible that the creation of this charity helps publicize it, and bring more awareness and donation money from people who wouldn't have otherwise donated in the first place. | 37 |
CMV: The make-up/cosmetics industry exists to fix issues it has caused | I saw a comic a few minutes ago on the frontpage, and it highlighted how men have less skincare issues than women, even though they do far less in terms of maintenance.
Which got me thinking. Maybe women have such issues with skincare because they're required to plaster their faces with cosmetics, remove hair far more than men do, and generally put various things on themselves in order to meet some societal standard.
Which got me thinking even further. The skincare industry exists to fix problems it has caused.
Cosmetics companies advertise unrealistically beauty standards>women are compelled to wear make up to meet these standards>they develop skin issues because of this make up>they feel worse about their skin>wear make-up to compensate.
Obviously this is ignoring the people who do generally have issues with their skin, like dryness, eczema, acne etc. who probably need to take care of their skin more anyway.
The more I think about things, the more things seems like a capitalist conspiracy. CMV. | 27 | This is literally the purpose of marketing: to create a need people didn't know they had. Almost every personal hygiene product from deodorant to toothpaste is a need created by a marketing agency.
I don't know how to change your view when you've simply stated a fact. | 16 |
Is it possible to slow a photon down? | Is there any way of reducing the speed of a photon, or making it stationary? (in our frame of reference) | 34 | No.
You might be thinking of the way light "slows down" in a medium (glass, air, whatever), but what is actually happening is light is travelling at *c* between the atoms that make up the material, but being absorbed and re-emited by the atoms. This process takes a little time, so the overall macroscopic effect is that a light beam seems to slow down. | 70 |
ELI5: Why isn't there a non-invasive/non-surgical test for diagnosing endometriosis? What's wrong with ultrasounds, MRIs, pelvic exams, etc? | 27 | Ultrasounds can't detect small endometrial growths. Pelvic exams can detect bumps, but can't confirm that they are caused by endometriosis. MRI is pretty good, but it isn't as good as just using a camera (laparoscope) to find lesions, or biopsy if the lesions are too small to be visible. | 12 |
|
ELI5 : How are science able to determine what colours animals can and can't see? | 24 | You test the animals.
You teach an animal that if it sees a $ in a pattern of dots, touching it gives a food reward.
Then you put a red $ on a blue card, and see if the animal reacts. Then a red $ on a green card, then ....
When you look at the pattern of right vs wrong, you know which colors the animal can distinguish.
BTW, this is also how we test for color-blindness in humans, only without the food rewards. | 64 |
|
Why does it seem that all planets around a sun are on a 2-dimensional plane? Can they be 3-dimensional? | If you look at any picture of our solar system, every planet is is on a flat plane extending out from the general center of the sun. Why is that? and can some planets go "above" and "below" the sun as an orbit? | 43 | because all the planets were formed out of the same disc that our star did. as the "cloud" of matter rotates, centrifugal forces flatten the cloud into a disc shape, then as matter clumps together, it continues to rotate in this disc getting bigger and bigger, until it forms an asteroid, a planet, or our sun. | 46 |
Has new life ever appeared on Earth since the first life arose 3.7B years ago? | So the world is filled with life, and in surprising locations and immense diversity. And every bit of it shares a common blueprint in the form of DNA. This to me, suggests that all of life shares a common origin. That there has only been one instance of abiogenesis (spontaneous creation of life) that has happened.
So, has there ever been a form of life on earth that has arisen more recently and not from the first lifeforms? I.e. Has life popped up since, say 2 billion years ago or say 5 minutes ago?
And if not, why in a world so resplendent with life, has new life not arisen from scratch? | 74 | We don't know what the life looked like 3.8 billion years ago or if it stuck around. All we know is that there was indeed life back then. This life could have died out at 3.75 billion years ago and new life began at 3.74 billion years ago. This however is incredibly unlikely. We assume that it only started once because we don't know how life started and or how difficult it is to start having life. We aren't even sure where life arose for the first time. We are pretty sure that it was in the form of bacterial mats but even that is mostly speculation. The thing to note however is that life at 3.8 billion years ago was already fairly complex so it probably originated before then. | 41 |
I believe marijuana is habit forming. CMV | From personal experience and being involved in the culture and then going to complete 'non-use', I believe marijuana to be a habit forming drug.
Now I know we can argue that possibly I just have an addictive personality and that could be true, I might. Though another thing I've thought about (personal opinion) is that when I was around people that use marijuana at first it seemed a bit sketchy. But the more I indulged in it I started justifying it to myself with the usual "Im not getting addicted, its just nice, I could stop at any time that I want. And never even think about doing it again." and things like that. But in the end I kept partaking.
But one day I had a big falling out with my dad and I promised myself I wouldn't continue because it was leading me into a worse crowd (gangs, etc) but we don't need to discuss that here. And for a very long time after I stopped I wanted to do it and every time it was offered it was hard to say no. It didn't have a physical toll on me but the mental toll it was taking was definitely noticeable. But sitting here now I really have no urge to, hence leading me to believe I formed a habit but was able to break it.
You can't say it was because my friends were pressuring me after I stopped and thats why I kept having feelings because all ties were quickly cut between us because I didnt smoke anymore, but I still felt the urge.
tl;dr coming from both sides of the fence i think marijuana is habit forming
edit: spelling | 29 | Cannabis *is* potentially habit-forming - there is little doubt about that. It may not be in the obvious sense, e.g. withdrawal symptoms, but anything that activates the reward system and leads to further seeking-out behaviour can be considered habit-forming.
But so are many other things - chocolate, skydiving, love etc.
The debate isn't about whether marijuana is habit-forming or not - it is - but about issues such as the best way to tackle potential abuse, the real negative impact of its side-effects, the implications for personal freedom, dealing with the criminal element and so forth.
Those are all strong arguments for (or, indeed, against) legalisation; not whether it is habit forming or not.
| 30 |
When you hear about a space craft “slingshotting” off of a planet, does that really increase speed? Wouldn’t the craft just slow down again as it moves away from the planet? | 27 | It does increase their speed. When the smaller object turns around the larger object, it steals a little bit of energy from the larger object, and leaves with a higher kinetic energy. It still slows down as it moves away from the larger object, but the net result is still a higher kinetic energy than it had initially.
Gravity is a conservative force, so if the larger body was fixed in space, the smaller body would lose as much energy as it gained, and there would be no net change in its speed. But since the larger body is not fixed in space, its motion is perturbed by the smaller body, and some of its energy is stolen. | 57 |
|
ELI5: What happened to MySpace and why? | I know Facebook happened but is there more to it than that? | 554 | In hindsight, MySpace's initial dominance in the social media space seems to have been a "first mover advantage". They were the first to tap into social media in a way that captured the attention of a critical mass of people. Social media was still a very new world though - an undeveloped market - and what MySpace offered was a niche in the context of what social media has become.
Picture present day social media as a big pie, of which MySpace is a little sliver. Most of the pie hadn't been made when Myspace came around, so everyone jumped on board, but as social media has become bigger broader, MySpace basically stayed the same.
Facebook put pictures, messaging and social planning at it's core, and those features appeal to a broader base of people than the MySpace core that includes site ("space") design and music sharing. Subsequently, many of the people that joined MySpace because "OMG, social media" found that newer social media sites (mostly Facebook) actually suited their needs better. | 478 |
[Star Wars] Why did the Jedi believe that the chosen one needed to bring balance to the Force if they believed the Sith were extinct? | Wouldn't the Force already be balanced in a way the Jedi favored? | 28 | The prophecy predated all the current Jedi, including their belief that the Sith were extinct. When Qui-Gon proposes that Anakin is the chosen one, he's met with disbelief from all the modern Jedi. If there are no Sith, it definitely makes the Chosen One seem pretty implausible.
However, the Council is presented with information about there actually being Sith literally seconds before Qui-Gon mentions Anakin, throwing that angle of skepticism into doubt. The Council isn't exactly convinced of either claim at that point, but they *do* at least reinforce each other.
And as for why Qui-Gon would make either claim... he never really followed a lot of Jedi doctrine. Believing that the Jedi had exterminated the Sith and had "won" the war isn't the kind of arrogance that he would participate in. He was much more open minded than that, including his belief in the Chosen One. | 30 |
CMV: As a programmer, everything I do to help my brain relax and "get in the mood" for programming should be billable. | Programming is very intense and requires a lot of concentration, so it is impossible for most people to code for 7-8 hours straight every day and still produce quality work. This includes stuff like getting coffee, reading articles, or just going outside and taking a walk for a few minutes. I don't bill this kind of stuff in my work now but the thought has crossed my mind before that I should be able to, since it does positively contribute to the work.
So as long as I am meeting deadlines, cooperating well, and producing quality work, etc. I should be able to bill any personal activity I can reasonably justify as helping me get in the mood to code.
Update: These "billable personal activities" I am describing would just be brief escapes from the code for 15-30 minutes or so. Not hours at a time.
Update: Wording.
CMV
Edit: My V has been C'ed. It just doesn't seem right to bill time not spent doing some sort of directly work-related activity.
_____
> *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!* | 18 | If you hire a plumber to fix your leaky sink, and he spends an hour doing Yoga in your kitchen before actually beginning to work, spends an hour fixing the sink, and tries to bill you for 2 hours of labor, citing that the yoga helped him to relax and get his body into a state necessary to comfortably spend an hour contorting himself to fit under your sink, would you be okay with that?
What if a construction crew you'd hired to build a house charged you for a Gym membership and an hour a day spent at the gym for every day they worked on the project, citing that they needed to keep their bodies in shape to perform their duties?
If you wouldn't find either of these scenarios to be reasonable, how can you justify playing videogames or browsing the internet and billing it to clients with the justification that it's getting you "in the mood to code"? | 25 |
How come I can eat salt and drink water but I can't drink salt water? | 47 | Seawater is very salty. About 3.5%, which makes that pint of water you have with dinner about 17g of salt. The RDA of salt is around 6g, so in that one glass you have three days worth. When you drink it, your cells dump out water to try and balance the salt levels in your cells and your blood and you essentially dehydrate.
Water with a little bit of salt in it is fine, and can be found in diarrhoea treatments. | 42 |
|
[The Emperor's New Groove] Why DO they have that lever? | You know the lever.
The lever specifically designed to drop the puller into a moat of crocodiles.
Yzma's lever. | 75 | If someone intrudes into the lair they are greeted with two levers. They don't know which one does what. 50/50 shot your trespasser enters your lair or gets eaten by crocodiles. And (if you aren't Kronk) you know which lever it is, so you never screw up. | 45 |
[Star Wars]Would a planet survive a Star Destroyer crashing into it? | If a Star Destroyer fell from orbit and smashed into a planet, (for example https://imgur.com/9X9iuES) what would be the implications? Would it be an extinction level event? | 80 | No. They aren't as big and nowhere near as massive as, say, an asteroid, being practically hollow in comparison. They would make a mile long trench on impact, but it wouldn't even be CLOSE to an extinction level event. | 119 |
[Star Wars] End of Palpatine's emergency powers? | Why was General Grievous's death the event that prompted Mace Windu's appointment to ask the Chancellor to give up power? Wouldn't the war still be going on, just with a new Separatist general like perhaps Trench? | 21 | With the deaths of Grievous and Dooku, the Separatists had lost their key military and political leaders, and were essentially losing the war even before that.
With their deaths, the Jedi felt that the war was drawing to a close, and all the "emergency powers" Palpatine had grabbed were no longer necessary - not that they trusted him with them to begin with, but they were in the middle of a war and acting as generals in it so they couldn't just say that he didn't need those powers at that time. | 28 |
Why can I smell static electricity? | Maybe I cant smell static itself, but there is a particular odor I always attribute to static. Am I smelling something else or does the static have an affect on the air creating a unique scent? | 15 | The most likely source of the smell is from the ozone created by the electrostatic discharge - that is, static shock. When a spark is created between your body and, say, the doorknob, the air molecules along the spark path are ionized. If the spark is strong enough, it can also break some of the molecules apart. In the case of oxygen, which is naturally diatomic (O2), the separated oxygen atoms can join onto other oxygen molecules, creating ozone (O3). Ozone has a pretty characteristic sharp scent. | 21 |
Is standpoint theory self-contradictory? | According to standpoint theory, something like objective truth doesn't exist. If we want to learn something about the world, we have to consider different standpoints, especially due to existing social inequalities which result in people having very different experiences.
But isn't that contradictory?
1) If everything is a matter of standpoint, then inequalities do not objectively exist, either, do they? If there is no objective truth, then how do we know there is inequality?
2) more generally speaking: isn't standpoint theory itself only a standpoint? If there is no objective truth, then standpoint theory is (by its own reasoning) again just another POV on the same level as the perspective "there IS universal truth". | 19 | Standpoint theory does not take it that there is no objective truth. The claim is that our epistemic access to objective truth is mediated by our standpoint. It’s an epistemic theory, not a theory of truth. It’s a theory about how we know things not what is true or anything about truth.
Every worry you have just follows from this misunderstanding. | 65 |
[Doctor Who] How did The Doctor get his 51% to pass the academy? | It's well established that he did poorly at the academy, passing after multiple attempts with a bare minimum 51%. But it doesn't seem like he's baseline competent with the breadth of the academy syllabus; he can't really control his regeneration, multiple times other timelords mention that he never paid attention. So what subjects did he excel at that allowed him to compensate for the ones he bombed? | 24 | He's able to pilot a Tardis solo, something that is meant to be done by a team of trained Time Lords. He's a prodigy in that regard, (though part of it is that Sexy likes him), which means his knowledge of temporal mechanics and how to navigate time and space must be excellent. | 24 |
ELI5: Why are Tesla batteries lots of little batteries wired together. Can't they just make big ones? | Is it more efficient to use little ones, or is it technology limitations? | 15 | Making a semantic comment rather than a technical one. If there was only one electrolytic cell it wouldn't be a battery. For example, a 9V battery is a battery of six 1.5V cells in series. In contrast, a AA cell is not a battery at all; only a cell. The word battery means many units working together, as in a battery of guns.
Back to the technical. Electrolytic cells produce only a low voltage so it's necessary to connect them in series, multiplying the voltage in a battery. It's impractical to drive high-power motors with a low voltage because the extremely high current required would need thick and expensive cables. Also, some of the losses involved in the power control electronics are of a constant voltage; losing 0.5V might be acceptable with a 100V supply but if you're only working with 3V the loss of efficiency is too great. Much the same issue would arise in any attempt to step up the battery voltage with a DC to DC converter. | 16 |
If space is ever expanding, where does it expand into? Is it a place that even exists? | 30 | Space doesn't expand into anything. Distances just get larger between galaxies.
Suppose you have an infinite rubber sheet and draw a grid on this sheet. At each intersection point you mark a dot which is just a galaxy. Now this infinite sheet is stretched everywhere equally in all directions (both the x and y directions). You will see your grid correspondingly stretch as well. That is, the distance between two given intersection points increases.
This is what we mean by the expansion of space. The sheet isn't expanding into anything. The sheet started out infinite and it's still infinite. The sheet itself still occupies the same space. But the distance between two given fixed galaxies is increasing over time.
On a side note, your grid establishes what are called co-moving coordinates. If you label the intersection points of your grid with coordinates then the labels of the grid points do not change as the sheet is stretched. That is, each galaxy has the same coordinates no matter what.
We could have also had some fixed grid that did not stretch along with the sheet. (Think of marking the galaxies on the sheet but the grid itself is made of some rigid wire suspended above the sheet.) Then the coordinates of galaxies do change over time. These coordinates are called proper coordinates and differences in proper positions gives the proper distance. It is the proper distance between galaxies that increases over time because of expansion. | 20 |
|
ELI5: How do scientists find out the recommended daily intake of various minerals and vitamins ? | 2,394 | First of all keep in mind that the advice given varies from country to country. A lot of it is disputed - mainly due to trying to find a one size fits all recommendation when people are all so different. A 65 year old man won't need the same things as a 23 year old woman for example.
Ok so how do they work it out? Well it's different for each item, they're not all worked out in the same way. Some are actually just educated guesses. Others they get from looking at studies into certain diseases that come about when you have a deficiency in something. They may look at the diet of someone with scurvy for example, and see how much vitamin C they ate compared to someone who is healthy. They can then determine the healthy person was eating enough and set it as a minimum requirement. (They would not just look at a single person though, they would look at many.)
For some some vitamins they do get a bit more "technical" and can take blood from someone and use a machine to look at the cells at a DNA level. If they see damage from a lack of a certain vitamin they can determine that the patient is deficient and make a note of how much they take in and increase it.
So, rather than making people deficient on purpose to find out the minimum values they wait until someone is already deficient and then figure it out from there. | 595 |
|
[Warhammer 40k/The Culture] How close is the Culture to birthing a Chaos god like Slaaneesh? | Assuming of course that the two settings overlap (maybe the Culture represents the golden age of technology). | 16 | If they were suddenly exposed to the warp they would spawn a chaos god of peace, knowledge, understanding, and progress. It would be like Tzeentch but thousands of time more skilled/powerful and having the best interests of all sentient beings as his primary goal. | 21 |
Do you think high levels of immigration is good or bad for the economy and why? | I was having a discussion with a few peers about it and would really like to know other's opinion. | 16 | For me it would depend on circumstances.
Does the destination have a cheap worker shortage? Do the immigrants typically have a strong educational background or work ethic? Do they speak the language of the place they are immigrated to, if not, are they willing? Is there housing opportunities for them? How widespread is discrimination, racism, or xenophobia?
These matter because it's better to have a Japenese immigrant here to work in silicon valley than it is to allow African war refuges to work there (or elsewhere) in the USA. Japan is technologocally similar, has a good school system, and many who move speak at least basic English already. An African War refuge likely won't have the same level of education, may be bilingual but perhaps no English, will have to adjust to our society, and may not have easily transferrable job skills.
Historically, it's usually a good thing. | 19 |
[Dragon Ball] Would Android 16's self-destruct bomb been enough to kill Cell? | 32 | Honestly, probably not. Given what we know of Cell's power compared to 16's, he probably would've been able to shield himself from it. The bomb would've had to be as strong as Vegeta's full power Final Flash to even maybe kill Cell. | 21 |
|
[Jeepers Creepers] What is the Creeper's original form, before it started eating people? | In *Jeepers Creepers*, when the Creeper gets a new head, we see these weird, tentacle-like protrusions coming out to connect with it.
Is this a glimpse at its original form?
Also, if it's "just" a creature, how did it grow to be so sadistic and evil? | 199 | Based on the creeper's rules (every 23rd Spring for 23 days it feeds), the creeper appears to have ties to the Wendigo from Native American folklore. According to information from various hunters such as the Winchester brothers, Wendigos are made when people are forced to commit cannibalism to survive. Consumption of another human grants them power, but they become addicted to it. This particular Wendigo appears to have been active for a long time, and has lost itself to its cravings to the point where it seems to enjoy its curse. Perhaps it was born of a hunter who enjoyed the chase, who loved the smell of fear from its prey. As for the tentacle-like protrusions, this may be a result of its metamorphosis over a long period of time, similar to its bat-like wings. | 213 |
[DC]Is there a particular reason why Darkseid doesn't use "Lantern" technology? | Now, I'm sure there is a reason, and I'm sure it's due to convoluted comicbook logic. I just don't know what it is. | 39 | Not everyone can harness that kind of energy. The guardians of Oa are immortal super beings. When the universe was forged in the crucible of the big bang their mighty species was already 17 years old. They have the knowledge and skill needed to harness the green light of the emotional spectrum. Darkseid, while still a staggering 250,000 years old, just doesn’t have the same level of knowledge the maltusian guardians of Oa have. Not in regards to the emotional spectrum. With a concentrated effort darkseid could probably reverse engineer lantern tech (like the qwardians did with sinestro/gardners yellow ring) but he’s so focused on anti-life that he doesn’t have time for it. Darkseid doesn’t want a weapon that wins fights, he wants a weapon that ends worlds | 41 |
Why would an insurance company not renew a policy rather than raise the premium? | Our homeowner's insurance in San Diego is being "not-renewed" due to fires. But isn't it more rational to raise rates? I understand what's called "material change in risk," such as renovations. But, to effectively cancel a large portion of your region's customers' policies seems like found money. What am I missing? | 81 | That just means that insurance companies believe that nobody would buy insurance at the price they would charge.
There is an important distinction between idiosyncratic risk (1% of houses will have kitchen fires while 99% will not) and systemic risk (with 1% probability a natural disaster will burn most houses and with 99% probability it will burn none).
Because of the way probability works (law of large numbers) insurance companies face little risk when insuring idiosyncratic risk. Maybe one year 0.8% or houses will burn and the next year it will be 1.2%, but it will never be 50%.
In contrast, when it comes down to systemic risk, we are talking about a 1% chance that the insurance company suffers devastating losses on a given year. Therefore, providing insurance from systemic risk is much more expensive. | 119 |
ELI5: Dreaming for people who were born blind. | How does someone who has never experienced visual stimuli their entire lives dream? Is it in sounds, feelings, textures, the shapes of things they've experienced through touch? | 25 | I work for a state school forr the Blind. All of the students that have been blind from birth say that they just dream in sound. Same goes for the deaf community. They just dream in pictures and no sound. | 11 |
Not everything in real life is normally distributed | Taking a data science online course and the guy keeps giving out problems beginning with “assuming height of males in USA is normally distributed, what is x,y,z”.
Sure the math is easier if you give me the mean and std for a population thats normally distributed but in real life this assumption cant possibly be made?
What am I missing? | 17 | Pretty much nothing in real life is ever _truly_ distributed with respect to some parametric distribution (discounting certain asymptotic situations such as when central limit theorems hold (but we're never in asymptotia anyways)).
All distributions, really all models are some sort of simplifying assumption about the real world. In your quote, the word **assuming** is doing a lot of work -- it's not necessarily saying "we are assuming that the height of males is _truly_ normally distributed", but rather "we assume that the normal distribution is an appropriate model for our analyses such that the differences between real life and our model are insignificant for the outcomes of our analyses".
We make assumptions because we must and we make assumptions because in many cases the answers we seek are appropriately answered even though our models simplify reality. | 31 |
What is Exactly one second? And can the duration of a second change? | I have been thinking a lot but how do you define one second? And can the duration on one second be changed or it is already changing? Or is constant | 26 | Initially the second was 1/86400 of a mean solar day, but this isn't accurate enough, so the second was re-defined to be the duration at which the frequency of microwave radiation from a specific transition in Caesium is *exactly* 9,192,631,770 Hz. With this definition you can set up some fancy optics and trap some Caesium atoms and be able to reconstruct the second. | 57 |
ELI5: Why don't physical copy's of books you buy come with a code to download a digital version? | 1,048 | Book sellers *could* say, "Buy the physical book and you get the digital version for free."
But then they miss out on the opportunity to sell you a different useful thing (the e-book) and earn more money.
As for-profit corporations, most book sellers have decided not to miss out on the money-making opportunity. | 462 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.