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
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
[Among Us] How do the crew members 'eject' an imposter? | It's safe to saw that the Imposter is the only person on the ship with any form of weapons. How exactly do they just through him out the door? | 15 | an imposter can easily overpower one crewmate but not two, its also possible the crewmates are themselves armed, the imposter always gets them with a sneak attack so they can never defend themselves with them, and obviously the innocent crewmates arent just going to blast someone on a hunch because thats just going to get THEM labeled as the imposter, it could also be an automated security system which would explain why absolutely nothing can be done unless there is a majority vote to override it | 23 |
[IronMan 3] How does Tony Stark's new armor work? | Sorry for the vague question. What I want to know is how does Tony's armor become front loading, rear loading, even able to eject him and release only his leg? Its not nano-tech is it?
He enters his armor sometimes from the front, sometimes from the back... how does that work? | 23 | He gave each bit of the armour its own independent processor. Up to the Battle of New York he had to attach bracelets to his wrists in order for his armour to find him and suit him up.
Realising that this was a problem Stark upgraded each piece of armour so that it could work independently of every other piece. That way, if he was ever falling off a building again getting at least enough to let him fly would save him from crashing, even if he didn't have the full suit. | 14 |
Plants are only 5% efficient, solar panels over 10%. Shouldn't we put the second on fields instead of subsidizing biomass/fuel production? | What's more the 5% is only the photosynthesis efficiency. We also have to plant, nurture and gather them every year, then we have to change it to the fuel where only part of the plant is used, transport it and finally burn it. That produces extra CO2 and the whole process seems to be very inefficient.
Solar panels on the other hand need to be produced, put in place only once and can serve for years if not decades. Is cleaning process a big issue? Are they easily destroyed? Are they just to damn expensive? Am I missing something? On one hand burning biomass/biofuel and other parts of the production process produces CO2, on the other growing them decreases it, solar panels do neither. Which is better for decreasing CO2 level?
Probably the biggest issue would be storage of the solar energy, but I am not proposing 100% solar solution for any country, just the part that biomass and biofuel is taking right now.
The problem may also be lobbing from farmers (big agro?), but let's for a second forget about it. | 28 | Nope, you're pretty much correct.
Cost of solar cells is non-trivial, and we essentially have the installed capital for planting crops already, but still, fuel from crops a terrible idea.
Mostly is a handout to the farm industry.
Things we know to be the case:
Biodiesel is a niche fuel, that for practical reasons won't ever give us even 10% of our current diesel consumption.
Corn ethanol is not energy efficient enough to be any sort of long term solution.
the only thing that has a shot is cellulosic ethanol, and the biotechnology simply doesn't currently exist to do it, but it is being worked on.
Even if cellulosic ethanol happens, we have to drastically raise the CAFE standards for it to help.
There just isn't an easy solution, to get off of oil we need technology improvements in several areas and some fairly significant cultural change.
| 17 |
[general fantasy] Why do undead have trouble crossing moving water? | From all I've heard, moving water terrifies them. and they need solid earth of some kind beneath their feet. This implies many different things. But why is it so? | 19 | It depends largely on the undead, but a great deal of the relation between Vampires and running water likely stems from the early tradition of baptizing in a river, in emulation of John's baptism. Rivers becamme a symbol of holy cleansing.
Other possible explanations derive from a Vampires association with the Earth (resting in and depending on the earth of their burial site). Water is particularly potent and element against Earth, and the Vampires are weakened by its rapid movement.
As for other undead... Running water can carry a great deal of force. Maintaining the cohesion of Zombies or Skeletons could be difficult if something is always tearing forcefully at them. | 24 |
[Doctor Who] Could a TARDIS fit inside another TARDIS? | I’ve been a Doctor Who fan for a long time and I’ve been wondering, since the TARDIS is infinite and can have anything to accommodate its passengers, whether it’s a huge library with a swimming pool or a bedroom with bunk beds for the Ponds, could a TARDIS grow enough to accommodate the landing of another TARDIS? For example, zig TARDIS 1 has a malfunction they could execute an emergency landing in a nearby friendly TARDIS number 2. Basically I’m asking if TARDISception is possible | 35 | Sure. The Doctor's TARDIS has even landed inside itself before, in one of the *Children in Need* specials. This caused a time/space loop, but there was a convenient lever that fixed it.
The TARDIS is bigger on the inside; the infinite space is contained in a pocket dimension. The landing zone only needs to be large enough to accommodate its exterior. Some more advanced TARDISen are actually humanoid, and can walk around inside of another TARDIS without issue. | 51 |
[MCU]How do Hulk's pants stay on? | In comics, Reed Richards made pants specifically for Bruce, so where does he go for all his pants?
| 17 | In the Battle of New York, luck that they stretched without breaking. Though the pair he was wearing before the battle got removed and/or destroyed sometime between the SHIELD jet he was tearing up exploding and him landing and reverting to Banner. After that, Stark designs pants meant specifically for Code Green situations. | 19 |
ELI5: Why are mosquitoes more active at sundown? | I go outside on my front porch for smoke breaks at all different times of day and night. Since mosquitoes in Texas are nothing unusual I do get bitten when I go out but I've noticed in the very late afternoon, early evening around sunset there are more of them. If I go out at late at night, dawn, morning or early afternoon I get a bite or two. I go out around 6-9 or so and I'm a buffet. Why?
| 20 | Their skin is really thin, so thin that the sun kinda dries it out and it's not good for them to be in the full sun, but when the sun goes down, it's nice and moist and they can fly around without the harsh sun harming their fragile skin. | 20 |
How close are we to be able to use nuclear fusion to produce our energy? | I was taught when I was in school that fusion, at that time, took more energy to achieve than was released. However I heard someone claiming that we are very close to achieving fusion with a net energy output (I think its called cold fusion?). How true is this? | 589 | Barring any unprecedented breakthrough, we're still very far (read: decades) from using nuclear fusion in a commercially viable manner.
We can already do fusion in experimental reactors. That's not new. We can also do fusion in a way that more energy is produced than is used in H-bombs. The problem is combining the two :)
A nuclear fusion reaction is rather hard to achieve and the essence of the problem is one of scale: The larger and more extreme the setup, the higher its efficiency. Current experimental reactors are too small to produce more energy than they consume. So the goal is to make a reactor that is bigger and operates at even higher temperature and pressure to go beyond the threshold of "Q = 1" (Q is the ratio between output and input energy, if Q > 1 then more energy is produced than consumed).
The current big project is ITER, this is planned to be the first fusion reactor to achieve Q > 1. The design goal is to reach Q = 10. But targets for continuous operation are only in the order of magnitude of hundreds of seconds (several minutes). Large parts of ITER and supporting infrastructure are currently being built in southern France. The project is scheduled to have its first plasma operations inside the reactor in 2020 and start fusion reactions in 2027.
But these are just schedules and delays can't be excluded since there is a lot to figure out still. The conditions inside the fusion plasma will be unlike anything we've made so far and even though magnetic fields will be used to prevent the fusion plasma from touching the vessel walls, making a reactor vessel that can withstand such stresses and still allow for energy to be extracted is a challenge, to say the least.
And while ITER is designed to generate more energy than it consumes, it's still very much an experimental device, set up for scientific purpose and not commercial application. The followup to ITER, called DEMO is a prototype of a potential commercial plant built on the same principles as ITER, but slightly larger. Its very tentative schedule has first operation starting in 2033, with an upgrade/expansion already planned afterwards and the second, final phase of operation starting in 2040. But this very strongly depends on whatever we learn with ITER. And DEMO is still a demonstration model, not something that will be mass produced.
Next to ITER and DEMO, which will use a technique called "magnetic confinement fusion" in a "tokamak reactor", there are several other avenues being explored. The donut-shaped tokamak reactor has an alternative in the so-called stellarator, which also uses magnetic fields to confine the plasma. In addition to magnetic confinement, fusion has been achieved using intertial confinement, which essentially involves a fuel pellet being forced to implode due to exposure to lasers, causing the outer layers being pushed inwards and confining the fusion reaction in the inner layers of the pallet.
All these techniques work, but none work at an efficiency that allows for commercial application. Currently tokamak reactors are in the lead when it comes to scientific attention, as evidenced by the ITER megaproject, but the jury is still out on what'll end up winning the race.
You hear cold fusion being mentioned from time to time as an easy and affordable alternative that does not involve effectively putting the sun in a small box and hooking it to the powergrid. In the late '80s there was some buzz about scientists allegedly finding fusion reactions taking place in conditions close to room temperature.
However, these findings were quickly disproven. These days, there's still a fringe community that revolves around the notion that cold fusion is possible in the way that was described back then. They also use the term "Low Energy Nuclear Reaction" (LENR). From time to time, some news article appears claiming a new device delivering practically free energy using something related to cold fusion / LENR.
Unfortunately, there has been no independent scientific proof of such a device actually delivering on its promises. When tests are being published, they're often of very poor quality, done by people affiliated by the creator or done without the researchers having full access to the device (At one point a test report described a cable being attached to the device without the researchers being allowed to see where the cable lead or to unplug it).
So for now, cold fusion / LENR is fringe activity that is riddled with scammers and people that are a bit too trusting. If cold fusion or something similar would be possible, it would be the holy grail to solve the energy puzzle. Because while "regular" nuclear fusion is a perfectly achievable process, actually getting useful power out of it is a large challenge it's unlikely that it will be the source of widely available, virtually unlimited clean energy this century. | 360 |
[MCU] If the president of the United States is blipped in IW and replaced, who gets to president when he/she comes back? | I imagine that in the interim either the VP will step in, or within 5 years time an election might have actually been held. But assuming the president rematerializes on some toilet in the White House, what happens next? | 17 | The term of the President runs for four years from the Inauguration, regardless of whether or not the person elected is actually *serving* that office every day of it. A Blipped President is, effectively, a Dead president, and that means the VP is sworn in as President to serve out the remainder of the term (or whomever is senior-most in what's left of the line of succession). If the administration declared the blipped President to be officially dead, then the successor is sworn in *as* President, and is President for the rest of the term, whether or not the "dead" person somehow miraculously returns to life. If the administration decides that the blipped President isn't quite *completely* dead, but is instead just "missing", then the cabinet (or whomever is left) signs a letter assigning the powers of the President to the appropriate successor as "Acting President" (this is what happens when a President is incapacitated, such as being in surgery or a coma). This preserves the option of returning said powers to the proper President once the "disappearance" has ended.
But, regardless, the term of that particular presidency ends four years to the day after it starts. So when President Disappearo suddenly reappears five years later, it doesn't really matter. They're no longer President, by any legal measure, and haven't been for quite some time.
So when they rematerialize on the toilet in the White House, they're politely informed of the situation and escorted off the premises. Or, well, the very nice and appropriate version of that. But they're not President anymore. | 34 |
[Black Mirror: Bandersnatch] Spoilers: A question regarding the fate of one of the characters. | In the timeline where Colin jumped off the balcony, and then later went AWOL at work in a future play through, did Stefan kill him? The show doesn't give a definitive answer on Colin's fate, other than Stefan mentioning he saw Colin kill himself in a dream.
In universe explanations, please. :) | 19 | i dont have an answer but he doesnt come back if he jumps and you reset to before that so maybe he's not dead if he didnt come back, and he remembers the first convo the way it happens the second time *even if you didnt go there*
i bet he's either the demon or he's at least a self aware "questgiver" npc since he doesnt seem to have any autonomy but he's aware through timelines.
has anyone mapped the scenes he's there for? | 12 |
[LotR] How does Aragorn claim the throne of Gondor if Isildur abdicated? | Didn't Isildur abdicate the throne of Gondor to his nephew Melindil prior to heading North to rule over Arnor? If so, how does Aragorn, a descendant of Isildur, have a claim to Gondor? | 40 | Isildur never abdicated. Just as his father, Elendil, committed rule of Gondor to himself and Anárion while ruling as High King of both Arnor and Gondor from the North, so did Isildur commit rule of Gondor to Meneldil while he traveled North to rule as High King. The right of rule over both Gondor and Arnor as High King technically passed to his son Valandil, but effectually it ceased to exist (except for a failed claim by the last King of Arnor, Arvedui) until Aragorn came along and reasserted it some 3000 years later. | 34 |
Does the government know about the Men In Black? | In the first movie, it was said that the Men In Black is funded independently, and not part of any government branch. And it's obvious that law enforcement has no clue about them because we saw them mind wiping people in the NYPD building. So does the government know about the organization or is it just that covert? I don't recall them ever talking about contacting the president, and their own members are even forced to forget about it after reaching an age of retirement (Some time in their late fifties it seems, unless they get promoted to a position of leadership). So I guess my real question is: does anyone but the MIB know of the organization's existence? (I mean actually knowing for certain of their existence, because I know the movies established that they were kind of an urban legend, but let's not count that). | 18 | At one point the government *did* know about the MiB. They began as a poorly-funded organization in the 1950s, one which few took seriously, until the Baltians made contact.
Baltian First Contact occurred on the night of Thursday, March 2nd, 1961 when a group of Baltian refugees landed on Earth just outside New York City. They came here on a mission to establish Earth as an apolitical neutral zone for aliens in need of a planet to relocate. This meeting became a cornerstone event in the formation of the Men in Black.
The MiB have since severed any connection with the US Government on the grounds that they were too intrusive. Not too long after, the Baltians left Earth for reasons not given and their current whereabouts remain unknown. | 18 |
ELI5: Why are semi-auto marksman rifles not as accurate as bolt-actions? | 169 | There are a lot less variables with a bolt action. They are simple and strong, and that makes for less ‘play’ in the action. Semi autos use a gas system, rechamber based on recoil and basically have more moving parts, which is more that can throw off the ballistics of a given shot. They are also often constructed to be more portable, and light. Which results in shorter barrel length, which means reduced accuracy. (I seem to have been informed this is more to do with velocity than ballistics, fair enough)
Most modern sniper rifles also use more powerful rounds than ‘traditional’ rifle cartridges, such as 338 lapua magnum. These rounds offer superior ballistics, but are impractical for use in a marksman rifle, on the move with an infantry section.
That said, it’s not always true. A modern marksman rifle is produced to a higher standard of accuracy than a bolt action sniper rifle from 100 years ago.
| 167 |
|
How does animal testing really work? | I was thinking about it and realized that I’ve got a lot of preconceptions from my teen vegan years (Yeah, I used to be that guy). I still think we’re unnecessarily cruel to animals in many ways but definitely no longer trust PETA as a reliable source. So, does the US government really require new shampoo products to be poured over cute bunnies’ eyes before entering the market or is that just BS? Can anyone enlighten me on when and why animal testing is necessary leaving the moral discussion aside?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: Thanks for the responses, guys! I’m all for medical testing, which I understand covers the vast majority of animal experiments. I’m still against cosmetic testing, regardless of how the suffering is minimized, but it was nice to hear from people who work at the labs and learning that they do care about their animals.
Also, for the record, I wouldn’t trust PETA to take care of a plant. | 38 | I don’t know the specifics for shampoo. But for animal research, before any experiment you need to write up a proposal that dictates why the animals needs to be tested, and the measures you will take to do it in the safest way possible, using the least number of animals. You also need to show why it is imperative animals need to be used, and the good that will come out of it.
It is Incredibly regulated, and scientists take great care to do it the best way possible. At the end of the day animal testing saves lives by providing necessary medication and vaccines that would not be available without it.
| 67 |
ELI5: if an identical twin get children, and their children take a DNA test, will it say that they are half brother/sister? | I mean they don't get children together, but they both get a partner and then get children. (No game of thrones) | 307 | In short, yes. Since identical twins have the same DNA, their offspring will then have DNA that suggests that they share a same parent. This emphasized even more if a set of identical twins have kids with another set of identical twins, in which case a DNA test will identify them as full siblings (with respect to genetic similarity). | 222 |
ELI5: Why do some pictures look like they are sharper and better than real life? | 72 | Real life has so much extra visual information that cannot be filtered out, which can distort the way things appear. For example, glare, unpolarized eye structure, differential strength between a person's two eyes, varying iris apeture, and most importantly, varied visual ability person to person.
Cameras can filter out glare to make an image sharper. They can enhance color and brightness to correct for ambient light variations, they can used polarized lenses to reduce distortion from horizontal reflections etc. | 50 |
|
ELI5: What happens to dust particles that get in to the eyes and lungs? | 62 | If they truly get deep into your lungs, they may become trapped there, but that's a relatively hard place to reach. Most are caught before then in mucus lining your airways. Tiny moving cilia work in concert to gradually move this mucus towards your throat, where you either swallow it or cough it out.
Dust in your eyes is flushed out with tears, either onto the face if the irritation (And the crying) is great enough, or by draining into your nasolacrimal duct into the back of your nose/throat.
| 52 |
|
How can mercury be so dense, yet still be a liquid? | 42 | The density of a substance doesn't necessarily correlate to its physical state of matter. For example, solid water (ice) is a solid, but it's actually less dense than liquid water because of the "honeycomb" structure that water molecules adopt when forming certain types of ice.
So, just because something is less dense doesn't mean it should be a liquid or gas. | 24 |
|
ELI5: Why is an open-source OS considered more secure than a closed source? | 21 | For open source systems, the computer code that makes up that system is public, and anyone can read through it. So if someone has left some sort of backdoor or security flaw, it can be caught and fixed.
Closed source systems have code that's only available to the people who make the software. It could have a dozen backdoors or security holes, and you'll never know unless it gets exploited and someone talks about it.
The idea is that if you can see how the system is put together, you can build a more secure system than one that works with code you cant see. | 24 |
|
CMV:Online interactions, relationships and obligations aren't inherently inferior to "real life" ones. | Just as a preface: I am not a native english speaker, so this may end up a lot longer than would be "needed". I'll include a TL;DR. Also, while I'm using myself as an example, that's both due to some personal experiences and to make writing this easier. This is not about "me", per se.
**TL;DR: Ultimately, people on the internet are still that - people. What this means is that any online interaction, friendship and obligation, involves real people and should be held to the same standards as offline interactions. What you wouldn't do someone in "real life" should also not be done online, be in a forum or elsewhere. This doesn't mean the internet is "more" or "less" important than offline interactions; it means that both are important and "it's just the internet" is not an excuse to diminish relationships, be impolite, not take things seriously when you're expected to, constantly bail out on stuff you've agreed to do and such.**
_____
To start with a simple example I believe most people will agree with, people should try their best to be polite in any online interactions. This includes discussions and such. You don't randomly offend someone in a bar table because he disagrees with you, and you shouldn't do that online either. Of course, sometimes discussions can get heated and "shit hits the fan", but that feels like the default state of any discussion online, and I believe that the main reason for that (and everything else I mention here), is because most people either fail to realize that they're dealing with another PERSON on the other end, or simply don't care. That just shouldn't happen.
Another example I want to tackle is online friendships. These, I feel, are almost universally seen as "inferior" to real life ones and shouldn't be prioritized over "real life" interactions, no matter the context, and I really have to ask why is that so. I'm not saying that if you have a bunch of online friends and have "no need" for real life interactions, I'm just saying that an online friend is still, for all intent and purposes, a "friend". And it's all right to prioritize said friend over a real life social event if you are that close with him, just like you would probably prioritize going to your best friend's birthday party instead of go out drinking with your co-workers, if both events are scheduled at the same time. That it's all right to confide things or ask a a really close, decade old online friend, for help and such. It's okay if your "best" friends live far away. They're not necessarily inferior to RL ones.
To give a personal example, I have a very tight group of online friends that I interact with on a daily basis. We know each other for almost 10 years. Some of us married, moved to a different country, live too far to reasonably have any chance to meet offline, and still, we're extremely close. Just like any social group, some are closer than others, a few of them easily being my "best" friends. If that group wants to have a skype conference on a friday night just to mess around and talk, yes, I will prioritize it over pretty much any non-emergency RL event. If someone at work calls me to a happy hour, "sorry but I already have plans" is my answer. I feel a lot of people disagree with this, because they see real life interactions as inherently more important". In this example I gave, no, they are not. If it's someone's birthday party, or wedding, or any other kind of "major" event, then maybe I would give it priority. But, as you can see, I'm comparing things on a case by case basis, and not just "AH, it's just my internet 'friends', they don't matter". They matter just as much as any other person I have a similarly close relationship with. They're people.
This also extends to what I believe is my most "controversial" opnion, and that's about internet "obligations". What I mean with this is, if you agree to do something for someone on the internet, again the standards should be the same as when you do so offiline. It would be assholish back out an appointment for minor reasons in RL and that standard should also be applied online.
For example, say you join a team or guild for some online game. You agree to meet Wednesdays and Thursdays 8PM.
Then you miss a day without warning because there was a sports game you wanted to watch. You miss another day because you just weren't feeling like it. And another because you agreed to help your neighbour move a sofa in his house or something. Then you agreed to go to the bar when you knew you have to be available somewhere else at that time. I'm sorry, but that's assholish.
I believe most people would not flak out on, say, a minor neighbourhood soccer team's game because of said reasons. Doing so would be rude to your team and screw them up. They would not be able to play the game, or have to find an inferior replacement not used to the team, and that would impact their enjoyment and performance. Guess what? THE EXACT same things happens to the online gaming group. But, again, because they're seen as "not as important" as real life, it's suddenly "ok" to do so.
Note that I'm not advocating you to raid with your WoW guild or w/e when your SO wants to have some time with you on that particular day, or a major event demands your attention. But wouldn't that kind of major situation also make you miss playing with your "soccer team"? And using the soccer team example once again, if you know you have to be with them X days at Y times, you will likely try to make your other obligations and events not happen at the same time. You'll see if you can change the time, make it ealier or latter, change the day and so on. You won't always be able to, of course, but my point, once again, is that people should evaluate things on a case by case scenario, and that it's wrong and perhaps even assholish to always put internet relationships "last" on your social priorities list.
*When you screw people online, ignore them, are inpolite, bail out of stuff you agreed to do with them and treat your relationship with them as inherently less important than everything else, you're treating PEOPLE as less important, for a reason that I simply can't agree with.*
*EDIT1: I'm not disputing the fact that face-to-face interactions have different weight and implications compared to online interactions, neither am I saying that you should not value RL interactions or that they do not require more effort. Even the online group I am part of organizes RL meetings for that exact reason. I'm not comparing these things at all*
*I am saying you should not devalue online relationships and obligations just because they're online, putting them "always last place" regardless of the impact this might have on the online people that you interact with and your relationship with them. I'm saying that it's not wrong to prioritize important online friends over RL events that are not as important to you*
_____
> *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!* | 127 | Rather than more/less important, online interactions are distinctly more casual than equivalent in-person interactions, and if you remove that sense of casualness then online interactions really do become inferior to "real life" | 14 |
[Bright] How would you safely test someone for Bright powers? | According to the film, touching a magic wand with your bare hands will definitely tell you if you're a Bright... only problem is you'll will fucking *explode* if you aren't one. Is there any other means of testing a person for Bright abilities that doesn't involve the chance of dying horribly? | 28 | Based upon the one dude interrogated by the feds, Brights are somewhat recognizable by folks.
He pegged the one cop as special after only a few moments with him.
So while holding a wand is a 100% answer, there are other methods known to magic users and their followers. | 28 |
ELI5:Why do companies like Google, Microsoft, apple etc largely support liberal politicians but then hide money overseas from taxes and higher cheap labor in China? | We all read about these plans like building giant barges for financial headquarters so they can sit in international waters where there are no taxes. They higher workers at the Foxconn place etc. Why do they support liberals but dodge their policies? | 25 | Google, Apple, and Microsoft are all publicly traded companies. Because, unlike a private company, they are ultimately obligated to provide good returns to their investors, if it's legal and it saves them money, they're obligated to do those things. | 11 |
ELI5: What's the difference between an Embassy and a Consulate? | 30 | Its kind of like a library system, you have the main big library in your area and the smaller branches depending on it.
In simple terms the embassy is the main headquarters, where the ambassador lives there can only be one ambassador from a country so therefore only one embassy.
Consulates are offices of the embassy spread out in bigger cities so you dont have to travel to the embassy, they provide the same services but slower at the Consulates because they usually send or forward the paperwork to the embassy. | 28 |
|
ELI5 how a moon pool (aka wet porch) works, and why a ship with one doesn't sink. | I know it must have something to do with water pressure, but was hoping for a concise ELI5 answer to understand it more easily. Thanks. | 201 | There are a few different kinds of moon pools. The easiest one to understand are basically a hole in the floor above the waterline of a drilling platform or ship with multiple hulls that lets you look down into the water.
You're probably thinking of moon pools below the water line though. Imagine taking a cup, turning it upside down and then pushing it under water. You will have trapped some air inside the cup. The water wants to get in the cup, but it can't make a lot of progress because the air is taking up the space (the air does compress a little).
Now imagine drilling a hole in the side of the cup while its under water. Obviously the air will leak out through the hole, and the water will rise to a bit above the drill hole.
This is how moon pools work, except that the hole in the cup is an airlock that keeps all of the air from escaping. While the air is kept in place, the water cannot enter. If the moon pool were turned sideways, or had a hole, it would indeed fill with water. | 102 |
ELI5: Why is it so hard to dispose of trash? | Hear me out... earth has trash I know and it piles up. But how? The trash was MADE on earth and it’s still on earth. How is there not somewhere to put it like where things were previously mined?
Isn’t there technically less stuff on earth now than before mankind now that we’ve sent up a bunch of satellite and other rocket-related space junk? Isn’t there room where the elements of the now “space junk” was originally located to put current trash? | 696 | The problem with trash is that **nobody wants to spend any money on it**. There are fine, safe, approaches to recycling and storing it. However, none of those things makes money - except aluminum can recycling. So, somebody would have to pay. Local governments don't have money, and raising taxes to process trash more isn't popular because taxes isn't popular. Do you want to sort and dispose of trash for no paycheck? Neither does anybody else, nor are there companies that want to truck it to a mine or store it in the mine for no money. Most of the plastic in the ocean doesn't come from the countries that use the most plastic bags and straws, it comes from countries that throw trash in their rivers. Trash isn't a trash problem, it's a money problem. | 1,022 |
[Pokemon] If mewtwo is a clone of new, why does he look more like an evolved form of mew and not mew? | 35 | Mewtwo isn’t a perfect clone. Before it was actually born, its embryo was tampered with to modify its DNA. After being born, there were further gene-splicing experiments performed on it to make it more powerful. | 60 |
|
ELI5: Why are seas different from open ocean? Why do we name some swaths of water but not others? | This has been on my mind for a while, and I've never gotten a real answer. Why do we name seemingly arbitrary places in the water a sea? Are there any differences between the sea and another part of the ocean? Why are these artificial boundaries created? | 47 | We name all swaths of water. Locals will often name stock ponds and tanks.
A sea is smaller than an ocean and separated/partially separated from it in some way.
These boundaries are created like all boundaries are and are just as arbitrary. Boundaries show who owns what area, clarify the location you are talking about, and help general navigation. | 14 |
[General Fantasy] Why are werewolves most allergic to silver? | 60 | Alchemists used to associate different metals to different planetary bodies. Gold for the sun, iron for mars, copper for Venus. Guess what metal is associated with the moon? So if the full moon makes a werewolf transforms, it's possible that direct contact with the 'moon metal' breaks that connection. Then you're just a dude that's been shot and you die. | 107 |
|
[LoTR] I'm an Maia by the name of Giorfin. When I arrived in Middle-Earth 300 years ago some guy called me Biam. Now every few decades some new person gives me a new name. I've got like 40 names now. I've noticed that a ton of people have a ton of different names. What the hell gives? | Why does everyone keep getting new names all of the time? My buddy Olórin got to Middle Earth a long ass time ago and some guy randomly gave him the name Gandalf. Now he's also known as Mithrandir, Incánus, Tharkûn, Greyhame, Stormcrow among many other names and designations. This other guy Aragorn is also called Estel, Telcontar, Thorongil, and Strider.
That asshole Morgoth is also known as Morgoth, Bauglir, Belegurth, Belegûr, Arun, and Mbelekor.
Why the hell can't people seem to stop giving each other like 30 names? I'm immortal for Eru's sake! Do you know how many people I'll meet in even a century? How the hell am I to be expected to remember that King Bill also goes by Crongar, Thork, Mallgaeter, Halfnark, Quignar, and Steve?? | 28 | That's it exactly. You're immortal. Languages change, you remain the same. Even if you build a tower and never leave, every few generations of men and elf there's going to be another group wandering through and calling your something else. Sure, you could put a sign up - but the sign is going to be in Quenya A or something and the fucking Noldor are going to start mispronouncing things, and then some Man in a bear shirt is going to roll over and just start calling your "Bright Lord of Morning" or something which will get totally butchered in translation when he tells it to the Dunedain ranger he's sharing a pint with at the Dancing Pony.
And that's before you meet the *poets*. Kennings are just de rigueur in Middle Earth this century. You're lucky to get through a cocktail hour without six new sobriquets.
But look on the bright side: the time of the elves is fading, the memories of Men grow dim, and vellum only lasts a couple centuries. Hide out long enough and they'll forget your old name and you can just introduce yourself all over again. | 36 |
[40k] How could someone get recruited into the Inquisition/become an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper? | 26 | You are very good at your job.
Inquisitors see... *promising* soldiers, they then *recommend* them to the Schola Tempestous (totally mangled the name), who then trains them alongside the other Stormtrooper candidates. They pass then get shipped off to their inquisitor... assuming they dont die.
Inquisition generally the same, find someone you like, recruit them.
On the other hand the Scholas, schools for the orphaned children of officers are prime recruiting grounds as they provide Sororitas, Commissars, Inquisitors, Stormtroopers and clerks. Just take your pick of the thousands of malleable children ready for your... education. | 14 |
|
ELI5: If singers can perform others' songs, why can't comedians use jokes from others? | With proper acknowledgement, like in the beginning of the act the comedian would explain there will be jokes from others, maybe even list the originator of the joke.
After all, I just want to be entertained, do I really care from whom the joke came from specially if I never heard it? | 32 | When a singer performs another person's song in public, or records and releases that recording to the public, the songwriter not only gets written credit but also gets payments over time at rates based upon the sales of that recording or performance.
When an honest comedian uses other comedian's jokes, the honest comedian has purchased the right to perform those jokes. Nearly every comedian has purchased jokes, and most will tell you where they came from if asked.
Most recent discussion has been about a female comedian who did not purchase the rights to some jokes, and then used them in a performance AND made money from that performance. That's the problem. | 38 |
Books / resources about thinking robustly about solving problems | I was recently in a job interview in which my interviewer told me that he doesn't believe that university degrees teach many useful things to students. His main point was that they don't do a proper job teaching them to think, and that he has found that even graduate students cannot properly answer problems which he gives them.
I was curious, so I asked him whether he could give me an example of a problem which graduate students can't answer properly. This was the problem:
Given a request, A, with a starting and a finishing time, decide whether it is compatible with another request, B, with a starting and finishing time (two requests are not compatible if their timespans overlap).
My answer was that one can check whether the starting time for request A is after the starting time of request B but before the finishing time of request B, and vice versa for the ending time of request A.
However, he said that my answer was completely wrong. His reason for this was that I jumped straight to solving the problem, instead of proving it beforehand and reasoning about it. When I asked him how he would have answered if he had been asked the problem, his answer was:
The possible cases are that request A may be completely before request B, request A may partially overlap request B on the left, request A may be contained in request B, request B may be contained in request A, request A may partially overlap request B on the right, and request A may be completely after request B.
His explanation for why this is a necessary step of reasoning about a problem was that it allows you to prove that your solution is correct (whereas I, jumping straight to the solution to of the problem, have no way of proving that my solution is correct) and that it is a formal method which allows one to write code which has a lower chance of containing bugs, as you can know that the logic for the code is sound.
From his "proof step" in solving the problem, you can also see quite easily that there is a solution to the problem which requires less computational power than the one I suggested: simply check whether A finishes before B starts or starts after B ends. If this is the case, then they do not overlap.
​
So my question is whether anyone has any resources or books which they can recommend to me for helping to learn more about how to think about logic before jumping straight to writing the code. I have searched around and haven't yet been able to find anything that great. I'm mostly looking for something practical; i.e. something which only deals with abstract logical proofs and never connects this to how you can use the ideas in your coding would still be something I would be interested in reading, but less so than something which addresses practical application.
Thanks!
TLDR; does anyone have any book or resource recommendations with deal with the idea of how to problem solve and think about logical problems / proofs before actually writing the code. | 41 | First of all, great job for taking it like a champ! Some people would take that kind of feedback negatively.
I recommend 2 books:
1. How To Solve It (Pòlya)
2. The Algorithm Design Manual (Skiena)
The problem you mentioned is in the first 20 pages of Skiena | 16 |
ELI5: In the 1999 Learjet Crash the Pilots were incapacitated from Hypoxia in 15 seconds due to lack of oxygen, why does it hit so quickly and how can we survive without oxygen for upwards of 2 minutes in other situations like under water? | [I'm referencing this crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash), the pilots were incapacitated in as little as 15 seconds yet I can easily hold my breath or stop breathing for well over 15 seconds. What's different here? | 36 | The reason you can survive underwater for a reasonable length of time is that the air already in your lungs still contains oxygen. The problem comes when you are inhaling air that has little to no oxygen in it - you replace the (relatively) oxygen-rich air in your lungs with oxygen-starved air, and thus you run out of oxygen much faster than you would if you just held the air you already had. | 23 |
[Marvel] I want to be a superhero. | So the other day I was walking past the nuclear power plant and I was struck by lightning. Now I have super strength and I can fly. My town has had a lot of crime recently, and I've heard about this guy Spider-Man in New York and War Machine out west, and I want to do what they do. But how do I do that? Can I just go out and fight crime whenever I want? Do I need a costume? Is there a superhero union that I can join? Do I get paid, or is it like volunteer work? | 71 | Put on a costume and get to work! I'd recommend starting small, maybe your local home town or burg. Nab some criminals, pose for some photos, have a good time. Just because you have powers now doesn't mean you are ready for the big leagues. Too many newbies make the mistake of running off into the warzone known as New York and trying to sucker punch Electro the minute they they think they got the spark. It NEVER ends well.
So start with purse snatchers and work your way up from there. After that, it's all networking. Try and get in touch with other empowered folks nearby. Don't worry, once your name starts to get out they'll find you. Put together a team if you can, that'll help you tackle bigger problems (natural disasters, maybe the odd C-list villain) and will help you start making waves. Remember, for every big individual name like Spider-Man or Captain America there are dozens and dozens of supers like yourself grinding it out below them, doing their best to tackle the small stuff so they can concentrate on the big threats. Everyone is important, no matter how many headlines they make! | 93 |
[starwars] what's up with chewbakas laser cross bow? | Is there laser arrows or something? | 34 | At base, a bowcaster is literally a crossbow. As in, functionally identical. It uses a string and high tension rods to propel a quarrel downrange.
Specifically though, a bowcaster has a few key differences.
Instead of a "string" it uses a very high tension wire.
Instead of just relying on the potential energy of a flexed rod, it uses magnetically polarized orbs to boost the force applied to the quarrel.
Instead of a simple sharpened metal bolt, it fires an short metal rod that is charged with plasma - as it exits the bowcaster, the physical projectile is sheathed with high energy plasma that greatly increases destructive force. These projectiles are also generally charged with impact detonated explosives.
It's the traditional weapon of the Wookie's. Typical bowcasters are manually drawn and require incredible strength to do so. Chewbacca's was equipped with an autococker.
They're much more powerful and destructive than blasters, trading limited ammo and cumbersomeness. | 67 |
ELI5: How does GPS work in smart watches/phones? Who gets paid by companies making these in exchange of gps services? | 165 | GPS is just a signal sent from satellites, end users are not sending a signal back. It's much the same as tuning in a radio station, that is "free" as well (just paid for by advertising mostly).
In the case of GPS, USA taxpayers are the source of the funding. | 328 |
|
CMV:Omitting the scene with planting of US flag on the Moon in "The First Man" is a great mistake | Apollo was a gigantic national US effort to struggle against the USSR as superpowers clashed to compete and nationalism was an essential element.All moonwalkers except Schmitt were former pilots and american servicemen
Race of the 60s was about to a very large part about one question.
Will the flag on the gray lunar surface be red and yellow or red white and blue.Omitting this part deeply distorts the nature of the space race of the 1960s and words of multiple astronauts like Young or Aldrin that saluting the flag was a very proud moment in their lives.
Edit:Armstrong speaking 3 days after he landed on the Moon and just as they were coming back.
https://youtu.be/W1a0PYHIgPQ?t=400
_____
> *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!* | 54 | If the theme of the film is to depict the moon landing as an achievement of humanity rather than a nationalist and ideological victory of the West over the East, then why would it be a... great mistake... to not depict a nationalist flag planting on the moon? | 22 |
ELI5: Why is two weeks notice traditional when quitting? Why not longer/shorter? | My first thought was that it gives the company enough time to replace you but, that seems super arbitrary and not nearly long enough for a skilled position. | 19 | It's long enough for a company to replace you, but also short enough for the employee to wrap up any truly urgent things, say their goobyes, not have to deal with (too much) hostility or coworker retaliation for quitting (if applicable).
If an employee wants to quit, it's usually because they're not satisfied with their workplace or they found a better position elsewhere (which implies the current position is unsatisfactory in comparison). Dissatisfaction often means reduced productivity, so it's a good thing for an employer to only have to keep them that extra 2 weeks.
Plus, if an employee feels their workplace does deserve more than 2 weeks, nothing prevents them from hinting around beforehand or even working with the employer to ensure a better transition. | 12 |
ELI5: what happens inside the body when athletes get a “2nd wind”? | 403 | Your body doesn't want to exercise. Your body gets whiny and says, "We're tired, let's go lie down under a tree and take a nap."
Then you push through and your body says "Fine, if you're going to be that way, let's go nuts! Let's really kick those glycogen fires up, let's throw some fat on there too."
Now you have a timer running. That time is your glycogen stores. You only have so much until your muscles are out for a while. That means you can only burn fat which is piss-poor for intense energy.
That's where you "Bonk". You feel it when your muscles kind of start to feel limp and week, you're a little nauseous, and you could eat all the pancakes in the world. It's the pancake thing that gets me.
Now you're done with anything like sprinting or high intensity for a while. You can keep pushing but it takes time for your muscles to rebuild glycogen. Eating lots of carbs before and during the workout helps. | 697 |
|
ELI5: Why do bows have a longer range than crossbows (considering crossbows have more force)? | EDIT: I failed to mention that I was more curious about the physics of the bow and draw. It's good to highlight the arrow/quarrel(bolt) difference though.
PS. This is my first ELI5 post, you guys are all amazing. Thank you! | 4,818 | Crossbows have a big disadvantage due to having short limbs compared to a bow. This is true for all types of bow, but it has to be balanced with how unwieldy it would be to have a huge longbow or crossbow.
The biggest difference is the length of the power stroke. A fairly typical archer will have a draw length (the distance between the drawn string and the back of the bow) on their bow of about 27-31 inches, and a brace height (the distance between the undrawn string and the back of the bow) of about 6-8 inches. This gives you a power stroke of somewhere in the 19-25 inch range. Most crossbows have a power stroke somewhere in the 9-13 inch range. That dramatically reduces the amount of time the string is imparting force on the arrow. That's how you can have an arrow flying the same speed as a bolt despite having a much lower draw weight.
There's also a penalty in efficiency for having short limbs that affect crossbows. All bows have a draw force curve that shows how much force the string is imparting compared to how far it is drawn back. In a typical longbow, this curve is shaped like an upward facing banana. That means that when it is barely drawn, almost no force is imparted, and as you draw it farther the force increases more and more. The flatter the curve, the more efficient because the force on the arrow isn't dropping off as much during the power stroke. Having longer limbs gives you a flatter curve, which is why longbows are so long. So, the crossbow with its very short limbs has the force drop off very quickly, giving less speed for the same amount of force.
Finally, since crossbows need to have a lot more initial force to make up for the inefficiencies we've already talked about, they have to have shorter, thicker, heavier bolts so the initial shock of the force doesn't destroy them. Heavy bolts also need more fletching to straighten their flight path. The short, thick bolts are much less aerodynamic than the longer, skinnier arrows.
| 1,898 |
[40K]What's to stop the Tau from becoming a major superpower? | The Tau don't seem to have a major flaw like the Eldar or the Imperium (Eldar have a declining population and the Imperium has stagnant technology) so what's to stop them from becoming one of the most powerful factions?
| 35 | Numbers. What the imperium lacks in development it makes up for in bodies. You have battle Mechs that can challenge space Marines? Ok here's 50 guard battalions. Deal with that. Maybe they're not as well equipped but artillery is artillery and they'll eventually will through shear weight of numbers.
You have an Armada? That's cute, because imperial have world's have local militia navies with more ships.
The only thing the tau have going for them is that they're not on the radar of the imperium as far as xeno threats. Once they are?..... They'll be crushed under the millions of guard corpses that the imperium will find at them. | 54 |
ELI5: What was Hitler's explanation for his black hair and average height when he claimed the perfect race was Aryan? | How did he explain this to loyal Germans of his party? Or any Germans for that matter. Sorry for being dumb but that's what this subreddit is here for, right?
EDIT: Holy fuck did not expect this many comments. Thanks to all of you :D | 309 | "Aryan" was a flexible word back then. You couldn't possibly become Aryan by being white, blonde, speaking perfect German, when your grandmother was a Jew. Being white and blonde and having blue eyes would be a perfect example for an Aryan, it was not required though. Not much of the führership had that, and it was not required, because questioning them being Aryan could easily cost your life. | 318 |
Do x-rays have depth of field like regular cameras do? How do things look in an out of focus X-ray shot? | 2,188 | No, there is no lens used to create an x-ray image, so there are no depth of field problems. Ideally the part of the body that you are imaging is placed directly on the imaging detector, and then you get an accurate image caused by an attenuation pattern. There are a whole bunch of other exposure issues, but these are related to other issues such as the amount of radiation used, and the energy of the x-ray photons.
Edit: Lots of typos | 531 |
|
ELI5 why New Zealand is changing the design of its national flag? | 267 | Kiwi here:
It looks the same as the Australian flag and a lot of people feel like it doesn't represent us as a modern nation. There is going to be a vote to agree on one of four proposed new flags, and then another vote to choose between new and old. It's not necessarily going to change yet. | 223 |
|
[Terminator franchise] Due to some space-time anomaly, all the terminators and humans that have been sent back in time arrive during the original terminator movie. What happens next? | What would the original T-800, Uncle Bob, all the Kyle Reeses, the T-1000,T-X, the T3 T-800, Pops, and so on do in this situation? Is Sarah Conner worst off or better off now? | 19 | Each terminator acts according to its initial programming, to kill or protect SK, which leads to a huge battle royale in Downtown LA. The total mayhem it would involve would draw the attention of the authorities and the army, which would eventually succeed in neutralizing and capturing at least a few of the terminators. Dyson/Pentagon acquires the tech much sooner, Judgement Day proceeds with gusto. | 29 |
ELI5: How does buying a house "build equity"? | 21 | Lets say a house is worth 250K. You borrow 230K and put down a 20K deposit. You now have 20K equity in the house. It's the value of your holding minus your debt. As you pay down the mortgage, your equity percentage rises until eventually you own the house. If the prices have remained stable or risen, you've also gained a paper profit that you can realize when you sell.
The process of paying off the mortgage is what builds the equity. | 18 |
|
ELI5:Why is it that if you shape your mouth like an "o" you breathe cold air but if you shape your mouth like a "0" you breath warm air? | The title is self-explanatory. | 16 | An "o" mouth forces the air to move out faster than an "O" mouth.
Both kinds of air technically have the same temperature, but the "o" breath is moving fast enough to evaporate moisture on the skin, causing it to feel cold. | 14 |
[Star Wars] For clones that were on exploration ships and outside the range of any transmissions from Palpatine, what would there reaction be upon returning to known space after Order 66 had already been sent out? | If they returned during the Empire's reign I'm sure Order 66 would kick in (maybe?), but if they returned after Palpatine's death (the first one, lol) what might happen? Any of the clones still around would have either had their chips removed, or have long ago been "activated". Also, since there were almost no Jedi left. Might they go after Luke Skywalker with everyone else racing to get to them first so they can be deprogrammed? | 16 | >but if they returned after Palpatine's death (the first one, lol) ...
>
>...Might they go after Luke Skywalker with everyone else racing to get to them first so they can be deprogrammed
No Clone would have lived long enough to see the end of Palpatine, nor the point where Luke is established to be a Jedi. Clones have an accelerated growth so their lifespan isnt really that long. We're told this when Obi-Wan goes to Kamino and discovers the clone army. We're also told that Boba Fett is the only clone who's unaltered. He has no chips, and his growth wasnt accelerated which is why he had survived as long as he has.
Add to that the point that u/Shiny_Agumon makes, Clones wouldnt be sent on exploratory missions. They were commissioned exclusively to be soldiers and to be used in the Clone Wars (hence the name of the war). They couldnt waste these resources shipping them off to go on explorations. | 19 |
Can a brain completely deprived of sensory input perceive time? | I wonder, with no outside reference, if the human brain has way to tell that time has passed. I have heard that people in sensory deprivation tanks lose track of time, but what if, somehow, no sensory input made it to the brain at all, would it be able to perceive the passing of time?
Thanks, Science is Awesome <3
Edit: (Question I asked in comments) What if I lost all sensory input for an incredibly short period of time, sub-millisecond, would I notice or would that millisecond just cease to exist for me? Memories are built upon sensory input so wouldn't that time be lost like moments spent in sleep? | 30 | You can, you'd just be really bad at it. See: Campbell, S. S. (1990). Circadian rhythms and human temporal experience. In R. A. Block (Ed.), Cognitive models of psychological time, (pp. 101-118). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
I think where you're going wrong is that memory is *not* dependent on external sensory input. Repeat a word over and over in your head and pretty soon, you have a new memory with no sensory input. | 19 |
What changes in our cells as we grow older that makes it more difficult to recover from an injury? | 58 | A part of it is that we have fewer stem-cells ready to take the place of any damaged cells. As we grow our initial stem cells take find their homes and begin specializing. We always have a certain number of stem-cells in our bodies, but fewer as we age. Also, each time a cell divides it loses a link in a chain of "telomeres". After it loses all its telomeres it will stop dividing. Obviously as we age, fewer cells are replicating themselves to replace damaged ones. Under normal circumstances you don't need your cells to keep diving except for maintenance, so this is expected behavior, but can lead to longer recovery times from injury. | 10 |
|
ELI5:In Golf, how do they determine what the Par is for the hole? | 613 | Currently administering a college beginning golf class final exam. As stated above, par for the hole is based on yardage of the hole.
Each hole, no matter the length, is appropriated 2 strokes for putts. Therefore, par for the hole is the number of strokes it should take a golfer to reach the green plus the 2 putting strokes.
Par 3 = 1 stroke to reach the green + 2 putts
Par 4 = 2 strokes to reach the green + 2 putts
Par 5 = 3 strokes to reach the green + 2 putts | 300 |
|
CMV: Copyrigtht lasting longer than the lifetime of the creator stops more creativity than protect it. | Copyright is a brilliant thing, protecting the ideas of an artist, writer or director. With that they are encouraged to produce something and sequels to successful stuff.
But no person on earth can produce new things, after they died. They don't need any encouragement or protection after their death. It benefits only profit driven companies. They will keep the rights and don't promote creativity based on the pool of the artists work.
I think one or two years after the artists death could the copyright be extended, so the legacy can rest. After that it would only be profit not the idea of protecting artists, that put the copyright at death+75 yrs. | 84 | Copyright is a transferrable asset; this is why you can sell, license, or give away all or part of your copyright. Because it's an *asset*, it has value, and our current system of inheritance is generally very averse to removing any value that somebody might get from inheritance.
Copyright existing past the death of the author does not just apply to large companies or to allow the "legacy to rest", but also to the family members of authors, and can protect those family members from having residual income taken away by a company swooping in and making knockoffs or simply republishing the original works.
Now, this isn't to say that 70 years makes sense, or that it's exclusively beneficial to estates or whatever, but just to point out that there are impacts of copyright aside from allowing Disney to keep exclusivity over Mickey Mouse forever or whatever. | 11 |
Why do you not feel hungry after not eating for a long time? | 11,076 | In short, adrenaline and cortisol. If you haven't eaten in a long time, your body doesn't relax, it instead increases stress hormones which induce the metabolism of energy stores (ie, fat tissue, glycogen) and help mobilize you so that you can find food or fight for it.
Once you eat, stress hormones decrease, blood flow to the intestines and visceral organs is restored, and you feel hungry again (this is why appetizers induce appetite). | 9,058 |
|
Is there a spot on the surface of earth that the moon can't be seen from? | This is assuming the location is facing the moon, in case somebody gets smart and say "yeah, the side not facing it" :-P | 21 | First of all, let's assume that the moon is always visible, even if it's a new moon, just for the sake of argument. That is, ignore the effects of the sun, and let's pretend the moon gives off its own light.
Now, the Earth is tilted. The Earth spins on this tilted axis, with the poles on either end, but the orbit of the moon isn't tilted -- it's roughly on the same plane as the sun (but not exactly, or you'd get two eclipses a month). The moon goes around the Earth on a 29-to-30-day cycle -- a lunar month. So if you're on the North Pole, say, the Earth's rotation doesn't move you around (you'll spin in place, essentially), and if you're facing toward the sun, let's say, but the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth, you won't be able to see the moon. You will not be able to see a full moon during a summer solstice at all if you're on the pole! Of course, if it's a *new* moon, you'll be able to see it just fine (assuming it lights itself, obviously -- you probably won't be able to see it very well otherwise because it's near the sun and not lit up).
So no, there's no part of the Earth that can *never* see the moon, but there are some parts, near the poles, that won't be able to see it for days at a time because that side of the Earth just won't spin around to see it. By the way, this is independent of the position of the sun, so if you're inside a polar circle, there will always be parts of the sidereal lunar month (the time it takes the moon to orbit the Earth from a perpendicular view) where you can't see the moon at all. The sidereal lunar month is different from the synodic lunar month -- new moon to new moon -- because that refers to the how long it takes for the moon to go back to its position *relative to the sun*. It's shorter by a couple of days. So the gap where you can't see the moon will migrate with respect to the lunar month -- one month you won't be able to see the full moon, the next, it'll be a bit earlier, the next even earlier, and so on.
Make sense? | 35 |
CMV: If a leader is democratically elected, the people are absolutely to blame for the bad things he or she does either domestically or abroad | People always talk about how people are different from politicians, and you are not supposed to judge a person based on what their politicians do. However I would argue that this is simply a tactic used to avoid responsibility. I do not want to point fingers at specific countries in my actual post, even though I will probably do so in the comments anyway, so my apologies if the names of these fake countries sound cheesy to you, but anyway, here we go anyway. Imagine the following hypothetical scenario:
The people of Awesomeland elect President X, who wins by a landslide. Then, President X makes some very unpopular choices domestically, and many people say:
“It is what it is, it’s not up to us.”
Yes it is, you specifically gave him power.
But OK, to make up for his shitty domestic choices, President X now invades Evilstan. A lot of Evilstanjans are killed by airstrikes and Awesomeland soldiers. Their economy is crippled by sanctions.
Yet the people of Awesomeland will argue, that the average Awesomelandian should not be blamed, because they’re just people.
In reality, no. Every single Awesomelandian who voted for President X now has blood on his hands.
Again, not directly naming any countries, so as to not get shit in the comments. | 67 | This really depends on the electoral system. In the USA, the Electoral College determines who is President. Most states allocate their electoral votes to the candidate that wins the plurality of the votes in the state. That means if you vote for candidate X and the plurality of your state voted for candidate Y, then all the voting power of your state goes to candidate Y despite your vote. Even if candidate X wins overall, your vote did nothing to put them there because all of the electoral votes from your state went to candidate Y. | 49 |
ELI5:When I touch my face while I am looking mirror, which one my brain perceive first? touching or seeing? | 128 | Follow up question: would the answer be different if someone else touched your face? When we touch ourselves, our brain knows we are about to touch ourselves so perhaps it recognizes the sensation "ahead of time"? | 22 |
|
ELI5: What is the big deal about Google's privacy? Is it safe/smart to use? | 31 | Google provides a huge number of services for free. In order to do this, they make money by showing relevant ads when you search, check gmail, watch YouTube, etc. People are more likely to click ads relevant to them, so Google collects information about you when you use their services. For example, they might use your IP address or phone's GPS radio to figure out where you are, then show you ads for local businesses.
In fact, if you have an android phone and opt-in to Google Now, they will try to learn all sorts of things like where you work, where you live, what you search for, what sports teams you follow, what stocks you own, what flights you are about to take, and all sorts of things. They use this information to show you relevant information in Google Now before you ask for it, like automatically showing scores for a local sports team or telling you what gate your flight will be departing from.
People freak out about all this because it feels like a company knows way too much about them. While it's true companies like Google or Facebook collect data about everyone who uses their services, there isn't a human being sitting down and reading it. All this information is used in aggregate to make Google more money by providing you with more relevant information.
This isn't "unsafe" by any means, but if you are paranoid about companies knowing about you, don't use Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It's been reported that Google and Facebook never search through people's personal information to look for illegal or suspicious activity. The only way these companies release their information to other people is if law enforcement forces them. Google has publicly stated they are just as concerned with organizations like the NSA snooping on their data, and have started encrypting more and more of their services. | 18 |
|
Where does the light go when you turn off the lights in a room with no windows? | 48 | Scattered and absorbed.
Nothing is perfectly smooth so there is a lot of scattering.
And anything with color will absorb some light. So it all scatters and absorbs over and over until it's all "gone"
A good question is what happens in a room with nothing but mirrors (spoiler: mirrors diffract and absorb a little bit too, so same thing) | 47 |
|
[Dune] Please tell me more about the universe in general, anything really. | Things I've got down:
* Takes place in the far, far future, like 20000 years
* The novels are really detailed
* There is an Emperor, but I don't know a thing about him
* Spice is a hell of a drug
* Desert world with sand worms that eat people
* Robots are banned
* Warhammer 40000 borrows from it heavily
That is all I know. Just tell me anything I *should* know about dune. | 18 | Dune is set around 20,000 years in the future, long after a lot of "regular" scifi tropes have come and gone. Humanity used to use sentient machines for a lot of its heavy lifting, but as usual, they rebelled. Unlike many other scifi universes however, the war between man and machine was SO brutal that not only was artificial intelligence outlawed, it was made religiously heretical.
Humans have kept many ancient traditions, languages and religions from old Earth in this distant future. In fact, most religions have come together into beautiful new combinations. Most people follow the Orange Catholic Bible, which combines all major Abrahamic faiths and some others. Naturally, one of the most important tenets of this religion is the hatred of AI.
Humanity used to use standard FTL and cryo-sleep ships to travel between the stars, but the Spice changed all that. People who are infused with enough of it (which is an extreme amount) become navigators, who have the ability to fold space and make ships travel instantly. The spice also extends human life by hundreds of years and expands human mental capacity, allowing specially trained people to do intense mental calculations just like computers of old used to. They're called mentats.
Politically, this spice-dependent empire is a tripod, the most unstable political arrangement. There's the Emperor at the top, the great houses and the spacing guild, which holds a monopoly on ALL legal space travel in the empire. The houses control individual planets or small numbers of worlds and do much of the day-to-day ruling. A single powerful great house is usually responsible for mining all spice on Arrakis and legally selling it to everyone. House Harkonnen has ruled Arrakis for a long time by the beginning of the first novel and are ludicrously wealthy.
Arrakis is 100% a desert. There used to be abundant life and water on its surface, but the sandworms changed it over time. People do not wish to change this because the sandworms also make the spice as a by-product of their life cycle. It's complicated, so just remember that the huge and deadly sandworms are essential for the spice and the spice is essential to the worms. A group of reclusive people live independently on the surface. Called the Fremen, they live outside the Empire's laws but usually don't wish to change the status quo... until their savior arrives.
| 24 |
What would happen if a buddhist monk got dementia? | Ive bene thinking about this a lot recently. If a person who devoted their entire lives to learning and practicing calmness, acceptance and being in the present got diagnosed with dementia, how would they act, what would they experience?
From what I understand, when you have dementia, you forget who people are and who you are, however if, say, we had a monk experience this, would they be able to accept their situation and present or somehow understand using their already trained brains?
Or does dementia also affect mental faculties in a way that their reasoning would be altered too? | 39 | Dementia is not always characterised by memory issues. For example, frontotemporal dementia generally affects inhibition. Your might be referring specifically to Alzheimer’s disease, which is the one most commonly associated with the term “dementia” and memory deficits.
Either way, it would be interesting to see how frontotemporal degeneration affects one’s ability to maintain inner calm and meditate, as it were.
So really, it depends on the type of dementia and what faculties specifically are affected. Current best practice in dementia is to try and keep people engaged with their regular lives as far as possible, which may be protective like continuing to meditate might be. | 29 |
AskScience Panel of Scientists III | **Calling all scientists!**
The previous thread expired! If you are already on the panel - no worries - you'll stay! This thread is for **new** panelist recruitment!
**Please make a top-level comment on this thread to join our panel of scientists. **
The panel is an informal group of Redditors who are professional scientists (or plan on becoming one, with at least a graduate-level familiarity with the field of their choice). The purpose of the panel is to add a certain degree of reliability to AskScience answers. Anybody can answer any question, of course, but if a particular answer is posted by a member of the panel, we hope it'll be recognized as more reliable or trustworthy than the average post by an arbitrary redditor. You obviously still need to consider that any answer here is coming from the internet so check sources and apply critical thinking as per usual.
You may want to join the panel if you:
* Are a research scientist professionally, are working at a post-doctoral capacity, are working on your PhD, are working on a science-related MS, or have gathered a large amount of science-related experience through work.
* Are willing to subscribe to /r/AskScience.
* Are happy to answer questions that the ignorant masses may pose about your field.
* Are able to write about your field at a layman's level as well as at a level comfortable to your colleagues and peers (depending on who's asking the question)
You're still reading? Excellent! Here's what you do:
* Make a top-level comment to this post.
* State your general field (biology, physics, astronomy, etc.)
* State your specific field (neuropathology, quantum chemistry, etc.)
* List your particular research interests (carbon nanotube dielectric properties, myelin sheath degradation in Parkinsons patients, etc.)
We're not going to do background checks - we're just asking for Reddit's best behavior here. The information you provide will be used to compile a list of our panel members and what subject areas they'll be "responsible" for.
The reason I'm asking for top-level comments is that I'll get a little orange envelope from each of you, which will help me keep track of the whole thing. These official threads are also here for book-keeping: the other moderators and I can check what your claimed credentials are, and can take action if it becomes clear you're bullshitting us.
**Bonus points!** Here's a good chance to discover people that share your interests! And if you're interested in something, you probably have questions about it, so you can get started with that in /r/AskScience.
/r/AskScience isn't just for lay people with a passing interest to ask questions they can find answers to in Wikipedia - it's also a hub for discussing open questions in science. (No pseudo-science, though: don't argue stuff most scientists consider bunk!)
I'm expecting panel members and the community as a whole to discuss difficult topics amongst themselves in a way that makes sense to them, as well as performing the general tasks of informing the masses, promoting public understanding of scientific topics, and raising awareness of misinformation.
[Go here to the new thread, which is not expired!](http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/jwibi/askscience_panel_of_scientists_iv/) | 107 | General field: Biology
Specific fields: Genetics, Gene Regulation, Cell Biology, Evolutionary Biology
(Former) Research interests: Bacterial gene regulation, Molecular evolution
BSc Biochemistry, PhD in the field of prokaryotic genetics, 14 years post-doc experience; 8 years in research, 6 years as a science writer | 90 |
ELI5: How is therapy effective when it is in the therapists' financial interest to keep you as their patient? | Same goes to other medical fields, I guess.
How can a doctor make you better when their job requires people to be sick? | 527 | Aside from the personality types looking to get into these fields of work there's two objective factors that would make it a bad idea to prolong treatment and they kinda go hand in hand: supply and competition.
Many therapists have lines of patients waiting to get appointments and if you have a bad reputation they will go somewhere else.
This is also the case in countries with free healthcare, but there you also have the added reason of costs. | 284 |
ELI5: What exactly happens to muscles when you massage them and why is it good for them? | 52 | Massaging reduces the production of compounds called cytokines, which play a major role in inflammation. Also, it stimulates mitochondria which helps convert glucose into energy used for cell repair and growth. Massage causes microtrauma also, which stimulates nutrient flow to the targeted area and speeds recovery. | 11 |
|
Could there be an island of stability somewhere further down the periodic table? | 691 | Do you mean further than the island of 104-118? It might be possible that the same mechanism of completing a closed neutron shell stabilizes even heavier super heavy elements around 126-164. Or it might not. You'd be a very famous person if you could prove it one way or the other! | 484 |
|
[Resident Evil] What was the Umbrella Corporations master plan with the T-Cell virus and zombie apocalypse after all? | 30 | Pretty sure Umbrella Corp on the surface was just trying to develop new bioweapons to sell to world governments, while the various Management heads were seeking out the "cure" for death so they could do what all billionaires dream to do: live forever and never lose their money.
All the apocalypses are just a result of their piss poor planning in some cases, and direct results of their warfare application experimentation in others. | 32 |
|
ELI5: What makes the iron in food stuff like spinach digestible in our body? How is it different from consuming small quantities of iron directly? | 38 | It's really not different. It's a common grade school experiment to take some iron rich cereal or something and spin it in water with a strong magnet for a long time and you eventually end up with a bunch of stuff that is just iron filings stuck to the magnet. | 21 |
|
[Doctor Who] When The Doctor regenerates, do his personality and morals change? | Right before 10 regenerated, he says he doesn’t want to go. When 11 regenerated he says “I’ll always remember when the Doctor was me.”
It seems to imply that his current self “dies” with each regeneration. What about him (apart from physical appearance) actually changes when he regenerates? | 53 | Personality: yes. Morals: Kind of.
His "core values" don't change, but everything around them does.
The doctor will always be willing to put himself (or herself now) in danger to protect innocents.
But his favorite food, book, song, time period, etc. That all changes when he regenerates.
Now, what he finds acceptable to do may change between forms.
There is some conflicting evidence regarding his memories but it appears on the whole he keeps them from form to form.
Think of it kinda like a hardrive you put in multiple different computers. What it looks like from the outside and how it does things might be slightly different, but it still has all the same information.
Make sense? | 65 |
ELI5: How are unwitnessed behaviours (such as an adult bird building a nest the chick never saw the construction of) passed onto the next generation? | 8,267 | Nest building is a species-specific innate behavior, birds don’t learn how to build a nest, they’re born with an instinctual drive that lies in their genetics. It’s also why different species make different types of nests which be radically different in construction.
For a contrast, brown bears are NOT born knowing how to fish, they have to both learn from their mother by watching her, and also they develop their own unique style. Each bear fishes in slightly different ways, some like to wait under the water, others prefer to wait at the top of a fall for a fish to practically leap into their mouths, others wait behind the boil of the fall to pick up fish that failed the jump, some use jaws first and others use paws. | 9,818 |
|
CMV: Bitcoin mining using non renewables should be banned immediately. | Global warming is a serious threat to the survival of the human species and it's insane we are adding to this problem for no good reason. Currently Bitcoin mining consumes more power per year than the whole country of Argentina. There would be hardly any downsides in banning the mining of crypto currencies using non renewables and the benefits would be immediate.
Even with a 'carbon tax' mining for bitcoins should be banned immediately if it's being done using non renewables. There is no effective way to capture carbon at this point and it's unclear if there will ever be.
What am I missing? | 997 | They are buying this energy legally. They are paying for it. Producer of this energy will still produce that energy and sell it to others. So what is the point of that ban?
That "dirty energy" will still be there, the only change will be distribution - BTC mining will start getting fueled by renewables and renewable energy that were used for other purposes will be used to mine BTC. At the same time, "dirty energy" that were used to mine BTS will be used to supply those who aren't supplied with renewables anymore, because that energy is being sold to BTC miners.
Your proposal solves nothing. It will make BTC mining "cleaner" by making other energy uses "dirtier". | 253 |
ELI5: Why are Windows, OS X, and Linux the main operating systems out there? Why are there no newer operating systems? | 30 | there are many others. those 3 are the big consumer OS's. there are many other backend industrial OS's that are still in use like VAX.
Linux is a branch of the *nix family of OS's. Other members of the *nix family include the BSD branch, the Solaris branch, the AIX branch, among others. There are many many published flavors of Linux in its branch, Redhat, Gentoo, Centos, Ubuntu, etc. Other branches have multiple members as well, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc.
It takes alot to make an OS. you need not only the working core, but you need vendor support. The Linux branch in its infancy had quite a problem with consumers because no vendors published hardware drivers for it, because there's not enough market share of consumers. it's a catch 22. | 21 |
|
ELI5: Biologically/Neurologically speaking, what happens to someone when they finally "lose it" after trying to maintain composure? | What is that breaking point and why does it even exist? | 31 | imagine for a moment your brain was a mob of people, they receive information and decide amongst themselves how to respond to this. do they attack? (folks in the amygdala region are notorious for having two general answers to everything: run or fight) do they try and figure out another course? do they try diplomacy? do they just hide and hope it goes away? every part of the brain seems to have it's own opinion on what the correct course of action should be. and they all argue with each other and action happens when a majority is reached (when one region is more active than the others that's the one that wins) in the example you gave this is a fight between the amygdala (which is calling for blood) and the prefrontal cortex which is saying "if we do that this will happen, we need to find some other way" as the incidents get more and more the prefrontal cortext can't keep convincing the amygdala that it will all be better if we do nothing, and the amygdala wins the contest and sends signals out to the hypothalamus and it's fighting time!
now how the fight takes place depends on the person, in some cases it's a fist fight, in others it's a word fight. but in the end it's a fight.
in a way it's a lot like how a democratic country goes to war. | 22 |
[ALIEN] whats the purpose of the spooky chains and water room? | I just saw this a few hours ago, and I dont get why a cargo ship has a spooky chains and water room.
to specify the room I am talking about, when one of the engineers (Im bad with names) goes after the cat, and he gets to this room he looks up at the water and lets it drip all over his face. | 37 | The chain hangs from an industrial rail-crane. Its purpose is to help lift heavy objects, when the ship is in full-g. Since the ship is a longhauler, there is probably a lot of heavy equipment to lug around.
This would be epecially important in a water room (which is essentially an internal water-tower) since such a room would be much taller than its width, pretty much a shaft with a water tank in it. | 43 |
ELI5: Why can't we remember dreams very well? | I sometimes wake up and remember entire dreams, but five minutes later I completely forget what it was about. Why is this? | 23 | Think of your head being like a computer. There's permanent memory in hard drives and then there's temporary memory in the RAM.
The permanent memory is kept but dreams is temporary data and gets flushed out when you close the program which is sleep. You can remember them if you try and focus kind of like saving but if you don't they're useless ramblings of your brain and get thrown out.
Someone please go more sciencey on this I'd like to hear the big fancy words behind it. | 12 |
ELI5: How did Germany become one of the richest countries in the world after losing two world wars and having to pay huge reparations and recovery costs and having the country split into two. | 29 | Germany is ideally positioned to become astronomically wealthy. That's also the reason it fought 3 major European wars in less than 75 years - all its neighbors realized that was true and tried to put a stop to it.
Germany is centrally situated in Europe, has access to the sea, and has great river connections. Germany can service markets across Europe from its central location.
Germany has access to both iron and coal which means it can make steel and generate power without having to import anything. The coal/steel complex centered on the Alscace/Lorraine area is the proximate cause of friction between France and Germany, and placing that region's resources into the European Coal and Steel Community laid the foundation for the European Union and also helped keep both country's economies steady after WWII.
The Germans have a fairly homogeneous culture (barring a lot of immigrants from Turkey in the post-war era). That culture stresses values of hard work, thrift, education, and collective action - a perfect storm for creating successful companies and industries.
The Germans came out of WWII with a destroyed infrastructure but a lot of smart people. With the help of the Marshall Plan they were able to rebuild the infrastructure and the smart people worked with great diligence to restore their material wealth. Germany had a pre-war reputation for making high quality goods and German companies traded on that reputation in the post-War era; making things like cars, industrial equipment, chemicals, cameras, etc.
The German people have had a very stable political system since the war. Debates in German politics are very centrist - the difference between the party of the Left and the party of the Right are of degree, not of substance. When reunification became possible the West Germans mobilized quickly to make it happen, and deployed a lot of money to smooth the transition. There was relatively little objection in German society to the reunification even though it was expensive.
tl;dr: A resource-rich, geographically central country, with a population of people with the right values to be successful and a political system that is very stable. | 48 |
|
ELI5: Why do some medications cause weight gain? | In the case if you are eating normal amounts of healty food as you were before the medication? Isn't your body starved of energy if all is stored in fat tissue? | 18 | Some medications greatly increase hunger. Others make you feel more lethargic, making you less likely to exercise, or making your exercising less effective. And some can actually affect the process of how your body burns calories, or how they store and absorb sugars and other nutrients. | 19 |
[Marvel] Why is Galactus humanoid, in armor, and muscular? | He looks like some normal supervillain on earth, in a costume.
He has armor on but he will never encounter anyone to defend against physically.
He's jacked, but just sits in space all day. | 26 | He's not. That's just how he appears to you, because it's easier for your mind to be afraid and in awe of a 40 foot tall jacked dude in purple cosmic tech armor.
And if that doesn't have the suitable effect, the crust of your planet cracking soon after usually cements the desired response. | 57 |
When nucleons bind to form a nucleus, does each nucleon "retain ownership" over its quarks (is each nucleon a truly unique entity)? Or is it possible for quarks to swap from one nucleon to another? Or does it not make sense to talk so exactly about them? | I was reading about the strong force and color confinement recently, but everything I read seemed to only talk about an isolated nucleon.
A brief reading of the Nuclear Force (the binding force between nucleons) which can be viewed as a "residual strong force" indicates it is mediated by virtual mesons. To my completely uneducated mind, that reads as though the nuclear force is almost like nucleons swapping quarks between one another (as a meson is a quark-antiquark pair).
I'm assuming I'm reading too much into it and letting my uninformed imagination run a bit too wild. Because my loose understanding of virtual particles is that they're just a byproduct of random fluctuations in the quantum fields. But then that makes me think that maybe it doesn't make sense to say that a nucleon has "ownership" over its quarks at all, if its quarks can't really be distinguished. Which only furthers my question of if each nucleon is clearly a separate entity while in a nucleus or not. | 380 | In short: Yes nucleons can exchange quarks via mesons, but because of confinement the baryons will always have three valence quarks.
But all, e.g., up quarks are indistinguishable. So it makes no sense to say that a particular quarks left the proton and travelled to another (as part of a pion for example). At the same time a new up-quark must have been created and remained in the original proton.
And then there is the issue of energy scale. The quarks are still bound inside the nucleons, meaning the energy required to get one out is larger than the random energy fluctuations in the system (= temperature). That is why you only exchange virtual mesons rather than real particles. Mathematically this makes it convenient to describe the nucleons as their own things that than interact with one another, rather than looking at all the quarks and gluons and whatnot separately.
You can create states of matter where the quarks are no longer bound, i.e. it makes sense to model things on the quark level. It is called "quark gluon plasma", and it exists at much higher energies/temperatures. E.g. it is created briefly in particle colliders, when you smash nuclei into each other. | 97 |
ELI5: Why do muscles sometimes involuntarily twitch? | I’m laying on my futon and my left quadriceps starts to twitch on it’s own accord. Made me curious as to why. | 244 | Usually that's an electrolyte imbalance (sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc). Your body runs on electricity and those ingredients help transfer that energy by making the blood more/less conductive. So when you have very low amounts of these your legs twitch because they are forced to construct from an intense signal that under good balance would not be a strong enough shock to "wake up" the muscles. That's why momma told you to eat a banana if your legs hurt (potassium). | 180 |
CMV: Cultural appropriation is not bad or wrong, it's simply human nature. | When discussion on cultural appropriation comes up, it's often in the context of music or art. White artists using rap or hip-hop, or black fashion to get their message out. The offense is often that these artists are profiting off of other cultures.
Recently however, more and more people seem to be of the opinion that using anyone's cultural identity in any way is offensive.
Wearing a kimono as anyone but a Japanese national is cultural appropriation.
However, this is human nature. Even if someone takes music developed in another part of the world and uses it to create and sell music, that's how music evolves.
Mozart wasn't the inventor of orchestral music, he took a form of music already established and expanded on it, as did artists from every corner of the world. It was started in Italy and Mozart was Austrian, he got famous off of it, was he appropriating Italian culture?
What difference then is it when a white artist grows up listening to hip-hop and chooses to use that form of music for their career?
Culture comes about when a group is distinct and separate from other groups long enough to have changed the music, art, perhaps language and dress enough for it to stand out. When that culture becomes well known others will start appreciating it and will naturally wish to take part in it.
We have been doing this since the dawn of our species. One monkey puts a leaf on his or her head, other monkeys follow suit because they like the look. If another tribe comes along and intermingles, they'll often start doing the same.
Labeling something Cultural appropriation gives a bad spin to human's natural propensity to mirror the people they admire and it's not wrong to do so.
_____
> *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!* | 16 | You're missing a really key thing here: Cultural Exchange is relatively equal parties taking part in and relishing in pieces of each other's cultures. Cultural Appropriation is when a hegemonic culture does this while continuing to disrespect or profit off the other culture which is not benefitting from the coopting.
This thread comes up on here like once a week, and this is always where the discussion ends up going. | 20 |
ELI5: The end of the Lord of the Rings | Where are the elves, Gandalf, and Bilbo going? Why does Frodo have to go? Thanks. | 20 | The story takes place at a crossroad where the age of elves and magic is dying out and the age of man is emerging. Lothlórien and Rivendale are two of the last bastions of elven magic in the known world, overall it has been waning and dying out as elves leave. With the rise of the kingdoms of man the remaining elves led by Galadriel and Elrond decide to pack it in and migrate to Valinor, or the "Undying Lands" and leave middle-earth to to man.
Frodo is so much in agony due to being wounded by the Nazgul, he is also just totally spent by carrying the ring all that time. The elves allow him to come with them. His friends are distraught over this but in many ways understand. | 22 |
[Star Trek] [Voyager] Capt. Janeway's decision to ally with the Borg against Species 8472 | I'm wary of asking this, since it skirts the borders of objective fact(in the Star Trek Universe) but here goes:
TLDR: My core question is this: was Capt Janeway sufficiently justified in believing that Species 8472 were a comparable threat to all galactic life as the Borg? After a single violent encounter, with a single individual of the species, she deigns them a greater threat than the entire Borg Collective. And thus justifies an alliance with Borg, where she helps them fight off Species 8472. This seems at odds with various Starfleet norms, not least being the Prime Directive. Am I missing something or disregarding some facet here?
I've been rewatching Star Trek: Voyager recently and I've just finished the episode VOY 4x26: Hope and Fear. In that episode, >!the last survivor of an alien race - recently obliterated by the Borg - attempts to trick Voyager's crew and sacrifice them to the Borg. He does this in revenge for Voyager helping the Borg overcome Species 8472 - a conflict they would have otherwise likely lost.!< One particular line was striking - "Who were you to make that choice? A stranger to this Quandrant!", and it echoed a like from Chakotay one season ago (in VOY 3x26: Scorpion) , where he says - "How much is our safety worth? We'd be helping a species guilty of killing billions". At the time and later Janeway points to what Species 8472 did to her crewmember Harry Kim and the psychic visions transmitted to another crewmember Kes warning "The weak will perish".
But this seems a rash judgement in my opinion. I assume 8472 are new to our universe and their initial contact, possibly sole contact before the crew of Voyager, was with the Borg - an antagonistic species if ever there was one. Voyager's crew encounters one of their pilots in a derelict Borg cube, in the wake of a large battle, where he attacks Harry Kim and infects him with a unique "virus". But this doesn't seems to have been a deliberate act, but rather a feature of their biology. Their subsequent interactions, including psychic threats, are after Voyager has allied with the Borg. Looking at these actions as those of soldiers and field commanders in a warzone, it seems a stretch to characterize the whole species. Imagine if the Klignon's were judged solely by their warcrys and battle prowess?
Furthermore, consider how Starfleet has interacted with other inscrutable, violent forms of alien life. For example, the Crystalline entity in TNG - a creature with a far higher Federation body count than 8472, but they still attempted to establish communication with it rather than kill it.
Finally, I would consider the Prime Directive applies here. Since Species 8472 has made no overt threats towards the Federation or Voyager, this seem like a purely internal matter between them and the Borg. Simply because the two species involved are as advanced(arguably more so) than the Federation, does not preclude the non-inteference that is the foundation of Star Fleet. To interfere is to change the natural course of history for both species, and in fact for all species in the Delta Quadrant.
Thus I submit that it seems to me to have been the wrong choice going by Federation principles and indeed the general principle espoused by Star Trek as a whole. | 29 | The facts available to Janeway after the initial encounter with 8472 but before entering negotiations with the Collective were:
* 8472 is advanced enough to be a major threat to the Federations most powerful adversary.
* 8472 have shown themselves to be hostile when they attacked a Starfleet officer.
* 8472 have fired upon a retreating Federation starship without provocation.
* 8472 Have threatened to purge the galaxy (i.e. kill everything).
* Borg generally don't kill but rather assimilate.
* Borg assimilation is reversible (Locutus/Picard).
It is perfectly reasonable to conclude that 8472 is a more pressing threat than the Borg.
The PD certainly doesn't apply, it ceased to be an internal matter when 8472 fired on Voyager. | 18 |
[DC] why aren't a lot of batman villains considered terrorists | You would think after all the biological weapons that joker, scarecrow, and poison ivy have used in their attacks on Gotham. The us government would probably go black ops and have someone like Walker to take them all out. Before you say their insane so they can't kill them do you think that would matter to groups like the CIA and FBI groups that plenty of shady business before. | 268 | > The us government would probably go black ops and have someone like Walker to take them all out.
Oh, the irony...
Waller is probably 80% of the reason the feds **don't** smoke super crooks. Where most folks see a problem, she sees opportunity; an ever rotating array of disposable, deniable superfreaks who can make shit happen and take all the heat for it. Waller keeps the maniacs and weirdos in play because it serves her purposes. | 201 |
ELI5 - Please explain this economics to me, I just can't wrap my head around it | This is a common math problem that floats around the internet in many forms but I just don't get it.
1. I borrow $50 from person A
2. I borrow $50 from person B
3. I buy something for $97 leaving $3 change
4. I repay $1 to person A leaving $49 owing
5. I repay $1 to person B leaving $49 owing
6. I keep $1 for myself
7. I now owe $49 each to persons A and B making a total of $98 owed and I have repaid $2 total ($1 each to person A and B)
8. $98 owed + $2 paid = $100 that I initially borrowed
9. How the f\*\*k did I magically get to keep $1 from seemingly nowhere? | 61 | You're looking at it all wrong. You started with $0. You borrowed $100, which brought you to -$100 net worth. You bought a $97 widget. That left you with a $97 widget and $3, with a total debt of $100. You paid $2 on your debt. That left you with a $97 widget, and $1 in cash, and a total debt of $98. Thus, you have assets worth $97+$1=$98, and debts totaling $98, which is the same as the $0 net worth you started with. | 418 |
ELI5: Why do weightlifters looks “fat” rather than just pure muscle? | 1,262 | To build muscle, you need to lift weights and eat a calorie surplus. The extra calories allow you to grow -- both muscle and fat.
Body builders then cut -- they stop eating as much, but keep working out, to reduce the fat.
But for weightlifters, the cutting is just a waste of time. It makes more sense to keep eating and keeping building muscle. (Mind you, they need to cut a bit, they can't get so fat that it gets in the way, but they don't need to be crazy low fat like body builders).
All the same muscles are there, they just aren't as visible. | 2,731 |
|
How do prizes for large prime numbers still exist when a proven method for verifying primality exists? Shouldn't super computers be able to brute force prime numbers using methods like the AKS Primality Test? | So since organizations like the [Electronic Frontier Foundation](https://www.eff.org/awards/coop) give out prizes for finding large prime numbers and we have a (relatively) simple method of determining primality through the [AKS primality test](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKS_primality_test), could supercomputers be used to calculate these large prime numbers through brute force? | 36 | Asymptotic time complexity for AKS is something like: Õ(log_2 ^(7.5)(n)), where n is the number being checked. This means that the amount of time to check a very large number ( 2^(57,885,161) − 1) is large -- even for supercomputers. Further, the algorithm must be optimized for a target architecture. In other words, the problem must be solvable in parallel. | 17 |
ELI5: So does Trump realistically have chance at becoming President? Or is this all just a big show | 17 | He's not really leading in any polls; it's because his capering draws eyeballs and clicks, and it's easy to skew poll data to read how you want.
He has a chance, in that it's non-zero, but he has virtually no chance in reality. He's a sideshow clown that's basically the warmup act.
| 28 |
|
[Marvel MCU] no spoilers - Should Captain America and the Falcon salute Rhodey? | Since Rogers is of a Captain's rank and the Falcon is definitely enlisted, whereas Rhodey (Warmachine) out ranks them in his Colonel rank.
So outside of the Shield initiative, they should obey Warmachine, no?
Roger's military uniform with the Captain rank: http://static2.hypable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/captain-america-military-uniform.jpg
Rhodey, Lieutenant Colonel uniform: http://33.media.tumblr.com/12e8e53eb35919361988d1fefcf69b4b/tumblr_inline_mttm2k8zOr1qflnld.png
Rhodey promoted to full bird, Colonel rank:
http://38.media.tumblr.com/4262bbedbb5b887edab1d8b7c9c07fa5/tumblr_inline_mttlrdCsgB1qflnld.png
However, they seem to talk to each other without any ranking respect, is that because they put their ranks aside? | 19 | After Steve was defrosted, his rank was moved up from Captain to Captain America. Asking him to salute somebody it's like asking a bald eagle to salute people.
That or he's officially retired. One or the other. | 45 |
[Megamind] Why is Metrocity so willing to accept Megamind as their new hero at the end of the film? He might have saved the city but as far as they all know he still killed Metro Man. | 60 | While that is true, and their battle of good versus evil was legendary, Megamind at the same time is not the one who is currently wantonly destroying the city. And if memory serves me, even during his "reign of terror" he was nowhere as horrible and destructive as Tighten. | 66 |
|
CMV: Playing video games as a single hobby without interacting with the community is way better. | Basically the older I get the more I realize how annoying and obnoxious the video game community is at times.
This isn’t everyone by the way, but from the past 10 years of meeting different people in the video game community, the wide majority of them are obnoxious and uninteresting people.
I’m not saying I’m special either, as I’m a fairly boring person but I like that about myself. I find playing games as a singular hobby way better them interacting with the general public.
Is this an unhealthy mindset to have? 9 times out of 10 I don’t find the majority of gamers interesting to talk to. | 189 | > how annoying and obnoxious the video game community is at times.
It really depends on the game and community. Some games have really toxic communities. Other games like Kerbal Space Program and Factorio have wonderful communities with very little toxic behaviors. It also will depend on which part of the community you encounter, for example, a game's modding community, fanart community, fanfiction communities, or speedrunning communities are going to be a very different slice of the community.
There are lots of players just like you that want a mature community, and in many games all that is required is finding a guild of like-minded people. | 41 |
CMV: I think smokers are an exploited group. | Tax on cigarettes [have been increasing exponentially for years.](http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/2010/06/22/how-much-is-the-government-making-off-of-tobacco/) There has been nearly a 200% increase since 1997! Some groups still [want to triple the taxes placed on cigarettes.](http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2014/01/02/big-cigarette-tax-hikes-might-prevent-200-million-deaths-in-a-century)
I understand that smoking is unhealthy, but that is no excuse for our politicians to be exploiting a subset of society. We don't put absurdly high tax on foods high in fat and sugars even though they are the leading cause of heart disease (the leading cause of death in the US).
Smokers are milked like a prized heifer and it is disgusting and immoral. | 45 | Increased Cancer Risk = Increased Medical Costs = Cost to society to implement care for those afflicted.
Triage plays an important role here. For every lifetime smoker admitted to cancer treatment and spending government-subsidized healthcare funds, there's a perfectly innocent man, woman, or child who can't get the healthcare they need in a system that is already overburdened with rising costs and sinking funds.
Playing Russian Roulette with your body is none of our business - it's when your unnecessary risks affect those around you that it becomes our business.
EDIT: For those misunderstanding me - It's not just about money. Medical care is a limited resource. There are only so many doctors, so many hospitals, and so few drugs to go around. Voluntarily increasing your risk to burden that system is irresponsible. | 34 |
ELI5: Why is it hundreds of stars at night can be seen from Earth, but videos/picturs of astronauts in orbit never have stars in the background (it is just black)? | 302 | It's about exposure.
A photo from Earth at night looking up has probably nothing in the frame other than stars. This means the camera can keep the shutter open for a longer period like 10 seconds, allowing dim objects like stars to be visible.
Videos and pictures of astronauts have an astronaut in the foreground. The camera is exposing for the astronaut, probably at a shutter speed of around 1/200th of a second. This is too short to see any stars except maybe the very brightest few.
| 114 |
|
[supernatural] What fraction of deaths are monster related, and why haven't epidemiologists noticed? | Supernatural has had 30+ monster species each of which must propagate either by sex or by turning new people. Each must feed on a schedule, and most feed on humans in some way.
For each species to continue it must have one or more members. Given the number of monsters they've killed, there must be thousands of total monsters in the us at any time. Why haven't epidemiologists started to notice the patterns of vampire or werewolf related deaths? How many monsters live in the US at any time, and how many people do they kill? | 34 | Hundreds of thousands of people go missing every year in the US alone. Those people are just part of that number. When you consider that like most predators, vampires and other terrible things that go bump in the night tend to go after the most disenfranchised and vulnerable members of society, it's no surprise that epidemiologists are unaware. | 17 |
ELI5: Why can't Windows accurately predict file transfer times? | 1,080 | Disk drives have on-board memory or "cache" with which to smooth out data transfers. Data is often at various places on the disk, and there needs to be time to swing the reading arm and head around to find the right place to read it from the disk. There is also the matter of when the data is read the disk is spinning by at great speed; the computer isn't always ready to accept the data from the disk, so it needs a buffer area (the cache) to put it in the meantime.
This means that drives exhibit "burst" speeds when reading and writing. If you wanted to save a file your computer could say "save these memory addresses!" and dump them directly from your computer's random-access memory into the drive's cache very quickly. Slightly later the drive actually gets around to positioning the heads and writing what is in the cache to the platters of the disk itself. However, if you have a lot of data to save it will eventually overwhelm the drive's cache and it will be forced to stop just storing it in the cache until it can work through the backlog.
What this means is that when Windows looks at how quickly a file is being written by the drive it gets confusing results. The first few bits of the file are being accepted extremely quickly so it thinks it will finish the transfer very quickly, but after a little while the drive seems to slow down significantly. Now something it looked like would take 10 seconds is taking a minute. If you tell that drive to do other things too that minute could be come two, or even three!
Ultimately, the timer included in the box by Windows isn't going to be very smart. It only compares the clock to the rate of data transfer, which often doesn't consider the whole picture at all. | 641 |
|
ELI5 How did they manage to get big ships docked before the invention of motor engines ? | 91 | The first thing to do is wait for the right weather. You anchor outside the harbour or sail around until the wind is of the right strength and direction to allow you to get in.
The next thing to do is take on a pilot, this is someone who knows the harbour intimately and so where to turn, where to avoid shoals etc. You pick them up out at sea where there is space to do so.
Then you sail into the harbour and up to a quay. You need to control your speed by adjusting and taking in sails so that you berth slowly. This is quite within the capability of a skilled skipper and well drilled crew.
Then if you need to move the ship to another basin, another quay, turn it around etc then you warp it around, which basically means pulling it about using ropes. You might have mule teams to help, certainly you use capstans on the ship and ashore.
Steam tugs were used long before ocean going cargo ships were powered by engines. They could help manoeuvre the ships into tight spots, or tow them into harbour in calm weather.
All of the same techniques are used in modern shipping with modern ships, in fact modern ships are arguably harder to dock given how much larger they are. | 152 |
|
ELI5: why do we lose weight more easily when we drink lots of water? | 417 | 1. Your stomach has stretch receptors that tell your brain you are full. If you drink a lot of water, your stomach is streched out by a 0 calorie drink rather than a high calorie food. That's partly why eating a giant low calorie salad makes you feel as full as a small high calorie baked good. There are other things that contribute to fullness, but the stretch receptors are an important one.
2. If you drink cold water, your body has to burn calories to warm it up to body temperature.
3. You drink water instead of other high calorie beverages. You will swap out water for soda, juice, etc. That keeps those empty calories off.
4. Your kidneys have to burn more calories to get rid of all the extra water you drank.
5. Water is an important part of many calorie burning chemical reactions in your body. If you don't have enough water, your body stops the less necessary reactions to conserve water. | 380 |
|
[AOU] Spoilers, why not Asgard? | Is there a reason they chose to hide out at Hawkeye's with Lindsey Weir instead of having Heimdal bifrost them up to Asgard? Asgard would be completely out of reach of Ultron so would be a perfect place to regroup. Also is there a reason Thor didn't ask for a bunch of Asgardian warriors to bifrost down to protect Earth in the final battle? | 34 | Thor has just seen some terrible visions of Asgard getting completely wrecked. Its not in his vest interests to take the Avengers to Asgard when they're seemingly safe with Hawkeye. Thors priority is figuring out exactly what he saw and how to stop Rakgnarok, which is what Heimdall mentions. Its natural that he would be wary of doing anything to set the events of Ragnarok in motion, including getting the most destructive people he knows to his home planet. | 46 |
ELI5: Saltwater to fight fires? | Can firefighting helicopters use saltwater to fight wildfires or is it just freshwater?
Will the salt have a negative impact on the area after? | 29 | They can use saltwater, too. Some things to consider though:
As you mentioned, salt isn't great for re-growth.
Most sources of water nearby forests usually aren't the ocean but instead lakes.
Saltwater can be damaging to water tanks and it causes corrosion more quickly. | 43 |
ELI5: Why is 2% inflation rate good, and what would happen if the rate falls below this? | Would people notice sudden changes in daily life? | 310 | Inflation means that a dollar gets less valuable over time (by 2% a year). Too much inflation, and money becomes worthless, like in Weimar Germany. The too-little problem is a bit trickier.
Inflation encourages people and corporations (and especially banks) to do things with their money, specifically, invest it in businesses, education, or something else. If money loses 2% of its value each year, companies have to be doing something with it that earns at least a 2% profit - like lending it out.
Basically, inflation forces banks and billionaires to stop just sitting on money and instead reinvest it, creating new businesses and jobs and driving the economy forwards. | 437 |
CMV: Businesses should not be allowed to discriminate based on race, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, etc. | 1. You can effectively run people out of town just because of who they are by withholding essential services from them. You could also basically ban blacks, gays, etc. from town if all of the hotels decided not to accommodate them. This happened before the Civil Rights Act, something you have to oppose if you're being consistent. That's why when JFK came up with the Civil Rights Act he wanted to outlaw discrimination by private owners of public accommodation.
2. It is a dangerous precedent to set. What if I interpret my holy book in a certain way that I believe I should pay certain people below the minimum wage? Isn't the minimum wage violating my religious freedom? If you actually want to be consistent, then minimum wage shouldn't be required either.
3. You never know when a new class of people could become the new hated group. Imagine if, hypothetically, we went to war with China, or there was a terrorist attack. There would certainly be a lot of people who would refuse service to people of these nationalities. So you can't just say that we've forever moved past it.
4. Private owners of public accommodation (retail stores, rental establishments, recreational facilities) are already not allowed to discriminate based on race, color, religion, or national origin according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This is very important legislation and will have to be repealed is you disagree.
Let me make myself clear: I think businesses should be allowed to refuse service based on *what the service is*, not who is asking to be served. So a bakery can refuse to bake a cake shaped like a dick or something. I also think if a service is purely religious, like a wedding ceremony, a religious establishment can refuse that service. | 19 | At a college campus, lets say that the law technically allows minors to be in a drinking establishment so long as they are not being served alcohol. However, to help prevent prevent older +21 students from passing drinks to younger ones (which happens frequently and is hard to prevent), the college bar decides simply to not allow anyone under 21 at the bar after 8pm.
This is clear cut age discrimination, so would you argue that the bar owners should be fined for taking this precautionary measure to help prevent underage drinking? | 10 |
CMV: As an overweight, unattractive person, I would rather be single than date "in my league" | I am an overweight unattractive man.You could rate me 2/10 at most. I find women who are overweight and unattractive completely repulsive.
It is not that I am a hypocrite. I am aware of what I am. However, I do not want to associate with women who are like me. I feel zero sexual attraction to an overweight woman. The thought of kissing one makes my skin crawl. Not only that, but I would not want to be seen with one.
I would rather live alone than live with someone I am ashamed of, someone I feel no attraction to.
It is not that I think I am "better" than ugly women. It is not that I am a "nice guy" and women can't appreciate me or something. No, I realize I am on their level. It is just that I would rather have no one than have one of them.
I started thinking about this when I say [this comment thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/4x46lo/thought_i_was_doing_my_socially_awkward_neckbeard/d6cd68d). Everyone was making fun of a fat man for refusing to date an overweight woman. But I would have done the exact same. I see no reason to be in a relationship if I am not attracted to my partner.
_____
> *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!* | 129 | You have a dislike of yourself and fat people. You shouldnt date a woman you are not attracted to but you dont deserve someone if you only care about their looks. Really the problem is your perception of a partners value and what makes someone attractive to you | 34 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.