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ELI5: How the repeal of some provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act in 2000 led to the economic problems of 2008-present.
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I'm somewhat familiar with some aspects of the contributing factors behind the economic downturn, such as the artificially created CDOs/housing bubble/AIG bankruptcy , but I keep hearing mention of the topic in the headline as a significant factor as well. Can someone explain how Glass-Steagall fits in?
| 37 |
Well, this is a bit complicated. There are three levels to it. There's what Gramm-Leach-Bliley *actually did*, in terms of the law. Then there's what *actually happened* as a consequence of those changes to the law. And then finally there's *how some people interpret* those two things.
Most superficially, Gramm-Leach-Bliley reduced the extent to which the government regulates the financial sector. A lot of people just stop there. Regulation good, less regulation bad, GLB bad. But that's shallow thinking, and there's no place for it here, so we'll look deeper.
There were a number of provisions in GLB, but the one that most people want to talk about is the fact that it removed a statutory prohibition of *mergers* between banks, insurance companies and brokerages. A bank is just what you think it is; it's a depository institution. People deposit money into demand-deposit accounts (and other types of insured short-term investments, like CDs), and the bank lends that money, minus a reserve requirement, out into the capital market. An insurance company is also just what you think it is: It's a company that sells a promise to pay in exchange for periodic premiums. A brokerage is neither of those things; instead, it's a company that facilitates the buying and selling of securities — financial instruments — between private concerns, like individuals or businesses. Prior to the passage of GLB, going back to 1933 or so, it was prohibited by law for a bank to merge with an insurance company, or an insurance company with a brokerage, or any combination of those. GLB removed that prohibition.
Why is this a good thing? Two reasons: economies of scale, which is obvious, but also simple economic reality. See, commercial banks were *already* offering diverse financial services, such as securities and insurance brokerage, before GLB. The only prohibition in law was that those different types of financial institutions couldn't *merge.* There was nothing stopping a bank for reselling insurance underwriting, or facilitating the buying and selling of securities, and most banks did. So GLB got rid a weak prohibition that had little real effect except for lowering the overall efficiency of the financial sector by artificially keeping certain going concerns from consolidating their interests.
Why is it a bad thing? Well, that's subtle. See, there are those who assert that GLB *led to* the collapse of the housing bubble and the subsequent economic contraction. That's not really an assertion that can be supported by the facts. GLB actually had no real effect on the rapid expansion of the housing market or its subsequent inversion. What GLB *can* be alleged to have done was to create the complex interrelationships between insurance, depository banking and brokerage that have since come to be known by the cliché "too big to fail."
You see, when one single depository bank fails, nobody really notices. That's because we've got big, robust systems in place to deal with bank failures. When a bank approaches insolvency, the FDIC works very secretively behind the scenes to come up with a solvency/liquidity transition plan. If that bank fails, a team goes in, usually on a Friday afternoon at the close of business, and puts that plan into place. Come Monday morning, the failed bank no longer exists; its assets and liabilities have been taken over by *another* bank, as mediated by the FDIC, and everything's fine. This happens *all the time* in America, and hardly anybody ever notices.
But what if that bank is also an insurance underwriter? What if it's holding a portfolio of AAA securities that amounts to the insurance policies of a million people? What if it's *also* holding portfolios for a hundred different investment funds worth tens of billions of dollars? How do you transition *those* assets and liabilities over to another institution on a weekend? That's a classic "too big to fail" situation, although it's more accurate to call it "too big to fail *manageably."* There are simply too many assets and liabilities in play for an orderly and — most importantly — *swift* transition to occur.
"Too big to fail" became such a buzzword in 2007 and 2008 that people instantly started criticizing GLB. If GLB hadn't been passed, these big institutions wouldn't have been able to merge, and so they wouldn't have grown so massively enormous that the government had to step in with TARP rather than letting them collapse and moderating the transition of assets and liabilities.
Except there's just one little problem with that. It's actually false. There have only been a *handful* of mergers between depository, underwriting and investment institutions in the past decade … and the results of those mergers — like JP Morgan Chase, which formed out of the merger of the investment bank JP Morgan and the depository bank Chase Manhattan — did *better* over the past five years than less diversified institutions, like Lehman Bros. In fact, because GLB removed the merger restriction, Bank of America was able to buy Merrill Lynch in 2008. If it hadn't, Merrill would've failed just like Lehman did.
So while a lot of people like to talk about how GLB caused all everybody's problems, there's really a very compelling case to be made that the repeal of the merger prohibition actually *softened* the blow, and resulted in fewer institutional failures than we would've seen otherwise.
So long story short? It's not simple. Some people like to make it sound all black-and-white, like there was just absolute good and absolute bad and nothing in between, but the truth is the financial sector is big and complicated, and the same change that allowed "too big to fail" to exist in the first place also kept the economy as a whole from being hit even harder by the contraction than it was.
| 106 |
[Star Trek] What was the effect of the discovery of warp capability on Abrahamic religions on Earth?
| 51 |
Warp itself didn't have much of an impact on religion, everything that came after did.
After The Eugenics War and WW3, most humans were either leaving in scattered colonies or living in ruined cities trying to survive. Earth was in a bad place in a number of ways and organized religious institutions weren't anywhere near the size as they are today. Religion was mostly carried on by individuals but after so many decades of war, it wasn't important to many people.
When First Contact happened and the Earth unified, religion wasn't really a priority for people and it eventually faded away.
| 42 |
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[Fountains of Wayne] Did Stacy's mom know that the boys in the neighborhood thought she was the hot mom?
| 199 |
Outside of the fantasy sequences, the real mom doesn't appear to be thinking about the boys at all in the music video. The "I could tell she liked me by the way she stared and the way she said you missed a spot over there" in the song lyrics appear to indicate that the speaker is misconstruing any interactions between them.
| 233 |
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Given the pace of technological advancement, what popular science fiction media are anachronistic and how could they be updated to fit our modern view of what science fiction is?
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I was watching Black Mirror (The History of You) yesterday and was immediately struck, that while the focus of the show was a 'grain' implant which allowed the user to record and playback anything they had seen or heard, there was plenty of low-tech around as well which I felt would not really be there in that world. For example, the main character hailed a cab which looked futuristic, but was driven by a person. I felt it should have been self-driven.
What other examples can you think of where current developments have rendered science-fiction tech obsolete, and what changes would have to be made to fit it into a modern sense of scifi? Can it be done without seriously affecting the story?
EDIT Here's another one: In Alien, Ash the android is a perfect replica of a human being (so good nobody knew he wasn't a human) and yet the ship's main computer, MOTHER, whose keyboard terminal is only accessible in a dedicated room, can only communicate via a 1970s monochrome CRT.
| 21 |
90% of Isaac Asimov's robot series is incredibly obsolete - he predicted that it would be easy to make robots that move, but difficult to make them speak. Things seem to be moving in the other direction.
| 26 |
CMV: Female Dating Strategy is as toxic as incels
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Edit 1 :FemaleDatingStrategy subreddit**
Edit 2 :Not as toxic as incels for sure BUT both toxic in the end of the day.
Edit 3: Wanted to post this in unpopular opinion but it was removed for some reason.
They have the same ideology of being against the opposite sex (stems from different reasons, sexual frustrations, being hurt by the opposite sex) and not many people are calling them out on it and both are sexist.
An example of the posts on there, "women can thrive without men but men cannot thrive without women" why are you even stating that why not just empower everyone, there is absolutely no need for you to get genders into this. Youre empowering each other calling yourselves queens, thats great. But do not bring men down because that is seen as powerful. It is not and it just reveals the insecurities and you are constantly comparing yourself to men. Just focus on yourself and improve that.
It is a very toxic echo chamber where everyone is encouraging toxic behavior and that idea that all men are trash has been mentioned a couple of times which is annoying at this point.
| 1,111 |
We know that incel ideology has been responsible for acts of domestic terrorism and murder in the USA. Can you show me that the same is true for FDS, or will you agree that it isn't nearly as toxic an ideology?
| 463 |
ELI5: What is the difference between selecting debit or credit on the same checking account card when making store purchases?
| 66 |
Debit purchases are "online" purchases. The transaction will rather immediately be processed from your account.
Credit purchases are "offline" purchases. The transaction will be processed whenever the business processes their credit transactions. Typically every 2-3 business days.
| 45 |
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ELI5:Why do batteries especially phone batteries eventually stop holding as much charge?
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My phone batteries and computer batteries always seem to stop lasting as long.
| 81 |
Imagine batteries as buckets that you can fill up with liquid energy. The nice thing about rechargeable batteries is that you can fill the buckets up many many times with liquid energy, and pour out a little bit at a time into your phone or your computer or really whatever electronic device you want to power. However, the liquid energy can be thought of as having a small amount of grime/dirt in it. Each time you add more liquid energy to the bucket, a small amount of dirt/grime (corrosion within the battery) sticks to the inside of the bucket and rusts it a little bit. Now, rechargeable batteries are made to handle this corrosion, but eventually the buckets are no longer able to hold a charge as they have been corroded to the point where the liquid energy drains out the corroded holes instead of where you intended to send that energy.
| 86 |
ELI5:What happens if you never repay your loans?
| 15 |
There are two types of loans: secured, and unsecured.
A secured loan is a loan for an object that has value, like a house or a car. If you stop making your car payments, the lender takes back the car. Legally, when you took out the loan to buy your car you gave them the right to do that.
An unsecured loan is just cash, there's no specific object. An example of that would be credit card debt. If you fail to pay your loan, they can try to collect the money, if it's a lot - by getting a court order to garnish your wages or take money directly from your bank account. But if the amount isn't worth it, they'll just ruin your credit rating, making it impossible for you to get any future loans for the next ~7 years.
If you didn't actually commit fraud, then you won't go to jail. Failing to pay back a loan is civil, not criminal, and there are no debtor's prisons.
If you owe so much money that there's no way you could ever pay it back, you can declare bankruptcy. The way this works is that the court takes your remaining money, divides it among everyone you owe, then declares all loans paid off. You start over from scratch. You're left with items you need to survive like a car and a basic apartment, but if they're extravagant you may be forced to sell those and get something more modest.
Fun fact: prior to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy was medical bills. Obamacare may not be perfect, but it definitely helped this situation a lot - far fewer people are bankrupted by medical bills today.
| 17 |
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[Fallout New Vegas] How did the Mojave BOS do so well for itself that they were able to refuse using recycled Energy munitions?
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If the Courier helps the BOS out enough they fill a footlocker with recycled energy munitions everyday. The BOS Mojave chapter are doing so much worse for themselves compared to the other major branches (almost no trade or manufacturing capability that we can see) and yet their Knights and Paladins scoff at the reused ammo, so how can they afford to use only fresh cells?
| 41 |
The Mojave branch used to be doing a lot better for themselves. Controlling Helios one and Mccaran, manufacturing their own tech, trading back and forth with other outposts along with House and possibly the NCR. It's almost certain that they had a huge supply of all types of pre war tech including massive amounts of energy munitions.
Although they lost almost everything during the NCR-Brotherhood War they would have taken whatever they had left to their bunker but with such low manpower and barely any land to defend their munitions are simply left sitting in a storage room. It's not like they're still at war and constantly using up their stockpile. If a trusted outsider proves themselves enough what's the harm in giving out some of their munitions so they can put it too actual use.
| 19 |
[Sonic] Who are the casinos for?
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There's one in like every game for the Genesis
| 16 |
Eggman needs cash.
Do you think a giant army of robots is cheap? What about the numerous excavations for ancient artifacts, space ventures, construction work and other projects he initiates?
The simple fact is that Eggman builds the best casinos on the planet. Yes they fund an evil company, but the average citizen doesn't know that. Eggman is earning millions of rings every day on unsuspecting gamblers.
| 15 |
[SCP] with the constant loss of scientists and tactical teams, how is it that SCP keeps their personnel numbers high enough to maintain operational effectiveness?
| 39 |
Basically, we only read the reports where something happens- we don't see the reports for "we find the SCP and take it into custody with no problems" or "the scientist ran some routine experiments and got the expected results". A lot of experiment and report logs are "abridged" for seemingly this reason.
It seems like they're suffering constant losses because we're only reading the stories where something goes horribly goes wrong, but generally they sort things out reasonably well.
| 58 |
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ELI5: Why is the Fort McMurray fire uncontrollable?
| 21 |
It is just after winter, so nothing was really green yet (evergreens still are green, but haven't come out of dormant state yet). That means everything is still dry. It is really hot, 30°C (unusual for early may). The relative humidity was low. And high winds make the fire move quickly.
Forest fires happen a lot. It is just that this one happened to be near a large city, which are very rare in northern Alberta.
| 14 |
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Jewel of Quantum Field Theory
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Is this ["Jewel" of quantum field theory]( https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130917-a-jewel-at-the-heart-of-quantum-physics/) an implication of a physical simplicity previously undiscovered or a useful mathematical technique for solving equations?
(Or is it a subgroup of E-8 theory)
| 19 |
It's too early to say. So far, it's a new mathematical technique. It will need to be confirmed thoroughly before it will see widespread use in that function. If it turns out to make correct universal predictions, it might well hint at some underlying new (and more elegant) physics.
| 14 |
[Star Trek TNG] Realm of Fear... In it Reginald Barclay asks La Forge about transporter accidents. Less than 5 or 6 episodes ago La Forge phases out of sync. Can walk through physical objects and is cloaked. But Laforge tells Barclay he has never experienced an accident.
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They also tell Barclay that in the last 10 years there have only been 5 or 6 transporter accidents.
How many of those happened on the Enterprise? Are they lying to the astute Reginald? He'd look up their numbers if they didn't seem right... What's going on here?
| 49 |
The transporter didn't malfunction then; it actually was highly successful at overcoming the interference from the Romulan ship's phase inverter device.
Very few of the "transporter accidents" the Enterprise dealt with were actually the fault of the transporter itself. It might seem like a bit dishonest, but the statement was technically true and meant to calm Barclay down.
After all, if you were driving your car across a bridge and the bridge collapsed, it wouldn't _really_ be a car accident, now would it?
| 45 |
ELI5: How did talk show host Oprah Winfrey become so rich and powerful?
| 19 |
Oprah managed to very shrewdly work herself into a market that didn't have anything else like her.
She started as a really low-brow talkshow. Not quite as bad as Jerry Springer, but definitely one where the worst kinds of people would be featured. This built her an audience during a time when these shows were very popular.
As time went on, she evolved. She lost weight, and became an inspiration for a lot of folks. She converted her talk show into something more intelligent, and that spoke to a lot of people. Many people out there want to have some source of validation in their lives, and talk shows fulfill that need really well.
Due to her very large audience, Oprah dominated ratings and really got to have everything her way. That business sense allowed her to build a financial empire rather than being controlled by producers who wouldn't care so much about the integrity of her show.
Of course, there are a lot of oprah bashers out there that will chime in and talk shit about her, but even though she isn't perfect she at least tried to champion many causes that need more people to back them.
| 18 |
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[Star Wars] Once joining the Rebellion, did members still have a civilian life or were they stuck living on bases or the fleet?
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Would they be arrested immediately if they appear in public/go home in a civilized system?
| 106 |
It really depends on what their role is and where they are.
There will be members of the Rebellion whos entire role is " Just keep minding your shop but keep this rug over your basement and if someone says "Hoth is surprisingly warm this year" then let them take shelter", guys who are X wing pilots but go back to their homes afterwards because they haven't been ID'd and its safer than having your eggs all in one basket , and ones who cant even leave the base without getting shot on sight by imperials.
If the Rebellion was just a bunch of dudes in bases it would get bery little done
| 121 |
CMV: Universities should not be able to take 50% of scientific grant money, just to funnel it into slush funds for the rest of the university. It should be required to stay in the department.
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I feel like a lot of people don't know this, but when an investigator at a research university gets a grant, typically about 50% of it is taken by the university. So if a cancer researcher gets $10 million, he gets $5 million to do research, and $5 million goes directly to the university. Of course, part of this $5 million goes towards heating the building, keeping the lights on, etc. But essentially it is going into the university slush fund.
Why should NIH or NSF money, provided by the taxpayers for scientific research, go to a university that then uses it for whatever it wants? NIH money should not be allowed to be used for a new theater building that is gorgeous and costs hundreds of millions of dollars. NSF money given for scientific research should not be used to subsidize fields in the humanities that can't support themselves. We shouldn't be using our limited scientific research funds to enable universities to continue to waste billions of dollars on expensive architecture and non-research related fields.
You can try to argue that other fields are important and need this money. But in my view this doesn't mean that money earmarked for cancer research should go towards the football team or the English department. Find a different way, and if you can't then cut those departments.
If a physics professor gets a grant, the university can take their 50%, but it should be required to stay in the physics department, or an approved related department. Same with biochemistry, engineering, etc.
EDIT: Some commenters are saying that this is also a problem for fields like psychology which are more closely linked with the humanities, and how their funding often gets used for less funded fields in the humanities. So I think this shows that this is not limited to the hard sciences.
_____
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| 791 |
The university isn't just providing the project with the building cost and power to carry out the research, it is also providing the opportunity for the researcher to apply for grants in the first place. They did not just fund your project, but a half a dozen other projects that never receive grant funding. Did you have to get a petition to build the lab you're working out of, or was it there before you got there? It was probably paid for by portions of previous grants that went to the university instead fo the project. That new beautiful building is an investment in future projects and future developments.
It's the now classic "you didn't build that" argument, the infrastructure and resoruces that gave you the opporuntiy to succeed were there paid for by others, and your successes will fund yourself as well as future projects.
| 240 |
ELI5: What makes C++ a better language than C? Or in other words, what are all the advantages of Object-Oriented Programming?
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My main hurdle is that I don't understand *why* it's beneficial to combine data with code. I'm having a hard time understanding why a programmer would want to make the paradigm switch and what the advantages are. I have a small background in C and every explanation I've heard for C++ leaves me scratching my head.
| 17 |
Object-oriented helps keep track of things in a logical, reusable, and extendable structure.
Think about a video game. In a video game, there are plenty of characters on the screen. Every character has a model and a location in the world. With classes, you can make a "character" class that holds all that character-specific data in an easy-to-use template.
**TL;DR 1:** It's like keeping all the contact information for your friend in a single contact card on your phone.
Every time you create (aka, "instantiate") a character in the game world, the class constructor will automatically fill in all the data and keep it together in a single, logical object. In C, this same data would probably be stored in one or more arrays. While that works most of the time, if there's a logic bug in your program, you might find yourself reading the wrong data (off-by-one errors) or possibly reading a location that isn't real data at all (reading a character's location after it was already removed, for example). These bugs can be nasty and hard to find. With objects, the data for each character is contained in a single object, so all the correct data is in a single place, and only exists if the object still exists.
**TL;DR 2:** Since the entire contact card is displayed at the same time, you won't accidentally dial Taco Hut when trying to call your friend.
Secondly (and this is very important for large projects), it helps keep code organized. You might know where all the arrays and variables that keep track of a character's inventory are, but unless he worked with you in designing it, Steve might not. If Steve has to make a change to your code to add his code for equipping larger backpacks, he'll have to hunt down all the inventory code or ask you to explain it. While proper code organization can prevent problems like that, object-oriented code *forces* you to write it organized in smaller logical chunks, making such techniques less necessary.
**TL;DR 3:** By it's very nature it keeps your contacts organized, so when you loan your phone to a friend, they can always figure out how to navigate the contacts screen easily.
Finally, techniques like inheritance and encapsulation promote code reuse and more general solutions. Instead of writing code multiple times for chests, characters, and vehicles to all store items, you can write a single "inventory" class and extend it. That gives the three very different objects a common interface that the item team can rely on when they need to add or remove an object from an inventory.
**TL;DR 4:** It promotes common, generic formats. You can add an email field to a contact card and your email program will be able to recognize it, regardless of whether it's a phone contact, an email contact, or something else entirely.
Basically, it's a layer of organization on top of the base code that helps keep track of things, especially in huge projects. It's also easily extendable, allowing you to reuse a lot of code rather than re-typing it all.
| 10 |
[Godzilla] The physiology/chemistry/physics behind Godzilla's atomic breath?
| 18 |
The kaiju are basicslly natural nuclear reactors that feed off radioactive energy. No doubt they form a gland or organ that can store this power or generate it.
Now depending on what version of Godzilla you use it can vary what exactly his breath is. It's possible he is super heating gas in his throat and creating some form of plasma. That or he condenses a massive amount of radiation within his mouth and then propels it with incredible force.
| 15 |
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CMV: Americas don't really understand what "Far-Left" means
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I'm going to start this post by saying that I'm super jet-lagged and I'm just looking for a way to pass the time while I try to fall asleep. So, please forgive me if this does not make much sense and please know that I'm more than ready to change my view, or at least have it adjusted.
Anyway, it seems to me that a lot of American media has no idea what "far-left" means. Here's an article from [*Newsweek*](https://www.newsweek.com/real-radicals-arent-washington-opinion-1591769) (since when is *Newsweek* like *Fox News*, by the way?) talking about "far-left" billionaire George Soros.
Far-left billionaire? That's like having a Nazi rabbi. You can't be far-left and a billionaire. If you are truly *far*\-left, then you oppose private property and seek the overthrow of existing systems of power. There cannot be a "far-left" billionaire. Billionaires are by definition members of the exploiting class.
Similarly, there cannot be a "far-left" Hollywood or Silicon Valley agenda. Hollywood and Silicon Valley exist to cash-in on on vanity and narcissism. They are the antithesis of far-leftism.
I would admit that Hollywood writers, Silicon Valley moguls and certain billionaire financiers are *liberals,* and that they use their considerable power and influence to oppose traditional interpretations of sexuality, gender and race. I would also concede that this probably infuriates a lot of religious and nationalist conservatives but this does not make them "far-left".
In fact, true "radical leftists" would oppose identity politics outright and would see it as something conjured up by elites to distract the working classes from their blatant exploitation by profit-driven capitalists.
I'm pretty sure I have this right. I'm not saying where I stand on any of these issues but can anyone honestly say that a true "far-leftist" would support anything produced by media conglomerates, tech magnates and billionaire financiers? Am I missing something?
| 161 |
>Anyway, it seems to me that a lot of American media has no idea what "far-left" means.
I would argue they know exactly what it means. Many Fox News pundits are college educated. But they purposefully distort its meaning for political gain against liberals.
>true "radical leftists" would oppose identity politics outright
Class politics is a form of identity politics.
| 72 |
What is the difference between a quantum and a photon?
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Also, where actually does Boltzmann and Planck fit into the grand scheme of concepts like "The UV Catastrophe?"
| 47 |
A "quantum" of anything is just a small, indivisible, discrete piece of it. Something is "quantized" if it only has certain values it can take, like an electron in orbit around an atom.
A photon is a quantum of light. We think of light as being continuous, almost like a fluid, in our everyday experience, but on small enough scales, light can be thought of as particles. On those scales, there's no such thing as "less light" coming from something. It either gives off 1 photon, or it gives off no photons, but there is no in between.
Planck fixed the UV catastrophe (which was a problem with classical theories predicting blackbodies emit EM radiation with infinite power) by quantizing EM radiation. He posited that instead of treating light as continuous waves, you could treat them as particles of a particular energy - and doing so gives the *correct* equation for blackbody radiation.
Boltzmann didn't play a huge role in quantum mechanics - his contributions were mostly in statistical mechanics (and thermodynamics). However, a lot of his ideas from stat mech were applied to quantum systems later on.
| 28 |
[Doctor Who] Why can't The Doctor visit fixed points in time?
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Such as Rory/Amy when the are touched by the weeping Angel. And He warns he will not be able to save them.
| 34 |
He can visit fixed points in time, he just can't changed them in any significant way which given his nature torments him so he tries to avoid them.
What you mean is the convolution of multiple paradoxes around the time-space in Manhattan created by Angels feeding of people they trapped in time-loops and Rory's sacrifice (again) which made the Time Vortex around that place impossible to navigate in and actually dangerous to the integrity of space-time itself.
| 41 |
[Assassin's Creed] [Assassin's creed:Rogue] Forgetting game mechanics, could the Morrigan actually go toe to toe and defeat most of the other ships in the game, let alone the Assassin Flagship Storm Fortress?
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It's stated that the Morrigan is a heavily modified "Sloop of war". So yes, I guess it's modifications give it an advantage but should these modifications have allowed it to survive and defeat the Storm fortress, let alone the other legendary Man-o-war ships you face.
Not much of an expert on old ship Types so I can't really know. Thought you'd at least need a frigate to survive such battles.
| 22 |
A Sloop of War was typically the smallest class of warship at the time. Given to Heavily Modification, the ship is ultimately limited by it's size and ability to displace water while taking on armour, guns, and mast strength for sail speed.
A single one might be able to take on a Frigate if lucky. A Frigate sized Man of War had roughly double the guns of a Sloop (give or take). Since our sloop is heavily modified we can give it some leeway for perhaps having some larger bore cannons, and able to fit more weight without significantly loosing speed, maneuverability and sinking.
That would likely be it, and it would need to utilize a capable captain who would've been able to position the ship such that it had optimal wind favour and able to minimize it's exposure to the guns of the Frigate.
Our Sloop of War is going to need fantastic captaincy, as well as lucky shots to quickly incapacity the gun decks on the frigate in order to have a hope of surviving.
If you're taking about the ridiculous Ship of the Line size man of wars.... Those could have up to triple the cannons of even the Frigate. So we're vastly, vastly, outclassed on our own by pitting a Sloop of War against the top ships of the Navy.
On its own, in a 1-on-1, it's odds are ridicously low, but it would still possibly stand some chance assuming it's again able to utilize it's superior maneurvability to favorably minimize it's exposure to the the Ship of the Line cannons. But, in some of the later challenges where there might be two or even three supporting ships against your lone Sloop you would not stand a chance. Not even a slim one.
| 18 |
[Star Wars] In terms of pure, raw power, what do you think the most powerful force ability is?
| 80 |
I don't know what you mean by raw power. Lord Vitiate's ritual on Nathema is pretty damn destructive, but it doesn't blow anything up in any spectacular fashion.
The ritual killed every living thing on Nathema at once. Every man, woman and child, every insect, everything that was even touched by the force died, and the planet was reduced to a lifeless husk. Lord Vitiate was made immortal by this act, but at the cost of millions of lives all in one ritual.
| 96 |
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I believe life is more fair to physically attractive people.CMV.
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I'm no Mr.Handsome but I like to consider myself slightly below average looking and from my life experience people who are attractive seem to have better lives as far as their sex life, jobs, careers, confidence, and possibly social skills go. People who are attractive statistically have a slightly better chance of getting out of any sort of legal problems (depending on the severity) than someone who is average or "ugly" looking. Even babies prefer being handled by someone who is attractive even if that person isn't the baby's mom or dad. I almost got so close to scoring a job working at a restaurant that was going to pay better than the last restaurant I worked in but I didn't get the job because of this sexy busty blonde girl. I have a lot of experience doing all sorts of things in the restaurant business and I've worked in 3 different successful restaurants and this girl was fresh out of high school and looks so clueless. It's funny how life works that way.
| 15 |
Actually, life is *more than* fair to physically attractive people. They are treated better than they should be, and this is in no way more fair than how ugly people are treated, and is actually less fair than how the average person is treated.
| 13 |
ELI5: How can we suck out oil from the ground without it caving in those areas?
| 66 |
Mostly, oil-bearing rocks are somewhat spongy rock, not underground pools. The oil may be under pressure, in which case, drilling into it will reduce the pressure, but not to zero. In other cases, drillers have to pump water or gas into the rock to extract the oil, which maintains the pressure.
| 44 |
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ELI5: Why can't we sleep when we're nervous? For example, the night before a big exam, the thing we need most is sleep.
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Or before a new job, a marriage proposal, etc.
| 17 |
Our body only has one response when we are nervous: activate the fight or flight mechanisms by pumping adrenaline and other chemicals into our blood stream to make us more alert. The body doesn't differentiate if we are nervous because of a exam, a new job, a proposal, or a if there might be a large animal that can attack you at night in the woods.
The side effect of being more alert is that it's much harder to calm ourselves to sleep. Now that we're more civilized, there's a much lower chance that you're nervous about being in danger but the response still exists because it has kept our ancestors alive in dangerous times.
| 20 |
Are 'Discourse on the Method' and 'Meditations' different books? If so, which one is better suited for an assignment which asks to explain the proof of his own and the God's existence?
| 25 |
The *Discourse* was intended as the introduction to three science books but is nowadays mostly read on its own. It is great because it is very short and introduce many important themes in cartesian philosophy. In here you find the famous *cogito ergo sum*.
However the *Meditations* is the book where his metaphysical/epistemological system is more fully developed and it's what you should probably read. Since it is the first peer reviewed philosophy book it also often come with an appendix of objections and answers which is important if you're a scholar but that you can easily dismiss. It's a bit dry but it is easy and fairly short as well.
| 23 |
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ELI5: Why do we empathize with animals more than we do with other human beings?
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I noticed that I feel empathy for dogs to a greater extent and more easily than I do for other human beings. From an evolutionary perspective, maybe it is because humans are competition? Maybe because animal/dog nature is less evil compared to human nature? What are people's thoughts? I know there probably isn't a clear-cut, simple answer, but I wanted to generate some discussion.
| 18 |
I think it has to innocence and simplicity. A lot of people feel the same way about children. There's this idea that animals and children don't "deserve" any harm that is coming to them. If someone were to beat up an adult man (and yes, it can and does depend on gender), a reasonable assumption could be made that they did something to cause that to happen. But with a child or an animal, they are seen as innocent, and therefore are not at fault. Even if they did do something, it is noted that they did not know any better.
Interestingly, this can be seen in horror films and such. People tend to react more negatively to violence against children and animals, but not to adults. Which is why if a child is involved, the horror often moves through them instead of harming them. Does that make sense?
| 33 |
Why are the eyes of burn victims often left intact?
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I know it's not always the case, but when you see people where their face has practically melted off, how are the eyes still functional? Aren't they fragile to high temperatures?
| 19 |
Eyes are covered and filled with fluid which is mostly water. Water has to absorb a lot of heat to increase in temperature as compared to most other materials. Because water can carry a large amount of heat, we use it in heating system and cooling system (like radiators).
Skin, muscles, and connective tissue have much less water thus as they are exposed to high temperatures they themselves increase in temperature much faster than the water logged eyes.
| 11 |
ELI5:Why do dogs love to ride in cars, but cats generally hate it?
| 766 |
I thought it was because dogs bonded to a group (other dogs originally, then people) while cats are territorial and geographically oriented.( starting small, then expanding their territory)
In a car the dog sees his clan is present and does not worry about the new and rapid relocation, but a cat is getting torn from it's established territory. I.e. Major freak out time.
| 679 |
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ELI5: How do scientists predict, down to the exact degree, what the temperature will be for the next week?
| 17 |
They will generally use high-resolution, regional weather models. These are essentially computer programs that solve a set of equations that aim to represent the physics of the atmosphere and ocean. These equations are extremely complicated so these models are also very complicated, which is why meterological agencies generally own very powerful supercomputers to solve them.
There are two main reasons why there is so much uncertainty in weather forecasts. Firstly, the equations being solved are chaotic which means they are extremely sensitive to initial conditions. Whilst weather stations allow us to gather data about the weather *now* so we can plug it into the models to find out the weather in a few days, we only have a limited number of weather stations, which means we have to 'guess' some of the initial conditions. These initial guesses introduce more and more error as the model steps forward in time. Part of the way we get around this is by running a set (an 'ensemble') of models with slightly varying initial conditions to represent our uncertainty, and then look at how widely or closely the outputs agree with one another.
Secondly, whilst we understand the fundamental physics of the environment, these equations have no exact solutions which means that any numerical solution we obtain through a computer is going to be an approximation. The complexity of the physics a computer can solve as well as the spatial (how small a grid cell a computer can model, the smaller the grid cell the better the results) and temporal (how small the time-step is, the smaller the better) resolutions are limited by how powerful your computer is.
| 11 |
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How do you measure the volume of a chunk of space in curved spacetime?
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Specifically, I'm asking how you calculate it, not what tools you would use
| 53 |
So you mean compute, not measure.
If what you have on your hands is the metric g_ij, the (signed) volume of an infinitesimal bit of spacetime (or space) with sides dx^(1), dx^(2), ... dx^n is
dV = sqrt(|det g|) dx^1 ∧ ... ∧ dx^n
That's really the only possibility considering it has to be invariant under coordinate changes (because what kind of volume would that be if it depended on the coordinate choice?)
Then to get the volume of a finite region you integrate this thing on that chunk.
| 21 |
Would burying the deceased without the use of coffins have a significantly positive effect on Earth's environment?
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Do coffins themselves eventually decompose? If so, approximately how long does it take? How much could discontinuing their use reduce the amount of time needed for animal decomposition?
| 27 |
Yes. To boost profits, the funeral industry has convinced people that they want their loved ones "preserved." This has led to caskets that are built to withstand an apocalypse: layers of concrete, bronze, and plastic, all sealed airtight with a hefty butyl rubber gasket. Ironically, the actual embalming of bodies isn't sufficient to keep them from decaying inside the casket—the egyptians had to remove all of the organs (where decomposition naturally begins) to make that happen. The (toxic) formaldehyde used by a typical funeral parlor only keeps you fresh long enough for the funeral. So your relatives consist of bones sloshing around in flesh-mush inside silly, impregnable 6-foot-deep fortresses.
Using a simpler, faster-decomposing coffin, such as a lightweight construction of wood, cardboard, cloth, or nothing at all, would save resources and avoid leaving bunkers full of human soup buried all over the place.
Source: Alan Weisman, *The World Without Us*, ppg 304-305. Great book.
| 24 |
CMV: Minimum wage should NOT be a living wage
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I don't believe that minimum wage should be a living wage. I hold this view because it is my belief that money trades hands when the service/goods someone is providing exceeds the value of x dollars the buyer is offering. It is absurd to me that the government has passed legislation that dictates how much I value service/goods. Because of those beliefs, it seems wrong to me that someone should be given a living wage for sup-par work, or work that someone does not value at a specific living standard.
For example, let's say I own a large grocery store. At the front of my store, I have a greeter. The person I've hired as a greeter is unskilled, has no degree, bare minimal education, and I don't have the resources to train him. However, he has a friendly attitude and I think it might be nice for people to be greeted when they come in to my store.
Saying "Hi, welcome to HeyCallMe-Megamart!" does not take special skills, does not require a degree, requires minimal communication skills and does not require training. My new employee is doing work that nearly anyone could do. Therefore, I do not value his work at anything above ~$8 (if even that.)
Why should I have to pay this employee what is considered to be a living wage?
| 17 |
Because he/she is doing work? If you value him/her enough to keep them there for eight hours a day, you should value them enough to pay them enough so they can eat decent food and sleep under a roof during the other 16 hours a day. If you don't value the work enough to make the work worth living on, you don't value it enough for it to be done. Someone has to pay to keep that person alive, to feed and clothe and house them; if it isn't their employer, either they're independently wealthy (unlikely for a greeter), or they're living off food stamps and public housing, and all the taxpayers pick up your slack. Why should we all pay so that you can get the benefits of 8 hours per day of work?
| 41 |
Comparing the Economic Development of 2 Countries
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What are some countries whose economic performance has diverged over the years and are worth learning about? Haiti and the Dominican Republic come to mind as they had a similar GDP per capita in 1950, but are vastly different nowadays. What are some other good comparisons you can think of? Thanks!
| 22 |
The countries in South East Asia have had diverse experiences. They are all worth looking at. But in terms of a pair with similar starting points but different outcomes, you can look at Malaysia vs Philippines from 1960 to 2010:
GDP per capita in 1960
* Malaysia 234.94 USD
* Philippines 254.46 USD
GDP per capita in 2010
* Malaysia 9,040.57 USD
* Philippines 2,124.06 USD
| 16 |
ELI5: Why have we settled on 16:9 as the standard aspect ratio?
| 226 |
16:9 is the aspect ratio that can most easily handle all of the other historical aspect ratios (like 4:3 for broadcast TV, 2.2:1 for Panavision (movies), 2.39:1 for Cinemascope) with a minimum of picture loss and a maximum of the screen used. When they were developing the HD standard and needed to come up with an aspect ratio, a committee member actually cut out rectangles of equal area in the various historical and candidate aspect ratios. when they were laid over one another with the centerpoints matching, the smallest rectangle that would contain all of the other rectangles had a ratio that was very close to 16:9.
| 439 |
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ELI5: What on earth is Metaphysics?
| 25 |
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the abstract concepts in relation to the actuality of the universe: Time, history, cause, existence, identities, etc.
Similar to how metahumor is the humor found within the concept of humor itself, metaphysics is the physics pertaining to concepts.
| 43 |
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ELI5: Why are we so dependent on Taiwan for microchips? Why couldn't these be manufactured elsewhere, in addition to Taiwan?
| 1,643 |
They are manufactured elsewhere, TSMC is just the biggest company. Chip foundries are extremely specialized and require a lot of investment into equipment and facilities. Companies are working on building more to keep up with demand, but that process takes several years. There is just too much demand for the handful of chip foundries around the world.
| 1,515 |
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[Batman] Bruce Wayne never witnesses his parent's death. Does he still become Batman?
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On that fateful night, Bruce is sick and wants to stay at home. Thomas and Martha enjoy a date night in the city. They still run into Joe Chill and they die. The police come knocking on the door ,Alfred lets them in. They inform Bruce on what happened.
​
How will this change Bruce's life?
| 33 |
It'd be a less traumatic experience for sure, but probably not enough to entirely derail his path going by comic world logic.
I think the biggest thing that would change is that he probably wouldn't hate guns as much as he normally does, since a big part of that hate stemmed from the vivid experience of hearing seeing and feeling Chill fire his gun into his parents as they were in front/next to him.
| 32 |
ELI5:Why are we spending so many resources to lower transistor size in microchips? Why not just increase chip size to fit more transistors since silicon is so cheap?
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I don't get why instead of pouring money and research into making microchip transistors and components smaller, you would just make the chip itself bigger to fit more components?
Take a computer for example, the size of the processor is extremely small considering it's the heart of the machine and compared to the size of other hardware like hard drives.
Plus from what I understand Silicon is very common and cheap and lowering the size of transistors in the chip demands higher purity of the Silicon, so it makes more sense to me to just make the entire chip larger instead.
Edit: Great discussion going on here! It's all very interesting.
| 483 |
There are at least three good reasons.
The first is that smaller transistors require less electricity, as by being smaller, it just takes less energy to make them switch. Owners frequently spend more on electricity to power a chip over its lifetime than they spent on buying the chip in the first place, especially if they're running it full time (like you might if you're a corporation or running a data center), so having smaller transistors is a competitive advantage. You get to either provide more processing power in the same power envelope or the same processing power for less cost, either of which is good.
The second is mobile devices. Power consumption is a huge deal there, so the first point is even more important than it is in larger devices, and in addition the physical size constraints are significant. Every cubic millimeter dedicated to components is a cubic millimeter that's not being spent on battery capacity or making the device itself smaller, so smaller is better.
The third is that there's a limit on just how large a chip can be for a given clock speed, literally due to the speed of light. Light can only travel about 30cm in a nanosecond, electrical pulses don't actually travel at the full speed of light, and current chips have clockspeeds in the 3GHz range, which means a clock tick is about 1/3 of a nanosecond. Depending on how the chip is designed, you need to make sure that signals can travel some portion (possibly all the way) across the chip and then perhaps back again within a single clock cycle so that you can access all the cache and so forth, and it needs to do that with enough time that the transistors have time to reliably reach their new state if they flip. If your chip is too large, that's just literally impossible, and you have to reduce the clock speed to make it work.
| 580 |
[Spiderman PS4] Did Peter's lateness from helping to arrest Kingpin contribute to Otto's personality change?
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In the tutorial sequence, Peter gets calls from Otto asking him to come in to run safety checks on their equipment. When Peter finally comes in to work at the lab, he sees Otto using the equipment himself, moving the robotic arm and matching its movements to his own arm. From that point on, Otto slowly becomes more angry and obsessive, and it's revealed that the neural interface he uses to move the robotic limbs causes brain damage that lowers his inhibitions and changes his personality.
Was that day where Peter failed to show up and run the safety checks the first time Otto used the neural interface? If Peter had been there instead of helping the cops to arrest Kingpin, could he have noticed the dangerous effects of the interface earlier and stopped Otto from becoming Doctor Octopus?
| 18 |
Did it contribute? Probably, yes. Can we blame Peter for it? No.
Before Otto started work on replacement limbs, he had a whole walk-in closet full of issues - not the least of which was being unappreciated, having credit stolen from him, being labelled a failure, and watching Norman Osborn succeed while he could not. Then thereʻs the fact that he was hiding a disease that would rob him of his motor skills - effectively crippling him, trapping his mind in a useless body.
Peter being on time would have put a delay on the inevitable. What Otto becomes is no oneʻs fault but his own. If Otto had reached out and explained his problems, maybe he would have been able to cope with his situation. But Otto is a very prideful and vengeful person, and acting on those desires led to his demise.
| 23 |
What is the cause of a photographic memory?
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I was wondering the other night, what causes extraordinary memory? Is it a genetic trait, or is it developed as an infant by external stimulus. If the latter is the cause, what could a parent do to improve the odds of their child developing superior memory recollection skills?
| 28 |
The existence of true photographic (eidetic) memory is controversial, and it is not at all apparent that it actually exists outside of legend and hoax. See the Wikipedia page on the controversy surrounding it for an overview.
| 13 |
[Marvel/DC] As buff as everybody is, how are they able to fight crime? Shouldn't they constantly be sore/weak from the gym?
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The types of physiques superheroes rock take serious, dedicated bodybuilding routines. You have to have hardcore workout sessions most days of the week in order to simply maintain those muscles.
Some characters like Batman slap on all the plates they can fit on a barbell in order to workout. How does Batman have the ability to work out with world record lift numbers and still have the ability to respond in case Bane attacks later that night? I doubt any MMA fighters do serious lifting on their fight days. They want to be at their peak and stay fresh for the fight.
| 47 |
Batman spent years training before he even started fighting crime so he was already pretty dam buff. After a certain point you don't have to work out as hard and just make sure you are actually exercising (which Batman does) to maintain that physique. Also, keep in mind that just because you worked out a muscle a day before doesn't mean you'll wake up sore. That usually happens when you first start working out.
If they are in pain because of their workouts they can still soldier on as most superheroes are shown to have a pretty decent pain tolerance. I.e. Batman getting stabbed/shot, Spider-Man being buried alive, Green Lantern having his arm broken and so on.
| 47 |
CMV: I think that Medical Tourism should have no governmental regulation
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_____
Medical tourism, the practice of travelling to a foreign country to undergo a medical procedure, is becoming increasingly popular. If a procedure is expensive, unavailable, or illegal in a person's country of residence (it could be anything from cosmetic surgery to various dental procedures to abortions and euthanasia), an alternative is to fly to a country which provides the service under more desirable conditions.
In my opinion, government regulation of this industry constitutes a violation of personal liberty, undermines the economic growth of the prospective destination countries, and inflates the price of domestic healthcare by forcibly eliminating foreign competition.
Examples of regulation include limiting travel to government approved zones, countries, etc; limiting the kinds of treatment allowed (e.g. banning certain procedures deemed to dangerous, or perhaps banning travel for procedures which are illegal in the country, like abortions or euthanasia); making the buying of insurance to cover the procedure compulsory; and so on. It could also be controlled by the receiving countries: in a "third world" country a government may not want scarce medical worker resources going toward rich white people.
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| 56 |
The US government provided subsides/cheap care to many people (Elderly, those who qualify for medicaid, those eligible for subsides under ACA, etc...).
It is possible that medical tourism will lead to certain countries may lead to many botched procedures and treatments that will have to be fixed in America on taxpayer's dime.
Thus America has vested interest in regulating medical tourism.
| 15 |
ELI5: How does Disney Channel manage to stay on the air and be profitable for so long when all of the commercials shown on there advertise for upcoming Disney Channel shows?
| 96 |
The Disney Channel is a full-time advertisement for the Disney brand. Children are immersed at a very young age into the Disney universe. They grow up continuing to be exposed to Disney content. Disney knows this creates demand for their products that FAR outweighs any potential revenue from third-party advertising on their tv channel.
| 103 |
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[DC] Why doesn't Superman (or other Kryptonians) use the Daredevil lie detector technique more often?
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Daredevil uses his super hearing as a tool to listen to one's heartbeat to see if someone is telling the truth or not.
It recently occurred to me, why doesn't Superman do that too? I know he can and he probably has at least once, but why doesn't he do it on the regular?
I wonder if it's an ethical thing with him. Even Foggy (in the Netflix series) found Matt's use of it questionable. I think Clark might also find that "crossing a line."
| 24 |
He does. But he doesn't really question people. Even criminals he tries to encourage to do better because he wants to save them too. He always looks for the best in people.
It doesn't work on Batman, after he used it once Batman figured out a way to mask it (mostly so he could do the whole disappearing when Clark turns his back on him thing.) He still calls out Bruce though because he knows him well enough to know when he's not telling the whole story.
The super hearing thing isn't even Superman's best lie detector, he can see across the entire spectrum of light which let's him see slight temperature changes in your skin. His sense of smell is also just as good as his other senses, enabling him to detect minute changes in hormone levels as well.
You cannot directly lie to Superman. You may be able to fool him, but only because he is giving you the benefit of the doubt because he wants you to do better, wants you to BE better.
| 35 |
ELI5: Why are vegetables and fruit so important for your diet?
| 52 |
Both veggies and fruits have a ton of vitamins that humans don't naturally produce. Several vitamins originate in plants, with the amount we get from eating meat being diminished by the animal in question using them.
Vegetables have tons of fiber, which is good for your digestive health because humans can't digest most fiber. This helps keep you more regular, as it increases the amount of solid excrete you make.
Leafy veggies are low calorie and high in vitamins, so you can eat a lot of them without it having a significantly effect on your weight, which is why people on weight loss regimens are told to eat more leafy greens.
Starchy veggies like potatoes have more calories while still being rich in vitamins, so they are a good alternative. However, once they've been processed they lose a lot of that health value, which is why potato chips and french fries aren't really great for you, especially commercially produced ones that are basically soaked in vegetable oil.
Vegetable oil, despite being made of vegetables, is pretty awful for you. Olive oil is almost always going to be better for you.
For fruits, they are in a strange spot. Most berries are basically balls of sugar, but they do have plenty of vitamins as well, so you should eat them but primarily as snacks. It is not going to be healthy once you pass your first bowl of strawberries, and fruit cups are generally a generous but good amount of fruit to eat. Citrus fruits are famous for being good sources of vitamin C(a deficiency of which causes scurvy), but you can get vitamin C just as well from broccoli, kale, and brussel sprouts.
Anyways just eat veggies.
| 104 |
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ELI5: How do etch-a-sketch’s work?
| 33 |
Contrary to popular belief, the stylus you use to draw doesn't draw the line.
The inside "screen" of the toy is coated in aluminum powder, and when the stylus scrapes it out, it reveals the darkness inside the toy. When you shake it upside down, the beads inside the toy coat the screen, making it look "blank" again.
EDIT: Funny how you marked it technology.
| 28 |
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What does it mean for a speaker to be "blown"? And how does it happen?
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I've always heard that turning the volume up too high can blow your speakers, but never really understood what that meant... Please ELI5!
| 22 |
*Blowing* a speaker is basically an umbrella term for catastrophic physical failure. This can take the form of a circuit overheating and melting (or burning), or sometimes it's because of mechanical damage.
The mechanical damage happens because of the way sound works. Sound is created by making something vibrate, which in turn pushes air outwards in ripples. You can describe sound in terms of frequency (how many ripples is a given length) and in terms of *amplitude* (how high are the ripples?).
To make sound louder, you need to give your air waves more amplitude, which means the membrane of your speaker (the part that vibrates) has to flex further and further out. Eventually, it flexes out so far that it breaks.
| 15 |
ELI5 How An Unopened Can of Soda Thrown Into An Industrial Smelter Could Cause A Significant Thermal Explosion?
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One of my shop teachers back in high school said he used to work in a recycling plant and the biggest boogie men of the industry was having an unopened can of soda hitting a smelter at max temp. He told us the resulting explosion would be enough to take out the entire recycling facility. Is this even possible?
| 39 |
When the can melts it's contents instantly turns to steam. The expansion ratio is about 1700 to 1. So imagine in the middle molten metal when that can melts through there is an instant volume increase as big as 1700 soda cans.
| 35 |
ELI5: What happens when a man orgasms after he's had a vasectomy?
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Is it just like a poof and dust comes out? If a vasectomy is reversible, then isn't the sperm still being released inside the body? Where does it go?
| 608 |
The whitish fluid that is released during ejaculation is produced separately from the sperm. Before a man ejaculates, the sperm mixes with this fluid. After a vasectomy, however, the sperm can no longer mix with the fluid. Ejaculation still occurs the same as before — the only difference is that there is no sperm present. Is looks and feels exactly the same.
The sperm that are not ejaculated eventually die and are reabsorbed by your body. At the same time, your body is constantly producing new sperm to replace the sperm that has died. This may sound odd, but it actually occurs all the time even in men who have not had a vasectomy.
Since your testicles don’t release all sperm into your ejaculate, some sperm inevitably die. Even before a vasectomy, your body is producing new sperm to replenish sperm that have been ejaculated *and* sperm that have died. Since your body is already used to this process, you won’t notice anything different after a vasectomy. It’s exactly the same as when a man goes without sex or masturbation for a couple of months.
As a side note, a vasectomy does not interfere with your hormones in any way.
| 1,420 |
[Cyberpunk 2077] How is maritime travel still possible?
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It is stated in a shard (and I believe other places) that during the 4th corporate war, Arasaka, in their benevolent wisdom, flooded the world's oceans with self replicating mines. This has basically made maritime travel nearly impossible and made the necessity to build a wall around Coronado Bay. Why then do we see multiple ships in the game? These range from simple cargo ships to an Arasaka super carrier. Even if Arasaka had the ability to disengage their mines (which they don't, since the mines believe their updates are a virus and reject them), that still leaves out Cargo ships which we know have in fact brought cargo from places like the USSR.
| 30 |
There are ways to temporarily clear a path and get ships through, and there are also safe zones near coastal areas where more hardened defenses keep the replicating mines away.
Maritime travel is basically impossible, but it still can be done at great cost and effort. All this did was limit non-essential travel and increase the need for in-country manufacturing as most transport is done by air and therefore more expensive.
| 41 |
ELI5: Why is Africa so underdeveloped compared to other continents?
| 201 |
One of the bigger reasons is that a bunch of European powers (France, UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal) went and colonizied it. They pretty mich sucked out a lot of resources, killed a bunch of people and made everybody else poorer and more desprate. After the Europeans left, the main peace keeping force at the time (their armies) was gone and people tried to size power. This pushed most of the continent into civil war or dictatorship that are just now statrting to recover.
| 200 |
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ELI5: Why do some batteries "re-charge" themselves a little bit after they already died and you wait for a while?
| 39 |
Batteries create electrical charge off of a chemical reaction occurring within the case. However as the reactants are not gaseous, it is very hard (teetering on impossible) to react all of the stuff together on the first go. Meaning, if you mix two liquid reactants together by pouring one into another, it is impossible to tell when the reaction is fully finished and there could be "holdouts" or clumps of reactants that have yet to come into contact with anything to react with.
Batteries "regain" charge because there is still some holdout reactants within the case.
| 21 |
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ELI5: Why do really long exposure photos weigh more MB? Shouldn't every pixel have the same amount of information regardless of how many seconds it was exposed?
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I noticed that a regular photo weighs a certain amount of MBs, while if I keep the shutter open for 4, 5 minutes the resulting picture is HUGE.
Any info on why this happens?
| 3,584 |
The jpeg format we store photos in is designed to store a good photograph efficiently. A good photo has large areas of smooth, even gradients, and Jpeg does a great job of *compressing* these to take up less space.
A long exposure photo will have more random 'roughness' in the picture. It will be much more *noisy*, with small, random changes in individual pixels. Jpeg is not designed for this, so it takes more space to store the noise.
| 2,679 |
[Scott Pilgrim] If Todd broke his vegan diet twice, why did the vegan police need to arrive to strip him of his power? Wouldn’t they just go away if his diet changes?
| 27 |
No. He received the powers as a result of his graduation from Vegan Academy. All the hype about veganism clearing the mind and allowing access to higher brain functions is just hype; the powers are given as a reward for adhering to a vegan lifestyle and pushing the vegan message.
Hence why they didn't go away when he ate gelato, to begin with.
| 54 |
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ELI5: The Armenian Genocide.
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This is a hot topic, feel free to post any questions here.
| 4,092 |
The Armenian Genocide was the systematic killing of approx. 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire. It occured in 2 stages. First all able-bodied men were either shot, forced into front line military service (remember 1915 was during WWI) or worked to death in forced labour camps. Second, women, children and the elderly were marched into the Syrian Desert and denied food and water until they died.
Turkey don't recognise the genocide because when the Republic of Turkey was formed after the war they claimed to be the 'Continuing state of the Ottoman Empire' even though the Sultanate had been abolished. This essentially means that they take proxy responsibility for the actions of the Ottoman government during the war and so they would be admitting that the killed 1.5 million of their own people. This is obviously really embarrassing for them.
| 3,511 |
ELI5: why do we sometimes sweat excessively when sleeping?
|
Last night, after an hour and a half of sleeping, I woke up and my bed sheets were soaked with sweat, as in you could actually see patches, not just damp.
How come I don't subconsciously throw the duvet off myself iny sleep, or even wake up before I start to sweat excessively?
| 86 |
There's a lot of reasons, one person mentioned being overweight already, you could possibly have eaten a huge meal before bed and that could cause it, you might have had a nightmare and then the sweating would be due to excess nervous stimulation (sympathetic response), or you might be like me and life in a place where it is really freaking hot and you don't have AC yet. This list is probably pretty inexhaustive because there are a lot of reasons people sweat.
| 16 |
[Star Trek]was Odo conscious before he the Bajoran discovered him? If “yes” how did he not go insane from boredom, floating in space for decades or centuries?
| 15 |
Changelings view the universe different from solid lifeforms and vague sense of time.
Odo, who was a new Changling when he was found, was probably barely sapient in his container and would remain so until he ended up landing somewhere.
| 15 |
|
ELI5: Why did Rand Paul say that the GOP "hawks" created ISIS?
|
and is there any truth to it?
I understand that the buildup to what we currently know as ISIS took place over several decades, but how much of that was due to US involvement? And was it just the GOP, or were the democrats involved as well?
| 24 |
Paul is strongly anti-interventionist. In other words, he generally doesn't support the US going to war overseas. In the case of ISIS, while its roots are complex the leadership itself came together in an Iraqi prison camp post-invasion. The GOP charged in back in 2003 without much of a plan beyond removing Saddam. Paul's point of view is that the GOP 'hawks' shoot first and ask questions later, and this just makes things worse.
Whether he is correct, and how much Obama's policies since 2008 have affected it, is very contentious. You have hawks like McCain who blame Obama for withdrawing and leaving a power vacuum, but then again McCain's foreign policy pretty much consists of shooting at things and working out the details later (see Ukraine, Iraq, Syria etc etc). So how much Obama is to blame given the policies of his predecessors is difficult to judge.
| 20 |
CMV: If you want to keep the electoral college, you should have no problem if they pick someone other than Trump
|
Technically the electoral college can vote for whoever the hell they want. A lot of pro EC folks have been saying "yes, but they both knew the rules of the game was not to get the popular vote but to get the swing states"
Well, the rules of the game also dictate that the electors can also vote for whoever the hell they want. If they view Trump's campaigning as insanely fascist and/or he's mentally unstable... or view Hillary's popular vote win as too large to justifiably vote against her in the EC. (Or of course the wild card, they pick someone other than Hillary or Trump)
Well, those are the rules of the game too.
By the way I am not saying it will happen or should happen (fair disclosure: I don't think it will and I think it should strictly because I believe in one man one vote - but it's not the topic of my post). It is also not the topic of my post whether we should go to an automatic electoral college system or not. Please do not address any of these, just the EC picking someone other than Trump.
_____
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| 72 |
I'll have a problem with that, because (in some states) even though they *can* vote for whoever they want, they're not *supposed* to. The elector has pledged to vote for that candidate, and not fulfilling that promise is unacceptable to me (and to many states). Their purpose isn't to change the outcome of the election based on their own opinion, it's to cast the vote based on the general population's votes. 29 states have legally mandated that the elector will cast their vote for the candidate they pledged to vote for. Other states, such as Michigan and Minnesota, specify that the faithless elector's vote is void.
| 20 |
ELI5:ELI5: If Cancer is spread via the lymphatic and blood systems, can't we disconnect all the ones that travel to and supply the tumour, thereby preventing it from spreading or growing?
| 24 |
That's exactly what you do to surgically excise a tumor.
Some tumors grow in locations where surgery would be impractical or extremely dangerous though. Which is where treatments like targeted radiation come in.
| 17 |
|
[Culture] What exactly are Displacer units, and how do they compare to forms of FTL travel found in other popular SciFi ‘verses?
| 40 |
Displacers encapsulate matter in a containment field and then shunt it through hyperspace to another location in realspace. The energy requirements rise dramatically with the amount of mass and the distance displaced. Culture Displacers were precise enough to accurately deliver chemicals into a biological body for medical purposes, but the largest shipboard and orbital based ones were powerful enough to move a small starships across a system. Some Culture ships could even execute "snap" displacements where they're moving at high speed relative to the target, sometimes with less than a second in range of the target.
Shields that extend into hyperspace (standard in the Cultures' galaxy) can block displacement since they block hyperspace.
The biggest drawbacks of displacement as a form of FTL travel are that it relies on a separate unit (external to the mass being displaced) and it quickly scales to be massively more difficult than simply putting a hyperspace field engine on the object and having it move itself directly.
| 32 |
|
What is dust? Why is it, no matter how much I clean, just as much (or more) reappears by the following day?
|
This is driving me mad. It makes my home feel nasty and dirty all the time.
| 54 |
Dust is, quite simply, everything you know and love slowly disintegrating over time. A lot of it is skin cells from people and pets (dander), pollen from plants, and small particles of everything that wears down over time.
| 71 |
How can I smell a piece of metal if it doesn't expulse any matter?
|
I understand that flowers, liquids, etc. stink because gaseous compounds get out of them and they activate my nervous system, but I can still smell a piece of metal and I don't know how.
Edit: Thanks for the answers guys
| 3,814 |
You're probably smelling molecules that are oxidized. Many compounds can react with oxygen in the presence of a metal. That metal acts as a catalyst to facilitate the reaction, and you can smell the oxidized byproduct.
| 3,170 |
ELI5: How does quantum computing work?
| 39 |
Regular computers store the values of 0 and 1. To represent a series of numbers, they must store them all, like this.
000
001
010
011
100
101
110
111
Quantum computers store numbers as 0, 1, or 'superposition', which is 0 and 1 at the same time (Q). This means that they can save the same range of numbers as QQQ.
This not only saves memory storage, it dramatically speeds up some math problems. Imagine needing the answers to all of the above numbers multiplied by 00, 01, 10, and 11. In a standard computer, you need to do each math operation, with a quantum computer you do one operation. QQQQ x QQ.
| 15 |
|
[General Sci-Fi] Plausible stories for evolution of sapient aquatic species to space-faring status
|
Many Sci-Fi series throw in an occasional aquatic space-faring species. However I've never come across any stories on how such a species achieved such a route, e.g. through tool use? metallurgy? how did they exit their gravity well? did they "deep air" explore? Can anyone point me to any stories along these lines?
Not fussed as to the physiology of the species e.g. could be a squid or a dolphin, but would prefer to avoid "magic" solutions.
| 36 |
Just as humans explored the depths of the oceans as part of their quest to explore every part of their planet, so too do intelligent, aquatic species eventually explore the surfaces of their worlds. From there, the progression is much the same - use the lessons learned exploring the hostile environment of the surface, with its dangerously low pressures and lack of breathable water, to continue exploring the even harsher environment of space. The biggest trick is that water is heavy, and heavy things are hard to put into orbit - figuring out a way to keep breathing will be harder than it was for humans.
| 38 |
[Black Panther] How did the Wakandans or the king stop themselves from becoming an empire? They've utilized vibranium for centuries. They could have easily conquered their neighbors and beyond. What stopped them?
| 20 |
What would they gain by conquering their neighbors? Wealth? They had all the wealth they needed. Security? Security from whom? As you say, they could have easily conquered their neighbors, so they weren't really under threat. Glory? Well it would be fair to say that this has been the motivation for many conquerors throughout history, but then glory is going to mean to different things to different cultures. It may simply be that in Wakanda, any king that indulges in foreign affairs is viewed as neglecting the needs of the people, and will be judged poorly by history.
| 39 |
|
ELI5: Why are 9mm bullets less dangerous than 7.62 or even 5.56 ones? Shouldn’t they deal more damage with bigger size?
| 130 |
9mm bullets are dangerous.
However they are a handgun round. They're less aerodynamic and have less power coming out of the barrel. They're not designed for long-distance flight.
7.62/.308 and 5.56/.223 are rifle rounds. They have more power out the barrel and are designed for long- distance, accurate engagement.
| 153 |
|
[Futurama] If cannibalism and the consumption of foreign sapients are both normal in Omicronian society, why did they react so negatively to humans eating the Omicronian young?
|
For example, Lrrr mentions he finds it strange that Ross, as the largest Friend, did not simply eat the other friends. This would imply that in Omicronian society, it's normal to cannibalize other Omicronians in a display of might or power.
We've also seen Omicronians eat, or attempt to eat, humans on multiple occasions.
If the eating of Omicronians and the eating of foreign sapient species are both normal conventions in their society, then it stands to reason they shouldn't care too much about the humans earing their young, especially when they reproduce so quickly.
| 136 |
Cannibalizing children is different to eating potential rivals as a display of dominance.
To the Omicronians, it was a simple manner of the who gets to eat whom. If humans eat omicronians, then the omicronians can eat humans. Earth knew if this came down to a war of who could eat who fastest then the Omicronians would only have to fear the massive sized dumps that would result, so it was easier to apologise and leave Leela to die as a peace offer
| 109 |
[His Dark Materials] How come bigger dæmons are not more frequent?
|
I don't recall seeing anyone with Giraffes, Elephants or Hippopotami (is this plural correct lol)
| 23 |
Remember- you can't stray too far from your daemon. This means its final form can be very inconvenient.: we have an example of someone who's daemon is a dolphin and thus had to live at sea because otherwise his daemon would be beached.
These people have it worse. If you're unlucky enough to have an elephant as a daemon, you probably won't be around much, because there's a *full grown elephant* everywhere you go. Imagine how must destruction you would have caused today if you had to keep a full grown African elephant within a few hundred feet of you at all times.
People with such daemons either take the difficult task of separating or, more likely, go into some remote place where they're not causing quite as much chaos. Either way, they don't show up.
| 33 |
[LOTR] Why isn't there more scientific advance in Middle Earth?
|
And I don't buy the usual "because they had magic they didn't need to develop technology" thing. That is fine for the Elves of which every one could sing out a magic bow out of a tree, ok.
But Men? Except 5 Wizard (which just look human but weren't) and some bloodlines living longer and the Righteous King having a healing touch there wasn't any magic for mortal men.
So why in a continuous thousands of years old civilisation was there no good technological advance? More then so seeing as at many times humankind was at war and scientific progress is seven times quicker during war.
| 76 |
>scientific progress is seven times quicker during war.
This is a sort of Sid Meier's Civilization way of looking at scientific progress that doesn't apply to our modern world, or to the Third Age. Science is a process that the Third Age simply didn't have. The process of hypothesis, test, confirm/deny, re-hypothesize simply wasn't conceived of at the time.
Second, they had access to things that science just couldn't account for. The Tower of Isengard was a single, impossibly huge piece of rock, shaped by unknown means into a great fortress. The Palantiri were stones that allowed sight and hearing across vast distances, with no discernible mechanism. The list goes on. No science can explain them, certainly not the science to which the Dunedain had access. They are just things that are, parts of the world that are inexplicable. The people who made them understood something about the world on a fundamental level that is impossible to explain to another person.
All that is to say that craft, not science, is what happened in this era. Craft is more than a method, it is a process of doing and understanding that is not necessarily falsifiable or transferable. It requires a certain creative spark which not all Men possess. After the fall of Numenor, Men are weakened greatly in their strength of spirit, and their talent for craft wanes over time. This has to do with a lot of things -- the constant presence of strife, the shorter life-spans (and thus less time for study and contemplation), the growing concern with power, its maintenance, and its acquisition, etc.
Another aspect is that craft has a certain spiritual element to it. It is creative in the way that art is creative -- it requires something of the artist. Feanor, after crafting the Silmarils, said that there were some things he could only accomplish once, and they were such things. Even the Valar were unable to remake the Two Trees after Melkor destroyed them. When Men declined after the fall of Numenor, their capacity for craft declined with their spiritual and temporal might, for various reasons.
| 63 |
If the type of element is directly correlated with its number or protons/neutrons/electrons, why aren't there infinite elements and why is 'discovering' a new one a big deal?
| 16 |
There are not necessarily infinitely many elements that can exist, because eventually there will be a point where the system is so heavy that it won’t be able to sustain bound states if you add anymore nucleons.
Discovering a new one is a big deal because we’ve already discovered all the ones that aren’t extremely difficult to produce.
| 20 |
|
ELI5: How do we know what the Milky Way looks like?
|
If we're part of the Milky Way how do we know what it looks like? How do we observe a galaxy that we're part of?
| 28 |
Three things
1 - We understand the orbital mechanics of galaxies. We understand what shapes are possible and what are not possible due to the current laws of physics.
2 - We can look at other galaxies and see examples. For example, we see that spiral is a common shape for a galaxy.
3 - Most importantly, by looking at the stars surrounding us in the night sky, we can get an approximate picture of what the galaxy looks like. If you're on a highway and see a lot of cars in front of you and few behind you, you can estimate what the scene might look like to a helicopter even if you're on the ground yourself. Then using #1 and #2 we can match up what we see with what we expect to see and get our final picture.
| 18 |
[harry potter/DC] what would happen if Harry put on the helmet of fate?
|
I'm not incredibly versed in the harry potter universe but if the helmet of fate was still able to posses it's wearer would Harry be able to resist it?
| 21 |
No. Nabu is orders higher than the greatest wizards of the Harry Potter universe combined. He is a Lord of Order, responsible for universal balance.
Even with Harry's special protections, there's a strong chance that Nabu would totally overwhelm him in order to carry out his duties as Doctor Fate.
| 20 |
ELI5 why does fiber cause gas?
| 107 |
Fiber refers to carbohydrates, such as cellulose, that aren't digestible by humans, and pass through the digestive tract relatively unaffected, at least on a molecular level. This contributes to fullness / satiety, and it helps make sure that there's solid matter moving through the GI tract, which helps keep you regular. However, many types of bacteria in the intestines do have the ability to break down these carbohydrates. The end products of these processes are generally simple compounds such as water, methane gas, and carbon dioxide. And all that gas building up in the intestines builds up until the body has a release.
| 46 |
|
ELI5:Why do large commercial planes have two steering wheels and two pilots?
|
How exactly does it help to have two people steer a plane at the same time?
| 17 |
Virtually all multi-seat planes have two sets of steering wheels; even the lowly Cessna 172.
Note that the controls *cannot* be used independently: moving one set of controls will also move the other set.
With those preliminary concepts aside, the basic answers are: redundancy and specialization. The co-pilot might perform special tasks to take some work off the pilot (radio communication, monitoring certain instruments, etc).
| 13 |
CMV: Billionaire philanthropy is a good thing.
|
The levels of wealth inequality in the world at the moment are far too high and there are plenty of reasons to want to see the super rich taxed more.
However, when the super rich voluntarily give away their money to solid, non-political causes, then that's a good thing that should be praised and encouraged.
I've seen the following arguments against this:
**1) They are only doing it for tax reasons.** Sure, they get some tax benefit out of it, but the benefit isn't *more* than just having the money is worth.
**2) They are only doing it to make themselves look better.** If the cost of an improved public image is significantly helping people then I'm okay with that. This must be relative, a billionaire trying to purchase image for 500,000 shouldn't called a hero. On the other hand, Bill Gates giving away ~50 billion dollars and saving hundreds of thousands of lives? That's amazing! He should be rewarded with public praise if only to inform other billionaires of the standard and encourage them to do the same.
**3) They spend more advertising their donation than actually helping.** Apparently this happens sometimes and it's pretty cringe. The money they donated is still real money that does real good in the world, so I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, just not the best look. I don't think this is the norm per dollar though, the 211 billionaires on [the giving pledge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge), most of whom you've never heard of, have given away 600 billion dollars. I think corporate philanthropy is worse in this regard.
| 21 |
The issue with billionaire philanthropy is that it requires the existence of billionaires.
which could only happen in an economic system that is wildly unregulated, and built on elitism / allowing a select few to hold power over others.
| 27 |
Why do some nations that produce enough food to provide for their whole population end up importing that same food?
|
I believe this is the case for Canada with wheat.
| 62 |
The reasons can be very simple. Canada has free trade with the US. The border between the two countries is very long and most of the population of Canada lives very close to the border. As a result, the transport cost of transporting a good across Canada may be larger than the administrative costs of importing it from over the border in the US.
The price of a good (e.g. wheat) may favour Canada at one place along the border and may favour the US at another place on the border.
| 89 |
ELI5: Is it Loud Inside Our Bodies?
|
ELI5: Weird question but the body does a lot of cool things, while eating for example, but just in general keeping us alive, pumping blood and oxygen around it.
It just kinda made me think, if we were inside our bodies, would it be loud or just kinda quiet, I don’t know if there is a scientific explanation.
| 132 |
So there are some people that have a malformation in the inner ear where they have a small hole in the bone and they state that it’s like being on a busy street all the time. (It’s called canal dehiscence syndrome)
| 103 |
What can be known with little or no evidence?
|
Some things, like math or "I think therefore I am", can be known a priori. Is there anything else? Is reasoning futile without good information. Why or why not?
| 15 |
Tautologies, e.g. "All bachelors are unmarried".
One need not consult experience to determine whether all bachelors are unmarried. Now of course -as one may object- experience is required to understand the concepts "bachelor," "unmarried and so forth. However, the a priori/a posteriori distinction as employed by Kant refers not to the origins of the concepts but to the justification of the propositions. Once we have the concepts, experience is no longer necessary.
| 13 |
Does Supersymmetry include antimatter?
|
So would we in theory have an anti-selectron and an anti-squark?
| 42 |
Sure. Everything has its antiparticle unless it is its own antiparticle (like the Z boson), and every known particle has a superpartner, that includes antiparticles.
The Higgs sector gets more complicated. You get at least one pair of Higgs bosons and three that are their own antiparticle - and their superpartners.
| 11 |
What does a whitening toothpaste contain that is responsible for whitening teeth?
| 6,928 |
Hi dentist here. Usually some sort of abrasive particle. Different material depending on the toothpaste. But its not going to do a great deal for your teeth. It will only remove surface stains from coffee, wine etc. and could actually harm your teeth long term. To actually whiten teeth you would need actual bleaching agent such as peroxide and that is safe but usually only available from a professional.
| 4,838 |
|
ELI5 why carbon monoxide is so poisonous to breathe when carbon dioxide is not.
| 15 |
Carbon monoxide binds very strongly to hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in your blood. When it does so, it stops hemoglobin from binding to oxygen, and limits your body's capacity to get oxygen in the process.
Carbon dioxide, which is almost completely non-reactive, doesn't do that.
| 33 |
|
ELI5: If you skip law school but pass the bar, what happens?
| 244 |
You can't be a lawyer without legal training, whether or not you pass the bar exam.
Some states do allow a kind of apprenticeship instead of law school. But you have to find someone who agrees to do that with you first, and most lawyers won't.
| 92 |
|
ELI5: Why isn't our sun and solar system slowly being sucked in to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way?
|
There's been some news about black hole discoveries recently, but we don't here much about the black hole in our own galaxy. What effect does it have on our solar system?
| 48 |
Black holes aren't the cosmic vacuums that some media has made them out to be.
Once you get very close some odd things happen due to the immense gravitational forces, but at a distance they behave like any other large object.
The Sun more or less orbits the massive center of the milky way galaxy. The black hole at the center is massive (almost certainly the most massive object in the galaxy by far), but only a small percentage of the total mass of the galaxy.
| 26 |
Why does my ear suddenly start ringing and stop just as abruptly?
|
The other day I suddenly lost hearing in my right ear, and it began ringing loudly. This went on for about a 45 seconds, and then it stopped and all was normal. What happened?
| 21 |
It's called spontaneous tinnitus, and it's something that everybody experiences from time to time. It doesn't usually last as long as 45 seconds; it usually resolves itself in about ten seconds, on average. It's possible that it just felt longer than it was.
The short answer to your why question is that nobody knows exactly what causes tinnitus, but it seems to have a variety of different possible causes. Some people experience tinnitus when they're in a silent environment, for example; that's thought to be neurological. With no actual sound for your auditory cortex to react to, you perceive a background hum or ring.
Tinnitus is also associated with things like the impaction of ear wax and inner-ear infections, but that's not what you're talking about. You're talking about the spontaneous kind that comes on suddenly in one ear, and just as suddenly resolves itself.
Nobody knows what causes that. What is known is that it happens to everybody, and it's entirely normal. It isn't, by itself, a sign of anything.
| 11 |
What kind of fallacy is this logic/argument (if it is one at all) ''I haven't experienced it/seen it, therefore it must not exist'' ?
| 29 |
This is just a laughably bad argument-- there's no specific name for this sort of thing, aside from a general non sequitur, which isn't terribly helpful. Regardless, it's usually not very productive to try and play "spot the fallacy." Just consider the actual argument: the person is saying that unless they have personally experienced or seen something, then such a thing does not exist. And, this is just bizarre. It would entail all manner of inanities. So, unless they have personally seen your mom, your mom doesn't exist-- what? Without *a whole* lot more to be said, there is just no reason to buy this claim at all-- it goes against so much of how operate in the world. We don't need some Latin phrase to realize this is a crap "argument."
| 61 |
|
ELI5: What really happens when bread, cookies, chips, and other similar foods go "stale"?
| 24 |
It has to do with changes in the structure of the molecules that give the food its usual texture, but the specifics vary depending on the type of food in question and what it's made of.
With foods that are normally moist and pliable/chewy (bread, cake, some cookies, etc.), the starches (long chains of sugars) that make them up spread out when cooked and link together, forming a sort of flexible mesh that's responsible for its texture. As the moisture from the environment begins to evaporate, the starches begin to crystallize, making them and the overall structure much more rigid, so it loses its pliability. It's essentially the same process as what happens with jello: when it has lots of moisture trapped inside of it, the overall structure is relatively pliable, but when you decrease the moisture, it becomes more rigid and brittle. Similarly, if you add heat to stale bread, it will help to recoup some of its chewiness and original texture (a bit of moisture helps with this too).
Try microwaving a sale dinner roll for a few seconds (with a damp paper towel, ideally) and see for yourself. It's the same idea as remelting jello by exposing it to heat (and maybe some water) and letting its structure reform.
Now with foods that are normally crispy (chips, croutons, breading, etc.), it's kind of the opposite: you want them to be dry and have a rigid molecular structure, so adding heat and/or moisture will cause their structure to become more pliable and chewy in texture.
| 11 |
|
Why do solar panels use Silicon cells rather than a metal with a lower work function, such as Cesium/Caesium?
|
Silicon has a work function of 4.05eV, whereas Cesium/Caesium which is 2.1eV. Surely solar panels made with one of the many other metals with a lower work function would produce a higher electrical output?
| 1,688 |
Solar cells operate through the photovoltaic effect, work function numbers are for the photoelectric effect which is different. Even if that wasn't a factor, Cesium is very expensive and has the nasty habit of reacting violently with water and igniting spontaneously in air. Additionally, it has a low melting point of 28.5 C so your solar cells would melt in sunlight.
| 1,203 |
How far from a mirror do you have to be to see yourself blink?
|
I understand that there is a delay in the time for the light to travel to the mirror and come back at any distance, so technically you always see a tiny portion of your blink in the mirror, but how far would you have to be so that you clearly see the blink and comprehend that you're seeing yourself blink.
| 199 |
Let's say that you want to see the entire blink, from the moment your eye closes until when it opens again. Therefore, your eye must re-open before the light from the moment your eye first closed has had time to travel to the mirror and back. If the mirror is a distance *R* from your eyes, then it takes a time 2*R*/*c* for light to travel from your eye to the mirror and back. If *T* is the duration of your blink (the amount of time between the initial close-eyes event that begins the blink and the final open-eyes event that enables you so see the light coming back to you), then we must have:
*T* < 2*R*/*c*
Solving for *R*, this expression becomes:
*R* > *cT*/2
The average blink lasts *T* = 0.4 seconds, so you would have to stand at least about 60,000 km (37,000 miles) away from the mirror to see the entire blink. For reference, the distance from New York to Paris is about 5800 km. At this distance, you would need a powerful telescope and no air in the way to actually see yourself in the mirror.
UPDATE: Depending on which study you reference, average human blink duration can run anywhere from 0.1 seconds to 0.6 seconds. Blinking faster will change these numbers a bit, but not by much. A 0.1 second blink would require at least a distance of 15,000 km from the mirror.
| 129 |
ELI5: how do anesthetics knock you out within 10 seconds of being injected?
| 257 |
Nobody is actually answering the question: which is how do they **knock you out in 10 seconds** not just “how do they knock you out” which is much less clear.
The answer as to why does it work so fast is that anesthetics are extremely fat soluble, which means they enter the brain extremely quickly. Anything which can enter the brain extremely quickly will have a fast onset and thus works very quickly.
| 363 |
|
[MCU] What if Tony Stark had never become Iron Man?
|
How would the MCU change?
| 26 |
Tony is captured by the Ten Rings but never builds the Mark 1 suit to escape from the cave. He either submits to his captors' demands and builds a Jericho, or he adamantly refuses. Either way, Tony Stark is killed.
Obadiah Stane takes over Stark Industries as its chairman and CEO. Under his control, Stark Industries expands its weapons development program, and openly sells to organizations such as the Ten Rings. Without Tony, however, the development of new and innovative weapons and technologies grinds to a halt. This allows competing companies such as Hammer Industries and AIM to catch up with and overtake Stark Industries. With Stark Industries leading the way in selling to terrorists and other sketchy organizations, other companies begin to follow suit, leading to widespread chaos and instability all over the world.
Such worldwide instability is exactly what Armin Zola and Hydra were aiming to accomplish, so they launch Project Insight ahead of schedule. Because SHIELD hadn't developed helicarriers yet, Project Insight instead involves Zola's algorithm identifying potential threats, and then assassins such as Clint Barton, Brock Rumlow, and the six Winter Soldiers are dispatched to eliminate the target. On one such mission, Clint is sent to remove a rival agent named Natasha Romanov, but instead of killing her he decides to spare her, and recruits her into SHIELD. For his disobedience, both Barton and Romanov are killed by Bucky Barnes, on Zola's orders. Hereafter, to avoid other such incidents, only fully controllable agents such as the Winter Solders are used for Project Insight assassinations. Other victims include Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, Erik Selvig, Pepper Potts, Maria Hill, Sam Wilson, Hank Pym, and countless others.
Bruce Banner, hiding out in Brazil after his gamma radiation accident, is discovered after some of his blood falls into a drink. Events eventually occur until the Hulk has his battle in Harlem against the Abomination. Afterwards, Blonksy is recruited into the Avengers Initiative, while Banner goes into hiding. Eventually, Banner is tracked down by the Winter Soldiers, and he is killed while in human form.
Thor is banished to Earth for his recklessness nearly leading to war against the Frost Giants. Due to Erik Selvig's death, Thor never meets Jane Foster, and he is captured by SHIELD when he tries to retrieve Mjolnir. Despite his many attempts at escape, he is eventually interned by SHIELD in a maximum security facility. Without his hammer or his powers, he has no means of breaking out. On Asgard, Loki's plan succeeds, and he successfully kills Odin and Laufey, and destroys Jotunheim using the Bifrost. Many of the Asgardians break away from Loki for his brutality, including Heimdall, Sif, and the Warriors Three. They travel to Earth together and find Thor, but Loki sends the Destroyer after them. Thor sacrifices himself against the Destroyer, which once again makes him worthy of Mjolnir. He defeats the Destroyer, but is unable to return to Asgard, due to Heimdall being on Earth and no one else being available or willing to open the Bifrost. The Asgardians are left stranded on Earth.
Steve Rogers is discovered in the arctic, still alive. He is woken up in a SHIELD facility, but breaks out when he realizes the radio's playing a baseball game he'd already attended. SHIELD recapture Rogers, and he is brought before Zola. Zola claims that he defected to the Allies after his capture, and has been helping the US and SHIELD ever since. He shows Rogers the state of the world, one of chaos and unrest, and convinces Rogers that Captain America should do his part to help fight such turmoil. Zola also shows Rogers that Barnes is also helping SHIELD take out enemy targets. Rogers finally agrees to help SHIELD by becoming an agent and assassin, albeit rather reluctantly.
Thanos, noting that the Tesseract is on Earth, strikes a deal with Ronan the Accuser. Ronan is dispatched to Earth to retrieve the Tesseract for Thanos. In exchange, Thanos will give Ronan the means to destroy the Nova. Ronan's massive ship, the Dark Aster, arrives in orbit around Earth. The Asgardians arrive at the ship to negotiate a deal with Ronan, since Ronan's ship represents their only chance of returning to Asgard. Ronan explains that he is at Earth to retrieve the Tesseract, and once he has it, he will leave. If the Asgardians assist him, then he will repay them by taking them to Asgard. This places him in conflict with the Asgardians, since they believe the Tesseract belongs on Asgard. They fight, but the Asgardians defeat Ronan. However, during their superpowered fight, the Dark Aster is knocked out of the sky and crashes in New York. Ronan and the Asgardians all survive the crash, but they are separated, and Ronan departs on his own to find the Tesseract. Ronan tracks the Tesseract to the facility where it's kept and studied, easily overpowers the SHIELD guards and scientists, and grabs the Tesseract. However, knowing that there's an Infinity Stone inside, Ronan decides to keep it for himself.
The Dark Aster crashing to Earth draws SHIELD's attention, and Steve Rogers is dispatched to New York to investigate. He encounters the Asgardians, and a rapport is built between them. Steve brings the Asgardians back to SHIELD, where an attempt is made to detain and/or recruit them. The Asgardians, naturally, refuse. They do, however, agree to help SHIELD recover the Tesseract from Ronan, since it now represents their only hope of getting home.
Ronan returns to his crashed ship and attempts to use the Tesseract to open a portal to Xandar, in order to destroy the Nova. However, he is interrupted by Rogers and the Asgardians during the process, and in the confusion the Tesseract opens a portal to Thanos's Chitauri army, instead of Xandar. The Chitauri swarm through. Rogers, the Asgardians, Blonsky, and other SHIELD agents attempt to stem the tide, but they are unsuccessful. The World Council, in desperation, fires a nuke at New York. The device destroys New York, killing Rogers and the others in the process, but it successfully closes the portal due to the massive amount of energy it outputs. The Tesseract, naturally, is left unscathed.
Thanos gets out of his chair and travels to Earth to retrieve the Tesseract himself. There is no one left to oppose him. Thanos devastates Earth until the Ancient One decides enough is enough, and uses the Eye of Agamotto to turn back time to the point where Tony Stark is captured in Afghanistan. She uses her astral projection power to plant the idea in his mind that he should build a suit of powered armor to escape.
| 90 |
CMV: Abortion is moral because of lack of sentience and therefore lack of desires
|
I know abortion posts are probably fairly common, but my point here is one I haven't seen specifically addressed.
On a legal and practical level I think you can make strong arguments for the pro-choice position pretty close to the point of birth. However I do also think the moral position is very justifiable, at least for part of the pregnancy.
Here are three points:
Point a) Currently conscious and experiencing sentience
Point b) Will at some point in the future be conscious and experience sentience
Point c) At some point in the past been conscious and experienced sentience
Now I believe it is immoral to kill a being that falls under point a), however I don't think either b) or c) *on their own* mean it would be immoral to kill. I think you need *both* of them. As if someone doesn't know they will ever experience consciousness, then you aren't taking away anything form them by killing them, as they had no desires (to be clear a "desire" is literally anything that a person could expect/want. I don't mean grand desires like "I want to be rich". Just any expectation that you will still be conscious tomorrow could be classed as a "desire"), and if they can't ever be conscious again, you aren't taking experience away by killing them, they already had 0 potential for future experience. Some examples:
1) A "braindead" person who will never wake up, only being kept alive by machines. - I don't think it is immoral to kill this person, they are not conscious, and never will be again. You are not taking experience that they may have desired away from them.
2) A sleeping person - I believe it is immoral to kill a sleeping person, as, even though they are not currently a), they are b) **and** c). They have desires, as they have been conscious in the past, and, all else equal, will be conscious in the future.
3) A Fetus (before 18 weeks or whenever consciousness begins) - I don't believe killing this being would be immoral, they don't have desires, therefore by killing them you are not taking away their desires. The fact they will have desires in the future is irrelevant, as they don't expect to have them.
To be very clear about terms, by "conscious and sentient" I basically just mean has the ability to think and have desires, but is also aware.
| 131 |
Under your axioms (it's only immoral to kill someone that has experienced sentience and will experience it again), your logic is sound, even if many people will disagree with some of its implications.
However, these axioms are based on just what *you* feel - why would they hold universally, or, in fact, in what way is your argument more than a slight generalization, without external justification, of "I feel that abortion is moral"?
| 66 |
CMV: CEOs don't single handedly make decisions that justify their pay and are overpaid
|
My brother and I always have this discussion so I want to see what reddit thinks.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/08/16/ceos-see-pay-grow-1000percent-and-now-make-278-times-the-average-worker.html
I do think CEOs should be paid more than the average employee, obviously they have more responsibility and have a bigger influence on company success. The article above says CEO compensation grew 1000% over the laat 40 years compared to 10% of the average employee.
What are CEOs doing, single handedly, that justifies this?
Yes, companies have grown and businesses have become more global, but CEOs don't make decisions alone. They have a team of executives who have teams of employees who perform the analysis to support the decision and who may even be the ones doing the brain storming to come up with ideas - the company I work for is implementing an employee suggestion program, and I'm sure other companies have this as well. At the end of the day, if the company does poorly, the CEO does get the blame, but that trickles down into the company via layoffs and pay freezes.
| 49 |
The difference between a good and bad CEO can literally be over a trillion dollars. Steve Balmer wasn't a terrible CEO, but under his leadership, Microsoft was stagnant. After Sataya Nadella became CEO in 2014, Microsoft's valuation skyrocketed by over 400%, which is $1 trillion increase. His compensation in 2019 was $43 million, a tiny fraction of the value that he generated for Microsoft.
Sure Nadella has to thank the talented people working under him. However, the most of the same people also worked under Balmer. The difference in 2014, is that Nadella made better decisions and fostered a better culture than Balmer did.
| 31 |
[Ready Player One] Why isn't anyone playing with a mouse and keyboard? They would absolutely destroy everybody else who uses a VR headset.
|
*who uses a VR headset and haptic gloves/bodysuit, as some people kindly corrected me. Moving a mouse a few inches would be much quicker than moving your whole body.
| 387 |
I believe in the book it's implied if not stated that to play the Oasis a player has to be using a VR setup. The complexity and quality of the VR setups vary, but it seems everyone uses them. This is also probably due to the variety of activities needed to be preformed in the Oasis, like driving, sword play, or even acting out a scene. Plus, the better quality VR setups give more nuanced tactile feedback so you would be missing out on the deep immersion.
| 325 |
how does fat and protein digestion works? difference between lean and fatty protein and the effect on digestion time?
|
Hello altogether,
unfortunately I have many different questions about all things fat and protein digestion, specifically regarding animal products with different fat content.
I want to understand the science and the chemistry behind the whole topic and also educate myself even further because it seems like I know nothing.
I tried to do some „research“ and found several different claims, opinions and explanations.
Before I get into the questions, I want to present the claims from the two different „camps“ because obviously there are more schools of thought?!
**Team fatty meat/protein:**
*The more fat that is in the protein the more delayed is digestion and therefore it sits in the small intestine longer and the required enzymes have more time to do their work and help digest the protein and the fat more efficiently, fully and easier! If the protein is leaner it goes to the digestive tract much faster, probably undigested and not fully absorbed by the small intestine.*
*Muscle meats like chicken breast or lean steak can aggravate constipation and therefore its beneficial to replace them with gelatinous meats instead and cuts with more soft tissue like chicken thighs, fatty meats etc. Humans can only use meat fibers properly when they come with fat, collagen and other substances.*
*Dark meat like chicken thighs or fatty cuts of meat contain more nutrients like zinc, iron and more vitamins like b12 additional folate, pantothenic acid, selenium, phosphorous, and vitamins K and A which aids in digestion.*
**Team lean meat/protein:**
*Meats with higher fat content take longer to digest. Also, foods with the least amount of fat, least amount connective tissues, and shorter muscle fibers are easier to digest. It means that fish is the easiest meat to digest, then poultry, pork and lastly beef*
*it also means that if the piece of chicken or turkey you are eating has more fat or long muscle fibers (thighs or drumsticks) than a LEAN piece of steak or a LEAN cut of pork, then that piece of chicken will be harder to digest!*
*A piece of boneless skinless chicken breast is easier to digest than a chicken thigh. Lean ground beef (93/7) is easier to digest than fattier ground beef (80/20) and a lean filet is easier to digest than a ribeye or beef brisket, chick etc.*
Ok, so far so good and I’m confused.
What I found is a study about myoglobin and it seems like that dark meat or cuts of poultry and beef with more myoglobin and more connective tissue are „harder“ to digest than white meat or poultry/beef with less myoglobin!?
**My questions are:**
What sits longer in the stomach, how long and why?
What sits longer in the small intestine, how long and why?
What kind of poultry/meat moves faster through the digestive tract, especially through the small intestine?
Which cuts require more effort, more enzymes, more stomach acid?
Which cuts are more taxing on the liver?
Is it easier and quicker for the small intestine to absorb nutrients from lean or fatty protein and why?
which factor determines whether a piece of animal protein/fat is light or heavy, fast or slow digesting when looking at the fat/food in isolation. Is it the fat content, connective tissue, a combination?
Is a fatty ribeye or hamburger patty (70/30 or 80/20) easier to digest than a lean filet steak? Or a fatty chicken thigh easier than a chicken breast? Pretend that all meats/beef/poultry are cooked to a moist internal temperature, not overcooked, tough or dry
Are low fat dairy products easier and quicker to digest than full fat dairy products?
At the end of the day I want to know which cuts of poultry/meat/beef/fish are easier to digest for the stomach and small intestine and which cuts are moving faster through the digestive tract. Also from which cuts the small intestine can easier absorb nutrients?
Im looking for a evidence based scientific answers in plain English that I can understand what’s going on and why. I don’t need study’s, although it would be nice, but everything backed up with science based explanations and evidence not opinions or preferences like almost everything on YouTube, food blogs etc. I’m looking for people who study this stuff or work in this field and know what they talking about.
Im very thankful for every explanation, help and for everyone who reads this.
I appreciate every Tipp where and how I can educate myself because I don’t want to be lazy.
Thank you very much and have a great day
| 1,592 |
GI physiologist here: absorption of food stuffs depends entirely on chemical composition of the food. The food must move from the lumen of the gi tract across the walls of the cells lining the the
small intestine and thence into the bloodstream. The cell walls are composed of lipid (fat), thus only fats can cross the cell wall unassisted. The fats that you eat are too big - both physically too big (must be crushed into smaller pieces) and chemically too big (must be broken down into it's component parts by the action of enzymes coming from the pancreas and/or stomach wall) to cross the cell wall in the form in which they are eaten.
The breakdown from big hunks to small hunks occurs in the stomach due to repeated gastric contractions squashing the food and mixing it with the various gi secretions of saliva, acid and some enzymes. If the fat is not broken down sufficiently it can't be attacked by the enzymes because they are water soluble and can not fight their way through a big hunk of fat. This process requires time not required for non-fat foods so fats stay in the stomach longer than non-fats if eaten separately. It eaten together, everything is slowed down in the stomach.
Once the fats are sufficiently broken down physically they pass into the small intestine where more enzymes finish the chemical breakdown into components small enough to pass through the lipid cell walls. Unfortunately, at this point the fatty particles are floating in the aqueous secretions of the stomach and small intestine and can not reach the lipid cell wall. To make matters worse there is also a layer of water bound to the lining of the small intestine which also blocks movement of the fat components.
This is where bile comes into the picture. Molecules of bile are water soluble on one end and fat soluble on the other so they form into little tiny hollow balls with the fatty ends pointing into the center of the ball. As they form, the fatty food components are trapped inside the ball. The water soluble ends are pointing out from the ball so the entire ball is now water soluble. These balls (micelles) move through all the water and water layers and dump the fatty components directly on the cell walls where they can now pass through the wall into the cell.
To pass from inside the cell out the back side into the blood the fatty components must form another hollow ball with the fatty material inside and proteins outside which allows the fatty material to move around in the blood once it is absorbed.
Last but not least the fatty material moves from the small intestinal cells into the lymph not directly into the bloodstream where it must end up to be used for fuel. Thus it travels through the lymph system until it reaches the thoracic duct where it is dumped into the bloodstream.
Obviously, fat digestion is a complex time- consuming process with many steps all of which must happen in the correct order. Malabsorption of fat is quite common and causes smelly diarrhea.
Proteins are water soluble and special carriers exist in the walls of cells allowing amino acids to be transported into and out of the cells so the process of protein digestion and absorption is simple and rapid. Eat the protein, proteases secreted by the mouth, stomach and pancreas begin to break down the proteins into constituent amino acids. These move directly into the small intestine where they bind to the carriers on the cell walls and viola, absorption. Malabsorption of proteins is rare and usually involves a congenitally missing carrier.
Complete digestion and absorption of a high fat meal may take several hours longer than that of low fat meal.
| 486 |
ELI5:How does headache exactly hurts your head if your brain cannot feel pain?
| 37 |
There are literally hundreds of of types of headaches, so each one can be representative of something different.
Sinus pressure, vascular issues, tumor increasing intracranial pressure, muscular tension, trauma etc. The brain could be the issue but it's usually transmitting from somewhere else.
| 20 |
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Can there be a case of information asymmetry where buyers have more information than sellers?
| 79 |
Sure, think of estate sales for example where people often don't bother to tally up everything exactly but just sell things in bulk and experienced people go there to grab the items that are sold way below value.
| 113 |
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