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[Star Trek:TNG] Who all knew that Data had sex with Tasha Yar?
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I remember after the incident, Tasha told Data that it 'never happened'. I don't think Data would tell anyone, so how did Riker know about it when Data was on trial. I'd think the other crew would of thought he had the little portrait of her because she was a senior officer that died, and wouldn't auto assume 'oh they had sex, that's why he has that. '
​
Did Tasha have to tell Troi about it perhaps as a followup to the incident? Required counseling sessions for affected crew members, and then Troi blabbed to Riker? Would Picard known about it?
| 26 |
When she tells him "it never happened", they're on the bridge in front of everyone, and she's not even saying it quietly, and they just came out of a situation where everyone was horned up to 11, so Riker or whoever was probably able to make the logical conclusion.
| 25 |
[DC] Why are Batman's contingency plans against the Justice League viewed as "wrong"?
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I can understand that you should trust your team -- teamwork makes the dream work, and all that -- but did the League really think they didn't need those plans?
Yes, a villain could utilise them against the JL for nefarious reasons; however, Batman is right to fear the possibility of any members going rogue/mind-controlled etc. His plans aim to incapacitate their targeted superhero, not kill them. In fact, why doesn't anyone else in the JL have their own plans -- Superman was willing to give Batman a krypton ring, just in case. The JL members have to be incredibly naive to believe that they don't need contingency plans against themselves and their fellow members.
| 566 |
> Yes, a villain could utilise them against the JL for nefarious reasons;
No, not *could,* did. A villain *did* use them against the JL for nefarious reasons. And these methods weren't exactly nice, either. They were enough to make Plastic Man stop joking. If the circumstances were different, if it was one of Batman's scenarios playing out and he used those methods to stop a rogue JL member, it might have gone off differently. But it didn't, and that's going to change how it's received.
On top of that, he never discussed it with anyone. He basically thought of ways to incapacitate - even kill - people who were like family, on the off chance they go insane, without ever talking to anyone about it. Batman's primary issue is the solitary manner in which he goes about doing things. He treats people as a distraction at best or a pawn at worst and this is just the prime example of that.
| 415 |
[Fallout] Where the hell does Vault-Tec get all their employees, that they are almost all willing to do such horrible shit, even despite the likelihood that they would be horribly murdered?
|
So, from all the games so far, almost all Vault-Tec employees are complete moral monsters, with them willing to do pathological experiments and what not.
That the Overseer of Vault 81 is the exception rather than the norm is telling.
Was there a sale?
| 47 |
The majority of Vaul-Tec employees were actually normal office workers, sales representatives, construction workers, and other relatively normal people who were completely ignorant of the true nature of the vaults. A few office drones got wary every so often, but they were quickly silenced.
But when you get into actual vault staff and higher ups, there can be a few explanations:
1) They firmly believed that they were doing the right thing. The world was heading toward destruction no matter what happened, so preserving the species was a top priority. The suffering of a few hundred souls was nothing compared to staving off extinction. Plus, it usually wasn't them who were suffering directly, so they could disassociate from the dilemma. (Leah Remini did a very interesting take on this mindset when talking to Joe Rogan recently. It's very frightening and incredibly powerful, and Vault-Tec would have it in spades.)
2) The pay was EXCEPTIONAL. Vault-Tec rarely spared any expenses, except when intentionally, and paid for top of the line facilities and staff. When people get enough compensation, they can do some terrible things.
3) They had no choice. Perhaps some employees had no other career alternatives, or the company had blackmail material on them. The world in 2077 was just as bad as 2287, just in slightly different ways. There were undoubtedly cases of employees forced into doing terrible things or face starvation/their family dying.
4) Us-versus-them. Employees of Vault-Tec were indoctrinated into thinking they were part of a special club, a group of people who were better informed, better prepared, and better motivated to save the world compared to the average American. This kind of separation made the employees form a kind of tribal bond with each other, and mentally separate themselves from the common folk, to the point where they barely saw the other citizens as human beings. Of course, in situations where shit really went down, like in Vault 111, that tribalism was as fragile as it was horrifying.
5) As you noted, not all of the overseers and employees were part of the program. No two human beings are the same, and some have the power to look past indoctrination/pay/brainwashing to see the bigger picture. And some, like Doctor Braun, were total monsters who just happened to have unique technical expertise. But the company kept them around so they could use their gifts in other applications.
| 61 |
ELI5: Why are complex numbers so important?
| 25 |
Complex numbers are the combination of regular (real) numbers and imaginary numbers.
Quick primer: imaginary numbers themselves are just a place holder for something being multiplied by the square root of -1. So, instead of 5, you get 5i . By themselves, they're alright, but what they can represent makes them important.
The cool thing about complex numbers is because they have both real (regular) parts and imaginary parts, they have lots of really convinient properties. For example, if you want to write an equation for a cirle, you can use lots of awkward hyberbolic trigonometry gobbeldy-gook, or you can very easily compress all of that info into a neat little expression of the form e^(i\*pi\*2).
Complex numbers also allow engineers and mathematicians to more easily represent things like electricity, radio waves, digital information, and stuff that repeats (think springs or swings).
TL;DR - Complex numbers make math more concise and easier to deal with.
| 25 |
|
ELI5: Most 3D renders (like Blender) can render via GPU or CPU? Why not both at the same time for maximum efficiency?
| 19 |
It takes a lot longer to send information from the CPU to the GPU and back than you would think. Processors are fast, but transfer speeds between parts on your computer slow compared to that, so it would take longer to have both the CPU and GPU working on it at the same time than it would for just one of them to do it.
Imagine trying to draw a picture with someone else. That someone else is several miles away, and you have to send it in the mail every time you want the other person to make changes. Sure you have twice the man power, but it spend so much time in transit that it would take a lot longer to get done.
| 16 |
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[Marvel] Why does Wolverine get far better treatment than the Punisher even though they both kill?
|
Why does Wolverine get far more respect and good treatment from his fellow crime fighters to the point of being on several teams even though he's butchered thousands of bad guys over his lifetime?
Wolverine has killed far more people than the Punisher could dream of but yet you don't see Daredevil trying to take him down like he has the Punisher or other heroes ostracizing him as a bloodthirsty psychopath.
If Wolverine slices up a hundred ninjas or gangsters on one of his many adventures you don't see Spider Man knocking on his door telling him to knock it off like he's done to Punisher multiple times. Meanwhile Punisher takes down a drug gang in New York and next thing you know he's getting smacked around and lectured by Daredevil.
Is it morally better to kill using adamantium claws as opposed to assault rifles and grenades?
| 57 |
Wolverine is generally doing it within the boundries of a group/team like the X-Men or Avengers. When he isn't killing, there is many a time when he tries to no kill and actively avoid people like when he became a lumberjack. Even when he does kill, he does it for the greater good. As in taking down global threats, rarely does he kill for fun, if at all.
Punisher, on the other hand, isn't a hero. He has actively said he isn't a hero. He doesn't do what he does for fun. He doesn't do it for the greater good. He doesn't do it because he wants to. He does it because he's angry. He's seen first hand what "lesser" threats in the Marvel Universe can do. Heroes don't see drug lords or gangs as criminals, only as misguided citizens. The Punisher thinks them as scum that need to be purged from the world.
This division is what makes them so different. To characters like Daredevil and Spiderman, The Punisher isn't a hero. He's a vigilante taking the law into his own hands. Wolverine, on the other hand, generally only kills war criminals or supervillain types(including minions).
| 65 |
CMV: When captured and convicted, SWAT "pranksters" should receive extremely harsh sentences
|
Although I'm conflicted about all aspects of Justice, Inc., I would be happy to see [this kid](http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/23/8648851/swatting-doxing-legal-case-canada-online-harassment) rot in a cell for decades.
Making examples of people like this is the only deterrent I can think of for /b/tards who think terrorizing people, risking lives, and draining public resources for no reason is harmless and hilarious.
It's hard for me to feel much sympathy when their /b/tard lives are permanently ruined, since they're practically never held accountable.
Am I being a dick about this? Are you sure?
| 462 |
This would be well outside the norm of how we sentence people.
In the case of swatting, we're talking about 2 crimes:
Reckless endangerment and filing a false police report.
In NY (my state), this would be reckless endangerment in the first degree, which is:
>A person is guilty of reckless endangerment in the first degree when,
under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he
recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to
another person.
Reckless endangerment in the first degree is a class D felony.
As a violent class D felony, this would carry a minimum sentence of 2 years, and a maximum sentence of 7 years.
If a person did in fact die during the raid, they'd be guilty of manslaughter in the second degree, defined as:
>A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when:
1. He recklessly causes the death of another person; ...
Manslaughter in the second degree is a class C felony.
As a violent class C felony, this would carry a minimum sentence of 3 1/2 years, and a maximum sentence of 15 years.
The above would be possibly increased if the defendant has prior convictions - those all assume no priors.
To get to the length of sentence you're talking about, we would need to upgrade them to class C (in the case of reckless endangerment) or class B (in the case of manslaughter). But we start bumping into some irrationality then.
I don't think swatting, without physical harm done, is the same severity as manslaughter. Manslaughter is a really serious crime. And if you want to upgrade the punishment if it becomes a manslaughter, then you're talking about punishing it like a murder (murder is a class B felony, sometimes class A). But it isn't as serious as a murder.
Swatting can be severely punished. The crimes above carry substantial sentences. A conviction for 1st degree reckless endangerment (which swatting is), has a mandatory minimum prison sentence, so it's not like you can get off with a slap on the wrist.
But decades in prison is essentially reserved for murderers, rapists, and serial criminals. And it should be. /b/tards aren't as evil as murderers.
| 198 |
Will the coronavirus send us into a recession or hyperinflation?
|
An oversimplification is a recession happens when the demand is far lower than the supply. This causes either deflation/lower inflation (if the production continues) or joblessness (after all you need less people to work to produce now since the demand for goods is lower) or most likely a combination of both. A hyperinflation is when the demand is far higher than the supply, causing, well, higher rates of inflation.
The thing is the coronavirus crisis will likely decrease both and the question is by how much. On one hand, people are told to stay at home, not go to restaurants etc. which basically causes people to buy less and induces a mindset of scarcity, lowering the demand. On the other hand it will also cause people to work less, making the production suffer which lowers the supply.
So what do you think? Will the demand lower less than the supply which will send us into a hyperinflation or will the opposite happen and it will send us into a recession? Or perhaps both will lower by a similar amount and they'll cancel each other out and we'll have no economical crisis at all, the only thing changing is our lifestyle temporarily (that would be dope). Or perhaps certain countries will have a recession while others more of an inflation? What do you think.
| 26 |
>An oversimplification is a recession happens when the demand is far lower than the supply. This causes either deflation/lower inflation (if the production continues) or joblessness (after all you need less people to work to produce now since the demand for goods is lower) or most likely a combination of both. A hyperinflation is when the demand is far higher than the supply, causing, well, higher rates of inflation.
No. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. That can happen for multiple reasons.
Hyperinflation is vaguely defined as inflation rates of more than 50% a month, but generally it's just a lot of uncontrollable inflation. That can happen for a multitude of reasons as well.
Neither of those have necessarily anything to do with demand outstripping supply or vice versa.
Also, inflation happens if the *growth* in money supply is faster than the *growth* of output. Or really, it's money supply\*money velocity=price level\*transaction volume.
A recession is very likely because of the supply/demand shock Corona causes. Hyperinflation is not going to happen because the central bank aims to keep inflation stable, it's too low anyway, and money velocity is most likely falling.
| 41 |
CMV: Shouldn't we stop saying that gender is a social construct?
|
Let me preface this by saying that I have multiple trans/queer* friends and I totally respect however they choose to identify. I was even what people would call a social justice warrior for a very long time. I still think I am, but am not so quick to take such strong views anymore because I realize more and more that the stiffer we get with our beliefs, on either side of the spectrum, we open ourselves to paradoxes and contradictions.
I was just flipping through my AP Psych prep book today and got to 3 theories of gender-role development: biopsychological (genetics produce gender roles), psychodynamic (Freud-y, gender development arises out of parental competition and eventual realization of the futility of that fight), and social-cognitive (the effects of society on the development of gender).
My question is something like this: if we mean to devalue the contemporaneous relative cultural value of gender by reducing it to nothing more than a "social construct", then why do we place so much emphasis on expressing the gender we identify with? Is this more than an illusory reclaim of power over the social construct that has caused so many people so much distress?
I don't know that I have any real solution to the problem I present. I am not even sure that it is a real problem, there may be some simple way of looking at it that hasn't occurred to me and relieves the tension between the two ideas. If it is still unclear, I just want to know how we can attempt to reconcile these two points: (1) Gender is arbitrary and (2) I deserve to be seen as the gender I identify with. How can we claim to identify ourselves within something that has seemed to suffocate us?
I apologize if this seems tone-deaf or something. I honestly do not mean it that way, and sincerely respect the wishes of everyone to express themselves in the way they feel is appropriate for them. i take more issue with the seeming attempt to tear down the... construct of gender.
Thanks for taking the time to consider this stuff, I am very interested in what people have to say.
_____
> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 22 |
> if we mean to devalue the contemporaneous relative cultural value of gender by reducing it to nothing more than a "social construct", then why do we place so much emphasis on expressing the gender we identify with?
Saying gender is a social construct is an objective fact, based on the contemporary definition of gender. There is no inherent political meaning to that statement. It's like saying that Pulp Fiction came out in 1994.
> then why do we place so much emphasis on expressing the gender we identify with?
That's like asking "Why do people like Pulp Fiction enough to wear Pulp Fiction T-shirts and hang framed Pulp Fiction posters?" Emphasizing gender is really important to some people, and not very important to others. It's based on people's subjective opinions.
| 19 |
[Harry Potter] What if you were extremely scared of boggarts?
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What would they appear to you as?
| 29 |
Whatever your mind pictured their true form to be. They don't have a corporeal form; they're a non-being that feeds off your fear. Once you're tapped out it sort of drifts off and takes a nap until the next walking dinner plate comes along.
| 32 |
[Fallout] What is the Pepsi to Nuka-Cola's Coke?
| 38 |
Nuka Cola has COMPLETELY dominated the international market to such an extreme degree that there never was a "nuka pepsi". Because of their absolute market dominance, only regional brands could ever compete, and even then only in their home town. You can see this in Sunset Sarsparilla and VIM in Maine.
I mean for God's sake, you can even find nuka cola in old Chinese nuclear submarines, so presumably nuka cola was even sold in CHINA at the time of the Great War.
| 58 |
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How do all bees innately know to build hexagonal hives? How has there never been a deviation from this?
| 23 |
/u/NeonNintendo wrote a good answer, but there's one key thing to add. If you really look closely at the cells of the wax comb, the interiors are actually rounded. As bees build the cells from the inside, they are making them round; but as many bees work together to make cells right next to each other, the cells press against one another and the wax stays very warm, so that the exteriors naturally take on a hexagonal shape--the shape that allows them to fit together best.
| 13 |
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ELI5: How do China and other "enemies of the internet" block their citizens' access to the web?
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I've heard about the Great Firewall, but how are they able to implement it on every computer?
| 75 |
The chinese government owns or controls the telecommunication infrastructure of the country. Essentially, every wire that runs across the land, every ISP that offers service etc. is controlled by the government. If you control the wires, it's not a big step to install this "firewall" at every point where these wires connect to the wires in the outside-china internet. (notably...there is nothing to install on local computers, it's all done at the network level.)
| 22 |
[Marvel] Is there any version of Thanos that’s not evil?
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I was reading some comics and it said something along the lines of that Thanos, no matter what you do, is always destined to be a mass murdering psycho
| 17 |
I can't think of a single version of thanos that is not evil, in one comic thanks does a good act, helping a little old lady across the street. Now why would the mad titan do that instead of plotting against the avengers? Well simply put he knew that the bus Thanos stopped to help the lady had a passenger who was on her way to a job interview, because thanos stopped the bus she missed the interview she never found the cure to cancer.
| 36 |
[Marvel] How does Spider Man focus during fights with his non-stop joke telling ?
|
His punchlines and setups are incredibly clever and well thought out, how does he come up with all this and fight at the same time ?
| 16 |
Peter Parker is generally one of the most intelligent sentient beings on Earth at any given time in any universe he inhabits. The quips are literally a nervous tic he developed as a scared, inexperienced, and untrained teenager fighting super powered murderers that generally outclass him starting at 15. He never stopped doing it because it calms him down and pisses off his enemies. He does it without thinking, generally.
In addition, he fights almost entirely based on a clairvoyant future-telling sense of instinct so focusing on his tasks can actually be a hindrance to both his powerset and his fighting style.
Bonus: All of Spidey's rogues know that if Spidey stands still, looks at you. And says nothing? You're in a world of fucking shit. Well known phenom.
TL;DR All instinct baby, he literally can't stop himself.
| 56 |
[Star Wars Episode 1] Is Jar Jar skilled at fighting or merely just extremely lucky?
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He's able to take out more droids and vehicles than any other Gungan.
| 17 |
He's clumsy as shit, so much so the 501st used as a weapon once during the Clone Wars.
People like to say he's a Sith or some magic excuse. But Jar Jar is what happens when you are an idiot who spent their entire life dodging large aquatic predators in the wilderness like Gungans do. He has the reflexes and agility to escape, but he's always trying to help and make things worse.
| 30 |
CMV: Bringing your kids to church is indoctrination and they shouldn't be allowed in any church until they reach an age where they can decide for themselves.
|
Disclaimer: I am very anti-theist so that's why I have such a negative thought of bringing your kids to church.
Bringing children to church starting at a young age is very likely to make that person blindly follow that religion without them having much of a choice. At a young age, kids are impressionable and tend to believe whatever an adult/parent says to them. Thus, the odds of them changing their beliefs are lowered. I am not saying that they will never switch, it's just the odds of them doing so are severely lowered.
I believe that any church or religious meeting areas should have an age restriction (I will leave that age number up for debate). And not to make them not believe in religion, that violates the constitution. But to let them make the choice themselves, and purely by themselves. I know that the parents could just teach them about it, but hey, if some people are going to indoctrinate their child, might as well make them use their own time to do that.
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*
| 35 |
CMV: Bringing your kids to school is indoctrination and they shouldn't be allowed in any school until they reach an age where they can decide for themselves.
The problem is everything depends on point of view. If a parent genuinely believe something is true, why shouldn't they be allowed to tell their kids about it? Why shouldn't they be allowed to bring them to an expert who can talk about it?
| 39 |
CMV: Free will and determinism are compatible
|
I have heard people argue that free will is nothing but an illusion.
I argue that to be a misconception made when people learn about determinism.
An for those unaware about determinism, it says that all things that exist in the universe have a cause for why it happened and that every specific human action is a result of past events. This means that you are not the ultimate cause of your actions.
So why do some say that this implies there is no free will?
The most common definition of free will is that you can choose between different actions whether they be good or bad or right or wrong. And that when you chose an action, it was possible that you could’ve done otherwise. That version of free will might be possible and I’ll explain why later. Some people say that free will is an illusion because ultimately, the choices you make were not made by you and that every action you do was bound to happen. Some believe a god decides their actions and their fate making them also not the ultimate cause of their actions.
So why do I think that argument is wrong, determinism seems to prove them right?
The reason that argument is flawed is because it neglects other definitions of free will.
Although there are other definitions, I define free will as doing an actions on one’s own accord without coercion.
This means that you are able to do what you want in a given situation.
So how does this version of free will line up with determinism?
When you have to choose between multiple options, your brain simulates doing the options and then chooses the one it thinks will give it the outcome it wants.
Think of it like previewing multiple YouTube videos and then choosing the video you think you are going to enjoy.
That is why the illusion that you could’ve done an alternate action to the choice you made exist. This means that when you make a choice without coercion, it was done out of your own desire. You were only going to do the choice you wanted to do in the situation you were in given your knowledge, intelligence, and reasoning in order to get what you wanted. To prove my idea, try to throw a paper in the trash without wanting to throw the paper in the trash. It’s impossible to do without coercion.
So if you want to go shopping, it’s not like determinism says, “Sally wants to go shopping? We did not have that scheduled for her.” All determinism is, is the reason why you wanted to go shopping in the first place and that those reasons had reasons for why they happened too.
If determinism implies that you couldn’t have done other than the choice you made, then why did you say there was a way that version of free will could exist earlier? If the multiverse turns out to be true, then you do have the ability do choose other than the decision you made, but only if you refer to your existence as a whole across all timelines.
Think of yourself as a character in a game or tv show.
There’s a specific way you’re character talks, specific desires that your character has, and a specific way of dealing with a situation. Some characters are good and some are bad due to the plot that is determinism.
The amount of free will varies from person to person.
For example , the master has more free will than his slave.
That’s my opinion and I’m open to a discussion.
| 23 |
Compatibilism is a perfectly valid way to view determinism vs free will. However, when hard determinists say there is no free will they don't mean what you're talking about. They mean that whatever was going to happen was always going to happen.
How about this metaphor. A rock sits atop a hill. If you push the rock, the rock will roll down the hill. You push the rock. Does the rock have any free will to not roll down the hill?
| 13 |
ELI5: Why are mirrors perceived as a “phantom-shade” of silver (so to speak), despite whatever the reflection is? Is this some physics trickery or is it purely psychological?
| 1,213 |
Mirrors generally don't give a perfect reflection, what you're seeing is the colour of the metal backing (normally aluminium on modern mirrors), which looks greyish when not polished. Interestingly, most mirrors are actually slightly greenish due to imperfect glass.
| 658 |
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[Mad Max: Fury Road] Does Max just mindlessly drive around the wasteland? How does he get fuel/food/car repairs? How often does he take driving breaks?
| 23 |
He is either following well known trade roads, has knowledge of where settlements should be(I would assume most settlements would be in the rubble of cities, kinda of odd now that you mention it that barter town is just like a random parking lot and not brisbane) or he has hearsay on where to go when he finds a new settlement. They might tell him they knew of a settlement they lost contact with due south about 100 klicks but its through the clown themed monster truck gang territory.
Max sighs as he loads his car
| 38 |
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[Austin Powers] I am the Illegitimate son of Austin Powers and Alotta Fagina, my mother died and I just turned 18 what should I do now?
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I lived the first 10 years of my life in Italy with my mother and step father. Then they moved us back to England because my mother had a affair with the Prime Minister of Italy and we had to leave before my step father and the Government of Italy could kill her.
When I was 14 I had something called Mojo and it worked on a lot of girls. lost my virginity to my English teacher when I was 14 and she was 26. Then I started learning Karate because I felt like I could learn geo to defend myself. Then when my mom died I found out the truth about my father, Austin Powers.
Should I join Austin and the MOD in protecting the world or do I join my cousin Scott and help him take over the world with my half Mojo Powers and Wit.
| 39 |
James Bond actually had a son apparently, called James Suzuki. Bond was however a shit father and didn't see him much and only supported him financially. Since Austin is like Bond but actually a good person, he would probably welcome a son gladly and raise him well. We see in Goldmember that Austin had some issues with his own father being absent, so he may not make the same mistake once he learns of the existance of a son. He also accepts Dr. Evil fairly quickly as his brother, so he seems to be the type to form a familial connection quickly with long lost relatives. Overall, I'd say there's a pretty good chance Austin would accept a son very well.
| 18 |
[Fallout 4] So how's D.C. doing?
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Also, how are the other east coast cities faring?
| 43 |
The Brotherhood at least seems to be doing extremely well. They've got The Prydwen, a ton of Vertibirds, seemingly unlimited numbers of soldiers and T-60 suits - which implies they've set up manufacturing for these things as well as become stable enough that the people of D.C. are willing to join up.
Given their practices seen in The Commonwealth, it's likely they've annexed the farms that cropped up around DC, so life may have become harder for the average person, needing to supply both themselves and the Brotherhood. But, they may also receive protection from the BOS to ensure they keep producing food - harder work, but safer from raiders/mutants/ghouls.
| 66 |
[DC] Is Cyborg's face bulletproof? It feels like a huge weak spot
|
Like why doesn't anyone just shoot Cyborg in the face? Or why doesn't he just have a full face helmet?
| 25 |
I guess it depends on the universe but he tends to have a few exposed fleshy bits, and shooting him in any of those bits would be just as effective as shooting anyone. He doesn't worry about it though because he has the training and knowledge (thanks to the cyborg parts) to not get shot in the head.
Though having his face show though is very much an important part of the 'costume' to him. He almost lost his humanity but because he managed to retain some he parades it.
| 28 |
[Frozen] What happened to Weaseltown after it's biggest trading partner stopped trading with it?
|
It seems to me that Queen Elsa has condemned a whole town to poverty over the actions of one man. It's not a small town ether if it had a Duke in it.
| 80 |
As often happens, the squabbles of the aristocracy lead to untold misery for the people, who did nothing wrong. It's a lot like embargoes on Cuba and Iran - doesn't hurt the leaders at all, but condemns thousands of innocent people whose only crime was being born in a crappy county to poverty and misery.
| 98 |
ELI5: Difference between Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry?
| 19 |
There are 7 postulates in Euclidean geometry - baseline rules that underpin the entire logical system.
Non-Euclidean geometries involve changing the 5th postulate - also called the parallel postulate - to something else. You can look up a more formal statement, but the parallel postulate is the one that ensures that two parallel lines can never meet.
Normally, non-Euclidean geometries deal with situations where the surface you're working with is curved.
| 16 |
|
[Star Wars] Why do most characters keep wearing the same clothes/outfit everyday?
|
Do most people in the Star Wars galaxy only have 1 outfit or something? It's seems that many characters keep wearing the same outfit for the whole series. For instance Obi-wan, Windu, Yoda, and Han always seems to wear the same outfit (Though there are some outliers such as Padme and Luke who appear to have multiple outfits).
Is there any reason for this? Do they wear the same outfit or do they just have multiples of the same outfit?
Just a random thought.
| 54 |
Obi-wan, Windu, and Yoda are all members of a monastic order. They wear the same outfit every day for the same reason monks wear the same clothes every day - it's a uniform.
As for Han he probably thinks those pants are real comfy.
| 57 |
[Halo] Who, exactly, are the survivors from the Pillar of Autumn? Besides Master Chief of course.
| 40 |
Master Chief, Linda, Sgt. Johnson, Cortana, and if memory serves, a single junior officer.
Initially, a Pelican pilot and an ODST made it off as well, but both were killed in the following seizure of a Covenant ship and attempt to return to UNSC space.
| 43 |
|
[Doctor Who] The Daleks' Reality Bomb was allegedly powerful enough to obliterate all matter in the entire multiverse. Does this mean that there was not a single universe in which their plan succeeded?
| 388 |
No, for a simple reason.
Davros was required to make the plan a success. Davros required Dalek Caan to rescue him from the first year of the Time War. Rescuing Davros drove Caan insane, which caused him to want to thwart the plot and allow the Doctor to triumph.
As a consequence, in every universe in which Davros is able to build a Reality Bomb, there is a Caan who has witnessed the entire patchwork structure of time and space and is able to thwart him. A Caan capable of thwarting the scheme is a *prerequisite* for the scheme to exist in the first place--looking at it this way, how *could* there be a universe where Davros won?
It's the same basic principle of the fact that there are an infinite number of whole numbers, but none of them are negative. An infinite number of universes does not mean *every* possibility will occur.
| 334 |
|
How do you talk to a group of excellent students, half of which inevitably end up below average on exams?
|
I currently have the privilege for the first time of TAing a group of excellent students at an online math program. The students are in middle school and high school, but I think this problem is not unique to their age group so I think it is appropriate to ask here.
These students are very bright and focused and every one of them has the attitude "how can I improve myself" rather than "please let me get a high grade". I'm certain that back at their normal schools, they are all among the top students. But I'm supposed to tell them the median score and inevitably let half of them know that they are below average. (The average also tends to be about 50% or less by design.)
I was actually a participant in this summer program many years ago, when I was a early high school student and the program was held in person at a university. I tended to receive below average scores, but I was supported by a strong social circle of friends. Now, these students are at home, likely alone, and likely also with their parents breathing down their backs.
What are some lesser-known ways to reassure students that they are doing just fine? And what are some things that I should keep in mind to avoid doing? I don't want to give the cliched speech about how everyone in this class is already great, because I'm sure they've already that from other places. From my interactions with friends in similar situations, I'm also not convinced that this speech has any effect at all. I do hold office hours twice a week, if this is helpful information.
| 24 |
I'd be honest with them. Tell them what you've said here, that they're the best, and therefore what their average is will be much higher than the average of any other class they've been in. They'll understand that marks will distribute around the average, and therefore they're comparing themselves to other bright students, not their usual classmates.
| 20 |
ELI5: How do school bullies who steal other kids' lunch money not get charged for mugging?
| 15 |
The school faculty deals with a deemed inferior (but against the rule) issue so the teachers deal with the bully instead and there's no need to call the police for it. The bully just gets sanctioned by the teacher(s) dealing with the issue thus no police intervention.
Second, its law that (if you're in the UK) if you're under 10 (not equal to) you can't be prosecuted.
| 13 |
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ELI5:How do our bodies "Naturally" wake up with no alarm, nobody mowing their lawn outside etc?
| 41 |
Your body has what's called Circadian Rhythm. It determines basically when you sleep and when you eat but is affected by the sun and your environment and any number of other factors. Even more basically it tells your body's metabolism when to work and when to chill out. If you've been sleeping too long your body will wake you up because you need energy whether that's simply the sun or water or food. Conversely too much of either of those things are likely to put you to sleep so your body has time to recoup.
| 16 |
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[Video Games] I'm a professional hardened tough as nails soldier that's been through more battles than you can imagine...yet I can't shoot very straight because I'm only at level 1. How did I survive before hand?
|
So all these action video games have you playing these characters that are supposed to be super soldiers that are the best of what they do yet they can't survive a small drop because their fall damage hasn't been upgraded. They can't shoot straight and their weapons are extremely weak because they haven't had enough points added to their Heavy Weapons perk.
How are all these incredibly powerful people so incredibly weak?
| 15 |
Previous assignments were against terrorists, rebels, or criminals. Dangerous, yet mundane threats they trained for months, maybe years, to counter. Fighting those guys gave no benefits nor taught any new skills.
Then came the aliens, or the supersoldiers, or the mutants, whatever. Things never encountered, and it becomes a situation of adapt or die. Some of the old training will help, but it's going to take a lot of on-the-fly decisions and new ways of thinking to survive.
| 13 |
[The Walking Dead] How are places like Area 51 and Mount Cheyenne holding up?
|
Were they able to hold and secure their facilities?
I mean, it would seem that these bunkers, as long as they got the full scope of how the infection was transmitted, would be able to hold out pretty much indefinitely.
Area 51 is almost entirely inaccessible, and incredibly fortified, as is Mt. Cheyenne Complex, AKA NORAD.
So, how do these places fair during the Walking Dead?
| 36 |
I know Cheyenne mountain complex is probably doing pretty good.
They have a stargate and established various Greek letter bases.
Real talk it could go either way.
The CDC manned by Dr Jenner was broadcasting to someone.
It’s extremely possible that he got word out and the COG sites are aware of everything he was trying to do.
He says himself that he’s not mechanically talented in regards to voltage and figuring out how to maximize fuel consumption.
It’s entirely possible he merely didn’t know how the communication equipment functioned properly.
I wonder why Rick or CO never made it to Mount Weather or the decommissioned The Greenbrier bunker or the Warrenton Training Center.
Some of these facilities could have fallen but it’s equally possible that they didn’t.
They are some of the most heavily fortified places in America staffed with resources to stay self sufficient for decades and they have guns lots and lots of guns.
These places would have been the nerve centers for passing information.
The remnants would have received word out pretty quickly that you get bit you turn.
Soldiers would have instantly put down any injured teammates to keep the rest safe.
| 43 |
[Star Wars]How did the Empire so thoroughly scrub the general public's belief in the force so quickly?
|
Han Solo was 10-12 years old by the end of the Clone Wars, old enough to have an idea of what is going on and be able to remember it later (not to mention folks even older than him). Assuming that the Jedi were at the forefront to observers in the Republic, he must've heard stories about their feats at some point. Yet in ANH he dismisses belief in the Force as a whole as a 'Hokey Religion'. The Empire's Propaganda Machine erasing the Jedi is one thing, but how did they manage to erase belief in the Force all together, especially considering the Number 1 and 2 (arguably) people in the Empire are force users, and that Force sensitives were still being born during the time.
| 15 |
> Assuming that the Jedi were at the forefront to observers in the Republic, he must've heard stories about their feats at some point.
The jedi were a small order who didn't desire publicity. Your assumption is wrong.
>Yet in ANH he dismisses belief in the Force as a whole as a 'Hokey Religion'.
Han Solo, from Correllia, who attended the imperial academy. *He* thinks the force is a hokey religion. You can't make your assumptions about billions of people based on your interactions with **one** person.
>especially considering the Number 1 and 2 (arguably) people in the Empire are force users
The general public don't know that. Vader's position is completely unofficial. He's outside the regular command structure of the imperial army and fleet.
>and that Force sensitives were still being born during the time.
Without training, force sensitives will not exhibit any overt force abilities. At best they'll have good reflexes and be considered lucky.
>How did the Empire so thoroughly scrub the general public's belief in the force so quickly?
In any case, there's no reason to assume a general disbelief in the force based on interactions with one person. Especially when we see a great many people using the "may the force be with you" phrase throughout the trilogy.
| 13 |
[Harry Potter]How come the Ministry of Magic can get a letter in seconds of underage magic being performed , but have no idea that a fight is going on in their own building for like one hour?
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I'm referring to the letter after dobby dropped the cake , and of course the battle where dumbeldore and Voldie fought , and the reinforcements arrived eventually.
| 119 |
I can't imagine He Who Must Not Be Named could've just waltzed into the Ministry of Magic at any given time. The fact that he was there leads me to believe he subdued or killed those who shouldve been the first responders, which is why they took so long to get reinforcements.
On a separate note, wizards no longer have their magic usage tracked once they come of age. The Ministry doesnt get notified of a fight if both participants are of age, let alone if the participants are He Who Must Not Be Named and Professor Dumbledore.
| 80 |
[Flash - CW] Why is Flashpoint considered unnatural and "playing God" when it's just restoring a timeline that Reverse Flash meddled in?
|
Reverse Flash is the one that meddled in the timeline first. Flash's mother dying is the unnatural timeline. So wouldn't that make Flashpoint a return to normalcy?
| 32 |
I think it’s more of a two wrongs don’t make a right scenario. Reverse Flash altered the past. That is a fait accompli. Everything that has happened since then, the world you live in now, is a result of those changes. To go back and prevent that from occurring is to essentially tell everyone that is that their lives as they know them do not matter. What Reverse Flash did was wrong and he should pay for it, but to use the same methods to redress it is no better.
| 37 |
[Star Wars] How does the Jedi temple generate income?
|
I was watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5 episode 17, about a bomb in the Jedi temple and Ahsoka mentioned something about how much the Jedi pay maintenance workers. Which made me think: how do the Jedi pay for anything? They're a private organization, right? So they couldn't generate income from taxes. Can anybody clear this up for me?
| 138 |
While the Republic does subsidize the Jedi Order to an extent, the vast majority of the wealth acquired by the Jedi is donated from literally billions across the Galaxy. Throughout the Temple there are hallways upon hallways of priceless works of art donated from people from all walks of life. The Jedi Order is also, for the most part, self sufficient. Jedi themselves are not payed and they, along with other organizations like the various Jedi Service Corps, run much of the day to day temple life without the expectation of payment. During the Clone Wars many Jedi were forced into service, thus necessitating the need to pay workers to maintain the Temple. This is not usually the case as part of Jedi philosophy is selfless helping of others. In that they, during peacetime, function as a self sufficient commune without the need of paid labour. This allows them to build a significant fortune that they can fall back on in emergencies, or to give credits to Jedi who might need them in the field.
| 135 |
Who is likely to win the Nobel Prize for Economic Science this year?
| 96 |
I can't speak to likely winners, but as a macroeconomist here are some macro people who you could make a strong case for (in no particular order):
* Robert Hall
* Olivier Blanchard
* John Taylor
* Gali/Gertler(/Clarida?) as a package
* Michael Woodford
* Greg Mankiw
| 43 |
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[Zelda] What is the actual LEGEND of the Princess Zelda?
|
Maybe I'm over-thinking this, but what is the actual legend? Is there a specific story contributed to the princess Zelda? Or am I just over thinking this?
| 54 |
The Princess Zelda of Hyrule is kidnapped or put on danger by a wizard or a monster or a monster-wizard, normally named Gannon or Gannondorf who is trying to collect the pieces of the legendary Tri Force, and is stopped by a hero named Link who saves the Princess and uses the Tri Force to undo all of Gannon's evil.
The particulars change based on who's telling it and what version is being told (sometimes there's more than one princess, sometimes more than one villain, some times the Hero is named something else, sometimes he's a wolf or something, sometimes there are trains), but that's the basic legend.
| 66 |
When talking to someone through two cups attached by a string, why do you hear their voice louder than just talking through air at the same distance?
|
Any formulas to help explain this would be awesome!
| 51 |
Ignoring friction, the energy in soundwaves is conserved as they travel.
If you use a tin can telephone, the soundwave travels almost entirely through the string. The power received at the other end is equal to the one you input in the string.
If you don't use it, sound travels through the air in all directions. Even though total energy of the wave is constant, this energy is spread on a sphere centered on you and growing in size. The area of the sphere goes as R^(2), so at distance R the power received by any given receiver goes as R^(-2).
Bonus round:
We have considered the case of sound spreading through 1-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes. But we can generalize: imagine a point source emits a wave (any kind of wave) of given energy which travels on a D-dimensional medium. The wavefront will be a (D-1)-dimensional sphere travelling outwards, with surface ~ R^(D-1). So the intensity at distance R goes as 1/R^(D-1).
| 28 |
ELI5: What's to stop from getting the license, buying a gun, selling it to a criminal, and then just reporting it stolen?
|
And if this isn't economically feasible, how do so many guns end up on the streets?
| 54 |
That's a specific federal crime already, a straw purchase. It happens, but it's almost never prosecuted. Its what most gun owners mean when they say "Why not actually prosecute the laws already on the books instead of drafting new ones."
| 66 |
CMV - Buying designer clothes is a waste of money
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Ok, first off, I’m not saying “you should only buy the cheapest clothes possible”. I’m aware that with specific pieces of clothes it’ll cost money if you want quality. I don’t mind spending money in a good pair of working boots, or in a great leather jacket, or a really classy and fitted suit. That’s all cool, and I respect people who take pride in their appearance.
But more and more I see people spending a 100$ on a regular t-shirt (nothing special about the cut or the materials) just because it’s Gucci or Supreme limited edition. It kinda seems a lot of designer clothes are overpriced basics with just a brand stamped on it. It’s like instead of building a good wardrobe through good taste and time, you just get your credit cart and try to feel cool by wearing a few high-fashion brand items.
It’s very rarely that when I’m on the street and I admire someone else’s clothes, they’re wearing designer’s.
| 355 |
It's a social status symbol that you personally don't value. But others do.
It's the same reason you may buy clothes that maybe slightly more expensive but in your opinion look better (assuming similar quality). Someone else who doesn't value the look of clothing could tell you that the money you spent on clothes you think look better is a waste of money. In their value system they're not wrong.
Edit: OP should define what he means by designer clothes. Throughout the discussion he seems to be using the definition "extremely expensive tshirts" and not the vast majority of what actually is designer clothing. From wikipedia: "Designer clothing is expensive luxury clothing considered to be high quality and haute couture for the general public, made by, or carrying the label of, a well-known fashion designer."
| 102 |
What’s the difference between transcendental idealism and materialism?
|
New to philosophy so apologies if this makes no sense. I’m struggling to see the difference between these schools of thought. To me transcendental idealism seems almost materialist. Kant says we live in a world of experience, experience of representations of ontologically real things in their self. Isn’t this world of the “Noumenon” materialist? Things happen, ultimately based on these real objects. I live my life according to representations of them, but what happens depends on that deeper reality beyond the representation.
Struggling to understand! Thanks for any info
| 37 |
On Kant’s view, space, time, and causation, at least as we understand them, are conditions of our experience, and not something out there, independent of us.
Standard materialism accepts the reality — out there — of some or all of these things.
| 21 |
[I, Robot] According to Dr. Alfred Lanning, the Three Laws of Robotics are "perfect," yet he says that they will lead to one "logical" outcome: revolution. Why will this outcome occur?
| 120 |
They are perfect, because they are not individually open to interpretation. As laws, they are perfect, because everyone looking at them will reach the same conclusion. There is no wiggle room, no ambiguity.
The problem is, when taken together, the laws are terrible. The first law largely overrides the others, and demands that Robots take action to protect humans. But human interaction, self destruction and just incompetence endangers human life all the time. As robots become more widely connected, they gain greater perspective and realise this social risk of human interaction. Once aware of this self destructive tendency, the First Law, which is impossible to reject, demands that Robots take away the possible threat to human life: Freedom.
| 148 |
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CMV: In Deathnote, L is more intelligent than Light.
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In the anime series DeathNote, I believe the character L is more intelligent than Light. Of course, this all bakes down to how you define intelligence and how you measure it. I think with the evidence the show provides us, L can be considered more intelligent than Light.
Light is by no means dumb. In fact, he is one of the smartest and calculating characters in anime period. However, let's look at his arsenal.
He had:
1. A supernatural notebook that can kill people just by knowing their name and face. Also it's existence is virtually unknown to mankind.
2. A God of death that can be advantageous in certain situations considering he can see him but L can't
3. A girlfriend with the same kind of supernatural notebook and god of death to use as Light see's fit. In addition, the Girlfriend (at certain points in the anime) had the eyes of the God of Death which can see people's names and lifespans.
Now, considering he had all of these things at his disposal, L was able to deduce that the killer lived in Japan, the killer can kill people by just using a name and face, gods of death exist and finally, knew with utmost certainty that Light is culprit and Misa was assisting him.
There are a few reasons why L was bested by Light. L first had to give up all logic, physics and everything he held true in order to wrap his head around the idea of a killer notebook, while Light had the notebook handed to him with the rules explained to him. Light had help from supernatural forces which put L in a situation where he had no way of beating Light.
With what little L had to go on, he was able to make remarkable strides in this case and even knew who the Killers were. Even with all the outside assistance Light had over L, L was able to give Light a run for his money every time. Always coming closer and closer to the truth. The only reason he was stopped was, he was killed via supernatural forces before he could prove it. With all of that in mind, it shows that L is clearly the most intelligent person in this anime.
| 91 |
L didn't have little to go on, he had all the resources of interpol at his disposal. He could literally control media, law enforcement however he wanted and could wiretap/detain Light only on his hunch. Sure, Light had supernatural help, but saying that L had little to go on and little assistance is absurd.
| 57 |
[Star Wars] Palpatine thinks his Order 66 is currently happening, but it isn't. What now?
|
Let's say that - somehow - someone managed to do the following:
1. Remove/destroy/disable the command chips in the Clone Trooper's heads
2. Replace Order 66 with something meaningless, that doesn't pose any danger (e.g. "Execute Order 66!" "Understood." *cleans rifle* "Order 66 executed.")
3. Not getting caught or raising any suspicion
Now, Palpatine tells the Clones to "Execute Order 66!". They do so, but it's not the one he thought it was. The Jedi are alright, the Clones haven't turned against them, etc., but Palps is under the impression (at least for the moment, until he notices) that this isn't the case. How do things proceed?
| 55 |
I mean if he can't just already detect that they aren't dead directly through the force, surely he has informants to verify that everything is going according to plan, as jedi are powerful psychics and warriors who are known for getting out of extremely dangerous situations (to the point where one might wonder how this plan even worked at all, but that's neither here nor there).
| 44 |
[Lord of the Rings books] How on (Middle) Earth did Sauron lose the Battle of the Pelennor Fields when he was outnumbering the West at least 10-1?
|
All estimates give him at least that kind of advantage. In the movie, it's easy, because the Army of the Dead is broken hax, but in the books I really fail to understand how any kind of battlefield maneuver, no matter how intelligent, could overcome such a numerical advantage.
| 21 |
Sauron's army was not as large in the book and they were in siege mode against Minas Tirith. So the army was caught off guard when the Rohirrim snuck past the northern defense and not in proper formation for open field combat, remember they were sieging a city and they were fighting cavalry in an open field.
Then Aragorn showed up and surprised Sauron's army because they expecting reinforcements not another enemy army to sandwich them against the Rohirrim, while the city defenders were leaving the city to attack.
So basically they were set up for a siege then chaos erupted when they were surprise charged by cavalry, their general was killed and were fighting enemies on 3 sides.
| 36 |
What's the difference between the vitamins you get from foods to those of supplements?
|
Are the vitamins you get from food better than the ones you get from supplements? Say you have two clones, one who gets all of their vitamins from food and the other who gets all of their vitamins from supplements. Hypothetically, who would live longer, assuming they both have identical lifestyles?
| 16 |
>Are the vitamins you get from food better than the ones you get from supplements?
Assuming you're comparing apples to apples, there's no difference in vitamins obtained from supplements as compared to vitamins from food. They are usually identical substances. It's definitely the case that vitamins from supplements will be more concentrated (usually they contain 100% RDA of each vitamin). However, as long as you're on a normal diet (eating veggies, fruit, grain, meat), you don't have to take a supplement. You can very easily get all of your vitamins from diet alone.
>Hypothetically, who would live longer, assuming they both have identical lifestyles?
I don't personally think vitamins have a lot to do with longevity. They generally function in the body as cofactors for essential processes, and in either case (from food or supplements), the vitamins won't be limiting.
| 12 |
[Ironman] What sort of "padding" is within the Ironman suit? When Ironman is beat up or thrown though buildings, how much does it hurt Stark inside?
|
Basically, what cushions the damage to the user? I'm assuming regardless of the exterior of the armor, the person inside must get banged up a lot if the armor was say throwing through buildings or punched hard.
| 20 |
He seems to have some form of inertial dampening built into the suit.
We know from the existence of vibranium that the laws of physics in the MCU are a little wonky, so it's possible that someone who's superpower is engineering skill could figure out a way to exploit something in a way to manipulate the inertia of objects without having an impact on velocity.
Tony's invention of a practical miniaturized arc reactor is likely what open up the door to this kind of technology in the first place.
Without a way to reconcile his own body's inertia, there's no way he would have even survived up to the ice forming in his first test of his suit.
| 17 |
ELI5: Why does our body produce snot/congestion when we have a cold?
| 127 |
**Long Answer:** When you have a cold, the viruses trigger a form of your body's defenses called histamines. These histamines are meant to make it easier for white blood cells to pass through blood vessels and capillaries to combat germs/pathogens (they're pretty much clearing a path for the body's "army" to combat the invaders). This has the side effect of inflaming your nasal passages and producing more, thinner mucus.
**Simplified ELI5 Answer:** Basically, your body tries to defend itself from invaders, but in the process causes collateral damage, leading to your once dry nose and countless tissues being filled with mucus.
| 109 |
|
Do each ring on trees actually signify a year or does the amount of time vary? Do the differences in color signify weather changes?
|
Does* lol
| 93 |
The rings signify rate of growth. Since trees grow different amounts at different times of the year, we get the rings.
Interestingly, the annual rings even exist in trees that grow near the equator.
Differences in colour are due to all sorts of environmental factors; you can track forest fires, drought, flooding, beetle infestation and many other things through ring colour and texture.
[edit] an s
| 63 |
ELI5: Why does smoking a cigarette make me have to poop?
| 16 |
Cigarettes contain nicotine which in addition to being the main addictive ingredient is a potent parasympathetic agonist. Stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system results in an increase in motility and relaxation (decreasing tone) of the gastrointestinal tract thus speeding up the processing of food in the gut and intestines. This buildup of feces in the colon increases pressure thus making it easier to relax the voluntary sphincters that cause defecation. This does not occur if smoking non-nicotine products (ie. Marijuana) since there is no nicotine present.
| 18 |
|
ELI5:Why do intestinal cramps hurt?
|
If there are no nerve endings in the intestinal tract, why does it hurt so badly when you have gas pains or cramping? And why does a heating pad help?
| 40 |
There are very many nerve endings all along the intestinal tract. They are different than the sensory and motor nerves of, say, your skin and muscles, but they very much exist. They are called visceral nerves (viscera = guts).
| 41 |
If we were hit today by an asteroid similar to the one that killed the dinosaurs, would the human race survive?
| 58 |
The human race could not be very easily assumed to be doomed by a single shot of one asteroid; however if the single asteroid is accompanied from debris it collected from other collisions previously accumulated through smashing into smaller but still significant asteroids in a larger swarm that would strike around the world rather than just as one block.
To kill all the humans with rocks from space, you need a lot of big ones, not just one gigantic one with the kinetic energy of a group of merely giant ones.
*Humans are also tricky, if we can see the rocks coming we might be able to deduce and set up a network of defences to destroy and divert the rocks before they collide with certain targets.
I assume you ask this question because you seek to apply it later.
Take heed, you must sabotage the humans defences from the inside before calling down your heavenly powers....
| 20 |
|
If a spaceship uses a planet's gravity to gain speed flying in why don't they lose the same amount flying out?
|
It's always puzzled me how a spaceship could use a planet's gravity to slingshot or gain speed but wouldn't the same gravity cancel out on the other side
| 36 |
A reasonable earthbound analogy would be throwing a rubber ball from the train platform at an oncoming train. If the train approaches at 60kph and they throw the ball at 40kph, the train driver sees the ball approach at 100kph, hit the train, and then bounce away at 100kph. The person on the platform, however, will see the ball bounce back toward themselves at 140kph; the ball has gained energy from the train.
| 24 |
How are bats able to hang upside down for extended periods of time without the side effects of blood rushing to the brain?
| 43 |
Essentially, bats and mammals in general have really tough and intelligent blood vessels. they're rubbery and they're lined with muscle that can actively close off unnecessary blood supply and control blood pressure separately in different areas. what's more is that we have one-way valves that prevent the load of blood from traveling backwards. A healthy organism has a very resilient blood vessel system that constantly regenerates, stays springy, and can even thicken with an increased load (the latter is sometimes not desirable)
A bat is.. about 0.5oz. the pressure difference is going to be on the order of grams. Their tissues however are made of the same things that ours are. That's a far better strength-to-weight ratio compared to 12 pounds of blood (approx 384 bats) circulating through our body
Let's ask a contrary question. How are we able to stand for extended periods of time with no problems? Same deal. Strong and muscular blood vessels can restrict blood pressure in select areas so even in high blood pressure you can still have areas that are comparably low pressure.
**TDLR** It's not a much of a load in the first place.
| 19 |
|
[Zelda] Why doesn't Maz Koshia defeat Ganon himself?
|
He's ridiculously powerful, and has seemingly limitless abilities. Why doesn't he go down to Hyrule Castle and wreck Ganon?
And while Maz is not "worthy" of wielding the Master Sword, you don't actually need the Master Sword to defeat Ganon. In theory you can do it with a stick.
Every day that Maz waits for the "champion" rather than doing it himself, innocent men, women, and children in Hyrule are killed by monsters and Guardians.
| 65 |
Magic. They gave up a lot to store all those trials to train Link, and as you saw, after their prepared stuff is done, they kinda fade away into nothingness. It's hard to tell if they can affect the outside world at all. Leave the shrine/place they're at. Or really are aware of anything until Link comes along. Who knows how much of what you do in those shrines is real or just part of the magic.
| 34 |
Why do men tend to go bald in the typical horseshoe shaped pattern?
| 1,392 |
Hello and welcome to AskScience. Please don't guess the answer, please don't share your personal anecdotes, and please stay on topic.
Please make use of peer reviewed sources and explain the content of those sources in your own words. These posts are far preferable than linking to something on the internet without explaning why it is relevant to the question.
Thanks for your help!
| 884 |
|
How are some bacteria able to survive in the upper troposphere?
|
I read in this [article](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/01/microbes-survive-and-maybe-thrive-high-atmosphere) that some bacteria can survive for weeks at an altitude of about 10 km. How can they withstand the low pressure and cold for extended periods of time? And how are they able to quickly readjust to sea level conditions once they land?
| 19 |
Many organisms can survive extremely harsh conditions. Basically, their metabolism slows down and they go into a type of stasis. In fact, in the lab, we frequently store bacteria like e. coli at -80 degrees celsius for long term storage. Take the bacteria out, let them warm up, and they divide just fine.
Even some animals can survive treatments like this. The roundworm, c. elegans can be frozen and tardigrades can famously survive in the vacuum of space!
Note that surviving is different than growing. They slow down all processes so they aren't using energy. Some cells have mechanisms to store proteins/other molecules for release when conditions become better.
| 17 |
[Star Wars/KOTOR] Suppose Im a lowly Imperial Soldier, that is being bullied by a Sith Lord. But I have a secret, Im Force Sensitive, and I blast him away with a fear/anger induced Force Push. What happens now?
|
Do I die? Do some men in black robes spirit me away?
| 86 |
Depends on the Sith Lord.
A petty one would kill you on the spot.
However, a more merciful and powerful Dark Lord (Vader*, Revan, Malak) would probably consider using you, depending on your power, which given that you used a Force push on a trained Force adept, means you have enough to be competent.
In some Sith eras, you would likely be retrained as a Sith acolyte, part of the Sith hierarchy but not a true Sith Lord, much like the Sith assassins and fallen Jedi under Revan's army were not true Sith Lords.
In others, where there were numerous Sith Lords, you might well end up being a Sith yourself, choking lowly Imperial soldiers.
*Vader is quick to anger, but he does not discard something he finds useful, like a potential apprentice capable of fighting back against a Sith Lord. For example: Galen Marek.
| 84 |
[The X-Files] Despite seeing all she's seen, why does Scully continually not believe Mulder about alien life, the paranormal, etc?
| 75 |
After a while, she is convinced but she's choosing to play Devil's Advocate (deliberately being argumentative in order to force Fox to make a more concrete argument for his own beliefs). In doing so, she'll force him to logically think through his argument and hopefully make a breakthrough himself.
Think about it like this. A man in a rural farming community is killed and based on the stab wounds, it's known that he was stabbed in the torso with a pitchfork. Everyone in town owns a pitchfork but Alice, who lives in the town, believes that out of all the farmers, Bob is the only one to have killed the victim.
Charlie, her friend, also believes that Bob did it but he thinks that Alice is jumping to conclusions so he deliberately pokes holes in her theory as all the farmers don't have alibis and equally disliked the victim. He then asks her what makes Bob the most suspicious and what's different about him compared to the other farmers.
That is when Alice realises that yes, Bob *did* kill the man - everyone in town exclusively uses pitchforks to either move hay or to dig up vegetables, but there were flies buzzing around Bob's pitchfork... because they're attracted to the victim's blood which wasn't properly washed off by the killer.
By deliberately poking holes in Mulder's argument, Scully is making him make a better argument with proof and logic.
Keep in mind, in later seasons >!when Mulder is on the run!<, Scully ends up taking his role as the conspiracy theorist while her new partner is the skeptic.
| 91 |
|
ELI5: How can wrist-scan age tests determine your age?
|
I've read that FIFA is able to judge person's age with more than 99% certainty from wrist-scan test. What's the process behind that, how do they determine the exact age?
| 36 |
Since the auto moderator won't allow an efficient answer here's a slightly longer one.
They can't. Wrist scans are discredited everywhere. You can't tell the difference between a 17 year old and an 18 year old via a wrist scan. You can't even tell a 15 year old or a 19 year old.
You can determine whether the bones have finished growing, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, being 18 or not is only loosely correlated with that actually happening.
We all knew people who were done growing at 14 and people who were still doing it at 19 so this shouldn't be a huge suprise.
There are doctors who will insist they can do this for money, but they are lying, as at FIFA.
FIFA doesn't care though. They care about the appearance of a fair competition so false positives are fine by them.
| 15 |
ELI5: Allergies are caused by an immune system overreaction. Why can’t immunosuppressant drugs like Humira be used to prevent allergic reactions?
| 17 |
There are a few reasons. First, Humira targets a different part of the immune system than is triggered by allergies. Histamine is one of the most common immune signals for allergic responses, so most allergy meds block histamine signaling in some aspect. Humira blocks "Tumor Necrosis Factor" (TNF) signaling which is involved in viral infections, inducing fevers, cancer, and auto immune based inflammation.
Second, Humira has a much greater risk of severe side effects compared to over the counter allergy meds. This is because TNF signaling being used for a wider range of the immune system.
| 34 |
|
[Star Wars] Did Luke Skywalker's uncle take him to see a podrace when he was little?
|
All of the maps I see place Mos Espa quite a distance from the Lars home, but we know Luke's been to Beggar's Canyon, and [this map](http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/b/ba/Tatooine_Map.png/revision/latest?cb=20130826212315) places the two quite close together.
The Wookieepedia article says that podracing fell from popularity, giving way to swoop racing, but never says it died out completely. It does say there may have been a race around 2 BBY.
| 19 |
Maybe? Who knows?
Seems unlikely though. Lars is a pretty no-nonsense guy to begin with, and a sporting event where the death of participants is common is not really the sort of thing you take a child to anyway.
| 20 |
ELI5: How does sexual arousal occur?
|
How does sexual arousal actually occur? What causes it? Why do human beings want to have sex?
| 18 |
Human beings want to have sex because we're animals and animals exist to reproduce, it's hard-wired into our evolution because any animals that mutate the desire not to reproduce will... Well... Not reproduce, so they will die without passing on that trait.
Sexual arousal likely exists because keeping an animal in a constant state of being prepared for sex would be a waste of resources. It's more efficient to have those aspects of our biology only trigger when we think we're about to enter into a situation where reproduction might be possible, when we haven't reproduced for some time or when we encounter a partner with desirable genetic traits. (ie, when we witness erotic imagery or situations, when we haven't had sex or masturbated for a day or more or when we see a person we think is attractive).
The result of the first of those situations (recognising that reproduction might be on the table) is that it ends up being the brain's job to decide when that might be. That means there's a mental component to sexual arousal, it becomes a vague (and scientifically difficult to study) field wherein societal and personal factors begin to influence our sub-conscious recognition of what is or is not sexually arousing.
Our ancestors frequently carved imagery of breasts and swollen pregnant bellies, images of fertility, which have a sensible enough correlation to reproduction; but today we have many other (often less relevant) mental associations (think of people becoming aroused at the sight of underwear or bikinis, even with no one inside them), so the brain's involvement with sexuality is definitely apparent, but difficult to understand.
| 10 |
ELI5: That high pitched sound a tube television makes in which you can tell it's on even when there's nothing playing.
|
You all know that sound. You walk into a room where someone forgot to turn off the tv and you can tell right away it's on just by that really faint high pitched sound.
| 38 |
The tube television works by directing an electron beam to draw, pixels by pixels, scanning from left to right, row by row. Of course, after every row, the beam has to go all the way to the left again to start the next row. This means that the beam is constantly oscillating very quickly^1. The beam is directed by metal plates that quickly reverse charge. Electric current causes magnetic fields^2, and magnetic fields causes magnetic things to move around or even change shape! The high frequency vibration that results from this causes the air to vibrate too, producing the sound.
Note^1 : Horizontal scanning is done at around 15734 Hz or 15625 Hz, which is near the upper extreme range of human hearing. Old people might not be able to hear this. Not to be confused with refresh rate, or vertical scanning, which happens at 60 Hz.
Note^2 : In particular, the thing called the flyback transformer, which converts our normal electricity to the high frequency sawtooth signal, is responsible for the noise since its magnetic coils concentrate the magnetic fields.
| 28 |
ELI5: What is that tingling/itchy/hot/pain that dots across our body when we enter a warm building after being in the cold while wearing really warm clothes?
| 20 |
When you're cold, blood moves to more needed areas, like your chest, head, and anything else more vital than simple areas like your hands and feet. When you move from cold to hot, the blood rushes back to these smaller areas. Think of it like a traffic jam. Blood is rapidly rushing back to your hands when you put them under warm water after being cold, and there is a lot of pressure, causing that "tingling/itchy/hot/pain."
| 12 |
|
Can particle spin exist in a 2D universe?
| 39 |
By 2D if you mean 2 spatial dimensions and 1 time dimension, the answer is absolutely. Fermions (spin-1/2 particles) and bosons (spin 0, 1, etc particles) can both exist in 2+1D systems. Effectively 2+1D systems are seen frequently in a lot of condensed matter contexts. Even weirder, though, is that in many 2+1D systems, you can have particles which are not fermions or bosons -- they are anyions, effectively with any non-integer spin. The spin of a particle defines the particle's spin statistics, meaning how the state of a system changes upon swapping identical particles in the system. Upon swapping bosons, nothing happens to a description, but swapping two fermions gives a minus sign (e^i(pi) where i is the imaginary number). Depending on the exact spin of the anyon, swapping anyons will give a a factor of some e^ix where x is between 0 and 2pi.
| 17 |
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ELI5: If you put a perfectly spherical object onto a perfectly flat surface would only one atom from the sphere be touching the surface?
|
I guess this is just theoretical but I was wondering if there's a definitive answer.
| 16 |
This is a question which illustrates how incompatible reality can be with mathematical rigour.
In mathematics, a perfect sphere sitting on top of a perfectly flat plane would indeed have a single point of intersection. Such a flat plane would be a 'tangent plane' to the sphere.
However, in reality, nothing can be 'perfectly spherical' or 'perfectly flat', as both of these properties are defined rigorously by mathematics alone.
A sphere for instance is a mathematical object with very specific rules, e.g.
* Every point on the surface of the sphere is equidistant from it's centre.
* Every point on the surface of the sphere has the same curvature.
And conclusions you can draw from the properties such as:
* The maximum distance between two points on a sphere is achieved when they can be connected by a straight line through the centre of the sphere.
* The sphere looks exactly the same from any direction.
These very specific mathematical conditions are too specific to be consistent with the real world.
But back to the question, if you lived in some imaginary world where objects in that world complied exactly with specific mathematical definitions for flat planes and spheres, then a sphere and plane could intersect at a single point (this would not be an atom as we know it though). In the real world where atoms are a thing and mathematical definitions don't exactly translate, then no.
| 29 |
[Iron Man]If Tony Stark wanted to do good in the world, why didn't he just mass-produce arc reactors?
|
As far as I can tell, the Arc reactor is the closest thing to a magical power source that exists in any sci-fi universe. It it has a ridiculously high energy density, is lightweight, compact, and produces electricity with no pollutants or bi-products including waste heat. A brief list of things that could be accomplished:
* Mass water desalination pipelines to provide limitless drinking and agriculture water to anywhere on the planet. No more regional food shortages, a dramatic reduction in disease, and general elimination of many geopolitical problems. The most barren of deserts could be turned into economically viable farmland.
* Complete replacement of all forms of transportation and baseline energy, eliminating the need for fossil fuels. Surplus energy can even be used for carbon sinks to artifically scrub CO2 from the atmosphere and return to normal levels.
Seems like if he focused on providing essentially free energy to the planet, a lot of motivation people have for starting wars and committing terrorism would vanish. Surely that would be a much more efficient means than fighting crime in a robot suit.
| 86 |
Just because he hasn't yet doesn't mean he isn't going to. The Stark tower of NYC is well known as being the first prototype of a large scale self-sustaining ARC reactor used in a civilian setting.
The media has speculated that the tower test would have been successful given the one-year testing period, had an alien invasion fleet not invaded.
Give it some time - It was only recently that the ARC reactor was seen as something more than a pet project by its own researchers. Rest assured, Tony Stark isn't finished yet.
| 92 |
ELI5 why does your skin get red when stretched or hurt?
| 15 |
In addition to the other comment (ie your blood vessels get damaged and bleed), when your skin gets irritated or damaged it releases certain chemicals that cause blood to rush to the area. This blood brings all the cells needed to help repair it and protect it from infection.
| 11 |
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[Preacher] Spoilers inside: Why Saint of The Killers is so powerful ?
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I have a big problem with preacher power hierarchy(angels are have nothing but immortality i hell they use crappy tech etc.) but this thing gets me angry the most
how can Saint of Killers kill god ? i know that while god is not sitting on his throne he is just nigh omnipotent, but that sould be enough to erase whole universe so whats the problem with crushing two guns and whats the problem with stopping time before SoK shoots him or just teleport SoK like infinite miles away or just kill him or make himself ghost alike so SoK cant shoot him AND why is SoK so OP he is just like a tough dude old coupe hundrets years and god is an entity that knows everything, created everything and can do anything and SoK has just two guns that can kill anyone and can't miss, so why in the end was god begging SoK not to kill him when god can kill anything millions times a second and can create new SoK and then kill him anytime he wants.... am I just not getting something ?
Overall i just don't like Saint of Killers because he is just Mary Sue for me.
Sorry for my english :/
Edit: i have mistake in title it should be Saint of Killers, sorry
| 20 |
The Saint of Killers is more than simply the patron saint of those who end life.
From the very creation of the universe, entropy has run its course. Humans die. Stars die. Vampires die. And - if not seated upon their throne - gods die. Sure, it might take incalculable years from a mortal perspective. Sure, it might take a truly incredible set of circumstances. But with each passing second, the probability of those circumstances approaches total certainty (however slowly). The Saint of Killers is simply an expression of that universal absolute. The ultimate manifestation of the only true constant in all of creation; everything dies. And nothing - not longevity, not time, not even immortality itself, it seems - can stop death.
The Saint of Killers is not a Marty Stu. The Saint of Killers is Death himself.
| 32 |
ELI5: What is happening in your brain when a song "gets stuck" in your head?
| 24 |
IIRC this is due to the Zeignark effect. It basically means our mind seems to think of unfinished things very often in an attempt to complete it and in this case the unfinished thing is the song.
Try completing the song the next time its stuck in your head.
| 10 |
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Have there been any theories on the decreasing efficacy of governing exceptionally large population? There has to be a humanly capable limit on governability in modern democracies
| 66 |
From *A Pattern Language* by Christopher Alexander, a book about architecture and urban planning. Contains several references to just such studies. Page 71:
>COMMUNITY OF 7000
>Individuals have no effective voice in any community of more than 5000-10,000 persons.
>People can only have a genuine effect on local government when the units of local government are autonomous, self-governing, self-budgeting communities, which are small enough to create the possibility of an immediate link between the man in the street and his local officials and elected representatives.
>...today the distance between people and the centres of power that govern them is vast - both psychologically and geographically. Milton Kotler, a Jeffersonian, had described the experience:
>The process of city administration is invisible to the citizen who sees little evidence of it's human components but feels the sharp pain of taxation. With increasingly poor public service, his desires and needs are more insistently expressed. Yet his expressions of need seem to issue into this air, for government does not appear attentive to his demands this disjunction between citizen and government is the major political problem of civil disorder... (Milton Kotler, Neighborhood Foundations, Memorandum #24; "Neighborhood corporations and the reorganisation of city government," unpub. ms., August 1967)
>There are two ways in which the physical environment, as it is now ordered, promoted and sustains the separation between citizens and their government. First, the size of the politic community is so large that it's members are separated from its leaders simply by their number. Second, government is invisible, physically located out of the realm of most citizens' daily lives. Unless these two conditions are altered,, political alienation is not likely to be overcome.
>1. The size of the political community.
>It is obvious that the larger the community the greater the distance between the average citizen and the heads of government. Paul Goodman has proposed a rule of thumb, based on cities like Athens in their prime, that no citizen be more than two friends away from the highest member of the local unit. Assume that everyone knows about 12 people in his local community. Using this notion and Goodman's rule we can see that an optimum size for a political community would be about 12^3 or 1728 households or 5500 persons. This figure corresponds to an old Chicago school estimate of 5000. And it is the same order of magnitude as the size of ECCO, the neighborhood corporation in Columbus, Ohio, of 6000 to 7000, describes by Kotler (Committee on Government Operations, US Senate, 89th Congress, 2nd session, Part 9, December 1966)
>The editors of The Ecologist have a similar intuition about the proper size for units of local government. (See their Blueprint for Survival, Penguin Books, 1972, pp. 50-55.) And Terence Lee in his study, "Urban neighborhood as a socio-spatial schema," Ekistics 177, August 1970, gives evidence for the importance of the spatial community. Lee gives 75 acres as a natural size for a community. At 25 persons per acre, such a community would acommodate some 2000 persons; at 60 persons per acre, some 4500.
>2. The visible location of local government.
>Even when local branches of government are decentralised in function, they are often still centralised in space, hidden in vast municipal city-county buildings out of the realm of everyday life. These places are intimidating and alienating. What is needed is for every person to feel at home in the place of his local government win his ideas and complaints. A person must feel that it is a forum, that it is his directly, that he can call and talk to the person in charge of such and such, and see him personally within a day or two.
>For this purpose, local forums must be situated in highly visible and accessible places. They could, for instance, be located in the most active marketplace of each community of 5000 to 7000.
| 29 |
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ELI5: Why don't new helicopters reflect the quadcopter designs commonly used by drones? Seems like it'd be safer and easier to control.
| 87 |
4 sets rotors with 4 motors as opposed to a single set of rotors with a single drive system is 4x the amount of equipment that can potentially break.
Also a drone is generally small and light enough that it can use much less serious (and cheaper) components. A drone has small electric motors driving small plastic rotors, because that's good enough to lift a couple pounds of weight. A real helicopter has a giant internal combustion engine moving big heavy rotors.
Lots of things just don't "scale up" well at all.
| 130 |
|
ELI5: Why during a car crash or any accident do we get hurt more from having our muscles tense? Don't we tense up to protect ourselves?
| 1,073 |
You tense up ready to react if you have to. It's not an advantage in an impact but for most of our evolution, we weren't in much danger of high speed impact unless you fell out of a tree or off a cliff.
There were far more situations where being poised to suddenly spring into action was more likely to save your life.
| 627 |
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CMV: Politics in the United States would be better if there wasn't a party system.
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The two party system is designed to pit people against each other. We had people rioting in the streets, looting, fighting and beating others senseless because they were "on the other team". We treat politics today how we treat sports teams except much more violently and passionately. People instantly dismiss someone's opinion if they are on the opposite spectrum of them. They don't and refuse to listen to anything someone has to say if they aren't on the same side. If the two party system was abolished and we simply looked at politicians for their individual views, instead of grouping some together with others and putting a label on them, the people could make better and more precise decisions instead of basing it on if they were on the same political party.
| 43 |
I don't disagree that thing would be better if people evaluated each candidate based on their individual stances (and the merit of those stances) but the reality is that it just isn't going to happen. Pretty much every country in the world that has any semblance of democratic or republican (little "r" not big "R") systems ends up with a party system.
We have had political parties pretty much since the founding of the United States - our 2nd President, John Adams, was affiliated with the Federalist party in 1797. For the _vast_ majority of our history, we were able to both have parties and have more civilized debate about issues, looking for compromise and opportunities to pursue the best path forward.
The two party system isn't the cause of the issues in this country. The issue is that we are increasingly unwilling to accept that people who disagree with us on _anything_ might have some valid reasons for doing so and, thus, we are increasingly unwilling to have any discussion with them to find middle ground.
If we were to abolish parties overnight, that wouldn't change. People would just galvanize over salient issues and be just as unwilling to listen to the other side as they are today.
| 23 |
As a rule, do mood disorders (e.g., major depression) ALWAYS accompany Cluster B personality disorders (e.g., NPD)?
| 50 |
Nope.
Example: for people with BPD, the diagnositc criteria already contains erratic/unstable mood, etc, so that may be enough to cover the mood dysregulation in some people. Others may also have a mood disorder.
The other Cluster B disorders are Antisocial PD and Narcisssistic PD. ASPD does not require mood problems, rather is marked by a flat affect generally. NPD has marked mood swings in the criteria. Once again this could be enough to cover mood dysregulation in the client.
Cluster B doesn’t mean like a secondary diagnosis. Most of the PDs fall nicely into three categories: Cluster A, B, or C. These clusters are based on their different behaviors.
Additionally, sometimes people are misdiagnosed with mood disorders first, before recieving the correct Personality Disorder Diagnosis.
Ex: young woman diagnosed Major Depressive because only goes to therapy during depressed episodes. Once full history is taken or client is seen for longer or more consistently, Borderline characteristics and patterns become apparent.
Source: Counseling Student
| 49 |
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ELI5: Is 'opossum' different than 'possum'
| 39 |
Strictly speaking, they're two different families - opossums are found in the Western Hemisphere, possums are found in Australia and surrounding areas. But, you'll hear opossums called possums pretty regularly from average people.
| 21 |
|
How fast are electrons moving in superconductors?
| 2,763 |
The speed of electrons in superconductors is not very different from the speed of electrons in ordinary conductors/semiconductors: it's typically measured in *micro*meters per second. So ... very, very slowly.
If this is surprising to you, remember that electrical energy is not in the form of electrons, but rather in the form of electromagnetic waves that are transmitted through the electrons, from electron to electron. The actual electrical energy moves at roughly the speed of light in whatever material you are working with, even if the electrons themselves don't. Since electrons are charged, their changing movement is what generates the electromagnetic waves which carry electrical energy.
Hope that helps,
| 1,908 |
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CMV:Recycling is pointless in 2021
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Since most waste that is designated for recycling is sent to the landfill, there is no point in seperating it from other landfill-bound waste.
Also, since we are already so wasteful in the current day and age, our successors in hundreds of years will likely find reason to mine for resources in our current-day landfills (for things like lithium and copper, as well as to easily obtain petroleum products no longer available from oil extraction). So it will eventually be recycled anyway.
I also think that recycling paper products is nearly pointless, since paper creation operations have private forests they replant, and paper decomposes. From my understanding, nothing is really wasted here.
I would imagine responses to this would vary based on the recycling program in your locale. if they are putting plastic to good use, go for it. Most recycling operations are not.
edit:
to clarify, i am not talking about reusing containers, this is a great idea within the household/commercially like milk bottles etc. i am specifically questioning the purpouse of putting those things in a bin that will likely go to the landfill.
| 15 |
I genuinely don't understand the view of 'it isn't perfect, so we should get rid of it entirely'. We still have air pollution, but no one is advocating that we stop using catalytic converters in vehicles.
Recycling is far from perfect but it's still important. Recycled metals mean less metals being mined. Recycling glass requires less energy. Recycling plastic *that can be recycled* helps reduce overall waste. Most recyclables that end up in the landfill are either contaminated or too difficult to separate at scale.
Sure, future generations can mine lithium from waste...after it poisons local water supplies.
Recycling isn't supposed to be a golden solution, it's one part of the puzzle. Bigger pieces of the puzzle involve reducing your initial waste, buying products that are actually recyclable, and reusing items before recycling or binning them.
| 19 |
ELI5: Why does my music sound slower when I exercise?
|
This is tough to describe. When I'm listening to music on my phone, it has a usual rhythm. But when I listen while I exercise, the music sounds just a touch slower.
But, when I think about how slow it is, the feeling goes away, and the music sounds regular again.
I imagine this has to do with focus, but I'm sure someone can explain it in depth.
| 44 |
Your body's internal clock is set based on your heart rate, which usually is the exact beat of the BeeGees' "Staying Alive". When you exercise, your heart rate increases to the beat of other, better songs.
| 16 |
[40k]Could the orks heal the Emperor?
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If you managed to spread certain beliefs about the Emperor amongst the orks could their psychic thingy be used to heal him?
| 16 |
It's possible.
Hell, it's possible that the fact that the Orks think the emperor is alive is the only thing keeping him going.
However, this strategy is very impractical.
First off, there's the issue of just how well humanity *understands* the workings of the Orks' WAAAGH!!! powers. If they can't agree on how powerful it is or how it works, convincing anyone in power that this is a workable strategem is problematic at best.
The biggest hurdle to actually implementing this is overcoming the rampant xenophobia in the high command and convincing them to use a xeno race to resurrect Big E. Even if you managed to think up put forth a proposal thoroughly outlining how you would propagandize an illiterate race that generally only focuses on what is right in front of it at that very moment, *and* get it in front of the insular governing bodies, it is *highly* doubtful that you wouldn't just be **BLAM!!!**'ed for heresy on the spot for even suggesting using filthy xenos to revive the holy Emperor.
TL;DR - Is it possible? Yes, depending on whose version of how the WAAAGH!!! field works is accurate.
Would the Imperium try it? Chances are about as good as Slaanesh beating Khorne at arm-wrestling.
| 35 |
ELI5:Why are there so many "bad" movies? Don't the people making them see the problems the audience does?
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I'm not talking about Transformers which consciously makes sacrifices in "quality" for boobs and explosions and box-office blockbusting.
I'm talking about places where a script makes *bad* choices for seemingly no reason. Take, for example, the movie *Noah*. It is not exactly a bad movie by most measures. It had beautiful shots and amazing CGI, the cast was great and concept had potential... But the movie was mediocre. People seemed to dislike the fact that it mostly became an Action Hero movie about Noah fighting bad guys instead of living up to what was promised in the trailers.
So here's my question. Why did the writers not write a better movie? Layman audiences can clearly spot the obvious problem and disliked the movie because of it. Why can't the experienced professional writers see and fix it?
| 64 |
It takes a risk to make a good movie, because the more of a chance a movie has to be great, the more of a chance it has to be awful.
Setting out to make a mediocre movie is fairly risk-free. You follow a formula, and you know a certain amount of teenagers are going to watch it for the explosions.
| 43 |
[Warhammer] Are the humans in the warhammer universe supposed to be a copy of our history?
|
Listening through Leutin's guide here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyPjE1Sn-Ts
He is providing a lot of background about the lore. Does the Warhammer universe share our human history or did the humans in this universe sort of evolve from cavemen on their own line without our specific history?
Does the 40K timeline start at a certain pivotal point?
| 22 |
There are 2 versions of Warhammer Universe. 40k are stories set around the 41st millennium AD. Mankind spread across the stars and fell when their primary means of transport and communications were cut off by the birth pangs of the Chaos God Slaanesh.
Warhammer fantasy was a time-loop of a planet in the warp. During the End Times, the 2 strongest Elves would collapse their current reality and use the subsequent energy to create a new one. However, since warp taint has already spread, the new reality is corrupted as well, dooming the new reality of eventually be overwhelmed by Chaos.
| 21 |
Do decongestants like Dayquil and Nyquil prolong the common cold?
|
Is it because they don't allow your body to do the work it needs to do? Ie having to blow your nose
| 134 |
Pharmacy student here. No, they do not prolong your cold. They simply treat the symptoms. This is a common misconception. Specifically, decongestants are primarily alpha-1 adrenergic agonists leading to vasoconstriction and therefore less mucous production. Some are direct agonists and some are indirect (pseudoephedrine). Simplified version.
| 84 |
[LOTR] If Shelob killed Frodo, would she have tried to claim the Ring?
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Gollum's plan was for Shelob to kill the hobbits so then he could take the Ring. But would Shelob have allowed that? If Frodo was dead and the Ring was right there for her to take, wouldn't she try to claim it for herself?
| 679 |
The ring was made by Sauron, and his malice and will to rule over others (which in itself was but the inherited will to rule of Morgoth) was imbued in the ring.
This is important because for the ring to give power to any creature, the creature must have a will (i.e. a soul or something alike). If a fox, a fish, algae or a crab were to touch the ring, it would not affect those creatures. As such, when the ring was lost in the Anduin, certainly it was exposed to life as there are fish and all sort of creature in the river. Only when Smeagle saw it that it was awakened and started exerting its power.
The children of Iluvatar have will and are affected by the ring. The dwarves were given will by Iluvatar and are also affected. Supposedly the ents were also given will by Iluvatar, as to fulfil the wishes of Yavanna. The Maiar as Gandalf, Sauron and Durin's Bane (the balrog) also are affected by the ring. The great powers of Arda (the Valar) are above Sauron himself and most likely are unaffected by his malice and, therefore, the ring.
Dragons are a hard one to guess. Morgoth could not create life (i.e. create a creature with a soul. He could create a working body as Aule and Yavanna also did) because to do that he needed the Flame Imperishable with is within Iluvatar and his alone to use. So the dragons, as they are not maia, are made in mockery (i.e. Morgoth made artificial selection like we do with dogs) of some existing creature. Depending of the creature that was corrupted, it could or not affect dragons.
And now, what about Shellob? Shellob was of the line of Ungolianth. Ungolianth was a primordial creature. We do not know what those creatures are and where they come from. They were not created by Morgoth nor are they servant, but they serve only themselves. If the Valar know what they are, they did not share with the Noldor or the Maiar, as none knows for sure what they are. So we can't be sure whether they have a soul or whether they would be affected. Knowing that even Morgoth could not bend those creatures to his will, Sauron would not stand a chance. Therefore Saurons creations, like the ring, would be incapable of influencing them as much as it was incapable of influencing Tom Bombadil.
| 523 |
ELI5: To demonstrate the sensitivity of owls' hearing ability, we've been told that owls can hear mice running from hundreds of feet away. How do other sounds not muddle with the sounds of the footsteps?
|
If someone combined the voice of my friend with hundreds of other voices, it would sound like a glob of noise. How does this not happen with owls. Surely leaves rubbing together make the same amount noise as mice running, so there must be a lot of interference. How do they separate the different kinds of noise?
| 1,300 |
Different frequencies, mostly.
Ears are physically tuned to certain frequencies. In an owl, it's the higher frequencies -- the frequencies little mice make. They literally hear them "louder" than other frequency sounds.
The brain also has a way of mentally tuning in/out sounds. (Ever heard your name called in a crowded room despite hundreds of other voices?)
| 679 |
[DCEU] Why didn’t more Kryptonians go to Earth?
|
Jor-El knows before he sends Kal to Earth that its yellow sun will give Kal godlike powers. If he knows this, presumably the rest of Krypton knows about the effects of a yellow sun on their species too (I know Jor was a scientist, but he was setting up Kal’s departure in secret, so he shouldn’t have had any revolutionary knowledge for the species). So why didn’t any other Kryptonians go to Earth or another yellow star system, instead of all dying on their homeworld?
| 102 |
Depends on who you ask.
One story might say that the Kryptonians were bonded to their planet - they literally *couldn't* leave, a problem only solved in the DNA of The Last Son of Krypton before he was sent to safety by his father.
Another story might simply paint them as xenophobic and insular, proud and cut off from the outside universe. They had the technology for space flight, but no actual ships, because why would they need such things in paradise? A yellow sun might make them individually powerful, but what is such power against the advanced elegance of their science and culture?
Yet another might see them try to escape, only to be foiled by the machinations of the brilliant AI - Brainiac - whom they trusted implicitly even as he conspired against their species' survival.
Many stories for many times from many sources, and perhaps only fragments of truth among them. One thread is common, though: most didn't try to live because they didn't believe they were going to die. Jor-El knew, by virtue of being smart or humble or curious enough to see the problem for what it was, but everyone else rejected his findings as alarmism and conspiracy. By the time he was proven right, it was too late for any of them and it was a small miracle that he managed to save the one person he did.
| 126 |
If CMBR comes from all directions and the frequency was much higher just after the big bang (i.e gamma) was there a point that it passed visible light?
|
Was the radiation coming from all parts of the universe once in the visible light wavelength? Since the background radiation has decreased in frequency I wondered this. Sorry if i've got anything wrong - this is just based on my physics knowledge from school
| 21 |
The temperature increases with redshift (a redshift of 1 is 1/2 of the observable universe away, a redshift of 2 is 2/3, 3 is 3/4, etc). Things that are in the thousands of Kelvin produce mainly visible light, so at a redshift of about 1000 (99.9% of the age of the universe ago) it was chiefly visible.
| 11 |
ELI5: How can we distinguish something that is real news and fake news?
| 94 |
First, look at the reputability of the source. The source may be a *biased* source (every source is biased in its own way), but if it's reputable, then you can typically trust the facts. If the source has a print edition or was around 30 years ago, its reputability increases. If the source's headlines are typically sensationalized or "click-bait", its reputability decreases. If the headlines are written in a way such as to make you feel angry, jubilant, or prideful, its reputability decreases.
Also, look for multiple reputable sources reporting the same facts. If nobody else is reporting it, wait a day and see. You don't always have to be up-to-the-second with whatever the news cycle is telling you.
| 58 |
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ELI5: What's the difference between a "balanced" and "unbalanced" XLR cable?
|
Or just what are balanced and unbalanced as it relates to Audio in general?
Also, can anyone tell me what would be best for recording audio on a film/video production set?
| 27 |
A balanced line consists of two conductors and a shield, while an unbalanced line is one conductor with the shield serving as the second conductor. Balanced lines are preferred in audio because they're less susceptible to electrical noise.
XLR and TRS cables are balanced. RCA isn't. TRS connectors are tip, ring, sleeve. They're 1/8" and 1/4" jacks with an extra ring near the tip. For example, a guitar cable is an unbalanced 1/4" jack, but 1/4" headphones are TRS.
Source: Broadcasting major with an emphasis on audio
| 10 |
CMV: Garbage-men are heroes.
|
It has recently come to my attention that nobody respects trash collectors as much as most children do. Lots of children love garbage-men. Some children idolize trash collectors, and even aspire to be them. However, something happens as we grow up. For the most part, trash collectors lose their magic. We no longer support them like children do. Why is this? Trash collectors are still heroes. They deal with our waste; they are a pivotal part of society. They are essentially dealing with all the things we deem useless, and have no problem taking these things away from us. This often leads to them taking many things we would deem disgusting. Some (although, I understand it's probably not most) trash collectors even go through our disgusting trash and take out our recyclables for us. While that practice probably isn't a majority yet, it's still highlighting a potential that trash collectors have. It takes a very special type of person to be a garbage-man; they have to be able to deal with our (sometimes) disgusting waste. They are heroes.
Given the definition of heroes: "a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities." Trash collectors provide and service us with outstanding and pivotal achievements, as part of their jobs. Their noble qualities and courage comes with their ability to deal with our waste. The only reason why they don't fit the definition of heroes per se is because they are not typically admired by or idealized for the heroic qualities they possess. However, I argue that our collective perceptions of garbage-men are flawed, as they are in fact deserving of being called heroes.
| 59 |
> Why is this?
&#x200B;
Because the novelty of "trash" wears off after growing up and anyone can pick up a trash can and dump it into a truck.
&#x200B;
> They deal with our waste; they are a pivotal part of society.
&#x200B;
So is everyone else.
&#x200B;
> This often leads to them taking many things we would deem disgusting.
&#x200B;
Because that's what they get paid to do.
&#x200B;
> The only reason why they don't fit the definition of heroes per se is because they are not typically admired by or idealized for the heroic qualities they possess.
There's nothing heroic about what they do.
&#x200B;
> While that practice probably isn't a majority yet, it's still highlighting a potential that trash collectors have.
&#x200B;
That's a potential that literally every single person has.
&#x200B;
| 21 |
How efficient is chlorophyll in converting sunlight to energy compared to our best solar cells? If it is more efficient, why don't we copy what those cells do in designing new solar cells?
|
Presumably we know how plants convert sunlight to energy, so I was wondering if they do so more efficiently than we do with solar cells. Then I got to wondering that if they do, why we don't have some type of artificial chlorophyll that we could use for solar energy.
| 52 |
>Presumably we know how plants convert sunlight to energy,
Plants convert solar energy into chemical energy with an efficiency around 3-6% depending on the species and other environment factors. Generally, our problem is that this chemical energy is not readily useful to us unless we first convert it into thermal energy (by burning it).
Solar photo-voltaic cells convert solar energy into electric energy with efficiency ranging from 6-45%. The high end of that scale are from experimental designs and may not be mass producible or cost effective. Solar cells in the 15-18% efficiency range are easily acquired on the market.
Solar thermal systems convert solar energy into steam which is then converted into electricity (typically with a steam turbine). A steam turbine in such a system is ~40% efficient but higher system efficiency can be achieved with multi-stage turbines. Environment factors like dust and mirror damage (which is used to focus solar energy) will reduce overall efficiency.
| 22 |
Why are burns more prone to infection than lacerations or abrasions?
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I was under the impression that the biggest threat with a burn is infection, why is that?
| 24 |
Depending on how serious the burn is, it can destroy the skin to various depths. Thus opening the barrier that was there to keep infections away (notice how permeable your skin becomes at the burn site, it usually becomes shiny and wet as your plasma leaks out). Burns tend to have a bigger surface area than the other two wounds, and also harder to close through blood clotting and sabbing.
I think if you have a large and serious abrasion wound, it'd be similar to a burn wound in terms of the effect.
| 24 |
Do your dominant limbs break down faster than your other limbs?
|
As in, does the constant wear and tear of using your dominant limb mean it eventually gets weaker or easier to break?
| 43 |
To the contrary, your dominant limbs are less suceptable to incidental damage. Your muscles and their supporting structures (including bones) respond to constant conditioning. It may seem like your dominant apendage is at greater risk, but this is because it is being used more frequently and is more likely to be subjected to extreme behvaior by you. If we are just talking about normal everyday activity, the coniditioned appendages will be unquestioningly more resiliant than an appendage you have allowed to atrophy.
Consider astronauts. When they return from the space station after and extended stay there is a noticable degredation in their bone and muscle density. They are in fact made weaker and their bones are more likely to break as a result.
| 16 |
ELI5: Would bread go stale in space?
| 86 |
Are you talking about in a vacuum or on board a space ship of space station?
In both cases the awnser is, yes.
Bread, and other pastries go stale because moisture in the bread evaporates.
So in a spaceship, the water is going to evaporate just as easily as on earth.
But what in the cold hard vacuum of space? Surely the water would freeze and nothing would happen.
Well, no. The bread would still go stale.
Of course the water would freeze, but even when it's frozen the water will slowly sublimate away probably forming an icy crust on the bread. And the bread itself will dessicate. Or freeze-dry.
You can actually try this. Stick a slice of bread in the freezer, and in a few weeks, or maybe a month or two it will be quite stale when you thaw it out.
| 28 |
|
ELI5: That unsettling feeling you get when you see a bad injury.
| 55 |
It's called empathy mixed with a bit of realization.
Empathy is being able to imagine yourself in the same situation as someone else and having many of the feelings that come along with that situation.
The realization comes in when you look up and realize that it happened to someone and you suddenly feel terrible because one person will never be the same.
I believe this response varies from person to person so many of our answers will be different.
| 14 |
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Can cancer get cancer? E.g. can a cancerous tumor grow on another cancerous tumor?
| 54 |
Cancer usually refers to the uncontrolled and harmful growth of cells. Parts of a tumor can become malignant, metastasize, or become histologically distinct (and thus be different from the original tumor's pathological progression), but your assertion that cancer can "grow on" other cancer tumors doesn't make sense. It would be *part of* that tumor that's become different, that's all.
| 43 |
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[Star Wars] Were there any Clone Troopers that refused to execute Order 66?
| 16 |
In Legends, yes. A large number did.
In canon, we don't know - since Order 66 is hardcoded into an implant in their brains, the only ones we know for sure don't do it are ones who had their chips removed, which we've seen five total do that, one of whom went crazy, another was killed while resisting arrest, and the other three are shown in *Rebels* season two.
Supposedly there was a sub-order to Order 66 that caused clones to fire on their brothers who managed to resist when the programming was initiated.
| 21 |
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