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Why are women who have had hysterectomies restricted from lifting?
|
I did some preliminary research on Google scholar and based on the abstracts (the research was paywalled) of a couple of studies and one metanalysis done in 2013, I found that there seems to be no conclusive research on the effects of post-operative activity on hysterectomy patients. The actual restrictions (weight limits and length of restriction) seem to vary greatly from patient to patient. There must be a reason for them (increased risk of hernia? increased risk of adhesions?) What are the mechanics behind these? I did find a website (can't confirm the reliability) for kidney donors which mentions a lifting restriction because of risk of incisional hernia.
| 109 |
In the sense of recovery after abdominal surgery, general recommendations for hysterectomy won't differ substantially from any other form of abdominal surgery.
Generally, recovery needs to be long enough to let a significant portion of healing of the abdominal wall occur. Typical recommendations for this length of time are 6 weeks. You're correct in that the risks are related to incisional complications such as hernia or dehisence. Adhesions are an unavoidable part of the healing process for any intraabdominal procedure.
Based on your questioning, it sounds like you're asking about your own recovery or for someone you know. In that case, the correct answer is: talk to your doctor. They can and should be able to inform you about appropriate procedures for recovery postoperatively. There's no reason a patient post-hysterectomy should not be able to begin weight training after appropriate recovery.
| 33 |
[DC Comics] How long is Superman’s natural lifespan under a yellow sun?
|
Assuming he doesn’t get sick, injured, or murdered, and that he leads a reasonably healthy lifestyle.
| 49 |
Immortal. His natural state is like that of humans, but the yellow sun is constantly charging up his cells keeping them from going through the decay that ours do, and he actually has the potential for more because the sun is constantly filling him a little more than it did last time.
| 49 |
ELI5: Why are food cans ribbed?
| 78 |
Structural rigidity. Same reason corrugated cardboard is stronger than paperboard.
edit: a ribbed structure can be compressed because the ribs can bend and flex, whereas something like a soda can has a harder time being compressed because the metal might just shatter instead of bending.
| 69 |
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Does Nietzsche comment on enlightenment values in any way similar to his comparisions between judeo-christian and presocratic greek moralities?
| 26 |
Maybe not as a whole, but definitely in certain measures. We might find, for instance, a bit of the Will to Truth in the Enlightenment project of scientific reason. (Nietzsche is not down with the Will to Truth.) Similarly, we find in the political values of the Enlightenment commitments to freedom, liberty, and some measure of egalitarianism. Nietzsche has a complicated relationship with the first two (he thinks of freedom being a slave value in some contexts) and has some rather infamous problems with egalitarianism.
Nietzsche is willing to critique almost any value since his critique is not leveled so much at particular values as it is leveled against certain modes of valuation and even valuation as such.
| 13 |
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ELI5: If our body creates memory cells for immunity after we have an infection or virus, how come cancer survivors are more likely to contract cancer again and die from it?
| 751 |
Cancer isn't bacteria or virus, it's you body's own cells malfunctioning. Normally your immune system can notice when cells are reproducing uncontrollably, but not always. They are your cells, not foreign bodies.
Even when tumors get destroyed, there are often still rogue cancer cells floating around in your blood that get missed. They're just too tiny to catch all of them, usually, so there is a chance they'll re-implant somewhere down the line and begin reproducing again, growing a new tumor.
| 418 |
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Why (or how) is the age of the Methuselah Star older than the universe?
|
Admittedly, I heard about this first on the assuredly reputable site Cracked.com, but the NASA article they linked to seemed credible, and mentioned that the Methuselah star is 14.5 billion years old, plus or minus .8 billion years, whereas the universe is only 13.8 billion years old (plus or minus .04 billion years). Why isn't the star's age rectified to within the age range of the universe (and below, obviously)? Thanks in advance.
| 54 |
It's quite simple - it's not older than the universe, and nobody in astronomy is claiming that it is. Most of the articles and headlines that have claimed the star appears older than the universe just don't understand uncertainties. It's certainly an *old* star, but a more accurate headline would be "age of star is consistent with age of the Universe". Much less interesting though. ;-P
| 36 |
ELI5: If an electrical outlet (120 volts) can kill you, how come a taser (50,000) can't?
| 385 |
ELI5 version:
Voltage is like the speed of a projectile. Current is the weight of it.
A pea from a pea shooter may have the same speed as a cannon ball, but the cannon ball will hit harder.
So, the taser can deliver a lot of voltage, but not much current. So, basically, it's a pea shooter with an extreme muzzle velocity. It has a lot of sting, but it's still not a cannon.
The wall outlet, on the other hand, has less muzzle velocity, but it can deliver a really heavy projectile. Basically, a mortar.
| 764 |
|
ELI5: What would be the difference between a 48v 350w and a 36v 350w electric motor?
| 221 |
You could think of the motors like riding two different bicycles, one with a lower gear and one with a higher gear. If you ride both at the same speed, you're doing the same amount of work (the 350w), but the lower gear one would take less force but you'd have to pedal faster (the 36v one) and the higher gear one would take more force but you'd pedal slower (the 48v one).
| 223 |
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How Do Spiders Know How To Make a Web?
|
Hi AskScience, the other day, I was lucky enough to see baby spiders float away like the end scene in Charlotte's Web as they emerged from their egg sack. It got me thinking, since the baby spiders don't learn web-making behavior from observing their parents then how do they know how to make a web?
I'm a layperson, so please be gentle!
| 19 |
How do baby horses know how to walk? How do baby turtles know how to get to the ocean? How do baby humans know how to suck breasts?
Some complex behaviors are simply inborn and not learned. Animals develop the neural architecture that is necessary to perform these behaviors in the same way you develop an arm-- it is part of the body's developmental plan during pre-birth development.
The mechanisms behind these developmental plans are not understood in their entirety, but they generally depend on complex networks of signal feedback in the developing organism mediated by both cell-to-cell interactions and gradients of secreted factors.
| 15 |
Why is a degree in philosophy always considered one of the most useless degrees of all? What do those of you currently studying philosophy wish to do after graduation?
| 37 |
> Why is a degree in philosophy always considered one of the most useless degrees of all?
Well, it's not; though perhaps it's *often* considered this.
Presumably the reason for that is that people are under a lot of misapprehensions about the utility of different degrees. On the basis likewise of traditional pedagogical principles, the requests employers make about what skills they'd like employees to have, the data we have on career success, and the data we have on standardized testing post-graduation, philosophy is among the highest performing majors.
| 29 |
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[Star Wars] Would Anakin have been less likely to fall if Ahsoka's framing was handled better?
|
Anakin turning seems pretty sudden in Episode 3 over some relatively minor points. But if contextualized with TCW, it does make more sense that the seeds of distrust were planted and took root with how The Council handled Ahsoka. If they had remained loyal to their own from the beginning, would denying Anakin Masterhood and ignoring his concerns about Padme been more annoyances rather than poking at a still open wound?
| 29 |
I don’t get how people think Anakin’s fall is sudden, they spend 2 films setting up the premise that he is willing to disregard Jedi teachings if pushed too far, they also establish he is willing to break any of the Jedi’s rules to save someone he loves.
The entirety of Episode 3 he says he won’t let Padme die, he spends all of Episode 2 ensuring Padme doesn’t die. He flies into a murdering rage when his mother dies.
Anakin’s fall is because of his complete inability to accept loss and not become so attached to those in his life. The Jedi exacerbate that throughout his life with their dogmatic commitment to their rules and emotional control. Palpatine does the opposite, he feigns emotional intimacy and enticed him to break the rules. He does so to a vulnerable young man who is looking for someone to help him in a difficult situation, a situation where he can’t turn to anyone he trusts other than Sidious.
| 46 |
Where in the night sky is Voyager 1 headed, in the long term?
|
From [this skypath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#/media/File:Voyager_1_skypath_1977-2030.png) of Voyager 1's trajectory, generated from NASA data, it looks like Voyager 1's location in the night sky is asymptotically approaching a point somewhere in the triangle formed by Rasalhague (α Ophiuchi), Rasalgethi (α Herculis), and HIP 84671 (e Ophiuchi). Will Voyager keep approaching this point indefinitely? Or are there any long-term effects that will cause its position in the sky to drift over the coming hundreds or thousands of years--a time scale long enough that these effects haven't been observed yet, but short enough that the stars will stay in roughly the same places?
| 26 |
It will keep this direction as long as it doesn't get anywhere close to other stars (which won't happen in the next 100,000 years, not sure afterwards). Over tens of millions of years you'll see gravitational effects from the overall star distribution in the galaxy, but over these timescales the constellations change multiple times completely as well.
| 17 |
Why is Marx irrelevant in economics but important in other fields?
|
Many students in the humanities engage with Marx a great deal but it doesn't feel like this is the case for economists. Why is this?
| 16 |
Marx' economics doesn't really hold up, and hasn't had a lasting influence on the field. He's influential outside of economics for non-economics ideas, such as "all history is the history of the class struggle", and the idea of "base versus superstructure".
| 48 |
When Oxygen was plenty, animals grew huge. Why aren't trees growing huge now given that there is so much CO2 in the atmosphere?
| 1,537 |
your initial statement about oxygen is only partially true. During the oxygen peak of the carboniferous/permian, insects (and other arthropods like millipedes) did grow to ridiculous sizes compared to their relatives today. These kinds of animals do appear to be limited in their growth by the availability of oxygen. However, the non-avian dinosaurs which grew to be the largest land animals to ever walk the Earth lived at a time when oxygen was probably LOWER and at best about the same levels as they are today. While increased oxygen levels definitely allow some kinds of invertebrates to grow larger, and may help vertebrate to grow larger, it is not the only factor by far affecting maximum growth sizes.
| 1,142 |
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[Ghosts] why are so many ghosts so dickish?
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So, I just moved. Old building, countryside, big garden, someone was murdered in there, generally nice place. But... There's a ghost. And he won't leave.
I tried everything: Oujija board, (not alone, I said hello and goodbye) an exorcist (he assured me it is no demon), the police (the murderer was found a decade ago, with evidence)... But he just. Won't. Leave.
I'm sick of buying new cups and unclogging my toilet everyday. Why are ghosts that haunt houses such huge assholes?
| 491 |
Confirmation bias.
Nobody remembers (and often doesn't even know about) the silent ghost granny who likes to knit ghost sweaters in the attic when nobody is looking.
They all remember that asshole that clanked around and made you reflection bleed tho.
| 463 |
CMV: It is bad for society for pharma companies to massively hike the prices of critical medications like Daraprim
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[You might have seen](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html) that a pharma company which manufactures a medication used by AIDS patients was acquired by a company which raised the price from $13 a tablet to $750.
I work in private equity and do believe that it is efficient for the economy for financial sponsors to take companies that are undercharging and increase the prices of their products, but this seems like price gouging that puts life saving medications out of the hands of people who need them.
I can't imagine that these higher prices directly incentivize for pharma companies to invest more in developing drugs, because it was 62 years old in the first place, and in a market where drug development takes 15+ years and IP law is super strong, the market can't rapidly correct to provide cheaper alternatives. Patients hardly have choice of drugs and are extremely price inelastic, so this seems like a case of market failure.
Is there any possible argument that can be made for this practice?
| 32 |
>IP law is super strong
This medication is off patent.
>this seems like a case of market failure.
Not exactly. The FDA has been massively increasing regulation on pharmaceutical manufacturers, and the cost of compliance with this regulation has been skyrocketing. At $13 per tablet, the drug was unprofitable to produce. At $750, the company believes the drug will be profitable despite these costs.
The problem is not confined to Daraprim. Numerous medications have lost one or more producers due to these increased costs, and some have stopped production entirely. Daraprim could well have fallen into the latter category; $750 a pill is obviously a worse situation than $13 a pill, but is nevertheless better than ceasing to exist.
The ideal solutions would be to roll back the level of regulation of medications to 1990s levels, or to permit the importation of medications approved by any first world country (effectively rolling back our regulations to European levels). With lower fixed costs and barriers to entry, the cost of medication would be greatly reduced and the availability of many medications would be greatly increased.
| 15 |
ELI5: How did Tim Tebow go from seemingly the most wanted quarterback to almost completely irrelevant so quickly?
| 15 |
He really wasn't a sought after QB, in the NFL. It was a surprise that he was taken in the first round. He was a very good college QB, because the skill set required is very much different for college vs. the NFL. He could bowl guys over in college--in the NFL, defenders are WAY bigger and faster. You get hit enough by those dudes and your career is lasting 2 years.
| 22 |
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[GEICO] If GEICO only insures humans, who insures the Gieco Gecko?
| 41 |
The Geico Gecko is a special case, in that it needs no insurance. In fact, the Geico Gecko is immortal and eternal.
You may recall the 'fiction' film Matilda. You may remember, specifically, that Aunt Trunchbull was forced to drink a glass of water containing a gecko by Matilda. This film was not fiction. This film was a precise re-enactment of the events as Matilda remembers it, a vanity project now that as a telekinetic she is essentially a tiny god. She runs her own vast crime empire in the underworld, a brutal and terrible organisation filled with slave traders and used car salesmen.
But back to the gecko. Exposure to Matilda's powers, followed by the bizarre environment involved in the stomach of the Trunchbull (A nexus of negative energy) created the Geico Gecko. Bursting forth from the womb of hate, the Gecko found itself sentient and dead, with its body reparing itself quickly from any damage, even utter obliteration (The Gecko finds it very amusing to tear into nuclear plants. The Gecko rather likes bomb tests. The Gecko is making me write this). The Gecko can exercise telekinetic abilities thanks to the last experience it had before being drunk into The Trunchbull as well as some control over water, again, thanks to being immersed in the glass of water.
The Gecko works with Geico to gather money: Paying for the vast psychic amplifier it wishes to extend its powers of telekinesis is much easier than using slaves.
| 31 |
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ELI5: What's the yellow liquid on top of the ink in my pen?
| 64 |
It's a gel that stops the ink from drying up. It can't be a solid plug, the ink would stop coming out due to the partial vacuum created.
So, basically it's a movable plug to stop air getting to the ink.
| 79 |
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Are magnetic materials stronger than they would otherwise be without their magnetic field?
|
To clarify the title, does magnetic force within a magnetic object, like a natural magnet, contribute to its actual structural strength? Is say... a magnetized piece of iron stronger than a non-magnetized piece?
Would the magnetic force within the material hold the atoms more snugly together, or am I completely off-base in my understanding of this?
| 41 |
The short answer, no. What makes a piece of iron non-magnetic isn’t actually the lack of a magnetic field, but the randomness of it. Magnetism is based upon the spin the the electrons in the atoms. When something is magnetized, the direction of the spin of all atoms is aligned to the same direction. When it’s not magnetic, all of those spins still exist, they’re just in random directions. These spins have no direct impact on the structural integrity of the material.
| 31 |
Can I duck dive under a tidal wave?
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If I were treading water in the ocean and a massive tidal wave was approaching me, would it be possible for me to swim under the wave and wait for it to pass?
| 30 |
No.
A tidal wave, or tsunami, has a small amplitude (wave height) and very, very large wavelength. If you were well offshore, you might not even notice it. If you were near the shore, it would be like the water just coming and coming and coming at you.
| 14 |
[Superhero] I can make pocket dimensions by painting them. Who has jurisdiction over this "terra nullis" as the authority of the United Staes claims?
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They can't enter my painting without my specific permission and even if they destroy the painting while I'm inside, I can still paint my way out. Can a country really claim jurisdiction if they can't enforce their will on that territory?
| 28 |
Jurisdictions, borders, etc. are essentially diplomatic alternatives/complementary to shows of force to exert control. With you being the sole force-owner for that space, unless you yield that control, anything they claim is moot.
They can enforce consequences on you otherwise in an attempt to coerce though.
| 30 |
What are the main academic criticisms on Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities"?
|
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it.
I have just finished "Imagined Communities" and found it to be a great book. I found it explained his theory very clear. After finishing it however I am keen to look at the main academic criticism or counter-theories to his book. Who are the main academics who disagree with his theory? and what do they argue?
I hope this question is understandable and ok. I appreciate anyone taking the time to give me help in any way.
| 55 |
Anderson is kind of funny. He has one of the most widely cited definitions of nationalism (that nationalism is an imagined community, imagined in that it is both limited and sovereign) but few people accept the argument itself. The main criticisms of Anderson are his emphasis on modernity (that nationalism is a modern phenomenon); his spontaneity, since for Anderson, nationalism seems to simply 'emerge' as a result of print capitalism; And, perhaps most scathingly, is the 'inclusivity' of his definition. According to Anthony Marx, Anderson completely neglects the exclusionary elements of nationalism. For Anderson, everybody is part of the community. But, according to Marx, citizenship / nationality has never been fully extended to people and that certain groups of people (for the purposes of nation-building) have been excluded. Consider blacks in America, for example.
More generally, Anderson is part of the structuralism / functionalism approach to nationalism which has, more or less, fallen out of favour (Ernst Gellner is also part of this camp). The main (constructivist) critiques of Anderson's nationalism come from Anthony Marx, Rogers Brubaker, and Ashutosh Varshney.
| 23 |
ELI5: How do you properly use ";' and "-" in writing?
| 27 |
The semicolon is properly used in at least two ways.
First, it can be used to separate items in a list when some of those items contain commas. For example, a normal list would go like this: Apples, pears, bananas, and kiwi fruit. (Note: that last comma is not used by everyone. It is called the "Oxford comma", and people actually argue over whether or not it's necessary.)
But suppose the second item is "pears, but not Williams pears". Now it contains a comma; and so to make sure people can read the list easily, you have to write it like this: Apples; pears, but not Williams pears; bananas; and kiwi fruit.
Secondly, the semicolon is used to separate contact clauses. This is when you have two sentences and you want to join them into one sentence, but without using a conjunction. For example, if we start with these two sentences:
Mary likes beer. John prefers wine.
We can join them up with a conjunction:
Mary likes beer, but John prefers wine.
Or we can join them up with a semicolon:
Mary likes beer; John prefers wine.
Words like "however" are adverbs, not conjunctions, so if you want to use "however" to join these two sentences, you still need a semicolon:
Mary likes beer; however, John prefers wine.
How can you tell the difference? Well, you can move "however" next to the verb and it still makes sense:
Mary likes beer; John, however, prefers wine.
As for the hyphen, that's a much more complicated thing. Perhaps the most important use is to combine two words into one single concept, but it's much tickier to get this one right. In the sentence:
He was five years old.
we have "five" and "years" and "old" as three separate words; but in this sentence:
He was a five-year-old boy.
the three words are combined into a single unit, an adjective.
| 54 |
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[Star Wars] Since there are no forests, is the oxygen supply in Coruscant artificially produced? How does it stay breathable for humans?
| 16 |
If recall from the book version of Phantom Menace the atmosphere is maintained through giant oxygen regulators/carbon dioxide scrubbers which filter and purify the air. Even with this technology though, the lower you lived in the planet (lower level of buildings, deep down alleyways, etc), the more polluted the air tended to be.
| 29 |
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ELI5: Do other languages have as many accents as English? Why or why not?
|
There are wildly different English accents across the globe, but does this happen with other languages? I feel like it would, but I've never heard/seen anything about it.
| 46 |
Everyone is giving examples of specific languages, so I'll just give a general answer: it's a resounding yes. Virtually all languages will have some kind of accent variation based on geography. Accents may also be based on things like social class or ethnicity, and other languages will have those as well.
You hear more about this for English because it has the most widespread community of speakers (and in your case, OP, you hear about it because it's your language).
| 33 |
[FOX Animation] Does The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Futurama, Bob's Burgers and The Critic exist in the same universe?
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Do all of these adult-oriented FOX animated sitcoms and shows exist in the same universe? They have crossed over before and allude to one another's existence in different ways.
| 20 |
Only when it's convenient. Family Guy and American Dad definitely do. Simpsons and Futurama is tricky because there was an episode where Bender is sent back in time to kill Bart, but in the Simpsons they also meet Matt Groening "Creator of Futurama". Likewise, in Futurama, Bender found a Bart doll in the trash asteroid and ate his shorts. Best not to talk about it lol
| 24 |
[MCU] Why is there only one Winter Soldier?
|
The Winter Soldier was created when Zola experimented on Bucky, presumably copying some of Erskine's work. The experiment was a complete success, and unlike Erskine, Zola wasn't killed and alive for decades afterwards.
So why didn't Hydra build a legion of Winter Soldiers? They had decades to perfect the process and put it into production, but just stopped.
| 91 |
There are two reason that come to mind.
1. We don't know if Bucky was unique or not. While, Bucky was a complete success that doesn't mean that there weren't many other failures. Zola obviously saw the potential of his experiments so it is reasonable to assume that he did try to create other Winter Soliders. It could have been that for whatever reason Bucky was special and the only success.
2. Hydra was attempting to stay under the radar. Hydra was was having to walk a very fine line between being secretive enough to not be exposed and being active enough to grow in power. Every Winter Soldier they had would require more support and resources. Additionally, there would have likely been similarities between the Winter Soldiers, this would have drawn attention to the program and Hydra. A single skilled assassin could be from anywhere; he could be a government agent, a member of a violent NGO, or he could be freelance. Being the only visible Winter Soldier makes it much harder for people to see a pattern. And they did a good job of keeping him secret. Black Widow only knew rumors about him, and Nick Fury didn't seem to have any particular information about him; though being Nick Fury he may have withheld information. A single Winter Soldier best fulfills one of Hydras man concerns; not being exposed until they are ready.
| 79 |
ELI5: How weather prediction works and why it requires massive computing power
| 16 |
We take the (imagined) atmosphere and divide it into really large slabs - about 20km on both sides horizontally and about 1 km up. With each of these slabs there are some well understood equations around the amount of air that's going to flow into and out of each of the six sides. Unfortunately this movement depends on the pressure of the next door slab, which depends on the pressure of the next door slab, which depends on the pressure of the next door slab etc. etc. so to calculate how the air is going to move you need to know the air pressure in *all* of the others, and vice versa.
There are two ways of solving this. Either you can form a massive piece of (actually very easy) maths called a matrix equation and solve it. This takes giant quantities of computer power. Or you can take a guess as to how the air should move, see how wrong you were, and refine the guess until it's more or less right. This takes less giant quantities of computer power but is inaccurate. Arguably.
How it works in practice is that the NOAA produce a huge world-wide model using very large slabs which they then give away. Local weather predictions are made by regarding this as "right", and running another huge calculation with much smaller bricks to see whether or not it's going to rain on your washing.
| 12 |
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ELI5: What is it about Johnson & Johnson's baby powder that could cause ovarian cancer?
|
Considering the decision today that J&J has to pay a massive fine to claimants regarding their baby powder reportedly causing ovarian cancer, I'm unsure about the science behind the claim.
What's in talc powder that could be risky? Are the same risks concerning men who use the powder to dry their groin area?
Thanks!
| 11,335 |
Scientist here. The science behind this talc powder cancer claim is somewhat nebulous.
A long time ago, talc contained some asbestos. Asbestos is bad because it causes cancer. If talc is highly refined in modern facilities, it *should* contain no asbestos.
There have been a few articles that show a minimal correlation but essentially the numbers simply don't really show much either way.
IIRC, one of the claims is that J&J did not mark their product "For External Use Only". Talc is fine for external use, but you should not inhale, eat, breathe, or insert it. Some people use talc too much, and put it too close to their body openings where it could potentially go inside. It's bad to put anything inside your body that doesn't really belong.
Even if the talc powder used is pure talc and doesn't have any asbestos, it could be an irritant to the special skin inside your body (epithelium). That's because under a microscope, talc is made of very sharp crystals of rock. The jury is still out if this causes cancer or not. That said, it's probably best to avoid it and not put it inside your body.
Talc has been used for such a long time that it is not considered a drug by the US government - it's a cosmetic. Cosmetics do not need to be tested and approved by the FDA the same way that drugs are.
So anyhow, whether you are a lady or a guy or someone in between, you can use talc on your outside parts but don't put it inside you.
Edit 1: Typo correction.
| 11,482 |
[Batman:TAS]Would plastic surgery fix the damage done to Two-Face?
|
Immediately after the accident, the doctor treating Harvey says he's scheduled a plastic surgery consult. Was the full extent of the damage not immediately known? Or did the chemicals continue to change him even after he was treated at the hospital?
| 24 |
It would fix his face sure but not his mind. In Batman The Dark Knight Returns, which is set with an older retired Batman, Harvey Dent did have plastic surgery for his face. However, his mind was still fragmented and he returned to crime shortly after.
| 25 |
[Lord of the Rings Books] All armor that I read about seemed to be mail, or perhaps scale armor. Did full suits of plate armor exist?
|
If not, why not? The Numenoreans and Noldor and ancient Dwarves had very advanced crafting, at least.
| 26 |
During the events of LOTR, Middle Earth is in something of a "Dark Ages." Much knowledge was lost when Numenor fell and their "craft" (for lack of a better term) continued to decline as they mixed Numenorean blood with those of lesser men. Perhaps at Gondor's peak they had such armor, but after its collapse, they probably lacked the resources, let alone the talent to maintain and create such armor.
Dwarves certainly could create such armor but probably not inclined to do so. Axes are a favored weapon of the dwarves and work very well against plate armor. Dwarves would probably be disinclined to create a kind of armor that is weak to their preferred weapon.
| 28 |
AskScience AMA Series: We’re a team of researchers who’ve created a tool to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of different oils around the world. AUA!
|
Hello Reddit! We are team members representing a first-of-its-kind project, the Oil-Climate Index (OCI). The OCI analyzes the overall climate impacts of different oils from extraction to refining to combustion. We tested 30 oils from different sources around the globe, and you can find the results of our research [here](http://carnegieendowment.org/2015/03/11/know-your-oil-creating-global-oil-climate-index), as well as other resources including infographics and our methodology. We discovered some interesting variations in different oils’ climate impacts, which are not sufficiently considered by policymakers or priced into the market. We believe more transparency on global oil resources is needed and hope to expand the OCI to a greater number of global oils.
A bit about our team:
[Deborah Gordon](http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/?fa=558) is the Director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focuses on the climate implications of unconventional oil in the U.S. and around the world. She’s happy to answer questions about the how [the OCI project](http://carnegieendowment.org/files/Debbie-UnknownOil-article-final.pdf) got started, [stakeholder interests](http://carnegieendowment.org/specialprojects/OilClimateIndex/?lang=en), implications for policymaking, and the next steps for the OCI.
[Adam Brandt](https://earth.stanford.edu/adam-brandt) is an assistant professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University. His research focuses on reducing the greenhouse gas impacts, with a focus on energy systems. Adam will be talking about the OPGEE model he developed that estimates upstream oil extraction emissions and its implications for decisionmaking.
[Joule Bergerson](https://www.ucalgary.ca/jbergers/)is an assistant professor in the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department and the Center for Environmental Engineering at the University of Calgary. Her primary research interests are systems-level analysis of energy investment and management for policy and decisionmaking. Joule will be talking about the model she developed that estimates the midstream oil refining emissions and its implications for decisionmaking.
[Jonathan Koomey](http://www.koomey.com/about.html) is a research fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University. He is an internationally known expert on the economics of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of information technology on resources. He can answer questions about the model he and Gordon developed that calculates the downstream oil product combustion emissions, as well as other big picture energy and climate questions.
**(We will be back at 1 pm ET (10 am PT, 5 pm UTC) to answer your questions, We’re excited to hear from you and answer your questions. AUA!**
Joule here - signing off for now but will check back later in the day - thanks for your questions! 1:26 pm
Adam here - Signing off for now, but will check back later. See you soon and thanks for the questions.
Debbie here -- Signing off for now, but will check back later today as well. This has been great so far. Thank you for such thoughtful and engaging questions in this Oil-Climate Index AUA! You probably notices that I rejoined you and answered a few additional questions. Signing off. So glad you joined us for the Oil-Climate Index AUA. Wishing everyone a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!
| 1,514 |
I often wonder about the greenhouse gas emission of pretty much anything. Is it better to buy a Tesla or to just keep your old car, or buy a 1980's nissan with great mileage. Those sorts of questions. Is there an accessible methodology where the public can figure that stuff out?
| 25 |
CMV:Wars aren't caused because defense industries profit from it. Defense industries profit from it because the society wants war.
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People love to believe that they don't really want War, its their leaders because corrupted by the defense companies who want war.
To be clear, I am not saying that defense industry doesn't influence politicians, but I am against this notion that somehow our noble society wouldn't harm a fly if not for these evil profit making organizations and military-industrial complex.
In truth there are a lot more companies which profit from the lack of a war than with a war. There is an infinitesimally small chance of USA going on a war with India, Japan, Brazil, or France, even though it would be hugely profitable for defense industry than it is for going on a war with Syria. Say a politician talks about going on a war with a country where your multi-million dollar corporation is doing huge business with, wouldn't you lobby against such a measure, even try to fund his opponent to get him out of office?
The profits of Coca-Cola, McDonalds, KFC, Pepsi, Nestle, Toyota, Walt Disney and other non-defense companies vastly larger the profits of defense industry(which is 3-4% of the GDP), and when it comes down to it, would lose a lot more money than the profit made by some defense company.
This is the reason why we only go on a war with countries with little trade. Air strikes on Saudi will never happen even though almost all the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi and almost everyone in Al-Queda comes from Saudi Arabia. Americans don't join Military and go overseas to die because somehow bought out politicians asked them to. Americans do join a voluntary army to go to other countries because they want to.
**tl;dr: Wars don't happen because of profit, profit happens because of war and a lot more profit is made when peace exists.**
Postscript: Those who are claiming that NOBODY says that:
[Alan Grayson On Syria Strike: 'Nobody Wants This Except The Military-Industrial Complex'](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/alan-grayson-syria_n_3836276.html)
_____
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| 92 |
>somehow our noble society wouldn't harm a fly if not for these evil profit making organizations and military-industrial complex.
I think you may be blowing this view out of proportion. No reasonable person is saying that these companies are the ONLY reason we go to war. But no one can deny that they profit from war.
If companies profit from war, then they probably want war more than the next person, all things being equal. And they have lobbyists. You see where this goes.
| 19 |
Could the "exact" value of pi be calculated to an exact value, if we consider a "perfect circle" to be a circle draw to the accuracy of the planck length exactly?
|
I was going to post this to /r/askscience but I decided it's more of a philosophical question. But the basic premise is that the Planck length (in chemistry) is considered to be the smallest possible length in all of the universe. Could we not consider the accuracy of this value (1.616255(18)×10−35 m)1 to be the needed precision to calculate an "exact" definition of pi, given that the MOST ACCURATELY DRAWN CIRCLE could only ever exist down to this level of precision? Where is the difference between mathematically provable (pi is irrational) and what actually exists in reality? Because by this definition, what we think of as a circle can't actually exist in the physical world, but somehow it can exist in your mind. Or can it?
Thanks for listening! Newcomer here, hope this fits the vibe.
1 The two digits enclosed by parentheses are the estimated standard error associated with the reported numerical value
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_length#:~:text=In%20physics%2C%20the%20Planck%20length,developed%20by%20physicist%20Max%20Planck.
Edit: I really really appreciate all the thought people have put into their responses. I will take time reading through over the week and trying to respond where I can!
| 32 |
You could begin your investigation into this question by starting with the ancients and reading about Plato's idea of forms. Plato posits that there is a difference between the idea of a circle (exists in your mind) and the most perfect physical instance of a circle (exists in reality). All physical circles can be benchmarked against this ideal circle, but the ideal circle cannot ever be realized.
To apply this to your question: What you propose may well be the most accurate possible measurement of pi within our natural universe. However, the concept of pi probably would exist in another universe, which could have its own fundamental physical parameters (like the Planck constant). Measurement is a scientific method and is fundamentally constrained to what we can observe; i.e. our own universe. Thus your measurement would not necessarily generalize. But maybe that's okay!
| 24 |
[James Bond] Who are the other 00 agents?
|
Has 007 ever collaborated with them or do they work alone?
| 15 |
James Bond's mission in Arkhangelsk in 1986 was a team effort between 007 and 006, Alec Trevelyan, with 006 ending up seemingly killed in action.
Agent 009's death in 1983 in Berlin is also the impetus for 007's mission, but they don't meet.
| 35 |
ELI5: Why is it cheaper to imprison someone for life than to give them the death penalty?
| 400 |
People who receive the death penalty are entitled to an extensive appeal process which can be very expensive. People who are imprisoned for life are not given the same privilege. This is because killing someone is an irreversible act and we don't want to make mistakes (Unfortunately we still do). The appeal process is very expensive as it takes years, sometimes decades and lawyers are not cheap.
| 331 |
|
ELI5: Why are freckles or 'beauty marks' next to eye and on upper lip so common compared to others?
| 172 |
If you were to sample all people you would probably find that moles occur in equal amounts all over the body. Ones around the eyes and mouth are considered pretty, so people with them are overrepresented in art and media
| 61 |
|
In Terminator, when they say skynet "begins learning at a geometric rate," what does that mean?
| 31 |
A geometric progression, or geometric sequence, is a sequence of numbers where each number is obtained by multiplying the previous number by some constant.
For example:
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ...
Every next number is twice the previous number.
But the following is also a geometric sequence:
1, 0.9, 0.81, 0.729, 0.6561
Here the multiplication factor between two consecutive numbers is 0.9.
In general, geometric sequences are discretized equivalents of exponential functions. The defining characteristic is that the rate of growth is propotional to the size (or: the first derivative of the function is proportional to the function value).
In movies and series, the term "exponential growth" (and apparently "geometric rate") is typically used as a technical term for "it grows faster and faster" even though it's not always used 100% correctly.
| 56 |
|
ELI5...If aliens put a satellite into earth orbit to observe us, would we even notice with all the other satellites up there?
|
Topic.
| 215 |
Yes. Astronomers carefully track all sattelites - as do some world governments. Even space junk is tracked.
Astronomers need to know where sattelites and debris are so it does not interfere with looking at stars.
Governments want to know where spy sattelites are and who is looking at what.
NASA and other space agency's track space junk and sattelites so stuff they launch into space does not collide with it.
So, things orbiting our planet are carefully examined.
| 154 |
lab politics is killing me
|
I am a research fellow at a lab which has 2 active collaborations at other institutes.
I have been working here for 3 months and I have noticed that the team which I am a part of and includes two other people is actively involving in institutional politics .
The other two of my team mates often
1) sit with each other discussing about lab people and lab projects for sometimes hours in a row.
2) discussion of propspective project idea without including me.
3) when I give them any ideas or opinion I'm given cold shoulder.
4) they were not like this for the first month when they included me in their discussions but now they don't do that.
5) they plan and plot their moves and leave me to fend myself in an as it is complicated collaborative situation.
6) they taunt/criticise me and casually make jokes at my expense.
7) one of them was my classmate but he doesn't even behave like a friend anymore.
What do I do.
| 71 |
Kick the living shit out of one of them and make sure the other one sees you do it.
Make sure to posture like a chimpanzee after. Chest banging and all that shit. The other one will get the picture quick.
| 72 |
Can t-cells turn into cancer? Are they any more or less likely to do so than any other cell?
| 37 |
Any cell in the body can accumulate mutations that eventually allow it to evade destruction by the immune system by neither being recognized as part of you or foreign, replicate (grow), invade surrounding structures and in some cases metastasize either through the circulatory or lymph systems predominantly. T-cells are a type of white blood cell which arise from lymphoid stem cells in the bone marrow and mature in the thymus. Abnormal T-cell malignancies, therefore, most commonly present as a hematologic malignancy which is to say the problem is in one of the early stage cells in the bone marrow and would fall under the umbrella of leukemia or during later stage maturation, most often in the thymus, which presents as a mediastinal mass (chest cavity) which is called lymphoma. Despite being very different presentations, there is a lot of overlap between leukemia and lymphoma - particularly in T-cell origin cancers.
Source: pediatric oncologist
| 43 |
|
[Harry Potter] every time a horcrux is destroyed, Voldemort has a freak out because of him having a connection to it (it is a piece of his soul after all). Did the same thing not happen when he killed that part of himself inside of Harry? I feel like it should have.
| 32 |
In the books he does not feel it when a horcrux is destroyed because he has been disconnected from them for so long.
However, when he blasted Harry he was also affected by it and fell down. Whether this is because of the horcrux dying is unknown, but Bellatrix attempted to help him up and he rebuffed her.
| 60 |
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[World of Warcraft] So I come to Draenor and find "True Iron Ore" all over the place. If this is true iron, what the hell is this grey metal I've been mining in Redridge for the last 9 years? Furthermore, how is it different from (apparently) fake iron?
| 49 |
True Iron and Iron are entirely different metals, the same as Truesilver and Silver are different. The name is simply the product of idiot Orcs naming the stuff, and humans just using the translation.
| 50 |
|
[Star Wars] Would Sidious have intervened in the crash landing?
|
So Anakin successfully pilots the wrecked *Invisible Hand* down to the surface of Coruscant. The back half of the ship was torn off as they entered the atmosphere, so there was very little control and it was more like a disaster that they happened to survive.
Sidious of course is still acting like Palpatine the freed hostage. He looks nervous and concerned. How far would Sidious allow this crash landing to go without dying himself? He couldn't risk them discovering his use of the Force, but he's not the type to die to hide his ability.
My only thought here is that he had perhaps foreseen his survival or perhaps his future acts. He also might have had Battle Meditation going on at that stage, or perhaps he could use the dark side right next to the Jedi due to his masterful conceiling abilities. Thoughts?
| 220 |
I think maybe he doesn't get enough credit for his go getter attitude. We tend to think of all bad guys as selfish and all self preserving but with a plan as bold as his, the very real possibility of death must have been faced at many turns. He had a go big or go home attitude and was prepared for an unexpected death in the pursuit of his goals. Fortune favors the bold.
| 231 |
ELI5: In neutral terms, how the Rothchild family became so rich, why they are not very public and why there are so many conspiracy theories surrounding them.
| 18 |
In neutral terms it is far less interesting. They became rich via banking, and that's really the end of it. Most if not all the conspiracy theories about them are really about how fractional reserve banking is evil. What better target than old money bankers involved in an evil money making conspiracy theory.
They are out of public view today because most of the wealth has been diminished and divided among decedents. People like George Soros in modern times make way better public targets for conspiracy theories.
Solid research into the Rothschild conspiracy theories will show you just how little conspiracy theorists really know about the topic and how much of a leap they are asking you to take.
| 19 |
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What physical quantities are upper-bounded?
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Are there any upper-bounded physical quantities like velocity?
Does the current model predict an upper limit on temperature, acceleration, electromagnetic-waves frequency, ...?
| 198 |
Loudness of sound is bounded by the density of a substance. Because sound is a pressure wave, and because a wave peak cannot be any higher than the depth of its trough, the amplitude of a sound wave is bounded by a relationship relative to its density. For air on earth, it is ~194db, the difference between 0atm and 2atm.
Thus, you can have louder "sounds" in water than in air, and even louder than that in stone. "Sounds" in quotes here because at that point, we're really just talking about pressure waves.
| 113 |
Could a generated magnetic field protect a spacecraft and astronauts from charged particles and em radiation?
|
From my understanding, solar wind and cosmic rays are bombarding Earth constantly and are being deflected in part by the atmosphere and partially by Earth's magnetic field. Can this sort of shielding be replicated and how much energy would be required to produce a magnetic field capable of radiation shielding.
| 577 |
There is still significant research to be done and hurdles to overcome with this. However, US Patent application ID US 12/990,420 is for a magnetic radiation shiled.
>In order to provide an effective shield, the strength if the shield magnetic field at the source is perferably at least 1x10^-4 Tesla. To obtain a boundary between the shield magnetic field and a typical solar wind background magnetic field of around 1x10^-7 Tesla at a distance of up to a few hundred meters from the spacecraft a field strength of less than .1 Tesla at the magnetic field source will be generally sufficient. Allowing for effects if field persistence in the plasma environment, average electrical power from about 100W to 10kW, and more preferably from about 500W to 5kW may be provided by the power supply to drive the magnetic field source to generate the shield magnetic field.
This would be for a spacecraft about the size of a desk.
| 207 |
ELI5: Where does thunder (sound component of lighting) come from?
|
I get the concept the lighting is electronic plasma in a supercharged cloud looking for the shortest path to the ground to discharge or something but why is it fricking loud?
| 25 |
Lighntning is a sudden, strong stream of electrons between clouds and the ground.
Those electrons heat the air so much, that the air surrounding the lightning bolt can, for a fraction of a second, exceed the temperature of the surface of the sun, by a lot in fact. The surface of the sun is around 10,000F, and the air surrounding a lightning bolt can be 50,000F!
Because the air around that superheated column of air is super cold (compared to the column that was heated), it suddenly cools the hot air creating a vacuum. Kind of like how when you blow out a candle, the smoke swirls and expands and contracts as the heated air mixes with the relatively cool air outside the candle. Now imagine this same 'swirling' on a MUCH larger scale.
Thunder sounds like crashing because that is, basically, what's happening. Huge columns of air crashing and smashing into each other as the hot air and cold air combine. This shockwave is heard and even felt if you're close enough! (Have you ever had thunder rattle your windows?)
| 27 |
Why doesn't my field of view change when my pupils contract/dilate?
| 160 |
Field of view depends on focal length -- the distance between the lens and the retina (technically the ratio between the size of the retina and the focal length).
The size of the pupil is the aperture size, it only changes how much light enters the eye, just like in a camera.
The reason for this is that the pupil is not a "hole" that you're looking out of. There is a lens that that focuses all the light at one point (provided it's in focus) no matter how large the pupil is. So a narrow pupil is not like "tunnel vision," and a wide one won't increase field of view, because of the lens. All those rays that come in far off-center will get focused on the same point as the center ray.
| 52 |
|
ELI5: Why are countries like Great Britain in the European Union but they do not have the Euro?
|
I guess I understand that they simply chose not to switch their currency, my question though is, what lead them and others to decide this? What sorts of costs or benefits does their choice give them?
This question came about as a result of my reading [this NYT article.](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/world/europe/britain-suffers-as-a-bystander-to-europes-crisis.html?partner=rss&emc=rss)
Thanks!
| 15 |
Switching your currency to the same currency as the other countries in the eurozone means that they are no longer in as much control of the value of their currency. The value of the pound is controlled by the value of the british economy, whilst the value of the euro is controlled by the value of the european economy. So if something goes wrong in another country with the euro (like greece or italy right now) the euro will suffer and the other nations that didn't fuck up economically have to face the consequences. Britain most likely chose to not switch their currency because of this risk.
| 13 |
Private property, best arguments for and against
|
I'm familiar with Locke's argument of natural property rights but I find it quite unconvinving really, is there any other arguments which build on it/are based on it with great detail?
Would also like to read some proper philosophical arguments against the idea of private property, is there Marx/Engles I should be reading or any other reccomendations people have?
| 33 |
In Hegel's Philosophy of Right he offers a defense of property by claiming that property is an extension of the individual will, and in order to be fully free we must be able to make our will exist in the external world through property.
| 26 |
Why does Superman 'waste' his powers on petty crime
|
Of course stopping Lex Luthor et al. is important but why doesn't he spend more of his time improving the life of the general population of earth a la http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2305 ?
Does he only fight bad guys because that turns Lois on?
| 42 |
Any answer to this question would be conjecture. In interviews Superman claims that he's just doing what seems best at the time, and helping to make the American dream possible. That's obviously false. Superman is no idiot, according to some accounts of his exploits he has a genius-level intellect and may actually be able to *control peoples' minds*. You're correct that his behavior doesn't make sense. So here's one theory.
Superman isn't planning to stay on Earth forever. He's not immortal, he could be killed one day. Even if he isn't killed, there are a lot of supervillains who operate on an intergalactic scale who draw his attention from time to time. Superman wants to push humanity in the right direction in the long term, not just for the small time he's going to be here.
It's about leadership (or social engineering if you want to be cynical). Superman knows that he's an iconic and inspiring figure to the average person on Earth. He fights crime because it shows that he wants humanity to develop a harmonious, productive society, and that each individual person is personally accountable for achieving that. Superman knows that one day Earth will be a galactic-scale civilization, and he wants to push Earth away from its historically violent past and into a more peaceful future before that happens. Superman can't play nanny for humanity forever, he'd rather have humans learn to help themselves.
Superman also encourages and mentors many Earth-native superheroes. Everyone know that Superman has set a *very* high standard for their behavior, and he has also organized them against extraterrestrial threats. It's very possible that setting an example for Earth's superheroes is more important to him than the ideal he creates for the average human.
| 47 |
ELI5: If Puerto Rico votes to become a state, how would/could the US proceed?
| 44 |
Legally speaking, voting to become a state is irrelevant. It is a signal that a territory is ready to become a state, but congress is under no obligation to act upon it. Similarly, congress could make PR a state even if it voted against it.
The power rests solely in congress, any vote in the PR is purely symbolic.
| 25 |
|
ELI5: Why is it that when a person has an epileptic seizure/fit that they feel so tired and out of it for such a long time.
|
Asking as I'm epileptic and it throws me out for a good day or two like I've not slept in days.
| 24 |
Immediately following a seizure is what's known as the postictal state. In this state, the person is pretty much completely out of it. Yeah, they're "awake," but not really. They just kinda sit there and look exhausted. That's because they are! You could say seizing is expensive for the body. In the brain, the uncontrolled firing of millions, if not billions of neurons takes **a lot** of energy. This energy comes in the form of glucose, and when a person has a seizure their brain neurons can burn through nearly all their energy stores. If the seizure extends to physical convulsions, then the same process happens in your muscles. Having every muscle contract randomly and uncontrollably is taxing. It can take your body hours, sometimes days to rebuild all of the glycogen stores in your cells, leaving you feeling tired and "out of it."
| 32 |
If the voltage id high enough, would electricity be able to arc in space?
| 26 |
What we see as an arc is the effect of molecules in the air being excited by the impact of electrons that are accelerated by the voltage. These excited molecules then fall back to a lower energy state and emit a photon. This is the light we see when there's an electric arc.
In space, without air, there's nothing to excite and emit photons. Instead, if you'd apply a voltage between two electrodes in space, you will have any free electrons (or electrons emitted by the negative electrode) being pulled towards the positive electrode.
But that's it. There'll be no visible phenomenon and the electrons simply follow the electric field lines toward the positive electrode, instead of flowing through clearly defined thin channels as is the case with an electric arc in arc.
| 13 |
|
ELI5: Why does Windows even allow deleting system32 if doing so will make it unusable?
|
Title
| 31 |
The reason that they allow you to do it is because sometimes it is fundamentally necessary to delete, change, or add files to system32 in order to fix bugs in the system or upgrade things. The user either has access to the files or doesn't have access to the files. If they have access to the files, they can do what they want with them, including deleting them.
If you create an account that isn't an administrator account you won't be able to delete System32, or many other important things. You also can't install programs. Windows has a very extensive permissions system and you can tune the permissions to change what certain users can and cannot do. Ideally, you should be running as a non-administrator all the time, and then only switch into the admin account when you actually need to do something that requires the extra permissions.
| 23 |
ELI5: What is the difference between computer science and computer engineering?
| 42 |
Computer engineering is primarily about designing computer hardware.
Computer science is primarily about the theory of how computers work and what they can do. It also tends to include "how to write computer software," but that's really a separate field usually labeled software engineering.
| 22 |
|
Why biofuel? isn't it just burning what amounts to man made fossil fuel? how much better is it for the environment if at all?
|
I saw [**this story**](http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/12k7uh/biofuel_breakthrough_quick_cook_method_turns/) on /r/science but they used the term biocrude, making me think this is something similar to crude oil. What is the difference? What are the byproducts? how are those byproducts different from petroleum
| 100 |
If a biofuel requires no fossil fuels to produce, it's better because it doesn't introduce new carbon into the system. This is the problem with fossil fuels: when burned, the carbon they introduce into the system is new carbon, in the sense that it has been sequestered and kept out of the system, and now it is being reintroduced.
In other words, biofuels take carbon out of the air and then put it back, while fossil fuels take carbon out if the ground and increase the amount of carbon in circulation. Thus biofuels have no effect on the amount of CO2, while fossil fuels increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
| 133 |
CMV: Technology is making us smarter
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Technology has allowed our society to advance - by automating so many of our mundane tasks, humanity has more time to think, create, improve and iterate. Technology has improved our quality of life and our health. It has made education more accessible and personalized. It makes us more efficient at getting places, making connections with others, and getting to the facts of a situation.
The human brain, sure, now relies on certain technology: our iPhones to wake us up in the mornings, our GPS to get us from Point A to Point B, and our calculators to do simple math. But those routine things have freed up both time and brain space to focus on what makes us passionate, and try things that have never been tried before.
Note: I am on the social team for Point Taken (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/point-taken/is-technology-making-us-smarter-dumber/), a new late night show on PBS that champions spirited and civil debate. Tonight at 11pm ET we are debating this very issue: If technology is making us smarter or dumber.
_____
> *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!*
| 97 |
The rise in political polarization and anti-intellectualism in the West seems to correlate with Internet access.
The Internet, specifically social media, enables people to find echo chambers that reenforce their preconceived notions of how the world is. A creationist who is otherwise engaged with the real world can spend literally every waking hour virtually surrounded by other people who believe that the Earth is 6000 years old.
| 64 |
[Star Wars] Are all members of Yoda's species Force Sensitive?
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I know of three members of Yoda's species (Yoda, Yaddle, and Grogu), and all three of them are force sensitive. Do they all just have Force Sensitivity by chance like everyone else, or are ALL members of the species Force Sensitive?
| 40 |
Those are the only known members of their species so as far as we know, we could say yes. But that’s not really a lot to go on, they could have been a very isolated species that doesn’t get out into the greater galaxy much and the only three we know were pulled into the order.
| 39 |
ELI5: Why do we not feel the weight of water above us in swimming pools?
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If we placed, for example, 100 litres of bottled water on our body when lying flat on the ground we would expect the bottles to feel heavy against our body (pushing down on us). Why is it that when we are at the bottom of a swimming pool with hundreds of litres of water on top of us we feel no such pressure?
| 16 |
You do feel the pressure. You need diving equipment because you feel the pressure. Your ears pop because you feel the pressure. Submarines need to withstand the pressure.
Edit: It occurs to me now that you meant "why don't we get pushed deep underwater because of the pressure above", and the answer to that is that the pressure below you is larger than the pressure above you, so there is actually a force pushing up. This is buoyancy. There's more pressure below you because if there are 100 liters above you, there are more than 100 liters above the bottom of you, if that makes sense.
| 29 |
ELI5: Where exactly does all the fat and especially excess skin go when we lose weight?
|
Does the extra dead skin just fall off at a higher than normal rate? How does the body "know" it doesn't need it anymore?
EDIT: I've marked this as "explained" because the first post did explain it for me, but there is not a secondary question that has popped up: "How much weight loss will result in excess skin on average?" Asked by raisinsmith.
| 15 |
Skin is flexible. It stretches in all sorts of ways.
Fat is also flexible. Fat cells simply get bigger. (although they are replaced, you don't have less than this or more than that, unless all the fat cells are full, in which case, more fat cells will be made... and then destroyed when you don't need the excess cells anymore.)
So when you lose fat, you're losing the contents inside the fat cell. This fat is turned into energy. Your fat literally 'melts' away from being burned as heat and energy and waste products.
Now, when the fat cells get smaller, the skin retracts. Eventually, depending on the person, it can retract back to where it should be.
However, if the skin has been stretched for too long, or for way too much fat, then the skin's elasticity is not as great as it should be, so it will literally be hanging off you. At this point, skin removal surgery is sometimes indicated. Either for asthetic reasons (You don't like it) or actual health reasons (The extra skin is difficult to keep healthy because of it's hanging/folding about)
There ya go.
| 10 |
What is going on in a tree stump immediately after the tree is cut down? Does the stump continue to try to live? Is the tree instantly dead like a human would be if the human suffered something equally catastrophic?
| 225 |
stumps OFTEN try to come back, and succeed.
They rely on stored energy in the roots to produce new shoots that are quickly productive on a small-scale. The root infrastructure for getting water and minerals is still strong.
| 183 |
|
ELI5 - If the brain releases chemicals that paralyse the body during sleep, how come people still turn around many times throughout the night?
| 190 |
That is because sleep always goes in cycles.
These chemicals are released during a REM cycle. You get about 4 of them and they last around 20/30 minutes.
These are the times where your brain activity is high but you get paralyzed becaude otherwise your body would act upon your brain activity.
Otherwise you are not paralyzed but your brain activity is extremely low. These are the times where you turn around.
| 131 |
|
ELI5: Is there a difference between having two 4-hour sleeps or having one 8-hour sleep? Why?
| 151 |
There are four stages of sleep. The last one, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, is what really counts because it's when you really get to rest and recuperate. However, to get there you have to go through the earlier stages and then back out to wake up. If you sleep for 8 hours straight then you spend more time in REM sleep than you would with two 4 hour sleeps.
| 47 |
|
Do North Koreans know how physically tiny their country is?
|
I've noticed that on N. Korean propaganda videos, when the world or a globe is shown, North Korea never is. It got me wondering whether this is done on purpose. If citizens saw how tiny and relatively insignificant the country is (about 1/100th the size of China for example) they may start to question all of the "we are the greatest and most powerful" propaganda.
| 83 |
The better question is, do NK citizens buy *any* of the propaganda, or do they recognize it for what it is and just put up with it?
But a country's size really isn't at issue, after all Germany is the size of Wisconsin and gave the world a run for its money. Economic and industrial capacity and efficiency is more important than size.
| 102 |
How does hair conditioner work, and why do we use it?
| 636 |
Conditioner reduces friction between the strands. The mechanism by which conditioner works is pretty f interesting. The chemical structure of hair has a lot of amino acid cysteine, when washed they tend to gain a negative electrostatic charge due to the removal of a proton. The ingredients in conditioners are attracted to this charge; once attached it helps to lubricate the hair and reduce frizz.
| 895 |
|
Can plants get viruses or transmit them?
| 505 |
Yep! In fact, the first virus to be discovered attacked tobacco plants, the tobacco mosaic virus.
Plant viruses do have to figure out how to get through cell walls, and they have to be able to spread without relying on their hosts moving around, so they're a bit different from viruses who go after animals.
| 442 |
|
[Star Wars] Why was the Force unbalanced? And did Anakin Skywalker bring balance to it?
|
If the Jedi believed the Sith were extinct why did they believe the Force was unbalanced? What balance did they think Anakin would bring? And if he did bring balance how did he do it?
| 15 |
Balancing the Force means removing the taint of the Dark Side from the galaxy, since evil represents a perversion of the intent of the Force.
The Force is the embodiment of life, and the connectivity between all things. The Dark Side is an inversion: selfishness, the accumulation of power with no regard for others.
Anakin balanced the Force by eliminating both himself and the Emperor. An additional argument can be made that he removed the unhealthy corruption of the Late Republic Jedi Order, which had become self-serving and unfocused.
(Breaking the 4th wall: So many people disagree with this answer, but it's straight from George Lucas. It's perfectly possible that the new trilogy will alter this interpretation of the Force, but until then this is about as correct as you could be.)
| 30 |
ELI5: The differences between Pink noise, White noise and Blue noise
| 22 |
The colours of noise are named after light.
White light is made up of all the frequencies of light, so white noise is made up of all the frequencies of sound.
Pink light is low frequency light, so pink noise has more low frequencies.
Blue light is high frequency light, so blue noise has more high frequencies.
To create pink noise, take white noise and use a low pass filter with a slope of 3dB/octave.
| 29 |
|
CMV: a guilty finding in most courts, is a 5-10 year ticket to poverty.
|
This is the kind of population control that exists today, but since it doesn’t affect those who soundly reside in the system, as such, it doesn’t matter to them.
In this case “them” is anyone who can pass a CORI check. It’s really pretty sick; you were bad, so let’s lock you out of good jobs and make you wash dishes. That won’t make a “criminal” even more resentful right?… there are exclusionary tactics EVERYWHERE, and really… the only downside I have against people around me?? Is my criminal record… I work harder, for less money than you. It won’t last.
| 39 |
Prisons don’t need to be like that. Plenty in other countries teach life skills and give rehabilitation therapy to prisoners that don’t land them in poverty.
Also plenty of countries have good safety nets that stop that as well.
What would you like to be done with prisoners? A 5-10 year sentence is usually a severe crime.
| 15 |
CMV: Luxury watches are useless in the practical sense
|
I am not talking about the watch you use time your interval training, or the waterproof watch you bring for diving. I am not even talking about smart watches such as the Apple watch.
I’m talking about the Rolexes. This piece of luxury good is special in that it serves no conceivable practical function as almost everyone carries around a smartphone with them nowadays, even in LEDCs. A sports car can go faster than a Toyota. A big house can give you a sense of spaciousness and comfort. A private yacht can be used to travel on water. The luxury watch, on the other hand, is clearly poorer at telling the time than the synchronised smartphone.
Moreover, since the watch is even more expensive than a smartphone, you would be even more worried of losing it.
Not discussing about it being a status symbol, just the practical functionality. Anyway possessing a status symbol may be viewed positively or negatively by different people. I personally silently judge the people who prefer to put the 20k into a watch than into an ETF.
| 22 |
Do you consider a necktie to be useless in a practical sense? Or makeup? Or tooth whitening toothpaste?
A luxury watch is like any other accessory, it is designed to make us more attractive, either to others or ourselves. A feeling of confidence from looking good can propel you through all kinds of stressful situations, which seems plenty practical to me.
| 12 |
[the culture] are drones human conscience in robotic bodies or are they sentient machines ?
|
And what's this 1:1 intelligence, is it a rating system for how smart a thing is ?
| 52 |
They're sentient machines created and raised in such a way that they can interact with humans in a natural fashion.
It's possible for humans to become drones, but this is considered eccentric and would result in awkward interactions with other drones.
Drones tend to have mental capacity generally similar to humans, or at least within the same order of magnitude, as opposed to Minds who may as well be gods compared to us (they simulate universes for fun, for pete's sake).
It seems drones have a lineage going back all the way to AIs created before the creation of the Culture meta-civilisation, and may well share origins with the Minds.
| 49 |
What happens to the puss in the pimples you don't pop?
| 354 |
Your body reabsorbs it. The pus contains the cells (phagocytes) that eat the intruding microbes or foreign material of some sort. The pus is kind of in a capsule to protect neighboring cells and tissue from further infection. So don't pop it.
Edit: Changes macrophages to phagocytes.
| 180 |
|
ELI5: What is the benefit of making/using charcoal as opposed to regular wood?
|
Why do we make charcoal? I don't see how charcoal could have more potential energy than the original wood it came from since it used to be wood and some of it has already been spent.
| 43 |
While wood has more potential energy, a lot of it is wasted evaporating/boiling water and other noncombustible impurities. By heating wood slowly in the absence of oxygen, these impurities are removed, leaving mostly the combustibles.
This makes charcoal lighter, yet because it is porous and lacks the noncombustibles, it burns at a hotter temperature, hot enough to melt metals like iron.
| 39 |
CMV: Private schools (in the US) either need a lot more regulation and oversight or need to be shut down
|
I went to a private christian school throughout high school and after college I've been married to a wonderful woman who had the misfortune to teach at a private christian school for three years before she finally made the switch to public (starting this year!) Over that time I've noticed some egregious problems with the whole idea of private school:
1. Many of these schools are not run professionally. Many of the schools I've seen and attended were not started as an academic venture, but as a religious one. Parents from some of the local churches wanted a place were their children wouldn't be exposed to outside ideologies so they grouped together and started a school. The boards in charge of these institutions are not elected officials and not trained for the position. They are local church members (usually the most wealthy ones) and a few pastors and deacons. I'll get into the problems this leads to later on in the post. As for the staff themselves I can't speak for all private schools, but in the branch of the ones I've got experience with the teachers aren't even required to have state certification they have their own "denominational" certification that wouldn't work if those teachers wanted to teach at a public school. And in many instances I've seen teachers work at the school without any educational qualifications AT ALL. Pastors teaching history part time and so on.
2. The students aren't always getting a quality education. So you've got a school run by a board of self-serving parents and teachers who don't qualify for public schools and all together it makes a perfect storm of incompetence. I've seen kids take more than a month out of the school year (literally. That's not an exaggeration) to vacation in Europe because their wealthy parents are on the board. I've seen those same kids get special treatment and special assignments to make up for that time. I'm sorry, but two hours worth of homework does not make up for a month of missing class. In one case I've seen a kid call in sick for over five weeks out of the year but nothing was done because it was one of the rare parents that always paid their bills on time. I And in even worse cases outright awful lazy kids are passed though their classes because their parents game the system and harass and threaten the teachers.
3. They are spending class time learning about religion and certain topics like evolution are completely left out of the picture. Sure I agree that they should be able to teach the bible if they want, but this is not some after school class, this is taking up mandated in school time.
So here's my conclusion: Truancy is a crime. I'd say that even those kids that aren't outright skipping class are not learning enough to legally be considered "in school". Either something needs to be done about this or this needs to stop outright. Even if this isn't "every private school" if even one private school faces these problems then they all need the oversight.
_____
> *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!*
| 26 |
You've mentioned several times how the existence of private schools (even a majority of private schools) that perform better than public schools doesn't justify not having oversight.
But government oversight is exactly what gets us *public schools*. You really can't discount the notion that heavy regulation of schools is *exactly* what causes them to suck, and exactly what causes private schools to perform better, on average.
Therefore, your proposal could almost literally be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Do you have any way to know?
We've actually run the experiment. And private schools with less, but certainly not non-existent, regulation are shown to be better, *on average*, than public schools with lots of regulation.
| 17 |
ELI5: Why does a candle need a wick in order for the wax to burn?
|
Wow, this really blew up! Thanks everyone who answered :)
| 1,327 |
The wax doesn't burn while it's solid, or even liquid. It melts and gets sucked up the wick where the heat of the flame boils it and the vapors burn. A big old pool of wax will burn without a wick, but you have to get it super hot first and get it to start boiling and those fumes need to ignite and keep the thing going.
| 1,150 |
[The Matrix] What are the downsides to being in the Matrix?
|
Okay, so you're a prisoner but you have no idea about it, and if you feel like something's wrong then it's nothing more than a nagging itch at the back of your mind. A shrink would probably diagnose you with some kind of disassociative disorder and prescribe some medication.
To over seven billion people, The Matrix is real in every meaningful way, and all of them (give or take a few thousand) apparently suffer not one bit for being a part of it. Why resist The Matrix?
| 19 |
The Matrix enforces arbitrary restrictions which limit human ambitions. One man managed to incur the wrath of several agents just because he broke the 100m record. If humans start to develop an in-Matrix AI, expand to the stars, etc., the machines would step in and say no. The world of the Matrix is stagnant.
| 32 |
How does body hair "measure" its own size and when to stop growing?
|
Body hair has a set length (correct me if i am wrong but afaik it is set in the genes?), but how does a single hair "know" how long it currently is or when to stop growing?
| 36 |
>Body hair has a set length
Close. Each hair has a set **time** for it to grow. After spending that set time growing, it will fall out and a new hair will start growing from the follicle.
So, for instance, if you cut a hair, it won't grow to its full length. Rather, it will keep growing for its set time limit. But with lots of hair all grouped together, and with each hair on a separate "timer" (that is, they're not synchronized), you get the overall appearance of hair regrowing to a set length.
| 36 |
[Superman] Would Superman prefer to live on Earth or Krypton?
|
I'm reminded of a Justice League episode where Superman is stuck living his ideal life. He lives on Krypton and isn't married to Lois. That strikes me as odd for a guy raised on Earth his entire life, but I guess it's not a black and white issue.
| 23 |
I mean, he wants to have grown up at home with his parents on a world that wasn't destroyed. Every kid would. It doesn't mean he doesn't love Ma and Pa, he just sometimes wishes he didn't have to.
He's never looked for a chance to permanently leave Earth to return "home" though. And he had a restored Kryptonian city in a bottle and never moved there. In one instance he imagined Kryptonians resettling on Earth en masse and lead the resistance against them.
So it's not really that he wants to change his current life, he just thinks about how his life might have been different.
| 47 |
ELI5:Why, when we are sick do we take medications meant to lower our fever? Isn't a fever one of the body's ways of fighting infection? Aren't we reducing our immune system's efficacy by doing this?
|
I mean, I know fevers can run high enough to become life-threatening and in that case anti-fever drugs are lifesavers, but short of that it seems to me we should let the body do what it needs to in order to get rid of what's making it ill.
| 120 |
It's an interesting question. No doubt fever is part of our immune response. Fever is the result mainly of cytokines (like the immune systems hormones) released from where the infection in the body is activating the immune system and going through the blood stream to the temperature control center in the brain stem. The increased body temperature can act like a signal to the whole body to go in to a sort of "ready state" where cells downscale some of their activity, while increasing other, in order to prepare and be more resistant to bacterial and viral infections. With the fever comes also the general feeling of malice which will make the individual rest, not use energy more than required. The eleveted body temperature likely is more negative to bacteria and viruses than it is to our own cells.
All this being said there is very little data to support the claim that lowering fever prolongs infectious diseases. In fact it seems it doesn't matter. That must mean that in humans, in our modern society with the infections prevalent and with our current nutrional status etc. fever is not important and can be treated.
I would add that one downside to treating fever too much is that you may trick yourself in to thinking you are well when in fact you are not, which may promote the spread of disease (you go to work or school while you're still infectious) or it could lead to complications arising from too early return to physical activity.
| 44 |
ELI5: Why do radio stations always end in odd decimals?
|
For FM radio anyways
| 49 |
FM radio has a maximum of 100 channels, and each channel is .2 MHz. The strongest signal is at the center frequency so that's what you tune to. 88.1 is actually being broadcast on 88.0-88.2.
They have to be all odd or all even for this to work. Plus, if the stations were closer together they might overlap a bit and not come in clearly.
| 59 |
[Alien] Judging by our current military and defense capabilities of all countries, how many Xenomorphs would it take to overrun the planet?
| 41 |
In one of the books a bus full of fanatics crashed through a research compound hell-bent on being impregnated by these monsters. Within months the planet was swarming with them and people were abandoning Earth. It started with about 20 people.
| 35 |
|
[Star Wars] How many planets are there in the New Republic, and what are those worlds doing right now?
|
There must have been -- thousands? tens of thousands? millions? of planets in the New Republic. The First Order destroyed five of them, in *The Force Awakens*. Why don't the remaining worlds choose new leadership according to whatever the succession laws are, scramble their ships (even with one warship per planet, it adds up to an enormous fleet) and just mop the floor with the First Order?
| 30 |
The thing was, the worlds they blew up included the capital - where pretty much everyone of any political note was.
We don't know how many worlds were in the New Republic. We only know it was smaller than the Galactic Republic, and much more of a loose federation of worlds than its predecessor governments were.
| 30 |
[Star Wars] I am a powerful Force user who chooses to openly follow Sith philosophy as far as the law will permit me without breaking it. Will the Jedi council allow me to embrace my beliefs in peace, including approaching other Force sensitives in the search for my own apprentice?
| 19 |
Jedi Council doesn't go after people just on basis of their religious beliefs. Just look at Nightsisters. Although given that you're a very powerful force user, who practices sith teachings, it won't be long until the law becomes just another chain for you, at which point Jedi would be fully justified in bringing your darksider ass to justice.
| 37 |
|
CMV: A traditional "zombie apocalypse" as media presents it is a practical impossibility.
|
This is really more of a fun one. But most of the time I watch a movie or a TV show of this subject, my cynicism is always nagging me. Ofcourse it's fiction, and creative liberty can be taken, and I am obviously willing to accept some compromises in realism, proportionate to how much fantasy is involved. But in most - 28 Days Later, The Walking Dead, World War Z, and so on, it's just too much for me to swallow.
First off, I'm fairly loose on the definition of traditional - animalistic husks of people, be it actually undead, or still alive but acting as a vector for disease, whether they can run, are limited to a slow walk, or even swim, has no impact in how I would see the outcome. My only major stipulation is that the "disease" is spread physically from infected to uninfected(via a bite or bodily fluid), but I'll also accept the means of simply turning after death as depicted in TWD.
I do not think that primal, unthinking, unarmed creatures could overrun the human race. Almost every advantage possible goes to us. How on earth is a being, who's potentially only means of reproduction, is also their number one predator, and one of their primary sources of food, supposed to survive? Even if they don't need to feed, and we remove that from equation, it's still just a ridiculous notion. They have to seek out "prey" that is incomparably more intelligent than them, sometimes, far faster than them, and significantly more armed than them. It wouldn't be so bad, if humans didn't have access to weapons that can put zombies down from 300 meters away, or means of defence that are untouchable, be it in the form armoured vehicles and aircraft. A hallmark of the genre seems to involve characters walking amidst the ruins of military hardware, and it's like the writers just want to flaunt the sheer implausibility of it all. Even with the full surprise factor afforded to a zombie horde, the disarray it could cause shouldn't be any match for the might of modern day communications.
It would be like engaging in WW1 over-the-top trench warfare against an enemy you have zero understanding of, with no comprehension for what kind of firepower lies in wait for you above the parapet, completely unable to communicate with your comrades, and armed only with your hands. These questions have over time generated a weird kind of hatred for the genre. I still find them fun to watch, but I have to switch my brain off and bite my tongue half the time.
| 22 |
>World War Z
Have you actually read the book World War Z? Or have you just seen the ~~movie~~ unrelated cash grab? Because the book World War Z actually addresses a lot of the points you make.
In addition, there are a lot of variations in how the story is told. True, something like *28 Days Later* is unlikely to work, because in that movie people don't automatically become rage zombies on death, they can only become a rage zombie by being bitten or coming into contact with the fluids of another rage zombie. But worlds like *The Walking Dead*, *WWZ*, and *Z Nation* actually have something you're missing that would make a zombie apocalypse possible (even if it still might be unlikely, depending on the specifics): *everybody who dies becomes a zombie*.
That means that every person who dies, of natural causes or otherwise, becomes an undead creature who only desires to harm the living. In WWZ in particular, even the long dead and buried come back to life. This means that even people who have no contact with zombies have the potential to add to the horde.
In addition, the zombies in WWZ are basically immune to all methods of termination aside from total destruction (burning them to a pile of ashes) or well-placed headshots (has to actually destroy substantial portions of the brain, not just touch the brain). They also feel no fear, can't be bought, can't be reasoned with, and do not tire. A well-placed grenade may take out a dozen or so zombies if you're extremely lucky, but not only will those who don't get hit in the head keep on walking towards you, but the rest of the swarm will just keep on swarming. They don't have morale like humans do. Again, WWZ goes into much greater detail.
In short, while some versions of the "Zombie plague" have basically zero chance of causing the end of civilization, other versions would be much much more difficult to deal with than you're implying. (This is also setting aside the human element, i.e. human panic and survival instinct making things worse).
| 14 |
[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]Why would anyone choose to follow Chairman Yang?
|
I mean, the faction description outright says "brutal serfdom". If it's the appeal of an orderly society, Miriam and Santiago offer that. If it's about not letting archaic morality stand in the way of human progress, Zacharov offers that.
| 33 |
You've escaped a dying Earth, only to have your spaceship suffer a critical systems failure shortly before arriving at your destination. You're not particularly keen on the notion of a divine plan at this point. Santiago does seem to have what it takes to survive in a cruel, uncaring universe, but the militancy is a bit off-putting. You don't want to pit yourself against your fellow humans until you're all dead - you want to work *with* them to achieve something greater. You want to be a *part of something.* Zacharov doesn't care about humanity - he just needs people to run his science experiments. But Yang...Yang has a vision. A world where every single human has a place where they belong. Where every single human *matters* to the greater whole. What could be better than that?
| 30 |
[Dune] Why did the Emperor give Duke Leto of House Atreides the planet Arrakis if he was only going to let the Harkonnens attack them later on even giving the Harkonnens ferocious Sardaukar troops in disguise. Why not just attack the Duke on his home planet of Caladan?
|
The Emperor sees House Atreides as a potential future rival and threat, and conspires with House Harkonnen, currently in charge of spice harvesting on Arrakis and longstanding enemies of House Atreides among the other Great Houses of the Landsraad, to destroy Leto and his family after their arrival. Leto is aware his assignment is a trap of some kind, but cannot refuse. But what was the trap? It just seems the Emperor just partnered up with the Harkonnens to attack House Atreides. If he could do that, why not attack the Duke and his family on his homeplanet and skip the whole Dune planet scheme? Or just make up trumped up charges against the Duke and execute him after a fake trial?
| 87 |
The whole reason for giving the Atreides the planet is to set them up for the knockdown. Atreides is a very popular house...and that makes all the other houses and the Emperor jealous and fearful. Everyone thinks Atreides is succeeding at what they are all trying to scheme into: intergalactic power consolidation. The Emperor is afraid of the popular house overthrowing him with the support of the other houses, the other houses are afraid Atreides has some secret dealings with the Emperor and who knows how many allied houses to consolidate more intergalactic power. Think crab in a bucket to the nth degree.
The emperor cant attack Atreides openly or on their homeworld as hee has to make it seem like a petty house feud, otherwise all the jealous houses feigning surprise will have no fig leaf to hide behind when Atreides is struck down and will be able to enact schemes of their own with the imperial attack on a house homeworld as justification.
Same goes for harkonen attacking the atreides homeworld.
Its schemes within schemes within schemes.
| 97 |
ELI5: Why do people trust journalists when they say off the record? What's stopping the journalists from printing what they talked about?
| 342 |
Nothing is stopping them from printing such things, except the potential damage to their reputation. A journalist that gets a reputation for always printing stuff that was said 'off the record', will find it very hard to get people to agree to do interview with them / tell them anything else off the record. And when interviewing people is your livelihood, that is not a good reputation to have.
| 304 |
|
ELI5: Why do certain toys and boardgames have an upper age limit, usually 99.
| 25 |
For games designed for very young children, the mechanics might not be engaging for those who are older. Candy Land is great for a 3-year-old to learn colors. Not so much fun for a 12-year-old.
For those with a high limit such as 99, it's simply a lighthearted joke, as they usually say from 9 - 99. If 100-year-old gran gran wants to join in, pull up a chair for her.
| 43 |
|
CMV: Felons should be allowed to vote
|
I think, personally, that felons should be allowed to vote. It is a human right for someone to vote for their government, and is listed as such in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (I've forgotten which article). Just because someone makes some decisions, no matter how bad, doesn't take away their status as a living, breathing, human being and should not have their inalienable rights as people taken away. If this is a right that all humans have, taking the right away from them is denying them status as a human being, and a violation of their rights.
I think this is further exacerbated by the fact that many felonies (or at least in the US, not sure how this applies in other nations), are not inherently... bad. Possession of a certain amount of marijuana (varying by state IIRC), heroin, or MDMA, for example is a felony. Someone who simply wanted to exercise their right to put a certain substance in their body could have their human right taken away and thus have no say in the governing bodies that decide what happens to them as a felon.
edit (7.1 1:30 EST) hey guys, thanks for changing my view, i have no fucking idea what to believe anymore
_____
> *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!*
| 119 |
> Just because someone makes some decisions, no matter how bad, doesn't take away their status as a living, breathing, human being and should not have their inalienable rights as people taken away.
You also have inalienable rights to privacy, free movement and assembly, free speech, etc. All of these are taken away when you're sent to prison. Should felons be sent to prison?
| 34 |
[Marvel] How does Galactus eat?
|
Obviously he consumes planets. But how? Do we know?
Like does he just grab a planet and take a literal bite out of it?
| 323 |
He absorbs the life force of a planet. He will sometimes use an elemental converter to transform a planet into pure energy in order to make his feeding easier, but he can consume energy on his own as well.
| 255 |
eli5 how does red blue and green lights in screens create a white light and all other colors?
|
how does this work in phones?
| 18 |
We know how human eyes work. They have rods and cones, and the colour sensitivity is to red, green, and blue. So we built computer screens with those colours to basically stimulate those things in your eyes exactly the way we want them. It's not perfect, but it's close enough.
If we were a different species with different eyes, screens would be built differently. Thankfully animals don't watch TV or use phones.
| 29 |
[Starcraft] Why is copper sulfate so important?
|
The minerals are made out of [copper sulfate](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Copper_sulfate.jpg) but why is it so important? Is everything a copper alloy?
| 32 |
Oh no no no... They may LOOK like Copper Sulfate, but the mineral deposits you see are actually a super dense quantum-morphic substance which, when exposed to electrical current, can be reconfigured at a subatomic level to form any element you could need. They're literally a poor-mans matter compiler.
| 50 |
[DC Comics] Why did the Guardians switch the Green Lantern Corps to an inferior ring?
|
This needs some explanation, so bear with me for a moment.
The modern Green Lantern Rings are constantly draining their power, but last for over twenty-four hours. They can make nearly anything, as long as the wielder can imagine it and will it into being. They are, quite possibly, the most powerful weapons in the universe.
However, the rings they had beforehand, before Hal Jordan murdered the Corps, were far superior. Yes, they were locked into a 24-hour recharge period, but they had *infinite* power between recharge periods. They were incapable of running out. They were also capable of insane feats, such as cutting planets in half, holding them together, erasing people's memories or altering their minds, forcefully evolving/de-evolving beings, protection from *any* injury that would be lethal (provided it didn't come from a yellow source), breach dimensional barriers, and, despite longstanding belief, Hal Jordan proved that the original rings *could* affect the color yellow. But he never really managed to make it work again until the new rings explicitly lacked that weakness.
The change occurred when Kyle Rayner was handed a power ring after Hal's destruction of the Corps. Operating on its own power, it wasn't limited by the 24 hour limit, lacked the yellow weakness, but lacked the protection from mortal harm and had a finite amount of energy it could store at once. Kyle also didn't use it for many of the crazy things that the original Corps did, but that could be a lack of knowledge/initiative on his part.
So, when the Corps was reborn, why the sudden switch from the rings of the past to the less powerful, less protective rings used in the New Corps' span?
| 51 |
Quite simply, because the great Power Battery no longer holds Parallax prisoner. Before he escaped and merged with Hal Jordan, the power battery was engineered not only to provide the lanterns with energy, but also to keep Parallax contained. His will, though borne from fear, is mighty, and was able to sustain the Power Battery much more efficiently at the cost of rendering it useless against objects that reflected the yellow light of fear.
| 73 |
ELI5: Why do we hiccup?
| 154 |
This is a surprisingly great question.
It may be related to a time when our ancestors were sea creatures transitioning to living on land and it may represent a reflex to help clear our breathing system of water.
Or, it may be a reflex that mammals developed to help get air out of the stomach; air introduced when suckling - something that mammals do and no other kind of animal does (and only mammals, as far as we know, hiccup).
| 48 |
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CMV: Transgender rights is a low priority issue and the left should divert its political capital elsewhere for now
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First off I think there are issues that dwarf it in importance.
* You're not going to be able to get your transition meds if you can't afford healthcare.
* Is your gender identity really going to matter much when climate change hits in full swing?
* You're not going to be able to be your true gender if you're in working poverty.
* Is it really ok for soldiers to die in pointless aggressive wars, as long as some of those soldiers are transgender?
* Will getting more trans people into politics matter much if they're up against vast amounts of corporate $, running in gerrymandered districts, with their votes counted on Diebold voting machines without a paper trail?
I know it's possible to focus on more than one issue at a time. However while many of the issues I mentioned above are low hanging fruit that are even popular among self identifying conservatives (like Medicare for All, or raising the minimum wage), transgender rights is not.
It has all the hallmarks of a losing political issue:
1. It only concerns a very small % of the population. MtF and FtM are a tiny %, and other gender concepts even smaller still. Furthermore that small % of the population seem to be concentrated in "liberal" areas - people who are transgender or care about transgender issues are likely to be liberals already. It's so rare that people won't see themselves in transgender people, or will find it very easy not to and to "other" them instead.
2. It can be seen to contradict prior progressive ways of thinking, like "gender doesn't matter" and "don't judge a book by its cover". People who have strained themselves to accept that girls can do all the things boys can, will now have to strain themselves all over again, and won't take kindly to ending up in the "bigot" category.
3. It relies on relatively recent and advanced concepts in the humanities and medical science that are beyond the understanding of a majority of the population. One key scientific claim behind the movement is that men and women have different brains and transgender brains correspond with their identified gender; [this is the subject of scientific debate](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/06/male-female-brains-biologically-different/563702/). This is in a society where things like evolution and climate change still get debated. Even people who pretend to understand it may not actually, and people pretending to be on board with an issue is a huge political risk.
4. It isn't a "live and let live" issue (like gay rights) as it asks the rest of the population to change their behaviour, and tells them that not only the things they say, but the way they think is wrong. They may be minor things like "state your name and pronouns" at events, or needing to tiptoe around things that could once be assumed to be gender specific like pregnancy and mensturation, or referring to a person you met as "they" in very strained sentences. The issue arises when people have to "educate themselves" and "get with the program". Marketers, policy makers, political strategists all know that this is incredibly difficult and irritating for the average person. People who feel frustrated by "political correctness" are a very rich vein for politicians to tap into. It pays to be the politician telling you that your subconscious is right; that the masculine looking person in a dress is what you think they are and not what you've been told they are.
5. There are aspects of it that are quite frankly offensive to the average persons sensibilities. Concepts like "uncanny valley" are real things, and pictures and videos of normal parts of transgender life are NSFL. This can change over time, but it's a very slow process (consider how long it took for something as benign as gay kissing to make it to mainstream tv and cinema). This would be fine, except...
6. It combines those things with children. Many people are far more conservative when it comes to children than they are with society is general. You may be ok with adults doing what they want to themselves but draw the line at children, because that's something parents are enabling, and to top it all off many of the things are irreversible. On top of that, the rapid rise of people's awareness of this issue will make people think "fad". Once you get to this nexus, it can turn a disagreement into a crusade.
There are many more issues; all that's to say that it's an uphill battle and will need to be a marathon. Meanwhile progressives really can't afford to lose again, and issues like voter suppression and climate change are immediate and existential threats.
I usually tend to disagree with "small target" strategies, but this particular issue seems to be political poison. In return for taking a major stand on it, it doesn't seem like it's going to win over any new voters or convert many voters into volunteers/activists (I'd be very happy to have my view changed on the latter point - please share your stories). If it all goes well, a tiny % of the population are better off, but it's going to be hard to make it go well.
To be clear I don't blame transgender people for the issue rising to the forefront of politics; I think republicans brought up bathroom bills and other attacks on transgender people as a trap. If they get the people on either "side" all worked up about it, society can fracture along this issue in the republicans favour. The goal is for people with a wide variety of views to vote entirely along the lines of who'll keep boys out of the girls locker room or women's boxing; [the divide is there](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/08/transgender-issues-divide-republicans-and-democrats/) with an overall majority opposing the idea of gender identity, but it's not clear whether it actually changes votes.
However if you see a trap in front of you, you better have a plan when you walk straight into it. For now it seems like the best strategy is to steer clear.
| 133 |
If standing up for trans people is the right thing to do, why should we set it aside? To be clear, there is no real reason we cannot tackle all the problems you listed *and* protect trans rights. And as they say in the BPRD, "in the absence of light, darkness prevails".
The fact of the matter is, the left should continue to push for trans rights and protections because trans people deserve rights and need protections. Is it as big or pressing an issue as climate change? Maybe not, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be on the to do list.
| 49 |
ELI5: How are we able to bleed from anywhere on our body when veins, arteries, and capillaries are in set places?
|
Yeah, the title
How are we able to bleed from anywhere on our body (when cut/injured)?
| 25 |
It's possible to poke a needle through several layers of skin and not bleed. Presumably you've had a papercut at some point too?
But beyond that, the veins you can see are the main ones, but they get regressively smaller in a fractal sort of pattern as they branch off from the main ones. If you cut a bigger vein you get more blood out of it.
Think about it this way. Every single square centimetre of your body needs blood to operate. If it doesn't get that blood it dies, so the blood has to be everywhere.
| 22 |
ELI5: What happens when you crack your knuckles? Is it bad for you?
| 647 |
In and around your joints is a very special fluid called "synovial fluid." This fluid is like oil or lubricant for the joints. This fluid kind of feels like egg yolk and it is great at making sure your joints don't grind together and hurt. This fluid is made by a kind of skin or membrane inside your joints called a "synovial membrane." Now this fluid is pretty cool. It not only oils up the joints but it also protects them from damage. The fluid becomes kind of tough when a force is put on it and immediately goes back to normal when the force is gone (**edit** for those of you wondering this is called a *shear thickening* fluid or a *dilatant*). Synovial fluid also contains quite a few gases like the oxygen you breath in and the carbon dioxide, which you breathe out. The fluid also contains nutrients and so the fluid helps put good stuff into the cells it touches (and cartilage) and takes the waste out, like carbon dioxide.
When you crack your knuckles you are making a small separation between your joints. This separation increases the volume of the space that your synovial fluid likes to sit in (since you are pushing your bones up and down more than they usually go). Now synovial fluid likes to fill up the entire space it sits in, by quickly making the volume or space larger it creates what we call a "negative pressure" like a vacuum almost around around the fluid. When this happens there isn't enough fluid to fill the space so it gets filled by the gases in the fluid. Usually the gases stay in the fluid (they stay in solution like when you dissolve salt in water) but the gas only stays in the fluid (at body temperature) under a certain pressure, when you decrease the pressure the gas gets to escape. This forms a bunch of bubbles that quickly pop and make the cracking sound you hear.
So far as science knows cracking knuckles don't damage your fingers in any lasting way. The fluid does a really good job of protecting and lubricating your joints and as long as those synovial membranes are healthy you will keep making more.
| 1,095 |
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