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[Daredevil] How does Daredevil even compare to heroes like Spider-Man?
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It seems all his powers are just a somewhat more diverse Spidey-Sense... but he's also blind...
It seems that Daredevil would be a hardly on-par Superhero even if he could, y'know, see? His powers are really just hear and smell good, which wouldn't be all that important if he had... eyes...
I feel like he could be a lot more effective if he could just see with upped reaction times from a lifetime of boxing. The fighting skills are all him, it just feels like a mediocre trade off, sight in exchange for better hearing that he can use to see.
| 101 |
Why else do you think the Avengers have been pretty much ignoring him?
He *isn't* on their level. He's mostly a detective with specific goals and missions, he's not like Spider-Man patrolling the city of Captain America leading global counter-terror missions.
| 153 |
Is there anyway besides suicide to opt out of society?
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If society is a social contract how does one opt out? There is no where to go, all land is owned by other people. It doesn't seem that there is any way to survive without partaking in human society on at least some level.
| 38 |
There is lots of wilderness. For example, Northern Canada has vast regions where no one lives. If you really know how to fish and hunt and live off the land, you could survive in this wilderness all alone, until, say, you break a leg. However, few human beings could survive the loneliness.
The very fact that you are reaching out across the internet for social contact suggests to me you aren't ready.
| 36 |
CMV: Being recorded at work is a huge invasion of privacy and is very degrading.
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I've been struggling with this issue for the last 2 days because I started a new WFH job in which a webcam was included in the package sent to me.
I've been WFH for 3 years and have been working in call centers for 4.5 years. I usually last an average of 1.5 years before I quit and move on.
This would be the first time that I am required by a company to actively record me in the comfort of my own home. The micromanagement seems pretty tight.
The company in question is a fortune 500 company that operates in the US and Europe. They're just another corporation that deals with liability (FMLA, Disability, etc.)
I'm familiar with this field and during the interview I was actually hired on the spot. They are paying me $22 an hour with benefits and bonuses included. That's right, its just taking calls, no selling, no commission required since it is customer service, not sales.
I should consider myself lucky to have this job and I am grateful for the opportunities provided by them but they never told me they were gonna record me with a webcam and surprise, surprise! I'm being recorded on the job!
This has been distressing for me because now I feel like I'm constantly in a rush because now I am *forced* to organize myself, buy groceries, wake up an hour before work and prepare myself for the day, like my entire routine has been upset because of this and I have been losing sleep at night because of the thought that this may be the future of labor. I feel my privacy is being violated and there's nothing I can do about it. The mere fact that I am being put under a microscope is affecting my life decisions because now my life revolves around a webcam and I have accomodate *everything* because of it.
I mean, I *shouldn't* complain because the company is investing a lot in me but something doesn't sit right with me and that seems to be at the core of my issue with this because I feel like I'm giving up my right to privacy over some corporation that is seeking to turn a profit.
This would be different than, for example, joining the army since they discipline you in defense of the state, not running a business, so I can see why the army would do something like that.
But then I think about other perspectives, such as celebrities (Britney Spears, etc.) and politicians who are used to being pressured by the press showering them with cameras for the sake of accountability and entertainment and don't have much privacy.
But then I think about Amazon drivers being recorded on the job, among other things and I think in the next couple of years companies are gonna start following that trend and it worries me.
So I don't know how I feel about being recorded on the job. I *guess* there would be pros and cons but I think this will open doors to abuse by controlling entities. They always have a way of getting what they want at the end of the day.
Maybe they should replace their employees with machines if they're gonna be like that. Seriously, can anyone really last a year in this job with this level of micromanagement? How can a person's body and mind hold out long-term dealing with back-to-back calls while being put in a box?
CMV
| 544 |
I could use some clarity on the part where you say you are forced to prepare yourself for work, buy groceries and wake up early to organize yourself for the day. Would you otherwise be getting groceries or lunch while on the clock? Are you saying you’d typically be getting ready in the morning after your shift has started or are you just spending additional time trying to look presentable due to the camera?
| 181 |
ELI5:What is MSG and why is it bad?
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I love Chinese food but I always hear from my family and friends that it's really bad because of all the MSG in it. Is it really that bad for you or is it just a urban myth?
| 17 |
MSG, or monosodium glutamate, has been used as a food additive for a long time.
Long story short, no scientific study has found any conclusive evidence that MSG has a harmful effect, even in studies conducted on subjects who reported an 'MSG sensitivity.' Studies conducted on lab mice found the lethal dosage of MSG was five times larger than that of ordinary table salt.
| 24 |
ELI5: water storage in aquifer. Is it possible to put water back into a natural aquifer for storage? As it sounds as though we are draining many basins, but also building new water storage projects, can we not just use existing aquifers?
| 54 |
Yes, this is possible and being done in many areas. In Portland, Oregon, for example, large pumps in the Columbia River inject water into a shallow aquifer during winter high flows which is used for the city water supply in late summer.
Several factors govern the feasibility of this storage method: the depth of the aquifer, the porosity of the geology, the rate of water withdrawals, etc. if the aquifer is deep below ground, pumping costs may be prohibitive. If the geology isn’t porous enough, the recharge rate may be too slow to store much water in the near-term (natural recharge of aquifers can take hundreds - thousands of years in many cases). In many areas, water withdrawals from aquifers are so large that it is impossible to replace the volume of water removed. These are ‘overdrawn’ aquifers where the water table drops every year with associated pumping cost increases. Eventually, water quality and volume degrades to the point it is no longer worth pumping.
| 47 |
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I think drinking is not okay, especially for high school kids.
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1) Drinking only gives you temporary reprieve when you feel awkward in these situations. If you were able to get your own social fears by yourself or find your own courage or learn to relax by yourself, that courage/new ability to cope in social situations would stick with you as opposed to going away when you aren't under the influence anymore. Turning to these substances for reprieve seems very weak to me. Being bale to cope in these situations by yourself seems to show much more strength than relying on drinks.
2) Even if someone speaks their mind while drunk, its not WHO they are. Who you are is not your thoughts, its what you think mixed with what you choose to say. Someones who drunk says whats on their mind which is changing who they are even if for a small period of time.
3) Obvious reasons such as lack of judgement, possible drunk driving accidents, making a mistake, illegal, and being pushed into a sexual situation.
4) One can argue that things like video games and book change you mentally too just like drinking does. I.E an inspiring character in a book inspires you to be more confident and alcohol making you more confident, although the product in the same in both situations, the means of achieving it are not the same in the way that drinking physically changes you while being exposed to new ideas in like books and stuff present you with new ideas and give you the choice to act on it and the products stick with you in one case and not the others
Tl;Dr: In summation, drinking is not okay because it gives you only temporary bravery and stuff when acting as a social lubricant, it changes who you are as a person, and it promotes weakness. There's also the obvious like drunk driving and bad decisions. It also isn't necessary and every possible possible effect it could have on you is able to be accomplished through other means.
I want to prematurely thank you guys because I'm very obdurate in my view of this but I really want to change it to help me be more accepting of what others around me do. Please help my change my view!
| 25 |
I think you mean getting drunk. It doesn't seem like your post says anything against drinking. Do you think there's something wrong with having a glass of wine or a beer or two at dinner or when hanging out with friends?
| 16 |
How much delta-v would you need to escape a gravity well like the one in Intersteller?
|
It seems like no human spacecraft in the present or near future would be capable of escaping such an insane amount of gravity. Would the gravity well that created a 23 year time gap require a planet to be so massive that no human could live for a short spacewalk on it? What formulas and method would you use to calculate it?
| 44 |
That orbit is so extreme that it doesn't even exist. Orbits are unstable below 3 schwarzschild radii.
The velocity you would need to escape from that radius (ignoring the orbit) is immense, it's well relativistic. In this regime, it doesn't make much sense to still talk about Δv.
| 19 |
Which programming language will force you to learn the most advanced math as you progress through it?
|
I was thinking C++ or Haskell.
My goal is to prepare myself for advanced maths (Calculus I/II, Differential Equations) and have something I can throw at research in pharmaceutical research. I heard Pascal mentioned for someone who struggled with math their entire life, but can super focus when they're interested in something.
I have basic exposure to R, but it's not something I'm really interesting in: more interested in building the actual software that can interface with an even more advanced algorithm developed by colleagues.
| 19 |
The math you implement in a program isn't really dependent upon the language at all. Any language worth its salt is going to support just about any reasonably straightforward operations (eg addition, subtraction, multiplication, logarithms, exponents, etc.) Any extra features beyond these (eg solving systems of equations, finding antiderivatives, etc.) are going to be found (if at all) in some library written for that language, but not as a built-in part of the language itself.
That being said, some languages can be better suited for certain types of computations (eg python can handle numbers waaaaaaaay larger than just your standard 32 bit integers you have in most languages.)
| 37 |
Why is titanium dioxide used in supplements?
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What other purposes would Titanium dioxide serve in a supplement other than colour enhancement/ whitener?
| 31 |
I believe that it can also serve as an anti-caking additive, similar to the use of SiO2. TiO2 is a fine white powder that is primarily used as a white pigment and/or visual enhancement additive. No idea if it is actually specifically used for anything other than pigmentation as a food additive, but I'd guess that it could have the additional benefit of reducing caking.
| 16 |
[The Incredibles 1] why didn't the guy who tried to kill himself just try to kill himself again instead of suing Mr incredible for preventing his suicide?
| 37 |
Sometimes people attempt suicide when they see no purpose in continuing their life. That man found a new purpose in exposing and curbing the incredible dangers presented by the actions of supers. He probably also developed a grudge against Mr. Incredible and didn't want to die without getting his revenge.
| 64 |
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CMV: Companies like Gillette and Pepsi disseminate controversial ads that will upset their consumer base on purpose
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The new Gillette “be better” ad sparked backlash from some conservative leaning consumers of their razors/male hygiene products, but will this affect sales in the long term? Companies like Gillette/P&G do not sell direct to consumer or end user of their product, but instead to wholesalers/retailers like Walmart who sell to consumers.
These controversial ads themselves have a short hold on the collective public attention and likely don’t affect short term buying habits of a Walmart or a CVS. Realistically, any public outcry with have a short lifespan as well and any potential changes in consumer buying habits will be minimal and unnoticeable to wholesalers/retailers. However, the average/mass majority of consumers who aren’t triggered by the ad might be more likely to keep the brand Gillette in the front of their mind the next time they’re buying razors. Unconsciously, the average buyer will be more familiar with the product and thus more likely to buy.
| 144 |
Not at all. Companies are in it to make money, that is all. Gillette doesn’t give two shits about how men treat women. What they do give a shit about is that right now women are their target audience.
Gillette charges far more for women’s razors than men’s razors, even though they cost the same to produce. Women feel like the “need” a woman’s razor so they have not flocked to places like Dollar Shave Club like men have. Times have changed and women are now Gillette’s primary customer.
They are not pissing off men on purpose. They are catering to women. The idea is that women watch the advertisement and say “this is a company that cares about women” even though the advertisement is critical of men.
It’s all about the dollars. Nothing more.
| 102 |
[General] Why is there gravity inside spaceships?
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Why is there always gravity (or what appears to be gravity) inside spaceships. This is prevalent in Star Wars, Star Trek, pretty much every Sci-fi media, and it's always bugged me.
We never see any sign of artificial gravity while inside spaceships, and it seems the instant the characters step outside for a spacewalk they are in zero gravity. What gives?
| 16 |
Most kinds of "artificial gravity" rely on a conceit like Mass Effect fields or "gravity plating".
Newer sci-fi (the Martian, Red Mars, and Halo, for instance) have ships with rotating toruses intended to simulate gravity via centripetal force.
When you move between toruses you experience different levels of gravity. In Halo they use special "gravity gyms" to get buff, while in Red Mars they use it to adjust to what it will be on Mars (.3G). On military vessels these toruses would be hidden behind layers of armor; the UNSC Halcyon is a pretty good example.
Magnetism can also produce gravity fields, however, you need extreme cold to keep the magnets superconductive (which drains power). This was actually the underlying conflict in 2009's Avatar; the humans wanted "Unobtanium" (stupid name) because it was a room temperature super-conductor. Just recently a device was made to levitate a small mouse using magnetism, thereby producing a 1G field to cancel out the Earth's gravity, so it is possible.
String theory posits that gravity and electromagnetism unify in hidden dimensions, however, no one knows how to manipulate this.
| 25 |
[DC] Do people have theories about Superman's alien-ness?
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In most incarnations of the DC universe, Superman is usually one of the first public alien figures. Most people know that he's from a planet called Krypton, the works.
Does the public or the media have theories or debates about him based on his extraterrestrial origins?
Examples:
Does he actually have a human appearance, or is it a disguise because his true form would frighten us? Is he even truly a "male" as humans would understand it? Maybe he's actually some sort of jellyfish!
Are his powers natural or the result of advanced technology?
Is his genial act genuine, or is it an act that covers an alien mindset that humanity can never truly comprehend? Is he protecting people out of the goodness of his heart, or is humanity somehow important for him/his species?
...and so on.
Are discussions like this common? If so, what is the prevailing opinion?
| 39 |
In the New 52, when the government came looking for the alien who crashlanded in Smallville, Jonathan and Martha pass off a miscarried calf born with two extra legs as the alien. Years later, when Lex Luthor and General Lane are holding Superman captive, Lex shows him the calf and demands to know if that's his true form. Recognizing the calf from his parents' story, Superman just starts laughing at him.
| 49 |
CMV: Automation is something we should be pushing for in society and not discouraging, and in the ENDGAME, more jobs taken by robots is better
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TLDR: 10% of jobs being taken by robots is bad for workers, 20% is worse, but 100% is fantastic and should be a goal of countries
Automation is a rising situation in the U.S and other countries, and truck drivers for example fear losing their jobs due to self driving cars. I understand the fear, but the bigger picture is the fact that robots will soon be able to do everything, and in the endgame we won’t have to work at all, or better yet, people will only work on things they actually have a passion for.
I think so many people look at the dark nearby future and don’t open their eyes to the brighter future, self driving cars exist, self checkouts exist, robots to clean exist, and if you told the Egyptians an iPhone would exist in the future they’d think that was ridiculous, so I 100% think everything will be able to be done VIA robots sooner then we think.
In a world where robots literally can gather materials and build houses, plant and maintain crops and deliver them, cook, teach, work ETC, humanity’s only goal in life would be their passions, such as arts, music, and working jobs they WANT to work. Teachers would still exist, judges would too, surgeons, builders ETC, except these people would love their jobs and willingly be doing them, and money might not even be necessary anymore.
It’s a bold future that seems unrealistic until you keep thinking back to the Egyptian iPhone example.
I think the government would have a new role to maintain these robots and make sure operations run smoothly, and control things such as how big a house robots can build for people, how much food we can take and so on, although everyone would still have an abundance more then they’d ever need.
The problem is the transition to fully automatic society, not robots stealing jobs in general
| 31 |
The problem isn't the robots "taking" the jobs. The problem is the companies/governments not changing the way income is generated leaving people without the means to purchase or utilize all the products automation could provide. It's inevitable that 30% of ALL jobs will be automated with in 12 years. Trucks drivers are going to be one of the first to go. Unfortunately, a CEO's primary concern isn't the severance package and skill re-training of the now obsolete human drivers. The concern is how to maximize profits for shareholders in the next quarter.
| 14 |
CMV: All labels to identify activists or certain groups of people in general (ex.Feminist, ANTIFA, Alt-Right, Liberal) are hurting society more than they are helping.
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I strongly believe terms used to identify large groups of people who support a certain cause used to show simply where you stood in the discussion, in recent years, however, they have been used to identify a person.
Social Media has perpetuated this judge a book by its cover mindset, allowing these terms to make 2-dimensional caricatures out of regular people that, at times, have opinions that don’t completely align with the group they are supporting, but they are lumped in with the group as a whole anyway. These labels have become stereotypes, something we’re supposed to avoid as a civilized society, so that the country doesn’t divide into tribal mentality. When someone doesn’t like an opinion of another person, instead of discussing it, they label one another, “Well you’re just a filthy liberal/alt-right because of that opinion,” this is incredibly detrimental to society.
For us to unify the US again we need to relinquish these labels all together, or at least give them less power, so that we can go back to discussing issues civilly. These stereotypes/labels give the opposite effect of turning people towards their causes, because the public’s view of them is easily manipulated and they are shown as more radical in the media than some actually are.
We need to go back to when we understood that people are individuals with their own thoughts and opinions, and that grouping people simplifies an individual dramatically, allowing hate and prejudice to fill in the blanks.
Change my view if you believe that the current way society identifies people actually benefits us in any way.
| 124 |
It depends on helping who? Labels help politicians to dehumanize the “enemy” and getting their own faithful to the polls. We are living in time when political discussion is focused on turning out the voters, not changing opinions, and scaring people by pointing out vicious “feminists” or bloodthirsty “gun nuts” gets voters excited.
| 14 |
ELI5: Why do cheap knockoffs slightly change the name of the product (e.g. "Rolex" -> "Rqlex"), when the result it still violating trademarks by using logos and such? If you're going to violate trademarks anyway, why not go all the way?
| 18 |
One possible answer: at least if you call it something else, you aren't committing fraud. Trademark infringement isn't a criminal issue, but fraud may be, if you are actually tricking people and claiming it is the real thing.
Another possible answer: the people who create knockoffs aren't necessarily the brightest bulbs in the Christmas tree, and may think that changing a letter actually does absolve them of civil legal liability.
A third possible answer: Chinese law, or whereever these knockoffs are from, may have greater protections for a product that is a variation rather than a carbon copy, and may force a plaintiff to prove more to win a lawsuit.
| 19 |
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Would there be a benefit to putting solar panels above the atmosphere?
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So to the best of my knowledge, here is my question. The energy output by the sun is decreased by traveling theough the atmosphere. Would there be any benefit to using planes or balloons to collect the energy from the sun in power cells using solar panels above the majority of the atmosphere where it could be a higher output? Or, would the energy used to get them up there outweigh the difference from placing them on the earth's surface?
| 4,120 |
The atmosphere is largely transparent to visible light, which is the range most conventional photovoltaics use. If located higher there could be a marginal increase (ignoring other factors at the moment) because there would be a few percent more of that light, however without the atmosphere blocking the more energetic wavelengths like UV the cells degrade requiring you to add thicker shielding/glass to mimic the effect of the atmosphere.
Additionally photovoltaics have a reduced efficiency when hot, which is a concern when they are being hit by useless wavelengths (which normally the atmosphere blocks) that only heat the panels and contribute nothing to the actual generation of power while also having very little to no medium to assist in transferring that heat away
Finally you'd need a way to get that power from the panels back down to the ground, which could be done in a variety of ways, but realistically it's not practical from an engineering or cost perspective when you want the power at ground level in the first place.
| 1,372 |
[Star Trek] What's there to stop civilians or non-Federation species from making first contact with the pre-warp planets all willy-nilly?
| 23 |
You gotta remember the Federation is a post scarcity socialist utopia. (Hard to tell from all the grimdark interpretations of modern Trek.) There's very little to gain as a civilian to break the Prime Directive. Other Empires will but the 3 "powers" of the Alpha quadrant (Romulans, Klingons and United Federation of Planets) tend to respect each other's spheres of influence rather then risk a diplomatic incident or increase tensions.
| 31 |
|
ELI5: The difference beyween AMOLED and P-OLED?
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For example, the Pixel 2 runs AMOLED screen while the Pixel 2 XL runs P-OLED? What's the difference?
| 90 |
AMOLED stands for "active-matrix organic light-emitting diode", where the AM part means that each LED has an individual transistor driving it, hence "active". Practically all graphical displays these days are active-matrix. The OLED part doesn't specify what kind of organic molecule is used as the light emitting material.
P-OLED is more specific type of AMOLED display that uses an organic polymer (=plastic) as the light emitting material.
| 66 |
[Lord of the Rings] Both Gondor and Rohan have a period where their respective rulers at the time of the books were "incompetent" - why weren't there other councillors or nobility to help rule the kingdoms?
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At the time of the books, both Theoden and Denethor II have long periods (*edit* these periods may not have been VERY long after all, but I think the question is still relevant) where they their rule was plagued by incompetence, possession, and paranoia to the extent that they were working against their own kingdoms. They were like modern "Manchurian Candidates". Theoden was largely advised by Grima, a non-family member. How did this power dynamic emerge, and why was there no check or balance? It seems strange that Grima, and not other Marshals or nobles, would help rule the realm - especially as both the Westfold and Eastfold were losing to "the enemy". Theodred, Eomer, and Eowyn comment in the books that Theoden was visibly not well or healthy... yet only Grima helps to rule the land?
I extend the question to Gondor as well, given that Denethor seemed to make similar questionable decisions with literally no checks or balances from other nobles or councillors of Gondor, despite the Stewards deriving their power from being the Chief High Councillors.
It seems as though both Rohan (Kings) and Gondor (Stewards) had a hereditary autocratic/absolute government. I find the quick evolution into absolutism a bit extreme given that both kingdoms were ruled by dynasties with no ties to the more legitimate Numenorean dynasties, who would have claims to Arnor and Gondor. But, given the long-term, hereditary dynasties of both Rohan and Gondor, how could other blood relations or nobles not help rule the land to prevent their imminent collapse from multiple threats?
| 30 |
Well you make a small error in thinking that Denethor was an incompetent ruler. In fact he is was a very capable ruler and was able to hold back the forces of Mordor without any help from any of the other realms. Other nobility didn't step in because up until the very end, he showed he was a wise, capable, strong, if proud leader. But he was being slowly misled. He lost hope. He lost his first born son, his second son was on deaths door, the armies of Mordor were overrunning his own people, and Sauron showed him a vision of Frodo being captured (it was a distorted truth, but Denethor knew Frodo had the ring and now he thought that Sauron had it and all was lost.)
| 42 |
How do you get energy from electromagnetic radiation?
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Is this even possible, if not, why can't we? Or explain how we already do.
| 16 |
You can harness the energy in electromagnetic radiation by absorbing it. Photovoltaic cells absorb light and produce electricity. Other systems absorb light and increase their temperature, the idea behind passive solar heating. You can take sunlight and use mirrors to focus the light to heat water and run a turbine to generate electricity. In the biological world, photosynthesis is another method for converting the energy from light into other forms. And, just to look at another part of the electromagnetic spectrum, crystal radios generate sound by absorbing radio waves and using their energy to create that sound.
| 11 |
ELI5: Difference between a heart attack, cardiac arrest, and stroke?
| 474 |
Heart attack: blocked blood flow in heart, can kill parts of heart
Cardiac arrest: heart stopped, can be caused by many things - including above
Stroke: blocked blood flow in brain, can kill parts of brain
As heart feeds brain and brain controls heart, a failure in one can feed back into the other
Edit: coming back late, but so anyone reading this late as well isn't misled, as many commenters pointed out strokes can be caused by bleeds as well (hemorrhagic stroke) as opposed to an "obstacle" blocking the flow like a blood clot. The brain also doesn't have much *direct* influence on the heart. Check replies for more info.
| 1,516 |
|
How do we know light speed is the universal speed limit? For example, if light moves differently in a gravitational field, we'd never be able to gather any data to the contrary on Earth.
|
This is something I've been wondering for a long time. However, most of what I can understand (which is written for popular audiences, since my grasp of physics is 2 semesters of college intro courses) when I read about it involves discussing the implications of the light speed limit - not necessarily how we know it. Its basic theory stuff - suffice it to say I haven't heard a good explanation of how we know light speed is constant throughout the universe, not just where we can measure it.
Thanks in advance!
| 42 |
We only "know" in the sense that it hasn't been proven false yet.
The idea of *c* being constant in all reference frames is a direct result of special relativity, and being constant in all frames implies an absolute speed limit in the universe. Thus far, no experiment has been performed that suggests special relativity may be incorrect, and until that happens, we take the theory and everything that can be derived from it as true.
As an aside, this is a subtle point about science that some people fail to understand - scientists never produce a theory, sit back, dusts off their hands and say they're done. All theories are constantly being tested in new ways and with greater precision, looking for holes to be fixed.
| 31 |
CMV: I don't see the point in marriage. If two people want to be in a relationship, they don't need an official certificate
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Obviously depending on your area/jurisdiction there may be some legal/tax benefits etc to getting married, but I'm discounting them for the purposes of this post. The fact remains that the vast majority of people get married for some other reason, and I can't really fathom why.
A minority of people are insecure and seem to need it to know their partner won't run away. Others are immature and buy into the whole 'fairytale romance' thing. But for the most part it just seems to be because it's the 'done thing', and I don't get it. Marriage is a social construct. There have been plenty of cultures throughout human history that have had no institution of marriage. And plenty that have had differing norms, e.g. polygamy. The only reason it still exists in the western world is that it's a holdover from the bad old patriarchal days of a woman basically being a man's property. Why should this one particular form of relationship be so privileged over, and more popular than others?
Furthermore, if two people are genuinely happy together and want to form a long term relationship, then why not just do it? Why do you need the ceremony, the official bureaucratic institution? What is the point? Surely if you're at the stage where you want a long term relationship with someone, you trust each other enough to know that you're both genuine about it? I really really don't get it and would love for someone to change my view.
EDIT:
Thanks for all your responses and contributions. I'm really enjoying the thread and sorry if my answers seem a bit short or flippant, it's only because there are so many comments to get through. I just wanted to make a couple of points:
1. I probably should have made this clearer initially, but I don't really have a problem with people getting married just for the legal perks. That's why I excluded it in the first place. But I think I've confused a lot of people by explaining myself badly on this one. Sorry!
2. Arguments about marriage being needed so that two people stick at it when times are tough don't convince me. I don't think there's any point to staying in an unhappy relationship, and you shouldn't create artificial barriers to stop someone leaving.
EDIT 2:
Thanks to u/alosec_ , who pointed out perhaps a better initial question would have been: without appeal to any cultural conditioning (legal or otherwise), what makes marriage objectively special or meaningful?
_____
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| 506 |
Marriage offers a lot of benefits.
1) Tax deductions.
2) Visitation rights in prison and in the hospital.
3) The right to make medical decisions when your spouse is incapacitated.
4) Default rights to inheritance.
5) Coverage from insurance policies, right to pension and military death benefits, etc.
6) Legal protections from being compelled to testify against your spouse.
And lots of smaller things.
| 143 |
[Marvel] Why didn’t Strange use portals to decapitate Thanos?
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During End Game, he chose to tie Thanos with magic ropes.
| 67 |
Thanos is probably too durable to be cut in that way, he was able to use the powerstone on captain Marvel without too much damages to himself and he survived using the IG.
Strange portals are probably waaaaaayy weaker than the powerstone.
| 100 |
ELI5: how do game developers create games with graphics so intense that not even the latest tech can achieve those graphics? (Like even the rtx 3090 struggling with CP2077)
| 16 |
They could create graphics that take 50 hours to render each frame of they wanted to. In many ways it's more difficult to do the opposite, having a game that runs well on a wide range of hardware.
Generally speaking, targeting future hardware isn't too tricky as the progress of hardware is relatively predictable, at least in terms of trends. Offline renderers - the sort they use to make animated films and such - are fully of features and settings that aren't even close to being possible in real time yet.
What makes it into games - even things like Raytracing - tend to be hacked about versions of what's in offline renderers, designed to run in real time. The better the hardware, the closer to the "real thing" they're able to get, but real-time hardware is so far away from being able to render these things in real time that it's not like they're running out of stuff to do.
| 35 |
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ELI5: How my body knows not to shit itself while asleep.
|
Urination could be included as well.
| 63 |
When you go to sleep, your brain releases special juices into your body that make it so it won't do stuff, like acting out your dreams. That way if you're running in your dream, you won't start running in real life. This also makes it so if you poop in your dream (5 year olds shouldn't say the S word, mister!), you shouldn't poop in real life.
Sometimes this doesn't work though, and is why some people sleepwalk and some people have problems with wetting the bed. Their bodies don't "turn off" for the night like they should.
| 56 |
ELI5: How do seeds know which way is up?
|
So I was doing some gardening with my 9yo daughter and we moved on to planting some seeds. She was studying them carefully before dropping them into the holes in the compost. I asked her why and she said that she was trying to make sure she planted them the right way up, otherwise they wouldn't grow upwards and flower.
As cute as it is, this got me thinking... How does a seed know which way is the right way to grow?
| 12,458 |
ELI5: Plants have cells that can tell which way is down. The roots know which way is down. The leaves/stems decide which way is up by sensing the light.
In the most simple of terms, plants have cells called stratocytes in the tips of roots that respond to gravity. They give a signal that releases a plant hormone that directs the growth of new cells.
In the shoots and stems, a similar process occurs which directs growth upward. Mature plants don't really have this ability anymore and thus use the angle of the light to "decide" where to grow. This is called phototropism.
A seed in utter darkness will know to grow roots downward, but a plant in utter darkness will not know which way to grow upward because there is no light for it to chase after.
| 3,377 |
Since everything with mass has a gravitational pull, does this mean that Pluto has a pull on me currently?
|
To be more specific, I know everything that has mass has a gravitational pull, even atoms. I wanted to know, regardless of how small, if extremely far away planets/stars have an effect on us? It got me thinking that if time is infinite, will everything with mass, every atom, and every quark eventually come together as one big mass in space?
| 16 |
Pluto has a mass of about 10^22 kg (about 500 times less than the earth), its distance to the Earth depends on where it is in its orbit (since its orbit is quite non-circular) and where we are but honestly it's billions of kilometers from the sun and we're only 100s of millions so our orbit only affects the first decimal place and we might as well just ignore the difference, thus its average distance from the sun is about 6x10^9 (6 billion) kms, which is the same as its distance from the Earth. In fact, pluto's eccentric orbit takes it from about 4.4 billion km to 7.4 billion km to the sun, where Earth's is only about 0.15 billion km from the sun. So the Earth-Sun distance is actually negligible to the problem.
So the gravitational force a mass of 1 kg feels towards Pluto on Earth is about:
2x10^-14 or 0.00000000000002 Newtons.
For context, apparently a flea egg weights about 20 micrograms, which means that the downward force/weight you feel from holding a flea egg ( 0.0002 Newtons) is about a 100 million times greater than the pull of pluto.
But it's there... in the darkness... pulling....
| 46 |
[X-men comics] Kitty Pryde and Adamantium
|
I'm not that knowledgeable about her character, but I just saw a random comic panel of her ripping out Emma Frost's heart while partially in diamond form.
Would Kitty be able to do the same thing to Wolverine and pull out his heart through his adamantium skeleton? Also, would this kill him? Presumably, if he were damaged in the heart, he could heal, but what if she just ripped the entire heart out at once?
EDIT: I keep reading responses about Wolverine's ability to regenerate *from* a few *cells* -- which raises the question: what part of Wolverine do you need for him to regenerate? Apparently, the heart isn't needed.
| 21 |
In an alternate timeline, where Wolverine was unable to shake his brainwashing by the Hydra (or maybe the Hand), Kitty had to do something like that. She phased her hand into his head, then re-solidified it. She lost the hand, but it remained embedded in his brain, reducing him to a vegetative state.
Simply removing the brain (or heart) this way wouldn't likely kill him, he'd regenerate. She left her hand there as it would be merged with his own tissues at a molecular level.
| 16 |
Is cold water sufficient for ridding fruits and vegetables of pesticides on their surfaces?
|
The question is in the title. If it is not sufficient, what measures should be taken in order to make sure pesticide ingestion is kept minimal?
edit: To add to the original questions, are the potential health risks from consumption of pesticides serious? Meaning, **based on the average amount of pesticides ingested by the average person, are there health risks and are they serious?** I cannot find any well researched answers on this, as most information seems to be biased towards companies that profit from the use of pesticides in harvests.
| 51 |
Definitely not, most pesticides are not designed to be water soluble. If they were, farmers would have to respray after every rain. They're designed to "stick" to the plants to ensure longer protection.
Using soap to rinse produce is a pretty safe bet. Just make sure that it is rinsed thoroughly after washing, as the soap can easily become stuck in the pores.
But in all fairness, even with good washing there is still a high chance of ingesting pesticides on a regular basis. These chemicals are everywhere in our daily lives.
| 28 |
ELI5: Why does the flesh of an apple go brown fairly quick out in the open?
| 73 |
It's exposed to oxygen which activates enzymes (Things that break down parts of other things saliva for example contains a lot of enzymes and it breaks down food in your mouth) that turn it brown in the process. It mainly happens when the skin is not protecting the flesh as oxygen starts the reaction.
| 36 |
|
ELI5: How is "Bait Car" legal?
| 27 |
When a bait car or bait house is used, no one is forcing the person to break in to the car or house. Entrapment is only in cases where you are coerced by law enforcement to do something against your will or given the incling by law enforcement to break the law when it is outside of your normal activities. The same applies to dui traffic traps where the traffic is funneled into a stop.
The other part of it is that the police department has to inform the public that these things are happening. When it is public knowledge either published in the news paper through a news broadcast or a sign in the parking lot the concept of entrapment is completely removed from the equation because it is now being publicly displayed that there are bait cars in the area.
| 42 |
|
Should we value human life that’s hasn’t yet had a conscious experience?
|
I always thought that abortion was okay since the fetus was something that doesn’t have conscious experience but someone pointed out to me that people in comas also don’t have conscious experience.
| 20 |
The key question raised by your phrasing of the debate would be as follows: What is a human life that *hasn't* had a conscious experience at all?
A big part of the debate over abortion settles on the question of when a life becomes a life, and there are a number of different ways in which this could be defined. Almost all sides of the debate tend to agree that 'life' begins no earlier than conception and no later than birth. In other words, it makes little intuitive sense to insist that the baby is alive before the egg is fertilised, and we tend to believe that a baby is a 'life' by the time it is born. Between those two moments, there are a few ways to define 'life', and part of the challenge of using consciousness as our 'marker' is that... we honestly don't know that much about consciousness itself. We strongly believe it's closely related to the physical brain, but outside of that we don't completely know, so we tend to lean on this fact when deciding the latest point at which the foetus can be aborted.
There is an obvious difference between the person in a a coma and the non-yet conscious foetus, and that's that we know that the person in a coma does appear to have had a conscious experience prior to their coma, so we can reasonably assume they are capable of having one (current condition notwithstanding). But is this a philosophically-meaningful difference?
Perhaps. The truth is that there probably isn't as much of a difference as it might appear. In both cases, there are situations in which we might consider ending a life; in the case of the coma patient, there are situations in which we would consider ending their life if there is no possibility of them regaining consciousness ever again. Similarly, there are many situations in which parents make a sad but unavoidable decision to terminate a pregnancy. In both cases, human life is clearly valued, but is balanced against other factors that affect the quality-of-life of the subject and those around them.
| 15 |
ELI5:Why is it that most animals seem to survive just fine in the wild due to instincts, but most humans probably wouldn't know how to start?
| 21 |
Because most people are not in their correct evolutionary niche. Humans evolved, and are adapted to, living in the savanna of Africa - the correct temperature, plenty of available food, wide spaces to see predators from afar. Almost every single technological and cultural advance we've had has been related to coping with *not* living in our original home.
Also, humanity has had hundreds of thousands of years to evolve around tool usage. We can't digest uncooked food as well anymore, since almost everyone has been using fire for so long. Instead of sharp claws, we have soft hands for making and using tools. etc
tl;dr - a modern day human being dumped naked and tool-less into a temperate European forest is a bad example since that is not our natural habitat. A modern day human being dumped naked into the African savanna with some stone tools and the knowledge how to use them and make more would be a good example.
| 33 |
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ELI5: Why, when I'm watching TV at night, is it easy to doze off, but when I go upstairs to bed in a dark room, I'm immediately wide awake?
| 37 |
You're relaxed, your mind is in neutral. And you've been sitting there for perhaps half an hour or more. But to go to bed, you must get up, walk the dog, perform your ablutions, etc. By the time you climb into bed, you need some time to get relaxed and in neutral again.
| 18 |
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ELI5: Why do we feel weak (as in not being able to lift a heavy object) when we are laughing a lot?
| 24 |
Someone may be able to correct me on this, but a good ELI5 would be that our core muscles (Abs and such) play a major role in keeping us upright and maintaining posture, and are even more active when we are also lifting something heavy. When we are laughing uncontrollably a lot of that core muscle activity is now involved in the act of laughing and not maintaining posture, to the point where in particularly intense laughter we might end up doubled over on the floor.
| 22 |
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Why isn't RAM disk much faster than a SSD?
|
As the title suggests, whenever i see all these crystal benchmark comparing a RAM disk to a SSD. The RAM disk numbers just blows the SSD out of the water. Here's the crystal benchmark video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4wJlg53hlQ
But whenever i see RAM disk used in practice it's pretty much neck to nech with a SSD. Here's an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PriMnhNf56s
Why's that?
| 16 |
Operating systems cache disk contents in RAM, so the only likely benefit to a RAM disk on a system with sufficient RAM is prefetching the data for the initial read.
Apps like games tend to be designed to work with the actual read rate of spinning hard disks, so prefetching doesn't help much.
I'd still expect to see some advantages in existing load times, but you're not going to improve overall performance for desktop apps with a RAM disk compared to a fast SSD. In fact, with a given amount of RAM you may decrease performance because you've given the OS less flexibility.
| 15 |
eli5 Why do food and drink taste different based on their temperature?
| 17 |
As temperature increases, so does kinetic energy. This means the molecules are moving around faster, bumping into things more often (including your taste receptors).
Also, many of the molecules associated with taste tend to be what we call volatile, meaning they go from liquid to gas easily. As the temperature increases, more of these compounds are going into the vapor phase, which is why hot food generates more smell than cold food. Smell is a very important part of tasting our foods, so changing how. Many molecules are evaporating changes the taste
| 21 |
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ELI5: OLED burn in. We know how it happens, but why does it happen? Do pixels fade away over time or what?
| 36 |
Yes pretty much, over time (and over use) the pixels age and their properties degrade. As long as all pixels are getting roughly the same use, you will not notice this, but you are actually getting the same "burn-in" over the whole screen.
It's not necessarily a "fade away" though, they will lose max capacity, so on white it will seem like they have faded, but the same pixels may show brighter on dark, so it's more like a loss of dynamic range then, how the burn-in presents itself can vary..
| 12 |
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[Guardians of the Galaxy] [spoiler] How does Groot do that cool thing?
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[Spoiler] I have a new hypothesis on second viewing about the ressurection of Groot.
In multiple previous threads, it is suggested that either Groot is like any shapeshifter like Inque or Clayface and only has a singular consciousness and chooses to inhabit a specific remnant of their physical form. And that Groot chose to resurrect via the branch Rocket picked up.
It has also been suggested that all the other Groot twigs were dead and that Rocket was just smart.
However I have a new idea, which I'm contemplating, even though I personally believe the first one of the previously discussed concepts. But lets discuss. It seems Rocket was holding one branch when the Guardians all touched each other at the finale when they were in contact with the Power Gem, perhaps that contact with such intense amounts of energy gave that branch enough power to ressurect life, and that the rest of the Groot debris was in fact properly dead, and only the power of an infinity gem truly brought Groot back to life.
Thoughts on?
| 30 |
Judging by the way rocket potted the twig, he expected groot to grow back.
Either he chose a specific twig, knowing it was the live one, or any twig would have worked. He could have planted more and had several groots but groot doesnt want that and rocket respects his wishes
| 40 |
ELI5: How do corrosive materials not eat through their containers? Ex: What makes glass impervious to acid?
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I've been wondering this ever sense middle school... Does it have something to do with the strength of the corrosive material? What's to stop an extremely strong acid from eating through everything?
| 20 |
Acids generally work by donating protons, generally shown in chemical reactions as H+, a hydrogen atom that has no electron.
In order for an acid to react with another chemical, that chemical must have free electrons to react with the proton donated by the acid.
Silicon Oxide (glass) is a completely stable chemical compound that has no free electrons, and so cannot react with acids.
It doesn't so much have to do with the strength of the corrosive material as it does with how different chemicals react with each other.
However, there is one acid that will eat through glass, Hydrofluoric acid.
This is actually because of the fluoride, instead of the strength of the acid. Hydrofluoric acid is extremely dangerous to use and is probably the most dangerous and corrosive of the acids, however its 'acidic strength' is much weaker than many other acids. This is because of how we rank acid strength, which is based on how easily it donates a proton, not how easily it dissolves things.
| 10 |
ELI5: Back in the olden days, movies showed the majority to all of their credits BEFORE the actual movie. Now, the credits roll after the movie. When was the official transition between the two, and why did Cinema change it?
| 81 |
One of the first films to have substantial closing credits was Around the World in 80 Days, in 1956, however it wasn't until the 1960s that it started to become common, and the 1970s when it became standard.
Initially, credits were only shown in the beginning because that was in line with book credits or theater programs (which you get when you enter) -- you see the credits right up front. And when the credits only included the above-the-line personnel (the key creative personnel who shape the film), that was feasible. Think of the handful of people included at the bottom of movie posters, and who are sometimes still credited at the beginning of the film: the actors, director, writer, producer, DP, editor, composer, production designer, etc. When those were the only people being credited, it was easy to put them all up front.
It wasn't until movies started crediting more than just the above-the-line personnel that there was any need to move them to the end, because audiences didn't want to sit through extensive credits before the film started; showing them at the end, when people could get up and leave, was the only alternative. Further, big spectacular films, with very large casts and crews (like Around the World) were the ones most likely to have extensive credits, so in many cases they were the earliest films to do so.
It's also worth noting that, initially, end credits tended to be an *addition*, not a replacement -- most films still included the key personnel in opening credits (just as they had always done), while also providing a complete list of credits at the end. But over time, as end credits became standard, more films began opting to forgo the opening credits altogether.
| 39 |
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ELI5: How does a movie do the whole abandoned city thing? Do they tell everyone to stay home or is it all just CGI?
| 37 |
They shoot in Canada. No joke, lots of abandoned New York is Canada on the weekends... Also cgi etc.
Edit:
Examples: the resident evil franchise, land of the dead, robocop, total recall etc. all shot in Toronto. Godzilla, Day the Earth stood still, the Fog, etc. plus a zillion more empty streets shot in Vancouver
| 30 |
|
[The Thing] How to kill the thing?
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I only saw a short clip of this movie but I'm unnerved and can't sleep; tell me what is the best strategy to kill this abomination? I must know how to kill it to have peace. Reasonable arsenal permitted. I know from my initial googling you have to destroy it at cellular level and fire is a good means of doing that but tactically speaking how do I handle this the thing?
| 17 |
Thermonuclear missiles are reasonable under the circumstances.
If it's confined to one facility in Antarctica and you want to clear it mostly intact...
Tactically you want to keep squad size small, avoid being separated, and have blood checks on the half hour. Carry a mix of flamethrowers and guns. A few incendiary grenades may help if you can get good quality ones.
Things copy humans almost exactly down to the heart defects, so bullets should temporarily "kill" an imposter. Burn thoroughly (partially burned corpses are infectious) and keep shooting the corpse for a while to be sure. Watch for bodyparts trying to separate and skitter away. Stay sharp and be aware that the Thing is intelligent and may shoot back if pressured.
There seems to be an incubation period before full body takeover, and blood tests probably don't work in the beginning stages. All civilians should be assumed Thingified. Restraining, transporting, and quarantining these suspects would be unacceptably dangerous to your squad and to the rest of the world. Do what must be done.
For evac, disable the facility heating system and hike five kilometers away to ensure anything following you freezes. A ~~thermobaric bomb~~ supply drop with further instructions will arrive shortly.
| 34 |
ELI5: If SSRIs all do the same thing (prevent the reuptake of serotonin), why are there different SSRI meds that have varying levels of usefulness?
| 19 |
They don't all do the same thing, really.
SSRIs interact at a LOT of receptors, and with different affinities. They have different pharmacokinetics from drug to drug.
All SSRIs "do the same thing" the same way that all hot sauces "make stuff hot." That doesn't mean every hot sauce is the same, have the same taste, or can be completely interchangeable.
| 51 |
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ELI5: What’s the physical difference between a low end budget speaker and a high end pro one?
|
More specifically I’m wondering about the speaker cone itself. Is it anything to do with speaker cone materials, shape, design, testing, etc, or is the biggest difference found in the drivers? (I realise brand and to a lesser extent quality of electronics makes a difference to price.)
Bonus question: is it possible to get some indication just by visually inspecting the cone?
| 23 |
First, high-end and professional speakers are not the same. What you hear during concert will never work well at home.
Second, speakers and speaker cones are very important, but it's just part of what makes a high-quality speaker.
Budget speaker cones are made basically from paper with flimsy suspensions and tiny coils.
The quality drivers are heavy, with very stiff and light cones, often made from composites and exotic materials.
Generally, speakers to be high quality have to be very stiff - and usually heavy. Plastic is one of the worst materials for speakers.
I don't think there is a way to judge the driver visually only, there is much more to it.
| 11 |
what would happen if someone with severe insomnia just stopped sleeping? would they get ill, would they die?
| 37 |
They would get ill. We don't know if they would die. There is a disease(Fatal insomnia) that stops some people sleeping and they end up dying but it's not clear if it's caused by the disease rather than lack of sleep.
| 41 |
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[Harry Potter] Why not snap your enemies' wands and/or break their arms?
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I find it puzzling that - if they refrain from killing - the heroes do not effective immediately snap the wands of any Death Eaters (and other enemies) they manage to disarm.
Why don't they also break their arms for good measure? Sure, wizards/witches can mend bones in a heartbeat, but that can mean the difference between life and death. If you break their wands and their arms, they are most likely not going to be able to retaliate.
| 23 |
Because it literally never occurs to them.
The heroes are taught how to fight in dueling class, where there are strict rules and the fight is over as soon as the opposing person drops his wand. This has pretty much taught Harry and his friends that they won as soon as they disarm the other person, so use that time to get away.
| 39 |
If cheap, low quality meat and vegetables were banned and food standards were raised so that there was none, would quality produce become as affordable?
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I'm talking about things like frozen burgers and chicken which are like 60% fat and the rest is practically gristle, bone and beak, and flavourless, low nutrient content fruit and vegetables
| 61 |
No because then you would have an increased waste. The way many companies get their competitive advantage that allows them to reduce costs is by reducing waste. For large examples of this you can read about waste in VCM. For a specific example you can read about the growth of the Standard Oil company. And for a conceptual example we can talk about a chicken, for simplicitys sake say that the only permitted cut is breast and the rest of the chicken is completely discarded. This would mean that the cost of the chickenbreast now becomes the cost of the chicken, instead of the chickenbreast being a fraction of the value of the rest of the meats+bones (for use in soup, broth, pulp, animalfeed, etc).
| 54 |
ELI5: Why do humans look so diverse?
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From Africans to Asians to Caucasians to Semitic people, and more, humans have such a diverse range of features, and it seems no other animal of the same species looks nearly as diverse as we are, from our skin tones to nose shapes to eye shapes to hair type and so forth.
How come we look so much more diverse as a species than any other animal?
| 17 |
Have you seen dogs? They're pretty friggin diverse
A Chihuahua and a St Bernard are the same species
People look really diverse to you because your brain needs to differentiate individuals so you are very very good at picking up on differences between individuals and groups of people. If you were a Baboon you would find humans to be rather similar but so much diversity within Baboons!
Every species has aspects that differentiate individuals, generally in the form of the strongest sense. Cetaceans(whales/dolphins) each have their own unique voice, dogs and many others each have their own scent. There is variation in all species, your brain not being wired to pick it out does not mean it does not exist
| 43 |
ELI5: Why do most laptops still have a 1366x768 screen resolution while most smartphones are already at 1920x1080 and up?
| 15 |
Resolution is also about viewing distance. You can get away with a lower resolution display if you are sitting further away. However, when trying to make out text on a small 5" screen 1 foot from your face it helps to have a higher res screen. A lower resolution on a larger display that you sit 2 feet from is more acceptable than a low resolution on a smaller display you hold closer to your eyes.
A lot of it now is also marketing and becoming overkill, but it is more helpful to have a higher resolution display on a cell phone than on a laptop. You don't really need to not see a pixel on your phone, but that was the reasoning between the resolution wars on smartphones. There never was a resolution war on laptops.
| 12 |
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[Marvel] If he had access to a DVD set from our universe, what would the 616 Reed Richards make of the Venture Bros' Richard Impossible?
| 32 |
Probably nothing - 616-Reed had seen some shit, including a whole dimension of other Reeds. At this point to Reed it would be just yet another supervillain version of him, far removed from baseline to boot.
| 34 |
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[MCU] Why are Iron Man's Strength and durability levels inconsistent?
|
Ok, this is going to be long...In the first Iron Man movie, Iron Man's armour was able to survive getting hit by a TANK shot, crash through a jetwing at fast speed, with barely any damage.
Even in Avengers 1, he was able to take hits from mjolnir and thor and still continue fighting,
But what I dont get is this, by captain america civil war, his armour wasnt even able to handle a beating from cap and bucky, Super soldiers are strong I get that, But Iron Man is leagues above them in strength and durability.
Yet, Cap was able to physically hurt tony through his suit, not just from his shield, but even from fist punches.
Even bucky was able to physically overpower Iron Man with his Normal arm and used his metal fingers to pierce tonys suit? The mark 46 is supposed to be a lot newer, and better upgraded armour than the Mark 3, so why dies it get damaged by metal fingers?
| 650 |
Seems like he sacrificed a lot of durability in favour of armour that could be equipped quickly and stored conveniently.
This armour can be carried around in a suitcase and quickly attach itself to Tony in segments.
The previous models couldn't do that.
Eventually he moved to nanotech based armour to get the best of both worlds.
| 767 |
Is it actually true that the left hemisphere of the brain is logical and the right is creative? Or is that just pseudo science?
|
We've all heard about this, but is it actually true?
| 19 |
It's pretty much rubbish based on extremely broad generalization. So maybe it's not exactly pseudoscience in its own, but just a very poor interpretation of actual science (the study of lateralization). In general the brain is very symmetrical in both anatomy and function; but there is some lateralization in specific cases. For example, two areas involved in language processing/understanding are located only on the left side. But that does not mean that the right side is not involved in this process.
The whole left vs right talk is just one of those popular psychology things, where people like to take quizzes and define themselves. It might be fun, but not to be taken too seriously.
| 12 |
ELI5: What would happen to the Cartels and organized crime in the US if marijuana is legalized.
| 56 |
Marijuana has always been easy to grow even in a closet. It can be grown in the US very easily and has been forever. It's also cheap as fuck, so the risk:reward to smuggling it over the border in any significant quantity is a no go. That's why cartels primarily deal in meth, cocaine, heroin, etc. because those are much easier to produce en masse in Mexico than in the US, and the reward for smuggling is much greater. Organized crime within the US, however, have already felt the pain in states where it has been legalized, and have moved or switched to other products.
| 39 |
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Bitcoin price hit its new record high, what is the economic explanation of Bitcoin value?
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Why does it have value? Is it all artificial value? Does it have real value for economy?
I'd like an economic view that could explain bitcoin's value.
| 103 |
We could go into a lengthy discussion on the technology and potential uses - but lets not. The answer is really quite simple. It is worth whatever somebody else is willing to pay for it.
> Why does it have value?
Because some people are willing pay for it.
> Is it all artificial value?
Yes or no, depending on what you mean by it. Yes in the sense that, no, it does not represent anything of 'real' value. No in the sense that in that regard it is not much different from 'real' money. You can't eat dollar bills, and if people tomorrow all of the sudden don't believe dollar bills are going to be valuable anymore, then they aren't.
The most important thing to understand is that literally *any* value is subjective, and anything could potentially be used as a currency (though in many cases it would be impractical). Money used to represent gold directly, but one could imagine a scenario where gold would become without value as well.
Bitcoin is different in many ways - due to its technology, and its decentralized (uncontrolled) nature, being seperate from a central bank. But the basic intuition remains the same. It has value because people believe it has value.
> Does it have real value for economy?
What do you mean by that?
| 111 |
ELI5: Why can humans eat almost anything, yet so many foods like chocolate, grapes, and xylitol are dangerous for dogs and other mammals?
| 68 |
The premise of your question is basically flawed. We can't eat almost anything. About half of the red berries in existence are poisonous to us but not to birds, for example. The same is true about mushrooms.
Also, not everything that is edible is food. Uncooked grains are edible, but you would eventually die if that's all you ate. OTOH, if you cook it into bread, you're pretty much good to go.
| 84 |
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ELI5: How come, given we hear ourselves differently from how we think we sound, we can reproduce musical notes accurately by singing, just by ear?
|
I mean, shouldn't we be slightly out if we hear ourselves and think we've hit the note?
Same goes with mimicry, I guess... If we think we are replicating a sound of someone's voice, wouldn't it be different to everyone else hearing it?
| 52 |
So, there are sort of two different things going on here.
Nobody sings a single musical note, note really. When we sing, speak, or play a note, there are a bunch of different pitches that blend together. These give us the tone or *timbre* of the note. The thing we think of as the pitch of the note is the lowest or *fundamental* note.
When we hear ourselves speak live vs in a recording, we don't hear a different note. Instead, we hear a different *tone*. The notes are the same, but the version we hear internally has more of the lower parts that make up the tone. But the lowest note is still the same one.
TLDR: we hear ourselves sing the same note but with a different tone. Harmonising is about the note, so the tone doesn't really matter.
| 43 |
[MIB] Since they technically don't exist to the governmwnt, have no identity, no fingerprints, and have Neuralyzers. Could MIB agents easily get away with robbery, murder and other crimes?
|
Edit: I'm saying if one of these agents decided to be a serial killer without telling the agency.
| 30 |
If they're only trying to get away from regular law enforcement, sure, they'd be uncatchable. But you're forgetting the *interplanetary law enforcement organization* they work for, whose technology level far exceeds traditional police forces on Earth, and whose agents are allowed a great deal of freedom to disintegrate things at their discretion.
Put another way, if you want to rob a bank as an MIB agent, go right ahead. Just don't be surprised if you find three other agents on your tail afterwards.
| 53 |
ELI5: How do NASA scientists know that a spacecraft is completely air sealed before it goes into space?
| 1,231 |
The same way we test any other pressure sealed system, raging from big tankers to tanks, to the gas pipe systems. Every valve and opening is sealed, then we pressurise the system, if the pressure doesn't drop then it is sealed.
Once they close the door to the spacecraft, they can pressurise it and check whether the pressure stays stable.
| 1,007 |
|
ELI5: If omega 3 fish oils are so good for you why don't we just fry everything in that?
| 21 |
You can cook with it, but: "However, due to its high concentration of polyunsaturated fats, fish oil should never be used for cooking. It’s best used as a supplement, one tablespoon per day. Keep in a cool, dry and dark place."
Also, taste. Do you want your french fries to taste like fish?
| 15 |
|
[MCU] Does HYDRA still adhere to Nazi ideologies? Specifically the Nazi views on race and genocide.
|
So, HYDRA was formed as Hitler's research division and Red Skull later went rogue with it and it more or less became its own thing. But it still started within the Nazi party, so did these beliefs carry over into the more modern version that managed to infiltrate SHIELD?
Are their goals just standard bad guy stuff or does it still have some Nazi influence? Or are they a progressive bad guy organization who no longer intends to perform genocide?
Are there non-white HYDRA agents? I can't remember.
| 231 |
I believe you have been mislead by poor shield intelligence. Hydra and the organization that spawned it predate the Nazis by a significant margin. Red Skull took the Nazi research division and twisted it to suit Hydra's needs, not the other way around.
As for their views on racial superiority, they are much more focused on their own superiority and devotion to the overall goals of the organization than they were devoted to Hitler's mad plan. Hydra was using the Nazi regime, they weren't believers.
| 231 |
ELI5: Why do content creators/ streamers get dmca strikes when they play games and music plays? The music artists gave their consent for their music to be used in games which the streamer then plays so why do the streamers get striked?
| 34 |
Most of the time it's an automated system. The music is copyrighted, though allowed for use in certain media. However an algorithm that can spot a certain track being played is a lot easier to program than an algorithm that can spot if a certain track is being played, then recognise the context in which it is being played, cross reference this context with the agreements permitting to that track, and then decide which action to take.
| 28 |
|
[Star Wars] Why does Kyle Ren seem to use the Force to read people's minds in interrogations but Vader doesn't?
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Why does Kyle Ren seem to use the force to read people's minds in his interrogations but Lord Vader doesn't? Vader instead uses torture droids and uses the Force to choke people out of their aspirations.
| 21 |
Because it can backfire. Note how Rey (a natural talent, but completely untrained) managed to glean information from Kylo's mind nearly as much as he got from her. Good old fashioned analog torture doesn't carry that risk, and can be supplemented with force-based mind techniques after wearing them down in body and spirit.
| 72 |
ELI5: I've seen tons of "music videos" that predate the 80s. Where would people watch these videos before MTV?
| 60 |
The earliest videos were often just of the band doing a number and weren't really a 'story'. They'd often be shown as part of a TV special such as them being a guest on a variety show. Some were part of a dedicated movie. The Who's "Tommy" in 1975 or some of the Beatles and Elvis films were examples.
Later on as 'videos' started to take off, they had a half-hour or hour-long sometimes-hosted show that was dedicated to playing a variety of those videos, usually airing on Friday and Saturday nights.
Then MTV and its variants came along and kind of killed those shows.
| 29 |
|
Why is crime such a gendered activity?
|
Its well known that the majority of criminals are men, statistics show us that 83% of arrests in the UK are male and that men make up 94.5 percent of the prisoner population.
What's less well known is the cause of this gender disparity, my suspicion has always been that it was the result of the different way in which society socialises men and women and I was wondering if there was any evidence to confirmed or denied this theory.
I would be especially interested to see if there are any meta studies on the topic.
 
[All my source were taken from chapter 2.2 of the corston report.](http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/corston-report-march-2007.pdf)
| 119 |
I unfortunately don't have time for a long involved answer. But Freda Adler, an important woman in criminological history, put forth a simple explanation for the gender differences in crime. Women have less social access than men. When she was doing her research in the 60's and 70's many or even most women still filled the role of homemaker. As access increased so did crime. Crime is a social activity like any other activity. And her theory plays out in the statistics, women are the fastest growing crime demographic.
| 46 |
ELI5: When searching for jobs online, I almost never see an amount (whether hourly or salaried) of how much a company will pay an individual who actually gets the job. Why is that so?
| 24 |
they want to get away with paying the minimum amount they can, so they usually ask you for your past salary info and make a slightly better or similar offer.
they don't want to start the salary listing higher than they need to.
| 21 |
|
What does it really mean that the electromagnetic force and weak force converge at high energies?
|
I did my undergrad in physics at MIT, so I'm pretty solid on quantum mechanics and E&M, but I've never had a good intuitive understanding of what it means that the electromagnetic force and weak force converge at high energies (the eletroweak force). I've encountered this idea in pop-science books and it was touched on in classes, but I'm hoping someone here can explain it more. (and if possible, explain symmetry breaking and the role that photons and quarks play in these two forces)
| 66 |
Yeah hard to explain without maths thought. There is some tool called gauge transformation, when you input a symmetry and do the transformation you can deduce the equations of motion of a particle and the fields associated.
For example: we know the group of symmetry related to the equations of electromagnetism (mathematically we call it U(1) ). When we use U(1) we deduce all laws of electromagnetism.
Now we can try higher symmetry groups (based on the reaction symmetries of the experiments in nature). When we input U(1)xSU(2)l (related to weak processes) we get four bosonic fields with zero mass. Yet the experiment tells us weak bosons have mass.
To fix this we use the Higgs mechanism to "break the symmetry". Now the theory predicts that at ground state (low T) there are two charged boson and a neutral boson with mass that correspond with the W^(+/-) and the Z boson that we find experimentally. The fourth particle has no mass and corresponds to the photon.
At high T however all the W,Z and photon must mix to give the real 4 bosons predicted originally of one unified force called electroweak force.
Hope it helps.
| 19 |
ELI5: when you take pain meds like aspirin or ibuprofen, does it go treat the pain at the location or is it a general dulling of pain in your whole body?
|
Edit: Thanks for all the great answers guys!
| 976 |
Once NSAIDs such as aspirin are absorbed, they are widely distributed throughout the body. The drug doesn't all localize to the site of inflammation, and it's not as though there is some substance that binds the drug and carries back only to the injured cells. Unlike opioids which act centrally, however, NSAIDs act locally to reduce pain and inflammation by inhibiting an enzyme (COX-2) which produces inflammatory compounds. COX-2 itself isn't a prostaglandin precursor, but rather an enzyme.
| 303 |
ELI5:If motion is relative, then why is light speed the speed limit?
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If I'm off in space somewhere with nothing around me, then how would I determine whether or not I was moving? How would I determine whether or not I was accelerating, or what speed I was moving at?
So some object comes whizzing by me at half the speed of light. If I decide that it was stationary and I was moving at half light speed, then I could not possibly accelerate to another half light speed, or I'd be going the speed of light which is impossible.
On the other hand, if I decide that it was moving at half the speed of light, and that I was stationary, then I could accelerate to half the speed of light or faster.
So, what gives here?
| 21 |
The concept of "moving" only exists when comparing two things. So if there is nothing to compare yourself to, "moving" and "stationary" are the same thing. It's not just that you can't tell if you're moving or not, there isn't any distinction between the two at all.
The concept of the speed of light is very confusing. The important thing is that light in a vacuum always travels at the same speed *relative to you*. However fast or slow you are going, light will always appear to be going at the speed of light compared to you, and nothing with mass can reach this speed.
This sounds like it could cause all kinds of contradictions like the one you've mentioned. But they don't happen because travelling at those speeds causes time to pass at a different rate and distances contract.
If you saw a space ship fly past you at near the speed of light, it would look squashed in the direction its travelling in. Also if it was possible to see the people walking around inside the ship, it would look like they were going in super slow motion.
They would see the same thing if they could see inside your ship too, because from their point of view, you are flying past them at near the speed of light. But inside their own ship everything would seem normal.
| 16 |
CMV: You cannot be a social progressive and against freedom of speech.
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Most social progressives, love democracy, and so it is of relatively little surprise to me that as they have achieved a majority (in Reddit and the West), that they want to exercise their new-found power over reactionary groups. I would offer, however, that at one point in time they were a minority, and with the advent of freedom of speech, their voices were allowed to shine in free, open, democratic discourse. I find it very disturbing that people who claim to be supporting "social progress" in society want to begin delimiting and banning thinkers who already exist as a minority that rests outside the norm of consensual decency.
You cannot use a principle of liberal social democracy, and then turn around and illiberally and antisocially try to close the door behind you. This understanding that freedom of speech is "good while it benefits us, but bad when it doesn't" is exactly the reason why it must exist, and was the very mechanism that gave us social progress: to allow individuals or minority groups to challenge the group-think of the masses.
_____
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| 291 |
Can you help clarify your post by answering a few questions:
1. Why are you open to changing your view on this matter?
2. What are a few examples you see of social progressives being anti-freedom of speech?
3. What types of arguments may help change your view?
| 77 |
How does asexual reproduction avoid the negative effects of inbreeding?
| 103 |
Inbreeding and asexual reproduction isn't the same thing.
The main problem with inbreeding is that most organisms, including us, carry a large amount of recessive traits that are harmful, but as they are recessive it's only a problem if both parents have the gene and pass it on, which of course is more likely if the parents are related as they then share more genes.
While there are many kinds of asexual reproduction, asexual organisms essentially just makes a copy of themselves which functions just as good as they did so they don't have this problem.
The problem of asexual reproduction is that there is little diversity. Everyone is almost the same, which means that if e.g. everyone is weak to cold, and it gets colder, things turn out pretty bad for that population. The advantage however is that it's easy and cheap and they can reproduce very quickly.
| 60 |
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What is the fireball of a nuclear explosion composed of?
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I assume it isn't the bomb itself due to the sheer volume of it.
| 32 |
The 'fireball' from the explosion is from the surrounding matter which has been vaporised by the energy released from the fission.
The nuclear fission releases ~~most of it's~~ energy in gammas and x-rays (and kinetic fission fragments and neutrinos and neutrons). This energy get absorbed by the surrounding matter (rock, air, bomb casing, fission fragments etc) and they become superheated into plasmas ~~(a candle flame is a plasma)~~ which then rapidly expand (shockwave) and also re-radiate their energy all over the EM spectrum (heat, light).
| 28 |
Are proofs of the law of excluded middle circular?
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I cannot think of a way to prove the law of excluded middle without a proof by contradiction, which seems a little circular since proofs by contradiction rely on the premise that if a proposition leads to a contradiction, then its negation must be true.
| 17 |
Well, the law of excluded middle is not a tautology of intuitionistic logic. Which means that to prove it, you'll have to make some additional assumptions. The proof by contradiction you mention can be viewed as an application of double negation elimination (assume A is false, that leads to a contradiction, therefore A is true), which is also not an intuitionistic tautology and is in fact indeed equivalent to LEM.
| 10 |
ELI5: What does it mean when a song/album is remastered and how is it done?
| 33 |
When talking about recordings on Vinyl, the initial "Master" copy of the vinyl will be of the highest quality, every subsequent copy will be of lesser quality due to things like dust, scratches and what not that each get passed down to any subsequent copies of that copy. And the degradation that happens to a disk when pressing a copy of it.
To mass produce records the initial "Master" copy will be used to make actual 'production' masters that are used to make the full order of discs. So for instance, there may be one "Master" which is used to make six Productions Masters that then are used to make a thousand copies each for a total of 6000 records even though the "Master" was only pressed 6 times, thus preserving it's quality as much as possible.
When a record is "Re-Mastered" it (sometimes) means that a new production master is made from the initial Master. A similar thing happens with physical film when it is copied.
Modern re-masters can mean many different things though, since most media has gone digital, sometimes a remaster is the re-conversion of a record or movie using higher quality digital formats (e.g. blu-ray or 4k, or at a higher sample rate for audio). This kind of remaster only really applies to things that were originally recorded on analog media, and aren't as easy for things that were filmed or recorded digitally from the start (if the quality was low to begin with). In other instances a "re-master" may refer to cleaning up source material to "fake" a better quality using things like digital noise reduction.
| 14 |
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ELI5: Why doesn’t the water in lakes and rivers get absorbed into the ground?
| 40 |
Some do lose water due to seepage. They lose more or less depending on what kind of rock and sediment lies beneath the lake. A rocky bottom holds water better than a sandy bottom.
Lakes are also subject to evaporation from their surfaces – especially in a dry places – for example, the American West.
So why don’t lakes just dry up? Some do. For a lake to keep its water over time, it has to be replenished. There are both natural and man-made lakes. The main way that water gets into reservoirs and man-made lakes is from the rivers and streams that were dammed to create them. Like man-made reservoirs and lakes, natural lakes may also be replenished by rivers and streams.
Natural lakes have another advantage, when it come to holding their water. They tend to form in the lowest elevations in a given area. So these sorts of lakes may also get underground water that flows in from underneath the lake – the lake floor may be an area of water input, rather than a drain for the lake.
| 38 |
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ELI5:Difference between "Starring", "Also starring", "Guest/special appearance", "With", "And", "And X as Y" in a TV show intro.
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Sometimes an actor is credited as "Special appearance by..." yet their character is seen in a lot of back to back episodes or even the majority of a certain season. Is this somehow money related? Do actors have a special clause in their contract for this? If there are a lot of superstars in a TV show, how does a network decide whose name comes up first/last?
| 474 |
The order that the names appear is called billing, and it's a very big deal in Hollywood. Generally, the top stars are listed first, and that's a negotiating point with the agents and the studios.
Sometimes if there are multiple big names, one or more might be "last-billed." While first-billed is best, no big star wants their name lost in the middle of the credits. So they might negotiate to be last-billed, where it says "With ..." or "And X as Y" after the main cast.
The network doesn't decide it at all. The *studio* determines that as a result of contract negotiations with the actors.
| 291 |
ELI5: Why are download speeds measured in megabits? Why not just measure everything in megabytes?
| 23 |
Three reasons.
1. When computer storage was first made, an 8-bit byte was one of the smallest units of measurement that actually had any use. You could get a rough idea of the number of characters in a file by the file size.
2. In the telecom world the service provider doesn't care about the actual data that is being sent, just the rate that it is being sent at. It makes more sense to account for every bit. Various bits are stripped off for overhead and control, and the payload per packet can be pretty small considering the overhead.
3. Marketing. No company is going to go out of their way to imply that their service is an 1/8 of the speed it actually is.
| 14 |
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What makes the electron shells of the atoms between Scandium and Zinc seem to go haywire, while suddenly regaining a stable outer shell increase from Gallium to Krypton? Why does this pattern repeat throughout the periods?
|
http://ptable.com/
| 1,882 |
This has to do with orbital theory. Electrons are filling up d orbitals in that middle row, and electrons will always go to lowest energy configuration. Sometimes it's more favorable to fill other orbitals first and other times it's not.
| 312 |
School is really inefficient and the value of a university degree is baffling CMV
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I can learn anything that I want to from the internet. The time for independent learning is now, there is no need to go to class and get spoon fed information like babies. But I still go to class because this bunch of pointless bullshit will hopefully help me keep my standard of life a little better at the expense of my time and money for a few years. I don't attend a prestigious University so I can understand how the perspective may be different in terms of pride, but as with most expensive things the buyer is inevitably going to try hard to see the best in their purchase. The University system seems to be more of a business than a fountain of knowledge and I'm just not really down.
EDIT: I'm definitely in need of a few days of think time before I get back to any more of your individual comments. I thank all of you for your input and some of you have succeeded in maybe not changing, but at least shifting my views. My attitude towards school is definitely in need of improvement, solely because in my current situation it is clearly not doing me any good. My ideology has changed from school really sucks to the system does a pretty good job but there is still a lot of room for positive change. I'm sure that in the coming years we will begin to see rapid change in how things are being taught in the classroom.
Many of you talked about the hidden curriculum of college. It's not as if I've never thought about this before, my problem is that I think gaining informational knowledge is the more important objective. Certainly there is no reason that we can't gain soft skills in college and learn a tremendous amount at the same time by changing the ways we do things a bit.
These are some of the changes that I think would be worth a try:
1. I don't know if this exists but a quiz app would be really effective I think. If I got a push notification that my teacher has prepared my five question geology quiz and that I need to complete that by 5:00 P.M., I will get that quiz done by golly and I can do it anywhere at any point in my day. Not everyone has smart phones I know... but maybe in a few years.
2. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that students do better when they don't have to sit through an hour long lecture. I would much rather have a class 3 times in a day for twenty minutes. I can pay attention for twenty minutes without too much difficulty, an hour is another story.
3. We need to have a bit more choice in our academic mentors are and I believe the internet provides the connectivity to make this possible. Certain people's personalities click with one another for reason's unknown and in unpredictable ways. Having a few experts to choose from in a central website concerned with the area of study interest is much better than having only one professor.
I have a few more but I'm getting tired now. The hidden curriculum is important and it keeps our professional world running smooth, I'm sure. However, there is room for positive change in everything, including the work environment. Let's WORK towards it. You guys have done a good job in helping me change my dissatisfaction with the system into energy that I will do my best to devote towards change. It may be too late for me to see the great fruits of what the educational tree can produce but it's not to late for your kids.
| 32 |
"The internet" is not a replacement for formal education. It is a huge fallacy. People think because they looked something up on the internet, they've become an expert in that field and in no way is this the case in any subject. University isn't made to teach you regurgitated facts, this is only a small part of the university learning experience. You are taught from formally structured classes how to interact in a professional environment with an authority figure (your professor). How to meet deadlines and time manage efficiently. How to think in terms of developing strong thesis and arguments. How to analyze. etc.
The value of the university degree isn't the information and facts that you can spew out, it's about developing skills that will benefit you in the competitive career driven world.
| 52 |
[Marvel] Is there a reason for Kingpins unnatural strenght?
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I just started Spiderman PS4 and when I saw Kingpin slamming me through walls I just thought...wtf, aren't you supposed to be a guy who sits in his office and let others do the job? I also hit him with metal or stone pieces in the face and the boss fight still took nearly 10 minutes. Is this just game-play, or why is he so strong?
| 149 |
In the comics it's established that he trains every day against several foes and he gets mad when they don't go all out.
He's not a mutant, but he is as large and strong as a normal human can be. Think The Mountain with fight training and near psychotic rage.
edit =several foes all at the same time
| 198 |
ELI5: If it's possible for animals to be born with instincts and behaviors (like bees knowing direction using the sun) could there be some advanced civilization somewhere that is born knowing calculus (for example).
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I was wondering this since I've been thinking about all the animals out there that sort of just "know" how to survive already, coupled with the fact that there are planets out in the universe that have existed many times longer than earth, and likely have civilizations that have evolved on them as well.
On another note, do you think the technology to create a baby with all this information already in it's brain will come about sooner than a similar evolution would?
| 61 |
Sure, it is possible, but it would likely be quite a burden on the poor creatures. The great advantage that humans have had over other organisms on Earth is our tremendous adaptability through our ability to learn brand new ideas which our genetics don't provide. If this generation calculus is useful, but next generation flying airplanes is useful, we don't want to have big chunks of our brain dedicated to calculus from birth.
What seems to be more useful to us are structures which make learning different things easier, but not too pre-programmed in something specific. For example, we have a tremendous in-built capacity for language, but nobody knows a specific language, so if a person born to German parents grows up in Japan, that child will be able to learn the contextually appropriate language. Similarly, we have in-built capacity for understanding numbers, but not to nearly the same degree. Presumably we could increase this capacity through bio-engineering, but we wouldn't be stuck with one particular way of thinking about math.
For evolution to result in an organism with this much specific information would require an environment which selects rather heavily for it and an organism which has a reasonable capacity to move into the niche. Our more generalized approach to learning seems much more likely to occur as these capacities are well suited to a greater variety of circumstances. For an organism to not develop technology capable of self-engineering, but be in the genetic ballpark of behavior such as differentiation seems quite unlikely.
| 43 |
Why do we say that the electromagnetic and weak forces are unified into a single force at high energies?
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The unbroken electroweak gauge group is a product of two simple groups, SU(2)*_L_*×U(1)*_Y_*, each one acting differently for different particles. There are still two different coupling constants, and two independent charges (hypercharge and isospin) above the EWSB scale. So there is not a single electroweak interaction that splits into the weak interaction and electromagnetism, like in GUT theories, but rather *two* different interactions that mix into weak and EM at low energies.
Despite that, I've often seen people speak of a single "electroweak force" in this context. What is meant by that? Is there some sense in which you can interpret it as one interaction?
| 38 |
Everything you say is correct. It is a matter of usage and terminology.
Given that electromagnetism comes from a combination of the underlying SU(2) and the underlying U(1) and that the Z^0 likewise comes from a mix of gauge fields and has a mass different from that of the W bosons, we see that the electromagnetic and weak forces we observe at low energy cannot be fully understood separately, but can only be understood fully in tandem. The master theory from which they both come is the electroweak theory. Thus, it is sensible to use the term unification here, and then to distinguish the low energy weak and electromagnetic forces from the underlying electroweak force that existed, for example, in the very early universe, with 4 massless gauge bosons, two coupling constants, etc.
There is an element of history involved in the usage here, too. The Weinberg-Salam model predates the first Grand Unified models by many years. The electroweak theory emerged from 1961 to 1967, with the SU(2)xU(1) gauge structure being proposed by Glashow in 1961 and then the Weinberg-Salam model we know today coming in 1967. The first GUT is 1974. So it wasn't as if the Weinberg-Salam model was being compared to other kinds of unification in which there was a single simple gauge group.
It's worth mentioning that although 1967 to 1974 might seem like a short amount of time, in terms of our understanding of and approaches to physics, it represents a huge shift. In 1967, there was no good theory of the weak and the strong force, and there was no consensus that gauge theories represented the best approach. So when the electroweak model was proposed, it really helped get the notion that all forces should be understood as gauge theories moving -- with QCD, deep inelastic scattering, and 't Hooft-Veltman's work on renormalization establishing gauge theories as the approach of choice over the next several years. The measurement of neutral currents in 1973 was key to establishing the validity of the Weinberg-Salam model. In contrast, in 1974, the notion of gauge theories as the foundation of particle physics was established, although rather newly established.
All of which is to say that from the vantage point of the 1960s, the distinctions you are drawing between electroweak and GUT unification -- distinctions which seem natural to anyone today -- would not have loomed as large.
Edit: Typos fixed ("may years" ---> "many years"; ""establihing --> "establishing")
| 18 |
I believe that the only way to end world hunger is to allow those suffering to starve. CMV.
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I'm not saying that it's fair or that we shouldn't try to help other countries as much as we can, but an influx of relief (i.e. food and other supplies) from an outside country usually sees a raise in the population of that region. Aren't we ensuring that people are able to reproduce and raise the next generation of starving villagers when we send OUTSIDE sources of food? If the region were able to reach a self-sustainable population (whether by being able to produce food to feeds its people or to afford to import the food itself) would this not solve the problem of world hunger?
| 29 |
This is your argument:
1. Sending food to poor countries exacerbates overpopulation which is the root cause of hunger.
2. Therefore, the only way to end world hunger is to allow those suffering to starve.
Even if we accept that your first premise is true, there's still a big leap in logic here: isn't it possible that *other things* could work?
| 27 |
If salt raises the boiling temp of water, is there additive that will let water freeze at a higher temp also?
| 1,243 |
Adding salt depresses the freezing point of water - that’s why municipalities salt the roads in the winter where it is snowy and icy.
Both the boiling point elevation and freezing point depression are types of colligative properties (in case you want to read more - use that term).
Colligative properties are about how the properties of a solvent (in this case water) can be changed by an added solute. It doesn’t matter what the identity of the solute is, it only matters how many particles are present (the particles essentially get in the way of the interactions between the water molecules).
Fundamentally what occurs is that you lower the vapor pressure curve of the solution relative to the pure solvent. This causes both the boiling point elevation and the freezing point depression. So there is no way to add a substance to water and increase its freezing point, because the solvent is still water.
| 732 |
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ELI5: Where did the social expectation of only girls wearing dresses come from?
| 16 |
About three thousand years ago, when the fashion was robes (because technology) men who were going into the field to work, or going to battle would "gird up their loins" by taking the hems of their robes, and tying them up around their legs like pants. This continued for quite a while, the styles started to change, robes became dresses over time, and pants became the norm for those that went out to work and fight. Being that peasant women stayed on the homestead for a majority of their lifetimes, there was no need for pants.
| 41 |
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AskScience AMA Series: We are earth scientists with the IRIS Consortium (www.iris.edu) and we study earthquakes and seismology. Ask us anything!
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Hi Reddit! We are Danielle Sumy (seismologist) and Wendy Bohon (geologist).
From Dr. Sumy: I wanted to study earthquakes since I was 10 years old. I started off working in marine geology and geophysics, particularly studying fluid movement and small earthquake along mid-ocean ridges. I now study induced earthquakes and work on the Global Seismographic Network (GSN), and the Central and Eastern United States Seismic Network (CEUSN). I am currently a Project Associate with IRIS.
From Dr. Bohon: My research has focused on examining how the earth changes as the result of multiple earthquakes. I date dirt to find out when ancient earthquakes occurred (geochronology) and rocks to examine how mountains have changed through time (thermochronology). I have worked on fault related problems in the Himalayas (Ladakh), the Andes (Bolivia and Argentina) and in CA. I am an Informal Education Specialist with IRIS.
IRIS is a consortium of over 100 US universities dedicated to the operation of science facilities for the acquisition, management, and distribution of seismological data. IRIS programs contribute to scholarly research, education, earthquake hazard mitigation, and verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. IRIS operates the Global Seismographic Network (in collaboration with the USGS) as well as the Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Pool and the EarthScope Transportable Array (which was named the most epic project by Popular Science!). IRIS also provides instrumentation for other geophysical experiments around the world, including in the polar regions, the Andes, Asia and the US.
You can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IRIS-Education-and-Public-Outreach. We'll be available to start answering questions around 12 PM ET (16 UTC). Ask us anything!
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I've seen conflicting studies on the theory that fracking can cause earthquakes. What are your thoughts on this? If you do believe that fracking can cause earthquakes, do you believe that using something similar to preemptively cause smaller, more frequent earthquakes along major fault lines might be used to keep larger more devastating earthquakes from happening near large population centers?
| 60 |
ELI5: Why in some species of animals is the female typically larger than the male, and vice versa in others?
| 21 |
It depends what the purpose of the male actually is. Females are the staple members of any given sexually reproducing species, because they're the ones that can have the babies. The males have a much more flexible role. In species that have quite small males, the male typically only exists to act as a sperm bank. In species where the male is a *lot* smaller, such as some spiders, there's also other pressures. In spiders, the male tends to be eaten by the female, so a small size is selected for because it makes the male seem less appetizing, which helps it to stay alive long enough to actually fertilise eggs.
In species where males are quite large, this is often because the males are competing for mates, where large members are more likely to beat small members. Alternatively, the males may play a role in raising the offspring, rather than existing solely to fuck, which is often the case in mammals. In a lot of species where the males are substantially larger than the females, it's because the men have another purpose beyond sex and child raising. For example, in some species of fish, the females spawn inside shells, and the males become much larger because their role is to find the shells - big male can move bigger shell than small male.
Basically, there are a huge number of different reasons, and you're best off googling the species you're particularly interested in.
| 33 |
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ELI5: Why, when you rub your eyes really hard, you are transported into a swirly pattern galaxy?
| 18 |
You stimulate your retina when you rub your eyes which causes it to produce some sort of visual noise.
Try looking to one side as far as you can with your eyes closed. Then slightly touch your eyeball through your eyelids on the edge of the opposite site for some circular visuals. :)
Edit: eyes closed all the time.. It ia not neccessary to touch your eyeball directly ;)
| 15 |
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How valuable is sterilization of a knife used to cut raw chicken?
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The guidelines for cleaning a knife after cutting raw chicken typically advise to sterilize with something like a chlorine bleach solution after washing with soap and water. Conversely, the guidelines for washing your hands after handling raw chicken are to thoroughly wash with soap and water for 20-30 seconds.
If washing with soap and water is truly sufficient to ensure your hands are not a significant disease vector for something like salmonella, why does the same not hold true for a knife blade?
| 23 |
I think what the CDC, FDA, WHO etc. are attempting to accomplish with guidelines is really just the best balance they can come up with to statistically reduce (not eradicate) the occurence of food borne illness.
Why dunk a knife in bleach solution to sanitize it? Because you *can* - the knife doesn't care, and bleach will obviously eradicate more gram negative bacteria than just soap and water so why not suggest it.
They can't tell you to bleach your hands though, and even overuse of alcohol based hand sanitizer is going to irritate skin eventually, so soap and hot water is the optimum safe and effective recommendation for your skin. It won't eradicate all food borne bacteria, but it can at least reduce the bacterial load to below seriously infectious thresholds.
| 52 |
[Game of Thrones] What's the point of being King of Westeros if local lords can send their armies without asking for permission and wage wars, like Tywin Lannister did in first season?
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Kingdom seems decentralized to the point where its King is more like ruler of King's Landing
| 442 |
I mean, you have kind of just identified one of the major reasons why the Iron Throne is actually a pretty weak authority, compared to, say, the kings of England during the high and late Middle Ages.
Westeros was not unified for thousands of years. Aegon unified it with his dragons. For a century and a half lords were kept in line because if they rebelled they’d be burnt by dragons (of course some did try). The main threat to Targaryen rule after Maegor was the chance of Targaryen civil war.
The death of the dragons meant that the kings and queens of Westeros would instead have to rely more on the image of power and authority combined with their personal leadership skills to keep the 7 kingdoms united. If a lord rebels the king could no longer burn him with dragons, but would instead have to rely on other lords to put the rebel down. Greyjoys rebelling? Call up your friends, like the Starks. The Crownlands themselves can furnish some forces, though not many, and the Baratheons also can call upon their own men once they take the throne.
At the start of ASOIAF the King is a Baratheon, his wife is a Lannister, and the hand is an Arryn. Additionally the King has close personal ties to the Starks and Tullies. This web of relationships makes for a formidable alliance, at least on paper (obviously we know that things are less rosy behind the scenes). Even as things fall apart the Iron Throne is still respected enough that it’s worth fighting over. It’s powerful because enough men believe it to be powerful. That may change, however. Constant civil war may cause Westeros to return to its pre-Targaryen state.
| 477 |
ELI5: Why do I need more dish-washing liquid for greasy plastic kitchenware than for metal/glass/ceramic?
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Does the plastic make the dish-washing liquid less effective? Does grease stick better to plastic? Or does the plastic just feel more "greasy" for some reason?
| 77 |
Plastic is like grease - it's hydrophobic, so grease sticks to plastic like grease sticks to grease. Detergents are amphipathic, ie they have a part that likes water, and a part that likes grease. So, the part that likes grease sticks to the grease, and the part that likes water pulls the whole thing into the water. In order for grease to come off the plastic, there must be enough detergent to convince it to come loose. Metal and glass are hydrophilic. They like water, but don't particularly care about grease. So it's easier for the detergent to get to the grease and solubilize it.
| 89 |
CMV: The incompetent villains in the Pokemon series makes it boring.
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While I do want to go back to watch Pokemon for nostalgia reasons, I do think that the series is very stale. The fact that the villains, Team Rocket is so incompetent ruin the series for me.
Every episode they appear with an extremely dumbfounded goal and failing every time. I think the creator could have done better if they introduce a better villain for an arc like many anime have done and provide better development.
For example, Hunter x Hunter is an anime that came to mind that have extremely good villains.
Honorable mentions include Bleach, Naruto, and One piece that have villain that aren't entirely incompetent and successfully achieve short-term goals.
_____
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| 43 |
It's not Team Rocket's incompetence that makes *Pokémon* boring, it's the fact that characters like Ash don't get to have genuine arcs and development because of the need to recycle the series for a new set of younger viewers every few years. Sure, Ash has changed somewhat over the course of the series due to changes in the writing staff, but to what end? Hell, he's still canonically ten years old. He has no defining moment as a character, apart from perhaps meeting Pikachu in the first episode, because any given challenge to his character will inevitably be equaled or topped in a future generation.
The basic formula for each generation (Ash and his new set of buddies, the quest to get all the badges, Team Rocket's incompetence, *etc.*) keeps kids tuned in year after year, so the creators of the show have no incentive to change it. You've identified only a symptom of the problem.
| 22 |
ELI5: Why do browsers re-download an image when you click "save-as"?
| 75 |
Poor programming. Whatever browser you are using, the developers just found it easier to implement the feature that way. The big browser makers are competing with each other with more and more features, they aren't as much concerned with making sure the basic features work better, so minor stuff like this will go unfixed for a long time.
| 22 |
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[Star Wars] How did the wampa get Luke attached to the ceiling of its ice cave?
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Wampas don't seem to possess any kind of advanced heating / cooling technology. Luke appeared to have his feet embedded in ice. Affixing a fully grown human to the ceiling, using nothing but ice, seems like a fairly delicate process: just mashing handfuls of snow in around his feet while holding him up there doesn't seem likely to do the job. So how do wampas attach their prey to ceilings?
| 35 |
Wampas urinate at extremely high pressure, and in great volume. A jet of wampa urine can easily reach the ceiling of one of their lairs, where it will flash-freeze. They can use this remarkable ability to "glue" their prey to the walls or ceiling of their larder.
| 53 |
ELI5: How does a country lend money to another country?
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I've been reading about national debt, so I wonder, when a country lend money to another, I picture trucks loaded with tons of money, since it is millions or billions of dollars, so it's really like that or just a E-transfer?
| 22 |
Countries rarely set up specific loans at all. Most debt is that the country creates a treasury bond and says "buy this for 100 dollars and in 5 years you can turn it in for 105 dollars" type deal. Then one country just buys a bunch of those. Very rarely is it set up as a specific loan like you'd take from a bank.
| 22 |
[Frozen] When Elsa made that ice castle, wouldn't the moisture required to create all the ice have adverse effects on the surrounding environment? (x-post r/NoStupidQuestions)
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Like, I'm thinking either the snow underneath/around her would have gotten dry, or the air would have gotten dry. In either case, what would have happened?
| 161 |
Technically yes but in reality no. Elsa's abilities allow her to create snow and ice out of nothing. Hence why she could fill her ballroom with mounds of snow or blanket her entire country in winter without removing any noticeable amount of water from her environment.
| 123 |
[40K] How strong are the Chaos Gods?
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Are they as strong as the Emperor? Stronger? How many primarchs does it take to kill one?
| 38 |
The Chaos gods are inconceivably vast amalgamated intelligences created from the thought and emotions of mortals reflected into the immaterium.
They can be hurt, diminished, and changed, but so far as we know they can't truly die. No more so than you could kill a portion of the night sky.
| 45 |
ELI5: How can someone be a director and star in the same film?
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Forgive me for my ignorance, but I always pictured the director behind the camera, not in front of it.
| 17 |
They are behind the camera - they have an idea of how they want the shot to look like and can provide director guidance to the other actors, work with the cinematographer (the guy who actually aims the camera, frames shots etc.) and the rest of the crew.... once the shot is set up exactly how they want, they can step in front of the camera to act in the shot. While some directors give their cinematographers a lot of leeway in how they want the camera aimed, how it is to track or pan, zoom etc., directors usually work with the cinematographers they know well, who can just "know" what the director wants - which makes it easier for the director-actor to step out in front of the camera. And of course everyone is in constant communication and discussion. But even so, its not that onerous; back to the monitors (the screens that show what's visible in the camera), back onto the set, back to the monitors...
| 11 |
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