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ELI5: Over 800,000 people go missing in the US every year, the vast majority people under the age of 18. Discounting the runaways, resolved cases, and other causes, how many of these missing can be attributed to psychopaths and sexual slavery? | Your question is flawed and that's why you are getting widely different answers. let me ask you a question. If a teenager runs away from home, that's a run away. If that run away falls in with a bad crowd (because, homeless) and ends up being sex slave in a far away place. If that person's disappearance attributed to sex slavery or is she a run away?
Very few kids who are in happy healthy homes are abducted by strangers. Much more likely is that the home is shit, the child leaves that shit home and gets involved in another dangerous situation. This person is now considered "high risk" because no one is looking out for them. It's now relatively easy for sex slavers to abduct them. | 27 | 24 |
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Is evolution limited to "random mutations" or can other paths also be deemed evolution? | For example, can the results of work being done in DNA manipulation be considered evolution? Whether now or in the future, as the area progresses? If down the road we are creating "super humans" as one might call it, can this be considered the next evolutionary step of mankind?
Ps. No need to limit answering the question in the title to my example. | Evolution is the term used to describe changes in a gene pool over time. This can occur by various mechanisms; random genetic mutation being one among many. Artificial selection, such as that seen in dog breeding or horticulture can also induce evolution. Artificial selection imposed by humans can occur at the phenotypic level (ex: selective breeding) or at the molecular/genetic level (targeted specific mutation). Either way, they both result in changes in the gene pool over time. i.e evolution | 11 | 17 |
ELI5: 4-kilobyte animation | [Example](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YZufDSD3IE)
How can something like that be made with so little data? | Mathmatics.
Calculate the stuff rather than having large blobs of data to be manipulated. We're very spoiled today with the amount of memory on our computers which means we can put alot of computing to create pre-processed objects, songs, etc. which are faster to manipulate and require less computing power, but more memory.
Want to use less memory? Then you require a lot more computing power to calculate everything live.
You basically just sit down and try to describe everything mathematically and that which you cannot you add as pre-compiled raw data into the program.
**Edit:**
The gist is that instead of telling the graphics card "Hey GFX-Card, I've got a gift for you! It's a gift-wrapped propeller! Do you like it?"
you say
"Hey GFX-card, I've got these two points in space. I'd like to draw a line between them in 3D space where it flexes with <insert formula here> as the line rotates around the X-axis. Store that shape for me in your memory with this name and I'll come back to you later." | 128 | 141 |
ELI5: The basic differences between the Incas, Mayas, and Aztecs. | If you wouldn't mind sacrificing some of your time, I'd appreciate it. | The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period (c. 2000 BC to AD 250), according to the Mesoamerican chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period (c. AD 250 to 900), and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish.
The Inca Empire or Inka Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century.
From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization: here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the city of Tenochtitlan, was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco. The Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica.
TL;DR Differences: Different people, different places. Mayans came before the others. | 43 | 56 |
Is all research experience good experience or should you not work in areas that you may not be fully interested in anymore? | So I got an offer for a research assistantship at my undergrad institution for some work in an area that would be my second-third choice if I were choosing it for grad schools. I'm not sure if I'm 100% interested in that area anymore, but I believe it might help me with applications this year, as I'm taking a gap year to improve my profile before applying again. Is it worth it to take up the offer?
(Also as a small side question, if the asking professor asks for a list of the courses you've taken as an undergrad, do you give them your transcript or just actually send them just a list without any grades?)
EDIT: Thank you everyone for the comments!! I think I'll take up the offer then and try to learn something out of it, hopefully it'll help my apps and I'm starting to think I'll enjoy it too!! Thankss!! | I think all research experience is good experience, particularly for undergrads. Honestly unless you have a better offer lined up, you can’t really be that picky when it comes to your research topic. There are so many factors involved that’s it not reasonable to expect everybody to only research topics they are extremely interested in. You research what you can get funding to research, and hopefully this lines up somewhat with what your interests are. | 37 | 26 |
What are the criteria for having a species declared extinct? How are scientists so sure that there is not one single animal of a species left? | Basically you have to have a bunch of different teams gathering data over quite a few years on last known sightings and animals that have been tagged, etc.
After that you have a committee come together, review the data, have the data proven, and after a while they'll agree the animal is extinct. With some it's a lot easier than others (kinda hard to miss elephants or rhinos if they still live in areas) | 13 | 19 |
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How is data encoded on light? | After reading a [BBC article](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13469924) on how scientists had achieved a transfer speed of 26 terabits per second by encoding data on different colors light in a laser, I'm really curious: how do you encode data on light? | What you're talking about is called *multiplexing,* and there are a few different ways to go about it. One way is time-division multiplexing. You know those chess guys you see in the park playing three games at once? That's time-division multiplexing. They play one board for a minute, then move to the next, then the next, then back to the first.
But in fibre optics, it's more common to use what's called dense wavelength-division multiplexing. What happens there is that individual chunks of data get turned into different wavelengths of light, each wavelength being modulated by its own source of light, such as a laser. If the source of light is sufficiently clean, and your optics and repeaters are of sufficiently high quality, you can send different frequencies of light down the same optical fibre basically with no interference. In other words, the "red" frequency doesn't interfere in any way with what's on the "blue" frequency. (It's not really that simple. In practice, frequencies are very subtly different, not different primary colors.)
This isn't typically something you use to move a chunk of data from one computer to another. Instead, it's used to combine lots of different signalling paths onto a single piece of optical fibre for long-distance links. For example, you can carry a large number of distinct phone calls on a single piece of optical fibre by giving each call its own wavelength and having the equipment on each end sort it out. Combine that with time-division multiplexing (because the signaling frequency of a laser is much higher than the number of on-off transitions per second needed to carry a single signal) and you can get a lot of information crammed into a single fibre. | 21 | 36 |
[Firefly] Why were Alliance ships shaped like 5-towered mini cities? | http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Tohoku_Class | Part of the design was dictated by technical requirements, such as wanting at least a certain amount of surface area for the volume of the ship (for heat dissipation, windows, external instrumentation, etc).
As far as role goes in the design, the Tohoku cruisers were built for administration and patrol duties. They carry gunships for policing actions, but are not expected to personally engage in actual ship-to-ship combat. So there's minimal need for armour, defenses, or large guns. Instead the focus is on long-term independent operation and habitation.
Beyond that, it's a matter of aesthetics. The ships effectively are miniature cities, and are a symbol of the Alliance's dominance and the civilization they bring to the outer planets, so the design of the ships reflect that. | 43 | 30 |
Addressing Professors | In Canada or US, does Professor John Smith mind being addressed as Hi John, in an email. How about in person? In what context is it (in)appropriate to use Hi Prof Smith vs Hi John?
How about pre-interview, during and after getting hired and working in the same lab? | It's Prof. or Dr. until they give you permission, either explicitly or implicitly. If they start signing emails "-John", then you're probably clear to use the first name. Until then, use the honorific. | 346 | 123 |
With a heavy vehicle trying to stop on snow, what is the relationship between the higher mass increasing traction on the snow, but also increasing the momentum that has to be stopped? | I often see pickups loaded with snow for traction, but it seems like extra weight might work against you at a certain point | That's an interesting question, let's look at the math.
As you point out, there are two factors at work here.
First is the kinetic energy of the vehicle,
Ke=1/2 m*v^2
M is the vehicle mass, v it's speed.
Second, there is the friction term. This one changes depending on whether or not the car is sliding or the tires are rolling like normal, but in either case the equation takes on the form
F=u*m
Where u is a friction constant times g.
To compare these, we need to look at how force translates to energy - we need to integrate the acceleration term with respect to the distance over which it is applied. this is easy-
F*x= delta E.
So, for the force of friction to cancel out the kinetic energy of the car,
F*x=delta E = u*m*x= 1/2 m*v^2
It looks like the masses cancel out here.
u*x= 1/2 v^2
We can collet all constants to say that
X is proportional to the square of v.
In this case, x is the distance needed to brake, and v is your car speed.
Conclusion: according to classical dynamics, braking early and ESPECIALLY driving slowly are more important than the weight of your car.
Edited as per physicistphill's suggestion. | 855 | 2,596 |
[My Hero Academia] All Might tells Midoriya he can't be a hero without a Quirk, but some time later the Support Class gets introduced. | Even without a Quirk, couldn't Izuku, an expert on heros, try for the Support Class and become an Iron Man -style hero? Did this not cross his mind at all? | The point of the Support Class is to build gadgets to enhance others' quirks. Izuku could have built gadgets for himself and become an Iron Man-style hero, but it would have been strictly less effective than having a hero with Iron Man armor, a quirk, and who can spend all their time practicing their quirk instead of building and maintaining their armor. And if you follow a less effective strategy just so you can get more glory, is that really heroic? | 53 | 41 |
[Judge dredd] Are the judges right in their immediate execution of criminals? | So we know the judges are basically fascists but you look at the cities and they are all run by violent gangs. So is it acceptable to have the judges be so brutal? | From a statist and utilitarian point of view it can be said that as the legal system is overwhelmed, they are trying a different take on the proper legal process, with the ultimate aim of maximizing the benefit to society and minimizing the cost of criminal activity, which appears to be spreading at an unprecedented rate.
From a libertarian point of view it could be said that if such a scenario existed people should be allowed to form volunteer militia to police their communities and protect their life and property, according to their own conception of the law. | 24 | 18 |
If a stereotype is statistically true is it still a stereotype? | I mean in the commonly used sense of the word, I know the exact definition refers more to personal mental stereotypes that people accumulate. I'm referring to the "common knowledge" stereotypes of which there are many.
Im not going to include examples so as to not bias any potential answers. | This depends on how you define stereotype. Some social psychologists may define it as "a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people."
Stereotypes seek to oversimplify someone's qualities and reduce their humanity to a few correlations in identity and behavior. Regardless of whether or not the data supports a strong statistic correlation, it still reduces a person to a set of actions based on impression and judgment; thus, retaining its status as a "stereotype." | 62 | 71 |
ELI5: Why are so many scam call centers located in India? | Because labour is cheap, but equally important, because of the legacy of the British Empire, there is a strong tradition of learning English as a second language.
EDIT - worth noting that on occasions where having faultless English with an English accent is important, call centres (sometimes called boiler rooms) are located nearer home. Spain is a favourite for scams targeting the UK. | 99 | 186 |
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[Star Trek]How centralized is the United Federation of Planets, how much automony do it's members have over themselves? | It really depends on the particular issue when it comes to centralization. Agriculture is very world to world, while regulations regarding orbital traffic are not.
Matters of Interstellar Foreign Policy are decided by the President of the UFP under advisement from the Diplomatic Corps, specific expert advisors, & Starfleet Command, while Domestic (read: issues within the UFP affecting multiple Member worlds) are decided upon by the Federation Council. Matters affecting specific Member worlds are generally handled locally, albeit with a support network of resources and organizations spanning the entire Federation.
Singular (planetary) issues tend to be solved by that planet themselves, except in such cases where they lack the resources, wherein they petition the Council for assistance.
All of this presumes we're referring to Member planets, formal members of the Federation. signing into the UFP carries with it certain preconditions & requirements, among them universal suffrage, civil rights, non-discrimination, & secular governance.
Aside from that basic framework, local laws & regulations can vary, especially with new members, but, over time, most interplanetary differences in civil matters fade as travel & relations encourage members to standardize so as to make themselves more hospitable & familiar (and in turn find other worlds more hospitable & familiar to them). | 18 | 28 |
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CMV: Society would be more productive if prostitution was legal | Men are horny creatures that crave a lot of sex from a variety of physically attractive women. Physically attractive women are generally very selective and either off limits or take a lot of time/energy to lay, so there's naturally a huge imbalance between horny men and the beautiful women they crave willing to fuck them. On top of that, most men don't have the time and/or energy to devote to constantly being on the prowl and putting in the work necessary to have sex with a ton of beautiful women, not to mention the looks, personality, status, etc.
All this time wasted chasing sex is time that could be better spent elsewhere. Sexually satisfied men are happier, more focused, and more productive than sexually frustrated men.
Prostitution makes sex an option, sexually satiating a man and freeing his mind to pursue more productive things. Sure a man can always masturbate, but the real thing is generally more satisfying. Also, masturbation makes it easier to live in a reclusive virtual world removed from human contact where sex with an attractive woman isn't believed to be a real possibility.
Women would also benefit because they'd no longer have a legion of desperate sexually frustrated guys chasing and using them solely for sex. Human interactions would be more genuine and less driven by sexual desperation.
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> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | You've looked at some upsides, how about looking at downsides to productivity:
1) Massively increased levels of incurable sexually transmitted diseases (several of which cannot be effectively protected against by condoms).
2) Large increases in divorce (partly due to #1).
3) Considerable increases in human trafficking (as seen by every country to decriminalize prostitution so far).
To name a few. | 10 | 16 |
[WH40K/Avatar:TLA/LOK] A rogue trader comes across the planet that TLA/LOK happens on. What happens? | 1. Explorations are made to see if it's valuable.
2. Rogue Trader doesn't find anything truly valuable (archeotech/STC fragments, major resources, stash of old Imperial tech, etc.), but passes on word of the planet to other organizations who may find interest in the planet.
3. Mechanicus Explorator fleet with Ecclesiarchy missionaries show up.
4. Ad-Mech doesn't find too much, but the Ecclesiarchy gets to preaching the Imperial Cult right away.
5. Imperials discover the existence of Bending, and start to lose it. Zealotry begins to take hold.
6. Luckily, a (more radical) Inquisitor gets word of this newly discovered planet where a large majority of the population appear to be able to manipulate Warp energies in strange ways.
7. The Inquisitor gets to the world in time to stop the Ecclesiarchy from turning it into one big fireball of religious intolerance.
8. The Inquisition takes control of the planet and study it for the next few decades, allowing for it to become normalized into the Imperium proper.
9. A century later, the planet, now known by the Administratum-given name as *Laogai Primus*, is known for producing large amounts of seemingly incorruptible "Elemental Psykers" who are used in combat zones across the galaxy's many war zones. Laogai is also well-known for its Imperial Guard regiment, the 2005th Avatars.
10. Some douchey Space Wolf Rune Priest hears about the 'Elemental Psykers', and once again tries to claim that the Rune Priests of Fenris also derive their sorcery from the elemental forces of their planet instead of the Warp. He is wrong, and always will be.
11. Half a millennia after its discovery, Laogai is bathed in an unholy orgy of Chaotic destruction, as every Elemental Psyker on the world is simultaneously possessed by servants of the Architect Of Fate. As they were thought to be incorruptible, many of the Psykers (known as 'Benders' within Low Gothic slang) never underwent proper training that other sanctioned Psykers go through, making their corruption infinitely easier. Within three weeks, all PDF and Guard forces have been slaughtered by the renegade Benders, causing the Inquisition to take extreme measures and launch an Exterminatus against the once great Laogai Primus. Any and all Benders serving across the Imperium are quickly purged with maximum prejudice.
12. Laogai Primus is now classified as a half-dead world/half-daemon world, quarantined by the Inquisition as there are hundreds of Warp gates scattered across its surface.
13. The Rogue Trader who first discovered Laogai Primus, now an aging veteran, comes across a strange new world. Upon the planet's surfaces he hears rumors of an organization known as a 'Ninja Academy', where disciples learn how to control and activate sorcerous abilities called 'jutsus'. He passes knowledge of the planet on to a Mechanicus Explorator Fleet which has some missionaries attached.
| 105 | 41 |
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Why does tilt shift make things look like models? | This is because when viewing things from a very close distance the depth of field (the part of the scene that is in focus) is very narrow.
When you use a tilt-shift lens one of the effects you can produce is a very narrow depth of field even if the scene is very large. This tricks your brain into thinking that what you are looking at is actually very small and close to your eyes. | 95 | 171 |
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ELI5: How is sound stored in a file and reproduced back? | Sound is a waveform and anything that is a waveform can be described by numbers. Think of a simple sine wave. If you walk along the x axis you can measure the wave in terms of numbers - x and y. The number of steps you take across the x axis is your resolution and the height of the y axis is your amplitude.
There are programs called codecs - code and decode - they take the sound coming in over the microphone and convert it into numbers (coding). The numbers are stored in a file. The file format is specific to the codec (.wav, .mp3, .avi etc) . The same codec takes the file and does the reverse. It converts the numbers back into sound vis the speakers. | 17 | 28 |
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ELI5:Why can an alcoholic die from withdrawals if they quit cold turkey? | Alcohol affects various neurotransmitters, the chemicals that your neurons use to communicate with each other. In serious alcoholics, some neurotransmitters are under produced, because the alcohol makes up the difference. But if you quit cold turkey, the body can't quickly respond to make more of that neurotransmitter, so the neurons don't fire correctly. This leads to seizures and sometimes death.
In short, if you're dependent upon alcohol and you quit immediately, your brain won't function right. | 21 | 33 |
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When areas of our body swell due to injury, why is it recommended to suppress it? | It's recommend to elevating or apply ice to a swollen area to reduce it, but why do we have to stop an instant bodily reaction? What's the purpose of swelling if we do everything we can do suppress it? | The point of the the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) treatment to fight swelling is to reduce the secondary injury caused by the swelling. The extra fluid in the area makes it harder for nutrients get to the cells because of fluid dynamics. Other causes of the secondary injury (cell death) are compression of blood vessels, and already dead cells releasing enzymes typically contained in the cell that can digest cell parts. You may try to suppress swelling but it is going to happen regardless the point is to control it so healing speed is increase. Hope that helps
Side note: There are multiple models/theories on the subject
| 113 | 301 |
Besides Carbon Dating, what are the other techniques to determine the age of objects ? Organic or inorganic? | There are a huge number of dating techniques. To list some of them:
*Dendrochronology
*Sclerochronology
*Varve-chronology
*Radiocarbon/Uranium Series/Etc. (many, many dating techniques in this group)
*Cosmogenic Isotopes
*Fission Track Dating
*Thermo-luminescence and Optically Stimulated Luminescence and Infrared Simulated Luminescence
*Amino-Acid Racemization
*Obsidian Hydration and Tephra Hydration
*Rock-varnish cation ratio and development
*Lichenometry
*Soil chemistry chronology and soil profile development
*Rock and mineral weathering
*Scarp Morphology
*Depositional and deformational layering (seasonal layers in ice sheets, for example)
*Geomorphic position
*Calcium Carbonate dating
*Stratigraphy
*Paleomagnetism
*Tephrachronology
*Paleontology (huge field)
*Stable Isotopes dating (whole ton here)
*Tectites and microtectites
*And of course human historical records
Radiocarbon gets a lot of press, but it is very far from being the most reliable dating method, and it is not used nearly as often as most laymen will tend to think it is. | 27 | 39 |
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Why is self-awareness considered to be a necessary condition for consciousness? | There's a question of etymology here which is interesting to explore. Etienne Balibar in his essay 'Conscience/Consciousness in Spinoza's *Ethics*' notes that in Latin (as well as French) there isn't a distinction between consciousness and conscience. In French, both are represented by *la Conscience,* and in Latin both are *Conscientia*.
In the essay, Balibar is writing about Spinoza as well as Locke (Locke, he contests, is responsible for establishing the difference in English between consciousness and conscience). In *An Essay concerning Human Understanding,* Locke writes that "Consciousness is the perception of what passes on in Man's own Mind." What's so radical about this definition, which became standard in metaphysics as well as psychology, is that consciousness is defined as internal perception of experience. Consciousness isn't the same as mind, and it's not the same as experience, but it is the mind's awareness of its own experiences.
In a sense, at least according to this view, consciousness is always-already self-consciousness or self-awareness. Then, self-awareness would be a necessary condition for consciousness because consciousness *just is* self-awareness (etymologically speaking). | 29 | 68 |
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[Marvel] Can daredevil safely drive a car at rush hour using his echolocation powers? | Even though he is blind his other four basic senses are heightened and his superhearing ability gives him sonar-like powers.
So can he drive a car in a big city at rush hour time without getting involved with an accident?
Edit: Should have capitalized Daredevil :) | Sonar waves hit the first solid object and return to the receiver, which is how position is determined. Daredevil would have a really clear "picture" of where the windshield was, and hear the screams of all the soft, vulnerable pedestrians as he ran them down, but that's about it. | 47 | 24 |
ELI5: Why are there so many more homeless men than women? | Women
* are more likely to ask for and receive assistance from family and friends
* have more charities targeted towards them
* are more like to be caring for children, which makes them more eligible for state assistance
* are more able to trade sexual capital for support
* when homeless, face greater dangers, and are less likely to be visible | 234 | 115 |
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[General] To what degree of relative sentience would eating a sentient organism be considered "wrong"? | Let's say you have Organism A, who is a human with 21st century intellect and intelligence at a genius-level. Meanwhile, Organism B is an alien with intellect and intelligence so beyond comprehension that it dwarfs most species in the Universe.
If B decided to eat A, why would this be considered any different from a human eating an animal? "Wrong" can be an objective and/or subjective term, depending on which angle you approach it. Would it be wrong for B to mercifully end A's life, prepare him/her into a meal, eat said meal? Why, or why not? | This is kind of a broad problem that we address in real life as well. Not sure if this is the right place considering we could also just use the example Human V. Apes/Dolphins. Animals that can and do communicate with semi-complex concepts. We eat animals that understand life and death. | 20 | 24 |
ELI5: Why do we use XLR input for microphones instead of a 6.3mm jack like we do with guitars? | XLR (which, technically is only a connector standard) provides a *balanced* signal path. Balanced lines allow better signal quality because they are less susceptible to interference. Microphones tend to have much longer cables than guitars and so tend to be more affected by noise/interference. XLR also allows "phantom power", which allows you to send power to microphones that require it. Why not guitars? Guitars (almost always) have high-impedance , high-output pickups and neither of these make a balanced line reasonable. And short cable runs. Mics also plug into a board, where as you plug your guitar into an amp...so you'd need XLR inputs there, too.
Final point: You can run balanced lines on XLR or 1/4" (6.3mm) but the connectors for 1/4" are 3 conductor, not 2. | 102 | 184 |
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What is the biggest thing separating humanity from animals? | If there even is a deference, maybe do you think we are the same as them? | Thomas Suddendorf has written an interesting book ("The gap") about what sets humans apart from other animals.
He distinguishes six domains - see below -: the first term is related to features we can find in animals, the second term belongs to Homo sapiens
(the sign ">" representing the "gap"):
\- Communication > language
\- Memory > mental time travel
\- Social reasoning > mindreading (theory of mind)
\- Physical reasoning (problem solving) > scientific theories (abstract reasoning)
\- Empathy > morality
\- Tradition > cumulative culture
In all six domains we repeatedly find two major features that set us apart:
a.) our open-ended ability to imagine and reflect on different situations
b.) our deep-seated urge to link our scenario-building minds together ('joint attention' and 'collective intentionality', according to Michael Tomasello).
It seems to be primarily these two attributes that carried our ancestors across the gap, turning animal communication into open-ended human language, memories into mental time-travel... and so on | 69 | 42 |
What’s the difference between industrial and competitive programming? | I know that in school (both high school and college), students are taught competitive/algorithmical programming. However, I’ve heard that what we do in school is rather different from industrial or real programming.
I don’t quite understand what this means. What’s industrial programming and why is it different? I suppose that real problems are much more complex, but is that all? | In industry software development is done by adding small incremental improvements with a big focus on keeping the code: tidy, reusable and extendable so less time is spent re-inventing the wheel and fixing bugs.
However in competitive programming there is often a strict time limit and its unlikely that the final result will be used again. So most attempts to make tidy or reusable code go out the window and the only focus is making something that just works.
Think of it like building a lego helicopter vs buying a model. The lego helicopter will take time to build but you can add guns or swap out parts later, while a model can't be easily modified. | 29 | 33 |
[Star Trek] What's the reaction of your average Ferengi when told about Humanity's capitalistic past? | To put it another way, is it well-known among the Ferengi? And among those who do know of it, how do they feel about the fact that Humanity-at-large abandoned the pursuit of profit? | Many Ferengi who deal with humans are aware that the species was once similar to them in terms of economics. But it doesn't really affect their day-to-day. Just like it's common knowledge that Vulcans used to be even more violent and deadly than Klingons in the distant past. How does that help anyone right now? Sure, there are isolated incidents where having that knowledge MIGHT help, but it has no real effect on anyone in the modern day.
A Ferengi who doesn't pursue profit isn't a Ferengi at all. But to them, that's all that matters. A Pakled could be the richest sapient being in the galaxy, and the Ferengi wouldn't care much. They're a Pakled, after all, not one of them. Other species have cultures and values that the Ferengi might not understand, but they usually respect them. (and most of the time keep their mouth shut instead of loudly judging them. It might drive customers away if they did so)
Humans, in the Ferengi's eyes, were stupid to abandon their pursuit of economic gain. But then again, their society is still around, and still trades with the Ferengi along with all the other Federation members. So it balances out. Plus, sometimes humans being devoid of business sense makes it very easy to exploit them. (mostly price gouging, since a human wouldn't have much concept of it)
On the other hand, we know from Quark that some Ferengi are glad that humans abandoned their capitalistic ways. Good members of Ferengi society live by VERY strict rules and laws. They do just about anything in the pursuit of wealth, but the "just about anything" is extremely important to them. Humans had no rules. Mass warfare in the name of profit, slaughter, slavery, suffering. Ferengi might exploit their friends, but they'd never sell them into slavery or bomb their homes in order to take their stuff. Humans developed warp drive after 600 million people died in Earth's most horrible war. The Ferengi bought it. | 47 | 25 |
[Star Wars] I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan, and have read fairly extensively into EU, but something still eludes me: How, other than aesthetics, has technology changed since the Old Republic era? | It just seems like ships go from sleek and sexy, to bulky and square, then back to sexy again, but what changes have actually happened?
Quicker warp speeds? Better weaponry? Are lightsabers still exactly the same as they always were? | Most of the advancements take place under the hood these days. This makes them much less noticeable unless you're a technician that keeps up with them. Think if it this way. Everybody noticed when the Jedi went from using traditional bladed weapons to lightsabers. It's not as noticeable when the power cell inside that lightsaber is made 40% more efficient. You'll notice when militaries start using blaster rifles instead of slug throwers, but you don't notice so much an innovation that allows newer model repeaters to fire more accurately and efficiently. | 19 | 19 |
ELI5: If sharks are predators, why are it’s eyes on the sides of the head? | I read in school that prey have eyes on the sides of the head (sheep, cows, etc) to spot predators coming whereas predators have eyes on the front. Is this rule not applicable to marine biology? | Land predators rely on sight more than sharks do, while sharks rely on smell more. Hammerheads are the best example, their eyes are way out to the side right? They sense the electromagnetic field of their prey, even below the sand. | 30 | 17 |
How do companies put such specific expiration dates on products that sometimes go years into the future? | Expiration dates are almost always estimates that are added starting from date of production. A lot of foods can last longer than expiration dates and some things can even last indefinitely past expiration dates, but have them ("best by") to ensure quality. Like for example a lot of baking products like flour can last indefinitely as long as it's kept in an air tight container and is checked before use for things like bugs. | 15 | 23 |
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Due to the financial crisis of the late 2000s, there has been a lot of fundamental criticism of conventional economic and financial theories. What should a financial industry student study in order to prevent a repeat of these mistakes? | Ever since the recent global financial crisis , there has been a lot of criticism directed towards different disciplines of economics and other business related fields like finance or administration.
For example:
The economics profession appears to have been unaware of the long build-up to the current worldwide financial crisis and to have significantly underestimated its dimensions once it started to unfold. In our view, this lack of understanding is due to a misallocation of research efforts in economics. If you trace the deeper roots of this failure to the profession’s insistence on constructing models that, by design, disregard the key elements driving outcomes in real-world markets. The economics profession has failed in communicating the limitations, weaknesses, and even dangers of its preferred models to the public. This state of affairs makes clear the need for a major reorientation of focus in the research economists undertake, as well as for the establishment of an ethical code that would ask economists to understand and communicate the limitations and potential misuses of their models.
http://www.ifw-members.ifw-kiel....
Another example:
Accounting practices are deeply implicated in the current financial crisis and in proposals for recapitalizing financial institutions and restoring stability to the global financial system. This essay discusses the methodological and theoretical gaps in accounting research that explain our failure to anticipate the crisis and limit our ability to analyze and respond to it.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/sci...
Another example:
The failure of academic finance can be considered one of the symbols of the financial crisis. Two important underlying reasons why academic finance models systematically fail to account for real-world phenomena follow directly from two conventions: (a) treating economics not as a 'true' social science (but as a branch of applied mathematics inspired by the methodology of classical physics); and (b) using economic models as if the empirical content of economic theories is not very low. Failure to understand and appreciate the inherent weaknesses of these 'conventions' had fatal consequences for the use and interpretation of key academic finance concepts and models by market practitioners and policymakers. Theoretical constructs such as the efficient markets hypothesis, rational expectations, and market completeness were too often treated as intellectual dogmas instead of (parts of) falsifiable hypotheses. The situation of capture via dominant intellectual dogmas of policymakers, investors, and business managers was made worse by sins of omission - the failure of academics to communicate the limitations of their models and to warn against (potential) misuses of their research - and sins of commission - introducing (often implicitly) ideological or biased features in research programs Hence, the deeper problem with finance concepts such as the 'efficient markets hypothesis' and 'ratex theory' is not that they are based on assumptions that are considered as not being 'realistic'. The real issue at stake with academic finance is not a quarrel about the validity of the assumption of rational behavior but the inherent semantical insufficiency of economic theories that implies a low empirical content (and a high degree of specification uncertainty). This perspective makes the scientific approach advocated by Friedman and others less straightforward. In addition, there is wide-spread failure to incorporate the key implications of economics as a social science. As response to these 'weaknesses' and challenges, five suggested principles or guidelines for future research programmes are outlined.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pape...
Another example:
This one is a book written about the failure of risk management:
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Failure...
Should one study philosophy? What is there to do when all that knowledge could be wrong? | Tl;dr
What should be done? Stop using sophistry to justify screwing people over to maximize profit. Start thinking globally with cooperation and creation mixed in with the more common competition and destruction. | 10 | 17 |
ELI5:Athletes seemingly get better every decade as we learn more about nutrition. Does this mean we truly don't know the capabilities/limitations of the human body? | There's so much more to learn about the human body. No question.
Just consider the amount of conflicting studies re: nutrition and sport-specific training. In the 80s, carbs were good. Now, carbs are bad. In the 90s, fat was bad. Now, it's making a nutritional comeback with a vengeance. | 47 | 158 |
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CMV: Most people's beliefs are based on what they feel and what the people around them have told them. Most people dont have a moral system under which they have thought about the foundational elements that make that system to substantiate their beliefs. | Most people's political beliefs as well as other beliefs of whats right and wrong in general as well as whats right and wrong in society are based on
1. intuitiveness and what they feel
2. What they've been told by the people around them. Ie groupthink, aligning political views.
For exmaple, a lot of people I know are pro-choice and as much as I've thought about it, so am I, I do need to think about it considerably more however. But whenever I ask pro choice people " when do you think life begins" they usually dont have an answer or its an answer they think of on the spot. Now this isnt an argument for pro choice or against pro choice. Im using this exmaple to highlight peoples responses to difficult moral questions to show they usually have not thought about it at a fundamental level of ethics.
Another example is " murder is wrong". I think for the most part almost everyone would agree with that statement.
But if I were to ask why, most people would have no clue, or an answer on the spot about how ending a life is wrong.
This is a weaker example but my general argument is that most people have not thought about their beliefs past what they feel and what theyve been told. Maybe I am expecting too much from people.
People should have a moral system under which they ring their beliefs through and should they should truly believe in the consistent results of that system.
If you believe X is right and Y is wrong, and you put it through a moral system under which they both come out to be right. Your beliefs are either wrong and inconsistent or the moral system under which you put X and Y through are wrong and inconsistent. | Have you read much philosophy in ethics? Some of the most intelligent people ever to live have been trying for over 2,000 years to articulate a logically consistent moral system with solid, rational foundations. Every effort is picked apart and shown to miss the mark.
It's just not a reasonable expectation for anyone, let alone everyone. | 45 | 87 |
Are other physical properties subject to the uncertainty principle, like position and momentum are? | There is a generalized uncertainty relation for any two observables. And any two observables whose operators don’t commute have some nonzero minimum for the product of their uncertainties. That applies to the position operators with their conjugate momenta, the different components of the angular momentum operators with each other, etc. Any operators which don’t commute. | 21 | 17 |
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CMV: an argument's validity should not be influenced by the speaker | I've seen this happen for a while now but it has increased in frequency a lot lately and I just can't wrap my head around it
A few months ago I was talking to a friend of a friend when she brought up her interest and a book she was reading a book about middle eastern women's rights, I recommended another book "The Arab women, from a Psychological, social and sexual aspect \[Rough translation of the title\] and she was interested till I told her that it's a collection of research papers written by a well-renowned Psychiatrist, the contents of the book were evidence-based, peer-reviewed articles, the author is pro gender rights, but she got upset about the audacity of a man writing about the "female experience"
I was at a bar the other day with an American friend, when Arab politics were brought up, The man has moved to the middle east 5 years ago, studied and works in middle eastern community development, has more experience about the topic than everyone at the table but his opinion was rendered useless on the basic fact that he's a foreigner
I'm a Psych Resident was talking to a friend about mental illness and her reaction was I can't possibly know more about it because she suffered from depression
while I kind of understand the argument that people have unique and different experiences and a another human can't experience that, and their opinion is valuable but an expert opinion at least in medicine is the lowest form of evidence, a experts opinion cant and never will disregard a peer-reviewed article, and the personal identity of someone doesn't disregard their knowledge
I would understand their argument if someone living in a peaceful country would disregard the experience of a Syrian who lived through the war
but just cause I was born and raised in Arab country doesn't make me an expert in middle eastern politics or just because I was diagnosed with hypertension doesn't make me know more about it than a cardiologist
people provide valuable experience and knowledge but that doesn't make them experts
Edit: Formatting | >in medicine is the lowest form of evidence, a personal opinion cant and never will disregard a peer-reviewed article, and the personal identity of someone doesn't disregard their experience
What if an article is written by someone who's repeatedly falsified data in the past, would you trust it? | 12 | 27 |
How can you tell if research is being 'stolen'? | I'm not in academia so please bear with me if I'm not using correct terminology.
My gf is is incredibly smart and hard-working. She's been working towards her PhD in political science from a top ten progrsm, and is ABD. She recently went into the field with a new colleague, one who had similar but distinct research. She was with him in the field for about half of her lengthy stint, at which time she discussed her research with him at length.
She always knew their research had overlaps, but after her fieldwork she finds he "reframed" his theory to now center around what made hers unique. He shared it with her willingly, which makes her doubt malice, but she's understandably doubtful as well. Her advisors are toothless and passive with any advice.
I don't know one way or the other what the truth is or, more importantly, how to identify the truth without making premature accusations.
Any advice on how she approaches this question? I see merits to both "sides"- some shady shit is going on and he sent her his proposal to test her willingness to challenge it's originality, or it's all an unfortunate accident of shared interest and timing.
Any advice whatsoever is welcome, thanks. | It's research, she might tactfully suggest that he links to one of her publications (and/or put her name) when mentioning that part of the reasoning. That's how science work: people jump on other people's findings to build on them with their own work and insight (and give proper credits) | 30 | 20 |
CMV: I am scared of my own mortality. | Hi basically I am terrified every day by the notion that my life is passing me by. I am only 22 years old which I realize is young but I can't accept the fact that I will die of old age one day. Even worse, I will probably deteriorate in health then die. The way I see it each year is passing and I'm growing older and this seriously worries me. We're all expected to go to school, get a job, have a family and then die. I want to experience all this too, it just haunts me that this isn't forever. Help CMV please!
Please leave the footnote below the following line, but remember to delete this sentence by replacing it with the body of your post. Thank you!
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | Look up the Buddhist ideas of mindfulness and being present. In a nutshell, a Buddhist would point out that by feeling anxiety about something as inescapable as death, you're failing to enjoy the life you're living. So much about every present moment is beautiful -- and not just the "good" parts. Happiness is nice, but sadness has its own beauty.
People have this remarkable ability to be happy in almost any situation. People in third world countries can be happy as long as their basic needs are met. People were happy before industrialization, and not just aristocracy. Peasants were happy. Farmers were happy. Hunter-gatherers would stare at the stars in wonder, and then have sex and go to bed. You better believe they were happy.
You can be happy too, as soon as you stop worrying and enjoy the moment you're in. You have the capacity to choose. Anyone who has accepted death has simply chosen to be happy now, regardless of what happens in the future. Living the life you want to live is all you can do; the rest will figure itself out. Don't worry about it. | 13 | 19 |
[The Martian] How did The Watney Incident effect future space exploration? | We know that Mark Watney's ordeal on Mars was one of the most watched and studied episode of human space exploration. We also know that it led to some unexpected cooperation between several of the world's space agencies in both this incident and future ARES missions.
What effect on the future of space exploration of this? Did it hinder or expand NASA's future goals? | New colonial efforts include an emergency back-up food supply. Safety and survival protocols are set in place for new astronauts to learn. All equipment are designed to be modular and allow colonists to rebuild after an unexpected catastrophic failure of the main equipment. | 63 | 66 |
ELI5: What performance difference can we see between an athlete that warms up and one that doesnt before a race? | I would like to know specifically about cyclists | In short, warming up brings the body from its natural state of rest closer to its exercising state during training, performing etc. Essentially, it makes the transition from rest to exercise much more efficient as our heart rate is already substantially increased due to warming up. Our blood circulation is subsequently increased, leading to increased delivery of oxygen and removal of metabolic waste products from working muscles. Warming up allows athletes to jump straight into performance without having to worry about the stage known as oxygen deficit, where the body literally needs to take in a greater amount of oxygen to satisfy the increased demand for oxygen by the muscles.
So to answer your question, a cyclist that has warmed up will be able to cycle harder and faster as their heart rate, blood circulation, respiratory rate and more are already substantially increased. A cyclist that has not warmed up will need an increased amount of oxygen delivered to working muscles to satisfy the sudden increase in demand. | 66 | 167 |
[Wall-E] How was the Axiom self-sustaining? | What was originally intended to be a voyage lasting a few years at the most, turned into one lasting 700 years. For the entire time the Axiom has continued to provide for the entire human population aboard. They're kept (very well) fed, they're provided a hover-chair, clothing, etc.
They're clearly going through a ton of food. They're also many robots aboard that are regularly maintained and need to be repaired with new parts. There are also things things like paper and such that gets thrown away. There's rocket fuel for voyages to Earth to drop off the EVE robots and many other things. When we see the garbage disposal area of the ship we see there is a huge amount of waste being generated. All of which is stuff that most likely will have to be replaced somehow.
And how does the economy of the ship work? The people aboard seem to live a life of luxury, preforming no actual work of any kind. When the captain does his morning announcements on their 700th anniversary he mentions to ask for a free cupcake in a cup. This being free implies that not everything is free, meaning people have to pay for stuff aboard the ship. Where do people get the money for things? The only one who seems to have anything resembling a job is the captain. Are they given an allowance? | Heavy duty recycling programs, external matter scoops to recoup fuel (likely hydrogen and helium) and possible other elements which can be synthesized into food and the like. Onboard refineries and machineshops to produce the materials required for maintaining the ship and it's robots. Automated hydroponics and cell-cultures sustained by recycled waste and collected hydrocarbons. In principle, creating a self sustaining generation-craft is doable (and most of the systems to allow that would also be necessary for a mission lasting several years and sustaining a crew of thousands) and they seem to have most of the technology they would need.
As for the economy... Either they are afforded stipends from the 'Company' which they then pay back into the system for services, creating a closed circuit finance system with zero loss or gain... Or they've become so dense through over-pampering that the term 'Free' has become more of an attraction than actually meaning 'No Cost'. | 40 | 22 |
[Marvel] Would an Autonomous Iron Man Suit be Able to Wield Mjølnir? | If Tony Stark directed a suit to move Mjølnir or give it to Thor, or if an autonomous iron man suit were to identify MjOlnir as the most suitable weapon in a situation, would the autonomous suit be able to move the hammer because it has no soul or intent? The hammer is moved by the helicarrier, would it also be moveable/wielded by a suit? | It depends on whether it's a truly autonomous, self aware entity or not.
If it's truly self aware, then it'd be judged based on its worthiness. If it's not self aware, then it depends on a number of other factors (for example, an elevator or an airplane can lift mjolnir) that're too complicated.
The shorter answer is "depends on what Odin thinks about it." | 26 | 22 |
What are some of the best essays arguing for/against the concept of self-ownership? | Title says it all: I'm hoping to write an essay discussing this topic and am looking for all the material I can find. Thank you! | G. A. Cohen, *Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality,* Cambridge University Press 1995.
Cohen was a marxist who examined Nozick's ideas of self-ownership in a serious rather than purely dismissive manner. | 18 | 28 |
[Robot Fiction] Hi, I'm a designer for your local robocorp, and I was hoping I could get some input for Warbot designs | Y'see, popular culture has infested a lot of my colleagues' creative processes. Lots of skeletal Terminator looking robots, which never made much sense to me.
I mean, the human anatomy is structurally one of the least effective combat designs in nature, and no robot can actually take advantage of the human body's abilities, y'know, like flexibility or heat displacement, etc etc.
What designs could you guys suggest to make the most structurally efficient fighting robot with the least amount of unnecessary parts and doohickeys? Should I take inspiration from the animal kingdom? Or other places?
Any questions regarding the actual conflict our bots will be expected to take part in, I'll answer in the comments. Thanks! | The reason why combat robots are designed to be humanoid is to maximize their utility and versatility by being able to crew and use human weapons, vehicles, and equipment.
A walking tank is cool but it can only ever be a walking tank. A humanoid robot can be infantry that fights house to house, a police-sentinel, emergency rescue, or general labor.
And as an arms manufacturer, you know that most governments can’t afford robotic armies but can afford planes, tanks, APC/IFV’s. You can sell them that equipment. And with humanoid robots, you can sell them robotic soldiers in the future that can crew the equipment you sold them before.
Of course you can have specialized units like pilotless jets, but if we’re talking about basic single unit combat robots, nothing will beat the versatility of a humanoid | 38 | 49 |
[DC] what are the limitations of the Lazarus pit? | How long could someone be dead for, before the pit wouldn't work?
Are any wounds or diseases incurable?
If you threw in a hand would a whole body regrow? | The body must be more or less in tact, lets say ballpark, you need 75% of the body (water less weight) and it has to be more less arranged in the proper shape, the most important part is that the brain has to be in tact as far as possible.
The real downside of the Lazarus Pit comes from how far you are gone when you use it.
Use it for rejuvenation? Short spurt of rage when you emerge.
Straight out reanimate a dead body? Welcome to the sequel of Pet Sematary. | 26 | 23 |
ELI5: Why is chemo more effective against aggressive cancers? | I’ve been told this by a couple of doctors but didn’t think of asking why at the time. Why is chemo more effective against aggressive cancers than slow-growing cancers? | Many traditional chemotherapy drugs work by breaking some part of the DNA replication process. This has the advantage of only hurting a cell when it tries to copy its DNA, so cells which never do that aren't affected at all. Nerves, for instance, don't copy themselves, and are therefore immune to these chemo drugs.
However, the most aggressive cancers are literally always copying their DNA. As a result, breaking that process will break a greater percentage of their cells than any others in the body, killing the cancer faster than you. This is also why chemo is bad for sperm and white blood cell count. Both are rapidly replicating cells, so both will be heavily impacted. | 33 | 20 |
Why does a liquid run down the side of a glass when pouring it? | When I pour a liquid from a mug into another container, it runs down the side of the mug. Why does this happen? | Due to both the high surface energy of the ceramic surface and the lower interfacial energy of the ceramic-water interface.
The lowest energy state is when the water is covering the ceramic and so the water will adhere to the mug as it is poured out. | 11 | 17 |
ELI5: How does radiation poisoning actually kill people? | Radiation actively damages your DNA and other molecules in your cells. It can cause DNA mutations, strand breaks and whole chromosome breaks. Without an intact genome, the cell can't carry out all its functions and will either make a decision to undergo controlled cell death (apoptosis) or if the damage is too severe uncontrolled cell death (necrosis) may occur. Severe radiation poisoning causes an acute destruction of cells, whereas prolongued exposure to harmful levels of radiation makes you more susceptible to cancers due to the mutating nature of the radiation. | 16 | 22 |
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ELI5: Why do our mouths get dry when we breathe through them, but not our noses? | Just another one of those thoughts | Your body has developed each body part to suit it's task.
Your nose is designed for breathing - to suit this your body lines it with a thicker mucous (snot) that will keep it moist while breathing.
Your mouth on the other hand has more complex tasks - eating, speaking and so on. To this end it is beneficial that your mouth uses a different fluid (spit) that is a lot thinner - this means it won't provide the same coating or protection that a thicker mucous will, and it will dry quite quickly. Instead the thinner fluid will be much more appropriate for jobs like eating - where our body will use the fluid to break down the food and help aide travel and digestion through out bodies. | 76 | 72 |
ELI5: Why does the warm, humid air of a shower "open up" my sinuses, yet the cold, dry winter air also "opens up" my sinuses. | They both work in different ways. The humidity of the shower wets the mucus that coats your sinuses, allowing it to flow better and making it less viscous. The cold dry air stimulates the flow of mucus, a normal physiologic response to prevent nasal dryness. The cold air can also constrict blood vessels in your nasal cavity, which has the effect of expanding the interior nasal airway and bringing down tissue swelling. | 226 | 751 |
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Why don't we see any main sequence Red Giants or Blue Dwarfs? | Pretty simple question, probably with a pretty simple answer. Blue Dwarfs are a theoretical stage of life for Red Dwarfs, that much I know, but why don't we see any small main sequence Blue stars? Is it just not possible to get that hot and that small? And the same goes for Red Giants - all the big stars seem to be Blue. Why are none of them Red? Why is that only the dying stage of a larger star? | A star's evolution is mostly driven by just two numbers: its initial mass, and its age. Almost all stars of the same mass will go through the same evolutionary stages at the same ages. We see a diversity of stars because stars were formed at different times and with different masses. There are other effects, but they are secondary effects, and you can understand most of what's going on by just looking at mass and age.
In the "main sequence", a star burns hydrogen in the core through nuclear fusion. This process is *extremely* sensitive to temperature: doubling the temperature can produce 100x as much power (and consume Hydrogen 100x faster). A more massive star has a higher pressure and temperature in the centre, and produces a *lot* more heat than a less massive star. This sets the colour of the star. A cool star is red. A warmer star is orange or yellow. The hottest stars are white, then blue. This also sets the age of the star. A massive star will burn its fuel *much* faster than a low mass star - so fast that it completely overwhelms the fact that it has more fuel to start with. Our Sun has a life-time of maybe 10 billion years. A star 8x the mass of our Sun will only live for *millions* of years - thousands of times shorter. A star 10% of the mass of our Sun will live for *trillions* of years - no red dwarf star has died "of old age" in the history of the universe.
This is a tight and very strong relation. You have long-lived low-mass cool red stars, short-lived high-mass hot blue stars, and everything in the middle. You don't get small bright blue stars (on the main sequence) because small stars don't have enough gravity to produce enough pressure to get that hot.
Late in life, things get more complicated, and this tight relation breaks down. Stars will run out of hydrogen fuel in the core, and go through stages of burning helium and heavier elements, and/or burning fuel in a shell *around* the core. These tend to puff up the star through increased pressure, and you end up with bright burning core or shell, surrounded by very large but low density "atmosphere", which is somewhat cool just because it's so spread out that each chunk of gas isn't getting that much heat going through it. Because they are large in size (although note they haven't gained any mass), and are cool, they are "red giants".
Once a star completely runs out of fuel, it will run out of pressure and collapse. This can be accompanied by a dramatic explosion as new reactions occur at the extreme densities you get from stuff collapsing without support. That's where you get supernovae and so on. The compression also generates a lot of heat, so you're left with an extremely hot and dense remnant. These are neutron stars and white dwarfs and so on.
Just to sum up: during the "main sequence", stars have a very simple evolution that depends almost entirely on the starting mass, which sets the pressure and temperature, and therefore reaction rate, at the core of the star. Massive stars are hot and blue and short-lived, low mass stars are cool and red and long-lived. But once the hydrogen in the core is used up, the simple relationship is broken, and all sorts of interesting things happen. | 32 | 17 |
ELI5: When we take a first bite, and we perceive taste, what is happening between the tastebuds and the brain in order for me to experience that perception? Beyond that, what am I actually tasting - the food item itself, or my brain's reaction to that food item? | Imagine you have a computer with a sensor. You stick something in the sensor and the computer chemically analyzes it, then tries to tell you what it is based on that analysis.
That's pretty much all your tastebuds are doing; detecting the chemical composition of your food and telling your brain. The "good" or "bad" labels are evolutionary adaptations to help us distinguish between food that's safe to eat and food that isn't. | 14 | 128 |
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ELI5: How you can survive getting a limb blown off, but if a main artery gets cut you bleed out and die. | It all depends on how quickly you gain medical attention, the size of your blood vessels, stress of the patient, and where exactly you get hit.
Your body has actually evolved to automatically retract your blood vessels to shunt off the flow of bloo if you are missing a limb, but a cut in one of your vessels doesn't allow them to retract into the body so that you'll quit bleeding out. | 21 | 32 |
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ELI5: Why do our fingers curl up when the hands are laid down on a horizontal surface, instead of them laying flat as well? | the how is covered, now to the why: a strong grip is more important than a strong finger-straightening. having your tendons balanced in a way that causes the fingers to curl by default means you get a little extra force to your grip
it's kinda like the springs in a garage door that naturally pull up, so lifting the door doesnt take much more strength than pulling it down | 116 | 152 |
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ELI5: Why does food heated in the microwave taste much worse than food heated through other means? | If I put a slice of pizza in the oven, it comes out delicious, but the same slice of pizza in the microwave is not. | Microwaves work by heating up the water contained in your food, the heat in the water warms all the other matter in your food along with it. So basically it's like boiling the food from the inside. As you can imagine a boiled pizza is not going to taste as good as a pizza that is dry heat cooked in an oven. | 22 | 18 |
How can I be a good leader if I'm just as unexperienced as everyone else? | I'm a current undergrad in a research experience position in physics. Myself and the other undergrads are all being sent to our country's telescope array to spend 24hrs taking observations and then a week analysing the data. Since there are about 12 of us in total, they're splitting us into groups with separate projects to do, and I have been appointed a kind of 'PI' for one group since the observations directly relate to the work I'm currently doing.
None of the supervisors are going on the trip, so I could very likely be the only person at the telescope compound who has *any* knowledge of this particular niche field of astronomy. My knowledge is obviously very limited and likely incorrect in places, so I'm worried that I won't be able to effectively lead my group in both observation and data analysis. At least one group member actually has no physics background at all, and is instead doing mechatronics with a project involving some of the telescope systems and data storage.
I'm quite a bit of a perfectionist and I enjoy working long hours, which I suspect will be a little at odds with some of the team members' preferences, after having already worked near them for over a month now. I also have trouble explaining things effectively, because the things that are obvious to me, are not to others, and vice versa.
Generally, I'm concerned that I'm not really 'leader' material. I have no qualifications or real experience to warrant having a position of power over my peers, and am in fact the youngest. I'm worried that the other students might resent me for this fact, as they're incredibly competitive and were not happy that I was given the job, or that my project was chosen over theirs. However, having me lead this project is incredibly important to both my supervisors here and my professors at my home university, and I understand that not only is this an opportunity for priceless experience, but that I'll likely have to take a leadership position some time in the future. As such, relinquishing the position doesn't seem like a good move, and I imagine I'd only be disappointed in myself if I did.
So what kind of things should I focus on when trying to lead this group, keeping in mind my general inexperience? | First, it's a really good sign that you're self aware enough to seek insight on how to lead people. Many terrible leaders are that way because they lack empathy and self awareness; you've already gotten past the first step.
There are so many books and articles on leadership and many of them are terrible. I'll just cover a few high level points. First, people have different interaction frameworks and different skill profiles. Recognizing that there are differences and working to allow different frameworks opportunities to contribute is key to maximizing the capacity of a team. For example, some people are intuitive and quick. They see "the solution" immediately and want to get working right away. This framework, if left unchecked, will likely prevent quiet, thoughtful, individuals from participating completely. Be conscious of these differences.
Second, it's a good idea to formalize some rules for the group to keep that thoughtfulness present. Ground rules can go a long way towards keeping groups happy and effective. For example, how are decisions going to be made? How will discussions be structured? What are the expectations around contributing? An example of this in your case is what are the work hours? If you want to work from 7 am until midnight every day is there going to be a feeling that is expected of everyone? Will people who need more rest feel excluded?
Feel free to ask any additional questions you have as well. Good luck! | 19 | 33 |
CMV: It shouldn't be mandatory to tip waiters. | Here's my reasoning:
Tipping waiters, although not mandatory, is highly frowned upon if not done, especially in the US. In Europe and others continents, tipping is seen as optional and NOT an expectation, due to them having a solid hourly rate. In America, if waiters don't make enough money off tips to match their hourly salary, they are compensated for it to ensure that they are making atleast minimum wage (or their agreed hourly pay IIRC). Because of these rules, why should I, as a customer, have to pay 20% of the total cost of a meal ON TOP of the amount for the meal? It almost feels more like a social obligation than anything else, which is infuriating, since I can rarely afford to go out to eat often anyways.
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> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | Would you be happy if everything was just 20% more expensive and the waiters were properly paid for their time? It seems that we both agree that waiters should just be paid a fair wage, but what's the difference to the customer to having the tip included in the meal price to begin with or the tip being 'mandatory'? Either way it's the same cost to you.
>Because of these rules, why should I, as a customer, have to pay 20% of the total cost of a meal ON TOP of the amount for the meal?
It seems from your perspective it's actually a benefit to you, the customer. If you get horrible service you get the option to pay the waiter less instead of being forced to pay a higher price for the food + service as one. In the US system, tipping isn't an extra cost on the food. It's the fair cost of food which is why it's basically mandatory.
Also, it isn't actually mandatory. When you get absolute shit service, waters not being refilled etc, give them 0%. | 16 | 36 |
ELI5: How accurate are step trackers? will 2 person of different physical size burn same no. of calories on doing an identical run ( same speed and distance ), does body metabolism matter outside of all physical aspects in such cases? | Some trackers try to account fir the inaccuracies by logging a certain kind of movement, allowing you to adjust stride length and enter your weight and height etc. but they’re never going to be totally accurate (neither is a calorie counter that tracks your meals).
That said, it doesn’t mean they’re useless. The data logged still gives you an indication of whether you mixed more or less than the previous day and how that’s trending with time. It should be roughly inaccurate to the same degree fir the same person one day to the next, so still useful for tracking progress, but not necessarily for comparing one person with another beyond a ballpark number. | 211 | 360 |
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ELI5: If a person was raised without any comprehension of language, what would the voice inside their head sound like when thinking about something? Could any advanced thought processes even take place? | Language seems to be necessary for complex thought. Children raised in such a way as to not be exposed to a language during critical early years display significant cognitive deficits, in particular a difficulty in learning language when given the opportunity. Many children raised in confinement or "feral children" often never learn to speak a real language and generally have difficulty with a wide range of mental tasks.
| 13 | 22 |
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ELI5: Why or why can't we use cloud seeding to fight forest fires? | I recently learned that making man made clouds are a real thing that have been used to stave off droughts and that parts of China have been regularly using this tech. If so, can we use it to fight forest fires like the fires that have been so devastating in Australia? If not, why? | You need clouds to start with. Cloud seeding just gives the moisture in clouds something to form drops around, so it just makes sense in the narrow band of conditions between rain clouds forming and it raining anyway.
Seeding the Australian air to make rain works as well as throwing seeds at your blow drier to make crops. | 93 | 72 |
Why does my nose get all runny when it's cold outside? | Your nose serves two purposes: to warm and humidify the air. When it is cold and dry outside, your nose works really hard to add moisture to the air coming in through your nose, however some times some of that fluid may start to run out of your nose. Additionally, when breathing out through your nose, the warm and moist air from your body hits the cold air and causes the moisture to condense on the outside of your nose, further increasing the amount of fluid running out of your nose. | 11 | 18 |
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Why are gun control laws being decided at a national level while issues such as gay marriage/rights are mostly left for states to decide? | I know that gay marriage/rights have been decided at a national level in some instances, but it is still up to individual states to pass/deny gay marriage. In addition, states also have their own gun control laws. So, why is gun control such a heated topic on the national level at this time? | Some laws are passed at a federal level when they are believed to be independent of states' individually differing needs. Additional laws are passed at a state level based on what representatives see fit for their own specific state.
Because federal laws need to apply to everyone, they are often met with more resistance and debate. They typically take longer to pass. Currently, the laws banning same sex marriage are at the state level, and it is easier to repeal these individually than to make one constitutional ammendment declaring same sex marriage a right, and these bans unconstitutional.
It's also worth noting that much of the legislation surrounding guns is at the state level. | 12 | 59 |
ELI5: How Steven Hawking and Neil Degrasse Tyson's theories help the field of astronomy? | How does knowing their idea's on string theory and black holes help us compared to not knowing them? | Hawking's ideas help us look for black holes. He was the one who proved that black holes emit radiation (hence "Hawking radiation"), so we know that if we want to find a black hole, we should look for Hawking radiation. This is extremely useful since black holes are... well, black, and do not emit any other sort of radiation like light for us to see. They're thus pretty damn tricky to detect.
Hawking also was the one who laid the theoretical groundwork behind warp drives. Warp drives obviously do not exist yet and may never exist, but without his work we wouldn't have even known where to start with trying to make one.
Neil deGrasse Tyson frankly does not have a particularly noteworthy resume in terms of his theoretical contributions to the field. He's more of an educator and public figure than a "hard" scientist. That's not to say that he doesn't know his stuff or isn't worthy of praise and respect, just that he isn't really that highly regarded as a "physicist's physicist," if that makes sense.
Frankly, though, neither Hawking or NDT are really considered that highly within the physics community. They're very well respected, of course, but there are a lot of men and women who most of us have never heard of that made much larger contributions to the field over the past century. Hawking and NDT are both very good at dealing with the non-physics community, which is obviously very important. | 45 | 48 |
How can social norms be changed? | I mean, what efforts can you make to induce the change of a social norm? | Here's one way to look at it. In a well-known (at least within the field of political science) article titled *International norm dynamics and political change* (1998), Finnemore & Sikkink suggest a way of thinking about this by presenting the *norm life cycle*. The life cycle has three distinct stages.
The first and most salient stage to your question is *norm emergence*. In this phase, a new (or emergent) norm is suggested by an individual or organisation referred to as *norm entrepreneurs*. Norm entrepreneurs typically have strong convictions or other interests that inspire them to want to shift the rules of appropriate behaviour in society. An effective norm entrepreneur calls attention to specific issues, and highlights current normative inconsistencies present within the status quo. By framing the issue in a certain narrative, they argue how the norm they are suggesting is, in fact, more appropriate. Often, frames are supported by referring to commonly held values and subsequently alluding to how these values may be threatened, or how behaviour could be improved in order to get closer to the ideal set out by said values. For example, if we everyone agrees that all men are created equal, how can we still condone slavery?
If the emergent norm gains traction and gets support by enough actors, the next stages of *norm cascade* and, finally, *norm internalisation* follow. Once internalised, the new norm has become embedded in what is considered appropriate behaviour within that social context, and transgressing it could result in consequences, ranging from raised eyebrows to punishment by death. | 23 | 48 |
[MCU] Is the technology behind Quill's helmet/mask similar to Tony Stark's nanobot suit? | Rewatched guardians 1 today and I couldn't help but notice how similar Quill's helmet looks to Stark's nanobot suit. Both sort of dissolve in and out of existence at the press of a button, and the visual affect is very similar.
Are they just two different technologies that happen to look alike, or are they the same? | The mask seems to function a little differently with light frames of parts of the mask appearing before the physical parts materialize. Stark's suit has no light show like this; just tiny robots that build continuously rather than in chunks until complete. The mask also always forms the same way; it appears to not be maleable in the way that Stark's suit is. All this suggests to me that the mask is either a lower quality of nano technology or it is a different kind of technology.
| 19 | 16 |
Why did Aristotelian-Thomistic Metaphysics fall out of favor? | And can they make a comeback in this scientifically advanced age? | To a certain extent––Kant. Shitgenstein is definitely right vis-à-vis Descartes, but even after Descartes we see a lot of Aristotelian/Scholastic influence remain. To a certain extent, Descartes just unifies and systematizes changes which had been going on in the tradition of Scholastic metaphysics. He notes in one of the letters (I am almost certain it is the letter to Gassendi) that his collapse of the Aristotelian “accidents” into a new category of mode is just following what Suarez has already done with most of them (I believe influenced by Ockham). Moreover, certain Aristotelian/Scholastic structures make a big comeback with Leibniz and Wolff (in a sort of post-Cartesian form). It is Kant who basically banishes this kind of metaphysics (or at least does his level best). Any metaphysics after Kant basically has to contend with his subjective turn, and so it became hard to argue for an Aristotelian metaphysics in its original form.
Another major turning points in which you may be interested is Duns Scotus’ transformation of the concept of “infinite.” The infinite, prior to Scotus, is considered only negatively, as indetermination (this is Aristotle’s view, and it persist throughout most of the Scholastic period). Scotus conceptualizes a _positive_ infinity, and it is this which is taken up by the early modern rationalists, Kant, and German Idealism. | 20 | 32 |
Why can't you absorb mercury (metal) with a sponge? | If sponges absorb liquids, and mercury is a liquid metal, why can't mercury be absorbed by a sponge? | When you pick up water with a sponge, some of the water forms very weak chemical connections with the material of the sponge. We say that the sponge is 'wettable' with water.
Mercury doesn't have the same chemical properties as water, and won't make the same connections. If you had a sponge made of say, gold, it would pick up the mercury, but the mercury would also form an amalgam with the gold.
| 42 | 51 |
ELI5: Why, historically, do socialist countries often experience economic collapse? | An open market allows consumer needs, wants, and demands to match up with producer supply spontaneously and organically. A top down planning approach fails because leaders and decision makers in overly socialized economies are not capable of actually anticipating and providing for consumer needs and wants.
To bring that down a bit, you cannot build a car that fits everyone, because there is no best car for everyone. There is no diet or housing situation that is ideal for every family. In free trade each spender picks the one that best fits them, and less popular options downsize to fit their lesser needs while in a top down controlled economy that does not happen.
In a socialistic society time, effort, and resources are wasted because they don't have free market signals to drive their production. You end up with things like the Trabant being forced on unwanting citizenry at prices that are very inflated compared to their actual value. | 14 | 23 |
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[SHIELD/MCU] Why does a secret spy organization like Hydra have a logo and why do they put it on everything? | I mean way to give yourselves away. And who came up with the symbol? | Symbolism traditionally inspires. Red White and Blue is synonymous with America and it's ideals, the swastika was used as a propaganda tool for the Nazi's, Crosses are generally used for Christian based faiths. Hydra does it for the same reason. To know you shouldn't be screwing with them. | 16 | 17 |
CMV: We should strengthen the traditional safety net rather than replace it with basic income | ## Section I: Why is Basic Income Increasingly Popular?
"Basic income" is a policy that has broad support from both the progressive left and libertarian right. Center-left economists including Paul Krugman have endorsed the scheme for various reasons. First, BI is an effective anti-poverty measure. BI also reduces inequality by redistributing income from capital to labor. Perhaps most importantly to some on the left, is the notion that BI provides people with "freedom." Left-libertarian political economist Philippe Van Parijs argues that to be truly free, people have to have "access to the means that people need for doing what they might want to do." BI provides people those means. Some have made a feminist case for BI. Philosopher Carole Pateman writes, BI "would, for the first time, provide women with life-long (modest) economic independence and security, a major reason why it is central to democratization."
Basic income, particularly in the form of a "negative income tax," is also popular among the libertarian right. With a NIT in place, much of the welfare state would be obsolete: you could get rid of food stamps, child nutrition programs, public housing, cash welfare, community development programs, Medicaid, and a host of means-tested welfare programs. It would simplify the bureaucracy, and get rid of the "unemployment trap" that occurs under the existing system. Also, basic income advocates on the right want to give people the power and authority to spend money in whatever manner they choose: they dislike how the government forces welfare recipients to use their welfare handouts on purchasing food, for example. "Benefits are often given in-kind rather than in cash precisely because the state doesn’t trust welfare recipients to make what it regards as wise choices about how to spend their money," University of San Diego's Matt Zwolinski writes. A basic income, Zwolinski continues, would change that. Basic income is "conservative" and "libertarian" because it makes individuals responsible for their own livelihoods and flourishing. If they make good decisions, so be it, if they make bad decisions, so be it. But the government shouldn't force people to use transfer payments in a particular manner. Conservatives also like "basic income" because it would allow for less regulations on the marketplace: minimum wage laws could be gutted, labor union protections could be removed, etc.
Social democrats (on the left) and libertarians (on the right) often disagree on how to fund a basic income scheme. Some leftists prefer keeping a progressive tax system in place to redistribute income and lower income inequality. However, libertarians would prefer a "flat" tax without any tax brackets. One way to the two groups could come together is if they coalesced around a "negative income flat tax," which is both flat but has a progressive effect, appealing to the right and left. Another possible way to fund the BI scheme is to have a "progressive consumption tax," supported by individuals on the right and left. "Land value taxes" are also supported by the right and left. Moreover, there are also several liberal economists who agree with free-market economists that capital gains and dividends taxes tax savings, and corporate taxation is double taxation. So realistically, if the right and left came together, and had to compromise, they would settle on either a "negative income flat tax" or a "progressive consumption tax." (And possibly a land value tax could be thrown into the mix).
## Section II: Automation and Unemployment
A big reason why people of all political persuasions are becoming interested in basic income is due to automation. Some project that structural unemployment due to automation and globalization will dramatically increase over the next several decades, and no government in the world has devised a solid plan to deal with this. They fear that automation may occur at such a rapid pace that the structure of the economy may fundamentally change, in which supply for human labor perpetually exceeds demand. Therefore, we need to decouple humanity from work, and transition into a society more based on leisure (which Keynes predicted would happen eventually).
Essentially, it's not imperative that we build a human society based on work when so many jobs will be automated. And in fact, a basic income scheme may be the only way to shoulder such a huge influx of unemployed individuals. Existing welfare schemes weren't designed to deal with extreme levels of unemployment, and may be overwhelmed in the future.
## Section III: Economizing on Human Labor
I think these are excellent points in favor of a basic income scheme. However, here are my rebuttals.
I concede that improvements in artificial intelligence and robots will decrease the demand for human labor in the short-term. However, I am not convinced that this will necessarily persist in the long-term and dramatically decrease permanent employment levels. Traditionally, innovation and technological improvements have lead to structural unemployment through creative destruction. But this was considered a positive development b/c human labor could be allocated to new enterprises. Economizing on human labor would improve the dynamism and efficiency of the macroeconomy. Retraining people or putting them through higher education has worked in the past, and has allocated human labor into new sectors. I'm not convinced that this won't be possible in the future.
But say technological unemployment does occur. That doesn't mean we can't combat if we act quickly. MIT economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, in their book The Second Machine Age, argue that while a basic income would replace the lost income resulting from mass unemployment, it wouldn't replace the lost "self-worth, community, engagement, healthy values, structure, and dignity" people gain from work. They instead argue that we should successfully enable humans to successfully "rage against" the machines through investing in expanded education and wage subsidies. One way to increase the supply of human labor would be to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (which kind of acts like a small scale negative income tax, but it works alongside other transfers and welfare schemes). We could further subsidize human labor, paying employers to hire humans instead of robots. We could establish a scheme where humans own some of the robots, and rent them out to corporations. Another option is to reduce work hours to accommodate more humans, while paying humans a wage subsidy. There are many options besides "the human workforce will be hollowed out anyway, so screw it, let's accept that humans won't have to work."
I disagree with the notion that human beings on a large scale will be able to have meaningful lives in a "work-free" environment that basic income would provide them. Work will be fundamental to humans in the foreseeable future.
Moreover, say basic income is politically off the table. It would be in employers' self interest to retain some workers, or provide them some means with which to earn a living. If there are fewer and fewer people to actually do work, there won't be any consumers for the producers employers produce with their robots. Therefore, employers likely will too push for wage subsidies, lowered work hours, subsidies employment, and expanded EITC, etc. They wouldn't be okay with the status quo b/c it harms their profits. And moreover, automation will vastly increase supply, helping create an abundance of goods and services, moving our society closer toward post-scarcity. As a result, prices for good and services will be pretty low, so workers won't need as high wages to consume them.
## Section IV: Why Conditional Cash Transfers Beat Unconditional Basic Income
I also argue that it actually makes sense to have targeted welfare programs: food stamps, conditional cash-transfers, child nutrition programs, public housing, maternity and paternity care, sick leave policies, collective bargaining, free college, single-payer healthcare, etc. And I would like to see such a welfare scheme funded through a progressive income tax system (under which capital gains is taxed at the same rate as ordinary income), in addition to corporate taxes, and property taxes. I oppose the progressive consumption tax, a flat tax, and a land value tax.
Food stamps, SNAP benefits, other forms of welfare and social security are all a necessity because you cannot have a system that relies on the rational actions of its participants. People will act irrationally: they will not spend their basic income in a way that guarantees their well-being, and society will incur enormous costs as a result in homelessness, food insecurity, crime, and drug abuse. Behavioral economics has shown that humans aren't rational actors: rather they have "bounded rationality: "bounded rationality is the idea that when individuals make decisions, their rationality is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the time available to make the decision." In cases where humans naturally make optimal economic decisions, I am in favor of free-markets and against government intervention. In cases where individual economic decisions result in poor outcomes, I am in favor of government intervention to improve outcomes.
Information failure is a microeconomic market failure in which consumers underconsume or overconsume a good due to imperfect information. Take healthcare for example. For example, take vaccinations. In neoclassical microeconomics, they are viewed as "merit" goods that are under-consumed due to information failure. The net private benefit is not fully recognized at the time of consumption. People may not anticipate that they my get sick in the future, and they won't recognize the benefits to their future selves for getting inoculated now. Moreover, inoculation (via vaccines or another method) is a positive externality that has external benefits to society: if you protect yourself, others around you are less likely to become sick. However, when people purchase goods, they don't take into account external benefits or costs, leading to underconsumption. In the market for vaccinations, it makes sense to increase consumer demand for vaccines through mandating people to take vaccines. Such targeted governmental intervention in the market actually improves outcomes, and moves the equilibrium quantity more toward the socially optimal level of consumption.
Moreover, a strong justification for the existence of our Social Security social insurance program is that while some people are rational actors, many others are not. Many don't exercise a lot of foresight: without forcing them to pay payroll taxes to fund Social Security, many people would not have income for themselves after they retire. People may not plan for the future and invest in private sector retirement or pension plan, like a 401k. Social Security a successful anti-poverty and social insurance program that ensures that people have some money after they retire. In this case, social engineering (forcing people to join a government retirement plan) actually improves outcomes in the economy and society through lower poverty and inequality, and greater financial security for elders.
That's why I support conditional cash transfer programs instead of unconditional basic income. Forcing people to enroll their children in schools, visiting the doctor, and getting vaccinations are successful in overcoming the poverty trap and facilitating upward mobility, more so than UBI. It forces people who would otherwise make bad decisions for themselves and society to make more optimal decisions.
Proponents of basic income argue that it's better to give people the freedom to use their handouts in whatever way the want, but we can have awareness campaigns educating people on how to improve their spending habits. To BI proponents, sure, recipients may portion their money out in ways that may not be the most reasonable, but given regularly cash they will still make rent and buy food.
The above is definitely true for a rational actor. But for a drug addict? The mentally ill? Will they spend their basic income on housing and food? Or will their BI disappear and meanwhile the safety net drops out from under them? I would rather have a conditional cash transfer system for such individuals, otherwise society as a whole will incur costs from their poor decisions. Replacing in kind programs entirely with a BIwould result in some consequences that BI supporters are not considering. I'm afraid that if the BI did replace public services, businesses would be there to snap up a lot of that money in housing or medical care or whatever else the moment that payday came around. They will be more exploitative for drug addicts than the government. I'm afraid that there ARE people (not poor people or rich people in particular at all) who will act irrationally based on mental illness or drug addiction or something else, who will require the forms of assistance that would be replaced by a BI scheme.
## Section V: Does the Welfare Trap Truly Exist?
Moreover, libertarian supporters of UBI/NIT bring up the "welfare-trap" that exists in means tested welfare programs. I did a pretty lengthy search and could find no actual numerical data to confirm that this effect is significant. There are too many conflicting motivations at play, too many demographics, too many differing situations to say for certain our current welfare system turns people into lazy bums who won't seek work. Most welfare recipients today, given the opportunity, would prefer a steady cash income and the opportunity to advance to a stagnant and unproductive life on welfare. They want to look for work.
## Section VI: Traditional Welfare and Entrepreneurship
The traditional welfare state has shown to be successful in the social democratic nations of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and to a lesser extent, Canada. They reduce excessive inequality and poverty, while also facilitating upward mobility. People aren't trapped in poverty. Moreover, the traditional welfare state is more efficient than many people claim. The Roosevelt Institute's Mike Konczal argues that in the existing welfare state, "there are relatively few programs and they are run at a decent administrative cost." Proponents of BI argue that UBI would facilitate entrepreneurship, [but it's not as if the current welfare schemes that currently exist in the western world discourage start-ups.](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/welfare-makes-america-more-entrepreneurial/388598/)
## Section VII: Keynesian Automatic Stabilizers
From a macroeconomic perspective, many New Keynesian economists believe that transfer payments (unemployment insurance, food stamp payments, Social Security, conditional cash-transfers, etc) help macroeconomic stability by acting as automatic stabilizers. Supporters of UBI often criticize the current welfare scheme on the grounds that costs fluctuate with the performance of the economy. However, fluctuating costs makes sense if you use a Keynesian framework. Higher welfare payouts during recessions help stabilize consumption (and investment via the accelerator effect) during demand-deficient recessions by increasing people's disposable income; during demand-pull inflation, cutbacks in welfare spending decrease people's disposable incomes, which helps close the inflationary gap (when too much money is chasing too few goods). I'm not convinced that UBI would be better to our current welfare scheme with regards to acting as an automatic stabilizer.
## Section VIII: Imperfect Competition in Labor Markets
Furthermore, deregulating the marketplace through passing "right-to-work" laws and removing minimum wage legislation after BI is passed may worsen outcomes. Even if workers are given an income floor, corporations can still artificially reduce pay in oligopsonistic and monopsonistic markets. Within these imperfect labor market structures, minimum wage laws and collective bargaining laws actually help increase efficiency and equity.
## Section IX: The Superiority of Progressive Income Taxes
Regarding the funding side, I oppose forgoing our progressive income tax system in favor of a flat tax. Given that income inequality is rising in developed nations due to globalization, automation, and a host of other factors, moving to a flat tax would exacerbate this inequality. A flat tax would shift tax burden away from the rich, to the middle and lower class. It would result in the elimination of deductions may have a positive impact on taxpayers with lower income (such as the EITC). The government wouldn't be able to use tax code to encourage desirable activities, such as giving tax credits for making a home more energy-efficient (energy efficiency is a positive externality with which governments can promote sustainable growth that doesn't lead to environmental degradation). Moreover, government revenues would drastically decrease, making it difficult to fund universal healthcare, free K-12, and a host of other measures.
Proponents say flat taxes don't discriminate based on income level; everyone pays the same percent of income. This argument, however, assumes the marginal benefit of earning a dollar is always the same. To me, it's common sense that the marginal utility of the dollar decreases as income increases. The flat tax isn't regressive in the strictest sense (it's not as if the tax RATE is being increased as you go down the income-ladder). but it can be considered regressive in that the burden is disproportionately felt by lower income families. Necessities, such as expenses for food, clothing, and shelter tend to make make up a higher percentage of a lower income consumer's overall budget. True, this can be mitigated by allowing a rebate on purchases of necessities; since the value of money is still inversely related to income however, the system would continue to be unequal. A rebate would just be a band-aid fix.
Also in practice, many of the "flat tax" proposals by conservative politicians don't treat income equally. Yes, they may have a flat rate on income taxes. But they would lower or possibly eliminate taxes on investments, such as capital gains, dividends, carried interest, etc, that disproportionately benefit the rich. These proposals keep in place loopholes that benefit such top earners.
Given that the "progressive consumption tax scheme," another tax scheme favored by BI proponents, would also invariably lower or eliminate taxes on capital gains, dividends, carried interest, etc., I'm opposed to that too. Some economists oppose capital gains taxes, asserting that they are a tax on savings. We're engaging in "double taxation." People already pay tax on their income, and then they invest some of their savings into stocks, bonds, etc. Then when they sell their assets for a profit, they pay an additional tax on that. Dividends taxes are also double taxation (corporations pay a corporate tax first and then investors pay a dividends tax on dividend payouts). From a theoretical perspective, it all makes sense to eliminate capital gains and dividends taxes, because theoretically, they discourage savings.
However, this theory does not reflect reality, and higher capital gains tax rates haven't really affected the economy. Even Ronald Reagan raised the capital gains tax rate, and believed income from labor and investment should be taxed at an equal rate. In the real world, through a higher capital gains rate, you can make a significant dent in income inequality w/o many adverse economic effects. Basically, the economic distortions from "double taxation" that economists warn us about don't have that great of an effect on the real world. There is no significant statistical economic relationship between capital gains rates and economic growth (refuting aspects of supply side economics).
Also the lower capital gains rate could ironically create economic distortions itself: ["The enormous tax savings available likely lure too many highly productive people into the private equity business, drawing them away from other potentially more socially valuable enterprises."] (http://www.vox.com/2015/3/17/8226915/rubio-lee-tax-plan)
A "progressive consumption tax," while superior to a flat tax (and less regressive), is inferior to a progressive income tax. The PCT would almost assuredly increase wealthy inequality: since wealthy would be consuming less and investing more, they'd grow their net wealth even faster than the current pace. This is an unintended effect of the PCT, which would tax consumption and would incentivize savings. Given that automation will increase wealth inequality, it doesn't seem like a good idea to me to exacerbate the trend by gutting capital gains taxes and adopting the PCT. Proponents of the PCT argue that progressive income taxes discourage work due to high marginal rates, but the actual extent to which these market distortions occur in the real world are exaggerated a lot. Even if we had strong inheritance taxes to counteract wealth inequality, a PCT is inferior to a PIT, because with the latter, the government can still use the tax code to encourage desirable activities. Progressive income taxes also protect taxpayer during hard times - when income goes down, the tax rate also goes down
As I said, I don't believe that human beings are always rational, so social engineering in certain instances can improve outcomes.
Finally, I oppose the land value tax, another tax scheme favored by many BI opponents, and I instead support the traditional property tax. A land value tax would exacerbate economic inequality. If property taxes were were only based on the value of the land, rich people would buy small lots in cheap areas, build massive mansions worth millions, and pay almost no taxes.Then the working class people who buy small homes on small lots in the city (where dirt is worth more) would be paying more in taxes.
I support a progressive tax system because I'm of the belief that you should pay what you can. If you can afford an expensive house, you can afford to pay taxes on the value of the house, including the improvements built on that house.
## Section X: Conclusion
I believe an unconditional basic income scheme, including in all of its flavors (negative income tax, citizen's dividend, demogrant, social wage, etc.) is ultimately a pretty flawed scheme. I view the traditional western social safety net as superior. For the reasons above, I feel that it's better for society to expand the traditional social safety net rather than dismantle it completely and replace with a UBI or NIT scheme. I support basic income in addition to the existing scheme (like how the EITC works alongside other tax credits and welfare programs), but I oppose scraping the traditional welfare state. | your position rests on the assumption that most people, given ideal education and social environments, have the ability to do just about any job as well as anyone else. this assumption runs counter to the available data regarding the heritability of psychological traits and limits of environmental intervention.
the reason this is significant is that there is a solid chance a great number of people will not have the interest or ability to transfer into these new areas of the economy no matter what programs are in place to assist them. even in the wildest post scarcity economic dream, the idea that each person has the ability, creativity, and will to provide valued service seems pretty far fetched.
so what do we do to feed these people? ever more programs for this and that, further bloating our bureaucracy and keeping money from the people that need it to live? | 39 | 165 |
ELI5: Why do children get leukemia more frequently than other types of cancers? | Most cancers are due in part to some external source, such as radiation (including from the sun) or carcinogenic compounds. Exposure to these carcinogens has a chance of producing mutated cells which are cancerous. Since exposure to some extent is unavoidable, it's simple mathematics that the longer you live, the more often you are exposed and the more likely you are to develop a form of cancer. Additionally, many cancers take some time before they develop into a medical problem. For the most part, it is unlikely that a child has lived long enough to develop cancer.
Leukemia is a cancer that is particularly influenced by hereditary factors, and is also fast-acting compared to certain other cancers. Hence it is both more likely to begin at a young age and to develop into a medical problem (which leads to diagnosis) while the person is still young, compared to other cancers.
But leukemia does not uniquely affect children; most cases of leukemia are in adults. It is just that children are comparatively less likely to have other cancers. | 113 | 175 |
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ELI5 How is time to death calculated in terminally I'll patients? | Usually just an educated guess by the doctors who from experience have seen so many they can give a good estimate based on the condition of the patient, the severity of their symptoms and the rate of decline.
Basically they compare it to lots of other patients with similar diseases. | 808 | 520 |
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Does Nietzsche comment on enlightenment values in any way similar to his comparisions between judeo-christian and presocratic greek moralities? | Maybe not as a whole, but definitely in certain measures. We might find, for instance, a bit of the Will to Truth in the Enlightenment project of scientific reason. (Nietzsche is not down with the Will to Truth.) Similarly, we find in the political values of the Enlightenment commitments to freedom, liberty, and some measure of egalitarianism. Nietzsche has a complicated relationship with the first two (he thinks of freedom being a slave value in some contexts) and has some rather infamous problems with egalitarianism.
Nietzsche is willing to critique almost any value since his critique is not leveled so much at particular values as it is leveled against certain modes of valuation and even valuation as such. | 13 | 26 |
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What area of economics is most lucrative for a prospective PhD student? | Probably econometrics and go into a tech firm as a data scientist with specialty in causal inference. There's also lucrative jobs as a quant but you are probably better off with a PhD in math/physics/CS for those. Could also do Industrial Organization and go into consulting if that's more to your taste. | 54 | 48 |
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ELI5: Why do medications tend to give us the same common side effects (ie nausea, dry mouth etc.)? | Your body is connected and built on a foundation of systems which all communicate and respond to each other. Changes in one system tend to cause responses in many others.
Nausea, dry mouth, and other common side effects are usually caused by changes in the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) and parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous systems. This is important, because many medications influence these two systems either directly or indirectly.
For example, nausea and dry mouth *usually* come from stimulation of the fight-or-flight system. When your body is "stimulated" this way, you shut down certain functions to focus energy elsewhere. We use drugs like pseudoephedrine for colds, or Adderall for ADHD, and these all activate that system. Beyond that, lots of other drugs will increase fight-or-flight in a roundabout way. Indirectly, any treatment that makes a difference is probably going to have some influence on how "fight-or-flight" or "rest-and-digest" your body is. | 16 | 26 |
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ELI5: WTF is the number after classes in the US? Informatics 101, etc. | 100 and 200 level class are general education and introductary classes to a subject. Usually they can be taken by anyone regardless of major.
300 and 400 level classes are more advanced classes and are generally only for the people who are involved in a major for those classes.
All 100 to 400 level classes are for undergrads
500 and 600 level classes are for graduate students.
700 and above are usually for doctoral candidates and some grad students.
The number after the hundreds, such as 101, or 102. Just designates a specific number for the class, and many schools treat it differently. Usually a 101 class is the first class (or basic class) in any subject.
Sometimes classes are in a sequence as well, such as 351 and 352. As in it may say MATH 351 Algebra, then MATH 352 Algebra 2. | 103 | 109 |
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Why don't people with hypertension eat equivalent amounts of potassium rather than limiting sodium intake? | We know sodium can increase blood pressure and make hypertension worse, some people avoid/limit sodium in food.
Wouldn't eating potassium in proportion to one's sodium intake significantly reduce risks while maintaining quality of life?
Why I'm asking?
I searched and found eating potassium is an effective way of controlling high blood pressure but no one I know with hypertension does it. Is there something I'm missing or they should start doing this.
Edit: e.g. what if someone eats 1g of Sodium chloride with their food and then eats 1g potassium chloride or (however much is needed to balance the consumed sodium).
Edit: not advice or suggestion of any kind, purely academic question. | Increasing potassium intake can help control high blood pressure when the cause of high blood pressure is too much sodium. There are other causes of high blood pressure, such as obesity, hormonal conditions, kidney disease and sleep apnea. Potassium sparing diuretics due this without a change in diet, but are most often used in conjunction with an ACE inhibitor to reach a healthy blood pressure. | 22 | 26 |
What makes a chemical able to pass the blood brain barrier? | Why can theanine pass the BBB but vitamin C can't? What specifically is stopping the nutrients from most things we ingest from crossing? | Unlike in normal capillary endothelium, the endothelial cells of the cerebral capillaries are connected by tight junctions that prevent the diffusion of molecules between the endothelial cells. Normal capillaries have gaps between the cells that allow free diffusion of many molecules between them, but the cerebral capillary endothelial cells are held directly in contact with each other by the zonula occludens that forms a seal between the cells, preventing any movement of molecules from the lumen of the blood vessel in the the cerebral interstitial fluid. Thus, in order for a molecule in the blood to enter the CNS, it must pass through endothelial cells. To do this, it can take one of two pathways, diffusion or transport. To travel by diffusion it must be a small, lipophilic molecule, such as O2, CO2, NO, some hormones, etc., that will diffuse directly through the luminal plasma membrane of the endothelial cell, the cytoplasm, and then the abluminal plasma membrane. Otherwise it must be transported by the endothelial cells through a membrane protein. Transport can occur through one of many types of transport proteins, but is strictly regulated. | 14 | 45 |
ELI5:How did individuals become royalty and start a legacy? | How did an individual be determined as king? What was the process used to make or determine someone as royal? | The basic recipe to becoming a monarch is military power plus succession.
In terms of growth, they start off convincing a bunch of their mates to go intimidate and kill enough of their neighbors that everyone around agrees to go along with whatever they wanted. Then they use that power to round up a bunch of soldiers and go threaten to kill a bunch of people from the neighboring village until they go along with the whole scheme as well. Repeat this over and over, conquering more areas, forging alliances with other leaders, and so forth, and eventually they end up commanding a significant amount of military power.
All that can't usually be done in one lifetime (though sometimes it can), so you also need succession. In other words, when they die, someone needs to take over their position and have everyone agree that the new person gets to have all the power the old leader accumulated. This is frequently done through children, but sometimes an advisor or someone similar will end up in the role instead (whether by plan or by treachery). In any case, this means that the power that's been seized doesn't disappear when the leader dies.
Once all that is sorted, then they just need an appropriate opportunity. Sometimes they just have a pretty big area under their control and declare themselves king. Sometimes a kingdom nearby is weak, so they march over there, defeat the king's forces, and claim the throne. Sometimes the kingdom they're nominally a part of has a monarch that dies childless or with only weak children, and so they march their forces over to the palace and tell everyone that they're king now and anyone who disagrees can talk to the big men with the swords. Sometimes they're part of a democracy or republic or something but they think that's dumb, so they march into the capital and tell everyone that they'd all be better off (ie, not dead) if they switch to a monarchy instead.
No matter how you slice it, though, it pretty much always boils down to having enough people who are willing to kill anyone who disagrees that they're the monarch that nobody disagrees. | 18 | 28 |
What are some popular solutions to the "Is-Ought" problem? | Thanks | A common option would be to accept that the is ought gap cannot be crossed and instead try to find axiomatic ought statements which can, when combined with other known is statements, lead to all other ought statements. | 12 | 15 |
Why do Acids Melt Stuff? | Obviously, they don't annihilate the very atoms of a substance they come into contact with, but why do acids actually melt stuff? | Lets be clear on terms: melting describes a solid going to a liquid as a phase change (thats not whats happening here). What is typically happening when acids "melt" something is they are breaking bonds / aiding oxidation. Acids are lone pair acceptors and faciliate the oxidation of typically carbon in polymers. When that happens the target appears to melt because its actually breaking down. Its not a phase change its a chemical reaction. | 19 | 15 |
Eli5 How did ancient drawings in caves survive thousands of years without wearing away completely? | Caves are protected environments. No wind, no water, few animals. The cave drawings that survive are generally in very isolated , deep parts of caves where's there even less of those factors.
Prehistoric people probably drew lots more stuff in lots more places, but those places would be more affected by erosion, weather, animals, and later populations | 191 | 159 |
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ELI5: What happens in our brains when we realize we've driven miles/minutes and don't even remember consciously driving them? |
Side note- doesn't this happen in dreams? You go places and can't remember how you got there...is there a relation? | This happens when your subconscious mind starts handling processes that you normally control consciously. Normally, you're paying attention to the road and staying alert. When you're an experienced driver, you can pass the task of staying between the lines to your subconscious, and stop being alert for hazards. Because you're performing subconsciously, your mind doesn't bother to record these times to memory, so you won't remember more than a hazy idea of driving those minutes/miles. When something snaps you out of the subconscious routine, you realize you haven't been alert for hazards, which is a decidedly unsettling feeling. | 172 | 271 |
ELI5: If the South Carolina church shooting is determined to be domestic terrorism, will the government go after the white supremest leaders who radicalized the shooter or are they protected by free speech? | Depends on what the leaders said, and what can be proven that they said.
ISIS is an organization that is quite open in their message of violence and hatred. If the white supremacist leaders were directly encouraging their followers to commit violence, they did so in a private venue. Should clear evidence surface to indicate that they were directly promoting violence, they can be tried for collusion, conspiracy, and all sorts of other stuff. | 13 | 27 |
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ELI5: Why does sweat smell distinctively different in different areas of the body? | There are two distinct types of sweat glands found in humans: the eccrine and apocrine sweat glands. While eccrine sweat glands cover every area of your body, apocrine sweat glands only appear in axillary (armpit), external genital, perianal and areolar (nipple) areas. While secretions of both glands are initially odorless. The content of apocrine sweat glands' secretion includes proteins and lipids along with water and minerals while the secretion of eccrine glands only contain water and minerals. Bacterial breakdown of the apocrine glands' secretions is what causes the odor, not the secretion itself. As there is nothing to break down, the secretion of the eccrine sweat gland remains odorless. | 26 | 58 |
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CMV: Businesses should use rolling periods to calculate bonuses/targets/quotas, not arbitrary periods as this creates perverse incentives by employees to game the numbers. | So for example, if you are an employee of a car dealership, you may have a goal to sell, say, 30 cars a month and if you sell more, you get a bonus of, say $500 per car above 30. I believe this kind of things encourages employees and customers to act in ways that are damaging to the business and that these negative behaviors could be reduced if bonuses/quotas were instead calculated on a trailing rolling basis. So for example, in the above example you would get a daily bonus calculated by the formula: (Average cars sold per day for past 30 days - target cars sold per day)\*$500. Yes, this is slightly more complicated, but in the days of automated tracking the added complexity is negligible.
By going to this system, it would stop the employee from doing things like offering price discounts, etc. in order to game the numbers in an arbitrary accounting period provided the commission they lost from being negotiable on price was less than their volume bonus. It might also cause an employee to try to shift sales in to a later month if they were below the bonus quota (so they would have a better chance of making bonus next month) and risk losing the deal as a result of the delay. Furthermore, if customers knew they no longer could get pricing power by coming in on the last day of the month/year, they would stop trying and stop expecting a discount from doing so.
I have personally seen time and again, companies and individuals making horrible business decisions because they want to close deals or achieve certain goals within an arbitrary accounting period. Employees sloppily finishing a project by an arbitrary deadline, or cutting scope out of a job so they can book/complete it by a certain date. I once literally saw a team in my company find a BS reason to cut $30M of scope out of a job so they could get the contract signed by the end of the bonus period. Every time I see this, I think to myself that this most of this could be fixed by just having incentive structures that was based on trailing averages and not based arbitrary hard deadlines.
While I acknowledge that the reason for using arbitrary accounting periods is also because reporting periods for public companies are also based on arbitrary periods, I feel that this is circular reasoning. If companies moved away from arbitrary accounting periods to using better thought out incentive periods, so might their investors take a longer view at financial results. I would also say that only a tiny fraction of companies are publicly traded. | The periods used to calculate employee bonuses/commissions are usually aligned with the _corporate_ reporting periods. If the business reports sales monthly then they have monthly targets they need to hit and salesperson quotas are aligned to help them hit those monthly targets. A rolling period, as you suggest, doesn't help them hit their period targets (in fact, it might hurt them) so the incentives are not there to change.
In the case of car dealerships, it is about production forecasting. The car manufacturer needs to know how many cars to make in a given month because they only want to make as many cars as will get sold (inventory holding costs can get expensive). So, they give the dealerships monthly quotas in order to plan out how many cars need to get made, and bonus the dealerships on hitting the monthly sales goal. Dealerships, in turn, incentives their salespeople monthly so the dealership hits its overall sales goal and gets the dealership bonus.
For publicly traded firms, you say that we should move away from arbitrary accounting/reporting periods, but that isn't going to happen. Quarterly reporting is mandated by the SEC for public companies, and Wall Street is _never_ going to shift to longer view of financial results. Your CMV has the whole process backwards - _investors_ demand quarterly earnings reports, so companies forecast quarterly and set quarterly targets, so salespeople are given quarterly quotas. | 21 | 75 |
ELI5: How come when we touch something hot, it takes a few seconds to realize its full hotness? | Heat is energy transfer from one object to another. Since it's not instant it takes some time for the energy to transfer. So you can grab something hot and your skin takes a moment to get enough energy or heat for your nerves to start going "TOO HOT" | 43 | 64 |
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Eli5: How did humans think before language? | Concepts. If you ever get the chance with family or friends, spend some time talking with little kids who haven't been talking long. They *know* what they want to say, but they simply don't have a way to communicate it yet. You don't need to know what "fear" or "dark" is to know you're scared when there's no light. You don't need to know what "happy" or "cake" is to know you like the feeling you get when eating it. The emotions and observations are the same, it's the communication that breaks down without a verbal or visual way to inform others of your position and thoughts. | 14 | 17 |
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ELI5: If all wine is just fermented grape juice, how does one winery make a bottle that's worth $1,000 while another winery makes a bottle that's only worth $2? | The quality of the grapes, the quality of the water, age, the barrels it is aged in, what yeast is used, how much sugar was added, the temperature, fermentation time, how it was racked, etc etc etc..
Source: Brew beer at home. | 154 | 131 |
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How do spacecrafts locate themselves in deep space? | There are several methods for spacecraft to find a reference point. There are two main categories of refereces to use, celestial and inertial.
Inertial may refer to gyroscopes, a laser ring and fiber-optic laser (these sense the doppler effect that is induced in beams of light when the unit is rotated). A hemispherical resonator gyro has a standing wave moving in a fused spherical shell, when the unit is moved the resonance changes.
Celestial reference can provide attitude reference by tracking the stars and triangulating its position. Solar reference uses the sun, and planetary sensors track the planets. | 19 | 44 |
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[alchemy] if we were to combine fire and electricity, what would it make? | Depends on the practice of Alchemy to which you are referring. Even more importantly, it depends on what you mean by combining fire and electricity.
Alchemy is a broad term that covers a wide array of practices that are usually some combination of magical, physical, and spiritual.
Chemistry is the most common form of Alchemy available to the masses and is completely physical. In this particular practice of Alchemy there are many ways to achieve the effect of combining fire and electricity. Looking at one: what happens when you burn a lithium battery. For starters, the electrical source is consumed by the fire, makin the fire temporarily more powerful until the electrical source is depleted. This is accompanied by an explosion and the release of toxic fumes.
There are, like all alchemic practices, many other ways to combine fire and electricity in this practice. C4 with a remote trigger is an obvious example with obvious uses. Engines are a less thought of example that uses both fire and electricity. Gas stoves, electric fireplaces, the list goes on.
A more magical form of Alchemy is potion making. Because of the nature of magic and spirit these two are often interlinked to some degree, but we will look at as simple a magical process as we can. The combination of a phoenix feather and a thunderbird feather in a simple base mixture has different results depending on the base mixture used and the incantation, ritual, or rite performed around it.
A wizard in his tower carefully mixing them in beakers and flasks is likely going to create a potion of energy which can then be further diluted and condensed into a power stone which they can use as an energy source (both animals naturally produce their element endlessly) to help empower their magic. A witch hapazardly mixing them into a cauldron on the summer solstice is more likely to be interested in the fumes the potion is releasing, letting them spread over the countryside to cause the air (she's using bird feathers after all) to become dry and filled with electricity, setting the perfect curse of a drought and eventual lightning fire on the valley.
The results of course change when different elements of the process are changed. Changing the phoenix feather to brimstone will cause the witches brew to become heavier and seep into the ground cursing the crops instead of the air. Changing the thunderbird feather to the white fur of the raiju causes the wizards potion to become less stable (the phoenix must die and be reborn and the raiju becomes active during thunderstorms). Because of this it can no longer be diluted and condensed into a consistent power stone, however, it can be thrown and explode into alchemical fire, unquenchable and unstoppable once activated.
And finally, the spiritual. This is less about the physical objects used and more about the process and end result. Because of the more esoteric nature it can be hard to label this form of Alchemy but it is often used by shamans and spiritualists.
A spiritualist might daily drink the tea from a tree struck by lightning. There is no real 'effect' that a potion maker would see but the spiritualist knows better. There are no changes on the first day, or the second, the third, or the fourth. It is only after a year of drinking the tea that any effects begin to show. By daily inviting the spirits of fire and lightning into their life the spiritualist has begun to surround themselves by minor spirits which slightly change the world around them. Fire might burn just a little hotter, a little longer. Lightning might strike a little more often. These aren't big changes, the spiritualist isn't interested in flashy shows like the potion makers. They simply like the spirits of fire and lightning and want to invite it into their lives. This in turn, will cause the spirits of fire and lightning to like the individual. It will take a lifetime before the effects are noticable, before major spirits decide to hang around. The spiritualist's fires will never go out unless they want them to. Rain and lightning will come almost daily. The old spiritualist, cozy by their fire, never feeling too hot or too cold, will smile as the storm rages outside and they cuddle in their rocker reading a book and sipping their tea.
Shamans, on the other hand, take more direct control over the spirits. They summon sprits of fire and lightning and shove them into a vessel, creating an elemental. Similar to the wizard the shaman may use this elemental as a power source, giving strength to their other magical pursuits. Or like the witch they may release them as a curse to plague the valley with drought and lightning fires. Or they may keep them by their side as a fire/lightning elemental to burn or shock their foes.
This doesn't even showcase half the ways the different practices of alchemy can combine fire and lightning. Practices that combine the physical and spiritual might deal with shoving spirits into a host giving them powers over both elements. Different components, different rituals, different power sources all play a part in the end result. | 14 | 19 |
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ELI5: Why is chemical warfare considered inhumane, and demands international intervention, while other types of weapons that also kill people are allowed? | Many of the rules surrounding war are based on the principle that killing may be necessary in some circumstances, but suffering should be minimized. Things like torture, chemical weapons, weapons intended to maim but not kill are typically forbidden because they cause excessive suffering. | 53 | 43 |
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ELI5: Why do certain musical notes/chords have a 'happy' or 'darker' vibe to them, and why are we automatically primed to register them as such? | While it is partly cultural, it’s also to do with the the ratio of the frequency of different notes.
Harmonies that sound good like a perfect fifth or major third have nice ratios of 3:2 and 5:4.
Whereas harmonies that sound bad like the minor second and tritone have nasty ratios like 16:15 and 10:7.
Its not really like this because of the way instruments are tuned but it’s a good approximation | 25 | 75 |
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Is taking online college level courses viewed any differently then taking the same course in class, for a secondary school? | It depends on the school from which the courses are taken. If you’re taking online courses as part of a larger program at a reputable school, it’s a non-issue. If you’re taking courses from an online only school, like Univ of Phoenix or similar, those may not be looked upon as favorably. Of course, this all depends on what you’re planning on doing with the courses later. | 20 | 17 |
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What was Hegel's position on and concept of Property? | I ask because ideas concerning property became so important to his inheritors in the left-hegelian tradition and what came out of it. I've read POS on my own, listened to a lot of Sadler's lectures and read 3 of Hegel's lecture books, so I have some familiarity but not on this question. I'm also interested in how someone who upheld Prussian statehood became the inspiration for Communism and many Liberation movements, and how it relates to this question.
I started searching online and found this so far:
http://ethicalpolitics.org/seminars/neli.htm
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0199251568.001.0001/acprof-9780199251568-chapter-5
>G.W.F. Hegel's account of property centers on the contribution property makes to the development of the self, ‘superseding and replacing the subjective phase of personality’ (1967 [1821], para. 41a) and giving some sort of external reality to what would otherwise be the mere idea of individual freedom. These rather obscure formulations were taken up also by the English idealists, most notably by T.H. Green (1941 [1895]), who emphasized the contribution that ownership makes to ethical development, to the growth of the will and a sense of responsibility. But neither of these writers thought of the development of the individual person as the be-all and end-all of property. In both cases it was thought of as a stage in the growth of social responsibility. Both saw the freedom embodied in property as ultimately positive freedom—freedom to choose rationally and responsibly for the wider social good. In Karl Marx's philosophy, Hegel's sense of there being several stages in the growth of positive freedom is framed in terms of stages of social development rather than stages of the growth of individuals (Marx 1972 [1862]). And for Marx, as for Plato, social responsibility in the exercise of private property rights is never enough. The whole trajectory of the development of modern society, says Marx, is towards large-scale cooperative labor. This may be masked by forms of property that treat vast corporations as private owners, but eventually this carapace will be abandoned and collectivist economic relations will emerge and be celebrated as such.
>Others have speculated about an effect in the opposite direction—not so much the incorporation of the self into the object as the incorporation of the thing into the self (Radin 1982). This was a theme in Hegel's work, where there was a suggestion that owning property helped the individual to ‘supersede the mere subjectivity of personality’ (Hegel [1821] 1991, 73); in plain English, it gave them the opportunity to make concrete the plans and schemes that would otherwise just buzz around inside their heads, and to take responsibility for their intentions as the material they were working on—a home or an sculptor's block of marble—registered the impact of the decisions they had made (see Waldron 1988, pp. 343–89).
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/property/ | Since you've been studying him, you've likely noticed Hegel's approach to argumentation: rather than directly comparing a position to reality to ascertain its truth, he prefers to demonstrate how the subjective stance from which a position is enunciated undermines this position.
This is indicative of Hegel's notion of universality, fundamental to his philosophy. For Hegel, the Singular undermines the Universal -- a state, for example, undermines the idea of State. This undermining is the result of excess, not inadequacy: an actual chair effectively explodes its universal notion by having more existence than the notion itself. This excess results in a lack: because the chair is too much of a Chair, it no longer has a proper place in its abstract universality; it is effectively an exile.
It is this principle, according to which all things are formally in contradiction with themselves, that gave rise to left Hegelianism, and then to the theory of figures like Marx and Bakunin.
*Hegel's Rabble: An Investigation into Hegel's Philosophy of Right* by Frank Ruda goes in detail over the question's you've raised. I'll summarize a bit to pique your interest.
Hegel was the first to assert that *insoluble* contradictions were *endemic* to modern society, making clear that these contradictions were unresolvable until modernity could be replaced by something else. The crux of the problem, according to Hegel, is the paradoxical production of *extraordinary wealth* on the one hand, and *poverty* on the other. Hegel proposed some measures to deal with the problem of poverty, explicitly admitting that the measures proposed could only be of temporary aid.
In his writings on this topic -- this is the case Ruda makes -- Hegel presents a very clear philosophical justification for emancipatory leftist politics. Individuals in a society have a responsibility to that society, to do the work necessary for the society to function as a self-contained means of public good. However, modern society creates what Hegel calls the "Rabble," people who live *in* society but who are *formally* excluded -- the poor -- who have no social recourse. These people, denied the rights of modern society, nonetheless possess the a priori "right to have rights" (as Ruda puts it), which justifies action to change society such that poverty is no longer produced.
Marx basically links the proletariat with the Rabble. The Rabble gets proletarianized in industrial capitalism; hence, the proletariat is the engine of social transformation. Further, Marx theorizes the proletariat as a historical Subject in the Hegelian sense -- the proletariat is literally the embodied excess of modern society, the point of failure where capitalism breaks down, and, thus, its existence necessarily leads to the negation of modernity and the rise of something new (Communism).
Other leftist positions differ on the implications, but what is common to all of them is the principle of intrinsic, internal contradiction and the emphasis on the production of a formally excluded social group.
Ruda also goes into the question of property. For Hegel, the emergence of Bourgeois as a concept heralded a change in the Master-Slave dialectic. Private property replaces Community. This means that private property is no longer just an object, it is a (pseudo-)Master. Rather than a Slave, Bourgoeis individuals are pseudo-Slaves; they answer not to a Master, but to themselves as a legal entity, a private property-owner.
Marx develops this into his notion of Capital, going a couple steps further than Hegel did. For Marx, private property in capitalism isn't just Substance, a pseudo-Master to which modern individuals enslave themselves. Capital is literally Substance transformed into Subject, in the sense that society functions *as if* capital has a mind of its own, imposing its control (even though individuals know it doesn't really do that). | 23 | 35 |
If airfoil-style wings function unidirectionally, how can airplanes fly upside down (and sideways)? | While some lift can be generated purely by the shape of the airfoil, the primary factor in determining lift is angle of attack.
You simulate AOA when you stick your hand out the window of a car and "fly" it up and down while listening to some tunskies. More angle, more lift.
For what it's worth; the airfoil's primary purpose is to reduce drag. A very basic understanding would be that wing area, airspeed, and angle of attack determine lift, while the airfoil design determines how efficiently that lift is produced.
Different airfoils are designed for different things. For example, an airliner will have an airfoil which is most efficient at low AOA and mach .84-ish, because they spend most of their time flying straight and level at mach .84-ish. An ultralight, on the other hand, might fly best at 20mph and a relatively high AOA. A dogfighter might have a wing which is designed primarily to allow extremely high AOA upside down at the expense of efficiency.
Incidentally, the speed at which the wing is most efficient for straight-and-level flight is one of the important things to know about an aircraft. It's called Vc (V cruise) and/or Vbe (V best endurance), and is listed in the data about an airplane along with others like minimum stall speed and do-not-exceed speed.
EDIT: to your question, a plane with an asymmetric airfoil will fly upside down, but will require more power to do so. Some aerobatic planes have symmetric airfoils and fly the same upside down as they do right side up. However, such planes would not make good long-distance tourers because they will require more power and fuel for a given trip.
EDIT again: also, there are other considerations besides aerodynamics which factor into upside-down (negative G) maneuvers. Things like wing stresses. For example, a wire braced wing might just fold in half if you try to load it significantly upside down. | 53 | 58 |
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Why can't you get prosecuted for posting videos/picture of yourself doing drugs while you can for posting a murder you've committed? | I know murder is far worse than smoking a joint but I've always wondered what stops law enforcement, for example, from prosecuting people showing their illegal grows and smoking on camera. | Typically the picture is a starting point for an investigation.
If you post a picture of you doing drugs, they interview you and you say "fifth amendment" or "it wasn't drugs. It was something that looks like but isn't drugs," that's where the investigation ends.
If you post a picture/video of you killing someone, they open an investigation and comb the scene for evidence corroborating what you've said, look for a body, etc. | 58 | 70 |
ELI5 why my computer speakers go spastic every time i get a call on my phone | Whenever i receive a call or dial a number on my mobile my computer speakers make a really loud and annoying noise
Why does this happen? | Your mobile phone communicates with the phone network using electromagnetic radio waves.
One feature of electromagnetic waves is that when they pass through a wire, they create an electric current in the wire.
This is what's happening. The phone is generating electromagnetic waves so it can communicate with the phone network. These waves are creating electric currents in the wires that go to your speakers - only small currents, but they are there. Your speakers amplify these currents and convert them into sounds. | 24 | 28 |
Subsets and Splits