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[Star Trek] Why are surface to space planetary defenses not used? | Homeworlds have been attacked repeatedly, yet homeworlds seem to be remarkably lightly defended. Even the Dominion only had orbital defenses around Cardassia Prime. Legions of soldiers on the ground, but no surface to space weapon emplacements.
Earth is nearly entirely undefended as well. Earth has been repeatedly attacked. Attacks on Earth should almost be expected at this point, yet Earth still has no defenses to speak of. Going purely from memory, Earth has been attacked by the Xindi, by the Borg (at least twice), by a Whale Probe, and by the Breen.
The Xindi were building a planet-killer. Earth was attacked by the prototype, scaled down version, and then the full scale version was defeated only moments before firing. Later on, Earth was attacked by the Whale Probe in one timeline, and Nero's ship in the other timeline. Both were planet-killers. Yet in both cases, these ships were able to enter orbit entirely unopposed.
Has no one installed surface to space weapons? Shield generators and phaser banks located on the surface could tap into the entire planet's power grid. A homeworld, such as Earth, generates far more power than a starship. Probably more power than a whole fleet of starships. All of that power could be diverted to immense shield generators and phaser banks. Equipment on a starship has to be small and light enough to be portable. It has to fit on a ship. Planetary defense installations do not have those limitations. There is no limit as to how big, heavy, and powerful these weapons can be.
Or at very least, what about surface to space torpedo launchers? Tens of thousands of torpedoes could be fired, enough to rapidly overwhelm and destroy any attacker nearby.
Why are homeworlds so lightly defended even when homeworlds are attacked on a regular basis? | The first reason is resources. It takes a massive amount of power and facilities to protect an entire planet with a shield of any notable strength. Doing so for even one planet would be a massive undertaking and would not ensure its safety from attack.
The second reason is that a planet with a shield and/or surface weapons is a huge sitting military target. Star Trek ships can target, fire, and maneuver at FTL speeds. A planet can't actually move, maneuver a better firing solution, or even safely fire from all areas within its airspace. So while planetary weapons would more or less invite ships to shoot at the planet (causing massive amounts of destruction once any applicable shields fail) it doesn't actually give them a very good opportunity to fire back to defend themselves.
Sure, you could flood the entire sky with torpedoes, but your target can also just fly away from them, or fly back around at such an angle the shots start crashing into things you're trying to defend.
Weapon stations mounted to the surface of the planet don't even have to be hit directly to be rendered useless or explode either. A ship can just attack the general area until the ground becomes unstable enough to topple the facilities.
The third reason is that no one wants that kind of building in their back yard. It might sound silly when you're talking about the safety of the entire planet, but people are rarely interested in living next to a power plant, let alone a photon torpedo array carrying enough firepower to reduce the planet itself to space dust. The people of Earth in particular are pretty happy to have their lovely forests and happy little federation cities instead.
The fourth reason is that if someone surprises you the shield won't be able to be raised quickly enough to actually prevent them from knocking it out. Planetary shield generators and other defenses aren't difficult to locate and map during peace time and a shield can't be maintained 24/7 because it will trap everyone on the planet. All it takes are a few seconds to drop a cloak and toss everything you have at a ground target.
Heck, depending on the construction you might be able to just use a shuttle craft or planted explosives to knock one out. | 15 | 15 |
ELI5: Are there enough resources on earth to get ALL population out of poverty and hunger? | Would it be possible to have a scenario where all population on earth is middle class with all basic needs satisfied based on our current natural resources?
Could the current wealth be distributed evenly to get all poor people out of poverty in a hypothetical situation?
My question doesn't directly refers to political or economic systems (e.g. socialism/communism). It is more trying to realize weather the earth and our total current wealth can provide enough sustainable resources to give all of earth habitants a decent life. | There are enough resources to get everyone clothed, sheltered, fed, and to a reasonable standard of living. But poverty is a different question.
Poverty is not a set line that is the same for every society. Poverty is a line that shifts based on what the expected standard of living in a given society is and as such there will always be poverty so long as we are in a world where people have different degrees of wealth. As you improve the standard of living the line of poverty simply shifts higher. | 151 | 231 |
ELI5: How can SEARS declare bankruptcy and only plan to shut down only a part 142 of its 700 current stores. | Shouldn't they shut down all stores and let the court decide how can they sell of inventory and pay off the companies they owe ? | There are two primary types of corporate bankruptcy.
Chapter 7 bankruptcy is basicially saying "We're fucked, were selling off everything we own, and we're only paying what we can to people we owe money to and closing up".
Chapter 11 is a reorganization plan, stating "we're fucked, you're not getting as much as we owe you, but give us a chance to pay down what we can while we figure out a way to survive". The courts will reorganize the debt, eliminating some of it, and the company remains in business. | 116 | 93 |
[Magic School Bus] How does Miss Frizzle get the permission to take children on such crazy field trips? | Like, how in God's name did she get the okay to take her students into other countries, shrinking them into the size of insects, going into the human body and into out space, MULTIPLE TIMES for both of the latter 2? What is wrong with the school or district she's employed at that they're totally fine with all of this? | What the school administration doesn't know can't hurt them. The Bus is the personal property of Miss Frizzle. Parental Permission slips are not used, and no one is going to believe the kids anyway. | 149 | 131 |
ELI5: How did people get fountains to work in medieval times? | Gravity, water and air pressure, and an understanding of fluid mechanics (especially siphoning).
If you have a body of water (a little pool, for example), and a very narrow tube leading from the bottom of the body of water to a position that is higher than it, the pressure from the pool will force the water up the tube (so long as there is no air in the tube; this is called siphoning).
So you begin the siphoning process manually (sucking the air out of the tube), then install the tube into the fountain. So long as the pool of water never goes empty, you never have to restart the siphoning. It'll just keep going forever. | 19 | 26 |
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I've heard we share 99% of our DNA with chimps but only 50% of our DNA with siblings. Please explain. | When talking about chimps, we're talking about genes encoding for specific proteins (or all the other things that DNA does) being in the same place on the same chromosomes.
Since you and your siblings are (presumably) both human, you have 100% of your DNA in common in that sense (unless one of you has some genetic malformation/mistake due to other factors).
What the 50% figure means is that the specific variations for genes (like hair or eye color) has a 50/50 chance of being different from your siblings depending on what version you got from each parent. The gene types and positions on your chromosomes are the same, just what version you get is different. | 263 | 385 |
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[DragonBall] Are the human Z Warriors just irrelevant? | Saiyans -> Oozaru form,Zenkai boosts,unrivaled fighting spirit,Saiyan Human offspring are said to have more potential than full blooded ones,anything else I'm missing???
Namekians -> Regeneration,stretchy limbs,can sustain themselves with only water,asexual reproduction,certain ones can create Dragon Balls,and can fuse with each other without the need of the dance or earrings.
Androids -> Unlimited stamina,that's all I know that is special to this group.
Frost Demons -> With a few of them being prodigies,I'm not sure what is special to them other than they're probably really hard to kill considering Freeza was sliced up by his own attack,and was still clinging on after the explosion of Namek.
Sooo...what do Humans bring to the table? | Humans have technique. Humans came up with:
- Kamehameha, which seems to be consistently more powerful than equivalent energy blasts in the series
- Solar Flare, which consistently wins fights
- Sensing Energy, something that was thought to be impossible without a scouter by the Freeza organization.
- Kienzan, which allowed someone like Krillin to actually injure Freeza.
- Mafuba, which came up again in the DB Super.
- Shin Kikoho: which allowed Tien to briefly match Imperfect Cell
The list goes on. Earthicans are consistently some of the most creative fighters in the universe. They lack the raw power to compete with Saiyans, but human creativity combined with Saiyan brute force has made Goku, Vegeta and the rest *far* more powerful than they would have been without their time on earth.
The only species with better technique are the Yardrat with their instant transmission, and the Kais with techniques like Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb. | 94 | 70 |
Name change after wedding | I recently got married, and I'm planning on taking my husband's surname legally, possibly with hyphenation. However I'm not sure what to do for work as I've published quite a few papers under my maiden name... BUT the maiden name is a very common name so my husband's unique surname would actually make me and my work easier to find. Also considering hyphenation, but our names sound kind of weird hyphenated.. maybe I'd get used to it though?
I guess I'm just wondering what other married folks in academia have done. I realise a lot keep their maiden name legally and professionally, but I like the idea of having a family name.
EDIT: I know I CAN keep publishing under my maiden name and that was my first thought, my question is more whether it could benefit me to take on a more unique surname given that there are dozens of academics with my current first & last name. My husband has suggested just keeping my maiden name for work, but I wanted the perspectives of others who've been in the same boat.
Also should have been clearer in my initial post, I don't want to drop my maiden name immediately. If I take his name at all for work, I would hyphenate/double name for at least a while to maintain a connection to my older works. | You could publish under a hyphenated name to maintain continuity between your older publications and your newer ones. And then legally change to your partner’s name for license, ss card, and all other everyday aspects of life. | 112 | 66 |
ELI5: Why isn't there toothpaste that's "Whitening" & "Enamel protection" & "3-in-1 plaque defence" etc. Is there actually a big difference between them all? | So, whitening toothpaste and to a much greater extent the professional whitening treatments are pretty hard on your enamel and can damage the teeth the roots, which is the exact opposite of the enamel protection.
Think of the enamel protection as something like putting polyurethane on a table and the whitening is like scrubbing it or even sanding it. Those two things don't really work together. | 56 | 89 |
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I've heard it said that Eastern Philosophy, particularly Confucianism, is different in respect to the individual than that of most Western philosophy. Can someone explain this? | One example that may explain what is meant by individualism of the west vs east could be in how ethical theories are expressed. Take which virtues are focused by, say, Plato and Aristotle, and then that of Confucius and Mencius. Plato focuses on virtues that involve oneself, such as courage or temperance, while Confucius would talk of virtue as involving others, such as filial piety or reciprocity. | 12 | 21 |
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CMV: There Should Be Trade Schools For Every Major And Employers And Graduate Schools Should Take Them Seriously | I honestly think college is a waste of time for several people including myself. Let's just say that one wants to be a mathematician so they major in math. Wouldn't it make sense for them to take only math classes and focus only on math instead of taking irrelevant courses. Remember their only goal is to be a mathematician it's not to be well rounded or intellectually stimulated. Yet most graduate level mathematics programs require a bachelor's degree( the overwhelming majority of whom require general education requirements). I believe for every single field there should be a trade school. The thing that irritates me about being an engineering student is that I have to take general education requirements that are not directed related to the field I want to go in. I would like for there to be a trade school specifically for the type of engineering I will do and attend that trade school only taking courses relevant to my subject area. For example, if I am 18 years old and I want to be a chemical engineer then I could go to a trade school specifically for chemical engineering and only study that subject. | General education curricula are meant to make the student a more well-rounded individual. A basic understanding of a wide range of subjects that are not major specific not only make you a smarter, more educated person in general (the whole goal of universities), they also build invaluable soft skills like effective writing and critical thinking.
Viewpoints like this are a product of our current attitude to higher education. We treat degrees like they are only job qualifications, and we act as though college were a path to a piece of paper that says you may work in this field. We don't really seem to be interested in the academic experience, the exploration of subjects we may consider impractical, the study of different topics, however briefly, that we may never have given a thought to if they were not compulsory. What we often don't realize is that those "pointless" classes are helping us to build a solid foundation on which to build a comprehensive and enriched education in whatever we choose to specialize in.
Your gen. 'eds are not a waste of time -- approach them inquisitively and with an involved attitude and enjoy them. At the very least, you'll be more well-rounded, and you may even change your goals completely. | 25 | 19 |
ELI5: How do we know the calorie content of food when not everything that burns is digestible? | Like cellulose, it produces a lot of energy when burnt, but gives you zero energy if you eat it because humans cant digest it. | Calories are just a measurement of energy, like joules. Just because the human body can't digest and use some of those calories doesn't mean they don't exist. Calorie counts on food nutrition labels tell you the total number of calories in that food, but they don't tell you how many of those calories you'll actually digest. For example, the more processed a food is, the more calories our bodies are capable of absorbing (the processing did some of the digestion work for us). The health of your digestive system also plays a major role in how many calories your body gets from eating a food. If two people ate the exact same bag of chips, one of those people would probably absorb a few more calories from the chips than the other person, but neither would get as many as are on the label. | 25 | 39 |
ELI5: Why does only a pinch of salt make so many meals so much better? | Short version : Sodium draws out flavours, creating a stronger, bolder taste. Finishing salt (used after cooking) can provide a good contrast that makes accompanying flavours more pronounced. Ever try salted chocolate? | 17 | 40 |
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CMV: Ethnic/Racial diversity for its own sake is unnecessary. | **CONTEXT:** America. I work at a small company with 10 full-time employees. I am one of 3 men, and the other 7 employees are women. All of us are white (one of the men, our CEO, is half-Asian). On our website and our other online listings wherein we have pictures of our team, we've received multiple comments and outreach demanding "more women of color" or "more ethnic diversity" in our staff. I think that that's complete bullshit.
**OPINION: Ethnic and Racial diversity in business for the sake of having some "people of color" is unnecessary, petty, and could even be considered racist.**
**We** shouldn't have to hire anyone based on their skin color or ethnic background because **you** think we're "too white." We hire people based on their skills, their ability to fit into our culture, and their personalities **only.** Whether or not they're white has no bearing on their hiring status.
Some people in my company have gone so far as to specifically target the local university's minority groups with recruitment materials and internship openings, just to appease these online demands, and I think that's wrong. Excluding white people from even applying for certain positions is the **definition of racism.** Everyone should have equal opportunity to apply, interview and work with us regardless of their race. If it turns out that a new hire is white, it's because he or she had the best skill, best fits into the company culture, and has the best personality.
If there was a company which was completely owned and run by black people for instance, I wouldn't demand for them to hire more white people because "it's too black," That sounds ridiculous, right? That's more than ridiculous, it's racist. Just the same, demanding that we hire more non-white people because we're "too white" is ridiculous and racist.
**EDIT**: Our company culture, into which candidates for any position must fit: **HEART**. **H**ear (listen to your team and your customers) **E**nthusiasm (energy, excitement) **A**ttitude (positivity, optimism) **R**elax and have fun (casual, comfortable) **T**enacity (strong belief in yourself and the company's products). | You may be hiring people on merit in perfectly good faith, but unconscious bias is a very real thing, especially when "fitting in with the culture" is one of the criteria.
Music critics played the exact same piece of music by the same women wearing different outfits gave consistently higher marks to the woman wearing a concert gown.
Have you tried hiring completely blind? | 59 | 109 |
[Wall-E] Why was the Axiom still sending out EVE units to look for plant life, if the AI had been explicitly told to give up? | It's pretty obvious throughout the film that all the ship's essential functions are *completely* controlled by AI. The human captain is basically vestigial, he has no real power and no clue what's going on. Otto controls everything.
Throughout the opening scenes, we see no evidence that humans crew members are in any way involved in the scouting missions, sending out rockets with EVE units to go look for plant life on Earth. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the captain is the only human crew member we see in the entire film. If the process is all controlled by AI, why didn't Otto put a stop to it centuries ago? | His orders were to look for plant life. On the other hand, his orders were to not return to Earth regardless of the results. Part of the satire in the movie was the idea of doing things 'just because'. | 132 | 113 |
What is the easiest (most "basic" structured) language on Earth? | From a linguistic perspective, all languages are supposed to be equally complex and difficult to learn. One language only becomes harder to learn based on what languages a person has already learned, but primary language acquisition is the same regardless of which language is being learned.
In the hypothetical situation of communicating with an alien species, it would be most important to find a language that used similar structure and sounds to the alien language.
Edit: It can be more difficult to learn one language as a second language versus a different language, but this is all relative to what one's first language is. It would probably be easier for a French speaker to learn another romance language than it would be for a French speaker to learn Chinese.
However, the ease of learning a second language does not mean that that language is intrinsically more difficult to learn than any other language. As far as primary language acquisition goes, all languages are equally easy to learn.
All languages are equally complex because a higher complexity in one aspect of a language will often be met with more simplicity in another aspect of the language. People were talking about certain languages containing more conjugation than others. It is characteristic of a synthetic language to have more conjugations that add prefixes, suffixes, and affixes to a word. This makes each word more complicated, but it simplifies the structure of phrases. A lot more is said with each word. In analytical languages, there are far less prefixes, suffixes, and affixes. This simplifies the structure of each word, but it makes the structure of each phrase more complex. More words will be required in an analytical language to say the same thing than would be required in a synthetic language to construct the same phrase, but each word in the analytical language should be simpler than the words used in the synthetic language. In this way, the complexity of every language evens out. There are obviously a plethora of other ways that languages can seem simpler or more complex, but this is just one example. Linguists believe that complexity tends to be approximately the same throughout all languages. | 68 | 155 |
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Why are narrower tires better in the snow? | Why would narrow tires that provide less contact with the ground be better than wider tires? Wouldn’t wider tires provide more contact with the ground? | Narrower tires means that cars weight is distributed to a smaller area of tire contacting the ground. So with weight staying the same and area decreasing, you are increasing the amount of pressure exerted on the ground in a given area.
Also instead of just plowing through snow/ice with your tires, a thinner wheeler cuts through it instead of just pushing it. | 14 | 17 |
ELI5: Why can't we recycle the stuff that's sent to landfill? | There are two reasons, both of which are applicable in many cases:
1) Things that are mixed together are more expensive to take apart. Aluminum cans are easy to recycle because they are almost pure aluminum. There is aluminum in food packaging, but it's bonded to paper, plastic, and other non-aluminum things in a way that's hard to undo.
2) Some things are not very valuable, and the energy that would be needed to process them costs more than the output of the process could be sold for (even when the cost of the landfill is included). | 30 | 22 |
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ELI5: Why are we not supposed to rapidly turn lights on and off? | A lot of lights have a lifetime dependent on the cycle time. For example an incandescent light bulb have a tiny wire that heats up every time you turn the light on and produce light. But heating the wire also makes it expand which puts pressure on it which over time can cause cracks to widen and eventually go all the way though the wire and it will snap. So you only have a limited number of times you can switch on the light before it stops working. It is not true with all types of lights and electronics. You get incandescent lights which is designed for a high cycle count and modern LED lights often have no limits on cycle time. The lifetime and cycle count of a light bulb is often listed separately. | 22 | 23 |
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ELI5: How do dogs communicate with each other? | Body language mostly, like many animals on this planet.
Some of the stuff is obvious and we all recognize: bearing teeth and ears back is aggression, wagging tails and "bowing" (head down, butt up) is happy or playful, while exposing the belly is a sign of submission, and a tail between the legs is a sign of fear.
There are other things that are less obvious-licking the face/mouth is a sign of submission to the leader. Staring is a sign of distrust, while "ignoring" is a sign of trust (no need to watch you, they know you won't hurt them).
Smelling eachother's butts is more of a greeting than communication. Barks/growls/whimpers/howls communicate as well, but those are almost always associated with body language. | 30 | 24 |
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ELI5:What is the difference between a Shia muslim and a Sunni muslim? | Both Sunni and Shia Muslims share the most fundamental Islamic beliefs and articles of faith. The differences between these two main sub-groups within Islam initially stemmed not from spiritual differences, but political ones. Over the centuries, however, these political differences have spawned a number of varying practices and positions which have come to carry a spiritual significance.
The division between Shia and Sunni dates back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and the question of who was to take over the leadership of the Muslim nation. Sunni Muslims agree with the position taken by many of the Prophet's companions, that the new leader should be elected from among those capable of the job. This is what was done, and the Prophet Muhammad's close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, became the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. The word "Sunni" in Arabic comes from a word meaning "one who follows the traditions of the Prophet."
On the other hand, some Muslims share the belief that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet's own family, among those specifically appointed by him, or among Imams appointed by God Himself.
The Shia Muslims believe that following the Prophet Muhammad's death, leadership should have passed directly to his cousin/son-in-law, Ali bin Abu Talib. Throughout history, Shia Muslims have not recognized the authority of elected Muslim leaders, choosing instead to follow a line of Imams which they believe have been appointed by the Prophet Muhammad or God Himself. The word "Shia" in Arabic means a group or supportive party of people. The commonly-known term is shortened from the historical "Shia-t-Ali," or "the Party of Ali." They are also known as followers of "Ahl-al-Bayt" or "People of the Household" (of the Prophet).
Sunni Muslims make up the majority (85%) of Muslims all over the world. Significant populations of Shia Muslims can be found in Iran and Iraq, and large minority communities in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and Lebanon.
From this initial question of political leadership, some aspects of spiritual life have been affected and now differ between the two groups of Muslims.
It is important to remember that despite these differences in opinion and practice, Shia and Sunni Muslims share the main articles of Islamic belief and are considered by most to be brethren in faith. In fact, most Muslims do not distinguish themselves by claiming membership in any particular group, but prefer to call themselves simply, "Muslims."
Shia Muslims believe that the Imam is sinless by nature, and that his authority is infallible as it comes directly from God. Therefore, Shia Muslims often venerate the Imams as saints and perform pilgrimages to their tombs and shrines in the hopes of divine intercession.
Sunni Muslims counter that there is no basis in Islam for a hereditary privileged class of spiritual leaders, and certainly no basis for the veneration or intercession of saints. Sunni Muslims contend that leadership of the community is not a birthright, but a trust that is earned and which may be given or taken away by the people themselves.
Shia Muslims also feel animosity towards some of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, based on their positions and actions during the early years of discord about leadership in the community. Many of these companions (Abu Bakr, Umar ibn Al Khattab, Aisha, etc.) have narrated traditions about the Prophet's life and spiritual practice. Shia Muslims reject these traditions (hadith) and do not base any of their religious practices on the testimony of these individuals. This naturally gives rise to some differences in religious practice between the two groups. These differences touch all detailed aspects of religious life: prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, etc. | 22 | 35 |
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ELI5: The monty hall problem | Count the success rate for the two different options:
3 doors, prize is behind door #3
Option 1: Never Change
Pick door 1 - lose
Pick door 2 - lose
Pick door 3 - win
total success: 1/3
Option 2: Always Change (keep in mind they always open the
door *not* containing the prize)
Pick door 1, 2 is shown, switch to 3 - win
Pick door 2, 1 is shown, switch to 3 - win
Pick door 3, 1 or 2 is shown, switch to the other - lose
total success: 2/3
Edit: Fixed odds for option 2 | 47 | 47 |
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Why aren't there more eye colors? | Why are human eye colors so limited (when compared to the rainbow spectrum). Have we just selected for those colors or does it have to do with the actual composition of the eye?
| Eye color pigments only vary from light brown to black. No green or blue pigments contribute to eye color. The variations you see in blue, green and hazel eyes are produced through not only a lack of dark pigmentation in the stroma but also the presence of Tyndall scattering, Rayleigh scattering and selective light absorption of certain biological molecules like hemoglobin - all this results in blue light being reflected more than red light. Kind of a cool optical trick.
With blue eyes, the iris is pigmented and the stroma lacks pigmentation. Green eyes result from similar pigmentation in the iris but some light brown pigments in the stroma. Hazel eyes result from significant brown pigmentation in the iris’ anterior border layer and light brown pigments in the stroma. Brown eyes contain larger amounts of pigmentation (melanin) in the stroma. A lack of pigmentation in both the stroma and iris, Albinism, produces red or violet eye colors. In summation, eye color is limited because humans only have brown pigmentation. Diversity results from the brown pigmentation range (amber to black), various distributions of pigments between the stroma and iris and Tyndall scattering in the stroma.
Eye color is a polygenic trait. At least six genes are known to contribute to eye color phenotypes through at least 41 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). However, the model is incomplete, because it is not yet 100% predictive.
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ELI5: Why does 50% volume on video and music players not sound half as loud as 100% volume? | Usually if a video is too loud, 75% sounds almost the same as 100% and only at around 30% there is a noticeable difference in volume. | Human hearing is complex. For something to be perceived as twice as loud, it needs to be 10 dB louder, which is 10x power. But to be 4x louder, it's 20 dB louder which is 100 times as much power.
So it really depends how the player has implemented it's volume slider. If it does it linearly, i.e if you have it at 50% it just multiplies the audio signal by 0.5, then it's be way to sensitive at one end and not enough at the other.
So the volume slider should probably be linear in dB. | 23 | 20 |
Why is the unemployment rate in European countries, such as UK and Germany, still so low? | It currently stands at 3.9% for UK and 3.5% for Germany which seems very low considering the COVID-19 impacts. | Germany has a program called "Kurzarbeit" (short work). The way this works is that the employee receives reduced hours and the State pays 60% of the lost wages. So an employee put on 50% time would receive 80% of their typical wage.
This program gives a number of benefits.
* Germany doesn't have at-will employment. Firing workers is more difficult than in the US. Alternatively, getting one's company to be part of the Kurzarbeit program is quite easy.
* There's no benefit to the company to lay off an employee; the company can just put them at 0 time, and the State will pay them 60% of the wage. Then, when the company is able to rev up, they can ease that person back up to 100%.
* There's no downside to the employee. The employee remains in all the normal programs (healthcare, paying into pension, etc.) while still drawing a paycheck. In fact, many employees loved working a fraction of the time while receiving most of their monthly paycheck.
Germany also had a larger per capita bailout program than the US did. | 135 | 83 |
What kind of damage would a collapsing space elevator do to earth? | In a few anime a falling space elevator has a potential to destroy the planet but what kind of damage would it really do if the elevator was 60,000 miles high? | A space elevator consists of three parts: the terminus up at geosynchronous orbit (or a little higher), the car that moves up and down, and the cable.
The terminus wouldn't fall. It's essentially just like a satellite that orbits freely.
The car that moves up and down would most likely mostly disintegrate on entering the atmosphere, in much the same way that the Space Shuttle Columbia did. In terms of effect, you can probably compare it to the meteorite that landed in Russia a while back.
I think the largest risk is going to be from supersonic whiplash from the cable, which would be under tension. How that behaves depends on where it breaks. | 23 | 71 |
ELI5: What makes a country a third world vs a first? Are there second world countries? | ^ | First Understand this
The term **"First World"** refers to so called developed, capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States after World War II, with more or less common political and economic interests: North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia.
**"Second World"** refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China.
**"Third World"** are all the other countries, today often used to roughly describe the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The term Third World includes as well capitalist (e.g., Venezuela) and communist (e.g., North Korea) countries, as very rich (e.g., Saudi Arabia) and very poor (e.g., Mali) countries.
**These things makes a country third world**
Despite everevolving definitions, the concept of the third world serves to identify countries that suffer from high infant mortality, low economic development, high levels of poverty, low utilization of natural resources, and heavy dependence on industrialized nations. These are the developing and technologically less advanced nations of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America. Third world nations tend to have economies dependent on the developed countries and are generally characterized as poor with unstable governments and having high rates of population growth, illiteracy, and disease. A key factor is the lack of a middle class — with impoverished millions in a vast lower economic class and a very small elite upper class controlling the country's wealth and resources. Most third world nations also have a very large foreign debt | 56 | 35 |
Is bone damaged or strengthened by repeated blunt impacts? | Example: If I whacked my elbow/forearm up against a solid object once a day for 20 years, would the underlying bone become stronger to compensate for the impacts or would it be left in a weaker more fragile state?
This is mentioned in martial arts movies frequently. Masters have trained punching trees/iron in order to develop "Iron Fists", which supposedly would be more deadly. | laminar bone readjusts its structure in such as way as to be strongest along the direction of the force most often applied. This is why weight bearing exercise is important for long bones to calcify and strengthen longitudinally.
I dont know if hitting your elbow off a wall every day is enough to cause this restructuring, and you would have to consider the soft tissue changes also - which could vary from a thickening and strengthening , to chronic inflammation, calcification or rupture if you over exerted and injured yourself. | 33 | 61 |
If a pool is on a ship and the ship is in rough waters, how do the waves in the pool mimic the waves that are hitting the ship if at all? | The size and frequency of waves on the ocean are determined mostly by wind speed and fetch (how long the waves are exposed to the wind in the same direction).
The size and speed of waves in the pool would be determined by the depth of the pool. the size by the amount of the ships pitch (or roll as the case may be).
The most likely scenario is that the ships pitching will not be aligned at all with the available frequencies for a standing wave of the pool shape/depth.
As the ship pitched, from the perspective of the water in the pool, the walls and floor moved up and then back down, causing a sloshing. Yes this would (to a small extent) dampen the pitch and roll of the ship.
The speed of the wave across the pool will be much faster than the time between pitches of the ship
Since the frequencies will be quite different, each large sloshing wave will bounce back and forth slowly decreasing in amplitude until the next sloshing event.
Depending on the height of the pool walls above the water line, for a given (constant) pitch of the ship, a certain amount of water will slosh out onto the deck and then the remainder will slosh back and forth at the speed of the wave based on pool depth until the next pitch and it starts again. | 157 | 687 |
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[Star Trek] Why are the main hulls of federation ships saucer shape? | The shape of ships in Star Trek have a lot to do with keeping the warp field stable and efficient and the specific shape of ships for any given species depends on the sort of warp technology that species has. For the Federation that shape was a saucer but as their warp drives got faster they changed into ovals and arrowheads. | 39 | 18 |
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ELI5: Euclidean vs non-Euclidean geometry | Euclidean geometry is mathematical model that tries to capture your intuition about what would happen if you took a piece of paper that was *big enough*, put it on a flat surface, and started drawing circles, lines and points on it.
Non-Euclidean geometry differs from this because it doesn't assume a flat surface.
That's the ELI5 intuition about it anyway. Historically, how we arrived at non-Euclidean geometry was quite different story. Euclid did work with geometry around 2500 years ago, and he made five postulates that, if they were true, would be enough to talk about geometry. For example, one of them posited that if you had two points, you could draw line through those 2 points.
There were 5 such postulates, but the fifth one was problematic. It basically said, if you had a line, and a point not on that line, you could draw exactly one line through that point, so that the two lines were **parallel**. This is called Parallel Postulate. The problem with it was, people thought it was unnecessary. It took over 2000 years of mathematical research to finally prove that Parallel Postulate was indeed needed. So what mathematicians did? Because Parallel Postulate was needed, they decided to try what happens if you don't use it. These geometries are then called non-Euclidean, because they don't use all 5 postulates by Euclid.
So what happens is, you might have no parallel lines at all, or you might have way more options of parallel lines than in standard geometry. And as it turns out, you can represent these oddities simply by non-flat surface. Sphere is the standard example of a non-Euclidean geometry where there are no parallel lines; Every line meets. In this geometry, "Lines" are great circles around the sphere. One of the things that gets mentioned often is that angle sum of a triangle is not 180 degrees. You can use globe as an example: You can start at North Pole, go to the Equator, turn 90 degrees, travel one quarter of the globe, turn another 90 degrees, then travel back to North Pole, and now you have another 90 degrees left to turn. This means our triangle has angle sum of 270 degrees. | 1,506 | 2,531 |
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ELI5 What is the simple chemistry behind soaps, how is it polar and non polar at the same time? | Why does the formation of soap allow it to pick up different items? | soap molecules are relatively long molecules. The arrangement of the atoms (and their electrons) leads to one end being somewhat charged (polar) and the other end non-polar. Water is polar, so the polar end of the soap tends to "stick" to water, while the other end tends to stick non-polar things like grease. When you rinse with water, the water pulls the soap with the attached greasy thing down the drain | 31 | 30 |
ELI5: Why is it easier for two people to lift twice the weight together, than half individually? | There are two different issues with lifting a heavy object: force and torque. Often with a large box, apply a *force* equal to the weight of the box isn't hard, but applying a *torque* that will keep the entire box in your hands (instead of allowing the box to tumble away from you) is harder. With one person applying a torque on each side, this issue disappears. | 65 | 59 |
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[DC] [Swamp Thing] How are the Parliaments operated? Are they only organic or are there concepts like rocks? | They are elementals, or in some cases something else uplifted into beings that are at least partially elemental. Not all concepts have a Parliament, though all Parliaments control some concept.
There is, in fact, a Parliament of Stones. They control The Melt, an elemental force representing all earth and stone on Earth.
The known Parliaments are:
* The Parliament of Trees (controlling plant life through The Green)
* The Parliament of Stones, mentioned above
* The Parliament of Flames, whose domain is unnamed
* The Parliament of Decay, covering The Black, also known as The Rot. Death is their domain.
* The Parliament of Limbs, controlling The Red, or all animal life.
* The Parliament of Waves, controlling the Clear, or The Blue, governing all aquatic life and oceanic elements
* The Parliament of Vapors, controlling the White, under control of air elementals
* The Parliament of Worlds, which is unique in that its members are all planets where life evolved and thrived.
* There's also a newly formed Parliament of Gears, which appears to be the governing force over ideas and progress
* Now that we've mentioned the Parliament of Gears, it's worth mentioning a conceptually similar group shown only in New 52: Future's End, called The Rithm, governing metal and technological elementals
* Microscopic life - bacteria, amoebas, and the like - have the Divided
* Fungus has The Gray, which is notable for us knowing for a fact that it does not have a Parliament associated with it | 22 | 18 |
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ELI5: Why are manhole covers not in the middle of a lane so car tires don't run over them? | Transportation engineer here. Usually the sewer systems under the road are much larger than you would think. Usually 10-30 ft wide. If you think of a cut-away of this underground sewer (essentially looking at it as though it's a really large pipe so you are thinking of It as a circle in cut-away view), it makes most sense to put the manhole at the top most part of the sewer (top of the circle). Now, roads get re-surfaced all the time. Curbs and lanes change due to the needs of traffic. That sewer system most likely has been there for a long time if there has always been a road there. Even in new construction, there was probably an older sewer system in place for many years. Cost wise, no way are they going to go with the hassle of relocating a manhole when they can just level it as best the can. Sometimes the contractor does a bad job with this and you get your pothole-like manholes. But relocating means a lot more engineering and subsurface work. It would be nice to do, but it's usually just not in the budget for that type of jobs.
Other times during new construction, the contractor putting in the sewer and the contractor putting in the road just miss their mark slightly. Most of the time, they're given basic plan sets with only their part on it. And usually it's different contractors for different aspects.
Hope this helps. | 19 | 20 |
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ELI5: What is happening when i stare at the same spot(usually in an already dark place) and all remaining light slowly fades? | Eyes use 2 types of receptors, one type for brightness and one type for colors (there are three distinct subtypes for colors funfact: theres a mutation where people have 4 types of color receptors - tetrachromatism)
These receptors only work for a few milliseconds before the chemicals, participating in the chemical reactions that create what we call 'seeing' wear off'. They basically need to be 're-fuelled' very often.
Thats why our eyeballs are allways vibrating at around 50hz - so that the same signal doesn't hit the same receptors all the time. Birds for instance don't have that - that's why they do these distinct ad hoc head movements by the way.
So, long story short: Staring at the same spot causes this 'fatigue' in your brightness and color receptors. Thats why staring at a bright light and then at a white wall will leave a dark spot. And staring ata red dot and then a whit wall leaves a yellow+blue dot - red is fatigue but blue and yellow still transport signals to your brain.
fun fact 2: in space the eye vibrations are stronger and faster - leading to higher view resolution. | 12 | 20 |
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Can your immune system create resistance against bacterial infections the same way it does viral? | Say you got a bacterial chest infection and was prescribed antibiotics to treat it. Would your immune system create some kind of resistance to it if you were to come in contact with someone else who had the same infection after you'd recovered? | Got a masters degree in Biochemistry, applying to medical school currently
Yes your immune system would create “resistance”. The way this is accomplished is by the immune system’s utilization of cells called B lymphocytes. These are “memory” cells that remember an antigen (a chemical marker that is specific to the bacteria behind the infection). The next time your body sees this bacteria, and it’s corresponding antigen, such as being in contact with someone else who currently has the infection, your immune response is much more robust as this is a secondary immune response and the body has already fought it.
There are subtle differences in how our immune system handles viruses vs bacteria but for a layman’s understanding this antigen recognition pathway is the same for both.
This at it’s core is what a vaccine is. Giving you antigens in a safe manner, thus preparing your immune cells for a significantly faster/stronger response when you’re exposed to the real thing. | 149 | 191 |
What exactly makes a tumor inoperable? | I have a friend who has been fighting a glioblastoma. He was recently told by his doctors that the tumor has doubled in size to 2 inches and is inoperable, and that likely has up to 2 months to live.
What exactly makes a tumor inoperable? And in a situation like this, why wouldn't you attempt the long shot at operating? | Proximity to essential anatomy.
Tumors can invade and surround essential parts of the body. This particularly true of tumors within delicate areas like the brain.
This is where the expertise of the oncologist and surgeons comes in. They assess each individual case and weigh the post-operative quality of life, and potential for relapse. Also, glioblastoma's are particularly invasive, and resection might cause further spread. | 28 | 38 |
ELI5: Who/how do horoscopes get put together each day? | I have a horoscope app, everyday they come out with new and different horoscopes. Most of the time they are very specific. How do they come up with ths stuff? | This is known as the Forer Effect. Other names are Barnum Statements and Cold Readings.
So what are they? Basically, statements which are worded in a way that make you believe that they apply to you. If you were to be given horoscope paragraphs without context (zodiac sign, month) then you would assume that the statements are just as accurate.
The story you will find on Wikipedia is that a psychologist named Forer once gave a personality test to his students and asked them to rate how well they thought it applied to themselves. He gave them all the exact same paragraph and they rated it highly.
The eventual conclusion is that you lend credibility to the horoscope by assuming that the horoscope provider is of a good authority, and it is bolstered by you wanting to believe in the horoscopes.
To answer your question directly - now that you know how these horoscopes work, you can see that it is easy enough to construct enough horoscopes and randomize them over a period of time and assign them to various signs. | 54 | 31 |
ELI5: Why are so many types of toothpaste advertised as “whitening” toothpastes? Shouldn’t every type of toothpaste be cleaning and whitening your teeth regardless of the type? | "Whitening' toothpastes typically contain stronger abrasives and substances with the specific aim of attacking hard-to-break-down stains and changing color through chemical action. This is in addition to the contents of usual tooth paste, which is mostly concerned with breaking down plaque, minimizing decay, and freshening breath. This can certainly lead to an improvement of appearance, but not necessarily to the same scale if you've got significant coloring. | 36 | 38 |
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Why does South Africa do so much genetic sequencing of COVID viruses in comparison to other countries? | When the AIDS epidemic struck Africa, several countries (South Africa being one of them) took that opportunity to put a substantial amount of funding into research and prevention, causing them to eventually (now) actually be a prominent force in the field of epidemiology. | 130 | 43 |
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ELI5:why was the world able to come together and ban leaded gasoline and CFCs, but refuses to do much of anything about greenhouse emmisons? | Two main reasons: First, the effect of greenhouse gas emissions occurs on a longer timescale and with much less clarity on exactly what and where will be effected. Second, the things that produce greenhouse gasses are much more central to the global economy than leaded gasoline or CFCs.
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What's "real" programming in a day to day job like? | I'm going to assume it's VERY different from the scope of school assignment programming but how different is it? What's an average "project" and how long do they take and what makes it so much harder/more complex than a school assignment would be? | School assignments usually come very well specified. They tell you EXACTLY what your code is supposed to do in all cases. In the industry, a lot of times we get assignments that are at least a bit underspecified. Say you're tasked with implementing a new feature. In a well-structured organization, a UX team gives you UI mockups and a PM has refined the ticket enough to include most of the obvious use cases, but it's usually not bulletproof. Part of your job involves figuring out all of the little details.
There's also the architecture of the whole codebase to consider. There might be some "quick and easy" way to hack together some new feature, but if it's violating the architecture then that's no good. You often have to do things in a slightly more verbose way that respects abstraction boundaries.
And if you're working on a serious product that you hope to sell worldwide, there are all sorts of extra layers you have to work with. You can't just throw text on the screen, you have to get translations made for every language you support. You can't just throw components on the screen, you have to make sure it works on all screen sizes, and that it's properly structured and tagged so that it works with screen readers, oh and also make sure you're not using color as the only indicator of something. You can't just throw data in a database, you have to think about security. You might have to make the application behave differently in different regions due to legal issues.
In short, you're almost never doing these little well-specified tricky algorithm things, you're doing things that are much simpler logically, but having to navigate the architecture of a large codebase. | 106 | 106 |
CMV: The liberal arts are an essential component of a complete college education | I think that at least in the United States, the intense focus on production and materialism has elevated STEM careers to the highest echelon of desirability for people entering the workforce after receiving their degree. I don't think thing moving in this direction is adversarial to the liberal arts, however it does seem to me that students in higher education are slowly forgetting why they are important.
I think Marx had it right when he said that capitalism sucks the life out of you, although I don't think that's the entirety of the picture. I think *life* sucks the life out of you, and an essential aspect of becoming a functional member of any society is figuring out what it is that compels you to face the day, especially when you're at your lowest.
This is the role of the liberal arts, in my opinion. Everyone needs values to structure their lives and give them hope for the future, and exploring the liberal arts allows you to precisely define your values.
As a sidenote, I think that young people especially are really suffering due to their intense focus on STEM to the exclusion of all else. It's been my experience that most of my more STEM inclined friends and acquaintances suffer from a tragic lack of direction, with their only definitive motivations being stable income and always being told that this is what they are "supposed" to do. This perception is probably biased due to the fact I attend a university renowned for its STEM education and career outcomes, but I'm relatively confident this attitude exists in varying degrees of severity at most large universities in the US.
It's my belief that if you like stories, music or even just the abstract concept of art, then there's some meaning for you to find in the liberal arts. I don't think its anyone's responsibility to sift through thousands of years of esoteric texts if they don't want to, but I think most people would really benefit from reading that book their friend recommended to them or taking a philosophy class for their flex class one quarter because why not. It's also essential that students come to these classes assuming there's something useful for them to learn, because I know too many people who resent having to take even a single English class and only do the bare minimum to scrape by.
*Is* is not *ought*, and you are lesser for neglecting your chances to find *ought* or denying it when you find it, and in my opinion, it does students a disservice to release them into the world without imbuing them with a sense of purpose, or at least trying to.
CMV
Edit: There have been some great responses in this thread, both for and against my position. I can't really say I've been swayed, but I think the discussion has been really productive and it's been valuable to hear from people who fundamentally disagree with the value I perceive in liberal arts. At this point though, a lot of the posts I'm seeing are very passionately and personally worded, and I think the discussion has shifted from the value of liberal arts in college to what purpose colleges serve and should serve. I think that conversation is really important to have and I'd value a chance to have my view changed on that issue too, so I'll try to post something about that this weekend.
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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!* | About 2 years worth of liberal arts classes are required for any degree though? Even math and physics degrees require all the same breadth requirements as an English degree and the vast majority of that is courses that are liberal art disciplines. In fact you only have to take 1 or 2 classes for both math and science if you’re getting a liberal arts degree, so the liberal arts people are actually less educated in STEM stuff than STEM people are educated in liberal arts stuff. | 121 | 431 |
[Star Wars] Why was the flaw with the Death Star so weak? | There was a video I watched a while back that explained the significance of Luke turning off his targeting computer. Shortly before he went in Garven Dreis, one of the most veteran fighter pilots in the Rebel fleet made an approach on the thermal exhaust port and did everything right with his targeting computer on and still missed the shot. The perfect man with the perfect opportunity took his shot and whiffed; which is why Luke had to be the one to trust in the force and let it guide him to landing the shot on the thermal exhaust port.
However this begs the question if the thermal exhaust port was this purposely planted weakness in the Death Star intended by it's designer to be a kill switch why couldn't even a veteran pilot nail the shot? I know he can't just make it a big unguarded vulnerability and just hope nobody notices but if the weakness was only exploitable by a Jedi he didn't even know would be there why not make it just a little more doable? | Making it more doable would increase the likelihood that the flaw would be discovered, and then easily corrected.
It had to be *almost* impossible, or it would be found and made *totally* impossible. | 90 | 68 |
ELI5: Patents vs. copyrights vs. trademarks vs. servicemarks | What's the difference between them, and why are all of them necessary as distinct concepts?
I'm from the US, if there's any significant variation between countries. | Patents: You invent something new that no one else has invented and in exchange for releasing the technical details about how the invention works to the public you get exclusive right granted to you by the state to disallow would be competitors from stealing your exact idea and selling it as their own invention.
Copyright: Simply put it is "a right to control the copying" of various works; a way for an author/creator of books, music, photographs, architectural drawings, etc. to prevent the plagiarism of their works. In most countries obtaining copyright status for any work is automatic and assumed, however while registration isn't needed to exercise copyright in all countries, in jurisdictions where the laws provide for registration, it serves as prima facie evidence of a valid copyright. Any author/producer can release their works under a wide array of various copyright licenses, including so called "copy-left" licenses which allow people to copy said material without asking permission so long as they attribute credit to the original creator.
Trademark: A name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements that identify a business or legal entity. Infringement of trademark means that someone is taking the logo/symbol, etc. of another business and using it without permission.
Servicemarks: Same as a trademark but for identifying services instead of products. | 16 | 26 |
ELI5: How can communities where polygamy is common, have a large enough quantity of females when the the boy to girl ratio is around 1:1 ? | I have mostly Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints and Muslim communities in my head but i know that there are plenty more that have polygamy as a part of their culture/tradition. | These communities typically fall into one of two categories:
1) Males tend to have higher death rates than females, likely due to active armed conflict with another group
2) Most males, for one reason or another, are socially ostracized and kicked out at a young age, leaving more women than men remaining in the community. | 74 | 75 |
Why do we "Weigh" things in kg,g,and mg, if grams are units of mass? If I've got some powder on a scale and it reads 40mg, is it actually calculating the weight and then dividing it by 9.8 to tell me the total mass of the powder on the scale? | > Why do we "Weigh" things in kg,g,and mg, if grams are units of mass?
We measure mass by exploiting Newton's 2nd law: F=ma. The acceleration due to earth's gravity at its surface is about 9.8 m/s*^2*, so we can measure an object's mass by measuring the force gravity exerts on it and then dividing by 9.8 m/s*^2* (using F=ma --> m = F/a). If you know the force on earth's surface (ie weight) then you know the mass, and vice-versa.
> If I've got some powder on a scale and it reads 40mg, is it actually calculating the weight and then dividing it by 9.8 to tell me the total mass of the powder on the scale?
Yes. | 13 | 21 |
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Why is it that a vaccine like J&J can reduce severity of Covid-19 even in cases where it doesn’t provide full immunity? | The trials indicated that full immunity varied by country, probably due to the different strains. But it was effective at reducing severity across the board at similar rates, regardless of strain. Why does that happen? | Vaccines elicit more than just antibodies. They can also stimulate the differentiation of T cells that recognize the antigens (the proteins of the virus) and these help coordinate the immune response as well as destroy infected cells.
For the virus SARS-CoV-2, how quickly the T cell reaction can respond is critical to how severe the disease can get. A rapid response often results in no or few symptoms, while a delayed T cell response can result in an uncoordinated immune scramble that results in severe illness and/or 'long COVID'.
Vaccines that attenuate disease but don't prevent infection are common. The vaccine for shingles is given to people who have a latent varicella virus infection (after childhood chicken pox); it prevents the disease from flaring up. | 30 | 88 |
CMV: "Transracial" is as valid as "transgender". | I made an account to post this because I deleted my old account. I know it may seem like I'm a troll but I'm not, I'm genuinely interested in this issue. I know there are some other topics up about the same thing, and I'm actively reading those, but my view still isn't changed.
All of this stuff about Rachel Dolezal is really bothering me. I read a couple articles about how identifying as a different race then the one you grew up as is NOT the same as identifying as a different gender. One article in particular really bothered me because of how inflammatory it seemed:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/12/rachel-dolezal-caitlyn-jenner_n_7569160.html
(It's probably not necessary to read it to understand my viewpoint)
If one can identify as a "different" gender, and even be called a hero for it, why can't one identify as a "different" race? I understand in this particular instance Rachel Dolezal lied for a very long time about her history, but even then, would a transgender person be demonized for lying about their history pre-transtition? (perhaps that's a debate for another time.)
I'm desperately trying to at least understand these arguments. CMV?
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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!* | What is similar about race and gender? Not much. Gender is an identity that is tied to sex, a biological difference that in animals and, to some degree humans, completely dictates your role in society. It involves hormones and other definable physical differences that can be altered and changed. There is a biological basis to the differences between sexes, and to transgenderism. There is also a medical "cure:" hormone replacement therapy.
Race is nothing more than a social division created by physical appearance. It doesn't actually exist. Black people are not the way they are *because* they are black, but because of the historical circumstances that made them that way. You can't identify as having had different historical circumstances. | 28 | 32 |
[E.T.] Why did the extraterrestrials seem really worried about being discovered by humans during their initial landing, but didn't seem to care at all when they came back for E.T.? | In the beginning of the film, the extraterrestrials are really on edge as they perform their research excursion, reacting to the slightest noise. When the humans show up, they collectively panic and high-tail it off planet, leaving E.T. behind.
When they return, there's a bunch of humans milling around the landing site (including the ones who were chasing them initially!), but they don't seem to care at all.
What changed? I got the impression that they didn't want to be discovered during their research mission, but when they return they don't mind at all that humans know about their existence. Were they afraid of humans' potential violent capacity at first, but then realized they weren't a threat? | Imagine a team of human scientists travel to a nature preserve to study the local wildlife. They will be careful not to disrupt the natural balance.
Then one of the humans is injured and becomes separated from the group. They broke their sat phone and take refuge in a cave near a clan of chimpanzees. A baby chimp brings them some food and some random sticks and rocks it thinks are pretty. The human notices one of the "sticks" is actually an old antenna that fits in their sat-phone!
The human scientist repairs the phone and calls for help. Then a rescue party is formed and sent to bring the scientist home. The rescue party doesn't have any scientists in it though, that would be dangerous and could risk another getting injured. So they send appropriately trained individuals like military, police, or emergency medical services to go pick up the hapless scientist.
The rescue team cares little about disrupting the local wildlife, as long as they bring everyone home safely. | 66 | 46 |
What’s the difference between transcendental idealism and materialism? | New to philosophy so apologies if this makes no sense. I’m struggling to see the difference between these schools of thought. To me transcendental idealism seems almost materialist. Kant says we live in a world of experience, experience of representations of ontologically real things in their self. Isn’t this world of the “Noumenon” materialist? Things happen, ultimately based on these real objects. I live my life according to representations of them, but what happens depends on that deeper reality beyond the representation.
Struggling to understand! Thanks for any info | On Kant’s view, space, time, and causation, at least as we understand them, are conditions of our experience, and not something out there, independent of us.
Standard materialism accepts the reality — out there — of some or all of these things. | 21 | 37 |
CMV: Diversity is not about race | A diverse society is a society which has people from different backgrounds and cultures. How does race come into play?
Take this example; a white child who immigrated from Chechnya to escape persecution and a black, American child, live next door to each other. They grow up together and, ultimately, have to postulate for colleges. The African American child, who has had an otherwise normal childhood, is accepted for the sake of diversity, while the child from Chechnya is rejected. Wouldn't the child from Chechnya bring more diversity to the school, despite his being white? Doesn't he contribute to a multicultural environment?
Isn't it racist to assume that there is a "white culture" and a "black culture" ? Aren't people's backgrounds independent of the color of their skin?
Diversity should be about diversity of experience and background, not skin. Diversity should be about bringing people from different socioeconomic statuses together, whether rich or poor, religious or non religious, American or not American, etc. | Most universities do have an essay portion where students can write about their background, elite schools especially have a pretty extensive essay section. Writing about immigrating from Chechnya to escape persecution would probably make for a very strong essay. Grades and test scores are only a part of admissions. Based on this, it's hard to say which kid would have a better shot at getting into the same competitive school. A generic black student has better odds compared to a generic white student but there are clearly lots of factors that could make either student stand out.
It seems like a more accurate statement of you view should be "Diversity is about many things: country of birth, race, socioeconomic status, personal experiences" not "Diversity is not about race". It can be about race and other things as well. | 13 | 26 |
[Judge Dredd] Are the Mega-Cities independent of each other? | So I am asking about how the Mega-Cities deal with each other. I understand that there are like a dozen mega-cities scattered all over the planet.
Are they independent? Do they conduct trade with each other?
What about the areas outside the mega-cities in the wastelands? Are there 'nations', 'countries' or 'empires' that exist in their own global order? | To all extents and purposes, each Mega-City is an independent sovereign nation, and acts as such in terms of trade, war, treaties, etc. They're generally pretty insular, but all the interactions we've seen them have has played out in the style of nations interacting with each other. There's no higher authority.
As for the wastelands, no, there's not really any major powers there. It's just scattered towns and cities. Occasional attempts have been made to form powers able to rival the Mega-Cities, but all have failed. There's simply not enough resources to sustain anything major and besides, the Mega Cities don't want the competition. | 30 | 23 |
What is ‘lightweight code’? | Typically it refers to code that uses few system resources or has few features. If you're talking about libraries, it typically means the library has few dependencies, is easy to add to existing software, or only solves a single problem. | 32 | 19 |
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ELI5:If everyone has a different set of tastebuds and we all have different levels of satisfaction/dissatisfaction towards different foods, then how do food critics have a job? Wouldn't their opinion be worthless? | I will admit that I have not read a lot of food critic articles. But why would I read someone's opinion on food when they do not have the same sensations as me towards said food.
edit:
The basic gist of the correct answer in my own wording is that a food critic is an expert of explaining food. They know about texture, tenderness, presentation (like u/need2unsubscribe pointed out). They are not necessarily saying whether they enjoyed the taste. It is the same reason you read a book review, the critic will tell you about wording, ease of read, plotflow, and similarities with other books. This gives you an idea of whether you might want to partake in such a book, just like whether or not you would partake in an expensive meal.
Thanks reddit. | this question could be applied to all forms of critics.......music, movies, tv
but trying to answer the question, I'd say think about like the Iron Chef judges, their critique is usually about tenderness, texture, freshness of ingredients, presentation, etc. Stuff that transcends just taste. They are food "experts" so they can take a step back and recognize a quality dish without it being their personal favorite.
also have never read one of these articles | 54 | 77 |
[King Kong 2005] How did the ancient civilization build structures at the inner part of the island since it's filled with dangers at every turn? | Plenty of possibilities. Everything from a smaller monster population when the structures were built to more advanced and numerous human settlers better able to combat the dangers. Could even be there were multiple kongs on the island that aided humanity similar to their monsterverse counterparts. These other kongs could have died out from disease or famine or just simply lower birth rates than the V-rexes that are their main competition for survival. | 53 | 81 |
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ELI5:What's the core differences between the CIA, the NSA, the ATF, The FBI, the Secret Service and Homeland Security? | Why can't they be combined into one agency? All seem to do pretty much the same thing. I'm confused as to what each of them can and can't do and the jurisdiction of each agency.
*update* Thank you everyone for kind, thoughtful answers. I had a general idea of what each agency was supposed to do and assume they all work together as needed, just not the fine points/jurisdictions. | They all have very different charters and are tasked with very different activities
FBI: detect and prosecute crimes against the United States
CIA: Counterterrorism, nonproliferation of WMD, counterintelegence, cyber intelegence and forgien intellegence gathering
NSA: global monitoring, collection, decoding, translation and analysis of information and data for foreign intelligence
SS: Prevention and investigation of counterfeiting of U.S. currency and the safety of current and former national leaders and their families
Don't believe what you see in the movies - they each have a very specific charter and duties. They are also all very large organizations with complex managment structures to control the power that the agencies wield. | 16 | 19 |
ELI5: Why were some ancient cities needed to be excavated? How does a city get lost due to "something" covering it? | For instance, consider the city of Pompeii, which was buried under the ash from a volcanic eruption. What does it exactly mean? Did the entire city get covered and formed a plateau-like structure? How could an eruption cover a big area and not cover other surrounding places?
Also, I was reading about cities in the Indus valley civilization and even in the Babylonian civilization, they too needed some excavation after which the cities were revealed.
Are a lot of current cities over some ancient city?
I'm sorry for a lot of questions, but I'm just curious with a lot of questions on that topic. | In many cases it's buildup of leaves,plants and dust that settles over decades-centuries and slowly covers everything. There is also a sinking action the soil can play when conditions are right and some buildings may sink from the bottom and be covered with plants and dust from top.
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Eventually a hill forms and people forget there was a city at all. | 67 | 96 |
If I croak, my cells die pretty quickly. Are the cells in fruit on my counter alive? If so, how long does it take for them to die? | Plants can have different parts separated from each other continue to live independently. Leaves, stems, fruits, etc. can continue to live as long as they get enough light, retain enough water, or retain stockpiled nutrients. It just so happens that fruit are designed to retain nutrients so they can live for a while waiting for an animal to eat them and spread the seeds. So when your apple shrivels its just consolidating nutrients and water towards the center where the seeds are | 51 | 45 |
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Is there a terminal velocity for a buoyant object rising through liquid water? | If so, how would one calculate it? | The forces involved are weight (W), buoyancy (B), and drag (D).
Applying Newton’s second law, we find that W + D = B, or D = B - W.
The buoyant force is ρ*_f_*gV, where ρ*_f_* is the density of the fluid. The weight is ρgV, where ρ is the density of the object. And the drag is some function of the velocity; we can assume linear drag for low Reynolds number flows, so D = bv.
So the terminal velocity is calculated at steady state, when these forces are all balanced, and the result is v*_t_* = (ρ*_f_* - ρ)gV/b.
So it increases with the density difference, and decreases with the linear drag coefficient of the object. | 273 | 345 |
Why is cancer much more relevant now than it was a century ago? | Don't quite understand the question, but cancer tends to be a disease of older people and people live much longer nowadays.
So, if you die of an infection at 32, you don't live long enough to die of colon cancer at the age of 55. Also, diagnostics have improved, so people are now correctly diagnosed with a cancer where in the past they may not have been.
Cancer has been around for a long, long time. | 75 | 32 |
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ELI5: How is it that if you cut a small piece out of a hologram you can still see the entire image in it, instead of just a part of it like you'd get from cutting up a photograph? | With a photograph, a lens is used to focus the scene on the film. Each part of the film only gets the light from one part of the scene.
With a hologram, there is no lens. Each part of the film gets the light from the entire scene.
Whether you're cutting a photograph, or a hologram, you only get the information that fell on that part of the film. With a photograph, that means information from only that portion of the image scene went through the lens. With a hologram, that means information from the entire scene.
However, a hologram is like looking through a window. You can see the whole scene, and if something in the foreground is in the way, you can move a little to the side so that the foreground object is no longer in the way. This is called parallax. When you cut up a hologram, it is like blocking out the window so you can only look through a small part of it. You lose the ability to move side to side (or up and down) to look around objects. You lose parallax. | 26 | 24 |
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How do I know if Computer Science is right for me? | I am starting University this September and thinking of changing my degree pathway to Computer Science but not sure if it's right for me.
Apart from coding/programming what does a CS degree entail?
I have been looking at the Uni modules but don't really understand them as there's a lot of new stuff.
I just started learning to code with Python and enjoy it so far and I like Maths in general but how do I know whether or not I will enjoy a CS degree and the jobs that come after
Edit: Thank you for all those who reply and give advice, much appreciated. | CS itself is a mathematical discipline, but tends to teach programming as a tool along with a bunch of theory that's useful for writing efficient software. Some degree programs lean toward the theory and math, but the exact focus is going to depend on the program itself. | 18 | 28 |
ELI5: What causes that sound you hear when you cup your ears? | Surfaces reflect sounds. Surfaces of certain sizes reflect sounds of particular frequencies. A cupped hand will reflect some high frequencies more than others. The diameter of the "cup" focuses those frequencies into your ear canal, emphasizing them. Since these sounds, which would normally pass your ears unnoticed, are now emphasized, they are perceived as a rushing sound. Also, your position is space is given a reference as your brain interprets sound for clues to your location in relation to all sound-reflecting objects around you. Cupping your hand behind your ear interferes with those clues. Wait until you're older and your hearing naturally becomes less sensitive to those high frequencies and you'll find the effect is diminished or non-existent. | 66 | 151 |
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ELI5: How do US Businesses like Apple affect the trade balance when its products are produced abroad? | Trade deficits are about as useful to characterize a nation's economic well-being as it is trying to determine a person's identity from a shadow. It only provides the broad outline. A massive trade deficit can be the result of over-consumption and/or under-production rather than purely antagonistic practices. If the latter were true, why would we (the US) ever enter into such an agreement in the first place? Consider the following:
1. Over-consumption. The reality is, much of the trade imbalance comes from the fact that the US has the highest gross consumption of products anywhere in the world and has the 2nd highest per capita expense (after the UAE, IIRC). It should be no surprise that the world's largest (in terms of gross size) market has a trade imbalance. For comparison, the average American saves less than 3% of their total income, compared to a country like China where the average savings rate is over 30%. Other countries are financing American spending by providing low cost of goods to meet our demands. **Example:** The average American has more than two cars and at least one firearm (per capita basis). In order to be able to buy and own these products at these rates, products from other countries have to flow in to meet the demand. Not everyone drives a Mustang and a F-150 with a AR-15 on the bed.
2. Under-production. A mature, service-based economy such as the US greatly under-produces compared to a quickly developing one such as India or China. It is simply the nature of business in the service industry. Also, high tech sectors often have to use high cost of goods to manufacture high tech products with decent quality. The relative unprofitability of a manufacturing based industry is not as attractive to US companies when they can simply import those goods (having foreign firms compete for the contracts), assemble those goods, and sell the final products in various global markets within those markets themselves. That way they can minimize expenditures on the raw materials while maximizing profits. **Example:** Ford sources materials from around the world, taking bidders on all sorts of contracts. Forcing those contracts to come from domestic sources via tariffs hurts the company in terms of their choice of suppliers and the increase in cost of goods.
3. High cost of domestic goods sold in foreign markets. So what about the other side of the issue? What about the export of American goods? It works in reverse as well, something that few people pause to consider. **Example:** Trump's claim that India has a 100% tariff on the US. Not sure what this actually means, but in reality, the cost of goods that are produced in the US makes them extremely over-valued in developing markets where the cost of living is substantially lower. Imagine a bottle of water produced in the US, why would you pay its full value in Rupees when you can get a cheaper form of it in India as an Indian? Either the product just will not sell in India or the Indian government has to eat that cost by **not** levying a tariff.
4. The real answer is that companies, meaning the specific entities, simply do not care about trade balances. They do not owe allegiance to any flag, they only are beholden to their stakeholders. In reality, the trade imbalance can be explained in many ways.
Arguing that a trade imbalance somehow hurts a nation is widely misleading. The small amount of domestic jobs a protectionist tariff could create often pales in comparison to the wider issue of over-consumption and under-production of marketable goods. In reality, it only serves as the outline of trade relations between two nations.
TL;DR: Rich nations that like to buy a lot of things need other nations to make up for the demand, thereby often leading to trade imbalances. Companies do not care, they are just out to make profits. | 17 | 43 |
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ELI5: How can we have heart-lung bypass and kidney dialysis but not liver dialysis? What makes creating liver dialysis so difficult? | Is it the functional complexity of the organ? | ELI5 version: The kidney is a filter. The liver is a factory. We can build pretty good filters, and add stuff back in if we need to. Replicating every single synthetic and metabolic function of the liver would take a machine that can perform thousands of different reactions at controlled rates. | 1,345 | 3,128 |
Eli5, how do selective herbicides such as broadleaf weed killer work? Why do they only kill certain things? | By targeting something that only that species or group of species have.
Because they are broadleaf, that means they are all related. Much like humans, chimps, gorilla's all share many characteristics because we all primates.
So we find something that all broadleaf has in common, that other plants don't and target that.
It could be a chemical that inhibits their growth, prevents cell division, something like that.
Anti biotics work in the same way. You take a drug that only hurts bacteria and not you, because it targets things only bacteria have. | 39 | 57 |
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ELI5: Why specifically does the Northern part of Africa have desert land? I’m assuming it’s on the same geographical level as other countries that have no desert at all? | Climate is much more than just latitude
Things like altitude, geography, air currents, water currents, all of that factors in.
England for example is at the same latitude as parts of Canada that are covered in snow much of the year, yet England has a much milder climate. This is because the north Atlantic ocean current drives warm water and subsequently warm air right to the British isles.
As for the Sahara it is believed that northern Africa regularly went through periods of humidity where it rained a lot and there were lakes and rivers and forests full of life, and periods where the air was dry and all the water dried up and everything died. This was caused by small changes in the planets tilt on its axis. Then at some point some factor changed in this sensitive balance that threw the whole system out of whack.
Current thinking is that this coincides with the spread of humans and agriculture across africa. As northern africa was transitioning from a humid period to a dry period humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer to domesticated animals and farming in order to survive which could have lead to over grazing, over farming and destruction of vegetation. This vegetation would have been needed to provide the moisture in the air to trigger a new humid phase when the time came. Without it the next humid phase was never triggered and the system spiralled out of control leading to the eventual creation of the Sahara desert. | 21 | 22 |
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[DC] When and how did Batman have the time to learn all his skills? | Like He somehow learned like 20 different languages while also training his body to above Olympic level athlete , to learning and mastering every martial art to learning alll these different sciences and detective skills all at some point while traveling in his early 20s for like 3 or 4 yrs if that because he wass still early mid twenties when he became batman. He also somehow built the batcave in under a year also. How is he not superhuman??? How did he have the time for this ? unless he started this right after his parents died there's no possible way | The languages thing is a matter of practice and getting used to learning. That one is a real skill people have in real life, we just usually can't focus on it because of work and other responsibilities. He's rich, so he gets to do it.
The Olympic level athlete part is part good genes (the Kanes and Waynes have basically *all* been buff) and access to good dieting and top-of-the-line equipment, which he acquires due to being rich.
Mastering martial arts is basically a matter of engaging with senseis on their own level, and applying yourself as much as you can. While being a martial artist is usually either something people do for enlightenment reasons or as a hobby, Bruce Wayne is rich, so he can afford to grab whatever's useful from a martial art and move on to the next one without worrying about whether or not this is a good investment. He's more of a MMA master than a real Shaolin monk, for instance -- he probably can't do every single kata, but he can do the good moves and the good counters.
The sciences part is overblown -- he's a very good chemist and forensic scientist, but overall he's reliant on the Batcomputer and allies to fill in his gaps. He got the Batcomputer to be the perfect second-hand knowledge source due to being able to afford it.
I think the assumption here is that he only trained for 3 years -- that's not true, it was usually almost a decade. Most universes have Batman train for 8 years and then come back to Gotham in his mid-twenties, not when he's 21 or something. He also usually starts very early -- as early as 16 in some, but usually at 18. So his Batman career goes into full-force around age 26.
He's as superhuman as someone who applies himself and has infinite resources is. He had time for this because he doesn't need to work to survive, he can actually plan out his life in advance and stick by it without worrying about emergencies. | 46 | 39 |
Is a human brain transplant achievable? If not, why? | For any organ transplant, you need to connect the new organ to the host. For most organs, that means some rational number of blood vessels and physical attachment to the surrounding structure.
For a brain transplant you'd have to reconnect all the individual nerves...it would be like trying to replace a computer processor with tens of thousands of super tiny pins with no connector. We don't have the surgical techniques to do it with enough speed or accuracy. | 83 | 116 |
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ELI5: How on earth do wells work? | I don't understand how do wells work. Like, I've seen a lot of wells made of stone, so, if you dig a huge hole in the ground, how does water come inside the well? Like, I've seen a lot of movies where someone gets stuck in a well or something, and there's always a rock bottom. So, how does water get inside the well? | In certain parts of the world, there is a layer of water saturating the ground under the surface. This is called the water table.
Pretend the water table is 9 meters below the surface. If you then dig a hole 10 meters deep, it will penetrate the water table. Water will flow into the hole, filling it to a depth of 1 meter. Water then can be removed from the hole, which is now called a well. | 49 | 40 |
What does it mean for a philosopher to develop a "complete philosophical system"? | Like I read recently, for example, that Hegel is considered one of the last great "systems philosophers", having developed his own complete philosophical system. What does that involve? Does the philosopher have to touch on every branch of philosophy and come up with theories for all of them? Or do they have a broad theory that ties multiple branches of philosophy together? | I'd say both of your conditions need to be met:
> the philosopher have to touch on every branch of philosophy and come up with theories for all of them
More specifically, we could say that the philosopher has addressed every/most major branch of philosophy and..
> or do they have a broad theory that ties multiple branches of philosophy together?
...explained how their commentary on each of these branches of philosophy ties back to their overall system. Some philosophers, for example, don't do this; they may comment on a variety of philosophical topics, but they don't link it back to a central system.
Kant is perhaps the best known "systematizer", while Nietzsche comments on nearly every branch of philosophy but does so in a very distinct, non-systematic way (hence the ease of finding passages that contradict each other.) | 38 | 39 |
ELI5: is the way we walk genetic? | So i have noticed my cousin walks similarly of not exactly the same as my uncle. I feel like I also kinda walk like my dad. Is this just another genetic thing? | The way you walk depends on things like genetics, such as leg bone length which impact stride length. Fitness, a fat person might have a waddle like walk, a fit person might not. Health, such as injuries might give a limp or other change in stride length, or how the foot lands.
If you've worn shoes most of your life or walked barefoot/sandals most of your life.
It's not really one factor. | 27 | 46 |
[Harry Potter] If a metamorphmagus became an animagus, would those abilities interact? | I.e. Would they be able to change their animal form's appearance? Or transform in to multiple animals? | Being a metamorphagus is an inherent genetic trait. Being an animagus is a learned skill. Turning into an animal also magically temporarily alters the wizard's base structure. It is likely that upon turning into an animal via their animagus skill, they would lose the metamorphagus ability while in that form, because changing their appearance is a genetic trait (like a veela's enticement ability) and not a spell (which animagus animals also can't cast). | 20 | 24 |
ELI5: Why do liquor bottles sometimes have those thing that make it pour really slow? | They are to measure the fluid.
Barkeepers need to measure a lot of fluid in as short of an amount of time as possible.
I don't know the exact figure, but they pour at around 1cl per second, so if the drink asks for 2 cl you pour for 2s. That is much more accurate than having an open bottle and just guessing how much you pour. | 70 | 47 |
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ELI5: Why do so many people have seafood/shellfish allergies, yet red meat/ poultry allergies are so unheard of? | Most seafood allergies are a reaction to proteins in the fish or other seafood. We have much more in common with poultry and beef than we do with fish. We share a lot of the same proteins so an allergic reaction to one of those would have killed you because you're made of it. So we are more likely to have a reaction to fish than other meat because we have less in common with it so there are more things you could potentially react to.
Another factor is cooking. Heating breaks down protein that in its uncooked form could trigger a reaction. You wouldn't consider eating a raw burger or chicken breast but sushi is commonplace. This is also why you hear more red meat allergies than poultry. No one wants undercooked chicken but a rare steak is usually preferred. | 15 | 30 |
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[Marvel Cinematic Universe] How did HYDRA maintain its infiltration of SHIELD for nearly 70 years? | I'm not asking how they avoided being exposed in that time (Zola answered that), but rather where all these younger people, like Sitwell, who would have been too young to even remember WWII. was it a chain reaction of "I can trust this guy; I'll recruit him as another HYDRA plant" starting with Zola and continuing to the present? Or was it done some other way? It's not easy to sell a conspiracy that robs the world of its freedom. | You start by choosing people carefully. Based on their political and moral views. You gain their trust and get to know them and make you and other hydra members most of their social circle, re-enforcing their views by sharing them, pushing them further slowly.
Then get them to agree to the fact that the current system is flawed and that they need to make a change if they are to actually achieve what SHIELD is meant to do. They agree, suggest that there needs to be some sort of SHIELD within SHIELD that is dedicated to protecting mankind even above their own survival, that they don't care about how the world sees them or if they ever get recognition. They are the true heroes, willing to be seen as criminals for the greater good, not like the Avengers who took the easy route of adoration and celebrity status.
Once you have them on board with the idea you tell them whatever they need to know. You don't even have to tell them about HYDRA at this point. They are just a secret group within SHIELD that are willing to break the law and even the rules of SHIELD to see the goals and aims of SHIELD met. Eventually you can reveal that HYDRA weren't as bad as they were made out to be. That they wanted the same thing, but, went about it all the wrong way. They tried to enslave mankind and joined with the Nazis which was a wrong decision. It's not like HYDRA supported the death camps or the extermination of Jews. They just happened to form in the territories of an empire that was led by a man who was elected into power that did have those views.
Just like how we work within SHIELD, not following their beliefs or rules entirely, so did HYDRA work within the borders of the Nazis in the same way. HYDRA do what needs to be done, regardless of our individual desires or concerns. We sacrifice our own ideals, or own souls, our own morality to see that the world survives. We are the heroes the world deserves, just not the ones it needs right now... | 66 | 25 |
ELI5: I often hear about new planets being discovered with water beneath the surface, but rarely about planets with large oceans. Is subterranean water easier to detect or more likely to occur, and why? | Water only exist in a liquid state at a narrow range if atmospheric conditions.
Many planets have surface temps far too hot due to proximity to s star or lack of protective atmosphere. On these planets beneath a protective layer of crust is the only place liquid water can exist.
Flip that logic and there are planets with icey surfaces due to extreme low surface temps and atmospheric pressure conditions. Those planets with an active core such as ours may allow liquid water deeper under the surface where the temperature is above freezing point. | 1,926 | 3,842 |
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How do 'after-tastes' work? Why do we get a different taste only after the food has been swallowed? | When you put food in your mouth, the 'taste' you experience, besides its physical characteristics, is a combination of the basic flavors identified by your tongue, such as sweet, sour, etc. and the scent, which is actually picked up by your nose. Your sense of smell is such a major component of the smell of "taste" that if you block it, you'll have enormous trouble telling foods apart. The scents don't have to be inhaled either: your mouth hole and nostrils are actually internally connected roughly at the point where you swallow, so smells from the food you're eating will travel upwards from there.
So having explained that, the reason why sometimes you will experience an aftertaste will be more understandable to you: because the food that has sat in or passed through your mouth is considerably different from the one that you first experienced when it went in. You chewed through it, exposing its inner parts, and then mixed it with your saliva which is packed with enzymes that we have *specifically evolved for their ability to chemically break down the foods we stuff in our mouths*. This breaking-down mush then stays on your tongue, in your teeth, and in spots on your mucous membrane, and the smell makes it up to your nose. And it's changed because you changed it. | 315 | 598 |
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Say I move a large pile of rocks. Will I burn the same number of calories no matter how I do it? | For instance of I move them all in one day or do it over several days, or if I use a ramp to move them or a pulley system, is the amount of energy used the same no matter? Would I see differences in muscle development depending on technique? | In terms of mechanical efficiency, it will take different amounts of energy to slide the rocks across the ground or pick them up.
It also takes different amounts of energy depending on how high you lift them, and whether you place them down, or just let them fall using gravity.
In terms of your body, it depends on a massive number of things.
For example, some people would be better off taking all the rocks at once, some would be better taking a few at a time, and some would be better taking only one at a time.
Taking many rocks at once would put a higher stress on your muscles, since more fibres need to activate at any one time in order to carry them. Taking one rock at a time wouldn't use many fibres, but would be more stressful to your cardiovascular system, if you are doing them one after the other.
There is no real way to say how a person would use more energy, because it totally depends on the person, how fit they are, how strong they are, and what type of prior training they have done. | 23 | 22 |
ELI5: That euphoric half-asleep feeling where you're still semi-present but your mind is also solving tangential abstract problems that you can never remember upon fully waking. | One definition of a brain is that it is a "meaning making machine", it takes stimuli from your sensory organs (eyes, ears etc) and constructs a mental picture of the world.
We still have a fairly rudimentary understanding of how brains achieve this, and whilst we know that sleep is essential for survival, we don't have a solid answer on exactly what's going on, but we do know that a huge amount of (seemingly random) brain activity occurs during REM sleep.
I think the experience you describe is the product of your brain trying to make sense of the scrambled messages as bits of it wake up and other bits are still asleep. | 13 | 63 |
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Are there proteins that do nothing? Neutral things that natural selection didn't "care about". | Surely it must be the case, just like we have useless bones, right? Or would such proteins be necessarily bad for our body? | There are lots of proteins, the function or full range of function of which has not yet been elucidated. This doesn’t mean they aren’t important. As others have said, it’s likely that they are, else they’d have been purged from the genome because of the energy taken to make them. But how important they are may depend on other things like the other genes present in your body, or your environment.
However, there do appear to be proteins that can be totally knocked out with no apparent adverse effects and some significant benefits. One famous example is PCSK9, which binds to LDL receptors, initiating their endocytosis and degradation. This decreases the amount of cholesterol your cells take up and so is important for homeostasis. The kicker is that people with two LOF copies of this gene are perfectly healthy and are actually protected against high cholesterol. So now PCSK9 is a target for treating hyperlipoproteinemia. | 18 | 19 |
Why didn't the leak in the ISS vent all the air immediately? | I assumed that because there's no air in space, and lots in the ISS, it would shoot out incredibly fast. Is my assumption just plain wrong or is there more at play? | The mass flow rate is related to the differential pressure and the geometry of the opening. In this case the differential pressure is low (14.7 psi) and the opening was fairly small.
Catastrophic failure can occur if the jet velocity has enough energy to make the opening larger by wearing away or deflecting the material. In that case you have a chain reaction.
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Tips for Reading Foucault | So, I've just begun reading through Foucault's "The History of Sexuality" (about 50 pages so far). Up till now I have, for the most part, "ignored" some of the stranger meanings carried by his language and word choices, and just tried to focus on getting the "gist" of what I felt he was trying to say in a passage/chapter, however, I am becoming increasingly unsure whether I am reading "properly". I am wondering whether anyone might be able to give me an idea of how seriously I should be taking some of his stranger descriptions throughout the book?
An example of such a passage:
"...all this made the family, even when brought down to its smallest dimensions, a complicated network, saturated with multiple, fragmentary, and mobile sexualities."
Looking at this passage, I can get a sense (I think...) of the point Foucault is trying to make. But how specific are words choices such as "fragmentary" and "mobile" here? Are they merely meant to illicit certain notions within the reader, or do they have a more precise purpose? | As a general practice, it never hurts to read philosophical texts once to get the gist, or at least an impression. But then it's good to read it again to try focus on details, structure, argumentation. Maybe just bank on reading it twice?
As for peculiar words and phrases--it's good you're noting them. Often asking yourself what about these is unclear or attention-worthy can lead to insightful readings of the texts.
The bottom line is to read more than once and to notice when you're noticing. | 10 | 16 |
ELI5: Why does a graphing calculator with a 4 inch gray scale screen cost more than a quad core tablet with 1080p screen? | Schools often mandate specific calculators for specific classes. This is for two reasons. One is that instructions can be very exact: hit this button then that button then enter these numbers and get a result. Also it's to prevent cheating that you could do on a general purpose computer.
So since students have to buy these calculators, just like text books they have a smaller market than general computers (costs are spread over a smaller market), and since buyers are forced to buy them, they can set a higher price and margin. | 4,111 | 5,106 |
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What conclusion can be drawn from statistically insignificant results? (Layman question and text provided) | Hello guys, I just wanted to ask you if somebody could give me very
basic (layman) explanation about one question.
If for example you did an experiment on yourself where you tried a drug to see if it helps you with your condition, you took it 100.000 times but it only helped you 3 times. What conclusion can you draw from this? Is the result statistically not significant and therefore the hypothesis that a drug helps you can be rejected (so you can conclude that this drug doesn't help you). I know this is a very lame example, but try to give me an explanation for this particular scenario. It seems logical for me to conclude that a drug doesn't help, but I want to see it backed up by science. Thanks in advance! | The example you gave is not quite enough to explain the meaning of statistical significance. You took the drug 100 times and it helped you 3 times so it worked 3% of the time and there is not much else to say about it.
To use statistical significance you have to compare the drug to something. So you would also have to take a placebo 100 times. Let's say the placebo "helped" (you got better) 1 time. Now you have 2 sets of figures: drug worked 3% of the time, placebo worked 1% of the time - and with this you can do some maths.
Basically the question statistical significance attempts to answer is: is this 3% vs 1% difference due to chance, or to the drug actually having some effect?
Now we have to back up a bit and explain what is meant by "chance". "Chance" arises because you cannot take the drug (or the placebo) every day forever. If you could, by some stretch of the imagination, take the drug every day forever and find that it worked (say) 6% of the time, and then (maybe in a parallel universe) take the placebo every day forever and find that it worked 4% of the time, there would be no need for statistical analysis: the drug works better, 6% vs 4%, no further calculation required.
Unfortunately you can't do that - we have to analyze the 100 times you took the drug and the 100 times you took the placebo - and so, statistical analysis.
The "by chance" refers to the fact that the 100 times you took the drug and the 100 times you took the placebo can be considered *samples* of the situation in which you took the drug or placebo everyday forever.
Let's say that the "actual" response rate when taking the drug everyday forever is 6% (NB we have no way of knowing the "actual" figure, this is just for illustration) - a sample of 100 from this scenario could produce a response rate of 5% or 6% or 4 % or 3% or 2% or indeed any number. It is more likely to be close to the "actual" 6% than not, but it *could* be anything from 0 to 100%. In short, the response rate in your sample of 100 is affected by chance, because of the fact that you can only take samples, and never know the "actual" response rate.
What statistical significance does is this: it assumes that the "actual" (everyday forever) response rate to drug and placebo are *the same*, then it asks *what is the probability p that the figures we got (3% vs 1%) are purely because of the fact that we are restricted to taking samples of 100?*
The maths will then crank out a figure - say p=0.06. This means that the probability that you got the 3% and 1% figures despite the "actual" figures being equal is 0.06. Before turning the maths crank you should have already decided on what "p" you would consider statistically significant. Let's say it was p=0.05. That being the case, the figures show that there is no statistically significant difference between the drug and the placebo. In other words you have concluded that the figures your experiment has produced have come about by chance and the *"actual" figures for drug and placebo could be identical*.
TL;DR: "Statistically not significant" means that the figures your experiment produced could have come about by the fact you that have to sample, rather than from an "actual" difference between the the two treatments. | 26 | 19 |
ELI5: The Earth's magnetic field periodically reverses polarity. How does this happen and what are the effects felt on Earth? | The effects are relatively unknown. We know a good number of species rely on magnetism to navigate, so there might be a critical moment that could lead to a kill off event where magnetically dependent species just get lost and die. Or they will just notice everything's been flipped. It's hard to test, I've seen experiments involving lobsters, it seemed to show that lobsters where totally loyal to direction of the magnetic North to find better grounds. Though unfortunately it had a serious observer effect that made it a bit unusable. There is no good way to say for sure.
It happens because our magnetic field is generated by the spinning ball of metal in the earth's core that is totally surrounded by liquid metal. There isn't really anything there keeping it facing one direction or the other. It will almost always be facing geographic North or south due to its spin. | 36 | 99 |
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[Fatherland]how is Hitler still alive in 1964, his drug addictions were already basically killing him when he shot himself in our timeline? | Hitler was regularly taking opiates by 1941, which is a year before the novel deviated from our timeline in 1942.
EDIT:https://www.npr.org/transcripts/518986612?t=1651359365895 | 1. Being head of state gives you an impressive amount of medical care. The leading factor with disease is wealth, and the Reich would go to extreme lengths to avoid their Victorious Leader dying of an overdose in a back alleyway. Even in the 40s and 50s, we had enough medical tech to keep him alive.
2. The leading factor for *drug addiction* is extreme stress, and here hitler is no longer fighting a losing war against the entire planet.
Basically, barring major incidents like a world war, world leaders live a long time. No-one can fight the reaper forever, but people with an entire state dedicated to keeping them alive can do pretty well. | 23 | 15 |
ELI5: Why are certain foods considered breakfast foods? | Is there anything particular about eggs/pancakes/cereal/oatmeal that make them considered breakfast foods? Is it because they are simple to prepare and high in protein or calories to keep you fueled? | Every culture has foods that they start to eat for breakfast. After a while they become the traditional breakfast option for that culture. American breakfast evolved from our Agrarian lifestyle where farmers and ranchers needed high caloric intake but had little free time. They had large breakfasts, little to no lunch, and medium to large suppers. | 89 | 106 |
ELI5:Artificial food flavoring | How do scientists figure out how to get some chemicals to taste like something else, specifically a certain flavor? Example: Propel watermelon flavored water. Has no mention of anything watermelon-y, yet tastes like watermelon. | Well, "watermelon" can be re-described in terms of chemically-sounding names. Everything is made of chemicals, so you can think of it like two languages: everything has its common name (watermelon), and it's technical, chemically name.
Any naturally-ocurring chemical can and has been recreated in a lab. One day, a scientist decided, "I wonder what makes watermelon taste like watermelon". He got some watermelon and his analysis equipment and figured-out what chemicals are in watermelon. He identified which specific one is responsible for the taste, and "presto". Synthetic watermelon flavoring. | 10 | 39 |
Why is the derivative of e^x the same as e^x? | It baffles me that the gradient function can be equal to the function itself. Anyone care to shed some light on this? | First, remember what a derivative is: The "rate of change" (or "slope") of the line/function.
So, at a certain value of x, the function e^x is changing at a rate of e^x (the slope of e^2 at the point x=2 is e^2).
Other functions have this property at a single point:
f(x) = x^2 => f(2) = 4
f'(x) = 2x => f'(2) = 4
e is a special case because this quirk exists long its entire curve.
Also, don't forget that the derivative of e^2x is 2e^2x - only e^x acts as a derivation identity. | 53 | 81 |
ELI5: Why are Asia and Europe considered different continents? | Both the idea of dividing Europe from Asia and Africa and the concept of a continent comes from Europe. So it is not surprising that European see Europe as a continent even if newer Earth science uses a different and more coherent scientific term for large landmasses. While several arguments can be made about the inconsistency of the references, Europeans will always see themselves on their own continent, and most of the world will always refer to Europe as a distinct continent.
‘Europe’ and ‘Asia’ was divided by ancient Greeks who were the first to referr to Europe as current Greece and Asia as current Turkey. They divided the world that they were able to travel on their ships into these two parts many centuries before the word 'continent' was invented. They divided what they knew as 'Europe' and 'Asia' and 'Africa'. According to the etymology of the word 'continent land' it was derived from the 16th century English term 'continuous land' meaning mainland or a continuous tract of land. | 29 | 39 |
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ELI5: How does Eye color play into attraction? | I've heard it mentioned many times that the eyes were often the first thing someone was enamored with and its often the thing someone remembers their SO over, men/women with Bright/striking Blue, Green, Hazel Etc. are notable examples. | Looking into someone's eyes can reveal a lot of information about how that person thinks of you. For example, if you look into your date's eyes and they dialate, you are *much* more likely to think they have pretty eyes. This is because eye dilation is a sign of arrousal in this context.
Similarly, pupil dilation shows interest in other contexts as well. | 15 | 18 |
ELI5 how scientists know what compounds are in the atmosphere of a planet that's light-years away | How do they figure out there's methane on titan for example?
Edit: titan was just an example because I know they discovered methane there. Yes, I know it's not light-years away. It's not a planet either. Feel free to have an imagination of a five year old. | Spectroscopy. Different elements and substances absorb different, specific wavelengths of light. You can therefore analyse the light from objects, see what wavelengths are being absorbed, and work out what it's in the atmosphere. | 38 | 58 |
Are there any parasites that inhabit a valuable ecological niche? | Do we need parasites? Are leeches and ticks necessary? If we eradicated botfly would another species suffer? | There is some speculation that the eosinophilic aspect of the human body which functions to target parasites (and is also responsible for the development of allergies, asthma, and other “histamine” related conditions) needs exposure to parasites and other infections to be properly trained.
In the modern world, we have barely any exposure to parasites, so the theory is that the eosinophilic arm of the immune system doesn’t have anything to target, so it’s more prone at targeting the “self” which contributes to allergies and asthma and eczema, etc.
This is corroborated by the finding that the developed world has significant rates of these conditions whereas parts of the world that are much less developed and do regularly encounter parasites have minimal rates of these conditions. | 1,670 | 2,172 |
How fast would one need to accelerate a container of air to make it bunch up to one side, creating a vacuum on the other? | Back when railroads were new, alarmists feared that the speed of the carriages going as fast as 20mph would create a deathly situation for the passengers. This was obviously quite wrong. But how quick of an acceleration WOULD be needed to start heaving the air in a contained space over to one side of it? | For something like a planet with an atmosphere, you can define what's called a *scale height* which is the height at which the density is reduced to 36%. For planets, the simplest expression is h=kT/mg where m is the mass of the molecule, g is the gravitational field strength, k is Bolztmann's constant and T is the temperature. For Earth, this is roughly the height of Mt. Everest.
For a train you can replace g with the acceleration, and if you want h to be 10 meters, the acceleration would to be about 1700 g's. | 66 | 77 |
ELI5: Why can't Godzilla-esque monsters exist in nature ? | I understand that food and energy levels would be and issue, but is there anything else stopping gargantuan creatures evolving ?
Same for giant flying creatures, bigger versions of real animals, insects and sea creatures.
Thanks. | Gravity and oxygen are your limiting factors. Too big, and you can't form bones strong enough to support the weight, and you would need gigantic lungs to support the body mass required. You find larger animals in the ocean, such as blue whales, because gravity isn't a factor there.
In the time of the dinosaurs, there was a much higher concentration of atmospheric oxygen, so it was easier to get the required oxygen. | 414 | 413 |
ELI5: If natural selection is based on survival of the fittest, why do most people instinctively and passionately protect the weak? Why is it almost universally considered unethical to kill (or let die) less "fit" people? | Edit: I strongly believe the weak and "unfit" should be protected, I just don't understand why that is such a pervasive and powerful instinct when the basis for our evolution is essentially refining the gene pool by letting weaker members die off. | Fit also means being able to operate in groups. Humans who have group instincts will alway beat humans whose instinct is to be alone, no matter how fit they are individually. Part of the group instinct is fairness and to protect fellow members.
So we don't always protect the weak (or else there wouldn't be a homeless problem), but we have urges to protect everyone that is part of our group. | 66 | 39 |
Overwhelmed by philosophy- I feel agnostic about all of my values, and it is sickening and preventing me from doing much. | Every since I was introduced to philosophy there is this constant awful agnosticism of my personal values. I feel like love is real, but then I go out to dinner, and the people I am with all agree that polygamy is "the way of the future", and everyone there agrees, and there is this twisted feeling in my stomach bc I cannot explain love to them bc I am not in love now so I can't see forms right now, and then I start to doubt if Plato's forms even exist, or if it is just chemicals. I look online to clarify my views about philosophy of love or philosophy of sex (and these are just two example)- and there are hundreds of competing theories.
I don't know what my values are regarding love, relationships, sexuality, anymore.
I really do not know if god exists. Over the past two years- I began agnostic, went to atheist, and now I am pretty sure that there is some sort of god- whatever that word means.
I don't know how I should live. I will return to college next year, but I just hate feeling agnostic and overwhelmed by all of this.
I am seriously confused about the entire topic of metaphysics and epistemology. My philosopher professor was a materialist and a pessimistic one too- I do not know if he is right.
I have not even touched political philosophy, philosophy of science, aesthetics and value theory- and I fear it.
| If you want to feel better just follow Hume's advice: arguments may sound convincing, calling your pet theories into question, but at the end of the day just do what you think is right. Or, from the other end, if you are suffering from Kołakowski's law of infinite cornucopia (there are always arguments for competing positions), do the same thing: do what you think is right. If a lot of people around you start saying, 'what you're doing is wrong because X' then take a minute to reevaluate what you're doing in light of X.
In the end, it doesn't matter *that* much if Plato's forms exist, reductive materialism is true or false, or whether you agree that polygamy is A-OK (don't worry: you don't have to marry two or more people if you don't want to. Love will also still exist even if it's between more than two people).
And don't worry about your doubts over the existence of a god. Doubt is a good thing. So you haven't made up your mind yet. Many people never make up their minds--they're open to change. | 22 | 27 |
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