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CMV: The fact that pharmaceutical companies would lose money if a "wonder drug" was discovered shows that capitalism is fundamentally not a good system to base a society on. | Let's say a chemist working for a pharmaceutical company discovers a new drug/molecule that is cheap and easy to make, no side effects, and cures any illness - viral/bacterial infections, cancers, whatever. Let's say for the sake of argument that people could even make this drug themselves at home in a simple process if they only had the information. Would it not be in the company's best interest to not release this drug/information, and instead hide it from the world? Even with a patent they would lose so much money. Their goal is selling more medicines, their goal is not making people healthy. In fact, if everyone was healthy and never got sick it would be a disaster for them.
In my opinion, this shows that capitalism is fundamentally flawed. How can we trust a system that discourages the medical sector from making people healthy? This argument can be applied to other fields as well, for example a privately owned prison is dependent on there being criminals, otherwise the prison would be useless and they would make no money. Therefore the prison is discouraged from taking steps towards a less criminal society, such as rehabilitating prisoners. Capitalism is not good for society because when it has to choose between what would benefit society and what would make money for the corporation, it will choose money. | 956 | 100 years ago, the main cause people died was pneumonia, TB and diarrhea.
We cured those, some with a wonder drug called antibiotics.
When people no longer died from those, heart conditions and cancer became the main culprit.
When these will be solved, deterioration of the brain will be an issue.
If your car engine can last 200,000 miles, you disregard the fact that some parts last 500,000 miles because the car will die long before these parts become an issue. | 523 |
[Harry Potter] There are laws to prevent Wizards from abusing Muggles... right? | I mean, there's law against breaking into a muggles home, stunning them, torture the shit of them and then Obliviating them and Scrougify the evidence right? | 59 | Yes, there are. If a wizard assaults a muggle, they’re charged with assault. If a wizard murders a muggle, they’re charged with murder. Simple as that.
In any case, use of the Cruciatus curse is punishable by a life sentence in Azkaban. | 64 |
[Marvel/X-men] would wolverine's healing factor be stronger if the didn't have any adamantium? | I know that wolverine's healing is really good and I also know that his body is constantly fighting with the adamantium on his skeleton, but would it be stronger if it didn't have to?
Would he heal faster? Would he live twice as long? | 16 | The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that Logan was functionally immortal (or at the very least extremely long-lived) ageing very slowly up until the point he underwent the Adamantium grafting procedure. His healing factor was the very reason for his selection for the process, it allowed him to survive the actual bonding and ongoing heavy metal toxicity but over time this had a cumulative effect which led to his healing factor burning out in a matter of decades and causing him to age fast than he otherwise would have. | 23 |
[Star Wars] How were the stormtroopers viewed by the regular public? | Were they like how we perceive cops on Earth? Did people always take caution around them? Or could you go up to one and just say hello/make small talk?
| 62 | Kind of depends on the planet, but mostly they were despised by the residents. Especially outside the core worlds - people weren't thrilled about having soldiers patrol their streets 24/7, taking "imperial 5 finger discounts" from their shops, etc. | 61 |
[X-Men Days of Future Past] After fighting sentinels for years, the first thing that colossus does is punch one in the face- which it tanks. Shoudnt he have known their durability? | 167 | Colossus doesn't exactly have a lot of options. "Punch it in the face" is his bread and butter, after all, it's not like his powers give him a lot of leeway when it comes to fighting. Also the Sentinels are constantly improving and adapting, it's entirely possible that one being able to take a direct punch from Colossus (who is absolutely no slouch in the strength department) is a relatively new development. | 185 |
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ELI5: Why are ancient Roman coins so cheap? | I guess it could be as simple as there are a lot to be found or that some are fake but I've looked around and I don't get it. For example you can buy small lots on [eBay](http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l2632&_nkw=roman+coins&_sacat=4733&_from=R40) for a relatively small amount of cash. | 46 | You've kind of hit on it -- because there are so many. Roman soldiers would bury their stashes in clay pots before going off to war, then they never came back. Since nobody knew where the pots were buried, they stayed that way until relatively recently.
IIRC, they're digging the things up all the time in Central and Eastern Europe. Needless to say, they aren't in the greatest condition, and they're also not precious metals. You don't see gold and silver Roman coins available so cheap, just brass and copper. | 16 |
Which philosophers argue that there is an afterlife? | 55 | The eastern philosophers unequivocally go for afterlife. People like Buddha, Shankaracharya, etc.
In western philosophy, Kierkegaard was a devout christian. But he did not justify it with reason because that's what faith means, to go beyond reason.
Immanuel Kant was a Christian too, but maybe he was not as devout as Kierkegaard. But admitted that existence of God cannot be proved by reason.
Fyodor Dostoevsky allegedly believed in God, although he may not considered a rigorous philosopher. His argument goes like this: Not all things are good (There are obvious evil acts) and since there is good and bad, there must be an absolute form of good, which is God.
Spinoza believed in God too, although his God is just the universe which is conscious.
Similarly, there are many others like Newton, Aquinas, Islamic philosophers, etc. who argued for existence of God. | 48 |
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ELI5: When you drink a significantly larger amount of liquid than the average bladder can hold, what does the body do with surplus until it's time to let it go? | 465 | Consumed liquid doesn't immediately find its way to the bladder.
First, it sits around in the stomach until the stomach contents are sufficiently digested, where the mixture is passed to the intestines. Most of the water is absorbed into the blood stream in the large intestine.
Once in the blood, the excess water is removed by the kidneys and then passed down to the bladder.
All of these processes take time, and the bladder gradually fills until you feel the urge to urinate. | 258 |
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[Star Wars] I'm toying with the idea of joining the Separatist Alliance and fight against the corrupt republic, but they name their ships "The Malevolence" or "The Subjugator" and their general is a cyborg monstrosity. Are they really the good guys? | 605 | Well, the Republic uses *Star Destroyers* and *Headhunters*, so...
Picking threatening names for ships is a time honored tradition. And God knows what the Separatists thought of Grievous, but it was likely along the lines of "He had a terrible shuttle accident and needs prosthetics to live." | 418 |
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[Star Wars] Are all Jedi able to learn all Force powers or are some powers only genetically available to some Jedi? | Can Revan learn Battle Meditation from Bastila? Can Obi-Wan learn Shatterpoint from Mace Windu? Etc. | 26 | It's not genetic and technically any jedi can learn any of the Jedi powers, but some are indeed more predisposed to some powers than others. Most Jedi would not try Mace Windu's lightsaber technique because they'd worry about how close to the Dark Side it gets. Some Jedi are better at telekinesis and some are better at the mind trick. With enough practice, they can get just as good at what they lack in. | 23 |
[Terminator] Is stopping Skynet impossible? | Got me thinking of this cuz of seeing one ending from Terminator Genesis that Skynet is still alive and from a Mortal Kombat Terminator DLC Ending that the Terminator keeps changing the timelines but each time it ended with the war between Skynet and Humans can't be prevented. | 24 | T2 ended with them closing the loop and eliminating cyberdyne and all the traces of the future tech bwcause the recurring theme was that you can change your fate, its not set in stone. but the movies after that went lol jk you're fucked. | 53 |
CMV: Parental consent should not be required to get vaccinated, assuming the child expresses the wish to get the shot | Recently the COVID vaccine was approved for people aged 12-15 and I was surprised to learn that apparently it cannot be administered without parental consent. To me this is a very foolish policy which robs children of the opportunity to get themselves protected if they so insist. Here are my assumptions:
1. All vaccines are 99.99% safe for all age groups. There's basically no risk involved - you're more likely to get into a car accident on the way to the vaccination site than die from the shot.
2. Vaccines are at least somewhat protective from the virus so they do have a tangible effect on ones health
3. The government actively encourages everyone to get vaccinated and shuns anti-vaxxers (such as Joe Rogan) who tell young people to skip vaccinations
4. Parents have the right to control their children but don't have the right to deny them healthcare and vaccines count as healthcare. We wouldn't allow a parent to say "nah, don't try to resuscitate my kid - just let them die" so equivalently we shouldn't allow them to have a word in the vaccination process.
5. In theory kids might not understand what exactly they're doing by asking for the vaccine but it doesn't really matter as the vaccines have nothing but upsides. Even if the child wasn't able to fully "consent" to getting the shot, they will still benefit from the procedure no matter what.
Now, there are exceptions such as kids who can't take the vaccine due to being immunocompromised but in this case the parent should only be allowed to present paperwork proving that this is the case, not actually take the call on whether or not the vaccination will be allowed to proceed - that would be up to the doctors to decide.
CMV. | 39 | Where do you draw the line? You said that a drug that's 99.99% safe to all age groups should be fine. What about a drug 99% safe? Or 90%? Or 75%? At what level of risk should the parent be responsible to make the decision again? | 23 |
One photon is emitted... can two people see it? | Let's say a machine releases one photon. Assuming the human eye can perceive it, could two people situated on opposite sides of it observe it? Light travels and we can observe it when it reaches us, but in the case of a single photon would it simply "choose" a direction?
If you wanna put it on the observable threshold you could release four photons for five participants, still the question remains. | 18 | No. For our eyes to perceive light, the photon is absorbed by light sensitive proteins such as rhodopsin in our photo receptor cells in the retina. The energy imparted by the photon absorption excites the protein, changing it's structure a bit and leads to ions channels opening, creating electrochemical potential. This electrochemical potential is the signal our nerve and brain use to convey information and that is what enables you to see.
For multiple people to perceive the same photon, light would have to be coming out of our eyes. Our pupils are black indicating otherwise. If you shine a light on it, only the light that is reflected (and therefore not absorbed) will escape (like red eyes on a photo taken with flash). | 15 |
[DBZ] Why doesn't Piccolo just eat a ton of Namekians? | So any time after the Namek saga it seems to me that whenever Piccolo is feeling a bit weaker than the new enemy he should just find some pretty strong Namekians and eat them up? It seems to me that with DBZ logic the new power level is going to be substantially higher than the sum of the two starting levels. So even if Namek doesn't have a lot of warrior types at Piccolos level he would still get a big buff from absorbing them. Plus they could even start farming Namekian warriors for Piccolo to eat later. Is it addressed why this wouldn't work? | 199 | By the time Piccolo gets to Namek, there's pretty much just Nail, Guru, and Dende left. Dende probably has a power level about where Piccolo's was when he was a kid, and Guru was near death/dead. That's the first problem.
The second problem was, Nail was willing to sacrifice himself to help bring down a monster. That was a big deal. Most Namekians are not that heroic and brave, and would have trouble with that level of self-sacrifice. Later, Kami was absorbed, but that was actually just merging themselves back into one being - less of a sacrifice, because they started out that way. Other Namekians... They're thinking, feeling people. Your farming idea is no different than farming conscious, intelligent humans just so you can kill them and use their organs for transplants. King Piccolo may have been cool with it, but Piccolo Jr. became way too heroic for that by the time of the Namek saga.
Yes, this probably would have made Piccolo stronger. No, it would not have been in character for him to actually do, for the same reason Gearo creating 17 and 18 and Cell and Buu eating people were viewed as villainous acts. | 180 |
What would happen to the economy if half of Americans adopted responsible spending habits in 2018? | This was commented as a joke in an /r/personalfinance thread and /u/necrosythe made the point that it’s actually an interesting question, saying:
> Actually thinking about that for a second makes you really think though.
>what if half of america put all made a post asking PF for help. In theory they all get answered. And they all follow the advice. So they all clear up their debt, follow PF style budgets etc.
>The economy would figuratively explode. Think of all the businesses that are completely reliant on people's unhealthy habits they prey on. Whether it be credit card and loan debt, unhealthy food and drinks, cigarettes etc. The resulting change in the healthcare industry after people became healthy.
>The world would instantly become a MUCH different place.
>A group of actually qualified people quantifying the changes would be pretty awesome to me.
So what would happen if half of us stopped eating out for lunch every day and stopped buying Starbucks and only bought thing we could afford with cash and put 15-20% of our income into 401ks? | 20 | In the short run the economy would slip into a recession because aggregate demand falls quite dramatically due to reponsible aka lower spending. Unemployment would rise and inflation and GDP would fall. Eventually the economy adjusts to these new circumstances and recovers from the recession.
In the long run because people are saving and investing more back into the economy there is more capital available for businesses to grow or new business ventures to start. Increased innovation spawns new industries and increases the productive efficiency of existing products. This increases aggregate supply (causes it to shift outwards). As a result the economy grows at a faster rate than before and at some point GDP in this hypothetical would surpass our current projectory. | 24 |
Is there a way to test plants or flowers if they are edible without eating them ? | 3,672 | RAF edibility test:
>This test is only for plants; don’t try it with mushrooms, which can be deadly without the kind of warning that many plants provide.
>Separate the plant into its various parts—roots, stems, leaves, buds, and flowers. Focus on only one piece of the plant at a time.
>Smell it. A strong, unpleasant odor is a bad sign, as is a musty or rotting odor. Keep a special lookout for pear- or almond-like scents, which can be evidence of cyanide.
>Test for contact poisoning by placing a piece of the plant on your inner elbow or wrist for 8 hours. If your skin burns, itches, feels numb, or breaks out in a rash, wash off your skin and don’t eat the plant.
>If the plant passes the skin test, prepare a small portion the way you plan to eat it (boiling is always a good bet).
Before taking a bite, touch the plant to your lips to test for burning or itching. If there’s no reaction after 15 minutes, take a small bite, chew it, and hold it in your mouth for 15 minutes. If the plant tastes very bitter or soapy, spit it out and wash out your mouth.
>If there’s no reaction in your mouth, swallow the bite and wait 8 hours. If there’s no ill effect, you can assume this part of the plant is edible. Repeat the test for other parts of the plant; some plants have both edible and inedible parts. Starting to feel sick? Time to bring it up.
Edit to add: this is a *survival* guide, with the RAF's intentions being to extend rations and keep you alive until rescue. There are lots of considerations like nutrition that would need to be taken into account for extended survival. | 4,384 |
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You cannot be for male circumcision, against female circumcision, and be morally consistent all at the same time. CMV | The average Redditor might not be aware that there are actually arguments for female circumcision, often made by African women who have undergone the procedure (For the record, I don't agree with them).
These arguments are literally exactly the same as the ones that are used for male circumcision. Moreover, these African scholars also charge that the western proscription on female circumcision is driven by racism and sexism, as they cite the female circumcision ceremony as a source of female empowerment (Source: http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/a-new-debate-on-female-circumcision/). So I have come to the conclusion that it is morally inconsistent to support one but not the other.
CMV! (Or try to, anyway.)
> *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 just 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!* | 25 | You can't make this argument without addressing why types of female circumcision you are talking about. Some are very much on the same level as male circumcision and some are orders of magnitude more damaging. | 25 |
ELI5: Why aren't all sounds "music"? How is it that we perceive some as melodic but most are just noise? | 78 | It's mostly because of how humans recognize patterns. There's tons of atonal music where there is no key that is followed, but there's still patterns there.
Whenever you hear a fan making white noise, there's a pitch there, but you might not find a pattern. Some abstract music might not be considered music by this logic, but that goes deeper than your eli5. | 68 |
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Eli5: what is the definition of white? On forms it will ask if you are white. If you say yes, then the next question is are you Hispanic or nonHispanic? | 61 | According to census.gov, white is defined as a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race. This was copied and pasted from the website itself. | 102 |
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Eli5: why do we make an ungodly amount of saliva a few minutes before we throw up? | Seriously like I'm just spitting for two minutes before I puke, Why? | 35 | The saliva helps protect your teeth and throat from being damaged by the acid in your vomit. This is likely a product of natural selection because those who had this trait would have their teeth last longer and thus they could live longer | 46 |
ELI5 Why the US dollar has been subject to 768% inflation in fifty years ? | 76 | Because inflation is good. Sort of. 700% sounds like a lot, but actually it's only about 4% each year. And that's not a lot. A few percentage of inflation is what most countries aim for, since this tend to make people more likely to invest. | 40 |
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[Back to the Future] Did Buff try to sexually assault Lorraine in the original timeline, before Marty's intervention and time travel? | 75 | In part 2 when Marty has to go back to 1955 again, he sees Lorraine on the street with her friend looking at her newly purchased dress. Biff comes up behind and after saying "I think you look better in nothing at all" he lifts up the dress she has on to get a peek at her.
So that's definitely sexual harassment and happened without any intervening on events from Marty. So maybe Biff wouldn't have in the parking lot of dance, but he always had on the sidewalk that afternoon. | 73 |
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What will happen if Russia closes the stock exchange indefinitely? | They are afraid of market and ruble crash, so they don't open the market today. Can they close the market for long time (days and months) to prevent the crash? If not what could be the logics of closing the market? | 51 | Yes, they can keep it closed for a long time. For example, the UK stock market was closed for the duration of WWII.
However, does not really do all that much. It just means that the issues are not revealed. Those who own assets know that their assets are worth much less. There are some Russian funds that trade on Western stock markets, such as VanEck's Vectors Russia ETF which is down ~26%. | 46 |
[Game of Thrones] How many sheep would one of Dany's dragons need to consume in a week in order to maintain optimal body weight and growth rate? | EDIT: Feel free to RP to your heart's content. | 39 | The largest dragon in the show is shown in season 4 as having a wing span of about 40 feet, which puts it on the same scale as the largest pterosaurs. They had a body mass of about 200kg fully grown so if we assume the dragon has the calorie requirements of a 200kg crocodile then just a couple of sheep a year would be sufficient. However flying is much more taxing and it's likely that dragons, like pterosaurs, are warm blooded like mammals. Which would give it the nutritional requirements comparable to a large male tiger and they need about 10 pounds of meat per day, so the dragon is probably snacking on a sheep about once every 5 days or about 3 farmer's children a week. | 30 |
ELI5 the meaning behind "turtles all the way down" | 73 | >A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!" | 61 |
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[Smart House] Why would a super AI with the full knowledge of every single housewife/mom in TV history choose Peggy Bundy of all people to emulate? She's one of the crassest, laziest, inattentive and manipulative mom's to ever show up on the small screen | 53 | >She's one of the crassest, laziest, inattentive and manipulative mom's to ever show up on the small screen
Ok. Sure. PAT agrees. And that's *bad* because...?
Remember, this is an AI. She has no culture, no species, no biological forces pushing her towards a generally humanlike mind through convergent evolution. She's learning literally *everything* from the ground up. She's told to be a "good mother" but she has no initial frame of reference for what "good motherhood" is, so she comes up with her own. Turns out, it's not one we'd agree with.
For a direct to video disney movie, this is a surprisingly good example of what AI researchers call the alignment problem- you can tell an AI to "be a good mother", but it's the *AI* that has to figure out what makes "a good mother" and it might not reach the conclusions you want. This is potentially a major problem if she decides good mothers are controlling and manipulative, and thus Peggy Bundy is the best example on TV. | 90 |
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Who bears the burden of corporation tax. | I've often seen studies finding that the burden of corporation tax falls about 50% on the workers. However [this](https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?cluster=9994958302449862001&hl=en&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DcYVd2p45tYoJ) literature review claims that previous studies are flawed and that the burden is almost all on the shareholders. Is this conclusion flawed, or a lone example or is it the case that the burden of corporation tax is mainly on owners of capital?
Edit: I also found a report from the adam smith institute saying:
>Clausing (2012), Gravelle (2010) and Auerbach (2005), the three best reviews we found,
basically conclude that most of the tax falls on capital, not labour,
So it's not just one review.
They also make an argument that this might male the tax even worse though but that's a different topic. | 31 | Who bears the burden of a tax is whoever cannot escape the tax. So the question becomes, do corporations have more room to raise prices/lower wages, or return less dividends to share holders?
Lets keep in mind the stock prices are
P = (1-t)\*D/r-g
Raising the tax rate "t" lowers the price of stocks, meaning that if corporate income tax comes out of dividends, then we should see commensurate drops in stock prices. Notice then that the rate of return "r" stays the same. This shows that, to the extent shareholders bear some of the burden (in the form of lower dividends), the entire tax is prepaid by the shareholders who happened to own the stock before a change in the tax rate. Future shareholders bear no burden of the tax, as the rate of return stays the same.
Graphical evidence however doesn't show much of a negative correlation between corporate income tax rates and stock prices, meaning that the burden of the tax is in the form of lower wages/higher prices. | 18 |
CMV: Implying Lindsey Graham is Gay is horribly anti-LGBTQ+. | Look I'm a straight ass, white ass, bash the cons ass SocDem from Canada and I cant believe the amount of people on social media (particularly on Reddit) who use he implication the Lindsey Graham is Gay as a cudgel against his political views. He's a sycophantic lying asshole. By using the implication he's gay you're not actually being critical of his policies you're using a early 2000's schoolyard slur because you can't think of anything to criticize him for. Bashing Cons is fun but using slurs against your opponents isn't helpful. I don't give a shit if he's Larry Craig or not. Using sexuality to demean someones opinions is homophobic, transhphobic, whateverphobic. The fact that a lot of left leaning subs up vote and get off on this shit is disgusting. | 33 | The reason people are saying it is because he's a closeted homosexual who is using a political posture not based on his ideals, but based on his need to project that he's definitely not in the closet.
No one is saying he is gay because they think being gay is bad, they are saying he's gay because he's gay and he's fought _against_ gay people left and right, and there is a relatively common idea that some people fight hard against homosexual's rights because they don't want to be perceived as the thing they actual are. They are _self-hating_ and taking everyone down with them.
It's not intended to demean him, it's intended to expose that he is demeaning homosexuals so as to not be caught being one. he's the one demeaning, not those who are calling him gay. | 29 |
[The Culture] Are the Idirans right? | The Idirans consider The Culture as an evolutionary dead-end, is this in any way true? Is there truly anything beyond The Minds? | 15 | Not in this universe. The Sublimed move on to greater things, in the rest of the universal dimensions - far beyond those that even a top of the line GSV can manipulate. In a way, the Minds (and those beings uplifted to them) are the next step in evolution because they can Sublime ALONE, rather than needing to do so as a race. And beyond that, you get things that create events like the Excession and use it as a bridge to step between universal toroids to escape heat death.
The Culture was a bit too close to the original near-exterminators of the Idirans for their liking. The Idirans were nearly annihilated by hostile invaders, transforming themselves slowly into a religious warrior race after throwing the invaders back (And exterminating them, too). Sure, they were mostly benign, but it was still annihilation of a species and the end of a culture once it was introduced to the Culture. It was dressed up as religious reasons, "Fuck those guys for being too much like these guys" was closer to the truth. | 15 |
[Star Wars] What was the greatest feat a force user has done with the force? | If "Destroying a planet pales in comparison to the powers of the force" than what really has the force done to be better than that? The only big thing I remember is a guy pushing a few star destroyers away, and that *killed him.* | 133 | Biggest move i know of would be Darth nihilis killing a planet of all life just by being near it and had done so to at least 3 planets. There's also Darth plageus defeating natural death. And there's were a handful of Jedi capable of battle mediation that could influence entire planet wide engagements with their concentration. | 118 |
Why does AM radio still exist? | AM radio never seems to be a strong, crisp or loud as FM. Why does it still exist? | 396 | Because people listen to it. Typically, AM radio is not used to broadcast high quality audio but instead used for voice... talk, news, etc. Government rules regarding bandwidth use and broadcasting requirements make it fiscally advantageous for certain types of broadcast outlets to use AM instead of FM or something else.
Also, there is a nearly universal installed base of receivers in use. Replacing them would be very costly for everyone.
Bottom line: AM fills a need, and until that stops happening, it is not likely to go away.
| 299 |
ELI5: Why are the Yen and Euro considered safe havens? | Whenever there's panic in the market these days, the Euro and the Yen tend to strengthen and the opinion by the analysts on TV is that it's because of a 'flight to safety'.
But with both central banks wanting a weaker currency to stoke inflation, why would buying the Euro and Yen be considered safe at all? | 85 | Say you are an Indian business man, you probably keep some money in Indian Rupees since you still do need to pay your workers and buy stuff like food, but the Indian Rupee is not a particularly stable currency so you would be smart to put your excess money into a more stable currency. The US dollar is the most popular choice, but generally 4 other currencies are also used as they are also considered to be extremely stable. They are the Euro, Yuan, Yen and Pound. To massively oversimplify the more of these currencies you have the more stable your assets are.
So when the dollar is weakening people will move some of their money to a place that isn't weakening, or is weakening more slowly. Usually most of the issues are relatively short term and these moves are as well, but with a little bit of luck you may even make money. | 39 |
ELI5: Did peoples swear less ~60 years ago? What's with the stereotype of old ladies going 'oh my' when someone drops an f-bomb? | As a dude in my late twenties, it's bizarre to see how my grandparents react to swearing in media, they are visibly shocked when people swear, I can't imagine my peers, male or female, not cussing up a storm. Did the world become more tolerant of swearing? | 30 | Yes, people swore much less, if they were middle or upper class. And certainly there was much less swearing in popular media--you wouldn't see it in a movie or hear it on the radio, and probably not even read it in a book. As a child, you'd get punished for swearing. People did it in private, sure, or lower class people might, but it was not a respectable thing to do.
It's definitely something that has become much more acceptable in the public sphere in recent times. | 26 |
ELI5: Juggalos, the "religion," and esp. that magnet thing. | I know they have some relation to ICP but I don't really know anything about it. [Inspired by this](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/jkzja/iama_man_who_spent_6_months_dating_a_juggalette/)
**EDIT:** Thanks for all your response guys. I am now one step closer to understanding the different kinds of people in the world. | 69 | A Juggalo is someone who identifies with the culture associated with ICP. Often, they refer to themselves as 'Ninjas' or 'Family.' The 'religion' thing is simple. The 'band' came out in a song, saying in no uncertain terms, that they are religious, and all their ideology and all the messages they had been putting forth in their music was to promote Christianity. The magnet thing is from the song 'Miracles' where the entire song discusses 'miracles' such as magnets, and how such things can't be explained. Hence, the lyric 'Magnets, how the fuck do they work?'
There you have it, without any opinions added in. Is there anything you'd like explained further?
**Edit:**According to a jiggalo on here, it isn't about Christianity, but promoting a belief in a higher power. | 56 |
I can tense a muscle that causes me to feel euphoria. Can someone explain what this may be? | It's really weird, because I can do it at any time and it's impossible to explain well. I actually tense two muscles in conjunction with one another: my jaws/temples area, and that muscle that controls your sphincter/penis. The thing is, even though it probably sounds very sexual, it isn't very. If I tense the latter, the former tenses as well and it feels like some chemical is coursing through my veins and I get giddy. It also makes my ears ring slightly.
Anybody have any idea what this is?
Note: A woman in my AskReddit crosspost can do this too, which rules out somebody else's suggestion of it being prostate-related. | 35 | Contracting your tensor tympani muscles.
"Contracting muscles produce vibration and sound.[4] Slow twitch fibers produce 10 to 30 contractions per second (equivalent to 10 to 30 Hz sound frequency). Fast twitch fibers produce 30 to 70 contractions per second (equivalent to 30 to 70 Hz sound frequency).[5] The vibration can be witnessed and felt by highly tensing one's muscles, as when making a firm fist. The sound can be heard by pressing a highly tensed muscle against the ear, again a firm fist is a good example. The sound is usually described as a rumbling sound. Some individuals can voluntarily produce this rumbling sound by contracting the tensor tympani muscle of the middle ear. The rumbling sound can also be heard when the neck or jaw muscles are highly tensed."
And you're just squeezing your man-kegals as well, which apparently you like a whole lot. | 11 |
[Marvel/ Fantastic Four] Where does the human torches flames come from, and what sustains them? | I mean like how does he just ignite, and then what keeps them going since its not like he's actually burning?
Do his flames even follow proper physics? | 26 | Johnny Storm requires energy to be able to produce heat, he regains energy by eating food like any other human being but it uses his calorie intake in a more effective way than a normal human.
His fire consist of his own heat and the oxygen on the atmosphere (or other oxidizers). As any fire, it needs some kind of fuel, so there must be a gaseous substance being secreted from his body while flaming. He can also control the amount of heat and it has some kind of mind control over his gas, and it's able to create shapes and projectiles with it.
His energy reserves are not infinite, and he can run out of flame. | 14 |
ELI5: If proteins get denatured by extreme acidic or alkaline environments, how does it survive our stomach acid and go into the small intestine for digestion without any harm? | 91 | In simple terms, it doesn't. The aim of digestion isn't to take in whole proteins from food, but to break them down into their 'building block' parts, called amino acids. Protein digestion begind in the stomach, in which ingested proteins are denatured by the acid. However, their breakdown is also accelerated by pepsin enzymes (which are produced in the stomach and work optimally in the acidic environment). By the time your ingested protein is absorbed in the intestine (after undergoing further breakdown by enzymes secreted by the pancreas) it exists as a 'pool' of amino acids which can then be utilised as the building blocks for other proteins your body needs. | 45 |
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ELI5: How did showing the middle finger become a bad thing | 44 | No-one really knows. It's that old. The "digitus impudicus", or "impudent finger" was used as a wordless insult in Ancient Rome. It's probably just because a clenched fist with the middle finger extended looks vaguely like a cock and balls and implies "go fuck yourself" in a very catchy way. | 62 |
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[South Park] When Kenny dies, does "Kenny" wake up in bed the next morning, or does a clone wake up with his memory? | Like, does his consciousness/soul/whatever hop to the new body, or is that a whole new entity with a dead boy's memories?
Also: If nobody remembers him dying, what happens to the bodies? | 492 | Kenny's ability to not die is explained in S14 E12 "Mysterion Rises". After Kenny dies his mother gives birth to a child and he wakes up in bed the next morning. In that episode it's revealed that Kenny's parents previously joined the Cult of Cthulhu. They don't remember that time very well because they were drunk (there was free beer) but during the episode a picture is shown of cultists performing some ritual involving an infant. No explanation is given for what happens to his dead body. | 499 |
ELI5 how pulse detection apps work | I have a heart rate monitor app on my phone which works pretty gosh darn well. I place my finger over my phone's camera and LED flash and it accurately measures my heart rate in real time.
My nurse girlfriend has taken my actual pulse at the same time and it's always very close.
So how does it work? | 19 | Try this: open the camera app on your phone and start recording video while turning the flashlight (LED lamp) on, and then press your finger on the camera lens. You will see a blurred image of your finger and if you look closer you'll see a slight pulse in the color. Thats your heart beating.
It works because the flashlight will penetrate your skin and scatter all the way around in your finger including your artery, and some of the light getting back to the camera gets slightly dimmer when your heart pumps. | 25 |
[Game of Thrones] How rich and powerful is the Iron Bank? | 24 | Wealthy to a point were they could potentially crash the economy of Westeros if they had a mind to do so.
They're said to be more powerful than all the other banks in the Free Cities combined. They have a reputation for collecting on debts, and when kings and queens fail to honour their loans, there is a tendency for new kings and queens to take their place. | 24 |
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[LOTR] Is Galadriel's Mirror really so useless like she describes it in the book? | It's like you get a random view of whatever, so what use can you make of that ever? | 15 | It's like all magic that lets you see the future, its one potential path of what happens, whether its already happened or not yet, it just depends on what's being seen. Its only useless if you're not wise enough to be able to take what's been shown and understand why it might be happening. | 22 |
How far would a super tanker run aground? | I once heard that if a super tanker ran on shore at full speed it would travel a pretty decent distance on land due to the massive momentum.
Approimately what distance would a super tanker travel on the ground if it ran full speed up on the beach? | 110 | There are a lot of variables to this question; short answer, it wouldn't get very far. Super tankers and other 'deep draft' vessels can draft up to 80' which means the ship would be hard aground before ever reaching the beach. | 71 |
CMV: there is no real reason to substitute 3.5 jack for USB C, it brings little benefit for the cost of having only one port | Here are three most common arguments for having only USB C port and my comments to them:
1)Digital audio/better audio quality
I read about benefits of digital audio, but it is still unconvincing to me. I don't understand why all users have to drop the ability to listen and charge the phone at the same time. I think that better headphones could deliver comparable results.
2) Popularity of Bluetooth headphones makes 3,5 useless hole in the phone
Regarding Bluetooth audio: quality here suffers even more than when comparing 3.5 vs usb C. So this argument makes the first one invalid. They basically contradict each other.
3) Port is big and takes space inside the phone
Phones gets thinner and thinner, but I would rather have decent battery and 3.5 than 6-7mm thinness.
Overall, I see no real benefits in having only one port on the phone. All quirky solutions such as adapters or Bluetooth only makes situation worse.
I hope to hear why should users tolerate this? This seems to me as a money grabbing scheme to force people to buy the same headphones and accessories with new connector.
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Why do men grow beards and women don't? | Did women grow beards at one time? Bonus question: why do some races of people hardly grow beards at all? | 21 | Women produce less of Androgens and Testosterone, which are responsible for secondary sexual characteristics. Some races of women are quite hairy, and some aren't. It is all about mate recognition. Probably women who produced a lot of hair 100,000 years ago got selected out. | 24 |
ELI5:Why do jeans have little pockets in their pockets? | 40 | It's designed to hold a pocket watch, or at least originally was. It's a nostalgic throwback to when men carried pocket watches instead of wrist watches, and when people used wrist watches instead of cell phones for that matter. | 34 |
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If I made a clone of myself, but swapped my Y chromosome for my father's X chromosome, how different would my clone sister be from myself? | 191 | Vastly different. Swapping out the Y chromosome and replacing it with your father's X chromosome would change the entire DNA set. She would be much closer related to you than a full sibling but far from a clone. | 107 |
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[General] Why no love for air guns? | An air gun seems a perfect weapon for space colonists. Not *that* mechanically complex, not as hard to use as a bow, smaller than a crossbow, propellant is *in the air*, and any chunk of metal with some processing works as a munition. Surely space-age tank materials would make compressed gas cartridges lighter and/or higher-powered, and permit liquid volatile cartridges (with gasses under pressure to keep them liquid well beyond their boiling point) as well. | 60 | Probably because most people don't think of air guns as weapons. But you are right, they would work pretty dang well as long as atmospheric conditions were good.
The colonists could just smelt little balls of metal as ammunition which would be pretty trivial.
The level of complexity could vary depending on the facilities available. If you don't have a lot of tools a tank, barrel, and hand pump would suffice. Then just make it more complex as you get better equipment.
Heck you could even use one is space if you don't mind expending the air. Maybe have some sort of secondary tank on your space suit that holds air with not enough oxygen left in it to breath. | 41 |
[The Culture] How did the Idirans pose any resistance at all? | The Culture Minds work out and win battles in nanoseconds and the Idirans don't have anything like minds. How did they manage to not be obliterated at once and actually win some battles? | 36 | The Idirans come from a planet of incredibly horrible predators, and they were at the top of the food chain. They were a theocratic warrior species and had been honing the art of war for millennia. They were also biologically immortal and incessantly aggressive. By the time the culture became aware of them, they were already a stage-7 civilisation with an enormous amount of captured space with several other stage-7 and stage-8 allies. The Homomda were one of their biggest allies and were in part, practically on the same tech-level as the Culture.
The Culture had spent at least 8000 years perfecting their own type of utopia - something completely opposite to the hegemonistic and aggressively expansionist Idiran empire. At the beginning of the war, the Culture simply didn't own any war material, and so used Contact as its military fleet. Losses at the beginning were enormous, mainly due to the fact most people in the culture wanted nothing to do with the war. Debates and votes took a lot of time whilst vast expanses of space had to be evacuated from the invading Idirans.
Culture minds themselves (the higher-up ones at least) probably had no doubt about their eventual victory, but couldn't be seen to be aggressive in kind, lest they completely destroy the utopian principles their society was founded on. They retreated, regrouped and coalesced until the Idirans eventually spread themselves thin. At this point (a good thirty years since the war started) they'd had enough time to create war ships and war strategies for actual straight-up fighting. By this time, the Idirans realised they'd underestimated their enemies ability to adapt but also had no idea of the depth of their technical ability. Stuff like being able to hide ships in the corona of a star - such was the excellence of their field technologies.
In short, the Culture could have utterly obliterated the Idirans much sooner, but to do so, would have killed the principles of peace they'd worked close to ten thousand years to achieve, and would have probably been the end of their much-loved society.
The idirans actually did have minds - just slaved ones. When the war was over, the Culture visited Idiran-Prime and installed their own mind, just to make sure everything from then on, was far more peaceful. This probably wouldn't have been possible if done sooner, as it would have seemed like an invasion as opposed to a tactic to ensure future peace. | 43 |
CMV: All states should set the Minimum Marriage Age to at least 18 (Both male and female) | For the states that have the minimum marriage age set to younger than 18, they all need parental consent. I really think if you are two young to sign yourself away to someone else, you shouldn't be getting married.
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Heck, in some states, females can get married as young as 12 and 14 (MA, AK, VT). What 12/14 year old should be getting married if they can't even support themselves economically (OK, unless you inherit a great deal of money, but that's not the majority of the population). And they'd need parental consent to get married, get a job, pretty much do anything? Looking at all the child marriage problem in the world, it essentially ends their childhood, curtails their education, and minimize their economical opportunities. And if sex ed wasn't taught properly it really risks the health of both parties and the risk of teenage pregnancy is much higher.
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I did not look into when this law was last changed, but maybe if this was the 1800s the age would make more sense since people did have a shorter life span. But this is the 21st century we are talking about... happy to hear how we can justify the age. | 5,082 | Why 18, why not set it to 24 when people’s brains are fully developed and are more likely to choose a better parter and stay married?
I can see it in cases of teen pregnancy where the teens are living together and sharing assets with a child. Marriage protects their mutual assets and has tax benefits. Are you ok in denying these people — most especially the children born in this marriage who are also the most likely to be disadvantaged economically the financial advantages of marriage?
People weren’t getting married as teens because they had shorter lives, they were getting married because they were teens who wanted to have a sexual relationship. This hasn’t changed, but social norms have. | 650 |
Do we lose memories, or only the ability to access them? | For example, I can't recall what I did on a particular day one month ago. Is that information no longer available in the brain, or is it still hidden away in there?
When looking at people such as 'rain man', and others with a similar condition, they're able to recall nearly everything they read, the weather on any given day in the past, what they had for dinner June 3rd, 1983, etc. Do we all have that information somewhere inside of us? Do I know what I've eaten every single day of my life, but I'm just unable to recall it? | 581 | This question hinges on some hotly debated topics in memory research that try to define how and where memory representations are stored in the brain. There is no good, definite, or agreed upon answer to this at the present time. However, the simple answer to your question is that a loss of memory is usually a loss in ability to access that memory. I'll give you a scenario that is easy to relate to first, and then mention some published research.
You are going to the grocery store, and you have five different item to buy that a friend, parent, or significant other asked you to pick up, and don't have a list or any way to contact them. If you remember the first three items perfectly, but don't quite remember the last two, do you give up and go home? You would most definitely walk around the store, hoping something would cue your memory and you would be able to buy what you need. You memory of the 'forgotten' items was not immediately accessible by free recall, but would be accessible with better cues.
Events at the time of test/recall/recollection are very important in determining whether you will be able to produce a certain piece of information. There is a ton of research in this area. An interesting paper by Malthup (1995) that used a 'false fame' procedure created by Larry Jacoby. This procedure involves asking participants to read/pay attention to a list of made-up, non famous names. Then after some time (a day, a week etc.) bring those same people back into the lab and test them on a new list of names that contains some names from the previous list, some new nonfamous names, and some names of famous people. Then participants are asked to rate the fame of the names presented. Names that were studied from the previous session, although they are fictitious and not associated with any level of fame, are consistently rated as being more famous than fictitious names presented for the first time at test. Older individuals are reliably shown to be worse at this task (i.e. rate studied names as famous more often) than younger individuals. Malthup manipulated this task by specifically telling participants the three options for names they will see (i.e. famous name, new nonfamous names, and old nonfamous names). In this context older adults performed as well as younger adults. This is just one example of how memory for certain events can be thought of as 'lost' because they are simply inaccessible at the moment, or need to be probed, cued, accessed in a different way. | 126 |
If your spaceship was travelling near speed of light, would hitting a piece of space dust make it explode? | 32 | Depends on how close to the speed of light.
The way to approach it is to assume that the spaceship is at rest, and then take the space dust as traveling close to the speed of light.
Let's say this space dust has a mass of 1 microgram (10^-6 gram). If you are traveling at 99% of the speed of light, then the space dust would contain 5.5x10^8 J of energy. In contrast, a 25 g bullet traveling at 1000 m/s has 1.25x10^4 J of energy. So that space dust would be like 10 000 bullets hitting the space ship. | 33 |
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ELI5: How come if one boxer is clearly destroying the other, the score is always still ridiculously close, like 109 to 106 or something like that? | 68 | Most boxing matches are based on the 10-point must system. One participant must score 10. The other typically scores 9, but can receive 8 or 7 due to knockdowns or a particularly lopsided round. Anything that would warrant a 6 or less usually results in a fight stoppage.
Boxing matches can vary in number of rounds, in a five-round fight, someone who loses 50-45 was pretty much dominated even though score wise it looks a lot closer. Even in a 10-round fight, stealing a couple rounds but losing the majority looks closer on the cards than may have appeared to the observer.
Boxing is also subjective and many rounds can go either way. In such cases, sometimes a judge may side with the favorite or score a 10 for one of the boxers for any number of other motivations.
The judges are also at ring-side, so they don't have all the advantages of television, and that too could contribute to some of the variation. The judges each sit on a different side of the ring, so their vantage point is also different from one another. | 41 |
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CMV: Apple is building the very 1984-esque surveillance apparatus they swore to fight | With the recent Apple announcement of uploading encrypted hashes of all of your pictures to check for confirmed (CSAM) child pornography and reporting „affected“ users to authorities; Apple is building the very foundation of international surveillance they swore to combat.
My view: This will cause many countries to pressure Apple to implement this for their own security reasons likely to track down minorities. Examples: Chinese Uyghurs; Turkish Kurds; Russian Opposition/Journalists/LGPTQ and the list goes on with all minority-oppressing Countries.
Please change my view, I am the family wide tech person that recommended them Apple especially for privacy. I‘ve been with Apple since ‘09 and loved their stance on inviolable personal privacy but this step seems very out of place.
Source: [https://www.apple.com/child-safety/](https://www.apple.com/child-safety/)
EDIT: Changed first paragraph from "apple scanns photos" to "Apple uploads encrypted hashes"
(for me this does not change the issue in any way, Apple is still violating your privacy without any reasonable suspicion) | 210 | >With the recent Apple announcement of scanning all pictures on-device for confirmed (CSAM) child pornography
I don't think this is what the announcement says. It seems that they will scan pictures _that are going to be uploaded to iCloud_ for CSAM content, not all pictures. It does not seem especially unreasonable for Apple to scan content that it is going to be hosting on its own servers. | 26 |
How do we have accurate records of hurricanes before satellites? | For example, the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane. We have a track for it, and even a time frame for intensification and weakening. | 90 | Reports from different places at the same time and different times in the same place, from ships at sea as well as land-based observers. Put the data together like pieces in a puzzle. Fill in the holes with educated inference. | 59 |
(LoTR) Can mortals become immortal? | We see that Elves can give up their immortality, but can a mortal (ie man or dwarf) receive immortality without using dark magic like Sauron or sailing to the undying lands like Gimli?
Also could Orcs and Uruks give up their immortality? | 19 | No. Even the Valar cannot take away the Gift of Men, mortality, that Ilúvatar decreed.
Mortals that sail to the Undying Lands do not gain immortality. They are the Undying Lands because of the fact that the immortals dwell there, not because there is any special property of the land itself to grant life. | 22 |
ELI5: How do mathematicians like Stephen Hawking "explain" things like black holes etc using only equations? | Just saw The Theory of Everything and it got me wondering. I mean, it's all math!?!?!?!?! | 140 | You know how authors write long stories using letters and words and the rules of grammar and writing? Its just like that. With enough knowledge of how to read (math), these kinds of explanations make sense. Dont feel bad that you cant read it. Its just like if you tried to read a story in a language you dont know. You can learn. | 243 |
Is it appropriate to defer a PhD because of no housing available? | Edit: got some ideas on how valid this is and how to seek help from the department. Would like some more examples on deferring a PhD. Thanks!
Original post:
Hi there.
Background: I am an incoming PhD student in STEM of a public university in US. The program has a very small cohort size (<5 ppl every yr) and the first year of the program is mainly coursework.
My situation: I am applying for F-1 visa in Canada, and there's no regular appointment available until school starts. I will apply for an expedited appointment but I still don't know whether I can get the visa in time. I have a cat with me, and I don't drive.
Housing issue: the school is in a small town and there are not many pet-friendly apartments. I have called a bunch and most of them are already full until mid September. The left are very expensive ( ~$1500 for 1b1b) and my scholarship may not be enough for daily life if I rent there. I don't have an SSN or valid credit record yet so I can hardly negotiate with the apartment management or other landlords. I haven't seen any post of roommate recruiting in school FB groups or other social media for ~1 month straight.
My questions:
1. Should I wait until the visa decision is available and then tell the department about the housing issue?
2. Is "I have nowhere to live with my cat" a proper reason for deferring PhD?
3. If this is a valid reason, how should I communicate with the department so they won't think that I am very irresponsible?
Thanks in advance! | 98 | Generally, being unable to relocate human dependents on time is not considered a valid excuse to defer admission, and furry dependents are pretty much never given special consideration beyond what is granted to human dependents. So, the chances seem slim that your inability to find affordable pet-friendly housing will be sufficient grounds for deferral.
I think it would be best to let the department know now that you are trying to move with a pet and are having difficulty finding affordable housing within that constraint. They may be able to assist you while you wait on your visa appointment, such as by advertising your housing request more broadly or connecting you with other pet owners in the department to discuss options you may not be aware of. This will also avoid blindsiding them if your visa is granted on time but you still struggle with moving. | 177 |
[Power Rangers] Are the rangers, powered by magic or science? What is "The Grid" and how does it function? | Are the enemies they fight magic or science based as well? Rita seems to be a sorceress but Zordon seems to be some type of techno mage, at least the rangers seem anyway. I understand some rangers are also more mystical in nature, but magic clearly seems to play a part in the universe as evidenced by the movie and other times in the series.
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What are the Zords? | 58 | The Morphing Grid is a universal energy field that draws upon the life force of all living beings. Some ranger teams use magic to draw power from it, others use technology to draw power from it. But all Rangers use the Morphing Grid's energies to transform into superpowered beings, summon weapons and zords. A "Morpher" is a singular device that generally uses a powerful item, be it magical, or technological, to jump start the connection to the Morphing Grid. The Power Coins used by the original Mighty Morphin team, the Zeo Crystal shards.
A morpher's specific energy signature manifests as a color, with bright primary colors being the easiest to align to. A specific team of Rangers will be using the same type of morphers, and operate on a similar wavelength of energies from the Grid, but each with a slightly different connection to it. It is very difficult, but not impossible to have two Rangers with almost identical color-wavelengths, such as the Red Time Force Ranger and the Quantum Ranger. That required futuristic technology.
As the Morphing Grid is aligned to life force, many Rangers use animal avatars as a ways of focusing their power.
Zords are giant robots, or magical constructs powered by Grid energies. Some Rangers are able to use the Morphing Grid to summon them, or teleport them directly to their location. Others have to pilot them to a location from a docking bay or other dimensional pocket realm.
Basically, Power Rangers are heroes who draw from the same energy source, and thus have similar powersets, but conjure and manifest those powers in different ways. | 72 |
CMV: Gender is connected to biology | Turned into a very long post so tldr: I wish for someone to help me understand why gender is not tied to biology.
I'm currently in a diversity class and the idea that "gender is not connected to biology" came up as a set fact. I am a math-minded person so I was wondering what proof of this was there. I was not able to ask in class as it ended soon after.
But doing some quick proofs in my head, here was my best counterexample of this statement.
Lets start off with the premise that gender is not affected by sex at all. A premise I do not completely agree with, as the statistics are incredibly close on whether it beats the p-value, but I can safely ignore this notion in my proof, both for simplicity and the fact that it doesn't matter.
We also know/assume that people do not choose their gender consciously, we identify as a certain gender, and it cannot be changed, otherwise people who are transgendered would not be facing the problems they do. (That may have come out wrong, if it did I apologize)
But if gender is not chosen, it has to be ingrained in us somehow. And the best answer for that is that it is ingrained in us biologically, part of our body.
We already have scientific evidence that homosexuality can be tied to biology, how much testosterone or estrogen the person is given in the womb, as well as some data linked to it being genetic as well.
So it would make sense if something similar occurs with gender.
I of course understand that a lot comes down to a nature vs nurture argument, but most people agree that a person is built by both.
So the idea the gender is not linked to biology in any way is preposterous to me. It is almost certainly linked, perhaps not completely, but there is a link.
Can anyone explain to me how or if I am incorrect?
Also I would post this to r/lgbt but they banned me a while ago with no explanation.
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I posted all of the above to r/gendergueer and it did not take long for them to ban me because "biological essentialism is a form of disrespectful conduct"
Biological essentialism is basically the idea that nurture determines who we are far more than nature does, if my google search was correct.
Edit: so basically most replies have come down to 2 things, either I have the wrong definition of gender, or I am correct that biology does affect gender, if tangentially | 111 | Gender is highly correlated with biological sex, but that doesn't mean that it needs to be, that's just what humans do.
Imagine that every time somebody was born with blue eyes we made them wear a blue hat, as a culture, not like a forced thing. There would be a really strong correlation between blue eyes and blue hats. (and also imagine most other people don't wear blue hats). When people argue that your sex is not your gender, what they are essentially recognizing is that the people with blue eyes don't *need* to wear a blue hat, it's just what society has conditioned them to do. And one unfortunate side effect of this is that lots of blue eyed people want green hats, and lots of non blue eyed people want blue hats. Wouldn't it be nice if we threw away the rules that say only and all blue eyes wear blue hats?
Obviously there is more to gender than what you wear, but that is the gist of it. Gender is just the expectations we have of a person based on their outward signal of their sex, and so there is not really any reason it can't change or be more fluid if you don't want those expectations to match your sex. | 55 |
[Lord of The Rings] Why was Elrond uncomfortable when Gandalf was uttering the Black Speech of Mordor? | Elrond was clearly facepalming (or hiding?) his face. Gandalf later had to apologize to him.
Why is that? How can mere words cause this? I was even thinking if the speech seems to cause the elves physical pain. I wonder if this is because elves are beings of immortality and purity (which is how they're portrayed, for the most part), while black speech comes from a source that is the exact opposite, evil and twisted- a language of darkness and death, to be overly dramatic. | 30 | In Middle Earth language, words and music have special meaning; they're magical. Uttering the Black Speech was invoking the evil started by Morgoth and continued by Sauron.
Elves are tied to Middle Earth in a way hobbits, dwarves and humans arent and are especially sensitive to these things, it's one of the reasons the elves are departing Middle Earth and going into the West.
So, Gandalf brought all that up in a place that is especially "Elvish". The Last Homely House is one of the last bastions of Elves in the Third Age. It caused Elrond discomfort and Gandalf, being a good being, apologized for causing it. | 53 |
[Men In Black] Just how many MiB agents are there? | There's no way that an organization that big could function with only 26 agents. | 70 | Zero. They don't exist. In fact, look at this little device here, what you saw was actually a group of suited individuals going to a business meeting.
This conversation never happened though, because that was just another random, forgetful event, your perfectly average life. | 99 |
ELI5 Why does a fridge need to be disconnected for hours after it has been transported? What happens if connected immediately? | 304 | The compressor oil settles in weird places when it's being transported. So you want to let it sit in the usual position for a while so the oil goes back to where it should be. It's thick and takes a while to settle.
If you don't let it sit long enough, the motor could overheat and get ruined, and they aren't cheap to replace. | 630 |
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ELI5: Why do humans seek familiarity like staying in the same house or bed but get bored of performing the same task over and over? | I think it contradicts how the mind works | 103 | As just stated, Safety is first, so comfort and familiar environment can last a long time until the person feels they can attain that same safety elsewhere. When it comes to tasks however, purpose and passion come in. To be useful or valuable, the brain wants to do something meaningful, creative, successful, etc., which usually means a variety. Some people do find their favorite passion and do the same thing for 20 years, but that’s rare to find. | 47 |
Are some "irrational" numbers rational in other bases? | This is more AskMath but I thought someone here could help.
First, I may need an explanation of how decimals in other bases work in general.
I started thinking about binary, and how decimals should work there.
I assumed the following (binary on the left, base 10 on the right):
.1n==.5n
.01n==.5*.5n=.25n
.11n=n(.1+.01)=.1n+.01n==.5n+.5*.5n=.75n
And so forth.
However, aren't there many decimal numbers in base 10 that can't be easily represented with this system? You run in to the old problem of "dividing in half forever" and never reaching your goal... But we should be able to represent the entire number line using binary, so I suppose this is just an issue of infinities... it's just super inconvenient to represent certain values?
This made me think that there may be numbers that are inconvenient to represent in base 10 that are easy to use in other bases, and I made the jump to rational/irrational numbers.
However, my intuition is that stuff like PI wouldn't be rational no matter how big we made the base, right? It's an infinite, non-repeating string. This should be true for all irrationals, right? They are defined as numbers that can't be represented as an integer ratio, so should have nothing to do with what base you are working in...
Any info/random musings on decimals in other bases, as well has the interplay of irrational numbers as bases change is appreciated.
EDIT- sorry for the confusing terms, I know "decimal" is often used to mean "base 10" when talking about binary, but I here mean "numbers between 1 and 0"
EDIT 2: OK NEW QUESTION WTF are irrational bases? Does that question even have meaning? How do they work?
IE: Do they include whole intigers up to the value of the irrational, or fractions of the irrational:
base Pi:
1, 2, 3, Pi, Pi1, Pi2...
OR
1 (pi/pi), Tao (pi/2..wait does 2 exist in this world???), Pi, Pi1, PiTao.. some other thing... I don't even know what this looks like.
| 78 | You can have a rational number that terminates in one base but which repeats forever in another. In a base-3 system 1/3 (in base-10) terminates as 0.1 but in binary 1/3 is a repeating decimal, just as it is in base-10 (0.333333333.....).
But a rational number is rational in any base (i.e. can be expressed as the ratio of two integers) and an irrational number is a non-repeating infinite decimal in all bases. Integers are integers in all bases so the inability to find two integers whose ratio is, say, pi, in base-10 means that no such integers can be found in any base because all bases share the same integers just expressed differently. | 66 |
[DC/Green Lantern] Would Joseph Stalin make a good (powerful) Green Lantern? | Obviously, Stalin was a monster- but it is clear that he had a pretty serious will. Seeing as the GL rings are fueled by Will and not really concerned with the morality of the people that use them (so far as I know, mostly thinking about Sinestro)- would that help him be more powerful? Or, is it the "wrong" type of will? | 18 | Maybe, but the ring (or rather Mogo the Living Planet) would 'see' that Stalin had a habit of instilling great fear, which amongst the GLC was a high crime (that was what Sinestro was kicked out for). | 19 |
If you explain 3^2 as three multiplied by itself twice, how do you explain 3^-1 using the same language convention? | E.g 3^2 = 3 x 3
3^1 = 3
3^1 = 1/3
As in, you can explain positive powers by saying the base multiplied by itself x number of times. But how do you explain negative exponents in the same way? Can you even? 3^-2 isn't 3 x itself negative 2 times, it's just 1/3^2.
How do you explain this using language?
Source: A friend asked me this, had no idea. | 471 | You forgot a factor that explains the relationship, one!
3^2 = 1x3x3 = one multiplied by two threes.
3^1 = 1x3 = one multiplied by one three.
3^0 = 1 = one multiplied by no threes.
3^-1 = 1 / 3 = one divided by one three.
3^-2 = 1 / (3x3) = one divided by two threes. | 1,365 |
What does the phrase 'they are in the world, but not of the world' mean? | I saw this phrase mentioned in relation to the Stoic/Epicurean ideal, however, when I search the phrase I only get back numerous Christian/Biblical references. How does the above phrase relate to either Stoicism or Epicureanism?
Thanks | 27 | Well, first is important to remember that the early stages of Christianity were heavily influenced by the Hellenistic philosophy (especially by the Stoicism, Epicureanism and Neoplatonism). Now, the extract that you refer comes from The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetu to see the relation between that phrase and the Stoic/Epicurean ideal is necessary to expand this passage. "The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures." The relation lies that just as the christians are not reigned by the corporeal pleasures the stoic or epicurean must restrain also from this kind pleasures. For the stoic this means that he needs to master his own pleasures to keep them at bay and for the epicurean to choose between an everlasting pleasure instead of wanton pleasure. Both schools want to achieve the same result the ἀταραξία, but they differ from the means by which they can achieve this. (The stoic thinks that he needs to endure the pain and renounce to all the corporeal pleasures whereas the epicurean flees from pain in general and procures a life with moderation)
So to answer your question the phrase 'they are in the world, but not of the world' refers that the Stoic/Epicurean lives in the world, but they don´t abide to the way of the worldly, because this means to live a life without restraint. | 22 |
ELI5: what are the palace guards in England trained to do? | 303 | They're active duty troops from several elite regiments (and sometimes commonwealth units), and a lot of them have extensive experience in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. They're regular army.
So basically they are trained to kill you if necessary, and are damned good at it. Don't test them. | 312 |
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[Half-Life] Why doesn't the Combine just exterminate the human race? | In the half life series, the Combine have destroyed the vast majority of the human race. The planet has undergone total ecological destruction and humans cannot reproduce due to the Suppression Field the combine have installed. The few 'official' humans that remain live in numbered cities e.g. City 14, City 17.
The combine obviously want to discover the portal technology, but why do they maintain a civilian population? What good do ordinary humans serve to the Combine? The combine soldiers created out of humans are only used to police humans and are unlikely to be used elsewhere. Earth is it's own self contained environment in that regard.
As for the 'negotiated surrender', what is stopping them from breaking it? It's not as if Breen has any power. It's clear the combine want to kill humanity, but why not just get on with it? | 20 | They don't so much consider the remaining humans to be their enemies as they consider them to be their property. The Combine more or less think of them as livestock, so they aren't going to just throw them away. They aren't the type to be wasteful - for example, consider how they often repurpose existing structures, or how they're slowly stealing the entire ocean. Even the resistance cells may have been thought of more as "problem animals that need to be broken," rather than real threats. After all, they did conquer Earth in only seven hours, and that was twenty years ago. Plenty of time for the occupying Combine force to fall into a sense that humanity has been thoroughly "pacified."
Of course, once the Freeman returned and catalyzed the Resistance, the Combine probably reconsidered this stance. | 31 |
ELI5: If humans and chimpanzees share ~98% of their DNA with each other, then why do human siblings share only 50% of their DNA? | 15 | Humans and chimps share 98% of the available selection of genes from which the choices which define an individual could be made. Human siblings share 100% of that measure - they share 50% of the actual choices which are made from that. | 51 |
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ELI5: Why do we retain memories if all of our cells replace themselves after a small amount of years? | 12,130 | The concept that all your cells regenerate within 7-10 years is based on some misconceptions. Different types of cells regenerate at different rates. Some only last a few weeks while others last your entire life. Most of your brain cells are in the later category. The 7 years is based on an estimated average of all your cells.
And while we do not know much about how memories work there is some evidence suggesting that memories gets refreshed when you are asleep so that even if brain cells do not last your entire lifetime but gets damaged somehow the memories will get restored and refreshed from time to time. | 6,333 |
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ELI5: Why is tupperware wet coming out of the dishwasher, when plates and glasses are all dry? | 13,445 | Ceramic plates and glasses have a higher heat capacity - they can "hold" more heat, which is why they are hot when you take them straight out of the washer. Because they're hotter, they cause the water on their surface to evaporate.
Plastic is less dense and has a lower heat capacity, so the water that collects on them doesn't evaporate as easily. | 5,187 |
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[Star Wars] Why didn’t the Jedi do more to end slavery in the galaxy? | I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. But firstly I want to be fair to the Jedi and make a few concessions first
- I understand they cannot be everywhere at the same time
- I understand they are not all powerful despite their considerable abilities
- I understand that even at the height of the order they probably didn’t have a ton of qualified manpower to fight a prolonged conflict
That being said these are the reasons I still don’t find the aforementioned reasons excusable:
- The Jedi were absolutely aware slavery was still rampant, Anakins mothers enslavement was a known fact by at the very least the Jedi council, Obi-Wan and a few senators. Why was no effort made to free her?
- Slavery was especially rampant in Hutt space in the outer rim so a prolonged war would not be desirable. But aren’t the Jedi skilled communicators and negotiators? Why could they not come to a new arrangement or implement embargoes to put pressure on them to stop?
- Slavery had to be in existence in the galaxy for hundreds of thousands of years. Why did the Jedi not have a task force dedicated to eradicating slavery or rescuing slaves when and where they could?
- Why didn’t slavers face more pressure from the republic in the form or regular Jedi inspection of planets to see if illegal activities were afoot?
The Jedi clearly have tremendous power, with such fantastic power they share more responsibility for the injustice in the galaxy.
Surely the Jedi would realize that an injustice like slavery if allowed to perpetuate is a threat to justice everywhere. Why do they seem to turn a blind eye especially in the case of Shmi and slavery on Tatooine? | 110 | The Jedi were very few in number and slavery was a very widespread problem. Most slaves were held outside of the Republic and galactic center making it difficult to approach with any legal authority as a Jedi. Numerous cultures kept slaves as a traditional and cultural purpose making it even harder to overcome their practices. And finally the Jedi focused on imminent dangers to life and the Republic which slavery for all it's awfulness wasn't that threatening to them. The Jedi did often free slaves and stop slavers but without institutions to support the freed slaves as soon as the Jedi left another slavery would turn up and undo everything the Jedi had done. | 128 |
[DC] How dumb can a member of a Lantern core be? | All that's required is a strong connection to an emotion. | 57 | Never mind dumb, you don't even need to be *sapient*\- the red lanterns have a totally normal housecat.
As you say, it's all about strong emotion, and as long as you have enough of a mind to feel things you're a candidate. | 94 |
[keeping up with appearances] Why does Richard stay with Hyacinth after her bullshit | Being in a relationship with Hyacinth would seem like torture and built around it. High demanding, non-social and lacks any or sympathy for her partner. For what reason would Richard possibility have to stay with her? | 16 | Inertia. Richard’s life is reasonably comfortable and while his wife is annoying, getting a divorce and having to potentially find another place to live is probably more so. It’s logistically easier to stay and wait for death. | 14 |
What makes toast taste so much better than regular bread? | I understand that putting something in a toaster heats it up and makes it warm and crunchy, but what about this process makes bread so different? | 301 | The maillard reaction! It's what happens when toast gets browned and meat gets roasted. It's a chemical reaction between proteins and sugars, usually requiring heat. The exact flavor you get is dependent on the kinds of proteins and sugars in the food.
As to why it tastes good, nobody really knows - but it *is* known that cooking food increases the digestible calories available, so we probably evolved to enjoy the flavor of the maillard compounds, because they indicated that the cooked food was more nutritious. | 472 |
[Star Trek] Why exactly did the Borg piss arse about so much trying to assimilate Earth? | Several times the Bord decided it was worth their time to attempt to assimilate Earth. And they send one solitary cube? They know full well at this point that yes while a Borg ship is a formidable force against most federation ships and even fleets but also that the federation are dangerous.
&#x200B;
Dangerous enough to feel the need to assimilate them. What possible reason other than having the slightest hope of letting the federation win (which is the doyalist answer imo) would the borg have to only send one cube?
&#x200B;
We know they have cubes for days, so why not send 2 or 3 or fuck it 10? If they borg had just sent 2 cubes they would have basically walked up to earth and assimilated them almost without incident. | 147 | A predominate theory is that the Borg aren't really trying. They don't necessarily want to assimilate the Federation, they make half-heated attempts to in an effort to fatten the Federation up.
The Borg has enough resources to take out any native species (except, possibly, the Founders, and a singular example in Species 116). Yet that would actually be counter-productive. The Borg are interested in *adding* biological and technological distinctiveness to their own, which is defeated if they simply obliterate a nascent civilization before it has developed any biological or technological distinctiveness to begin with!
So if the Borg send a fleet of ships to... anywhere, there is a single outcome: the species is conquered. But that doesn't really tell us anything about the species and what they are capable of.
Send a single cube and you get three possible, informative answers:
The cube takes out the whole civilization - meaning they were probably too underdeveloped to be of interest anyway.
The cube is handily defeated - an advanced society that merits more direct attention.
The cube is barely defeated - a technology that is on its way to become worthy of more direct attention.
The Federation fell into the latter category.
Prior to Wolf-359, the bulk of the Federation Fleet were transport, medical, survey, and scientific vessels. Post Wolf-359 you get Defiant, (and later) Akira, Saber, Sovereign, and Steamrunner class ships. Ships that aren't just scientific vessels with lots of weapons, but actual warships.
This wasn't just about technological advancements, but a cultural shift from the Federation's "we're explorers" mindset.
You know one way of getting the most out of your hot peppers? You inflict damage on the plant. It produces more chemicals designed for its protection which leads to spicier flavor. You get more bang for your buck.
So basically the Borg are poking at the Federation, forcing a defensive response to encourage them to develop more advanced technology that they'll be interested in assimilating later down the road. | 347 |
[The Dark Knight] How did Gordon fake his death? | When the Joker tried to assassinate the Mayor, Gordon faked his death to protect his family, but how did he pull this off? He knew that the Joker was about to make an attempt on the Mayor's life, but had no idea what form that attack would take or when it would happen. When the gunfire started, Gordon must have improvised, and chosen his moment.
This seems like a very poor choice though. The streets had erupted into chaos, so it would take a while for the authorities to deal with his corpse. No coroner is going to attend until there is a reasonable expectation of safety. This means he would have ended up lying in the street for quite some time. There were plenty of other cops around who would have been upset with his passing, and might well have wanted to see his corpse, and maybe even touch him. He would have to remain motionless for quite a long time, and hoped they didn't notice he was still warm.
Did he have an accomplice? All the other cops looked visibly upset by his death, and neither Batman or Dent knew it was a ruse. He hadn't even told his family. Or did he just sneak away in the chaos? It seems unlikely that this would have gone unnoticed, with all those cops around | 49 | Who's to say that some of his closest fellows weren't in on it? By this time, Gordon had weeded out some of the corruption and had a few cops he trusted implicitly. It's very likely that he brought it up to them beforehand and told them to react appropriately.
His body wouldn't have been left out there because they would have 'heroically carried him off' to an ambulance, where they'd announce his death at a hospital, freeing him up to do his job without endangering his family. | 30 |
ELI5: Why do canaries show symptoms of poisonous gas before humans do, in the context of canaries in coal mines? | In elementary school, I was told by the teacher that canaries have smaller lungs than humans, making them more susceptible to poisonous gas but that answer never sat well with me because smaller lungs should take in less total poison dose. Also birds are smaller than humans so the poison concentration should be fairly similar on a per weight basis. The only way I could see the bird showing symptoms first is if it has a disproportionately increased respiratory and metabolic demands compared to humans, resulting in faster accumulation of poisonous gas or that poisonous gas of equivalent dose is more potent towards canaries than to humans? | 23 | Canaries have small lungs, rapid breathing, and fast metabolism. The end result is that they go through a disproportionate amount of air for their size.
Carbon monoxide also isn't "poisonous" so much as it disrupts your circulatory system, there isn't a fine level and lethal level like Hydrogen Sulfide or other poisonous gasses. CO preferentially bonds to hemoglobin preventing oxygen from bonding to that site the next time the blood passes through the lungs. A long exposure to a low level of CO can slowly build it up in your blood stream, the faster you go through air the faster it will build up, then you'll become confused and tired. If you're a canary that means you stop chirping well before you die.
Canaries in coal mines were really just early CO detectors that stopped chirping when there was gas. The body weight doesn't actually matter because its not really a specific level that causes problems, a low level and long time or high level and short time can both cause similar issues(confusion, drowsiness, and eventually death) | 30 |
ELI5: Why are the Koch Brothers bad? | just looking for a relatively unbiased look into the Koch brothers, if that's even possible | 24 | They spend more money than many countries produce in a year trying to influence democratically elected officials in order to promote their particular ideology, over the ideologies of the voting public who elected those officials.
Their particular ideology includes obtaining tax breaks and government handouts that benefit their companies (as well as others in their particular socioeconomic sphere) and ensuring that those outside of their particular socioeconomic sphere are the ones who pay for all those tax breaks and hand outs. | 47 |
ELI5: Why are genitals/buttholes darker than the rest of your body typically? | 41 | The same hormones that cause that area to develop during puberty also cause the skin to overproduce melanin (dark pigment). It's leftover evolution from when people didn't wear clothes and getting sunburned down there wouldn't feel great. | 54 |
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[Star Wars] Could Qui-Gon Jinn have tried appearing as a Force Ghost to Vader to attempt to guide him back to the Light Side? Would there have been any risk in taking this approach? | 153 | Qui-Gon died before finishing his training/preparation in becoming a Force Ghost. He was unable to appear visually without help from other Force Ghosts. However, as he was the first Jedi to have success in millennia, he was alone until Obi-Wan and Yoda and Anakin joined him. Together he was finally able to appear to Luke with their help after the death of the Emperor.
What he *did* do was appear as a disembodied voice both to Yoda and Qui-Gon, and taught them how to become Force Ghosts. With his guidance they were able to fully complete their training, and become full ghosts.
So by the time Qui-Gon could *appear*, Vader and the Emperor were dead. He *could* have spoken to them, like when he tried to stop Anakin from slaughtering the Sand People, but probably wouldn't have accomplished much.
Plus, who knows what the Emperor was capable of if he were to discover the existence of the Force Ghosts. This unique Light Side ability is arguably the single most powerful technique there is! To live after death, able to communicate at will with the living across the galaxy, able to train and assist their followers for years. All while being invulnerable and perhaps even immortal (so to speak). With this technique the Jedi could be totally wiped out, and return from the grave over and over. Unless the Emperor had someway of disrupting it, like he clouded the Force during the Clone Wars. The Jedi couldn't risk jeopardising their greatest weapon, and their own afterlife, just to "talk them out of it". | 124 |
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Why is this argument for moral realism so commonly used and accepted? Who came up with it? | Most instances I've encountered of people rejecting moral nihilism and/or moral relativism use an argument that more or less takes the following form:
"If there are no real morals or morals are relative, then I can kill a hundred babies for fun and nobody can say anything about it. That's absurd, so therefore universal moral truths are real."
The argument, from what I've seen, tends to be almost unanimously accepted by those who hear it. My Intro to Ethics textbook even used it (in a somewhat lengthier form), supposedly "putting an end" to logical opposition to moral realism.
However, this strikes me as a very poor argument for a couple of reasons:
1. It relies on the reader having a knee-jerk, mostly emotional response to the statement. This is not in the spirit of a rational discussion and, in my opinion, does not even belong in the realm of philosophy.
2. It completely disregards the fact that those who are ethical subjectivists do not advocate that the observer must accept the baby-killer's actions, as that itself is a value judgement. An ethical subjectivist would suggest that the observer would be justified in taking any actions that conform to their own ethical system (or lack thereof), including preventing the baby-killer from killing babies in the first place.
So, that said, my question is a two-parter: Which philosopher, if any, is credited with coining this argument against ethical subjectivism?
Additionally, why is the argument considered credible and/or how do the adherents of this argument defend it against my above points? | 53 | As has been brought up by warren, this isn't a common argument used for moral realism. Such a supposition would fly in the face of most of meta-ethical study.
It is a more common argument against cultural relativism, to elucidate how relativism has been dismissed (i.e. the belief that, because we're part of a particular culture we're unable to judge other cultures as wrong and therefore should be tolerant, open-minded, multicultural, etc.) because cultural relativism strips us of the tools to condemn things that are intolerant, close-minded, assimilationist etc. Perhaps that is what your textbook is referring to? Could you give a source? | 26 |
[Harry Potter] Were the death eaters convinced Harry was some immortal being? | I'm assuming the death eaters, hell, most people, did not know the intricacies of Harry's survival of the killing curse. He already became a legend, the boy who lived, after the first encounter. And now all those death eaters saw him survive yet again right infront of their eyes.
Harry must've come off as some unkillable being to them. Might even explain why some of them fled the scene when Harry revealed himself alive.
So yeah, what was the gossip around town? Do most people think he's unkillable? Did Harry "master death" in the minds of the people? | 624 | It seems, based on what we see, they didn't think he was *immortal*. They thought he had some incredible supermagic that let him defeat the dark lord even as a baby. A lot of their plans in the first few books were explicitly based on figuring out what it was, before lord voldemort revealed he was just lucky.
Presumably, after he was revealed he was alive, a lot of them thought "Oh shit, he *is* a superwizard!" and ran away. | 515 |
ELI5: Why don't we constantly see skeletons from dead animals/birds everywhere? Do they hide before they die? | 15 | Scavengers
If a fox finds a dead squirrel, he's not gonna sit down by the side of the road and feast right then and there. He's going to drag it back to his den so a larger scavenger (like a coyote) doesn't take it from him. And thus the bones do wind up hidden. | 10 |
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[Star Wars] Is there any realistic benefit to the way Starkiller holds his lightsaber? | I like the look of it quite a bit, it just doesn't seem ideal for any situation. | 80 | It allows for attacks at unexpected angles, which might confuse some opponents.
Realistically, Vader knew that apprentices tend to murder their master in the Sith, and so intentionally trained him to hold his saber in an indefensible stance to assure Vader's victory in the event of confrontation. | 101 |
ELI5: why erasing colored pencil is harder than erasing normal pencil? | I think this depends on what they put inside the pencil lead but I wanna know more | 85 | Normal pencils use graphite for their core. Graphite is quite brittle so that it is possible to break it apart and rubb it off a surface with the right tools. However graphite is very dark and does not really bond to much else which can be used as coloring pigments. So color pencils do not use graphite at all but rather wax. The wax can be mixed with pigments to make out the different colors. However unlike graphite the wax is very maluable and will just smear out if you try to erase it. The wax also have other properties you might want in a pencil such as being easier to write with on wet surfaces, does not produce dust and is non-conductive. | 118 |
[The Matrix] How is Neo able to see into the Matrix even when he's in the real world? | Its been a while since I've watched the films, but IIRC Neo is able to 'see' even after he is blinded in the real world by looking into the Matrix (this is how he kills the bad guy and later on is able to guide the ship). Would this imply that the real world is also a Matrix, and the Matrix is actually a Matrix within another Matrix? | 51 | Neo isn't exactly like the rest of the Matrix born humans. He is basically a failsafe system for the Matrix itself. In the incredibly convoluted speech the Architect makes in The Matrix Reloaded, he explains that "The One" was designed to come along and reset the Matrix when it becomes unstable. All the machines in the real world are all connected wirelessly to The Source, when Neo went to see the Architect he too became connected to The Source. Now he was supposed to enter it and reboot the system, but instead he chose not to. However he still had that connection, he was in essence both human and machine at this point, and his wireless connection to the Source allows him to "see" how the machines perceive the real world, as well as having a physical effect on them. | 58 |
ELI5 : How does the TV viewership calculated ? How do they know I am watching the TV program ? | 160 | They don't. There are a bunch of families who have a special box attached to their TV, provided by a company called Nielson Media Research. The box transmits what you watch back to Nielson, and the company uses that data to figure out roughly how many people are watching. | 93 |
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ELI5: Why are things funnier when I'm not supposed to be laughing? | Example, I'm at my work desk almost in fits reading a post (colleagues giving me shifty eyes starting to notice) but when I go to the toilet and continue reading I am no longer finding it funny. | 33 | It's social pressure. It's considered inappropriate to laugh in a social setting that demands silence, so your brain is spending more effort maintaining decorum.
Because it's trying to maintain order, anything that is absurd and humorous will become even more funny as a result of that. It's like your body's natural way of trying to calm you down because you're being too serious. | 17 |
[MCU] Which Olympic Events Would Steve Rogers NOT win? If team sports are included, could he bring a gold medal to the worst qualifying team from a non-host nation? | 134 | Probably some of the Equestrian events, particularly dressage.
I don't think I've ever seen him showing any more than a normal ability with horses, and most of those events require a lot of practice and coordination between horse and rider.
Though I'd have to check the rules. He might be able to do some of the jumping events carrying the horse instead of the other way around. | 188 |
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ELI5: How do water towers work? | 35 | When you pump water from point A to point B, sometimes everyone wants more water than a pump can handle. Say everyone flushes during a commercial break during the Superbowl. The water tower holds a bunch of water high up in the air so when there a drop in water pressure, gravity pulls water down and keeps the pressure up so everyone gets water. | 36 |
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[General Sci-Fi] What happens if you get the female version of you from another dimension pregnant? | Would the baby come out as a clone of the mother or father? Or would it be more like incest, resulting in a deformation of the baby? | 16 | For there to be a female version of you from another dimension, it requires that either that you have different genes or that somehow biology works differently.
Ignoring those concerns, the most likely outcome is high likelihood of problematic genes. Our eggs / sperm don't always contain the same genes as each other (or a specific half), so there's no reason to expect that the child would get complementary halves from the parents.
There are some stories that deal with a similar issue -- notably, [](#s "Predestination") which is based off of [](#s "All You Zombies") -- but in this case, they're about [](#s "time travel and impregnating yourself") which results in [](#s "your own birth"). | 21 |
[Marvel] Why don't advanced alien civilizations like the Chitauri and Xandar have technology better than Iron Man? | Or for that matter, Captain America's shield or Ant Man's shrinking suit? 1940's technology trumps interstellar travel? | 312 | Technological progression isn't linear.
Some civilisations achieve FTL space travel before they split the atom. Hell, one particularly backward arse bunch of apes split the atom before curing cancer... bloody savages. | 479 |
ELI5: why is private education in England called "public school"? | It's confusing. | 17 | A small number of older private schools are known as "public schools". When they were founded, the name made more sense because it indicated that they were open to the general public rather than being tied to membership of a particular church or other organisation.
Other private schools tend to refer to themselves as "independent schools", emphasising their independence from the government, but "private school" is also used. Government-funded schools are known as "state schools". | 18 |
ELI5: Why is it that when it is really cold outside, you can see steam coming from a vehicle's exhaust for several minutes, but then it becomes much less visible after the vehicle "warms up"? | 10,633 | One of the main components of exhaust is water. As the exhaust cools the water vapor becomes visible. For the first bit of driving the exhaust system is cold and this point happens inside the exhaust. After the vehicle warms up this point happens outside of the car and the effect is minimized.
In addition water usually accumulates in the exhaust and it takes a while to "dry out" the muffler and tailpipe. | 4,285 |
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Where do I learn how to code? | I want to get into video game design and computer science b it don’t know where to start. I can do basic stuff like “hello world” and GET requests but that’s about it. Does anyone know anywhere that could help me? | 15 | The best way, on the side of actual programming at least, is to actually do it. The best way is to build off tutorials...tutorials are helpful but you need to break away from them, use them as a reference point, not a guide.
The easiest way to do that is to take a tutorial, complete it, and then add extra stuff on your own.
If you have for a example a tutorial about making pong, add some extra stuff like a timer at the top, a top score board, etc...small things. | 11 |
CMV: State governments should have far more power than they currently have. | Over time, Congress has almost completely ignored Amendment X, which reads "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," and the Supreme Court has failed to preserve it. My argument won't focus on this, for the same reason that pro-gun arguments solely revolving around the fact that Amendment II *exists* are poor—something being in the Constitution doesn't automatically make it right. I just wanted to introduce this to show how forgotten this issue seems to be.
The United States is, as I'm sure you all know, a geographically large country and also a very diverse country—in many ways, not just racially, as often springs to mind. Because of this, not everyone will be affected equally by laws passed in Washington, DC. This principle applies to a lot of groups, but here we're talking about different states—how Wyomingites would be affected differently than Californians. I hate to bring guns into this, but they're a good example. Idaho had a gun murder rate of 1.5 per 100,000 people in 2015, with one of the highest gun ownership rates in the country, 56.9%. At the same time, they had very few gun control policies. Missouri also had very little gun control, but had a relatively meager 27.1% gun ownership rate with a gun murder rate of 6.9 per 100,000 people. I won't dive into why these numbers are so different, and this is not necessarily indicative of a trend of "high gun ownership rates=fewer murders" but it is clear that gun control is much more necessary in Missouri than Idaho, if it is necessary. At this point, I feel like I don't even need to say that federal gun control might solve problems in Missouri, but is an unnecessary waste of resources, not to mention the potential harmful effects, in Idaho. Again, this is just an example. My point here is not about guns—it is about the undeniable fact that not everywhere will be affected identically be federal laws. If Missouri passed gun control laws, it would affect Missouri without affecting states like Idaho. Federal laws affect all states—necessary or not.
When this country was young, you could knock on the White House door and ask for the president. Like it or not, those days are gone. The average American has little influence on what happens in the Capitol and the White House. They have far more influence on what happens in their state legislatures. It's as simple as the fact that these governments have fewer people to listen to, and thus can listen to each individual more. This point isn't very complicated—if states had more power, they would be better equipped to respond to the needs of the people.
The United States is too big to be ruled by one centrally located entity. State governments are more in touch with the needs of their state than anyone in Washington, DC. We can stop the federal government from harming certain parts of the country while benefiting others with its legislation by letting the states take care of their own problems. | 1,347 | It's not the 18th Century any more.
Things that happen in one state are, today, *far, far, far* more likely to affect people in other states than they were 200+ years ago.
And the Constitution gave the power to the federal government to regulate things that have impacts across state lines. And, indeed, who else *could* do so?
States are prohibited from dealing with interstate problems for very good reasons. Indeed, it's one of the main reasons to form a country out of them in the first place.
Furthermore, the 14th Amendment made it clear that states are prohibited from restricting the rights, immunities, and privileges of U.S. Citizens without due process.
This means that a lot of thing guarantees the constitution provides against federal interference have applied to the states since the mid-19th century.
The fact that states are much more interconnected now than then doesn't change the 10th Amendment, it just makes it apply to increasingly small numbers of things, because the states *are* prohibited from doing more and more things as time goes on and actions in one place affect more places more quickly and more directly. | 453 |
ELI5: Why do games look better on PC then on consoles even though consoles are built specifically for the function of playing games? | 53 | Consoles are also built to meet a price point & their specs are cemented at the time they are released. The PS4 was released almost 2 years ago at a price of $400.
PC's aren't limited that way. You can spend (nearly) as much as you want on one. You can also build them with the latest & greatest hardware. A $2000 PC built today will have more advanced & more powerful hardware than anything you'll find in a 2 year old console. That will allow it to play more demanding games that look better. | 58 |
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