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Will Venezuela's plummeting economy make it a good choice for low-wage industries? | I frequently read of the [shortages of practically everything in Venezuela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortages_in_Venezuela). I also frequently read of how the [Venezuelan Bolivar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_bol%C3%ADvar) is so worthless that [800 Bolivars are more valuable when turned into handbags for sale in Colombia](https://www.dw.com/en/venezuelas-worthless-currency-turns-into-bags-of-money/a-43833213). Yes, I understand that unfree markets are a major factor in all this.
However, it also makes me come up with these questions:
* If Venezuela is out of food and has a high unemployment rate, is there anything stopping the people from moving to the countryside to expand the agricultural sector?
* With such a worthless currency, and officials who are very happy to take bribes, wouldn't Venezuela be an attractive location for sweatshops?
* For the same reasons I listed as above, is Venezuela an attractive location for plantation agriculture? | 18 | There's plenty of poor countries out there.
Why would you choose one with such poor conditions for doing business.
It's very hard to move capital in and out of the country and exchange rates are extremely volatile. That makes it an unstable investment location.
Corruption and crime are rife. What's more the government has a history of simply nationalising companies. Your investment would not be safe.
The regime rapidly changes rules and regulations with poor economic foresight. So it could be legally impossible to operate your business all of a sudden. | 35 |
On a standard double-glazed window, which part of the glazing radiates out the most heat from indoors? The higher or lower end? | It's a bit of a silly question, but I can't get it off my mind.
I'm putting up some Static cling window films for winter because it reduces heat loss through the glass. The dimensions are roughly about 50x38 inches.
Since I'm not covering the entire window I started wondering which part of it would be where the largest portion of the heat escapes through the window's surface. My intuition tells me it is the upper half, but I'm also not sure if there would be any appreciable difference at that scale. The way modern double-glazed windows are structured to help prevent heat loss also makes me more uncertain if it would work quite that way. | 217 | The upper part because heat rises. But using the plastic on only part of the window won't help much. Insulation is trapped air. Heat travels more slowly through trapped air than it can through a solid object like a window frame. If you cover only part of the window there is no trapped air. A convection current will occur behind the plastic- warm air will rise up the side closer to the interior as cold air drops down the side closer to the cold glass. | 70 |
Why are dogs inclined to play fetch? This question has been asked previously, but the answers have lacked scientific evidence. Is it solely due to breeding? | Past threads:
* [Why do domestic dogs fetch random toys... Like over and over and over again?](https://np.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/j90rx/why_do_domestic_dogs_fetch_random_toys_like_over/)
* [Do dogs actually enjoy playing fetch? Or do they think that is what they are supposed to do because they get appraisal when they return the ball?](https://np.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/10ajxu/do_dogs_actually_enjoy_playing_fetch_or_do_they/) | 16 | Fetch is consistent with prey drive. The ball essentially mimics a prey animal. A dog with a strong prey drive will naturally chase the prey. They become conditioned to bring it back because they get to repeatedly chase and catch their prey. Several dogs are bred to enhance these characteristics. | 14 |
CMV: the invisible hand is not a good economic concept | first off, im a layman. i also feel compelled to state right now,from other cmv's, that im not an american. so please be gentle.
adam smith's invisible hand has been used to justify free market trade and capitalism as the best system of trade as opposed to top-down planned economies. my understanding of this concept is that in a world with no artificial constraints, the competition between buyers, sellers, and each other will result in the best products and the best prices rising to the top, and therefore the best outcome overall. the example is of ten farmers competing for limited buyers, and those with the best equipment, processes and goods will beat out other farmers. this example is often contrasted with a planned economy leading to worse productivity.
but why? why exactly is free market trade just better than planned economies? it seems like the explanation 'the invisible hand bro just trust me' is literally and figuratively handwaving away the specifics. its like if newton, to answer the question of why apples hate him, simply concluded that there was an invisible hand throwing apples at his head whenever he sleeps under ripe apple trees. it does nothing to answer the how and why. it just paints the picture of a happy, optimal society under this system that is published by those who proposed it.
in the ten farmers example, cant the planned economy simply prioritize the ones with the best output themselves? my gut, soaked in the currently dominant ideology of freedom, tells me that giving power to the little guy, the individuals, at least nominally is good, and giving power to the already powerful is bad. that sentiment in itself feels right. but i feel that it isnt a good explanation of economic forces.
i realize now that he probably expounded on his beliefs a lot more on the rest of his book, and this 'invisible hand' thing is probably just the easy, fit-for-mass-consumption condensed version of his beliefs. i still think that its not a principle like supply and demand, or elastic/inelastic goods. cmv | 15 | You're right in that if a person just tells you the words 'invisible hand', it's not a very helpful explanation.
I think the elaborated explanation is, with a free market economy, people have an incentive to produce what other people want, because they can profit by selling to people what they want. And on top of the incentive, they have the freedom to do so. Therefore, as if guided by an invisible hand, the economy ends up producing what people want without a central figure directing people to produce stuff.
In a planned economy, the planner has to guess what things people want or need. In simple hypotheticals it sounds feasible, but real economies are much larger and more complex, and one person trying to anticipate all the needs is going to lead to mistakes and inefficiencies. A good example would be the famine under Mao in the 50s. In that time, China produced enough food to feed everyone, but the problem was it wasn't distributed efficiently. It was distributed according to the plan, and some areas got more than they needed and some not enough. Theoretically in a free market economy, the distribution problem would have sorted itself out, because food sellers would have an incentive to sell their food where it could fetch the highest price: i.e., the areas that needed it most. | 46 |
[Jupiter Ascending] what is the long term effects of a protected world like earth? | Secondary question is there any way to move away from their immortality economy? | 39 | 1)
It depends on how the world will eventually be "used". Say it is protected long enough for them to develop Space faring technology they could eventually either join the galactic community and also start using the immortality technology. Or they could see themselves as endangered and start a war against the other humans (most likely the other humans wouldn't (want to) accept them anyways and see them as inferiors).
So either you have a few billion more people on in this galactic community or you have a war (which humanity (Terranity?) would most likely lose).
2)
No. Not unless the royals (influential people) want to give up their immortality which judging by how far they would go just to get a planet with a few billion citizens on it would most likely not be the case. | 12 |
[Star Wars] Isn't becoming a Force Ghost more of a Sith move? | The attachment implied by hanging around after you've died just seems a bit *off* somehow.
It seems to me that keeping conscious after your body perishes violates the circle of life. As everything lives, everything dies.
I could see sidious creaming his pants at the thought of becoming a Force Ghost and being able to wander to different planets and call down lightning strikes without a squishy corporeal form.
By the same token I would have thought jedi would "become one with the force" by experiencing ego-death and actually returning to the force like a Buddhist reaching nirvana or something.
How is using magic to return from the dead and influence the living in anyway maintaining balance and the natural order of the force? | 270 | From the right point of view, staying around as a force ghost can be seen as the more selfless thing to do. It can be compared to the Buddhist concept of the Bodhisattva, a person who becomes enlightened but chooses to return to the cycle of reincarnation in order to help others become enlightened, rather than escaping the cycle of suffering. The Jedi who we've seen become ghosts do just that: help to guide and mentor the next generation of Jedi. In the desperate times that the Galaxy was going through, Obi-Wan and Yoda likely saw this as preferable to becoming one with the Force immediately. | 303 |
Is the optic nerve stretchy or is there some slack to let your eye move? | When you move your eye to look around, does the optic nerve stretch or is there a little bit of slack inside your skull to allow the nerve to be pulled? | 114 | The optic nerve in an adult has about 8mm of slack to allow the eye to move.
Nerves in general do not stretch very much, and the optic nerve in particular cannot stretch at all. That's because it is part of the central nervous system.
Because the nerve connects directly to the brain, it is covered in an extension of the brain's protective membrane envelope. Those membranes are called the "meninges," and consist of three layers: the dura, the arachnoid, and the pia mater. The dura is the outermost layer. It's relatively thick and consists of tough, fibrous, connective tissue, to protect the other membrane layers and the underlying nerve itself. It doesn't stretch significantly, and that means the whole bundle has to stay a pretty much constant length. | 160 |
ELI5 what is a socialist? | 16 | A socialist is someone who believes in economic democracy; under capitalism or feudalism, a relative few people are in charge of most of the wealth. In a socialist system, theoretically, the ownership and control would be much more spread out somehow. Different socialist factions disagree on exactly how that should be implemented and maintained.
A traditional capitalist business is usually owned by one person or a small group of people, who make all the important decisions. An example of a socialist business is a worker co-operative, in which all the workers own a share and run the place democratically.
Countries like the former Soviet Union, in which there is little to no democracy and the economy is planned, are often called socialist and called themselves that, but if we take socialism to mean “economic democracy” they were actually nothing of the sort. The USSR’s first leader Vladimir Lenin himself called what they were doing “state capitalism”—it replicated the concentrated, top-down structure of capitalism except with government taking the place of rich people. | 13 |
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CMV: Different outcomes do not imply discrimination | I found out the other day about Disparate Impact in the United States and was kind of concerned. [Here](https://www.investopedia.com/disparate-impact-5114526) defines disparate impact as:
\>Disparate impact refers to the result of the application of a standard, requirement, test or other screening tool used for selection that—though appearing neutral—has an adverse effect on individuals who belong to a legally protected class.
Which basically means “If the outcome of a law looks racist/sexist/ageist/etc. then the law should be treated as if it is racist/sexist/ageist/etc. regardless of if there was any discriminatory intent.”
At some level, I agree, you should focus on policies that actually help people to succeed, not just on policies that claim to help people succeed, and I agree with it insofar as I agree that you should try to have effective policies that make a difference. However, the idea of disparate impact (and a lot of current political discussions) seems to be premised on two ideas I disagree with.
1. In the absence of discrimination, different groups/people would have identical outcomes
2. If there are different outcomes between groups, it must be due to discrimination. (You could argue that disparate impact is saying we don’t care if it’s discrimination or not, but I’ll respond to that later.)
Just to be clear, (and because a lot of debate is, I think, from not agreeing on definitions) I’m using the following definition of discrimination:
\>The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability.
For instance, denying someone a job because they’re male is discrimination, because it’s unjust and prejudicial. Denying someone a job because they aren’t as qualified as the other applicants, regardless of their identities, is just and fair. If 9 unqualified men apply for a job, and one qualified female applies, picking the female isn’t discrimination, even if the hiring manager happens to be sexist against men.
Now, in response to 1. I think it’s just absurd. Cultures and cultural values, families and family values, goals in life, social skills, and inborn ability seem to have a much larger impact in an individual’s success or failure than discrimination, especially in a day and age when racism/sexism/etc. are illegal in many ways. And yes, discrimination may have influenced some of these things, but arguing that present or past discrimination is a significant causal force in every significant aspect of a person’s life seems like a really, really big claim. Additionally, a world history of groups that never interacted with each other having very different outcomes clearly shows that other aspects impact success than one group discriminating against each other.
As an example: If you pick a random white person in the US, chances are 7.3% that they are in poverty. If you do the same with a random black person, chances are 18.8% that they are in poverty ([source](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html)). If you pick a different characteristic, though, you see even bigger differences than by race ([source](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/17/parenting-in-america/)):
\>In 2014, 31% of children living in single-parent households were living below the poverty line, as were 21% of children living with two cohabiting parents. By contrast, only one-in-ten children living with two married parents were in this circumstance. In fact, more than half (57%) of those living with married parents were in households with incomes at least 200% above the poverty line, compared with just 21% of those living in single-parent households.
So if you picked a random child in a single parent household, there is a 31% chance that they are in poverty. If you picked a random child in a two-parent household, there’s about a 10% chance they’re in poverty. If you had to pick a statistic to tell you if someone was in poverty, knowing if they’re in a single parent home or not is more reliable for prediction that than knowing their race. What I’m trying to get at is not the many issues of single parent families, but the fact that that there are many non-discriminatory things that contribute to inequality in the US. (If you’re interested in the interaction of the two, or how two-parent families affect black poverty, [this](https://www.aei.org/articles/the-power-of-the-two-parent-home-is-not-a-myth/) is an interesting article about that, though it’s not directly related to this issue)
In response to 2. I think most people agree that this isn’t true, but that’s what I’m here to find out. For instance: A quick look at [the Wikipedia page on ethnic groups in the US by household income](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income) shows that median income for Indian Americans is almost twice that of White Americans. Does this mean that White Americans discriminate for Indian Americans twice as much as themselves (however you quantify discrimination)? Or that Indian Americans discriminate against White Americans? Should we have protests against “Indian Power”? Or (as I think is more likely) that there are a host of factors involved in income, and Indian Americans tend to have more of those factors more of the time than White Americans. Even if, by chance, the overwhelming reason is discrimination, saying that there are different outcomes for two different groups isn’t enough to prove the existence or prevalence of that discrimination. You need more than a correlation to prove causation.
Another data point I found interesting is this quote from [this study](http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/assets/documents/race_summary.pdf), under the heading “The black-white income gap \[in America\] is entirely driven by differences in men’s, not women’s, outcomes.”
\>Among those who grow up in families with comparable incomes, black men grow up to earn substantially less than the white men. In contrast, black women earn slightly *more* than white women conditional on parent income. Moreover, there is little or no gap in wage rates or hours of work between black and white women.
Does discrimination only exist against black men, and not black women? Or are there other significant factors (besides discrimination, if that is a significant factor at all) that affect outcomes?
Now, a note on what I’m not saying:
I’m not saying that there isn’t discrimination against all sorts of identities and that this discrimination doesn’t have real consequences on outcomes, just that seeing different outcomes isn’t enough to prove that discrimination exists. I’m not saying that policies that disparately affect different groups are necessarily good, just that they aren’t inherently discriminatory.
Now, I imagine some people will say “It doesn’t matter if it shows discrimination or not, the fact that the outcomes are uneven are enough to make them bad.” To which I sort of agree, sort of disagree. That’s not the main opinion I’m stating here, but I think it’s worth addressing within the framework of my opinion:
I hope I’ve established already that equality of outcome is not a self-evident good. Some people want to live simple lives, or prioritize family above work, and so their goals in life may lead them to choose less remunerative professions or turn down promotions. Some people want more material goods, so a higher income is exactly what they want in life, even if it comes at the expense of other things like family or spiritual things. You wouldn’t expect these people to have the same outcomes in life as measured by financial numbers, and that’s okay. They’re both pursuing their own goals and not hurting other people by doing it, I say let them do things their own way.
Now, if you have a policy designed to help people, and it helps people of some groups more than others, I think that’s something worth looking at. However, assuming it’s discrimination, or assuming it’s automatically bad and should be scrapped, isn’t helpful. It may be that the groups have different cultural norms, so that result would be expected, and nothing is wrong with the policy. It may be that the groups have different needs. If the issue is that group X needs A and group Y needs B, and the policy is providing A, then you don’t need to scrap the policy. You need to add another policy that provides B (which policy would have the opposite disparities). The policy isn’t discrimination because it’s providing A justly and without prejudice to everyone, that’s just not what everyone needs. If there is actual discrimination, you should address that. In short: look at what’s actually causing the disparity, then address that. I think my opinion on this could be summed up by a quote by a guy about a disparate impact decision by the supreme court:
\> "our members are strong advocates for fair lending and enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. Disparate Impact theory, however, is not the right tool to achieve fairness and prevent discrimination in lending, This approach can have unintended consequences, such as causing financial institutions to shrink their operations rather than risk litigation, hurting the very groups it is intended to help."
Anyways, my main point, and the main thing I’m looking to get other viewpoints on, is the falsity of the related ideas that 1. Without discrimination, people would have the same outcomes, and 2. If there are disparities among groups, it must be due to discrimination.
Note: I know I used a lot of data, but I’m not using all the data to say “I’m right, you’re wrong”, I just think not enough people do their research and use real data in arguments, and I’m trying to be the change in that. I’m open to new perspectives and ways of looking at this issue, I just don’t like stating my position using unsubstantiated generalities.
Edit: I'm going to bed now, thanks for all the great and helpful responses, especially in helping me understand Disparate Impact Theory and it's implementation in law. I'll respond to more of the comments tomorrow. | 72 | How do you feel about the studies done on black children that were adopted into Asian families, suddenly losing their disadvantages and being statistically similar to other classes despite the historic thoughts that they were naturally predisposed to a lower economic outcome? | 29 |
[Kaiju movies in general] Why do fighter jets and gunships that fire on giant monsters always fly within their melee striking distance? | 61 | Without the ability to "lock on" to something, either your dumb fire a missile from a mile away at a moving target or you get as close possible and dumb fire the missile into the building sized monster, which is a much easier if more dangerous shot to make. There are missiles that are guided by a person, but it's hard for a missile to make a sharp turn, so releasing as close as possible is your best bet to hit any target. | 53 |
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ELI5: Why aren't we supposed to put Q-Tips in our ears and how else are we to reach that level of cleaning without them? | I get that there's a risk involved when cleaning your ears with Q-Tips, but other risky stuff isn't explicitly said not to do. | 34 | There is a very high likelihood that you will push ear wax into the ear canal possibly leading to an infection or piercing of your ear drum. You can even pierce the ear drum with the q-tip if you push it too deep.
And you are not suppose to reach that level of cleaning. Ear wax is a natural and needed component of ear health. To remove too much of it means you are removing the protection your ears have and leave them open for infection. | 40 |
[General] I'm worried that my space empire is actually interleaved with other species' realms (methane breathers, solar dwellers, etc). How can I realistically protect my so-called "borders"? | In terms of them wanting my planets we should be pretty okay ... I don't want to live on Jupiter, for example. But eventually there'll be contention over asteroid belt mining, or my Navy will get too jittery watching incomprehensible alien vessels flit about and simply blow them away. | 54 | You either make the call to spend resources defending planets that are useless to you out of some sort of xenophobia, or you realize that interleaved borders aren't a problem.
In the latter case, you keep the lines of communication open, negotiate ahead of time, and in the worst case just defend the resources you care about rather than defending everything. | 36 |
[Star Trek] Why did Starfleet/Federation agree not to pursue cloaking technology despite two of its historical adversaries (Romulans and Klingons) having the technology and it giving them a far more advantage over them in battle? | 16 | The treaty of Algeron.
In 2311 (between TOS and TNG), there was a short conflict between the UFP and the Romulan Star Empire that would later be referred to as the Tomed Incident. There is little cannonical information as to the specifics of this conflict other than that thousands of lives were lost on both sides.
Following the incident, the UFP and RSE redrew the borders of the neutral zone and amongst the terms of the treaty were that the UFP wouldn't pursue cloaking technology and the RSE would withdraw from galactic politicking.
On the face of it this was absurd terms for the UFP to agree to, but without knowing the specifics of the Tomed incident, we don't know just how desperate for peace they were. Another often overlooked factor that may have gone into their decision is that was about 20 years after the Khitomer accords, the UFP already had backdoor access to cloaking tech due to their alliance with the Klingons.
They didn't need to cloak after this point. They had established treaties to their galactic east with the RSE and Klingons, and to their west was relatively minor powers that also didn't have cloaking technology. It wasn't until the discovery of the wormhole that they had a technologically equivalent adversary that warranted a cloak, and the Romulans agreed that they should get one for that specific purpose. | 26 |
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[Pokémon] What's the nature of Dugtrio's consciousness? | Do all three heads share the same mind? If not, where do the other two come from when Diglit evolves? Do they just appear? Do they split off from the original diglit's mind? Does it ever explain this? | 27 | According to the Hoenn Pokedex:
> Dugtrio are actually triplets that emerged from one body. As a result, each triplet thinks exactly like the other two triplets. They work cooperatively to burrow endlessly.
However, there is but one sign of disagreement in *Ultra Sun's* Pokedex:
> While the three of them normally get along splendidly, on rare occasions a huge fight will break out over which head gets to eat first. | 21 |
[Inside Out/Slasher Movies] What is going on inside the minds of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Leatherface? | 30 | Their emotions have the settings wrong, their video feed is coming back with a dream distortion that makes violent acts seem cute and cuddly. If we look inside then we'll see a avery proud joy working her little socks off.
Much like the pyro from TF2 | 47 |
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[MCU] Besides plot and a “weaker” suit, how did Iron Man lose to Captain America and Winter Soldier after previously going toe to toe with the likes of Thor, Killian, and Ultron? How did Cap and Bucky’s faces not get broken throughout the fight against Iron Man? | 64 | Barnes received a version of the Super Soldier Serum. Cap did as well. Neither one was a standard human and it would take a whole lot to "bust their faces".
And while their stamina and resilience was a pretty important factor in the fight, the main thing was that Tony was *not* fighting rationally. He was full on-tilt. He was not using the suit's abilities to their fullest extent and he wasn't thinking strategically.
(I mean, flying outside and bringing the whole thing down would have been more effective than engaging two super soldiers in hand-to-hand combat.)
Damage to the Mark 46 limited his effectiveness as the fight wore on, but it had a secondary effect as well. It forced Tony to realize that in a straight-up brawl the Mark 46 was not strong enough to defeat Bucky and Steve, especially because they worked so well together (like the passing around the shield thing).
So he asked Friday to do a bit of thinking for him, and that enabled him to turn the tables to some degree.
If Stark had walked in and began to methodically destroy his opponents in a dispassionate curb stop, there's not much that Cap or WS could have done about it. | 105 |
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[Fantastic Four] Why is Reed Richards called Mr. Fantastic and not Mr. Stetchy or something related to his powers the way the other members are? | I recently heard [this comedy bit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDzBVvhbtIw) which was pretty funny, but raises a good question. Reed, especially when they got their powers, doesn't seem to be so egotistical and narcissistic, yet for some reason he goes by Mr. Fantastic. Almost as if he wants to take credit for the whole Fantastic Four. What gives? Everyone else's name relates to their powers, or in the case of Ben, the change in his appearance. Is Reed that much of an egotistical jerk? | 17 | Kind of, yes, but also: Reed's real power - the real thing he brings to the team - isn't his stretchy body, but his fantastic brain. He is, quite simply, the greatest genius on Earth. Calling himself Stretch Deadlift or Blast Longfinger or Roll Plasticbody would be kind of a self-burn, because it's ignoring what really makes him special. | 31 |
[General Sci-Fi] Why must these type of teleporters destroy the original? | There exists in different stories a type of teleporter that doesn't transport matter, but instead has a cache of matter at each location. When a person or object is to be teleported, information is sent about how the person or object is assembled and then a copy is made at the destination, while the original is disassembled. Why must the original be disassembled? This is akin to sending a fax and having the original sheet exit into a furnace, and saying the sheet was teleported. More precisely, a copy was made and the original destroyed. I can understand that this method would be convenient in other ways though: replication, production, etc. | 27 | Typically the explanation is that the scanning process is destructive in and of itself. To get the necessary resolution the scanner must destroy the original.
It's less like the fax original exiting to a furnace, and more like the light being so bright/hot that it burns the original as it makes its scanning pass. | 28 |
[12 Cloverfield Lane] Just how practical was Howard's bunker? | I mean the bunker itself was pretty impressive. Recycle air and water, lots of food and even tv to watch. However there are just two regular large doors that stop people from getting. The bunker might be good to prevent toxic air from getting in, but if it was a military invasion or aliens and they wanted to get into this large door, they could have simply just blown it down with a missile and walk right in? | 58 | It was designed to help survive in an environmental contamination scenario. Usually not many people are left alive outside, so physical security wasn't a priority.
Howard was forced to rely on the bunker's inconspicuousness, which seemed to work fairly well. Only one person thought to investigate it and she may have just been lucky.
Wouldn't 12 Cloverfield be Howard's neighbor? | 64 |
Does incrementing (a++ and a=a+1) have the same ‘cost’ in computer? Or it depends on the programming language and the way incrementing is implemented low-level? | 33 | It does depend, but in a sensible language it shouldn't, most languages it won't, certainly not any mainstream C compiler.
That said, addition is extremely cheap and is very rarely going to be the bottleneck in your application.
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil" - Donald Knuth
It's much more important to write working code, and then second to write modular code. Once you've done that, if you notice your application not being fast enough, then you can make it faster.
There are some exceptions, but these are generally "best practices". So for example if you have an enormous list of things and you want to check if something is in that list, that list had better be a hash table (dict/vector etc.). Anyway--computers are fast, don't worry about small stuff like that for now. | 37 |
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ELI5: Why are toilets in North America different from their European counterparts? Is it possible to purchase a "European" toilet in NA? | For those who don't know what im talking about [Euro](http://www.ppatt.com/justput/europot.jpg) [USA](http://www.ppatt.com/justput/toilet.jpg).
Not sure if there is other variants elsewhere in the world, this is just what I'm familiar with. | 27 | Because we (Europeans) use the toilet the correct way. You're supposed to sit down facing the tank, so that you have that nice little shelf for your comics and chocolate milk.
Incidently your poo will go right down the hole, if you're taking a Sir Harrington. | 30 |
[MCU] If Dr Strange has no special qualities and learned magic as a regular human, then can anyone learn magic? | For example, what about a badass Iron-man with magic? Or Spiderman. | 67 | Hypothetically yes, depending on the continuity.
Realistically no, learning magic takes a certain mindset, along with a fair amount of intelligence, a good memory etc.
Excluding some people who's powers are mutually exclusive with magic, anybody can hypothetically learn (usually).
But without the right mindset and ability the cost/reward ratio is so small it's not worth it. | 99 |
Why do teeth have nerves attached to them if the only thing they do is get infected and hurt? | What is the evolutionary advantage of teeth having nerves? tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the body so why is the inner part of the tooth something that just drives you crazy when it's exposed? | 178 | Ever have a root canal or a dead or fake tooth? You actually do have feeling in your teeth which help you know how much pressure you are applying onto something or when to stop biting because there is a bone or rock in your food that is breaking them. You don't necessarily need the nerves but you use the feeling in your teeth more than you realize. | 114 |
ELI5 How did the owners of Grumpy Cat turn that whole thing into a money making enterprise? | I've heard they quit their day jobs and are raking in millions. What exactly are they selling and who is paying them? | 15 | The cat, Tartarsauce, has numerous books, meme's and even a movie created around the idea of 'Grumpy Cat'.
Since the cat cannot legally have money in an account under her name, the owners of the cat are the ones who benefit. (Like any animals in a movie, but this sense is more extreme)
They get paid from royalties of all the books, pictures, calendars, toys, cothes, posters, games movies and other things. | 13 |
CMV:The Orlando shooter was propelled by BOTH his religious beliefs as well mental instability. | In the wake of this atrocity, a myriad of various opinions have been voiced, both here on Reddit as well as the rest of the Web and the world. Among the most prevalent viewpoints is that *Omar Mateen was motivated by his adherence to Islam*. As an ex-Muslim, I've devoted a lot of time and thought to pondering the values and tenets of my former religion, as well as scanning various online forums pertaining to Islam and atheism. The Orlando shooting has actuated the expression of different comments such as "Religion of peace? LOL" or "This is why Islam is evil to the core." I'm no expert, but I'd like to probe further into the claims of religion's role in this crime. More than anything, I want you to test my stance on Islam and its contribution to terrorism.
Undoubtedly, Mateen was a Muslim and placed faith in Islam. *Did he actually follow the genuine teachings of Islam, or did he "mutate" Islam and distort its teachings?* For now, I'd ignore the nuances of Islamic teachings and whether he actually followed them or not. This is simply because **the Qur'an and the hadith contain such a vast range of teachings (that often contradict one another) that it's hard to discern whether Islam condones or condemns homosexuality, misogyny, apostasy, and such**. Trying to figure out what "Islam really says" would take a whole new post. You are welcome to challenge this conclusion.
For now, though, I think it would be best to focus on one single statement: **Omar Mateen's hatred on homosexuals originates from his belief in Islam.** Whether Islam actually mandates hatred of homosexuals is another question entirely.
This is why he "got angry after observing two men in Miami kiss." His own father attested to his homophobia, and Mateen's decision to shoot up a gay club pays testimony to his attitude towards gay people. The shooting has been rightly labeled a hate crime, and I believe that his hatred of gays comes purely from his adherence to Islam. The Qur'an labels homosexuality a "transgression", spurring Muslims to adopt grave antagonism towards homosexuals. This is common knowledge.
But I also believe that when people are blaming solely Islam for this crime, they're wrong. Yes, without doubt, Islam played a prominent role, but his mental instability is what actually propelled him to barge into a club and claim 50 lives. His ex-wife informed us that he was "not a stable person" and was abusive. His co-worker said he was "belligerent." **This points to mental instability and difficulty with managing his temper.**
Most Muslims are upset when seeing two men kiss. Most Muslims do not support gay rights. *But at the same time, most Muslims do not consider walking into a club and slaughtering gay people.* Even if a Muslim supports Shariah law and even the death penalty for homosexual activities, he or she would probably not feel compelled to *personally* kill a gay person. Mentally stable people just don't tend to adopt genuinely murderous attitudes.
This is where mental instability comes in. Mateen clearly demonstrates mental instability. This is why he entered a club and slaughtered 50 people. **His Muslim faith gave rise to his hatred of gays, but it was his mental problems that propelled him to commit mass murder.**
You are welcome to point out flaws in my reasoning. The primary reason I wrote this is because my older Muslim sister is attending university in the US this August (we live in Bangladesh) and I'm worried about the burgeoning anti-Muslim sentiment in America. She supports LGBT rights just as much as I do and, like most Muslims, condemns these killings. The bottom line here is that simply because *someone is a part of a culture that embraces a violent ideology does not mean that that someone agrees with that ideology's tenets.*
Thanks for reading!
**Sources:**
Ex-wife's comments: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ex-wife-of-suspected-orlando-shooter-he-beat-me/2016/06/12/8a1963b4-30b8-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html?postshare=7921465748801168
Co-worker's comments: www.nbcnews.com/storyline/orlando-nightclub-massacre/terror-hate-what-motivated-orlando-nightclub-shooter-n590496
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | 458 | All the evidence points to him being an abuser. But abusers are more often than not, completely mentally stable. They are in full control of their actions, and use anger and violence not because they can't control it, but because they are aware that using it will be effective and have no consequences.
There is little reason to believe that he was mentally unstable unless you believe that every mass shooter and every abuser is mentally unstable. | 102 |
Askscience, This is keeping me up tonight, help. If I was on the surface of the moon with a helium balloon and I release that balloon, it should fall to the surface right? | 345 | Yes. Assuming the balloon is strong enough not to explode in the airless vacuum, it will drop to the ground just like any other object.
If you drop a hammer, a feather, and a helium balloon all at the same time, they will all hit the surface at the same time. | 366 |
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[Marvel] I'm a college student going on an exchange program to Latveria for a year. Is there a lot of censorship in Latverian Academia? | I've decided to take part in this program because I've heard that Latverian schools are AMAZING. But I also know that media is tightly controlled there. Does this extend to academic studies? Are there subjects/authors/texts that I'm forbidden from studying or mentioning while I'm there? I'm not trying to get my host family executed. Anything else I should be prepared for while I'm there?
EDIT: Followup question, while I'm thinking about it...what is the likelihood that my host family is comprised entirely of Doombots? | 83 | Mostly it's cool but they have some weirdly specific hate speech laws. You can say anything you like about most groups but one wrong word about the Romani and you disappear. Like literally disappear. There's a flash of light and then you're gone. Sometimes you smell sulfur. | 60 |
[Red Dead Redemption 2] Why didn't the gang simply take care of Micah early on? Kick him out, ditch him, hell even straight up kill the guy. | I understand that, later on in the game, he had wormed his way to becoming Dutch's right hand man, but why not after he had initially joined? He's racist, self centered, insults everyone except Dutch, and a relative newbie to the gang. Why didn't Arthur, who at the time had much more pull with Dutch, just get rid of him? Surely almost the entire gang would have supported him. | 15 | Because Dutch was still the leader and had pull where most gang members didn’t. At the time, the gang still saw Dutch as their best bet to survive. It wasn’t until Hosea’s death that they started to realize he was fully losing it and, by that point, Micah was already too deep into his loyalty. | 12 |
Does energy have gravity? | For something to have gravity, must it have mass? Does light, for example, have gravity associated with it? Would greater concentrations of energy have more gravity? | 48 | Forms of energy which are not mass do indeed contribute to gravity. Light is one example, but most of the time the energy density of light is far too small to have a significant effect compared to all the other stuff in the universe. However, in the very early universe, there was a time when the energy density due to radiation dominated the expansion of the universe. | 17 |
CMV: The average American person does not care about black kids being shot. | We see massive news reports about people like Elliot Roger shooting a bunch of people, and it's seen as a tragedy. Which it admittedly is.
But we rarely see news reports about the senseless violence against innocent black kids in inner cities. These kids are often senselessly executed for not joining a gang or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The truth is that proportional to the population the amount of reports about white kids being shot is much higher than black kids, while the violence towards black kids is proportionally higher.
We pass new regulations to prevent the terrible tragedies like Sandy Hook and the shooting in CA. But because no one pays attention to the violence inflicted on black children we aren't doing anything to fix the problem.
The reason that I blame the american people instead of the media is that the media just plays what gets views. If black kids getting shots got views then the media would report it. And it's not that violence doesn't get attention, but that violence against black kids doesn't.
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | 15 | Is the view you want changed that people care if black teens get shot? Im not really sure what you want you just seem to be stating things matter of fact and theres no real question.
The reason black on black teen deaths arent covered is because they are such a common occurance. How often do we have a elliott rodgers? Once a year or so? How often is black teen murder going on? Mulitple times a day in every major city in America. Its a common occurance which doesnt make news. People cared about Treyvon Martin. Why? Because it isnt a common for a black teen to be shot by a George Zimmerman. Thats why its news. If every black teen murder was given a full news coverage story everyday it would completely flood the news cycle. CNN would be nothing but black on black crime.
So how do we make black teen shootings news? How about we as a people stop killing each other in such large numbers to the point where its common place and people no longer bat an eye. How about we stop idolizing gang and street culture and the idea that its cool to shoot people. Have you seen the rap videos from chicago? Those are 13 year old children with fully automatic weapons and no regard for human life because they dont know any better. So how about we as a people get our shit together and stop murdering each other. Then maybe one day in the future once we've stopped killing each other over bullshit black on black murder wont be so common. Maybe even one day itll be rare. And then you know what? Itll make the fucking news.
| 13 |
Why are there more islands in the Pacific Ocean compared to the Atlantic Ocean? What causes this difference? | The Pacific Ocean is significantly older than The Atlantic Ocean, does this have anything to do with the amount of islands each contains? Or does the depth of the oceans play a role in it? | 26 | There are several factors.
Firstly, the pacific is obviously bigger so it's normal to expect more islands in it.
Secondly, the Atlantic is growing (South America and Africa are moving away from each other) so the newly formed ocean bottom as this happens is at the bottom of the ocean. Some places in the Pacific are moving towards each other, hence places like Japan and New Zealand. When two plates push together it makes sense that parts of the ocean stick up above the water. | 19 |
ELI5:Why does Iowa always choose the presidential candidate? Why don't we switch states up for every caucus? | 182 | Iowa doesn't choose the presidential candidate. In fact it's only about 50/50 even at predicting the outcome of the primaries. It is however the time that we see actual vote results for the season rather than polling data. This generally leads to a big shift in campaigns. Donors can flood in or dry up depending on the outcome and momentum that can lead straight to the party nomination can result from that simple fact. | 114 |
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[MCU] Can The Watcher see the TVA's actions? | Like has he ever seen the doors open and close and the pruning of a timeline? | 29 | It would be odd if he couldn't. If nothing else, he would have seen it's origins - the person running it came from a universe like any other, after all. They just didn't stay there.
The Watcher might not be able to see into the TVA itself, though maybe he can, but he can certainly see anything they do outside of it. He's The Watcher. It's what he does.
Now, whether the head of the TVA is in some way aware of The Watcher is another question. | 43 |
How much fuel could you distill from 5L of 42 proof whiskey? Fuel being interchangeable with gasoline (assuming you had the mechanical know how to convert your vehicle to run on alcohol)? | I saw [this](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/12xpm8/i_have_searched_the_world_over_for_a_cheaper/) post and was curious about being able to turn it into fuel. At the price of $3.50/gallon usd for regular unleaded, could you get more fuel from a $3.65/5L bottle of 42 % alcohol whisky?
Thanks! | 356 | 5L of 42 proof whiskey would yield 1.05L of 100% ethanol if you distilled it (in reality you can only distill it to about 95-96%, so figure a little bit more than that), which is usually diluted in an 85:15 ratio with gasoline. That would give you 1.235L of usable E85 fuel for a car that's equipped to run on ethanol. | 182 |
[Star Wars] What exactly was the Jedi's line of thought in making these decisions? | I was reading an article about the Battle of Geonosis. Apparently, they sent [212 Jedi](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Geonosis). Now, as far as the Jedi know, only Obi-Wan is captured and being held prisoner on Geonosis. They still believe that Anakin and Padme are on their mission, and they *suspect* Dooku might be there. I didn't count exactly how many survivors there were, [but it's fairly obvious that they were significantly less than 212](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5JQck_ejFs&t=2m16s). I'd reckon most of them were killed on that arena.
Now, fast forward to RoTS. They determine that finding and capturing/killing General Grievous would effectively END THE WAR. So who do they send? Obi-Wan...that's it. Now, I get it, Obi-Wan was probably the best person they could've sent to deal with Grievous. But, did they not think it would be helpful to send at least one more Jedi Master as backup? If this task is such a priority to ending the Clone Wars, why would they risk it all on the faith that Obi-Wan would succeed in his mission? His mastery of Soresu is only one factor, there could have been any other random factors that could've thrown a wrench in the gears and ended with dead/captured Obi-Wan.
So, what were they thinking? Did they think all of those Jedi lives were worth rescuing 1-2 Jedi, as opposed to ending the war that started the whole thing to begin with? | 20 | At the Battle of Geonosis, all they knew was that Obi-Wan was being held captive in an arena with an army of Geonosians surrounding it. Regardless of whether Dooku was there or not, that's a lot of things for a handful of Jedi to fight, so a large rescue force was needed.
As for Grevious, they sent Obi-Wan to scout the area, not to take on Grevious. Once he realised Grevious was there and that the Utapauan people were being held hostage, the only way to ensure their safety was to keep the attacking force small to prevent detection. That way, they could take Grevious by surprise and prevent him using the Utapauans as shields. | 29 |
[The Lord of the Rings] What is known about the making of the one ring, like metallic composition. | 62 | It's made of solid gold. It's resilience and abilities are not a matter of composition, but of the skill of he who crafted it. The same way an elf can make a rope that stays secure as you climb down it, but comes undone at a single tug when you reach the bottom. It's not because it's made of a special secret rope material - they are just that much better at making ropes. | 111 |
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CMV: The US legislative system should not consist of elected officials based on platforms and ideologies, but we should use 21st Century tech to crowdsource government. | It seems to me like a better system would be for districts to have basically "voting kiosks" all over every district. Like, every public building, within short walking distance of every bus stop, library, school, hospital, nearly everywhere. Then the people can login to the system and vote on issues. There could be a legislation petition system where lay people could push certain issues, and then it is the legislators responsibility, no matter how s/he feels about the issues, to draft legislation the way they were told by the constituents, and then bring that legislation to congress. We have millions of practically unused payphones all over this country, so there is definitely infrastructure. Doesn't this just seem like a better system for our modern technological society?
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | 22 | People do not have enough time to be sufficiently educated as to the nuances of the bills being presented or the many other things that our elected officials do. That is why we have a representative republic rather than a direct democracy. Either everyone would vote without any education about the issues and so it would be terrible, unjust, and inaccurate laws being made, or no one would be able to do anything else and the economy and society would collapse. | 10 |
ELI5: Why are high pitched sounds harder to locate what direction they are coming from? | 24 | It's the opposite - low frequencies are harder locate for humans. That's why it is less important as to where you put a subwoofer with regard to the other speakers in the system. It's very hard for us to work out exactly where very low frequencies emanate from. | 13 |
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What happens to your body when you are knocked out with a punch? | 5,212 | Doctor here.
When trauma to the brain occurs, several things can happen.
The direct injury to the brain is called a *coup* injury. This is damage to the brain at the point of impact (the trauma to the head causes the brain to impact the skull).
You can also get a *contrecoup* injury - this is when the opposite side of the brain then bounces against the back of the skull.
Either of these injuries can damage brain tissue. This can be in the form of swelling of the tissue or of something called "diffuse axonal injury" - micro-shearing of nerve cells.
In any event , the injury to the central nervous system more or less "overloads" the system and higher level functions - like consciousness - shut down.
There's more to it than this, but this suffices as a basic explanation. | 5,456 |
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ELI5: Why is √4 = -2 false? | Maybe this is kind of dumb but I'm in algebra 2 and we've been doing a lot with square roots and radicals. And for most of what we've done, we'd get something like
x^2 = 4
x=2, x= -2
But when checking for an extraneous solution, it worked out to -2 = √4. I figured that worked, so I entered -2 as a valid solution for x, but the computer marked me wrong. I asked my teacher, and she told me that basically
If you have x^2 = y, then the answer is x= ±√y
But if you have √y = x, it's just the positive number.
But aren't x^2 = y and x = √y pretty much the same? Why does it work one way but not the other?
Why is
-2^2 = 4 valid, but -2 = √4 false? | 39 | It’s really just convention that sqrt(x) only means the positive square root. You’re right that 4 has a positive and negative square root, but we write +-sqrt(4) to mean 2 and -2, whereas sqrt(4) just means 2.
However, when solving the equation x^2 =4, we include both solutions 2 and -2 unless there’s some other information that tells us that x can’t be negative. | 40 |
[Death Note]What is the aftermath of the Kira incident? | How, if at all, did society change, and what about how police forces operate? | 24 | After Kira died, crime quickly increased to pre-Kira levels. There's some sort of memorial group/cult who idolises Kira as a righteous judge, but they don't seem to kill anybody (at least as far as we can see). | 19 |
[Marvel]Can’t some mutants just pretend they got their powers from a freak accident or a bug bite instead of being born with them so they don’t get harassed? | 64 | Yes, as a general rule, members of an oppressed class can lie about their membership in that oppressed class to avoid oppression.
Also, generally, it is considered a very dick move to think that the onus should be on them to lie about their identity rather than on the oppressors to not, you know, oppress people.
Specifically, this lie would not withstand scrutiny, as mutants are mutants because they carry the X-Gene which can be scanned for and detected. | 62 |
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[1984] What do the upper echelons of power look like? What is the relationship between the oligarchs? How much intrigue is there? | 20 | I always imagined the party to be a sort of machine. Every member working to further the power of the party. There would be no "Big Brother" or head authority that commanded everyone. Everyone would be cogs in the machine. There would be no goals other than following through with the same daily actions and keeping the party alive. Always liked the idea that even the upper echelon of the party became no different than their subjects. | 26 |
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I believe religion has no purpose in modern society CMV | I believe religion's original purpose was to give the primitive/early societies of men and women a set of rules that shape their morals. The rules (for more of a broad term) defined in various religious books seem to me as if they were written to teach people right from wrong, good from bad, what to and what not to do. Society these days seems advanced enough that we as a people could decide which rules to keep and which rules to toss from these stories and eliminate the fluff.
This is an ideal situation that these rules would be decided in, this would be damn near impossible as of right now with all the world wide disagreements.
I've always been unsure how to define my beliefs. For most of my life I haven't believed in Bible stories and such. I don't like to define myself as atheist, that seems too close-minded for my liking. | 208 | Here's the trouble, "modern society" isn't very. Let me clarify this. You have millions if not billions of people whose existence is pretty terrible and hopeless. Ever seen Kinsasha? The slums of Dheli? Hell, even taking a drive through some of the shadier parts of New York of LA will make you lose hope in humanity.
Sure, humanism is a way to promote ethics and morals to people that doesn't have all the problems that organized religion does a lot of the time. But just try explaining this to someone with no decent role models in their life, surrounded by a life of nothing but crime, poverty, and despair. Oh yeah, and often times in the environment that they live in, abiding by this moral code will actually mean they are less successful than say, their friends that do things like steal and lie and cheat to survive.
If you live in one of these areas of the world, keeping to that kind of ethical code while surrounded by temptation is *hard*, like in a way that no one from the developed world could even fathom. There is no way that a secular humanist belief in morality could ever be as strong as a religious belief in morality, because in a religious mindset the entire world is *designed* to be that way, and often times doing things outside of that moral code has consequences that tend to be a lot more dire than a bad feeling about yourself. Sometimes, these people need a rock to cling on to, and that rock is their faith.
Now are all religious beliefs inherently promoting morality? No. Will people use religion as an excuse to justify atrocity and arrogance? Of course. Would religion have a place in a Utopian society? Probably not. Does it have a place in the society we live in today? Take a trip to a church in a dirt poor area, take a look at the hope it gives these hopeless people, see how much better it makes them, and that question will answer itself. | 180 |
ELI5: How do Amazon used booksellers stay in business selling many books for $0.01? | I understand that sellers have to play by Amazon's rules or be undersold. Do they make a small margin on handling? Are these free book stores staffed by volunteers? I'm trying to decide whether I'm taking advantage of someone by getting text books this cheap. | 2,799 | I managed an online book company for the past 4 years. It's the shipping. Amazon sets the shipping charge for all books and media at 3.99 (USD). Most of those books are going to cost me around .80 (possibly less) to ship anywhere in the US, .08 for materials, labor is pretty small, on the order of fractions of a cent for any one book. We list around 1200 books a day, and ship around 2000-2500 a week. Pretty much, it's volume (which also gets you the shipping discounts for being a bulk mailer), and cheap shipping. | 1,985 |
ELI5: How exactly do people who upload pirated content (suppose from Netflix) benefit from it? | I'm pretty much amazed at how prevelant piracy is and I'm shocked to see at how lengths people will go to upload pirated content. Almost every show/movie is uploaded on some torrent site as soon as within a week of release. This just made me wonder whether people who upload such content earn anything or have any benefits uploading the content? | 28 | Some do it simply because they want to share the stuff. There is a whole political movement that disagrees with the copyright altogether.
Some do it for fame. Game cracking is basically a race between different competing teams.
Some do it for money, some download pages pay a share to uploaders to attract content wich in turn attracts more people who watch the ads before. | 96 |
ELI5: Why was Las Vegas built in such miserable heat? | I just find it strange to built such a large and well known city in the desert where it can be as hot at 120°. | 19 | Las Vegas was a water stop on the Old Spanish Trail. The springs (which fed the meadows) created a rare oasis, and a pleasant one. For much of the year, Las Vegas has beautiful weather: mild sunny days, cool nights. That was traveling time.
The Old Spanish Trail connected the Pacific Coast ports with Santa Fe, the inland-northern top of Spain/Mexico's North American empire. It was a treacherous road west over the Mojave Desert, and Las Vegas was a full-service wagon-road stop. When railroads connected Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, Las Vegas was a natural place for a railway town with all the services rail travelers needed.
Because Arizona choose poorly in the Civil War, the area that is now Las Vegas in Clark County, NV, was taken from the northwest tip of Arizona. And that proximity to Los Angeles during the economic boom of the post-WWII era made it acceptably close to Los Angeles for a weekend of Sinatra and Ann Margaret and gambling over martinis.
—Former Nevadan here. (And one who greatly enjoyed the state's history!) | 36 |
[Doctor who] did all time Lords pick titles like the doctor and the master? | If so where many time Lords called the same thing because there's only so many titles and I think there's probably more time Lords on Gallifrey then there are titles. If not why were the doctor in master special and how many other special time Lords are there | 21 | Well, there's the President and the Corsair as well. It's also heavily implied if not directly stated that not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords, so the problem of titles may not be as severe as it seems. | 27 |
What is the difference between someone who can hold their breath for 6+ minutes, and someone who can barely hold theirs for 1? | Does training physically change your body? How? | 28 | I'll let someone with more medical knowledge than me answer the physiological differences, but there is also a psychological difference. People can hold their breaths a lot longer than they think. Getting past that mental block takes training, because the body very much does not want to hold its breath and will make you do involuntary things to stop you from holding its breath. It's a panic reaction that, if you can learn to control, can be overcome to hold your breath longer without many physical changes.
Outside of that, though, there are definitely physical differences. How much oxygen your blood can carry (can be changed with cardio training), lung capacity, oxygen absorption (training at high altitudes), etc. | 10 |
[Amazing Spiderman 2] Why does Electro's lightning knock Spidery back? | (Sorry if that's not an appropriate tag, I wasn't sure if this was MCU or not)
In [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlM2CWNTQ84&t=1m15s) trailer, when Electro shoots his lightning at Spiderman, what exactly is happening? Why does his lightning carry kinetic force, and is the same force acting on Electro as well? | 17 | People getting zapped like that often go flying, as a result of their muscles suddenly constricting at 100% of their potential.
With Spidey's muscles being that much more powerful, it's that much more dramatic. | 19 |
What would happen to a sealed tin can in space? | Would it explode? Is the metal strong enough to resist the pressure differential? Does it depend on the temperature? What if it were filled with water vs air at 1 atmosphere pressure? | 2,030 | It depends on the can and how pressurized it is. The ISS is kept at about 1 atmosphere (sea level), and it holds pressure just fine. Soda cans regularly hold nearly 3 times that pressure, and probably wouldn't explode in a vacuum. If there is a manufacturing defect or the material inside is heated up it could blow out the weakest point in the structure. You can find videos of soda cans in vacuum chambers if you'd like. | 1,446 |
CMV:If you receive accommodations such as extra time for exams or other academic assessments it should be referenced in your transcript | If you are in university and you are receiving extra time for exams i do believe it should be referenced in your transcript that you received accomodations in order to achieve the grade you got in that course.
I believe its unfair to employers or grad schools when they are trying to get an understanding of the mental capabilities of the student they are hiring or adding to their grad program. If someone gets say an A in an exam and someone else gets the same grade but they took double the time to do it, as an employer i would like to know this. Just looking at the transcript i can't differentiate between the two but its clear one has faster mental processing than the other. If i am running an engineering firm things like these are important as i want someone who can critically think fast and efficiently.
This should definitely apply to cases for people with ADHD. No one is going to give you "extra time" in the workplace. Exams are supposed to be a representation of mental capabilities and your knowledge of the subject being tested. If you are being given extra time this skews the representation of your mental capabilities.
Also for things like Grad School such as medical or law school. Frankly if you can't think fast as a lawyer to compete against the opposing lawyer, i don't want you being my lawyer. I don't see why someone who has a slower mental processing speed should be seen in the same light as someone who doesn't. If you are a doctor there are times where you are expected to make quick decisions and these decisions can be life or death. Obviously people would prefer the doctor who is faster at making such decisions since time is extremely important.
Most of my post here is particularly geared to people who have accommodations throughout their life and not really people who only need them temporarily for things such as head injury or w/e else. For those temporary cases i think it should be referenced in the transcript that these accommodations were only temporary compared to the usual ones that go through out someones undergrad.
Please change my view.
EDIT: Let me clarify. This specifically pertains to mental conditions like ADHD and i don't think physical conditions should be penalized.
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> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | 29 | > No one is going to give you "extra time" in the workplace.
The ADA requires employers to make *reasonable* accommodations for people with disabilities. So, yes, some people do get "extra time" because it's reasonable for an employer to do so. It sounds as if you want to give employers a way to discriminate against people who might need reasonable accommodations. | 19 |
[Marvel 616] How are things between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark? | I know that during Civil War they had a bit of a falling out, what with being on opposite sides and Capt being branded a fugitive and all.
Now that things have had time to cool down have they patched things up or are they still taking a break? | 20 | Currently as in right now? Or do you mean after Civil War?
Cap dies after Civil War, and through some time/space/dimensional fuckery is returned and the whole thing is sort of glossed over.
Then there's more fuckery and Steve is turned into an old man after losing the super soldier serum, but is still a mean motherfucker and isn't having any of Tony's shit. Tony, for his part, is once again trying to solo-save the world from an impending universal collapse (during "Time Runs Out", and with some help from the rest of the Illuminati) and designs a solar-powered weapon called "Sol's Hammer" to destroy the colliding alternate Earth, something Steve has a major moral problem with. Also, the Illuminati mind-wiped Steve after the first time he objected to them taking matters into their own hands, but that's just bonus resentment fuel. So, as it does, it comes down to Steve fighting Tony as the world goes to Hell around them, with both of them presumably dying as 616 Earth and the Ultimate Universe Earth collide, erasing both universes.
And then there's more fuckery on Doomworld and eventually everyone is brought back to life by the Fantastic Four. So right now, as in today, there's another Civil War brewing, but it's between Iron Man and Captain Marvel. Fuckery. | 10 |
ELI5: what is wrong with the FIFA organization? | 46 | They were taking bribes to give World Cup locations to countries with horrible human rights records. Qatar is basically a shit hole unless you're rich, and they only got it after paying fifa a whole lot of money. | 37 |
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[General] Why do villains that eventually turn good always seem weaker fighting on the side of good as opposed to being stronger when they were evil? |
I've seen this phenomenon time and time again, in movies, shows and comics.
Everytime The " good guys " go to fight the " bad guy " , the villain always puts up A good fight using strength, intelligence and sheer will power, but whenever they, for whatever reason, join the " good guys ", they just appear weaker and never fight to their " full " potential.
Is it because if they did, the fight scene would be over too quick?
Or are they no longer fueled by " hate, revenge " ? | 57 | Sometimes it can be about hate and revenge. More often it's about *certainty*, which is a powerful motivating factor on its own.
Evil is self-righteous. At least the most dangerous kinds of evil always are. They are sure of themselves, and sure that they are doing what must be done. Or whatever their reasons may be. It's not the decision-making or the acts themselves that are important to this discussion. It's the feeling behind them. The absolute, complete conviction behind them. The entire world stands against them, but that conviction fuels them. It pushes them to go farther, go faster, go stronger. Then the good guys come along, and say "hey maybe don't, y'know, with the murder and the mayhem so much." Or they say "hey this guy you're standing against, he's the real deal."
And *doubt* starts to creep in.
Even if outwardly they don't change that much... they still seem certain and righteous now that they're on the side of good... there's always that little seed of doubt. Now that they've included more than their own point of view into their decision making, *every* point of view becomes viable. Were they right to switch sides? Are they right to stand against the bad guys? Are they hurting their allies just by being around them, weaking *their* certainty?
So it takes some time for them to grow back into the full use of their powers and abilities. They're (usually) not jobbing or deliberately limiting themselves. They're just not willing to put 110% of their power behind every move and action until they've fully transitioned into a more stable wordview. | 51 |
CMV: The United States Senate is going to cause the United States to fall behind as a world power because it bricks progress and legislation from being passed | I personally do not see a use for the Senate. In theory, the senators are supposed to enact the interests of the state but in reality the senators pander to their political party. Representation is based entirely on States and not population so we end up having a backwards system where less people have more political power in federal legislation. They are supposed to be a check in the separation of powers but they really have the same bias and agenda as politicians in the house of representatives so they aren't serving as anything extra beyond them.
No other system where one group of people having extra voting power would be deemed fair. For instance, people say it prevents tyranny of the majority but that logic is flawed. By that same logic, we should let blacks, Muslims, gays, trans, atheists, etc. have more voting power but no one who favors the Senate will favor that. Also the Senate doesn't prevent tyranny of the majority, that's just a talking point. Many minorities have been heavily discriminated against in this country's history.
With all my issues said I truly think the biggest problem with the Senate is they kill much legislation and progress from happening in this country. This is my biggest concern about it by far. Not necessarily that they over represent rural America more in an unfavorable way.
Since the filibuster was created by accident by Aaron Burr, it's allowed the group to kill most legislation that doesn't get a supermajority so many things don't get passed. It has been heavily exploited in the civil rights era and in the current polarized political era. Since the Senate already greatly overrepresents rural parts of the country and a 60% threshold is needed on top of that to bypass the filibuster, many pieces of legislation don't advance. Because of the rural bias with the 60% threshold, in reality it becomes something like 80% of Americans represented in the Senate have to agree before anything can pass.
This means things like federal protections to voting rights, healthcare reform, environmental protections, marijuana legalization, etc. that are favored by a majority of Americans can't pass because a supermajority of elected officials (again heavily biased by rural America) won't agree to it. So in essence, something like 80% of Americans have to support something before it starts becoming viable to pass the Senate. The only group that gets to bypass this is special interest groups that can pay off senators.
Throw in the special interest lobbying and playing of politics where one side will always vote a against the other party's legislation no matter what and we have a very broken system. For instance, it was just leaked ExxonMobil explicitly supports a carbon tax because they 100% know that it will never pass in the Senate so they get free PR by lying that they support it.
In the end, I fear the Senate will be the undoing of the United States being a leader, innovator, and staying ahead in the future. I suspect most things will stall and we will fall behind. My greatest fear is we will end up like the Rome with a failed empire and a major cause will be the gridlocking caused by the Senate. | 112 | The US senate is necessary because of the set up of the US. Because every state is basically their own sovereign entity, they have to have representation at the federal level on matters that effect them. The US isn't one big blob of people in a country without borders, states are *extremely* important.
The filibuster is also a good thing. Yes, it slows government down and makes it hard for anything to be passed. That's *much* more preferable than the constant changes in law we'd have every four to eight years if we had a simple majority. With a simple majority, every time power flips between parties they'll be able to completely rewrite the law as they see fit. We'll see constant yo-yo between conservative and liberal laws. With the filibuster things are slow, but when something is passed, it's actually bipartisan. | 31 |
Eli5: why do people say to get at least 1g of protein for desired body weight when it comes to losing weight? | 18 | Because you don't want to lose muscle mass, only fat. If you lose muscle mass your metabolism will drop too, so when it comes to losing weight you will want to have calorie deficit and at the same time to maintain a high protein intake. | 71 |
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[TF2] I just saw a BLU Soldier drop dead when a RED Heavy pointed a finger gun at him and say “pow!” What the hell is going on!? | 36 | He didn't expect it and suffered a heart attack at the sight of a massive russian man screaming loudly. As you should well know surprise is one of the most dangerous weapons on the battlefield be it a spy decloaking or a demon man mining a door way. | 59 |
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ELI5: How does a busted hard drive that won’t boot anymore get its data recovered when you take it to the magic computer repair shop? | 20 | There are some tricks to it. If you only lost your MBR, the drive can be dropped into another machine and the data recovered.
If the drive is truly dead, as in it does not spin, it can be sent into a shop that will remove the platters and place them into an identical drive and then recover the data. That method is expensive and takes a while. | 31 |
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ELI5: what happens with a woman's abs while pregnant? | What if a woman has a rock hard sixpack? Will it stretch easier or harder? | 86 | It's called diastasis. Our ab muscles are surrounded above and below by a white thick layer that goes around everything in your abdomen called the fascia. The abs separate in the middle, but they are still connected to the fascia. | 33 |
[Pirates of the Caribbean] How do injuries work on cursed pirates? | How was Governor Swann able to cut off the hand of a pirate and what would the consequences be to that pirate, assuming no lifting of the curse? Why did Barbosa get killed by being shot by Jack Sparrow if the injury occurred before the curse was lifted yet the pirate shot by Barbosa to see if the curse was lifted is still alive? What happened immediately to the pirate at the initial attack on Port Royal who got an ax to the back by Will Turner? What are the consequences of being blown up by a bomb placed inside a pirate when he is a skeleton and pushing him out of the moonlight? | 18 | it seems that any time they are turned into skeletons, any flesh wounds heal. then they just need to find and reconnect any bones that they lost i guess. im assuming that cuts in the bones are also healed, or maybe they just walk around with bunch of cuts in their bones afterwards | 19 |
[The Flash] [Marvel] Can Barry phase through adamantium or vibranium? | 25 | If he can, it wouldn't be as easy as he could through other materials. Kitty Pride has been shown as having major difficulty passing through adamantium, and her powers actually do involve actually phasing out of alignment with space.
The Flashes basically vibrate themselves to the point that their molecular structure becomes loose enough that it can pass through otherwise solid materials.
I don't believe I've ever seen any of them actually use their phasing for more special materials than just regular stone and metals, however. | 35 |
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[Ant-Man] What is to stop Ant-Man from just climbing into someone's nose / mouth and then re-expanding back to normal size? | Easy win, no? | 16 | Nothing. This is completely within Ant-Man's abilities. The only reason he doesn't do it often is because Hank Pym is more or less a science nut who likes to build things, not a fighter. And Scott Lang isn't a vicious murderous vigilante. But if you pissed him off enough, he'd probably do it.
Or he could turn into Giant-Man and just, y'know, pick you up and crush you :P | 43 |
[Starship Troopers] Are we the baddies? | I joined the Mobile Infantry right after Buenos Aires and my unit landed on Planet P as reinforcements just a few hours ago. I was psyched when I watched as Private Zim captured the brain bug. I cheered when we found out that military intelligence detected it was feeling fear. But now I’m looking at our uniforms, I’m looking at us way out here on this rock and I can’t help but shake the feeling that we are the bad guys. Am I going crazy? | 104 | Soldier!! It’s very normal do have doubt and to feel insecure now and then. If you have these feelings our army specialists are able to help you! Go to the nearest field hospital and we’ll make sure you’re not under the influence of bugs!
Do you want to know more? | 111 |
ELI5: Why is being Jewish considered an ethnicity? | 817 | It is considered an ethnicity because the development of the Jewish religion occurred among a specific group of people, and so as the religion grew, so did the ethnicity associated with the religion. The Jewish ethnicity is defined, therefore, partially by ancestry and partially by religion. The Jewish community also stayed closed off to matches not within the community, preserving their ethnical integrity. That is, until the modern day, where one can be an ethnic Jew, a religious Jew, or both. | 511 |
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Is a 'randomly' generated real number practically guaranteed to be transcendental? | I learnt in class a while back that if one were to generate a number by picking each digit of its decimal expansion randomly then there is effectively a 0% chance of that number being rational. So my question is 'will that number be transcendental or a serd?' | 444 | When we talk about probability distributions on the real numbers, we are really ultimately talking about a *measure*. A measure is a rather technical way of assigning a length to an interval or a volume to a region. We can actually define many measures on the real numbers, but we typically stick to so-called *Lebesgue measure*. This is a measure that allows us to assign "lengths" to subsets of real numbers in such a way so that the length of the interval [a, b] is just what you expect: *b*-*a*.
We can forget about most of the technicalities. What's important for your question is that Lebesgue measure assigns measure 0 to single points. That should make sense: the length of a single point is 0, right? It's also important that any measure satisfy certain properties. One property that makes a lot of sense is that if *A* and *B* are two *disjoint* subsets (that means they don't overlap), then the length of their union is just the sum of their lengths. For example, the measure of [1, 3] together with [5, 6] should be 2+1 = 3, and it is. What's interesting about measures is that we extend this rule of *finite* additivity to *countable* additivity. So if we have *countably* many disjoint sets (and there could be infinitely many of them), then the measure of the union is the sum of the measures.
So what happens when we combine those rules to a countable set of points? For instance, what is the Lebesgue measure of the set N = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ....}? Well, each number in the set is a single point and has Lebesgue measure 0. There are countably many numbers in N, so the Lebesgue measure of N is just 0+0+0+... = 0. This applies to *any* countable set. All countable sets of real numbers have Lebesgue measure 0. That should also make sense. Remember that the real numbers are uncountable. So a countable set, even though it may be infinite, is very small when compared to the uncountable set. Our sense of that smallness is reflected in how we construct Lebesgue measure.
Okay, so what does this have to do with transcendental numbers? Consider the set S of algebraic numbers, that is, all real numbers that are a root of some polynomial with rational coefficients. It turns out that S is countable! How can that be? (We need to use the fact that the rational numbers are countable.) We can actually just make a list of them. Forget about degree-0 polynomials since those are constants. What about degree-1 polynomials? Each degree-1 polynomial is determined by 1 rational number (we can always assume the leading coefficient of the polynomial is unity). There are countably many such polynomials, each of which has at most 1 real solution. So we get S*_1_* = set of real solutions to degree-1 polynomials with rational coefficients, and that is a countable set. Then we move on to degree-2 polynomials, and there are countably many of those since they are determined by 2 rational numbers. Each of those degree-2 polynomials has at most 2 solutions, so there are countably many solutions. (Two solutions times countably many polynomials = countably many solutions.) So S*_2_* = set of real solutions to degree-2 polynomials with rational coefficients, and that is a countable set.
We can generalize clearly. Let S*_n_* = set of real solutions to degree-n polynomials. That set is countable, being at most the size of finitely many countable sets. Finally, we see that S (the set of algebraic numbers) is the union of S*_1_*, S*_2_*, ..., S*_n_*,... . Here we have to use the fact that the union of countably many countably sets is itself countable. The proof is not that difficult. If you have a list of the members of each set, you can form a list of the union by listing them like this:
> S*_1_*(1)
> S*_1_*(2)
> S*_2_*(1)
> S*_1_*(3)
> S*_2_*(2)
> S*_3_*(1)
> ...
The pattern is rather simple. List one element from the first set. Then the next unlisted elements from the first two sets. Then the next unlisted elements from the first three sets. Then the next unlisted elements from the first four sets, and so on. Eventually, every single element in the union will appear on the list.
So now once we know that the algebraic numbers are countable, we know that their Lebesgue measure is 0. We say that *almost all* real numbers are transcendental. So, for instance, if you consider the uniform probability distribution on the interval [0,1], there is probability 1 that a randomly selected number is transcendental. | 195 |
CMV: Religious people don't need to let gay people get married in their church. However, they shouldn't be allowed to influence their rights for any form of legal marriage outside of that religion. | Religion should not influence politics. Gay people should be allowed to marry if they so choose.
But that doesn't mean that every church or belief has to agree to perform marriages between homosexual people. If a specific belief says they're against gay marriage and don't want to perform it, that's fine. The gay people can just go next door to the church of a different faith, or to a courthouse.
The religion shouldn't have to change it's view because something is made legal. If their's is an unpopular opinion, they'll just get less believers anyway. | 90 | I agree with the basic statement. However, a couple of points:
>Religion should not influence politics.
Voters have the right to cast their votes after private deliberation, which inevitably will sometimes include religious influences.
>The religion shouldn't have to change it's view because something is made legal.
There's a difference between views and actions. A church is free to hold the *view* that having a pet cat is a sure sign of witchcraft, and ought to be met with capital punishment. They're not free to act on that view.
If a religious group chooses to operate a business that offers some sort of goods or services to the general public -- a "public accommodation", as it's called -- then it gives up some of the privilege to discriminate that it has in its strictly religious activities. So in the case of the for-profit wedding chapel, the people running the place can't be required to act in their capacity as ministers of their church by holding a religious ceremony for a same-sex couple. But if they offer, for a fee, to help with the legal paperwork for non-believing couples that walk in off the street with no connection to their church, then they can be required not to discriminate in that offer. | 17 |
Why do older people's veins look squiggly? Do veins and other internal body parts sag like our skin does? | 28 | You are partially correct. In old age, the elasticity of blood vessels decreases just like our skin. Additionally, you will notice that these squiggly veins appear on lower extremities, where the back-pressure is great in an upright posture. There are valves inside veins to prevent backflow. Eventually these valves can dysfunction, leading to the back-pressure being conducted all the way down. This further worsens the "squiggliness" and dilates the veins by stretching them out. These are called varicose veins. | 16 |
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ELI5: What exactly is a conductor doing? | In classical performances and stuff, besides keeping tempo in check. Is he really needed? | 15 | First, what you don't get to see while watching a performance is all the work a conductor has put into shaping the music. The conductor is much like the director in a movie: they decide how to interpret to music like a director interprets a script, and they select what sounds best. If a piece of music says to slow down, the conductor has to decide *how much* to slow down. They have to decide how certain sections should sound, how to use dynamics effectively, and how the pauses in the music are executed. The conductor also decides, or at least helps decide, who is fit to be in the orchestra, what the proper balance of instruments is, and who should be playing.
Come the time of the performance, the director is in charge of keeping the tempo, yes, regardless of what environment they are playing in, and the ears cannot be totally trusted with keeping tempo. The director also is constantly providing reminders of what they have rehearsed, and is instrumental in keeping everyone together and focused, no pun intended. | 18 |
ELI5: A lot people know that if the sum of the digits of a number is a multiple of 3, then the number is also a multiple of three. How can this be explained mathematically? | 15 | If you've got a three digit number "abc" then you can write it as
100a + 10b + c
You can rewrite that as
99a + 9b + a + b + c
The 99a+9b part is definitely a multiple of 3, so the whole number will be a multiple of 3 as long as (a+b+c) is.
Nothing we did depended on having 3 digits, so the same argument will work for any number of digits. | 46 |
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CMV: Designer babies aren't inherently unethical | That is, if they were designed to get rid of diseases, deficiencies and disabilities along with the technology being universally available for use.
I don't understand what other issue there might be with them if no one is getting an unfair advantage. If these two conditions are met, no one is giving deliberate advantages to the baby and the wealthy wouldn't be the only ones getting healthy, inherited disease free babies.
I don't understand where the issue is with a future with no disabilities or genetic diseases. | 66 | To start with, they are not inherently unethical. The idea could be used to do a lot of good. But that's going to have to come with limits.
The supposition that they would be equally available is simply wrong, however, and will be forever. There will be those that can afford to have their cake and eat it on the genetic level, and those who can afford to have a baby. Even a universal healthcare system is not going to mess around doing some of the things that designer babies may actually be able to be in future.
If genetics could be manipulated so that they were smarter and stronger and maybe even bigger than the rest of us, then you would be creating a master race of rich people's babies.
Also, as pointed out, we're not completely sure what we're doing. It's possible that in eliminating some diseases, we might also produce a vulnerability to other diseases. In a few human beings, that's going to be a bummer for them, but it will sort itself out. If it's everyone, then everyone could die.
I think it was said that the Spanish gave the native Americans such deadly diseases that between them arriving, and the British setting up their colonies in the US, 90% of the population had died. Imagine trying to produce some kind of society with 10% of the people.
Also, we find the gay gene. What do we do? Gay people aren't inherently suffering from their sexuality. But if we knew that we could set them up to be "normal", what then?
I think there are lots of qualities in people that we would try to edit out, and actually, it may not benefit us. Some of the world's smartest people are autistic. But for the vast majority of people, autism is considered a hideous mental issue, and would be edited out on birth.
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ELI5 Why is it that when ice is put into a deep fryer it essentially erupts? | 55 | Steam explosion. Ice is a fairly dense form of water and steam on the other hand is not very dense. When you put ice or even liquid water into hot oil, it basically instantly boils. The water rapidly expands into steam, and a rapid expansion of gas is just another name for explosion. Liquid water will also do this, which is why you should never put out an oil fire with water. | 160 |
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[Star Wars] Is it possible to be seemingly the most benevolent being, nice, caring....but actually be a Sith? | I was wondering when you look at the Sith, they just scream "bad guy". I get it though, their teachings are all about power, hate, passion etc etc.
But I was thinking, imagine how jarring it would be to find a person so charismatic, friendly and generally a good guy, like imagine they're decked out in white royal clothing or something. Truly angelic, only to reveal that they believe in the dark side. But you know, to THEMSELVES, they are no different than anyone else. They don't have to wear menacing, brooding clothing or just act like a angsty, badass all the time.
That would be the ultimate Sith deception.
I guess, to some extent, Sidious did that. He was a Sith but played the part of the caring and nice old senator. But I mean, imagine that WAS his nature. Caring, compassionate, but ardently follows the dark side and does not hesitate to "turn up" the darkness when he needs to.
I just think it would be cool to see someone use the force and keep guessing if that person was a Sith or a Jedi without it being so obvious. I know you can be as asshole Jedi, but can you be a polite Sith? | 21 | >Caring, compassionate, but ardently follows the dark side and does not hesitate to "turn up" the darkness when he needs to.
Herein lies the problem, and this is why you will only pull examples of dark siders like Palpatine and Dooku who are good at pretending to be these things in front of their constituents, but are only acting.
The dark side corrupts an individual, makes them act out of selfishness and greed, and this is furthered as they draw on the dark more and more. You can put on a manipulative face and act like a nice person but if you truly serve the dark side you serve yourself above all else, and that’s why the sith are so detestable. | 38 |
ELI5: In Catch 22, Yossarian says he stopped playing chess with an artillery captain because 'the games were so interesting they were foolish'. What does this mean? | 36 | He was at the hospital and off-duty, which was what he liked best and wanted to last as long as possible. He actually wanted to remain bored so that the time would seem to pass slowly, rather than be interested and have the time pass quickly. | 22 |
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ELI5: Neurologically, how does drawing work? How is it that we can all imagine something but our hands aren't able to accurately depict it? | 23 | I feel like it's about being able to imagine something repeatedly, quickly and on-demand while also being able to multitask simultaneusly with the drawing. Like a good artist can almost instantaneously picture something as they are drawing it but a non-artist has to stop drawing, think up an image and when they go back to draw it a second later, the image and detail has faded.
Art is also a lot of teachable technique that comes natural to some but it's extremely difficult if you don't know the various processes. | 12 |
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Is the universe a closed system? | Is the universe a closed system? What happens to matter that enters (leaves?) through a black hole? | 47 | There are a number of theory's about black holes, but all of them (that I've read about) stay within our universe.
As for your actual questions, that is not something that can really be answered right now. Even an educated guess would just be wild speculation. We really know very little about the universe as a whole. And we know jack squat about anything not in our universe. | 13 |
eli5: Why are temperature differences more noticeable indoors? | In my apartment 71 degrees is freezing and 73 is uncomfortably warm. Outside, anything from 60-85 feels fine. Why are temperature differences so much more noticeable indoors? | 33 | Outside, all the parameters that add to your experience of the temperature are constantly shifting. The wind may set in more, the clouds might stop blocking the sun as much, even the type of material you walk on might reflect more or less heat than what you were walking on just a minute ago.
When you're sitting inside, however, you are constantly experiencing practically the same parameters. If it's just slightly too hot or too cold to be comfortable, there is no periodic breeze or sunshine to distract you from that fact. | 38 |
ELI5: Why do all of my electronics have an FCC interference statement? | You can find the following statement on nearly all electronics. Why does the FCC require this?
This device complies with part 15 of the FCC rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. | 26 | It proves that the device has passed a certain set of tests, designed to ensure it will not affect nearby devices. All electronic devices emit radiation to some degree, and its important when designing them to ensure the radiation isn't going to affect the operation of other devices. An example is that when you switch on a microwave oven, the WiFi signal to a PC will be interfered with. Without the FCC limits, companies could sell cheap, terrible microwaves which could wipe out WiFi networks for a block around, which would cause chaos.
Edit: and it also ensures your WiFi card won't be destroyed by a microwave oven nearby | 22 |
ELI5: If the information Edward Snowden leaked was illegally obtained by the NSA, how has Edward done something wrong? Aren't the NSA the ones in the wrong? | Yes I understand Edward was a staff member, and obtained the info through his employment, but its illegal information that they shouldn't have had in the first place? Also... what would have been considered 'an appropriate way' for him to have dealt with his findings?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just really don't get it. | 123 | Well, a lot of people are making that argument, which is why he's such a polarizing figure.
But from a legal perspective, someone else doing something illegal doesn't make it okay for you to also break the law in most cases. What he did was still a crime, even if you agree with his motivation and the results. | 85 |
If someone loses a part of their body that can be reattached, how do all of the nerves/veins/tendons etc. Find their way back to each other? | 96 | Replantation or limb reattachment via surgery is microsurgery, therefore requires a microscope to operate under.
With such surgery often the route of reconnecting the various vessels to each other is done manually. This takes many hours 'under the knife'.
Usually when people ask this question they're thinking about 'vascular remodeling', where after an amputation the blood vessels reorganize themselves to restore proper blood flow.
With reattachment of limbs this process must not occur, otherwise the severed limb would merely be a dead limb sewn on. Hence the manual reconnection. | 54 |
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Why does adding a single extra oxygen atom to H20, which is something we need to survive and drink daily, suddenly causes it to become extremely toxic to even breathe? (H202) | 181 | The difference between H2O and H2O2 is not simply "adding a single extra oxygen".
The structure of H2O is H-O-H, one oxygen atom bound to 2 hydrogen atoms.
The structure of H2O2 is H-O-O-H, a hydrogen atom bound to an oxygen atom which is bound to another oxygen atom which is bound to a hydrogen atom. That oxyen-oxygen single bond is called a peroxide and it is very weak. The entire molecule doesn't need much persuasion to fall apart into two hydroxyl radicals, which themselves are eager to react with important molecules like fats, proteins, and DNA. | 487 |
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[Dragon Ball Z] Although they are aliens, why are saiyans so similar to humans? and furthermore how are humans and saiyans able to procreate together? | 64 | Evolutionary pressures on planet Vegeta caused the Saiyans to evolve into humanoid form. Same reason anything winds up in the shape it is.
As for the interspecies breeding? Blind, pure stupid luck that the biology is similar enough for it to go down. Even more lucky that the half-breeds aren't mutated or sterile. | 53 |
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[Teen Titans] How does starfire balance so many emotions at once? | in the puppet episode of teen titans, it is revealed how starfire's powers work, in that they are each powered by a seperate emotion. starfire is shown to be able to both fly and throw starbolts, but those require pure joy and furious anger, respectively. How can she do these at the same time? | 18 | It is possible to feel all those emotions at once, while hard for an average person to do it is still possible. She more than likely focuses on good moments in life and what she is fighting to keep to have pure joy, while at the same time focusing on the people she is fighting and that they want to take the good from her in order to have anger, and she is almost always confident which gives her super strength. Tamaraneans are a warrior culture so they probably learn emotion control at a very early age. | 17 |
ELI5 What is formal logic? I've read the wikipedia page a dozen times and I still feel five. | 15 | This is a pretty condensed ELI5 but formal logic is a set of rules you can use to construct valid arguments or prove statements. You can also use it to check whether other people's arguments are valid.
It has heaps of uses. You can check mathematical proofs, make electronic circuits, and solve philosophical problems. You can also use it in debating, law, economics, and many other fields to look at whether people have valid and factually correct arguments. | 20 |
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ELI6 Infinity. I have a 6 year old kid who is recently fascinated by these very large numbers he can imagine. He often ask about infinity. How could I explain it to him? | No bragging, just the level of his current knowledge: according to his age, he has a relatively good grasp of the integer numbers and the notion of parity. Also, he can count, do basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division calculations and list the powers of 2. He learnt all these things through solving practical word-problems, most typically, "how much money do we have in my wallet and what can we buy for it?".
I am expecting to receive good ideas in the comments about what notions I could try to explain to him in accordance with infinity, and how I should approach explaining them. I'm thinking about notions like the finite set, cardinality of a set, countable and uncountable sets. Also, some good real-world examples for kids would be appreciated.
Thanks for your response.
**EDIT** I did some search (shame on me, I only did it after posting my question.) Anyway, here's some related threads:
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/sxakl/eli5_difference_between_a_countable_and_an/
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tcew8/eli5_different_sizes_of_infinity/
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ncvsf/eli5_different_degrees_of_infinity/
The real deal here is that I'm trying to explain this to an actual 6 years old.
Thanks.
**EDIT 2**
One good example that seems to be worth to mention to the kid:
lets compare the size of the set of natural numbers and even numbers. let's try to make pairs of the elements of these two sets and define a bijection between them. (I do not want to formally introduce the notion of bijection, I do not even want to use this word, but it seem to be inevitable to somehow grasp this through pairing.
Also, I tend to think I won't want to go into real numbers when this conversation comes up next time. I think it is good to make such decisions _before_ you're in the actual conversation. Until now I have learned, that I should only come up with comprehensible new things, new things that are just one logical step away from those things what are already familiar to the kid - otherwise the kid will get frustrated and lose his interest in the whole field. So I tend to conclude that, for now, I'll have to avoid coming up with uncountability.
**EDIT 3**
wow! so many comments, I cannot even answer to all of them. you are very kind.
if this was stackoverflow, the accepted answer'd be http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/xg7sf/eli6_infinity_i_have_a_6_year_old_kid_who_is/c5m7662
Also, some googling resulted this article http://www.ccs3.lanl.gov/mega-math/workbk/infinity/inbkgd.html
little old fashioned, if you know better in this category, put a link here.
I'm in awe about so many of you kind people telling me a few good words and inspiring me while I'm contemplating on how I should teach my kid. Thank you. | 105 | I would use the concept of division: If you cut something in half, then cut it in half again, then again, then again ... how many times can you do that? The answer is infinity, because no matter how small it gets, you could always still cut it in half. | 42 |
Are cars built with computer controls? | I got into an argument with my dad about whether or not you could hack into a cars breaks. Do cars really have computers that operate the controls based on user input? Also if so, would it be possible to hack said controls? | 28 | Depends on how old the car is. Some newer cars have everything controlled by electronics, but this is a relatively new development. All cars after 1996 have an engine diagnostic system called OBDII which allows one to *read* state information, but not control it. | 19 |
ELI5: Why would we consider it ridiculous to call Obama white, but not to call him black, when he's half black half white? | 33 | For a lot of mixed race people, their racial identity is one they chose. Obama could identify as mixed, as black or as white. At this point, he's chosen to operate his life as a black man and therefore people should refer to him as a black man.
also, from a purely historical standpoint, there was that whole "one drop rule" here in America | 19 |
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eli5. How do table saws with an auto stop tell the difference between wood and a finger? | 6,277 | The safety feature detects an electric signal. Human bodies are electrical conductors, so when we touch the blade, we create an electrical circuit. The machine detects this electrical difference, and initiates the blade jammer when it does. A piece of wood is not conductive, and so it does not create a circuit with the blade.
It's similar to those lamps or even your smart phone screen. You operated them by making contact with your skin. They detect the electrical impulse of your skin. If you tried to active these with a thick glove, it would detect no signal and not turn on. | 7,546 |
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CMV: If the approval rating of Congress is below 20% then they are no longer accurately representing their constituents and all congressmen should have to be re-elected immediately | I was reading this [story] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-solution-to-fixing-dysfunction-in-congress/2014/09/02/0f0d0a9a-31e6-11e4-9e92-0899b306bbea_story.html?tid=rssfeed) from the Washington Post and it stated that the approval rating of Congress is less than 20%. According to Gallup (link in the washington post article) the long term approval rating of Congress has been under 20% for years. With less than 1 in 5 people approving of Congress and its actions, there is no rational argument that states Congress is representing us at all. They are very clearly just doing what is in their best interests.
The American public knows that our congress is inept, yet we do not change it. People always want to blame other congressmen, they never think that their congressman is a part of the problem. Thus, they get angry at congress and its ineptness whilst voting the same people into office. To combat this I suggest that anytime the approval rating of Congress falls below 20%, all congressmen should be let go immediately and re-elections should be held. I know elections are time consuming to hold, but people in Congress need to learn that if they do not accurately represent their constituents or act in their constituents best interest they will not keep their job. This will keep corruption down and increase bipartisan support across the board. Alternatively, since it isn't practical to hold elections several times a year, an amendment should be ratified which would state that anytime the approval rating falls this low, all members of congress are banned from running again when their term is up. We simply cannot continue to allow these people to push our entire country around to suit their own, private agendas.
I know that this isn't exactly fair to the members of congress who work hard to represent their constituents, the members who do vote bipartisan to act in their constituents best interests. But the corrupt and greedy have made measures like this necessary, in my opinion, to keep congress running the way it was intended.
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | 17 | >there is no rational argument that states Congress is representing us at all
No, because:
>The American public knows that our congress is inept, yet we do not change it.
We already have a system in place for ensuring quality control in Congress. That the American people are too apathetic to actually engage in basic electoral oversight isn't actually Congress's fault. | 13 |
[Dilbert] If Wally is trying so hard to get fired, why is he never fired? | I don't get it. Wally is being extremely lazy and is trying to get himself fired. Yet he never is fired. Why is that? Can someone explain comprehensively? | 32 | Wally read through his contract and the HR policies, and discovered he qualifies for an *extremely* generous severance package in the event that he's fired. He does not qualify if he quits. Ergo, he's trying to get fired, and management is unwilling to fire him because it costs them less to just keep him around. | 56 |
Why didn't Yoda sense Anakin was close to the dark side? | In *Revenge of the Sith* Anakin has a talk with Yoda about the dreams he's been having of Padme dying, though he keeps the exact contents of the dreams to himself, only referring them to of "dreams of pain, suffering and death". Yoda tells Anakin to detach himself from those he fears to lose and not to mourn them. However, that advice seems to be almost cruelly inadequate given how clearly upset and tormented Anakin is by his dreams. Why didn't Yoda try to empathize with Anakin more or at least advise him to speak with a healer or consult Jedi texts about premonitions and how to deal with them or influence their outcomes?
Or was Yoda's advice supposed to be frustratingly detached and nonchalant to show how the Jedi teachings of detachment and denial of romantic love could lead to an Order that was at times unfeeling? | 21 | Since Anakin was vague, only saying the dreams were of pain, suffering and death, Yoda couldn't answer.
He didn't know that it was the pain and death of his wife, and his suffering afterwards, for all he knew it was the pain, suffering and death of clone troopers fighting in battles that Anakin had become friends with, or the pain, suffering and death of any group or individual in the galaxy.
Yoda couldn't advise him to do anything because he only thought that Anakin was becoming more in tune with the universe and the Force, and the only solution that would not result in Anakin changing the universe or the Order being broken, was to follow the most basic and essential of Jedi beliefs.
That you can't save everybody, and you need to detach yourself and make yourself be able to make decisions based on logic, rather than emotion. | 35 |
ELI5:What is a "martyr" and why is creating them (by executing terrorists) bad? | So I was watching an episode of question time and the subject was arguments against the death penalty; I was a bit confused when one person stated that it creates 'martyrs.'
So is the point here that executing terrorists augments support for them?
(Sorry; do excuse me if i'm seemingly obtuse; I don't know why but sometimes it takes me a long time for me to grasp certain ideas) | 15 | A martyr is someone who dies for a cause or (usually religious) belief. Their death may be seen as a selfless sacrifice by other believers and the person may be regarded as a sort of hero.
Edit: so they are saying that executing a jihadist/terrorist would only make him a hero in the eyes of other terrorists, a figure to be looked up to and honored, and would serve to fuel their hatred of western society even more | 18 |
Eli5 What has Family Video done differently than Blockbuster that has kept them in business? | 111 | From Wiki:
> In addition to the brick and mortar store front, Family Video has branched off into other markets such as real estate, 24-hour fitness centers, and cable television. The company also sells new and previously used items online. Family Video expanded into the Canadian market in 2012.
> In 2013, following the continued decline of competing video rental stores, Family Video formed a partnership with Marco's Pizza providing space for the franchise in many of its stores. The company is using the partnership as a way to deliver video rentals with pizza orders. Family Video also leases space to other retailers such as hair salons and fitness centers. | 70 |
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[DC] Exactly how strong are the White Lanterns? Other than just being nebulously stronger than other Lanterns, how much stronger are they than normal Lanterns, and what can they do that other Lanterns can't? | 224 | They are not necessarily stronger, especially since Kyle split the ring and power to several hosts, but White Lanterns are the ones wielding power of Life in its pure form, so they actually can reliably heal things and deny death better than blue rings of hope, and they can channel other colors of the emotional spectrum like indigo tribe, but without requiring other ringbearers being present to do it. | 142 |
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Is it possible for a body of water (lake, pond, etc) to be naturally carbonated? | 541 | In fact, many bodies of water are naturally carbonated - they're called soda lakes. When you dissolve CO2 in water, you get carbonic acid which has a pKa of around 6.3. So when your body of water is sufficiently basic (pH>pKa1), carbonic acid will act as an acid and deprotonated to exist as bicarb. If your lake is even more basic than that (pH>pKa2), bicarb will act as an acid again and deprotonate to exist as carbonate. | 227 |
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[TMNT] What are some the darkest moments in TMNT history? | 63 | The IDW comic reveal that Casey’s father is monstrously abusive and he hides out at the Lair whenever he’s been badly beaten.
One night he staggers in barely able to stand and Raph, seething with anger, actually leaves with full intent to kill Mr. Jones. | 77 |
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CMV: Companies have more incentive to pollute than they do to go green. A pollution tax would the best option to mitigate Climate change. | Right now there is more incentive for companies to pollute and worsen Climate change than there is for them to reduce emissions and pay for more expensive green alternatives.
Net Zero by 2050 is already to have been called dubious now. It's apparent that serious changes need to be made to be able to mitigate any damage if possible.
I believe that a steep pollution tax would be most beneficial and the best option currently to begin to mitigate climate change when speaking about feasible options.
As A man who lives in a rural area close to springfield I can see the effects of heavy pollution and industrialization
CMV | 81 | Harsh taxes are a massive shock to the system. A sudden increase in cost to a company will motivate them to cut costs so as to avoid going out of business or crippling their stock. This would result in negative actions such as laying off employees or moving their business to a region that is less punishing to their model. Why not offer massive tax incentives to cut carbon emissions? This would incentivize companies to move to more environmentally friendly means as a way to reduce cost. | 11 |
[General] In settings where bows, melee weapons and firearms are all commonly used, for what practical reason do people use other weapons than firearms? | Mostly asking so I can get ideas to justify it in my own setting.
Common reasons I've seen were that arrows are easy to make and can be picked back up, or that a bow is more silent, but honestly, the archers I've seen in fiction rarely were very stealthy or even ever gathered their arrows. There's also the tradition and racial culture reasons, but fuck that.
BONUS QUESTION : is there a modern setting where these weapons replace guns entirely? | 21 | Bows have higher range, accuracy, and firing rate than early guns. They're much harder to learn to use, but if you already can use one it's better to keep it around. And if it's a setting where people routinely carry swords bigger than they are, then they could easily use longbows. | 29 |
[WH40k] How does the Imperium win anything against the forces of Chaos when they have Tzeentch on their side? | As to my understanding, Tzeentch knows the plans of all mortals. How does anybody defeat him?
Disclaimer: I know jack shit about WH40K and have just started taking an interest | 50 | Tzeentch doesn't want to win. If it did, there'd be no need for Tzeentch, therefore there'd _be no Tzeentch._
Tzeentch wants the status quo, in which all the little monkeys keep plotting to defeat all the other little monkeys; the uncertainty - or chaos, if you want to get all technical - that ripples out into the future as a result of their plans is its bread and butter.
Tzeentch likes plans; it likes scheming; it likes intrigue; it likes _hope._ It like those things because it _is_ those things.
Are you a politician hoping to consolidate your power base? You belong to Tzeentch.
Are you a civil servant with a big idea to save the town / economy / party / planet? You belong to Tzeentch.
Are you a charity worker hoping to speak your message into ears across the globe? You belong to Tzeentch.
Are you an up-and-coming rapper hoping to get out of the ghetto? You belong to Tzeentch.
To take this to its logical conclusion, who do you think is _really_ keeping the Warp from overrunning the material Universe? Who's got the biggest interest in keeping organic life, in all its selfish, scheming glory, alive?
Yep. | 74 |
[Sesame Street] Why aren't the residents of said street concerned that they have a vampire living pretty close to them and that any one of them could become his next victim in an instant should he choose? | 144 | They know that he, like all traditional vampires, is obsessed with counting and all carry little bags of rice to spill should he prove a threat. He would then be compelled to count every grain, allowing them time to escape and call one of the adults to take care of the problem. | 160 |
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