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New Horizons or the Voyager probes?

How long until the New Horizons probe is further away from Earth than the Voyager probes? Are they still gaining speed? Also, any idea how long we will be able to receive information from them?

They are all just coasting and losing speed as the Sun is pulling them back. New Horizons might do some small manoeuvres at the Pluto flyby but it won't affect its trajectory too much. The Voyagers however will not be doing any manoeuvres whatsoever any more. Despite constantly losing speed, they will never stop completely as they are all above escape velocity from the Sun. New Horizons will never be further away than either Voyager. New Horizons was launched at a greater speed from Earth but the Voyagers were able to better use gravity assists of the outer planets along the way. So they ended up with a greater orbital energy which means that New Horizons simply will never overtake them. If you're willing to consider really long time spans, as in billions of years, New Horizons might at some point be further away from Earth than the Voyagers as galactic orbital mechanics become relevant.

[DCU] How come doomsday is indestructible/unkillalble?

Doesn't every living thing require some form of sustenance? Couldn't doomsday be killed by isolating him in place were there is no sustenance? and why was he made? just for kicks ? I can't find satisfactory answers. thanks

Doomsday is the result of a particularly cruel evolutionary experiment. Millennia before the Kryptonians evolved Krypton was a hellish death world where only the absolute strongest things survived. A scientist named Bertron left a baby there, which was of course killed. He then collected the remains, cloned them into a slightly stronger being, then repeated it over and over again. The being that eventually survived was Doomsday, the pinnacle of accelerated evolution. He's able to survive off Solar radiation so he doesn't need to eat or breath. If that is taken away, he just hibernates until something juices him up, or he finds a way to evolve past that limitation.

ELI5: Why is it that in the USA you will most likely always have a criminal record if you have been accused of a crime, even if you were never convicted or were later found to be wrongfully convicted?

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Having something on your record isn't the same as being guilty. The record would simply say you were charged but found not guilty, in the same way an officer would still make a note that he gave you a verbal warning even if he didn't write you an actual ticket. It's just a record of your interaction with the justice system. In exceedingly rare circumstances, ie there wasn't even real evidence to warrant you being investigated or charged, let alone found guilty, you can have the record *expunged* which makes it as if it never happened. But this really is reserved for outrageous police incompetence or conspiracy. I have no idea what the other guy is talking about with DUIs and getting arrested. If you get pulled over for driving intoxicated, the officer will place you under arrest. You will be charged with DUI and go before a judge. Most people get arrested before they end up in court and get convicted, that's kinda the entire way the system works.

ELI5: Would you be able to survive a bit longer by eating yourself when you would starve?

Title

I don't have the link, but i remember reading a few years ago that the answer is no for two main reasons: 1. Your body is better at pulling energy from itself internally than through digestion. So eating your leg gives you fewer calories than letting your body eat it from inside. 2. Shock and healing from the trauma of losing a limb carries its own energy and health consequences. Edit: also think how dumb you will feel when you are rescued the next day after eating your arm.

ELI5: Why does wetting your hands make it easier to open a plastic bag, when having wet hands usually makes it difficult to handle other things?

Title pretty much says it. I searched and couldn't find an answer. But having wet fingers seems counter intuitive, but makes opening trash bags and such way easier. How?

Your dry fingers have difficulty adhering to the smooth plastic. When you wet your finger, the water fills the spaces between your skin and the plastic bag. Water molecules are slightly bent, which means that they act a little bit like small magnets, with a small attractive force between them. This small attractive force (Van der Waals forces) causes the water to bond to both your fingers and to the bag, allowing you to grip it better. The forces in this case are small and the bag is light, so the force your hand apply is lower than the Van der Waals force. When opening a jar, the Van der Waals force is still there, but you are applying a much larger force to try to open the jar. In this case, you grip the jar much harder, which increases the surface area contact and allows you to transmit the force from your hand to the jar and lid, hence opening it. When the jar and lid is wet, the water gets between your hand and the jar. Water is a fluid and cannot transmit shear force (the force of objects moving alongside one another), so your hand slips as soon as you apply a force greater than the Van Der Waals force.

ELI5: Why does a fruit "bruise" when dropped. What actually happens that causes the change?

When the cells within the fruit are damaged, it allows oxygen in. When oxygen gets in to the cells, it reacts with the chemicals in the fruit in that area. The result of this reaction is a darkened color to the affected areas of the fruit.

How does a spider sling its web over large distances?

Just sittin in my garden and saw an impressive spiders web. How do spiders get the first / top bit of their web across two things? Right now this web is between two rose bushes that are over 2 metres apart, how did the spider sling it across that gap without getting tangled in either bush?

A spider relies on the wind to carry the filaments across wide intervals. Spiders that build the familiar orb-shaped web usually start with a single superstrength strand called a bridge thread or bridge line. The spider then lets gravity the strand blow in the prevailing wind, a process called kiting or ballooning. If the strand does not make contact with something and attach to it, the spider may gobble up the strand and recycle its proteins, then try again. If the gap is bridged, the spider reinforces the strand and uses it to start the web.

Why do LED light bulbs have a much more continuous spectrum than CFL?

I thought that both create first blue light, and use phosphors to create some more colors out of that, which then mix up to white. But why is the spectrum of CFL just some needles, and the spectrum of LED is continuous?

Phosphor converted LEDS (PCLEDS) and CFLs both operate on the principle of down-converting blue and UV light (respectively) to visible light via phosphors. The reason that the CFL spectrum looks like needles is that the it contains narrow line width emitting phosphors. What that means is that the phosphors only emit a very narrow and specific wavelength of light (usually corresponding to an electron transition in a rare-earth metal f-orbital). They use a bunch of these narrow ones at key wavelengths to give the final result of white light. LED phosphors on the other hand, are broad spectrum, usually something like a yellow phosphor with a blue LED. In this case, the single phosphor is the cheapest and if they were to use a narrow emitting phosphor it would look like blue and yellow light mixed together. By having a broadly emitting yellow phosphor, they can cover more of the spectrum giving better white light. Going a step further LED companies are now aiming to add multiple narrower phosphors, like the ones in CFLs, to blue LEDs. This will truly fill out the spectrum and give a better color rendering index to the LED lights. If you are talking about color mixing LEDs, those use 3 or more individually colored LED chips to produce white light. This is much like how small red, green, and blue sub-pixles make up one white pixel on your computer screen. In that case, the spectrum shape of each LED is Gaussian and they make a more continuous looking spectrum. Source: PhD candidate who grows LEDs. Edit: Fluorescents phosphors are f-orbital transitions, and PCLED phosphors are f-d orbital transitions

CMV: Soldiers who commit atrocities in war should not get to return to civilian life and complain about their PTSD.

I have been reading a book on PTSD for college where an American soldier who had participated in the Vietnam war described his experience. He lost half of his platoon during an ambush while they were tracking fighters through the jungle. The next day, he led soldiers to a nearby civilian village and killed every single person there -- men, women, and children. The soldier personally killed several toddlers and babies and he described brutally raping the women before killing them too. The soldier returned to his home town after the war and continued his life. The focus of the book was on the anger issues and trauma the soldier had. Apparently, he had nightmares of the cries of the women he raped and he sometimes saw the faces of the children he murdered when he looked at his own kids. After some years, the soldier started meeting a therapist and the book then discusses how he started to heal. My issue is that I don't think he deserves to heal from this trauma. He should be haunted by the horror of what he has done. He has not paid for his crimes. He is not worthy of the help and resources spent on him. The therapist and the author of the book clearly disagree with my assessment. Tell me why I should think otherwise. Edit: I will be back in a few hours to continue the discussion and reply to the other comments.

I personally would argue that he should pay for his crimes. Anyone who commits atrocities like that should pay for their crimes but rehabilitation and reintroduction into society is critical for the betterment of society. People with PTSD often times lash out and cause more violence and pain to their loved ones and others. Rehabilitation allows them to become productive citizens who treat others well and make a positive contribution to society. If he doesn’t seek help, then while he continues to hurt, he will hurt others in various ways.

ELI5: What was in the video that caused the attack on the US Embassy, and why did this reaction come now and from this?

What caused this "perfect storm" that led to the murders and backlash?

The movie was called "innocence of muslims" a very poor, very cheap movie which depicted Muhammad the prophet of islam as a horrible person. Making fun of another religion in America is protected by the first amendment. But in the islamic countries Muhammad is a relgious figure and highly regarded and it is an abomination to mock him. Making fun of Muhammad is like if someone were to make fun of your friends mom, if your friend was very senstive about his mom and very prone to beating up anyone who makes fun of his mom. The countries that are attacking embassies are countries who have recently undergone changes in goverment from the "Arab Spring" Protests **TL:DR** **EILI5** Now this perfect storm is like if your friend who won't let anyone make fun of his mom, is going through a very difficult time where his parents are getting divorced and he is is getting a new dad. Some kid made a video making fun of this kids mom and your friend is pissed. So he storms the playground and attacks the kid who made the video Edit <Spelling>

Is the human body capable of fighting both viruses and bacteria with the same effectiveness?

So I can recall several times in which my GP has highlighted the fact that for a virus such as the flu or the common cold, you just need to let your defences take the wheel and fight it off. For cases in which the body has to fight a bacterial infection (pharyngitis - strep throat) and in which you typically are prescribed antibiotics...I wonder if you don't go through such treatment whether the immune system is capable to fight off the infection with the same effectiveness as when fighting a virus. Apologies if it's a silly question, I come from a culture and age in which antibiotics were prescribed too easily IMO. Thanks!

Depends entirely on the particular virus or bacterium. Some are handled well by the immune system, some are not. I think the real difference here is the availability/relevance of antibiotics vs. antivirals for treating certain symptoms. There are some situations where you can use antiviral drugs, but in many cases it isn't considered worth it (or there simply isn't an effective drug available). But we're also coming around to the fact that antibiotics probably should not be prescribed as often/freely as they have been historically.

I don't understand why white people in the US are afraid to use the word nigger out of racist context, as in "My grandma used say nigger in public", even when they are not the ones abusing the word. CMV.

EDIT: Sorry for the mistake in the title. I'm from the States, New Jersey to be exact. I have plenty of experience in both affluent and not-so-affluent areas of the country (and my state is full of both). I can absolutely understand and respect why someone would never outright call someone a nigger, but I don't understand the fear and disgust it incites in people when it's being quoted or used in historical context. For instance, there was almost a huge to-do back when I was in high school with a reading of an older book in English class with "nigger" peppered throughout. When we would read the book aloud in class, some kids would skip the word altogether or they would mumble it under their breath. The same thing happens now as an adult. Just last month I remember having a conversation with a very educated woman about the South, and the second I said something along the lines of "My grandmother would call certain purple flowers 'nigger toes', and it took us ages to convince her not to do it in public", she became very stiff and uncomfortable and weedled her way out of the conversation. Granted, I don't use the word on a daily basis or anything. I understand the roots of it are deeply engraved in slavery and the black/white dichotomy of the States. However, all that being said, I don't understand why we can't learn to appreciate "nigger" for its historic and current value as a word and comprehend that there lies a difference between gearing it toward someone versus using it in a simple sentence. Please CMV so I can understand all the fuss over it. And I'll be very honest from the get-go, I'm not sure it'll be easy to get me to understand this, but that's why I'm here! EDIT: [TCMV!](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/1bo21z/i_dont_understand_why_white_people_in_the_us_are/c98j232)

It's because the word still has all the racist connotations associated with it. Sure, you see it used in the black community between themselves all the time, but the context is different. When a white person uses the word, the context of racism is unavoidable. When a black person uses the word, it's seen as empowering. So when people bring up the word even in non-racist contexts, they get a natural feeling of aversion towards it because they feel uncomfortable with its racist connotations. Logically, they shouldn't be because they're not being racist, but that's just what happens.

Eli5: what causes a side stitchs or a sharp pain in your side, when you walk or run?

There are two theories why you can get sidestitches, and both involve the diaphragm. a. Your diaphragm is just not used to breathing that hard, so it starts to cramp. b. When you're running and breathing hard the lining that separates the abdomen (where all your guts are) rubs against the diaphragm and causes nerve irritation. Either of these reasons irritate a nerve that's attached to the diaphragm (phrenic nerve. We have two, one is attached on each side of the diaphragm) which we interprete as pain in the side. How to not get a stitch. Warm up more, breathe deeper, strengthen your core muscles.

CMV: Plane food is not horrible

The meal has to be suitable for all. Children, the elderly, those who don't like hot spices, etc. Even a vegetarian option will most likely be vegan, to cater to both groups at once. It also has to be non-offensive to those choosing the other option. eg.smell, allergens. It must be able to be pre-made, and heated and cold portions assembled in flight. 200+ meals for the flight. It can't be too liquidy like a soup that could easily spill. You won't get hot apple pie with ice cream — the logistics of serving correct temperature food to 200 people are just impossible. Often high altitude decreases your level of taste. The tests revealed that the cabin atmosphere—pressurized at 8,000 feet—combined with the cool, dry cabin air "makes your taste buds go numb, almost as if you had a cold. In fact, our perception of saltiness and sweetness drops by around 30 percent at high altitude. It also doesn't help that the decreased humidity in the cabin dries out your nose and dulls the olfactory sensors essential for tasting the flavor of an ingredient or dish. What you love at ground level might become bland at 30,000 feet. Once you take into account the immense variety of dietary restrictions that airplanes have to cater to: vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, allergies of all different varieties, spice-haters, lactose intolerance, pregnant women, people with suppressed immune systems,  etc and you start to realize just what type of situation these airlines are in: being something for everyone. Ultimately, you have to hit the lowest common denominator.  Finally, if there is any food-borne illness, there is going to be a serious problem (can you imagine a run on the restrooms over the Pacific).  So safety first and if compromises in taste are necessary, so be it. Often I find the ones criticizing plane food are less seasoned travelers: either they are expecting a much higher level meal or are trying to fit in with the "PlAnE fOoD sUcKs" movement. People are 7 times more likely to tell a bad experience than a good experience.  Add in that people are usually in a foul mood from the whole security and boarding procedure and there's little hope for unanimous praise.  Is it gourmet, 5 star Michelin, mind-blowingly good? No. But it is definitely not bad at all. In all my years of flying, I have not had a single instance when I hated the food that was served, and actually enjoyed the vast majority of it. Judging by how many completely empty plates were collected by flight attendants at the end of each meal service it is safe to say that most people feel the same way I do.

> Is it gourmet, 5 star Michelin, mind-blowingly good? The maximum number of Michelin stars a restaurant can get is three. Regarding your view, most of your arguments explain why the food can’t be better within the constraints of air travel, not that the food is good. Maybe your view should be that the food is, in general, as good as it can be under the circumstances, not that it is actually good.

I believe that adopting a guaranteed minimum income for all citizens is a good thing, CMV.

I think having a minimum income that guarantees all citizens enough money for rent, clothes and food would result in a better society. Ambitious people who are interested in more money would still get jobs if they so choose and would be able to enjoy more luxury. I understand employed people would be taxed more to account for this which may not exactly be fair but it would close the gap of inequality. I understand if one country were to do this it would create problems, but adopting this on a global scale would be beneficial. I'm sure there are lots of good arguments against this so let's hear em, CMV. Edit: Sorry guys, apparently what I am describing is basic income and not a minimum income. Edit 2: I'd like to add that higher taxes do not indicate a lower quality of life as seen in many of the more socialist European countries. I also do not agree that a basic income will be enough for a significant amount of the work force to decide not to work anymore as a basic income will only provide for the basic needs an individual has, nothing more.

A lot has been said by A_soporific about how it woult discourage people from working, not only because people would be paid when they are not working, but also, and that second part is seldom adressed by basic income enthousiast, because the remaining worker would be higly taxed. This would have two effects : * Clandestine jobs would be more profitable than official ones. That would mean more drugs, more prostitution, more unlicenced constructions ... and even less revenue for the state, and then even more taxes. * The cost of a new worker would be high. With the combined effect of basic income and high taxes, beginner salaries would be especially high, and if most experiment show that current workers dont quit overnight, you can be sure that less productive unexperienced worker would not be recruited as their work would not pay far their salary and taxes.

[The Walking Dead] How did so many people get infected with a virus that, ultimately, is slow moving and ineffective?

There are hordes of zombies in the walking dead- invariably, there is a cloud of zombies out and about. Where do they all come from if the only realistic way to make more of them is for someone to get bitten and then escape until they can turn, barring aside the odd starvation or shooting. The zombie virus isn't very effective at spreading, in and of itself, as the zombies will eat the corpse given the opportunity, leaving only a gasping head. All in all, I would choose a couple police officers aiming for the head over a small hoarse of zombies any day. Why was society so quick to fall against such an ultimately slow moving disease?

Confusion, emotion, panic travel, and some airborne vector. The virus itself seems to be airborne, but not lethal. Its like a passive disease, sitting dormant until you die (possibly from a zombie bite, but doesn't need to be). So, in that way, the virus spreads airborne quickly, worldwide. The visible symptom of the disease are the zombies, of course. These do not need to spread from a single source, since death from any cause creates them. The zombies in one area would be devastating initially. Residents would report 'home invasions', and be killed. Police and other first responders would be confused and also turned into zombies. Military bases would deploy, but without training or protocols. Many military might get bitten, return to base, and cause chaos there. Others in the military might go AWOL to protect their families near the base. This would happen simultaneously in many areas. People would begin to hear news reports, and would be confused. It does not even take a panic - even calm reasoned action would just add to the chaos. Massive traffic jams would lock people in the cities. In the country, people live in homes with lots of windows, etc. A few people who survive the zombies then are unaware that any death brings more zombies inside your walls. Bitten survivors turn, or people die from infighting or just from the risks of living on the run. Even the moment of contact with such zombies would be emotionally shocking - seeing your resurrected but insane child or other loved one - and thus people would die that way. What remained of the military might try to set up safe zones, but beyond safety, there would be food distribution and other issues, and eventually they might just pull out to look to saving themselves. Even that might not work, since there is no real safety where any death leads to zombies. In the end, its not until there are aware survivors, living in secure areas, that the plague might be stopped. Places like historic forts, islands, moutain areas, walled prisons, walled military facilities, or other areas that could be protected easily would become bastions of survivors. What should happen though is a massive decline in the number of wild zombies at some point thereafter. While we do see some decay, it appears that even after years, most of the initial zombies still seem to be actively walking.

How did we know about human reproduction before modern medical science?

Today we think it is "obvious" that sex leads to the *possibility* of pregnancy. But how did for example people in the middle age knew that sex led to pregnancy? How did people even know that there is such a concept as fatherhood? I mean they could have believe that staying in the same room for a long time or that marriage leads to pregnancy how did the connection between sex and pregnancy happen before science? Because it's only a *possibility* to get pregnant it must have been much harder "to know".

If they weren't able to glean that information from observing themselves they could certainly observe it through the maintenance of livestock populations. We know that they were able to make the association because antiquity is filled with virgin birth stories.

ELI5: What prevents planetary orbits from degrading?

I understand that the elliptical shape of the orbit helps keep planets and natural satellites from falling into their parent or fling off into space. But IIRC the International Space Station is constantly making small corrections to its orbit to prevent crashing down to Earth. Without these kinds of corrections, how to planets and moons maintain stable orbits around their parent body?

Others have pointed out that the ISS experiences drag where other bodies mostly don't. However, there *are* forces that cause celestial body orbits to degrade. They experience tidal drag forces: for example, when our Moon tugs on our oceans it causes a drag that causes Earth to slow down, which in turn speeds the Moon up and causes it to go further out in its orbit, away from the Earth. Other planets and moons experience tidal drag that can pull them closer to the body they orbit. They are all also radiating energy away as gravitational waves. As to what prevents their orbits from decaying due to these forces? Nothing. It's just such an incredibly slow process, and the distances are so vast, that it takes millions or even billions of years for the effect to become noticeable.

(Star Trek) What would happen if the Borg launched a full scale massive invasion into Dominion space

The Borg would probably find very little use in trying to assimilate The Founders. It would be nearly impossible and Founder technology isn't that advanced. They may make a few attempts but once they failed they would probably just annihilate them knowing that without them the Jem'Hadar would quickly fall. With the Jem'Hadar gone, the Dominion would be toothless and the Borg would roll over everyone else in the quadrant.

Has modern medicine helped or hurt human evolution?

Since people tend to live longer despite illness and genetic abnormalities it seems like we are decreasing the effects of natural selection.

You're starting from the wrong premise, IMO. Evolution doesn't have a "goal." It doesn't want humans to die at age 50, so we aren't "interfering" by dying at 75 with the help of modern medicine. Evolution is simply a gradual change in heritable characteristics of a population over many generations. One could argue that, without modern medicine, humans would have a lower average life expectancy, and we are therefore "decreasing the effects" of natural selection. But one could just as easily argue that the use of heritable intelligence to master disease is just another form of natural selection, as this trait has given us a survival advantage over other species.

How does a keygen generator actually come up with a valid registration key?

The CD key must match some pattern in order to be recognized as valid by the application, like "*every odd character must be a letter, while every even character must be a number, e.g. A1B2C3...*" as a very simple example. The keygen produces random keys that follow that pattern, after the developer has managed to find out what the pattern is through reverse engineering of the application.

CMV: Porn is not inherently bad

I am finding immense peace in knowing language is merely a made up concept, and because of that some wield it as a form of power either to ridicule, chastise or apprehend others. Think how there are so many naughty and kinky pornstars. Are they, in some way, immoral or to be shamed? I am coming to believe that the act of having sex on camera, no matter how perverse, is an innocent act; even, dare I say, wholesome. Simply individuals acting on their innate desires, making money out of filming or just doing it for sheer enjoyment. In that case, porn-making is only a hobby, and for some, a meaningful and fun job. Where does the shame guilt and sense of immorallity come from, then? Even when only viewing and not actually partaking? Could be for an array of reasons. Most notably, religion. And even beyond that, linguistics: the understanding and implementation of language. Archaic rules and boundaries made by ancient, unliberated people, perhaps? But alas, the more further you go back in history and time, the more you realize that people's sense of sexuality and sex in general, was probably a matter of personal experience; an intimate act that was of concern to only those interacting and mingling. Then language came along, and there was likely a further divide from how natural sex is. How fluid sexuality too, is. Labels like gay, straight, bi, etc, suddenly surfaced. All very limiting and when looked at deeper, simplistic words. But many, live by these labels. As if swearing an unspoken oath of sorts. To adhere to a speciic word choice, how ever natural. Sex isn't the only thing words have made a mockery of. Many divergent, uniquelly thinking people's minds, thought patterns and even behaviour, is pathologized by the corrupt and counter-productive industry that is known as psychiatry. A host of made up words. Bipolar, psychotic, Schizophrenic, etc, conjured up out of thin air. Limiting the sanctity and divinity of the delightful and complex human expression. Today, I lay here comfortably on my bed, and realize that words, although useful and even essential, are in fact, at times, counter-productive to spiritual growth and the well-being, joy and freedom we can experience as individuals: understanding why we exist, how we move through this vast, rich and textured world we inhabit. Sex isn't bad. Porn is questionable, sure, but is unlikely to be an immoral and shameful act when examined for what it really is. It is simply grown adults sharing love and lust. What could be so wrong with that?

Your argument seems to rest on the idea that society views porn as bad because we feel that sex is shameful. Is this what you are saying? There are plenty of other reasons why porn is harmful other than "we should be ashamed of sexual lust". Also, what do you mean by "inherently bad"? Is the threshold that porn has to be shown to be bad for its own sake as opposed to bad for society? If that is the standard, can you give an example of anything else that is "inherently bad"?

CMV: Minimum Wage Should Be Set On A Local Basis- The Federal Minimum is Fine.

Quite often, I'll see liberals advocating for a $15/hour federal minimum wage. Now, I understand these demands. There are many people struggling to support themselves on minimum wage, and they feel this is what's needed at a bare minimum. However, the cost of living varies heavily by location. For example, the cost of living in New York City is significantly higher than living in some rural town in Kentucky. While someone may need to earn $15 an hour to support themselves in certain areas, in other areas it's practically overkill. **Cons of A $15 Federal Minimum Wage:** -**Discourages businesses from spreading out.** if minimum wage is roughly the same everywhere, then business have little reason to locate themselves in less crowded areas. In fact, they're more likely to want to locate in the city, as that reduces the cost of travel for things like consulting, contract workers, etc. However, if minimum wage was $10 in some rural town, but $15 in a crowded city, they may choose to base operations in the rural town, because it cuts overhead costs. This creates more jobs and opportunities in the rural town, and helps fight congestion in the crowded city. -**It's not feasible for small businesses** A convenience store/fast food restaurant in a crowded city is likely to see more activity than one in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, it's easier to pay $15 an hour to employees working in Chicago than one working in some small town, because of more money coming in. -**Discourages people from pursuing further education** College education is expensive, and it often requires loans. At $15 an hour, many people might be making almost as much as a college graduate in some fields. From a purely objective standpoint, it may become a bad decision to pursue a college education, because of opportunity cost reasons: -By going to college, 4(or more) years that could be spent working are spent learning. -You accrue a lot of debt in student loans if you can't afford it upfront, and have to pay it off later. Assuming college costs $30,000 a year for 4 years, that's $120,000. Lost. Working at $15/hour 40 days a week, that's ~$30,000 a year. So by going to college for 4 years, you're down $240,000. However, it gets worse due to the *time value of money*. Those loans generate interest, and grow even bigger. Additionally, with the money you could have made working, you could invest a portion, making even more. As a result of an increased federal minimum wage, we would see a reduced amount of people pursuing further education, which isn't good for our economy that is increasingly moving away from basic labor(thanks to automation), and requiring more and more creativity and design. By raising the minimum wage at the federal level, it will likely have severe effects on the economy by restricting the free market, damage the job market by causing certain locations to be overcrowded with businesses, and have a severe impact on the incentive to pursue skilled careers. Setting the minimum wage at a local level is far more effective, as it's much better tuned to the cost of living, and helps create jobs in areas that aren't as crowded, better spreading the population.

The federal minimum wage should be set at the average livable wage level for the country (which would be around $10). From there each State, County, and City should set minimum wages in their jurisdictions that meet the livable wage level for that region (which they currently have the authority to do and often do use that authority). To paraphrase FDR when he first established the minimum wage, "If a business is unable to pay a living wage it does not deserve to exist in this country". So if raising the minimum wage hurts some businesses and the free market, good. They are bad businesses that should not have existed in the first place if they cannot pay their employees well.

ELI5: Does flexing my muscles without resistance or weights improve muscle strength?

If I am sitting at my desk and I flex my abs multiple times a day, does it increase strength or definition of the muscles?

No, just flexing doesn't work. But you can create your own resistance at your desk if you like. Pressing your knees up against the underside of your desk, or pressing your hands together. There are loads of isometric exercises.

ELI5: Why do old scratchy towels dry better than soft fluffy ones?

Because of fabric softener. Fabric softener is what makes those towels so soft and fluffy. The way it works is by coating the towel in a thin layer of a special chemical. This chemical conducts electricity, so it prevents static electricity from making fibers from clinging to each other. That makes it fluffy. The chemical is also slippery, so it makes the cloth slide smoothly against your skin. That makes it soft. The problem is that that chemical doesn't mix with water. That means that when you try to soak up something with the towel, some of it gets blocked. So the very same thing that makes the towels *look* like they'd be more absorbent actually makes them *less* absorbent!

Is Ludwig von Mises well respected in the field of economis?

Ludwig von Mises was respected as a teacher in his lifetime and he famously advanced the critique of socialism known as the socialist calculation problem. His critique, though not always cited explicitly, has been generally accepted by economists.\* Furthermore, he generally put together the theory of the Austrian business cycle, although he was certainly inspired by Wicksell. That said, more generally, the Austrian position in terms of theoretical foundation - e.g., praxeology - and their general theory of the business cycle is not widely accepted. Therefore, one can say that some of his contributions are respected and that some of his other contributions, while not accepted, are viewed as notable contributions within overall literature of "history of economic thought." **It is best to say that his contribution regarding the socialist calculation problem is "respected" but the rest of his work, not so much.** \* An example of its uncited impact is the second half of Schumpeter's book *Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy*, which is, in effect, a barely concealed attack on socialism which basically is making the same point as Mises (though sarcastically). This book is widely viewed as one of the most important works of economics.

ELI5 What does 'orthogonal' mean in a statistics context?

I have tried many times to understand this and thus far failed every time. What does it mean to say that data is orthogonal? Can you provide an example of data that would be orthogonal versus data that would not be orthogonal?

Simply put, orthogonality means “uncorrelated.” An orthogonal model means that all independent variables in that model are uncorrelated. If one or more independent variables are correlated, then that model is non-orthogonal.

Responsibility of reviewer to include grammar corrections?

Hello! I have a question regarding peer reviewing for journals. I find when I am reviewing that I want to comment on every minor grammar/sentence structure infraction, but obviously this is time consuming and I'm honestly not sure if it is a responsibility of the reviewer. In addition to comments on the science/experiments/etc., is it appropriate to include blanket statements regarding grammar/sentence structure? For example, "There is a general over- and mis-use of the word 'the', as well as instances of tense disagreement throughout the manuscript which should be addressed for increased clarity and readability." Is a blanket statement better than pointing out specific instances, if there are many? Or visa versa? Or are those comments more of an editorial responsibility than reviewer responsibility? TIA for your insight!

Your job is to review the clarity and 'correctness' with which the authors have expressed their work. That to some extent - includes language. Where theres a few scattered errors, I'll pick them up. Where its systematic I'll note the first one or two and add a comment like you suggested.

Does a nearby person have more gravitational effect on me than the nearest star?

This is probably completely wrong, but can someone steer me in the right direction? (this isn't an exam question, just curious:)) Gravitational force is given by F = G x m1 x m2 / r^2. A girl is standing 2m away from me. - Given me (m1) = 77kg, girl (m2) = 50kg, distance (r) = 2m - F = 6.67x10^-11 x 77 x 50 / 2^2 - F = 0.000000064 N - Proxima Centauri (4 light-years away, 0.123 solar-mass): - F = 6.67x10^-11 x 77 x 2.4x10^29 / (4.0x10^16)^2 - F = 0.00000000000077 N This seems to indicate the nearby girl is attracting me more than the closest star. I hope I'm right, as it's kind of romantic. :)

You are correct, but it's even more extreme when you consider the tidal effects, which decay as 1/r^3 instead of 1/r^2. Proxima Centauri though is sometimes considered part of a triple star system with Alpha Centauri, with twice the total mass of the sun.

[Star Wars] Was Darth Vader pro-Death Star?

We may never know, but I am curious what strategic/tactical doctrines Darth Vader subscribed to. Clearly the Death Star, although secret, was a big, fat target with no bulls-eye but packed a punch - especially against conventional forces. [What is conventional vs gorilla warfare in Star Wars?] So did Darth Vader agree or disagree with the objective of the Death Star? He seemed to spend a lot of time on it, perhaps even protecting it by order of the emperor? What did Darth Vader *do* during his "free-time" on the Death Star? Certainly he could've been more effective waging his own asymmetrical warfare against the rebels?

> The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force. Vader saw the Death Star as unnecessary. He believed control of the Force was the best path to power. The Death Star was largely Tarkin's brain-child as he was the one who pushed on Palpatine the concept of using fear to control the galaxy. This is primarily from the novel *Tarkin*.

How do tetanus vaccines (boosters) work?

A vaccine causes an active immune response, which leaves behind memory cells and results in immunity. I understand the concept of getting a "booster" some time after to keep the immunity, but why do people need tetanus shots after getting a puncture wound. If the antigens are already in the body, is a response to the vaccine really going to help deal with a pathogen that has already breached the external defense? Or does the tetanus booster contain antibodies to help fight the infection?

For Tetanus specifically, it's not the bacterium that causes the damage. It's the toxins that the bacterium produces that do. *Clostridium tetani* produces an extremely powerful neurotoxin that causes Lockjaw. Basically, the toxin permanently paralyzes muscles, by blocking the shutdown signal. When/if this paralysis reaches the muscles responsible for breathing, the subject stops breathing. The Tetanus vaccines specifically target the toxin, not the bacterium. Without the toxin, the bacterium is rather harmless and can be cleaned up by the natural response. Boosters after a wound are given in the case of the patient being unsure if they got a booster in the last 10 years (or if they know they didn't). If the patient hasn't received the full 3 lifetime vaccination shots yet (3 is needed for maximum immunity), then active antibodies can be added to ensure immediate cleanup of toxins. Giving a booster shortly after potential infection can kickstart the production of antibodies by the immune system, before the infection has had a chance to build up to lethal dosage, and help the immune system notice the infection quicker (basically, you kick someone to alert them to the killer across the street)

[dc] wouldn't the anti life equation just be death?

Like if the equation is to make life point less than won't the answer just be death, because everything you do will be all for nothing because you and everyone else will end up dead(except for the occasional near godly being)?

The Anti-Life Equation proves that *free will* is not real, and that all exist to serve Darkseid. It's a bit of a misleading name, but it's basically mathematical evidence that living a life outside of Darkseid is pointless because they will all come under his influence eventually. Fragments are said to be contained in the subconscious of human beings, and that's why he has an interest in Earth, aside from the fact that the only people to every really beat him live there.

Why/when did someone decide it was indecent for genitals/boobies to be exposed?

Cultural attitudes towards "decency" vary greatly by place and time, but assuming you are talking about the United States: it can be traced to the Puritan settlers, who had a huge influence on the colonies and the country they would become. Over time attitudes have changed, but law changes much more slowly. Note that simple nudity is not considered indecent (by law) in every jurisdiction. In California, for example, public nudity is not technically illegal, as a result of a California Supreme Court ruling. European countries tend to be much more relaxed about nudity. They don't walk around naked, but they also don't freak out over naked bodies in appropriate situations. There is nudity in advertising and on television, and in public in places like the beach.

ELI5: why is it so much harder to make antiviral medications than it is to make antibiotics for bacterial infections?

Because bacteria are fully-fledged living things. They do all the work needed to exist themselves - they make all their own proteins, do their own metabolism, use their own proteins to replicate their DNA and make RNA, and build their own cell walls and cell membranes. And because we're so distant from bacteria in an evolutionary sense, the processes they use and the proteins they make are in some cases very different from what we do in our own cells. This gives us a lot of targets to design drugs against (and gives evolution a lot of targets to generate drugs against as well - credit where credit is due). In contrast, viruses exist on the border between living and nonliving. They have their own proteins, but very few of them. They use _our_ cellular machinery to reproduce; the energy needed for this comes from _our_ metabolism. Since they're so much simpler than bacteria, there are fewer targets to develop drugs against. It wouldn't be as safe to develop drugs against many of the biological processes that viruses depend on, because we depend on those processes too.

ELI5 Why do we humans get gassier as we age?

Yeah...not sure that's a fact. If anything older people may lose muscle tonus in the sphincter and be less able to control when they let one out. Plus, as others have said, they just don't care. So they may release more often, but in still approximately the same volume. If you eat fiber, you'll fart, period. If you suddenly eat a lot more fiber than usual, you'll fart more than usual, then go back to average. Pregnancy can put pressure on the lower intestinal tract, and cause them to slip out more often, but the volume of gas is roughly the same even then. Fart.

ELI5: Why do rechargeable batteries deteriorate over time?

When using a battery, bits of one end dissolve and travel to the other end (or in most household batteries, from the inside to the outside). Recharging forces them back using an electric current, but they’ll never go back as cleanly as they first started. Over time the electrodes continue to deteriorate, and the battery becomes less effective. If something goes wrong (e.g. you try to recharge a non-rechargeable battery, or the control for a lithium battery breaks) it’s possible for the material being deposited to form a thin connection to the other side. This shorts out the battery, creating a lot of heat, and probably causing it to explode.

[Lord of the Rings] If I got a dump truck and repeatedly ran over a Hobbit wearing mithirl armor, would the weight of the truck crush him or would the mithril still protect him? Same question for Smaug and his hide

Yes, I would make sure both bastards are under the wheels

Mithril is durable, but that doesn't make the person *wearing* it more durable. Frodo had massive bruising from an orc spearing him against a wall; the force of a dump truck would most likely be fatal. Smaug could also be crushed by enough pressure, but it's anyone's guess how much force it would require.

ELI5: How does using car AC waste gas if it doesnt affect RPM?

I know that when you turn on AC another pulley in the engine needs to be powered so there is more load on the engine, but the engine doesn't have to go faster to accommodate that as far as I know? So how is more gas being burned?

You're applying an extra load on your engine. If you want to feel what an extra load does, go outside, turn on your engine and let it idle. Without touching your gas turn your wheel all the way to the right, your engine should stutter. This is because you're adding an extra load. Now it'll shutter for just a second and the rpm should drop about 50-100 rpm (not a lot) but then t evens out. That evening out is a reaction of the ecu (engine control unit) to your action. You don't feel like you're adding extra load but you are. Same with the AC. When you turn it on, you're adding an extra load however your engine wants to normalize everything and in this case it's giving it more gas and air to maintain the ideal idle.

Is there any good philosophy about the idea that sexuality is more omnipresent than we realize, and that most, or at least many more everyday things than we realize have an element of being sexual?

From what I gather, this is what freud believed. And a lot of people in the continental tradition draw heavily on freud. So is there any good semi contemporary philosophy focusing mainly on ideas like this? I was thinking about it, since I was thinking about how the trend among a lot of people seems to be to deny the sexual element in things. And it always seemed intuitive to me that if anything the opposite should be the case. Finding out that it was a big part of freud made me wonder where that line of thought is today.

George Bataille and the collaborative work of Gilles Deleuze and Fèlix Guattari both write at great length about the pervasiveness of desire/libidinal energy, though that isn’t quite the same thing. *Anti-Oedipus* might be worth looking into. Desire not as lack but as a productive force. “Every political economy is always a libidinal economy.”

ELI5 Why do people start to vibrate when planking?

The muscles of the core become fatigued with prolonged contraction, and when they do they relax. However, your brain is still trying to keep them contracted, so they flex again and relax again once they fatigue. As a result, you experience oscillating muscle contractions as your brain fights against your muscles.

Why do we get so much mucus build up when we cry?

What is happening is that tears drain from the outside top of your eye into the middle corner into your "nasolacrimal duct." This ducts is basically a straight tube into your nose where the tears mix with mucus secretions and come out your nose. If you are crying for a long time it is possible for your nose to become irritated and as a result it swells and you can become congested.

[papers please] If Arstotzka is so bad, why are people flocking to live in it?

Because everywhere else is worst. Antegria is stated to be a tyrannical government. Kolechia is stated to be "ten times worst". Republia is in the middle of a rebellion or something similar. Arstotzka is a terrible place but apparently they've got it better than most still. The only place that seems to be doing better would be Orbistan. But there are no stated reasons why people aren't fleeing there instead of Arstotzka.

What is the most heinous magical crime ever to have been committed?

If we're including deities (as theirs is the only real "magic" in the setting) then Melkor's corruption of Arda counts. He poured out his essence so that evil will remain until something from outside Time itself intercedes to end it.

CMV: A graded luxury tax system would be a better alternative to the current system

The UK has VAT, which a 20% tax on all luxury items. There are of course some rules which I don't get, e.g. chocolate covered cakes are not luxury items, but chocolate covered biscuits are, which is why there was a fight over whether Jaffa Cakes are cakes or biscuits. There is one big issue I have with VAT being charged though, and also an additional tax which works the same way, and I'll discuss it first. Tampons and sanitary towels are charged a "luxury rate" of 5%. I understand both sets of logic over whether this is fair or not, but I think the tax is a good thing, just not in its current form. VAT on clothing is my big issue. Children's clothes are not charged VAT, which I'm indifferent on. Adults' clothing, however, is charged VAT. Despite the fact that it is more social acceptable for there to be a naked child than a naked adult, and adults can be arrested for being naked in public. This means that a legal necessity is luxury. I propose a graded scale of VAT. Let's say your basic tampon is some cotton and a string, plus an applicator. That would be tax-free. Now some companies offer tampons with silk interwoven with the cotton, others have specialist applicators. These would be charged 5% tax as there is no need for silk to be mixed with cotton, and that, IMO at least, is luxury. Clothes would be approached differently. Let's say there are 5 different suits on the market. A=£100, B=£350, C=£600, D=£850, E=£1100. With the current VAT set-up, these would cost £120, £420, £720, £1020 and £1320, or £3600. My proposed model for this would be to have bands. A (lowest priced 5% of options), B (options which make up the bottom 25%, but aren't in A), C (the middle 50% from top of B to bottom of D), D (the highest 25% which isn't in E) and E (highest 5%) which would be charged tax of 5%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%. In the suit scenario above, the suits would now cost £105, £402.50, £720, £1062.50 and £1430, or £3720 total tax revenue. So not only would it ease the burden on lower income individuals and families, it would actually generate more tax revenue for the government. That's why I think my idea is an improvement on the current model. I'd like you to change my view, please.

Something like this would have to be re-evaluated constantly. Stores set prices. How would you decide what the "lowest 5%" are? Say you're looking at suits. What does the lowest 5% mean? The lowest 5% of all suits? (What counts as a suit?) The lowest 5% of suits in that store? (What if all the suits in that store are the same price?) Add this to the fact that there are hundreds of places around the UK that sell suits, and can change their prices whenever they want. I don't see how something like this could ever be practical.

ELI5: Why does stale bread get softer when you warm it up? Shouldn't the heat evaporate whatever water is left and make it harder?

Bread doesn't go stale because it dries out, it goes stale because the starches crystallize. If you weighed fresh vs. stale bread, you'd find the stale bread retains most of it's original weight, meaning it retains most of it's water. Weighing fresh or stale vs. dry would show a significant difference in weight, but dry bread isn't stale, and is delicious drenched in oil and spices!

I’m curious about the reason of this.

I was messing around with sin, cos, and tan on a calculator and I wondered what would happen if I input 360 into them. It came up with this: sin(360 degrees) = 0 cos(360 degrees) = 1 tan(360 degrees) = 0 I was confused why the cosine was the only one that equaled 1 and pretty much why the whole thing was happening. Because I was confused, I asked my teacher and he responded with, “We aren’t working with angles over 90 degrees.” (which I thought was annoying) He also mentioned that it wasn’t multiplication which is also confusing.

If you start at any point on a circle, and then go 360 degrees around it, where do you end up? At the start, of course, which is the same as travelling no degrees at all. Therefore, the value of any trig function (with frequency 1) for 360 degrees is the same for 0 degrees. cos(0)=1, therefore cos(360)=1 also. Ditto for sin and tan. If you want to know why sin and tan are 0 at 0 and 360 degrees, look at a circle on a grid centred at the origin. If you start at the point where the circle intersects the x axis, then the cosine at that point will be 1 and the sin will be 0, because cos and sin measure the x and y coordinate of a point on the circle. tan is sin/cos, so at 0 degrees that's 0/1, which of course is 0.

ELI5: Why does leftover food get soggy when you seal it? Theoretically there's just as much (realistically probably less) moisture as there was when you sealed it.

I don't think it's that more moisture is added, it's more that the moisture is dispersed, like pizza, the sauce will eventually make the crispy crust soggy. Where foods like potato chips are crispy, and there's no moisture present in the bag, so if you keep the bag air tight they don't get soggy (Like the weeks/months they spend on shelves)

ELI5: Have relationships between organisms that had been established before molecular biology been confirmed with genetics?

If I’m not mistaken, a lot of the relationships between different organisms (tree of life) were first established in the 19th century and were done so by looking at similarities in form and function and is the basis for scientific names. Since the development of genetic analysis, has there been an effort to go back and confirm that these educated guesses were correct? If so, were there any huge surprises? Like learning that animals that were thought to be closely related based on how they look are actually much more distant

Yes. Modern taxonomy is mostly based on molecular biology and genetic similarity, not form and function, and has indeed revealed that many of the original groups weren't descendants of common ancestors after all. Of course, form isn't a *complete* coincidence, so a lot of this took the form of small adjustments moreso than totally remaking the taxonomy. Probably the biggest exception to this rule is birds not being relatives of dinosaurs as originally thought, but just being, well, dinosaurs.

ELI5: why would PC beat a console in cross platform gaming?

if PC gamers were paired up against console gamers (with the PC gamers on PC's and console gamers on console) in a theoretical x-platform game (any genre of game FPS/etc) and say it was in teams of PC vs console, why would PC win? what advantage would the PC players have over the console?

The keyboard and mouse is a lot more versatile and accurate than a controller. Console FPS games come with cheats turned on (auto aim is one of the big ones) just so console players won't die all the time to the AI.

Where does heat go in space?

Imagine you had a bottle of water (somehow not exploding in a vacuum), would it cool down after a while? and if so, how does it lose its heat?

The main way to lose heat in space is through the light which is emitted by any object which has a temperature above 0 kelvin (absolute 0). For temperatures below several hundred degrees Celsius, this light is mostly emitted in infrared and not visible with the naked eye.

[Tremors] How do the people of Perfection Valley survive out there? (Monetarily)

With only fourteen people that live there how does anyone stay in business or make a living? There doesn't seem to be any real businesses there or enough people to keep one afloat.

Melvin and Mindy are kids, they live with their parents. We already know that Val and Earl are handymen. It's likely that they were drifters that somehow met and became friends, either before or after they came to settle in Perfection. They sleep in the truck which means they don't pay rent or mortgage, which also means they don't have a permanent residence and likely don't pay taxes. Rhonda is only a Grad Student, and doesn't live there. But she travels to Perfection to work on her assignment. The low importance of that assignment and desolate environment (she's the only one there) suggests a close proximity to a large enough city to have a college. We know that Walter owns the store. He stocks pretty much everything, suggesting he supplies Perfection as well as the occasional passer-by, a person traveling through either to or from the nearby city. Old Fred is obviously a sheep farmer. He farms enough to feed himself, and sells wool and mutton. Wallace and wife are a retired couple, building their own house and living off savings. Nancy is an artist. She probably sells to the occasional tourist passing through but also likely sells in Bixby, putting her artwork in a consignment shop. Jim is a doctor, for the town but also likely for a large surrounding area. I don't recall the rest, but there were jobs even back then by which you could "telecommute", or that were high paying while still allowing for an incredible amount of time off. Engineers can design at home and then lease their work to agencies.

[Firefly] The verse has 5 star systems within it, all comprised of at least binary stars. How is this possible?

http://i.picresize.com/images/2013/02/06/BMhCv.jpg Is that image a picture of a galaxy, or a picture of a solar system with solar systems within it?

The White sun is orbited by the other 4 stars. Each star has its own planets and moons. There are also proto-stars with their planets and moons. The White sun is massive. So massive that other, smaller suns, orbit it. The other suns are big enough to have planets orbit them. Think of it this way. You could live on a moon, that orbits a planet, that orbits a protostar, that orbit a sun, that orbit a larger sun.

ELI5 - Why I have to eat fruits and vegetables everyday to stay healthy, but an Inuit can go his whole life without ever seeing a vegetable?

From wikipedia: >While it is not possible to cultivate plants for food in the Arctic the Inuit have traditionally gathered those that are naturally available. Grasses, tubers, roots, stems, berries, fireweed and seaweed (kuanniq or edible seaweed) were collected and preserved depending on the season and the location. >Because the fats of the Inuit's wild-caught game are largely monounsaturated and rich in omega-3 fatty acids, the diet does not pose the same health risks as a typical Western high-fat diet. >Vitamins and minerals which are typically derived from plant sources are nonetheless present in most Inuit diets. Vitamins A and D are present in the oils and livers of cold-water fishes and mammals. Vitamin C is obtained through sources such as caribou liver, kelp, whale skin, and seal brain; because these foods are typically eaten raw or frozen, the vitamin C they contain, which would be destroyed by cooking, is instead preserved. tl;dr: They do have access to some kind of plants, and many of the vitamins we usually get from plants are also found in the animals that they eat in abundance. In addition, Western diets require more of the nutrients in healthier foods to help the body deal with the higher amount of saturated fat that we eat relative to Inuits.

ELI5: Why is charcoal dirty and at the same time so good at filtering?

Active charcoal can be made by producing regular charcoal through pyrolysis (heating it without oxygen, which leaves behind the carbon) and then introducing hot oxygen which burns away impurities. So in a sense, it is cleaned charcoal.

ELI5: Why is the South so proud of losing the Civil War?

The South isn't proud of *losing* the Civil War. What they are proud of is that their states had the courage to stand up for their rights in the first place. Note that this is only possible because the reason for the Civil War is spun (in the South) as a states' rights issue instead of the slavery issue it actually was.

ELI5: How does lack of good sleep affect physical performance (weightlifting, running, etc.)?

when you lift weights, in order for you muscle to grow you make micro tears in the muscle tissue, when you go to sleep you body will fix the tears by increasing the thickness basically so you get bigger muscles. for the optimal results of recovery your body needs food, hydration and sleep so if youre not getting enough quality sleep your body cant repair itself and you can get infured or just stay sore.

ELI5: The difference between volts, amps, watts, etc.

Imagine a turkey baster. Water in the baster will act as the sea of electrons in a copper wire. * Voltage (volts) is how hard you squeeze the bulb (more powerful batteries = squeezing the bulb harder) * Amperage (amps) describes the amount of water (electrons) flowing out per second * Wattage (watts) combines voltage and amperage to give you the total pushing power of the water coming out. Wattage is calculated by multiplying how hard you're squeezing by the amount of water coming out per second. It's basically the amount of energy the outcoming water can transfer to something else. For example, say you've got a turkey baster with a really wide tube. If you point it at a block sitting on a table and squeeze really hard and the block will move quickly as it's hit with the water. However, say your tube is really small. If you squeeze just as hard as you did last time, you'll move the block a heck of a lot slower. This is because we squeezed the same amount each time, but the amount of water flowing out of the large tube was larger than that being squeezed through the small tube. * Resistance (ohms) may be described by squeezing the tube of the turkey baster. The more you block the flow, the harder you have to squeeze to get the same water flow out. *This is pretty much a "dumbed down" version of the hydraulic analogy, which i encourage you to look up. There are a lot of resources out there that may present a more clear analogy than mine.* edit: added resistance

[Halo] Spartans

From star to finish how are Spartans made and what is their lifestyle like? Also what's the science behind? Referring to the Spartan-IIs

The Spartan II program was developed by Dr Catherine Halsey as a means to combat the Human Insurrection. Through genetic markers, she selected 150 candidates aged 6-7 who were considered genetically perfect. Physically and Mentally superior to the average human. She then narrowed these candidates down to 75. The candidates were then abducted, and in most cases replaced with a flash clone which would then die. They were brought to Reach. These 75 recruits were then trained and educated in the art of warfare, becoming experts in all kinds of combat, survival and military technology. At the age of 14 the Spartans underwent augmentation. An immensely dangerous procedure that enhanced the Spartans in many ways. These included strengthening bones until they were nearly indestructible, improving all the senses and shortening reaction time to beyond super human levels. 33 candidates survived unscathed. The rest either died, or were crippled for life. These 33 were then deployed against the Insurrection, acting as soldiers, Assassins, spies and whatever they were required to be. They never failed a single mission. When the covenant began their genocidal campaign,, the Spartans were introduced to the Spartan II Projects sister Project...Mjolnir. Hyper advanced power armour that could only be used by heavily augmented humans. Using this armour, a small group of Spartan IIs lead by John 117 attacked a Covenant ship. They successfully destroyed it, but the mission resulted in the death of Spartan Samuel-034. The first death of a Spartan II in combat. Throughout the human-covenant war, the Spartan IIs were an invaluable asset for the UNSC, feared by Humans and Covenant alike. In 2547, the project was made public to improve moral. In 252, Operation: RED FLAG was activated, the Spartans were to use a modified Halcyon Cruiser *The Pillar of Autumn* t capture a high ranking Prophet and force a truce. This plan was dashed to pieces with the Covenants invasion of Reach. The Spartan IIs divided into two teams, *Red* and *Blue*. Blue, led by John-117 would secure the navcom data of the UNSC Circumference. Red, lead by Frederick-104 would defend the generators of the planets orbital defence grid. Blues mission was a success, but one Spartan II was killed and another seriously injured. John 117 returned to the Pillar of Autumn with the Injured Linda-058 and immediately placed her in Cryo sleep until medical attention could be given, Apon hearing that Red team was lost, the Autumn jumped into slipspace . In fact, most of red team had survived at continued their mission to defend the Cannons. They failed, and fell back to Castle Base.Where they waited until they rendezvoused with John-117. The remaining Spartan IIs, along with survivors of Alpha Halo and Doctor Halsey left Reach, discovering that the covenant knew the location of Earth. In an effort to prevent the attack, they attacked a Covenant refitting station *Unyielding Heirophant*, successfully sabotaging an operation at the cost of the lives of multiple Spartans. Following this, The Spartans returned to earth. Except for Kelly-087 who was kidnapped by Dr Halsey. While John 117 was stationed on Cairo platform, the spartans were equipped with upgraded Mark VI armour and were engaged with covenant in Cuba. These surviving Spartans made their way to Onyx and regrouped with Kelly and a number of Spartan IIIs. The events on Onyx resulted in the death of William-043 and the survivors were trapped inside a Forerunner Dyson Sphere shieldworld until being rescued. After the War, there were 9 known living Spartan IIs. Now 5 as Black Team were killed by the Ur-Didact after he fell from Slipspace after attacking earth. Spartan teams Grey and Red are still unaccounted for. Spartans John-117, Frederick_104, Linda-058, Kelly-087 and Naomi-010 are the only known surviving Spartan IIs.

[DC] What prevents Killer Croc from being rehabilitated?

He doesn't seem like the person who just loves to kill like the Joker or other inmates around arkham. He has voluntarily given himself up to go to arkham in times of defeat. He has shown to have quite the caring nature under his thick skin. So what's the deal Waylon? Why haven't you stuck your landing yet and went out to go help Batman make gotham a better place?

Pre-New 52 at least, he was basically just getting dumber and more feral as time went on. He started out as a moderately intelligent mobster with a skin condition to a full-on reptile monster that ate people.

[Harry Potter] Whats stopping me from owning two wands at the same time? And can I use both of them at once?

Wands are expensive and there's no real reason to have more than one, but nothing odd would happen if you did. You can cast the same spell with multiple wands simultaneously and it will be more powerful, as demonstrated by Harry in the Deathly Hallows.

CMV: Greece deserves all the shit they have coming. They have been living above their paygrade for years, dodging taxes and avoiding all responsibility for their country

Let's see if i do this right, first time posting here: I just cant summon up any sympathy for the Greeks at this point. Despite Europeans trying to give them billions to fix their economy, they have done nothing whatsoever. They refuse to pay taxes, they blame Europe for their own fuckups and they are incredibly entitled and somehow expect everyone else to solve their problems for them. I know this is not a progressive or productive mindset, and i know it won't lead to anything good. But i just don't get why i should have the slightest shred of sympathy for the Greeks. _____ > *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!*

Maybe that's true when you talk about the entire country as "*they* did this and that wrong". But in reality the country is made up of individuals who didn't all participate in creating those problems, and who are now helpless to stop them from getting worse.

ELI5: When is 1, 2 ,3 gears in an AUTOMATIC car used?

I always use D when I use an automatic. Every time I ask someone about the 1,2,3 gear I get a different answer. Anyone can explain with justifications and sources pleasE?

Transmission mechanic here. When you shift your vehicle into 1, 2, or 3 you are manually shifting the transmission into said gear. 1 will put it in first gear and 2 or 3 will put it in the optimal gear based off vehicle speed, engine load, etc up to that gear you selected. This will allow you to have more torque to your wheels as you are in a lower gear. This helps you if you are trying to move a heavy load or if you are going down a long downgrade. Selecting one of these gears will help you slow down as you are causing engine braking. Do not use these selections if you are going above 30 as it will burn out your transmissions Hope this helps.

[Star Wars]Would it have even mattered if Vader did or did not betray Palpatine in Return of the Jedi?

I mean as a factor to the whole battle going on. Lando and the X-Wings were entering the Death Star as Palpatine fell, so regardless if Vader did or did not save Luke they still would’ve blown up the Death Star. Clearly they didn’t check to make sure Luke was out of the Death Star before it blew, as evidence by Han’s “I’m sure Luke wasn’t on that thing when it blew” line. So the only person Vader saved was Luke, and if he hadn’t fulfilled the Chosen One prophecy then Lando and Wedge would’ve killed both Palpatine and Vader anyway.

Everyone seems to assume Palpatine would have just been killed on the Death Star when it blew up. But Luke Skywalker was able to escape the Death Star before it blew, despite being surrounded by hostiles, not to mention DRAGGING the body of Darth Vader. Palpatine, on the other hand, was surrounded by loyalists who would save him at all costs. He also would not have been dragging anyone with him. He would have escaped from the Death Star before it exploded.

Does the temperature of a fluid affect its flow rate?

Assume you have two containers containing two identical fluids at different temperatures, you puncture a hole in both of them, same size and place, will the colder fluid flow out slower than the hotter one or will they flow out at the same rate?

Yes, viscosity of liquids is strongly temperature dependent and decreases with temperature. You can easily see it if you take a liquid at the high end of viscosity like molasses. It holds true for other liquids like water, too. And with lower viscosity, you get higher flow.

What 'connections' is the brain actually building when you learn something?

Everything I've learned about neuroscience so far has made this statement not really make sense. What about the synapse is actually changing?

Here are some properties which can change at the synapse: 1) The sensitivity of the post-synaptic membrane, making it require more or less input to respond with an action potential at the axon. 2) The amount and type of receptors present in the post-synaptic membrane. 4) Production of neurotransmitters in the pre-synaptic terminal. 3) The branching of axons in the pre-synaptic membrane e.g. after nerve damage you can get axonal sprouting of one axon into a now vacant section of dendrites. The precise physical basis of memory is still largely unknown.

During the decay of hadrons through weak interaction, why isn't strangeness always conserved when other quantities such as charge and lepton number etc. have to be conserved?

A Kaon (strange) for example decays into a pion (not strange), an electron (not strange) and electron anti-neutrino (not strange). Lepton number, charge, baryon number etcetera are all conserved so why isn't strangeness also conserved?

In short, because the weak interaction does not conserve strangeness, but the strong force does. The strangeness of a ~~hardon~~ hadron is just the sum of its constituent strange quarks minus the anti-strange quarks. The strong interaction can't change one quark into another, all it can do is create or destroy strange/anti-strange pairs. The weak force, on the other hand, can change one type of quark into another via a W boson. The concept of strangeness was invented to explain why some particles created in cloud chambers were so long-lived. If they decayed via a strong interaction you would expect them to live only a short time, similar to the lifetime of other particles that decay via the strong force. Since the weak force is weaker, it takes longer for particles to decay weakly. Thus, if there was some conservation law that the strong force obeyed but the weak force didn't, it would explain why these weird particles lived longer than expected (since they wouldn't be able to decay strongly without violating the conservation law). None of the details of quarks or the weak force were understood at the time that this concept was invented, so it was created as a heuristic way to explain what might be happening.

ELI5: How do cameras, or their lenses, auto-focus?

At first I thought that maybe the concept was a little similar to our eyes in that it tries to get as much of the incoming light on one point, the middle of the sensor, and so adjusts the focus ring until it finds a position with the largest amount of light on this spot. However, this doesn't explain (to me, anyway - maybe I'm just being thick) how a lens will be able to refocus on objects based on distance.

2 ways: - You digitally analyze the frame to figure out the least blurry lens configuration. Least blurry means sharpest color transitions between neighboring pixels. Only works in certain types of digital cameras. - You measure the distance between the camera and the target, and figure out an appropriate lens configuration. Little IR sensors can be used to measure the distance.

ELI5:The current political situation in Thailand

The Thai middle class and educated elites are revolting against a populist democratically-elected government that, while enacting numerous policies that have helped the poor and more rural Thai people, has also used power to personally enrich themselves and their cronies. The current PM's brother was the former Prime Minister who became loved by the lower classes for implementing all sorts of policies (including universal health care) and reforms that benefited them. At the same time, he also was a massive crony-capitalist who used his position of power to financially enrich his family and his allies through widespread corruption. The current PM has basically taken the same route - implementing reforms that help the poorest Thai citizens, while using her power to enrich her own family and allies. Things came to a head when she tried to pass an amnesty law that would allow her brother to return to Thailand. The protesters want change, but know that since the lower classes love the ruling party, they also know that they won't win in elections. So they've called for the postponement of elections and for the country to be ruled by a council until an unspecified time after which elections could be held. TL;DR Populist government does good by poor folks but is corrupt, middle class protesters want to suspend democracy and have a "people's council" of technocrats rule the country until things can be fixed.

CMV: The supreme court decision to not prevent partisan gerrymandering will significantly decrease the power of a vote.

Today, the Supreme Court [declined to do anything](https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-political-gerrymander-ruling-11561642594) about partisan gerrymandering in states like North Carolina. Their argument was basically that the court does not have the constitutional power to "reallocate political power between the two major political parties". They said that congress should handle the issue. Validity of that argument aside, it seems impossible that congress will actually handle the issue since it's so partisan. Like, if one side is gaining congressional seats via gerrymandering, then why would they ever vote to end it? Theoretically the people could vote them out of power to get it changed, but it will be extremely difficult due to the gerrymandering. On top of that, even if they do vote one side out of power, why wouldn't the other side just go fully gerrymandering in the other direction? Also, since some states are already gerrymandered, it seems like both parties will have to immediately resort to gerrymandering to prevent the other side from gaining power and doing gerrymandering themselves. This seems like it will lead to all states eventually being gerrymandered and the vote of an individual person not mattering nearly as much. States will then end up staying with a particular party for longer periods of time and will eventually split the country in two. I could even see people just giving up on voting because their state is never going to flip due to gerrymandering. Basically, this decision will shift the power of a vote from the people to the legislatures that are drawing districts.

When voting for the president, the senate, and the governor, the district lines don't matter at all. It is just when voting for the house and state legislature that districts come into play. So I'd argue that a huge chunk of important parts of your vote are completely unaffected by gerrymandering. But on top of that, the supreme court can't even decide what a fair districting looks like. For example, if latinos happen to be split up into many different districts so that they have no majority voice in any one district, that sounds like a problem that needs fixing. But how do you go about fixing that? Well, you redraw your lines making sure to draw them carefully so your capturing those latino votes into a single district. And in practice, what that means is drawing ridiculous lines that capture one house, but not either neighbor on either side just to try to get the latino votes up. You end up drawing extremely racially biased lines which is a huge problem too.

CMV:Video Games should be more inclusive for the female demographic.

In a recent study of the ESA, the conclusion has come that 50% of ‘gamers’ are female. Therefore, the video game industry must change its precedent of including overly-sexualized and objectified women, as well as its attitude of having damsels in distress, by making their games more inclusive and female friendly. They should also write more female characters as well as more female protagonists with independent agendas. AAA games do have enough room, as a medium, to include female protagonists. I hold this view because I love video games and I want newcomers to enjoy video games too, without fear of harassment. _____ > *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!*

A purely Devil's Advocate position: if 50% of gamers are female, doesn't that suggest that the gaming industry has reached the point where its efforts to appeal to female gamers have succeeded? Or at least, succeeded as much as their efforts to appeal to male gamers? It might help if you would indicate why you want this view changed or challenged.

Is it true that babies see upside down for a short period of time?

I Heard this claim multiple time ex.: https://www.reference.com/world-view/babies-see-upside-down-2c7003b02ae612ed I understand that the image is upside down on the Retina but I dont understand how that coressponds to the percievied image. The way I understand it the brain hast to somehow make sense of the Signals coming from the Retina but I dont understand how it would first Form an upside down Image from these Signals and than later flip it. Edit: I guess what I am trying to say is: From the brains Perspective its Just "random" neurons in the optic nerve firing so the orientation of the image should Not matter couse its Not an orderly System in the first place.

You pretty much answered your own question. Our optic nerves are kind of random and so our brains take a while to decode exactly what "sight," is. Our brains can still adapt as adults though. There are famous examples where after wearing goggles designed to flip a user's sight upside down, their brains adapted after a few days and they were seeing right side up again with the same thing happening in reverse when they took them off.

ELI5: What makes stringed cheese stringed and other cheese sticks just cheese?

From Huffington Post: > "String cheese is just mozzarella cheese that has been heated to 140 degrees. At this temperature the cheese becomes very stretchy and the milk proteins move around and line up together in a row. It's this alignment that makes string cheese so stringy!" Other cheese sticks are just cheese because they're a different type of cheese with a different flavour, and because there's a market for "regular cheese sticks" in comparison. This is simply because a lot of people don't like the consistency or flavour of the stretched mozzerella as much as they do other types like cheddar.

How is helium collected?

There's all this talk about the price of helium balloons going up do to the using up of helium. My question is, how is the helium collected in the first place? And why can't we use that method to recollect the helium from the air?

Most commercially used helium is produced through fractional distillation of Natural Gas. Helium has a distinct boiling point from the other components of natural gas and therefore can be separated by boiling the helium out of natural gas. Helium is only present in minute fractions in air so reclaiming it from air is difficult and costly

How do I know if Computer Science is right for me?

I am starting University this September and thinking of changing my degree pathway to Computer Science but not sure if it's right for me. Apart from coding/programming what does a CS degree entail? I have been looking at the Uni modules but don't really understand them as there's a lot of new stuff. I just started learning to code with Python and enjoy it so far and I like Maths in general but how do I know whether or not I will enjoy a CS degree and the jobs that come after Edit: Thank you for all those who reply and give advice, much appreciated.

CS itself is a mathematical discipline, but tends to teach programming as a tool along with a bunch of theory that's useful for writing efficient software. Some degree programs lean toward the theory and math, but the exact focus is going to depend on the program itself.

ELI5: Why do we get bored?

Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, GABA, and other neurochemicals. We get a boost of dopamine from novel and stimulating activities. Eventually, or body produces less of it for the same experiences repeated over and over again, so we no longer get the same satisfaction that we had before. Basically, new experiences are exciting and fun because our brain makes chemical soup to reward us for trying new things. Eventually our brain quits giving us the same chemical soup and changes the ingredients, so we get bored. It's essentially drug withdrawal.

ELI5: The scoring system of cricket

One run counts as a run. Two runs count as two runs, etc. Hitting the ball so it rolls across the boundary, four runs. Hitting the ball so it flies across the boundary without first bouncing, six runs.

ELI5: Why can juicy fruits like watermelon be grown in regions of the world that have horrible water pollution, but it doesn't seem to affect the people who eat it?

Plants absorb water through ultra-fine membranes made of plant tissue. Some chemical pollutants can indeed get in and poison the plant. But the most common pollutants we worry about in our water -- things like bacteria -- are way too big to make it in through that membrane.

Getting rid of the minimum wage?

Since the goal of every corporation is to maximize profits, if we got rid of the minimum wage, would we see businesses reducing the wage of their workers?

Wages tend to be sticky. If an employer currently has someone working for $7.25/hour and then the minimum wage law is removed, the employer could try lowering the wage of the current employee, but that employee likely will not accept a wage reduction. What could happen is that the employer finds a new employee at a lower wage (if such a person exists) and replaces the $7.25/hr employee. However, it should be noted that companies usually look to maximize profits which is not the same as minimizing costs. So, while an employer can replace a higher-waged employee with a lower-wage employee, the employer has to consider the relative productivity of each of the workers. If the high-wage employee's productivity is more than the higher-wage, then the employer would not switch to the lower-wage worker.

Professor overstepping personal boundaries?

I hope this is okay to post here. I’m a female grad student in a class with a male professor who is also on my thesis committee. This is my second class with this professor and he has always been extremely nice, professional, and encouraging. However, recently I’ve picked up on certain behaviors that give me some pause. A few weeks ago he began to text me on my cellphone on the weekends. I did not give him my number - he presumably got it from my email signature. He has kept it mostly school related but did call my cellphone and ended the conversation with random personal questions. He has also recently added me on Facebook. Additionally a male classmate and I had to have similar one-on-one meetings to discuss our final projects and I told the male classmate to expect to field lots of personal questions from this professor (since that was my experience in our meeting). My classmate came back saying that did not happen at all. However a female classmate of mine also experienced the same treatment as I did with lots of questions and compliments in the second half of the meeting that were off topic from the project. The attention does not feel sexual in anyway but does feel excessive and gender specific. Should I say something to someone in the hopes that it doesn’t progress or should I just stay observant and not make a big deal? Has anyone experienced this? I received another text from him today asking why I wasn’t at an on campus event I had registered for. It all seems fairly innocuous but I feel sensitive to it. UPDATE: Thank you all for your feedback, it’s very helpful. I am removing my cellphone from my email signature, I completely agree that if I don’t want people to contact me I shouldn’t provide it. I’ve had my cellphone on my email signature for years without issue so this is new territory. I also want to clarify that personal questions varied from, “Do you have siblings? What do your parents do?” to “How did you pay for your undergraduate degree?” to “Why are you wanting to live in that city after graduation, do you have family or a boyfriend there?” What made them more unnerving is that they came out of nowhere with no prompting. We would be talking about something related to work and then he would jump to asking me a fairly specific question about my personal life. When we talked on the phone he asked me if I was going to a music festival and if I knew how he could get tickets. It seemed more like a question for Google than for me. The conversation also had no urgency at all and I was going to see him in class the next day. Like I said, they are fairly innocuous but I do not have a strong personal relationship with him and this strikes me as a strange way to build one. I have had good friendships with colleagues and professionals before but this is not how I experienced forming those relationships. As for the small sample size, I understand that not a lot can be gleaned from the experience of three people. However, I can say that the other female independently arrived at a feeling of discomfort in her interactions with him as well. I would say the three of us are equally engaged and ambitious, so there’s no reason I can see that the professor would have to not offer the same treatment to my male classmate.

Document, document, document, but also be clear about boundaries you would like to have. If you don't want to get texts about academic stuff on the weekends, say that. You can frame it as "work-life balance" or whatever you want, but make it crystal clear.

[Chrono Trigger] Why is every date in the game followed by BC or AD, when Christianity doesn't seem to exist in the Chrono Trigger universe?

I've been playing through Chrono Trigger recently and have noticed that all the dates in the game are followed by either BC (Before Christ) or AD (~~After Death~~ Anno Domini). The problem is that the game doesn't seem to take place on Earth (at least not as we know it) and there are never any other references to Christ or Christianity. Additionally, in the game's story Crono is a figure analogous to Christ, who dies to save humanity and is later resurrected, seeming to further suggest that Christ wouldn't exist in this universe. So where to the BC and AD used to denote dates come form? And before someone says that BC stands for "Before Crono", I should point out that Crono sacrifices himself 12,000 years before year zero.

Just a quick clarification, 'AD' doesn't stand for 'After Death'. It stands for Anno domini, which is Latin for 'Year of Our Lord. There isn't a 33 year long gap between 1bc and 1ad *(there's also no year 0)*

ELI5 Why does switching around the dying batteries in my remote make it work again?

It doesn't. Not pushing the buttons while you're messing around with the batteries makes it work again. Your standard remote has 2 AAs or 2 AAAs in series. That means the supply voltage of the remote is the sum of the two batterries' voltages. It also means that the position of the battery makes no difference, even if they're in a different state of charge. However, most remotes have a supply capacitor that gets charged by the batteries and that supplies the remote with power. Basically a tiny buffer battery. As the batteries get weaker, it takes longer and longer to recharge the capacitor to a level that allows the remote to function. If the batteries are weak and you use the remote a few times in quick succession, the capacitor will be discharged completely and the remote will no longer work. The batteries are still recharging the capacitor, just very very slowly, and if you keep pushing buttons, it'll never get to a sufficient level of charge. When you switch the batteries, you're not pushing any buttons, so you're probably giving the cap 20-30 seconds of charging time, and that may be enough for it to power the remote again (for a few shots).

ELI5: what is the process of going into shock?

Paramedic student here. When we speak of “shock” we are talking about inadequate tissue perfusion- basically, for whatever reason, oxygenated blood is not reaching the patients tissues. There are 5 major types of shock- hypovolemic (loss of blood volume, ie, the patient is bleeding out) cardiogenic (there is an issue with the mechanical activity of the heart pumping blood to the body), neurogenic (there is an issue with either the brain controlling the heart, or the electrical system in the heart itself) anaphylactic (life threatening allergic reactions, or other adrenal issues affecting perfusion) septic (massive systemic infections) In pre-hospital care (when you call for a paramedic), we can manage some of these. For hypovolemic, we can give you IV fluids to replace lost blood volume, but we have to balance that with making sure theres still enough actual blood there to carry oxygen to the tissues. For septic, we give fluids as well, but in the hopes of diluting the blood- theres very little we can do in the field to actually combat septic shock. For anaphylactic shock, we can give medications to mitigate and lessen to bodies reaction to what ever triggered the event. For neurogenic shock, we try to control heart rate and BP, without letting the system crash. For cardiogenic, we try to get you to the hospital as fast as we can, cause there’s not much we can do for you in the field. Another issue with shock is that there’s 3 levels of shock- compensated, decompensated, and irreversible. Compensated shock is the early stage, where the patient is sweaty, pale, and has a rapid heart rate. This is the stage that is easiest to manage. Signs/symptoms can include agitation or anxiety, fast heart rate (tachycardia), fast breathing (tachypnea), nausea and/or vomiting, and a weak or thready pulse. Decompensated shock is the mid stage, where the patient becomes mentally altered (seems intoxicated, or passes out entirely), has no pulses in the extremities (but still has a carotid pulse), labored or odd breathing, and a falling blood pressure. This is the shock stage that we throw everything we have at, in order to keep the patient alive so we can get them to a doc. The last stage, irreversible shock, is just that, irreversible. If you hit that point, you’re gonna die. Medics and doctors will do everything they can, but at that point, it’s a losing battle. Patients in this stage have lost the carotid pulse, they’ll have very shallow and irregular breathing, very low blood pressure (hypotension), and they’ll be unconscious. Our ultimate goal, regardless of the type or level of shock, is to get you to a hospital, or ‘definitive care’ as we call it. Medics, despite all the tools, techniques, and meds at our disposal, are bandaids. We can stabilize, but it takes a doctor to fix the problem. So if you call 911, and the medic says you need to see a doc, go see one. Ideally, the medic will take you, but not every fire service does their own patient transports.

What is the difference between a Sea and an Ocean?

To a large extent it's just a matter of what we call them, but the major ocean basins overlie a different type of crust than most inland and nearshore seas. Oceanic crust is basaltic, formed at mid-ocean ridges, and denser, so it floats lower on the mantle. Continental crust is andesitic, formed by subduction zone volcanism, and lighter.

I think that hunting higher order animals for sport should be illegal and carry penalties similar to those for first degree murder. CMV

My reasoning is as follows: * For sufficiently complex animals, death results in a loss of well-being equal to or greater than it does in the case of many humans (infants and the profoundly handicapped). * We do not make an exception to murder laws in the case of infants and the profoundly handicapped, nor do we typically treat such murders as lesser offenses. * The prohibition against murder is warranted (if by nothing else) by the fact that killing people results in a loss of well-being, and the generally high severity of punishment for murder is due to the fact that murder is generally one of the most harmful offenses. * Therefore, I think the planned and deliberate killing of animals should be illegal and carry penalties similar to those for first degree murder. CMV

It seems like a logical extension of this argument that we are surrounded by an enormous and ongoing 'human'-rights crisis, and that we urgently need to deploy police to woodlands, fields, etc. to prevent predators from killing and eating any animal deemed sufficiently 'higher-order'. And then find some alternate food source for the predators so we don't starve them to death, of course. We'll also need to provide basic healthcare services for higher-order animals, like vaccination against common, preventable diseases and emergency care. To do otherwise would be terribly inhumane. Do you agree? If not, why not?

[Bioshock] why do some people become sploicers while our protagonists do not (possible spoilers)

It seems that all of Rapture, and some of Columbia is plagued with sploicers, while the protagonists, in all the games is not affected. Jack/Delta doesn't show any adverse affects, neater does Booker or Elizabeth. Each of these protagonists, take massive amounts of adam/vigors. Also most sploicers seem to only have one ability, while our protagonists has many. By the end of the game our protagonist should be really messed up!

*Splicers. Anyway, becoming disfigured is an effect of long therm ADAM abuse. Jack and Delta wasn't users for very long, and since both left Rapture, they basically had to go cold turkey, getting over the addiction. Anyway, we don't see their faces at the endings, so they could still be disfigured.

[Spiderman] Concerning the origin of Spiderman's outfit in the original movie

One of the things I was interested in about the original Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire, was where he got that nifty costume. After having seen the suit in the trailer I was curious to see how they would explain it's origin. Sadly, they completely glossed over that part in the film. He starts off with homemade outfits and then they just cut to him with his final Spiderman suit out of nowhere. Where the hell did he get it?

In the novelization, it's explained that when Peter was wrestling and kicked Bonesaw's ass, he met a wrestler who was so grateful that Bonesaw was beaten, especially after Bonesaw had almost crippled him. He told Peter that his brother was a tailor who did all sorts of costumes, and they hooked him up, though he wore a mask when he picked up the costumes.

ELI5: How does bonsai tree cultivation work? What makes them appear like a perfectly scaled down regular tree?

Mostly, it's a matter of trimming the roots and branches of the tree in just the right way to keep it small. That, plus the small pot size, prevents the tree from growing as big as it would in the wild. Additionally, the species of tree is often chosen to be one that has naturally small leaves or needles, so it helps with the sense of scale. There's also various techniques to get the tree to have the specific shape the artist wants it to have, such as grafting a branch onto the tree or using wires or clamps to push/pull branches into growing in a certain direction.

ELI5 : Why does it feel like shower water pass from too cold to way too hot when you move the dial 1 micrometer?

This is entirely personal based on your setup. It depends on what kind of mixer and handles you have. Longer handles will have the outside move farther per every degree of rotation. Moving a 3 inch handle one inch will be under 30 degrees, but moving a one inch handle one inch will be over 45. Also some mixers do adjust very coarsely, with big changes in output temperature for smaller input (handle) changes. Some have two handles where you adjust the flow of hit and cold separately. Some only let you control both with one handle, which is obviously harder to fine tune. In some the entire range of temperatures is traversed in only like 60 degrees, while in others it goes the full 360.this is up to he specific construction you have

Which topics are trending in contemporary political theory/philosophy?

I'm particularly interesting in *novel* issues which are being debated *now*, rather than merely during the last decade or so.

Some new and interesting work is being done on the moral limits of markets. For instance, even if certain transactions are entirely voluntary, some philosophers hold that there are certain moral limits on what can be bought and sold. Debra Satz from Stanford has a book called *Why Some Things Should Not be for Sale* (2010). Sandel has *What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets* (2012). Brennan and Jaworski have a defense of markets in *Markets without Limits* (2015).

(in theory) Could you create a fission reaction with any element if its brought to an near unstable state or isotope?, and what would you need to use to create this reaction for different elements?

Any nucleus with A > 1 can be made to fission, it doesn’t have to be unstable, and the reaction won’t necessarily be exothermic. But if you’re asking in the context of a multiplying fission chain reaction, not just anything can be made to do that. You need something *fissile*, which means that it can undergo neutron-induced fission with neutrons of arbitrarily low energy. Whether or not it’s unstable isn’t really relevant to whether it’s fissile, but it happens that all fissile nuclides are heavy enough to be unstable. So that limits your chances to a few actinide/transuranic nuclides. But if the half-life of the desired nucleus is too short to gather it up as fuel, then it’s not practical to use for this purpose.

Could elements heavier than 114 be produced naturally in blackholes or other sources of tremendous gravity?

It's possible that elements much larger than uranium are created in supernovae but decay so quickly that we never detect them. Black holes aren't really good engines for nuclear fusion, although the high energy in accretion disks around them could conceivably lead to the production of large nuclei.

ELI5: Every news organization is saying Obama "killed" the Keystone XL pipeline, what exactly did he do?

Everything I am finding about the 6 Nov decision just states that it was "killed" or "quashed" by Obama. No elaboration on what exactly this means. I know he has vetoed a number of bills in the past regarding the Keystone XL, but this was not the case in the most recent development. The last bill that was proposed in Congress was vetoed in February and the veto failed to be overridden. This recent "killing" seems a more final decision on the matter preventing anything being proposed later. President Obama's announcement stated that the State Department concluded a study which did not find the pipeline to be in the best interests of the US and that he agrees with this conclusion. This study appears to have been concluded in 2013. So, what exactly did Obama decide to "kill" and how did he go about "killing" it? Why does this prevent Congress from proposing any further legislation on the matter or individual states from granting eminent domain applications to TransCanada?

It's the state department's call as whether or not to approve the pipeline. Though it would be expected that the President could just tell the state department to approve or deny the application so theoretically he could have the final say on it hence the language in the media. The application for the installation of the pipe is what was denied. If there hadn't been so much push back from Republicans the application for the pipeline would likely have been denied back in 2013. The argument against it from the report was that it would have negligible impact on oil prices, would benefit Canada's economy instead of ours, create very few permanent jobs, and cause a unacceptable risk to the environment given that the pipeline would stretch across the whole country.

What is your team's practice for new coding standards?

I'm on a small team that has been struggling with communication and formal processes for the last few months while we grow and get more pressure from a growing startup. We need a formal code standard process to be able to 1) introduce code standard proposals, 2) decide on whether to implement, 3) make sure the team knows what the code standards are. My thinking is to have just that: a form of some kind where people can propose them, and every period of time we get together as a team and discuss them (maybe every week or before we start the next sprint). But I was curious if there are any other processes out there that people have liked on their teams. Edit: for clarity I'm not really asking for "use linting" - we already do that, we also already test builds for PRs and all code goes through code review. I'm asking for if your team has a process or there's a process you've used in the past for code standards that aren't linting rules. E.g. "Single responsibility functions", UI layout, when to put an index on a table, naming conventions, etc. We also do use best practices for the stack when they're available, ie our naming conventions for Postgres come from Postgres best practices -- however, just because *I* know something is a Postgres best practice doesn't mean everyone on the team does, and we need to put that information somewhere. Currently we don't have a process to literally say "Hey this is the best practice for this, let's commit to it as a team" and agree on that and put it in a place everyone can easily find it.

Use a code formatter. Use a common format across the entire team. Use some kind of static analysis tool if the language you work with has one. Use types addition if you are working with a dynamic language and find yourself fighting types often. Establish a naming convention for common actions. When do you use get vs fetch vs retrieve? When do you use set or make or build? Hold sprint post-mortems. What worked well, what didn't. What can stay, what needs changing. Setup what rough boundaries that is allowed by individuals devs without discussions. A new language feature? New lib? New service? How much refactoring is too much? Write that line in the sand so you don't have devs introducing too much new stuff in code reviews, blindsiding reviewers. Reduce your API surface. Expose as few functions as possible and make it known that certain functions are called only by internals. Make it easy for other devs to how and where to extend existing functions.

ELI5: Why is hair growing out of moles thicker than other hair?

I have three moles that seems to act like fertilizer to my hairgrowth. This "superhair" is similar to beard, as it is thicker and stronger than normal hair, and grows annoyingly fast.

Moles are basically a tumor. The unusual cell cluster pushes on the follicle, making it grow hair faster than usual. They're darker because of the extra melanin in the area from the mole. It's actually a good thing if your mole grows hair because that's a sign it's not cancerous.

Why do the holograms in Star Wars look so bad?

I mean they have cloning technology, hyper-drives, lightsabers, etc. And yet their holograms have the picture quality of an old television. I consider myself a star wars buff and I've never figured it out.

They don't care enough to improve it. Commercial quality holograms are scrubbed and processed to hell and back, coloured and retouched for the entertainment of all who consume the media. But the standard hologram? Why bother? Think about it. You've got a technology which can safely transmit a (scan-line-y) image and voice across a good chunk of the galaxy with the right transmitter. It is accurate, reliable and will get the job done. *Exactly* what you want done, and nothing more. The equipment is already standard and distributed throughout the galaxy. You have no incentive to change it.

[Minecraft] The Nether is filled with Zombie Pigmen. Whatever happened to the living Pigmen?

There never were any normal pigmen, only ever pigs. Pigs, when they get hit by lightning, turn into Zombie pigmen, without ever having gone through the in between stage of having been a normal pig man. There is also no cure which can reverse this process. Originally pigmen came from the overworld, pigs were hit by lightning and turned into Zombie Pigmen and roamed the land, turning more pigs into Zombies (I mean, they *are* zombies, so presumably can bite a pig and turn him too). The plague grew worse, hordes of pigmen wandered the land turning the hugely prevalent pigs and growing the horde. Eventually something had to be done and the villagers banded together, created portals and drove the pigmen into the nether. Now the pigmen have adapted to this hellish world, developing immunity to the heat and plotting to one day return to the overworld, where they can destroy their foes and once again taste the sweet flesh of their brethren.

ELI5: When I'm several stories up and I look at the ground why do I feel like is want to jump knowing it would kill me?

If I'm at the top floor of a building why do I feel like I "need" to jump?

There is a theory that L’appel du vide (call of the void) is a result of our base brain still recalling a time when we lived in trees and, like monkeys, would jump out into open space without hesitation to get to another tree or escape an obnoxious proto-human who was hassling us. That may actually be partially the reason for fear of heights. There can be a painful cognitive dissonance between a curious urge to jump to freedom, and knowing it will kill you.

Why can’t you double dam a dam for more energy generation?

This might be a troll question, but once a ex-roommate said it to me in a drunken stuper, I haven’t been able to think of a way you couldn’t do this. “Why can’t you double dam a dam for more energy generation?” Granted, dams serve multiple purposes only one of them being energy generation. However if you could regulate the flow from the first dam into the 2nd one and on and on, why wouldn’t it work? Also I realize that dams are placed in very strategic places often not even allowing for the idea to be done. Just assume you are in a perfect passage way with multiple staple places to place a dam if you wished. You wish to place one dam in front of the other regulating the flow and letting gravity do it’s work. could you double/triple the output of a green energy source?

The energy is completely derived from the gravitational potential of water behind the dam (high elevation) compared to the elevation of water after the dam (low elevation). That amount of energy will not change as you add dams. If you have two dams far apart (more than one dam height in elevation difference), than you can harvest the energy again. This is done actually, though not so close. If two dams are closer together (let's say 10 feet apart), then either the second dam will produce almost no energy (water will be at a low elevation behind it, so no potential energy to harvest), or the first dam will produce almost no energy (if you let the 10-foot space between dams fill up with water). Water is driven through a dam by the pressure behind it, and if there is equal pressure in front of it (in the 10 foot space between dams), then you get nothing. Of course, you could "lift" the water at the bottom of the first dam to the top of the second dam - but that would require more energy than what you will get from the same water.

I believe American society is wrong to think that people are ruining their image by drinking and partying. CMV

When people judge other peoples' characters, it's common in America (or maybe just the Bible Belt, but this happens outside of Christianity as well) for someone to think less of another because they drink to get drunk or party hard. My views are shaped by my experiences in college (still in college, 22 y/o, and I haven't been affected by this issue in any serious way): In particular, there's a lot of pressure to remove party pics from your social media profiles. Businesses think less of those who show that they drink. There's also a lot of underage drinking going on in college, and a decent amount of students get fake ID's to get away with it. Public figures who are still in university (like a famous football player) get flack for making it known that they party. My point being, why should anyone care? If you take every person who's ever been in college and drank underage, done something stupid at a party, or gotten a fake ID, and fire them from their jobs or prevent them from promotion or throw them in jail for faking an ID; a lot of great, talented, and useful people in society would be taken down in the process. Nearly half the population in college right now would drop, too. To be clear: if we threw peoples' personal party/drinking lives into the public realm (in America), a great deal of them would receive a lot of flak for it. This, to me, is wrong because there are wonderful people who drink and party, so it's obvious that drinking and partying does not mean someone is a bad person. My opinion excludes those who drink while driving (which is terrible), or do horribly violent things while drunk (things that reshape a person's life for the noticeably worse; bar fights aren't always horribly violent in this respect--though they can be), but **does not** exclude people who made poor life decisions and ended up pregnant, charged with an MIP/other underage drinking charge, people who provide to minors, or people who end up in a hospital. Once again, the situations I mentioned after the bolded text are extremes to drinking that I don't feel should be judged too harshly by society (too harshly meaning that someone would lose a job or a promotion over it even if they qualified for the job or the promotion otherwise). These are not the situations I wish to discuss at first. I wish to discuss my point that "there are wonderful people who drink and party, so it's obvious that drinking and partying does not mean someone is a bad person." CMV

When you are hiring someone you are making a huge risk and investment in someone. You want to make the best and least risky choice you can. While plenty of people who drink and party are good and responsible people if you were to separate people into two groups, those who party and those who do not, you would find that more of the latter group are good workers. It's all about the odds. When hiring someone you take the people who have the best odds of being a good worker and those happen to be people who don't party. Or at least don't party so much that they have no problem with drunk photos of them on Facebook.

[Limitless] What would the outcome look like if a form of NZT amplified everything about your physiology to the level that NZT does your mind?

My first thought was something like this, but that's not right. https://youtu.be/F020aNi0wS0?t=144 NZT pushes the human intellect far, far beyond anything that Cap demonstrates while it's active. Someone using NZT could make Tony Stark look like a dunce, once they learn as much knowledge as he has. They'd be able to trivially putter around his labs with him, and he'd be trailing after them over time. Examples of NZT from the film and show: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT9kbu3GnnM * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Krd0qYwnQ For context, in the film, Bradley Cooper is a pretty smart author, but a completely lazy distracted mess and perpetual fuckup until the NZT. Brian, the guy in the show, has a similar profile, but is very artistic and a musician. In the film, two other people use NZT that we see, and they go from "normal" to where one is able to devise a brilliant complex escape from an assassin in seconds, from being a normal person seconds earlier. What would a form of that look like that had an equivalent outcome for your entire physiology, not just your mind?

Your body would become more efficient to what you have now able to push for that summer bod just got easier. NZT just gives your mind a more efficient way of thinking, it’s like you now have google for your brain all you have to do is ask. You would start off with your own body it just gets more efficient. where over longer periods of time if you are not working on your body at proper times, that efficiency will back fire if you didn’t have the mind part of NZT because you would not most likely see anything wrong with your body before you plop down due to not eating enough nachos. your body wouldn’t instantly change. Edited with a little more punctuation not the best at English in writing