Datasets:

euclaise

/

reddit-instruct

like 17

What is holding us back in making more efficient batteries, to store e.g. solar generated electricity?

I'm reading a lot of places that what really hinders renewable energy sources from reaching its peak is that we're unable to store energy properly. Could someone elaborate a bit on that? Secondly, given that the statement is true, why can't we use rechargeable batteries, e.g. lithium batteries, to store the energy produced? Wouldn't a solution to this make solar power a lot more attractive than what it already is, since you would be able to store daytime generated electricity?

We are using batteries to store excess renewable energy. Just not the kind of battery you're familiar with. There's something called a flow battery, explicitly designed for grid-scale energy storage. Many companies are racing to commercialize their products to handle the burgeoning demand for renewable storage, using many different chemistries that are quite different from consumer batteries. The main idea of a flow battery is to decouple energy and power. Power is the instantaneous voltage times current, while energy is power over a duration of time. A lithium ion battery has a fixed relationship due to the need for the lithium ions to be within a certain distance of the electrodes. This means in order to increase capacity, you have to increase everything that goes into the battery as well. A flow battery uses external storage tanks of electrolyte that can be of arbitrary size that is independent of the electrode area. The electrode area determines the power, but the size of the tanks determine the total energy capacity. Need more capacity? Just add more tanks. This tech has its own set of challenges, however, and they're not trivial. The main problems stem from electrolyte crossover through the separator membrane, efficiency degradation, and cost of the electrolyte. There are literally dozens of different chemical schemes being explored right now with the aim of addressing these points. Bets are on as to which tech will win out. Chances are, however, you the end user will never purchase such a system. They're designed for utilities to incorporate.

Was anyone outraged at Plato's writings about Socrates?

Socrates was executed by the Athenian Assembly, after all, for such things as corrupting the youth and strengthening weaker arguments. I would imagine any supporter of his would sense some danger in continuing his philosophic thought. My question is when Plato began to write about his former master, did anyone object to his sympathetic portrayal? Was Plato initially disgraced or criticized?

Plato was a part of the problem for Socrates, because of his family links to Charmides (his uncle) and Critias (his mother's uncle), members of the Thirty Tyrants who ruled Athens for a period after they lost the Peloponnesian War. Critias had himself been a student of Socrates'. The Thirty Tyrants oversaw large amounts of executions and the seizure of property of people they thought hostile to the state, leading to the death of as much as 5% of the Athenian population. By this token Athenians were *very* hostile to the Thirty Tyrants and their associates, which included Socrates by way of his association with Critias and Critias's family member Plato. Socrates's association with the disgraced public figure Alcibiades didn't help either.

ELI5:What does "/16 or /24" after an IP Address mean?

Hello all - I have seen the /16, /24, etc multiple times after an IP Address and I just don't understand it! How do I know which number after the slash belongs to my home network? Any help/guidance an explaining this would be very much appreciate! Thanks in advance! EDIT 1: Thank you everyone who replied and for not making me feel so dumb! haha I now have a much better understanding of what this means! :)

It is a decimal representation of your subnet mask. Your computer has an IP address. Something like: 10.1.1.2 But this address represents two things: a) your computer; and b) the local network your computer is on. And it needs a way of knowing which part is which.^* To do this it uses what is known as a subnet mask which can be represented in a number of ways. The "slash" notation, followed by a number, is how many 1 bits are in the subnet mask, in the case of /24, that would be 24 1 bits. Remember that computers deal in binary, so... 10.1.1.2 Is actually: 00001010.00000001.00000001.00000010 A subnet mask of 24 would be: 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 Each bit of the IP address that lines up with a 1 bit in the mask is part of the network (in this case 10.1.1.x). Each bit of the IP address that lines up with a 0 bit in the mask is a host address (in this case x.x.x.2). Your computer uses this information to determine if communication is destined for the local network (and doesn't need to go through a gateway) or is destined for a remote network (and does). In this case, everything from 10.1.1.1 to 10.1.1.254 would be considered local. All other IP addresses would be remote. \* - Originally, they designed a scheme where IP addresses would fall into certain classes that defined which part was the network part and which part was the host part. For example, if it began with a 10, then the first octet was automatically the network part and the last three would be the host part. This turned out to be insufficient for modern networking needs, so they developed the concept of subnetworking of which the subnet(work) mask allows us to chop up the address any way we want.

ELI5 why do smart phones shut off in cold weather before they’ve reached 0% battery?

Recently I’ve been out in the cold and my iPhone has shut off with about 40% battery remaining. Is this a simple answer such as it’s too cold for electrons to flow in the battery?

I'll provide a brief answer. Phones today are powered by lithium-ion batteries. They rely on the flow of ions (something like electrons, except bigger, slower) through an oily-gel like material (makes them even slower!) across two 'plates' as they discharge to power the phone. When it gets cold, it gets harder to move (just as you'd find it harder to move in the cold) and after a certain threshold, the battery just seizes up and ions just don't move fast enough to provide enough current for the phone. The phone shuts down. This threshold temperature is rather cold, in the -30 ~ -40 C. but depending on the battery, conditions that you were out in, initial conditions and whatnot, you may see it shut off at relatively warmer (~ -20 C) temperatures as well.

ELI5 Why did thatched roofs not rot and collapse from the rain and damp? Or if they did rot, how frequently were they replaced?

They did rot, but because of how they are layered on the roof, it sheds water pretty efficiently (that's how they didn't rot quickly, water shedding ability and tight layering protecting lower layers) and a well thatched roof in modern times can last 50 years before it's beyond use. Historically, at least in parts of England, a new layer of thatch was added to the aging/weathered layer and some houses have been found to have seven feet of thatch on them with the oldest layers being 500 years old.

In a Meson, why do the quark anti-quark pair not just annihilate each other ?

Some mesons can and do annihilate. The neutral pion pretty much always decays to two photons, for example. However, not all of them are quark-antiquark pairs of the same type. Charged and flavoured mesons have valence quarks of different types, such as kaons, D-mesons and B-mesons. This means they decay via other processes.

Why doesn't FTL quantum tunneling violate causality?

It seems that a bunch of experiments confirmed that particles tunnel through barriers faster than what would be expected if they were traveling normally at the speed of light. I’m referring to a study specifically by the Keller group in 2008 but this seems to be the consensus today (according to Wikipedia at least). I'm not ready to believe that relativity would fail so quickly and I'm inclined to think that even if FTL tunneling is possible, it wouldn't allow FTL communication. But I fail to see how that's the case. edit: corrected group name to 'Keller group'

It can't communicate information. Stuff can travel faster than c- like how the Universe has expanded faster than the speed of light- but information cannot be transferred faster than c. Quantum tunneling is random- you can't *make* a particle jump a light year away instantly- so it can't transfer information.

CMV: Copyright should be returned to 28 years, with extensions tied to a percentage of gross revenue thereafter

In the US, copyright length for properties from the early 1900s until 1976 was 28 years with an option to extend it another 28 years, since has been further extended >for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years. For an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first. Which is too long of copyright term in my opinion. My view is to replace this excessive copyright term (which is not trademark, so Mickey Mouse is a trademark owned by Disney and can't be used in new content that infringes on their trademark) with 28 year term, which can be renewed upon but each 28 years will incur 33% of all revenue from the the copyright material. The copyrighted material will enter the public domain after 84 years or when the copyright owner decides to relinquish their property into public domain. Years 0-28 0%Years 29-56 33% gross revenue taxedYears 57-84 66% gross revenue taxedYears 85+ Public domain If one cannot recoup and generate profit enough to incentivize creating the copyrighted material (ie the Constitutional purpose of [copyright](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause)) then the material wasn't commercially successful which is not an entitlement that anyone should expect, just a limited "exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries". The point of copyright has never been to maximize profits, regardless of contemporary revisionism to claim otherwise. If market forces sets a ceiling to revenue generated from content within the first 28 years to be X, then the copyright holder's desire to have X be X+∞ (that's infinity BTW) then that doesn't give a valid reason to extended copyright until revenue is reached to achieve X+∞. Letting content enter public domain is natural course for copyrighted material, and beneficial to wider society while concentration of content for perpetuity denies the public whose government has been enforcing the copyright law to the profit of the copyright holder. This compromise between eliminating copyright altogether or simply setting the maximum copyright term to be 14-20 years and the current seemingly never ending and ever extended copyright terms, that copyright owners are able to keep their copyright if they want but at an increasing cost that pays back to the government that enforces the copyright both here and abroad through treaties and trade organizations on the least revenue generating years for copyright material. What would change my view if a better alternative copyright regime or reform, that maintained copyright but not forever as it seems like today. Defense of an interminable copyright, just extending it over and over again and not allowing any material into the public domain will be directly fail at changing my mind; I seeking an improvement to the status quo and not simply reflexly defend the status quo. **Edit:** To reflect the deltas awarded, the proposed copyright reform is now the following *first 14 years are copyright protected without any action on the part of the creator or corporate owner *second 14 years require the author/owner to pay $1,000 to extend the copyright *third 14 years require the author/owner to pay $10,000 to extend the copyright and 10% of gross revenue *fourth 14 years require the author/owner to pay $100,000 to extend the copyright and 20% of gross revenue *fifth 14 years require the author/owner to pay $1,000,000 to extend the copyright and 30% of gross revenue *sixth 14 years require the author/owner to pay $10,000,000 to extend the copyright and 40% of gross revenue And so on, and given either the copyright owner chooses to not extend the copyright or 168 years has passed, the material enters the public domain. The last payment for an extension being impossibly exorbitant $10,000,000,000,000 with 90% tax on gross revenue it would never be utilized (unless there's some runaway inflation). Disney would have to choose to pay $100,000,000 and 50% of gross revenue of Steam Boat Willie (which is probably not much) or allow the movie to enter the public domain but Mickey Mouse would remain their trademark.

> The point of copyright has never been to maximize profits Then why add the extension scheme at all? Just make it 28 years. Any scheme to reward "commercially successful" franchises, flies in the face if the original intent, by allowing the most culturally relevant pieces of media to be more restricted away from the public, and the ones whose creators are actually struggling to make ends meet, get kneecapped.

How Important Are the Greeks, Really?

Hello again r/askphilosophy, I'm a undergrad Philosophy student looking to expand my horizons a bit between semesters (that is to say, I'm moving and can't bring my video games with me). I'm anticipating having a lot of free time this summer for reading and I'm planning on working through (at least some of) Kant's critiques with the help of some resources recommended by this very sub. I am curious, however, to hear opinions on how much ancient philosophy is necessary as a base if my interests lie in a more modern area. Thanks all!

Almost if not literally *nothing* is **necessary**. Plato and Aristotle are famous as classics because of their wide influence but probably more importantly because, like Kant, working through them is unusually effective at training you to understand how to think philosophically. So is it necessary to read them? No, almost if not literally nothing is necessary. You have to figure out where to spend your time and effort. The most important part is that you actually do spend it somewhere, the rest is grist for the mill. If you want to read classics specifically to prepare for Kant, your priorities should be Hume and Leibniz.

ELI5: Why do we care so much about finding water on other planets, when other forms of life could have evolved to not need water?

Life could exist out there that doesn't need water. However, most of the life we know of does. We're already looking for a needle in a haystack, if we expand the search to life that doesn't need water then we don't even know what the needle looks like anymore. Edit; apparently some stuff doesn't use water according to /u/chemosynth

CMV: "Emotional" TV commercials do nothing in making me want to purchase the product. If anything, it deters me from buying the product.

This is easier to explain with an example: There was just an extremely emotional, over-the-top commercial on TV that showed a family holding hands and laughing over a Thanksgiving dinner, with a narrator talking about important family is. Then at the end, it's revealed it's a Pillsbury crescent commercial. Another example would be when the son comes home from the war early and brews a pot of Folgers coffee then embraces his mom, both of them crying. Commercials like this drive me crazy because I do not think they do absolutely anything in making me want to buy the product. I'm never going to purchase Folgers coffee because I'm seeking an emotional moment with my family. Same applies for Pillsbury crescent rolls. It feels so tacky and cheesy that they're almost hard to watch. I just don't understand how people can be sitting around a table in an advertising company and come to the consensus that these types of commercials will sell products. Also in a weird way these types of commercials feel patronizing (like, "oh thanks Folgers, you really think this is going to work on me") and really irritate me. Basically, I can't stand them, and they have absolutely zero influence over me as a consumer.

The thing about advertising is that it's not so much about logic as it is about association. This clearly doesn't work for you, because you are actively annoyed by these types of commercials, so you associate that negative feeling with the product. But for most people, emotional commercials aren't annoying, they're just fine. The goal of the company is for the consumer to subconsciously associate positive feelings--happiness, family, etc.--with the product. This isn't as cut and dry and logical as "Oh, Folgers coffee brings families together, I'd better buy some." It's just that when you're shopping for coffee and see Folgers among the options, they want you to be familiar with the brand and have a generally positive opinion on it. A lot of it is simply exposure You're more likely to buy a product you're familiar with than one you aren't. Folgers wants to make sure you recognize the Folgers label. It may be irrational, since you don't necessarily know more about Folgers than about whatever's next to it on the shelf, but as long as you feel like you do, you'll choose it over other options. And they don't expect you to necessarily even remember the commercial about the son and his mom. They only hope that having seen that commercial will mean that when you see the Folgers can on the shelf, it triggers a positive response in you. This doesn't work for you, because you *do* remember the commercial specifically because you had a negative reaction to it. But it does work decently well for most people, which is why companies keep doing it.

[Lord of the Rings] Do elves play sports or have any sort of athletic competition?

There are several references to Human and Hobbit sports, but only one or two for the Elves. They are described as having “athletes,” so this would indicate some sort of competition of physical prowess. Likely these are things like track-and-field sports, such as running, swimming, and possibly archery.

[40k] Do the necrons contribute to khorne because they kill things? Or does it not count because they have no emotions? And also, if all emotions ceased to exist (eg necrons effectively kill everything) would the eye of terror disappear?

Sentient life generates the Warp through their emotional energy, which is why it stops at the edge of the galaxy. If the Necron managed to kill everyone else, the Warp would cease to exist, and the Ruinous Powers with it.

ELI5: what were Stephen Hawkings greatest discoveries?

"Were?" This made me think, 'Oh shit, he's dead,' and had to go check. His branch is theoretical physics, which isn't really about 'discovery' as such. He and other theoretical physicists are all about bringing experimental and observed data from other branches of physics into the context of a wider framework. The supposed "theory of everything." Some of the 20th century's favourite physicists have been theoretical physicists; Hawking, Einstein, Sagan, deGrasse Tyson. Theoretical physicists work at the bleeding edge of what we understand about the universe. Hawking's work is mainly in astrophysics and general relativity, though he has branched out into quantum physics and particle physics as well. His greatest work is probably his book *A Brief History of Time*, which brought theoretical physics into mainstream culture for probably the first time since Einstein. In the book, he explained phenomenon like the space-time continuum and the speed of light in a way that casual readers and high-school level science students could understand, as well as mathematically proving the existence of black holes and dark matter for the first time. He theorised that black holes do emit radiation, previously thought impossible because of their gravitational pull, then he proved it in both mathematical and layman's terms. As he demystified theoretical physics, he furthered it. When he does eventually die, he won't be remembered for one stand-out discovery above all others, but for the body of his work as a whole. He has done as much to further the field of physics within his lifetime as Einstein, Newton, Copernicus, Aristotle...

CMV: It is unsafe for me to travel to China because I have made posts on the internet critical of the CCP.

Every time I have seen photos of Chinese cities (Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing), I’ve been absolutely enamored and wanted to visit it. At the same time however, reading articles about arbitrary detention and hearing about people like bloggers / vloggers being approached by police and detained or being banned from exiting the country has seriously made me fear the idea of going to China. Now, I am not a vlogger, politician, businessperson, diplomat, academic, or anything of the sort. My biggest “claim to fame” is that I have a TikTok following of 10k people… so I’m not significant in any way. I do post things related to being gay, but I am not of any Asian background. If traveling to China, I would know how to respect their local laws and customs (obviously, I would not do drugs there, or start shouting anti-CCP things). However, the articles of foreign citizens being detained and [even being given the death penalty](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/13/the-us-warns-citizens-of-arbitrary-detention-in-china.html) for drug charges raises some red flags—we do not know if these drug charges are substantiated because China does not have a transparent justice system and cracks down intensely on dissidents. I have not posted anything critical of the CCP on Tiktok, nor have I on Instagram (to my knowledge…??). I have however posted it on my main Reddit account, which I am completely sure that if anybody actually wanted to, they could figure out my identity pretty quickly. Furthermore, it’s completely possible that I have posted a comment on an anti-CCP tiktok, and given the Chinese government has access to the information there, that could be what does me in. I’d love to have my mind change and explore the rich culture that’s available in China. And obviously I know now is not a good time to travel to China regardless because I wouldn’t be allowed to have a visa on account of coronavirus and their borders being shuttered.

Are the any examples of low profile foreigners getting arrested in China for anti CCP posts? You just aren't a threat to the CCP and they won't arrest you. Even in China, anti CCP posts are censored but nobody gets arrested or even questioned unless you have a couple million followers and tons of people looking at you.

Central Limit Theorem

I'm an ug sociology student. In our statistical methods in sociology course one subject interested me which is Central Limit Theorem. Does any critical or/and comprehensive artical, journal etc has been written about why the shape of the population distribution, the sampling distribution of the sample mean approaches an approximately normal distribution ? How can be explained from sociological point of view?

The Central Limit Theorem isn't a product of biology or sociology or any other sort of behaviour of living things. It is a mathematical theorem, with the same rigour and validity as the Pythagorean Theorem or the Sine Law or any number of other mathematical facts. This is because the Central Limit Theorem doesn't say anything about the underlying thing being sampled -- it only says things about the samples when you do the sampling multiple times.

ELI5: why are the skins of fruit more nutritious than the insides?

because fruit aren't intended to be nutritious, they're intended to be tasty, which means the bulk of them is relatively homogeneous fluff with lots of sugar. The skin is the only part which has to actually do something important, so its loaded up with a variety of vitamins and minerals and other cellular necessities to do its job. same applies to like, why wheat germ is more nutritious than the rest of the grain. The rest of it is just an energy store. The germ has all the parts that grow and do stuff, so all the goodies are found there.

ELI5: If Homosapiens survived the last mass extinction how is there almost 8 billions Humans now? Are we all related? Is every human related in some way?

Every human IS related to some extent. That extent tends to be very, very far back. Mitochondrial Eve (the most recent common female ancestor of all humans) is estimated to have lived 150k years ago, and Y-chromosome Adam (male version of the same thing) 200-300k years ago.

ELI5: Why is it "okay" for there to be all black colleges and organizations along with other races but super wrong for an all white organization to exist?

I am not looking for a racial debate. Just a explanation in any way, shape, or form. Anything I find on Google is not helpful.

All sorts of all white organizations exist. But white people generally immigrated mostly freely and remember their ethnic groups more specifically. Thus you get a ton of organizations that are JUST for italians or just for the irish or whatever, clubs and groups and whatever. In the US a large amount of black people do not know their specific origin and in general that was treated as unimportant so black people just get to be "black people" while white people slice it up to specific countries when they make organizations/groups/whatever.

If our skin cells die and regenerate so much, as well as most of the other cells in our body, why are tattoos still visible after so many decades?

Our skin has several layers, the top being composed of the epidermis (keratinized dead layers of cells) and the dermis (where your nerves, blood vessels, and epithelial progenitors are). These layers are held together and the cells are positioned by the extra cellular matrix, which is comprised of carbohydrate fibers and proteins. All tissues in your body have this as it helps organize and hold your cells in place. The ink from a tattoo is deposited below the dermis and into the extra cellular matrix. Some of it gets into cells, and when they die the ink fades. This is why tattoos will fade with time. What remains, however, is the ink that has dyed the matrix. This is also why tattoos are so hard to remove: you can't just kill the cells because the dye is not contained in any cells. It's part of the matrix surrounding your cells, so lasers are used to break down the dyes directly

[ELI5] Why do ponds and lakes not become swamps after years of season changes

Lakes and Ponds are water reservoirs that are often surrounded by trees, bushes and other plants. During a summer period a lot of "trash" comes into this water, during the fall time plants loose their leaves that often go down to the water surface and later drown. Leaves are being decomposed and every year this cycle repeats. Why do not all ponds and lakes change into swamps? Obviously some of them with time transform into bogs but majority stays OK.

When the leaves decompose, the carbohydrates that make up most of their bulk turn back into water (which joins the lake's volume and eventually outflows through whatever outlet the lake has) and carbon dioxide (which outgasses into the atmosphere). The same happens for other organic molecules. What's left is mostly minerals gathered by the plants surrounding the lake, which (on the time-scales we're talking about) is essentially just plant-driven erosion. The only time this doesn't happen is if the plant material can't effectively decompose, typically because the water is too acidic or too low on oxygen to allow microbial growth (which is how you get many of the wetlands that actually exist in the world). Many of the remaining minerals (particularly earth metals like sodium) are highly water-soluble, so the rate at which they outflow scales with how much is currently in the lake (which is why lakes that have an outflow are, almost without exception, freshwater). That leaves a few minerals that don't dissolve very well even over many years. Over geological timescales, this stuff does build up. As with any other erosion, highlands wear down and lowlands fill up, and eventually your lake at the bottom of a valley becomes part of a marshy plain full of silt. But this takes a long time, and other forces (primarily plate tectonics) are acting to push some parts of the land back up, too, in a way that can (and sometimes does) prevent this process from reaching its endpoint.

What is perspectivism? How is it different from relativism and skepticism?

(More specifically Nietzsche’s perspectivism, if that helps?) I’m getting these confused, can anyone help me differentiate between them?

Skepticism is an epistemic claim about what we can claim we know. Relativism is an evaluatory claim about how we judge between two positions related to values. Perspectivism, at least as it is applied to Nietzsche, is an epistemic claim about truth being related to a given perspective, or outlook/worldview/standpoint.

[ASOIAF] Why has there been little to no technological innovation in the past few thousands of years?

There has, but its mostly not visible. Westeros is in an age equivalent to the Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, which is represented by Valyria. Quite a bit of the technology of Valyria was preserved, but access is limited due to an education gap. The ability to read and write is most certainly limited to the upper class and perhaps the merchant class, so innovation is probably limited to that area as well. So civilization is slowly coming back from the collapse of the cultural, technological and economic superpower, knowledge is limited due to low literacy rates and thus innovation is slow.

ELI5: Why is the video editing greenscreen... green?

Why is it green and not red or blue or anything else?

You need a bright primary color, one that most people aren't going to wear or have on their bodies, because all of that color will be deleted when you edit the film. You can use blue, but green is less likely to cause problems with people's eyes or fashion. Red is worst, because it can cause problems with erasing some people's skin tones at times.

ELI5: What is the function of the 3 digit "security code" on your credit card when you have to provide it every time you use your credit card?

IIRC, it used to be a way to prevent fraud by people who had your cc number and expiration (say from a restaurant receipt) but not your physical card, but today there are very few people on earth who have my cc number and expiration but don't have my 3 digit code. At this point it seems like nothing more than a 3 digit extension of your credit card number.

Its for what are called "Card not present" transactions. Its an additional layer of security to prove you have the physical card. When you go to a store and pay with your card, you have teh card, nothing else is really needed. Thats why you don't use your CVV. They physically can run the card. But, what about when you buy a shirt online? This is a "card not present" transaction. How does the merchant know you have the card and its not fraud or scam just with the number? Well, thats where the 3 digit CVV comes in, it proves you have the card and fraud is much less likely. None of this prevents fraud entirely, but it significantly helps reduce it.

ELI5:When jumpstarting a car, why is it important to always start with the positive gauge (red) ?

Every one always told me to start with positive, but i never understood the reason...

Sometimes, when you make the last connection, a spark jumps from the cable to what ever you're about to clip it to. If you start with the red cable, then the last connection will be made to an unpainted metal part of the car. That way, if a spark occurs, it hits the metal part of the car, rather than the battery, which reduces the chance of igniting hydrogen gas coming from the battery.

[Stranger Things] What is the Upside Down?

I understand that it’s a different universe, but how does it mirror Hawkins? Most of the buildings are there, but damaged by the Demigorgons and the MindFlayer. The lights are still on, but you could say that’s the mysterious energy that flows through the Upside Down. So was it ever like Hawkins? Did it have people? We’re they all consumed? Or is it built on some copy of Hawkins that was created by Eleven when she created the gate? If so, how did it become so infested so quickly? Demigorgons seem to need hosts to reproduce, and there was just one of them at first. When did the MindFlayer get there?

There probably isn't a perfect way to describe it, except maybe asking the Duffer Bros. To me it's like a shadow. It's affected by the thing casting the shadow, but can't do anything itself. And then the Sci-Fi experiments come in, and the shadow can begin acting itself.

How do we know neutrinos have mass?

My own answer is: since the Super Kamiokande and SNOLAB we know that neutrinos can change flavours. My reasoning is: solar neutrinos are all electron neutrinos originally. To change flavour an infinitesimal (but non-zero) amount of time needs to pass (simply to have the 'room' to switch). Particles moving at c don't experience time. All particles with mass have to move slower than c. Hence, neutrinos have mass. Is that the gist of it?

Your understanding is more or less correct. The key piece is that neutrino oscillation implies that the flavor states are not the same as the mass states. This means that flavor states are mixtures of the mass states, and vice versa. The existence of flavor oscillations (observed as a deficit of solar electron neutrinos... because some of them turned into muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos) indicate that this is the case. So the evidence for neutrino oscillation is that we see a third of the expected electron neutrino flux from the sun, because they've turned into other flavors of neutrinos, and neutrino oscillation is the evidence for neutrino masses.

CMV:Sweat shops were a great idea

About 20 years ago, many of the major clothing brands were using sweatshop labor in countries like China. There were some standard arguments against this, like how it was inhumane to pay someone so little and make them work so many hours. There were also some standard arguments in favor of this saying that the standard of living was lower in other countries and that they were actually getting paid more than anything else they could be doing. Anyway, fast forward 20 years. We don't really have the same kind of controversy about sweatshops in China. In fact, I feel that the amount of money that we have sent over there has given them the ability to industrialize. They have enough money that they are able to refuse to perform sweatshop work. Their standards of living are high enough where it no longer makes sense to take a sweatshop job. AKA they are able to make more money doing something else. It is no longer makes economical sense to put factories in China. Instead, I find that more clothes are coming from places like the Philippines, and Bangladesh, where I suspect people are willing to work for less money. I expect that around 20 years from now, the Philippines and Bangladesh will be rich enough where they will turn down sweatshop jobs too. The sweatshop work in China seems to have been replaced by technology shops, like producing Iphones. This is quite a nice upgrade compared to a sweatshop job, and would not be possible without first industrializing the country. The new controversy nowadays seem to be about people being underpaid and overworked in iphone factories. The characters are different, but the story sounds the same. Same arguments about inhumane treatment, same arguments about how this is in fact good for them. I feel this type of bad press is detrimental to the development of a land. I believe Philippines / Bangladesh will soon get their turn to say no to sweatshop jobs and follow China's path in upgrading to nicer technology jobs. To stop these factories will simply deny them of the resources they need to raise their standard of living. CMV!! _____ > *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!*

So one argument against sweatshop labor (and one which kind of differentiates China) is that it hurts the development of locally owned businesses. Essentially, when a large amount of the business capital stock is owned and operated by foreign firms, those firms tend not to reinvest the returns from that capital locally, and also tend not to build the sort of stable local institutions that can grow into a more advanced manufacturing economy. China has very strict rules about foreign ownership of manufacturing plants - almost banning it. That's a big part of why Foxconn for example is Apple's biggest supplier, as opposed to Apple manufacturing in house like they used to in the 1990s when they built in America. The upgrade path depends a lot on that local ownership though. Foxconn can now advertise themselves around the world as the place to go to get high end electronics made. But if the plants were Apple owned and operated, that expansion would be much more limited and the profits from it funneled outside of China. So it's not sufficient to say sweatshops are the path to development - they can be, but there are other important factors as well.

In which European countries are faculty well paid?

I'm a tenured prof in a STEM field at a major university in the US. I make around $130K per year plus summer salary. After taxes and benefits, that works out to about $8K per month on avg plus around $1.5K per month contributions to my retirement account. I am well paid and like my job, but don't like living in the US and don't want my kids to grow up here. I looked into jobs in Europe, but many countries seem to have much lower pay for faculty. I'm willing to take a lower salary to live in Europe, but not half of my current salary! In which European countries could an STEM faculty (equiv to associate prof in US) expect to receive at least 6000 Euros per month after taxes?

If you manage to get a W3 professorship in Germany (its tough out there), you'll likely have something between 6k and 8k € (gross!) per month, and a 13th salary at the end of the year. This doesn't mean you'll get a net amount of at least 6k on your bank account (if you have 8k gross, its probably going to be around 5k net), BUT there are some perks: -healthcare is 100% free (e.g., paid with a small amount out of your gross salary, and as you are a public servant, you are "privately" insured and get the best healthcare possible) -you don't have to pay a single € into a retirement account (only if you want to). As you are a public servant, you'll automatically get ~70% of your last salary as a pension. -many many other things as others mentioned (free college, free education, subsidized daycare, no guns, etc. etc. - this is for you to google). Hence: you'll likely get less money on your bank account each month. Your quality of life will be at least the same, if not better. For further information, google "W3 professor Germany". Be prepared to learn some German, although English is commonly/increasingly used in the educational sector.

[YuGiOh] Why doesn't anyone question Yugi's ability to grow/shrink?

I asked a friend this. Apparently the show differs a lot from the comics. Him getting bigger/smaller is just for us to tell the difference, apparently his friends see a flash and notice an additude change but otherwise he is still short

ELI5: With all our technical advancements in modern materials and engineering, why do we still use wooden poles to hang up wires in the US? They seem so primitive.

They are cheaper to install than metal or concrete poles for the smaller spans, and will last longer if nobody hits them since they are treated to last longer since the base won't rust/degrade as badly as the others.

CMV: Diversity in the workplace is important but it should not trump the most qualified person for the job.

For this hypothetical example I will lay out two assumptions and an outcome. When interviewing people, let’s say (1) there is always a diverse group of people (age, race, and gender) interviewing. Let’s then say (2) the people interviewing have no idea what the people look like or their age. If, in this scenario, the same type of person (age, race, and gender) is selected every time because they were the most qualified person being interviewed at the time. Is there anything wrong with the outcome? Or is the workplace affected in any way?

The problem with this view is that it paints diversity as an oppositional force to hiring the most qualified employee, when that isn't really the case. A well-studied effect is "similarity bias" or "affinity bias"; basically, people like others who are similar to them. This effect is very pronounced in hiring; employers tend to artificially favor employees similar to them (less diverse) even if they are equally or less qualified. Promoting diversity initiatives can actually *counteract* this similarity bias and lead to better hiring and more diverse hiring at the same time. Further, the idea of a "most qualified person for the job" is extremely nebulous and basically impossible to determine. Quality as an employee is subjective and employers are terrible at hiring; for instance, the silicon valley trend of "lateral thinking puzzle" style interviews was huge and popularized and turned out to be *awful* and only good for weeding out candidates who did not think exactly like the interviewer, limiting both diversity and quality of employees. At best, the "most qualified person for the job" is extremely fuzzy and there are probably multiple candidates who could be most qualified, which means interviewers *always* have the option to pick for reasons beyond "objective" quality.

I don't care about what Monsanto is doing CMV.

I know Monsanto is supposed to be evil and all, but no one has truely ever convinced me I should really care about Monsanto. Even if I did care about them, I'm sure we can't change anything. CMV.

Aside from the negative ramifications of what they produce Monsanto has a monopoly on agriculture legislation and policy. They are now immune to certain forms of litigation. And it's cynical to think nothing can be done. When a large number of people engage on an issue things change. We are just at a particularly difficult historical moment where tyranny of elites is fairly pervasive. But we still have our votes and purchasing decisions and voices.

What is the source of fundamental electric charge in leptons and quarks?

*sips coffee

The laws of physics are invariant (unchanged) under a transformation called U(1) gauge invariance. To get this invariance, individual fields have to transform in well-defined ways under this transformation. The way a field transforms tells you its electric charge. We don't know why we have fields with the particular transformation properties they have.

Do honeybees, wasps and hornets have a different cocktail of venom in their stings or is their chemistry pretty much all the same?

Bees, wasps, and hornets all evolved from a common ancestor, so their venom is similar. Basically, their venoms contain irritants that irritate the victim/the individual who was stung. Phospholipase A2 and mellitin are the allergens that cause a bee sting. Antigen 5 is the main venom of a wasp/hornet. Both a bees and a wasps venom contain hyaluronidases, but the combination of compounds really dictate how the stings work/feel. A bee will inject a venom that basically causes inflammation - similar to an allergic reaction. A Wasps’ venom breaks down cell membranes and they can sting multiple times which is why they hurt so much more: they do actual damage. Finally, bee stingers stay in the skin, and you should always remove them. Hope this helps!

ELI5: Why does adding salt make water go from solid to liquid faster BUT liquid to gas slower?

Just to elaborate, Im talking about the salt water having a higher boiling point, and lower melting point. Im just trying to put the title as how a 5 year old would ask it, in spirit of the sub =) Edit: and thanks for all the answers, I learned many new things today

Don’t think of it as making on change happen faster and the other happen slower. Think of it as if you just had liquid water, and it is just pushing the freezing point and boiling point even further out. So if you have liquid water, adding salt to it makes it freeze at a lower temperature, and makes it boil at a higher temperature.

ELI5 How did movie projectors display reels in sequence without any gaps?

I don't know anything about the technology of film projectors. But I've heard movies described in terms of number of reels. I understand this only regarding the length of the movie. I don't understand 1) did the distributors send a movie in multiple reels and 2) how did the projectionists display the multiple reels without pausing in between to reload the machine?

Projection booths would have more than one projector. Both projectors are aimed at the screen the same way. Within the movie there was a cue for the projectionist to know when to start the next reel. You no doubt had seen that cue not realizing what it is, it is typically a quick flash near the top right corner of the screen. There was a second dot that would flash again to let the projectionist know it is time to switch completely to the other projector. There are time stamps that are published for the projectionist to know about when that transition occurs. If there are more that 2 reels the same sequence happens again back to the other projector. The reel would be changed after the rewind of the previous reel.

CMV:Women have more sexual power and more sexual capital than men, in general

Across the studies we know of, women are typically more choosy than men, less willing to have sex at the drop of a hat, have more conditions for minimal requirements to choose a mate, more willing to walk away from sex, feel more confident they choose whether sex happens or not, do a tiny % of active explicit approaching and so on. In short, it is women who primarily weed out men, men who primarily risk rejection, attempt to flatter, coax, impress, seduce, serenade, charm and so on, in an effort to get a woman to say yes. It is also primarily women who are able to exchange their sexual favors heterosexually in return for money, favors, gifts and so on. In short, women have more sexual power, women have more sexual capital, in most instances the sexual locus of control emotionally resides outside of a man's body. Had Elliot Rogers been a woman of comparative looks (like his sister) he would have been having sex easily and early despite all of his personality failings. _____ > *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!*

> women have more sexual capital They also have more sexual liabilities. Sex is a major risk for women. 1. They might not get off. Some women **have never orgasmed** Some never have with a partner. So sex is already a worse proposition for women. 2. They might get pregnant. Pretty self explanatory. 3. Women, in general, are treated worse if it is known they have a lot of sex. Higher social cost. 4. It is likely that any male partner they have could easily overpower them. So yes, women are more selective, but they have to be. Having sex for women is a bigger risk, hence they look for signs of better returns. This is pretty rational behavior. In sum, you are comparing assets, but ignoring liabilities. Bad way to look at a balance sheet.

ELI5: North Korea-what's the situation with its nukes, how "good" is its army and who would win in NK vs USA?

There is no doubt the US could destroy North Korea in any sort of war. The question is, could they: * do it without suffering politically unacceptable losses? * do it without massive civilian losses in South Korea? * do it without drawing China into the conflict?

ELI5: Non-Euclidean Geometry

I don't know where to begin. What is it? How does it work? Is it a thing in real life?

Draw a triangle on a globe. Measure its angles. They don't add up to 180. That is non-euclidean geometry, right there before your eyes. Useful for many things, including, how do we get this plane from San Francisco to Tokyo the fastest? Answer: go over Alaska.

[Halo] Why doesn't the UNSC appear to reverse-engineer Covenant technology?

They've got plenty of examples of the stuff lying around. Capturing weapons, armor, even small ships is possible, sometimes even incidental. Even if the UNSC isn't going to switch to plasma weapons, there must be something of value in their energy storage or materials science. This seems like a missed opportunity?

Given that Covenant tech is almost all reverse engineered from Forerunner "relics," there's a solid learning curve involved. But really the main problems aren't from reverse engineering the tech, it's restructuring their entire manufacturing and training setups to take advantage of the advancements. (Remember the whole "we're at war" thing) In spite of that; UNSC star ships apparently used the rotating centrifuge model for artificial gravity prior to first contact with the Covenant. This was one of the first things the UNSC integrated into their new ships. The Mjolnir armor's energy shield is reversed engineered from Jackal's personal shields. The UNSC Infinity was built with a Forerunner slipspace engine, among other bits of Covie tech.

[Warhammer 40k] Since the Dark Mechanicus aren't stagnant like the Adeptus Mechanicus are, won't Chaos eventually win through technological superiority?

Any more than they already have, I mean - the Imperium today produces more than enough war, stagnancy, plotting and pleasure/suffering to feed Chaos.

You can't do much research when your laboratory decides what rules of physics it will adhere to at the moment. And it changes very often. Also, Chaos does not like other following chaos, they are just as likely to be killed by the Imperium as by other Chaos followers(if not even more so). Death tends to stop research really well.

CMV: People that take naps regularly don't get enough normal sleep.

This is purely anecdotal based on a few of my friends and my own experiences. Personally the only times I end up taking a nap is when I am feeling tired beyond reasonable means for that day. This is usually due to not getting adequate sleep the night before. When I end up taking a nap it throws off my sleep schedule for that night. Say I end up taking a nap around 7pm, I'll then wake up around 8pm, feel a bit weird/flustered, then proceed to go to bed 2 hours or later past my normal bedtime. Regarding my friends in question, they both take at least one nap per day. One of them is known to take multiple naps in a day. They seem to always be in a state of wanting to nap, taking a nap, or just finishing up a nap. They also talk about napping at least once every time we hang out. Now where my angle comes in is when we are hanging out and doing an activity like playing a board game or running a DnD session. I've caught them falling asleep during the sessions on multiple occasions. As a fellow player this frustrates me. The one friend that claims to take multiple naps in a day, I regularly see his steam account start up a game around 2am if I happen to be up at that time. I think the single nap taker has a more concrete sleeping schedule but I haven't really pressed them on it. Point being, seeing these two peoples activities and susceptibility to fall asleep when doing an activity combined with them worshiping naps has led me to conclude that the reason they need to nap so much is because they are they regularly don't get enough quality sleep at night. and if this is the case then what is causing it? I also don't think this is a case of narcolepsy as I have another friend that does legitimately have narcolepsy and he will fall asleep at the table in 10-60 second chunks. The two I mentioned will tend to to cosy up before they conk out. I've done a little investigating as to what naps are and I probably should do more. But this is causing me noticeable amounts of annoyance when hanging out with them. In the end I don't want to be put in a position where I look down on them and others because they nap. But from what I've gathered with their interactions plus my own personal experiences with naps have drawn me to the conclusion above. Please change and open my mind and help me respect naps.

Most mammals are polyphasic sleepers meaning they take multiple naps per day rather than one long nap. There are theories that we forced ourselves out of this type of sleeping habit to align with the 9 to 5 style of day that we are currently apart of. People like Tesla, Edison, and Da Vinci were polyphasic sleepers. Some cultures still encourage a nap each day, siesta, instead of just one long nap. The body doesn't care if you get your REM sleep all at once or if you do it in spurts. All that matters is that you get it.

[Dune] So Arrakis is the only source of Spice, which is essential for FTL, longevity and the basis of the Galactic economy. So why is it treated like an undeveloped backwater? Why wouldn't the Emperor make it his capital?

First off, the more desert, the more worms. The more worms, the more spice. And for most of human's history with the planet, it was impossible to remove the worms from Arrakis and start spice production elsewhere. You don't pave over a water source because you want to live near it. Second, YOU try maintaining comfortable human living conditions on a planet-wide desert. Earth's most hostile deserts are a tropical beach at sunset compared to Arrakis. Sand is in EVERYTHING, constantly eating into any materials both natural and human-made. You breathe it, you eat it. And it does excellent work in breaking everything down. The heat destroys whatever is left. Sure, it's physically possible to build and maintain comfortable housing and cool buildings, but the cost would be astronomical. Not to mention the Guild getting their share of the CONSTANT imports that would be necessary to maintain this artificial construction. And third, it does become a seat of power and civilization over time. Arrakis is eventually terraformed into a paradise world perfect for human life. The results are basically the genocide of the worms and the loss of everything that made Arrakis what it was. (it doesn't last forever though, the desert and the worms return)

ELI5 why fabrics get darker when wet?

I've always wondered why fabrics are darker/ more vibrant when wet? Is it literally (no pun intended) the saturation of the color increasing? Or perhaps a refraction of light? ELI5 please and thanks!

Here's an easy experiment. Place a drop of water on a paper towel. Notice how the wet spot looks dark? Now hold that paper towel up between you and a source of light. Notice how the wet spot looks bright? The water increases the ability of fabric (or a paper towel) to transmit light, which means there's less light to be reflected back toward you. So the wet spot will look lighter or darker, depending on whether you and the source of light are on the same side of the fabric, or not.

What is the speed of magnetism?

Something I was pondering yesterday, and couldn't get a straight answer by googling the question, so I thought to come here. Basically, here is the problem, and i'm curious of an answer. Say you have a laser beam, attached to a switch, which is attached to a power source. A mile away from the laser, you have a photoresistor, attached to a computer to record the time of the wave arriving at the resistor. Next to this laser, you have an electromagnet, which is attached to the same switch and power source. Yet again, a mile away from the electromagnet is some receiver that detects magnetism, and is attached to the same computer to record data side by side. My question: When the switch is pressed, will the magnetic field arrive ahead of light? Do not include resistance of the wire, or time it takes for either to create a magnetic field, or a beam of light. Purely speed. Does magnetism have a speed?

It sure does. And you may (or may not!) be surprised to know it travels as the same speed as light, c. The main reason is that the force carrier for the electric field is the same force carrier for the magnetic field (the photon). Electricity and magnetism were found to be manifestations of the same fundamental force way back in the late 1800's by Maxwell.

Is the residue left from an effervescent vitamin tablet salt, or vitamin C?

My friend is aware of how much salt these tablets have, so he always throws away the crystalline residue left in the bottom of the glass. I was thinking that since the salt is what actually dissolves the tablet when put into water, the residue at the bottom could actually be the vitamin C he wanted in the first place. Does anybody know for certain? Does anybody know how well ascorbic acid dissolves in cold water? Could it form a precipitation at all?

Ascorbic Acid is extremely soluble in water (50g per 100 mL, i.e. 50x more than you probably need). As is table salt (NaCl) Most of the reactants from fizzing are also extreme water soluble. Most of them are based around citric acid and Sodium and Magnesium Carbonate. What is most likely left in the bottom of the glass are pill binders, which are usually some kind of fats+gums, like Magnesium Sterate. There is a chance of some Magnesium Carbonate precipitating out, but generally the solutions are all too acidic for that. TLDR, the stuff in the bottom of the glass is mostly the fats and gums used to hold the pill together. It's not NaCl or Ascorbic Acid.

ELI5: Why do inflexible legs shake when doing certain stretches?

Such as when you're on your back and have to lift your leg straight in the air. Personally from the knee down if I try to go straight up or towards my body, the leg shakes uncontrollably

That exercise you're referencing, in particular, has a lot to do with core strength, so if you don't have a strong core, you're more likely to experience the shaking as your muscle tries to perform the exercise. You'll notice the more you do it (aka the stronger you become) the less your muscles will shake in those instances.

ELI5: what does it mean to overclock a CPU?

what does it mean to overclock a CPU and what are the pro's and con's?

Overclocking means making your CPU to work faster by increasing the default clockrate (GHz). Increasing the clockrate makes the CPU less stable (might crash without reason) and more hot (requires better cooling). If you find the sweet-spot (stable, not too hot, maximum GHz) you're gaining tens of percents of performance increase for free. It's a lot easier than you think. Basic overclocking is basically just typing a higher number in the CPU settings (BIOS). I would compare it to tuning your car engine to make it faster. When you're going faster, you need better brakes and stuff. If you make your Fiat Punto go 500km/h, it will became unstable without modifications.

ELI5: Is there actually any significant difference in the chemical composition of household cleaners which claim to be for the "kitchen" or "bathroom", or are they all basically the same thing?

Not in their chemical composition but in their physical composition. Bathroom usually means ceramic tile and porcelain and kitchen usually means linoleum, stainless steel, and veneer cabinetry. Ceramics are hard. In fact they are some of the hardest materials found in most homes short of glass, silica, or diamond. So a bathroom cleaner will usually contain a softer but abrasive agent to help scrub dirt and grime off of tiles but without scratching them. Because tile and porcelain are so hard, you can use some pretty abrasive stuff without fear of scratching them. However if you use them on plastics, linoleum, or veneers they can scratch and gouge them. Some of the most abrasive cleaners will have warnings about which surfaces they can be used on. Their abrasive qualities however make quick work of hard water stains and soap scum such as in a shower or toilet. You wouldn't want to use them on a stainless steel sink though.

ELI5: Why is AC (current) accepted to be better than DC?

I'm currently studying Electrical Engineering and still haven't quite gotten a straight answer. Any ways of explaining/thinking about it would be great, thanks! Edit: As a student studying Electrical Engineering, I'm going through my classes but it still feels as if I have very little practical knowledge. For example, when any individual is taught to code, they're given information piece by piece to learn and then implicate (output statements, arithmetic operators, for-loops, etc.). However, with electronics, I feel much less secure due to the fact that in the teaching process, I've spent several semesters now only analyzing circuits and not necessarily using any of it. To me, AC and DC feel like tools that I'll be expected to use down the road but are still very odd to me... Thanks for all of your replies!

It's easy to convert voltages using a transformer with AC. High voltages are very dangerous but they travel easier. So what the electric company does is convert the power to high voltage to distribute it from their plant to a city, then gradually convert it to lower voltages, and by the time it reaches our house, we have 110V. Which is still dangerous, mind you, but at least we don't have lightning coming out of our sockets. There are some things that can run directly off AC (like specially constructed motors or light bulbs), but if you want to do something sophisticated with the power, like run a computer, it's converted to DC first. Here ^(*points at power brick of laptop computer*)

ELI5: why is blue generally associated with boys and pink generally associated with girls.

It's funny because pink was originally the color that was associated with boys and blue was for girls, but the Nazis in world war 2 started to use pink as a label for gay men. This in turn caused people to stop associating it with boys and flip the color to gender trope. Not sure what caused people to associate certain colors with certain genders.

ELI5: How can meat be aged for weeks but will go rancid in the fridge after 3-5 days?

All in the KIND of refrigeration. Aged beef is kept in a VERY dry cool stable environment that has air constantly moving in it to wick the moisture the meat releases away. Your refrigerator tends to be a little humid and the opening and closing of the door disturb the temperature to the point it varies a lot. Its essentially working exactly like salting it would, pulling out the moisture in the meat which bacteria need to thrive, while at the same time breaking down cell walls in the meat which tenderizes it and concentrates the flavor. Your fridge also has a ton of other shit all releasing gases into the fridge, some of which can accelerate spoilage. Also its not a perfect science. Meat can spoil in the aging process as well. So while they work really hard to keep the spoilage low, there are times when shit goes south and they are tossing hundreds and thousands of dollars of meat away cause something went wrong.

How do you keep from being distracted?

I’ll have 7 minutes of productivity time and then want to pick up my phone to play a 3 minute game— 30% of my time wasted. Or I’ll think of something that I have to Google and it is another distraction. My most productive programming is when I’m focused. How do you keep from being distracted?

* put the distractions away. in another room altogether, if needed * have a plan for what you're going to do. that way you have a goal to word towards * take regular breaks. you might do something like the pomodoro method of 25 or so minutes work, 5 or so minutes break. doing this lets your brain know you will get your dopamine fix, just not yet

[Harry Potter] How come the Marauder's Map can detect people underneath the Invisibility Cloak when not even Death could find people under the cloak?

Secondary Question: How did a group of teenagers manage to make this map?

The deathly hallows aren't real; they're an allegory. Perhaps there really was a trio of brothers back in the day, and maybe they did create these great tools, but it was never influenced by death. The story juts highlights the flaws that led each brother to their doom, and the folly of using those tools without first examining yourself. Death was never there, and he was never fooled.

ELI5: Why only one person gets knocked out with a head-to-head headbutt.

You get a concussion when your brain gets shaken up inside your skull. So, the cause of a concussion is less about a forceful blow to the skull, but rather a blow that rattles your head. When you headbutt someone, your head is moving rapidly and firmly. When you make contact, your head still keeps moving forward from the momentum; it doesn't shake. However, the fellow that gets hit recoils his head upon impact. It's the sudden recoil that shakes his brain around, giving him the concussion. If buddy held his ground, and didn't move his head or body back, the momentum of the impact would come back at you and stop your movement. That sudden stop of movement could give you the concussion instead.

Given current technology and information, what will ultimately be the death of our solar system?

Bonus questions: How long would this method take?

The Solar System will die when the Sun becomes a red giant star whose outer envelope reaches as far out as Venus, or perhaps even the Earth. Even if the envelope doesn't reach the Earth, the immense radiation given off by the Sun in this phase will eliminate all life on the planet. The Sun will then transition to a white dwarf star and slowly cool for the rest of time. Interactions with the material given off by the Sun during the red giant to white dwarf transformation may disrupt the outer planets as well.

ELI5: Why does moon in daylight looks transparent?

1. We imagine the daylight sky is blue and everything is in front of it. 2. But actually, the sky is just the atmosphere, and the moon is behind the atmosphere. 3. So the sky is *in front* of the moon. 4. It's the sky that's transparent.

If an electron in an atom emits a photon but no lower energy orbital is available for it to drop to, does the electron leave the atom?

I understand that if an electron absorbs a photon it can be excited to a higher orbital and the only way to drop back down is to emit a photon. My question asks if an electron is already at its lowest possible orbital and emits a photon, does the electron simply get knocked from the atom? ​ Also would an electron that is in a higher orbital emit a photon naturally without any outside excitation in order to drop down and fill the lower orbitals? Or can photons only be emitted by outside excitation?

The electron only emits a photon _because_ there is a lower energy state available. But more importantly, to make the electron "leave the atom" you have to increase it's energy, quite the opposite of emitting a photon.

ELI5: Why are cells living? I know they’re the building blocks of life but what defines living? Are plants a different type of “alive” because they have a different cell structure?

The current definition of life simply states that for an organism to be considered living, it has to maintain **homeostasis**, which is the technical way to say "it has to maintain itself through its metabolism". A cell maintains itself by breaking down resources to extract the energy and elements it contains, making up complex structures to achieve survival and reproduction. From bacteria, to protozoa, to algae, to plants, to fungi, to animals, we observe this behaviour, regardless of the cell type. In a sense, all lives are the same, they're just living - and have been living - under different circumstances that greatly affect how they "express life".

[Zootopia] What about whales, dolphins, and seals?

They have built their own society in the depths of the ocean. Tensions are high as land mammals desperately overfish to keep the predatory population under control, and the Pandas and Japanese Macaques keep huntings the whales for a thriving meat industry and the belief their testicles provide fertility.

[Harry Potter] Are there wizarding communities/ethnicities that don't map 1:1 on to Muggle communities/ethnicities?

We see that there are French wizards, British wizards, Ugandan wizards, etc. But are there unique, wizard only ethnic identites? Furthermore, given than the Statute of Secrecy is implimented in the late 17th century, are there wizards around who still identify with fuedal communities? Do wizards in Berlin identify as Prussian? Do Viennese wizards still elect a Holy Roman Sorceror?

It appears that there is no divide between Ireland and Great Britain on the international wizards' stage; aside from students in Ireland primarily going to school in Hogwarts, it's implied that the Irish Quidditch teams play in the same league as the British teams. There *is* a sort of sense to this; when the Magna Carta (which is the legal document that stripped the English king of control of the empire which *also* has the Statute of Secrecy) was signed into law, Ireland was a territory of the British Empire. Since Ireland only received it's independence in the 1920's then wizards may not have bothered separating the two.

[LOTR] If Gandalf The White had died in battle, would he have been resurrected again? How many "lives" would he have gotten?

He would likely be resurrected as many times as he needed to, at least until he fulfilled his role in the fall of Sauron. As a Maiar spirit, he's functionally immortal. If his mortal form is destroyed, he can either spend a long time gathering power to return, or he can be restored by a Valar god.

[General] A superhero brings a trillion dollar asteroid full of precious minerals back to Earth. What next?

A superhero brings a trillion dollar asteroid full of precious minerals back to Earth. What next? What would be the hero’s best course of action?

Said superhero should, if financially savy, open up bidding from various countries regarding where to land the asteroid. Once payment has been received, lower the asteroid into a convenient mining facility where the minerals can be extracted. Note that the value of some rare materials will drop significantly due to this, but it will still be useful for experimentation

The Prince Thought Experiment

Imagine a long time ago, let's say in the 1400's, there lived an Indian prince named Viraj. The prince was brought up his whole life being cleaned, fed, and groomed entirely without him needing to do anything. He would wake up, walk to breakfast, sit down, and be fed. Then he would walk to his throne and sit all day until he was fed lunch, then dinner. He was then groomed and went to bed. And so on. One day the prince embarks on a journey to travel to another land. Along the way, the prince's group of protectors were attacked by wild animals and all were killed except the prince. Traumatized, the prince walked until he found a village were many peasants lived. The prince was given shelter and warmth and began garnering a relationship with the people there. Once dinner time arrived, the prince was given food. "What is this?" Prince Viraj asked. "Food" a peasant said. Angrily, the prince said "I understand that, but why is no one feeding it to me!" Prince Viraj and the peasants argued for a few minutes on whether they should feed him the food, and eventually the peasants conclude that if he does not want to pick up and eat his own food, he would not eat at all. The next day comes, and the prince refuses to eat unless fed. And the next. Eventually three weeks have passed and the prince is utterly starving, if he does not get food in his stomach soon, he will perish... ​ If the prince will not eat, do the peasants have a moral imperative to feed him in order to save him from dying?

>If the prince will not eat, do the peasants have a moral imperative to feed him in order to save him from dying? Yeah sure. As things go that you ought to do to prevent someone from dying a horrible death feeding them is pretty low down on the list of inconvenient and unpleasant things you should still do.

Why do people never forget how to ride a bike once they've learned?

The fear of falling is the main reason why it's hard to learn in the first place. You need a certain amount of speed to keep it upright, but a higher speed = a more painful experience if you fall. So the tendency is to want to start off slowly, causing a wobbly ride. The intricate details of which gear to use, how to pedal properly, to brake without flying over the handlebars, those could probably be forgotten. What "clicks" in your head is that you actually have more control over the bike if you get it moving a little faster, and less if you slow down. This is such a simple cognition, and something you won't forget.

[Wh40k] Who is the most excessively violent mortal in the empire? I mean someone even a Space Marine thinks should calm down a little.

Probably Bjorn the Fell-Handed. First of all, he was chapter master of the Space Wolves and fought alongside, and was a respected ally of Leman Russ at one time, so that should tell you quite a bit right of the bat. Super early in his career, he was at the Burning of Prospero and almost single-handedly (I mean that both figuratively and literally) defeated a Daemon of the warp, even after having pure Warp energy forced through him, causing his arm to decay and die. He remained uncorrupted from this encounter, as well. After this, he led a group of men, and would often be sent where the fighting was expected to be the heaviest and the most grueling, because he would wade through that shit like knee-high water. In one such encounter, Bjorn and his "Pack" attacked fucking Arvax the Arch-slaughterer, Daemon king of Khorne, and every one of his men were killed in short-order, but he, miraculously, managed to claw his stubborn ass out of there and survive. This Daemon King then went on to systematically murder basically everything it came into contact with. Bjorn would then go on to lead a counter-assault that would finally drive it from the field. And after all of that he mostly felt cheated for not having been granted the glorious death that his brothers had. He would then spend the next 5 years doing basically nothing but look for that fucking Daemon King that killed his men. He was SO fucking determined, that he beat his Primarch, Leman Russ, a guy with basically unlimited resources and a mind and spirit DESIGNED to hunt and kill, to the punch. Not only did Bjorn beat Russ there, but Russ was actually present to witness Bjorn, again single-handedly, kill the Daemon by climbing the motherfucker like a rabid squirrel on a tree and tearing its throat out. Russ, fucking flabbergasted, just invented a personal "Wolf Guard" and placed Bjorn there as its first member, because that is exactly the kind of guy you want alongside a whirlwind of slaughter like a Primarch. Then, after the disappearance of Russ, and after serving as Chapter Master, he would finally be killed trying to save his own men.... They then took his broken and worthless body and shoved it into one of the most devastating Drednaughts in the Imperium, and he would spend the next 10,000 years at the forefront of countless battles, always where the fighting was the thickest, because nobody could imagine a world where a war didn't have Bjorn the Fell-Handed tearing things to shreds. Even after DYING, he continues to be one of the greatest weapons in the Imperium.

ELI5: Why did the ".us" domain never catch on compared to other countries' domains?

.com is viewed as more prestigious and was already in use by most US sites, and most commercial businesses and online businesses. .com was essentially .us already. .US holds no interest to companies in the US, and would be viewed as weird and cheap, since .com is essentially the defacto .us and used for US-based sites anyways. It may be a better question to ask the opposite: Why did things like the .uk or .nl become more common? Well... because .com catered to the US based audience, not to the UK or Dutch audience! Especially in the earlier days of the internet, when geolocating was uncommon (now a site can automatically determine your location and route you to a local site), but back then, for example if you wanted a UK version of the site, you go to the .com, and go through a, often unintuitive method on the site, to manually change your country to UK to get the right local site.

[General] Evolutionary purpose of pointy elven ears

If we're to assume elves were a product of their environment and not magically created, what reasons would there be for them to have their distinctive ears? In what ways would they be beneficial for natural selection?

First of all, natural selection doesn't work like that. Natural Selection isn't as much "survival of the fittest" as "survival of the meh, good enough". The most notable things big ears could help with are better hearing, or a for helping the body bleed heat. These are purely physical advantages, though. Ears can also be used for portraying emotion or moods, which is beneficial for social creatures. Their purpose can also be as simple as being an biological ornament for attracting a mate of the opposite gender.

ELI5: Why are some Americans so patriotic about the flag, army, tech, the moon, WWII, music etc. but so unpatriotic when it comes to taxes and welfare?

It's not something new, it's been around since the country started basically. The country wanted to avoid being tyrannical at all so let a lot of governmental power fall to the states and local governments, that's why even today states can have pretty drastically different laws than others (like gun laws). This mentality passes down to the people to varying degrees. You have the conservatives who believe the government should stay out of most people's lives, more power to local and state governments and less to the federal. Because of their distrust of a stronger federal government as opposed to states and local communities they also believe in more power to private enterprise, and that includes things like colleges and health care. Liberals here tend to be more of a socialist(ish) view with more federal government power, for things like public colleges, more and more towards a socialized medicine, etc. And of course you have every color of the political spectrum represented too, but those are the tendencies. Nationalistic pride isn't related to social programs. Conservatives just tend to put their trust more in private industry and local governments instead of the federal government.

ELI5: Why are we more tired waking up than we are falling asleep?

Your body produces a chemical (adenosine) which makes you sleepy. It takes time for your body to make it, and time for your body to get rid of it. You wake up feeling tired because there's still adenosine in your system, once it clears out you feel awake.

eli5 why are interest rate hikes required when inflation suppresses demand

When the government wants to increase spending (by decreasing savings), the central bank reduces the interest rate. This means banks pay less interest and loan rates are cheaper. I.e it is worth taking your money out of the banks and investing it. When this happens, demand for goods rises and supply doesn't change fast enough. Therefore, suppliers increase their prices because they can afford to do so (inflation) and this curbs demand. Increasing interest rates re-incentivises people to save and de-csntivises them to take out loans (I may have made up some words in that sentence, happy to clarify).

[Team Fortress 2] Why doesn't the pyro's flamethrower burn down all the wooden buildings in the game?

They don't even catch fire; are they made of something other than wood?

Asbestos. Asbestos *everywhere*. It turns out the TF2 classes we play are highly advanced tumors scraped off the original members, which is why gameplay doesn't match the *"Meet the Team"* videos or comics. It's also how you can have a team of 9 Snipers, since they're literally cancer.

[DC] Can Ratcatcher 2 control mice/squirrels/other rodents?

Is Ratcatcher/Ratcatcher 2's technology only applicable to rats? Could it also control other rodents such as mice, squirrels, guinea pigs, etc? If Beast Boy turned into a rat, would he be susceptible? If Squirrel Girl fell into a portal in to the DC universe, could she be controlled?

Im banking on just rats, possibly a genetic component that has to be exact? Might target precise neural structures that only affect rats? Or it might not work as well on other rodents without tweaking. Would love to see a scene in the next movie where shes trapped with just a capybara that she can only make suggestions to

[Game of Thrones] Which three deaths would have done the most good to Westeros when Arya got to choose them?

Judging by what has already happened, and with the assumption they die when she says them, probably Edmure Tully, Illyrio Mopatis, and Tyrion Lannister. At the point in the story where Arya gets the three deaths, Jaime is captured and the Tyrells haven't joined the Lannisters yet. With no Tyrion, the city falls to Stannis, and with no Edmure then Tywin is captured by Robb. Illyrio's death means that Aegon and Daenerys have no help from him, so Barristan never goes to Dany, and she is killed by the Warlocks, meaning no impending dragon-invasion. Aegon loses his funding, so he can no longer recruit an army, making his invasion either delayed a lot or not happening at all. This also stops the potential plague that Jon Con might have brought with him to Westeros. Stannis kills all the Lannisters, and Robb sues for peace so he can reclaim the north from the Greyjoys. Stannis turns his eye to the other threat to his kingdom, and reinforces the Wall against Mance, making the Wall storyline effectively the same as before. Stannis cleanses the small council. Littlefinger, Varys, and Pycelle are all killed or flee the city. Euron doesn't return to the iron islands, since he has captured three warlocks who tell him how they have control of three dragons in Qarth. The crow's eye turns east and Asha is elected queen of the Iron Islands, since Vic is a fool and Theon has been executed by Robb Stark, Warden of the North. With Petyr dead/lost, Lysa Tully either kills herself and her son, or is forced out of the Eyrie by the Lords Declarant, who tell her she has to either declare independance or go swear fealty to the new king. Her nephew, Robb fosters young Robert Arryn. After a short while all the Starks are reunited, save for Bran who seems to have disappeared with the Reeds. They are assumed dead. Up until the Others arrive, Westeros seems to be recovering, then it is thrown into a supernatural war it cannot hope to win, Stannis dies at the front line with his phony lightbringer, and with his only heir being a child, the control of the realm passes to his Regent, Davos Seaworth. Davos, seeing what urgent need the country is in need of help, recruits groups of mercenaries from the Free Cities. One such group is the Second Sons, led by Daario Naharis. When all seems to be lost, the others have reached the capital, killing everyone in their way. The Starks and Tullys are all dead, as are the Baratheons and Targaryens, Azor Ahai reveals himself. Back from stealing the dragons from the Warlocks, Captain of the Second Sons, and First Ranger Benjen "Daario "Euron "Crows Eye" Greyjoy" Naharis" Stark rides the Dragons into battle. The Prophecy is complete, and the Dragon has Three Faces. He obliterates the White Walker Army with the dragons, fights the Great Other with Ice, tempered in the neck of his brother who warged into it to become Lightbringer, and takes his place on the Iron Throne with his Paramour and fellow Second Son, Prince Oberyn Martell of Dorne. Westeros embraces gay marriage, and Benjen and Oberyn adopt Shireen, showing their support for the disabled. Westeros enters a new age of tolerance, and there is an ever-lasting peace. King Jaqen rules Westeros well, and any attempt to breach the peace is met by two words: "Not today." The End. Edit: Added more tinfoil.

[Star Wars]If Sidious follows the rule of two, why does he have so many other Sith underlings?

In the movie and TV shows cannon we have seen Dooku, Maul, Asajj Ventress and the Inquisitor (also is there a Sith inquisition?) and maybe others. Are these not considered "true Sith?"

No, they're not technically Sith. But the rule of two is basically made to be broken. A Master will often cultivate several potential apprentices so that if the official one dies, they can be replaced. And the apprentice will often take on secret apprentices so that they have someone ready to go when they overthrow the master. However Sidious did *not* believe in the Rule of Two. His own philosophy was a Rule of One: That he was the culmination of the Sith order. To him, his apprentices were merely tools, and he intended to rule eternally over the galaxy.

[Star Wars] Different canons

I know this is probably a stupid question but what is the different canons? I see people using canon and legends on this sub but I don't actually know what the difference is.

The new canon includes all 6 movies, the Clone Wars (movie and show) and Rebels TV show, and select books/comics (basically, anything after Disney's acquisition) as well as a couple games. Legends is anything released prior to Disney's purchase.

[Warhammer 40k] If the Tyranids devoured all organic life in the galaxy outside themselves, would the Chaos Gods die? What about if the Necrons eradicated all organic life?

Yes and yes. The Chaos Gods are basically made of emotions - they're the aggregate Warp presences of uncounted trillions of sentient beings. Lose the sentient beings feeding emotions into the aggregates, and the Chaos Gods vanish. The collapse of the Imperium alone would starve Chaos, as humans are its main food source - Orks, Necrons and Tyranids don't feed Chaos, and Eldar and Tau are too few to matter. (Fun fact: according to at least some Daemon Primarchs, Chaos *has already won*. The state of constant war and misery that is the Galaxy in 40k *is* the win condition for Chaos, because it provides maximum emotional energy for the Chaos Gods to fatten on. Stalemate is victory. If Abaddon's Black Crusade actually destroyed the Imperium, Chaos would go down with it.)

[Witcher series] I always hear that the in-game Witchers, and Geralt in particular, are severely nerfed from their book counterpart. How so?

In game Gerlat moves fairly similarly to a human as far as following his movements. In the the books Geralt can swing his sword so fast people can't see or follow it. The games adjust a lot of the things you see just to be fun to play. In the books monsters are dying out, they aren't anywhere as common as in the game where you get drowners every 30m of shoreline. Larger monsters are also significantly more dangerous and not taken lightly, whereas game Geralt dispatches many of them with ease.

CMV: Increasing taxes on the ultra wealthy in the US won't make things better for the rest of the population.

My stance/argument is fairly simple, the US currently has enough money from the taxes it does collect to accomplish a shit ton of things. Particularly the things that most proponens of tax increase are fighting for *(universal healthcare, cheaper regulated or free colleges, corporate regulation, etc.)* This is Evidenced by the fact that we have extremely large military budgets, foreign aid dollars, tax subsidies and the list goes on where hundred of billions of dollars goes towards while other programs continually get budget cuts. Increasing taxes on the billionaires, while it should still happen, won't make a difference in the social policies put in place because money isn't the issue... corruption and lobbying powers who influence where the dollars actually go is the issue. If taxes increased in the wealthy, I believe the extra money would be used to just continue to do more of what we're already doing which is cutting social programs and having legislation that appeals to the largest and most powerful lobbying groups. CMV.

>corruption and lobbying powers who influence where the dollars actually go is the issue. Right. That's part of the point here. Money is power, and extreme wealth is extreme power. The kind of extreme power that breaks democracies. Taxing the hell out of the ultra wealthy isn't really meant to raise all that much money, it's meant to a) reduce the extreme amount of wealth, and thus power, they have and b) discourage the kinds of behaviors that lead to extreme wealth For point b), let's about this a bit more. It's unlikely one gets extremely wealthy, like billionaire wealthy, without exploiting people. Walmart is a great example of a company that does this. They deliberately hire more part time workers rather than fewer full time to avoid paying them benefits. They exploit their workers, and the rest of the country foots the bill by paying for their workers' food stamps. Now, would the family that owns Walmart still do all this shit if they only got to keep 10 cents of every dollar they saved Walmart? How about 5 cents? Taxes on extreme wealth and income make this kind of exploitative profiteering less attractive. The benefit isn't the money raised, it's the money saved by not having to subsidize walmart's employees

Why are our intestines so dang long?

Having long intestines is an evolutionary advantage to get the most out of your food. By having a large amount of time to go through you will have more time to extract nutrients. Arguably more importantly, it increases the surface area that your food will be exposed to (especially with villi and microvilli) which enables more thorough enzyme exposure and nutrient uptake. You will see other animals have different lengths of intestines. Herbivores have longer intestines than carnivores and omnivores because the cellulose in plants has beta glycosidic linkages which takes longer to break down. They will have very large cecums filled with prokaryotes that can break down those linkages. Basically larger intestine = less wasted energy from food, and different animals will find different ways to utilize this.

ELI5 How to tasers put out 1,000,000+ volts when all they require to use is a couple AA batteries?

Always wondered about this.

They use a coil to raise the voltage while simultaneously limiting the current, so they don't electrocute the target. The coil is powered by the batteries much like the spark plug in a car is powered by the 12 volt car battery, which is only huge because of the current needed to start the car, not to make the spark.

Obama mentioned yesterday "cutting out the middle man" and making student loans directly to students rather than using banks as a middleman. Canada still goes through banks, why? What's the benefit of that?

Banks have to make profit/loss calculation, and therefore use the price system to allocate capital toward student loans. In other words, banks care whether or not they get paid back. Government, much less so. This is actually a positive thing because it regulates the supply of student loans. The question is, how many student loans is *too many*? Too few? Consider the fact that US student loan defaults are rising and are at decade-highs. In theory, lenders *should* be becoming less willing to risk their capital. In practice, there are other government interventions (Sallie Mae) that are already distorting the market and creating moral hazard. To have government issue loans directly is merely the next tier in moral hazard. The government can declare "we need more student loans!" regardless of price signals, just like they did with houses. It is a bubble similar to every other bubble the government blows. When it is finally revealed that those loans cannot be paid back, the taxpayer will have to again "bail out" the insolvent institution holding the loans. To add to all that, the government has to get its capital from somewhere. It must either levy a tax, print the money (not possible under Federal Reserve system), or borrow the money. In the US the government borrows by issuing Treasuries, which it sells to Primary Dealers (banks). So, in reality, Obama has not "cut out the middle man" whatsoever. Well, you can say he "cut out" smaller independent banks to the benefit of very large, well connected banks.

ELI5: Why are us humans naturally afraid of the dark?

For example; when we're alone in the dark, in the stillness, we feel scared. We feel that there is someone behind us and our hearts being to race. Why do you think we're afraid? Why do we feel this way about the darkness, even if and when we know what's around us.

Because the night is long and full of terrors. At least it used to be. For the major part of our evolution as species, remaining alone in the dark long was a huge increase of chance of being horribly killed and eaten by a predator. It's also less safe to travel or do pretty much anything else whe you can't see. Both seeing in the dark and instinctively avoiding it is thus an evolutionary advantage, and so we fear the dark.

ELI5: Why are baker's hats shaped the way they are?

They're mushroom shaped, which seems like a waste of cloth. Is there a practical reason, or just traditional like chef hats? I've heard chef toques have something to do with " number of ways to cook an egg."

seems like it was just a popular sort of hat in general at the specific time french bakers got prominent so that random fashion of the time got stuck as the 'traditional" hat of bakers. It's like how all flight attendant uniforms look vaguely 1950s because plane flight got popular enough in the 1950s to have a standard uniform and even if stuff changes it still keeps elements of what everyone thinks of when they think of what a normal uniform would look like.

ELI5: In WWII, they had war bond drives so the government could raise the money to pay for the war. Why doesn't the government need to do that anymore for deficit spending?

They don't need to. The US government has no problem borrowing money right now (plenty of people are happy to buy US government debt for really cheap) through its regular financial programs, so why create a whole new program when the current ones are doing the job just fine? The US Dollar is the global reserve currency. It's basically the foundation of the way that global trade is structured. So lots of people/organizations/countries are interested in holding dollars/US debt. This wasn't the case before and during WWII, so it wasn't as easy for the US to borrow money as it is today.

ELI5 How can surplus energy generated by my home's solar panels go 'back into the grid'?

We have solar panels that can produce energy we don't need and gets fed back into our local energy grid. I don't know much about electrical systems but I assume they are one - way. For example the plug socket in my wall to my TV can only distribute power, I can't plug a generator into it and feed power back into it. Does every house have an 'in' system to feed the house but also an 'out' system to go back to the grid? Thanks for all the answers, it's clear I assumed massively wrong!

Power does not “flow” through wires in the sense that it only goes one way. It is a constant charge. You can technically plug a generator into any outlet and power your house, however this is illegal in most places because if not done correctly you will send power to the grid, which may kill a lineman trying to restore power. Solar panels when set up correctly back feed into the grid, but they have automated switches so if the power goes out they disconnect.

CMV:When a police officer is involved in a situation that they are placed on Admin leave or worse only after the incident became public then that officers immediate supervisor should also be removed.

One of the problems I see whenever an officer is caught on video which then goes viral is that there are no repercussions until public pressure is applied. Only then do we see consequences. This leads me to believe supervisor who are responsible failed the public in these situations and they should also be subject to those consequences. If an incident occurs and all are aware of it but they do not deal with it unless it becomes viral, then that is a failure of the entire chain of command who acted to protect themselves vs protect the public. This would also encourage police departments not to continue waiting for an incident to go viral because if that happens than the supervisor will be held accountable for their their lack of action to begin with. This will cause more supervisors to act with the interest of the public instead of insulating an officers bad behavior. _____ > *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!*

I feel like you're inferring causation, when it might not always be appropriate. When a police supervisor has a scenario where one of his cops may (or may not) have acted improperly, isn't the important thing to review all the necessary information and get the decision right? These things sometimes take time to do, and it's very possible for a video shot on somebody's cell phone to go viral the very same or next day. In those scenarios, you've put the supervisor in an impossible position.

[Fairy Tales] A man and a woman get married and have a child. However, each parent had previously promised his/her firstborn child to a different witch. What happens next?

Do the witches just fight it out? Is there some kind of witch court system that handles this kind of dispute? Will there be any consequences to the couple if it's discovered that they had set up this conflict intentionally?

I could see a few potential scenarios if it was unintentional: * Witches brawl it out, because they both want the child for something important * Witches have some kind of hierarchy that determines who 'gets' the kid (age, seniority, when the contract was signed, etc...) * Magic happens and the family has twins, so each witch gets a kid If it was intentional on the part of the couple, woe betide them at the hands of scorned witches. Best case they have a hex put on them that they need to work off. Worst case their lives take a dramatic turn for the worse and they die penniless, in pain, with broken hearts.

[MCU] In Endgame, when Steve goes back to love with Peggy, does he just remain a normal citizen, not helping Bucky it taking out Hydra? (More questions in the text column)

So as mentioned before, does he just live a normal life? Is there another version of him in that timeline that wakes up in 70 years that he just watches do what he did? How would he explain to his close friends that he’s actually from another universe and that Captain America of their time is the real him? Wouldn’t that make their relationship disingenuous if neither Steve or Peggy end up with their *original counterparts?

Well, he gets that shiny new Vibranium shield from *somewhere*, which suggests he did go Captain America-ing on the side. Peggy was a hero in her own right, and Steve isn't the type to sit at home which she risks her life to stop HYDRA.

[DC] who do you think is the greatest thief in all of it DC universe and I mean he/she could steal anything from anyone

Speaking purely in terms of individuals, Selina Kyle, alias Catwoman, is probably the most accomplished thief on Earth. If a team can be considered, the Rogues collectively might be able to rival her-- Captain Cold and Mirror Master are especially accomplished in this respect but are both at their best when working with a larger team of experts.

[MCU] How much more powerful than Mjolnir is Stormbreaker?

Many orders of magnitude. It's hard to say for certain, because we don't have anything resembling "power levels," but look at it this way: If the Bifrost is left open too long, it could destroy a planet. Stormbreaker can channel the bifrost. In theory, one could use Stormbreaker to destroy worlds.

I believe that men shouldn't get as much of a say as women in regards to abortion. CMV

I'm pro-choice and believe that the choice to get an abortion is highly personal and that it's not fair to tell strangers what to do with their bodies. That said, I don't believe that men have the right to tell a woman whether to get one or not. I feel that ultimately whether or not the woman wants to get an abortion should be her own choice, yet a part of me feels like this isn't completely fair to the father. I'm kind of torn, and also feel like a hypocrite for holding this view, so CMV! Edit: Thanks for all the replies guys! I really liked reading your arguments, and they've helped me sort out my own view on this. :)

If not the right to influence the mothers choice to keep the child, then maybe fathers should have the right to a 'financial abortion'- That the father forfeit any claims to the child, and in return not be held financially responsible for child support if the mother would choose to keep the child.

[World War Z (novel)] What nation or group of nations would have had the best possible scenario in either preventing the spread of the Zeke or combatting them after it had taken hold? What nation or group of nations had it the worst?

There was a mixed bag of countries that managed to defend a Iarge portion of their population and resources and combat the Zeke in a major way, regardless of what stage in the war they were in. But which country was the absolute best out of all of them at minimizing the infection rates during the Great Panic, the reclamation of overrun territories throughout the way, and the rebuilding of their governments and economies? And which country fell the hardest during the war? Iceland because it remains completely overrun? Or possibly North Korea for the complete disappearance of it's people?

I forget whether Israel's quarantine held throughout the war but if it did it'd probably be them. Honorable mention to North Korea, who is mentioned in the interview as being a country built to not only survive, but thrive in a zombie apocalypse. However, it's unknown if the bunkers still held anyone, or if it was just an underworld full of ghouls by the time the interview was recorded. Worst might be either Iceland(still a densely-infested white zone) or China(I know they eventually rebuilt but from the sound of it they had a whole-ass civil war on top of the zombie apocalypse to deal with, and it culminated in their leadership getting nuked)

[DCEU] Why didn't the other superheroes/metahumans help when Zod invaded earth?

Zod was a treath to the whole planet, so it would be on everyone's interest to stop him He also announced his intentions to the entire world and the invasion lasted at least a day, so you can't give the "It ended too fast" excuse. Yet only Superman and Batman tried to help. Why didn't Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, the Flash, Cyborg, or any of the supervillains who would want to save earth because they live here fight agains Zod?

While we know Wonder Women had been doing super hero stuff, the implication of Man of Steel is that Superman is the first super hero (which was consistent with DC's New 52 storyline at the time establishing the rise of Superman as the start of the era of heros). Yes Batman had been doing his thing, but he wasn't a hero, but a vigilante. We see that Bruce Wayne did go to Metropolis, but that was to ensure his people were evacuated. Wonder Women may have been in Europe already. Cyborg was brooding at home. The Flash may not have suited up yet. And Aquaman may not have known it was happening.

ELI5: animals that express complex nest-building behaviours (like tailorbirds that sew leaves together) - do they learn it "culturally" from others of their kind or are they somehow born with a complex skill like this imprinted genetically in their brains?

It's instinctual. Birds reared in plastic containers build their own nests just fine. They need not ever see a nest to build one. Further, the nests they build don't necessarily model the nests their parents built. If a researcher provides a bird with only pink building materials, the chicks reared in that pink nest will choose brown materials over pink for their own nests, if they have a choice. There is an instinctual template, thank god. Imagine being compelled to build something but having no idea of what or how. Torture! That's not to say that birds are slaves to their instinctual templates. They gain experience over successive builds and make minor changes to the design and location.

[Spider-Man] Why doesn't Spider-Man make a more durable suit ?

Y'know like nightwing.Like how often does his suit take damage before he does this....

His unique combat style involves fantastic acrobatics. Any kind of movement restriction is basically intolerable. He regularly doges things by the smallest margin, which means if it has any thickness he's be taking more hits. Normal anti-balistics and protective clothing are not an option. While Peter is a legit scientific genius, micro-thin like like that armor Stark made is beyond his expertise.

ELI5: How and why does our body function relatively normally if we don't eat healthily?

The calorie is THE main form of energy, and unhealthy foods tend to have a ton of them. Without calories, you will die. A good analogy is a car. Calories are the gas to help keep the car running. If you eat too many calories, you start storing that extra gas in the trunk. It then requires more energy to move the car because it's heavier, and the other parts of the car will wear out faster because of heavier workload. All the other parts of the car - the pistons, transmission, engine etc are your organs and body parts. They need regular upkeep (nutrients such as vitamins/minerals) to run efficiently. The car may run a long time if you neglect these areas because you have gas, but it won't run as smoothly or as long as you may have liked. I hope this helps!

ELI5: What is the current layman's description of an atom that the scientific community deems acceptable?

When I was in middle school they told us that atoms consisted of electrons orbiting around a nucleus that itself primarily consisted of protons and neutrons. When I got to university they told us that was wrong and said something like the electrons are moving so fast it can't be determined exactly where they are at any given time and that it was more like a probability cloud. Does this mean that a given electron itself does not exist at any one particular place at some given time, or is it that it does, we just can't determine exactly where it is because of either limitations with current measurement technology or theoretical limitations with measurement technology in general? When I looked up the wikipedia article on atoms it seems to repeatedly refer to electrons as being bound to a nucleus rather than orbiting a nucleus. Do scientists now think that it is inappropriate to refer to electrons as orbiting the nucleus?

When we are schoolchildren, we are generally taught that subatomic particles like electrons are little spheres orbiting around the nucleus in an atom. But that isn't correct. Subatomic particles aren't little spheres, they are more like matter waves. There's simply no way to pin down the exact position of an electron in an atom, because it has no exact position. What's the exact position of a wave? Making matters worse, the uncertainty principle tells us that there's a chance that a given electron isn't even within the atom at all, at least for a brief time. There's a very very very small chance that an electron from an atom in your nose could be found on Mars! (Of course, it would be hard to tell, since all electrons are identical.)