Dumb Questions Thread
- Thread starter Liquid
- 814 comments
- 55,848 views
- 7,592
- Exorcet
- OE Exorcet
Getting back to this it looks like we may not go down the bacteria path, but extract enzymes from them to use externally, which sounds a lot better in my opinion. On the other hand, nature may already be on its way to producing natural plastic eating bacteria. A video I happened to come across on the topic that touches on both possibilities and the usefulness of machine learning in research:
If there was an ideal solution here I'd lean toward nuclear fusion making energy so cheap that we just ionized all our garbage, but I guess we will see what the future holds.
- 2,879
- United Kingdom
Is this quote, by Christopher Hitchens in a debate about Christianity, always true for every person:
"One is quite literally commanded to love. And commanded not just to love others as much as oneself—a ridiculous and impossible injunction, as well as an internally contradictory one..."
Is it such for everyone?
Can only speak for myself but it applies to me. I see myself as incredibly selfish, although try to do good when I can.
"One is quite literally commanded to love. And commanded not just to love others as much as oneself—a ridiculous and impossible injunction, as well as an internally contradictory one..."
Is it such for everyone?
Can only speak for myself but it applies to me. I see myself as incredibly selfish, although try to do good when I can.
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- 4,010
- Derbyshire, UK
- DG Silva
What I've been taught about the bible quote of the final remaining commandment 'Love thy neighbour as thyself' is simply another way of saying 'treat others how you'd like to be treated'. It's not necessarily about putting all others above yourself, but just to do no deliberate harm to other people.
- 7,592
- Exorcet
- OE Exorcet
I disagree, it's not so difficult to care about other people as much as yourself. I'd argue this has been shown through out history as well whenever people have died for a cause that is beyond themselves.
Danoff
Premium
- 33,915
- Mile High City
I'm not sure that finding an individual that you care about as much or more than yourself contracts Hitchens's quote. Nor finding a cause. The bible says "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself". Being willing to sacrifice yourself for certain people isn't the same as "your neighbor". It also doesn't say "love they neighborhood as thyself". So I don't think being willing to sacrifice yourself for your community is quite it either. Take a random citizen that is part of your "neighborhood" and you're supposed to love them as you do yourself. I think it is possible. But maybe only for suicidal people or those with extremely low self esteem. I definitely think if you take a random healthy person they'd care about themselves more than many of their neighbors.
Commanding involuntary emotions is a big part of the bible. Telling you to do something that you literally can't do is a big way to get you to buy into the idea that you're a sinner and deserve punishment.
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- 19,619
- Alabamamania
- 29,618
- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
I want some help clarifying something:
Was Richard Nixon an active participant in the decision to break into the Watergate complex?
Unless I have read it all incorrectly, Nixon wasn't actually a part of the Watergate break in but once he found out about it, what brought him down was his role in the cover-up and denying that he knew anything about it when Watergate became public knowledge.
Was Richard Nixon an active participant in the decision to break into the Watergate complex?
Unless I have read it all incorrectly, Nixon wasn't actually a part of the Watergate break in but once he found out about it, what brought him down was his role in the cover-up and denying that he knew anything about it when Watergate became public knowledge.
- 2,879
- United Kingdom
How do people drive near the limit on B-roads?
Most that I find are covered with hedges either side and it's simply not safe for other road users to try and push my car that hard (it's a Clio 182).
I should say I'm in West London so have to travel a bit out of the way to get to one in the first place (and so may be limited in experience), but with the poor visibility through the corners I can't understand how people can pick up on the nuances of different chassis.
Most that I find are covered with hedges either side and it's simply not safe for other road users to try and push my car that hard (it's a Clio 182).
I should say I'm in West London so have to travel a bit out of the way to get to one in the first place (and so may be limited in experience), but with the poor visibility through the corners I can't understand how people can pick up on the nuances of different chassis.
- 29,618
- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
I have a two-part answer:
1) You drive as fast as the conditions allow.
2) It's a speed limit, not a speed recommendation.
As you say, you don't find it safe to push your car that hard. Some people are lunatics.
- 2,879
- United Kingdom
Can it ever be safe then?
Are the opinions from magazines like Evo relevant to the average driver of a sports (or sporty) car....
I feel like I'm missing out when people talk about the thrill of a good B-road drive. The only excitement I've gotten is in karts, a passenger on tracks, but only very few times on public roads (one of which was in an old RWD Volvo when we had loads of snow)
- 29,618
- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
You should take what a magazine or TV show says about B-road thrashing with a pinch of salt. And I'm sure they never explicitly tell you to go at the limit or beyond. It isn't hard to imagine that at 50mph on a country road where the limit is 60mph, a Subaru Impreza or Peugeot 205 GTi are going to be more enjoyable than a Perodua Myvi or a Daewoo Matiz and an Alfa Romeo 166 or a Jaguar XKR are going to be more comfortable than an Austin Allegro or Vauxhall Vectra.
Once again, you drive as fast as the conditions allow. Especially from the TV perspective, I think it is obvious that a review on a closed section of road where the reviewer has the capacity to drive and speak to camera with the knowledge of a clear road is different from every day driving. I think it is obvious but again, that depends on what some morons think as well; if you're the sort of person to see an episode of 5th Gear or Top Gear razzing along a B-road and think that means it's okay for you to do so as well, you've got problems.
"This car makes B-road driving a pleasant experience, it eats up the miles and fords every stream with surgical precision"
Whatever waffle they might say, that still might mean driving at 50mph in a 60mph because the road is twisty could be the best way to drive. That car might make it simply feel less of a chore and more of a pleasure. Time flies when you're having fun, after all.
- 23,884
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
It doesn't mean every B-road is fair game for a bit of spirited wheelmanship. There are several professional UK car journos on this site that can probably explain how its done more thoroughly, but my guess is, based on having read many a car/group test review, is that the B-roads that are being razzed on are well known in car journalist circles and are quiet and have good lines of site and often remote.
It's also the case that modern 'hot' cars are probably getting to, or are even well passed being too quick and have too much grip for going anywhere near the limits on most British B-roads. Traffic isn't getting any lighter and the amount of numpties on the roads is getting greater with the police/local councils getting tougher on speeding and 'unsociable' driving. The haydays of being a driving enthusiast are sadly behind us, unfortunately.
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- 5,062
- Panama City, FL
The tapes implicated him in the cover-up, but I don't think anything was shown that he ordered it. Can't-prove doesn't equal didn't-do, and it's entirely possible he did order it, but also entirely possible, perhaps even more likely, that his boys just got carried away with their... enthusiasm. One of those we'll-probably-never-know-for-sure things, like who really shot JFK.
Danoff
Premium
- 33,915
- Mile High City
I'm just going to spit-ball this from memory from the last time I read about it. Nixon created some kind of group (I think this was "The Plumbers") that he gave vague instructions to, and the break-in happened out of that group. It was a mob-boss style situation where he didn't really seem to want to know the details, and they broke a lot of rules. This is why he participated in the cover-up. He tried to keep enough distance from the situation to have plausible deniability, but he still felt connected to it enough to try to help them out when they got caught.
Plumbers - Political Dictionary
The "plumbers" were a covert White House Special Investigations Unit established during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
politicaldictionary.com
Edit:
Basically lots of illegal wiretapping and searches. It started as an outside-the-law campaign to stop classified information leaks, and end up being an outside-the-law espionage campaign against political rivals.
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- 19,619
- Alabamamania
When Nixon fired the Special Prosecutor (Archibald Cox) that was investigating him, right after he'd issued a subpoena to the President, that kind of sealed the deal. He'd all but completed the bridge between the two, but that final golden spike was never entirely driven through. In another 25 years, there might be more of it released to the public record. By then, it will be a footnote, as everyone directly involved will probably be dead.
Wow, a Senate with a backbone and a populace that had a memory, imagine that.
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- 29,648
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
With the often creepy emphasis that many organized religions place on sexual purity, and the young seemingly representing the ideal by virtue of physical and social development (specifically the lack thereof), are adherents to such faiths given to pedophilia to a greater frequency/degree than those of faiths which don't emphasize sexual purity and those adhering to no religious doctrine at all?
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- 7,592
- Exorcet
- OE Exorcet
I don't have hard data to answer the question, but I think religious ideals like the one you described can strongly contribute to hypocrisy because they tend to ignore how the world works. You can end up with people trying to meet impossible standards or applying backwards logic to solving a problem, and that can be a setup for failure.
This is purely anecdotal, but it's the religious people around me that are the quickest to condemn others, all while preaching tolerance and morality. They have been convinced into believing something not real and as a result have a model of the world that is inaccurate and problematic. Their priorities are skewed and more than once I've seen worrying conclusions reached in the face of stress or challenges. "Leaving things to God" is not how you make a decision and you don't look back at a very obviously bad relationship and wish it hadn't ended because believing harder in Jesus would make a difference somehow.
- 29,648
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
I really appreciate this and I understand the lack of data. A horse that I've beaten thoroughly despite its having been dead for a long time is that pedophilia is thought alone, and I acknowledge that thought doesn't readily lend itself to data collection even when particular thought isn't frequently vilified as pedophilia is.
I should also say (in part as a response to the post @UKMikey made) that my aim isn't to vilify pedophilia or religious belief by attempting to understand any supposed relationship between the two. I'm not aware that I've ever vilified either (I'm frequently critical of religious belief, but criticism isn't vilification, and I neither condone nor condemn pedophilia) and I'd be quick to at minimum poke holes in anything I've said about them which may reasonably be construed as vilifying them and I'd be open to rejecting wholesale any such any remarks which do so to the extreme. I absolutely will vilify violation of natural rights associated with either, however.
I don't understand pedophilia, but I get the impression that it's frequently the result of childhood trauma from sexual abuse (which may or may not have been linked to pedophilia, as rape and molestation are about controlling and harming the victim more than sexual attraction to the victim), and so one may seek out faith to deal with that trauma, which creates another relationship.
Still though, the emphasis on sexual purity in religion is so bizarre to me and I imagine it also contributes to the deeply misogynistic incel rhetoric about "body counts" (the number of sexual partners a particular female has had). To be fair, I suspect that also comes from insecurity about one's sexual inadequacy, as a female who has had more partners may be believed to have had partners who perform better or who are better endowed.
UKMikey
Premium
- 17,988
- Grea'er Laandan
- UKMikeyA
- UKMikeyA
Dumb science question here. This site says there are no known compounds of helium because it can't chemically bond with other elements:
https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Helium#:~:text=Elemental helium does not chemically,helium chemically react with anything.
But this one says disodium helide is a thing.
www.nature.com
Which is incorrect or are they both somehow correct?
https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Helium#:~:text=Elemental helium does not chemically,helium chemically react with anything.
But this one says disodium helide is a thing.
A stable compound of helium and sodium at high pressure - Nature Chemistry
Helium is generally recognized as being chemically inert. A thermodynamically stable compound of helium and sodium, Na2He, has been predicted computationally and then synthesized at high pressure. It exists as an electride, where strongly localized electrons serve as anions located at the centre...
www.nature.com
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- 2,879
- United Kingdom
There's more about it here:
insidescience.org
Under Pressure, Helium Stops Being a Bystander
(Inside Science) -- Helium is the most chemically inert element in the universe, but last year, scientists proved it could successfully form a stable compound with another element. Now researchers suggest they know why -- helium can act much like a peacekeeper, helping otherwise unruly atoms...
- 29,618
- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
But such environments (the pressure and the helium in the same place) don't exist naturally as far as we know so that's why it has only been discovered through artificial experimentation? Unless I've misunderstood it as well.
There are a few other inert elements, mostly the noble gases. Do they also react under extreme pressure not typically found or known in nature?
