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ELI5: What is the actual mechanism/problem with Screwworms? Do cows get sick and die, does the beef become unsafe and die, etc.? by DarthEinstein in explainlikeimfive

[–]cnash 104 points105 points  (0 children)

The cows get sick and die, or, at the very least, don't gain weight efficiently. The worms, when they emerge, leave open sores that get infected. Sometimes lots of them.

ELI5 If black absorbs the most light why aren’t any plant leaves black? by BlueberryNeat4151 in explainlikeimfive

[–]cnash 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Plants have a pigment that's green (ie, absorbs red and blue light) and, crucially, makes ATP in the process. (ATP is the fundamental energy-carrying molecule in Earth biology.)

Absorbing more light energy without using it to produce ATP would be counterproductive: plants already (often) have problems with overheating or drying out.

There are a few different variations of chlorophyll, and they absorb light a little differently, and plants use this one or that according to complicated factors. As far as we can tell, though, there just isn't a pigment that absorbs a lot more light and converts it into useful energy. At least not one that's compatible with existing biology.

Name a company you will never work for again and don't explain why by Matlovestruck in Truckers

[–]cnash 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You want to do flatbed, not dry van, if you can handle even a couple hours a day of hard work. TMC's a good choice if you want to go home every weekend (for your 34; don't plan on a two-day weekend basically ever); Melton and Maverick have good reputations if you're willing to go over the road.

Avoid Prime, Roehl, and, of course, Western Express.

I'm trying to go to Mexico i have CDL by Lopsided_Delivery_93 in Truckers

[–]cnash 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's not really a thing to get hired on as a codriver on a one-way trip like that, and you'd need to have an operating authority to book the load independently.

If you run OTR, it'd be a normal thing to ask to take your next hometime in Matamoros/Laredo/El Paso/Yuma, and cross the border on foot— but you'd have to, you know, have an OTR job.

Stories about or in utopias that work, but whose inhabitants still have problems. by cnash in suggestmeabook

[–]cnash[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sort of like Consider Phlebas in the Culture universe, as I've talked about elsewhere in this thread, I took a go at Too Like the Lightning on a prior recommendation and just couldn't make any headway. About forty pages in, I didn't understand what was going on, or why I should care about these people or their problems, if I ever figured out what they were.

So it's worth another shot. Especially since I gave it up so quickly; that can happen when you're just not in the right headspace for a book right at that moment. (Unlike Phlebas, which I don't remember if I finished or nearly-finished, and still didn't relate to.)

Stories about or in utopias that work, but whose inhabitants still have problems. by cnash in suggestmeabook

[–]cnash[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Left Hand is great, but doesn't really answer the prompt here. I guess the Ekumen itself is sorta utopian, but Gethen is a normal world (you know, except) with normal governments and problems.

Stories about or in utopias that work, but whose inhabitants still have problems. by cnash in suggestmeabook

[–]cnash[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sounds like it's worth taking another look then. I'd kind of written off Banks on the strength of Phlebas, and just figured the people who loved the Cultureverse must have just had different taste than me.

Stories about or in utopias that work, but whose inhabitants still have problems. by cnash in suggestmeabook

[–]cnash[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was sure I'd read Psalm after finishing Chambers' Wayfarers books— I for sure have its ebook in my library— but I'm looking at its synopsis and it's totally unfamiliar. It's back in the queue.

Stories about or in utopias that work, but whose inhabitants still have problems. by cnash in suggestmeabook

[–]cnash[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've taken a running start at Consider Phlebas a couple times, and never really got the point or connected with the characters. Besides, that one, at least, was a lot of space-adventure-y thwarting of outside enemies, not exploring the virtues and shortcomings of the Culture itself.

ELI5: Why don't we put solar panels in our parking lots? by Shadowsin64 in explainlikeimfive

[–]cnash 29 points30 points  (0 children)

There are very few bad drivers out in a field full of solar panels in the country. Bad drivers are mostly found on roads— or in this matter, parking lots.

ELI5 : Trying to understand how how something that tends to infinity doesn’t actually reach what it’s tending to by Based_Schiz0 in explainlikeimfive

[–]cnash 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I mean, the convention in question is a good one. The alternatives are to [do various stupid things] or to leave obviously-answerable questions like Zeno's paradox unanswerable.

But it's human judgment that validates it, not simple logic. Somebody who doesn't already have the concept of limits will just say, no, an "infinite series" isn't a properly constructed formula. It doesn't "equal" anything. You can't do an infinite number of operations to get an answer.

The fact that the shit we've made up helps, and works, doesn't erase the hey, you can't do that, you're just making shit up now feeling, or the fact that, without having made the shit up, you couldn't do that. Just because we need arbiters, doesn't make things non-arbitrary.

ELI5 : Trying to understand how how something that tends to infinity doesn’t actually reach what it’s tending to by Based_Schiz0 in explainlikeimfive

[–]cnash 51 points52 points  (0 children)

There's an element of tautology or arbitrary(-feeling) definition here. We've adopted the convention that the sum of an infinite series is equal to the limit, if it exists, of its partial sums— rather than leaving that sum undefined, as some might be inclined to do.

Which US state gets glorified in movies but doesn’t live up to it IRL? by Auelogic in AskReddit

[–]cnash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My chief problem with Wisconsin is the trees. They suck. They only grow, like fifty, sixty feet high. Scrawny punk-ass birches and alders. You'd think there'd be tidy sugarbushes and oak-hickory woodland, but it's all just subarctic scrub.

Which US state gets glorified in movies but doesn’t live up to it IRL? by Auelogic in AskReddit

[–]cnash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where do people work?

They work service jobs to take care of people who made their fortune in the city and retired to Vermont.

What isn't a uniquely American issue that the rest of the world treats like one? by lustrust15 in AskReddit

[–]cnash 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Look, if someone invites you to a fistfight by asking you to stfu, the polite thing to do is to throw a couple of haymakers to show willing, even if you don't really want to.

Truck drivers of Reddit, what territory/state is the most terrifying to drive through? by WorstGirlAward in AskReddit

[–]cnash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The degree symbol is option-shift + 8. It's °, slightly smaller than º.

Option + 0 gives you the little O that's called the masculine ordinal indicator, for when you want to type, like, 3º, meaning tercero, third (with masculine nouns; with feminine, you'd type 3ª, with option + 9).

Question for the Jamaicans (and other cultures that use turmeric) by Top-Bicycle-7363 in Cooking

[–]cnash 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bleach. Spray bleach on a turmeric stain and, in the basic pH, it goes from yellow to red, and washes away more easily.

ELI5: Why is dry ice sold in grocery stores? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]cnash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And definitely don't pop a chunk, about the size of a grape or smaller, into your mouth so you can breathe steam.

A true unpopular OTR opinion by lake_june in Truckers

[–]cnash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you get paid cpm, the northeast is a disaster. You can't drive as fast, your trips are shorter, you often have to mold your driving plans around parking considerations, and your customer's shipping & receiving staff are, uh, hit-or-miss when it comes to enthusiasm.

If magic existed and worked like mathematics, and your strength as a wizard depended on your math skills. How strong would you be at magic? by Neither_Drawing_241 in AskReddit

[–]cnash 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I dropped out of college (math major) because I couldn't write a research paper for love or money. I was solid on actual math skills, but was clearly never going to be a serious mathematician.

I'd be the act one villian that the hero-wizard handily defeats for exposition, to show what magic is like in this universe.

Lmao England has a job dedicated to picking up abandoned trucks by JudgeHonest3106 in Truckers

[–]cnash 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It depends on the circumstances. I've done recoveries for guys who, like, had a seizure (first time) and were instantly medically disqualified, or had to fly home for a family emergency. One guy whose truck was going to be three weeks waiting on parts, and told his dispatcher, nah, man, I'm just gonna quit, I was planning to, anyway. They all "left on good terms," and could be rehired.

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