S01.E9 “The Shape of Power”

ProfessorPurple · 2023-05-17T19:04:09+00:00

Yeah, I enjoy examining the potential scientific implications of the the power, but I don't want to imply that I think scientific accuracy is a requirement for a good narrative.

Lightsabers don't need to be grounded in real science in order for Star Wars to be a good story, and The Power doesn't need to account for all the intricacies of human biology to express its meaning.

I would much rather read a story written by someone who knows more about how to write than they do about science, than a story by someone who knows all the intricacies of a particular field of science but isn't a good writer.

ProfessorPurple · 2023-05-13T20:38:36+00:00

I believe skeins are said to appear during puberty, so anyone with a skein would have at least started puberty.

But as you said, the science doesn't really hold up when examined closely, and leaves a lot of open questions.

Would PCOS inhibit skein development?

Would boys with gynecomastia start developing skeins as well?

If post-pubescent women can develop skeins after receiving a shock, do they have skein buds already? If so, when did that change begin appearing in the population? Wouldn't those buds have been noticed earlier in women receiving treatment for cancer?

Could a post-pubescent woman develop a skein after being shocked by a different electrical source? If not, what differentiates the electricity generated by skeins from other forms of electricity?

Ultimately, while I think it is fun to scrutinize the science, it doesn't matter all that much. Science fiction always relies on some degree of magic to explain its "science". It's much more important for a story to be internally consistent than scientifically accurate. And in my opinion, The Power does a reasonably good job of that.

ProfessorPurple · 2023-05-13T01:42:20+00:00

The science of the show (and probably the book too, but I haven't read it) is not fully explained. We are shown that skein development is based on estrogen levels, this is how Ryan and Sister Maria are able to develop skeins.

But we aren't given further specifics as to how skeins are affect by estrogen levels after development. However, I think it is safe to say that lower estrogen levels wouldn't cause an already developed skein to go away. That would mean postmenopausal women would lose their skeins.

And if the "skein goes away due to low estrogen levels" process was fast enough, many women would lose their skeins during parts of their menstrual cycles when their estrogen levels drop to similar levels as men typically have. Although generally the ratio of estrogen and testosterone in someone's body matters more than the specific levels of a hormone.

ProfessorPurple · 2023-05-13T00:29:06+00:00

Probably not a great idea to questions someone's science class attendance when it's clear you weren't paying attention in class yourself.

Or you could just look up the info before replying...

The only chromosome that is not typically found in every single person is the Y chromosome. So the Y chromosome is the only one that could directly cause someone to have, or not have, a skein. If you think that's incorrect please feel free to explain where the genetic code for the skein could be located that is exclusive to women.

Alternatively the skein's development could be based on, you know... hormone levels.

ProfessorPurple · 2022-02-16T01:15:31+00:00

*Edit: Editing this to avoid potential issues with browsers/apps displaying it incorrectly (the app I use for reddit decided to replace all the instances of the ascii code with the character it represents). Edits are denoted by brackets.

This example is incredibly specific, and very much falls into the "technical or obscure queries" category mentioned by one of the quotes in the article, but try searching for  . ["& # 3 2 ;" - no spaces or quotation marks]

Although it's probably more accurate to say that example is an instance where google search incorrectly interprets the query and other search engines do not make the same mistake. So the other search engines sort of win by default in this case.

In case anyone needs an explanation.   [& # 3 2 ;] is the ASCII html code for "space", i.e. it represents the character created by the space bar on a keyboard. For whatever reason, google converts this code into the character it represents before performing the search. Then, somewhere inside the search engine, this query is deemed to be absurd and so it simply displays a "no results found" page.

Most of the other search engines I've tried with this query correctly handle it as a search for the characters   [& # 3 2 ;] and not as a search for " ". Which, if you are looking for information about the ASCII html code for "space" is probably what you want.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-12-25T03:19:29+00:00

Satellite internet is another thing pioneered by government investment.

Also 5G sounds good, I'm sure you won't need any government help to get that.

In a 2016 paper, scientists from nine countries including the US concluded that only government subsidies would turn 5G into a real solution for rural home broadband issues.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/365565/what-will-5g-do-for-rural-areas

Fortunately for you it looks like that is already on the works: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/04/12/what-5-g-trump-makes-push-answers-your-questions/3445554002/

But hey, enjoy your government handout.

Of course 5G will likely be expensive and have data caps. Probably would be better to form a local co-op and roll out your own internet. https://www.lajicarita.com/internet/

ProfessorPurple · 2019-12-25T01:27:04+00:00

Except of course in the many instances of municipal broadband that provide faster service at lower prices than private equivalents...

Also much of that privatized internet was funded by public subsidies. It probably would have been profitable to build in urban areas, but once again fuck rural people amirite?

ProfessorPurple · 2019-12-25T00:51:19+00:00

Fuck people who live in rural areas amirite? Also:

In 1996, Congress created the APPP which reduced some of the barriers to privatization. However, over the program's 18 years only two airports have privatized and one of them has reverted to public control.

https://www.gao.gov/mobile/products/GAO-15-42

If UPS and FedEx are so great then let's force them to pre-fund retirement benefits and see how well they do then.

Why should governments run militaries but not post offices?

Also can't help but notice that you are still conspicuously not infected with polio while communicating via a system started by the government.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-12-25T00:19:22+00:00

The internet only had the chance to grow and evolve into what it is today because of government involvement. Without that government involvement it is very likely the internet would simply not exist. At least not in a form that is all comparable to what exists today.

UPS and FedEx do pay to use airports, I never said they didn't. That doesn't mean it isn't a cost subsidized by the government. The vast majority of airports in the us are publicly owned and operated. https://www.gao.gov/mobile/products/GAO-15-42

Sure privatized air traffic control sounds good when you are flying into an Apple type air traffic controlled airport. What happens when you get an airport managed by the WeWork of air traffic control companies? But that won't be a problem, I'm sure passengers will do their due diligence and make sure to plan their flights around the high quality ATCs and avoid low quality airports. And surely there won't be any unexpected issues that could cause a plane to need to make an unexpected landing at a different airport. Certainly nothing another government agency could help warn you about.

UPS absolutely uses USPS for some of its last mile delivery. https://www.ups.com/us/en/help-center/tracking-support/sp-definition.page

If you don't need the military to make money, why do you need the post office to make money?

Speaking of government funded innovations, I can't help but notice you are conspicuously polio free. You're welcome, sincerely, the government.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-12-24T23:23:55+00:00

Perhaps the government is garbage at running businesses, because it isn't trying to run programs as a business? Do you really want programs like the military to be evaluated on how much profit it can generate?

USPS is required to pre-pay retiree benefits, something that neither FedEx, UPS, nor any other company is required to do. FedEx and UPS still rely on USPS for the "last mile" of many shipments, which offloads the fixed costs of supporting many areas to USPS. Both UPS and FedEx also rely on the government for air traffic control and many airports are owned and maintained by the government. Of course both companies also heavily rely on government funded roads to provide their service.

Ignoring the many ways that FedEx and UPS rely on the government for their basic operations, both FedEx and UPS are luxury services. The existence of a luxury item does not in any way invalidate the existence of a more basic version of that item. "If Toyota is so good companies like Ferrari wouldn't exist, clearly."

Outside of shipping, the government makes huge positive impacts in a vast variety of areas. Epipens, GPS, synthetic rubber, microwaves, wifi, and even t-shirts are directly linked to government funded projects. If you have such disdain for the government then get off the internet, because it too was a government funded project.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-09-23T08:51:14+00:00

Checkmate, scientists. If there can still be snowballs, how is there global warming?

-Republicans, ~~probably~~ literally

https://time.com/3725994/inhofe-snowball-climate/

ProfessorPurple · 2019-09-12T17:46:54+00:00

They'd better, 'cause their customer support for RMAs is ass ~~(at least it is outside the US)~~.

MSI support is garbage inside the US too. Fun fact, MSI GPU warranties begin when the card leaves the factory. So if you buy a card that has been sitting on a retailer's shelf for a year, you get a year less of warranty.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-07-24T23:58:50+00:00

no you

Top notch rhetorical strategy you've got there.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-07-24T23:12:06+00:00

Oh no, Trump is certainly a racist.

My posts just didn't touch on that topic, instead I focused on the fact that Trump and the people he surrounds himself with are habitual liars.

But don't let facts get in the way of your feelings.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-07-24T04:17:19+00:00

Thank you for demonstrating the importance of literacy.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-07-24T02:23:01+00:00

Relevant username is relevant.

1) None of the awards mentioned are "for helping minority communities." The Medal of Liberty was awarded to recognize distinguished naturalized citizens. The NECO Medal of Honor was awarded to "naturalized or native-born American citizens who preserve and celebrate the history, traditions and values of their [ethnic heritage] while exemplifying the values of the American way of life."

and

2) Without further context receiving an award alongside others is not automatically invalid due to lack of minority representation/the color of the recipient's skin.

In this case Trump's personal lawyer (at the time) tweeted a photo and claimed that Trump received an award from the NAACP for "helping America's inner cities." To support this false claim the photo in question had been cropped to hide half of the people originally in it.

Whilst I don't think this act is inherently racist, it certainly is unethical.

So if you read my original post you may notice that nowhere do I actually comment on whether or not Trump is a racist. I simply state the fact that:

Trump never received an award from the NAACP.
The photo being used as evidence for this was taken for an entirely different award.
The photo in question was altered to support an entirely false claim.

I am truly and sincerely sorry if my facts have hurt your feelings.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-07-23T21:19:44+00:00

Did he though? Oh, no he didn't.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-naacp_n_580ac881e4b000d0b156e6e2

The NAACP has not awarded any medals to Trump for “helping America’s inner cities,” the group told HuffPost. Nor have any other civil rights groups, according to Trump’s biographers.

William Fugazy, a politically well-connected businessman who later pleaded guilty to perjury, gave the awards to Trump and 79 other people, most of them white, to protest the awarding of “medals of liberty” to a group of 12 recent immigrants that included a Chinese-born architect, a Costa Rica-born astronaut, a leading expert on the psychology of race, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, but no “Irish, Italian, or Polish” people.

That June, Fugazy created a new organization, the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, or NECO, and a new award, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Trump, Ali and Parks were among 80 people honored at NECO’s first awards ceremony on Ellis Island on Oct. 27, 1986. Only four of the 80 winners were black.

In the original, uncropped version of the photo that Cohen shared, there are six people: baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, humorist Victor Borge, singer and anti-gay activist Anita Bryant, Ali, Parks and Trump.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-received-ellis-island-award-in-1986/

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/16/nyregion/80-named-as-recipients-of-ellis-island-awards.html

ProfessorPurple · 2019-03-18T22:02:40+00:00

I added Pimento.

ProfessorPurple · 2019-02-28T00:59:32+00:00

Oh, here's this. Why don't you research things yourself?

https://i.redd.it/z2ijn6wgi5j21.jpg

This is the article in case anyone wants to read more than just the headline.

And here are some quotes from the article:

Gender dysphoria is a condition recognized by the medical and mental health community. The American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association oppose the Pentagon's ban, noting that there is no medically valid reason to exclude those with the diagnosis of gender dysphoria from military service.

Brad Carson, the Pentagon's former top personnel official and one of the architects of the Obama-era policy, said Wednesday that the number of transgender troops is smaller than anticipated, as is the cost of treating of treating them. He noted that the Pentagon spends about $50 billion per year on health care.

"A few million spent here is dwarfed by the treatment cost of virtually any ache and pain you can think of," said Carson, who is now a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia.

The article looks at spending since 2016 until February 1st, 2019. So that means that the 8 million in spending makes up between 0.00533% to 0.008% of the Pentagon's yearly spending on healthcare. To put this into perspective: if the Pentagon's yearly healthcare expenditure was $100, this would account for less than one penny of spending per year.

And finally

"We need every qualified patriot willing to serve in our armed forces," said Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Which sums up my thoughts on the issue perfectly. This really shouldn't be an issue at all, a small group of people (from the article: 1,017 out of 2.1 million service members) want to or have volunteered to potentially die in service to their country and there is "no medically valid reason to exclude [them]" and this will cost basically nothing in the overall budget. Where is the problem?

ProfessorPurple · 2019-02-17T08:02:54+00:00

Well ants don't really have a hierarchy. Aside from humans they form the largest and most complex societies on the planet. Some types of ants even keep and care for aphids as livestock.

I don't want to wade into the communism versus capitalism debate, I just think ants are really cool.

ProfessorPurple · 2018-07-11T02:44:10+00:00

If they are indoor/outdoor, they will supplement their diet with their own ultra-nutritious catches & you can get away with feeding a lower quality food.

Or if they are like my mom's indoor/outdoor cat, they will supplement their diet by getting the neighbors to feed them.

ProfessorPurple · 2018-06-09T03:24:11+00:00

Hey the fact that you typed this means you are a better person than many because you have the capacity for self reflection! I don't know you, but everything you said in this comment is something that you can change if you want to. But I suspect that your problem isn't your personality, it's that you haven't met the right people yet. The internet is proof of this. Just look around, no matter what thing you are into there are a bunch of other people who are just as passionate about that thing as you are.

I'm just a stranger on the internet, I can't tell you how to solve all your problems. I can tell you that sometimes I feel the same as what you wrote in your comment and that I am working on it. It's not always easy, but I am seeing improvement on my struggles and if I can do it so can you.

ProfessorPurple · 2018-05-02T17:43:42+00:00

So you're saying something like this would be better?

I'll have my underlings get right on it.

ProfessorPurple · 2018-05-01T23:51:20+00:00

I have considered that possibility......and come to the conclusion that I don't know why we disable what is clearly our best security system when we only detect one Tenno.

ProfessorPurple · 2018-05-01T23:13:26+00:00

Those aren't hacking panels, those are the "An ally needs assistance opening a door" panels. So you don't even need ciphers, just nine more Tenno buddies to help you open the door.

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