Clearing up some common misconceptions.

[Dasick]

atheists = satanists. this is a clear misconception that many religious people tend to use. we cant be satanist, we dont believe satan exist either.

Atheistic Satanism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanism#Atheistic.2FDeistic_Satanism] uses Satan as an allegory for ego, meaning you "worship" yourself and what makes you feel good.

So, many atheists actually do fall under that definition of Satanism.

Also, metal != satanism. A surprising number of metal artists are Christian, enough that Christian Metal is a genre with sub-genres in it.

 

[HDi]

The word 'myriad' can be used as a noun or an adjective.

To say "myriad of something" is fine.


http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myriad

 

[OneCatch]

Spoiler

TBF, I think you'd run out of air first

But seriously, from what I remember reading (and this was years ago) a person won't freeze or boil instantly in a vacuum. I think that you dry out pretty quick because any liquid (from eyes, nose, mouth and the skin) boils off, so you essentially get flash frozen. It's not all that fast though, and it's not due to temperature changes, it's because of the low pressure. Remember pV = nKT; counter-intuitive things happen at weird pressures and temperatures. That's how cloud chambers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_chamber#Structure_and_operation] work.
The other thing that was thought to be potentially dangerous about being in space without a suit was actually sunburn. The suns light is an awful lot stronger outside of the atmosphere, which is why astronauts have those funny gold visors, and it could blind you (or possibly overheat you) if you were caught out of the shadows.

Without the sun temperature doesn't really play a part though. The liquids boiling off you would keep you cool enough in the short term to counteract the insulative properties of a vacuum. When you run out of liquids, you get very hot, but there's nothing left for the heat to boil.

Yeah, unfiltered sunlight leaves you instantly and permanently blind.

I'm not saying you'll instantly freeze (people have survived vacuums), just that you will lose heat...how can you be flash frozen without it happening all that fast, though?

Also, why do you get hot, does the body continue to produce heat once you've suffocated after a few minutes?

I've just realized I've got my terms mixed up. When I said flash frozen, I meant freeze drying [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze_dried]. My bad, sorry for the confusion!

I'm running on the assumption that running out of air isn't a problem (maybe the guy has scuba gear or something). If the person dies instantly from asphyxiation then they aren't going to produce additional heat. They act as any other inert object, and will gradually radiate residual heat away when in shadow, and absorb heat from the sun when in the light.

Hypothetically, if they weren't killed from asphyxiation, their body would produce heat faster than it could radiate it. We mammals aren't very good at radiating excess body heat, that's why we rely on sweat and conductive heat loss (basically, wind chill). The evaporation of liquids from the surface would temporarily cool the body by taking heat energy with it, and this cooling might be enough to cause death. Once the liquid ran out (and it would fairly quickly) the body would overheat and die, if it hadn't died already.

 

[darksakul]

Clearing up some common misconceptions.

Assuming that freedom of speech equals freedom to be listen to and understood.
And freedom of speech without backlash.

Why should we care enough to observe your opinion or even take the time to listen?

Excuse me as I eat an entire heard of Wilder beast

 

[OneCatch]

atheists = satanists. this is a clear misconception that many religious people tend to use. we cant be satanist, we dont believe satan exist either.

Atheistic Satanism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanism#Atheistic.2FDeistic_Satanism] uses Satan as an allegory for ego, meaning you "worship" yourself and what makes you feel good.

So, many atheists actually do fall under that definition of Satanism.

Also, metal != satanism. A surprising number of metal artists are Christian, enough that Christian Metal is a genre with sub-genres in it.

LaVey-style Satanism also contains a healthy dosage of mysticism and incorrectly appropriated pagan ritualism as well, so it's a bit simplistic to call it 'Atheistic Satanism'.
Frankly (and I don't mean any offense to any Satanists who are around) LaVey Satanism is egoism with a fair bit of anti-abrahamic trolling and some nihilism thrown in.

It's not specifically atheistic any more than say, utilitarianism is.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

The story about the guy who took acid and then thought he was an orange and started to peel himself is a lie. There are variations that he was worried people would peel him or thought he was a glass of orange juice and would do everything stood straight up.

Acid also doesn't do shit to your spinal fluid and it doesn't give you flashbacks or make him see what you saw during your trip, that ones a medical phenomenon. Yeah, I know a little bit about acid, I was on the list of misconceptions about drugs page yesterday and the LSD one was the funniest.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I've got one for all the religious wackbags. The Theory of Evolution does not discount the possibility of there being some sort of God! It does discount the whole Garden of Eden thing, but let's be honest that's really rather creepy when you think about it. It kinda gives me the insatiable urge to start chewing on a piece of wheat while strumming a banjo if you get me drift.

 

[Xaio30]

Atheism is the default position for any living being.
It has nothing to do with Evolution or the Big Bang.
It is the lack of faith in the existence of one or more deities.
The majority of Buddhists are Atheists by definition.

 

[Krion_Vark]

If there's anything people eat too much of it's carbohydrates. They're one of the worst things you can eat, it's akin to eating pure fat.

Here's Canada's national food health guide, America's guide is pretty much the exact same.

That's right, the food group proven to be worse for your health than any other, is the same food group your government is telling you to eat lots of. It's one of the reasons why obesity has climbed so high in the past 50 or so years, people simply became convinced that bread is very healthy and that you should eat lots of it.

It's not like people actively follow the food guides, but when it's clearly telling you that eating a bunch of bread is actually a little better for you than eating a bunch of vegetables, you're going to get the impression that bread is some godly health food.

Our governments were simply convinced by the wrong group of scientists who came to the wrong conclusions, and nobody has ever bothered to change the food guides to comply with modern knowledge.

YOU SHALL NEVER TAKE MY PEANUT BUTTER FROM ME!!

Sorry got a bit defensive there.

How about this one. Just because you are not white does not mean that you cannot be racist. Yeah had someone come into my school and say that racism is the majority putting down the minority so by that definition only white people can be racist. I almost left but then I would have been suspended. But really I hated that person that they had come in.

 

[Woodsey]

The everyday use of the word "theory" is not the same as the scientific definition. So yes, evolution is a theory, but it is not 'just' a theory, it is also a fact. Whether you like that or not is irrelevant.

By extension, there is no great debate amongst scientists regarding creationism vs. evolution.

Both of these seem to be rather large misconceptions in certain, frighteningly large communities.

Oh, and atheism is not a religion, for the hundredth fucking time.

 

[Something Amyss]

Pretty much every wrestling fan above the age of ten knows it's fake. You don't sound smarter for telling us "it's not real;" you sound like the dude trying to tell the audience that the alien that just burst from the guy's chest is fake.

If you do know an adult who enjoys pro wrestling and doesn't know it's fake, don't worry about telling them. You'll be too busy consoling them about that Nigerian prince that scammed them.

 

[chadachada123]

Very common misconception: Child molesters are pedophiles, and pedophiles are child molesters.

Child molestation, from a literal standpoint, can involve children anywhere from age 0 to age 17.

Pedophiles are sexually attracted to pre-pubescent children. That is, children that haven't started puberty yet. Being attracted to 14-year olds does not make you or anyone else a pedophile.

Pedophilia is not a choice, anymore than choosing to be attracted to blondes or skinny women/men or dark-skinned women/men is. Child molestation is a choice. Of course, few people would call an 18-year old that has sex with a 17-year old a "child-molester," but strictly-speaking that's the definition (whenever the sex is "illegal," so depends on the jurisdiction).

 

[dvd_72]

Close. Much like the "theory of gravity", the temperature of absolute zero on our Celsius scale is widely accepted to be the correct value of absolute zero.

Apologies if I have misunderstood your point, but I wasn't saying that -273°C wasn't the temperature for absolute zero. What I meant was that although there may be a place in the universe where the temperature is absolute zero, we do not actually know of a specific place or thing that is that cold.

(snip)


Electrons are not tiny little balls travelling in nice neat orbits around a nucleus. They are more like clouds of charge, and their orbits can be some really weird shapes.

Those are the only ones that spring to mind right now.

Oh no, you've understood what I said, but I misunderstood what you said. My apologies.

Oh, and if you think electron orbitals are odd, try to wrap your head around a shell structure for the nucleus, or that the strong force is repulsive at very small distances.... you know, listing the corrections to all the convenient simplifications in physics would be a book all to itself

 

[silexh]

Common misconceptions I encounter often:

A microwave door is hard to look trough to make it resist heat.

It's to keep the radiation inside.

You'll die when lighting strikes your sail boat/car. So get out of it during a storm.

You are perfectly safe in your car or (decent) sail boat when lighting strikes. Your car/boat might not like it that much though.

It's bad for children to play in sandpits, because they can become very ill/die when they put sand in their mouths. Same thing with mud.

Research has shown (I know, citation needed) that the immune system is trained very effectively by these kind of activities (also, animals, lots of animals). This also helps preventing nasty immune diseases.

It's bad to blow on your food to cool it down

What? Stuff comes out of your mouth and you put it back in, you won't get any diseases from that. Don't blow on food someone else is going to eat. Also, don't sneeze in someone's face, it's rude.

Expensive cables are better.

At normal distances any piece of wire (or metal) will be almost as good as those expensive Oxygen Free Copper cables. Also gold/copper plated contact points won't matter. This is especially the case with audio (you can use anything as speaker cables). When reaching the limit of the specification it might make a difference (HDMI/Ethernet), but that's mainly because of interference/insulation. If you are unsure, ask an engineer, not a salesman.

A placebo won't work when you know it's a placebo

Amazingly it does.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Oh, fucking hell that is annoying, yeah. Though, I'd personally say that the "vaccines cause autism" health scare was worse than the powerlines/cancer one.

Oh, add vaccines cause autism to the list. Honestly, some celebrity says it so it must be true? And fucking Oprah letting her make it into a big thing, there's blood on both of them.

For reference, when I say space is not cold, I mean in this way: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/SpaceIsCold

 

[ElPatron]

Now, if some of the atmosphere goes into the vacuum with you, wouldn't it absorb heat from its surroundings (yourself included) as it expands? Not necessarily instantly freezing you solid or whatever, but you'd still lose heat.

All I am saying is that even in a vaccum there are energy transfers. But human skin is not a very good emitter.

A pressure cooker has nothing to do with getting fusion to work with a Black Hole.

I used it as an analogy. A unfortunate one because pressure drops the boiling temperature.

But compression of mass helps reaching the temperature required for fusion. It happens naturally in stars. A black hole would make it very effective, but the issues are:

- Working with a black hole from a distance. We would have to send expensive equipment in a very long trip, eventually making the response time of the probes reach years. We basically don't know a lot about them anyway, so research is needed

- Getting the energy to be transferred to Earth. It would be like relying on the light reflecting on the moon to warm our planet.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Now, if some of the atmosphere goes into the vacuum with you, wouldn't it absorb heat from its surroundings (yourself included) as it expands? Not necessarily instantly freezing you solid or whatever, but you'd still lose heat.

All I am saying is that even in a vaccum there are energy transfers. But human skin is not a very good emitter.

A pressure cooker has nothing to do with getting fusion to work with a Black Hole.

I used it as an analogy. A unfortunate one because pressure drops the boiling temperature.

But compression of mass helps reaching the temperature required for fusion. It happens naturally in stars. A black hole would make it very effective, but the issues are:

- Working with a black hole from a distance. We would have to send expensive equipment in a very long trip, eventually making the response time of the probes reach years. We basically don't know a lot about them anyway, so research is needed

- Getting the energy to be transferred to Earth. It would be like relying on the light reflecting on the moon to warm our planet.

Uh, you mean LACK of pressure drops the boiling temperature, right? The boiling point of fluids is directly related to how much pressure is acting on it. That's why water boils instantly in a vacuum.

 

[Deathmageddon]

Because even though the wealthy are taxed at a higher rate they still have substantially more after necessities to save an for luxuries.

Obvious statement is obvious.

Because the wealthy have a higher tendency to save their money rather than entering it back into the economy.

They're still responsible for about a third of US domestic spending.

Because increasing the tax burden on those who are already scraping to get buy will run the risk of devastating out economy.

It wouldn't increase the amount of taxes they're paying, just the amount of their income is taxable. There would be a national sales tax, but the income tax reduction would more than make up for it.

Because there is no reason to believe that the 9-9-9 plan would close those tax loopholes that are currently exploited.

You're kidding, right? 9-9-9 is three numbers, the current tax code is a bloated monstrosity that's more convoluted than Obamacare. Also, 9-9-9 completely scraps all existing federal tax laws.

And finally since I'm a Democrat, because conservative economic policy has been shown to consistently fail for the past 3 decades and there's no reason Cain's plan wouldn't continue that trend.

So I guess the years of economic prosperity between 1980 and 2001 don't count. (Clinton had a mostly Republican Congress)

So, not necessarily 9-9-9, but a flat tax would be awesome.

 

[ElPatron]

Uh, you mean LACK of pressure drops the boiling temperature, right? The boiling point of fluids is directly related to how much pressure is acting on it. That's why water boils instantly in a vacuum.

I said "pressure". I did not say "higher pressure". Just that pressure has an effect on how low the boiling temperature is.

I should proof-read more often.

 

[Ledan]

Disclaimer: US politics

I was talking to a democrat I'd known for a few years about Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, and he was totally against it, just because the idea came from a Republican's mouth. Now, the US tax code SUUUUCKS. It punishes individuals with higher annual income: at 100,000 a year, almost 50% is taxable, compared to 10-20% for someone who makes minimum wage. It has a bunch of loopholes for people who can afford a dozen lawyers and CPAs to file a return for them. not only that, but your state refund is taxable, and there's an alternative minimum tax for those who are eligible for too many deductions. Plus, simply compiling information for and filing your mandatory, yearly tax return costs about 30 cents for every dollar of your refund (mind you, the refund is YOUR money that the government wrongly took). Finally, most Americans don't even know what they're doing when they file a return.

So tell me, how is a 9% flat tax any worse than THAT?!

PS - the tax rates that manufacturers and retailers pay on their goods are sky high, around 50%.

If you explain the situation of the new plan a bit more to me I could give you actual reason why it could be wrong or at least a poor idea according to Economics(the subject in school).

A black hole is supercondensed matter. Like a sun or two compressed into a tiny size, Take the same amount of matter and use it for nuclear fusion..... thats enough energy to..... idk a gtood comparison -.-, but it would be a greater force. Gravity is weak because it requires soooo much mass to be powerful.

Aside from the logistical nightmare or rather impossibility of mining something as dense as black hole or keeping it somewhere that is not how fission or fusion works. Gravity is weak because it is weak as to compare it to video games dual wielding Klobbs still doesn't make them a decent gun.

Fusion works when the gravity in a star compresses Hydrogen to Helium and then the heat assists in this or we heat things really hot and then they can fuse more easily. That is a simplification though. Black Holes just suck everything into its super dense self so I don't see how this would aid in fusion.

I'm saying you should use a black hole in fusion -.- . But the same amount of matter would provide more energy/force if used in any other way. Gravity in a black hole is only strong because there is so fricking much of matter.