Things you are too embarrassed to admit you don't understand

[ClassicStripe]

I don't think I really understand what a fascist is.

@Helendegenerate same here. This thread is my bedtime reading at the moment . It helps me to learn new things in a really well explained way!

Colour blindness also majoritively effects men, studies have shown women can almost always differentiate a wider spectrum of colours than men can.

Like my husband struggles to tell green from blue. He can clearly tell Forrest green from navy blue but once you enter the cross over spectrum like teal & turquoise he can't tell to which side one falls or the difference between two different ones.

In your eye you have two kinds of receptors, rods and cones. Rods are smaller, so you can fit more in, and they work well in low light. They don't see colour, just greys and whites. Cones see colour, are bigger and work poorly in low light.
So, if you are a hunter you want more rods. If you're gathering fruit you need cones.
Being colourblind isn't necessarily a disability, it can help you be a better hunter.

The term TERF. Not trying to be controversial but I don't know what it is really

Terf - Trans exclusionary radical feminist

Often used to describe all feminists

It's Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. It used to be a fairly neutral term for radical feminists like Germaine Greer, who did not agree that transwomen are women (and transmen are men). So their feminism did not include the aims/goals of transactivists. It's now used as a term of abuse for any woman, or sometimes man, who doesn't comply with the demands of trans activists, as an attempt to shame and bully them into complying. See the website terfisaslur.com for examples. It has lost the connection to radical feminism, or even feminism altogether, and is no longer a neutral descriptor.

I always think of Affect as external and effect as internal.
So affect is something done to you, effect is how you feel about it.

Also - basically if you look at the sperm it’s just a white liquid. Nothing else. So HOW does it mixed with the egg makes a human? Bones? Heart that never stops beating until you are 100. Whole brain? Eyes that can see? Like how? How are you able to actually see and smell and remember and hold memories and everything just from that white liquid and some egg thing?

I just don’t get it and can’t grasp it.

AC doesn't go anywhere per se, the jiggling of the electrons is what transfers the energy from the generator to the appliance.

Please tell me that at some point you have seen images of sperm under a microscope? In that liquid are millions and millions of individual sperm cells. They are each a blob with a long wiggling tail, that can propel it forwards. They all move through the vagina, into the uterus and then eventually some reach the fallopian tubes where the egg is gradually being pushed towards the uterus. The egg is massive compared to the sperm cells, about 20 times the size. Some of sperm will make it to the outside of the egg, and then they start to burrow into it. The first one into the middle of the egg will fuse with it and so become the first cell of the new embryo. Sperm and egg each contain 23 sets of chromosomes, which join together to make 46 chromosomes in pairs. That's a full set of chromosomes for a human, and so that fused single cell now contains all the DNA instructions needed to develop into a human baby. The single fused cell splits into two, then each of those two cells splits again and so on and so on. Very quickly you have thousands of cells. Once the blob of cells is big enough, each cell starts to specialise and become specific types of cells rather than the initial generic "stem" cells. The process of dividing and specialising continues and then you know what happens after 9 months.

It's a very complex detailed process, and things can and do go wrong, which can lead to miscarriage, blighted ovums, molar pregnancies, developmental disorders, etc etc.

I don't understand an infinite universe either. Everything in life has a beginning and an end. What does it mean in an infinite universe when there is no beginning or end?

Every time I think about it, my brain goes short circuit. It explodes because I can't understand it.....and I've watched dozens of docos on the subject.

Cancel culture.

I've read so many explanations but I don't understand how 'cancelling' someone is meant to be an actual thing.

Ah, I had to do a PHSE on that!

Cancel culture - not letting someone speak or put forward their views. "Jeremy Clarkson's talk was cancelled."

Calling out culture - remonstrating with someone; explaining that their views are unacceptable and why. "I don't agree with Jeremy Clarkson's view on X because..."

Of course I’ve seen it but they are not visible to the eye so the dumbass me sees only the white mess which needs to be cleaned up, you know, like a spilled drink.

And the funny thing is ( actually I don’t even know if it funny or just plain stupid), your explanation is perfect right, I mean I get it and kinda understand it but for me it’s just hard to grasp how these cells and DNA and what else makes bones, brain, like how the livers and kidneys function perfectly. I hope you understand what I mean haha!

I guess it’s similar to space a bit - you know planets and the technical side of it but if you tell me the earth is spinning right now a 1000 miles per hour and never ever stops,it’s just hard to grasp it.

Things like brains, livers, kidneys don't function perfectly, they function just about well enough, and plenty of individuals don't have working everything to begin with. It's all a bit messy, not magical and perfect, for me.

Plus, living systems have been around for over 3 billion years, plenty of time for evolution to have produced many different outcomes.

The universe is not infinite. It is expanding.

Think of it in terms of bring and buy which are easier to separate.

Just remember that brought is from bring and you can't go wrong. Bought is from buy.

So you set out to buy a gift and you bought the gift from the shop. You needed to bring the gift to your friend and so you brought it with you to the party.

Actually, physicists / cosmologists don't know the answer to this one. The observable universe (expanding from the Big Bang) is finite, but that doesn't mean the entire universe is finite.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Is_the_Universe_finite_or_infinite_An_interview_with_Joseph_Silk

It's a hard one to get your head round. I'm used to abstract infinite objects in maths, but thinking of a physical object which is infinite is baffling.

I don’t understand how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.

Metamorphosis, innit.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/

We lost the Ashes because of the rain, because we couldn't continue playing one of the 5 games in the series. We lost the first 2 games, should have won the 3rd (rain stopped play) and then won the last 2. If it's a draw like it was, the team who currently has the ashes (Australia) keep them.

Board games apart from ones involving words. Can't retain rules of play or think of strategies....

I refer to my earlier question but really don't expect an explanation. How do taste buds work and why are we not all the same with regard to liking or disliking certain foods etc.

😮

Why are some theories treat as 'fact'?

Like the DNA double Helix structure... its just a theory.

Someone just made up what they think it looks like from an educated guess of bits we do know. Yet we are taught it (even at university level on a medical course... although we are told its unproven but still expected to use it as if its fact) and everyone treats it like an absolute fact.

Its used everywhere and just accepted as much as other 'proven' sciences are but why?

Aren't there photos of the DNA double helix? I'm sure I saw a crystallography one by Dorothy Hodgson in a museum the other day?