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[King Zultan]

I think that Novel Scoops guy started it.

[Uthimienure]

Which is larger, the circumference of the Earth's moon or the radius of the Earth?

[voliol]

The circumference. If the Earth’s radius was larger (and assuming they were both perfect spheres) then radius of the moon would be less than a sixth (~=1/(2pi)) of the Earth’s. But it’s really somewhere between a third and a fourth of the Earth’s radius.

[Scoops Novel]

What's better then understanding?

[MrRoboto75]

What's better then understanding?

Huh?

[hector13]

I don’t think there’s anything better than the clarity gained from understanding, though this does come from my own perspective in which understanding generally involves empathy, if it’s something to do with another person.

That “aha!” moment when you figure out a something is always pleasant, though it could just be the end of frustration in relation to a hitherto unsolved problem.

This might also be why I don’t tend to seek out such problems: the uncertainty involved in how long it will take is inevitably not worth either solving the problem before the frustration builds up to the point of pleasant release, or the build-up lasts too long so the release is not worth the amount of time spent in that unpleasant heightened state.

[EuchreJack]

What's better then understanding?

Alcohol

[Rolan7]

What's better then understanding?

Overstating?

[Egan_BW]

Overseeing, clearly.

[King Zultan]

What's better then understanding?

Falling into a well?

[Magmacube_tr]

What people mean when they say ''white people''? Do they mean as skin color? Being of European descent? Or is it a catch-all label for ''Westerners''?

I guess I am too ''foreign alien'' to understand.

[delphonso]

I think people mean different stuff depending on where they grew up/how racist their family was.

Where I grew up, white was a catch-all for white skinned, it included basically anyone with European roots (Jewish, Spanish, Greek, Romanian, etc) and light-skinned populations of Arabs and First Nations folks. When I moved to a more conservative, less diverse area, that definition changed to exclude everyone I listed there (yes, even Spaniards). Part of this could also just be me paying more attention to it, though.

[Kagus]

To my understanding, it's primarily light-skinned European descent westerners, primarily directed at the UK, US, and Canada.

The term can also be used more specifically to refer to the particular brand of milquetoast middle class suburbanite that gets represented in things like the MiddleClassFancy memes or that's regularly parodied on Boondocks (although they also give a fair amount of attention to incensed, ignorant rednecks and hillbillies, who can also occasionally be the groups referred to by the term "White people").


Generally, it's a term used slightly less to refer to a particular ethnic group, and more to poke at the social classes of people who are predominantly made up of "White people" thanks to historic trends; those social classes being the myopic and somewhat narcissistic type that has very little understanding of troubles or worldviews outside of their very limited bubble, regardless of whether or not they're suburbanites, hipsters, hippies, yuppies, rednecks, hillbillies, or the Queen.


But all that said, I myself am a "White people", so I like to make affirmative and confident statements on things that I don't really have an expansive understanding of. Your mileage may vary.

[Frumple]

Theoretically it's a skin color. Practically it's whatever folks want it to mean at the moment; it's been a moving target since it was a meaningful term of use. Generally these days it's going to mean pale folks of european descent, without latin/jewish/roma/asian/etc. phenotype expression. Non-mexico north American and most of Europe demographic majorities, basically.

"Western" isn't a 100% overlap, but it's closest. European descent is largely necessary but not sufficient -- plenty of folks with European ancestry (often enough due to rape somewhere in the past, bleh) aren't considered white. Skin color only counts so much, lot of people largely pale skinned aren't considered white for one reason or another (stateside, see the "Hispanic white" demographic, who are generally white passing right until a xenophobe decides they aren't).

More or less, it's whatever the current majority of people that consider themselves white call white. If that sounds like an inconsistent or confusing heuristic, well. Yes. Yes, it is. Race is pretty close to entirely a social construct (genetics do not give a damn about what we call white or black or whatever people, they a shitton messier), without much care about things like consistency or sense, ha, so you can't really expect consistency or sense.

[Magmacube_tr]

Okay, after 3 consecutive social science essays, a much simpler question is in order.

Is ketchup a smoothie?