[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: Any Relationship Between Any Set of Consenting Adults Ought to Be Legal

**Breakdown:**

* **Any relationship:** I mean any form of relationship, whether that be polygamy, incestuous thrupples, polycules, plural marriages, interfaith swinging, or any other configuration you can think of.

* **Any Set of Adults:** I mean that everyone that is party to the relationship is an adult^[1] at the time they become party to the relationship.

* **Consenting Adults:** I mean that every person that is party to the relationship gives their informed consent and maintains their informed consent for the duration that they are party to the relationship.

* **Ought to Be Legal:** I mean that for any relationship that meets the aforementioned conditions, there should be no law prohibiting dating, marrying, cohabitating, fucking, and so forth. Further, that any relationship that meets the aforementioned conditions should be treated with legal equality to any other relationship to the extent that is possible.^[2]

[1] *Adult or of the relevant legal age for any pertinent activities.*

[2] *Understandably, there will be relationship structures that are too complex to accommodate in a standardized way and should be navigated case by case to achieve the spirit of the idea of legal equality.*

**Why do I want my view changed?:**

As I am tired and can think of no solid arguments against this, I feel that I must be missing something.

Please change my view. :)

Edit: Due to the opacity and inherent power imbalance, I feel that it is reasonable to say a relationship between parent/guardian and child will be highly unlikely to ever meet the demand for informed consent.

[Assistant]
Nations define marriage for the purpose of establishing parental responsibility and inheritance rules. US law arises from English common law. Dual marriage is an ancient common-law right that has existed since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Plural marriage has never had that status in English common law, so it can be regulated by the states (which have responsibility for handling marriage as a legal relationship).

The factual answer is that many people consider it immoral, so its outlawed for that reason. And polygamy is often used as a way of abusing young women, semi-forcibly marrying large numbers of them off to men.

From a purely pragmatic standpoint, it complicates inheritance rules considerably, and nobody wants to try to untangle that knot. It would be a nightmare for everyone. And it brings no benefits, since polygamists are an almost insignificant percentage of the population.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: Hoda Muthana the teen who joined ISIS should not be allowed back into the United States under any circumstances.

Ill share my main reasons and viewpoints behind the above in bullet point form.

1) She piratically committed treason. She aided and abetted a combative force actively trying to harm and kill Americans. We had every right to deactivate her passport and by attempting to harm the United States she is renouncing her citizenship or any rights she has as an American.

2) She abetted a terrorist organization that killed Americans in the past. By suffering in Syria she is paying the price. She did renounce ISIS and now has to remain in hiding. That is the perfect punishment for her. She played with fire and is now getting burnt.

3) If she were to return to the United States she should be put on trial for the Murder, Espionage and Treason. If she is found guilty of any of these things she should face the death penalty and nothing less. In addition her estate should be seized by the United States.

[Assistant]
A few arguments for allowing former ISIS members and sympathizers to return to their home countries:

* By leaving these people in refugee camps, wealthy nations (Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, etc.) are offloading their own legal burdens onto regions that really can't handle them. Every former ISIS member in those camps is eating food and using shelter that could go to a real refugee. How is that fair?

* These former ISIS members could be dangerous. Are their deconversions sincere? Or are they going to victimize innocent people? Western justice and medical systems are in a good position to figure this out; a refugee camp isn't.

* These individuals provide valuable insight into the psychology of radicalization. As we collectively worry about the mental state of young people pulled into fringe groups, wouldn't it be wise to bring home the most extreme examples of this mindset in order to study them?


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why do USB chargers have all contacts in their ports? Why not just power and ground and omit data?

[Assistant] The specs for USB allow devices to pull 100mA prior to device negotiation. Great for small simple things like e-cigs. When you start getting into things like flash drives and smartphones, you're going to need more than that. In that case, your device will negotiate with the USB controller to determine the max current that the device will accept. That negotiation takes place over the data wire, like any other devices.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[PS] Are the potion seller's potions really that strong, or is he just a rascal?

The potion seller refuses to sell me his strongest potions.

He says I am too weak for his potions, but I am going into battle and require only his strongest potions to be successful.

Potion seller seems to have no respect for knights.

If his potions are so strong, who is he selling to? I've half a mind to report this ruffian to the alchemist's guild...

What must I say to get him to sell me his potions???

I am going into battle...

[Assistant]
I was of two opinions on this

1) The potion seller is indeed a rascal.  How does he manage a shoppe if there are so few customers who can purchase his potions?

2) His potions are indeed that strong, and he is just an eccentric wealthy purist.

I lean towards 1.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] How did 24 hours containing 60 minutes each end up that way? Why can't we have a standardized 100 units of time per day, each with 100 subunits, and 100 subunits for the subunits?

[Assistant]
Many ancients (Greeks, Romans, Chinese) chose twelve hours from sunrise to sunset.  Nobody knows why but twelve is a more convenient number to divide than ten (12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6).  Later going to 24 equal hours per day is a fairly obvious extension.

The ancient Sumerians started a tradition of counting by 60, much as we now count by 10.  Probably this is because, again, 60 divides evenly by many numbers.  This tradition led to dividing hours in 60 minutes and minutes into 60 seconds.

The French tried to introduce decimal time with 10 hours, 100 minutes and 100 seconds in 1794 but it didn't catch on.  They abandoned it even quicker than their new calendar.  There hasn't been a serious attempt since.

People are just too used to the existing system and the advantages of decimal time don't outweigh the cost of changing.  The metric system uses the second as its unit of time and changing from the 86400 seconds per day we have now to a decimal 100000 seconds per day would be problematic.

Apart from costs, the change would be dangerous.  We don't change seconds for much the same reason that the foot is still the standard unit of altitude for aircraft.  Any change to use metres would inevitably cause crashes as people mixed up the units.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] What did Darth Sidious teach Darth Vader about the dark side?

Hey all, we know who the Emperor was as a person/as a Sith, but do any of you know what he taught Darth Vader about the dark side? From what I saw, it looked like Vader mostly taught himself while he was just the lapdog and enforcer for the Emperor. Do we know if Darth Vader, for example, had the ability to transfer his essence like the Emperor did in the Dark Empire?

[Assistant]
Not sure about specifics but from the recent Canon book ***Tarkin***,we get this section
>The two of them were in Sidiouss lair, a small rock-walled enclosure beneath the deepest of the Palaces several sublevels that had once been an ancient Sith shrine. That the Jedi had raised their Temple over the shrine had for a thousand years been one of the most closely guarded secrets of those Sith Lords who had perpetuated and implemented the revenge strategy of the Jedi Orders founders. Even the most
>powerful of Dark Side Adepts believed that shrines of the sort existed only on Sith worlds remote from Coruscant, and even the most powerful of the Jedi believed that the power inherent in the shrine had been neutralized and successfully capped. In truth, that power had seeped upward and outward since its entombment, infiltrating the hallways and rooms above, and weakening the Jedi Order much as the Sith Masters themselves had secretly infiltrated the corridors of political power and toppled the Republic.

>Save for Sidious, no sentient being in close to five thousand years had set foot in the shrine. The rooms excavation and restoration had been carried out by machines under the supervision of 11-4D. Even Vader was unaware of the shrines existence. But it was here that they would one day work together the way Sidious and Plagueis had to coax from the dark side its final secrets. In the intervening years he had actually come to appreciate Plagueis for the planner and prophet he had been. Such perilous machinations required two Sith, one to serve as bait for the dark side, the other to be the vessel. Success would grant them the power to harness the full powers of the dark side, and allow them to rule for ten thousand years.

So at bare minimum, this confirms that Palpatine was still planning to research/explore the dark side with Vader.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Is it possible to separate alcohol from an alcoholic beverage by freezing the mixture and be left with the unfrozen, nearly pure alcohol.

Ok, I have this bottle of Admiral Nelson rum that I keep in the freezer and when it freezes, only some of it actually turns solid leaving part of the stuff liquid. I am under the assumption that alcohol cannot freeze but I could be wrong about that. So is the stuff that is unfrozen more pure alcohol or is the alcohol to well bound to whatever it is mixed with to separate?

[Assistant] Yes, traditionally some apple brandies were made this way (by letting hard cider freeze overnight in winter and then pouring off the alcohol). However, in America this actually counts as distilling, and is illegal.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: If we've discovered recently that modern humans are actually a mix of Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis and Homo Sapiens Sapiens DNA, why haven't we created a new classification for ourselves?

We are genetically different from pure Homo Sapiens Sapiens that lived tens of thousands of years ago that had no Neanderthal DNA. So shouldn't we create a new classification?

[Assistant]
Two subspecies that don't fully diverge into new species generally won't get a separate name if they then create a hybrid.

Look to man's best friend: all dogs are *Canis Lupus Familiaris*, and a hybrid with the original *Canis Lupus* (a wolf) doesn't get a new third designation, it's either mostly wolf or mostly dog and is treated as such.

All modern humans are mostly *Sapiens Sapiens* by a massive margin, so they retain that name even though some have a low level of Neanderthal hybridization.

More generally, subspecies designation is sloppy work since the line between subspecies is typically very blurry.  Unlike bespoke species that typically can't produce fertile hybrids, subspecies usually can and sometimes this is a significant percentage of the population.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[LotR] Who exactly IS the Mouth of Sauron?

For those who don't know, he is the handsome man with slits in his mouth when Aragorn & Co. approach the Black Gate in the extended version.

[Assistant]
He is a Black Numenorean, of the same race as Aragorn, only he is in the service of Sauron.  Back when Numenor was at it's peak of power they invaded Middle Earth to defeat Sauron.  The armies of Numenor were so vast and powerful that Sauron's armies literally fled, leaving Sauron at the mercy of the men of Numenor.  They took him back to their home as a captive where he quickly spread his influence, lies and his wickeness amongst the men of the island.  Two camps arose, the Elf-Friends, from whom Aragorn is descended, ad the King's men, who were won over by the lies of Sauron.

Sauron influenced the Numenoreans to invade Valinor and wrestle immortality from the Elves and Ainur.  A foolish plan as the land did not grant immortality, it was just inhabited by the immortal.  Those few Numenoreans who refused to sail for Aman/Valinor, instead sailed for Middle Earth.  The armies of Numenor landed on the shores of Aman, Eru Illuvatar/God himself cast the armies into a cave for eternity and sank their island home. (The Ainur could do nothing as they had no authority over the race of Men, only God can punish them.)

The Elf-friends landed in Middle Earth, founded Arnor and Gondor, but also found that some Numenoreans who were still loyal to Sauron inhabited the land in various places.  These Black Numenoreans served Sauron for centuries upon centuries.  Their numbers are not known.  The Mouth of Sauron's true name is not known, even he has probably forgotten it due to the madness of Sauron's influence.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Bionicle] What *exactly* are the Barraki?

Pre-Creeps from the deep mutation, what where they? There are a lot of species in the Matoran universe, but the six of them weren't part of the Matoran "life cycle." Nor where they Rahi. What are they, and where did they come from?

For that matter, what are Axonn, Brutaka, Bohtar, Sidorak, Roodaka, and the other "unique-species" characters in Bionicle? Nearly half the Dark Brotherhood comes to mind...

[Assistant]
> There are a lot of species in the Matoran universe, but the six of them weren't part of the Matoran "life cycle." Nor where they Rahi. What are they, and where did they come from?

They were presumably designed by the Great Beings for some specialized function that required their unique abilities rather than those of Matoran. Since each was only required for one or two tasks, there was no need to introduce large numbers of each species and so the result was a large number of unique species with a few members each. The most influential non-Rahi species in the Matoran Universe by far are Matoran/Toa/Turaga, Makuta, Vortixx, and Skakdi.

> Dark Brotherhood

I think you're confusing the Dark Hunters and the Brotherhood of Makuta.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Do humans get Antibodies against various pathogens that infect cattles via their milk, based on the same principle that human babies get antibodies against several pathogen from their mother's breast milk?

[Assistant] No because most milk is pasturized. The milk that isn't is generally considered unsafe. Its possible that you can get some random antibody but the risk to raw milk is far greater then any minimal benefit you'd get.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why is gas under pressure cold?

This might be a stupid question and I still haven't figured this out..

So obviously stars are made of gas etc. My extremely basic understanding is that they're really hot because they're under extreme pressure.

Why is compressed gas in e.g. cannisters or lighters cold?

EDIT: Thank you everyone for your answers, it's actually pretty interesting.

[Assistant]
The compressed gas or lighter only gets could when gas is released. If you don't press the button it will simply equilibrate to room temperature.

Your lighter and compressed gas consists of volatile organic compounds. Under pressure they are liquid, but in atmospheric pressure (i.e., when you depress the lever or press the button to release the gas) it turns into gas. In other words, the liquid evaporates. Evaporation is an endothermic process, meaning it takes heat from the environment to turn a liquid into gas. That's why it gets colder the longer you release gas.

It is a similar idea to rubbing alcohol on your skin making you feel cool - the alcohol evaporates and takes heat away from your skin.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Marvel] Would anyone mind explaining what is Marvel's Infinity war. What are infinity stones?

[Assistant]
An excerpt and a quote to get your head wrapped around what the stones are:

>TheInfinity Stonesare six immensely powerful objects tied to different aspects of the universe, created by theCosmic Entitiesso that way, eachof the stones can possess unique capabilities that have been enhanced and altered by various alien civilizations for over millennia of years.

>Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots... Infinity Stones.

So in marvel certain abstract concepts are actually entities (such as Death and Eternity being actual entities). These are the Cosmic Entities, and they created the Infinity Stones from the singularities that existed before the universe was created.

These stones can be wielded or even altered by beings within the universe that have enough power to do so.

The Infinity War is one such incident that started with the creation of the Infinity Gauntlet. A powerful being, named Thanos, was capable of collecting all the stones together and setting them inside a golden gauntlet then, using their combined strength, wiped out half of all sentient life in an effort to impress the Cosmic Entity Death, whom he loved.

This did not go over well.

The Infinity War is a sequel to this story where a hero named Adam Warlock attempts to seperate his being into two: one good and one evil. He did this to wield the gauntlet with all the stones in it wisely and logically.

This also did not go over well.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[IT] How could Pennywise kill the 300 original founders of Derry?

Was he stronger somehow? He is still vulnerable to guns and weapons.

What exactly happened to them?

[Assistant]
IT doesn't always kill people directly. Sometimes it uses other means.

For example, the fire at The Black Spot was perpetrated by humans, but secretly motivated by IT.
The explosion of the Ironworks factory, which killed 102 people, was also caused by IT.

IT isn't weakened by bullets, but by belief. When It transformed into a werewolf, it's weakness was silver bullets because everyone knows that's what kills a werewolf. That's why the kids were so dangerous to It. They were young enough to believe they could beat it, and old enough to fight.

Considering that, it's no surprise that a bunch of pilgrims, who are generally superstitious anyway, and were drawn to found Derry by IT in the first place, would be easy pickings for the creature.

They were probably just eaten and their remains left to rot in the bowels of It's underground lair.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Could someone be born with YY chromosomes?  What would be the result?

[Assistant] No, you couldn't. Aside from the fact it's pretty much impossible naturally (females are XX, so the eggs can't have Y chromosomes), it wouldn't survive because of the large number of crucial genes on the X chromosome.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Warhammer 40000] [Serious] How does does life of a Gue'vesa differ from the average Imperial Citizen?

For that matter how much is different in daily life? What is the core structure and values like?

How much or how little political freedom and rights do the Gue'vesa have to normal imperial citizens?

[Assistant]
Generally speaking, it's slightly above average. Tau worlds tend to be better governed than Imperial ones and there is less focus on the whole "work till you die" mentality that most Imperial production centers have. The Tau focus on the communist-like principle of the "greater good" means you'll be giving the government pretty much everything you have anyway, but there is a good chance that some of it will make it's way back down to you.

Political freedom varies pretty wildly in the Imperium; planets range the entire spectrum from feudal serfdoms to democratic republics to tyrannical dictatorships. So your say in things as an Imperial citizen is mostly up to where you were born and how powerful your family is. However, Gue'vesa are almost unilaterally second-class citizens. The way Tau society works only the Ethereal caste actually have any sort of political clout but client species, like the Kroot or turncoat humans, have pretty much less than none. Your place in society is firmly to prop up the Tau bits of it and they'll make sure you know it, even if they go about it in a friendly way.

Once you pull away the trappings the fact is, you've traded one form of slavery for another. The Imperial way or the Tau way. The Imperials may be more brutal in their treatment of you but, at the end of the day, you are still a part of the team and they care about you as much as you are a human and thus like them. To the Tau, you are nothing more a tool. A tool to be taken care of, sure, but you'll never be anything more than that and need to know your place.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Alien] What was the alien doing when it tucked in Ripley's escape ship?

Was it sleeping ? Was it hiding ?

[Assistant] Hiding, escaping.  It knew enough to know the large ship was no longer safe and figured out Ripley was heading towards a particular structure - the shuttle.  It hid there, believing that since the human was going there, it would be safe.  And had Ripley not noticed it, it would have been right.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why can't water rehydrate dry skin?

[Assistant] The problem with dry skin is that water can leave your skin too easily. Normally your skin has oils to help retain moisture, providing a barrier water can't easily penetrate. Putting water on your skin doesn't replace this oil, and can contribute to removing it.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5:What is a "hostile takeover bid"?

Like when one company tries to buy another, but I don't really understand what's "hostile" about it, or when such a thing happens. Thanks!

[Assistant]
It means without approval from the board of directors (those running the company). When a company is public that means anyone can buy their shares in the stock market. Usually when someone wants to buy one of the companies they'll ask the board to bring an offer to the shareholders. This is easier because the board can rally the shareholders and persuade them to vote in favor of the takeover.

However, it's not necessary. A guy could just buy 50.000001% on the open market if he wanted. Now he can take the company in whatever direction he sees fit.

edit: It's mostly "hostile" because if you're buying without the board's help you're likely going to fire every single one of them when you get control and replace them with your own.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5 Why do some dishes get so hot, sometimes even hotter than the food, after microwaving?

[Assistant]
The microwaves generated are absorbed well by water and fat in food. However, some other materials also absorb the same microwaves, often better than food.

Metal is the obvious one. It can absorb microwaves so well it catches fire and/or ruins the appliance.

Some bowls and plates made of certain ceramic also can absorb microwaves well. Sometimes it's due to trace metals in the ceramic or glaze. Other times it's just what the ceramics are made out of.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Are huge compression ratios attainable in specific cases?

Ive been doing a bit of online research and the only things i seem to be finding are on general compression algorithms with ratios of 20-35% But is it possible to achieve much greater ratios in specific cases?

Im not well educated in this field and im probably missing something but even basic math expressions seem to "encode" information with way more efficiency than general compression algorithms.

2.1514733e+97 for example can be expressed as (27\^68).

compressing nearly 100 digits to just 4 and a symbol.

I feel like im failing to see something here or ive missed some obvious principle so any insights would be greatly appreciated.

[Assistant]
Yes, it is!

The concept of Kolmogorov complexity might appeal to you. Consider that some photos may have simpler descriptions than others. Even if the description is made unambiguous (or, to use the proper term, "lossless") it is pretty easy to guess that any photo that is exactly one color over the entire set of pixels is easier to describe than a photo where each pixel is independently chosen at random.

The trick is to come up with a "language" of description where all the things you see most frequently have short descriptions, even if the things you see rarely might have longer ones. This is precisely what compression is all about.

Zip files are an example of this: they build a dictionary of words to describe the file as the file is scanned, which allows things the method "reads" to immediately reuse the index of a word in the dictionary instead of the entire word.

Even in jpeg, which is "lossy," care was taken so that the description of an image still results in something that looks very very much like the original data, even if it's not bit for bit the same.

Excellent question!


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[The Incredibles] What happened to all of the supervillains after the heroes were outlawed?

* I imagine that the supervillains would not care about the law banning superheroes and villains, as they have no problems breaking all of the other laws.

[Assistant] Believe it or not straight to jail. No more defense of illegal arrest or assault from a vigilante. No more squeaking by on a technicality due to tampered evidence or lack of evidence after a super fight. Wearing a costume was a crime so was using their powers or gadgets. They had no legal recourse and while they could argue and fight against the system plenty of super jails existed that only got tougher to escape from with all the new inmates.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Where does the cocaine go?

Like when you snort it, where the fuck does it go? The fuck happens to it?

[Assistant]
Cocaine gets absorbed by the mucus membranes in your nostrils, and crosses over directly into the blood stream.  This is why cocaine acts so much faster than say, alcohol.  Alcohol has to reach the small intestine before being absorbed in large amounts, which can take 15-30 minutes depending on your stomach contents.

Cocaine bypasses all of that by having a molecular structure that allows it to cross directly into the very small blood vessels (capillaries) in your nose, and then distribute into your body at a very rapid pace.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [MCU] When Deadpool is having his shoot out at the start of the film, who would deal with the insurance claims from the drivers who had to run for their lives?

[Assistant] [Meta note: Deadpool is not (yet) part of the MCU and instead exists in Fox's X-Men movie universe.  However, he has referenced the MCU due to his knack for breaking the fourth wall which tends to confuse Watsonians.]


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Avengers: Endgame] Was Scott justified in being upset that the kids didn't want a picture with Ant-Man? Was he really that well known?

It had been five years since his last public appearance and he wasn't a regular Avenger, so where did he think they would know him from?

[Assistant] I don't think he was upset that they didn't know him, he realized pretty quickly after he offered that they wouldn't. He got pissed because he didn't want a pity picture and Hulk wouldn't take no for an answer.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why isn't the -cycle in bicycle and tricycle pronounced the same as the -cycle in the unicycle and motorcycle? Aren't they all cycles and not "sickles"?

[Assistant]
It's all about English foot structure. What's a foot? The short answer is a foot is a two-syllable unit where one of the syllables is stressed. English is by and large organized into trochees, which are feet with stress on the first syllable. (Think words like *happy* or *pickle*; they're stressed on the first syllable)

English is a "quantity-sensitive" language, which means we also organize syllables into "heavy" or "light". Heavy syllables attract stress, and unstressed syllables are likely to be reduced (made light). This brings us to the -cycle words.

Notice the first two you mention are 3-syllabke words, and the others are 4-syllable words. In both cases, we would probably analyze them as consisting of two feet (although the former are going to have a *degenerate* half-foot of only one syllable). The key difference is that in the 3-syllable word the first syllable of -cycle is the tail end of the previous foot (the unstressed part of the foot), but in the 4-syllable case it's the front of a new foot (the stressed part).

* bicy-cle
* tricy-cle
* uni-cycle
* motor-cycle

Because English is quantity-sensitive, we don't like a heavy syllable in an unstressed position, so the heavy *cy* becomes light in the 3-syllable words. (Some more background: *cy*, pronounced /sai/ has a diphthong, which is like two vowels mashed into one unit, and this is considered heavy. Single lax vowrls are considered light, so this is what the diphthong turns into when it's unstressed in these words)

So it's kind of an interesting interaction between several features of English: trochaic feet parsed from the left edge, quantity-sensitivity, and vowrk reduction.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Were there any famous female philosophers in Ancient Greece?

All the books I've read contain names of a ton of male philosophers -- even the minor ones -- but absolutely none of female philosophers. From what I know, Greece was an intellectual powerhouse, so it's hard to believe that there were absolutely no female philosophers at all.

Did anyone document them? Or were socio-cultural conditions at the time not conducive for female philosophers to be open and public about their intellectualism?

[Assistant] We largely don't have writings from them, but some are mentioned, for instance: Diotima, who supposedly taught Socrates and to whom is attributed his teachings in the *Symposium*; and Hypatia, who is famous from Carl Sagan's *Cosmos* and related pseudo-history but was a legitimate historical figure working in the Neoplatonic context in late antiquity.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Is there a German equivalent to Guttings French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century?

Im looking for something which covers a rough narrative of German philosophy as it developed in the twentieth century. I found guttings book to be very engaging and helpful and was wondering if there was parallel of it for Germany.

There might not be a clear history/narrative to German philosophy in the way that Gutting is able to find in French Phil. (I dont really know), so perhaps books covering broad movements in Germany (like Phenomenology) would be good as well.

Thanks!

[Assistant] Young has a three volume *German Philosophy in the Twentieth Century* which does this, although unfortunately it's three volumes so it's not quite as accessible. But you could pick a volume that looks particularly interesting to you, to start with. Or you could go with Gorner's *Twentieth Century German Philosophy*, which is much narrower in its coverage but is only the one volume.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ElI5 What is bayesian mechanics?

[Assistant]
It's a way of using the math of probability to make inferences that you might not initially think you could make.

Let's say you've flipped a coin ten times, and every time it came up heads. What's the probability that it's a rigged coin?

Maybe you know that every one in a million coins in circulation is rigged, but it seems like the odds of this particular coin being rigged is higher, because you flipped so many heads. So how can we get the actual probability?

Time for some math. But first, some notation:

P(A) is the probability of A happening.
P(A ^ B) is the probability of A and B both happening.
P(A | B) is the probability of A happening given that B happens. That is, we've assumed B, now what's the probability of A?

Now critically, P(A | B) = P(A ^ B) / P(B). That is, we take the probability of both happening, and then divide out the probability for B, because we're just assuming that as a given.

We can use this to figure out how likely it is that our coin is rigged.

P(rigged | ten heads) = P(rigged ^ ten heads) / P(ten heads)

P(rigged ^ ten heads) is just 1 in 1 million (assuming all rigged coins favor heads for the sake of this hypothetical). You have a 1 in 1 million chance of having a rigged coin, and if you do, then you'll always get ten heads.

P(ten heads) is a little more involved. It's going to be P(rigged ^ ten heads) + P(not rigged ^ ten heads). That is, if we don't know whether or not the coin is rigged, we have to account for the probabilities in the case that it is, and the case that it isn't. The probability of either happening is just the sum of each individual case happening.

The odds of a coin not being rigged are 999999 in 1 million, and then getting 10 heads with such a coin has a probability of (1/2)^10 = 1 / 1024. We multiple those together to get P(not rigged ^ ten heads) = 999999/1024000000.

We can now put together all our numbers to get

P(rigged | ten heads) = 1/1000000 / (1/1000000 + 999999/1024000000) =  0.001023.

So even with ten heads, it's still pretty unlikely you have a rigged coin.

Why this is interesting is that we've seemingly gone 'backwards'. The likelihood of getting 10 heads is influenced by whether not the coin is rigged, but we've started from the conclusion of 10 heads, and used that to go backwards to figure out whether the coin is rigged in the first place. There's no sense in which getting 10 heads can somehow cause a coin to be rigged retroactively, but we can still do math and gain information about the coin.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How is gps for self-driving cars accurate enough when my google gps totally craps out any time I'm in a mall plaza?

[Assistant]
Self-driving cars use more than just GPS to navigate; they also use onboard cameras to identify the road, other vehicles, pedestrians, traffic lights, and other potentially relevant information. If they lose GPS signal, they continue going along what was the plotted route until the signal is regained.

As the technology improves, they can also gather data on *where* GPS is likely to fail (such as a tunnel or mall plaza). In these instances, their navigation can plot more detailed courses in advance since the computer is anticipating a loss of satellite feed for a bit.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5 What stops humans from sleeping for days at a time?

Bears hibernate up to 6 months, why can't we?

[Assistant]
One reason is that you can't store as much nutritients as a bear can. Your body is not situated to do this. Bears store nutritients to hibernate in periods where they would lack food and overall the period where they wouldn't be happy to live in.

If that makes sense.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[World of Warcraft]Whose genius idea was it to put portals directly to Blasted Lands into every Capital City?

Who exactly decides that the risk of these portals ever malfunctioning within the heart of your city, which other side is right next to a rather large gate that has stampeding demons fighting into the world of Azeroth, outweighs the convenience of porting to the Blasted Lands.

Even if it is to boost your numbers defending the gate in the first place, wouldn't it be far easier and risk free to just gradually muster numbers the traditional way of flying/mounted/vehicles etc.

It seems like demons have made it into the Blasted Lands in the first place anyway, and they already seem contained with the few out-holds Horde and Alliance have there.

and exactly what is preventing that portal becoming two ways, who is maintaining the portal for those 24/7 hours 365 days a year?

[Assistant]
The portals provide swift transportation for our officers and other important personnel, as well as to ensure a quick flow of information. Should our outposts in Outland fall, or even just the defenses around the Dark Portal, we need to know about it immediately.

They are constantly maintained by rotating mages, some of which are still novices and are sent there for seasoning. The Blasted Lands provide both an opportunity for practice as well as gaining experience with demonic entities. Invaluable lessons for every mage. However if the portal sites are ever in danger of falling into enemy hands the mages can sever the connection instantly.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[LOTR/Harry Potter] Would Gandalf be a Professor at Hogwarts?

That question has been ringing in my head this week, and I was wondering, since Gandalf uses his staff for magic, hed be fitting for Defense Against the Dark Arts and teach how to use spells with a magical staff instead of a wand.

Also what do you think his reaction/magic spells and attack would be if he had to fight Voldemort alongside Albus Dumbledore in the Battle of Department of Mysteries?

[Assistant]
Gandalf doesn't use his magic like they do in Harry Potter, he can't just do spells willy nilly.

He would at best be a historian and perhaps teach magical history being around since the dawn of time and all.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5:Why do eastern countries (e.g Philippines, Japan) focus on discipline, honor and excellent grades more than western countries (e.g America, Canada?)

[Assistant] Because western countries focus more on creativity, individual achievement and social development? Many eastern schools produce children who can recite facts but not know how to use them. Many western schools have kids who are great at creative thinking but can't participate in a formal setting. Neither is strictly superior to the other.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How come the same computer that runs a complex game like Battlefield 3 at high fps can lag when using simple programs like iTunes?

[Assistant]
Game Developer here -- Your computer is made up of many parts, and different programs do very different things. Your video card's GPU has nothing to do with your hard-drive, and people who make video games avoid reading from the hard drive as much as possible as thats generally the slowest possible operation on a computer.

An application like iTunes may read from your hard drive, make slow (blocking) network calls, connect with other devices etc. It may be doing "less complex" things but its doing it with different hardware.

Also, some programs are written better than others :)


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[MCU] How does the Hand get around the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu?

With the exception of Earth-1218, the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu is a universal constant. However, in their fight against Daredevil, Elektra and Stick, the ninjas of the Hand seem to do pretty well despite being masked and having overwhelmingly superior numbers. How is this possible?

[Assistant]
It absolutely applies to this universe.

Just think of Matt's first encounter with a Hand ninja, the one where a single ninja has him outclassed and wrecks his shit (before he gets a lucky break and sets the ninja aflame).

You're simply misinterpreting how conservation of ninjutsu works.

One ninja is very dangerous for Matt, but he can hold his own and get lucky. When there are dozens of ninjas he can hold his own, even if it's a difficult fight, as long as the numbers don't completely overwhelm him. Same difficulty, with more ninjas, textbook conservation of ninjutsu.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
The Surface of the sun is estimated to be around 5700K but the Corona is estimated to be a few million degrees. How can this be possible?

I never understood how the surface could be one temperature but just a few thousand kilometers away it is such a huge drastic change? What causes this change in temperature. Surely it can't be energy added.

[Assistant] This is an excellent question. Speaking observationally, we see that energy *is* added to the corona somehow, but the process at work has not been identified yet. An important part of the problem is that the heating likely happens due to small-scale processes (which are difficult to resolve with telescopes) and that modelling them is difficult, because magnetohydrodynamics (which you need to describe the motions of the plasma) is computationally nasty.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] If our sun was the size of an average grain of sand, how big would our galaxy be on that scale?

[Assistant]
By pure coincidence, one light year is ~63,200 astronomical units (abbr.  AU, defined as the average distance from the Earth to the Sun), and there are ~63,200 inches in a mile.  That means that one AU is to one light year as one inch is to one mile.  Using this, you can look up astronomical distances and easily convert to everyday units.

So, if the sun were a grain of sand, Earth would be about 1 inch away.  Jupiter would be 5.2 inches away and Pluto ~40 inches away. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is ~4.3 miles away.

Finally, to answer your question, the Milky Way, which is on the order of 100,000 light years in diameter, would be ~*100,000 miles* across.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why do children build forts?

Why do children always feel the need to build forts? It seems that children do not discuss forts as vital to their existence. But many children make them without the knowledge that other children make them as well. Is building a home for ourselves in our nature even as children? Does this have anything to do with nesting?

[Assistant]
Many aspects of play behaviour are mimicking adult behaviours. Children who built forts, play homes, play schools, or play workplaces are in many ways mimicking what they see adults doing. Part of play behaviour in mammals is for the young to develop and train the physical and cognitive aspects that will enable them to function as adults. In order to do this they must first practice these adult skills through play.

There are other aspects of play that may overlap or may be completely separate from mimicking adult behaviour. These include, but are not limited to: strengthening the body, understanding physical limitations, setting up peer and social groups, learning how to be a part of a social network, learning how to resolve disputes, or setting up a power structure. All mammals engage in play, and for reasons quite similar or exactly similar to our own in some cases.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Terminator] I'm stood roasting a T-1000 with a flamethrower. Please tell me it'll kill it or I'm dead.

[Assistant] You can kill a T-1000 with heat so it really matters how hot you got it and for how long.  One known T-1000 was destroyed after being in molten steel for not that long a time, about 30 seconds.  Molten Steel is about 1500 degrees.  A flame thrower gets to about 1000 degrees.  So there is a decent chance you killed it if you kept the flame on it for like a minute or two.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [startrek]how is it possible that the federation can go centuries without any contact with hostile races (IE the Romulans & Klingons) that directly border their territory, on Earth today governments maintain diplomatic relations with states the officially loathe?

[Assistant] The distances you're talking about in these cases are ridiculously vast, to start with, so you really have to be going out of your way to come into contact with someone; using two way communication to organise meet-ups and so forth.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Endgame] Why did this happen the exact same way 3 different times?

I'm talking about the order of the stones in the gauntlet. With Thanos, it made sense. As he got them, he filled them in. But then after they collect the stones in Endgame and assemble it, they put it together in the exact same way as Thanos, just inverted because it's for a different hand. Then, when Tony gets the stones from Thanos in the finale, he once again assembles them in the exact same way. I highly doubt anyone took the time to memorize what order the stones where on the Gauntlet during Infinity War. So how and why did they assemble it the exact same way 3 different times?

[Assistant]
It could very well be that they assumed the order had significance to how the stones function together.  Obviously, something as powerful and far-reaching as the snap is the stones playing off of each other's power; So, they may have thought the order was important.

It's not far fetched that Tony might have looked back at recordings taken by his suit to see what order the stones were in on the gauntlet.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How did hydrocarbon lakes (oil and gas) form on Titan if Earths formed from broken down biological material?

Titan is one of Saturn's moons. There are more hydrocarbons on Titan than there is on the earth. All of ours (or so I believe) formed from broken down biological material. How did Titan come to be with so much hydrocarbon material present without ever having life?

[Assistant] Hydrocarbons, especially the simpler ones prevalent on Titan (methane, ethane), can be produced geologically as well.  Titan also has a lot of nitrogen in its atmosphere (most of it is nitrogen), and the interaction between simple hydrocarbons, nitrogen, and sunlight/radiation gives rise to more complex hydrocarbons.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Why, in popular media, are black holes depicted as flat? Wouldn't they be spherical like a planet?

[Assistant]
They are spherical, and they are generally depicted as such. It's just that when you portray a spherical object in a 2D image, it looks like a circle.

What can be flat is the accretion disk, the gas and plasma that's orbiting and falling into the black hole. It forms a disk because any gas not orbiting in the disk would collide with the disk and become part of it. Gas and plasma are highly collisional and will exchange angular momentum quickly until they're orbiting in a relatively smooth, circular orbit.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why do British singers seem to lose their accent?

I've heard that this has something to do with old English sounding more like American English today - is that true?

[Assistant]
Singing is not the same as speaking. If you take classes on how to sing they teach you to open your mouth certain ways and to breath certain ways. There are more efficient ways to make sound when singing and these are pretty much universal.

It's not so much that British singers sound more American, it's that all singers lose their accents when singing. Whether you're American, British, Chinese, Russian... good singing produces similar sounds.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How do you grow thick skin mentally? How does a brain not care about someone's opinion?

What I always hear is "grow thick skin". I guess there should be a process to do that or a  mental training. But how?

I don't talk about insensitivity or sociopath behaviour, but more like being toughy when it comes to little problem.

[Assistant]
One thing that helps is experience, the first time someone expresses a negative opinion of someone, they have no idea what's going to result, and they're bound to wonder about all the potential results. When it's happened many times before with either nothing occurring or something positive happening (like bonding with anyone else who had the negative opinion expressed about them), the event isn't going to be as stressful.

Another thing that helps is feeling secure in your position. If someone knows that they are highly valued by others, they're not going to risk losing that relationship over a external complaints or opinions.

Finally, making the realization that when you do something embarrassing, many of the people you think noticed probably didn't actually notice, or only care for a short period of time.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] If dueling against a Sith/Jedi with a lightsaber requires precognition, how was Pre Vizsla able to keep up with Darth Maul?

As far as we know, he wasn't Force sensitive nor did he have any enhancements like Grievous. In fact, he might have been slower than he could have been since his armor would weigh him down or impede him movement, however slightly.

[Assistant]
> If dueling against a Sith/Jedi with a lightsaber requires precognition

It doesn't. It's just extremely helpful.

Cad Bane once fought Obi-Wan with another Jedi's light saber, and while he didn't win, he held his own for a minute or so.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Question about the center of the universe

Yesterday in my first year astronomy course my prof was lecturing about the start of the universe and how it has been constantly expanding since the Big Bang 14 billion years ago. He went over how the closer an object is to the expanding frontier the more quickly it is also expanding outwards and comparatively how objects close to that single point where the Big Bang happened are expanding out much slower. I have a few questions about this:

1. Would that single point at the center of the universe where the Big Bang originally happened not be expanding at all?

2. What would be at the center of the universe where the Big Bang happened?

3. What is beyond the expanding universe? Just nothingness?

Of course nobody has the exact right answer to these questions, I'm asking just to find out about some of the popular theories behind them.

[Assistant]
>Would that single point at the center of the universe where the Big Bang originally happened not be expanding at all?

There is no middle of the universe.  The Big Bang was the sudden expansion of all space.

>What would be at the center of the universe where the Big Bang happened?

See above.

>What is beyond the expanding universe? Just nothingness?

The universe is expected to be (as evidence has shown) flat and infinite.  Beyond our observable universe is (as the universe appears to be homogenous and isotropic - i.e. the same everywhere) likely more of the same.  This is evidenced by the apparent gravitational affects of bodies outside of our observable universe on objects on the edge of our observable universe.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: The European Union (EU). What is it, and what does it mean to be part of it?

Assume I'm starting with almost no information, as I am not European and don't have much understanding of these matters.  Pros/cons also welcome.

[Assistant]
The EU is an economic and political union of independent countries.

OK, so what does that actually *mean*?

Firstly, economic union. The EU started out as the EEC (European Economic Community) which was essentially a free-trade pact between some of the major European countries. The idea was that they would reduce and eventually eliminate tariffs and trade regulations between the countries, to make it easier for their companies to sell products and services internationally.

Over time the aims of the EEC widened to include political goals, such as common regulation of laws including those not directly relating to free trade agreements. Notably a treaty in 1992, the Maastricht Treaty, effectively transformed the EEC from a purely trade-based community to become the EU, with a stated goal of "ever-closer economic and political union".

Today the EU comprises 28 countries and over half a billion people. Member states are -- in theory at least -- on a slow but steady progression to ultimately creating a United States of Europe, which would be a federal entity similar in some ways to the USA.

As part of this there are laws which mean that a citizen of any EU country can go to live and work in any other without requiring any permissions, just as a Californian can go to live in Massachussets without needing a passport or permission to do so. There is also a move towards creating a single currency for all the countries, although not all EU member countries use the Euro, and it looks likely that one of the members, Greece, will soon have to revert to another currency.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
There should be height classes in basketball that work similarly to weight classes in some of the other sports. CMV!

For example, have a division for players that are 6'8" and taller to play with each other, then a division for 6'2" to 6'7", and a division for 6'1" and shorter.

Sports such as weightlifting, powerlifting, MMA, etc have weight classes so that body weight, which is an obvious advantage in strength, can be accounted for in judging more objectively the athletes' skill levels. It seems that since being taller is an advantage in basketball, height classes could work too. And seeing how height is much harder to change than weight, it makes sense. This would enable players who may have the dribbling skills, the shots, and so on but just lack the height. This isn't an exercise in political correctness, this is a measure to leave no talent go unrecognized.

Maybe I'm just ignorant about how basketball works. Maybe people watch NBA not for the players' dexterity with the balls, but because they like to see gigantic motherfuckers running around kind of like a circus. But I think such a measure would be interesting to see, and not too impractical. If you disagree, change my view!

[Assistant]
Because basketball is a team sport, there is a division of labor among players of different heights on the court. Basketball is interesting because different players on the team all have something to contribute *despite* their height. Very tall players are able to block shots and rebound effectively, but may not have the quickness necessary to drive to the hoop, nor the agility and coordination to maintain extreme control while dribbling the ball or shoot with finesse. Smaller players use their speed and dexterity to dynamically move around on offense and defense and distribute the ball around the floor - they are also generally the better shooters. You need both in order to have a basketball team with a complete skill set.

Height isn't the same sort of inherent advantage in basketball that it is in those that are more closely aligned to strength - speed, court vision, agility, dexterity, shot selection, and shooting touch all play a major role in what a basketball player can contribute.

If you want, you can think of it as height classes that *already exist* in terms of the roles people fulfill. PG is 6'4 and under, SG is 6'3-6'7, SF is 6'6-6'9, PF is 6'8-6'11, and C is 6'10+ (I know this is a generalization, and there are some players that play those positions that don't fall in that height range, but it should be about right).


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Does more volume from a speaker use more energy?

For example, when you're listening to music in the car. If the volume is fairly low in the car, will it use less of the car's battery as opposed to having the music blasted?

[Assistant] Yes. Every 3dB increase in sound pressure level corresponds to a doubling of output power. For a speaker with an 89 dB reference efficiency, this means that 1 Watt produces 89 dB, 92 dB requires 2 Watts, 95 dB 4 Watts, 98 dB 8 Watts, 101 dB 16 Watts, and so forth.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5:The truce between Nazi Germany and the Japanese

I just finished watching the first few episodes of The Man in the High Castle (A great show by the way) but it lead me to thinking. How did the truce between Japan and the Nazis take place? Why didn't the Nazis turn on the Japanese instead the Russians? It would seem to me that the Japanese were much less 'Aryan' then the Russians. Was Hitler only interested in conquering Europe or was he eventually looking for world domination?

[Assistant] It was an alliance of convenience, more than anything. Japan and Germany were far enough apart that there wasn't any real threat of direct competition. However, Japan could keep Pacific countries busy, namely the US navy, and keep those resources otherwise occupied. However, if they had succeeded, they probably would have come to blows eventually.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
If I stand 5ft away from a mirror and look at my reflection, do my eyes focus on an object that is 5th away, or 10ft away?

Obviously the mirror is 5ft away, but does the illusion of depth cause one's eyes to focus on their own reflection as if it is twice the distance that they are from the mirror?

[Assistant] 10 feet. Your perception of depth is just how the light hits your eyes. You can draw a line from your foot to the mirror to your eyes, and then follow the line from your eye to the mirror and keep going to behind the mirror. The light didnt actually come from behind the mirror, but it is as if it did, and you perceive it as if it did. Im glossing over details of how you actually perceive depth, but thats the basic idea.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Why is a hollow tube more stable than a solid tube?

[Assistant]
If you're talking about the bending strength of a hollow vs. solid rod there are really two answers.

For a constant outside diameter the solid rod is much stronger. There is a lot more material to take the force.

However, for a given weight or amount of material the hollow rod is much stronger. A hollow rod that weighs the same as a solid rod will be much wider so the force will be spread over a much larger area.

Bending strength in this case is proportional to the moment of inertia which for a constant mass is higher if the mass is distributed further away from the center.

In a situation where weight or material cost is a concern you're better off using the largest diameter hollow rod you can. If weight or cost is not a problem than the biggest solid rod will be the strongest thing you can use.

I should note that there is a practical limitation to this. If you make the tube wall thin enough and apply the force over a small enough area the tube will "dimple" forming a small depression around where the force is applied. As soon as the tube loses its nice round shape its strength dramatically decreases and failure becomes much more likely.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
If I accelerate and collect some particles produced by Unruh radiation in a jar. If I go to a friend who didn't accelerate and open the jar, what will we see?

Let me elaborate on this thought experiment.

So, I have a friend in an inertial frame of reference watching my every move with cameras and telescopes.

I accellerate till I notice Unruh radiation, let's say I accelerate hard enough to see electrons and positrons. I open up a jar and collect some electrons in it.  In the meantime, my friend has seen every action, but sees no Unruh radiation. He just sees me waving around with my jar in the vacuum.

But then I slow down and head back to him in his inertial frame of reference and show him the jar.
He knows the jar is empty, because he has seen me put nothing but a vacuum in them.  I know there are electrons in the jar, because I've put them in myself.

What would we see if we open the jar? Is it empty? or not?

If there are electrons, how did they emerge in my friends point of view?
If there are no electrons, where are they now?

And what about conservation of charge?

[Assistant]
Very good question. The answer is that the presence/absence of particles is observer dependent, in particular it depends on your definition of vacuum (in case you have a strong background in physics this is related to the existence of a timelike Killing vector, that provides a preferred notion of time and hence a definition of positive frequency modes that we can associate with particles).

There is nevertheless no inconsistency or paradox, 2 observers in a curved spacetime won't agree on the particle content but will agree on the Energy-Momentum tensor and they know also how to calculate what each other sees.

In the particular example you provide, the jar will be empty for both observers once you go back to an inertial reference frame.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why and how does water get trapped in your ear and why is it sometimes difficult to get the water out?

[Assistant] Water is sticky. It sticks to itself and other things. This allows it form thin films in enclosed spaces. The tiny hairs in your ears can support the film making it stand up against gravity. So in the right conditions water will essentially form a "bubble" trapped in your ear, supported by the tiny hairs in there.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What would be the economic consequences of making it law for enterprises to share x amount of their profits equally with workers?

Minimum wage laws are bad because they needlessly raise the value if labour above market prices and hurt profits.

Of removing minimum wage laws would increase profits, then how would Enterprises respond to a law forcing them to share, say, 50% of their profits equally among all workers?

It seems like a good compromise,because workers would only get compensated as long as the business is making a profit.

[Assistant] The issue with this proposal is it's very easy to change the amount of profit by reinvesting into the business, either through capital or labor. There's no guarantee that such reinvestment would benefit the lower wage workers of the business.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why does college cost so much in the U.S.A?

Being from the UK and worrying about loans scraping 10k and getting a shock when I realised there are people with well over a hundred grand's worth of debt for further education in the States. Why? What is actually being paid for that we don't get here?

Edit: Woah, this really blew up while I was sleeping.

[Assistant] Because student loans are very easy to get and impossible to get rid of (our bankrupcy laws don't forgive student loan debt) so colleges can keep  raising the price and 18 year olds don't know enough to care about debt.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Loki] Does the Varients plan make sense?

In episode 2, it seems that >!Sylvies!< plan is to >!bomb the sacred timeline!<, and although it isnt explicitly stated why (unless Im missing something), it seems like >!she!< is ultimately trying to >!distract the TVA so that she can reach the Time Keepers and kill them!<.

But this week, it showed us that >!she can restore the minute mens memories by enchanting them!<, so that got me thinking. Instead of >!luring a bunch of minute men into traps to kill them and take their reset charges for some elaborate plot to bomb the timeline!<, wouldnt it make more sense to just >!lure them into those same traps and restore their memories!< instead? That way, >!she could just raise up an army to overthrow the Time Keepers!<.

[Assistant]
An army can be tracked a lot easier than one variant. You also saw the mental condition of the first agent we see her enchant; absolute shambles. Not everyone is ready to face that level of truth and then go on to fight back against the TVA. Sylvie's plan relies on no other factors besides Sylvie herself, which seems to fit her character.

Killing them is faster, has less variables, and as you saw she did not require an army to face the Time Keepers. If MCU Variant Loki hadn't interfered, she most likely would have succeeded.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[The Matrix] Who is the blind man in the apartment lobby?

When he first brings Neo to meet the Oracle, Morpheus nods silently in greeting to a blind man sitting alone in the building's lobby. Who is this man? A guardian like Seraph? Seraph himself in a previous incarnation?

[Assistant]
He is, for lack of a better term, a logic gate. When they approach, the program essentially "scans" them to see if they had been requested by the Oracle; if they *had* been then the door would lead to her apartment, if not then the door would open to an empty room. The man is blind because he *feels* instead of sees. He is not a "guardian" because he would be entirely unable to defend himself, let alone anyone or anything else.

He is sort of a gatekeeper.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] How does a computer know what adding is?

[Assistant] Computer doesnt know or understand the concept of what adding is. Its just bunch of circuits that turns on or off. You put bunch of these circuits together in a specific way and it will be able to add binary numbers together and even be able to store it in a memory. If you want to know more you should look into computer architecture and learn about logic gates, ALU, CPU.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5 how does skin hold moisture , and what causes dry skin?

[Assistant] Water and oil don't like to mix together. You've probably noticed this when cooking, as oil will float on top of the water. Well our bodies, being clever and all, secrete oil onto our skin. This layer of oil traps moisture from escaping, as water doesn't like oil and won't want to cross this barrier. Dry skin is what happens when this oil barrier is removed and moisture is allowed to leave.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Are there any particles that don't interact with eachother at all?

The phrase 'particle x _interacts_ with particly y' is often used, and that got me thinking.. Do some combination of particles never interact with one another?

[Assistant]
If by nothing else, all particles must interact with one another via gravity.

But forgetting about that, you can find specific combinations of particles in the standard model which do not directly couple to one another. For example neutrinos do not couple to photons.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How do specially shaped (hearts, smiley faces, etc) fireworks work?

Happy 4th!

[Assistant]
so as you know when something explodes it explodes out in a sphere if you have something to serve as a resist you can shape the charge but that's not what's going on here.

so picture a ball and all along that ball's perimeter put little dots. as the ball expands (explodes) the balls along the perimeter are pushed out, each one of them have a wick and when they have been pushed a certain distance they will light up, or explode, or crackle depending on what the charge is. that's how you get a basic circle, a smiley face is just like that but inside you have a few more dots. these dots are actually fireworks in their own right, sitting inside another firework.

most the shapes you will see have some radial symmetry...this is because they are easier.

so, you might ask, how do they know how to make the wick so it goes off at just the right time? mostly...math...and some very, very, very precise packing and wick usage. fireworks can't have very large variances in the yield of the explosive it must be uniform and it must explode at the right speed. so given the speed of the explosion they set the wicks on the secondary explosive which must also be precise. variation from wick to wick will make a very weird looking smiley face...so they must be precise and accurate.

the amount of engineering that goes into fireworks is frankly astounding.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[World War Z - the book] Wouldn't it have made more sense to have tanks drive around running over zombies en-masse at Yonkers rather than having troops make difficult headshots?

Seriously, get your troops away from whatever death zone you are planning just outside of Yonkers, make sure it is mostly flat and open, then holler like bedickens for the zombies to come.  Then run them over in your tank.

[Assistant] Yonkers was the first fight against the dead. Noone knew what they were doing, needed to do, or what they were up against yet. It was going to be a show of force. Plus, tanks may not have been the best choice as they could have been immobilized by the body piles, jammed treads, and the fact that, believe it or not that hoard stretched back to times sqaure and was more or less a pushing force that could have pushed against a tank well enough to stop it. The dead were uncountable there...


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[DOOM] Two questions about Hell

First: While in Hell, we see a number of dead bodies. Human bodies. If someone dies in Hell, where do they go?

Second: Hell has a moon, or possibly a second planet, orbiting it. Do we know what's on it?

[Assistant]
I don't necessarily think that this Hell dimension is the kind of hell people who die with unresolved issues or "sins" are sent to.

This hell is the sort of place that sometimes leaked into our world, inspiring the stories that led to our tales of "hell" as it's written in various religious traditions.

We don't know what's on the Hellmoon. Hopefully, we'll find out soon when Doomguy breaks free and punches his way to fleet-commander.

I bet that moon has huge guts, the kind that would be delightful to rip. and to tear.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Why is it impossible to determine the position and momentum of a quantum particle at the same time?

[Assistant]
There's a close musical analogy: the position of a particle is analogous to the timing of a note, and the momentum is analogous to the note's pitch.

In order for a note's pitch to be determinate, it has to last long enough that we can see a few waveforms, but then the note must be 'smeared' over an interval of time. Conversely, if a sound is incredibly precise in time then it won't be long enough to have a well-defined pitch - it'll just be a 'click'.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How does Internet/bandwidth "cost" an ISP money?

I love analogies... So please use those! I understand when you stop at a gas station and fill your tank, you are taking their resources. But what 'resources' are you taking from an ISP? Aren't they basically the messenger?

[Assistant]
You are paying for:

* The cost of building and maintaining all the wires in your area
* The cost of running and maintaining the servers that process and pass along your messages tot eh right places
* Smaller ISPs "rent" their wires and infrastructure from larger ISPs, who in turn "rent" it from even larger ISPs and organizations. This also costs money.
* The cost of improving everything in the system, and expanding internet access to new areas.
* Paying salaries and profit for the ISP.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Do skin grafts include nerves, and if so do they retain the sensitivity of thier original location?

[Assistant]
No. The nerve terminals within the grafted tissue are dead.

Nerve fibers project to the skin from their cell bodies next to the spine. The underlying nerve fibers underneath the graft will slowly grow into the grafted skin, and sensation/function will return.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] I know that girls have hormonal fluctuations based on the menstrual cycle. Do guys' hormones fluctuate regularly as well?

[Assistant] Not on a monthly basis. Testosterone (T) is released in pulses, but these are usually on the hourly to daily timescale. There's some slight fluctuation over the course of a year, but nothing major. The amount of T also decreases with age, which some call andropause (or colloquially known as manopause). T will also decrease after a male becomes a father. Male hormonal release is known as tonic release instead of the female cyclical release.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How did the World Health Organization come to determine that eating processed and red meat causes cancer.

I've read some articles, but how exactly did the study gather and use the data to find the correlation between eating processed and red meats and colorectal, pancreas, stomach and prostate cancer?  In statistics, I've always been taught that correlation never shows cause.  Furthermore, what do they mean when they classified red meat as "probably carcinogenic to humans"?

[Assistant]
>correlation never shows cause

I think "proves" is a better word than "shows". Correlation won't prove anything, but it can show a link. Red meat was already thought of as something that could potentially increase the risk for cancer, so the correlation was more an additional argument rather than the entire basis.

This has long been under investigation because of the potential risk of nitrites, a class of salts commonly used to cure red meats, as being carcinogens. Many decades ago, nitrites were used in much bigger quantities to help cure meat. As technology got better, meat industries were able to use only a fraction of the curing agents to reach a similar level of protection. Going inline with the whole correlation idea, the incident rate of the associated cancers also started to go down.

So, while not necessarily proven, this definitely gives a strong warning flag for red meat as it's *very* closely tied with the statistics. However, even if red meat is actually the cause, the incident rate is quoted as being between 5-18% higher. Since the original incident rate is already fairly low, this slightly higher chance is not necessarily significant enough to warrant never eating red meat again (conversely as where the incident rate of cancer with smokers is a good sign you never want to smoke).


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why all the hubbub about Hurricane Sandy when all the weather sites say its not going to be more than a category 1 hurricane?

I believe that it is dangerous, but the news doesn't jibe with what I thought I knew about the categorization system.

[Assistant] First its the largest hurricane in history on the Atlantic, spread over a 1000 miles 's. Next, it's going to strengthen rather than weaken as it changes to a cold storm and become a nor'easter, which typically creates blizzards over the us. It's also occurring during a full moon which makes the flood and wave effects more pronounced. Lastly the path of the storm, coupled with an off shore high pressure area will make it a slow moving cold cat-2 storm, unlike the typical hurricane which comes quickly and dissipates, this hurricane is going to take almost a week with sustained winds, rains , and waves to pass through.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why doesnt grass grow to be as tall as something like a tree?

I know that when a lawn is left uncut the grass can grow plenty taller than what its typically kept at, and theres plenty of tall grass in the wild, but why does it stop growing before getting to much bigger heights; like that of trees?

[Assistant] The grass most English speakers think of are growing horizontally, along the ground. The upwards parts are just leaves. Theyre pretty long, but not the same biomass as a tree. And, as others have mentioned, bamboo.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why does cooking things using different sources of heat (i.e. pan seared, grilled, smoked, oven roasted, etc.) produce different tastes?

I've noticed that people always say the food tastes better, or at least different when cooked (grilled) outside or when camping (over an open flame), and I agree, but I don't why it that's true. Does it have to do with what is being burned to create heat, radiated vs conducted heat, temperature, or something else entirely?

[Assistant]
There are two classes of reason. In the first case, of which smoking meat is the best example, *material from the heat source winds up in the food.* Barbecue contains smoke-stuff, and that smoke-stuff has a distinctive taste.

In the other, it all comes down to just how hot the food gets, and how long it stays that hot. Food cooked right on top of charcoal, will have parts that get *really, really hot,* at least where it was right up against the coal. Food cooked in a 400-degree oven, though, won't have any parts that got hotter than 400.

Naturally, there are combinations of this; fried food has a distinctive flavor that comes from the oil, but also a particular pattern of how it took on heat from the oil. And different kinds of charcoal- some people swear- give different flavors to the meat they cook.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why is the job of an Economist considered a high stress job with long hours, tight deadlines and multiple projects at once?

Everywhere I read, it says that the job of an Economist is stressful especially in the private sector. It involves long hours, tight deadlines, working on multiple projects at once. It also requires extensive contacts and relationship building, something a lot of people cannot do and many find it stressful given the extensive office politics at play.

Can someone explain why the job of an Economist is stressful?

[Assistant] Private sector economists tend to be employed in finance or litigation consulting, both of which involve long hours and high stress. It's stressful because you're in a relatively high-stress industry.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[TMNT] How would the TMNT Do in the UFC?

Obviously they'd be at a slight disadvantage because their are no weapons allowed. So hypothetically  how good could the TMNT be at hand to hand combat?

Also how well suited is Turtle Physiology for  hand to hand combat?
Good? Bad? Equal to  human? Or what?

[Assistant]
well first off body blows are off the table unless you think hurting your hand will give you a strategic advantage, but limb manipulation is still in play so a grappler is your best bet to get a victory on a turtle.

the jaws of a mutant turtle may also be significantly different, meaning you might not be able to knock one out with a punch to the jaw like you can a human, or at least you may need to aim differently.  another disadvantage for a human striker.

the turtles, as we can see in their many incarnations, are incredibly fit and skilled.   These mutants have at least human equivalent strength for their size and olympian agility.

i'm tempted to say any of the turtles could be counted on to take a UFC belt, but i would throw some bucks on a good human grappler for the long odd payout.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Marvel] If the Punisher had to choose between letting a criminal escape and saving an innocent person, what would he pick?

[Assistant] He'd *probably* save the innocent, depending on who the criminal is. If the bad guy gets away that's not a big deal, the Punisher isn't going to let him have a second of peace. He will hunt him down like the dog he is.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [God of War] If Kratos has such immense strength, why does he seemingly struggle to carry a body?

[Assistant]
one theory ive seen is that his strenght is, due to being a god, set to the task at hand. he is as strong as he needs to be, to a point. so his strenght isnt static, it depends on what he is trying to do.

or mabye he is just grunting becasue of it. it aint fun carrying a dead body around.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: The Blair Witch Project isn't even remotely scary, and its current position as the gold standard of the American horror genre is a farce (Warning: Spoilers)

**EDIT: View changed.**

I saw an advertisement for a horror movie today, claiming itself to be "the best American horror film since The Blair Witch Project."

This left me wondering: why is Blair Witch so widely exalted in the horror genre? When I watched it a few years ago, I was underwhelmed, bemused, and did not experience a single fright.

Here's my breakdown of the film:

-Daytime: hikers wander around and find creepy little things made by the witch. Trite--we've all seen something like that before.

-Nighttime: Hikers hear a noise, take the camcorder outside to investigate, see *something* (we can hardly see what scared them because it's nighttime and the camcorder quality isn't great at long distance), camera gets pointed at the ground, person filming takes off running and screaming.

This cycle repeats several times until the end of the film. The end was somewhat disturbing and left me wondering, but it still wasn't scary.

TL;DR: Blair Witch is a horror movie in which we see people get scared, but never really get to see what exactly is scaring them. How is it a horror movie at all, and why has it received so much praise within the genre?

[Assistant]
It was completely surprising and original when it first came out.  1999 was before everyone carried around devices that could record video all the time.  The vast majority of horror movies at the time were sequels or remakes of Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St. etc.

While the film had a lot of weaknesses, the concept was original.  And as opposed to the "mad slasher" who kills the kids who do stupid things, this felt slightly more "real" and possible.

But, no, it's not the gold standard by any means, just a pretty good film for its time.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: What's the big deal about Half Life?

Yes, I'm talking about the game.

[Assistant]
In 1998, a young game development studio called Valve released Half-Life. Half-Life is a first-person shooter about a scientist, Gordon Freeman, working on an experiment in teleportation that went horribly wrong, allowing alien monsters to enter the facility. Armed with his trusty crowbar and an increasing array of other weapons, he must close the rift and escape. The game was acclaimed for its gameplay and immersion, including the reasonably novel replacement of cut-scenes with scripted sequences where the player retained control of Gordon.

In 2004, Valve released Half-Life 2. In the aftermath of the previous game, the world has been dominated by alien overlords known as the Combine. Gordon must evade the rulers of City 17 and eventually take the fight to them, leading a popular uprising against the invaders.

In 2006, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 came out. Valve had decided to release smaller, less expensive "episodes" to continue the story in lieu of an all-in-one sequel. In Episode 1, Gordon must sabotage the Combine citadel and escape the city before it is destroyed. In Episode 2, released 2007, he must make his way to a base outside the city and aid the resistance in preventing the Combine from bringing alien reinforcements. It ends in a dramatic cliff-hanger.

Since 2007, fans have been anxiously awaiting the release of Episode 3. Valve more recently announced that they would be instead releasing a full sequel, Half-Life 3. Valve has remained characteristically silent on the status of the game, but expectations are high. Gamers are willing to put a lot of faith in Valve because of the consistent quality of its releases. Valve has a history of extremely long dev cycles that culminate in excellent releases just about the time that everyone had given up. Team Fortress 2, for instance, spent 9 years in development, and it was spoken of in the same breath as Starcraft: Ghost and Duke Nukem Forever. Unlike the former, it actually came out, and unlike the latter, it didn't suck.

Over the years, given Valve's silence, fans have tended to jump on rumors of the game's imminent release. After so long, this has become a joke, where ordinary events are "interpreted" nonsensically as coded messages that Half-Life 3's release is imminent.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why is heart cancer so rare?

Edit: Thank you all for your thorough answers. This is something I've wondered about for a long time.

[Assistant]
Heart cells are not rapidly dividing and regrowing.
Cancer is usually present in areas where there is rapid regrowth and rapid dividing.
Also a person with heart cancer would not live long, it would cause conduction abnormalities and improper pumping.
For cardiac cancer where it is a met, the heart is a difficult organ to colonise, blood flow is quite fast and its difficult with all the turbulent flow to 'sit' on heart tissue.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What does Derrida mean by 'Logos'?

In 'Of Grammatology', Derrida writes:
'from the pre-Socratics to Heidegger, (metaphysics has) always assigned the origin of truth in general to the logos'.
Does this mean there is some 'underlying truth' (from which all other truths are derived) that he will go on to argue against? A cursory look into what 'logos' means gives me this impression, but I can't find a solid definition.

[Assistant]
*Logos*, in Greek, means "speech," and is derived from the verb "to speak." It also can mean "account," especially a rational or scientific/philosophical account, and "ratio" in the mathematical sense of a proportion between numbers.

In this work and others, Derrida will emphasize the privileged place of *spoken discourse* over *written discourse*. Written discourse, he will argue, often gets placed in a subordinate place to spoken discourse. He especially identifies this theme in Plato.

[Edit: The idea is that when a person is speaking, they somehow have more control over the meaning of their words, insofar as their physical presence allows them to animate the meaning of their words with an "intention." Written discourse, by contrast, lacks this animating intention of the speaker. So by "metaphysics," Derrida means "the metaphysics of presence" (following Heidegger), an understanding of being/truth in terms of *physical presence* in the *temporal present*. "Logocentricism" (the privileging of speech over writing), for Derrida, is part of the metaphysics of presence insofar as philosophers have attempted to stabilize the meaning of their texts by appealing to the physical presence of a speaker, the animating intention of their thoughts when speaking, etc.]


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[WH40K/WoW] A wire gets crossed and instead of the Dark Portal opening to Draenor, it opens to Macragge.

And for the sake of argument lets just say the Warhammer side is just a regular portal hanging in the air and not an elaborate structure like the Dark Portal itself is. Also this takes place just before Legion, for whatever reason.

How do the Ultramarines handle a planet that is CLEARLY drenched in the Ruinous Powers of Chaos?

How do the denizens of Azeroth handle technology and faith they've never even conceived of?

[Assistant]
Azeroth get a purging, the planet is completely overwhelmed by Xenos.
There is yet hope for the planet however, it is very clear the planet is blessed by the Emperor. The humans that do make their living there might be tainted but they show power that is clearly miracles by the Emperor in one of his many forms, he is the guiding light of this world.
Also, abhumans? And some Humans are cursed? Even allied with some Xenos? Are those Eldar?

There is hope for this world but a great crusade to purge it must commence. Thankfully, the planet appears to be in the most early stage of industrialization with minimal amount of military vehicles. They run on steam even.
The unfortunate part is the fact there is a great amount of psykers on the world.

The PDF of Macragge is organized in to an invasion force while the local Space Marines starts to scout out the planet so they can perform deep strikes on enemy command structure, this "Horde" faction is by far the largest and most dangerous and thus, their cities are bombarded by Thunderhawks.

Some Space Marines commanders and Imperial Diplomat alongside priests are sent to the Human capital city, they will be explained that they have finally been found, the Emperors guiding light have been with them all this time but the time to cleanse the enemies of man is on us.
Why is this human king, who is clearly a warrior and general, so keen on preserving some of the Xenos? Clearly, this world, while still have hope, it is a frail and weak hope, it must be reinforced by fanatic zeal.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Where did the Avogadro's number idea come from? And how come a 18th centruy scientist came up with this precise number?

I mean without electronic microscopes how did the man came up with such a precise number? And where did his ideas came from?

[Assistant]
First off: It's named after Avogadro, but Avogadro didn't actually provide an number. He just proposed the idea that the volume and number of atoms in a gas are proportional, all other things (namely, temperature and pressure) are constant.

It was first calculated in 1910 when Robert Millikan, and American Physicist, managed to determine the charge on a single electron; which is doable by reacting very small amounts of things, and looking for the LCD in the charge. Because the charge on a mole of electrons (measurable by arranging a chemical reaction using moles of atoms) was known, it's just a division problem from there.

And it wasn't that precise at the time, but has gotten more precise over the years.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Just how much more expensive would eggs and milk be without subsidies?

[Assistant]
That depends on the market structure of the place where the subsidies are used.

In a very competitive marketplace, the subsidy will transfer to consumer surplus -- the closer you get to the theoretical perfect competition, the closer you are to 100% transfer to consumer surplus (likely in the form of lower prices).

In a very uncompetitive marketplace, the subsidies will be more likely absorbed by the producers.

Take an extreme case: there's a monopoly and the subsidy is a flat "gift" every year. We know a monopolist produces where his marginal revenue equals his marginal cost. Since a flat gift doesn't affect his marginal cost, he will produce and price exactly the same and pocket 100% of the subsidy.

So places like Canada (which have a dairy cartel acting closer to a monopoly) in all likelihood have large parts of the subsidy pocketed by producers (the subsidy is effectively a very economically inefficient political mechanism).


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Watchmen] What is the public perception of the heroes throughout Watchmen?

I must post a disclaimer here saying I haven't had a chance to read the graphic novel so there may well be clearer answers there I missed in the film.

In Watchmen the heroes are shown to not be the pinnacle of humanity and do a heck of a lot of shitty things but given the period when the film takes place I didn't get a great idea of how people perceived them. I believe Nite Owl I said that superheroes were a national passtime in the 40's and Silk Spectre I's status as a sex icon and Ozymandias' merchandising empire suggests they managed to keep their reputations but Comedian was a part of a lot of sketchy political acts, assassinations, excessive force and behind closed doors he was even a rapist and cold blooded killer, so what was his image in the public eye? Likewise what about someone like Rorschach who even his friends seem to think is kinda nuts?

[Assistant]
Really poor. Most people don't trust the idea of a crazy person in a mask running around.

Because masked heroes became a thing they fell out of vogue in comic books; Pirates are what's popular now.

Masked Vigilant's became a hot button issue after people like Rorschach ended up using extreme methods to 'fight crime'. This came to a head in 1977 when The Keene Act was passed, banning all Masked Vigilantism except for The Comedian and Dr Manhattan.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Could there combinations of elements we have not yet discovered that are harder than diamonds?

[Assistant] There are materials harder than diamonds, but most of those are quite specific combinations of elements which are difficult to create or maintain outside a lab. Industrial grade diamonds are cheap and easy to make, so diamonds will remain the go-to material for industrial needs.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
If the farthest known object is observed as 13.1 billion light years away, how far is it really?

since it is 13.1 billion light years ago as well. how far is it really?

light took 13 billion years to get here, so 13.1 billion light years away 13 billion years ago.

[Assistant] So if space wasn't expanding a stationary (with respect to us) object that emitted a photon 10ly ago which just reached us today would be 10ly away.  Since space is expanding how far away an (stationary before metric expansion) object is when a photon that it emitted reaches us after a certain amount of time depends on the expansion of the space that the photon that was emitted had to travel through.  Hubble's constant is currently believed to be about 70(km/s)/Mpc so the farther something is away the faster it is moving away and the more space a photon would have to travel through even if it were moving at the speed of light.