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

[User] [Harry Potter] Since the owls in the potterverse always seem to know where people are, why don't they use it as a way to track people down?

[Assistant]
By making yourself and your location untraceable. Owl magic can get around that most of the time, but makes an untraceable charm makes it impossible for others to follow.

At the same time, Sirius was aware that even making himself untraceable could still lead the Ministry to his rough location.  That's why he used different owls and had Harry address him as Padfoot.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some animals tilt their heads when they are confused or trying to figure something out?

[Assistant] Bytiltingthehead, you can adjust how sound waves travel over the ear and possibly get a better understanding of the sound stimulus. Butanimals dothis when they see something unusual too, even ifthereare no sound waves associated with the object in question.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do countries have "official" animals, flowers, and other such things?

[Assistant] Why not? it's a sign of identity, tradition, mark of culture, history, it's nature and speciality. Not all things must have a clear practical purpose, and humans are nothing if not deeply in love with symbolism. We jam symbolism into everything we can, no matter how big or small. It's not exactly suprising that we invent symbols to represent our nations.


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

[User]
ELI5: The Degrees of Murder.

(First, second, and third)

[Assistant]
It varies by jurisdiction. However, here is the general outline:

* **1st Degree Murder** is premeditated murder with malice aforethought. Premeditated means you calmly decided to go and kill someone. You could have decided to do it a year ago or a split-second before the act, it's still pre-meditated. Malice more or less means you either wanted them dead or you acted in a way that you should have reasonably expected them to die (ie. If you shoot someone, you can't say "I didn't mean for it to kill them!").
* **Second Degree Murder** is is murder with malice but without premeditation. You meant to kill them but it was done in the heat of passion (ie. You found your wife in bed with your best friend and you pulled out a gun and shot them). The key point is that you were legitimately provoked and there wasn't enough time for you to cool down. Both of these points are a judgement call by the jury.
* **Third Degree Murder** or otherwise known as **Manslaughter** is killing someone without malice or premeditation. You didn't mean to kill them and didn't plan on it either. You just acted recklessly and it caused someones death. Driving while drunk and hitting someone; leaving a loaded firearm out and a kid shooting himself; etc. are typically third degree murder or manslaughter. Some jurisdictions split this into **voluntary** and **involuntary** manslaughter. Voluntary means you were in a fight, you didn't mean to kill them, and somehow they died (hit them in the wrong spot, shoved them and they fell down some stairs, etc). Involuntary is usually negligence type things (drunk driving, leaving out a loaded weapon, etc).


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

[User] [Marvel] Does Spider-Man have any villains that can match him quip for quip?

[Assistant] Sometimes The Green Goblin can go snark for snark. Depending on the writer. Warren Ellis in Thunderbolts wrote a pretty good Norman Osborne, imo: deeply disturbed but humorous, if not laugh out loud funny.


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

[User] [Street Fighter] Some fighters use claws, other toss knives, others use magical powers. Can I use a shotgun? What are the rules?

[Assistant] Most of the time you aren't fighting in a sanctioned tournament so you can bring whatever the hell you want as long as your honor allows it and its not so obvious and overpowering that your opponent just says F that and doesn't fight you.


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

[User] If table salt (NaCl) dissolved in water is present as sodium and chloride ions, why can I taste salt when I drink the water?

[Assistant] So the "taste" of salt is mainly the sodium ions. Try dissolving a teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in some water and see how awfully salty it tastes. The carbonate gives it a chalky flavor (or maybe it's more of a feel) as well, but the sodium is unmistakable.


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

[User]
Why does contemporary work in ethics within the Analytic tradition seem so far removed from the ethical problems that each of us face in our lives?

I have taken a number of graduate courses in contemporary metaethics. I can't for the life of me give a damn about the discussion being had about global hedonist theories of Crisp. But when I read the classics in ethics like Kant, Mill, or Aristotle, I absolutely love it. I even love reading Spinoza's Ethics, or Hume. Why is it that the ethical theories that derive from these great thinkers seem so far removed from their original sources? For me, when I read Kant's moral theory I get the sense of the importance that ethics has for our overall conception of what it means to be human with limitations and hopes and ideals. Contemporary writings, for me at least, lack that gravity and just appear as pedantic and unimportant. Am I just thinking about things wrong, or have I been given the wrong material to read?

What do you recommend I read to engage with contemporary ethics in a more sincere way?

Edit: To clarify the "problems that each of us face" part: When I read Kant, or Spinoza, or Aristotle, I deeply want to change myself to be a more virtuous, ethical, and happier person. But when I read about whether moral claims are truth apt... well I feel not that...

[Assistant]
Analytic philosophers publish all sorts of stuff about the ethical problems that we confront in our daily lives.

The issue is that you took a course on meta-ethics, but your interests are clearly in applied and normative ethics.


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

[User]
Could DNA have a form of primitive "password protection"?

This question is inspired by a recent post about Covid RNA and why it had a polyA tail (a long sequence of As) at the end. The answers explained that this was a way of tracking the health of the RNA and that it was required for the proteins to be expressed.

Could an organism create a unique or semi unique tail (rather than simply a long series of As), a sort of "password", and use that as a form of protection against viruses that would need to know the exact "password" to hijack the specific organism?

[Assistant]
Bacteria do this! But not exactly in the way you are describing. One protective mechanism that bacteria use to avoid unwanted genetic material (e.g. phages) from hijacking them is to protect their genomes using methylation. The bacteria typically have an enzyme that adds methylation to a certain sequence and a corresponding restriction enzyme that chews up any DNA that isnt protected by said methylation.

As an aside, that discovery was foundational to molecular biology, all from someone looking into how bacteria defend themselves from pathogens.


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

[User] ELI5: Why dont mass produced foods have as much vitamins/minerals/heathly stuff injected into them as possible for a healthier population.

[Assistant] Vitamins are required for health, but that doesn't imply that 'more vitamins equals a better outcome'.  If you packed as much as possible into all processed foods, what you'd end up with is people suffering from toxic doses.  In the case of some of these (like vitamin A), that is extremely serious, or even fatal.


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

[User]
How does marijuana/thc effect sleep architecture?

How does marijuana/thc effect sleep architecture?

[Assistant] This is less well understood than with alcohol, primarily because alcohol is alcohol is alcohol, whereas all marijuana is not the same (it also hasn't been as well researched).  There are dozens of cannabinoids, each of which are in different concentrations in different strains and preparation of cannabis, and each of which impact the brain/body differently.  However, in general, cannabis has been associated with a reduction in REM duration, as well as showing changes in the brain wave patterns exhibited during REM.


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

[User] [biology] How is the jaw pulled down?

[Assistant]
Well, long story short:

- if upright, passively by releasing the masseter muscle (excentric contraction)

- for wider opening or a different position, there are muscles in the front of your neck that will open the mouth

Note that muscles can only pull, but sometimes gravity + contraction can still work as if the agonist muscle is 'pushing'


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

[User] ELI5: why do our hands shake when we are nervous?

[Assistant] Its a component of the fight-or-flight response. Your muscles essentially get prepared to either help you get away from the stressor, or fight it off. This is caused by the release of adrenaline when you notice a stressor. Adrenaline speeds up how quickly your muscles contract, which can lead to twitching (especially around a particularly intense stressor)


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

[User]
Does "Space" itself have any properties besides just being "empty"?..

...Outer space -- that which is outside of the relatively dense conglomeration of matter that tends to surround planets, moons, et al., but seemingly still within our own universe.

I've read something here recently that "empty" space [within the universe] has certain properties that allow the universe to be what it is, but I don't really know how to even begin to think about it.

For instance, space is still essentially 3-dimensional [physically], in that matter can collect into what we call "3D objects". Space allows light and other radiation to propagate and interact with other matter. Space allows a "medium" [for lack of a better term] for objects to become gravitationally attracted to one another. *Space seems to separate matter from itself?!*

I don't say any of those things as *assertions*, but they seem to be intuitively factual statements, and I'm aware of the danger of thinking that reality is not always what it seems.

What I'm asking is "what is space"?

Is there any area of research that deals with space itself, and for that matter, is "space" a term that has been quantified to the point where it can be objectively studied?

[Assistant]
> Space seems to separate matter from itself?!

This is exactly correct. Exactly. We normally say it in slightly different words, even though it's precisely the same idea: Space is what separates events which occur at the same time.

Except you're also talking about something entirely else here. You said "outer space." That's not the same thing as what a physicist means when she says "space."

"Outer space" is a *volume* with certain *characteristic properties.* Outer space has a temperature. (In fact, it has a great many different ranges of temperature, depending on exactly what part of it you examine.) Outer space also has a density, and a pressure.

But those are functions of *stuff.* Consider some volume of the intergalactic void, say a cube a yard on a side. There will be, on average, about five protons in that volume, and a comparable number of electrons, and a vast number of photons, and so on. These things are *stuff,* and they give that volume its characteristic properties. Properties like temperature and pressure.

*Space,* on the other hand, is what you have when you take all the *stuff* away. The properties of space that a physicist is interested in are *geometric* properties. The metric tensor field, the scale factor, and such other bits of esoterica you've probably never heard of and couldn't possibly care less about.

So don't confuse *space* with *outer space.* Space is simple. It's that thing that separates events which occur at the same time. It has geometric properties, and those properties are vitally important if you're a physicist or, say, a person who dislikes skinning her knees because she was clumsy and fell down. *Outer space* is something else, and is really about matter and radiation and their properties in places far from where any of us are.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are spacecraft parts both extremely fragile and able to stand up to tremendous stress?

The other day I was watching a documentary about Mars rovers, and at one point a story was told about a computer on the rover that almost had to be completely thrown out because someone dropped a tool on a table next to it. Not on it, next to it. This same rover also was planned to land by a literal freefall; crash landing onto airbags. And that's not even covering vibrations and G-forces experienced during the launch and reaching escape velocity.

I've heard similar anecdotes about the fragility of spacecraft. Apollo astronauts being nervous that a stray floating object or foot may unintentionally rip through the thin bulkheads of the lunar lander. The Hubble space telescope returning unclear and almost unusable pictures due to an imperfection in the mirror 1/50th the thickness of a human hair, etc.

How can NASA and other space agencies be confident that these occasionally microscopic imperfections that can result in catastrophic consequences will not happen during what must be extreme stresses experienced during launch, travel, or re-entry/landing?

EDIT: Thank you for all the responses, but I think that some of you are misunderstanding the question. Im not asking why spacecraft parts are made out of lightweight materials and therefore are naturally more fragile than more durable ones. Im also not asking why they need to be 100% sure that the part remains operational.

I'm asking why they can be confident that parts which have such a low potential threshold for failure can be trusted to remain operational through the stresses of flight.

[Assistant]
It's not that the tool damaged the computer, but the tool violated the pedigree for the computer.  Since the pedigree is required to launch the computer, it would have been very expensive to disassemble the computer, test every part, and assemble it to be **sure** that no damage had occurred.  To be 99.9% sure that nothing bad could have happened isn't sure enough to pass launch criteria.

The Hubble mirror is an interesting example.  The mirror was made extremely precisely, albeit wrong.  That allowed it to be corrected for later.  There was a plan to test the Hubble mirror, but the schedule was compressed.  Then the Challenger Disaster delayed the launch many months, but NASA didn't want to spend the money on the Hubble test, because they were worried about their budget because of the disaster.


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

[User]
ELI5 If lab diamonds are the same chemically as natural, how do diamond testers work?

By diamond testers I mean the ones from videos online that lights up all the way if a diamond is real. How do lab grown not also set those off?

[Assistant] Lab-grown diamonds won't show as fake in those detectors - but lab-grown diamonds aren't how most people "fake" a diamond, as those are still pretty expensive to make (need to apply a lot of pressure and meet other conditions which costs money for equipment to the point that if you're doing it just to have some jewelry it's less hassle and money to just get the jewelry at marked-up prices), but other rocks like cubic zirconia and substances like glass are polished and made to look like diamonds by various means (adding reflective materials to the bottom and other little tricks to fool the naked eye) and put into jewelry in the place of real diamonds either by people making jewelry on the cheap or people trying to rip off uninformed buyers of expensive jewelry.


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

[User] [ Harry Potter ] Would night-vision goggles protect you against the basilisk's petrifying gaze?

[Assistant]
The basilisk's gaze only petrifies when seen indirectly, like a reflection off of water or through the lens of a camera. It kills outright if seen directly.

I think night-vision goggles would be the same kind of indirect viewing as camera lenses.


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

[User]
ELI5:How do most fast food places have such a consistent product?

In most fast food places, I can order something, and I know it'll taste exactly the same as when I last ordered it, even if I order it at a different location in a chain. Personally, when I cook, in order to get that level of consistency, I'd have to be quite careful, if I put something together as quickly as a fast food restaurant, it will taste somewhat different every time. What methods do they employ to do this?

[Assistant]
All the food is prepared at central distributors and shipped out. The franchise just does the final cooking.  The things that are really giving that consistent flavoring are the sauces and spices, which the franchise gets in bulk from corporate.  Mcdonalds franchises aren't prepping burger patties or chicken nuggets, they are getting them just as you could from the freezer section at the grocery store. Even stores that do a bit more work at the franchise will follow this pattern. For example, ChickFilA batters the chicken at the franchise, but they probably get batter mix from corporate.

Cook times and methods are also standardized. For example, everything deep fried has a specific oil temp and cook time that are built into the frier controls. The franchise doesn't need to even have anything special to track it, they just press start on the frier and the timer starts.

For grilled things, it is a bit harder to standardize, but not too bad.  There is generally just burgers and chicken being grilled.  The burgers are always cooked medium well+ which is an easy mark to hit. Consistently hitting perfect medium rare is tricky, but medium well to well is easy to hit without going drastically over.

Edit. One other thing is large batch sizes. Lets say you make fries at home in a small home frier. It is easy to over/undersalt them because 1 extra shake of salt is a significant fraction of the total salt. But when you cook 10 lbs of fries or however much at once, one extra shake is hardly anything in comparison.


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

[User]
CMV: More people would be satisfied, and less would be marginalized, if divisive political issues were settled on state and local levels instead of federally

At the time of the ratifying of the Constitution, there were about 250,000 men who would have been considered eligible to vote, with about 4 million persons living within the United States. Over 230 years, the population has grown massively and voting rights have expanded. 157 million people were registered to vote in 2016, with a population of around 330 million. With hundreds of counties hosting populations larger than the intended voting bloc of the constitution, people would be better served by more localized voting on divisive issues.
Just to list a few examples:
Texas should be able to build a border wall and California should be able to offer easy immigration simultaneously.
New Yorkers and Utahns should be able to look at abortion differently and apply those differences to their law set.
Colorado should be able to legalize marijuana, while North Carolina extends the criminal penalties for possession of it, and Arizona legalizes it medically.
If Washington votes for government provided healthcare and Kentucky doesnt, good on both parties!
While West Virginia mines for coal, Maine can set goals to be fully wind powered.
A lot of regulations placed by federal regulatory agencies (such as the EPA, the USDA, and really the organizations under the Presidential cabinet) would better serve the population at more localized levels.

I realize that to varying degrees, these examples are in place. States do have differing laws. And my point is, this is exactly how it should be! On many of the major issues of our day, there is a divide that is typically close to 50/50 on a national level, but in most states the same issues will have a stronger consensus one way or another. I really dont need my ideas to influence laws for someone thousands of miles away from me- I just want it to affect *my* day to day life! But once laws change (or sometimes when they dont) on state levels, it seems like it needlessly becomes a national battle over ideologies.
Most people today seem to think that Biden or Trump winning the election (and corresponding numbers of senators, with ripple effects in the judicial branch) will make the United States better/worse the next 4 years, and on some level, of course it will. But instead of around 80 million (about half of todays registered voters) people choosing that next four years for 160 million plus all the non-voters, isnt it better for 80 groups of a million to determine the next four years for 80 groups of 2 million voters? Laws being more specialized by state/county is all thats needed in most cases, and our state/county levels fit the population levels with which the Constitution was created for. Then people wouldnt have to feel like their whole world is crashing down for four years when a Republic/Democrat is in office when their state and 20 others voted against one person.
It seems like a relatively simple solution to a lot of tension, hatred, and people feeling abused by the system. Is there a reason everything has to go to a national level when populations of different places throughout the country have such varied history, financial needs, religious beliefs, social views, and environmental factors at play?

Edit 1: I understand how Federal action has been beneficial to minority groups in the past. Theres a difference between the 13th *constitutional amendment* and the federal government deciding exactly how people can use their property, what their health insurance options are, etc. Civil rights have been put into place, Im not arguing against those.

Edit 2: Id really appreciate it if people would address the  question in relation to something outside of civil rights. I know the federal government has had positive impacts on civil rights in states that were behind the curve- I have already expressed that there is a difference between the tiny percentage of civil rights laws and the thousand of others. Namely, civil rights laws are mostly going to go back to enforcement of the 14th amendment (or others). My point is that (as the constitution states in its 10th amendment) anything outside of the powers given to the federal government ought to be determined by states and/or citizens.

Edit 3: Perhaps my title should have been More people would be satisfied, and less would be marginalized, if issues unrelated to the constitution and its amendments were always settled on state and local levels instead of federally.

[Assistant]
Do you think that black people would be less marginalized in the US South today if there hadn't been federal interventions like the civil rights and voting rights act, or decisions like Brown vs Board of Education and Loving vs Virginia had not happened?

> ... Just to list a few examples: Texas should be able to build a border wall and California should be able to offer easy immigration simultaneously. ...

Do you also think that the federal government should not be involved in border control?  If you do think that the federal government should have authority over border control can you talk about how you think authority over border policy (such as immigration) should be split between the states and the federal government.   If you do not think that the federal government should be involved in border control, can you elaborate on what authorities you think the federal government should have?

There is certainly some legitimate controversy or difference in opinion about what kinds of stuff should fall under the authority of the states and what kinds of stuff should fall under the authority of the federal government, but this notion that states should be able to set the policy on federal borders is pretty out there.


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

[User]
"Red sky at night; sailor's delight. Red sky at morning; sailors take warning." Accurate? Why?

A red sunset is supposed to mean that the weather will be nice the following day. A red sunrise is supposed to indicate rain is coming. How accurate is this and why? Does the color actually matter? What if the sunrise is orange?

[Assistant]
A red sky indicates that the atmosphere has a lot of dust particles in it.  Short wavelength light (blue, violet) scatters away, leaving the red light to penetrate.  The redder the color the dustier the sky.  At sunrise and sunset the light is traveling through the lower atmosphere and is giving an indication of the dust levels in the lower atmosphere.

The proverb then reflects a correlation between a dusty sky and calm weather.  This correlation exists because dusty skies are caused by high pressure regions that push dust into the lower atmosphere.  These dust particles scatter the blue light away and leave a red sky.  So a deep red sunset indicates dusty skies and good weather either to the west (sunset) or to the east (sunrise).

Over most parts of the globe, winds move west to east so a red sky to the west indicates that calm weather is on the way.  A red sky to the east indicates that calm weather has just passed by, and it's possible that a stormy low pressure region may be following.


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

[User] What exactly does it mean that a vaccine/booster etc is X% effective?

[Assistant]
Typically they are referring to Relative risk reduction.  Take 100 people and give them vaccine,  100 people who dont get it (or better,  get a placebo).  After some period of time,  see how many in each group got the virus.

Lets say 2 in the treatment group got the vid and 20 in the placebo group.

2/100=0.02

20/100=0.2

So the relative risk reduction is= (0.2-0.02)/0.2 = 0.9

So the relative risk reduction is 90%. You can think of it as having a 90% less chance of catching the virus if you get the vaccine compared to if you dont.


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

[User] ELI5: How can two items with the same name be in the Recycle Bin at the same time?

[Assistant]
The recycling bin isn't a regular folder. It also contains a reference to the original location (because you can restore it) and presumably uses a unique identifier other than the filename, so you can even have two items from the same location with the same name in the recycling bin.

The same way your school/work's student/employee database won't get confused if you have two people called John Doe, it creates a unique identifier for every new entry so it can internally keep track of things even if no human ever sees that unique identifier.


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

[User]
Why are volcanic lightning sometimes red?

I just watched some videos and often theyre normal blue but in some videos the lightnings are red like in movies or something. Why does that happen?

[Assistant] The lightning isn't itself red, the red color is evident from the other wavelengths being filtered out by all the ash and soot and gas in the air between the electric discharge and your eyes, just like a sunset.


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

[User]
Can space yield?

As an engineer I work with material data in a lot of different ways. For some reason I never thought to ask, what does the material data of space or "space-time" look like?

For instance if I take a bar of aluminum and I pull on it (applying a tensile load) it will eventually yield if I pull hard enough meaning there's some permanent deformation in the bar. This means if I take the load off the bar its length is now different than before I pulled on it.

If there are answers to some of these questions, I'm curious what they are:

* Does space experience stress and strain like conventional materials do?

* Does it have a stiffness? Moreover, does space act like a spring, mass, damper, multiple, or none of the above?

* Can you yield space -- if there was a mass large enough (like a black hole) and it eventually dissolved, could the space have a permanent deformation like a signature that there used to be a huge mass here?

* Can space shear?

* Can space buckle?

* Can you actually tear space? Science-fiction tells us yes, but what could that really mean? Does space have a failure stress beyond which a tear will occur?

* Is space modeled better as a solid, a fluid, or something else? As an engineer, we sort of just ignore its presence and then add in effects we're worried about.

[Assistant]
As an engineer you're probably familiar with the concept of the stress tensor, a 3x3 matrix describing the pressures and shears on a volume. In general relativity, it is expanded to a 4x4 matrix called the stress-energy tensor, where the 2nd to 4th rows and columns are the stress tensor and the first row and column represent the time dimension. The 1,1 element is the energy density (mc^2 in a simple case), and the other time components aren't important right now.

You can look at a stress-energy tensor to see how things behave in the same way you'd look at a stress tensor to see how a material behaves. In general relativity, each different type of spacetime has a geometry that's related to the stress-energy tensor via Einstein's equations.

The simplest case is Minkowski space, or flat space. Its stress-energy tensor is just zeros. The same is true for non-flat vacuum solutions, like Schwartzschild space (around a point mass) and the hyperbolic and elliptical flat solutions: de Sitter and anti-de Sitter space.

In solutions that describe matter distributions (like the Schwarzschild interior solution for a uniform density sphere) then the stress components tell you everything you need to know.

Over large scales the universe is described by the FLRW solution. The stress-energy tensor is diagonal with the time-time component being the density of the universe and the spatial diagonal components being the isotropic pressure. In this sense, the universe behaves as a compressible gas.


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

[User]
[WH40k] Are there any "normal" people in the universe?

Are there civilians who don't see combat, they just go to work at space Wal-Mart, come home to their wife and children? Is anyone safe without having to be rich or a highly placed government official? Does anyone just get to be normal?

[Assistant]
The overwhelming majority of the citizens of the Imperium never see a Xenos, an Inquisitor, a Daemon, or even a Heretic. That doesn't mean they're SAFE, as most of the population lives on Hive Worlds which have rampant overcrowding and crime problems, but they don't see combat in a military sense.

Even then, there are many types of worlds throughout the Imperium, from placid Agri-Worlds to feral Death-Worlds. Some have a relatively 'modern' lifestyle, while others are barely sophisticated enough to understand how fire works.

Yes, there are almost certainly people in the Imperium's lower ranks who live what we would call 'the good life'. They're just boring.


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

[User]
[Original Spider-Man Trilogy] Why didnt Peter immediately explain what happened to Harrys dad?

From Harrys perspective, a strange masked man just dumped his fathers corpse on the ground. What was he supposed to think, apart from Spider-Man killed my dad?!

Why didnt Peter just say Your father was the Green Goblin. He tried to kill me and he killed himself.?

If he wanted to preserve Harrys memory of Norman, why didnt he say, The Green Goblin kidnapped and murdered your father. Thats true, at least from a certain point of view.

[Assistant] Because Peter Parker, despite being very intelligent, has extreme trouble making decisions that will make his life easier.  Across all media, comics, TV, movies, Spider-Man can be trusted to make a morally sound decision that will come back to make things more difficult for himself down the line.


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

[User]
ELI5: Suez crisis

What was it all about? Why was it such a big deal? What impact did it have on international affairs?

[Assistant]
in 1956, Israel invaded Egypt, using the area around the Suez canal for their own stuff, cutting it off from Egyptian use. Britain and France told both sides to end the conflict with an ultimatum.
it was a big deal because after Britain and France issued the ultimatum, they bombed Cairo, Egypt's capital. why would they bomb the country that just got invaded? that's where the really big deal part comes in, because it was evident that the three nations had planned it all out.
Britain and France withdrew within weeks, but Israel stayed to force some negotiations and got some of what it wanted, but not the removal of Egyptian President Nasser.

the impact it had was, essentially, making sure no Middle Eastern nation trusted Israel or any Western nation ever again.

**EDIT** : it also did this weird thing where it pointed out the good character of president Eisenhower because at the same time that this was happening, Hungary was revolting against the Soviet Union. Eisenhower could not, in all good conscience, approve Britain and France's intervention in the Middle East, and condemn the Soviet Union's intervention in Hungary when both wars started and ended in the same span of two weeks.


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

[User]
What terrible advice have you been given by your advisers over the years?

In relation to the writing process, when I was doing my MA, my adviser always used to tell me "you shouldn't wait to start writing and just research as you go." This basically ruined writing for me. Everytime I've tried to sit down to write, I would get super frustrated at the inability to fill up a blank page. And then the "research as you go" is equally bad because as you do this and struggle to fill the pages, your argument evolves and what you've written can quickly become a jumbled mess.

He swore by this approach, but after years of trying it and hating writing (in spite of undertaking a PhD) I'm realizing that it was just terrible advice.

Do any of you folks find that approach to writing useful?

What are your bad advice stories?

[Assistant] I think a lot of profs are out of touch with just how terrible the academic job market really is, despite being entrenched in the hiring process. They don't really realize they are the lucky ones, even when they see 400 applicants for a single TT position. They tend to think that because they made it, any of their students can too.


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

[User]
Kant's Philosophy in movies

Hi guys, first time poster here. Next friday I have to give in a work about Kant's philosophy and how we can find it in movies, music pieces/songs, paintings, books, etc..
We can choose whatever we want, but it has to be just one thing, and I'd like to make it about a movie.
I'd like to start doing a little research among some movies that could work for it, but I'd like to have some hints from you before to start.
If it can help, we read "What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?" and the introduction to the first edition of the "Critique of Pure Reason".
(I'm attending the fourth of five years of Italian High School, so it doesn't have to be such a pro thing)
Thanks!

[Assistant]
I think "A Clockwork orange" is built upon Kants idea that actions can only be moral if they are the product of free will. To quote the film: "Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man."

The main character, the criminal Alex Delarge is subjected to aversion therapy which makes him see horrible images at the thought of sex and violence. This causes Alex to be miserable rather than good and after a failed suicide attempt he has rejected his therapy and returns to his criminal way of thinking, illustrating the point.


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

[User]
[The Truman Show] If the show was happening today or continued until today without Truman knowing how would Covid affect production of the show? Would they incorporate it into the show?

I presume the actors leave the set sometimes. What if they end up giving Truman Covid?

[Assistant]
It wouldnt have any effect. The set is closed.  Truman lives in a literal bubble and every facet of his life is pretty much a lie.  So why stop that just because of what's going on in the real world?

Any actor who left the set and had to isolate for two weeks, their character would simply be on "vacation" or on a business trip, or maybe even in the hospital... Truman wouldn't know the difference.

That said, the viewing audience (already enamored by the show) would probably appreciate it.   It's on 24/7 and you'd have less people in the "real" world (in universe) going outside the house.  They'd stay at home more often and watch that constantly instead.


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

[User] ELI5: what is the science behind weighted blankets and how do they reduce anxiety?

[Assistant]
Part of it has to do with our sensory system (hearing, seeing, smelling, and feeling) our bodies are constantly getting input from those senses. For each of our senses there are inputs that make them excited or calmed. For our sense of feeling, deep pressure and compression are calming inputs while light touch can be exciting input.

So a heavy blanket will give your body an input of deep pressure and compression making your brain feel calmer. Its another reason humans hug to comfort each other, it provides pressure and compression making the person being hugged feel calmer.


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

[User] LI5: What exactly is bandwidth and how does an ISP make more of it?

[Assistant]
I'll take this. Edit incoming.

EDIT: If you remember the days of dial-up, your computer was much slower at downloading things from the internet. Much longer ago, information was exchanged slower than that, such as in communications in wires under the ocean.

We communicate digitally with lots of 1s and 0s - on settings and off settings - and bandwidth is how many 1s and 0s we can send at a time through the connection. Higher frequencies can carry more stuff, just like how TV signals can carry more information than radio signals, or how FM (which is a higher frequency) carries stereo sound instead of AM's Mono.

So you can get more bandwidth to your house with a better cable, but you also need a high quality connection, or else more of your 1s and 0s will be spent doing error checks to make sure that the rest of your signals are getting through. More errors = less speed.

Your ISP has to get all of that data (and there's a lot of it) into the internet. That can be tricky if there are distances involved, and it often means laying fiberoptic wires, which carries a large investment cost. To get that money back, the ISP charges more for people that use more bandwidth.


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

[User] [CA:TWS/MCU] One of those hydra guys in the elevator actually accepts Caps offer and tells him that he do wants to get out. What happens next?

[Assistant]
Rumlow glares at the idiotic Hydra agent who would suggest something like that, and from Rumlow's gaze the Hydra guy realizes that, starting from the moment he stepped into the elevator, there was no turning back.

Everything else happens the same as before.


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

[User]
[Katamari Damacy] Is it wrong to make Katamari?

King of Cosmos encourages the player to roll up numerous people and planets into stars, to burn in the sky.

The cops shoot at the katamari, indicating an awareness of what's happening.

What's the deal here? The people don't want to be katamari, it seems. They fight against it, for the most part.

Are we the bad guys?

[Assistant]
What is bad about Katamari? What is not to like about being rolled up with other small things and turning into a beautiful star in the sky? But people see Katamari coming and they run and scream in terror. They are small and only understand small things, like shoes and cats and money. They cannot possibly understand big things like death or entropy or Katamari. But such big things exist whether they are understood or not, because that is the way of the Cosmos.

So go ahead, little prince, roll away and make big beautiful Katamari, and don't worry about the little people with little lives who don't understand. They never will. They're helpless to change their fate.


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

[User] Why do small capillaries not clog up long before the larger arteries develop cholesterol blockage?

[Assistant] The 'clogging' is the body repairing inflammation in the artery wall. It appears to only happen in arteries where they are subjected to pulses of high pressure from the heart beating. Capillaries and veins don't experience those stresses and don't get the inflammation sites. Interestingly, if you take a vein and use it as an artery replacement in heart bypass surgery, then the vein *will* develop inflammation and start to "clog".


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

[User] How much is known about what's on the other side of the Milky Way?

[Assistant]
That really depends on what you'd call the "other side" of the Milky Way.

Most of the "other side" is just as well known as most of "this side" since there is barely any difference (apart from the added distance, of course) in the measurement process.

However, we don't know much about the area with is "obstructed" by the center of the milky way. The problem there is that the center of our galaxy is fairly dense and as such it's quite a problem to measure any significant data from things behind it. Basically it's like trying to measure the luminosity of a light bulb while holding it in front of the sun - the background noise is way to big. In any way, it's not expected that there is some weird discontinuity of our galaxy's structure there - spiral galaxies are typically very symmetrical.


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

[User]
CMV:If a piece of property you own is found to be undevelopable because of a protected species, the government should have to buy your land from you for what you paid for it.

I live in an area with a lot of environmental protection laws and regulations. I frequently hear stories of people buying a piece of land and then not being able to do anything with the property because the government determines there are tree frogs or owls of some sort. These people just end up losing out. To a lesser extent there are times when people are delayed for a decade before they can develop because there is an investigation because someone reported they saw a certain snake or something. I have no problem with environmental protection laws, but they should not punish landowners. If an animal is important enough to stop any development for, the government should have to buy the land and turn it into a sanctuary.

[Assistant]
Perhaps a market-based insurance solution would work better here.

Landowners who don't want to bear the risk of not being able to develop their land due to environmental restriction could buy special insurance that would pay out if the land does in fact become non-developable.

It would be win-win-win: the landowners transfer their individual risk to a risk pool, the government doesn't get stuck buying land it doesn't want to own, and insurance companies get a new market.


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

[User]
Is there a philosophical argument that went totally wrong from one point?

Is there a philosophical argument that, in your opinion, went totally wrong from one point?

I had this feeling with Descartes. I was really impressed while reading his methodological doubt, but when he came up with the idea of god to justify that the world is real I was kinda disappointed...

[Assistant]
Mill's proof for Utilitarianism is notorious for being deeply flawed, having been accused severally of the Naturalistic Fallacy, the Composition fallacy, etc.

His employment of the Composition fallacy occurs when he says (ch. 4):

1. Each person's happiness is a good to that person,

2. So, the general happiness must be a good to the aggregate of all persons

In short: As happiness is a good, Bs is a good, Cs is a good, etc., so, the sum of all these goods must be a good.

This is a textbook case of the composition fallacy, which can be rendered absurd like so: A has a mother, B has a mother, and C has a mother and so on, therefore the aggregate of all persons has *a* mother.


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

[User]
[Warcraft] An adventurer sold me some stuff and I don't know what to do, please help

It happened again! One of those adventurers you hear so much about stormed into my shop (artisanal cheeses, trade district, Stormwind, try our selection of Gilnean specials) and before I knew it, she'd convinced me to buy all this stuff from her that... well.

Some of this stuff looks really suspicious! There are like six vicious-looking swords and axes and twice as much armor, a whole pile of identical-looking helmets and I don't know what half this stuff even is. It's all very black and spiky, and some of it is dripping of lava, and I don't know what to do with it all! I just make cheese.

The adventurer mumbled something about fighting Deathwing? But I'm pretty sure we got through with that years ago. She just waved it off and said she just wanted them for the looks or something, and then something about being disappointed about a horse, and frankly I don't know where I even got the gold to pay her for all this.

Is it even safe for me to keep this in my shop? I suppose I haven't seen any rats around in a while, so that's a plus, but my cheeses are coming out weird and my dreams have been all... scary, lately.

[Assistant]
First off, thanks for helping out our brave heroes, but secondly, if it is such a big problem for you, why didn't you just refuse to buy it?

You should really look into joining the N.P.C. union, especially if you got this big trouble with saying no. It is well worth If you already are a member, talk to your local representative to learn of the many, many benefits.
The one that you are after is the adventurer's pickup service, who takes the equipment and "trash" to those who are willing to buy them for a minimal percentage of the profit, which usually to triple your "investment".

unless your haggling skills when talking to the adventurer sucked as much as your self-restraint, of course.


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

[User] ELI5: How have we been able to make the physical size of memory sticks such as SD cards and flash drives smaller and smaller while being able to hold much larger amount of bytes of data?

[Assistant] We find and/or invent new manufacturing processes that allow us to make smaller and smaller circuits and components. Sometimes that's a matter of building more accurate machines, sometimes it's a matter of creating new materials.


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

[User] Why does hot water taste different than cold water?

[Assistant] So cells in our taste buds express receptors that recognize different types of compounds - one receptor type per cell seems to be how it works. However, in addition to these receptors, gustatory cells also contain channels that are sensitive to heat, and they sensitize the cell to other inputs. What this means is that most flavors seem to be more intense when they're warmer (unless of course they reach the threshold of pain, in which case our brain is more preoccupied with that than communicating the taste). This is why warm coke tastes sweeter than cold coke, etc.


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

[User]
Does it take energy to move through time?

Struggled with the wording of the title. This isn't a "time traveling" question.

We know that it takes energy to move through the three dimensions of space. So when considering time as the fourth dimension either separate or as a combined with space as a single continuum, does it take energy to move through time?

In short, is there a Delta-v for moving through time.

Edit: My wording was incorrect. I was just trying to express the picture in my head. I realize that it does not take energy to move through space, but energy (acceleration) was required for an object to reach it's current velocity . F=ma, so another way to look at it is like this. If our current movement through time is F, then what was the a(acceleration) that brought us to our current rate.

**Edit 2: Second thought, is there energy associated with our movement through time?**

**Thank you all for the great input. Certainly the key to a great answer is a great question, sorry if that was a little fuzzy, but I'm very impressed with where this went and it certainly helped my understanding**

[Assistant]
No, nor does it take energy to move through space.  It takes work (ie. an expenditure/transfer of energy) to *change* your motion through space.  That is, it takes work to cause an acceleration.

Now remember that velocity is relative, not absolute.  That is, you can never say how fast something is moving in an absolute sense, only how fast it's moving *relative to* something else.  You are always sitting still (unless you're *accelerating*) from your own perspective.

All of these rules for motion through space also apply to "motion through time," that is, the rate at which time passes.  From your own perspective, time always passes at the same rate, but from the perspective of someone else watching you, that rate depends on your velocity relative to that observer.  This relative rate can change by changing that velocity, aka. accelerating, which requires work, aka. an expenditure of energy.


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

[User]
We know that there's a superior speed limit in the universe, the speed of light. Is there an inferior speed limit?

 An obvious answer would be "staying in place". If you don't move, then obviously, you're at the slowest speed possible. But the small things of which you're made still move between them, and the smaller things like atoms are moving. Also, you're moving through space.

 So, how slow, or how close can you get to being *completely* still. Can molecules ever really be at a rest? If molecules aren't moving, what about atoms. Can the electrons ever stop "spinning*. What about quarks? Is this what absolute zero means?

 Also, could we ever have a point in space which doesn't move at all. But since movement is relative to an observer, would that mean that if something is truly not moving in any aspect, then nothing in the universe is moving either? Is this what will happen because of entropy?

 **Bonus question #1:** Can matter still exist without energy?

 **Bonus question #2:** Is the universe currently accelerating/decelerating/constant in its expansion?

 **Bonus question #3:** If the universe were decelerating in its expansion, would it at some point reach stillness (stop expanding). Once this happened, wouldn't it be logical that the universe would start to shrink because of gravity?

[Assistant]
Motion is relative. You can always construct a perfectly consistent picture of the Universe (called a reference frame) in which you're at rest, or a particular given atom is at rest, and so on. In other words, complete rest is whatever you define it to be; there's no way to distinguish motion with a constant velocity from pure rest.

BQ1: Remember that matter is stuff, and energy is a quantity that any bit of stuff has. Energy isn't, as sci-fi movies and new age self-help books like to claim, some form of stuff as well. It's a *property* of matter. Can you have matter with zero energy? Not really. You have energy by moving, as well as an innate "rest energy" even when you're not moving (that's mc^(2)).

BQ2: The expansion is accelerating.

BQ3: If the Universe were decelerating (and until 1998 we thought it was, since gravity should pull everything together), then a big crunch collapse would be a possibility. But it wouldn't *have* to happen. The Universe could also decelerate, but at a slower and slower rate, so that the expansion rate slows down and slows down but never quite hits zero and turns around to contraction. This is a lot like launching a rocket at escape velocity (and turning the boosters off). It would always slow down due to the Earth's gravitational pull, but it would never slow down so much that it turned around and fell back down; it would just asymptotically approach zero speed.


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

[User] When I get drunk, why do I look drunk? I mean, what physically happens?

[Assistant]
Certainly depends on your intoxication level.

Suffice to say, alcohol contributes to a temporary condition called ataxia - which is an impairment of your balance and motor coordination. It's likely a result of the alcohol slowing down or impairing the communication of a part of your brain called your "cerebellum". The cerebellum controls much of your motor skills.

With the impairment in communication (the communication works through a complex mechanism best simplified as electrical wires) one develops traditional ataxia signs such as

* unsteady gait
* slurred speech (can't control jaw)
* clumsiness of their hands and movement
* double vision

The ataxia (and its symptoms) get progressively more severe as one gets progressively more drunk.


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

[User]
[XMEN] Would Wolverine be better off if his adamantium claws just came as wearable gauntlets?

Coating his entire skeleton in adamantium made his claws significantly more effective. But at the cost of his healing factor constantly fighting back against adamantium poisoning and putting constant strain on his body.

Couldn't this have been remedied by simply making the adamantium claws into a set of retractable claws that Logan can just wear on his hands? Think about it, you've got the unbreakable claws, the classic bone claws chilling underneath for when his back is against the wall, and his healing factor is in peak condition.

The Weapon X program may have just jumped the shark.

[Assistant]
Do you really think weapon x gave a flying toss about the long term effects on logan or any mutants. To borrow from jurassic park, they wanted to see if they could and didn't care if they should.

That being said, is it better to have an Unbreakable skeleton where your flesh takes longer to heal (but still heals in seconds) or be able to heal faster?


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

[User]
Why are so few animals considered self-aware? Mirror test question.

Only those animals that pass the mirror test (observing a painted mark on their body in the mirror and using that knowledge to attempt to remove the mark) are commonly accepted as being self-aware to a significant degree.

But doesn't the fact that cats and dogs learn not to get tricked by their own reflection in the mirror indicate that they understand mirrors/possess self-awareness? My cat reacts to my reflections but not his own, which means he hasn't simply learned to ignore the mirror but understands it's content on some level.

[Assistant]
Animals can learn that the picture in the mirror isn't a real animal without realizing it's a reflection of themselves.  It's just some object, like all the other weird objects the humans have.

Most animals aren't as visual as humans anyway, so they often figure out that the thing that doesn't smell like an animal isn't an animal right away.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Hungary the pornographic powerhouse of Europe?

[Assistant] Hungary has had a relatively active film industry compared to the rest of Europe for decades, which gives pornographers ample access to equipment, studios and talent. Many jurisdictions in the United States have great tax incentives for the film industry but nearly all of them exempt the porn industry. Hungary's latest tax incentive does not restrict content, which has allowed to porn industry there to flourish.


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

[User] If you catch a cold, is there an easy way to know or guess which virus is causing it?

[Assistant]
Not only is there no easy way to tell, theres no hard way to tell either. Even in a research setting, using tailored highly sensitive PCR and other techniques, a significant minority of colds never have a causative agent linked to them.

There no simple way to tell at all.  Symptoms may give a very crude estimate, but theres so much overlap that its not much more than old wives tales.


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

[User] ELI5: How to whistle with your fingers?

[Assistant]
Take your thumb and any finger (middle works best for me). Bring the tips close together, but leave about a 1/4 inch of space between them. Use your fingers fold your tongue back. Curl your lips around your fingers and blow. It takes a lot of practice.

Edit:  Wow! Gold! This is awesome!! Thank you kind stranger!


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are (pretty much) all tires black?

I only know of some bike tires that are blue. But why isn't it more common to find tires in different colors other than black?

[Assistant] The rubber that tires are sourced from is a milky white color, but carbonblackis added to the rubber as a stabilizing chemical compound and makes thetire black. ... Carbonblackprotects thetirefrom the damaging effects of UV light and ozone, two known elements that contribute to the deterioration of thetire.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do videos need to buffer when I rewind?

It doesn't make any sense to me. I just watched it so shouldn't the clip be saved on my computer? Why do I need to download it a second time?

[Assistant]
Depends on how the buffer is implemented.

Some streaming videos only buffer the 10-30 seconds you're about to watch next and don't save anything to your computer. This is popular for content where licensing might be an issue, because it's more like an on-demand broadcast, and they're not providing you with an actual offline copy of the video.

Sites like YouTube usually do use actual video files that are played inside the browser using Flash or HTML5, and these should allow you to rewind without having to download the data again. However, this is only true as long as you don't skip ahead. If you watch the first 3 minutes, then skip ahead to 10:00, the player will start a new download (beginning at 10:00) and discard the old data (0:00-3:00). If you then go back to say 2:00, the player will not find any buffered data.


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

[User]
Eli5 what is economy of scale and what is economy of scope?

Its 3 am and i dont have the brain activity to understand anything anymore. Please be as patronising as possible.

[Assistant]
The word "economy" in these phrases means "savings."

Economy of scale:  it costs less to make something in bulk (and then divide it into small packages for sale) than to make many (small) quantities.  A cookie-making factory will have less costs per cookie than, say, the sum of all the pastry chefs in NY working separately at their bakeries to make cookies.

Economy of scope:  it costs less to make related items in a factory than to have separate factories for each item.  The cookie factory could easily be expanded to also make waffles, pancakes, donuts, etc., and it would cost less than building separate factories for each of these related products.


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

[User]
CMV: It should no longer be acceptable for men to constantly have to make the first move in dating scenarios.

I am a man who struggles with reading body language and non-verbal communication. Matter of fact, let's go beyond struggle. I'm actively bad at it. Unless you verbally tell me you're wanting to do something, or not do it, I will never know you're interested, and I will actively choose to assume you are not.

I am also struggling with deep personal hatred and confusion about my place in society as it relates to romance, and dating.
Add this all together, and you get a situation where it's very easy for me to feel fear, and a deep anxiety, about having to constantly be responsible for leading an attempt to create a romantic connection with a member of the opposite sex. It's not out of the realm of possibility for me to enter into a nightclub, or some other similar setting, and feel fear to the point of wanting to leave the area absolutely.

Maybe it's personal bias about this but if there are more men like me out there, why is it that I have to be responsible for always showing interest, escalating interest from the purely romantic into something sexual, and making every move?

[Assistant]
Men don't have to always make the first move.

Think about all the conditioning that brought you to this idea. The feeling that men have to make the first move. I'd imagine women are dealing with the same conditioning but the opposite.

Males who don't make the first move: Slur about being weak
Females who make the first move: Slur about being slutty.

Dating is ALL screwed up.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does 5GHZ seem to be the ceiling for conventional desktop overclocking?

I know that overclockers can push CPUs s further than that, but ~5GHZ seems to be the clockspeed today's CPUs max out on since 2011. Why is that?

[Assistant]
CPU speed is limited by time of transmission and heat.

The electrical signal has to be transmitted through microscopic wires in a chip. Though the theoretical limit is the speed of light, the realistic limit is determined by the material that conducts the electrical charge. Additionally the gates -- the circuits -- have to switch from 0 to 1 -- open to closed -- and that can only happen so quickly. So there are physical, engineering limits on how fast those things can take place.

It is possible to make those things happen faster -- that's basically what overclocking is -- but when you do that it generates additional heat. Without appropriate cooling, the heat will eventually burn out the microprocessor. Because of the size of microprocessors there's only so much cooling you can bring to the table, so as you try to speed up the chip you reach a point where the additional heat outstrips any attempts at cooling, and you burn the chip up.

The combination of transmission speed and heat dissipation create the limits on CPUs.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do people's legs move in synchronization when walking next to each other?

[Assistant] It's the brain's way to subconsciously eliminate noise. Your brain wants to be able to hear the person you are talking to or even just your surroundings better, and the way to do that is to synchronize footsteps.


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

[User] [Dune] Why doesn't the spice give the fremen prescient abilities?

[Assistant] It does. It's only a handful of people that have the right mix of luck and genetics to get precognitive abilities tho. Most people need more spice than is possible to intake naturally to get even a glimpse of the future. Someone like Paul was bred for generations of planning and such to perfectly be able to use spice to that degree. So while some fremen can see the future they're extremely rare and even then have very limited capabilities in it.


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

[User]
When you're hand is cold, why does it hurt more when you hit something with it?

A mate of mine asked me this question, he heard it being asked on the radio, and the scientist who usually answers the questions wasn't really sure.

I told him that I guessed that it has to do with the fact that there isn't as much blood closer to the surface of your hand when you are cold, and this possibly exposes the nerves more, but I am not really sure of that.

Being someone cursed with 'needing to know', any insights would be greatly appreciated :)

[Assistant]
It is about the sensitivity of the nerve that changed with temperature and the degree of coldness.
If it is harshly cold, this will be interpreted as pain sensation and if it lasts a bit longer, nerve will be sensitized that mean it will be sensitive to all things to be pain even non-hurt stimuli.
If it is not that sever cold, the nerve still be more sensitive than when it is too hot, so more nerves are active and send the perception to the brain, so we feel more painful when we hit something.
About vascular, it is not the samething. Someone are more sensitive to cold and their blood vessels tends to be constricted when they exposed to cold that leads to ischemia and pain. It is called raynaud's phenomenon which is pathologic, not physiologic conditions. Cause of this phenomenon can be occupational related such as road digger with the machines, or autoimmune disease like Systemic Sclerosis, SLE, Rheumatoid symndrome or isolated Raynaud's phenomenon.


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

[User]
[Witcher] If monsters are already going extinct and the general public discriminates against nonhumans, why haven't all the remaining witchers retired or at least made a switch to less risky professions?

Witchers have a lot of skills that could apply outside of monster hunting. They could become blacksmiths, alchemists, medics, and gymnasts just to name a few professions. They can also just be some rich merchant or nobleman's bodyguard if they still want some periodic violence. And I'm talking especially about witchers who come from very cynical worldviews like Gaetan and Lambert. There is no reason either of those two should continue hunting monsters if their employers try to stiff them all the time to the point of trying to kill them or if they still have some form of PTSD relating to their abusive father giving them away just to undergo painful mutations.

One exception as I understand it would be idealists like Vesemir, who seem to genuinely believe the old Uncle Ben wisdom that powerful people owe something more to the world, or morally ambivalent people who exist somewhere in between cynicism and idealism but also pursues adventures because their loved ones (Ciri, Yennefer, Triss, Dandelion) are in constant danger. But other than that, I don't see a reason to continue working as a witcher.

[Assistant]
It's really a matter of personal choice. For one - you don't exactly choose to be a Witcher, you *are* a Witcher. So even if one decides to follow some different profession, it still won't change who they really are - and the mutations are more bothersome than actually hunting monsters. For example Lambert doesn't seem to (greatly) dislike actually doing the work of a Witcher (as much as Lambert can not dislike something...), he just hates the fact that it was forced on him, that he was deprived of a childhood and forever changed.

Two - it's really not that easy for a grown man to just change their profession to something else, especially in a medieval-like setting. Blacksmithing requires years to learn, and what master blacksmith will just hire a 100-year old Witcher as his live-in student to teach from the basics? Alchemy - perhaps easier, as Witchers already have some alchemist skill, but the problem is similar. What then - become an unskilled farmhand? Not a very attractive lifestyle. Plus, there's the issue of actually getting employed, if the Witcher mutations are outwardly apparent.

Three - there of course were cases mentioned where Witchers abandoned their profession to do something else. And by "something else", usually it was basic mercenary work or banditry, so things a Witcher would be already good at. Witcher Coen died after joining the army at the Battle of Brenna. There's the Witcher-renegade Berengar, who was selling Witcher secrets to bandits. Witcher Letho worked as an assassin (of kings no less). Witcher Kiyan worked for a treasure-hunting expedition.  Witcher Bertram Tauler became a merchant in Novigrad, but he was hiding his identity after commiting murder. Geralt himself sometimes took other jobs, like fencing teacher or bodyguard.


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

[User] [MCU] What happened to Emil Blonsky after the collapse of SHIELD?

[Assistant] Blonsky was never in SHIELD custody. He was in the U.S. governments. In the one shot "The Consultant" we are shown that SHIELD was being forced to put the Abomination on the potential avengers roster, and Agent Coulson had to negotiate with General Ross for his release, despite them not wanting Blonsky in the first place. Ultimately he sent in Stark to basically sabotage the meeting.


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

[User] ELI5 Why do images like the one recently taken by James Webb have 60 degree angle spikes coming out of the Star pictured?

[Assistant]
They're called diffraction spikes.  They're caused by diffraction around the support struts for the telescope.  Diffraction is where light waves encounter and obstacle and can partially pass on around the edges.  That's a really simplified explanation of diffraction.

So, the reason it's around all of the bright stars is because the light from all points that the telescope is focused on passes through the struts.  This means that the light from each star passed through them so it appears around all bright stars (bright means bright in the picture........ the star might actually be really dim).

Diffraction spikes have become so common in astronomical pictures that pictures taken through telescopes that don't cause them will have them photoshopped in otherwise a lot of people think that they look wrong/not as beautiful.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do joints sometimes "catch"?

For example when you try to straighten your elbow or ankle and it feels like something kinks in the joint so much that you couldn't possibly force the movement any further without causing serious discomfort... And then a minute later you have full range of motion with zero pain again.

[Assistant]
Sometimes it's literally just that.

Bones are pulled by muscles that attach via tendons. Sometimes those tendons get caught in the joint and don't allow you to complete the movement until you reverse and allow the tendon to get unstuck.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Which came first, the magic word or the magic wand?

We've seen that Magic with a capital M can flow directly from a wizard without tools or planning. But wands and "official" spell names sure do a lot to convert its balky, dangerous raw power into a sort of "product" that's easy and safe for non-experts.

So as wizards were progressing from the ancient era of "Oops I broke this snake's cage" willpower magic to modern organized use, which came along first? Was there an era with spell names, but no wands? Or wands, but no words? Or did they advance in lockstep because they're bound together somehow?

[Assistant]
I would assume that words came first. Wands help guide the magic and enhance its effects, but the words are what "summon" the spells.

Wandless magic is possible, as is wordless, but the Wizard must have some idea of the spell in his mind.

To me, it makes more sense that magic can be taught and spread through words rather than handing out wands and saying "think about disarming that dude. We'll come up with a name for this spell later."


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

[User] [Star Trek: TNG] What Klingon form of martial arts would be similar to ours?

[Assistant]
Most Klingon martial arts techniques would be familiar to human martial artists. Klingons are stronger and have different internal anatomy, but they're still humanoid. Two legs, two arms, one head with all the sense organs. Hitting a klingon in the same general area as a human would have a similar effect. It's only when you get down to killing techniques that the exact placement of organs becomes a factor.

Their grappling arts are probably the most like our own. Klingon skeletons have a certain amount of redundancy, but not to the extent as other systems.


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

[User]
[Matrix] Why the inconsistent crew requirements for hovercrafts?

In the first movie, Neo awakens to a fully crewed ship. 6-7 people minimum, all busy working with the ship. DUring the course of the movie, it drops to four (including Neo).

Never again does the ship require more people than that. Also, Captain Naomi's ship only needs three (if you played the game that's tied into the movie sequel). In the sequel, Morpheus doesn't even bother replacing his crew other than Link as an Operator.

So how many people does a ship require, anyway?

[Assistant]
Pilot, operator, mechanic is the bare minimum for a ship to operate normally (flight, maintenance, and Matrix access). Could get by with a pilot only (risky/suicide mission in the Real World). Could get by with a pilot & operator if your mission requires jacking in.

Other than that, smaller ships (scouts like the Logos) need smaller crews. The Hammer is a huge gunship and requires gunners and a medic to run smoothly. Nebuchadnezzar is somewhere in between.

As the war went on, qualified replacements were not really available. Death/lack of training/etc. Had to get by with skeleton crews. Especially the Neb - who is going to willingly join up with that fanatic Morpheus??


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

[User] [MCU] Individually, which of the six Infinity Stones is the most dangerous?

[Assistant]
They're probably all equally "dangerous" in that they each have the potential to destroy at least an entire world in their own way.  They all have hidden pitfalls too.

The Power Stone was shown destroying a planet and Ronan was planning on using it to do that again.

The Mind Stone created a killer robot who almost destroyed the Earth.

The Time Stone imprisoned an immortal extra-dimensional entity that was basically an entire plane.

The Aether was going to be used to...plunge the universe into darkness or something.


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

[User]
[Marvel/X-men] Are there any mutants that the public actually likes?

So pretty much every non-powered civilian hates mutants for some reason, but are their any that they actually like or respect even though their mutant origin is common knowledge?

[Assistant] I think Hank McCoy, the Beast, has been fairly well regarded as mutants go. He was an Avenger back when it was a fairly exclusive club, and served a long time. He's also a world class expert in genetics. He still faces a lot of hostility, but his accomplishments are well known and widely respected. You sometimes see him speaking at conferences and to the general public.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do speakers virtually produce any sound?

From my understanding speakers are made up of some vibrating cone of a fixed shape. It just seems to me that such a thing could only produce one sound like a drum.

[Assistant]
It's the *way in which it vibrates* that counts.  Different sounds are made from different pitches and amplitudes.  Pitch is determined by how fast the speaker vibrates, and amplitude is determined by how "hard" it vibrates.

When your computer pumps music to your speakers, it is really pumping a voltage waveform.  This waveform represents the sound of the music (it's what the music looks like on the computer, with the wavy lines).  The waveform represents different sounds with changes in frequency (pitch) and amplitude (loudness).

Now, inside the speaker is the cone, a solenoid (solenoids turn into magnets when current runs through them) and a permanent magnet.  When a voltage is applied to the solenoid, it becomes a magnet, the solenoid and permanent magnet move each other, and the cone (attached to the solenoid) moves.  In fact, if you wanted, the computer could send a signal to the speaker that would make it move the cone once, then hold this position.

Whatever voltage waveform is pumped to the speaker, the speaker will move accordingly.  So, for example, if the voltage waveform is a perfect sine wave, the speaker cone will move like a sign wave.  Incidentally, this movement will cause the air surrounding the cone to move in a sine wave and produce a single pitch.

In the whole process, the music waveform is converted to a voltage waveform, which electromagnetically moves the cone in the same waveform, reproducing the sound.

So, by changing the frequency of the voltage waveform, you change how fast the speaker vibrates and change the pitch (i.e the sound) made by the speaker.


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

[User] What are the best arguments against contractualism/social contract theory?

[Assistant]
The most common criticism of social contract theory is that the character of the contract is merely ideal and hypothetical. There is no obviously no point in which a certain group actually gathers and mutually agrees on a contract that binds every and each participant. Theorists of the social contract have seeken refuge to either a formulation of Locke's argument for tacit consent, which is an implicit approval of the contract through actions that recognize it as necessary, or a presentation of it as a kind of a thought experiment akin to Rawls's famous original position.

Another criticism is that there is a complete disregard for beings that could be considered as non-rational, such as animals, people suffering through mental illness, and children. How can it be said that they would have rationally agreed on the social contract if they lack any capacity to do so?

There is also an issue with the fact that principle in which the social contract theory is based is highly abstract and cannot bind us morally, or guide our practical reasoning.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can a company like "Snapchat" be valued at $3 billion USD (WSJ Figure) with no revenue?

Also I assume they are able to afford their office space, living expenses from investors?

[Assistant]
It's valued at that because of the potential of future monetization and ad revenue.

It would be the same as investing in a gold mining operation. You're investing under the assumption there is gold in the mountain and that the team you invest in will reach it eventually.


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

[User]
ELI5: how does the Scam Likely feature on a cell phone work?

How does the phone know when an out of state number is a scam versus just someone calling you?

[Assistant] STIR is being implemented for mobile devices that are allowed to make calls over 4g, providing a way to verify whether a call originating form a VOIP system such as another cell phone actually has the right to use that Caller ID number, or whether it is likely falsified.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] The Imperium finds a STC for all patterns of Terminator armor. How does this change the Space Marine chapters?

[Assistant]
Something to remember about the 40k universe is that the Imperium has some fantastic technology, but it's distribution is incredibly limited because of the scale of the Imperium.  There are likely individual tech Magos that understand Terminator armor (and may oversee Terminator armor production lines) that could craft a Chapter Master a suit of armor worthy of a Praetorian from the Great Crusade... but it would be a side project for him, and he lacks the production capacity, materials, and tooling to mass produce them.

To spin up production of a new pattern of Terminator armor, a Forgeworld would need to ensure several things:

* a reliable supply of materials (some likely rare or nearly impossible to find without more expenditure on arcane mining equipment, which requires new production lines of its own...)

* trade contracts with the various entities that own those resources, control trade routes, or own interests in various property

* real estate on a Forge World to set up the production line

* enough skilled tech adepts able to learn the patterns, specifications, tolerances, operation of new equipment, and quality control

* enough raw labor to fill all the 'unskilled labor' portions of production

* patrons willing to protect them for the time it takes to procure all these resources and land

* Space Marine chapters able to offer valuable services, protection, or loyalty pacts, or technology to 'trade' for the new armor

* assurances that they could produce enough armor over the next several centuries to make it worth the investment instead of expanding the new Auto Boltrifle line that Mars is pushing them to produce for all the new Primaris marines (and that the chapters are begging for)

The STC probably exists out there somewhere, but the politics of the Imperium are preventing it's full use.


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

[User] [WH40K] Chaos launches a massive Black Crusade directly at the Imperial Palace. They destroy the body of the Emperor but he is immediately brought back into existence to his full might (maybe even stronger as some believe). What happens/changes in the Galaxy and for the Imperium?

[Assistant]
All of Terra turns towards the reborn Emperor and bows down.  The Black Crusade ends, and the second Great Crusade begins.  Mankind sets out on the right path again, pulling together as one people, intent on slowly but surely cleansing the galaxy of xeno filth.

The setting becomes slightly less grim dark for humanity and significantly more grim dark for almost everyone else.  Tzeentch insists everything has gone just as planned right up to the point where his psychic body is torn to pieces by a vengeful anathema.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't I tickle myself?

If someone else touches my sides or armpits, it feels tickly. If I touch my armpit, I just feel weird that I'm fondling my armpit. What's up with that?

[Assistant] When you tickle someone, it triggers a panic response.  The person consciously knows they are in no immediate danger, but sub consciously they feel attacked.  This makes for the uncontrollable body movement and laughter.  When you tickle yourself, your conscious and sub conscious agree, you aren't going to harm yourself, thus, no response.


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

[User]
ELI5: If our bodies have no use for organs like the appendix or wisdom teeth, why haven't they disappeared by now?

I know that evolving and changing a physical makeup can take hundreds and hundreds of generations, but why do our bodies still grow things that it has no use or space for?

I just got my wisdom teeth removed and it's made me curious.

[Assistant]
Evolution takes a really really long time, and since we know how to remove them from people, we've effectively removed the evolutionary pressure to evolve past them.

As long as we continue to let people with wisdom teeth and appendices mate,and remove them when they cause trouble, we're pretty much stuck with them.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] Had the heresy not happened and the Imperium took over the galaxy, what happens next?

Ignore the tyrannids or assume a powerful Emperor/Imperium takes them down, what's the plan? Does the Emperor devote his time to making his worlds nicer for humanity? Does he try to work out getting to the next galaxy and taking over the universe? Devoting himself to try to fight entropy?

What was the long game?

[Assistant]
The Emperor would complete his access to the Webway.  Humanity with access to the Webway would finally gain an instantaneous and safe method of FTL travel.

Threats like the Tyranids, Necros, and Orks become inconsequential.  The Imperium gains the ability to almost instantly react as messages can be quickly and reliably communicated to the Administratum.  Appropriate responses can be dispatch almost instantaneously to hot spots.  Whereas the Eldar always lacked the manpower to deal with these threats, the legions of the Imperium have no such problem...

Sooner or later, as these Terrestrial threats are destroyed, the Emperor will turn his attention to the Warp.  It will only be a matter of time before the Emperor studies the Warp Dampening effects of Cadia.  Shortly after that, he will build what would essentially be a Great Wall around the Maelstrom.


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

[User]
If a country is taken over by another country does the invader take on national debt

Basically the title. If a country is invaded and taken over will the invader generally take on the invaded country's national debt?

[Assistant]
In theory - yes. But practically speaking, the "new" government can simply refuse to pay the "old" government's debts as Bolsheviks did when they took over Russia in 1917.

What would happen then is another story. If you refuse to pay your debts, markets or any lenders might not be willing to borrow you any money.

Therefore, usually a "new" government proclaims, that it "will honour all the responsibilities and duties of the previous government". In other words - it will continue paying debts.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do scientists commonly say that a planet cannot support life, if we don't know what type of life we're looking for?

When people say that a planet cannot support life, it's interpreted that it's human life that can't exist, but if we were truly looking for alien life then surely we don't know what conditions are required, so we could be overlooking planets that could posses life. Is it just a method of searching for life based on what we already know, or something else?

Edit: There have been some great answers and explanations, Many thanks to everyone!

[Assistant]
>Is it just a method of searching for life based on what we already know

Pretty much. Our understanding of the development of life on Earth is that it required the presence of liquid water (and some other relatively common trace elements). Although forms of life exist which live outside of environments with liquid water, they all originated from the first cell. They are also almost exclusively small and boring (and their cell is still water filled).

Given that we don't know of any other way life could start, we discount planets which orbit either too far or too close to their host star for liquid water to exist on their surface. We also focus on rocky planets, although a gas giant in the "habitable zone" would almost certainly have some rocky moons which might have water. There is a growing number of candidate planets which are in, or on the edge of, the habitable zone. With a suitable greenhouse effect, there could well be liquid water on some of them (the habitable zone is therefore a somewhat fluid term).

There's no reason that life couldn't originate elsewhere as you said, but we don't know what to look for so we don't make any assumptions/statements about planets out of the hospitable zone being capable of supporting life.


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

[User] [Dungeons & Dragons] How does each alignment handle the trolley problem?

[Assistant]
Lawful will try to abide by the conditions and terms of the experiment to produce a desired outcome.

Chaotic will eschew the "rules" of the thought experiment and find non-conventional solutions.

Good will try to minimize casualties, Evil will try to maximize casualties.

With that said:

Lawful Good - Switches the track to run over one person instead of allowing the trolley to run over 5.

Neutral Good - Will try and find some loophole that allows them to save everyone while still adhering to the letter of the experiment itself.

Chaotic Good - Derails the trolley, harming no one except themselves.

Lawful and True Neutral do nothing. They let the trolley go where it will.

Chaotic Neutral doesn't participate in the thought experiment at all.

Lawful Evil lets the trolley run over 5 people.

Neutral Evil lets the trolley run over 5 people, reverses it, then goes down the other track to get the other person.

Chaotic Evil derails the trolley, killing all 6 people at the same time.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do people die instantly when a bullet passes through their heart?

I just randomly thought about this, but why do people die instantly when a bullet passes through their heart if they can maintain consciousness for around 15 seconds and stay alive for about 5 minutes without oxygen? Feel free to correct me if I am wrong about anything.

[Assistant] Your blood pressure essentially drops to zero and you black out. Technically there is still some brain activity going on at this point, but considering you will be unable to maintain consciousness and you will die shortly after, its fair to say its instant death.


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

[User]
CMV: The UN is completely useless and needs replacement

Im not going to be pretend to know everything the UN has and is doing rn in the world. But from what Ive heard all the UN does is condemn bad people and watch as atrocities happen. For example the US just pulled out of Syria and the Kurdish people there are being killed and there is nothing being done to help these people who just want to live. Also the situation in Venezuela if people really cared the UN would set up some type of military/police presence to prevent protesters from being harmed and they would conduct a legit poll to elect a new president. Also on the topic of protesters y tf isnt the UN helping the innocents being massacred in Iraq (at least I believe its Iraq plz tell me if Im wrong) and whats with the Hong Kong crisis why isnt there any joint help to any of these people????

Edit:
I have another question then(idk if the ppl who have comments will see this but) then if the UN was set to prevent major wars and keep the peace mainly in and around Europe why hasnt there been any noticeable movement towards an organization like a world gov? Like I know no gov wants to give up power but as far as Ive seen the general populous hasnt pushed for anything like this. Is it because ppl are more interested in domestic politics or is it because of something else?

[Assistant]
The UN is doing exactly what its meant to do. It gives an environment for the worlds largest players to discuss. Sure they can do that without the UN but the UN makes it easier. UN approves action also basically means the country who actually went in to do the deed cant be made a scapegoat later on. The USA is basically the ones who carry out all the military action western nations think should be taken. When the UN vote approves the action other western politicians cant as easily go complaining about how wrong the USA was when that past action suddenly becomes politically inconvenient. Its a lot harder to deny something when there was a clear vote taken on it.
When
Between that and other similar things the UN serves its job sa a mediation place and a useful peace of propaganda that keeps the world powers happier (better for everyone).

As far as someone like China it doesnt matter what you want- you cant make them do anything by force. They have too much power, simple as that.

The UN cant actually send in Troops because that means it would suddenly have its own Troops which the world powers dont want or it would mean it has power over another nations government. Those governments wont stand for it.

The UN isnt useless. You just have to realize what its real intent is. There is nothing that can be done to make it more powerful so long as the idea of multiple governments exist.


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

[User]
[MCU] Without the infinity stones...

How do Captain Marvel and Scarlett Witch still have their powers? I always assumed that they could continually draw power from the stones, but if the stones are destroyed, what is the source of their power? Did the stones grant them infinite power? Will it ever run out?

Edit: Im downvoted for having a question sorry?

[Assistant]
The Stones are a universal constant; they can't really be destroyed, and they will eventually reform, even if that takes centuries. The energies they manipulate are still there, it's just that you can't directly control them using the Stones right now.

Carol and Wanda don't draw their power *from* the Stones, however. Their bodies were permanently altered by one of the Stones, and as such are almost like mini-Stones themselves. They now have an innate ability to manipulate cosmic energies.


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

[User]
[General sci-fi] In an interstellar setting (such as Star Wars) with various governments, how is the concept of borders between them handled and enforced in the vast emptiness of space?

To further expound upon the question: there's such a great distance between star systems. Would a government claim that x amount of light years surrounding their stat systems are their territory, like how earth nations claim territorial waters? Couldn't different territories overlap if the distance is great enough? It seems like the concept of borders would be very amorphous and hard to enforce.

[Assistant]
No one's really interested in the empty space -- it's the stuff in it that wars are fought over.  Borders would reflect distances from places that had something of value, like air, water, habitable land, volatiles, solar radiation, etc.  This would include various bodies, like stars, planets, and planetoids.

The relevant distance would relate to the transport technology available and the ability of governments to patrol and enforce those borders.  Theoretically two nearby star systems might claim overlapping territory, but unless there was something worth fighting over in that area, it probably wouldn't amount to much.  Rival states may use the region as an excuse to provoke a conflict by staging "training exercises" and "live fire drills" there that draw their opponent into an open war.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] What's up with all the bodysuits?

I just signed up as a cadet in StarForce for the United Confederation of Planetoids, and was issued my uniform. The only thing is, it's really... form fitting. This didn't seem right, but when I went out to find some regular clothes, everyone else was wearing one. What gives? Is it just supposed to be really comfortable? Is it some kind of trend? At this point just about any explanation would be helpful. Thanks.

[Assistant] It's an emergency pressure suit in case something occurs and you unexpectedly get blasted into hard vac.  Easiest/most safe method of protecting all cadets and members was to just make it the standard issue uniform.


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

[User]
Why do humans scream when they're scared?

Is it a defense mechanism, and if so what is it supposed to accomplish?

[Assistant] Humans are an extremely social species, and presumably had a tendency to express emotions very clearly/vocally. Screaming quickly gets the attention of all nearby humans that could help, kind of like crying when in pain, etc.